obalfirstname

Unknown

This photo taken Feb. 8, 2013, shows Sandy Stier, left, and Kris Perry, the couple at the center of the Supreme Court's consideration of gay marriage, at their home in Berkeley, Calif. Whatever the outcome of their momentous case, Perry and Stier, who have been together 13 years, will be empty-nesters as the last of their children will heads off to college. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Saturday, March 23, 2013, Jessica Skrebes of Washington reads while waiting in line with others outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in anticipation of Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage, and Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) ? Big change is coming to the lives of the lesbian couple at the center of the fight for same-sex marriage in California no matter how the Supreme Court decides their case.

After 13 years of raising four boys together, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier are about to be empty nesters. Their youngest two children, 18-year-old twins, will graduate from high school in June and head off to college a couple of months later.

"We'll see all the movies, get theater season tickets because you can actually go," Stier said in the living room of their bungalow in Berkeley. Life will not revolve quite so much around food, and the challenge of putting enough of it on the table to feed teenagers.

They might also get married, if the high court case goes their way.

Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, set aside their lunch hour on a recent busy Friday to talk to The Associated Press about their Supreme Court case, the evolution of their activism for gay rights and family life.

On Tuesday, they plan to be in the courtroom when their lawyer, Theodore Olson, tries to persuade the justices to strike down California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages and to declare that gay couples can marry nationwide. Supporters of California's Proposition 8, represented by lawyer Charles Cooper, argue that the court should not override the democratic process and impose a judicial solution that would redefine marriage in the 40 states that do not allow same-sex couples to wed.

A second case, set for Wednesday, involves the part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that prevents same-sex couples who are legally married from receiving a range of federal tax, pension and other benefits that otherwise are available to married people.

The Supreme Court hearing is the moment Perry and Stier, along with Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo of Burbank, have been waiting for since they agreed four years ago to be the named plaintiffs and public faces of a well-funded, high-profile effort to challenge Proposition 8 in the courts.

"For the past four years, we've lived our lives in this hurry-up-and-wait, pins-and-needles way," Perry said, recalling the crush of court deadlines and the seemingly endless wait for rulings from a federal district judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based there, and the California Supreme Court.

Stier said Olson told them the case could take several years to resolve. "I thought, years?" she said.

But the couple has been riding a marriage rollercoaster since 2003, when Perry first asked Stier to marry her. They were planning a symbolic, but not legally recognized, wedding when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. So they were married, but only briefly. Six months later, the state Supreme Court invalidated the same-sex unions.

They went ahead with their plans anyway, but "it was one of the sadder points of our wedding," Perry said.

Less than four years later, however, the same state court overturned California's prohibition on same-sex unions. Then, on the same day Perry and Stier rejoiced in President Barack Obama's election, voters approved Proposition 8, undoing the court ruling and defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Their lawsuit was filed six months later, after they went to the Alameda County courthouse for a marriage license and were predictably refused.

"It's such a weird road we've been on," Perry said.

All the more so because neither woman defined herself as a gay rights activist before the marriage fight.

Perry, a native Californian from Bakersfield, and Stier, who grew up in rural Iowa, moved in together in 2000, with Stier's two children from a heterosexual marriage and Perry's from a previous relationship. Utterly conventional school meetings, soccer games and band practice ? not the court case ? have defined their lives together.

As if to highlight this point, their son, Elliott, briefly interrupted the interview to ask for a pair of headphones. Perry said the boys find her useful for two basic reasons these days. "Do I have any headphones and do I have any money?" she said with a smile.

Perry has spent her professional life advocating on behalf of early childhood education. Stier works for the county government's public health department.

"When you've been out as long as I have been, 30 years, in order to feel OK every day and be optimistic and productive, you can't dwell as much on what's not working as maybe people think you do," Perry said.

Even with Proposition 8's passage, Perry and Stier said they were more focused on Obama's election.

"I was all about health care reform and Kris is all about education reform and that was everything. Gay rights, that would be great, but it's a way off," Stier said.

