Rep. Jackson expects to be cleared in ethics probe (AP)

KANKAKEE, Ill. ? U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is predicting he'll be "vindicated" by an ethics investigation into whether he or someone on his behalf offered to raise funds for ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in return for an appointment to President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

"Let me be clear. I believe in the American system of justice," Jackson, a Democrat, said Saturday at a Kankakee County NAACP dinner. "The process is continuing, but in the end I believe I will be vindicated."

The House Ethics Committee announced earlier this month that it would resume a probe that began before Blagojevich's trial. The panel had agreed to abide by a Justice Department request to take no action in the investigation, which is normal practice when the department is concerned a congressional inquiry interferes with its own investigation.

Jackson, who has not been charged, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

The congressman has acknowledged he was "Senate Candidate A" in the Blagojevich criminal complaint, one of several candidates whom authorities say the former governor considered for the Senate seat.

In June, jurors at Blagojevich's retrial convicted him on 17 of 20 corruption counts, including trying to sell the Senate seat. He is awaiting sentencing. Related charges against his brother, Robert Blagojevich, were dropped after the first corruption trial last year.

Last week the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Robert Blagojevich, a Tennessee businessman, wants to testify before the House committee. He told the newspaper that he had written to committee members offering testimony and that Jackson needs to answer questions.

Trial witnesses have alleged Jackson supporters offered fundraising for the governor if Jackson became senator. Jackson testified at Blagojevich's retrial that he "never directed anyone to raise money for another politician."

Jackson is seeking re-election in the newly-drawn 2nd Congressional District.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_el_ho/us_jesse_jackson_jr

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Not All Women at Higher Risk in Families Carrying Breast Cancer Gene (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have a relative with breast cancer linked to the high-risk BRCA genetic mutation understandably worry about their own risk.

Now, a new study suggests that women who don't test positive for the mutations are not at an extremely high risk of getting breast cancer, even if they have a relative with BRCA-related breast cancer.

Their risk is similar to that of women with relatives with non-BRCA-related cancers, the new research indicates.

This refutes a finding from a 2007 study, which found a two- to five-times higher risk for these women, even if they tested negative for the mutations, said senior study author Dr. Alice S. Whittemore, a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Based on the new research, she said, the bottom line is this: "If you are in a family where there is a BRCA mutation and you do not have that mutation, your risk of breast cancer is no greater than anyone with a family history of [other types of] breast cancer."

According to the American Cancer Society, having one first-degree relative, such as a mother, sister or daughter, with breast cancer doubles a woman's risk of getting it. Having two close relatives increases the risk about threefold.

Whittemore calls the new finding "very, very reassuring" because it suggests that having a family history of the BRCA mutation, by itself, is not a risk factor, she said.

The study is published online Oct. 31 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Women with a BRCA1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation have a 5- to 20-fold higher risk of getting breast or ovarian cancer, the Stanford researchers wrote. That means a lifetime probability of up to 65 percent for breast cancer, and up to 40 percent for ovarian cancer.

Women who have the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and are cancer-free are urged to step up their screening and to begin it early, by age 25, among other measures. They may also consider a preventive mastectomy or ovary removal after childbearing is done.

However, the 2007 study, Whittemore said, "sent an alarm signal to the medical community" as it suggested a high risk even in BRCA-negative relatives.

After the study was published, she and her colleagues took a closer look. "What we thought to be the flaw was that they were comparing these relatives of women with breast cancer to the general population. A better comparison group would have been women who have relatives with breast cancer but no mutation," Whittemore said. "That's what we did."

The new study looked at 3,047 families from the United States, Australia and Canada. It included 160 families with BRCA1 and 132 with BRCA 2. The researchers compared cancer risk in women who tested negative but had relatives with BRCA-related breast cancer with a group of cancer-free women who had relatives with cancer that wasn't BRCA-related.

They found no increased risk for the women who were BRCA-negative and had close relatives with BRCA-related cancer.

In other words, Whittemore said, their risk is "no greater than anybody with a family history."

Besides BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, other risk factors, not totally understood, that can run in families also drive breast cancer risk, experts say. One example is drinking habits.

The findings suggest that BRCA-negative women can follow the same breast cancer screening routine as the general population, if they have no other strong risk factors, Whittemore said.

The findings should be reassuring to women without the mutation, agreed Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at the University of California's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The results do suggest that women in a family where BRCA-related breast cancer had occurred who themselves are negative for BRCA mutation may have a slightly increased risk "because there are other things that influence getting breast cancer besides having the gene mutation," she said.

"The main message," she said, "is that these women [without the mutation] don't need all that extra surveillance."

Testing for BRCA mutations requires a sample of blood or cells be taken from the mouth, said Rebecca Chambers, a spokeswoman for Myriad Genetics, which provides the test.

The samples can be collected at any lab and mailed in for analysis. The test costs $3,340, she said, but the average out-of -pocket cost is $100 after insurance coverage.

More information

For more on BRCA mutations, go to U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111031/hl_hsn/notallwomenathigherriskinfamiliescarryingbreastcancergene

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Taylor will be most effective Monroe DA (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

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ICC prosecutor in contact with Gaddafi's son over surrender (Reuters)

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) ? The International Criminal Court's prosecutor said Friday that his office was in "informal contact" with Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, through intermediaries regarding his surrender to the war crimes court.

"Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Saif. The office of the prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide," prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Sara Webb)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/wl_nm/us_libya

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Yeast model connects Alzheimer's disease risk and amyloid beta toxicity

Thursday, October 27, 2011
Using yeast cells, a team of Whitehead scientists in the lab of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist investigated the harmful effects of amyloid beta (A?), a peptide whose accumulation in amyloid plaques is a hallmark of AD. Work by the lab indicates that A? disrupts normal cellular trafficking, with clathrin-mediated endocytosis being specifically vulnerable. Under normal conditions, the membrane bound receptor Ste3 (green) is subject to clathrin-mediated endocytosis and is trafficked to the cell?s vacuole (left). In A? expressing yeast cells, Ste3 is not localized to the vacuole, but is dispersed in foci throughout the cell, indicating that endocytic trafficking is perturbed (center). Expression of the yeast homolog of PICALM, one of the most highly validated human AD risk factors, restores normal trafficking in A?-expressing yeast, and Ste3 is again localized in the vacuole (right). Credit: Courtesy of Science/AAAS

In a development that sheds new light on the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a team of Whitehead Institute scientists has identified connections between genetic risk factors for the disease and the effects of a peptide toxic to nerve cells in the brains of AD patients.

The scientists, working in and in collaboration with the lab of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist, established these previously unknown links in an unexpected way. They used a very simple cell type?yeast cells?to investigate the harmful effects of amyloid beta (A?), a peptide whose accumulation in amyloid plaques is a hallmark of AD. This new yeast model of A? toxicity, which they further validated in the worm C. elegans and in rat neurons, enables researchers to identify and test potential genetic modifiers of this toxicity.

"As we tackle other diseases and extend our lifetimes, Alzheimer's and related diseases will be the most devastating personal challenge for our families and one the most crushing burdens on our economy," says Lindquist, who is also a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "We have to try new approaches and find out-of the-box solutions."

In a multi-step process, the researchers were able to introduce the form of A? most closely associated with AD into yeast in a manner that mimics its presence in human cells. The resulting toxicity in yeast reflects aspects of the mechanism by which this protein damages neurons. This became clear when a screen of the yeast genome for genes that affect A? toxicity identified a dozen genes that have clear human homologs, including several that have previously been linked to AD risk by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) but with no known mechanistic connection.

With these genetic candidates in hand, the team set out to answer two key questions: Would the genes identified in yeast actually affect A? toxicity in neurons? And if so, how?

To address the first issue, in a collaboration with Guy Caldwell's lab at the University of Alabama, researchers created lines of C. elegans worms expressing the toxic form of A? specifically in a subset of neurons particularly vulnerable in AD. This resulted in an age-dependent loss of these neurons. Introducing the genes identified in the yeast that suppressed A? toxicity into the worms counteracted this toxicity. One of these modifiers is the homolog of PICALM, one of the most highly validated human AD risk factors. To address whether PICALM could also suppress A? toxicity in mammalian neurons, the group exposed cultured rat neurons to toxic A? species. Expressing PICALM in these neurons increased their survival.

The question of how these AD risk genes were actually impacting A? toxicity in neurons remained. The researchers had noted that many of the genes were associated with a key cellular protein-trafficking process known as endocytosis. This is the pathway that nerve cells use to move around the vital signaling molecules with which they connect circuits in the brain. They theorized that perhaps A? was doing its damage by disrupting this process. Returning to yeast, they discovered that, in fact, the trafficking of signaling molecules in yeast was adversely affected by A?. Here again, introducing genes identified as suppressors of A? toxicity helped restore proper functioning.

Much remains to be learned, but the work provides a new and promising avenue to explore the mechanisms of genes identified in studies of disease susceptibility.

"We now have the sequencing power to detect all these important disease risk alleles, but that doesn't tell us what they're actually doing, how they lead to disease," says Sebastian Treusch, a former graduate student in the Lindquist lab and now a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University.

Jessica Goodman, a postdoctoral fellow in the Lindquist lab, says the yeast model provides a link between genetic data and efforts to understand AD from the biochemical and neurological perspectives.

"Our yeast model bridges the gap between these two fields," Goodman adds. "It enables us to figure out the mechanisms of these risk factors which were previously unknown."

Members of the Lindquist lab intend to fully exploit the yeast model, using it to identify novel AD risk genes, perhaps in a first step to determining if identified genes have mutations in AD patient samples. The work will undoubtedly take the lab into uncharted territory.

###

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: http://www.wi.mit.edu/index.html

Thanks to Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research for this article.

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Irresponsible Romney: 'We Don't Know What's Causing Climate Change' (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The problem with politicians is that for far too many of them, science is subject to convenience. Take for example the words of former Massachusetts governor and the most likely GOP nominee for the 2012 presidential election.

According to the Huffington Post, Mitt Romney told a group of supporters at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh: "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us. My view with regards to energy policy is pretty straightforward: I want us to become energy secure and independent of the oil cartels."

Sometimes when I read a quote from a politician, I literally spit expletives at my computer screen. The fact is we do know what's causing climate change. To say otherwise is a blatant lie, aimed at a constituency that thinks absolutes can be fudged.

