WASHINGTON (AP) ? China has heightened tensions in the South China Sea with its new, remote island city and planned military garrison in a contested area viewed as a potential flashpoint for conflict in the Asia-Pacific.
How might the United States respond?
Criticize Beijing too strongly and the Obama administration will strain its relationship with the emerging superpower. Let it pass and undermine two years of intense diplomacy that has promoted the U.S. standing among Southeast Asian nations that are intimidated by China's rise.
A key plank of the administration's engagement in the Asia-Pacific since 2010 has been its declaration of a U.S. national interest in the maintenance of peace and stability in the South China Sea, where China and five of its neighbors ? most notably the Philippines and Vietnam ? have competing territorial claims.
But tensions have only escalated. China's raising of the flag this week at Sansha municipality, on tiny Yongxing island, 220 miles from its southernmost province of Hainan, come as claimants jockey for influence in the resource-rich region.
China will not be able to project much military power from such a small outpost, with a population of just 1,000 people and scarcely room for an airstrip, but it has symbolic importance. Beijing says the municipality will administer hundreds of thousands of square miles of water where it wants to strengthen its control over disputed, and potentially oil-rich, islands.
In Washington, lawmakers interested in Asia policy have been quick to respond.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the move provocative and said it reinforced worries that China would attempt to impose its territorial claims through intimidation and coercion. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., said China's attempt to assert control of disputed territories may be a violation of international law.
While the State Department was careful in its reaction, it also criticized China's "unilateral moves."
"I think there is a concern here, that they are beginning to take actions when we want to see all of these issues resolved at the table," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday.
President Barack Obama will not want to appear soft on China as he fights for re-election against Republican contender Mitt Romney. Romney has accused the incumbent of being weak on Beijing and has pledged to get tough, in particular, on China's trading practices.
The U.S. is walking a fine line in its diplomacy on the South China Sea, always stressing it does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims.
Defining it as a U.S. national interest in 2010 helped galvanize Washington's standing in the region, revive ties with treaty ally the Philippines and build a relationship with former enemy Vietnam.
As part of its broader push, or "pivot," toward Asia, the U.S. elevated its engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Also, the Obama administration strongly supports the 10-nation bloc's efforts to negotiate collectively with China on the issue and draft a code of conduct to help manage South China Sea disputes.
That's annoyed China, which claims virtually the entire South China Sea and its island groups and would prefer to negotiate with the other claimants individually. Beijing also views U.S. intervention on the issue as encouraging Vietnam and the Philippines to be more confrontational in asserting their own claims.
When Chinese fishing boats were stopped by the Philippine vessels at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in April, inside what Manila regards as its exclusive economic zone, it deployed a navy ship, supplied by the U.S. the previous year. That led China to send more vessels of its own, escalating a standoff that rumbles on.
The establishment of Sansha municipality in another portion of the South China Sea follows Vietnam's passage of a law in June stating its jurisdiction over the Paracel and Spratly Island chains and declaring that all foreign naval ships entering these areas must notify Vietnamese authorities.
The chance of such disputes spiraling into a major conflict still appears slim, but the stakes could rise in the years ahead as competition intensifies for the oil and gas resources in the South China Sea.
The U.S. strategy for managing and eventually resolving these disputes largely hangs on the efforts of ASEAN. The organization has made some progress in drafting a code of conduct, but there's no sign of a lasting resolution of territorial disputes, and the South China Sea is emerging as a divisive issue in a grouping that prizes its unity.
For the first time in its 45-year history, ASEAN failed to issue at communique at an annual meeting of its 10 foreign ministers this month. The host country, Cambodia, viewed as pro-Beijing, rejected a proposal by the Philippines and Vietnam to mention their separate territorial disputes with China in the statement.
In a damage-limitation move, Indonesia brokered a compromise last week. But it's one that will do little to assuage concerns of a rift within the grouping and a narrative that the Obama administration will be anxious to avoid ? that the struggle over the South China Sea pits the strategic interests of the U.S. against China.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? Matthew Pennington covers U.S.-Asian affairs for The Associated Press in Washington.
Editor's note:Rebekah Cox is a product designer at Quora and previously a product design lead at Facebook. This post is a followup to a recent tweet, and first appeared on Quora. It's important to understand what identity isn't: Identity is not a password, it's not root access, it's not your calendar, it's not your email, it's not a technical achievement, it's not your location, it's not a user account in a system, it's not your contacts and it's not a feature.
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Do you think its a good time to buy gold, silver, platinum, and/or palladium ? Given the subprime mortgage crisis results, globabl tensions, and a weakening dollar etc? I think Russia will be running into deficit on palladium in a few years so maybe its a good time to buy some? Silver seems to volatile to be worth investing in (and too high right now)? Platinum is just too expensive for me to invest in right now also? Gold seems like its good (more scarce, jewelry, besides its the main one people will invest into).. Any ideas, also im looking into long term investment (greater than 5 years) and to buy PHYSICAL bullion NOT STOCKS?
Thanks
Answer:
gold is the way to go.
posts you may find of interest:
Q&A: Questions about investing in precious metals?
