Paris' Louvre Museum unveils Islamic Art wing

PARIS (AP) ? The Louvre Museum is unveiling a new wing and galleries dedicated to the arts of Islam, culminating a nearly ?100 million ($130 million), decade-long project coming to fruition amid tensions between the Muslim world and the West.

The new dragonfly-shaped building marks the famed Paris museum's greatest development since its iconic glass pyramid constructed 20 years ago. The Department of Islamic Art will exhibit much of the Louvre's 18,000 works, hoping also to foster cultural understanding.

Mosaics from the Damascus mosque and a 15th-century Mamluk porch are among works spanning from 632 to 1800 A.D. Donors included Morocco's King Mohammed VI and Saudi Prince Waleed Bin Talal's foundation.

Louvre director Henri Loyrette says the galleries aim to showcase "the radiant face of a civilization."

The wing, with its mission of heightening cross-cultural understanding, is opening at a tense ? and perhaps opportune ? time.

France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world after a French satirical weekly published lewd caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were firebombed last year, was brandishing its right to free speech. But the publication raised concerns that France could face violent protests like the ones targeting the United States over an amateur video produced in California ridiculing the prophet that have left at least 30 people dead.

French officials said the weekly was throwing "oil on the fire" and urged calm. France has western Europe's largest Muslim population.

In a sign of the political importance of the new Louvre exhibit, French President Francois Hollande attended an opening ceremony Tuesday, calling it a "political gesture in the service of respect for peace." The Saudi prince and the president of Azerbaijan, accompanied him.

Hollande criticized those who "destroy the values of Islam by resorting to violence and hate."

"The best weapons for fighting fanaticism that claims to be coming from Islam are found in Islam itself," he said. "What more beautiful message than that demonstrated here by these works."

The Louvre opened a department of Islamic art in 2003, under former President Jacques Chirac, who said he wanted to highlight the contributions of Muslim civilizations on Western culture. Chirac, who vigorously opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, constantly pushed for the idea of a "dialogue of cultures" to break down the misunderstandings between the West and the Muslim world.

But its gallery could initially display only a fraction of the thousands of pieces of art from the Muslim world, so it decided under Chirac on an ambitious expansion.

The museum opens to the public Saturday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paris-louvre-museum-unveils-islamic-art-wing-084241910.html

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Analysis: Romney sharpens differences with Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican Mitt Romney, in describing nearly half of Americans as being docile dependents of the state, and saying it's a "foreign concept" for government to redistribute income, is outlining a philosophy that's not only sharply at odds with President Barack Obama's views. It's also difficult to square with the facts of how Social Security, Medicare, the tax code and scores of other institutions work.

Romney's claim that 47 percent of Americans won't take "personal responsibility," which he linked to their failure to owe federal income taxes, instantly crystallized his philosophical differences with Obama when the remarks came to light Monday.

Romney, trying to control the message amid widespread criticism, went further on Tuesday. He told Fox News that it's "an entirely foreign concept" for government to "take from some to give to the others."

The remarks echoed complaints often raised by conservative groups, including tea party activists, who denounce "redistribution of wealth."

But the remarks overlook basic facts, such as how the costly and popular Social Security and Medicare programs shift billions of dollars from younger people ? who pay payroll taxes ? to older people, who receive the benefits.

Similarly, the nation's progressive income tax system requires wealthy people to pay proportionately more, shifting some of their wealth to poorer people in the form of government services and welfare.

Federal excise taxes, along with sales taxes imposed by many states, work in the other direction, regressively. Because they are levied without regard to the payer's income, they take a disproportionately larger bite from poor people.

In the Fox interview, Romney took a calculated risk that most voters resent, or can be coaxed to resent, the government's redistributive role, even if millions benefit from it, and it's central to the entire federal system.

Some conservative activists, originally tepid about Romney, cheered his much-debate remarks about the "47 percent."

"The Mitt UNPLUGGED and UNPROGRAMMED by staff & 'experts' won in biz & can win the presidency," said talk show Laura Ingraham via Twitter.

Romney's remarks sharpened his philosophical differences with Obama as the campaign enters its last 50 days.

Obama talks much more than Romney does about society's responsibility to help the needy. His it-takes-a-village approach depicts government as a force for good ? not only for the downtrodden, but also for entrepreneurs who rely on public schools, roads, police and firefighters to build their businesses.

