LOS ANGELES, Jan 30 (TheWrap.com) ? Jennifer Lopez now has a job presenting at the Oscars to go with her People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" honor.
On Monday, Oscar producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer named "American Idol" judge Lopez as the latest presenter at the 84th Academy Awards. The cast of "Bridesmaids" became the first announced presenters last week.
Lopez also has a movie career to go along with recording, judging and being beautiful. Her next film will be "What to Expect When You're Expecting"; and she has also appeared in "Out of Sight," "Selena," "Maid in Manhattan," "The Back-Up Plan" and "Monster-in-Law."
The 84th Oscars will take place on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? The Florida Highway Patrol says conditions were clear when they decided to reopen the interstate highway where 10 people were killed in two deadly pileups amid heavy smoke and fog.
Lt. Patrick Riordan said Monday in a news conference that visibility quickly deteriorated after they reopened the highway early Sunday morning. The crashes started shortly after.
About midnight, the highway patrol closed Interstate 75 near Gainesville because of low visibility but reopened it about 3:30 a.m. Pileups began about 15 minutes later, with survivors describing smoke and fog so thick they couldn't see.
Riordan says troopers did their "due diligence" before a sergeant and lieutenant decided to reopen the road. He says drivers have to be alert and be prepared to make good judgments.
COMMENTARY | Newt Gingrich's spokesman said Thursday night's GOP debate in Jacksonville, Fla., was a "push." Who is he trying to kid? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the night in a harrowing display of debate splendor that had the well-spoken, factually armed former speaker tied in a knot.
The Ticket reported Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond tried to sell the idea of a debate draw to reporters traveling with the campaign, but it seemed to fall flat. Rightfully so. Gingrich did not have a strong appearance, failing to counter damaging attacks from Romney and Rick Santorum, who straddled him on the stage. Ron Paul provided nothing more than comic relief and proven -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- that he is unfit to be president and merely riding a 15 minutes of fame tour through these debates.
One of the former House speaker's weakest moments was the defense of his plan to build a permanent moon colony by the end of his second term as president. He is right in one respect: America needs another grand idea. Gingrich cited President John F. Kennedy's call to space in the early 1960s as an example, but that was Kennedy's moment for Kennedy's time. America needs another grand idea, but not something as outlandish as a multitrillion-dollar expense of building moon colony. After all, we just finished building the international space station and the U.S. doesn't even possess a working orbiter at the moment.
The Washington Post reported Gingrich talked Wednesday to more than 500 residents of Cocoa Beach, Fla., about his plans to develop the next great space exploration program. His idea met with resounding approval from a community largely dependent on America's space program for their jobs. During the debate, Romney accused him of pandering local issues as he campaigns. Romney got that part wrong. Candidates always talk to local crowds about very local issues to win their votes (and their wallet).
Regardless of the space discussion, Gingrich did not have a good night. My heart says Romney won the debate, but I cannot dismiss the powerful performance of Santorum. Romney will carry Florida next week, but the three-way race will continue as they all move to Nevada for the next votes. That is unless Santorum runs out of money in the meantime.
LONDON ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Britain for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, a day after France announced it would withdraw its troops a year earlier than the 2014 date agreed by NATO.
Cameron is due to meet Karzai at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat outside London. Britain's Foreign Office said the meeting "is about long-term partnership and commitment beyond 2014 and the need for progress on the political track."
It is also sure to include the effects of the announcement by President Nicolas Sarkozy that French troops would speed up their withdrawal plans and leave the country by the end of next year, instead of by 2014.
Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan and says it plans to withdraw almost all of them by the end of 2014.
Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you two amazing to-do apps for your?iPhone.
In addition to the Reminders app that comes on iOS 5 devices, these to-do apps will help you stay on task like never before! You'll be able to sync your to-dos with multiple devices; including on your web browser and on your iPhone. Check 'em out and?increase your productivity!
Take a look at these other episodes of Just Show Me that'll help you become an iPhone master:
For even more episodes of Just Show Me?check out our complete episode list. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.
The temperature in Minneapolis didn't fall to zero degrees this winter until Jan. 12. On Jan. 5., the daytime high in Rapid City, S.D. (a record-setting 71 degrees), was higher than in balmy Miami (69 degrees). And just a couple of days before New Year's, visitors to Park City, Utah, skied on man-made snow and dined al fresco ? without their parkas.
Throughout the continental United States, it's been a very warm winter.
"The talk across the whole country has been, 'Where has winter been?'" said Dale Eck, who runs the global forecast center at the Weather Channel in Atlanta.
The answer: A combination of factors has trapped the winter's cold air in the northern latitudes over Canada and Alaska.
"If you look at U.S. temperatures, you'd say, 'Wow, it was a warm winter,'" said Dan Cayan, a climate researcher at the U.S. Geological Service and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. And you'd be right.
"But," he added, "in the coastal West, it's been cool."
Sunshine and nearly 80-degree temperatures in downtown Los Angeles this week ? combined with an early January heat wave and vicious Santa Ana winds in late November and early December ? might leave locals with the impression that winter has been similarly balmy in Southern California.
But while the season is shaping up to be exceptionally dry, it has not been unusually warm.
