SHIMLA - Himachal Pradesh will launch a week-long campaign on Monday to remove polythene bags from roads, hill slopes and other areas in a major community-driven environment protection initiative. People across the state will participate in the ‘Polythene Hatao, Paryavaran Bachao (remove polythene, save environment)’ campaign. “It’s another community drive to clean the polythene bags lying .... Source  : ‘Remove plastic, save environment’ campaign in Himachal.

NutriSystem (NTRI, $31.25) has had an amazing run over past several months on news of expanded distribution with major retailers, which should lead to accelerated growth. Here is the three month stock chart:Complete Story » ...

CA-Los Angeles, Distribution Manager / Personal Care MFG in Los Angeles, Ca Job Summary: The Distribution Manager will be responsible for: Managing all aspects of order fulfillment for our Domestic and International shipments. Streamlining existing processes and improving work flow in a high volume manufacturing/shipping facility. Bi-lingual: English/Spanish a plus. Requirements/ Major Responsibilities: Proven Di

Despite dire warnings about the state of Britain's financial sector, there is no need for a major spring budget I like to think readers were warned over the years about some of the problems the British economy now faces; but, having often been considered too pessimistic in the past, I find myself not quite as apocalyptic as many of those observers who believed in the Thatcher/Brown economic...

Source : The Guardian (subscribe)

Explore : Gordon Brown, Government, Money, Prime Minister, UK Politics

NutriSystem ( NTRI , $31.25) has had an amazing run over past several months on news of expanded distribution with major retailers, which should lead to accelerated growth. Here is the three month stock chart: Complete Story »

Source : SeekingAlpha.com (subscribe)

NutriSystem (NTRI, $31.25) has had an amazing run over past several months on news of expanded distribution with major retailers, which should lead to accelerated growth. Here is the three month stock chart:

It's hard to imagine complaining about a stylish compact camera that packs a stabilized 28-128mm zoom range and does 720p video capture at 30fps, but Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FP8 didn't garner any raves from the crew at PhotographyBLOG either. Image quality was found to be decent in well-lit conditions and no more than ISO 800 -- typical limitations on cameras with such tiny lens and body. Little is said about the video quality but we were adequately pleased with the sample videos linked from YouTube. The only major flaw indicated was the "permanently exposed" lens, but we can't imagine it being a deal breaker for most of you nice folks out there, right?

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 reviewed: as good as 'a loaf of plain white bread' originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit said on Sunday she can only pray for a successful Commonwealth Games after CGF president Mike Fennell expressed concern at a report that two major venues won't be ready till June next year.

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — A slow-moving storm that blanketed swaths of the mid-Atlantic with nearly 2 feet of snow headed northward Sunday, continuing its assault on the East Coast after causing at least five deaths, crippling travel and leaving empty stores normally crammed with holiday shoppers.

As it approaches New England on the cusp of the winter solstice, the storm has already been one for the ages. It caused flooding in South Florida and knocked out electricity for more than 85,000 customers in the Carolinas on Friday. On Saturday, it dropped 16 inches of snow on Reagan National Airport outside Washington – the most ever recorded there for a single December day – and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years.

Some of the deepest snow Saturday may have been in the Philadelphia suburb of Medford, N.J., where it was measured at 24 inches.

Those who did travel were met with "the worst conditions we've seen in many years in the Garden State," said David Weinstein, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Even the NFL, with its hallowed tradition of playing in all weather conditions, including "frozen tundras," pushed back the scheduled start times of games Sunday in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Around New York City, the brunt of the storm is expected to hit Long Island, with up to 18 inches and wind gusts of up to 50 mph forecast. Crews clearing roads on Long Island early Sunday reported whiteout conditions, said Lt. Robert P. Iberger of the Southampton police.

The 8 to 10 inches forecast to fall on New York City could make the storm the worst the city has seen since February 2006 when about 26 inches fell in Central Park, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said. Transit workers in New York were clearing subway tracks and platforms overnight, and delays were expected on bus routes, MTA spokesman Paul Fleuranges said early Sunday.

The National Weather Service expected snow to continue falling Sunday, dumping as much as 15 inches in southern New England with the heaviest snowfall expected early Sunday morning. A blizzard warning was in effect Sunday morning in parts of New York, as well as Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

With strong wind gusts to keep the powdery snow swirling, the storm was so bad on Saturday that attractions such as the Smithsonian museums in Washington and the Philadelphia Zoo were closed. The National Mall, normally swarming with tourists, instead was the scene of snowball fights.

The snow brought a sense of wonderment to George Johnson of Pennsauken, N.J., who ventured out Saturday to buy boots for his 1-year-old granddaughter, Talia, so she could play in the snow for the first time.

Not all shoppers were deterred by the snow.

"It really helped me get in the Christmas spirit," said the Kathryn Mariani, who took a train to downtown Philadelphia from her home in the Germantown neighborhood.

The mayors of Washington and Philadelphia and the governors of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware all declared states of emergency.

In West Virginia, blankets were given to hundreds of drivers, and some motorists were stranded for up to 27 hours on highways, Red Cross spokesman Jeff Morris said.

Falling on the last weekend before Christmas, the snow came a time when roads are traditionally mad with holiday shoppers. But around shopping centers in Philadelphia's New Jersey suburbs on Saturday, traffic was sparse and slow.

Prime parking spots were available all day at the Cherry Hill Mall. And inside, there was no line for a picture with Santa. "It was fantastic," said Chris Bailey, who got pictures of his 4-year-old daughter Olivia.

Shops at the mall and nearby restaurants closed hours early.

Salt trucks and plows were out in force. On stretches of roads including the New Jersey Turnpike, the speed limit was reduced.

But those measures didn't prevent scores of cars from slipping into ditches.

One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident caused by slick roads, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death there. A third death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.

In New Jersey, a bus got stuck on snow-covered railroad tracks in Pennsauken and was hit by a train. The only reported injury was a minor one suffered by the train's engineer, NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said.

