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src=http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/b3680077b7a543cdeac959f3dde96d140a8786e0_m.jpg
alt=monstersball_F border=0 width=345 height=480/a/ppvia a
href=http://setediasete.blogspot.com/http://setediasete.blogspot.com//a/p
pa href=http://ffffound.com/image/87244d61030452d7c171b9dd119d7ecf40adf4e3img
src=http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/87244d61030452d7c171b9dd119d7ecf40adf4e3_m.jpg
alt=duras border=0 width=480 height=343/a/ppvia a
href=http://setediasete.blogspot.com/http://setediasete.blogspot.com//a/p
A a href="http://metatalk.metafilter.com/16853/OH-SNAP-LOL"Metatalk Post about someone's birthday/a
included a a href="http://www.metafilter.com/junk/hb-polka.wav"sound file/a that made me think of
the Stock Market Slide. Not this a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/.DJIA/tab/2"one/a, but rather,
a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/12032007/tv/polka_ponzi_puzzle_517221.htm"this one/a. br /
Actually, it wasn't a stock scandal, but aa
href="http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2007/11/28/local_news/19063793.txt" promissory note
scandal/abr / br / a
href="http://www.xomba.com/the_mystery_of_the_polka_king_jan_lewan_documentary_on_court_tv" Death
and tragedy/a also plays a part in the story. Here he is singing a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztlbCyDFlkk"I thank you Jesus/a.
At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never
leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own
rules. nbsp; nbsp; Growing up, Catherine Holt always dreamed of marrying a loving, brave
firefighter...just like her daddy. Now, after seven years of marriage, Catherine wonders when she
stopped being good enough for her husband. nbsp; nbsp; Regular arguments over jobs, finances,
housework, and outside interests have readied them both to move on to something with more sparks.
nbsp; nbsp; As the couple prepares to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb's father challenges his son
to commit to a 40-day experiment: The Love Dare. Wondering if it's even worth the effort, Caleb
agrees-for his father's sake more than for his marriage. When Caleb discovers the book's daily
challenges are tied into his parents' newfound faith, his already limited interest is further
dampened. nbsp; nbsp; While trying to stay true to his promise, Caleb becomes frustrated time and
again. He finally asks his father, How am I supposed to show love to somebody who constantly
rejects me? nbsp; nbsp; When his father explains that this is the love Christ shows to us, Caleb
makes a life-changing commitment to love God. Andówith God's helpóhe begins to
understand what it means to truly love his wife. nbsp; nbsp; But is it too late to fireproof his
marriage? His job is to rescue others. Now Caleb Holt is ready to face his toughest job
ever...rescuing his wife's heart.
Après Seven Nation Army, sa reprise house de White Stripes, le nouveau single de Tomer G, I
Like It, mêlant le riff hypnotique du Smoke On The Water de Deep Purple à des beats
électro, sera-t-il à nouveau un succès ? Découvrez le clip.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the
Taliban if the Afghan government pursued talks to end the seven-year conflict in that country. pa
href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition?a=hwFqM3"img
src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition?i=hwFqM3" border="0"/img/a/p
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the
Taliban if the Afghan government pursued talks to end the seven-year conflict in that country. pa
href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_topstories?a=LDZu7f"img
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href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=7srvM"img
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Personal video startup Seesmic laid off seven employees today, on top of the three
employees it laid off last
month. Seesmic founder and CEO Loic Le Meur explains in a video (embedded below) that the
layoffs were mostly from the product side. September’s layoffs had been primarily on-camera
talent.
Tough times. Tough decisions.also read my blog post
http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/10/tough-times-tou.html
If our counting is right, San Francisco-based Seesmic is now down to about 13 employees. The
company raised
$12 million in funding from Omidyar Network, Wellington Partners, Atomico and individuals.
Le Meur explained that the layoffs were in recognition and anticipation of tough economic times.
