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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Muslims Suspecting NYPD Spying to Boycott Mayor Bloomberg's Interfaith Breakfast
Several Muslim leaders who suspect that the NYPD has spied upon and attempted to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods have rejected invitations to Bloomberg's annual year-end interfaith breakfast. The Associated Press has reported that imams and activists wrote Bloomberg to express their concern over his response to the AP's own series of stories detailing the NYPD's intelligence-gathering methods and collaboration with the CIA. "We seek your clear, unambiguous, public support for the rights and privacy of all New Yorkers, including Muslims; and a condemnation of all policies that profile and target communities and community groups solely based on their religion or the color of their skin."
Source: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/12/muslims-upset-by-police-boycott-mayors-breakfast.html
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Santorum to Iowa diners: 'We've got momentum'
A local resident looks at a campaign pamphlet as Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum speaks during a town hall meeting at the Fort Dodge GOP Headquarters, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
A local resident looks at a campaign pamphlet as Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum speaks during a town hall meeting at the Fort Dodge GOP Headquarters, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) ? Republican hopeful Rick Santorum is claiming momentum heading into the Iowa caucuses.
The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania mingled with 25 people at a diner in Independence, Iowa, and touted his plan to give a tax break to businesses that move their operations back to the United States.
He has lagged in the polls but Santorum told diners Wednesday that things are going great and his campaign has momentum.
Santorum has been arguing that he's the most consistent conservative in the field. He's making that case in a new radio ad that began airing Wednesday and will run through next Tuesday's caucuses. The spot touts his hardline opposition to abortion and describes him as a "father of seven, a home-schooler and a devoted husband for 21 years."
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
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KRMGtulsa: In pursuit, GOP contenders rumble through Iowa: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are hoping their ... http://t.co/w5D3cM0H
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
5 police face torture charges in Mexico City case (AP)
MEXICO CITY ? The Mexico City prosecutors' office says five police officers have been arrested in connection with a video that appears to show the abuse of a suspect.
Milenio Television reported last month that one of its reporters had taken the video of an officer repeatedly pushing the man's head into a bucket of water while his T-shirt was pulled up over his head and face.
The alleged abuse took place following a shootout between police and gunmen in the working-class neighborhood of Tepito. The video's authenticity could not be independently confirmed, and neither Milenio nor police released the suspect's identity.
The Mexico City prosecutor's office said in a statement that five officers had been placed under house arrest for 30 days while it seeks preliminary charges of torture.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Detained Philippine ex-president wants to be home on New Year
MANILA: Arrested ex-Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has asked a court to allow her to welcome the new year in her upscale residence after spending Christmas in detention.
Judge Jesus Mupas earlier rejected Arroyo?s plea to celebrate Christmas and New Year at home citing security reasons. Mupas allowed her family to join her in celebrating the holidays at her hospital suite in the capital.
Lawyer Laurence Arroyo asked Mupas on Monday to reconsider and allow her to be at home on New Year.
Court officer Felda Domingo says Mupas will be on holiday leave until Jan. 6 and may not be able to deal with her plea.
Mupas ordered Arroyo arrested last month for allegedly ordering the rigging of the 2007 senatorial elections. She denies the charge.
Source: http://arabnews.com/world/article553965.ece
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Monday, December 26, 2011
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Where Rose Parade floats are born
Millions of Americans are familiar with the Rose Parade, the storied Pasadena pageant whose flower-covered floats have dazzled viewers for more than a century.
What's less known is that most of those rolling creations are produced by a trio of local firms that labor in obscurity most of the year to prepare for a single day in January.
Phoenix Decorating Co. in Pasadena, Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale and Artistic Entertainment Services in Azusa are the Rose Parade's Big Three.
With the Jan. 2 showtime fast approaching, the companies are putting the finishing touches on floats that took months to design and build. On average, each craft costs more than a typical U.S. home.
Their handiwork must deliver the "wow" factor for sponsors and spectators ? a bar that gets higher every year ? while navigating the 5.5-mile route without a mechanical failure that could cost them prestige and future contracts.
"For me as a small-business owner, it's a pressure cooker," said Chris Lofthouse, president of Phoenix Decorating.
Like other U.S. businesses, the float-building trade has been squeezed by a slow economy. Some sponsors have trimmed their float budgets or pulled out of the Rose Parade altogether.
The Big Three are keeping a lid on costs by reusing materials as much as possible and continuing to rely heavily on volunteers to decorate their floats.
The companies have also carved out niches to stand apart from one another.
For Phoenix Decorating, size is the sell. The firm is under contract to build 22 of the 44 floats in next week's parade, and it employs a full-time staff of about 300 workers in two Pasadena facilities.
Fiesta Parade Floats touts its track record with the judges. The company says 67% of the floats it has entered over the last 20 years have won awards, which it says is the highest rate among the existing builders in the parade. The company employs 30 workers and is building 11 of the floats for this parade.
Technology is the key for Artistic Entertainment Services, which employs about 60 workers and is building five floats for this parade. Artistic said it excels in the use of state-of-the-art technology, including robotics and lasers for sculpting and casting floats.
