 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/ZapFLADChCw/story01.htm
john carter trans siberian orchestra trans siberian orchestra little big town little big town bennett bennett
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Apple SVP of Design Jonathan Ive gets official knighthood
Apple Senior Vice President of Design, Jonathan Ive has been made a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE), in recognition of his work at Apple and contributions to...
Verzo Kinzo unboxing and impressions
Continue reading Verzo Kinzo unboxing and impressions
Verzo Kinzo unboxing and impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MiQ9nxbZYUM/
kim zolciak jerry sandusky interview white house shooting internet censorship sveum benetton ads cornucopia
Making Resolutions That Stick In 2012
Many have fallen of the new year's resolution bandwagon soon after adopting a new diet or quiting smoking. So how can you achieve year-end goals and start the year on a positive note? Roy Baumeister, co-author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength , has some tips.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/30/144485208/making-resolutions-that-stick-in-2012?ft=1&f=1007
frankincense cloudy with a chance of meatballs the hobbit movie orcl 2012 nfl mock draft hanukkah gpa calculator
scottedelman: While my 4square friends are Mayors of bars and libraries, I'm the Mayor of gas stations and supermarkets ... which says something about me.
While my 4square friends are Mayors of bars and libraries, I'm the Mayor of gas stations and supermarkets ... which says something about me. Source: http://twitter.com/scottedelman/statuses/152911401302757376
nflx john mccarthy john mccarthy lumpectomy robin williams blaine gabbert netflix stock
Friday, December 30, 2011
#jj_forum #jj #iphone #iphone4 #istaday #istanbul #turkey #iphoneonly #popular #photooftheday #bestshot #life #romantic #sunset #iphonesia #igers #instamood #instagood #instagramhub #instagrammer #wallpaper #webstagram #wallpaper #statigram #sea #igersgrou
#instagrammer, #igersistanbul, #sea, #instagood, #instagramhub, #jj_forum, #turkey, #istanbul, #bestshot, #sky, #dailyphoto, #iphone, #igersgroup, #igerseurope, #istaday, #photooftheday, #life, #wallpaper, #igers, #jj, #romantic, #iphone4, #iphoneonly, #iphonesia, #igersturkey, #sunset, #statigram, #popular, #webstagram, #instamood,
Source: http://web.stagram.com/p/477421655_9380690
frank gore injury frank gore injury makana makana gloria cain gloria cain kandi burruss
Libya Ex-Rebels Sign Up for Government Jobs
TRIPOLI ? ?Hundreds of former Libyan rebels who helped topple Muammar Qaddafi were filling out applications Wednesday for jobs with the new government as a first step to disarmament, the interior minister said.
Fawzy Abdul-Ali told The Associated Press that former rebels will be asked to turn in their weapons after training and working with the government.
The uncontrolled ownership of weapons has been a major security concern since the end of the eight-month civil war that toppled Qaddafi in October. Rival revolutionary militias that remain armed have clashed repeatedly.
Abdul-Ali said former rebels will have until the end of January 2012 to apply for governments posts through local military councils distributing the applications.
Ibrahim al-Khamsy, 50, hoped that filling out an application will get him a job at an oil rig, like the one he had for 13 years. He also expects the new government to compensate him for the years he spent unemployed after Qaddafii regime officials fired him in 1990.
"I hope I can go back to my old job, but they have to count those years of experience... or give me a raise," he said.
Although the application process was not scheduled to begin until January, several local councils began distributing the applications over the past day.
Mohammed al-Shatewi, a member of one of Tripoli's military councils, said ex-rebels can apply to join the army, the Interior Ministry, a civil institution or to continue their education and study abroad.
The applications ask former rebels what brigade they belong to, what their rank was during the uprising and the serial numbers of the weapons they possess. It also asks them for personal information regarding their education, marital status and if they were wounded in the uprising.
Rabie al-Aib, 31, a former rebel who became disabled during the fighting and is now unemployed hoped that filling out an application will help him get by a little easier.
"I want to get a job, and have a car and a house," he said, mirroring what several other former rebels wrote on their applications.
Former fighters who are unemployed could receive a monthly stipend from the government until they find work, the interior minister said.
National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdul-Jalil has noted before that 75 percent of those carrying weapons are unemployed.
According to Munier Karim, the head of a local military council in the capital Tripoli, there are nearly 400 unemployed former rebels out of 1,200 fighters registered with his council. The capital has several local military councils.
The application process is an attempt by the country's new leaders to stamp their authority on the nation and rein in the dozens of armed factions that arose during the war and now are reluctant to disband or submit to the central authority.
NTC officials estimate that 200,000 former rebels need reintegration, and finding them work is a major challenge facing Libya's new rulers.
Officials have said that the government cannot disarm fighters until there are alternatives, including jobs and training.
The government is seeking to dissolve revolutionary brigades throughout the country and unify them into a cohesive national army or police force.
In an interview with the AP, Defense Minister Usama al-Juwali said his ministry needs about 25,000 recruits.
"We need new blood, " he said, noting that the ministry is trying to rebuild and restructure its air force, special forces and border guards, among other branches.
"We need security forces to guard vital institutions and oil companies," he said.
Abdul-Ali, the interior minister, said his ministry needs another 25,000 recruits to restore security to Libya. The Interior Ministry supervises police forces.
Earning around $150 a month as a driver in the desert for an oil company, Bilgassim al-Katib, 22, said he wants to join a security ministry. To him, the application marks the start of a new year and for once, hope for the future.
"I hope the upcoming year will be good. The dictator is gone and we hope the best for a new Libya," he said as he filled out an application.
Source: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/qQP0vJU4lZA/
monday night football monday night football bonjovi bonjovi kim jong un antonio brown james harrison
Russian court rejects proposed ban of Hindu text (AP)
MOSCOW ? A Russian court decided Wednesday not to ban a religious text central to the global Hare Krishna movement, rejecting claims that the text is "extremist" and ending a case that has angered Hindus around the world.
The Indian Foreign Ministry said it appreciated "this sensible resolution of a sensitive issue."
Prosecutors in the Siberian city of Tomsk had argued that the Russian translation of "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" promotes "social discord" and hatred toward nonbelievers, causing an outcry in India, where many considered the proposed ban a violation of the rights of Hindus in Russia.
