All Critics (53) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (0)
What ultimately is so compelling about 56 Up is the universality of the experiences. We were all once children. And we all will die. And in between, there is everything else.
We feel good, refreshed and depressed in watching these people get older, also embarrassed in moments and cautioned about the passage of time.
Apted, himself now in his early 70s, says he hopes to continue the series further. Long may it live.
Watching "56 Up" gives you the wonderful feeling of seeing a sociological experiment blossom into something novelistically rich and humane.
Time has been neither kind nor cruel to the 13 men and women profiled in "56 UP." It has just been time, which is what this groundbreaking series is about.
We are all older now, and this series proves it in a most deeply moving way.
We might say that '56 Up' serves much the same function as 'Amour,' but it responds to the inevitability of decline with compassion, not dread.
What started as a crafty way of looking at the U.K.'s rigid class structure has grown into a portrait of melancholy middle age, with its heartbreaks and minor-key triumphs.
Those British kids are now 56
Watching the eighth film is intriguing but, in a way, disappointing. At this point in the game, it feels as if all the characters have determined their lots in life and are simply plodding through their interviews.
Quite simply one of the great documentary projects in the history of cinema, an engrossing sociological experiment on film; and though this mostly mellow installment isn't as revelatory as some earlier ones, it's still a remarkable document.
... feels like a retrospective and summation of the whole series, with ample quotation from the previous films, an approach that makes it interesting even for viewers who haven't seen the previous installments.
A completely unique and remarkable documentary project.
Apted skillfully weaves old footage with the new, and we become poignantly aware of another factor shaping their lives (and our own): biology, as the we watch the once-cute kids grow gray and heavy.
Perhaps the boldest and probably longest running sociological experiment on film.
I think the best thing about this movie (and the entire series) is that it forces the viewer to think about their own lives. It's kind of an awakening experience.
Once again, Apted assembles a captivating documentary that's profoundly educational, essential viewing to aid the understanding of the human experience.
"56 Up" is well worth seeing.
56 Up is still moving and philosophic, though not as exciting as earlier episodes, which had more drama.
The running time is over two hours, but the lives here are richly revealed and vastly rewarding.
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Green tea extract interferes with the formation of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's diseasePublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Laura J. Williams laurajw@umich.edu 734-615-4862 University of Michigan
ANN ARBORResearchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.
The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
A paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explained how U-M Life Sciences Institute faculty member Mi Hee Lim and an interdisciplinary team of researchers used green tea extract to control the generation of metal-associated amyloid-? aggregates associated with Alzheimer's disease in the lab.
The specific molecule in green tea, ()-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, also known as EGCG, prevented aggregate formation and broke down existing aggregate structures in the proteins that contained metalsspecifically copper, iron and zinc.
"A lot of people are very excited about this molecule," said Lim, noting that the EGCG and other flavonoids in natural products have long been established as powerful antioxidants. "We used a multidisciplinary approach. This is the first example of structure-centric, multidisciplinary investigations by three principal investigators with three different areas of expertise."
The research team included chemists, biochemists and biophysicists.
While many researchers are investigating small molecules and metal-associated amyloids, most are looking from a limited perspective, said Lim, assistant professor of chemistry and research assistant professor at the Life Sciences Institute, where her lab is located and her research is conducted.
"But we believe you have to have a lot of approaches working together, because the brain is very complex," she said.
The PNAS paper was a starting point, Lim said, and her team's next step is to "tweak" the molecule and then test its ability to interfere with plaque formation in fruit flies.
"We want to modify them for the brain, specifically to interfere with the plaques associated with Alzheimer's," she said.
Lim plans to collaborate with Bing Ye, a neurobiologist in the LSI. Together, the researchers will test the new molecule's power to inhibit potential toxicity of aggregates containing proteins and metals in fruit flies.
###
Other authors of the paper, all from U-M, are: Sanghyun Lee and Jung-Suk Choi of the Life Sciences Institute; Alaina DeToma, Suk-Joon Hyung, Akiko Kochi and Brandon Ruotoloa of the Department of Chemistry; and Jeffrey Brender, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy and Subramanian Vivekanandan of the Department of Chemistry and Biophysics.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, American Heart Association, and a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation
Study: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/19/1220326110.abstract
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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.
