Three genes combine for 7 coat types in dogs

From short to shaggy, nearly all the differences in dogs’ coat types result from variations in just three genes, according to researchers studying how genes work together.

“What’s important for human health is the way we found the genes involved in dog coats and figured out how they work together, rather than the genes themselves,” said Dr. Elaine A. Ostrander of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

“We think this approach will help pinpoint multiple genes involved in complex human conditions, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity,” Ostrander, chief of the cancer genetics branch, said in a statement.

Variations in the DNA — the blueprint for life — in more than 1,000 dogs from 80 breeds were studied by the researchers. The results were then compared to descriptions of various coat types.

The study, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, found that nearly all of the varieties of dog coats can be accounted for by combinations of genes called RSPO2, FGF5 and KRT71.

The findings apply to purebred dogs: “We don’t know enough about the genetics of mutts,” commented co-author K. Gordon Lark, a biology professor at the University of Utah.

Dogs are descended from wolves and, like wolves, short-haired dogs such as beagles had only the ancestral forms of the three genes, none with variations.

On the other hand, dogs like President Obama’s Portuguese Water Dog have variations in all three genes, producing animals with curly hair plus a “mustache” and large eyebrows.

via Three genes combine for 7 coat types in dogs – Yahoo! News.

One for my friend Sarah the dog groomer.

Spinning UFO filmed by two different people near Mexico City on MAY 22, 2009

Another witness has come forward regarding a spinning UFO on MAY 22, 2009.

This was near MEXICO CITY and both videos where taken within miles away! One video is facing the sun and the other is behind the UFO.

2nd INCREDIBLE UFO VIDEO TAKEN of WORLD FAMOUS SPINNING UFO!

http://pindz.blogspot.com/2009/08/2nd…

video from http://youtube.com/luckymauro

Making Babies in Space May Be Harder Than It Sounds

Experimental mouse breeding in a near-zero-gravity space simulation suggests making babies is best left to Earthlings.

According to Japanese biologists, defects in their microgravity embryos suggest that “fertilization can occur normally” in space, but standard Earth gravity may be needed for embryo development.

The experiment, published Tuesday in Public Library of Science ONE, is the latest addition to a surprisingly large body of literature on how the space environment affects the cellular basics of reproduction.

Among the animals that have been bred in space are frogs, salamanders, sea urchins — who didn’t do so well — and fish. (Birds and bees are, understandably if unfortunately, not on the list.)

Rather less research, however, has been done on mammalian reproduction in space, and there’s reason to think the potential effects of low gravity would be pronounced in mammals, whose embryonic development is more complicated and sensitive than other animals.

To test these effects, the researchers artificially fertilized mouse eggs with sperm that had been stored inside a three-dimensional clinostat, a machine that mimics weightlessness by rotating objects in such a way that the effects of gravity are spread in every direction.

Fertilization took place normally, suggesting that microgravity hadn’t harmed the sperm. But as the embryos continued to develop inside the clinostat, many developed problems. Their cells had trouble dividing and maturing.

Some were ultimately implanted in female mice and survived to a healthy birth, but at lower numbers than a regular-gravity control group. Part of the difference could be the result of performing tricky procedures on sensitive cells, but the researchers suspect they also reflect the affect of a low-gravity environment on cellular processes that evolved for Earth-specific physics.

via Making Babies in Space May Be Harder Than It Sounds | Wired Science | Wired.com.

Coming Soon: An Unblinking “Gorgon Stare” For Air Force Drones

The next-generation surveillance package for the Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper drones, named for Medusa’s stoney glare, will provide an unprecedentedly broad view of the battlefield spanning time and space The military’s unblinking eye in the sky, which keeps watch over operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, is about to get even beadier.

A new multi-camera sensor the U.S. Air Force is adding to its killer spy drones will exponentially broaden the area troops can monitor, and the technology lets a dozen users simultaneously grab different slices of the image. Called the Gorgon Stare, it represents the next big step in unmanned combat aircraft.

