Dartmouth researchers explore how the brain perceives direction and location

Public release date: 19-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Amy Olson
amy.d.olson@dartmouth.edu
603-646-3274
Dartmouth College

The Who asked "who are you?" but Dartmouth neurobiologist Jeffrey Taube asks "where are you?" and "where are you going?" Taube is not asking philosophical or theological questions. Rather, he is investigating nerve cells in the brain that function in establishing one's location and direction.

Taube, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, is using microelectrodes to record the activity of cells in a rat's brain that make possible spatial navigationhow the rat gets from one place to anotherfrom "here" to "there." But before embarking to go "there," you must first define "here."

Survival Value

"Knowing what direction you are facing, where you are, and how to navigate are really fundamental to your survival," says Taube. "For any animal that is preyed upon, you'd better know where your hole in the ground is and how you are going to get there quickly. And you also need to know direction and location to find food resources, water resources, and the like."

Not only is this information fundamental to your survival, but knowing your spatial orientation at a given moment is important in other ways, as well. Taube points out that it is a sense or skill that you tend to take for granted, which you subconsciously keep track of. "It only comes to your attention when something goes wrong, like when you look for your car at the end of the day and you can't find it in the parking lot," says Taube.

Perhaps this is a momentary lapse, a minor navigational error, but it might also be the result of brain damage due to trauma or a stroke, or it might even be attributable to the onset of a disease such as Alzheimer's. Understanding the process of spatial navigation and knowing its relevant areas in the brain may be crucial to dealing with such situations.

The Cells Themselves

One critical component involved in this process is the set of neurons called "head direction cells." These cells act like a compass based on the direction your head is facing. They are located in the thalamus, a structure that sits on top of the brainstem, near the center of the brain.

He is also studying neurons he calls "place cells." These cells work to establish your location relative to some landmarks or cues in the environment. The place cells are found in the hippocampus, part of the brain's temporal lobe. They fire based not on the direction you are facing, but on where you are located.

Studies were conducted using implanted microelectrodes that enabled the monitoring of electrical activity as these different cell types fired.

Taube explains that the two populationsthe head direction cells and the place cellstalk to one another. "They put that information together to give you an overall sense of 'here,' location wise and direction wise," he says. "That is the first ingredient for being able to ask the question, how am I going to get to 'point B' if I am at 'point A.' It is the starting point on the cognitive map."

The Latest Research

Taube and Stephane Valerio, his postdoctoral associate for the last four years, have just published a paper in the journal Nature Neuroscience, highlighting the head direction cells. Valerio has since returned to the Universit Bordeaux in France.

The studies described in Nature Neuroscience discuss the responses of the spatial navigation system when an animal makes an error and arrives at a destination other than the one targeted its home refuge, in this case. The authors describe two error-correction processes that may be called into playresetting and remappingdifferentiating them based on the size of error the animal makes when performing the task.

When the animal makes a small error and misses the target by a little, the cells will reset to their original setting, fixing on landmarks it can identify in its landscape. "We concluded that this was an active behavioral correction process, an adjustment in performance," Taube says. However, if the animal becomes disoriented and makes a large error in its quest for home, it will construct an entirely new cognitive map with a permanent shift in the directional firing pattern of the head direction cells." This is the "remapping."

Taube acknowledges that others have talked about remapping and resetting, but they have always regarded them as if they were the same process. "What we are trying to argue in this paper is that they are really two different, separate brain processes, and we demonstrated it empirically," he says. "To continue to study spatial navigation, in particular how you correct for errors, you have to distinguish between these two qualitatively different responses."

Taube says other investigators will use this distinction as a basis for further studies, particularly in understanding how people correct their orientation when making navigational errors.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 19-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Amy Olson
amy.d.olson@dartmouth.edu
603-646-3274
Dartmouth College

The Who asked "who are you?" but Dartmouth neurobiologist Jeffrey Taube asks "where are you?" and "where are you going?" Taube is not asking philosophical or theological questions. Rather, he is investigating nerve cells in the brain that function in establishing one's location and direction.

