An Ohio man has regrown a finger thanks to a medical miracle that doctors hope will enable patients to regenerate burnt skin and damaged organs, revolutionizing the way the body heals itself.
When Lee Spievack, a hobby-store salesman in Cincinnati, slashed off the tip of his finger with a model-plane propeller, the missing piece vanished along with any reasonable hope of his hand being whole again.
In a cutting-edge medical technique that seems ripped from the pages of science fiction, a powdery substance helped the 69-year-old regrow a fully functional digit with tissue, nerves, skin, nail, and a fingerprint.
Spievack had been helping a customer one evening in August 2005 with an engine on a model airplane behind the shop. He knew the motor was risky because it required somebody to turn the prop backwards to make it run the right way.
"I pointed to it," Spievack recalled the other day, "and said, ‘You need to get rid of this engine, it's too dangerous.' And I put my finger through the prop."
He misjudged the distance to the spinning plastic blade. It sliced off his fingertip, leaving just a bit of the nail bed. The missing piece, three-eighths of an inch long, was never found.
An emergency room doctor wrapped up the rest of his finger and sent him to a hand surgeon, who recommended a skin graft to cover what was left of his finger. What was gone, it appeared, was gone forever.
If Spievack had been a toddler, things might have been different. Up to about age 2, people can consistently regrow fingertips, says Dr. Stephen Badylak, a regeneration expert at the University of Pittsburgh. But that's rare in adults, he said.
Spievack, however, did have a major advantage - a brother, Alan, a former Harvard surgeon who'd founded a company called ACell Inc., that makes an extract of pig bladder for promoting healing and tissue regeneration.
It helps horses regrow ligaments, for example, and the federal government has given clearance to market it for use in people. Similar formulations have been used in many people to do things like treat ulcers and other wounds and help make cartilage.
The summer before Lee Spievack's accident, Dr. Alan Spievack had used it on a neighbor who'd cut his fingertip off on a tablesaw. The man's fingertip grew back over four to six weeks, Alan Spievack said.
Lee Spievack took his brother's advice to forget about a skin graft and try the pig powder.
Soon a shipment of the stuff arrived and Lee Spievack started applying it every two days. Within four weeks his finger had regained its original length, he says, and in four months "it looked like my normal finger."
Spievack said it's a little hard, as if calloused, and there's a slight scar on the end. The nail continues to grow at twice the speed of his other nails.
"All my fingers in this cold weather have cracked except that one," he said.
All in all, he said, "I'm quite impressed."
Behrman/AP
Lee Spievack
Spievack/AP
Spievack accidentally sliced off the tip of his finger, but regrew it (below) supposedly by using special powder made from pig extract.
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The story behind Google Chrome
Watch a video from the development team on the thinking and features behind Google Chrome.
By now you’ve all probably been playing with Google Chrome, the search engine giant’s new browser (well, unless you’re on a Mac or Linux, that is).
By now you’ve all probably been playing with Google Chrome, the search engine giant’s new browser (well, unless you’re on a Mac or Linux, that is).
One thing that many people are wondering about is what’s up with Google Chrome’s logo? Philipp thinks that it’s a combination of Pokémon’s Poké Ball, the Simon toy (see also this post on Digital Inspiration)
Well, I say there’s something else. See that glowing blue eye? It’s absolutely, definitely and surely positively from SAL 9000,..( ho?...click here for a SAL 9000 history lesson) SAL 9000 was the Earthbound twin of the HAL 9000 computer in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Huh? There are two of ‘em? Yep: HAL has a red eye, SAL has a blue eye.)
And here’s a YouTube clip of SAL 9000 (voiced by Candice Bergen, actually) from 2010: The Year We Make Contact (based on Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two)
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Thanks for your efforts, the more of us Mac users who sign up for news about Chrome, then the more of us who are petitioning the release of yet another astounding product by Google.
Prague - Cooperation with Russia on the U.S. missile defence system is possible, but Moscow should not have the right to veto where NATO security matters are concerned, Alexandr Vondra, Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs, said in a debate on TV Prima today.
The planned anti-missile shield is to include a radar base on Czech soil. The two Czech-U.S. "radar" treaties were signed by the Czech and U.S. ministers under George Bush's administration last year.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the ARD television on Tuesday she considers it necessary for Russia to take part in the missile defence shield project.
On Wednesday Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said he would welcome it if Russia joined the U.S. anti-missile shield project in a meaningful way.
Vondra (Civic Democrats, ODS) today said he expects the new U.S. government of Barack Obama to place a bigger emphasis, in connection with the anti-missile shield, on a dialogue not only in NATO but also with the Russian federation.
"Everything I know makes me believe that they will continue their anti-missile defence project," said Vondra, former Czech ambassador to the U.S.
He said, nevertheless, that Obama's team might make "slight corrections" to the project. It may earmark less money than what was originally planned, he added.
Vondra said the U.S. definitely will not give its missile defence project up.
Apart from the radar, to be built in the Brdy military district southwest of Prague and yet to be discussed by the Czech Chamber of Deputies, the Central European part of the shield is to comprise a base with interceptor missiles in Poland.
Moscow has sharply protested against the project which it considers a threat to its own security.
Washington asserts the shield is to be aimed against possible missile attacks from "rogue" countries such as Iran.
According to Vondra, Obama and his administration will now probably seek even more intensive cooperation with Europe, and also a dialogue with Moscow.
"We negotiated about the issue with Russia in the past two years," Vondra said, recalling that the U.S., too, offered ways of missile defence cooperation to Russia.
One of the then debated possibilities was the presence of Russian monitors at the U.S. bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, which, however, both Czechs and Poles rejected.
