Population genetics reveals shared ancestries

More than just a tool for predicting health, modern genetics is upending long-held assumptions about who we are. A new study by Harvard researchers casts new light on the intermingling and migration of European, Middle Eastern and African and populations since ancient times.

In a paper titled "The History of African Gene Flow into Southern Europeans, Levantines and Jews," published in PLoS Genetics, HMS Associate Professor of Genetics David Reich and his colleagues investigated the proportion of sub-Saharan African ancestry present in various populations in West Eurasia, defined as the geographic area spanning modern Europe and the Middle East. While previous studies have established that such shared ancestry exists, they have not indicated to what degree or how far back the mixing of populations can be traced.

Analyzing publicly available genetic data from 40 populations comprising North Africans, Middle Easterners and Central Asians were doctoral student Priya Moorjani and Alkes Price, an assistant professor in the Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology within the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

HCG Diet successful for local dieters

After years of yo-yo dieting, Linda Prinster was done.

"Any more attempts at weight loss would just put on more weight a little at a time from going up and down," Prinster said.

But when she heard about HCG, something sounded different.

HCG is a hormone produced during pregnancy. In the 1950s, one doctor noticed weight loss in patients using the hormone. He published his findings as the HCG weight loss plan.

Prinster began taking the hormone to amazing results.

"I lost 20 pounds in 30 days, which for me was unbelievable," Prinster explained.

Her success prompted Prinster to found the weight loss center "Pounds and Inches Away."

There are no meals prepared there or workout machines in place, just homeopathic HCG drops and a scale. A simple approach, that so far seems to be working for hundreds of local dieters.

"For most people, it's the best thing they've ever done besides finding their spouse and kids," Prinster said.

Betty Smotherman is one of those people.

Damage to be assessed after North Texas storms

DALLAS — Officials will get a clearer picture Wednesday of the damage from severe thunderstorms that packed large hail and damaging winds, including tornadoes, that swept through North Texas.

Only daylight Wednesday would make the extent and severity of the damage clear, said Fort Worth city spokesman Jason Lamers. "It's been really difficult to get a grasp of the damage at night," he said.

There were no reports of injuries. Initial reports suggested the damage from tornadoes and other winds was largely confined to roofs, trees and lawn furniture and play equipment, he said.

"The hail was probably more destructive," said Steve Fano, National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth.

No restrictions on Irish airspace for at least next 24 hours,’ says IAA

THE IRISH AVIATION Authority has said that based on the latest information there will be no restrictions on Irish airspace for at least the next 24 hours and that all Irish airports remain open.

However there is significant disruption to flights in and out of Scotland and other parts of the UK with Ryanair this afternoon cancelling the remaining six scheduled flights out of Edinburgh airport today.

The IAA said it is in contact with the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London, Met Éireann, the Department of Transport, airlines, airports and also European air traffic service providers and that it expects to update the situation tonight at 9am.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gameplay Trailer released

After the massive Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 leak that occurred a couple of weeks ago, Infinity Ward has been playing catch up by releasing new material for the game even before the E3 event in a couple of weeks. Last week they gave us a short teaser that didn’t say much about the game, but today, the company has released a trailer with gameplay footage, and I don’t want to jump to conclusions judging from the trailer alone but it does look very impressive.

Explosions, gunfire, huge maps, collapsing buildings, trains, cars, action – everything you ever wanted in a Call of Duty game. Let’s hope that this trailer isn’t the best thing that Infinity Ward delivers when the game drops later this year, November 8. Hit the break to watch the gameplay trailer and let us know what you think about it:

T-Mobile Puts the Asterisk in Unlimited* Data Plans

T-Mobile today announced new smartphone contract rate plans that increase in price based on the number of voice minutes and the amount of 4G mobile broadband data a customer wants in a given month. Customers can go over their 4G broadband limit, but the carrier will then deliver data at slower speeds for the remainder of the month. The operator also launched no-contract plans called Monthly4G that offer unlimited talk, text and web access starting at $50 and follow the same tiered data approach as the contract plans; once customers hit their data limit, access speeds will be throttled down.

Was Armstrong too big to fail?

In his doping confessional to CBS's 60 Minutes, Tyler Hamilton not only tells of witnessing teammate Lance Armstrong's use of the banned blood-boosting agent EPO when they rode together on the U.S. Postal Service team from 1995 to 2001, but he also delivers a blow to Armstrong's longtime defense against such allegations: "Never a failed test," Armstrong tweeted in response to Hamilton's remarks. "I rest my case."

Hamilton paints a picture of a testing cover-up at the 2001 Tour de Suisse, telling CBS that Armstrong told him that he failed a drug test there. The UCI, cycling's governing body, has denied there was any such cover-up, but another former teammate, Floyd Landis, made a similar allegation last year in letters to USA Cycling as federal officials began investigating whether Armstrong was involved in a doping operation while the team was receiving sponsorship money from the Postal Service. Armstrong has repeatedly denied ever taking a performance-enhancing drug, much less testing positive for one. But if the Tour de Suisse accusations prove true, it would underscore what many in cycling have asked for two decades: Was Armstrong too big to fail?

