Life's a beach at Summer Games
The easiest column at any Summer Olympics is the one that makes fun of beach volleyball. It's gratuitous, petty and mean-spirited, seeking cheap laughs while ignoring the years of hard work and dedication the athletes have put into reaching their sport's highest level.
So let's get right to it. In Monday's edition of the Daily Telegraph, London mayor Boris Johnson wrote a quite hilarious piece detailing "20 reasons to be cheerful and proud about the way our London 2012 Olympics are going so far."
No. 19 went like this: "As I write these words there are semi-naked women playing beach volleyball in the middle of the Horse Guards Parade immortalized by Canaletto. They are glistening like wet otters and the water is plashing off the brims of the spectators' sou'westers. The whole thing is magnificent and bankers."
He didn't mean the sport was a joke. Try to picture running in deepish sand while chasing down a smartly batted volleyball on a 64-square-metre patch of territory far too large for two people to adequately defend. It's hard. It's even harder when you're wearing a bikini on a cold, windy, rainy night, are glistening like an otter and have goosebumps the size of ... wait, those aren't goosebumps.
No, what Boris was saying was that the juxtaposition of this clearly wacky enterprise and the epicentre of English history is strikingly incongruous. So much fun, in the middle of so much seriousness.
For all kinds of reasons - beginning with the scarcity of civic leaders with a sense of humour, and history that began the day before yesterday com-pared to the antiquity all about London - this could never hap-pen in Canada.
Peering down at the ersatz beach from the press seating area, Big Ben, sounding the 11 o'clock hour, Parliament and Westminster Abbey are off to the right, the Churchill War Rooms over the right shoulder, Buckingham Palace directly behind, the Old Admiralty building to the left, and the old War Office building and Lon-don Eye (across the Thames, but looking very close) ahead.
Within a couple of blocks are 10 Downing Street and Scot-land Yard. The elaborate changing of the guard ceremony, which is normally carried out promptly at 11 - not only on foot by the Palace guards but also, on horseback, right on the site of this patch of sand in the middle of a 15,000-seat Mec-cano set - has been temporarily moved to the other side of the Horse Guards building.
This ancient rite is taking place, then, in stately precision while being serenaded from the beach's speaker system by AC/ DC's Back in Black, Queen's We Will Rock You, House of Pain's Jump Around and - the piece de resistance - Miami Sound Machine's Conga, the latter accompanied by a troupe of scantily clad dancers gyrating for the crowd's enjoyment.
On a warm, sunny Monday, the crowd was enjoying it very much. London 2012 may be suffering an early crisis of unused tickets leaving venues looking half-empty, but beach volley-ball is going gangbusters.
Even on the cool, wet days, the female players have staunchly refused to put on the long-sleeved tops or long-suit bottoms, everyone's all shiny and bronzed and sleek and tattooed just enough to be attractive - (Boris Johnson again: "16. The Olympics are proving to be a boost to tattoo parlours. Plenty of people seem to want their thighs inscribed with 'Oylimpics 2012' and other ineradicable misspellings ...") - because, let's face it, the sport doesn't exactly hide its sexy under a bushel.
On that score, the Canadian men's team of Toronto's Joshua Binstock and Comox, B.C.'s Martin Reader - a 6-foot-7 part-time model - is well up the standings. They're only 1-1 in matches played so far, though, because Monday they were roundly beaten in straight sets, 21-14, 21-14, by Norway's Tarjei Skarlund and Martin Spinnangr.
Fortunately, it's a round-robin, and even if they lose again to Brazil on Wednesday, they could still get through to the next round as a "Lucky Loser." Of course, they'd have to win a raffle, or something, to be one, but that's life on the beach.
Still, they weren't delighted with their effort.
"Not up to our calibre. I didn't take care of our first touches, and that kind of took away from our second and thirds," said Binstock. "They're smart. But our serving didn't put enough pressure on them."
The venue, and all the shenanigans within it, weren't a factor. It's the way the sport is. The raking crew comes out to smooth the surface a couple of times per match, and the P.A. announcer, who's got to have leather lungs because he's "on" all day, leads the crowd in a cheer. The dancers, ditto.
Beach volleyball players travel to all kinds of exotic locales to play - Gstaad, Brasilia, Shanghai, Prague, Moscow, Rome, Berlin - but the Horse Guards Parade is special.
"It's not as hot as the rest of them, but it's the best by far," said Reader. "All the amenities are amazing, sound system, music choice, the energy, and people understand and cheer for the athleticism of the rallies, not just one country."
"The scale isn't much different," Binstock said. "I mean, maybe it's not 15,000 but Klagenfurt, Austria has 10,000, so you get the feel of that for sure. For sure you have more pride [in the Olympics], friends and family are there, but in terms of motivation, it's all the same."
And yes, Reader says, he does listen to the music.
"Oh, yeah, I love electronic music and I know quite a few of the artists they're playing, so I jam out on the court and get a little bit of energy from it, so I dig it, and the choice of words by the guy on the microphone, I hear that as well."
The sum of the surrounding distractions from the actual sport - the music, the dancers, the hot bodies, the on-court histrionics - probably makes it harder to take the athletes as seriously as they deserve, though the participants think that bridge has long since been crossed, by the Sinjin Smiths and Misty May-Treanors of the California beaches.
"In the '90s, guys were making so much money off endorsements and they were very well respected as athletes," Reader said. "I think people have given the [competition] a little trouble just because we have dancers at the Olympic Games, and don't take it seriously, but I think people realize how much physical prowess it takes to be out here." But they don't mind the dancers so much, either. Or the surroundings.
"What can I say? It's the best spot we could have chosen in London," said Latvia's Alek-sandrs Samoilovs. "All the other athletes are jealous. It's the best [venue] ever."
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
North India blackout: 7 states suffer, govt promises power back by late afternoon
North India blackout: 7 states suffer, govt promises power back by late afternoon
Power supply in seven states across north India was hit early on Monday following a breakdown in the Northern Grid, an official said. Apart from Delhi, supply in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir were disrupted.
He also said that essential services have been restored and the remaining will be restored in around 2 hours. The minister also said a probe has been ordered into the failure of power in the northern region.
Earlier today, power supply was disrupted in seven states from 2.32 a.m. It is now partially affected in Delhi and Rajasthan. We are in the process of restoring the supply," VV Sharma, general manager of Power System Operation Corporation Limited, said.
According to the Power System Operation Corp Ltd, the exact reasons for the grid failure are being ascertained.
"The trouble resulted in power outage in the entire northern region, but for parts of Badarpur in south Delhi, Narora and Simbhauli in Uttar Pradesh and Bhinma in Rajasthan," a statement said.
The company, a subsidiary of the state-run Power Grid Corporation of India, which manages the grid, said effort was underway to seek supplies from the eastern and the western regions, even as power to the railway system had been partially restored.
"The restoration of the grid may take a few more hours. The engineers have been trying to restore it since early morning. We are giving first priority to public services like hospitals and transport," Sharma added.
According to reports, this is the worst northern grid failure since 2001.
Metro services in Delhi has been hit due to power failure. Water and electricity supply across seven states in north India were also hit. The power supply is slowly being restored now.
The power supply was hit in seven states since the northern grid collapsed. Power was restored in some parts of these states by around 9 am.
According to power ministry officials the situation will return to normal by noon in Delhi.
Thousands of rush-hour passengers faced lot of problem as metro services were hit and there was major traffic jam in many parts of Delhi.
By 9:30 am, the situation was much better on all six lines on the Delhi Metro.
Power failure also hit Delhi's six water treatment plants. According to media reports, five of water treatment plants are now operational. Delhi's Jal Board water pumping stations have also been hit. The Jal Board's are being given priority by the power companies.
Huge traffic jams and chaos could be seen on the Delhi road's as traffic signals were down due to power failure. The Traffic Police are trying to physically man the traffic at some places.
The train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh due to collapse of the northern grid this morning, leaving a large number of
passengers stranded.
A number of passenger trains bound for Delhi and beyond, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Ferozepur and Kalka were stranded at way side stations due to failure of electricity, a senior railway official said.
He said efforts were on to move the passenger trains with diesel engines after detaching them from running goods trains which would remain halted at way side railway stations.
The stations where passenger trains were stranded include Ambala, Kurukshetra, Phillaur, Sirhind, Ludhiana, Phagwara and Karnal.
Some trains were stranded mid way as the electric engines hauling them came to a halt due to failure of power. Kalka Chandigarh Delhi Shatabdi Express left the local station 90 minutes behind scheduled departure of 6.53 am after a diesel engine was attached to it.
The trains affected include Amritsar Delhi Shatabdi Express, Allahabad Chandigarh Unchahaar, Lucknow Chandigarh Sadbhavna, Howraha Kalka Mail, Delhi Jammu Mail and a number of other super fast, express, passenger and local trains.
The official said that the signal system had also blanked at a number of places due to the power failure.
The hospital services were also affected in many places.
However, operations at the Delhi airport largely remained unaffected due to the failure of Northern Grid. "As soon as there was a disruption in power supply, all our essential services like flight arrival and departure, check-in, baggage handling, aerobridge services were shifted to our back-up system.
So all these operations remained normal", an airport spokesperson said. "We have one of the best DG (Diesel Generating) back-up system of the world.
However, there might be some disruption in our non-essential services", he added. There were reports of air conditioning not functioning in Terminal 1D and some portions of Terminal 3. Also, there was no power in some retail outlets at the airport.
"Overall ninety-five percent of our services remained unaffected", a spokesperson said.
According to reports, preliminary enquiry shows the collapse happened due to a fault near Agra.
Power supply in seven states across north India was hit early on Monday following a breakdown in the Northern Grid, an official said. Apart from Delhi, supply in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir were disrupted.
He also said that essential services have been restored and the remaining will be restored in around 2 hours. The minister also said a probe has been ordered into the failure of power in the northern region.
Earlier today, power supply was disrupted in seven states from 2.32 a.m. It is now partially affected in Delhi and Rajasthan. We are in the process of restoring the supply," VV Sharma, general manager of Power System Operation Corporation Limited, said.
According to the Power System Operation Corp Ltd, the exact reasons for the grid failure are being ascertained.
"The trouble resulted in power outage in the entire northern region, but for parts of Badarpur in south Delhi, Narora and Simbhauli in Uttar Pradesh and Bhinma in Rajasthan," a statement said.
The company, a subsidiary of the state-run Power Grid Corporation of India, which manages the grid, said effort was underway to seek supplies from the eastern and the western regions, even as power to the railway system had been partially restored.
"The restoration of the grid may take a few more hours. The engineers have been trying to restore it since early morning. We are giving first priority to public services like hospitals and transport," Sharma added.
According to reports, this is the worst northern grid failure since 2001.
Metro services in Delhi has been hit due to power failure. Water and electricity supply across seven states in north India were also hit. The power supply is slowly being restored now.
The power supply was hit in seven states since the northern grid collapsed. Power was restored in some parts of these states by around 9 am.
According to power ministry officials the situation will return to normal by noon in Delhi.
Thousands of rush-hour passengers faced lot of problem as metro services were hit and there was major traffic jam in many parts of Delhi.
By 9:30 am, the situation was much better on all six lines on the Delhi Metro.
