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Thursday, February 28, 2013
Twin CU-Boulder instruments reveal a third radiation belt can wrap around Earth
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Public release date: 28-Feb-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dan Baker
Daniel.Baker@lasp.colorado.edu
303-492-0591
University of Colorado at Boulder
With the flip of a switch, a pair of instruments designed and built by the University of Colorado Boulder and flying onboard twin NASA space probes have forced the revision of a 50-year-old theory about the structure of the radiation belts that wrap around the Earth just a few thousand miles above our heads.
The Van Allen radiation belts donut-shaped rings of so-called "killer electrons" that encircle the Earth were the first discovery of the space age. Data sent back from NASA's Pioneer 3 and Explorer IV spacecraft, both launched in 1958 and both carrying instruments built by James Van Allen, showed the presence of two distinct rings of high-energy electrons.
On Aug. 30, NASA launched the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission, since renamed the Van Allen Probes mission, to learn more about the belts, which are known to be hazardous to satellites, astronauts and technological systems on Earth.
Each probe carries a Relativistic Electron-Proton Telescope, or REPT, designed and built at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, known as LASP. When CU-Boulder scientists turned on the instruments, just a few days after launch, they were shocked by what they saw unfold: the formation of a third "storage ring" radiation belt.
"It was so odd looking, I thought there must be something wrong with the instrument," said LASP Director Dan Baker, REPT principal investigator and lead author of the study published online today in the journal Science. "But we saw things identically on each of the spacecraft. We had to come to the conclusion that this was real."
The data sent back to Earth from the REPT instruments during the month of September initially showed two Van Allen belts, as expected. But after a few days, the outer ring appeared to compress into an intense, tightly packed electron band and a third, less compact belt of electrons formed further out, creating a total of three rings. The middle "storage ring" persisted as the belt furthest away from Earth began to decay away in the third week of September, until, finally, a powerful interplanetary shockwave traveling from the sun virtually annihilated both the storage ring and the rest of the outer belt.
Scientists have known that the outer Van Allen belt can fluctuate wildly, at times swelling with charged particles before letting them slip away again, depending on space weather. In the months since the storage belt and the outer belt virtually disappeared, the Van Allen radiation zones have re-formed into the originally expected two-belt structure.
"We have no idea how often this sort of thing happens," Baker said. "This may occur fairly frequently but we didn't have the tools to see it."
The fact that NASA's new tools observed the events at all was somewhat serendipitous. When NASA launches a new spacecraft, instruments onboard are turned on, tested and calibrated in a prescribed order. CU-Boulder's REPT instruments were originally scheduled to be turned on about a month after launch, when the third Van Allen radiation belt would have already dissipated. But Baker and his colleagues lobbied to jump the REPT instrument to the front of the instrument commissioning line.
Baker's concern was that the only other NASA sensors collecting similar though far more rudimentary data on the Van Allen radiation belts were onboard the 20-year-old Solar, Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, or SAMPEX, mission, which was expected to fall back into Earth's atmosphere and burn up in late 2012.
Baker wanted REPT to collect as much overlapping data with SAMPEX as possible so that the two data records could be more easily stitched together and compared with each other. The REPT researchers won their case, and the instruments powered up on Sept. 1.
"Had we not done so, we would have missed this," Baker said. "It's good to be in the right place at the right time with the right instrument."
The two NASA probes, which are flying around Earth in an elliptical orbit, are able to send back observations for the first time from the heart of the two belts as each probe passes through. The information gathered by the twin, octagonal spacecraft will help researchers better understand how space weather affects near-Earth phenomena by interacting with, feeding and stripping away the Van Allen belts.
A better understanding of belt formation, including the number of belts, will help researchers refine their understanding of how and when solar storms can wreak havoc on Earth.
"We can offer these new observations to the theorists who model what's going on in the belts," said Shri Kanekal, the deputy mission scientist for the Van Allen Probes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and a co-author of the new study. "Nature presents us with this event it's there, it's a fact, you can't argue with it and now we have to explain why it's the case. Why did the third belt persist for four weeks? Why does it change? All of this information teaches us more about space."
###
Other CU-Boulder co-authors of the study include Vaughn Hoxie, a professional research assistant at LASP; Xinlin Li, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences; and Scot Elkington, a LASP research associate.
Contact:
Dan Baker, 303-492-0591
Daniel.Baker@lasp.colorado.edu
Laura Snider, CU media relations, 303-735-0528
Laura.Snider@colorado.edu
Editors: Contents embargoed until 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 28, when NASA will hold a news conference to discuss the new findings on the Van Allen radiation belts. CU-Boulder's Dan Baker will be among the panelists. The news conference will air live on NASA Television at the agency's website. Journalists wishing to participate by phone must contact Geoff Brown at 240-228-5618 or Geoffrey.Brown@jhuapl.edu with their media affiliation no later than 10 a.m. on Feb. 28.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 28-Feb-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dan Baker
Daniel.Baker@lasp.colorado.edu
303-492-0591
University of Colorado at Boulder
With the flip of a switch, a pair of instruments designed and built by the University of Colorado Boulder and flying onboard twin NASA space probes have forced the revision of a 50-year-old theory about the structure of the radiation belts that wrap around the Earth just a few thousand miles above our heads.
The Van Allen radiation belts donut-shaped rings of so-called "killer electrons" that encircle the Earth were the first discovery of the space age. Data sent back from NASA's Pioneer 3 and Explorer IV spacecraft, both launched in 1958 and both carrying instruments built by James Van Allen, showed the presence of two distinct rings of high-energy electrons.
On Aug. 30, NASA launched the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission, since renamed the Van Allen Probes mission, to learn more about the belts, which are known to be hazardous to satellites, astronauts and technological systems on Earth.
Each probe carries a Relativistic Electron-Proton Telescope, or REPT, designed and built at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, known as LASP. When CU-Boulder scientists turned on the instruments, just a few days after launch, they were shocked by what they saw unfold: the formation of a third "storage ring" radiation belt.
"It was so odd looking, I thought there must be something wrong with the instrument," said LASP Director Dan Baker, REPT principal investigator and lead author of the study published online today in the journal Science. "But we saw things identically on each of the spacecraft. We had to come to the conclusion that this was real."
