Helpful Tips to Prevent Skin Cancer

Secretary Thompson is emphasizing that all Americans should take the necessary precautions to prevent skin cancer. As Americans begin their summer vacations and trips it is important to remember to reduce direct skin exposure to the sun. Americans are encouraged to "choose a cover". Covers include a sun umbrella, a t-shirt, a hat, sunglasses, and of course sun block (SPF 15 or higher).

Even a few sunburns can significantly increase your child's risk for skin cancer down the road. Here are some tips for parents: Sunscreen comes in a variety of forms - lotions, sprays, wipes, or gels. Be sure to choose one made especially for kids with Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 15 or higher and has both UVA and UVB protection For most effective protection, apply sunscreen generously 30 minutes before going outdoors and don't forget to protect ears, noses, lips, and the tops of feet.

Reapply sunscreen throughout the day, especially after your child swims or exercises, this also applies to "waterproof" and "water resistant" products.

Tanned skin is damaged skin. Any change in the color of your child's skin after time outside - whether sunburn or suntan - indicates damage from UV rays. Children still need protection on cloudy or cool days. UV rays, not the temperature, do the damage. Clouds do not block UV rays, they filter them.

Simple Tips to Prevent Sports Injuries

• Don't bend your knees more than half way when doing knee bends.

• Don't twist your knees when you stretch. Keep your feet as flat as you can.
• When jumping, land with your knees bent.
• Do warm up exercises before you play any sport.
• Always stretch before you play or exercise.
• Don't overdo it.
• Cool down after hard sports or workouts.
• Wear shoes that fit properly, are stable, and absorb shock.
• Use the softest exercise surface you can find; don't run on asphalt or concrete.
• Run on flat surfaces.

For adults:
• Don't be a "weekend warrior." Don't try to do a week's worth of activity in a day or two.
• Learn to do your sport right. Use proper form to reduce your risk of "overuse" injuries.
• Use safety gear.
• Know your body's limits.
• Build up your exercise level gradually.
• Strive for a total body workout of cardiovascular, strength-training, and flexibility exercises.

For parents and coaches:
• Group children by their skill level and body size, not by their age, especially for contact sports.
• Match the child to the sport. Don't push the child too hard to play a sport that she or he may not like or be able to do.
• Try to find sports programs that have certified athletic trainers.
• See that all children get a physical exam before playing.
• Don't play a child who is injured.
• Get the child to a doctor, if needed.
• Provide a safe environment for sports.

For children:
• Be in proper condition to play the sport.
• Get a physical exam before you start playing sports.
• Follow the rules of the game.
• Wear gear that protects, fits well, and is right for the sport.
• Know how to use athletic gear.
• Don't play when you are very tired or in pain.
• Always warm up before you play.
• Always cool down after you play.

Food Safety Tips for all

• Wash hands and surfaces often - Bacteria are present throughout the kitchen. It can be found on cutting boards, utensils, sponges, counter tops and other surfaces.

• Don’t cross-contaminate foods - Cross-contamination is a term used to describe how bacteria can spread from one food to another. For example, cross contamination can occur when vegetables to be eaten raw come in contact with the liquid from raw meat, poultry and seafood.

• Cook to proper temperatures - Food safety experts agree that foods are properly cooked when they are heated for a long enough time at a high enough temperature to kill any harmful bacteria that may be present.

• Refrigerate foods promptly - Cold temperatures keep harmful bacteria from growing and multiplying. Refrigerators should be set no higher than 40ºF and freezers should be set at 0ºF.

• When in doubt, throw it out!

Almost everyone has experienced food borne illness, usually called "food poisoning," at some point in time. Often these illnesses are merely uncomfortable and inconvenient and do not require medical care. However, such infections can also result in very serious consequences, including hospitalization and death.

Changes in the way food is processed and distributed, international markets, and consumer demand have all altered our food supply. Today, food may reach the table through long chains of production, packaging, and transportation providing many opportunities for contamination. All these factors increase the risk for food borne illness.

Although large disease outbreaks associated with restaurants generally get more media attention, it is just as easy for food borne illness to occur at home. If food is handled and prepared safely, most of these illnesses can be avoided.

Food labels can help you pick healthy food

Food labels may help you make healthy food choices. But they can be confusing. Here are some quick tips for reading food labels:

Check Serving Size and Calories. All the information on a food label is based on the serving size. Be careful—one serving may be much smaller than you think. If you double the servings you eat, you double the calories and nutrients, including the percent Daily Values (DVs).

Percent DV: This tells you if a food is high or low in nutrients. Foods that have more than 20-percent DV of a nutrient are high. Foods that have 5-percent DV or less are low.

Saturated Fat: Saturated fat is not healthy for your heart. Compare labels on similar foods and try to choose foods that have a 5-percent DV or less for saturated fat. Most of the fats you eat should be polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories.

Trans Fat: Trans fat is not healthy for your heart. When reading food labels, add together the grams of trans fat and saturated fat, and choose foods with the lowest combined amount.

Cholesterol: Too much cholesterol is not healthy for your heart. Keep your intake of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol as low as possible.

Sodium (Salt): Salt contains sodium. Research shows that eating less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium about (1 teaspoon of salt) per day may reduce the risk of high blood pressure.

TIP: Many food labels say “low fat,” “reduced fat,” or “light.” That does not always mean the food is low in calories. Remember, fat-free does not mean calorie-free, and calories do count!

Fiber: Choose foods that are rich in fiber, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Sugar: Try to choose foods with little or no added sugar (like low-sugar cereals).

Calcium: Choose foods that are high in calcium. Foods that are high in calcium have at least 20-percent DV.

Advantages of a Fiber Diet

"In the future, the HHS newsletter will be focusing on the benefits or drawback's of diets-fad or otherwise. Here is the first installment. With a gradual increase of fiber (and water) into your diet, you could reduce the risk of colon cancer, intestinal disorders, heart disease, constipation, the production of LDL's ("bad cholesterol") and aid in moderate weight loss. The Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute both recommend high fiber diets, which amounts to 20-35 grams of fiber per day, although they are careful to recommend you get your fiber from foods and not dietary supplements.

• Soluble fiber helps lower blood cholesterol levels and control blood glucose levels for people with diabetes. Examples of soluble fiber are: Oatbran, barley, kidney beans, fruits, and vegetables.
• Insoluble fiber remains virtually intact while passing through the body which causes the feeling of fullness, and provides fewer calories to the body. Some examples of insoluble fiber are: Wheat bran, vegetables and whole grains.
High-fiber foods also contain a considerable amount of antioxidants and phytochemicals, which are an advantage in any diet."

Healthy ways to eat vegetables

• Eat raw and cooked vegetables with little or no fat, sauces, or dressings.
• Try low-fat or fat-free salad dressing on raw vegetables or salads.
• Steam vegetables using water or low-fat broth.
• Mix in some chopped onion or garlic.
• Use a little vinegar or some lemon or lime juice.
• Add a small piece of lean ham or smoked turkey instead of fat to vegetables when cooking.
• Sprinkle with herbs and spices.
• If you do use a small amount of fat, use canola oil, olive oil, or soft margarines (liquid or tub types) instead of fat from meat, butter, or shortening.

Reducing Stroke-related disability in children

Stroke-related disability could be reduced by teaching children how to spot the signs of stroke in relatives.
Emergency medical treatment within three hours of the first stroke symptoms can limit the extent of brain damage and lead to better recovery.