They don't take the issue so lightly anymore. Of course, they could not imagine a U.S. president would endorse gay marriage along with voters in three states just last November.

When Obama talked about equal rights for gay Americans in his inaugural speech in January, Perry said she felt as if "we've arrived at the adults' table. We're no longer at the kids' table."

They will watch the argument in their case and then return home to wait for the decision, worried that it could come the same day as the boys' high school graduations in mid-June.

They know the court could uphold Proposition 8, which would almost certainly lead to an effort to repeal it by California voters. Recent polls show support for repeal.

Any other outcome will allow them to get married. But Perry said they are hoping the court strikes "a tone of more inclusion" and issues the broadest possible ruling.

They will get married quickly, in a small, private ceremony. "We did the big celebration a long time ago," Perry said. "I hope this will be something a lot bigger than the two of us."

___

Follow Mark Sherman at http://twitter.com/shermancourt

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-25-US-Supreme-Court-Gay-Marriage/id-489ea547146f4601b24525ef12765eea

helicopter crash matt jones whitney houston in casket photo resolute national enquirer whitney houston casket photo jk rowling qnexa

Unknown

Paul Wagenseil , TechNewsDaily ? ? ? 12 hrs.

The House Judiciary Committee is circulating a draft bill that would drastically strengthen the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the same law that many digital-law and security experts say should be weakened or overhauled in the wake of the suicide of online activist Aaron Swartz.

The draft bill, meant to be a starting point for further discussion among committee members, could expand the definitions of existing digital crimes, add a new subsection to the criminal statutes established by the CFAA and create a federal law mandating data-breach notifications that would supersede all state laws.

It could also subject computer fraud to the RICO statutes, equating hackers with organized crime, and give the government the right to sue defendants for property deemed to be obtained through or used to commit computer fraud.

The CFAA has been revised at least seven times since it was first enacted in 1984. In most instances, definitions of crimes have been expanded and penalties made stiffer.

Reaction to the latest draft revision came swiftly Monday.

"This proposal is a giant leap in the wrong direction and demonstrates a disturbing lack of understanding about computers, the Internet and the modern economy," said David Segal, executive director of Washington, D.C., advocacy group Demand Progress, in a statement.

"Already the outdated Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act is used by overzealous lawyers to prosecute routine computer activity," Segal said. "If enacted, this proposal could end computer-security research in the United States and drive innovation and creativity overseas."

As a preliminary draft, the bill does not bear authorship, and no committee member has been assigned to sponsor it. Proposed amendments and changes to the CFAA are offered only as possibilities, and their inclusion is not an indicator of their chances of becoming law.

The draft discussion bill comes about two months after committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Fla., pledged to review the CFAA following Swartz's Jan. 11 suicide.

"We're looking at what occurred in specific instances and what needs to done to make sure that the law isn't abused," Goodlatte told reporters on Jan. 22, according to The Hill.

Tough sentences for arguably minor crimes
Swartz, 26, was facing the possibility of decades in prison for rapidly downloading millions of academic-journal articles from a paid archive to which he had authorized access.

Swartz had been indicted on 13 criminal counts centering on the CFAA and had reportedly turned down a plea agreement that would have sent him to prison for seven years.

Last week, hacker and Internet "troll" Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, 27, began serving a 41-month sentence after being convicted under the CFAA.

Auernheimer and an associate had collected private email addresses from an unprotected public AT&T website and had then given the list of email addresses to a journalist.

Digital-rights experts have argued that the CFAA's definition of unauthorized access to a protected computer is dangerously vague; many actions normally committed by computer-security researchers or even journalists could constitute crimes.

Earlier this month, CNET columnist Declan McCullagh showed how the first implementation of the CFAA was written as a reaction to the 1983 Matthew Broderick movie "WarGames," in which a teenage hacker dials into NORAD and almost triggers a nuclear war.

Experts argue that prosecutors deliberately confuse computer-security terms in bringing charges against defendants using the CFAA.

