Israeli airstrike kills senior Gaza militant

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? Israel killed a top leader of an al-Qaida-inspired Gaza group in an airstrike, the military said Sunday, a significant blow in Israel's campaign against the shadowy fighters.

Hisham Saidani was killed with his bodyguard in an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip late Saturday, Israel's military said. He was one of the top ideological guides for the violent, ultra-conservative Islamic movements in Gaza, known as Salafi jihadis.

The Israeli military said Saidani, 43, was suspected of carrying out attacks against Egyptian and Israeli targets but provided no further information.

In recent years, a number of shadowy groups that claim inspiration from al-Qaida have been on the rise in Gaza. While they are not believed to have direct links with the global terror network, the groups share the same violent anti-Western ideology and frequently borrow from its tactics. They have also clashed with the ruling Islamic militant Hamas movement.

Saidani led a small group, "Tawhid wal Jihad," or "Monotheism and Holy War," believed responsible for killing of an Israeli civilian working along the Egyptian border last June. He was also linked to the Mujahideen Shura Council, another militant group operating in Gaza and Egypt's neighboring Sinai desert.

Followers of Saidani were responsible for kidnapping and killing Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza in March 2011. Saidani later denounced the act.

He sought to unite the many groups of ultraconservative Salafis in Gaza, according to jihadis commenting about his death. He was widely respected by fundamentalists in Gaza and through the region.

In response to Saidani's death, al-Qaida's media arm warned Israel that its "joy will not last long."

"We fully trust our brothers that they will be capable of avenging the killing," said a statement by the Global Islamic Media Front, a European group that supports al-Qaida and other extremist organizations. The statement underscored Saidani's prominence among jihadis.

Over the past year, Israel has been targeting Salafis with airstrikes in Gaza, seeing them as a new threat to its southern border. Last Sunday, an Israeli strike killed another Salafi.

Salafis appear to be crossing between Gaza and Sinai, using the lawless Egyptian territory as a base to conduct attacks, or to flee after carrying out attacks elsewhere. Many adopt a Pakistani style of dress: long loose shirts over baggy pants, sandals and turbans.

They are considered a threat not only to Israel, but to Hamas and Egypt as well.

The Salafis consider Hamas, which itself is dedicated to Israel's destruction, to be too moderate because it seeks to establish a Palestinian state. Instead, they believe all Muslim lands should be united under the rule of fundamentalists, forcefully applying an extremely conservative version of Islam.

Hamas arrested Saidani, also known as Sheik Abu Walid-al-Maqdasi, last year in the one of most high-profile arrests against the territory's Salafis. He was released two months ago.

Speaking to his Cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the attack.

"The global jihad is stepping up its efforts to harm us, and we will continue to act against it aggressively and powerfully, both reactively and pre-emptively," Netanyahu said.

The violence continued early Sunday when Israeli aircraft hit Gaza militants planning a rocket attack. One militant belonging to a small faction was killed, said Palestinian health spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra.

During the latest round of violence, Palestinians fired more than 40 rockets at Israeli communities near Gaza, the military said. The salvos damaged property. No one was hurt.

Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for the barrages because it rules Gaza. The two have largely maintained an unwritten truce since a brief war nearly four years ago, but flare-ups occur occasionally.

In a separate development, the U.N.'s Middle East envoy harshly criticized attacks blamed on Israeli settlers against Palestinian farmers and their olive trees in the West Bank.

In a statement, Robert Serry said Israel must do more to protect Palestinians and their property in the West Bank. The West Bank, claimed by the Palestinians for a state, is under Israeli military rule.

"These acts are reprehensible, and I call on the government of Israel to bring those responsible to justice," Serry said.

An Israeli rights organization, B'Tselem, counts 450 Palestinian-owned trees either damaged or uprooted since the harvest season began on Oct. 10.

Every year a small number of extremist Jewish settlers carry out attacks during harvest season. Most attacks occur close to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Olive groves provide crucial income for Palestinian farmers.

The Israeli military said security forces were taking "every measure to ensure the safety and security of the local residents."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-airstrike-kills-senior-gaza-militant-150957794.html

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Video: Scaling Your Social Business my Dreamforce Presentation ...

Posted on October 13th, 2012 in: Speech

I was pleased to be a featured speaker at Dreamforce, to share Altimeter?s research on Social Business. My topic? To focus on how companies need to scale social business. I referenced the following Open Research (meaning you can download them) reports: Social Business Readiness, Career path of the Corporate Social Strategist, and Managing Social Media Proliferation, see all my Open Research on this tab.

