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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Mitt Romney's Income, Newt Gingrich's Freddie Mac Woes and Gabby Giffords' Farewell
Plus, how longtime Hollywood pals George Clooney and Brad Pitt are Oscar competitors, why Cynthia Nixon has angered the gay and lesbian community and the third annual iVillage Entertainment Awards.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Bernanke says Fed pondering further stimulus (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the central bank was ready to offer the economy additional stimulus after it announced it would likely keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014.
The Fed also took the historic step of adopting an explicit inflation target, though Bernanke took pains to stress that officials would be flexible about reining in price growth when unemployment was too high.
The late 2014 timeframe for the first rate hike was considerably later than investors had expected and some 18 months later than the Fed had suggested last year, and the announcement prompted a rally in U.S. government bonds.
Speaking at a news conference after a two-day policy meeting, Bernanke was cautious about recent improvements in the U.S. economy, and he left the door open to further Fed bond purchases.
"I don't think we're ready to declare that we've entered a new, stronger phase at this point," Bernanke said. "If the situation continues with inflation below target and unemployment declining at a rate which is very, very slow, then ... the logic of our framework says we should be looking for ways to do more."
In response to the deepest recession in generations, the Fed slashed the overnight federal funds rate to near zero in December 2008. It has also more than tripled the size of its balance sheet to around $2.9 trillion through two separate bond purchase programs.
The policy is credited with preventing an even more devastating downturn, but it has been insufficient to bring unemployment down to levels considered normal during good economic times. Many Fed watchers expected a further round of bond buying, likely focusing on mortgage debt.
RANGE OF VIEWS
Fed officials agreed that a goal of 2 percent inflation would be in keeping with their congressional mandate of price stability. By their favorite measure, core inflation is running at about 1.7 percent.
They declined to announce a target for unemployment, saying the job market was often influenced by forces beyond their control.
In another key shift touted as part of an effort toward greater transparency, the Fed for the first time published policymakers' projections for the appropriate path of the benchmark overnight federal funds rate.
These showed a wide range of views, from the three of 17 policymakers who said they thought rates should rise this year to two who want to hold off on any increase until 2016.
Still, the biggest concentration of estimates - five of 17 - was around 2014. The new, later expiration date for the Fed's zero rate policy pushed stock and gold prices higher, and dragged the dollar lower.
In its announcement, the Fed repeated its view that the economy faced "significant downside risks" - an expression that has become code for the threat Europe's debt crisis poses to the United States.
In economic forecasts accompanying the rate projections, the Fed pointed to somewhat weaker economic growth this year and next, compared with estimates published in November. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, which hit 8.5 percent in December, was seen coming down only slowly.
Economic conditions "are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014," the central bank said. After every previous policy meeting dating to August, the Fed had said rates were not likely to rise until mid-2013.
"Make no mistake, with changing 2013 to 'at least through late 2014' this drives home one important fact: the Fed is scared," said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker, an inflation hawk who rotated into a voting panel seat this year, dissented against the policy decision, preferring to omit the late-2014 date from the Fed's post-meeting statement.
INFLATION NOT A WORRY
The central bank appeared more sanguine on inflation than it had after its last meeting in December, saying prices were likely to run close to or just below its target. The statement dropped a reference to the Fed monitoring inflation and inflation expectations.
Aside from the 2014 rate pledge, the statement hewed closely to the Fed's last policy pronouncement in mid-December.
It described the unemployment rate as still elevated and, in a slight shift, acknowledged a slowing in business investment.
"I think what they are seeing is that the rate of growth is not sufficient to bring down the unemployment rate," said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at FOREX.com in Bedminster, New Jersey.
In December, the U.S. jobless rate stood at 8.5 percent, and some 13 million Americans were still actively looking for work but could not find it.
While forecasters expect the U.S. economy grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2011, they look for growth of just around 2 percent this year.
