Jennifer Lopez, Alesha Dixon, Kerry Washington & More: The Week's Best Style Moments (PHOTOS)

While there's no denying First Lady Michelle Obama and the First Daughters, Malia and Sasha, stole the sartorial show this week--there were also a few other style standouts worth noting.

Jennifer Lopez looked lovely in white while attending a screening of her new film 'Parker' in New York City. The short ivory Lanvin dress boosted a a peplum waist and definitely helped showoff her famous curves.

Britain's Got Talent judge, Alesha Dixon, got colorful for one of the show's audition sessions on Tuesday in London. The singer/dancer/rapper/model paired a black-and-white H&M blazer with multi-colored, abstract printed Aqua April Bodice and matching capri pants. And her Charlotte Olympia pink-and-black pumps were a perfect complement to the ensemble.

Kerry Washington has been on a roll lately. She's a big star on the

small screen with "Scandal,"

a box office queen with "Django" and has managed to find a seemingly permanent place on our Week's Best Dress List. This past weekend Kerry was in Washington D.C. for The Daily Beast Bi-Partisan Inauguration Brunch. Her chevron printed red-and-black dress was bold without being too over the top.

Check out those lovely ladies and the rest of the style stars, including--Beyonce, Jay-Z and Kimora Lee Simmons.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/jennifer-lopez-best-dressed_n_2555918.html

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London hotels ranked the worst in 100 cities

LONDON (Reuters) - Visitors to London have marked its hotels as the worst in a list of 100 cities due to overpriced minibars, lousy breakfasts and slow service, according to a survey released on Friday.

A study by travel metasearch website Trivago of hotel reviews from more than 140 accommodation booking sites found London came last in a list of 100 cities that had at least 135 hotels and 60 reviews. It did not include TripAdvisor postings.

The German city of Dresden came top with its hotels receiving the highest ratings and most positive reviews from guests.

"Users praised Dresden hotels for their value for money, whilst London hotels were criticised for their prices," said a spokeswoman for Trivago.

"In particular, reviewers felt the minibars were overpriced and breakfast service was both overpriced and disappointing, whilst hotels in Dresden were praised for their delicious and well-valued breakfasts."

She said London hotels were also criticised for overcrowding at breakfast, long queues at check-in, inability to cope with large groups of people, small rooms and poor views.

On the other hand, hotels in Dresden were praised for their exceptional service, efficiency, helpful staff, as well as their spacious rooms with excellent views.

Close behind Dresden in the list of cities with good hotels were Hanoi in Vietnam, Tokyo, Chicago, and Krakow in Poland.

Joining London in the bottom five were Rio de Janiero, Copenhagen, Paris and Amsterdam.

The spokeswoman from Trivago, which is majority owned by Expedia Inc., said the website released its reputation ranking classifying destinations according to the reputation of their hotels twice a year.

Metasearch engines allow users to send requests to other search engines and databases to get a single list of results and are popular with consumers facing an overload of information on various competing deals. The 10 best cities for hotel rooms: 1. Dresden, Germany 2. Hanoi, Vietnam 3. Portland, US 4. Tokyo, Japan 5. Santiago de Compostela, Spain 6. Gdansk, Poland 7. Chicago, US 8. Seattle, US 9. Krakow, Poland 10. Budapest, Hungary

The 10 worst: 91. Los Angeles, US 92. Kiev, Ukraine 93. Frankfurt, Germany 94. Panama City, Panama 95. Brussels, Belgium 96. Amsterdam, Netherlands 97. Paris, France 98. Copenhagen, Denmark 99. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 100. London, UK

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Patricia Reaney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/london-hotels-ranked-worst-100-cities-000509119--sector.html

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California Intends to Declare BPA a Reproductive Health Hazard

California today is announcing its intent to declare bisphenol A a reproductive hazard. Under a state law known as Proposition 65, items that contain a certain level of BPA would need warning signs for consumers. Pictured: California's Sacramento State Capitol Image: Flickr/Franco Folini

California today is announcing its intent to declare bisphenol A a reproductive hazard.