Power failure also hit Delhi's six water treatment plants. According to media reports, five of water treatment plants are now operational. Delhi's Jal Board water pumping stations have also been hit. The Jal Board's are being given priority by the power companies.
Huge traffic jams and chaos could be seen on the Delhi road's as traffic signals were down due to power failure. The Traffic Police are trying to physically man the traffic at some places.
The train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh due to collapse of the northern grid this morning, leaving a large number of
passengers stranded.
A number of passenger trains bound for Delhi and beyond, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Ferozepur and Kalka were stranded at way side stations due to failure of electricity, a senior railway official said.
He said efforts were on to move the passenger trains with diesel engines after detaching them from running goods trains which would remain halted at way side railway stations.
The stations where passenger trains were stranded include Ambala, Kurukshetra, Phillaur, Sirhind, Ludhiana, Phagwara and Karnal.
Some trains were stranded mid way as the electric engines hauling them came to a halt due to failure of power. Kalka Chandigarh Delhi Shatabdi Express left the local station 90 minutes behind scheduled departure of 6.53 am after a diesel engine was attached to it.
The trains affected include Amritsar Delhi Shatabdi Express, Allahabad Chandigarh Unchahaar, Lucknow Chandigarh Sadbhavna, Howraha Kalka Mail, Delhi Jammu Mail and a number of other super fast, express, passenger and local trains.
The official said that the signal system had also blanked at a number of places due to the power failure.
The hospital services were also affected in many places.
However, operations at the Delhi airport largely remained unaffected due to the failure of Northern Grid. "As soon as there was a disruption in power supply, all our essential services like flight arrival and departure, check-in, baggage handling, aerobridge services were shifted to our back-up system.
So all these operations remained normal", an airport spokesperson said. "We have one of the best DG (Diesel Generating) back-up system of the world.
However, there might be some disruption in our non-essential services", he added. There were reports of air conditioning not functioning in Terminal 1D and some portions of Terminal 3. Also, there was no power in some retail outlets at the airport.
"Overall ninety-five percent of our services remained unaffected", a spokesperson said.
According to reports, preliminary enquiry shows the collapse happened due to a fault near Agra.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Life after Slumdog Millionaire
How do you top your performance after debuting in a huge box-office crossover film like Slumdog Millionaire? "Well, you tell the producers you're not just an exotic girl," said actress Freida Pinto at the New York preview of her latest film, Trishna.
Pinto's leading role as Trishna, in an adaption of Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented by Thomas Hardy published in 1891, proves she is emerging as a serious actress in her own right, clearly not just an exotic girl from India, and someone to be taken seriously as Indian cinema makes yet another attempt to cross over into the Western consciousness. I
just hope she does not burn out and crash like the character she plays in Trishna.
The film has won accolades at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2011 London Film Festival. "All the social and cultural conditions that Hardy was writing about - urbanization, education, transport, social mobility and so on - are there in an even more extreme form in India," director Michael Winterbottom said at the opening in Toronto.
The film narrates the story of a rural Rajasthani girl who works in a hotel as a waitress after her father falls ill because of an accident. She comes under the spell of rich British-Indian hotelier Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed), who is an heir to a business clan and offers her financial inducements to come work for him. He seems enchanted by her simple yet elegant beauty, while she is taken with his power and the attention showered on her.
They appear to fall in "love" - if that's an appropriate emotion to define what a rural Indian girl might experience when she is working for a powerful boss who showers her with favors and manages to seduce her. Trishna actually willingly elopes with him to Mumbai to get away from her depressive rural life and to experience the thrill of a big city. While living in Mumbai, she flirts with Bollywood dancing and joins a dance troop.
The story appears tenderly fresh as it meanders leisurely through the old country palaces converted into landmark Rajasthani hotels. We get a tourist's-eye view of life in the male-dominated north Indian social and architectural structures, particularly of the divide between the "real India" and the "incredible India".
Leaving behind the life seen from the window of a five-star hotel - the postcard of "Incredible India" seen on buses and train stops in Western capitals - seems inviting or hypnotic, yet turns out to be arid and barren. The "real India" is what Jay discovers when he befriends Trishna and visits her home at the outskirts of town - driving on dirt-baked narrow streets, with heat and dust swirling around him - his muse seems to fade away like a mirage into the congested slums surrounded by the desert.
In getting to know Trishna, Jay encounters a refraction of the Indian feminine unconscious. Cultural psychoanalysts such as Sudhir Kakar have theorized that Indian subjectivity, especially among female clients, is deep and private, less verbal and not as overtly animated as in other cultures, appearing to be docile and passive yet engaged. Much goes unsaid and unspoken, never given a voice or communicated indirectly.
This is certainly true of Trishna's manner of communication, which Pinto likened to the role of "being in an almost silent film". She said her challenge in the role was to absorb and "to withhold" emotions on the screen, not to express them openly.
Indeed, Trishna says very little on the screen, but the tension is felt by the audience nonetheless. The underlying tension in the film plays on the sexual dynamic between Jay and Trishna, which seems frankly open for an Indian audience though commonplace for Western moviegoers. However, within the contemporary context of Rajasthan, it is not clear where it is heading: a marriage, a romance or just a fling?
Deeper into the film, when Jay feels he has complete psychological and sexual control over Trishna, he asks her a question paraphrased from the famed manual of love the Kama Sutra: "A woman can be a maid, a mistress and a concubine - which one are you?"
"All three, I guess," he offers in a narcissistic reply to his own question while Trishna stands in dumb silence looking puzzled and feeling plainly hurt and abused.
The movie then turns from tender to tragic, splattering darkness throughout an otherwise lighthearted story. At the end, the film lays bare the acute sadness of Trishna's life, while making a bold statement about the role of Indian women in contemporary society. The story probably describes the challenges many young girls face in India today as they come of age in rapidly changing times.
If there is a problematic issue with the film, it is that Winterbottom has tried to impose a 19th-century English narrative on to 21st-century India, while relying on the historical knowledge of the exotic tales of the Raj, to capture the psychological and sexual struggles of India women. "It's quite a complex relationship," he said. "In the end it's just a hunch, and you hope it works out." In final analysis, it is a worthy effort, which largely succeeds on the back of Freida Pinto's strong performance.
Another well-known director and producer, Anurag Kashyap, who makes a cameo appearance in the film, seems to have had a hand in shaping the narrative. Pinto said at the New York preview that she was "proud to be associated with the new-wave Indian cinema started by Kashyap". Whether she will be part of Bollywood films is not clear, but does Pinto need Bollywood commercial films after starring in such blockbusters as Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger?
It will be debated by film historians whether Slumdog Millionaire represented the watershed moment for crossover Indian cinema given that it was a British production led by Danny Boyle, director of the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. There is no doubt it launched Freida Pinto as one of its brightest stars into the Hollywood universe. Part and parcel of globalization of filmmaking, Pinto personifies with seeming ease both the "real India" and the "incredible India", while making us all think and muse about the endless possibilities for the future.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Life-threatening illness: To tell or not to tell?
Life-threatening illness: To tell or not to tell?
In 1976, as a 24-year-old grad student, Samira Beckwith was diagnosed with the thing people still whispered about: cancer.
She was in and out of the hospital, had five surgeries and endured round after round of chemotherapy and radiation as she battled Hodgkin's lymphoma. Beyond a few professors and close friends, she didn't routinely tell people of her bleak diagnosis as she focused on staying alive.
Years later, as she was about to turn 50, disaster struck again. This time it was breast cancer and a double mastectomy. Her desire for a bit of privacy was the same, but society and sickness had become a share-all whirl.
"Back the first time around, people didn't want to hear or talk about cancer. But the boundaries changed, and the second time it was breast cancer. People really like to talk about breast cancer," said Beckwith, now 59 and clinical director of a health care services company in Fort Myers, Fla.
"But there are still many people who want to keep their illness, keep the decisions that they're making, within a close circle," she said. "They don't want to be out there on Facebook. It's almost like there's something wrong with them because they don't want to share."
Nora Ephron might have agreed. The humorist who chronicled her life in books and lent romance a laugh in movies kept her leukemia largely locked down to the point that her death last month at age 71 stunned even some close friends. If she had any wisecracks about cancer, she didn't share them with the world.
There's no one right way to handle news of a life-threatening diagnosis, but how difficult is it for people to tell or not tell, and at what cost?
Michael Jaillet, a senior executive at Dell, learned June 20, 2011, that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. It was the "ultimate horror," he said. Only his wife and three brothers knew for several months as he sought out a diagnosis, then second and third and fourth opinions.
Among those initially left out of the loop were co-workers and his three children, now 14, 13 and 11.
"It became, in a lot of ways, a bigger burden than the disease," Jaillet said of the secret. "It's guilt, tiptoeing around, talking in code. It's clearing out your email or your Internet browser every night because you know your kids are going to get on and you don't want them to see what you've been researching."
Now "out" and active in raising money for research and supporting others with ALS, the 41-year-old Jaillet sees dignity in going public and embracing a broader base of emotional support.
"I feel like I've got a torch that I have to carry," he said.
Often with limited energy and a need to maintain normal routines, people faced with life-changing illness may not know how to go about deciding when, how and how much to disclose.
"Someone's going to know. Word's going to get out and then you're in a position and they're in a position of sort of dancing around the elephant in the room," said psychotherapist Fredda Wasserman, who has spent 40 years helping people navigate that journey.
Anticipating how people will react can be a huge source of anxiety, said Wasserman, clinical director of Our House, a grief counseling and support center in Los Angeles and co-author of the 2010 book "Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love."
If sharing the journey is a priority, then be clear about what you need from those you tell, she suggests. An offer of dinner, for instance, doesn't have to mean a night of chitchat with the person who brought it. Do you need jokes to keep you laughing or a shoulder for crying?
"People sometimes want to pray for you. If they do, you can tell them what you're hoping for," she said. "If I'm looking for a cure, that. Maybe I'm just hoping for a day free of pain. Maybe I'm looking for the strength and courage to face what is ahead for me. Let me tell you what I want."
For others, talking about their illness is the last thing they want to do.
"It makes them feel worse," Wasserman said. "It's, 'I don't want to think of myself as a cancer patient. I don't want to be talking about my aches and pains.' Sometimes people will tell and then really regret it, because they're being treated differently."
Taking control of the conversation is important, she said.
"Say, 'Look, I don't want you to treat me like I'm dying, or I don't want you to treat me like I'm pathetic,'" Wasserman said. "That's one reason why a lot of people don't tell. Their skin cringes to have people talk to them like that."
Jessica Aguirre, the mother of two young boys in Green Acres, Fla., was 29 when diagnosed with breast cancer nearly two years ago. Her bad news came just three days before she received a promotion to manager of the cell phone store where she is now on medical leave, after the cancer spread to her brain.
"I just decided to be completely open with everything and everyone at work," she said. "I just thought, you know what, maybe having this can help somebody else. I think that if you do keep it to yourself it will eat you up inside."
In 1976, as a 24-year-old grad student, Samira Beckwith was diagnosed with the thing people still whispered about: cancer.
She was in and out of the hospital, had five surgeries and endured round after round of chemotherapy and radiation as she battled Hodgkin's lymphoma. Beyond a few professors and close friends, she didn't routinely tell people of her bleak diagnosis as she focused on staying alive.
