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Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Letters of Italo Calvino, Day V : The New Yorker

This week on Page-Turner, we've been running a series of excerpts from ?Italo Calvino: Letters, 1941-1985,? translated by Martin McLaughlin, which will be published on May 20th (read our first three installments here, here, here, and here.). In this final installment of the letters, from when the writer was in his fifties, Calvino spars with, compliments, and, in one case, attacks three of his eminent literary contemporaries: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gore Vidal, and Claudio Magris. Pasolini had reviewed Calvino?s ?Invisible Cities,? and Calvino argues with him about weighing in on ?current affairs.? He praises a review Vidal published of his work in The New York Review of Books. In his highly critical letter to Magris, he strongly opposes an anti-abortion piece that Magris wrote, and declares a pause in their friendship (they later became friendly again).

To Pier Paolo Pasolini?Rome

Paris, 7.2.73

Dear Pier Paolo,

Only yesterday did I read your wonderful article and I am happy that writing books can still hold surprises for me, the surprise of a dialog like this, a discourse like yours which is full of a direct approach to the text and lively intelligence, far removed from any of the predictable mechanisms of critical discourse. And happy that my book has provided the occasion for new, ingenious, and focused reflections like the ones you put forward: in all of them I recognize my book from new angles which are already encouraging me to find new developments and links to your discussion. Above all this looms the extraordinary image of the universal future, stretching out in its entirety, where sense is lost, so that knowledge too becomes memory. And look, this is already a Platonic motif and is linked to the Platonism you mention shortly afterwards. You are the first critic to point out this Platonic component in my work, which seems to me to be central. And you rightly move on to explain, in a move that resonates with those in the book, how the subject matter of dreams is real.

A brief word on our having ?stopped being close to one another? in the last ten years or so. What you mean is that it is you who have gone very far away: not just with the cinema, which is the thing that is furthest from the mental rhythms of a bookworm, which is what I have become in the meantime, but because also your use of words has shifted to communicating a presence traumatically as though projecting it onto big screens: a mode of rapid intervention on the present that I ruled out from the start. All this on the one hand, whereas the kind of discourse into which you put the best of yourself is made up of extremely minute judgments that are precisely argued, based on a meticulous micro-analysis of words and people (talents you have not lost, as these well-honed critical interventions of yours testify), and this is the type of discourse that can only have indirect influences, after doing the rounds, at a distance of years and years, just like poetic discourse.

By contrast, being present in order to have your say on ?current affairs? according to the newspapers, using the newspapers? measure of what is topical, engaging directly with public opinion, certainly gives one a great sensation of being alive, but this is life in the world of effects, not in the world of slow reasoning and reflection. It is thus your ?way of having chosen topicality? which has divided us, not mine, which doesn?t exist. I quickly realized that I had no place in actuality and I stayed on the sidelines, maybe champing at the bit, but still remaining silent, as you say yourself moreover; in any case, even if I had spoken out, there would not have been anyone prepared to listen and reply to me. Where did you ever see in my behavior any ?a priori commitment to the student cause?? As for an ?openness toward the Neo-avant-garde,? I?ll let that go: I would always welcome a change in the mental climate of Italian literature, if ever there were any hint of it, and even though this or that set of poetics does not persuade me, I am always interested in what can come out of the interaction with other poetics. But my reservations and allergies toward the new politics are stronger than the urge to oppose the old politics, and so I no longer had a position to uphold since I had ruled them out one by one, and this also took away my curiosity to know people, follow developments, distinguish positions. And not possessing any competence or qualifications to express my judgments, it is natural that I stayed silent, both publicly and in private, reinforced in this attitude of mine by the lack of success that yours and others? interventions encountered, interventions which in any case I did not feel I could associate myself with at all.

