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Mesothelioma Cancer

2007-08-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

Eli Lilly developed by the world’s first company, It is the only existing drug treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma — ALIMTA (Alimta). officially listed in China. According to reports, Eli Lilly ALIMTA is the latest contribution in the field of cancer therapy. Pleural mesothelioma is a landmark in the field of treatment progress The medical profession has been widely acclaimed as a global “refractory cancer breakthroughs.” Due to its unique effect. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February 2004 for rapid approval of the drug for a rare form of the disease than that approved Thailand (Alimta) for the first line treatment of advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma drug to be the first to be approved, but only for the treatment of advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma current drugs. China’s Food and Drug Administration has fast-track approval, the approval of its listing in China. ALIMTA cancer survival is very important to be able to block at least three different enzymes. It extended the survival time of patients, significant improvements in the quality of life. Meanwhile, folic acid and vitamin supplement to effectively control drug reactions, increase the tolerance of patients. Currently, ALIMTA in more than 60 countries around the world have listed, sales in 2004 alone amounted to more than 140 million U.S. dollars to fully prove its efficacy and safety. In the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. ALIMTA international medical circles generally believe this could become the standard treatment of refractory cancer drug. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare lung cancer of the pleura, the main causes of asbestos direct and indirect contacts. Nianqiandang many have yet to understand the dangers of asbestos, many transportation, Insulation and the mining industry through exposure to asbestos fibers, but it is not only direct contact with asbestos. Reports indicate the overalls through contact relatives also indirectly exposed to asbestos to the families of malignant pleural mesothelioma. About 80% of cases attributable to asbestos exposure in the etiology of history and the incubation period may be as long as 20 to 40 years. Most patients to be diagnosed late stage, not general surgery or radiotherapy. With the asbestos industry, the increasing incidence of mesothelioma. Generally, the disease incidence in 30 to 40 years after exposure to asbestos, and the peak incidence is often late, peak around is different. The incidence peaks in the United States in 2010, the peak incidence in Europe for the past 2020 years. Although the ratio of China’s industrial development asbestos far below European countries, but China still is the production of asbestos, asbestos products are being widely used. imagine how the arrival of the peak. However, China has yet to carry out the use of asbestos exposure and the national investigation in an effort to end, China Association of lung cancer professionals vice chairman of the committee, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Professor Liao Meilin urged state departments should carry out this investigation, for effective early intervention and prevention. In the United States and the European Union, ALIMTA rapid processing methods were also approved for the second-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Meanwhile, ALIMTA as a first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and small-cell lung cancer, breast cancer and cancer. ovarian cancer and stomach cancer treatment being studied. Eli Lilly Company is ALIMTA Chuan Shih Chinese scientists will join forces with the United States Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, after more than 10 years of research and the successful development of the study. As research and development of innovative drugs pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly Corporation in the United States, “the best development of similar products. Drugs first developed or services for patients “as their own task. worked very hard to explore various intractable diseases that afflict humanity, the advanced treatment methods. According to reports, the ceremony will invest a lot of capital to companies for research and development. Eli Lilly company’s sales in 2004 reached 13.8 billion U.S. dollars and 2.7 billion U.S. dollars for R & D investment. accounted for 19% of total sales, daily input for the development of new drugs for 10.4 million U.S. dollars. Such a high proportion of investment in the pharmaceutical industry is a leading industry average of 15%. ALIMTA ceremony to be introduced this year in the Chinese market and one of the four new products, the rate of introduction of new drugs in China by multinational pharmaceutical companies are especially noteworthy. The next five years, Eli Lilly plans to have 15 drugs listed one after another in China, which covers central nervous system, diabetes, cancer, injection equipment, pediatric ADHD and other fields. ALIMTA listed in the press conference, Dr. Eli Lilly Outaige Chinese president also announced that Eli Lilly Company from China in 2006 began to enter a new round of rapid expansion. 2006 Eli Lilly in cancer and diabetes will increase 100% of the area of new jobs In 2010 the number of staff will be around to expand from the current 700 to 1,000 people. Dr. Outaige said : “tumor area is one of the ceremony’s traditional strengths. We will continue to accelerate the pace of the introduction of the new drug benefit of the Chinese patients. “According to information, Eli Lilly compounds in the present study, 50% of the compounds in the tumor area.

Pleural Mesothelioma: Mesothelioma of the Pleura

2007-08-31T19:15:00.000-07:00

Pleural mesothelioma is a disease that affects the lining of the lungs, or lung pleura. Sometimes doctors refer to this disease as mesothelioma of the pleura. It is a common misconception that mesothelioma is a type of primary lung cancer; it is not. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the serous membranes. These membranes enclose a number of organs throughout the midsection of the body, including the lungs. The most common type of mesothelioma is one that affects the serous membranes of the lungs: pleural mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma can also affect the serous membranes surrounding the abdomen, called peritoneal mesothelioma, and the membranes surrounding the heart, or pericardial mesothelioma. When mesothelioma spreads to the lungs from the serous linings of the lungs, abdomen or heart, it is considered secondary lung cancer. Also, pleural mesothelioma is sometimes referred to as an asbestos lung cancer. Technically, this is also incorrect, since it does not originate in the lungs. Asbestosis is a type of asbestos lung disease that does originate in the lungs and is often confused with mesothelioma.

Pleural Mesothelioma Cancer
Pleural mesothelioma cancer represents about 75% of all mesothelioma cases. The disease is caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers that settle in the lungs. These asbestos fibers become inserted in the lung lining (the pleura). Over time, these fibers cause chronic inflammation that eventually leads to growth of cancerous tumors or, in some cases, asbestosis.

Pleural mesothelioma cancer normally appears as multiple tumor masses affecting the parietal surface (inside closer to the lung) and visceral surface (outside further from the lung) of the pleura. Typically the parietal surface has greater involvement than the visceral. The right lung typically shows a slightly higher incidence of mesothelioma, apparently due to the fact that the right lung is larger and has a greater amount of pleural surface area. Also, the lower lungs typically show more tumor masses than the upper lung. This is thought to be due to gravitational factors influencing how the asbestos fibers settle in the lungs after they have been inhaled.

Large growths in the pleura are normally noted in patients upon diagnosis. These growths lead to a complete obliteration of the lung cavity later in the disease. The tumors can spread from the lung pleura to other organs, including the heart and abdomen. This aggressive disease can also invade the lymph nodes and blood system.

Other types of tumors also grow in the pleura, but these are tumors that start in other parts of the body and are not considered pleural mesothelioma. These tumors have metastasized to the pleura. The most common form of non-pleural mesothelioma cancer that occurs is lung cancer, representing about 36% of the cancer occurring in the pleura. The next most common forms are breast cancer (25%), ovarian cancer (5%) and gastric cancer (2%). Lymphoma also accounts for a portion of cancer that has metastasized to the pleura.

Pleural Mesothelioma Symptoms
The most common symptom for pleural mesothelioma patients is chest pain. But, the pain is often not associated directly with the lung pleura and often appears in the shoulder or upper abdomen. Shortness of breath, called dyspnea, is also a symptom. Cough, weight loss and anorexia are present in some patients, but are less common symptoms. The pleural mesothelioma cancer tumors grow quickly and enlarge the pleural space, causing it to fill with fluid. This fluid leads to the discomfort or pain associated with first detection of the disease.

Pleural mesothelioma patients display all three types of mesothelioma cancer cells: epithelioid mesothelioma, sarcomatoid mesothelioma and biphasic mesothelioma.

Pleural Mesothelioma Prognosis
According to a study of 167 patients with proven pleural mesothelioma, the median survival rate of patients following diagnosis was 242 days. The survival rate was also affected by the type of mesothelioma cancer cells; patients with biphasic cell types have the shortest life expectancy.

Mesothelioma: Questions and Answers

2007-08-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

Mesothelioma: Questions and Answers
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which malignant (cancerous) cells are found in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers most of the body’s internal organs. Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles.

What is the mesothelium?
The mesothelium is a membrane that covers and protects most of the internal organs of the body. It is composed of two layers of cells: One layer immediately surrounds the organ; the other forms a sac around it. The mesothelium produces a lubricating fluid that is released between these layers, allowing moving organs (such as the beating heart and the expanding and contracting lungs) to glide easily against adjacent structures.
The mesothelium has different names, depending on its location in the body. The peritoneum is the mesothelial tissue that covers most of the organs in the abdominal cavity. The pleura is the membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the wall of the chest cavity. The pericardium covers and protects the heart. The mesothelial tissue surrounding the male internal reproductive organs is called the tunica vaginalis testis. The tunica serosa uteri covers the internal reproductive organs in women.

What is mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma (cancer of the mesothelium) is a disease in which cells of the mesothelium become abnormal and divide without control or order. They can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs. Cancer cells can also metastasize (spread) from their original site to other parts of the body. Most cases of mesothelioma begin in the pleura or peritoneum.

How common is mesothelioma?
Although reported incidence rates have increased in the past 20 years, mesothelioma is still a relatively rare cancer. About 2,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the United States each year. Mesothelioma occurs more often in men than in women and risk increases with age, but this disease can appear in either men or women at any age.

What are the risk factors for mesothelioma?
Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for mesothelioma. A history of asbestos exposure at work is reported in about 70 percent to 80 percent of all cases. However, mesothelioma has been reported in some individuals without any known exposure to asbestos.
Asbestos is the name of a group of minerals that occur naturally as masses of strong, flexible fibers that can be separated into thin threads and woven. Asbestos has been widely used in many industrial products, including cement, brake linings, roof shingles, flooring products, textiles, and insulation. If tiny asbestos particles float in the air, especially during the manufacturing process, they may be inhaled or swallowed, and can cause serious health problems. In addition to mesothelioma, exposure to asbestos increases the risk of lung cancer, asbestosis (a noncancerous, chronic lung ailment), and other cancers, such as those of the larynx and kidney.
Smoking does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma. However, the combination of smoking and asbestos exposure significantly increases a person’s risk of developing cancer of the air passageways in the lung.

Who is at increased risk for developing mesothelioma?
Asbestos has been mined and used commercially since the late 1800s. Its use greatly increased during World War II. Since the early 1940s, millions of American workers have been exposed to asbestos dust. Initially, the risks associated with asbestos exposure were not known. However, an increased risk of developing mesothelioma was later found among shipyard workers, people who work in asbestos mines and mills, producers of asbestos products, workers in the heating and construction industries, and other tradespeople. Today, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets limits for acceptable levels of asbestos exposure in the workplace. People who work with asbestos wear personal protective equipment to lower their risk of exposure.
The risk of asbestos-related disease increases with heavier exposure to asbestos and longer exposure time. However, some individuals with only brief exposures have developed mesothelioma. On the other hand, not all workers who are heavily exposed develop asbestos-related diseases.
There is some evidence that family members and others living with asbestos workers have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma, and possibly other asbestos-related diseases. This risk may be the result of exposure to asbestos dust brought home on the clothing and hair of asbestos workers. To reduce the chance of exposing family members to asbestos fibers, asbestos workers are usually required to shower and change their clothing before leaving the workplace.

What are the symptoms of mesothelioma?
Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 30 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleura are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma. Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and abdominal pain and swelling due to a buildup of fluid in the abdomen. Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.
These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions. It is important to see a doctor about any of these symptoms. Only a doctor can make a diagnosis.

How is mesothelioma diagnosed?
Diagnosing mesothelioma is often difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other conditions. Diagnosis begins with a review of the patient’s medical history, including any history of asbestos exposure. A complete physical examination may be performed, including x-rays of the chest or abdomen and lung function tests. A CT (or CAT) scan or an MRI may also be useful. A CT scan is a series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body created by a computer linked to an x-ray machine. In an MRI, a powerful magnet linked to a computer is used to make detailed pictures of areas inside the body. These pictures are viewed on a monitor and can also be printed.
A biopsy is needed to confirm a diagnosis of mesothelioma. In a biopsy, a surgeon or a medical oncologist (a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating cancer) removes a sample of tissue for examination under a microscope by a pathologist. A biopsy may be done in different ways, depending on where the abnormal area is located. If the cancer is in the chest, the doctor may perform a thoracoscopy. In this procedure, the doctor makes a small cut through the chest wall and puts a thin, lighted tube called a thoracoscope into the chest between two ribs. Thoracoscopy allows the doctor to look inside the chest and obtain tissue samples. If the cancer is in the abdomen, the doctor may perform a peritoneoscopy. To obtain tissue for examination, the doctor makes a small opening in the abdomen and inserts a special instrument called a peritoneoscope into the abdominal cavity. If these procedures do not yield enough tissue, more extensive diagnostic surgery may be necessary.
If the diagnosis is mesothelioma, the doctor will want to learn the stage (or extent) of the disease. Staging involves more tests in a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to which parts of the body. Knowing the stage of the disease helps the doctor plan treatment.
Mesothelioma is described as localized if the cancer is found only on the membrane surface where it originated. It is classified as advanced if it has spread beyond the original membrane surface to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes, lungs, chest wall, or abdominal organs.

How is mesothelioma treated?
Treatment for mesothelioma depends on the location of the cancer, the stage of the disease, and the patient’s age and general health. Standard treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Sometimes, these treatments are combined.
Surgery is a common treatment for mesothelioma. The doctor may remove part of the lining of the chest or abdomen and some of the tissue around it. For cancer of the pleura (pleural mesothelioma), a lung may be removed in an operation called a pneumonectomy. Sometimes part of the diaphragm, the muscle below the lungs that helps with breathing, is also removed.
Radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy, involves the use of high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy affects the cancer cells only in the treated area. The radiation may come from a machine (external radiation) or from putting materials that produce radiation through thin plastic tubes into the area where the cancer cells are found (internal radiation therapy).
Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. Most drugs used to treat mesothelioma are given by injection into a vein (intravenous, or IV). Doctors are also studying the effectiveness of putting chemotherapy directly into the chest or abdomen (intracavitary chemotherapy).
To relieve symptoms and control pain, the doctor may use a needle or a thin tube to drain fluid that has built up in the chest or abdomen. The procedure for removing fluid from the chest is called thoracentesis. Removal of fluid from the abdomen is called paracentesis. Drugs may be given through a tube in the chest to prevent more fluid from accumulating. Radiation therapy and surgery may also be helpful in relieving symptoms.

Are new treatments for mesothelioma being studied?
Yes. Because mesothelioma is very hard to control, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is sponsoring clinical trials (research studies with people) that are designed to find new treatments and better ways to use current treatments. Before any new treatment can be recommended for general use, doctors conduct clinical trials to find out whether the treatment is safe for patients and effective against the disease. Participation in clinical trials is an important treatment option for many patients with mesothelioma.
People interested in taking part in a clinical trial should talk with their doctor. Information about clinical trials is available from the Cancer Information Service (CIS) (see below) at 1–800–4–CANCER. Information specialists at the CIS use PDQ®, NCI’s cancer information database, to identify and provide detailed information about specific ongoing clinical trials. Patients also have the option of searching for clinical trials on their own. The clinical trials page on the NCI’s Cancer.gov Web site, located at http://www.cancer.gov/clinical_trials on the Internet, provides general information about clinical trials and links to PDQ.
People considering clinical trials may be interested in the NCI booklet Taking Part in Clinical Trials: What Cancer Patients Need To Know. This booklet describes how research studies are carried out and explains their possible benefits and risks. The booklet is available by calling the CIS, or from the NCI Publications Locator Web site at http://www.cancer.gov/publications on the Internet.

ALCOHOL TREATMENT

2007-08-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

The industry for alcohol rehabilitation has come a long way since the days when most people considered alcoholics possessed by the devil. Although some of the lingering stigma of those times carries into today—particularly in the pernicious application of the “ disease ” label—psychologists have come to far more enlightened conclusions about the nature of addiction and what drives people to sue. If you want to get into a program of lasting effectiveness, you'll want to look for treatment centers that employ these modern notions.

First things first. Addiction is not something visited upon our brains from somewhere else; it is the result of very fundamental beliefs, traumas and other emotional attachments we have made throughout life. Physical dependency is hardly related at all, as evidenced by the great many addicts who switch substances throughout their lives.

But if addiction has an emotional basis, how do we ever come to understand what's at play? The answer is as simple as it is reassuring: good, well-informed talk therapy . The top alcohol rehabilitation programs in California and around the country usually offer dozens of hours per month of individual therapy with the people who understand this subject best.

Of course countless other features may come into play as well, from gourmet meals through daily massage. The point is to get on board with a treatment center that creates individualized programs of therapy for its clients and brings to bear modern science's latest tools. With the right center, you could easily come away with a deeper understanding of yourself than you have ever experienced in the past.

