Over the weekend one of my friends took to Facebook to ask a very good question. Her four-year-old daughter was going to run a lemonade stand, and my friend wanted suggestions ?to incorporate an element of giving into the project?. Which charity should the daughter start supporting with her lemonade-stand profits? There were some very good answers, but there was also one woman who suggested, of all things, breast cancer research.
The Facebook post appeared at roughly the same time as Peggy Orenstein?s excellent 6,600-word NYT Magazine cover story on the problems with the breast cancer industry. Orenstein concludes:
It has been four decades since the former first lady Betty Ford went public with her breast-cancer diagnosis, shattering the stigma of the disease. It has been three decades since the founding of Komen. Two decades since the introduction of the pink ribbon. Yet all that well-meaning awareness has ultimately made women less conscious of the facts: obscuring the limits of screening, conflating risk with disease, compromising our decisions about health care, celebrating ?cancer survivors? who may have never required treating. And ultimately, it has come at the expense of those whose lives are most at risk.
There are broader lessons to be learned from what we?re seeing in the world of breast cancer.
Firstly, Americans are bad at statistics. When it comes to breast cancer, they massively overestimate the probability that early diagnosis and treatment will lead to a cure, while they also massively underestimate the probability that an undetected cancer will turn out to be harmless. They?re bad at pathology: they?re easily convinced that something called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a form of cancer, for instance, partly because the cancer industry insists on referring to it as ?Stage Zero? cancer. They?re bad at biology: they think that it?s physics, basically, and that cancers are discrete, localized growths which start small and get bigger, and that the earlier you find and treat them, in large part by physically cutting them out of the body, the more likely you are to be cured.
But bigger than all of these is the fact that Americans are loving, compassionate people who really want to think that they can help, or make a difference. So they wear pink t-shirts, and ribbons, and football cleats; they spread the word in the name of ?awareness?; they file up in their millions for mammograms and encourage everybody else to do so as well. (?If you haven?t had a mammogram, you need more than your breasts examined.?)
Orenstein does a good job of glossing the unpleasant consequences of such actions. Money which could be put to research into treating metastatic cancer ? the kind of cancer which kills you ? is instead put overwhelmingly into ?awareness? campaigns and mammograms. There?s an epidemic of overtreatment, which carries massive physical, psychological, and economic costs. (And even attempting to measure such costs is considered almost treasonous in the cancer community.) More recently, the pink wave has spread to teenage girls, who are being educated, as Orenstein says, ?to be aware of their breasts as precancerous organs?.
When a loved one dies of breast cancer, we all want to feel that there?s something we can do, some way we can help, some possibility that might prevent other people going through the same thing. The urge which causes people to donate to the Red Cross when there?s a big natural disaster? Is very similar to the urge which causes people to donate to the Susan G Komen Foundation when they have a nasty run-in with breast cancer.
But there are much better places to send your money than Komen. In a follow-up blog post, Orenstein points to Breast Cancer Action as one of them. It doesn?t have the feel-good aura that Komen does, and it?s unabashedly political. But it?s passionate, it?s reality-based, it doesn?t hide the people who are dying of breast cancer, and it doesn?t pretend that we have a way of stopping that from happening.
There are lots of reasons why people give to charity, and there are lots of reasons why some charities grow into Komen-sized behemoths while others stay small. But scientists and policymakers shouldn?t give especial weight to big charities just because they?re big, and physicians shouldn?t fall into line behind the cancer industry?s talking points unless those talking points have a solid scientific basis.
More generally, it behooves all of us to be a bit more critical of our intuitions. The Komen Foundation has become a spectacular success by playing to Americans? fallacious intuitions, rather than trying to gently correct them. That?s depressing. Especially when so many lives are at stake.
Those who lost their limbs in the Boston Marathon bombing are finding support among military veterans who have gone through similar things, NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Lester Holt writes
with Kim Cornett and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News
Boston Marathon spectators who lost limbs in the bombings stand to benefit from years of advances in prosthetic medicine made at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Calvin Todd, 26, is among those who have discovered a new life with the help of doctors at Walter Reed. The army medic was on foot patrol in Afghanistan in October 2012 when he stepped on an explosive.
?I stepped on a secondary and lost my lower left leg,? Todd said of the injury, which years ago might have immobilized him for good.
He is one of nearly 1,600 service members to lose limbs in combat since the start of the war in Afghanistan. Six months after his injury, Todd said he is ?almost back to new,? and has even started running and playing lacrosse again.
??I?ve got numerous prosthetics,? Todd said. ?I?ve probably got four or five different feet for different activities. I got one for ice skating. I got a running leg. You know, my everyday foot. I got a foot for hiking.?
The traumatic battlefield injuries sustained by troops on the frontlines have helped change the future for all amputees, doctors at Walter Reed said.