What you say about my image starting to turn yellow and fade matches precisely my intentions. Since the dead are no longer in a place where too many things no longer belong to them, they must feel a mixture of spite and relief, no different from my state of mind. It is no accident that I?ve gone to live in a big city where I know nobody and no one knows I exist. In this way I have been able to realize a kind of existence which was at least one of the many existences I had always dreamt of: I spend twelve hours a day reading, on most days of the year.

[?] Thank you once more and accept my best wishes as an old friend.

Your,

Italo Calvino

* * *

To Gore Vidal?Rome

San Remo, 20 June 1974

Dear Gore Vidal,

I have started this letter many times and interrupted it many times. I was looking for excuses: like I had to find your address, like I did not know whether you were in Rome or New York. I tried to write to you in English, but the things I thought out in Italian did not sound right when translated into English, and the things I thought in English did not sound good when I recast them in Italian. The problem is that you have written a critical essay on me that is as spontaneous and friendly as a letter, and now I would like to write you a letter that is as carefully thought out and analytical as a critical essay in order to convey to you how happy I was at reading it.

Happy not just at being read with such enthusiasm and intelligence and affinity, and not just because it was written by you, in other words by a writer whose biting irony, capacity to transform reality, and precise adherence to our own times had always attracted me, but also for the way in which your review was written, which seems admirable to me for two reasons.

First: one feels that you wrote this article for the pleasure of writing it, alternating warm praise with criticisms and reservations in a totally sincere tone, and with constant freedom and humor, and this feeling of pleasure is communicated irresistibly to the reader.

Second: I have always thought that it is difficult to extract from my books, each of which is so different from the others, a unitary discourse, an overall definition, maybe even just the outline of an author that is not also split up. Now you?despite exploring my ?uvre in the way it demands to be explored, namely in a non-systematic way, moving like someone out for a walk who stops here, but moves on there without looking around, over there wanders about in an occasional diversion?you manage to establish a general sense in everything I have written, almost a philosophy??the whole and the many? etc.? and I am very happy when someone manages to find a philosophy in the products of my so unphilosophical mind.

?The conclusion of your review contains a statement that seems to me to be important in an absolute way. I don?t dare to wonder whether it is true if applied to myself, but it is true as a literary ideal for each of us: the aim that each one of us has to reach has to be that ?writer and reader become one, or One.? And to encompass both your discourse and mine in a perfect circle, we will say that this One is the Whole.

I was keen to convey to you these general considerations that your essay inspired in me. On another occasion perhaps I will reply to you more analytically, point by point. For the moment I just wanted to say this: you note that already in 1958 I was worried about the destruction of the environment, and this recognition makes me happy because it comes from you who have always been in the front line in the defense of ecology. Also on this topic is A Plunge into Real Estate which I will send you in Italian. There is a translation of it (by D. S. Carne-Ross) in a paperback anthology: Six Modern Italian Novellas, edited by W. Arrowsmith, New York, Permabook, 1964.

I am writing to you from San Remo, from the house where the events in that novella took place?twenty years ago?and since then things have only changed in terms of quantity, in other words, our house is more and more surrounded by a horrible forest of reinforced concrete, and our family is always having to deal with some entrepreneur: this time to sell it for good.

But I am here only passing through, in this Riviera which now only represents the past for me, and which I now no longer recognize. Now I spend the summers with my wife and daughter in a pine-forest in the Tuscan Maremma, two hours from Rome. I have a small house in an estate (alas!) but greenness is respected there more than elsewhere. My address is: Pineta di Roccamare, Castiglione della Pescaia (Grosseto). If you come and see us, I hope to be able to express my thanks personally to you better than by letter.

Italo Calvino

* * *

To Claudio Magris?Trieste

[Paris, 3-8 February 1975]

Dear Prof. Magris,

I was very disappointed to read your article ?Gli sbagliati? [The Deluded]. It pained me a lot not only that you had written it but above all because you think in this way.

