Magic Johnson: 21 Years With HIV

Twenty-one years after announcing his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers because of HIV, Earvin “Magic” Johnson is a symbol of hope for more than a million Americans living with the once-deadly virus.

The basketball star’s Nov. 7, 1991, revelation shocked the nation at a time when many people thought HIV was an infection for “other people,” like gay men.

“Here I am saying that it can happen to anybody, even me, Magic Johnson,” he said at a packed news conference at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. “I just want to say that I’m going to miss playing, and I will now become a spokesman for the HIV virus.”

Now 53, Johnson has kept his promise through a foundation in his name that funds HIV education and prevention programs in some of the country’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

“There is not a better feeling than to touch somebody’s life, than to impact it,” he said in a statement to ABC News last week. “Not a better feeling in the world.”

Johnson was diagnosed with HIV after having medical tests for a life insurance policy. He said he acquired the virus through unprotected sex with multiple women, and hoped to encourage other people to be more careful.

“That’s what I want to preach,” he said after his diagnosis. “I want them to understand that safe sex is the way to go.”

Johnson’s wife, Cookie, and their son are HIV-negative.

Johnson’s announcement, which came at the peak of his NBA fame, coincided with a dramatic drop in HIV infections nationwide, from more than 80,000 new cases per year to about 50,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the infection rate has since leveled off, a trend some attribute to complacence.

“Some people feel that because [Johnson] has lived on, they can have certain behaviors and live on, too,” said Amelia Williamson, president of the Beverly Hills-based Magic Johnson Foundation. “But his message is, ‘Follow my lead. Don’t make same mistakes I made.’”

Indeed, HIV treatments, the product of years of research, can help people with HIV live long lives without developing AIDS. But the drugs come at a cost.

“HIV is not a death sentence, but it’s a life sentence,” said Hydeia Broadbent, 28, who was born HIV-positive to an intravenous drug user. “You’ll be taking pills forever, going to the doctor and fighting for insurance forever.”

Broadbent met Johnson at a televised AIDS awareness event when she was 7 years old. When he asked what she wanted people to know about HIV, she replied through tiny sobs, “I want people to know that we’re just normal people.”

Now an HIV and AIDS activist herself, Broadbent recognizes the impact of Johnson’s bold admission and his mission to raise awareness.

“There aren’t really any other celebrities that have come forward and spoken out about having HIV,” she said. “And he’s a prime example of how this can happen to anyone. HIV doesn’t discriminate based on how much money you have and whether you’re straight or gay. It can happen if you’re not safe.”

After she was diagnosed with HIV at age 3, Broadbent’s adoptive parents enrolled her in clinical trials for experimental HIV drugs, a move she said saved her life.

“They basically signed me up to be a human guinea pig,” she said, adding that many of her friends died from AIDS in the 1990s. “By the grace of God, I’m still here.”

Despite advances in HIV testing and treatments, AIDS still kills nearly 18,000 Americans each year, according to the CDC. Part of the problem is that one in five people living with HIV is unaware, according to the Magic Johnson Foundation.

That’s why Nov. 7 is “Point Forward Day,” an awareness event named after Johnson’s role as both point guard and forward with the L.A. Lakers created to educate people about HIV and encourage them to get tested so they can get treated.

“It’s about finding out early, but it’s also about education, because there are still so many myths out there,” the foundation’s Williamson said. “HIV doesn’t have to happen to you when you make the right decisions and practice safe sex.”

Also Read
Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Wall Street ticks lower ahead of presidential vote

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks slipped in low volume on Monday as traders awaited Tuesday’s U.S. election to place bets on sectors seen performing better under one or the other political party.

Democratic President Barack Obama and his challenger, Republican Mitt Romney, sprinted through key states on the last day of the race for the White House. Investors also eyed congressional races to gauge how the United States will deal with the $ 600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes that could kick in next year and send the economy reeling.

“People are pausing ahead of the election and what that means for the fiscal cliff,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis.

