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(Shah Rukh Khan)
My next film is 'My Name is Chand': SRK
25 Jan, 2010 01:00 pm IST
lAfsana Ahmed /INDIATIMES MOVIES
Actor Shah Rukh Khan isn’t only reigning the Earth. He seems to have made a place for himself on the moon as well, what with a Lunar crater being named after him. The International Lunar Geographic Society recently announced that a crater in the ‘Sea of Tranquility’ will be named after Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan.
“It’s absolutely thrilling and humbling at the same time,” said an elated Shah Rukh Khan about the honour.
The actor, who has reigned Bollywood since the last twenty years, says that this honour is more for India, and that he is glad that India makes its presence on the global map once again! “I am in a small way doing good service for my country. The fact that my name is chosen is because the world is looking at India and I happen to be a part of this wonderful land of opportunity,” he said.
It was decided and the society and the International Astronomical Union that the crater on the moon will be called Crater S R Khan, and the same was decided upon on SRK’s 44th birthday. While both SRK and his fans are thrilled by this decision, some experts and scientists haven’t taken too kindly to his honour being bestowed upon an actor. Some feel that the honour should in fact have been bestowed upon a scientist, or an expert in the field.
However, unperturbed by negative responses, SRK is on top of the world, literally speaking. “I came to Mumbai with stars in my eyes and Allah has granted me all and more. I am so happy that through the opportunity given to me by my fans, audience and the media platforms that I work with... So thanks to all those who suggested my name and to everyone who has made films with me. My kids are very excited and I know my parents would have been very proud. I’m already telling Karan to launch the next film called My Name Is Chand.”
Shah Rukh Khan now joins the league of Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Sir Isaac Newton, Julius Caesar and Jules Verne.... And is literally over the moon!
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Video-Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol at NASDAQ opening bell in New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVtTe1KJS8M&feature=related
Shah Rukh Khan’s father was freedom fighter
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100206/914/ten-how-can-shiv-sena-question-srk-a-fre.html
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-R-Rahman-strikes-Grammys-gold/articleshow/5522316.cms
 Tia Carrere presents the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media award to A R Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire during the Pre-Telecast award presentations at the 52nd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on January 31. (AFP) |
AFP, 1 February 2010, 06:43am IST
LOS ANGELES: Indian composer A R Rahman scored a double triumph at the Grammy Awards here, scooping two early honours for his music from Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire". ( Watch Video )
Rahman won the first Grammy of the pre-show at the Staples Center in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category before his "Jai Ho" won in the best motion picture song category moments later.
"This is insane, god is great again," Rahman said as he accepted his second award before a VIP audience.
Rahman's rivals in the soundtrack category included Steve Jordan for "Cadillac Records," Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds", and the producers of "Twilight" and "True Blood."
In the best song category Rahman's beaten rivals included Bruce Springsteen for his song "The Wrestler", from the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.
The Grammy success comes after Rahman earned two Oscars for his music in "Slumdog Millionaire" at last year's Academy Awards.
The talented music maestro picked up the best original score statuette before scooping the best song Oscar.
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(More photos and reports in the above website)
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:36 PM on 05th February 2010
Hello little antelope, would you like to play with us?
Coming from three deadly cheetahs, it's the kind of invitation that's best refused - but amazingly, this impala escaped unscathed from its encounter.
Luckily for the youngster, it seems these three male cheetahs simply weren't hungry.
No claws for alarm: Astonishingly, these cheetahs, whose instinct is to hunt for food, decide to play with this baby impala
That's because unlike other big cats, the cheetah hunts in the daytime, either in the early morning or late afternoon. The bursts of speed needed to catch their prey tire them out - meaning they need to rest after a kill.
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http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15521489
Feeble growth in the euro zone
The sick men of Europe
A lack of demand in the euro area explains why its economy is hardly growing
Feb 12th 2010 | From The Economist online
Shutterstock
BARELY had the ink dried on a statement by European leaders supporting Greece in its struggle to finance its debts when more bad news emerged from the euro zone. Figures released on Friday February 12th showed that GDP in the 16-country currency zone rose by just 0.1% in the three months to the end of December compared with the previous quarter. That there was any improvement at all was largely down to France, where a burst of consumer spending lifted the economy by 0.6%. In the region’s other big countries, GDP was either flat—as in Germany—or falling, as in Italy and Spain (see chart below).
The main problem is a familiar one: consumers within the euro zone are not spending enough and the strong currency is making it hard to tap demand in the rest of the world. The best hope for a home-grown stimulus is Germany, where firms and consumers had practised thrift when the rest of the world indulged in a spending boom. Sadly Germany still relies too heavily on exports. Consumer spending and investment both fell in the fourth quarter and were it not for a boost from foreign trade, the German economy would have shrunk. This week Axel Weber, the head of Germany’s central bank, gave warning that cold weather could mean that GDP falls in the current quarter.
Other countries are tapped out. Spain was once a rich source of internal euro-area demand but its consumers are now weighed down by debts accumulated during a long housing boom. The unemployment rate is perilously close to 20% and its rigid jobs markets mean it is unlikely to come down soon. Bond-market pressures mean Spain's government is having to withdraw some of its support to the economy sooner than it would like. The wonder is that Spain is not in a deeper funk. GDP fell by 3.1% in the year to the fourth quarter, not much worse than in Germany.
Those two countries' struggles are two sides of the same coin. Economies that in good times had enjoyed credit-fuelled consumer booms “exported” some of their pain once crisis struck. In Spain and Greece, consumer spending has fallen far more than output, because a lot of discretionary spending had been on imported goods. (This is true also of Britain, an important export market for the euro area.) Foreign suppliers lost orders as well as local firms. Big exporters, like Germany, felt this particularly hard.
France is bucking the dismal trend in part because its state plays a dominant role in the economy. Government spending rose by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, after similar increases in the previous two quarters. France has done well also because it was not party to the euro-zone’s internal imbalances. During the boom it had not relied greatly on foreign credit to fund its growth, as had Spain, nor had it been a big supplier of credit and exports to others, as is Germany. The French economy is large, diversified and more self-contained than many of its euro-zone partners and so has been hurt less by global events. There is a parallel with Poland, the most resilient of the eastern European economies.
Yet France cannot continue to grow quickly. There is some small irony in the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, arranging a pan-European statement of support for Greece this week. The budget deficit in France was a hefty 8% of GDP last year: France is hardly a model of fiscal rectitude and may struggle to contain its rising public debt. The fiscal crisis in Greece has increased the pressure on other countries to put their public finances in order, which will curb GDP growth across the euro zone. The only bright spot is that the troubles in Greece have brought the euro lower. For a region that now relies so heavily on spending from without, a weaker currency is sorely needed.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012103622.html
Stuck gas pedal causes 2nd major Totyota recall
By DAN STRUMPF and STEPHEN MANNING
The Associated Press
Friday, January 22, 2010; 12:00 AM
NEW YORK -- Toyota Motor Corp. built its reputation in the U.S. as a maker of safe and dependable vehicles, but the quality of the Japanese automaker's fleet continues to be tarnished by serious safety recalls.
