Sure this Padfone thing (yes it's real) happened in May, but I just saw it and can't stop laughing and can't focus on the other thing I was writing so I am posting it here to get it out of my system, Arrington-style.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UpyAgyb9r6o/
First it was chess. Then it was Jeopardy.
Now computers are at it again, but this time they are trying to automate the scientific process itself.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Vanderbilt University, Cornell University and CFD Research Corporation, Inc., has taken a major step toward this goal by demonstrating that a computer can analyze raw experimental data from a biological system and derive the basic mathematical equations that describe the way the system operates. According to the researchers, it is one of the most complex scientific modeling problems that a computer has solved completely from scratch.
The paper that describes this accomplishment is published in the October issue of the journal Physical Biology and is currently available online.
The work was a collaboration between John P. Wikswo, the Gordon A. Cain University Professor at Vanderbilt, Michael Schmidt and Hod Lipson at the Creative Machines Lab at Cornell University and Jerry Jenkins and Ravishankar Vallabhajosyula at CFDRC in Huntsville, Ala.
The "brains" of the system, which Wikswo has christened the Automated Biology Explorer (ABE), is a unique piece of software called Eureqa developed at Cornell and released in 2009. Schmidt and Lipson originally created Eureqa to design robots without going through the normal trial and error stage that is both slow and expensive. After it succeeded, they realized it could also be applied to solving science problems.
One of Eureqa's initial achievements was identifying the basic laws of motion by analyzing the motion of a double pendulum. What took Sir Isaac Newton years to discover, Eureqa did in a few hours when running on a personal computer.
In 2006, Wikswo heard Lipson lecture about his research. "I had a 'eureka moment' of my own when I realized the system Hod had developed could be used to solve biological problems and even control them," Wikswo said. So he started talking to Lipson immediately after the lecture and they began a collaboration to adapt Eureqa to analyze biological problems.
"Biology is the area where the gap between theory and data is growing the most rapidly," said Lipson. "So it is the area in greatest need of automation."
Software passes test
The biological system that the researchers used to test ABE is glycolysis, the primary process that produces energy in a living cell. Specifically, they focused on the manner in which yeast cells control fluctuations in the chemical compounds produced by the process.
The researchers chose this specific system, called glycolytic oscillations, to perform a virtual test of the software because it is one of the most extensively studied biological control systems. Jenkins and Vallabhajosyula used one of the process' detailed mathematical models to generate a data set corresponding to the measurements a scientist would make under various conditions. To increase the realism of the test, the researchers salted the data with a 10 percent random error. When they fed the data into Eureqa, it derived a series of equations that were nearly identical to the known equations.
"What's really amazing is that it produced these equations a priori," said Vallabhajosyula. "The only thing the software knew in advance was addition, subtraction, multiplication and division."
Beyond Adam
The ability to generate mathematical equations from scratch is what sets ABE apart from Adam, the robot scientist developed by Ross King and his colleagues at the University of Wales at Aberystwyth. Adam runs yeast genetics experiments and made international headlines two years ago by making a novel scientific discovery without direct human input. King fed Adam with a model of yeast metabolism and a database of genes and proteins involved in metabolism in other species. He also linked the computer to a remote-controlled genetics laboratory. This allowed the computer to generate hypotheses, then design and conduct actual experiments to test them.
"It's a classic paper," Wikswo said.
In order to give ABE the ability to run experiments like Adam, Wikswo's group is currently developing "laboratory-on-a-chip" technology that can be controlled by Eureqa. This will allow ABE to design and perform a wide variety of basic biology experiments. Their initial effort is focused on developing a microfluidics device that can test cell metabolism.
"Generally, the way that scientists design experiments is to vary one factor at a time while keeping the other factors constant, but, in many cases, the most effective way to test a biological system may be to tweak a large number of different factors at the same time and see what happens. ABE will let us do that," Wikswo said.
###
Vanderbilt University: http://www.exploration.vanderbilt.edu
Thanks to Vanderbilt University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114318/Robot_biologist_solves_complex_problem_from_scratch
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 14, 2011) ? The effects of obesity -- both on our bodies and on the health budget -- are well known, and now, scientists are getting closer to understanding how the disease progresses, providing clues for future treatments.
In a study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers at Monash University in collaboration with colleagues in the United States, have revealed how resistance to the hormone leptin, a key causal component of obesity, develops.
Lead author Professor Tony Tiganis, of the Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute and Monash University's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, said our bodies produce leptin in response to increasing fat deposits.
