理財投資補給站: 2011

2011年12月22日星期四

Only in China: A 山寨 Town Where You Can't Speak Chinese

Chinese culture is famous for its love of copying just about anything its people get their hands on. While this can be a serious problem in terms of IP laws, rare is the 外?人 in China that hasn't had a good laugh at a 山寨 (sh?nzhai) version of a familiar brand, product or other entity from their home country. As modern China tends to do, though, they like to make 'em big: a town in Miyun County (密云?), outside of Beijing, is being turned into an exceedingly-accurate English market town (a 山寨寨子?), where, among other things, speaking Chinese will be prohibited, with only English being permitted. While we can't condone banning spoken Chinese in China, of all places, we certainly admire their commitment to the quaintness of classic English market towns - might make for a good respite from the craziness of Beijing? In any event, here's the article, courtesy of the Telegraph:

China to build English market town

China is to build a fake English market town where the Chinese language is banned.

The settlement will demand its residents and visitors to speak only English with those caught gossiping in shops or at the bus stop in their native Chinese punished. "We plan to build in the European architectural style of the English city. The town will be divided into 16 city blocks, with a castle," said senior Miyun County official Wang Haichen. "When people arrive in the town, it will be like going abroad. They have to get a 'passport' which has to be stamped," he added. Four miles of polluted rivers running through 1,000 acres of blighted semi-rural land will be restored and landscaped into scenic standards becoming of the English countryside, said Mr Wang. However, those who ask to hire a punt on the planned navigable waterways in Chinese or speak the local lingo anywhere in the English-only haven, will feel the long arm of the law, he warned.

The planned site for a fake slice of England's green and pleasant land is located just over an hour's drive from Beijing and lies in the shadow of the Great Wall. Mr Wang said the development will help the area become a sophisticated ecotourist destination and lure the middle classes seeking to boost their linguistic skills in an English-inspiring, green setting. And he said the development will help compensate for the worsening slump in the construction and industry sectors. Miyun government figures show a 30 per cent drop since January in the county's once thriving real estate sector. Mr Wang unveiled the county's anglophilisim at the Communist-run Miyun County Fifteenth People's Congress, a major regional government meeting, on Thursday. Mock English towns and other affected European-styled property developments are constructed as gimmicks to attract China's middle classes seeking urbanity and a boost to their property portfolio.

Thames Town on the banks of the Yangtze River near Shanghai was opened amid much fan fare in 2006, boasting mock tutor brick homes, a pub, chippy, privet hedges, manicured lawns and leafy roads. Five years on however, the complex is a near ghost town and draws mainly newly weds seeking a novel backdrop for their wedding photos. American English may be more widely taught than The Queen's in Chinese classrooms, but all things British remain a benchmark for style and standards for many Chinese.

Only in China: A 山寨 Town Where You Can't Speak ChineseQuestion & Culture Show (Free)

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2011年12月20日星期二

U.S. general brings Baghdad flag home

U.S. general brings Baghdad flag home:

Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III returns the United States Forces-Iraq command flag to U.S. soil on Tuesday.

NEW: U.S. troops did "truly remarkable" things in Iraq, Austin says

"Welcome home," Joint Chiefs chairman tells troops

Tuesday's ceremony was the formal finale of the U.S. military mission in Iraq

As many as 4,500 Americans were killed in the nearly 9-year war

(CNN) -- The U.S. general who oversaw the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq returned home Tuesday with the flag that flew over Baghdad at the end of the war.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden joined military leaders at the military's Joint Base Andrews outside Washington as Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III returned the United States Forces-Iraq command flag. The ceremony marks the formal conclusion of the conflict.

"Today, we bring home the colors to United States soil," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said during Tuesday's commemoration. "At the same time, we embrace many of our own back into the fold just in time for the holidays. Welcome home."

Neither Obama nor Biden spoke at Tuesday's ceremony.

The last U.S. convoy left Iraq early Sunday, bringing an end to a nearly nine-year war that sharply divided the U.S. public. Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops died and more than 30,000 were wounded in the conflict, while estimates of the Iraqi toll run well above 100,000 dead.

"We lack the words to say what you feel on this day because, try as we may, we can never fully know it," Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the families of those killed or wounded. "But we do know what your sacrifice means to us, to this nation and to a world that still depends so much on America for its security."