The text is a combination of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's holiest scriptures, and commentary by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which is often called the Hare Krishna movement.
The prosecutors had asked the court to include the book on the Federal List of Extremist Materials, which bans more than 1,000 texts, including Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and books distributed by the Jehovah's Witness and Scientology movements.
Alexander Shakhov, a lawyer for Hare Krishna devotees in Tomsk, said the group is satisfied with the court's decision.
"This judge's decision shows that Russia is becoming a truly democratic society," Shakhov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "We are very excited about this victory."
Yury Pleshakov, a spokesman for the group in Moscow, said the book in question has existed in Russia for 25 years and has never inspired violence or extremist activity.
"On the contrary, this book teaches humane attitude towards all living beings," Pleshakov said.
The trial, which began in June, followed this year's ban on the construction of a Hare Krishna village in Tomsk and was based on an assessment by professors at Tomsk University, who concluded that "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" includes strong language against nonbelievers and promotes religious hatred and discrimination on the basis of gender, race, nationality and language.
The ruling came a day after Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna met with Alexander Kadakin, Russia's ambassador to India, and urged the Russian government to resolve the issue. Indian officials had last week appealed to high-level Russian authorities to intervene.
The Tomsk court had postponed the decision from Dec. 19, when protesters gathered outside the Russian consulate in Kolkata, and the speaker of India's lower house of parliament adjourned the body for several hours after members began shouting in anger over the proposed ban.
After hearing further testimony from academic experts on Wednesday, the judge ruled that the prosecutors' claims were unfounded.
The Bhagavad Gita "is not merely a religious text, but one of the defining treatises of Indian thought," said Indian Ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra in a statement. "The Bhagavad Gita has circulated freely across the world for centuries and there is not a single instance of it having encouraged extremism."
The Indian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday sought to soothe over any tensions.
"We appreciate this sensible resolution of a sensitive issue and are glad to put this episode behind us," ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in a statement. "This demonstrates yet again that the people of India and Russia have a deep understanding of each other's cultures and will always reject any attempt to belittle our common civilizational values."
The Russian Foreign Ministry had insisted the Tomsk court was not taking issue with core Hindu scripture itself, but rather with the author's commentary and poor translation in "Bhagavad Gita As It Is."
"I would like to emphasize that this is not about 'Bhagavad Gita,' a religious philosophical poem, which forms part of the great Indian epic Mahabharata and is one of the most famous pieces of the ancient Hindu literature," ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said at a briefing in Moscow last week, adding that the book was first published in Russian in 1788.
Still, followers of the Hare Krishna movement in Russia saw the proposed ban as a result of continued intolerance of minority religions by the Russian Orthodox Church. Pleshakov estimates there are at least 150,000 Hare Krishna devotees in Russia.
"The current problem is, above all, the misuse of the law on combating extremism," Pleshakov said. "It is used to search for enemies where they can not even be defined."
In 2005, a Russian Orthodox archbishop asked the mayor of Moscow to ban the construction of a proposed Hare Krishna temple, calling the Hindu deity Krishna "an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God," according to Interfax. The temple was later allowed in a Moscow suburb.
erin andrews erin andrews blagojevich sentence mythbusters cannonball uss arizona myth busters tracy mcgrady
Bluetooth Stereo Headset & Intercom for Snow Sports Helmet, SPH10S
SOURCE: Sena Technologies, Inc.
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - Dec 28, 2011) - Sena Technologies, Inc., a leader in Bluetooth Communication, announces the release of SPH10S, a Bluetooth Stereo Headset & Intercom for Snow Sports Helmets.
The SPH10S is a Bluetooth v2.1+EDR Class 1 Stereo Headset with long-range Bluetooth Intercom designed specifically for snow sports helmets such as Giro, Smith or Burton.
With the SPH10S, you can call hands-free on your Bluetooth mobile phone, listen to stereo music by Bluetooth wirelessly and have a 3-way intercom conversation with your companions up to 900 meters (980 yards).
Thanks to the advanced digital processing technology of Bluetooth, the SPH10S offers the best sound quality for both incoming and outgoing sound in its class. Also, the easy-to-access and intuitive button operations make the product a perfect companion for snow sports.
The SPH10S supports a two-year International Warranty for the peace of mind of all customers. The list price of the SPH10S is 219USD in North America and 179Euro in Europe. The SPH10S is available to ship immediately.
For more information, please visit our SPH10S website at www.SenaBluetooth.com.
About Sena Technologies, Inc.
Sena Technologies, Inc. is a leader in Bluetooth Communication Solutions, including Bluetooth Motorcycle Intercom. Sena offers its products worldwide through its global network of distributors, resellers and OEM partners. For more information, please visit http://www.senabluetooth.com/
Source: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=1602219&sourceType=3
road house who do you think you are frank mccourt ricin in god we trust damian mcginty tj houshmandzadeh
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Stanford archives offer window into Apple origins
In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood is shown looking at an old photograph of Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, a photo of an old keyboard is shown next to a letter written about Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood holds up an old Apple 1 operation manual at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
PALO ALTO, Calfornia (AP) ? In the interview, Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs recall a seminal moment in Silicon Valley history ? how they named their upstart computer company some 35 years ago.
"I remember driving down Highway 85," Wozniak says. "We're on the freeway, and Steve mentions, 'I've got a name: Apple Computer.' We kept thinking of other alternatives to that name, and we couldn't think of anything better."
Adds Jobs: "And also remember that I worked at Atari, and it got us ahead of Atari in the phonebook."
The interview, recorded for an in-house video for company employees in the mid-1980s, was among a storehouse of materials Apple had been collecting for a company museum. But in 1997, soon after Jobs returned to the company, Apple officials contacted Stanford University and offered to donate the collection to the school's Silicon Valley Archives.
Within a few days, Stanford curators were at Apple headquarters in nearby Cupertino, packing two moving trucks full of documents, books, software, videotapes and marketing materials that now make up the core of Stanford's Apple Collection.
The collection, the largest assembly of Apple historical materials, can help historians, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand how a startup launched in a Silicon Valley garage became a global technology giant.
"Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer," said Stanford historian Leslie Berlin. "These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened."
