Sculptor Gormley wants us to get inside his head

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s foremost living sculptor Antony Gormley wants us to get inside his head with his latest work “Model”, a 100-tonne steel maze of cubes and squares, dark corners and splashes of light on show at the White Cube gallery in London.

The giant grey-black work, based on a human form lying down, is entered via the right “foot”, and combines the fun of an adventure playground with the unnerving quality of a labyrinth often plunged into darkness.

For the first time, the Turner Prize-winning artist who has always been preoccupied with the human form allows us to get inside, and draws parallels between the body and the architectural spaces we inhabit.

“I think we dwell first in this borrowed bit of the material world that we call the body,” Gormley told Reuters, standing beside the imposing structure made up of interlocking blocks.

“It has its own life that is unknowable. But the second place we dwell is the body of architecture, the built environment,” he added.

“We’re the most extraordinary species that decided to structure our habitat according to very, very abstract principles of horizontal and vertical planes.”

Model has plenty of surprises. The more nimble visitor can crawl through its left “arm”, which is a passage around three feet high, or clamber on to a roof bathed in light.

“There are places that you wouldn’t necessarily know are there,” Gormley said. As if to prove his point, he disappeared into a large raised “aperture” invisible in the darkness.

Sound also plays a part, with the resonance of voices and rumble of footsteps giving clues to the size of each space.

PLAYGROUND

The artist said he encouraged people to explore the work rather than just look, unlike most sculptures which are strictly off-limits.

“Psychological architecture suddenly starts to reverberate with human life,” he explained, adding that the sense of unease when entering the dark spaces was part of its appeal.

“I think creepiness is good,” he said in the pitch-black “head”. “I think it’s necessary to get under people’s skin. You don’t want them to easily ingest or accept something.”

Several times he referred to the Seagram murals of American painter Mark Rothko, works that inspired him as an artist and which he had in mind while making Model.

“Their surfaces give you this idea of space, or an invitation, they seat you at a threshold and allow you to dream of what exists beyond that threshold,” he said.

“You could say this is the literal version of that.”

Gormley, born in 1950, won the Turner Prize in 1994 and is probably best known for his 20-metre high public “Angel of the North” sculpture located near Newcastle in northern England.

He would not say what price the White Cube gallery had put on Model, and the gallery itself could not immediately provide a figure when asked, but Gormley has become one of the most sought-after British artists at auction.

A life-size iron maquette for Angel of the North fetched 3.4 million pounds ($ 5.4 million) at an auction at Christie’s in October last year.

Early critical reaction to Model was mixed.

“We think of the pyramids, of tombs in lightless spaces,” wrote Michael Glover in the Independent. “We have entered this space hoping for a visceral response of some kind, but it never quite happens.”

Model is on display at White Cube, Bermondsey, until February 10, 2013.

(This story has fixed typos in paragraph six)

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Flu Has Little to Do With Cold Weather

Although most children grow up hearing that they’ll catch the flu if they play in the snow without a scarf, weather has very little to do with which regions get more flu, doctors say.

“It’s actually not that predicable,” said Dr. Jon Abramson, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina.

Mississippi has had the most reported cases of influenza-like illness in the United States so far this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even though Mississippi had an average temperature of 53.3 degrees this month, it is the only state in the country with a flu-like activity level of “high.” Louisiana and Alabama are right behind it with moderate activity levels. Most other states — with colder climates — have had lower levels.

Click here to read about flu facts and fiction.

Abramson said the flu season tends to start in October and last through April, mostly coinciding with the school year rather than the temperature. He said studies have shown that the flu spreads mostly from school-age children, who often have poorer hygiene and catch the virus because they are in close contact with one another. Then, they pass it along to adults.

Weather becomes a contributing factor mostly because it forces children indoors, where they mix together and spread germs, said Allison Aiello, a professor and epidemiologist at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

Scarves, hats and gloves are useless if you come in contact with someone with the flu and either breath in their virus or touch a surface with the virus and touch your mouth, Aiello said.

“You can tell you mom it’s OK for you to go outside with no hat on,” she laughed, adding that even her own relatives remind her to put on a hat to avoid getting the flu. She said weather can perhaps make people more susceptible, but it can’t give them the virus.

Since Sept. 30, about 2,400 influenza cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 28 cases of H1N1. Despite its tropical temperatures, even Hawaii has reported flu cases this season.

Abramson said his North Carolina hospital has already had 25 influenza cases this season. In contrast, by the same time last year, the same hospital didn’t have a single case.

“This is the South. It’s fairly warm, so you wouldn’t expect it this early,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to behave exactly by the coldness.”