How To Read and Understand Your Credit Report

2007-08-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

Your credit report contains a wealth of information about your financial actions. If you have credit or loan accounts, those accounts, and how you pay them, are included in your credit report. It’s important to review your credit report at least once a year so you know what your creditors are saying about you.

Understanding your credit report can be confusing, especially if you’re reading it for the first time. Here is a breakdown of the types information contained in your report.

Personal information including your name, address, and place of employment is used to identify you. Previous addresses and places of employment might also be included.

It’s not uncommon to have variations or misspellings of your name. Most credit reporting agencies leave these variations to maintain the link between your identity and the credit information.

Make sure personal information is identifying you and not someone else.

The account history section of your credit report contains the bulk of the information. This section includes each of your credit accounts and details about how you’ve paid. Your account history will be very detailed, but it’s important that you read through to make sure the information is being reported correctly.

Each account will contain the several pieces of information.

Company name of the institution reporting the information.

Account number associated with the account. The account number may be scrambled or shortened for privacy purposes.

Type of account, i.e. revolving account, education loan, auto loan.

Terms of repayment. Installment loans include the number of payments. Revolving accounts may leave this section blank or as “revolving”.

Date opened. The month and year the account was established.

High credit is the highest amount ever charged on the credit card. For installment loans, high credit is the original loan amount.

Credit limit or loan amount. Balance. The amount owed on the account at the time data was reported.

Past due. Amount past due at the time the data was reported.

Account status. Indicates the status of the account, i.e. current, past due, charge-off. Even if your account is current, it might contain information about previous delinquencies.

Payment history. Indicates your monthly payment status since the time your account was established.

Date reported. The last time the data was updated by the creditor.
Collection accounts may appear as part of the account history or in a separate section. Where it appears depends on the company providing your credit report.

Public records include information like bankruptcies, judgments, tax liens, state and country court records, and, in some states, overdue child support. Depending on the type of account, a public record can remain on your credit report between 7-10 years. Only severe financial blunders appear in this section, not criminal arrests or convictions. Because public records can severely damage your credit, it’s best to keep this section clear.

Credit inquiries list all parties who have accessed your credit report within the past two years. While your version of the credit report lists several inquiries, not all of these appear on the lenders’ and creditors’ versions. Only “hard” inquiries are shown to lenders. These are inquiries made when a lender checks your credit report to approve your credit application. Your version will also include “soft” inquiries consisting of inquiries made by lenders for promotional purposes.

If you find a mistake on your credit report, you have the right to have it corrected. You can do this by disputing the information with the credit bureau. Your credit report will come with a form or instruction sheet guiding you through the dispute process.

Credit Repair - 10 Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your Credit

2007-08-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

Blemished credit is both stressful and costly, but it’s not the end. As hopeless as the situation might seem, bad credit won’t last forever. There are things you can do right now to begin repairing your credit.

Stop using your credit cards.
In a bad credit situation, one of the worst things you can do is continue accumulating debt by making credit card purchases. Put your credit cards away until you have more control of the situation.

Get a copy of your credit report.
You can’t begin repairing your credit until you know exactly what you need to work on. Obtain a copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus to find out which accounts need work and which are just fine.

Clean up your credit report.
If your credit report contains incorrect information, you have the right to have it removed. Your credit report will include information about disputing inaccurate information with the credit bureaus.

Get current on past due accounts.
Your payment history makes up 35% of your credit score. Getting current on your delinquent accounts will have a great impact on your credit.

Don’t put in any more credit applications.
As long as your credit is in repair mode, you should avoid making any more applications for credit. It’s likely that you’ll get turned down for credit and the applications will only decrease your credit score.

Keep accounts with balances open.
You might be tempted to close out credit card accounts that have become delinquent, but wait. Before you close any accounts make sure it won’t negatively affect your credit.

Call your creditors.
Right now they’re certainly the last people you want to talk to, but you’d be surprised at the help you might receive. Talk to your creditors about your situation. Offer to send lower monthly payments for a period of time, until you are able to get on your feet.

Pay off debts.
You will have to start paying off your debts to improve your credit situation. If you don’t have the money on hand, sell off some of your belongings to speed up the process. It will be a sacrifice, but the financial freedom you gain will be worth it.

Get help.
Resources, like consumer credit counseling, are available to assist you. If you are overwhelmed by your credit situation, seek professional assistance. You can locate a credit counseling agency through the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Be patient.
Your credit wasn’t damaged overnight, so don’t expect it to improve in that amount of time. Continue paying your debts and over time you will see an improvement in your credit.
Even small steps toward repairing your credit are better than no steps at all. Start repairing your credit today.

Repair Your Own Credit Rating

2007-08-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Type the words 'credit repair' into Google and any number of companies will pop up offering to 'clean your credit reference file' or 'restore your credit rating'. At a price, naturally.
Typically, credit repair companies claim they can remove unfavourable information, such as county court judgments, from your credit files, thus ensuring that you have a better chance of being able to borrow money at favourable rates.
Unfortunately, some of these companies are dodgy to say the least and even the respectable ones can't offer you any more than you can do by yourself. For free.
For a start, a county court judgment (CCJ) - the biggest black mark you can possibly have on your credit file, apart from bankruptcy - cannot be removed unless it has been incorrectly granted or you've paid off the relevant creditor within a month of it being made against you. Only then will all mention of a CCJ be removed from court records and credit reference files.
Judgments paid after one month can be marked as 'satisfied' by applying to the county court for a Certificate of Satisfaction which will be passed on to the credit reference agencies.
If you think you may be scoring poorly with lenders when applying for loans or credit cards, there are a number of things you can do to improve matters.
The first step, of course, is to apply for a copy of your credit file from one of the three main agencies - Experian, Equifax and CallCredit - so that you can check the information it holds is correct. The law entitles you to have incorrect information rectified or removed from your file or to have a note put on the file which explains why you think the information is wrong. Credit reference agencies have to tell you within 28 days of hearing from you if they have taken action to correct your file and, if not, why they have not done so.
Checking your credit report will also show up any signs of fraud. Identity theft is a fast-growing crime so look out for any accounts you don't recognise and query them.
The next thing to check for is whether any old and unused credit or store cards are listed. Remember lenders don't just look at your file to see if you have missed or defaulted on payments, they also want to know how much credit is already available to you and the balances you've got on each of your cards. If you've got a lot of cards and/or a lot of available credit, even if you don't use it, there's too much potential for you to go on a wild spending spree. So, contact the relevant companies and cancel any unused cards. An added bonus is that you may, in the future, become eligible for any future offers, as you'll be considered a new customer.
If the file doesn't state your electoral roll information, then get in touch with your local council immediately to get registered. You're unlikely to get credit at all if you're not on the electoral roll.
And finally, pay all your bills on time, every time, month in, month out, even if you're only able to make minimum payments. Prospective lenders like to see a steady payment history - the longer the better. Although defaults remain on your file for six years, lenders are more concerned with how well you are currently managing your payments rather than being interested in what might have happened three or four years previously.
Whether you've got a great credit history or not, it's a good idea to send off for your credit files occasionally to make sure the information they hold is correct. You can do this via the Motley Fool, as we've partnered with Experian, which is offering a free 30-day trial of CreditExpert.

Lenders move to stop credit repair schemes

2007-08-31T17:52:00.000-07:00

Only a low credit score stood between Alipio Estruch and a mortgage to buy a $449,000 Spanish-style house in Weston, Fla., a few miles west of Fort Lauderdale.
Instead of spending several years repairing his credit rating, which he said was marred by two forgotten cell phone bills and identity theft, the 37-year-old real estate agent paid $1,800 to an Internet-based company to bump up his score almost overnight.
The result was a happy ending for Estruch, but the growing practice is sending shivers through the mortgage industry. Federal regulators are also reviewing the practice. And after being contacted by The Associated Press for this story, Fair Isaac Corp., the developer of the widely used FICO score, said it will change its credit scoring system beginning later this year in a way it contends will end this little-known but potentially high-impact mortgage loan loophole.
Instantcreditbuilders.com, or ICB, helped Estruch boost his score by arranging for him to be added as an authorized user on several credit cards of people with stellar credit who were paid to allow this coattailing. Parents also use this practice when they add their children to their credit cards to help them build solid credit.
The pitch to those who are essentially renting their credit history for pay is seductive: You don’t need to worry about users of this service receiving duplicate copies of your credit cards, account numbers or any of your personal information. It’s essentially free money, they are told.
Brian Kinney, 44, a retired Army officer in Glendale, Calif., pulls in more than $2,500 a month by lending out 19 credit card spots on two old Citibank cards with strong payment histories. Kinney, whose FICO score is above 800 on the scale of 300 to 850, quit his job working at a Farmers Insurance agency and uses the ICB income to tide him over until he starts his own insurance agency.
Buying a better scoreLenders are worried, however, that they’re taking on greater default risks by unknowingly offering lower interest rates than they otherwise would to applicants who artificially boost their credit scores. Their trade group has complained to the Federal Trade Commission and is talking with the credit reporting bureaus in case the practice becomes more widespread.
Estruch paid $1,800 in December for three credit card spots, and by January, his FICO score jumped from 550 to 715. In mid-March, he closed on his four-bedroom beige stucco house after obtaining a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage from a unit of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. It carried a 7.5 percent interest rate and required no down payment.
"Everything now is score driven. I had a great mortgage history, but I got hurt because of my credit score," said Estruch, who also works as a mortgage broker, had bought and sold two houses previously, and currently owns another home in New York. Estruch said he’s current on his mortgage payments.
Companies like Largo, Fla.-based ICB are sprouting on the Internet with little overhead and no-frills marketing. They post ads on community Web sites like Craigslist and have sponsored links on Google and Yahoo. Competitors of ICB have even reached out to mortgage brokers, lenders and real estate agents, flooding their e-mail with advertisements.
Jason LaBossiere, who founded ICB a year and a half ago, said his company receives 100 to 150 new leads daily — a number that has been growing — and those inquiries lead to 10 to 20 new clients a week.
ICB charges $900 for the first credit card account, with a discount for additional ones. The cardholder allowing the piggybacking on his or her credit history can receive $100 to $150 per slot, depending on the age and credit limit of each card. ICB pockets the rest.
The effect on a credit score can vary depending on what else is in a client’s report. But one borrowed credit card account can increase a score between 30 and 45 points, two between 60 and 90 points, and five between 150 and 205 points, according to ICB. That’s because the computer program that calculates scores is essentially tricked into believing the credit renter has a better repayment history when it sees the added accounts, and that helps lift the credit score.
Once the credit card company files an updated report to credit bureaus — leading to a higher FICO score — the credit renter is removed from the account of the person allowing the piggybacking. However, the credit card’s payment history remains on the authorized user’s credit report forever, and lenders have no way of knowing how the credit borrower is related to the cardholder.

High scores bring lower rates
A higher credit score can save a consumer an enormous amount of money because it usually means a lower mortgage interest rate. It also can mean the difference between qualifying for a loan or not, as in Estruch’s case.
According to Fair Isaac, lenders would probably demand about a 9.8 percent interest rate on a $300,000, 30-year fixed mortgage for an applicant with a credit score between 500 and 579. That would translate into a $2,585 monthly payment for principal and interest.
But a borrower with a score between 760 and 850 seeking the same loan would qualify for about a 6 percent rate that would cost just $1,796 a month for principal and interest. That savings of $789 each month would total $284,040 over 30 years.
Kinney, the retired Army officer in California, said those borrowing his good credit history don’t get his personal information, full credit card number or credit card expiration dates. Any sensitive data is handled through ICB, and Kinney adds the users himself by calling his credit card company. ICB also destroys any duplicate cards that are issued to the credit renter, according to its contract.
Instead of being worried about risks he may be assuming, Kinney said borrowers are the ones vulnerable to scammers posing as do-gooders. Those seeking a credit hike give the cardholder their names and Social Security numbers, which, in the wrong hands, could lead to identity theft. Kinney said he also receives credit card offers in the mail for the credit borrowers on his accounts, opening up another possibility for fraud, but he throws them away.
"I know the whole thing sounds kind of odd and not very legitimate, but it is for now," Kinney said. "I don’t know how long before someone will decide it’s illegal. But I’m not counting on this for the long-term."
Ginny Ferguson, a mortgage broker in Pleasanton, Calif., and a credit expert for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, considers the practice mortgage fraud, and the trade organization is about to release a policy statement against it.
"These companies are encouraging consumers to commit fraud. On a standard home loan, there’s a clause that says the consumer is not omitting pertinent facts that could impact his or her ability to repay the loan," Ferguson said.
ICB’s LaBossiere said he sees his business as a second chance for the consumer who has had little financial education to make good decisions.
"People who are our clients are spending an incredible amount of money to get their finances back in order," he said. "They’ve learned through a school of pain that it’s such an important aspect of regaining control of their lives again."
So far, federal authorities have yet to make a ruling on the practice. "What I’ve gathered from attorneys here is that it appears to be legal" technically, said FTC spokesman Frank Dorman. "However, the agency is not saying that it is legal."
Lenders, who depend on credit scores to assess a person’s ability to pay back a loan, are closely watching the practice’s growth. It also comes at a time when the industry is reeling from the a soaring default rate on subprime mortgages, home loans for people with bad credit. As a result, they’ve tightened lending standards, but the credit-renting practice threatens to undermine their efforts to reduce exposure to risky borrowers.
Score system under revisionNinety percent of the largest U.S. banks base their loan decisions on FICO scores, which currently includes authorized user accounts. However, after discussions with lenders and industry officials, Fair Isaac said it intends to announce this week that all future versions of its FICO score methodology will no longer consider authorized user accounts, said Tom Quinn, Fair Isaac’s vice president of scoring solutions.
The next version is slated to roll out in September to one of the three main credit reporting agencies — Equifax Inc., Experian Information Solutions Inc. or TransUnion LLC — with the other two agencies receiving the new version some time in 2008.
The change won’t be a quick-fix for lenders trying to weed out credit renters. Corey Carlisle, senior director of government affairs for the Mortgage Bankers Association, said it takes time for lenders to transition from one scoring system to another.
"All lenders have their own guidelines and parameters on how to use and incorporate the FICO score. It would take time to understand what’s in a new credit score," Carlisle said.
Quinn also noted that some lenders generate their own scores using authorized user accounts in their calculations, so the practice may not be easily negated.
"It’s an industrywide issue and there are other scores out there," he said. This is a phenomenon that impacts more than just FICO scores."
Other consumers besides credit renters stand to lose with the change, namely those for whom authorized user accounts were designed: college students on their parents’ cards and spouses with little to no credit of their own.
But there’s no way to distinguish these from the latest crop of strangers trying to augment their scores. Lenders who want to find out more information about others on credit card accounts are hindered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and privacy laws.
"As with any decision, there’s a trade-off," Quinn said. "The many honest consumers who learn good credit skills with the help from a family member, that feature will be removed. But the challenge for us is maintaining the integrity of the FICO score."

Bill Clinton to be interviewed by Oprah

2007-08-30T17:50:00.001-07:00

Former US President Bill Clinton will appear on Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show next Tuesday, Sept. 4, his first

interview to promote "Giving," a book on philanthropy and civic action coming out the same day.
Clinton's appearance was announced Monday in an e-mail - "The first interview about his new passion!" - sent to members of Winfrey's book club.
Winfrey, who interviewed Clinton in 2004 for his memoir "My Life," has good reason to think highly of the new book. "Giving" praises Winfrey's "Angel Network," which has donated millions of dollars around the world, from money for schools in Africa to relief aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The book also includes comments from Winfrey, who was asked why she started the Angel Network, and another charitable organization, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.
"I wanted to give back what I was given," she replied. "Everyone wants to matter."
Clinton has other interviews planned next week, including one with Larry King on CNN and with David Letterman on CBS television's "Late Show."

Google expert says 'TV is dead'

2007-08-30T17:49:00.001-07:00

One of the founding fathers of the internet has predicted the end of traditional television.
Vint Cerf, who helped to build the internet while working as a researcher in America, said that television was approaching its "iPod moment"
In the same way that people now download their favourite music onto their iPod, he said that viewers would soon be downloading most of favourite programmes onto their computers.
"85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time," said Mr Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world's largest search engine.
"You're still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later."
Although television on demand has not yet become a mainstream activity in the UK, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all invested vast sums of money in technology which enables viewers to watch their favourite shows on their computers.
But some critics, including some internet service providers, have warned that the internet will collapse under the strain of millions of people downloading programmes at the same time.
Over the next four years, it is thought that the number of videos watched over the internet will quadruple, with people moving from short clips to hour-long programmes.
Broadband companies claim that the service will cause "traffic jams", which will cost millions of pounds to sort out .
But Mr Cerf dismissed the warnings as "scare tactics", saying that critics had predicted 20 years ago that the net would collapse when people all around the world started to use it en masse.
"In the intervening 30 years it's increased a million times... We're far from exhausting the capacity," he said. "It's an understandable worry when they see huge amounts of information being moved around online."
Setting out his vision for the future of the internet, he said he wanted it to reach as many people as possible.
"I want more internet," he said. "I want every one of the six billion people on the planet to be able to connect to the internet."