"Acting on a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, leptin instructs the body to increase energy expenditure and decrease food intake, and so helps us maintain a healthy body weight," said Professor Tiganis.
"The body's response to leptin is diminished in overweight and obese individuals, giving rise to the concept of 'leptin-resistance'. We've discovered more about how 'leptin-resistance' develops, providing new directions for research into possible treatments."
Two proteins are already known to inhibit leptin in the brain and Professor Tiganis' team have discovered a third. In mice, this third protein becomes more abundant with weight-gain, exacerbating leptin-resistance and hastening progression to morbid obesity. The study showed that the three negative regulators of leptin take effect at different stages, shedding light on how obesity progresses.
"Drugs targeting one of the negative regulators are already in clinical trials for Type 2 Diabetes, however, our research shows that in terms of increasing leptin-sensitivity in obesity, targeting only one of these won't be enough. All three regulators might need to be switched off," said Professor Tiganis.
The study showed that high fat diet-induced weight gain is largely prevented in genetically-modified mice when two of the negative regulators are deleted in the brain.
"We now have to determine what happens when all three negative regulators are neutralised. Do we prevent high fat diet-induced obesity?"
Professor Tiganis said the more that is known about obesity, the better equipped scientists are to develop drugs to support good diet and exercise choices.
"Humans have a deep-seated attraction to overeating and nutrient-rich food, inherited from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Now that food is more readily available and our lifestyles are less active, our evolutionary drive to overeat is becoming problematic."
More than four million Australians are obese and if current trends continue, by 2020, more than 80 per cent of adults and almost one third of children will be overweight or obese. Studies indicate that obesity and related health issues cost Australians more than $56 billion a year.
"Simply telling people to eat less and exercise more is not going to be sufficient to reverse the obesity trend. There is a pressing need to develop novel drugs that complement diet and exercise to both prevent and treat this disease," said Professor Tiganis.
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111014095624.htm
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Source: http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?StoryID=236163&full=1
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Por Gilson Caroni Filho
Os movimentos que saem da internet para ganhar as ruas, longe de ser a "primavera" com que sonham ? ou fingem sonhar ? seus reais mentores, t?m se mostrado um melanc?lico outono dos tradicionais dispositivos de agenciamento midi?tico.
Os brasileiros, que tiveram de passar 20 anos, lendo nas entrelinhas, especulando a partir de meias palavras ou interpretando ? procurando interpretar ? as rudes rea??es viscerais trazidas ao p?blico por aqueles que detinham o poder, t?m hoje olhos e ouvidos apurad?ssimos para entender o que h? por tr?s de cada epis?dio do cotidiano, por mais irrelevante que possa parecer ? primeira vista. ? isso que o baronato midi?tico parece n?o ter entendido ao continuar patrocinando atos que, a pretexto de combater a corrup??o, t?m como objetivo esvaziar a pol?tica.
Os movimentos que saem da internet para ganhar as ruas, longe de ser a ?primavera? com que sonham ? ou fingem sonhar ? seus reais mentores, t?m se mostrado um melanc?lico outono dos tradicionais dispositivos de agenciamento midi?tico. Submersos na crise do imobilismo de suas bases, resta ? velha direita o consolo de platitudes publicadas para justificar mais uma tentativa fracassada. O saldo de mais um insucesso ora ? debitado ? boa situa??o da economia brasileira ora a uma estranha l?gica bin?ria, como a apresentada pelo professor de ?tica e Filosofia Pol?tica da Universidade de S?o Paulo (USP), Renato Janine Ribeiro, na edi??o de 13/ 05, de O Globo.
?O problema na luta contra a corrup??o ? que ela est? tomada pelos partidos. E ? uma l?stima que as pessoas usem isso contra o partido oposto?. Mas a que se refere o renomado acad?mico? A caracter?stica do movimento n?o seria exatamente o seu reiterado ?car?ter apartid?rio?? Ou, sem se dar conta, Janine revela o fato que deveria permanecer oculto: o centro pol?tico da rea??o est? agrupado no campo jornal?stico oligopolista que assume para si o papel de partido de oposi??o.
O mesmo partido que deu sustenta??o a duas d?cadas de ditadura militar. O mesmo agrupamento que silenciou as emo??es e expectativas da opini?o p?blica durante os oito anos de desmando do tucanato. Que editou a realidade para ocultar as preocupa??es da popula??o com o apag?o, o descontrole cambial, a desnacionaliza??o de partes substanciosas da produ??o e servi?os nacionais, os rigores de uma pol?tica econ?mica que duplicaram as d?vidas externas e internas e criaram seguidos d?ficits comerciais.