Leading world economies pressed the United States on Sunday to act decisively to avert the fiscal cliff, calling it the biggest short-term threat to global growth.

The market’s reaction to data showing the pace of growth in the U.S. services sector slowed modestly in October was muted. Data from the Institute for Supply Management showed new orders slipped, but employment improved.

Paulsen said economic data could soon start to show the impact of superstorm Sandy on the economy after battering the U.S. northeast.

A week after Sandy wreaked havoc on New York City and the surrounding area, close to 2 million people still have no power as cold weather sets in. On Sunday 30,000 to 40,000 people in New York City were in need of shelter.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 47 points, or 0.36 percent, to 13,046.16. The S&P 500 <.SPX> dropped 5.43 points, or 0.38 percent, at 1,408.77. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was down 2.82 points, or 0.09 percent, at 2,979.31.

Transocean Ltd reported a higher-than-expected adjusted profit for the third quarter and its shares were up 5.4 percent at $ 48.55.

Stifel Financial Corp shares gained 1.9 percent to $ 32.50. KBW Inc climbed 7.3 percent to $ 17.49 after Stifel said it would buy the smaller rival in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $ 575 million to form an investment bank focused on the financial services industry.

A private survey of China’s growing services sector slipped in October, with weaker-than-expected new orders injecting a note of caution after three previous PMI surveys for October showed the world’s second-largest economy regaining momentum.

Greece’s government will present a new austerity package to parliament on Monday, facing a week of strikes and protests over proposals which must win deputies’ approval if the country is to secure more aid and stave off bankruptcy.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Brazil’s ‘pop-star priest’ gets mammoth new stage

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil‘s “pop-star priest” is already packing in the crowds at the newly opened mammoth sanctuary that he built for his campaign to stem the exodus of faithful from the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America’s biggest nation.

Brazil still has more Catholics than any other country in the world, with about 65 percent of its 192 million people identifying themselves that way in the 2010 census. But that is down from 74 percent in 2000 and is the lowest since records began tracking religion 140 years ago.

That’s where Father Marcelo Rossi‘s Mother of God sanctuary comes in. The not-yet-finished structure will seat 6,000 people and have standing room for 14,000 more, church leaders say. In addition, the grounds outside can hold 80,000 people who could watch Mass on outdoor video screens.

After the inaugural Mass on Friday attracted upward of 50,000 people, a beaming Rossi told reporters: “They couldn’t all fit in. There was a crowd that had to stand outside! That’s a sign we’re on the right path, and it’s this sanctuary.”

Similar numbers jammed into the huge church Saturday.

It’s a fitting stage for Rossi, a Latin Grammy-nominated singer who is known for tossing buckets of holy water on worshippers and performing rollicking Christian songs backed by a blasting live band during Mass.

The church sits on 323,000 square feet (30,000 square meters) of land. Church officials declined to confirm how big the actual building is, though local reports put it at 91,500 square feet (8,500 square meters). That would make it one of the world’s 10 biggest churches. A cross soaring 138 feet (42 meters) into the air is the focal point.

The Mother of God sanctuary is anything but traditional. Designed by noted Brazilian architect Ruy Ohtake, it has a wide-open layout giving it the feel of a warehouse. Concrete walls hold up a sloping blue roof that from the outside looks more like a basketball arena than a house of worship. With the church several years away from completion, white plastic chairs were in the place of pews for a lucky few thousand to grab a seat. The rest had to stand.

Rossi dismisses the idea his huge church is a response to the explosion of the evangelical Christian faith in Brazil. Rather, the priest seems to be battling what recent studies indicate is Catholicism’s biggest enemy: indifference.

While millions of Brazilian Catholics joined Pentecostal congregations in the 1990s, a study conducted last year by Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation based on census data found that the Catholics leaving the church these days are mostly becoming nonreligious. Experts have said the trend of Brazilians deciding organized religion isn’t for them poses a more potent threat to Catholic leaders than losses to the Pentecostals.

