By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago
TULSA, Okla. - Embattled Oral Roberts University president Richard Roberts, facing accusations he misspent university funds to support a lavish lifestyle, has received a vote of "no confidence" by the tenured faculty at the evangelical university.
The resolution, obtained late Tuesday by The Associated Press, states that the faculty approved the motion "without regard to the outcome of the current lawsuit against the university" and plans to distribute the document to the school's Board of Regents and the faculty assembly at an upcoming meeting.
Jeremy Burton, a spokesman for Oral Roberts University, declined Tuesday to comment on the document, which was passed Monday by a quorum of the faculty after a three-and-a-half-hour meeting.
The faculty passed two other motions: a vote of "confidence" in Mark Lewandowski, the school's executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, "with regard to his call for greater faculty governance and transparency of university finances" and the desire of the faculty to have a greater role on how university leadership is selected.
Donald Vance, a professor of biblical languages and literature who voted "yes" to all three motions, said the vote was "nearly unanimous," but declined to give the exact tally.
"It's essentially how the university has been run," said Vance, who has taught at the 5,700-student school for 13 years. "We see the Board of Regents as allies wanting to do the right thing, but we're not sure they know everything and we're not sure they knew how the faculty felt."
Richard Roberts has been on temporary leave while an investigation into the school's finances continues.
Accusations of lavish spending were detailed in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed Oct. 2 by three former ORU professors. The lawsuit includes allegations of a $39,000 shopping tab at one store for Richard Roberts' wife, Lindsay, a $29,411 Bahamas senior trip on the university jet for one of Roberts' daughters and a stable of horses for the Roberts children.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Richard and Lindsay Roberts denied wrongdoing. Richard Roberts has said the lawsuit amounted to "intimidation, blackmail and extortion."
Tulsa attorney Gary Richardson, who filed the lawsuit against ORU on behalf of the former professors, said he was "encouraged" to see that steps are being taken to preserve the university.
"When we filed the suit, I said I really personally believe that this lawsuit is very much like surgery," Richardson said Tuesday. "When there's disease in the body, sometimes it requires surgery in order for there to be healing."
Last week, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced a Senate investigation into whether six televangelists violated their organizations' tax-exempt status by living lavishly on the backs of small donors.
The Robertses were not among the six. But those targeted include three members of the school's Board of Regents: Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn.
Former ORU regent Harry McNevin told AP in a recent interview that he quit the board in disgust in 1987 after it became clear that the Robertses were dipping into the school's endowment fund for their personal use.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Scientists claim to clone monkey embryos
By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
NEW YORK - Scientists in Oregon say they've reached the long-sought goal of cloning monkey embryos and extracting stem cells from them, a potentially major step toward doing the same thing in people.
The research has not been published yet or confirmed by other scientists. But if true, it offers fresh hope in field that has been marked by frustration and even fraud. The claim of a similar breakthrough with human embryos by a South Korean scientist in 2004 turned out to be false.
The hope is that one day, such a procedure could be used to create transplant tissue that's genetically matched to an ailing patient. Because stem cells can form all types of tissue, the approach might one day help treat conditions like diabetes and spinal cord injury without fear of rejection by the patient's body.
Scientists have tried for years to clone monkey embryos and extract stem cells because monkeys are more closely related to humans than other lab animals are. So monkey work has been expected to give hints about how to do this in people.
The success was reported earlier this year at a scientific meeting in Australia by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Portland. It received limited media attention at the time, but the results were given new attention Tuesday by a London newspaper, The Independent.
Mitalipov did not immediately respond Tuesday to an interview request from The Associated Press. But another scientist, Jose Cibelli of Michigan State University, told The AP on Tuesday that he'd heard Mitalipov's presentation at the Australia meeting.
"To me, it's a breakthrough," said Cibelli, who studies cloning and stem cells. The work shows "it is possible."
In cloning to obtain stem cells, DNA from an adult animal is inserted into an unfertilized egg. The egg is grown into an early embryo, from which stem cells are extracted. These stem cells, and the tissue that develops from them, will be a genetic match to the source of the DNA.
The idea of doing this in people is controversial because the embryos have to be destroyed to obtain the stem cells.
Despite the monkey success, "we're still far off to start dreaming about translating this technique to humans," Cibelli said. That's because the reported results were very inefficient, requiring many eggs to produce stem cells, he said.
