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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Senegal music star Ndour makes bid for presidency

In a Feb. 18, 2009 photo Senegalese singer and composer Youssou N'Dour performs during the "Festival di Sanremo" Italian song contest, in San Remo, Italy. Ndour announced Monday Jan. 2, 2011 that he plans to run in Senegal's presidential election next month. (AP Photo/Alberto Pellaschiar)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? World music icon Youssou Ndour says he plans to run in Senegal's presidential election next month, challenging an 85-year-old incumbent whose plans to seek a third term have sparked violent protests.

Ndour, who made the announcement late Monday on his private radio and TV stations, joins some 20 other candidates already running against President Abdoulaye Wade.

While the Grammy-winning artist sells out concert venues worldwide and is the West African country's most famous cultural export, his prospects with Senegalese voters remain unclear.

The election less than two months away, and the incumbent president has been in power for more than a decade.

"For a very long time, many Senegalese of different backgrounds have called for my candidacy for the presidency next February," Ndour said. "I've listened, I've heard and I am responding favorably to their request. I am a candidate. It's a supreme patriotic duty, the best I can give of myself. I am the alternative to the current leadership in place in the country."

Ndour, 52, is well known in Senegal for his scathing critique of the country's ruling party. He already owns a hugely popular private radio station that holds regular debates featuring government critics.

And he has a newspaper that routinely highlights corruption allegations involving the country's ruling elite, including the president's family.

Wade's plans to run, as well as frequent power cuts and the spiraling cost of living, sparked violent protests last year in what has historically been one of West Africa's most stable democracies.

Once a symbol of the opposition, Wade became president in a landmark election hailed for being one of the first peaceful transfers of power on the continent.

He set off a wave of criticism though when he announced he planned to run for a third term, using a loophole in the electoral law to circumvent the two-term maximum set out in the constitution.

And massive street protests hit Senegal's capital last year following a proposed constitutional change that would have paved the way for Wade's son to succeed him. Wade later agreed to cancel it, but the unrest marked the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule.

Online:

http://www.youssou.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-03-AF-Senegal-Election-Ndour/id-98b4c935dad54d62a57f679a9f2d19b0

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2nd Test: Australia go past India's first innings score

Australian captain Michael Clarke acknowledges onlookers after reaching 50 runs on Day two of the second Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground. (AFP Photo)

NEW DELHI: Michael Clarke slammed his 18th Test century to take Australia into commanding position at lunch on the second day of the second Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Scorecard

Australia took a vital 45 runs lead with seven wicket remaining as skipper Clarke (103*) and Ricky Ponting (97*) were unbeaten.

India bowlers toiled hard in the first session as they conceded 120 runs in 27 overs without taking a single wicket.

The pair also stitched unbeaten 199 runs stand to defy Indian bowling and put Australia into commanding position. Both batsmen completed their half-centuries early on the second day to put Australia on top against the visitors.

Ponting continued his good run as he scored yet another fifty which brought up in style with a classy square cut played slightly on the front foot to the boundary. Ponting also became the third player in Test history to get 100th score in excess of 50.

Former skipper 61st Test fifty and 12th against India came in 74 balls that included six boundaries. This was his 6th half-century in a row against India.

Clarke raced to his fifty on the second delivery of the day when he flicked it through mid-wicket to complete his 22nd Test half century and 6th against India. Clarke completed his quick-fire fifty in just 60 balls with the help of seven boundaries.

Australia ended the first day well on top at 116/3 after restricting India for paltry 191, resumed their first innings on Day 2 of the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Zaheer Khan started with a bang as he gave two quick blows before the Australian total reached double-digits, followed by one more in the 30s, raised Indian hopes, but the home team recovered well through a fine unbeaten partnership of 79 runs between Ricky Ponting and Clarke to end the first day at 116/3.

MS Dhoni's decision to bat first after winning the toss backfired badly as India's famed batting line-up came a cropper yet again against a disciplined Australian pace attack.

Young James Pattinson ripped the heart out of India's line-up, claiming four of the top-five batsmen while Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus claimed three wickets each.

Dhoni (57*) was the highest scorer of the Indian innings which also was his first half century in Australia. Sachin Tendulkar faltered again in his quest for a 100th international century as he chopped a widish Pattinson delivery onto his stumps for 41.

Source: http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/fy/8at2EuK0VDd9k1Y1/story01.htm

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Eight lazy ways to lose weight

Continue reading page |1 |2 |3

Forget dieting. Shedding a few pounds could be as easy as having a lie-in, turning down the lights and getting vaccinated

THE holidays are a time of excess. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet. Or perhaps not. Unfortunately, we don't all have the self-discipline and determination it takes to cut back on cake and hit the gym. But fear not. There could be other ways to shift the fat and stay trim.