Q: Are you investing in gold or precious metals right now?
Question: Where can i buy precious metals for metal and jewelry work online?
How much money should you invest in Precious Metals like silver and gold for your portfolio?
Q&A: I want to invest in precious metals (gold) and foreign currency. What is the most efficient way to do this?
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? On a trip to Israel, Mitt Romney is trying to win over a tiny sliver of a small ? but powerful ? section of the American electorate. President Barack Obama is doing the same at home.
But while Romney's trip is unlikely to change the broader presidential campaign against Obama, he's hoping to close the gap among Jewish voters.
Yet for all the wooing of American Jews in presidential campaigns, those who say Israel's fate drives their vote make up 6 percent of a reliably Democratic bloc. The tiny numbers are overlaid with an outsize influence. Campaign donations from Jews or Jewish and pro-Israel groups account for as much as 60 percent of Democratic money, and groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee can bring strong pressure on candidates.
"This is going to be a close election. We are in a tight, tight race," said Democratic pollster Jim Gerstein. "But this race will not swing on the Jewish vote."
The notion of being an American Jew has changed over the years. Jews have married outside their faith and ethnic enclaves have given way to integrated cities. In the process, Israel has faded as a driving issue in their homes and seems to have faded as a flashpoint in politics.
"They're disconnected from their ancestral roots," Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based consultant, said of Jewish voters. "People are becoming less observant so they're less tied to Israel, less tied to their faith, less tied to their history."
In turn, Jewish voters look at the election through secular lenses. Although the campaign rhetoric skews toward them when the candidates talk about Israel, assuming that Jews vote based on U.S. policy toward Israel is a losing proposition.
Romney also needs to show his commitment to Israel because the reliably Republican evangelical Christian vote also holds candidates to account on that topic.
"Jewish Americans, like most Americans, have come to assume that mainstream politicians and elected officials will stand strongly with Israel so there's oftentimes no urgency that is reflected in the polling," said Robert Wexler, a former Democratic congressman from Florida whose district was heavily Jewish.
"Even partisan people who cherish the American-Israeli relationship cringe when Israel is used as a political football," said Wexler, who now leads the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.
That hasn't stopped Romney.
"I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite," Romney said earlier this year when asked about Israel.
Obama has riled his critics, including Romney, by urging the Israelis and the Palestinians to make good on their promises to bring peace to the troubled Middle East. Specifically, Obama publicly has chastised Israel for continuing to build housing settlements in disputed areas and has pressured both sides to begin a new round of peace talks based on the land borders established after the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict.
That has raised the ire of groups such as AIPAC, which feel he's been disloyal to Israel. Obama's strained relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ? a longtime Romney friend ? hasn't helped that perception.
"The current administration has distanced itself from Israel and visibly warmed to the Palestinian cause," Romney told AIPAC's annual conference earlier this year, where Obama also spoke.
Previous presidents have sided with Israel on all points, at least in public.
"This is the most hostile president since the state of Israel was created," Romney supporter and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said recently. "He's demonstrated that hostility right from the beginning of his administration."
Such language is designed to whittle away at the Democrats' long-held advantages and nip away at the 78 percent support Obama enjoyed among Jews on Election Day 2008.
The Gallup polling organization reported in June that Obama's standing slumped to 64 percent among Jews, while 29 percent favored Romney.
"They elected him with historic numbers but they have to look at how President Obama has handled the whole situation," said Rich Beeson, Romney's political director. "Voters can say, 'I've not made a mistake, but he has not lived up to what he promised and it's OK to (vote for someone else).' Every vote that we can peel off from Barack Obama helps."
That approach fuels the on-the-ground effort to continue Jewish voters' slide away from the Democratic fold. Romney allies at the Republican Jewish Coalition are planning a $6.5 million campaign to help GOP candidates, and Romney himself is looking to reach into Jewish communities in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Nevada.
But the Jewish vote won't make a difference in this election. Exit polls show Jewish voters typically make up between 2 percent and 4 percent of the electorate nationwide. In 2008, they were 2 percent of voters nationwide and Republican Sen. John McCain won just 21 percent of them.
In 2004, George W. Bush fared a bit better, winning 25 percent of the vote, the largest share of the Jewish vote any Republican has earned since 1988.
But that's not to say they don't have clout.
"Jews are less important as voters than they are as activists and contributors. Jews provide pretty close to half of the money available to Democratic candidates," said Benjamin Ginsburg, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University.
And it's not as though Israel alone will even decide Jewish voters' preference. A survey earlier this year by the American Jewish Committee found only 6 percent of American Jews listed U.S.-Israel relations as their top priority. The economy was the top concern, at 29 percent, followed by health care, at 20 percent.
"When it comes to determining votes in the American Jewish community, it is not a safe assumption that Jews are single-issue constituency that cares only about Israel," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a pro-Israeli group that criticizes U.S. policy as often too hawkish.
"Jews are just like all other Americans. They're fully integrated in the United States. They are concerned about their jobs, their kids' education and just like all other voters, the voting patterns and approval ratings move in the context of the larger race," Ben-Ami said.
