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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Oklahoma baby is 3rd sickened by rare bacteria
ATLANTA (AP) ? An Oklahoma baby is the third infant this month sickened by a rare type of bacteria sometimes associated with tainted powdered infant formula.
The child, from Tulsa County, was infected with Cronobacter sakazakii but fully recovered, health officials said Wednesday. An Illinois child also rebounded after being sickened by the bacteria. A Missouri infant who was 10 days old died.
The Missouri child, Avery Cornett of Lebanon, had consumed Enfamil Newborn powdered infant formula made by Illinois-based Mead Johnson. Powdered formula has been suspected in illnesses caused by the bacteria in years past.
But health officials say the Oklahoma child had not consumed Enfamil. And Mead Johnson this week reported that its own testing found no bacteria in the product.
U.S. officials are awaiting results from their own testing of powdered formula and distilled water ? also known as 'nursery water' ? used to prepare it.
The cases occurred in roughly the same region of the country. At this point, it's not clear that they are connected, said Barbara Reynolds, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokeswoman.
Symptoms can include irritability, lethargy, fever, vomiting and seizures. The infection can be treated with antibiotics, but it's still deemed extremely dangerous to babies less than 1 month old and those born premature. An estimated 40 percent of illnesses from the bacteria end in death.
There are no legal requirements that cases be reported, but the CDC gets roughly four to six reports of Cronobacter sakazakii each year. There have been 10 this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean cases are increasing. Attention over the Missouri death just may have prompted more reporting in the past, health officials said.
That's what happened in the Oklahoma case. That child got sick earlier in December, but after Avery Cornett's death, the case "took on added significance" and was reported, said Larry Weatherford, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
The bacteria is found naturally in the environment and in plants such as wheat and rice, but in the past also has been traced to dried milk and powdered formula. Powdered infant formula is not sterile, and experts have said there are not adequate methods to completely remove or kill all bacteria that might creep into formula before or during production.
After initial suspicion landed on Enfamil, national retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreen Co., Kroger Co. and Safeway pulled a batch of the powdered infant formula from their shelves.
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2011 in Review: Betty Ford
Long after Jerry and Betty Ford settled into a comfortable retirement out West, the former First Lady was asked why her husband kept smacking his head on helicopter doors and tripping down stairs during their White House years.
A motor-skill problem, perhaps? It was odd, after all, because he was a gifted athlete and a superb skier.
?Oh, no,? she replied with an impish laugh, ?Jerry?s just clumsy.?
That was classic Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Ford ? funny, quick and unflinchingly honest, even at the expense of a husband she adored for 58 years.
But she was more than just the ballast of the Ford family, the classic politician?s wife, who raised four children while her congressman-husband spent hundreds of days a year campaigning for fellow GOPers to further his desire to become Speaker of the House.
When he instead became President in 1974, Betty took advantage of the spotlight she?d always shunned. In an era when the personal lives of First Ladies were mostly off-limits, she forthrightly went public with her medical and emotional demons, sharing her struggles with breast cancer, alcohol and painkillers.
In the process, she encouraged countless Americans to believe they could conquer or at least cope with their own afflictions. She changed lives, and no doubt saved many.
Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/nydnrss/news/politics/~3/g4_P6UoqoQk/story01.htm
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
12 Great Mobile Apps You Might Have Missed
Platform: iPad
An ingenious Web browser for iPad, iSwifter ($4.99) takes sites with rich Flash content, including many social media sites like Facebook, and turns them into an animation that can play on the Flash-less iPad. Billed mostly for playing games, the browser works for any Web site. The controls for viewing full-screen and refreshing, the back button, and bookmarks all mimic what you'll find in the Safari browser that comes with the iPad. Alas, the iSwifter browser uses a proxy server to convert content, so it doesn't work with Hulu.
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2012 Thor Motor Coach Hurricane
Options: 13,500 BTU Rear Air Conditioner, 6-Way Power Driver Seat, Back-Up Camera, Buttercream Interior, Charcoal Partial Paint, Cherry Cabinetry, Chestnut Interior, Cinderwood Full Body Paint, Cobblestone Exterior, Electric Front Over Head Bunk, Electric Patio Awning, Glazed Maple Cabinetry, Heated Remote Exterior Mirrors, Install Linoleum Throughout, Leather Hide-a-Bed w/Air Mattress, Milano Brown 2 Interior, Milano Brown Interior, Onan 5.5kW Gas Generator, Outside Shower, RVIA Seal, Satin Cashmere Full Body Paint, Second Auxiliary Battery, Side Vision Cameras, Sizzle Grey Interior, Volume Dealer,
Source: http://www.rvusa.com/rvinventory_item.asp?id=925215
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Monday, December 26, 2011
So You Got a Fancy New Camera: Here's How to Use It [How To]
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Scobleizer: RT @htonews: Berkeley Explains Why Google Trumps Microsoft (Caleb Garling/Wired Enterprise) http://t.co/qAkd7tp8
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Russia opposition activist to be held 10 more days (AP)
MOSCOW ? A prominent Russian opposition activist had barely half an hour of freedom Sunday before being sentenced to 10 more days in jail ? making it the 14th time this year he's been detained.
The decision by a Moscow court late Sunday to find Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov guilty of a charge of resisting police came a day after Russia witnessed the largest protest rally in its post-Soviet history. As demonstrators vented frustration Saturday with the scandal-marred parliamentary election of Dec. 4 that left Vladimir Putin's United Russia party in control, many prominent figures called for Udaltsov's release.
How the Kremlin chooses to deal with Udaltsov could prove a litmus test for how it approaches the opposition in the coming days. During Putin's decade-plus long tenure as president and prime minister, opposition activists have faced numerous crackdowns, but their cause appears to have been boosted by allegations of fraud during the recent election.
The Left Front leader was due to be released Sunday from a hospital, where he was being treated as he served the final days of his previous sentence. Udaltsov, who had been held since election day on claims of staging an unsanctioned rally, had spent much of the month on a hunger strike.
Found guilty of resisting police, Udaltsov was escorted back to the hospital Sunday night after he felt unwell in court.
"He was so stressed out that he fell ill," Udaltsov's lawyer, Nikolay Polozov, said.
Prominent opposition leaders came to the court to support Udaltsov. Many have referred to his constant detentions as political harassment. The Left Front leader has spent at least 50 days in jail this year.