How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life

2007-08-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

Even now, mere mention of Quaker Oats' acquisition of Snapple causes veteran dealmakers to shudder. For good reason. In 1993, Quaker paid $1.7 billion for the Snapple brand, outbidding Coca-Cola, among other interested parties. In 1997, Quaker sold Snapple to Triarc Beverages for $300 million, a price most observers found generous. The debacle cost both the chairman and president of Quaker their jobs and hastened the end of Quaker's independent existence (it's now a unit of PepsiCo).
But that's not the end of the story. In October 2000, Triarc, the privately held outfit that took Snapple off Quaker's hands, sold the brand to Cadbury Schweppes for about $1 billion. The turnaround would be astonishing in any industry, but especially in the beverage-marketing business, where short-lived brands are depressingly common. Snapple's durability raises a number of questions. Why did the brand lose $1.4 billion in value under Quaker's stewardship in just four years? How did Triarc restore most of that value in less than three years? What did Triarc do with such apparently effortless grace that Quaker, with all its resources, could not?

Brands thrive when there's a close fit between process and corporate temperament.— John Deighton

In November 2000, shortly after Triarc sold Snapple to Cadbury Schweppes, I posed those questions to Triarc's top executives: chairman and majority owner Nelson Peltz, CEO Mike Weinstein, and marketing director Ken Gilbert. Their answers led me to a conclusion that many marketing professionals are likely to resist: There is a vital interplay between the challenge a brand faces and the culture of the corporation that owns it. When brand and culture fall out of alignment, both brand and corporate owner are likely to suffer.
I'm hardly courting controversy by asserting that a brand might fit better in one company's portfolio than in another's. But a marketing professional would probably explain the improved fit in terms of distribution economies or manufacturing synergies. I would explain it differently: First, as every brand manager would surely agree, good brand management is explained more by process than by strategy. The big idea is important, but the execution of the big idea determines its success or failure. Second, consistent process execution is a matter of temperament. Some processes are best entrusted to managers with cautious, prudent temperaments while others flourish in the hands of risk takers. Brands thrive when there's a close fit between process and corporate temperament. This explanation, I believe, will provide the framework for understanding Triarc's and Quaker's contrasting experiences with Snapple as our story unfolds.
An endearing artlessness
Some brands just want to have fun, and from birth Snapple was one of them. Operating from the back of his parents' pickle store in Queens, Arnie Greenberg and his friends Leonard Marsh and Hyman Golden started selling a fresh apple juice called Snapple across New York City in the late 1970s. At the time, there was no shortage of upstart brands competing for the dollars of young, health-conscious New Yorkers, but Snapple stood out from the rest by virtue of an endearing artlessness. The labels on its bottles were cluttered and amateurish, and its ads seemed, if possible, even more homemade. In one, tennis star Ivan Lendl garbled the brand name into "Shnahpple." Several others featured a Snapple order-processing clerk named Wendy Kaufman. Cheerful, zaftig, and blessed with a Noo Yawk accent strong enough to peel paint, Wendy blossomed into a minor celebrity known to her fans as the Snapple Lady. She chatted on-air with Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman, made appearances at retail stores, and accepted Snapple drinkers' invitations to sleep-overs, bar mitzvahs, and proms. On the radio, the brand grew by sponsoring shockmeisters Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh. Stern was an especially effective spokesperson. He got to know the founders of the business personally and conveyed to his listeners a genuine and infectious regard for the products and the people behind them.
The brand's distribution channels were as unconventional as its promotions. Initially Snapple had very little supermarket coverage. Instead, it flowed through the so-called cold channel: small distributors serving hundreds of thousands of lunch counters and delis, which sold single-serving refrigerated beverages consumed on the premises. Small as the individual distributors were, they aggregated into a mighty marketing force. By 1994, Snapple was available across the country, and as distributors added painstakingly cultivated supermarket accounts, sales ballooned to $674 million from just $4 million ten years earlier. Aware that Snapple had grown beyond their limited expertise, Greenberg and his partners cast about for a new owner that could take the brand to the next level. Enter Quaker Oats.
Quaker's executives approached the Snapple deal with a mixture of confidence and urgency. The confidence was easily understood: Quaker had an impressive record in beverage marketing, having developed Gatorade into a powerhouse national brand by skillfully executing a plan drawn straight from the marketing textbooks. After purchasing the sports drink from Stokely-Van Camp in 1983, Quaker introduced it into twenty-six foreign markets, added five new flavors (for a total of eight), and hired basketball great Michael Jordan as a spokesperson. It used its leverage with supermarkets to win premium display space and squeezed costs out of the supply chain. Textbook actions produced textbook results: Gatorade sales swelled from $100 million to $1 billion in ten years, giving Quaker's executives ample reason to believe they could produce similar growth for Snapple.
But replicating Gatorade's success was more than an objective—it was a matter of corporate survival. With only one brand in its beverage portfolio, Quaker was at a serious disadvantage to larger players that could use their broader lineups to capture economies of scale. To stave off acquisition by one of those larger competitors, Quaker needed to add a second brand that could capture similar economies. Acutely aware of the make-or-break nature of the acquisition, Quaker's executives formulated a marketing plan that sought to minimize or eliminate risk. As it happened, though, Quaker's very risk aversion turned out to be the greatest risk of all.
...
When brand and management clash
One of the most striking things about my conversations with Peltz, Weinstein, and Gilbert was the language that the Triarc team used. In most corporations, brand marketing sounds like a form of warfare. Consumers are targeted, campaigns are planned, products are positioned and launched, waves of advertising are flighted, and then market research does the reconnaissance to say whether the missions were successful or not. But at Triarc, the talk was of play and fun, parties and parades. It's not that they didn't know the other terminology. Peltz hired Weinstein and Gilbert for their impeccable professional credentials, and they could have used marketing-speak if they had wanted to. But the spirit of Snapple called for another way of speaking and thinking. As Gilbert once told me: "We can be disciplined, but should we be? We can write down positioning statements, but the Snapple trademark spills over the boundaries we put on it." The brand's vitality responded better to play than to planning.
My point here is not to disparage discipline or, indeed, the marketing professionals of Quaker Oats. Their failure with Snapple wasn't a matter of ineptitude or a bureaucratic tin ear. Nor do I think it was a case of a nimble upstart outflanking a lumbering corporate behemoth. In a battle between David and Goliath, the smart money is almost always on the giant. Rather, Quaker's failure can be put down to a fatal mismatch between brand challenge and managerial temperament.
There was no such mismatch between Gatorade and Quaker. If Snapple was about play, Gatorade was about sport—about playing to win. You could have fun with Gatorade, but only after you'd won the game. Quaker's corporate temperament was perfectly attuned to the achievement-oriented message of Gatorade. But Snapple isn't about accomplishing an objective; it's about adding a little whimsy to the humdrum and the everyday. The job's dull and the car is more safe than sporty, but at least you can get a little wild at lunch with a Mango Madness. Given the difference between the two brand identities, it's no surprise that they didn't both thrive under the same owner. The surprise would have been if they had.
That's a lesson executives considering a brand acquisition might want to keep in mind. There are factors beyond economic analysis to take into account if the process of brand management is to cohere. What we call a brand identity is actually a form of meaning, made at least as much by small, impromptu managerial acts as by grand designs precisely executed. The managerial temperament makes itself known and felt in those small, almost unconscious, actions and decisions. Variations in temperament go a long way toward explaining why brands that flourish in the care of one custodian wither in another. So before committing to a deal, don't just consider a brand's sales. Give some thought as well to its soul.

Tobacco promotion will be banned by early 2011

2007-08-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

China, the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer, will ban all forms of tobacco promotion by January 2011.
A ban on tobacco advertising has been in place since 1996, but firms have managed to sidestep the rules and promote their brands in other more subtle ways such as sponsoring sporting events, or using their logos without mentioning "cigarettes" on television, radio and in newspapers and magazines.
Xu Guihua, vice-president of China Tobacco Control Association, made the landmark announcement on Monday at a seminar in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. She said the country is committed to fulfill its obligations to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
China formally became a member of the convention last January.
Xu said the nation lags behind other countries in efforts to control the use of tobacco, and the biggest problem is the lack of national regulations banning smoking in public areas.
To date, fewer than half the cities have framed rules on smoking bans in some public spaces. Efforts to ban smoking in other areas such as karaoke parlors and restaurants have been stifled by unwilling owners and managers who fear a loss of business.
Figures from the Ministry of Health show that China has an estimated 350 million smokers, almost a third of the world's 1.1 billion smokers.
Cigarette makers spent more than 1.6 billion yuan to promote their brands last year, according to China Youth Daily.
In 2005 the government collected 240 billion yuan in tobacco taxes.
According to the WHO convention, tobacco products must carry prominent health warnings on the packaging.
This measure needs to be implemented within three years from when China signed the convention.
Within five years, China must fulfill it commitment to comprehensively ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Yang Yan, a researcher with Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said 12 percent of deaths in China are caused by tobacco related illnesses, and by 2025, that figure will climb to 33 percent.

