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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Morsi, in Germany, defends comments on Jews
BERLIN (AP) ? Egypt's Islamist president turned aside repeated criticism of his past comments referring to Jews as "the descendants of apes and pigs" as he visited Germany on Wednesday, insisting that the remarks were taken out of context and were aimed at criticizing Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
A key focus of Mohammed Morsi's one-day visit to Berlin was to seek support to rebuild a crumbling Egyptian economy. However, questions about his comments ? made in 2010 ? pursued him throughout the day. The remarks drew attention earlier this month when an Egyptian TV show aired them to highlight and mock Morsi's current policies.
A tightlipped German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who earlier in the day had opened an exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power and attended an annual parliamentary memorial event to Holocaust victims, said she had brought up the issue during her meeting with Morsi.
"The president told me what he meant by that, so I'll pass it over to him," she said during a short media briefing.
Morsi said he was "not against the Jewish faith or the Jewish people."
He added: "My comments were about conduct that sheds blood and kills innocent people ? things neither I ... nor anyone condones."
The controversy over Morsi's comments reflects the collision between his long career as a leader in the vehemently anti-Israeli Muslim Brotherhood and his status now as a head of state in a country that relies heavily on Western support and has a peace treaty with Israel.
Anti-Semitic statements are easily found in Brotherhood writings. Usually, officials try to present their comments as directed against Israel, but at times they slide into outright slurs against Jews in general.
In the video, Morsi refers to "Zionists" as "bloodsuckers who attack Palestinians" as well as "the descendants of apes and pigs."
He also says Egyptians should nurse their children on "hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews. They must be breast-fed hatred."
Morsi appeared testy when prodded again about the comments during an appearance later Wednesday at an event organized by a private think tank.
"I would like to thank you for the question that I have heard several times today, and I've answered it five times today, too," he said. "I also answered that question in Cairo throughout the past two weeks at least 10 times."
"My comments were taken out of context," he said. "They were about the repeated Israeli attacks against Palestinians and the shedding of Palestinian blood."
"Children in Egypt have grown watching images of bloodshed and how aggression and killings taking place," he added. "My comments were about the conduct and manners, the killings and the aggression by tanks and warplanes and cluster bombs and internationally banned weapons against innocent people."
Morsi insisted that he "cannot be against the Jewish faith or Jews or Christianity and Christians," because the Quran, the Muslim holy book, commands him "to believe in all religions."
____
Hamza Hendawi contributed from Cairo.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/morsi-germany-defends-comments-jews-195313163.html
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Branco Cartoon ? Right to Bear Arms - Legal Insurrection
Posted by A.F. Branco ?? Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 7:04pm
Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you?link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons,?click here. ?Branco?s ?page is?Cartoonist A.F.Branco
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Source: http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/01/branco-cartoon-right-to-bear-arms/
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'Six Little McGhees' parents talk 50-diaper days
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
The "terrible twos" are tough enough for most parents, but Rozonno and Mia McGhee are experiencing the phenomenon six times over -- all at once.
The stars of "Six Little McGhees" stopped by TODAY Tuesday morning to share just what it's like to raise sextuplets while the world watches.
"It's extremely chaotic," Rozonno explained. "There's no controlling them."
Mom Mia agreed, adding, "We're outnumbered, and they know it."
But don't mistake their overwhelming situation for an unhappy one. The couple might not feel like they're in control, but they're right where they want to be.
"We waited 10 years to even get a pregnancy, so of course, I'm happy," Mia assured. "I'm happy I have them."
Having them requires "a lot of prayer" according to Mia and "everything and then some" according to Rozonno, but in terms any parent can understand, it requires between 45 and 50 diapers a day.
Still, the reality TV stars aren't looking forward to putting the diapers behind them just yet.
"I'm not looking forward to potty training," Rozonno said. "That's just mind-blowing."
See more of the McGhees on "Six Little McGhees" Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on Discovery Fit & Health.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
App d to Fail: Mobile Health Treatments Fail First Full Checkup
Early trials using mobile technology including text messaging and apps lack rigor and show mixed results
SMS messages in Africa provide reminders to patients to take antiretroviral drugs, reducing HIV virus counts. Image: Flickr/The Reboot
Health care via mobile technology is still in its infancy. Of 75 trials in which patients used mobile tech, such as text messaging and downloadable apps, to manage a disease or adopt healthier behaviors, only three showed reliable signs of success, according to a systematic survey. In an accompanying survey of medical personnel who used smart phones and other devices, to help deliver care, the same team found more success: 11 of 42 trials had positive, reliable results.
Yet mobile device-aided health care, called mHealth, attracts a lot of attention and dollars, as U.S. National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins wrote last year in Scientific American. In 2012 venture capital firms invested more than $900 million in mHealth, according to a report by Mobile Health Market News.
?There?s a lot of enthusiasm for [mHealth] but [its effectiveness] wasn?t very clear,? says epidemiologist Caroline Free of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England, the lead author of the reviews. In 2011, for example, the World Health Organization found that only 12 percent of mobile health initiatives included an evaluation.
So Free and colleagues conducted the reviews, which appear in PLoS Medicine, she says, to ?put us in the position of knowing exactly in which areas there was good evidence where the evidence was promising.? That information could help investors and researchers make better decisions about how to identify, improve and promote the best mobile health treatments.