Taube, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, is using microelectrodes to record the activity of cells in a rat's brain that make possible spatial navigationhow the rat gets from one place to anotherfrom "here" to "there." But before embarking to go "there," you must first define "here."

Survival Value

"Knowing what direction you are facing, where you are, and how to navigate are really fundamental to your survival," says Taube. "For any animal that is preyed upon, you'd better know where your hole in the ground is and how you are going to get there quickly. And you also need to know direction and location to find food resources, water resources, and the like."

Not only is this information fundamental to your survival, but knowing your spatial orientation at a given moment is important in other ways, as well. Taube points out that it is a sense or skill that you tend to take for granted, which you subconsciously keep track of. "It only comes to your attention when something goes wrong, like when you look for your car at the end of the day and you can't find it in the parking lot," says Taube.

Perhaps this is a momentary lapse, a minor navigational error, but it might also be the result of brain damage due to trauma or a stroke, or it might even be attributable to the onset of a disease such as Alzheimer's. Understanding the process of spatial navigation and knowing its relevant areas in the brain may be crucial to dealing with such situations.

The Cells Themselves

One critical component involved in this process is the set of neurons called "head direction cells." These cells act like a compass based on the direction your head is facing. They are located in the thalamus, a structure that sits on top of the brainstem, near the center of the brain.

He is also studying neurons he calls "place cells." These cells work to establish your location relative to some landmarks or cues in the environment. The place cells are found in the hippocampus, part of the brain's temporal lobe. They fire based not on the direction you are facing, but on where you are located.

Studies were conducted using implanted microelectrodes that enabled the monitoring of electrical activity as these different cell types fired.

Taube explains that the two populationsthe head direction cells and the place cellstalk to one another. "They put that information together to give you an overall sense of 'here,' location wise and direction wise," he says. "That is the first ingredient for being able to ask the question, how am I going to get to 'point B' if I am at 'point A.' It is the starting point on the cognitive map."

The Latest Research

Taube and Stephane Valerio, his postdoctoral associate for the last four years, have just published a paper in the journal Nature Neuroscience, highlighting the head direction cells. Valerio has since returned to the Universit Bordeaux in France.

The studies described in Nature Neuroscience discuss the responses of the spatial navigation system when an animal makes an error and arrives at a destination other than the one targeted its home refuge, in this case. The authors describe two error-correction processes that may be called into playresetting and remappingdifferentiating them based on the size of error the animal makes when performing the task.

When the animal makes a small error and misses the target by a little, the cells will reset to their original setting, fixing on landmarks it can identify in its landscape. "We concluded that this was an active behavioral correction process, an adjustment in performance," Taube says. However, if the animal becomes disoriented and makes a large error in its quest for home, it will construct an entirely new cognitive map with a permanent shift in the directional firing pattern of the head direction cells." This is the "remapping."

Taube acknowledges that others have talked about remapping and resetting, but they have always regarded them as if they were the same process. "What we are trying to argue in this paper is that they are really two different, separate brain processes, and we demonstrated it empirically," he says. "To continue to study spatial navigation, in particular how you correct for errors, you have to distinguish between these two qualitatively different responses."

Taube says other investigators will use this distinction as a basis for further studies, particularly in understanding how people correct their orientation when making navigational errors.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/dc-dre101912.php

nick lachey chevy volt christina hendricks lifelock camp david hawaii weather the jerk

A look at telecom-industry subscriber reports

Telecommunications companies have begun releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. Here is a summary of reports for selected telecommunications companies and what they reveal about their own and the industry's prospects.

? Thursday: Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireless division added a net 1.5 million devices to contract-based plans in the third quarter, more than it has in many years. Analysts were expecting it to add about 900,000. Including non-contract devices, overall additions were the strongest in four years. Verizon Wireless got a boost from its new Share Everything plan, which made it cheaper for households to add wireless service to tablets and laptops.

The launch of the iPhone 5 at the end of the quarter also helped Verizon's numbers. It activated 650,000 units of the new model in just over a week. It activated 3.1 million iPhones of all kinds in the quarter, accounting for 46 percent of its total smartphone activations.

Coming up:

? Wednesday: AT&T Inc.

? Thursday: Sprint Nextel Corp.