Bringing a child into the world makes sense only if this child is wanted consciously and freely by its two parents. If it is not, then it is simply animal and criminal behavior. A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions, but through an act of will and love on the part of other people. If this is not the case, then humanity becomes?as it is already to a large extent?no more than a rabbit-warren. But this is no longer a ?free-range? warren but a ?battery? one, in the conditions of artificiality in which it lives, with artificial light and chemical feed.

Only those people?a man and a woman?who are a hundred percent convinced that they possess the moral and physical possibility not only of rearing a child but of welcoming it as a welcome and beloved presence, have the right to procreate. If this is not the case, they must first of all do everything not to conceive, and if they do conceive (given that the margin for unpredictability continues to be high) abortion is not only a sad necessity, but a highly moral decision to be taken with full freedom of conscience. I do not understand how you can associate abortion with an idea of hedonism or the good life. Abortion is [a] terrifying thing [? ].

In abortion the person who is massacred, physically and morally, is the woman. Also for any man with a conscience every abortion is a moral ordeal that leaves a mark, but certainly here the fate of the woman is in such a disproportionate condition of unfairness compared with the man?s, that every male should bite his tongue three times before speaking about such things. Just at the moment when we are trying to make less barbarous a situation which for the woman is truly terrifying, an intellectual [uses] his authority so that women have to stay in this hell. Let me tell you, you are really irresponsible, to say the least. I would not mock the ?hygienic-prophylactic measures? so much; certainly you will never have to undergo a scraping of your womb. But I?d like to see your face if they forced you to have an operation in the filth and without any recourse to hospitals under pain of imprisonment. Your ?integrity of life? vitalism is to say the least fatuous. For Pasolini to say these things does not surprise me. But I thought that you knew what it costs and what the responsibilities are if you bring other lives into this world.

I am sorry that such a radical divergence of opinion on these basic ethical questions has interrupted our friendship.

Photograph by Isolde Ohlbaum/laif/Redux.

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/05/the-letters-of-italo-calvino-day-v.html

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Friday, May 17, 2013

Brazil port modernization bill clears lower chamber of Congress

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Legislation that President Dilma Rousseff says is vital to her efforts to modernize Brazil's clogged and costly ports cleared the lower chamber of Congress after a marathon debate and is expected to win Senate approval later on Thursday.

The proposal is aimed at attracting greater private investment and reducing union control in Brazil's main ports, which have become a hurdle to the expansion of grain and mineral exports by the once-booming Latin American economy.

After a heated 23-hour session that ran through the night, caffeinated lawmakers finally approved a modified version of the government's proposal, which had split Rousseff's 18-party governing coalition and sparked a strike by dock workers.

The Senate now has until midnight to pass the legislation, an addition to Brazil's outdated port law. Otherwise, the measure will expire.

Stevedores opposed to the bill returned to work late on Wednesday at Brazil's largest port of Santos, ending a two-day protest that had a limited impact on cargo movement.

The strike began unexpectedly at midday on Tuesday at the southeastern ports of Santos, Paranagua and Rio de Janeiro. But by Wednesday afternoon, workers at Santos were the only ones still reported to be striking.

Dock workers wanted to defend union control over hiring in the bill, which allows new terminal investors to contract nonunion labor. Some unions agreed to let operators hire outside of a centralized hiring agency, known as OGMO.

The bill will allow more private operators to build and run terminals at state-owned ports and permit privately owned ports to handle third-party cargo.

The legislation is an attempt to attract billions of dollars in new investments by allowing private investors to manage some of the ports as well as to increase efficiency and cut costs.

Brazilian port terminals charge some of the world's highest prices to move goods. Some of the high cost stems from labor agreements, but red tape, taxes and lack of competition between terminals are also to blame.

Rousseff has made the bill a top priority in push to improve Brazil's dilapidated infrastructure, which has become a drag on economic growth, with ships lining up for weeks to enter port to load up agricultural and other exports.