Just to get this straight, if you overeat and under-exercise you will gain weight. However, growing evidence suggests that other factors also contribute to excess adiposity. Last year, David Allison at the University of Alabama at Birmingham highlighted this when he discovered that humans are not alone in piling on the pounds. He looked at wild animals, lab animals, even animals kept on the same highly controlled diets for decades, and found that all were becoming heavier (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol 278, p 1626). Allison concludes that whatever factors are fattening up the animals that live around us might also help explain the human obesity epidemic.

That being the case, identifying these alternative factors should give us new ways to fight the bulge. The good news is that researchers worldwide are beginning to do just that. It is not yet known how much each factor contributes to obesity, but we can nevertheless suggest ways of avoiding them - and some are far less painful than dieting or pounding the tarmac.

Get vaccinated

If you catch a cold this holiday season you may have to stock up on new clothes as well as tissues. That's because at least one common cold virus has been linked to obesity. Nikhil Dhurandhar of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana discovered that adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) boosts both the number of fat cells in the body and the amount of fat inside these cells. He also found that obese people are nearly three times as likely as those of healthy weight to test positive for Ad-36 antibodies, indicating current or past infection (Obesity, vol 14, p 1905). Another study reported that children with Ad-36 antibodies weighed an average of 23 kilograms more than children without them (Pediatrics, vol 126, p 721).

The "fat effect" of Ad-36 might persist for several years in humans, although nobody knows for sure. Meanwhile, another 10 microbes have been reported to make animals fatter. While it sounds alarming, this could actually be good news in the fight against flab. "If indeed some infections contribute to obesity in people, we could have a potentially very simple and effective prevention strategy - vaccination," says Dhurandhar.

Chill!

While extreme stress tends to make people lose weight, the everyday kind can have the opposite effect. So, for the sake of your waistline, take a deep breath, and don't let the festive family bickering get to you.

Failing that, try giving the new-year diet a miss. One recent study found that moderate calorie restriction made mice much more sensitive to stress, and this effect persisted once the diet was over. The mice went on to choose more high-fat food than those that had never had their food restricted (Journal of Neuroscience, vol 30, p 16399).

Brain imaging studies by Rajita Sinha, director of the Yale Stress Center at Yale University showed that stress increases activity in the ventral striatum, a region associated with reward and habits (Neuropsychopharmacology, vol 36, p 627). "So it increases craving for high-calorie foods in those who have a habit of consuming them," she says. Instead of counting calories, she recommends mindfulness, stress reduction and meditation techniques to cultivate an awareness of how your thoughts and behaviours can undermine your health. "They can help with taking control over the urges and stress-related eating of high-calorie food." Everybody say "om".

Chill some more

Over the past three decades, homes in the US and UK have become warmer. Fiona Johnson at University College London and colleagues think this may be making us fatter (Obesity Reviews, vol 12, p 543). Simona Bo of the University of Turin, Italy, agrees. In a study of more than 1500 middle-aged adults, her team found that those whose home temperatures ranked in the top third were about twice as likely to become obese over the six-year period of the research (International Journal of Obesity, vol 35, p 1442).

Shivering obviously burns energy, but you don't need to be freezing for your body to chew through extra calories. Most fat on our bodies is a type called white fat. But when temperatures get down to about 18 ?C, brown fat - which is abundant in babies and which adults mostly carry around their necks - starts burning energy to warm you up. Unfortunately, if you are not regularly exposed to cold, your brown fat deposits shrink and so too does your capacity to burn off that extra holiday treat. Any change will help, though, says Johnson. You burn steadily less energy as environmental temperatures rise from 15 ?C to 28 ?C. "So turning down the thermostat by any amount is likely to have some small effect," she says. Do try this at home.

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Gizmo_Fusion: This is #microsoft's last year at @intlces #CES this is going to be a really big and amazing show. We cannot wait! ^JY

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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Celebrities may temper Twitter comments after 2011 blunders (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Celebrities may want to resist the urge to send a stream of consciousness on Twitter in the new year after so many of them tweeted their way into trouble on everything from boxer briefs to breast-feeding in 2011.

NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne became the latest celebrity to blunder on Twitter, when he had to apologize for a tweet critical of public breast-feeding.