The Kids Identifying and Defeating Stroke (KIDS) project included 515 sixth graders in Texas who were divided into two groups. The students in the intervention group were given four classes about stroke awareness each year during grades 6, 7 and 8.

"As part of the KIDS project, students were also given homework assignments that involved teaching their parents or other adult partners about the signs and symptoms of stroke and the need to call 911 right away if these signs are witnessed," lead author Kathleen Conley, a professor of health education at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, said in a news release.

A pretest about stroke knowledge/awareness was given before the study. Preliminary results from a follow-up test after the second year showed improvements in the intervention group students' knowledge and their intent to call 911 when seeing someone suffering a stroke.

"We are very encouraged by the results and would like to see more investigation in the area of teaching children about recognizing stroke and motivating them to call 911 immediately," Conley said.
The study is published in the January issue of the journal Health Promotion Practice.

Serotonin and Bone Mass Inversely linked in Women

Circulating levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin are inversely associated with bone mass in women, according to a new study co-funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). The work, published online in July in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, indicates that serotonin can serve as a marker for low bone mass. The findings also suggest that studies of serotonin synthesis and metabolism pathways are needed to develop drugs that target the neurotransmitter’s effects on bone mass without affecting the nervous system.

Co-authors Ulrike Mödder, Ph.D., Sundeep Khosla, M.D., and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., studied a population-based cohort of 275 women aged 21 to 97, and observed that higher blood levels of serotonin were associated with lower levels of a number of measures of bone density and structure, as well as body mass index. The findings, say the scientists, indicate a potential role for serotonin in regulating human bone mass.

Drugs called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been used for treating depression, and scientists have observed that people taking these medications have reduced bone mineral density. Other studies in mice have also linked serotonin to bone metabolism regulation. Until this study, however, the relationship between serotonin and bone mass in humans was clouded.

"We’ve confirmed that serotonin is yet another player in the complex physiology of bone," says Dr. Khosla. "Perhaps as an early warning signal, it may help us prevent the diseases that beset bone, including osteoporosis."
The study also received funding from the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Translational Science Activities.

Different exercises for girls

You need to exercise for about 60 minutes every day. Setting aside 60 minutes all at once each day is one way to get in enough exercise. If you wait until the end of the day to squeeze it in, you probably won’t exercise enough or at all. If you’re not active for 60 minutes straight, it’s okay to exercise for 10 or 20 minutes at a time throughout the day.

Different exercises:

Aerobic exercise
Most of your 60 minutes of daily exercise, at least 3 days a week.
Aerobic activities are those in which young people regularly move their muscles. Running, hopping, skipping, jumping rope, swimming, dancing, and biking are all examples of aerobic activity.
It makes your heart and lungs strong.

Muscle-strengthening exercise
(3 or more days each week)
As part of your 60 minutes of exercise each day, at least 3 days a week.
Muscle-strengthening activities make muscles do more work than usual. This is called “overload” and it makes your muscles stronger. Climbing trees, yoga, rock climbing, lifting weights, or working with resistance bands are all muscle-strengthening exercises
It increases your strength and builds muscle.

Bone-strengthening exercise
(3 or more days each week)
As part of your 60 minutes of exercise each day, at least 3 days a week.
Bone-strengthening activities push on your bones and helps them grow and be strong. This push usually comes from impact with the ground. Running, jumping rope, basketball, tennis, and hopscotch are all bone-strengthening exercises. (These exercises can also be aerobic and muscle-strengthening.)
It will make your bones stronger. Your bones get strongest in the years just before and during puberty.

Shop and fill your kitchen cupboards with LOW FAT FOOD items

Here are few items…

Fat free or low fat milk, yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese
Light or diet margarine
Eggs/Egg substitutes
Sandwich breads, bagels, pita bread, English muffins
Soft corn tortillas, low fat flour tortillas
Low fat, low sodium crackers
Plain cereal, dry or cooked
Rice, pasta
White meat chicken or turkey (remove skin)
Fish and shellfish (not battered)
Beef: round, sirloin, chuck arm, loin and extra lean ground beef
Pork: leg, shoulder, tenderloin
Dry beans and peas
Fresh, frozen, canned fruits in light syrup or juice
Fresh, frozen, or no salt added canned vegetables
Low fat or nonfat salad dressings
Mustard and catsup
Jam, jelly, or honey
Herbs and spices

Cold or heat therapy-relieves back pain and muscle tension

Using cold and heat therapy may relieve pain and muscle tension in the initial days after back pain begins. Some studies show that heat is an effective approach for acute nonspecific back pain. As for chronic back pain, cold and heat likely won't cause harm and may be helpful, but there isn't scientific evidence at this time to prove that cold and heat are effective treatments for chronic low back pain. Cold or ice applied to your back can reduce inflammation and swelling by constricting blood vessels. The cold also acts to slow nerve impulses and make it less likely that your muscles will contract, in this way reducing pain.

To use cold packs, wrap an ice pack or a bag of frozen vegetables in a piece of cloth. Hold it on the sore area for about 15 minutes, several times a day. To avoid frostbite, don't place ice directly on your skin. Heat therapy increases blood circulation, which can aid healing of damaged tissues. Heat also allows tissues to stretch more easily, resulting in less stiffness, greater flexibility and less pain. To use heat therapy, take a warm bath, or use warm packs, a heating pad or a heat lamp for pain relief. Be careful not to burn your skin with extreme heat. If you find that cold provides more relief than heat, you can continue using cold packs, or try a combination of the two methods.

Do you know that 1 in 4 lung cancer patients are non-smokers?

MANILA, Philippines - When someone is diagnosed with or dies of lung cancer, the first question people often ask is, “Was he or she a smoker?”
Although most lung cancers are caused by smoking, a 2007 review found that about 25 percent of lung cancer cases worldwide — accounting for over 300,000 deaths each year — are not attributable to tobacco use.
Another review revealed that lung cancer in never-smokers is more common in Asia, particularly in women. “Never-smoke” is a person who has smoked less than 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime.
“Research has yet to establish what causes lung cancer in never-smokers, but secondhand tobacco smoke is probably responsible for about 20 percent of lung cancer cases in never-smokers,” says Dr. Ma. Belen Tamayo, president of the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology.
Air pollution may cause about five percent of lung cancer cases. Indoor air pollution like fumes from cooking oil and smoke from coal- or wood-burning stoves are known to increase lung cancer risk, particularly in Asia.
Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, claiming more lives than prostate cancer and breast cancer combined.
Data from the Philippine Cancer Society and Department of Health show that in 2005, lung cancer was one of the most common cancers among Filipinos of both sexes. It was by far the most common cancer among Filipino males and the third most common among Filipino women.
According to Tamayo, symptoms of lung cancer include persistent coughing, chest pain, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, wheezing or hoarseness, repeated pneumonia or bronchitis, weight loss and fatigue.
She notes that the only chance of cure, via surgery, is possible only in 35 percent of patients, and still the risk of recurrence is high despite surgery. “Prevention remains the best strategy,” Tamayo says.
Surgery, radiotherapy (use of radiation to kill cancer cells) and chemotherapy (use of cytotoxic drugs to kill cancer cells) may all be used in treating lung cancer. In addition to chemotherapy, a number of new agents are now available, targeting and blocking the cellular signals that promote proliferation of cancer cells.
One of these new targeted therapies is a certain class of drugs called EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKI). EGFR is a cell receptor that signals cancer cells to multiply and survive. One type of EGFR-TKI is gefitinib, a product of AstraZeneca — one of the world’s leading research and development pharmaceutical companies that focuses on cancer as one of its key therapeutic areas.
Tamayo welcomed the observance of World Lung Cancer Day every Nov. 17 as an opportunity for an open and honest discussion about the disease. She also lauded AstraZeneca for helping dispel myths and raise awareness about lung cancer.
As part of World Lung Cancer Day 2009, AstraZeneca is releasing a fact sheet to dispel common myths about lung cancer. The following are key points listed in the fact sheet.


