Snooki's Pregnancy Announcement Had JWoww Feeling 'Punk'd'

'I didn't even know what to say. I kinda came off a little weird,' 'Snooki & JWoww' star tells MTV News.
By Christina Garibaldi


Jwoww and Snooki
Photo:

Best friends Snooki and JWoww are about to embark on a whole new adventure. The two have traded in the boardwalk of Seaside, New Jersey, for the streets of Jersey City as they star in their new MTV spin-off, "Snooki & JWoww." Joining them on this new journey are their significant others and, of course, Snooki's baby boy, who's due in September.

When the two first started filming, Snooki had just found out about her pregnancy, and we witness, on camera, Snooki breaking the big news to her "Jersey Shore" housemates, including her partner in crime JWoww.

"I told Jenni, and obviously it's freaky, because if Jenni told me that, I'd be like, 'What the hell is going on?' Snooki told MTV News. "The fact that I have Jenni's support, and the roommates came over and I got to tell the roommates, everyone was freaked out at first. Obviously it's a lot of news, but in the end everybody does support me, so it's nice to have that."

JWoww admits that when Snooki told her that she was not only engaged to Jionni LaValle but also pregnant, she was convinced it was a joke.

"I didn't even know what to say. I kinda came off a little weird — it was just my reaction," JWoww admitted. "I thought I was getting Punk'd 'cause I'm like, this is MTV. In two minutes, engaged and pregnant. I was like, 'No!' "

JWoww wasn't the only one that was surprised at first. Snooki revealed that she and LaValle were planning on waiting to become parents but are now overwhelmed with joy for their upcoming arrival.

"I've always wanted to have a family, have kids and then be engaged," Snooki said. "But I didn't think it would be this soon. I was thinking two years from now, but the fact that it happened ... I think everything happens for a reason, and I'm so excited."

Snooki, who announced that she was pregnant and engaged back in March, was met with mixed reactions, but she said she doesn't pay attention to the negativity. She's just ready to become a good mom.

"We all know I really don't care what people think about me and I'm just myself, and if you like me or you don't, it is what it is," Snooki said. "As long as I know that I'm going to be a good parent and I'm taking care of myself and being healthy, that's all that really matters."

"Snooki & JWoww" premieres Thursday, June 21, at 10 p.m. ET/ 9 p.m. CT.

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Can Men And Women Be Friends?

Couple looking out of a window.

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It's a question that kicks around endlessly without resolution: Can men and women really be just friends? On Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Faith Salie and Mario Correa, hosts of WNYC's RelationShow, about this very topic.

As it happens, Faith and Mario are friends, but they put that down in part to the fact that Faith is straight and Mario is gay ? they describe some research that makes them think perhaps platonic friendship between straight men and women is not, in fact, really possible. Some of the research indicates that men, in particular, are somewhat likely to both report some level of attraction to their female friends and to believe their female friends feel some level of attraction to them.

Now, I will make a confession: I have very little patience for this debate under normal circumstances, because my male friends include straight guys, gay guys, married guys, single guys, flirty guys, not-at-all-flirty guys, and yes, even the odd guy I've dated here and there. (Exes are a much more controversial question in my experience, and, I admit, a trickier proposition, but it absolutely happens.) But I am always willing to listen to research. If it turns out that I am not actually friends with any of them, that would be sad, because I would have to return a lot of dudes to the Friends 'R' Us store at once, and that would be very disruptive socially. On the other hand, they're worth quite a lot, so I'm sure I'd get good trade-in value.

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Kim, Kourtney And Khloe Kardashian Wish Bruce Jenner A Happy Father's Day (PHOTOS)

CELEBUZZ!:

There?s no family quite like the Kardashians.

On Sunday, Kim, 31, and Kourtney, 33, and Khloe, 27, took time out wish their stepdad, Bruce Jenner, a happy Father?s Day.

Read the whole story at CELEBUZZ!

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Lariats: How RNA splicing decisions are made

ScienceDaily (June 17, 2012) ? Lariats are discarded byproducts of RNA splicing, the process by which genetic instructions for making proteins are assembled. A new study has found hundreds more lariats than ever before, yielding new information about how splicing occurs and how it can lead to disease.Tiny, transient loops of genetic material, detected and studied by the hundreds for the first time at Brown University, are providing new insights into how the body transcribes DNA and splices (or missplices) those transcripts into the instructions needed for making proteins.

The lasso-shaped genetic snippets -- they are called lariats -- that the Brown team reports studying in the June 17 edition of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology are byproducts of gene transcription. Until now scientists had found fewer than 100 lariats, mostly by poring over very small selections of introns, which are sections of genetic code that do not directly code for proteins, but contain important signals that direct the way protein-coding regions are assembled. In the new study, Brown biologists report that they found more than 800 lariats in a publicly available set of billions of RNA reads derived from human tissues.