Greyhound shut down service in Washington and points north, and ferry service in Delaware and New Jersey was canceled.

Airports in the Northeast were also jammed up. Most flights were canceled at several, including Reagan National and Dulles in the Washington area; Philadelphia International; New York's three major airports and Logan Airport in Boston. The cancellations rippled across the country; more than 150 flights were canceled in and out of Chicago's airports, as were a handful in Denver.

Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal said snacks and pillows were being handed out there to travelers stranded overnight.

And she said with continuing bad weather and planes out of place, problems would continue Sunday.

At National, Juan Carlos Franco waited in line Saturday with his wife, 2-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter to rebook their flights to Quito, Ecuador, but was expecting to fly out no sooner than Wednesday. They had checked and rechecked the status of their flight for two days, but it wasn't canceled until a few minutes after they entered the security line, Franco said.

"The backpacks were in the X-ray machine," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Sarah Karush in Washington; Dena Potter in Chesterfield, Va.; Jacob Jordan in Atlanta; David Porter in Atlantic City, N.J.; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, N.J.; Ron Todt and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia; and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Arlington, Va., contributed to this report.

Three of every four Americans view climate change as a serious problem that will harm future generations if not addressed, according to an Associated Press-Stanford University poll.

Everyone knows that each of the major search engine has little quirks that state its individuality. For Google, it the special event logo (or doodle as it’s known) which changes on big events such as the 4th of July or Christmas. Bing however, has different photographs for backgrounds which change every now and again. I found [...]

In the local government elections on Dec 5, voters taught the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party and President Ma Ying-jeou a lesson. A majority of the public and international media got the message voters wanted to express.

China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, lauded Sunday the outcome of a historic U.N. climate conference that ended with a nonbinding agreement that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts -- but does not require it.

"Close to 12.5 per cent of productivity of human resource in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours," industry body Assocham said in a survey.

A's want to move — The A's want to leave Oakland and move to San Jose, an idea that isn't sitting well with San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera. He is calling on Major League Baseball not to allow the move, saying it would hurt San Francisc...

New Delhi (AFP) Dec 18, 2009 - The Indian army said Friday it had pulled 30,000 troops out of Kashmir, one of the biggest military drawdowns in a decade and reflecting a sharp fall in violence in the disputed region.

Michael Johnston submits:An up-and-down week came to an end on a positive note Friday, as most major benchmarks advanced and world leaders concluded a closely-watched Copenhagen summit by announcing a deal for combating climate change. Elsewhere, GM indicated that it will wind down its Saab unit after a deal fell through and Google faces potential trouble overseas. The ETFdb 60 Index, a benchmark measuring the performance of asset classes available through ETFs, added 1.74 points, or 0.2%, recovering part of the gains from the previous session’s selloff.Complete Story » ...

A major snowstorm has been blasting the east coast, leaving people stranded in airports and travel plans in disarray. What's a person (or First Dog) to do? Some tried skiing, playing football, or just a good ol' fashion snowball fight. If you're stuck inside, here's a look at what you're missing:

More on Inside DC

One of my friends’ AIM statuses today was “PC Load Letter… What the f*** does that mean?!” She’s a CS Major and I didn’t know what this meant so I assumed she was having an issue with her computer. So I googled it and found out that thi

Senate Democrats clinched the final 60th vote required to push a major health care bill through the Senate by Christmas, announcing a compromise yesterday with Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska that includes restrictions on abortion coverage and millions in additional Medicaid funding for his state.

Seat 1: Bryan Huang, Singapore, PokerStars.net Team Asia Pro (194,000 in chips): One of only a handful of players to have cashed in three APPT events, the 24-year-old also won the HKD $1000 buy-in event at the Macau Cup in July.

Seat 2: Vincent Chung, Turlock, CA, USA (573,000 in chips): A dishwasher from the USA, this 29-year-old was holidaying in the area and decided to try his luck in the MPCC. He's been playing poker for just two years.

Seat 3: Devan Tang, Hong Kong (610,000 in chips): Winner of the MPCC Knockout Bounty event earlier this week, this 32-year-old is a live tournament newcomer but brings plenty of online experience to his first major final table.

Seat 4: Ming Fang, Shanghai, China (83,000 in chips): A mild-mannered pharmacist from Shanghai, the 32-year-old has an amazing record of five final tables in just seven tournament starts at PokerStars Macau. He's been playing the game for more than four years.

Seat 5: Wing Bor "Paul" Cheng, Hong Kong (326,000 in chips): The elder statesmen at the final table, this PokerStars Macau regular stayed well and truly under the radar before charging into contention earlier today with some aggressive play.

Seat 6: Chun Chieh "Michael" Chang, Taipei (499,000 in chips): The sole survivor of the big Taiwanese contingent that entered the MPCC Main Event, he was the chip leader at the start of day two and carefully picked his spots to build an impressive stack

Seat 7: Daren Yoon, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia (238,000 in chips): One of Malaysia's foremost poker figures, the ex-pat Australian is well known in poker circles but is making a rare major tournament start and hoped to break through for his first major title.

Seat 8: Tae Jun Noh, Seoul, Korea (52,000 in chips): This Korean youngster made his debut in the 2008 APPT Manila Main Event, and finished second. If he finishes fifth or better, he will be named Asian Player of the Year.

Seat 9: Yong Hyun "James" Yoo, Seoul, Korea (396,000 in chips): This quietly spoken Korean player chipped up late yesterday and rarely looked threatened in the lead-up to his first major final table appearance, picking off plenty of short stacks along the way.

Seat 10: Yew Fatt "Raiden" Kan, Hong Kong (190,000 in chips): Splitting his time between Malaysia and Hong Kong, he's a regular at the Hong Kong Poker House and won a spot at this final table the hard way, nursing a short stack for much of the tournament.

