Art Funding: The Fight over Sex, Money and Power

In February 1989, the attention of the Rev. Donald Wildmon was directed to a photograph in an exhibition in Richmond, Virginia, which had closed a month earlier

Maldita sea la eficiencia

Lejos de ser la panacea contra el cambio climático, la eficiencia es la fuerza impulsora de patrones de consumo cada vez más voraces, así como de las consecuencias para la salud y el medio ambiente que acarrean.A fenómenos como el desprendimiento en los casquetes polares de icebergs del tamaño de pequeños países, el retroceso de los glaciares y el aumento del nivel del mar en las islas del Pacífico, la respuesta de los expertos al cambio climático es prácticamente unánime: «hay que ser más eficientes». Desde la nave industrial hasta la cocina doméstica, hacer las cosas más rápido, con menor consumo de recursos y realizando menos trabajo se ha convertido en la meta universalmente aceptada y en la solución elegida para evitar un mayor cambio climático. Los coches con motores híbridos no gastarán tanto petróleo, los insaciables aparatos eléctricos serán rediseñados para que se conformen con menores raciones de electricidad, el mejor aislamiento térmico significará ahorros sustanciales, y todo esto combinado se traducirá en un menor consumo de energía. En pocas palabras, una mayor aplicación de la eficiencia nos salvará del desastre, sin tener que hacer dolorosos sacrificios ni ajustes en nuestro estilo de vida.Quien eso crea, pensará también que el uso de computadoras ha reducido el consumo de papel. En realidad ha ocurrido exactamente lo contrario. La facilidad para escribir e imprimir que la informática ha generalizado ha supuesto una utilización de papel mayor que en toda la historia. La eficiencia tiene la costumbre de acarrear consecuencias inesperadas e ininitencionadas

The L. Ray Packing Company in Milbridge is run by the Rays, who have been in the

The L. Ray Packing Company in Milbridge is run by the Rays, who have been in the packing business since the early 1930s. In 1992 they packed 60,000 100-can cases of sardines under the Fisherman\u27s Net label, while years ago the company would pack a million cases annually. There used to be packing plants up and down the coast of Maine, but today there are just six, owned by four companies. Fewer fish, less demand and more competition from abroad are cited as the reasons for the decline in the Maine packing industry, but difficulty in finding local labor figures into the picture as well. Details

The heyday of granite quarrying on Maine islands came and went late in the ninet

The heyday of granite quarrying on Maine islands came and went late in the nineteenth century. Now it has come again, and Crotch Island, off Stonington, is thriving once more as granite becomes chic in the late twentieth century

An siRNA screen identifies RSK1 as a key modulator of lung cancer metastasis

We performed a kinome-wide siRNA screen and identified 70 kinases altering cell migration in A549 lung cancer cells. In particular, ribosomal S6 kinase 1 (RSK1) silencing increased, whereas RSK2 and RSK4 downregulation inhibited cell motility. In a secondary collagen-based three-dimensional invasion screen, 38 of our hits cross-validated, including RSK1 and RSK4. In two further lung cancer cell lines, RSK1 but not RSK4 silencing showed identical modulation of cell motility. We therefore selected RSK1 for further investigation. Bioinformatic analysis followed by co-immunoprecipitation-based validation revealed that the actin regulators VASP and Mena interact with RSK1. Moreover, RSK1 phosphorylated VASP on T278, a site regulating its binding to actin. In addition, silencing of RSK1 enhanced the metastatic potential of these cells in vivo using a zebrafish model. Finally, we investigated the relevance of this finding in human lung cancer samples. In isogenically matched tissue, RSK1 was reduced in metastatic versus primary lung cancer lesions. Moreover, patients with RSK1-negative lung tumours showed increased number of metastases. Our results suggest that the findings of our high-throughput in vitro screen can reliably identify relevant clinical targets and as a proof of principle, RSK1 may provide a biomarker for metastasis in lung cancer patients