2011 Photo of the Year

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A woman holding a wounded relative during protests in Sanaa, Yemen, on October 15, 2011.

By David R Arnott, msnbc.com

The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest announced Friday that it had selected a picture by Samuel Aranda as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011.

Jurors said the photo of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen captured multiple facets of the "Arab Spring" uprisings across the Middle East last year. It was taken at a field hospital inside a mosque in Sanaa on October 15.

The winning photo was selected from 101,254 images submitted by 5,247 photographers from 124 countries.

Aranda, a freelance photographer from Spain, traveled to Yemen on assignment for The New York Times. In December he gave an interview to the newspaper about the difficulties of working in Yemen—and the warmth of its people.

"What I would really like is for this photo to help the people of Yemen," he told The British Journal of Photography after learning of the award. "I think it's a country that is often forgotten."

Jury chair Aidan Sullivan said: "The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on. We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East."

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10370400-world-press-photo-of-the-year-awarded-to-samuel-aranda

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Hey – Did Ya’ Notice the Dead Guy in Booth 2?

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Corpse sits in gamer café for 9 hours

by Matthew Hawkins  •  Feb. 3, 2012

In what is beginning to be a disturbingly common phenomenon, a young man in Asia has died, apparently due to prolonged gaming.

According to Sky News and the AFP, the latest incident took place in New Taipei, Taiwan. Chen Rong-yu, 23, checked into a cafe on Tuesday night, where he would spend the rest of his life.

The last time anyone noticed Rong-yu was noon the following day, when he was seen talking on his phone by a waitress. Sometime after that point, he passed away of what investigators believe is cardiac arrest, brought upon blood clots, which is common in such cases.

In similar incidents, gamers have died due to exhaustion or lack of movement from extended play sessions. In the case of the latter, lack of circulation will cause the blood in the human body to congeal, and any sudden movement will bring about a heart attack.

Rong-yu was playing "League of Legends" at the time of his passing. Reports also state that he was found sitting in his chair rigidly, with his arms outstretched.

The death and resulting corpse went completely unnoticed among the 30 or so other customers, and for up to nine hours, a testament of how engrossing the games played at such places can be, among other things.

Previous incidents include a South Korean dying following a 50-hour gaming session, a Chinese man perishing after a three-day gaming binge, and yet another Chinese gamer who perished after playing games for fifteen straight days.

http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10310569-corpse-sits-in-gamer-cafe-for-9-hours

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Big Surprise – Taliban Poised to Retake Afghanistan

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I don’t usually go around tooting my own horn (so to speak), but I’m giving myself a few back-pats for my prescient June 2011 article on the tragedy of the Afghanistan War. Please see here:

http://aboutnothing-doug.blogspot.com/2011/06/tragedy-of-afghanistan-war.html

Taliban "poised to retake Afghanistan" after NATO pullout

by Rob Taylor and Amie Ferris-Rotman  •  Feb. 1, 2012

KABUL (Reuters) - A secret U.S. military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed the document's existence but said it was not a strategic study of operations.

"The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis."

Nevertheless, it could be interpreted as a damning assessment of the war, now dragging into its eleventh year and aimed at blocking a Taliban return to power, or possibly an admission of defeat.

It could also reinforce the view of Taliban hardliners that the group should not negotiate peace with the United States and President Hamid Karzai's unpopular government while in a position of strength.

The document cited by Britain's The Times said that Pakistan's powerful security agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces.

The allegations drew a strong response from Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. "This is frivolous, to put it mildly," he told Reuters. "We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan."

The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.

Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.

But many Afghans doubt their army, security forces or police will be able to take firm control of one of the world's most volatile countries once foreign combat troops leave.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul declined to comment on the report.

The accusations will likely further strain ties between Western powers and Islamabad, which has long denied backing militant groups seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was visiting Kabul on Wednesday on a mission to repair strained diplomatic ties with Afghanistan's government and to meet Karzai to discuss possible peace talks with the Taliban.

TURBULENT HISTORY

Pakistan is currently reviewing ties with the United States which have suffered a series of setbacks since a unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May last year humiliated Pakistan's powerful generals.

A November 26 cross-border NATO air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers deepened the crisis, prompting Islamabad to suspend supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, a feat one foreign power after another has failed to accomplish over the country's turbulent history.

Islamabad has resisted U.S. pressure to go after insurgent groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani network, and argues Washington's approach overlooks complex realities on the ground.

Pakistan says Washington should attempt to bring all militant groups into the peace process and fears a 2014 combat troop exit could be hasty, plunging the region into the kind of chaos seen after the Soviet exit in 1989.

"They (the Taliban) don't need any backing. Everybody knows that after 10 years, they (NATO) have not been able to control a single province in Afghanistan because of the wrong policies they have been following," Pakistani Senator Tariq Azim, a member of the Senate's Defence Committee, told Reuters.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said: "We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks."

Little said U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "has also been clear that he believes that the safe havens in Pakistan remain a serious problem and need to be addressed by Pakistani authorities".

The document's findings were based on interrogations of more than 4,000 Taliban and al Qaeda detainees, the Times said, adding that it identified only few individual insurgents.

A State Department spokesman and Britain's Foreign Office both declined comment on the report.

Despite the presence of about 100,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, according to the United Nations.

The Taliban announced this month they would open a political office in the Qatari capital Doha to support possible peace talks with the United States.

But there has also been talk of efforts to hold separate talks in Saudi Arabia because Karzai fears his government could be sidelined by U.S. talks with the Taliban.