(Editing by Tim Ahmann and Andrea Ricci)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_usa_fed
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Inside Apple, the book that claims to expose Apple?s secrets, now available
Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple, wish purports to go behind the scenes of Apple’s magic as the world’s biggest start up, and lay bare the secrets of their success, is
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/qKKzOzwY2Ak/story01.htm
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Former CIA officer accused of terror leaks (AP)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? Authorities say a former CIA agent who has claimed he helped interrogate a top suspected terrorist has been charged with leaking classified secrets about fellow officers to the media.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says 47-year-old John Kiriakou (keer-ee-AH'-koo) of Arlington is charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria on Monday afternoon.
Authorities say Kiriakou told a New York Times reporter about a fellow officer who participated in interrogating suspected al-Qaida financier Abu Zubaydah in 2002. That information was classified at the time.
Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in 2002. He was reportedly waterboarded 83 times. His case has been made an example by those who believe the interrogation technique should be outlawed.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Iran revives Gulf threats after EU sanctions (AP)
TEHRAN, Iran ? Senior Iranian lawmakers stepped up threats Monday that Islamic Republic warships could block the Persian Gulf's oil tanker traffic after the latest blow by Western leaders seeking to rein in Tehran's nuclear program: A punishing oil embargo by the European Union that sharply raises the economic stakes for Iran's defiance.
The EU decision in Brussels ? following the U.S. lead to target Iran's critical oil exports ? opened a new front against Iran's leadership. Pressure is bearing down on the clerical regime from many directions, including intense U.S. lobbying to urge Asian powers to shun Iranian crude, a nose-diving national currency and a recent slaying in what Iran calls a clandestine campaign against its nuclear establishment.
In response, Iranian officials have turned to one of their most powerful cards: The narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf and the route for a fifth of the world's oil. Iran has rattled world markets with repeated warnings it could block the hook-shaped waterway, which could spark a conflict in the Gulf.
Military experts have questioned whether Iran has the naval capabilities to attempt a blockade. But the U.S. and allies have already said they would take swift action against any Iranian moves to choke off the 30-mile (50-kilometer) wide strait ? where the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, along with British and French warships, entered the Gulf on Sunday without incident.
The British Ministry of Defense said the three nations sought to "underline the unwavering international commitment to maintaining rights of passage under international law."
Earlier this month, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that Iranian forces could block shipping through the strait "for a period of time," but added "we can defeat that" and restore the flow of oil and other commerce. He did not offer details on a U.S. military response, but the Pentagon is believed to have contingency plans for such a scenario.
A member of Iran's influential national security committee in parliament, Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, said Monday that the strait "would definitely be closed if the sale of Iranian oil is violated in any way." He went on warn the U.S. against any "military adventurism."
Another senior lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said Iran has the right to shutter Hormuz in retaliation for oil sanctions and that the closure was increasingly probable, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency.
"In case of threat, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is one of Iran's rights," Falahatpisheh said. "So far, Iran has not used this privilege."
The lawmakers' comments do not directly reflect the views of Iran's ruling clerics, but they echo similar statements made earlier this month by military commanders with close ties to the theocracy.
At the same time, however, Iran has tried to ease tensions by offering to reopen nuclear talks with the U.S. and other world powers after a one-year gap, and backing off warnings about U.S. naval operations in the Gulf ? where the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet has a base in Bahrain.
On Monday in Brussels, the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Iran to offer "some concrete issues to talk about."
"It is very important that it is not just about words; a meeting is not an excuse, a meeting is an opportunity and I hope that they will seize it," she said as the EU adopted its toughest measures on Iran with an immediate embargo on new oil contracts and a freeze of the country's Central Bank assets. About 90 percent of the EU's nearly $19 billion in Iranian imports in 2010 were oil and related products, according to the International Energy Agency.
It follows new U.S. sanctions enacted last month that target the Central Bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling. On Monday, benchmark crude pushed above $99 a barrel after the EU sanctions and the renewed threats to close the Strait of Hormuz.
"This is not a question of security in the region," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "It is a question of security in the world."
In Washington, a joint statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the EU move "will sharpen the choice for Iran's leaders and increase their cost of defiance" over the country's nuclear program.
But there are no signals from Iran that the tougher sanctions will force concessions on the core dispute: Iran's ability to enrich uranium.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by state TV as calling the EU sanctions "psychological warfare" to try to halt Iran's nuclear program.