?We have plenty of examples from our injured service members who have not only survived, you know, extraordinary blast injuries but have thrived from them,? said Col. Paul Pasquina, chair of the center?s department of rehabilitation medicine. ?And there?s no reason to think that the victims in Boston won?t do the same.?
Whether it is bionic hands, knees, ankles, or feet, the advances at Walter Reed have been born of a decade of brutal conflict in which explosions have claimed lives and mangled limbs. While recovery often remains a painful process, the prospect for patients who have lost arms or legs is better than ever.
?While there have been significant advances in rehabilitation medicine and prosthetic technology over the last decade, that?s not to say recovery from a major limb loss is not extremely challenging, but there?s great hope,? Pasquina said. ?And people are now able to achieve things that they weren?t able to achieve in the past.?
Among those who have overcome seemingly insuperable odds is Travis Mills, one of five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A service member in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mills was on a walking patrol on April 10, 2012, when an improvised explosive device went off as he stopped for a break.
?I sat in the wrong spot,? Mills said. ?And an IED went off.?
It was Mills? third tour in Afghanistan. He had a wife and baby daughter not even a year old at home. Now he can help the 18-month-old girl brush her teeth in the morning.
?My daughter, that?s my biggest support,? Mills said. ?The biggest thing I work for is to go every day to get better so I can be the best dad I can be for her.?
The cost of prosthetics can run from a few thousand dollars to an estimated tens of thousands and beyond. And while it?s unclear whether insurance will cover these types of prosthetics for the marathon victims, they have more options than ever.
?I?m very fortunate that the research that has been done has benefited myself due to my injuries,? Mills said. ?I know that I would?ve got hurt like I did 10 years ago ? I probably wouldn?t have made it off the battlefield.?
Whether the injured come from battlefields halfway around the world or a sidewalk on Boylston Street, traumatic wounds are often accompanied by deeper scars, said Dr. Harold Wain, chief of Walter Reed?s psychiatry consultation liaison service.
?They need to have a good perspective of who they are. They can feel good about themselves. They have to accept themselves,? Wain said.
?We?re constantly learning. There are new advances going on in prosthetics, in treatment, in medications,? Wain said. ?The goal is to get them back as whole, as quickly as possible, and to reinforce them for their assets rather than just looking at their liabilities.?
For Calvin Todd, he only needs to look to his side for inspiration. While the landscape of Afghanistan is a long way from Massachusetts, this war veteran knows what the Boston victims have to overcome and what they have to look forward to.
?There?s a lot you can do. The sky?s the limit,? Todd said. ?You can do anything you want to do, just work for it."
You know, there's nothing quite like finding the perfect writing instrument. It's a wordsmith's holy grail of sorts. And we love these elegant new pens from Japanese brand Miidori.
Contact: Mike Williams mikewilliams@rice.edu 713-348-6728 Rice University
Rice University researchers say discovery may point toward self-healing materials
HOUSTON (April 29, 2013) Squeeze a piece of silicone and it quickly returns to its original shape, as squishy as ever. But scientists at Rice University have discovered that the liquid crystal phase of silicone becomes 90 percent stiffer when silicone is gently and repeatedly compressed. Their research could lead to new strategies for self-healing materials or biocompatible materials that mimic human tissues.
A paper on the research appeared this month in Nature's online journal Nature Communications.
Silicone in its liquid crystal phase is somewhere between a solid and liquid state, which makes it very handy for many things. So Rice polymer scientist Rafael Verduzco was intrigued to see a material he thought he knew well perform in a way he didn't expect. "I was really surprised to find out, when my student did these measurements, that it became stiffer," he said. "In fact, I didn't believe him at first."
The researchers had intended to quantify results seen a few years ago by former Rice graduate student Brent Carey, who subjected a nanotube-infused polymer to a process called repetitive dynamic compression. An astounding 3.5 million compressions (five per second) over a week toughened the material, just like muscles after a workout, by 12 percent. What Verduzco and lead author/Rice graduate student Aditya Agrawal came across was a material that shows an even stronger effect. They had originally planned to study liquid crystal silicone/nanotube composites similar to what Carey tested, but decided to look at liquid crystal silicones without the nanotubes first. "It's always better to start simple," Verduzco said.
Silicones are made of long, flexible chains that are entangled and knotted together like a bowl of spaghetti. In conventional silicones the chains are randomly oriented, but the group studied a special type of silicone known as a liquid crystal elastomer. In these materials, the chains organize themselves into rod-shaped coils. When the material was compressed statically, like squeezing a piece of Jell-O or stretching a rubber band, it snapped right back into its original shape. The entanglements and knots between chains prevent it from changing shape. But when dynamically compressed for 16 hours, the silicone held its new shape for weeks and, surprisingly, was much stiffer than the original material.
