Chemist may hold key to building a better toxin 'mousetrap'

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) ? A Florida State University chemist's work could lead to big improvements in our ability to detect and eliminate specific toxic substances in our environment.

Featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Sourav Saha's specialized work to strip electrons from the toxic chemical known as fluoride is producing a variety of unique results.

"I started out with the very basic premise of trying to find new ways to detect toxic fluoride in solutions," said Saha, an assistant professor of chemistry at Florida State. "As I got further into that work I was able to create a compound that could actually strip the electrons right off the molecule, producing a variety of tangible benefits such as toxin detection and removal."

Saha's initial fluoride-detection work led to a $100,000 grant from the Petroleum Research Foundation to further explore the possibilities of his research. Using that money, he was able to bring in additional expertise and build his "fluoride-robbing" compound that is the central feature of the work featured on the JACS cover.

"This work is very exciting and novel because the results are surprising," said Timothy Logan, chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State. "Molecules always have affinity for electrons, with some molecules having a greater affinity than others. Flouride has the highest electron affinity of all, so the ability to strip off electrons from fluoride, especially in the presence of other molecules with lower electron affinity, is truly unique."

Although Saha is excited about the possibilities of his new compound in toxin cleanup, he sees a huge variety of potential applications for his research.

"I think toxin removal is one of the most obvious and relatable benefits my work could lead to, but in reality, there are many additional implications this work could have on daily life," Saha said. "For instance, we could develop this research to create all new types of plastics that could exhibit unique qualities, or improve the effectiveness of devices, such as batteries, that are used to store and transfer energy."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Florida State University. The original article was written by Tom Butler.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Samit Guha, Flynt S. Goodson, Lucas J. Corson, Sourav Saha. Boundaries of Anion/Naphthalenediimide Interactions: From Anion?? Interactions to Anion-Induced Charge-Transfer and Electron-Transfer Phenomena. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012; 134 (33): 13679 DOI: 10.1021/ja303173n

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/JtkdjOmWfgs/120924145147.htm

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GOP backer Adelson accused of commandeering Israel's media market

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has poured millions into GOP coffers, also bankrolls a pro-Netanyahu Israeli newspaper that could transform the media market.

By Joshua Mitnick,?Correspondent / September 24, 2012

Casino owner Sheldon Adelson attends a campaign fundrasing event with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at Red Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Friday, Sept. 21.

Charles Dharapak/AP

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Casino?mogul Sheldon Adelson grabbed the spotlight in the US earlier this year for making multi-million dollar campaign contributions to Republican presidential candidates on the bet that their policies would better jibe with those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than with President Obama's.?

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In Israel, Mr. Adelson is better known as the force behind the five-year-old free newspaper, "Yisrael Hayom" (Israel Today), which is seen by some as the Israeli print equivalent of Fox News. Touting Israeli patriotism, it is among the most widely read newspapers in the country and has a reputation for its fiercely loyal coverage of Mr. Netanyahu ? and now Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Adelson rejects accusations of bias, insisting in a previous interview that his paper is a "fair and balanced" alternative to other newspapers more critical of the government and that he is breaking rival newspaper Yediot Ahranot's monopoly on the market. Many Israelis nonetheless see the paper as a political vehicle to support the prime minster, and now, American Republican politicians. And with other newspapers floundering financially while Adelson puts his substantial wealth behind Yisrael Hayom, some worry that he is squeezing other political ideologies out of the market.?

"You can see completely biased coverage always emphasizing good news for the Republicans, or always hiding or eliminating bad news for the Republicans," says Oren Persico, who writes a daily analysis of print news coverage for Israel?s media magazine "The Seventh Eye." "It's one-sided, so Israelis will stand behind Romney."

An opinion poll conducted by?Hebrew University and?released yesterday showed Mr. Romney with an eight percentage point advantage?over Mr. Obama among Israelis ? 34 percent to 26 percent, with 20 percent undecided. Another opinion poll from earlier this month suggested that the gap was more than two to one.?

While it is impossible to discern the exact role Yisrael Hayom plays in shaping those opinions, its critical take on Obama and its upbeat coverage of the Republican campaign stand out from the rest of Israeli media coverage of US politics.?