"We have some obligations to each other," Obama told CBS's David Letterman on Tuesday. There's "nothing wrong with giving each other a hand."

Romney often portrays government as an over-regulating, over-taxing nuisance that hampers hard-charging "job creators." In the secretly recorded remarks to Florida donors in May, Romney described nearly half of all Americans as people "who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."

He was referring to the roughly 46 percent of Americans who pay no federal income tax, although many of them pay sales taxes, payroll taxes, and state, local and excise taxes.

"So our message of lower taxes doesn't connect," Romney said at the May fundraiser. "And so my job is not to worry about those people," he said. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Democrats, and some Republicans, noted that these Americans include millions of elderly people, military personnel and working-class parents.

They also include a handful of very wealthy people. The IRS reported that, thanks to complex tax breaks, six of the 400 highest-earning families in 2009 owed no federal income taxes.

The week's events seem to be widening the philosophical gap between Obama and Romney.

In truth, both visions of America ? as a society that cares for its elderly and downtrodden, and a society fueled by hard-working, self-reliant people trying to get ahead ? have deep roots in the nation's history.

But recent events have made the two visions appear more at odds than they truly are.

The Great Recession of 2007-2009 contributed to big spikes in food stamp use, now about 48 million. The median U.S. household lost nearly 39 percent of its wealth from 2007 to 2010.

At roughly the same time, the tea party movement accelerated the Republican Party's shift toward a more solidly anti-tax posture. Refusal to raise taxes ? even on the wealthiest Americans, and even in the name of slowing the federal debt's dramatic growth ? has become a priority for many Republicans, especially in the House.

Democrats, meanwhile, note that federal taxes, as a share of the total economy, are at their lowest level in 60 years.

Some conservatives say the number of Americans receiving government benefits, and not paying income taxes, is alarming. Nearly half of all Americans receive some form of direct federal benefit.

More than a quarter of Americans are on Medicaid, 16 percent receive Social Security, 15 percent are on Medicare, and nearly 16 percent receive food stamps.

"When the number of people riding in the wagon outnumber the people pulling the wagon, how do you ever reform?" said Dan Mitchell, an economist for the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.

Neera Tanden, head of the Democratic-oriented Center for American Progress, called that "a complete misunderstanding" of society. Americans, she said, "are the most religious, most hard-working people in the world. ... We are a nation of strivers."

The United States trails other industrialized countries, she said, "in the support that government provides to people. We are among the stingiest in the world."

In 1998, when he was an Illinois state senator, Obama told a college audience: "The trick is figuring out how we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody has a shot."

Obama and Romney are giving American voters one of the most clear-cut philosophical choices in recent presidential history.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Charles Babington covers national politics for The Associated Press.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-romney-sharpens-differences-obama-223914077--election.html

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GEN reports on growth of biobanking operations

Public release date: 19-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: John Sterling
jsterling@genengnews.com
914-740-2196
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, September 19, 2012 Many biotech observers maintain that the future of healthcare will largely be based on the field of personalized medicine, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) (http://genengnews.com). Although drug discovery efforts require access to increasingly larger arrays of biosamples, demand is exceeding supply, fueling the growth of the biobanking market, according to a recent issue of GEN (http://genengnews.com/gen-articles/biobanking-confronts-growing-pains/4481).

"Personalized medicine is all about tailoring specific therapies for individual patients," said John Sterling, Editor-in-Chief of GEN. "Scientists are faced with a growing need for biospecimens such as blood, saliva, plasma, and purified DNA to move personalized medicine research forward. Bio-repositories and biobanks will continue to play a critical role in this work."

Sources for human material range from those that provide postmortem material, such as the International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine (IIAM), to consortia that provide samples from living donors with specific diseases, such as the Lung Tissue Research Consortium. Depending on source, varying amounts of donor information are supplied with the human materials.

One key development is the emergence of virtual biobanking, where companies provide a single point of access to a range of biospecimens. Using networks of ethical sources, they find the tissues required to the specifications provided by the requester, and then deliver them to the requester. This streamlines the procurement of tissue and benefits all parties.

###

The GEN article includes important insights on biobanking from scientists at Novartis, Leo Pharma, Merck Research Laboratories, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and the University of Manchester in the U.K.