It’s a line are all going to be hearing a lot more of in the coming months. Also today Fast
Company, which employs videoblogger Robert Scoble, laid off 20 employees from its
digital arm. Scoble is staying on but will be reporting to a new boss.
pPioneering ecologist Joseph Grinnell in 1914 began a seven year survey of the animals living in
Yosemite National Park in California. Even then, human impacts such as the transformation of the
Central Valley into an agricultural oasis were changing the landscape and the animals who lived
there. a href=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=species-shift-across-yellowstone[More]/a
pFiled under: a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/desktops/" rel="tag"Desktops/a/pdiv
align="center"a
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vspace="4" hspace="4" border="0"
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/10/10-10-08-emachines_el1200.jpg" alt=""
//abr //div Really, a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/eMachines/"eMachines/a? You're honestly
going to give your newest cheap-o PC this kind of tagline? Truth be told, we're not exactly sure
what a standard sized dictionary even looks like (there's this thing called the internet...), but
apparently, it's exactly the same size as the EL1200 desktop. Not sassy enough to be called a a
href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/nettop/"nettop/a, this here mini-tower is 40% smaller and 55%
lighter than the company's second tiniest rig, and while it won't handle the likes of emCrysis/em,
it shouldn't have too many issues surfing the web and opening Word documents. As for specs, we've
got a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon 2650e 64-bit CPU, NVIDIA's GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics, 1GB of DDR2,
160GB hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, 14-in-1 multicard reader, seven USB 2.0 ports and a $298
(MSRP) price tag. That system we just rattled off is available now at Wally World, while a slightly
more stacked edition can be had at Best Buy for $349.h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0;
height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a
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title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa
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It’s time to start slamming the reality of
the Silicon Valley situation home to everyone. Seesmic founder
Loic Le Meur lets
seven employees go, he says,
which is more than a third of the company. This comes on top of three employees let go a couple
of weeks ago.
“We cut everything that wasn’t outsourceable, core or absolutely necessary for the
company.”
Le Meur says the company isn’t in dire financial trouble yet, noting he raised a $6 million
round just a few months ago. But he’s planning for a bleak fundraising future.
I am an investor in the company.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard
because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the
Taliban if the Afghan government pursued talks to end the seven-year conflict in that country. pa
href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition_world?a=z40bzq"img
src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition_world?i=z40bzq" border="0"/img/a/pimg
src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/417279427" height="1" width="1"/
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the
Taliban if the Afghan government pursued talks to end the seven-year conflict in that country. pa
href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_world?a=tQ9a6k"img
src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_world?i=tQ9a6k" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=nXE3M"img
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href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=lIu7M"img
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src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/417278050" height="1" width="1"/
The undisputed NBA franchise is back for its 10th season. Last year, NBA 2K8 was the top selling
basketball game on Xbox 360 and the NBA 2K series has been the #1 rated NBA simulation for seven
years running. NBA 2K9 is the premier basketball game for serious players, and will deliver the
most realistic, stylistic, and feature-rich simulation experience ever available in the NBA 2K
franchise – from game play to graphics, presentation and online
features.
It isn't surprising that the
conventional wisdom is that the news media have turned on Sen. John McCain. After all,
decades of attacks from conservatives have conditioned reporters to believe that they are biased
against Republicans -- even when there is scant evidence in the reporting to support such claims.
And the McCain campaign has launched an all-out assault on the media, complaining relentlessly
about the coverage its candidate has gotten.
On top of all that, McCain historically has been the recipient of the most favorable media
coverage of any politician in modern American history. Reporters spent years all but offering to
peel McCain a grape. So, just as the media judge a candidate to have "won" a debate if s/he
"exceeds expectations," the fact that McCain's coverage hasn't been as hagiographic as expected
has led many to conclude that it has actually been unfairly negative.
The truth is that when John McCain says "jump," the media still ask, "How high?" Think about
this: When was the last time McCain or his campaign has wanted the news media to focus on
something, and they have refused? From "lipstick on a pig" to Bill Ayers, the media have
scampered after whatever mud McCain has flung, like a puppy dog chasing a stick thrown by its
master. Sure, sometimes they have pointed out that McCain is lying -- and that's tremendous
progress for a profession that has spent a decade flatly asserting McCain's honesty. But --
as I've explained in the past -- even as
they've debunked McCain's claims, they've too often privileged the lie by allowing those claims
to drive their coverage.
And, increasingly, they uncritically quote McCain campaign attacks on Sen. Barack Obama for
things McCain himself has done. When a campaign does something like this, the media often point
out the hypocrisy, and the attack backfires. But those rules don't apply to John McCain. So when
John and Cindy McCain attack Barack Obama for what they describe as a vote to "cut off the funds
for the troops," the news mediadutifully repeat the charge -- without
noting that, by the same logic, McCain also voted to cut off funds for the troops: Obama
voted against a funding bill that did not include a timeline for withdrawal; McCain voted against
a bill that did include a timeline for withdrawal.