For example, the day after the Romney campaign was rocked by a video of the candidate making disparaging remarks about Americans who pay no income tax, Yisrael Hayom featured a front page opinion piece alleging the US is a declining empire and?accusing Obama of "voluntarily lowering the profile"?of the US and fueling unrest in Arab countries. The story about the video was on page 23.?

A day later, the newspaper wrote in a subhead that "commentators think the affair will help" and quoted conservative columnist Ann Coulter saying that Romney comments were on the mark. Today the newspaper acknowledged that the video is having a negative impact on public opinion of Romney, but cited "optimism from surveys" indicating that the Republican candidate remains close in the polls, despite the uproar.

Yisrael Hayom is not the only paper that comes across as promoting a particular political agenda in Israel. News coverage in the liberal newspaper Haaretz, for example, is known to be sympathetic to the US president and heavily critical of Netanyahu.?But critics of Yisrael Hayom say the fact that the paper has never reported a profit is further evidence that the goal of the paper is primarily political rather than a business enterprise.?

Nahum Barnea, an Israel Prize laureate columnist who works for rival newspaper Yediot Ahronot, has denounced Yisrael Hayom as a paper with no business model that serves the interest of "one man" and is undermining Israeli democracy by making it impossible for for-profit newspapers to compete.

And as Yisrael Hayom has surged in readers, other Israeli papers that need to make money in order to stay afloat have struggled ? yesterday, the cash-strapped daily newspaper Ma?ariv?was sold to Shlomo Ben Zvi, the owner of another right wing newspaper, who announced plans to lay off most of the staff.?

"For many years, the media was dominated by left-of-center views and families supporting the Labor party," says Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster. But today the paper?s sympathetic coverage of US Republicans?has a natural audience in Israel, he says.?

"In general, Israelis have been disappointed with the promise and hope of Obama. That?s not specific to Yisrael Hayom."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/k_hulgDEdAM/GOP-backer-Adelson-accused-of-commandeering-Israel-s-media-market

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Apple iPhone 5: Top Tips to Increase Battery Life

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Romney campaign trails in crucial ground game

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Richard and Jessi Constantine were alone recently as they wheeled their 1-year-old son in a stroller around a Las Vegas subdivision, knocking on doors to promote Mitt Romney's candidacy. Yet legions of volunteers working to re-elect President Barack Obama are a pervasive presence in the state.

In one office park on the eastern end of the metropolis, dozens of union members fanned out to canvass for Obama and Democratic campaigns. To the north, members of the 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union emerged from their union hall for their daily door-knocks on the incumbent's behalf.

In Obama campaign offices to the northwest and north, throngs of workers and volunteers heard rousing speeches from San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to fire them up before they hit the streets to register new voters and argue the president's case to undecided ones.

The Obama campaign's dominance of the ground game ? the volunteer-driven nuts and bolts of electioneering that ranges from registration drives to door-to-door canvassing ? contributed mightily to his 2008 victory. His campaign is banking on its advantage on the ground, assisted by a new array of digital innovations, to deliver victory once again.

"Our massive grassroots organization will make the difference on Nov. 6," Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher said.

Republicans are scrambling to narrow the gap and say they will improve greatly over what they acknowledge was a dismal performance in 2008. They contend that the Obama campaign's dominance on the ground is largely a public relations construct.

"We are just rocking it on the ground game out there," said Rick Wiley, the Republican National Committee's political director.

There are no independently verified numbers documenting how the campaigns are doing on the ground, but a discrepancy can be found in the internal data each side promotes.

The RNC released a memo last week boasting it has made 20 million voter contacts ? phone calls and face-to-face conversations. At the Democratic National Convention this month, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told the crowd the re-election campaign had, to date, made 44 million phone calls alone.

The Democratic campaign boasts nearly three times as many offices in eight swing states.

In Colorado, the Obama campaign has 55 offices to the Romney organization's 14. In Iowa, it lists 65 compared with 14 for the Republican candidate. In Nevada, the margin is narrower, 25-11, with the Romney campaign scheduled to open a new office this weekend. Nonetheless, this state, where Democrats have dominated on the ground for eight years, sharply illustrates the imbalance.

