Source: www.mobiletor.com --- Saturday, December 31, 2011
A new accessory for iOS devices has made its debut in the form of the Skullcandy Kidrobot Mix Master headphones. Claiming to deliver cutting edge sound quality, the aural peripheral can be used with the iPhone and IPad. Audiophiles may be familiar with the name of renowned DJ Mix Master Mike who is the main [...] ...
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Cover loosely with foil. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 40 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle onion rings on top. Bake 20 minutes longer.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Note: May be frozen; thaw before baking.
Recipe Source: Sunny Side Up by The Junior League of Ft Lauderdale
Reprinted with permission.
Source: http://homecooking.about.com/od/casserolerecipes/r/blcass3.htm
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Ovarian cancer study proves drug delays disease progression, may improve survival
Thursday, December 29, 2011Treating ovarian cancer with the drug bevacizumab ("Avastin") delays the disease and may also improve survival, show the results of an international clinical trial co-led by Drs. Amit Oza of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program, University Health Network and Timothy Perren, St James's Institute of Oncology, Leeds, UK.
The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, report that the drug halted the cancer's return for two months overall. However, for women with the highest risk disease, the delay was five to six months and in this group, the findings also indicate a strong trend to improved overall survival, which is being analysed until 2013.
"This is the first new drug in ovarian cancer in 15 years to improve outcome and I believe it should be considered as a potential new standard of care," says Dr. Oza, a medical oncologist who leads the Cancer Clinical Research Unit at Princess Margaret Hospital. He is also co-director of the hospital's Bras Family Drug Development Program and Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.
The seven-year study began in 2004 and enrolled 1,528 women with ovarian cancer at 263 centres, including 20 in Canada. Avastin was added to chemotherapy treatment and given intravenously every three weeks for 12 months.
The drug blocks growth factors that promote new blood vessels formation in tumours, thereby "starving" the cancer. It is not a cure, explains Dr. Oza, but has a proven track record in delaying disease progression in other types of cancer including colorectal, lung, breast, kidney and brain.
"We now know that using Avastin in ovarian cancer for even this short time improves outcomes," says Dr. Oza. "The next step is to determine if giving it for a longer period would be of even greater benefit."
Similar findings from a U.S. study are also reported in this issue of the journal. Dr. Oza says the major difference between the two studies is that the women in the American study were given twice as much Avastin. "So the question now is would half the dose for double the duration improve outcomes even more? This is an area to investigate further."
###
University Health Network: http://www.uhn.on.ca/index.htm
Thanks to University Health Network for this article.
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Former Kansas University center Greg Ostertag by ngerik
Former Jayhawk and Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag signed with the NBA D-League?s Texas Legends on Tuesday, according to the Dallas Morning News. Ostertag, who averaged four points, five rebounds and almost two blocks a game in 11 years in the NBA, will play his first pro game since 2006 on Thursday. And then, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Ostertag and the Legends will take on Brady Morningstar and the Tulsa 66ers.
From the Morning News:
"I missed playing," Ostertag said. "I shouldn't have quit when I did and I feel like I got to give it one last shot to see if I can make it happen.
"I know there's a lot of naysayers out there who think I couldn't play when I was younger and how am I going to be able to play now? But I'm going to give myself a month or two to get in really good shape and see what happens."
Miami Heat guard Mario Chalmers (15) by ngerik
Mario Chalmers (Miami Heat) isn?t a stranger to fighting for playing time in Miami, but he didn?t do himself any favors in that battle on Tuesday night against the Boston Celtics. Chalmers started but played only 18 minutes while scoring four points with five steals, three assists and two rebounds. Chalmers also turned the ball over six times (four straight times during a 1:20 span in the third quarter). He was also benched for the entire fourth quarter in favor of surging rookie Norris Cole, whom Heat teammates and coaches credited for the team?s victory. Cole played 29 minutes, scored 20 points (14 timely points in the fourth) with a handful of rebounds, assists and steals and only three turnovers (full game stats here).
The postgame analysis of the Heat?s point guard position wasn?t very kind to Chalmers.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel?s Ira Winderman wrote:
Chalmers, in fact, represented one of the few sobering realities of this one, with his confounding inability to launch an alley-oop pass on target, and his continuing inability to keep Rondo on front of him.
While Spoelstra has no immediate intentions of starting Cole, this could be a case of Chalmers attempting to make that decision for him.
ESPN NBA writer Tom Haberstroh agreed, in a tweet:
Man, I like Norris Cole as a reserve, but Mario Chalmers is gift-wrapping the starting gig to the rook.
And ESPN columnist Jemele Hill tweeted something similar, which was echoed by numerous other Heat fans and media types alike:
Dear Mario Chalmers: It was fun while it lasted -- Signed, Your Starting Position
All snark aside, it?s clear that the excitement Cole has been generating ? combined with Chalmers? poor play ? has people talking about a change.
Even so, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra wasn?t ready to demote Chalmers immediately after the game, according to the Miami Herald:
?It wasn?t any kind of indictment on [Chalmers],? Heat coach Erik Spoelstra insisted. ?He came back after struggling at the beginning of the third quarter and he did settle down and make some plays. That was good, to see him show some resolve and some toughness. That?s what we?ve done a lot of times. If a lineup is going, if a player is playing well, I won?t necessarily change for the sake of changing."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Chalmers, who wasn?t ?playing well? on Tuesday. But we?ll see if it?s enough to force Spoelstra to shake things up just two games into the season ? the Heat play again tonight.
