How Facebook Eclipsed Google In 2010

Facebook beat out Google as the No. 1 most-visited site in the United States in 2010, according to Internet analytics firm Hitwise.

How was Facebook able to outplay the former Web champion? And can Google make a comeback in 2011 and beyond?
Let's begin by admitting that the Hitwise data doesn't represent the whole truth. For starters, Hitwise only measures unique visitors in the United States. What's more, Hitwise measures sites on a per domain basis: If the analytics firm were to include Google-owned YouTube in its calculations, Google's network of websites would outrank Facebook properties.
Nonetheless, there's a tectonic shift at work here: Facebook, once easily dismissed as the next social networking fad, has seemingly discovered Google's weak spots.
What are they, and can Google regain ground here?


Identity Wars
The first area in which Facebook has bested Google is online identity. Remember the days when trying out a new website required entering your name, username, password and other details into a form? Now sites can opt to use your Facebook account for one-click signup, making life easier for both websites and their users.
Facebook was able to make this move because the service was founded around the principle of real names. While this may have slowed Facebook's growth in its early days, the company now owns a massive database of more than 500 million identities, most of them real.
As a result, Facebook is becoming the de facto identity system for the Web. The social optimization service Gigya claims that Facebook accounts for 46% of website logins versus Google's 17%.


Social struggles
Where else is Google behind? How about "social," one of the biggest Web trends of the past five years? Understanding the connections between people is Facebook's core competency, but Google has struggled to compete in the social networking arena.
Google Buzz, widely considered a flop after a highly anticipated launch this year, unsuccessfully tried to turn Gmail contacts into social networking friends. Gmail users, it turned out, didn't need yet another social network, and didn't see their email contacts as synonymous with their real-life friends. That's a major hurdle for all of Google's social efforts: The company doesn't possess a "social graph" of our real-world connections.
More troubling is that social gaming, with such Facebook hits as FarmVille, has become a megatrend over the past few years. Google has few inroads here.
Google is expected to roll out a "social layer" uniting its Web properties in 2011, but the company has played down claims that it will launch a full social network, and expectations are low for Google's next social foray. Google could change its social fortunes through an acquisition, however: The purchase of social messaging service Twitter is the obvious move.


Search Rivalry?
Google is synonymous with search and continued to reign supreme in 2010. Surely this is the one area in which the company can maintain its lead in the coming years.
Google would indeed prove difficult to unseat in search, and yet Facebook may eventually gain a little ground here, too. Not only does Facebook possess a large database of every users' personal preferences, but its increasingly popular "Like" buttons allow members to express interest in particular Web pages.
If the company felt so inclined, Facebook might be able to provide a search engine that delivers highly personalized results. Better still: Facebook may stockpile enough personal information to recommend relevant content without the need for a search box.
Such a move is unlikely to unseat Google overnight, but this means of social discovery could lessen our dependence on search engines in the long haul.


Google's big gains: Mobile, video
Facebook is only "beating" Google if we limit the playing field to the Web. But in the rapidly growing mobile sector, Facebook is a minor player.
While the leading social network is attempting to bring social features to phones, Google owns an entire operating system: Android. What's more, Android is spreading like wildfire and proving to be a real challenger to Apple's iOS. Facebook, meanwhile, doesn't even have an iPad app.
What about watching online video, one of the Web's most popular activities? Yes, Google wins there, too: As the owner of YouTube, the company serves up the vast majority of online video views. In neither mobile nor video does Facebook look to be a threat to Google's position.
Google will always retain the lead, meanwhile, in professional life: From collaborative document creation to enterprise email, it's hard to see Facebook challenging Google's role in the workplace.


An uncertain victory
In 2010, Facebook challenged Google where it is weakest: Online identity and the social Web. Given that "social" is the Web's fastest-growing trend, it's hardly surprising that Facebook has benefited from the rising tide.
And yet Facebook only outranks Google on that very narrow metric: U.S. Web traffic. As mobile operating systems and app stores grow in popularity, is Web traffic really an accurate measurement of an Internet company's success?
and let's not forget that Google still crushes Facebook on the number that really counts: Revenue.


by : Pete Cashmore
@CNN

Cookies

Ummm,basically cookies are the best for post-breakup blues.

Just remember don't waste too much of them,maybe a half of it is enough to wipe off the whole thing.

My 2011 : An Stellar Insight !

I don't believe in this stellar thing,Fortunetelling has always been meaningless to me .So : It is just for fun!  Pedram

Romantic Overview:

Your love life is beyond rich and transformational again this year. After enduring a prolonged deprivation spell, where true love seemed like something that only happened to other people, your turn for real love has arrived. Chances are you're already in the midst of a very soulful tryst that began last year. But if you happen to be one of the remaining diehard hermits, get ready to experience one of the most intense romantic encounters of your lifetime. Your birthday season tops the charts in garnishing romance and pleasure, so be sure to take some time off to properly enjoy the amorous gifts of Venus.