Artistic also uses its equipment to build floats for Disneyland as well as signage and props for Universal Studios Hollywood, among other clients.
Combined, the three companies are building 38 floats for next week's parade. The other six floats are being built independently for float sponsors including the cities of La Ca?ada-Flintridge, Downey and Burbank.
Their strategies may differ, but their goals are the same: Find and keep clients with big-budget float orders and create parade entries that make a statement.
"You always try to push the envelope," said Tim Estes, president of Fiesta Parade Floats, which is building what is being billed as the world's longest and heaviest float. The Natural Balance Pet Foods float will be 116 feet long, weigh 65 tons and feature real dogs surfing in a 6,600-gallon pool.
"You have to put out a superior product," he said.
Serious business
Launched in 1890, the Rose Parade has blossomed into a major economic force. The event generates about $181 million in direct spending, plus $58.6 million from the Rose Bowl game that follows, according to a 2008 USC study.
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Reggie Fil-Aime Of Nintendo Talks Facebook Gaming And Free-to ...
In an interview with AllThingsD.com, a website devoted to the coverage of all things technology, Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime talked about the changing video game landscape.
The interview begins with Fils-Aime delivering some bragging rights about the success of the Wii and 3DS. To sum it up, both consoles and the games that released for them had a great year. The more interesting tidbits come at the end, when Fils-Aime discusses his thoughts on Zynga and social gaming.
In regards to social gaming Fils-Ame said, "when I look at gaming experiences on social networks, there?s a variety of entertainment value. Some are strong, some are not. But in the end, how will they evolve? Doing the same thing over and over again is no longer fine." To which the interviewer followed up with, "Is that really fair when you have Mario Kart 7 coming out?" Fils-Aime, never one to be caught surprise, went on to talk about how Nintendo innovates title to title, and these social games do not.
In regards to the free-to-play model of game delivery, Fils-Ame gave the impression that Nintendo would be up for it saying that they are always willing to experiment in new forms of monetization.
Click here to check out the full interview.
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'Nanoantennas' show promise in optical innovations
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Researchers have shown how arrays of tiny "plasmonic nanoantennas" are able to precisely manipulate light in new ways that could make possible a range of optical innovations such as more powerful microscopes, telecommunications and computers.
The researchers at Purdue University used the nanoantennas to abruptly change a property of light called its phase. Light is transmitted as waves analogous to waves of water, which have high and low points. The phase defines these high and low points of light.
"By abruptly changing the phase we can dramatically modify how light propagates, and that opens up the possibility of many potential applications," said Vladimir Shalaev, scientific director of nanophotonics at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Findings are described in a paper to be published online Thursday (Dec. 22) in the journal Science.
The new work at Purdue extends findings by researchers led by Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In that work, described in an October Science paper, Harvard researchers modified Snell's law, a long-held formula used to describe how light reflects and refracts, or bends, while passing from one material into another.
"What they pointed out was revolutionary," Shalaev said.
Until now, Snell's law has implied that when light passes from one material to another there are no abrupt phase changes along the interface between the materials. Harvard researchers, however, conducted experiments showing that the phase of light and the propagation direction can be changed dramatically by using new types of structures called metamaterials, which in this case were based on an array of antennas.
The Purdue researchers took the work a step further, creating arrays of nanoantennas and changing the phase and propagation direction of light over a broad range of near-infrared light. The paper was written by doctoral students Xingjie Ni and Naresh K. Emani, principal research scientist Alexander V. Kildishev, assistant professor Alexandra Boltasseva, and Shalaev.
The wavelength size manipulated by the antennas in the Purdue experiment ranges from 1 to 1.9 microns.
"The near infrared, specifically a wavelength of 1.5 microns, is essential for telecommunications," Shalaev said. "Information is transmitted across optical fibers using this wavelength, which makes this innovation potentially practical for advances in telecommunications."
The Harvard researchers predicted how to modify Snell's law and demonstrated the principle at one wavelength.
"We have extended the Harvard team's applications to the near infrared, which is important, and we also showed that it's not a single frequency effect, it's a very broadband effect," Shalaev said. "Having a broadband effect potentially offers a range of technological applications."
The innovation could bring technologies for steering and shaping laser beams for military and communications applications, nanocircuits for computers that use light to process information, and new types of powerful lenses for microscopes.
Critical to the advance is the ability to alter light so that it exhibits "anomalous" behavior: notably, it bends in ways not possible using conventional materials by radically altering its refraction, a process that occurs as electromagnetic waves, including light, bend when passing from one material into another.
Scientists measure this bending of radiation by its "index of refraction." Refraction causes the bent-stick-in-water effect, which occurs when a stick placed in a glass of water appears bent when viewed from the outside. Each material has its own refraction index, which describes how much light will bend in that particular material. All natural materials, such as glass, air and water, have positive refractive indices.
However, the nanoantenna arrays can cause light to bend in a wide range of angles including negative angles of refraction.
"Importantly, such dramatic deviation from the conventional Snell's law governing reflection and refraction occurs when light passes through structures that are actually much thinner than the width of the light's wavelengths, which is not possible using natural materials," Shalaev said. "Also, not only the bending effect, refraction, but also the reflection of light can be dramatically modified by the antenna arrays on the interface, as the experiments showed."