In the first review, the team identified 334 relevant mHealth trials in seven medical databases. Most of the trials used text messaging to interact with patients, although some interacted through dedicated applications, downloadable audio and video or the Web. Only 75 of those trials included a control group, which allows researchers to compare experimental interventions with doing nothing.
Of the 75 controlled trials, 26 sought to change patient behavior by methods that included increasing exercise and 49 sought to help patients manage diseases medically such as by taking pills on time. That may not seem like many studies, but medical doctor Rahul Chakrabarti at Monash University in Australia, co-editor of the Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine, calls it the most comprehensive meta-analysis of mHealth evidence to date.
The bad news is that most trials had weak designs, such as failing to randomize participants in the control group and the experimental group. Others relied on participants to self-report the results, but such methods can be unreliable. Free says such trials should use biochemical tests, instead. In some cases, it?s too early to tell whether a result, such as smaller waist size, would last long enough to improve participants? health. Most trials also neglected the developing world, where mobile phones have the most potential to improve access to health care. ?This does not undermine the outcomes,? Chakrabarti says, ?but shows that going forward, there is a clear need for improved methodology.?
There were a few promising, reliable trials: For instance, receiving text messages helped smokers quit in one trial that did verify its results with biochemical tests. Reminders also helped diabetics stick to their treatments in another trial. In the only successful developing-world trial, in Kenya, SMS reminders to take antiretroviral drugs helped reduce HIV virus counts.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=804d779ad6611741c609d4f2a8f83e86
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Syrian refugees top 700,000, U.N. struggling to cope
GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 700,000 Syrian refugees have fled to other countries in the region and aid workers are struggling to keep up with the exodus, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The number of refugees passed the 500,000 mark on Dec 11, meaning more than 200,000 have fled the war-torn country in the past seven weeks.
"We have seen an unrelenting flow of refugees across all borders. We are running double shifts to register people," Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva.
A total of about 712,000 refugees had registered in other countries in the region or were awaiting processing there as of Tuesday, according to UNHCR figures.
Jordan has 171,033 registered Syrian refugees, as well as 51,729 who await processing, many of who fled fighting around the southern Syrian town of Deraa this month. Lebanon has 158,973 Syrian refugees, and 69,963 awaiting processing.
"We are trying to clear a backlog of people because the numbers have gone up so dramatically (in Jordan and Lebanon)," Wilkes said.
The conflict in Syria, a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, has lasted for almost two years. Rebels have pushed into major cities like Aleppo and Damascus and taken territory in the north and east, while government forces have bombarded rebel-held areas with artillery and air strikes.
Turkey has 163,161 Syrian refugees in its 15 camps while Iraq hosts 77,415, the UNHCR said. There are 14,375 in Egypt and 5,417 registered across the rest of North Africa.
"The needs are enormous, we can't get to everyone fast enough," Wilkes quoted Ninette Kelley, UNHCR representative in Lebanon, as saying on Tuesday.
The United Nations warned on Monday that it would not be able to help millions of Syrians affected by the fighting without more money.
It appealed for donations at an aid conference this week in Kuwait to meet its $1.5 billion target. It has received just 3 percent of that so far.
U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres will attend the talks. The UNHCR and its partners are seeking $1 billion for Syrian refugees out of the $1.5 billion sought by the United Nations and has received 18 percent of that total to date, Wilkes said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Pravin Char)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-refugees-more-700-000-outflow-swells-u-084627667.html
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Monday, January 28, 2013
Apple TV Update - Business Insider
Apple has released an updated for its Apple TV that unlocks some long-awaited features.
The big new feature is the previously-rumored Bluetooth keyboard support, which should make it much easier to log into Hulu and search for things on Netflix.
Other than that, users will get an improved iTunes in the Cloud service, and a feature called Up Next, which lets you build a queue of music to play on the fly.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tv-update-2013-1
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Dutch Queen abdicates, Willem-Alexander to succeed
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch Queen Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, announced she was abdicating in favor of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander, who will become king on April 30.
Willem-Alexander, 45, is married to Princess Maxima Zorrigueta and has three young children. Decades of grooming for the throne involved shaking off his image as a beer-drinking fraternity boy whose blunt comments upset the press and politicians.
Beatrix said in a television broadcast to the nation that she was stepping down because she felt her son was ready to take her place on the throne.
A constitutional monarchy, the Netherlands had reduced the involvement of the Royal House in politics, a role long seen more as a formality than a position of power.
In the past, the Queen took part in forming government coalitions by appointing a political mediator, raising questions about behind-the-scenes influence on the democratic process.
That role was scrapped before the last election, which took place in September 2012.
It was widely rumored that Queen Beatrix was no fan of anti-immigrant, euroskeptic politician Geert Wilders. She alluded in speeches to the need for tolerance and multi-culturalism, comments that were seen as criticisms of Wilders' anti-Islamic views.
Wilders' poor showing at the last election and loss of influence in politics, could well have contributed to her decision to abdicate.
Queen Beatrix, who remains very popular with the Dutch, became the sixth monarch of the House of Orange in 1980 following the abdication of her mother, Queen Juliana, who reigned for 31 years.
Juliana was 73 years old and in deteriorating mental health when she abdicated but Beatrix has remained active and in good health despite some setbacks.
