Zuckerberg Replies To His Facebook Commenters' Questions On Immigration

"If it's just about tech wanting to hire more people, not as impressive" commented one of Mark Zuckerberg's 18 million Facebook followers. "It's definitely not just about tech immigration" Zuckerberg shot back in the comments for a video he'd posted from his political advocacy group FWD.us. Replying to average joes and reporters alike, Zuckerberg tried to clear up confusion about his lobbying.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/13GrYeg5Tvk/

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3D map of human brain is the most detailed ever

The folds, creases and intricate internal structures that make up the human brain are being revealed in unprecedented detail. A new three-dimensional map called BigBrain is the most detailed ever constructed, and should lead to a more accurate picture of how the brain's different regions function and interact.

Until now, the precise placement of the neurons that make up our brain circuitry has been difficult to map, largely because the human brain's surface is covered with folds and creases. Slicing a brain exposes only two dimensions, so it is often unclear where and how the cells within these folds are organised in three-dimensional space.

To make the new map, Katrin Amunts of the J?lich Research Centre in Germany and her colleagues embedded a 65-year old woman's brain in wax, sliced it into more than 7400 sections each 20 micrometres thick ? one-fifth of the width of a human hair ? and made digital images of the slices, also at a resolution of 20 micrometres.

Reassembling these images into a full 3D model of the brain was no easy task. It required 1000 hours on a supercomputer. But because the images' resolution was so high, the computer was able to determine the 3D shape of each fold correctly, even if the slice had been cut at an angle.

Tour de force

"It's a tour de force that has never been achieved before," says Arthur Toga of the University of California, Los Angeles. The model's resolution is 50 times higher than that of previous maps, allowing it to make out individual cell bodies ? although not all of the projections that connect one cell to another. It bridges a gap, Toga says, between low-resolution images from brain scans of living people and microscopic images of the connections between individual nerve cells.

Amunts's group plans to post BigBrain online as a template for other researchers to use and integrate with other findings. For instance, by superimposing maps of gene activity, it may be possible to work out which cells are performing particular functions.

It may also serve as a useful reference for the BRAIN initiative championed by US president Barack Obama, which aims to map all of the brain's activity. "You can't map function unless you can relate it to structure," says Toga.

Van Wedeen of Harvard University, who has argued that the brain is based on an underlying 3D grid, hopes the map will reveal similarly unexpected patterns and structure. "There's a tremendous amount we still don't know," he says.

Brain training

By making similar maps of further brains, it should also be possible to study natural variability in brain structure, and look for abnormalities linked to specific neurological diseases. Amunts is already well on the way to reconstructing a second brain ? which should go faster now that her group has trail-blazed its method.

Meanwhile, Jacopo Annese of the University of California, San Diego, is in the midst of constructing maps based on fewer, thicker slices, but imaging each with a resolution of just 0.5 micrometres. This should reveal the connections between individual cells.

Annese's group, called The Brain Observatory, recently sliced the brain of a person who had suffered from epilepsy and who had lost his long-term memory after surgery. The team is now constructing digital models of sections from this brain and those from 60 other people, including some who had been living with various psychiatric disorders.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.123538

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Utah businessman known for good deeds accused of Internet fraud

Jeremy Johnson at U.S. district court in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Wednesday. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

A Utah businessman known locally for his good deeds is being accused of masterminding a massive Internet fraud.

According to a recent profile in The New York Times, heroic acts like rescuing lost hikers and piloting his own helicopter to deliver relief supplies to earthquake victims in Haiti may have been funded on the backs of defrauded customers from his business.

The Federal Trade Commission has accused Jeremy Johnson of ?one of the largest and most intricate online marketing frauds ever perpetrated in the United States,? according to the Times.

The Times reports that the now-defunct company, I Works, promised to help members apply for government grants. The company allegedly lured in customers with the promise of easy money and risk-free guarantees, and it then would continue to charge the credit cards of ?unwitting consumers? for pricey monthly subscription fees.

