Joanna Rothkopf: 'Veep' Recap: Selina Learns What Reddit And Tumblr Are ... The Hard Way

Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 2, Episode 4 of HBO's "Veep," titled "The Vic Allen Dinner."

In its tenure, "Veep" episodes have reliably centered on a single event or problem to be solved, with a few character-based B-plots scattered throughout the 30 minutes for good measure. The result has been a fast-paced show that always left us wanting more from the situations it presented. While the title of the most recent episode, "The Vic Allen Dinner," would have viewers believe that we would get to watch the perils of preparing for a roast-like dinner in the spirit of the White House Correspondents Dinner, we actually got something quite different: an episode that was unfocused, scattered, and lacked that key issue at stake which usually propels the action forward.

The episode opened on Dan and Mike walking to the office -- Mike writes a parody song for the upcoming dinner, brainstorming lame rhyme after lame rhyme. They spot Jonah, who jangles his car keys at them, taunting the staffers because he has somehow gotten parking in West Exec, the most enviable lot. The move seems an unearned show of Jonah's connectedness, but then again, when has Jonah ever needed justification for bragging?

Meanwhile, in the veep's office, Selina's major role in the liberation of U.S. hostages is recalled as Amy and Selina look through shots of officials monitoring the action, what is a nice, if obvious, call back to the famous photo of President Obama, Sec. Clinton and others nervously awaiting news from the bin Laden mission. We learn that Sue is interviewing for other jobs, prompting consideration amongst viewers: Is Selina's saccharine bitchosity having repercussions in terms of her staff's happiness? In a neat but unsatisfying resolution 15 minutes later, we learn that Sue can easily be retained with a raise.

But it turns out that Gary isn't happy either, reports Amy, meaning that while Selina prepares for her bit at the Vic Allen Dinner (it's decided rather unceremoniously that she'll sing a song mocking Kent), she must also take Gary and, at Gary's ardent request, his recent girlfriend Dana, to a meal. While at lunch with Gary and Dana, played by the hilarious but underutilized Jessica St. Clair (also alum of my alma mater ... hey girl!), Selina learns that the photo that has been chosen to immortalize her hostage mission features her checking her phone while the president and his cohorts look on attentively. The reason for this horrible choice? The president looked too "jowely" in the other options.

The photo soon becomes a meme, prompting Jonah's sage wisdom -- until it goes on Reddit or Tumblr, there is still hope that the meme won't go too too viral. Sure, the way Jonah talks about the two with such mastery and the way Selina can't quite grasp the concepts ("Tumble," she calls the micro-blogging site) is a little overwrought. It's like, we get it, the Internet exists in the show too. The reference has to be some kind of product placement as its clumsiness catapulted me out of the reality of the show and onto my boyfriend's leather couch.

Selina eventually sings her song mocking Kent, which is superbly received at the dinner by all, save, of course, its subject. But idiot Jonah has to screw up once again: In an effort at proactivity, he actually posts the video of her ?ber-theatrical vocal performance to "Reddit and Tumblr" (as if no other social sharing site exists) causing some bad backlash, especially from European leaders who Selina is scheduled to meet ... in the next episode. Jonah is kicked out of Air Force 2 (and has his parking privileges relinquished), prompting his sad, but deserved walk of shame down a runway.

Maybe it is the half-hour format that makes it so hard for "Veep" to achieve any satisfying progress or resolution within an episode. Moreover, the writers attempt to pack so much into each week that it's hard to build upon characters and things we know after time has been allotted for all the jokes. So, what's the solution? Dive deeper into fewer plot lines? Of course, that risks the loss of some of the sharp speed that makes the show great, but a little experimentation is much needed to avoid packing so much into a single episode that the result is meaningless.

Other takeaways:

• Jonah's newest nickname: Jolly Green Jiz Face
• 'Cherry on top of the turd cake'
• Governor Chung beat boxes
• Mike's boat gets the job done, as would a cast iron skillet, or Kevin Bacon
• Ben's coffee mug

?

Follow Joanna Rothkopf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joannarothkopf

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanna-rothkopf/veep-recap-selina-reddit-tumblr_b_3220982.html

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Gray hair and vitiligo reversed at the root

Monday, May 6, 2013

Hair dye manufacturers are on notice: The cure for gray hair is coming. That's right, the need to cover up one of the classic signs of aging with chemical pigments will be a thing of the past thanks to a team of European researchers. In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal people who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out, and most importantly, the report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase). What's more, the study also shows that the same treatment works for the skin condition, vitiligo.