Still, the work shows monkeys can be used to study the potential of embryonic stem cells produced through cloning, Cibelli said. "That's a terrific tool."
Cloning is most famous for producing not stem cells but baby animals, such as Dolly the sheep. But while some people may view the new development as a move by scientists on the "slippery slope" toward producing cloned human babies, "we're all opposed to that," Cibelli said.
Jim Newman, a spokesman for the Oregon Health & Science University, which operates the primate center where Mitalipov works, declined to confirm whether the scientist had cloned monkey embryos. But he said a study in that area of research will be released soon by the scientific journal Nature.
Katie McGoldrick, a Nature spokeswoman in Washington, said she could not discuss papers that may or may not have been submitted for publication.
The primate center was in the news for another reason Tuesday. An activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said it had documented violations of animal protection laws there. University officials said the primate center has an excellent record for animal care.
NEW YORK - Scientists in Oregon say they've reached the long-sought goal of cloning monkey embryos and extracting stem cells from them, a potentially major step toward doing the same thing in people.
The research has not been published yet or confirmed by other scientists. But if true, it offers fresh hope in field that has been marked by frustration and even fraud. The claim of a similar breakthrough with human embryos by a South Korean scientist in 2004 turned out to be false.
The hope is that one day, such a procedure could be used to create transplant tissue that's genetically matched to an ailing patient. Because stem cells can form all types of tissue, the approach might one day help treat conditions like diabetes and spinal cord injury without fear of rejection by the patient's body.
Scientists have tried for years to clone monkey embryos and extract stem cells because monkeys are more closely related to humans than other lab animals are. So monkey work has been expected to give hints about how to do this in people.
The success was reported earlier this year at a scientific meeting in Australia by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Portland. It received limited media attention at the time, but the results were given new attention Tuesday by a London newspaper, The Independent.
Mitalipov did not immediately respond Tuesday to an interview request from The Associated Press. But another scientist, Jose Cibelli of Michigan State University, told The AP on Tuesday that he'd heard Mitalipov's presentation at the Australia meeting.
"To me, it's a breakthrough," said Cibelli, who studies cloning and stem cells. The work shows "it is possible."
In cloning to obtain stem cells, DNA from an adult animal is inserted into an unfertilized egg. The egg is grown into an early embryo, from which stem cells are extracted. These stem cells, and the tissue that develops from them, will be a genetic match to the source of the DNA.
The idea of doing this in people is controversial because the embryos have to be destroyed to obtain the stem cells.
Despite the monkey success, "we're still far off to start dreaming about translating this technique to humans," Cibelli said. That's because the reported results were very inefficient, requiring many eggs to produce stem cells, he said.
Still, the work shows monkeys can be used to study the potential of embryonic stem cells produced through cloning, Cibelli said. "That's a terrific tool."
Cloning is most famous for producing not stem cells but baby animals, such as Dolly the sheep. But while some people may view the new development as a move by scientists on the "slippery slope" toward producing cloned human babies, "we're all opposed to that," Cibelli said.
Jim Newman, a spokesman for the Oregon Health & Science University, which operates the primate center where Mitalipov works, declined to confirm whether the scientist had cloned monkey embryos. But he said a study in that area of research will be released soon by the scientific journal Nature.
Katie McGoldrick, a Nature spokeswoman in Washington, said she could not discuss papers that may or may not have been submitted for publication.
The primate center was in the news for another reason Tuesday. An activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said it had documented violations of animal protection laws there. University officials said the primate center has an excellent record for animal care.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Chocolate began as beer-like brew 3,100 years ago
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America not as the sweet treat people now crave but as a celebratory beer-like beverage and status symbol, scientists said on Monday.
Researchers identified residue of a chemical compound that comes exclusively from the cacao plant -- the source of chocolate -- in pottery vessels dating from about 1100 BC in Puerto Escondido, Honduras.
This pushed back by at least 500 years the earliest documented use of cacao, an important luxury commodity in Mesoamerica before European invaders arrived and now the basis of the modern chocolate industry.
Cacao (pronounced cah-COW) seeds were used to make ceremonial beverages consumed by elites of the Aztecs and other civilizations, while also being used as a form of currency.
The Spanish conquistadors who shattered the Aztec empire in the 16th century were smitten with a chocolate beverage made from cacao seeds served in the palace of the emperor. However, this was not the form in which cacao had its beginnings.