Iran's leaders have consistently portrayed the country's nuclear fuel labs as a symbol of national pride and part of efforts to become the Muslim world's center for homegrown technology, including long-range missiles and rockets capable of reaching orbit. Iran says it seeks reactors only for energy and research, but the U.S. and others worry that the uranium enrichment will eventually lead to warhead-grade material.
Earlier this month, Iran said it was beginning enrichment at a new facility buried in a mountainside south of Tehran.
"Iran's right for uranium enrichment is nonnegotiable," said conservative Iranian lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh. "There is no reason for Iran to compromise over its rights. But Iran is open to discussions over concerns about its nuclear program."
Russia ? which strongly opposed the EU sanctions ? said in a statement: "Under pressure of this sort, Iran will not make any concessions or any corrections to its policies."
On the U.S. side, President Barack Obama may also be wary about political fallout from any negotiations in an election year.
No date has been set to resume talks. A more pressing task for OPEC's No. 2 producer is assessing the sting from the EU slap.
The 27-nation bloc imposed an immediate halt to all new contracts for Iranian crude and petroleum products while existing ones are allowed to run until July. It also placed a freeze on the assets of Iran's Central Bank.
About 80 percent of Iran's oil revenue comes from exports, and any measures that affect its ability to export oil could hit hard at its economy, which is already staggering from widespread unemployment and a sinking currency that has sharply driven up the relative costs for imported goods.
Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, called the struggling Iranian economy a potential "weak spot" for the ruling system as the country moves toward parliamentary elections in early March.
Reflecting the uncertainties, the Iranian rial fell Monday to a new low of nearly 21,000 to the dollar, a 14 percent drop since Friday, currency dealers said. A year ago, the rial was trading at 10,500 to the dollar.
Samuel Ciszuk, a consultant at KBC Energy Economics in Britain, said the sanctions will likely cause crude prices to rise in Europe and soften in Asia in the short term as more Iranian oil heads east. The sanctions will make it even harder for Iran to find customers for its oil and shipping companies willing to carry it.
"Iranian crude is being made the last choice. ... You may be able to get it at a discount (outside the West), but how stable is the supply?" he said.
In order to sell supplies once destined for Europe, Iran may need to offer discounts to its main buyers in Asia such as Japan, South Korea and China. Ciszuk said there hasn't been much sign Tehran is willing to do this so far, and it may prefer for now to divert the excess into storage.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, have been pressing Tehran's main Asian oil markets to turn away from Iran.
China ? which counts on Iran as its third-biggest oil supplier ? has rejected sanctions and called for negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
South Korea, which relies on Iran for up to 10 percent of its oil supplies, was noncommittal on the U.S. sanctions. Japan, which imports about 9 percent of its oil from Iran, gave mixed signals but most recently expressed concern about how the sanctions would affect Japanese banks.
But all three nations sent high-profile delegations ? including one led by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ? to oil-rich Gulf Arab states this month for talks that left Iran fearful of efforts to undercut its crude exports.
Within Iran, meanwhile, security officials are on higher alert over what they claim is a covert campaign led by Israel's Mossad and backed by U.S. and Britain. On Jan. 11, a magnetic bomb placed on a car killed scientist who worked at Iran's main uranium enrichment facility. It was at least the fourth targeted killing of a nuclear-related researcher in two years.
The U.S. denied any role in the January attack, but Israel's military chief hinted that Iran could face incidents that happen "unnaturally."
After the sanctions vote, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a joint statement urging Iran to suspend its sensitive nuclear activities.
"Our message is clear," the statement said. "We have no quarrel with the Iranian people. But the Iranian leadership has failed to restore international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program. We will not accept Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon."
___
Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Don Melvin in Brussels, Robert Burns in Washington and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Video: Markets Flat on Europe Uncertainty
U.S. stocks are little changed Monday as investors weighed the developments in Europe's efforts to tame its debt crisis, Margie Patel, Wells Fargo Funds Management, and Doug Sandler, Riverfront Investment Group.