"To date, it is beyond any doubt that the sudden loss of the inherited skin and localized hair color can affect those individuals in many fundamental ways," said Karin U. Schallreuter, M.D., study author from the Institute for Pigmentary Disorders in association with E.M. Arndt University of Greifswald, Germany and the Centre for Skin Sciences, School of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom. "The improvement of quality of life after total and even partial successful repigmentation has been documented."

Schallreuter and colleagues analyzed an international group of 2,411 patients with vitiligo. Of that group, 57 or 2.4 percent were diagnosed with strictly segmental vitiligo (SSV), and 76 or 3.2 percent were diagnosed with mixed vitiligo, which is SSV plus non-segmental vitiligo (NSV). They found that for the first time, patients who have SSV within a certain nerval distribution involving skin and eyelashes show the same oxidative stress as observed in the much more frequent general NSV, which is associated with decreased antioxidant capacities including catalase, thioredoxin reductase, and the repair mechanisms methionine sulfoxide reductases. These findings are based on basic science and clinical observations, which led to successful patient outcomes regarding repigmentation of skin and eyelashes.

"For generations, numerous remedies have been concocted to hide gray hair," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "but now, for the first time, an actual treatment that gets to the root of the problem has been developed. While this is exciting news, what's even more exciting is that this also works for vitiligo. This condition, while technically cosmetic, can have serious socio-emotional effects of people. Developing an effective treatment for this condition has the potential to radically improve many people's lives."

###

Karin U. Schallreuter, Mohammed A. E. L. Salem, Sarah Holtz, and A. Panske. Basic evidence for epidermal H2O2/ONOO?-mediated oxidation/nitration in segmental vitiligo is supported by repigmentation of skin and eyelashes after reduction of epidermal H2O2 with topical NB-UVB-activated pseudocatalase PC-KUS. FASEB J doi:10.1096/fj.12-226779 ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/early/2013/04/29/fj.12-226779.abstract

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology: http://www.faseb.org

Thanks to Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128132/Gray_hair_and_vitiligo_reversed_at_the_root

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Engineers manipulate a buckyball by inserting a single water molecule

May 6, 2013 ? Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a technique to isolate a single water molecule inside a buckyball, or C60, and to drive motion of the so-called "big" nonpolar ball through the encapsulated "small" polar H2O molecule, a controlling transport mechanism in a nanochannel under an external electric field. They expect this method will lead to an array of new applications, including effective ways to control drug delivery and to assemble C60-based functional 3D structures at the nanoscale level, as well as expanding our understanding of single molecule properties.

The study was published as a Physics Focus in the April 12 issue of Physical Review Letters.

"Buckyballs, more formally known as Buckminsterfullerenes, or fullerenes, are spherical, hollow molecular structures made of 60 carbon atoms, with the size of ~1 nm -- 6,000-8,000 times smaller than a regular red blood cell -- and, because of their highly symmetrical structure, very hydrophobic core, covalent nonpolar bonds, and more importantly, relatively non-toxicity to the human body, they are a perfect container for drug molecules," explains Xi Chen, associate professor of earth and environmental engineering, who led the research. He and his team believe their work is the first attempt to manipulate a nonpolar molecule (C60) or structure by an inserted polar molecule (H2O).

Chen says his findings may open a new way of controlling and delivering a nonpolar "big" molecule like C60 through the encapsulated "small" polar molecule like H2O. This could lead to important applications in nanotech and biotech areas, including drug delivery where researchers can "imprison" the polar drug molecules inside a hollow structure and then guide them to their targets.

And, from a fundamental point of view, he hopes that the isolated, encapsulated single molecule, like the H2O one in his study, will provide an important platform for revealing and probing inherent characteristics of a single molecule, free from its outside environment.

"The important role of hydrogen bonds in the properties of water, like surface tension and viscosity, and the precise interactions between a single water molecule and hydrogen bonds, are still unclear," Chen notes, "so our new technique to isolate a single water molecule free from any hydrogen bonds provides an opportunity for answering these questions."

