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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Don?t Forget Down Under

The Opera House at sunrise

Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

SYDNEY?Odd things keep catching my eye here, simply because they look familiar. The small fortress island in the center of Sydney Harbour makes me think of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay; the Harbour Bridge reminds me of Golden Gate. Txhat San Francisco impression is reinforced by the city's Victorian houses, though the billboard-lined airport road reminded me for an instant of Houston. There is an echo of Chicago in some of the 1930s apartment buildings, as well as something very San Diego about all of the landscaping. But when I see a row of cockatoos on a fence?lovely white birds with bright yellow crests and hooked beaks?I know I'm in Australia.

Antipodean flora and fauna, Coca-Cola advertising, split-level housing, and yoga studios: Sydney feels, in my instant and impressionistic assessment, like an outpost of northern California that somehow floated into the South Pacific. It isn't, of course: It's the edge of a vast continent, with a history of its own. In the botanical gardens, a monumental aboriginal sculpture stands not far from the statue of an 18th-century British aristocrat. Both look like they own the place, and in different senses both once did. Still, even if Sydney's resemblance to an American city is superficial, the cultural links between our two countries are strong, as are the political ties?or so we have both assumed until now.

Certainly the United States has been Australia's most important strategic and military partner since Britain's de facto withdrawal from the region after World War II. The Australia New Zealand United States Security Treaty (ANZUS)?a pact discussed a lot more here than in Washington?sealed the arrangement more than 60 years ago. And certainly Australians think they need some alliances: Their "neighborhood" includes North Korea and its missiles, while China rattles sabers in the South China Sea. As a result, some Australians?like so many U.S. allies in so much of the world?are wondering aloud whether our hoary old relationship will last. "China's rise and its subsequent military modernization is changing the strategic order of our region," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Friday. "We have to be prepared."

In Australia there is a lot more underlying unease about the U.S. role in the region than the proliferation of Starbucks here would suggest. A large share of immigration into this country is now Asian; China has become Australia's biggest trading partner. Speaking privately, a politician here told me he was recently lobbied by a constituent who does an enormous amount of business with China: Why couldn't Australia pick an occasional fight with the United States?just a little, symbolic one?to show the Chinese that Australians aren't entirely in the American pocket? A bit of strategic distance from the United States might be good for trade, after all.

Nobody in mainstream politics takes that sort of thing seriously, or so I am assured. But the world of writers and scholars already includes people who think that Australia will eventually have to choose, in some form or another, between China and the United States. A much-discussed book published last year, The China Choice, argued that the United States should cede the role of "superpower" in Asia and strike a deal with China to co-manage the region. Some here think the book was meant to lay the ground for a new Australian "pivot" toward China. At the very least, the conversation reflects a fear that the United States might not be here forever and that a managed exit might be better than an abrupt one.

The Obama administration, as part of its own "pivot" toward Asia, has already tried to stem the tide, announcing a plan to create a de facto base in northern Australia. About 2,500 Marines are to be regularly rotated through. From there, in theory, they could mobilize quickly if trouble arose in Southeast Asia. But in practice, it's a tiny force with lukewarm congressional support and zero public awareness. Who would back them up if the Marines got in trouble? Who will keep the force funded? Australia doesn't feature in U.S. news coverage, except in sports, and isn't on anybody's political radar.

In this sense, Australia is a test case, not so much of American willpower but of the U.S. ability to think strategically, plan ahead, and keep allies on board. I've written about how short-term thinking and carelessness have weakened our traditional alliances in Europe, but Europe is closer; it took a trip here to teach me that the same could happen in the Pacific. Britain is said to have acquired its empire in a fit of absent-mindedness. Is it possible that the United States could lose its "empire," or at least its historic web of alliances, in a fit of absent-mindedness as well?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=7e6c34f5d999d347f085be35ec876965

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Friday, May 3, 2013

Italy race problems seen with black gov't minister

FILE - In this April 29, 2013 file photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge listens as Italian Premier Enrico Letta delivers his speech during a vote of confidence to confirm the government, in the lower house of Parliament, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

In this photo taken on April 28, 2013 photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge walks moments after taking oath during the swearing in ceremony at the Quirinale Presidential Palace, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

FILE - In this April 28, 2013 file photo Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge arrives at Chigi palace Premier's office, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

ROME (AP) ? It was hailed as a giant step forward for racial integration in a country that has long been ill at ease with its growing immigrant classes. But Cecile Kyenge's appointment as Italy's first black Cabinet minister has instead exposed the nation's ugly race problem, a blight that flares regularly on the soccer pitch with racist taunts and in the diatribes of xenophobic politicians ? but has now raised its head at the center of political life.

