Egypt military uses heavy hand in crushing protest

An Egyptian protester throws a stone toward soldiers, unseen, as a building burns during clashes near Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them to the ground with sticks and tossing journalists' TV cameras off of balconies in the second day of a violent crackdown on anti-military protesters that has left nine dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Ahmad Hammad)

An Egyptian protester throws a stone toward soldiers, unseen, as a building burns during clashes near Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them to the ground with sticks and tossing journalists' TV cameras off of balconies in the second day of a violent crackdown on anti-military protesters that has left nine dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Ahmad Hammad)

Egyptian protesters run as they are chased by army soldiers over the Asr el-Nile bridge leading out of Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them to the ground with sticks and tossing journalists' TV cameras off of balconies in the second day of a violent crackdown on anti-military protesters that has left eight dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Egyptian army soldiers face protesters, unseen, over the Asr el-Nile bridge leading outside of Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them to the ground with sticks and tossing journalists' TV cameras off of balconies in the second day of a violent crackdown on anti-military protesters that has left eight dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Egyptian army soldiers chase a protester over the Asr el-Nile bridge leading out of Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them to the ground with sticks and tossing journalists' TV cameras off of balconies in the second day of a violent crackdown on anti-military protesters that has left eight dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

An Egyptian protester uses a slingshot against soldiers, unseen, as a building burns during clashes near Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them to the ground with sticks and tossing journalists' TV cameras off of balconies in the second day of a violent crackdown on anti-military protesters that has left nine dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Ahmad Hammad)

CAIRO (AP) ? Troops pulled women across the pavement by their hair, knocking off their Muslim headscarves. Young activists were kicked in the head until they lay motionless in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Unfazed by TV cameras catching every move, Egypt's military took a dramatically heavier hand Saturday to crush protests against its rule in nearly 48 hours of continuous fighting in Egypt's capital that has left more than 300 injured and nine dead, many of them shot to death.

The most sustained crackdown yet is likely a sign that the generals who took power after the February ouster of Hosni Mubarak are confident that the Egyptian public is on its side after two rounds of widely acclaimed parliament elections, that Islamist parties winning the vote will stay out of the fight while pro-democracy protesters become more isolated.

Still, the generals risk turning more Egyptians against them, especially from outrage over the abuse of women. Photos and video posted online showed troops pulling up the shirt of one woman protester in a conservative headscarf, leaving her half-naked as they dragged her in the street.

"Do they think this is manly?" Toqa Nosseir, a 19-year old student, said of the attacks on women. "Where is the dignity?"

Nosseir joined the protest over her parents' objections because she couldn't tolerate the clashes she had seen.

"No one can approve or accept what is happening here," she said. "The military council wants to silence all criticism. They want to hold on power ... I will not accept this humiliation just for the sake of stability."

Nearby in Tahrir, protesters held up newspapers with the image of the half-stripped woman on the front page to passing cars, shouting sarcastically, "This is the army that is protecting us!"

"Are you not ashamed?" leading reform figure and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei posted on Twitter in an address to the ruling military council.

Egypt's new, military-appointed interim prime minister defended the military, denying it shot protesters. He said gunshot deaths were caused by other attackers he didn't identify. He accused the protesters of being "anti-revolution."

Among those shot to death in the crackdown was an imminent cleric from Al-Azhar, Egypt's most respected religious institution. At the funeral Saturday of the 52-year-old Sheik Emad Effat, thousands chanted "Retribution, retribution." Some of them marched from the cemetery to Tahrir to join the clashes.

The main street between Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak protests, and the parliament and Cabinet buildings where the clashes began early the previous morning looked like a war zone Saturday. Military police on rooftops pelting protesters below with stones and firebombs and launched truncheon-swinging assaults to drive the crowds back.

Flames leapt from the windows of the state geographical society ? a treasure trove of antique scientific books ? that was hit by firebombs in the melee. Some youths tried to rescue books from the fire.

Young activists put helmets or buckets on their heads or grabbed sheets of concrete and even satellite dishes as protection against the stones hailing down from the roofs. The streets were strewn with chunks of concrete, stones ,broken glass, burned furniture and peddlers' carts as clashes continued to rage after nightfall Saturday.