SHIMLA - In another major initiative towards community-driven environment protection, Himachal Pradesh will Monday launch a week-long campaign to remove polythene bags lying scattered on hills and in residential areas. People across the state would participate in the ‘Polythene Hatao, Paryavaran Bachao (remove polythene, save environment)’ campaign. “It’s another community drive to clean the polythene bags .... Original article on Gaea Times at  : Himachal to launch fresh no polythene drive.

Two years ago in a conference room in the Randolph hotel in Oxford, Henrik Thomsen gave his inside account of a medical “nightmare”.

In a presentation to about 30 colleagues, Thomsen, one of Europe’s leading radiologists, revealed how patients treated at his hospital had subsequently contracted a rare and potentially fatal disease.

Thomsen and other doctors at his Copenhagen University hospital were baffled as to why 20 kidney patients who had been given routine scans were afflicted by a disorder — nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) — in which the skin gradually swells, thickens and tightens. Some sufferers were confined to wheelchairs. At least one died. There was no known cure.

Then, in March 2006, there was a breakthrough. It was confirmed that all those who had fallen ill with NSF had been given the same drug in advance of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.

Omniscan was used to enhance the images produced by the scan. The product was sold around the world and was manufactured by GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric, one of the world’s largest corporations.

Thomsen’s presentation lasted no more than 15 minutes, with the final slide reading: “I hope none of you meets a similar medical hurricane.”

The quietly spoken 56-year-old, director of the department of diagnostic sciences at the University of Copenhagen, is part of a small group of clinicians credited with alerting patients and regulators to the potential risks of Omniscan for renal patients.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency this weekend said there had been 20 reports in the UK of NSF after patients were given Omniscan. Five of the patients died.

Last month, European medical regulators recommended that anybody who needed an MRI scan should be given a check to ensure their kidneys were healthy if they were to be given Omniscan or two similar products. In America, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reviewing its advice.

Thomsen, however, now refuses to speak anywhere in England on the possible risks of Omniscan. The reason is that he faces another kind of storm: GE Healthcare is suing him in the High Court for libel.

The company claims his presentation in Oxford, entitled Management Aspects of NSF, was highly defamatory.

GE has already racked up costs of more than £380,000 pursuing the respected academic, who has authored or co-authored nearly 400 papers and delivered countless presentations to his peers. Thomsen will have to pay the firm’s costs if he loses the case.

In recent weeks, The Sunday Times has highlighted how London’s draconian libel laws are being used to silence critics of the rich and the powerful.

In a number of cases, both claimants and defendants have little apparent connection with Britain.

Campaign groups have warned that vital scientific and medical work is being threatened because of the danger of libel actions.

Thomsen, who was in London last week meeting Carter-Ruck, his lawyers, has no doubt about the driving force behind his case. “I believe that the lawsuit is an attempt to silence me,” he said.

IN October 2003 General Electric, one of the most watched companies on Wall Street, made a successful £5.7 billion bid for Amersham, the British healthcare company that had been privatised by Margaret Thatcher.

GE has a finger in many corporate pies, from manufacturing lightbulbs to insurance sales, but this appeared a particularly good business fit. GE Medical Systems made scanning equipment and Amersham made the products used to make medical imaging more effective. The combined business — GE Healthcare — had its headquarters in Buckinghamshire and was expected to generate about $13 billion (£8 billion) annually, representing about 10% of GE’s revenue at that time.

One of its products was Omniscan, which is among a small group of products administered to patients before an MRI scan. It is a so-called “contrast agent” whose properties enhance the differences between fluids and structures in the body when they appear on scans, making diagnosis easier. To date, it has sold more than 48m doses worldwide, including 620,000 in the UK. Such products sell at about $30 a dose.

There was, however, a problem. A small number of kidney patients injected with Omniscan and other products were falling ill with NSF, a horrific disease that first attacks the skin and can then attack organs. Those with healthy kidneys were unaffected and the product has been safe for more than 99% of patients.

NSF was first identified in the United States in 1997, more than five years after the contrast agents were introduced, and doctors were initially mystified as to what caused it.

One victim, Celeste Castillo Lee, from North Carolina, who gave evidence earlier this month to a FDA hearing, described how the disease migrated through her body, causing agony. “Seventy-five per cent of us [NSF victims] are in wheelchairs,” she said. “It’s actually a torture.”

She said swelling, which started in her ankles, moved through her limbs and then attacked her insides. Her bones, she said, felt like they were in a vice.

In British hospitals doctors were also finding cases of the new and strange condition. Giles Roditi, a consultant radiologist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said his hospital had 16 cases of NSF in renal patients.

What was causing it? In early 2006 Thomsen had turned clinical detective to try to answer this question.

After he was told that every kidney patient at his hospital who was diagnosed with the disease had been given a drug for a MRI scan, he and his colleagues alerted the medical authorities and then embarked on a review of all known cases of NSF.

Every patient out of the 150 cases that he found had been given a contrast agent for an MRI. About 90% had been given Omniscan. It was not proof that the drug caused NSF, but it was enough evidence for Thomsen never again to give it to any kidney patient.

Omniscan is one of several competing MRI agents that contain the rare-earth metal gadolinium, which is potentially toxic. The metal is chemically protected in its various drug forms and is quickly flushed out of the body by patients with healthy kidneys.

However, regulators believe the chemical structure of Omniscan, and another similarly constructed product, make them less stable and potentially dangerous for those suffering from renal problems.

The Danish Medicines Agency was the first to sound the alarm, highlighting 25 cases linked to Omniscan in a notice in May 2006.

Many of the Danish patients filed claims with a Danish government insurance agency, which pays benefits if it decides that a drug was a likely cause of inquiry or death.

In one of those cases, involving a 55-year-old woman who died from a lung embolism in 2003, the insurance agency concluded the side effects of Omniscan had “caused” her immobilisation, which, in turn, “caused” her deadly embolism. GE declined to comment on this case last week.

In June 2007, the Commission on Human Medicines in the UK advised doctors not to use Omniscan in patients with severe renal problems along with two other products, Magnevist, manufactured by Bayer HealthCare, and Optimark, produced by Covidien. It advised that other products containing gadolinium should not be used for kidney patients unless essential.