Former "most wanted hacker" Kevin Mitnick said that in the 1990s, prosecutors told the judge in his case that Mitnick could start a nuclear war by whistling launch codes into a pay phone.

Last week, Auernheimer's prosecutors told his judge they didn't understand computers, even as they recommended a stiffer sentence ? because Auernheimer did understand them.

[How Computer-Hacking Laws Make You a Criminal]

Usinga bigger club
The eventual bill would amend Section 1030 of U.S. criminal code, which was created by the CFAA. As currently written, the draft would alter 1030 to state that an attempt to commit computer fraud would be punished as "for the completed offense."

That means that even if an act of computer fraud were to be unsuccessful, the act could be punishable as if the fraud had succeeded.

The draft includes a clause that would completely overhaul the section of the CFAA regarding maximum punishments, while increasing some potential sentences and fines.

For example, the maximum sentence for computer fraud resulting in financial loss of more than $5,000 would be raised from five to 20 years.

The draft would also expand the definition of "exceeds unauthorized access" so that a crime can be deemed to have been committed "even if the accessor may be entitled to obtain or alter the same information in the computer for other purposes."

That clause may be a direct strike at a 2011 federal appeals court ruling in U.S. v. Nosal, which ruled that employees of a company can't be prosecuted under the CFAA for violating company computer-use policies.

Other courts have found that the CFAA does apply in such situations. Last November, two Boston College business professors argued that reversing the Nosal ruling could mean, for example, that the CFAA could be used to prosecute employees for checking Facebook from the office.

The draft would add computer fraud to the list of crimes covered by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO statutes.

Passage of that clause could make membership in a hacking crew or organization such as Anonymous or LulzSec akin to being a member of the Mafia. It could make communication or friendship with any member of those hacking groups, for example via email or Twitter, tantamount to membership in the groups.

Following a conviction, the current law regarding computer fraud entitles the government to seize property obtained through or used to commit the crime; the draft would give the government the right to sue a defendant for such property in a civil court.

Critical infrastructure and data breaches
The two new sections would greatly expand the scope of the CFAA to cover data breaches and attacks upon critical infrastructure.

Section 1030A would cover digital attacks upon computers used to maintain and regulate critical-infrastructure systems, defined here as vital gas, oil, electrical, water, transportation, financial, banking and telecommunication systems, as well as emergency services and essential government operations.

The critical-infrastructure section was apparently proposed by the Obama administration, which has been pressing for increased communications among government agencies and private owners of critical infrastructure.

The White House was also a strong backer of the Cyber Security Act of 2012, which would have mandated digital-security standards for private critical-infrastructure facilities, but which could not overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

A corresponding House bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, would create legal avenues for private companies to share data with the government, but the White House threatened to veto the bill after it passed the House last year. (It was recently reintroduced.)

The draft amendments to the CFAA would also create a federal law mandating that companies or other entities suffering a data breach notify affected customers or members within two weeks, except in such cases where notification "would impede a civil or criminal investigation" or "would threaten national or homeland security."

In the case of a "major security breach," one involving 10,000 or more individuals or information pertaining to the federal government, the company or entity would have to notify the FBI within 72 hours of learning of the breach.

The proposed federal law would supersede any existing state data-breach laws, which vary widely. It would not, however, supersede existing federal laws regarding data breaches at financial or insurance firms (the Gramm?Leach?Bliley Act of 1999) or at medical providers (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).

Follow Paul Wagenseil @snd_wagenseil. Follow us @TechNewsDaily, Facebook or Google+.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/29fb61a7/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Cbill0Ewould0Ebeef0Econtroversial0Ehacking0Elaw0E1B90A66243/story01.htm

chardon high school christopher plummer viola davis school shooting in ohio shooting at chardon high school sasha baron cohen stacy keibler

Unknown

Dutch Finance Minister and chief of the eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloeman chairs an emergency eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Sunday, March 24, 2013. After failing for a week to find a solution at home to a crisis that could force it into bankruptcy, Cypriot politicians were turning to the European Union on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to help the island nation forge a viable plan to secure an international bailout. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? Inflicting losses on banks' shareholders, bondholders and even large depositors should become the 17-country eurozone's default approach for dealing with ailing lenders, a top European official said Monday.

