Rock On : Movie Preview (India)

He has flare for unconventional poetry but at the same time with a message for today's youth makes him an instant hit with Generation X. He is the lead ...

See all stories on this topic

He’s Lost Control ..

Morris, the band’s drummer, has said good things about the film, but has also said the story was fabricated: “None of it’s true really . ...

See all stories on this topic

A JMU Love Story

They’re looking for a place in Centreville, and busy planning their engagement party, which will be aptly themed “A JMU Love Story.”

See all stories on this topic

Scene from a love story to play out on C-Train

Regarding Whitney Plaizier's letter concerning giving up your seat on the LRT to elderly people, the only criterion should be the person's health. ...

See all stories on this topic

The hotness conundrum

This is the kind of story that makes my brain bleed. You all know by now that Gov. Sarah Palin was named John McCain's running mate last Friday. You probably also know that, since then, news has leaked about Palin's daughter's teen pregnancy, her husband's DUI charge and the fact that the governor delivered a Down Syndrome child four months ago and went back to work days later.

But did you know that in 1984 Palin was a Miss Alaska runner-up? That she's been named "America's Hottest Governor" by both the website Wonkette in 2006 and Alaska Magazine in 2007? Did you know that Palin is regularly referred to as a GILF (Governor I'd Like to...well, you know) or, now, VPILF? That "GOP '08: TAKING SEXY BACK!" has been bandied around as a campaign slogan by idiotic McCain enthusiasts? That THIS website actually exists?

Or how about this (unintentional?) bit of suggestiveness in the New York Times:
"[McCain] had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later." And this, the lead words in a Bloomberg news piece: "It could have been a match.com ad: Presidential candidate, in need of running mate..."

Ok, Ok. I get it. McCain has picked himself a hottie. And like most men who choose hotties in their elder years, she's much younger than him and a bunch of people want to have sex with her.

Here's the thing: Though I disagree with nearly all of Palin's politics (also? It's more than a little insulting that Republicans are using Palin as some kind of female voter lure--as if women supported Hillary Clinton solely because she has a vagina and not because they shared her beliefs), I still find it offensive when Joe Biden calls her "good-looking." And I don't like getting sent demeaning, Photo-shopped pictures of the Alaskan politician in a bikini or videos of McCain staring at her boobs. .

On the flip side of things, I'm equally scared to see Palin victimized because of all of this nonsense. Nothing honest or good will come if she gains public sympathy and women vote for her just because our country is still full of a bunch of knuckleheads, not because of her political positions.

There's plenty to discuss about McCain's incredibly curious VP choice, Sarah Palin. I'd like to think that as a country we've grown up enough in the past year to remain somewhat gender neutral in this election and stick to the issues. I know I'm thinking wrong. But a girl, a hot one or not, can dream.

Burj Dubai.

Burj Dubai Tower - Image Results

Other Dubai towers and skyscraper projects. Burj Dubai pictures. New! Construction videos ... "Burj Dubai reaches defining moment as world's tallest tower ... www.burj-dubai-tower.org More burj dubai tower images

Blood pressure pill works well in kids, study shows

The blood pressure drug valsartan (sold as Diovan) safely and effectively lowers blood pressure in youngsters aged 1 to 5 years who have high blood pressure (also called hypertension), a study shows.

"The blood pressure reductions produced by valsartan were clinically relevant and did not cause adverse effects," Dr. Joseph T. Flynn, from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, told Reuters Health.

Hypertension is rare in young children, typically caused by underlying kidney disease or other secondary causes. The current study provides the first clinical trial results of a blood pressure-lowering medication in children younger than 6 years.

The study involved 90 children with high blood pressure who were an average of 3 years old. In most of them, high blood pressure was caused by kidney disease. During the 54-week study, children took either valsartan at different doses or a dummy pill.

Valsartan treatment led to statistically significant reductions in blood pressure in the majority of children, Flynn and colleagues found.

According to the investigators, all of the valsartan doses evaluated were well tolerated. The overall incidence of drug-related side events was low and did not differ significantly for placebo- and valsartan-treated children, and the majority of adverse events were mild or moderate and transient in nature.

In particular, valsartan had no demonstrable negative effects on growth, weight gain, or progression of head circumference -- a key indicator of brain growth in young children, Flynn and colleagues report in the journal Hypertension, published by the American Heart Association.

The study was funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Brain 'Master Switch' May Control Appetite, Fertility

A new study has found a "master switch" in the brain of mice that helps control both body weight and fertility.

It is well known that body weight and fertility are related to each other: Women who are too thin, for example, often have trouble getting pregnant. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found one reason why.

For a study published ahead of print in the Aug. 31 online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers studied a gene known as TORC1 in mice.

By creating mice that lacked one or both copies of TORC1, the researchers found that the gene affected both body weight and fertility. Specifically, the mice without the gene looked fine at birth, but at about eight weeks, they began to gain weight and became persistently obese in adulthood. And, to the researchers surprise, both sexes of these mice were infertile.

"This gene is crucial to the daisy chain of signals that run between body fat and the brain," study author Marc Montminy, a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, said in a Salk Institute press release. "It likely plays a pivotal role in how much we, as humans, eat and whether we have offspring."

Montminy says that the TORC1 gene is just as important as the appetite-regulating hormone leptin, which turns on TORC1.

"Leptin tells the brain that times are good, your body is full, and that it is not necessary to eat more at the moment," said Montminy.

When leptin binds with its receptor in brain cells, it turns on TORC1, telling the body that it is well-fed and activating genes that suppress appetite and allow reproduction. When leptin is not activating the brain receptors, on the other hand, TORC1 is turned off, and the genes that suppress appetite and allow reproduction are inactive.

"Controlling appetite and reproduction together provides a big evolutionary advantage," Montminy said. "If there is no food, the brain believes the body should not reproduce, because without body fat, a baby's growth in the womb could be stunted, and without food to replenish the body's energy reserves, there will be nothing to feed the offspring."

The researchers also found that the mice that inherited only one TORC1 gene were able to reproduce but gained more weight than the normal mice.

"This suggests that half of the dose of TORC switch is enough to cause problems in leptin signaling in the brain, and it may be that subtle mutations in the TORC1 in humans could be responsible for an inheritable risk factor for gaining weight," said Montminy.