"The molecules in a liquid crystal elastomer are like rods that want to point in a particular direction," Verduzco said. "In the starting sample, the rods are randomly oriented, but when the material is deformed, they rotate and eventually end up pointing in the same direction. This is what gives rise to the stiffening. It's surprising that by a relatively gentle but repetitive compression, you can work out all the entanglements and knots to end up with a sample where all the polymer rods are aligned."
Before testing, the researchers chemically attached liquid crystal molecules similar to those used in LCD displays -- to the silicones. While they couldn't see the rods, X-ray diffraction images showed that the side groups and thus the rods had aligned under compression. "They're always coupled. If the side group orients in one direction, the polymer chain wants to follow it. Or vice versa," Verduzco said.
The X-rays also showed that samples heated to 70 degrees Celsius slipped out of the liquid crystal phase and did not stiffen, Verduzco said. The stiffening effect is reversible, he said, as heating and cooling a stiffened sample will allow it to relax back into its original state within hours.
Verduzco plans to compress silicones in another phase, called smectic, in which the polymer rods align in layers. "People have been wanting to use these in displays, but they're very hard to align. A repetitive compression may be a simple way to get around this challenge," he said.
Since silicones are biocompatible, they can also be used for tissue engineering. Soft tissues in the body like cartilage need to maintain strength under repeated compression and deformation, and liquid crystal elastomers exhibit similar durability, he said.
###
The paper's co-authors include Carey, a Rice alumnus and now a scientist at Owens Corning; graduate student Alin Chipara; Yousif Shamoo, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology; Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering; and Walter Chapman, the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, all of Rice; and Prabir Patra, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Bridgeport with a research appointment at Rice. Verduzco is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
The research was supported by an IBB Hamill Innovations Grant, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Read the abstract at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2772.html.
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2013/04/29/silicone-liquid-crystal-stiffens-with-repeated-compression-2/
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
A liquid crystal sample like this one, seen under a microscope, gets tougher when repeatedly compressed, according to research at Rice University. (Credit: Verduzco Laboratory/Rice University)
Rice University researchers show a small sample of liquid crystal silicone that has been drastically toughened through repeated compression. From left: Walter Chapman, Aditya Agrawal, Pulickel Ajayan and Rafael Verduzco. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
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Contact: Mike Williams mikewilliams@rice.edu 713-348-6728 Rice University
Rice University researchers say discovery may point toward self-healing materials
HOUSTON (April 29, 2013) Squeeze a piece of silicone and it quickly returns to its original shape, as squishy as ever. But scientists at Rice University have discovered that the liquid crystal phase of silicone becomes 90 percent stiffer when silicone is gently and repeatedly compressed. Their research could lead to new strategies for self-healing materials or biocompatible materials that mimic human tissues.
A paper on the research appeared this month in Nature's online journal Nature Communications.
Silicone in its liquid crystal phase is somewhere between a solid and liquid state, which makes it very handy for many things. So Rice polymer scientist Rafael Verduzco was intrigued to see a material he thought he knew well perform in a way he didn't expect. "I was really surprised to find out, when my student did these measurements, that it became stiffer," he said. "In fact, I didn't believe him at first."
The researchers had intended to quantify results seen a few years ago by former Rice graduate student Brent Carey, who subjected a nanotube-infused polymer to a process called repetitive dynamic compression. An astounding 3.5 million compressions (five per second) over a week toughened the material, just like muscles after a workout, by 12 percent. What Verduzco and lead author/Rice graduate student Aditya Agrawal came across was a material that shows an even stronger effect. They had originally planned to study liquid crystal silicone/nanotube composites similar to what Carey tested, but decided to look at liquid crystal silicones without the nanotubes first. "It's always better to start simple," Verduzco said.
Silicones are made of long, flexible chains that are entangled and knotted together like a bowl of spaghetti. In conventional silicones the chains are randomly oriented, but the group studied a special type of silicone known as a liquid crystal elastomer. In these materials, the chains organize themselves into rod-shaped coils. When the material was compressed statically, like squeezing a piece of Jell-O or stretching a rubber band, it snapped right back into its original shape. The entanglements and knots between chains prevent it from changing shape. But when dynamically compressed for 16 hours, the silicone held its new shape for weeks and, surprisingly, was much stiffer than the original material.
"The molecules in a liquid crystal elastomer are like rods that want to point in a particular direction," Verduzco said. "In the starting sample, the rods are randomly oriented, but when the material is deformed, they rotate and eventually end up pointing in the same direction. This is what gives rise to the stiffening. It's surprising that by a relatively gentle but repetitive compression, you can work out all the entanglements and knots to end up with a sample where all the polymer rods are aligned."
Before testing, the researchers chemically attached liquid crystal molecules similar to those used in LCD displays -- to the silicones. While they couldn't see the rods, X-ray diffraction images showed that the side groups and thus the rods had aligned under compression. "They're always coupled. If the side group orients in one direction, the polymer chain wants to follow it. Or vice versa," Verduzco said.