I will give you that Al Gore's plea to save the snows of Kilimanjaro is a bit weak. I've never been to Kilimanjaro, and if I ever go, I doubt the snow will be my favorite part of the experience. Gore appealed to outdoorsy people, but my idea of roughing it is a hotel where room service shuts down at 8 p.m. So for the climate change skeptics who say that Kilimanjaro's snow and the plight of polar bears is no big deal, let me just say this: Earth is the only planet we know how to live on.

If the scientists are wrong, we're out a few trillion dollars, but friends, if they're right, that's the ballgame. Oh, Earth will be fine. George Carlin was right. Earth will shake off our existence like a minor head cold. But I'm sort of fond of humanity. Climate change is happening now. It's threatening our existence now. Scientists aren't political, but politicians aren't immune from science. Neither are the rest of us. Mitt Romney is irresponsible. He should apologize and drop out. We deserve better.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111029/us_ac/10312861_irresponsible_romney_we_dont_know_whats_causing_climate_change

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From Page to Screen: Best Books Made Into Movies

From The Rum Diary to The Help, check out our picks for the best tomes to get the big-screen treatment.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/best-books-made-movies/1-b-331880?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Abest-books-made-movies-331880

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Internet responsible for 2 per cent of global energy usage

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Photo of the Day (Theagitator)

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Poll: Many boomers staying put amid bad economy (AP)

WASHINGTON ? As baby boomers look ahead to retirement, they'd prefer a home that is affordable, accessible to medical care and close to family. But an Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll finds that amid a shaky economy, few think it's likely they'll move in retirement.

Shelley Wernholm, a 47-year-old single mother of two who works for a health insurance company in Cleveland, said she wanted to retire and move to a new home by 60. But her pension was eliminated five years ago, her personal investments tanked during the recession and her home of 21 years has lost more than half of its value.

"I was hoping I'd be moving to a beach somewhere, anywhere, preferably a warm one," Wernholm said. "But I'm not moving. I can't. It's hard to remain optimistic."

The 77 million-strong generation born between 1946 and 1964 is increasingly worried about retirement and their finances amid the economic crisis of the past three years.

Just 9 percent say they are strongly convinced they'll be able to live comfortably in retirement.

Overall, about 6 in 10 baby boomers say their workplace retirement plans, personal investments or real estate lost value during the economic downturn. Of this group, 53 percent say they'll have to delay retirement because their nest eggs shrank.

Financial experts say those losses, including home prices that have dropped by a third nationwide over the past four years, have left boomers anxious about moving and selling their homes.

"There's a mistrust of the real estate market that we didn't have before," said Barbara Corcoran, a New York-based real estate consultant. "There's a concern about whether people will get money out of their house. They envision the home as a problem, not an asset, and this unshakable belief in homes as a tool for retirement has been shaken to the core."

Fifty-two percent of boomers say they are unlikely to move someplace new in retirement, unchanged from March. And 4 in 10 say they are very likely to stay in their current home throughout all of their retirement.

Older baby boomers are more apt to say they're already settled in for their golden years; 48 percent say it's extremely or very likely they'll stay in the home they live in now throughout their retirement, compared with 35 percent among younger boomers. The same is true of those who've lived in their current home for 20 or more years.

Midwestern and rural baby boomers also are more inclined to stay put.

Not surprisingly, higher-earning boomers who make more than $100,000 a year are more likely to buy a new home during retirement.

Why buy a new home? About 4 in 10 of those who say it's likely they'll buy a new home in retirement would prefer a smaller one. Other important considerations include being close to medical offices or hospitals (39 percent); a different, and perhaps warmer, climate (30 percent); a more affordable home (25 percent); and being closer to family (15 percent).

Just 8 percent of those surveyed are looking for a larger home and only 10 percent are searching for a city with more services.

John Fortune, a 60-year-old small business owner in Scotch Plains, N.J., outside Newark, said he'd ideally like to move in his retirement years. But he's unsure about the future and whether he'll have any money left over after putting three kids through college.

"I don't expect to fully retire," said Fortune, who runs a business that sharpens knives, tools and other cutlery. "It just depends on what happens to the economy. I'd like to find someplace that is warmer and doesn't have the high taxes but we'll just have to see."

Mothers were far more likely than fathers to say that living near their children was an important consideration in planning retirement housing.

When those kids have left the nest, baby boomer parents are most likely to have turned their children's rooms into a new guest bedroom, entertainment room or home office. Three out of 4 say they would prefer visiting friends and family stay with them instead of getting a hotel room.

Boomers are more deeply attuned to their retirement years than other age groups, and many say they'll keep working during retirement. A total of 73 percent of those polled said they would keep working, compared with 67 percent in March, a bigger percentage than any other generation.

Sherry Wise, a 53-year-old agricultural economist in Lorton, Va., a suburb of Washington, said she is worried she will have to work well into her 60s and beyond in order to continue paying her mortgage, keep up an investment property in New Mexico and look after her two daughters.

"The one thing I know is that you can't count on anything anymore. This economy has gotten so screwed up," Wise said. "We're just going to try to earn as much money as possible."

The AP-LifeGoesStrong.com poll was conducted Oct. 5-12 by Knowledge Networks of Palo Alto, Calif. The poll involved online interviews with 1,095 people born between 1946 and 1964, as well as companion interviews with an additional 315 adults of other age groups. The margin of sampling error for baby boomers was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Knowledge Networks used traditional telephone and mail sampling methods to randomly recruit respondents. People selected who had no Internet access were given it for free.