Montminy thinks that this research could lead to new therapies that tweak mutated and inefficient TORC genes.

"TORC1 is regulated by phosphate handling enzymes called kinases, and kinases often make for very good drug targets," he said.

Fish oil appears to help against heart failure

Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday.

Chronic heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently around the body.

With few effective options for heart failure patients, the findings could give patients a potential new treatment and could change the dietary recommendations for them, said Dr. Jose Gonzalez Juanatey, a spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology, who was not connected to the research.

"This reinforces the idea that treating patients with heart failure takes more than just drugs," Juanatey said.

The study findings were published online in the medical journal The Lancet on Sunday. They were simultaneously announced at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Munich.

"With a lot of these patients, you have no other choice," said Dr. Helmut Gohlke, a cardiologist at the Heart Centre in Bad Krozingen, Germany. "They've tried other treatments and are at the end of the road."

Italian researchers gave nearly 3,500 patients a daily omega-3 pill, a prescription-formulation pill derived from fish oils, produced by Norway's Pronova BioPharma.

But doctors said people should get the same benefits from taking cheaper options like fish oil supplements — or just eating more oily fish like salmon.

Roughly the same number of patients were given placebo pills. Patients were followed for an average of four years.

In the group of patients taking the fish oil pills, 1,981 died of heart failure or were admitted to the hospital with the problem. In the patients on placebo pills, 2,053 died or were admitted to the hospital for heart failure.

In a parallel study, the same team of Italian doctors gave 2,285 patients the drug rosuvastatin, also known as Crestor, and gave placebo pills to 2,289 people. Patients were then tracked for about four years. The doctors found little difference in heart failure rates between the two groups.

Comparing the results from both studies, the researchers concluded that fish oil is slightly more effective than the drug because the oil performed better against a placebo than did Crestor.

"It's a small benefit, but we should always be emphasizing to patients what they can do in terms of diet that might help," said Dr. Richard Bonow, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago and past president of the American Heart Association.

Both studies were paid for by an Italian group of pharmaceuticals including Pfizer Inc., Sigma Tau SpA and AstraZeneca PLC.

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish such as salmon and tuna have long been proven to offer health benefits like protecting the heart and brain, though scientists aren't exactly sure how.

Bonow said that since cell membranes are made of fatty acids, fish oils may help to replace and strengthen those membranes with omega-3.

Fish oils also are thought to increase the body's good cholesterol levels, as well as possibly stabilizing the electrical system in heart cells, to prevent abnormal heart rhythms.

In contrast, statins act on the body's bad cholesterol, which may not have a big impact on heart failure.

Previous studies that investigated the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have largely been observational, and have lacked a direct comparison to a placebo. It has also been unknown whether taking fish oil supplements would be as good as eating fish.

"This study changes the certainty of the evidence we have about fish oils," said Dr. Douglas Weaver, president of the American College of Cardiology.

Weaver said that guidelines in the United States would likely change to recommend that more heart patients eat more fish or take supplements. "This is a low-tech solution and could help all patients with cardiovascular problems."

Computers and Their Uses For First Time Buyers

Of blue prints and electronic circuits; Down loading MP3s and DVD movies; Emailing friends and accessing websites for companionship or blogging; Or just watching satellite TV with your cable box or through a special software ...
Computers - Technology News and Article - http://www.bostonkrownrecords.com

Banjo's lost poems and top literary destinations

Which reference book would you like to see made into a movie? The Guardian also reports that bestselling diet manual French Women Don't Get Fat is to get ...

See all stories on this topic

Paintings that tell a story

By PRIYA MENON Conditional Love by Anurendra Jegadeva at the Wei Ling Gallery is an interesting exhibition that strongly portrays what he believes in. ...

See all stories on this topic

Watch Free Satellite TV On PC

Almost all TV genres are available from movies, TV shows, documentaries, music videos, news and sports channels are available. There are also foreign news channels if you can understand French, Spanish or german. ...
Article Notices - http://www.articlenotices.com

'Why do we tear woman apart?'

But their first full mother-daughter collaboration came this summer with The Edge Of Love, Macdonald's dramatisation of the relationships between Welsh poet ...

See all stories on this topic

Hot's New Movi

Burn After Reading Brad Pitt, George Clooney and John Malkovich star in the Coen Brothers' comedy about a CIA disc that falls in the wrong hands. Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos

Righteous Kill Robert De Niro and Al Pacino team up as a pair of veteran New York City police detectives on the trail of a vigilante serial killer. Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos

Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys Two families--one upper-crust and the other working class-- are linked by scandal that threatens to unravel the lives of all involved. Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos

The Women Meg Ryan is a career woman who seems to be living the perfect life, until she discovers that her husband is cheating on her. Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos

Towelhead A 13-year-old Arab-American girl navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening. Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos

Music experience redefined with Nokia 6220 classic

Music on mobile is a preference of many of the mobile users. They consider it to be the most entertaining feature that you can expect from a mobile phone. There are many handsets available in the market which claims to be the best when ...

http://www.articlealley.com

Master P. to Launch Cable Network

The content on the channel will contain a wide arrangement from health and fitness, animation, financial planning, reality TV, sitcoms, dramas, movies, responsible hip-hop music and videos, politics, sports and entertainment news, ...
http://www.urbanhustler.com/

ROSEANNE BARR really hates ANGELINA JOLIE

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Book details love story ‘created in heaven’

Now comes his masterpiece: "Created in Heaven: A Love Story." The subtitle is "A Tribute to Myrtle, His Wife for Nearly 70 years. ...
See all stories on this topic

The Dark Knight (PG-13)

Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind ...
See all stories on this topic

A dirty kind of love Crude Love is an eco-political love story set .

Doesn't sound like a promising beginning for a love story - but it is. Abbie (Russell Bennett), a sad-sack eco-terrorist wannabe who is so bad he has been ...
See all stories on this topic

I don’t play by the rules!

