Can NSAIDs Cut Colorectal Cancer Deaths in Older Women? (HealthDay)

SUNDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Older women who take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs -- such as aspirin or ibuprofen -- appear to have a lower risk of death from colorectal cancer than women who don't use these medications, a large new study suggests.

Women who reported using these drugs, called NSAIDs, at the beginning of the study and three years later had a roughly 30 percent lower rate of death from colorectal cancer than women who did not take the drugs, or women who took them at only one of these two points in time, according to an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) news release.

"Our results suggest that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use is associated with lower colorectal cancer mortality among postmenopausal women who use these medications more consistently and for longer periods of time," Anna Coghill, a doctoral student in epidemiology at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said in the news release.

In the study, researchers examined the use of aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs among more than 160,000 postmenopausal women in relation to deaths from colorectal cancer.

Study participants were enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative, which "represents a large and well-characterized cohort [group] of postmenopausal women, and the medication data collected in this cohort made it possible for us to investigate multiple types, durations and strengths of NSAID use," Coghill explained.

The researchers confirmed 2,119 cases of colorectal cancer and 492 deaths due to the disease.

"The results of our study help to further clarify the importance of different durations of NSAID use over time for the risk for dying from colorectal cancer," Coghill noted in the news release.

While the study found an association between NSAID use and a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, it did not prove a cause-and-effect.

The findings were slated for presentation on Sunday at the AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, in Boston.

Experts say that for studies presented at medical meetings, data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about colon and rectal cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111024/hl_hsn/cannsaidscutcolorectalcancerdeathsinolderwomen

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Informatics professionals meet in DC at AMIA's 35th Annual Symposium

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Nancy Light
nlight@amia.org
301-275-1203
American Medical Informatics Association

Meeting agenda reflects Informatics' leadership in delivering health care

Washington, DC -- The 35th Annual Symposium on Biomedical and Health Informatics opened this week with keynote speaker Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, addressing a crowd of more than two thousand professionals who are engaged in translational bioinformatics, clinical research informatics, clinical informatics, public health informatics, and consumer health informatics.

The Symposium's theme, "Improving Health: Informatics and IT Changing the World," highlights the herculean agenda informatics professionals have assumed in enabling translational science through the use of information technology, electronic health records, on-the-spot clinical decision support, and methods that include data mining, interactive systems, biosurveillance, simulation and modeling, and development of standardized terminologies for specific applications and designs. Energized by the recent decision of the American Board of Medical Specialties to recognize Clinical Informatics as a board-certified medical subspecialty, the informatics community is gaining momentum in several key areas: growing its workforce through new and strengthened training programs at federally funded universities and community colleges, sharing informatics knowledge, experience, and expertise in a broad array of topics related to information technology and informatics applications, and reaching out across disciplines to health-related professionals in industry, research, clinical care, health policy, and education.

In his opening keynote, Dr. Collins provided a summary of the enabling role of informatics and computation in the evolution of genomics and DNA sequencing. He discussed the basic pillars of research and advancing medical science, identifying computational biology and bioinformatics as major supports to advancements in biomedical research and combating cancer and other life-threatening diseases and chronic conditions. He also discussed the planned National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), designed to speed up the process of "rescuing and repurposing" drug therapies out of the lab and into advanced clinical trials. The expectation, Dr. Collins said, is for NCATS to continue the work of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) -- all of which are required to leverage informatics as a core component of their scientific structure.

"In the ten years since the genome sequence was completed," said Dr. Collins, "the economic return resulted in a return on investment of 141:1 -- a $3 billion investment led to $790 billion of economic growth. We should not be shy to point out that medical research is not only a wonderful way to plan for a revolutionizing of medicine that is more effective and gives people a change to live healthy lives, but also is one of the best things we can do to nurture the American economy."