Related Links:
Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46105958/
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Get Over It: Men and Women Are from the Same Planet
Recent publication in PLoS ONE by psychologist Del Giudici and colleagues [i] has reignited the debate about just how ?naturally? different men and women are.?? Del Giudici et al. state that their findings of a ?pattern of global sex differences?may help elucidate the meaning and generality of the broad dimension of individual differences known as ?masculinity-femininity?.?
In a commentary, psychologist Dario Maestripieri [ii] gushes that this study has finally demonstrated that ?when it comes to personality men and women belong to two different species.?? In spite of the hoopla and pronouncements that men are indeed from Mars and women for Venus this study, and the commentaries, ignore that trying to assess and explain similarities and differences between human genders and sexes is very complicated and quite messy.? Apparently, it also makes people act a little silly.
There are three major problems with the conclusions being drawn from study:? a) ?gender? and ?sex? are used interchangeably, b) evolved differences in men and women are not being measured, and c) relevant biological and anthropological datasets are ignored.? Let me just review these problems and leave you with a plea for a bit of sanity and some scientific integrity when it comes to thinking and talking about men and women.
?Sex? and ?Gender? are not the same thing.? Sex is a biological state that is measure via chromosomal content and a variety of physiological and developmental measures.? Gender is the roles, expectations and perceptions that a given society has for the sexes.? Most societies have two genders on a masculinity-femininity continuum, some have more.? The two are interconnected, but not the same thing.? We are born with a sex, but acquire gender and there is great inter-individual diversity within societies and sexes in regards to how sex and gender play out in behavior and personality.? There is an extensive body of literature demonstrating this, but many researchers interested only in definitive distinctions between men and women choose to disregard it.
To measure evolutionary differences in behavior within a species is extremely difficult, but there are at least two basic methodological approaches that are required. First, assessments must be comparative across more than one population of the species of interest. Second the traits being measured must have some way of being linked or connected with heritable aspects of human physiology or behavior that has an effect on overall fitness, and they must be assessed via measures that are accessible, and replicable, across different populations in the species.? Del Giudici et al. used a large questionnaire sample of mostly white, educated Americans.? Relative to the global diversity in cultural structure, this is a limited sample and not a comparative evolutionary one for the species.
Their data come from assessments of 15 personality variables using scales such as ?reserved vs. warm,? ?serious vs lively,? ?tolerates disorder vs. perfectionistic,? and ?shy vs socially bold.?? These are indeed personality assessments but they are mired in cultural contexts and meanings, not easily transferable across human societies in time and space, and extremely difficult, if not impossible, to connect, quantitatively, to any aspect of human physiology, neurology, or other structured, identifiable, target for natural selection to act on.? Also, these are most likely not static traits of individuals, but rather dynamic states that are fluid over the lifetime.
Finally, when talking about evolved differences in behavior between males and females one cannot make statements like ?when it comes to personality men and women belong to two different species?? without noting the biological reality that we are, indeed, the same species.? There are no consistent brain differences between the sexes [iii], there is incredible overlap in our physiological function [iv], we engage in sexual activity in more or less the same patterns [v], and we overlap extensively in most other behavior as well. There are some interesting re-occurring differences, particularly in patterns of aggression and certain physiological correlates of reproduction, muscle density, and body size.? However, anthropological datasets show enormous complexity in how and why men and women behave the ways that they do [vi].? Studies in human biology and anthropology regularly demonstrate a dynamic flexibility and complex biocultural context for all human behavior, and this is especially true for gender.
Del Giudici et al. and Maestripieri are trying to counter Janet Shibley-Hyde?s ?gender similarities hypothesis? [vii] because they ?know? that men and women are more different than similar.? There are many valid points of contention in regards to Shibley-Hyde?s seminal paper and Del Giudici et al. bring up an important methodological one, but do not provide an actual assessment and analysis of the overall data set and meta-analyses that Shibley-Hyde used [viii].?? My concern is not so much with some good back and forth in the peer reviewed literature, rather it is with the blogospheres? and the public?s response to the article and to yet another flare-up in over simplistic assertions about the way that men and women ?are? by nature.