Obama operatives launched their most recent voter registration drive here in April 2011. The Romney campaign at that time was fight for the Republican primary and didn't start its own drive until July. As a sign of the Obama campaign's lead, Democrats have a 61,000-voter edge over Republicans in registration, according to the Nevada secretary of state's office.

That is close to the edge that Democrats had in 2010, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid narrowly won re-election amid the Republican wave that swept many of his colleagues out of office, though not as large as in 2008, when Obama notched a 12-point victory in the state.

Romney's campaign notes that the contest looks very different this time, despite the Democrats' persistent registration edge. With Nevada boasting the highest unemployment rate in the nation, polls show the Republican candidate remains within striking distance.

"They have a head start, but I feel good about where we are," said Romney's Nevada state manager, Chris Carr. "They're trying to recreate what they had in '08, and they don't have it."

Republicans also are trying to eat into the Obama campaign's technological edge, but the Democrats appear to still have the lead.

The Obama campaign, which pioneered the use of social media in its 2008 campaign, released a smartphone app in July to allow volunteers and supporters to track events, see how the president's policies benefited their neighborhoods and find other voters to contact. The Romney campaign came out with an app just last week to let people find out about local campaign events.

Both sides agree that, in Nevada, Democrats have had the upper hand since 2004, when Reid's re-election campaign began to build a major campaign infrastructure in the state and the Nevada GOP melted down under infighting that persists to this day. This year, the national Republican Party put staffers in the same offices as the Romney campaign to essentially stand in for the absent state party. It is rushing additional staff members from Washington and neighboring, noncompetitive states for a final push..

Americans For Prosperity, a conservative group, watched in alarm as the Obama campaign and its allies in the labor and immigrants' rights movements continued to dominate in voter registration and canvassing. It hired 100 people through a private vendor to try to beef up conservative voter registration.

"They've had this going on since 2004," said Adam Stryker, AFP's Nevada director. "We're definitely up against a formidable foe."

Last weekend, the Romney campaign office was active, with volunteers swinging by to pick up a canvassing packet. Several others, like the Constantines, had grabbed their material Friday night and were already on the streets.

On Tuscan Sun Drive in the Mountain View subdivision, the Constantines, who just moved here from Minnesota, remained optimistic, even though they found no voters willing to listen after an hour of door-knocking. "The people we've run into who are going to vote for Romney are very excited," said Richard Constantine, 25.

Romney's staffers estimated they had about 100 people out knocking on doors. But the low-key push contrasted sharply with nearly a half-dozen organizing events the Obama campaign was holding, partly to capitalize on a parade celebrating Mexican Independence Day that would draw tens of thousands of Hispanics.

Even at the Obama supporters' locations, however, it was obvious that the contest would be close.

At a union office in the eastern suburb of Henderson, John Martinez, co-state political coordinator for the United Steelworkers, acknowledged that, despite the Democrats' numerical superiority on the ground, the vibe is different than in 2008.

"People haven't been into the ball game yet," he said. Still, he added, "things are picking up. That feeling is coming back."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-campaign-trails-crucial-ground-game-121307959--election.html

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Aileen Suzara Cracks Open Filipino Cuisine in Coconut Cooking ...

Coconut is the new pomegranate. Touted for its health benefits, it?s popping up everywhere. Electrolyte-rich coconut water has replaced Gatorade as the new sports drink and claims abound that coconut oil boosts the immune system, thyroid and heart. But the reason I took the Cooking with Coconut class at Oakland?s Asian Cultural Center (OACC) was less about health and more about taste. I?m cuckoo for coconuts (the unsweetened natural stuff). I also wanted to broaden my knowledge of Filipino cuisine, beyond adobo and lumpia.

I know it?s risky to spread the word on the insider cooking classes at OACC, because they may all sell out before I get a ticket, but this is an amazing hidden pearl for DIY ethnic food fans: intimate hands-on workshops, most priced under $50 for a three-hour class that includes lunch. (A few months ago, I savored Thy Tran?s Steamed Asian Sweets class at OACC.)

When I arrived in OACC?s kitchen on a recent Sunday and surveyed the ingredients for Cooking with Coconut arranged on tables around the room, I was puzzled by the absence of the familiar brown hairy globes. Turned out we were using young or immature coconuts, which take the form of squat white cylinders with pointed tops.