In his remarks during the opening session, Scientific Program Committee Chair R. Scott Evans, PhD, of Intermountain Healthcare, University of Utah, indicated that informatics had captured the imagination of mainstream America during the past year, when Watson of Jeopardy! fame triumphed over the human intellect of two long-running champions. An example of computer-assimilated intelligence, Watson is a robotic expression of how computerized health systems and informatics could one day support quality healthcare delivery. A panel composed of the Watson strategy team from IBM (Watson's creator), and clinical experts from Columbia University and University of Maryland School of Medicine is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. to examine how Watson might succeed as a clinical decision support tool, once he is tutored through medical school!

In remarks about the growth of Symposium attendance and the burgeoning field of informatics, AMIA President and CEO Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, FACMI, said, "The informatics community has a vision of remarkable ingenuity and impact: to improve health locally, nationally, and globally by connecting, collecting, and making available for exchange the vast stores of research data and evidence that are available; and mining that knowledge to benefit patients and populations everywhere. The implications are enormous," he noted, "health equity for all, standard quality care across communities and borders, and a cooperative, collegial community in terms of knowledge resources and tools." He added, "The transformation is underway -- AMIA is where this collective vision and know-how come together."

This morning's keynote speaker Gregory Abowd, PhD, Distinguished Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech, discussed his research that focuses on using "ubiquitous computing technology" to promote better health outcomes and health management. Dr. Abowd described living labs instrumented with body sensors, cameras, microphones, and sensors embedded in objects to support judgment of human behavior, and the use of mobile phones and text messaging to extend health surveys that support better health management of chronic illnesses. The latter health management intervention resulted in a response rate of 87% among children with asthma, ages 8-16. Dr. Abowd projected that "within five years, the majority of clinically relevant data will be collected in non-clinical settings." Along with the use of mobile phones, which are ubiquitous among many households, his goal, he said, "is to tap into a home's infrastructure to sense and infer about human activity." Ultimately, Dr. Abowd suggested, such information could answer questions like 'What does a healthy lifestyle look like?'

A late-breaking session held yesterday examined Sorrell vs. IMS Health, a legal case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision that challenged Vermont legislation, which attempted to limit the ability of pharmaceutical companies to use analysis of large clinical datasets to support marketing activities with physicians. The case underscores the ethical considerations inherent to secondary uses of health information -- an issue of critical importance in the informatics community.

###

About AMIA

AMIA, the leading professional association for informatics professionals, serves as the voice of the nation's top biomedical and health informatics professionals and plays an important role in medicine, health care, and science, encouraging the use of data, information and knowledge to improve both human health and delivery of healthcare services.

For more information, contact:
Nancy Light
301-275-1203
nlight@amia.org



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Nancy Light
nlight@amia.org
301-275-1203
American Medical Informatics Association

Meeting agenda reflects Informatics' leadership in delivering health care

Washington, DC -- The 35th Annual Symposium on Biomedical and Health Informatics opened this week with keynote speaker Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, addressing a crowd of more than two thousand professionals who are engaged in translational bioinformatics, clinical research informatics, clinical informatics, public health informatics, and consumer health informatics.

The Symposium's theme, "Improving Health: Informatics and IT Changing the World," highlights the herculean agenda informatics professionals have assumed in enabling translational science through the use of information technology, electronic health records, on-the-spot clinical decision support, and methods that include data mining, interactive systems, biosurveillance, simulation and modeling, and development of standardized terminologies for specific applications and designs. Energized by the recent decision of the American Board of Medical Specialties to recognize Clinical Informatics as a board-certified medical subspecialty, the informatics community is gaining momentum in several key areas: growing its workforce through new and strengthened training programs at federally funded universities and community colleges, sharing informatics knowledge, experience, and expertise in a broad array of topics related to information technology and informatics applications, and reaching out across disciplines to health-related professionals in industry, research, clinical care, health policy, and education.