Toyota's new recall announcement of 2.3 million vehicles involves issues with sticking accelerator pedals.
Toyota said Thursday it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. to fix accelerator pedals with mechanical problems that could cause them to become stuck. The announcement comes just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration. That problem was the cause of several crashes, including some fatalities.
Toyota said Thursday's recall is due to potential problems with the gas pedal mechanism that can cause the accelerator to become stuck - regardless of whether the vehicle contains a floor mat. Toyota said in certain rare cases, the gas pedal mechanism wears down, causing the accelerator to become harder to press, slower to return or, in some cases, stuck.
In a letter to federal safety officials dated Thursday, Toyota said the problem appeared to be related to the potential build-up of condensation on sliding surfaces in the accelerator system that helps drivers push down or release the gas pedal.
Toyota spokesman John Hanson said the automaker does not yet have a solution to the latest problem but is working to develop one. Toyota will soon be contacting owners directly about the recall, he said.
The recall affects the 2009-2010 RAV4, the 2009-2010 Corolla, the 2009-2010 Matrix, the 2005-2010 Avalon, the 2007-2010 Camry, the 2010 Highlander, the 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2008-2010 Sequoia. Of these, the Avalon, Camry and Tundra models - encompassing about 1.7 million vehicles - also were included in the previous gas pedal recall. Their accelerator pedals could be at risk both of becoming trapped under floor mats and becoming stuck due to mechanical problems.
Hanson said the company is unaware of any accidents or injuries due to the gas pedal problems associated with Thursday's recall, but could not rule it out for sure. He said the recall "came together very quickly."
He added that all of the vehicles involved in the latest recall contain a gas pedal system that comes from a single supplier. He declined, however, to identify the supplier or say whether Toyota would continue doing business with the supplier.
"Responsibility for this in the end is ours," he said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement that the problem is "a serious safety issue and we are pleased Toyota is taking immediate action to address it."
Toyota said drivers in the recalled vehicles whose gas pedals become stuck should firmly apply their brakes, drive the car to a safe location, shut off the engine and contact the nearest Toyota dealer. Drivers who experience the problem should not pump their brakes, Toyota said.
Toyota's last recall, announced in November, was blamed for several crashes, including an accident involving a Lexus that accelerated to more than 120 mph before crashing in San Diego, killing four people. It was the sixth-largest recall ever in the U.S.
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Stephen Manning reported from Washington, D.C.
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Toyota-Shows-How-Giants-usnews-3989832353.html?x=0&.v=1
Toyota Shows How Giants Stumble
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Broke! Fixing America's fiscal crisis
By Jeanne Sahadi, senior writer February 1, 2010: 1:52 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In his $3.8 trillion budget for next year, President Obama on Monday laid out how Congress can lighten the country's debt load.
Specifically, he outlined a plan to reduce the nation's debt by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, and to get annual deficits as a percent of the economy down from 10.6% today to 3% by 2015.
His plan consists of seven main pieces, some of which bank on some big assumptions:
Let economy recover: When the economy recovers, more people will have jobs and therefore more taxable income. Economic recovery alone is expected to reduce the deficit-to-GDP ratio to 5% by 2015, said White House Budget Director Peter Orszag in a conference call with reporters.
Stop digging the debt hole deeper: Part of fiscal responsibility going forward, Orszag said, is to not make the problem worse. In that vein, the president supports legislation just passed in the Senate that would impose rules legally requiring lawmakers to pay for proposed tax cuts or spending increases by raising taxes or reducing spending elsewhere in the budget.
So-called "paygo" rules don't reduce debt already accrued, but they put the brake on future increases -- a helpful first step, budget experts say.
"We can't continue to spend as if deficits don't matter," Obama said at a briefing on Monday.
That legislation has yet to pass the House, but may come to a vote this week. If passed, the new rule could curb deficit increases, but it won't do so entirely because the legislation excludes a number of expensive policies, including the cost of a permanent extension of middle class tax cuts.
It also exempts what lawmakers might deem emergency spending to respond to an economic downturn, a terrorist act, natural disaster or other unforeseen event.
Let 2001-2003 tax cuts expire for high-income households: The Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire by 2011. As it has promised all along, the Obama administration would like to keep those tax cuts in place for everyone except the highest-income households.
It estimates nearly $700 billion will be raised over 10 years by letting the cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans.
Impose a spending freeze: The president proposed a three-year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending, which accounts for $447 billion, or roughly 13%, of the 2010 federal budget. The freeze, which wouldn't start this year, is estimated to save $250 billion over 10 years.
The biggest assumption here is that Congress will go along. As it is, there has already been some pushback from key Democrats who control the purse strings.
Impose new bank tax: The president is calling on Congress to impose a "financial crisis responsibility fee" on the largest banks to ensure that U.S. taxpayers don't lose a penny from the federal bailout of the financial, auto and insurance industries over the past year. The administration expects it will raise $90 billion over 10 years.
That assumes that Congress structures the tax accordingly, which is not a given yet.
Kill fossil-fuel tax break: The president's budget is calling for an end to fossil-fuel tax subsidies for oil, gas and coal companies, a move estimated to raise roughly $40 billion over 10 years.
The president called for repealing similar tax benefits for fossil-fuel energy producers in his proposed budget last year, which is something Congress didn't act on. So how much appetite there will be for doing so now isn't clear yet.
Create a bipartisan fiscal commission: In addition to economic recovery, the expiring tax cuts, spending freeze, bank tax and elimination of fossil-fuel subsidies would bring the annual deficit down to 3.9% of GDP by 2015, Orszag said.
But the bar for stabilizing debt is 3% of GDP. To reach that level, the president will rely on a bipartisan fiscal commission he will create by executive order.
The commission, which would be made up of Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as members of the administration, will be charged with two things: proposing ways for Congress to stabilize the debt at 3% of GDP by 2015, excluding the cost of interest owed on the debt; and putting forth its recommendations to Congress for spending cuts and tax increases that can be made to get the country's longer term fiscal situation stabilized.
But how seriously the commission is taken and how effective it can be is entirely up to lawmakers. There has already been pushback from Republicans, who have said they believe such a commission would either be toothless or too partisan to be credible.
And while Congress is likely to vote on the commission's recommendations, they may choose to amend them. Given how ideology far more than common sense has driven the deficit debate in both parties, it's anyone's guess how effective such deficit-reduction measures will be if they're amended to appease various interest groups.
How the experts react
Deficit hawks are happy the administration is raising the issue of debt reduction and making it a point of national discussion. But as for the specifics that the administration is proposing, they say they're only a tepid start relative to the problem at hand.