? Oct. 30: MetroPCS Communications Inc.

? Nov. 7: Leap Wireless International Inc.

? Nov. 8: T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG; Windstream Corp.

Note: T-Mobile and MetroPCS have reached a deal to combine their cellphone businesses, but they will report separately until the deal is completed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-telecom-industry-subscriber-reports-230208847.html

the incredibles jon bon jovi dead new jersey plane crash kobe bryant wife bonjovi dead sam shepard sam shepard

Under fire over Congo rebels, Rwanda wins Security Council seat

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Rwanda won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, despite accusations by a U.N. panel that Rwanda's defense minister commands a rebellion in Democratic Republic of Congo, and warned countries against cutting off aid over the charges.

Rwanda was unopposed in its bid for the African seat on the council that South Africa will vacate at the end of December, but still needed approval from two-thirds of the U.N. General Assembly members present to secure the two-year term. It won 148 votes in the 193-nation assembly.

Argentina was also elected to the council unopposed, winning 182 votes. Australia won a seat with 140 votes, Luxembourg with 131 votes and South Korea with 149. Cambodia, Bhutan and Finland failed to secure two-year seats on the council.

There are five veto-holding permanent members of the council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - and 10 temporary members without veto power. Thursday's election was for the term from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014.

Rwanda's government said that it would work with all members of the council to ensure "it is responsive and reflective of the views and aspirations of the developing world."

"Rwanda's troubling and tragic past allows it to bring to the UNSC a unique perspective on matters of war and peace," it posted on a Twitter account created for its Security Council term (@RwandaUNSC).

Before the vote, the Congolese delegation told the General Assembly it objected to Rwanda joining the Security Council, accusing its neighbor of harboring "war criminals operating in the eastern part of the DRC and who are being sought by international justice."

A confidential U.N. report, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, cast a shadow over Rwanda's election to the United Nations' 15-member power center - which has the ability to impose sanctions and authorize military interventions.

The Security Council's "Group of Experts" said that Rwanda and Uganda - despite their strong denials - continued to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in the east of the country.

RWANDA WARNS AGAINST CUTTING OFF AID

Rwandan President Paul Kagame posted a declaration on Twitter welcoming the result: "No matter what haters say ... justice&truth will prevail!!! Sometimes it just requires a bit of good fight for all that...!!!"

In an interview with Reuters, Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo warned countries against cutting off aid to Rwanda because of the U.N. report.

"It would be the biggest mistake that any donor country could make for Rwanda," Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told Reuters at the United Nations, shortly after Rwanda won a seat on the U.N. Security Council. "Rwanda is deserving of aid."

The United States, Sweden and the Netherlands have all suspended some aid to Rwanda, which relies on donors for about 40 percent of its budget. Last month the European Union froze further budgetary support to Rwanda.

However, Britain unblocked part of its cash in September, praising Rwanda for constructively pursuing peace. Mushikiwabo also rejected Congo's calls for sanctions against individuals named in the U.N. experts report, a 44-page document that she described as untrue and highly problematic.

She also sought to assure Congo that Rwanda would be a responsible council member and add value to it.

Philippe Bolopion of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch criticized the inclusion of Rwanda on the Security Council

"After blatantly violating the Security Council's arms embargo and undermining the work of the U.N. by propping up the abusive M23 rebels, Rwanda is rewarded with a seat at the table," he said.

"Kigali is now in a position to try to shield its own officials implicated in abuses from U.N. sanctions, which is a flagrant conflict of interest," Bolopion said in a statement. "Other Security Council members now have an even greater responsibility to hold Rwanda to account."

Britain's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Philip Parham put a more positive spin on Rwanda's election, saying: "We look forward to working with them on issues of international peace and security including the efforts to try to end the cycle of violence in the eastern DRC."

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice issued a brief statement congratulating the incoming council members but did not mention Congo. The U.S. State Department has declined to comment on the U.N. experts' report, which has not been officially released.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr described Australia's election as a "big juicy, decisive win" that endorsed the country as a good global citizen.

"For us as a middle power a long way from the centers of clout in the world, the centers of power in the world, this is a lovely moment," Carr told reporters after the vote.