The collection is stored in hundreds of boxes taking up more than 600 feet of shelf space at the Stanford's off-campus storage facility. The Associated Press visited the climate-controlled warehouse on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area, but agreed not to disclose its location.
Interest in Apple and its founder has grown dramatically since Jobs died in October at age 56, just weeks after he stepped down as CEO and handed the reins to Tim Cook. Jobs' death sparked an international outpouring and marked the end of an era for Apple and Silicon Valley.
"Apple as a company is in a very, very select group," said Stanford curator Henry Lowood. "It survived through multiple generations of technology. To the credit of Steve Jobs, it meant reinventing the company at several points."
Apple scrapped its own plans for a corporate museum after Jobs returned as CEO and began restructuring the financially struggling firm, Lowood said.
Job's return, more than a decade after he was forced out of the company he co-founded, marked the beginning of one of the great comebacks in business history. It led to a long string of blockbuster products ? including the iPod, iPhone and iPad ? that have made Apple one of the world's most profitable brands.
After Stanford received the Apple donation, former company executives, early employees, business partners and Mac enthusiasts have come forward and added their own items to the archives.
The collection includes early photos of young Jobs and Wozniak, blueprints for the first Apple computer, user manuals, magazine ads, TV commercials, company t-shirts and drafts of Jobs' speeches.
In one company video, Wozniak talks about how he had always wanted his own computer, but couldn't get his hands on one at a time when few computers were found outside corporations or government agencies.
"All of a sudden I realized, 'Hey microprocessors all of a sudden are affordable. I can actually build my own,'" Wozniak says. "And Steve went a little further. He saw it as a product you could actually deliver, sell and someone else could use."
The pair also talk about the company's first product, the Apple I computer, which went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66.
"Remember an Apple I was not particularly useable for too much, but it was so incredible to have your own computer," Jobs says. "It was kind of an embarkation point from the way computers had been going in these big steel boxes with switches and lights."
Among the other items in the Apple Collection:
? Thousands of photos by photographer Douglas Menuez, who documented Jobs' years at NeXT Computer, which he founded in 1985 after he was pushed out of Apple.
? A company video spoofing the 1984 movie "Ghost Busters," with Jobs and other executives playing "Blue Busters," a reference to rival IBM.
? Handwritten financial records showing early sales of Apple II, one of the first mass-market computers.
? An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.
? A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: "This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage."
The archive shows the Apple founders were far ahead of their time, Lowood said.
"What they were doing was spectacularly new," he said. "The idea of building computers out of your garage and marketing them and thereby creating a successful business ? it just didn't compute for a lot of people."
Associated Pressehlers danlos syndrome diners drive ins and dives band of brothers being human being human the closer michael turner
Video: Median net worth of Congress members up 15 percent
While most Americans have gotten poorer in the last few years, a new study finds that members of Congress have done quite well. Since 2004, the median net worth of members of Congress is up 15 percent, while the median net worth for all Americans is down 8 percent. NBC?s Lisa Myers reports.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45800303/
chester mcglockton chester mcglockton arsenic los angeles weather big ten acc challenge scott disick kourtney kardashian
Oxidative DNA damage repair
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Prof. Ulrich Hbscher, University of Zurich, Veterinary
hubscher@vetbio.uzh.ch
41-446-355-472
University of Zurich
Oxidative stress is the cause of many serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, arteriosclerosis and diabetes. It occurs when the body is exposed to excessive amounts of electrically charged, aggressive oxygen compounds. These are normally produced during breathing and other metabolic processes, but also in the case of ongoing stress, exposure to UV light or X-rays. If the oxidative stress is too high, it overwhelms the body's natural defences. The aggressive oxygen compounds destroy genetic material, resulting in what are referred to as harmful 8-oxo-guanine base mutations in the DNA.
DNA repair mechanism decoded
Together with the University of Oxford, Enni Markkanen, a veterinarian in the working group of Prof. Ulrich Hbscher from the Institute of Veterinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich has decoded and characterized the repair mechanism for the mutated DNA bases. This mechanism efficiently copies thousands of 8-oxo-guanines without their harmful mutations, thus normally preventing the negative consequences of 8-oxo-guanine damage. In their study, published in PNAS, the researchers outline the detailed processes involved in the local and temporal coordination of this repair mechanism.
Prof. Ulrich Hbscher hopes that this basic research can be used therapeutically. We expect that the DNA repair mechanism discovered here will lead to less invasive approaches in cancer therapy and that it will be possible to develop new clinical tests for the early detection of certain types of cancer. In cooperation with University Hospital Zurich, a study is already underway that involves examining samples of different types of cancer for the repair gene and its regulation.
###
Literature:
Enni Markkanen, Barbara van Loon, Elena Ferrari, Jason L. Parsons, Grigory L. Dianov, and Ulrich Hbscher. Regulation of oxidative DNA damage repair by DNA polymerase ? and MutYH by crosstalk of phosphorylation and ubiquitination. Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences. PNAS. December 26, 2011. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1110449109
[ | 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: 27-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Prof. Ulrich Hbscher, University of Zurich, Veterinary
hubscher@vetbio.uzh.ch
41-446-355-472
University of Zurich
Oxidative stress is the cause of many serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, arteriosclerosis and diabetes. It occurs when the body is exposed to excessive amounts of electrically charged, aggressive oxygen compounds. These are normally produced during breathing and other metabolic processes, but also in the case of ongoing stress, exposure to UV light or X-rays. If the oxidative stress is too high, it overwhelms the body's natural defences. The aggressive oxygen compounds destroy genetic material, resulting in what are referred to as harmful 8-oxo-guanine base mutations in the DNA.
DNA repair mechanism decoded
Together with the University of Oxford, Enni Markkanen, a veterinarian in the working group of Prof. Ulrich Hbscher from the Institute of Veterinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich has decoded and characterized the repair mechanism for the mutated DNA bases. This mechanism efficiently copies thousands of 8-oxo-guanines without their harmful mutations, thus normally preventing the negative consequences of 8-oxo-guanine damage. In their study, published in PNAS, the researchers outline the detailed processes involved in the local and temporal coordination of this repair mechanism.