In his opening keynote, Dr. Collins provided a summary of the enabling role of informatics and computation in the evolution of genomics and DNA sequencing. He discussed the basic pillars of research and advancing medical science, identifying computational biology and bioinformatics as major supports to advancements in biomedical research and combating cancer and other life-threatening diseases and chronic conditions. He also discussed the planned National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), designed to speed up the process of "rescuing and repurposing" drug therapies out of the lab and into advanced clinical trials. The expectation, Dr. Collins said, is for NCATS to continue the work of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) -- all of which are required to leverage informatics as a core component of their scientific structure.

"In the ten years since the genome sequence was completed," said Dr. Collins, "the economic return resulted in a return on investment of 141:1 -- a $3 billion investment led to $790 billion of economic growth. We should not be shy to point out that medical research is not only a wonderful way to plan for a revolutionizing of medicine that is more effective and gives people a change to live healthy lives, but also is one of the best things we can do to nurture the American economy."

In his remarks during the opening session, Scientific Program Committee Chair R. Scott Evans, PhD, of Intermountain Healthcare, University of Utah, indicated that informatics had captured the imagination of mainstream America during the past year, when Watson of Jeopardy! fame triumphed over the human intellect of two long-running champions. An example of computer-assimilated intelligence, Watson is a robotic expression of how computerized health systems and informatics could one day support quality healthcare delivery. A panel composed of the Watson strategy team from IBM (Watson's creator), and clinical experts from Columbia University and University of Maryland School of Medicine is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. to examine how Watson might succeed as a clinical decision support tool, once he is tutored through medical school!

In remarks about the growth of Symposium attendance and the burgeoning field of informatics, AMIA President and CEO Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, FACMI, said, "The informatics community has a vision of remarkable ingenuity and impact: to improve health locally, nationally, and globally by connecting, collecting, and making available for exchange the vast stores of research data and evidence that are available; and mining that knowledge to benefit patients and populations everywhere. The implications are enormous," he noted, "health equity for all, standard quality care across communities and borders, and a cooperative, collegial community in terms of knowledge resources and tools." He added, "The transformation is underway -- AMIA is where this collective vision and know-how come together."

This morning's keynote speaker Gregory Abowd, PhD, Distinguished Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech, discussed his research that focuses on using "ubiquitous computing technology" to promote better health outcomes and health management. Dr. Abowd described living labs instrumented with body sensors, cameras, microphones, and sensors embedded in objects to support judgment of human behavior, and the use of mobile phones and text messaging to extend health surveys that support better health management of chronic illnesses. The latter health management intervention resulted in a response rate of 87% among children with asthma, ages 8-16. Dr. Abowd projected that "within five years, the majority of clinically relevant data will be collected in non-clinical settings." Along with the use of mobile phones, which are ubiquitous among many households, his goal, he said, "is to tap into a home's infrastructure to sense and infer about human activity." Ultimately, Dr. Abowd suggested, such information could answer questions like 'What does a healthy lifestyle look like?'

A late-breaking session held yesterday examined Sorrell vs. IMS Health, a legal case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision that challenged Vermont legislation, which attempted to limit the ability of pharmaceutical companies to use analysis of large clinical datasets to support marketing activities with physicians. The case underscores the ethical considerations inherent to secondary uses of health information -- an issue of critical importance in the informatics community.

###

About AMIA

AMIA, the leading professional association for informatics professionals, serves as the voice of the nation's top biomedical and health informatics professionals and plays an important role in medicine, health care, and science, encouraging the use of data, information and knowledge to improve both human health and delivery of healthcare services.

For more information, contact:
Nancy Light
301-275-1203
nlight@amia.org



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/amia-ipm102411.php

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China urges North Korea to build on U.S. dialogue (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China wants North Korea to deepen talks with South Korea and the United States in the hope of restarting nuclear negotiations, the visiting Chinese vice premier told his North Korean counterpart, state media reported on Monday.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang also told North Korean Premier Choe Yong-rim that Beijing would stay a firm ally of Pyongyang, which is contending with food shortages, international isolation and trying to ensure a smooth succession.

Li, 56, is the favorite to become premier from early 2013, when Wen Jiabao steps down.