The standard that Austin presented in Tuesday's ceremony was the flag that was sheathed last week in a formal "casing of the colors" in Baghdad. He said U.S. troops, many of whom served multiple tours in Iraq, have achieved "truly remarkable" things.

"Together with our coalition partners and corps of dedicated civilians, they removed a brutal dictator and gave the Iraqi people their freedom," Austin said. "Their courage and their ability to adapt has enabled us to persevere through the darkest days of the insurgency, to create hope and to provide the Iraqis opportunities that they have not seen in their lifetime. And so now the stage has been set for Iraq's young democracy to emerge as a leader in what has been and what will continue to be a very dynamic region."

U.S. and allied troops, mostly British, invaded Iraq in March 2003 after accusing then-dictator Saddam Hussein of concealing banned stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and efforts to build a nuclear bomb. Hussein's government quickly collapsed, but U.S. inspectors later found that Iraq had dismantled its weapons programs under U.N. sanctions in the 1990s.

The U.S. occupation quickly found itself battling an insurgency launched by the remnants of Hussein's regime. The Americans also faced Islamic jihadists loyal to an Iraq-based offshoot of al Qaeda and anti-American Shiite militias that U.S. commanders said were backed by neighboring Iran.

Iraq elected a new government in 2005, and Hussein was hanged in 2006. But soon afterward, sectarian warfare between Iraq's Shiite Arab majority and Sunni minority erupted after the bombing of the Shiite al-Askariya mosque, with thousands of bodies dumped in the streets of Baghdad and other cities for months.

That fighting subsided in 2007, after Washington poured about 30,000 more troops into Iraq and began supporting Sunni Arab groups that turned against the jihadists.

The new Iraq finds itself facing a political crisis within days of the American pullout, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government accused the country's leading Sunni official of orchestrating bomb attacks against government and security officials. The powerful political bloc that draws support largely from Sunni and more secular Iraqis has announced it is boycotting Parliament, and its leaders accuse al-Maliki of trying to amass dictatorial power.

CNN's Dan Merica contributed to this report.

Insuring Your Drive, the Basics!

Insuring Your Drive, the Basics!: Vehicle Insurance or Auto Insurance is designed for those who wish to finance a car for personal use. A car loan can give you immediate use of the car of your choice in exchange for regular payments over an agreed period of time. Also known as gap insurance or motor insurance these are purchased for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles.

2011年7月24日星期日

Stress-Proof Your Eating

Stress-Proof Your Eating Skip to content Home & News WebMD Home WebMD News Home Free Health Newsletters WebMD Community & Experts See All Expert Blogs WebMD the Magazine Digital Health A-Z ADD/ADHD Allergies Allergy TV Alzheimer's Anxiety Disorders Arthritis Asthma Back Pain Bipolar Disorder Bipolar TV Breast Cancer Cancer Cancer Communities Cholesterol Cold & Flu Colorectal Cancer COPD Depression Depression TV Diabetes Erectile Dysfunction Eye Health Fibromyalgia Heart Disease Heartburn/GERD Herpes Hypertension IBS Incontinence/OAB Inflammatory Bowel Menopause Mental Health Migraines Multiple Sclerosis Osteoporosis Pain Management Parkinson's Disease Rheumatoid Arthritis Sexual Conditions Shingles Skin Problems Sleep Disorders Stroke See All Topics Videos A-Z Community & Experts Experts A-Z First Aid A-Z Games A-Z Tests & Tools A-Z Slideshows A-Z Drugs & Medications Center Find or Review a Drug Pill Identifier Drug News Mobile Drug Information Find a Vitamin or Supplement First Aid & Emergencies WebMD Community & Experts WebMD Ask the Pharmacist Healthy Living Women's Health Men's Health Pet Health Oral Health Emotional Health Mental Health Communities Find a Therapist Green Living 50+: Live Better, Longer Sex & Relationships Skin & Beauty Healthy Skin TV Sexual Health Communities See All Topics Women's Health Communities Skin & Beauty Community Men's Health Communities Healthy Eating & Diet Healthy Eating & Diet Food & Cooking Food-o-Meter Fit-o-Meter Fitness & Exercise Food & Fitness Planner Portion Size Helper Personal Diet Evaluator BMI Plus Calculator Eating & Diet Communities Digestive Disorders Communities Parenting & Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy Children's Health Children's Vaccines Newborn & Baby New! Raising Fit Kids New! WebMD for Kids Parenting Communities Pregnancy Communities Trying to Conceive Communities Teen Health Teen Girls Teen Boys coming soon! New! WebMD FIT Teen Food Move Recharge Mood Pet Health Healthy Dogs Healthy Cats Healthy Pets Community WebMD: Better Information. Better Health.