Desemprego, congelamento ou irris?rios aumentos salariais, ao lado de esc?ndalos pol?ticos e econ?micos, pareciam fazer parte do cen?rio natural para os mesmos colunistas militantes que agora se arvoram em defensores de valores republicanos. Num conhecido jogo de espelhos, a defesa incondicional dos ditames do mercado ? trocada, editorialmente, pela busca de posicionamento ?tico no trato da coisa p?blica. A guinada ? t?o mal-feita que n?o atrai o distinto p?blico, como pudemos constatar nas manifesta??es de quarta-feira, dia da padroeira oficial do Brasil. No Rio de Janeiro, os manifestantes chegaram a hostilizar os que preferiram olhar o mar a ver a ressaca dos derrotados.
Para deixar claro qual o objetivo da TV Globo e de seus s?cios menores nessa simula??o barata, vale a pena reproduzir o que escreveu o ex-deputado Milton Temer (PSOL) em seu blog: ?promover no Brasil uma onda semelhante ? que lamentavelmente varre povos de pot?ncias capitalistas, que se re?nem em manifesta??es pontuais e conjunturais, mas que, pela absten??o nos processos eleitorais, por justificado ceticismo, permitem ? direita mais reacion?ria manter o controle absoluto das institui??es, ditas republicanas, que realmente deliberam sobre seus destinos, atrav?s do modelo de sociedade que desenham com suas leis e decis?es dos poderes Executivo e Judici?rio.?
O brasileiro sabe que, sempre que uma esperan?a se frustra (o que n?o ? o caso do atual do governo), vem a decep??o e ? preciso criar alternativas. Sempre ? preciso reconstruir caminhos, mas o que a grande imprensa apresenta ? um atalho para o precip?cio.
Gilson Caroni Filho ? professor de Sociologia das Faculdades Integradas H?lio Alonso (Facha), no Rio de Janeiro, colunista da Carta Maior e colaborador do Jornal do Brasil
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DesabafoBrasil/~3/c0h21Xf2J2M/nova-passeata-da-globo-ressaca-dos.html
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BEIJING (Reuters) ? China urged the Obama administration to block a U.S. bill aimed at pressing Beijing to lift the yuan's value, raising the risk of further strains between the world's top two economies even if warnings of a "trade war" remain just talk.
Washington's effort to force Beijing's hand may have the opposite effect, at least for now. Currency investors are already pricing in the risk that China could tighten its leash on the yuan to demonstrate its grip over the currency.
The bill is a protectionist step that "gravely violates World Trade Organization rules," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said after the U.S. Senate approved it in a 63-35 vote and sent it to House of Representatives.
"China urges the U.S. government, Congress and all quarters to resolutely oppose using domestic legislation to create a fuss about and put pressure on the renminbi exchange rate," said Ma in comments on the ministry's website (http://www.mfa.gov.cn).
The "renminbi," or "people's currency," is another name for China's yuan currency.
The legislation will "disrupt the shared efforts of China and the United States, as well as the international community, to promote vigorous recovery and growth in the global economy," said Ma.
His condemnation was echoed by China's Ministry of Commerce and the People's Bank of China, the central bank, which said the yuan exchange rate was "reasonable."
Chinese officials and media have warned that the legislation could trigger a "trade war" of escalating protectionist tit-for-tat retaliation.
China's official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday that "what the U.S. Senate did planted a ticking time-bomb that may ignite a potential trade war."
BLUSTER
On the face of it, China has major weapons to strike back at the United States if the currency legislation is passed. It is America's biggest foreign creditor and its fastest-growing major export market.
But such shapeless threats are more bluster to reassure domestic audiences than a real option, said Yi Xianrong, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who said the risk of an escalating cycle of trade retaliation was scant.
"A trade war won't break out, it just won't. It's just to give it a scare," he told Reuters of the warnings from Beijing to Washington.
"The reaction has been excessive. Many people have called for payback by selling off (Chinese holdings of) U.S. government debt. That would be utterly foolish," he added.
But China could nonetheless adopt retaliatory steps against some U.S. goods and companies if the bill ever passes into law, said several other economists and foreign policy analysts.