In fact, November's average high temperature of 69 degrees in downtown Los Angeles was four degrees below normal, and December's average of 66 was two degrees below normal, said Ryan Kittell, a forecaster at the National Weather Service's Oxnard office.
Overnight low temperatures were also cooler than average, making this December the seventh-coldest (by that measure) since 1877.
In January, however, there have been an unusual number of days when the temperature downtown exceeded 80 degrees ? four, as of Friday. January usually has two such days, on average. Those days have pushed the average temperature for the month so far to 70 degrees, which is 2 degrees above normal.
Scientists said the cyclical cooling in the Pacific Ocean known as La Ni?a was a likely cause for dry conditions in California and across the nation.
There's an 82% probability of less-than-normal rainfall in a La Ni?a year, said Bill Patzert, a climate researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Ca?ada Flintridge.
Most of California has received less than half of its normal precipitation this winter, Cayan said.
According to the National Weather Service, downtown Los Angeleshas had 5.06 inches of rain this water year, which began July 1. The average for that time period is 6.74 inches.
La Ni?a-related dryness might have helped California stay cool at night, Kittell said, because less rain means less water vapor in the air. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas that traps heat near the ground.
"When it's very dry, you kind of lose that extra layer and the ground cools like crazy," he said.
Cayan chalked up the cool temperatures on the West Coast to its position on the eastern edge of a La Ni?a-related high-pressure center over the Pacific Ocean that has created a dry, cool air flow in the region.
La Ni?a has also helped keep the jet stream on a west-to-east path over Canada, preventing cold Arctic air from dipping into the Lower 48 states, he said.
A phenomenon known as the Arctic Oscillation has reinforced that effect, Patzert said.
The oscillation is a pattern of pressure that wraps itself around the North Pole. When the pressure is low, as it has been for most of this winter, the oscillation captures the cool air that normally breaks out of the Arctic and moves into Canada.
The Arctic Oscillation shifted in January, leading some meteorologists to predict that cold air would soon dip farther south, allowing the winter to finally begin in earnest.
But since La Ni?a can persist for years, Cayan said he suspected it was unlikely California would catch up on rain and snowfall this year.
BEIJING ? Thousands of fire fighters are battling a blaze in the forest near the famed southwestern Chinese tourist town of Lijiang.
State media say investigators were looking into the cause of the fire. While all visible flames had been extinguished by Friday morning, high winds continued to pose a threat of re-igniting sparks and hot spots.
The Xinhua News Agency said the blaze broke out Thursday morning and burned about 111 acres (45 hectares) around Lijiang's famous Yulong Snow Mountain. About 3,000 people were fighting the blaze, including paramilitary troops and volunteers.
Lijiang, in Yunnan province, is famous for its high mountain scenery and the unique culture of the Naxi people.
While the near-Earth asteroid won't hit Earth, it may offer seasoned amateur astronomers a great show ? if they are in the right viewing location and have good equipment. ?
A small asteroid will make an extremely close pass by Earth Friday (Jan. 27), coming much nearer than the moon, but the space rock poses no danger of impacting our planet, NASA scientists say.
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The newfound?asteroid 2012 BX34, which is about the size of a city bus, will pass within 36,750 miles (59,044 kilometers) of Earth at about 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Friday, astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program announced via Twitter.
The space rock is about 36 feet (11 meters) wide, making it much too small to pose a threat to Earth.
"It wouldn't get through our atmosphere intact even if it dared to try," Asteroid Watch scientists tweeted today (Jan. 26). Asteroid Watch is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Asteroid 2012 BX34 will zip by at a distance about 0.17 times that separating Earth and the moon. The moon orbits Earth at an average distance of about 240,000 miles (386,000 km). [Video and image of asteroid 2012 BX34's orbit]
While the?near-Earth asteroid?won't hit Earth, it may offer seasoned amateur astronomers a great show ? if they are in the right viewing location and have good equipment.
"Advanced amateur astronomers might be able to observe the flyby as the asteroid brightens to 14th magnitude just before closest approach on Friday," the website?Spaceweather.com reported?today.
In astronomers' classification system, higher magnitudes correspond to dimmer objects. The full moon, for example, has a magnitude around -12.75. A magnitude of +14 would put 2012 BX34 roughly on par with the maximum brightness of the distant dwarf planet Pluto.
NASA scientists and other astronomer teams regularly monitor the skies in search of asteroids that could pose a danger to Earth. Experts estimate that asteroids measuring about 460 feet (140 m) across can cause widespread destruction near their impact sites, but they'd need to be even larger to cause devastation on a global scale.
Last September, NASA announced that it had catalogued about 90 percent of the largest asteroids whose orbits bring them near Earth ? a major goal set by Congress in 1998. Using NASA's recent WISE asteroid-mapping mission as a guide, scientists estimate that there are about 981 near-Earth asteroids the size of a mountain or larger. About 911 of those space rocks have been spotted, WISE mission scientists said.
Finding and mapping the orbits of such potentially hazardous space rocks is a task crucial to the long-term survival of our species, many scientists say.
Throughout history, asteroids big enough to cause major damage and disruption to the global economy and society (were they to strike a populated area today) have hit Earth, on average, every 200 or 300 years, according to former astronaut Rusty Schweickart.
Schweickart chairs the B612 Foundation, a group dedicated to predicting and preventing cataclysmic asteroid impacts on Earth. The group's chief message is that humanity's survival will someday depend on our ability to?deflect a killer asteroid?away from Earth.