___

AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Questions and results: http://surveys.ap.org

Lifegoesstrong.com: http://home.lifegoesstrong.com/new-poll-reveals-midlifers-will-retire-close-home

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_re_us/us_aging_america_boomer_housing

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Daily Tip: How to get started with basic Siri commands

Brand new to iPhone 4S, heard all about Siri, but wondering how to get started? No problem! Here are the basic things that Siri can do for you, and the example commands to get Siri to do them. Everything has a learning curve and even...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/JtSn_CWWo0Q/

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Demise of Obama long-term care plan leaves gap

FILE - In this May 19, 2011, file photo, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius leaves a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Obama administration?s decision to pull the plug on a financially flawed long-term care insurance plan is likely to worsen a dilemma most middle-class families are totally unprepared for. "Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius told congressional leaders. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

FILE - In this May 19, 2011, file photo, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius leaves a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Obama administration?s decision to pull the plug on a financially flawed long-term care insurance plan is likely to worsen a dilemma most middle-class families are totally unprepared for. "Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius told congressional leaders. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It's the one major health expense for which nearly all Americans are uninsured. The dilemma of paying for long-term care is likely to worsen now that the Obama administration pulled the plug on a program seen as a first step.

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, or CLASS, was included in the health overhaul law to provide basic long-term care insurance at an affordable cost. But financial problems dogged it from the outset.

Those concerns prompted the administration to announce that CLASS would not go forward. Yet it could take a decade or longer for lawmakers to tackle the issue again, and by then the retirement of the Baby Boomers will be in full swing.

Most families don't plan for long-term care. Often the need comes unexpectedly: an elder takes a bad fall, a teen is calamitously injured in a car crash or a middle-aged worker suffers a debilitating stroke.

Nursing home charges can run more than $200 a day and a home health aide averages $450 a week, usually part-time. Yet Medicare doesn't cover long-term care, and only about 3 percent of adults have a private policy.

"Long-term care is a critical issue, and people are in total denial about it," said Bill Novelli, former CEO of AARP. "I am very sorry the administration did what they finally did, although I understand it. It is going to take a long time to get this back ? and fixed."

The irony, experts say, is that paying for long-term care is the kind of problem insurance should be able to solve. It has to do with the mathematics of risk.

Most drivers will have some kind of accident during their years behind the wheel, but few will be involved in a catastrophic wreck. And some very careful drivers will not experience any accidents. The risks of long-term care are not all that different, says economist Harriet Komisar of the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

"A small percentage of people are going to need a year, two years, five years or more in a nursing home, but for those who do, it's huge," Komisar said. "Insurance makes sense when the odds are small but the financial risk is potentially high and unaffordable."

Komisar and her colleagues estimate that nearly 7 in 10 people will need some level of long-term care after turning 65. That's defined as help with personal tasks such as getting dressed, going to the toilet, eating, or taking a bath.

Many of those who need help will get it from a family member. Only 5 percent will need five years or more in a nursing home. And 3 in 10 will not need any long-term care assistance at all.

For those who do need extended nursing home care, Medicaid has become the default provider, since Medicare only covers short-term stays for rehab. But Medicaid is for low-income people, so the disabled literally have to impoverish themselves to qualify, a wrenching experience for families.

Liberals say the answer is government-sponsored insurance, like the CLASS plan the Obama administration included in the health overhaul law, only to find it wouldn't work financially.

The administration was unable to reconcile twin goals of CLASS: financial solvency and affordable coverage easily accessible to all working adults, regardless of health.

Conservatives have called for private coverage, perhaps with tax credits to make it more affordable.

Some experts say it will take a combination of both approaches.

"It almost has to be," said Robert Yee, a financial actuary hired by the Obama administration to try to make CLASS work.

Lower-income workers probably would never be able to afford private insurance, Yee explained. And a lavish public plan is out of the question.

"Anytime people talk about a social program, you are talking about a basic layer," he said.

Indeed, Yee had proposed to keep CLASS afloat by using some of the techniques of private insurers to attract the healthy and discourage the frail. The administration rejected that hybrid approach as incompatible with the law's intent to cover all regardless of health.

"Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told congressional leaders.

Although CLASS would have come too late to help his disabled mother, Jacob Bockser of Walnut Creek, Calif., says he is disappointed.

Bockser, 29, is a former emergency medical technician studying to become a respiratory therapist. His mother Elizabeth, 58, is struggling with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis.

She had moved to lower-cost Washington state to save money, but as her condition worsens her son is trying to find a way to bring her back to California. She can still live in her own home, with help to keep safe.

"She did a lot of good saving. But because she did good, it disqualifies her from some kinds of public assistance," said the son. "When you are only 58 and looking at hopefully living another 20 or 25 years, it's scary to think the money just won't last."