___
Associated Press Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
3D City View for iOS isn't the only update from the Google Maps and Earth team this week, they've also spruced up their services with new imagery. Fresh high-resolution aerial and satellite photos have been added for a roster of 25 cities and 72 countries or regions, ranging from Antelope Wells, New Mexico to Zimbabwe. In addition, seven international locales and 21 US cities received the 45-degree view treatment, letting you gaze at skylines from a different perspective. The maps are already available, so you can peruse new satellite images of London's Olympic Park and Village just in time for the festivities. For the full list of areas with crisper cartographic visuals, check out the source below.
I?m in the throes this week of at long last putting the final, finishing touches on The Impossible Book?(insert huge, slightly crazy-eyed sigh of relief here) so my post this month is a bit of a mash-up. Part news bulletin, part platform/marketing advice, part philosophical reflection. Have I scared everyone off yet? Well, if not (and I really don?t hold it against you if so!) a little background:
I think I?ve mentioned before on other WU posts that the relentless cries of Platform! Platform! Platform! in today?s publishing world more or less make me break out in a cold sweat. I am totally in sympathy with everything our own Robin LeFevers says about introverted writers on her Shrinking Violets blog. Of course, part of my platform reluctance is just a simple time thing. My kids are little (5 and 2) and I homeschool them. I just plain do not have the time to both write books I?m proud of and devote huge (or even small to medium size) chunks of my workday to platform-building. And (probably like most WU readers/authors here) when it comes to a choice between marketing and craft, I choose craft every time. I just have to.
But in part it is just about me. Jane Friedman had a great post here awhile back about how any marketing/platform efforts have to be tailored to fit the individual, otherwise they won?t be authentic. What is right for one author simply won?t work for another. And for me . . . I blog here (which I love!) and I have my own website and (really infrequently updated) blog, but apart from that, I just hadn?t yet hit on any marketing strategies that felt both unique and right to me.
However?some of you may remember that about 6 months ago I went the indie-publishing route for my urban fantasy book Demon Hunter and Baby. Which means, of course, that I?m totally responsible for any marketing efforts on its behalf. Now, I?m not generally speaking a huge fan of love triangles, but one just sort of wrote itself into this book. A particular character stepped up and suddenly my heroine?whom I?d thought was absolutely certain to end up with the love interest I?d picked out for her?was torn between two love interests. And so was I. I was starting to think about writing the next book in the series (and thank you so much to anyone who bought a copy of book 1 and made it a viable option to write book 2 in the series!) and trying to sketch out where the series was going and which of the two men Aisling, my heroine, was ultimately going to choose. I didn?t actually reach a conclusion (still haven?t), but one night while going to bed I looked at my husband and said, ?You know what would be fun? A survey on my website where readers could cast their votes about who THEY think Aisling should end up with.?
And because my husband happens to be a) my webmaster and b) AWESOME, by the next morning, I had my survey. And my first responses. Seriously. I had no idea how popular the survey would be when I first floated the idea?it was just for fun, really, just a whim. But literally from the first hour the survey was in place, the responses started flooding in. And suddenly, too, sales on the book took off in a way they hadn?t in the 6 months the book had been out. Which was pretty awesome. Now, was the survey responsible? I have no idea. Does getting to voice their opinions make the book stick in people?s minds, and therefore they recommend it to friends more? I can?t prove it, of course. But the survey was the only factor that changed.
However?and this is where the philosophical reflection part of this blog comes in?the survey has also had an effect that I almost value more than the sales. It?s one of those facts of being an author that I?ll never meet or even know the names of 99% of the readers who encounter my books. Which is cool in its way?I mean, once I release a story into the world, it?s no longer ?mine?, it belongs to readers, not to me. And sure, I get fan mail and reviews and all that. But it?s only a tiny fraction of readers who do e-mail me or write up a review; I don?t get the chance to get feedback from most of my readers. But the survey?based on the number of responses, a pretty high fraction of readers are filling it out, and I have had what may well be the most fun?and also the most thought-provoking?experiences of my whole writing career reading the answers people are providing. First of all, it?s an almost even 50/50 split between Aisling?s two love interests. On any given day, a response will come in with an impassioned (and very convincing) plea that Aisling is 100% ?meant? to be with one of the men. And it will be followed by an equally impassioned, convincing answer that she is 100% ?meant? to be with the other. Two readers read the exact same book and come up with absolutely opposite opinions of the characters. It?s just fascinating to me. And a reminder of why I love books so much. Only half of the reading experience has anything to do with the author. The other half comes from within the reader?and it depends so much on the readers life-experiences and inner life. One of my (many) favorite survey responses was from a single mom, who advocated for the man who is not the father of Aisling?s baby, because she said she liked seeing that love was possible for women even if their relationship with their children?s father had fallen apart.
Anyway, in case there are other introverted, short-of-time writers out there, I just wanted to share my experience. Not that a survey is necessarily going to be right for everyone, of course. But what I really mean to say is that this whole experience has given my more confidence that there ARE marketing solutions out there that will not only work for me (and all of us shrinking-violet types!) but can also deepen and broaden my relationship with readers and my understanding of my craft. And that?s just a total win.
