Clinton fingers FBI head in election loss

Clinton blames Comey letters for stopping her momentum and turning out Trump voters

Hillary Clinton blamed the renewed FBI inquiry into her State Department email system for blunting her momentum in the presidential election and the closure of that inquiry two days before Election Day for energizing voters for Donald Trump.

"There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful," Clinton told top donors on a farewell conference call Saturday.

"But our analysis is that (FBI Director James B.) Comey's letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum," she said.

"We dropped, and we had to keep really pushing ahead to regain our advantage - which going into the last weekend, we had. We were once again up in all but two of the battleground states, and we were up considerably in some that we ended up losing. And we were feeling like we had put it back together," she continued.

The surprise announcement of a revival of the shuttered FBI inquiry came at a time when the campaign was riding high, Clinton said.

"After the third debate we felt so good about where we were," she said.

Trump's performance in the Oct. 19 debate was widely panned, especially his refusal to say that he would respect the outcome of the election if he lost. Democrats called him a sore loser.

"We were up considerably in all but two of the battleground states where we were tied or one behind, according to our data," Clinton said. "We were tied in Arizona. We just had a real wind at our back," before the first, stunning letter from Comey.

Clinton's campaign insisted the reopened inquiry would turn up nothing, and many Democrats accused Comey of partisan motives. He was once a registered Republican. Clinton did not make that accusation Saturday.

But Clinton did say that what should have been good news essentially backfired. Comey on Sunday issued another letter to Congress, concluding that the nine-day examination of newly discovered emails had turned up nothing to change his earlier conclusion that there had been no criminal conduct.

"Just as we were back up on the upward trajectory, the second letter from Comey essentially doing what we knew it would - saying there was no there there - was a real motivator for Trump's voters," Clinton said.

A day earlier, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri had told the same group of donors something similar - that the news angered Trump voters and caused a spike in turnout, while Clinton's projected turnout fell.

"Trump spent the last four days of this campaign engaged in a nonstop attack on me personally, and the result is the result," Clinton said.

The Democrat focused on the outside events she said affected her campaign in the last three weeks of the election. She said nothing about other, larger forces at work - Trump's message of change in a restive time, his pledge to represent the aggrieved working class, the difficulty of any political party winning a third consecutive presidential term, her own limited attention to economic anxiety or the sexism and discomfort that surrounded her attempt to become the first female president.

Palmieri had pointed blame at much of that one day earlier. Neither she nor Clinton herself addressed the fact that Clinton's decision seven years ago to use a private system for her government communication had opened the door to the FBI inquiry in the midst of her second run for the White House. Clinton has said the decision was a mistake.

"I am heartbroken," she said Saturday, with a sad laugh. "I'm not going to pretend otherwise. This is a very, very tough loss and especially because everyone worked so hard."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article114399373.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article114399373.html#storylink=cpy