Green tea extract interferes with the formation of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's diseasePublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Laura J. Williams laurajw@umich.edu 734-615-4862 University of Michigan
ANN ARBORResearchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.
The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
A paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explained how U-M Life Sciences Institute faculty member Mi Hee Lim and an interdisciplinary team of researchers used green tea extract to control the generation of metal-associated amyloid-? aggregates associated with Alzheimer's disease in the lab.
The specific molecule in green tea, ()-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, also known as EGCG, prevented aggregate formation and broke down existing aggregate structures in the proteins that contained metalsspecifically copper, iron and zinc.
"A lot of people are very excited about this molecule," said Lim, noting that the EGCG and other flavonoids in natural products have long been established as powerful antioxidants. "We used a multidisciplinary approach. This is the first example of structure-centric, multidisciplinary investigations by three principal investigators with three different areas of expertise."
The research team included chemists, biochemists and biophysicists.
While many researchers are investigating small molecules and metal-associated amyloids, most are looking from a limited perspective, said Lim, assistant professor of chemistry and research assistant professor at the Life Sciences Institute, where her lab is located and her research is conducted.
"But we believe you have to have a lot of approaches working together, because the brain is very complex," she said.
The PNAS paper was a starting point, Lim said, and her team's next step is to "tweak" the molecule and then test its ability to interfere with plaque formation in fruit flies.
"We want to modify them for the brain, specifically to interfere with the plaques associated with Alzheimer's," she said.
Lim plans to collaborate with Bing Ye, a neurobiologist in the LSI. Together, the researchers will test the new molecule's power to inhibit potential toxicity of aggregates containing proteins and metals in fruit flies.
###
Other authors of the paper, all from U-M, are: Sanghyun Lee and Jung-Suk Choi of the Life Sciences Institute; Alaina DeToma, Suk-Joon Hyung, Akiko Kochi and Brandon Ruotoloa of the Department of Chemistry; and Jeffrey Brender, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy and Subramanian Vivekanandan of the Department of Chemistry and Biophysics.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, American Heart Association, and a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation
Study: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/19/1220326110.abstract
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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.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Tue Mar 5, 2013 2:37pm EST
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The first of two comets heading toward the sun this year made its closest approach to Earth on Tuesday and will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere beginning on Thursday.
Skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere have been able to see Comet Pan-STARRS for weeks at twilight, even without binoculars or a telescope. The comet came about 100 million miles (161 million km) from Earth on Tuesday.
"As Comet Pan-STARRS was setting on the southwestern horizon, its nucleus was visible to the naked eye," photographer Michael White from Manawatu, New Zealand, wrote to accompany a stunning image of the comet posted on the SpaceWeather.com website.
The comet, officially known as Comet C/2011 L4, was discovered in June 2011 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, in Hawaii.
Comet Pan-STARRS is believed to be a first-time visitor to Earth after being gravitationally bumped out from the Oort Cloud, a repository of small icy bodies located beyond Pluto in the solar system's back yard.
Comets, which are comprised of minerals, rocks and ice, are believed to be remnants from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago.
As a comet approaches the sun, some of its ice vaporizes, creating an envelope of gas and dust, called a coma, around its body. The heating also generates two tails, each of which can be more than 1 million miles (1.6 million km) long.
One tail is comprised of dust and the other is made of molecules ionized by sunlight.
Comet Pan-STARRS currently is inside the orbit of Mercury and brightening as it heads toward the sun.
"Observers in the Southern Hemisphere say the comet can be seen with the naked eye even through city lights. Currently, it is about as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper. The comet could become even brighter when it moves into Northern Hemisphere skies in the second week of March," SpaceWeather.com reports.
Northern Hemisphere sky-watchers will get their chance to see the comet beginning on Thursday, though the best views may come later in the month.
"To see it, you will need an unobstructed, cloudless view of the western horizon. It is best to pick a dark spot, away from street lights," University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy wrote in a press release.
The comet should be visible in the direction of the setting sun just after the sun slips below the horizon. Twilight and moonlight may make viewing the comet difficult. The best opportunity to see it may be on March 13 when the comet appears just beneath a thin crescent moon, astronomers said.