What about you? What marketing strategies have you tried/heard of/found effective?
Anna Elliott was expecting her first daughter when she had a very vivid dream predicting that she would write a book about the daughter of Modred, villain of the King Arthur tales. Twilight of Avalon was published in May, 2009 by Touchstone Fireside (Simon&Schuster), followed by Dark Moon of Avalon in May 2010.
Anna Elliott
Tags: Anna Elliott, author platform, book marketing
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? "Tall and tan and young and lovely..." You've heard of her. The Girl From Ipanema.
You might have come across the bossa nova classic while on hold on the phone, during a long elevator ride, or in a cafe in Beirut or Bangkok ? but you've heard it. It's been recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Amy Winehouse, and survived bad lounge singers and Muzak incarnations to become, according to Performing Songwriter magazine, the second most recorded song in the world.
The quintessential bossa nova tune, inspired by a young woman who passed the songwriters in a beachside bar on her way to the sea, introduced Rio de Janeiro to the world. Now, it's turning 50, and to its legions of fans, the decades have only heightened its allure, adding a wash of nostalgia to this hymn to passing youth and beauty.
"I love this music, and had been searching for this place," said Venezuelan tourist Xiomara Castillo, who with her husband was taking pictures inside the bar where the song's authors watched their muse saunter by in the song's eponymous neighborhood. "For me, Rio de Janeiro is this song, is bossa nova; the city has this rhythm, this charm, this sensuality."
Indeed, the song carries within its chords and lyrics an image of a city that's light and easy, palm trees and blue sky, a sun-kissed life without care.
Rio is in "the levity of the song, its absolute elegance, the way it doesn't take itself seriously" said Ruy Castro, a writer and journalist who has chronicled the city, its music and its nightlife.
This girl who "swings so cool and sways so gently" first stepped out in public on August 1962, in a cramped Copacabana nightclub.
On stage together, for the first and only time, were the architects of bossa nova: Tom Jobim on piano and Joao Gilberto on guitar, with help from the poet Vinicius de Moraes, who gave "The Girl" her lyrics. Also performing was the vocal group Os Cariocas.
Bossa nova was still young then, somewhat of a novelty even in Rio. The name meant "new trend" or "new way," and that's what it was: a fresh, jazzy take on Brazil's holiest tradition, the samba.
The rhythm was the same. But where samba was cathartic, communal, built on drums and powerful voices, bossa was intimate, contemplative, just a singer and a song. The melody, on guitar or piano, stepped up to the front. Percussion receded, played sometimes with brushes for a softer texture reminiscent of surf washing on the sand.
The 1962 show at the club Au Bon Gourmet established bossa nova, wrote Castro in his book about the genre. It didn't just introduce the Jobim-penned "Girl"; other bossa classics, such as "So danco samba" and "Samba da bencao," also were played publicly for the first time.
The small club ? 20 by 130 feet ? sold out every night as patrons realized something extraordinary was happening on the cramped little stage.
Severino Filho was there when it happened. As an original member of Os Cariocas, he was one of the first to ever hear the song.
"Tom and Vinicius had just composed it; it was still on a scrap of paper. Only later did they write it out on a clean sheet," he said. "At first, people in the audience just listened. But they'd come back, and would start to sing along. After that, bossa nova just exploded."
That was also the year most Americans first heard bossa nova. The 1962 record "Jazz Samba," by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, took the sound of Brazil and filtered it through the sensibility of American musicians, making it palatable to the country's listeners. Although an instrumental jazz album, it remained on the Billboard charts for 70 weeks.
After that, everyone wanted a bit of Brazil. Jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald made bossa-inspired recordings. Performing Songwriter magazine says only The Beatles' "Yesterday" has been recorded more often.
Still, it wasn't until 1964 that "The Girl" came to the U.S., with its English lyrics written by American Norman Gimbel. The words are different from the original Portuguese ones but remain true to their spirit.
It could have been a dud.
Astrud Gilberto, Joao Gilberto's then-wife, sang the English words in the album "Getz/Gilberto." It was her first professional gig. Her voice is young, breathy, but there's a little hesitation; she trips over her English oh-so-lightly.
As it turns out, she was perfect: exotic but accessible, sultry and innocent at once. Like the girl in the song, Astrud's voice suggested a beauty that was enticing but just out of reach: "Each day, when she walks to the sea, she looks straight ahead not at he."
American Tryg Sletteland, for one, fell under the song's spell from the moment he first heard it while in college in the early 60s, he said during a recent walk along Ipanema beach.
In fact, "The Girl from Ipanema" primed him for romance, Sletteland said amid the beach's bustle.
When he met Sonia Madeira de Ley, who'd gone from Rio to Vermont to study English, he felt like he'd found his own "Girl from Ipanema."
"She was the embodiment of the song: long dark hair to the middle of her back, big dark eyes, and this 'morena' skin," he said. "And she was so graceful ... She was exotic and beautiful. I'd never met anyone like that."
Their whirlwind romance ended when she returned to Rio. More than 30 years later, with help from the Internet, the two reconnected. Now they're finally together, and split their time between Rio and California.