The clashes began early Friday with a military assault on a 3-week-old sit-in outside the Cabinet building by protesters demanding the military hand over power immediately to civilians.

More than a week of heavy fighting erupted in November, leaving more than 40 dead ? but that was largely between police and protesters, with the military keeping a low profile.

In the afternoon, military police charged into Tahrir, swinging truncheons and long sticks, briefly chasing out protesters and setting fire to their tents. Footage broadcast on the private Egyptian CBC television network showed soldiers beating two protesters with sticks, repeatedly stomping on the head of one, leaving the motionless bodies on the pavement.

They trashed a field hospital set up by protesters, swept into buildings where television crews were filming and briefly detained journalists. They tossed the camera and equipment of an Al-Jazeera TV crew off the balcony of a building.

A journalist who was briefly detained told The Associated Press that he was beaten up with sticks and fists while being led to into the parliament building. Inside, he saw a group of detained young men and one woman. Each was surrounded by six or seven soldiers beating him or her with sticks or steel bars or giving electrical shocks with prods.

"Blood covered the floor, and an officer was telling the soldiers to wipe the blood," said the journalist, who asked not to be identified for security concerns.

The military's violent response suggested it now felt emboldened. Two rounds of voting ? last weekend and in late November ? have been held for Egypt's lower house of parliament, and millions of Egyptians turned out for the freest and fairest elections in the country's modern history.

The generals appear to be betting that Egyptians engaged in elections have had enough of the multiple protests since Mubarak's fall and want quiet.

One man arguing with activists in the square said he opposes protests. "Elections were the first step. This was a beginning to stability," said Ahmed Abdel-Samei, 29. "Now we are going 10 steps back."

The military shrugged off criticism from a civilian advisory panel that it created only last week to show it was consulting with others. The generals gave no comment after the panel announced it was suspending its operations in protest and demanded the army apologize for the violence.

At least nine people have been killed and around 300 people injured in the two days of clashes, according to the Health Ministry.

"The military council is either fed up or lacks vision in dealing with protests. It's unbelievable what is happening; the revolution was meant to give us freedom," said Aboul-Ela Madi, a member of the panel who resigned.

Meanwhile, the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the more conservative Islamist Salafis focused on following vote counting from the most recent round of elections. The groups have emerged as the biggest winner so far and likely do not want to do anything to disrupt the voting, which continued until March. The Brotherhood has called for the military to apologize but has not urged supporters to join the protests.

"Islamists went after their own interests. The ballot boxes are their interests," said Ahmed Hussein, a 35-year-old protester. He accused the military of trying to prolong the transition to ensure protection from civilian scrutiny.

As night fell in Tahrir, clashes continued around a concrete wall that the military erected to block the avenue from Tahrir to parliament.

Aya Emad told the AP that troops dragged her by her headscarf and hair into the Cabinet headquarters. The 24-year-old said soldiers kicked her on the ground, an officer shocked her with an electrical prod and another slapped her on the face, leaving her nose broken and her arm in a sling.

Mona Seif, an activist who was briefly detained Friday, said she saw an officer repeatedly slapping a detained old woman in the face.

"It was a humiliating scene," Seif told the private TV network Al-Nahar. "I have never seen this in my life."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-17-ML-Egypt/id-be51e6354d9f4111afaa0e6f1d2cf44f

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HPV Test Spots Cervical Cancer Earlier Than Pap Smear: Study (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) - To catch cervical cancer or the lesions that can lead to it, a human papillomavirus (HPV) test is the best option for women over 30, Dutch researchers report.

Using it in conjunction with the more traditional Pap smear resulted in earlier detection of precancerous lesions and prevented more cervical cancers from developing, said study author Dr. Chris Meijer, a professor of pathology at VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.

The study is published online Dec. 15 in The Lancet Oncology.

Nearly all cervical cancers are caused by HPV, a virus spread through sexual intercourse. Some HPV strains are more strongly linked with the cancer than others.

The superiority of HPV testing over traditional Paps at finding precancerous cervical lesions is established, Meijer noted. However, his team wanted to see if HPV testing also offered better protection and detection long-term -- in two screenings done over a five-year period.

They found it did.