South Africa, Colombia, Germany, India and Portugal are leaving the Security Council in December. Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Togo and Morocco will remain until the end of 2013.

The last time Rwanda was on the council was in 1994-95. That coincided with a genocide in which 800,000 people were killed when Rwanda's Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing spree, massacring Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The Congolese government on Wednesday demanded targeted sanctions against Rwandan and Ugandan officials named in the U.N. experts report.

According to the U.N. experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo, Rwandan Defense Minister General James Kabarebe was ultimately commanding the rebellion and both Rwanda and Uganda were providing weapons, troops and military and political aid to the insurgency.

(Additional reporting by Jenny Clover in Kigali and Yara Bayoumy in Nairobi; Editing by Paul Simao and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/under-fire-over-congo-rebels-rwanda-wins-security-003532349.html

beef o bradys bowl the hobbit the hobbit an unexpected journey latkes how to make it in america how to make it in america schweddy balls

Photos to be shot 'round the world in same split second

1 day

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

Imagine millions of people taking a photo all around the world at exactly the same second. That's what'll happen if enough people download a new free app?? and then remember to use it when the moment arrives.

The app, which will be available for both iPhone and Android,?is called Worldsecond. It's funded by Montblanc, makers of fine watches and pens.?The system is pretty straightforward: You download the app and you wait for the countdown. When it reaches zero, the virtual?shutter clicks and?your image is uploaded to the Worldsecond site, where you'll be able to browse through other pictures taken at that exact moment.

The?idea isn't entirely new; there have been apps and services that let you trade photos with people snapping one at the same time but elsewhere. But carrying it out on this scale certainly hasn't been done before.

Though everyone who gets the app?will no doubt gather, like a virtual Hands Across America, for that first Kodak?moment, there will in fact be others. The Worldsecond?website says that a total of 60 photo opps?will happen before the end of the year, and there are even prizes: one for the best single image, and one for the most creative gallery of images.

You can sign up to be notified when the app goes live, which should be soon.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/photos-be-shot-round-world-same-split-second-1C6554819

the weeknd the weeknd payroll tax payroll tax aisha khan alanis morissette adam lambert

Directing change: How do they do it?

Friday, October 19, 2012

In the long run, all organisms must adapt to survive as their surroundings do not remain constant for ever. The major difficulty with understanding adaption relates to the length of time required for experiments: evolution is by its very nature a gradual process. Fortunately, however, recent breakthroughs in experimental evolution using model organisms are providing important insights into the process. The nature of the underlying genetic changes has generally remained elusive but recent work at the Institute of Population Genetics of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna is helping to show us how evolution may operate.

To discover what happens when an organism ? in this case the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster ? is confronted with new conditions for a prolonged period of time, terWengel and colleagues Martin Kapun and Viola Nolte subjected flies to an unfamiliar temperature regime, in which 12-hour days at 28oC alternated with 12-hour nights at 18oC. Throughout the experiment, the scientists monitored the changes to the flies' DNA by sequencing pools of female flies taken after certain numbers of generations. The complicated study was made possible by developments in sequencing technology that enable the rapid sequencing of entire genomes and by new and sophisticated software algorithms that permit the frequency of gene variants (alleles or polymorphisms) to be directly compared across different populations.

At the start of the experiment, the fly genomes contained sufficient polymorphisms to enable natural selection to act on the population. The researchers were able to confirm that the genetic changes over time were not random but presumably driven by a selective force: the X chromosome proved to be more stable than chromosome III, for example, despite its far smaller population size (each pair of flies carries a total of four copies of chromosome III but only a single X chromosome). They also showed that genetic changes were widespread and rapid: within a mere 15 generations, the frequencies of variants at nearly 5000 positions in the genome had altered significantly more than expected.

Surprisingly, however, not all changes took place at the same rate. The scientists found that while the frequencies of variants of some genes continued to rise throughout the entire course of the study (37 generations), the proportions of alleles of other genes rose rapidly at the start of the experiment but reached a plateau after about 15 generations. The reasons for this levelling out are still unclear but may relate to the fluctuating temperatures employed in the work, which could result in different selective advantages being conferred by several different alleles of a particular gene.