By the end of the month, Comet Pan-STARRS will appear in the eastern skies just before sunrise, but it will be farther from the sun and Earth and fainter.
Comet Pan-STARRS may just be the warm-up act for another celestial visitor due to arrive in November. If it is not destroyed by the sun, Comet ISON has the potential to be as bright as a full moon, possibly even visible in daylight.
Comet ISON, which was discovered last year by two amateur astronomers in Russia, is expected to pass as close as 684,000 miles (1.1 million km) from the surface of the sun - about four times closer than Comet Pan-STARRS will pass during its closest approach to the sun on Sunday.
If a photo is on Facebook and no one looks at it, was it ever even uploaded?
Poor attempt at a joke aside, there's something with which we need to come to terms: There are a lot of photos on Facebook that just sit around, taking up precious data storage space. The social network can't exactly delete these photos just because no one's looking, but it can store them in a more cost-effective and energy-efficient way.
According to the Oregonian's Mike Rogoway, Facebook's testing moving what he describes as "archival posts that people don?t need every day" into cold storagein the social network's data center inPrineville, Oregon.
As fun as it might be to imagine a gigantic meatlocker full of servers, cold storage refers to a data center in which most of the computers are asleep, with a few keeping watch ? and able to wake the others ? for incoming requests to view older items. Compare that to a hot storage data center in which all the computers are wide-awake and ready to show you the information you request almost instantly. (Of course, the difference in the time it takes to grab something from cold storage versus the time it takes to grab something from hot storage is so slight that a typical user could never even tell the difference. Think second or millisecond delays, rather than anything more dramatic.)
Facebook says, according to Rogoway, that "82 percent of its traffic is focused on just 8 percent of its photos." Given that detail, it's not exactly tough to understand why the company's considering cold storage data centers ? especially since they will cost the social network about a third less than standard data centers, offer eight times more storage, and run five times more energy efficiently.
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2009 file photo, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Shawn Layden displays a new PlayStation 3 during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan. Britain?s Data Regulator fined Sony 250,000 pounds ($396,100) on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 for having insufficient security measures to prevent a 2011 cyberattack on its PlayStation Network. The attack in April 2011 targeted credit card information through Sony?s PlayStation Network and put millions of users? personal information - including names, addresses, birth dates and account passwords - at risk. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2009 file photo, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Shawn Layden displays a new PlayStation 3 during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan. Britain?s Data Regulator fined Sony 250,000 pounds ($396,100) on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 for having insufficient security measures to prevent a 2011 cyberattack on its PlayStation Network. The attack in April 2011 targeted credit card information through Sony?s PlayStation Network and put millions of users? personal information - including names, addresses, birth dates and account passwords - at risk. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye, File)
LONDON (AP) ? British regulators have fined Sony 250,000 pounds ($396,100) for failing to prevent a 2011 cyberattack on its PlayStation Network which put millions of users' personal information ? including names, addresses, birth dates and account passwords ? at risk.
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office said Thursday that security measures in place at the time "were simply not good enough." It said the attack could have been prevented if software had been up to date, while passwords were also not secure.
David Smith, deputy commissioner and director of data protection, acknowledged that the fine for a "serious breach of the Data Protection Act" was "clearly substantial" but said that the office makes "no apologies" for that.
"There's no disguising that this is a business that should have known better," he said in a statement. "It is a company that trades on its technical expertise, and there's no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe."
Smith called the case "one of the most serious ever reported" to the data regulator.
Sony, which has previously apologized for the data breach, said Thursday it "strongly disagrees" with the ruling and plans to appeal.
David Wilson, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd., said the company noted that the ICO recognized that Sony was the victim of a criminal attack and that there is no evidence payment card details were accessed.
"Criminal attacks on electronic networks are a real and growing aspect of 21st century life and Sony continually works to strengthen our systems, building in multiple layers of defense and working to make our networks safe, secure and resilient," he said in a statement.