Source: http://www.pchrd.dost.gov.ph/library/index.php/health-news/593/2275-1-in-4-lung-cancer-patients-are-non-smokers

What are the causes of regular muscle pain, fatigue and what can you do?

Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes muscle pain and fatigue (feeling tired). People with fibromyalgia have “tender points” on the body. Tender points are specific places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms, and legs. These points hurt when pressure is put on them.
People with fibromyalgia may also have other symptoms, such as:

• Trouble sleeping
• Morning stiffness
• Headaches
• Painful menstrual periods
• Tingling or numbness in hands and feet
• Problems with thinking and memory (sometimes called “fibro fog”).

What Causes Fibromyalgia?
The causes of fibromyalgia are unknown. There may be a number of factors involved. Fibromyalgia has been linked to:
• Stressful or traumatic events, such as car accidents
• Repetitive injuries
• Illness
• Certain diseases.
Fibromyalgia can also occur on its own.
Some scientists think that a gene or genes might be involved in fibromyalgia. The genes could make a person react strongly to things that other people would not find painful.

Who Is Affected by Fibromyalgia?
Scientists estimate that fibromyalgia affects 5 million Americans 18 or older. Between 80 and 90 percent of people diagnosed with fibromyalgia are women. However, men and children also can have the disorder. Most people are diagnosed during middle age.
People with certain other diseases may be more likely to have fibromyalgia. These diseases include:
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus (commonly called lupus)
• Ankylosing spondylitis (spinal arthritis).
Women who have a family member with fibromyalgia may be more likely to have fibromyalgia themselves.

How Is Fibromyalgia Treated?
Fibromyalgia can be hard to treat. It's important to find a doctor who is familiar with the disorder and its treatment. Many family physicians, general internists, or rheumatologists can treat fibromyalgia. Rheumatologists are doctors who specialize in arthritis and other conditions that affect the joints or soft tissues.

Fibromyalgia treatment often requires a team approach. The team may include your doctor, a physical therapist, and possibly other health care providers. A pain or rheumatology clinic can be a good place to get treatment.

What Can I Do to Try to Feel Better?
There are many things you can do to feel better, including:
• Taking medicines as prescribed
• Getting enough sleep
• Exercising
• Eating well
• Making work changes if necessary.

Mix up your choices for a healthy life

Focus on fruits. Eat a variety of fruits—whether fresh, frozen, canned, or dried—rather than fruit juice for most of your fruit choices. For a 2,000-calorie diet, you will need 2 cups of fruit each day (for example, 1 small banana, 1 large orange, and 1/4 cup of dried apricots or peaches).

Vary your veggies. Eat more dark green veggies, such as broccoli, kale, and other dark leafy greens; orange veggies, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and winter squash; and beans and peas, such as pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, split peas, and lentils.

Get your calcium-rich foods. Get 3 cups of low-fat or fat-free milk—or an equivalent amount of low-fat yogurt and/or low-fat cheese (1½ ounces of cheese equals 1 cup of milk)—every day. For kids aged 2 to 8, it's 2 cups of milk. If you don't or can't consume milk, choose lactose-free milk products and/or calcium-fortified foods and beverages.

Make half your grains whole. Eat at least 3 ounces of whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice, or pasta every day. One ounce is about 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of breakfast cereal, or ½ cup of cooked rice or pasta. Look to see that grains such as wheat, rice, oats, or corn are referred to as "whole" in the list of ingredients.
Go lean with protein. Choose lean meats and poultry. Bake it, broil it, or grill it. And vary your protein choices—with more fish, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds.

Know the limits on fats, salt, and sugars. Read the Nutrition Facts label on foods. Look for foods low in saturated fats and trans fats. Choose and prepare foods and beverages with little salt (sodium) and/or added sugars (caloric sweeteners).

The Risk of underage drinking

If you’re under 21
—or if you drink too much at any age—alcohol
can be especially risky.

Just a few of the dangers of underage drinking:

Death
Each year, an estimated 5,000 people under the age of 21 dies from alcohol related injuries. Alcohol is a factor in about 4 out of every 10 deaths from car crashes, drownings, burns, falls and other unintentional injuries.
Addiction
The younger you are when you start drinking, the greater your chance of becoming addicted to alcohol at some point in your life. More than 4 in 10 people who begin drinking before age 15 eventually become alcoholic.

Thinking Problems
Your brain is still developing throughout the teen years. New research on teens with alcohol disorders shows that heavy drinking in the teen years can cause long-lasting harm to thinking abilities.

Arrest
Drinking under age 21 is against the law. Penalties can include not getting a drivers license on time, having the license removed for driving with any trace of alcohol in the body, losing a job, and losing a college scholarship.

Drinking too soon or too much:
Can affect your mood and your thinking.
Can hurt others, get you in legal trouble, and damage your relationships.
Can harm your body now and when you grow up.
Can get you hooked.

Three common sleep disorders and health problems related to it

We need a good sleep to get rid of the previous day's mental stress and for a good mood and concentration for the next day.

Most need 7 or 8 hours a night.
Some need less, others more.

There are three common sleep disorders:

• Sleep apnea: the person stops breathing, sometimes hundreds of times a night.
• Sleep deprivation (sleep debt): not getting enough sleep night after night.
• Insomnia: trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Insomnia can be either temporary or long-term.

Sleep disorders can cause or worsen many problems:

• Feeling sleepy or tired all day.
• Falling asleep when driving or operating machinery.
• Poor memory, concentration and learning.
• Irritability and mood swings.
• More colds and other infections.
• Over the long-term: overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

Tips to help you

If you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes try on of them…
• Get up and do something relaxing. Try reading some books or magazine in dim light.
Or sit quietly in the dark until you start to feel sleepy.
• Don’t turn on bright lights, because this tells your body to wake up.
Develop sleep rituals.
• Tell your body that it’s time to sleep by doing the same things every night just before bed.
• Listen to relaxing music, read something light, do few relaxation exercises or take a hot bath.

Don’t watch TV or work in bed.
• Make “Going to bed mean going to sleep.”
• Don’t watch TV in bed (unless it helps you fall asleep in 10 or 15 minutes).
Don’t play video games, make phone calls, answer e-mails, or pay bills in bed.
• You’ll fall asleep faster if you use your bed only for rest, sleep, and intimacy.

Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol hours before going to bed

Benefits of Wine Tourism in Australia

One of the world's fastest growing industries is 'Wine Tourism'. What is it? How can we best benefit from it?

Firstly, let's keep it simple. If tourism is simply the provision of goods and services that attract tourists, then 'wine tourism' is the same but has the added influence of wine. Wine tourism is not only associated with cellar door wineries, rather all business that are involved in the wine, tourism and associated industries with the wine region. This includes accommodation houses, tour operators, gift shops, national parks etc.

If the desired outcome of 'wine tourism' is attracting more tourists then the real secret to success is having a clear understanding of the needs of your potential customers. Once this is clear you can focus on attracting tourists to our wine regions, improve business and target specific customers to your region.

