Happy New Year! Party kicks off around the world

Brendon Thorne / Getty Images

From Sydney to Siberia, revelers prepare to celebrate the dawn of a new year.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

Updated at 8:05 a.m. ET:?As if Christmas Island didn't already have an edge on one of the major holidays, it jumped into the future at 5 a.m. ET on Monday, becoming, along with Kiribati and Samoa, the first populated place to reach 2013.?

More populous areas, including New Zealand, started a new calendar just an hour later, joined by Fiji and Tonga. And then the properly big parties started, with the new year reaching Australia at 8 a.m. ET.

Meanwhile, Scotland was already a day into the revelry.?International datelines hadn't been surreptitiously changed. Scotland was celebrating the annual festival known as Hogmanay, which kicked off Sunday night with thousands of torchbearers marching in Edinburgh to bid farewell to 2012 in a celebration drawing inspiration from pagan traditions. The Scotsman newspaper estimated that 7,000 people participated in the "river of fire" through the city center.

David Moir / Reuters

Up Helly Aa vikings from the Shetland Islands march in the torchlight procession to mark the start of Hogmanay (New Year) celebrations in Edinburgh on Dec. 30.

The evening of celebration was just the start of a fete lasting until Wednesday and expected to draw 80,000 revelers from around the world, according to the official Hogmanay website.?

But of course, the party is a little bigger thousands of miles to the east. In Sydney, eager revelers camped Sunday night on the shores of the harbor -- the first wave of an estimated 1.5 million people expected to watch a fireworks display centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Another 2 million Australians, out of a population of 22 million, were expected to watch the show?on television,?Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore told reporters. ?Entertainment for millions doesn't come cheap -- the extravaganza headlined by pop singer?Kylie Minogue?carried a?price tag?of $6.9 million.?

Cheryl Ravelo / Reuters

Bread shaped like roasted pigs, locally known as "lechon," is sold at a bakery in Manila on Monday. Lechon is a popular New Year delicacy in the Philippines.

"This is really putting Australia on the map in terms of welcoming people to the new year," Moore said at the harbor before the event.?

PhotoBlog: Early fireworks in Sydney

Elsewhere?in Asia, the?buoyant economies?of the Asia-Pacific region were prepared to party with renewed optimism despite the so-called fiscal cliff threatening to reverberate globally from the United States and the tattered economies of Europe.

In Hong Kong, this year's $1.6-million fireworks display was being billed by organizers as the biggest ever in the southern Chinese city. Police expected as many as 100,000 people to watch, local news reports said.?

Increasingly democratic Myanmar was planning a public countdown for the first time, and Jakarta preparing a huge street party befitting Indonesia's powering economy.

Mariana Bazo / Reuters

We may have different calendars, customs and beliefs, but most of us mark the arrival of a new year. Take a look at the ways cultures around the world celebrate and bring good luck for the year ahead.

In a field in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, workers tested a giant digital countdown screen early on Monday against a backdrop of the revered Shwedagon pagoda.

The celebration was set to be the first public New Year's countdown in Myanmar, a country ruled for almost five decades by military regimes that discouraged or banned big public gatherings.

The Associated Press and NBC News' John Newland contributed to this report.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/31/16262625-new-year-kicks-off-on-christmas-island-begins-rolling-west?lite

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Compound Eye Readers' Best Science and Nature Photographs of 2012

By Alex Wild?| December 31, 2012 |??2

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I asked for your best Science/Nature images of the year, and wow. Just, wow. The talent that came in exceeded my expectations. You guys are tremendous!

Below, in no particular order, are links to all participants? selections. If you?ve got a Best-of-2012 gallery you?d like to include, drop a link in the comments and I?ll add you in.