Brazil is in the midst of exporting a record soy harvest, while coffee and sugar crops are due to hit its overburdened ports within weeks.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-port-modernization-bill-clears-lower-chamber-congress-142207614.html

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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Invasive 'crazy ants' are displacing fire ants in areas throughout southeastern U.S.

May 16, 2013 ? Invasive "crazy ants" are displacing fire ants in areas across the southeastern United States, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. It's the latest in a history of ant invasions from the southern hemisphere and may prove to have dramatic effects on the ecosystem of the region.

The "ecologically dominant" crazy ants are reducing diversity and abundance across a range of ant and arthropod species -- but their spread can be limited if people are careful not to transport them inadvertently, according to Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences

The study by LeBrun and his colleagues was published in Biological Invasions.

"When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back," said LeBrun. "Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with you if you step on their mound."

LeBrun said that crazy ants, by contrast, "go everywhere." They invade people's homes, nest in crawl spaces and walls, become incredibly abundant and damage electrical equipment.

The crazy ants were first discovered in the U.S. in 2002 by a pest control operator in a suburb of Houston, and have since established populations in 21 counties in Texas, 20 counties in Florida, and a few sites in southern Mississippi and southern Louisiana.

In 2012 the species was formally identified as Nylanderia fulva, which is native to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. Frequently referred to as Rasberry crazy ants, these ants recently have been given the official common name "Tawny crazy ants."

The Tawny crazy ant invasion is the most recent in a series of ant invasions from South America brought on by human movement. The Argentine ant invaded through the port of New Orleans in about 1891. In 1918 the black imported fire ant showed up in Mobile, Ala. Then in the 1930s, the red imported fire ant arrived in the U.S. and began displacing the black fire ant and the Argentine ants.

The UT researchers studied two crazy ant invasion sites on the Texas Gulf Coast and found that in those areas where the Tawny crazy ant population is densest, fire ants were eliminated. Even in regions where the crazy ant population is less dense, fire ant populations were drastically reduced. Other ant species, particularly native species, were also eliminated or diminished.

LeBrun said crazy ants are much harder to control than fire ants. They don't consume most of the poison baits that kill fire ant mounds, and they don't have the same kinds of colony boundaries that fire ants do. That means that even if they're killed in a certain area, the supercolony survives and can swarm back over the area.

"They don't sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests," he said. "There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It's very expensive."

LeBrun said that in northern Argentina and southern Brazil, where the ants are native, populations are likely held in check by other ant species and a variety of natural enemies. In the U.S. there is no such natural control.

Here the crazy ants can attain densities up to 100 times as great as all other ants in the area combined. In the process, they monopolize food sources and starve out other species. LeBrun said the crazy ants, which are omnivorous, may also directly attack and kill other ant and arthropod species.

The overall result is a significant reduction in abundance and biodiversity at the base of the food chain, which is likely to have implications for the ecosystem as a whole.

"Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant, which is the 300 pound gorilla in Texas ecosystems these days," said LeBrun. "The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can't tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that."

LeBrun said a great deal about the Tawny crazy ants remains unknown, including their potential range. So far, most of the colonies are in fairly wet environments with mild winters, near the coast, so it may be the case that they can't thrive in drier or colder climates, and that fire ants will remain dominant in those areas.

The spread of the Tawny crazy ants may also be limited, even within the more hospitable climates, by caution from humans. The reproductive members of the species don't fly. So when left to their own devices, crazy ant colonies can only advance about 200 meters a year. That means they're dependent on humans to colonize new areas.

"They are opportunistic nesters," said LeBrun. "They can take up residence in everything from a house plant, to an empty container left outside, to an RV. So they're easily transported by us. But the flip side of that is that if people living in or visiting invaded areas are careful and check for the crazy ants when moving or going on longer trips, they could have a huge impact on the spread." Nursery products also appear to be a key way these ants spread, so both buyers and sellers should be watchful for these ants.

LeBrun said that cutting down on the number of transplantation events could slow the spread by years or decades. And that extra time could give the ecosystem time to adapt and researchers time to develop better control methods.