Since the discovery of C60 in the 1980s, scientists have been trying to solve the challenge of controlling a single C60. Several mechanical strategies involving AFM (atomic force microscopy) have been developed, but these are costly and time-intensive. The ability to drive a single C60 through a simple external force field, such as an electrical or magnetic field, would be a major step forward.

In the Columbia Engineering study, the researchers found that, when they encapsulated a polar molecule within a nonpolar fullerene, they could use an external electrical field to transport the molecule@fullerene structures to desired positions and adjust the transport velocity so that both delivery direction and time were controllable. Chen's team came up with the idea a year ago, and confirmed their surprising results through extensive atomistic simulations.

Chen plans to explore more properties of the H2O@C60 molecule and other similar structures, and to continue probing the interaction and communication of the encapsulated single water molecule with its surroundings. "Studying the communication of an imprisoned single water molecule with its outside environment such as adjacent molecules," he adds, "is like learning how a person sitting inside a room makes connections with friends outside, selectively on demand (i.e. with control) or randomly (without control) through, say, over the phone."

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/HF5zw7gjqww/130506103310.htm

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Israeli airstrikes on Syria prompt threats, anger

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike. Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

FILE -- In this Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012 file photo, the Iron Dome defense system fires to intercept an incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Israel. Israel's military has deployed Iron Dome defense system to the north of the country following Israeli airstrikes in neighboring Syria targeting weapons believed to be destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah militants. Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets and Hezbollah has thousands of such projectiles. (AP Photo /Tsafrir Abayov, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 file photo, an Israeli Iron Dome missile is launched near the city of Be'er Sheva, southern Israel, to intercept a rocket fired from Gaza. Israel's military has deployed Iron Dome defense system to the north of the country on Sunday May 5, 2013 following Israeli airstrikes in neighboring Syria targeting weapons believed to be destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah militants. Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets and Hezbollah has thousands of such projectiles. (AP Photo/Ahikam Seri, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Israel rushed to beef up its rocket defenses on its northern border Sunday to shield against possible retaliation after carrying out two airstrikes in Syria over 48 hours ? an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Syria and its patron Iran hinted at possible retribution, though the rhetoric in official statements appeared relatively muted.

Despite new concerns about a regional war, Israeli officials signaled they will keep trying to block what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the Syrian civil war to stop the transfer of what it calls "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah, a Syrian-backed group that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.

Since carrying out a lone airstrike in January that reportedly destroyed a shipment of anti-aircraft missiles headed to Hezbollah, Israel had largely stayed on the sidelines. That changed over the weekend with a pair of airstrikes, including an attack near a sprawling military complex close to the Syrian capital of Damascus early Sunday that set off a series of powerful explosions.

The Israeli government and military refused to comment. But a senior Israeli official said both airstrikes targeted shipments of Fateh-110 missiles bound for Hezbollah. The Iranian-made guided missiles can fly deep into Israel and deliver powerful half-ton bombs with pinpoint accuracy. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a covert military operation.

Syria's government called the attacks a "flagrant violation of international law" that has made the Middle East "more dangerous." It also claimed the Israeli strikes proved the Jewish state's links to rebel groups trying to overthrow Assad's regime.

Syria's information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, reading a Cabinet statement after an emergency government meeting, said Syria has the right and duty "to defend its people by all available means."

Israeli defense officials believe Assad has little desire to open a new front with Israel when he is preoccupied with the survival of his regime. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, and Israeli officials believe it is only a matter of time before Assad is toppled.

Still, Israel seemed to be taking the Syrian threats seriously. Israel's military deployed two batteries of its Iron Dome rocket defense system to the north of the country Sunday. It described the move as part of "ongoing situational assessments."

Israel says the Iron Dome shot down hundreds of incoming short-range rockets during eight days of fighting against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last November. Hezbollah fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel during the 2006 war, and Israel believes the group now possesses tens of thousands of rockets and missiles.

The Iron Dome deployment followed a surprise Israeli drill last week in which several thousand reservists simulated conflict in the north. In another possible sign of concern, Israel closed the airspace over northern Israel to civilian flights on Sunday and tightened security at embassies overseas, Israeli media reported. Israeli officials would not confirm either measure.