The report could boost the Taliban's confidence and make its leaders less willing to make concessions on key U.S. demands for a ceasefire and for the insurgency to renounce violence and break all ties to al Qaeda.

Hoping to gain credibility with a population still haunted by memories of the Taliban's harsh rule from 1996-2001, the group has tried to improve its image as its fighters battle NATO and Afghan forces.

The Times said the document suggested the Taliban were gaining in popularity partly because the austere Islamist movement was becoming more tolerant.

"It remains to be seen whether a revitalized, more progressive Taliban will endure if they continue to gain power and popularity," it quoted the report as saying.

"Regardless, at least within the Taliban, the refurbished image is already having a positive effect on morale."

Prominent Pakistani security analyst Imtiaz Gul described the report as alarmist, saying Afghan security forces backed by the international community would resist any Taliban takeover.

"This is simply preposterous to propagate this theory," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-afghanistan-idUSTRE8100E520120201

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The Tragedy of the 1% – CEO’s Pay Slashed by 50%

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Drastic salary cuts are not limited to the 99% of us scraping by as the 1% reaps money like farmers reap wheat. Case in point – Phillippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, was ripped with a 50% pay cut by the Viacom board. Yes – a 50% cut despite his close ties with Board Chairman Sumner Redstone. Don’t start weeping quite yet, though. That 50% cut left Dauman with a $43,000,000 annual income for his work with Viacom. That mere $43M comprises $3.5M in base salary, $20M cash bonus, and $19.3M in a stock & options grant. Oh, and he also got $232,000 worth of fly time in the Viacom’s personal jet.

If you care what Viacom has to say about all this, check out the article on MSN Money:

One-Percenter of the Week – Viacom’s Phillippe Dauman

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Family Reunion Dinner

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2012 Chinese New Year Commercial by Malaysian Rice Co. BERNAS

From the youtube blurb:

Chinese New Year is always a time for reunion. Whatever differences we may have as a family, there’s always a way to overcome them. So let’s come together as one family during reunion dinner. After all, family is forever.

http://youtu.be/nXiBMFw39g0

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Fidel Castro: GOP field “greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance” ever seen

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[Ed. note: Sometimes even Fidel gets it right.]

Castro lambasts US Republican primary as idiotic

Fidel Castro lambasted the Republican presidential race as the greatest competition of “idiocy and ignorance” the world has ever seen in a column published Wednesday, and also took shots at the news media and foreign governments for seizing on the death of a Cuban prisoner to demand greater respect for human rights.

Castro’s comments came in a long opinion piece carried by official media two days after Republican presidential hopefuls at a debate in Florida presented mostly hard-line stances on what to do about the Communist-run island, and even speculated as to what would happen to the 85-year-old revolutionary leader’s soul when he dies.

Cuba has become an important issue as the candidates court Florida’s influential Cuban-American community in an effort to win the biggest electoral prize so far in the primary season.

Castro said he always assumed the candidates would try to outdo each other on the issue of Cuba, but that he was nonetheless appalled by the level of debate.

“The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is — and I mean this seriously — the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been,” said the retired Cuban leader, who has dueled with 11 U.S. administrations since his 1959 revolution.

…

When asked what he would do as president if he found out Castro had died, Romney said he would first "thank Heavens" that the bearded revolutionary had finally "returned to his maker," to which Gingrich replied "I don't think Fidel's going to meet his maker. I think he's going to go to the other place."

Read full article here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/01/25/international/i083830S42.DTL#ixzz1kV1ljrcJ

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Oozing Sores & Sprouting Skin Fibers? It’s All in Your Head Says CDC

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Study of freakish mystery illness finds no cause

by MIKE STOBBE  •  Jan. 26, 2012

ATLANTA (AP) — Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.

Many of these people were in California and one of that state's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.

The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds.

"We found no infectious cause," said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.

The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.

Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and — perhaps worst of all — mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they've suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn't named until 2002, when "Morgellons" was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.

Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.

Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.

The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.

They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.

Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found — and was able to reach — 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.

That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. "So it's rare," Eberhard said.

Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.

Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.

There was no sign of an environmental cause, either, although researchers did not go to each person's house to look around.

They took fibers from 12 people, which were tested at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Nothing unusual there, either. Cotton and nylon, mainly — not some kind of organism wriggling out of a patient's body.

Skin lesions were common, but researchers concluded most of them were from scratching.

What stood out was how the patients did on the psychological exams. Though normal in most respects, they had more depression than the general public and were more obsessive about physical ailments, the study found.

However, they did not have an unusual history of psychiatric problems, according to their medical records. And the testing gave no clear indication of a delusional disorder.

So what do they have? The researchers don't know. They don't even know what to call it, opting for the label "unexplained dermopathy" in their paper.

But clearly, something made them miserable. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.

She said perhaps the patients could be helped by cognitive behavioral therapy that might help them deal with possible contributing psychological issues.

The study is not expected to be the last word on the subject.

Among those with additional questions is Randy Wymore, an Oklahoma State University pharmacologist who for years was the most reputable scientist to look into it and who has concluded Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.

On Wednesday, Wymore said he had not seen the CDC paper and was unable to comment on it. But when the study began, he questioned whether Kaiser patients with Morgellons would participate, especially if they were unhappy with how they were previously handled by their Kaiser doctors.

"There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?" he said, in an email.

The CDC is not planning additional study, however. The agency's expertise is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems, and the researchers saw no evidence of that.

"We're not mental health experts," one CDC spokeswoman said.

http://news.yahoo.com/study-freakish-mystery-illness-finds-no-cause-220159892.html

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