Queensland has the advantage of already having an established tourism industry. Many wineries don't appreciate how involved they are in the tourism industry. An area that most regions have identified as important to meeting customer expectations is the need to integrate wine with quality food. There is no question that food plays an important part in adding to a region's ambience and unique character.

To obtain long-term success, each region needs to focus on really defining their point of differences, rather than trying to out perform another region. Identifying and consistently delivering a unique wine experience is what each region must strive to achieve. This fits well into both Tourism Queensland's and the Department's strategy to promote regional tourism. Global trends indicate that tourism is one of the most dynamic growth sectors and the demand for a quality experience is rising rapidly.

Irrespective of the way tourism is formally defined, it is first and foremost a 'people industry' involving the development and supply of a range of facilities, services and experiences to meet the needs, aspirations and expectations of visitors. Tourism is complex and diverse, involving many different forms of commerce. Most tourism businesses are part of the much larger services industry. At the local and regional level, the industry comprises tourism operators, businesses not directly involved in tourism, local and regional tourism organisations, community groups, residents and local government. By working together destinations have the capacity to attract visitors, satisfy their leisure needs and expectations, and generate economic and other benefits for the whole community.

In Queensland more people are employed in tourism than in agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining combined. Queensland Treasury estimates that close to 10 % of the workforce, or 135,000 people, are working in tourism. And the outlook is bright: international visitor numbers are expected to double over the next eight years (Tourism Forecasting Council, 1999). Latest figures also show that domestic visitor nights in Queensland have increased by more than 20% over the year to June 1999 (Bureau of Tourism Research, June Quarter 1999). Treasury recognises the importance of the industry to Queensland?s economy. The strength of the State?s services sector continues to be underpinned by tourism and related services which have contributed 7.9% of Gross State Product in 1998-99 (Queensland Treasury, Annual Economic Report 1998-99).

Changing diet in penguins

By studying the tissue remains of penguins in Antarctica, scientists are not only learning more about the modern diet of the continent’s iconic seabird but also what was on the menu thousands of years ago. And that information can provide insight into past climate and penguin behavior, as well as how the species could respond to future climate changes.

Much of their work involves collecting tissue samples, such as eggshells and feathers, from existing penguin colonies and long-extinct ones around the Antarctic Peninsula and the Ross Sea regions. Then they analyze the samples in the lab, looking at the ratios of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes, which can provide important clues to what’s been on the dinner plate throughout the year.

Now the scientists are testing the idea by looking at gentoos, another Pygoscelis penguin, a mostly subantarctic bird that is pushing its way across the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula as the climate there warms and the Adélie population declines.

Fun & Interesting Facts About planet Pluto

• Pluto is only about half the width of the United States. Charon is about half the size of Pluto. Charon is the largest moon compared to the body it orbits (whether planet or dwarf planet) of any moon in the solar system.

• Almost all the planets travel around the Sun in nearly perfect circles. But Pluto does not. It takes an oval-shaped path with the Sun nowhere near its center. What's more, its path is quite tilted from the nice, orderly plane where all the other planets orbit. (Mercury has a slightly lop-sided orbit, although not nearly so much as Pluto's.)

• If you lived on Pluto, you'd have to live 248 Earth years to celebrate your first birthday in Pluto-years.

• If you lived on Pluto, you would see Charon from only one side of the planet. Charon's orbit around Pluto takes about six and one-half Earth days. Pluto's day (that is, one complete rotation) takes exactly the same amount of time. So, Charon always "hovers" over the same spot on Pluto's surface, and the same side of Charon always faces Pluto.

• At Pluto's current distance from the Sun, the temperature on its surface is about 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit! It will get even colder as it moves farther from the Sun. From Pluto, the Sun looks like just a bright dot in the sky, the brightest star visible. The light from the Sun is as bright on Pluto as the light from the full Moon is on Earth.

• If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only 7 pounds on Pluto!

• Pluto orbits in a far-out region of the solar system called the Kuiper (rhymes with viper) Belt. There are lots of icy, rocky objects out there. But they are so far from the Sun they are really hard to see, even with powerful telescopes.

A Message for Men about Health

Men may be catching up to women in lifespan. The life-expectancy gap between men and women has shrunk to 5.2 years, the narrowest since 1946. But men still need to pay more attention to their health. Why?

Compared to women, men are more likely to:

• Smoke and drink more, and generally lead less healthy lifestyles
• Put off routine checkups and even ignore symptoms of a health problem
• Join in fearless, risky, and dangerous behaviors

Working-aged men also are less likely than women to have a regular doctor.
The good news is that many of the diseases and health conditions that men face can be prevented — or treated if they are found early. To start taking better care of your health, learn about your risk factors. Risk factors are things in your life that increase your chances of getting a certain disease. Some risk factors you cannot change, such as your age or family history. But many are in your control. Find out what you can do to lower your risk factors and improve your overall health. Next, find out how often you should see a doctor for routine checkups and what screenings, tests, and vaccines you might need. By taking these steps, you will feel good knowing you are doing all you can to take charge of your health.

Small Technology to Clean Up Big Pollution Problems

EPA scientists are exploring ways to use some very small materials to clean up some very big environmental troubles. Research chemist Dr. Souhail Al-Abed and his colleagues have synthesized stimulated carbon with nanoparticles of iron/palladium bimetallic to construct a new nano-scale treatment to clean up pollutants. The new, tiny technology is offering promise where unadventurous technologies have been limited in detecting, treating, removing, and preventing environmental contaminants.

The research is proving particularly useful in dealing with PCBs, a family of persistent organic chemicals that have been linked to a host of dangerous health effects, including cancer. Dr. Al-Abed and his research group found that infusing the carbon with nanoparticles not only made it more effective at adsorbing contaminants, but also degraded the PCBs to less dangerous compounds.

Antarctica, Greenland helps scientists to understand past climate

Ice cores from Antarctica, Greenland and elsewhere in the world serve as a way for scientists to travel back in time to understand past climate. They analyze such things as the trapped bubbles of gas, chemicals, insoluble dust and trace metals found in the ice to reconstruct the cycles of glacial advance and retreat, the waxing and waning of temperature, the sudden appearance of droughts and volcanic eruptions.

But those long, skinny cylinders of ice can only tell so much of the story, according to Ryan Bay, a research physicist at the University of California Berkley. Bay and colleagues use an instrument they developed called an optical dust logger to measure the dust and particulates, or bits of matter, not captured by the original ice core.

Bay and team member Delia Tosi will take the latest and greatest version of their optical dust logger to Antarctica this coming field season. They’ll send the instrument down the deepest hole ever drilled in the ice sheet, where European scientists recovered the oldest ice to date from a high-altitude spot on the polar plateau called Dome C in East Antarctica.

The 3,270-meter-long ice core drilled by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) reaches back at least 800,000 years. Bay said he is particularly interested in the last 100,000 years of climate history and finding signatures of volcanic eruptions and impacts from comets or asteroids that may have caused abrupt climate changes.

For instance, a major volcanic eruption can send a great amount of sulfate particles into the atmosphere. The sulfate aerosols reflect sunlight, effectively shielding the lower atmosphere of the planet and cooling it near the surface. Bay said this abrupt cooling event could then affect the succeeding climate for millennia.