Key Agenda Points:

  • Social business does not scale, companies are at risk for ?Social Sanitation?
  • Advanced companies scale with at least six programs:
  • 1) Get into a scalable formation now
  • 2) Enable business units (safely)
  • 3) Streamline workflow with tools
  • 4) Scale with peer to peer communities
  • 5) Grow an unpaid army of advocates
  • 6) Integrate in all manners

Below you?ll find the video recording, and raw slides on slideshare. Thank you Salesforce for providing the opportunity to share this research to the Dreamforce attendees.

Above: Video recording of presentation, with slides, see on YouTube

Above: Slideshare slides, available for download or perusing.

Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2012/10/13/video-scaling-your-social-business-my-dreamforce-presentation/

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Scientists discover that shape matters in DNA nanoparticle therapy

Saturday, October 13, 2012
This illustration depicts DNA molecules (light green), packaged into nanoparticles by using a polymer with two different segments. One segment (teal) carries a positive charge that binds it to the DNA, and the other (brown) forms a protective coating on the particle surface. By adjusting the solvent surrounding these molecules, the Johns Hopkins and Northwestern researchers were able to control the shape of the nanoparticles. The team?s animal tests showed that a nanoparticle?s shape could dramatically affect how effectively it delivers gene therapy to the cells. The cartoon images in the foreground, obtained though computational modeling, matched closely with the gray background images, which were collected through transmission electron microscopy. Credit: Credits: Wei Qu, Northwestern University, simulation cartoons; Xuan Jiang, Johns Hopkins University, microscopic images

Researchers from Johns Hopkins and Northwestern universities have discovered how to control the shape of nanoparticles that move DNA through the body and have shown that the shapes of these carriers may make a big difference in how well they work in treating cancer and other diseases.

This study, to be published in the Oct. 12 online edition of the journal Advanced Materials, is also noteworthy because this gene therapy technique does not use a virus to carry DNA into cells. Some gene therapy efforts that rely on viruses have posed health risks.

"These nanoparticles could become a safer and more effective delivery vehicle for gene therapy, targeting genetic diseases, cancer and other illnesses that can be treated with gene medicine," said Hai-Quan Mao, an associate professor of materials science and engineering in Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering.

Mao, co-corresponding author of the Advanced Materials article, has been developing nonviral nanoparticles for gene therapy for a decade. His approach involves compressing healthy snippets of DNA within protective polymer coatings. The particles are designed to deliver their genetic payload only after they have moved through the bloodstream and entered the target cells. Within the cells, the polymer degrades and releases DNA. Using this DNA as a template, the cells can produce functional proteins that combat disease.

A major advance in this work is that Mao and his colleagues reported that they were able to "tune" these particles in three shapes, resembling rods, worms and spheres, which mimic the shapes and sizes of viral particles. "We could observe these shapes in the lab, but we did not fully understand why they assumed these shapes and how to control the process well," Mao said. These questions were important because the DNA delivery system he envisions may require specific, uniform shapes.

To solve this problem, Mao sought help about three years ago from colleagues at Northwestern. While Mao works in a traditional wet lab, the Northwestern researchers are experts in conducting similar experiments with powerful computer models.

Erik Luijten, associate professor of materials science and engineering and of applied mathematics at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-corresponding author of the paper, led the computational analysis of the findings to determine why the nanoparticles formed into different shapes.

"Our computer simulations and theoretical model have provided a mechanistic understanding, identifying what is responsible for this shape change," Luijten said. "We now can predict precisely how to choose the nanoparticle components if one wants to obtain a certain shape."

The use of computer models allowed Luijten's team to mimic traditional lab experiments at a far faster pace. These molecular dynamic simulations were performed on Quest, Northwestern's high-performance computing system. The computations were so complex that some of them required 96 computer processors working simultaneously for one month.

In their paper, the researchers also wanted to show the importance of particle shapes in delivering gene therapy. Team members conducted animal tests, all using the same particle materials and the same DNA. The only difference was in the shape of the particles: rods, worms and spheres.

"The worm-shaped particles resulted in 1,600 times more gene expression in the liver cells than the other shapes," Mao said. "This means that producing nanoparticles in this particular shape could be the more efficient way to deliver gene therapy to these cells."