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Health & Parenting Center

Fun and Fit Family Guide Email a FriendPrint Article Fun and Fit Family Guide This content is selected and controlled by WebMD's editorial staff and is brought to you by Subway.

Next Article Skip to Article Content 5 Ways to Win Kids to Healthy Food Help your child say "no" to junk food and choose healthy foods instead. Healthy Eating in Stressful Times It's common to eat when you're stressed. Tips to help you de-stress your eating. Eat Healthy with the Internet Eating on-the-go? The Internet can help you with simple healthy eating tools. Healthy Guide to Dining Out Do you know how much food is on your plate? How to avoid restaurant pitfalls. False Eating Healthfully During Stressful Times WebMD Feature

By Robin Warshaw

Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD

You just found out that your glowing engine light means another repair bill. That will strain your checking account, which you’ve already been juggling like a circus performer.

The repair shop vending machine stands nearby, offering sweet, fatty, crunchy and salty snacks. You make your choice, hoping to banish worry with high-calorie help, even though you’re not really hungry. ?

Yet a candy bar or bag of chips gives only a momentary boost to sagging spirits. Refined sugars and starches in most packaged snack foods “make you feel better for a minute, then worse,” says Bethany Thayer, MS, RD, director of wellness programs and strategies at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

Emotional Eating and Stress Eating

When you feel tense, stress eating or emotional eating seem to be triggered like an automatic response. That’s especially so if your body reacts strongly to stress-released hormones. A 2010 study from the University of Michigan showed that when levels of the stress hormone cortisol, were boosted in healthy, non-stressed adults, they ate more snack foods.? ?

Indeed, stress may increase your desire for doughnuts, ice cream, and other high-fat or sugary foods. You also are likely to eat fewer regular meals and fewer vegetables. That may be why you grab a handful of cookies during stressful moments instead of healthy snacks such as baby carrots or a few almonds. Not surprising, then, that stress eaters gain weight more often than those who aren’t stress eaters.

Find New Outlets for Stress

"Emotional or stress eating soon becomes a habit that changes how you eat regularly," Thayer says. Healthy eating and good nutrition disappear as your daily meal plan starts looking like the menu for a Cub Scout sleepover. ?

“The food drives your behavior and your behavior drives your food choice,” says Susan Kleiner, PhD, RD, a specialist in nutrition and human performance and author of The Good Mood Diet. “You are stuck until you put your foot down.” ?

You can break the stress eating cycle and enjoy a healthful diet, even if difficult times continue, with these effective ideas:

Build a good nutritional foundation. Prepare your brain and body in advance and you’ll be better able to handle stress when it happens. To keep your emotions in balance, eat regularly during the day, every four or five hours. Enjoy complex carbohydrates. Have oatmeal, raisin bran and other whole-grain cereals and breads, as well as brown rice, whole-grain pasta, vegetables, beans, fruits, and nonfat milk. These complex carbohydrates help your brain make the feel-good chemical serotonin, which counteracts stress, says Thayer. Moderate amounts of healthy fats from olives, avocadoes, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, nut butters and olive oil also help, adds Kleiner. Recognize what’s happening. When stressful events or thoughts trigger the urge to eat, stop and evaluate first. Are you hungry or not? Rate your hunger on a scale from 1 to 10. Ask yourself when was the last time you ate, to see if your body needs food right now. “Often, negative emotions trigger what feels like hunger but is really just a habitual response to eat to get rid of negative feelings,” says Elissa S. Epel, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and a researcher on stress and eating. Try a little mindfulness. Derail your automatic trip to the cookie jar by becoming more aware of your eating patterns. Mindful eating encourages you to use your senses to choose foods that please you and are nourishing to your body. Pay attention to the physical cues of fullness or hunger that your body sends. Use these to make decisions about when to begin eating and when to stop. Have a Plan B ... and C. The stress-eating urge usually hits suddenly, so keep healthy snacks with you wherever you go. Try small packets of nuts or trail mix (without added sweets or salt), apples, or bananas. Those better options will help you bypass high-calorie comfort. When possible, Kleiner advises eating protein and complex carbohydrates together, such as cheese with a slice of whole-grain bread. ? Another great option: a small piece of dark chocolate (72% cocoa is good). “You don’t need to eat a ton of it,” Kleiner says. ? Fool yourself. In difficult moments, do you crave crunchy snacks like chips or pretzels? Keep cut-up carrots and celery ready in the refrigerator. Soy chips are also a healthier choice than most fried or baked crunchy snacks. Have a sweet tooth? Fruit provides natural sweetness that can reduce your urge for high sugar items. Out of sight really does help. If you must keep stress eating temptations like cookies or chips at home for others, store those foods behind larger packages or stacks of dishes. In the freezer, use bags of frozen vegetables to block your view of the ice cream container. When you’re commuting to work or running errands, avoid driving past the bakery or fast-food restaurants. Call on a substitute. To make stress eating less automatic, you need to find better ways to deal with everyday hassles and ongoing tensions. Choose a healthy stress-busting alternative such as going for a walk or run, listening to music, calling a friend for a chat, brushing your cat or dog, or just sitting quietly.

Instead of eating, try one of the solutions mentioned above. Add it to your action choices if it works or try a different one next time. By finding healthier alternatives, you’ll feel more in control. Then you’ll be more prepared for the next step: “You have to figure out what’s causing the stress and work to alleviate that,” Thayer says.

View Article Source

SOURCES:

Rutters, F. Obesity, January 2009; vol 17: pp 72-77.

Adam ,T. Physiology & Behavior, July 2007; vol 91: pp 449-458.

George, S. Psychoneuroendocrinology, May 2010; vol 35: pp 607-612.

Torres, S. Nutrition, November-December 2007; vol 23: pp 887-894.

O’Connor, D. Health Psychology, January 2008; vol 27: pp S20-S31.

Epel, E. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, December 2004; vol 1032: pp 208-210.

Kristeller, J. Eating Disorders, January 2011; vol 19: pp 49-61.

The Center for Mindful Eating web site: “The Principles of Mindful Eating.”

Bethany Thayer, MS, RD, director of wellness programs and strategies, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit; spokesman, American Dietetic Association.

Elissa S. Epel, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; co-director, UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study & Treatment.

Susan Kleiner, PhD, RD, author, The Good Mood Diet.

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on June 27, 2011

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Swimming Pool & Beach Safety How to be safe when you and your family enjoy a day on the water. View slideshow

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2011年7月23日星期六

Clues to Early Detection, Treatment of Alzheimer's

Brain, Blood Changes Occur Decades Before Alzheimer's Symptoms Human brain over molecular map

July 22, 2011 (Paris) -- Brain and blood chemistry changes that indicate Alzheimer's disease can be detected 10 to 20 years before memory loss and other cognitive symptoms develop, according to doctors studying? families with inherited forms of the disease.

Studying people genetically destined to develop Alzheimer's disease at a young age will help researchers understand the changes that occur prior to the development of the "type of Alzheimer's everyone recognizes -- the [non-inherited] form of the disease that? typically strikes people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s," says? John C. Morris, MD, of Washington University in St. Louis.

Morris heads the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), which is recruiting about 400 people whose families harbor genetic mutations that virtually guarantee a person will develop Alzheimer's at the same young age as the parent, usually before age 60.

As part of the NIH-funded program, participants will also be enrolled in clinical trials of potentially disease-modifying drugs that target the underlying processes thought to cause Alzheimer's disease.

The hope is that such drugs will work early on to delay mental decline and slow the progressive degeneration of brain tissue. Currently available drugs like Aricept, Cognex, Exelon, and Razadyne boost mental functioning in a small percentage of people for a time, but none halts the inevitable progression of the disease.

Because study participants are almost certain to develop Alzheimer's disease at a young age, fewer of them need to be followed for a shorter amount of time to show a drug works in the early stages of the disease than if high-risk people in the general population are studied, says DIAN member Randall Bateman, MD, also of Washington University in St. Louis.