In the movie Old School, a thirtysomething guy goes back to college and creates a frat with other old guys and they have crazy parties, and an overall awesome time. Sadly, my experience back at college was nothing like that. I lived in a plain two-bedroom apartment and most of my neighbors were college kids. I woke up and went to work out. Coach Bill Self let me work out with his players, and I went through a few full practices with the team.
Morris was the last player to leave Tuesday?s practice, and ended his session by working on catch-and-shoot three-pointers while on the move.
?I missed about eight in a row but that ninth one I made,? Morris said of his post-practice drill. ?Coach has his faith in me to keep shooting and when I?m open I have to take the shot. He jokes about (Kansas ) Coach (Bill) Self telling me not to shoot.
?It?s different now.?
The Arizona Republic also published some quotes from Markieff about last night?s loss and his turnover at the end of the game.
Brandon Rush (Golden State Warriors) spoke to reporters after practice on Tuesday. You can watch his interview (and his highlights from Monday?s game with the Chicago Bulls) below, starting at :23:
Wednesday, Dec. 28
6 p.m., Mario Chalmers and the Miami Heat vs. the Charlotte Bobcats
7 p.m., NBA TV, Nick Collison and Cole Aldrich (likely DNP) and the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Josh Selby (likely DNP) and the Memphis Grizzlies
8 p.m., Markieff Morris and the Phoenix Suns vs. the Philadelphia 76ers
9:30 p.m., NBA TV, Brandon Rush and the Golden State Warriors vs. the New York Knicks
Source: http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/hawks_nba/2011/dec/28/greg-ostertag-joins-nbadls-texas-legends/
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Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, exercising his veto muscle for the first time, blocked a county commission move that would have increased spending on Tallahassee lobbyists ? the polar opposite of what the commission purportedly set out to do.
?My concern is they started out to save money and ended up costing the county more,?? Gimenez said in an interview. ?I vetoed it because I didn?t think it was the right thing to do, so they can go back and try again.??
At the Dec. 19 meeting, the commission voted to pay $450,000 to four lobbying firms for government representation and consulting services at the state level. That was $50,000 more than the two incumbent firms had offered to take to keep the work.
That commission vote of 10-3 came after 90 minutes of debate and five failed motions. Commission chairman Joe Martinez ? who had spearheaded the effort to search for new lobbying firms with the goal of reducing spending ? ended up voting against the measure. Also voting against it were Commissioners Xavier Suarez and Lynda Bell.
?I?m so thrilled. It put a smile on my face,?? Bell said Wednesday after receiving the mayor?s veto message. ?We don?t need to spend that kind of money on lobbying.??
Gimenez, who resigned as a county commissioner in April to run for the mayoral-seat vacancy created by the recall of Carlos Alvarez, has worked to build a cooperative relationship with the commission and has played an active role at meetings. And the veto isn?t likely to disrupt those ties.
Commissioner Sally Heyman, who said she reluctantly supported the lobbying contracts in order to be on the board?s prevailing side, said she was pleased with Gimenez?s action. ?This is the mayor?s first veto, and it was an appropriate one. While the [commission?s] intention was to save costs as it ended up, it didn?t ? so applause to the mayor.?
The commission?s money-saving effort began in October, shortly after the county?s new austere budget kicked in and the prospect of employee layoffs and labor concessions began to hit home. Martinez said in an Oct. 7 letter to the mayor that to ?drastically reduce? costs it would be necessary to advertise for lobbying firms to be selected through a competitive process.
The threat of losing the county work spurred the incumbent firms ? Ron L. Book P.A. and Rutledge, Ecenia & Purnell ? to offer to cut their fees to $200,000 a year each, down from $225,000. The proposed cuts were in addition to reductions in 2009 and 2010.
But the commission brushed aside that offer and pushed forward with the search, directing the administration to bring the panel all qualified firms for it to choose. That resulted in four suitors: The two incumbents plus Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson and Ballard Partners Inc. Book subcontracts with the Pittman Law Group. Rutledge subcontracts with Becker & Poliakoff; Dutko Worldwide LLC; and Gomez Barker Associates Inc.
Instead of picking among the four firms, the commission voted to include all four on the county?s Tallahassee team. Book and Rutledge would each have gotten $170,000 a year under the new contracts, while newcomers Akerman and Ballard would each have gotten $55,000 a year.
?What happened was everybody wanted to have all the parties included in the contract, and you cannot do that if you are trying to reduce costs. You can?t have it both ways,? Commissioner Jean Monestime said. ?Having four firms may be better, but since the idea was to reduce the costs, I?m OK with reconsidering it.?
The veto means the issue will come up at the Jan. 24 commission meeting, although the board could agree to bring it up at its Jan.?5 session. A two-thirds vote would be needed to override the mayor?s veto.
For now, the county will continue on a month-to-month basis with the incumbents, Book and Rutledge, at the old rate of $450,000 a year. But Gimenez says he?ll push for less. ?I?ll try to renegotiate that right away.?
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/28/2564782/mayor-gimenez-vetoes-new-tallahassee.html
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POCATELLO, Idaho ? Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother.
That much, she knew.
While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled her nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl's words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni's baby was born.