Pyongyang has stirred regional tensions with its nuclear arms ambitions, missile tests and deadly confrontations across the divided peninsula last year. But recently it has reached out to Seoul and Washington and will hold talks with U.S. officials in Geneva later on Monday.

"China supports North Korea maintaining a correct focus on engagement and dialogue," Li told Choe on Sunday, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

It was in China's and other countries' interests for Pyongyang to improve ties with Seoul and Washington, avoiding instability on the peninsula, said Li.

North Korea should seek "early outcomes from the dialogue, and restarting six-party talks as soon as possible to advance the denuclearization of the (Korean) peninsula," he added.

The intermittent six-party talks bring together China, Japan, Russia, both Koreas and the United States. They reached an agreement in September 2005 under which the North agreed to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives to be provided by other parties.

The talks and the agreement were a diplomatic trophy for Beijing. But North Korea walked out of the negotiations more than two years ago after the United Nations imposed fresh sanctions for a long-range missile test. The following month it conducted a second nuclear test.

Beijing has stood by the North, which it regards as a brittle but vital bulwark against the influence of the United States and its allies. But China has also tried to build ties with South Korea, a much bigger trade partner, and to revive the talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament.

Ahead of the talks in Geneva, U.S. officials have said North Korea must make real steps to heal ties with South Korea and show it is sincere about nuclear disarmament before the six-party talks can resume.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Beijing hoped the talks in Switzerland "will help to enhance mutual confidence and understanding."

"We also hope that this engagement will create conditions for appropriately resolving problems facing the restart of the six-party talks," she told a regular news briefing.

During his three-day visit to North Korea that began on Sunday, Li is being accompanied by senior diplomats and economic officials, including Chen Yuan, chairman of China Development Bank.

China fears that the North's frayed and isolated economy could fuel instability as its leader, Kim Jong-il, lays the ground for a leadership succession in the dynastic state, and Li pressed Beijing's case for stronger trade ties.

Both sides should "maintain the steady and rapid growth of bilateral trade, promoting key cooperative projects in a positive and steady-handed way," Li told Choe.

China has sought to draw North Korea closer with economic incentives and trade between the two countries grew to $3.1 billion in the first seven months of 2011, an 87 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Chinese customs data.

After visiting the North, Li travels to South Korea from Wednesday for two days.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/wl_nm/us_china_korea_north

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Occupy Wall Street: 5 conspiracy theories (The Week)

New York ? If you judge Occupy Wall Street by the number of far-out conjectures it has spawned, the movement is surely a smashing success

Perhaps nothing shows that Occupy Wall Street has hit a nerve more than the growing number of conspiracy theories surrounding the movement. In fact, Occupy Wall Street "seems to have done more to fuel rumors than it has to end corporate greed," says Lyz Lenz at?Tru TV. Here, five of the most head-scratching, pervasive conspiracy theories swirling around the protests ? and how critics answer them:

1. George Soros is pulling the strings

Conspiracy theory: "Despite efforts to portray the movement as 'leaderless' or 'grassroots,'"?says Alex Newman at?The New American, liberal billionaire George Soros' "fingerprints... have been all over the anti-Wall Street campaign from the very beginning." The protests were the brainchild of Canadian anti-consumerist magazine AdBusters, which is partially funded by "the Soros-funded Tides Foundation." And other Soros "front groups" ? MoveOn, Planned Parenthood, and Rebuild the Dream, for example ? are actively involved in promoting Occupy Wall Street.

Rebuttal: It would be perfectly natural for Soros to have donated money to a movement he says he supports, says Felix Salmon at?Reuters. But in fact, "there's no connection at all between Soros and OWS." Yes, he is one of many donors who gave money to the Tides Center, and yes, Tides gave some money to AdBusters. But that happened two years before OWS was even dreamed up. The truth is, OWS raises its money "through crowdsourced means like Kickstarter."