One politician from a party that not long ago ruled in a coalition derided what he called Italy's new "bonga bonga government." On Wednesday, amid increasing revulsion over the reaction, the government authorized an investigation into neo-fascist websites whose members called Kyenge "Congolese monkey" and other epithets.

Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children. She was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections.

Premier Enrico Letta tapped Kyenge to be minister of integration in his hybrid center-left and center-right government that won its second vote of confidence Tuesday. In his introductory speech to Parliament, Letta touted Kyenge's appointment as a "new concept about the confines of barriers giving way to hope, of unsurpassable limits giving way to a bridge between diverse communities."

His praise and that of others has been almost drowned out by the racist slurs directed at Kyenge by politicians of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, an on-again, off-again ally of long-serving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, and members of neo-fascist Internet groups.

In addition to his "bonga bonga" slur, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian for the League, warned in an interview with Radio 24 that Kyenge would try to "impose tribal traditions" from her native Congo on Italy.

Kyenge on Tuesday responded to the insults, thanking those who had come to her defense and taking a veiled jab at the vulgarity of her critics. "I believe even criticism can inform if it's done with respect," she tweeted.

Unlike France, Germany or Britain, where second and third generations of immigrants have settled albeit uneasily, Italy is a relative newcomer to the phenomenon. France has several high-ranking government ministers with immigrant roots, and few French had a problem with the appointments: Former President Nicolas Sarkozy named a justice minister and urban policy minister, both born in France to North African parents, to his cabinet, while his minister for human rights was born in Senegal. Francois Hollande's government spokeswoman was born in Morocco and raised in France, and his interior minister was born in Spain. He also has two black ministers from French overseas territories ? one from Guyana and one from Guadeloupe.

Italy is another story. Once a country of emigration to North and South America at the turn of the last century, Italy saw the first waves of migrants from Eastern Europe and Africa coming to its shores only in the 1980s. In the last decade or two, their numbers have increased exponentially, and with them anti-immigrant sentiment: Surveys show Italians blame immigrants for crime and overtaxing the already burdened public health system. Foreigners made up about 2 percent of Italy's population in 1990; currently the figure stands at 7.5 percent, according to official statistics bureau Istat.

Some of the most blatant manifestations of racism occur in the realm of Italy's favorite sport, soccer ? which for Italians and others has shown itself to be a perfect venue for displays of pent-up emotions. In the case of a handful of Italian teams, soccer is a way for right-wing fan clubs to vent.

Mario Balotelli, the AC Milan striker born in Palermo to Ghanaian immigrants and raised by an Italian adoptive family, knows all about it. Perhaps Italy's best player today, he has long been the subject of racist taunts on and off the field: Rival fans once hung a banner during a match saying "Black Italians don't exist" while the vice-president of his own club once called him the household's "little black boy."

Balotelli called Kyenge's nomination "another great step forward for an Italian society that is more civil, responsible and understanding of the need for better, definitive integration."

The race situation is almost schizophrenic in Italy. In the same week Kyenge was made a government minister and Balotelli was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, AC Milan's cross-town rival, Juventus, was fined 30,000 euro for fans' racist taunts during a game against Milan in which Balotelli wasn't even playing.

"There was no racism 40 years ago because there were no non-white Italians," said James Walston, a political science professor at American University of Rome. "You need the other in order to hate the other."

"It will take a long time ? probably there will never be a completely racism-free society ? but it will take a long time for Italy to reach the sort of acceptance, multi-cultural acceptance that the rest of Europe has and North America has," he said in an interview.

Kyenge got off to a rocky start with the Northern League when, on the day she was named minister, she said one of her top priorities would be to make it easier for children of immigrants born in Italy to obtain Italian citizenship. Currently, such children can only apply once they turn 18.