Rossi chose to open his new church on the Brazilian holiday of Finados, the nation’s version of the Day of the Dead. “A day, a day that was dead, was transformed!” the priest told worshippers during the service, using his gold-plated microphone.

The “pop-star priest” is seen by Brazilian Catholicism as its biggest weapon against the lack of interest, and his new sanctuary adds to his tools of best-selling books and music recordings to keep worshippers interested in what many complain has become a staid institution.

There was nothing stale about his Mass on Friday.

Singing as loud as they could, waving white hankies and swaying with a rocking band, the 20,000 people who jammed into the Mother of God sanctuary hammed it up for TV cameras and shed tears down their cheeks as their superstar priest waved to them from the pulpit. An estimated 30,000 other people had gathered outside, where young boys climbed up into nearby trees trying to get a glimpse of the church grounds as they squinted over a sea of heads streaming out of the sanctuary.

“We have problems, everyone has problems,” worshipper Zuleima de Oliveira Sales said as she stood in the tightly packed sea of people under the soaring blue roof of the structure, her voice choking. “They don’t come to an end, but I have faith, I have faith in Our Lady.”

That’s the sort of belief the Catholic Church is counting on in Brazil and other developing nations. Leaders from the Vatican on down are looking to them as bulwarks against losses in Europe and the U.S., where sex abuse scandals have inspired many people to leave the church. About half of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America.

Pentecostalism was once seen as a major threat to Brazil’s Catholic Church. Pentecostal churches, many of them founded by U.S. evangelicals, saw their membership double to more than 12 percent of the country’s population over the 1990s, with about half of the congregants estimated to be former Catholics.

During the 1990s, Brazil’s economy suffered from hyperinflation and other woes, and Pentecostal churches aggressively recruited in the slums and poor outskirts of Brazil’s cities by offering nuts-and-bolts self-improvement advice as well as Christian ministry.

Since 2003, however, Pentecostal churches have seen growth slow. The percentage of Brazilians calling themselves Pentecostals edged up from 12.5 percent of the population to 13.3 percent.

Yet the Catholic Church has continued to lose parishioners, and church leaders have had little success so far in halting that trend.

Brazil was the first nation outside Europe that Pope Benedict XVI visited, during a five-day tour in 2007 largely aimed at stopping losses in Latin America. During the trip, the pope canonized Brazil’s first native-born saint.

Then Benedict announced last August during the church’s World Youth Day, which drew 1.5 million people to Spain, that the next version of the gathering would be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. The pope is expected to attend.

For now, Rossi hopes his big church will bring together tens of thousands of faithful for every Mass, giving new energy to the Catholic faith.

“People want big spaces. They want grand places for prayer,” he told the Globo TV network. “One candle illuminates, 10 candles illuminate — and 100,000 candles light up so much more.”

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Tweet tastefully, dress like 007 with UK style guides

LONDON (Reuters) – Should you keep your mobile phone on display at lunch? Can you tweet with taste and how does James Bond maintain that polished look in those dashing dinner jackets?

Two new guides from British etiquette authority Debrett‘s offer modern men some time-honored tips on shoe care and shaving alongside 21st century advice on how to handle your mobile phone, email punctuation and an answer for any modern digital Hamlet: “To tweet or not to tweet?”

The sartorial bible “Men’s Style” includes advice on formal wear and tailoring traditions as well as how to mix and match casual clothing, picking the right aftershave and “essential” advice on maintaining luxuriant beards and moustaches.

“Netiquette” helps navigate the dos and don’ts of the digital age with useful suggestions on mobile phone use, golden rules for emails and texting faux pas. It demystifies technical terminology, offers ways to protect your privacy and advice on getting your Twitter persona just right.

“Men’s Style is packed with subtle advice and practical hints to help the modern man to appear effortlessly stylish, while at a time when web-based communication is threatening to take over all our lives, Netiquette is an indispensable guide on how to deal with every digital dilemma,” Debrett’s Managing Editor Jo Bryant said in a statement.