Vitamin E

2007-08-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

Vitamin E: What is it?Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that exists in eight different forms. Each form has its own biological activity, which is the measure of potency or functional use in the body [1]. Alpha-tocopherol (α-tocopherol) is the name of the most active form of vitamin E in humans. It is also a powerful biological antioxidant [2-3]. Vitamin E in supplements is usually sold as alpha-tocopheryl acetate, a form of alpha-tocopherol that protects its ability to function as an antioxidant. The synthetic form is labeled "D, L" while the natural form is labeled "D". The synthetic form is only half as active as the natural form [4]. Antioxidants such as vitamin E act to protect your cells against the effects of free radicals, which are potentially damaging by-products of energy metabolism. Free radicals can damage cells and may contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Studies are underway to determine whether vitamin E, through its ability to limit production of free radicals, might help prevent or delay the development of those chronic diseases. Vitamin E has also been shown to play a role in immune function, in DNA repair, and other metabolic processes [2-3].
What foods provide vitamin E?Vegetable oils, nuts, green leafy vegetables, and fortified cereals are common food sources of vitamin E in the United States (U.S.). Table 1, Selected Food Sources of Vitamin E, suggests many food sources of vitamin E [4]. Food values are listed in the alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E.Table 1: Selected Food Sources of Vitamin E [4]
FOOD
Milligrams (mg) Alpha-tocopherol per serving
Percent DV*
Wheat germ oil, 1 tablespoon
20.3
100
Almonds, dry roasted, 1 ounce
7.4
40
Sunflower seed kernels, dry roasted, 1 ounce
6.0
30
Sunflower oil, over 60% linoleic, 1 tablespoon
5.6
30
Safflower oil, over 70% oleic, 1 tablespoon
4.6
25
Hazelnuts, dry roasted, 1 ounce
4.3
20
Peanut butter, smooth style, vitamin and mineral fortified, 2 Tablespoons
4.2
20
Peanuts, dry roasted, 1 oz
2.2
10
Corn oil (salad or vegetable oil), 1 tablespoon
1.9
10
Spinach, frozen, chopped, boiled, ½ cup
1.6
6
Broccoli, frozen, chopped, boiled, ½ cup
1.2
6
Soybean oil, 1 tablespoon
1.3
6
Kiwi, 1 medium fruit without skin
1.1
6
Mango, raw, without refuse, ½ cup sliced
0.9
6
Spinach, raw, 1 cup
0.6
4*DV = Daily Value. DVs are reference numbers developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help consumers determine if a food contains a lot or a little of a specific nutrient. The DV for vitamin E is 30 International Units (or about 20 mg alpha-tocopherol). Most food labels do not list a food's vitamin E content. The percent DV (%DV) listed on the table indicates the percentage of the DV provided in one serving. A food providing 5% of the DV or less is a low source while a food that provides 10-19% of the DV is a good source. A food that provides 20% or more of the DV is high in that nutrient. It is important to remember that foods that provide lower percentages of the DV also contribute to a healthful diet. For foods not listed in this table, please refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Database Web site: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/.
What is the recommended intake for vitamin E?Recommendations for vitamin E are provided in the Dietary Reference Intakes developed by the Institute of Medicine [5]. Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) is the general term for a set of reference values used for planning and assessing nutrient intake for healthy people. Three important types of reference values included in the DRIs are Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), Adequate Intakes (AI), and Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL). The RDA recommends the average daily dietary intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97-98%) healthy individuals in each age and gender group [5]. An AI is set when there is insufficient scientific data available to establish a RDA. AIs meet or exceed the amount needed to maintain a nutritional state of adequacy in nearly all members of a specific age and gender group. The UL, on the other hand, is the maximum daily intake unlikely to result in adverse health effects [5].In Table 2, RDAs for vitamin E are based only on the alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E [5]. Table 2 also lists RDAs for vitamin E in International Units (IU) because food and most supplement labels list vitamin E content in International Units (1 mg alpha-tocopherol vitamin E = 1.49 IU). Table 2: Recommended Dietary Allowances for Vitamin E for Children and Adults [5]
Age(years)
Children(mg/day)
Men(mg/day)
Women(mg/day)
Pregnancy(mg/day)
Lactation(mg/day)
1-3
6 mg(=9 IU)
4-8
7 mg(=10.5 IU)
9-13
11 mg(=16.5 IU)
11 mg(=16.5 IU)
15 mg(=22.5 IU)
19 mg(=28.5 IU)
14 +
15 mg(=22.5 IU)
15 mg(=22.5 IU)
15 mg(=22.5 IU)
19 mg(=28.5 IU)There is insufficient scientific data on vitamin E to establish an RDA for infants. An Adequate Intake (AI) has been established that is based on the amount of vitamin E consumed by healthy infants who are fed breast milk. Table 2 lists the adequate intakes for vitamin E for infants in mg alpha-tocopherol and IUs (1 mg alpha-tocopherol = 1.49 IU) [5].Table 3: Adequate Intake for Vitamin E for Infants [5]
Age(months)
Males and Females (mg/day)
0 to 6
4 mg(=6 IU)
7 to 12
5 mg (=7.5 IU)Results of two national surveys, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Results of two national surveys, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III 1988-94) [6] and the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (1994-96 CSFII) [7] indicated that diets of most Americans do not provide the recommended intake for vitamin E. However, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on vitamin E published in 2000 states that intake estimates of vitamin E may be low because energy and fat intake are often underreported in national surveys and because the kind and amount of fat added during cooking is often not known. The IOM states that most North American adults get enough vitamin E from their normal diets to meet current recommendations. However, they do caution that low fat diets can result in a significant decrease in vitamin E intake. "Low-fat diets can substantially decrease vitamin E intakes if food choices are not carefully made to enhance α-tocopherol intakes" [5].
Who is at risk for vitamin E deficiency?Vitamin E deficiency is rare in humans. There are three specific situations when a vitamin E deficiency is likely to occur.
persons who cannot absorb dietary fat due to an inability to secrete bile or with rare disorders of fat metabolism are at risk of vitamin E deficiency [8];
individuals with rare genetic abnormalities in the alpha-tocopherol transfer protein are at risk of vitamin E deficiency [9]; and
premature, very low birth weight infants (birth weights less than 1500 grams, or 3 pounds, 4 ounces) are at risk of vitamin E deficiency [3,10].Blood levels of vitamin E may also be decreased with zinc deficiency [11]. Vitamin E deficiency is usually characterized by neurological problems associated with nerve degeneration in hands and feet [5]. These symptoms are also associated with other medical conditions. A physician can determine if they are the result of a vitamin E deficiency or are from another cause.
Who may need extra vitamin E to prevent a deficiency?Individuals who cannot absorb fat require a vitamin E supplement because some dietary fat is needed for the absorption of vitamin E from the gastrointestinal tract. Intestinal disorders that often result in malabsorption of vitamin E and may require vitamin E supplementation include [3]:
Crohn's Disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the small intestines. People with Crohn's disease often experience diarrhea and nutrient malabsorption.
Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited disease that affects the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and liver. Cystic fibrosis can interfere with normal digestion and absorption of nutrients, especially of fat soluble vitamins including vitamin E.People who cannot absorb fat often pass greasy stools or have chronic diarrhea. People with an inability to secrete bile, a substance that helps fat digestion, may need a special water-soluble form of vitamin E. Abetalipoproteinemia is a rare inherited disorder of fat metabolism that results in poor absorption of dietary fat and vitamin E [8]. The vitamin E deficiency associated with this disease causes problems such as poor transmission of nerve impulses, muscle weakness, and degeneration of the retina that can cause blindness. Individuals with abetalipoproteinemia may be prescribed special vitamin E supplements by a physician to treat this disorder [12]. Ataxia and vitamin E deficiency (AVED) is also a rare inherited disorder. It is caused by a genetic defect in a liver protein that is responsible for maintaining normal alpha-tocopherol concentrations in the blood. These individuals have such severe vitamin E deficiency that without supplements they are unable to walk (ataxia) [9]. Very low birth weight infants may be deficient in vitamin E [3,10]. Necrotizing enterocolitits, a condition sometimes seen in very low birth weight infants that is characterized by inflammation of the lining of the intestines, may lead to a vitamin E deficiency [4]. These infants are usually under the care of a neonatologist, a pediatrician specializing in the care of newborns who evaluates and treats the exact nutritional needs of premature infants.
What are some current issues and controversies about vitamin E?Vitamin E and heart diseasePreliminary research has led to a widely held belief that vitamin E may help prevent or delay coronary heart disease [13]. Researchers have reported that oxidative changes to LDL-cholesterol (sometimes called "bad" cholesterol) promote blockages (atherosclerosis) in coronary arteries that may lead to heart attacks. Vitamin E may help prevent or delay coronary heart disease by limiting the oxidation of LDL-cholesterol [14]. Vitamin E also may help prevent the formation of blood clots, which could lead to a heart attack. Observational studies have associated lower rates of heart disease with higher vitamin E intake. A study of approximately 90,000 nurses suggested that the incidence of heart disease was 30% to 40% lower among nurses with the highest intake of vitamin E from diet and supplements. Researchers found that the apparent benefit was mainly associated with intake of vitamin E from dietary supplements. High vitamin E intake from food was not associated with significant cardiac risk reduction [15]. A 1994 review of 5,133 Finnish men and women aged 30-69 years also suggested that increased dietary intake of vitamin E was associated with decreased mortality (death) from heart disease [16]. Even though these observations are promising, randomized clinical trials raise questions about the efficacy of vitamin E supplements in the prevention of heart disease. The Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) Study followed almost 10,000 patients for 4.5 years who were at high risk for heart attack or stroke [17]. In this intervention study the subjects who received 265 mg (400 IU) of vitamin E daily did not experience significantly fewer cardiovascular events or hospitalizations for heart failure or chest pain when compared to those who received a placebo (sugar pill). The researchers suggested that it is unlikely that the vitamin E supplement provided any protection against cardiovascular disease in the HOPE study. This study is continuing, with the goal of determining whether a longer duration of intervention with vitamin E supplements will provide any protection against cardiovascular disease.In a study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, postmenopausal women with heart disease who took supplements providing 400 IU vitamin E and 500 mg vitamin C twice a day, either alone or in combination with hormones, did not have fewer heart attacks or deaths. There was also no change in progression of their coronary disease. This study, The Women's Angiographic Vitamin and Estrogen (WAVE) trial, studied 423 postmenopausal women at seven clinical centers in the U.S. and Canada. In postmenopausal women with coronary disease enrolled in this trial, neither hormone replacement therapy nor antioxidant vitamin supplements provided cardiovascular benefit [18]. Vitamin E and cancerAntioxidants such as vitamin E are believed to help protect cell membranes against the damaging effects of free radicals, which may contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as cancer [4]. Vitamin E also may block the formation of nitrosamines, which are carcinogens formed in the stomach from nitrites consumed in the diet. It also may protect against the development of cancers by enhancing immune function [19]. Unfortunately, human trials and surveys that have tried to associate vitamin E intake with incidence of cancer have been generally inconclusive. Some evidence associates higher intake of vitamin E with a decreased incidence of prostate cancer and breast cancer [20]. However, an examination of the effect of dietary factors, including vitamin E, on incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer in over 18,000 women from New York State did not associate a greater vitamin E intake with a reduced risk of developing breast cancer [21]. A study of women in Iowa provides evidence that an increased dietary intake of vitamin E may decrease the risk of colon cancer, especially in women under 65 years of age [22]. On the other hand, a study of 87,998 females from the Nurses' Health Study and 47,344 males from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study failed to support the theory that an increased dietary intake of vitamin E may decrease the risk of colon cancer [23]. The American Cancer society recently released the results of a long-term study that evaluated the effect of regular use of vitamin C and vitamin E supplements on bladder cancer mortality in almost 1,000,000 adults in the U.S. The study, conducted between the years 1982 to 1998, found that subjects who regularly consumed a vitamin E supplement for longer than 10 years had a reduced risk of death from bladder cancer. No benefit was seen from vitamin C supplements [24]. At this time researchers cannot confidently recommend vitamin E supplements for the prevention of cancer because the evidence on this issue is inconsistent and limited. Vitamin E and cataractsCataracts are abnormal growths in the lens of the eye. These growths cloud vision. They also increase the risk of disability and blindness in aging adults. Antioxidants are being studied to determine whether they can help prevent or delay cataract growth. Observational studies have found that lens clarity, which is used to diagnose cataracts, was better in regular users of vitamin E supplements and in persons with higher blood levels of vitamin E [25]. A study of middle-aged male smokers, however, did not demonstrate any effect from vitamin E supplements on the incidence of cataract formation [26]. The effects of smoking, a major risk factor for developing cataracts, may have overridden any potential benefit from the vitamin E, but the conflicting results also indicate a need for further studies before researchers can confidently recommend extra vitamin E for the prevention of cataracts.
What is the health risk of too much vitamin E?Most studies of the safety of vitamin E supplementation have lasted for several months or less, so there is little evidence for the long-term safety of vitamin E supplementation.The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine has set an upper tolerable intake level (UL) for vitamin E at 1,000 mg (1,500 IU) for any form of supplementary alpha-tocopherol per day. Based for the most part on the result of animal studies, the Board decided that because vitamin E can act as an anticoagulant and may increase the risk of bleeding problems this UL is the highest dose unlikely to result in bleeding problems. Table 4 lists the Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL) of vitamin E in mg alpha-tocopherol and IUs for children and adults (1 mg alpha-tocopherol vitamin E = 1.49 IU). A UL for vitamin E for infants up to 12 months of age has not been established.Table 4: Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL) of vitamin E for Children and Adults [5]
Age (years)
Males (mg/day)
Females(mg/day)
Pregnancy(mg/day)
Lactation(mg/day)
1-3
200(=300 IU)
200(=300 IU)
N/A
N/A
4-8
300(=450 IU)
300(=450 IU)
N/A
N/A
9-13
600(=900 IU)
600(=900 IU)
N/A
N/A
14-18
800(=1,200 IU)
800(=1,200 IU)
800(=1,200 IU)
800(=1,200 IU)
19-70
1,000(=1,500 IU)
1,000(=1,500 IU)
1,000(=1,500 IU)
1,000(=1,500 IU)
> 70
1,000(=1,500 IU)
1,000(=1,500 IU)
N/A(=1,500 IU)
N/A(=1,500 IU)
Vitamin E intakes and healthful dietsMany people are concerned about their fat intake today. Your overall diet should be moderate in fat, but it is important to include some healthful sources of fat, including those oils and nuts that provide vitamin E. Including these foods in your diet will help you meet your daily need for vitamin E. Meats, grain products, dairy products, and most fruits and vegetables are generally not good sources of vitamin E. According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, "Nutrient needs should be met primarily through consuming foods. Foods provide an array of nutrients and other compounds that may have beneficial effects on health. In certain cases, fortified foods and dietary supplements may be useful sources of one or more nutrients that otherwise might be consumed in less than recommended amounts. However, dietary supplements, while recommended in some cases, cannot replace a healthful diet."The Dietary Guidelines for Americans describes a healthy diet as one that:
emphasizes a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products;
includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts;
is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars; and
stays within your daily calorie needs.For more information about building a healthful diet, refer to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans http://www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines and the US Department of Agriculture's food guidance system (My Pyramid; http://www.mypyramid.gov).

About ODS and the NIH Clinical Center
General Safety Advisory
Disclaimer
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Posted Date:10/7/2004
Updated:1/23/2007 12:32 PM

References
Traber MG and Packer L. Vitamin E: Beyond antioxidant function. Am J Clin Nutr 1995;62:1501S-9S. [PubMed abstract]
Traber MG. Vitamin E. In: Shils ME, Olson JA, Shike M, Ross AC, ed. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. 10th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1999:347-62.
Farrell P and Roberts R. Vitamin E. In: Shils M, Olson JA, and Shike M, ed. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lea and Febiger, 1994:326-41.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2004. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 16-1. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/ndl
Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition board. Dietary Reference Intakes: Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 2000.
Bialostosky K et al. Dietary intake of macronutrients, micronutrients and other dietary constituents: United States 1988-94. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 11(245). 2002.
Interagency Board for Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research. Third Report on Nutrition Monitoring in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995.
Triantafillidis JK, Kottaras G, Sgourous S, Cheracakis P, Driva G, Konstantellou E, Parasi A, Choremi H, Samouilidou E. A-beta-lipoproteinemia: Clinical and laboratory features, therapeutic manipulations, and follow-up study of three members of a Greek family. J Clin Gastroenterol 1998;26:207-11. [PubMed abstract]
Cavalier L, Ouahchi K, Kayden H, Donato S, Reutenaucer L, Mandel JL, and Koenig M. Ataxia with isolated vitamin E deficiency: heterogeneity of mutations and phenotypic variability in a large number of families. Am J Hum Genet 1998;62:301-10.
National Research Council, Food and Nutrition Board, Recommended Dietary Allowances, 10th ed. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989.
Bunk MN, Dnistrian AM, Schwartz MK and Rivlin RS. Dietary zinc deficiency decreases plasma concentrations of vitamin E. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1989;190:379-84.
Tanyel MC and Mancano LD. Neurologic findings in vitamin E deficiency. Am Fam Physician 1997;55:197-201. [PubMed abstract]
Lonn EM and Yusuf S. Is there a role for antioxidant vitamins in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases? An update on epidemiological and clinical trials data. Can J Cardiol 1997;13:957-65. [PubMed abstract]
Jialal I and Fuller CJ. Effect of vitamin E, vitamin C and beta-carotene on LDL oxidation and atherosclerosis. Can J Cardiol 1995;11 Suppl G:97G-103G. [PubMed abstract]
Stampfer MJ, Hennekens CH, Manson JE, Colditz GA, Rosner B, Willett WC. Vitamin E consumption and the risk of coronary disease in women. N Engl J Med 1993;328:1444-9 [PubMed abstract]
Knekt P, Reunanen A, Jarvinen R, Seppanen R, Heliovaara M, Aromaa A. Antioxidant vitamin intake and coronary mortality in a longitudinal population study. Am J Epidemiol 1994;139:1180-9. [PubMed abstract]
The Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation Study Investigators. Vitamin E supplementation and cardiovascular events in high-risk patients. N Engl J Med 2000;342:154-60. [PubMed abstract]
Waters DD, Alderman EL, Hsia J, Howard BV, Cobb FR, Rogers WJ, Ouyang P, Thompson P, Tardif JC, Higginson L, Bittner V, Steffes M, Gordon DJ, Proschan M, Younes N, Verter JI. Effects of hormone replacement therapy and antioxidant vitamin supplements on coronary atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Med Assoc 2002;288:2432-40.
Weitberg AB and Corvese D. Effect of vitamin E and beta-carotene on DNA strand breakage induced by tobacco-specific nitrosamines and stimulated human phagocytes. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 1997;16:11-4. [PubMed abstract]
Chan JM, Stampfer MJ, Giovannucci EL. What causes prostate cancer? A brief summary of the epidemiology. Semin Cancer Biol 1998;8:263-73. [PubMed abstract]
Graham S, Sielezny M, Marshall J, Priore R, Freudenheim J, Brasure J, Haughey B, Nasca P, Zdeb M. Diet in the epidemiology of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer in the New York State Cohort. Am J Epidemiol 1992;136:3127-37. [PubMed abstract]
Bostick RM, Potter JD, McKenzie DR, Sellers TA, Kushi LH, Steinmetz KA, Folsom AR. Reduced risk of colon cancer with high intakes of vitamin E: The Iowa Women's Health Study. Cancer Res 1993;15:4230-17. [PubMed abstract]
Wu K, Willett WC, Chan JM, Fuchs CS, Colditz GA, Rimm EB, Giovannucci EL. A prospective study on supplemental vitamin E intake and risk of colon cancer in women and men. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2002;11:1298-304.
Jacobs EJ, Henion AK, Briggs PJ, Connell CJ, McCullough ML, Jonas CR, Rodriguez C, Calle EE, Thun MJ. Vitamin C and vitamin E supplement use and bladder cancer mortality in a large cohort of US men and women. American Journal of Epidemiology 2002;156: 1002-10.
Leske MC, Chylack LT Jr., He Q, Wu SY, Schoenfeld E, Friend J, Wolfe J. Antioxidant vitamins and nuclear opacities: The longitudinal study of cataract. Ophthalmology 1998;105:831-6. [PubMed abstract]
Teikari JM, Virtamo J, Rautalahti M, Palmgren J, Liesto K, Heinonen OP. Long-term supplementation with alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene and age-related cataract. Acta Ophthalmol Scand 1997;75:634-40. [PubMed abstract]
DisclaimerReasonable care has been taken in preparing this document and the information provided herein is believed to be accurate. However, this information is not intended to constitute an "authoritative statement" under Food and Drug Administration rules and regulations.

About ODS and the NIH Clinical CenterThe mission of the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) is to strengthen knowledge and understanding of dietary supplements by evaluating scientific information, stimulating and supporting research, disseminating research results, and educating the public to foster an enhanced quality of life and health for the U.S. population.The NIH Clinical Center is the clinical research hospital for NIH. Through clinical research, physicians and scientist translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation's health.
General Safety AdvisoryHealth professionals and consumers need credible information to make thoughtful decisions about eating a healthful diet and using vitamin and mineral supplements. To help guide those decisions, registered dietitians at the NIH Clinical Center developed a series of Fact Sheets in conjunction with ODS. These Fact Sheets provide responsible information about the role of vitamins and minerals in health and disease. Each Fact Sheet in this series received extensive review by recognized experts from the academic and research communities.The information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. It is important to seek the advice of a physician about any medical condition or symptom. It is also important to seek the advice of a physician, registered dietitian, pharmacist, or other qualified health professional about the appropriateness of taking dietary supplements and their potential interactions with medications.
ReviewersThe Clinical Nutrition Service and the ODS thank the expert scientific reviewers for their role in ensuring the scientific accuracy of the information discussed in these fact sheets:Charles Hennekens, M.D., Dr. P.H., (retired) Brigham and Women Hospital, BostonPaul LaChance, Ph.D., Rutgers UniversityRoger McDonald, Ph.D., University of California-Davis Richard S. Rivlin, M.D., Institute for Cancer revention, New York, New YorkMaret Traber, Ph.D., Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University

Easel

2007-08-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it.
The word is an old Germanic synonym for donkey (compare similar semantics); its equivalent is the only word for both animal and apparatus in various languages, such as Esel in German and earlier ezel in Dutch (the easel generally in full schildersezel, 'painter's donkey'), themselves derived from Latin Asinus (hence ass), interestingly in Danish the word is staffeli and donkey is æsel.
Easels are known to have been in use since the time of the ancient Egyptians. In the 1st century, Pliny the Elder makes reference to a large panel placed upon an easel.
It is most often used to hold up a painter's canvas or large sketchbook while the artist is working or to hold a completed painting for exhibition. The simplest form of an artist's easel, a tripod, consists of three vertical posts joined at one end. A pivoting mechanism allows the centremost post to pivot away from the other two, forming a tripod. The two non-pivoting posts have a horizontal cross member on which the canvas is placed. A similar model is fit to hold a blackboard, projection surface, parcard etcetera. An easel can be full-height, designed for standing by itself on the floor. Shorter easels can also be designed for use on a table. Easels are typically made from wood, aluminum or steel.
There are two common designs for easels:
Tripod designs are based on three legs. Variations include crossbars to make the easel more stable and an independent mechanism to allow for the vertical adjustment of the working plane without sacrificing the stabilty of the three legs of the easel.
H-Frame designs are based on right angles. All posts are generally parallel to each other with the base of the easel being rectangular. The main portion of the easel consists of two vertical posts with a horizontal crossbar support, thus giving the design the general shape of an "H." Variations include additions that allow the easel's verticality to be adjusted.
There are three common usages for easels:
Studio easels are meant for use in the artist's studio with limited need for the easel to be portable. Studio easels may be simple in design or very complex including winches, multiple masts and casters. The largest easels are studio easels with some being able to support weights of over 200 lb. and panels over 7 feet in height.
Field easels are meant to be portable and for the creation of en plein air work. These easels are usually mid-sized or small, have telescopic or collapsible legs and are based on the tripod design. French box easels include a compartment in which to store art supplies conveniently along with a handle or straps so that the French box may be carried like a briefcase or a backpack.
Display easels are meant for the display of finished works. These easels tend to be very simple in design with less concern for the stability needed by a working artist. Display easels can vary in size and sturdiness depending upon the weight and size of the object to be placed on them.
The world's largest painting on an easel is in Altona, Manitoba, Canada. By Cameron Cross and Andrew Bennett
http://www.roadsideattractions.ca/altona.htm

How Radio Scanners Work

2007-08-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

1. Introduction to How Radio Scanners Work
The air around you is bursting with radio waves. You know that you can flip on the AM/FM radio in your car and receive dozens of stations. You can flip on a CB radio and receive 40 more. You can flip on a TV and receive numerous broadcast channels. Cell phones can send and receive hundreds of frequencies. And this is just the tip of the radio spectrum iceberg. Literally tens of thousands of other radio broadcasts and conversations are zipping past you as you read this article -- police officers, firefighters, ambulance drivers, paramedics, sanitation workers, space shuttle astronauts, race car drivers, and even babies with their monitors are transmitting radio waves all around you at this very moment!
To tap into this ocean of electromagnetic dialogue and hear what all of these people are talking about, all you need is a scanner. A scanner is basically a radio receiver capable of receiving multiple signals. Generally, scanners pick up signals in the VHF to UHF range (see How the Radio Spectrum Works for details on these frequency bands).
Radio scanners are very portable and affordable. In this article, we will look at the basics of scanner operation, examine radio scanning as a hobby, and show you how to get started listening to public airwaves you may not have known existed!
Scanner BasicsScanners typically operate in three modes:
Scan
Manual scan
Search
In scan mode, the receiver constantly changes frequencies in a set order looking for a frequency that has someone transmitting. Lights or panel-mounted displays show what channel or frequency is in use as the scanner stops on a given frequency. The frequencies can be preprogrammed on some models or manually set on practically all models.
In manual scan mode, the user taps a button or turns a dial to manually step through preprogrammed frequencies one frequency at a time.
In search mode, the receiver is set to search between two sets of frequencies within a given band. This mode is useful when a user does not know a frequency, but wants to know what frequencies are active in a given area. If the frequency the scanner stops at during a search is interesting, the user can store that frequency in the radio scanner and use it in scan mode.