Years later, as she was about to turn 50, disaster struck again. This time it was breast cancer and a double mastectomy. Her desire for a bit of privacy was the same, but society and sickness had become a share-all whirl.
"Back the first time around, people didn't want to hear or talk about cancer. But the boundaries changed, and the second time it was breast cancer. People really like to talk about breast cancer," said Beckwith, now 59 and clinical director of a health care services company in Fort Myers, Fla.
"But there are still many people who want to keep their illness, keep the decisions that they're making, within a close circle," she said. "They don't want to be out there on Facebook. It's almost like there's something wrong with them because they don't want to share."
Nora Ephron might have agreed. The humorist who chronicled her life in books and lent romance a laugh in movies kept her leukemia largely locked down to the point that her death last month at age 71 stunned even some close friends. If she had any wisecracks about cancer, she didn't share them with the world.
There's no one right way to handle news of a life-threatening diagnosis, but how difficult is it for people to tell or not tell, and at what cost?
Michael Jaillet, a senior executive at Dell, learned June 20, 2011, that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. It was the "ultimate horror," he said. Only his wife and three brothers knew for several months as he sought out a diagnosis, then second and third and fourth opinions.
Among those initially left out of the loop were co-workers and his three children, now 14, 13 and 11.
"It became, in a lot of ways, a bigger burden than the disease," Jaillet said of the secret. "It's guilt, tiptoeing around, talking in code. It's clearing out your email or your Internet browser every night because you know your kids are going to get on and you don't want them to see what you've been researching."
Now "out" and active in raising money for research and supporting others with ALS, the 41-year-old Jaillet sees dignity in going public and embracing a broader base of emotional support.
"I feel like I've got a torch that I have to carry," he said.
Often with limited energy and a need to maintain normal routines, people faced with life-changing illness may not know how to go about deciding when, how and how much to disclose.
"Someone's going to know. Word's going to get out and then you're in a position and they're in a position of sort of dancing around the elephant in the room," said psychotherapist Fredda Wasserman, who has spent 40 years helping people navigate that journey.
Anticipating how people will react can be a huge source of anxiety, said Wasserman, clinical director of Our House, a grief counseling and support center in Los Angeles and co-author of the 2010 book "Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love."
If sharing the journey is a priority, then be clear about what you need from those you tell, she suggests. An offer of dinner, for instance, doesn't have to mean a night of chitchat with the person who brought it. Do you need jokes to keep you laughing or a shoulder for crying?
"People sometimes want to pray for you. If they do, you can tell them what you're hoping for," she said. "If I'm looking for a cure, that. Maybe I'm just hoping for a day free of pain. Maybe I'm looking for the strength and courage to face what is ahead for me. Let me tell you what I want."
For others, talking about their illness is the last thing they want to do.
"It makes them feel worse," Wasserman said. "It's, 'I don't want to think of myself as a cancer patient. I don't want to be talking about my aches and pains.' Sometimes people will tell and then really regret it, because they're being treated differently."
Taking control of the conversation is important, she said.
"Say, 'Look, I don't want you to treat me like I'm dying, or I don't want you to treat me like I'm pathetic,'" Wasserman said. "That's one reason why a lot of people don't tell. Their skin cringes to have people talk to them like that."
Jessica Aguirre, the mother of two young boys in Green Acres, Fla., was 29 when diagnosed with breast cancer nearly two years ago. Her bad news came just three days before she received a promotion to manager of the cell phone store where she is now on medical leave, after the cancer spread to her brain.
"I just decided to be completely open with everything and everyone at work," she said. "I just thought, you know what, maybe having this can help somebody else. I think that if you do keep it to yourself it will eat you up inside."
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Life in the fast lane? Olympic lanes to zip VIPs across London, but leave drivers confused
Life in the fast lane? Olympic lanes to zip VIPs across London, but leave drivers confused
Sabir Karim, a lifelong Londoner, was alarmed to find this week that a familiar city road had suddenly turned into an impossible challenge.
Officials had redrawn its lanes, leaving him only two options: The bus lane on the left, or the new Olympic “Games Lane,” restricted for the sole use of officials and athletes, on the right. The restaurant owner didn’t know what to do, but he knew that fines awaited him if he drove in either lane.
I was literally trapped,” he said. “I panicked. It was a scary and horrendous experience.”
Bafflement and long waits reigned on London’s roads this week as drivers struggled to comprehend the new lane changes, diversions, banned turns and parking restrictions for the Olympics, which officially open on Friday.
As host city, London is as cosmopolitan as they come, but transport is its weak spot: Traffic often clogs up its narrow, historic roads, bus schedules can change at a moment’s notice, and the subway (the famous Underground) suffers from daily delays and century-old infrastructure.
The road changes, which came into full force Wednesday morning, are causing additional pain. There were traffic backups in some parts of central London early Wednesday as commuters coped with the new restrictions, and there were signs that many motorists had switched to public transport to avoid the hassle.
“Drivers do have somewhere to go, but it’s been a bit confusing,” said Paul Watters, head of road policy at the British Automobile Association. “We know it’s going to be tricky and difficult, and it’s bound to be full of teething problems. We’re almost there now so hopefully it will be better.”
Even if it all goes smoothly — a big if — the 30 miles (48 kilometers) of Olympics-only road lanes are likely to remain deeply unpopular among Britons.
Critics argue that these lanes — open only to Olympic athletes, officials, journalists, emergency services and games marketing partners — are elitist and make life difficult for everyone else. Driving on the lanes, widely dubbed “Zil lanes” after the Russian limos granted exclusive use of special lanes on Soviet-era highways, can cost you a fine of up to 130 pounds ($202).
Britain relies on traffic cameras to spot infractions, so many people won’t know they’ve been ticketed till the bad news arrives in the mail.
The International Olympic Committee had specifically demanded the lanes be created after learning lessons from previous games — one of the worst being Atlanta in 1996, now remembered as the one where bus drivers got lost and some athletes arrived moments before their events.
In London, some of the loudest opposition to the Olympic VIP lanes has come from the city’s cabbies, who have staged two demonstrations in the past two weeks that brought central London traffic to a standstill. Like the rest of the public, they’re banned from the Olympic lanes, which they say jeopardizes their business by creating much longer — and costlier — cab rides for customers.
“We’re not going to be able to drop passengers where they want to go,” said Lee Osborne of the United Cabbies Group, which protested with about 50 cabs at Tower Bridge on Tuesday. “Traffic in London is pretty bad as it is, and now passengers are going to suffer with the meter just ticking away.”
Even on a normal day, driving in London is rarely a smooth experience. For a city of its size, it has surprisingly few highways or wide thoroughfares, which means that most roads have multiple traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. Olympics organizers have repeatedly urged people to avoid driving their cars, to walk and bike ride around, and for spectators to go to events using public transport.
That’s easier said than done. London’s Tube network is the most popular way to get across town, but it groans with age — its first line, the Metropolitan line, opened in 1863. Today, that line still runs alongside more than a dozen others in a half-modernized system that handles roughly 12 million trips a day.
Officials are expecting up to 15 million subway trips a day during the Olympics.
The British government has injected 6.5 billion pounds ($10 billion) to upgrade the network ahead of the Olympics, but it’s still riddled with daily problems. On Tuesday, extensive delays hit the key Javelin high-speed train from central London to the Olympic Park, and on Monday, multiple key lines leading to the park broke down during the morning rush hour.
“It can’t even cope in normal times, all it takes is one problem and the whole system gets paralyzed,” said Tony Shelton, an accountant who was riding the Northern line. His journey was only slightly delayed but he said: “I’ll probably avoid coming into town.”
Not everyone is so downbeat. Many others are proudly standing by their Tube and their city.
“It was absolutely fine today. I’m sure it will be all right,” said Amelia Alvares, a marketing manager. “It’s not perfect, but it will work.”
Sabir Karim, a lifelong Londoner, was alarmed to find this week that a familiar city road had suddenly turned into an impossible challenge.
Officials had redrawn its lanes, leaving him only two options: The bus lane on the left, or the new Olympic “Games Lane,” restricted for the sole use of officials and athletes, on the right. The restaurant owner didn’t know what to do, but he knew that fines awaited him if he drove in either lane.
I was literally trapped,” he said. “I panicked. It was a scary and horrendous experience.”
Bafflement and long waits reigned on London’s roads this week as drivers struggled to comprehend the new lane changes, diversions, banned turns and parking restrictions for the Olympics, which officially open on Friday.
As host city, London is as cosmopolitan as they come, but transport is its weak spot: Traffic often clogs up its narrow, historic roads, bus schedules can change at a moment’s notice, and the subway (the famous Underground) suffers from daily delays and century-old infrastructure.
The road changes, which came into full force Wednesday morning, are causing additional pain. There were traffic backups in some parts of central London early Wednesday as commuters coped with the new restrictions, and there were signs that many motorists had switched to public transport to avoid the hassle.
“Drivers do have somewhere to go, but it’s been a bit confusing,” said Paul Watters, head of road policy at the British Automobile Association. “We know it’s going to be tricky and difficult, and it’s bound to be full of teething problems. We’re almost there now so hopefully it will be better.”
Even if it all goes smoothly — a big if — the 30 miles (48 kilometers) of Olympics-only road lanes are likely to remain deeply unpopular among Britons.
Critics argue that these lanes — open only to Olympic athletes, officials, journalists, emergency services and games marketing partners — are elitist and make life difficult for everyone else. Driving on the lanes, widely dubbed “Zil lanes” after the Russian limos granted exclusive use of special lanes on Soviet-era highways, can cost you a fine of up to 130 pounds ($202).
Britain relies on traffic cameras to spot infractions, so many people won’t know they’ve been ticketed till the bad news arrives in the mail.
The International Olympic Committee had specifically demanded the lanes be created after learning lessons from previous games — one of the worst being Atlanta in 1996, now remembered as the one where bus drivers got lost and some athletes arrived moments before their events.
In London, some of the loudest opposition to the Olympic VIP lanes has come from the city’s cabbies, who have staged two demonstrations in the past two weeks that brought central London traffic to a standstill. Like the rest of the public, they’re banned from the Olympic lanes, which they say jeopardizes their business by creating much longer — and costlier — cab rides for customers.
“We’re not going to be able to drop passengers where they want to go,” said Lee Osborne of the United Cabbies Group, which protested with about 50 cabs at Tower Bridge on Tuesday. “Traffic in London is pretty bad as it is, and now passengers are going to suffer with the meter just ticking away.”
Even on a normal day, driving in London is rarely a smooth experience. For a city of its size, it has surprisingly few highways or wide thoroughfares, which means that most roads have multiple traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. Olympics organizers have repeatedly urged people to avoid driving their cars, to walk and bike ride around, and for spectators to go to events using public transport.
That’s easier said than done. London’s Tube network is the most popular way to get across town, but it groans with age — its first line, the Metropolitan line, opened in 1863. Today, that line still runs alongside more than a dozen others in a half-modernized system that handles roughly 12 million trips a day.
Officials are expecting up to 15 million subway trips a day during the Olympics.