While five years may sound like a long lag time between screenings, it is not, he said. "The Netherlands already has a screening interval of five years, starting from 30 years of age until 60 years," he said. The program is inexpensive and effective, he added.

In the study, Meijer's team evaluated nearly 45,000 women, aged 29 to 56. Women in one group got a traditional Pap smear and an HPV DNA test. The women in the other group got just the Pap test.

Five years later, all women got both tests.

The researchers looked to see whether HPV tests resulted in fewer high-grade cervical lesions and cervical cancer in the second screening, due to earlier detection and treatment.

In the first screen, the HPV tests found more of the early changes that can precede cervical cancer than the Pap smear alone did.

Five years later, far fewer women in the HPV group had more advanced lesions or cervical cancer than did the Pap-only women.

Four women in the HPV/Pap group were diagnosed with cervical cancer, while 14 in the Pap-only group were.

When they looked at cervical cancer or advanced lesions, 88 in the HPV arm of the study were diagnosed with one or the other compared to 122 in the Pap-alone arm.

The improved protection against advanced lesions, the researchers said, is due to the earlier detection of the precursor lesions. When they were treated, it helped prevent them from progressing.

In an accompanying commentary, scientists from the U.S. National Cancer Institute wrote that the Dutch trial does show the five-year screening interval is safe. But they added that it is unclear if the same results would hold true in a different population with different testing guidelines.

The HPV test can be done using the same specimen collected for the Pap test, Meijer said.

Costs of the tests differ. Meijer said Pap smears are about $38 in the Netherlands, while an HPV test costs about $64. However, the Dutch Minister of Health recently recommended lowering the cost of an HPV test to below that of the traditional Pap.

The new study is "further defining how we can incorporate HPV testing into our screening program," said Dr. Elizabeth Poynor, a gynecologic oncologist and pelvic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City.

She noted that she doesn't think the HPV screen will replace the Pap test completely. "It may turn out to be a first-line screen. Stay tuned for more," she said. "Certainly ask your physician if you've had HPV."

In October, three U.S. cancer groups proposed new guidelines for cervical cancer testing, extending intervals between screenings and making other changes. These guidelines, issued by the American Cancer Society and others, call for combination HPV/Pap smear testing for women aged 30 and older.

After three normal Paps, women over 30 can have the test ever two to three years, according to the American Cancer Society.

However, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force remains cautious about the use of the HPV test, standing by the Pap as the best bet for now.

The Dutch study was funded by Zorg Onderzoek Nederland (the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development).

More information

To learn more about cervical cancer, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111215/hl_hsn/hpvtestspotscervicalcancerearlierthanpapsmearstudy

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The Danger of Investing in Retail Stocks | InvestorPlace

? ?

Any discussion of stocks with my father usually involves his pronouncement, ?I don?t do retail.? He has plenty of good reasons why he won?t touch the sector, but the primary one has to do with its volatility. History has shown that retail clothing stocks can make one rich one minute, and put them in the poorhouse the next.

Much of the danger in retail lies in the fickleness of consumers. When sales of a given company?s products roar off the launch pad, it can be difficult to determine exactly why the rocket streams skyward. Is it the product?s high quality? The right price point? The marketing campaign? Or is it because it happens to dovetail with the zeitgeist in such a perfect way as to become trendy? Or is it some, or all, of the above

There are ways of doing retail right, however. Here are two examples of crash-and-burn retail and one example of steady retail.

Christopher & Banks (NYSE:CBK) is an interesting story because the women?s clothier was founded in 1956 under the Braun?s name. It went public in 1992 and returned 350% to shareholders through 2000, when it rebranded as Christopher & Banks. The stock took off over the next two years, as the rebranding campaign obviously worked. The stock was a 9-bagger over that period.

Since then, the stock chart has looked like an extreme roller-coaster ride. It last hit $30 in 2006 and now trades at $2.43, and CBK just eliminated its dividend. The other problem with retail is that a bad economy can hammer a company. After a solid 2007, Christopher & Banks?s net income gradually eroded. It?s had losses the past three fiscal years and is set to do so again. Women?s clothing can be both trendy and subject to economic weakness.