Although the currency bill faces high hurdles to becoming law, Beijing appears worried that it could signal more feuding with the United States in 2012, when President Barack Obama faces a tough fight for re-election and China's Communist Party will navigate a leadership handover.
"The election race is already having an impact, and it will certainly expand," said Jin Canrong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing specializing in Sino-American relations.
"Because of the state of the U.S. economy, trade issues will be the focus of that impact," he added, noting criticism of China from Republican candidates, including Mitt Romney.
"If this bill is passed, and the United States exacts tariffs as the bill demands, I think China will respond by imposing tariffs on some U.S. products," said Jin.
The angry exchanges could stoke investor jitters even if they remain just words, Barclays Capital said in a client note.
"The Senate's passage is already sufficient to sour the atmosphere for bilateral cooperation at a time when it is most needed to maintain global growth and stability," it said.
"In the unlikely scenario that the bill becomes law and the U.S. penalizes Chinese exports, China might retaliate, for instance by taxing U.S. MNCs (multinationals) in China."
Ties between Beijing and Washington have also been troubled by disputes over China's fetters on dissent and on the Internet, regional military and security tensions, and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by China.
YAWNING DEFICIT
China controls the pace of yuan exchange rate movements by setting a daily mid-point from which the currency can rise or fall 0.5 percent versus the dollar each day, and also by intervening in trading on the domestic market.
On Wednesday, traders pushed the yuan to its lower daily limit, reflecting sentiment that the central bank will keep the yuan on a tight leash to signal to Washington that it will not be pushed around.
Many U.S. lawmakers, trade unions and manufacturing lobbies say China holds down the value of the yuan to give its exports an unfair edge in global markets.
Both governments have pledged to address imbalances, but the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 rose to a record-breaking $273 billion, up from about $227 billion in 2009, U.S. data shows.
In China, many officials worry that moving faster to raise the value of the yuan could hurt exports and the tens of millions of manufacturing jobs they create.
"Making groundless accusations about the renminbi exchange rate will not solve the United States' lack of savings, trade deficit or high unemployment rate," said the Chinese central bank in response to the U.S. Senate passing the bill.
"But it could seriously disrupt the exchange rate reforms that China is undertaking."
China says it is committed to gradual currency reform and notes the yuan has risen 30 percent since July 2005, when Beijing revalued the currency.
The proposed Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 would allow the U.S. government to slap countervailing duties on goods from countries found to be subsidizing their exports by undervaluing their currencies.
But before President Barack Obama could be forced to decide whether to sign the bill into law, it must first win approval from the House of Representatives, where key Republicans have indicated they dislike the tariff threat.
The American Chamber of Commerce in China, which represents many firms with business there, also repeated its opposition to the legislation in an emailed statement.
"The Senate bill would damage the bilateral trade and investment relationship, weaken our standing in the World Trade Organization, and damage our national interests," said Ted Dean, the chairman of the chamber, which has headquarters in Beijing.
(Additional reporting by Aileen Wang and Sabrina Mao; Editing by Ken Wills and Neil Fullick)
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Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko speaks during her trial at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Tymoshenko was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated. Judge Rodion Kireyev also barred Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, from occupying government posts for three years and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna (US$190 million or euro140 million) for the damages her actions cost the state. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko speaks during her trial at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Tymoshenko was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated. Judge Rodion Kireyev also barred Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, from occupying government posts for three years and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna (US$190 million or euro140 million) for the damages her actions cost the state. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The judge, Rodion Kireyev reads the indictment during a trial against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Tymoshenko on Tuesday was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated. Judge Rodion Kireyev also barred Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, from occupying government posts for three years after the completion of her prison term and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna ($190 million; euros140 million) in damages to the state. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko seen during her trial, at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Tymoshenko on Tuesday was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated. Judge Rodion Kireyev also barred Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, from occupying government posts for three years after the completion of her prison term and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna ($190 million; euros140 million) in damages to the state. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian riot police officers block supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko outside the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev,Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Tymoshenko was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated. Judge Rodion Kireyev also barred Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, from occupying government posts for three years and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna (US$190 million or euro140 million) for the damages her actions cost the state.(AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko seen during her trial at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. Tymoshenko was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated. Judge Rodion Kireyev also barred Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, from occupying government posts for three years and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna (US$190 million or euro140 million) for the damages her actions cost the state. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) ? Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of abuse of office in signing a gas deal with Russia, a verdict immediately condemned by both the European Union and Russia as politically motivated.