As Schl?tterer puts it, "we expected the flies to respond genetically to the changes in their environment. But we did not expect the genetic adaptations to group so neatly into two classes, with so little overlap between them. It will be intriguing to try to find out whether the two categories of gene affect distinct groups of traits."

###

University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna: http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at

Thanks to University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna 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.

This press release has been viewed 11 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124652/Directing_change__How_do_they_do_it_

godaddy monday night football monday night football linkedin linkedin Samsung Galaxy S3 usps

Syria rebels carry fury born of marginalization

Zain Karam / Reuters

Free Syrian Army fighters hold their weapons as they look at a jet in the sky above Aleppo's Bustan al-Basha district on Wednesday.

By The Associated Press

ALEPPO, Syria -?Most of the rebels fighting government forces in the city of Aleppo fit a specific mold: They're poor, religiously conservative and usually come from the underdeveloped countryside nearby.?

They bring to the battle their fury over years of economic marginalization, fired by a pious fervor, and they say their fight in the civil war is not only against President Bashar Assad but also the elite merchants and industrialists who dominate the city and have stuck by the regime. The rebels regard this support for the government to be an act of betrayal.

The blend of poverty, religious piety and anger could define the future of Aleppo, and perhaps the rest of Syria, if the rebels take over the country's largest city, which is also its economic engine. They may be tempted to push their own version of Islam, which is more fundamentalist than what is found in the city. Their bitterness at the business class may prompt them to seek ways of redistributing the wealth.?

---

"Those who have money in Aleppo only worry about their wealth and interests when we have long lived in poverty," said Osama Abu Mohammed, a rebel commander who was a car mechanic in the nearby town of Beyanon before he joined the fight.?

Syrian helicopter reportedly downed by rebels

"They have been breast-fed cowardice and their hearts are filled with fear. With their money, we could buy weapons that enable us to liberate the entire city in a week," he said.?

Rebels pelted
With neither side able to decide the battle after three months of fighting and with winter fast approaching, however, the rebels from the countryside in Aleppo province risk losing the popular good will they have enjoyed from their fellow impoverished Sunnis in the city.?

Fabio Bucciarelli / AFP - Getty Images

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

On Saturday, civilians pelted a group of rebels with broken glass as they headed to the front line because they feel the fighters' presence brings the regime's destruction down on them, according to an Associated Press photographer and cameraman who witnessed the incident.?

"The city of Aleppo has not really joined the revolution," acknowledged one 32-year-old fighter who goes by the name of Abu Ahmed and is from the nearby town of al-Bab. "All of us are from rural Aleppo."?

Like some other rebels, he spoke on condition he be identified only with that nickname ? by which he is widely known among his comrades ? fearing that use of his real name could bring retaliation on his family.?

Asmaa Waguih / Reuters

A man runs past a damaged bus at the front line between the Free Syrian Army and the pro-government forces in Aleppo on Wednesday.

The battle for Aleppo is a stark illustration of how Syria's conflict, now in its 19th month, is as much a revolt of the underclass as a rebellion against the regime's authoritarian grip.?

The countryside surrounding Aleppo is dotted with small farming towns where the population is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, with a social fabric built around strong family and clan ties, primarily guided by local customs and a conservative brand of Islam.?

NATO leaders discuss the volatile situation along the Turkish-Syrian border following last week's shelling of a village by forces loyal to Syria's government. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

In contrast, Aleppo's estimated 3 million residents are a mix of Syria's main ethnic and religious groups ? Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, Turkomen and Armenians ? with a relatively liberal lifestyle.?

The northern city is home to a powerful community of factory owners, manufacturers and merchants, mainly from prominent Sunni families, who were largely allowed to operate without government interference while the Assad family's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, kept its grip on political power.?

The battle for Aleppo: My 18 days with the Syrian rebels

The flashpoints of the uprising have been the poorest parts of the country.?