Through this scheme, charges the FTC, Johnson amassed a fortune of $275 million. While the system of ongoing fees is not necessarily illegal, the government has charged that Johnson?s company failed to disclose the monthly fees or give customers a window of time to opt out of the subscription services.

For his part, the 6-foot-tall, red-haired Johnson vigorously disputes the accusations.

"They are absolutely not true," Johnson said of the allegations to the Salt Lake Tribune in 2010. "I never charged any consumer for anything without their consent."

Meanwhile, according to the Times, the rolling fees helped fund a lavish lifestyle ?of helicopters and houseboats, classic cars and poker at a Las Vegas casino."

The company first came under scrutiny after hundreds of thousands of customers began to seek credit for unauthorized charges. Visa and MasterCard ended many of the company?s accounts and fined I Works.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the company allegedly had to set up 80 ?shell accounts? to accept payments without being detected.

"They had no employees, they had no office locations, they were mail drops," Collot Guerard, the lead FTC attorney on the lawsuit, told the Tribune. "They were essentially fronts, and they didn't have any substance to them other than lending their name to obtain a new merchant account when Jeremy Johnson and I Works were no longer able to get merchant accounts."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/local-man-known-good-deeds-accused-internet-fraud-142233712.html

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Psy On 'Gentleman's' Record-Setting Music Video: 'I'm An A--hole'

'It's nasty,' Psy says of his 'Gentleman' video, which has shattered YouTube records since being released.
By James Montgomery

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706508/psy-gentleman-video-record-setting.jhtml

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Will Chael Sonnen hang it up for good after UFC 159 loss to Jon Jones?

Minutes after losing by TKO to UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen indicated his fighting days may be over.

"I'm not going to be one of the guys to hang around. If there's not a road to the title, then this sport isn't for me. I believe that was probably my last opportunity," Sonnen said to UFC commentator Joe Rogan.

He didn't specifically say "I'm retiring," but he did talk about the end of the road. This seems like more than the emotional ramblings of a fighter after a bad loss. B.J. Penn threatened retirement several times before it stuck. Nick Diaz has retired and unretired plenty of times.

Retirement wouldn't be out of the question. He's 36 years old and has fought in 40 fights after a long career as an amateur and collegiate wrestler.

If he does decide to retire, don't expect him to play shuffleboard and take up gardening. He already works as a commentator for Fox's broadcasts. During the last season of "The Ultimate Fighter," he proved to be a capable coach. Retirement would not mean Sonnen was done with MMA.

Sonnen talked his way into a title shot with Jones just months after he dropped a title shot to Anderson Silva at middleweight. Deserved or not, Sonnen has had several chances to win the UFC belt, and he hasn't won any of them. Not many fighters get more chances than he has. If the belt is the only thing that's important, why not retire?

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/chael-sonnen-hang-good-ufc-159-loss-jon-051117400.html

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How a GOP Focus on Minorities Could Pay Off

IN THE NEWS: Karzai ?grateful? for CIA funds, WH silent ? Identity of mysterious ?Misha? revealed ? Joe Kennedy inspired NBA player to come out ? Previewing Sanford-Colbert Busch debate ? House Dems link climate change to ?transactional sex? ... Correspondents' Dinner galleries

THE TAKE

How a GOP Focus on Minorities Could Pay Off

It may seem contrarian, but Republicans could be well-served by focusing on winning over African-Americans with an aspirational agenda that includes education reform, economic growth and faith-based initiatives.?

In fact, a new Associated Press analysis, which reports record-high turnout among blacks along with lagging white turnout in the 2012 presidential election, underlines the point.

The study suggests that the historic nature of President Obama?s candidacy raised African-American turnout to historic levels that aren?t likely to be replicated.?If a future Republican nominee got merely 10 percent of the black vote, with lower turnout levels, swing states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia and perhaps even Pennsylvania could flip.?A more relatable nominee may also increase turnout among working-class whites.