The particle shapes used in this research are formed by packaging the DNA with polymers and exposing them to various dilutions of an organic solvent. DNA's aversion to the solvent, with the help of the team's designed polymer, causes the nanoparticles to contract into a certain shape with a "shield" around the genetic material to protect it from being cleared by immune cells.

###

Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu

Thanks to Northwestern University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124446/Scientists_discover_that_shape_matters_in_DNA_nanoparticle_therapy_

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Are Your Future Passwords Hidden In the Jiggling of Your Eyeballs? [Security]

Eye scanners have always been one of the security devices people think of when they think "high-tech" and "high security." But they're not perfect yet, some can be fooled with contacts or even pictures, but new pushes into detecting your personal eye jiggle could change that. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xj9i1o40qfY/are-your-future-passwords-hidden-in-the-jiggling-of-your-eyeballs

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Sarah Palin's email leads to Alaska high court ruling

12 hrs.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska state employees can use private email accounts for public business but the messages must be preserved under public-records laws, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled on Friday in a case stemming from ex-Governor Sarah Palin's communications practices.

Palin is out of office but the ruling could affect her successor, Governor Sean Parnell, who is involved in his own controversy over public records. Critics have accused Parnell and his aides of using text messages rather than official emails to keep communications out of public view.

Electronic messages about state business are no different from paper communications under the Alaska Public Records Act, the Alaska Supreme Court said in its unanimous 16-page written decision that largely upheld a lower court ruling.

All paper or electronic messages regarding state business must be preserved and made available for public review, in accordance with state law, "and that duty cannot be extinguished by a public official's unreviewable decision simply not to preserve them," the court said.

A spokeswoman for Parnell said that his administration viewed the court's ruling as "favorable."

"Text messages are, by their nature, transitory, so they wouldn't be appropriate for preservation or constitute public records," Parnell's press secretary, Sharon Leighow, told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Friday's decision resulted from a lawsuit filed in 2008 by Andree McLeod, an Anchorage activist who criticized Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president that year, for using private Yahoo accounts to communicate state business.

She and others contended that Palin used private accounts to evade state public-records rules. McLeod also argued that no state business should be conducted on private email accounts.

Open-records requests filed by McLeod and several journalists resulted in release of thousands of pages of Palin emails during her term as governor, many of them from her private accounts. The emails were released in 2011 and earlier this year, long after Palin resigned her post in 2009.

Friday's ruling, though it partially affirmed the lower-court ruling protecting the use of private emails, is a victory for McLeod, her attorney said.

"The Alaska Supreme Court's decision this morning demonstrates the importance of what citizen activists such as Andree McLeod can accomplish to advance the interests of all Alaskans in ensuring that all state employees, from the governor on down, conduct official state business in a manner that at all times and through all means of communication serves the public interest," attorney Don Mitchell said in a statement.

An August 27 opinion by the state legislature's legal adviser concluded that text messages are subject to state public records laws. Parnell's spokeswoman said at the time that the governor disagrees and considers text messages to be "transitory in nature" and difficult to preserve.

A representative for Palin could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Carol Bishopric)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/sarah-palins-email-leads-alaska-high-court-ruling-1C6449698

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Anonymous blows off WikiLeaks, calls Assange a sellout over Lady Gaga dinner

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anonymous-blows-off-wikileaks-calls-assange-sellout-over-211704155.html

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Cyrus trespasser sentenced to 18 months in jail

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyrus-trespasser-sentenced-18-months-jail-213925612.html

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AX Business Goes to Affiliate Window

Home ? Industry News, Specials

American Express Global Corporate Payment has appointed global performance network, Affiliate Window as their sole business provider for driving new corporate business leads.

This builds on American Express? presence in the market, providing the brand with greater access to a variety of new business opportunities for acquisition through their integrated digital channels.

The Global Corporate Payment division of American Express looks forward to working with the vast range of publishers joined to Affiliate Window, to ensure its highly visible ?Corporate Payments? brand continues to grow in the United Kingdom.

Michelle Boxall, Head of Online Lead Generation at Affiliate Window says: ?The team is pleased to add American Express to the growing list of clients embracing online lead generation to further source new customer leads. We are excited by the challenge to achieve a wider B2B reach, targeting key decision makers within organizations?.

The program with Affiliate Window will target select websites from the extensive publisher base to build strong relationships and drive quality leads that convert highly to new business sales.

Written by pacelattin

Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.

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Source: http://performinsider.com/2012/10/ax-business-goes-to-affiliate-window/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ax-business-goes-to-affiliate-window

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