The flu can spread any time of year, Abramson said, citing this summer’s swine flu outbreak. The H3N2V strain jumped from 29 to 145 cases in less than a week in August of this year, with most of them in Indiana and Ohio.

The best way for families to protect themselves is to encourage hand-washing and get vaccinated.

Click here to read about other flu-fighters.

Also Read
Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

New home sales stagnant, cast shadow on housing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. single-family home sales fell slightly in October and the prior month’s pace of sales was revised sharply lower, casting a faint shadow over one of the brighter spots in the U.S. economy.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales dropped 0.3 percent last month to a 368,000-unit annual rate, while September’s sales pace was revised to 369,000 from 389,000.

The housing sector has been a point of relative strength this year in an economy beset by flagging business confidence and cooling demand from abroad.

A report last week showed a surprisingly sharp gain in home resales in October, while data this week showed prices for single-family homes have risen continuously since February.

Economists expect home construction to add to economic growth this year for the time since 2005.

Wednesday’s data did not change the view that housing is still in recovery mode, although the pace of new home sales in October was below the level of May, suggesting little upward momentum.

“It’s just that progress will be slow,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

U.S. homebuilder stocks fell, even as broad market indexes rose slightly.

While weakness in business spending has been restraining growth, most recent data has suggested housing is gaining momentum. Consumer confidence has also been more bullish.

Wednesday’s report showed the median sales price for a new home in October was 5.7 percent higher than a year earlier, but the pace of year-over-year price gains slowed for a second straight month.

Some analysts suggested the decline in sales in October might be partially due to a mammoth storm that slammed into the U.S. East Coast at the end of October. New sales plunged 32.3 percent in the Northeast, which bore the brunt of the storm.

“Some of this could potentially be Hurricane Sandy,” said Megan McGrath, an analyst at MKM Partners in Stamford, Connecticut.

However, the Commerce Department said the storm did not affect data collection at all and its impact on the pace of sales was likely “minimal.”

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising to a 390,000-unit rate last month from September’s previously reported 389,000-unit rate.

To provide support for the housing market, the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates at rock-bottom levels since 2008. In September, it launched an open-ended program to buy mortgage-backed securities, driving mortgage rates to record lows.

In a separate report, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed an index for home purchase loans, a leading indicator of home sales, rose 2.6 percent last week to its highest level of the year.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Rugby-England add flyhalf Burns to squad for All Blacks’ test

LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) – England called up uncapped Gloucester flyhalf Freddie Burns on Tuesday to their squad for Saturday’s test against New Zealand in place of the injured Toby Flood.

Flood sustained ligament damage to a big toe during the 16-15 loss to South Africa at Twickenham last Saturday.

Owen Farrell, whose last start was in the first test in South Africa this year, is set to replace Flood in the starting XV against the world champions.

Lock Courtney Lawes, who missed England’s first three tests of the November series because of a knee injury, has also been included in the 23-man squad. Two other locks, Mouritz Botha and Tom Palmer, have been omitted.

After beating Fiji in their opening match, England have lost to Australia and the Springboks and now face a daunting match against the All Blacks who are unbeaten in 20 tests since the start of their victorious World Cup campaign last year.

“For those in Saturday’s squad the message is clear – last week we went toe to toe with the second best team in the world and felt we should have won,” England head coach Stuart Lancaster said in a statement.

“Now we have a chance to take on the number one side in front of a passionate Twickenham crowd, who have been fantastic throughout the Internationals, and it is a challenge we will meet head on.” (Reporting by John Mehaffey; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Australia / Antarctica News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Disney Channel to debut ‘Sofia the First’ Jan. 11

NEW YORK (AP) — Disney says its animated children‘s series “Sofia the First” will premiere Jan. 11 on the Disney Channel and Disney Junior networks.

Created for kids ages 2 to 7, “Sofia the First” is about a young girl who becomes a princess and learns that honesty, loyalty and compassion are what makes a person royal.

Sofia is voiced by “Modern Family” actress Ariel Winter, and her mother is played by “Grey’s Anatomy” star Sara Ramirez.

Last week’s premiere of the “Sofia the First” animated movie drew a total audience of more than 5 million viewers. It was the year’s top-rated cable TV telecast among kids ages 2 to 5.

In the series’ debut episode, Sofia strives to become the first princess to earn a spot on her school’s flying derby team.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Infected and unaware: HIV hitting America’s youth

CHICAGO (Reuters) – More than half of young people in the United States who are infected with HIV are not aware of it, according to a new report by government health officials that zeroes in on one of the remaining hot spots of HIV infection in America.

Young people ages 13 to 24 account for 26 percent of all new HIV infections, according to the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was released on Tuesday.