The court on Sunday found that Udaltsov resisted police on Oct. 24 while being detained outside the Central Election Committee's building.
A video of his detention, filmed by the Associated Press Television, shows the activist arrive on a bicycle and later talk to reporters.
Udaltsov was telling the press that he had come out to the election committee's headquarters to stage a one-man picket, which requires no sanction from authorities. Shortly afterwards, police came and took Udaltsov away. Udaltsov did not appear to be putting resistance.
Udaltsov's lawyer said they would appeal the verdict.
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
VirtualGlobe: Sports Sunday - Reindeer Racing http://t.co/XKyuTLcK
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Sports Sunday - Reindeer Racing vgt.me/b2Dr 
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Flurry: Largest Addressable Markets For Mobile Developers In 2012 Include India, China, Japan & U.S.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry is closing out the year with a look into the forthcoming shift in mobile installed bases expected in 2012. Using data from the firm's dataset of over 140,000 apps running worldwide, it was able to calculate smartphone penetration in established markets like U.S. and Europe. Then, using additional data from the IMF in combination with Flurry's own data, the firm was able to then determine which countries represented the top market opportunities for mobile app developers. Not surprisingly, China and India made the list. But so did the U.S.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HfrzU34k3Hc/
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SPORTS BRIEFS
ICE HOCKEY
Deryk Engelland suspended
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Deryk Engelland has been suspended for three games for an illegal check to the head of Chicago Blackhawks forward Marcus Kruger, the NHL announced on Thursday. Less than nine minutes into Pittsburgh?s 3-2 win on Tuesday, Engelland launched himself into Kruger, driving his forearm to the head of the Chicago forward. Kruger suffered a concussion from the hit. No penalty was assessed on the play, but right after the hit, Blackhawks enforcer John Scott fought Engelland and received an instigator penalty on top of his fighting major and the Penguins scored on the ensuing power play. Engelland will forfeit more than US$9,000 of his salary, which will go to the Players? Emergency Assistance Fund.
SOCCER
Atletico fire Manzano
Atletico Madrid put Gregorio Manzano out of his misery on Thursday when their unpopular board sacked the coach following the King?s Cup defeat by third-tier Albacete and offered Diego Simeone his job. The 55-year-old Manzano?s departure came after less than a half-season in his second stint at the helm, while former Atletico midfielder Simeone said he was ready to take over after quitting as coach of Racing Club in his native Argentina on Tuesday. Club president Enrique Cerezo told reporters the 42-year-old Simeone, a fan favorite as a player, was enthusiastic about their offer and the club were expecting his response by yesterday. ?We have only made an offer to Simeone,? Cerezo added. Known as ?the professor,? Manzano has overseen an erratic campaign including a 5-0 league drubbing at Barcelona.
SOCCER
Villarreal promote Molina
Villarreal have promoted former Spain goalkeeper Jose Francisco Molina from B team coach to take charge of the first team following the dismissal of Juan Carlos Garrido, the La Liga club said on Thursday. Villarreal were humbled 2-0 at home by third-tier Mirandes in the King?s Cup on Wednesday, losing the last-32 match 3-1 on aggregate and prompting president Fernando Roig to sack Garrido immediately after the final whistle. He leaves the side hovering just above the La Liga relegation places after 16 rounds of a stuttering campaign that also saw them beaten in all six of their Champions League Group A games, scoring just two goals and conceding 14. Molina, 41, who kept goal for Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Deportivo Coruna, has agreed a contract until the end of the season, the club said on their Web site.
RUGBY UNION
NZ name assistant coach
World champions New Zealand have named former Waikato Chiefs supremo Ian Foster as assistant coach. Foster, who coached the New Zealand Super rugby side in more than 100 matches between 2004 and this year, will assist recently appointed head coach Steve Hansen, who has been tasked with sustaining the top-ranked side?s success following Graham Henry?s retirement. Foster replaces former assistant coach Wayne Smith, who stepped aside to take up a coaching consultant role with the Chiefs. ?This is a great honor to work with the All Blacks. I?m thankful for the faith that Steve Hansen and the board have shown in me,? Foster, a former coach of the Junior All Blacks, said in a statement released by the New Zealand Rugby Union yesterday. The All Blacks have also named Brian McLean, who was an assistant to Samoa at this year?s World Cup, as defense coach, with a skills coach to be named in the new year.
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Weird wildlife: Real animals of Antarctica
Ask anyone to name an Antarctic land animal, and chances are the response will be, "penguin." Try again, says David Barnes, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey.
"Penguins aren't really residents on land. All the species except for one ? emperor penguins ? spend most of their lives at sea," Barnes told OurAmazingPlanet.
"And likewise the other sea birds go north during Antarctica's winter," he added.
It turns out that the usual suspects ? penguins, seals ? don't actually live on the continent. They just visit.
"In order to see Antarctica's resident land animals, you have to have a microscope," Barnes said.
And one look reveals an outlandish cast of characters more suited to Lewis Carroll's fiction than a Disney movie, both in name and ability. The continent's natives ? rotifers, tardigrades and springtails, collembola and mites ? possess a bizarre array of physiological tools to survive on the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on Earth.
In addition, evidence is mounting that these weird Antarctic animals are remnants of a bygone age, the only survivors of a vanished world ? something once thought nearly impossible.
"The take-home message is that we think our animals survived the last ice age," said biologist Byron Adams, a professor at Brigham Young University.
Petite pachyderms
The largest of the continent's land animals, the so-called "elephants of Antarctica," are the collembola, or, as they are more commonly known, springtails. Unlike the majority of their neighbors, they are visible to the naked eye.
"They look like insects ? a little bit like an earwig," said Ian Hogg, a freshwater ecologist and associate professor at New Zealand's University of Waikato. "But they're a lot cuter than earwigs," Hogg added.
Typically under a millimeter long, the tiny, six-legged arthropods are similar to insects, but more primitive, and likely resemble the ancient ancestors of modern-day insects,? Hogg said. They live under rocks near coastal areas, and survive on a diet of fungus and bacteria. Hogg has found them as far south as 86 degrees latitude.