Latinos, despite their growing numbers, still lag behind in turnout, and immigration reform is one way to focus on that piece of the puzzle.?But policy items like education reform, which may appeal to a broader population of minority voters, could be a productive ticket for Republicans and should not be ignored.

Josh Kraushaar
jkraushaar@nationaljournal.com

TOP NEWS

KARZAI: AFGHAN GOVERNMENT ?VERY GRATEFUL? FOR CIA FUNDS. Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed a report by The New York Times that the United States has been making monthly payments to the Afghan National Security Council for the past decade, the Associated Press reports. Karzai said that the monthly sums were "a small amount," and have been "very useful, and we are grateful for it." The CIA, which has reportedly provided tens of millions of dollars in payments to the Afghan council, declined to comment on the report. Read more

• @ZekeJMiller: Q: ?Was the president aware of the payments [to Karzai]?? Carney: ?You are making an assertion about something I have no comment on.?
  

?MISHA?: I HAD NO ROLE IN BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING. The mysterious ?Misha? who reportedly helped to radicalize Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is Mikhail Allakhverdov, The New York Review of Books? Christian Caryl reports. ?I wasn?t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,? Allakhverdov said. ?I?ve been cooperating entirely with the FBI. I gave them my computer and my phone and everything I wanted to show I haven?t done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me. And the agents who talked told me they are about to close my case.? Read more

GARY PETERS TO ANNOUNCE SENATE BID. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., will announce this week that he will run to replace retiring Sen. Carl Levin, sources tell The Hotline, giving Democrats another top recruit in a state critical to their hopes of keeping the Senate next year. Peters, a three-term House member from the Detroit suburbs, will be the first major-party candidate to jump in the race. And he's likely to have the Democratic primary to himself. Republicans have yet to settle on a candidate of their own. Reps. Mike Rogers and Justin Amash are both considering a bid. Read more

NBA?S COLLINS INSPIRED BY JOE KENNEDY TO COME OUT. National Basketball Association player Jason Collins, who came out as gay in a Sports Illustrated story published Monday, was influenced by the decision of his former college roommate, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., to march in Boston?s Gay Pride parade last year, The Washington Post reports. ?I?m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy. I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn?t even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator,? Collins wrote. The White House commended Collins?s decision today. Read more

• As only he could, FiveThirtyEight?s Nate Silver breaks down Collins?s chances of signing with another team.

FIVE THINGS TO WATCH AT SANFORD-COLBERT BUSCH DEBATE. The only debate in the special congressional race between Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, and Democratic candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch is Monday night at 7 p.m., and The Washington Post?s Sean Sullivan has five things to watch out for, including whether Sanford can shift the momentum and how Colbert Busch will perform under the spotlight. Read more

MORE GROUPS PLOT TO DODGE SEQUESTER CUTS. Now, with two sequester adjustments?the FAA and meat inspectors?on the books, other special-interest groups, unions, and lobbyists are planning to rev up their efforts to undo the cuts bit by bit or, in this case, by a few billion dollars here or there. The actions of the FAA in the past week, alongside airline groups and unions, offer a playbook for others to use as they too seek exemptions, National Journal?s Nancy Cook reports.?Read more

OBAMA AT WHCD: ?WE CAN DO BETTER.? President Obama closed his remarks at the White House Correspondents? Dinner not with humor but with ?a 607-word morality bomb,? National Journal?s Ron Fournier writes. ?If we?re only focused on profits or ratings or polls,? the president noted, ?then we?re contributing to the cynicism that so many people feel right now.? The remarks, which received less attention than the evening?s jokes, ?may stand as one of the best rhetorical moments of Obama?s presidency, a clearheaded indictment of four national institutions (the media, the entertainment industry, big business, and the political system), coupled by a prescription for revival,? Fournier writes. Read more

O?CONNOR HAS MISGIVINGS ABOUT BUSH V. GORE. During a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O?Connor expressed reservations over the Court accepting Bush v. Gore in 2000. "It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue. Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, good-bye,'" O?Connor told the board. ?It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.? Read more