Tymoshenko, the driving force of the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution and now the nation's top opposition leader, denounced the trial as rigged by President Viktor Yanukovych to get rid of a political opponent.
The case has galvanized the opposition. A crowd of several dozen angry Tymoshenko supporters clashed following the verdict with helmeted riot policed who flooded the city center, but they were quickly pushed away and it was unclear if the protests would last.
Judge Rodion Kireyev declared Tymoshenko, 50, guilty of exceeding her authority as premier when she signed a natural gas imports contract with Russia in 2009. He also banned her from occupying government posts for three years after the completion of her prison term and fined her 1.5 billion hryvna ($190 million or euro140 million) for the damages her actions cost the state.
Tymoshenko, clad in a beige dress and wearing her trademark blond braid around her head, has called the trial a "lynching." She appeared unfazed by the verdict and began addressing reporters in the courtroom without waiting for Kireyev to finish reading the lengthy ruling.
She said Yanukovych wrote the verdict himself and compared it to the show trials and horrific purges by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
"The year 1937 has returned to Ukraine with this verdict and all the repression of citizens," she said. "As for me, be sure that I will not stop my fight even for a minute. I will always be with you as long as it is necessary."
"Nobody, not Yanukovych, not Kireyev, can humiliate my honest name. I have worked and will continue to work for Ukraine's sake," Tymoshenko told reporters earlier.
As Kireyev was leaving the courtroom, Tymoshenko's husband Oleksandr yelled out that the judge would someday get a similar verdict. One Tymoshenko supporter shouted "Shame!"
Tymoshenko was taken back to jail in a detention van right after the verdict was announced.
The EU was quick to condemn the verdict as politically driven and urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a transparent and fair appeals process for Tymoshenko. A failure to do so would have "profound implications" for Ukraine-EU relations and could jeopardize the conclusion of a landmark association agreement, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
That would be a major blow to Yanukovych who has lobbied for membership in the bloc.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted that the deal he struck with Tymoshenko conformed to both Russian and Ukrainian law. "I don't quite understand why she was sentenced to seven years," he said in televised comments during a visit to China.
Amnesty International denounced Tymoshenko's conviction as "illegitimate," saying that her trial "casts doubt over the independence of the judiciary."
Tymoshenko said she would contest the ruling in the European Court of Human Rights and her lawyers said they would appeal the verdict in local courts.
Some analysts believe Tuesday's decision could still be reversed, giving Tymoshenko the chance to walk free and still take part in elections next year. That could be done either on appeal or by decriminalizing the article under which she is being charged ? something lawmakers loyal to Yanukovych have hinted they could try to do.
"A compromise is still possible," said political analyst Oleksiy Haran. "She gets the guilty verdict and Yanukovych's sense of revenge is satisfied, but then she is released and allowed to stand in elections."
Yanukovych himself appeared to signal Tuesday that Tymoshenko's case was not over yet and hinted that new legislation, adopted by the time the case is heard by an appeals court, could be of great importance.
The trial has helped unite Ukraine' fractured opposition, but experts said the verdict was unlikely to draw the kinds of mass street protests seen during the Orange Revolution. As reforms stalled and economic hardships hit, many Ukrainians have become disillusioned with Orange leaders, including Tymoshenko, and with politics in general.
Tymoshenko helped lead the 2004 mass street protests against Yanukovych's election victory that year. Those demonstrations drew hudreds of thousands to Kiev's central square, the Maidan, setting the stage for the Supreme Court to overturn Yanukovych's victory and call for a revote, which Tymoshenko's ally, Viktor Yushchenko, won by a narrow margin.
Yanukovych staged a comeback, narrowly defeating Tymoshenko in a 2010 presidential vote amid the public disenchantment.
Valeriy Chaliy, a senior analyst with the Razumkov think tank, said that it was too early to make predictions on opposition protests, since Tymoshenko will be appealing the verdict.
"But the Maidan that took place in 2004 will not take place," Chaliy said. If protests do take place this time around, they will be smaller, but more aggressive, he added.
Tymoshenko maintains that as prime minister she did not need any special permission to order the signing of the gas deal. She says her actions helped end a bitter pricing dispute between Moscow and Kiev, which had led to energy supply shortages across Europe.
Yanukovych's government has insisted that the contract Tymoshenko signed should be renegotiated in favor of a lower price. Moscow has signaled it would only do so if Ukraine sacrifices a free-trade agreement with the EU in favor of a Moscow-led customs union.