2. Scanner Features
Radio scanners can be either portable, with rechargeable battery packs, or desktop, like a regular radio. Scanners are gaining popularity with consumers. With the huge popularity of NASCAR racing, many people now use scanners at auto racing events to eavesdrop on the crew-driver communications at races. At a typical race, there are hundreds of frequencies in use. Each team has two or three frequencies, while race control, the sanctioning organization, the medical, fire and track crews and many others each have assigned frequencies during the race.
Some of the recently released scanners are capable of tracking municipalities and police frequencies in the 800-megahertz (MHz) range. This is known as trunk tracking of computer-controlled trunked radio networks.
Higher-end scanners can be controlled by the serial port of a personal computer using special software. This helps the user with the logging of stations as well as with duplicating the scanner controls within the software application.
Many models receive the NOAA weather radio broadcasts. This can be a very useful feature during pending tornadoes or hurricanes.
The controls on a radio scanner can vary, but practically all of them have:
Volume
Squelch - This is an adjustable control that keeps the speaker muted (quiet and free from static) when a station is not transmitting. It works whether the radio is scanning, searching or manually stepping through stored frequencies. CB radios also have this control.
WX button - This is common on some newer models. This button typically does a mini-scan of some factory-written frequencies that receive the nationwide NOAA weather broadcast reports.
Numeric keypad - This is used for entering frequencies or in combination with the "Limit" button, used for entering upper and lower ranges of a search between two frequencies. The keypad also lets you enter frequencies found during a search. More expensive models automatically store frequencies found during a search.
Buy a copy of "Police Call" (you can get a used one for next to nothing at Amazon.com or the CD-ROM version at Radio Shack) to get some frequencies for your area. See these Frequently Asked Frequencies, too.
Thanks to frequency synthesizers, most scanners can receive frequency bands in the 29-MHz to 512-MHz range. If you enter a frequency outside that range, you typically see an error indication on the display. More expensive models often have a higher range and often include military aircraft frequencies. (Earlier scanners did not have numeric keypads and required the owner to purchase individual crystals manufactured for a given frequency. Most early scanners only held six or 10 crystals. The cost of filling up a scanner with individual channel crystals often approached the cost of the scanner, much like buying ink cartridges for today’s low-priced color inkjet printers.)
Search button - This starts the scanner on a continuous loop between two frequency limits, finding unknown frequencies within a given range. The searches typically are in the same automatic increments that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) assigns for the given frequency band being searched. U.S. scanners cannot search the frequency bands assigned for analog cellular telephone calls.
If you were at a car race, for example, you could do a search from 460 to 470 MHz and note when the scanner stops (or look in the race program for assigned frequencies). You could make a note of the displayed frequency or store it at that time, and then continue the search. The instruction manual that comes with a scanner typically shows what frequency bands are for government, business, aviation, and other users.
Manual button - This lets the user manually step through a range of frequencies stored in the scanner. Modern scanners have 100 to 300 channels for storing frequencies in the built-in memory. More expensive models have even more.
Scan button - This starts the scanner on a continuous loop through all of the frequency banks (containing stored frequencies). The scanner stops when it detects a radio signal on a stored frequency; it moves to the next stored frequency when the radio signal ends. The user can typically enable or disable certain banks of frequencies for scanning. Each bank can hold 10 to 30 frequencies, depending on the brand and model of the radio scanner. Often, banks contain frequencies according to the type of radio service. Types include emergency, police, fire, aviation, marine and business.
Delay button - This makes the scanner stall for a short duration on a frequency before moving to the next one. This delay helps the user hear the other part of the radio conversation on that frequency.
Lockout button - This temporarily disables the radio scanner from stopping on a stored frequency. For example, you might want to lockout the frequency of a busy airport tower at peak travel time during the day when you're really trying to hear the traffic helicopters in your area.
Radio scanners usually come with small whip antennas as well as an external antenna connector. An outside antenna or attic antenna enables you to hear more transmissions at a greater distance.
Scanners cannot hear everything. The typical consumer-grade scanner cannot listen in on 900-MHz cordless phones that use digital spread spectrum (DSS) technology. Analog cell phone frequencies are also blocked by law on all scanners.

Cop CodesYou might hear the police conversing in the 10-codes.Some law enforcement agencies also use audio inversion and other scrambling technologies to prevent the reception of sensitive communications. You will not be able to decipher these conversations.
Even so, there is an unbelievable number of radio services that use frequencies most scanners can hear.
Until you buy your own scanner, you can try out scanning frequencies on Web-controlled receivers.

3. Getting Started With Your Scanner
Frequency lists are easy to obtain, often via the Internet. You can find a free frequency list for your area at this Web site.
If you buy a portable scanner, park near an airport sometime and search the VHF AM aviation-band range, from approximately 118 MHz to 135.975 MHz, to hear all the activity that is going on. In some areas, programming 123.45 MHz into your scanner will let you hear some pilot-to-pilot communications.
Many desktop models work on a 12-volt power supply, so a cigarette-lighter adapter will allow you to take one on a trip.
Community Service with a ScannerScanners have helped law enforcement track down criminals. For instance:
A scanner listener hears the police conversation about a recent robbery description, spots the perpetrator’s car and calls the police to report it.
A scanner listener hears criminal activity being discussed on the scanner and reports it to the local police. Often, family members of those in fire protection, emergency medical services and law enforcement have a scanner so they can hear what is going on.
Scanner users sometimes receive negative publicity when they use information that they have heard for private personal gain. Be sure to obey the scanner laws when scanning.
Join a neighborhood watch team or a crime watch team and use the information you hear for awareness and safety.
Listening in via the InternetIf you wish to get a taste of radio scanning, and have a sound card in your PC, try the various radio scanner live broadcasts for police, fire, rail and aviation.
Reception over the Internet may be erratic when there is network congestion, but this is an inexpensive way to try out radio scanning via your PC and the Internet.
Scanner TipsOnce you buy a scanner, read the manual from cover to cover so you know all of the capabilities. Ask questions in one of the many scanner newsgroups on the Internet -- there are active USENET newsgroups that many scanner hobbyists visit. You can use rec.radio.scanner or alt.radio.scanner, easily accessed through your Web browser. Check out some of the scanning resources on the Internet, then try these tips:
Become a frequency collector. Start with index cards or perhaps a small database program on your computer. Learn how to do searches within a given band -- search a 1-MHz segment at a time and record the interesting frequencies you find.
Consider finding a way to run your radio from emergency power if you have a desktop model. That way, you can listen to police and fire crews during power failures and severe weather. Typically, a very small 12-volt battery is all that is needed.
Consider storing frequencies of a similar type all in the same bank. That way, if you just want to listen to police, fire, or aviation, you can scan just the frequency memory bank you're interested in and "lockout" the others.
Take your scanner on a trip and listen from the hotel or motel room.
Take your scanner to all sporting events where radios are used.
Listen to local amateur radio operators at 144 to 148 MHz. Volunteer ham radio spotters are often heard during a weather watch or a weather warning.

Scanner (radio) laws by country

2007-08-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

United States of America: It is illegal to receive or listen to cellular phone frequencies in the 800 MHz band, or to cordless phone calls, and to use information gained from listening to a scanner in furtherance of the commission of a crime. It is also illegal to use for personal gain information obtained from any radio transmissions not intended for public reception, or to disclose such information to a third party. Several states have laws further restricting the use of scanners. For example, in Minnesota, the mobile use of a scanner in an automobile by anybody other than a police officer, a licensed amateur radio operator, or the holder of a permit from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is illegal.

New Zealand: According to the [Act 1989] It is legal to possess and use a scanner at any time to tune to any private voice radio (not encrypted data) provided that private information is not passed on or disclosed to any other person(s) or party(s).

Australia: It is legal to possess a scanner. It is legal to listen to any transmission that is not classified as telecommunication (i.e. anything not connected to the telephone network).

Mexico: It is legal to have an unlocked scanner and listen to any radio spectrum frequencies including encrypted and cellular band. But according to the [Federal Law of General Ways of Communication] it is restricted to any individual to spread information obtained on a mass media.

United Kingdom: The Wireless Telegraphy Act in relation to scanning essentially makes it an offence for any person to 'intercept' any message of which he or she is not the intended recipient.

An interview with Craig Goff of Kryophysics - Hey, it's not just a bunch of dry ice!

2007-08-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

An interview with Craig Goff of Kryophysics - Hey, it's not just a bunch of dry ice!by Dave Clark
This is the first in a series of interviews with various people in the cryo-industry as to the what's and why's of cryoing - more to come!