The Disney film will be the latest pairing of music and 3-D for the studio, which released multi-dimensional movie “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” earlier this year. “Jonas Brothers revel in Rolling Stone ...
Nick J Online - http://nickjonline.com

Melody needs poetry, sound needs phonetics

It is true that every film Kishore made was a life story. He was as mad off-screen as he was zany on-screen. He couldn’t keep his arms still, and his first ...
See all stories on this topic

(Football) India win Challenge Cup

Sunil Chettri was India's hero as the forward fired a hattrick to help the hosts lift the AFC Challenge Cup with a crushing 4-1 victory over defending champions Tajikistan in the final at Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi yesterday.

Three goals in the opening 22 minutes swept Tajikistan, who won the inaugural Challenge Cup in Dhaka in 2006, away with Chettri finding the back of the net either side of a Baichung Bhutia strike before the former completed his treble with 16 minutes remaining.

Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev reduced the arrears in the first-half for Pulod Kodirov's side but it proved merely a consolation effort.

The result also sees Bob Houghton's side book their place in the 2011 Asian Cup as automatic qualifiers, their first appearance in the continent's showpiece tournament since 1984.

Captain Bhutia was adjudged the most valuable player of the eight-team finals. Apart from the final and the third-place play-off, all matches were played in Hyderabad but the venue was shifted to the capital due to incessant rain.

Earlier on the day, tournament top-scorer Pak Song-chol netted a first-half hattrick to steer DPR Korea to an emphatic 4-0 victory over Myanmar as the East Asians claimed third place.

Pak took his individual tally to six goals with two early freekicks and a 43rd minute penalty, awarded after Han Win Aung felled So Kwang-chol in the area.

Han's poor tackle resulted in his second yellow card from UAE referee Khalid Jassim Al Senan and left Myanmar having to play out the remainder of the match with ten men.

Myanmar had started brightly enough but their hopes quickly faded after Pak struck twice in the space of two minutes.

Pak claimed his first in the ninth minute when Pak Chol-min was brought down just outside the area and the forward curled a freekick around the wall and beyond Myanmar's second choice keeper Kyaw Zin Htet.

Two minutes later, Pak doubled the lead, this time with another neatly struck freekick from the right of the area that eluded a host of defenders before finding the back of the net.

The Koreans continued to threaten throughout the first period, Pak missing out on a third goal by a whisker when he shot just over from close range in the 21st minute.

Ri Kwang-hyok's angled header from So's cross also flew narrowly wide before Pak did eventually claim his treble from the spot after So was felled in the area and Han subsequently received his marching orders.

Ro then headed home from close range seven minutes after the break as Myanmar continued to leak goals but Pak was denied a fourth goal two minutes from time when another penalty was stopped by Kyaw.

Monitoring Cancer Changes from the Blood

Researchers have come up with a new way to monitor cancer using a special microchip that isolates tumor cells from the patient’s blood. The breakthrough could help doctors adjust to changes in tumors and personalize their patients’ treatments.
Electron microscope image of a single non-small cell lung cancer cell captured on the side of a micropost. Image courtesy of NIBIB.
If doctors could track the genetic changes in a tumor, they would know when to switch treatments and be able to stay a step ahead of a cancer’s progression. But taking multiple biopsies over the course of treatment is costly and uncomfortable for the patient, the tumors may not be accessible by surgery, and the procedure often doesn’t yield enough tumor cells for a proper analysis.
Tumor cells are also known to circulate in the blood of patients with metastatic cancer, but previous attempts to collect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) didn’t yield enough pure material for accurate analyses. A research team led by Dr. Mehmet Toner and Dr. Daniel Haber at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School have now designed a special microchip—called the CTC-chip—to capture tumor cells from blood. Their work was supported in part by NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).
The business-card sized CTC-chip contains tens of thousands of microposts (miniature pillars) coated with antibodies that adhere to EpCAM, a protein found on the surface of cells in more than 85% of all cancers. These antibodies bind CTCs to the microposts as blood flows over the chip. The captured cells can then be analyzed further.
In the July 24, 2008, edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of the chip in tracking non–small-cell lung cancer. Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene determine whether non–small-cell lung cancer tumors will respond to medications called EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva). Unfortunately, most patients have a relapse within a year of beginning therapy. Behind relapse is another mutation in EGFR that renders tumors resistant to the medications.
The researchers used the CTC-chip to isolate tumor cells from the blood of 27 lung cancer patients. In general, an increase in the number of CTCs during treatment was associated with tumor progression. A reduction in the number of cells reflected a tumor response. When they sequenced the EGFR genes, the researchers found the expected EGFR tumor-activating mutation in CTCs from 11 of 12 patients. The mutation that confers resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors appeared in 9 of 14 patients (64%) whose tumors progressed, compared to 2 of 6 patients (33%) who responded to the medications.
CTC-chips could in theory capture CTCs from any type of cancer, depending on which antibodies are on the chip. “We want to improve this technology to create a diagnostic tool,” said Dr. Sunitha Nagrath, a researcher on the project. “It will be like a blood screening test for any onset of tumors, even in the absence of symptoms.”
The chips are currently being tested in prostate and lung cancer clinical trials. One day, doctors may use them to diagnose cancer early and guide their treatment decisions.