"The cooperation, however, cannot include a Russian right to veto where decisions on NATO security matters are concerned," Vondra said.
Prague - The Czech Interior Ministry has drafted a plan enabling the state to send the foreigners, who lost their job in the Czech Republic and have no money, back to their homeland, says weekly Tyden in its issue to appear on Monday, adding that the state would pay 500 euros for voluntary return.
The proposal reckons with the state giving the air tickets to the foreigners concerned. Those who would opt for return voluntarily, could gain an additional 500 euros, Tyden writes. The ministry expects 12,000 foreign employees to be made redundant in the Czech Republic by March-end. If the state did nothing, the threat would arise that up to 15 percent of the unemployed foreigners would be absorbed by the underworld, up to 80 percent of them would try to circumvent the law and create an illegal labour market, and up to 15 percent would move to other EU states, Tyden writes, citing the ministry.
The first to have been afflicted by the financial crisis are mainly the Vietnamese and Mongolian workers in the Czech Republic.
"It is really a big problem, which also poses a threat to state security," said Tomas Haisman, head of the ministry's department of asylum and migration section. The ministry's proposal, reckoning with the departure of about 2,000 foreigners from the Czech Republic, requires approval from the government. If it receives the green light, the government would also earmark over 55 million crowns for the voluntary returns.
At the same time the Interior Ministry proposes a temporary restriction of issuing long-term visas. It also wants to check the agencies that mediate jobs for foreigners, and to make the agencies cooperate with state authorities.
"They have to bear responsibility for the people whom they bring to our country," Haisman is quoted as saying.
The number of foreign workers in the Czech Republic grew by 44,300 last year, a 20 percent decrease against 2007. As of end-December 2008, a total of 284,551 foreigners were legally employed in the Czech Republic.
Brno - Officially, the Czech Republic has 1,800 agencies mediating jobs for thousands of foreigners employed by Czech companies. But more than 1,300 agencies licensed by Czech authorities do not disclose the number of workers they have brought in.
Fine?... Never mind
The agencies ignore the fact that failure to report the required data may result in a fine of up to CZK 500,000. The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry has already launched administrative proceedings against some of them.
Agencies declining to specify how many people they have employed highlights the chaos in this field, which unions say costs the government billions of crowns.
Agencies have mediated jobs for more than 250,000 people, mostly from abroad. Some of them operate without a license: Agencies without a Czech or Vietnamese license have allegedly brought in thousands of workers from Vietnam. Others import workers from abroad and then shut down as their representatives disappear.
"We wanted to work with an agency on worker imports from Vietnam, but their conditions were so shameless that we decided to arrange everything without an intermediary," said the owner of a smaller engineering company based in southern Moravia.
Another problem is that workers hired through agencies often live in unsatisfactory conditions. On the other hand, the agencies earn big money: They charge companies over CZK 200 per hour of work, but the workers receive less than CZK 100 per hour.
Tighter oversight?
Unions have strongly criticised the labour agency market. They say the government is losing billions of crowns.
"Tax evasion from agency jobs may reach CZK 5-10 billion a year. But this is only a gross estimate calculated on the basis of data from HR agencies," said Josef Středula, chairman of the KOVO union.
Unionists also point out that workers hired through agencies often earn much less than regular employees for the same amount of work.
To combat the situation, the government has promised stricter oversight. The best-known case in which the state has sanctioned an agency is the employment of Polish workers at Škoda Auto.
The labor inspectorate fined the Zetka Auto agency CZK 500,000 for a breach of labor regulations, but only after ombudsman Otakar Motejl stepped in.
Controllers complain about limited powers, saying they cannot even enter workers' dormitories.
The Chamber of Commerce is planning to create a special guarantee fund to improve the conditions of foreign workers, without whom local companies could not exist. The fund, to be supported by contributions from local employers, should serve thousands of workers from Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, China, and Mongolia, according to Hospodářské noviny.
Adapted and republished by Tomáš Fránek @ the Prague Daily Monitor
US regulators have cleared the way for the world's first study on human embryonic stem cell therapy.The US Food and Drug Administration have been considering the 21,000 page application for months.
A new chapter in medical therapeutics — one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration of organ function achieved by the injection of healthy, functional replacement cells manufactured from human embryonic stem cells.
The decision by the FDA to give the go-ahead comes at a symbolic moment, just days after the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Since 2001 there have been limits on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The decision of the FDA is independent of White House control, but the new president is widely expected to adopt a more pragmatic and science-oriented approach to stem cell research.
The knowledge that will be gained in this first clinical trial deploying embryonic stem cell derived material will accelerate the development of all future stem cell therapies Professor Chris Mason, University College London Under President Bush, federal funding had been limited to around 60 stem cell lines created from embryos destroyed prior to August 2001. Scientists had warned that only 20 eligible cell lines remained useful for research and many of these were problematic. Researchers had told the BBC that the restrictions had slowed down their work.
Controversy
Geron Corp, the company behind the research, plans to initiate a clinical trial in a handful of patients paralysed due to spinal cord injury. Interest in use of embryonic stem cells is due to their ability to turn into any of the body's 200 cell types.
Using embryos donated through IVF treatment scientists have coaxed the stem cells inside into many types of tissue. One embryo can provide a limitless supply because the cell lines can be grown indefinitely. But the use of human embryonic stem cells in research is controversial with some campaigners saying it is unethical. Geron, a biotech company based in "silicon valley" south of San Francisco, has spent $170m on developing a stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury.
The research will use cells coaxed to become nerve cells which are injected into the spinal cord.
