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Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Timbuktu Chronicles: Investing in Health - Avenue Healthcare ...
Investing in Health - Avenue Healthcare (Kenya) receives a $2.5m investment
In African Capital Markets News:Aureos Africa Health Fund invested $2.5 million in a Kenyan hospital and health insurance company, the Avenue Group , which offers affordable healthcare cover, integrated with quality healthcare provision. It has a 70-bed full-purpose hospital in Nairobi, 7 clinics through Kenya as well as in-house clinics for corporate clients, a home-based care service for elderly, terminally ill or otherwise dependent patients, rental and sale of wheelchairs and other rehabilitation equipment for home use, and First Aid training schemes. It combines healthcare cover with quality, affordable outpatient and inpatient medical services. The group?s corporate medical schemes are designed to be accessible to businesses with as few as 10 employees and around 70% of the staff covered are in non-managerial roles. With Aureos investment, Avenue Group will expand into other regions in Kenya, building 2 more clinics in smaller towns and expanding existing in-patient facilities in Kisumu and Mombasa. The funding will ensure the group can continue non-profit activities, such as free medical camps across Kenya and public health screening days at Avenue clinics...[continue reading]
Source: http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/11/investing-in-health-avenue-healthcare.html
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Environmental programs fall victim to budget cuts
BOISE, Idaho (AP) ? When lightning ignited a wildfire near Idaho's Sun Valley in 2007, environmental regulators used monitoring gear to gauge the health effects for those breathing in the Sawtooth Mountains' smoky, mile-high air.
That equipment sits idle today after the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality was hit by $4 million in spending cuts, a quarter of its budget, since the recession began. Water testing on selenium-laced streams in Idaho's phosphate mining country also has been cut back, as have mercury monitoring and hazardous waste inspections.
The cuts to environmental programs in Idaho provide a snapshot of a national trend. Conservation programs and environmental regulations have been pared back significantly in many states that have grappled with budget deficits in recent years.
Because environmental programs are just a sliver of most state budgets, the cuts often go without much public notice. More attention is focused on larger reductions in Medicaid, public education or prisons.
A 24-state survey by the Environmental Council of States, the national association of state environmental agency leaders, showed agency budgets decreasing by an average of $12 million in 2011. The Washington, D.C.-based group also says federal grants to help states administer new federal Environmental Protection Agency rules regarding air and water quality also have waned, falling by 5.1 percent since 2004.
Regulators in many states say they are trying to maintain fundamental environmental protections required by the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and other federal laws.
"Hopefully, even with all the cuts in place, we're still doing a good job of protecting that," said Martin Bauer, Idaho's air quality administrator.
Yet environmentalists and some state regulators are concerned that the budget cuts imperil programs designed to safeguard public health and safety.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican presidential candidate, signed a budget that cut funding for the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality more than 30 percent, from $833 million to $565 million. That included reducing air quality inspections and assessments.
Colin Meehan, of the Environmental Defense Fund in Austin, worries that Texas will struggle to meet Clean Air Act obligations.
"We see this as not just a problem from a regulatory standpoint," he said. "It's a public health issue."
While the Texas agency reduced state incentive programs to cut pollutants, those were not required by federal law, agency spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said. The reductions "are only one part of the state's overall approach" to paring emissions, she said.
In some states where conservatives control the Legislature and the governor's office, environmentalists have been critical of deep cutbacks to the programs they had fought to implement. Some suggest the severity of the cuts is due as much to a political agenda to reduce government regulations as it is to cope with state budget deficits.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott's first budget included his veto of a $500,000 water quality study on Lake Okeechobee and some $20 million in cuts to Everglades' restoration. Scott, a Republican, said the steps were necessary to balance a state budget hard hit by home foreclosures and real estate losses.
But the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature also cut $210 million from property tax revenue intended for local water-management districts that protect Florida's swamplands. Environmentalists blasted those cuts, complaining they were meant to help Scott fulfill pledge to cut taxes.
"It would have been appropriate for there to have been some level of budget reductions," Audubon of Florida advocacy director Charles Lee said. "But it's clear what happened in Tallahassee in 2011 was targeted, ideologically driven, and I would add, mean-spirited."
Scott insists his administration uncovered overly generous pension payments and questionable purchases by the local water districts. He said water resources deserve protecting, but the agencies that oversee them also must be fiscally responsible.
Budget cuts have affected high-profile programs in several other states, as well.
In South Carolina, they mean health officials will not perform a statewide study of how mercury-tainted fish affect those who eat them. Contaminated fish have been found in some 1,700 miles of the state's rivers. That state's Department of Natural Resources' budget was cut more than 50 percent, dropping to $14 million from $32 million.
The state Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania has seen general fund support slip from $217 million in 2009 to $140 million, levels last seen in 1994.
"This is a silent train wreck that's happening," said David Hess, the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "What these cuts do is cut the capacity and the ability of environmental agencies to do their jobs."
At best, states will know less about how their air and water quality are faring. At worst, they could become dirtier and more dangerous places to live, Hess said.
Oregon, for example, reduced air pollution monitoring, as the Department of Environmental Quality faces budget cuts through 2013. In North Carolina, lawmakers eliminated a $480,000 mapping program created after a landslide killed five people in 2004, jettisoning the jobs of six geologists who said more maps were needed to help protect Appalachian mountain residents by helping them decide where it is safe to build.
"It's very shortsighted," said DJ Gerken, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Ashville, N.C. "We've had 48 landslide deaths since 1916. What's changed is the appetite for building in these areas where risks are most abundant."