Olympics' new king is Phelps

Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympian of all time Wednesday winning two gold medals in the space of an hour to lift his career total to an unprecedented 11 on his charge to Olympic immortality.As world records continued to tumble in the pool, Phelps passed the halfway point in his drive to be the first person to win eight golds at one Games when he blitzed the 200m butterfly final and led the US 4x200 freestyle relay team.The champion American has now won five gold medals in Beijing, all of them in world record time, to go with the six he won in Athens.But China leads the medal table with 17 golds to 10 for the United States. South Korea and Germany are third with six.In a stunning performance in the butterfly final, Phelps was barely able to see as his goggles filled with water."It just kept getting worse and worse through the race and I was having trouble seeing the walls to be honest. I wanted to go 1:51 or better but for the circumstances I guess it's not too bad."Phelps had to settle for 1min 52.03sec while his relay team slashed 4.48sec off their record setting a new time of 6:58.56.No other athlete has won more than nine career gold medals in the history of the Olympics, and Phelps is confident of meeting his next target of beating Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in one Games."From now on it's just a downward slope. The end is close, I love it," he said with three events remaining.Six world records were broken at the pool Wednesday with the 100m freestyle record broken twice in successive semi-finals by Frenchman Alain Bernard and his Australian rival Eamon Sullivan.Italy's Federica Pellegrini broke the women's 200m freestyle world record wearing two swimsuits "to avoid problems and showing myself naked" if the skintight outer racing suit split.Australia's Stephanie Rice completed her Olympic medley double with a world record victory in the 200m final.China pipped the United States in the women's team gymnastics where the US coach blamed stadium officials for distracting Alicia Sacramone who fell off the balance beam.But a senior US official later said the disruption was due to a televsion scheduling issue.In the men's tennis singles, top seeds Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic moved into the final eight with Federer avenging his Athens 2004 humiliation at the hands of Tomas Berdych by winning 6-3, 7-6.Venus Williams's hopes of a second women's title remained on track as she moved into the quarterfinals and a date with home favourite Li Na.Sister Serena also progressed after overcoming a one-set deficit and racquet-smashing fit to beat French teen Alize Cornet 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.Argentina and Brazil remained on course for a semi-final showdown in the men's Olympic football competition as the final eight was decided.Italy emerged as the best of the rest with the Netherlands, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Belgium also going through.Swiss world champion Fabian Cancellara won the men's cycling time trial to add to the bronze he won in the road race.The women's race went to Kristin Armstrong with 49-year-old French great Jeannie Longo denied the dream finish she wanted finishing fourth a mere 1.3 sec behind bronze medallist Karin Thurig of Switzerland.Far from the conflict in the Caucasus, Georgia won two gold medals with Manuchar Kvirkelia taking the 74kg wrestling title and Irakli Tsirekidze the men's -90kg judo competition to hand strife-torn Georgia a welcome boost.Georgia also beat Russia in a women's beach volleyball game which started with hugs all round but ended in acrimony.Russia's Alexandra Shiryaeva called Georgia "stupid to start a war" and teammate Natalia Uryadove referred to the naturalised Georgian players as Brazilians, the country where they were born.

Kashmir protests spread to Indian cities

Riots erupted across Indian-controlled Kashmir yesterday as Muslims mourned 15 people killed in a day of bloody violence, as the protests spread to other parts of India.Meanwhile, Indian police say they have issued orders to shoot protesters defying a curfew in the town of Kishtwar in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Violence has roiled the Himalayan region since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus began tit-for-tat protests over a government proposal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India's only Muslim-majority state.In the town of Kishtwar, where Hindus and Muslims clashed Tuesday leaving two dead, police said they would shoot anyone violating a curfew. Kishtwar is some 155 miles north of Jammu, the region's only majority Hindu city.In Srinagar, the main city in the region, several thousand protesters took to the streets, attacking police posts and chanting slogans calling for revenge.Separatist political leaders called for three days of mourning and urged people to keep their protests peaceful.Among those gunned down by Indian security forces on Monday was a prominent, moderate separatist leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who was leading a protest near the Line of Control, which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.Two senior separatist leaders, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani, have called for "non-violent protest demonstrations" to continue.The protests spilled over to other parts of India yesterday, with Hindu nationalist groups blocking traffic and railway lines for several hours in New Delhi, Mumbai and the tourist hub of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.In New Delhi and Mumbai several dozen activists from the World Hindu Organisation, known as the VHP, blocked roads for up to two hours, demanding that the land allocated to the shrine be restored. The plan had been shelved after widespread Muslim protests.Some 50 protesters were detained in Mumbai, police said. Meanwhile, in Agra, activists blocked railway lines for several hours disrupting rail schedules across northern India, said railway official Nirmal Sharma.Police shot and killed 15 people Tuesday as thousands took to the streets to protest his death.

Kashmir protests spread to Indian cities

Riots erupted across Indian-controlled Kashmir yesterday as Muslims mourned 15 people killed in a day of bloody violence, as the protests spread to other parts of India.Meanwhile, Indian police say they have issued orders to shoot protesters defying a curfew in the town of Kishtwar in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Violence has roiled the Himalayan region since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus began tit-for-tat protests over a government proposal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India's only Muslim-majority state.In the town of Kishtwar, where Hindus and Muslims clashed Tuesday leaving two dead, police said they would shoot anyone violating a curfew. Kishtwar is some 155 miles north of Jammu, the region's only majority Hindu city.In Srinagar, the main city in the region, several thousand protesters took to the streets, attacking police posts and chanting slogans calling for revenge.Separatist political leaders called for three days of mourning and urged people to keep their protests peaceful.Among those gunned down by Indian security forces on Monday was a prominent, moderate separatist leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who was leading a protest near the Line of Control, which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.Two senior separatist leaders, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani, have called for "non-violent protest demonstrations" to continue.The protests spilled over to other parts of India yesterday, with Hindu nationalist groups blocking traffic and railway lines for several hours in New Delhi, Mumbai and the tourist hub of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.In New Delhi and Mumbai several dozen activists from the World Hindu Organisation, known as the VHP, blocked roads for up to two hours, demanding that the land allocated to the shrine be restored. The plan had been shelved after widespread Muslim protests.Some 50 protesters were detained in Mumbai, police said. Meanwhile, in Agra, activists blocked railway lines for several hours disrupting rail schedules across northern India, said railway official Nirmal Sharma.Police shot and killed 15 people Tuesday as thousands took to the streets to protest his death.