The data sent back to Earth from the REPT instruments during the month of September initially showed two Van Allen belts, as expected. But after a few days, the outer ring appeared to compress into an intense, tightly packed electron band and a third, less compact belt of electrons formed further out, creating a total of three rings. The middle "storage ring" persisted as the belt furthest away from Earth began to decay away in the third week of September, until, finally, a powerful interplanetary shockwave traveling from the sun virtually annihilated both the storage ring and the rest of the outer belt.
Scientists have known that the outer Van Allen belt can fluctuate wildly, at times swelling with charged particles before letting them slip away again, depending on space weather. In the months since the storage belt and the outer belt virtually disappeared, the Van Allen radiation zones have re-formed into the originally expected two-belt structure.
"We have no idea how often this sort of thing happens," Baker said. "This may occur fairly frequently but we didn't have the tools to see it."
The fact that NASA's new tools observed the events at all was somewhat serendipitous. When NASA launches a new spacecraft, instruments onboard are turned on, tested and calibrated in a prescribed order. CU-Boulder's REPT instruments were originally scheduled to be turned on about a month after launch, when the third Van Allen radiation belt would have already dissipated. But Baker and his colleagues lobbied to jump the REPT instrument to the front of the instrument commissioning line.
Baker's concern was that the only other NASA sensors collecting similar though far more rudimentary data on the Van Allen radiation belts were onboard the 20-year-old Solar, Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, or SAMPEX, mission, which was expected to fall back into Earth's atmosphere and burn up in late 2012.
Baker wanted REPT to collect as much overlapping data with SAMPEX as possible so that the two data records could be more easily stitched together and compared with each other. The REPT researchers won their case, and the instruments powered up on Sept. 1.
"Had we not done so, we would have missed this," Baker said. "It's good to be in the right place at the right time with the right instrument."
The two NASA probes, which are flying around Earth in an elliptical orbit, are able to send back observations for the first time from the heart of the two belts as each probe passes through. The information gathered by the twin, octagonal spacecraft will help researchers better understand how space weather affects near-Earth phenomena by interacting with, feeding and stripping away the Van Allen belts.
A better understanding of belt formation, including the number of belts, will help researchers refine their understanding of how and when solar storms can wreak havoc on Earth.
"We can offer these new observations to the theorists who model what's going on in the belts," said Shri Kanekal, the deputy mission scientist for the Van Allen Probes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and a co-author of the new study. "Nature presents us with this event it's there, it's a fact, you can't argue with it and now we have to explain why it's the case. Why did the third belt persist for four weeks? Why does it change? All of this information teaches us more about space."
###
Other CU-Boulder co-authors of the study include Vaughn Hoxie, a professional research assistant at LASP; Xinlin Li, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences; and Scot Elkington, a LASP research associate.
Contact:
Dan Baker, 303-492-0591
Daniel.Baker@lasp.colorado.edu
Laura Snider, CU media relations, 303-735-0528
Laura.Snider@colorado.edu
Editors: Contents embargoed until 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 28, when NASA will hold a news conference to discuss the new findings on the Van Allen radiation belts. CU-Boulder's Dan Baker will be among the panelists. The news conference will air live on NASA Television at the agency's website. Journalists wishing to participate by phone must contact Geoff Brown at 240-228-5618 or Geoffrey.Brown@jhuapl.edu with their media affiliation no later than 10 a.m. on Feb. 28.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uoca-tci022513.php
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Analysis: Emerging deadly virus demands swift sleuth work
LONDON (Reuters) - The emergence of a deadly virus previously unseen in humans that has already killed half those known to be infected requires speedy scientific detective work to figure out its potential.
Experts in virology and infectious diseases say that while they already have unprecedented detail about the genetics and capabilities of the novel coronavirus, or NCoV, what worries them more is what they don't know.
The virus, which belongs to the same family as viruses that cause the common cold and the one that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), emerged in the Middle East last year and has so far killed seven of the 13 people it is known to have infected worldwide.
Of those, six have been in Saudi Arabia, two in Jordan, and others in Britain and Germany linked to travel in the Middle East or to family clusters.
"What we know really concerns me, but what we don't know really scares me," said Michael Osterholm, director of the U.S.-based Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a professor at the University of Minnesota.
Less than a week after identifying NCoV in September last year in a Qatari patient at a London hospital, scientists at Britain's Health Protection Agency had sequenced part of its genome and mapped out a so-called "phylogenetic tree" - a kind of family tree - of its links.
Swiftly conducted scientific studies by teams in Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere have found that NCoV is well adapted to infecting humans and may be treatable medicines similar to the ones used for SARS, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected.
"Partly because of the way the field has developed post-SARS, we've been able to get onto this virus very early," said Mike Skinner, an expert on coronaviruses from Imperial College London. "We know what it looks like, we know what family it's from and we have its complete gene sequence."
Yet there are many unanswered questions.
SPOTLIGHT ON SAUDI ARABIA, JORDAN
"At the moment we just don't know whether the virus might actually be quite widespread and it's just a tiny proportion of people who get really sick, or whether it's a brand new virus carrying a much greater virulence potential," said Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist, also at Imperial College London.
To have any success in answering those questions, scientists and health officials in affected countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan need to conduct swift and robust epidemiological studies to find out whether the virus is circulating more widely in people but causing milder symptoms.
This would help establish whether the 13 cases seen so far are the most severe and represent "the tip the iceberg", said Volker Thiel of the Institute of Immunobiology at Kantonal Hospital in Switzerland, who published research this month showing NCoV grows efficiently in human cells.
Scientists and health officials in the Middle East and Arab Peninsular also need to collaborate with colleagues in Europe, where some NCoV cases have been treated and where samples have gone to specialist labs, to try to pin down the virus' source.
"ONE BIG VIROLOGICAL BLENDER"
Initial scientific analysis by laboratory scientists at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) - which helped identify the virus in a Qatari patient in September last year - found that NCoV's closest relatives are most probably bat viruses.
It is not unusual for viruses to jump from animals to humans and mutate in the process - high profile examples include the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS and the H1N1 swine flu which caused a pandemic in 2009 and 2010.
Yet further work by a research team at the Robert Koch Institute at Germany's University of Bonn now suggests it may have come through an intermediary - possibly goats.