Reflecting fears of ordinary Israelis, the country's postal service, which helps distribute government-issue gas masks, said demand jumped to four times the normal level Sunday.

Israel's deputy defense minister, Danny Danon, would neither confirm nor deny the airstrikes. He said, however, that Israel "is guarding its interests and will continue to do so in the future."

"Israel cannot allow weapons, dangerous weapons, to get into the hands of terror organizations," he told Army Radio.

Israeli defense officials have identified several strategic weapons that they say cannot be allowed to reach Hezbollah. They include Syrian chemical weapons, the Iranian Fateh-110s, long-range Scud missiles, Yakhont missiles capable of attacking naval ships from the coast, and Russian SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. Israel's airstrike in January destroyed a shipment of SA-17s meant for Hezbollah, according to U.S. officials.

Israeli officials said Sunday they believe that Iran is stepping up its efforts to smuggle weapons through Syria to Hezbollah because of concerns that Assad's days are numbered.

They said the Fateh-110s reached Syria last week. Friday's airstrike struck a site at the Damascus airport where the missiles were being stored, while the second series of airstrikes early Sunday targeted the remnants of the shipment, which had been moved to three nearby locations, the officials said.

None of the Iranian missiles are believed to have reached Lebanon, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence assessment.

The attacks pose a dilemma for the embattled Assad regime.

If it fails to respond, it looks weak and opens the door to more airstrikes. But any military retaliation against Israel would risk dragging the Jewish state and its powerful army into a broader conflict. With few exceptions, Israel and Syria have not engaged in direct fighting in roughly 40 years.

The airstrikes come as Washington considers how to respond to indications the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options.

The White House declined for a second day to comment directly on Israel's air strikes in Syria, but said Obama believes Israel, as a sovereign nation, has the right to defend itself against threats from Hezbollah.

"The Israelis are justifiably concerned about the threat posed by Hezbollah obtaining advanced weapons systems, including some long-range missiles," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. He said the U.S. was in "close coordination" with Israel but would not elaborate.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also seemed to back Israel, telling Sky News that "all countries have to look after their own national security."

Iran condemned the airstrikes, and a senior official hinted at possible retribution from Hezbollah.

Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, assistant to the Iranian chief of staff, told Iran's state-run Arabic-language Al-Alam TV that Tehran "will not allow the enemy (Israel) to harm the security of the region." He added that "the resistance will retaliate to the Israeli aggression against Syria." ''Resistance" is a term used for Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, another anti-Israel militant group supported by Iran.

Iran has provided both financial and military support to Hezbollah for decades and has used Syria as a conduit for both. If Assad were to fall, that pipeline could be cut, dealing a serious blow to Hezbollah's ability to confront Israel.

Israel appears to be taking a calculated risk that its strikes will not invite retaliation from Syria, Hezbollah or even Iran.

But Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar warned: "All this could lead us into a wider conflict."

___

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ian Deitch and Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-05-Israel-Syria/id-63ef202168bd4bbdbdea59063d88d779

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Casino bosses transform Sin City into Club City ? Artesia News

In this Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, photo a crowd dances to the music played by DJ Afrojack at the XS nightclub in Las Vegas. The rise of the Vegas super-club coincides with the decline of the town?s gambling supremacy. During the heart of the recession, when overall Strip revenues tumbled, nightclubs saw more profit than ever. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? To step into club XS at the Wynn Las Vegas is to enter the dreamscape of a modern artist with fetishes for gold and bronze and bodies in motion.

A golden-plated frieze made from casts of nude women sits atop a shimmering staircase. Waves of electronic dance music grow louder with each downward step toward a pulsating, football field-sized club where lasers cut the air above thousands of dancers.

The revelers take their cues from the famous DJs onstage who are known to surf the crowd in inflatable rafts, throw sheet cakes at clubbers? faces and spray vintage champagne into their mouths.

In Sin City, where over-the-top is always the sales pitch, lavish nightclubs featuring a heart-pounding party have become the backbone of a billion-dollar industry that is soaring while gambling revenue slips.

?We learned a long time ago that in order to continue to attract people from around the world, we have to provide things that are hard to find anywhere else,? said Jim Murren, CEO of MGM Resorts International, which operates nine Strip hotel-casinos boasting their own dance scenes. ?These clubs, if done correctly, are tremendous magnets.?