Nokia Booklet 3G

A new portable device from Nokia, Nokia Booklet 3G is a small laptop PC witness the company step foot on computers.
Features:
Display: 10.1-inch HD display
Screen: 720p HD screen
Battery life: 12 hours
HDMI port for HD video out
Aluminium shell which measures in at just 2cm thin and tips the scales at around a kilogram to ensure it’s extremely portable.

Discovery’s next launch on Friday at 12:22 a.m

Teams at Kennedy Space Center have completed a portion of the testing of a liquid hydrogen fill and drain valve in space shuttle Discovery’s main propulsion system. The valve opened and closed when commanded five different times with no issues. This “cycle testing” of Discovery began at 6:28 p.m. EDT and finished at 6:59 p.m.

Teams are now performing a pressure test of the propulsion system, and recording the leak rate of small amounts of liquid hydrogen. Data from tonight’s tests will be brought to tomorrow’s mission management team for evaluation at the noon meeting.

NASA is targeting Discovery’s next launch attempt for no earlier than Friday, Aug. 28 at 12:22 a.m., depending on the results of the testing and a review of the data by the mission management team.

Discovery’s countdown is expected to resume at the T-11 hour point at 8:57 a.m. tomorrow.

Temporary tattoos and Henna can cause skin problems

Temporary tattoos, such as those applied to the skin with a moistened wad of cotton, fade several days after application. Many contain color additives approved for cosmetic use on the skin. However, FDA has received reports of allergic reactions to some temporary tattoos.

An Import Alert is in effect for several foreign-made temporary tattoos. According to Consumer Safety Officer Allen Halper of FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors, the temporary tattoos subject to the import alert are not allowed into the United States because they don't have the required ingredient declaration on the label or they contain colors not permitted for use in cosmetics applied to the skin.

Henna, a coloring made from a plant, is approved only for use as a hair dye, not for direct application to the skin, as in the body-decorating process known as mehndi. This unapproved use of a color additive makes these products adulterated and therefore illegal. An import alert is in effect for henna intended for use on the skin. FDA has received reports of injuries to the skin from products marketed as henna.

Since henna typically produces a brown, orange-brown, or reddish-brown tint, other ingredients must be added to produce other colors, such as those marketed as "black henna" and "blue henna." So-called "black henna" may contain the "coal tar" color p-phenylenediamine, also known as PPD. This ingredient may cause allergic reactions in some individuals. The only legal use of PPD in cosmetics is as a hair dye. It is not approved for direct application to the skin. Even brown shades of products marketed as henna may contain other ingredients intended to make them darker or make the stain last longer.

In addition to color additives, these skin-decorating products may contain other ingredients, such as solvents.

cholecystokinin plays an important role in the control of blood sugar.

A gut hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) plays an important role in the control of blood sugar production in the liver, according to Canadian researchers.

"We show for the first time that CCK from the gut activates receptors to regulate glucose levels. It does so via a gut-brain-liver neuronal axis," Tony Lam of the University of Toronto said in a news release.CCK binds to local receptors on nerves of the small intestine, triggering a message to the brain which, in turn, tells the liver to stop producing glucose.

Lam and colleagues also found that rats fed a high-fat diet for a few days became resistant to CCK.
They said their findings suggest that CCK resistance, like insulin resistance, may be a major contributor to high blood sugar often seen in people with a high-fat diet. The results also suggest that drugs that target CCK receptors may help fight diabetes.

Biodefense and Bioterrorism

Terrorism refers to the use or threat of force or violence against people or property. A bioterrorist attack releases viruses, bacteria, or other germs to cause illness or death. These biological agents are typically found in nature. But they can sometimes be made more harmful by increasing their ability to cause or spread disease, or to resist medical treatment.

Biological agents spread through the air, water or in food. They can be very hard to detect, and they don't cause illness for several hours or days. Some agents can also be spread from person to person. Scientists worry that anthrax, botulism, hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola, plague, or smallpox could be used as biological agents.

Biodefense involves medical measures to protect people against biological agents. This means medicines and vaccinations. It also means medical research and preparations to defend against bioterrorist attacks.

This Weekend Events in New York City

There are lots of events to enjoy this weekend in NYC, including the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Queens, Summer Streets in Manhattan, the Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series: Tappen Park on Staten Island, Black Gold - Bronx River Art, and the Three Kings Day Parade in Brooklyn.

Dragon Boat Festival, which features paddlers of all ages racing in 40+ foot long dragon boats.

The Met’s annual concerts in New York City parks are one of the most beloved summer traditions in the city. This year, the company will present a six-performance series of recitals in the parks of all five boroughs. All performances in the Summer Recital Series are free and no tickets are required, except for the concert at Central Park.

Tattfoo Tan, Tea-Pi, is an interactive space constructed from unsold painting, tea, sandwiches and recorded audio conversations. Abigail DeVille, Original Ganstas, 2008, is a mixed media collage, 12 x 20 feet. Gallery hours are Mondays to Fridays 3-6.30PM and Saturdays 12-5PM. Free.

Scientific reasons to study climatic change at high latitudes are listed below:

Ice (including snow) is the predominant form of condensed water most of the year, both in the air and on the surface. Ice and snow scatter, transmit, and absorb sunlight and radiant heat much differently than water.

There is very little water vapor in the atmosphere, changing the impact of the atmosphere on the propagation of radiant energy, particularly radiant energy propagating upwards from the surface, and on the performance of some atmospheric remote sensing instruments.

The major "pumps" for the global ocean currents are at high latitudes, and there is good reason to believe that those pumps will be affected by climate-related changes in the atmosphere.

High latitude atmospheric processes over both land and sea must be characterized for incorporation into global climate models.

Longest solar eclipse

Millions of people across Asia will observe the longest solar eclipse that will take place on 22nd of July, most parts of India and China, the whole city of Shanghai and southern Japanese islands are pushed into darkness on Wednesday for about five minutes.

Stargazers in huge number and scientists around the world are traveling long distances to view the once-in-a-lifetime happening.

Astronomers expect the eclipse will release signs about the sun, while an astrologer in Myanmar predicts it could guide in confusion. A few in India are giving an opinion to pregnant relatives to stay indoors to follow a centuries-old tradition of keeping away from the sun's invisible rays.

For astronomers, it will be a possibility for a prolonged observation of the sun's corona, a white ring 1 million kilometers from the sun's surface. The earlier total eclipse, in August 2008, was two minutes and 27 seconds. This one will last 6 minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.

NASA to Offer Education Funding

NASA has announced a competitive funding opportunity for informal education that could result in the award of grants or cooperative agreements to several of the nation's science centers, museums and planetariums. Approximately $6 million is available for new awards.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which leads the Museum Alliance, will conduct an external peer review process for the proposals. Final award selection rests with the Office of Education at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Proposals for the Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums are expected to use NASA resources to enhance informal education programs related to space exploration, aeronautics, space science, Earth science or microgravity. Full proposals are due Sept. 10, 2009.

Google Chrome Operating System

Google Inc is get readying to launch an operating system for personal computers next year.Called the Google Chrome Operating System, the new software will be targeted at netbook computers and be fast and lightweight, allow users to access the Web in a few seconds, Google said in a statement on Tuesday.

Netbooks running the new operating system - based on open-source Linux code - will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010, Google saidGoogle also said Google Chrome OS was a latest project, does nothing with Android mobile operating software found in smart phones.

"All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies," Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, said in the Google blog.