"He still calls me his Girl From Ipanema," said Sonia, who now goes by her married name, Sletteland.
The "Getz/Gilberto" album eventually won the 1965 Grammy for best album of the year, and suddenly, everyone was talking about "The Girl."
Except the girl herself. Because there was a girl: Heloisa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto, then 17 years old, known among her friends as Helo.
The teenager's days were spent between home, school and the beach, a path that often took her by the bar where de Moraes and Jobim spent long hours nursing their drinks. Their eyes would follow Helo when she passed, entranced with her glowing skin and long dark hair.
Helo had no idea. When she first heard the hit on the radio, she liked it. She'd whistle it sometimes. But she never suspected she'd inspired the lyrics.
There were rumors from the guys at the bar, but she wouldn't believe them. Finally, in 1965, Moraes offered the definitive proof, writing in a magazine that Helo was the beauty behind the song, "the golden girl, mix of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, but whose sight is also sad because it carries within it, on the way to the sea, the sense of youth that passes, of beauty that doesn't belong only to us."
In spite of the stir she created, Helo had a traditional upbringing, and the song did little to change that, she said. Between her strict parents and her fiance, then husband, she turned down invitations to do films and shows on TV.
"I was flattered, of course. But it left me wondering, do I really deserve all this?" she said. "It was a weight, trying to please everyone, to show these characteristics that the song called for."
Her fiance, who had been her high-school boyfriend, pushed for a quick wedding, and she spent the next decade as a housewife. Now, at 68, she's far more comfortable with her notoriety, doing two TV shows and planning to launch a book in English about her past.
"Back then, I never thought I'd get old," she said. "But youth passes. We have to live each moment."
___
Follow Juliana Barbassa at http://twitter.com/jbarbassa
After years of preparation and months of buildup, London's Olympic moment finally arrived Friday night.
Royal Marine Martyn Williams carried the Olympic torch as he rappelled down from a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter into the Tower of London on the shore of the River Thames. The commando's grand entrance plunged the symbol of the games into the city's historic heart, bringing Olympic pageantry to the British capital that last held the event in 1948.
Crowds lined the city's famed river banks to see the torch arrive, while Yeoman warders ? the ceremonial Tower guards popularly known as Beefeaters ? looked on from inside the landmark's grounds.
For Londoners, the arrival of the torch ignites a time of excitement ? as well as four weeks of extreme crowds and transport strains.
Organizers have tried to smooth the way. London Underground subway lines are festooned with large magenta and pink signs pointing routes to the Olympic venues. Cartoony ads with wide-eyed horses and beefy musclemen warn commuters to remember that Olympic competitions are taking place and to rethink their daily journeys. Barriers are being erected to mark the special traffic lanes for Olympic vehicles ? disparagingly dubbed "Zil lanes," after the limousines granted exclusive use of special lanes on Soviet-era highways.
Londoners who already struggle to get to work on any given weekday aren't convinced all will be well ? and haven't been shy about saying so. The atmosphere of gloom has been segmented by the never-ending rain and a constant stream of headlines about the failure of security contractor G4S to provide enough guards.
The mayor has a message for the naysayers: "Put a sock in it."
"We've got an advanced case of Olympo-funk," London mayor Boris Johnson wrote in an op-ed piece in The Sun newspaper. "We agonize about the traffic, when our transport systems are performing well and the world's athletes are arriving on time. ... We gnaw our fingernails about the blinking weather, when it seems to be brightening up a bit ? and anyway, it's England in July for goodness sake and a spot of rain never hurt anyone."
Ready or not, the games are a reality. Olympic banners in hot pink, acid yellow and lime green have painted London in neon. The tubby Cyclops-like mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, are dancing around central London tourist attractions in a desperate bid to be huggable. The city's famous red double-decker buses are sporting ads flogging the last of the unsold Olympic soccer tickets.
The stadiums themselves are nearly ready. At the athletes village, Cuba and Denmark have been the first to drape flags off their balconies. The Olympic clock ticking down the days in Trafalgar Square has reached single digits.
Olympic historian David Goldblatt, co-author of "How to Watch the Olympics," said the flame's arrival in London marks a key turning point.
"I think it signifies the moment when everyone, whether for, against or indifferent, is thinking 'Oh Lord let's just get the bloody thing started,' " he said.
It was only weeks ago that celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee sent Britons into a spasm of patriotic flag waving and "God save the Queen" singing as they watched a flotilla of 1,000 boats on the River Thames. Will the flame's arrival inspire the famously inhibited British to do it all again ? to cheer and wave and weep and be inspired ? as the torch relay winds through the city's 33 boroughs?
Could be ? if the first 62 days of the torch's travels are any indication.
The 8,000-mile (12,900 kilometer) torch relay has already been a cultural happening across the length of Britain, drawing crowds out to meet it wherever it goes. Spectators in rain ponchos have flash-mobbed to its side, hoping for that once-in-a-lifetime chance to touch a bit of history. Some have even stood by the side of the road to see the trucks that carry the torch between cities, as it fulfills a promise to travel within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of 95 percent of Britain's population.