The X-rays also showed that samples heated to 70 degrees Celsius slipped out of the liquid crystal phase and did not stiffen, Verduzco said. The stiffening effect is reversible, he said, as heating and cooling a stiffened sample will allow it to relax back into its original state within hours.
Verduzco plans to compress silicones in another phase, called smectic, in which the polymer rods align in layers. "People have been wanting to use these in displays, but they're very hard to align. A repetitive compression may be a simple way to get around this challenge," he said.
Since silicones are biocompatible, they can also be used for tissue engineering. Soft tissues in the body like cartilage need to maintain strength under repeated compression and deformation, and liquid crystal elastomers exhibit similar durability, he said.
###
The paper's co-authors include Carey, a Rice alumnus and now a scientist at Owens Corning; graduate student Alin Chipara; Yousif Shamoo, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology; Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering; and Walter Chapman, the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, all of Rice; and Prabir Patra, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Bridgeport with a research appointment at Rice. Verduzco is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
The research was supported by an IBB Hamill Innovations Grant, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Read the abstract at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2772.html.
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2013/04/29/silicone-liquid-crystal-stiffens-with-repeated-compression-2/
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
A liquid crystal sample like this one, seen under a microscope, gets tougher when repeatedly compressed, according to research at Rice University. (Credit: Verduzco Laboratory/Rice University)
Rice University researchers show a small sample of liquid crystal silicone that has been drastically toughened through repeated compression. From left: Walter Chapman, Aditya Agrawal, Pulickel Ajayan and Rafael Verduzco. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Earlier this week, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) reintroduced ?The Broadband Adoption Act of 2013? (H.R. 1685) to propose reforms and modernization to the nation?s telecommunications federal Lifeline Program. Bill co-sponsors include Ranking Members Henry Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Reps. Diana DeGette (CO), Zoe Lofgren (CA), Jan Schakowsky (IL), G.K. Butterfield, (NC) and Ben Ray Lujan (NM).
Photo: http://matsui.house.gov
In remarks today at a hearing entitled ?The Lifeline Fund: Money Well Spent?? of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, Rep. Matsui emphasized that the history of the Lifeline Fund shows bipartisan support, with creation of the fund in the Reagan administration and expanded for wireless services by the Bush administration. She said that in her Sacramento, California district, nearly 30,000 of her constituents participate in the Lifeline program, 17,000 of which are seniors living on a fixed income.
?The Lifeline program must be reformed and modernized in a responsible manner, and it must account for the Internet Economy,? Matsui stated. ?Nearly 100 million Americans still have not adopted broadband, which is more concerning given more than 80 percent of available jobs in this country now require online applications.?
She said her bill allows eligible Americans in rural and urban communities to use Lifeline program for broadband Internet services, and not just voice services. The bill also requires the FCC to implement a national eligibility data base to ensure only one Lifeline per eligible household, to avoid waste, fraud and abuse of the program. Lifeline is funded by surcharges in federal communications services.
The bill gives the FCC 270 days after date of enactment to adopt a final rule establishing Lifeline program support for broadband that enables qualifying low income customers living in urban and rural areas to purchase broadband service at reduced charges by reimbursing providers who elect to participate in the program. The customer can elect to apply support from the Lifeline program to basic telephone service, voice telephony service or broadband service, whether each service is purchased stand-alone or in a bundle.
The bill directs the FCC should consider a preference to participating broadband providers who provide digital literacy programs as part of their offerings. The FCC is asked to consult with the Federal-State Joint Board whether state matching funds may be provided as a condition of eligibility for low income households within a particular state. The bill directs the FCC is to routinely study the prevailing market price for broadband service and prevailing speeds of broadband service adopted by households. The program is to be technology neutral; a provider need not be an ?eligible telecommunications carrier? to receive support under the program but should be FCC authorized to participate.
The Broadband Adoption Act drew supporting public statements by two FCC Commissioners, Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Last year, the FCC rolled out a pilot program to add broadband access to Lifeline?s support for landline and mobile phones. The new legislation would make broadband a permanent offering.
?I commend Congresswoman Matsui for her continued leadership on ensuring that low income Americans have access to broadband by addressing one of the key barriers to adoption ? cost,? commented Chairman Genachowski in a written statement. ?[T]ransitioning Lifeline support to 21st century communications is vital: today, broadband is essential for finding jobs, allowing children to do their homework, communicating in times of emergency and accessing vital health information.?
In her statement, Commissioner Clyburn emphasized that the FCC?s Lifeline reforms have led to significant savings of $200 million, which may grow to $400 million this year. She stated that ?expanding broadband service to low income consumers would be a boon for the nation with this savings.?