Google also gave information about how it works -Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Source:googleblog
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Latest Nanotechnology news –“dry granular materials such as sands, seeds and grains have properties similar to liquid”

University of Chicago researchers recently showed that dry granular materials such as sands, seeds and grains have properties similar to liquid, forming water-like droplets when poured from a given source. The finding could be important to a wide range of industries that use "fluidized" dry particles for oil refining, plastics manufacturing and pharmaceutical production.

Researchers previously thought dry particles lacked sufficient surface tension to form droplets like ordinary liquids. But, in a first-time accomplishment, physicists from the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Chicago, led by Professor Heinrich M. Jaeger, used high-speed photography to measure minute levels of surface tension and detect droplet formation in flows of dry granular materials.

The science journal Nature reports the finding in its June 25 issue. The materials research center at the University of Chicago is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Until recently, studies of so-called "free falling granular streams" tracked shape changes in flows of dry materials, but were unable to observe the full evolution of the forming droplets or the clustering mechanisms involved.

"Previous studies of granular streams were able to detect clustering by performing experiments in vacuum and were able to establish that the clustering was not caused by the drag from the ambient air," said Jaeger. "However, the cause of the clustering remained a mystery."

Source: National Science Foundation. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=114907&org=NSF&from=news

The earliest radio

The earliest radio could not broadcast sound or verbal communication and was called the "wireless telegraph." The first display of wireless telegraphy took place in the lecture theater of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on August 14, 1894, conceded out by Professor Oliver Lodge and Alexander Muirhead. During the display a radio signal was sent from the adjacent Clarendon laboratory building, and received by device in the lecture theater.

In 1895 Alexander Stepanovich Popov built his initial radio receiver, which enclosed a coherer. Further developed as a lightning detector, it was offered to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895. A representation of Popov's lightning detector was printed in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society the same year. Popov's receiver was shaped on the improved basis of Lodge's receiver, and in the beginning proposed for reproduction of its experiments.

Sony Company was the first to introduce transistorized radio in the year 1960. It was small in size that can fit in a vest pocket, and able to be powered by a small battery. It was tough, for the reason that it had no vacuum tubes to burn out. Digital transmissions was started and to be applied to broadcasting only in the late 1990s.

Space station's wings get a lift from robot arms

Astronauts used a pair of robotic cranes to unpack the International Space Station's last set of solar wing panels from shuttle Discovery's cargo bay on Wednesday, part of three-day effort to bring the orbital outpost up to full power.

Installing the power system is the primary purpose of NASA's 125th shuttle mission, which began Sunday with Discovery's blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle arrived at the station, orbiting 220 miles above Earth, on Tuesday for an eight-day stay.

The shuttle and station crews used robot arms on both spacecraft to delicately maneuver the 31,000-pound (13,950 kg) girder, which contains the solar power panels, out of the shuttle and over to the space station. It is scheduled to be installed on Thursday during the mission's first spacewalk.

Once in position, the station's 11-part spine will be complete after more than a decade of construction. NASA has up to nine shuttle missions remaining to finishing installing science laboratories and equipment to support an expanded, six-member space station crew.

The power system, built by Boeing, is designed to supply 124 kilowatts of electricity to the station -- enough to power 42 average-sized U.S. homes.

During their first in-flight interview, rookie astronauts said the rocket ride into space was smoother than they had expected.

"The time kind of sneaks up on you. You're sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting and all of sudden you're inside the nine-minute hold (in the launch countdown) and you know you're going to go," said Richard Arnold, one of Discovery's two teacher-astronauts.

"I was surprised at how relatively quiet it was -- a bit of shaking, a very smooth ride. I was expecting a bit more noise," he added.

For more information log onto : http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKTRE52E09120090319

Space station's wings get a lift from robot arms

Astronauts used a pair of robotic cranes to unpack the International Space Station's last set of solar wing panels from shuttle Discovery's cargo bay on Wednesday, part of three-day effort to bring the orbital outpost up to full power.

Installing the power system is the primary purpose of NASA's 125th shuttle mission, which began Sunday with Discovery's blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle arrived at the station, orbiting 220 miles above Earth, on Tuesday for an eight-day stay.

The shuttle and station crews used robot arms on both spacecraft to delicately maneuver the 31,000-pound (13,950 kg) girder, which contains the solar power panels, out of the shuttle and over to the space station. It is scheduled to be installed on Thursday during the mission's first spacewalk.

Once in position, the station's 11-part spine will be complete after more than a decade of construction. NASA has up to nine shuttle missions remaining to finishing installing science laboratories and equipment to support an expanded, six-member space station crew.

The power system, built by Boeing, is designed to supply 124 kilowatts of electricity to the station -- enough to power 42 average-sized U.S. homes.

During their first in-flight interview, rookie astronauts said the rocket ride into space was smoother than they had expected.

"The time kind of sneaks up on you. You're sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting and all of sudden you're inside the nine-minute hold (in the launch countdown) and you know you're going to go," said Richard Arnold, one of Discovery's two teacher-astronauts.

"I was surprised at how relatively quiet it was -- a bit of shaking, a very smooth ride. I was expecting a bit more noise," he added.

For more information log onto : http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKTRE52E09120090319

Having a cow over Gmail just misses the point

A big outage at Google Tuesday. Things go dark early while most of the U.S. is sleeping. Still, the Internet is without borders and so the glitch leaves millions of people who use Google Web mail and Google Apps, high and dry.

It was mild melodrama for a few hours but things returned to normal after a few hours. It's still unclear what happened, though Google says it's investigating the problem.

Truth be told, the walls of Jericho did not crumble, though the outage nonetheless triggered the (now thoroughly predictable) hand-wringing and bloviating from the usual cast of characters. Amusing to watch, but after this incident, there's also the wider context to consider.

Any outages are embarrassing. But while Gmail did crash a few times in 2008, this is the first time the service has gone down in quite a while. (As my colleague Stephen Shankland noted, Google extends a guarantee to corporate customers paying for any of its business Apps services, which rely on the cloud. The promise: they will be able to access Gmail at least 99.9 percent of the time every month. If not, Google pays them a penalty fee. So far Google says it hasn't fallen below that mark.)

If these sorts of outages occurred with more regularity, I suppose that would seriously retard cloud computing's growth. Google and Salesforce.com and Amazon and any other purveyors of cloud-based services obviously cringe when their connections fail. Not to underplay the anguish customers and vendors find themselves dealing with, but the real news here is how rare these cloud-computing outages have become.

A few years ago it seemed that eBay's Web site was seizing up all of the time. The reality was less severe but merchants and bidders would scream bloody murder. At the same time, eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, and Buy.com were dealing with repeated denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Things got so bad that some even feared for the future of e-commerce.

We now know how the story turned out. Fact is that there are no 100 percent guarantees anymore, not in a world in which applications increasingly get hosted on the Internet. When things go bump in the night, as they inevitably will, there is going to be a commotion, albeit a temporary one. Get over it, already.

source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10171400-60.html

Infosys Technologies has set up Infosys Science Foundation, a not-for-profit trust to promote research in sciences and honour outstanding contributions and achievements by Indians.

The foundation will be funded by a corpus of Rs 21.5 crore and give out annual awards under different categories. The prize money under each will be Rs 50 lakh, one of the highest in the country for research.

Speaking at a media conference here on Tuesday, N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys, said: "India needs bright minds across all areas of academics
, government, business and society to strive for global excellence. We need to encourage research in the country to address our developmental problems. This award will honour outstanding researchers who will make a difference to our future.''

The jury panel for each area will consist of eminent international personalities and will be selected by the trustees of the foundation.