There is something about avidly trying to prove men and women are different, or the same, that makes people lose their mind a bit.? No matter how much some want it to be true, it is just not that simple; there are no clear cut and easy answers to why we do what we do, and why men and women sometimes have problems getting along. To ignore the enormous wealth of data on how men and women are similar AND different and to try to tackle this enormously complex reality via one-dimensional approaches is just poor science.
[i] Del Giudice, M., Booth, T., and Irwing, P. (2012). The distance between Mars and?Venus: Measuring global sex differences in personality. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29265
[iii] Eliot, L.(2009) Pink brain Blue brain. Houhgton Mifflin Harcourt., Wood, J.L., Heitmiller, D., Andreasen, N.C., Nopoulos, P. (2008). Morphology of the ventral frontal cortex: relationship to femininity and social cognition. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 534?40., Bishop, K. and Wahlsten, D. (1997) Sex Differences in the Human Corpus Callosum: Myth or Reality? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 21(5):581-601
[iv] Anne Fausto-Sterling (2000) Sexing the Body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality Basic Books, P.T. Ellison and P.B. Gray Eds.(2009) The endocrinology of social relationships.? Harvard University Press Pp. 270-293
[v][v] Herbenick, D.,? Reece, M., Schick, V., Sanders, S.A., Dodge, B.,? Fortenberry, J.D. (2010) Sexual behavior in the united states: results form a national probability sample of men and women ages 14-94. J. Sex Med. 7(suppl. 5):255-265
[vi] Nanda, S. (2000) Gender diversity: cross-cultural variations Waveland Press, Donnan, H. and Magowan, F. (2010) The Anthropology of Sex Berg Publishers
[vii] Hyde JS (2005) The gender similarities hypothesis. Am Psychol 60: 581?592.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=d86ac5e3dc2b8efdad0e5d45d8e24993
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Croatia votes "Yes" to joining EU in 2013: early result (Reuters)
ZAGREB (Reuters) ? Croatia voted on Sunday in favor of joining the European Union in 2013, according to preliminary official results of a referendum with 25 percent of votes counted.
Sixty-seven percent voted in favor of becoming the bloc's 28th member, the state electoral commission said, more than two decades after the small Adriatic country broke away from socialist Yugoslavia.
(Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic and Igor Ilic; Writing by Matt Robinson)
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Analysis: Goal for Alzheimer's drug by 2025 too ambitious? (Reuters)
CHICAGO (Reuters) ? The U.S. government has set a deadline of 2025 for finding an effective way to treat or prevent Alzheimer's disease, an ambitious target considering there is no cure on the horizon and one that sets a firm deadline unlike previous campaigns against cancer or AIDS.
A panel of Alzheimer's experts this week has been fleshing out the first comprehensive plan by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fight Alzheimer's disease, an effort mandated by the National Alzheimer's Project Act signed into law by President Barack Obama last year.
The law called for the government to create a blueprint to beat Alzheimer's but provided no new money for the effort.
More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, a brain disease that causes dementia and affects primarily elderly people. Some experts estimate the disease costs the United States more than $170 billion annually to treat.
Australia, France and South Korea already have comprehensive Alzheimer's plans, and global experts have been urging the United States to take a leadership role.
"We want to demonstrate that as a country we are committed to addressing this issue," Dr. Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health at HHS, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We know the projected number of patients is expected to rise in the future. We know there are far too many patients who are suffering from this devastating condition and it is affecting them and their caregivers," Koh said.
The U.S. plan is meant to galvanize efforts to fight the fatal disease that robs victims of their ability to think and drains the resources of family caregivers.
But some experts say the 2025 deadline is unrealistic.
"No one set a deadline for the 'War on cancer' or in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We make progress and we keep fighting. The same should be true for Alzheimer's," said Dr. Sam Gandy, an Alzheimer's researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
"In my mind, that provides the unfortunate sense that we will have 'failed' if we don't have a cure by 2025."
When U.S. President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 and signed the National Cancer Act, the idea was to dedicate the same kinds of funds and resources to cancer as had been spent on splitting the atom.