You've got two powerful planetary energies working to make your love life the stuff movies and dreams are made of (and for the long haul.) Neptune, the planet of dreams and soulful experience will take up residence in your relationship sector this April to bring you a preview of what's to come for the next fourteen years in radically spiritualizing your relationships. And then Pluto, the god of the underworld continues the excavation begun in 2008 in your romance sector. Over the next 14 years you can count on Pluto to bring unparalleled intensity and reveal hidden aspects of your self through the vehicle of romance. Nothing light or frivolous anymore when it comes to love, Virgo. If it's not a soul connection that will transform every fiber of your being, you'll quickly lose interest.




Career Overview:
Now that Chiron is finally coming out of your work sector this February after an extended seven-year saga of pushing every social insecurity button known to man, your work environment should be considerably less painful. If you've had trouble with co-workers or employees, you'll finally feel like you're getting some thicker skin compliments of Neptune moving out of your work sector between April and August. Use this planetary reprieve to take a more detached attitude towards all of the drama.

The absence of Chiron and Neptune in your work sector facilitates renewed confidence in your talents. You can stop second-guessing your skills and put more energy into furthering your assets. With a major eclipse pattern hitting your career sector in June, you can expect monumental changes to occur in your professional life between June and next January. This is the year for your hard work to pay off. Plus the lessons of compassion and heightened sensitivity you've learned over the past several years will only work to serve you in reading people's subliminal motives and assess who is a true ally and who to avoid at all costs when doing business.
Between the end of January and June, Jupiter comes back to bless your sector of legacy and other people's money. You'll likely be gifted with a considerable karmic jackpot in the form of a donation, gift, inheritance or loan. Do you still have issues receiving? Now is not the time to look any gift horses in the mouth Virgo. You've more than paid your dues with the amount of free help, guidance and other such service and now it's your time to receive and replenish the well.
Pic: Virgo,The Virgin Or Maiden @Wikipedia

Cancer Courts Immune Response to Aid Growth

In recent years, research has delved into the ways the body's immune system sometimes promotes disease rather than stifling it. Take inflammation. When you cut yourself, the red puffiness that ensues, called acute inflammation, is the body's way of signaling that something's gone wrong and help is needed. If all goes well, various immune cells move in, destroying any pathogens that might enter the wound and helping to repair the damaged tissue. As you heal, the inflammation subsides. However, much like stress—a natural response to crisis that is unhealthy as a steady state—inflammation appears to be useful in the short-term but bad over the long haul. Chronic low-level inflammation has been fingered as a root cause of many diseases, contributing to conditions from diabetes to cancer.

Research in mice has demonstrated that immune cells interact extensively with tumors, and not just to fight them off. Rather, cancers sometimes co-opt the immune system. For example, macrophages help guide metastasis, the spread of cancer cells from advanced tumors to other sites in the body. However, in mice it's been difficult to assess how the immune system interacts with the earliest stages of tumor development.

When an oncogene (a cancer-promoting gene) is activated or a tumor suppressor function lost, a cell can start to grow and divide faster than its neighbors. Eventually, transformed cells overtake the surrounding tissue and form tumors. A new animal study by Yi Feng and colleagues in the UK and Italy illuminates how single, newly-transformed cancer cells engage the body's immune response. Rather than mice, the team used zebrafish, which conserve many of the molecular and cellular components of tumor formation seen in mammals. Moreover, zebrafish larvae offer the advantage of being translucent, allowing investigators to live-image the very beginnings of tumors, when only one or two cells have been transformed.

Using zebrafish that had fluorescently labeled leukocytes, the team used several different tricks to express the human oncogene HRAS in early stage embryos. The oncogene was labeled with a different colored fluorescent tag and engineered to be switched on in melanocytes, specific skin pigment cells, only. The researchers then monitored the first hours and days of development. As the embryo grew, some of the cells were transformed by HRAS, and those transformed cells actively attracted the innate immune cells. The researchers got the same results when using a different oncogene, SRC, for their experiments and after inserting HRAS into a different cell population, mucus-secreting cells, and continued to see the same immune response.

To investigate the analogy that a tumor resembles a wound, the researchers made a laser cut in the same region of the zebrafish larvae where tumors had been observed and imaged the immune response. Early immune cells responded to the cut in a very similar manner. Both wounds and tumor cells produced H₂O₂, and the researchers found that immune cells traveled up the H₂O₂ gradient towards the cut or cancer.

However, in the case of the tumor, the inflammatory response never resolved, and researchers were able to visualize competing immune responses. Neutrophils and macrophages appeared to engulf cancerous cells, in line with the traditional “search and destroy” conception of immune response. However, other cells formed cytoplasmic tethers linking them to cancerous cells, and in some cases the cancerous cells appeared to drag leukocytes back when they started to leave the region. The tumors resembled chronic skin lesions more than acute cuts, supporting the common analogy that “a tumor is a wound that doesn't heal.”