Of devotion, grace and subtlety

Apparently, in 1919 Rabindranath Tagore was so impressed after seeing a dance composition, the Goshtha Leela in Sylhet (Bangladesh) that he introduced Manipuri dance lessons in
Shantiniketan. Tagore further demonstrated his admiration for Manipuri dance by incorporating the style in most of his dance-dramas.Considered one of the six classical dance forms, Manipuri is defined by spirituality, grace and subtlety. On August 12, the Dhaka audience had an opportunity to experience this delicate, lyrical dance form at Osmani Memorial Hall. The occasion was 62nd Independence Day of India and the highlight was performance by Manipuri dance exponent Bimbavati Devi.The programme was jointly organised by the High Commission of India, Dhaka and Indian Council for Cultural Relations.The Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty thanked the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Bangladesh and Shilpakala Academy for their support and invited the chief guest, noted cultural personality Asaduzzaman Noor to the stage.Noor apologised to the distinguished elderly in the audience and said, "I'm not an authority on dance but like other art forms, I enjoy it." Recalling the contribution of India during the Liberation War, Noor addressed cultural exchange between Bangladesh and its closest neighbour. He said, "Commercially viable performers from overseas seem to get permission to stage shows here without much effort but when it comes to artistes of a different kind -- the kind who have something substantial to offer, to teach us -- have to go through 'red tape'. It is an alarming trend; I'd like to request the authorities to look into it."Bimbavati Devi started with a composition titled Shiva Stuti. As the title suggests, the composition was an invocation to Lord Shiva, whose origins are unknown. His glare illuminates the world. In order to save humankind, he swallowed the poison that was churned out along with the elixir the gods took hold of; and thus he became "Neelkantha" (the one whose gullet is blue). Manipuri dancers do not wear ghungroo (ankle bells) to emphasise the beats tapped out by the feet, in contrast with other Indian classical dance forms. The dancers' feet never strike the ground hard either.Bimbavati made rounded movements, avoiding jerks or sudden pulls/thrusts. Even during vigorous steps, the artiste touched the ground with the front part of her feet. Her movements and facial expression aimed at devotion. The dancer was accompanied by pung or Manipuri mridang (double-headed drum), setar, harmonium and vocals. Bimbavati's superior dance skills have much to do with her lineage. Daughter of renowned Manipuri dancers Guru Bipin Singh and Kalavati Devi, Bimbavati was introduced to the world of dance at a tender age. Apart from dancing, she also underwent training in playing pung and Thang Ta (Manipuri martial art). At present, she is a performing artiste at Manipuri Nartanalaya, one of the pioneering institutions of Manipuri dance in India, founded by her parents and the Jhaveri sisters. Bimbavati conducted a workshop in Bangladesh. Her senior students -- Sudeshna Swayamprabha, Fahmida Siddiqua, Samina Hossain Prema, Sanjana Haque, Sushmita Dey and Subroto Das -- performed in a composition titled Gope Ras (dance and music composed by Guru Bipin Singh and Kalavati Devi). The composition is an excerpt from Goshtha Leela, a traditional dance-drama of Manipur. The composition featured Krishna and his friends' joyous dance -- their staffs in hands, with which they tend the cattle.Noted Bangladeshi Manipuri dancer Tamanna Rahman enacted a heartbroken, disappointed Radha waiting in vain for a rendezvous with her beloved Krishna in the composition, Manini Radha (dance and music composed by Guru Bipin Singh and Kalavati Devi).In Mridang Vadan (composed by Guru Bipin Singh), dancers -- Sharmila Banerjee, Sudeshna Swayamprabha, Warda Rihab, S. Tomba Singh and Nilomoni Singh along with Bimbavati Devi demonstrated their skills in pung playing. Other compositions performed at the programme were Radha Roop Varnan (a solo by Sharmila Banerjee), Pung Cholom (dual performance by S. Tomba Singh and Nilomoni Sinha) and Bajikar Khel (group performance by Sudeshna Swayamprabha, Fahmida Siddiqua, Samina Hossain Prema, Sanjana Haque, Sushmita Dey and Subroto Das).The programme wrapped up with a solo performance, Matrika, by Bimbavati Devi. Concept and choreography by Bimbavati, the composition featured a passionate depiction of motherland based on the writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Rishi Aurobindo. The motherland, despite being torn apart by the self-centred acts of her children, nurtures us and provides shelter from all adversities. Through impassioned expressions and movements, the dancer urged the mother to provide us strength so that we can restore her former glory on the world stage.The evening ended on a good note but with a bit of discontent. Many in the audience wished there was more of Bimbavati's performance, as the title of the programme was "Manipuri Dance Evening by Bimbavati Devi".

Rick Ross Kicks Off Houston’s Ozone Awards Festivities

As the parties surrounding Monday’s Ozone magazine awards show began early Sunday morning, Rick Ross and DJ Khaled rocked the Warehouse in Houston with Miami Maybach Music mayhem.
Ross, whose name shined on the marquee outside, took the wheel with “I’m So Hood” (”Who da bessssss? Weeeeeeeeee!” Khaled yelled during the song) and “Out Here Grindin.” Khaled then introduced his artist Ace Hood on “Cash Flow.”
“I been in the game 10 years, walking around with white shoes on, and n—as ain’t stepped on my shoes yet,” Ross told the crowd about his clout. He also acknowledged the influence on his career, and the rap game overall, of Rap-A-Lot CEO J. Prince, who was one of the spectators onstage.
Crooked I, Lil’ Flip and Chamillionaire were also onstage, getting an extra-close view of the show. Before he left, Ross also gave tribute to UGK.

Isaac Hayes was goldmine of influence

With its riveting orchestration, definitive guitar play and signature sensual baritone vocals, Isaac Hayes' theme song for the 1971 movie "Shaft" not only became one of pop music's iconic songs, but also the defining work of Hayes' career.
OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1');