Two MQ-9 Reapers retrofitted with the new $15 million wide-area aerial surveillance sensors, or WAAS, will fly test missions later this year, and the Air Force plans to have ten such planes in battle by next spring, in rotation on a 24/7 patrol. “It’s an incredible force enhancer,” said Colonel Eric Mathewson, Director of the service’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Task Force at the Pentagon. Sierra Nevada Corporation, makers of the WAAS, chose the name, a spooky reference to the cursed sisters from Greek mythology—Medusa being the Beyoncé of the trio—whose gaze turned men to stone.

The system uses an array of five electro-optical and four infrared cameras to capture day and night images from different angles, which are stitched together in a single mosaic scene much broader than what any single lens could deliver. At command central, tiled screens will display the composite picture, so that if an insurgent runs out of view on one, he’ll simply pop up on the next. Field commanders can pull a piece of the picture encompassing their surroundings, and pan, tilt or zoom if they see something suspicious. The cameras are fitted into a pod under one wing, with the communications gear on the other. The entire package weighs 1,100 pounds, which will still allow the Reaper to carry weapons…

via Coming Soon: An Unblinking “Gorgon Stare” For Air Force Drones | Popular Science.

$260M Powerball winner vows to do good

The retiree who won the $259.9 million Powerball lottery in South Carolina went to the store where he got the winning ticket for its cheap gas.”I wanted to save my 3 cents a gallon,” Solomon Jackson said Tuesday of his stop at Murphy USA gas station, which followed a stop at his favorite store: Wal-Mart.

“It’s the savings place, for those of y’all that don’t know,” Jackson told reporters at a lottery claims center in Columbia, S.C.

Jackson, a former assistant supervisor at the state Department of Revenue, now has the happy task of figuring out what to do with the quarter-billion dollars he won in the Aug. 19 Powerball drawing. He shelled out $2 for the win.

During a news conference, Jackson said he would use some of the money to support education programs in South Carolina and would find ways to help others with his winnings.

But Jackson, a life-long resident of Columbia, vowed that the money would not go to his head. He said he didn’t need to buy a Cadillac because he already had one.

Despite the win, Jackson still drove to a western suburb, Lexington, for a $35 deal on tire alignment.

“Some winners anticipate a change. But I’ll still be Solomon,” he said.

He was guarded about his personal life, refusing to say how old he was, not talking much about his family and declining to say whether he would take the winnings in a lump sum or spread out over 30 years.

He said he was one of 12 children, and when asked if he had children or grandchildren, he simply said: “There’s a few of them.” He said he hadn’t even told his friends and family yet.

Mostly he spoke of how he will use his new wealth to help others out.

“I won’t do a bunch with it, but somebody’s going to be blessed,” he said.

- via USA Today

This is interesting to me because I was just playing a game of “What would you do with a BILLION DOLLARS” over dinner tonight.  My friend would take a trip around the world. The first thing that came to mind for me was to help a sick friend. Then to buy another friend a car.  Then to get myself a house in the forest with a Zorkian Great Underground Empire under it. I’d charge admission and use the proceeds to fund education.  I’d give at least one million to anti-aging research. I’d fund birth control, human rights groups like Amnesty Int’l, alternative energy, and health research efforts world wide. I’d hire a team to run a web site that shows quick summaries of the smaller breakthroughs needed to accomplish bigger human goals: Peace, a clean environment, energy, food, health, freedom, anti-gravity, finding a back up planet, radiation neutralization,  organ regeneration, new worthwhile forms of entertainment, etc. We are not leveraging the web as we could. So much wasted brain power. Let everyone get in on the excitement of these quests. I’d give prizes for progress, milestones!

The second part of the game is to ask if you are presently doing what you can with what you have to accomplish your wildest goals. No, I’m not. But I’ve started thinking in a new direction.

If you could do anything, if money was no object, what would you do? Go do it!

Monkey-suited man arrested

Police in Australia said they arrested a man who refused to give his name while dressed as a monkey in a shopping center.

Perth police said Brenton Green, 21, was spotted by two officers Sunday afternoon hugging shoppers, posing for photos and dancing for the crowd, PerthNow reported Tuesday.

The officers said they asked the costumed performer his name and he responded by shaking his head and making “squeaking noises.” They said they asked him a second time and he responded: “Monkey.”