Still, the researchers wanted to know whether the tumor was avoiding destruction or actually co-opting the immune cells in these earliest stages of development. To test this, they blocked the immune response in three different ways: they prevented the development of immune cells for the first three days after fertilization, and, separately, they used two different strategies to limit H₂O₂ production. In each case, immune cells failed to migrate to the cancer site. And each time, when the immune response was blocked, fewer cancer cells formed.

By visualizing the earliest interactions between cancer cells and their host environment, the researchers have shown that even from their earliest stages tumors don't just avoid being destroyed by the immune system. Rather, they appear to court an immune response, co-opting the body's innate immune system to aid and abet their growth.

Image :Destroyer or facilitator? An immune cell (red) glides over a doublet of V12Ras-transformed mucus-secreting cells, possible precursors of tumors, in a translucent, 3-day-old zebrafish larva.

By : Robin Mejia 

@PLOS Biology

A Happy New Year From Rubben Navarrette Jr.

Rubben Navarrette is the regular contributor to CNN and an NPR commentator,i found the following article so insightful. 

The kickoff of a new year -- and, for that matter, a new decade -- is a good time to look down the road and make a pact with ourselves about the kind of people we want to be and what we're willing to do to get there. These aren't just goals, but resolutions.

I'll start.

With the intention of becoming a better person, more responsible parent, stronger writer, and more productive citizen, I resolve to do the following:

-- Confront constantly my fears, inhibitions, and insecurities instead of being controlled by them

-- Focus on being the best father I can, not be my children's best friend

-- Not be so eager to avoid conflict that I let the whims of a 2-year-old, 4-year-old, and 6-year-old run my life

-- Remember that, while there is never enough time to do everything, the best place to spend it is with family and friends

-- Decide how I feel about issues based on what's best for my country, and not just my city, neighborhood, or group

-- Give people I criticize the benefit of the doubt, and not make assumptions about what motivates them

-- Look for common ground and middle-of-the-road solutions to difficult problems

-- Think through issues from a more complete, 360-degree perspective, examining them from all sides before making up my mind

-- Challenge those on the far right and the far left to approach issues with honesty, nuance, and common sense

-- Continue to try to give a voice to the silent and defend the little guy against the excesses of the loud and powerful

As for Americans in general, we should dedicate ourselves to doing the following:

-- Complain less, vote more

-- Remember that elected officials who serve in Congress, state houses, and City Hall work for us, and not the other way around

-- Think harder, judge less, read more, think again, and keep an open mind, especially when it comes to those things about which we're most unsure

-- Worry less about how others should behave, and concentrate on what we have power over: our own behavior

-- Steer clear of the extremes on the far right and the far left, and learn to see the value in more moderate views that come from the middle

-- Take responsibility for our actions, failings, decisions, and mistakes and don't look for others to blame

-- Resist the temptation to play the victim and give others more power than they deserve

-- Take politics seriously, but parenting more seriously, since the former allows for the repealing of legislation and regular elections to set things right, but there are no "do-overs" if you mess up the latter

-- Travel more and, when we get where we're going, don't forget to talk to strangers

-- Don't be so eager to be heard that we forget to listen to others

We probably can't do all those things. We're going to fall short. But we can try to do many of them. And in the process, even when we fail, we can live better lives and help make this a better country.

And what better way is there to start the new year?

By : Ruben Navarrette Jr., CNN Contributor

Annie Hall Highlights

I could finally watch Annie Hall (1977).It was splended .The movie is a sharply critical comedy/drama  with some extreme opinions. It takes up a fortified position on some social,political or moral  issues.In my opinion it's a highly intellectual picture of a liberal culture in jeopardy.The screenplay is brilliant (written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman).Annie Hall won 4 oscars,deservedly including Diane Keaton as best actress in a leading role...Pedram

Alvy Singer:[narrating] After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs. 

A Bad Day

Ashamed of all this,
I was perplexed, unable to concentrate...it is concedely a full stop for a 3-week progressive schedule.I must work hard on it.The psychological feature is the most important thing to manage.I need to rediscover the tempo.
Next 48 hours is of utmost importance.

Study: Self-referral for advanced imaging is common

The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) of Washington, DC, said its study is unique in focusing broadly on ownership of advanced imaging equipment rather than on specific healthcare services. The data indicate that policymakers may want to reconsider the in-office exemption to the Stark anti-self-referral law, which enables nonradiologist physicians to own and operate imaging equipment in their offices.