"She told the nurse, `I'm done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,'" said Diana Phillips, Jenni's mother.
In photographs, the baby's ruddy cheeks and healthy weight offer a stark contrast to the frail girl who gave birth to him. She holds the newborn tightly, kissing the top of his head. Jenni, at 5 feet and 4 inches tall, weighed only 108 pounds at the full term of her pregnancy.
A day after the Nov. 9 birth, Phillips learned that her daughter's decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said.
It was only 12 days past the birth - half spent in the hospital and the other half at home - before Jenni was gone.
Even so, her family and friends insist her legacy is not one centered in tragedy, but rather in sacrifice.
This month, her family gathered at their ranch style home in Pocatello, where a Christmas tree in the living room was adorned with ornaments picked out just for Jenni, including one in bright lime green, her favorite color. She had passed away in a bedroom down the hall.
Recalling Jenni's infectious laugh and a rebellious streak, her mother held the baby close, nuzzling his head, and said, "I want him to know everything about her, and what she did."
***
The migraines started last year, when Jenni was a 16-year-old sophomore at Pocatello High School. She was taken to the family doctor, and an MRI scan found a small mass measuring about two centimeters wide on the right side of her brain.
She was sent to a hospital in Salt Lake City, some 150 miles south of Pocatello, and another scan there showed the mass was bigger than previously thought.
Jenni had a biopsy Oct. 15, 2010, and five days later was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. With three tumors on her brain and three on her spine, Jenni was told her case was rare because the cancer had spread from her brain to another part of her body with no symptoms.
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Source: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20111226/FSU03/111226001/1103/RSS18
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LOS ANGELES?? Hollywood has picked up a little Christmas bonus.
During a Friday court appearance, she was accused of felony battery and possession of a controlled substance.
Studios generally underestimated the size of their movie audiences over the weekend, and they're now revising the holiday revenues upward.
Leading the way is Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," which pulled in $29.5 million for the weekend. That Monday figure is $3 million more than distributor Paramount estimated a day earlier.
For the four-day period Friday to Monday, Paramount estimates "Ghost Protocol" will have taken in $46.2 million to raise its domestic total to $78.6 million. That's on top of $140 million the film has taken in overseas, giving it a worldwide haul of $218.6 million.
Studios Monday also reported stronger results than they did a day earlier for Robert Downey Jr.'s "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," which was No. 2 at $20.3 million for the three-day weekend and $31.8 million for the four-day period; Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin" at No. 5 with $9.7 million over three days and $16.1 million for four days; and Matt Damon's "We Bought a Zoo" at No. 6 with $9.5 million over three days and $15.6 million for four days.
In a tight race for the No. 4 spot were David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and the family sequel "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked."
Weekend box office
Results for Dec. 23-26
1. "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol," Paramount, $46,210,000, 3,448 locations, $13,402 average, $78,645,000, two weeks.
2. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," Warner Bros., $31,810,000, 3,448 locations, $9,226 average, $90,564,000, two weeks.
3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," Fox, $20,000,000, 3,734 locations, $5,356 average, $56,940,187, two weeks.
4. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Sony, $19,400,000, 2,914 locations, $6,658 average, $27,716,000, one week.
5. "The Adventures of Tintin," Paramount, $16,100,000, 3,087 locations, $5,215 average, $24,107,000, one week.
"Dragon Tattoo" did $12.8 million over three days and $19.4 million for four days. "Chipwrecked" took in $12.7 million over three days and $20 million for four days.
A few films debuted on Christmas Day, among them Spielberg's World War I epic "War Horse," which took in $7.5 million Sunday. Through Monday, its estimated two-day total is $15 million.
Also debuting was Emile Hirsch's action thriller "The Darkest Hour," which earned $3 million Sunday and had a two-day total of $5.5 million through Monday.
Opening solidly in just six theaters was Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock's Sept. 11 drama "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which took in $71,000 Sunday and $136,000 through Monday. The film expands to nationwide release in January.
Despite the upward revision on some movies' revenues, the Christmas weekend continued a box-office slide that has persisted since Thanksgiving. Overall revenues from Friday to Monday totaled $184 million, down 10 percent from Christmas weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45791428/ns/today-entertainment/
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?The didn?t know what they were doing? line is a con because it allows for good faith on the part of the actors. They were just ignorant, incompetent, or mistaken. What it covers over is the criminality of those involved. As I wrote here yesterday, during this time we had the biggest frauds in history going on. Cons on cons on cons. Yet in this case, although it had the same effect of separating the marks from their money, and indeed magnified that effect, it was just people in over their heads, not knowing what they were doing. This is my perennial criticism of Das. He was part of a criminal enterprise. Once you look at it from this perspective, what happened becomes easy to understand and predictable. More than this, it becomes apparent why, even after the meltdown showed how destructive they are, the industry continues to defend and sell these instruments. But instead we are invited to believe the story that an industry filled with the best and most brilliant mathematicians money could buy and yet somehow they all missed, and continue to miss, the fatal flaws in these products that even simple arithmetic would reveal. It has become a fixture of our age that lies, even obvious ones, repeated often enough will be treated more seriously than the truth. So it is that we can see the victims of great crimes in their tens of millions, but no criminals, so we are told, who committed them.