In animal trials of the treatment, paralysed rats regained some movement.
Company chief Dr Tom Okarma said: "What stem cells promise for a heart attack or spinal cord injury or diabetes is that you go to the hospital, you receive these cells and you go home with a repaired organ, that has been repaired by new heart cells or new new nerve cells or new islet cells that have been made from embryonic stem cells."
'Pivotal decision'
Professor Chris Mason, an expert in regenerative medicine at University College London, described the FSA decision as "historic" and a "pivotal milestone in the development of embryonic stem cell therapies.
He said: "The knowledge that will be gained in this first clinical trial deploying embryonic stem cell derived material will accelerate the development of all future stem cell therapies."
Professor Pete Coffey, director of the London Project to cure blindness, said: "It's great news for the field.
"This strengthens our recent call for regulators in the UK to help provide a clear process for researchers to take this forward.
"It's also exciting for me because it brings our own moves towards clinical trials with embryonic stem cells for age-related macular degeneration a step forward."
Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, said it often took 15 to 20 years to develop a therapy.
"It takes a long time and much work to derive processes that will efficiently and reproducibly give an appropriate cell type for grafting and many animal experiments to test efficacy and safety.
"An appropriate set of patients have to be identified for the first tests and clinicians willing to participate in trials.
"And the regulatory hurdle is, understandably, a huge one - in this case it required 21,000 pages of documents."
He added that for those patients desperate for treatment, and for their families, the news showed the research is moving in the right direction.
But Josephine Quintavalle, director of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core), which opposes embryonic stem cell therapies, dismissed the research as "highly speculative".
"The work is at a highly experimental stage and there's still a question mark over the capacity of these cells to form tumours," she said.
"What worries me is that patients will really believe this is going to cure their spinal injury."
She pointed out that other research teams in Australia and Portugal were developing spinal therapies using adult stem cells.
"We've never changed our point of view, which is that embryonic stem cell treatments cannot ever be justified," she said.
Czech people drink more beer per capita than anybody else in the world.
The beer in this country is cheap, delicious, freezing cold, clean, low in alcohol, and extremely commonplace. If one pub kicks you out for throwing glasses at the elderly, you can find another one within a 10-meter radius, silently and shamefully waiting to pump you full of alcohol and outrageous ideas. There is a joke in this country: "So this pub near Anděl ran out of beer…" People are already laughing at it, like we told them that George W. Bush was running for Prime Minister of the Czech Republic next term. Pubs don't run out of beer in this country. The ensuing riots would destroy the entire government, infrastructure, and all future pork 'n' potato delicacies.
The beer is so widespread, like a never-ending fountain of lore in some fantastic 200-year-old novel; it would be foolish to embark upon any nighttime excursion soberly, away from its thick, smoky cradle of sinful goodness. Deciding what is the best beer is frequently a matter of debate, and experts who might know what they're talking about discuss it at length.
When I lived in Tucson, Arizona, I drank what most would call an appropriate amount of beer for a 24-year-old. I didn't drink it daily, and I rarely had it in my refrigerator. Since arriving in Prague nearly six months ago, however, my beer intake has tripled at least. I drink beer daily in this city - it is somewhat hard not to. I don't get drunk when I drink it (some of the time), and I don't drink it to get drunk (most of the time). I treat it as a cultural caveat, like the sumo-wrestling diaper (50 CZK to whoever knows the name of this thing) that I wear when I go to Japan.
I'll be the first crazy jerk to admit that the entire concept of beer is normally better rather than worse. Beer begins to psychologically represent good vibes and fun. And we all know fun rocks. Except for wine, which has been known to turn me into a Class 3 tornado, and liquor, which I began to associate with pain some time ago, I cannot think of any beverage to match the esteemed character of beer. In the States, people guzzle soda like it's becoming extinct, to their detriment: they are fat little piggies because of it. Beer, while similar in caloric content, has no refined sugar, which is the true culprit in the case of Fatty McFatfat, Jr.
Below is a hackneyed outline of the "benefits" of beer.
-The Buzz , The great thing about brain cells is that they grow back…Right? Hmm. Well, the last time I checked, being a little bit buzzed with a group of good friends and someone who is new and cute shows up and you spend most of the night looking deeply into their eyes from across the table, turning what was once only the faintest glimmer in part of the night sky that you never looked at before into an inferno of inhuman temperatures is still pretty darn cool in my book. Ahh, the buzz. Optical reciprocity.
-The Social Elevator , Go on up - just like you do when you leave the metro. Our psychic walls are flattened after drinking beer, making interaction easier, but certainly less graceful. Alcohol is nicknamed "liquid courage" for a reason. Normally this references the lame and frequently tactless act of "going to go talk to that girl but maybe I should become a slathering idiot only seconds before I do it" type of expedition. Our inhibitions become hibitions, or something. Also, small dogs in pubs are friendlier. They understand.
-Damn, I did that? Beer is the oldest natural method of accountability/responsibility removal. Before that, it was getting killed by a mammoth. I guess you don't have to do any chores after that… When we drink beer, all reason and logic decides to drink along with us. It is liberating, as long as you have friends that are good enough to pull your drunk behind out of trouble's lunchbox in time. No use showing up to work minus two teeth and with a forehead tattoo that says "Beeyatch."
Beer Goggles:
Here's A Good Couple o Videos Regarding The Concept Of Beer Goggles.