Banks' owners and investors must be held responsible "before looking at public money or any other instrument coming from the public side," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the Eurogroup gatherings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers.

The eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund earlier Monday granted Cyprus a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout that foresees dissolving the country's second-largest bank, wiping out its bondholders and inflicting significant losses ? possibly up to 40 percent ? on all deposits larger than 100,000 euros ($130,000).

EU officials have previously stressed that this measure, a so-called bail-in, was a "unique step" in Cyprus. That's because of the size of country's banking sector ? almost eight times the economy's annual output ? and the capital structure of its lenders, which rely almost exclusively on deposits instead of bonds.

"If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be 'Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalize yourself?' If the bank can't do it, then we'll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we'll ask them to contribute in recapitalizing the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders," he said in an interview with the Financial Times and Reuters.

Dijsselbloem's office confirmed the remarks.

In the past, nations like Ireland have dumped billions of taxpayers' money into rescuing their banks, fearing that forcing owners and depositors to take losses would roil markets and spread uncertainty. That has drawn howls of outrage as pension cuts and tax hikes were used to spare rich overseas investors from losses.

European officials had that in mind when they decided, in Cyprus' case, to shrink and restructure the banking sector, reducing the amount of money European and Cypriot taxpayers would have to pay.

But forcing losses on large deposits could encourage investors to pull money out of weaker southern European economies to more stable nations in the north, like Germany.

That concern was evident in markets. The euro currency, used by more than 330 million Europeans, rose against the dollar to about $1.30 in the morning on the agreement on a bailout for Cyprus, but tanked below $1.29 ? its lowest since November ? following Dijsselbloem's remarks. European stock market indexes also lost their earlier gains, with bank shares hardest-hit, particularly in financially weak countries like Italy and Spain.

Dijsselbloem said the new approach was more just because it was about safeguarding taxpayers' money and force losses on banks, their owners and investors instead.

"The consequences may be that it's the end of story, and that is an approach that I think, now that we are out of the heat of the crisis, we should take," he said in the interview.

Later Monday, after the whirlwind of nervous market reactions, Dijsselbloem issued a terse clarifying statement, saying "Cyprus is a specific case with exceptional challenges which required the bail-in measures."

"Macro-economic adjustment programs are tailor-made to the situation of the country concerned and no models or templates are used," he added.

Deposits in Europe are guaranteed by a state-backed deposit insurance scheme only up to 100,000 euros ($130,000). The bailout program for Cyprus marks the first time in Europe's three-year-old debt crisis that large deposit holders ? wealthy savers, business people or institutions ? will be forced to take losses.

If holders of large deposits were to start moving their savings away from banks in southern Europe, those lenders could quickly be in need of additional capital, possibly pushing them to seek support from their governments. But nations such as Portugal, Spain, Italy or Greece already have huge public debt loads, which would make it difficult for them to recapitalize their banks.

With his comments, the Dutchman, who took the helm of the Eurogroup only in January, also dashed hopes that Europe's rescue fund might one day provide rescue loans directly to banks. The ESM is in theory due to be able to directly prop up ailing lenders once the bloc has moved toward a so-called banking union, including centralized oversight by the European Central Bank, sometime next year at the earliest.

That was meant to be a key component of Europe's response to its debt crisis as it would break the link between weak banks dragging down the finances of already heavily indebted governments.

"We should aim at a situation where we will never need to even consider direct recapitalization," he told the Financial Times and Reuters. "If we have even more instruments in terms of bail-in ... the need for direct (recapitalizations) will become smaller and smaller," he added.

Eurozone nations that have been net contributors to bailout packages ? such as Dijsselbloem's native Netherlands, Germany or Finland ? have been skeptical about direct bank recapitalizations through Europe's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. They fear their taxpayers' money will be used to bail out banks in other nations whose governments failed to properly oversee their lenders in the first place.

