Vegan pasta recipes for National Pasta Day | Vegan

According to TheNibble.com, October 17 is National Pasta Day, giving you a carb-heavy chance to dig your fork into a pasta-centric plate of comfort food. It?s the perfect time to think outside your usual?spaghetti box and make a new pasta recipe. Here are our top vegan pasta picks.

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Vegan pasta recipes

Pasta sauce recipes

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Source: http://vegan.sheknows.com/2012/10/15/vegan-pasta-recipes-for-national-pasta-day/

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An Interview with HELLBOUND?'s Screenwriter Kevin Miller ...

Vancouver-based screenwriter Kevin Miller (No Intelligence Allowed, with Ben Stein; Sex+Money, spOILed, With God On Our Side) is back with HELLBOUND?, a whole new documentary that explores today?s highly contentious debate over the Christian doctrine of hell.

HELLBOUND? features interviews with an eclectic group of authors, theologians, pastors, social commentators, musicians, exorcists and other high profile participants in the debate.

?Throughout history, Christians have disagreed about pretty much everything,? says Miller. ?With every debate, particular doctrines become a litmus test to determine ?insiders? and ?outsiders.? That?s certainly the case right now regarding the doctrine of hell. HELLBOUND? is my attempt to get to the bottom of the current debate, to find out why challenges to the traditional ?fire and brimstone view? are so contentious and to discover the implications of this dispute for Christians as well as those watching from a distance.?

Miller has no illusions about the controversy this film might cause. ?No matter what you believe about hell, this film is definitely going to push your buttons. But I see that as a healthy thing. Rather than just stir people up though, I hope HELLBOUND? will provoke informed discussion and get people to take a second look at the impact their religious beliefs have on the world at large.?

I had the chance to speak with Kevin Miller to find out more about HELLBOUND?

Felix: Tell us about HELLBOUND?: what inspired you to make this film?

Kevin: Hellbound? is a feature-length documentary that takes a critical look at the traditional Christian doctrine of hell as a place of eternal torment for the wicked. Far from an abstract theological discussion, the film seeks to understand why Christians who challenge the establishment view get into so much hot water, and how our view of hell affects the kind of world we create.

I was inspired to make the film back in the fall of 2008 when I edited a book called Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem by Abbotsford author Brad Jersak. That experience opened me up to the fascinating conversation the church has been having about this issue over the past two millennia. Some people would have you believe that the Bible teaches one and only one thing about hell, and that the church has been united around this view from the beginning. This is a total misrepresentation of church history. The fact is, there has always been three main interpretations of hell: 1) Infernalism, eternal torment for the wicked, 2) Annihilationism, the idea that the wicked won?t be punished forever but rather extinguished for eternity and 3) Universalism, the idea that all people will ultimately be reconciled to God?even though some or all of us will have to ?go through hell? to get there. Clearly, at some point in history Infernalism became the dominant view within the Western Church. But a growing number of Christians are questioning whether that pride of place is deserved. Hellbound? documents this debate to see if a case can be made for a form of Christianity that doesn?t include hell?at least not in the way hell is popularly conceived.

Felix: Are you a religious person yourself? Is there a message behind the film?

Kevin: Yes, I would consider myself a Christian. However, whenever I take on that label I feel an increasing need to qualify it somehow, because the word ?Christian? is like a suitcase?you can pack anything into it you like. So I will say this: To me the term ?Christian? doesn?t mean being part of an exclusivist tribe. Rather, it means emulating the life and teachings of Jesus. The core of that is loving God, loving my neighbor?and my enemy?as myself, and a complete abdication of violence.

In terms of the film?s message, I would say it?s a call away from a rigid, fear-driven form of religion, because I think this form of belief?often called ?fundamentalism??is one of the most significant problems we face in the world today. Instead, we are calling people into humble dialogue with each other. Rather than demonizing or ostracizing those who disagree with us, we encourage people to adopt an open, listening stance. None of us has the corner on the truth, so we all benefit when we tackle such issues from a variety of perspectives.

Felix: Any challenges or surprises that occurred while the film was being shot?

Kevin: Making a documentary is always tremendously challenging, because unlike a feature film, nothing is scripted. You are always capturing events as they happen, and the outcome is always in question. Even in a sit-down interview situation where you can control a number of variables, the one thing you can?t control is how the subject responds to your questions, so you have to be on your toes at all times recognizing opportunities and capturing them as they occur.

That said, probably the most challenging shoot for us was filming the tenth anniversary memorial of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. Due to terrorist threats, the city was in total lockdown mode, so maneuvering around the city was almost impossible. At one point I thought that entire shoot would be in jeopardy. But somehow we found a way past the bomb-sniffing dogs, armored personnel carriers and machine gun-wielding police and into a spot where we could capture the raw emotion of that day. It was a very powerful experience.

Felix: Most of your films are documentaries. Is there any other genres of film you would be interested in developing?

Kevin: I actually started out like a lot of screenwriters do, dreaming of one day landing a job on a big studio film. So I spent many years chasing that dream. And I still think about it sometimes. But when the top jobs in Hollywood including adapting popular board games into big budget action movies, I have to say my enthusiasm has waned considerably. Also, now that I?ve had a taste of directing?and, more importantly, producing?I think I?d like to pursue opportunities to write and produce some of my own indie features. Possibly direct as well, but I know too many people who are way more qualified for that job than I am. That said, I enjoy making documentaries, so I will continue to do that as well.

Felix: What kind of feedback have you received from HELLBOUND? Have you received any ?threats? from religious radicals?

Kevin: No threats, thankfully, although that possibility has been raised in several interviews. Overall, the reaction has been very positive. Perhaps our most significant negative review came from the bastion of the Protestant Christian establishment, Christianity Today. But that?s expected when you make a movie that questions the status quo. As I?ve traveled across the US doing Q&A screenings in various cities, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive so far. The same goes for reviews. I?ve been surprised and delighted by positive reviews in Variety, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Huffington Post and even the horror movie web site shockya.com. It?s encouraging to see the film touching a nerve across a vast cross-section of people.

Felix: Being from Abbotsford, BC. When you are not writing or directing, what?s your favorite thing to do in BC?

Kevin: I travel a lot, so when I?m home, I love spending time with my wife Heidi and our four kids. However, I also make hockey a regular part of my weekly schedule. And the ultimate thing for me to do in BC is hike in our lovely mountains during the summer and snowshoe them in the winter. One of my favorite spots is the series of peaks near where the Coquihalla tollbooth used to be.

Felix: If you weren?t making movies, what do you think you would be doing for a career instead?

Kevin: I would be teaching at a university, likely in the area of philosophy or theology. I love big ideas, and I love talking and writing about them even more. So that would have been an ideal alternate career path for me.