The dinosaurs possessed no such technology, of course, and a catastrophic impact wiped them out ? along with many other plant and animal species ? 65 million years ago.
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter:?@michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.
WWE.com's Teachers' Corner is a place for educators to share their stories about how they use WWE as a tool in their classrooms. Stay tuned to Teachers' Corner for more stories about how WWE has helped students succeed. Are you an educator with a?story you want to share with WWE.com's Teachers' Corner? E-mail us.
A father and school superintendent from North Dakota uses WWE trading cards to help his kindergartener learn:
I read your story of a teacher that was using the WWE in their classroom, and I thought I would explain my situation with you, too.
I have two children (ages 5 and 8) and we all enjoy watching the weekly WWE shows and following all the Superstars.
My son is in Kindergarten this year. He collects the action figures and has started to collect the trading cards. He enjoys playing with the figures and really likes looking at the cards.
My son has a slight speech problem. He has a hard time with the "r" sound. His speech teacher has been working all year with him on the correct "r" sounds in words. One day, his speech teacher came to me and said they he is making good progress, but she was looking for something that he really liked that she could bring into the class that would help him with his "r" sounds.
I mentioned that he collects the WWE trading cards and that maybe he should bring them in and go over them with her. I explained to her that there are many wrestlers with the "r" sound in their name. She thought that would be a great idea.
The next week, I sent him to school with his three ring binder with his WWE cards. After the first day with his cards, the speech teacher came to my office and said how much fun they had looking at the cards and all the while working with the "r" sounds. When I got home I asked my son how his speech class was. He told me that "we were too busy looking at my cards, that we didn't have time to do speech!" I started to laugh as I knew that they had spent about a half hour going over the cards.
They still use the cards in class, and his use of the "r" sound has improved greatly! Because of his hard work and dedication, we are all going to the WWE show in Fargo, N.D. Needless to say, he is very excited (so am I) and I'm sure he'll be cheering on all his favorite "r" Superstars!
Thank you to WWE!
Kevin Baumgarn Superintendent Starkweather Public School, Munich Public School ?
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A Boston-based teacher uses WWEShop.com in his elementary school math lessons:
As a lifelong fan and current elementary school teacher, I am always looking for ways to incorporate WWE into my daily lessons. Our subscription to WWE Kids magazine is very popular and not easy to keep on the shelves. Every once and awhile, I'll spot a student sneaking a peek during a math lesson.
Speaking of math, last week our whole class went on a "shopping trip" to WWEShop.com. The lesson was on adding money. The students were asked to browse around and choose two items they would like to "buy." Once they made their choices, they added up the prices, found the total, and shared their purchases with the class. I have to say, Zack Ryder's merchandise was very popular.
I have plans to continue using WWE as a teaching tool in my classroom. Our next math unit is on measuring and I plan to teach a lesson on comparing the height of several superstars. Big Show vs. Hornswoggle shouldn't be too difficult.
Jeff Chruniak Boston, MA
Are you an educator with a?story you want to share with WWE.com's Teachers' Corner? E-mail us.
JIn this Jan. 6, 2012 photo, John Deere farm tractors are displayed at Sloan's Implement John Deere Dealership, in Virden, Ill. Orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods increased in December after business stepped up spending on machinery and other capital goods. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
JIn this Jan. 6, 2012 photo, John Deere farm tractors are displayed at Sloan's Implement John Deere Dealership, in Virden, Ill. Orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods increased in December after business stepped up spending on machinery and other capital goods. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
Locks are displayed inside of the Master Lock company in Milwaukee, Wis., Wednesday, Jan, 25, 2012. Orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods increased in December after business stepped up spending on machinery and other capital goods.(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A rebound in business spending on machinery and equipment lifted orders for long-lasting manufactured goods in December, offering more evidence that the U.S. economy is gaining momentum at the start of the year.
Orders for durable goods ? products that are expected to last at least three years ? rose 3 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. And so-called core capital goods, which are viewed as a good measure of business investment plans, hit an all-time high.
Economists noted that a surge in volatile demand for commercial aircraft also boosted orders. And businesses likely stepped up spending to take advantage of a tax break on equipment, which expired at the end of December.
Still, most analysts saw the report as an encouraging sign for growth in early 2012.
Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said bank lending to businesses is accelerating, which should lead to a "huge wave of catch-up" spending by smaller firms.
"This could be a last-gasp surge ahead of the expiration of the 100 percent tax deduction ... but we doubt it," Shepherdson said. "The underlying trend in orders is rising strongly."
A sign of that spending was evident after Caterpillar said its fourth-quarter profit jumped 60 percent. The world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment also issued 2012 guidance above Wall Street predictions.
Economists pay close attention to core capital goods, such as computers and machinery, because they are viewed as a good way of gauging business investment plans.
Demand for these goods rose a solid 2.9 percent in December. And the increase pushed orders for core capital goods to a record $68.9 billion.
Orders have climbed more than 45 percent since hitting a recession low in April 2009. That has kept factories busy and helped the economy grow at a slow but steady pace.
Businesses cut back on core capital goods in October and November, which drew some concerns from economists. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday also cited the decline while warning that the economy remains vulnerable.