It began in March 2011 in the impoverished southern province of Daraa. A drought hitting parts of the country displaced tens of thousands of people from farming areas, putting more pressure on the economy. The city of Homs, which has been a main center of the rebellion, is known as "the mother of the poor" because the cost of living is lower and its population generally less well off. When Damascus saw its worst fighting yet in July, it was largely in the capital's poorer districts that the rebels operated.?

Gap between rich and poor
The gap between rich and poor across Syria grew in the more than a decade of free market economic policies initiated by the late Hafez Assad and accelerated by his son, Bashar, when he took power in 2000.?

Focused on the service sector, the new policy benefited a tiny segment of the country's 22 million people, particularly a clique of regime-linked businessmen and the mostly Sunni merchant class in Aleppo and Damascus, who have largely stuck by Assad. But the policies also triggered steep price increases that reduced many Syrians to poverty, particularly among the country's broader Sunni majority.?

NBC News

People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

For much of the uprising, Aleppo largely remained on the regime's side, with little rebel activity. The city's businessmen could use their influence, threats and payoffs to make sure of that ? with tens of thousands on their payrolls and the countryside dependent on them.?
What few anti-Assad demonstrations that did take place early on came from the dormitories of the University of Aleppo, home to students from rural parts of the province.?

Then the rebels from the countryside launched their surprise attack on the city in July. They moved into its impoverished, mainly Sunni districts, where residents are mostly of rural origin. They have since used those areas as their base from which to wage their bid to take over the city. To this day, all of Aleppo's rebel-held areas are poor, while the city's affluent parts remain under government control, with life there reportedly continuing much as it had before.?

Once inside the city, the ranks of the rebels swelled with Aleppo volunteers bitter over their poverty.?
Mohammed Al-Ali, 25, is one of them.?

Syrian rebels use catapult to launch homemade bomb

Just back from a two-day stint on the front lines in Aleppo ? "the enemy was no more than 15 meters away from our position," he said ? Al-Ali is fighting as much for social justice as for freedom.?

In a blue tracksuit and tennis shoes, he spoke of a father with a meager pension of $200 and a family so poor he had to drop out of school and take various jobs in shops to make ends meet as prices skyrocketed across Syria in the past decade.?

"We sold everything in the house that we did not absolutely need," Al-Ali said.?

Besides being a fighter, he earns a monthly wage of $80 as a helper in a field hospital.?

"I am hoping that when this is over, I will go to university and study Arabic literature. This is my dream," he said.?

Fundamentalist outlook
The rural fighters also bring with them their more fundamentalist religious outlook, which the trauma of war has only deepened. Most rebels in Aleppo wear beards, a hallmark of piety, and their conversation is filled with verses from the Quran or sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. They frame the fight in a religious context and speak of martyrdom as something they wish for.?

They often trade stories of miracles showing God's support for them.?

Andrea Mitchell talks to Ambassador Dennis Ross about the escalating tensions between Syria and Turkey, and what both presidential candidates are saying they'll do about the situation.

Waiting at a field hospital as one of his fighters was treated for shrapnel wounds, a rebel commander who goes by the nickname of Abu Ekrimah recounted one such tale to a comrade.?

The burly, bearded commander with piercing hazel eyes ? his vest full of ammunition magazines and an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder ? told how a long-bearded man with a reputation for piety once gave his brigade's fighters some homemade grenades. He instructed them to ritually wash themselves as if for prayers and then throw them while shouting, "God is great!"?

Civilians bear the brunt of Aleppo fighting

"We followed his instructions, and we could see that when we tossed them, they changed course in midair to score direct hits against the enemy," Abu Ekrimah said.?

"God is great!" his comrade exclaimed at hearing the story.?

For some of the Aleppo rebels, the war against the regime has inspired a turning point in their personal journey of faith.?

Who are the Syrian rebels?

The rebel Abu Ahmed has images stored on his mobile phone of party dresses he once designed as a tailor working in Egypt, Lebanon and Aleppo: low-cut, strapless, see-through in parts. He says designing such revealing dresses was part of a past he has now put behind him.?

He also has a picture of himself with a bruised forehead and a deep cut under his left eye ? what he said was the result of a beating from regime loyalists while taking part in a street protest in May 2011. He now is an ambulance driver for the rebels, who revere him for his seeming fearlessness in battle zones.