The funding vote has been the subject of some of McCain's nastiest attacks recently. Cindy
McCain, for example, claimed Obama's "vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold
chill through my body" and lectured: "I would suggest that Senator Obama change shoes with me for
just one day. ... I suggest he take a day and go watch our fine young men and women deploy." You
would think, then, that media reporting Cindy McCain's purported indignation would note that John
McCain also voted against funding. Theyhaven't. Indeed, some have falsely stated the opposite
-- that McCain did not cast such a vote. You might even think reporters would ask the
McCain campaign if Cindy McCain got a "cold chill" when her husband voted "to not fund [her]
son." But there is no indication that any reporter has done so.
But the best indication that McCain has not yet truly "lost his 'base,' " as The
Atlantic's Marc Ambinder
put it this week, is the glaring media double standard in covering the two presidential
candidates' controversial relationships.
Let's start with Bill Ayers, since the news media have spent much of the week obliging McCain's
efforts to make him the focus of the campaign. As an activist in the 1960s -- when Barack Obama
was a young child -- Bill Ayers was a member of the Weathermen, a group of radical activists who
launched a series of violent demonstrations and bombings in protest of the Vietnam War. Ayers is
now a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a school reform advocate. During
Obama's first campaign, Ayers hosted a coffee for him, and the two men have served together on
the board of a school reform effort funded by a foundation chaired by Leonore Annenberg, who has
endorsed John McCain. The New York Times
concluded that Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close," and Obama has denounced
Ayers' actions as a member of the Weathermen.
A search* of the Nexis database found that more than 4,500 news reports so far this year have
mentioned Obama and Ayers -- more than 1,800 this week alone.
Now: G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy
served four and a half years in prison for his role in the break-ins at the Watergate and at
Daniel Ellsberg's psychologist's office. He has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the
Ellsberg break-in "if necessary." He plotted to kill journalist Jack Anderson. He plotted with a
"gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt in order to thwart an investigation. He plotted to
firebomb the Brookings Institution. He used Nazi terminology to outline a plan to kidnap "leftist
guerillas" at the 1972 GOP convention. And Liddy's bad acts were not confined to the early 1970s.
In the 1990s, he instructed
his radio audience on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents ("Go for a
head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests." In case anyone missed the subtlety of
his point, Liddy also insisted:
"Kill the sons of bitches.") During Bill Clinton's presidency, Liddy boasted that he named his
shooting targets after the Clintons.
What does Liddy have to do with the presidential election? As Media Mattershas noted:
Liddy has
donated $5,000 to McCain's campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in
February 2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show during the presidential
campaign, including as recently as May. An
online video labeled, "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07,"
includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During
the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our
nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come
on your program."
McCain even backed
Liddy's son's congressional bid in 2000 -- a campaign that relied
heavily on the elder Liddy's history.
To sum up: John McCain is "proud" of his "old friend" Gordon Liddy -- an old friend who plotted
to kill one of the most respected journalists in American history, and who urged listeners to
kill federal agents and advised them on how to do so. McCain campaigned for Liddy's son, and
Liddy has even hosted a fundraiser for McCain at his home.
So McCain's relationship with Liddy is pretty much a direct parallel to Obama's relationship with
Ayers. Except that McCain and Liddy have apparently spent time together more recently than Obama
and Ayers. And Liddy's extremist activities continued well into the 1990s, at least. And Liddy
says he and McCain are "old friends," while The New York Times says Obama and Ayers
aren't close. And Obama has never said Ayers adheres to "the principles and philosophies that
keep our nation great." Other than all that, it's a direct parallel.
Yet even as they obsess over Barack Obama and Bill Ayers -- just as the McCain campaign tells
them to -- the news media have all but ignored John McCain's close ties to Gordon Liddy. A Nexis
search** finds fewer than 100 news reports that have mentioned McCain and Liddy this year.
As Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman -- who has criticized Obama's relationship
with Ayers -- has noted:
Liddy, now a conservative radio host, has never expressed regret for this attempt to subvert the
Constitution. Nor has he developed any respect for the law. ... Yet none of this bothers McCain.
Liddy has contributed thousands of dollars to his campaigns, held a fundraiser for McCain at his
home and hosted the senator on his radio show, where McCain said, "I'm proud of you." Exactly
which part of Liddy's record is McCain proud of?
While Obama has gotten lots of scrutiny for his connection to Ayers, McCain has never had to
explain his association with Liddy. If he can't defend it, he should admit as much. And if he
thinks he can defend it, let him.