Infosys had earlier instituted a global award for computing excellence with a cash prize of $ 150,000. The annual award, instituted through the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), comes out of a corpus of $4 million given by Infosys.

Awards in five categories:

l Physical sciences (physics and chemistry)

l Mathematical sciences (mathematics and statistics)

l Engineering sciences (all branches of engineering)

l Life sciences (biology and medicine)

l Social sciences and economics (economics, history, sociology, political science and other social sciences)

source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore/Infy_to_promote_science_research/articleshow/4145994.cms

Satellite tracking of Olive Ridley turtles in Orissa

KENDRAPARA (ORISSA): Orissa Forest department and Wildlife Institute of India has again embarked on a telemetry tracking of endangered marine species by establishing Platform Terminal Transmitters (PTT) linkage on three Olive Ridley turtles along Gahirma tha coast.

The telemetry experiment under the stewardship of a six-member team of WII researchers was successfully conducted on February 1 along Babuballi Island of Gahirmatha coast, according to forest officials.

The experiment which had earlier failed to yield desired results aims at exploring the mysterious path these aquatic species travel. “We intercepted two male turtles and a female along the deep sea water near unmanned Babuballi Island.

They were fitted with PTT telemetry objects weighing about 2 kilograms,'' said a forest official who took part in the exercise. The animals were kept under observation to ensure that foreign objects caused no discomfort to the marine visitors. The WII s cientists monitored their movements before they disappeared and plunged into the swirling sea water.

The entire exercise lasted for a little over an hour, he said. As male turtles never invade the nesting ground where females lay eggs, little is known with regard to their behavioural instinct and movement. – PTI

sources:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14051454.htm

Study shows what makes locusts swarm

LONDON (Reuters) - A brain chemical that lifts people out of depression can transform solitary grasshoppers into swarming desert locusts, a finding that could one day help prevent the devastating plagues, researchers said on Thursday.

Increases of serotonin, the nerve-signaling chemical targeted by many antidepressants, appears to spark the behavior changes needed to turn the normally harmless insects into bugs that gang up to munch crops, they said.

"Our paper shows how this change in behavior changes what are essentially large grasshoppers living in the desert into swarming, destructive pests," said University of Cambridge researcher Stephen Rogers, who worked on the study.

"For a swarm to develop the locusts must transform from a solitary phase into a gregarious phase."

Vast swarms containing billions of locusts stretching over dozens of square kilometers periodically devastated parts of the United States when the West was settled and they continue to inflict economic hardship on parts of Africa and China.

The last big African swarm in 2004 cost $400 million simply to eradicate the pests, a tab that did not included money lost to destroyed crops, Rogers added.

"The gregarious phase is a strategy born of desperation and driven by hunger, and swarming is a response to find pastures new," he said.

Rogers and colleagues, who published their findings in the journal Science, wanted to find out what triggered the behavior change, which occurs when the insects gather in close quarters.

more information log onto:http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNewsMolt/idUKTRE50T04620090130

Help for British Nationals

FCO consular staff in Bahrain offers practical advice, assistance and support to an ever-increasing number of British nationals who travel or live in Bahrain.

Typical consular duties performed by the consular staff include issuing passports and registering births and deaths; handling cases of child abduction and forced marriages; and assisting Britons detained or imprisoned, who have fallen ill or been the victim of a crime. In addition, Consular staff use their local knowledge to assess objectively the risks to British nationals, which range from terrorism to natural disasters.

This information is distilled by the London travel advice unit into the FCO country advice notices, which is relied on by thousands of travellers, tour operators and travel agents.

Steve Jobs May Have Pancreas Removed After Cancer, Doctors Say

jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs could be facing surgery to remove his pancreas, doctors say.

Jobs said yesterday he’s taking a five-month leave of absence after discovering that his health problems are “more complex” than he thought last week.

Jobs had a procedure similar to a Whipple operation, which involves removing parts of the pancreas, bile duct and small intestine, after he was diagnosed with a rare type of pancreatic cancer in 2004. A potential side effect of this procedure is that the organ has to be removed to prevent pancreatic leak, and the patient has to be kept alive with insulin to regulate blood sugar, said Robert Thomas, head of surgery at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.

“You might have to take the rest of the pancreas out,” said Thomas, 66, who first performed the Whipple’s procedure more than 20 years ago. “You’re on significant doses of insulin, and it’s not easy to manage. The person has the risk of severe diabetes.”

Jobs, who handed day-to-day operations to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, said he will remain involved in “major strategic decisions.”

Apple’s unwillingness to provide details on Jobs’s health has frustrated investors, who have watched the shares plummet with each new rumor about his condition. Apple didn’t give any details about Jobs’s health even as he appeared increasingly thin in 2008, saying only it was a private matter. Jobs said last week that he is suffering from a “hormone imbalance” that caused him to lose weight.

Shares Plunge

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, fell as much as 11 percent in extended trading yesterday after Jobs, 53, said he would remain CEO while taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June. Just last week, Jobs said his treatment should be “simple and straightforward.”

“There’s been too little information, and the information that’s come out has been vague -- creating more concern rather than conveying a sense of certainty,” said Nell Minow, founder of the Corporate Library, a research firm specializing in corporate governance based in Portland, Maine. “They have achieved confusion, and a sense of being unsettled.”

Apple is not providing information beyond the statement, said spokesman Steve Dowling. The company’s directors, including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt, either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment.

“What they have done is the extraordinary accomplishment of coming out with a press release that is more opaque than the last one,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean of the Yale University School of Management. “They have now surrendered their credibility.”

‘Not Healthy’

Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976, returned as CEO in 1997 and has revived the Macintosh computer brand while pushing the company into new markets with the iPod media player and iPhone. He rarely gives interviews and once had a biography of him pulled from Apple’s corporate store. Andy Hertzfeld, one of the main architects of the Mac operating software, wrote in his book that those who worked with Jobs said he was surrounded by a “reality distortion field.”

Jobs hasn’t been seen in public since October.

“This should not have gone on this long -- it’s not healthy for the business,” said Charles Elson, director of the University of Delaware’s John Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. “The fact the issue has played around for months makes you wonder at the responsiveness of the board.”

Jobs disclosed in August 2004 that he had surgery to remove a tumor related to a rare form of pancreatic cancer that wouldn’t require chemotherapy or radiation. Cook ran Apple while Jobs took a monthlong leave.

Cancer Surgery

Jobs told Apple’s board about his cancer and directors decided to say nothing, Fortune reported in March 2008. Larry Sonsini, the company’s attorney, told directors that Jobs’s right to privacy topped disclosure rules, the magazine said. Sonsini declined to comment yesterday.

Jobs appeared thinner while introducing the iPhone 3G at Apple’s developers’ conference in June last year, prompting investors to raise questions about his health. The company said at the time he was suffering from a “common bug.”

Jobs continued to appear frail at company events later in the year. Rumors escalated last month when Apple said Jobs wouldn’t deliver the keynote address at the Macworld conference in San Francisco -- ending an 11-year run.

Last week, Jobs said he was suffering a hormone imbalance that had caused him to lose weight and that the remedy is “relatively simple.”

‘Incomplete’

That disclosure “will strike many as incomplete,” in light of yesterday’s announcement, said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia Law School in New York.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may examine whether Jobs or Apple purposely misled investors about his condition, Coffee said. If the stock drops dramatically, shareholders may sue, Coffee said.