GE Healthcare appears to have reacted promptly to concerns about its product, but it objects to some of Thomsen’s work and the decisions by the European regulators. While it does not deny that there is an association between its product and NSF, it felt that to classify its drug as particularly risky was unfair.

It insists that a causal link to NSF has “not been established”. It believes a reporting bias may account for the high number of NSF cases linked to its product.

GE’s arguments helped sway regulators in the US, the biggest market for Omniscan. Doctors there have been warned of an association between contrast agents and NSF, but the FDA until recently said the data was too limited to classify some of the products as more risky than others.

The FDA has also not so far recommended doctors to stop using any of these products in kidney patients, but has simply issued safety warnings.

FDA’s staff has been revisiting the evidence. This month the FDA said it now believes that Omniscan, Optimark and Magnevist pose higher risks. An FDA advisory panel went further: they recommended that Omniscan and Optimark should not be given to patients with severe kidney disease.

This represents a victory of sorts for Thomsen and may mean less chance of kidney patients suffering from this disease in the future. But his mind is now on another looming battle with GE in the High Court.

Academics and radiologists who attended Thomsen’s presentation say it is “ludicrous” that he faces a potentially ruinous legal action and are writing letters of support for him in the action. His PowerPoint presentation is summarised in the writ and appears to be an objective analysis of the association between Omniscan and NSF.

GE Healthcare said this weekend it believed the presentation was defamatory because it accused the firm of suppressing information and marketing its product when it was aware of possible problems.

Last week, however, a spokeswoman was unable to highlight any part of Thomsen’s presentation in which this allegation was made. The writ says the defamation may have been “by way of innuendo”.

Carter-Ruck, defending Thomsen on a no-win, no-fee basis, says the action should be struck out because the words complained of in the writ are clearly not defamatory.

GE Healthcare is also suing over an article that appeared under Thomsen’s name in Imaging Management, a medical journal, published in Belgium, which referred to rumours that the company had been warned about possible problems with its product.

Thomsen says he did not “write or publish” the words that are the subject of the complaint and that they were written by a journalist. He denies libel.

The GE Healthcare spokeswoman said the company supported scientific debate and sued Thomsen only as a “last resort” because it felt it was being defamed. It says it always reacted quickly and in the best interests of patients to any possible side-effects of Omniscan. It reiterated that the product was still safe to use for the vast majority of patients.

THOMSEN’S case, however, is merely the latest example of the courts being used against scientists who scrutinise drugs and treatments. Simon Singh, a science writer, is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association for describing some of their treatments as “bogus”.

Another victim of the libel laws is Peter Wilmshurst, a consultant cardiologist at Shrewsbury hospital. He is being sued by an American company, NMT Medical, after he questioned the effectiveness of a new heart implant device.

The Libel Reform Campaign is now urging capped damages, stricter controls on costs and a stronger public interest defence. John Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship, which is among a number of groups supporting the campaign, said: “[Thomsen’s case] appears to be yet another shocking example of multinational corporations going after academics and scientists working in the public interest.”

Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, has already called for reform. “The idea that we are becoming an international haven for people to attack scientists is something that we should not be proud of,” he said.

The culture, media and sport committee of the House of Commons is compiling a report that is expected to recommend change in the country’s libel laws. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has already announced a review.

Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at Oxford University and an adviser to Sense about Science, which promotes the use of good science in public debates, said any review should ensure the libel courts are never used as forum for assessing the risks of a treatment. “The risk is that the party with the most money will always win in what should be a dispassionate assessment of evidence,” he said.

GE, along with other manufacturers of contrast agents, now faces action in the American courts over its drug. A writ filed in the northern district of the Ohio federal court by lawyers acting for almost 500 plaintiffs says Omniscan was “routinely administered to kidney patients for years without warnings”.

These actions mean the debate over the side-effects of Omniscan and other products is likely to continue for many years to come.

Thomsen’s concern is about medical researchers who will need to highlight possible risks from drugs in the future. He says it is essential that they are not cowed by the prospect of appearing before the libel courts in London.

“It’s dangerous for the patient if we can’t frankly exchange views,” he said.

Jeff Gerth is a senior reporter at ProPublica (www.propublica.org), a US-based independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Additional reporting: Jon Ungoed-Thomas

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article6962816.ece

• A wretched law that threatens our free speech

• Scientists urge reform of ‘lethal’ libel law

• Doctor to argue freedom of speech defence

Game Time: 3:00PM Pacific  TV:  Comcast

You may recall the last time we played Miami, a mere 7 games ago in the cozy confines of the Rose Garden.  It was the last complete game that Greg Oden played and he blistered them to the tune of 13 points, 20 rebounds, and 4 blocks.  However LaMarcus Aldridge was down with soreness in the knee.  The game summary was simple.  Start singing Handel's famous "Hallelujah Chorus" in your head but replace every "Hallelujah" with "Michael Beasley".  I swear they could make a highlight reel of the game with that exact song and not miss much.  All but unopposed, MB scored 27, Wade added 22, and reserve Quentin Richardson poured in 20 himself.  The loss was only 107-100 but watching Miami score like that was a major headache inducer.

Fortunately LaMarcus Aldridge is here for this game.  He might even have a big comeback after last night's miserable offensive showing.  Unfortunately Greg Oden is out.  Perhaps we'll need a new ditty to the tune of "Joy to the World" now.  "Jermaine O'Neal just kicked our butts.  He hit most everything!"  Well...one could hope Joel Przybilla could hold him closer to a silent night, but it's going to be a tall order because the Heat field a lot of scorers for Joel to help with.

The book on the Heat hasn't changed too much since last time.  Most of the guys who make the court will rebound.  Most of them will shoot a three if given the chance.  They play at a measured pace but they're not afraid to run if you let them...in fact several of their players would prefer it.  They still rely heavily on Wade for scoring but Beasley, O'Neal and occasionally Richardson or guard Mario Chalmers will pop off on occasion.  You have to defend them as a team and box out as a team or you won't have a chance.  Their bench is fairly strong and they use a lot of players.  They're comfortable mixing and matching at the smaller positions but if you can get one of their bigs in foul trouble only Udonis Haslem stands in between them and ouchy-time.