“Given everything we know about HIV and how to prevent it in 30 years of fighting the disease, it’s just unacceptable that young people are becoming infected at such high rates,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said on a conference call with reporters.

Every month, 1,000 young people in America become infected with HIV, an incurable infection that costs $ 400,000 to treat over a lifetime, Frieden said. If left untreated, HIV infection leads to AIDS and early death.

“The data are stark and worrying,” Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the CDC, said in a telephone interview.

In 2010, 72 percent of the estimated 12,000 new HIV infections in young people occurred in young men who have sex with men, and nearly half of new infections were among young, black males.

“We are particularly concerned about what is happening with HIV among young black and bisexual men,” Fenton said. “They account for 39 percent of all new infections among youth and more than half of new infections among young men who have sex with men.”

Fenton said the proportion of young people infected with HIV has remained relatively stable during the last few years, but infection rates appear to be increasing in these populations.

And because many of the newly infected gay or bisexual males are just beginning to explore their sexuality, stigma and homophobia are making HIV testing and treatment far more challenging.

Although the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend routine screening for HIV starting in the early teens, “too few young people are getting tested,” Frieden said.

Only 13 percent of all high school students and only 22 percent of sexually active high school students have ever been tested for HIV, the CDC found.

The figures for young adults aged 18 to 24 are not much better, with only 35 percent of people in this age group reporting ever having been tested for HIV.

Frieden said one reason for the higher rates of infection among young gay and bisexual men of all races was a higher rate of risky behaviors compared with their heterosexual peers.

According to the report, a large analysis of risk behaviors among high school students revealed that gay and bisexual males are much more likely to have multiple sex partners, to inject illegal drugs and to use alcohol or drugs before sex. They are much less likely to use condoms.

And because so few get tested, HIV-infected people under age 25 are significantly less likely than those who are older to get and stay in care, and to have their virus controlled at a level that helps them stay healthy and reduce their risk of transmitting HIV to partners.

The CDC also found that many young men who have sex with men are less likely than others to have been taught about HIV or AIDS in school.

“We have to correct a lot of myths and misconceptions,” Frieden said. “It is astonishing the level of ignorance about basic physiology that may high school and middle school students have.”

To address some of the issues, the CDC is funding a program that targets both at-risk youths and the homophobia and stigma in the community that drives them underground.

In September, Georgia, a state where new HIV infections among those 13 to 24 years old exceed the national average – accounting for as many as one-third of all new HIV infections – won a grant as part of a pilot project to find better ways of targeting these at-risk youth.

“We think that it’s really critical that the discussions we have about HIV prevention and access to HIV become fully integrated into the social fabric of the youth culture,” Dr. Melanie Thompson, of the Georgia Department of Public Health, said in a telephone interview.

Care and Prevention in the United States, known as CAPUS, is a three-year program led by the CDC and other government agencies aimed at reducing HIV and AIDS among racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. It focuses on addressing social, economic, clinical and structural factors influencing HIV health outcomes.

“It is a huge challenge,” said Thompson, “but I think if we do this from the point of view of trying to end an epidemic that is decimating our young people, and do it in a way that is science-based, I think we can make progress.”

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Adler)

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

From Wartime Technology Comes Hurricane Relief

A parking lot on Rockaway Beach Boulevard, in the heart of the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged New York coastline, has been serving as the base of operations for Team Rubicon, a volunteer organization staffed by military veterans who show up when disasters strike. The lot has many of the things you’d expect to see at a disaster-recovery site: stacks of hand tools, portable toilets, palettes of food, and water. What’s most interesting is the matte-green school bus parked in back.

Courtesy Team RubiconThat bus is a mobile command post, a place from which dispatchers can direct teams of volunteers to various addresses to assess damage, provide assistance, or call for supplies. To make that process more efficient, Team Rubicon employs software that is more commonly used on the battlefield but is now helping aid workers as they move from house to house.

The software comes from Palantir, a tech company in Silicon Valley that makes software used by the military, intelligence. and law-enforcement communities. Palantir’s software, which works on both laptops in the bus and on volunteers’ smartphones, allows dispatchers to see the volunteers’ locations, via their phones’ GPS function, along with the whereabouts of houses that need assistance. Aid workers can call up notes associated with a particular property and can add their own comments. They can also upload geo-tagged photos in case the address information is faulty and visual confirmation is more reliable.

Members of Team Rubicon and Palantir first met in August at the Classy Awards, a philanthropic awards ceremony held in San Diego. “The initial intent was to use Palantir to better understand their volunteer base,” says Jason Payne, who heads up Palantir’s “philanthropy engineering” team. The first plan was to more accurately match volunteers’ skills to needed tasks, but Sandy’s arrival forced a pivot to the more immediate concerns of recovery management. “It became an alpha or beta run to see how the platform could be applied to their activities on the ground,” Payne says.