Felix: Is there any advice you can give to aspiring directors/screenwriters?

Kevin: Don?t give up. The fall of 2008 when I edited Brad Jersak?s book was a very dark time for me. Two film projects had fallen through one after the other, and literally overnight, I found myself unemployed for the first time in my adult life. I thought my fledgling film career was already over, and I scrambled to find any sort of work to pay the bills. At the same time, I kept putting my name out there, hoping that something would come through. Believe it or not, six months later I found myself involved in not one but five film projects all at once. In fact, I was so busy I thought I was going to lose my mind. So when they say it?s always darkest before the dawn, I have to agree. If I had given up that fall, there?s no way I?d be doing what I am today.

Felix: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me.

HELLBOUND?, is now playing at participating theatres. Check your local listings.

Felix Kay,
Follow Felix on Twitter: @TheFelixKay

Source: http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/10/an-interview-with-hellbounds-screenwriter-kevin-miller/

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Fewer qualms for gun-rights groups over Romney now

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Gun-rights groups perceive President Barack Obama as a threat to unfettered access to firearms. They once had qualms about Mitt Romney, too.

But times and circumstances have changed for Romney, the GOP presidential nominee now in tune with the National Rifle Association and similar organizations, whose members are motivated voters.

In the tight White House race, every bit of support helps, especially in the most closely contested states and particularly from groups that claim millions of members nationwide.

Romney's prior embrace of weapon-control proposals had put him crossways with the NRA and others. These days, Romney is on their good side by opposing renewal of a federal ban on semiautomatic weapons, additional regulations on gun shows and suggested federal gun registration requirements.

The NRA and some less prominent organizations are spending big money on mailings, radio ads, TV commercials and booths at game fairs to promote the former Massachusetts governor and portray Obama as hostile to gun rights.

Gun groups are an important part of an outdoor enthusiast network that neither side is willing to concede.

There are "Sportsmen for Romney" and "Sportsmen for Obama," all playing to the largely male hook-and-bullet crowd that is protective of recreational passions. Neither candidate is considered an avid outdoorsman, though each has made mention of fishing rods or been photographed casting a line.

Romney and his allies underscore his hands-off stance when it comes to guns, and say he would move to open more public land to hunting. They also promote the bona fides of running mate Paul Ryan, who has a permit for just about every season in Wisconsin, his home state.

Last month, Ryan reminded a gathering of sportsmen in Ohio of the hours he has logged in duck blinds, deer stands, pheasant fields and fishing boats. Then came his critique of Obama: "I wonder, I shudder as a gun owner, seeing his record when he was in the Illinois state Senate, what would he do if he never has to face the voters ever again?"

It's the type of message that resonates with voters such as Stan Glover of Bowerston, Ohio. Glover said Romney's past stands gave him pause, but he's more nervous about Obama.

"The uncertainty of politics in Washington, as regards hunters/gun owner rights, has caused undue fear amongst folks that enjoy the shooting sports," said Glover, a manufacturing plant sales director who plans to vote for Romney.

The Obama campaign emphasizes steps by his administration to promote habitat conservation, set aside land and preserve access to land used for recreation. Supporters point to Obama's "American Great Outdoors Initiative" to coordinate conservation and natural resource efforts in all 50 states, whether it's restoring wetlands in Iowa's duck-rich Prairie Pothole Region or filtering phosphorous harmful to fish and fowl in Grand Lake St. Marys in Ohio.

For Obama, minimizing Romney's apparent advantage among voters who place a premium on outdoors issues is the name of the game.

In Iowa and elsewhere, that task falls to people such as Dick Dearden. He's a Democratic state senator and leader of a group of pro-Obama outdoors enthusiasts working to combat negative portrayals of the incumbent among the shotgun crowd.

"The president is not a threat to people who hunt and fish. He's an asset," Dearden said. "I'm a member of the NRA and they are beginning to more and more embarrass me. I'm a Second Amendment person, but I have not seen anything this president has done for the last four years that has hurt anyone's Second Amendment rights."

Obama's campaign highlights a law he signed in his first year as president that allows people with weapons permits to bring loaded guns into national parks and wildlife refuges. The change drew rebukes from gun-control advocates.

But groups working to defeat Obama sound alarms about his support of reinstating an assault weapons ban if one made it through Congress. They also are stoking fears that the president would use a second term to appoint federal judges with restrictive views toward gun ownership. The Supreme Court has been closely divided in recent gun cases, and the balance could shift if Obama had the chance to pick any new justices.

Romney told the leader of the NRA's lobbying arm in a question-and-answer piece published last month that he would appoint "wise, experienced and restrained judges" and fill his Cabinet with "people who agree that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual right."

His own views have evolved from when he ran for the Senate and was governor in Massachusetts. In his failed 1994 Senate campaign he backed a waiting period on gun sales and an assault weapons ban that he said were "not going to make me the hero of the NRA." As governor, he signed a state-level assault weapons ban that he argued was part of a brokered deal between the sides in the gun debate.

In the NRA interview published in September, Romney unequivocally opposed new gun restrictions, including one on semiautomatic weapons. "I do not support any additional laws to restrict the right to keep and bear arms," he said. The group endorsed him in Virginia in early October and has since reserved more than $1.3 million in TV ad time in in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, acknowledged some hesitancy about Romney but said gun-rights activists were mollified by his selection of Ryan as a running mate.

"It created a lot more willingness to pull his lever, and at least some enthusiasm," Pratt said. "Ryan is at least one of us."

___

Associated Press writer Mitch Stacy in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fewer-qualms-gun-rights-groups-over-romney-now-120225900--election.html

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PA GOP to allow fracking on college campuses (Americablog)

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Scientists discover that shape matters in DNA nanoparticle therapy

Saturday, October 13, 2012
This illustration depicts DNA molecules (light green), packaged into nanoparticles by using a polymer with two different segments. One segment (teal) carries a positive charge that binds it to the DNA, and the other (brown) forms a protective coating on the particle surface. By adjusting the solvent surrounding these molecules, the Johns Hopkins and Northwestern researchers were able to control the shape of the nanoparticles. The team?s animal tests showed that a nanoparticle?s shape could dramatically affect how effectively it delivers gene therapy to the cells. The cartoon images in the foreground, obtained though computational modeling, matched closely with the gray background images, which were collected through transmission electron microscopy. Credit: Credits: Wei Qu, Northwestern University, simulation cartoons; Xuan Jiang, Johns Hopkins University, microscopic images

Researchers from Johns Hopkins and Northwestern universities have discovered how to control the shape of nanoparticles that move DNA through the body and have shown that the shapes of these carriers may make a big difference in how well they work in treating cancer and other diseases.