Although springtails are found all over the planet, those that live in Antarctica have a few tricks to survive the brutal conditions. They can slow down their metabolism to save energy, "and when it gets close to winter, they start to produce glycerol, which lowers their freezing point," Hogg said.
But even springtails can succumb in harsh Antarctic conditions. "If they get too cold they'll freeze solid, and that's the end of them," Hogg said.
They're aliiiive
Yet for Antarctica's most abundant land animal, tiny nematode worms, freezing is not fatal ? it's more like a neat party trick.
The hardy worms are one of the most abundant creatures on Earth, and in Antarctica's simple ecosystems, they are king.
"They're the rulers of the continent," said BYU's Byron Adams. "As far as animals go, you're more likely to find a nematode than anything."
The worms may be tiny ? a real whopper is almost as long as a dime is thick, Adams said ? but they have the combined biological powers of a MacGyver and a Lazarus.
First, the worms employ inventive physiological processes to stave off the effects of the extreme cold.
Like springtails, Antarctica's nematodes can lower their freezing point. They also have a mechanism to protect their cells from the dangers of frozen water, allowing them to survive in temperatures well below freezing.
Inside a cell, ice can be deadly. "Imagine a drop of water," Adams said. "It's smooth and round. When that turns into ice, it turns into a ninja-star type of thing, with all these sharp points. That causes the cells to burst ? it kills the cell," he said. This same process causes frostbite and its nasty effects. As cells die, tissue is destroyed.
To prevent this, nematodes produce proteins that act as packing peanuts, surrounding the sharp-edged ice crystals with tiny cushions to protect the cells from rupture and ensuing death.
When conditions get too dry (the worms require moisture to function), the worms have the ability to drop into a death-like state of suspended animation from which they can revive many months, even decades, later, when conditions improve.
"They pump all the water out of the bodies until they're dried out like a little Cheerio," Adams said ? a process similar to freeze-drying. The worms then literally just blow around in the wind until water returns ? often, not until the following summer, when melt from glaciers creates freshwater streams around the continent.
"When the water comes back, the nematodes suck the water back into their bodies and they're re-animated ? they come back to life," Adams said.
The strategy is not unique to Antarctica. Nematodes that live in hot, dry deserts do the same thing, he added.
It's still not clear just how long the worms can survive in this state, but nematodes have reawakened after 60 years in freeze-dried mode.
For all their toughness, the nematodes may have reason to envy one of their Antarctic colleagues ? tardigrades ? which are similarly rugged, yet have one thing nematodes just haven't got: good looks.
Brawny beauties
"They're really cute," Adams said.
Tardigrades look a bit like a bear crossed with a sweet potato. In fact, they look huggable ? a rare quality among microscopic animals. They have chubby bodies and eight legs, from which curved, bear-like claws protrude.
Like nematodes, these algae-eating water beasts can "freeze-dry" themselves, and have even survived a trip into low-Earth orbit.
"It was quite surprising to me that exposure to the vacuum of space, with its extreme desiccating effect, did not affect survival at all," said Ingemar J?nsson, a professor at Sweden's Kristianstad University, in an email. J?nsson orchestrated the tardigrade space trip aboard a European Space Agency craft in 2007.
Where'd you come from?
The two remaining major Antarctic residents are mites ? tiny arachnids that live alongside springtails under rocks ? and rotifers, microscopic, slinky-like creatures that dwell alongside nematodes and tardigrades in more moist environments. Although there are many species of each, it's astonishing to essentially be able to count the land animals of an entire continent on one hand.
And although these extreme organisms use a range of biological stunts to survive in Antarctica, they can't live in the ice itself, and it was long accepted that the animals were fairly new arrivals.
"The dogma is that in the last glacial, the continent was totally covered with ice and there was no life," Adams said. "That would mean that all the organisms that live there had to have moved back there since the last glacial maximum ? in the last 12 (thousand) to 20 thousand years." That's when retreating ice would have exposed bits of land fit for habitation.
"The problem with that is almost all the animals we find in Antarctica are indigenous to Antarctica," he said. "They're not found anywhere else in the world, and they're not closely related."
Genetic evidence suggests that the continent's residents must have stuck it out through the last glacial maximum. That, in essence, they've been there since 100,000 years ago, when the planet began to cool.
This, along with geological evidence, is changing some of the accepted thinking. Now many Antarctic scientists think the continent wasn't entirely icebound during the last glacial maximum. "We think that there were areas that were exposed, and that these animals survived in little pockets ? and once the ice sheets receded, they expanded their range."
Essentially, the crushing cold and lack of moisture killed off the continent's more delicate beasts, and left behind only the hardiest. With almost no competitors for the limited resources, Antarctica's tiny animals were suddenly the smartest guys in the room, able to move out and take over the continent.
Tense future
Even as researchers are learning more about the past of Antarctic wildlife, they are using the continent's residents to peer into the future.
"What is really fascinating about working in Antarctica, is that we can look at the effect of climate change on a single species in the soil," said Diana Wall, a soil ecologist at Colorado State University who has studied Antarctica's tiny animal life for more than two decades.
"We can't do that with a single species anywhere else ? the communities are so complex," she said.
Hogg agreed. "Antarctica is such a simple system. The springtails are the biggest things you have to worry about," he said. "And the changes down there happen much more quickly than they will in more temperate latitudes, so it makes it a really fascinating place to look at these changes and how things might respond."
The continent serves as a pristine, natural laboratory, Adams said.
"If you take a sample from a beach in Florida, and you get an anomalous reading, it could be due to anything" he said. "Where we're working in Antarctica, we don't have any of those variables."
Ironically, because Antarctica has no native human population (along with the inevitable environmental footprints we leave behind), it's one of the best places on Earth to study how changing climate will affect the places people do live, Adams said.
"Someone might say, 'Well, springtails aren't very exciting animals,'" Hogg said. However, he added, studying them and their Antarctic neighbors, which all play a role in cycling nutrients through the environment, can help illuminate how ecosystems closer to home might change with the climate.
-
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"It can help us learn about agricultural systems and the places that we care about and rely on for our daily well-being," he said
"It's very appealing to those of us who are trying to get to the bottom of the fundamentals of the relationship between biodiversity and climate change," Adams said. "This is the one place where we can do these experiments in a natural system."
Reach Andrea Mustain at amustain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaMustain. Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanetand on Facebook.