Prof. Ulrich Hbscher hopes that this basic research can be used therapeutically. We expect that the DNA repair mechanism discovered here will lead to less invasive approaches in cancer therapy and that it will be possible to develop new clinical tests for the early detection of certain types of cancer. In cooperation with University Hospital Zurich, a study is already underway that involves examining samples of different types of cancer for the repair gene and its regulation.
###
Literature:
Enni Markkanen, Barbara van Loon, Elena Ferrari, Jason L. Parsons, Grigory L. Dianov, and Ulrich Hbscher. Regulation of oxidative DNA damage repair by DNA polymerase ? and MutYH by crosstalk of phosphorylation and ubiquitination. Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences. PNAS. December 26, 2011. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1110449109
[ | 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/2011-12/uoz-odd122311.php
c.j. wilson three stooges pujols mythbusters miami marlins hanley ramirez blago
NH-2012 Primary: 39% Romney, 17% Gingrich, 17% Paul (UNH/Boston Globe 12/12-19)
University of New Hampshire / Boston Globe
12/12-19/11; 543 likely Republican primary voters, 4.2% margin of error
Mode: Live telephone interviews
Boston Globe release
New Hampshire
2012 President: Republican Caucus
39% Romney
17% Gingrich
17% Paul
11% Huntsman
3% Santorum
(chart)
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/26/nh-2012-primary-39-romney_n_1169931.html
snow white and the huntsman philip rivers 11 11 11 meaning miracle berry billy crystal veterans day thank you veterans day thank you
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
New fee coming for medical effectiveness research (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Starting in 2012, the government will charge a new fee to your health insurance plan for research to find out which drugs, medical procedures, tests and treatments work best. But what will Americans do with the answers?
The goal of the research, part of a little-known provision of President Barack Obama's health care law, is to answer such basic questions as whether that new prescription drug advertised on TV really works better than an old generic costing much less.
But in the politically charged environment surrounding health care, the idea of medical effectiveness research is eyed with suspicion. The insurance fee could be branded a tax and drawn into the vortex of election-year politics.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute ? a quasi-governmental agency created by Congress to carry out the research ? has yet to commission a single head-to-head comparison, although its director is anxious to begin.
The government is already providing the institute with some funding: The $1-per-person insurance fee goes into effect in 2012. But the Treasury Department says it's not likely to be collected for another year, though insurers would still owe the money. The fee doubles to $2 per covered person in its second year and thereafter rises with inflation. The IRS is expected to issue guidance to insurers within the next six months.
"The more concerning thing is not the institute itself, but how the findings will be used in other areas," said Kathryn Nix, a policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. "Will they be used to make coverage determinations?"
The institute's director, Dr. Joe Selby, said patients and doctors will make the decisions, not his organization.
"We are not a policy-making body; our role is to make the evidence available," said Selby, a primary care physician and medical researcher,
But insurance industry representatives say they expect to use the research and work with employers to fine-tune workplace health plans. Employees and family members could be steered to hospitals and doctors who follow the most effective treatment methods. Patients going elsewhere could face higher copayments, similar to added charges they now pay for "non-preferred" drugs on their insurance plans.
Major insurers already are carrying out their own effectiveness research, but it lacks the credibility of government-sponsored studies.
Not long ago, so-called "comparative effectiveness" research enjoyed support from lawmakers in both parties. After all, much of the medical research that doctors and consumers rely on now is financed by drug companies and medical device manufacturers, who have a built-in interest in the findings. And a drug maker only has to show that a new medicine is more effective than a sugar pill ? not a competing medication ? to win government approval for marketing.
The 2009 economic stimulus bill included $1.1 billion for medical effectiveness research, mainly through the National Institutes of Health. It was not considered particularly controversial. But things changed during the congressional health care debate, after former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin made the claim, now widely debunked, that Obama and the Democrats were setting up "death panels" to ration care.
As a result, lawmakers hedged the new institute with caveats. It was set up as an independent nonprofit organization, with a .org Internet address instead of .gov. The government cannot dictate Selby's research agenda. And there are limitations on how the Health and Human Services department can use the research findings in decisions that affect Medicare and Medicaid.
Selby says the institute is taking seriously the term "patient-centered" in its name. Patients will not be merely subjects of research; they and their representatives will be involved in setting the agenda and overseeing the process.
"We are talking about patients as partners in the research," said Selby. Findings will be presented in clear language ? a kind of Consumer Reports approach ? so that patients and doctors can easily draw on them to make decisions.
"Our goal, our hope, is that over time, by involving patients in research, two things will happen," said Selby. "One is that we will start asking questions in a more practical fashion, so the results would speak more consistently to questions that patients want to know the answers to. And two is that, by our example of involving patients in the research, trust will rise." He expects to unveil the institute's proposed research agenda in the next few weeks.
Former Medicare administrator Gail Wilensky says that agenda should focus on high-cost procedures and drugs on which the medical community has not developed a consensus, and which have widely different patterns of use around the country. A Republican, Wilensky believes opposition to the institute's work is shortsighted.
"This just strikes me as a component of finding ways to treat better and spend smarter," she said.
___
Online:
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute - www.pcori.org
uppity stuffing brandon mcinerney brandon mcinerney black friday 2011 deals nfl power rankings week 12 nfl power rankings week 12
Airport scanner ups cancer risk
Some airport scanners may pose a cancer threat for people over age 65 and women genetically predisposed to breast cancer, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., doctor said.
Dr. Edward Dauer, head of radiology at Florida Medical Center, said the scanners' low dose of radiation penetrates just below skin level, possibly endangering the eye lens, the thyroid and a woman's breasts, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Sunday.
"I think it's potentially a real danger to the public," he said, explaining that even a small dose could be a risk for people predisposed to cancer. "This is an additional exposure."
The Transportation Security Administration said the scanners are safe and cites independent studies that said radiation levels are well below acceptable limits.
The scanners in question use "backscatter technology" to create an image of a passenger that allows security personnel to see whether suspect items are hidden underneath clothing.
The TSA has installed about 250 of the backscatter scanners at 40 U.S. airports, including the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and airports in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The problem, Dauer said, is the machines emit ionizing radiation.
"Ionizing means it knocks the electrons out of your body, which breaks your DNA chain, which can cause death or cancer," he said.
