Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Beware of China's housing bubble

The housing bubble was a global rather than US event. The bubble outlasted the US experience in several other countries such as Australia and Canada which are experiencing some weakness. However, the one I?ve worried about is in China. Keep your eye on this one.

But the math tells a different story. The housing frenzy has driven prices so high, so fast, that a crash on the scale of the real estate collapse in Japan in the 1990s is a virtual certainty. And China?s already exaggerated official growth rate could take a pounding, all the way to the zone of the unthinkable, into the low single-digits.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on blog.mises.org.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/WhbhvibKMNY/Beware-of-China-s-housing-bubble

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Catching a mood on Facebook

Positive and negative emotions spread on social network

Web edition : 5:01 pm

SAN DIEGO ? Facebook users can spread emotions to their online connections just by posting a written message, or status update, that?s positive or negative, says a psychologist who works for the wildly successful social network.

This finding challenges the idea that emotions get passed from one person to another via vocal cues, such as rising or falling tone, or by a listener unconsciously imitating a talker?s body language, said Adam Kramer on January 27 at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Kramer works at Facebook?s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

?It?s time to rethink how emotional contagion works, since vocal cues and mimicry aren?t needed,? Kramer said. ?Facebook users? emotion leaks into the emotional worlds of their friends.?

Preliminary evidence that the emotional undercurrent of a person?s online messages affect his or her friends supports Kramer?s argument, says psychology graduate student Jamie Guillory of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Guillory and Cornell psychologist Jeffrey Hancock found that groups of three friends communicating by instant messaging used a greater number of negative words and solved a joint task better after one friend had just watched a film clip showing one child bullied by a bigger kid, versus a neutral film clip.

When one friend saw the bullying clips, Guillory suggested, his or her negative feelings spread via written messages to the others and stimulated more active group discussions about the experimental task: coming up with tips to survive freshman year in college.

Volunteers in that study reported not knowing when their friends had seen the bullying clip. Facebook members may also unknowingly pick up on what their friends feel by reading status updates, Guillory speculated.

Kramer used a computer program to identify words signifying positive and negative emotions in Facebook status updates posted by 1 million English-speaking users over three consecutive days in 2010. He did the same for status updates posted by friends of those Facebook users over the next three consecutive days. Since each user had about 150 Facebook friends, Kramer?s study included about 150 million people. More than 800 million people overall use Facebook, he said.

When a user?s status update included more positive than negative words, updates by that user?s friends posted three days later included an average of 7 percent more positive words and 1 percent fewer negative words compared with their updates just before the user?s post appeared. A corresponding pattern appeared after users posted updates with a surplus of negative words.

?That?s not a huge effect, but it?s a real effect,? Kramer said. Across the entire study group, three days after users posted positive updates, the number of updates containing positive words rose by 1.4 million and the number featuring negative words dropped by 679,000 relative to the day before, he reported.

Kramer found the same results whether users? updates were sampled at the beginning or the end of the week. So any tendency to feel happier on Friday and sadder on Monday didn?t influence emotional trends in status updates.

There?s no way to know if friends actually viewed users? updates from three days before, he acknowledged. But the findings point to a subtle form of emotional contagion that ripples across the ocean of Facebook users, he concluded.


Found in: Humans

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338007/title/Catching_a_mood_on_Facebook

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Rose Byrne SAG Awards 2012 Jumpsuit: Do Or Don't? (PHOTOS, POLL)

Lace jumpsuits, as we have seen, are a tricky thing. They can be a gorgeous, bold, feminine fashion statement... or they can be an unflattering train wreck. (Camo jumpsuits, on the other hand? Never OK.)

So we were taken aback when Rose Byrne braved the SAG Awards red carpet in a white lace version. From Elie Saab's Fall 2009 couture collection, the onesie featured little cap sleeves, a plunging neckline and wide-legged pants.

Covered from top to bottom with sequins and crystal embellishments, the Elie Saab suit was a bold choice but fulfilled every red carpet requirement: it was eye-catching, glamorous, flattering, glittery and sexy.

Rose, who we adored in "Bridesmaids" and have been missing ever since, paired the jumpsuit with a sleek bob, which hairdresser Harry Josh described as "'70s inspired Michelle Pfeiffer from Scarface meets Anna Wintour's bob." We'll take it.

From head-to-toe, Rose looked chic. But is a grown-up in one-piece garment ever OK -- and for the red carpet, no less?

Quick Poll

Rose Byrne's red carpet jumpsuit:

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll


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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/29/rose-byrne-sag-awards-2012-jumpsuit_n_1240741.html

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Sony's Underwater Cybershot TX200V Is the iPhone's Fat Photo-Taking Cousin [Cameras]

Sony's new glass-faced TX200V is a decidedly opulent stab at something we've been asking for around here: a waterproof camera that doesn't sacrifice optics and design. It's just that it does it at a pretty painful price point. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/UQfj0gvqS0k/

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Sumerian gold jar, other relics returned to Iraq (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? A 6,500-year-old Sumerian gold jar, the head of a Sumerian battle axe and a stone from an Assyrian palace were among 45 relics returned to Iraq by Germany on Monday.

The items were among thousands stolen from Iraq's museums and archeological sites in the mayhem that followed the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The tiny gold jar, dating to 4,500 BC, the bronze axe head, clay tablets bearing cuneiform script, a metal amulet and other artifacts were seized by German police at public auctions and turned over to Iraqi officials in a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Alexander Schonfelder, deputy head of the German diplomatic mission in Iraq, said German law dictated that any artifacts taken from Iraq after 1990 should be returned.

"This means that the German government has the right to confiscate them and that is what we have done, and given them back to Iraq," Schonfelder said.

Some 15,000 artifacts were thought to have been looted from the Iraqi National Museum and thousands more from archeological sites since the start of the 2003 war.

Up to than 10,000 of the National Museum pieces are still missing, said Amira Eidan, general director of the museum.

Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or "land between two rivers" because of its Tigris and Euphrates, is regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilization.

Many believe it gave birth to such milestones of human development as agriculture, codified law and the wheel.

In recent years the Iraqi government has slowly reassembled some of the country's lost history.

Last September officials announced the recovery of the headless statue of a Sumerian king and more than 500 other pieces. Two weeks later the National Museum found 600 missing items stashed in a storeroom of the prime minister's office.

In December 2008, Iraqi authorities seized 228 artifacts that smugglers planned to take out of the country.

"We are heading in coming months to retrieve Iraqi artifacts from Britain, from the United States of America, and Canada ... we will follow Iraq's antiquities wherever they are," said Abbas al-Quraishi, head of Iraq's artifact retrieval department.

(Reporting by Aseel Kami; Editing by Jim Loney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/stage_nm/us_iraq_artefacts

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'Harry Potter,' 'Thrones' win SAG stunt honors (omg!)

A worker sweeps the stage as setup for the SAG Awards is under way at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The "Harry Potter" finale has earned some love from Hollywood's top acting union, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best big-screen stunt ensemble Sunday.

The win for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" was a final triumph for the fantasy franchise that concluded last summer after a run of eight blockbusters.

Winning the TV stunt ensemble prize was "Game of Thrones." The stunt awards were announced on the arrivals red carpet before the show began.

Among the early arrivals to the cheers of enthusiastic fans on a sunny and warm afternoon were Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray of the old "Dallas" TV series, soon to be the new "Dallas" TV series on TNT. Meanwhile, Glenn Close was looking very unlike her "Albert Nobbs" character for which she received a SAG nomination as she posed for fans in a sleek black gown.

For the main event, Sunday's 18th annual SAG ceremony is heavy on actors playing illustrious real-life figures.

Among them: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar"; and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in "My Week With Marilyn."

Streep won a Golden Globe for "The Iron Lady" and is considered a favorite for the SAG prize and for her third win at the Academy Awards, which are set for Feb. 26.

The front-runners for the other SAG awards are actors in fictional roles, though, among them George Clooney as a dad in crisis in "The Descendants" and Jean Dujardin as a silent-film star fallen on hard times in "The Artist." Both are up for best actor, and both won Globes ? Clooney as dramatic actor, Dujardin as musical or comedy actor.

Octavia Spencer as a brassy Mississippi maid in "The Help" and Christopher Plummer as an elderly dad who comes out as gay in "Beginners" won Globes for supporting performances and have strong prospects for the same honors at the SAG Awards.

The winners at the SAG ceremony typically go on to earn Oscars. All four acting recipients at SAG last year later took home Oscars ? Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for "The Fighter."

The same generally holds true for the weekend's other big Hollywood honors, the Directors Guild of America Awards, where Michel Hazanavicius won the feature-film prize Saturday for "The Artist." The Directors Guild winner has gone on to earn the best-director Oscar 57 times in the 63-year history of the union's awards show.

SAG also presents an award for overall cast performance, a prize that's loosely considered the ceremony's equivalent of a best-picture honor. However, the cast award has a spotty record at predicting what will win best picture at the Oscars.

While "The King's Speech" won both honors a year ago, the SAG cast recipient has gone on to claim the top Oscar only eight times in the 16 years since the guild added the category.

Airing live on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Exhibition Center in downtown Los Angeles, the show features nine television categories, as well.

Receiving the guild's life-achievement award is Mary Tyler Moore. The prize was to be presented by Dick Van Dyke, her co-star on the 1960s sit-com "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

___

Online:

http://www.sagawards.com

http://www.sagawards.com

Christopher Plummer arrives at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday Jan. 29, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_harry_potter_thrones_win_sag_stunt_honors232901017/44348578/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/harry-potter-thrones-win-sag-stunt-honors-232901017.html

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

With The Twist of a Handle, This Flat Whisk Becomes a Balloon Whisk [Food]

When it comes to the kitchen, simplicity reigns supreme. Cooking gadgets and tools are novel, but more often than not, they're better in concept than actuality. The Twist Whisk, which transforms from a flat whisk to a balloon whist, appears to be a bit of an anomaly. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AHW48h6xvBs/with-the-twist-of-a-handle-this-flat-whisk-becomes-a-balloon-whisk

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Video: Romney-Gingrich war heats up



>> our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd joins me from our washington news room. it seems gingrich and romney see the path to the nomination is on this question of elect ability. who can face down barack obama in the general election . is that's what's driving this increasingly heated rhetoric we're hearing?

>> it seems to be driving romney 's numbers up. the number one issue, quality in our poll, elect ability. romney had even a bigger lead on gingrich on that one. yes, electability is driving this a little bit, particularly in florida . these big, larger states, unlike iowa and new hampshire, south carolina , where you get more of a chance to know niece candidates, in florida it's all about tv ads. that's been another advantage for romney . he's carpet-bombed the state in a way you can tell it's gotten under gingrich 's skin. the question i have, lester, what does gingrich do after florida if he indeed does lose? because there's an awful lot of space and time before he can get to a state that he has a good chance of winning.

>> we've seen the stop gingrich movement among mainline republicans. at the same time, tea party movements seem to be circling the wagons around gingrich . are we moving up to a day of reckoning in the republican party here?

>> reporter: not yet but i establishment really is nervous about this issue of romney not having more time to basically fix his general election problems. this process is not been good to him. he is upside down in his personal rating. a net negative right now. that's not good. he needs time to fuks that. gingrich clearly isn't going away. what we saw in new hampshire, sort of the revenge of the tea better and the anti-establishment, rallying around newt, don't be surprise tuesday me see that again. this thing is destined to go at least until mid-march. you've got southern primaries and gingrich is going to want to see if he can get some momentum back there and that's where i think the data party's going to try to carry him through. we'll see.