Under a state law known as Prop. 65, warning signs would be required for consumer items that contain a certain high level of BPA. BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, and also is found in liners of food and beverage cans and some thermal receipts.

Scientists say BPA is an estrogen-like substance that can alter reproductive hormones. California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment said it based its decision to list BPA as a Prop. 65 chemical on a 2008 report by the National Toxicology Program.

?"Bisphenol A meets the criteria for listing as known to the State to cause reproductive toxicity (developmental endpoint) under Proposition 65, based on findings of NTP [the National Toxicology Program]," according to the state agency.

"OEHHA is relying on the NTP?s conclusion in the report that there is clear evidence of adverse developmental effects in laboratory animals at 'high' levels of exposure," according to the state's decision.

The decision was based on laboratory tests by scientists that have shown effects on the body weight and reproductive development of the pups of pregnant rats and mice exposed to high levels of BPA.

The state agency is proposing to set an acceptable level of exposure that is considered fairly high, 290 micrograms per day. As a result, Sarah Janssen of the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote on her blog that the decision ?is not likely to trigger any warning labels on canned food or beverages.? The same is probably true for receipts and most other consumer products.

"However," she added, "a listing alone is quite significant and makes official what parents have known for years ? BPA is harmful and should be avoided."

Plastics and chemical manufacturers say the compound, which has been used in polycarbonate plastic for 50 years, is safe at levels people are exposed to

The intent of the law, passed by voters in 1986, is to require manufacturers to warn consumers whenever a chemical is used that has been linked to cancer or reproductive effects. In some cases, companies decide to avoid using the compound rather than put up warning signs in stores or other public places.

BPA already has been banned from baby bottles, and removed from most hard-shell water bottles. It also has been replaced with another chemical in most thermal receipts, although that chemical, known as BPS, also has been linked to estrogen-like effects.

The state agency will accept public comments for one month before making a final decision listing BPA.

This article originally ran at Environmental Health News, a news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9b6af5a3f598cec3f551bd1597c5525b

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State Department pick Kerry draws praise, outlines policy at hearing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Kerry urged Congress to fix the U.S. economy to ensure America's role as a world leader and pledged to keep pressure on Iran at a Senate hearing on Thursday that left little doubt he will win easy confirmation as secretary of state.

The five-term U.S. senator and Vietnam War veteran, who was the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, said the "first priority" in protecting his credibility as a diplomat was the country's ability to get its fiscal house in order.

"Foreign policy is economic policy," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he has chaired for the past four years. "It is urgent that we show people in the rest of the world that we can get our business done in an effective and timely way."

President Barack Obama nominated Kerry last month to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of the most popular and visible members of his Cabinet.

The Senate will hold a confirmation vote on Kerry on Tuesday, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.

The Massachusetts senator was praised by Republicans as well his fellow Democrats during the 3 1/2-hour hearing. Republicans in particular said they appreciated his calls for fiscal order.

"I look at you, in being nominated for this, as someone who has almost led their entire life, if you will, for this moment, being able to serve in this capacity," said Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the panel.

"For a moment I was wishing you had been nominated for secretary of the treasury," Corker quipped.

"You will need no introduction to the world's political and military leaders, and will begin - on Day One - fully conversant not only with the intricacies of U.S. policy, but with an understanding of the nuanced approach necessary," said Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat presiding over the hearing for the committee.

WILL CONTAIN IRAN

Kerry stressed his commitment to Obama's policy of seeking a diplomatic solution to persuade Iran to give up its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Tehran says its program is solely for peaceful purposes.

"He (Obama) and I prefer a diplomatic resolution to this challenge and I will work to give diplomacy every effort to succeed," Kerry said. "But no one should mistake our resolve to reduce the nuclear threat."