Yet the "Theme from Shaft," which would earn both Grammys and an Oscar, was just a snippet of the groundbreaking music for which Hayes — who died Sunday at age 65 — was responsible.He penned soul classics like "Hold On I'm Comin'" for Sam & Dave, helped usher in the era of disco and was a goldmine for countless hip-hop and R&B artists who used his illustrious arrangements as the focal point for their songs decades later."Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes — the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."His influence also extended beyond music. His trademarked bald head, full beard and muscular frame, often adorned with a multitude of gold chains, made him a fashion trendsetter at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting blowout Afros. He was also a symbol of black pride, and an activist for civil rights.The Rev. Al Sharpton called Hayes a "creative genius" and added, "even in his later years he never hesitated to appear for a cause or endorse something that he felt was for the good of mankind. He will be sorely missed."Hayes also acted in movies including "Tough Guys," ''I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" and "Hustle & Flow." He had recently completed the movie "Soul Men," in which he played himself; the film also starred Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died on Saturday after a bout with pneumonia. And a new generation of fans discovered the man behind "Shaft" when, in 1997, he became the voice of Chef on the Comedy Central show "South Park."Hayes, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis in Memphis, Tenn., after collapsing Sunday afternoon near a treadmill in his home nearby.Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.Stanback said he was shocked to learn of the death of the singer, who was about to start work on a new record for Stax, the label Hayes helped make legendary.In an industry filled with colorful and dynamic figures, Hayes was a standout on several levels, from his smooth baritone to his flamboyant style: It was almost as if he was made to be a musical god.But Hayes spent the early part of his career firmly in the musical background. A self-taught musician from Covington, Tenn., he made a name for himself playing with various bands around Memphis. In 1964, he was hired by Stax Records to be a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote classic hits for Sam and Dave such as "Hold On, I'm Coming," ''Soul Man," and "When Something is Wrong With My Baby." They also wrote for other Stax artists including Carla Thomas.Hayes' work as a composer helped him secure a deal as a solo artist. His first album, "Presenting Isaac Hayes," was a poor seller, the result of an impromptu jam session. But after getting creative control, he delivered his next album, "Hot Buttered Soul" in 1969, and it made him a star.Hayes offered something completely different to the musical world. In an era of straightened hair or Afros, Hayes was bald: "His look was just so profound," Stanback said. "He was like a superhero."Whereas other soul crooners showed their passion through wails, Hayes delivery was calm, cool — almost subdued. He prefaced songs with "raps," and they ran longer than typical standard of three minutes: One song, a cover of Glen Campbell's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," ran 18 minutes."(Radio) jocks would play it at night," Hayes recalled of his songs in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."Next came "Theme From Shaft," a No. 1 hit from the blaxploitation film "Shaft" starring Richard Roundtree."That was like the shot heard round the world," Hayes said in the 1999 interview.At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album "Black Moses" and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. He was also part of the historic "Wattstax" concert in riot-ravaged Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles.Besides "Shaft," Hayes composed film scores for "Tough Guys" and "Truck Turner." He also did the song "Two Cool Guys" on the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" movie soundtrack in 1996.Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.Though his last big hits on the charts ended in the 1980s, Hayes' presence in contemporary music continued as his songs were sampled on numerous hits by rap and R&B performers, ranging from Ashanti to Public Enemy to Jay-Z."The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence," he said. "And they'll tell you if you ask."Stanback said: "A lot of artists owe Isaac his career because a lot of music was based on his foundation."He garnered another audience and cult following with his work on "South Park." A school cook, Chef was in many ways the voice of reason in the otherwise outrageous animated social commentary, unwittingly imparting pearls of wisdom on the schoolboys who often came to him with their dilemmas; this, in spite of the fact that his foremost devotion was — true to Hayes' music and persona — being a ladies' man.In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the character as "a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'wack' category like everybody else in town — and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies."But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion. "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs of others begins," he said.Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes "has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians." A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.Hayes remained active in entertainment, even as he became a senior citizen. His Web site listed upcoming appearances and he was making plans for his Stax album. Stanback said it was to include Hayes' work on vintage tracks that he had left unfinished over the years."We were actually getting ready to schedule a trip to Memphis to talk to Isaac," he said.Stanback called his death a tragedy."Isaac Hayes was a wonderful human begin and his spirit will live long in the form of his music," he said

Auto free Register...open house.

Home
Account Center
Already Registered?
Forgot my password
Log In
Current Subscriber?
Register your subscription here
Not a Subscriber?
REGISTER for FREE OPEN HOUSE
Premium Newsletters
German Auto Industry Newsletter
Customer Service
Subscription Center
Automotive News
Automotive News Europe
Annual Online Only
Weekly or monthly access
Subscriber Services
Privacy statement
Help

Welcome to the Automotive News Open House. Registration is free and easy. Registrants to AutoNews.com can read Reuters stories and can sign up for our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters. From August 11 - 17, you can access all of the content on autonews.com normally reserved only for paid subscribers, including, the Data center, digital edition and archives. If you would like to become a paid subscriber, take advantage of our discount offer this week by clicking here.IAC is proud to sponsor the Automotive News online open house.
REGISTERED USERS
NEW USERS
Log In Now

E-mail:

Password:

Remember my password

Forgot your password?
Current Subscriber?
YES I am a current subscriber.
Register your subscription
Register your subscription here
NO I am not a current subscriber.
REGISTER for FREE OPEN HOUSE

2008 Scholar Athletes

With an eye toward the future, we thought we’d try something new this year. We’ve posted extended bios on each scholar athlete. We invite you to explore our database and view in color each of the more than 500 scholar athletes, who were nominated by their schools' principals and athletic directors. You can search by city, school, name, GPA or college. And you can make as many color prints as you like. Or, even better, email the link to your family and friends all around the world.

A Smart Women Know'How to Make Music"

While on our way to school listening to a solo piano CD this morning, (it’s a great tool that I use to calm everyone down after a hectic morning rushing to get out the door!) my 5 year old daughter Jenna asked me, “Mom, how do you make music?” It reminded me of when I was a little girl and my piano teacher once told me, “It’s the space between the notes that makes the music.”
I did not fully understand the value of her answer back then. Most days I just wanted to hurry up and finish my lesson so I could get outdoors and chase a ball! If it’s the space between the notes that makes music, let me ask you - Are you creating some space in your life to make your music? If your life, dreams, and goals were a song, what would it sound like? Do your days have “space between” all of the “to-do’s”, or is it one long note being held down?
If you find it difficult to see where the “space between” might be for you, that’s not surprising. Our society is one that thrives on productivity 24/7. We have technology available to keep us connected to the world at any time of the day or night. It’s “un-American” to not be busy all the time. I was a very “busy” woman for many years, especially in my 30’s. My motto was, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can get done right now!” My life was one long musical note fading into the background.
When I realized that giving myself plenty of space and time was the secret to creating my own life’s music, I made a plan to make it happen. I began to create that quiet space so that I could make sure that “my music” was alive and full of energy and had a big presence in my life.
How about you? Are you making your music? Have you created a life full of inspired action, passion, and purpose? Does your Big Idea make a musical melody that calls out to you every day? When it happens, it is the most magical sound that you will ever hear. The doors of possibility open to you everywhere you turn. Why? Because it’s your song, your music, and it flows naturally inside of you. The women in my Success Circles are focused on creating the “space between the notes.” They are boldly creating their music and their song in their lives. They have given themselves permission to live a life full of passion, purpose and dance to their own beat.
I invite you to create “the space between the notes” so you can find your music. We all have a calling, a song inside us that longs to be heard. Remember: There will never be another YOU. Your song is unique and can never live in another person.
I don’t think my daughter Jenna fully understood my answer today. It will be part of my music, my song to encourage her as she gets older, to create her space between her notes, her own music, and her unique life. Anything is possible. Everything is waiting for you.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Joy Chudacoff is the founder of Smart Women Smart Solutions, a Certified Professional Coach and Professional Speaker. To read more articles by Joy and learn more about her Success Circle workshops, teleseminars or keynote topics, please visit her website, http://www.SmartWomenSolutions.com