But Kahne has been far from alone in discovering Twitter's pitfalls. The year 2011 saw U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner resign in a scandal that began with an errant tweet, and the musings of Hollywood stars such as the tech-savvy Ashton Kutcher and comic Gilbert Gottfried generated public controversy.

As a result of those and other scandals, 2011 may be seen as a turning point when more celebrities and politicians saw the dangers of Twitter and quit sending unfiltered messages, pop culture experts said. Handlers of celebrities are likely to play a larger role in managing the stars' Twitter accounts.

"There was a time from 2008 to 2011 where Twitter was like, whatever was on your mind you tweeted about it -- literally mindlessly," said radio host Cooper Lawrence, author of "The Cult of Celebrity."

"Now you're going to see the other side of the bell curve, where people are more cautious. Politicians are already more cautious," she said.

CONGRESSMAN IN HIS UNDERWEAR

Probably the greatest self-inflicted Twitter wound was suffered by Anthony Weiner. He was an influential Democratic congressman from New York until June when he tweeted a photo of his bulging underwear to a female college student. At first Weiner claimed his Twitter account had been hacked but later admitted he was responsible and resigned from office.

"That guy has become now the patron saint of warning people that communicating from the id, which is exactly what Twitter is designed to do, can end up being a really, really bad idea," said Bob Thompson, professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried did not have his career ruined by Twitter but it cost him a lucrative gig. Gottfried fired off several joke tweets in March about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In one message, he said: "Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."

Gottfried was roundly criticized in the media and insurance company Aflac Inc fired him as the voice of its iconic duck in television commercials.

"Being the Aflac voice was a large portion of his income and not being able to do that for years and years to come is going to cost him millions of dollars," said Jo Piazza, author of the book "Celebrity, Inc.: How Famous People Make Money."

Kutcher had been a master of Twitter before his miscue, becoming the first tweeter to have a million followers. He also created the online production company Katalyst and embarked on lucrative promotion campaigns for such products as Popchips.

In November, Kutcher created a public uproar when he tweeted a defense of revered Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who was fired in the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal involving one of his assistant coaches.

KUTCHER TURNS OVER TWITTER ACCOUNT

Kutcher apologized in a blog post and said he did not know about the abuse scandal when he sent the off-the-cuff tweet that read, "How do you fire Jo Pa?" He also pledged to have his staff at Katalyst manage his Twitter account, as opposed to posting on his own as he had done before.

The 33-year-old actor wrote that Twitter has turned into a "mass publishing platform" in which tweets can quickly "become news that is broadcast around the world and misinformation becomes volatile fodder for critics."

Experts say Kutcher's Twitter mistake and his decision to alter the way he uses the site could serve as a lesson to others. "Because after all, he is a master of the form," Thompson said.

The controversy surrounding Kahne shows that not only a celebrity's tweet but also the response to other online commentators can generate trouble.

He originally posted a comment about encountering a mother breast-feeding at a supermarket. "Took second look because I was obviously seeing things. I wasn't!" he wrote.

But Kahne faced just as much heat for a crude comment directed at a woman online who criticized his view on public breast-feeding. He later apologized for both messages.

Other notable Twitter controversies of 2011 include film critic Roger Ebert's tweet, "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive," which was sent in response to the impaired-driving death of "Jackass" star Ryan Dunn.

Actor Charlie Sheen became a Twitter sensation with millions of followers as he ranted about "winning" during a spree of wildness that led to him losing his job on the hit television comedy "Two and a Half Men."

In a less inflammatory Twitter misfire, Charlie Sheen in December revealed his phone number, in an apparent attempt to send it privately to teen singer Justin Bieber.

(Editing by Mary Slosson, Greg McCune and Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120101/en_nm/us_twitter_misfires

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Florida parents seek help from special-education advocates

Tavious Diamond, 9, knows he's missing out on events such as Field Day and subjects such as art because he's in special-education classes at his elementary school. His mother, Jennifer, is sure he would do better in reading if he were moved into regular classes.

But she has felt so stymied trying to convince his school that she hired a special-education advocate.

"I'm furious," said the Altamonte Springs mother of three, who has hired Deltona advocate Jamison Jessup. "I thought the school system was going to do everything they could do. They failed my son."

Diamond is one of a growing number of parents in Central Florida and across the country who are paying advocates or lawyers to help them navigate the complex world of special-education services.

Federal law requires public schools to provide a "free, appropriate public education" to disabled children in the least restrictive possible setting. It also requires parents to be involved in placement decisions.

Most parents don't hire outside help. But those who do say they think the schools aren't listening to them.