In some cases, it's difficult to know what effect the spending cuts will have over the long term because environmental problems often evolve over time.
When Washington's Legislature trimmed $30 million, or 27 percent, from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's budget, three employees who had been diving in the Puget Sound to hunt down invasive sea squirts lost their jobs.
The gelatinous invaders, known as tunicates, form a goopy mat on the sea floor, raising fears that they will hurt the shellfish industry, as they have in eastern Canada.
"We are basically addressing tunicates on an emergency basis only," said Allen Pleus, Washington state's aquatic invasive species coordinator.
While the state's oyster growers will not rule out the potential for future problems caused by the sea squirts, they say they do not see an immediate threat to their livelihoods.
"There isn't any place I'm aware of that the tunicates are causing harm on the shellfish farms," said Bill Dewey, of Taylor Shellfish Farms in Shelton, Wash.
Elsewhere, budget cuts to invasive species programs have caused more alarm.
The Hawaii Invasive Species Council, a main player in that state's fight against non-native plants and animals, saw its budget cut by more than half to $1.8 million.
Fearing "a collapse of our inspection capacity," spokeswoman Deborah Ward said her agency redirected 40 percent of its remaining money to preserve inspections that help keep invasive pests such as brown tree snakes from hitchhiking their way into the islands from Guam. Hawaii has no native snakes, so experts fears their arrival could decimate native bird species.
As the money was shifted, however, the state cut back on field crews who targeted invasive species already on the islands. Those include pigs, wild goats and sheep that can decimate an ecosystem full of plants that evolved without natural protections, like thorns.
"They're like bonbons for pigs," Christy Martin, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species in Honolulu, said of the state's native plants. "If there's nobody out there actually doing the work, you get astronomical reproduction. We have a year-round breeding season here, so everything goes crazy, and you lose ground."
___
Associated Press writers Emery P. Dalesio in Raleigh, N.C.; Jim Davenport in Columbia, S.C.; Bill Kaczor in Tallahassee, Fla.; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Philip Rawls in Montgomery, Ala.; and Chris Tomlinson in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
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Monday, 28 November 2011
Dan Walters: Craziness governs school aid in California (Sacramento Bee)
FLIR Scout Lightning Review: IT LETS YOU SEE IN THE DARK, DUDE [Video]
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Sunday, 27 November 2011
Lern2Play
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UN conference to deal with carbon reductions
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) ? The U.N.'s top climate official said Sunday she expects governments to make a long-delayed decision on whether industrial countries should make further commitments to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.
Amid fresh warnings of climate-related disasters in the future, delegates from about 190 countries were gathering in Durban for a two-week conference beginning Monday. They hope to break deadlocks on how to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. climate secretariat, said the stakes for the negotiations are high, underscored by new scientific studies.
Under discussion was "nothing short of the most compelling energy, industrial, behavioral revolution that humanity has ever seen," she said.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a hero of the movement that ended apartheid in South Africa, led a rally at a rugby stadium later Sunday urging negotiators to be more ambitious during what were expected to be difficult talks. Unseasonably cold, windy weather kept the crowd to a few hundred spectators.
Tutu, dressed in ecumenical purple robes, he said the struggle to end the racist regime in his homeland is now followed by a fight against "another huge enemy, and no country can fight this particular enemy on its own."
He chided countries that have been reluctant to renew pledges to cut carbon emissions. Whether rich or poor, "we have only one home. This is the only home we have," he said. "For your own sakes, you who are rich, we are inviting you: Come on the side of right."
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI ? sometimes called the "green pope" for his outspokenness on environmental issues ? also called for the delegates in Durban to heed the needs of the world's poor.
"I hope that all members of the international community agree on a responsible and credible response to this worrisome and complex phenomenon, taking into account the needs of the poorest and future generations," he said during his traditional Sunday blessing from his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square.
Hopes were scrapped for an overall treaty governing global carbon emissions after the collapse of talks at a climate summit in Copenhagen two years ago. The "big bang" approach has been replaced by incremental efforts to build new institutions to help shift the global economy from carbon-intensive energy generation, industries and transportation to more climate-friendly technologies.
But an underlying division between rich and poor countries on the future of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has stymied the negotiators.
Figueres said she hoped for a decision on extending emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto accord, which has been postponed for two years. Previous commitments expire next year.
"It's a tall order for governments to face this," but they show no interest in yet another delay, she said.
High on the conference agenda is the management of a fund scaling up over the next eight years to $100 billion annually to help poor countries cope with changing climate conditions.
Questions remain how the money will be governed and distributed, but more immediately, how those funds can be generated from new sources beyond established development channels from the West.
Ideas on the table include a carbon surcharge on international shipping and on air tickets, and a levy on international financial transactions ? sometimes called a Robin Hood tax.
A committee of 40 countries worked for the past year on drawing up a plan to administer the Green Climate Fund, but agreement on the final paper was blocked by the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the final contentious issues will have to be thrashed out in Durban.
Todd Stern, the chief U.S. delegate, said the negotiations had been too rushed.
"I am pretty confident that we're going to be able to work these things out," he told reporters last week, without naming the problematic issues.
But Figueres said the future of the Kyoto accord, which calls on 37 wealthy nations to reduce carbon emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by the end of next year, is the most difficult political issue that nations face.
"If it were easy we would have done it years ago," she said.
Poor countries want the industrial nations to commit to more cuts for a second period, saying the protocol is the only legal instrument ever adopted to control carbon and other gases that trap the Earth's heat.