A $100 million temple to revelry, XS is the top-earning nightclub in the country, joining six other Vegas venues in the top 10. Its estimated annual revenue hovers somewhere near $90 million, according to the trade publication Nightclub & Bar.

The city now boasts more than 50 such clubs. New additions are coming all the time, including the five-story Hakkasan at the MGM Grand, which debuted last month, and Light at Mandalay Bay, Cirque du Soleil?s first foray into the disco business, opening Memorial Day weekend.

The rise of the Vegas super-club coincides with the decline of the town?s gambling supremacy. The tiny Chinese enclave of Macau surpassed the desert oasis as the world?s top gambling destination in 2006. Singapore is on track to claim the No. 2 spot.

During the heart of the recession, when overall Strip revenues tumbled by 16 percent, nightclubs saw more profit than ever. By 2011, Las Vegas was clubbing all the way to the bank, with Strip beverage departments earning more than $1 billion, and casino tycoons began remaking the Strip into the club capital of the world.

With extravagantly paid DJs, larger-than-life venues and billboard ads that stretch beyond the Strip to Hollywood Boulevard and Miami, casinos are trying to pull off a tricky balancing act: keeping the kitschy core that draws older generations while finding a way to make the city hip enough to attract a younger, big-spending set ? emphasis on big-spending.

?We?re not interested in competing against everyone to get the 21-year-olds that are going to spend little to no money and are going to clog up the hallways,? Murren said.

The 10-minute taxi ride from the airport to the Strip takes visitors past dozens of billboards promoting top DJs from Holland and beyond. Celine Dion and Elton John now take their place on marquees alongside names that recall Internet handles, such as ?deadmau5? and ?Kaskade.?

Las Vegas, long known for catching performers on the downswing of their careers, finally appears to have embraced a musical trend at the height of its popularity. Globe-trotting Dutch DJ Afrojack, 25, said he has come to consider the Strip his home because it?s the one place he believes is as dance-music-focused as he is.

?When you exit the airport, you see (the face of President Barack) Obama ? and then you see me,? said Afrojack, a Wynn casino favorite.

Perhaps no place exemplifies the new culture on the glittery Strip better than XS. And for most wannabe Vegas party people, the night at XS starts in line.

Casinos snake these queues past well-traveled areas ? entrances, slot banks and restaurant corridors ? turning the gussied-up partiers into one more piece of visual spectacle. At XS, clubbers line up in a central hallway near the luxury stores Hermes and Chanel.

Women pay $25 and men pay $55 just to get in, but pretty girls who out-dress the dress code are admitted for free. The door charge is mostly there to weed out people who won?t spend on drinks, said nightlife baron Sean Christie, managing parner of another Wynn club, Surrender.

When it first opened in 2008, XS was lucky to be filled halfway to its 5,000-person capacity, even when featuring an act such as Tiesto, the world?s highest-paid DJ, according to Forbes, pulling down $250,000 a set and making $22 million a year.

Now, the club may see 8,000 people come and go over the course of a night. That?s nearly half of the capacity of Madison Square Garden.

As the clock edged toward 2 a.m. on a Saturday earlier this spring, superstar DJ David Guetta stood at the control board like a mad king, commanding his people.

A wiry, hollow-faced Frenchman with a curtain of blond hair, Guetta has been churning out electronic music since the genre?s infancy in the world of underground raves 25 years ago. Now, at 45, he makes hits for pop music stars including Rihanna, Usher and Nicki Minaj ? and conducts the crowd at XS.

At the flick of his upraised palms, Guetta had thousands of revelers whooping, jumping and punching their fists in the air. When he added a drumbeat into a chorus, metallic streamers dropped from the ceiling and a fog machine churned.

?Nothing compares with this,? said 23-year-old Katie Kelly, a student in San Louis Obispo, Calif., as she bobbed her index fingers skyward. ?You just release and don?t care about anything.?

XS boasts that its layout is modeled on ?the sexy curves of the human body.? In practice, the design steers people to the bars on a back wall.

Female bartenders, their long hair draped over sequined black corsets, serve $15 shots of Jack Daniels whiskey, coordinating their pouring to the skull-rattling bass and synthetic blares vibrating around them. A supermarket a few miles away sells a bottle of Jack containing 17 shots for $16.

