A basic requirement for growth and life of a multicellular organism is the ability of its cells to divide. A protein complex, the so-called centrosome, plays a major role during cell division. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, together with colleagues at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and at the Leibniz Institute for Age Research - Fritz Lipmann Institute in Jena have investigated the functions of the different centrosomal components. The researchers now present the centrosome's components and their functions. Their work extends our knowledge of regulation of cell division and opens the door to new investigations into cancer development. (EMBO Journal, September 3rd 2010)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Decades of whaling and fishing for the largest species have altered the ability of oceans to store and sequester carbon, according to a team of marine researchers from the University of Maine, the University of British Columbia and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).

Reuters - Several hundred Afghans chanting "Death to America" rallied outside a mosque in the Afghan capital on Monday to protest against an American church's plan to burn a copy of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Reuters - Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday he had canceled a book-signing in London this week to mark the launch of his memoirs, over fears the event would be hit by protests.

Source: Reuters (For more on Afghanistan, click [ID:nAFPAK])

KABUL, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Several hundred Afghans chanting "Death to America" rallied outside a mosque in the Afghan capital on Monday to ...

Source: Reuters * OSCE mediators say to step up activities

* Four soldiers confirmed killed over past week

* Nagorno-Karabakh a threat to energy transit region

By Matt Robinson

TBILISI, Sept 6 (Reuters) - ...

Source: Reuters * Heavy rain expected in northeast Mexico, southern Texas

* Hermine is eighth named storm of 2010 Atlantic season (Updates wind strength, position, previous WASHINGTON)

MIAMI, Sept 6 (Reuters) - ...

Kings -- especially ones with creepy face masks -- are there to serve their subjects, so Burger King responded to complaints from critics by switching its source for palm oil in which to cook its delicacies. Led by Greenpeace, environmentalists had harangued the company from buying from a subsidiary of Sinar Mas, Indonesian outfit accused of deforestation.

Burger King announced the change late last week on its Facebook page. Nestle also abandoned the subsidiary within the past year, GreenBiz reports.

Sorry, Whopper fans. You'll no longer get the sweet taste of forest destruction with your meal.

Sinar Mas Decision [Burger King Facebook page via GreenBiz]

The group Consumer Watchdog is pushing hard for Congress to establish a "do not track" list for online consumers, which I'm all for. I'm not sure whether releasing a ridiculously unpleasant cartoon in Times Square is the right strategy, though--especially when you use the very service you're warning people about.

For one thing, Eric Schmidt looks like he might be the Joker, and without audio--the way you'd watch it in Times Square, in other words--you can't really tell what he's doing. (Is the ice cream poisonous? Is he a government agent?) Another problem, if you actually listen to the audio, is that the video shows Schmidt luring kids to an ice cream truck and then telling them about their parents' sexual behaviors, which I don't think is one of Google's free services yet.

But the worst is that Consumer Watchdog uses Google Analytics to track users on its own website, notes the San Francisco Chronicle, which is the service the cartoon explicitly calls out with an on-screen graphic (see 1:02 in the video below). Worse, it doesn't warn people about this as soon as they visit the site the way, for example, All Things D does. (If you've visited All Things D before and don't see the yellow box, you can read the same text here.)

In the world of online tracking, Google Analytics is actually fairly innocuous; to my knowledge it stays focused on incoming traffic and the user's browsing behavior within the site, not all over the web. Still, if you're going to make Google's CEO look like a child-endangering perv to thousands of Times Square tourists every day, it seems to me you should stop making use of the company's sophisticated user-tracking services.

"BUSTED: Anti-Google Privacy Group Consumer Watchdog Is Tracking Your Clicks With Google Analytics" [San Francisco Chronicle]
"Consumer Watchdog Group Goes After Google" [New York Times]

by Kayla Starr, CODEPINK Local Coordinator North Bay (Marin & Sonoma Counties), California

Two years after the economic crisis began, 25 million Americans are jobless or under-employed. Unknown numbers have stopped looking for jobs and are not accounted for in this number. And the numbers are growing, not shrinking.

This is a negative multiplier on the economy. If families can't pay their bills, their mortgages become delinquent; mortgage delinquencies keep rising), their credit card bills go unpaid (we're seeing a notable rise in credit card defaults), and they can't afford to buy anything other than necessities (hence auto sales have plummeted, new homes sales are down, and retail sales are in the pits).

As a result, more and more businesses lay off workers (or refrain from adding them) because they can't sell the goods and services they produce.

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