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Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The difference between owning a ferret in Hawaii and one in Pennsylvania can be up to three years in jail ? and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
That's the penalty for ferret fans in the Aloha State, where the 3-pound members of the weasel and polecat family are banned amid concerns of the animals escaping and wreaking havoc on the islands' delicate ecosystems. Similar fears are behind a decades-old ban in California, which has one of the nation's most diverse ecosystems.
"The concern is that if these animals were released, like other non-native species have been, they would adapt and thrive and out-compete native species for food, and prey on native species," said Adrianna Shea, deputy director of California's Fish and Game Commission.
States have had problems with feral animals in nonnative environments, creating problems for native species by eating them or ravaging their food supply. Feral cats, for example, have decimated bird populations. In Hawaii, the introduction of the mongoose to combat a rat problem "was a very poor idea. Rats are nocturnal and mongooses are diurnal. They only saw each other for a short period between dusk and dawn," said Minami Keevin, a land vertebrate specialist with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.
But ferret fans argue that the foot-long domesticated creatures make excellent pets and shouldn't be regulated by wildlife agencies.
"Ferrets are really wonderful animals for those of us who are so inclined. They are messy, and they're expensive, and they're demanding, but they are full of personality, full of love and full of joy," said Pat Wright, who lives in La Mesa, near San Diego, and has been fighting California's ban for nearly 20 years.
Keeping a ferret as a pet takes more time, care and money than owning a dog or cat. The American Veterinary Medical Association in Schaumburg, Ill., which recently posted a YouTube video on pet ferrets, noted that they need to be caged most of the time, require hours of exercise and emit a musky odor that many people find unpleasant. Large cages are expensive, but on the other hand, ferrets don't require as much medical or dental care as cats or dogs.
"They are wonderful little clowns that not only steal your heart but they will steal anything they deem is theirs. This includes your shoes, socks, pens, pencils, hairbrushes, potatoes, car keys, wallets and clothing. I had two ferrets that tried to take my notebook computer to what is called their hidey-hole," said AmyJo Casner of Harrisville, Pa., who legally owns ferrets Manny, Marcuz, and Marylin.
Their antics are better than antidepressants, said Casner, whose pets inspired her to start a ferret clothing line that she sells online.
A count of ferret owners across the U.S. was unavailable, but the American Pet Products Association said that in 1992, 2 percent of people who owned a small animal like a mouse, rat, ferret, gerbil, rabbit, hamster or guinea pig said they had a ferret. In 2000, 10 percent of small-animal owners said they had a ferret, and 7 percent in 2010 had them. That's despite bans in the two states, plus a number of large cities including New York, and U.S. military bases.
In California, where having a ferret can net a $500 fine or six months in jail, Wright estimated between 50,000 and 500,000 pet ferrets live a clandestine existence. His guess is based on ferret-supply sales and a 5,000-member mailing list for his ferret legalization cause.
Shea, who said Fish and Game has never tried to verify those numbers, said California doesn't have enough game wardens to chase violators, so the ban is not strictly enforced. Billboards close to the borders of Arizona and Nevada point motorists in the direction of ferret sellers. And most pet stores in California carry ferret food and supplies.
But the issue is taken seriously in Hawaii, where every report of a ferret is checked. One captured last year in Hilo was turned over to the Hawaii Island Humane Society, flown to Honolulu and quarantined until it could be shipped out of state. The penalty for importing, selling or possessing a ferret in Hawaii is a fine up to $200,000 and as many as three years in jail.
Dr. Valarie Tynes, a veterinarian with the AVMA, said breeders who spay and neuter ferrets before selling them could allay states' concerns that the animals could escape and procreate.
"I think there have been concerns by some that if ferrets got loose, they might thrive in the wild in the United States and possibly be damaging to native populations," she said. "I think it's interesting, as long as they've been pets, I've never heard of any place that's happened."
California's 80-year-old ban can be changed by commission vote or legislation, and there have been six attempts at a bill since 1994. A 2004 proposal came closest when it reached the desk of the governor ? Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared with a ferret in "Kindergarten Cop." He vetoed it.
Wright is looking for another lawmaker willing to sponsor a new round of legislation, but conceded that task alone was difficult. With legislators facing issues like the budget, gun control and health care, he noted, anyone who goes to bat for ferrets will probably be mocked.
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Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
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