The nanoantennas are V-shaped structures made of gold and formed on top of a silicon layer. They are an example of metamaterials, which typically include so-called plasmonic structures that conduct clouds of electrons called plasmons. The antennas themselves have a width of 40 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, and researchers have demonstrated they are able to transmit light through an ultrathin "plasmonic nanoantenna layer" about 50 times smaller than the wavelength of light it is transmitting.
"This ultrathin layer of plasmonic nanoantennas makes the phase of light change strongly and abruptly, causing light to change its propagation direction, as required by the momentum conservation for light passing through the interface between materials," Shalaev said.
###
Purdue University: http://www.purdue.edu/
Thanks to Purdue University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116284/_Nanoantennas__show_promise_in_optical_innovations
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
UPS, FedEx holiday package volume up from 2010
FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, FedEx employees sort packages at the FedEx hub at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. FedEx shipped about 17 million packages on Dec. 12, the busiest day in company history, it said. That one-day volume was up 10 percent from last year?s busiest day, and doubled total shipments on an average night. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, FedEx employees sort packages at the FedEx hub at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. FedEx shipped about 17 million packages on Dec. 12, the busiest day in company history, it said. That one-day volume was up 10 percent from last year?s busiest day, and doubled total shipments on an average night. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? Tiera Washington's workload doubled during the holiday rush at UPS' largest air hub, where seemingly endless streams of packages are sorted and shipped as the peak season puts the package delivery company to the test.
The 23-year-old's usual four-hour daily shift can stretch to seven or eight hours, and sometimes lasts 10 to 12 hours, as a small army feverishly plucks packages off a conveyor belt and loads them for air and ground travel in a cavernous building that would cover 90 football fields.
"We get to make Christmas better for our families," she said during a break. "So we're helping them (customers) and they're helping us."
UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, expects to deliver more than 120 million parcels around the world during the peak week leading up Christmas, up 6 percent from the 113 million shipped during the same period a year ago.
The Atlanta-based company expects the pace to reach its pinnacle Thursday, with close to 26 million packages reaching their destinations. That volume is up more than 60 percent from daily norms.
Rival FedEx Corp., based in Memphis, Tenn., shipped about 17 million packages on Dec. 12, the busiest day in company history, it said. That one-day volume was up 10 percent from last year's busiest day, and doubled total shipments on an average night.
Shipping performance and forecasts from UPS and FedEx are closely watched because they tend to indicate how the broader economy is doing by shipping so many packages for consumers and businesses.
FedEx attributed its recent record day to steady growth in online commerce, spokeswoman Carla Boyd said. Since 2005, the company's busiest-day volumes are up almost 75 percent.
UPS has declined to offer a full estimate for how many packages it will deliver between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year, the company said it shipped more than 440 million packages worldwide between the two holidays.
But UPS spokesman Norman Black said that "clearly our volume has grown compared to last year."
Last year, UPS had one day of deliveries topping 25 million, Black said. This holiday season, the company expects at least five days with deliveries approaching or exceeding 25 million, he said.
A surge in online sales, as more consumers shop on computers rather than at malls, contributed to the shipping boost, along with last-minute bargain hunting, he said. The result is the company's peak season is compressed to the last two weeks before Christmas, he said.
"That's obviously making for a busy peak shipping season for us," Black said.
At the UPS Worldport hub at Louisville International Airport, about 3 million packages were sorted daily during the holiday season, twice normal volumes. Packages ride a labyrinth of conveyors belts stretching some 150 miles during the automated sorting process.
"We're going to exhaust ourselves right up through Christmas Eve, when we anticipate delivering about 900,000 express packages," UPS Airlines President Mitch Nichols said.
The grueling package handling work carries personal implications for employees logging long hours to make extra cash.
Washington said she takes comfort in spreading holiday cheer for countless customers worldwide and at home for her two children, ages 3 and 1.
"I'll be able to give them everything they want for Christmas with the extra money," she said.
The starting salary for UPS package handlers is $8.50 an hour. Washington works at the air hub year round, but plans to go back to school next year in hopes of becoming a pharmacy technician.
Kion Sloan, 19, worked his 12th straight day Wednesday as he loaded packages onto a conveyor. He juggles work at UPS and a pizza restaurant to support his young son. Sloan welcomed the extra hours, but admitted to feeling a bit more tired, as he watched packages bound for states from Oregon to Rhode Island ride the conveyor for sorting.
"I feel like if I don't do my job, they won't get their packages on time and they won't get the Christmas they want to have," he said.
The Louisville facility employs about 9,000 people year-round and added about 550 seasonal workers ? comparable to last year's extra hirings ? to meet holiday demand. Companywide, UPS hired 55,000 seasonal workers and chartered 34 extra cargo jets to keep pace.
FedEx also feels the "increased sense of urgency" during the holidays, since the company was "founded on the premise of deadlines," said T. Michael Glenn, the company's executive vice president of market development.
Fed-Ex hired 20,000 seasonal employees this year, compared to 17,000 last year, Boyd said.