The issue has vexed Italy for years and previous center-left governments have failed to change the law even though most Italians ? 72 percent according to a 2012 Istat-aided study ? favor it. It's not just a matter of a passport but has real impact on the ability of an immigrant family to integrate into Italian society: Children of non-EU immigrants born in Italy, for example, can't take advantage of the EU citizen discounts at the Colosseum and other cultural treasures, having to pay full admission prices to get in to learn the heritage of the nation where they were born. If they were Italian citizens, they'd get in free until they were 18.

But raising an issue that so riles the Northern League ? during an already tense political transition ? was enough to set off Roberto Maroni, the interior minister in Berlusconi's last center-right government and a top League official. Maroni immediately demanded that his successor as interior minister make clear his position on the law.

Other members of Maroni's party were more blunt: Italian newspapers quoted the head of the League in Italy's northern Lombardy region Matteo Salvini as saying that Kyenge was a "symbol of a hypocritical and do-gooding left that wants to cancel out the crime of illegal immigration and thinks only about immigrants' rights and not their duties."

La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, meanwhile, cited the vile insults directed at her on fascist Internet groups such as www.ilduce.net . Repubblica said the antagonism was born from the League's basic opposition to a minister who tends to favor immigrant rights. "But the racist origins had to explode. And here they are. True, they're consigned to the stupid transience of the Web, but they're a sign of the widespread climate of hatred" in the country, the paper wrote.

Coming to Kyenge's defense was Laura Boldrini, the president of parliament's lower chamber, who for years was the chief spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. refugee agency. In that role she frequently defended the rights of immigrants ? and squared off with Northern League leaders after they pushed through a controversial 2009 policy to send back would-be Libyan migrants without screening them first for asylum.

"It is indecent that in a civil society there can be a series of insults ? on websites but not only there ? that are being hurled against the neo-minister Cecile Kyenge," Boldrini said. "Like many people, watching her take her oath of office I felt that Italy was taking an important step forward, and not just for 'new Italians.'"

Also defending Kyenge was the other foreign-born minister in Letta's government, Josefa Idem, a German-born Italian who won five Olympic kayaking medals before retiring after the London Games. Idem is Italy's new equal opportunities minister ? one of seven women in Letta's government ? and in that role authorized an investigation by Italy's national anti-discrimination office into the racist online slurs directed against Kyenge.

Italian news reports quoted Idem as saying she was doing so in her capacity as minister "but also as a woman."

Sociologist Michele Sorice at Rome's Luiss University said Italians have long harbored racist attitudes, stemming from the nation's colonial past in north Africa, but that they stayed hidden until the Northern League "legitimized" xenophobic political rhetoric after entering the government in the 1990s. The League denies it's xenophobic and says it is merely protecting the interests of Italians.

Italy has since become more sensitized to the issue, Sorice said, but it still lags behind its European and North American partners. Changing the law on citizenship, as Kyenge wants, "wouldn't do anything more than to bring Italy into line with the great European traditions," he said.

But he was doubtful that this particular government, made up of longtime political rivals, could pull it off when even previous center-left governments had failed to do so.

"It remains to be seen how this can be done on a practical level with a coalition government," he said.

___

Tricia Thomas in Rome and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-01-EU-Italy's-Race-Problem/id-f5c50411a9bf44cea8a7d12a5c334497

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Key protein for firing up central nervous system inflammation identified

May 1, 2013 ? Scientists have identified an influential link in a chain of events that leads to autoimmune inflammation of the central nervous system in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).

An international team of researchers led by scientists in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology reported their results in an advance online publication in Nature Medicine.

The researchers spell out the pivotal role of Peli1 in the activation of immune cells called microglia that promote inflammation in the central nervous system in response to tissue damage or invasion by microbes.

"The major implication of discovering a signaling role for Peli1 in this animal model is that it might also be significant in the pathogenesis of MS," said senior author Shao-Cong Sun, Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson's Department of Immunology.

Microglia cells involved in multiple sclerosis

Sun and colleagues found that Peli1 is heavily expressed in microglial cells and promotes their activation and subsequent damaging immune response. Peli1 also protects that autoimmune reaction by initiating the destruction of a protein that otherwise would inhibit inflammation.

Microglia are known to be crucial to the initiation of MS, an immune system assault on nerve fibers called axons and on myelin, the protective sheath around the axons. They also were previously known to play a similar role in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS.