The keys are fairly simple:  run on them whenever you can, rebound, recover if you rotate, and don't be afraid to drive the lane because they won't block a shot.  They tend to be feast or famine when it comes to scoring.  They play in the 100's when they're running hot, in the 80's when they struggle.  You have to know what time it is for them and press your advantage when you've got it.  Dwyane Wade is a handful.  If you can't cope with him at least try and stop somebody else.  If Portland's supporting cast matches Miami's they will have a chance.

Oh.  And try to score more than 83 points.

See how the Heat view things at PeninsulaisMightier.

Enter ye olde Jersey Contest form here.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

A new interactive, searchable online database of over 24,000 publicly accessible woods across the UK is to be created by the Woodland Trust thanks to grant funding of £1.2 million awarded by Natural England through ‘Access to Nature’ – funded by £25m from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme. The Trust has won major [...]

Didn't anyone ever tell you that khorasan is ALl of asia major--what's left asia minor--europe usa. Oops an eagle had to split that continent but no

A week before Christmas, baseball fans received an early present in the form of an incredible seven days of transactions in MLB.

Senate Democrats clinched the final 60th vote required to push a major health care bill through the Senate by Christmas, announcing a compromise yesterday with Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska that includes restrictions on abortion coverage and millions in additional Medicaid funding for his state.

Michael Johnston submits: More much of the second half of 2009, one of the overarching themes has been continued weakness in the U.S. dollar , as a perfect storm of economic and political factors combined to push the greenback continually lower against major rivals. But once the calendar turned to December, the tables turned as well, and the U.S. currency took off on a furious rally that has seen...

Source : SeekingAlpha.com (subscribe)

Michael Johnston submits: An up-and-down week came to an end on a positive note Friday, as most major benchmarks advanced and world leaders concluded a closely-watched Copenhagen summit by announcing a deal for combating climate change. Elsewhere, GM indicated that it will wind down its Saab unit after a deal fell through and Google faces potential trouble overseas. The ETFdb 60 Index , a...

Source : SeekingAlpha.com (subscribe)

"As was announced on Dec 11th, CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) now requires a formal paper based application material when making the online application to the registrar. The motivation behind this seems more related to cracking down on porn sites, but since . cn domains have been the call-to-action in 35-50% of all spam being sent for well over a year, we were wondering what effect this policy change may have on the prevalence of this TLD in spam. The graph below illustrates the percentage of spam messages sent each day that contain a . cn domain (vast majority are Canadian Pharmacy type spam) as well as the percentage of pharmacy spam messages sent that contain a link to a free webhosting service (blue)...."

An up-and-down week came to an end on a positive note Friday, as most major benchmarks advanced and world leaders concluded a closely-watched Copenhagen summit by announcing a deal for combating climate change. Elsewhere, GM indicated that it will wind down its Saab unit after a deal fell through and Google faces potential trouble overseas.

The ETFdb 60 Index, a benchmark measuring the performance of asset classes available through ETFs, added 1.74 points, or 0.2%, recovering part of the gains from the previous session’s selloff.

 The glaciers are melting – and seas are rising

It’s over: the two week long COP 15 conference on global warming and climate change ended Friday night with a weak agreement to try to keep global warming temperature levels at or below 2 degrees Celsius, and to allocate a sum of $ 30 billion towards dealing with the effects of climate change by the year 2012. The hastily hammered out deal also calls for a measure of transparency to be established between developed and developing nations towards dealing with the consequences of global warming and climate change.  While not perfect by any means, the agreement, signed by leaders of the U.S., Brazil, India, South Africa, and China, was perhaps better than nothing, and at least kept the conference from ending in failure; with nothing more than photo shots of the participants, along with video clips of the outside “street participants” in running battles with Danish police and with scores of them being arrested and detained until the conference’s end.

 The deal, in which U.S. President Barack Obama said “all major economies have come together to accept their responsibilities to combat climate change” is at least a start, even though disappointed environmentalists had hoped for much stronger measures to reduce the carbon footprint effects of both the developed and developing nations on our planet’s nvironment. And many protesting “street environmists” paid the price for their concern by becoming “guests” of the Copenhagen Police Department.  

 President Obama showed up on the last day of the conference like a knight in shining armor, and was shuttled from meeting to meeting in order to confer with as many delegates as possible, as well as have some private talks on other international matters with leaders of Russia, China (whose premier Wen Jiobao actually stood him up) and others before the President was finally able to attend a meeting with the other four major signers in order to finalize the agreement.

Ireland’s Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, described the deal agreed  so far by 28 world leaders at the Copenhagen climate change summit as “far less ambitious than what we wanted.”

 The agreement is not legally binding, however, as it has to be endorsed by all of the 193 countries who participated at the conference; many of them being developing nations, who feel that they are being blamed more for their impact on global warming due to their “slash and burn” agriculture, depletion of tropical rain forests, and use of coal and other highly polluting fossil fuels for power and manufacturing industries. Many developing country leaders lambasted the agreement, including Sudan’s UN Ambassador Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, who said the agreement was “just an idea” .

Although Sudan is not exactly a good example of Middle Eastern countries sensitive to the effects of climate change, other countries in this region are also not too pleased with having the larger more developed countries dictate terms to them regarding their responsibility in combating global warming. But it must be noted that although the entire Middle is responsible for less than 5 percent of  the world’s total emissions and pollution that contribute to global warming, the region does account for nearly 50% of world petroleum production that is considered a major cause of global warming. Israel and Egypt are reported to have the largest amount of carbon emissions, with those like Jordan and Lebanon having lesser amounts.