NPP founding member dares party leaders, goes independent

Mr. Bright Wireko-Brobbey a founding member and a member of Hemang-Lower Denkyira Constituency branch of New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Sunday declared his intention to contest the Parliamentary seat as an independent candidate in the December 2008 general elections.Speaking at a press conference at Cape Coast, he said the decision was arrived at after deep and sober reflections over an unfair and unjustifiable treatment meted out to him, in particular and all Hemang Lower Denkyira NPP supporters in general by the NPP Hemang Lower Denkyira Constituency Executives with the connivance and support of, especially the Central Regional NPP chairman.Mr. Wireko-Brobbey said as true NPP faithful, “I filed my papers to contest the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Ben Donkor, not because of my selfish ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament but simply because of loss of faith and confidence in the incumbent MP by supporters and other political stakeholders, including Traditional Authorities, Assembly Members, men, women, students and other youth groups across the Constituency.”Mr. Wireko-Brobbey, who is a Development Consultant and currently with Care International said, realizing that a disgraceful defeat awaited them should there be primaries, “the constituency executives who had formed an enclave and very reluctant to allow any eligible person to contest Mr Donkor, denied knowing me.The stated on my nomination forms that they had not known me in the party for two years.Meanwhile “I have been a member of the party since 1992, and even contested the position of District Chief Executive together with four others in 2005.”He said, “seeing that the constituency executives had been unfair to me, Mr Lord Commey, who happened to chair the vetting committee, referred both the executives and myself to a mediation committee to arrive at a just and an amicable solution and this committee was chaired by one prominent and respected party father known as Nana Awuku”.He said, the mediation committee on two occasions recommended that the primaries in Hemang Lower Denkyira be organized after which the losing contestants will support the winner to move the campaign to a greater height. That advice according to him from was blatantly disregarded by the constituency executive.He said, the incumbent MP was introduced as the party’s parliamentary candidate at the NPP’s Kasoa rally when no primaries or acclamation was done to sekect him.That he said was a slap in the face of the NPP constitution in Article 11 (1), 11 (6) and 12 (7) which do not permit a declaration when primaries or acclamations have not been held at the constituency level.Mr Wireko-Brobbey said, this once again demonstrated the imposition of a candidate on the people of the constituency and also an entrenched position taken right from the opening of nominations.He urged all eligible voters, to take advantage of the on-going registration exercise to get registered and vote massively for him to register his vindication that, “indeed, I am the people’s choice and that true and sustainable development comes from the people and not from regional and national executives.”

How to Choose a MP3 Player

Purchasing anything for entertainment purposes is going to be expensive, especially when talking about mp3 players. With more brands and companies getting into the music business and producing mp3 players, there are naturally more choices for consumers to compare. If you're looking into buying an mp3 player then you probably shouldn't simply choose one that's sitting on a shelf in the store.
For starters, there are plenty of these music players that may have way more capabilities and uses then what you could ever need it for. In addition, another issue to consider is whether or not you'd like to view photos, movies, and games as well. Here are some mp3 player issues to think about if you're going to break down and buy one of those sleek little music toys in the store.
Amount of Space: First and foremost, one should most likely consider how much music they have on their computers or compact discs to be transferred to their mp3 player that they want to buy. There are all sorts of mp3 players with varied amounts of space that one can have. For example, the Apple iPod Classic can hold 160 Gigabytes of music space, which should be more than enough for any average music lover.
It can hold about 40,000 songs and over 150 hours of video files. Of course, there are plenty of smaller options to choose from as well in the mp3 player arena. For example, mp3 players can be purchased all the way down to a small 512 megabyte player, which can hold about 150 or so song files.
Use of the Player: The second issue that one should consider about an mp3 player is what they'll be using it for. Since the amount of music space that can be purchased ranges from very small to very large, there are plenty of mp3 player brands available for all sorts of uses.
For example, a person who is a jogging enthusiast may only require a small player than can easily fit inside a pocket or clip onto a shirt. On the other hand, a disc jockey may want to invest in a very large mp3 player that can hold thousands of songs in order to make it easier to access and hook up to a sound system for a party or dance.
Movies, Pictures, and other Uses: As mentioned, there are some mp3 players like some of the Apple iPod versions that can easily store movie and picture files. This can be a great purchase if you plan to watch movies quite frequently or if you'd like to store your favorite pictures to show off to everyone. On the other hand, students can benefit from having an mp3 player since they're able to store documents, school papers, and various other files as well.
In addition, business professionals can easily store computer files and presentations for their work on their mp3 player if they so choose. Computer files are so easy to access from any location from an mp3 player since virtually all computers have at least one or two USB ports to use.
Consumers definitely have a lot of choices when it comes to the mp3 player industry. Both small and large mp3 players are available, but you need to take into account the amount of songs you'll want to store, what use the player will have, as well as whether or not any other files will need to be stored on the device.

The Black, the Female and the Invisible.

The recent media obsession with identity, centered on presidential candidates who represent constituent groups other than white men, has created a public conversation about race and gender. The hope for those of us working in the justice sector is that the conversation pushes past the humdrum of the oppression olympics, but most of the talk to date has gone wasted on a battle of who has it worst--black men or white women. The loss is that at a time when concern and interest by voters is focused on issues of race and gender and we have a key opportunity to push the conversation in new directions, we are stuck with the terms set in stone in the post-Civil Rights language of oppositional identities.

Sentiments expressed in Maureen Dowd's misfire of a column the other day about "shoulder-pad" feminists supporting HIllary Clinton's nomination, is a perfect example of this obsession gone bad. We have come to expect the worst from Dowd, but assuming that racism and misogyny are in the past is a new low.