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Unfortunately, beer basically works against us most of the time. Men develop a belly whose roundness is rivaled only by a pregnant woman's, huge and rotund, like the peach from my favorite Roald Dahl book. It can cause car accidents, damage our liver, reduce intelligence and motivation, and create the well-known phenomenon of "beer goggles", in which the wearer is almost sure to make a startlingly poor decision regarding the evening's partner. But, I still drink it - a lot. I drink it Monday afternoons at lunch, Thursday evenings (I've begun to refer to Thursday as "Friday #2") and during Sunday brunch. I have been known to stop drinking beer at two in the morning on Sunday morning and start again at noon the same day. I drink it all except for Zlatopramen, which I find to be way too skunky and sweet like a… wait, no, I drink that one too.
The reason that I'm writing about this now is that I've recognized a lot of people in my generation as "heavy drinkers". I could conceivably go out and drink every night, for weeks, without arousing suspicion in this country. Seemingly, my peers and my generation are no longer able to have a good time without some sort of drug. Alcohol, nicotine, some new desperate crude called Pervitin (meth), caffeine, marijuana, spray-paint, gasoline, rotten broccoli, and Nyquil: When did it happen that we had to have some substance in order to have meaningful social interactions? Before, it was Pepsi and candy and our imaginations and dentist visits. When did it change? You Must Ask Yourself... Is this a problem in the first place? I mean, it's just beer. It does not affect my work negatively, or my interpersonal relationships with people (probably since they are also drinking something). Actually, I hope it positively influences my writing, as I am drinking a beer at this very moment.
** Solution? Plan a special night out where no substances are involved. No alcohol, opiates, or caffeine. Juice or herbal tea only. You can at least feel good about trying it once. Then back to the pub for more abuse and vomit.
As my parents and grandparents shudder at reading this, making silent notes to strike me from their will, I sit in a crusty dungeon in Prague, sipping ice-cold Gambrinus 10 and worrying. I worry that all my friends would be less cool without the social drinking to connect us. I worry that I am missing a huge part of consciousness and mental well being by drinking. I’m worrying so much, I think I need another beer.
* In the fight against people, let it be said that beer has the distinct advantage of greater portability and agreeable temperature.
** This article was written with the intention of analyzing the qualities of beer in an objective fashion, but failed miserably in doing so because of the beer involved in the creation, execution, emailing, and typing of said article
Thanks for reading, now go out and find a pint of Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, or Budvar, ....BUT.... DON'T DRINK ALONE !!
Russian gas crisis sends Central Europe scrambling for future alternatives. By Benjamin Cunningham - Staff Writer
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ISIFA Photo
Slovakia considered turning on a Soviet-era nuclear reactor in response to the recent gas crisis.
A European Union-brokered deal to monitor the Ukrainian gas pipeline was meant to turn the gas flow back on, but it was not until Russia and Ukraine resolved a bilateral price dispute that natural gas again started flowing west.
As of press time Jan. 20, Russia had turned on the taps, and the first deliveries had reached Slovak pipelines.
The recent Ukraine-Russia gas row, which cut off supplies to parts of Europe for more than two weeks, again raised questions about the reliability of Europe's present supply lines and the EU's ability to influence key actors, sending the Czech Republic and its neighbors searching for longer-term solutions.
In Slovakia, the quick-fix was a proposal to restart a nuclear reactor at Jaslovské Bohunice, a plan that faced strong EU opposition before eventually being scrapped.
Energy supply breakdown |---------------------| Czech Republic 46% coal 21% oil 16% natural gas 15% nuclear 2% other sources |---------------------| Slovakia 28% natural gas 24% coal 22% nuclear 20% oil 6% other sources
Source: International Energy Agency, 2007
|---------------------|
"There is no reason at the moment to re-launch the second V1 nuclear reactor at the Jaslovské Bohunice nuclear power plant," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on a Jan. 18 television talk show.
The Slovaks, however, did not eliminate the possibility of restarting the reactor in the event of another future energy crisis, a move that would break the country's EU accession treaty. Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Kubiš was in Austria Jan. 15 still trying to allay safety concerns related to the Soviet-era facility. The last reactor at the plant was shut down Dec. 31, 2008.
Natural gas is Slovakia's largest source of energy, totaling about 28 percent of use, according to Hiroshi Hashimoto, a natural gas specialist with the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Nearly 100 percent of Slovakia's natural gas supply comes from Russia.
The Czech Republic, by comparison, is both less dependent on natural gas in general and more diversified in terms of sources. In 2007, the latest statistics available, the country counts on natural gas for 16 percent of its total energy supply. Russia supplies 79 percent and Norway contributes most of the rest.
While many are quick to condemn Russia over the recent energy crisis, about 80 percent of Russian gas exported to Europe passes through Ukrainian territory. About two-thirds of Gazprom's revenue comes from gas sold after transiting Ukraine, according to a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
"On the whole [Ukraine] is not a reliable country," says Petr Kratochvíl, a Ukraine and Russia expert at the Prague Institute for International Relations. "The basic problem is that there is not a single voice. The internal political situation is a permanent political deadlock."
As instability in Ukraine increasingly worries Europeans about its reliability as a transit country, various gas-access options are on the table. The proposed North Stream pipeline would bring natural gas from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany, then onward to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The so-called South Stream pipeline would bring Russian gas through the Balkans to Italy. A proposed Nabucco pipeline would bring Central Asian gas through Turkey and into the EU. None of these options is near implementation, and all face practical and political hurdles.
Czech Energy Envoy Václav Bartuška has publicly advocated the idea of using liquefied natural gas, which is cooled and shipped in tanks, as a means of bypassing future pipeline problems.
Coby van der Linde, director of the Clingendael International Energy Project in The Hague, is skeptical. "The quantities are much smaller. It's just not physically possible," she said.