___
Online:
FedEx Corp.: http://www.fedex.com/
UPS: http://www.ups.com/
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Slow Motion Video of iPhone and iPad Destruction
If you’ve ever dropped your iPhone or iPad on the ground, you have probably experienced the feeling of time slowing down as you watch your device speed towards horrible disfigurement. Now you can watch the nightmare unfold in?6900 frames per second?high definition horror. The guys at GizmoSlip?film their device drop tests with a $60,000 Phantom [...]
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/22/slow-motion-video-of-iphone-and-ipad-destruction/
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Friday, December 23, 2011
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PFT: Plaxico eyes 'maybe 3 or 4' TDs vs. Giants
APFor a while on Thursday, it wasn?t clear whether USC quarterback Matt Barkley was announcing his plans for playing football in 2012 or running for public office.
And then, at one point, Barkley?s micro-Favre ?will-he-or-won?t-he? routine seemed like a bad SNL skit, especially when he was abruptly interrupted while standing in front of a Christmas tree decorated with, among other things, full-size french horns by eleven piping pipers, twelve drumming drummers, and two of the nine ladies dancing.
Ultimately, Barkley made it clear that he?ll be staying at USC.? While he?s not the first player to pass up an opportunity to pass the football at the highest level, he?s the most recent ? and thus he?ll become the centerpiece of the debate regarding whether guys should leave early.
Most football players play college football because they hope to play pro football.? Statistically speaking, few ever do.? But when a college player is deemed ready to play at the next level, it?s akin to a Doogie Howser-style student, who has accelerated his studies and thus has become ready to graduate.? While that typically means departing before finishing the requirements of a degree, a degree can always be obtained later, after the pro playing career has ended.
The vague notion that the degree should be obtained before leaving for the NFL comes at least in part from the college coaches who want to see the kids continue to play for free preying on the fairly linear thinking in which parents and grandparents who didn?t go to college often engage.? For families who have yet to see a child march with cap and gown, getting the degree becomes almost as important as getting paid to play football.
In the end, getting paid to play football should be the primary concern.? At the college level, they aren?t.? (Presumably.)? Players like Barkley put themselves at risk on every snap.? A serious injury could permanently derail the dream to play in the NFL ? or, at a minimum, delay it significantly.
But at least the player will be able to earn dramatically less money in another industry, thanks to his degree.
The new rookie wage scale makes it even more important to strike while the iron is hot.? For starters, the financial difference that results from moving up only one pick in the top 10 has become dramatically smaller than it used to be, reducing the benefit of returning to school for a year and bumping up the draft stock by a few spots.? And with the truly big money now delayed until the player makes it to his second NFL contract, it?s more important than ever to start ticking off the years under that first NFL contract.
Some will now compare Matt Barkley to Matt Leinart, the last USC quarterback to decide to exhaust his eligibility.? Significant differences exist, however.? Leinart had accomplished everything that he could have accomplished at the college level, winning a Heisman and a national title ? along with earning that all-important degree.? When he decided to take ballroom dancing and a victory lap or two around sorority row, Leinart triggered real questions about whether he wants to be a football player, or whether he wants to be a celebrity.
For Barkley, NCAA sanctions have kept him from pursuing a BCS title or a Pac-Whatever championship.? It surely also kept him from being a serious candidate for a Heisman Trophy.? And so his college experience isn?t truly complete.
Regardless, any decision to stick around by a college athlete will conjure memories of what Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino supposedly tells his players who are deemed to be ready to make the jump to the NBA.
?You can go and help your family,? Pitino says.? ?Or you can stay and help mine.?
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Automatic Updates Coming To Internet Explorer (NewsFactor)
Microsoft intends to begin delivering automatic updates of its Internet Explorer browser beginning next year to ensure that as many machines as possible running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 are protected from the latest malware schemes of cyber criminals.
"Automatic updates are a very good idea based on every piece of security research I've seen," said White Hat Security CTO Jeremiah Grossman. "Keeping software up to date -- particularly Web browsers -- is critical for online security."
The new service will be available initially to those Windows customers who have activated the automatic update feature in Windows. The plan is to introduce automatic IE upgrades gradually -- with the first Windows users to see the new offering located overseas and then scaling up delivery over time.
"This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward," noted Ryan Gavin, the general manager of Internet Explorer business and marketing at Microsoft.
"We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update," he wrote in a blog Thursday.
Increased Protection
According to Microsoft's latest security intelligence report, the biggest online threat that Windows users face comes from socially engineered malware targeting outdated Web browsers and other aging software. Making the move to the most current products and services helps PC users increase their protection against the most prevalent online threats, the software giant said.
One of the popular features of Google's Chrome Web browser has long been its seamless, out-of-sight upgrades under the hood. Earlier this year, Mozilla likewise indicated that it would emulate Google's browser upgrade strategy by early 2012 and now Microsoft intends to follow suit.
On desktop PCs, notebooks and netbooks, IE currently holds a 52.6 percent share of the global browser market -- down from 58.8 percent in December of 2010, according to Net Applications. By adding automatic updates, however, Microsoft stands a better chance of hanging on to the IE users it already had locked in.