Jamaicans for Rio 2016

Jamaica's 14 on path to Rio 2016

Qualifiers for diving, gymnastics at the Olympic Games

By Paul Burrowes

At least 14 Jamaicans have so far cemented a ticket to Rio 2016, which will mark the country's 17th appearance at the Summer Olympic Games set this year for August 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Jamaica will make a return to diving, after 16-year-old Betsy Sullivan first represented the country at the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany.
Betsy finished 29th of the 30 divers competing in the 3m springboard, won by American Micki King, who beat Sweden's silver medallist Ulrika Knape and East German Marina Janicke, who finished third.
King, who was 28 then, was the oldest competitor in the event. A career officer in the United States Air Force since 1966, she retired from diving after the Munich Games.
She later retired from the Air Force in 1992 with the rank of colonel.
Yona Knight-Wisdom will become the second Jamaican to participate in diving at the Olympics when he too participate in the 3m springboard in Rio 2016.
Knight-Wisdom earned his place after finishing in the top 18 at the 2016 FINA World Cup.
He actually finished second, scoring 459.25 points, after winner Rommel Pacheco of Mexico, 504.40 points. American Kristian Ispen was third with 457.60.
Interestingly that FINA World Cup was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 19-24.
Meanwhile, Alia Atkinson, now 27, will take part in her fourth Olympic Games. She hopes to better her fourth place in the 100m breaststroke at the 2012 London Games.
Atkinson could also compete in the 200m breaststroke and the 50m freestyle, as she did in 2004 in Athens and in 2012.
In artistic gymnastics, Toni-Ann Williams has become the first Jamaican to qualify  for the Olympics. She claimed her spot after competing in the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro.
Williams qualifed after finishing 38th in the individual all-around with a score of 52.931. She was most outstanding on the vault, scoring 14.066, or 19th overall, of the 65 who competed.
For the men, Caled Faulk failed to qualify for Jamaica as he finished 63rd of the 64 who competed in the individual all-around.
The other Jamaicans heading to Rio come from athletics, mainly Kemoy Campbell in the men's 5000m, Damar Forbes in the men's long jump, O'Dayne Richards in the men's shot put, Jason Morgan and Fedrick Dacres in the shot put, Natoya Goule and Simoya Campbell in the womens' 800m, Aisha Praught in the women's 3,000m steeplechase, Kimberly Williams and Shanieka Thomas in the women's triple jump and Danniel Thomas in the shot put.
However, for athletics, the athletes must confirm their place at the National Championships at the end of June at the National Stadium.
Jamaica have also already qualified for the 4x100m and 4x400m relays for men and women.

Not a performance enhancer

Meldonium's creator: Drug used to improve sexual performance

MOSCOW (AP) -- The Latvian scientist who developed meldonium says some male athletes who have taken the recently banned drug have used it in order to improve sexual performance.

The drug, which is typically recommended for heart disease patients, was banned for 2016, prompting at least 172 failed tests worldwide, including Maria Sharapova.

Ivars Kalvinsin, who created the drug, says many male athletes take meldonium ''not as a sports performance enhancer but in order to improve their sexual performance.''

Last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency said athletes could be cleared if only minute traces of the drug were found in their system.

A diamond is forever, but trends do change

This is the ultimate engagement ring for American brides

Years of marketing have taught Americans that “A Diamond is Forever.” That lesson is proving insusceptible to the changing whims of fashion, not to mention cultural shifts toward marriage.
In a survey of about 13,000 recently engaged or married people in the U.S., 84% said they chose an engagement ring with a diamond stone, as opposed to 8% who selected another kind of precious stone. The survey was conducted by wedding planning website The Knot.
The Knot’s data on various ring style selections yields the following portrait of the No. 1 style of engagement ring today: The ring features a clear, round-cut diamond center stone weighing between 0.5 and 2 carats. The ring band is white gold, and the center stone accompanied by side stones or accent stones.

Ring trends are very much subject to the dips and swings in commodity pricing. White gold, a silver-colored alloy of gold with nickel, platinum, or another metal, continues to be a popular, cheaper alternative to platinum (it has served that purpose as far back as the 1920s). For ring shoppers looking for a hue other than silver, rose gold, which is a mix of silver, copper and gold, became popular five to six years ago, coinciding with a peak in gold prices of nearly $1,900 an ounce in 2011.
The round diamond cut popular today is a return to decades-old styles and a shift away from the princess cuts of the 1970s and oval cuts of the 1980s, which were largely influenced by the oval cut of Princess Diana’s sapphire ring.
The price tag for a ring fitting this No. 1 style varies widely depending on diamond quality, size and jeweler brand. A one-carat diamond ring with two side stones and a platinum band at Tiffany & Co. TIF, +0.24%  costs over $15,000. At Jared, a similar style in white gold instead of platinum costs about $1,800.
Engagement ring trends tend to evolve slowly, starting in urban areas and boutiques and then gradually over years and even decades making their way to national outlets like Zales, Kay and originator of the “Diamond is Forever” slogan, De Beers.

What the “ultimate” ring looks like at major jewelers: Clockwise from left: the Tiffany model features a platinum band and 1-carat diamond and costs $15,900; a Jared ring with 1-carat diamond center stone, white gold band and two side stones is priced at $1,799.99; a similar model from Zales sports a 0.5-carat diamond and costs $937.30; Brilliant Earth’s three-stone diamond ring with a 0.55-carat center stone costs $4,045.