>> chuck todd in our washington

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46183163/

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Warm socks sent to North Korea by balloon

South Korean activists sent warm socks and messages attached to balloons toward North Korea Saturday, according to the AFP news agency.

About 1,000 pairs were attached to the five large gas-filled were launched in the northern South Korean city of Paju, the AFP reported.

The Seoul-based group North Korea Peace said the messages sent with each pair of socks were "politically innocuous."

"We're not interested in sending political messages or sparking any troubles there. All we want is that people in the North wear warm socks over their frozen feet," Sunny Kim, a spokeswoman for the activists, told AFP.

  1. The death of Kim Jong Il

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    3. Politics trump hunger in N.Korea
    4. Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong ll
    5. Source: Military coup in N. Korea 'unlikely'
    6. NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
    7. Cartoons: The life and death of Kim Jong Il
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Slideshow: Daily life in North Korea (on this page)

"Warm socks are so rare and they can easily be traded for cash in the North. One pair of socks fetches about 22 pounds? of corn, which is enough to sustain a person for a month," Kim added.

Balloon food, propaganda
Earlier this month, defectors from the North sent packages of food by balloon to their former country ahead of the Lunar New Year.

In December, following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong il, defectors from the North and southern activists sent giant balloons containing tens of thousands of propaganda leaflets across the border.

The leaflets contained messages opposing another hereditary power transfer in North Korea, as well as portraits of Kim Jong Il and heir Kim Jong Un.

Video: Defectors send food by balloon to North Korea (on this page)

North Korea has warned in the past that it would fire at South Korea in response to such actions.

Slideshow: Journey into North Korea (on this page)

Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack on Saturday caused by overwork and stress, according to North Korean media. He was 69 ? although some experts question the official accounts of the date and place of his birth.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46172516/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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Hope for those with a depressive disposition

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Good news for the 13 per cent of the population with depressive personality traits: their negative outlook does not have to be permanent. This has been shown by psychologist Rachel Maddux in new research from Lund University in Sweden.

Depression is a serious and sometimes devastating health problem which affects millions of people worldwide. In her previous work with depressed patients, Rachel Maddux often felt frustrated that treatments were not helpful for all of those diagnosed with depression. The main focus of her thesis therefore asked the question: why is it that some people are helped but others are not?

Her hypothesis was that those with depressive personality traits -- chronic melancholics -- are more difficult to treat, especially when they suffer from depression. These people generally feel down and worried, have low self-esteem and are dissatisfied with their lives and environment.

Rachel Maddux found that 13 per cent of residents in Lund have these personality traits.

"This is a very large number, but the results are in line with other studies carried out in the US and Canada."

The next study looked at how many of those who seek help from a psychologist have depressive personality traits -- a large portion, 44 per cent. These people were more seriously ill than other patients when they sought specialist help, according to Rachel Maddux.

Contrary to what she had believed, psychotherapy -- both cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic therapy -- helped the depressive personality types as much as those without the disposition.

"The interesting thing was that therapy not only improved the depression itself, it also ameliorated the pervasive depressive traits," says Rachel Maddux.

She cannot say whether the effect is maintained over time. However, she thinks the study indicates that therapy is good for people with this characteristic manner of depressive thinking and behaviour, even if they are not suffering from acute depression.

The main issue for Rachel Maddux's research still remains: why aren't all those diagnosed with depression helped by the treatment they receive? Why do antidepressants or talk therapy work for some but not others?

"But now I know that there is hope for those with depressive personality," says Rachel Maddux. "The next step will be to study other factors that could affect the outcome of treatment; biology, childhood and development, trauma, etc."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Lund University, via AlphaGalileo.

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


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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.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127140011.htm

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Pats' Gronkowski absent from practice for 2nd day

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is helped off the field after being injured during the second half of the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is helped off the field after being injured during the second half of the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

(AP) ? Rob Gronkowski's playing status for the Super Bowl was listed as questionable on Friday after the star tight end missed the New England Patriots practice for the second straight day with an injured left ankle.

Twelve other players also were listed as questionable but participated in practice on a limited basis. That could change since more than a week remains before the game against the New York Giants on Feb. 5.

WIVB-TV in Buffalo reported that Gronkowski's father, Gordy Gronkowski, said he has a high ankle sprain. Rob Gronkowski attended Williamsville North High School in the Buffalo area. The station said his father expects him to be fine for the Super Bowl.

The Patriots have not disclosed the extent of the injury, and coach Bill Belichick rarely provides details on injuries.

"He must not have read the sign on the door" near the locker room, wide receiver Matthew Slater said with a smile of Gronkowski's father. "We've got to get him caught up to speed on that. We're not supposed to disclose that kind of stuff."

And Belichick's reaction to the father's revelation?

"Oh, man, I don't know," Slater said. "I would imagine he wouldn't be too excited about that."

For the second straight day, Gronkowski was not in the locker room during the period when media were allowed in.

Gronkowski, whose 17 touchdown catches set an NFL single-season record for tight ends, was injured late in the third quarter of Sunday's 23-20 AFC championship victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Asked if he had any doubt that Gronkowski would play in the Super Bowl, Slater had a one word answer: "No."

But what if he doesn't play?

"We can't really worry about that," Slater said. "He's a special young man and there's not too many guys tougher than him out there. So I would imagine he's going to do everything he can to be out there."

Gronkowski was the only player who missed practice.

Those who participated on a limited basis were wide receivers Wes Welker and Deion Branch (knee injuries), offensive tackles Sebastian Vollmer (back and foot) and Marcus Cannon (ankle), offensive guard Logan Mankins (knee), defensive lineman Kyle Love (ankle), linebackers Rob Ninkovich (hip), Brandon Spikes (knee), Dane Fletcher (thumb), and Tracy White (abdomen), and safeties Patrick Chung (knee) and James Ihedigbo (shoulder).