About Rachelle Chong
Rachelle Chong is a nationally known expert on telecommunications, broadband, wireless communications, cable, digital literacy, public safety communications, renewable energy and smart grid policy. She is a former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (Clinton appointee) and the California Public Utilities Commission (Schwarzenegger appointee). Prior to that, she has been Vice President, Government Affairs for Comcast California Region, Special Counsel for the CA Technology Agency, a partner at two international law firms (Graham & James and Coudert Brothers), and an entrepreneur. Rachelle is delighted to brush off her Journalism degree from Cal Berkeley, and serve as a columnist for Techwire, focusing on federal policies and the San Francisco and Silicon Valley tech/telecom beats.
LONDON (Reuters) - Five years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the world economy is in such a chronic condition that the European Central Bank might cut interest rates this week and the Federal Reserve is likely to indicate no let-up in the stimulus it is providing the U.S. economy. With the euro zone economy in recession, momentum is building for the ECB to lower interest rates for the first time since July 2012, according to senior sources involved in the deliberations.
Deutsche Bank has "zero tolerance" for tax evaders: CEO
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has "zero tolerance" for customers seeking to evade taxes by holding assets in foreign accounts managed by the lender, Co-Chief Executive Juergen Fitschen told German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "Tax evasion is a crime," Fitschen said in an interview. "It's unacceptable."
Japan's ANA takes its first 787 back into the air since grounding
TOKYO (Reuters) - All Nippon Airways , the Japanese launch customer for Boeing Co's 787, flew its first Dreamliner in more than three months on Sunday to test reinforced batteries installed by the U.S. aircraft maker. The ANA flight was the second by an airline since aviation regulators on Friday gave permission for 787 operations to restart after batteries on two of them overheated in mid January. One was on an ANA plane in Japan and another on a Japan Airlines jet parked at Boston's Logan airport.
Zames' star ascends in latest JPMorgan shakeup
NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Sunday Matt Zames will fully assume the role of chief operating officer as his former partner in the job leaves, which was part of the latest management shakeup at the biggest U.S. bank. Zames, who has been seen as a strong candidate to succeed the bank's Chief Executive and Chairman Jamie Dimon, had been co-chief operating officer with Frank Bisignano, the New York-based bank said in a statement.
U.S. Steel locks out workers at Lake Erie in Canada: union
TORONTO (Reuters) - United States Steel Corp has locked out all unionized employees at its Lake Erie works in Canada, the United Steelworkers union said on Sunday. The move, part of a contract dispute, affects nearly 1,000 workers at the Nanticoke, Ontario plant, which produced about 10 percent of U.S. Steel's raw steel output in 2012.
Earnings beating forecasts but jury's out on rest of season
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies have easily beaten expectations for first-quarter earnings so far in the reporting season, but nearly half of the members of the S&P 500 are yet to announce results and they are unlikely to be as robust. With results in from 271 of the S&P 500 companies, year-over-year earnings growth is projected at 3.9 percent, compared with a forecast for 1.5 percent growth at the start of the earnings season, Thomson Reuters data shows. That figure includes those that have reported and analyst estimates for those who have not.
Abu Dhabi plans financial free zone, may resemble Dubai
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi is putting finishing touches to plans to establish a financial free zone that could resemble, and therefore compete with, the Dubai International Financial Centre, sources familiar with the matter said. A federal decree was passed by the United Arab Emirates' President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in February to create the area, known as the Abu Dhabi World Financial Market, on Al Maryah island, the sources told Reuters.
Dell investors may still gain after Blackstone pullout: Barron's
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dell shareholders could still stand to profit even after Blackstone Group LP withdrew its bid to buy the world's No. 3 personal computer maker more than a week ago, Barron's said on Sunday. On April 19, Blackstone's move knocked Dell shares to a two-month low and narrowed the fight for Dell between activist investor Carl Icahn and the company's founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, the newspaper said.
Analysis: China's 4G bonanza to shake up mobile gear vendor market
STOCKHOLM/PARIS (Reuters) - Chinese telecom operators will start awarding contracts for super-fast mobile networks this year, kicking off the third wave of a global investment cycle that is reshaping the competitive landscape among telecom equipment makers. China, the world's biggest mobile market with 1.1 billion subscribers, is likely to further alter the picture at the expense of European suppliers by giving a huge boost to Huawei and its smaller Chinese rival ZTE .
Italian court rejects Nomura seizure order: sources
SIENA, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian judge has rejected an order to seize around 1.8 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of assets from Nomura as part of a probe into suspected fraud involving troubled lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena , legal sources said on Saturday. Assets worth 140 million euros that were already seized from the Japanese bank have been released under the judge's ruling, which was made on Friday, the judicial source said.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) ? In the new translation of "Star Wars," Darth Vader is Luke's bizhe'e.
The classic 1977 film that launched a science fiction empire and revealed the force within a farm boy who battles evil has been dubbed in Japanese, French, Spanish and about a dozen other languages. Add Navajo to the list.
Manuelito Wheeler, the director of the Navajo Nation Museum who reached out to Lucasfilm Ltd. with the idea, has a very good feeling about this. He sees it as entertaining, educational and a way to preserve the Navajo language at a time when fewer tribal members are speaking it.