So what's the story behind Kryophysics?
Kryophysics (http://kryophysics.com/pages/5/index.htm) is a commercial cryogenic treatment facility featuring computer-controlled large capacity dry-process heating and cooling chambers, located in Camarillo, California. I started the business two years ago to address market needs in performance motorsports, precision industrial machinery and cutting blade enhancements for metal, wood and food processing. I didn't pursue cryogenic treatment for audio components immediately, but waited until I was sure that it worked well for those kinds of applications.
How did you get into this?
In 1979, I had my first exposure to thermal processing of metals when I worked as a CNC programmer for an aerospace machine shop. It was necessary to treat many of the parts prior to machining, using a process that would cycle three times between -100 degree F and +300 F over a period of about 24 hours. This "cold stabilization" technique would help stress relieve the metals and toughen them so that they would warp less during machining and last longer in their intended final uses.
I left machining in 1983, working as the Production Manager and later as the Engineering Manager for a company that produced custom metrology equipment for high tech manufacturing. We designed and made machines used for non-contact inspection of critical dimensions on manufactured parts, often measuring objects that required accuracy certainties in millionths of an inch, or fractions of a micron.
A typical machine would use high power microscope optics coupled to computer controlled XYZ axis motion platforms, so that the part to be inspected could be moved with precision beneath the optics, allowing a high resolution camera and image grabber PC board looking thru the microscope to make quality judgments about what they saw. As you can imagine, our customer list included a number of finicky high tech names, including: IBM, RCA, Panasonic, General Dynamics, Ford, Grumman Aerospace, Xerox, etc.
It was absolutely essential to make these machines as mechanically stable as possible, so that the measurements made on the machines would have a high repeatability and reliability factor. Vibration, humidity, temperature and atmospheric pressure all played a part in affecting these measurements. Treating the critical metal machine parts using the "cold stabilization" technique previously described significantly helped in this endeavor, as did careful application of a variety of anti-vibration technologies.
Leaving that world in 1998, I became involved with a small industrial company that produced custom anti-vibration isolators for high tech manufacturing industries. Ultimately, they too adopted heat treating and cryogenic techniques to further perfect the performance of their devices. Though their technology was viable, their finances were not, leading to the unfortunate dissolution and sale of their business units in 2002.
Bereft of employment, I spent a year of soul-searching and market research before deciding to open Kryophysics in 2003. I realized that cryogenic treatment was a universal force in many of the businesses I had dealt with, and that it provided a number of affiliations for other business opportunities. Fortunately, my many prior years of dealing with local high tech manufacturing industries afforded quick entry into the marketplace.
What is your background/history in audio?
Like many, I was afflicted with the "audio bug" in my teens, when listening to music began to play an ever-more-important role in my life. Tinkering with the equipment was always a favorite hobby. As a college freshman in 1970, I took the Sony cassette player out of my car, hooked it up to a large flashlight battery and piggybacked a dual outlet headphone control box onto the output of the player. In that way, two people could listen via headphones, each with their own volume control. Once all of this was safely tucked away in my daypack, I had what was probably one of the first "Walkman" players in existence, though Sony's offering didn't appear until 1979. Looks like I might have missed an opportunity there…..
Once I graduated from college, I worked as the assistant manager for two high end audio salons and transitioned into audio manufacturing in 1977, working as the world-wide Service/Customer Service Manager for Infinity Systems (Chatsworth, CA) until 1979. In 1994, I replaced the conventional supply in my 25W/channel Class A power amp with SLA batteries and later got involved with the amp's manufacturer, helping them to produce a series of battery powered solid state amps and a battery powered vacuum tube line stage. These units had some commercial success in the marketplace, though the manufacturer ultimately made some poor business decisions, leading to the demise of his company.
In 2000, while working for the industrial vibration isolator company, I visited the Las Vegas CES to see what was happening in the realm of amplifier chassis esthetics, as I was interested in producing a battery powered digital amp for an audio distributor friend in the Midwest. During the first day at the show, I couldn't help but notice the mind-boggling array of resonances dampers, cone feet, special racks and isolation shelving used to treat vibration and resonance issues.
Back in the hotel late that night with the audio distributor, I took apart one of my factory's isolators to show its innards to him and explain its operating principles. At that moment, I had a flash of inspiration. Reconfiguring the isolator before us, and redesigning some of its parts might produce a viable solution for audioband resonance and vibration! By June of 2000, full production of the newly minted Aurios Media Isolation Bearing was underway. My distributor friend, Paul Wakeen, (now of Stillpoints/ERS fame) took on domestic and international distribution duties while I continued with product development. Over 10,000 units of the MIB in its various iterations were sold before Paul and I left the company in 2002.
Since then, Kryophysics has provided a new avenue for involvement with the audio community. I currently provide cryogenic processing for roughly one dozen manufacturers in the consumer and pro audio market. Additionally, my services are also available from selected dealers in the Southern California area.
Can you take us on a step-by-step process on how you cryo something?
First, audio components are inspected for shipping or cosmetic damage, (making note of any), then parts are selectively removed from the component that could possibly be hurt by cryogenic temperatures. Because audio components require great care when handling (how do you like someone to treat your $5K preamp?) they are wrapped in thin plastic so that cosmetic damage can be avoided. The components are then weighed and placed within the cryo chamber. Once the cryo processor's computer is programmed for the load weight and intended cycle duration, the process is begun.
Under computer control, the temperature within our sealed chamber is slowly lowered using cold nitrogen vapor at a rate averaging no faster than one degree F per minute until it reaches the target temperature of -300 degrees F. Depending on the process requested by the customer, the components will dwell at -300F for 24 to 48 hours. When the cooling cycle is completed, the chamber interior temperature is brought back to room temperature at the same slow rate used during the original descent. Once out of the processor, the components are unwrapped and, if necessary, have the parts reattached that were originally removed for safeguarding.
Are there different ways or methods of cryoing?
Most cryogenic processes are defined as wet or dry, depending on whether the object to be processed is immersed in the cryogen (typically liquid nitrogen) or exposed to cryogenic (nitrogen) vapor. For audio applications, both processes are used commercially, though the vast majority used the vapor-based technique. Varying the length of the "dwelling cycle" (the time during which the cryo processor steadily maintains its lowest temperature) also provides an additional processing (and pricing) variable.
How do they differ with respect to what is happening to the object at hand? That is, is one method better than another with respect to the item being cryoed or the result you are after?
Ultimately, this is a question of economics for the audio marketplace. Using the wet process will bring the component closer to the native temperature of liquid nitrogen (-322F to -345F) than will the vapor technique which can get to about -310F to -320F. Although it isn't really a question of "colder is better", the liquid process will bring an object down to a cold temperature faster, and maintain that temperature uniformly more easily than vapor can. It is definitely more expensive to cryogenically treat items via liquid immersion as compared to vapor and, because of the thermal shock that can be experienced when an object is immersed in cryogenic liquid, there are a greater number of materials that will not tolerate wet immersion well. (I'm not sure that an entire CD/DVD player can withstand wet immersion, whereas I have successfully treated many players using the vapor method.)
At these low temperatures, the wet and dry processes can be considered essentially equivalent, assuming that the dry process will require a longer time to bring a given component down to the desired core temperature. It has been found that extending the length of time of the "dwell cycle" at the lowest controlled temperature will beneficially affect all audio components, although the law of diminishing returns also applies here!
What actually happens to the item when it is cryoed in terms of the material itself?
A little background here can go a long way to clarifying the answer to this question!
Most of the materials (glass, various metals and plastics) that constitute audio componentry begin in a molten state. For the sake of expediency, they are quickly cooled and shaped for their intended purpose. The speed of the formative cooling process does not allow the materials' atomic structure to remain homogeneous and evenly patterned throughout, leaving subtle discontinuities that define areas of weakness within the material.
The technical term for this is stress, either residual or thermal, depending upon the genesis of the stressing force. These stresses usually result in atoms being displaced unevenly from each other and further away than ideal. Obviously, atoms that are further apart are not going to be bonded to each other as strongly, resulting in structural weakness. Magnifying this problem, is the fact that materials must usually undergo further processing to be useful; plastic and glass are often molded, whereas metals are often stamped, milled, ground, extruded, sawn, bent, sanded, etc. to achieve the desired final form. These secondary formative processes add stresses to the material through the effects of localized, uneven heating and cooling during the reshaping of the material.
In a perfect world, all atoms of a homogeneous material would be equidistant from their neighbors and bonded with the same level of energy. Such a material would have no residual or thermal stress. In an attempt to achieve this ideal, material manufacturers use a variety of stress-relieving techniques to reduce the overall level of material stress. By far, the most common is the use of heat treating; which raises the level of energy within the material until the atoms are able to move more freely and then settle back into place as they cool. Although practice has shown that this is a viable procedure, we still have the issue of overly rapid cooling which will again trap atoms in places where they are not ideally bonded. Furthermore, the heat treating procedure may not go high enough in temperature to release all the stressed atomic bonds, since the higher temperature could adversely affect the material's properties or melt it! By the way, the term we call temperature is really just the measure of atomic activity: high temperature=high atomic activity, low temperature=low atomic activity, absolute zero=no atomic activity.
Cryogenic processing stress relieves materials more thoroughly, through compaction produced by the removal of energy. As an object is cooled, energy is driven off, and the atoms of the material are drawn closer together, creating the opportunity for bonding. This closes microscopic voids and discontinuities, allowing the material to have greater structural order and coherence. Keep in mind that this is happening very slowly so that the atomic migration produced by cooling does not induce stress. When the cryogenic cooling process is complete and the object returns (slowly!!) to ambient conditions, many of the bonds formed at cryogenic temperatures are retained, improving the order and homogeneity of the material, relieving it of stress. Once the material has been permanently and beneficially altered through cryogenic treatment, it will respond in a different manner to energies (such as vibrational, thermal and electrical) that attempt to traverse it.
Because the number of gaps in the material has been reduced, there are more (and shorter) paths for energy to pass through. This means that vibrational energy will more quickly dissipate once introduced into the material, as will thermal energy and electrical energy. From a technical perspective, we would say that the material's reaction to vibrational energy is more highly damped, less resonant; or that its "Q" has been lowered. Please allow me to illustrate using an example from my own experience two years ago, excerpted from an online posting:
"For a local company that produces expensive (and strikingly handsome) custom drum sets for musicians all over the world, I deep cryo treated a number of drum "shells" (the open cylinder shaped part of a drum) made from a variety of materials. The drum company and I were interested in finding out whether cryo treating the shells would cause them to produce different sounds, sounds that could be marketed as a new sonic "flavoring" for their discerning and highly varied clientele. First, a small group of metal shells was selected, all having the same geometry, thickness, and pitch when struck. There were shells comprised of titanium, aluminum, brass and bronze, as well as wooden shells made of thin plys of birch and oak. From this group, shells in each of these materials were selected as controls in the experiment, and were not cryogenically treated.
All of the drum shells responded similarly to the cryo processing. The sound had changed, in some cases more so than others. When struck, the cryoed shell produced a slightly lower pitched, less resonant tone, devoid of much of the overtone structure of the standard shell, and more quickly decayed to silence than its untreated counterpart. Clearly, the cryoed drum shells exhibited a much more highly damped sonic signature, regardless of composition. Though, ultimately, the drum company did not find the sound change appealing, all involved in the experiment were amazed at the scope of the sonic change cryo treatment produced."
Similarly, thermal energy will dissipate more rapidly in a cryo-treated material, as seen in the lower operating temperatures experienced by local racing enthusiasts who have treated engine and braking parts. Finally, I have observed that electrical energies will pass more effectively, as reported by an audio amplifier manufacturer whose 100W/channel units I have cryoed, finding a consistent 2.5% - 3% increase in output power after treatment.
How does this translate to what we hear?
Though my thoughts about this answer may be considered somewhat heretical by others who are in the cryogenic processing business, I believe that the sonic changes are the component's reaction to what cryogenic treatment accomplishes in the vibrational, thermal, and electrical realms.
How are these changes are commonly characterized and described in the audio community? It is now possible to find a fair amount of information on the internet concerning cryogenic processing of audio componentry and its attendant results. A recent Google search of the combined words cryogenic and audio yielded sixty bull's-eyes out of the first sixty-four hits; a far cry from the handful that were extant just three years ago. Nearly all of these make reference to the following terms or concepts:
Quieter, blacker background
Increased dynamics and transient response
Enhanced detail and definition
More open soundstage
Greater sense of ease and naturalness
Expanded separation of textures
These descriptors are frequently seen in the audio world, particularly as they apply to vibration isolation/resonance damping products and power conditioning devices. Currently, there are more than one hundred anti-vibration solutions available to the audiophile marketplace; highly varied in material composition, shape, size and operating principle. Most of these solutions are relatively inexpensive, providing an easy way to make (often considerable) changes in the way a system sounds. The fact that most of these devices are deployed underneath the chassis of the component involved begs an obvious question/commentary ...you mean to tell me that mechanical resonant energies can affect electrical circuits and change the way they sound?
The simple and unequivocal answer is yes, as anyone who has played with squishy rubber component feet vs. metal spikes and cones can tell you. Though effective at changing the sound, one of the problems with these solutions is the fact that they are external; outside the chassis, outside the PCBs, outside the power supply, outside the capacitors, resistors, vacuum tubes, etc. Cryogenic treatment offers an internal resonance damping capability that literally affects every atom of the component to the core. Furthermore, the external isolator/damper by its nature has a restricted audio bandwidth within which it is useful; the even-handed results from cryogenics have no such limit.
The fact that the same or very similar kinds of sonic perceptions are gathered from the use of external isolators or cryogenics might imply a commonality in the way they operate. However, the kind of resonant damping introduced by cryogenics cannot be replicated by any other technologies, because they are all external and/or bandwidth restricted. As the structure of the parts of a component are made more coherent by stress relieving, the parts react more uniformly to vibrational forces and quiet down more quickly. Imagine, if changing the external feet under a CD player brings positive results, what would happen if you were to apply resonant damping to every bit of circuitry, wiring and chassis within the player?
Like the vibrational energy changes, both thermal and electrical effects from cryogenic treatment have their share in contributing to the sonic enhancements listed above, though in my opinion these contributions are smaller than those accomplished by the resonant damping characteristic of cryogenic processing. The enhanced coherence of the components materials simply allow those energies to pass through more easily and with less restriction.
Can any of this be measured?
Ah, herein resides a problem! Thus far, it is obvious to the audio community that cryogenics does change the sound of a treated component, but how? And why? The effects can be quantified, but who is measuring them?
Some of those who use cryogenic processing as an indigenous part of their manufacturing process have undertaken the task of attempting to quantify the effects. The manufacturer of a high-end cryogenically treated DAC states unequivocally that he can measure the differences between treated and untreated DAC units. Is he sharing the nature of these tests with the audio community? It's not a surprise that he is not; since those are proprietary findings and part of his intellectual property.
Furthermore, there are some who are using cryogenics in their production without announcing its presence. For them it is a "secret weapon", since there are no readily discernable visible changes to an object that has been cryo treated. How then will objective measurement and evaluation of cryogenic processing take place?
I doubt that the audio community will be the open source for this information. It is more likely that industrial research will reveal these secrets in time, assuming that there is an interest in pursuing knowledge in this particular vein of audio physics.
So then people may say it is all a bunch of snake-oil!
On the one hand, those who have the opportunity to compare identical cryo treated and non-cryo treated components will hear a difference, assuming that the playback system has sufficient resolution to reveal them. The fact that the reasoning for that difference is not yet found in abundant scientific or analytical discussion, relegates (for some) cryogenic processing to the place reserved for debate about tubes vs. transistors, cone vs. rollerball isolation, etc.
However, if an effect in nature can be reliably perceived and reproduced by and for a large enough audience, then it exists. The lack of a scientific description does nothing to denigrate the effect's existence. It simply means that our scientific capacity to describe the effect has not yet been sufficiently developed.
Where do you see the greatest benefit with respect to what is cryoed? Cables, electronics, etc.?
The largest ingress of cryogenic treatment in audio is found in the cable market, mostly due to the fact that cables are relatively inexpensive, not very bulky or delicate and usually do not require any special attention or handling when cryogenically treated. For that reason, most people assume that cryo is really best for cables, unaware of the physics involved and the potential benefit to other devices.
There is no question that cryo treatment benefits cables of all sorts, but those results pale in comparison to the effect of treatment on active devices such as preamps, amps, processors, DACs and disc players. The highly complex nature and mixture of materials within those units provide a broad canvas upon which to portray the sonic improvements induced by treatment. A wide variety of highly stressed items reside within these units: the solder joints, the plastic that encapsulates the silicon and lead frames of op-amps, voltage regulators, transistors, and the extruded insulation material that coats extruded metal conductors, the stamped and bent chassis and header metals, filter capacitors and transformers, etc.
Cryogenically treating entire components is not for the faint of heart though, since there is a very real risk of damaging some constituent parts at cryogenic temperatures.
Is there a limit to what can be cryoed? What I mean is, are there things that will not survive a freeze or perhaps have little if any benefit if treated?
There is a list of materials and items that do not fare well at -300F, among them rubber and certain elastomers, some plastics, glues and display elements. If these are to survive, they must be removed from the component prior to treatment.
Elements that do not exhibit improvement are those with more randomly ordered makeup, such as carbon fiber, cloth and wood. One might think that fiberglass and MDF would also be a part of this group, but the fact that they contain large amounts of glue (which cures differentially) means that they will benefit from the stress relief that cryogenic processing affords.
Are there any potential drawbacks to cryoing?
Apart from the physical perils mentioned in the last section, there are some possible downsides. One is the fact that a newly cryoed component will need another period of break-in before it settles down sonically. Remember that we have been shifting things at the atomic level and, to some extent; new pathways are being blazed in the conducting elements of the unit. The break-in period is highly variable, dependent upon the nature of the materials that were treated.
Additionally, there is the possibility that the resonant damping capability of cryo treatment can be too much of a good thing for some. Material resonances within a component can be found almost anywhere within the audio band, though the most audible ones seem to reside in the bass range. When the Q of those resonances is damped there will be less energy to modulate the electronic signal passing through the component, with a corresponding diminishing of the perceived frequency response in that range. I have had very few complaints about this issue though.
Is this long term or does something require a visit to the chamber after some time?
The effects of cryogenic processing are permanent and irreversible, unless the treated material is heated up close to its critical temperature, at which point the atoms will have sufficient energy to begin randomly moving from their formerly ordered positions. The only audio component that I know of that approximates this condition is the vacuum tube which, depending upon the current involved, can run some of its metallic elements at substantially elevated temperatures. Ironically, vacuum tubes, which benefit greatly from a reduction of resonant microphonics, are one of the most frequently cryo-treated audio devices. Though in theory this might be an issue, I have not yet had an experience with retreating tubes.
Where do you see the future of cryoing?
The future of cryogenic processing as a whole is very bright, since new industrial applications are constantly being discovered. Within audio, cryogenics will continue to play an advancing role, with the likelihood of it moving into the mainstream once suitable data is available to support those who doubt its premise. Until then, I am concerned that it will be viewed as "one more of those things that we can hear and like, but don't yet know how to quantify".
I am also hoping that further research into its workings may help reduce the time (usually three days) and cost (usually about $10/lb) associated with the procedure. In the meanwhile, it continues to gain traction within the marketplace, as manufacturers and audiophiles alike discover the really cool sound produced by cryogenics.

Report: Rowling writing detective novel

2007-08-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

British author J K Rowling at the release of her latest Harry Potter book called 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' at the Natural History Museum in London, Friday July 20, 2007.

J.K. Rowling has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday.
The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Ian Rankin, a fellow author and neighbor of Rowling's, as saying the creator of the "Harry Potter" books is turning to crime fiction.
"My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel," the newspaper quoted Rankin as telling a reporter at an Edinburgh literary festival.
"It is great that she has not abandoned writing or Edinburgh cafes," said Rankin, who is known for his own police novels set in the historic Scottish city.
Rowling famously wrote initial drafts of the Potter story in the Scottish city's cafes. Back then, she was a struggling single mother who wrote in cafes to save on the heating bill at home.
Now she's Britain's richest woman - worth $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine - and her seven Potter books have sold more than 335 million copies worldwide.
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Rowling said she believed she was unlikely to repeat the success of the Potter series, but confirmed she had plans to work on new books.
"I'll do exactly what I did with Harry - I'll write what I really want to write," Rowling said.

Advice to the lovelorn: you will survive

2007-08-26T20:55:00.002-07:00

Despite the laments of pining pop stars and poets, U.S. researchers now think breaking up may not be so hard to do.
"We underestimate our ability to survive heartbreak," said Eli Finkel, an assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern University, whose study appears online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Finkel and colleague Paul Eastwick studied young lovers -- especially those who profess ardent affection -- to see if their predictions of devastation matched their actual angst when that love was lost.
"On average, people overestimate how distressed they will be following a breakup," Finkel said in a telephone interview.
The nine-month study involved college students who had been dating at least two months who filled out questionnaires every two weeks. They gathered data from 26 people -- 10 women and 16 men -- who broke up with their partners during the first six months of the study.
The participants' forecasts of distress two weeks before the breakup were compared to their actual experience as recorded over four different periods of time.
Not surprisingly, they found the more people were in love, the harder they took the breakup.
"People who are more in love really are a little more upset after a breakup, but their perceptions about how distraught they will be are dramatically overstated when compared to reality," Finkel said.
"At the end of the day it, it is just less bad than you thought."

Russian paper explains how to copy Putin's

2007-08-26T20:55:00.001-07:00

If Russian women are searching for a new sex symbol, they need look no further than the Kremlin's website. There they can find the full set of pictures of Vladimir "The Body" Putin strutting his stuff, bare-chested, along the banks of a Siberian river during a fishing expedition.
A step-by-step guide to building a body like President Vladimir Putin's was available to readers of a Russian newspaper on Wednesday.
Official photographs of the 54-year-old leader holidaying in southern Siberia last week showed him fishing with his shirt off to display a well-honed torso.
He was also shown on horseback in sunglasses, gloves and a body-hugging white vest.
"He has some great definition under that shirt," said the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid, Russia's biggest circulation newspaper.
Under the headline: "Get a body like Putin's", the daily published an exercise guide by a fitness instructor. An accompanying diagram of Putin's naked torso had arrows pointing to his major muscle groups.
Putin, who is married with two daughters, has attributed his physique to sports -- he is an accomplished practitioner of judo and a keen downhill skier.