? 2011 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45766560/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Taylor auction a real gem as sales top $157M
NEW YORK?? Auctions of Elizabeth Taylor's collection of jewels, gowns, art and memorabilia broke records last week on their way to totaling more than $150 million worth of live and online sales, Christie's said on Monday.
Four days of live auctions in New York and a 10-day online auction from the Hollywood film legend's collection took in a total of $156,756,576, or more than three times expectations.
Taylor's world-renowned collection of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, emeralds and more accounted for the vast majority of the haul, selling for a combined $137 million and becoming by far the most valuable jewelry sale ever.
Slideshow: Elizabeth Taylor: Legend (on this page)-
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Records were set for pearls, emeralds, and Indian jewels, while per-carat records were broken for a rubies, yellow, and colorless diamonds.
"My mother always acknowledged that she was merely the temporary custodian of the incredible things she owned," said Taylor's son Chris Wilding, who is a member of the Elizabeth Taylor Trust.
Story: Early 'lost' Disney cartoon discovered"My family is proud that our mother's legacy as a celebrated actress, tireless AIDS activist, and accomplished businesswoman touched so many people's lives that they wanted to have a part of it history," he said.
Taylor's couture gowns and apparel sale also set a record for the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction, taking in more than $5 million including commission.
The marathon sales' statistics spoke for themselves and highlighted the worldwide interest in the Hollywood legend who rose to fame as a young star of the movie "National Velvet" and went on to claim two acting Oscars for "BUtterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."
Taylor, who died in March at age 79, lived a glamorous life of numerous marriages to often wealthy and powerful men who lavished her with jewelry and other fine things.
Tabulating Taylor
Among the highlights of the sale: every one of the 1,778 lots offered sold; 26 items sold for more than $1 million and six sold for over $5 million; final prices soared to as many as 400 times their pre-sale estimates; bidders at the live auctions spanned 36 countries.
Since September, some 58,000 visitors viewed highlights of the collection on a world tour that stopped in Moscow, London, Dubai, Paris and Hong Kong, with nearly half that total paying $30 to see the offerings at New York's 10-day exhibition.
The online component alone took in nearly $10 million, with more than 57,000 bids.
Story: Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' Oscar sells for $861,542Even catalogs ? some signed, limited edition offerings priced at more than $2,000 ? were a hot item. Proceeds of a portion of the exhibition, catalog and other related events went to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
The top price paid during the series of auctions was $11,842,500 for the historic La Peregrina, a 203-grain (equivalent to 55 carat) pear-shaped 16th-century pearl once owned by England's Mary Tudor and later by Spanish queens Margarita and Isabel.
Taylor's husband Richard Burton bought the pearl in 1969 at auction for $37,000, and Taylor commissioned Cartier to design a ruby-and-diamond necklace mount. The piece was estimated to sell at $2 million to $3 million.
Story: Rediscovered Beatles amp could fetch $100,000Taylor's famous 33-carat diamond ring, another Burton gift now renamed The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, went for $8.8 million, setting a per-carat record for a colorless diamond.
Even the star's charm bracelets drew intense competition, with one estimated at $30,000 soaring to more than $325,000.
Similarly, the top lot of the online auction ? Hiro Yamagata's "Portrait of Elizabeth Taylor" from 1991 ? sold for $108,000, against a pre-sale estimate of about $250. Other top prices paid online for ranged from $45,000 $78,000.
Among memorabilia, Taylor's script from "National Velvet" fetched $170,500, against a $2,500 estimate.
More artwork from Taylor's collection will also be offered in February at Christie's in London during its auctions of old master paintings and Impressionist and modern art.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45751135/ns/today-entertainment/
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Video: Whoopi Goldberg Farts on The View
Here is the video of Whoopi Goldberg farting on The View. The incident occurred on Friday December 16th and as you can imagine is super duper gross. Claire Danes was the delightful guest who apparently bored Whoopi enough that she let out a loud ripper. She readily admits it too, saying “Oh excuse me, I think I just blew a little frog out of there.” Ms. Danes is shocked. As anyone would be shocked. She was graceful not to reach over and back slap Whoopi. She just laughed a little and continued. My view is that Whoopi Goldberg does not have any self-respect. She is overweight which is often a sign of depression. She slinks in her chair which is usually a sign of insecurity. Yes she is funny to a point. But hilarious? No. In fact I really do not know what she has done worthwhile since that singing nun movie that was made 20 years ago. Today she was just gross which is the sign of a lazy comedian. The best comedians are the ones who do not have to shock you to get a reaction. What are your thoughts about Whoopi Goldberg farting? See the video from [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/R3kHKIU_oFs/
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
OkCandidate Snags OkCupid?s Approach, Tells You Who To Vote For
While I wouldn't expect it to fly with its current name for very long, check out this project that came out of NYT's recent Open Hack Day. Called OkCandidate, it's OkCupid... for voters. Instead of finding you the best romantic candidate to date and make beautiful love babies with, it tries to determine which presidential candidate is most compatible with your beliefs.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HUE0JEt5QLY/
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Russell Brand Lands Late-Night FX Show (omg!)
Late-night will be getting a dose of British comedy from actor/comedian Russell Brand!
FX announced on Thursday that Russell will host six half-hour installments of an unscripted as-yet-untitled show in front of a live audience.
PLAY IT NOW: Katy Perry Gets Ready To Host ?Saturday Night Live?
The show will give the funnyman's "unvarnished, unfiltered take on current events, politics and pop culture," the network said in a statement to Access Hollywood - with plenty of audience interaction too.
"I am so excited I'm on the point of climax, in fact I will put the 'O' into FX, which spells FOX, which is actually the channel's real name," the actor/comedian said in a statement. "That's the only thing that worries me about all this to be honest. At least I'll be able to have a Christmas drink with Bill O'Reilly."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Katy Perry & Russell Brand
"Flight of the Conchords" producer Troy Miller is teaming up with Russell for the series - something the network believes will push the envelope of TV comedy.
"We're very excited to add Russell Brand's bracingly funny, original, and honest voice to the FX comedy line-up," Nick Grad, Executive Vice President, Original Programming at FX said in a statement. "We look forward to supporting Russell and his partner Troy Miller's ambition to strip down the hosted comedy format to its most fundamental elements and to create something daring and unfiltered for the FX audience."