One emerging trend today is “halo” settings -- a center stone circled by smaller accent diamonds.
“A halo setting really makes your ring look more dramatic, and a lot of brides are drawn to that,” said Kellie Gould, Editor-In-Chief of The Knot. “It makes your diamond look larger.”
The halo setting was seen in just 7% of rings in 2011; that number has tripled since then, with The Knot reporting halo settings now seen in 22% of rings.

Rings designed by Lauren Wolf at her shop Esqueleto in Oakland, Calif. Her rings are made using mostly “flawed” diamonds, or diamonds that wouldn’t otherwise sell at traditional jewelers. “Environmental and ethical concerns come up all the time,” Wolf said. About 40% of her customers care about where the diamond came from, she says.

Millennials in urban areas are increasingly driving interest in unique rings that combine vintage and modern aesthetics.
“People are gravitating toward organic, natural designs,” says Lauren Wolf, an Oakland, Calif.-based designer. Her rings use repurposed diamonds that likely wouldn’t sell at a traditional jeweler.
“There’s been a huge explosion in what some would call a flawed diamond,” she said. These diamonds are appealing to buyers looking for cost-efficient, environmentally friendly options that are one-of-a-kind.
“Everybody got cookie-cutter product overload,” she said.

Engagement rings on display at Esqueleto in Oakland, Calif.

American brides increasingly are taking a bigger role in choosing an engagement ring, with 51% pointing out styles they like while shopping, and 36% telling their partner which ring to buy outright, according to data from The Knot. Eleven percent of women said they dropped a hint by leaving ring ads or pictures laying around.
The average person spends $5,978 on an engagement ring, up from $5,403 in 2013 and $5,095 in 2011, according to The Knot. Wolf says the average customer at her store in Oakland, Calif., called Esqueleto, spends between $2,000 and $6,000.
She says younger people today are largely ignoring the “Two Month’s Salary rule” that originated in a campaign De Beers ran in the 1980s, suggesting that’s how much one should spend on a ring.
“The idea was you really had to show you were making a huge commitment through the ring,” Wolf said.
“A ring used to be a huge investment. Now millennials don’t want that.”

Meldonium reprieve

WADA opens way for athletes to avoid sanctions for meldonium

LONDON (AP) — In a dramatic change that could lead to numerous doping cases being thrown out, athletes who tested positive for meldonium may be able to avoid sanctions because of a lack of scientific evidence on how long the recently banned drug stays in the system.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday provisional suspensions can be lifted if it is determined that an athlete took meldonium before it was placed on the list of banned substances on Jan. 1.

“It's not an amnesty as such,” WADA President Craig Reedie told The Associated Press.

WADA said 172 positive tests for meldonium have been recorded so far in various sports and countries - many in Russia - since the drug was prohibited. The highest profile case involves Maria Sharapova, who announced last month that she tested positive during the Australian Open in January.

Some athletes who have tested positive have claimed meldonium remained in their systems for months even though they stopped using it last year. Sharapova did not specify when she had last used meldonium.

The Latvian-made drug, which is typically prescribed for heart conditions, was widely used as a supplement by athletes in Eastern European countries. The drug increases blood flow, which improves exercise capacity by carrying more oxygen to the muscles.

In a notice to national anti-doping agencies, WADA acknowledged that “there is a lack of clear scientific information” on how long it takes for meldonium to clear the system.

While several studies are currently being carried out by WADA-accredited laboratories, preliminary results show that long-term excretion of meldonium can take weeks or months, it said.

As a result, it is possible that athletes who took meldonium before Jan. 1 “could not reasonably have known or suspected”  that the drug would still be present in their bodies after that date, WADA said.

“In these circumstances WADA considers that there may be grounds for no fault or negligence on the part of the athlete,”  the statement said.

Reedie said the notice was sent out to all national anti-doping bodies on Tuesday. It was released first publicly by Russia's anti-doping agency on Wednesday before being posted on WADA's website.

''It is designed to explain the science that we know,'' Reedie told the AP in a telephone interview. ''The issue that it deals with is the time this drug takes to come out of the system. It's an attempt to clarify the many questions that we've been asked.''