Bockser says he doesn't expect the government to solve everything, but "even if there is the opportunity to try to piece together a couple of different programs that would be a start."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-24-Aging%20America-Long-Term%20Care%20Dilemma/id-f81df47289594c13962af8bd9b6e02bf

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The Pulse: Former Phila. colleagues remember Cain fondly (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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285 Indian girls shed 'unwanted' names

Girls hold certificates stating their new official names during a renaming ceremony in Satara, India, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. Almost 300 Indian girls known officially as "Unwanted" have traded their birth names for a fresh start in life. Given names like "Nakusa" or "Nakushi" _ or "unwanted" in Hindi _ they grew up understanding they were a burden in families that preferred boys in Maharashtra state. (AP Photo)

Girls hold certificates stating their new official names during a renaming ceremony in Satara, India, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. Almost 300 Indian girls known officially as "Unwanted" have traded their birth names for a fresh start in life. Given names like "Nakusa" or "Nakushi" _ or "unwanted" in Hindi _ they grew up understanding they were a burden in families that preferred boys in Maharashtra state. (AP Photo)

MUMBAI, India (AP) ? More than 200 Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi have chosen new names for a fresh start in life.

A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony Saturday that it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.

The 285 girls ? wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair ? lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.

In shedding names like "Nakusa" or "Nakushi," which mean "unwanted" in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars such as "Aishwarya" or Hindu goddesses like "Savitri." Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as "Vaishali," or "prosperous, beautiful and good."

"Now in school, my classmates and friends will be calling me this new name, and that makes me very happy," said a 15-year-old girl who had been named Nakusa by a grandfather disappointed by her birth. She chose the new name "Ashmita," which means "very tough" or "rock hard" in Hindi.

The plight of girls in India came to a focus after this year's census showed the nation's sex ratio had dropped over the past decade from 927 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6 to 914.

Maharashtra state's ratio is well below that, with just 883 girls for every 1,000 boys ? down from 913 a decade ago. In the district of Satara, it is even lower, at 881.

Such ratios are the result of abortions of female fetuses, or just sheer neglect leading to a higher death rate among girls. The problem is so serious in India that hospitals are legally banned from revealing the gender of an unborn fetus in order to prevent sex-selective abortions, though evidence suggests the information gets out.

Part of the reason Indians favor sons is the enormous expense of marrying off girls. Families often go into debt arranging marriages and paying for elaborate dowries. A boy, on the other hand, will one day bring home a bride and dowry. Hindu custom also dictates that only sons can light their parents' funeral pyres.

Over the years, and again now, efforts have been made to fight the discrimination.

"Nakusa is a very negative name as far as female discrimination is concerned," said Satara district health officer Dr. Bhagwan Pawar, who came up with the idea for the renaming ceremony.

Other incentives, announced by federal or state governments every few years, include free meals and free education to encourage people to take care of their girls, and even cash bonuses for families with girls who graduate from high school.

Activists say the name "unwanted," which is widely given to girls across India, gives them the feeling they are worthless and a burden.

"When the child thinks about it, you know, 'My mom, my dad, and all my relatives and society call me unwanted,' she will feel very bad and depressed," said Sudha Kankaria of the organization Save the Girl Child. But giving these girls new names is only the beginning, she said.

"We have to take care of the girls, their education and even financial and social security, or again the cycle is going to repeat," she said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-22-AS-India-Unwanted-Names/id-29ff1d54a16b4a179e6844bae6b8f45d

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Disney Reimagines Iconic Princesses for New Doll Collection

Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella and more get the toddler treatment

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/DXPNMjB4dh0/

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Jonathan Schienberg: Tunisia Elections: The Difficulties of Democracy (Huffington post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/151965090?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Over 30 percent of BlackBerry users in large companies plan to switch phones (Digital Trends)

According to a new study from?analyst firm?Enterprise Management Associates, more the 30 percent of?BlackBerry users at companies that employ more than?10,000 employees are planning to switch mobile platforms within the next twelve months. In the past, this segment of the business population has chosen the BlackBerry over other mobile platforms by 52 percent and the loss of this core segment will likely put a huge dent in BlackBerry sales. When asked if they were ?completely satisfied? with their choice of mobile phone, only 16 percent of the business users in the survey were happy with the BlackBerry. Adversely, approximately 44 percent of iPhone owners choose the ?completely satisfied? option.?

This survey was conducted before last week?s extremely large BlackBerry service outage that affected BlackBerry owners in multiple countries.?RIM?s market share of the mobile phone market has been gradually decreasing since the 2007 launch of the iPhone and appears to be?accelerating with continual releases or more devices using the Android and iOS operating systems. Between the July 1 through September 30, mobile?activations specific to smartphones were split by approximately 60 percent iOS devices and 40 percent Android devices. RIM recently started selling the ?BlackBerry 7 phones last month as well as the BlackBerry Bold.?

After the major service outage,?price comparison website Kelkoo conducted a study that found nearly 20 percent of all BlackBerry owners were planning on switching platforms very soon due to the service interruption. Another 42 percent were considering changing phones when their contract expired. According to a former employee of RIM, the service outage was caused by a faulty router which RIM identified as a ?core switch failure?. The outage lasted three days and over 70 million BlackBerry users suffered from outage problems. RIM suffered a similar outage in 2005, but only lasted for approximately three hours based on an official report from RIM.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111020/tc_digitaltrends/over30percentofblackberryusersinlargecompaniesplantoswitchphones

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Brazil doctors found guilty of killing patients (AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO ? A jury convicted three Brazilian doctors of killing four patients by removing their organs, which prosecutors said were used for transplants at an expensive private clinic.