When newbies push through the swaying crowd to grab a table, they find that Vegas has monetized sitting, too. Patrons pay a $10,000 beverage minimum upfront to claim any of the dozen plush banquettes nearest the dance floor.

By the time Guetta hit his stride on this night, all of the club?s 95 tables were full, including the cheaper seats away from the action and one uber-VIP table on stage. Near the bigger-than-your-apartment, 1,100-square-foot dance floor, four scantily clad girls gyrated in front of three men wearing suits and skinny ties.

One of them, Thomas Park, had filled the table with 2004 vintage Perrier-Jouet champagne and Gray Goose magnums ? for $700 and $1,300 a pop.

?We have a lot to spend,? said Park, who is in his mid-30s and works as a relator in Canada. ?That?s why we have all the girls.?

Casinos learned long ago that some VIPs don?t see the point of being VIPs unless everyone can see them being VIPs, so clubs oblige big spenders with spotlights and velvet ropes cordoning off their mini-empires.

But not everyone at a table is a high roller. Some are splurging, or sharing the cost with their friends. Superstar DJ Kaskade, a Vegas regular, said he hears from fans who saved for months to pay for a table and a weekend of fun in Vegas.

?It?s because they see videos of this stuff and they say: ?This is nuts.??

Today, the club craze is moving beyond the dance floor.

XS opens into an open-air adult playground complete with table games, food and a huge circular pool. Around 3 a.m. on this particular night ? still several hours from closing time ? women in bachelorette sashes waded toward floating white platforms as crescendos drifted over the water.

Beckoning from the other side of the pool, past clumps of partiers, is the upscale ?vibe-dining? restaurant Andrea?s, where DJs spin lounge music. Hakkasan is taking the vibe-dining concept further, importing a London-based, Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant to serve as the foundation for its five-story complex.

Most casinos have also incorporated nightclubs during the day ? a way to infuse the dance scene into an otherwise typical summer pool party.

At Andrea?s, while taking in a production he helped create, Christie confessed he worries about what might happen to Vegas now that it?s banking so heavily on an indulgent club scene ? especially if 20- and 30-somethings develop a taste for a new indulgence.

But then he quickly corrected himself, saying he?d be just as happy to lure patrons with country western stars.

?Whatever they want, I just serve up. Hopefully, I serve it up the best,? he said. ?I?m not one to care about that kind of stuff. I?m just here to make money and throw great parties.?

___

Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

This entry was posted on May 5, 2013, 12:51 pm and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.artesianews.com/2013/05/05/ap-news/entertainment-ap-news/casino-bosses-transform-sin-city-into-club-city/

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No sequester furloughs at State Department (The Arizona Republic)

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Experimental Air Force aircraft goes hypersonic

In this Wednesday, May 1, 2013 photo released by the U.S. Air Force, the X-51A Waverider, carried under the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress bomber, prepares to launch the fourth and final flight over the Pacific Ocean. The X-51A, an experimental, unmanned aircraft developed for the U.S. Air Force, went hypersonic during a test off the Southern California coast, traveling at more than 3,000 mph, the Air Force said Friday. The Air Force has spent $300 million studying scramjet technology that it hopes can be used to deliver strikes around the globe within minutes. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Bobbi Zapka)

In this Wednesday, May 1, 2013 photo released by the U.S. Air Force, the X-51A Waverider, carried under the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress bomber, prepares to launch the fourth and final flight over the Pacific Ocean. The X-51A, an experimental, unmanned aircraft developed for the U.S. Air Force, went hypersonic during a test off the Southern California coast, traveling at more than 3,000 mph, the Air Force said Friday. The Air Force has spent $300 million studying scramjet technology that it hopes can be used to deliver strikes around the globe within minutes. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Bobbi Zapka)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? An experimental, unmanned aircraft developed for the U.S. Air Force went hypersonic during a test off the Southern California coast, traveling at more than 3,000 mph, the Air Force said Friday.

The X-51A WaveRider flew for more than three minutes under power from its exotic scramjet engine and hit a speed of Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound.

The test on Wednesday marked the fourth and final flight of an X-51A by the Air Force, which has spent $300 million studying scramjet technology that it hopes can be used to deliver strikes around the globe within minutes.