In the 30-year fight against AIDS, it was only last November, with many effective treatments already in hand, that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set a goal for an AIDS-free generation, something she said "would have been unimaginable just a few years ago."
By contrast, the National Alzheimer's Project Act provides no new money. And while a few drug companies have compounds in clinical trials, researchers say they are just starting to understand the disease, which develops silently for 15 to 20 years before any memory problems begin to show.
"This means that if we had, today, already in hand, the funding, recruitment and the perfect drug, the trial would still take 15 to 20 years," Gandy said.
Despite costly efforts, no drug has been found that can keep the disease from progressing. Some researchers fear drug companies will give up entirely.
The latest blow came on Tuesday, when Pfizer Inc said it would end its collaboration with Medivation Inc after the drug Dimebon failed to improve thinking ability in a late-stage trial.
"Our best shot is not at a cure but at prevention, and prevention trials for Alzheimer's will be larger, more time-consuming and more expensive than any prevention trials ever undertaken," Gandy said in an e-mail.
UNDERSTANDING THE DISEASE
The group Alzheimer's Disease International estimates there are now 37 million people with the disease worldwide. As the population ages, that number will increase to 66 million by 2030, and to 115 million by 2050, the group said.
Koh said organizing efforts around a single strategic plan will help speed treatment, expand patient support and improve care for patients.
Part of the problem is that scientists are just beginning to sort out which changes in the brain are linked with Alzheimer's and which are related to other forms of dementia.
On Wednesday, the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health, published final recommendations in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association that should help pathologists do a better job of characterizing these differences.
The new NIA guidelines are the first since 1997, and they differentiate between memory changes diagnosed by doctors while a patient is still living and the brain changes that pathologists can see in an autopsy.
One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's is the presence of so-called plaques and tangles in the brain that are used to identify the disease.
Very often - about 30 percent of the time - brain autopsies reveal Alzheimer's-related plaques and tangles in people who had no sign of dementia while they were living, said Dr. Creighton Phelps of the NIA's division of neuroscience.
"We are missing something," Phelps said.
INVESTMENT NEEDED
So far, U.S. investment in the search for Alzheimer's treatments has fallen short of what the nation spends on other chronic diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.
William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association, said the National Institutes of Health's budget for Alzheimer's research is a little over $450 million. "If you add in private sector money, that is close to $500 million," Thies said.
That compares to the roughly $6 billion spent by the NIH on cancer and more than $4 billion on heart disease annually, Thies said.
Thies said those investments have paid off in significant advances in treatments for both conditions, and he thinks the same could happen with Alzheimer's.
Koh said more public funding would be "tremendous," but just the act of coordinating various Alzheimer's efforts should focus research and stimulate funding from the private sector.
George Vradenburg, chairman of the advocacy group USAgainstAlzheimer's and a member of the HHS Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, had been pushing for a 2020 deadline for an Alzheimer's cure, but he called the 2025 goal a "major step forward."
"If we set a national goal of stopping this disease by 2025, I think there is no question that this administration will seek additional resources to ensure we are on a path to get that done," Vradenburg said.
(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Will Dunham)
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Who Will Be the Breakout Stars of 2012?
From Josh Hutcherson to Mackenzie Foy, take a look at the stars to watch out for in movies, TV and music this year!
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Dog Walker Did Not Take Photo with Severed Head (omg!)
Earlier today false internet reports surfaced claiming that a lady posed for a smiling photo with a severed head in the Hollywood Hills, and now The Insider is setting the record straight.
The woman in question, Lauren Kornberg of LA Pet Care, reveals to The Insider that the rumors are categorically false and that she never posed for any pictures with the severed head.
Kornberg continued saying that the only way her picture could have been taken at the crime scene is if one of the hikers took a snapshot of her without her knowledge. In any event, Kornberg emphatically denies any claims that she might benefit from the tragedy in any way.
Kornberg discovered the severed head on Tuesday during a trek through a hiking trail, sparking one of the largest searches in the Los Angeles Police Department's history.