The cholesterol-lowering statin drugs that have revolutionized the prevention and treatment of heart disease were first tested in people with an inherited form of high cholesterol, Bateman tells WebMD.

At the Alzheimer's Association International Conference here, the DIAN researchers presented some early findings gleaned from the first 128 patients to be enrolled in the study:

MRI and PET brain scans show substantial buildup of beta-amyloid plaque in the brain at least 10 years before symptoms appear.Beta-amyloid and tau proteins -- both of which have been identified as biomarkers for the disease -- are elevated in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid, respectively, a decade prior to the development of symptoms.

"We think these changes start even earlier, 15 or 20 years prior to symptoms, but the patients have to be followed longer to confirm that," Morris says.
About half of study participants have gene mutations that cause Alzheimer's and half don't. Nearly all have no or only mild symptoms when recruited.
Bateman would not name the drugs that will be tested, although he did acknowledge that most target beta-amyloid plaque.

View the original article here

2011年7月22日星期五

Breastfeeding May Cut Risk of Asthma for Baby

Study Shows Exclusive Breastfeeding for 6 Months Offers the Most Protection From Asthma Mother breastfeeding baby

July 21, 2011 -- Breastfeeding for at least six months appears to reduce the risk of a child developing asthma, new Dutch research suggests. Exclusive breastfeeding offered even more protection, the researchers found.

The link between breastfeeding and asthma risk has been reported before. However, the new study is believed to be the first to link the length of breastfeeding with the number of wheezing episodes a child has later on.

"Children who were never breastfed had almost 50% more risk of wheezing symptoms as compared to children who were breastfed for more than six months," says Liesbeth Duijts, MD, PhD, a researcher at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Children who were breastfed and given other milk and solids early had 20% more wheezing risk than babies who were exclusively breastfed, Duijts found.

"We suggest that longer and exclusive breastfeeding is associated with a reduced risk of asthma-related symptoms compared to children who do not receive any breastfeeding," Duijts tells WebMD.

The study is published in the European Respiratory Journal.

Duijts and colleagues evaluated more than 5,000 children from the Netherlands. They asked whether the children had ever been breastfed and if so for how long. They also asked when other milk or solids were given.

Parents answered questions about asthma-related symptoms annually when their children were ages 1 to 4.

Of the total, 92.3% of the children had ever been breastfed. Information about the length of time they were breastfed and whether it was exclusive was available for about 80%.

For those children, the median duration of breastfeeding was 3.5 months (half were breastfed longer, half less).? About 21% of the children were breastfed exclusively until age 4 months.

Besides the increase in wheezing, children never breastfed had an increased risk of shortness of breath, dry cough, and persistent phlegm during their first four years, compared to children breastfed for more than six months.

The risks for wheezing and phlegm were the strongest.

Breastfed babies who also were given other milk or solids during their first four months also had an increased risk of symptoms compared to children only breastfed, the researchers found. Besides more wheezing, they had more shortness of breath, dry cough, and phlegm.

Exactly why the breastfeeding seems to protect against asthma was not looked at in this study, Duijts says. However, she says earlier studies suggest the protection is due to breastfeeding's favorable effects on the immune system and on the gut.

"According to our data, we suggest that mothers breastfeed their children for at least six months and at least four months exclusively," Duijts tells WebMD. The researchers only looked at exclusive breastfeeding for four months, as the numbers who exclusively breastfed at six months were too low.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for about the first six months.

While 75% of U.S. babies start out being breastfed, just 43% are still breastfed at six months and only 13.3% exclusively at six months, according to the CDC.

View the original article here

2011年4月11日星期一

<<蘋果日報>>財經焦點: 3月進出口意外新高

<<蘋果日報>>財經焦點
<<蘋果日報>>財經焦點

3月進出口意外新高
12 Apr 2011, 12:00 am

【陳瑩欣╱台北報導】日本大地震後，科技廠為確保出貨紛紛搶料，財政部統計，台灣3月從日本進口金額不減反增，攀上47.9億美元，創歷年單月次高。3月整體出口與進口總值則以272.5億美元與254.8億美元，雙雙創下歷年單月新高。

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