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that the slowdown in business investment would be reflected in overall economic growth for the October-December quarter, which the government will release on Friday. He estimated the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter, even though business investment probably was stagnant during that period.
"The good news is that the growth rate of business investment should accelerate again in the first quarter," Ashworth said. That will help to offset a projected slowdown in consumer spending. He estimates growth in the current quarter at around 2 percent.
The overall December rise in orders for durable goods was led by an increase of 18.9 percent in demand for commercial aircraft. Orders for autos and auto parts rose 0.6 percent.
Excluding transportation, orders would have risen 2.1 percent in December, the best showing in this category since a 2.6 percent rise last March.
Demand was up for primary metals such as steel, machinery and communications equipment.
An increase in total durable goods orders bolstered the view sketched by other data showing the economy picked up in recent months.
Companies are hiring more, factories are making more goods and more people are buying cars. Still, the threat of a recession in Europe is likely to be a drag on the global economy.
Manufacturing has been a bright spot in the current recovery. U.S. factory activity has been lifted a surge in exports but economists are worried that the growth in exports could falter if overseas markets such as Europe show signs of slowing. Europe accounts for about one-fifth of U.S. exports.
ATLANTA ? Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.
Many of these people were in California and one of that state's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.
The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds.
"We found no infectious cause," said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.
The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.
Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and ? perhaps worst of all ? mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they've suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn't named until 2002, when "Morgellons" was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.
Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.
Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.
The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.
They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.
Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found ? and was able to reach ? 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.
That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. "So it's rare," Eberhard said.
Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.
Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.
There was no sign of an environmental cause, either, although researchers did not go to each person's house to look around.
They took fibers from 12 people, which were tested at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Nothing unusual there, either. Cotton and nylon, mainly ? not some kind of organism wriggling out of a patient's body.
Skin lesions were common, but researchers concluded most of them were from scratching.
What stood out was how the patients did on the psychological exams. Though normal in most respects, they had more depression than the general public and were more obsessive about physical ailments, the study found.
However, they did not have an unusual history of psychiatric problems, according to their medical records. And the testing gave no clear indication of a delusional disorder.
So what do they have? The researchers don't know. They don't even know what to call it, opting for the label "unexplained dermopathy" in their paper.
But clearly, something made them miserable. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.
She said perhaps the patients could be helped by cognitive behavioral therapy that might help them deal with possible contributing psychological issues.
The study is not expected to be the last word on the subject.
Among those with additional questions is Randy Wymore, an Oklahoma State University pharmacologist who for years was the most reputable scientist to look into it and who has concluded Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.
On Wednesday, Wymore said he had not seen the CDC paper and was unable to comment on it. But when the study began, he questioned whether Kaiser patients with Morgellons would participate, especially if they were unhappy with how they were previously handled by their Kaiser doctors.
"There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?" he said, in an email.
The CDC is not planning additional study, however. The agency's expertise is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems, and the researchers saw no evidence of that.
"We're not mental health experts," one CDC spokeswoman said.
The block-building stylings of Minecraft bears more than a passing resemblance that timesucking hobby from our childhood. Now Lego and Minecraft look set to symbolize their love of all things block-based in a forthcoming set. The idea was suggested through fan submission site, Lego Cuusoo, which offers the chance for new user-submitted building sets -- provided there's enough interest -- to reach retail. The Minecraft project is the latest to make it through, claiming over 10,000 supporters and managing to pass through the toy-maker's requirements. Lego is now readying a concept that "celebrates the best aspects of building with the Lego system and in Minecraft." We've been promised more details soon -- until then, we're getting back to the digitial mining.
Taking moments to enjoy life helps patients make better health decisionsPublic release date: 23-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Linda Kamateh lib9027@med.cornell.edu 212-821-0560 New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Approach shown successful for patients with coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma
NEW YORK -- The experience of daily positive affect -- a mild, happy feeling -- and self-affirmation helps some patients with chronic diseases, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma, make better decisions about their health.
These findings are detailed in three studies of 756 patients published online in the Jan. 23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine -- the first large, randomized controlled trials to show that people can use positive affect and self-affirmation to help them make and sustain behavior change. The research was funded by a $9.5 million contract from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and led by Dr. Mary Charlson, executive director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of integrative medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluative Sciences Research in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
The same intervention was used in all three studies. Patients were encouraged to think of small things in their lives that make them feel good (such as seeing a beautiful sunset) when they get up in the morning and throughout their day. Patients were also asked to use self-affirmation to help them overcome obstacles to their plan by recalling moments in their lives they are proud of, such as a graduation (see script excerpt below). The script, created by Dr. Charlson, is now in the public domain and free to use.
"This simple approach gives patients the tools that help them fulfill their promise to themselves that they will do what's needed for their health," says Dr. Charlson. "For example, if it's raining and they don't feel like exercising, these strategies can help them get past this mental block and into their sneakers."
Excerpt from Positive Affect/Self-Affirmation Script:
First, when you get up in the morning, think about the small things that you said make you feel good, like __________________________ (example: babies in hats, the sunrise...). Then as you go through your day, notice those and other small things that make you feel good and take a moment to enjoy them.
Second, when you encounter some difficulties or are in a situation that makes it hard for you (e.g. taking your blood pressure medications or exercising), think about things you enjoy or proud moments in your life, like __________________________ (example: a graduation, success of a child...).