Tymoshenko has been in jail for more than two months on charges of contempt of court. She spent several weeks in prison in 2001 on charges of document forgery and tax evasion, but the charges were later dropped.
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Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson looks up during a tribute to late Raiders owner Al Davis before the NFL football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, in Houston. Davis passed away over the weekend. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson looks up during a tribute to late Raiders owner Al Davis before the NFL football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, in Houston. Davis passed away over the weekend. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Oakland Raiders wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey (85) races away from Houston Texans cornerback Jason Allen (30) on his way to score a touchdown in the second quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Houston Texans wide receiver Kevin Walter, top, is rolled over by Oakland Raiders cornerback Stanford Routt (26) while scoring a touchdown in the first quarter of an NFL football game on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Oakland Raiders wide receiver Chaz Schilens runs across the goal line for a touchdown against the Houston Texans in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)
Houston Texans' Mario Williams looks on from the sidelines after being hurt in the first quarter of an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)
HOUSTON (AP) ? This one's for you, Al.
The Oakland Raiders won the day after their maverick owner died, beating the Houston Texans 25-20 on Sunday behind Jason Campbell's two touchdown passes.
Michael Huff intercepted Matt Schaub's pass in the end zone on the final play to secure the win. Coach Hue Jackson dropped to his knees on the sideline, covered his face with his hands and cried as his team celebrated the bittersweet victory.
Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals, and Oakland survived a wild finish to improve to 3-2.
Stadiums around the league observed a moment of silence before the early games to honor Davis, who died at his Oakland home at age 82. The Raiders wore black decals on the backs of their helmets with "AL" written in silver letters.
Schaub threw for 416 yards and two touchdowns but missed star receiver Andre Johnson, who sat out with a right hamstring injury.
The Texans (3-2) still had a chance to win with under a minute left, facing a third-and-29 from the Oakland 39.
Schaub scrambled and found tight end Joel Dreessen open at the 5, and Schaub spiked the ball with seven seconds left. Instead of trying to run for the winning score, Schaub lobbed a pass to Jacoby Jones, and Huff stepped in to pick it off. Jones took Johnson's spot in the starting lineup.
The Raiders pulled off a fake punt that Davis would've loved to keep momentum in the fourth quarter.
After the Texans stopped Darren McFadden on third-and-1, Rock Cartwright took the snap and raced 35 yards to the Houston 25. Janikowski kicked a 42-yard field goal with 10 minutes left for a 25-17 Oakland lead.
With no Johnson to target, Schaub threw six consecutive incompletions during one stretch of the final quarter.
Neil Rackers' 40-yard field goal cut Oakland's lead to 25-20 with 2:56 left, and Houston's defense held to give the offense one more chance.
The Raiders flew to Houston on Friday, then learned Saturday morning that Davis had died. Jackson gathered his players for an emotional meeting at their hotel, and Campbell said the team's leaders were taking responsibility for rallying the players.
Hall of Fame former Raiders cornerback Willie Brown, who travels with the team, was hoping players would be inspired.
"They need to realize that every tear, every step, every block, every tackle ? it's for him," Brown said.
It didn't look promising after the Texans scored a touchdown on their opening series for the third straight game.
Arian Foster had a 20-yard run against the league's 29th-ranked run defense, and Kevin Walter caught a short touchdown pass with 8:15 left in the first quarter.
Oakland, meanwhile, needed a turnover and a blocked punt to generate early points.
Defensive end Lamarr Houston intercepted Schaub's pass, which was deflected, setting up Janikowski for a 54-yard field goal. Oakland got the ball at the Texans 39 after Daryl Blackstock blocked Brett Hartmann's punt, but the Raiders stalled again, and Janikowski kicked a 55-yarder to make it 7-6.
Janikowski is 5-for-6 on attempts 50 yards and longer this season, including one from 63 that tied an NFL record.
Hartmann pinned the Raiders inside their own 5 with his next punt, and Jason Allen intercepted Campbell's deep pass to Jacoby Ford near midfield. On first down, Schaub threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Dreessen.
Oakland got its initial first down with just under two minutes left in the half. Four plays later, Campbell threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey.
The 2-point conversion failed, but the Raiders were lucky to trail only 14-12 at the break after producing only four first downs in the opening half.
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia ? Saudi Arabia held its second nationwide vote ever on Thursday, a male-only election for powerless municipal councils. The balloting comes just days after the king decreed that women will be able to participate for the first time in the next local elections in 2015, a measure likely aimed at heading off Arab Spring-style dissent in the kingdom.