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-27-FBN-Patriots-Gronkowski/id-81943d81033740e6ba73b6fbbf07e1f1

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Ramiro Garcia on American Idol: Now Ear This!


Stories do not come much more inspiring than that of Ramiro Garcia.

This church worship leader closed out American Idol auditions in Texas last night and he did it with a background that's hard to believe: the aspiring singer was born without ears and told by doctors he'd never hear.

But Garcia started to undergo a series of surgeries at age four and here he is years later, bringing the judges to tears. We gotta imagine we'll be seeing a lot more of Ramiro in Hollywood...

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/ramiro-garcia-on-american-idol-now-ear-this/

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Azarenka routs Sharapova to win Australian title

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus hold the trophy during the awarding ceremony after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in their women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus hold the trophy during the awarding ceremony after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in their women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus kisses the trophy during the awarding ceremony after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in their women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reacts after winning a point against Russia's Maria Sharapova during the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

(AP) ? Victoria Azarenka started celebrating, then suddenly did a double-take to ask her coach, "What happened?"

The answer: She had just produced one of the most lopsided Australian Open final victories to capture a Grand Slam title and the No. 1 ranking for the first time.

Azarenka routed three-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 in 1 hour, 22 minutes on Saturday night, winning 12 of the last 13 games after dropping her first service game and falling behind 2-0.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "I have been dreaming and working so hard to win the Grand Slam, and being No. 1 is pretty good bonus. Just the perfect ending and the perfect position to be in."

Azarenka had won 11 straight matches, including a run to the Sydney International title, and reached her first Grand Slam final. Her previous best performance at a major was a semifinal loss to Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon last year. Sharapova had all the experience, being in her sixth major final and having won three ? dating to her 2004 Wimbledon title.

But it didn't unnerve the 22-year-old Azarenka, the first woman from Belarus to win a singles major. She's also the seventh different woman to win a Grand Slam since Francesca Schiavone won the 2010 French Open, and the fifth different winner in as many majors.

Azarenka became only the third woman to earn the No. 1 spot after winning her first major title. She moved from No. 3 to No. 1 in the rankings, helped by Caroline Wozniacki's loss in the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Azarenka set up championship point with a stunning forehand, her 14th clean winner, and sealed it when Sharapova netted a backhand.

She dropped to her knees at the baseline with her hands over her face. She got up, held her hands up and jogged over to her coach, Sam Sumyk, in the stands to celebrate.

"The best feeling, for sure," Azarenka said. "I don't know about the game. I don't know what I was doing out there. It's just pure joy what happened. I can't believe it's over."

And she paid special credit to her grandmother, "the person who inspires me the most in my life."

Azarenka has been a distinctive presence at Melbourne Park as much for her shrieks and hoots with each shot and seemingly boundless energy as for her white shorts, blue singlet and lime green head and wrist bands.

Against Sharapova, she maintained the frenetic movement that has been the hallmark of her performance in Australia, her 25th consecutive major. She won the Sydney International title last weekend and is on a 12-match winning streak ? the first player since 2004 to win a WTA tour event the week before winning a major.

"She did everything better than I did today. I had a good first couple of games, and that was about it," Sharapova said. "Then she was the one that was taking the first ball and hitting it deep and aggressive. I was always the one running around like a rabbit, you know, trying to play catch-up all the time."

Sharapova also won only three games in a 2007 final loss to Serena Williams, who also conceded only three games in the 2009 final against Dinara Safina.

When Sharapova won the first two games, there was no indication of how lopsided the match would be. Azarenka took control after holding for the first time, breaking Sharapova at love and then holding again on a three-game roll.

Sharapova held, finishing off with an ace, to level the score at 3-3 in the first set but then didn't win another game.

Azarenka started dictating the points, coming to the net at times, hitting winners from the baseline and forcing the 24-year-old Russian to the extremes on both sides of the court. Sharapova seemed barely able to move by comparison, and had 30 unforced errors in the match.

The second set was completely lopsided and lasted only 36 minutes, with Sharapova winning only 12 points.

"As in any sport, you have your good days, you have your tough days and you have days where things just don't work out," said Sharapova, who has now been on the losing end of two of the most lopsided scorelines in a final at Melbourne Park.

In the men's doubles final, Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek denied Bob and Mike Bryan their record 12th Grand Slam title, beating the American twins 7-6 (1), 6-2.

The 33-year-old Bryans were attempting to secure their place as the most decorated doubles team since the Open Era began in 1968. They remain tied at 11 major titles with Australian duo Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge.

On Sunday, defending champion Novak Djokovic takes on Rafael Nadal in a men's singles final featuring the top two players in the rankings. Djokovic won three of the four majors last year and beat Nadal in six finals in 2011 among his 70 match wins for the season.

Azarenka had her best season in 2011, winning 55 of 72 matches to finish the year at No. 3.

There was a time when she'd momentarily flirted with the idea of quitting the sport during a quick trip home to Minsk after a loss at Doha. But she was quickly set straight by her family, including her grandmother, who had reportedly worked three jobs until the age of 71.

She couldn't get through to her family immediately "because my phone is freaking out right now," but she texted them from the court.

"I made a pretty smart decision, not walking out, right? That was pretty special," she said. "There's always ups and downs, now I'm up."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-TEN-Australian-Open/id-be05ef7643e540a291718e74f37d3494

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Detecting detrimental change in coral reefs

Friday, January 27, 2012

Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan?a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula?found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.

But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close. In the late 1970s Dustan helped build a handheld spectrometer, a tool to measure light given off by the coral. Using his spectrometer, Dustan could look at light reflected and made by the different organisms that comprised the living reefs. Since then, he has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that Landsat offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find 'hotspots' where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.

Situated in shallow clear water, most coral reefs are visible to satellites that use passive remote sensing to observe Earth's surface. But coral reefs are complex ecosystems with coincident coral species, sand, and water all reflecting light. Dustan found that currently orbiting satellites do not offer the spatial or spectral resolution needed to distinguish between them and specifically classify coral reef composition. So instead of attempting to classify the inherently complex coral ecosystem to monitor their health, Dustan has instead started to look for change?how overall reflectance for a geographic location varies over time.