In a detailed case study of a patient from Qatar who was infected with NCoV and treated in Germany, researchers said the man reported owning a camel and a goat farm on which several goats had been ill with fevers before he himself got sick.
Osterholm noted this, saying he would "feel more comfortable if we could trace back all the cases to an animal source".
If so, it would mean the infections are just occasional cross-overs from animals, he said - a little like the sporadic cases of bird flu that continue to pop up - and would suggest the virus has not yet established a reservoir in humans.
Yet recent evidence from a cluster of cases in a family in Britain strongly suggests NCoV can be passed from one person to another and may not always come from an animal source.
An infection in a British man who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, reported on February 11, was swiftly followed by two more British cases in the same family in people who had no recent travel history in the Middle East.
The World Health Organization says the new cases show the virus is "persistent" and HPA scientists said the cluster provided "strong evidence" that NCoV, which like other coronaviruses probably spreads in airborne droplets, can pass from one human to another "in at least some circumstances".
Despite this, Ian Jones, a professor of virology at Britain's University of Reading, said he believes "the most likely outcome for the current infections is a dead end" - with the virus petering out and becoming extinct.
Others say they fear that is unlikely.
"There's nothing in the virology that tells us this thing is going to stop being transmitted," said Osterholm. "Today the world is one big virological blender. And if it's sustaining itself (in humans) in the Middle East then it will show up around the rest of the world. It's just a matter of time."
(Editing by Anna Willard)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-emerging-deadly-virus-demands-swift-sleuth-133352585.html
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Researchers identify genetic variation behind acute myeloid leukemia treatment success
Researchers identify genetic variation behind acute myeloid leukemia treatment success
Wednesday, February 27, 2013Researchers from the College of Pharmacy and Medical School working within the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, have partnered to identify genetic variations that may help signal which acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients will benefit or not benefit from one of the newest antileukemic agents.
Their study is published today in Clinical Cancer Research.
In the latest study, U of M researchers evaluated how inherited genetic polymorphisms in CD33, a protein that naturally occurs in most leukemia cells, could affect clinical outcomes of patients treated with an existing chemotherapy drug, gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO), an immuno-conjugate between anti-CD33 antibody and a cytotoxin known as calicheamicin, which binds to CD33 on leukemic cells. As GO is internalized by leukemia cells, the cytotoxin is released, causing DNA damage and generating leukemic cell death.
In recent clinical trials GO has been shown to induce remission and improve survival in subset of patients with AML, however there is wide inter-patient variation in response.
Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., and colleagues identified and evaluated three genetic variations of CD33 in two groups of patients with pediatric AML ? one group that received the drug GO, and one group that did not. They found that specific genetic variation in CD33 that significantly affected the clinical outcome of AML patients who received GO based chemotherapy.
"Understanding how genetics play a role in how drugs work is extremely useful, particularly for a drug like GO which has shown a very heterogeneous response in AML patients," said Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., the study's lead author and a researcher who holds appointments in both the College of Pharmacy and the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota. "Our latest findings lead us to believe that genetic variation in CD33 influences how AML patients' leukemic cell responds to GO."
AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, and is the second most common form of leukemia in children. Though the most common type of treatment for AML is chemotherapy, Lamba says the disease remains hard to treat and newer, more effective therapies are needed.
"The overall goal of our study was to use genetic data to predict beneficial or adverse response to a specific drug, thus opening up opportunities to use this information for drug optimization to achieve maximum therapeutic efficacy and minimum toxicity. Our hope is that our research could serve as a marker of prognostic significance for clinicians to select the therapy that has the greatest odds of being effective for individual patients based on their CD33 genotype."
###
University of Minnesota Academic Health Center: http://www.ahc.umn.edu/
Thanks to University of Minnesota Academic Health 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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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Amsterdam plans sober party for Dutch inauguration
AMSTERDAM (AP) ? The Dutch capital is known for boozy stag nights and pot-smoking tourists. But for what could be the nation's party of the decade ? the abdication of Queen Beatrix and accession to the throne of her son Willem-Alexander ? Amsterdam wants to keep things low key.
Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said Wednesday he "wants a party, but at the same time sober" for the April 30 inauguration.
He's not suggesting alcohol-free festivities, but he wants to keep the cost in check as the nation tightens its belt to recover from an economic buffeting caused by the European debt crisis.
Van der Laan is even seeking sponsors to help pick up the estimated ?7 million ($9 million) tab for the royal bash.
And in an attempt to prevent the capital clogging up with visitors keen to get a glimpse of their outgoing queen and new king, Van der Laan had some advice about the best vantage point.
"If you want to get a really good view, maybe the best place is watching on television," he said.
The day in Amsterdam will start with Beatrix signing abdication papers in the royal palace on central Dam Square. The inauguration of Willem-Alexander will then take place next door in the 15th century New Church.
In the early evening, the new King Willem-Alexander and his Argentine-born wife Maxima will take a boat trip around the city's Ij waterway.
The Ij was chosen over a trip around the city's famed 400-year old ring of canals because it is easier to control crowds along the river banks than in the maze of narrow side streets that link the canals.
And there will be no giant firework show to crown the day's festivities ? Van der Laan said it wouldn't be dark enough when the royals finish their boat trip.
For those in the city who don't want to head to the water's edge, the huge public square behind the Rijksmuseum will be turned into an "Orange Square" where revelers can watch events unfold on giant screens.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amsterdam-plans-sober-party-dutch-inauguration-112326971.html
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Macklemore's 'Thrift Shop' Tops On Billboard Digital Songs For Seventh Week
Mumford & Sons notch fifth week at #1 on Billboard 200 charts following Grammy bump.
By Gil Kaufman
Macklemore
Photo: Anthony Pidgeon/ Redferns
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702701/macklemore-thrift-shop-billboard-digital-songs-chart.jhtml
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Sony Mobile has 'an ambition' to launch Firefox OS device in 2014
Sony Mobile and Telef?nica reinforce partnership with multi-year commercial and technical collaboration
Telefonica to range Sony Mobile's 2013 Xperia portfolio including Xperia? Z and Xperia? Tablet Z
Telef?nica establishes technical partnership with Sony Mobile to leverage opportunities with the new Firefox OS open source platform
25th February 2013, Barcelona, Spain - Telef?nica and Sony Mobile Communications ("Sony Mobile") today reinforced the strength of their commercial partnership in a multi-year agreement that confirms the operator's ranging support for Sony Mobile's 2013 Xperia? Android device portfolio, as well as laying out a joint technical collaboration to explore the development of a handset running Mozilla's Firefox OS open source mobile platform.