The British government has injected 6.5 billion pounds ($10 billion) to upgrade the network ahead of the Olympics, but it’s still riddled with daily problems. On Tuesday, extensive delays hit the key Javelin high-speed train from central London to the Olympic Park, and on Monday, multiple key lines leading to the park broke down during the morning rush hour.
“It can’t even cope in normal times, all it takes is one problem and the whole system gets paralyzed,” said Tony Shelton, an accountant who was riding the Northern line. His journey was only slightly delayed but he said: “I’ll probably avoid coming into town.”
Not everyone is so downbeat. Many others are proudly standing by their Tube and their city.
“It was absolutely fine today. I’m sure it will be all right,” said Amelia Alvares, a marketing manager. “It’s not perfect, but it will work.”
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Amelia Earhart: A life worth celebrating
Amelia Earhart: A life worth celebrating
Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. This is the place where her grandparents used to live. Her mother Amy Earhart had suffered a miscarriage before and moved in with her parents before Amelia was born. During this period Edwin Earhart, her father remained with his law practice in Kansas City.
Alfred Otis, Amelia's grandfather, was one of the distinguished citizens of Atchison and a wealthy man. He was the one responsible for sending Amelia and her sister Muriel to private schools and providing them with comforts of life. Even in her childhood, Amelia was an adventurous kid and spent hours playing with Pidge, climbing trees and hunting rats with a rifle.
Amelia was about 10 years old when she spotted the first airplane Iowa State Fair but at that time she was more fascinated by the peach basket paper hat that she bought at the fair than the airplane.
She had enrolled herself as a pre-med student at Columbia University in 1919 and despite being good in studies Amelia dropped out of college in 1920 to join her mother and father in California.
It was here that Amelia attended an 'aerial meet' along with her father and the very next day she boarded the open-cockpit biplane for a 10 minute flight over Los Angeles. Describing the experience in her own words, Amelia had stated, "As soon as we left the ground I knew I myself had to fly!" and thus began her love interest with flying.
Amelia has many aviation records to her credit including becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. She disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigational flight of the globe.
Her grandparent's home has now been converted into a museum known as 'Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and the organisation Ninety-Nines Inc. manages the same. It is her life and 115th birthday that is being celebrated by Google doodle today.
Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. This is the place where her grandparents used to live. Her mother Amy Earhart had suffered a miscarriage before and moved in with her parents before Amelia was born. During this period Edwin Earhart, her father remained with his law practice in Kansas City.
Alfred Otis, Amelia's grandfather, was one of the distinguished citizens of Atchison and a wealthy man. He was the one responsible for sending Amelia and her sister Muriel to private schools and providing them with comforts of life. Even in her childhood, Amelia was an adventurous kid and spent hours playing with Pidge, climbing trees and hunting rats with a rifle.
Amelia was about 10 years old when she spotted the first airplane Iowa State Fair but at that time she was more fascinated by the peach basket paper hat that she bought at the fair than the airplane.
She had enrolled herself as a pre-med student at Columbia University in 1919 and despite being good in studies Amelia dropped out of college in 1920 to join her mother and father in California.
It was here that Amelia attended an 'aerial meet' along with her father and the very next day she boarded the open-cockpit biplane for a 10 minute flight over Los Angeles. Describing the experience in her own words, Amelia had stated, "As soon as we left the ground I knew I myself had to fly!" and thus began her love interest with flying.
Amelia has many aviation records to her credit including becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. She disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigational flight of the globe.
Her grandparent's home has now been converted into a museum known as 'Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and the organisation Ninety-Nines Inc. manages the same. It is her life and 115th birthday that is being celebrated by Google doodle today.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Aurora pastor: 'The storms of life happen to all of us'
Aurora pastor: 'The storms of life happen to all of us'
Even as some ministers and theologians tried to make sense of Friday's deadly attack in Aurora, Colo., Pastor Jeff Noble of Aurora's New Life Community Church told his congregation that it's not possible to understand how God could allow such a tragedy to happen.
“When our world goes periodically crazy, a flood of questions can come into our minds,” Noble said during his Sunday morning sermon. “The question we all probably struggle with: Why did God allow this? My response is: I don’t know."
A five-minute drive from the movie theater, the church, like many institutions in Aurora, was touched by the violence: a former student in their youth ministry lost his father, Weston Cowden, and a member of the nearby Buckley Air Force base said an airwoman in his unit was one of the 58 injured.
In the days since the attack, the church has helped provide meals to the military base, offered counseling services, and shared information on those affected by the shootings.
Noble told the congregation that he started “bawling like a baby” as he drove past the scene of the theater massacre on Friday, “because I think it was then that it hit me. This wasn’t some TV show. This wasn’t some event that happened 1,000 miles away,” he said. “It happened in our community.”
During the service, members of the church got up to say prayers for loved ones and even those they don't know.
“It’s not only okay but it’s good to express your honest feelings to God and to others about how you’re feeling … about this situation,” Noble told the few hundred people in attendance.
He urged members of the church to be a comfort to others. He said, too, that the attack was a reminder that everyone’s days were numbered and it was important, however unpleasant, to think about that.
After the service, during which people shed tears, hugged one another and clenched their hands in prayer, one man said he couldn't believe he could ever feel fearful in a place like Aurora.
“I’m just so hurt. I just can’t believe that somebody would do this,” said Daniel Sharp of the 310th Unit Reservist at nearby Buckley. “I would have never imagined living in fear here ... fear is unfortunately right now on every street corner it seems like. It’s really not, but in our minds, because of this event.”
Another churchgoer, 18-year-old Scott Shreffler, said he took encouragement from the lyrics of a song that was sung during the service: “greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.”
“This summer has been very tough on Colorado,” he said, adding that he felt the presence of God while he was singing, telling him that “it's going to be alright and good things are going to come out of this.”
When asked by a reporter what he told people, such as those directly affected by the tragedy, to help them through this difficult time, Noble, the minister, said “the most important thing right now is just to listen, hug and pray.”
“It's not anywhere near the time to start coming in and being a theologian and giving theological … arguments on different things,” Noble said.
“Unfortunately, the storms come to every person, whether they’re great followers of God or never darkened the door of a church … the storms of life happen to all of us.”
Even as some ministers and theologians tried to make sense of Friday's deadly attack in Aurora, Colo., Pastor Jeff Noble of Aurora's New Life Community Church told his congregation that it's not possible to understand how God could allow such a tragedy to happen.
“When our world goes periodically crazy, a flood of questions can come into our minds,” Noble said during his Sunday morning sermon. “The question we all probably struggle with: Why did God allow this? My response is: I don’t know."
A five-minute drive from the movie theater, the church, like many institutions in Aurora, was touched by the violence: a former student in their youth ministry lost his father, Weston Cowden, and a member of the nearby Buckley Air Force base said an airwoman in his unit was one of the 58 injured.
In the days since the attack, the church has helped provide meals to the military base, offered counseling services, and shared information on those affected by the shootings.
Noble told the congregation that he started “bawling like a baby” as he drove past the scene of the theater massacre on Friday, “because I think it was then that it hit me. This wasn’t some TV show. This wasn’t some event that happened 1,000 miles away,” he said. “It happened in our community.”
During the service, members of the church got up to say prayers for loved ones and even those they don't know.
“It’s not only okay but it’s good to express your honest feelings to God and to others about how you’re feeling … about this situation,” Noble told the few hundred people in attendance.
He urged members of the church to be a comfort to others. He said, too, that the attack was a reminder that everyone’s days were numbered and it was important, however unpleasant, to think about that.
After the service, during which people shed tears, hugged one another and clenched their hands in prayer, one man said he couldn't believe he could ever feel fearful in a place like Aurora.
“I’m just so hurt. I just can’t believe that somebody would do this,” said Daniel Sharp of the 310th Unit Reservist at nearby Buckley. “I would have never imagined living in fear here ... fear is unfortunately right now on every street corner it seems like. It’s really not, but in our minds, because of this event.”
Another churchgoer, 18-year-old Scott Shreffler, said he took encouragement from the lyrics of a song that was sung during the service: “greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.”
“This summer has been very tough on Colorado,” he said, adding that he felt the presence of God while he was singing, telling him that “it's going to be alright and good things are going to come out of this.”
When asked by a reporter what he told people, such as those directly affected by the tragedy, to help them through this difficult time, Noble, the minister, said “the most important thing right now is just to listen, hug and pray.”
“It's not anywhere near the time to start coming in and being a theologian and giving theological … arguments on different things,” Noble said.
“Unfortunately, the storms come to every person, whether they’re great followers of God or never darkened the door of a church … the storms of life happen to all of us.”
Friday, July 20, 2012
Life without Ortiz
Life without Ortiz
On Tuesday night, Jon Lester was awful and the Red Sox offense was lacking in a 7-5 loss to Chicago. To make matters worse, the other Sox were led by a vengeful Kevin Youkilis, who seems to have lost 20 pounds of fat and added 10 pounds of muscle in the two weeks since leaving Boston.
On Wednesday night, the game was delayed due to a tornado warning.
Yeah, I’m not sure the David Ortz/DL Era could have started much worse for the Sox. You could already see Ortiz watching it all unfold from the dugout, rubbing his hands together and thinking: “Oh yesss. What’s up, Larry? How you enjoying life without Papi? Bahahaha!”
With the way this season’s gone, you really had to wonder if the Sox would survive these two weeks without Ortiz. While he’s been a huge pain in the ass off the field, he’s still been Boston’s undisputed best player. He’s the biggest reason they’re only one game out of a playoff spot. For three and a half months, Ortiz was the glue in that line-up and things were still on the verge of falling apart. But now . . . Who would step up in his absence? Who would be there on the nights when no one else showed?
There may still be times over the next two weeks when we find ourselves asking those questions, but last night wasn’t one of them. Last night, after an inauspicious start to Life Without Papi, the Sox gave us reason to believe. Not just that they can survive sans No. 34, but that once he comes back, Ortiz and the Sox will have what it takes to turn this season around.
Of course, who knows? We’ve been here before with this team. We’ve gotten our hopes up, only see them crumpled up and crapped on. To quote a wise, wise man, the Sox “play on the field has at times tested the mettle of the faithful. It could be maddening one day, enthralling the next.” As a result, we’ve learned not to get carried away.
But at the very least, we can all agree that last night was a lot of fun.
First of all, the Sox are a different team with Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford atop the line-up. In three games, they’ve taken Boston from borderline unwatchable to one of the most exciting teams in baseball. As long they’re healthy, Crawford and Ellsbury will continue to change the game. They’ll make opposing pitchers dizzy and make life a whole lot easier for everyone who’s hitting behind them.
Doesn’t Crawford already look more confident and comfortable than he did at any point last season? Kill the guy all you want for the money and the injuries, but right now he's ready to play.
Same goes for Adrian Gonzalez, who’s 9-16 (.563) with two homers and nine RBI in four games since the All-Star Break. His average is up to .296, he’s in the top 10 in the AL in hits, the top five in doubles and the power looks like it’s creeping back. Speaking of power, Cody Ross is healthy again, judging by his two home runs that traveled a combined marathon. And did I mention that Dustin Pedroia is coming back tonight? Believe it or not, he found that sometimes it's beneficial to take a seat and let yourself heal. He's ready to roll.
And suddenly, we're left to wonder: Instead of the Sox falling apart without Ortiz, might we remember this stretch as the time when this team finally came together?