Chico?s FAS (NYSE:CHS) fared even better. From 2000 to 2006, the stock was a 36-bagger. Although it serves a different market, the economy has been equally harsh on Chico?s. But I give Chico?s a better chance of survival than C&B. The latter has weak cash flow and $84 million in cash. Chico?s at least has been turning a sizable profit each year and has plenty of cash on hand. ?It?s stock, however, is 75% off its all time high.

The Buckle (NYSE:BKE) takes an approach I prefer: 43% of sales are denims, 37% are tops and 29% is private label. This means The Buckle serves up simple, no-frills clothing that doesn?t rely on the latest fashion fad. The Buckle doesn?t try to be anything other than what is is, and doesn?t have the wildly varying earnings of other companies.

The Buckle knows its Midwest, suburban market and plays right into it. Its net margins are 14% vs. Chico?s 7%. While earnings haven?t been growing during these tough times, the company has had net income of $125 million, give or take a few million, each of the past thre years and is poised to do so again. It? produces solid free cash flow to finance expansion. The stock has experienced some volatility but not like its peers, and it?s only 15% off its all-time high.

So, before leaping into a retail stock, take a good long look at the market it serves and what products it sells. You don?t want to go with the trend, because you may find yourself on the downhill part of that roller-coaster ride.

Lawrence Meyers does not own shares of any company mentioned.

Source: http://www.investorplace.com/2011/12/the-danger-of-investing-in-retail-stocks/

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Bargainers reach deal to head off gov't shutdown

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the campus in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011, where he announced action to provide minimum wage and overtime protections for in-home care workers. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congressional negotiators reached agreement Thursday on a compromise spending bill to avert a weekend federal shutdown. They also worked toward a deal renewing the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for another year but prepared a shorter version as a fallback.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters he was still optimistic that bipartisan talks on yearlong extensions of the Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment coverage would succeed. But as a "Plan B," he said, they were working on a two-month extension as well, which would also prevent cuts in Medicare reimbursements for doctors during that period.

"We're still working on the long-term" bill, Reid told reporters as he exited the Capitol after a day of talks over both the payroll tax and spending measures. As for the two-month version, he said, "We'll only do that if what we're working on doesn't work out."

Reid's remarks put a slight damper on a day on which for the first time, Democratic and Republican leaders expressed optimism at prospects for swift compromise on their payroll tax standoff and a spending battle that had threatened to shutter federal agencies beginning at midnight Friday.

A deal on a $1 trillion spending bill was reached after Republicans agreed to drop language that would have blocked President Barack Obama's liberalized rules on people who visit and send money to relatives in Cuba. But a GOP provision will stay in the bill thwarting an Obama administration rule on energy efficiency standards that critics argued would make it hard for people to purchase inexpensive incandescent light bulbs.

The House is expected to approve the spending measure Friday, and the Senate could follow suit, possibly the same day.

Donald Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said talks aimed at agreeing to a yearlong extension of the payroll tax measure will continue.

"We're 12 hours into this debate, they just started talking," he said when asked about the two-month version of the bill. "I wouldn't hit the panic button."

A senior White House official said the administration supported the two-month plan.

Bargainers were considering the two-month extension of this year's payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits bill because so far, they haven't agreed how a yearlong extension would be paid for, said a Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The two-month bill would cost $40 billion, according to the aide. It would be paid for from a list of around $120 billion in savings that bargainers are considering, including sales of the broadcast spectrum and raising fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge to back mortgages, the aide said.

The two-month extension would let lawmakers revisit the measure after returning to Washington after the holiday season. That could be risky because that work would come well into the 2012 presidential and congressional election year.

Without congressional action, the payroll taxes would rise and extra benefits for the long-term unemployed would expire on Jan. 1. Doctors' Medicare payments would be automatically reduced that day by 27 percent, a reduction that could prompt some to stop seeing Medicare patients.

?"Right now, Congress needs to make sure that 160 million working Americans don't see their taxes go up on Jan. 1," said Obama, referring to the tax cut extension at the core of the jobs program he outlined in a nationally televised speech three months ago.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, the most powerful Republican in an era of divided government, agreed. "We can extend payroll tax relief for American workers, help create new jobs and keep the government running. And frankly, we can do it in a bipartisan way," he said. ?????