The behavior changes employed in the studies are known to be beneficial -- whether it is increased physical activity for coronary artery disease or regularly taking medication for high blood pressure or asthma. "In this way, positive affect made a real difference -- patients are better able to follow through on behaviors to improve their health," Dr. Charlson adds.
Patients were randomly assigned either to the experimental "positive affect" group or to a control group. Both groups made personal contracts to adhere to their behavior plans, were given an educational guide on the importance of their intervention, and received phone calls every two months to check in on their progress. Along with daily use of positive affect, patients in the experimental group received surprise gifts like tote bags prior to the phone sessions. The monetary value of the gifts was unimportant, Dr. Charlson explains; rather, they were symbolic and served to reinforce the intervention.
Results were measured at the completion of the yearlong studies. For coronary artery disease, 55 percent of patients practicing the positive affect/self-affirmations increased their physical activity compared with 37 percent in the control group; the positive affect group walked an average of 3.4 miles a week more than the control group. For high blood pressure (the study focused on African-Americans with the disease),
42 percent of the positive affirmation group adhered to their medication plan compared with 36 percent in the control group. For asthma patients, there was no difference in energy expenditure between the two groups; however, there was some benefit for patients requiring medical care during the trial.
The design of the studies, which simultaneously tested the same intervention for different populations, was one of the first for NIH-funded research, and began with contract awarded to Weill Cornell Medical College in 2002. This intervention development approach is now being more broadly used in the obesity-related behavioral intervention trials (ORBIT) sponsored by the NIH. Dr. Charlson is a recipient of an award titled "SCALE: Small Changes and Lasting Effects" under the ORBIT trials. The findings of the three trials are the basis for "SCALE" for overweight or obese patients.
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Study authors:
Coronary artery disease study authors include first author Janey C. Peterson, Mary E. Charlson, Shing Chiu Wong and James P. Hollenberg -- all from Weill Cornell Medical College; Martin T. Wells from Cornell University; John P. Allegrante from Columbia University; Zachary Hoffman from Weill Cornell and Brown University; Kathryn Boschert from Weill Cornell and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; Alice M. Isen from Cornell University; and Jared B. Jobe from the NHLBI.
High blood pressure study authors include first author Gbenga O. Ogedegbe from NYU School of Medicine; Carla Boutin-Foster and Mary E. Charlson from Weill Cornell Medical College; Martin T. Wells and Alice M. Isen from Cornell University; John P. Allegrante from Columbia University; and Jared B. Jobe from the NHLBI.
Asthma study authors include first author Carol A. Mancuso from Weill Cornell Medical College and the Hospital for Special Surgery; Mary E. Charlson, Tiffany N. Choi, Heidi Westermann, Suzanne Wenderoth and James P. Hollenberg from Weill Cornell Medical College; Martin T. Wells and Alice M. Isen from Cornell University; John P. Allegrante from Columbia University; and Jared B. Jobe from the NHLBI.
For more information, patients may call 866-NYP-NEWS.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer; the synthesis of penicillin; the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S.; the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease; the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth; and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree overseas and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit http://www.nyp.org and http://www.weill.cornell.edu.
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Taking moments to enjoy life helps patients make better health decisionsPublic release date: 23-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Linda Kamateh lib9027@med.cornell.edu 212-821-0560 New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Approach shown successful for patients with coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma
NEW YORK -- The experience of daily positive affect -- a mild, happy feeling -- and self-affirmation helps some patients with chronic diseases, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma, make better decisions about their health.
These findings are detailed in three studies of 756 patients published online in the Jan. 23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine -- the first large, randomized controlled trials to show that people can use positive affect and self-affirmation to help them make and sustain behavior change. The research was funded by a $9.5 million contract from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and led by Dr. Mary Charlson, executive director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of integrative medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluative Sciences Research in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
The same intervention was used in all three studies. Patients were encouraged to think of small things in their lives that make them feel good (such as seeing a beautiful sunset) when they get up in the morning and throughout their day. Patients were also asked to use self-affirmation to help them overcome obstacles to their plan by recalling moments in their lives they are proud of, such as a graduation (see script excerpt below). The script, created by Dr. Charlson, is now in the public domain and free to use.
"This simple approach gives patients the tools that help them fulfill their promise to themselves that they will do what's needed for their health," says Dr. Charlson. "For example, if it's raining and they don't feel like exercising, these strategies can help them get past this mental block and into their sneakers."
Excerpt from Positive Affect/Self-Affirmation Script:
First, when you get up in the morning, think about the small things that you said make you feel good, like __________________________ (example: babies in hats, the sunrise...). Then as you go through your day, notice those and other small things that make you feel good and take a moment to enjoy them.
Second, when you encounter some difficulties or are in a situation that makes it hard for you (e.g. taking your blood pressure medications or exercising), think about things you enjoy or proud moments in your life, like __________________________ (example: a graduation, success of a child...).
The behavior changes employed in the studies are known to be beneficial -- whether it is increased physical activity for coronary artery disease or regularly taking medication for high blood pressure or asthma. "In this way, positive affect made a real difference -- patients are better able to follow through on behaviors to improve their health," Dr. Charlson adds.