"That's the beauty of what we're doing; we're teaching Navajo language to anybody who wants to learn the Navajo language," Wheeler said. "I find that very rewarding and somewhat ironic. We went from a country that wanted to limit our language, to the Navajo language saving our country through Code Talkers, to our language being part of a major motion picture."
Native languages on the big screen are a rarity. Independent films and documentaries at film festivals have been in the tongue of American Indian tribes. Yet it's far less common to see it done in mainstream movies and shown in commercial theaters. "Bambi" was dubbed in the Arapaho language, and the cartoon series "The Berenstain Bears" was translated into the Dakota and Lakota languages.
"There's a little bit of precedent but nothing like 'Star Wars' in the Navajo language," said Michael Smith, director of the American Indian Film Institute and a member of the Sioux Tribe of Montana.
A team of five Navajo speakers spent 36 hours translating the script for "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope," and now they're looking for fluent Navajo speakers to fill some two dozen roles. Casting calls are scheduled Monday in Burbank, Calif., and May 3 and 4 ? the unofficial "Star Wars" holiday ? at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Ariz.
Potential actors shouldn't worry if they don't sound exactly like Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker or Han Solo, only that they have Princess Leia's spunk and fire or Han Solo's daring, bad-boy-next-door attitude. Chewbacca and R2D2 will keep the language they speak in the Navajo version, and technical effects will be applied to Darth Vader and C-3PO so they sound like the originals, said Shana Priesz, senior director of localization for Deluxe, the studio overseeing the dubbing.
"Having the voice match isn't as much as I want someone who can deliver the lines," she said.
Wheeler and William Nakai, one of the translators, declined to say how some catch phrases or sci-fi jargon in the movie might carry over into Navajo. But Laura Tohe, a fluent Navajo speaker and English professor at Arizona State University said the translation process could have been similar to what Navajo Code Talkers did in coming up with communication that confounded the Japanese during World War II.
The Code Talkers recruited from the Navajo Nation were unfamiliar with things like grenades, observation planes, tanks and dive-bombers. So they thought of something on the reservation that had similar qualities. Grenades became potatoes, observation planes became owls, tanks became tortoises and so on.
"May the force be with you," might translate into "may you walk with great power," or "may you have the power within you," she said. It also might include a reference to mountains, which are a source of strength for the Navajo people.
Galaxies, stars and outer space are not far off concepts for Navajos, who sometimes base ceremonies on moon phases and constellations, Tohe said. Those words would translate directly.
"The Navajo people, like all indigenous tribes, were very observant of not only the world around them but the stars and constellations," she said. "I associate that with science fiction in a lot of ways. I think they would be well aware of it in "Star Wars," it takes place up in the heavens."
The first opportunity to see the film in Navajo will be during the tribe's Fourth of July activities in Window Rock and later in the year during the Navajo Nation Fair. Wheeler said he then plans to take it on tour across the reservation, which stretches into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, and metropolitan areas with large Navajo populations at no cost to viewers. The Navajo Parks and Recreation Department is funding the project but wouldn't say how much it costs.
Anyone who doesn't understand Navajo can read English subtitles on the film as another tool to learn the language, Priesz said. More people ? nearly 170,000 ? speak Navajo at home than any other American Indian language, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but it is being lost upon younger generations.
"You could have a grandmother that speaks Navajo, and she understands it but is sitting there with her grandson who doesn't speak Navajo," Priesz said. "He could be reading it, so they both can enjoy it."
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite dietary supplements being popular among prostate cancer patients, a new review of past research says they are not effective treatments for the disease.
Pulling together data from eight randomized controlled trials - considered the gold standard of medical research, researchers found non-herbal dietary supplements and vitamins didn't significantly change the severity of people's cancers.
"The main message would be that no miraculous supplement for (prostate cancer) exists," wrote Dr. Paul Posadzki, the review's lead author from the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Daejeon, in an email to Reuters Health.
The American Cancer Society estimates that about 240,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013, and about 30,000 will die from it.
According to the researchers, who published their results in the journal Maturitas, it's estimated that between a quarter and three quarters of patients with prostate cancer take dietary supplements despite limited evidence of any benefit.
Some studies have looked at whether supplements - such as selenium - could prevent cancers, but came up short (see Reuters Health article of May 11, 2011 here: http://reut.rs/12tUYwc).
To get a better picture of whether supplements are any good at treating prostate cancer, the researchers reviewed trials that looked at minerals, vitamin D, antioxidants and plant compounds known as isoflavones and phytoestrogens.
The researchers had information on 478 prostate cancer patients from eight trials that were conducted in the Netherlands and the U.S. The patients' prostate cancers varied across a scale that measures the severity of cancer from 2 to 10 - with 10 being most severe.
In each trial, the patients took a supplement - which varied depending on the study - and were tracked for a few weeks or up to five years.