2. The Muslim Brotherhood is behind the protests

Conspiracy theory: "'Occupy Orlando' or 'Jihad Orlando'?" asks Tom Trento at anti-"Sharia Islam" group The United West. Trento claims the Occupy movement drew inspiration from the Arab Spring, points out that Muslim lawyer Shayan Elahi is Occupy Orlando's legal counsel, and notes that Elahi's has worked for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Trento says that's "the same CAIR that is HAMAS, the same HAMAS that was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood." And thus, Occupy Orlando is a vehicle for the "cultural jihad of the Muslim Brotherhood." CAIR also sponsored Friday prayer services at Occupy Wall Street, says Tiffany Gabbay at?The Blaze. And "one can tell a lot about people by the company they keep."

Rebuttal: Elahi says he's volunteering his legal services as "just another proud American and a member of the movement," as well as a "well-known Democratic activist" in Orlando. He's not a leader of the leaderless protest. The desperate Right's attempts to tie the Occupy movement to the Muslim Brotherhood, though, is "a development that should surprise no one," says Jillian Rayfield at?Talking Points Memo.

3. Wall Street is paying cops to crack down

Conspiracy theory: The New York Police Department was roundly criticized for its overly harsh crackdowns on the Occupy Wall Street protesters, so maybe it's no coincidence that one of OWS' big targets, JPMorgan Chase, recently gave a record $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation, says Jonathan Moormann at?Ology. I mean really, NYPD, "this couldn't have looked worse if you took the donation in a manilla envelope with 'BRIBE' written on the front of it." Especially since the NYPD has a history of giving special protection to those who give to its charity, says Yves Smith at?Naked Capitalism.

Rebuttal: The "bribe" story sort of falls apart when you learn that JPMorgan donated the cash and laptops between winter 2010 and spring 2011, says Justin Elliot at?Salon.?"So it was obviously not made in response to the Occupy Wall Street protests." At the same time, JPMorgan isn't the only Wall Street outfit that gave the NYPD charity big bucks in 2009-10.?

4. The movement is fueled by anti-Semitism

Conspiracy theory: "The Jew-hatred among protesters and sympathizers is diverse and unapologetic," says Abe Greenwald at?Commentary. "It is, in fact, atmospheric." With protesters holding signs about "Jewish money" and Nazis decrying "Hitler's Bankers," Occupy Wall Street is about scapegoating, and when it comes to wealthy financiers, "anti-Semitism is the preferred medium of the pitchfork crowd."

Rebuttal: Occupy Wall Street is a lot of things ? "aimless," pointless, silly? but anti-Semitic isn't one of them, says Richard Cohen in The Washington Post. Even the Anti-Defamation League noted that despite the "odd Jew-hater on the periphery," anti-Semitism isn't a significant part of Occupy Wall Street. In fact, "possibly more representative is the fact that Jewish religious services were held at the protest site for the holidays of Yom Kippur and Simchat Torah."

5. Social media is censoring Occupy Wall Street

Conspiracy theory: Despite thousands of tweets about #occupywallstreet and #ows, a "corporate media blackout" kept the movement from gaining any traction on Twitter, says Alexander Higgins at his blog. JPMorgan invested $400 million in Twitter, but I'm sure "we will find the feds ordered it to be censored due to national security." Yahoo was "censoring emails relating to the protest," too, says Lee Fang at?ThinkProgress. Yahoo has a history of censorship in China, and now you're out of luck if you want to email friends and family anything about Occupy Wall Street.

Rebuttal: Twitter faced similar accusations of censoring "Trends" with WikiLeaks, says Tarleton Gillespie at?Social Media Collective. And while "it engages in traditional censorship" with its trending tweets list ? blocking dirty words, for example ? it isn't in Twitter's self-interest to quash political discourse. This "unshakeable undercurrent of paranoid skepticism" is just a movement wanting free publicity, and Twitter's algorithm not complying. Yahoo, meanwhile, apologetically blamed the email blackout on a "false positive" spam filter, and has fixed it.