Dustan uses a time series of Landsat data to calculate something called temporal texture??basically a map showing where change has occurred based on statistical analysis of reflectance information. While Dustan cannot diagnosis the type of change with temporal texture he can establish where serious changes have occurred. Coral communities have seasonal rhythms and periodicities, but larger, significant changes show up as statistical outliers in temporal texture maps and often correlate with reef decline.

A Case Study

Carysfort reef?named for the HMS Carysfort, an eighteenth century British warship that ran aground on the reef in 1770?is considered the most ecologically diverse on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's northern seaward edge, but today it is in a state of ecological collapse.

Dustan and colleagues conducted the first quantitative field study of coral health at Carysfort in 1974. After a quarter century their studies showed that coral had declined 92 percent. The coral had succumbed to an array of stressors culminating with deadly diseases.

Using the well-characterized Carysfort reef as his control, Dustan calculated the temporal texture for the reef using a series of 20 Landsat images collected between 1982 and 1996. The resulting temporal texture maps correlated with the known areas of significant coral loss (where coral communities have turned into algal-dominated substrates) and they correctly showed that the seaward shallow regions have had the most detrimental change.

This novel approach to change detection is only possible because the long-term calibration of Landsat data assures that data from year-to-year is consistent. Dustin needs at least 6 to 8 Landsat images to create a reliable temporal texture map, but the more data that is available, the finer the results.

Dustan tested this work in the U.S. because he had a robust study site and because prior to 1999 coverage of reefs outside of the U.S. was spotty. With the Landsat 7 launch in 1999 a new global data acquisition strategy was established and for the first time the planet's coral reefs were systematically and regularly imaged, greatly increasing our knowledge of reefs. The Landsat archive enabled the completing of the first exhaustive global survey of reefs (Millennium Global Coral Reef Mapping Project, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/news-archive/news_0031.html). Efforts are currently underway to receive and ingest Landsat data collected and housed by international ground-receiving stations. International partners often downlink Landsat scenes of their countries that the U.S. does not, so it is very likely that historic reef images will be added the U.S. Landsat archive during this process.

Carrying on Outside of Carysfort

Temporal texture gives scientists an entirely new way to look at coral reefs. A worldwide study could help managers locate change 'hotspots' and could better inform conservation efforts.

Ideally, after more testing, Dustan would like to see an automatic change detection system implemented to follow major worldwide reef systems. "There is no reason that a form of temporal texture monitoring could not be implemented with current satellites in orbit," Dustan says.

Because reefs are underwater it is difficult to grasp the extensive devastation being exacted upon them. Global temporal texture mapping could bring the ravages into focus.

###

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117143/Detecting_detrimental_change_in_coral_reefs

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Friday, January 27, 2012

No energy industry backing for the word 'fracking' (AP)

NEW YORK ? A different kind of F-word is stirring a linguistic and political debate as controversial as what it defines.

The word is "fracking" ? as in hydraulic fracturing, a technique long used by the oil and gas industry to free oil and gas from rock.

It's not in the dictionary, the industry hates it, and President Barack Obama didn't use it in his State of the Union speech ? even as he praised federal subsidies for it.

The word sounds nasty, and environmental advocates have been able to use it to generate opposition ? and revulsion ? to what they say is a nasty process that threatens water supplies.

"It obviously calls to mind other less socially polite terms, and folks have been able to take advantage of that," said Kate Sinding, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drilling issues.

One of the chants at an anti-drilling rally in Albany earlier this month was "No fracking way!"

Industry executives argue that the word is deliberately misspelled by environmental activists and that it has become a slur that should not be used by media outlets that strive for objectivity.

"It's a co-opted word and a co-opted spelling used to make it look as offensive as people can try to make it look," said Michael Kehs, vice president for Strategic Affairs at Chesapeake Energy, the nation's second-largest natural gas producer.

To the surviving humans of the sci-fi TV series "Battlestar Galactica," it has nothing to do with oil and gas. It is used as a substitute for the very down-to-Earth curse word.

Michael Weiss, a professor of linguistics at Cornell University, says the word originated as simple industry jargon, but has taken on a negative meaning over time ? much like the word "silly" once meant "holy."

But "frack" also happens to sound like "smack" and "whack," with more violent connotations.

"When you hear the word `fracking,' what lights up your brain is the profanity," says Deborah Mitchell, who teaches marketing at the University of Wisconsin's School of Business. "Negative things come to mind."

Obama did not use the word in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, when he said his administration will help ensure natural gas will be developed safely, suggesting it would support 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

In hydraulic fracturing, millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into wells to break up underground rock formations and create escape routes for the oil and gas. In recent years, the industry has learned to combine the practice with the ability to drill horizontally into beds of shale, layers of fine-grained rock that in some cases have trapped ancient organic matter that has cooked into oil and gas.

By doing so, drillers have unlocked natural gas deposits across the East, South and Midwest that are large enough to supply the U.S. for decades. Natural gas prices have dipped to decade-low levels, reducing customer bills and prompting manufacturers who depend on the fuel to expand operations in the U.S.

Environmentalists worry that the fluid could leak into water supplies from cracked casings in wells. They are also concerned that wastewater from the process could contaminate water supplies if not properly treated or disposed of. And they worry the method allows too much methane, the main component of natural gas and an extraordinarily potent greenhouse gas, to escape.

Some want to ban the practice altogether, while others want tighter regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the issue and may propose federal regulations. The industry prefers that states regulate the process.

Some states have banned it. A New York proposal to lift its ban drew about 40,000 public comments ? an unprecedented total ? inspired in part by slogans such as "Don't Frack With New York."

The drilling industry has generally spelled the word without a "K," using terms like "frac job" or "frac fluid."