Source: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/satyajit-das-on-what-went-wrong-with-finance.html
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45783284#45783284
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Inside Syria: The Free Syria Army's mission
Members of the Free Syria Army - soldiers who have defected from Syria's feared military - are denying any connection to recent car bombings, and instead blame Syrian security forces. CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward slipped into the country and managed to link up with the opposition who explain their mission.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsPolitics/~3/Zq6wydDt5lk/
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Windows Phone: Microsoft Releases Feeback Apps, Suggest Features For WP7 On Your WP7 bit.ly/tFsMBy 
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Source: http://twitter.com/xdadevelopers/statuses/150670848716582912
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Iraqi security forces inspect a crater caused by a car bomb attack in the neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killing and wounding scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraqi security forces inspect a crater caused by a car bomb attack in the neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killing and wounding scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
ADDS NAME OF NEIGHBORHOOD - Iraqi security forces and people inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killing and wounding scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraqi security forces inspect a crater caused by a car bomb attack in the neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killing and wounding scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraqi security forces inspect a crater caused by a car bomb attack in the Karrada neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killing and wounding scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraqi security forces inspect a crater caused by a car bomb attack in the neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killing and wounding scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader on Friday demanded the country's politicians work to restore security, saying their conflicts were to blame for attacks like the devastating bombings that tore through mostly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and killed at least 69 people.
The calls by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, made by his representative in a Friday prayer sermon, implicitly hit on the political showdown between the Shiite prime minister and the top Sunni political leader in the country, against whom the government put out an arrest warrant, accusing him of running hit squads.
Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has denied the charges, which have fueled Sunni fears that the minority community is being pushed out of influence by the Shiite-dominated government.
Al-Sistani's aide Ahmed al-Safi did not specifically mention the conflict or any of the players in it, but his comments seemed to be a call for Sunni politicians to back down.
If someone is "dealing with terrorism, what should we do? What is the punishment that he must face after knowing that he is a killer?" al-Safi said in his sermon in the holy city of Karbala.
"The prestige of the government must be preserved ... part of its prestige is punishing abusers," he said. "The security file is not a luxury! People can be patient with lack of electricity, or lack of services, but not blood. They cannot be patient over their blood. Wyy don't you exert your efforts to preserve the blood of these people?"
Al-Sistani, who is in his mid 80s, is the most respected cleric among Iraq's Shiite majority. But he rarely appears in public and stopped meeting with politicians since around the middle of this year. He usually makes his positions known through his representative at the prayer sermon.
Sixteen blasts across Baghdad on Thursday also wounded nearly 200 people, evoking fears Iraq could dissolve into a new round of sectarian violence now that American troops have left.
Al-Safi condemned the bombing, saying, "The people are looking forward for a new life after the departure of the foreign forces, instead they face massacres."
"Politicians, be merciful with this country. You are dragging the country with your crises and you are held responsible."
These calls were echoed by other Shiite and Sunni clerics. Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric, whose militiamen were blamed for sectarian killings during the worst of Iraq's violence, issued a statement, calling the conflict among Iraqi politicians as "the conflict of the mighty" which "led to the deterioration of the fragile security."
The preacher of Abu Hanifa, the main Sunni mosque in Baghdad, also criticized the Iraqi leaders who "preoccupy themselves with side issues and conflicts and ignore essential issues. You (politicians) have to pay heed to reunite Iraqis. You have to give up hatred, killing and intimidation," Sheik Ahmed al-Taha told worshippers in his sermon.
"Do not let our defeated enemy (the Americans) say that we are unable to continue with them," he added.
___
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. ? The U.S. Justice Department has tapped New York-based BDO Consulting to audit the handling of billions of dollars in damage claims that arose from the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli told BDO officials in a letter Wednesday that the goal of the independent evaluation due by March is to ensure that any possible errors have been corrected.
The administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility that controls the $20 billion BP compensation fund for victims said he has always welcomed an independent audit. Kenneth Feinberg says the facility will pay for it and will work with the DOJ and consulting firm.
"I long ago endorsed the idea of an independent audit," Feinberg told The Associated Press Wednesday night. "I am confident that it will confirm the overall success of the Gulf Coast claims fund."
He said more than 1 million claims have been processed and more than $6 billion paid out for harm done by the 2010 spill.
More than 200,000 people and businesses have gotten some money from the fund. Hundreds of thousands of others have been turned down.
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana on April 20, 2010, killing 11 men and leading to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The rig was owned by Transocean and was being leased by BP to drill the oil giant's well a mile beneath the sea.
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Google TV might not have taken off like some folks expected it to, but those of us who use it (especially with the Honeycomb/Google TV 2.0 update) know that it can be a great way to get the web into your living room. A cool thing I've been fooling with is watching my podcasts on the 42-incher while kicked back in my recliner, so I'm sharing my guide for watching the Android Central Podcast on your Google TV with everyone. Wait until you see our pretty faces in high-def on the big screen! Hit the break and follow along.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/HTJQU0_YIZA/story01.htm
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? Painful rashes and other skin-related side effects of newer targeted cancer drugs may jack up treatment costs, suggests a new study.
The average cost of treating each cancer patient who came into a dermatology clinic with skin, hair and nail complaints was almost $2,000, researchers reported this week. That included expenses related to doctors' appointments, dermatology medications and lab tests.
Some patients with skin problems may have to delay or alter their treatment regimen if side effects are too severe, researchers said.