Can Australia prevent death by snake bite?

HE WORKS with deadly creatures — taipans, redback spiders, box jellyfish — but insists the risk is worth it. University of Melbourne toxinologist Ken Winkel says Australian antivenom research has come a long way since it began in Melbourne in the 1890s, with biopharmaceutical company CSL releasing the first antivenom in Victoria in 1930. Dr Winkel is director of the Australian Venom Research Unit.

 

Losing Sleep

Sleep apnea is characterized by potentially life threatening pauses in breathing. Left untreated, it may lead to dangerous medical problems. It's also more common than most people realize. Some 12 million Americans may be affected. But many don't even know it - especially women.

A middle aged man with a weight issue who snores fits the classic case of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the airway collapses and blocks breathing. Laurie Peltz was shocked when she was hit with the same diagnosis.

"Sleep apnea is not something that really comes into your head," said Peltz.

Her symptoms didn't send up an urgent, red flag. Peltz was snoring a bit and waking up tired and grumpier than usual. Then there was a scare.

"I woke up not able to take in a breath. I felt like it was closed off," said Peltz.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious disorder that can strike anyone at any age. The best known risk factors are being male, overweight and 40 or older.

Powerful tornadoes rip through U.S. Midwest

Tornadoes tore through parts of the U.S. Midwest on Sunday, killing at least one person in Minneapolis and damaging whole neighborhoods as well as a hospital in the Missouri town of Joplin, according to authorities and local television footage.
"It's done quite a bit of damage," a police officer in Joplin told Reuters by telephone. "It hit quite a few parts of town."
It was not immediately clear whether there were fatalities or serious injuries in Joplin, but video on the Weather Channel showed extensive areas where whole neighborhoods had been leveled.
A local hospital, St. John's Regional Medical Center, appeared to have sustained heavy damage.

Hamilton alleges Armstrong EPO positive cover-up on 60 Minutes

Tyler Hamilton, a US Postal Service teammate of Lance Armstrong, spoke on Sunday evening's "60 Minutes" news show regarding a cover-up of a positive EPO test by the seven-time Tour de France winner at the 2001 Tour de Suisse.

During the interview, Hamilton also said he witnessed Armstrong receiving a blood transfusion during the 2000 Tour and inject EPO during the 1999 Tour and before the 2000 and 2001 Tours

"I saw him inject it more than one time like we all did, like I did many, many times," Hamilton said. "He was the leader of the team. He doped himself like everybody else, being part of the culture of the sport."

When asked by "60 Minutes" reporter Scott Pelley about Armstrong's repeated statement that he'd never tested positive, Hamilton stated, "I know he's had a positive test before...for EPO [at the] Tour of Switzerland, 2001."

'Bath salts' a step away from being illegal in Texas

SANTA FE, Texas—A local family feels some sense of relief after a bill to ban bath salts has made it all the way to the governor’s desk.

When James Baldwin opened up about the suicide of his son in January, he just wanted to make people aware of the substance.

"If you’re doing the stuff, stop it and if you haven’t done it, don’t," said Baldwin. "That’s all I can say about that bath salts. 　It’s bad. It killed my boy."

His boy was 31- year old Joey Baldwin. He was hooked on what some consider a legal form of cocaine. He started getting paranoid, hallucinating and eventually took his own life.

Hopkins makes history yet again with latest age-dfying victory

The record will reflect that 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins became the oldest world champion in boxing history Saturday night, thoroughly dominating Jean Pascal for the light heavyweight title in a unanimous decision.

But the agate type will only tell half the story.

Hopkins not only outpointed, outboxed and outthought the younger champion, but he pulled it off with nearly every intangible breaking against him.

He did it in Pascal's hometown, before a hostile sellout crowd of 17,560 at Montreal's Bell Centre, where many observers thought it'd be nearly impossible for him to win a decision.

He did it despite not one, but two potentially fatal missed knockdown calls by referee Ian John-Lewis, who failed to see when Pascal's glove brushed the canvas in the ninth and 10th rounds.

And he did it all f

ighting against type: eschewing the measured and cautious defensive approach that's become his post-millennial calling card for a more exciting

Earthquake apocalypse? Not quite

EAST BAY -- A magnitude 3.6 earthquake struck Contra Costa County at 7:04 p.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, an hour after a doomsday prophet predicted a catastrophic temblor would rock the Bay Area.

The earthquake was centered two miles south-southeast of Hercules, and eight miles north of Berkeley, the USGS reports. There have been no reports of any damage or injuries, a Contra Costa Fire District dispatcher said shortly after the quake.

Iceland volcano erupts sending plume seven miles into the sky

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano has erupted sending ash into the upper atmosphere disrupting local air traffic.

The volcano erupted on Saturday, sending a plume to nearly seven miles above the landscape. This comes a year after the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted but it is not expected to cause the same air traffic chaos as then.

A no fly zone has been designated for 120 nautical miles (220 kilometers) in all directions from the eruption. Isavia, the company that operates and develops all airport facilities and air navigation services in Iceland, described this as standard procedure around eruptions.