The queen was emotionally shaken when a man drove his car into a Queen's Day procession in 2009.
Her middle son, Prince Johan Friso, has been in a coma ever since he was buried in an avalanche while skiing last year.
(Reporting by Sara Webb and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Giles Elgood)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-queen-address-nation-prompts-talk-abdication-162811024.html
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
Education & Reference 2017: TIME for Kids BIG Book of Why: 1,001 ...
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TIME for Kids BIG Book of Why: 1,001 Facts Kids Want to Know (Time for Kids Magazine)
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Education & Reference
Why do we have eyebrows? What's a black hole and what happens if you fall into one? What's the fastest a human is capable of running? Why do wet fingers stick to metal in the freezer? Where is the deepest point on Earth? Divided by subject area - humans, animals, environment/nature, technology, and space - and written in an upbeat manner, each answer is accompanied by either a photo or an illustration to show the reasons why. Of course, "Time for Kids" goes beyond answering the question by dipping into the science or history to further explain the answer in an easy-to-follow, straightforward manner. This is a must -have book to satisfy the most curious of kids and provokes a great way to encourage interest and knowledge about a wide range of subjects, as well as to stimulate reading. Kids will be desperate to share what they've learned with their parents, teachers, and friends...and anyone else who will listen.
- Rank: #517 in Books
- Brand: Time For Kids
- Published on: 2010-08-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x .71" w x 7.99" l, 1.50 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 192 pages
Source: http://niceeducationreference535.blogspot.com/2013/01/time-for-kids-big-book-of-why-1001.html
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Recession, tech's march kill middle-class jobs | The Salt Lake Tribune
ADVANCE FOR RELEASE UNTIL 12:01 a.m. EST,WEDNESDAY, JAN, 23, 2013. THIS PHOTO MAY NOT BE POSTED ONLINE, BROADCAST OR PUBLISHED BEFORE 12:01 a.m. WEDNESDAY, JAN, 23, 2013- FILE - In this Wednesday, June, 15, 2011, file photo, job seekers wait in a line at a job fair in Southfield, Mich. In the United States, half of the 7.5 million jobs lost during the Great Recession were paid middle-class wages, ranging from $37,000 to $68,000. But only 2 percent of the 3.4 million jobs gained since the recession are mid-pay. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Labor ? Because of advances, positions lost during Great Recession not likely coming back.
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear. Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
?
From Utah, a dissenting voice
Jobs in the state probably are being lost to technology, ?but that always happens,? and it isn?t a bad thing, said Mark Knold, chief economist at the Utah Department of Workforce Services and an adherent of the process of ?creative destruction,? a concept coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter.
Schumpeter, who died in 1950, believed free markets are constantly renewed and energized by the process of tearing down old economic structures and creating new ones. That natural mutation of the economy is both inevitable and good, Knold said.
?There was a blue ribbon panel commissioned by [former President] Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to address fears that machines and technology were going to replace workers, and we have added millions workers since then,? Knold said.
?What was hard for them to see is that those innovations did replace workers in certain areas, but they also spurred innovation and productivity to the point where it created so many jobs in other areas. [Technology] wasn?t a job destroyer. It was a job creator.?
The number of jobs in the U.S. has almost tripled since the mid-1960s, to more than 143 million. Knold said that increasing the newer jobs have become more sophisticated, ?higher quality? and have commanded better pay. That shift is requiring more of workers in the U.S. and Utah labor forces, which stand at 155.5 million and 1.4 million, respectively.
?In our father?s day, [young people] could come out of high school and get a good-paying, sweat-of-the-brow job at Kennecott or Geneva Steel,? Knold said. No longer, he added, because ?good jobs now need education, [and] I would say that the shift toward more education in the job market is accelerating, not decelerating.?
Knold said Utah took part in a worldwide technological revolution in the years leading up to the start of the Great Recession in 2007. Rather than throw people out of work, the economy before the downturn generated thousands of jobs and drove the unemployment rate under 2.5 percent for awhile.
?And then we had a bad recession. But this recession was not the result of technology or any bad spinoff of technology advancements. This recession is the result of bad government policies and mismanagement of the financial sector,? he said.
Knold doesn?t see much evidence that Utah employers are replacing better-paying jobs with lower-paying ones. On one hand, there are fewer retail, construction and manufacturing jobs today than before the recession started. On the other, sectors such as professional and business services, health care, education and government ? all of which ostensibly pay workers well ? are more numerous.
Paul Beebe
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish, say experts who study the labor market. What?s more, these jobs aren?t just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren?t just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They?re being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.
Not many get a pass ? "The jobs that are going away aren?t coming back," said Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of Race Against the Machine. ??I have never seen a period where computers demonstrated as many skills and abilities as they have over the past seven years."
The global economy is being reshaped by machines that generate and analyze vast amounts of data; by devices such as smartphones and tablet computers that let people work just about anywhere, even when they?re on the move; by smarter, nimbler robots; and by services that let businesses rent computing power when they need it, instead of installing expensive equipment and hiring IT staffs to run it. Whole employment categories, from secretaries to travel agents, are starting to disappear.
"There?s no sector of the economy that?s going to get a pass," said Martin Ford, who runs a software company and wrote The Lights in the Tunnel, a book predicting widespread job losses. "It?s everywhere."