"We can really make a difference," he said, "but we need to be careful, and we need to know more."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/NMEk72jeZow/130516123916.htm

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Five ways the IRS scandal will change Washington

Toss a pebble into a lake and the ripples spread far and wide. Lob a scandal, in which the anti-tax tea party is under attack by its nemesis, the Internal Revenue Service, into the shark-infested waters of Washington, and well, the political ramifications are huge.

Whatever comes of the investigations into the IRS?s inappropriate targeting of conservative groups in the 2012 election cycle, this much appears certain: the scandal will unite conservatives, invigorate the tea party, and potentially affect the 2014 midterm elections.

RECOMMENDED: Briefing IRS 101: Seven questions about the tea party scandal

Here are five ways the IRS scandal will change Washington:

1) INVIGORATE THE TEA PARTY AND ITS SMALL-GOVERNMENT MOVEMENT

For thousands of tea party members across the nation, it?s an ?I told you so? moment. You have to admit the scandal is perfectly scripted. Big government, and taxes in particular, are the movement?s central grievance. Heck, the group even takes its name from the Boston Tea Party, the iconic historical protest against unfair taxation.

How perfect, then, that the latest scandal to hit Washington confirms the tea party?s anti-big government, anti-tax, anti-IRS crusade. What?s more, it confirms countless complaints by tea party groups and allegations by right-leaning websites like The Blaze that the IRS was going after conservative groups.

In Washington, the tea party had been losing its luster almost ever since the shining glory of the 2010 midterms. The IRS scandal could be the rallying cry of a reinvigorated movement.

2) UNITE CONSERVATIVES

The GOP?s 2012 election square dance ? two steps to the right in the primary, one step to the left in the general election ? exposed a rift between the Republican Party and its conservative base, one that?s only widened as the party is forced to reconsider issues like gay marriage and immigration.

Yet, as every tactician knows, nothing unites like a common enemy. As such, the IRS scandal unleashed a golden opportunity for conservatives.

?The accusations of IRS abuse are sure to fuel an effort that appears to be uniting dispirited Republicans and their conservative political base: investigating Mr. Obama and his administration,? The New York Times reported Monday. ?Republicans are pushing a portrayal of an administration overreaching its authority and punishing its enemies.?

Enemies that are sure to leverage the situation to their advantage.

3) IMPACT MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Yes, believe it or not, it?s true. If conservatives can sustain, even strengthen, that unity, and launch a big-government attack on Democrats, the IRS scandal could influence the 2014 midterm elections.

In a recent column, political polling guru Nate Silver predicts the IRS debacle ?could have a substantial political impact,? and has ?the potential to harm Democrats? performance in next years? midterm elections, partly by motivating a strong turnout from the Republican base.?

He uses a five-point test to argue that the scandal ?has legs?: it can be described in one sentence, cuts to the core of a candidate or party?s brand, and reinforces a negative perception about a candidate, among other points.

Expect reverberations in 2014.

4) INVIGORATE THE TAX CODE REFORM MOVEMENT

For years advocacy groups and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle ? from Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana to libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas to Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas ? have advocated for tax reform. It?s an uphill, if not vertiginous, climb and a goal that has remained elusive for decades.

If they?re smart, lawmakers and tax advocacy groups will use the IRS scandal ? and its revelations about tax code loopholes (recall that 501(c)(4)s are often used by political groups to avoid paying taxes and to hide donors) ? to invigorate their cause.

A case in point: For the first time in more than 25 years, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus wants to launch the first full-scale rewrite of the 5,600-page US tax code.

Ambitious? Yes. But given the current climate in Washington, the timing couldn?t be better.

5) DERAIL BIPARTISAN COOPERATION

Alas, as if partisan bickering and congressional gridlock weren?t enough, the IRS fiasco throws another wrench into legislative wrangling on issues like gun control, immigration, and the debt ceiling debate.