Sony Mobile and Telef?nica are long-term partners and Sony Mobile has in the past year steadily grown its portfolio of premium Android-based smartphones available on the Telef?nica network, including the Xperia? T - aka 'The Bond phone' and now the acclaimed Xperia? Z smartphone and Xperia? Tablet Z. Under the terms of the agreement, Telef?nica and Sony Mobile will further strengthen their partnership and investigate emerging technologies such as the Firefox OS platform to extend Sony's premium product portfolio to a wider customer base.
"At Sony Mobile we continue to evaluate innovative technologies that can help deliver the premium user experiences that Sony's consumers expect," said Bob Ishida, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Products Business Group, Sony Mobile Communications. "Our engineers are now working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML5, evolving technologies which show great potential. In addition, we continue to work with our operator partners, including Telef?nica, on a development project with an ambition to bring a product to market in 2014."
"Sony's Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z are stunning devices that really raise the bar when it comes to the premium smartphone and tablet segment- and we're delighted to be partnering to bring these to market across a number of our global channels," commented Marieta del Rivero, Group Devices Director, Telef?nica. "As well as the great opportunity we have in 2013, our further collaboration around a possible device on the Firefox OS mobile platform will create the opportunity to reach new segments of the market, allowing us to provide an even wider choice of premium Sony device offerings for our customers."
Firefox OS marks a significant milestone for the industry, enabling for the first time devices to be manufactured to totally open web standards. It will provide customers with a rich, open and dynamic smartphone experience.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/sony-telefonica-firefox-os-2014/
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SideCar Says Three Philadelphia Drivers Caught In ?Sting,? But It Plans To Continue Operations
It sounds like ridesharing startup SideCar is facing another regulatory challenge. According to a company blog post, the Philadelphia Parking Authority cited three SideCar drivers and impounded their cars in an "orchestrated sting operation." The citation supposedly describes SideCar as an "unauthorized service provider," which the company says is inaccurate:Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vHlYzXBxaA4/
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Nigeria football coach retracts resignation
BACK ON BOARD: Stephen Keshi
NIGERIA'S AFRICAN Cup of Nations winning coach Stephen Keshi will stay on as manager of the national team despite handing in his notice yesterday.
Keshi, who has managed the Nigerian side since 2011, tendered his resignation after leading the team to its first cup triumph in 19 years.
The 51-year-old, one of only two people to have won the tournament as both a player and a coach, stunned fans and critics alike when he decided to step down from the post on Monday (Feb 11).
The former Super Eagle who captained the side in 1994 had made it known that he would not change his mind but he did a U-turn after speaking with Nigeria's sports minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, late on Monday night.
In a statement, Keshi said: ?While I have had cause to express my displeasure over some issues that happened in the course of our participation in the AFCON 2013, which my team won by the grace of God, especially concerning my relationship with the Nigerian Football Federation, I have since had opportunity to discuss the various issues with all concerned.
"I am therefore pleased to say that I have reconsidered my position and have decided to continue with my job. I want to thank the Honourable Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, for his swift and kind intervention.?
According to South Africa's Metro FM, Keshi said he ?gave the [Nigerian Football Federation] my letter of resignation immediately after last night?s game, but I haven?t heard from them yet.?
The station claimed Keshi was sacked ahead of Nigeria's quarterfinal clash against Ivory Coast and that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) had booked a plane back to Nigeria as soon as it found out the Super Eagles were to play one of the strongest teams in the competition.
Nigeria?s former Public Relation officer, Peterside Idah, confirmed Keshi?s claim on Twitter.
He wrote: ?Keshi only heard the NFF had given the secretary money for return tickets before Ivory Coast game, only after they won the game.?
Source: http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/nigeria-football-coach-retracts-resignation
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Interactive comedy fuels discussion on love and fear | The Post
Daniel Packard performs his comedy and relationship advice shown in Baker University Center for the first day of sex week (Arielle Berger | For The Post).
A provocatively-themed event hosted by University Program Council dove into a humor based show on love and relationships Monday night.
?The Live Group Sex Therapy Show? kicked off at 7 p.m. in Baker Center Ballroom when 150 students sat in front of a stage to listen to comedian Daniel Packard start a discussion on images of love and self-worth.
Packard, who has travelled to 300 different college campuses to perform the show, started off the event with some sexual jokes and past experiences dealing with love. However, the show took an unexpected turn when he began asking the audience what love was, how people defined it and why they feared it.
?I think people don?t like who they are and that they blame themselves or others,? Packard said. ?They never learn to focus on what?s important, like having courage.?
Packard asked questions regarding fear and anger in relationships. Asking women and men if it was okay to judge one another on their actions in relationships as well as addressing topics of insecurities as well as the need for communication.
?Ladies, if you judge and disconnect from a man, you?ll miss out on a very nice guy,? he said. ?Men, love and listening mean the same thing to a woman. Covering up the fear keeps you from love.?
The show became interactive when Packard asked the audience to give input on perceptions of men and women in relationships. A live text stream during the show was used, showing different opinions on a projection that students had texted.
All the texts were anonymous, some examples of the texts that were sent included ?Marry me,? ?Men are stupid? and ?Will someone be my valentine??
Megan Scalf, live entertainment executive chair for UPC and a senior studying communications, said that the event went ?perfect.?
?I thought it was very successful,? she said. ?I think UPC will definitely consider doing a similar event next year.?
Student reactions were positive and some commented on the way Packard delivered humor along with addressing sensitive themes of relationships.
?It went fantastic,? said Kari Nickell, a senior studying strategic communications. ?I thought the audience was very receptive to what (Packard) was saying. I think the message was very empowering for women and men.?
After the show, Packard said that he hoped that Ohio University students will take a lesson out of his show.
?I think it went well,? he said. ?If anything I want them to learn to love themselves and to have courage in opening up about receiving love and not think they?re not worthy enough to receive it.?
hy135010@ohiou.edu
Source: http://thepost.ohiou.edu/content/interactive-comedy-fuels-discussion-love-and-fear
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Health News - Test Predicts Thyroid Cancer and Leads to Surgery ...