"Both the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics are like carnivals or tribal festivals," Kate Fox, the author of "Watching the English," wrote in a British Airways survey on the games. "We behave in ways we wouldn't normally behave ? dancing in the streets and waving flags and shouting and cheering and indulging in other wildly disinhibited acts, such as maybe even talking to strangers."
Britons were even more committed to the flame before the last London Olympics in 1948, when the torch was actually run in a relay from the site of ancient Olympia in Greece. Janie Hampton, author of "London Olympics: 1908 and 1948," said runners traveled continuously day and night. Crowds emerged to see the 1948 flame even in the middle of the night.
In Britain it was such a draw that police outriders had to push people back as the flame neared the stadium to light the cauldron, Hampton said.
"There is one event in the Games which has captured the imagination ? the carrying of the lighted torch from distant Olympia to the Stadium at Wembley," The Times newspaper wrote on July 28, 1948. "The torch itself, quite apart from its symbolism, is something which, like a lance or a banner, a coat of mail or a jerkin of Lincoln green we can love purely for its own sake. It has a somber glory."
This time the flame has been to every corner of the United Kingdom ahead of its showcase moment at the Olympics' July 27 opening ceremony. Friday was Day 63 of its 70-day journey, which has included travel on boats, planes, horses and hot air balloons. It's been carried by Olympians and Paralympians. The queen's granddaughter, Olympic equestrian competitor Zara Phillips, has shared the honor with 84-year-old Moira Starkey, who walks with two canes and was honored for completing a marathon last year by walking around her town hall 1,876 times to raise money for charity.
If the Beijing relay set up the 2008 Summer Games as China's coming-out party on an international stage, London's relay has set up Britain as the community Olympics ? not flashy or dashy, not big or spectacular, but warm and well attended.
Organizers had always assumed the world would be excited about the games but were not sure what people in Britain would think ? particularly given that taxpayers will be paying 9.3 billion pounds ($14.7 billion) to host the event at a time of economic austerity.
There's also the fact that so much activity is focused on Olympic Park in London. There had to be some sense that other parts of the country were involved ? that the Olympics also belonged to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
But the numbers ? some 9 million people have viewed the torch so far ? speak for themselves. Britain has also poured more money into crowd-control plans for London during the Olympics after acknowledging that it underestimated the crowds that would turn out to see the flame.
Whether they are coming just because it is a local happening, or because people are moved by the fairy dust of the games, it's hard to say. A torch leg features sponsor buses blaring music, streamers and tambourines, cameras and media, cheerleaders shout "Go torchbearer!"
It's not really clear how the capital will respond to the hoopla. This is a place where major events happen with some frequency.
FIVE fatal shark attacks in 10 months have led the Western Australian fisheries minister, Norman Moore, to question whether great white sharks still merit protected status.
Great white sharks have been listed as "vulnerable" since 1996, and have been protected in all Australian waters since 1999. But the recent spate of attacks has occurred at a frequency unlike anywhere else in the world, Moore said in a statement this week.
All fatalities from shark attacks are tragic, but there is "absolutely no scientific evidence" to suggest the recent uptick is linked to a rise in the shark population, says Ryan Kempster at Flinders University in South Australia. "Sharks mature slowly, taking up to 25 years until they are sexually mature, so any kind of abundance increase is going to be slow," he says.
In response to the attacks, the Western Australian government has funded four research projects that Kempster thinks should tell us more about the enigmatic fish.
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A buildup of sodium in the brain detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be a biomarker for the degeneration of nerve cells that occurs in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The study found that patients with early-stage MS showed sodium accumulation in specific brain regions, while patients with more advanced disease showed sodium accumulation throughout the whole brain. Sodium buildup in motor areas of the brain correlated directly to the degree of disability seen in the advanced-stage patients...
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To browse other articles on a range of HSL topics, see the wiki index.
Introduction
See also Evaluating health information | Men's Health Pathfinders | Women's Health Pathfinders | Canadian consumer health information (CHI) portal
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women after lung cancer, and affects thousands of Canadians each year. The disease profoundly affects those living with the disease as well as their families and friends. Breast cancer starts in the tissues of the breast. There are two main types: 1) ductal carcinoma starts in the tubes (ducts) that take milk from the breast to the nipple; most breast cancers are of this type; 2) Lobular carcinoma starts in parts of the breast called lobules that produce milk. In rare cases, breast cancer starts in other areas of the breast. In 2012, Curtis et al showed that breast cancer could be classified into 10 subtypes pointing to more personalized treatments for patients in the future.
Key
Canada
4 stars denotes librarian-selected, high quality information. Starred sites are great places to begin your research.
United States
4 stars denotes librarian-selected, high quality information. Starred sites are great places to begin your research.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
4 stars denotes librarian-selected, high quality information. Starred sites are great places to begin your research.
References
Breast cancer. National Cancer Institute, US National Institutes of Health.
Breast awareness and breast self-exam (FAQ) National Women's Health Information Center. US National Institutes of Health.
Thompson A, Brennan K, et al. Evaluation of the current knowledge limitations in breast cancer research: a gap analysis. Breast Cancer Research. 2008;10(2):R26.