Russell's late-night show is slated to debut in spring 2012.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ?California Gurl? Katy Perry
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
PHOTOS: Selena Gomez Shines on Stage!
Selena Gomez belts it out at a holiday concert! Plus, see more of your favorite celebs on the scene!
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Putin promises changes, faces protests (Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin responded to an election setback and protests by promising on Tuesday to reshuffle the government next year but his spokesman warned the opposition that any unsanctioned rallies would be stopped.
Under pressure after his party won only a slim majority in parliament on Sunday and the opposition staged its biggest protest in Moscow for years, Putin said the government had to do more to respect the people's demands for modernization.
"There will be a significant renewal of personnel in the government," he told members of his United Russia party.
It was a first overt sign of concern in the upper echelons of power over the election, which loosened United Russia's grip on the State Duma lower house and signaled growing weariness with Putin's 12-year rule, economic problems and corruption.
But he promised no immediate changes -- the reshuffle would be after a March 4 presidential election he is expected to win -- and his spokesman Dmitry Peskov made clear police would prevent protesters staging rallies without official permission.
"Those who hold sanctioned demonstrations should not have their rights limited in any way -- and that is what we are observing now," Peskov said.
But he added: "The actions of those who hold unsanctioned demonstrations must be stopped in the appropriate way."
Witnesses said up to 5,000 people joined Monday's protest to complain against alleged electoral fraud and demand an end to Putin's rule.
They planned a new rally to press their demands on Tuesday evening, despite the lack of permission from the authorities and a heavy police presence in the capital.
About 300 people were detained in Monday's demonstration and police issued a statement on Tuesday saying they would not permit any "provocations" -- a clear warning to the protesters.
A Moscow court sentenced Ilya Yashin, one of the organizers on Monday's rally, to 15 days in detention but he told reporters: "Of course we will continue protesting."
"This is no doubt a political decision aimed at intimidating me and my colleagues. We are not going to stop our struggle," he said, adding that his verdict could "arouse even bigger discontent among the people."
WARNING OF ARAB-SPRING STYLE REVOLT
United Russia is set to have 238 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, 77 fewer than the 315 seats it won in 2007.
This has little practical impact because United Russia can even muster the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional changes if it forges alliances with other parties.
But the vote points to a change of mood in Russia after years of domination by the former KGB spy and his party, which no longer has quite such an air of invulnerability.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated U.S. suggestions that the election was neither free nor fair after the opposition complained that vote-rigging had inflated support for United Russia.
European monitors also said the election had been slanted in United Russia's favor. U.S. Republican Senator John McCain went further, warning on Twitter: "Dear Vlad, The Arab Spring is coming to a neighborhood near you."
Many Russian political experts have dismissed suggestions that Putin could face an uprising in a country which has little tradition of major street protests, despite the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and dissent has often been crushed.
But Putin's popularity ratings, although still high, have fallen this year and he upset many Russians by saying he planned to swap jobs with President Dmitry Medvedev after the March presidential election, opening the way for him rule until 2024.
(Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Steve Gutterman)
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Postwar Marines: smaller, less focused on land war (AP)
WASHINGTON ? With the Iraq war ending and an Afghanistan exit in sight, the Marine Corps is beginning a historic shift ? a return to its roots as a seafaring force that will get smaller, lighter and, it hopes, less bogged down in land wars.
This moment of change happens to coincide with a reorienting of American security priorities to the Asia-Pacific region, where China has been building military muscle during a decade of U.S. preoccupation in the greater Middle East. That suits the Marines, who see the Pacific as a home away from home.
After two turns at combat in Iraq ? first as invaders in the 2003 march to Baghdad and later as occupiers of landlocked Anbar province ? the Marines left the country in early 2010 to reinforce the fight in southern Afghanistan. Over that stretch the Marines became what the former Joint Chiefs chairman, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, has called their own "worst nightmare:" a second American land army, a static, ground-pounding auxiliary force.
That's scary for the Marines because for some in Congress it raises this question: Does a nation drowning in debt really need two armies?
Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, says that misses the real point. He argues that the Marines, while willing and able to operate from dug-in positions on land, are uniquely equipped and trained to do much more ? to get to any crisis, on land, at sea or in the air, on a moment's notice. He is eager to see the Iraq and Afghanistan missions completed so the Marines can return to their traditional role as an expeditionary force.
"We need to get back to our bread and butter," Amos told Marines Nov. 23 at Camp Lawton, a U.S. special operations base in Afghanistan's Herat province.
That begins, he said, with moves like returning to a pattern of continuous rotations of Marines to the Japanese island of Okinawa, home of the 3rd Marine Division formed in the early days of World War II. The rotation of infantry battalions to Okinawa was interrupted by the Iraq war, which after the March 2003 invasion evolved into a bigger, costlier and longer-lasting counterinsurgency campaign than the Pentagon or the Marines had anticipated.
Amos says he plans to begin lining up infantry battalion rotations for Okinawa even before the 2014 target date for ending U.S. combat in Afghanistan.
Another element of this return-to-our-roots approach is the decision announced in late November to rotate Marines to Australia for training with Australian forces from an Australian army base in Darwin, beginning in 2012. Up to 2,500 Marines ? comprising not just infantry units but also aviation squadrons and combat logistic battalions ? will go there from Okinawa or other Marine stations in Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific for a few months at a time.
"As we draw down (troops in Afghanistan) and we reorient the Marine Corps, it will be primarily to the Pacific," he told Marine aviators at a U.S. base in Kandahar, noting as an aside that he doubted any of them had ever deployed to the Pacific. "The main focus of effort is going to be the Pacific for the Marines." He added that Marines will remain present in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere as required, but not in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Versatility is the key to keeping the Marines relevant to U.S. national security requirements, he says.
"We're not a one-trick pony," he said. "We're the ultimate Swiss army knife."
The decade of war following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington began for the Marines in late November 2001 with an airborne assault on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's turf in the desert south of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
Marines of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit flew 650 kilometers (more than 400 miles) aboard helicopters launched from the USS Peleliu in the North Arabian Sea. A month later the Taliban regime, which had provided haven for bin Laden as al-Qaida plotted the 9/11 attacks, was routed and the war seemed largely over. It was not until 2010 that the Marines returned in large numbers to Afghanistan, where fighting had evolved into a stalemate.