This study, to be published in the Oct. 12 online edition of the journal Advanced Materials, is also noteworthy because this gene therapy technique does not use a virus to carry DNA into cells. Some gene therapy efforts that rely on viruses have posed health risks.

"These nanoparticles could become a safer and more effective delivery vehicle for gene therapy, targeting genetic diseases, cancer and other illnesses that can be treated with gene medicine," said Hai-Quan Mao, an associate professor of materials science and engineering in Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering.

Mao, co-corresponding author of the Advanced Materials article, has been developing nonviral nanoparticles for gene therapy for a decade. His approach involves compressing healthy snippets of DNA within protective polymer coatings. The particles are designed to deliver their genetic payload only after they have moved through the bloodstream and entered the target cells. Within the cells, the polymer degrades and releases DNA. Using this DNA as a template, the cells can produce functional proteins that combat disease.

A major advance in this work is that Mao and his colleagues reported that they were able to "tune" these particles in three shapes, resembling rods, worms and spheres, which mimic the shapes and sizes of viral particles. "We could observe these shapes in the lab, but we did not fully understand why they assumed these shapes and how to control the process well," Mao said. These questions were important because the DNA delivery system he envisions may require specific, uniform shapes.

To solve this problem, Mao sought help about three years ago from colleagues at Northwestern. While Mao works in a traditional wet lab, the Northwestern researchers are experts in conducting similar experiments with powerful computer models.

Erik Luijten, associate professor of materials science and engineering and of applied mathematics at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-corresponding author of the paper, led the computational analysis of the findings to determine why the nanoparticles formed into different shapes.

"Our computer simulations and theoretical model have provided a mechanistic understanding, identifying what is responsible for this shape change," Luijten said. "We now can predict precisely how to choose the nanoparticle components if one wants to obtain a certain shape."

The use of computer models allowed Luijten's team to mimic traditional lab experiments at a far faster pace. These molecular dynamic simulations were performed on Quest, Northwestern's high-performance computing system. The computations were so complex that some of them required 96 computer processors working simultaneously for one month.

In their paper, the researchers also wanted to show the importance of particle shapes in delivering gene therapy. Team members conducted animal tests, all using the same particle materials and the same DNA. The only difference was in the shape of the particles: rods, worms and spheres.

"The worm-shaped particles resulted in 1,600 times more gene expression in the liver cells than the other shapes," Mao said. "This means that producing nanoparticles in this particular shape could be the more efficient way to deliver gene therapy to these cells."

The particle shapes used in this research are formed by packaging the DNA with polymers and exposing them to various dilutions of an organic solvent. DNA's aversion to the solvent, with the help of the team's designed polymer, causes the nanoparticles to contract into a certain shape with a "shield" around the genetic material to protect it from being cleared by immune cells.

###

Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu

Thanks to Northwestern University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124446/Scientists_discover_that_shape_matters_in_DNA_nanoparticle_therapy_

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Meningitis outbreak toll: 184 cases in 12 states

An outbreak of fungal meningitis has been linked to steroid shots for back pain. The medication, made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts, has been recalled.

Latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Illnesses: 184

Deaths: 14

States: 12; Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/outbreaks/meningitis.html

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-10-12-Meningitis%20Outbreak-Toll/id-d2d9dda0af0248e0a7bda13374f9083b

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Holiday sales critical for Nokia after weak quarter

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia is expected to report another quarterly loss next week, raising the stakes for its holiday-season sales battle with smartphone rivals Apple and Samsung.

The new top-of-the-range Lumia 820 and 920 smartphones that are vital to Nokia's survival arrive in stores in November, just as people start buying presents for Christmas and other holidays.

Powered by Microsoft's Windows software, they face tough competition from Apple's new iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy SIII.

Analysts said Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop will need to set out a convincing marketing strategy for the Lumia phones, including more details on sales partnerships with mobile network operators, when the company announces its results on October 18.

Once the world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia fell behind rivals in smartphones and has racked up more than 3 billion euros in operating losses in the last 18 months.

The Finnish company is pinning its hopes on a partnership with Microsoft to use its Windows software which powers around just 3 percent of the global smartphone market, compared with Google's Android which has cornered two-thirds of the market.

Most analysts have written off Nokia's third quarter as a weak one, without the new Lumia models to help compensate for a drop in sales of older models with running its legacy Symbian software.

"So we're looking at a sort of vacuum in Q3. In addition to that, you have the Symbian volumes coming down very rapidly," said Swedbank analyst Hakan Wranne, who has a "buy" rating on the stock.

On average, analysts forecast Nokia to post an underlying operating loss of 320 million euros ($414 million) from its handset business, according to a Reuters poll.

On a group level the net loss is expected to surge to 780 million euros, or 21 cents per share, from 68 million euros, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier.

WOBBLY START

Nokia's shares have risen more than 45 percent from a year-low of 1.33 euros in July and some analysts say even modest sales success for the new Lumia phones could lift shares higher. They are still down around 70 percent since the Microsoft deal in February 2011.

"If they manage to take say 5 percent of the smartphone market and show just half-decent margins... well then the stock looks attractive at current levels," said Wranne who has a target price of 2.80 euros on Nokia shares.

Nokia's Windows phones are forecast to have made up about 2 percent of global smartphone sales in the third quarter.

If Nokia fails to show Lumia volumes picking up by early next year, many investors and analysts have said the company may need to change its strategy -- as well as its leader.

Of 30 analysts surveyed by Reuters, nine had a "sell" rating on the stock and seven had a "buy." The rest recommended a "hold".

The Lumia phones had a wobbly launch in September, disappointing investors who complained about a lack of detail on pricing and partnerships with the network operators that distribute and subsidize phones.

The company has since announced a partnership with AT&T in the United States and some prices in Europe, but analysts said Elop needs to convince investors it has the right partnerships and sales incentives in place to promote Lumia phones.

"It will be a tough proposition," said James Crawshaw, analyst at S&P Capital IQ Equity, who rates the stock a "hold".

Another concern is that Nokia may run out of cash. Its cash position is forecast to fall to 3.4 billion euros at the end of the third quarter from 4.2 billion three months earlier.

Nokia has been cutting spending and selling assets such as its Vertu luxury handset division. It is also considering selling and leasing back its waterfront headquarters in Espoo, a short drive from Helsinki.

Spreads on Nokia's bonds show many investors are wary. Five-year credit default swaps on Nokia's debt have climbed to 1,068 points, implying a probability of default around 61 percent.

($1=0.7726 euros)

(Additional reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/holiday-sales-critical-nokia-weak-quarter-134706260--finance.html

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Santander pulls out of $2.7 billion UK RBS branches deal

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What is Hadopi? And why does it matter? ? Slaw

Yesterday, my partner Anne-Sylvie Vassenaix-Paxton gave a talk to ALAI Canada (L?Association Litt?raire et Artistique Internationale) on the impact the new French HADOPI laws no. 1 and 2, have had on peer to peer file sharing and protection of personal data under French law.