Madison, Wisconsin - A blood test given to the children of parents who have a genetic disorder that causes thyroid cancer may have prevented further tragedy for a family already ravaged by the disease.
Joyce Walmer's father had thyroid cancer. So did her uncle. Her sister has endured three surgeries to remove tumors from her thyroid and adrenal glands. Joyce herself had surgery twice for the same reason, performed by UW Hospital and Clinics surgeon Herbert Chen, MD, who was now telling her that her children ? 8-year-old Kiara, 4-year-old Robert and 2-year-old Lilianna - would be in for the same, if no action were taken.
"Joyce's children have multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) 2A, which is an inherited syndrome," says Dr. Chen. "If the parent has the gene" - which Joyce did ? "there is a 50 percent chance the children will get it."
MEN2 is a rare hereditary condition, occurring in roughly one in 35,000 people in the United States. It is caused by a mutation in the RET gene, which provides instruction for producing a protein that is involved in cell signaling and is needed for the normal development of several kinds of nerve cells.
People with MEN2 have one functioning RET gene and one that triggers cells to divide abnormally, causing tumors in the endocrine system and other tissues. MEN2A, identified in Joyce and her children by the aforementioned blood test, leads to medullary cancer of the thyroid, pheochromocytoma (tumors in the adrenal gland) and hyperparathyroidism, which causes excessive calcium in the blood and can lead to kidney damage.
According to Dr. Chen, adrenal gland tumors and hyperparathyroidism were eventual possibilities for Robert, Kiara and Lilianna. Medullary thyroid cancer was a short-term inevitability.
"If they have the MEN2A mutation," Dr. Chen says, "they're going to get medullary thyroid cancer."
"I was kind of in shock," Joyce says. "(Given the family history) I maybe expected one of them to have it. But I didn't expect all three."
Shock soon relented to a peculiar kind of relief for Joyce. With MEN2A confirmed, the course of treatment was obvious. Her children would have surgery to remove their thyroid glands.
"The hope is to remove the thyroid prior to the development of cancer," says Dr. Chen.
Three young children. Two months ? October and November. Three surgeries. It was a lot to take in, but a familiar scene for Joyce.
"I've been there. I knew what to expect. Had I not known, it would have been scarier," Joyce says. "I felt safe with Dr. Chen because he knew what he was doing, and we were on top of it."
Any apprehensions evinced by Joyce's children were eased by a hospital staff that took the time to answer any and all questions about the surgical process.
"The staff was so good with the kids," Joyce says. "They would get right down to their level and explain everything, especially before surgery. They let the kids play with their instruments, so they were more comfortable."
Kiara's surgery came first, on October 31, followed two weeks later by Robert and then Lilianna, two weeks after that. Tests revealed surgery to be a judicious choice. Both Robert's and Kiara's thyroid glands were cancerous. Lilianna is still awaiting her test results.
"We didn't even think Robert had cancer," Joyce says. "It can happen so quickly."
All three children will be monitored closely in the coming years to make sure any trace of cancer in the thyroid doesn't spread to the adrenal and parathyroid glands. But Dr. Chen says by removing the thyroid glands, the children have avoided the most immediate and dangerous problem.
"The tumors that can develop in the adrenal and the parathyroid are benign tumors that present symptoms but are very treatable with surgery," he says. By removing the thyroid, the children should "be able to live normal lives."
That news comforts Joyce, who, despite the encouraging prognosis, nonetheless pledges to stress to her children the importance of being active participants in their health care as they grow.
"You can't let it go. If you let it go, it will turn into something worse," she says with understandable wariness. "When they get older, I have to make sure they keep up."
University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Michigan, Kansas go down as run continues
Wisconsin's Sam Dekker, facing camera at left, celebrates with teammate Dan Fahey after Wisconsin defeated Michigan 65-62 in an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
Wisconsin's Sam Dekker, facing camera at left, celebrates with teammate Dan Fahey after Wisconsin defeated Michigan 65-62 in an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
Okahoma coach Lon Kruger shouts to his team in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kansas in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. Oklahoma won 72-66. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Kansas center Jeff Withey blocks a shot by Oklahoma forward Andrew Fitzgerald (4) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. Oklahoma won 72-66. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
There goes another one, and another one.
No. 3 Michigan, fifth-ranked Kansas and No. 11 Louisville all lost on Saturday, continuing a perilous stretch for the Top 25.
The Wolverines became the third top-three team to fall this week when Ben Brust hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with less than 40 seconds left in overtime, leading Wisconsin to a 65-62 victory. Brust also tied the game at the end of regulation with a heave from just inside halfcourt.
That's just the way it has gone lately for the top of the poll.
No. 2 Florida lost at Arkansas on Tuesday night, and No. 1 Indiana dropped a 74-72 decision at Illinois on Thursday. This should be the sixth straight week with a different No. 1 in The Associated Press' Top 25, which would be the second-longest streak since the first AP poll in 1949.
The Jayhawks have dropped three straight games for the first time in eight years after they lost 72-66 at Oklahoma.
"It hasn't been a good week for us by any stretch, but let's be real," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "We were ranked No. 2 in the country seven days ago, and you don't go from being a good team to a bad team overnight.
"We've had a couple of bad outings, but we're still a good team."
The current string of No. 1 swapping is the longest since 1994, when Arkansas, North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Duke alternated at the top seven straight weeks ? the longest streak since Saint Louis debuted as No. 1 in the initial AP poll.
But it isn't just the teams at the top that are having trouble. Top 25 teams all over the country are getting knocked off by unranked opponents.
According to STATS LLC, Top 25 teams lost to unranked teams 36 times from Jan. 17 to Feb. 6 this season, most in at least 17 years.
Louisville lost 104-101 in five overtimes at No. 25 Notre Dame on Saturday night. It was the longest regular-season game in Big East history.
The Irish trailed by eight with 46 seconds left in regulation.
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Israel is cock-blocking terrorists
Israel is cock-blocking terrorists
SNIP: ?These women either need sperm to cover up the fact that they are getting knocked up by someone other than their masters?husbands, or there is a ?shortage of ?kids??to hand over to the Taliban.?
CNN
Nablus, West Bank (CNN)?? Dalal al-Ziben holds her son and kisses his head. Al-Ziben never thought she would have another baby considering her husband has been inside an Israeli prison for 16 years and will likely never get out.