President Obama?s chummy dinners and golf games with Republicans? All for naught, as Politico explains.

?The IRS developments couldn?t come at a worse time for the White House, which has spent months courting GOP support for everything from gun control to an overhaul of immigration laws,? it reported. ?If the administration?s recent GOP charm offensive bought any goodwill, it seems to be on short supply now.?

Or, as the Washington Post said, ?We aren?t likely to see Republicans and Democrats in Congress join hands and sing Kumbaya any time soon.?

RECOMMENDED: Briefing IRS 101: Seven questions about the tea party scandal

Army general facing sex charges had porn on laptop

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) ? An expert in Afghan culture testified Wednesday that pornography found on the computer of a U.S. Army general then deployed to the Muslim country would be highly offensive to local residents.

Former Defense Intelligence Agency adviser Morwari Zafar made the comments at a pre-trial hearing for Brig. Gen. Jeffery Sinclair. A court-martial for the former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne is set to begin June 25 on charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts, violating orders and adultery.

Among the orders Sinclair is accused of violating is a prohibition against U.S. troops in Afghanistan possessing pornography.

Called as a witness by prosecutors, Zafar's eyes widened when a prosecutor showed her printed photos investigators pulled from Sinclair's hard drive.

"They would be absolutely offensive to Afghans in general," said Zafar, who was born in the country and is now earning a doctorate in anthropology. "Pornography is illegal in Afghanistan."

The military pornography ban, and a similar order barring possessing alcohol, are in place in an attempt to keep soldiers and Marines from offending the socially conservative country where U.S. troops have been stationed since 2001.

Lawyers for Sinclair asked a military judge this week to drop the charge against the general, arguing this week the military porn ban violates his First Amendment rights to free speech.

On cross-examination, Zafar agreed with defense lawyer Richard Scheff that pornography is available for sale in some Afghan markets and on the Internet, despite its illegal status in the country.

The defense has not provided an explanation for how pornography got on Sinclair's personal computer. He has not yet entered a plea on any of the charges he faces.

Earlier in the case, military lawyers for Sinclair suggested in court that someone else could have downloaded the images, possibly even the female aide he is charged with assaulting.

This week, new civilian lawyers added to the defense team made the constitutional argument without directly saying the pornography had been stored on the computer by their client. Additionally, there was no evidence any Afghan ever saw the images or had the opportunity to be offended, Scheff said.

Sinclair's former commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Huggins, testified Tuesday that he issued the order to "maintain good order and discipline."

"It is against the stated policy because of the cultural sensitivity of the Afghan people," Huggins said, adding that if anyone had found the images it would have hurt Sinclair's effectiveness.

Sinclair was deputy commander in charge of logistics and support for the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan last spring before being relieved during the criminal investigation. He has been on special assignment at Fort Bragg since May 2012.

A 27-year Army veteran and married father of two, Sinclair faces life in prison if convicted on the sexual assault charge.

A female captain who worked for Sinclair on deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq says she carried on a three-year sexual relationship with Sinclair. Adultery is a crime under military law, and the admission could end her career.

She testified at the evidentiary hearing last year that she repeatedly tried to break off the affair but that on two occasions after they had argued he exposed himself and physically forced her to perform oral sex. The woman says the general also threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about their relationship.

The Associated Press does not publicly identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.

Two other female officers who served with Sinclair also testified that they had given the general nude photos at his request.

Military judge Col. James Pohl agreed Tuesday to a request to drop a charge that Sinclair violated an order by possessing alcohol while in Afghanistan. An unopened bottle of scotch was found in his quarters ? a gift defense lawyers said came from a top Pentagon official on a goodwill visit.

Pohl also granted a defense motion to compel testimony from former Fort Brag commander Gen. Dan Allyn and current base commander Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Colt.

Sinclair's legal team alleges that high-ranking Pentagon officials may have placed improper pressure on Allyn to refer charges against Sinclair as the military struggles to deal with a string of embarrassing sex scandals.