Palantir’s software is designed to deal with large, disparate data sets, which can be useful in peacetime, as well as during conflicts. If you want to determine where to send aid, Payne explains, you would benefit by combining several layers of information: the status of neighborhood pharmacies and gas stations, demographic and census data, poverty rates, and other information. In the future, Payne says, such use of Palantir’s system could result in more accurate targeting of resources.

Team Rubicon began its efforts in the area on Oct. 29, and it plans to remain there until Dec. 3, at which point the group will hand over operations to longer-term recovery organizations. Its success with Palantir—the group has successfully managed more than 10,000 volunteers in the Rockaways—means that the software will likely be expanded to other aid groups. Payne mentions that such organizations as AmeriCorps, AmeriCares, and Points of Light have expressed interest in the platform.

Team Rubicon also plans to use the software again to make future relief campaigns faster and more efficient. “The Palantir software acts as a force-multiplier,” says Ford Sypher, a regional director of Team Rubicon who served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan. The software addresses a common problem in dispatching crews for disaster relief: lack of real-time communication. “You’d send people out to check a house, and you had no idea where they were or what they needed until they came back,” says Brendan Kraft, a volunteer who was an Army public health technician. “Now we can all share information as it comes in.”

“Before we had this,” Kraft adds, gesturing toward the satellite map imagery, overlaid with data points, “we had a pad and a pen.”

Businessweek.com — Top News

Read More..

Dog days in Cuba: from shih tzus to schnauzers

HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban capital has played host to political summits and art festivals, ballet tributes and international baseball competitions. Now dog lovers are getting their chance to take center stage.

Hundreds of people from all over Cuba and several other countries came to a scruffy field near Revolution Plaza this past week to preen and fuss over the shih tzus, beagles, schnauzers and cocker spaniels that are the annual Fall Canine Expo’s star attractions. There were even about a dozen bichon habaneros, a mid-sized dog bred on the island since the 17th century.

As dog lovers talked shop, the merely curious strolled the field, checking out the more than 50 breeds on display while carefully dodging the prodigious output of so many dogs.

The four-day competition, which ended Sunday, included competitions in several breeding categories, and judges were flown in from Nicaragua, Colombia and Mexico.

“This is a small, poor country, but Cubans love dogs,” said Miguel Calvo, the president of Cuba’s dog federation, which organized the show. “We make a great effort to breed purebred animals of quality.”

Winners don’t receive any trophy or prize money, but that doesn’t mean the competition is any less fierce.

Anabel Perez, owner of a cocker spaniel named Lisamineli after the U.S. actress, spent more than half an hour coifing the dog’s hair in preparation for the competition, while the owner of a shih tzu named Tiguer meticulously brushed his coat nearby.

“I’m a hairdresser for humans,” explained Tiguer’s owner, Miguel Lopez. “So it’s easy for me. I like shih tzus because they are a lot of work to keep well groomed.”

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Beyonce documentary premiering on HBO in February

NEW YORK (AP) — Beyonce is getting personal.

HBO announced Monday that a documentary about the Grammy-winning singer will debut Feb. 16, 2013. Beyonce is directing the film, which will include footage she shot herself with her laptop.

The network said the documentary will include “video that provides raw, unprecedented access to the private entertainment icon and high-voltage performances.” It will also feature home videos of her family and of the singer as a new mother and owner of her company, Parkwood Entertainment.

Beyonce said in a statement the untitled project was “personal” to her. She is married to Jay-Z. They had their first child, daughter Blue Ivy Carter, in January.

The 31-year-old will perform at the 2013 Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 3, 13 days before the documentary airs.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Obama spoke with House Speaker Boehner, others on “fiscal cliff”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama spoke with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner over the weekend on efforts to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of budget cuts and tax rises that threatens to tip the U.S. economy back into recession.

A White House official said on Monday that Obama also spoke with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a fellow Democrat, and said discussions among staff members continued.

The president met with congressional leaders, including Boehner and Reid, 10 days ago seeking common ground following Obama’s re-election for another four-year term on November 6.

Boehner and fellow Republicans oppose the Democrats’ proposal to raise taxes on the very wealthy as part of arrangements to rein in the enormous U.S. budget deficits.

Starting on January 2, about $ 600 billion worth of tax increases and spending reductions, including $ 109 billion in cuts to domestic and defense programs, will begin to kick in if Congress cannot decide how to replace them with less extreme deficit-reduction measures.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by David Storey)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..