Britney Spears asked her former nanny to sleep in the same bed as her, it has been reported

2007-08-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Britney Spears asked her former nanny to sleep in the same bed as her, it has been reported.
The 'Toxic' singer is said to have begged the employee to stay with her and her son Sean Preston because she felt lonely.
Other former nannies have claimed Britney enjoyed stripping naked and drank alcohol in front of her children, Sean Preston who's almost 2, and Jayden James, 11 months.
A source told Us Weekly magazine: "Before Britney had Jayden James last year, she asked a nanny to sleep in the same bed with her and Sean.
"She also drinks in front of the kids. At first, the drinks would help her loosen up and not be so angry. But she'd inevitably drink too much and be out of it, at which point the nannies would take care of the kids.
"Britney will strip down in front of staff, nannies, whoever. She'll ask, 'Do I look sexy? Do I look pretty?' She is extremely insecure. She hires people to be her friends."
The revelations emerged after Britney's ex-husband Kevin Federline began collecting evidence from former employees and serving subpoenas to her staff in his battle to win primary custody of their children.
The 25-year-old singer's former assistant, Shannon Funk, her ex-bodyguard Daimon Shippen and her cousin Alli Sims have all been ordered to testify so far.

Aniston adopts clean-living lifestyle

2007-08-19T22:35:00.001-07:00

Jennifer Aniston is embarking on a new healthy lifestyle and has cut out cigarettes and eliminated caffeine from her diet.

Aniston has expressed her new-found love of yoga is responsible for her efforts to make changes in other areas of her life.

And pals are convinced she means business after watching the 38-year-old in action on pal Courtney Cox's TV drama Dirt recently.

Dirt actress Laura Allen, who spent time with Cox and Aniston on the set, tells American publication Us Weekly, "Jen was doing a total cleansing.

"(She) did a lot of yoga to stop smoking. Between takes, it would have been tempting to go outside and have a cigarette.

"Instead, Jen was clinging to Courteney. She said how hard it was."

In addition to resisting the temptation to indulge in smoking, Aniston also managed to refrain from caffeine.

Allen adds, "I had a Diet Coke on-set and she was really craving for it!"

"Sexy Time" leads Hollywood word list

2007-08-19T22:34:00.001-07:00

"High Five!" and "It's Sexy Time!," favorite expressions of the hit comic character Borat, have topped a list of the top Hollywood phrases of the year.

The Global Language Monitor, a non-profit group that monitors word use, put those two expressions at the top of its annual list of Hollywood words and phrases for the impact they made on the English language.

In second place was a Hollywood star trend of giving babies unusual names like Suri, the name of the daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and Shiloh Nouvel, the daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

Global Language Monitor head Paul JJ Payack said the trend "opens an entire new world of possibilities to young parents for either inflicting or bestowing names upon their children."
Other words and phrases on the list include were "Pursuit" from Will Smith's film "The Pursuit of Happyness" and the phrase "Nazi Bullets," used by the grandfather in "Little Miss Sunshine" to explain his crankiness.

One expression from the box office hit "The Queen," for which Helen Mirren won the best actress Oscar, made the list.

"Will someone please save these people from themselves!," Tony Blair said as he attempted to heal the rift between Queen Elizabeth and her subjects.

Actress Meryl Streep also made the list after declaring to an unfortunate associate in "The Devil Wears Prada": "The details of your incompetence do not interest me."

Last Year, "Brokeback" from "Brokeback Mountain" topped the annual survey.

Beckham, Rowling books among hardest to finish: poll

2007-08-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

Bestsellers by Bill Clinton, J.K. Rowling and David Beckham are among the books Britons find hardest to finish reading, according to a survey published Monday.

Although the average reader spends more than 4,000 pounds (5,890 euros, 7,760 dollars) on books in their lifetime, 55 percent admit they buy them for decoration and have no intention of reading them.

Topping the list of unfinishable fiction is "Vernon God Little" by DBC Pierre, which 35 percent said they could not plough through, followed by Rowling's "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" at two (32 percent).

"Ulysses" by James Joyce (28 percent) was at three and Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" -- which prompted Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa, or death sentence, against him in 1989 -- is at number six (21 percent).

The non-fiction list was led by the memoirs of former British Cabinet minister David Blunkett (35 percent), followed by ex United States president Clinton's 1024-page autobiography "My Life" (30 percent).

Real Madrid star Beckham's "My Side", the fastest-selling autobiography of all time in Britain, comes in third (27 percent).

The survey also found that only 24 percent of people find time to read every day, with 48 percent saying that they were too tired to do so.

Researchers commissioned by television news service Teletext interviewed 4,000 people.

The secrets behind Angelina's body tattoos

2007-08-19T22:28:00.001-07:00

She is one of the most photographed women in the world - and now one of the most tattooed.

After attending the world premiere of her latest movie, A Mighty Heart, Angelina Jolie revealed her latest set of body art - geographical map coordinates accurately detailing the countries of birth of each member of her "rainbow family".

Walking down the red carpet in Cannes to promote her movie, the 31-year-old actress kept the new tattoos hidden, using her boyfriend, Brad Pitt, as a human shield.

But as the couple made their way down the festival's famous Croisette in a chauffeur-driven car afterwards, the four-part scribing on her left shoulder was plainly visible.

Each line, it has emerged, represents the very international map coordinates detailing where their four children, three of which were adopted, were born.

From the top down, and from left to right, is the longitudinal and latitudinal location of Cambodia, where the Oscar-winning actress' eldest son, Maddox, five, was born.

Next are the coordinates pertaining to Ethiopia, the country from which Miss Jolie plucked two-year-old Zahara.

Third on the list is Namibia, where the Tomb Raider star gave birth to her ten-month-old biological daughter , Shiloh, whose name in Hebrew means "the peaceful one".

Last but not least is a reference to the latest addition to the couple's rainbow family - Pax Thien, who is Vietnamese by origin.

The latest tattoo is understood to be Miss Jolie's 13th to date.

She already has a discreet M on the palm of her hand - a tribute to her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died earlier this year.

Angelina Jolie's new tattoos have been inscribed in the same spot where a tribute to her ex-husband Billy Bob Thronton once lay.

His name was tattooed onto her left arm along with a Chinese dragon - the remnants of which are still faintly visible even after laser removal surgery.

She said at the time of the laser treatment: "I'll never be stupid enough to have a man's name tattooed on me again."

Brad Pitt has the body men most envy

2007-08-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

Brad Pitt has the body men most envy, a survey revealed on May 27.

The Hollywood hunk, 43, was picked by more than one in four blokes.

He narrowly beat David Beckham and James Bond hero Daniel Craig.

Two in three guys now want a shape like a star's. And more than half felt under pressure to attain the ideal male figure.

Amazingly, one in 50 wished they looked like scrawny junkie rocker Pete Doherty.

The poll - of more than 1,000 people by medical firm Benenden Healthcare Society - revealed some regional differences.

Becks was best body in North-East England and Yorkshire, with 007 star Daniel Nol in Scotland.
Benenden's Jakki Stub-bington said: "There are increasing signs that men are worrying about the way they look.

"But taking care of your body needn't mean turning into Brad Pitt - although many women would be disappointed about that."

Harry Potter theme park headed to Fla.

2007-08-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Universal Orlando Resort is opening a Harry Potter theme park that will let fans visit many of the iconic locations in the Harry Potter books and movies. "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" is set to open at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in late 2009, complete with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade village.

"The plans I've seen look incredibly exciting, and I don't think fans of the books or films will be disappointed," said author J.K. Rowling, who has been working with a creative team to make sure the park resembles the books and films.

More than a dozen artists lead by Stuart Craig, the production designer of the movies, have set up house in the studio to make sure every detail is considered, said Scott Trowbridge of Universal.

"We're really going to the people who know this world best to ensure that level of authenticity," he said.

The park will let visitors view the famed locations in Rowling's magical world, like Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts and the shops in Hogsmeade. Some locations may be in upcoming books, Trowbridge said.

Many tourists outside the theme park said the experience would boost its appeal to a younger audience.

Brandon Wilson, a 15 year old from Pleasant Hill, said he can't get enough of Harry Potter. He has read every book and watched every movie.

"I hope we get to simulate flying like Harry Potter," Wilson said.

Harry Potter's Hermione turns to modelling

2007-08-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

As Harry Potter's sidekick Hermione Granger, she plays the perfect pupil with a butter-wouldn't-melt smile.

But as these pictures of Emma Watson prove, the 17-year-old is growing up fast.

In a photoshoot for Tatler, the young actress swapped her neatly pressed Hogwarts school uniform for Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel dresses, cutting an assured figure.

But despite stepping out on the celebrity social circuit recently, Emma, from Oxford, said she remains reassuringly "normal".

"People who try to hide from fame can make it go completely the wrong way," she tells the magazine. "All those huge designer shades make them look like bugs!

" I think the best way to cope is to try and live as normal a life as possible."

Despite her new modelling career, Emma insists she is going to go to university to study philosophy.

She is taking AS-levels in English literature, geography and art history and hopes to study philosophy at Cambridge University.

But Potter fans need not worry: the latest instalment of the popular film series, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, opens on July 13, and Emma says she "definitely intends" to do another one.

She admitted: "I would do Harry Potter for nothing. It's not really anything to do with money."

Jail term was a message from God, says Paris Hilton

2007-08-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton believes her jail sentence was a message from God to change her party-loving lifestyle and become a positive role model for women who look up to her.

In her first interview since she was dramatically sent back to prison last Friday for probation violations in a drink-driving case, Hilton said her imprisonment has served as a life-changing wake-up call.

Her comments were made to veteran television journalist Barbara Walters in a phone-call from the Los Angeles jail where the heiress to the Hilton hotel empire is being held.

"I'm not the same person I was," Walters quoted Hilton as saying on her ABC television program 'The View' on Monday.

"I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute. It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me."

Walters said Hilton sounded "tired but totally aware of what she was saying."

Hilton has said she will not appeal the decision to send her back to prison to serve her 45-day term.

She was released after spending only three days behind bars last week, sparking a public outcry and prompting Los Angeles judge Michael Sauer to order her back to jail.

Hilton, who was dragged sobbing and wailing from court on Friday, suggested she intends to give up her lifestyle of endless VIP parties and red carpets.
"I know now that I can make a difference, that I have the power to do that. I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here," she said. "I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance."
Hilton said she was considering pursuing work to raise awareness about breast cancer.

Blunt's 'You're Beautiful' voted 'Most Irritating Song Ever'

2007-08-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

James Blunt's hit single 'You're Beautiful' was the No.1 song on music charts for so long in many countries, that it has been voted the 'Most Irritating Song Ever'.

It didn't take long for the single to capture the top spot after it was released in 2005, including 11 countries around the world, and it stayed there for so long, that people got thoroughly fed up of it.

John Sewell, of market researcher www.onepoll.com, said that it was probably the time spent at the number one spot that led to 'You're Beautiful' being branded the most irritating song ever.
"James Blunt isn't the obvious choice, but any song that is at No1 for so long does start to get annoying," The Sun quoted him, as saying.

Coming in close on Blunt's heels was Axel F by Crazy Frog, which was No.1 in 13 countries.
Third spot on the list went to 'Mmm Bop' by Hanson.

'Mr Blobby' by Mr Blobby, and the 'Birdie Song' by The Tweets rounded off the top five, coming in at fourth and fifth place respectively.

The top 10 list for the 'Most Irritating Song Ever', as per www.onepoll.com is:
1. You're Beautiful - James Blunt
2. Axel F - Crazy Frog
3. Mmm Bop - Hanson
4. Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby
5. Birdie Song - The Tweets
6. Shout - Lulu
7. Agadoo - Black Lace
8. Grace Kelly - Mika
9. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
10. La Macarena - Los Del Rio

Spice Girls reunite for world tour

2007-08-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Spice Girls wannabe stars again. Following a calculated publicity buildup, the group in the 1990s announced Thursday they had agreed to get together for 11 concerts around the world in December and January.

The shows will be their first concerts since breaking up in 2001, and the first with all five of the original group since Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell quit to pursue a solo career in 1998.

"Imagine you got divorced and you've got back together with your ex-husband," Halliwell said, explaining how she felt about the reunion.

"She just appreciates the fact we've let her back in," joked Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham.

The group said the shows would be in Los Angeles on Dec. 7; Las Vegas on Dec. 8; New York on Dec. 11; London on Dec. 15; Cologne, Germany, on Dec. 20; Madrid, Spain, on Dec. 23; Beijing on Jan. 10; Hong Kong on Jan. 12; Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 17; Cape Town, South Africa, on Jan. 20; and Buenos Aires, Argentina on Jan. 24.

Halliwell and Beckham joined with Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton and Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown to pose for photos and announce tour plans.
"We wanted to say thank you to our fans. " Chisholm said.

"Obviously it's nostalgic. But equally, if new fans want to come along, that's fantastic," Halliwell said. "I like to think our songs are universal and they are timeless."

Fans stood outside the news conference, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Spice Girls.

The Spice Girls' first single, "Wannabe," was released in 1996 and topped charts in 31 countries. They went on to sell more than 55 million records.

But their last album, "Forever," released in 2000 and without Halliwell, fared poorly.

You could now call them the Spice Mums. Beckham said the tour would be designed to accommodate the band members' seven children. And Bunton is now pregnant with her first child.

"Our priority is going to be our families. We want to have fun," said Beckham, who has three sons with her husband, soccer star David Beckham. "That's one of the many reasons for this, for our children to see what we used to do. "

Key to a good marriage? Share housework.

2007-08-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

The percentage of Americans who consider children "very important" to a successful marriage has dropped sharply since 1990, and more now cite the sharing of household chores as pivotal, according to a sweeping new survey.

The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found that children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages - well behind "sharing household chores," "good housing," "adequate income," a "happy sexual relationship" and "faithfulness."

In a 1990 World Values Survey, children ranked third in importance among the same items, with 65 percent saying children were very important to a good marriage. Just 41 percent said so in the new Pew survey.

Chore-sharing was cited as very important by 62 percent of respondents, up from 47 percent in 1990.

The survey also found that, more Americans say the main purpose of marriage is the "mutual happiness and fulfillment" of adults rather than the "bearing and raising of children."

The survey's findings buttress concerns expressed by numerous scholars and family-policy experts, among them Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of Rutgers University's National Marriage Project.

"The popular culture is increasingly oriented to fulfilling the desires of adults," she wrote in a recent report. "Child-rearing values - sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity - seem stale and musty by comparison."

Virginia Rutter, a sociology professor at Framingham (Mass.) State College and board member of the Council on Contemporary Families, said the shifting views may be linked in part to America's relative lack of family-friendly workplace policies such as paid leave and subsidized child care.

"If we value families ... we need to change the circumstances they live in," she said, citing the challenges faced by young, two-earner couples as they ponder having children.

The Pew survey was conducted by telephone from mid-February through mid-March among a random, nationwide sample of 2,020 adults.

Brangelina top list of pricey photos

2007-08-18T00:31:00.001-07:00

A 'BRANGELINA' photo with baby Shiloh has topped the list of the most expensive celebrity photos in the world.

Forbes.com has posted a list of top 10 most pricey celebrity photos led by a June 2006 shot of Brad Pitt and Angelina Joliehovering overbaby Shiloh at No. 1 with a pricetag of $US4.1 million paid by People magazine.

The picture of the two proud parents was followed by wedding photos taken of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore at No. 2 that fetched $US3 million in October 2005 from OK! magazine.

Brad and Angie landed in four of the top 10 positions while deceased Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith and people in her life captured another three.

Forbes.com said all the photos were published by one of four celebrity magazines - People, OK!, In Touch Weekly and US Weekly - and it quotes one magazine editor as saying the qualities that make the pictures costly are surprise, news and emotion.

Following is the list:
1. Shiloh Nouvel, Jolie-Pitt baby, $4.1 million - People.

2. Moore, Kutcher wedding, $3 million - OK!.

3. Eva Longoria, Tony Parker wedding, $2 million - OK!;

4. Larry Birkhead & baby Danielynn, $2 million - OK!;

5. Pax Thien, Jolie adopted baby, $2 million - People.

6. Anna Nicole Smith/Howard Stern wedding, $1 mln - People.

7. Sean P Federline, Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's baby, $US500,000 - People;

8. Jolie & Pitt, 1st couple photo, $US500,000 - US Weekly;

9. Jolie 1st pregnant photo, $US500,000 - People.

10. Anna Nicole Smith & son Daniel, $US400,000 - In Touch Weekly.

Virtual networking overtakes real socializing for Brits

2007-08-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

Hardcorebroadband usersin Britain spend more time on virtual networking than they do on real life socializing, a survey revealed Thursday.

Some six per cent of the 10,500 broadband users questioned in the survey admitted spending on average more than 10 hours a week online social networking, the equivalent of 24 days a year.

This compared with the 22 days spent actually meeting friends and relatives.

Half of all broadband users log onto social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and MSN Messenger, the price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com found.

The average amount of time spent on virtual networking is nearly three hours a week, or six days a year.

It has overtaken online shopping, banking and downloading music as one of the most popular online activities. Only surfing the net and emailing is more popular.