Overall, six trials showed that the supplements didn't give patients benefit over patients taking a placebo or another type of supplement.
Two studies did show a significant drop in prostate specific antigen levels - a potential but controversial marker of cancer - among patients taking a combination of supplements, compared to patients taking placebos. However, neither of those studies included more than 50 people and both were sponsored by supplement manufacturers.
"I do not think these supplement combinations could help and no supplement can replace the balanced diet. By no means is the evidence conclusive," Posadzki said.
Dr. Eric Klein, chair of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said the new review's findings are consistent with past research.
"I think if you survey the literature on nutritional supplements and cancer, there is almost no evidence that they're helpful. In fact, some people have found that there is evidence of harm," said Klein, who was not involved with the review.
"I think that until we get a better understanding of the biology of how supplements affect normal and cancer cell growth, we should not invest in this kind of research," he added.
Currently, the three main approaches to managing prostate cancer are active surveillance, radiation and surgery.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ZLiKE0 Maturitas, online March 25, 2013.
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Six strangers brought together through there own issues. Their issues range from addiction, self-harm, mental instability etc. Through there troubles being faced together it showes that through pain can come beauty.
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LONDON (AP) ? Chinese scientists have for the first time found strong evidence of how humans became infected with a new strain of bird flu: from chickens at a live market.
Chinese scientists compared swabs from birds at markets in eastern China to virus samples from four patients who caught the new H7N9 virus. The scientists found the virus from one patient was nearly identical to one found in a chicken. The research was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet.
Finding definitive proof of how patients were infected is very difficult and experts have so far struggled to find much virus in birds. Despite taking nearly 48,000 samples from animals in live markets, Chinese officials found only 39 positive tests for H7N9. Experts had suspected birds in live markets to be the source of infection but weren't sure if other animals or wild birds might also be responsible.
Health officials have so far refrained from recommending any wide-scale slaughter of poultry to contain the disease, one of the main tools used previously to combat another bird flu strain, H5N1. Unlike that strain, H7N9 doesn't appear to sicken chickens, giving experts fewer signs as to where it might be spreading.
Chinese authorities have shut down live poultry markets in many affected regions, which seems to have slowed down the virus. Still, Taiwan reported its first case earlier this week.
So far, H7N9 has infected more than 100 people in China and killed more than 20.
Author: Martie McCabe | Total views: 87 Comments: 0 Word Count: 1167 Date:
Online marketing is essential for any business owner in this day and age. There are a ton of ways in which you can target new customers and drum up business. You can do a lot of these things without spending any money at all. The information here can introduce you to Website marketing, and help you build up your online business to achieve higher profits than you ever expected.
When making your website, try to make it visibly appealing with as much interesting content as possible. You need to give your customers the information they need so that they can make informed decisions about their purchases. Repeat information, fluff and unreliable information should be avoided.
To increase the quality of your internet promotion, start blogging. A blog gives you another way to communicate with your customer base. As you increase the breadth of your site, you will cause more visitors to show up.
It can be a bit overwhelming when you try and decide exactly what type of business you want to create. To start off, you need to narrow down all of your interests until you find the one you enjoy the most. Pick something that you like and know much about. Creating a tangible goal will make it much easier to market your website.
The internet is an effective free resource to help evaluate your market approach since you may not be able to afford a marketing consultant for best business blogs. Consider joining up with an online forum, groups in your hometown, or borrowing books from your local library.
One fun marketing campaign is to have a contest on your website that offers great prizes. For instance, make your site like a scavenger hunt with hidden words scattered around the page. Ask visitors to find them. Offer prizes and discounts for those that find them. When customers are involved in the site, they are more likely to feel comfortable making a purchase from you.
Don't overlook the little details. Place your site's title in the top corner of each page. Also, place a description of your site here. Visitors may get to different pages, depending on their search. If they do not know exactly what your page has to offer, they may simply leave.
The language you use on your site should be rich, creative and descriptive, especially for a niche marketing blog. People like adjectives so make sure that you use plenty of them in any item descriptions. Come up with creative turns-of-phrase, and find ways to amaze people with your writing. Engender a desire to come back to your website, just to see what you might say next.
If you are good at writing, write an article about your business and submit it to magazines that accept submissions. Make sure these articles are signed with your full name and contain information about your business. If you get published in an online magazine, include a link to your site. Ask the editors if they would accept some free products or commission on affiliate work if they will put your articles on their site.
Create a well-designed and interesting website. What your website looks like, as well as the content it contains, will have a huge bearing on your degree of success. Interesting articles and a user friendly design will go a long way in keeping visitors on your site. The design should be engaging enough to grab your audience's attention, making them want to keep looking around.
If you want your site to be successful, it should contain rich, entertaining text. You want the information on your website to appear at the front of search engines, but you also want it to be original enough that you will bring in visitors.