Curtis et al. The genomic and transcriptomic architecture of 2,000 breast tumours reveals novel subgroups. Nature. 2012 Apr 18.
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. Carroll JC, Cremin C, et al. Canadian Family Physician. 2008 Dec;54(12):1691-2.
Male breast cancer: is the scenario changing. Contractor KB, Kaur K, et al. World Journal of Surgical Oncology. 2008 Jun 16;6:58.
Menopausal hormone therapy in relation to breast cancer characteristics and prognosis: a cohort study. Rosenberg LU, Granath F, et al. Breast Cancer Research. 2008;10(5):R78.
Molckovsky A, Fitzgerald B, et al. Approach to inflammatory breast cancer. Canadian Family Physician. 2009 Jan;55(1):25-31.
New technology discovery at Mount Sinai Hospital holds promise for improved breast cancer treatment. Mount Sinai Hospital. Toronto. 2008
Opportunities and strategies for breast cancer prevention through risk reduction. Mahoney MC, Bevers T, et al. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians. 2008 Nov-Dec;58(6):347-71.
Pregnancy-associated breast cancer. Keinan-Boker L, Lerner-Geva L, et al. Israel Medical Association Journal. 2008 Oct;10(10):722-7.
Should lifestyle modifications be promoted to prevent breast cancer? Howell A, Harvie M. Breast Cancer Research. 2008;10 Suppl(4):S11.
State of the evidence 2008: What is the connection between the environment and breast cancer? Gray J, editor. Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Action 2008.
The Carolina Panthers announced on Wednesday that defensive tackle Andre Neblett has been suspended for the first four games of the upcoming season by the National Football League for a violation of its policy on performance-enhancing substances.
The 24-year-old is a third-year pro out of Temple. He totaled 23 tackles and 2 1/2 sacks in 12 games (four starts) for the Panthers in 2011.
Neblett will not be eligible to return to the active roster on October 1, but is allowed to participate in all preseason activities.
Carolina plays at Tampa Bay, hosts New Orleans and the Giants, then heads to Atlanta on September 30.
Astronomers report the earliest spiral galaxy ever seen, a shocking discoveryPublic release date: 18-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0511 University of California - Los Angeles
Astronomers have witnessed for the first time a spiral galaxy in the early universe, billions of years before many other spiral galaxies formed. In findings reported July 19 in the journal Nature, the astronomers said they discovered it while using the Hubble Space Telescope to take pictures of about 300 very distant galaxies in the early universe and to study their properties. This distant spiral galaxy is being observed as it existed roughly three billion years after the Big Bang, and light from this part of the universe has been traveling to Earth for about 10.7 billion years.
"As you go back in time to the early universe, galaxies look really strange, clumpy and irregular, not symmetric," said Alice Shapley, a UCLA associate professor of physics and astronomy, and co-author of the study. "The vast majority of old galaxies look like train wrecks. Our first thought was, why is this one so different, and so beautiful?"
Galaxies in today's universe divide into various types, including spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way, which are rotating disks of stars and gas in which new stars form, and elliptical galaxies, which include older, redder stars moving in random directions. The mix of galaxy structures in the early universe is quite different, with a much greater diversity and larger fraction of irregular galaxies, Shapley said.
"The fact that this galaxy exists is astounding," said David Law, lead author of the study and Dunlap Institute postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. "Current wisdom holds that such 'grand-design' spiral galaxies simply didn't exist at such an early time in the history of the universe." A 'grand design' galaxy has prominent, well-formed spiral arms.
The galaxy, which goes by the not very glamorous name of BX442, is quite large compared with other galaxies from this early time in the universe; only about 30 of the galaxies that Law and Shapley analyzed are as massive as this galaxy.
To gain deeper insight into their unique image of BX442, Law and Shapley went to the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Hawaii's dormant Mauna Kea volcano and used a unique state-of-the-science instrument called the OSIRIS spectrograph, which was built by James Larkin, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. They studied spectra from some 3,600 locations in and around BX442, which provided valuable information that enabled them to determine that it actually is a rotating spiral galaxy and not, for example, two galaxies that happened to line up in the image.
"We first thought this could just be an illusion, and that perhaps we were being led astray by the picture," Shapley said. "What we found when we took the spectral image of this galaxy is that the spiral arms do belong to this galaxy. It wasn't an illusion. We were blown away." Law and Shapley also see some evidence of an enormous black hole at the center of the galaxy, which may play a role in the evolution of BX442.
Why does BX442 look like galaxies that are so common today but were so rare back then?
Law and Shapley think the answer may have to do with a companion dwarf galaxy, which the OSIRIS spectrograph reveals as a blob in the upper left portion of the image, and the gravitational interaction between them. Support for this idea is provided by a numerical simulation conducted by Charlotte Christensen, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Arizona and a co-author of the research in Nature. Eventually the small galaxy is likely to merge into BX442, Shapley said.
"BX442 looks like a nearby galaxy, but in the early universe, galaxies were colliding together much more frequently," she said. "Gas was raining in from the intergalactic medium and feeding stars that were being formed at a much more rapid rate than they are today; black holes grew at a much more rapid rate as well. The universe today is boring compared to this early time."