"Dermatologic side effects including skin irritation and dry skin are the two topmost concerns that patients have that they did not expect during therapy," said Dr. Mario Lacouture from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center Center in New York, who worked on the study.
"They were prepared to get hair loss, they were prepared to get some nausea and diarrhea, but they weren't expecting to get all these skin issues," he told Reuters Health.
Lacouture and his colleagues from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago tracked costs related to skin reactions in 132 patients being treated with targeted cancer-fighting drugs at their dermatology clinic between 2005 and 2008.
The majority of those patients had colon or lung cancer and the most common drug treatments included cetuximab (marketed as Erbitux) and erlotinib (Tarceva).
Patients came in with a range of dermatology-related complaints -- including painful acne, lesions and blisters on the hands and feet and nail infections. Those conditions cost anywhere from $21 to almost $11,000 to treat, depending on the patient.
The average total cost of medications, clinic visits, treatment procedures and lab tests such as blood work and wound culturing for each patient was $1,920. Dermatology drugs accounted for the greatest chunk of that, costing an average of about $840 per patient, according to findings published in the Archives of Dermatology.
Lacouture said that more than half of patients may have skin, hair and nail reactions to newer drugs that treat some of the most fatal types of cancer. That's because along with their cancer-fighting action, the drugs also attack proteins on the skin.
If skin reactions are severe, especially with certain cancer drugs including sorafenib (Nexavar) for kidney cancer, doctors may have to adjust dosages or take patients off those drugs for a period of time.
"In the majority of cases, we manage the toxicity and go ahead with the treatment, but in a small percentage of patients it does interfere," said Dr. Barbara Burtness, who has studied skin side effects of cancer treatment at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia but wasn't involved in the new study.
Lacouture said that while most of the extra costs would be covered by patients' insurance, skin problems also mean more time and transportation for appointments and co-payments.
"It adds to the out-of-pocket costs for the patient, but also it adds to the already ballooning (societal) cost of cancer," he said.
Burtness said that in the future, those costs should be taken into consideration when evaluating new cancer drugs. But she also suspected that as cancer doctors get more comfortable with the medications, they'll get used to managing any skin side effects themselves, which will cut back on patients' need to visit specialty clinics.
Researchers disagreed as to whether cancer patients should be taking anti-inflammatory medications and antibiotics to prevent any skin side effects.
Lacouture said the most important thing is for patients to be aware of how common these problems are, and to know that the sooner they are diagnosed and treated for side effects, the less likely they are to interfere with cancer treatment and patients' quality of life.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/uLPhk3 Archives of Dermatology, online December 19, 2011.
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? Deutsche Telekom may be forced into a tie-up of its sub-scale U.S. wireless unit with Sprint Nextel after a $39 billion deal with AT&T collapsed.
AT&T said on Monday it had dropped its bid for T-Mobile USA, bowing to fierce regulatory opposition and leaving both companies scrambling for alternatives.
While Deutsche Telekom is now walking away with a $6 billion breakup package, its chief executive Rene Obermann has lost a lot of time and will now have to invest in the U.S. market or find a new way to exit the country, an option analysts regard as unlikely.
T-Mobile USA "is just crying out for a merger with Sprint. That's the only long-term solution for Deutsche Telekom," Will Draper, head of telecoms research at Espirito Santo, said.
T-Mobile USA, a growth engine in its early days but now a run-down asset, is badly lacking in the spectrum it needs to build a network capable of handling the vast data volumes that U.S. consumers and businesses use on smartphones.
Bleeding money and losing customers, it ranks fourth among U.S. carriers behind AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
Obermann offered no detailed plan of how the company will bounce back from the collapse of talks with AT&T, only assuring investors he was working on a long-term plan for T-Mobile USA.
"In the long term, we need more spectrum and network capacity. We are working on that. But we will not speculate about any inorganic steps or deals," he told reporters during a conference call.
He also said it was incomprehensible to him that U.S. regulators blocked a transaction that would have made a decisive contribution to the U.S. National Broadband Plan.
Deutsche Telekom shares were down 1.3 percent at 8.77 euros at 1339 GMT, one of the biggest decliners in the blue-chip DAX index on investor concern the company is back at square one with its American problem child.
Before talks with AT&T were announced in March, sources said Deutsche Telekom was looking at a potential deal with Sprint. Reportedly, it was considering a sale of T-Mobile USA to Sprint in exchange for a stake in the combined company.
But instead of pursuing a tie-up with Sprint, Obermann bet all his chips on a deal with AT&T.
Now the company can go back to Sprint or pursue network partnerships with regional operators such as Leap Wireless International Inc. It could also offload some non-core assets to fund investments in the United States.
"Whilst a merger with Sprint is probably the best long-term strategic option in the United States, there would be pain for Deutsche Telekom in the near term, starting with the need to invest in Sprint/T-Mobile USA," Espirito Santo said.
SPECTRUM SQUEEZE
Adding to its woes, Deutsche Telekom missed out on spectrum sales in the United States while it was busy negotiating the T-Mobile mega-merger, leaving it even more vulnerable.
Carriers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, have clamored for access to more airwaves to stave off a looming spectrum crunch that would mean clogged networks, more dropped calls and slower connection speeds for wireless customers.