Coal, a fuel that presently covers nearly half of the Czech Republic's energy use, has been decreasingly popular in recent years, but new technologies could be making it viable again.
"Even though coal is very negative on the environment, if we can store the carbon dioxide somehow, we can use more coal," Van der Linde said.
Green energy options are increasingly popular, at least rhetorically, and Van der Linde points to Denmark as an example of a country formerly dependent on coal and now a world leader in wind energy.
Progress on the Slovak option, nuclear power, has been slowed in recent decades "very much by the Chernobyl event," Van der Linde said.
France, however, became a nuclear innovator in response to the first and second oil crises, Van der Linde said.
Locally, both the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and the Social Democrats (ČSSD) support expanding sources of nuclear power. The Greens (SZ) have slowed progress as part of their governing coalition agreement, but incoming Green Humans Rights and Minority Minister Michael Kocáb has said he would support a change in party position.
Separately, the largest state-owned energy company, ČEZ, announced plans Jan. 20 to build two new nuclear reactors in Dukovany by 2035. "Nuclear energy is a political risk, but this is changing because of the environmental discussion," Van Der Linde said.
The Czech Republic has made energy policy a priority of its EU presidency. During the gas row, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek engaged in shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Kyiv. While most laud the effort, there are questions as to the concrete results.
"The EU's role was quite weak and the monitors were more symbolic. All the trumps were in the hands of Russia and Ukraine," Kratochvíl said. "They somehow just meet behind closed doors but never know what the agreement is about."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the EU monitors are no longer needed because the price dispute has been settled. Kratochvíl says he is skeptical of whether the Russian-Ukrainian agreement will be honored, as the agreement is not public and various murky special interest groups on both sides persist.
Van der Linde has her own questions, mainly as to whether the EU will ever be able to have a cohesive, comprehensive energy policy. France, for example, is a strong proponent of nuclear energy, while Germany seeks to increase its access to Russian natural gas. "Member states have reaffirmed their sovereignty over energy mix," she said. "Maybe it is good that some countries are specialized."
Rather than a singular EU energy policy, she advocates power plants that can operate with more than one fuel - gas and oil, for example - and a Europe-wide "joint-crisis mechanism" to deal with shortages.
"That is something we can do," she adds. "And now."
Prague - The Czech Republic is the only country that has not yet adopted the anti-discrimination law. Following Klaus´s veto in May last year, arguing that the bill would eliminate "natural inequalities". The bill is to be presented again for a vote in parliament at an unknown date.
Last December the European Court of Justice reprimanded the country for failing to implement two directives on the equal treatment of men and women.
Vice-president of the European Commission (EC) Margot Wallström who is active in promoting gender equality in the EU institutions says the Czech Republic has to improve the representation of women in political decision making bodies. The wide gender pay gap and and lack of women in politics are two fields the country should focus on.
"You have to use your voting right to change things," the 52-year old mother of two says about the upcoming election to the European Parliament.
Aktuálně.cz: The Czech Republic has one of the lowest representations of women in politics in the developed world - just 15.5 percent of MPs and 17.3 percent of senators. In comparison to the other EU member states, are we really lagging behind so much?
It depends on what you measure because you also have prominent women, you have a defense minister and she is a role model in occupying such a post. I mean we do not see so many women as defense ministers [in the EU].
My impression is there are so many competent women in the Czech society but I think you have to improve the representation in the political decision making bodies and also in your parliament and senate.
Violence against women exists in all member states. The pay gap is still enormous also in most of the EU member states. For the same job women are paid less. The wage gap is between 15 - 27 percent and unfortunately the Czech Republic is among the countries with the very big wage gap.
A.cz: Aktuálně.cz: You worked as an MP, and twice as a minister in Sweden, now you are in Brussels. How did and do men treat you as a female politician?
When I was the minister in Sweden, we had a small network of women ministers, so we would meet and discuss things and compare and share experiences and our views. There was the need to do so because - not that we would be bullied by our colleagues, not at all - but there are certain techniques to keep women feel inferior by ignoring what they say. But this happens all the time everywhere. Female politicians have to meet and talk and support each other.
A.cz: Sweden has 47 percent of female MPs. How did you achieve such high numbers?
First of all, there must be political will. But what really changed the whole political establishment was the threat of having a strong women´s political party. Because it has come to such a point when the situation became unacceptable for women. They wanted to have a better representation. That happened in the 1970s.
Also, a free press and a very open society help to create the pressure. But the threat of having a well established, a well respected women´s political party scared the political establishment. It meant an immediate change in their attitude in allowing women candidates. Every Swedish political party and every political leader is in favor of gender equality.
A.cz: So it was only the threat of having a female political party?
Well, men have also seen that they have a lot to gain from equality. They have a better access to their children now. They share the work in the family and that has given them a different role which is a better one than the one my father experienced, for example. My mother would tell him in the evening: "The children were naughty, so you better punish them". And he hated that. He did not want to come from work only to punish the children. But that was the traditional role of fathers at that time. That's why we have to break these stereotypes.
A.cz: Sweden is famous for having the parental leave as one of the first countries implemented. Do men really use it?
Today I would say a majority of young men when they become fathers use the parental leave. They want to be home with their children and they want to share a working life with their partners and they see this has improved the quality of their work life, because they work less.
Also, sharing the work life between men and women and using the potential of women helped Sweden economically. Because the question is can a modern society afford not to use the potential of women? The society cannot grow if women are not represented. It helps the economy. It helps the country to grow.
A.cz: How are you doing with promoting gender equality debate in the EU institutions?