"A small spending freeze, some minor tax reforms to raise revenues, and a budget commission are all excellent ideas," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
"But this budget doesn't go nearly far enough, and it will require presidential leadership to develop a responsible fiscal plan. This has to be the start -- not the extent -- of-the President's push to implement a strategy to dig us out of this fiscal hole," she said.
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By JESSICA MINTZ and RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writers Jessica Mintz And Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writers – Thu Jan 28, 4:01 am ET
SAN FRANCISCO – Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the company's much-anticipated iPad tablet computer Wednesday, calling it a new third category of mobile device that is neither smart phone nor laptop, but something in between.
AP – Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPad during an event in San Francisco, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010. …
The iPad will start at $499, a price tag far below the $1,000 that some analysts were expecting. But Apple must still persuade recession-weary consumers who already have other devices to open their wallets yet again. Apple plans to begin selling the iPad in two months.
Jobs said the device would be useful for reading books, playing games or watching video, describing it as "so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone."
The half-inch-thick iPad is larger than the company's popular iPhone but similar in design. It weighs 1.5 pounds and has a touch screen that is 9.7 inches diagonally. It comes with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage, and has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity built in.
Jobs said the device has a battery that lasts 10 hours and can sit for a month on standby without needing a charge.
Raven Zachary, a contributing analyst with a mobile research agency called The 451 Group, considered the iPad a laptop replacement, especially because Apple is also selling a dock with a built-in keyboard.
But Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said he does not believe the iPad offered enough additional features for consumers to justify buying yet another gadget, or to call it a new category of device.
In an e-mail, he criticized its lack of social features, such as ways to share photos and home video and recommend books.
Sitting on stage in a cozy leather chair, Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple's Safari browser. The CEO typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.
He also showed off a new electronic book store and a book-reading interface that emulates the look of a paper book. That puts the iPad in competition with Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle and e-book store.
Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. called the iPad a great multipurpose mobile device — and the first tablet with a chance of success with consumers.
But Bajarin said Jobs' presentation only touched the tip of what the iPad could do for newspapers, magazines and book publishers, three industries struggling in the transition to the digital age.
A new newspaper reader program from The New York Times and a game from Electronic Arts Inc. were demonstrated during the event. The iBookstore launched with titles from Penguin, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan, and will open up to other publishing houses.
Carolyn Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster, called the iPad a "terrific device" that gives readers the ability to adjust the typeface and turn pages by touching a finger to the screen, as opposed to pushing a button, as the Kindle requires.
Applause rang out as Jobs stepped onto the stage to introduce the iPad to hundreds of analysts, bloggers and other guests at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Accompanied at times by executives from Apple and other companies, Jobs played showman throughout the hour-and-a-half presentation, slowly revealing details about the iPad. When he announced the price — lower than what had been speculated — it was accompanied by the sound of glass shattering.
Like iPods and the iPhone, the iPad can sync with Apple's Macintosh and Microsoft's Windows computers. Jobs said the iPad will also be better for playing games and watching video than either a laptop or the small screen of a smart phone.
Unlike a laptop, the iPad has an accelerometer, so gamers can tilt the device to control what's happening on the screen. And the iPad is lighter and easier to hold for long periods of time while watching a movie or TV show.
Its large screen makes it much easier to touch type than on a smart phone, and it is extremely responsive to finger swipes and taps for easy scrolling through Facebook, photo albums and news articles.
The iPad comes with software that includes a calendar, maps, and video and music players. All seem to have been slightly redesigned to take advantage of the iPad's bigger screen.
Still, tablet computers have existed for a decade with little success. Jobs acknowledged Apple will have to work to convince consumers who already have smart phones and laptops that they need the iPad.
"In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks," Jobs said. "We think we've got the goods. We think we've done it."
Applications designed for the iPhone can run on the iPad. Apple is also releasing updated tools for software developers to help them build iPhone and iPad programs.
"We think it's going to be a whole 'nother gold rush for developers as they build applications for the iPad," said Scott Forstall, an iPhone software executive.
The basic iPad models will cost $499, $599 and $699, depending on the storage size, when it comes out worldwide in March.
Apple Inc. will also sell a version with data plans from AT&T Inc. in the U.S.: $14.99 per month for 250 megabytes of data, or $29.99 for unlimited usage. Neither will require a long-term service contract.
The iPad models that can connect to AT&T's wireless network will cost more — $629, $729 and $829, depending on the amount of memory — and will be out in April. International cellular data details have not yet been announced.
Shares of Apple rose $2.04, or 1 percent, to close Wednesday at $207.98. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company's shares have more than doubled over the past year, partly on anticipation of the tablet computer. Shares in Amazon rose $3.27, or 2.7 percent, to $122.75.
Jobs, 54, a pancreatic cancer survivor who got a liver transplant last year, looked thin as he introduced the highly anticipated gadget, though he seemed to have more energy than at Apple's last event in September.
Apple had kept its latest creation tightly under wraps until Wednesday's unveiling, though many analysts had correctly speculated that it would be a one-piece tablet computer with a big touch screen.
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AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0127/Apple-announces-iPad
Apple announces iPad
Steve Jobs rolls out the iPad – part iPhone, part laptop
The Apple iPad seeks to bridge the gap between laptop and smart phone.
Apple.com screenshot
By Chris Gaylord / January 27, 2010
The much-anticipated Apple tablet is real.
During a company press conference in San Fransisco today, CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, a 9.7-inch tablet that mixes aspects of laptop computers and the popular iPhone.
"A third device has to be better at web browsing, email, photos, videos, music, games, and ebooks than a laptop or a smartphone," Jobs said. "Otherwise it has no reason for being."
This new device resembles a jumbo iPhone, with a multitouch screen taking up almost all of its front side. Rather than a standard desktop interface, the iPad revolves around apps, bite-sized programs running one at a time.
Announced apps include:
* YouTube, for standard or HD movies.
* iBooks, a full-color e-reader with supporting download store.
* Word processing and spreadsheet iWork programs, similar to Microsoft Office.
* The iTunes store, which allows users to download music, games, and movies.
* iPad will also run all iPhone and iPod Touch apps, in either their original size or blown up to fit the tablet's larger screen.
There will be six different iPad models, each price depending on hard drive size and wireless settings. A 16GB iPad will cost $499, 32GB will be $599, and the 64GB version will go for $699. All models include Wi-Fi Internet access – and 3G mobile antennas can be added for an extra $130.
Just as with the iPhone, AT&T will provide the iPad's 3G service. The company will charge $14.99 a month for up to 250MB of data. An unlimited mobile data plan will cost $29.99 a month. Neither plan will require a contract.
The iPad will ship in 60 days, with the 3G version arriving one month later.