Both guides are part of a series of titles, which include “Debrett’s People of Today”, listing people of distinction and achievement, “A Guide to Civilized Separation” and “Debrett’s A-Z of Modern Manners”.

Besides its modern-day etiquette and grooming guides, Debrett’s has been the indispensible record of the British aristocracy for centuries, tracking the fortunes of titled families since the late 18th century.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato)

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Sanofi considered moving headquarters abroad: report

PARIS (Reuters) – Sanofi‘s management considered moving its headquarters abroad in the last few months but the plan was nixed by the drugmaker’s chairman, French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche reported on Sunday, citing sources close to the board.

First mooted in July, when the Socialist government was preparing to introduce a 75 percent tax on top earnings, the plan envisaged moving the headquarters to London or the United States, or at least relocating Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher and his closest associates abroad.

However, Chairman Serge Weinberg vetoed the project, the newspaper said, saying that Viehbacher had not raised the issue with him.

A Sanofi spokesman denied such plans were discussed and said the company’s recent move to new corporate headquarters in Paris showed its commitment to its base in the city.

Several of the company’s top executives are foreign and spend most of their time travelling abroad.

In addition to German-Canadian Viehbacher, they include Elias Zerhouni, an Algerian-born American in charge of research and development, and Hanspeter Spek, the German-born president of global operations.

Italian Roberto Pucci, senior vice president of human resources, and Karen Linehan, Sanofi’s American-born general counsel, are also part of the executive committee.

Sanofi, which is reshuffling its French research operations at a cost of around 900 jobs, would not be the first French firm to consider moving top executives overseas.

French industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric has kept its headquarters near Paris, but its top managers, including Chief Executive Jean-Pascal Tricoire, relocated to Hong Kong last year in a move to be closer to fast-growing markets in Asia.

Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who has opposed the reorganization of Sanofi’s research activities in France, was cited by the newspaper as saying he hoped the plan was just a rumor.

(Reporting by Elena Berton; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

How Romney Can Win Pennsylvania

If public polls of battleground states are accurate, Mitt Romney doesn’t have a viable path to the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the White House. To expand the map, he’s making a late push for Pennsylvania with a campaign stop on Sunday. Why Pennsylvania? It’s a Midwestern state. He hasn’t been pummeled by ads there. And Pennsylvania’s 2o electoral votes would make up for Ohio’s 18 that Romney needs but appears on track to lose. But there’s a reason he didn’t try earlier: Obama won it 54-44 in 2008.

Still, Republicans can and do thrive there. Romney’s runner-up for the GOP nomination, Rick Santorum, was a two-term Pennsylvania senator, and the governor, Tom Corbett, is also a Republican. To find out how Romney could win, I called John Brabender, strategist for both men.

For Romney to win, Brabender said, four things would have to fall into place. First, turnout in the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia would need to disappoint. That’s not inconceivable. “Anecdotally, there doesn’t seem to be the same enthusiasm that there was four years ago,” he said. “I’ve talked to a number of Democrats on the ground in Philadelphia and think the assumption is that no one thought it would be in play, so they never did the ground work you need to do.” But neither did Republicans.

Second, Romney would need to perform well in the collar counties of Philadelphia, which have a large number of pro-choice, moderate women who will support the right kind of Republican. This is one of the state’s two distinct blocs of swing voters. “Romney needs to pick up a decent share of those votes,” says Brabender, “and to do that, he’ll have to be seen as more moderate than some previous Republican candidates, such as President Bush.”

Third, Romney would need to win the other swing bloc, conservative male Democrats concentrated in the Western part of the state around Pittsburgh, Johnstown, and Erie. Once known as “Reagan Democrats,” they’re older, blue-collar, and socially conservative. “They’re the type of people who cling to their guns and religion, as Obama put it, and wear that as a badge of honor, not as a criticism,” Brabender says. Culturally speaking, Romney isn’t their ideal candidate. “That’s where the battle is raging over the ’47 percent’ tape. If you think of the election like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ Obama’s trying to make Romney into Mr. Potter and Romney’s trying to present himself as George Bailey. [Winning this bloc] could hinge on which character they decide Romney really is.”