But the wealthy countries, with growing consensus, say they cannot carry the burden alone, and want rapidly developing countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa to join their own legally binding regime to slow their emissions growth and move toward low-carbon economies.
"We need to protect the Kyoto Protocol as the bedrock of the global climate regime," Tim Gore, the climate strategist for the aid agency Oxfam International, told The Associated Press.
In the weeks preceding the conference delegates have been bombarded by new research and scientific reports predicting grim consequences for failing to act.
The U.N. weather agency reported last week that greenhouse gases have reached record-level concentrations in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial era in 1750. New figures for 2010 from the World Meteorological Organization show that carbon dioxide levels are now at 389 parts per million, up from about 280 ppm 250 years ago.
This week the weather agency is due to report on global temperatures for 2011, which are expected to show a continuing long-term trend of global warming. The Geneva-based agency said last year that 2010 was the hottest year in the books.
The Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said "unprecedented extreme weather" caused by global warming will become increasingly frequent and make some places unlivable.
___
Nicole Winfield contributed to this report from Rome.
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Clinton announces $10 million in Thailand flood relief aid, Bangkok distracted by politics
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a $10 million aid package for Thailand flood relief during a visit to Bangkok Wednesday.
Both US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid visits to Bangkok today as a fierce political debate threatens to destabilize the flood-ravaged country.
Skip to next paragraphMrs. Clinton announced more than $10 million in extra flood relief assistance, telling media in Bangkok that she ?admired the resilience of the Thai government and people.?
Areas of the capital, Bangkok, are still under water almost four months after the Thailand's worst-ever floods grabbed headlines worldwide. The official death toll is now at 564, and several neighborhoods of Bangkok were today ordered to evacuate as water slowly drains through Bangkok toward the sea.?
The night before the high profile arrivals, however, the Thai government discussed an official pardon for some 26,000 felons, possibly including fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a September 2006 coup and faces two years jail time for corruption in office.
The mere hint of his return to Thailand has riled the country's opposition.
The pardon was discussed by the Thai cabinet on Tuesday and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ? Thaksin's younger sister ? will present the country's King Bhumibol Adulyadej with a list of names for pardon to mark the monarch's 84th birthday on Dec. 5.
While the focus of the Clinton visit was on the disaster and on the upcoming Asia-Pacific summit meetings in Bali, Indonesia, the pardon eventually came up.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra sidestepped the issue, however, reminding journalists that she wasn't present when the pardon was discussed and suggested that the matter was in the hands, for now, of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubumrung.
Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva said today that any move to pardon Thaksin would undermine the rule of law in Thailand. He is expected to take up the issue in parliament.
Clinton made no comment on the pardon issue, but praised the work of the truth and reconciliation body set up by the former Thai government to investigate the Thaksin-backed "redshirt" street protests that turned ugly in 2010, killing 91 people.
The latest pardon attempt increases the possibility of new protests in the country.
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HP ProBook 4430s
Big businesses and corporate IT departments may be able to afford to spend a grand or two when purchasing a business laptop, but the latest offering from HP caters to the little guy; the small business with a correspondingly small budget. For the price of an entry-level consumer laptop, you can pick up the HP Probook 4430s ($620 street), a slim, portable business laptop that won't embarrass you in front of a client or leave you high and dry during a major project.
Design
The HP ProBook 4430s has an all-metal design that brings to mind the MacBook Pro, but deeper inspection shows a myriad of differences. Unlike the MacBook Pro, with its silver unibody and rounded corners, the 4430s has a design that's all right angles, and a two-tone look that shows off its two metal constructions. The lid and palm rest of the sport bare brushed aluminum, but the frame is made of light and tough magnesium alloy. The underside is magnesium alloy as well, but it's hidden behind a coat of black soft-touch rubberized paint, which provides a better grip and traction than bare metal.
While most of the laptop features metal construction, you'll find black plastic surrounding the 14-inch screen. The display offers 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is average for this size screen, but the SRS Premium Sound does provide better than average sound, whether listening to music or teleconferencing. Speaking of teleconferencing, an HD webcam sits just above the screen, ready for use with Skype or your preferred video conferencing tool. It's also commuter friendly, weighing only 4.75 pounds, nearly the same as the Dell Vostro 3350 ($741 direct, 4 stars), though it's a bit bigger, measuring 1.11 by 13 by 9.26-inches (HWD).
The 4430s has a chiclet-style keyboard, and its matte-black keys are actually rather stout. Where many laptops use low-profile keys for a light and effortless typing experience, the keys of the Probook feel sturdy under the finger tips, and no comfort in typing is lost. It's also spill resistant, so you can use it during a working lunch without experiencing beverage anxiety. Below the keyboard is a multitouch trackpad that lets you scroll, swipe, and zoom with two or three fingers. The trackpad is covered with a layer of chemically-strengthened glass, which feels superb beneath the fingers, as do the separate right and left mouse buttons.
Features
The 4430s has a full feature set, offering three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, VGA and HDMI outputs, Microphone and Headphone jacks, a multi-format card reader (SD, MMC, MS/Pro), and an ExpressCard slot on the left hand side of the laptop. You also get a full selection of networking options, with Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0. The only feature that was missing was WiMAX or another wireless 4G broadband solution, as on-the-go connectivity is a must have for many business users. In addition to the regular collection of ports and connectors, the ProBook also features HP's ProtectTools, a built-in security suite that includes everything from secure log-in with fingerprint or facial recognition to full disk encryption and BIOS-level password security.