It was not immediately clear when Allyn and Colt will be available to testify. Officials said both aren't on the base this week.

___

Follow Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/army-general-facing-sex-charges-had-porn-laptop-231738979.html

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Google+ Redesigns Its Stream To Include Multi-Column Google Now-Esque Cards, Auto-Hashtags And More

Google+, the social layer that Google introduced almost two years ago, has evolved quite a bit since its launch. Today, the company announced a complete redesign, taking cues from the mobile experience that has drawn positive feedback from those who don't even use the service. In total, Google has launched 41 new features for Google+, including a completely revamped Photo product, Hangouts app and the stream that people interact with on a daily basis.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HljIJGAgQ58/

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University of Chicago launches Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud to analyze cancer data

Public release date: 15-May-2013
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Contact: Lisa-Joy Zgorski
lisajoy@nsf.gov
703-292-8311
National Science Foundation

Medical advances facilitated by NSF-funded foundational research provides alternative to large, costly and cumbersome storage infrastructure

The University of Chicago launched the first secure cloud-based computing system that enables researchers to access and analyze human genomic cancer information without the costly and cumbersome infrastructure normally needed to download and store massive amounts of data.

The Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud, as it is called, enables researchers who are authorized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to access and analyze data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) without having to set up secure, compliant computing environments capable of managing and analyzing terabytes of data, download the data--which can take weeks--and then install the appropriate tools needed to perform the desired analyses.

Using technology that was developed in part by the Open Science Data Cloud, a National Science Foundation-supported project that is developing cloud infrastructure for large scientific datasets, the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud provides researchers with a more cost- and time-effective mechanism to extract knowledge from massive amounts of data. Drawing insights from big data is imperative for addressing some of today's most vexing environmental, health and safety challenges.

"The open source technology underlying the Open Science Data Cloud enables researchers to manage and analyze the large data sets that are essential to tackling some of today's greatest challenges: from environmental monitoring to cancer genomics," said Robert L. Grossman, the director of the Open Science Data Cloud Project and a professor at the University of Chicago.

Today, as the only NIH-approved cloud-based system for TCGA data, the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud allows researchers to focus on the analysis of large-scale cancer genome sequencing, which experts believe can unlock paths to early detection, appropriate treatment and prevention of cancer.

"We are excited that the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud is now used for cancer genomics data so that researchers can more easily work with large datasets to understand genomic variations that seem to be one of the keys to the precise diagnosis and treatment of cancer," continued Grossman.

"With funding provided by NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education [PIRE] program, NSF has sought to narrow the gap between the capability of modern scientific instruments to produce data and the ability of researchers to access, manage, analyze and share those data in a reliable and timely manner," said NSF Program Director Harold Stolberg.

"By embracing cloud computing as a global issue, this PIRE project brings together the expertise of many researchers, not only in the United States, but worldwide. Its success in helping researchers to access and analyze important human genomic cancer information is an exciting indicator of future developments with these technologies," he said.

Megan McNerney, an instructor of pathology at the University of Chicago, used Bionimbus to analyze data that led to her discovery that gene CUX1, which acts as a tumor suppressor, is frequently inactivated in acute myeloid leukemia.

"Bionimbus was critical for my work, as it was used for all aspects of the project, including secure storage of protected data, quality control of next-generation sequencing results, alignments, expression analysis, and algorithm development," she said. "The strength of Bionimbus, however, is the support that is provided for end users, which enabled both expert and non-expert team members to use the cloud."

###

-NSF-

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University of Chicago launches Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud to analyze cancer data

Public release date: 15-May-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Lisa-Joy Zgorski
lisajoy@nsf.gov
703-292-8311
National Science Foundation

Medical advances facilitated by NSF-funded foundational research provides alternative to large, costly and cumbersome storage infrastructure

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-NSF-

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/nsf-uoc051513.php

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