"We used modern genomic methods, deep sequencers, to detect these rare intermediates of splicing," said William Fairbrother, associate professor of biology and senior author of the study. "It's the first ever report of these things being discovered at a genome scale in living cells, and it tells us a lot about this step of gene processing."

That specific step is known as RNA splicing. Like film editors splicing together movie scenes, enzymes cut away the introns to assemble exons that instruct a cell's ribosome to make proteins. The body often has a choice of ways and places to make those cuts. Most of what is known about splicing has come from studying these spliced instructions, said Allison Taggart, a graduate student who is lead author of the study. What's been missing is the data hidden in the lariats, which fall apart shortly after being spliced out, but turn out to predict the body's splicing choices.

Modeling splicing

The key information uncovered in the study, Taggart said, is the location of so-called "branchpoints" on the lariats. Physically, the branchpoint is where the lariat closes on itself to form a loop during the first step of splicing, but its position and proximity to possible splice sites, the researchers learned, reliably relate to where splicing will occur.

After studying the sites of these branchpoints and their relationship to splice sites, the researchers created an algorithmic model that could predict splice sites 95.6 percent of the time. The value of the model is not in identifying splice sites -- those are already well known, Fairbrother said. Instead, the model's accuracy shows that, with the new data from the lariats, scientists have gained a more general understanding of how the body chooses among alternative splicing sites.

"What it does tell us is sets of rules defining the relationship between branchpoints and the chosen splice sites, which gives clues about how the splicing machinery makes decisions," Taggart said. "Certain branchpoint locations can enforce specific splicing isoforms."

Connections to disease

In addition to ferreting out the mechanisms of alternative splicing, the team also studied the connection between branchpoints and disease. They looked through the Human Gene Mutation Database for disease-causing mutations found in introns and compared their newly found branchpoint sequences to those mutations. They found that many relate specifically to branchpoints.

"We saw a sequence motif that looked exactly like a branchpoint sequence motif," she said. "What this tells us is that these mutations are forming at branchpoints and are leading to disease, presumably through causing aberrant splicing by interfering with lariat formation."

In other words, Fairbrother said, it could well be that a consequence of mutations in branchpoints could be disease.

In addition to Taggart and Fairbrother, other authors include Alec DeSimone, Janice Shih, and Madeleine Filloux.

The National Science Foundation and Brown University funded the research, which was performed in part on the OSCAR supercomputing cluster at the University's Center for Computation and Visualization.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Allison J Taggart, Alec M DeSimone, Janice S Shih, Madeleine E Filloux & William G Fairbrother. Large-scale mapping of branchpoints in human pre-mRNA transcripts in vivo. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 17 June 2012 DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2327

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Lariats: How RNA splicing decisions are made

ScienceDaily (June 17, 2012) ? Lariats are discarded byproducts of RNA splicing, the process by which genetic instructions for making proteins are assembled. A new study has found hundreds more lariats than ever before, yielding new information about how splicing occurs and how it can lead to disease.Tiny, transient loops of genetic material, detected and studied by the hundreds for the first time at Brown University, are providing new insights into how the body transcribes DNA and splices (or missplices) those transcripts into the instructions needed for making proteins.

The lasso-shaped genetic snippets -- they are called lariats -- that the Brown team reports studying in the June 17 edition of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology are byproducts of gene transcription. Until now scientists had found fewer than 100 lariats, mostly by poring over very small selections of introns, which are sections of genetic code that do not directly code for proteins, but contain important signals that direct the way protein-coding regions are assembled. In the new study, Brown biologists report that they found more than 800 lariats in a publicly available set of billions of RNA reads derived from human tissues.

"We used modern genomic methods, deep sequencers, to detect these rare intermediates of splicing," said William Fairbrother, associate professor of biology and senior author of the study. "It's the first ever report of these things being discovered at a genome scale in living cells, and it tells us a lot about this step of gene processing."

That specific step is known as RNA splicing. Like film editors splicing together movie scenes, enzymes cut away the introns to assemble exons that instruct a cell's ribosome to make proteins. The body often has a choice of ways and places to make those cuts. Most of what is known about splicing has come from studying these spliced instructions, said Allison Taggart, a graduate student who is lead author of the study. What's been missing is the data hidden in the lariats, which fall apart shortly after being spliced out, but turn out to predict the body's splicing choices.

Modeling splicing

The key information uncovered in the study, Taggart said, is the location of so-called "branchpoints" on the lariats. Physically, the branchpoint is where the lariat closes on itself to form a loop during the first step of splicing, but its position and proximity to possible splice sites, the researchers learned, reliably relate to where splicing will occur.