Aileen Suzara, a 2nd generation Filipina American, guided eight of us through three coconut-centric recipes from her culture:

Binakol: a chicken soup, featuring fresh coconut water, shallot, garlic, ginger, mushrooms and young coconut slices.

Laing: a green vegetable dish traditionally made with taro leaves, coconut milk and chilis. Suzara opted for fresh kale leaves instead of taro and upped the ante with coconut cream, plus plenty of garlic and ginger.

And for dessert, Palitaw: simple rice flour dumplings rolled in sesame seeds and chopped coconut.

To round out the meal, she shared some precious heirloom black rice a friend had brought back from the Philippines.

Against a background of resounding drumbeats from OACC?s Lion Dance class next door, Suzara demonstrated the ease of cracking open the stocky, young coconuts. A few decisive whacks of a cleaver, and coconut water came gushing forth. Then she showed how easy it is to scoop out the soft, slimy white flesh with just a spoon. While some of us scraped out coconut meat, others chopped ginger, as directed by Suzara, ?in pieces big enough to slap you in the face with a burst of ginger.?

As soon as Suzara spooned a dollop of coconut oil into the hot wok, followed by the chopped shallots, ginger and garlic, a symphony of aromas filled the room. Chicken thighs browned and then slowly simmered in the coconut water collected from the half-dozen young coconuts. Black peppercorns, and lemongrass were added to the soup and finally oyster mushrooms and the white coconut meat.

Adding coconut cream to the laing and young coconut meat to the binakol

Suzara, who encouraged us to cook with our senses instead of relying exclusively on recipes, modeled how to cheerfully roll with the punches of a few kitchen mishaps. These ?teaching moments? -- as she referred to the pop-up surprises -- included: a little cut here, a minor burnt wooden board there and a rice flour mixture that was too liquid, so she changed desserts mid-course.

Our lunch of binakol, laing and palitaw

While we enjoyed our collectively created lunch, Suzara shared a little about herself. After studying environmental science, she worked with non-profits on environmental re-education, catered Filipino cooking and completed a program at UC Santa Cruz in ecological horticulture.

She is active in social justice and agricultural education and wants to help her community make wise food choices. She cites the impact that 400 years of Spanish and US colonization has had on the traditional Filipino diet, resulting in, for example, a switch to refined flour and convenience foods and fried dishes which were traditionally enjoyed for just for special celebrations (like lumpia) that have become defining dishes of the cuisine.

(This reminded me of a similar struggle in African American food culture portrayed in the film, Soul Food Junkies.)

As we cleaned up the kitchen, I interviewed Suzara about how she learned to cook Filipino food, her involvement in agricultural education and her future plans.

Why did you pick coconut as the focus of this class?

Coconut is close to my heart. My father is from Bicol, a region of the Philippines famous for its coconut dishes, so cooking with coconut is in my blood. In the Philippines, coconut is called the ?Tree of Life? because you can use every part it. Its trunk and leaves provide building materials and home d?cor, its oil is used in beauty products and is very healthy for cooking, coconut sugar is better for diabetics and coconut milk is used all over South East Asia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands.

I grew up in five different states but spent my adolescence on The Big Island Hawaii, so I ate the local coconuts there. When I was a freshman, they held a school ?Olympics? with running and swimming events but somehow even though I was the scrawniest 14-year old, they put me in the coconut cracking and husking competition. Of course, I was slower and lost to a bunch of big boys, but I got the process down.

Did you learn to cook Filipino specialties from your parents?

Yes and no, I?m somewhat self-taught. My hardworking parents worked long hours as a nurse and doctor. When I was about eight, they gave me free reign in the kitchen and I started cooking for the family. At first I did scrambled eggs but later moved on to soups and stews. Then I found some old Filipino cookbooks, including one that my mom brought when she immigrated at 23. It was in English but there were all these words for ingredients that I had never seen before. I wanted to learn what it all meant.