"The earliest cacao beverages consumed at Puerto Escondido were likely produced by fermenting the sweet pulp surrounding the seeds," the scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One of the researchers, anthropologist John Henderson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, said cacao beverages were being concocted far earlier than previously believed -- and it was a beer-like drink that started the chocolate craze.
"What we're seeing in this early village is a very early stage in which serving cacao at fancy occasions is one of the strategies that upwardly mobile families are using to establish themselves, to accumulate social prestige," Henderson said in a telephone interview.
"I think this is part of the process by which you eventually get stratified societies," Henderson said.
The cacao brew consumed at the village of perhaps 200 to 300 people may have evolved into the chocolate beverage known from later in Mesoamerican history not by design but as "an accidental byproduct of some brewing," Henderson said.
The chocolate enjoyed by later Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and Aztecs was made from ground cacao seeds with added seasonings, producing a spicy, frothy drink.
The Spanish brought cacao back to Europe in the 16th century. Many innovations occurred in the ensuing centuries, including the advent of solid chocolate treats.
The scientists used chemical analysis of residues extracted from pottery vessels from the Honduran site to determine that cacao had been used.
The style of the 10 small, elegant serving vessels suggests the cacao brew was served at important ceremonies perhaps to celebrate weddings and births, the scientists said.
Henderson said the first use of cacao may be earlier still by perhaps a couple of centuries. He said the scientists intend to test earlier pottery from the region for chemical proof.
reuters.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America not as the sweet treat people now crave but as a celebratory beer-like beverage and status symbol, scientists said on Monday.
Researchers identified residue of a chemical compound that comes exclusively from the cacao plant -- the source of chocolate -- in pottery vessels dating from about 1100 BC in Puerto Escondido, Honduras.
This pushed back by at least 500 years the earliest documented use of cacao, an important luxury commodity in Mesoamerica before European invaders arrived and now the basis of the modern chocolate industry.
Cacao (pronounced cah-COW) seeds were used to make ceremonial beverages consumed by elites of the Aztecs and other civilizations, while also being used as a form of currency.
The Spanish conquistadors who shattered the Aztec empire in the 16th century were smitten with a chocolate beverage made from cacao seeds served in the palace of the emperor. However, this was not the form in which cacao had its beginnings.
"The earliest cacao beverages consumed at Puerto Escondido were likely produced by fermenting the sweet pulp surrounding the seeds," the scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One of the researchers, anthropologist John Henderson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, said cacao beverages were being concocted far earlier than previously believed -- and it was a beer-like drink that started the chocolate craze.
"What we're seeing in this early village is a very early stage in which serving cacao at fancy occasions is one of the strategies that upwardly mobile families are using to establish themselves, to accumulate social prestige," Henderson said in a telephone interview.
"I think this is part of the process by which you eventually get stratified societies," Henderson said.
The cacao brew consumed at the village of perhaps 200 to 300 people may have evolved into the chocolate beverage known from later in Mesoamerican history not by design but as "an accidental byproduct of some brewing," Henderson said.
The chocolate enjoyed by later Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and Aztecs was made from ground cacao seeds with added seasonings, producing a spicy, frothy drink.
The Spanish brought cacao back to Europe in the 16th century. Many innovations occurred in the ensuing centuries, including the advent of solid chocolate treats.
The scientists used chemical analysis of residues extracted from pottery vessels from the Honduran site to determine that cacao had been used.
The style of the 10 small, elegant serving vessels suggests the cacao brew was served at important ceremonies perhaps to celebrate weddings and births, the scientists said.
Henderson said the first use of cacao may be earlier still by perhaps a couple of centuries. He said the scientists intend to test earlier pottery from the region for chemical proof.
reuters.com
Friday, November 2, 2007
U.S. pilot who dropped Hiroshima bomb dies - report
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the U.S. bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan on Aug. 6, 1945, died on Thursday at age 92, a newspaper reported.
Tibbets, who died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, had suffered strokes and was ill from heart failure, the Columbus Dispatch said in its online edition.
An experienced pilot who had flown some of the first bombing missions over Germany during World War Two, Tibbets was a 30-year-old colonel commanding the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber named for his mother.
After a six-hour flight to Japan, Tibbets' crew dropped the bomb, code-named "Little Boy," over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m.