Check back with the Horizon blog (or our Twitter feed) for continued iPad coverage.
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A mysterious drop in water vapor in the lower stratosphere might be slowing climate change
By David Biello
STRATOSPHERIC DRYING: Less water vapor in the stratosphere may have slowed global warming in recent years.
©iStockphoto.com
Earth's stratosphere is a cold, dry place, above the troposphere—the bottom layer of the atmosphere we breathe on a daily basis. Ruled by winds and hosting everything from bacteria to long-distance jet travel, about the only way that water gets into this high-altitude layer 10 kilometers above the Earth's surface is when it billows up from the humid tropics, rising from the troposphere via the atmospheric interface known as the tropopause. But since 2001 there has been less water vapor in a narrow, lower band of the stratosphere thanks to cooler temperatures in the tropopause, and that may just be holding back global warming at ground level, according to new research published online in Science on January 28.
"We found that there was a surface temperature impact due to changes in water vapor in a fairly narrow region of the stratosphere," explains research meteorologist Karen Rosenlof of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Aeronomy Laboratory, one of the authors of the study. "The reason for the water vapor change is the temperature drop at the interface between the troposphere and the stratosphere over the tropics. What we don't know is why the temperature dropped."
That temperature does seem to correlate, however, to sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific that, of course, follow El Niño–La Niña cycles, along with other trends. A new El Niño cycle—warmer surface waters—began last summer, which may mean that stratospheric water levels could change again. So this effect could either be the result of natural variability in Earth's climate, or yet another effect of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases like water vapor trapping more heat and thus warming sea-surface temperatures.
All told, stratospheric water vapor declined by 10 percent since 2000, based on satellite and balloon measurements, yet that was enough to appreciably affect temperatures at ground level according to climate models. "Reduce the water vapor and you have less long-wave radiation coming back down to warm the troposphere," Rosenlof says. Conversely, an apparent increase in water vapor in this region in the 1980s and 1990s exacerbated global warming.
Of course, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is also affected by another potent greenhouse gas—methane—which has unexpectedly failed to increase in recent years. "The other influence is methane, which breaks down into two water molecules and CO2 in the stratosphere," explains climate scientist Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). "Methane's growth rate has dropped, so it'll have become a weaker source of stratospheric water, but we don't fully understand why its concentrations have not increased as rapidly in recent years as they did for the previous several decades."
In fact, the more than 100 percent increase in overall methane since the 18th century has made the stratosphere a wetter place, notes GISS climate modeler Gavin Schmidt. "What might have caused this effect? I can think of two factors: The 1997–98 El Niño might have moistened the lower stratosphere more than usual, and thus there has been a trend toward drying since then," he says. "A second idea might be related to changes in aerosol emissions from Asia, which have affected temperature profiles in the tropics and the properties of clouds."
And there remains little doubt that average temperatures are getting warmer at ground level; data from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reveals that the last decade was the warmest since record-keeping began. More monitoring of the entire atmosphere as well as the whole panoply of greenhouse gases over the long term will be required to determine what's behind the lower stratospheric dry out—a set of observations imperiled by the current dearth of Earth observation satellites operated by the U.S. space program.
But one thing remains clear: More greenhouse gases in the atmosphere equals more warming. "It doesn't say that CO2 warming isn't going on," Rosenlof adds. A drier lower stratosphere may simply have slowed the warming caused by the thickening greenhouse gas blanket.
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http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1182488
Published Online January 28, 2010 |
Research Articles
Contributions of Stratospheric Water Vapor to Decadal Changes in the Rate of Global Warming
Susan Solomon,1 Karen Rosenlof,1 Robert Portmann,1 John Daniel,1 Sean Davis,1,2 Todd Sanford,1,2 Gian-Kasper Plattner3
Stratospheric water vapor concentrations decreased by about 10% after the year 2000. Here, we show that this acted to slow the rate of increase in global surface temperature over 2000 to 2009 by about 25% compared to that which would have occurred due only to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. More limited data suggest that stratospheric water vapor probably increased between 1980 and 2000, which would have enhanced the decadal rate of surface warming during the 1990s by about 30% compared to estimates neglecting this change. These findings show that stratospheric water vapor represents an important driver of decadal global surface climate change.
1 NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, USA.
2 Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
3 Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_britain_alien_life
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 26, 9:26 pm ET
LONDON – For decades, scientists have scanned the heavens in search of extraterrestrial life. Perhaps they should have looked closer to home. Variant life forms — most likely tiny microbes — could still be hanging around "right under or noses — or even in our noses," Paul Davies, an award-winning Arizona State University physicist, told a group of scientists Tuesday.
AP – Paul Davies of Arizona State University poses for the Associated Press prior to his lecture in the Royal …
"How do we know all life on earth descended from a single origin?" he said, speaking at London's Royal Society, which serves as Britain's academy of sciences. "We've just scratched the surface of the microbial world."
The idea that alien micro-organisms could be hiding on Earth has been discussed for a while, according to Jill Tarter, the director of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a U.S. project that listens for signals from civilizations based around distant stars.
She said several of the scientists involved in the project were interested in pursuing the notion, which Davies laid out in a 2007 Scientific American article, "Are Aliens Among Us?"
So far, there's no answer. And finding one would be fraught with difficulties, as Davies himself acknowledged.
Unusual organisms abound — including chemical-eating bacteria which dwell deep in the ocean and organisms that thrive in boiling-hot springs — but that doesn't mean they're different life forms entirely.
"How weird do they have to be to suggest a second genesis as opposed to just an obscure branch of the family tree?" he said. Davies suggested that the only way to prove an organism wasn't "life as we know it" was if it were built using exotic elements which no other form of life had.
Such organisms have yet to be found. Bruce Jakosky, an astrobiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the notion of alien life on Earth was "an interesting theoretical idea" but one that would be impossible to put odds on because "we have no idea what we're looking for."
Jakosky added that, if such life forms existed, humans would probably have little to fear, as their different biochemistry would tend to mitigate against infection or disease.
Davies agreed that the idea needed verification, telling the conference that "the scientist in me screams out for caution."
Still, he noted that less than 1 percent of all the world's bacteria had been comprehensively studied — leaving plenty of room for scientists to find surprises in Earth's nooks and crannies.
Davies' call for alien-hunting scientists to look to their own backyards came as a pioneer in the search for extraterrestrial life in outer space told the conference the job appears to be more difficult than previously thought.
Frank Drake, who conducted the first organized search for alien radio signals in 1960, said that the Earth — which used to pump out a loud tangle of radio waves, television signals and other radiation — has been steadily getting quieter as its communications technology improves.
Drake cited the switch from analogue to digital television — which uses a far weaker signal — and the fact that much more communications traffic is now relayed by satellites and fiber optic cables, limiting its leakage into outer space.