Kerry said "everybody's very hopeful that we can make some progress on the diplomatic front now" and that Obama had made clear his willingness to have direct negotiations with Iran if need be.

Critics have said Kerry failed to seek tougher sanctions to discourage the Islamic Republic from pursuing its nuclear program.

Kerry told Menendez, an ardent advocate of tighter sanctions, that he was "totally" committed to enforcing them.

Kerry also said during the hearing that he would push for a revival of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, suggesting the United States could consider a new peace initiative despite the failure of Obama's first-term efforts.

"We need to try to find a way forward, and I happen to believe that there is a way forward. But I also believe that if we can't be successful, the door, window ... to the possibility of a two-state solution could shut on everybody, and that would be disastrous in my judgment," he said.

BANTER AND PRAISE

Kerry was greeted with backslaps as he arrived for his hearing and bantered easily with senators, wryly noting his role reversal after spending 29 years sitting up on the dais and questioning witnesses.

"I don't want this to affect your opening questions, but let me say I have never seen a more distinguished and better-looking group of public officials in my life," he said to laughter.

Several senators said they were certain of his confirmation. Menendez said he felt the committee members were satisfied.

One note of discord came when a protester dressed in pink shouted: "we need peace with Iran. ... I am tired of my friends dying," before being removed by police.

Kerry visited Damascus repeatedly before the outbreak of Syria's devastating civil war and was a proponent of U.S. re-engagement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Kerry said there was a moment where Assad, impelled partly by his desire to find jobs for his "burgeoning" youthful population, had an interest in improving relations with the United States, but that he missed the opportunity.

"He has made a set of judgments that are inexcusable, that are reprehensible and I think is not long for remaining as the head of state in Syria," Kerry said.

The Yale-educated son of a foreign service officer, Kerry, 69, has long specialized in foreign affairs. In the 1960s, he differed from some of his well-heeled peers by enlisting in the U.S. Navy and serving two tours of duty in Vietnam.

He broke from - and enraged - the military establishment by becoming a prominent anti-war demonstrator after returning home. Bitter personal attacks over that role along with a well-funded ad campaign to discredit his Vietnam service helped cost him the presidency in 2004 when he lost to Republican George W. Bush.

Kerry, who first testified before the committee in 1971 to express his opposition to the Vietnam War, choked up when recalling his father's service as a career diplomat.

"If you confirm me, I would take office as secretary proud that the Senate is in my blood - but equally proud that so, too, is the foreign service," he said.

(Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Warren Strobel, Doina Chiacu and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/state-department-pick-kerry-draws-praise-outlines-policy-020500370.html

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Dozens reported killed in Venezuela prison riot

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuelan authorities promised a high-level investigation Saturday into a deadly prison riot that reportedly left dozens of people dead when National Guard soldiers clashed with armed inmates.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the violence tragic while speaking on television early Saturday and said Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello would lead the investigation. He and other officials didn't give a death toll from the riot Friday at Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto.

"The prisons have to be governed by law," Maduro said.

Humberto Prado, an activist who leads the watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, said inmates' relatives and media accounts put the toll at 55 killed and 88 injured.

The Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias and the television channel Globovision reported more than 50 killed, both citing Ruy Medina, the director of Central Hospital in the city.

Relatives wept outside the prison during the violence, and cried at the morgue Saturday as they waited to identify bodies.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said Friday that the riot broke out when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.

Varela said the violence had affected a number of prisoners and officials, but said the authorities would hold off until control had been re-established at the prison to confirm the toll. She said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after receiving reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days.

The death toll provided by Medina rose late Friday after he had initially reported four killed and dozens injured. Ultimas Noticias reported that the victims included a Protestant pastor and a member of the National Guard, as well as inmates.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles condemned the government's handling of the country's overcrowded and violent prisons.

"Our country's prisons are an example of the incapacity of this government and its leaders. They never solved the problem," Capriles said on his Twitter account. "How many more deaths do there have to be in the prisons for the government to acknowledge its failure and make changes?"