Despite the contribution of  Middle Eastern countries towards the fossil fuels that are said by many to be causing much of our current global warming woes, a number of these countries are currently involved in solar energy and other renewable energy projects; including those in the Persian Gulf region, Egypt, and Israel. While Israel has some of the most developed solar energy projects in the world, it also is responsible for the second highest level of carbon emissions, coming in after Egypt. Israel is also in danger of having it’s local solar energy projects curtailed significantly due to a recent announcement by the Israel Electric Corporation that it no longer has funds to subsidize the purchase of excess electricity sold back to the country’s national electricity grid by solar powered electricity plants.

Whether similar situations could happen in other Middle East countries remains to be seen. But in any event, and for the present time anyway, the outcome of the two week conference in Copenhagen, will not result in many earthshaking changes in a part of the world that still supplies the world with nearly 50% of it’s petroleum – with all it’s implications.

 Photos: Paul Souders/Corbis, cnn.com

Sources: time.com., silobreaker.com democracynow.org

 

 

 

 

I want to learn more about the Pacific Wars in the perspective of the enemy. Japanese military culture and history fascinates me. Then again, I also want to learn Latin so that I could read texts written in early modern European times. What would be the " better " language? My concentration for History by the way is the Middle East (Arabic and Hebrew are hard to sign up for nonmajors)

Joseph Piper, Managing Partner , Integra Ventures

Joseph Piper directs the overall investment strategy for Integra Ventures. Since 1983, he has been involved with corporate governance, formation, growth, senior management, mergers and acquisitions, and investment in the healthcare industry. He currently sits on the board of four Integra Ventures portfolio companies: National Healing, HealthHelp, Physicians Edge, and Cara Vita. Joseph also serves as an advisor to the Long Term Care Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for seniors. Prior to founding Integra Ventures, Joseph co-founded and served as President of Capital Services for Diversified Health Services (DHS), the largest post-acute care outsourcing management firm in the U.S. at the time, which was later sold to ServiceMaster (NYSE: SVM). Before moving to DHS, Joseph was Chief Corporate Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for the Voluntary Hospitals of America Long Term Care Group. His duties included integrating a post-acute strategy into hospital delivery systems through acquisitions, leasing, development, financing and management of sub-acute facilities with hospitals. Early in his career, Joseph served as Corporate Counsel for The Hillhaven Corporation, the nation's second largest extended care company. As one of two staff attorneys, his responsibilities included acquiring, leasing, developing and financing 350 facilities over a 2 1/2-year period - a total capitalization of approximately $980 million. Joseph holds an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado, as well as a Juris Doctor Degree from Seattle University. He earned his B.S. in Business from Arizona State University where he also played basketball.

Integra Ventures
We seek investments in seed to later-stage Life Science companies. We consider business plans from experienced entrepreneurs passionately pursuing outsourcing products/services related to healthcare software applications, bio-informatics, biotechnology tools, medical devices, and the Internet. Though we seek opportunities across America, we focus on locating innovative companies in the West, and invest predominantly in companies requiring less than $5 million of initial capital. Our investments range in size from $500,000 to $3 million. We usually position our investments as a part of a syndicate, partnering with firms that also have technical or market expertise, capital depth, and/or strategic influence. We have led deals in early-stage companies as well as followed other funds in later-stage developments.

Some Previous Investments:
Blue Heron
Blue Heron is a biotechnology tools company, which has developed proprietary technology to rapidly synthesize custom-engineered genes. One of the major bottlenecks in genetic research for pharmaceutical and agricultural companies is the time and effort required to prepare genes for detailed analysis. Blue Heron's outsourced service enables researchers to go directly from planning molecules on the desktop, ordering them over the web, to testing them in the lab. Blue Heron targets difficult to clone genes and variants that biotech companies are unable to produce themselves.

Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc.
Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc., is an early-stage medical device company founded in 1999. In the next few years, cancer will exceed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the US. We believe there are significant unmet needs in the treatment of cancer. The company is developing innovative tools and therapies for the oncology market that address these unmet needs. Calypso has assembled an experienced management team, world-class biomedical engineers and scientists, and an extensive scientific advisory board that rivals established medical technology organizations.

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The Perfect Venture Conference V: November 12, 2009
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Arizona Early-Stage Venture Capital Event: Dec 3, 2009
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A few things that crossed my radar recently. A rant about the failings of tech news and the (lack of) incentives causing it. From louisgray.com. I believe “fast food news” also can refer to the mass hysteria over making sure every site posts the news that a major browser or a major operating system has issued a [...]

Sir -- On Friday December 10, just two days after the announcement of savage cuts to the incomes of public sector workers and social welfare recipients, I decided to venture into town to witness, at first hand, the devastating effect these cuts would have on the morale and wellbeing of Dubliners and other city shoppers.

Michael Johnston submits:More much of the second half of 2009, one of the overarching themes has been continued weakness in the U.S. dollar, as a perfect storm of economic and political factors combined to push the greenback continually lower against major rivals. But once the calendar turned to December, the tables turned as well, and the U.S. currency took off on a furious rally that has seen it reclaim much of the ground lost over the previous months. The reasons for the dollar’s impressive rebound are as numerous as the factors that drove it lower in recent months. Weakness in the euro has boosted the dollar’s value, as signs of potentially serious trouble in Europe have emerged in recent days. Several major ratings agencies downgraded sovereign Greek debt, a reflection of the deteriorating fiscal situation in the euro zone country. “The downgrade reflects concerns over the medium-term outlook for public finances given the weak credibility of fiscal institutions and the policy framework in Greece,” said Fitch, one of the agencies to downgrade Greece. “The lack of substantive structural policy measures reduces confidence that medium term consolidation efforts will be aggressive enough to ensure public debt ratios are stabilized and then ...

More much of the second half of 2009, one of the overarching themes has been continued weakness in the U.S. dollar, as a perfect storm of economic and political factors combined to push the greenback continually lower against major rivals. But once the calendar turned to December, the tables turned as well, and the U.S. currency took off on a furious rally that has seen it reclaim much of the ground lost over the previous months.