Women use social networking sites more than men, 56 per cent compared to 46 per cent.
Nearly 75 per cent of those visiting social networking sites are aged between 18 and 29 years.
The average Briton spends 15.8 hours a week online, the equivalent to 34 days a year.

Nearly eight million broadband customers pay between ￡15 ($35) and ￡30 ($70) a month for the service, with the average cost standing at ￡18 ($42).

Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch, said: "We are not surprised to find that the internet user is spending nearly a week socialising online. Consumers from all walks of life are embracing the trend."

The uSwitch findings were based on a survey of 10,513 adults in Britain carried out by YouGov in May.

Hardcorebroadband usersin Britain spend more time on virtual networking than they do on real life socializing, a survey revealed Thursday.

Some six per cent of the 10,500 broadband users questioned in the survey admitted spending on average more than 10 hours a week online social networking, the equivalent of 24 days a year.

This compared with the 22 days spent actually meeting friends and relatives.

Half of all broadband users log onto social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and MSN Messenger, the price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com found.

The average amount of time spent on virtual networking is nearly three hours a week, or six days a year.

It has overtaken online shopping, banking and downloading music as one of the most popular online activities. Only surfing the net and emailing is more popular.

Women use social networking sites more than men, 56 per cent compared to 46 per cent.
Nearly 75 per cent of those visiting social networking sites are aged between 18 and 29 years.
The average Briton spends 15.8 hours a week online, the equivalent to 34 days a year.

Nearly eight million broadband customers pay between ￡15 ($35) and ￡30 ($70) a month for the service, with the average cost standing at ￡18 ($42).

Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch, said: "We are not surprised to find that the internet user is spending nearly a week socialising online. Consumers from all walks of life are embracing the trend."

The uSwitch findings were based on a survey of 10,513 adults in Britain carried out by YouGov in May.

Beckham-mania takes root in California, and beyond

2007-08-18T00:28:00.000-07:00

David Beckham has alreadymade a significant splashsince arriving in the America's entertainment capital, despite being restricted to a 12-minute debut for his new team because of a lingering ankle injury.

The 32-year-old, one of the most recognizable figures in the game, has triggered unprecedented fan interest at Los Angeles Galaxy.

The England midfielder lit up the Home Depot Center on Saturday when he finally came on as a substitute for the Galaxy in anexhibition matchagainst Chelsea.

Although Beckham was on the field for only 12 minutes, plus four minutes of stoppage time, every move he made sparked an eruption of cheers from the capacity crowd of 27,000.

The match attracted a record television audience for a match involving a Major League Soccer team on ESPN of around 1.47 million. Roughly one percent of homes with ESPN tuned in to watch the action.

One of soccer's most marketable players during his time with Manchester United and Real Madrid, Beckham has already made his number 23 Galaxy shirt the biggest seller.

More than 200,000 replica shirts were snapped up by fans last week as Beckham-mania took root in Southern California and beyond.

"We have never come across anything like it," Chris McGuire, sports marketing manager for adidas soccer, said in a statement.

"At this time, the LA Galaxy David Beckham jersey is the No.1-selling shirt in the world."
While Beckham's popularity with the fans appears to be soaring to new heights at the start of his American Adventure, he is also making waves in Tinseltown.

David and his pop star wife Victoria enjoyed ahead startas they live in Beverly Hills mansion not too far from close friends Tom Cruise and his wife Katie Holmes.

The Cruises gave the Beckhams plenty of advice before their move from Madrid to Los Angeles and hosted an invitation-only, celebrity party for the English couple on Sunday.

Washington split over Clinton cleavage

2007-08-18T00:26:00.000-07:00

In Washington, where professional women's style statements are pointedly conservative, Hillary Clinton's cleavage has suddenly burst into one of the hottest topics of the Democratic presidential race.The normally very conservative dresser's slightly low neckline during a July 18 campaign debate on education mostly wentunremarkedat first, until Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan took notice and branded it a "small acknowledgment of sexuality and femininity."

"There was cleavage on display Wednesday afternoon," the Pulitzer Prize-winning Givhan wrote.

"It belonged to Senator Hillary Clinton."

Clinton wore "a rose-colored blazer over a black top. The neckline sat low on her chest and had a subtle V-shape. The cleavage registered after only a quick glance," she wrote.

"There wasn't an unseemly amount of cleavage showing, but there it was. Undeniable ... It was startling to see that small acknowledgment of sexuality and femininity peeking out of the conservative -- aesthetically speaking -- environment of Congress."

The focus on Clinton's bosom rather than her national security policy drew an explosion of "thousands of angry letters and calls" from readers, mostly women, the newspaper's ombudsman later wrote.

The Clinton campaign on Friday chimed in, hoping to turn the controversy over Givhan's article to advantage.

"Would you believe that The Washington Post wrote a 746-word article on Hillary's cleavage?" Ann Lewis, a top campaign official, said in a fund-raising e-mail.

"Frankly, focusing on women's bodies instead of their ideas is insulting. It's insulting to every woman who has ever tried to be taken seriously in a business meeting," Lewis wrote.
The Post ombudsman defended Givhan's article.

"Does this have anything to do with whether Clinton should be president?" the ombudsman asked. "Not a thing. But do we want to read the column about her cleavage? Yes indeed.

"It was the most viewed story on the Web site all day. So was a recent story on (Democratic presidential hopeful) John Edwards's hairdresser."

Earlier this year Edwards was taken to task in newspapers and on the Internet for paying 400 dollars for a haircut.

Diana dress to be auctioned on eBay: report

2007-08-18T00:24:00.001-07:00

The silk chiffon evening dress is among 79 dresses that Diana auctioned off for charity at Christie's in New York in June 1997, just two months before she died in a car crash in Paris.

The dress, a strapless bodice made of draped and tucked silk designed by Catherine Walker, is one of four of Diana's dresses owned by the WE television network and was due to go on sale on eBay on Sunday, the New York Daily News reported.

The bidding was to start at around 300,000 dollars and proceeds from the sale were to go to America's Promise Alliance -- a charity dedicated to helping disadvantaged children stay in school, the report said.

"Princess Diana is one of the most beloved icons of the 20th century, not only because of her beautiful style but also her role as a mother and her dedication to charity," Kim Martin, general manager of WE TV, told the paper.

The network originally bought the dress for under 100,000 dollars.

"We'd love for the person who buys the dress to be somebody who recognizes all the great things that Princess Diana stood for. And hopefully, their goal is to keep Diana's spirit alive," Martin said.

The auction is due to end on August 22, according to the report.

Shaq: I will give Yao fancy new wheels as wedding gift

2007-08-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal will give Yao Ming 24-inch car rims as a wedding gift when China's Houston Rockets star celebrates his third wedding ceremony later this year.

O'Neal, the Miami Heat's All-star center, is currently on a tour of China organized by his sponsor Li-Ning."

I've heard the news that Yao has married a beautiful basketball player," the famous 34-year-old giant said."

If you let me choose a wedding gift for him, I would give Yao four 24-inch customized rims at his wedding ceremony."

A number of NBA stars are crazy about custom cars- and big, shiny rims top their wish lists. But Yao is not so enamored of the four-wheeled sport, preferring to drive a BMW 7-series rather than more extravagant rides like Ferrari roadsters or SUVs. In fact, the only customized feature of Yao's car is a "Y&Y" logo - for Yao and his wife Ye Li - on the rear.

The 27-year-old Yao, a 2.26-meter center for the Texan NBA franchise, married his girlfriend of eight years last week.

The couple held two ceremonies, one in Yao's hometown of Shanghai and another in Beijing where China's national team is based.

The wedding of Yao and Ye, a former Chinese National Team player and current University of Houston student, attracted huge media attention in China.

Some reports have claimed the center will celebrate another wedding in Houston in autumn, where O'Neal believes he will be among the guests."

I am sure he has sent the invitation to me," he said."

I haven't checked my mailbox recently because I travel a lot, but I am sure he did."

Having witnessed Yao's NBA evolution in the past five years, O'Neal has changed his tune on the Chinese player after questioning Yao's ability during his rookie year."

Obviously Yao has grown into one of the best centers in the league," O'Neal said."

He is awful (to play against) on both ends. I have to be well prepared before the games against the Rockets."

The other kid (Yi Jianlian) is also impressive, I know he can shoot, dunk and spin. I am sure he will make his place in the league."

I am happy to see more and more Chinese players coming up - it is very good for the league as a whole."

O'Neal is widely regarded as the NBA's most dominant centre after winning four NBA championships, three with the Los Angeles Lakers between 2000 and 2002 and one with the Heat last year.

He signed a sponsorship deal with China sportswear manufacturing giant Li-Ning last year and has worn its shoes ever since.

Elvis fans remember death anniversary

2007-08-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

Thousands of Elvis Presley fans braved 105-degree heat as they gathered on Wednesday for a graveside procession to mark Thursday's 30th anniversary of his dying.

The heat led to the death of a fan from New Jersey, a 67-year-old woman.

Despite the promise of another furnace-like day, some fans began lining up early in the morning for the candlelight vigil, setting up umbrellas and folding chairs on the sidewalk along Elvis Presley Boulevard. The memorial ran through the night and into Thursday.

The procession, with fans walking mostly single-file and holding candles, filed up Graceland's long winding driveway and past Presley's grave in a small garden beside the white-columned house. Many fans carried flowers, stuffed animals and other small gifts to leave at the grave.

Tom Vigil, 42, of Denver was determined not to let the heat stop him even though he was missing part of a lung from recent surgery.

Decked out in a black Elvis-type jumpsuit, Vigil pulled an oxygen tank behind him with a breathing tube attached to his nose."

I'm not in the best of health, but I wanted to be out here and be part of this," he said.

Mary Powell of Salinas, Kan., said she took up her post at 5 a.m. to be sure to get near the front of the line. "A lot of people would say I'm crazy, but this has to do with my love for Elvis. He did so much for his fans," Powell said.

The legendary entertainer, acclaimed as The King, died 30 years ago Thursday at age 42 of heart disease worsened by drug abuse.

Paris Hilton's charity behaviour

2007-08-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton poses at Life Rolls On Foundation's 4th Night By the Ocean auction

Socialite Paris Hilton's promise to do more charity work following her release from jail is being carried out - the socialite has started work helping to raise funds for children with spinal cord injuries.

She was at Life Rolls On Foundation's 4th Night By the Ocean auction on Sunday in aid of her close friend Jesse Billauer - a former professional surfer who founded the charity after he was paralysed.

The Simple Life star paid $17,500 for a surfing lesson with Billauer.

She said later, "It's a great organisation. It gives people hope and I'm really happy to be here to support Jesse."

And Hilton's charitable nature doesn't stop there, adding, "I was just at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital visiting all of the kids and premature babies in the cancer ward.

"I met with philanthropists and they're doing a summit with five major charities and we'll be doing stuff all over the world. I'm excited."

Hilton was released from Lynwood, California's Century Regional Detention Center last month after being jailed for violating her probation from a drink driving arrest.

Britney Spears

2007-08-17T00:07:00.000-07:00

For those all who don't really know who Britney Spears is.

Britney Spears was born Dec. 2, 1981, in Kentwood, a small town in Louisiana. Her professional career began at the ripe old age of 8. She was ultimately deemed too young for the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club (MMC), but one of the producers spotted her potential and helped her get an agent in New York. She spent the next three summers in the Big Apple studying at the off-Broadway Dance Center and at the Professional Performing Arts School.
When Britney turned 11, she finally earned her mouse ears and became a full-fledged member of MMC for both the 1993 and 1994 seasons. Her years with MMC would turn out to be fortuitous for Britney.

Following the cancellation of MMC in 1993, Britney returned home, where she went to regular high school for a year. Because of the strong performing desire she returned to New York to give singing another shot. An executive at Jive signed her to a development deal and hooked her up with Eric Foster White, a producer who had worked with Boyzone, Hi-Five, and Whitney Houston. By early 1998, Spears' first album for Jive was complete.

The biggest day of young Britney's career thus far is likely Jan. 12, 1999 - the day...Baby, One More Time finally hit store shelves. After the final tallies were in, her debut had landed at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.

She's planning to stay in the music world for a long time. "I want music to always be a part of my life," she told the cable channel. "It will always be a part of my life, and I just want to grow as a person each time each album comes out. I want to focus on[6] my music right now and if film or something comes up, I'd go for it. But music will always be my main priority. Just like Madonna. I respect her so much because every time, she has changed, and I just totally admire that."

Britney's Lesbian Life: A Professional Perspective

2007-08-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

The real story of the week was the Sapphic cravings of popstitute Britney Spears. We turned to Lisa Parrish, the Hookup blogger for "The L Word"-based Our Chart, a randy lady-based social networking site, for help in dealing with the accusations of lesbian lady-craving leveled at Britney Spears in this week's In Touch and everywhere else.

Gawker: So have you READ this week's In Style, in which Britney Spears' lesbian lifestyle is dissected?

Lisa Parrish: I haven't read the InStyle article, but I've read a few other juicy stories online.

Gawker: So, what I don't understand is, with men like Kevin Federline available to her--the cream of the crop of manhood--why would she turn to women?

Lisa Parrish: It boggles the mind, doesn't it?

Gawker: According to In Touch, Britney was totally into Jenna Jameson. Is that a sign of lesbianism?

Lisa Parrish: It's a sign that Britney isn't a lesbian, she's actually a straight man.
Gawker: Which makes sense, given the pictures of Britney reading Playboy. Long nails everywhere!

Lisa Parrish: Which is why she supposedly went through dozens of women, if you believe the tabloids. Apparently, no one came back for more.

Gawker: Ah, that's interesting. She IS a man, baby! Do you have some sense of how Britney might have caught lesbianism?

Lisa Parrish: Lesbianism is highly contagious, as you know. She might have caught it from that sloppy kiss with Madonna in 2003, she might have just brushed up too close to one in Vegas -- we'll never know. She did not, however, catch it from Paris Hilton.

Gawker: America wasn't ready for the first out NBA player this week--do you think America is ready for an out skank hillbilly poptart?

Lisa Parrish: America has been ready for this for decades -- if only she'd had the courage to come out before! Of course, she's actually denying all the rumors. As the charmingly named "Men's News Daily" put it, "Britney just laughed when accounts of her vagina-flashing hit the news, but the pop diva immediately and emphatically denied rumors that she is a lesbian."

Gawker: I suppose that's the new America. Flash your pink kitchen curtains to the world, sure--but don't EVER talk about your lady-cravings.

Lisa Parrish: It's been a long journey for Britney from her Mickey Mouse Club days, let's put it that way.

Gawker: I'm scared! Who's the next to be a lesbian? Not Justin Timberlake, I hope!
Lisa Parrish: Well, if Justin went lesbian, perhaps he and Britney could get back together -- would that be so bad? They could be the new lesbian power couple, perhaps even have a couple of kids by an aging rock star. They could be role models for the lesbian community. As long as Britney cuts those nails, of course.

Gawker: That's an excellent point! FutureSex/LoveLesbians. And I suppose the ultimate proof of Britney's lesbitude is her constant relationship hopping. Chick hasn't been single for eight seconds since that nightmare 55-hour marriage.

Lisa Parrish: Yes, she's definitely showing all the signs. If it progresses as expected, we could well be seeing Britney in cargo pants and baseball caps. Whoops, did we already see that?
Gawker: Oh, I think we DID. So I suppose there's one other thing. I hear there are these people called "bisexuals," though everyone always says they don't exist. Still, I just can't see Britney having a girl-party. "C'mon, y'all!"

Lisa Parrish: Oh, I definitely can.

Gawker: Oh my God! Do the lesbians find Britney hot?

Lisa Parrish: The lesbians used to find Britney hot. Now we're forced to imagine that the other girls are really pretty. Not that we do. Or anything.

Gawker: Sick.

Britney Spears Turns a Lesbian

2007-08-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

She was spotted making out with her personal assistant Shannon Funk during a topless romp in a swimming pool.

A hotel source said that Britney wanted to be alone with Shannon in the pool and she ordered her people to clear the hotel pool area. Even though the pool was closed, still some people saw Britney and Shannon together.

Britney and Shannon have been good friends and Shannon have stood by her in her tough times and it was obvious that they were very close, but no one thought that it would turn up to be this close.
However this is not the first time, Britney and Shannon were also caught cuddling and kissing on the street last month.

Looks like Britney is out of her head!

10 Sentences About LOVE

2007-08-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.
No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won’t make you cry.
The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can’t have them.
Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.
To the world you may be one person, but to one person you maybe the world.
Don’t waste your time on a man/woman, who isn’t willing to waste their time on you.
Just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to, doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have.
Don’t try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.
Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.
Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

Footprints in the sand

2007-08-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“ You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “ The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

--Author Mary Stevenson 1936--
my lovest poem ever...