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said in a statement that in 2007 the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights had ordered the government to seize weapons that inmates had in their possession at Uribana prison and to take measures to avoid deaths in the facility. The group called for the government to release a list with the names of the dead and wounded in Friday's violence, as well as details about weapons seized in the search.

"No one doubts that inspections are necessary procedures to guarantee prison conditions in line with international standards, but they can't be carried out with the warlike attitude as (authorities) have done it," Prado told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's clear that the inspection wasn't coordinated or put into practice as it should have been. It was evidently a disproportionate use of force."

Prado's group says Uribana prison was built to hold up to 850 inmates but currently has about 1,400.

It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country's severely overcrowded prisons where inmates often freely obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards. Venezuela currently has 33 prisons built to hold about 12,000 inmates, but officials have said the prisons' population is about 47,000.

In April and May, a prison uprising in La Planta prison in Caracas blocked authorities from going inside for nearly three weeks. One prisoner was killed and five people were wounded, including two National Guard soldiers and three inmates.

Two months later, another riot broke out at a prison in Merida, and the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory reported 30 killed.

In August, 25 people were killed and 43 wounded when two groups of inmates fought a gunbattle inside Yare I prison south of Caracas.

Chavez's government has previous pledged improvements to the prison system, but opponents and activists say the government hasn't made progress.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dozens-reported-killed-venezuela-prison-riot-171656137.html

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DNA and quantum dots: All that glitters is not gold

Jan. 25, 2013 ? A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that by bringing gold nanoparticles close to the dots and using a DNA template to control the distances, the intensity of a quantum dot's fluorescence can be predictably increased or decreased. This breakthrough opens a potential path to using quantum dots as a component in better photodetectors, chemical sensors and nanoscale lasers.

Anyone who has tried to tune a radio knows that moving their hands toward or away from the antenna can improve or ruin the reception. Although the reasons are well understood, controlling this strange effect is difficult, even with hundred-year-old radio technology. Similarly, nanotechnology researchers have been frustrated trying to control the light emitted from quantum dots, which brighten or dim with the proximity of other particles.

The NIST team developed ways to accurately and precisely place different kinds of nanoparticles near each other and to measure the behavior of the resulting nanoscale constructs. Because nanoparticle-based inventions may require multiple types of particles to work together, it is crucial to have reliable methods to assemble them and to understand how they interact.

The researchers looked at two types of nanoparticles, quantum dots, which glow with fluorescent light when illuminated, and gold nanoparticles, which have long been known to enhance the intensity of light around them. The two could work together to make nanoscale sensors built using rectangles of woven DNA strands, formed using a technique called "DNA origami."

These DNA rectangles can be engineered to capture different types of nanoparticles at specific locations with a precision of about one nanometer. Tiny changes in the distance between a quantum dot and a gold nanoparticle near one another on the rectangle cause the quantum dot to glow more or less brightly as it moves away from or toward the gold. Because these small movements can be easily detected by tracking the changes in the quantum dot's brightness, they can be used to reveal, for example, the presence of a particular chemical that is selectively attached to the DNA rectangle. However, getting it to work properly is complicated, says NIST's Alex Liddle.

"A quantum dot is highly sensitive to the distance between it and the gold, as well as the size, number and arrangement of the gold particles," says Liddle, a scientist with the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. "These factors can boost its fluorescence, mask it or change how long its glow lasts. We wanted a way to measure these effects, which had never been done before."

Liddle and his colleagues made several groups of DNA rectangles, each with a different configuration of quantum dots and gold particles in a solution. Using a laser as a spotlight, the team was able to follow the movement of individual DNA rectangles in the liquid, and also could detect changes in the fluorescent lifetime of the quantum dots when they were close to gold particles of different sizes. They also showed that they could exactly predict the lifetime of the fluorescence of the quantum dot depending on the size of the nearby gold nanoparticles.