The reasons for the dollar’s impressive rebound are as numerous as the factors that drove it lower in recent months. Weakness in the euro has boosted the dollar’s value, as signs of potentially serious trouble in Europe have emerged in recent days. Several major ratings agencies downgraded sovereign Greek debt, a reflection of the deteriorating fiscal situation in the euro zone country. “The downgrade reflects concerns over the medium-term outlook for public finances given the weak credibility of fiscal institutions and the policy framework in Greece,” said Fitch, one of the agencies to downgrade Greece. “The lack of substantive structural policy measures reduces confidence that medium term consolidation efforts will be aggressive enough to ensure public debt ratios are stabilized and then reduced over the next three to five years.”

The majority of people infected with swine flu virus can recuperate without medical attention or antiviral drugs, however, if a person falls sick with swine flu, antiviral drugs can make the illness milder and make him feel better faster.

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS & VIDEOS>>> Snow is blanketing our region and we want to know what your hometown looks like.

Alrighty...three shows this week for production eats. Actually the first one was a movie that will be released sometime next year. Can't really say much about it. They had me sign one of those confidentiality forms. But the food was really good though. This was for a major studio, too. Here's some of the foods that was served.


For dessert. chocolate cake and a cookie that I saved. I didn't mid eat all that because I was pretty active the whole shoot, so I worked it off. hehehe...

Next was the sitcom Gary Unmarried. This show stars Jay Mohr and is a show on CBS. Sitcoms are a bit different from other shows as they are sometimes filmed in front of a live audience, so there quite a bit of waiting on this day. First off was a simple snack lunch. It was just enough to hold me down.

Top clockwise: Grilled breaded fish, wild rice, scalloped potatoes, and steamed veggies.

There was also some grill chicken and grilled beef but those were mostly gone, by the time I reach the food. The down side of being near the back of the line. Grrr... But I still enjoyed it. The fish was flaky and tender with no fishy taste.

A major snowstorm has hit Skåne in southern Sweden, blanketing roads and causing snow drifts, primarily in the Söderslätt area. Majors efforts are being taken to plough the roads, but the Swedish Road Administration (Vägverket) encourages drivers to stay off the roads on Sunday morning.

General manager Paul Holmgren says he wants to show patience before deciding if a major trade is needed to jump-start his underachieving team.

Levittown - Gusting winds and intensifying snowfall combined to make travel treacherous Saturday night, as road crews scrambled to keep major highways clear after as much as 20 inches of snow fell in the Philadelphia area.The National Weather Service predicted that as much as 21 inches of snow could fall in Philadelphia and southern and central New ...

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House Jobs, benefits spending. Voting 217-212, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 2847) to provide $74 billion to create or preserve publicly funded jobs in areas such as education, law enforcement, school and housing repairs, and highway, airport, and mass-t

One of the hardest parts of practicing medicine is not having good research to provide the advice you need. In the case I'll focus on, it's because drug companies kept the information from doctors.

Today's story is about pharmaceutical money, power and a duty to stockholders that is viewed as more important than the duty to promote the public's health.

Last week, reports came out questioning the effectiveness of the primary drug we use to treat H1N1 or swine flu. To be clear, I am not referring to the vaccine for the disease but rather to the medication used to treat the flu, a drug called oseltamivir and marketed by Roche under the trade name Tamiflu, with sales this year alone of more than $2 billion.

Governments and businesses have stockpiled Tamiflu because they believed that studies showed it reduced complications and hospital admissions in people infected with swine flu. They believed this because a well-publicized study showed that oseltamivir reduced the risk of pneumonia by one-third and of death by 90 percent.

However, last week, one of the most scholarly groups of doctors, the Cochrane Collaboration, reported in the British Medical Journal that the original study on oseltamivir had not been presented honestly. Furthermore, the study was never published in a medical journal, and the data on which it was based was never reviewed by independent researchers. We all just took the company's word that the drug worked.

The reason no one reviewed the study was that the company kept the data from the public. The study was funded by Roche, as were the 10 other studies on this drug – only two of which have been published in medical journals and all of which were written by Roche employees or their consultants – and they had no legal obligation to provide the medical community with the data, although they certainly had a moral obligation.

It now turns out that at best, Tamiflu may have only minimal benefit for most healthy people with the flu, shortening the course of a 10-day illness by 12 to 24 hours. Research now shows the drug also has serious side effects that have not been presented to doctors, such as effects on the central nervous system.

While it may seem that I am waffling a bit with words like "may" be effective and "could possibly" be harmful, it is because we still don't know the truth. The information has been kept secret. The problem is that we have a system where a drug is invented by a company and then tested by the same drug company (or by researchers paid by the drug companies). The company can select which data to report in support of its application for drug approval and which data to withhold. The medical community can't see the raw data or do its own analysis; all doctors see is the published summary in a medical journal.

What we need is an entirely new system of drug approvals – a national institute for drug evaluation – funded by drug companies but independently run by the National Institutes of Health, a government agency, with no company involvement from companies.

Then all research on drugs – positive, negative or otherwise – would be public, and it would be reported to the Food and Drug Administration, which would then use this to make approval decisions.

After the many reports were published in the BMJ, Roche agreed to make all data available (on a password-protected Web site), but isn't it a bit late now that stockpiles are filled and profits are made? Fiona Godlee, editor of the BMJ, says this entire fiasco calls into question "not only the effectiveness of oseltamivir but the whole system by which drugs are evaluated, regulated and promoted."

It is certainly high time we make some major changes in drug policy with the patient's best interest in mind.

Capoeira mestre Patrick Hilligan instructs students at his studio on Broadway.

They're captivating, those ubiquitous, action-packed capoeira videos circulating on YouTube. But they hardly do the activity justice.

So fluid is the movement among participants in this Afro-Brazilian melding of martial arts and dance, so syncopated the kicks and feints as they square off inside a circle of musicians pounding out percussive beats, that capoeira comes off as choreographed as anything the Alvin Ailey troupe might present.