Unfortunately today the gender equality is seen as a secondary issue. It is left for discussion only for women. If you see EU, it is mostly men and sometimes a few women. The EU institutions deal with issues that are important to women and that influence the lives women too, so women should be represented too and their voices have to be heard. And that is something for Czechs to do too.
I am not saying whom to vote for but I am saying you have to use your voting right to change things.
The only foreign language which Czech television does not dub is Slovak. Most Czechs don't mind. For 73 years of the 20th century Slovakia was part of their home country - Czechoslovakia - and Slovak was their second language. TV and radio programs would flow naturally from one language to the other without any need for translation. However things are gradually changing.
In 1993 the Czechs and the Slovaks broke up, established independent institutions and went their separate ways. Although the two states continue to enjoy a special relationship born of long co-habitation, the language and cultural ties are fraying. A survey among Czech youngsters shows that 30 percent of them have trouble comprehending a fast paced Slovak dialogue and the vast majority have trouble with individual expressions. Although some linguists believe that the day may come when Czechs will barely comprehend their Slavic neighbors, Tatana Holasova, is not ready to give up so easily. A language expert at Prague's Research Institute of Education, she is now involved in a project aimed at bringing Slovak back to Czech schools.
"We learnt Slovak at school as children. Not on a par with Czech of course, but some lessons were devoted to it and Slovak texts appeared in our textbooks. We also had lots of Slovak classmates and we heard Slovak on radio and TV daily. So it was a second language to us - but today my own children have big problems understanding Slovak - for them it is a foreign language."
Although Czech and Slovak are the closest of the Western Slavic languages about 15 percent of their vocabularies and about half their noun endings differ. The Czech word for tomato - "rajce" is very different to "paradajka" and you would have trouble figuring out that a "gombik" in Slovak is a "knoflik" or "button" in Czech. Tatana Holasova and her team have now sent all Czech primary schools a voluntary Slovak language and general knowledge course that can be incorporated into any lesson and should be fun rather than hard work.
"This project aims to break through the language barrier in an amusing, entertaining and easy way. We have no ambition to teach kids Slovak but to help them gain a better passive knowledge of the language, to show them in what way the two languages are similar and how they differ - and teach them some of the basic expressions that could puzzle them in everyday life."
The Slovak community - the country's biggest minority - has welcomed the project, but Slovaks know well that the days when they could speak their native language in Prague are long gone. Most of them switched to Czech a few years after the divorce, tired of hearing people say "excuse me?"
Despairing students often say that Czech is a particularly difficult language to learn, and even Czechs themselves have problems with it. Last year, the Ústav pro jazyk český received over 9000 emails from Czechs unsure about their spelling and grammar. Now, the organisation has launched the first online Czech handbook to help users sort their s’s from their z’s. I met the head of the Ústav pro jazyk český, Karel Oliva, to ask him whether it was exasperation which drove him to publish a grammar online:
“Well, actually you are right, but the way you put it is a bit politically incorrect. Basically, the story is that the number of emails and phone-calls we receive is rising to such an extent that we cannot physically answer all of them, or we are having a great deal of trouble answering all of them. And the questions we receive are very often the same. So we decided to put the answers on the internet, and we hope that some people will look for the answers themselves.”
And what are the most frequently asked questions?
“Basically, it’s the usual suspects. So, punctuation and capital letters.”
You said that you are getting an ever-increasing number of emails, is that because Czechs are getting worse at grammar and spelling?
“Well, I would be a little bit more positive and optimistic, and I would see it in this way: people are more and more aware of the fact that it is necessary to use correct Czech. In a private conversation it doesn’t matter, but if you run a firm and you have some publicity materials and you have some orthographic mistakes on those leaflets, then your firm loses public image.”
This is the first very comprehensive internet grammar or style-guide of its type. Would you say the internet is actually a very good way of publishing a handbook like this?
“It is much better than a written book because we can update it every day. Because once something is printed on paper and then sold, it grows old every day you have it on your shelf. But on the internet you can update it. And if there are any errors - and there are errors, we are only human - you can correct them. We can not only update the things that are there, but we can add new things, because new words are coming into Czech every day. So using the current technology we have at our disposal, this seems to be the best way to present Czech orthography and the Czech language in general.”
Early feedback suggests that the handbook is maybe slightly complicated to use. Have you got plans to streamline or simplify the handbook?
“Actually there are no plans to make it simpler. If you are a physicist then there is this law of keeping matter, or keeping energy – and similarly there is this law of keeping complexity. You can’t make complex things simpler just by putting them on the internet. They are complex, and this is just how it is!”
In my bottomless vanity I give you yet another bilingual rant/ Tento příspěvek je psán dvojjazyčně, aby náhodou ta úzká podmnožina lidí, co nemluví jedním či druhým jazykem, o něco nepřišla :-)
Společný stát Čechů a Slováků už sice šestnáct let neexistuje, ale někteří lidé se s tím evidentně dodnes nesmířili. A nemluvím teď zrovna o zapřísáhlých stoupencích věčného bratrství mezi našimi dvěma národy, které spolu tři čtvrtě století kráčely ruku v ruce, než se definitivně vydaly cestou oddělené státnosti. Co mi více leží na srdci, je to, kolik lidí, od kterých je férové očekávat pravý opak, stále ignoruje skutečnost, že Česko a Slovensko jsou nyní dva samostatné státy.
Jako (zatím) poslední podal přihlášku do tohoto klubu výtečníků britský premiér Gordon Brown, o jehož inteligenci a rozhledu se (bez ironie) vyprávěly legendy dávno předtím, než na ostrovech stanul v čele vlády. A právě tento politik v neděli na tiskové konferenci v Káhiře, kam přijel spolu s dalšími evropskými státníky jednat o blízkovýchodní krizi, ve svém projevu výslovně zmínil přítomnost kolegů „z Československa“ vedle ostatních účastníků schůzky.