HSC researchers asked physicians whether they owned or leased medical equipment as part of its 2008 Health Physician Tracking Survey, a mail survey of U.S. physicians working at least 20 hours per week in direct patient care. The survey sample was limited to 2,750 physicians practicing in community-based, physician-owned settings. Physicians who practiced in hospital-based settings or who were employed by hospitals were excluded.
They reported ownership of medical equipment by the type of devices being used, as well as according to physician practice size and specialty. Among the survey's findings:
Among all physicians, one in six respondents (17.4%) reported that they owned or leased advanced imaging equipment.
For basic x-ray equipment, 22.7% of all physicians reported owning or leasing equipmentOwnership of advanced imaging equipment was highest among surgical specialists: 30.3% reported owning equipment. That compares to 15.7% of procedure-based medical specialists such as cardiologists, 13.5% of nonprocedure-based medical specialists such as neurologists, and 10.6% of adult primary care physicians.
Ownership varied by the size of the physician practice, from a high of 52.9% of groups larger than 51 physicians owning advanced imaging equipment, to a low of 6.7% for solo practitioners.
The report went on to note that Congress and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have made physician ownership of advanced imaging less attractive by cutting Medicare reimbursement. Also, the healthcare reform law passed earlier in 2010 includes provisions that as of January 1, 2011, will require self-referring physicians to disclose their financial interests to patients and to provide them with a list of alternative service providers.
"Given the growing evidence that physician self-referral contributes to unnecessary and costly care, policymakers might reconsider the broadness of the in-office ancillary service exemption to the Stark law," the report states. "Ultimately, moving away from fee-for-service payment toward payment mechanisms that reimburse physicians for a broader unit of service, such as an episode of care, or putting physicians at least partially at risk for the cost of care will alter the financial incentives that now encourage physician self-referrals."


By : Brian Casey

McKesson completes purchase of US Oncology

Healthcare information systems and pharmaceutical distribution corporation McKesson announced today that it has completed its acquisition of US Oncology.

US Oncology, headquartered in The Woodlands, TX, is the largest community-based cancer care and research network in the U.S., with more than 500 affiliated sites of care, including 100 radiation therapy treatment centers.

The acquisition, for $2.16 billion in cash, was announced by McKesson of San Francisco on November 1 and was approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice on December 20. However, the sale was halted on December 21 by an order from the Supreme Court of the State of New York, based on a complaint filed by Cancer Clinics of Excellence (CCE) of San Rafael, CA. An evidentiary hearing was scheduled for January 10, 2011.
J. Ike Nicoll, president and CEO of CCE, announced that a settlement agreeable to both CCE and McKesson had been reached, and that the complaint was withdrawn from the New York Supreme Court today. A spokesperson for McKesson Specialty Care Solutions concurred, stating that terms of the settlement had been successfully negotiated.

It Was A Kick In The Teeth At St Andrew's

The league leaders make a swift return to the Birmingham area this Saturday - New Year’s Day - when Sir Alex Ferguson’s men will visit West Bromwich Albion. Rio no doubt speaks for the squad when he hopes for a better outcome than Tuesday night and, indeed, than in the last meeting with the Baggies – 2-2 at Old Trafford in October.

“We should have got the three points at Birmingham but we'll be looking to the next game to make things right,” 

“I thought, on the whole, we deserved to win at St Andrew's. After battling with Birmingham in the first half, we started the second half quite brightly. We passed the ball about and got our noses in front with a great goal from Berba.

“But you want to shut games out like that and we didn't manage to do it. It was a kick in the teeth to concede the equaliser so late on.”

While dismayed by the modus operandi for Birmingham’s last-gasp leveller – “he (Nikola Zigic, the goal’s creator) even said at the end of the game he handled the ball” – Ferdinand respects the way United’s opponents approached the contest.

“They get right into you as you expect, understand and appreciate when you go to places like Birmingham and, of course, their fans get up for it," said Rio.

“It's what makes the Premier League such a great league to play in. You get a different set of tasks in front of you each week and you have to deal with them.”

The Reds must now deal with a wounded animal in West Brom – the Baggies lost both their Christmas matches, 0-2 at Bolton where they were arguably the better side and 1-3 at home to Blackburn. Victory for United at The Hawthorns seems almost vital as the title race continues to twist and turn with Manchester City and Arsenal now serious contenders, while Spurs have climbed above Chelsea into fourth spot.

“It's open for four or five teams to go and take it,” acknowledged Ferdinand. “We want to be the team that does just that.”

@manutd.com

Obsessions lie Behind My Rugged Face

Basically i've always wanted to face problems,penetrate deep into the troubled waters in my life...but one's vigor  is limited and that's inevitable.This style,this attitude toward life has its positive and negative impacts.Overall i can't argue that some achievements are directly linked to this hardheadedness.In my position, i don't have many choices to lead myself somewhere in some ten-year period.It's a fight at all fronts;technically,scholarly,morally and personally i'm intriguingly involved in a tough battle.Aparrently it sucks alot of you inside...i'm prone to many difficult occasional challenges,many tough moments.A nasty anarchy devour precious moments of my life.The confusion disfigures all scheduled plans.That's how an acceptable predefined objective turns to a ruffianly element.
When you're not satisfied and objectives are left  unfulfilled ,Life loses its taste and humor. It illogically affects other activities.
There are times I harshly blame myself and rue misachievements.Kind of "idee fixe" jells rapidly ,focused entirely on Failure.
It becomes a yawing whirlpool ,hard to survive....
Now matter how many other handy projects exist and are arranged, i ruin my day with this twisted one.