Energy historian Daniel Yergin spells it "fraccing" in his book, "The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World." The glossary maintained by the oilfield services company Schlumberger includes only "frac" and "hydraulic fracturing."

The spelling of "fracking" began appearing in the media and in oil and gas company materials long before the process became controversial. It first was used in an Associated Press story in 1981. That same year, an oil and gas company called Velvet Exploration, based in British Columbia, issued a press release that detailed its plans to complete "fracking" a well.

The word was used in trade journals throughout the 1980s. In 1990, Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher announced U.S. oil engineers would travel to the Soviet Union to share drilling technology, including fracking.

The word does not appear in The Associated Press Stylebook, a guide for news organizations. David Minthorn, deputy standards editor at the AP, says there are tentative plans to include an entry in the 2012 edition.

He said the current standard is to avoid using the word except in direct quotes, and to instead use "hydraulic fracturing."

That won't stop activists ? sometimes called "fracktivists" ? from repeating the word as often as possible.

"It was created by the industry, and the industry is going to have to live with it," says the NRDC's Sinding.

Dave McCurdy, CEO of the American Gas Association, agrees, much to his dismay: "It's Madison Avenue hell," he says.

___

Jonathan Fahey can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fracking

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Governor's Weekly Message ? Budget Priorities: Growing Jobs ...

Delaware State SealDOVER ? ?In his?weekly message, Governor Markell talks about the priorities reflected in the?balanced budget proposal he unveiled this week.? The proposed Fiscal Year 2013 budget invests in jobs and public education, keeps the state?s commitment to critical areas like public health and safety and balances without the need to raise taxes or add new fees.

?Budgets are about priorities ? our budget proposal makes clear that our top priorities are encouraging economic growth, making our public schools stronger, and ensuring that we are governing effectively,? said Markell.

With jobs remaining the Governor?s top priority, the budget proposal makes several investments in economic growth, including replenishing the Strategic Fund to help attract new employers and expand efforts to grow small businesses.

?Our focus on getting people back to work is why our budget replenishes the strategic fund so we can have more stories to tell like the expansions at places like Amazon, Mountaire, Johnson Controls or PBF Energy. It?s why we?ve focused the investments in our capital budget on projects that both get people to work building them and improve our quality of life, so our state can remain a great place to build a business and raise a family.?

The budget proposal includes significant investments in education, including additional state funding for 111 new teacher units in schools, step increases for school employees, salary increases for paraprofessionals, and continued efforts to improve early education. The budget also continues years of efforts to govern responsibly by finding ways to cut costs.

?I look forward to working with the members of the General Assembly, particularly the members of the Joint Finance Committee, over the coming months to make progress on these shared priorities and to enact a reasonable, responsible budget, one that rises to meet some of the challenges we face and positions our state well ? to help people get back to work, invest in stronger public schools, govern responsibly, and keep Delaware, moving forward.?

About the Governor?s Weekly Message:

At noon every Friday, the Governor?s office releases a new Weekly Message in video, audio, and transcript form.? The message is available on:

YouTube: http://youtu.be/RE4BM3HJaYM
Delaware.Gov: http://governor.delaware.gov/information/podcast_video.shtml
By email: Please?contact our press team to subscribe to our press list
Facebook: www.facebook.com/governormarkell
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Transcript of the Governor?s Weekly Message:?Budget Priorities: Growing Jobs, Investing in Education, Governing Responsibly

Source: http://news.delaware.gov/2012/01/27/governor%E2%80%99s-weekly-message-budget-priorities-growing-jobs-investing-in-education-governing-responsibly/

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An Introduction to Messi: An Outsider's Take (Time.com)

One of the benefits of being utterly uninterested in sports is that you don't get nervous when you interview one of its biggest stars. At different points before our interview, each of my soccer-obsessed colleagues -- writer Bobby Ghosh; photographer Joachim Ladefoged; and Rasmus Ranum, his assistant -- confessed to feeling slight anxiety as he prepared to meet Lionel Messi. But I -- who after all, was only translating the interview -- I was the calmest person in the room. Or at least I was until Bobby reminded me how difficult an interview the famously reticient Messi is. "We're about to talk to possibly the greatest player in the history of the sport, and it's up to you to make him comfortable," he said. "But no pressure."

To all of our relief, the interview went better than expected, though there was a telling moment during the photo shoot when Bobby asked Messi which he disliked more, giving interviews or being photographed. "Both," he replied, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. That lack of elaboration or explanation, we had already learned, was typical: Messi had resisted all our efforts to pry a story or anecdote out of him. In one desperate bid for a bit of color about his time in Bar?a's famous training academy La Masia, I asked him how the meals were, hoping for a memory of a favorite or reviled dish. His answer: "They were fine."

(Interview: Lionel Messi on His Sport, Cristiano Ronaldo [EM] and Argentina)

What was more interesting was how no one else we spoke to, even people within Bar?a who had watched him grow up, seemed to have any personal anecdotes about him either. We kept trying to get at the person off the pitch, only to find that there really wasn't one. So dominant was Messi's single-minded dedication to his sport that it was, quite literally, all anyone could talk about.

Upon hearing of the interview, our friends, acquaintances, and colleagues in Barcelona inquired about it with more than passing curiosity. Cab drivers, fellow journalists, the acclaimed chef Albert Adria, even the two local fans Bobby met at a bar while watching a match -- all asked how it went in a tone both knowing and rueful. Knowing, because they knew what Messi was like with the press. And rueful because, for all their pride and joy at having him play for Bar?a, I think it pains them that they don't know him better.