The agency also uses more than 540 millimeter-wave scanners, considered a safer option because they don't rely on radiation, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Source: http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=12057&Section=Disease
in god we trust ben gibbard zooey deschanel damian mcginty tj houshmandzadeh tj houshmandzadeh san onofre
xataka: Las dos pesadillas del usuario de Android http://t.co/n0VrUwT9
- Passer la navigation
- Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
- Passer cette ?tape
- Connexion
Las dos pesadillas del usuario de Android bit.ly/uJHyFJ 
xataka Pied de page
Source: http://twitter.com/xataka/statuses/151578383300562944
spear of destiny rock hill sc kate middleton pregnant national book awards jessica sutta houston astros matt barnes
Investing Basics ? New Year's Resolutions for 2012
- New Year?s Resolutions
These New Year?s Resolutions for 2012 are?investing basics that will make you a more successful investor. Most of us make New Year?s Resolutions and then forget about them after a few weeks because they are hard. These resolutions aren?t hard; they just take some discipline, time, and the desire to be successful.
1. Take Control of Your Future
Are you tired of opening up your statement and not liking what you see? Take control of your own financial destiny. Don?t allow others to control your wealth and your future!? With all the scams and triple A institutions going bust it makes sense to self-direct your investments. You can do it yourself; it?s not that hard with the right resources.
2. Have an Investing Plan
Pay yourself first. Most people require an automatic investment plan. Do whatever it takes to make yourself invest as much as you can, as early as possible. First priority is investing in a 401k plan matched by your company, or a Traditional or Roth IRA. These investment vehicles give you the advantage of growing your money tax deferred, or in the case of the Roth IRA, tax free.
3. Make Asset Allocation First Priority
How?you divide your assets will determine 90% of your returns! Can you believe that? It?s true; studies have proven this is the most important concept of investing. Most people spend too much time on what stock to buy and too little on how much to invest in each asset category. Spend time learning more about asset allocation.
4. Have a Risk Management Plan
How much of your investment portfolio can you afford to lose? Make sure you understand breakeven loss analysis. Make diversification an important element of your portfolio management. Set parameters that you don?t violate.? For example, I never invest more than 5% of my portfolio in any one stock, or 15% in any one Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), or 25% in any one industry.
5. Have an Investing Strategy
It?s important to have an investing strategy; an understanding of how you choose to invest. Are you a value, contrarian, growth at a reasonable price, growth, or momentum investor? An investor does not have to pick one strategy, but should maintain a consistent methodology, and understand how and why they are picking an individual investment.
6. Follow the Rules
It doesn?t do any good to know the right things and deviate from your plan. Follow the rules and parameters you set for yourself. It?s usually better to push yourself aggressively to save. It?s usually better to be conservative and cautious when you?re unsure about investing. It?s better to be too conservative and not lose money than experiment and make mistakes that set you back for months or years.
7. Keep Expenses Low
You only get to keep what you make. Don?t allow excessive trading or high fund costs to eat up your returns. The average long term rate of return in stocks is 6.5% after inflation. If you have a mutual fund with a 2.0% expense ratio your expected long term rate of return is only 4.5%. Pay attention to expenses.? I like investing in individual stocks and ETFs to keep my expenses low!
8. Get Help
You don?t have to do this by yourself. There are plenty of good services that provide sound guidance to help keep you from making the big mistakes that destroy wealth. Find someone you agree with and has the same philosophy and temperament that you do. Then learn and grow your investment knowledge and skills and begin controlling your own wealth and destiny!
I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2012!
paris jackson howard stern americas got talent china aircraft carrier barbara walters most fascinating person 2011 golden globe nominations los angeles clippers los angeles clippers
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Famine early warning system gives Africa a chance to prepare
US government system, using ground sensors and satellite imagery, helped to predict this year's drought in Horn of Africa, allowing aid groups and governments to prepare relief.
Johannesburg, South Africa
As the world enters a new phase of politically charged climate talks, some scientists have focused on less-?contentious projects like a famine early warning system that can help poor nations adapt to the planet's changes.
Skip to next paragraphNegotiators from around the globe reached agreement on Dec. 12 in Durban, South Africa, on a way forward in the effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. The deal extends the emissions targets set under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and calls for a new round of negotiations to hammer out a replacement treaty, one that would aim to legally bind the United States and fast-developing nations like China and India to meet emission-cuts pledges.
The new round of talks could take several years, but vulnerable populations in Africa need to adapt to climate change now.
As age-old patterns of rainfall and seasons change, drought and famine are becoming more common. The most recent example is the ongoing food shortage in Somalia, which many observers have described as Africa's worst food-security crisis in two decades.
Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, and the situation remains serious. However, a project known as FEWS-NET, or the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, gave advance warning of the looming food crisis and ensured that thousands of other lives were saved.
"We monitor food security and vulnerable populations," says scientist Jim Rowland at the US Geological Survey (USGS), which is part of FEWS-NET. "We started to create alerts about the present situation in Somalia in August 2010 after the upheaval in weather conditions following La Ni?a [conditions]. We continued to send monthly updates until famine was declared in July 2011 based on much of our data."
Nowhere is the possible use of technology more important than in Africa, where scientists say climate change has taken its greatest human toll. Aid groups have used data from FEWS-NET to warn of another looming crisis, in West Africa, and encourage preventive action.
Challiss McDonough of the World Food Program confirms that FEWS-NET helped predict the Somali famine, adding that "the warning was instrumental in getting the attention of some donors before the crisis peaked."
While a worst-case scenario may have been avoided, international disagreement diminished the potential of the warning system. And a regional conflict made it often difficult for aid workers to intervene successfully.
FEWS-NET was created initially by the US after the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia. It uses satellite technology to help predict famines and to see how their effects might be minimized. FEWS-NET is sponsored by the US Agency for International Development. Other major US agencies such as NASA, the USGS, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are key players.
FEWS-NET has evolved into a network that integrates information from a variety of sources, including remote satellite imaging and data gathered from local monitoring of conditions on the ground.
Emma Archer, a climate studies scientist at South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, cautions that a tool is only effective if it is used correctly.