Sao Paulo state Judge Marco Montemor sentenced doctors Rui Sacramento, Pedro Torrecillas and Mariano Fiore Junior to 17 years and six months each in prison.

Sacramento and Torrecillas were charged with murder after removing both kidneys from the patients and preparing the organs for transport. Fiore, a neurosurgeon, was charged as an accomplice for incorrectly declaring the patients brain dead and authorizing the harvest of their organs.

Another neurosurgeon who had been accused in the case, Antonio de Carvalho Monteiro, died last year.

Sacramento fainted when the sentence was read late Thursday, and family members of the victims who packed the court cried and hugged each other.

The case described by authorities as extremely complex took 25 years for a verdict to be handed down. Brazil's criminal justice system is notoriously slow and it isn't unusual for complicated cases to take years or even decades to work their way through the courts.

The case first emerged on Dec. 16, 1986, when the head of the University of Taubate's medical school realized an affiliated hospital had conducted a kidney transplant that he hadn't expected, said Sao Paulo state prosecutor Marcio Friggi de Carvalho.

Kalume looked up the records and exams connected to the transplant and found irregularities. He then investigated the team of doctors, and turned over the evidence he found to the Federal Counsel of Medicine, the agency that regulates and licenses medical doctors, Carvalho said.

Police took up the matter after the agency's investigation as the case made its way through Brazil's court system.

"They simply did not have the diagnosis of brain death," said Carvalho. "They opened people up, took out their kidneys, and sent them on."

Sergio Salgado Badaro, the defense attorney representing the doctors, had told the jury that convicting them would be a serious mistake and an injustice.

"If you convict them, you will be the first jury in the country to convict doctors for killing people who were already dead," he said in court.

Badaro also told reporters gathered outside the courtroom that his clients were not giving up: "I respect the jury's decision, but that doesn't mean I agree or that I'm not going to appeal."

Two organ recipients testified they paid up to $41,000 for the transplants with private doctors at a private clinic, and hadn't known the origin of their kidneys, Carvalho said.

The case didn't have a clear-cut connection to organ trafficking, since there was little documentation of the transactions, the prosecutor said. That's why the doctors were charged only in connection to the death of the patients, Carvalho said.

What is known is that the organs went from a public hospital, where transplants are free and waiting lists can be long, to an expensive private clinic serving patients who can pay out of their own pockets, court records show.

"You can't say there was the buying and selling of organs; there are no receipts," Carvalho said. "What we have is an informal, obscure context that is very problematic."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_organ_extraction

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Readers Respond to "The Bad Boy of Physics" and Other Articles

July 2011 Image:

TRIAGING TREATMENTS
The problems with the U.S. health care system described by Sharon Begley in ?The Best Medicine? are accurate. It is gratifying that the National Institutes of Health is finally willing to fund real comparative effectiveness research. But the NIH, under pressure from Congress, has been reluctant to fund studies directly comparing the costs of competing treatments. I retired from the medical research field in part because of this refusal to look for the most effective and least costly answers and to support research on how to reduce unnecessary care.

Why is serious cost control not a part of either political party?s health care ?reform? plans? To get elected, one must accept money from the very groups that require reform and regulation. Consequently, we get cosmetic reforms that never address the real issues that double the cost of health care. Instead reductions in care to the aged and poor are the preferred cost-control mechanisms. Until voters are freed from the election propaganda of special interests, the U.S. will continue to have the world?s most costly and least efficient health care system and the worst health care outcomes of any developed nation.
Thomas M. Vogt
Bountiful, Utah

BLEMISH OR BOON?
In ?Evolution of the Eye,? Trevor Lamb draws together multiple lines of evidence to create a persuasive narrative for the early evolution of the vertebrate eye. But is it fair to equate historical constraints with defects in describing how vertebrate photoreceptors are on the back of the ?inside-out? retina, shadowed by blood vessels and overlying cells? Has a possible advantage to this arrangement been ruled out?
Donald Robinson
Vancouver, B.C.

Lamb replies: There are indeed clear advantages that presumably led the eye vesicle to fold inward during evolution. This infolding put the photoreceptors in close proximity to the retinal pigment epithelium, enabling the biochemical recycling of retinoids following light absorption, the atten?uation of light that passes through the photoreceptors unabsorbed, and the delivery of oxygen and nutrients from the overlying choroid tissue. Other by-products of this infolding remain as ?scars? of evolution, however.

black holes REVISITED
In Peter Byrne?s interview with Leonard Susskind, ?The Bad Boy of Physics,? Susskind insists that reality may forever be beyond reach of our understanding, partly because of his principle of black hole complementarity, which holds that there is an inherent ambiguity in the fate of objects that fall into a black hole. From the object?s point of view, it passes the hole?s perimeter and is destroyed at the singularity at its center. To an external observer, it is incinerated at the event horizon. It seems clear that this apparent ambiguity stems from the fact that?according to general relativity?the passage of time differs for the object and observer.