The precise mechanism of this autoimmune-stimulating effect has been unknown. Sun and colleagues fill an important gap with their Peli1 discovery.

Microglia sense tissue damage. They secrete chemokines and inflammatory cytokines in response, drawing infection-fighting T cells into the central nervous system, leading to inflammation.

Infections genetic overreaction that inflames

The authors note that microbial infections are a known environmental trigger for the onset and maintenance of multiple sclerosis and the induction of EAE in mice. Toll-like receptors that detect pathogens play a roll in MS and EAE. They were suspected of involvement in microglial activation and inflammation.

Upon sensing microbes or cell damage, toll-like receptors launch a signaling cascade that activates a variety of genes involved in inflammation and white blood cell homing to the microbes or injury site.

Peli1 is known as a targeting agent, marking proteins with molecules called ubiquitins, ensuring they are functionally modified or found by cellular protein-destruction machinery. In this case, Sun and colleagues found that Peli1 ubiquitinates another targeting agent as a signal, which in turn marks a crucial anti-inflammatory protein for destruction.

The team found: ? Mice with Peli1 knocked out were resistant to EAE. Those with Peli1 developed severe symptoms including a gradual increase in paralysis. ? Mice with intact Peli1 had high levels of microglial activation after EAE began and low levels of resting microglia. Mice with Peli1 knocked out had high levels of resting microglia. ? Expression of proinflammatory chemokines and cytokines was impaired in microglia taken from Peli1 knockout mice. Peli1 sends signal to destroy Traf3

Sun and colleagues then tracked down the role Peli1 plays in protecting one of the molecular networks that is set off when toll-like receptors detect microbes or injury. The MAPK pathway activates a variety of genes involved in inflammation and T cell response.

MAPK is kept in check by a protein called Traf3. The team found that Peli1 signals another ubiquitin ligase that in turn marks Traf3 for destruction, liberating the MAPK network. After EAE is induced, mice with intact Peli1 have a gradual depletion of Traf3 in their microglia. Traf3 accumulated in the microglia of Peli1 knockout mice. EAE was restored in Peli1 knockout mice when Traf3 was inhibited.

Sun said the team is studying the pathway in human multiple sclerosis to replicate their findings and explore the possibilities for potentially treating MS.

Co-authors with Sun are first author Yichuan Xiao, Ph.D., and Jin Jin, Ph.D., Mikyoung Chang, Ph.D., Jae-Hoon Chang, Ph.D., Hongbo Hu, Ph.D., Xiaofei Zhou, George Brittain and Xuhong Cheng, all of MD Anderson's Department of Immunology; Christine Stansberg, Ph.D., and ?lvind Torkildsen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway; Xiaodong Wang, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Biological Sciences in China; and Robert Brink, Ph.D., of the Garvan Institute for Medical Research in Darlinghurst, Australia.

This research was funded by grants from the U.S. Institutes of Health (AI057555, AI064639, GM84459 and T32CA009598). MD Anderson also receives a cancer center support grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (P30 CA016672).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

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

Journal Reference:

Yichuan Xiao, Jin Jin, Mikyoung Chang, Jae-Hoon Chang, Hongbo Hu, Xiaofei Zhou, George C Brittain, Christine Stansberg, ?ivind Torkildsen, Xiaodong Wang, Robert Brink, Xuhong Cheng, Shao-Cong Sun. Peli1 promotes microglia-mediated CNS inflammation by regulating Traf3 degradation. Nature Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nm.3111

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/most_popular/~3/MKXEdWKUuE8/130502093519.htm

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Bangladeshis turn rescuers after building collapse

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? The heat in the rubble was sweltering. It closed in on his body like the darkness around him, making it hard to breathe. Working by the faint glow of a flashlight, he slithered through the broken concrete and spotted a beautiful young woman, her crushed arm pinned beneath a pillar. She was dying, and the only way to get her out was to amputate.

But Saiful Islam Nasar had no training, and almost no equipment. He's a mechanical engineer who just days earlier rushed hundreds of kilometers (miles) from his hometown in southern Bangladesh when he heard the Rana Plaza factory building had collapsed and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of garment workers were trapped.

He also understood that maimed women can be cast from their homes.

"I asked her, 'Sister, are you married?' She said 'Yes.' I asked her, 'If I cut off your arm, will your husband take you again?' She said, 'My husband loves me very much.' And then I started to cut," he said.