The acronym stands for the Haute Autorit? pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet (HADOPI), a body which co-ordinates a variety of legal measures against illegal downloading including sanctions against parents of downloaders.

Two points are interesting from a North American perspective. The French Constitutional Council threw out a draft of the law on the basis that it did not sufficiently respect the privacy rights of users, and secondly the immediate resort to penal sanctions. This may be soft law, but with heavy enforcement. It is frankly doubtful which other countries would follow this policy direction.

Here are Anne-Sylvie's slide points ? even PowerPoint tells a story:

Introduction
Internet piracy was on the rise in France

Estimated impact of piracy on the entertainment sector as a whole in 2007 (report by the French National Assembly):

?1.2 billion
?605m ? for the video production
?369m for the music industry
?147m for the book industry
loss of approximately 5,000 jobs
2,400 lost jobs for the video production industry
1,600 lost for the music industry
750 lost for the book industry

Massive illegal downloading over peer-to-peer sharing networks ? Napster, MegaUpload, etc.

Legal framework before Hadopi laws was strong but mostly ineffective

Criminal penalties incurred for copyright infringement under article L. 335-2 of the French Intellectual Property Code (IPC))

?300,000 fine

3 years imprisonment

Criminal proceedings and associated penalties were disproportionate when applied to mass illegal downloading

Legislative background to Hadopi laws

two objectives

To put an end to the illegal peer-to-peer sharing of creative works over the Internet
To encourage the development of legal content available for download

September 2007

Launch of a consultation process between (i) professionals in the music, film and media industries and (ii) Internet Service Providers (ISP)
Drafting of the ??Olivennes report??

The outcome

The ?Elysee Agreement? (November 23, 2007)
List of measures for the development and protection of creative works and cultural programmes on the new networks

1. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
A controversial bill partly censored by the Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel)

Inspired by the Olivennes report

Creation of a new independent administrative body

?The High Authority for the Dissemination of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet? (Haute Autorit? pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet (HADOPI))

Intended to deal with the protection of online works of arts
Has the power to recommend legislative and/or regulatory changes
May be consulted by the government when drafting bills and/or decrees involving the protection of literary and artistic works

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
New anti-piracy scheme

?The progressive response? or ?three strikes and you?re out?

Progressive warning procedure for Internet users who have engaged in illegal online file-sharing

(i) 1st strike: e-mail message to the Internet user

(ii) 2nd strike: registered letter with return receipt requested sent to the Internet user

(iii) 3rd strike: suspension of Internet access for a 3 to 12 months period
I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
Annulment by the French Constitutional Council of the repressive provisions of the ?progressive response? (decision of June 10, 2009)

Disproportionate infringement of the freedom of expression and communication (Article 11 of the French Human Rights Declaration)

Only a judicial authority can suspend Internet access, not an administrative body as freedom of speech implies access to online communication services
Need to distinguish the warning phase (HADOPI) and the sanctions (Criminal Courts)

Infringement of the presumption of innocence

Burden of proof should not lie on the Internet subscriber who should not be required to demonstrate that he is not responsible for the alleged piracy

(iii) Infringement of Internet subscribers? privacy rights

Warnings issued on the basis of personal data collected and processed by sworn agents (representing copyright holders). The transmission of personal data to HADOPI is an unwarranted infringement of Internet subscribers? privacy rights

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
The main measures of the amended version of the Hadopi #1 law

Law of educational value (enacted June 12, 2009)

Objectives given to the HADOPI authority (articles L. 331-12 et seq. IPC)

the ??encouragement of the development of the legal offer on the Internet??
the ??protection of works to which a copyright or related right is attached against any infringement??
the ??regulation of the uses of the technical measures of protection and information??

Implement the preliminary phase of the so-called ?progressive response? (warnings)

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
The warning phase

Investigations by the HAPODI through sworn and accredited agents responsible for:
collecting from ISPs the identity, postal address, e-mail address and phone numbers of the Internet subscriber
and distribution of rights societies
industry defence bodies

HADOPI?s sworn and accredited agents are appointed by:
industry rights defense organizations
rights distribution societies
National Cinema Center (Centre national de la Cin?matographie)

The Authority, through its Rights Protection Committee (RPC), composed of three magistrates, examines the facts and, if appropriate, warns the Internet subscribers

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
Warnings procedure (article L. 331-25 of the IPC)
First warning
by email
Second warning
by email and by registered letter with return receipt requested
in case of repeated acts constituting a breach,
6 months after sending the first warning

Warnings? content (identical for both warnings)
Information relating to:
The Internet?s subscriber?s duty to monitor his Internet access, to ensure that it is not used for any copyright infringement (article L.336-3 of the IPC)
the existence of securitization measures to prevent a breach of this duty
the penalties incurred
the legal offer of online cultural content

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
Involvement of the Courts (article L. 336-2 of the IPC)

Competent jurisdiction
The Court of First Instance (?Tribunal de Grande Instance?)

Power
To order any measures likely to prevent or terminate any copyright infringement

Request can be made by:
rightholders
rights collection and distribution societies
industry defense bodies

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
Conditions of referral to the HADOPI (article R. 331-35 of the IPC; decree dated March 5, 2010)

List of bodies which can make referrals to the RPC via their sworn agents (L. 331-24 IPC):
Industry defense bodies
rights collection and distribution societies
the Centre national de la cin?matographie

An individual rights holder cannot make a claim directly to the HADOPI

The RPC may also act based on the basis of information provided by the Prosecutor?s Office

To be admissible, referrals made to the RPC must provide information on the acts likely to constitute a breach (date and time of the acts), the IP address of the Internet subscriber concerned, etc.

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
Referral should be accompanied by:
a ?sworn declaration that the author of the referral has standing to act in the name of the holder of the rights over the protected work or materials concerned? (article R. 331-35 of the IPC)

Referrals cannot be made based on acts dating back more than 6 months

Upon receipt of the referral, the RPC will acknowledge receipt by electronic mail
If the referral is not processed within 2 months from that, the HADOPI is required to delete the personal data provided with the referral

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?