Transparent Water Flea, by Daniel Stoupin

Adrian Thysse

Rick Lieder

Crystal Ernst

Daniel Stoupin

Africa G?mez

Best of Vildaphotos (via Jeroen Mentens, who maintains his own list)

Paul Sparks

Michael Marlow

?Down in Front?, Venus traverses the sun, by Al Denelsbeck

Maxim Piessen

Oscar Blanco

Clay Bolt

Jessica?Rosenkrantz

Shahbaz Nihal

Neil Losin?& Day?s Edge Productions

Todd Pierson

Sleeping Bee, by Nicky Bay

Ted MacRae

Theresa Svoboda

Lea Shell

Andr?s S?nchez

John Platt

Josh Kouri

Team Hartmann

Dave Stone

Ring-Neck Snake, by Bill Tyler

Morgan Jackson

Bob Skinner

Matt Cole

Lee Jaszlics

Harlan Ratcliff

Steve Snyder

Stephane De Greef

John Beetham

Nate Dappen photographs an Ibiza Wall Lizard, by Day's Edge Productions

James Waters

Meredith?Mahoney

Alex Surcica <? epic field guide!

Guillaume Dauphin

Todd Dreyer

Paul Krusche

Chris Wirth

Brian Cutting

Stick Insect on a Pin, by Adrian Thysse

Bill Tyler

The Bug Chicks

Bernardo Cesare

Hannele Luhtasela

Al Denelsbeck

Matt Bertone

Nicky Bay

Mike Lewinski (time-lapse video)

Peridotite, by Bernardo Cesare

Chris Goforth

UK Wildlife

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About the Author: Alex Wild is an Illinois-based entomologist who studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books, and media outlets. Follow on Twitter @myrmecos.

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The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=61df3dba6559f36811a6cdd43d72e300

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9GAG - A national treasure for the gaming community

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Source: http://9gag.com/gag/6215190

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LG details LCD, plasma HDTV lineup for 2013: 4K, Miracast, NFC, WiDi and more

As LG continues its slew of CES pre-announcements, it's revealed details about the new HDTVs it will be showing off in Las Vegas next week. Predictably, they include three lines of plasma models (fewer than previous years, but still kicking) in 42- to 60-inch sizes, and new LCD HDTVs in various levels of trim and sizes from 22-inches up to 60-inches. Most notably, this year all of its new LCDs are LED, as it's kicked the old CCFL tech to the curb. LG has already detailed upcoming changes for its voice/gesture Magic Remote control and a couple of Google TV models, however other new features for 2013 include an "On Now" recommendation system that learns what you watch and offers relevant selections from live TV and video on-demand services. Expect new tie-ins to be announced with both streaming and local TV providers to help fill out the selection around the world.

Hardware-wise, new feature boxes checked this year include NFC, thanks to a new "Tag On" sticker smartphones and other devices can easily pair with. Getting content from mobile devices to the display will also be easier thanks to Miracast and WiDi support, and MHL ports will be readily available as well. LG's FPR 3D tech isn't going anywhere, and Smart TV features should be speedier than ever thanks to CPUs with a promised 120 percent speed boost, and 300 percent faster GPUs. As seen in the pics, the design has also been altered slightly with a new stand that both swivels and rolls, plus a reduced bezel size.

If you're looking for the latest and greatest however, LG will be showing off the 84-inch Ultra HD 4K set it just started shipping and the 55-inch OLED display we're waiting for. No word yet on shipping dates or price for any of the new models, but as we surmised from LG Display's plans, we should see a couple of 55- and 65-inch Ultra HD TVs appear before the year is out. There's a couple more pictures of the new HDTVs in the gallery plus a press release with all the details after the break. Beyond that, HD Guru has a model-by-model breakdown of the available information -- we'll check back with our in-person impressions in a few days.

Gallery: LG 2013 HDTV CES lineup

Continue reading LG details LCD, plasma HDTV lineup for 2013: 4K, Miracast, NFC, WiDi and more

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Source: LG

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/S-UpsxML1Ug/

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Paired CT scans catch chemo-killing of liver tumors in real time

Dec. 31, 2012 ? Using two successive pairs of specialized CT scans, a team of Johns Hopkins and Dutch radiologists has produced real-time images of liver tumors dying from direct injection of anticancer drugs into the tumors and their surrounding blood vessels. Within a minute, the images showed whether the targeted chemotherapy did or did not choke off the tumors' blood supply and saved patients a month of worry about whether the treatment, known as chemoembolization, was working or not, and whether repeat or more powerful treatments were needed.