To repeat:
2008 news reports that mention Obama and Ayers: more than 4,500.
2008 news reports that mention McCain and Liddy: fewer than 100.
Incredibly, The Atlantic's Ambinder today
suggests that the media have not covered Ayers: "To truly drive Ayers into the
public conversation, to trick what they consider an irredeemably biased press corps into biting,
McCain has three vehicles gassed up and ready to go. ... So far, McCain has done none of those
things." There are 1,800 Nexis hits for Barack Obama and Bill Ayers in the past week,
and yet Marc Ambinder thinks the media have not bitten on the Ayers "story" -- and that McCain,
who is running ads about Ayers, isn't "really serious" about pushing it, anyway. Even Steve
Schmidt would likely be too embarrassed to try to claim that the media have not covered Bill
Ayers.
Incidentally, Ambinder doesn't seem to have
ever mentioned McCain's relationship to Liddy.
Not only have the media avoided stand-alone reports on McCain and Liddy, they consistently fail
to bring up the connection when reporting on McCain's attacks on Obama's ties to Ayers, or in
interviews with McCain staff who bring up Ayers. The McCain/Liddy relationship is such an obvious
parallel -- except arguably much worse -- that it's hard to imagine how any evenhanded journalist
could possibly justify ignoring it. Yet it happens again and again. And, needless to say, McCain aides
do not get badgered about Liddy the
wayTime's Mark Halperin badgered Obama aide Robert Gibbs about Ayers.
Just this morning, NBC's Chuck Todd said he is "sure" Ayers will come up during the final
presidential debate next week, adding that moderator Bob Schieffer "may feel no choice but to
bring it up" in light of the "TV ads" the McCain campaign and Republican National Committee are
running. Setting aside the absurdity of the suggestion that a debate moderator is compelled to
bring up a topic simply because John McCain is running ads about it, if Schieffer does ask about
Ayers, basic fairness demands that he ask McCain about Liddy as well.
OK ... moving on. How about controversial religious figures? Earlier this year, Media
Mattersshowed that The New
York Times and The Washington Post had published a total of 161 articles,
editorials, and opinion pieces that mentioned Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright -- and only 12
that mentioned John McCain and John Hagee. That disparity wasn't unique to the Times and
the Post -- and it hasn't evened out over time.
161 to 12.
Land deals? Barack Obama once bought a parcel of land from a controversial donor named Tony
Rezko. Obama paid more than the land's assessed value -- but that hasn't stopped the
news media from suggesting Obama had an improper relationship with Rezko.
Comparatively little attention has been paid to John McCain's relationship with real estate
developer Donald Diamond. Diamond, a co-chair of McCain's campaign finance committee, has raised
more than $250,000 for McCain's presidential bid and is a "close personal friend" and longtime
political patron. For his part, McCain has sponsored two bills sought by Diamond that helped the
developer gain what The New York Times
described as "millions of dollars and thousands of acres" of land. And McCain helped Diamond
buy another parcel of land from the U.S. Army -- a deal that helped Diamond turn a $20 million
profit. The Washington Post and USA Today have identified other land deals
McCain has facilitated as senator that have benefited some of his biggest donors and fundraisers.
Yet a Media Mattersreview last month found that five
national newspapers had run a total of 39 articles, editorials, and opinion pieces that mentioned
Obama and Rezko -- but only seven that mentioned McCain and his donors' land deals:
[S]ince The New York Times' initial April 22 article [about McCain and
Diamond], the land deals have been mentioned in only six additional news articles, editorials, or
opinion pieces in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times,
USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, or The Washington
Post, and have yet to be mentioned on any evening network news program. By contrast,
during the same time period, 39 news articles, editorials, or opinion pieces in those papers have
collectively mentioned Obama and Rezko; and the evening news broadcasts have collectively
mentioned Obama and Rezko in five reports.
39 to 7.
And, of course, there's always Charles Keating. The news media have done their best to ignore McCain's involvement in the
Keating Five -- and, when they have mentioned it, they've done so by parroting the
McCain-friendly storyline that the scandal turned the Arizona senator into the World's Greatest
Reformer. Even this week, after the Obama campaign drew attention to McCain's involvement in the
Keating Five with a Web page and a 13-minute documentary featuring one of the regulators McCain
pressured on behalf of his political benefactor, the media have paid far more attention to
Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers than to McCain's relationship with Keating. And when they
have mentioned Keating, they have often questioned the propriety of the Obama campaign's
decision to bring up the subject.