When Ellsbury, Crawford and Pedroia all returned, and with a hell of a lot to prove. When Gonzalez and Ross had no choice but to pick up the slack and carry the RBI burden. And that when David Ortiz comes back in two weeks, he'll no longer have to play the role of savior for a beat up and worn down line-up. Instead, he'll come back as the final piece to what was originally supposed to be one of the most imposing line-ups in baseball.
And there I go getting carried away.
I know, Larry. I'm sorry. I should learn from your sage words. As enthralled as I am right now, I must be prepared for my mettle to be tested. It will be so unbelievably maddening!
But for now, despite all the Red Sox will lose with David Ortiz on the DL, last night gave us a reason to be optimistic about all they'll gain in the meantime.
On Tuesday night, Jon Lester was awful and the Red Sox offense was lacking in a 7-5 loss to Chicago. To make matters worse, the other Sox were led by a vengeful Kevin Youkilis, who seems to have lost 20 pounds of fat and added 10 pounds of muscle in the two weeks since leaving Boston.
On Wednesday night, the game was delayed due to a tornado warning.
Yeah, I’m not sure the David Ortz/DL Era could have started much worse for the Sox. You could already see Ortiz watching it all unfold from the dugout, rubbing his hands together and thinking: “Oh yesss. What’s up, Larry? How you enjoying life without Papi? Bahahaha!”
With the way this season’s gone, you really had to wonder if the Sox would survive these two weeks without Ortiz. While he’s been a huge pain in the ass off the field, he’s still been Boston’s undisputed best player. He’s the biggest reason they’re only one game out of a playoff spot. For three and a half months, Ortiz was the glue in that line-up and things were still on the verge of falling apart. But now . . . Who would step up in his absence? Who would be there on the nights when no one else showed?
There may still be times over the next two weeks when we find ourselves asking those questions, but last night wasn’t one of them. Last night, after an inauspicious start to Life Without Papi, the Sox gave us reason to believe. Not just that they can survive sans No. 34, but that once he comes back, Ortiz and the Sox will have what it takes to turn this season around.
Of course, who knows? We’ve been here before with this team. We’ve gotten our hopes up, only see them crumpled up and crapped on. To quote a wise, wise man, the Sox “play on the field has at times tested the mettle of the faithful. It could be maddening one day, enthralling the next.” As a result, we’ve learned not to get carried away.
But at the very least, we can all agree that last night was a lot of fun.
First of all, the Sox are a different team with Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford atop the line-up. In three games, they’ve taken Boston from borderline unwatchable to one of the most exciting teams in baseball. As long they’re healthy, Crawford and Ellsbury will continue to change the game. They’ll make opposing pitchers dizzy and make life a whole lot easier for everyone who’s hitting behind them.
Doesn’t Crawford already look more confident and comfortable than he did at any point last season? Kill the guy all you want for the money and the injuries, but right now he's ready to play.
Same goes for Adrian Gonzalez, who’s 9-16 (.563) with two homers and nine RBI in four games since the All-Star Break. His average is up to .296, he’s in the top 10 in the AL in hits, the top five in doubles and the power looks like it’s creeping back. Speaking of power, Cody Ross is healthy again, judging by his two home runs that traveled a combined marathon. And did I mention that Dustin Pedroia is coming back tonight? Believe it or not, he found that sometimes it's beneficial to take a seat and let yourself heal. He's ready to roll.
And suddenly, we're left to wonder: Instead of the Sox falling apart without Ortiz, might we remember this stretch as the time when this team finally came together?
When Ellsbury, Crawford and Pedroia all returned, and with a hell of a lot to prove. When Gonzalez and Ross had no choice but to pick up the slack and carry the RBI burden. And that when David Ortiz comes back in two weeks, he'll no longer have to play the role of savior for a beat up and worn down line-up. Instead, he'll come back as the final piece to what was originally supposed to be one of the most imposing line-ups in baseball.
And there I go getting carried away.
I know, Larry. I'm sorry. I should learn from your sage words. As enthralled as I am right now, I must be prepared for my mettle to be tested. It will be so unbelievably maddening!
But for now, despite all the Red Sox will lose with David Ortiz on the DL, last night gave us a reason to be optimistic about all they'll gain in the meantime.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Tragic hero: The song that summed up Rajesh Khanna’s life
If there were ever an actor who’d be remembered more for the songs that were associated with him than anything else, it would be Rajesh Khanna. Those who didn’t know Hindi cinema better wouldn’t believe that sometimes it is the songs associated with an actor that make him truly everlasting. And Rajesh Khanna had more classics to his name than any other star.
In his death, everyone will come up with the most memorable Rajesh Khanna songs – and they have plenty to choose from gems from films such as Aradhana, Safar, Anand, Amar Prem, Kati Patang. There will be, ironically, many songs with zindagi in them – Zindagi Ka Safar Hai Yeh Kaisa Safar or Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli Hai or Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana. But nothing can tell the story of Rajesh Khanna as well as a single song from Aap Ki Kasam (1974).
Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hai jo makaam (watch it here) might not make it to the top-five lists of Rajesh Khanna melodies, but that one song is nothing less than his life story. Released at a time when the Amitabh Bachchan juggernaut was gaining momentum Aap Ki Kasam is one of the last great Rajesh Khanna hits. The song comes at the end of the film about a man whose life is destroyed because of his inability to look beyond his brittle ego. Kamal (Rajesh Khanna) is convinced that his wife Sunita (Mumtaz) and his friend Mohan (Sanjeev Kumar) are having an affair and doesn’t stop till he is consumed by it.
If you look closer at the words penned by Anand Bakshi, the song is eerily like Rajesh Khanna finally understanding the wrongs he committed. And it foretells the story of the lonely superstar he would become. Khanna’s meteoric rise to stardom was so sudden that no one, least of all him, knew how to handle the superstar status. There are many tales of how he treated people like day-old newspapers, convinced that his fame was invincible.
Bakshi was almost echoing that when he wrote Waqt chalta hi rahta hai rukta nahi, Ek pal mein ye aage nikal jaata hai (Time marches on, it does not pause, in one moment it races ahead). When he sings the line Ek baar chale jaate hein jo din raat subah sham, Woh woh phir nahi aate, (Once they pass away, days and nights never come back), it is a rumination on the transient nature of fame. His inability to accept people who spoke their mind in front of him are echoed in the lyrics Kuchh log ek roz jo bichhad jaate hain, vo hazaron ke aane se milte nahin (Hundreds tomorrow won’t be able to fill the space left empty by a few who left you that one day).
Legend has it that Khanna was so disturbed by Amitabh Bachchan, the new kid on the block, that he repeatedly ill-treated him on the sets of Bawarchi (1972) when Bachchan used to visit to meet Jaya Bahaduri. In its course, the song seems to suggest Khanna’s reluctant acceptance of Bachchan – Aadmi theek se yeh dekh paata nahi, Aur parde pe manzar badal jaata hai (One barely sees what’s in front of him and the whole stage changes). There are many people that Khanna ill-treated when the going was good and most of them never forgot that. Later he tried to make amends but Bollywood is very good at remembering the bad – Umra bhar chahe koi pukaara kare unka naam Woh phir nahi aate, woh phir nahi aate (You spend a lifetime crying out their names, but those who deserted you never return).
There are superstars and then there is Rajesh Khanna. Sharmila Tagore once said that she hasn’t seen fame like she had seen Khanna’s ever before or ever since. For the while that he was at the top, Rajesh Khanna was nothing less than an emperor and this is what made him banish people from his durbar rather than simply breaking away from those who didn’t agree with him. He had the habit of surrounding himself with yes-men and believed whatever they said to inflate his ego.
This song even uncannily sums up his relationship with his wife, Dimple Kapadia – Kal tadapna pade yaad mein jinki, Rok lo ruth kar unko jaane na do. Baad mein pyaar ke chahe bhejo hazaaro salaam, Woh phir nahi aate, woh phir nahi aate…(Tomorrow you may regret remembering those who may leave you today… stop them from giving up on you… For later, even if you tried to call out, those who forsake you never come back).
This song might predate many of the events that unfolded in Rajesh Khanna’s life, but looking back, it is unnerving just how closely it mirrors the star’s life. The manner in which the song was filmed, Kamal’s realisation that his suspicion has killed their marriage forever, sees him wander aimlessly, regretting his actions for the rest of his life. That is sadly how the screen legend’s real life turned out. A better part of his life, post his glory days, was relegated to being in almost social exile; it’s only in his last few months that Khanna was surrounded by the people he learnt to value the most.
In his death, Rajesh Khanna finally gets a second chance that life never really gave him. The tragedy is that he did not take the lyrics of his own song to heart before they came true.
In his death, everyone will come up with the most memorable Rajesh Khanna songs – and they have plenty to choose from gems from films such as Aradhana, Safar, Anand, Amar Prem, Kati Patang. There will be, ironically, many songs with zindagi in them – Zindagi Ka Safar Hai Yeh Kaisa Safar or Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli Hai or Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana. But nothing can tell the story of Rajesh Khanna as well as a single song from Aap Ki Kasam (1974).
Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hai jo makaam (watch it here) might not make it to the top-five lists of Rajesh Khanna melodies, but that one song is nothing less than his life story. Released at a time when the Amitabh Bachchan juggernaut was gaining momentum Aap Ki Kasam is one of the last great Rajesh Khanna hits. The song comes at the end of the film about a man whose life is destroyed because of his inability to look beyond his brittle ego. Kamal (Rajesh Khanna) is convinced that his wife Sunita (Mumtaz) and his friend Mohan (Sanjeev Kumar) are having an affair and doesn’t stop till he is consumed by it.
If you look closer at the words penned by Anand Bakshi, the song is eerily like Rajesh Khanna finally understanding the wrongs he committed. And it foretells the story of the lonely superstar he would become. Khanna’s meteoric rise to stardom was so sudden that no one, least of all him, knew how to handle the superstar status. There are many tales of how he treated people like day-old newspapers, convinced that his fame was invincible.
Bakshi was almost echoing that when he wrote Waqt chalta hi rahta hai rukta nahi, Ek pal mein ye aage nikal jaata hai (Time marches on, it does not pause, in one moment it races ahead). When he sings the line Ek baar chale jaate hein jo din raat subah sham, Woh woh phir nahi aate, (Once they pass away, days and nights never come back), it is a rumination on the transient nature of fame. His inability to accept people who spoke their mind in front of him are echoed in the lyrics Kuchh log ek roz jo bichhad jaate hain, vo hazaron ke aane se milte nahin (Hundreds tomorrow won’t be able to fill the space left empty by a few who left you that one day).
Legend has it that Khanna was so disturbed by Amitabh Bachchan, the new kid on the block, that he repeatedly ill-treated him on the sets of Bawarchi (1972) when Bachchan used to visit to meet Jaya Bahaduri. In its course, the song seems to suggest Khanna’s reluctant acceptance of Bachchan – Aadmi theek se yeh dekh paata nahi, Aur parde pe manzar badal jaata hai (One barely sees what’s in front of him and the whole stage changes). There are many people that Khanna ill-treated when the going was good and most of them never forgot that. Later he tried to make amends but Bollywood is very good at remembering the bad – Umra bhar chahe koi pukaara kare unka naam Woh phir nahi aate, woh phir nahi aate (You spend a lifetime crying out their names, but those who deserted you never return).