All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun

my eyes are
a baptism 
oh i am filth 
and sing her 
into my thoughts 
oh phantom elusive thing oh,

all flowers in time bend towards the sun
i know you say that there's no-one for you
but here is one,
all flowers in time bend towards the sun
i know you say that there's no-one for you
but here is one, here is one... here is one

aah, ooh...
one that can never be known
either all drunk with the world at her feet
or sober with no place to go

all flowers in time bend towards the sun
i know you say that there's no-one for you
but here is one,
all flowers in time bend towards the sun
i know you say that there's no-one for you
but here is one, here is one... here is one

aah, ooh...
we could go (......)
we can travel round
fading farther from me
with your face in my window call

when will you weep for me
sweet willow

it's ok to be angry
but not to hurt me
your happiness, yes, yes, yes
darling, darling,
oooh...

all flowers in time bend towards the sun
i know you say that there's no-one for you
but here is one,
all flowers in time bend towards the sun
i know you say that there's no-one for you
but here is one, here is one... here is one 


song : Jeff Buckley + Elizabet Fraser

Oil Tycoon Convicted of Embezzlement Again !

A judge in Moscow on Monday handed down a new conviction against Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former oil tycoon, in a case that has been widely seen as an indicator of the Kremlin’s tolerance for political dissent. Mr. Khodorkovsky, who has already been imprisoned for seven years after feuding with Vladimir V. Putin, was found guilty on embezzlement charges that could keep him behind bars for several more years. Formerly Russia’s richest man, Mr. Khodorkovsky, 47, is the country’s most well-known prisoner, and his treatment has been held up by opponents of the Kremlin as evidence that the justice system here is readily manipulated by those in power.
The judge did not immediately pass sentence, and it was unclear when he might do so. While a guilty verdict was expected, the length of the sentence will be scrutinized as a sign of whether the Kremlin wants to loosen or tighten control over the political system.
Mr. Putin, the former president and current prime minister, has often assailed Mr. Khodorkovsky as a criminal who ordered his associates to kill people so that he could amass wealth. Just this month, Mr. Putin referred to Mr. Khodorkovsky as a thief who should “sit in jail” — criticism that Mr. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers described as a blatant attempt to pressure the court.
A short prison sentence might be considered a victory for Mr. Putin’s protégé, President Dmitri A. Medvedev, a former law professor who is thought of as less of a hard-liner. Mr. Medvedev has been promoting policies to modernize Russia, and analysts say the Khodorkovsky case is an obstacle toward convincing foreign investors that the country’s legal system is fair.
Mr. Khodorkovsky’s co-defendant and business associate, Platon L. Lebedev, was also found guilty on Monday by the judge, Viktor Danilkin.Mr. Khodorkovsky earned his fortune in the rough-and-tumble 1990’s after the fall of Communism, snapping up state-owned oil fields at a fraction of their worth and then creating one of the world’s largest oil companies. Like many Russian businessmen at the time, he had a reputation for engaging in practices that would be illegal or unsavory in the West.
He later decided to reform both his image and his business, and became a champion, at least publicly, of good corporate governance. He also delved into politics, which is where he seems to have run into trouble.
After Mr. Putin became president in 2000, he made clear to the class of tycoons who earned their fortunes in the 1990’s that they could keep their holdings if they did not interfere with the Kremlin.
Mr. Khodorkovsky apparently did not heed the message. He financed political parties and ignored increasingly pointed warnings from Mr. Putin’s associates. In 2003, Mr. Khodorkovsky was arrested on the tarmac of an airport in Siberia. He has been in prison since then.
He was convicted of tax fraud in 2005, and his companies were essentially confiscated by the government.
His current sentence ends in 2011, which is just before Russia’s next presidential election. Analysts suggested that Mr. Putin did not want Mr. Khodorkovsky out of prison before then, which is why prosecutors brought fresh charges against him.
In the current case, he was accused of stealing $27 billion in oil from subsidiaries of his own oil conglomerate through pricing schemes. Mr. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers call the charges absurd, and politically motivated.

@nytimes.com

Stretford-End XI

December 26th The Landmark

Ibanez deal is finalized.
I am overjoyed...

In The End

I think in the end ,we'll find it was all about love and compassion.
How to lift a downtrodden,share happiness with the hopeless one ?
Am I to become apathetic and enjoy myself ?
In the end i want to picture myself buried amongst daffodils galore...with the neglected.