The 4430s is equipped with a DVD +/- RW dual-layer optical drive, though configurations are also available with Blu-ray. A 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive offers enough storage for all your daily work, and is the same size and speed as the hard drive found in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 ($1,399.99 direct, 3.5 stars). HP protects this hard drive with its 3D DriveGuard, which automatically slows or stops the spinning disk when the laptop is moved or dropped. They further protect the laptop with a one-year warranty covering parts and labor.
Performance
The 4430s is available in a variety of configurations, with a wide selection of processors, graphics solutions, and drives to meet whatever your specific needs may be. Our review unit, however, was equipped with an Intel Core i3-2310M processor, a 2.1GHz dual-core CPU from Intel's second-generation line-up. With 4GB of RAM, this combination offers significant productive power while still fitting into the budget of a small-business. In our PCMark 7 benchmark, the 4430s scored 1,988 points, on par with the consumer focused Toshiba Satellite L745-S4210 ($639.99 list, 3.5 stars) (2,035) and indicating that the system is well equipped to handle any business task you throw at it. In our CineBench R11.5 processor speed test, the 4430s scored 2.02 points, but it fell behind the speeds of other portable business systems that were equipped with Core i5 and i7 processors. For example, the Lenovo X1 scored 2.25.
Despite relying on Intel's integrated graphics, the 4430s still produced respectable scores in our graphics benchmark tests. In 3DMark 06, the 4430s scored 3744 points at medium resolution settings and 3181 points at full 1366 by 768 resolution. These scores show a huge improvement over the integrated graphics found in previous Intel systems, like the Dell Latitude E5510 ($884 direct, 4 stars), which scored only 1,864 (medium) and 1,418 (native). Even if you don't plan on gaming with the Probook, the graphics capabilities are enough that you could, with the 4430s producing 13.78 frames per second in Crysis and 13.1 fps in Lost Planet 2 when running at medium resolution settings. While neither game is playable at this level, and neither would even run at native resolution, these scores indicate that gaming is not out of reach for lighter 3D games like Team Fortress 2. More importantly, the underlying capability is strong enough to handle the graphics load of most any business application.
If your work ever ventures into the realm of multimedia presentations, you'll be pleased to know that the 4430s handles those demands as well. It completed our Handbrake video encoding test in 2 minutes 23 seconds, besting consumer oriented laptops like the Toshiba Satellite L745-S4210 (3:10) and HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl ($649.99 list, 4.5 stars) (3:13), and even edging past the Dell 3350 (2:33). It also cranked through our Photoshop CS5 test in 5 minutes 37 seconds, beating the Toshiba L745-S4210 (6:35) and HP dv6-6013cl (5:48), but failing to match the Lenovo X1 (3:55) and the Dell 3350 (4:17). While this performance won't match anything used by professional graphic designers, you can rest easy knowing that you can still do multimedia work on the road with the 4430s.
The 4430s comes equipped with a 6-cell 47Wh battery. In our MobileMark 2007 battery-life test it lasted 3 hours 31 minutes. This actually beats out the Lenovo X1, which managed only 3:10 with its 40Wh battery, but other systems are better equipped for the road, like the Dell Vostro (9:37, 80Wh), which offers a battery twice as large and lasts three times as long.
For small businesses having to make do with a tight budget, the HP ProBook 4430s provides a competent, professional looking laptop that can meet the demands of a busy professional, whether in the office or on the road. While you'll still feel the compromise in a few areas, like the lack of mobile broadband or the 3:31 battery-life, overall the 4430s is a solid solution for small business and home-based professionals. Anyone who demands faster performance or a better feature set will probably be better off with the Editors' Choice Dell Vostro 3350.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the HP ProBook 4430s with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews:
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??? HP ProBook 4430s
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Saturday, 26 November 2011
Biden's 2012 targets: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida (AP)
WASHINGTON ? A year from Election Day, Democrats are crafting a campaign strategy for Vice President Joe Biden that targets the big three political battlegrounds: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, states where Biden might be more of an asset to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign than the president himself.
The Biden plan underscores an uncomfortable reality for the Obama team. A shaky economy and sagging enthusiasm among Democrats could shrink the electoral map for Obama in 2012, forcing his campaign to depend on carrying the 67 electoral votes up for grabs in the three swing states.
Obama won all three states in 2008. But this time he faces challenges in each, particularly in Ohio and Florida, where voters elected Republican governors in the 2010 midterm elections.
The president sometimes struggles to connect with Ohio and Pennsylvania's white working-class voters, and Jewish voters who make up a core constituency for Florida Democrats and view him with skepticism.
Biden has built deep ties to both groups during his four decades in national politics, connections that could make a difference.
As a long-serving member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden cemented his reputation as an unyielding supporter of Israel, winning the respect of many in the Jewish community. And Biden's upbringing in a working class, Catholic family from Scranton, Pa., gives him a valuable political intangible: He empathizes with the struggles of blue-collar Americans because his family lived those struggles.
"Talking to blue-collar voters is perhaps his greatest attribute," said Dan Schnur, a Republican political analyst. "Obama provides the speeches, and Biden provides the blue-collar subtitles."
While Biden's campaign travel won't kick into high gear until next year, he's already been making stops in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida this fall, speaking at events focused on education, public safety and small businesses and raising campaign cash. Behind the scenes, he's working the phones with prominent Jewish groups and Catholic organizations in those states, a Democratic official said.