Patients were randomly assigned either to the experimental "positive affect" group or to a control group. Both groups made personal contracts to adhere to their behavior plans, were given an educational guide on the importance of their intervention, and received phone calls every two months to check in on their progress. Along with daily use of positive affect, patients in the experimental group received surprise gifts like tote bags prior to the phone sessions. The monetary value of the gifts was unimportant, Dr. Charlson explains; rather, they were symbolic and served to reinforce the intervention.
Results were measured at the completion of the yearlong studies. For coronary artery disease, 55 percent of patients practicing the positive affect/self-affirmations increased their physical activity compared with 37 percent in the control group; the positive affect group walked an average of 3.4 miles a week more than the control group. For high blood pressure (the study focused on African-Americans with the disease),
42 percent of the positive affirmation group adhered to their medication plan compared with 36 percent in the control group. For asthma patients, there was no difference in energy expenditure between the two groups; however, there was some benefit for patients requiring medical care during the trial.
The design of the studies, which simultaneously tested the same intervention for different populations, was one of the first for NIH-funded research, and began with contract awarded to Weill Cornell Medical College in 2002. This intervention development approach is now being more broadly used in the obesity-related behavioral intervention trials (ORBIT) sponsored by the NIH. Dr. Charlson is a recipient of an award titled "SCALE: Small Changes and Lasting Effects" under the ORBIT trials. The findings of the three trials are the basis for "SCALE" for overweight or obese patients.
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Study authors:
Coronary artery disease study authors include first author Janey C. Peterson, Mary E. Charlson, Shing Chiu Wong and James P. Hollenberg -- all from Weill Cornell Medical College; Martin T. Wells from Cornell University; John P. Allegrante from Columbia University; Zachary Hoffman from Weill Cornell and Brown University; Kathryn Boschert from Weill Cornell and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; Alice M. Isen from Cornell University; and Jared B. Jobe from the NHLBI.
High blood pressure study authors include first author Gbenga O. Ogedegbe from NYU School of Medicine; Carla Boutin-Foster and Mary E. Charlson from Weill Cornell Medical College; Martin T. Wells and Alice M. Isen from Cornell University; John P. Allegrante from Columbia University; and Jared B. Jobe from the NHLBI.
Asthma study authors include first author Carol A. Mancuso from Weill Cornell Medical College and the Hospital for Special Surgery; Mary E. Charlson, Tiffany N. Choi, Heidi Westermann, Suzanne Wenderoth and James P. Hollenberg from Weill Cornell Medical College; Martin T. Wells and Alice M. Isen from Cornell University; John P. Allegrante from Columbia University; and Jared B. Jobe from the NHLBI.
For more information, patients may call 866-NYP-NEWS.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer; the synthesis of penicillin; the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S.; the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease; the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth; and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree overseas and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit http://www.nyp.org and http://www.weill.cornell.edu.
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LINCOLN, Neb. ? The husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords says he has ruled out running for her seat in 2012.
Retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly reiterated to an audience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Monday night that he won't seek the seat. He said, "I think Gabby's staff made it very clear to the Arizona newspapers when they said he will not be a candidate for Congress in 2012."
But Kelly left open a window to seek public office later, after focusing on his wife's recovery. He said her recovery is his goal now.
Giffords was shot in the head and wounded just over a year ago in an assassination attempt in Tucson, Ariz. She announced Sunday that she was resigning from Congress to focus on her recovery.
A large crystal chandelier cast a weak glow over Ambassador Marc Grossman and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin as they talked up the results of the ambassadors two days of meetings with President Hamid Karzai on the question of peace talks with the Taliban. But the plaster near the ceiling of the Soviet-era ceremonial hall at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was warped and discolored from a leaky roof, and a newly installed heater hummed loudly in the background. Minutes after the press conference ended, the power cut out, leaving Afghan officials -- and the media -- in the dark, an eloquent commentary on the peace process itself: the trappings are there, but closer inspection reveals obvious flaws.
The main reason for Grossman's visit appears to have been to reassure Karzai and his government that they will play a key part in any peace process between the U.S. and the Taliban. But the most striking evidence that the main gears of the peace machine are out of sync came when the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan said that on his way to Kabul, he had had "the good fortune to visit Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and India," and that he had, "found strong support for peace in Afghanistan." That statement was notable not for the countries mentioned, but for the key omission: Pakistan. (See TIME's photoessay "Militants Attack NATO Convoy in Pakistan.")
Last week, a spokesman for Pakistan's government told Reuters that, "Ambassador Grossman asked to visit Pakistan but we conveyed to him that it was not possible at the moment." Islamabad said it first had to complete a parliamentary review of the troubled bilateral relationship with Washington. Acknowledging the importance of Pakistan and perhaps signaling an effort to reduce tensions between the two countries, Grossman said that, "There really cant be a comprehensive peace process unless Pakistan is part of it," adding in a conciliatory tone and with a smile, "I would be happy to meet them at any time or any place."