For a copy of the September 15 issue of GEN, please call (914) 740-2146, or email: pbartell@genengnews.com

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (http://genengnews.com), which is published 21 times a year by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com), is the most widely read biotechnology news magazine worldwide. It includes articles on Drug Discovery, Bioprocessing, OMICS, Biobusiness, and Translational Medicine.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 19-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: John Sterling
jsterling@genengnews.com
914-740-2196
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, September 19, 2012 Many biotech observers maintain that the future of healthcare will largely be based on the field of personalized medicine, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) (http://genengnews.com). Although drug discovery efforts require access to increasingly larger arrays of biosamples, demand is exceeding supply, fueling the growth of the biobanking market, according to a recent issue of GEN (http://genengnews.com/gen-articles/biobanking-confronts-growing-pains/4481).

"Personalized medicine is all about tailoring specific therapies for individual patients," said John Sterling, Editor-in-Chief of GEN. "Scientists are faced with a growing need for biospecimens such as blood, saliva, plasma, and purified DNA to move personalized medicine research forward. Bio-repositories and biobanks will continue to play a critical role in this work."

Sources for human material range from those that provide postmortem material, such as the International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine (IIAM), to consortia that provide samples from living donors with specific diseases, such as the Lung Tissue Research Consortium. Depending on source, varying amounts of donor information are supplied with the human materials.

One key development is the emergence of virtual biobanking, where companies provide a single point of access to a range of biospecimens. Using networks of ethical sources, they find the tissues required to the specifications provided by the requester, and then deliver them to the requester. This streamlines the procurement of tissue and benefits all parties.

###

The GEN article includes important insights on biobanking from scientists at Novartis, Leo Pharma, Merck Research Laboratories, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and the University of Manchester in the U.K.

For a copy of the September 15 issue of GEN, please call (914) 740-2146, or email: pbartell@genengnews.com

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (http://genengnews.com), which is published 21 times a year by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com), is the most widely read biotechnology news magazine worldwide. It includes articles on Drug Discovery, Bioprocessing, OMICS, Biobusiness, and Translational Medicine.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/mali-gro091912.php

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Real Estate Matters Top List of Legal Malpractice Claims: Survey

For the first time since the American Bar Association began conducting surveys of legal malpractice insurance claims beginning in 1985, insurers reported a higher percentage of claims involving real estate than any other area of law.

Real estate, personal injury-plaintiff and family law are the top three areas in the ?Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims: 2008-2011,? released by the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers? Professional Liability. In all five previous versions of the survey dating to 1985, personal injury-plaintiff matters were number one in generating lawyer malpractice claims.

Eleven member insurers of the National Association of Bar Related Insurance Companies from the United States and nine from Canada contributed data to the study, along with eight commercial insurance companies. Insurers provided data on 53,000 claims for the 2011 study, the most ever.

The prominence of real estate matters in the current survey continues a trend observed in the 2007 study, which revealed an increase in the percentage of claims in that area. Although the report urges caution in drawing conclusions, it says that ?it is not surprising? that real estate and collection/bankruptcy have been the source of larger percentages of claims activity in the last several years.

?The authors believe that failed real estate (and other business) transactions likely were the source of increased claims in the 2011 study, but it would be a leap to state that is definitively so based on the data,? the report states.

The study presents data on number of claims by area of law, number of lawyers in the firm, type of activity, disposition of claim, type of alleged error, indemnity dollars paid to claimant and other categories.

The study found that the type of activity most likely to generate claims was ?preparation, filing, and transmittal of documents,? retaining its number one position from previous years. ?Advice? moved up to become the second-most-likely reported activity to generate claims.

Of the individual errors generating claims in this edition of the study, ?failure to file a document?no deadline? showed a steep decline in its share of all errors, dropping from its second-place position in the 2007 study to the bottom third percentage of all individual errors.

Because the study relies on self-reporting only from those legal malpractice insurers that participated in the survey, the authors cautioned that it is not a comprehensive review of all malpractice claims against all lawyers and should not be used by underwriters to determine high- and low-risk practices.

The American Bar Associations? (ABA) Standing Committee on Lawyers? Professional Liability is the ABA?s source for information on legal malpractice claim statistics, insurance for lawyers and malpractice prevention information and help.