(MORE: The Experts Weigh In: Messi May Be the Best of All Time [EM] Except for One Thing)

That Messi has chosen to maintain his Argentine identity is something that Barcelonans can understand. After all, they embrace with fierce pride their own Catalan identity -- and see the Bar?a team as a major expression of it. But that doesn't mean they're not a bit disappointed by his choice. After all, Catalans are famously open; all it really takes to become one of them is to learn to speak Catalan. That Messi doesn't want to (those who know him say he understands the language), even after 12 years of living among them, is a little hard for them to process. As is the fact, repeated by many of our sources, that he doesn't go out much in Barcelona; that in their loveliest of cities, they never see him at movies or restaurants like they do his teammates.

El Pa?s sportswriter Ramon Besa told us that he thinks Messi needs an interpreter -- someone who, like the girl who sat next to him in school and answered the teacher's questions on his behalf, can act as an intermediary with the world. With Bar?a, he has found that interpreter in coach Pep Guardiola. But you can't help feeling that Barcelonans, who are so thrilled to have him playing for their team and so ready to embrace him, wish Messi would just let them in.

See TIME's cover story on Messi.

MORE: Messi Wins FIFA's Ballon d'Or Award

View this article on Time.com

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20120127/wl_time/08599210536700

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Down the Apple food chain, profits and some worry

(AP) ? If you like Apple's stock, you're going to love its suppliers.

The companies that make iPhone casings, chips for the iPad and other components are attracting so many investors, they're making the stock of the beloved tech juggernaut look like it's gathering dust.

Many are virtual unknowns, sporting names like TriQuint Semiconductor, Aphenol and the hopeful-sounding Skyworks Solutions, but that may be why they're doing so well. Apple has risen 10 percent this year, but these companies are up two or three times more.

Investors apparently are hoping supplier anonymity means bargains, and they're scooping up shares with gusto ? maybe too much gusto.

"People are thinking the Apple goodies aren't baked into the stock yet," says Pacific Crest analyst Nathan Johnsen, referring to TriQuint, which he thinks is no bargain after its 24 percent jump so far this year.

Fueling the latest spurt higher was Apple's announcement Tuesday that it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, trouncing analysts' already high expectations. It turned a record $13 billion profit for the quarter.

Apple stock, which traded at $100 as recently as March 2009 and at $200 as recently as February 2010, closed at $446 on Wednesday.

Apple is set to regain its position as the world's largest maker of smartphones. For parts makers, it is unchallenged as their most sought-after customer.

Part of the difficulty of investing in Apple suppliers is the mystery surrounding them. Apple's notorious secrecy means it's tough knowing even whom they're buying from, much less for how much.

Hence the enthusiasm when analysts and bloggers crack open iPhones, a process called teardowns, and write tell-alls.

In a recent report following a teardown of the iPhone 4S, research firm IHS Inc. touted a component it uncovered that allows the phone to work on different wireless systems worldwide. It fingered Avago Technologies as the supplier.

"We believe this is one of the unsung heroes of the iPhone 4S," Vijay Rakesh, an analyst for broker Sterne Agee, wrote in a report Wednesday.

Avago is up 18 percent this year.

Other suppliers rising fast include Jabil Circuit Inc., up 17 percent this year, and audio chip maker Cirrus Logic Inc., up 39 percent.

One Cirrus fan, Tore Svanberg, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, published a report Jan. 10 noting that the semiconductor maker was trading at 11 times its expected per share earnings for the coming year, a bargain next to its rivals' 21 times.

The stock has risen more than a third since, but Svanberg still thinks it's worth buying because of its close ties to Apple. "The stock has been trading like it's a problem," he adds.

Perhaps for good reason. Professional investors like to buy suppliers with many customers so that if one cancels a contract, profits will still roll in. In Cirrus' latest quarterly report filed with regulators, Apple accounted for 59 percent of its sales.

Another danger for suppliers is becoming Apple-obsessed ? so worried over losing their contract with the big guys that they neglect other buyers.

Before it shot up recently, the stock of TriQuint, a supplier of power amplifiers that help iPhones communicate with cell towers, was falling fast. It was down 58 percent in 2011.

A big reason: The company turned over so much of its factories to churning out parts for Apple, it couldn't keep up with orders from rivals making Android phones, according to Pacific Crest's Johnsen.

Things got so bad, he says, that at one point the company had to help Android makers find new suppliers.

He says investors might be making a mistake bidding up TriQuint stock.

"They've held on to Apple, but outside of that company, they'll be suffering," Johnsen predicts. "Supplying Apple is a double-edged sword."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-25-The%20Apple%20Universe/id-d6ab6b9ad71640a488514222c1e5fbe8

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Leukemia cells are 'bad to the bone', research finds

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) ? University of Rochester Medical Center researchers have discovered new links between leukemia cells and cells involved in bone formation, offering a fresh perspective on how the blood cancer progresses and raising the possibility that therapies for bone disorders could help in the treatment of leukemia.

The research, led by graduate student Benjamin J. Frisch in the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center laboratory of corresponding author Laura M. Calvi, M.D., is featured in the journal Blood. It is accompanied by an editorial -- "Bad to the Bone" -- written by another leading investigator in the field, Steven W. Lane, M.D., of Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Lane says that the URMC's unexpected laboratory finding provokes new clinical questions, such as whether screening for osteoporosis could provide any useful information for how to manage acute leukemia in newly diagnosed patients.

Leukemia is a devastating disease that results in the disruption of normal blood production. Blood stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells or HSCs) give rise to all mature blood cells and maintain a balance of self-renewal and expansion. However, in this study, even when leukemia is barely traceable in the blood, leukemic cells implant in the bone marrow and attack the body's natural process of making healthy blood stem cells.

In this hematopoietic microenvironment, or niche, investigators have been searching for clues. In 2003 Calvi introduced the concept that osteoblasts, which actively work to form bone in this same microenvironment, might have a key role in expanding and supporting the production of normal blood cells. Published in the journal Nature, that study served as the basis for the current investigation.