By late 2002, the Marines and other U.S. forces were preparing for another land war, this time in Iraq. In March 2003 the Marines pushed north from Kuwait along with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, for the main assault on Baghdad. This war, too, seemed to be over within a few months. But it also took an unexpected turn even as the Marines left Iraq in September 2003. An insurgency took hold that fall and in March 2004 the Marines returned, this time to Anbar province in Iraq's western desert, where the Sunni insurgency was entrenched and the outlook appeared grim.
The Marines' death toll in Iraq was 1,022 ? nearly one-quarter of the U.S. total, according to Pentagon statistics. Thus far in Afghanistan at least 376 Marines have died. For both wars combined, the Marines had the highest death rate among the four major services ? 0.47 percent of all Marines who served in the two countries, according to an Associated Press analysis. That compares to 0.38 percent for the Army, which played the dominant ground combat role.
Marines also had by far the highest rate of wounded in action for both wars combined: 4.28 percent, compared to 2.75 percent for the Army.
With an eye on the postwar outlook, Amos came into his job as the commandant in 2010 intending to slim down his force and shed some of its ground-oriented capabilities. He has developed a plan to reduce the service from its current total of 202,000 Marines to 186,800 ? perhaps even fewer because of additional budget pressures, he told Marines in Afghanistan in late November.
Regardless of the number, Amos says he is determined to shape a postwar force that is smaller and better equipped for the kind of flexible duty he champions. He plans to reduce the number of infantry battalions from 27 to 24, shed some artillery and armored vehicles and reduce the number of flying squadrons from 70 to 61. The idea is a force whose forte is not protracted ground combat but pop-up crises like the Libya mission, as well as "power projection," which the Marines do by keeping expeditionary forces aboard Navy ships in Asia, the Mideast and elsewhere.
It was evident on Amos's tour of Afghanistan's frontlines over Thanksgiving that ordinary Marines, too, are looking beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Who do you want us to fight next, sir?" a Marine asked Amos.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
U.S. hands main war base, Saddam palaces back to Iraq (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? The U.S. military passed a milestone in its pending withdrawal from Iraq on Friday, vacating its vast main base near Baghdad airport that once housed the American war operations hub and hosted a captive Saddam Hussein before his execution.
Victory Base Complex, a site ringed by 42 kilometers (27 miles) of blast walls and razor wire, was the U.S. nerve center for the Iraq war almost from the moment American troops entered the capital and pulled down Saddam's statue in 2003.
The handover of Victory Base to Iraq's government was a big step in the U.S. pullout from Iraq as Washington consolidates its presence in Baghdad at its sprawling embassy on the Tigris River in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Fewer than 500 U.S. troops remain in the capital, according to a U.S. official.
About 12,000 troops are still in Iraq, down from a peak of about 170,000 at the height of the war. All of the remaining forces are due to leave by the end of this year, except for a small contingent of under 200 attached to the U.S. embassy.
"The Victory Base Complex was officially signed over to the receivership of the Iraqi government this morning," Colonel Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, said by email. "The base is no longer under U.S. control and is now under the full authority of the Government of Iraq."
American forces have been closing down operations for months at the Victory complex, which once housed around 42,000 U.S. military personnel and another 20,000 support staff.
The top U.S. war leaders from Ricardo Sanchez to David Petraeus to the current commander, General Lloyd Austin, lived at one of Saddam's villas on the base, a 20-room, 25,000-square-foot mansion where King Hussein of Jordan was said to have liked to fish off the back porch during Saddam's reign.
LEGACY OF SADDAM'S LIFE OF LUXURY
U.S. officials said Saddam built the network of palaces and villas and a complex of lakes on the grounds, including his Victory over America palace feting the 1991 Gulf War, in which U.S. forces drove Iraq out of Kuwait, and the Victory over Iran palace commemorating the 1980s campaign against his neighbor.
U.S. forces used as their war operations center Saddam's al-Faw Palace, a 450,000-square-foot edifice of 62 rooms, including 29 bathrooms, designed with France's Versailles in mind and decorated with French provincial furniture.
U.S. officials said they left behind a massive, throne-like wooden chair given to Saddam by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Saddam Hussein was imprisoned at Victory Base for about two years in a maximum-security facility built in the bombed wreckage of a villa once used by security forces headed by his son Uday, U.S. officials said.
"Building 114," as U.S. troops knew it, was located on a small island in a lake, connected by a causeway and a drawbridge, and was shared by Saddam and his henchman, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or Chemical Ali. Both were executed.
The base was a home-away-from-home for hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who served in Iraq and was thoroughly Americanized over the course of eight years with everything from water and power plants to Burger King and Subway restaurants.
U.S. soldiers could be seen jogging around the lakes in off-duty hours or smacking golf balls into the water from the terraces of Saddam's palaces.
"There is a sense of excitement about leaving because the base because it means we're heading home," said Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Brooks, a U.S. military historian.
"Mainly it's a sense of satisfaction over a job done to the best of our abilities and the knowledge that we left it better than we found it."
(Additional reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by)
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Team of astronomers finds 18 new planets
Friday, December 2, 2011
Discoveries of new planets just keep coming and coming. Take, for instance, the 18 recently found by a team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
"It's the largest single announcement of planets aside from the discoveries made by the Kepler mission," says John Johnson, assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech and the first author on the team's paper, which was published in the December issue of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The Kepler mission is a space telescope that has so far identified more than 1,200 possible planets, though the majority of those have not yet been confirmed.
Using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii?with follow-up observations using the McDonald and Fairborn Observatories in Texas and Arizona, respectively?the researchers surveyed about 300 stars. They focused on those dubbed "retired" A-type stars that are more than one and a half times more massive than the sun. These stars are just past the main stage of their life?hence, "retired"?and are now puffing up into what's called a subgiant star.
To look for planets, the astronomers searched for stars of this type that wobble, which could be caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet. By searching the wobbly stars' spectra for Doppler shifts?the lengthening and contracting of wavelengths due to motion away from and toward the observer?the team found 18 planets with masses similar to Jupiter's.
This new bounty marks a 50 percent increase in the number of known planets orbiting massive stars and, according to Johnson, provides an invaluable population of planetary systems for understanding how planets?and our own solar system?might form. The researchers say that the findings also lend further support to the theory that planets grow from seed particles that accumulate gas and dust in a disk surrounding a newborn star.