"The best science and technology in the world can predict an appropriate response, but you need the political will to act," says Ms. Archer.
mark buehrle rick perry ad rick perry ad richard cordray dragnet dragnet immaculate conception
Debt diet advised for Boxing Day, new year
Personal finance and debt advisers are asking consumers to consider putting their credit cards on a diet, rather than taking them out for workouts this Boxing Day.
Scott Hannah, president of B.C.'s Credit Counselling Society, said shoppers should make sure they can afford their post-Christmas purchases, no matter how good the deals seem.
"I would encourage them not to spend anything more than what they can comfortably afford to repay over the next three to four months," he said.
"Really. If you are already in debt it doesn't make sense to add on to the debt."
Hannah said that after the holidays, debt counsellors see a spike in people who are trying to deal with their debt.
Hannah said it can be a tricky trap to get into, as personal debt loads tend to creep up over time, and usually can't be flushed out in one go.
"It's the same thing with people trying to lose weight: They want to lose it all at once. It doesn't happen that way," Hannah said.
"It can take a person two or three or four years to get into debt and it is likely going to take that same amount of time to get out of it."
Make a list, check it twice
Hannah said that as the post-Christmas credit card statements come in, spenders should re-assess their finances and make a plan to pay it down.
"A great way to start the new year off is finding where all the money goes, and by that I mean tracking all the expenses you incur in a month or two to get a really good idea of how much you are spending," he said.
"By having a plan, monitoring your progress and staying on track you'll find that you'll end 2012 on a much lighter note."
With files from the CBC's Emily Eliasgmail app phentermine port of oakland grand theft auto 5 grand theft auto 5 kris jenner kris jenner
amcafee: 20 years ago today the Soviet Union ended. Merry Christmas! http://t.co/s3vE7Cxe
- Passer la navigation
- Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
- Passer cette ?tape
- Connexion
20 years ago today the Soviet Union ended. Merry Christmas! bit.ly/rxaE2x 
amcafee Andrew McAfee
Pied de page
Source: http://twitter.com/amcafee/statuses/151081004617052162
free shipping day golden globe nominations 2012 war in iraq war in iraq barbara walters government shutdown sofia vergara
HuntsvilleItem: Top 10 Sports Stories of 2011: Lady Hornets golf team advances to state tournament, boys make it to regional round http://t.co/0RODrsRJ
- Passer la navigation
- Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
- Passer cette ?tape
- Connexion
Top 10 Sports Stories of 2011: Lady Hornets golf team advances to state tournament, boys make it to regional round shar.es/WrlSg 
HuntsvilleItem The Huntsville Item
Pied de page
Source: http://twitter.com/HuntsvilleItem/statuses/151504557963345921
election day 2011 mississippi personhood herman cain press conference joe frazier dead joe frazier dead topamax
Opposition leader calls upcoming Iran election bogus: report (Reuters)
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? An Iranian opposition leader who has been under house arrest since February has accused the Islamic establishment of intending to hold a "rubber-stamp" parliamentary election in March, his website Sahamnews reported on Monday.
Candidates began registering on Saturday for the March 2 vote, which will be the first litmus test of the clerical leadership's public standing since a disputed 2009 presidential vote that precipitated months of unrest.
Mehdi Karoubi was detained along with his wife, Fatemeh, when he urged supporters to gather for a Tehran rally in support of uprisings in the Arab world. His wife was later allowed out for medical treatment but he remains under house arrest.
"Officials do not believe in the people's vote and they are preparing themselves for a rubber-stamp election," his wife quoted him as saying during their weekly meeting, according to Sahamnews.
Candidate registration will last one week and then entrants will be screened for their political and Islamic qualifications by the hard-line Guardian Council electoral watchdog.
The Council has stopped hundreds of reformist candidates in the past from participating in elections. A grandson of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was banned from running for a 2008 parliamentary vote by the Council.
"The authorities want to repeat what they did in the 2009 presidential election by disqualifying the candidates.... and filling up the ballot boxes with counterfeit votes and creating an atmosphere of fear in the country," Karoubi's wife quoted him as saying, as reported by his website.
The 2009 election was followed by eight months of opposition protests that, while ultimately suppressed, pitched Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the Islamic Revolution and exposed divisions within the ruling elite.
The 73-year-old Karoubi and former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, who is also under house arrest with his wife, competed against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 vote.
They became figureheads of the post-election protests by many who believed the vote was rigged to bring back President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian authorities deny the charge and have portrayed the protests as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic government system.
Thousands of people, including senior reformers, were detained after the 2009 vote for fomenting unrest. Most of them have since been released, but more than 80 people have been jailed for up to 15 years and five have been sentenced to death.
Analysts say Ahmadinejad's allies want to secure a majority in the next parliamentary election to ease the way to winning the presidential vote in 2013.
Leading reformist politicians said pro-reform groups would not submit a separate list of candidates because the basic needs of a "free and fair" vote have not been fulfilled.
Authorities are concerned that a low turnout would question the establishment's legitimacy, and so hard-line conservative rulers have urged voters to participate in the March elections.
(Reporting by Mitra Amiri; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
weather colorado springs weather colorado springs chaz bono tonight show tonight show unthink julianne hough
Monday, December 26, 2011
Holiday - University Closed Dec 26-30, 2011
WSU is closed for the holidays from Monday, December 26, through Friday,?December 30, 2011.