The numbers startle even labor economists. In the United States, half the 7.5 million jobs lost during the Great Recession were in industries that pay middle-class wages, ranging from $38,000 to $68,000. But only 2 percent of the 3.5 million jobs gained since the recession ended in June 2009 are in midpay industries. Nearly 70 percent are in low-pay industries, 29 percent in industries that pay well.
story continues below
In the 17 European countries that use the euro as their currency, the numbers are even worse. Almost 4.3 million low-pay jobs have been gained since mid-2009, but the loss of midpay jobs has never stopped. A total of 7.6 million disappeared from January 2008 through last June.
Experts warn that this "hollowing out" of the middle-class workforce is far from over. They predict the loss of millions more jobs as technology becomes even more sophisticated and reaches deeper into our lives. Maarten Goos, an economist at the University of Leuven in Belgium, says Europe could double its middle-class job losses.
Some occupations are beneficiaries of the march of technology, such as software engineers and app designers for smartphones and tablet computers. Overall, though, technology is eliminating far more jobs than it is creating.
Technology?s march ? To understand the impact technology is having on middle-class jobs in developed countries, the AP analyzed employment data from 20 countries; tracked changes in hiring by industry, pay and task; compared job losses and gains during recessions and expansions over the past four decades; and interviewed economists, technology experts, robot manufacturers, software developers, entrepreneurs and people in the labor force who ranged from CEOs to the unemployed.
The AP?s key findings:
? For more than three decades, technology has reduced the number of jobs in manufacturing. Robots and other machines controlled by computer programs work faster and make fewer mistakes than humans. Now, that same efficiency is being unleashed in the service economy, which employs more than two-thirds of the workforce in developed countries. Technology is eliminating jobs in office buildings, retail establishments and other businesses consumers deal with every day.
? Technology is being adopted by every kind of organization that employs people. It?s replacing workers in large corporations and small businesses, established companies and startups. It?s being used by schools, colleges and universities; hospitals and other medical facilities; nonprofit organizations and the military.
? The most vulnerable workers are doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for ? an accountant checking a list of numbers, an office manager filing forms, a paralegal reviewing documents for key words to help in a case. As software becomes even more sophisticated, victims are expected to include those who juggle tasks, such as supervisors and managers ? workers who thought they were protected by a college degree.
? Thanks to technology, companies in the Standard & Poor?s 500 stock index reported one-third more profit the past year than they earned the year before the Great Recession. They?ve also expanded their businesses, but total employment, at 21.1 million, has declined by a half-million.
? Startups account for much of the job growth in developed economies, but software is allowing entrepreneurs to launch businesses with a third fewer employees than in the 1990s. There is less need for administrative support and back-office jobs that handle accounting, payroll and benefits.
A jobless recovery ? Some analysts reject the idea that technology has been a big job killer. They note that the collapse of the housing market in the U.S., Ireland, Spain and other countries and the ensuing global recession wiped out millions of middle-class construction and factory jobs. In their view, governments could bring many of the jobs back if they would put aside worries about their heavy debts and spend more. Others note that jobs continue to be lost to China, India and other countries in the developing world.
But to the extent technology has played a role, it raises the specter of high unemployment even after economic growth accelerates. Some economists say millions of middle-class workers must be retrained to do other jobs if they hope to get work again. Others are more hopeful. They note that technological change over the centuries eventually has created more jobs than it destroyed, although the wait can be long and painful.
Next Page >Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/55684712-79/jobs-technology-recession-workers.html.csp
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Davis-White post career-best score in short dance
Meryl Davis, right, and Charlie White compete in the senior pairs short dance program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Meryl Davis, right, and Charlie White compete in the senior pairs short dance program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Meryl Davis and Charlie White smile after winning the senior pairs short dance program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Meryl Davis and Charlie White compete in the senior pairs short dance program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Meryl Davis and Charlie White compete in the senior pairs short dance program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? Meryl Davis and Charlie White topped the only competition they have in the United States.
Themselves.
The Olympic silver medalists and 2011 world champions scored a career-high 79.02 points in the short dance Friday in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, topping the 76.17 they scored at the 2011 Grand Prix final as well as their 76.89 from last year's U.S. meet. The International Skating Union only recognizes scores from its events as official records.
With more than an eight-point lead over Madison Chock and Evan Bates (70.8), Davis and White are all but assured of winning a record-tying fifth U.S. dance title Saturday as long as they show up. Four other couples also have won five titles, most recently Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.
"There are a lot of reasons to stay motivated," Davis said. "We feel we're making huge strides in what we're putting out on the ice. What better place than your national championships to show that?"
The only couple close to Davis and White is Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and their rivalry is the best thing going in dance these days. Virtue and Moir won the Olympic title as well as the world crowns in 2010 and 2012 while the Americans won worlds in 2011 and beat the Canadians last month in the Grand Prix final.
Oh, they train together in suburban Detroit, too.
Here in the States, though, no one comes close to Davis and White's exquisite performances. The short dance can be a mind-numbing event, with all of the skaters required to perform the same dances ? this year it's the Yankee polka and the waltz ? during their 2:50 routine. Watch one or two teams, and it all becomes a blur.
But Davis and White not only make it fresh, they make it entertaining.