The Johns Hopkins team's report about this novel use of dual-phase cone-bean computed tomography, or DPCBCT, an imaging technique developed at Johns Hopkins, is set to appear in the January 2013 edition of the journal Radiology. The diagnostic scans were performed on 27 men and women with inoperable liver cancer.

"This new scanning method is giving us almost instant feedback about the value of injecting antitumor drugs directly into large liver tumors and their surrounding blood vessels in an effort to quickly kill them, and to prevent the cancer from spreading," says senior study investigator and interventional radiologist Jean-Francois Geschwind, M.D.

Geschwind says if further testing proves equally successful, the paired use of cone-beam CT scans, which are already approved for single-scan use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, could supplant the current practice of MRI scanning a month after chemoembolization to check its effects.

"Patients should not have to endure the uncertainty of waiting weeks or more to find out if their chemoembolization was successful in fighting their liver cancer," says Geschwind, a professor in the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Kimmel Cancer Center.

"Dual-phase cone-beam CT avoids such delays, which also could allow the cancer to grow and spread and, ultimately, compromise chances of remission," he says.

Avoiding delays is particularly important, he says, for people with moderate to advanced stages of the disease, when liver tumors are too large or too numerous to surgically remove, and for whom chemoembolization is the main treatment option. Half of such liver cancer patients succumb within nine months, and liver transplantation is only an option for a quarter of those whose tumors have not spread outside the liver.

The newer DPCBCT scans, in which X-rays are detected by a device the size of a large laptop that can be placed directly below or above the operating room table, have the added advantage of being performed in the same room, or interventional radiology suite, as patients getting chemoembolization.

In their new study, Geschwind and his colleagues found that the initial shrinkage seen with DPCBCT scans taken before and after chemoembolization matched up almost perfectly with MRI scans taken a month later. Tumor death was 95 percent, the same as that seen by MRI. A total of 47 tumors were closely monitored in the study to assess how well DPCBCT tracked tumor death after chemoembolization.
All study participants were treated at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between March and December 2009.

In DPCBCT scanning, a chemical contrast dye is injected into the artery that supplies blood flow to the liver and tumor right before the chemotherapy drug is injected, to enhance the X-ray image. The first set of scans highlights key blood vessels feeding the tumor, as dye flows in and out of the tumor. The second set of scans is performed immediately after chemoembolization, to gauge tumor and key blood vessel death. Computer software is used to sharpen and analyze differences between the images.

The entire DPCBCT scanning time, researchers say, is between 20 seconds and 30 seconds, and the total amount of radiation exposure from the dual scanning averages 3.08 milliseiverts, which is less than half the amount of radiation involved in a modern abdominal 64-CT scan. Cone-beam CT scanners also emit an X-ray, but unlike other CT scanners, the cone-beam type of X-ray is projected onto one large, rectangular detector, roughly a foot and a half long -- and produces a telltale conical shape. The size of the cone-beam CT detector allows for single scans that can capture images the size of most people's entire liver. More powerful 64-CT and 320-CT scanners involve multiple detector rows.

Chemoembolization entails the use of tiny beads containing the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin injected directly into liver tumors.

Ultrathin catheters, about the width of a human hair, are threaded through blood vessels to deliver the drugs, which seep from the beads for several weeks.

Geschwind is leading clinical trials under way at Johns Hopkins and other centers to assess whether the combination drug treatment works for liver cancer patients. Early results have shown promise, with patients with advanced disease living 10 months to 15 months longer.

Geschwind says they plan improvements in image quality in DPCBCT scans, hoping further refinements will encourage physicians to adopt the technique. They also plan updates to the navigational software that, like GPS, can track blood vessels feeding each tumor, and provide more precise and greater numbers of targets.

Liver cancer kills nearly 20,000 Americans each year, and is much more prevalent outside the United States, where it is among the top three causes of cancer death in the world. Experts cite the rising numbers of hepatitis C infections, which cause chronic liver inflammation and are a leading risk factor for liver cancer.