Biden is also targeting organized labor, speaking frequently with union leaders in Ohio ahead of a vote earlier this month on a state law that would have curbed collective bargaining rights for public workers. After voters struck down the measure, Biden traveled to Cleveland to celebrate the victory with union members.
The Democratic official said the vice president will also be a frequent visitor to Iowa and New Hampshire in the coming weeks, seeking to steal some of the spotlight from the Republican presidential candidates blanketing those states ahead of the January caucus and primary.
And while Obama may have declared that he won't be commenting on the Republican presidential field until there's a nominee, Biden is following no such rules. He's calling out GOP candidates by name, and in true Biden style, he appears to be relishing in doing so.
During a speech last month to the Florida Democratic Convention, Biden singled out "Romney and Rick", criticizing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for saying the government should let the foreclosure crisis hit rock bottom, and hammering Texas Gov. Rick Perry's assertion that he would send U.S. troops into Mexico.
And he took on the full GOP field during an October fundraiser in New Hampshire, saying "There is no fundamental difference among all the Republican candidates."
Democratic officials said Biden will follow in the long-standing tradition of vice presidents playing the role of attack dog, allowing Obama to stay out of the fray and appear more focused on governing than campaigning.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal strategy. The Obama campaign has been reluctant to publically define Biden's role in the re-election bid this early in the run, though campaign manager Jim Messina did say the vice president would deliver an economic message to appeal for support.
"You'll see him in communities across the country next year laying out the choice we face: restoring economic security for the middle class or returning to the same policies that led to our economic challenges," Messina said.
Democrats say Biden will campaign for House candidates in swing states as the party tries to recapture some of the seats in Congress lost during the 2010 midterms.
And here again, the vice president's efforts in politically crucial Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida could be most important. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting 12 districts in those states that Obama and Biden carried in the 2008 presidential race but are represented by Republican representatives.
New York Rep. Steve Israel, who chairs the committee, said he believes Biden could be a "game-changer" in those districts.
"All he has to do is ask voters, has the Republican strategy of no worked for you?" Israel said.
Israel met with Obama and Biden at the White House earlier this month to discuss, among other things, their role in congressional campaigns. While Israel said he hopes Obama will actively campaign for Democratic House candidates, he said "the vice president has already volunteered."
___
Julie Pace can be reached at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC.
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Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid (Reuters)
YAKKAGHUND, Pakistan (Reuters) ? NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan relations, already deeply frayed, further into crisis.
Pakistan retaliated by shutting down vital NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in almost half of the alliance's non-lethal materiel.
The attack is the worst single incident of its kind since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with Washington in the days immediately following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan, its ally in the war on militancy, have been strained following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in a raid on the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in May, which Pakistan called a flagrant violation of sovereignty.
The Pakistani government and military brimmed with fury.
"This is an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty," said Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. "We will not let any harm come to Pakistan's sovereignty and solidarity."
The Foreign Office said it would take up the matter "in the strongest terms" with NATO and the United States.
The powerful Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, said in a statement issued by the Pakistani military that "all necessary steps be under taken for an effective response to this irresponsible act.
"A strong protest has been launched with NATO/ISAF in which it has been demanded that strong and urgent action be taken against those responsible for this aggression."
The commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, General John R. Allen, said he had offered his condolences to the family of any Pakistani soldiers who "may have been killed or injured" during an "incident" on the border.
A spokesman for the force declined further comment on the nature of the "incident" and said an investigation was proceeding. It was not yet clear, he said, whether there had been deaths or injuries.
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad also offered condolences.
"I regret the loss of life of any Pakistani servicemen, and pledge that the United States will work closely with Pakistan to investigate this incident," ambassador Cameron Munter said in a statement.
EARLY MORNING ATTACK
Two military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the outposts, about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the Afghan border. The Pakistani military said 24 troops were killed and 13 wounded.
It remains unclear what exactly happened, but the attack took place around 2 a.m. (2100 GMT) in the Baizai area of Mohmand, where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban militants.
"Pakistani troops effectively responded immediately in self-defense to NATO/ISAF's aggression with all available weapons," the Pakistani military statement said.
About 40 Pakistani army troops were stationed at the outposts, military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead.
"The latest attack by NATO forces on our post will have serious repercussions as they without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep," said a senior Pakistani military officer, requesting anonymity.
Reflecting the confusion of war in an ill-defined border area, an Afghan border police official, Edrees Momand, said joint Afghan-NATO troops near the outpost on Saturday morning had detained several militants.
"I am not aware of the casualties on the other side of the border but those we have detained aren't Afghan Taliban," he said, implying they were Pakistani Taliban operating in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan border is often poorly marked, and differs between maps by up to five miles in some places.
The incident occurred a day after Allen met Kayani to discuss border control and enhanced cooperation.
"After the recent meetings between Pakistan and ISAF/NATO forces to build confidence and trust, these kind of attacks should not have taken place," a senior military source told Reuters.
BLOCKED SUPPLIES
NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar hours after the raid, officials said.
"We have halted the supplies and some 40 tankers and trucks have been returned from the check post in Jamrud," Mutahir Zeb, a senior government official, told Reuters.
Another official said the supplies had been stopped for security reasons.
"There is possibility of attacks on NATO supplies passing through the volatile Khyber tribal region, therefore we sent them back toward Peshawar to remain safe," he said.
The border crossing at Chaman in Baluchistan was also closed, Frontier Corps officials said.
Pakistan is a vital land route for 49 percent of NATO's supplies to its troops in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said.
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2009, which killed two Pakistani troops, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.