The election and Sunday's decree to give women the vote are two examples of the baby steps King Abdullah has been taking to reform and modernize his oil-rich nation since he ascended the throne in 2005. Though small, they are significant by the standards of his ultraconservative country ? home to Islam's holiest shrines and vastly influenced by the clerical establishment.
Still the reforms signal the ruling family is not ready for deep change, even as popular uprisings are transforming the face of an Arab world long accustomed to absolute monarchs ? like the Saudi king ? dictators and fraudulently elected leaders.
"They are glacial changes," Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Center in Doha, Qatar, said of the recent decree on women. "But King Abdullah is the only man who can push change. Unfortunately, it has been too slow."
The Saudi kingdom is nowhere close to any of its Arab neighbors, not even those in the conservative Gulf region, when it comes to basic rights, freedoms and gender equality. The king rules with absolute power and shows zero tolerance for political dissent.
The ruling Al-Saud family has a near monopoly on top government posts and does not answer to anyone outside the family. Women are barred from driving and they cannot be members of the Cabinet. They cannot travel either, be admitted to hospital or take a job without permission from a male guardian.
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the king's announcement giving women the right to vote. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement that Ban "believes that these represent an important step in the realization by women in Saudi Arabia of their fundamental civil and political rights."
If giving women the right to vote was hailed as a courageous step by the king, some saw it as almost purely symbolic.
"It was a bold and unexpected move," said blogger Eman al-Nafjan. "It is a start, but what we really need are reforms that improve women's lot in their everyday life."
Official turnout figures were not available for Thursday's vote. But Saudi media and activists said it was a small slice of the 1.2 million registered voters, a possible reflection of the insignificance Saudis attach to the toothless local councils that operate in the shadow of provincial governments led by powerful members of the ruling Al-Saud family.
Some 5,000 people ran for the more than 1,000 seats on 285 councils across the kingdom. The voters elected half the members of the councils, the other half will be appointed by the government.
The local council vote was initially scheduled for 2009 but was postponed. The first one was in 2005.
Abdullah, 88 and known to have health problems, is hailed among many Saudis as a reformer because of several bold moves he has taken since coming to power. He set up the Shura, or consultative, council in 1993 and even though it is an advisory body, it allowed some popular voice in government. All 150 members of the all-male chamber are appointed by the king, but women will be appointed to sit on the council when it starts a new term in 2013.
The justice minister said in comments published Thursday that future female council members would not share the same chamber with male peers, suggesting that closed circuits could be used to allow them to participate in discussions. The arrangement would conform with the country's rigid segregation of the sexes.
King Abdullah's reform-minded policies are best evidenced in the education sector. He established the kingdom's only university where men and women attend classes together ? and in the economy, which he has significantly liberalized.
Saudi Arabia's 18 million citizens are mostly conservative and, like their king, don't want to see Western-style reforms change the traditions and customs of a society heavily inspired by the teachings of Islam.
Moreover, the Al-Saud family has had an enduring understanding with the powerful clergy that dates back to the early years of the last century, under which the clerics' views are heard on what does and does not conform with Islam.
What the Saudi clerical establishment has to say is not only heard in the kingdom, but resonates across the predominantly Sunni Muslim Gulf region, where most follow the austere Wahhabi doctrine born in Saudi Arabia.
"What King Abdullah did for the women was practically throwing into the bin what his religious establishment had to say for years about women's place in society," said Sami Alfaraj, chairman of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. "I suspect that more restrictions on women will be lifted, but the conservative nature of Saudi Arabia would not allow women to exercise all the rights they may win."
It is against this backdrop that King Abdullah must tread carefully as he pursues even slow and gradual reforms: a powerful clergy, a conservative segment of the population, the high expectations of the majority of the population that is under 25 and guarding against a possible spillover from the Arab Spring revolts that could provide his subjects with models to follow.
The Saudi monarch has given contradictory signals on how he views the Arab Spring, dispatching military forces to neighboring Bahrain to prop up the ruling family there against a campaign for equal rights launched by the tiny nation's Shiite majority. Last month, however, he withdrew his ambassador from Damascus in protest against Syrian President Bashar Assad's crackdown on anti-government protesters.