The speed and ease with which they skated was breathtaking, as if their blades were talking to the ice. Their twizzles ? traveling spins ? were done in perfect unison. Doing one would be impressive enough ? think rubbing your stomach while patting your head, and you get the idea ? but they did five and then another four, never losing their stride, connection to the music or their connection to each other. And when they began their polka with a series of hops, you half-expected an oompah band to stroll out of the Zamboni garage.
They were so good, the audience was on its feet, the first standing ovation of the competition.
"We were really pleased," Davis said. "We've really been evolving our overall comfort on the ice, our speed and energy, and it really paid off in our performance today."
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NuForce HP-800
Studio monitor headphones are an interesting, refreshing breed. In this age of mega-boosted bass, the goal of a studio monitor pair, like the NuForce HP-800, is to reproduce sound accurately, not overwhelmingly. Thus, the $149 (list) HP-800 does not throttle your ears with sub-bass frequencies. Instead, it focuses on the mid-range content, producing an accurate, crisp sound signature that is ideal for many genres. Unfortunately, any genre that relies on deep, sub-bass content as a central part of its mix is bound to give the HP-800 some trouble. These headphones not only seem to lack much sub-bass presence at moderate levels, but they distort on these same frequencies at top volumes.?
Design
The circumaural (over-the-ears) design of the visually-striking HP-800 is basically a must for studio monitors pairs?on-ear pairs tend to bleed too much audio that could then be picked up by microphones. NuForce uses memory foam in the ear pads, adding a layer of comfort that is crucial for long recording sessions.
Two nice visual touches on the otherwise uniformly black frame: The drivers on the inside of the earcups are covered with bright red speaker grille cloth, and the square, gold-colored logo (which simply says "Nu") on the outside panels of the ears looks luxurious, not tacky. An innovative headband design actually uses two bands. The one that rests on your head is flexible and adjusts automatically based on tension, while the top band is more rigid and helps stabilize the fit.
The detachable cable adds some value to the cost of the HP-800?cables are usually the most likely suspect when headphones malfunction. Being able to replace them, rather than send the unit in for a repair or buy a new pair altogether, could quite possibly extend the life of your headphones by years.
Of the two included cables, one has a thick, cloth-covered outer layer, and terminates in either 3.5mm, or ?-inch for pro-gear jacks (a screw-on adapter is included). The other is quite thin, and is intended for on-the-go, non-studio use. It would've been nice to see phone controls included on this cable, but NuForce skipped phone controls, microphones, and remotes altogether, so this is a purely musical headphone pair. A black satin drawstring bag is also included.
Performance
NuForce more or less nails the flat frequency response most studio monitors need to have to be taken seriously. But the HP-800 lacks one crucial quality for a reliable pair of studio headphones: It can't handle deep bass at high volumes without distorting. This is really a shame, because its crisp, articulate response is ideal for studio engineers seeking an accurate portrayal of their project. If the track has serious sub-bass, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," or highly resonant low-end, like Thom Yorke's "Cymbal Rush," you're going to hear some very noticeable distortion at higher volumes.
In a studio setting, this is especially an issue because you're typically listening to unmixed, un-mastered audio as you record, and deep bass is a part of many modern genres. Before it's been tamed by an engineer, it's often going to be loud in a mix. Unfortunately, one common aspect of studio monitoring, at least by musicians, is that the volume levels go up as the day gets longer, so this distortion is bound to rear its ugly head at some point.
However, at moderate levels, the HP-800 does not distort on those deep bass tracks. Its overall bass response is quite subtle?typical for a studio monitor, but if it wasn't already obvious, this is not a pair for deep bass lovers. What the HP-800 focuses on is the midrange, and the highs, offering just enough sub-bass response to fill out the range. In this sense, it is unique in today's landscape of bass-boosted headphones, like the Beats by Dr. Dre.
The focus on mids is ideal for engineers, but also sounds great on vocal-driven music. Bill Callahan's "Drover" can sound murky on some bass-heavy headphones, but on the HP-800, the treble edge on his unique baritone vocals is sharp, pushing it to the front of the mix where it belongs. Meanwhile, the thunderous drum sounds that underpin much of the verse are not overly bass-boosted, and sound natural and powerful?and not like they're the focus of the song, as they can sound if the lower bass frequencies are too intense.
On classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," the lower register strings have an almost perfect level of resonance and depth to them. Because the strings' sound signature doesn't exist too much in the sub-bass category, the HP-800 is able to reproduce them with a nice sense of body; they sound anything but anemic. The higher register strings, brass, and woodblock percussion sounds crisp, bright, and lively here, as you'd expect from a studio monitor pair. While the focus is definitely on the mids, the depth of the lower strings and larger percussion is still part of the mix. It's a very faithful, natural sound. Occasionally, things can sound a bit too focused on the hi-mids?some higher stringed instruments can sound a bit harsh at times, but this only really becomes an issue at top volumes.
The limited sub-bass presence is felt mostly on modern pop, hip-hop, and rock mixes. On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the sub-bass synth hits lack gusto, and the kick-drum loop, which is already treble-heavy, but relies on nice low-end sustain to round it out, sounds a bit too crisp, and doesn't have much bass presence to it, either. The vocals come out clearly and nicely, and the occasional muddiness that can occur on a bass-heavy headphone with a dense mix like this one is never an issue. But the bass response here feels more implied than delivered, and for modern mixes, that eliminates much of a track's energy.