According to this theory, tiny particles start to clump together, eventually snowballing into a planet. If this is the true sequence of events, the characteristics of the resulting planetary system?such as the number and size of the planets, or their orbital shapes?will depend on the mass of the star. For instance, a more massive star would mean a bigger disk, which in turn would mean more material to produce a greater number of giant planets.
In another theory, planets form when large amounts of gas and dust in the disk spontaneously collapse into big, dense clumps that then become planets. But in this picture, it turns out that the mass of the star doesn't affect the kinds of planets that are produced.
So far, as the number of discovered planets has grown, astronomers are finding that stellar mass does seem to be important in determining the prevalence of giant planets. The newly discovered planets further support this pattern?and are therefore consistent with the first theory, the one stating that planets are born from seed particles.
"It's nice to see all these converging lines of evidence pointing toward one class of formation mechanisms," Johnson says.
There's another interesting twist, he adds: "Not only do we find Jupiter-like planets more frequently around massive stars, but we find them in wider orbits." If you took a sample of 18 planets around sunlike stars, he explains, half of them would orbit close to their stars. But in the cases of the new planets, all are farther away, at least 0.7 astronomical units from their stars. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the sun.)
In systems with sunlike stars, gas giants like Jupiter acquire close orbits when they migrate toward their stars. According to theories of planet formation, gas giants could only have formed far from their stars, where it's cold enough for their constituent gases and ices to exist. So for gas giants to orbit nearer to their stars, certain gravitational interactions have to take place to pull these planets in. Then, some other mechanism?perhaps the star's magnetic field?has to kick in to stop them from spiraling into a fiery death.
The question, Johnson says, is why this doesn't seem to happen with so-called hot Jupiters orbiting massive stars, and whether that dearth is due to nature or nurture. In the nature explanation, Jupiter-like planets that orbit massive stars just wouldn't ever migrate inward. In the nurture interpretation, the planets would move in, but there would be nothing to prevent them from plunging into their stars. Or perhaps the stars evolve and swell up, consuming their planets. Which is the case? According to Johnson, subgiants like the A stars they were looking at in this paper simply don't expand enough to gobble up hot Jupiters. So unless A stars have some unique characteristic that would prevent them from stopping migrating planets?such as a lack of a magnetic field early in their lives?it looks like the nature explanation is the more plausible one.
The new batch of planets have yet another interesting pattern: their orbits are mainly circular, while planets around sunlike stars span a wide range of circular to elliptical paths. Johnson says he's now trying to find an explanation.
For Johnson, these discoveries have been a long time coming. This latest find, for instance, comes from an astronomical survey that he started while a graduate student; because these planets have wide orbits, they can take a couple of years to make a single revolution, meaning that it can also take quite a few years before their stars' periodic wobbles become apparent to an observer. Now, the discoveries are finally coming in. "I liken it to a garden?you plant the seeds and put a lot of work into it," he says. "Then, a decade in, your garden is big and flourishing. That's where I am right now. My garden is full of these big, bright, juicy tomatoes?these Jupiter-sized planets."
###
California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu
Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115688/Team_of_astronomers_finds____new_planets
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FEMA: Before a Disaster: Plan for Your Pets
Release Date: December 1, 2011
Release Number: 4023-027
??More Information on Connecticut?Tropical Storm Irene
WINDSOR, Conn. -- During Tropical Storm Irene and the recent severe storm of Oct.29-30 resulting in extended power outages, some Connecticut residents chose not to evacuate from their homes fearing they would be separated from their pets. The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emphasize that during emergency evacuations, leaving pets should be an absolute last resort and encourage owners of pets and livestock to learn about which shelters allow animals during emergencies.
?The likelihood that families and their animals will remain safe in an emergency tomorrow depends on disaster planning done today,? said FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Stephen M. De Blasio Sr. ?So, it?s critical to have an emergency plan in place that includes a fully-stocked animal emergency kit. In the long run it will help bring families some peace of mind as they begin the process of recovery.?
Planning for animal evacuation:
- If you must leave your residence, have a plan for your family pets;
- Go online and locate several "pet-friendly" hotels in and out of your area;
- Identify friends or relatives outside your area where you and your pets can stay;
- If there is a disaster pending, evacuate early with your pets, working animals and livestock; don't wait for a mandatory evacuation order; and
- Animals should have leg bands or tattoos, microchips or identification tags with their name as well as your address and phone number.
Putting together an animal emergency kit:
- Seven days worth of water and food stored with a can opener in a waterproof container;
- Toys, treats and bedding because familiar items may reduce stress for your pet;
- Medications, medical records and your veterinarian's name and telephone number;
- Current photos of you with your family pets;
- Sturdy leashes, harnesses, and/or carriers to move pets safely and securely;
- Litter, litter box, newspapers, paper towels, plastic trash bags and household chlorine bleach for sanitation; and
- First aid supplies such as cotton bandage rolls, tape, scissors, antibiotic ointment, flea/tick prevention, latex gloves, alcohol, saline solution as well as a pet first aid reference book.
Planning for safe animal transportation:
- Get family pets used to being placed in a carrier or crate;
- Prepare to move birds, snakes, lizards, ferrets and "pocket pets" like hamsters and gerbils in secure cages or carriers;
- Prepare for extreme weather conditions. Include blankets, ice packs, heating pads and a water mister in your kit; and
- Obtain "Pets Inside" stickers at www.ASPCA.org and place stickers on doors or windows with the number and types of pets in your home and a phone number where you can be reached. If time permits, remember to write "Evacuated with Pets" across the stickers if you flee with your pets.
Detailed plans for family pets, working animals and livestock owners are available online at www.Ready.Gov or by calling 1-800-BE READY (1-800-237-3239).
Follow FEMA online at twitter.com/fema, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema. Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate's activities at twitter.com/craigatfema. The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.
This information was developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in consultation with: American Kennel Club, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, American Veterinary Medical Association, and The Humane Society of the U.S.
FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.