According to CBS 2's Suraya Fadel, police are questioning an unamed person in connection with the homicide case.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Federal indictment claims popular Web site Megaupload.com shared pirated material (Washington Post)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with MakerBot
Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with MakerBot
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with MakerBot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Bacon, Processed Meat Linked to Pancreatic Cancer | Care2 ...
Hold the bacon, hold the sausage. Researchers in Sweden suggest that eating an extra 50g of processed meat each day ? that a couple of slices of bacon or a link of sausage ? could increase your risk of pancreatic cancer by 19 percent.
The risk of pancreatic cancer increases by 38 percent for people who eat 100 grams a day and 57 percent for people who eat 150 grams a day of processed meat, compared to those who eat none.
Researchers analyzed data from 11 other trials, involving 6,643 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, concludes that, ?processed meat consumption is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Red meat consumption was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in men. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.?
Pancreatic cancer has a relative survival rate of about 5.5 percent, making it one of the most lethal types of cancer.
Processed meat has been linked to a host of other health problems.
Associate Professor Susanna Larsson, study author based at the Karolinska Institutet, said in a press release:
?Pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates. So as well as diagnosing it early, it?s important to understand what can increase the risk of this disease.
?If diet does affect pancreatic cancer then this could influence public health campaigns to help reduce the number of cases of this disease developing in the first place.?
Sara Hiom, director of information at Cancer Research UK, said:
?The jury is still out as to whether meat is a definite risk factor for pancreatic cancer and more large studies are needed to confirm this. But this new analysis suggests processed meat may be playing a role.
?We do know that, among lifestyle factors, smoking significantly ramps up the risk of pancreatic cancer. Stopping smoking is the best way to reduce your chances of developing many types of cancer and other diseases as well.?
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14 Anti-Cancer Foods
5 Cancer-Fighting Spices
Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/bacon-processed-meat-linked-to-pancreatic-cancer.html
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Automate Your Job Search with the Webapp-Supercharging ifttt [Jobs]
There are a lot of ways to find a new job online, from job searching sites to a simple Google trick. Weblog Apartment Therapy notes another way to keep an eye out for openings without a lot of manual work: get email alerts with previously mentioned If This Then That (ifttt).
If This Then That is a great webapp that lets you combine webapps and perform actions when something noteworthy happens. Apartment Therapy uses this to make job searches easier:
Turns out that many job sites have RSS feeds, and that happens to be one of the triggers on IFTTT.
visit your favorite job search site, and enter in the parameters you want to use for your particular hunt. For example: I use Craigslist, which is a great place to find local stuff if that's what you want. Tap the RSS button in the corner and then highlight the link in the address bar that pops up. That's the address for the RSS feed, and that's crucial. Enter the link in the box on IFTTT and move to the next step.
From there you can get email alerts, SMS alerts, or whatever other kind of notification you want. It's certainly easier than combing those job postings every day, which can take a lot of time and seem like a waste when there isn't anything applicable. If you've got a few job sites you frequent, too, it can really help consolidate all your possible work into one place (your inbox) for easy organization. Check out the full how-to at Apartment Therapy for more info.
The Jobseeker's Secret Weapon: If This, Then That | Apartment Therapy
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Friday, January 13, 2012
Discovery of the smallest exoplanets: The Barnard's star connection
ScienceDaily (Jan. 11, 2012) ? The discovery of the three smallest planets yet orbiting a distant star, which was announced January 11 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, has an unusual connection to Barnard's star, one of the Sun's nearest neighbors.
The discovery was made by a scientific team led by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) that included three members from Vanderbilt. The team used data from NASA's Kepler mission combined with additional observations of a single star, called KOI-961, to determine that it possesses three planets that range in size from 0.57 to 0.78 times the radius of Earth. This makes them the smallest of the more than 700 exoplanets confirmed to orbit other stars.
In their investigation of KOI-961, which is about 130 light years away in the Cygnus constellation, the astronomers found that it is nearly identical to Barnard's star, which is only six light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. This similarity allowed them to use information about Barnard's star, which was discovered in 1916 by Vanderbilt astronomer E.E. Barnard, to determine the mass, size and luminosity of the distant star. These values, in turn, were used to determine the size of the three new exoplanets.