"Initially, I wanted it to be a peaceful revolution against the regime, but now it is a war fought in defense of our faith," according to the bearded Abu Ahmed.?

It is impossible to gauge the degree of support enjoyed by the rebels in the parts of Aleppo they control. The rebels acknowledge that many residents are fed up with the hardships they endure.?

Regime forces punish the city daily with artillery and airstrikes. Civilians are killed and wounded while standing on bread lines, walking the streets or watching TV at home. Snipers target civilians in areas where rebels have positions. The staff at the rebels' field hospital said 80 percent of the 100-120 cases they treat daily are civilians.?

Even in rural Aleppo, there is a degree of disgruntlement over the impact of the fighting on the local economy. State-supported farmers' associations that once sold fuel, seeds and fertilizers no longer do so. Black market prices for the items are so high it's not worth planting some crops when the season starts in December.?

The fighting also almost completely shut down markets that traditionally bought their produce of wheat, barley, chickpeas and olives.?

"Supplies were available for the last farming season, but this season will be a very difficult one," said Mazen Aleto, a local council member in Tel Rifaat, a village north of Aleppo. "There may not be a harvest this time."?

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

?

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/18/14529598-revolt-of-the-underclass-syria-rebels-carry-fury-born-of-marginalization?lite

chris paul gift card exchange tj holmes waste management two fat ladies dennys glen davis

'The Iran Job' Mixes Basketball & Politics Into The Foundation For A Bridge To Iran

With the drumbeat of war coursing through American politics once again, a curious little documentary titled "The Iran Job" appears to provide a would-be path toward diplomacy.

By following Kevin Sheppard, an American basketball player, to Iran's Super League, we are exposed not only to Sheppard's own inimitable curiosity but also to an Iranian public that is bursting with love for America. Sheppard is black and extremely tall, two features which prompt endearingly earnest reactions from the locals ("I love black people!" shouts one bazaar shop owner).

But the film is more than a string of cute cross-cultural anecdotes. The documentary was shot in 2009, the year President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected amid mass suspicions of fraud. Protests spread throughout the country and were met with brutal force, particularly in Tehran. Sheppard, his now-close Iranian friends (including Elaheh, a charming woman who at one point seems to fall for the disarming basketballer) and the theater audience witness the birth of the Green Movement.

As the promise of the movie is a hopeful one, of reconciliation and human interconnectivity, it's a jarring context to relive the despairing crackdown on Iran's young, freedom-hungry citizens. But for all of the disheartening scenes -- including the murder of Neda Agha Soltan -- a certain sense of possibility remains with the audience member, as though no matter how horrible things might be, they needn't stay that way.

If the idea of a basketball movie offering a window into better Iran-U.S. relations seems too heavy, rest assured of two facts: The film is full of hilarious moments, and stranger things have happened (see: Ping Pong diplomacy).

HuffPost Entertainment spoke with husband-and-wife director-and-producer team of Till Schauder and Sara Nodjoumi about the film and its grander implications. Due to overwhelming demand and sold-out screenings, "The Iran Job" has been granted a second week run at Manhattan's IFC Center. Information on how you can support the movie's bid for a wider release is available at the conclusion of the following interview.

Did you know as soon as the Green Revolution started rumbling that you would include it in the film?
Schauder: Pretty much, it was a question of how we can weave it in. But when something that momentous happens you can't ignore it. It was more a question of how can we organically weave it in without having it take over the whole story.

How soon into the time that you got to Iran did you realize that the Green Movement was such a force?
Schauder: Oh when I first started I had no idea. I think nobody did, because I remember quite clearly having a conversation with the girls and Kevin about the system. And I remember that one of the girls pretty much predicted exactly what would happen. She said there would be an election, it will be rigged and nothing will change. She said that half-jokingly, and of course at that time no one could know that's exactly what would happen. People were conscious of the upcoming elections but I don't think anyone had any sort of anticipation as to what would happen. I think the whole atmosphere in the last month before the election was a surprise -- even to most Iranians.