"Parents are extremely frustrated," said Mark Kamleiter a St. Petersburg-based attorney who has focused on special education statewide since 1996. Kamleiter, a former special-education teacher, said he has seen the number of advocates and attorneys who focus on special education spike in recent years.

"Parents are discovering they have rights," he said.

Advocates, who are not lawyers and do not need special certification, help parents learn what choices they have in their child's education. They sit in on school meetings to develop or change the Individualized Education Program legally required for each disabled child. Some advocates also help parents file due-process claims in state court when they think the law is being violated.

Many, such as Orlando advocate Pam Lindemann started out advocating for their own children.

Lindemann and Jessup, who both advocate full time, charge $75 to $100 an hour, though they also offer a sliding scale. A lawyer can cost three times as much. Many other local advocates are volunteers or work part time, and some don't charge at all.

Exact numbers of advocates are not available, but Kamleiter said they outnumber the about two dozen Florida attorneys who focus exclusively on special-education law.

Lynda Langa, a special-education director with Orange County schools, said she has seen an increase in the number of paid advocates in the past few years, though the district also contracts with three "ambassadors" who help parents work through the special-education process.

"There can honestly be a breakdown between a school and parent," Langa said. "If they feel they are not strong enough by themselves, they have every right to bring someone in who can negotiate or speak education language."

But there can be real disagreement about what placement is best for a child. And Langa said advocates who refuse to compromise, or come in with a litigious mind-set, don't help.

Advocates say most educators want what's best for the children. But they may not know the law or think they can't offer special equipment or individualized help for financial reasons. But each advocate also has stories of hostile principals or school staff who resented their presence.

"I used to believe they're out to screw parents. That's not the case. It's the system," said Lindemann, whose daughter, now 15, has cerebral palsy. She said she wished parents didn't need the help, but "there's a huge need." Lindemann has also trained about 60 people to serve as advocates in the past three years.

One of her clients, Heidi Haines Handley, called Lindemann her "personal hero."

"If you have never been to an IEP meeting, you have no idea how intimidating that they can be, even for a very confident person," Handley said. "Everyone should have an advocate to go with them."

Handley said Lindemann helped her change her son Adam's placement, and ultimately his school. He has Asperger's syndrome, an autism-spectrum disorder.

Jessup, of Deltona, branched out into full-time advocacy after working as a paralegal for a lawyer who took special-education cases. His wife is also a special-education teacher.

He said he often sees schools refusing to evaluate a child for special-education services. Other cases involve a child's placement, the type of help a child gets or difficulties when a parent wants to use a McKay Scholarship, a state program that pays for special-education students to attend private schools.

"You often hear parents aren't as involved as they should be," Jessup said. "My parents are. Just communicate with them."

Diamond, Tavious' mother, detailed years of frustration, starting when her son got in trouble for banging his fists on the desk and hiding under it in first grade. He has a brain malformation and was placed in a class for students with emotional problems.

"It makes me feel really bad because the class is not for normal kids," said Tavious, who no longer acts out, according to his mother. His class doesn't attend art, music and media classes as often as other students, and his mother said they were excluded from Field Day.

When it took summer school to get him reading last year, his mother decided she needed to get him into more-challenging classes in fourth grade.

Diamond said she's finally making headway with Jessup's help. Tavious recently started attending reading class, lunch and classes like art with his peers. His school also agreed to do new tests of his behavior.

"He's enthusiastic about doing the work and the homework," Diamond said of the new classes. "I will definitely never go to another IEP meeting without Mr. Jessup."

lroth@tribune.com or 407-420-5120. Follow her on Twitter @RothLauren.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/orlandosentinel/news/local/lake/~3/c6KQRZNpTCQ/os-florida-special-education-advocacy-20111225,0,4028836.story

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HP Spectre teaser video: fantastically thin laptop, shrouded in mystery

Why, what's this? Funny you ask -- we're wondering the same thing. A source at HP just dropped us a mysterious teaser video of a so-called Spectre laptop, a heretofore unannounced lappie that looks to be the company's next Ultrabook. In our wildest dreams, this rig has a dual-LCD setup -- similar to Toshiba's Libretto W100 and Acer's Iconia-6120 -- but perhaps the creators here were just coincidentally interested in showing us lots of glass panes. We'll be digging for more details (we're told that an official produce portal should surface tomorrow), but for now, lose your mind in the video just past the break.

Gallery: HP Spectre laptop teaser leak

Continue reading HP Spectre teaser video: fantastically thin laptop, shrouded in mystery

HP Spectre teaser video: fantastically thin laptop, shrouded in mystery originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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