"Very soon we will become very undetectable," he said. If similar changes are taking place in other technologically advanced societies, then the search for them "will be much more difficult than we imagined."
But Drake said scientists at SETI were excited by the possibility of using lasers to send super-bright flashes of light into space for a tiny fraction of a second. The flashes could theoretically be seen by an advanced civilization up to 1,000 light years away, and infrared versions of the devices could possibly send beams even further.
But Drake noted that the interstellar equivalent to turning a flashlight on and off only works if a prospective alien civilization wants to get in touch to begin with.
"There has to be altruism in the universe," he said.
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On the Net:
Royal Society: http://royalsociety.org/
SETI Institute: http://www.seti.org/
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/world/30vaccine.html
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Bill and Melinda Gates announced on Friday during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that their foundation would raise its spending on vaccines over the next decade to at least $10 billion.
Published: January 29, 2010
Endorsing vaccines as the world’s most cost-effective public health measure, Bill and Melinda Gates said Friday that their foundation would more than double its spending on them over the next decade, to at least $10 billion.
The change could save the lives of as many as eight million children by 2020, Mr. Gates calculated. He said he hoped his gift would inspire other charities and donor nations to do the same.
The commitment is the largest ever made by a foundation, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which noted that $10 billion is slightly more than the total worth of the Ford Foundation, the country’s second largest. The Gates Foundation, created in 1999 with the fortune that Mr. Gates made from Microsoft, has about $34 billion in assets; it has already spent $4.5 billion on vaccines.
“Vaccines are a real success story,” Mr. Gates said in an interview before the announcement, which he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The cost is tiny, and yet it saves more lives than any other component of a health care system.”
Julian Lob-Levyt, the executive secretary of the GAVI Alliance, a partnership among drug companies, health agencies and charities bringing vaccines to poor countries, said he “hugely welcomed” the announcement.
“If other donors follow the lead of the Gates Foundation and step up their funding for vaccines,” Dr. Lob-Levyt said, “GAVI has the ability to immunize millions of children against the world’s two biggest childhood killers, pneumonia and diarrhea.”
Dr. Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center, called the announcement a “major boost for global health.” Vaccines already get more financing from the Gates Foundation than any other cause, and Mr. Gates said no money would be shifted away from other projects, like improved crops, assistance to small businesses and, on the domestic front, schools and libraries. Instead, he and Warren Buffett will increase their annual gifts to the foundation, and about 30 percent of all spending, up from 20 percent, will be for vaccines.
In calculating that eight million lives could be saved, Mr. Gates cited a computer model developed for the foundation by public health specialists at Johns Hopkins University.
Whether such an optimistic prediction comes true depends on several factors that are still uncertain.
For starters, Mr. Gates wants to make sure that 90 percent of the world’s children get shots for routine childhood diseases like measles, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus. Right now, almost 80 percent do. But with 134 million children born each year, it is a constant struggle to keep up, and efforts can be interrupted by factors like war, natural disasters, bad roads and corrupt officials.
Then he assumes that two new vaccines against rotavirus and pneumococcal disease, which are major killers of malnourished children, are adopted as routine immunizations in most poor countries and reach 80 percent of all children by 2020.
Even in wealthy countries, the introduction of any new vaccine can be tricky because of bureaucratic and logistical delays and because unexpected rumors can spring up, like the persistent one that polio vaccine is a plot to sterilize Muslim girls.
Mr. Gates’s model also assumes that a malaria vaccine now in development by GlaxoSmithKline will be approved and will by 2014 reach at least some of the one million children, mostly in Africa, who die annually of the disease.
Yet the vaccine, known as RTS,S, is still in the testing phase. And as Mr. Gates acknowledged, “you can always be surprised” during clinical trials.
On the pessimistic side, his model assumes that no vaccine against AIDS or tuberculosis will be licensed during the decade — and indeed, progress on those has been very slow.
Mr. Gates has criticized many wealthy nations for giving what he considers too little to foreign aid. On what he described as a “list of shame” in the annual letter he released this week, he noted that the United States is last on the list of 22 wealthy nations when aid is measured as a percentage of GDP.
However, Italy recently cut its foreign aid in half, which will drop it to the bottom of next year’s list, and while at Davos, Mr. Gates took a jab at Italy’s famously wealthy and vain premier, Silvio Berlusconi, telling a German newspaper, “Rich people spend a lot more money on their own problems, like baldness, than they do to fight malaria.”
Mr. Berlusconi, whose 2004 hair transplant surgery has been widely discussed in European newspapers, made headlines last week when his hair seemed to be missing when he visited a clinic to be checked for wounds suffered last month when an assailant hit him with a model of Milan’s cathedral. It later reappeared.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/22/psychology.giving.charity/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Children wait to receive water in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, January 20.
(CNN) -- Children are selling pink lemonade in Austin, Texas. A Minnesota couple is giving away money that they saved for their wedding. Chelsea Clinton hosted a spinning class in New York on Thursday with front-row "seats" going for $1,000.
These are just some of the ways that people across the United States are raising money for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been contributed to help after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit January 12.
So, why do we open our wallets for strangers, like Haitian earthquake survivors? Is it out of empathy? Guilt? Compassion? Or something else?
Experts say these kinds of acts, which make people feel like they're part of something larger, are energizing and emotionally rewarding.
Studies have shown that when people get together and cooperate to do good deeds, it leads to positive feelings, said Liz Dunn, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Dunn's research shows that people get the most emotional benefit from giving money to recipients they know personally, or when they know someone who has a direct connection to a cause or charity. For instance, someone might feel better after giving money to an individual volunteering in Haiti than after donating to a large organization to which they have no personal ties.
"When we do the kind of giving that's more social, more personal, more meaningful, I think that's when we see the emotional benefits arising," she said.
Money needed most in Haiti earthquake relief efforts
Working with other people who care about a cause also creates personal ties and motivates donors. A fundraiser such as Team in Training, a charity sports training program that supports blood cancer research, is an example of a philanthropic organization that raises money by getting people to work together, she said. The group trains people for challenging sporting events such as marathons that they will participate in to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma.
The Chelsea Clinton spin class is another example of how people cooperating in a face-to-face context for a common cause gives people a better feeling than just entering a credit card number on an organization's Web site, she said.
"It's almost like a way of re-creating this feeling of doing good together in this small group setting," she said. "That is what we kind of evolved for."
Dunn and colleagues have a paper that will be published in the Journal of Health Psychology about the "dark side" of the giving issue: stinginess.
They found that when people are stingy, they experience a sense of shame, and that shame in turn leads to elevated levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress. "It may be bad for our bodies to behave in a stingy fashion," she said.
When we do the kind of giving that's more social, more personal ... that's when we see the emotional benefits arising.
--Liz Dunn, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of British Columbia
Even spending a little bit of money in a positive way can make a difference for someone's well-being, Dunn said, noting that a single dollar has a different relative value for different people.