With Obama saying the hour is upon us to elect a black man and Hillary saying the hour is upon us to elect a woman, the Democratic primary has become the ultimate nightmare of liberal identity politics. All the victimizations go tripping over each other and colliding, a competition of historical guilts.

People will have to choose which of America's sins are greater, and which stain should be removed first. Is misogyny worse than racism, or is racism worse than misogyny?

As it turns out, making history is actually a way of being imprisoned by history. It's all about the past. What will be expunged more quickly? America's racial past or America's sexist past?

I'm not sure what Dowd means in calling the situation "the ultimate nightmare of liberal identity politics," but I don't think it's her frustration with a lack of intersectional analysis or the ways that women of color have been rendered invisible in the national dialogue of race and gender. Dowd's attempt at a post-racist, post-feminist consciousness is so clearly distorted by her hate for feminists and for women ( something very much in style right now) that it is no wonder that she is completely comfortable calling women that support Clinton un-fun, old, unattractive in her feeble attempts to coin a new pop-demographic category -- "shoulder pad feminists."

Some women in their 30s, 40s and early-50s who favor Barack Obama have a phrase to describe what they don't like about Hillary Clinton: Shoulder-pad feminism.

They feel that women have moved past that men-are-pigs, woe-is-me, sisters-must-stick-together, pantsuits-are-powerful era that Hillary's campaign has lately revived with a vengeance....

As a woman I know put it: "Hillary doesn't make it look like fun to be a woman. And her 'I-have-been-victimized' campaign is depressing."

What is depressing is when women espouse anti-feminist, anti-woman tendencies and confirm the sexism at the root of people's fear in the potential for a woman to become president. There is nothing post-feminist about that, that is old-fashioned sexism. And of course, Obama totally makes it look fun to be a black dude, which is why he has garnered so much support. Right, of course, that must be it.

Ironic that the same voices that demand we end the battle of identity politics are the ones that are most reliant on it. So while Dowd is worried about which candidate looks like they are having "fun" those of us that are dealing with the issues in personal and practical ways have a different perspective. Both race and gender matter in this election not because Clinton is a woman and Obama is black, but because racism and sexism still exist and have profound impacts on policy. So while some continue the battle of who had it worst and who deserves the seat first, those of us working at the grassroots are very aware of the actual lives of people that are suffering from housing foreclosures, expansion in prisons, lack of access to health care, poor education and no jobs. For us, it is a matter of who will actually make decisions that most support our communities.

It is a key time to talk about race and gender in ways that matter. The mainstream media suggests we see the issues as just black and white, male and female, but we need a thorough recognition of the ways that all of our identities interact and the different places that puts us in the political spectrum. It's wishful thinking to hope a Clinton or Obama victory will somehow "erase the blemish" of sexism and racism and the people most directly hurt by racism and sexism are fully aware of this.

A Lab Is Set to Test the Gender of Some Female Athletes

By the time they arrive in Beijing, most athletes have resigned themselves to the possibility of undergoing a battery of tests for banned substances, like anabolic steroids and certain cough medicines.

But some female athletes may find they are asked to submit to an entirely different examination — one that will test whether they are, in fact, women.

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have set up a sex-determination laboratory to evaluate “suspect” female athletes, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday. The lab is similar to ones set up at previous Olympics in Sydney and Athens, and will draw on the resources of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital to evaluate an athlete’s external appearance, hormones and genes.

Some medical ethicists have said the practice is too intrusive. “Real people are going to be hurt by this,” said Alice Dreger, an associate professor in medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University.

“Real Olympic athletes who have spent their whole life waiting for this moment.”

Although only athletes whose gender has been questioned will be tested in Beijing, the lab is a relic of an earlier Olympic era, when every female athlete was required to submit to a sex-verification test before competing in the Games. The tests emerged in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union and other Communist countries were suspected of entering male athletes in women’s events to gain an edge.

At first, women were asked to parade nude before a panel of doctors to verify their sex. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, officials switched to a chromosomal test.

The tests never unmasked a man posing as a woman, but they did turn up several athletes who were born with genetic defects that made them appear — according to lab results, at least — to be men. In 1967, the Polish sprinter Ewa Klobukowska was barred from the sport because she failed the chromosomal test, even though she had passed the nude test a year earlier. In the 1980s, the Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez Patino was disqualified because the test revealed, to her surprise, that she was born with a Y chromosome. Her eligibility was reinstated in 1988.

The practice came under increasing criticism in the 1990s by doctors, scientists and athletes who argued that the tests were not just invasive, but were also bad science. During the 1996 Atlanta Games, eight athletes failed the test, but all were later cleared of suspicion because it was determined that they had a birth defect that did not give them an unfair advantage.

“It was an unethical, unscientific and discriminatory practice,” said Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission and one of the most outspoken critics of the testing.

In 1999, Ljungqvist helped abolish the blanket testing of women, but international competitions have continued to rely on sex-verification tests in isolated instances.

“We must be ready to take on such cases should they arise,” Ljungqvist said. “Sometimes, fingers are pointed at particular female athletes, and in order to protect them, we have to be able to investigate it and clarify.”

Two years ago, middle-distance runner Santhi Soundarajan of India was stripped of her silver medal at the Asian Games after failing a verification test. Ljungqvist said an official who observed Soundarajan during the mandatory urine test for doping questioned her sex, and she later refused to submit to a more thorough exam.

Although the verification test has changed to adapt to new scientific understandings about gender — athletes are now evaluated by an endocrinologist, gynecologist, a geneticist and a psychologist — critics say the test is based on the false idea that someone’s sex is a cut-and-dried issue.

“It’s very difficult to define what is a man and what is a woman at this point,” said Christine McGinn, a plastic surgeon who specializes in transgender medicine.

Because of a range of genetic conditions, people who look like women may have a Y chromosome, while people who look like men may not, she said. Many times, the people do not learn of the defects until they reach adulthood. “It gets really complicated very quickly,” McGinn said.

Despite decades of rigorous testing of women athletes, only one known case of gender cheating exists in the history of the modern Olympics — and it was not uncovered by a sex-determination test.

In 1936, a German athlete named Dora Ratjen finished fourth in the women’s high jump. Twenty years later, Ratjen disclosed that he was in fact Hermann Ratjen, and that the Nazis had forced him to compete as a woman.