"For the operators the main issue for the coming years will be to obtain enough frequencies... and to roll out 4G networks," said Heinrich Ey, Global Research Sector Head Telecommunications & Media at RCM, part of Allianz Global Investors.
As part of the breakup with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom will receive mobile spectrum in cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston, in addition to about $3 billion in cash.
While that will go toward helping T-Mobile USA grow, Obermann said it will not solve the long-term problem.
"One imaginable option would be a network partnership with Clearwire," LBBW analyst Stefan Borscheid said, adding he would also not rule out that Deutsche Telekom could find a financial investor willing to take T-Mobile USA off its hands.
Analysts have said a collapse of the deal could also be a catalyst for the sale of Deutsche Telekom's stake in Britain's biggest mobile company Everything Everywhere, unless it manages to clinch a deal with another U.S. operator.
(Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan and Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Erica Billingham and Mike Nesbit)
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Here's a bit of science that's contrary to what a heavy utilizer of social networks might expect. Researchers at Harvard tracked the Facebook activity of hundreds of college students for four years, and came away with the rather unexpected result that the interests of friends don't, in fact, tend to influence one another. That's not to say it doesn't happen at all, of course, but it's clear that propagation and virality are subtler and more complex than some people (marketers and, I suspect, researchers) tend to think they are. But the study is also clearly flawed in ways that those versed in social graphs are likely to easily perceive. Pulling useful data from social networks is like catching lightning in a bottle, and I wonder whether the findings may in fact be, as the study attempts to avoid, "a spurious consequence of alternative social processes."Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5OOy9GrPA-U/
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Kim Kardashian sure could use a lesson in manners from Kate Middleton.
The National League of Junior Cotillions named the newlywed royal to the top of their annual etiquette list of the "Ten Best-Mannered People of 2011," while divorcee Kardashian failed to make the list, and was slammed as the "Most Ill-Mannered" person of the year.
PHOTOS: Kate Middleton's princess prep
Compiled by the etiquette and social training program, the list ranks actors, celebrities, singers and athletes based on one's "demonstration of dignity, honor and respect," according to NLJC national director Elizabeth Anne Winters.
Praised for "the poise and dignity with which she conducts herself in the public spotlight," Prince William's wife of eight months was the clear front-runner for this year's top spot, said Winters.
PHOTOS: Kate meets Hollywood royalty
Justin Bieber (no. 2 on the list) and Paula Abdul (no. 3) were also applauded for their behavior this year, as were Taylor Swift (no. 5) and Harry Potter's Emma Watson (no. 9).
VIDEO: Aww! Justin kisses his girlfriend Selena Gomez
Kardashian didn't even make the list, with the group blasting Kris Humphries' reality star ex for "making a private matter public and disrespecting the institution of marriage."
Tell Us: Do you agree with the NLJC's list this year?
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FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2000 file photo, singer Cesaria Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva," smokes a cigarette during an interview at her home in Mindelo, on the Cape Verde island of Sao Vicente. Evora, who started singing as a teenager in the bayside bars of Cape Verde in the 1950s and won a Grammy in 2003 after she took her African islands music to stages across the world, died Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. She was 70. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2000 file photo, singer Cesaria Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva," smokes a cigarette during an interview at her home in Mindelo, on the Cape Verde island of Sao Vicente. Evora, who started singing as a teenager in the bayside bars of Cape Verde in the 1950s and won a Grammy in 2003 after she took her African islands music to stages across the world, died Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. She was 70. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? Cesaria Evora, who started singing as a teenager in the bayside bars of Cape Verde in the 1950s and won a Grammy in 2003 after she took her African islands music to stages across the world, died Saturday. She was 70.
Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva" because she always performed without shoes, died in the Baptista de Sousa Hospital in Mindelo, on her native island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde, her label Lusafrica said in a statement on its website. It gave no further details.
Evora retired in September because of health problems. In recent years she had had several operations, including open-heart surgery last year.
She sang the traditional music of the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa, a former Portuguese colony. She mostly sang in the version of creole spoken there, but even audiences who couldn't understand the lyrics were moved by her stirring renditions, her unpretentious manner and the music's infectious beat.
Her singing style brought comparisons to American jazz singer Billie Holiday. "She belongs to the aristocracy of bar singers," French newspaper Le Monde said in 1991, adding that Evora had "a voice to melt the soul."
Evora's international fame came late in life. Her 1988 album "La Diva Aux Pieds Nus" ("Barefoot Diva"), recorded in France where she first found popularity, launched her international career.
Her 1995 album "Cesaria" was released in more than a dozen countries and brought her first Grammy nomination, leading to a tour of major concert halls around the world and album sales in the millions.
She won a Grammy in the World Music category of the 2003 awards for her album "Voz D'Amor".
Evora, known to her close friends as Cize (pronounced see-ZEH), was the best-known performer of "morna," Cape Verde's national music. It is a complex, soulful sound, mixing an array of influences arising from the African and seafaring traditions of the 10 volcanic islands.
Evora was born Aug. 27, 1941, and grew up in Mindelo, a port city of 47,000 people on the island of Sao Vicente, where sailors from Europe, America, Africa and Asia mingled in what was a lively cosmopolitan town with a fabled nightlife.
The local musical style borrowed from those cultures, defying attempts to classify it.
"Our music is a lot of things," Evora told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview at her home. "Some say it's like the blues, or jazz. Others says it's like Brazilian or African music, but no one really knows. Not even the old ones."