While their tracking technique was time consuming, Liddle says that the strength of their results will enable them to engineer the dots to have a specific desired lifetime. Moreover, the success of their tracking method could lead to better measurement methods.

"Our main goals for the future," he concludes, "are to build better nanoscale sensors using this approach and to develop the metrology necessary to measure their performance."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Seung Hyeon Ko, Kan Du, J. Alexander Liddle. Quantum-Dot Fluorescence Lifetime Engineering with DNA Origami Constructs. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; 52 (4): 1193 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201206253

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/oScopSBsOhM/130125111356.htm

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Ireland won't ease drunken-driving law for farmers

DUBLIN (AP) ? A license to drive drunk? Some small-town politicians think it's just the tonic for rural Ireland.

Councilmen in Kerry, southwest Ireland, passed a motion this week asking the government to create a permit that would allow isolated farmers the ability to drink a few pints and then return home in their car, or on their tractor, without fear of being busted.

Its backers say the measure is needed to combat an epidemic of boredom and depression on farms ever since Ireland imposed tough new blood-alcohol limits on drivers in 2011.

But Justice Minister Alan Shatter shot down the proposal during a speech in parliament Thursday as "grossly irresponsible."

"There is no question of this government, or indeed I don't believe any future government, facilitating individuals drinking in excess of the blood alcohol limits," Shatter told lawmakers.

A generation ago, drunken driving was commonplace in Ireland and even the smallest villages or forlorn crossroads would feature a pub. But in this century the country has steadily improved road safety standards, introducing mandatory driving tests, blood and breath tests and above all a penalty-points system that removes licenses from dangerous drivers, particularly drunks.

The effort has slashed road-related deaths from more than 400 annually in the 1990s to just 162 last year, a modern low in this country of 4.6 million.

Kerry pub owners say their business has plummeted right along with that nationwide carnage ? yet deny any connection between the two trends. They describe the often narrow, lightly trafficked roads near their businesses as safe for people to navigate even after three pints (57 ounces) of beer.

Danny Healy-Rae, who owns a pub and comes from Kerry's most famous and flamboyant political family, says farmers should be allowed to drive tipsy on their tractors because they don't go fast enough to kill anyone. He said those drinking two to three pints at a pub should be issued a permit allowing them to drive home so long as they stay below 30 mph (50 kph).

He was one of five Kerry County Council members who voted for the motion Monday night. Three others voted against, seven abstained and 12 council members didn't show up. Their decision has no legal standing because the national government, not councils, sets policy on road safety.

Healy-Rae ? who like his politician father is nationally famous for wearing a cap everywhere and talking in rapid-fire local dialect easy to parody but hard to understand ? said pub-loving farmers "are living in isolated rural areas where there's no public transport of any kind. They end up at home looking at the four walls, night in and night out, because they don't want to take the risk of losing their license."

He said the older generation provided the sociological fuel to Ireland's tradition of pub-based music and "craic," Irish slang for entertaining conversation.

"All the wisdom and all the wit and all the culture that they had, the music and the singing, that's all being lost to the younger generation," Healy-Rae said. "These older people might as well be living in Japan and Jerusalem, because the younger generation don't see them at all anymore."

Yet even in Kerry, many have dismissed the idea as both dangerous to public safety and impossible to enforce. And alcohol-abuse campaigners say Healy-Rae's logic is twisted, since alcohol is a depressant and hardly a cure for the blues.

"The link between alcohol use and suicide has been well established and drinking alcohol will exacerbate, not alleviate, any mental health difficulties that a person may be struggling with, such as depression or anxiety," said Conor Cullen, spokesman for a pressure group called Alcohol Action Ireland.

The government emphasized that Kerry's council motion was already a dead letter.

"While rural isolation is a real problem," said Transport Minister Leo Varadkar, "the solution to it is not to hand out drink-driving permits."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-01-24-Ireland-Drunken%20Driving/id-77521f622af942fc8ccb347951423a92

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