The previous three flights ended in failure or didn't reach the intended speed.

Though the WaveRider was designed to reach Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound, program officials were satisfied with its performance in the latest test.

"It was a full mission success," program manager Charlie Brink of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said in a statement.

The sleek, missile-shaped WaveRider was released from a B-52 bomber 50,000 feet above the Pacific and was initially accelerated by a rocket before the scramjet kicked in.

It reached Mach 4.8 in less than half a minute powered by a solid rocket booster. After separating from the booster, the scramjet engine was ignited, accelerating the aircraft to Mach 5.1 at 60,000 feet.

The flight ended with a planned plunge into the ocean.

The WaveRider traveled more than 230 miles in six minutes, making it the longest hypersonic flight of its kind. Engineers gathered data before it splashed down.

Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, which built the WaveRider, called the test "a historic achievement that has been years in the making."

"This test proves the technology has matured to the point that it opens the door to practical applications," Davis said in a statement.

While the Air Force did not have immediate plans for a successor to the X-51A, it said it will continue hypersonic flight research.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-05-03-X-51-Hypersonic%20Flight/id-b70a3a28244f41908bb1136c1f98de84

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Despite stalled Arab Spring, Muslim nations grasp for democracy

Elections in Pakistan and Malaysia show step-by-step progress to reconcile Islam with secular values of elected government.

By the Monitor's Editorial Board / May 3, 2013

Roads in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad are decorated with posters of candidates taking part in the May 11 election. Candidates restricted their campaigns to corner meetings and social media due to ongoing attacks by Taliban on the offices and rallies of various political parties.

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Two years on, the Arab Spring has stalled. Only four countries in the Middle East ? Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen ? have advanced from despotic rule toward democracy, even if slowly.

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Yet among the world?s Muslim countries that are already democratic, a similar struggle continues, one to reconcile the world?s second largest religion with secular democracy. Two elections show how this struggle is faring:

On May 11, voters in Pakistan go to the polls in what could be a historic transition ? the first democratic transfer of civilian power. Yet while this would signify how the military?s role has lessened in Pakistan, Muslim radicals who denounce democracy as ?un-Islamic? have given the secular political parties a hard time ? with bombs and guns. Hundreds of people have been killed during the campaign by the Taliban and other militants in an attempt to thwart the elections and create an Islamic state.

Faith in democracy remains weak in Pakistan, especially given the level of government corruption. The country is also home to one of the most violent clashes between Islam?s two major groups, Sunnis and Shiites. Fewer than 1 in 3 voters prefers an elected government to solve the country?s problems, according to a Pew Research Center global survey. A majority want a ?strong leader.? Thus it would be a milestone if Pakistan can rely on a fair (but violent) election for its first transfer of power between elected civilian leaders. The world should cheer this progress in one of the most troubled Muslim nations.

Pakistan?s woes contrast sharply with the May 5 election in Malaysia. This Southeast Asian nation, which is two-thirds Muslim, has had to worry little about Islamic radicalism in its politics. The Pew polls find an overwhelming faith in elected government ? 67 percent ? nearly as high as that in Turkey, a country seen as a model for reconciling Islam with democracy.

Malaysia?s election has focused mainly on whether to unseat the world?s longest continually elected governing coalition, the Barisan Nasional. Much of politics in Malaysia revolves around ethnic tensions far more than religious ones.

Democracy has helped this resource-rich nation become one of the ?Asian tiger? economies. In the election campaign, Muslims mostly debated which party would best continue this progress.

In its survey of 39 countries with Muslim populations, the Pew survey found most Muslims favor democracy over authoritarian rule. They reject attacks on civilians, such as suicide bombings.

Yet even in long-democratic nations like Malaysia, the poll found strong minorities want Islamic leaders to have a ?large? role in politics. In newly liberated Tunisia and Egypt, a slight majority of Muslims say Islamic parties are better than other political parties.

The Arab Spring is really a major example of Islam?s continuing struggle to reconcile its theology and practices with the democratic practices of civil liberties, free and fair elections, and secular rule of law. The spirit of the Arab Spring is just searching for directions. Its grander meaning is being played out in any Muslim country with a history of democracy.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/lEG39QEOpnk/Despite-stalled-Arab-Spring-Muslim-nations-grasp-for-democracy

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