Evora was 7 years old when her father died, leaving a widow and seven children. At 10, with her mother unable to make ends meet, she was placed in an orphanage.
"I didn't like it. I value my freedom," she told the AP.
At 16, when Evora was doing piecework as a seamstress, a friend persuaded her to sing in one of the many sailors' taverns in her town. As her popularity grew, she was also rowed out into the bay to sing on anchored ships.
She received no pay ? just free drinks. She used to smile when she recalled her fame as a heavy cognac drinker. And she sadly recalled the exact day ? Dec. 15, 1994 ? she had to give up drinking for her health's sake.
Evora didn't think much of her international stardom and she went back to Mindelo whenever she could. She rebuilt her childhood home, turning it into a 10-bedroom house where friends and family often stayed over, and she always made sure she was home for Christmas.
A heavy smoker for decades, Evora was diagnosed with heart problems in 2005. She suffered strokes in 2008 and in September 2011, when she announced she was retiring.
She had a son and a daughter by different men but never married. Family details were not immediately available.
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An international team of astronomers has identified a candidate for the smallest-known black hole using data from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The evidence comes from a specific type of X-ray pattern, nicknamed a "heartbeat" because of its resemblance to an electrocardiogram. The pattern until now has been recorded in only one other black hole system.
Named IGR J17091-3624 after the astronomical coordinates of its sky position, the binary system combines a normal star with a black hole that may weigh less than three times the sun's mass. That is near the theoretical mass boundary where black holes become possible.
Gas from the normal star streams toward the black hole and forms a disk around it. Friction within the disk heats the gas to millions of degrees, which is hot enough to emit X-rays. Cyclical variations in the intensity of the X-rays observed reflect processes taking place within the gas disk. Scientists think that the most rapid changes occur near the black hole's event horizon, the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.
Astronomers first became aware of the binary system during an outburst in 2003. Archival data from various space missions show it becomes active every few years. Its most recent outburst started in February and is ongoing. The system is located in the direction of the constellation Scorpius, but its distance is not well established. It could be as close as 16,000 light-years or more than 65,000 light-years away.
The record-holder for wide-ranging X-ray variability is another black hole binary system named GRS 1915+105. This system is unique in displaying more than a dozen highly structured patterns, typically lasting between seconds and hours.
"We think that most of these patterns represent cycles of accumulation and ejection in an unstable disk, and we now see seven of them in IGR J17091," said Tomaso Belloni at Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy. "Identifying these signatures in a second black hole system is very exciting."
In GRS 1915, strong magnetic fields near the black hole's event horizon eject some of the gas into dual, oppositely directed jets that blast outward at about 98 percent the speed of light. The peak of its heartbeat emission corresponds to the emergence of the jet.
Changes in the X-ray spectrum observed by RXTE during each beat reveal that the innermost region of the disk emits enough radiation to push back the gas, creating a strong outward wind that stops the inward flow, briefly starving the black hole and shutting down the jet. This corresponds to the faintest emission. Eventually, the inner disk gets so bright and hot it essentially disintegrates and plunges toward the black hole, re-establishing the jet and beginning the cycle anew. This entire process happens in as little as 40 seconds.
While there is no direct evidence IGR J17091 possesses a particle jet, its heartbeat signature suggests that similar processes are at work. Researchers say that this system's heartbeat emission can be 20 times fainter than GRS 1915 and can cycle some eight times faster, in as little as five seconds.
Astronomers estimate that GRS 1915 is about 14 times the sun's mass, placing it among the most-massive-known black holes that have formed because of the collapse of a single star. The research team analyzed six months of RXTE observations to compare the two systems, concluding that IGR J17091 must possess a minuscule black hole.
"Just as the heart rate of a mouse is faster than an elephant's, the heartbeat signals from these black holes scale according to their masses," said Diego Altamirano, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands and lead author of a paper describing the findings in the Nov. 4 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The researchers say this analysis is just the start of a larger program to compare both of these black holes in detail using data from RXTE, NASA's Swift satellite and the European XMM-Newton observatory.
"Until this study, GRS 1915 was essentially a one-off, and there's only so much we can understand from a single example," said Tod Strohmayer, the project scientist for RXTE at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Now, with a second system exhibiting similar types of variability, we really can begin to test how well we understand what happens at the brink of a black hole."
Launched in late 1995, RXTE is second only to Hubble as the longest serving of NASA's operating astrophysics missions. RXTE provides a unique observing window into the extreme environments of neutron stars and black holes.
###
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard
Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center 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/116101/NASA_s_RXTE_detects__heartbeat__of_smallest_black_hole_candidate
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Despite a few false starts, Apple has started its international rollout of iTunes Match, their cloud-based music-matching service. The UK was among the first countries to report the service?s activation, and it was soon joined by users from Ireland, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
iTunes Match scans your music collection and matches titles found in its own iTunes music database, then makes them available for online streaming through iCloud. Songs it can?t find must be uploaded separately, but overall, iTunes Match speeds up the process of sending your music into the cloud considerably.
Of course, the service isn?t free. In the USA it costs $24.99 for a year, but in the UK it?s ?21.99, in Europe ?24.99 and in Canada it?s priced at $27.99. If you?re interested to know how iTunes Match performs before handing over your cash, take a look at our in-depth hands-on review.