Pedram 
December 26,2010

یاد باد آن روزگاران،یاد باد

عليرضا حافظي گوينده قديمي راديو ورزش شنبه شب به دليل مشکلات حاد ريوي پس از چند روز بستري شدن در بيمارستان به دليل شدت بيماري درگذشت. 

وي بيش از 10 سال به عنوان کارشناس و گوينده در راديو ورزش فعاليت مي کرد. حافظي در بازي هاي آسيايي گوانگجو حضور داشت و آخرين ماموريت کاري خود را انجام داد. 

وي شب گذشته در بيمارستان ايرانشهر در سن 49 سالگي به ديار باقي شتافت. 

با توجه به اينکه حافظي کارمند وزات نيرو بود مراسم تشييع وي صبح روز دوشنبه از مقابل توانير برگزار خواهد شد. ضمن اينکه مراسم ختم نيز از ساعت 15 الي 16:30 پنجشنبه هفته جاري در مسجد بلال صدا و سيما برگزار خواهد شد

.خاطرات زیادی با صدای علیرضا حافظی داشتم:روزهایی که رادیو ورزش مونس من بود ... ساعات زیادی سعی می کردم با صدای رادیو به پیکار اژدهای وحشتناکی بروم که هر لحظه مترصد حمله به دنیای شکننده ام بود. برنامه های رادیو چنگی به دل نمی زد ولی در آن بین کار دو گوینده - کارشناس به دلم می نشست:شماره ی یک که مهدی رستم پور که واقعا یک استثنا بود . به برنامه های یخ زده در ساعات مرده چنان وزن و هیجانی می داد که وصف ناشدنی بود.رستم پور ترکیب بسیار جالبی بود از دانش،فن بیان و صداقت.از او این درس بزرگ را گرفتم که می توان مستقل از تعداد مخاطب یا زرق وبرق یک برنامه ، خوب   ومفید اجرا کرد و مخاطبان انگشت شماردر ساعات انتهایی شب یاآغازین بامدادرا به وجد آورد. چهره دوم برای من علیرضا حافظی بود.افزون بر دانش بالا و بیان قوی،صدای بسیار گرمی نیز داشت. شنیدن برنامه هایش بسیاردلنشین بود.اکنون مهدی رستم پورگویا به دانمارک مهاجرت کرده و علیرضا حافظی...پدرام

  

Elusive Saharan Cheetah Captured In Photos

An elusive Saharan cheetah recently came into the spotlight in Niger, Africa, where a hidden camera snapped photos of the ghostly cat, whose pale coat and emaciated appearance distinguish it from other cheetahs.
In one of the images the sleek, light-colored cat with small spots on its coat and a small head is turning in the direction of the camera, its eyes aglow.
Its appearance, and how the Saharan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) is genetically related to other cheetahs is open to question, said John Newby, CEO of the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF), who is part of the team, along with SCF's Thomas Rabeil and others, who captured the camera-trap snapshots between July ad August. What they know about this species comes from the few photos they've managed to capture.

"I think we were more happy than surprised when the images turned up, because we knew cheetahs were in the general area because we had seen their tracks on several occasions," Newby said. "However, the area is so vast that picking up an animal as rare as this always entails a lot of luck and good judgment on where to place the cameras."
The animal is so rare and elusive scientists aren't sure how many even exist, though they estimate from the few observations they've made of the animal and tracks that fewer than 10 individuals call the vast desert of Termit and Tin Toumma in Niger home. Fewer than 200 cheetahs probably exist in the entire Sahara. [10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye]
Losing this cheetah would also mean losing important genetic and biological diversity, as these animals have adaptations for survival in extreme desert conditions.
Their home can reach sizzling temperatures up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius), and is so parched no standing water exists. "They probably satisfy their water requirements through the moisture in their prey, and on having extremely effective physiological and behavioral adaptations," Newby said.
In an effort to conserve water and stay out of the heat, the Saharan cheetah is even more nocturnal than other cheetahs.
Spotting these cats in the wild has been a challenge. "They are incredibly shy and elusive animals," Newby said. In addition, they likely have broad home ranges since their prey - gazelles, hares, large birds and smaller rodents - are relatively scarce. Observations that have been made suggest they prefer caves and rock shelters as breeding dens.
Among the threats to the pale cat are scarcity of prey due to poaching and overuse, and conflicts with herders over stock harassment and killing of their animals, according to SCF. Apparently cheetah skins are prized as prayer rugs or used to make slippers.
"They are suspected of taking goats and even baby camels, and as a result are persecuted just like most other large predators," Newby said. "Work underway with local nomads is putting together the true picture of livestock predation in an attempt to reduce the arbitrary slaughter of carnivores that has massively reduced populations of cheetah and striped hyenas."
Newby and Rabeil say the camera-trap study will provide tangible evidence for the cheetah's existence in the Termit area.
"The more we know about the animal the better we can conserve it, including pinpointing key areas for extra protection," Newby said. "The cheetah's presence adds weight to arguments for the entire zone's protection as a nature reserve and strengthens our ability to raise support for conservation activities."
The Saharan cheetah is listed as critically endangered on the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. (IUCN stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature.)