____
Hendawi reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, right, arrives for a meeting with the NBA owners' labor relations committee and the players' union executive committee on Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in New York. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, right, arrives for a meeting with the NBA owners' labor relations committee and the players' union executive committee on Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in New York. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Derek Fisher, center, Los Angeles Lakers point guard and president of the NBA Players Association, speaks to reporters after a five-hour meeting with owners to discuss a new labor deal and possibly avert a lockout on Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony attends a news conference after a meeting between the NBA Players Association and owners to discuss a new labor deal and possibly avert a lockout, Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, in New York. Both sides will resume talks Saturday. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NBA Commissioner David Stern, center, speaks to reporters after a meeting between the NBA Players Association and owners to discuss a new labor deal and possibly avert a lockout, Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Miami Heat's Lebron James attends a news conference after a meeting between the NBA Players Association and owners to discuss a new labor deal and possibly avert a lockout, Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, in New York. Neither side cited any progress but said it was a good sign that they agreed to continue the discussions and will resume talks Saturday. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) ? With a month until the NBA season, players and owners don't sound much closer to a labor deal than they did when the lockout began.
They're so far apart on money they decided to leave it alone Saturday and focused mainly on the salary cap.
They couldn't solve that one, either.
"I wouldn't say there was any progress. What happened was, they put some concepts up, we put some concepts up, and we're still miles apart," union executive director Billy Hunter said. "There's a huge bridge, gap, that I don't know if we're going to be able to close it or not."
The sides will meet again Monday ? the day training camps were to have begun ? though time is getting short to save the start of the regular season, scheduled for Nov. 1. Neither side sounds optimistic.
In a seven-hour bargaining session, their longest since the lockout began July 1, the sides talked about one of the two major issues that divides them. Owners want a hard cap, or at least want a number of changes to the current soft cap system, which the players prefer to keep largely intact.
The sides didn't even attempt to deal with the division of revenues, the other big obstacle to a labor agreement that would end the lockout.
Commissioner David Stern said he had nothing to announce in terms of cancellations. But the remainder of the preseason schedule is in jeopardy ? some games already have been canceled. Regular-season games could now be threatened, too.
"Our desire would be to not cancel, and we had been hopeful that this weekend would be a broader marker, but for reasons which we understand, the players suggested that we resume on Monday, and we said 'fine,'" Stern said.
Stern did indicate some level of progress, saying: "We're not near anything, but wherever that is, we're closer than we were before."
The sides will meet in small groups, then bring large groups back for another meeting Tuesday.
Hunter again said owners haven't moved off their proposal to trim the players' guarantee of basketball-related income to 46 percent, down from the 57 percent they were guaranteed in the previous collective bargaining agreement.
With the gulf so wide on money, Hunter suggested they separate the issues and attack one at a time. They started with the cap, where the league has transitioned from a desire for a hard cap to a proposal that would make the luxury tax more severe for the highest-spending teams. Union officials fear that would act like a hard cap by scaring teams into spending less to avoid a harsh penalty.
Stern, Hunter and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver all said they felt some good came of going at the cap issue first. But they couldn't resolve it, and it leaves another problem on the horizon largely untouched.
"I can't necessarily characterize things as we made progress and that I'm somehow more optimistic than I was yesterday," union president Derek Fisher of the Lakers said. "The reality is we still have an extremely long way to go. Even with the exchanges that we made today, there's still huge gaps in what we've proposed compared to what they've proposed, and then obviously we still have the economics that are just kind of sitting out there waiting for us to tackle. So there's a lot of work left to be done, but we'll keep at this."
Fisher said the players basically gave the owners a list of things they wanted kept in the next cap, likely things such as the midlevel and Larry Bird exceptions that allow teams to exceed the cap. However, the league is looking for ways to keep costs down for owners, and those items are easy targets.
Stern also confirmed he and Miami All-Star Dwyane Wade had a "heated exchange of some kind" during Friday's meeting. Most of the star players had left by Saturday, but Stern and Silver said they were pleased by the number of players who did show up, singling out Boston's Paul Pierce as one who said some meaningful things.
Hunter said he assumed it would be possible to save the entire season if the sides agreed to a deal by the middle of next week. But that will be difficult, given it could take as much as month between an agreement being reached and the time games could be played, so that free agency and exhibition games can first take place.
Hunter added the union hadn't even signed off on the league's plan for enhanced revenue sharing among teams, after Stern indicated Friday that players would be OK with it.
Even though Stern had warned of "enormous consequences" of not making significant progress toward a deal this weekend, he is remaining hopeful.
"If we didn't think that there was any hope, we wouldn't be scheduling the meetings," he said. "But that's the best I would say right now."
___
Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney
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