However, just like the US launch, it seems the influx of users wanting to try out iTunes Match may have caused problems for Apple. With the service trending on Twitter, streams rapidly began to fill with users reporting an error when trying to login to iTunes, as the service simply denied knowing usernames and passwords.
Attempts to login to Apple?s iCloud website, or retrieve passwords, are all meet with the same response, suggesting this is an outage due to server overload. It could all be a coincidence, but as iTunes Match previously caused problems, there?s a solid chance it?s responsible again.
Were you one of the lucky ones to signup and for the service to work before the problems started?
Update: Apple IDs appear to be working again for most users, let us know how iTunes Match is working out if you?ve signed up.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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Hands on with iTunes Match: A step in the right direction, with a few downsides
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A driver uses a cellphone while driving Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Los Angeles. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting on a cellphone while driving is just too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States and is urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A driver uses a cellphone while driving Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Los Angeles. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting on a cellphone while driving is just too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States and is urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Like it or not, when someone is talking to you, your brain is listening, processing and thinking about what's being said ? even when you're in the driver's seat trying to concentrate on traffic.
That's why drivers get distracted during cellphone conversations, even when using hands-free phones, researchers said. It's also part of the reason why the National Transportation Safety Board went ahead this week with a recommendation it knows a lot of drivers won't like ? that states ban hands-free, as well as handheld, cellphone use while driving.
It's not where your hands are, but where your mind is that counts, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman told reporters.
The board doesn't have the power to force states to impose a ban, but its recommendations carry significant weight. And, judging from the public reaction, they've already started a national conversation on the subject. NTSB has been swamped with calls, emails and tweets from drivers both praising and condemning the action.
But it's the proposed hands-free ban that has generated the most controversy.
What's next? No passengers? No kids? No tuning the radio? Maybe NTSB will ban driving altogether, was the tenor of the response on Twitter.
The scientific evidence, however, is generally with NTSB, researchers said.
"There is a large body of evidence showing that talking on a phone, whether handheld or hands-free, impairs driving and increases your risk of having a crash," Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said.
Jim Hedlund, a safety consultant and former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official, recently examined 300 cellphone studies for the Governors Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He couldn't recall a single study that showed drivers talking on a headset or hands-free phone were at any less risk of an accident than drivers with one hand on the wheel and a phone in the other.
A similar analysis for the government of Sweden recently came to the same conclusion: "There is no evidence suggesting that hands-free mobile phone use is less risky than handheld use."
What's missing is hard evidence that accidents are increasing because of cellphone use. One reason is that U.S. privacy laws have made it difficult for researchers to study whether cell phones were in use in accidents in the U.S. The two large studies that have been done ? in Canada and Australia ? found drivers were four times more likely to have a crash if talking on a cellphone. It didn't matter whether the cellphone was hands-free or handheld.
But that hasn't translated to an increase in highway fatalities in the U.S., which hit their lowest level since 1949 last year.
Of 6,000 drivers surveyed by the highway administration, 40 percent said they don't consider it unsafe for drivers to talk on a hands-free cell phone. Less than 12 percent said that about a hand-held phone.
Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, isn't surprised.
It's counterintuitive to think that hands-free talking is dangerous because people don't have any sense that their conversation is draining brain power away from driving, but that's exactly what's happening, he said.
Just is the co-author of a 2008 study that used driving simulators to test the performance of drivers not engaged in conversation and drivers who could hear someone talking to them through headphones. Drivers took the simulator tests inside an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine that recorded images of changes in their brains while driving, including which areas of the brain were used for driving. The amount of the brain devoted to driving was 37 percent less in drivers who could hear someone talking to them than for drivers not using cellphones.
"The human mind can multitask, but each task is performed with less brain power and lower proficiency," Just said.
The driving simulators also showed a deterioration of skills on the part of drivers who could hear someone talking to them, including weaving between lanes and edging over the side of the road.
"When someone is speaking your native language, you can't will yourself to not hear and process it. It just goes in," Just said. Even if a driver tries to ignore the words, scientists "can see activation in the auditory cortex, in the language areas (of the brain). "
Accident investigators have seen cases of drivers talking on hands-free phones whose minds are so engrossed in their conversations that they ran into something plainly visible.
In a 2004, a bus driver taking students on a class trip drove his 12-foot-high bus into a 10-foot, 2-inch-high bridge arch in Alexandria, Va., peeling off the roof of the bus. There were signs warning drivers about the height of the bridge, and the bus driver was familiar with the route. He also saw a bus in front of him change lanes to avoid the low arch. But the bus driver, who was talking a hands-free phone at the time, drove right into it.
"There is a standard code for crash investigations called roughly 'look, but didn't see.' In other words, I was looking in the right place, but I didn't register what was there," Hedlund said.
Of course, drivers don't have to be using cell phones to have conversations ? they talk with passengers all the time. But talking to an adult passenger doesn't involve the same risk as a phone conversation, researchers said. That's because passengers are engaged in the driving experience with the driver. If they see a danger, they'll usually warn the driver. Passengers also tend to instinctually adjust their conversation to the level of traffic and other difficulties confronting the driver.
There are lots of other things that go on in cars that are risky: eating and drinking, tuning the radio, studying maps and applying makeup, for example. Just like talking on the phone, most of those things involve a choice by the driver.
As for the screaming toddler in the backseat demanding attention, "some things are just part of life," McCartt said.
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