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get What the Wall Street protests will accomplish: 3 theories

  • Opinion Brief: Occupy Wall Street: A U.S. version of the Arab Spring?
  • Fact Sheet: The Occupy Wall Street protesters: What exactly do they want?
  • Like on Facebook?-?Follow on Twitter?-?Sign-up for Daily Newsletter

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111025/cm_theweek/220689

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    Calif. man pleads guilty to threatening Sen. Boxer (AP)

    SAN RAFAEL, Calif. ? Prosecutors say a Northern California man has pleaded guilty to making death threats against Sen. Barbara Boxer.

    Marin County Deputy District Attorney Aicha Mievis tells the Marin Independent Journal ( http://bit.ly/v5Ky6a) that 47-year-old Kevin Joseph O'Connell entered the plea on Monday to a charge of threatening a public official. The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor in exchange for the plea.

    Authorities say O'Connell threatened Boxer in a voicemail he left at her San Francisco office in July. He allegedly claimed he was being harassed by authorities and was in a dispute with his neighbors.

    San Rafael police have said the death threat wasn't related to Boxer's political positions.

    O'Connell's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Marmor, described the call as a cry for help.

    ___

    Information from: Marin Independent Journal, http://www.marinij.com

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_re_us/us_barbara_boxer_death_threats

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    Caterpillar 3Q profit soars, raises year view (AP)

    NEW YORK ? Strong demand for construction and mining equipment should boost Caterpillar Inc.'s revenue through next year, even as the health of global economy remains in doubt.

    The company's optimistic forecast followed double-digit growth in third-quarter earnings and revenue, which it reported Monday. The robust quarter and outlook lifted the stock price of the Peoria, Ill.-based company by 5 percent, a much bigger gain than the broader market.

    Sales and earnings at the company, the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, give insight into growth and investment around the world.

    Caterpillar, which makes everything from black-and-yellow excavators and harvesters to diesel-electric locomotives, earned $1.14 billion, or $1.71 per share, between June and September. That was up 44 percent from $792 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.

    Revenue surged 41 percent to $15.72 billion, and demand for machinery came from across the globe. Developing nations continued to need construction equipment as their economies prosper, while developed countries, whose growth is weak, are replacing older equipment.

    Higher commodity prices are attracting more investment in mines and fueling demand for mining machinery.

    "Although there is a good deal of economic and political uncertainty in the world, we are not seeing it much in our business at this point," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman said.

    Caterpillar expects to earn $6.75 per share on sales of $58 billion in 2011. That's up from its previous forecast of $6.25 to $6.75 per share on revenue of $56 billion to $58 billion.

    It thinks revenue next year will increase 10 and 20 percent from 2011 to between $63.8 billion and $69.6 billion.

    The company is continuing to add jobs ? nearly 5,000 between June and September alone. As of Sept. 30, it had about 149,000 employees, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier, including staff gained from acquisitions. About 5,600 of those jobs were added in the United States, where unemployment remains stuck at slightly more than 9 percent.

    The company's performance was better than Wall Street expected. Excluding its $7.6 billion acquisition of a mining equipment maker, Caterpillar earned $1.93 per share on revenue of $14.58 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet Research were expecting a profit of $1.63 per share on $14.84 billion in sales.

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_caterpillar

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    Maine man's car goes 1 million miles

    (AP) ? A Maine man and his car are celebrating a million-mile milestone.

    Joe LoCicero (luh-SISS'-er-oh) was given a 2012 Honda Accord at a parade in the city of Saco on Sunday after surpassing the million-mile mark on the odometer of his 1990 Accord. He reached the milestone last Thursday.

    A Honda spokeswoman tells The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/otOqd1) it's the first time the manufacturer has documented an Accord reaching one million miles.

    LoCicero says he bought the car in 1996 with 74,000 miles. The former mechanic did much of his own work. The secret he says is following maintenance schedules, using quality parts and driving safely.

    He swears the transmission and engine are original.

    Now that he has a new Accord, he's not sure what he'll do with the old one.