"I do think it will affect the rates at which people change browsers -- mainly because I think people consider switching when they are going through an upgrade cycle," said Net Applications Executive Vice President Vincent Vizzaccaro. "If the upgrade cycle happens in the background, that will take away that reminder to consider switching browsers."
An Enterprise Opt-Out
Large corporations, educational institutions and other organizations which need time to evaluate and fully integrate the latest browser upgrades will have the ability to opt out of the automatic upgrade program and develop customized browser upgrade schedules that best fit their respective business requirements.
"The Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 Automatic Update Blocker toolkits prevent automatic upgrades of IE for Windows customers who do not want them," Gavin wrote.
Individual consumers with automatic updating via Windows Update switched on will retain the same personal home page, search provider and default browser settings after receiving each new browser upgrade. Additionally, consumers who have previously declined invitations to install IE8 or IE9 on their PCs will not be forced to do so.
"Future versions of IE [also] will provide an option in the product for consumers to opt out of automatic upgrading," Gavin said.
Individual IE users also will be able to uninstall any IE browser update and continue receiving support for the specific version of IE that they prefer to run on their machines. Still, Gavin noted that "the Web overall is better -- and safer -- when more people run the most up-to-date browser."
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111216/bs_nf/81421
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Testosterone Treatment Increases Muscle, Study Says, Fueling Debate (LiveScience.com)
Testosterone therapy, in which testosterone is administered to men with low levels of the hormone, has been a controversial topic, with some advocating for the therapy as a way to restore vitality in older men, but others are concerned about the health conditions, such as heart problems and cancer, it may bring along.
Now, a new study shows that men taking testosterone therapy for just over half a year could gain a few pounds of muscle mass and lose a corresponding amount of body fat.
But while the authors find the study encouraging, it may not do much to change the minds of those skeptical of the risks and benefits.
While other research has also established that testosterone can help build muscle mass, there are concerns that it may raise the risks for prostate cancer. And some studies, such as a Boston University study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year ? a study that was ended early because of these very concerns ? have shown an increased risk for heart problems on men taking the therapy.
"By and large, the medical community is not certain [about the] benefit from testosterone," said Dr. John Amory, an internist who researches the effects of testosterone at the University of Washington.
The study was published online Dec. 6 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Testosterone and muscles
Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston measured the testosterone levels in the blood of 58 men, and started them on testosterone therapy. At the outset, 20 of the men had low testosterone levels, and 38 had normal levels but had other symptoms associated with low testosterone, such as erectile dysfunction, a reduced sex drive and fatigue. They were followed for roughly six months, and given testosterone as a topical gel or as injections.
The study was retrospective, Amory noted, meaning that patients were not randomized to receive or not receive testosterone. Instead, the researchers grouped them by their testosterone levels ? but all were being treated anyhow.
While muscle mass increased in those treated, Amory said, it was only about 2.5 pounds. "The effect is not that marked," he said.
But the study's senior author said the muscle gain and fat loss were more than they might seem.
"That may or may not sound impressive, but for most of us, if we were to gain a pound of muscle, it would actually feel quite significant," said Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, urologist and founder of Men's Health Boston, the hospital clinic where the study was run.
Morgentaler is an advocate for testosterone therapy and an author of "Testosterone for Life: Recharge Your Vitality, Sex Drive, Muscle Mass, and Overall Health" (McGraw-Hill, 2009). He said concerns about the therapy are excessive.
The risk of developing prostate cancer, or of an existing cancer growing, may be mitigated by testosterone, Morgentaler said, citing to a recent small study he led where 13 men with prostate cancer did not see their cancer worsen while on testosterone therapy.
While that study was too small to say if testosterone was harmless, Morgentaler said that "it certainly shows that the old fear that higher testosterone necessarily causes rapid prostate cancer growth cannot be true."
About the Boston University study that was stopped early, Morgentaler said that while the number of heart events was high, they were not as severe as one might expect, and may not be because of the testosterone.
That study "came as a surprise, and created quite a stir because we live in a society that is very focused on medical risk," he said. "It's important to realize what that study showed, and what it did not show."
First, he said, the patients in the study were older men and relatively frail. As to the heart risks, he said. "When we hear about cardiovascular risks, normally what we think of is heart attacks and strokes.? In that study, there were only two heart attacks and?one stroke.? (Other heart events included trouble breathing and irregular heartbeat.)
That study included 209 men, whose average age was 74.
"In my opinion, these results were simply an aberration, which is something that happens in medical science all the time," Morgentaler?said.
For now, the debate goes on.
"It's a risk-benefit [analysis]. It's very similar to the situation with estrogen for women," Amory said. "Doctors of good faith can disagree about things when there's an absence of data."
An answer?
Amory said that some of that disagreement should be cleared up by an ongoing randomized clinical trial, which is expected to be completed in 2015.
That study, known as The Testosterone Trial, is expected to enroll 800 men, and is being led by Dr. Peter Snyder at the University of Pennsylvania and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
Each participant will apply a topical testosterone gel, or a placebo, to his chest or arms daily, and the researchers will monitor factors such as walking speed, memory and sexual activity, to see if the treatment is having its intended effect.