A hind image showing the Saharan cheetah in the Termit region of Niger, Africa, was captured recently by a camera trap. Credit: Sahara Conservation Fund/WildCRU.

The Saharan cheetah is smaller with a paler coat than other cheetahs. Here a photo of the Saharan cheetah captured by a camera trap in a vast desert in Niger, Africa. Credit: Sahara Conservation Fund/WildCRU.

A camera trap recently captured the elusive Saharan cheetah in a vast desert in Niger, Africa. Credit: Sahara Conservation Fund/WildCRU.



By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor





 

Condition Stabilized

I feel ok today.Back at my desk.Last night i entered the new phase of my treatment ;which is predicted to last about 6 sessions.Right now my health matters the most . All other plans have been followed sluggishly in last two weeks .Realistically I predict a more challenging week ahead. A fair combination of old and brand new prospects are set in my mind.I'm on brink of a massive investment which i believe ,will add an interesting dimension to my life and career.To me it's a kind of discovering a suppressed potential and process the raw material .

Not Exactly A Friend !

“I researched my condition on Wikipedia.” That’s what more doctors, myself included, are hearing from patients every day.
Wikipedia is the Web’s most popular online encyclopedia. Its more than 13 million articles cover almost every topic imaginable. It is among the most visited sites primarily because its articles routinely show up near the top of search engine results, like those from Google.The ability to research diseases and drugs on the Web has empowered patients in managing their health. More than 160 million adults in the U.S. have gone online to look for medical information. With two-thirds of them beginning their Internet health inquiry using a search engine, it is no wonder that Wikipedia has become a common medical resource for patients. More than half, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, reported that their most recent Web session influenced how they took care of themselves or for someone else, illustrating how critical online health information has become.
But Wikipedia’s medical entries — as has been reported with other entries on other issues — are not reliable for the simple fact that they are prone to manipulation, as is all Wikipedia content.Anyone can write and edit its topics, which means millions of non-doctors can essentially dispense medical advice. In several instances, pharmaceutical companies intentionally tried to delete or modify Wikipedia entries that mentioned adverse effects associated with their drugs.For example, in 2007, a claim that the psychiatric medication Seroquel made teenagers “more likely to think about harming or killing themselves” was deleted from the Wikipedia entry by a computer registered to AstraZeneca, the drug’s manufacturer.
Even more troubling is that doctors, too, appear to be increasingly reliant on Wikipedia. According to a survey of 1,900 physicians by Manhattan Research, a health care market research firm, nearly half of doctors going online for professional purposes reported using Wikipedia as a source of medical information. That number has doubled in the past year alone.
The threat is obvious. Can you imagine your doctor stepping out from the exam room, tapping away at his or her computer seeking the advice of Wikipedia? Research has documented the danger. A study from The Annals of Pharmacotherapy compared drug information from Wikipedia with the Medscape Drug Reference, a resource whose information is reviewed by pharmacists. Researchers found that Wikipedia omitted important information, including drug side effects. Another entry overlooked a commonly prescribed pain medication’s association with miscarriages.
This isn’t to say patients shouldn’t research their medical conditions to become better informed. But it’s imperative that patients not rely on Wikipedia as the primary source of their health research. Websites sponsored by the government, academic medical centers, or professional medical societies all have more authoritative information that can be relied upon.
Jay Walsh, head of communications at the Wikimedia Foundation, says: “Wikipedia shouldn’t be taken as a 100% reliable source of medical information. … But Wikipedia always strives for a degree of improvement.
”And as for physicians, there’s no excuse turning to Wikipedia as a source when reputable medical resources are a few more keystrokes away. Although these other sites might require more time for a busy clinician, doctors need to eschew convenience to ensure their decisions are based on sound medical information.
Quality patient care demands no less.

published on July 15th, 2009 in the USA Today.

The Coming of Wisdom With Time

Though leaves are many , the root is one,
Through all the lying days of my youth,
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun,
Now I may wither into the truth. 

William Butler Yeates

Radiation Therapy Comparable To Surgery In Elderly Patients

Stereotactic radiation therapy produces the same survival outcomes for elderly patients diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer as surgery, according to research presented at the 2010 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology held December 9-11.

According to the study, patients who underwent stereotactic radiation therapy had a lower risk of dying within the first 30 days following treatment, even though this was a frailer group of patients compared to controls. The research was conducted by a team from Amsterdam's VU University Medical Center, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.

The group conducted a matched-pair analysis of the overall survival outcomes of patients living in north Holland who received treatment after being diagnosed with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) between 2005 and 2007. A total of 191 patients were identified from a comprehensive population-based registry. From this group, a total of 122 patients could be matched, half of whom had surgery and half of whom had stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatments.