What actually happens is that from the vantage point of the observer, the object appears ?frozen in time? when it arrives at the event horizon (and permanently disappears from view upon the horizon?s expansion). One should not conclude that the object?s fate is ambiguous. The event is merely observed in a different way depending on the observer?s frame of reference.
Anthony Tarallo
The Hague, the Netherlands

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=5e50960921a78b1d424d317316b6b09d

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Drake Has 'Good Taste,' A$AP Rocky Says After Co-Sign

New York MC is ready to take his music worldwide, in Mixtape Daily.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Steven Roberts

A$AP Rocky
Photo: MTV News

A$AP Rocky has been pegged as hip-hop's next big thing. That phrase might get attached to someone (e.g. Drake, Wiz Khalifa) or some group (see: OFWGKTA) every few months, but A$AP is the first "next big thing" to come out of New York in a while.

No offense to French Montana, Fred the Godson or anyone else, but very few up-and-coming New York rappers have garnered as much love on both hip-hop and alternative blogs. And they certainly haven't been featured in The New York Times -- especially with just a handful of songs.

When MTV News caught up with A$AP Rocky in New York's Lower East Side, he said he had his sights focused on bigger things than the Big Apple.

"I live here, and New York raised me, New York made me, so at the end of the day, it's all love for New York. But I appeal to everybody. I want to appeal to people in West Bumblef---, Germany," A$AP said. "That's what it's all about. I can appeal to anybody. Anybody that was raised in poverty, middle class, low middle class, day-to-day regular things, they can relegate to me, because I speak that trill sh--."

A$AP Rocky -- born Rakim Mayers -- said he started rapping at age 8 but didn't really start taking it seriously until his late teens/ early 20s. The Harlem MC said, at first, he didn't know if he was Kanye West, Kid Cudi or what, but once he found himself artistically, other people started to really appreciate his work.

He also credited his three main producers -- ASAP Ty Beats, SpaceGhostPurpp and Clams Casino -- with developing his sound. Ty Beats has produced Rocky's two most recognizable songs: "Purple Swag," a sizzurpy ode to Houston hip-hop, and the boastful, melodic "Peso." Clams Casino rose to fame producing for Lil B the Based God, and Miami's SpaceGhostPurpp, owner of hip-hop's best name, is the producer Rocky goes to for his "trill sh--."

"I think my sound is a sound that was inspired by all hip-hop from different regions, cultures [and] times," he said. "My sound is everything mixed into one. It's the future. Basically, you don't have to be limited anymore, and you can sound how you want to sound. That's natural for us."

"A$AP" is an acronym and almost a surname adopted by Rocky's crew, and he said it can mean a variety of things, from Always Strive and Prosper to Assassinating Snitches and Police, but Rocky liked Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose.

While most people wait on the release of his debut mixtape, Live. Love. A$AP, on Halloween, he's already been added to Drake's Club Paradise Tour. Rocky said he was honored by a co-sign, not only because it was Drake, but because he truly respected the Toronto MC.

"He's in a position to where if he co-signs somebody, it's valid, and he's a real lyricist, and he's got good taste. I mean, look at his music. Therefore, when he comes to listen to people like me and he gets inspired and then wants to take us out on tour, it just shows you he's a real dude."

Have you checked out A$AP Rocky yet? Share your thoughts on the new MC in the comments!

Related Artists

• Drake

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672877/drake-has-good-taste-aap-rocky-after-cosign.jhtml

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Greece to get next rescue loan batch from eurozone (AP)

BRUSSELS ? Eurozone finance ministers say Greece will get its next batch of aid money, likely by mid- November, saving the country from a potentially disastrous default.

The ministers said Friday that Greece would get the next euro8 billion ($11 billion) batch as long as the International Monetary Fund signs off on its part in coming weeks.

The ministers also said that they were working on a second rescue package for the debt-ridden country, which would include new aid money and contributions from the private sector.

They did not give details on the new package.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BRUSSELS (AP) ? A report by Greece's international creditors on the country's ability to repay its debt says Athens won't be able to raise money on financial markets until 2021, unless banks take steeper losses on their bondholdings.

A person familiar with the report says a deal reached with banks in July to give Greece easier terms on its bonds would leave it with a debt of 152 percent of economic output in 2020.

The person says the analysis includes a "more realistic" assessment of growth, privatizations and deficits.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity, because the report is confidential.

A German official said earlier that Berlin was now pushing for a new deal with Athens' private creditors that would reduce Greece's debt to some 120 percent of GDP by 2020.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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Tim Cook: Yeah, The iPad Is Eating Mac Sales? But It?s Probably Eating Way More PCs

Look out, Windows-based PCs: the iPad is gettin' ready to gobble you up. At least, so suggests Apple's newly settled CEO, Tim Cook. Early on in this afternoon's earnings call, Cook touched on the success of the iPad with a passing prediction, saying that he "still believe[s] it will be larger than the PC market" in the long run. Pushed on the matter a bit later ? or, more accurately, on whether or not the iPad would take a chunk of the Mac market, as well ? Cook dove deeper into what he meant.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Qkq3Dm1HW_w/

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ASUS' Jonney Shih unveils Transformer Prime Android tablet: 10-inch, 8.3mm, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3

Whoa, Nelly! ASUS head honcho Jonney Shih just revealed the "next-generation Transformer tablet" here at AsiaD! It's the same one that we saw teased just yesterday, and Jonney affirmed that it'll ship with a quad-core NVIDIA chip, 10-inch display, mini-HDMI port, a 14.5-hour battery, an SD card slot and a top lid that looks precisely like its Zenbook line. Oh, and it's 8.3mm thick, though Jonney didn't specify as to whether that was docked or undocked (we're guessing the former!). Naturally, it'll ship with Android, and we're assuming it'll be Honeycomb to start. That said, Shih did affirm to Walt Mossberg that he expects Ice Cream Sandwich to hit tablets by the end of the year -- "perhaps earlier." Finally, we were informed that it'll be called the Transformer Prime, and while a final ship date wasn't given, we're told to expect more news on that front during the November 9th "official reveal."