For more information about this event, please contact Office of the Registrar at 313.577.3541 or registrar@wayne.edu.Source: http://events.wayne.edu/main/2011/12/26/holiday-university-closed-32266/
nfl week 12 picks jason witten ucla vs usc rich rodriguez rich rodriguez the muppet movie the muppet movie
Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily (AP)
The Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Benedict XVI's homily, to be delivered in Italian, during Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
___
Dear Brothers and Sisters! The reading from Saint Paul's Letter to Titus that we have just heard begins solemnly with the word "apparuit," which then comes back again in the reading at the Dawn Mass: apparuit
"there has appeared". This is a programmatic word, by which the Church seeks to express synthetically the essence of Christmas. Formerly, people had spoken of God and formed human images of him in all sorts of different ways. God himself had spoken in many and various ways to mankind (cf. Heb 1:1 Mass during the Day). But now something new has happened: he has appeared. He has revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessible light in which he dwells. He himself has come into our midst. This was the great joy of Christmas for the early Church: God has appeared. No longer is he merely an idea, no longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words. He has "appeared". But now we ask: how has he appeared? Who is he in reality? The reading at the Dawn Mass goes on to say: "the kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed" (Tit 3:4). For the people of pre-Christian times, whose response to the terrors and contradictions of the world was to fear that God himself might not be good either, that he too might well be cruel and arbitrary, this was a real "epiphany," the great light that has appeared to us: God is pure goodness. Today too, people who are no longer able to recognize God through faith are asking whether the ultimate power that underpins and sustains the world is truly good, or whether evil is just as powerful and primordial as the good and the beautiful which we encounter in radiant moments in our world. "The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed:" this is the new, consoling certainty that is granted to us at Christmas. In all three Christmas Masses, the liturgy quotes a passage from the Prophet Isaiah, which describes the epiphany that took place at Christmas in greater detail: "A child is born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace. Wide is his dominion in a peace that has no end" (Is 9:5f.). Whether the prophet had a particular child in mind, born during his own period of history, we do not know. But it seems impossible. This is the only text in the Old Testament in which it is said of a child, of a human being: his name will be Mighty-God, Eternal-Father. We are presented with a vision that extends far beyond the historical moment into the mysterious, into the future. A child, in all its weakness, is Mighty God. A child, in all its neediness and dependence, is Eternal Father. And his peace "has no end." The prophet had previously described the child as "a great light" and had said of the peace he would usher in that the rod of the oppressor, the footgear of battle, every cloak rolled in blood would be burned (Is 9:1, 3-4). God has appeared as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace. At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors' rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you. We love your childish estate, your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors' rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours. Christmas is an epiphany the appearing of God and of his great light in a child that is born for us. Born in a stable in Bethlehem, not in the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas in Greccio with an ox and an ass and a manger full of hay, a new dimension of the mystery of Christmas came to light. Saint Francis of Assisi called Christmas "the feast of feasts" above all other feasts and he celebrated it with "unutterable devotion" (2 Celano 199; Fonti Francescane, 787). He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion and he stammered tender words such as children say, so Thomas of Celano tells us (ibid.). For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the Resurrection Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing had radically changed the world: he had made a place for man in God himself. Now, Francis neither changed nor intended to change this objective order of precedence among the feasts, the inner structure of the faith centered on the Paschal Mystery. And yet through him and the character of his faith, something new took place: Francis discovered Jesus' humanity in an entirely new depth. This human existence of God became most visible to him at the moment when God's Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God's Son to take the form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. "The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed" this phrase of Saint Paul now acquired an entirely new depth. In the child born in the stable at Bethlehem, we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart. This has nothing to do with sentimentality. It is right here, in this new experience of the reality of Jesus' humanity that the great mystery of faith is revealed. Francis loved the child Jesus, because for him it was in this childish estate that God's humility shone forth. God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love, he put himself in the position of asking for human love our love. Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God's humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light. Francis arranged for Mass to be celebrated on the manger that stood between the ox and the ass (cf. 1 Celano 85; Fonti 469). Later, an altar was built over this manger, so that where animals had once fed on hay, men could now receive the flesh of the spotless lamb Jesus Christ, for the salvation of soul and body, as Thomas of Celano tells us (cf. 1 Celano 87; Fonti 471). Francis himself, as a deacon, had sung the Christmas Gospel on the holy night in Greccio with resounding voice. Through the friars' radiant Christmas singing, the whole celebration seemed to be a great outburst of joy (1 Celano 85.86; Fonti 469, 470). It was the encounter with God's humility that caused this joy his goodness creates the true feast. Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus' Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half meters high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half meters has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with better protection from attack, but above all to prevent people from entering God's house on horseback. Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus' birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our "enlightened" reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God's closeness. We must follow the interior path of Saint Francis the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart. And let us also pray especially at this hour for all who have to celebrate Christmas in poverty, in suffering, as migrants, that a ray of God's kindness may shine upon them, that they and we may be touched by the kindness that God chose to bring into the world through the birth of his Son in a stable. Amen.
___'
Copyright Vatican Publishing House
angela davis zombie apocalypse matt moore matt moore national grid andrew luck andrew luck
In China, a daring few challenge one-child limit (AP)
ZHUJI, China ? Seven months pregnant, Wu Weiping sneaked out early in the morning carrying a shoulder bag with some clothes, her laptop and a knife.
"It's good for me I wasn't caught, but it's lucky for them too," said Wu, 35, who feared that family planning officials were going to drag her to the hospital for a forced abortion. "I was going to fight to the death if they found me."
With her escape, Wu joined an increasingly defiant community of parents in China who have risked their jobs, savings and physical safety to have a forbidden second child.
Though their numbers are small, they represent changing ideas about individual rights. While violators in the past tended to be rural families who skirted the birth limits in relative obscurity, many today are urbanites like Wu who frame their defiance in overtly political terms, arguing that the government has no right to dictate how many children they have.
Using Internet chat rooms and blogs, a few have begun airing their demands for a more liberal family planning policy and are hoping others will follow their lead. Several have gotten their stories into the tightly controlled media, an indication that their perspectives have resonance with the public.
After finding out his wife was expecting a second child, Liu Lianwen set up an online discussion group called "Free Birth" to swap information about the one-child policy and how to get around it. In less than six months, it has attracted nearly 200 members.
"We are idealists," said the 37-year-old engineer from central China, whose daughter was born Oct. 18. "We want to change the attitudes of people around us by changing ourselves."
Freed of the social controls imposed during the doctrinaire era of communist rule, Chinese today are free to choose where they live and work and whom they marry. But when it comes to having kids, the state says the majority must stop at one. Hefty fines for violators and rising economic pressures have helped compel most to abide by the limit. Many provinces claim near perfect compliance.
It's impossible to know how many children have been born in violation of the one-child policy, but Zhai Zhenwu, director of Renmin University's School of Sociology and Population in Beijing, estimates that less than 1 percent of the 16 million babies born each year are "out of plan."
Liu thinks his fellow citizens have been brainwashed. "They all feel it's glorious to have a small family," he said. "Thirty years of family planning propaganda have changed the way the majority of Chinese think about having children."