If deep, booming bass is what you seek, the aforementioned Beats are an obvious place to start, but consider the more refined, yet still powerful, bass response of the Yamaha PRO 500. Hopefully, however, you're more interested in an accurate response, perhaps with more low frequency push than the HP-800 has, but nothing over the top. Sennheiser has mastered that sound signature, and although it leaks too much to be a good studio pair, the Sennheiser HD 558 is about as good as headphones can sound under $200.
If you're looking for an even more affordable studio monitor pair, the Shure SRH440 offers a solid, accurate response, and doesn't suffer distortion issues. At $149, the NuForce HP-800 delivers an accurate sound, but its distortion issues on deep bass, and its limited bass response in general, make it a less-than-versatile studio tool. Basically, if you record music that has no sub-bass content, it's a great find, and if that's not the case, the HP-800 is not nearly as valuable to you.
More Headphone Reviews:
??? NuForce HP-800
??? TDK EB950
??? Parrot Zik
??? Pioneer HDJ-2000
??? MartinLogan Mikros 70
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/fa7sWsPufBA/0,2817,2414484,00.asp
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O'Malley Hires Teddy Davis as Communications Head ? CBS DC
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images
ANNAPOLIS, Md.???Gov. Martin O?Malley has hired Teddy Davis, the former deputy political director for ABC News, as director of strategic communications for the O?Malley administration.
The Democratic governor made the announcement Friday.
Davis most recently worked as press secretary to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He also spent seven years at ABC News.
Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for O?Malley, says Davis? salary will be about $135,000 a year, but she did not have the exact figure Friday evening.
Davis is scheduled to begin working in the O?Malley administration in mid-February.
(? Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Source: http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/01/25/omalley-hires-teddy-davis-as-communications-head/
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Friday, January 25, 2013
Facebook Management Decides To Nuke ... - Business Insider
Less than a day after Twitter launched Vine, Facebook has cut off the video-sharing application?s ?find people? button, which allowed members to connect to their Facebook friends.
Twitter users trying to use the feature are greeted with an error message saying that Vine is not authorised to make the Facebook request.
Twitter and Facebook have so far made no comment on the development, the latest in a series of apparent hostilities between the microblogging site and the social networking giant.
At the end of last year Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo sharing app, disabled the feature that allowed Twitter to properly display its photos, in a sign of growing tensions between the two platforms.
This meant that Twitter users were forced to click through to the Instagram site if they wanted to see photos in their entirety.
Instagram used to work closely with Twitter but the relationship worsened after Facebook bought the app in a $1bn deal last April.
It then emerged that Twitter had earlier made a failed $525m bid to buy Instagram. Suggestions that Twitter had ?verbally agreed? a deal to buy the app only intensified hostilities with Facebook.
At the end of last year Twitter released Instagram-style photo filters for its own app.
Social networks are growing increasingly protective of their platforms as competition rises for users and for advertising revenue.
Last year, Twitter tightened its rules on what third-party applications are able to do, a move that seen as an attempt to keep users on its platform.
Facebook also proposed changes to its data-sharing rules that would allow the social network to use data collected by Instagram to "tell us information about you" and "improve the quality of ads."
The change allows Facebook, which has more than a billion registered users, to build more complete profiles of its users - and target advertisements - using people's personal data from its social network and from Instagram.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-management-decides-to-nuke-twitters-big-new-product-2013-1
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Greek economic crisis has cleared the air
EVEN the darkest cloud may have a silver lining. The sharp drop in air pollution that accompanied Greece's economic crisis could be a boon to the nation's health.
Mihalis Vrekoussis of the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia and colleagues used three satellites and a network of ground-based instruments to measure air pollution over Greece between 2007 and 2011. Levels of nitrogen dioxide fell over the whole country, with a particularly steep drop of 30 to 40 per cent over Athens. Nitrogen monoxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide also fell (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1002/grl.50118).
Pollution levels have been falling since 2002, but the rate accelerated after 2008 by a factor of 3.5, says Vrekoussis. He found that the drop in pollution correlated with a decline in oil consumption, industrial activity and the size of the economy. "This suggests that the additional reported reduction in gas pollutant levels is due to the economic recession," he says.
In Athens, a combination of heavy car use and lots of sunshine have created serious health problems, so city dwellers should see real benefits. Sunlight triggers chemical reactions that make the car exhaust pollution more harmful, for instance by forming small particulates that cause respiratory diseases. "Hospital admissions for asthma should decline," says Dwayne Heard of the University of Leeds in the UK.
It's not all good news: despite the drop in pollutants, levels of ground-level ozone - another cause of respiratory disease - have risen. Ozone would normally be suppressed by nitrogen oxides, but those have declined. That will take the edge off the benefit, says Heard.
Greece isn't the only country where air pollution has dropped. Nitrogen oxide levels fell across Europe after the 2008 financial crisis (Scientific Reports, doi.org/j74). In the US, nitrogen dioxide levels fell between 2005 and 2011, with the sharpest fall at the height of the recession (Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi.org/j75).
Such declines can be one-offs, or governments can help make them permanent, says Ronald Cohen of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the US study. "A time of crisis is a real opportunity to initiate change." After the 2008 financial downturn, for instance, the US and Europe committed to pollution cuts. "In 10 years, there will be an end to air pollution in the US and Europe," says Cohen. "It's an incredible success story."