?In the Capitol, the previous day's bristling rhetoric and partisan jabs all but vanished.

Still another year-end bill, setting new rules for the handling of terror suspects in U.S. custody, won final congressional approval and headed to Obama's desk for his signature.

?Republicans agreed to consider changes to a $1 trillion spending bill compromise that they and at least one Democrat said had been wrapped up days ago.

On the payroll tax cut bill, Democrats abandoned their demand for a surtax on million-dollar incomes that they wanted to include in the measure.

?At a news conference, Boehner minimized the concession, noting that Democrats lacked the votes to impose the surtax a year ago when they commanded 60 votes in the Senate. Even so, he said, "there was some movement yesterday from the White House and Democrat leaders" toward a compromise.

?Boehner also left open the possibility of a compromise on another key sticking point ? a House-passed provision that all but requires construction of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

?Construction "will put 20,000 people to work immediately And there are about 115,000 other jobs directly related to it," he said. Yet he skipped an opportunity to say construction of the project was non-negotiable as talks on the payroll tax cut bill proceeded.

Obama has threatened to veto the House-passed bill, in part citing the requirement for the pipeline. The project has been studied for more than three years, but the president recently announced he would put off a decision until after the 2012 elections.

At Obama's insistence, Congress cut the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax to 4.2 percent this year in an effort to stimulate the economy with more consumer spending. The president has proposed deepening the cut to 3.1 percent next year, but Republicans have only shown a willingness to renew it at this year's level.

Obama also wants to leave in place a system that provides aid for up to 99 weeks for the long-term unemployed. The House-passed measure reduces the total by 20 weeks, a step that the administration says would cut off 3.3 million individuals and that Democrats are hoping to soften if not reverse.

Reid indicated that a number of expiring tax breaks were on the table, as well, a list that included a provision that benefits commuters who use mass transit.

The House-passed payroll tax cut measure relied on a pay freeze and increased pension contributions for federal workers, as well as higher Medicare premiums for seniors with incomes over $80,000, beginning in 2017. The bill would also raise a fee that is charged to banks whose mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and cancel more than $40 billion from the year-old health care bill, Obama's signature domestic achievement.

The year-end, $1 trillion spending measure would lock in cuts that Republicans extracted from Democrats in negotiations conducted months ago against the deadline of a previous government shutdown threat. It funds 10 Cabinet departments, including the Pentagon and dozens of smaller agencies, awarding a slight increase to the military and veterans' programs while trimming most other domestic programs.

?The separate defense bill covered military personnel, weapons systems, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and more at a cost of $662 billion, $27 billion below Obama's request. The Senate approved it by a resounding 86-13.

?The main controversy revolved around a provision to require military custody for foreign terrorist suspects linked to al-Qaida or its affiliates and involved in plotting or attacking the United States. Under a change made to gain Obama's backing, the legislation would permit the FBI to arrest and interrogate foreign terror suspects, as is now the case.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-15-Congress%20Rdp/id-6102f69aa9d44621ae37e81fdb95dfef

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PFT: Texans' Phillips taking medical leave

Getty Images

It?s one thing for guys like Dolphins linebacker Karlos Dansby or a pastor to opine that God is working through Tim Tebow.? It?s quite another for Tebow to say it.

And it?s quite another for Tebow to say that God is actually speaking to him.

And while Tebow has yet to say it publicly, he?s saying it to his teammates.

?Tebow came to me and said, ?Don?t worry about a thing,? because God has spoken to him,? linebacker Wesley Woodyard said after Sunday?s win over the Bears, according to Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post.? Woodyard then forced the Marion Barber fumble in overtime, when the Bears were in field goal position.

Even though the story itself is a couple days old (which makes it nearly as old as the New Testament in Internet time), the concept is timeless.? Regardless of whether Tebow actually has a burning bush in his backyard, Tebow?s faith has fueled a level of confidence that could be unprecedented in professional sports.? He truly believes his team is going to win, so his teammates believe it.

And, perhaps most importantly, his opponents believe it, too.

For the teams who play the Broncos, it?s like continuing to try to beat an older brother in ping pong.? No matter what happens, that feeling of doubt inevitably emerges, and it all falls apart.