But research is not clear on what exactly makes a person more likely to give, say, $5 rather than $5,000 to a cause. The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has found that race is not a factor, but that greater educational attainment, income and wealth are associated with higher dollar amounts, said Patrick Rooney, executive director of the center.
People tend to react to disasters with small gifts, and don't dramatically change their budgets, he said. In studies on giving in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks, to the tsunami in Southeast Asia and to Hurricane Katrina, the average gift was between $125 and $135. The median gift -- perhaps a better measure of what is typical -- was $50.
With the Haiti situation, empathy levels are high as outsiders realize how lucky they are to not have been in Haiti at the time of the quake, and that the people who are there have immediate needs such as food and water, Rooney said.
The community aspect of giving can also lead people to give money beyond just one-time relief donations, says Christopher Ellinger. He and his wife, Anne, started Bolder Giving, an Arlington, Massachusetts-based organization that cultivates a community of people who give away a large chunk of their money to philanthropy. Bolder Giving encourages people to look at their financial status and consider how much more they could give to good causes.
The group highlights a "50 percent league" -- those who give away at least 50 percent of their income for at least three years or at least half of their net worth at some point -- but that's not necessarily what the organization advocates, Ellinger said. "We're just looking to put out a challenge," he said.
This is, of course, rare. A 2006 survey of all U.S. households by the Center on Philanthropy found that 87 percent gave less than 5 percent of their income to charitable organizations. In fact, less than 1 percent of households gave more than half their income.
But some people dedicate their careers to giving. Karen Ansara of Boston, Massachusetts, is affiliated with Bolder Giving and runs the Ansara Family Fund at the Boston Foundation, which partners with organizations internationally with the goal of eradicating poverty. She runs the fund with her husband, Jim, who is currently on the ground in Haiti.
Although the Ansaras are normally focused on giving to long-term projects rather than on disaster relief, the Haiti earthquake inspired them to break their rule and contribute to that cause in a big way. The Ansara Family Fund has pledged to match every dollar, up to $1 million, that is given to the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation. A committee will decide which organizations will receive the money. As of Thursday, the Haiti fund had received more than $200,000 in outside donations.
"I'm getting just flooded with e-mails from people who care so much about what's going on in Haiti, and want to help, and are happy to know somebody who can help," Karen Ansara said.
Part of the reason for her commitment to funding anti-poverty efforts is that she adopted three daughters from Ecuador, and she saw the poor conditions in which children there have to grow up.
"We want to inspire people to reach out and understand that the problems of people on the other side of the equator, or the other side of the world, are our own problems," she said.
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Adeline Bertin on four innovators who have enriched the lives of ordinary people
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The young innovator Devansh Sharma came third with his Intelligent Music System |
What is India’s most pressing need? Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on information infrastructure and innovations, has a one-word answer: innovation. “We need to work on solving problems rather than just pointing them out. Here it’s like an onion – you peel off one layer, and you get another. But a decade of innovation can transform this country.”
Pitroda believes that technological innovations hold the key to addressing India’s myriad problems: unsafe drinking water, uneven healthcare, environmental degradation, falling educational standards, poor waste management – it’s an unending list. He is fully endorsed by Anil Wali, Managing Director, Foundation for Information and Technology Transfer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. “Innovation is the need of every nation. What’s required is that we all start thinking creatively, innovatively and affordably.”
Both Pitroda and Wali had people like Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar, Paul D’Souza, Devansh Sharma and Sharatchandra Tase in mind. All four innovators recently took part in the Yamaha Shaping the Future contest, which was organised to encourage people from all over the country to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions. The jury comprising academicians, technicians and industrialists had the daunting task of evaluating 400 well-researched presentations and selecting the top four. Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar won the contest, Paul D’Souza came second and Devansh Sharma third. Sharatchandra Tase participated in the national finals.
Mumbai-based Velaskar slogged for a whole year to create the Rapid Thrombocheck Test Kit, which has now been patented. “It was quite a struggle because all the expenses were on me,” says the doctor, whose clinical studies helped establish the link between hyperactive platelets and heart attacks – a major advance in preventive medicine, because the invention helps in anticipating cardiovascular complications. Till his innovative kit is marketed, the test of platelets in expensive laboratories will remain unaffordable for many: Rs 3,000. But Dr Velaskar’s procedure can be carried out in small clinical laboratories that will cost ten times less: at most between Rs 250 and 300.
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The winner, Dr Dilip Shrinivas Velaskar, was awarded Rs. 2 lakh for his Rapid Thrombocheck Test Kit |
Bangalore-based inventor Paul D’Souza has created the Multiline Refreshable Braille Display for the visually impaired, who have benefited the least from the digital revolution. Access to it is woefully restricted, because the material must first be embossed before it can be read. “There aren’t many libraries that have embossers, and personal libraries are naturally a dream,” says D’Souza.
Braille is a system that facilitates encoding of the script of a language into “feelable” dots. When the tactile code is felt the visually impaired person is able to comprehend the message. Braille is embossed on paper using a stencil or frame from the reverse side of a sheet of paper. Embossed material requires a huge amount of storage space. The Braille Display is a device that produces the dots by raising or lowering small pins that simulate the bumps of an embossed page. The display refreshes itself with new information as one is reading. “It is essentially the tactile equivalent of a computer monitor,” says D’Souza, adding: “Some people in the West already use this kind of new technology, but Refreshable Displays cost over $3000 for a single-line display.” A full page of Braille contains between 6,000 and 8,000 dots. Controlling so many of them in such a confined space has always been the main problem. “My device proposes a five line – 20 characters per line – display, with a total of 600 dots,” says D’Souza. “Initially, one Refreshable Display will cost $500 each, but the price will progressively go down making it accessible to all,” he adds.
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Bangalore-based inventor Paul D’Souza came second with his creation: the Multiline Refreshable Braille Display |
Devansh Sharma (21), who is studying mechanical engineering at IIT Mumbai, got the idea for developing his Intelligent Music System after he saw a speaker standing in the centre of a room having trouble communicating with his audience. Says Sharma, “From the corner where I was sitting I was completely unable to hear him, because the sound of the microphone kept going to just one side.” His invention detects the position of every listener in a room, making it possible to “calibrate” the speakers, so they can be heard by all.
Mumbai resident Sharatchandra Tase (74) has developed cheap anti-glare glasses for accident-prone night time drivers. Polarised and tinted, the invention makes use of the distracted light process. “The lights temporarily blind both drivers and passengers. It is a very scary experience,” says a concerned Tase.
The Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) run by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Sciences and Technology, awarded cash prizes to the winners. D’Souza repeatedly underlined the contribution of TePP in encouraging innovation, saying: “The creation of TePP has done the most to promote innovations. Before it was set up very little was happening – not because there’s a lack of new ideas and talent, but because there’s a lack of opportunities. And here I am speaking of my own experience.” May TePP’s tribe increase!