?When they arrested my husband I was 18 years old,? she says.
As is expected from her in conservative Palestinian society she says she has been faithful to her husband. She has simply been waiting, hoping her husband may one day be released from incarceration.
It hasn?t happened and likely never will because he is serving 27 life sentences and an additional 25 years for helping plan a deadly bombing in a Jerusalem market. An act of violence she says he has admitted to.
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are not allowed conjugal visits, but some Israeli prisoners are. The man convicted of assassinating Israel?s Prime Minister Yitzah Rabin was allowed conjugal visits.
Al-Ziben says she got pregnant by her husband because he managed to have his sperm smuggled out of a high security prison.
?Why does the wife of a prisoner have to suffer and stay like this without children and a family? It is our right to meet our husbands and our right to have children,? Al-Ziben says.
MORE ?http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/08/world/meast/palestinian-sperm-smuggling/index.html
Source: http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=171221
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Celebrating Chinese New Year In Estonia
When you think of Chinese New Year, the snowy capital of Estonia isn't the first place you think of for celebrating it. Yet Tallinn put on a big show to greet the new year as part of their annual Fire and Ice Festival.
The Chinese community in Tallinn is pretty small, but the Chinese embassy is reaching out to this Baltic state and helped fund a grandiose program of entertainment to welcome in the Year of the Snake. A big stage in Tallinn's Kardiorg Park had Chinese acrobats, dancers, and musicians doing their stuff.
The Estonians also took part in their own way. A group of Estonian sculptors, plus an Egyptian guest, did a set of five ice sculptures for the theme of the New Year. The artists were Tiiu Kirsipuu, Aime Kuulbusch, Kalle Pruuden and Elo Liiv from Estonia, and Salah Hammad from Egypt. Their works are based on the Eastern Lunar calendar, the central sculpture being the Black Water Snake of this new year. Flanking it were sculptures representing Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
A huge crowd came out to watch the unveiling. The night was a mild one by Estonian standards, dipping down to about 0 Celsius (about 20 degrees Fahrenheit) with a steady snowfall. Last year it was -25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit). I'm glad I came this year and not last.
Gallery: Chinese New Year, Estonian Style
Tiiu Kirsipuu, who sculpted the snake, told me that the ice came all the way from Lapland in northern Finland. Tiiu explained that the ice needs to be at least 40 centimeters thick and that Estonia is too far south to generally get ice freezing to that thickness.I also talked with Salah Hammad, the visiting Egyptian artist. His usual works are comprised of stone, wood and metal formed into an abstract geometric style. This was Salah's first time working with ice and he found it a tricky medium to control. Here he is next to his work below.
Once the sculptures were unveiled, the crowd pressed in to see them. Everybody felt the urge to stroke the figures. The festival organizers and artists didn't seem to mind. I wondered aloud how long the figures would hold up to such treatment. One of the artists simply shrugged and said that impermanence was part of the medium.
As it grew later the mercury began to drop. The Estonians didn't care. Living where they do they've made their peace with winter. Scattered all across the park were hundreds of snowmen, snowbears, snowdwarves and snowdragons. Eager kids were busily adding to the population. Snowball fights broke out everywhere. Parents warmed themselves at stalls selling mulled wine and everybody was wowed by the fireworks show the Chinese put on.
Just as it was really starting to get chilly, I managed to get invited to a reception at the Chinese embassy. Chinese cultural representatives told me how anxious they were to get their nation's traditions better known in the West. Considering how much money they'd spent on a city of a little more than 300,000 people, I imagine they're pretty serious. Expect more Chinese shows in your town soon.
Everyone felt the show had come off well and was in a good mood. Estonian artists, Chinese dancers, a Portuguese photographer, and a lone Canadian and Egyptian all mingled and enjoyed Chinese food and Spanish wine. Cultures and languages blended with ease.
I love this new international world!
This is the first in a new series: "Exploring Estonia: The Northern Baltics In Wintertime."
Coming up next: Tallinn's Medieval Old Town!
[All photos by Sean McLachlan]
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Festivals and Events, Asia, Europe, China, Estonia
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/gadling/~3/pnvQ_OmACtU/
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Timberlake releases new song after Grammys
By Bruna Nessif, E! Online
Justin Timberlake is not wasting any time! After bringing sexy back at the Grammys tonight, the "Suit and Tie" singer kept to his Twitter promise from earlier in the night and gave fans something else to get excited about -- a new track!
"Big news coming out after Justin's #Grammys performance. Stay tuned or you'll miss it! #moreJT -teamJT" was posted on the Twitter account.?
What did you think of J.T.'s performance at the Grammys?
J.T. released yet another song off of "The 20/20 Experience" (which hits stores March 19) called "Mirrors."
The tune marks the fourth from his upcoming album that Timberlake's shared with fans. He first made his comeback to music with "Suit and Tie" featuring Jay-Z, then revealed "That Girl," which he debuted at a pre-Super Bowl party and sang "Pusher Lover Girl" during his Grammys performance Sunday night.
Take a look at the most stylish men from the 2013 Grammys
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Saturday, February 9, 2013
NJ's Menendez defends actions on donor's behalf
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2013 file photo, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Menendez is defending actions he took that appeared to benefit a top campaign contributor, saying that being a donor shouldn't disqualify someone from getting a lawmaker's assistance. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2013 file photo, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Menendez is defending actions he took that appeared to benefit a top campaign contributor, saying that being a donor shouldn't disqualify someone from getting a lawmaker's assistance. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sen. Robert Menendez defended his actions on behalf of a top campaign contributor, saying that being a donor doesn't disqualify someone from getting his help.
"The fact that someone is a donor does not do away with the right or the opportunity to consider whether something is correct or incorrect, to ask questions, raise concerns," Menendez said Thursday in an interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision, which is to air Sunday. Menendez expressed similar sentiments to another Spanish-language network, Telemundo, in an interview set to air the same day.
"It doesn't matter if it's someone who's a contributor or not a contributor, a minor contributor or a major contributor," he added.
Menendez's comments came in response to a question about whether actions he took benefited Dr. Solmon Melgen, a Florida doctor and one of Menendez's top campaign supporters. Menendez's ties to Melgen have come under scrutiny after an FBI raid last week at the physician's West Palm Beach, Fla., office.