___

Juergen Baetz can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-25-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-c2b25ee971ce42c49291c8766a116c05

superbowl jackie robinson Ron Jeremy Rudy Gay Jim Nabors The Americans bank of america online banking

Unknown

NEW YORK (Reuters) - T-Mobile USA is ditching phone subsidies under a new set of service plans, hoping to differentiate its offerings from bigger rivals by promising customers more flexibility.

The No. 4 U.S. mobile network operator, owned by Deutsche Telekom, hopes to regain ground after heavy customer losses to rivals such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc in recent years. T-Mobile USA is proposing to merge with its smaller rival MetroPCS Communications,

While its bigger rivals tie customers into two-year contracts in exchange for discounts on smartphones, T-Mobile is doing away with the device discounts and telling customers they don't need to commit to a contract.

Instead, customers can pay for their phone over time in monthly payments that are separate to their service fees.

But even with the monthly phone payments, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said, T-Mobile customers would still pay less than at AT&T or Verizon Wireless. The biggest discount would be for customers who keep their phones longer than two years or hand down a device to another family member.

"This could be an effective way for T-Mobile to reinvigorate its efforts to brand itself as the low-priced option in the market," Piecyk said in a research blog.

Executives at AT&T and Verizon have said they could follow T-Mobile's footsteps if its new options prove popular with consumers. But many consumers may prefer the more traditional model, according to some analysts.

The plans, which were on the company's website on Monday ahead of a Tuesday press event, start at 500 megabytes of data downloads and unlimited talk time and text messaging for $50 and increase to $60 a month for 2.5 gigabytes of data or $70 a month for unlimited data usage.

Verizon wireless charges $90 for 1 gigabyte of data and offers 4 gigabytes for $70 and in comparison AT&T charges $95 a month for 1 gigabyte of data and $110 for 4 gigabytes of data.

On its website T-Mobile USA shows that it is clearly going after AT&T customers by comparing its pricing directly to prices at the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider.

T-Mobile USA customers who already have a phone would benefit from the lower service prices would benefit most from the new offerings but those buying a new phone would have to pay a monthly fee for the phone.

For example its starting price for a Samsung Electronics Co Galaxy S III is $69.99 and $20 a month for two years, which adds up to $549.99.

In comparison Verizon Wireless and AT&T charge $200 for the same price to customers who sign a two-year contract.

Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/t-mobile-usa-kicks-off-pricing-without-phone-212432236--finance.html

new york auto show 2012 tulsa easter eggs pineapple upside down cake free ecards flying car masters golf tournament

Unknown

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Being the leader of the free world is an expensive proposition. But the costs don't stop once you leave the White House.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service says the federal government spent nearly $3.7 million on former presidents last year. That covers a $200,000 pension, compensation and benefits for office staff, and other costs like travel, office space and postage.

The costliest former president? George W. Bush, who clocked in at just over $1.3 million. That includes almost $400,000 for 8,000 square feet of office space and $85,000 in telephone costs.

President Bill Clinton came in second at just under $1 million, followed by George H.W. Bush at nearly $850,000. Costs for Jimmy Carter, the only other living former president, came in at about $500,000.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-25-US-Former-Presidents-Costs/id-61192b7920b342bf9b72ee4ea6d10a4c

kentucky wildcats oakland school shooting nike nfl jerseys katie couric barista university of kentucky oakland news

Unknown

All Critics (75) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (69) | Rotten (6)

It's a funny look at the way the media warp public opinion, and a curiously hopeful one.

On every level, "No" leaves one with bittersweet feelings about democracy, love and the cost of compromise.

If you can shake off the inherent grossness of mining the Pinochet years for yet another Mad Man-style deification of zeitgeist-grasping salesmen, this is moderately interesting stuff.

If there are fewer white-knuckle showdowns than in a Hollywood movie, the trade-off is a cool, ironic intelligence that ripples off the screen and up the years to where we live.

"No" stands proudly in a select sub-category of historical fiction films that work, completely and satisfyingly, as their own movies.