The median age of the patients at the time of diagnosis was 79 years. Patients were matched by age, gender, year of treatment, and T-stage. Baseline co-morbidities were not available, but a large number of patients who received the stereotactic radiation therapy were medically inoperable, according to lead author and presenter David Palma, MD, a radiation oncologist who conducted the study while on a research fellowship at VU University Medical Center. Palma is now practicing at the London Regional Cancer Program in London, Ontario.

Patients were followed for a median of 43 months. Six patients died within the first 30 days following treatment; five of these patients had undergone surgery. Overall survival at one year was 75% for surgical patients and 87% for radiation therapy patients. Three years following treatment, 60% of the surgery group and 41% of the radiation therapy group were alive.

"Many would expect that the patients treated with radiation therapy would do worse than those undergoing surgery," Palma told attendees at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)-sponsored symposium.

"At the time that these patients underwent treatment, patients only received radiation if they were too unwell for surgery or if they refused surgery," he continued. "Because most of these radiation therapy patients had medical problems that prevented them from having surgery, we would expect them not to live as long as the surgery patients. Yet, despite this disadvantage, the radiation therapy patients lived just as long as the healthier patients who had surgery for the first 12 months following treatment."

Up to one-fourth of Dutch patients older than 75 who are diagnosed with stage I and stage II NSCLC do not receive any oncologic therapy, Palma said. Stereotactic body radiation therapy is an attractive treatment option for surgically unfit and/or elderly patients, due to its ease of administration and favorable toxicity profile, he explained.

"Patients prefer this treatment because there is no hospitalization associated with it, it doesn't require an anesthetic, there is no risk of infection from a surgical procedure, and it only takes a few treatments," Palma added:"I think that the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy will increase," he added. "We've seen over the past five years already that elderly patients and their physicians are choosing radiation more often to treat stage I lung cancer, and fewer patients are choosing to go without treatment as well. This study shows us that the stereotactic treatment is effective even for patients who have many medical problems."

A comparison of the costs of each treatment was not in the scope of the study. However, Palma said that cost-effectiveness studies are currently being performed, though results are not yet available. "In most countries with socialized medicine, once radiation therapy equipment has been purchased, the cost of radiation treatment is relatively inexpensive," he concluded.

By Cynthia E. Keen
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 17, 2010

Reds Deliver Christmas Cheer

Patients at cancer research centre The Christie and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital were treated to visits from United's first-team stars on Tuesday morning.

In what's become an annual event, the players delivered presents and helped spread Christmas cheer in the wards to dozens of children and teenagers, many of whom will spend their Christmas Day in hospital.

Both venues receive regular support from the Manchester United Foundation, the charitable arm of the football Club that has helped raise more than £700,000 for charity over the paast 12 months.

Here are more images from the hospital visit.

@ManUtd.com

Androgen-Deprivation Therapy and Risk for Colorectal Cancer

Androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is the standard initial treatment for men with metastatic prostate cancer, yet the majority of men in the U.S. who receive ADT have nonmetastatic disease. Recently, the FDA asked the manufacturers of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists to include warnings about the potential risks for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases associated with their products; links between GnRH agonists and fracture risk have also been demonstrated (JW Oncol Hematol Aug 11 2009).

Now, investigators have assessed the potential association between colorectal cancer (CRC) and the use of ADT (with GnRH agonists or orchiectomy). The researchers analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Medicare data for 107,859 men (age, 67) who received initial diagnoses of prostate cancer from 1993 through 2002.

During a mean follow-up of 59.4 months after diagnosis, 2035 patients developed CRC. The incidence of CRC per 1000 person-years was 6.3 for men who underwent orchiectomy, 4.4 for men who received GnRH agonist therapy, and 3.7 for men who received no ADT. The adjusted hazard ratio for orchiectomy versus no ADT was 1.37 (95% confidence interval, 1.14–1.66). CRC risk increased with duration of GnRH agonist use: For 13 to 24 months of GnRH agonist use, the AHR versus no ADT was 1.19 (95% CI, 1.00–1.41), and, for 25 months of GnRH agonist use, the AHR versus no ADT was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.12–1.53).

Editor's Comment: An accompanying editorial notes that obesity is consistently associated with excess risk for CRC in men. Obese men tend to have lower testosterone levels than nonobese men, and both hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance might be causally linked to obesity and development of CRC. The editorialists also speculate that the increased risk for CRC that was evident so soon after ADT use in the current analysis might reflect the influence of hormones on relatively late processes of carcinogenesis. As the list of risks associated with ADT use increases, the appropriate selection of patients for ADT — as well as the use of aggressive lifestyle and diet modification in those who require ADT— becomes increasingly important.

   Robert Dreicer, MD, MS, FAC

Published in Journal Watch Oncology and HematologyDecember 21, 2010