Greece, however, is not seizing the current opportunity, says Vrekoussis. "Investments in clean technologies and low-carbon green strategies have been abandoned," he says. "I'm afraid that in the long run the negative effects will override the positives."
Global greenhouse gas emissions initially fell in the wake of the financial crisis, but not by much. Emerging economies like China and India continued their economic growth, so a small emissions drop in 2009 was followed by a huge rise in 2010 which continued in 2011.
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Numark iDJ Live II DJ controller hands-on (video)
If there's one company that comprehensively caters to the entry-level and intermediate DJ, there's a good chance it's Numark. While the firm has released a whole bunch of stuff at NAMM this year, perhaps its most mainstream offering is the iDJ Live II. If you remember the original, it was a lightweight controller (both physically, and metaphorically) designed for use with Djay on iOS. This time around the little fella gets a redesign, and a few functionality tweaks. Most notable, is that while the first iteration only gave you the option of iOS connectivity -- via the 30-pin adaptor -- this time you have the choice of Lightning, 30-pin, or straight up USB. Thus, you can now bring the iDJ Live II out to work with your Mac or PC, too. Once again, it's built with Algoriddim's Djay in mind, be it the desktop or iOS version, and we got our hands on it to take it for a spin. Head past the break for the lowdown.
First things first. This is very much a fun, consumer product. It would be unfair to call it an accessory, but it's definitely meant for casual use at parties etc. The unit itself is very light, made entirely of plastic, and feels very different to the heavier DJ controllers you might be used to. The iDJ Live II, however, does look much better than the first iteration, with the slightly squared design and the lower-profile platters at least making it look a little less toy-like than before. The plastic finish still feels the same, as does the action and resistance of the platters, knobs and faders (which is serviceable). The controls available give you everything you need to perform all the mixing basics, with high and low-frequency EQ, channel volume control, a crossfader, and even rudimentary scratching (though it really is more of a novelty). If you've ever used Djay for any amount of time though, you'll know that this is plenty enough to get a set going, and having the physical controller there just makes it all that more enjoyable / easy. While purists and old hands might see products such as these as over simplified, the ease of use, and broad appeal makes them ideal for the curious, and that can only be a good thing. Sadly there is no word on price or availability at this time, but we'd be surprised if it wasn't comfortably under $100 when it does finally make its way onto shelves. Check the video below for the hardware tour.
Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/24/numark-idj-live-ii-dj-controller-hands-on/
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Mobile Learning the Next Big Thing in Education Technology ...
Over one billion people around the world now carry in their pocket a powerful and completely mobile computer. This could present a tremendous opportunity for educators and innovators, especially those who are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone and think outside the box.
Smartphones today are more capable than the most powerful consumer desktop less than a decade ago. They are powerful tools, and Brandon Hall writes at Chief Learning Officer that those interested in making a splash in education need to realize this and take steps to utilize the power of mobile technology right now.
Based on the data, Hall argues that it?s impossible to deny that mobile is the future of computing in this world in general ? and education in particular. Delaying action and not putting in the time and resources to developing education tools for the mobile platform means risking being left behind to peck at the crumbs dropped by true innovators.
If you are hesitating now with mobile, in wait-and-see mode or too busy with today?s demands, then it is time to take deliberate action and get started. Assign your team to research the tools and find examples. Study what works, brainstorm uses and run a demo. Once you live with the possibilities for a while, you will see the significant business opportunity to develop your strategy and become a hero.
A number of companies have already taken the plunge and are internalizing the idea that mobile will not be about learning per-se, but about about delivering personalized and instantaneous support to educators and students alike. To see how far the pioneers have already taken the idea and how effectively they have put mobile technology to use, it?s best to look at examples outside of the education technology sector.
Sonic ? of the roller-skating waitresses and ubiquitous commercials ? recently deployed a mobile learning app for their store managers. Sonic restaurants rotate their menu on a monthly basis, which means crew members undergo training continuously. While most of the training is done on PCs, for on-the-spot solutions to problems that creep up here and there, the mobile app is invaluable. It allows managers to look up information specific to a problem, review steps with crew members and even look at videos right then and there.
Lowe?s:?The most common question in a hardware store is ?Where can I find ??? Lowe?s is providing retail associates with iPhones at 1,700 stores for instant access to location information, product details and communications to better serve customers. Those customers can create a MyLowe?s account at home, add improvement plans, make shopping lists and keep track of last year?s paint color. In the store, Wi-Fi allows customers to access it on their mobile.
From school and classroom management to individualized student learning, the potential for mobile technology in education appears to be promising.
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North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.
North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un, who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition, with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.
"We hope the relevant party can remain calm and act and speak in a cautious and prudent way and not take any steps which may further worsen the situation," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.
North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are the six parties involved.
"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.
"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.
U.S. URGES NO TEST
Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.
"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.
North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons
North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.
According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
North Korea has not yet mastered the technology needed to make a nuclear warhead small enough for an intercontinental missile, most observers say, and needs to develop the capacity to shield any warhead from re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.
North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.
The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father, Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.
The older Kim died in December 2011.
"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.