Fourth, Romney needs to win (probably overwhelmingly) the 12 percent of voters that Brabender says are true independents and generally vote against the party in power.

One advantage Romney has in Pennsylvania is that it has one of oldest populations in the country. Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) often competes with counties in Florida for that honor. Romney performs best with elderly voters — and could perform even better here. “Normally, the Democrats would have run a month’s worth of television saying Republicans were coming to destroy Medicare and Social Security,” Brabender says. “But because Pennsylvania hasn’t been targeted, that air war hasn’t happened. So I don’t think you’ll see as much of a dent in the Republican’s armor from seniors.”

To understand what kind of Republicans do and don’t win in Pennsylvania, Brabender pointed to 2000. Rick Santorum was reelected by six points, while George W. Bush lost by six points. Santorum won 25 percent of Democrats — mainly the Western Democrats Bush couldn’t carry. In 2006, Santorum won only 8 percent of Democrats, and lost his bid for re-election.

Based on public and private polling data, Brabender believes that Pennsylvania is “a 3- or 4-point race.” (A Public Policy Polling survey released Saturday night had Obama up 52-46.) There is a path to victory, he says, but it’s a difficult one. “All those things have to come true for Romney to win,” he says. Even if they do, Republican presidential candidates have a history of disappointment. “Pennsylvania often looks better than it is,” he says, “and then, at the end, it changes.”

Businessweek.com — Top News

Read More..

Syria army quits base on strategic Aleppo road

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army abandoned its last base near the northern town of Saraqeb after a fierce assault by rebels, further isolating the strategically important second city Aleppo from the capital.

But in a political setback to forces battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations said the rebels appeared to have committed a war crime after seizing the base.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday government troops had retreated from a post northwest of Saraqeb, leaving the town and surrounding areas “completely outside the control of regime forces”.

It was not immediately possible to verify the reported army withdrawal. Authorities restrict journalists’ access in Syria and state media made no reference to Saraqeb.

The pullout followed coordinated rebel attacks on Thursday against three military posts around Saraqeb, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Aleppo, in which 28 soldiers were killed.

Several were shown in video footage being shot after they had surrendered.

“The allegations are that these were soldiers who were no longer combatants. And therefore, at this point it looks very likely that this is a war crime, another one,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva.

“Unfortunately this could be just the latest in a string of documented summary executions by opposition factions as well as by government forces and groups affiliated with them, such as the shabbiha (pro-government militia),” he said.

Video footage of the killings showed rebels berating the captured men, calling them “Assad’s dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.

Rights groups and the United Nations say rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have committed war crimes during the 19-month-old conflict. It began with protests against Assad and has spiraled into a civil war which has killed 32,000 people and threatens to drag in regional powers.

The mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are supported by Sunni states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and neighboring Turkey. Shi’ite Iran remains the strongest regional supporter of Assad, who is from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

STRATEGIC BLOW

Saraqeb lies at the meeting point of Syria’s main north-south highway, linking Aleppo with Damascus, and another road connecting Aleppo to the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

With areas of rural Aleppo and border crossings to Turkey already under rebel control, the loss of Saraqeb would leave Aleppo city further cut off from Assad’s Damascus powerbase.

Any convoys using the highways from Damascus or the Mediterranean city of Latakia would be vulnerable to rebel attack. This would force the army to use smaller rural roads or send supplies on a dangerous route from Al-Raqqa in the east, according to the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdelrahman.

In response to the rebels’ territorial gains, Assad has stepped up air strikes against opposition strongholds, launching some of the heaviest raids so far against working class suburbs east of Damascus over the last week.

The bloodshed has continued unabated despite an attempted ceasefire, proposed by join U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to mark last month’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

In the latest in a string of fruitless international initiatives, China called on Thursday for a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body – an idea which opposition leaders hope to flesh out at a meeting in Qatar next week.