Frisch began focusing on the impact of the leukemia cells, which reside on the inside surface of bones adjacent to bone marrow activity. Until now, according to the Blood paper, no one had defined the important interactions that take place between leukemia cells and osteoblasts (bone forming cells) and osteoclasts, which continually break down bone. Frisch and colleagues used a mouse model and human leukemia tissue samples to show that:

  • The way in which leukemia alters the balance and cycles of osteoblast and osteoclast activity is complex and counterintuitive, and results in several measurable changes to the skeleton.

For example, since bone formation and bone resorption are usually tightly knit functions, researchers expected to see that dramatic bone loss due to leukemia would also be consistent with a breakdown of bone and minerals, or resorption. Instead, they saw a mild increase in osteoclastic cells responsible for bone resorption, suggesting that leukemia uncouples these two bone cell functions. Ultimately, researchers would like to understand more about osteoclasts during the disease process, so that they can perhaps target those cells for treatment.

  • In this study, leukemia caused low-level and widespread bone thinning and bone loss, similar to osteoporosis, particularly in the long bones. Preliminary lab experiments showed that treatment with bisphosphonates, a commonly used class of drugs for people who suffer from bone loss, partially restored bone loss in mice with leukemia.
  • Leukemia results in the expression of a protein, known as CCL3, which slows bone formation. Thus, elevated CCL3 levels in leukemia make it a tempting treatment target. Theoretically, newer drugs that block the CCL3 pathway might be able to restore the low-level, net loss of bone observed in many leukemia patients. A few drug compounds that act on the CCL3 pathway are under study in early-stage clinical trials, Frisch said.

Another interesting question, the study noted, is the way in which dysfunction in the bone marrow microenvironment might delay a patient's recovery after chemotherapy, or be the catalyst for relapse.

"Our findings are quite provocative and we hope they will lead to new approaches to promote normal blood production in patients with blood cancers," said Calvi, associate professor of Medicine. "Because the loss of normal hematopoietic function is the chief cause of serious illness and death among leukemia patients, it is critical that we understand all aspects of how this occurs and find new strategies to accelerate the recovery of these defects."

Funding was provided by the Wilmot Scholar Cancer Research Award and the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award. Co-authors include John M. Ashton, Ph.D., URMC Department of Genetics; Lianping Xing, Ph.D., URMC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Michael W. Becker, M.D., URMC Department of Medicine, and Craig T. Jordan, Ph.D., the Philip and Marilyn Wehrheim Professor of Medicine at Wilmot.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Rochester Medical Center.

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Journal References:

  1. B. J. Frisch, J. M. Ashton, L. Xing, M. W. Becker, C. T. Jordan, L. M. Calvi. Functional inhibition of osteoblastic cells in an in vivo mouse model of myeloid leukemia. Blood, 2011; 119 (2): 540 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2011-04-348151
  2. S. W. Lane. Bad to the bone. Blood, 2012; 119 (2): 323 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2011-10-383901

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/NEDOaCu4coE/120126161129.htm

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MoneyMaker Camera Strap Make You As Cool As Bullitt

If you ever saw a movie cop shrugging on his cool, leather under-jacket holster and thought “I want one of those. Only for my cameras, not my guns,” then your rather obscure wish has finally come true. It’s called the MoneyMaker, but at $175, it might as well be called the MoneyTaker. The handsome leather [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/OjUOKIFRNQc/

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Illinois attorney general sues Standard & Poor's (AP)

CHICAGO ? The Illinois attorney general filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing Standard & Poor's of misleading investors by assigning its highest ratings to risky mortgage-backed investments during the years leading up to the crash of the housing market.

The lawsuit from Lisa Madigan's office alleges the agency compromised its independence by issuing high ratings for unworthy or risky investments as part of a strategy to boost revenue and market share. The lawsuit cites internal emails and conversations, including an instant messenger exchange in April 2007 in which an employee tells another that an investment "could be structured by cows and we would rate it."

"Publically, S&P took every opportunity to proclaim their analyses and ratings as independent, objective and free from its desire for revenue," Madigan said. "Yet privately, S&P abandoned its principles and instead used every trick possible to give deals high ratings in order to retain clients and generate revenue."

Madigan's lawsuit singled out mortgage-backed securities, saying Standard & Poor's misrepresented the risks by giving the investments its highest rating of AAA.

A spokesman for Standard and Poor's rejected the claims.

"The case is without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously," said David Wargin.

A spokeswoman for Madigan, Robyn Ziegler, said the attorney general began investigating Standard & Poor's in early 2010. The probe is continuing, but Madigan determined that it had progressed enough to file the suit, Ziegler said. Madigan previously had been involved in discriminatory-lending lawsuits against Bank of America subsidiary Countrywide Financial Corp. and Wells Fargo.

The financial products singled out in the Standard & Poor's lawsuit involve the bundling of a pool of mortgages that are then sold as securities. They are backed by residential mortgages, including the subprime mortgages that have been blamed for much of the economic turmoil set off by the housing crash in 2007 and 2008.

Madigan's lawsuit said the S&P ignored the risks of those securities in giving them ratings that were favorable to the agency's investment bank clients and its own profits.

The performance of those investments had a significant impact on institutional investors in Illinois, including pension funds and 401(k) managers, the lawsuit said.

"The mortgage-backed securities that helped our market soar ? and ultimately crash ? could not have been purchased by most investors without S&P's seal of approval," Madigan said.

The lawsuit also cites testimony before Congress by a former managing director of the ratings agency who said "profits were running the show."

Madigan has also targeted mortgage lenders she accuses of having preyed on home owners.

Her office filed suit against Bank of America subsidiary Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2010. In that suit, Madigan accused Countrywide of consistently selling African-American and Hispanic borrowers riskier loans at a higher cost than it sold to white borrowers with similar credit ratings.

In December, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement of $335 million with Bank of America that stemmed from that lawsuit.

Madigan is pursuing a similar lawsuit against Wells Fargo, which she also accuses of discriminatory lending.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_standard___poor_s_lawsuit_illinois

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