HOUSE DEMOCRATS LINK CLIMATE CHANGE TO ?TRANSACTIONAL SEX,? DISEASE. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., along with 11 Democratic cosponsors, introduced a resolution recently highlighting the particular dangers of climate change for women and asserting support for the plight of female farmers. According to the resolution, women who are ?food-insecure,? and ?with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health.? Read more

TOMORROW

CONSUMER-CONFIDENCE NUMBERS OUT. The monthly gauge of consumer sentiment is due out tomorrow, and the numbers from the Conference Board are expected to show a slight rise from March?from 59.7 to 62.0, according to The Wall Street Journal. Read more

KERRY TO HOST MEETING WITH JORDANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry will hold a bilateral meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh at the State Department. Closed press. He will also hold a bilateral meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, also at the State Department.

QUOTABLE?

?My wife, my family, I got one of the biggest liberal families in the world, but I had more money when Bush and Reagan was president. I shouldn?t have said that, my wife is going to kill me for that.? ? Former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson on Obama. (National Review)

BEDTIME READING

FROM DRUG-WAR INFORMANT TO FUGITIVE. ?On the run from his native country and abandoned by his adopted home,? Luis Octavio L?pez Vega, 64, lives in intentional obscurity, his former face vanished with a face-lift over a decade ago, writes Ginger Thompson for The New York Times. But what separates L?pez from numerous other immigrants living unregistered in the western United States is that L?pez is hiding from the authorities with whom he once worked closely. L?pez was a senior adviser to Mexico?s drug czar of the 1990s, Jes?s Guti?rrez Rebollo, while also working as a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant. When Rebollo was arrested in 1997 in what was considered the biggest drug-trafficking case in Mexican history, the DEA secretly helped L?pez and his family escape across the border in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation. Then the agency severed its ties. L?pez has been a fugitive ever since and the DEA denies any knowledge of his whereabouts. Read more

PROFILE AT A GLANCE: ANTHONY FOXX

• Why he is in the news: President Obama nominated him to serve as Transportation secretary (The New York Times)
• Current job: Mayor of Charlotte, N.C.
• Born: April 30, 1971 (Age 41)
• Education: B.A. in history, Davidson College; J.D., New York University (City of Charlotte)
• Married to: wife Samara; two children

Career Highlights

• Led bid and chaired host committee for the 2012 Democratic National Convention
• Led city?s economic turnaround, adding 13,000 jobs (The New York Times)
• Working to expand Charlotte Douglas International Airport (Charlotte Observer)
• Spearheading expansion of city?s light-rail system

Of Interest

• First black student body president at Davidson College
• At 38, was youngest-ever mayor of Charlotte
• Announced in early April that he would not seek reelection, citing family considerations (release)
• Considered a rising star in Democratic Party (National Journal)

TODAY?S PHOTO GALLERY

SARAH PALIN HATED NERD PROM, BUT THESE PEOPLE DIDN?T. The Washington Post photographers blanketed the White House Correspondents? Association Dinner, from the red carpet, to the dinner itself, to the boozy after-parties. Because what other red carpet would feature both George Stephanopoulos and the Duck Dynasty cast; what other dinner party would feature New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg seated next to Barbra Streisand; and what other event?s after-party would feature a hug between Jon Bon Jovi and Geraldo Rivera?

?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-focus-minorities-could-pay-off-160516222.html

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Verizon Galaxy S4 preorders begin tomorrow starting at $199.99 [updated]

By Karolos Grohmann DORTMUND, Germany, April 24 (Reuters) - Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho could not understand how his well-drilled side let Robert Lewandowski score four goals in Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 win on Wednesday but vowed that his team could still reach the Champions League final. The nine-times European champions have a huge task on their hands in Tuesday's home second leg after Mourinho acknowledged they had been outplayed in the semi-final first leg in Germany. "I saw a team that was better than the other one, mentally and physically. The better team won today. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verizon-galaxy-s4-preorders-begin-tomorrow-starting-199-155025658.html

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