Source: http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2012/09/18/213753.htm

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Keywords: Affordable concrete pigments, concrete contractors, Decorative Concrete Supply, in the Ft Worth area

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What does a fighter look like? (PHOTOS)

I've often heard the phrase, "He/she doesn't look like a fighter!" This comes up especially before women's fights, when Ronda Rousey's cover girl looks are cited as a reason to be shocked that she can rip your arm off. I hear it about Georges St-Pierre, who could easily find another career on a runway. UFC president Dana White brought it up recently when he criticized Roy Nelson's mullet, beard and belly.

But the thing about MMA is that outside making weight the day before a fight and passing a ton of medical tests, there are no physical requirements to step in a cage. While fighters look like this:

They also look like this:

They come in sizes large:

and small:

They are from all over the world and represent every color in the rainbow.

And yes, Dana, sometimes they even look like this.

There is no one way to look, act or sound like a fighter. The diversity within mixed martial arts is something to be celebrated, not criticized.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/does-fighter-look-photos-154843275--mma.html

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Life is the Lesson | Betsy Fitzgerald

Yesterday, I attended a graveside memorial service for a friend?s brother who died unexpectedly at age 52. We gathered in the shaded stillness of Lincoln cemetery and listened as his siblings spoke eloquently, and with welcome bursts of humor, about their brother who was to all accounts an original character. He was an MIT graduate, an inventor, a bon vivant.

Five years ago, my brother Andy?s died. He was 48 when he lost control of his motorcycle, just about 10 miles from my hometown of Somers, Connecticut. Andy had been living in what had been our family home. Unlike my friend?s brother, Andy struggled with demons that led to his death.

Andy was brilliant and funny. He was the baby brother?a bonus when my mother hit 40 and thought she was done. He loved cooking and photography. He delighted us with his unique holiday cards. Each year, he?d put a tiny Santa cap on some unsuspecting animal?frog, mouse. He would buy the animal from a local pet store, take its picture and then return it saying it wasn?t what he expected. Secretly we worried that he used super-glue to keep the caps on his holiday victims.

Before he was 20, he became addicted to drugs. He was incarcerated twice for drug-related issues. Despite the jail and a hundred other missteps, I always believed he would turn his life around.

I read his short eulogy standing by the urn decorated with Celtic knots. I clutched a bouquet of sunflowers as a reminder that he and I shared Leo as our sign. We were the summer babies in the family.

I have learned about Andy this past week as we have tried to sort through his life. Mostly we have learned that he had friends. Good friends who are broken-hearted by his death.

?He was the baby of our family?a family of older siblings who saw his happy goofy smile as childish and his easier life as unearned.?We aren?t defined by family place; Andy did not reap any great benefits from his. Early on he found himself happy in the kitchen watching the production of feeding our large family, and by age 14 he decided he?d like to be a chef.?His adventures in cooking were uneven at first.? There was a memorable chocolate mousse he made for me as a birthday surprise ? he melted down leftover chocolate Easter bunnies and served them over melon balls. It wasn?t one of his culinary high points.

He wanted to drop out of high school and go off to France and apprentice, as European chefs do. But the leap from the cornfields of Somers to the boulevards of France was more than he could practically manage so he let that dream slip and soon much was slipping sideways in his life.?Andy tried his best to?make a decent life despite his demons.

Andy did not give up. Every thing that should have worked?rehab, counseling, AA?he tried. And tried and tried. During the clear spaces in his life he married three times, he was a star in the local community theater, he competed at motor-cross and rode dirt bikes, he attended photography school and produced beautiful pictures.?Andy tackled his life for 48 years until a dark night and a curve he couldn?t manage got the best of him.?

He was like these sunflowers ? bright, a little bigger than life, and here with us for too short a season. We miss them when they?re gone.

Yesterday, my friend said he?d been trying to make sense of the loss of his brother, David. He?d also lost his father and a best friend in the past year. ?The lesson, he decided, was to live life fully. I agree.?On the night of my brother?s funeral, my then companion and I became engaged; we married a year later.

Life is the lesson.

Author of October Run and in the works, November Comes Early, featuring Phred Rivers psychologist. Fitzgerald is a former journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Connecticut Literary Review, the Record, the Groton Line and the Westport News. She is also an award-winning communications professional who champions non-profits. Her fiction has been recognized by Sante Fe Writer's project and the Laurinda Collins Whitney Short Story Competition.

Source: http://www.betsyfitzgerald.com/word/2012/09/life-is-the-lesson/

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