Garc?a Bernal quietly carries this film as a soft-spoken kid in blue jeans and untucked shirt.

Stirring as a celebration of voter empowerment, No may also inspire pangs of wistful nostalgia.

Fascinating work from director Pablo Larrain and screenwriter Pedro Peirano, who manage to slip into the skin of a beleaguered country and detail the urgency of a revolution, sold one jingle at a time.

Swims upstream against high-definition with a defiantly lo-fi approach that's also ingeniously evocative of the historical period.

Wildly colorful strokes, full of bitter humor.

It's a fascinating and surprisingly fun look behind the scenes of politics and media.

An Oscar-nominated win for more than just political junkies.

A worthy and a quite interesting slice of modern international history ...

Paranoia mixes neatly with optimism in this dramedy about the ad campaign that made Chile democratic.

It hangs on three ideas...While each...is intriguing, the execution of all is less than satisfying.

Larra?n's script is punctuated by dark bursts of humour, and the filmmaker knowingly navigates his audience to a nail-biting - though never cloying, and fully warranted - climax.

No quotes approved yet for No. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_2012/

ground hog day florida primary results black history groundhogs day paula abdul cinnamon challenge lou dobbs

Unknown

It's all in the way we move

Public release date: 13-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Erna van Wyk
erna.vanwyk@wits.ac.za
27-011-717-4023
University of the Witwatersrand

Marsupials shed new light on functional morphology

When, how and why modern humans first stood up and walked on two legs is considered to be one of the greatest missing links in our evolutionary history. Scientists have gone to the far ends of the earth and the wonderful creatures in it - to look for answers to why we walk the way we walk.

In the latest such search, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa) have taken a closer look at bipedal kangaroos and wallabies and how they move compared to their cousin-marsupials, such as the quadrupedal Tasmanian wolf.

In an article published online in the scientific journal PLoS ONE on Tuesday, 12 March 2013, the researchers examine connections between bone form and locomotor behaviour in bipedal and quadrupedal marsupials.

The study was led by Dr Kristian Carlson, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Human Evolution (IHE) at Wits University. Contributing authors include: Dr Tea Jashashvili, Postdoctoral Fellow at the IHE at Wits University; Kimberley Houghton, MSc candidate at the IHE at Wits University; Dr Michael Westaway from the Queensland Museum (Australia); and Dr Biren Patel from the University of Southern California (US).

Their article is entitled Joint loads in marsupial ankles reflect habitual bipedalism versus quadrupedalism. The research demonstrates that bipedal marsupials, such as kangaroos and wallabies, experience greater forces through their hind limb joints (e.g., ankles) when walking, compared to other marsupials that walk on four legs.

The study has several important implications in the area of research known as functional morphology.

Characterising forces that joints experience during movement is imperative to understanding how the joints of animals function and facilitate such movements. Documenting these forces, however, is extremely difficult for practical reasons.

Using physical instruments to measure joint forces is impossible without altering the natural movements of animals. By combining computed tomography (CT) and image analyses, the team of researchers was able to estimate joint forces in a non-invasive, accurate manner.

As the group predicted at the outset of the study, marsupials supporting their body with only two hind limbs during movement sustain higher estimated forces in their joints compared to marsupials that support their body with all four limbs during movement. This finding offers insight into the structural uniqueness of hind limb joints (e.g., ankles) of bipedal marsupials.

Members of the team are currently expanding the published study into the next phase of a larger project by documenting the same phenomenon in primates in order to investigate whether bipedal humans differ from related quadrupedal primates in parallel (or different) ways as bipedal marsupials differ from related quadrupedal marsupials.

By comparing analogous systems in primates and marsupials, team members will garner potentially new insights into the mechanics of human bipedalism. Such insights will advance current understanding of the morphological adaptations expressed by our distant hominin ancestors (e.g., australopithecines).

These insights will prove particularly timely considering the emerging trend in recognizing substantial variation in the form of bipedalism expressed by our hominin ancestors.

###

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.