Věřte mi, vůbec bych to nezmiňoval, protože už jsem si sám dávno zvykl na to, že podobné faux pas dělá většina cizinců, se kterými se ve světě setkávám. A lidem, jako je John McCain, který si za toto mentálně-verbální uklouznutí nedávno vysloužil pozornost zdejších médií včetně Aktuálně.cz, bych to snad ani nevyčítal. Ale o muži z Downign Street číslo 10 jsem měl přeci jen lepší mínění.
Vždyť jsou to probůh už skoro tři týdny, co Česká republika předsedá Evropské unii, jejímž členem je i Brownova země, byť se někdy snaží tvářit, že to tak není. No, možná bychom si z té pozornosti, která na nás má být tento půlrok údajně upřena, přeci jen neměli dělat tak těžkou hlavu.
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The federation of Czechs and Slovaks may well be dead for more than sixteen years now but it still lives in the hearts and minds of many people. And I am not just talking about those heart-bleeding believers in the eternal brotherhood of our two nations that have walked hand in hand for some three quarters of a century before finally parting ways.
I am rather concerned about the fact that a great number of people who should know better continue to ignore the fact that Czechs and Slovaks are two separate countries now.
The latest in this dubious row of luminaries is a British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This man of great intelligence and command of world matters – or so his supporters would have us believe – just committed the same old blunder like so many before (and no doubt after) him when he mentioned the presence of his colleagues “from Czechoslovakia” and other European countries at the press conference held in Cairo where they met to bang their heads together once again over the situation in Middle East.
Believe me, I wouldn’t even mention it, for I have long resigned myself to the fact that most people I meet abroad commit the same mistake. And I surely wouldn’t hold it against John McCain who had recently made headlines here for the same reason, but I do tend to hold the current resident of Downing Street 10 to higher standards.
For God’s sake, hasn’t it been nearly three weeks now that the Czech Republic has held the EU presidency? The union of which Brown’s country is also a member, after all, no matter how reluctant one at times. Well, I guess it just goes to show we shouldn’t really worry too much about being in the "limelight".I, Bmac, may also add, ehhm "and dare I say, Czechs shouldn't really worry too much about being under the radar" Autor: Pavel Vondra
The world is fascinated as Barack Obama officially takes over power as president of the United States. Politicians and candidates around the globe carefully observed the campaign and quite a few want to be like him. However, one can easily look silly when copying American campaign techniques. So what tools, strategies and tactics out of the Obama toolkit would really work in the Czech Republic? How can Czech politicians convince, mobilize and sell like Obama?
Some observers think that the impressive thing about the Obama campaign is how it used the internet and other new technology. Eight thousand internet groups, 50,000 local events and 1.5 million internet volunteers are indeed impressive. But that’s only one part of the story. Politicians often think that a campaign means to produce things such as TV spots, leaflets or websites. In reality, however, a campaign can and should be seen as a series of decisions regarding the message, the strategy, fundraising and products. The Obama campaign has reached these decisions early on and has implemented them with great discipline. That’s the real secret of his success.
Politicians often think of a message as a slogan, in most cases nothing more than an empty motherhood statement. However, a good message is more than a slogan, yet less than a party program. It’s the reason we give voters why to vote for one side and not for one of the other sides. In the case of Obama, this was the message: "Barack Obama will bring the change that America desperately needs. He will get the economy going again, not only for Wall Street but also for Main Street. In concrete, this means tax cuts for 95% of Americans and expanded health-care. John McCain on the other hand will continue the failed policies of George W. Bush. It’s time for a new hope and to leave the divisiveness behind us. Yes, we can!"
Every ad, every speech, everything that the campaign produced communicated that message. It was then summarized in a catchy slogan: change we can believe in and change we need. There was probably no one left in the country who did not know what Obama stood for.
This methodology can be translated everywhere in the world. Of course, in a multi- party system like the Czech Republic, the content of the message would be different, but the tool is the same. Everywhere in the world, a party or candidate needs to communicate to voters a reason that is short, believable, relevant and showing contrast. The Obama message as stated above is all of that.
In past elections, smear campaigns have become more prominent. Negative campaigns are also often misunderstood. The key is to show contrast and differences with the opponent. But that doesn’t mean to be negative. That’s one thing that I have learned when working in Asia: you can kill with a smile! Few people would think of Obama as negative. Yet, let’s not forget that he was running 20% behind Hillary Clinton at the beginning. He was able to shake up the dynamics, take on the frontrunner and to show differences without sounding negative.
What Obama was saying is exactly what the targeted groups wanted to hear. It was a perfect and well researched match between the political demand and the political offer. The way the Obama campaign carefully targeted specific groups of voters and put together its coalition of voters is another thing that campaigners around the world can learn. From the very beginning, the Obama campaign wanted to expand its base by registering and turning out record numbers of young and black voters. And, it allocated the resources accordingly. The result: 96% of blacks voted for Obama; they made up 13% of the total electorate (+2% compared to 2004). 66% of the 18-29 year old voted for Obama. They formed 18% of the electorate (+1% compared to 2004). In my opinion, a party battling to pass the 5% threshold or a Senate candidate should get a lot of inspiration from this strategy. In both settings, few votes will be enough to win. Hence, regional and socio-demographic targeting, the solidifying and expanding of a base will be crucial.