"Barnard's star and KOI-961 are both M dwarfs, which are also known as red dwarfs. This is the smallest category of stars. They are popular targets for exoplanet hunters because their small size makes it easier to detect Earth-sized planets," said Keivan Stassun, the professor of astronomy who headed the Vanderbilt contingent. The other Vanderbilt scientists involved were Research Assistant Professors Joshua Pepper and Leslie Hebb.
From the 1960's through the 1980's, astronomers thought that Barnard's star also had a planetary system -- specifically one or two planets larger than Jupiter. If their existence had been verified, it would have been a scientific first, but the evidence was ultimately discredited. Today, advances in telescope technology and image processing allow astronomers to identify stars with exoplanets with considerable confidence.
Barnard's star favorite of science fiction destination
Although Barnard's star is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, its proximity to the Sun and the possibility that it possessed a planetary system made it a favorite destination for science fiction writers. It appears in dozens of science fiction novels, including Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, movies like the 1979 film The Alien Encounters, television series including Galactica Discovers Earth and a number of computer and video games.
By contrast, KOI-961 is one of thousands of nameless stars that NASA's Kepler mission has identified as candidates that may possess planetary systems. The Kepler spacecraft contains a specially designed telescope that continuously monitors the brightness of 150,000 stars at a time. It flags stars whose brightness dips periodically because the dimming could be caused by a planet that passes in the front of the star as viewed from Earth. Astronomers call this the transit method of planet detection.
The Caltech team used the Kepler data on KOI-961 along with follow-up observations from the Palomar Observatory near San Diego and the W.W. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm the existence of its planetary system and to determine the size of its planets.
Vanderbilt astronomers helped determine star's size
The transit method provides astronomers with the ratio of the size of the planet to that of the star. As a result, they needed to determine the star's size to calculate the size of the planets. The Kepler telescope gives some crude information about a star's diameter, but the researchers knew that this data is particularly unreliable for M dwarfs, Stassun said. So the Vanderbilt contingent performed the additional telescope observations and analysis that were required to get an accurate estimate of the star's size.
To get better estimates of the star's properties, the astronomers obtained an accurate measure of the star's color from Vanderbilt's telescope in southern Arizona and a detailed spectrum of the star from Palomar and Keck. This provided a fingerprint of KOI-961. "When we compared its fingerprint with those of the best known M dwarfs we found that Barnard's star was the best match," said Stassun.
That was fortunate because Barnard's star is the one of the most studied and best characterized M dwarfs. Specifically, there is an accurate estimate of its size, which is one-fifth that of the Sun. This allowed the researchers to start with a mathematical model of Barnard's star and alter it to account for the subtle differences between the two stars. When they did, the model produced an even smaller estimate of KOI-961's size: about one-sixth that of the Sun.
Once the size of the star was established, the team used the Kepler data to calculate that the three exoplanets range from the size of Mars to slightly more than three-quarters the size of Earth. They also determined that these planets orbit the star with periods ranging from a half day to two days. Such short periods mean that all three orbit so close to their star that they must be too hot for liquid water to exist and life to evolve, the astronomers calculate.
New system comparable in size to Jupiter and its moons
The diminutive dimensions of this planetary system prompted John Johnson, the principal investigator of the research from NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, to comment, "The really amazing thing about this system is that the closest size comparison is to Jupiter and its moons." (KOI-961 is just 70 percent bigger than Jupiter and its exoplanets are comparable in size and have similar orbital periods to the Galilean moons that circle the Jovian planet.)
The fact that Barnard's star doesn't have a giant planet doesn't preclude the possibility that it has smaller planets. The discovery of another M dwarf that has small exoplanets increases the likelihood that Barnard's star may have some as well. If it does, however, the planets must orbit at a much greater distance than those at KOI-961. The Kepler mission requires that the image of a star must dip three times before it is tagged as a planet-bearing candidate. As a result, the longer a planet's orbital period, the more difficult it is to discover. For example, if a planet orbits a star once a year, it would take three years of continuous observations to detect in this fashion.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/b6uh9flFUkk/120111154039.htm
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