NATO apologized for that incident, which it said happened when NATO gunships mistook warning shots by the Pakistani forces for a militant attack.
U.S.-Pakistan relations were already reeling from a tumultuous year that saw the bin Laden raid, the jailing of a CIA contractor, and U.S. accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
The United States has long suspected Pakistan of continuing to secretly support Taliban militant groups to secure influence in Afghanistan after most NATO troops leave in 2014. Saturday's incident will give Pakistan the argument that NATO is now attacking it directly.
"I think we should go to the United Nations Security Council against this," said retired Brigadier Mahmood Shah, former chief of security in the tribal areas. "So far, Pakistan is being blamed for all that is happening in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's point of view has not been shown in the international media."
Other analysts, including Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, said Pakistan would protest and close the supply lines for some time, but that ultimately "things will get back to normal."
Paul Beaver, a British security analyst, said relations were so bad that this incident might have no noticeable impact.
"I'm not sure U.S.-Pakistan relations could sink much lower than they are now," he said..
(Additional reporting by Bushra Takseen, Saud Mehsud, Jibran Ahmad and Saeed Achakzai in Pakistan, and Hamid Shalizi in Afghanistan; Writing by Augustine Anthony and Chris Allbritton; Editing by Ron Popeski)
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Public restrooms ripe with bacteria, study says
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Everyone wonders what bugs might be lurking in public bathrooms. Now researchers are using novel genetic sequencing methods to answer this question, revealing a plethora of bacteria all around, from the doors and the floors to the faucet handles and toilet seats, with potential public health implications, as reported Nov. 23 in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Led by Gilberto Flores and Noah Fierer of the University of Colorado, Boulder, the researchers investigated 12 public restrooms, 6 male and 6 female, in Colorado. Using a high-throughput genetic sequencing technique, they identified various bacteria on all the surfaces they tested. The floor had the most diverse bacterial community, and human skin was the primary source of bacteria on all surfaces. Interestingly, there were a few differences between the bacteria found in the male versus female bathrooms.
The sequencing approach they used also allowed them to determine the source of the bacteria they identified, including skin, soil, and urine. This methodology, according to the authors, could potentially help "analyze bathroom bacterial communities to identify proper (or improper) hygiene habitats, and that the exchange of bacteria on building surfaces may represent an important mode of pathogen transmission between individuals."
###
Flores GE, Bates ST, Knights D, Lauber CL, Stombaugh J, et al. (2011) Microbial Biogeography of Public Restroom Surfaces.PLoS ONE6(11): e28132.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028132
Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org
Thanks to Public Library of Science for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115459/Public_restrooms_ripe_with_bacteria__study_says
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U.S. Airways Questions Students Before Flight
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Students from the United Arab Emirates were taken off a Thanksgiving Day flight from Charlotte to Washington and rescreened by security, causing the flight to be delayed for more than four hours.
A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration said the US Airways pilot requested Charlotte airport police assist in removing individuals from the plane because of a perceived security concern. TSA and airport police responded and later determined the individuals did not pose any security threat.
A spokeswoman for US Airways declined to comment about the nature or origin of the security concern.
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Friday, 25 November 2011
Kourtney and Kim Take New York: 7 Signs Kim and Kris Were Doomed From the Start (omg!)
The latest installment of Kardashian programming, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, premieres Sunday (10/9c, E!), and because we love our readers so much, we've already suffered through it...so you don't have to! The basic premise of this series is simple: Kris and Kim's relationship was doomed from the start. We've analyzed the evidence at hand, and broken down the episode into seven examples of why the writing was on the wall for these two. We then determined a winning party for each argument, tallied up the points, and have selected a loser to blame for the divorce. The evidence, below:
EXHIBIT 1: FEELING MARRIED
He says: "This is so different. I really don't even feel married right now."
She says: "I hope you do."
Winner: Kim (Dude, you just got hitched on TV in front of millions. You're the most married guy in America right now). +1
EXHIBIT 2: THE PEDICURE-RUINER
She says: "Ow! You just f------- ruined my pedicure! Seriously you...my whole toe just f------- broke in half!"
He says: "It's not even bleeding. Kim is a classic over-reactor."
She says: "You always do this sh-- to me, because you're so rough! OK, I know it's just a broken toenail, but this isn't the first time he's broken my toenail. He does it on a weekly basis."
Winner: Kim (Everyone knows how annoying it is to get a pedicure and have it smudge just hours later). +1
EXHIBIT 3: FORCEFUL FRANKENSTEIN
She says: "You're so forceful!" Kim says, as he rips her camera out of her hands.
He says: "You're my wife now. It's gonna take a lot to get rid of me."
Winner: Kim (Being his wife is no excuse for pushy, abusive behavior). +1
EXHIBIT 4: SPACE CONTROL
He says: "She put stuff in the closet...and I threw it on the floor. Just to make a statement."
She says: "I can't live with Kris! He's just like, such a slob. I'm not used to anyone in my space, let alone in my space and messing it all up."
Winner: Kris (Kim -- you're too pretty to be so neurotic. You might want to look into anti-anxiety meds). +1
EXHIBIT 5: THE PARTY CIRCUIT
He says: "She talks me into going to this 'Welcome to New York' party, and she's not ready to go. I'm getting really annoyed."
She says: "It's this fun, glamorous party, and it's important that Kris is a part of this."
He says: "You care about that. I don't give a f---."
Winner: Kim (Come on man, you knew what you were getting into! If you didn't want to be paparazzi prey, you shouldn't have married a Kardashian). +1
EXHIBIT 6: WHO'S THE BABY?