WRITER’S EMAIL
Posted on Jan 15, 2010
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/20/haiti.earthquake.survivors/index.html?hpt=C1
By Tom Watkins, CNN
January 21, 2010 9:05 a.m. EST
(CNN) -- The fact that survivors have been unearthed more than a week after being entombed without food or water in quake-stricken Haiti is no surprise and simply underscores the body's resilience in the face of adversity, emergency medicine experts told CNN Wednesday.
Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11, sleeps at a hospital in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday. She survived more than a week under the rubble of her collapsed house.
“You can go 10, 12, 13 days without really having a problem," said Dr. Eric Weinstein, an emergency physician in Summerville, South Carolina, who is on the Disaster Preparedness and Response Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "Particularly if you're healthy to begin with."
Weinstein's comments came hours after a 5-year-old boy, Monley, was pulled alive from rubble nearly eight days after the 7.0-magnitude quake had leveled much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. More than 121 people have been pulled alive from the rubble, the United Nations said Wednesday.
Boy found alive in the rubble
Monley was taken to a hospital to be treated for severe dehydration and doctors attributed his survival to resilience and the strength of his young body.
"They'll have some electrolyte abnormalities; they might have some organ dysfunction like their kidneys might be starting to slow down, their liver, their bowels might have some issues, but with rehydration ... they should have good recovery," Weinstein said.
Doctors have learned from experience with concentration camp survivors and prisoners of war that rehydration after a long period without food or water should be done slowly, he said.
"If you rapidly rehydrate them, the body gets overwhelmed and you actually do more harm," he told CNN in a telephone interview.
Deprived of food and water, the body initially breaks down glycogen stored in the liver into glucose to fuel its most critical functions -- the heart and the brain, Weinstein said. But those stores can be depleted within hours, after which the body begins to cannibalize itself -- burning fat and muscle to power its critical functions.
That process creates acetone and ketones, which can make the blood more acidic. That can give off the smell of acetone, which can be confused with alcohol. The process also causes the heart to beat irregularly, he said.
That's not the only danger. Muscle cells break down into myoglobin, which can cause kidney failure, he said.
And there's more. Lying motionless for just a few hours can cause the blood to pool and clot, raising the risk of stroke or pulmonary embolism. The opposite problem -- uncontrolled bleeding -- is also a risk when the body consumes its platelets, which control clotting, Weinstein said. "Then, you just freely bleed. That could be a problem."
Despite Wednesday's rescue, the window is closing, he said. "At 10 days, you really start getting nervous."
A 2004 research published in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, examined news and medical reports of rescues after earthquakes that occurred between 1985--2004. The review found that a total of five live rescues were reported at least 10 days after the impact, and that a few rescues occurred as late as two weeks after the disaster.
Earthquakes in September 1985 trapped 22 newborns in two Mexican hospitals. They somehow survived nine days in the rubble, according to news reports.
Some survivors had access to the basics. After a 2003 earthquake in Algeria, a 13-year-old female who survived four days was reported to have been trapped with the pancakes that she sold for a living. A 97-year-old female who survived nine days in Iran had access to food that had been next to her before the 2003 earthquake occurred. A man rescued from a Philippines hotel gym two weeks after the 1990 earthquake had daily access to rain water. Some media reports from previous earthquakes described entrapped patients drinking their own urine.
Researchers concluded that victims could survive on average for five to six days entrapped, but under favorable circumstances, can survive up to two weeks.
Working against those still trapped is the fact that no rain has fallen since the January 12 magnitude-7.0 quake struck off Port-au-Prince.
"You don't need to eat for a week or two as long as you have water," said Dr. Michael Gerardi, a pediatric emergency specialist in Morristown, New Jersey, who is on the board of directors at the ACEP.
But people who were well hydrated at the time of the earthquake could still be alive, he said. "It's conceivable, and not unheard of, for people to live seven to 10 days with no water or food -- if they have not been exposed to the elements," he said, referring to the Caribbean island's warm, tropical weather as a plus.
Survival may come at a price. Gerardi said those being pulled to safety may suffer organ dysfunction. "The kidneys probably took a hit," he said. And profound dehydration could cause brain damage, he said. "If you had low blood pressure -- barely perfusing your brain -- then you're going to take a hit to your brain."
Predicting a limit to anyone's endurance is impossible, since many factors affect survival, said Dr. Deborah Ann Mulligan, professor of pediatrics at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Florida.
For example, a child left in a hot car or an athlete exercising hard in hot weather can dehydrate, overheat and die in a few hours, she said in an e-mail.
"Ill health, exposure to the elements, shock and panic can reduce your survival time in any situation," she said. "An adult in comfortable surroundings, in contrast, can survive for a week or more with no, or very limited, water intake."
CNN's Madison Park contributed to this report.
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Heartmate II May Help Some Heart Patients Live More Normal Lives, Avoid Transplants
By JOHN McKENZIE
ABC News Medical Correspondent
Jan. 23, 2010
You might never know by looking at him, but 78-year-old Richard Stowe has a mechanical pump inside his chest, doing most of the work of his weakened heart.
The only clue? A power pack on his back.
"I don't feel the pump," Stowe said. "I can actually hear it sometimes. There's no pulse, just a continuous flow. You can just hear it revving, sort of. But it's saved my life."
Stowe, a former airline pilot, received his mechanical pump four years ago as part of a clinical trial, after a series of heart attacks left his heart barely pumping.
"I couldn't walk more than a few feet without feeling out of breath."
This new generation of mechanical pump, called Heartmate II, is attached directly to the heart, helping it push blood through.
Originally, this pump was supposed to be used in patients only as a stopgap measure until a donor heart became available for transplantation. But it's so small and so effective that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now considering approving it as a permanent treatment in older heart-failure patients.
Based on a two-year study of 200 patients that compared Heartmate II to its predecessor, the FDA has granted what is called premarket approval to the device. This means that it can now be used as cardiac support for patients with advanced-stage heart failure who are ineligible for transplantation, rather than just an interim device for those awaiting transplants.
Typically, heart disease is treated only with medications. In severe cases like Stowe's, only 8 percent of patients survive two years. But with the pump, 58 percent of patients are alive two years later.
As part of the premarket approval, the Pleasanton, Calif.-based developer Thoratec must complete a postmarket study and measure adverse effects, functional status, and quality-of-life data associated with the device. But cardiologists are already optimistic.
"If this is approved as a permanent therapy, it could save the lives of 10,000 Americans a year," said Dr. Ulrich Jorde, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now considering approving the Heartmate II as a permanent treatment in older heart-failure patients.