Gallery: ASUS' Jonney Shih unveils Transformer Prime Android tablet at AsiaD

ASUS' Jonney Shih unveils Transformer Prime Android tablet: 10-inch, 8.3mm, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/asus-jonney-shih-unveils-transformer-2-at-asiad/

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Spain downgrade ups pressure on EU to act (Reuters)

BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) ? A double-notch downgrade of Spain's credit rating has piled pressure on European leaders to make decisive progress on solving the region's debt crisis at an October 23 summit.

The blow from Moody's Investors Service came just a day after the agency warned France its triple-A rating could be at risk and as Greeks began their biggest strike in years in protest at a painful austerity drive designed to avert default.

Markets are counting down to a summit of EU leaders on Sunday which Paris has said will deliver a decisive outcome while Berlin has been more cautious.

The Spanish rating cut, which highlighted the threat of contagion from debt-stricken Greece, tempered a sharp rally in shares on Wall Street late on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that leaders would not solve the debt crisis at a single meeting.

"These sovereign debts have been built up over decades and therefore one cannot resolve them with one summit but it will take difficult, long-term work. Nonetheless, I do think we will also be able to take relevant, important decisions," she said.

The hope is that Sunday's summit will agree new steps to reduce Greece's debt, strengthen the capital of banks with exposure to troubled euro zone sovereigns and leverage the euro zone's rescue fund to prevent contagion to bigger economies.

Scotching a media report that said a deal had been struck between Paris and Berlin to scale up the European Financial Stability Facility by around 5 times to more than 2 trillion euros, a senior EU official said: "It's wrong."

A second source said: "It's naive to think you can make those calculations and come up with a nice round 2 trillion figure. It's not nearly as simple as that," he said.

The summit is likely to agree to leverage the bailout fund by allowing it to underwrite a portion of newly issued euro zone debt, officials have told Reuters. But the details are still being thrashed out.

"I think the models to make the EFSF more flexible need ... significantly more preparation," Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said.

By guaranteeing the first 20-30 percent of any losses, the EFSF could stretch three to five times further. With about 300 billion euros of its 440 billion-euro capacity still available, the fund could be expanded to more than 1 trillion euros, enough to support the refinancing needs of Spain and Italy for at least the next year or longer and ward off market attacks.

As well as trying to strengthen the rescue fund, euro zone leaders are racing to convince banks to accept "voluntary" writedowns of up to 50 percent on their Greek sovereign holdings and are trying to agree on a blueprint for recapitalizing financial institutions at risk from the deepening crisis.

Greece remains mired in recession and its overall debt is forecast to climb to 357 billion euros ($489 billion) this year, or 162 percent of annual economic output -- which few economists believe can be paid back.

SPANISH WARNING

Moody's cut Spain's bond rating to A1, from Aa2, the third of the major agencies to act in recent weeks and taking it a notch below the ratings of Standard & Poor's and Fitch.

The agency's reasoning may focus minds ahead of Sunday's summit, highlighting the lack of resolution to the currency bloc's crisis rather than particular Spanish policy shortcomings.

"Since placing the ratings under review in late July 2011, no credible resolution of the current sovereign debt crisis has emerged and it will in any event take time for confidence in the area's political cohesion and growth prospects to be fully restored," the agency said.

In a statement, Spain's Treasury said the downgrade reflected a short-term reaction to negative euro zone debt markets, rather than a change in medium and long term economic fundamentals, adding that the government remained committed to fiscal consolidation and reform.

While Europe's leaders rush to stop a larger writedown of Greek debt infecting others in the euro zone, for ordinary Greeks, the cuts demanded of their country in return for help means facing up to years of pain.

Greek unions began a 48-hour general strike, the biggest protest in years, as parliament prepares to vote on sweeping new austerity measures designed to stave off default.

The strike shut government departments, businesses, public services and even providers of everyday staples like shops and bakeries and will culminate in mass demonstrations outside parliament.

Prime Minister George Papandreou made a final appeal for support late on Tuesday, comparing the situation facing Greece to a war and telling deputies in the ruling PASOK party that it was their duty to support the tough new measures.

The austerity package mixes deep cuts to public sector pay and pensions, tax hikes, a suspension of sectoral pay accords and an end to the constitutional taboo against laying off civil servants.

A first vote, on the government's overall bill, will be held on Wednesday night, with a second vote on specific articles expected some time on Thursday. It is expected to pass even though Greece has sunk deeper into crisis, despite repeated doses of austerity.

"None of my colleagues, who have been through a lot lately, will risk letting the country fall from our hands and break, go bankrupt," Development Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis said.

($1 = 0.731 Euros)

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Maltezou in Athens and Michael Shields in Vienna; Writing by Mike Peacock/Wayne Cole; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111019/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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