And while the opening of a Taliban office in Doha has prompted some to talk of a peace process gaining momentum, Karzai's government last month withdrew its ambassador to Qatar because Kabul felt it was being cut out of the loop in talks between the emirate and the Taliban. Asked about the significance of the Taliban office in Qatar, Grossman answered that "nothing has been concluded" and "more work needs to be done." (Afghanistan Blueys: One Soldier's Polaroids)
The U.S. envoy urged that "Qatar and Afghanistan need to be in direct contact with one another," and commended Karzai's government for welcoming a Qatari delegation to Afghanistan. Yet, right now, there is no Afghan ambassador in Doha or Qatari embassy in Kabul, and the two sides appear to talk past one another. Still, even if a Taliban office in Doha would establish the credentials of interlocutors who claim to speak for the movement's leadership, and even if Washington was able to get on the same page as both Pakistan and the Karzai government, Grossman emphasized repeatedly during the press conference that the Taliban have not yet committed to peace talks.
Grossman emphasized that "we also need to have a clear statement by the Afghan Taliban against international terrorism and in support of the peace process to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan."
So, just as a vast gap remains between the objectives of the Taliban and those of the U.S., there are also gaps between the U.S. and Afghanistan. While Deputy Foreign Minister Ludin said his government would support the transfer of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar -- which has been mooted as an important opening gesture by the U.S. to launch a peace process -- Grossman said, "This is an issue in the United States of law, something on which we would want to consult our Congress," adding that, "for our side, no decisions have been made." And given the nest of issues that remains to be untangled before any significant progress becomes possible, talk of a peace process at this stage remains somewhat hypothetical.
CHIAPA DE CORZO, Mexico (Reuters) ? For most of the past five years, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has journeyed far and wide across Mexico, railing against the corruption, fraud and injustice he says cost him the presidency.
Seething over his wafer-thin election loss to conservative Felipe Calderon in 2006, the fiery leftist shook Mexico with some of the biggest street protests in its history, damning its institutions and declaring himself the rightful president.
Yet since recently winning the support of Mexico's main leftist parties to run again for president, Lopez Obrador has made a sharp U-turn, preaching love and forgiveness to win back voters who had been turned off by his protests and clamor.
The former mayor of Mexico City flanked his new approach with a drive to reach out to private business and reassure voters he will not put the economy at risk, charges that cost him dear in the final stages of the last election campaign, when his lead over Calderon evaporated.
The new message has forced Lopez Obrador into a delicate balancing act, struggling to convince waverers to follow him down the road to the "loving republic" he now invokes, while still firing up his core supporters.
On campaign last week in the southern state of Chiapas, Lopez Obrador set out his stall as a man of peace, urging his followers to "practice love of thy neighbor" and insisting his rivals were not enemies but people "just as desperate" as the rest in Mexico, where around half the population is poor.
Then, in an instant, he switched into tearing up his adversaries, conjuring up visions of decadence, slavery and dictatorship if voters fail to heed his calls for change.
Particular scorn was reserved for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which leads the race, drawing on much of the same base of support as Lopez Obrador.
"If the PRI comes back it would be terrible," Lopez Obrador shouted in the town of Chiapa de Corzo. "It would be like the return of that great dictator, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna."
Best known in the United States for his attack on the Alamo in Texas in 1836, general Santa Anna has gone down in Mexican history as a dictator blamed for the loss of half the country's territory to the giant northern neighbor in the 1830s and 1840s.
BEST KNOWN POLITICIAN
Lopez Obrador led the field for most of the 2006 campaign but most opinion polls this time around show him with support of just under 20 percent.
"He's pursuing a really difficult strategy, because it's a very abrupt change to go from a hard, combative politician to a conciliatory one," said Federico Berrueto, director general of polling firm Gabinete de Comunicacion Estrategica (GCE).
Fronting a leftist alliance dominated by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Lopez Obrador has pledged to create 7 million jobs to keep young people out of the clutches of drug gangs, whose turf wars during a crackdown launched by Calderon's government have claimed 47,000 lives, damaging Mexico's reputation with tourists and investors.
Lopez Obrador is pledging to revitalize state oil monopoly Pemex, guarantee university education for all, slash the pay of senior government officials and oversee economic growth of six percent per year.
He has a very loyal core of supporters but many Mexicans wonder whether he can build enough bridges with business and other political parties after his cries of foul play brought swathes of the capital to a halt in 2006.
"People got tired of them," said Adela Mendoza, a 53-year-old from Nezahualcoyotl, a gritty district on Mexico City's western flank. Mendoza voted for Lopez Obrador in 2006, but says she has given up him now.
Lopez Obrador has not given up on Mexicans.
Continuing to remind them of the "great fraud" on his tour of Chiapas, he raced hundreds of miles (km) a day on bumpy roads, dirt tracks and mountain passes to reach remote towns and villages other politicians rarely, if ever, venture into.
His advisers say he has visited all of Mexico's 2,440 municipalities an average of two times since the 2006 vote, making him the best known politician in the contest.
Some polls show the 58-year-old father of four to be more widely recognized than the president himself.
To his supporters, the austere Lopez Obrador is the only man with the moral authority to end the corruption and inequality that has long blighted Mexico.
"He has a simple way of expressing himself, he's sincere and he talks to you honestly," said Javier Villareal Cruz, 40, under the roof of a sports hall in the town of Cintalapa.
Cheers broke out across the basketball courts when Lopez Obrador told a crowd of several hundred flag-waving supporters he would end the "decadence" of overpaid public servants.