New obligations for ISPs

Duty to inform Internet subscribers (in their subscription contract):

of their duty to monitor their internet access
of the measures that can be taken by the RPC
of the civil and criminal sanctions incurred in case of copyright infringement
of the existence of security means to prevent a breach of their duty to monitor

Duty to communicate contact information of alleged infringers (names, postal adresses, e-mail addresses, etc.) (decree of July 26, 2010)

to members of the RPC
in case of alleged copyright infringement

I. Hadopi #1 or the ??law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the Internet ?
Promotion of legal content available for download over the Internet

Creation of a legal framework for online editors

Creation of a ??Music Card?? (Decree of October 25, 2010)
card specially dedicated to young people aged between 12 and 25
can purchase 50 euros worth of music for half price by choosing from a list of platforms and online services associated with the project
government subsidized card

Shortening of media release windows
After a theatrical release, a movie should be available:
on Video (DVD / video on demand): 4 months later
On pay TV: 10 months later
On free television: 22 months later

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the law for the criminal protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?
Enactement of a new statute (Hadopi II) (October 28, 2009)

As a result of and in response to the decision of the Conseil constitutionnel

Implementation of the repressive provisions of the ??graduated response?? mechanism (i.e suspension of internet access)

Delegation of the sanctionning power to a judicial authority rather than an administrative body

Balance between education and repression

Preventive and repressive measures adapted to the specific handling of a massive phenomenon of unlawful downloading over the Internet

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the internet?under criminal law?
New additional penality: suspension of internet access

Article L. 335-7 of IPC
Copyright infringement is punishable by a ??suspension of access to a public communication service for a maximum period of one year??

May be imposed only by Criminal Courts taking into account:

the circumstances and the seriousness of the offenses
the personality of the perpetrator, his professional activity and his socio-economic situation

Possibility in some cases to impose the additional penalty as the main penalty

Internet subscribers must continue to pay their subscription to the ISP during the suspension period

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?

Tortious cases (Article L. 335-7-1 of the IPC)

In addition to the penalties already incurred for copyright infringement:
?300,000 fine
3 years imprisonment
Suspension of Internet access for up to 1 year

Criminal Courts Courts have significant leeway in assessing the tortuous act which has been committed and the quantum of damages

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?
Misdemeanour cases (Article L. 335-7 of the IPC; Article R. 335-5 of the IPC)

New 5th class misdemeanour (contravention de 5?me classe):
?1,500 fine
suspension of Internet access for up to 1 month

Punishement for characterized negligence in connection with illegal dowloading

Penalty associated to the duty to monitor Internet access :

the person holding the access to public online communication services finds himself ?without legitimate cause? in one of the following two situations:

?has failed to put in place means of securing such access? or
?has failed to use diligence in implementing these means?.

Passive behaviour of the Internet user who has not himself committed an act of unlawful dowloading

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the internet ?
Procedures leading to the penalty being imposed

New judicial police functions of the RPC (Article L. 331-21-1 of IPC)
to identify the facts likely to constitute a copyright infringement
to obtain observations of the alleged infringers in writing or at a hearing
(but no coercive power to summon)

Transmission to the Prosecutor?s Office of the files

Additional investigations by the Prosecutor?s Office possible but the Prosecutor?s Office is encouraged to decide whether to prosecute on the sole basis of the elements provided by the RPC

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?
Suspension on a misdemeanour basis

Warnings sent but despite such warnings, the offender has not installed means to secure his Internet access

PRC members will decide if the facts contained in the file constitute the offense of characterized negligence, in which case they will refer the file to the Prosecutor?s Office

If the Prosecutor?s Office prosecutes the Internet subscriber, the Police Court (?Tribunal de Police?) will be responsible for determining whether the offense has indeed been committed
II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?

2) Suspension on a tortious basis

Introduction of simplified and quicker proceedings
ensuring the speed of the criminal response

Prominent role of the evidence collected by the RPC

The Court cannot impose a prison sentence in this type of simplified proceedings
Maximum penalty: ? 300,000 fine and suspension of Internet access for a period of 1 year

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?
Copyright offense may be heard by a ??tribunal correctionnel?? sitting in a single-judge formation

Before: only collegiate formation

Article 398-1 of the French Criminal Procedure Code (CPC)

Decision on the basis of the evidence produced by the Prosecutor?s Office, without the defendant appearing in court

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?
ii. Copyright offense can be prosecuted under the ex-parte summary judgment procedure (??ordonnance p?nale??)

Article 495-1 (2) of the CPC: ?The President shall adjudicate without prior debate through a criminal order in summary judgment imposing dismissal or a fine as well as, if applicable, one or more additional penalties?

No due hearing of the defendant

Becomes res judicata if the defendant, on whom the order has been notified, does not oppose it within a period of 45 days

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the internet?under criminal law?
Implementation of the Internet access suspension penalty and control thereof by the HADOPI

Prominent role of the RPC

Informed and a recipient of all enforceable decisions including an Internet access suspension penalty (Articles R. 331-44 and R. 331-45 of the IPC)
Responsible for implementing such penalties and ensuring due compliance

RPC will inform the ?person whose activity it is to provide access to public online communication services of the suspension penalty imposed against its subscriber? (Article R. 331-46of the IPC)

In turn, the ISP will inform the RPC of the ?date when the suspension period began?
(Article R. 331-46 of the IPC)

II. Hadopi #2 or ??the criminal law for the protection of artistic and literary works on the Internet ?
Failure to comply for the ISP with the suspension decision

Punishable by a ?5,000 fine

Non-compliance with the injunction not to take out a new Internet subscription

Tortious basis

Punishable by a ?30,000 fine and 2 years imprisonment (Article 434-1 of the French Criminal Code)

ii. Misdemeanour basis

Punishable by a ?3, 750 fine (Article L. 335-7-1 of the IPC)

Conclusion

Studies show a clear downward trend in illegal peer-to-peer downloads
Drop of approximately 43% in the illegal sharing of works on peer-to-peer networks in France over the year 2011(study by Peer Media Technologies)

No indication that there has been a massive transfer to streaming technologies

Too early to assess the impact of MegaUpload shutdown in January 2012

At the same time, a wide range of legal content offers has been made available

Dissuasive effect of the progressive response process:

95% of those having received a first-time notice do not need to be sent a second notice for illegal behaviour on peer-to-peer networks
71% of peer-to-peer users surveyed indicate that they would stop downloading ilegal content if they received a warning from the HADOPI

After 18 months in operationg, the HADOPI has:
Sent 1,150,000 e-mails as first warnings
Sent 105,000 registered letters as second warnings
Submitted 340 cases to the PRC
Transferred 14 files to the Prosecutor?s Office for prosecution.

In September 2012, for the first time, a Criminal Court ordered an Internet user to pas as a deferred sentence a ? 150 fine for not securing his Internet access

One of the future tasks for the HADOPI is to
Set forth measures for better copyright protection in light of an increasing number of ?streaming? sites or direct downloading

Source: http://www.slaw.ca/2012/10/11/what-is-hadopi-and-why-does-it-matter/

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Biden And Ryan Slung Plenty Of ?Malarkey? In VP ... - Yahoo! Finance

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Politics is not generally a fact-based realm, and last night's VP debate was no exception.