After studying the sites of these branchpoints and their relationship to splice sites, the researchers created an algorithmic model that could predict splice sites 95.6 percent of the time. The value of the model is not in identifying splice sites -- those are already well known, Fairbrother said. Instead, the model's accuracy shows that, with the new data from the lariats, scientists have gained a more general understanding of how the body chooses among alternative splicing sites.

"What it does tell us is sets of rules defining the relationship between branchpoints and the chosen splice sites, which gives clues about how the splicing machinery makes decisions," Taggart said. "Certain branchpoint locations can enforce specific splicing isoforms."

Connections to disease

In addition to ferreting out the mechanisms of alternative splicing, the team also studied the connection between branchpoints and disease. They looked through the Human Gene Mutation Database for disease-causing mutations found in introns and compared their newly found branchpoint sequences to those mutations. They found that many relate specifically to branchpoints.

"We saw a sequence motif that looked exactly like a branchpoint sequence motif," she said. "What this tells us is that these mutations are forming at branchpoints and are leading to disease, presumably through causing aberrant splicing by interfering with lariat formation."

In other words, Fairbrother said, it could well be that a consequence of mutations in branchpoints could be disease.

In addition to Taggart and Fairbrother, other authors include Alec DeSimone, Janice Shih, and Madeleine Filloux.

The National Science Foundation and Brown University funded the research, which was performed in part on the OSCAR supercomputing cluster at the University's Center for Computation and Visualization.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Allison J Taggart, Alec M DeSimone, Janice S Shih, Madeleine E Filloux & William G Fairbrother. Large-scale mapping of branchpoints in human pre-mRNA transcripts in vivo. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 17 June 2012 DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2327

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Central banks prepare for turmoil after Greek vote

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Central banks from Tokyo to London checked their ammunition on Friday in preparation for any turmoil from Greece's election, with the European Central Bank hinting at an interest rate cut and Britain set to open its coffers.

Tensions were high about how to manage the euro zone's debt crisis - epitomized by Greece's bankruptcy and need for international aid - and a rare fight broke out between Germany and France, normally the glue that keeps the bloc together.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized France's economic performance, effectively taking a swipe at Socialist President Francois Hollande who has called for more emphasis on economic growth and less on budget austerity.

The feeling of crisis was real. "We must do everything possible to prevent the euro zone from falling apart," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on television.

ECB President Mario Draghi, one of many policymakers gearing up for trouble after Sunday's vote in Greece, said his bank was ready to step in and fund any viable euro zone bank that gets in trouble.

He painted a picture of a deteriorating euro zone economy with no inflation danger - conditions for monetary easing.

"There are serious downside risks here," Draghi told the annual ECB Watchers conference in Frankfurt, two days before the vote that could set Athens on a path out of the euro zone and stoke turmoil in financial markets.

"This risk has to do mostly with the heightened uncertainty."

Japan's top financial diplomat Takehiko Nakao warned that authorities in Tokyo would respond to unwelcome currency moves as appropriate, a clear threat of intervention if investors seeking safety push the yen too high.

It was an echo of strong pledges from the Swiss National Bank on Thursday that it would do what it takes to protect the franc from soaring.

The Bank of England followed up on Thursday's joint announcement with the government of a 100 billion pound ($155 billion) offer of loans to banks by saying it will start next week with a charge of just 0.75 percent.

In the United States, Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs Lael Brainard offered assurance that Washington has a "tool kit" and stood ready to preserve market confidence.

"Everyone is well prepared, too, in the wake of the elections on Greece, to work together to make sure there is a path forward that is sustainable for Greece and bolsters confidence more broadly," she said.

GETTING READY

Officials from the G20 nations, whose leaders are meeting in Mexico next week, say numerous central banks are preparing to take steps to stabilize financial markets - if needed - by providing liquidity and prevent any credit squeeze.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy convened a conference call on Friday afternoon with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Britain, officially to discuss preparations for the G20 summit, expected to be dominated by the euro zone debt crisis.

Depending on the depth of any turmoil, an emergency meeting of ministers from the Group of Seven developed nations could be held on Monday or Tuesday during the summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, sources said.

The focal point for all is Sunday's repeat general election in Greece, a knife-edge race that could be won by parties vowing to tear up the harsh economic terms that the European Union and International Monetary Fund imposed as conditions of a bailout for the near-bankrupt state.

Such an outcome could drive Greece into default and possibly out of the euro zone, a prospect that could undermine faith in the currency bloc and add to pressure on the finances of bigger economies such as Italy and Spain.

Madrid's borrowing costs rose above 7 percent on Thursday, a level that is widely considered unsustainable. They fell slightly on Friday and European shares gained on expectations of global central bank response. The euro was lower, however.

"At best, we are going to have a situation that is extremely serious on Monday," Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg told journalists. "In all likelihood, whatever the outcome, we are going to have a government which is going to find it hard to live up to the agreements they (the Greeks) have signed up to."