There are superstars and then there is Rajesh Khanna. Sharmila Tagore once said that she hasn’t seen fame like she had seen Khanna’s ever before or ever since. For the while that he was at the top, Rajesh Khanna was nothing less than an emperor and this is what made him banish people from his durbar rather than simply breaking away from those who didn’t agree with him. He had the habit of surrounding himself with yes-men and believed whatever they said to inflate his ego.
This song even uncannily sums up his relationship with his wife, Dimple Kapadia – Kal tadapna pade yaad mein jinki, Rok lo ruth kar unko jaane na do. Baad mein pyaar ke chahe bhejo hazaaro salaam, Woh phir nahi aate, woh phir nahi aate…(Tomorrow you may regret remembering those who may leave you today… stop them from giving up on you… For later, even if you tried to call out, those who forsake you never come back).
This song might predate many of the events that unfolded in Rajesh Khanna’s life, but looking back, it is unnerving just how closely it mirrors the star’s life. The manner in which the song was filmed, Kamal’s realisation that his suspicion has killed their marriage forever, sees him wander aimlessly, regretting his actions for the rest of his life. That is sadly how the screen legend’s real life turned out. A better part of his life, post his glory days, was relegated to being in almost social exile; it’s only in his last few months that Khanna was surrounded by the people he learnt to value the most.
In his death, Rajesh Khanna finally gets a second chance that life never really gave him. The tragedy is that he did not take the lyrics of his own song to heart before they came true.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Pop album review: In 'Life Is Good,' Nas rolls with the punches
It's easy to get a sense of how the rapper Nas has seen himself over the years by noting his choice of album cover portraits. His first, the 1994 classic "Illmatic," featured a shot of the lyricist as a 7-year-old against a backdrop of New York housing projects. In the photograph taken by his father, the musician Olu Dara, the young Nasir Jones stares into the camera with a cocksure gaze, as though destiny fills his spirit — and that attitude permeates the record.
Since that introduction, Nas' image has appeared on each of his following nine solo album covers. He has variously depicted himself as a pharaoh, a sage, a sweat-suited player, a prophet, a man in mourning and a whip-scarred slave.
On his return-to-form 10th solo album, "Life Is Good," the 38-year-old is seen relaxing on a black leather couch in a sharp white suit, his hand supporting his chin like "The Thinker." Draped across his lap is a green taffeta dress.
Life is good, indeed, or at least Nas has gotten better at rolling with the punches — and you can hear it in every verse on the 58-minute album. A thoughtful, fierce, honest and — most important — heavy-duty work. The album shows a man not only comfortable in his own skin but tapped into his muse and willing to tackle the many tough matters he's endured since his previous, untitled album in 2008.
Specifically, Nas has been through a divorce from pop singer Kelis in 2009 that separated him from their 2-year-old son, a topic he addresses head on in the album's closer, "Bye Baby." He's also tangled with the IRS over millions in unpaid taxes and struggled with watching his daughter from another relationship become a teenager. Although such challenges could drag a man down, Nas has committed to addressing the ins and outs of his life as though that leather couch on the album cover sits in the office of Tony Soprano's shrink.
Not that he's lost his swagger. It's just that, as he raps in the album's first track, "No Introduction," "I'm pushing 40, she only 21/Don't applaud me, I'm exhausted, G." (It bears noting that the woman who has sapped his energy is only four years older than his daughter.)
"No Introduction," in fact, is the perfect re-introduction to Nas, and doubters who either gave up on him after a string of hit-and-miss efforts over the past decade, sided withJay-Zin the competitors' major round of beefs or never bought into his self-involvement would do well to listen closely as he traces the path of his life through a first-person benediction. "The tales you hear is the truth on me/Who wasn't the most faithful husband/Reveal my life, you'll forgive me/You will love me, hate me, judge me, relate to me."
He follows through on his promise and opens up on not only his personal struggles but also mortality and aging, about shifting priorities and battling reflexes. He looks back as much as he looks forward, and along the way comes to terms with not only the unfaithful husband within himself, but also the confusion that comes with watching his daughtergrow into a young woman. On "Daughters," he raps of feeling protective of her while predatory players — much like himself — close in.
The song captures the essence of the father-daughter relationship: "One day she's your little princess/Next day she's talking boy business, what is this?/They say the coolest players and the foulest heartbreakers in the world/God gets us back, he makes us have little girls," he raps. Later, on "Reach Out," he climbs another branch on his tree: "When I was young they called me Olu's son/Now he's Nas' father/I was the good seed/He was the wise gardener."
Musically, Nas and his collaborators have gone vertical, drawing in sounds from throughout hip-hop's evolution: For as many thrilling modern-day rhythmic loop-the-loops — the solid dub-filled "The Don," the killer Rick Ross collaboration "Accident Murderer" — there are old-school accents that pepper the record with context and history. This is a record where the scratching on "Reach Out" appears high in the mix, employed as a sonic device to suggest past innocence while singerMary J. Bligenails the hook.
These aren't the once "futuristic" beats of producers Scott Storch and Stargate that hobbled Nas in the mid-'00s, but work that harnesses his boom-bip bass drum-snare combo in the service of busier but no less infectious rhythms. His main collaborator on "Life Is Good" is the consistently dynamic Chicago producer No I.D., who has moved from central producer on Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" to providing varied beats on five tracks.
Nas also leans on Saleem Remi, whose history with the pop and hip-hop charts stretches back to his work on the Fugees' "Fu-Gee-La," Nas' 2002 "Made You Look" and Amy Winehouse's "Tears Dry on Their Own." Winehouse, in fact, provides a beyond-the-grave hook for Nas' new track "Cherry Wine."
This is turning out to be one of the most vibrant and exciting years for hip-hop music in at least a decade, a place where hot young tykes such as Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky and Earl Sweatshirt are competing for the same piece of the pie as veterans like Jay-Z, West, Nas and Killer Mike. In the past, many vets were placed on waivers by major labels who valued youth and hype over style and experience, never to be heard from again. In the 2012 world of mixtapes and universal access, the crowd defines who's tired and who's still got it.
Nas not only still has it, but has vast quantities of it. Luckily for us, he's still inspired by the need to share — even the moments when life isn't all that great.
Since that introduction, Nas' image has appeared on each of his following nine solo album covers. He has variously depicted himself as a pharaoh, a sage, a sweat-suited player, a prophet, a man in mourning and a whip-scarred slave.
On his return-to-form 10th solo album, "Life Is Good," the 38-year-old is seen relaxing on a black leather couch in a sharp white suit, his hand supporting his chin like "The Thinker." Draped across his lap is a green taffeta dress.
Life is good, indeed, or at least Nas has gotten better at rolling with the punches — and you can hear it in every verse on the 58-minute album. A thoughtful, fierce, honest and — most important — heavy-duty work. The album shows a man not only comfortable in his own skin but tapped into his muse and willing to tackle the many tough matters he's endured since his previous, untitled album in 2008.
Specifically, Nas has been through a divorce from pop singer Kelis in 2009 that separated him from their 2-year-old son, a topic he addresses head on in the album's closer, "Bye Baby." He's also tangled with the IRS over millions in unpaid taxes and struggled with watching his daughter from another relationship become a teenager. Although such challenges could drag a man down, Nas has committed to addressing the ins and outs of his life as though that leather couch on the album cover sits in the office of Tony Soprano's shrink.
Not that he's lost his swagger. It's just that, as he raps in the album's first track, "No Introduction," "I'm pushing 40, she only 21/Don't applaud me, I'm exhausted, G." (It bears noting that the woman who has sapped his energy is only four years older than his daughter.)
"No Introduction," in fact, is the perfect re-introduction to Nas, and doubters who either gave up on him after a string of hit-and-miss efforts over the past decade, sided withJay-Zin the competitors' major round of beefs or never bought into his self-involvement would do well to listen closely as he traces the path of his life through a first-person benediction. "The tales you hear is the truth on me/Who wasn't the most faithful husband/Reveal my life, you'll forgive me/You will love me, hate me, judge me, relate to me."
He follows through on his promise and opens up on not only his personal struggles but also mortality and aging, about shifting priorities and battling reflexes. He looks back as much as he looks forward, and along the way comes to terms with not only the unfaithful husband within himself, but also the confusion that comes with watching his daughtergrow into a young woman. On "Daughters," he raps of feeling protective of her while predatory players — much like himself — close in.
The song captures the essence of the father-daughter relationship: "One day she's your little princess/Next day she's talking boy business, what is this?/They say the coolest players and the foulest heartbreakers in the world/God gets us back, he makes us have little girls," he raps. Later, on "Reach Out," he climbs another branch on his tree: "When I was young they called me Olu's son/Now he's Nas' father/I was the good seed/He was the wise gardener."
Musically, Nas and his collaborators have gone vertical, drawing in sounds from throughout hip-hop's evolution: For as many thrilling modern-day rhythmic loop-the-loops — the solid dub-filled "The Don," the killer Rick Ross collaboration "Accident Murderer" — there are old-school accents that pepper the record with context and history. This is a record where the scratching on "Reach Out" appears high in the mix, employed as a sonic device to suggest past innocence while singerMary J. Bligenails the hook.
These aren't the once "futuristic" beats of producers Scott Storch and Stargate that hobbled Nas in the mid-'00s, but work that harnesses his boom-bip bass drum-snare combo in the service of busier but no less infectious rhythms. His main collaborator on "Life Is Good" is the consistently dynamic Chicago producer No I.D., who has moved from central producer on Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" to providing varied beats on five tracks.
Nas also leans on Saleem Remi, whose history with the pop and hip-hop charts stretches back to his work on the Fugees' "Fu-Gee-La," Nas' 2002 "Made You Look" and Amy Winehouse's "Tears Dry on Their Own." Winehouse, in fact, provides a beyond-the-grave hook for Nas' new track "Cherry Wine."
This is turning out to be one of the most vibrant and exciting years for hip-hop music in at least a decade, a place where hot young tykes such as Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky and Earl Sweatshirt are competing for the same piece of the pie as veterans like Jay-Z, West, Nas and Killer Mike. In the past, many vets were placed on waivers by major labels who valued youth and hype over style and experience, never to be heard from again. In the 2012 world of mixtapes and universal access, the crowd defines who's tired and who's still got it.
Nas not only still has it, but has vast quantities of it. Luckily for us, he's still inspired by the need to share — even the moments when life isn't all that great.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Kevin Youkilis on life after Red Sox: ‘There’s less drama’
Twenty-two days after being traded by the Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis is back at Fenway Park, and he looks both relaxed and happy, two words that never would describe his final months with the team.
“I would say there’s less drama, all-around,” Youkilis said of life after the Red Sox. “No offense to you (media), but there’s always a story. With us, you come about the game, you play, it’s over with. You get a question, there’s no drama or questions all the time. It’s just fun. We’re also second-fiddle to the Cubs, so it’s great. It’s easy.”