Menendez said his longtime friendship with Melgen and the doctor's political donations hadn't prompted his actions.
"No one has bought me, No. 1," Menendez said. "No one. Ever. In the 20 years I've been in Congress, never has it been suggested that that could even be possible. Never in 40 years of public life. So I'm not going to reach this moment in my life to make that a possibility."
Menendez defended two instances where actions he took seemed to benefit Melgen.
He said he contacted the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to question the agency's billing practices and policies. At the time, Melgen was in a dispute with the agency over some $8.9 million in payments.
Menendez said in the Univision interview that in another instance, he was merely complaining about U.S. policy, not weighing in on behalf of one of Melgen's companies.
Menendez complained in July during a Senate subcommittee hearing about several instances of Latin American governments not honoring obligations to U.S. businesses. Menendez pressed two Obama administration officials about an unidentified company that provided cargo screening services at Dominican Republic ports. Media reports in the Dominican Republic have highlighted a contract feud between the Caribbean country's government and a port security firm, I.C.S.S.I.
The company was hired to provide X-ray screening at Dominican ports starting in 2002, according to a 2003 document reviewed by the AP. In recent years, the Dominican government had begun to balk at continuing the contract, citing high costs. In 2011, I.C.S.S.I. was bought by a Florida firm, Border Security Services LLC, which records show is managed by Melgen.
Menendez, who has acknowledged flying on Melgen's private plane to the Dominican Republic twice and failing to initially properly pay for the trips, once again denied allegations he had relations with prostitutes in the Caribbean country.
"Those are lies intended to slander me, and they're completely... not only absurd, but completely false," he told Univision.
Menendez has reimbursed some $58,500 from his personal funds to pay for the trips. Melgen has recently requested that online flight-tracking services block records showing the history of his plane's travel.
Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of the senator's for many years. Last year, Melgen's practice gave $700,000 to Majority PAC, a super political action committee set up to fund Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate. Aided by Melgen's donation, the super PAC became the largest outside political committee contributing to Menendez's re-election, spending more than $582,000 on the senator's behalf.
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Accused witch burned alive in Papua New Guinea
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) ? Assailants stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of witnesses in a Papua New Guinea town, police said Friday after one of the highest profile sorcery-related murders in this South Pacific island nation.
Some of the hundreds of bystanders took photographs of Wednesday's brutal slaying. Grisly pictures were published on the front pages of the country's biggest circulating newspapers, The National and Post-Courier. The prime minister, police and diplomats condemned the killing
Kepari Leniata, a 20-year-old who had a child, had been accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in the hospital the day before, police spokesman Dominic Kakas said.
She was tortured with a hot iron rod, bound, doused in gasoline, then set alight on a pile of car tires and trash in the Western Highlands provincial capital of Mount Hagen, Kakas said.
"Investigations are continuing. We've got good leads. The husband is the prime suspect," Kakas said.
Sorcery has traditionally been countered by sorcery in Papuan New Guinean culture. But responses to sorcery allegations have become increasingly violent in recent years.
Kakas said the death was the first the sorcery-related murder in Papua New Guinea in a year.
Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga described the murder as "shocking and devilish."
"We are in the 21st century and this is totally unacceptable," Commissioner Kulunga said in a statement.
He suggested courts be established to deal with sorcery allegations, as an alternative to villagers dispensing justice.
Prime Minister Pete O'Neill said he had instructed police to use all available manpower to bring the killers to justice.
"It is reprehensible that women, the old and the weak in our society should be targeted for alleged sorcery or wrongs that they actually have nothing to do with," O'Neill said.
The U.S. Embassy in the national capital Port Moresby issued a statement calling for a sustained international partnership to enhance anti-gender-based violence laws throughout the Pacific.
The embassy of Australia, Papua New Guinea's colonial ruler until independence in 1975 and now its biggest foreign aid donor, said "We join ... all reasonable Papua New Guineans in looking forward to the perpetrators being brought to justice."
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How To Explore The Tourism In Fiji?
It is not very long that people have started knowing Fiji as one of the potential tourism destinations; this islands country in fact, has been endowed with numerous scenic wonders such as green hills, pristine beaches, mouthwatering waterfalls, gardens and thick cultural wonders of people inhabiting there. Being richly endowed with such natural endowments this country remained isolated from tourism for many years but everyone involved in tourism today would be highly thankful to famous personality called Louis Gerard Saliot for his sheer dedication and hard work carried out promoting tourism.
For tourists with passion to travel must know the geographical location of this wonderful paradise. This country is wonderfully situated at the central part of south pacific and accessibly could be visited from different parts of the world through both the waterways and airways. Recently, tourism has boomed in this country as there were several developments relating to tourism industry such as infrastructures comprised of accommodation, road, transport and emergence of many sightseeing attractions have all come up. If you are trying to know why Gerard Saliot has shot to huge fame in this country you wont be surprised to know that he has been wonderfully instrumental in shaping Fiji as one of the leading world tourism destinations. He has set up many hotel chains and many other people from corporate sector have started investing millions of money to set up tourism business.
Discussing about numerous things to cherish and enjoy one must know one can have ample of things to enjoy such as enjoying tour by cargo boat, ship cruise or yacht. However, one more important thing to be kept in mind before making entry into this Fijian islands country is acquiring of all the documents that are needed to travel such as visa, traveling pass and passport etc. On entering you will truly be highly grateful to Gerard Saliot on exploring some of the mesmerizing attractions as follows. The main attractions you would enjoy include the garden of sleeping giant where one would have different flowers by exotic plants that would provide not only eyes-relaxation but also peace and tranquility as well.
Besides, you can also visit to famous Museum where you can have glimpse of every kind of artifacts and many historical and cultural things. In addition, if you are adventurous by nature you can explore and carry out different things. Even you can go for having wonderful whitewater river rafting, Sea kayaking, hiking and fishing etc. If you are shopaholic by nature this country may turn out to be not lesser than heaven. Apart from that there are also many countless numbers of attractions that are all lying unheard and hidden that are also yet to be experienced. With so many restaurants and hotels one can find ample of foods and cuisines of international standards. It is not something as if this country is only meant for non-vegetarians; but equally those who stick to vegetables simply would also be able to cherish dish or cuisines of their interests.