Morgentaler is less optimistic the trial will provide an answer. He said that while it may help with acceptance of the therapy, the timeline is not long enough for a thorough investigation of risk associated with prostate cancer.
"I think it's an important study, but it's not going to be able to address everything," he said.
For now, Amory likens the debate to the one surrounding hormone replacement therapy. Older women were routinely given estrogen, until a large study found that this raised the risk of breast cancer. So now, fewer women are given the treatment, and it is restricted to those with strong indications they will benefit.
While there are some cases, Amory said, where testosterone appears to have clear benefits, such as young men who for medical reasons have their testicles removed and need testosterone, it's less clear how widely the treatment should be used in older men seeking added vitality
"What we don't know ? in the 65-year-old man who is having sexual problems, obesity, maybe some other problems? does the testosterone do more good than harm?"
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter?@MyHealth_MHND. Find us on?Facebook.
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Notre Dame researchers demonstrate new DNA detection technique
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Public release date: 16-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Carol Tanner
ctanner@nd.edu
574-631-8369
University of Notre Dame
A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame have demonstrated a novel DNA detection method that could prove suitable for many real-world applications.
Physicists Carol Tanner and Steven Ruggiero led the team in the application of a new technique called laser transmission spectroscopy (LTS). LTS is capable of rapidly determining the size, shape and number of nanoparticles in suspension.
In a new paper appearing in the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication PLoS ONE, the team describes how they applied LTS as a novel method for detecting species-specific DNA where the presence of one invasive species was differentiated from a closely related invasive sister species.
The research was carried out in support of and cooperation with Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative (ECI). Scientists from ECI are using environmental DNA (eDNA) as part of their surveillance of Asian carp in the Great Lakes region.
The results of the research demonstrate the basic premise of DNA detection by LTS in the laboratory.
The Notre Dame research team points out that the LTS technique has many benefits over established DNA detection techniques. The technique is highly sensitive and takes only a few seconds to genetically score a sample for species presence or absence. The researchers also feel that LTS technology will prove much more rapid, practical and cost effective than current detection methodologies and could ultimately reach the sensitivity required to eliminate the need for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification.
Although the current paper describes the use of LTS is invasive species detection, the Notre Dame researchers believe that the technique could serve as an important tool in detecting human pathogens and understanding and indicating the presence of genetic diseases such as cancer.
The Notre Dame group is investigating the real-world applications of LTS technology generally and working on transitioning its success from the lab to the field.
###
[ | 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.
Public release date: 16-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Carol Tanner
ctanner@nd.edu
574-631-8369
University of Notre Dame
A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame have demonstrated a novel DNA detection method that could prove suitable for many real-world applications.
Physicists Carol Tanner and Steven Ruggiero led the team in the application of a new technique called laser transmission spectroscopy (LTS). LTS is capable of rapidly determining the size, shape and number of nanoparticles in suspension.
In a new paper appearing in the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication PLoS ONE, the team describes how they applied LTS as a novel method for detecting species-specific DNA where the presence of one invasive species was differentiated from a closely related invasive sister species.
The research was carried out in support of and cooperation with Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative (ECI). Scientists from ECI are using environmental DNA (eDNA) as part of their surveillance of Asian carp in the Great Lakes region.
The results of the research demonstrate the basic premise of DNA detection by LTS in the laboratory.
The Notre Dame research team points out that the LTS technique has many benefits over established DNA detection techniques. The technique is highly sensitive and takes only a few seconds to genetically score a sample for species presence or absence. The researchers also feel that LTS technology will prove much more rapid, practical and cost effective than current detection methodologies and could ultimately reach the sensitivity required to eliminate the need for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification.
Although the current paper describes the use of LTS is invasive species detection, the Notre Dame researchers believe that the technique could serve as an important tool in detecting human pathogens and understanding and indicating the presence of genetic diseases such as cancer.
The Notre Dame group is investigating the real-world applications of LTS technology generally and working on transitioning its success from the lab to the field.
###
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uond-ndr121411.php
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ECB chief says euro zone on right track (Reuters)
BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Europe's top central banker said on Thursday that euro zone governments are on the right track to restore market confidence but reminded them that an emergency program to buy their bonds was "neither eternal nor infinite".
Mario Draghi's comments came after a smooth Spanish bond auction eased fears of an accelerating slide in European markets following a summit last week that failed to reassure investors the single currency area is closer to resolving its debt crisis.
The European Central Bank chief said in a speech in Berlin that the 17 euro zone governments "are now on the right track and they are right in implementing budgetary consolidation resolutely.
"The unavoidable short-term (economic) contraction may be mitigated by the return of confidence," he said.
To mitigate risk aversion rife in markets, Draghi said more policy clarity was necessary, and he urged politicians to "speak unambiguously", then "deliver".
Spanish bond yields fell, narrowing the spread over German Bunds, after the country surprised markets by selling far more than the amount targeted in its last bond sale of the year, although come of its costs of borrowing remained close to euro-era highs.