The reluctance to procreate is also an issue of growing concern for demographers, who worry that the policy combined with a rising cost of living has brought the fertility rate down too sharply and too fast. Though still the world's largest nation with 1.3 billion people, China's population growth has slowed considerably.
"The worry for China is not population growth ? it's rapid population aging and young people not wanting to have children," said Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, a joint U.S.-China academic research center in Beijing.
Wang sees a looming disaster as the baby boom generation of the 1960s heads into retirement and old age. China's labor force, sharply reduced by the one-child policy, will struggle to support them.
He argues that the government should allow everyone at least two children. He thinks many Chinese would still stop at one because of concerns about being able to afford to raise more than that.
Penalties for violators are harsh. Those caught must pay a "social compensation fee," which can be four to nine times a family's annual income, depending on the province and the whim of the local family planning bureau. Parents with government jobs can also lose their posts or get demoted, and their "out of plan" children are denied education and health benefits.
Those without government posts have less to worry about. If they can afford the steep fee and don't mind losing benefits, there's little to stop them from having another child. There's popular anger over this favoring of the wealthy but not much that ordinary people can do about it, since the policy is set behind closed doors by the communist leadership in Beijing.
In 2007, officials in coastal Zhejiang province threatened to start naming and shaming well-off families who had extra kids, but the campaign never got off the ground, possibly because it threatened to tarnish the reputations of too many well-connected people.
Hardest hit by the rules are urban middle class parents with Communist Party posts, teaching positions or jobs at state-run industries.
Li Yongan was ordered to pay 240,000 yuan ($37,500) after his son was born in 2007 as he already had a 13-year-old daughter. After refusing to pay the fee, Li was denied a household registration permit for his son, forcing him to pay three times more for kindergarten.
He was also barred from his job teaching physics at a state-run university in Beijing. "I never regret my second child, but I have been living with depression and anger for years," said Li, who struggles to make ends meet as a freelance chess teacher.
Of course, there are surreptitious, though not foolproof, ways to evade punishment: paying a bribe or falsifying documents so that, for instance, a second child is registered as the twin of an older sibling. Or, sometimes second babies are registered to childless relatives or rural families that are allowed to have a second child but haven't done so.
Wu, the woman who made the early morning escape, said she never intended to flout the one-child rule. She had resorted to fertility treatments to conceive her first child ? a daughter nicknamed Le Le, or Happy ? so she was stunned when a doctor told her she was expecting again in August 2008.
The news triggered a monthlong "cold war" with her husband, Wu said. Silent dinners, cold shoulders. She wanted to keep the baby. He didn't. After a few weeks, he came around, she explained with a satisfied smile.
But family planning officials insisted on an abortion. The principal at her school also pressured her to end the pregnancy.
Desperate, she went online for answers ? and was led astray.
At her home on the outskirts of Zhuji, a textile hub a few hours south of Shanghai, the energetic former high school teacher recounted how she divorced her husband, then married her cousin the next day, all in an attempt to evade the rules.
The soap-opera-like subterfuge was meant to take advantage of a loophole that allows divorced parents to have a second child if their new spouse is a first-time parent.
Wu had helped raise her cousin, who is 25 and 10 years younger than her, and when she asked if he would marry her to help save the baby, he agreed.
The divorce, on Sept. 27, 2008, involved signing a document and posing for a photo. It was over in just a few minutes. The next day's marriage was similarly swift.
"I remember I was very happy that day," Wu said holding the marriage certificate with a glued-on snapshot of the cousins. "Because I thought I'd figured out a way to save my baby."
But her problem wasn't over. When the newlyweds applied for a birth permit, officials informed them conception had to take place after marriage. They were told to abort the baby, then try again. Wu was back to square one.
A popular option that was out of reach for Wu economically is to have the baby elsewhere, where the limits don't apply. Some better-off Chinese go to Hong Kong, where private agencies charge mainland mothers hundreds of thousands of yuan (tens of thousands of dollars) for transport, lodging and medical costs.
The number giving birth in Hong Kong reached 40,000 last year, prompting the territory to cap the number of beds in public hospitals they are allowed from 2012. However, parents of kids born abroad face the bureaucratic hurdles of foreigners, having to pay premiums for school and other services.
In the end, Wu also fled, but not as far as Hong Kong. Three months from her due date, she kissed her baby daughter goodbye, telling her she was going on vacation, and hopped an early morning train to nearby Hangzhou. There she switched to another train bound for Shanghai, hoping the roundabout route would throw off anyone trying to tail her.
In Shanghai, Wu used a friend's ID to rent a one-room apartment with shared bathroom and kitchen. It was tiny and not cheap for her, 700 yuan ($107) a month, but it was across from a hospital that allowed her to register without a government-issued birth permission slip and it had an Internet connection.
Wu had never used email, so her husband ? the real one ? set up a password-protected online journal that he titled "yixiaobb," or "one tiny baby." She posted to the journal up to nine times a day, describing where she was living without ever revealing her exact location. She prefaced every entry with a capital M for mother, and added a number to mark how many messages she wrote in a day. Using the same journal, her husband wrote to her, coding his messages with an F.
It felt like an invisible tether linking Wu to her husband. He didn't know where she was, but knew she was OK. Shortly before her due date, she asked him to come to Shanghai, and he was present for the birth of their son.
More than two years later, she and her former husband, the father to both her children, have yet to remarry ? hoping it will legally shield him from any future punishment.
The marriage with her cousin was easily dissolved after they discovered it was never valid, because marriages between first cousins is illegal in China.
Wu was fired from her job as a public school teacher because of the baby, and her ex-husband, who is also a teacher, was demoted to a freelance position at his school. Though told she has been assessed a 120,740 yuan ($18,575) social compensation fee, Wu has refused to pay.
Enforcers of the family planning limits showed up at their house in July, and again in November, threatening legal action. Wu is afraid their property might be confiscated or that she or husband might end up in detention, but she doesn't want to pay the fine because she doesn't believe she's done anything wrong.
"I don't think I've committed any crime," she said. "A crime is something that hurts other people or society or that infringes on other people's rights. I don't think having a baby is any kind of crime."
virginia tech va tech duggar miscarriage dan gilbert david stern david stern julian beever
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)