Last Modified: Friday, 02-Dec-2011 14:32:23
Source: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=59743
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Chavez touts new Latin America, Caribbean bloc
Argentina?s President Cristina Fernandez, right, greets Venezuela?s President Hugo Chavez during a ceremony upon her arrival to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. Fernandez is meeting with Chavez before the start of a summit by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean countries (CELAC) which begins Friday in Caracas. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Argentina?s President Cristina Fernandez, right, greets Venezuela?s President Hugo Chavez during a ceremony upon her arrival to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. Fernandez is meeting with Chavez before the start of a summit by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean countries (CELAC) which begins Friday in Caracas. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Argentina?s President Cristina Fernandez, left, speaks with Venezuela?s President Hugo Chavez during a ceremony upon Fernandez?s arrival to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. Fernandez is meeting with Chavez before the start of a summit by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean countries (CELAC) which begins Friday in Caracas. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Argentina?s President Cristina Fernandez, left, smiles next to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez during a ceremony as Fernandez arrives to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday Dec. 1, 2011. Fernandez is meeting with Chavez before the start of a meeting by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean countries (CELAC) which begins Friday in Caracas. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? What if they threw a giant party for the Americas and didn't invite the United States or Canada? That's what Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is doing with a two-day, 33-nation summit starting Friday, welcoming nations from Brazil to Jamaica in what he hopes will be a grand alliance to counter U.S. influence.
Many presidents have less sweeping goals in mind, seeing the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States mainly as a forum for resolving regional conflicts, building closer ties and promoting economic development.
Yet the bloc's creation is also a sign that for many countries, the United States is no longer seen as an essential diplomatic player in regional affairs.
"The U.S. has lost an awful lot of space in the region, even though it's still the most important, the most powerful country in the region," said Eduardo Gamarra, a Latin American politics professor at Florida International University in Miami. Still, he said, it's unclear whether the region's governments are truly committed to forming a close alliance that brings together Latin America in ways that offset U.S. power.
Chavez, who sells the largest share of Venezuela's oil to the United States, is urging the region to assert its independence, noting it was once a dream of 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar to unify Latin American nations. Lampposts in Caracas are now festooned with banners picturing independence leaders ranging from Bolivar to Cuba's Jose Marti, along with the slogan "the path of our Liberators."
At least publicly, though, only some of Chavez's closest allies seem to share his interests in creating alternatives to established bodies such as the Washington-based Organization of American States, which includes every nation in the Americas except Cuba among its active members.
Nor are the region's leaders likely to agree with Chavez in creating organizations to replace those he strongly criticizes, such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the World Bank.
The new group, known by its Spanish initials CELAC, will add one more acronym to a region with plenty of smaller organizations, including Unasur, Mercosur and the Caribbean Community. Some of Chavez's most fervent support comes from within the nine-nation, socialist-leaning Bolivarian Alternative bloc known as ALBA, which he has promoted with allies including Cuba and Nicaragua.
"This isn't aimed at becoming a new economic integration bloc nor replacing the OAS," said Maria Teresa Romero, an international studies professor at the Central University of Venezuela.
"President Chavez and others in the ALBA are using the CELAC for their political and propagandistic aims," Romero said. For Chavez, she said, it's a chance to show the outside world and Venezuelans "that he still has great international leadership" even though his influence has slipped in the past several years.
The summit's agenda as described by diplomats includes rather modest aims: approving the group's procedural rules as well as a clause dealing with democratic norms, formally launching the organization and adopting a declaration of shared principles.
At the very least, the summit will serve as Chavez's international debut after months of cancer treatment that forced him to postpone the meeting, which originally was planned in July. Many presidents, including those who differ with him, are on a personal level showing solidarity with Chavez and the cancer struggle that has left his head shaved to a fine stubble after chemotherapy.
Many presidents say the inclusion of every nation in Latin America and the Caribbean is indeed historic. Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman called it a step toward unifying "a region that had been divided."
Cuba, for instance, was long suspended from the OAS, and when in 2009 the body voted to lift the suspension, President Raul Castro's communist government rejected the offer while accusing the OAS of supporting U.S. hostility toward Cuba.
Now, Cuba says the new bloc is a sign of the region's independence, a stance echoed by Chavez.
"For centuries, they've imposed on us whatever the north felt like imposing on us," Chavez said this week. "The time of the south has arrived."
Plans for the new organization, which grew out of the 24-nation Rio Group, have been in the works since a 2008 summit hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil, as Latin America's largest nation, will play a key role in setting the group's objectives, and President Dilma Rousseff was arriving Thursday for talks ahead of the summit.
Brazil's delegation is primarily concerned with examining a regional response to the global financial crisis. The region has so far weathered the turbulence better than the U.S. or Europe, recording economic growth of more than 5 percent last year, and leaders are looking for ways to further strengthen economies by encouraging local industries and reducing imports from outside the region.
The U.S. remains the top trading partner of many countries in the region, with exceptions including Brazil and Chile, where China has become the biggest trading partner. China has also made diplomatic inroads, including by granting about $38 billion in loans to Venezuela in exchange for increasing shipments of oil.
Brazil has joined Chavez in promoting a new Bank of the South to pool funds for development financing. But that doesn't mean nations are ready to abandon the World Bank.
Mexico's undersecretary for Latin America, Ruben Beltran Guerrero, told The Associated Press that the new bloc "isn't a forum that excludes any other," but rather will complement established organizations.
Mexico and other countries also view it as a body that will, similarly to the OAS, stand up for democratic principles in a region that has seen its share of coups, most recently in Honduras in 2009. Beltran said Mexico wants the bloc to "send a very clear signal to the countries of the region that a breakdown in constitutional order brings consequences."
Chile is to assume the rotating presidency in the group's inaugural year, and its mission will include "promoting human rights and democracy," said Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno. It will also be a forum for discussing issues ranging from counter-drug efforts to improving transportation routes, Moreno told the AP in an email.
On a practical level, though, some analysts say the fledgling group will face many constraints.
"It's going to be underfunded. It's not going to have any enforcement mechanisms. At least that's been the history of what we've done with these multilateral organizations," Gamarra said.
He cited the example of Unasur, saying that since its 2008 founding the South American bloc has had little clout.
Chavez, in typical style, has been playing up the gathering for months. He at one point called it "the political event of the greatest importance ... in 100 years."
___
Associated Press reporters throughout Latin American and the Caribbean contributed to this report.
___
Ian James on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ianjamesap
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