The euro rose for a while above $1.30 after touching an 11-month low of $1.2945 on Wednesday, and European shares gained more than three-quarters of a percent partly due to relief over the Spanish auction.
With many financial institutions closing their books for the year, the next major market test for the euro zone is widely expected in mid-January, when Italy has to start rolling over more than 100 billion euros of expiring debt by April.
To try to restore market confidence in the euro zone's third largest economy, Rome's new technocratic government has called a confidence vote in parliament on Friday to speed up approval of a 33-billion euro ($43 billion)austerity package.
Prime Minister Mario Monti has raced to push through a law that cuts spending and raises taxes to shore up public finances and cut a debt running at 120 percent of gross domestic product. The government resorted to a confidence vote to curb debate on dozens of amendments, many tabled by the opposition Northern League.
GROWTH MISSING
European Union leaders will hold another summit in Brussels in late January or early February to discuss economic growth and jobs as the 27-nation bloc heads into a "quasi-recession," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said on Thursday.
Germany and France called on Wednesday for an extra meeting to discuss growth at a time when the euro zone looks likely to enter recession in the last quarter of this year. EU leaders last met on December 8-9, when they agreed to forge a new pact for stricter enforcement of debt and deficit rules in the euro zone.
"In times of stagnation, in times of even quasi-recession, it is very important to have those topics on the agenda and not only speaking on fiscal consolidation," Van Rompuy said.
There are growing concerns that policymakers' focus on cutting spending to rapidly reduce deficits is making it harder to stimulate growth and create jobs, especially for the young.
Critics say the harsh austerity budgets being implemented across southern Europe will plunge those countries deeper into recession, fuelling a vicious cycle of economic contraction and falling revenues, and risking severe social unrest.
Greece, crushed under a debt mountain equivalent to 160 percent of annual output, is the most striking illustration. Its economy is now expected to contract by 6 percent this year and its budget deficit will top 10 percent of GDP despite draconian spending cuts.
The International Monetary Fund's chief negotiator with Athens, Poul Thomsen, urged the Greek government on Wednesday to rethink "taboos" and start laying off state workers because it could no longer rely on more tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts.
Draghi said that in the medium term, "sustainable growth can be achieved only by undertaking deep structural reforms that have been procrastinated for too long".
Speaking to the economically conservative Ludwig Erhard Foundation in Berlin under a banner bearing the quotation "Inflation is an expropriation without compensation for the benefit of the public purse", the Italian ECB chief was given a warm reception by the guardians of German monetary orthodoxy.
Asked how many more government bonds he would buy before a planned new treaty on fiscal union was ratified, Draghi replied: "We have an SMP (securities market program) in place and as I've said several times it is neither eternal nor infinite."
He quickly moved on to the next subject, eliciting laughter.
(Additional reporting by Brian Rohan in Berlin, Kirsten Donovan in London, Ingrid Melander and George Georgiopoulos in Athens; Writing by Paul Taylor)
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Zynga to begin trading on Nasdaq after $10 IPO
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
"Farmville" by Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga, center, is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Investors will get the chance to reap "Farmville's" harvest on Friday, as shares of online game developer Zynga Inc. start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The San Francisco company, which specializes in Facebook games, priced its initial public offering late Thursday at $10 per share, raising $1 billion. That makes it the largest Internet-related IPO since Google Inc. went public in 2004, raising $1.4 billion.
The price was at the top of its expected range, a sign that investors are eager to dig into the latest in a series of high-profile technology IPOs this year. It values the company at about $7 billion.
Zynga charges small amounts of money ? a few cents, sometimes a couple of dollars ? for virtual items in online games. The games are free to play. Players can aquire items that range from crops in "Farmville" to buildings in "CityVille," its most popular Facebook game.
With its huge player base and a few loyal spenders, Zynga earned a net income of $90.6 million in 2010, an unusual pre-IPO money maker in the sector.
Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz, however, initiated coverage Friday with a "Neutral" rating on the stock. While Zynga is the leader in Facebook gaming, he's concerned that it won't be able to grow fast enough to justify its stock price. Growth in Facebook gaming has slowed, and Zynga's market share has declined from 50 percent to 38 percent of daily active users, he wrote.
He's also concerned that Zynga's famously aggressive and hard-charging culture may not be the best field to grow good games in. Others have raised concerns that the focus on deadlines and profits might be squeezing out creativity and talent.
In November, online coupon company Groupon Inc. raised $700 million in its IPO. The granddaddy of all Internet IPOs might happen next year, as Facebook Inc. is expected to raise as much as $10 billion.
Zyna will trade under the ticker "ZNGA" on Friday.
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APNewsBreak: Man arrested in Kiss singer's website (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? A Connecticut man affiliated with the Anonymous hacking group has been arrested on federal charges for an attack on a website belonging to Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.
Kevin Poe, of Manchester, Conn., made his initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Hartford, Conn., and was released on $10,000 bond. It wasn't immediately known if he had retained an attorney.
Poe was indicted in Los Angeles on two counts: conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. If convicted of both, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Authorities say Poe and others linked to Anonymous conducted a so-called "denial of service" attack last October against Simmons' computer systems, sending tens of thousands of electronic requests designed to overload the server.