He had brought a syringe loaded with painkiller ? his father was a village medic, and had taught him how to give injections ? and he cut through her arm with a small surgical blade. It was easier than he expected because the arm had already been so badly damaged.

He pointed at fading specks of blood staining his vest and pants. He began to cry.

"There was no alternative," he said.

Bangladesh is well-versed in tragedy, a country where floods, ferry sinkings, fires and cyclones strike with cruel regularity. But with state services riven by dysfunction and corruption, often the only hope is the person beside you.

It is a country that makes heroes out of everyday citizens.

Many of the first responders at Rana Plaza were men like Nasar ? neighborhood residents, fellow garment workers, relatives of the missing and charity workers ? and they repeatedly took some of the most dangerous work. Using little more than hammers, hacksaws and their bare hands, they crawled into tiny holes in the wreckage, breaking through concrete and steel bars and working around the clock to drag out the victims.

They knew they were risking their lives.

Hemaet Ali, a 50-year-old construction worker who came to volunteer, told the people around him that his identity card, with his home address, was in his shirt pocket.

"If I die inside, please make sure that my body reaches my family," he told them.

Nasar came to Savar with 50 other men from the small volunteer organization he runs, Sunte Ki Pao. Normally, they assist people who have been in traffic accidents, offering basic first aid, securing valuables and contacting relatives. During seasonal floods, they help however they can when the waters rush into town. Nothing had prepared them to work the front line of their country's largest industrial accident.

"It was beyond imagination," he said Monday, six days after the collapse, when the search for survivors had given way to the search for bodies, and heavy equipment had replaced the rescuers.

Thin and lanky, the 24-year-old was well-suited for crawling through the tight tunnels he cut. At first, he had only his mobile phone to light the tiny spaces. He could see shattered chairs and tables. Sewing machines and fabric. And the battered bodies of the men and women who were crushed when the walls and ceilings came crashing down.

"I could just fit my shoulders in," he said. "I often felt like I would die and I would call out to my God."

The rescues, each of which could take many hours, were exhausting, both physically and emotionally.

"We would shout, 'Is there anybody here? Please make a sound.' Sometimes you would hear an 'Oooh, oooh' and you knew someone was there," he said.

Over six days, he pulled six people out alive, and removed dozens of bodies. He would work until exhaustion set in and then attempt to sleep ? the first night on the roof of the collapsed building, the next two in a nearby field. Even now that he has moved into a tent, rest does not come easy.

"The images of the bodies flash in my mind," he said.

Eating also has been a problem.

"I have lost my taste," he explained. "I just keep smelling the smell of dead bodies."

The sickly sweet waft of rot from the building was ever present, and rescuers routinely sprayed cheap floral air freshener around the site in a futile attempt to control it.

Not all of the rescue workers at Rana Plaza were untrained. The government sent some 1,000 soldiers and firefighters to the site. But from all appearances, the majority of the rescuers who went into the rubble were volunteers. Altogether, some 2,500 people were brought out alive from the wreckage. The death toll stands at 386, but will surely climb as the largest pieces of rubble are moved.

The military, which oversaw much of the rescue efforts, dismisses the notion that they let volunteers take the lead.

"I have not heard of rescuing so many people in recent history anywhere in the world in case of such disaster," said Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, a top military officer in the Savar area. "What we have done is excellent."

But it is clear that volunteers once again carried more than their share of the country's burden.

Sayed Shohel Harman, an unpaid community volunteer for the fire department, found a survivor whose arm was pinned under a concrete slab. The man begged Harman to give him a knife so he could cut off his own arm and free himself. Harman refused, saying he would go and get help.

"The doctors said it was too risky for them to go inside," Harman said. "They told me to go back and try to drag him out."

When he returned, the man was there, but his arm was gone. Another volunteer had given the man a knife and he had cut through his own flesh and crushed bones.

"I just sat down after seeing that," Harman said. "It was horrible."

Nasar said he will soon return to his hometown, where he will comfort his worried mother and look for a new job. He was forced to resign from his to join in the rescue. But most of all, he will think of the beautiful young woman whose name he never heard and whose fate he never learned.