Many believe that this entire dynamic ? Tebow?s confidence, his teammates? confidence, and the ensuing lack of confidence on the part of the opponents ? faces its biggest test yet on Sunday, when the Patriots come to town.? Win or lose, however, the Tebow/Broncos confidence won?t be going away any time soon.

?It?s not necessarily prophesying,? Tebow has said.? ?But sometimes you can feel God has a big plan.?

If/when the Broncos lose or fail to make the playoffs or lose in the playoffs, Tebow will regard the outcome as part of God?s plan.? And then Tebow will prepare himself for the 2012 season, with the same week-in, week-out confidence that has made his team far better than the sum of the individual pieces.

It?s become fashionable to point out that Tebow has received too much credit for the accomplishments of his teammates.? But those same teammates who are 7-1 under Tebow?s leadership were 1-4 under Kyle Orton.

So regardless of how Tebow is getting his confidence, it?s that confidence that has made him one of the best players in the NFL.? And the Broncos would be crazy not to embrace this guy for the next decade or longer.? Plenty of guys can throw a football, but very few can inspire grown men wearing the same uniform to believe that together they can achieve great things.? Even fewer can cause the grown men wearing a different uniform to sense that, no matter what they do, it?s simply not their day.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/14/report-wade-phillips-taking-medical-leave-of-absence/related/

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Fearing Persecution, Egypt's Christians Back Parties Most Likely to Beat Islamists (Time.com)

Egypt's Islamists appeared to sweep the vote in the mostly poor and rural areas of Egypt that voted on Wednesday and Thursday in the second round of a three stage parliamentary election. But the country's minority Christians, motivated by a desire to see checks on the Islamists' power in the legislature, also turned out to vote -- mostly for liberal parties -- in the districts of Upper Egypt where the sectarian divide often runs deepest.

Even before the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, Christians -- who comprise roughly 10% of Egypt's 85 million citizens -- had complained of heightened discrimination and sectarian violence in recent years. Then, last winter's uprising unleashed a wave of radical Islamism into an unstable security environment fraught with economic despair, producing a dramatic spike in sectarian violence in the months since Mubarak's ouster. And Christians complain that the ruling military has done little to stop it. In at least one case, the security forces have actually joined in attacks on Christians. That was in October, when soldiers attacked a Christian protest in downtown Cairo, killing 24 people, some of whom were run over by army vehicles. (See photos of Christians under attack in Cairo.)

Many Christian voters canvassed by TIME at the polls in the country's rural center said they had voted for the liberal groups that emerged strongest after the first round of voting -- often sacrificing a vote for their preferred party in favor of backing the one most likely to succeed in preventing an Islamist sweep. "I wanted to vote for the Continuous Revolution party, but they only got 7% in the first round," said Ibram Faris, a 22-year-old Christian resident of Tizment al-Gharbia, a predominantly Muslim village about 70 miles south of Cairo. Instead, Faris gave his vote to the more popular liberal Wafd party.

The region known as "Upper Egypt," which encompasses the villages south of Cairo and stretches along the Nile all the way to the Sudanese border, has long been plagued by sectarian tensions. Here, the competition for jobs and resources, coupled with a growing religious conservatism and a largely absent government, has fueled escalating outbreaks of violence in recent years. Bloody riots have most frequently erupted over religious conversions, and the construction churches and mosques -- a process far more onerous for Christians than it is for Muslims. In the months since the uprising, the region has been rocked by church burnings, small-scale riots, and an Islamist sit-in that ultimately ousted the Christian governor of Qena.

With Islamists predicted to win a landslide majority in parliament, Christians fear a system even more rigidly fundamentalist and neglectful of their rights than the last one. "They'll make [Egypt] an Islamic state and they will force us to wear certain things," said Selwa Gaber, a Christian housewife who cast her vote in the Upper Egyptian city of Beni Suef. Her daughter, Marina Magdy, said "[The Christians] will vote for the Wafd and the stairs and the fish," added her daughter, Marina Magdy, citing two candidates' electoral symbols, (a system used to provide guidance to illiterate voters). Neither Magdy nor her mother knew who the stairs or the fish represented, but what mattered, they said, is that they were anti-Islamist. (See video of Islamists in Tahrir Square.)