Remember: Barack Obama didn't have anything to do with Bill Ayers' wrongdoing. He was a young
child at the time. McCain did have something to do with Keating's wrongdoing -- without
McCain, the scandal would have been called the Keating Four, not the Keating Five.
And yet the media are quick to dismiss the Keating matter. When the topic came up on MSNBC
earlier this week, Andrea Mitchell dismissed it as having occurred 20 years ago. Well, sure. But
McCain was involved in it 20 years ago, unlike Bill Ayers' controversial activities,
which occurred closer to 40 years ago, and which Barack Obama didn't have anything to do with.
The American people have made clear that they think the most important consideration in deciding
who to vote for is the economy. An astounding 52 percent of Americans call "the economy and jobs"
the "most important" issue to them in this election, according to the latest CBS/New York
Times poll. Terrorism and national security came in a distant second, with only 11 percent.
John McCain and his campaign have made clear that they do not want the last few weeks of this
campaign to be about the economy, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, the housing crisis,
or the Constitution. They want it to be about personal associations.
Incredibly, much of the news media have sided with John McCain in treating Bill Ayers and ACORN
as the most important topic facing the nation. Even worse, they are scrutinizing only Obama's
relationships, not McCain's. It's bad enough that they're letting McCain, rather than the
American people, set the parameters of the debate. The fact that they aren't applying those
parameters to both candidates equally is an inexcusable double-standard.
And it's evidence that John McCain retains the support of his "base" -- the media.
* Conducted 10/9/08 using the search terms Barack Obama and ((Bill or William) w/2
Ayers
** Conducted 10/9/08 using the search terms John McCain and Gordon Liddy
In 2007 renowned war
photographer and photojournalist James Nachtwey
received a TED Prize, granting him
$100,000 and one wish to change the world. Nachtwey's wish was
to share a vital story in an innovative way using news photography. Last week his wish came true
with the unveiling of his photos, which show the global impact of XDR-TB (extensively
drug-resistant tuberculosis), and the launch of a multimedia public health campaign.
XDR-TB was brought to the world's attention in 2006, after it was identified
in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is a mutation of tuberculosis (TB), a contagious bacterial
disease that usually affects the lungs. TB, which spreads through the air, is a major cause of
illness and death worldwide, particularly in Asia and Africa. In 2006 there were 9.2 million new
cases of TB and 1.7 million deaths from the disease.
TB is treatable, but inadequate treatment can lead to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of
the disease, such as XDR-TB. This type of TB is resistant to all of the most effective anti-TB
drugs, severely limiting treatment options for people with XDR-TB and resulting in a much higher
death rate. This video provides an
overview of TB and XDR-TB. It's unknown how widespread XDR-TB is, but it's estimated that 25,000
to 30,000 new cases surface every year, and XDR-TB has been found in 49 counties around the world. Scientists
are calling
XDR-TB a serious emerging threat to public health.
Ridzuan, blogging on Ridz.sg, expresses dismay over the
unnecessary emergence of XDR-TB:
“There is a problem when a disease that’s both preventable and curable is allowed to
mutate to become a strain that’s extremely resistant to the drugs that we use today.”
Nachtwey traveled to countries such as India, Cambodia, South Africa, and Lesotho to put faces to
this problem. His photos and the accompanying XDR-TB Web site
were launched on October 3. This short video shows 37 of his black and white photos, revealing
XDR-TB's terrible impact.
The release of this video and the unveiling of Nachtwey's photos, have created a buzz among the
art and public health communities. tunneling thru’talks about the emotional impact of his
photos.
“I don’t know anyone who is suffering from it [XDR-TB], but that is no excuse for me
to flip through an album or site and walk away unaffected. There is no personal angle to this.
Just a need to share and see if it makes a difference. The pictures within spoke more emotions
than I knew I was capable of.”
Bloggers are also discussing how Nachtwey's images are motivation to take action, and the
power of his photos to create change. Luke Freeman, blogging on A Shoe Box Full of
Pictures, says:
“The photography is powerful, yet the purpose behind the images gives this project even
more meaning. These are not just images. Work like this will change the world. Photography,
coupled with a selfless, heart-felt response has the power to affect change.”
Since TB is a major cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan
Africa, concerns also exist about XDR-TB's potential impact on those who are HIV positive. There
were an estimated 710,000 HIV
positive TB patients globally in 2006. Journal of the Plague Yearspoints out that
despite this, only one percent of those diagnosed with HIV are tested for TB worldwide, and that
TB testing must become routine for HIV positive people.