According to Robert Farley, the Deputy Managing Editor of FactCheck.org, both Joe Biden and Paul Ryan stretched or stomped all over the truth during the debate.

Related: 2 Debates and No Mention of the Fed: How Is that Possible?

Some of the key fallacies the candidates uttered, Farley writes, included the following:

• Ryan said Obama's proposal to let tax rates rise for high-income individuals would "tax about 53 percent of small-business income." Wrong. Ryan is counting giant hedge funds and thousands of other multimillion-dollar enterprises as "small" businesses.
• Ryan exaggerated the claim that "20 million people...are projected to lose their health insurance if Obamacare goes through." According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it's more likely that 3 million to 5 million Americans would no longer get health insurance through their employers. That number includes individuals who voluntarily chose to drop their employer-provided insurance to obtain coverage from another source. Ryan's 20 million figure came from a 2012 pessimistic scenario that a March 2012 CBO report said relied on extreme assumptions. The optimistic scenario? Work-based coverage increases by 3 million.
• Ryan was wrong when he said a rise in the jobless rate in Biden's hometown was "how it's going all around America." The rate nationally has sunk back to where it was when Obama took office. And in Ryan's hometown, it's more than 4 percentage points lower that it was at the start of Obama's term.
• Ryan claimed the Obama administration spent stimulus money on "electric cars in Finland." Not true. Although the cars have been assembled in Finland, the money went for work in the United States.
• Both Biden and Ryan twisted the facts about Romney's tax plan. Biden misrepresented the findings of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center while Ryan repeated a misleading claim that "six studies have verified" that the plan is mathematically possible.
• Ryan misquoted a Medicare official as saying "one out of six hospitals and nursing homes are going to go out of business" as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Not quite. The official said that many could become "unprofitable," and the the situation could be monitored to head off bad outcomes.
• Ryan was off base when he said of a cost-saving panel created by the Affordable Care Act, "not one of them even has to have medical training." Actually, the board must include physicians and other health care professionals among its members.

You can read the rest of Farley's analysis here.

So, given that politicians routinely play so fast and loose with the truth, is it fair to conclude that Americans just don't really care about the facts?

Farley hopes that's not the case.

SEE ALSO: Here's The Only Moment In The VP Debate That You Have To See

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Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/biden-ryan-slung-plenty-malarkey-vp-debate-160824717.html

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Workday Shares Rise 75 Percent in IPO Debut - Arik Hesseldahl ...

Appetite was strong for shares of Workday, the cloud-based human capital management software company, as it debuted for trading on the New York Stock Exchange today.

The stock priced yesterday at $28 a share, valuing the company at north of $5 billion, and shares opened at $47.05. In late trading, they were around $49, a 75 percent increase.

The debut of the shares culminated a process that began in earnest almost a year ago to the day, when Workday announced that it had raised an $85 million institutional round. It wasn?t long before it was looking for bankers, and eventually settled on Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., who ran the offering.

I got a few minutes with co-CEOs Aneel Bhusri and CFO Mark Peek at the NYSE today, all of them wearing broad smiles. While the company is still technically in a quiet period and thus can?t speak to specific future plans, we did talk generally about what?s next for Workday.

AllThingsD: Let?s talk a little about momentum. I couldn?t help but notice that, at the recent Hewlett-Packard analysts meeting, Meg Whitman mentioned that it has adopted Workday along with Salesforce.com. That sounds like a pretty big customer win for you. Is that an indicator of things to come?

Aneel Bhusri: I think it means that the cloud is mainstream. It?s gone from being a question to being a certainty in customer relationship management (CRM) with Salesforce, and human resources with Workday. And we?re hoping to make that case in finance, as well. And HP is a testament to the fact that the largest companies are now adopting the cloud. It?s now our biggest customer. I think they have more than 300,000 employees. Our biggest before was Flextronics, at about 200,000. There just aren?t many companies that are as big or as global as HP.

How is the financial product? Last we talked about it, it was still an up-and-coming product.

Bhusri: Very well. We still have some work to do to bring it to parity with the legacy systems. Our HR business took off once it hit feature parity with the legacy systems, and I think the same thing will happen with the financial systems. Right now, we?re selling it to more medium companies. There?s a few public companies that are using it now.

And when we talk finance, we?re talking things like a company?s general ledger and things like that?

Bhusri: Yes. It?s a full suite. General ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, assets, purchasing. People don?t buy it in individual pieces anymore, but as a suite.

Let?s talk about Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. He?s been beating up on Workday every chance he gets. Obviously, there?s some history there, since Oracle acquired your previous company, PeopleSoft. What do you think of what he?s been saying? Oracle is also doing a big pivot toward running all its applications in the cloud, and in a mixed on-premise and off-premise manner. What do you think of all this?

Bhusri: First of all, I think it?s great that Oracle is embracing the cloud. I think it makes it easier for the customer. And so is SAP. It?s all good for the customer. We personally don?t believe in the hybrid model. At the end of the day, without a true multi-tenant, one version model, you can?t really solve the pain of the upgrade cycle. With a customer that is hosted, or on-premise, the upgrade path is no different than it was before. We take over all the software upgrades, and that?s where all the cost savings come from. And Salesforce sees it the same way, and so do Amazon and Google.

Obviously, the mixed on-premise and off-premise approach doesn?t work for you. You can?t deliver Workday in a hybrid manner?

Bhusri: We could. We just choose not to, because we don?t think its the right model. It would be very easy to give a customer a copy of our software and let them run it on their own hardware, but the whole beauty of the on-demand model is that the upgrade process is now the domain of the vendor. That is why people are on versions of other software that are three and four versions behind, because they couldn?t get the upgrades done.

What sort of competitive threat do you see coming from Oracle?s Fusion apps? Every Oracle application runs in the cloud now.

Bhusri: Oracle is definitely a formidable competitor. You can see how fast we are growing. I?m not sure that Fusion was ever meant to be a cloud application. Its name comes from ?fusing? Oracle and PeopleSoft and JD Edwards. It was never intended to be a cloud app, but Oracle has the resources to get that done. We see it competitively, but so far it isn?t really slowing us down. The good thing is that the market is going to expand, because no one is waving the flag for on-premise software anymore. I mean, Oracle and SAP have both basically said they?re all in on the cloud. We happen to be the youngest company of the three, but we have the most mature product. We?ve been doing this in the new way for seven years, and they are just getting going.

So, with the caveat that I?m not asking for guidance, where do you want things to be by this time next year?