    ___

    Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2011-10-24-US-ODD-Million-Mile-Car/id-612cbc36b7664612b0099c8dc68a0eb6

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    Dr. Reese Halter: The Insatiable Bark Beetle and the Northern Rockies

    All is not well in the semi arid, warming oil sands of Alberta -- the second largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world; only Saudi Arabia has more. To get at the oil sands and supply the Keystone XL pipeline, its leaving Canada with a colossal carbon footprint, which has increased by 120 percent since 1990. Of all the industrial nations, Canada footprint has increased the most during this time.

    An overheating climate has enabled mountain pine beetles -- nature's emissary of massive ecological change to march north and east like never before in modern or prehistoric times.

    Recent data from the International Energy Agency shows that governments in developing countries pay $310 billion subsidies to oil, gas and coal companies.

    So far both politicians and the public has a burgeoning disdain for climate and biological sciences that overwhelmingly shows that burning carbon-based fuels are forcing the climate and causing climate disruption, globally. Moreover, many politicians and the public are grabbing at whatever denial statements they can -- analogous to the behavior of an addict.

    They can run but they cannot hide from some conspicuous and startling facts across western North America. Indigenous bark beetles, on an epic feeding frenzy fueled by rising temperatures, have killed over 60 million acres of mature pine forests. In just over a decade the beetles have killed billions of trees or enough wood to make a city of 8 million homes.

    Entire hillsides and mountains are red. Those dead forests are ripe for wildfires that are costing taxpayers billions of dollars and perilously placing over four million homeowners who straddle the urban/wildland interface at high risk.

    These are the irrefutable facts whether you fly, drive or peddle your bicycle across the West, I guarantee that you will encounter the wrath of the unintended consequences of spewing 82 million metric tons, daily, of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere -- death of our wild forests.

    What's more is that when forest ecosystems become destabilized by rising temperatures ranging in the Northern Rocky Mountains by 2.4 degrees F to 3.6 degrees F in the Southern Rockies some organisms, like the trees -- loose; while others, like the mountain pine beetles -- win.

    It's not that the bark beetles are just killing the trees but rather in less than a decade they have completely and perfectly adapted to enter Earth's northern most contiguous forest type -- the boreal or emerald crown of our planet.

    Up until very recently the ecological "cold curtain" prevented the ravenous bark beetles from crossing the great continental divide. Beetles quite simply couldn't exist on the northern, eastern side of the Rocky Mountains or if they did they reproduced within 2 years and populations never reached an epidemic.

    In central British Columbia over the past decade and a half the mountain pine beetles have single-handily devoured half the commercial forests or an astounding 39 million acres (enough wood to build 5 million homes). As if that weren't bad enough as those forests decay they will be releasing 250 million metric tons of greenhouse gases or the equivalent of five years of car and light truck emissions in Canada. Essentially, 39 million acres of British Columbian lodgepole pine forests that once sucked CO2 out of the atmosphere are now dead, decaying and bleeding CO2 into an ever-rising pool of accumulating heat-trapping gases.

    The plot thickens, considerably. At least thrice in the last decade billions of bark beetles were sucked up into the lower stratosphere and spat out onto the eastern side of the Northern Rockies. Millions lived and successfully reproduced within a year (because temperatures have risen that dramatically) enabling populations to reach an epidemic.

    In fact, in the summer of 2006, my faithful companion, "Naio", a Chesapeake Bay retriever and I were on a road trip in Northern Alberta near Grand Prairie. We were exploring a pine forest when the sky rained bark beetles on us. In almost 3 decades of working in wild forests around the globe, I've never experienced anything like it.

    Mountain pine beetles carry blue stain fungi, bacteria and micro-organisms which help them overcome the tree's autoimmune system. The beetles have quickly found a strain of blue stain Leptographium longiclavatum that is adapted to the colder eastern Rocky Mountain temperatures. Furthermore, the beetles have reduced their body size and have successfully adapted too much thinner living bark spaces of the diminutive Jack pines.