He says: "I can't live with two girls and a baby," (referring to Kourtney, Kim, and Mason).
She says: "I think that Kris is being a baby. You are so immature, I can't take it."
He says: "You can't take it? I can't take it."
Winner: Kris. (He's a newlywed and being asked to move into a hotel with her sister and a toddler. But at this point, I think they're both huge babies). +1
EXHIBIT 7: NY vs. MINNESOTA
He says: "At the end of the day, this isn't working out. I gotta make a change."
She says: "We're gonna live, like, separate? Like long-distance marriage?"
He says: "I mean, I think it's what's best right now."
Winner: Kim (Whoever heard of a successful long-distance marriage in the NBA? I mean...have you seen Basketball Wives?) +1
FINAL SCORE:
Kim ? 5
Kris ? 2
KIM WINS! The divorce is all Kris' fault...because we said so!
Tune in (if you dare) to the premiere of Kourtney and Kim Take New York on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 10/9c.?
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Egypt protesters battle on to end army rule (Reuters)
CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egypt's army chief, seeking to defuse street protests that have left 37 dead, promised a swifter handover to civilian rule but failed to convince thousands of hardcore demonstrators, some of whom battled police through the night.
One man was killed in clashes early on Wednesday in the second city Alexandria, one of several towns that saw unrest.
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who has run the ruling military council since mass protests unseated his long-time ally Hosni Mubarak in February, made a faltering televised address on Tuesday in which he promised a civilian president would be elected in June, about six months sooner than planned.
Confirming Egypt's first free parliamentary election in decades will start on Monday, the council also accepted the resignation of the civilian prime minister and his cabinet, who had incensed democrats with a short-lived proposal that the army remain beyond civilian control under any new constitution.
But Tantawi angered many of the youthful demonstrators on Cairo's Tahrir Square and in other cities by suggesting a referendum on whether military rule should end earlier - a move many saw as a ploy to appeal to the many Egyptians who fear further upheaval and to divide those from the young activists.
"Leave! Leave!" came the chants in Cairo and, in an echo of February's chorus: "The people want to topple the marshal."
Long into the night, while small groups on the fringes skirmished with police in clouds of teargas, those occupying the main square sang: "He must go! We won't go!"
It is a battle of wills whose outcome is hard to predict.
PROTESTERS DIG IN
The field marshal, hanged in effigy on Tahrir Square in a visual echo of Mubarak's final days, seems intent on preserving the armed forces' vast business interests built up over six decades of effective military rule. But there was no renewal of earlier heavy-handed efforts to clear the area.
Parliamentary elections will start this coming Monday - a plan confirmed at a meeting between the army and politicians - but they will take till January to complete. It is not clear how a referendum on military rule might be organized, nor what alternative might be proposed until June's presidential vote.
Tantawi, 76 and defense minister under Mubarak for two decades, appeared hesitant, speaking in field uniform, as he told the 80 million Egyptians his army did not want power:
"The army is ready to go back to barracks immediately if the people wish that through a popular referendum, if need be."
Tens of thousands packed Tahrir, the seat of the revolution which ended Mubarak's 30-year rule, from Tuesday afternoon and, though most drifted away, thousands remained camped through the night into Wednesday, while, in tense side-streets skirmishes, diehards pelted police who hit back with batons and teargas.
In Alexandria, a 38-year-old protester was killed. A Health Ministry official said the man was shot in the head during a confrontation outside a state security building.
Police have denied using live ammunition but most of the 36 dead in the preceding five days of protest have had bullet wounds, medics say. And demonstrators have shown off cartridge casings they say come from weapons used by the authorities.
"We will stay here until the field marshal leaves and a transitional council from the people takes over," said Abdullah Galal, 28, a computer sales manager, as people set up tents across the sprawling Tahrir traffic interchange which has become the abiding symbol of this year's "Arab Spring" revolts.
A stream of motorbikes and ambulances ferried away the injured from the skirmishing on the outskirts of the protest, while at the center of the square a mood of quiet occupation set in as blankets were brought out and small bonfires lit.
REFERENDUM SCEPTICISM
Many of the protesters saw the suggestion of a referendum, vague in its content, as a ploy to split the nation:
"He is trying to say that, despite all these people in Tahrir, they don't represent the public," said 32-year-old Rasha, one of dozens huddled around a radio in the nearby Cafe Riche, a venerable Cairo landmark. "He wants to pull the rug from under them and take it to a public referendum."
A military source said Tantawi's referendum offer would come into play "if the people reject the field marshal's speech," but did not explain how the popular mood would be assessed.
Tantawi may calculate that most Egyptians, unsettled by dizzying change, do not share the young protesters' appetite for breaking from the army's familiar embrace just yet.
For many Egyptians, trapped in a daily battle to feed themselves and their families, the political demands of some of those they view as young idealists are hard to fathom:
"I have lost track of what the demands are," said Mohamed Sayed, 32, a store clerk in central Cairo as the capital went about its normal business before the start of what protesters had hoped might be a "million man march" on Tuesday.
"If you talk to the people in Tahrir, they have no clue," added Sayed. "I don't know where the country is headed. I'm worried about my life."
On the square, however, demonstrators believed the army's reluctance to cede power could see an escalation, as activists tried to complete what some call an "unfinished revolution":
"All they are doing now is forcing people to escalate," said Mohamed, 23, a financial analyst. "They are leaving. There is no question about that.
"This opens the door for instability."