When you came back to the States, was there anything about the way that Americans interpreted the events in Iran -- in a way that didn't match up to what you saw?
Schauder: One thing that struck me as odd was how different factions were trying to take advantage of what was going on, politically. People where pressuring the administration to take a stance very quickly. The other thing that struck me was how the Iranian, so-called "experts" who were interviewed on television. How little in-tune they were with what was actually going on with their countrymen on the ground. I was surprised at how some Iranians living in L.A. or on the West Coast or even here in New York would make judgments about what their countrymen should do, sitting smug in their apartments without having to go through it themselves.

And how long did you spend with Kevin before you decided he would be a good subject for your film?
Nodjoumi: [Laughing] I spent five minutes with him on Skype before Till decided to fly to meet him and start shooting.
Schauder: After those five minutes, we looked at each other and I decided to get a ticket and go there. And that's where this German passport came in very handy, because I could make that decision on the fly -- I didn't have to go through some lengthy process of getting even a tourist visa. You can just show up at the airport in Iran and get an express visa.

How long did you spend in his hometown before he flew to Iran?
Schauder: Actually I shot that out of sequence. There was no other way of doing it, because the way that the contracts work in Iran, it gives neither the player nor the team any lead time. In other words, Kevin gets a call and signs and is expected to be there 48 hours later. So what I did was to go to Iran and spend a lot of time with him there, very much regretting that I didn't get his departure from home. But then, via a stroke of luck, the team had a pretty extended break for Norooz [Persian New Year]. So during that break he went home, and I went with him. Then what happened is basically when he left after that break, the exact same emotions came up in him, [his girlfriend] and his family.

There seems to be a love interest between Kevin and one of the young women, especially about halfway through the film. Was this as apparent to you when you were putting the film together?
Schauder: There was definitely a little bit of flirtation, interest or temptation. Who wouldn't be, with a beautiful woman like that and an interesting man like that. What I found remarkable about it was that it never trespassed a certain boundary. Instead, if you will, they made love intellectually -- with an exchange of thoughts. It sort of reminded me of "Witness," when Harrison Ford goes into an Amish community and falls in love with a recently widowed Amish woman. It would be completely inappropriate for the two of them to have any romance, and that what makes the film interesting, because they really can't. In that film, they end up having the romance, but in our case they don't. And I think that's incredibly exciting to see, because you sort of want them to have it but you also don't, and they take it to a very deep place of friendship.

In a perfect world, what do you hope people take away from your film?
Nodjoumi: I think my takeaway is for people to just take a moment to learn about each other's complexities. This sort of whole, us-versus-them or black-white rhetoric that has been instilled in our politics? Luckily it's fading a little bit, but during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we really had no chance of understanding who we were going to bomb. I think if they do have a chance to understand a people of a country, at least there will be more of a conversation about what we will do rather than to just jump into war. And not just Iran -- Iran is our example, but really when it comes to any country or people, we should take a moment to understand them more before rushing to judgments.

Schauder: I think that during the Bush administration, after 9/11 was where this rhetoric was first introduced to us. I think that has deeper consequences than people actually realize. It's not like when Obama was voted in, the fear that was instilled in people would wash away. You still had fear of the other, of other religions, and in many cases it was more ingrained in people than they actually realized. It remains extremely important to demystify certain things. When you look at the way that people talk about Iran and our options vis-a-vis Iran, it is mostly dictated by fear. And the fear seems to be of information. One of the most striking things, when I went to Iran, was to find out just how much Iranians like us. If you take opinion polls there, you will find approval ratings in the 70 percent range. And so it's absolutely not understandable why these two countries shouldn't have really good relations -- not just normal, but very good relations. If you keep that sympathy away from the American public, while just feeding them the idea that these are just enraged Muslims that you can't reason with ? it's so far away from the average Iranian and yet it dictates the way a lot of Western audiences view Iran.

"The Iran Job" is currently raising funds through Kickstarter in an attempt to finance a wider release. Ticket and showtime information is available here. More information is available at the film's website and Facebook page.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/the-iran-job-documentary-movie_n_1974494.html

x factor x factor Kyna Treacy American Horror Story Bb&t Herman Melville Books Lane Goodwin