Mark Peek, CFO: Today, about half of our R&D spend is on the financials product. So we?re really working on expanding the market. We believe there are about 23,000 companies in the world that have 1,000 or more employees. Today, we have 340 of those in HCM (human capital management), and 30-plus in finance. And so our R&D focus is on financial. We want to hit the updates and grow the business in HR, and get additional flagship companies in the financials product, as well. We?re also going to focus a lot on international expansion. About 90 percent of our revenue is from North America, so we?ll want to expand internationally and work with partners who can work on the deployments for us.

Bhusri: We will have done three more updates, and I would like to say a year from now we?ll be showing off a few flagship customers in finance, like we did with HR in Flextronics and Chiquita. We have very good customers in finance right now, but they?re not Fortune 500 customers just yet. Once we have a few, it will be the tipping point for financials going into the cloud, as well.

After HR and finance, is there a third leg to the stool that you want to add down the road?

Bhusri: Down the road, if there?s one area we?re intrigued with, it?s analytics. Anything that ties in to the HR world and the finance world. We?re doing a great job on transactions, and we have our embedded business intelligence. But then there?s this whole data warehouse space that needs to be disrupted, as well. That?s an area on the radar. But for the time being, what we?re doing on in the HR and financial space is going to keep us really busy.

Back to international expansion for a minute. How are you seeing Europe, given all the trouble there?

Bhusri: Our European business, though its growing off a small base, is the fastest-growing piece of our business. I think Europe is going through a tough patch right, now, but in some ways we help them cut costs. It?s not the reason for being, but it?s a benefit that?s helping. In the cloud, we?re about half the cost over a five-year period as the legacy systems. And European customers want the same cost-benefit as the North American ones.

Peek: When the economy is tough is when people tighten their IT budgets, but they are also looking for ways to save money. Back during the recession, we were growing 50 percent. Even though people were taking discretionary money and moving quickly. If they can save money, they will.

Here?s a video of Workday?s bell-ringing ceremony at the NYSE this morning:

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20121012/workday-takes-off-like-a-rocket-and-ceos-like-their-model/

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10 Commonly Made Decorating Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

As I write this piece about decorating mistakes I feel it should be noted that the way we decorate our homes, much as the way we view art is completely subjective. What is visually appealing is not necessarily so to another as beauty indeed is in the eye of the beholder. As I go on to discuss mistakes that should be avoided, we at Freshome never intend to belittle anyone?s taste or style. As we have learned, all decorating rules are meant to be broken. There are a few rules of thumb to be taken into consideration, and this is merely a guide to improve the look, feel and flow of your homes.

1. Size matters!

Furniture can be too small for a space. A larger room needs appropriately sized furniture, or perhaps more of the same furniture that you already have. If you are moving to a larger home, you will need to think about the size and scale of the rooms and the furniture you have, where it will be placed and how you will enhance it if need be. I tend to come from the school where bigger really is better. It makes a statement, can be bold, dramatic and very handsome. Yes, a Grand Steinway can rest comfortably in a smaller room. One simply needs to avoid ?crowding a space. Contrary to what many believe, furniture can make a smaller room feel larger than it is, even that on a larger scale.

2. Who turned the lights out?

Proper lighting is crucial to every room. Natural lighting changes throughout the day and throughout the seasons. Weather can also affect and impact a room?s lighting. Lighting is perhaps one of the most important elements in our homes. I?m a huge fan of lights on dimmers. There are times when we need our rooms brightly lit, and there are times when we want those lights not to be so glaring and jarring, say at the end of the day, or when you want to create a relaxing, more intimate atmosphere such as when you are?entertaining. When thinking of dimmers do not forget bedrooms and bathrooms. Additional light can be layered in with the addition of lamps placed in those area when?additional lighting might be needed, on desks, work tables, near couches and beds. Be careful when working with lamps and think about size. Lamps that are too small look silly, out of balance, and most importantly won?t give you adequate light for your particular space.

3. On matching?

Everything need not match! Rooms benefit from the extra texture, pattern and color from other like items. When additional patterns and colors are brought in, a rooms gains depth and dimension. Try to avoid two couches with the same color and pattern, instead have two coordinating patterns, or one with a pattern and one that?s solid. If you do opt for solid colored couches, such as white, add some throw pillows, blankets and rugs to create an opulent palate. The above photo may not be your taste, but is an example of how the use of different colors and textures to pull a space together.

4. Test it out!

Test out your colors before you begin painting. Paints, while?accurately labeled on the cans can look vastly different once up on the walls. A paint color can vary from room to room and changes throughout the day as natural lighting constantly changes. The best thing to do is to pick up some trial sizes in similar hues (at least one shade darker and one shade lighter) and paint it on a large spot in the room of choice. Another option is to take a large piece of cardboard and paint directly on to the cardboard. The cardboard can then be moved from room to room. You may decide that instead of a the blue you?ve chosen looks much better in your dining room space than in the living room where you had originally imagined it. These extra steps are worth the effort and can end up saving you a great deal of time and money in the long-run.??

5. Cheap and inexpensive do not mean the same thing!

We all want to save a dime and there?s absolutely nothing wrong with shopping for sales and looking for bargains. Shopping for and decorating our homes is an expensive adventure. But you never want to skip corners and skimp on quality. Don?t buy the cheaper couch simply because it is cheaper. The money you save now won?t matter a difference when you have to replace the couch in 5 years because the material has not held up or the frame is weakening and about to give. Always buy the best that you can afford and if it means saving up for it do. The quality will be worth the wait.

6. More is not merrier.

There is no need to showcase all your belongings in one space. This can give your room an overcrowded and cluttered look which can have a very distracting and effect and one that is not at all restful and relaxing. If you have collections, place them throughout the home and group them together, like with like. If your space does start to become cluttered, pack some items away and rotate them in at a later time. This can help keep your space fresh.

7. Take measure.

As mentioned earlier size matters. While furniture that is too small can throw off the scale of the room and seem silly, you also want to measure your space to make sure that there is room for everything so that there is room for traffic to flow freely around the space. Furthermore, if you are moving in to a new home or are thinking about ordering new furniture you will want to be certain it will all fit. Imagine ordering a new couch or armoir only to have it not fit through a doorway or stairwell. When measuring a space don?t forget to think about height!

8. Back away from the walls!

Many people have a tendency to automatically place their furniture up against walls. Couches should be brought in slightly if a room is smaller, and more if a room is larger. The goal is to create an intimate space where people can gather, while allowing for flow. Above the dining room table and chairs are in the center of the room and the two chairs to the front of the room are brought away from the windows, just slightly to establish a feeling of intimacy, warmth and inclusion.

9. Don?t listen to your mother-in-law!

The way you decorate your home should reflect your interests, passions, style, past, present and future. Don?t let anyone impose their taste and style on you. If you need help solicit a decorator but leave well-meaning friends and family our of the picture. It?s?OK?to say no to their suggestions as well as to any piece of furniture they may want to unload on you that?s not to your liking!