Youkilis (AP photo, left) spent parts of nine seasons with the Red Sox, arriving in the middle of the 2004 run to the World Series and leaving June 24 when he was dealt to the Chicago White Sox for utility infielder Brent Lillibridge and Triple-A pitcher Zach Stewart. (Lillibridge, it should be noted, was designated for assignment today to accommodate Carl Crawford’s return from the disabled list.) And while there were plenty of good times, including two championships and three All-Star Game appearances, there also were hard times, never more than last September when Youkilis dealt with a double hernia that ended his season in the midst of the Red Sox’ epic collapse and the early part of this year when he feuded with new manager Bobby Valentine.
The relationship with Youkilis and Valentine was fractured, perhaps irreparably, when Valentine in a television interview publicly questioned the third baseman’s emotional investment in the game. Youkilis objected to the comment, and Valentine apologized. But from there, things only got worse. And when Youkilis went on the disabled list with a lower back strain, it created an opportunity for top prospect Will Middlebrooks to seize the third base job. Turns out, Middlebrooks never really gave it back.
Predictably, Youkilis steered clear of commenting on Valentine.
“I’m not here to talk about (that),” Valentine said. “I don’t understand why this is still a big rift and things are going on. I’m just here to play baseball, and things will happen and that’s all it is, just going out and playing the ballgame. There’s no Bobby V. (versus) Kevin Youkilis or vice versa. It’s about Chicago White Sox versus Boston Red Sox and just playing baseball.”
Asked if he has any regrets from nearly a decade with the Red Sox, Youkilis smiled, something else he did little of during his final weeks with the club.
“Any regrets? 2008? God, I wish in Game 7 (of the ALCS) I would have hit more home runs. What was that, against (Tampa Bay’s Matt) Garza or whatever?” Youkilis said. “There were no regrets. I had a lot of fun. I came in my rookie year and won a World Series and won another one (in 2007) playing every day. Some guys can’t even say they’ve won one, and I was very fortunate to win two and go to All-Star Games and all cool stuff. Met my wife here, so there’s no regrets. I’ve never looked back and said, ‘I should have done this or that.’
“I would say there’s less drama, all-around,” Youkilis said of life after the Red Sox. “No offense to you (media), but there’s always a story. With us, you come about the game, you play, it’s over with. You get a question, there’s no drama or questions all the time. It’s just fun. We’re also second-fiddle to the Cubs, so it’s great. It’s easy.”
Youkilis (AP photo, left) spent parts of nine seasons with the Red Sox, arriving in the middle of the 2004 run to the World Series and leaving June 24 when he was dealt to the Chicago White Sox for utility infielder Brent Lillibridge and Triple-A pitcher Zach Stewart. (Lillibridge, it should be noted, was designated for assignment today to accommodate Carl Crawford’s return from the disabled list.) And while there were plenty of good times, including two championships and three All-Star Game appearances, there also were hard times, never more than last September when Youkilis dealt with a double hernia that ended his season in the midst of the Red Sox’ epic collapse and the early part of this year when he feuded with new manager Bobby Valentine.
The relationship with Youkilis and Valentine was fractured, perhaps irreparably, when Valentine in a television interview publicly questioned the third baseman’s emotional investment in the game. Youkilis objected to the comment, and Valentine apologized. But from there, things only got worse. And when Youkilis went on the disabled list with a lower back strain, it created an opportunity for top prospect Will Middlebrooks to seize the third base job. Turns out, Middlebrooks never really gave it back.
Predictably, Youkilis steered clear of commenting on Valentine.
“I’m not here to talk about (that),” Valentine said. “I don’t understand why this is still a big rift and things are going on. I’m just here to play baseball, and things will happen and that’s all it is, just going out and playing the ballgame. There’s no Bobby V. (versus) Kevin Youkilis or vice versa. It’s about Chicago White Sox versus Boston Red Sox and just playing baseball.”
Asked if he has any regrets from nearly a decade with the Red Sox, Youkilis smiled, something else he did little of during his final weeks with the club.
“Any regrets? 2008? God, I wish in Game 7 (of the ALCS) I would have hit more home runs. What was that, against (Tampa Bay’s Matt) Garza or whatever?” Youkilis said. “There were no regrets. I had a lot of fun. I came in my rookie year and won a World Series and won another one (in 2007) playing every day. Some guys can’t even say they’ve won one, and I was very fortunate to win two and go to All-Star Games and all cool stuff. Met my wife here, so there’s no regrets. I’ve never looked back and said, ‘I should have done this or that.’
Friday, July 13, 2012
Study Suggests Sitting Less Can Extend Life
Study Suggests Sitting Less Can Extend Life
What’s the best seat in the house? It may be whichever one you use the least. New research suggests that cutting daily sitting time to less than three hours might extend your life by two years.
Humans were designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely prompt us to roam around. Quite the opposite, says Peter Katzmarzyk, an epidemiologist at the University of Louisiana.
"Sitting is ubiquitous in our lives today. You know, we sit while we’re eating, we sit in the car, we sit while we watch TV. And many of sit for many hours at work. So on average, Americans report they sit between four and a half to five hour a day," Katzmarzyk said.
And, he says, those chair-centered days matter to our health, just like exercise.
"We can’t throw away physical activity. It’s extremely important. We have 60 years of research showing us that. But sedentary behavior is also important… Even if you exercise for 30 minutes a day. What goes on in the other 23 and a half hours a day is also very important," Katzmarzyk said.
Katzmarzyk and his colleagues are part of new generation of researchers trying to discover how sitting all day affects our lifespans.
"This is a relatively new area of study… Studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and mortality or television viewing and mortality are very rare. There’s only been a few of them, actually five or six now, in the last four or five years," said Katzmarzyk.
Karzmarzyk and his colleagues pooled data from these studies, which involved almost 167,000 adults. Then they turned to a government-run survey of Americans to find out exactly how much time people spend sitting and watching TV.
Not only did the team find that U.S. citizens could live longer by sitting less, they found that cutting TV-time to less than two hours a day could add an extra 1.4 years to their lives.
People who’ve spent half their waking lives sitting down might well ask, “Is it ever too late to make a change?”
"That’s a good question. Physical activity data would say “No. It’s never too late.” Physical activity is good for you at every age. We don’t know that yet about sitting. But one might assume it to be similar," Katzmarzyk said.
Change is already afoot in some offices, especially when it comes to desk designs.
"That’s one of the strategies that many companies are using now. They may have got five standing desks for their employees or a treadmill desk. I’ve heard of other companies where they may not have a desk for every person. But they’ll have a bank of these desks where people can go for an hour a day and answer their emails or talk on the phone," Katzmarzyk said.
Katzmarzyk says simply studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives.
"As a university professor, you know, it is a very sedentary occupation. We’re chained to a desk in terms of writing papers and doing research. We really try to limit the amount of time we spend doing that, said Katzmarzyk.
Katzmarzyk and his team recommend a few simple changes: frequently getting up from your desk, taking walks at lunch time, and instead of e-mailing colleagues, walking over to their offices and talking face-to-face - all activities that can be enjoyable as well as life-extending. Research on the benefits of reduced daily sitting time is published in the online journal, BMJ Open.
What’s the best seat in the house? It may be whichever one you use the least. New research suggests that cutting daily sitting time to less than three hours might extend your life by two years.
Humans were designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely prompt us to roam around. Quite the opposite, says Peter Katzmarzyk, an epidemiologist at the University of Louisiana.
"Sitting is ubiquitous in our lives today. You know, we sit while we’re eating, we sit in the car, we sit while we watch TV. And many of sit for many hours at work. So on average, Americans report they sit between four and a half to five hour a day," Katzmarzyk said.
And, he says, those chair-centered days matter to our health, just like exercise.
"We can’t throw away physical activity. It’s extremely important. We have 60 years of research showing us that. But sedentary behavior is also important… Even if you exercise for 30 minutes a day. What goes on in the other 23 and a half hours a day is also very important," Katzmarzyk said.
Katzmarzyk and his colleagues are part of new generation of researchers trying to discover how sitting all day affects our lifespans.
"This is a relatively new area of study… Studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and mortality or television viewing and mortality are very rare. There’s only been a few of them, actually five or six now, in the last four or five years," said Katzmarzyk.
Karzmarzyk and his colleagues pooled data from these studies, which involved almost 167,000 adults. Then they turned to a government-run survey of Americans to find out exactly how much time people spend sitting and watching TV.
Not only did the team find that U.S. citizens could live longer by sitting less, they found that cutting TV-time to less than two hours a day could add an extra 1.4 years to their lives.
People who’ve spent half their waking lives sitting down might well ask, “Is it ever too late to make a change?”
"That’s a good question. Physical activity data would say “No. It’s never too late.” Physical activity is good for you at every age. We don’t know that yet about sitting. But one might assume it to be similar," Katzmarzyk said.
Change is already afoot in some offices, especially when it comes to desk designs.
"That’s one of the strategies that many companies are using now. They may have got five standing desks for their employees or a treadmill desk. I’ve heard of other companies where they may not have a desk for every person. But they’ll have a bank of these desks where people can go for an hour a day and answer their emails or talk on the phone," Katzmarzyk said.
Katzmarzyk says simply studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives.
"As a university professor, you know, it is a very sedentary occupation. We’re chained to a desk in terms of writing papers and doing research. We really try to limit the amount of time we spend doing that, said Katzmarzyk.
Katzmarzyk and his team recommend a few simple changes: frequently getting up from your desk, taking walks at lunch time, and instead of e-mailing colleagues, walking over to their offices and talking face-to-face - all activities that can be enjoyable as well as life-extending. Research on the benefits of reduced daily sitting time is published in the online journal, BMJ Open.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Suu Kyi's party welcomes eased US sanctions
NAYPYIDAW: Aung San Suu Kyi's party welcomed a US decision to ease Myanmar sanctions on Thursday, but the opposition leader demanded more "transparency" as foreign firms hungrily eye the country's energy sector.
Washington on Wednesday gave the green light for firms to invest in Myanmar including in oil and gas, its greatest loosening of sanctions so far to reward reforms in the former pariah as it emerges from 50 years of military rule.
The US decision, which was swiftly followed by the announcement of top-level talks with Myanmar this week, comes despite concerns by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi about the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE.
Suu Kyi -- whose voice is highly influential in Washington -- on Thursday said the US move was "nothing significant", but repeated calls for the international community to pressure MOGE, which was closely linked to the junta government that was replaced by a reformist regime last year.
"What I said was they should ask MOGE to have transparency, I don't know whether they asked or not," Suu Kyi said, adding that the state-owned body should sign up to International Monetary Fund codes of conduct.
Her National League for Democracy said that the US decision was not at odds with the party's view that lifting tough Western sanctions should be considered if it would help regenerate the country's moribund economy.
"There is nothing to be disappointed about," party spokesman Nyan Win said in response to the US decision, adding that the US "did what they should do".
International firms are clamouring for a foothold in resource-rich Myanmar as the West begins to lift tough economic and financial sanctions on the nation, left impoverished by decades of mismanagement and isolation under army rule.
The announcement will soothe fears by American businesses that they will lose out to European and Asian competitors that already enjoy access to the potentially lucrative economy.
It also signals Washington's desire to bolster Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein, a former junta general who has surprised the West with a series of dramatic changes.