What’s impressive in the case of Obama is the coherence, with which he defined himself and the discipline, with which the message was communicated. In my personal experience, European and Asian politicians focus too much on products and funds, and not enough about message, strategy and discipline. The people who blogged for Obama, or those who went on facebook for Obama, did it for the same reason as the people who simply voted for him: They wanted change.By Louis Perron /PRAGUE DAILY MONITOR /January 20, 2009
Dr. des. Louis Perron is a political consultant with clients in Switzerland, Germany, USA, Eastern Europe and Asia (lperron@perroncampaigns.com).
Six months after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) opposed the new skyscrapers at Prague's Pankrác, City Hall has issued a planning permission approving the criticised high-rise buildings.
The World Heritage Committee, whose representatives visited Prague in the spring of last year, said the problem was that the new buildings are too high, and as such would damage one of the best preserved historical city centre skylines in Europe. The two new Buildings in Pankrác should be 80 and 104 metres high.
The Committee mission recommended to limit the height of the new high-rise structures to a maximum of 60-70 metres to limit the visual impacts on the historic urban landscape of Prague, UNESCO says in its last year's report that Aktuálně.cz has at its disposal.
City Hall circumvents UNESCO stance The City Hall document already discussed by the city council shows that Prague is trying to avoid the World Heritage Committee recommendation. The document claims that the decision on the two Pankrác skyscrapers was taken before the UNESCO mission in Prague.
"The standing proposed buildings of 80 and 104 metres were approved before the July meeting of the World Heritage Committee. Buildings newly designed after the monitoring mission, which took place in the spring of 2008, will comply with the mission's recommendations and with the decision of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage," says the document that Aktuálně.cz has at its disposal.
But City Hall confirmed the planning permission regarding the two Pankrác skyscrapers at the end of last year. "The UNESCO recommendation unanimously concerned these two buildings," said Martin Skalský of the citizen support centre at the organisation Arnika, one of the civic associations fighting against the planned skyscrapers.
"Although city representatives promised to respect the expert opinion of the World Heritage Committee, in fact we have witnessed the opposite. Authorities gradually issue more and more permissions for skyscrapers construction without any change," said lawyer Petr Kužvart of the environment protection association Ateliér pro životní prostředí.
Lawsuits will come
Civic associations that have criticised the construction of high-rise buildings in Pankrác for a long time are about to take further steps against these plans.
"We will notify UNESCO again, and in any case we will file lawsuits against the planning permission," Martin Skalský of Arnika told Aktuálně.cz. He added there is a real threat that Prague could be eliminated from the prestigious list of world heritage sights.
The association believes the lawsuit can have an effect. It has won one of the disputes over the new buildings in Pankrác. Prague's municipal court did not allow construction of new access roads because increased traffic would raise the already enormous pollution and noise in the area.
One of the planned high-rise buildings in Pankrác should serve as a congress hotel, while the other should be a residential building with views of the historical city centre. Some of the luxury flats have been sold already.
Adapted and republished by Prague Daily Monitor. Then Hawked by me.
Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus congratulated new U.S. President Barack Obama on his inauguration and invited him to Prague in a letter, released on the Presidential Office's website.
Klaus stressed in the letter that the United States is for many Czech citizens a symbol of freedom and optimism, democracy and economic success, patriotism and international solidarity.
On this occasion Klaus also recalled the U.S. contribution to the establishment of the first independent Czechoslovak Republic in 1918.
This is why it is natural that both countries started to cooperate intensively after the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, and became allies in NATO ten years ago, Klaus wrote in his letter.
Obama was inaugurated as the 44th U.S. president on Tuesday, replacing George W. Bush after eight years.
Czech diplomats indicated they would like to welcome Obama in Prague in early April ahead of the NATO summit.
The Czech Republic as EU president in the fist half of 2009 would like to organise the first summit of the EU 27 and Obama in Prague.
Klaus in his letter also expressed hopes that he would have a chance to welcome Obama at Prague Castle, the presidential seat, and that Czech-U.S. bilateral relations would keep developing dynamically during Obama's presidency. Author: ČTK
Original Letter
Blahopřejný dopis Baracku Obamovi k inauguraci do funkce prezidenta USA
21. 1. 2009, Praha
Prezident republiky Václav Klaus zaslal ve středu dne 21. ledna 2009 blahopřejný dopis Baracku Obamovi k jeho inauguraci do funkce 44. prezidenta Spojených států amerických.
Vážený pane prezidente,
dovolte mi, abych Vám jménem občanů České republiky a jménem svým poblahopřál k inauguraci do funkce 44. prezidenta Spojených států amerických. Jsem přesvědčen, že pod Vaším vedením se Spojené státy vyrovnají s úkoly, které před Vaší zemí stojí.
Česká republika si váží tradičních a hlubokých svazků, které ji pojí s Vaší zemí. Pro mnoho našich občanů jsou Spojené státy symbolem svobody a optimismu, demokracie a ekonomického úspěchu, vlastenectví a mezinárodní solidarity. Navíc Spojené státy významně přispěly ke vzniku našeho moderního státu po 1. světové válce. Proto je pro nás přirozené, že po pádu železné opony obě naše země začaly intenzivně spolupracovat a před deseti lety se staly spojenci v rámci Severoatlantické aliance.
Vážený pane prezidente, doufám, že Vás budu moci přivítat osobně jménem celé naší země zde na Pražském hradě, a že během Vašeho prezidentství se budou vztahy mezi našimi zeměmi nadále dynamicky rozvíjet. Dovolte mi, abych Vám při výkonu Vaší náročné funkce popřál mnoho úspěchů a také pevné zdraví a štěstí Vám i celé Vaší rodině.