Law, a former Hubble postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, and Shapley will continue to study BX442.
"We want to take pictures of this galaxy at other wavelengths," Shapley said. "That will tell us what type of stars are in every location in the galaxy. We want to map the mixture of stars and gas in BX442."
Shapley said that BX442 represents a link between early galaxies that are much more turbulent and the rotating spiral galaxies that we see around us. "Indeed, this galaxy may highlight the importance of merger interactions at any cosmic epoch in creating grand design spiral structure," she said.
Studying BX442 is likely to help astronomers understand how spiral galaxies like the Milky Way form, Shapley said.
###
Co-authors are Charles Steidel, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology; Naveen Reddy, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside; and Dawn Erb, assistant professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Shapley's research is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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.
Astronomers report the earliest spiral galaxy ever seen, a shocking discoveryPublic release date: 18-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0511 University of California - Los Angeles
Astronomers have witnessed for the first time a spiral galaxy in the early universe, billions of years before many other spiral galaxies formed. In findings reported July 19 in the journal Nature, the astronomers said they discovered it while using the Hubble Space Telescope to take pictures of about 300 very distant galaxies in the early universe and to study their properties. This distant spiral galaxy is being observed as it existed roughly three billion years after the Big Bang, and light from this part of the universe has been traveling to Earth for about 10.7 billion years.
"As you go back in time to the early universe, galaxies look really strange, clumpy and irregular, not symmetric," said Alice Shapley, a UCLA associate professor of physics and astronomy, and co-author of the study. "The vast majority of old galaxies look like train wrecks. Our first thought was, why is this one so different, and so beautiful?"
Galaxies in today's universe divide into various types, including spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way, which are rotating disks of stars and gas in which new stars form, and elliptical galaxies, which include older, redder stars moving in random directions. The mix of galaxy structures in the early universe is quite different, with a much greater diversity and larger fraction of irregular galaxies, Shapley said.
"The fact that this galaxy exists is astounding," said David Law, lead author of the study and Dunlap Institute postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. "Current wisdom holds that such 'grand-design' spiral galaxies simply didn't exist at such an early time in the history of the universe." A 'grand design' galaxy has prominent, well-formed spiral arms.
The galaxy, which goes by the not very glamorous name of BX442, is quite large compared with other galaxies from this early time in the universe; only about 30 of the galaxies that Law and Shapley analyzed are as massive as this galaxy.
To gain deeper insight into their unique image of BX442, Law and Shapley went to the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Hawaii's dormant Mauna Kea volcano and used a unique state-of-the-science instrument called the OSIRIS spectrograph, which was built by James Larkin, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. They studied spectra from some 3,600 locations in and around BX442, which provided valuable information that enabled them to determine that it actually is a rotating spiral galaxy and not, for example, two galaxies that happened to line up in the image.
"We first thought this could just be an illusion, and that perhaps we were being led astray by the picture," Shapley said. "What we found when we took the spectral image of this galaxy is that the spiral arms do belong to this galaxy. It wasn't an illusion. We were blown away." Law and Shapley also see some evidence of an enormous black hole at the center of the galaxy, which may play a role in the evolution of BX442.
Why does BX442 look like galaxies that are so common today but were so rare back then?
Law and Shapley think the answer may have to do with a companion dwarf galaxy, which the OSIRIS spectrograph reveals as a blob in the upper left portion of the image, and the gravitational interaction between them. Support for this idea is provided by a numerical simulation conducted by Charlotte Christensen, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Arizona and a co-author of the research in Nature. Eventually the small galaxy is likely to merge into BX442, Shapley said.
"BX442 looks like a nearby galaxy, but in the early universe, galaxies were colliding together much more frequently," she said. "Gas was raining in from the intergalactic medium and feeding stars that were being formed at a much more rapid rate than they are today; black holes grew at a much more rapid rate as well. The universe today is boring compared to this early time."
Law, a former Hubble postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, and Shapley will continue to study BX442.
"We want to take pictures of this galaxy at other wavelengths," Shapley said. "That will tell us what type of stars are in every location in the galaxy. We want to map the mixture of stars and gas in BX442."
Shapley said that BX442 represents a link between early galaxies that are much more turbulent and the rotating spiral galaxies that we see around us. "Indeed, this galaxy may highlight the importance of merger interactions at any cosmic epoch in creating grand design spiral structure," she said.
Studying BX442 is likely to help astronomers understand how spiral galaxies like the Milky Way form, Shapley said.
###
Co-authors are Charles Steidel, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology; Naveen Reddy, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside; and Dawn Erb, assistant professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Shapley's research is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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.
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Editor's note: 
I?m in the throes this week of at long last putting the final, finishing touches on The Impossible Book?(insert huge, slightly crazy-eyed sigh of relief here) so my post this month is a bit of a mash-up. Part news bulletin, part platform/marketing advice, part philosophical reflection. Have I scared everyone off yet? Well, if not (and I really don?t hold it against you if so!) a little background:
4 stars denotes librarian-selected, high quality information. Starred sites are great places to begin your research. ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 18-Jul-2012
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