Cardiologists Applaud FDA Consideration of Heart Device
Other doctors were equally enthused. Dr. Valluvan Jeevanandam, chief of cardiac and thoracic surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center, called the FDA's move "one of the most important events in the treatment of advanced heart failure." He said that at his institution, the device has largely supplanted heart transplant as the option of choice.
He added that while treatment with medication has been shown to improve the chances of patient survival by about 5 to 10 percent, therapy with the device "has almost tripled survival from 23 to 58 percent. That is remarkable for these very sick patients."
Dr. Jay Pal, assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, agreed that the move is a significant one.
"This new approval will allow us to provide this life-saving treatment to a new population of patients who were previously not candidates for mechanical circulatory support," he said.
Which Heart Patients Should Get Expensive Device?
Still, some cardiologists said that while the technology is promising, it comes with serious considerations.
"In my mind, now the tough questions need to be answered," said Dr. Robert Kormos, director of the Artificial Heart Program and co-director of Heart Transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Among these questions: Which patients will be best served by this technology, and who should get this expensive device?
The cost of this technology is not inexpensive, and thus, the importance of rational allocation of technology needs to be resolved."
Kormos was not the only doctor to cite economic considerations.
"This device finally offers hope of increased life expectancy and improved quality of life for patients that previously had a uniformly rapidly-fatal condition," said Dr. Mark Adelman, chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at New York University's Langone Medical Center. "Unfortunately, this technology is expensive. It is precisely technology like this -- helpful, but expensive -- that America will have to weigh in on, as the cost of health care continues to escalate."
Cole Petrochko of MedPage Today contributed to this report.
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http://www.thoratec.com/medical-professionals/vad-product-information/heartmate-ll-lvad.aspx
Heartmate II Artificial heart pump
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Here's the latest news to help reduce age-related ailments during your golden years.
Peggy J. Noonan • January 24, 2010
Getting older doesn't doom us to poor health. Today, scientists are working on better diagnostic tools and improved treatments to help us avoid or reduce age-related diseases. Researchers are discovering new ways to help us enjoy our golden years in good health.
Find out the latest with our senior health news tips:
Alzheimer's: Activity helps
Experts estimate that 35.6 million people live with Alzheimer's disease and dementia today, and that number is predicted to double every 20 years. Research shows lifestyle changes can help. Alzheimer's risk was lower in people who coupled physical activity with a Mediterranean-type diet high in fruits, vegetables and fish, and low in red meat and poultry. People who reported "some physical activity" dropped their dementia risk by a range of 29% to 41%; those reporting "much physical activity" had 37% to 50% lower risk.
Exercise for the brain helps, too. A study showed that doing at least one "cognitive activity" every day -- reading, writing, working crossword puzzles, playing board or card games, or participating in group discussions -- helped delay dementia and memory loss in 101 seniors in their 70s and 80s. Each additional daily cognitive activity delayed dementia by more than two months.
Alzheimer's: Activity helps
Experts estimate that 35.6 million people live with Alzheimer's disease and dementia today, and that number is predicted to double every 20 years. Research shows lifestyle changes can help. Alzheimer's risk was lower in people who coupled physical activity with a Mediterranean-type diet high in fruits, vegetables and fish, and low in red meat and poultry. People who reported "some physical activity" dropped their dementia risk by a range of 29% to 41%; those reporting "much physical activity" had 37% to 50% lower risk.
Exercise for the brain helps, too. A study showed that doing at least one "cognitive activity" every day -- reading, writing, working crossword puzzles, playing board or card games, or participating in group discussions -- helped delay dementia and memory loss in 101 seniors in their 70s and 80s. Each additional daily cognitive activity delayed dementia by more than two months.
Arthritis: Good dental health may ease pain
Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is a chronic disease that causes inflammation, pain, stiffness, redness, swelling and warmth around affected joints. Roughly 1.3 million Americans -- 70% of them are women -- have RA. What causes it? We don't know yet, but we do know that although it can be treated, this chronic disease can't be cured.
Still, there are new ways to help people with RA. One study of 40 people with severe RA who also had gum disease showed that when dental problems were treated, RA problems also improved, resulting in less arthritic pain, fewer swollen joints and reduced morning stiffness.
There's also new hope for the estimated 27 million Americans who have osteoarthritis, or OA, a painful and debilitating condition that causes loss of cartilage in weight-bearing joints such as the knees, hips and spine. People who lost as little as 5% of their body weight reduced their risk of developing OA in the knees, a six-year study of 1,480 men and women age 45 and older found. For a 200-pound person, 5% is only 10 pounds; for a 150-pound person, it's just 7.5 pounds.
Dropping just 5% of your body weight also drops your risk of arthritis.
Osteoporosis: Vitamin D is key
Experts estimate that 10 million Americans -- 8 million women and 2 million men -- already have osteoporosis, and nearly 34 million have low bone mass that puts them at risk of bone loss. New research from Johns Hopkins demonstrates that vitamin D, a supplement recommended by doctors to prevent and treat osteoporosis, delivers an extra benefit: A study of 1,010 men showed that adequate levels of vitamin D not only helps prevent and treat osteoporosis but also may help prevent heart disease. Both men and women can increase their vitamin D levels by eating fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel) and vitamin D-fortified dairy products, taking vitamin D supplements, and briefly exposing skin to sunlight strong enough to enable the body to make vitamin D. A blood test to check your vitamin D level should show that yours is more than 30 nanograms per milliliter.
Exposing skin to sunlight can help the body make vitamin D.
Cholesterol: A cancer link
Need another reason to reduce your cholesterol? How about cutting your risk of cancer? Doctors already recommend keeping your HDL (good) cholesterol high for cardiovascular health. Now, new research links high levels of HDL cholesterol to a 14% lower risk of cancer in men over age 50, and risk of the deadliest type of prostate cancer was 59% lower in men over 55 whose total cholesterol was less than 200 mg/dL.
Heart disease: Skip the salt
The American Heart Association reports that in 2010, heart disease and stroke will cost the United States about $503.2 billion, nearly 6% more than in 2009. Many cases could have been prevented with simple lifestyle changes. One review of 13 studies and 170,000 participants from around the world showed a direct link between high salt consumption and risk of heart disease and stroke. Reducing daily salt intake by 5 grams -- a little less than 1 teaspoon -- would slash stroke risk by 23% and cut cardiovascular disease risk by 17%. Cutting back on sugar would help, too, another study found.
Aging skin: Vitamin C promotes healing
Marketing claims for vitamin C have long promised skin improvements, and now there's scientific support. Researchers found a mechanism by which vitamin C could promote skin healing and protect against free-radical damage, which has been linked to premature aging. They say this discovery suggests that vitamin C could help maintain healthy skin and lead to new products that take advantage of vitamin C's ability to mop up free radicals and undo the DNA damage they cause. For now, use a humidifier to add moisture to the air, and apply moisturizers to help skin look and feel better.
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP