WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is banking on a new report detailing the income disparity in the country as further evidence of the need for his $447 billion jobs bill.
A report this past week by the Congressional Budget Office found that average after-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households had increased by 275 percent over the past three decades. Middle-income households saw just a 40 percent rise. For those at the bottom of the economic scale, the jump was 18 percent.
Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday that he would pay for his jobs plan with an added tax on people who make at least $1 million a year.
Senate Republicans have blocked action on the bill, which mixes tax breaks for businesses and public works spending, because they oppose much of the increased spending and the tax on millionaires.
"These are the same folks who have seen their incomes go up so much, and I believe this is a contribution they're willing to make," Obama said. "Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress aren't paying attention. They're not getting the message."
Obama is now trying to get Congress to pass the individual components of the bill. But Senate Republicans also stalled progress on the first of those measures, $35 billion to help local governments keep teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other emergency services workers.
Saying the country cannot wait for Congress, Obama has begun bypassing Congress and taking steps on his own that he says will encourage economic growth.
On Friday, Obama directed government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace. The goal is to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly.
The president also called for creating a centralized online site for companies to easily find information about federal services. He previously had announced help for people who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and for the repayment of student loans. The White House also challenged community health centers to hire veterans.
"We can no longer wait for Congress to do its job," Obama said. "So where Congress won't act, I will."
The congressional report, based on Internal Revenue Service and Census Bureau data, was released as the Occupy Wall Street movement spreading across the country protests bailouts for corporations and the income gap.
In the weekly GOP message, Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling urged Obama to support bills that Republicans say would help create jobs by blocking various energy and environmental regulations and streamlining administrative procedures. The bills, passed by the Republican-controlled House, await action in the Democratic-run Senate.
Shilling said the bills give the White House and Congress an opportunity to build on the common ground created by the passage of recent free-trade agreements, and a measure to void a law requiring federal, state and many local governments to withhold 3 percent of their payments to contractors until their taxes are paid. Obama included repealing that tax in his jobs plan.
"Republicans have a jobs plan, one with some bipartisan support, but it's stuck in the Senate," said Schilling, owner of a pizza parlor in Moline, Ill. "We're asking President Obama to work with us and call on the Senate to pass the `forgotten 15' to help the private sector create jobs, American jobs desperately needed."
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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -Hungarian prosecutors said they questioned a new suspect in an international match-fixing investigation on Wednesday.
A former second-division player identified as Gyorgy Sz. is believed to have given three players from Diosgyor FC ?3,000 ($4,250) each to influence the outcome of a May 2010 match against Nyiregyhaza in Hungary's top league, the Chief Investigative Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
The suspect was said to be following the orders of, among others, former player Zoltan Kenesei, the alleged leader of the Hungarian branch of a global match-fixing "syndicate."
The players allegedly returned the bribes because the betting ring never placed bets on the match.
In June, three former players and four referees were detained as a result of the investigation launched by prosecutors and the National Investigation Office. Five suspects remain under preliminary arrest.
Authorities so far have identified seven matches, including two from the top Finnish league, which may have been fixed.
The syndicate is suspected of paying referees and players between ?40,000 ($56,800) and ?85,000 ($120,800) per match to influence results and is believed to have collected up to ?600,000 ($852,700) a game in successful bets.
Spokesman Geza Fazekas said the probe is continuing "full speed ahead."
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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No saint, but no racist
Cesc Fabregas says he is no saint but he did not direct any racist abuse toward Frederic Kanoute.
Specialist James Denaro, right, directs trading at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist James Denaro, right, directs trading at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Edward Curran, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist Christopher Culhane works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A pair of traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? An agreement to contain the European debt crisis electrified the stock market Thursday, driving the Dow Jones Industrial average up nearly 340 points and putting the Standard & Poor's 500 index on track for its best month since 1974.
Investors were relieved after European leaders crafted a deal to slash Greece's debt load and prevent the crisis there from engulfing larger countries like Italy. The package is aimed at preventing another financial disaster like the one that happened in September 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
But some analysts cautioned that Europe's problems remained unsolved.
"The market keeps on thinking that it's put Europe's problems to bed, but it's like putting a three-year old to bed: You might put it there but it won't stay there," said David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.
Kelly said Europe's debt problems will remain an issue until the economies of struggling nations like Greece and Portugal grow again.
Commodities and Treasury yields soared as investors took on more risk. The euro rose sharply against the dollar.
Stronger U.S. economic growth and corporate earnings also contributed to the surge. The government reported that the American economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from July through September on stronger consumer spending and business investment. That was nearly double the 1.3 percent growth in the previous quarter.
Banks agreed to take 50 percent losses on the Greek bonds they hold. Europe will also strengthen a financial rescue fund to protect the region's banks and other struggling European countries such as Italy and Portugal.
"This seems to set aside the worries that there would be a massive contagion over there that would have brought everything down with it," said Mark Lamkin, head of Lamkin Wealth Management.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared 339.51 points, or 2.9 percent, to 12,208.55. That was its largest jump since Aug. 11, when it rose 423.
All 30 stocks in the Dow rose, led by Bank of America Corp. with a 9.6 percent gain. It was the first time the Dow closed above 12,000 since Aug. 1.
Even with Thursday's gains, the Dow remains 4.7 percent below the high for the year it reached April 29. The Dow has fallen every month since then due to a combination of a slowdown in the U.S. economy, a worldwide parts shortage after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and concerns about the European debt crisis. The Dow is now at approximately the same level it traded at on July 28.
Stocks fell for much of August in the wake of a last-minute deal to prevent the U.S. government from defaulting on its debt.
But anticipations of a solution to Europe's debt problems and signs that the U.S. economy is not in another recession have lifted stocks higher throughout October.
The Dow is up 11.9 percent for the month so far. With only two full days of trading left in the month, the Dow could have its biggest monthly gain since January 1987.
The S&P 500 rose 42.59, or 3.7 percent, to 1,284.59. Those gains turned the S&P positive for the year for the first time since Aug. 3, just before the U.S. government's debt was downgraded. The index is up 13.5 percent for the month, its best performance since a 16.3 percent gain in October 1974.
The Nasdaq composite leaped up 87.96, or 3.3 percent, to 2,738.63.
Small-company stocks rose more than the broader market. That's a sign investors were more comfortable holding assets perceived as being risky but also more likely to appreciate in a strong economy. The Russell 2000 index jumped 5.3 percent.
Raw materials producers, banks and stocks in other industries that depend on a strong economy for profit growth led the way. Copper jumped 5.8 percent to $3.69 a pound and crude oil jumped 4.2 percent to $93.96 a barrel.
The euro rose sharply, to $1.42, as confidence in Europe's financial system grew. The euro was worth $1.39 late Wednesday and had been as low as $1.32 on Oct. 3. European stock indexes also soared. France's CAC-40 rose 6.3 percent and Germany's DAX jumped 6.1 percent.
Investors sold U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, an indication they were moving away from safer investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, rose to 2.39 percent from 2.21 percent late Wednesday.
European leaders still have to finalize the details of their latest plan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke with Chinese President Hu Jintao amid hopes that countries with lots of cash like China can contribute to the European rescue.
Past attempts to contain Europe's two-year debt crisis have proved insufficient. Greece has been surviving on rescue loans since May 2010. In July, creditors agreed to take some losses on their Greek bonds, but that wasn't enough to fix the problem.
Worries about Europe's debt crisis and a weak U.S. economy dragged the S&P 500 down 19.4 percent between April 29 and Oct. 3. That put it on the cusp of what's called a bear market, which is a 20 percent decline.
Since then, there have been a number of more encouraging signs on the U.S. economy. Despite the jitters over Europe, many large American companies have been reporting strong profit growth in the third quarter.
Dow Chemical rose 8.2 percent after its profit last quarter rose 59 percent on strong sales growth from Latin America. Occidental Petroleum Corp. jumped 9.7 percent after reporting a 50 percent surge in income.
Citrix Systems Inc. rose 17.3 percent. The technology company's revenue rose 20 percent last quarter, and it forecast growth of up to 13 percent for 2012. Akamai Technologies Inc., whose products help speed the delivery of online content, jumped 15.4 percent after the company reported earnings that beat analysts' expectations.
Avon Products Inc. fell 18 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after the company said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its contacts with financial analysts and Avon's own probe into bribery in China and other countries.
Nine stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was heavy at 6.5 billion shares.
ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Wednesday constituted a commission to be headed by Justice (Retd) Rehmat Hussain Jafferi to probe the negligence of the authorities concerned in the non-completion of rental power projects which have caused a major loss to the national exchequer. The court said the officials responsible for the delay in the functioning of RPPs must be held accountable. It also directed that the commission could acquire the services of any expert in probing the matter and the Finance Ministry and all relevant departments would extend support to it and also bear the expenses. The commission would submit its report within four weeks. A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain was hearing the application filed by PML-N leader Khawaja Asif. The Chief Justice said the court could not shut its eyes to corruption, adding that the cases of the officials involved in the RPPs? corruption would be sent to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to whom the corruption cases have been sent is showing no progress and if the court orders action against the relevant officer he is promoted to high rank next day, while an honest and capable officer, who likes to perform his professional duties is transferred to Gilgit-Baltistan. ?Those who should be probed are being appointed secretaries and all the inquiries sent by the court are pending,? Chief Justice remarked. The Chief Justice remarked that every institution in the country is infested with corruption and there is not even a single institution which could be trusted. Petitioner Faisal Saleh Hayat, who has become Minister for Housing and Works after the PML-Q joined the PPP-led government about five months ago, informed the court that the Ministry of Water and Power is responsible for the non-completion of the rental power projects owing to which the country faced severe loadshedding. He added the Asian Development Bank has also mentioned this aspect in its report. He said the work on RPPs was intentionally delayed for the sake of kickbacks and the Ministry?s officials presented wrong data to the government and the Cabinet. Kh Tariq Rahim, counsel for Ministry of Water and Power, objected to the appearance of Faisal before the court. He said Faisal should have taken permission from the prime minister before appearing in the court. However, the court dismissed his objection. Shahid Hamid, who represented the rental power companies, said that morally Faisal should have resigned like Babar Awan and Zulfiqar Mirza before appearing in the court. On this, the federal minister remarked no one should give him sermon on ethics as he was an elected member of the National Assembly for six times and was minister in various governments. Faisal said he knows his oath ?That I will protect the Constitution of Pakistan?. The PML-Q leader said he has appeared before the bench on the court notice in his personal capacity. He said as he is not fully prepared, therefore, the court adjourned the case for today (Thursday). Earlier, during the course of hearing, Deputy Attorney General Shoaib Shaheen presented the Pepco report on rental power projects. The court after examining the report said the circumstances have come to a point where a file from the minister?s table reaches to secretary?s table in five months. The Chief Justice said nobody is taking the matter seriously, while the officials? negligence has caused a huge loss to the national exchequer, adding that the nation is suffering due to the bickering of officers. The court observed had the government taken timely steps, the RPPs might have been completed and the people would not have become victim of loadshedding. Kh Asif informed the court that due to government?s negligence the RPPs could not be completed so far. Had the RPPs been completed, the electricity would have been cheaper. He said that Nandipur and Chicho Ki Malian Rental Power Projects were expected to produce 975 MW and for that Rs 6 billion were paid to a Chinese company in advance. The Nandipur machinery is lying at the seaport since April 2010, while the machinery for other RPPs was not imported so far. The court has directed to start work on these two projects. The Chief Justice said the court would seek the opinion of the experts and after that the cases would be sent to NAB. On this, Kh Asif said the PML-N has challenged the appointment of NAB chairman therefore these cases should be sent to Public Accounts Committee. The CJP said they are unaware whether they have authority of it or not? He further said the Federal Ombudsman post is lying vacant, while the FIA not performing its duties, and if the appointment of the NAB chief is also challenged then where the court could send corruption cases?
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TUNIS, Tunisia?? The people who started the Arab Spring shared one of its earliest fruits on Sunday: a free election. Tunisians who brought down a dictator nine months ago waited for hours to select those who will help shape their fledgling democracy.
"The old elections were fraudulent and this one is for our children and grandchildren so that even if I soon die, I will be happy and content," said Tayyib Awish, resplendent in a crisp white robe and skull cap at a crowded school-cum-polling station in the working class suburb of Hay al-Tadammon near Tunis, the capital.
The spry 83-year-old voted many times for Tunisia's first two presidents in contests whose results were always known ahead of time, but this time was different. "This is a celebration," he said, gesturing with a finger stained blue by polling station ink.
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Women with headscarves and without, former political prisoners and young people whose Facebook posts helped fuel the revolution also were among those electing a 217-seat assembly that will appoint a new government and then write a new constitution.
It was the first truly free election in the history of Tunisia, which was under the control of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali for 23 years. Ben Ali was overthrown Jan. 14 by a monthlong uprising, sparked by a fruitseller who set himself on fire in protest of police harassment, then stirred by anger over unemployment, corruption and repression.
The uprising inspired similar rebellions across the Arab world. The autocratic rulers of Egypt and Libya have fallen since, but Tunisia is the first country to hold free elections as a result of the upheaval. Egypt's parliamentary election is set for next month.
President Barack Obama offered congratulations, saying that "less than a year after they inspired the world, the Tunisian people took an important step forward."
The party expected to come out on top is the moderate Islamic movement Ennahda, or renaissance, though no one party is expected to win a majority of assembly seats. An Ennahda victory, especially in a comparatively secular society like Tunisia, could have wide implications for similar religious parties in the region.
Preliminary reports indicate voting went smoothly, with up to 70 percent of registered voters turning up at polling stations. Results might not come until Monday or Tuesday.
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People waited in line for hours to vote under the strong North African sun.
"Even if I have to stand in line 24 hours, I would not give up the chance to savor this air of freedom," said former political prisoner Touhami Sakouhi, also voting in Hay al-Tadammon.
In the more affluent Tunis suburb of al-Aouina, 18-year-old language student and former protester Zeinab Souayah said, "I'm going to grow up and think back on these days and tell my children about them."
"It feels great, it's awesome," she added, in English.
Ben Ali's regime was among the Middle East's most corrupt and repressive, and his long-calm country was shocked by the self-immolations at the start of the uprising and the ensuing outbursts of pent-up anger. As protests spread across Tunisia, the police crackdown left more than 300 dead.
Protests have simmered in the months since, periodically ending in violence, but Tunisia's interim authorities have generally managed to contain the unrest ? and keep the months of war in neighboring Libya from spilling over their common border.
The atmosphere on this extraordinary voting day was electric with excitement, but to the relief of many, not violent. Kamel Jendoubi, the head of the election commission, said there were only some scattered election violations, such as campaigning near polling stations or trying to influence voters. Some parties had received warnings, but he did not name them.
The ballot was an extra-large piece of paper bearing the names and symbols of the parties fielding a candidate in each district. The symbols are meant to aid the illiterate, estimated at about 25 percent of the population in a country with one of the region's most educated populations.
Voters in each of the country's 33 districts, six of which are abroad, had roughly 40 to 80 ballot choices. It was a cacophony of options in a country effectively under one-party rule since independence from France in 1956.
Retired engineer Bahri Mohamed Lebid, 73, said he voted "for my religion," a sentiment common among supporters of the Ennahda movement. He said he last tried to vote in 1974, when polling officers forced him to cast a ballot for the ruling party despite his objections.
Ennahda believes that Islam should be the reference point for the country's system and laws and believes that democracy is the best system to maintain people's rights. It has also said it supports Tunisia's liberal laws promoting women's equality ? making it much more progressive than other Islamic movements in the Middle East.
Interactive: Tunisia protests, country profile (on this page)
Some voters expressed concern that despite its moderate public line, Ennahda could reverse some of Tunisia's progressive legislation for women if it gains power.
"I am looking for someone to protect the place of women in Tunisia," said 34-year-old Amina Helmi, her hair free of the headscarves that some Tunisian women wear. She said she was "afraid" of Ennahda and voted for the center-left PDP party, the strongest legal opposition movement under Ben Ali.
There are 7.5 million potential voters, though only 4.4 million of them, or just under 60 percent, are actually registered. People can vote with their identity cards but only at certain stations, which caused some confusion.
Mogadi Shukri, 43, a day laborer, said that since he hadn't registered he had to go to a far-away station to vote. "I feeling like am missing out," he said sadly.
A proportional representation system will likely mean that no political party will dominate the assembly, which is expected to be divided roughly among centrist parties, leftist parties and Ennahda. They will need to form coalitions and make compromises to create a constitution.
According to the international election commission running the elections, there were more than 14,000 local and international observers watching polling stations, including delegations from the European Union and the Carter Center.
Many have expressed indifference about the elections out of frustration that life has not improved since the revolution. Tunisia's economy and employment, part of the reason for the revolution in the first place, has only gotten worse since Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia because tourists and foreign investors have stayed away.
Outside the school-turned-polling station in Hay al-Tadammon, a group of young men sat on the street, sipping tea and mocking journalists who were talking to people who had just voted.
Belhussein al-Maliki, 27, said he fought in the January uprising, which engulfed this downtrodden suburb, and lost a relative in the fighting.
"We are jobless, we have nothing and we won't vote," he said bitterly. "Everything is the same, the world is the way it is, and the world will stay the way it is."
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno, left, talks with Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald before an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in Evanston, Ill. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)
Penn State coach Joe Paterno, left, talks with Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald before an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in Evanston, Ill. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)
Penn State coach Joe Paterno walks off the field after warmups before Penn State's NCAA college football game against Northwestern on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in Evanston, Ill. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)
Penn State coach Joe Paterno stands on the field before his team's NCAA college football game against Northwestern on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in Evanston, Ill. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) ? True to form, Joe Paterno wasn't ready to wax nostalgic.
Even so, taking a spot alongside Eddie Robinson was special, and the next time Penn State wins, JoePa will be all alone atop the Division I wins list.
Already the leader among major college coaches, Paterno tied Robinson with his 408th career victory Saturday night as Penn State beat Northwestern 34-24.
Silas Redd ran for a career-high 164 yards and a touchdown, Matt McGloin threw for 192 yards and two scores, and the Nittany Lions clamped down in the second half to give their storied coach another milestone victory as he watched from the coaches' box.
"Eddie Robinson was one of the greatest guys we've ever had in college football," Paterno said.
He will try to move ahead of Robinson, the late Grambling State legend, when the Nittany Lions (7-1, 4-0 Big Ten) host Illinois next Saturday. That starts a tough stretch that also includes a home game against Nebraska before trips to Ohio State and Wisconsin.
Paterno still has a long way to go to catch John Gagliardi of Division III St. John's, Minn. (481 and counting), the only other coach with more wins, but this was another big notch for an icon in his 46th season leading the Nittany Lions.
"Joe's always talked about Eddie with a great deal of respect, nothing but admiration for him," said quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno, his son. "When you're in that kind of company, that's pretty elite company."
That he got it against Northwestern (2-5, 0-4) was fitting, too.
After all, when he tied Bear Bryant with 323 wins, he did it against the Wildcats. No. 400 came at their expense, too, last season in Happy Valley when Penn State rallied from 21 down to win 35-21.
Jay Paterno said his dad rarely discusses milestones and that his mom wasn't planning to have her family members at that game a year ago.
"I said something to her the week before ? 400 is kind of a big deal," Jay Paterno said. "Joe's the kind of person that during the season ? it's the seventh win, we're 7-1, we're still in first place in the conference, and we've got to work on staying there. Joe will be on the plane asking us about Illinois. He doesn't pay a lot of attention to that stuff. In the offseason, he might talk about it here and there."
On Saturday, Joe Paterno deadpanned: "I went to bed last night and I said 'Jeez, if we win tomorrow, I'm going to be tied with Eddie Robinson.'"
His players were thrilled for him, though.
"I'm proud of coach, but it's a thrill for us to take this game and win," Devon Smith said.
This one wasn't quite as dramatic as last year's win over Northwestern, although it was wild in the early going.
Penn State led 27-24 at halftime after Stephfon Green scored on a 1-yard run in the closing seconds, and Redd made it a 10-point game early in the third when he ran it in from the 19 after Gerald Hodges returned an interception 63 yards. A defense that got picked apart in the first half took over from there, sending Northwestern to its fifth straight loss in a miserable season.
That had to make Paterno feel a little better being away from the sideline, still recovering from right shoulder and pelvis injuries suffered after a receiver ran into him in practice Aug. 7.
The Wildcats simply couldn't stop Redd, who has four straight games with 100 or more yards. He also had a 44-yard run late in the second quarter that set up Green's TD.
McGloin wasn't bad either, starting over Rob Bolden and completing 17 of 26 passes. So does that mean the job is his?
"No, no," Joe Paterno said. "Every day is between Bolden and McGloin."
Smith had six catches for 110 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown, and once the defense got going, Northwestern had no chance.
Gerald Hodges had a career-high 14 tackles. Jordan Hill had two of Penn State's seven sacks, and a defense that ranked among the nation's stingiest, shut down the Wildcats after getting picked apart early on.
The Nittany Lions allowed 406 yards, but just 125 in the second half, and two big sacks on Kain Colter stopped a fourth-quarter drive, helping preserve the win.
That happened right after Dan Persa hobbled off the field.
Still limited by a surgically repaired right Achilles tendon, he came up grabbing his left ankle and limped off the field after a 4-yard run that put the ball on the Penn State 13. He missed the rest of the game, although coach Pat Fitzgerald said he "possibly" could have gone back in.
A 17-yard sack by Hill on Colter and an 11-yarder by Sean Stanley drove the Wildcats all the way back to the 41 and forced them to punt, helping preserve the win.
Persa threw for 294 yards, completing 26 of 34 passes, but he got sacked four times and was largely a non-factor in the second half.
The same goes for Colter.
He ran for 51 yards, including a 46-yarder in the second quarter that led to his own 4-yard TD run. He also caught a 12-yard touchdown pass, his first scoring reception, but got shut down in the second half ? just like the rest of the Wildcats.
"I just feel that this whole season, the offense is playing good and the defense is playing bad. Defense is playing good and the offense is playing bad," Colter said.
It all added up to this ? another milestone win for Penn State's legendary coach.
"It's special to play for a guy like that," Redd said.
Did alternative medicine kill Steve Jobs? This question has been circulating around the internet since the visionary co-founder of Apple died on October 5. Ramzi?Amri, a research associate at Harvard Medical School who says he has been studying the type of cancer Jobs had for a year and a half, has argued that the type of pancreatic tumor Jobs had was ?treatable? and that by initially relying on alternative medical treatments, he cut short his chances for survival. Others including?Brian Dunning in a post entitled ?A Lesson in Treating Illness have decried Jobs?s decision to treat a terminal disease ?with woo rather than with medicine.?
The publication tomorrow, October 24, of Walter Isaacson?s biography of Jobs could provide more information. In a Sunday evening?60 Minutes interview, Isaacson has said that Jobs came to regret his initial decision to treat a?neuroendocrine tumor in his pancreas that was detected in 2004 with an alternative diet instead of medically recommended surgery. The Apple CEO ? ?so used to swimming against the tide of popular opinion? ? had been intrigued by Eastern mysticism as a young man and, according to an?ABC News report, ?believed in alternative herbal treatments.? An?AP report also says that Jobs ate a vegan diet and used ?acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic.? He was also ?influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches .. before finally having surgery in July 2004.?
Orac,?a scientist who blogs at Respectful Insolence on ScienceBlogs, has long countered, and debunked, the ??woo? of alternative medical treatments with science. He has previously written about?Jobs?s 2009 liver transplant. In weighing the available evidence about whether Jobs?s ?flirtation? with alternative medicine might have killed him, Orac writes:
?it appears likely that Jobs did indeed decrease his chances of survival through his nine month sojourn into woo. On the other hand, it still remains very unclear by just how much he decreased his chances of survival. My best guesstimate is that, thanks to the indolent nature of functional insulinomas and lead time bias, it was probably only by a relatively small percentage. This leads me to point out that accepting that Jobs? choice probably decreased somewhat his chances of of surving his cancer is a very different thing than concluding that ?alternative medicine killed Steve Jobs.? The first statement is a nuanced assessment of probabilities; the latter statement is black-and-white thinking?
What is revealed from these accounts about Jobs?s initial treatment of his cancer with alternative remedies is that ?even someone as brilliant as Steve Jobs can be prone to denial, and, yes, even magical thinking.? It?s possible that Jobs could have had what Orac terms a ?medical reality distortion field that allowed him to come to think that he might be able to reverse his cancer with diet plus various ?alternative? modalities.??
Others have ?used the term??reality distortion field? in a ?part joking, part derogatory, part admiring? sense?to describe Jobs?s ?combination of personal charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, and persistence? that enabled him to persuade and convince anyone, from engineers to Wynton Marsalis, about Apple products.?It?might be possible that the very qualities that enabled Jobs to make Apple and its products what they are ? to be the innovator the world will remember ?him as ? also contributed to his demise.?But with cancer, ?biology is king and queen,? and there is only so much we humans ? even visionaries like Jobs whose insights have radically changed our lives ? can do to fight that biology.
De mortuis nil nisi bonum. ?About the dead, say nothing except good.? What we can say is that, after those initial months using alternative treatments, Jobs sought out science-based treatments for his cancer and certainly the best available. It is commendable that, as Isaacson said on?60 Minutes, Jobs wanted to inform the world ?about his regret regarding his decision not to have been operated on sooner; about having made the wrong decision. How many public figures are willing to say that they have made a mistake?
Knowing this, I feel even more sorrow that Steve Jobs is gone.
PYONGYANG, North Korea ? Wealthier countries need to put aside politics to help millions of North Koreans going hungry from food shortages, the U.N.' top relief official said Friday, renewing an appeal for assistance that has largely gone unmet.
Speaking at the end of a five-day visit to North Korea, Valerie Amos, a U.N. undersecretary-general, said millions of North Koreans, particularly children, mothers and pregnant women, need help. The millions of hungry, she said, is borne out by UN data and by what she learned from visits to farms, hospitals and orphanages, as well as from officials.
People's diets, she said, consist of rice, maize, cabbage, little else and no protein or nutrient rich foods.
While she acknowledged concerns about whether the authoritarian government diverts food aid or underfunds agriculture, Amos urged donor countries to put the needs of North Koreans ahead of other considerations.
"This is about helping the people who are most in need. It's not about saying that this country has made a choice about spending its resources in one way rather than another. We don't make those judgments in other countries, on humanitarian grounds. There's no reason to begin to do it in" North Korea, Amos told The Associated Press before leaving Pyongyang.
Hers is the latest appeal to meet a U.N. request in April for $218 million in emergency aid. Only a third has been met as key donors like the United States largely shun giving over North Korea's provocative behavior and persisting questions about whether North Korea is withholding food from its public.
Washington approved $900,000 in emergency flood aid in August but has held back on approving food aid in part because Pyongyang is funding a nuclear program, reneging on nuclear disarmament pledges. Key U.S. ally South Korea, which earlier in the decade provided large amounts of food aid, stopped giving after its conservative president, Lee Myung-back, took office in 2008.
U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups continue to have trouble monitoring how their aid is distributed ? issues Amos said she raised with North Korean officials. She said she also discussed the "chronic poverty and underdevelopment" she saw.
Still, she said, donors should not doubt the evident need for food aid. "Donors need to trust the information that they're being given. They need to trust what they're being told about the situation here," Amos said.
MANILA, Philippines ? Philippine troops have recovered the bodies of six more soldiers following fierce fighting with the country's largest Muslim rebel group that has sent both sides scrambling to stop the violence from further damaging shaky peace talks.
Tuesday's fighting on southern Basilan island between army special forces and members of the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed at least 25 combatants.
One soldier reported missing was rescued late Wednesday and another was found early Thursday in the sea near the scene of the fighting, swimming toward a military detachment, army spokesman Col. Antonio Parlade said.
The bodies of the six soldiers were recovered Wednesday. The bodies bore hack wounds, indicating they were captured and then killed, Parlade said.
The battle was one of the deadliest since 2008, when peace talks bogged down and ignited widespread clashes that killed hundreds and displaced 750,000 people.
The rebels have waged a bloody insurgency for self-rule in the southern Mindanao region, the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. The conflict has killed more than 120,000 people in nearly four decades.
Since the clashes in 2008, a Malaysia-led peacekeeping contingent has kept watch to prevent further battles and keep the atmosphere ripe for peace talks.
The military and the guerrillas blamed each other for starting Tuesday's clash and planned to protest before a joint government-rebel cease-fire committee. Government negotiator Marvic Leonen said that the clash was accidental and that peace talks would continue.
The military initially reported 13 soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded. Troops found six more bodies near the battle scene in remote Al-Barka town, bringing the military death toll in the clash to 19, said regional military commander Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer.
President Benigno Aquino III called a meeting with the defense chief and military officials for Friday to discuss the military setback.
Rebel spokesman Von Al Haq said five rebels were slain Tuesday. Police reported six rebels were killed.
Cabangbang said Wednesday that the clashes had stopped and that the military had asked the joint government-rebel cease-fire committee to allow them to search for the missing soldiers in the Moro rebels' Al-Barka stronghold.
Al Haq, however, said rebels from his group have reported they are not holding any captives. Several army soldiers apparently fled during the clash into nearby communities and some were shot as they ran away, he said.
"Our men have been ordered not to advance or attack unless they come under attack," Al Haq said. "Hopefully we can diffuse this with the other side."
Malaysian-led peacekeepers are trying to pacify both sides, Al Haq said.
It was not immediately clear if al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, known for beheading soldiers, got involved in Tuesday's clashes. The militants are active in Basilan, a predominantly Muslim island about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila, and some are relatives of the Moro rebels.
Contact: Joshua A. Chamot jchamot@nsf.gov 703-292-7730 National Science Foundation
Researchers coax viruses to assemble into synthetics with microstructures and properties akin to those of corneas, teeth and skin
Using a simple, single-step process, engineers and scientists at the University of California at Berkeley recently developed a technique to direct benign, filamentous viruses called M13 phages to serve as structural building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties.
By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically organized thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated patterns of overlapping strings of material--results that may also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in nature.
Each film presented specific properties for bending light, and several films were capable of guiding the growth of cells into structures with precise physical orientations.
Led by University of California at Berkeley bioengineer Seung-Wuk Lee and his student and lead author Woo-Jae Chung, the researchers published their findings in the Oct. 20, 2011, issue of Nature.
"We are very curious how nature can create many diverse structures and functions from single structural building blocks, such as collagens for animals and celluloses for plants," says Lee. "We have thought that periodic changes in cell activity--such as from day to night, or summer to winter--cause cells to secrete different amounts of macromolecules into confined and curved micro-environments, which might play critical roles in the formation of such sophisticated structures. We believe that biological helical nanofiber structures play a critical role in that process, yet for collagen and cellulose, it has proven quite difficult to engineer their chemical and physical properties to study their assembly process. Therefore, we have been looking for new, helical engineering materials."
The fundamental unit of the novel films is the bacteria-hunting virus, M13. In nature, the virus attacks Escherichia coli (E.coli), but in bioengineering laboratories, the virus is emerging as a nanoscale tool that can assemble in complex ways due to its long, slender shape and its chiral twist.
"Fortunately," adds Lee, "M13 also possesses an elegant helical surface that makes it a best fit for this study."
In the Berkeley laboratory, the viruses are suspended in a buffered salt solution, into which the engineers dip a thin substrate onto which the viruses can adhere.
By varying the speed at which they withdrew the substrates from the virus-rich solution, the concentration of viruses in the solution, and the ionic concentration, the researchers were able to craft three distinct categories of films.
The simplest film consisted of alternating bands of filaments, with the viral filaments in each band oriented perpendicular to the filaments in the adjacent band. Created using a relatively low concentration of viruses in the starter solution, the bands formed as the substrate rose out of the liquid with a repeated stick-slip motion.
To create films at the next hierarchical level of complexity, the researchers increased the concentration of viruses in the solution, which added more physical constraints to each filament's movement within its environment. As a result, the filaments bunched together into helical ribbons, with a handedness at a broader scale than the handedness of each individual virus.
With even higher concentrations-and in some experiments, greater substrate-pulling speed-the withdrawal yielded ever more complex, yet ordered, bundles of filaments that the researchers referred to as "ramen-noodle-like".
"Nature can dynamically change environmental variables when building new tissues to control an assembly process," adds Chung, the first author. "The beauty of our system is that we can do the same. By altering various parameters we drive assembly towards specific structures in a controlled manner. We can even make different structures on the same substrate."
By varying their techniques, the researchers altered the physical environment for the viral filaments, ultimately forcing the viruses to align into the highly specialized structural films. Each film is different, as expressed by differences in color, iridescence, polarity and other properties.
In one expression of those differences, structures built using faster-pulled substrates yielded patterns that reflected ever-shorter wavelengths of light--50 microns per minute yielded material that reflected light in the orange color range of the spectrum (600 nm), while 80 micrometers per minute yielded blue light (450 nm). The process was precise, allowing the researchers to tune the films to various wavelengths and colors, and induce polarization.
The researchers believe the hierarchical nature of the structures reflects the hierarchical growth patterns of similar biomolecules in nature, processes that result in chiral materials, like collagen, expressing themselves as the building blocks of a cornea in one level of self-assembly and the building blocks of skin tissue at a more complex level. Such self-assembly yields stunning macroscale structures--for example, skin tissue that appears blue on birds and blue-faced monkeys is actually not expressing the light absorption from blue pigment, but the blue light scattered by complex arrays of chiral, molecular building blocks.
"We strongly believe that our novel approach to constructing biomimetic 'self-templated', supramolecular structures closely mimics natural helical fiber assembly," says Lee. "One important reason is that we not only mimicked the biological structures, but we also discovered structures that have not been seen in nature or the laboratory, like the self-assembled 'ramen-noodle structures' with six distinct order-parameters."
In addition to crafting novel biomolecular films with unique traits, the researchers also demonstrated that the films can serve as biological substrates. The team was able to grow sheets of cells that were oriented based on the texture of such substrates, with one variation incorporating calcium and phosphate to create a biomaterial similar to tooth enamel.
"This novel, self-templating, biomaterials assembly process could be used in many other organic and inorganic materials to build hierarchical structures to tune optical, mechanical and even electrical properties from nano to macro scales," adds NSF Biomaterials program director Joseph Akkara, who helped fund the project. "The reported approaches could be used to investigate mechanisms for diseases such as Alzheimer's, which is caused by amyloid aggregation in our brain tissues. More broadly, the breakthroughs could potentially yield scientific impacts in the area of tissue regeneration and repair."
###
The Berkeley research was conducted with support from numerous sources including the National Science Foundation.
For searchable information on NSF research conducted in California, see Research.gov.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Joshua A. Chamot jchamot@nsf.gov 703-292-7730 National Science Foundation
Researchers coax viruses to assemble into synthetics with microstructures and properties akin to those of corneas, teeth and skin
Using a simple, single-step process, engineers and scientists at the University of California at Berkeley recently developed a technique to direct benign, filamentous viruses called M13 phages to serve as structural building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties.
By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically organized thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated patterns of overlapping strings of material--results that may also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in nature.
Each film presented specific properties for bending light, and several films were capable of guiding the growth of cells into structures with precise physical orientations.
Led by University of California at Berkeley bioengineer Seung-Wuk Lee and his student and lead author Woo-Jae Chung, the researchers published their findings in the Oct. 20, 2011, issue of Nature.
"We are very curious how nature can create many diverse structures and functions from single structural building blocks, such as collagens for animals and celluloses for plants," says Lee. "We have thought that periodic changes in cell activity--such as from day to night, or summer to winter--cause cells to secrete different amounts of macromolecules into confined and curved micro-environments, which might play critical roles in the formation of such sophisticated structures. We believe that biological helical nanofiber structures play a critical role in that process, yet for collagen and cellulose, it has proven quite difficult to engineer their chemical and physical properties to study their assembly process. Therefore, we have been looking for new, helical engineering materials."
The fundamental unit of the novel films is the bacteria-hunting virus, M13. In nature, the virus attacks Escherichia coli (E.coli), but in bioengineering laboratories, the virus is emerging as a nanoscale tool that can assemble in complex ways due to its long, slender shape and its chiral twist.
"Fortunately," adds Lee, "M13 also possesses an elegant helical surface that makes it a best fit for this study."
In the Berkeley laboratory, the viruses are suspended in a buffered salt solution, into which the engineers dip a thin substrate onto which the viruses can adhere.
By varying the speed at which they withdrew the substrates from the virus-rich solution, the concentration of viruses in the solution, and the ionic concentration, the researchers were able to craft three distinct categories of films.
The simplest film consisted of alternating bands of filaments, with the viral filaments in each band oriented perpendicular to the filaments in the adjacent band. Created using a relatively low concentration of viruses in the starter solution, the bands formed as the substrate rose out of the liquid with a repeated stick-slip motion.
To create films at the next hierarchical level of complexity, the researchers increased the concentration of viruses in the solution, which added more physical constraints to each filament's movement within its environment. As a result, the filaments bunched together into helical ribbons, with a handedness at a broader scale than the handedness of each individual virus.
With even higher concentrations-and in some experiments, greater substrate-pulling speed-the withdrawal yielded ever more complex, yet ordered, bundles of filaments that the researchers referred to as "ramen-noodle-like".
"Nature can dynamically change environmental variables when building new tissues to control an assembly process," adds Chung, the first author. "The beauty of our system is that we can do the same. By altering various parameters we drive assembly towards specific structures in a controlled manner. We can even make different structures on the same substrate."
By varying their techniques, the researchers altered the physical environment for the viral filaments, ultimately forcing the viruses to align into the highly specialized structural films. Each film is different, as expressed by differences in color, iridescence, polarity and other properties.
In one expression of those differences, structures built using faster-pulled substrates yielded patterns that reflected ever-shorter wavelengths of light--50 microns per minute yielded material that reflected light in the orange color range of the spectrum (600 nm), while 80 micrometers per minute yielded blue light (450 nm). The process was precise, allowing the researchers to tune the films to various wavelengths and colors, and induce polarization.
The researchers believe the hierarchical nature of the structures reflects the hierarchical growth patterns of similar biomolecules in nature, processes that result in chiral materials, like collagen, expressing themselves as the building blocks of a cornea in one level of self-assembly and the building blocks of skin tissue at a more complex level. Such self-assembly yields stunning macroscale structures--for example, skin tissue that appears blue on birds and blue-faced monkeys is actually not expressing the light absorption from blue pigment, but the blue light scattered by complex arrays of chiral, molecular building blocks.
"We strongly believe that our novel approach to constructing biomimetic 'self-templated', supramolecular structures closely mimics natural helical fiber assembly," says Lee. "One important reason is that we not only mimicked the biological structures, but we also discovered structures that have not been seen in nature or the laboratory, like the self-assembled 'ramen-noodle structures' with six distinct order-parameters."
In addition to crafting novel biomolecular films with unique traits, the researchers also demonstrated that the films can serve as biological substrates. The team was able to grow sheets of cells that were oriented based on the texture of such substrates, with one variation incorporating calcium and phosphate to create a biomaterial similar to tooth enamel.
"This novel, self-templating, biomaterials assembly process could be used in many other organic and inorganic materials to build hierarchical structures to tune optical, mechanical and even electrical properties from nano to macro scales," adds NSF Biomaterials program director Joseph Akkara, who helped fund the project. "The reported approaches could be used to investigate mechanisms for diseases such as Alzheimer's, which is caused by amyloid aggregation in our brain tissues. More broadly, the breakthroughs could potentially yield scientific impacts in the area of tissue regeneration and repair."
###
The Berkeley research was conducted with support from numerous sources including the National Science Foundation.
For searchable information on NSF research conducted in California, see Research.gov.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 20-Oct-2011
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