No other arrests have been made.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Protesters accuse Putin's party of rigging vote (AP)
MOSCOW ? Several thousand protesters took to the streets Monday night and accused Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party of rigging this weekend's parliamentary election in which it won the largest share of the seats.
It was perhaps the biggest opposition rally in years and ended with police detaining about 300 activists. A group of several hundred marched toward the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were stopped by riot police and taken away in buses.
Estimates of the number of protesters ranged from 5,000 to 10,000. They chanted "Russia without Putin" and accused his United Russia party of stealing votes.
In St. Petersburg, police detained about 120 protesters.
United Russia won about 50 percent of Sunday's vote, a result that opposition politicians and election monitors said was inflated because of ballot-box stuffing and other vote fraud. It was a significant drop from the last election, when the party took 64 percent.
Pragmatically, the loss of seats in the State Duma appears to mean little because two of the three other parties winning seats have been reliable supporters of government legislation.
Nevertheless, it was a substantial symbolic blow to a party that had become virtually indistinguishable from the state itself.
The result has also energized the opposition and poses a humbling challenge to Putin, the country's dominant figure, in his drive to return to the presidency.
Putin, who became prime minister in 2008 because of presidential term limits, will run for a third term in March, and some opposition leaders saw the parliamentary election as a game-changer for what had been presumed to be his easy stroll back to the Kremlin.
More than 400 Communist Party supporters also gathered Monday to express their indignation over the election, which some called the dirtiest in modern Russian history. The Communists finished second with about 20 percent of the vote.
"Even compared to the 2007 elections, violations by the authorities and the government bodies that actually control the work of all election organizations at all levels, from local to central, were so obvious and so brazen," said Yevgeny Dorovin, a member of the party's central committee.
Putin appeared subdued and glum even as he insisted at a Cabinet meeting Monday that the result "gives United Russia the possibility to work calmly and smoothly."
Although the sharp decline for United Russia could lead Putin and the party to try to portray the election as genuinely democratic, the wide reports of violations have undermined that attempt at spin.
Boris Nemtsov, a prominent figure among Russia's beleaguered liberal opposition, declared that the vote spelled the end of Putin's "honeymoon" with the nation and predicted that his rule will soon "collapse like a house of cards."
"He needs to hold an honest presidential election and allow opposition candidates to register for the race, if he doesn't want to be booed from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad," Nemtsov said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
Many Russians have come to despise United Russia, seeing it as the engine of endemic corruption. The balloting showed voters that they have power despite what election monitors called a dishonest count.
"Yesterday, it was proven by these voters that not everything was fixed, that the result really matters," said Tiny Kox of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, part of an international election observer mission.
Other analysts suggested the vote was a wake-up call to Putin that he had lost touch with the country. In the early period of his presidency, Putin's appeal came largely from his man-of-the-people image: candid, decisive and without ostentatious tastes.
He seemed to lose some of the common touch, appearing in well-staged but increasingly preposterous heroic photo opportunities ? hunting a whale with a crossbow, fishing while bare-chested, and purportedly discovering ancient Greek artifacts while scuba diving. And Russians grew angry at his apparent disregard ? and even encouragement ? of the country's corruption and massive income gap.
"People want Putin to go back to what he was in his first term ? decisive, dynamic, tough on oligarchs and sensitive to the agenda formed by society," said Sergei Markov, a prominent United Russia Duma member.
The vote "was a normal reaction of the population to the worsening social situation," former Kremlin-connected political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Only seven parties were allowed to field candidates for parliament this year, while the most vocal opposition groups were barred from the race. International monitors said the election administration lacked independence, most media were biased and state authorities interfered unduly at different levels.
"To me, this election was like a game in which only some players are allowed to compete," said Heidi Tagliavini, the head of the observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Of the 150 polling stations where the counting was observed, "34 were assessed to be very bad," Tagliavini said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington has "serious concerns" about the elections.
"Russian voters deserve a full investigation of all credible reports of electoral fraud and manipulation, and we hope in particular that the Russian authorities will take action" on reports that come forward, Clinton said.
Other than the Communist Party, the socialist Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party led by mercurial nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky are also expected to increase their representation in the Duma; both have generally voted with United Russia, and the Communists pose only token opposition.
Two liberal parties were in the running, but neither got the 7 percent of the national vote needed to win seats. Nemtsov's People's Freedom Party, one of the most prominent liberal parties, was denied participation for alleged violations in the required 45,000 signatures the party had submitted with its registration application.
About 60 percent of Russia's 110 million registered voters cast ballots, down from 64 percent four years ago.
Social media were flooded with messages reporting violations. Many people reported seeing buses deliver groups of people to polling stations, with some of the buses carrying young men who looked like football fans, who often are associated with violent nationalism.
Russia's only independent election monitoring group, Golos, which is funded by U.S. and European grants, has come under heavy official pressure in the past week. Golos' website was incapacitated Sunday by hackers, and its director Lilya Shibanova and her deputy had their cellphone numbers, email and social media accounts hacked.
___
Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.
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