Veteran opposition leader Riad Seif has proposed a structure bringing together the rebel Free Syrian Army, regional military councils and other rebel forces alongside local civilian bodies and prominent opposition figures.

His plan, called the Syrian National Initiative, calls for four bodies to be established: the Initiative Body, including political groups, local councils, national figures and rebel forces; a Supreme Military Council; a Judicial Committee and a transitional government made up of technocrats.

The initiative has the support of Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Wednesday for an overhaul of the opposition, saying it was time to move beyond the troubled Syrian National Council.

The SNC has failed to win recognition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and Clinton said it was time to bring in “those on the front lines fighting and dying”.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Jon Boyle)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: On New York, Facebook and the Superstorm

TakePart is happier than ever to present “Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint,” a weekly column of social justice insight, provocation and solution. Look for Anna’s Sprint every week on the homepage of TakePart.

---

By the time the number of years you’ve lived in New York could make up (or surpass) the age of a toddler, you’re well acquainted with the fizzy aperitif of panic and preparation before a projected natural disaster. Having seen multiple false alarms, you’re also duly skeptical that anything is actually going to happen just because some weatherman Tweeted about it.

Nevertheless, you make it to the store at the last minute and buy some water and crackers and a flashlight and cat food. Or—as I spent last year’s overhyped Hurricane Irene—you go to a friend’s house in Chelsea and watch all of Twin Peaks and sleep far away from the windows.

Obviously, in the case of Monday night, the event was actually of severe magnitude—85 dead and rising, millions still without power, possibly $ 50 billion in financial losses (figure is still in estimates)—and the Tri-State Area will undoubtedly be dealing with the consequences for months. In short, I thought it was going to be like this, but it was like this.

MORE: Hurricane Sandy Recovery: How to Help

However, along with the damage incurred by the storm comes a camaraderie you don’t usually see around these parts. And, because we live in the future, it’s primarily communicated via social media.

Photos of good Samaritans placing power strips outside their houses for strangers to charge their phones are making the rounds, and people with power are inviting their Facebook friends over for food and Wi-Fi.

“We are ok” was the most-shared term on Facebook as of 10 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday morning. Others in the Top 10 included “power” (lost power, have power), “made it” and “safe.”

Photos of good Samaritans placing power strips outside their houses for strangers to charge their phones are making the rounds, and people with power are inviting their Facebook friends over for food and Wi-Fi.

At the grocery store Monday afternoon, a woman and I nervously chatted in the endless checkout line about unperishable almond milk for her baby—just in case. I held her place in line as she went to grab it and asked if she could get me two Greek yogurts. This may not seem terribly significant anywhere but New York, where talking to strangers sans inebriation is tantamount to immediate exile from the borough.

(Of course, one can’t help but wonder what the sociological response would have been if—God forbid—it had been even worse. Just think of every major disaster anecdote or film you know: There’s the looting scene, someone smashing a TV set into the window of a store, and people being trampled to death in a rush, which has happened in far less dire conditions than these. Fortunately, there’s no need to think too hard about it this time.)

As for those in Sandy’s path fortunate enough not to incur any major individual loss, we’re basically just left with a whole lot of rebuilding and an abiding sense of plain weirdness: The rumors of alligators swimming in the streets of a decimated Atlantic City, for one thing. This shirtless dude jogging through the storm with a horse mask on. This new temporary subway map, reminding us that even the steadfast MTA system is mortal. And so on.

Nevertheless, we persevere; at least, as much as we can without leaving our borough.

And if anyone wants to come over, I have power and crackers.

Do you have power and crackers, or anything comparable, to share? Leave it in COMMENTS.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: Is Wonder Woman Necessary?