Growing up, meals were flavored by my parents? ?post-WWII diet? of American imports -- things like Spam, Vienna sausage, corned beef -- and of course, fish and rice. So that?s the kind of thing they cooked. But when I was eight, we took a trip back to the Philippines and I met my grandparents and extended family. They took me to these huge markets. I tasted everything and fell in love.

Didn?t you just come back from living and working on a farm?

Yes, first, I spent six months in an apprenticeship program at UC Santa Cruz in ecological horticulture. Here?s a video from the Filipino channel interviewing Aileen about her experience working on the organic farm.

ADOBO NATION. Sustainable Farming. from Jeremiah Ysip.

And I just returned from Pie Ranch, an educational farm in Pescadero with a youth program that teaches young people to learn where their food comes from. I helped care for their 250 chickens, goats and 15+ acres of wheat, squash and other crops.

What are some of your future plans?

If there?s anything I learned from experiences in the food world, it?s that we need more culturally relevant models. I hope to be part of developing new programs to engage Asian-Pacific youth. Filipinos have a long history of leadership in the food movement that unfortunately, not enough people are aware of. In the early 1900s thousands came and worked on California farms. And while many people have heard of the United Farm Workers, they may not know of Filipino organizers like Larry Itliong, who worked alongside Cesar Chavez and co-founded the movement.

I?d like to grow traditional ingredients used in Filipino cuisine and work with my community for more access to healthy fresh food and on health issues linked to food. It?s the immigrant paradox, as what we may now think of as a typical Filipino diet has steered away from plant-based foods, which have always been part of our traditions, one reason why heart disease, type 2 diabetes and hypertension have all become so common.

I just moved back to Oakland. This week, I start my new job as Garden Coordinator for a green school program at a San Francisco elementary school.

Watch for Aileen Suzara to teach more classes at OACC and share her cooking in a pop-up sponsored by West Oakland?s People?s Grocery to celebrate Filipino American History Month in October.

Aileen Suzara's website: Kitchen Kwento
Twitter: @kitchenkwento

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This entry was posted by Anna Mindess on Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 7:59 am and is filed under asian food and drink, bay area, chefs, cooking techniques and tips, culinary education and classes, farmers and farms, food and drink, gardening and urban farming, health and nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
tags: Aileen Suzara, coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut water, cooking classes, Filipino cuisine, OACC, Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Source: http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2012/09/21/aileen-suzara-cracks-open-filipino-cuisine-in-coconut-cooking-class/

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New School Nutrition Standards Recipe For ProblemsYour Health ...

From NECN?..

In his gut, Kurt Myers knows when a student arrives at school on an empty stomach.

He can see it on a cold Monday morning in the coat that remains zipped and the hat that stays pulled down, in the rush to eat school breakfast as if it?s the student?s first meal in days.

And in the Reading School District, where 92 percent of students received free or reduced-price meals in 2011-12, Myers knows it doesn?t take a food services director such as himself to realize that ?when a student looks like he hasn?t eaten all weekend, he probably hasn?t eaten all weekend.?

For that reason, Myers traditionally has had the district offer more than the required servings of protein at lunch, knowing it could be the last filling meal of the day for many students.

But this year, new lunch standards set by the national Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act are changing the way lunches are served and limiting the amount of protein city schools can serve.

Approved in 2010 and championed by first lady Michelle Obama, the law handed the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to mandate a menu makeover for 2012-13, introducing new grain and protein restrictions and more fruits and vegetables.

GOOD INTENT, TOUGH SELL

Berks County food service administrators have welcomed the law in spirit, embracing its combination of whole grains, fruits and vegetables as a way to combat childhood obesity.

But they are concerned that the act could prove a recipe for wasted food that will leave students anything but hunger-free even as it raises the average Berks school lunch price by 11 cents, from $2.22 to $2.33.

?If Johnny gets three-quarters of a cup of carrots and doesn?t like carrots, he?s going to dump the carrots in the trash,? Myers said. ?He?s going to go home. He?s going to be hungry, and he?s going to plop on the couch and bust open a bag of chips.?

And if Johnny receives free or reduced-price lunches and refuses to take a fruit or vegetable, the district will not receive its government reimbursement for the meal.

However, for every meal that complies with the new requirements, schools can receive an extra reimbursement of 6 cents, even if a student pays the full price.

To read the full story?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=4447

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