"President Thein Sein, Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma continue to make significant progress along the path to democracy, and the government has continued to make important economic and political reforms," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Wednesday.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will meet Thein Sein on the sidelines of a business conference in Cambodia on Friday to discuss the easing of US sanctions, a senior state department official told reporters in Phnom Penh.
The Myanmar leader on Thursday urged the West to lift all sanctions against his country as it grapples to invigorate its economy with a "second wave" of reforms.
"It is extremely important that sanctions be lifted -- both financial and other economic sanctions -- to make possible the sort of trade and investments that this country desperately needs at this time," he told the Financial Times.
Thein Sein also pledged "maximum transparency" in extractive industries, which have long been the target of rights campaigners concerned over abuses and cronyism in the sector.
Under the new rules, US companies will have the right to enter into business with MOGE but must notify the state department within 60 days.
All US companies that invest more than $500,000 in Myanmar will be required to file reports to the state department each year that show their consideration for human rights, workers' rights and the environment.
Human Rights Watch slammed the decision, saying that the United States appeared to have "caved to industry pressure and undercut Aung San Suu Kyi" because it did not insist on reforms in governance and human rights.
Aung Lynn, director general for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at Myanmar foreign ministry said that the US decision was "a positive sign", but said the country was looking for "further action".
Obama on Wednesday voiced concern about the role of the military and said that the United States would continue to ban investment in companies owned by the defence ministry or armed groups.
Clinton will host the largest ever gathering of American businesses in Asia at the Siem Reap talks, which will come hot on the heels of a barrage of meetings in Cambodia with Southeast Asian and East Asian countries.
Washington on Wednesday gave the green light for firms to invest in Myanmar including in oil and gas, its greatest loosening of sanctions so far to reward reforms in the former pariah as it emerges from 50 years of military rule.
The US decision, which was swiftly followed by the announcement of top-level talks with Myanmar this week, comes despite concerns by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi about the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE.
Suu Kyi -- whose voice is highly influential in Washington -- on Thursday said the US move was "nothing significant", but repeated calls for the international community to pressure MOGE, which was closely linked to the junta government that was replaced by a reformist regime last year.
"What I said was they should ask MOGE to have transparency, I don't know whether they asked or not," Suu Kyi said, adding that the state-owned body should sign up to International Monetary Fund codes of conduct.
Her National League for Democracy said that the US decision was not at odds with the party's view that lifting tough Western sanctions should be considered if it would help regenerate the country's moribund economy.
"There is nothing to be disappointed about," party spokesman Nyan Win said in response to the US decision, adding that the US "did what they should do".
International firms are clamouring for a foothold in resource-rich Myanmar as the West begins to lift tough economic and financial sanctions on the nation, left impoverished by decades of mismanagement and isolation under army rule.
The announcement will soothe fears by American businesses that they will lose out to European and Asian competitors that already enjoy access to the potentially lucrative economy.
It also signals Washington's desire to bolster Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein, a former junta general who has surprised the West with a series of dramatic changes.
"President Thein Sein, Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma continue to make significant progress along the path to democracy, and the government has continued to make important economic and political reforms," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Wednesday.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will meet Thein Sein on the sidelines of a business conference in Cambodia on Friday to discuss the easing of US sanctions, a senior state department official told reporters in Phnom Penh.
The Myanmar leader on Thursday urged the West to lift all sanctions against his country as it grapples to invigorate its economy with a "second wave" of reforms.
"It is extremely important that sanctions be lifted -- both financial and other economic sanctions -- to make possible the sort of trade and investments that this country desperately needs at this time," he told the Financial Times.
Thein Sein also pledged "maximum transparency" in extractive industries, which have long been the target of rights campaigners concerned over abuses and cronyism in the sector.
Under the new rules, US companies will have the right to enter into business with MOGE but must notify the state department within 60 days.
All US companies that invest more than $500,000 in Myanmar will be required to file reports to the state department each year that show their consideration for human rights, workers' rights and the environment.
Human Rights Watch slammed the decision, saying that the United States appeared to have "caved to industry pressure and undercut Aung San Suu Kyi" because it did not insist on reforms in governance and human rights.
Aung Lynn, director general for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at Myanmar foreign ministry said that the US decision was "a positive sign", but said the country was looking for "further action".
Obama on Wednesday voiced concern about the role of the military and said that the United States would continue to ban investment in companies owned by the defence ministry or armed groups.
Clinton will host the largest ever gathering of American businesses in Asia at the Siem Reap talks, which will come hot on the heels of a barrage of meetings in Cambodia with Southeast Asian and East Asian countries.
Bin Laden's cook freed from Guantanamo Bay after 10 years
A man who spent a decade as a prisoner in the U.S. detention facility for militants in Guantanamo Bay returned Wednesday to his native Sudan after completing a shortened sentence for aiding al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Ibrahim al-Qosi was getting reacquainted with his wife and two daughters and other family members and will spend some time in a government-sponsored reintegration program in the capital, Khartoum, before returning to his hometown, said his lawyer Paul Reichler.
Al-Qosi, who recently turned 52, had not seen his family since he was captured and sent to the U.S. base in Cuba in early 2002. His release brings the prison population down to 168.
"I guess you call this probably the best birthday present he ever received," Reichler, a Washington-based specialist in international law, said in a phone interview from Greece, where he was speaking at a legal conference.
The Pentagon and state-run media in Sudan confirmed al-Qosi's release.
Watch: Memorable TV Moments; Death of Osama bin Laden
Complete coverage: The killing of Osama bin Laden
Judge weighs multiple Guantanamo 9/11 trials
Al-Qosi admitted serving food and providing other services at a militant camp. He was among the first prisoners taken to the Guantanamo, the hastily arranged detention center to hold men suspected of ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban after the invasion of Afghanistan.
From a high of nearly 700, the population is now down to less than 170. President Barack Obama vowed to close the prison but has been prevented from doing so by Congress.
Al-Qosi, who moved to Afghanistan in 1996 to work with Islamic militants, struck a deal with U.S. military prosecutors in July 2010, pleading guilty to providing material support to terrorism and conspiracy in exchange for a 14-year sentence that would be shortened to two years from his conviction. It spared him the possibility of a much longer sentence, perhaps even life.
He was never accused of any specific acts of violence. He worked as a cook and helped gather supplies for a militant camp. His lawyer said he may have accompanied Osama bin Laden as part of an entourage but was never a member of the terrorist leader's inner circle. Bin-Laden, founder of al Qaeda, was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan last year.
Prosecutors at his military tribunal argued that al Qaeda could not have operated without the support of people like al-Qosi and that such assistance amounted to war crimes.
In Sudan, he will not face additional confinement, though he will be monitored as part of the reintegration program. Later, he will move back to his hometown of Atbara, where his family has a farm and a store, he said.
Reichler said about nine former Guantanamo detainees have gone through the program, and there have been no cases of recidivism.
"One of the main reasons the United States was willing to return him to Sudan was the U.S. confidence in the government of Sudan's program and its confidence that Mr. al-Qosi would not represent any kind of threat to the United States," he said. "If they had considered him a threat, they would not have released him."
Ibrahim al-Qosi was getting reacquainted with his wife and two daughters and other family members and will spend some time in a government-sponsored reintegration program in the capital, Khartoum, before returning to his hometown, said his lawyer Paul Reichler.
Al-Qosi, who recently turned 52, had not seen his family since he was captured and sent to the U.S. base in Cuba in early 2002. His release brings the prison population down to 168.
"I guess you call this probably the best birthday present he ever received," Reichler, a Washington-based specialist in international law, said in a phone interview from Greece, where he was speaking at a legal conference.
The Pentagon and state-run media in Sudan confirmed al-Qosi's release.
Watch: Memorable TV Moments; Death of Osama bin Laden
Complete coverage: The killing of Osama bin Laden
Judge weighs multiple Guantanamo 9/11 trials
Al-Qosi admitted serving food and providing other services at a militant camp. He was among the first prisoners taken to the Guantanamo, the hastily arranged detention center to hold men suspected of ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban after the invasion of Afghanistan.
From a high of nearly 700, the population is now down to less than 170. President Barack Obama vowed to close the prison but has been prevented from doing so by Congress.
Al-Qosi, who moved to Afghanistan in 1996 to work with Islamic militants, struck a deal with U.S. military prosecutors in July 2010, pleading guilty to providing material support to terrorism and conspiracy in exchange for a 14-year sentence that would be shortened to two years from his conviction. It spared him the possibility of a much longer sentence, perhaps even life.
He was never accused of any specific acts of violence. He worked as a cook and helped gather supplies for a militant camp. His lawyer said he may have accompanied Osama bin Laden as part of an entourage but was never a member of the terrorist leader's inner circle. Bin-Laden, founder of al Qaeda, was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan last year.
Prosecutors at his military tribunal argued that al Qaeda could not have operated without the support of people like al-Qosi and that such assistance amounted to war crimes.
In Sudan, he will not face additional confinement, though he will be monitored as part of the reintegration program. Later, he will move back to his hometown of Atbara, where his family has a farm and a store, he said.
Reichler said about nine former Guantanamo detainees have gone through the program, and there have been no cases of recidivism.
"One of the main reasons the United States was willing to return him to Sudan was the U.S. confidence in the government of Sudan's program and its confidence that Mr. al-Qosi would not represent any kind of threat to the United States," he said. "If they had considered him a threat, they would not have released him."
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Steam Greenlight Lets Gamers Pick Next Big Release
Valve announced today that its Steam gaming platform is bringing the power of game selection to the players. Steam Greenlight will allow users to vote on the games they'd most like to see released by Steam.
Developers can post information, screenshots, and videos for their own games so they can "seek a critical mass of community support in order to get selected for distribution," according to the Steam community website.
Valve has not yet determined how much support or votes a game must receive in order to be distributed on Steam. "It's going to change during the first few days/weeks since we don't know what kind of traffic to expect, Valve said. "[But] the specific number of votes doesn't matter as much as relative interest in a game compared with other games in Steam Greenlight."
Until now, Steam's pipeline for releasing games has always relied "on a group of people to make tough choices on which games to not release on Steam." But "we knew there had to be a better way," Valve said.
The biggest difference between most retailers' review teams and Steam Greenlight is that stores gather a small group of gatekeepers; Steam wants to turn its entire community of fans into one large team.
"After all, it's the community that will ultimately be the ones deciding which release they spend their money on," Steam said.
Steam Greenlight is expected to launch on Aug. 30.
Developers can post information, screenshots, and videos for their own games so they can "seek a critical mass of community support in order to get selected for distribution," according to the Steam community website.
Valve has not yet determined how much support or votes a game must receive in order to be distributed on Steam. "It's going to change during the first few days/weeks since we don't know what kind of traffic to expect, Valve said. "[But] the specific number of votes doesn't matter as much as relative interest in a game compared with other games in Steam Greenlight."
Until now, Steam's pipeline for releasing games has always relied "on a group of people to make tough choices on which games to not release on Steam." But "we knew there had to be a better way," Valve said.
The biggest difference between most retailers' review teams and Steam Greenlight is that stores gather a small group of gatekeepers; Steam wants to turn its entire community of fans into one large team.
"After all, it's the community that will ultimately be the ones deciding which release they spend their money on," Steam said.
Steam Greenlight is expected to launch on Aug. 30.
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