"If Dante had been with us on the plane, he would have been terrified," Tibbets said later. "The city we had seen so clearly in the sunlight a few minutes before was now an ugly smudge. It had completely disappeared under this awful blanket of smoke and fire."
The bomb instantly killed about 78,000 people. By the end of 1945, the number of dead had reached about 140,000 out of an estimated population of 350,000.
Three days later the United States dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War Two to an end.
Tibbets said in interviews he did not regret the decision to drop the bomb.
He became a brigadier general before leaving the military in 1966. Later he was president of Executive Jet Aviation, a Columbus-based international air-taxi service, the newspaper said.
reuters.com
Tibbets, who died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, had suffered strokes and was ill from heart failure, the Columbus Dispatch said in its online edition.
An experienced pilot who had flown some of the first bombing missions over Germany during World War Two, Tibbets was a 30-year-old colonel commanding the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber named for his mother.
After a six-hour flight to Japan, Tibbets' crew dropped the bomb, code-named "Little Boy," over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m.
"If Dante had been with us on the plane, he would have been terrified," Tibbets said later. "The city we had seen so clearly in the sunlight a few minutes before was now an ugly smudge. It had completely disappeared under this awful blanket of smoke and fire."
The bomb instantly killed about 78,000 people. By the end of 1945, the number of dead had reached about 140,000 out of an estimated population of 350,000.
Three days later the United States dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War Two to an end.
Tibbets said in interviews he did not regret the decision to drop the bomb.
He became a brigadier general before leaving the military in 1966. Later he was president of Executive Jet Aviation, a Columbus-based international air-taxi service, the newspaper said.
reuters.com
Like Father Like Son
Rakugo-ka and talento Hayashiya Ippei (36) announced at a Rakugo Association press conference in Tokyo yesterday that he plans to take on his late father's stage name. Real name Ebina Taisuke, he will become the second Hayashiya Sampei, with a series of events to mark the succession from March 21, 2009. His father, one of the leading figures in rakugo during the postwar period, passed away in 1980, leaving the Sampei name unused for almost three decades. Though normally Ippei's elder brother would have been expected to take his father's name, he instead succeeded as the 9th generation Hayashiya Shouzou (44) last year. That was said to have been because he has been more successful as a talento and media personality than a rakugo-ka. He was penalized earlier this year for tax evasion.
• It seems that former idol singer Akasaka Akira (34), busted for drugs at the weekend, had been having a bad year. His lawyer revealed yesterday that he and his wife of six years divorced at the end of March, with her retaining custody of their son. Akasaka has said that he first started using amphetamines in April. He is still being held at the Ohtsuka olice station. Fellow former Hikaru Genji member Sato Atsuhiro (34) apologized to his close friend via the media for not having realized the trouble he was in. He also apologized to Akasaka's fans for the inevitable cancellation of a dinner show that had been scheduled for December.
• Japan-based singer Agnes Chan (52) performed in Beijing yesterday, her first concert since undergoing surgery for breast cancer last month. The charity concert at the Great Hall of the People marked the 35th anniversary of the normalization of ties between China and Japan. In the audience was her 81-year-old mother, who had flown in from Hong Kong. Chan sang 17 songs in English, Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin. The concert had originally been planned for September 25, but was postponed due to a scheduling conflict with the Communist Party Congress. Chan was found to have breast cancer in mid-September and underwent surgery in early October.
• It seems that former idol singer Akasaka Akira (34), busted for drugs at the weekend, had been having a bad year. His lawyer revealed yesterday that he and his wife of six years divorced at the end of March, with her retaining custody of their son. Akasaka has said that he first started using amphetamines in April. He is still being held at the Ohtsuka olice station. Fellow former Hikaru Genji member Sato Atsuhiro (34) apologized to his close friend via the media for not having realized the trouble he was in. He also apologized to Akasaka's fans for the inevitable cancellation of a dinner show that had been scheduled for December.
• Japan-based singer Agnes Chan (52) performed in Beijing yesterday, her first concert since undergoing surgery for breast cancer last month. The charity concert at the Great Hall of the People marked the 35th anniversary of the normalization of ties between China and Japan. In the audience was her 81-year-old mother, who had flown in from Hong Kong. Chan sang 17 songs in English, Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin. The concert had originally been planned for September 25, but was postponed due to a scheduling conflict with the Communist Party Congress. Chan was found to have breast cancer in mid-September and underwent surgery in early October.
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