• (VIDEO) Strength in Disaster: Courageous Young Vets Rebuild Alabama Town Devastated by the Storms

• Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: The Oxymoronic Rise of Anti-Rape Zealotry

---

Anna Breslaw is a regular contributor to Jezebel, New York magazine’s Vulture and Glamour, and her writing has been featured elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn. Email Anna | Anna’s Tumblr

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

AP PHOTOS: Stars come out for Sandy victims’ show

NEW YORK (AP) — For the victims of Superstorm Sandy, it was a sorely needed message delivered.

From “Livin’ on a Prayer” to “The Living Proof,” every song Friday at NBC’s benefit concert became a message song.

New Jersey‘s Jon Bon Jovi gave extra meaning to “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Billy Joel worked in a reference to Staten Island, the decimated New York City borough.

The hourlong event, hosted by Matt Lauer, was heavy on stars and lyrics identified with New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area, which took the brunt of this week’s deadly storm. The telethon was a mix of music, storm footage and calls for donations from Jon Stewart, Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg and others.

The show ended, as it only could, with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, tearing into “Land Of Hope and Dreams.”

“God bless New York,” Springsteen, New Jersey‘s ageless native son, said in conclusion. “God bless the Jersey shore.”

Here, in pictures, are some of the performers on this somber but hopeful night:

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

How Computational Models Are Improving Medicine [Video]

Click here to view the video

High-resolution electromechanical model of a heart; courtesy of N. Trayanova

The more we learn about cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, the more vexingly complex they seem–and the more elusive their cures. Even with cutting-edge imaging technology, biomarker tests and genetic data, we are still far from understanding the multifaceted causes and varied developmental stages of these illnesses. With the advent of powerful computing, better modeling programs and a flood of raw biomedical data, researchers have been anticipating a leap forward in their abilities to decipher the intricate dynamics involved human disease. Now, these computational capabilities are starting to arrive, according to a new analysis published online this week in Science Translational Medicine. In fact, “the field has exploded,” Raymond Winslow, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and co-author of the review, said in a prepared statement. Medicine and medical research largely have been focused on small specialties and narrow studies. But the body is a whole system–not isolated organ groups–and it is in constant interaction with the wider environment, including pollutants, toxins and other stressors. The resulting interactions do not only work in a single direction; instead, we have learned that there are feed-forward and feedback loops and crosstalk on cellular, molecular and genetic levels. This nexus is where advances in computational medicine are poised to make a large contribution. “Computational medicine can help you see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together to give a more holistic picture,” Winslow said. “We may never have all of the missing pieces, but will wind up with a much clearer view of what causes disease and how to treat it.” Models comparing gene expression in different patients have already successfully helped to determine different grades of prostate cancer, predict how different patients will respond to breast cancer treatment and find different types of stomach cancer. Scientists are also taking advantage of more advanced anatomical data to model whole organs and their function–and dysfunction. Using, for example, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, researchers can collect detailed information about heart anatomy, fiber and structure. This macro structure can be combined with more cellular-based models for “unprecedented structural and biophysical detail, including cardiac electromechanics,” the researchers noted in their paper. With this information, scientists are learning more about blood-flow dynamics, arrhythmia and heart attacks. These new models are now starting to be translated back to individual patients, to help find better treatments. Computational-medicine algorithms from detailed brain maps have already been used to develop an iPad app that is being used clinically to help doctors decide on deep brain stimulation locations and strengths. These models, however, also need to be checked frequently against real-world data and adjusted accordingly. But researchers who are armed to deal with this once unusual cross-discipline endeavor are growing more common. “There is a whole new community of people being trained in mathematics, computer science and engineering, and they are being cross-trained in biology,” Winslow said. “This allows them to bring a whole new perspective to medical diagnosis and treatment.” The myriad applications for computational medicine approaches are only beginning to be explored, the researchers noted. “As we gain confidence in the ability of computational models to predict human biological processes, they will help guide us through the complex landscape of disease, ultimately leading to more effective and reliable methods for disease diagnosis, risk stratification and therapy,” the researchers wrote. “We are poised at an exciting moment in medicine.”

Video of electromechanical heart model courtesy of N. Trayanova

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..