The officers arrested Green and charged him with failing to comply with a police request. He was released on bail on the condition that he not return to the city, but then he was arrested on his way to the train station by the same officer who had initially arrested him, who said Green violated the conditions of his bail.

Green spent Sunday night in the East Perth jail and appeared before a magistrate Monday. He was released with a spent conviction, a three-month community release order and ordered to pay $60 in court costs.

via Monkey-suited man arrested – UPI.com.

What do you think? Does jail and a fine for not saying your name when commanded by an officer of the law make sense?

You Will Respect My Authoritah!

Frenchman ‘flees Somali captors’

A French security adviser seized by Islamist militants in Somalia has escaped his captors, officials say.

The Frenchman, who was kidnapped from a hotel in Mogadishu along with a colleague last month, reportedly killed three militants as he fled.

French foreign ministry officials confirmed that he had escaped but denied there had been any violence.

They also said the second hostage was still being held. An earlier report that said he was free was retracted.

The pair were part of a team who are in the country to train forces for the UN-backed interim government – who are battling Islamist rebels for control of the country.

Ransom denial

A spokesman for the interim government, Abdulkadir Hussein Wehliye, said the escaped Frenchman was in the presidential palace and “in a good mood”.

A government military official, Farhan Asanyo, said the man had approached government soldiers early on Wednesday, identified himself and said he had escaped.

“The man told them that he was one of the French officials held by militants,” Mr Asanyo said.

via BBC NEWS | Africa | Frenchman ‘flees Somali captors’.

Toyota to recall roughly 95,700 Scion-brand vehicles in the U.S.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it is launching a recall of roughly 95,700 Toyota and Scion-brand vehicles in the U.S. due to a possible brake malfunction.

The recall affects some 2009 and 2010 Toyota Corolla and Corolla Matrix vehicles and some 2008 and 2009 Scion xD vehicles, Toyota said. For those vehicles equipped with 1.8-liter engines, condensed moisture may seep into the brake system and freeze in low temperatures, potentially causing ice accumulation and weakening the power-assist to the brakes.

Those affected by the recall will be asked to return the vehicle to a dealer, where a new intake air connector will be installed.

via RN-T.com – Rome, Georgia news, sports, business, lifestyles, weather, breaking news and more from the Rome News-Tribune..

This makes me glad I have a Toyota.  If Toyota ran big drug companies fewer people would die before recalls.  Toyota, if you make a 100 MPG prius in 2011, I’ll buy one. Too bad the 2010 doesn’t get 100 MPG. … and please nix that “Steers itself into the parking place” technology.

Interesting sky tonight

Interesting sky tonight, originally uploaded by xeno735.

Monkeys born from eggs that got DNA transplant

An experimental procedure that someday may enable women to avoid passing certain genetic diseases on to their children has gained an early success, with the birth of four healthy monkeys, scientists report.

The technique still faces safety questions and perhaps ethical hurdles, but an expert called the work exciting.

The experiment, which involved transferring DNA between eggs from rhesus macaques, was described Wednesday on the Web site of the journal Nature by researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University.

Someday, the technique may be used against diseases caused by inherited defects in the “power plants” of cells, called mitochondria. These conditions are uncommon and unfamiliar to most people, such as Leber hereditary optic neuropathy. Roughly one person in every 4,000 or 5,000 either has one of these mitochondrial diseases or is at risk for one.

Symptoms of these potentially fatal illnesses include muscle weakness, dementia, movement disorders, blindness, hearing loss, and problems of the heart, muscle and kidney.

An egg contains the vast majority of its DNA in the nucleus, but mitochondria contain DNA elsewhere in the egg. So if a woman has a disease caused by defects in the mitochondrial DNA, the new technique might someday make it possible for her to pass on her normal DNA from the nucleus but not the flawed DNA from the mitochondria.

To allow for that, doctors may transplant nucleus DNA from the eggs of such women into donor eggs that have healthy mitochondria. The donor eggs would have had their own nucleus DNA removed. After test-tube fertilization, this egg would in theory produce a baby without mitochondrial defects. (Fathers do not pass along their mitochondria.)

via Monkeys born from eggs that got DNA transplant – Yahoo! News.