Funding support for this study was provided by the French Society of Radiology and Philips Research North America in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. Philips, whose parent company is based in the Netherlands, manufactures the CBCT device used in the study. Additional funding support was provided by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, a member of the National Institutes of Health. The corresponding grant numbers are NCI R01-CA160771 and UL1 RR-025005.

The study lead investigators were Romaric Loffroy, M.D., a radiology fellow at Johns Hopkins, and MingDe Lin, Ph.D., a Philips biomedical engineer based at Johns Hopkins who has been collaborating with Geschwind for the past five years to perfect the DPCBCT technique.

In addition to Geschwind, Loffroy and Lin, other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in this research were Gayane Yenokyan, Ph.D., at the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Pramod Rao, M.D.; Nikhil Bhagat, M.D.; and Eleni Liapi, M.D., all at the School of Medicine. Philips investigators involved were Niels Noordhoek, Ph.D.; Alessandro Radaelli, Ph.D.; and Jarl Blijd, M.Sc.

The chemoembolization research study was funded by Bayer HealthCare and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of sorafenib, and Biocompatibles, makers of the microbeads. Geschwind is a consultant to Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, and to Biocompatibles. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. R. Loffroy, M. Lin, G. Yenokyan, P. P. Rao, N. Bhagat, N. Noordhoek, A. Radaelli, J. Blijd, E. Liapi, J.-F. Geschwind. Intraprocedural C-Arm Dual-Phase Cone-Beam CT: Can It Be Used to Predict Short-term Response to TACE with Drug-eluting Beads in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma? Radiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1148/radiol.12112316

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/BxsY8Gnb_98/121231110516.htm

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House won't vote before midnight on 'cliff' deal

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House will miss the midnight Monday deadline lawmakers set for voting to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

House Republicans notified lawmakers that the chamber will vote Monday evening on other bills. They say that will be their only votes of the day.

President Barack Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Monday they are near a deal to avoid wide-ranging tax increases and spending cuts ? the fiscal cliff ? that take effect with the new year.

Both men said they were still bargaining over whether ? and how ? to avoid $109 billion in cuts to defense and domestic programs that take effect on Wednesday.

It remained unclear whether the Senate would vote Monday.

Congress could pass later legislation retroactively blocking the tax hikes and spending cuts.

Associated Press

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How to Create a Home Based Internet Business | ABA United

December 31st, 2012 by admin Leave a reply ?

Making money on the internet by building a home based business starts with figuring out what your special, niche interest is. A niche interest is the one subject in which you consider yourself to be an expert. If you?re lucky, you may be a relative expert in more than one thing. Are you especially good at fixing bikes? Do you know everything there is to know about collecting stamps? If you?re interested in it, chances are, there are a slew of other people who are, too.

Your interest is the key to a successful home based internet business. If you don?t care about what you?re selling or the services you have to offer, then your heart won?t be into your business. You must want more than just money to make a successful business. You have to be passionate in what you have to offer in order to communicate that passion to your customers.

After you?ve chosen your niche interest and a focus for your business ? let?s say, fixing bikes ? now you need a turnkey Internet marketing system to create income for you. Where are you most likely to find people who will be interested in your site and the products you have to offer? Certainly, there are brick and mortar establishments like bike shops where people would see your advertisements, but for an online store, your marketing should focus on the Internet. Go where bike riders go ? forums, blogs, chat rooms. Start your own blog. Be the place where those who want to fix their bikes or buy a new bike go to learn what they need, and then offer it to them.

To get high rankings in search engines and be the business that comes up as a resource when people search for terms that are associated with your chosen business, you have to continually provide fresh, new content that contains those keywords. This is part of why blogging is such a popular Internet marketing tool. Blogging requires you to post new information and observations pertaining to your business and industry regularly, even daily. This piles up the keywords for the search engine spiders to find and helps to raise you in the rankings.

All of this adds up to more traffic to your online home business, which means more customers, higher sales, and a better overall profit margin for you. Creating wealth online and making money on the Internet is as simple as finding the thing you are best at, creating a website for it, offering high quality products and services at a reasonable price, marketing those products where the advertising will be seen by those who need your product, and getting them to come to your online business website and see what you have to offer.

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