“Doctors, scientists and public health experts are warning that a worldwide pandemic of
extremely drug resistant tuberculosis will be the next big 'surprise' to emanate from the AIDS
epidemic, if, as we move forward we are not informed by our look at the past.”
In My Heart's in Accra..., Ethan Zuckerman, a co-founder of Global Voices
Online, discusses other
steps needed to stop XDR-TB.
“Nachtwey’s intervention is a timely one - the ways to prevent XDR-TB from becoming a
pervasive global threat have to do with strengthening healthcare systems in vulnerable nations.
If hospitals and community health organizations can diagnose TB early and ensure compliance with
treatment, the disease shouldn’t progress to multiple drug resistance. But improving
developing world hospitals is a difficult and expensive task. Eliminating pharmaceutical fakes
may be even more difficult. Fake prescription drugs are extremely common in developing
nations.”
Sproutingforth, blogging on Urban Sprout, adds that the lack of funding is
a major issue.
“Reversing the TB epidemic is a political issue as much as it is a health issue. The World
Health Organization estimates that it will cost approximately $6.7 billion annually to reverse
the TB epidemic. Currently, only slightly more than half of that is projected to be available at
current funding levels. This gap is costing millions of lives.”
Nachtwey’s photographs will be on display
throughout October in public spaces spanning all seven continents, including cities such as New
York, Paris, Melbourne, Seoul, Hong Kong, and London. Stop XDR-TB logo posted by ElseKramer on Flickr.
pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/conceptcars/" rel="tag"Concept Cars/a, a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/la-auto-show/" rel="tag"LA Auto Show/a, a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/convertibles/" rel="tag"Convertibles/a, a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/coupes/" rel="tag"Coupes/a, a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/volkswagen/" rel="tag"Volkswagen/a/pema
href="http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Secret-new-cars/Search-Results/Spyshots/VWs-Elise-rivalling-sports-car-scooped/?content-block=1"img
vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" align="right"
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/10/1vwsportscarscoop_250.jpg" alt=""
//aCAR/em and emAutoweek/em have tapped their sources within Volkswagen to get the scoop on a
rumored a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/21/volkswagen-unveiling-two-door-elise-fighter-in-la-new-sports-ca/"mid-engine
Elise-fighter/a that may debut at next month's a href="http://www.autoblog.com/tag/LAAutoShow/"LA
Auto Show/a. But when working with unnamed insiders, information tends to get jumbled in the
process and differing reports emerge that suggest it's all more speculation than hard facts.br /br
/Both reports confirm what we've heard before: Volkswagen will limit the cylinder count to four,
but that's where the similarities end. emAutoweek/em's sources say that engine choices will be
limited to either a 170-hp 1.4-liter Twincharger TSI gasoline engine or a new 125-hp 1.6-liter TDI
sending power to the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. emCAR/em pegs
displacement of the gasoline engines at between 1.2- and 1.4-liters, with output ranging from 105
to 160 hp. A 1.2-liter TDI producing 75 hp is also being bandied around.br /br /According to
emAutoweek/em, the mid-engine coupe will come to market in 2011, while emCAR/em contends production
won't begin until 2013. Additionally, emCAR/em reports that VW won't use an aluminum architecture
due to cost constraints, meaning that the Modular Sports Car (MSC) will come in at around 2,660
pounds (300kg heavier than the Elise). On the other hand, emAutoweek/em is saying that the concept
will tip the scales embelow/em 2,200 pounds by tapping Audi for its expertise with aluminum and
opening the door to a four-ringed variant with a choice of a 211-hp 2.0-liter TFSI or a 204-hp
twin-turbo'd 2.0-liter TDI. Not to mention the possibility of a Porsche 914 successor.br /br /A
strut-based suspension will be employed instead of a Golf-derived multi-link arrangement, while
parts cribbed from the rest of the VW line - ranging from steering components and brakes to
electronics and transmissions - will be used to keep manufacturing costs in check. emAutoweek/em is
also reporting that both a coupe and roadster will be offered, which strikes us as totally
unnecessary as VW would be better served offering a removable hard-top similar to that on the MSC's
target, the Lotus Elise.br /br /[Sources: a
href="http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Secret-new-cars/Search-Results/Spyshots/VWs-Elise-rivalling-sports-car-scooped/?content-block=1"CAR/a
and a
href="http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080806/FREE/722021876/1065"Autoweek/a]h6
style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding:
0;"/h6a
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