    Tree scientists and entomologists knew that mountain pine beetles could exist in lodgepole/Jack pine hybrids in Alberta. In the last half-decade the beetles have successfully transited from the hybrids into pure Jack pines -- an a priori.

    The coast is now clear for them to march across northern Canada to the Atlantic coast and into the Jack pines of the Lake states.

    Earth's natural systems for absorbing CO2 are rapidly breaking down. Let me remind you that 40 percent of the oceanic phytoplankton is missing because warming currents are preventing upwelling of cold waters carrying essential nutrients requisite for growing green life and supporting the base of the entire marine ecosystem.

    The time for subsidizing toxic and life threatening carbon-based fuels is over. Imagine the breathtaking innovations in new green energies if we made available $310 billion per annum to all centers of concentrated brainpower - our colleges. And then imagine the millions of long-term jobs those green industries will create.

    Politicians and the public can sneer at climate and biological sciences but how long can they turn a blind eye to the death of Mother Nature?

    Earth Dr Reese Halter is a science communicator: voice for ecology and distinguished conservation biologist at California Lutheran University. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee. Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

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    Follow Dr. Reese Halter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrReeseHalter

    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-reese-halter/the-insatiable-bark-beetl_b_1027815.html

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    Scientist: Satellite must have crashed into Asia (AP)

    BERLIN ? A defunct German research satellite crashed into the Earth somewhere in Southeast Asia on Sunday, a U.S. scientist said ? but no one is still quite sure where.

    Most parts of the minivan-sized ROSAT research satellite were expected to burn up as they hit the atmosphere at speeds up to 280 mph (450 kph), but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.87 tons (1.7 metric tons) could have crashed, the German Aerospace Center said.

    Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the satellite appears to have gone down over Southeast Asia. He said two Chinese cities with millions of inhabitants each, Chongqing and Chengdu, had been in the satellite's projected path during its re-entry time.

    "But if it had come down over a populated area there probably would be reports by now," the astrophysicist, who tracks man-made space objects, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

    Calculations based on U.S. military data indicate that satellite debris must have crashed somewhere east of Sri Lanka over the Indian Ocean, or over the Andaman Sea off the coast of Myanmar, or further inland in Myanmar or as far inland as China, he said.

    The satellite entered the atmosphere between 0145 GMT to 0215 GMT Sunday (9:45 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. Saturday EDT) and would have taken 15 minutes or less to hit the ground, the German Aerospace Center said. Hours before the re-entry, the center said the satellite was not expected to land in Europe, Africa or Australia.

    There were no immediate reports from Asian governments or space agencies about the fallen satellite.

    The satellite used to circle the planet in about 90 minutes, and it may have traveled several thousand kilometers (miles) during its re-entry, rendering exact predictions of where it crashed difficult.

    German space agency spokesman Andreas Schuetz said a falling satellite also can change its flight pattern or even its direction once it sinks to within 90 miles (150 kilometers) above the Earth.

    Schuetz said the agency was waiting for data from scientific partners around the globe. He noted it took the U.S. space agency NASA several days to establish where one of its satellites had hit last month.

    The 2.69-ton (2.4 metric ton) scientific ROSAT satellite was launched in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being used for research on black holes and neutron stars and performing the first all-sky survey of X-ray sources with an imaging telescope.

    ROSAT's largest single fragment that could have hit is the telescope's heavy heat-resistant mirror.

    "The impact would be similar to, say, an airliner having dropped an engine," said McDowell. "It would damage whatever it fell on, but it wouldn't have widespread consequences."

    A dead NASA satellite fell into the southern Pacific Ocean last month, causing no damage but spreading debris over a 500-mile (800-kilometer) area.

    Since 1991, space agencies have adopted new procedures to lessen space junk and having satellites falling back to Earth. NASA says it has no more large satellites that will fall back to Earth uncontrolled in the next 25 years.

    ___

    Online:

    The German space agency on ROSAT: http://bit.ly/papMAA

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_on_hi_te/falling_satellite

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