To get a better idea of what is most effective with your customers, test your emails. A/B testings is a great option. Develop your email campaign, then focus on changing only one thing. Choose something to compare. For example, you may want to test a couple of different subject lines or intro paragraphs in your marketing copy. You would then send both types of emails out to two different equal-sized subsets of customers, measuring the results. Whichever methods test as the most successful can become the singular method or format you keep to finish out the campaign.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes. Is your site easy to navigate through? Does it offer enjoyment to the reader? Can orders be placed on your website quickly and easily? You don't want to bring in business only to lose it because of a poorly designed website.
Your URL should be memorable, so that people come back. You will want to incorporate your brand name or your business's name into your site address, if you can. Use an URL that will be easy to remember for your customers. They will be more likely to visit your website if they can remember it.
Try to get inside the brain of your customers when creating your website. If you can provide them with the information or products they are searching for, then sooner or later your marketing efforts will have paid off and result in many sales. Ask visitors for their direct input and objective analysis of your site. Ask friends or family, or even ask for comments from those in a marketing forum. Research well and develop a site that will give people the help they need.
When advertising a deal or product include words that make them feel like they are getting a deal. People shop online because they are tired of what their local stores have to offer. Online consumers seek unique products different from what they are used to seeing. By offering a product that is limited in quantity, it will cause customers to snap them up quickly, so that they don't lose out on something that is different or unusual.
People often do not believe everything they read in ads. For years, advertising has been misleading. This makes it very important to support every claim you make on your site as fully as possible. You can use reviews, before-and-after pictures, test reports, and testimonials. Don't claim that your product or service does something you're not able to prove. Your customers should be treated like they're smart and are informed. You should not take advantage of any person -- ever. Build a trustworthy reputation, and customers will flock to your business.
As has been revealed earlier, web marketing is an amazing way to reach out to customers and to bring attention to your business and products. The opportunities are endless and the benefits are immense. By utilizing the information in the article, you can build your customer base and bring new recognition to your company.
Martie McCabe is an internet marketer.. My articles focuses on developing strategies and tips on promoting your blog. Learn more about promoting your blog and blog names. For more articles go to my blog at http://www.empowernetwork.com/10k/best-business-blogs/
Related to: best business blogs - niche marketing blog - network marketing blog - business marketing blog - promoting your blog - online business blog
1: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics
Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."
2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself
Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.
3: Understanding Online Business Success
Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.
4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website
Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.
5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda
If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 falling 0.1 to 0.3 percent.
U.S. economic growth likely rebounded in the first quarter after almost stalling at the end of 2012 as Americans shrugged off higher taxes and stepped up spending, but the trend is likely temporary.
Japan will give the green light later on Friday for Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner to resume flights, the transport minister said, allowing top customers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways to get the cutting-edge jet back in the air.
Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers release final April consumer sentiment index at 1355 GMT. Economists expect a reading of 73.2, compared with 72.3 in the preliminary April report.
Samsung Electronics grabbed more smartphone market share from arch-rival Apple in the latest quarter, with sales of its phones jumping to account for one third of the global market.
Economic Cycle Research Institute releases its weekly index of economic activity for April 19 at 1430 GMT. In the prior week, the index read 130.6.
Weyerhaeuser Co reported $0.26 earnings per share in the first quarter, while sales were $2 billion. It increased quarterly dividend by 18 percent and said dividend was set at 20 cents per share.
Other companies announcing results include Chevron , Tyco International , D.R. Horton and Goodyear Tire & Rubber .
Amazon.com Inc's revenue growth slowed in the first quarter as the world's largest Internet retail struggled overseas, but margins jumped on lower shipping expenses and the expansion of more profitable new businesses.
AT&T Inc will kick off its home security and monitoring service in 15 U.S. markets on Friday, seeking to develop revenue streams beyond cellphone services.
Microsoft Corp came out on top in the first of two patent trials versus Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit on Thursday, as a federal judge in Seattle ruled largely in its favor.
European shares fell 0.5 percent early on Friday, cooling after five straight sessions of gains, with some disappointing earnings weighing on indexes.
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, lifted by stronger-than-expected earnings and a large drop in weekly jobless claims.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 24.50 points or 0.17 percent, to 14,700.80 at the close. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 6.37 points or 0.40 percent, to 1,585.16. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 20.33 points or 0.62 percent, to close at 3,289.99.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Toby Chopra)
For all the hullabaloo about Skype coming to BlackBerry 10, there wasn't much to show at the Z10's launch beyond a logo. We've got more to work with today -- sort of. A preview version of Skype has indeed popped up in BlackBerry World with voice, video and instant messaging like we've seen on otherplatforms. However, no one in the general public can actually use it yet: the app requires BlackBerry 10.1, which won't reach the market until the Q10 ships to Brits and Canucks. That leaves Americans and Z10 owners in the lurch for a few weeks, although they can at least see the light at the end of the VoIP tunnel.
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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