About the Author:
The author has been associated with Splashsys Company. In this article, he has written about Fiji travel and Louis Gerard Saliot who has contributed a lot of things in tourism development.
Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/How-To-Explore-The-Tourism-In-Fiji--/4425491
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Poor in cages show dark side of Hong Kong boom
HONG KONG - For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage.
The 67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood.
The cages, stacked on top of each other, measure 1.5 square meters (16 square feet). To keep bedbugs away, Leung and his roommates put thin pads, bamboo mats, even old linoleum on their cages' wooden planks instead of mattresses.
"I've been bitten so much I'm used to it," said Leung, rolling up the sleeve of his oversized blue fleece jacket to reveal a red mark on his hand. "There's nothing you can do about it. I've got to live here. I've got to survive," he said as he let out a phlegmy cough.
Some 100,000 people in the former British colony live in what's known as inadequate housing, according to the Society for Community Organization, a social welfare group. The category also includes apartments subdivided into tiny cubicles or filled with coffin-sized wood and metal sleeping compartments as well as rooftop shacks. They're a grim counterpoint to the southern Chinese city's renowned material affluence.
Forced by skyrocketing housing prices to live in cramped, dirty and unsafe conditions, their plight also highlights one of the biggest headaches facing Hong Kong's unpopular Beijing-backed leader: growing public rage over the city's housing crisis.
Photoblog: Living in a cage - and paying rent too?
Leung Chun-ying took office as Hong Kong's chief executive in July pledging to provide more affordable housing in a bid to cool the anger. Home prices rose 23 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 and have doubled since bottoming out in 2008 during the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said in a report last month. Rents have followed a similar trajectory.
The soaring costs are putting decent homes out of reach of a large portion of the population while stoking resentment of the government, which controls all land for development, and a coterie of wealthy property developers. Housing costs have been fuelled by easy credit thanks to ultralow interest rates that policymakers can't raise because the currency is pegged to the dollar. Money flooding in from mainland Chinese and foreign investors looking for higher returns has exacerbated the rise.
In his inaugural policy speech in January, the chief executive said the inability of the middle class to buy homes posed a threat to social stability and promised to make it a priority to tackle the housing shortage.
"Many families have to move into smaller or older flats, or even factory buildings," he said. "Cramped living space in cage homes, cubicle apartments and sub-divided flats has become the reluctant choice for tens of thousands of Hong Kong people," he said, as he unveiled plans to boost supply of public housing in the medium term from its current level of 15,000 apartments a year.
His comments mark a distinct shift from predecessor Donald Tsang, who ignored the problem. Legislators and activists, however, slammed Leung for a lack of measures to boost the supply in the short term. Some 210,000 people are on the waiting list for public housing, about double from 2006. About a third of Hong Kong's 7.1 million population lives in public rental flats. When apartments bought with government subsidies are included, the figure rises to nearly half.
Rising anger
Anger over housing prices is a common theme in increasingly frequent anti-government protests. Legislator Frederick Fung warns there will be more if the problem can't be solved. He compared the effect on the poor to a lab experiment.
"When we were in secondary school, we had some sort of experiment where we put many rats in a small box. They would bite each other," said Fung. "When living spaces are so congested, they would make people feel uneasy, desperate," and angry at the government, he said.
Leung, the cage dweller, had little faith that the government could do anything to change the situation of people like him.
"It's not whether I believe him or not, but they always talk this way. What hope is there?" said Leung, who has been living in cage homes since he stopped working at a market stall after losing part of a finger 20 years ago. With just a Grade 7 education, he was only able to find intermittent casual work. He hasn't applied for public housing because he doesn't want to leave his roommates to live alone and expects to spend the rest of his life living in a cage.
His only income is HK$4,000 ($515) in government assistance each month. After paying his rent, he's left with $2,700 ($350), or about HK$90 ($11.60) a day.
"It's impossible for me to save," said Leung, who never married and has no children to lean on for support.
Leung and his roommates, all of them single, elderly men, wash their clothes in a bucket. The bathroom facilities consist of two toilet stalls, one of them adjoining a squat toilet that doubles as a shower stall. There is no kitchen, just a small room with a sink. The hallway walls have turned brown with dirt accumulated over the years.
While cage homes, which sprang up in the 1950s to cater mostly to single men coming in from mainland China, are becoming rarer, other types of substandard housing such as cubicle apartments are growing as more families are pushed into poverty. Nearly 1.19 million people were living in poverty in the first half of last year, up from 1.15 million in 2011, according to the Hong Kong Council Of Social Services. There's no official poverty line but it's generally defined as half of the city's median income of HK$12,000 ($1,550) a month.
Awaiting public housing
Many poor residents have applied for public housing but face years of waiting. Nearly three-quarters of 500 low-income families questioned by Oxfam Hong Kong in a recent survey had been on the list for more than 4 years without being offered a flat.
Lee Tat-fong, is one of those waiting. The 63-year-old is hoping she and her two grandchildren can get out of the cubicle apartment they share in their Wan Chai neighborhood, but she has no idea how long it will take.
Lee, who suffers from diabetes and back problems, takes care of Amy, 9, and Steven, 13, because their father has disappeared and their mother ? her daughter ? can't get a permit to come to Hong Kong from mainland China. An uncle occasionally lends a hand.
The three live in a 50-square-foot room, one of seven created by subdividing an existing apartment. A bunk bed takes up half the space, a cabinet most of the rest, leaving barely enough room to stand up in. The room is jammed with their possessions: plastic bags filled with clothes, an electric fan, Amy's stuffed animals, cooking utensils.
"There's too little space here. We can barely breathe," said Lee, who shares the bottom bunk with her grandson.
They share the communal kitchen and two toilets with the other residents. Welfare pays their HK$3,500 monthly rent and the three get another HK$6,000 for living expenses but the money is never enough, especially with two growing children to feed. Lee said the two often wanted to have McDonalds because they were still hungry after dinner, which on a recent night was meager portions of rice, vegetables and meat.
The struggle to raise her two grandkids in such conditions was wearing her out.
"It's exhausting," she said. "Sometimes I get so pent up with anger, and I cry but no one sees because I hide away."
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/poor-cages-show-dark-side-hong-kong-boom-1B8287394
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