All it takes, though, is one swift kick to the solar plexus to convince the uninitiated that the ancient discipline is not to be dismissed as mere dance spectacle.

Ask Patrick Hilligan, a capoeira mestre ("master" in Portuguese) and owner of the Move! Studio/Capoeira Agua de Beber on Broadway in Sacramento. Once, traveling in Brazil with an American capoeira contingent, Hilligan boldly stepped into a roda (circle) against a strapping Brazilian teenager.

"I thought I was pretty advanced at that point," recalls Hilligan, 38. "I'd been training for years. But this guy turned in a split second and kicked me so hard that it lifted me off my feet and threw me out of the circle."

That definitely wasn't choreographed.

"The two players are making it up as they go along, responding to each other's movements," Hilligan explains. "It only looks (choreographed) because it's happening so smoothly. Well, most of the time.

"Sometimes it might be a cooperative and playful situation with no contact. In other situations, it can be quite combative, using takedowns and blows."

But Hilligan is quick to add that capoeira is about far more than brute force. Other martial arts disciplines, such as Brazilian jujitsu, are available for those seeking self-defense or specific fighting skills.

Capoeira is, rather, a melding of music, dance, celebratory cultural rituals and acrobatics. As such, it draws people looking for alternatives to standard exercise and fitness routines.

You could practice capoeira for years and not experience much contact, if you want to avoid it. Or, like Hilligan, you can incorporate kicks, flips and takedowns, and get pretty physical.

"We do get an eclectic mix of people in here," he says. "We get musicians. We get former gymnasts and dancers. We get hard-core martial artists. A lot of them are drawn to the challenge.

"I won't say it's an easy activity that people will get right away. But that's part of the beauty of it. You can spend 20 years learning capoeira and still have lots to learn."

Many of the experienced capoeiristas spend five nights a week practicing their craft at the modest studio in the strip mall in lower Broadway.

Until last month, Agua de Beber (meaning "water to drink" in Portuguese) had been in the Del Paso neighborhood of North Sacramento for more than five years. But Hilligan was looking for a more centralized location and a bigger space that could accommodate classes in jujitsu, yoga and kinder-dance.

The official grand opening at the Broadway location will be Jan. 3, but classes have continued unabated during the move.

On a recent evening, Hilligan was still looking over paint samples to pick the right festive color. He had just hung some Afro-Brazilian artwork on the walls; other works were propped up on the floor next to a line of drums and other percussion instruments.

Once finished, the space promises to have a distinct Brazilian feel, Hilligan says. The vibe is important, he adds, to attract students and to enrich the cultural aspect of capoeira.

Two years into the sport, Michelle Wallace of Sacramento, 24, has become hooked on capoeira because of the physical challenge and cultural enrichment.

"Just running and doing crunches didn't work for me," she says. "I majored at Sac State in international intercultural communications. In this, not only do we learn a martial art, we learn Portuguese and the history of Afro-Brazilian culture."

Capoeira is, indeed, steeped in ritual.

It dates back at least 500 years. The origin is still debated, but the most widely accepted theory is that capoeira was developed by Africans enslaved by the Portuguese in Brazil as an undercover way of practicing fighting techniques under the ruse of dance.

Music plays a vital role in capoeira. Drums, berimbau (a bowlike, single-string instrument), pandeiro (tambourine) and agogo (a double-belled instrument) set the tone of those squaring off in the circle. Students take turns playing the instruments and singing in Portuguese.

A fast tempo leads to a frenetic confrontation featuring kicks, cartwheels, back bridges and other contortions. A slower song signals a more dance-oriented coupling, featuring kicks and feints, but little or no contact.

"It's kind of like a game of chess," Wallace says. "You want to be able to predict the next move your opponent will do, so that you can complete a takedown or move out of the way. It's hard to have the muscle memory to do that. I still need to develop that fluidity."

Michael Wood, 22, of Sacramento has been a capoeira student for just under a year. Though he still wrestles with capoeira's acrobatics, he says that through repetition one can achieve a sort of unconscious sense of what moves to make at any given moment.

"It gets ingrained in you," Wood says. "When you see a kick coming, you just know what to do. It's all an in-the-moment thing."

Hilligan, whose humor and unassuming persona belie the sagacious title of mestre, puts it this way:

"Creating this dialogue of movement, capoeira teaches you how to deal with the unexpected with control rather than with emotion. You can use that in real life."

Susie Pike of Davis, left, and Mario Hill of Elk Grove practice capoeira at Move! Studio to traditional musical accompaniment.

If you have questions about the practices of your managed-care coverage, ask the experts at the state Department of Managed Health Care.

I am undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. My doctor requested authorization from my health plan for a radiation procedure called Cyberknife, but his request and subsequent appeal were denied.

The Cyberknife procedure is a five-day treatment that involves carefully directed radiation, compared with the conventional treatment that lasts for up to six weeks and has devastating side effects.

Although my health plan says the clinical benefits of the Cyberknife procedure have not been proved, I do note that Medicare has allowed this procedure for years.

Time is of the essence, so anything you can do to expedite this would be appreciated.

– Anonymous

While a typical independent medical review, or IMR, will take up to 30 days to complete, if there is a serious and immediate threat to a consumer's health, a complaint can qualify for an expedited IMR, which should be resolved within three to seven days.

Based on the urgent nature of your condition and the requested treatment, the Department of Managed Health Care requested an expedited IMR.

The first step is for the medical reviewer panel to determine whether the Cyberknife treatment is considered experimental or investigational. If so, the reviewers would then determine whether the requested procedure would likely be more beneficial to you than any available standard therapy.

Two of the three reviewers found that in your situation, the Cyberknife treatment would be the most beneficial treatment for your condition because of the reduced treatment period. Consequently, they overturned the health plan's denial.

The DMHC adopted the majority decision and directed the plan to authorize the procedure for you.

Consumers who have questions about their health benefits can contact the DMHC Help Center for information or advice. Call (888) 466-2219 or visit www.healthhelp.ca.gov.