(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ron Popeski)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-plans-nuclear-test-more-rockets-defense-032500203.html
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
California Employer Question On Experience Modification Factor ...
A California employer emailed in this question last weekend. ?"We are a medium-sized employer (dry cleaner) in central California. ? Our Experience Modification Factor increased significantly over the last few years. ?The increase seems to have resulted in our Workers Comp premiums rising ?significantly. ? What is in included in the Experience Mod calculation? ?Is this the same as the Mod that is produced by NCCI?"?
The Experience Modification Factor in California is called an Xmod or X-Mod. ?It has the same basic function as NCCI's Emod. ? E-Mods and XMods individualize the riskiness of an employer's work environment as compared to other employer with the same job types or functions. ? ?
The XMod is produced by California's Workers Compensation Independent Rating Bureau (WCIRB) and only applies to employers in CA. ?The calculation of the XMod differs from NCCI's E-mod calculations. ?
a comparison of ?the loss or claims history of one company to all other companies in the same industry that are similar in size. Generally, an experience modification of less than 100% reflects better-than-average experience, while an experience modification of more than 100% reflects worse-than-average experience. Accordingly, an experience modification that is greater than 100% usually increases the cost of your workers' compensation insurance premiums, while an experience modification that is less than 100% usually decreases the cost of your workers' compensation insurance premiums.
The XMod is calculated by comparing the actual losses to the expected losses. Actual losses are the claims, both medical and indemnity, that an insurance company must pay as a result of a work-related injury. Expected losses represent a business's share of the annualized cost of projected losses for the industry in which it operates. In other words, given its classifications and payroll, expected losses represent the statistical average losses that a business of a similar size is expected to incur. Given two businesses within the same industry, the larger the business, in terms of payroll, the more losses that business is expected to sustain.
If you were to read the NCCI's definition of an E-Mod, you would see almost the same definition. ?The one main area of difference is what is called the Primary Loss. ?In the NCCI states, before 2013, the primary part of the loss was set at $5,000. ?The WCIRB has set their primary loss at $7,000. ?
The primary portion of the loss is more heavily weighted into the NCCI's or WCIRB's formula. ? ?In essence, your company will pay premium at a much higher rate ?for the first $7,000 part of a claim than the part of the claim that exceeds $7,000 known as the Excess Loss. ??
If you want to see why it costs more, you should check Primary vs. Excess Loss. ?The X-Mod formula is not included in this post due to readability and fit on the page. ??
?There are other factors such as class code rates and payroll that may also have compounded your premium increase.?
Source: http://blogs.cutcompcosts.com/2013/01/california-employer-question-on.html
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Aspirin Use Tied to Vision Loss
Regular aspirin use is linked to an increased risk of vision loss with age, a new study found.
The study of nearly 2,400 Australian men and women found those who routinely took aspirin were more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration. The results were published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
However, "the evidence is insufficient to adjudicate the relationship between aspirin and [age-related macular degeneration], thereby challenging causal inferences," Dr. Sanjay Kaul and Dr. George Diamond of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles wrote in an editorial accompnying the study.
Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.
The study is not the first to suggest a possible link between neovascular age-related macular degeneration and routine aspirin use, but other studies have yielded conflicting findings.
To examine the potential link, Jie Jin Wang of the University of Sydney and colleagues analyzed data from the Blue Mountains Eye Study, which included 2,389 Australians ages 49 and older.
Retinal examinations were done every five years, and lesions classified as neovascular, or wet macular degeneration, or geographic atrophy, also known as dry macular degeneration.
Aspirin use was reported on a structured questionnaire, and information on relevant risk factors was obtained during physical examination and history reports.
A total of 257 participants were regular aspirin users. Compared with nonusers, they were older and more often had conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or elevated blood pressure.
During 15 years of follow-up, age-related wet macular degeneration was identified in 63 individuals.
Among regular users, the cumulative incidence was 1.9 percent, 7 percent and 9.3 percent at years 5, 10, and 15, while the incidence among nonusers was 0.8 percent, 1.6 percent, and 3.7 percent, respectively.
The incidence of neovascular macular degeneration rose with more frequent aspirin use, increasing from 2.2 percent in those who never took aspirin, to 2.9 percent for those who used it only occasionally, and 5.8 percent for those who took aspirin routinely.
Aspirin use was not associated with risk for dry macular degeneration.
Additional analyses found that the risk was four times higher in patients with a history of cardiovascular disease and in those without a gene variation linked with macular degeneration.
The researchers also considered whether other medications often taken by aspirin users, such as acetaminophen and beta-blockers, might influence risk, and the results were negative.
These results create a quandary for the many patients using aspirin, particularly those taking the drug as secondary prevention of CVD, according to Wang's group.
"Aspirin is one of the most effective CVD treatments and reduces recurrent CVD events by one-fifth," they wrote.
However, significant adverse events can occur, such as cerebral and gastrointestinal bleeding.
"Our present study now raises the possibility that the risk of neovascular [age-related macular degeneration] may also need to be considered," they wrote.
Nonetheless, they conceded that the risk is small, at slightly under 4 percent over 15 years, and the evidence is thus far insufficient to support a change in practice away from widespread aspirin use, except for patients at very high risk for macular degeneration.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/EyeHealth/aspirin-tied-vision-loss-age/story?id=18277655
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