"I pray to Allah that she has been saved, is alive and can return to her husband."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladeshis-turn-rescuers-building-collapse-134825872.html

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Lil Wayne Suffers ANOTHER Seizure, is Fine Thank U

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/lil-wayne-suffers-another-seizure-is-fine-thank-u/

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Unilever Taps 360i for Ben & Jerry's Digital Business - Advertising Age

Dentsu digital shop 360i has made its way onto the Unilever roster as the new digital agency for the Ben & Jerry's brand. The Vermont-based ice-cream company selected 360i -- the agency behind the much-celebrated Superbowl Oreo tweet -- following a review that began late last year.

Independent PR giant Edelman, which supports PR for a number of Unilever brands, including Dove and Axe, was the incumbent on the digital business.

Edelman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to Mike Hayes, a digital marketing executive at Ben & Jerry's, Edelman will retain its global digital business for the brand, but the future of its global digital agency relationships is "gray."

The social-media prowess of 360i was key to the agency's win. "Digital is a growing a piece of our marketing mix, so we wanted to make sure we had the right partner who would work with us to push the envelope and develop better relationships with our fans online," said Mr. Hayes. "360i had proven they are really at the forefront of a lot of things in the digital space, especially social media. We're looking for someone to help bring us to the next level."

As the brand's new digital agency, 360i will work on fleshing out stories and content on social-media platforms over the course of a few months -- a strategy Mr. Hayes calls story architectural development. For example, this year one of the brand's key stories aligns a new Greek frozen-yogurt line with a message about fair trade.

"We have an internal community management team," said Mr. Hayes. "We're looking for [support in] content ideation and story architectural development, which we didn't have before."

The shop will also support buying primarily on social-media platforms and through display ads for key city programs, such as the brand's 11-market Truck Tour. On the three-year-old tour, the brand responds to consumers' Twitter requests for Ben & Jerry's by delivering free ice-cream. Mr. Hayes said that one of the first projects the team will work on will be building out the truck tour to include another interactive component, though he said it's too early to talk about the initiative.

360i achieved about $120 million in revenue in 2012, according to the Ad Age DataCenter.

Source: http://adage.com/article/agency-news/unilever-taps-360i-ben-jerry-s-business/241180/

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No benefit of evening primrose oil for treating eczema, review suggests

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Research into the complementary therapies evening primrose oil and borage oil shows little, if any, benefit for people with eczema compared with placebo, according to a new systematic review. The authors, who published their review in The Cochrane Library, conclude that further studies on the therapies would be difficult to justify.

Atopic eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is an itchy skin condition with no known cure. Usually emerging in childhood, it affects about 10 to 20% of school age children, who may suffer with tight, red, painful skin, sleepless nights and low self-esteem due to appearance, itching and scratching. For around 60% of people, the disorder will improve or clear up by adulthood. Creams, ointments, bath additives, topical steroids and antihistamines are some of the treatments prescribed to ease the condition. However, people often turn to complementary therapies such as evening primrose oil and borage oil in the belief that they will avoid side effects of conventional eczema treatments. Both evening primrose oil and borage oil contain high quantities of gamma linoleic acid, which was once thought to play a role in reducing skin inflammation in eczema.

The researchers analysed the benefits and side effects associated with evening primrose oil and borage oil in 27 studies involving a total of 1,596 people (adults and children) in 27 countries. Participants took evening primrose oil or borage oil, or a placebo, for between 3-24 weeks. Overall, the researchers found that taking evening primrose or borage oil offered no clear improvement of eczema symptoms over placebos. Commonly used placebos included olive oil and paraffin oil. There was also no improvement in quality of life with the complementary therapies, although only two studies considered this measure.

"There is no evidence that taking either evening primrose or borage oil is of benefit to eczema sufferers," said lead researcher Joel Bamford of the University of Minnesota Medical School and Essentia Health System in Duluth, Minnesota, US. "Given the strength of the evidence in our review, we think further studies on the use of these complementary therapies to treat eczema would be hard to justify."

Some participants in the studies experienced mild side effects such as headaches and stomach upsets or diarrhea as they also did while taking placebos. However, none of the selected studies evaluated or mentioned bleeding or anti-clotting effects, which have previously been associated with evening primrose oil. "Consumers need to be warned that oral evening primrose oil is listed as a known cause of increased bleeding for those taking Coumadin or warfarin, a very common medication," said Bamford.