WORSENING OUTLOOK

In a sign of growing strain between Europe's central powers, Merkel hit out at France in response to Hollande's proposals for joint euro zone bonds and a joint bank deposit guarantee scheme.

"Europe must discuss the growing differences in economic strength between France and Germany," Merkel said.

Responding to Hollande's call for more euro zone solidarity, she said Germany had wanted to give the European Court of Justice the power to reject national budgets that breach EU rules but others had objected. She meant France.

Draghi said the ECB was ready to provide money to solvent banks if they needed it, a clear plan to avoid the kind of credit crunch that occurred during the Lehman Brother crisis in 2008.

"The ECB has the crucial role of providing liquidity to sound bank counterparties in return for adequate collateral. This is what we have done throughout the crisis, faithful to our mandate of maintaining price stability over the medium term - and this is what we will continue to do," he said.

Draghi also said that no euro zone country faces an inflation risk, which is the bank's main concern. That gelled with comments from ECB policymakers a day earlier that the central bank might be open to cutting interest rates.

Britain did not wait for the Greek vote to announce action. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on Thursday the country would launch a scheme to provide cheap long-term funding to banks to encourage them to lend to businesses and consumers.

The central bank would also activate an emergency liquidity supply, King said.

King said the euro zone's problems were causing a crisis of confidence in Britain that was leading to a self-reinforcing weaker picture of growth.

"The black cloud has dampened animal spirits so that businesses and households are battening down the hatches to prepare for the storms ahead," he said.

On Friday, the bank said it will hold a first emergency liquidity operation for banks next week with at least 5 billion pounds on offer. Loans would be at a minimum of the Bank Rate, 0.5 percent, plus an additional 25 basis points.

STAND-OFF IN ATHENS

In Athens, the election was seen as too close to call. Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main anti-bailout leftist party SYRIZA, said on Thursday the deal with Greece's international lenders, which has helped push the economy into a depression, would not last beyond the weekend.

"The memorandum of bankruptcy will belong to the past on Monday," Tsipras, who has rapidly emerged from fringe politics to challenge the mainstream for power, told his last campaign rally in Athens.

European leaders, however, have warned that Greece will get no help if it reneges. Officials have also hinted that Athens might be granted more time to achieve its fiscal targets if a new government sticks to the core reforms in the program.

French President Francois Hollande warned Greek voters about seeking what Tsipras has promised - a future in the euro while ditching the 130-billion-euro ($160 billion) bailout deal sealed earlier this year and its demands for punishing austerity policies.

Hollande said on Greek TV that he wanted the country to stay in the euro, rather than reviving its drachma currency.

"But I have to warn them, because I am a friend of Greece, that if the impression is given that Greece wants to distance itself from its commitments and abandon all prospect of recovery, there will be countries in the euro zone which will prefer to finish with the presence of Greece in the euro zone."

SYRIZA is running neck-and-neck with the mainstream conservatives for Sunday's parliamentary vote, a re-run of an election last month that produced a stalemate in which neither the pro- nor anti-bailout camps was able to form a coalition.

(Writing by Jeremy Gaunt, additional reporting by Fiona Shaikh, Paul Carrel, Leika Kihara, Rie Ishiguro and Johan Sennero; Editing by Giles Elgood and Chizu Nomiyama)

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Video: The Perfect Catch, Part 1

Dateline NBC

'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.

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Jonah Hill Joins Django Unchained

jonah-hill-slice

Ever since scoring an Oscar nomination for Moneyball, Jonah Hill is continuing to find work in high-profile dramatic fare.? He recently signed on to co-star in Martin Scorsese?s The Wolf of Wall Street and now he?s got a role in Quentin Tarantino?s Django Unchained.? Before filming began on Tarantino?s flick, Hill was reportedly eyed for the role of Scotty Harmony, the kid who loses Django?s (Jamie Foxx) slave wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) to the charming and evil Calvin Candie.? However, Hill had to turn the job down due to scheduling conflicts, but he is now available, and while Deadline doesn?t know the part he?ll be playing, it definitely won?t be Scotty.? No matter who he ends up playing, I?m glad Django Unchained has added yet another talented actor to its impressive cast, which also includes Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, M.C. Gainey, Walton Goggins, Garrett Dillahunt, Dennis Christopher, Gerald McRaney, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson,and Tom Savini.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and synopsis for Django Unchained.? The film opens December 25th.? Hill will next be seen in the comedy The Watch, which opens July 27th.

django-unchained-movie-poster-teaserHere?s the official synopsis for Django Unchained:

Set in the South two years before the Civil War, ?Django Unchained? stars Academy Award?-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award?-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles ? dead or alive.

Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South?s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago.

Django and Schultz?s search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award?-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of ?Candyland,? an infamous plantation where slaves are groomed by trainer Ace Woody (Kurt Russell) to battle each other for sport. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award?-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie?s trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival?

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