Some may give Jobs the benefit of the doubt. In December 1986, after MCI Communications Corp. founder Bill McGowan had a heart attack, two weeks passed before the company made an announcement. Four months later, when McGowan had a heart transplant, the company again was silent for several weeks. McGowan died in 1992.

Apple and Jobs may have made the disclosure last week in good faith, said Joe Grundfest, a professor of capital markets, corporate governance and securities litigation at Stanford University.

‘Unusual and Complicated’

“Mr. Jobs has an unusual and complicated medical condition,” Grundfest said. “When conditions are complicated, physicians have difficulty making clear decisions.”

Still, the pressure now is on Apple’s board to provide more information on the events leading up to Jobs’s decision to take leave, said James Post, a professor of management at Boston University.

“Has Steve Jobs and Apple’s board played fair with investors? There are a lot of unhappy and dissatisfied investors who are going to say the answer is no,” Post said. “The board members may not really answer the question of what did they know and when did they know it until there’s a discovery process in a lawsuit.”

sources:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a6EZTtgfZyRg&refer=news

Obama team to review Afghanistan conflict: paper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama intends to sign off on Pentagon plans to send up to 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help buy time for the new administration to reappraise the war effort, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The incoming administration does not anticipate that the new deployment would significantly change the direction of the conflict, the newspaper said.

Obama campaigned on a promised to "finish the job" in Afghanistan and said he would increase the U.S. military presence there. However, since the November election, he has been flooded with dire assessments of the war, the Post said.

"We have no strategic plan. We never had one," the newspaper quoted a senior U.S. military commander as saying about the Bush years.

Obama's first order of business will be to "explain to the American people what the mission is" in Afghanistan, the official told the newspaper.

Senior Obama team members and Bush administration officials interviewed for the article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the presidential transition, the Post said.

A retired senior officer with long Afghan experience and ties to the Obama team was quoted as saying that they were going to have to agree on a set of options and a decision on a single strategy. "It's going to require a much more complex assessment by Obama," the source said.

The new administration says it will not be rushed into a decision on Afghanistan.

"We are taking a long, hard look at these issues now," a transition adviser told the newspaper

for more information: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE50C1B620090113

Obama team to review Afghanistan conflict: paper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama intends to sign off on Pentagon plans to send up to 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help buy time for the new administration to reappraise the war effort, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The incoming administration does not anticipate that the new deployment would significantly change the direction of the conflict, the newspaper said.

Obama campaigned on a promised to "finish the job" in Afghanistan and said he would increase the U.S. military presence there. However, since the November election, he has been flooded with dire assessments of the war, the Post said.

"We have no strategic plan. We never had one," the newspaper quoted a senior U.S. military commander as saying about the Bush years.

Obama's first order of business will be to "explain to the American people what the mission is" in Afghanistan, the official told the newspaper.

Senior Obama team members and Bush administration officials interviewed for the article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the presidential transition, the Post said.

A retired senior officer with long Afghan experience and ties to the Obama team was quoted as saying that they were going to have to agree on a set of options and a decision on a single strategy. "It's going to require a much more complex assessment by Obama," the source said.

The new administration says it will not be rushed into a decision on Afghanistan.

"We are taking a long, hard look at these issues now," a transition adviser told the newspaper

for more information: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE50C1B620090113

Patrick Swayze hospitalized for pneumonia

Patrick Swayze has developed pneumonia and has checked himself into a hospital for observation.

The news was revealed Friday at a press event for the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles.

"As we arrived here this morning we have some news," A&E President Abbe Raven told People. "Patrick Swayze has checked himself into the hospital. However, he asked us specifically to go forward with today's panel. We wish him the very best with his recovery."

The actor, who is battling pancreatic cancer, was going to appear at the TCA to talk about his new show, "The Beast," scheduled to air Jan. 15.

But don't count him out yet.

"Patrick is undergoing treatment and he's still fighting," a source tells People. "He felt so bad that he couldn't be at the TCAs. He's fighting and doing well, and that's all anybody can hope for at this stage. He is not at death's door. Nobody ever knows with cancer, but he's doing alright."

Good luck, Patrick. We're rooting — and praying — for you.

for more information:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/01/patrick-swayze.html

Patrick Swayze hospitalized for pneumonia

Patrick Swayze has developed pneumonia and has checked himself into a hospital for observation.

The news was revealed Friday at a press event for the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles.

"As we arrived here this morning we have some news," A&E President Abbe Raven told People. "Patrick Swayze has checked himself into the hospital. However, he asked us specifically to go forward with today's panel. We wish him the very best with his recovery."

The actor, who is battling pancreatic cancer, was going to appear at the TCA to talk about his new show, "The Beast," scheduled to air Jan. 15.

But don't count him out yet.

"Patrick is undergoing treatment and he's still fighting," a source tells People. "He felt so bad that he couldn't be at the TCAs. He's fighting and doing well, and that's all anybody can hope for at this stage. He is not at death's door. Nobody ever knows with cancer, but he's doing alright."

Good luck, Patrick. We're rooting — and praying — for you.

for more information:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/01/patrick-swayze.html

BlackBerry Curve, Bold, and Storm Fuse Into Curve 8900

LAS VEGAS – AT&T has the Bold. Verizon has the Storm. Now T-Mobile has their very own next-generation BlackBerry: the BlackBerry Curve 8900, which combines some of the top features from previous BlackBerry lines.

The hybrid Curve takes the Curve's much-loved separated keyboard, and combines it with the Bold's high-res 2.4-inch 360x480 screen, plus the Storm's 3.2-megapixel camera. The device was announced at the CES 2008 show here.

The 8900 is made from hard plastic, much like the Curve, though the black color is Bold-like and the sleek back cover takes a cue from the Storm. Measuring 4.29 inches x 2.36 inches x 0.53 inches and 3.87 ounces, it's ever so slightly slimmer and lighter than T-Mobile's existing popular Curve 8320. Like the 8320, it runs on T-Mobile's EDGE network, for decent but not great Internet speeds nationwide, and supplements that with Wi-Fi, including voice calls over T-Mobile's Wi-Fi "HotSpot Calling" system, formerly known as HotSpot@Home. That Wi-Fi calling feature offers unlimited voice calls for $10/month over any Wi-Fi network.

The innards of the 8900 seem more like the Bold's than the Curve's. It has a 528-MHz processor running the latest BlackBerry OS 4.6, including a pumped-up media player with native support for DivX, Xvid, MP4 and WMV video files, and pretty much all unprotected audio files. There's GPS, stereo Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and 480x352 video recording on the lovely 3.2-megapixel camera.

The beefy 1400 mAh battery is rated for 5.5 hours of talk time, but I think it'll get much longer than that on power-sipping EDGE networks; this device could last several days on a charge.

Like the Bold and Storm, the 8900 uses the latest version of the BlackBerry desktop software, which syncs with Outlook, Windows Media Player and iTunes on PCs. The BlackBerry desktop software is clunky – nowhere near as smooth as the iPhone's – but it definitely beats the T-Mobile G1, which has no direct PC syncing options at all.

In my experience, the Curve's keyboard layout has been extremely popular – much more popular than the Bold's close-together keys, though people like the Bold for other reasons. At this price, and on value-focused T-Mobile, I think the 8900 is going to be very successful. I'll have a full review in February.

The BlackBerry 8900 has been out in Canada, on Rogers Wireless, and in Germany on T-Mobile for a while, but this is its U.S. debut. It will be available in February; T-Mobile did not announce a price as yet.

Source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2337961,00.asp