UNCERTAIN OPTIONS
When it was clear Mubarak had lost his potency, it was his former colleagues in the army who delivered the coup de grace. If it were now to be the turn of those generals themselves to have lost the legitimacy they won by easing Mubarak out with little loss of life, it is unclear who might replace them.
Some have raised the possibility of more junior officers ousting their superiors, though so far the ranks seem solid.
Using a computer analogy, protester Abdullah Galal said: "There are many viruses in the system. It needs to be cleaned out entirely. We want to delete, reformat and reinstall ... We need to change the regime like they did in Tunisia and Libya."
While the scale of protests is far short of the mass street action that ousted Mubarak, there is unrest in other cities.
In Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, protesters waved shoes in a sign of disrespect. In five days of protests in various cities, at least 1,250 people have been injured in addition to the 37 killed - a figure that includes Wednesday's death.
The United States, which gives Egypt's military $1.3 billion a year in aid, called for an end to the "deplorable" violence in Egypt and said elections there must go forward.
"We are deeply concerned about the violence. The violence is deplorable. We call on all sides to exercise restraint," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The unrest has knocked Egypt's markets. The benchmark share index has fallen 11 percent since Thursday, hitting its lowest level since March 2009. The Egyptian pound fell to its weakest against the dollar since January 2005.
Political uncertainty has gripped Egypt since Mubarak's fall, while sectarian clashes, labor unrest, gas pipeline sabotage and a gaping absence of tourists have paralyzed the economy and prompted a widespread yearning for stability.
(Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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Larry King Murder: Gay Teen's Death Illustrates Schools' Challenge
LOS ANGELES -- There were many missed opportunities to prevent the murder of a 15-year-old gay student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard.
Teachers and students saw a simmering feud between Brandon McInerney and Larry King but said they were either ignored by administrators or did little or nothing to intervene. King's mother said she pleaded with school officials to help tone down her son's increasingly flamboyant behavior. One teacher encouraged King to explore his sexuality and gave him a dress.
Nearly four years after McInerney, then 14, shot King in the head before stunned classmates, plenty of questions remain about what went wrong and what can be learned to prevent future tragedies.
King's death illustrates the difficulty schools have balancing a gay student's civil rights with teaching tolerance to those who feel threatened by or uncomfortable about someone who's different. It also highlighted the importance of setting clear policies to eliminate confusion among educators.
"Something was brewing and lots of people were uncomfortable and people didn't know what to do and where to turn," said Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. "It reflects a profound inability for the adults to provide them with support and intervene when problems are developing."
McInerney, 17, pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder and two other counts for killing King, which will send him to prison for 21 years. He's scheduled to be sentenced next month.
McInerney had reached an emotional breaking point after King made repeated, unwanted sexual advances toward him and other boys, defense lawyers said. In the weeks leading up to the shooting, school administrators allowed King to wear heels and makeup because federal law provides the right of students to express their sexual orientation.
King's mother, Dawn King, said she met with school officials four days before the February 2008 shooting hoping they would help tone down her son's behavior. She said she was told King had a civil right to explore his sexual identity.
"I knew, gut instinct, that something serious was going to happen," she told the Los Angeles Times on Monday. "They should have contained him, contained his behavior."
Hueneme School District Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg told The Associated Press he was not aware of that meeting. He said an outside investigator hired after the shooting determined there was no wrongdoing by any of the teachers or staff.
"I believe the staff did what they were supposed to do," Dannenberg said, calling it a horrific event. "If we could have changed it, we would have done it."
One teacher said she gave King her daughter's homecoming dress. Another said he did nothing when King paraded around in makeup and high heels in front of McInerney the day before the shooting because he assumed a school administrator who had watched what was going on would take care of the situation.
Some teachers also testified their concerns weren't addressed by school officials when they tried to report escalating tensions between the two teens, something Dannenberg denied.
Some observers said school districts have focused too much on meeting academic standards.
"I think schools need to take two to three steps back and look how we get along with each other as part of what they teach," said Ron Astor, a professor in social work at the University of Southern California. "It's all about academics these days and the social aspect is pushed aside."
Byard's organization has created an anti-bullying policy and training to identify harassment. They hope school districts across the nation will employ those efforts.
Last week, the group released a guide for school districts to adopt or modify policies dealing with transgender and gender nonconforming students.
"The cost of not acting when bullying and harassment occurs is astronomical," Byard said. "We lost two people because of the failure to act."
Testimony during the trial centered on McInerney's growing rage toward King. Prosecutors said at least six people heard McInerney make threats against King in the days before the shooting, including one who said the teen told him he planned to kill King.
Astor said schools need to do a better job informing students that they won't get in trouble or be ignored if they report possible threats.
"Had students felt comfortable to let an adult know he said he was going to kill somebody, I think this child's life could have been saved," Astor said.
King's family has settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the school district, McInerney, a gay rights organization, a shelter and others. The suit claimed that everyone from King's teacher to his social worker failed to urge the effeminate teen to tone down flamboyant behavior.
Most details of the settlement were kept confidential. The Ventura County Star reported the majority of the settlement ? just over $200,000 ? was paid by a homeowner's insurance policy held by McInerney's grandfather. Dannenberg said the district's payout amounted to "peanuts, really."
Since the shooting, counselors at the junior high help students deal with their anger and offer group sessions.
A bill introduced by Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., is pending before the House Education and Workforce Committee that would prohibit discrimination in public schools against lesbian and gay students.
If passed, violating the Student Non-Discrimination Act could lead to districts losing federal funding. Polis said he had King and other teens like him in mind when he wrote the bill.
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