"They have plastic surgery on the backs of the people," Lopez Obrador shouted. "They have helicopters, planes. They give themselves a great life."
Zeferino Morales, 62, a farmer from the Zoque ethnic minority, traveled six hours to see Lopez Obrador in nearby Copainala pledging to establish state pensions for the elderly across Mexico and wean the country off foreign food imports.
"The presidents have abandoned us here," he said in halting Spanish. "Lopez Obrador is going to change a lot of things."
HIGH COST
Yet to many Mexicans, Lopez Obrador is the one politician for whom they will not vote.
Tainted by depictions in the media as a belligerent holding Mexico to ransom, negative ratings for Lopez Obrador among voters outweigh positive ones by a ratio of three to two, figures from pollster Mitofsky showed this month.
"If he'd taken a break, he might have started from a very low base, but he wouldn't have had such a negative image," said Berrueto at GCE. "But he stayed so active and present."
By contrast, presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI has a ratio of more than four to one in his favor.
The telegenic Pena Nieto, a 45-year-old former governor of the State of Mexico, has helped to rejuvenate the PRI, a party that ruled the country for 71 straight years up to 2000, by which time it had become a byword for corruption.
Lopez Obrador faces a stronger rival in Pena Nieto than the PRI fielded in 2006, when the party suffered its worst ever result with the candidacy of Roberto Madrazo.
The front-runner for the candidacy of Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN), Josefina Vazquez Mota, offers voters another break with the past as a female contender.
Lopez Obrador insists he was right to take to the streets of Mexico City in 2006, arguing it prevented violence erupting.
But in an interview with Reuters in Tapachula, a city far from the capital on the Guatemalan border, he admitted that the media impact of his protests had cost him "a lot."
"There are people in Tapachula who still question me about it," he said. "Even though they weren't there."
When the Absinthe A5 untethered jailbreak solution hit yesterday it opened Apple's iPhone 4S and iPad 2 for more creative uses by their owners -- as long as they were on OS X. Now the team has returned with a version of the tool built for Windows users who enjoy iLife mixing and matching. All the usual restrictions, warnings and directives apply, but you know what you're here for -- hit the source link below to download a ZIP file straight from greenpois0n's servers and get going, or check the other links for more information on the exact steps to follow.
KEITH MOON and Ringo Starr had their own individual drumming styles, and if you listen closely enough you will find this guy (pictured) does too. Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds.
Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked to see if non-vocal sounds are similarly unique, says Andrew Iwaniuk of the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.
Iwaniuk studies male ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), which drum by beating their wings on logs. Each bout lasts about 10 seconds and contains up to 50 pulses. Iwaniuk and his team recorded 449 drumming displays from 23 males and found that the number of pulses in each bout and the rate at which they were produced were unique to each individual (Ethology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.02011.x).
Females might rely on the drumming to recognise particular males during the mating season, says Iwaniuk. In theory there are benefits to being recognisable, agrees Elizabeth Tibbetts of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Another example would be maintaining your place in the pecking order.
But both researchers say it is not yet clear whether the grouse do make use of their distinctive calls or if they are simply an evolutionary accident.
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Apparently suing Samsung (again) wasn't the only pressing business for Kodak today, as it just announced it has -- as expected -- filed for Chapter 11 business reorganization in New York. You can read the details in the press release after the break or at the Kodak Transforms website, where Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez is quoted saying he hopes Kodak will "emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company". The company has obtained $950 million debtor-in-possession financing, which it claims will provide the liquidity needed to continue operations during the restructuring. As far as its recent parade of lawsuits against Samsung, Apple and HTC, Perez comments on "monetizing non-core IP assets" so we'd assume its lawyers will stay busy going forward.
"Pariah," from first-time writer/director Dee Rees, doesn't break much artistic ground. It tells the same gay/lesbian coming-out story that we've seen a million times. But it's told particularly well and from within a black urban context, which I don't believe has been done before.
It also goes a bit deeper into the hearts and minds of the homophobic parents than typically is done, which was great. Unfortunately, it only scratches those surfaces. Kim Wayans, who of course has a long history in comedy, shows she has major dramatic talent, playing the homophobic mother of the main character. The cast is universally good, but Wayans is the stand-out.
The main character is a black teenage girl in Brooklyn going through the coming-out process. She has fully come out to herself as a lesbian, and she has even found her way into a lesbian circle of friends. She even frequents a women's night club. But she hasn't told Mom or Dad about any of this, both of whom are homophobic. Mom is particularly venomous in her hatred of gays and lesbians. You can see that Dad, a detective in the NYPD, in his heart of hearts is not a bigot.
Thrown into the mix to complicate things a little bit is a bisexual girl eager to have lesbian experiences to explore herself. But she tosses lesbians aside like useless candy wrappers after she's had her fun.
If I were going to give Dee Rees advice, I would say this:
Ms. Rees, in "Pariah" you started digging into the parent characters with some real psychological and artistic depth. I encourage you to go more deeply in that direction. I think your true gifts as an artist lie there. I would give anything to see a sequel where you explore what happened to that mother and what she's really fighting. You hint that her husband is beginning to stray, but I think there's more in there. Help us see it.
Remember when that great schoolteacher tells Alike that she could "go deeper" with her poetry? You could go deeper with your films. I know you could.
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Public release date: 23-Jan-2012
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