Mohamed Shehata, a poll monitor for the ultra-conservative Salafist Nour party insisted that such fears were overblown: "We're all one. We're not separated by religion." He said that even though the Nour party would seek an Islamic state, it had no plans to alter the legal rights of Christians. Supporters of both the Nour party and the more moderate and popular Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), claimed many Christians had even voted for them.

But Christian voters disputed that claim. "There are very few Christians here, but I'm sure they will all vote like me," said Faris. "Christians will reject the concept of parties based on religion."

Religious tolerance is one reason Egypt's Christians and liberals fear an Islamist government, but another is the economy. Egypt's tourism revenues have already dropped by one third this year, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The country's ancient heritage sites -- many of them located in Upper Egypt -- have fared worse in the tourist trade than have Egypt's picturesque beach resorts.

But Christians and liberals fear that it's the beach resorts that an Islamist government would target first. A number of candidates from the Nour party and at least one from FJP have promised to ban alcohol and revealing clothing. "I personally am worried about tourism because the Salafis want to close the beaches," said Mohamed Heggo, a Muslim salesman in the town of Beni Suef south of Cairo. Heggo said that he had once visited Ras Mohamed, a marine nature reserve on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and one of the world's prime dive locations. Though he doesn't work in tourism, Heggo said he could appreciate the spot's value. "A place like Ras Mohamed is 80% of the tourism revenue," he added, and for that reason, he would vote for a liberal party.

See photos of Egyptians heading to the polls.

See TIME's 2011 Person of the Year.

View this article on Time.com

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Brains wired for language, if only chimps could talk

Chimpanzee brains may be hard-wired to evolve language even though they can't talk. That is the suggestion of a study which found chimps link sounds and levels of brightness, something akin to synaesthesia in people. Such an association could help explain how our early ancestors took the first vital step from ape-like grunts to a proper vocabulary.

Synaesthetes make unusual connections between different senses ? they might sense certain tastes when they hear music, or "see" numbers as colours. This is less unusual than you might think: "The synaesthetic experience is a continuum," explains Roi Cohen Kadosh of University College London. "Most people have it at an implicit level, and some people have a stronger connection."

Now, Vera Ludwig from the Charite University of Medicine in Berlin, Germany, and colleagues have shown for the first time that chimpanzees also make cross-sensory associations, suggesting they evolved early on.

The team repeatedly flashed either black or white squares for 200 milliseconds at a time on screens in front of six chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and 33 humans. The subjects had to indicate whether the square was black or white by touching a button of the right colour. A high or low-pitched sound was randomly played in the background during each test.

Chimps and humans were better at identifying white squares when they heard a high-pitched sound, and more likely to correctly identify dark squares when played a low-pitched sound. But performance was poor when the sounds were swapped: humans were slower to identify a white square paired with a low-pitched noise, or a black square with a high-pitched noise, and the chimps' responses became significantly less accurate.

Sensory crosstalk innate

The finding adds evidence to the idea that cross-sensory associations are innate, not learned. In 2001, V. S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard of the University of California at San Diego, asked adults to ascribe "kiki" and "bouba" to a spiky and a rounded shape. They almost all dubbed the spiky shape kiki and the rounded one bouba, regardless of culture or language. Children also find it easier to learn the names of rounded objects whose names use rounded vowels.

Ludwig reckons that an innate tendency to link sounds and sights could have been advantageous to our ancestors. "If two individuals both think a word that contains a high pitched vocal fits a lighter object, then it would be easier for them to develop a common vocabulary and to understand the words that others use," she says.

Ramachandran agrees that innate associations would have played a crucial role in language evolution. "These experiments suggest there were non-arbitrary similarities between sounds and sights which could have helped get it started," he says.

So why don't chimps talk? Crosstalk between the senses was likely just one part of the evolutionary toolkit, says Morten Christiansen who studies language evolution at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Other features humans do not share with fellow primates, including superior sequence-processing abilities, could have helped our ancestors to develop speech when chimps could not.

Ludwig believes that some of the neural processes that cause the type of connections in her experiments also underlie full synaesthesia in humans. But whether some chimps also find music by Bach tastes creamy remains to be seen.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1112605108

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