10. Don?t lose focus.

This can often happen in larger rooms. Before you decorate, or re-decorate, walk around the room and designate one central focal point. Perhaps it?s a fireplace or an over-sized bay window overlook a lush and lavish back yard. Start by placing the furniture around that focal point and work out. ?The room above is a good example of just what to do. Here too, you will see the furniture is not flush with the walls and the matching white couches are given depth with coordinating patterns and fabrics of the couches and curtains. The zebra print stool introduces new color, texture and pattern while pulling everything together. The furniture is proportionate, and a sense of flow has been created. In much larger rooms, there may be a need for two focal points and two separate entertaining areas.

I?ve mentioned 10 potential disasters, but there are more. What are some things that I have not touched on that you think should be avoided? Do you agree or disagree with the advice I have given?

Source: http://freshome.com/2012/10/10/10-commonly-made-decorating-mistakes-how-to-avoid-them/

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Cervical cancer vaccine in early stages ? The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

The most common sexually transmitted disease is often silent and invisible: human papillomavirus (also called HPV). But in some people HPV leads to genital warts and cancers ? notably, cervical cancer.

The vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix were designed as a prevention for young women who have not yet been exposed to HPV. Men up to age 26 are also eligible for Gardasil to protect against HPV. But there are a lot of people out there who still have HPV, and nothing protects against all 130 strains of the virus. At least half of all sexually active males and females have had HPV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A Pennsylvania start-up company called Inovio Pharmaceuticals has developed an experimental vaccine for people who already have HPV and precancerous lesions that are associated with it. A new study demonstrating the vaccine's safety and potential effectiveness was published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The experimental vaccine does not use the live HPV virus; it is formulated in synthetic DNA and pure water. It uses the immune system of the treated women to fight off cancer, said Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals and study co-author.

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer after breast cancer, with about 493,000 new cases and 274,000 deaths annually, the study said. HPV causes about 5% of cancers globally.

Some women, because of their particular genetic makeup, can clear precancerous lesions on their own and would not need this vaccine. This happens in anywhere from 10% to 25% of women infected with HPV, Kim said.

No one knows why some women have this capability and others do not, but for those who lack it the Inovio vaccine is "giving our immune system a little boost," Kim said.

Eighteen women with high-grade precancerous cervical lesions participated in the phase 1 study.

Study authors say the vaccine is formulated to work against all cancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18, including cervical, anogenital (anal and genital), and head and neck cancers. The researchers did not observe any side effects.

In the next phase of this research 150 women worldwide are participating, but they are not included in these published results, Kim said.

The phase 1 results are very early in the experimentation of this vaccine. The study was not done as a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for determining whether a drug works better than chance. Also, 18 people is a small number for examining the effects of a medication.

Given those drawbacks, it?s not appropriate to draw too many conclusions from this study, says Dr. Diane Harper, a prominent HPV researcher at the University of Missouri ? Kansas City?s School of Medicine. Harper contributed to the studies on both HPV vaccines that are currently available, Cervarix and Gardasil, and is not involved with this research.

?Several therapeutic vaccines have shown great promise in phase 1 and then not panned out in phase 2,? she noted in an e-mail.

The vaccine consists of three injections in the arm over three months, Kim said. The vaccine trains T-cells in the body to go after cervical cells with potentially cancerous genes embedded in them.

Inovio is using this technology to develop vaccines for prostate cancer and HIV also, Kim said.

?We certainly have a technology that can change the medical field by being able to program and generate strong immune responses that are specific and effective,? he said.

Kim said the next phase results should be out at the end of 2013; then comes a larger phase 3 trial with about 500 patients, to be concluded around 2016 or 2017.

HPV is spread through genital contact, including oral sex, and partners can bounce the virus back and forth between them, making it harder to clear naturally. Kissing is not known to deliver this STD.

Source: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/10/cervical-cancer-vaccine-in-early-stages/

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UN envoy calls on Ivory Coast to release probe

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) ? A senior United Nations human rights envoy is calling on Ivory Coast to release the full version of a national probe into last year's post-election violence.

Doudou Diene, the U.N.'s independent expert on human rights in the West African nation, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that publication of the report completed earlier this year by the National Commission of Inquiry was "a condition of reconciliation."

Ivory Coast headed to the brink of civil war after former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat in the November 2010 presidential runoff vote to now-President Alassane Ouattara. The resulting violence, which ended in May 2011, claimed at least 3,000 lives, according to the U.N.

Despite evidence that supporters of both men committed grave crimes during the six-month conflict, only Gbagbo supporters have been charged, sparking allegations of victor's justice.

Gbagbo was transferred late last year to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he awaits trial on charges of crimes against humanity, and in Ivory Coast, more than 100 Gbagbo loyalists have been detained, accused of post-election crimes.

Human rights groups including New York-based Human Rights Watch have accused Ouattara's administration of biased justice. In response to that criticism, government officials had said they were waiting on the report from the National Commission of Inquiry before launching further judicial proceedings.

The report was handed over to Ouattara in August, but a summary version that was made public contained little new information and no names of suspected perpetrators.

In the interview Thursday, Diene, who is wrapping up a 19-day mission focused on impunity for gross human rights violations, said the commission's work would be of little consequence if its complete findings weren't made public.

"For that report to have an impact, it has to be publicized. It has to be part of the national debate of reconciliation, of truth and reconciliation," he said. "The Ivorian population has to know what happened, and to know it from a commission established by the state."

Justice Ministry officials were not available for comment Thursday. But in an interview when the report was released, Human Rights Minister Gnenema Coulibaly expressed reservations about making the full version of the report public, citing concerns about witness protection.

"It will not be totally made public," he said at the time. "We must take into account the security of the people that intervened as witnesses. It won't be a good thing for these persons to be exposed like this."

Matt Wells, West Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that the protection of witnesses who testified before the commission was "paramount," but added that this could be "achieved through the specific redaction of names and identifying information."

"It does not require a public report devoid of all detail about particular events, many of which still divide Ivorians," Wells said. "The Independent Expert is absolutely right that the release of a more comprehensive report would contribute significantly toward victims' right to truth and justice."

Ivory Coast's military tribunal launched the first case stemming from the post-election violence last week, trying five men ? including Gen. Bruno Dogbo Ble, the feared former head of Gbagbo's Republican Guard ? with the kidnapping and murder of a colonel at the height of the violence in March 2011. Cases brought by the civilian prosecutor have yet to begin.

Diene criticized the slow pace of that process, calling for speedy trials of the post-election violence suspects, which include Gbagbo's wife and son and former high-level officials.

"The delay to prosecute them, to judge them, is not normal," Diene said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-envoy-calls-ivory-coast-release-probe-175318366.html

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