In a separate statement, WADA stressed that meldonium remains a banned substance and athletes face the rule of strict liability whereby they are responsible for any prohibited drug found in their body.

''Meldonium is a particular substance, which has created an unprecedented situation and therefore warranted additional guidance for the anti-doping community,'' Reedie said.

The Russian sports ministry and national Olympic committee welcomed the WADA statement, and the country's officials suggested there could be a mass amnesty of Russian athletes.

Russian tennis federation head Shamil Tarpishchev told the R-Sport agency he hoped that Sharapova would be able to play at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August, while the head of the Russian swimming federation suggested there could be a swift return to competition for suspended world champion Yulia Efimova.

''In no way does this serve as an 'amnesty' for athletes that are asserted to have committed an anti-doping rule violation,'' WADA spokesman Ben Nichols told the AP in an email. ''Rather, it serves as guidance for how anti-doping organizations should assess the particular circumstances of each individual case under their jurisdiction.''

The meldonium cases have no bearing on the ongoing suspension of Russia's track and field team following a WADA commission report into what it called state-sponsored doping.

Sharapova, a winner of five Grand Slam titles, said she had been taking meldonium for medical reasons over a 10-year period and had not seen a WADA notice last year that the drug would be banned starting in 2016.

Sharapova was provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Federation pending a disciplinary hearing.

''We can confirm that the case is ongoing and that there will be a hearing,'' ITF spokesman Nick Imison told the AP on Wednesday. ''I have seen the statement from WADA and obviously any ongoing cases will take that information from WADA, but it won't affect the fact that there is an ongoing case.''

Sharapova's lawyer said WADA's statement was ''proof of how poorly'' the agency handled meldonium issues in 2015.

''The notice underscores why so many legitimate questions have been raised concerning WADA's process in banning meldonium as well as the manner in which they notified players,'' attorney John Haggerty said in a statement. ''This notice should have been widely distributed in 2015, when it would have made a difference in the lives of many athletes.''

WADA said prosecution of meldonium cases can be ''stayed'' and provisional suspensions lifted if the concentration of the drug in the system is between 1 and 15 micrograms per millileter and the test was carried out before March 1, or if the level is below 1 microgram per millileter and the doping control was conducted after March 1. In both cases, the drug could still be in the athletes' system from before Jan. 1.

The agency said doping cases should be pursued, however, in the case of athletes who admit having taken meldonium on or after Jan. 1. The same applies to cases where the concentration of the drug is above 15 micrograms per millileter and where the level is between 1 and 15 and the drug test was after March 1.

Rio confident of Zika measures

Rio officials confident of measures in place against Zika

Nawal El Moutawakel (2nd L), chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission, gestures, accompanied by Rio 2016 Olympic Games Organising Committee President Carlos Arthur Nuzman (2nd R) and Rio 2016 Committee Chief Executive Officer Sidney Levy (R), after a news conference during the IOC Coordination Commission's 10th visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 13, 2016


RIO DE JANEIRO - Rio de Janeiro Olympic officials are confident that measures in place will protect visitors from the Zika virus when the games open in less than four months.

The focus on Zika returned to the Olympics after United States health officials said enough evidence exists to say the virus causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads.

''We'll continue to follow the advice and guidance of the World Health Organization to the letter,'' Rio spokesman Mario Andrada said on Thursday. ''And we'll continue to keep our partners informed, including the national Olympic committees and the international federations, about information regarding the Zika issue.''

The confirmation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came just hours after a team of Olympic inspectors completed their last visit to Rio.

Nawal El Moutawakel, the head of the inspection team, did not get a single question about Zika in a 45-minute news conference.

Rio officials say stagnant water is being drained around venues. Air conditioning will be installed in the athletes' village, and visitors will be encouraged to use repellent, and wear long sleeves and trousers.

Officials are hopeful the cooler, drier weather when the games open will reduce the mosquito population.

Brazil is at the center of the outbreak, with Rio de Janeiro getting special attention with 10,500 athletes and up to 500,000 foreign tourists expected for South America's first games.

A top official at the CDC said ''there is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly.''


The CDC said the virus was spread primarily though mosquito bites, but also can be transmitted through sex, and was particularly worrisome for pregnant women.

Reach out for the sun

Avoiding Sun as Dangerous as Smoking

Nonsmokers who stayed out of the sun had a life expectancy similar to smokers who soaked up the most rays, according to researchers who studied nearly 30,000 Swedish women over 20 years.

This indicates that avoiding the sun "is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking," write the authors of the article, published March 21 in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Compared with those with the highest sun exposure, life expectancy for those who avoided sun dropped by 0.6 to 2.1 years.

Pelle Lindqvist, MD, of Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Sweden, and colleagues found that women who seek out the sun were generally at lower risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and noncancer/non-CVD diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and pulmonary diseases, than those who avoided sun exposure.

And one of the strengths of the study was that results were dose-specific — sunshine benefits went up with amount of exposure.

The researchers acknowledge that longer life expectancy for sunbathers seems paradoxical to the common thinking that sun exposure increases risk for skin cancer.

"We did find an increased risk of...skin cancer. However, the skin cancers that occurred in those exposing themselves to the sun had better prognosis," Dr Lindqvist said.

Some Daily Exposure Important for Health

Given these findings, he told Medscape Medical News, women should not overexpose themselves to sun, but underexposure may be even more dangerous than people think.

"We know in our population, there are three big lifestyle factors [that endanger health]: smoking, being overweight, and inactivity," he said. "Now we know there is a fourth — avoiding sun exposure."

Sweden's restrictive guidance against sun exposure over the past 4 decades may be particularly ill-advised, the study finds, in a country where the maximum UV index is low (< 3) for up to 9 months out of the year.

Use of sunscreen is also widely misunderstood in the country and elsewhere, Dr Lindqvist said.

"If you're using it to be out longer in the sun, you're using it in the wrong manner," he said. However, "If you are stuck on a boat and have to be out, it's probably better to have sunscreen than not to have it."

Women with more pigmentation would be particularly well-served to stop avoiding sunshine, he said, adding that many people in India, for instance, follow guidelines like those in Sweden to avoid sun year round.

And because melanomas are rare among women with darker skin, benefit goes up in those populations when weighing sun exposure's risk against benefits, Dr Lindqvist said.

Age and Smoking Habits

The researchers studied sun exposure as a risk factor for all-cause mortality for 29,518 women with no history of malignancy in a prospective 20-year follow-up of the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort.

The women were recruited from 1990 to 1992 when they were 25 to 64 years old. Detailed information was available at baseline on sun-exposure habits and potential confounders such as marital status, education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, and number of births.

When smoking was factored in, even smokers at approximately 60 years of age with the most active sun-exposure habits had a 2-year longer life expectancy during the study period compared with smokers who avoided sun exposure, the researchers note.

The authors do, however, acknowledge some major limitations. Among them, it was impossible to differentiate between active sun-exposure habits and a healthy lifestyle, and they did not have access to exercise data.

Role of Vitamin D Still in Question

The results add to the longstanding debate on the role of vitamin D in health and the amount of it people need, but this study doesn't resolve the question.

"Whether the positive effect of sun exposure demonstrated in this observational study is mediated by vitamin D, another mechanism related to ultraviolet radiation, or by unmeasured bias cannot be determined. Therefore, additional research is warranted," the authors write.

"From Irish studies we know that vitamin D deficiency makes melanomas more malignant," Dr Lindqvist said.

"This is in agreement with our results; melanomas of [those not exposed] to the sun had a worse prognosis."

This study was supported by the Clintec at the Karolinska Institute; ALF (Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Region Skane); the Swedish Cancer Society; and the Swedish Medical Research Council. Funding was also received from Lund University Hospital; the Gustav V Jubilee Fund; the Gunnar Nilsson Foundation; the Kamprad Foundation; and the European Research Council. The authors declared no relevant financial relationships.

Sharapova Olympic-bound

Russia says Sharapova in Olympic plans despite doping case

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia says Maria Sharapova is still in its plans for the Olympic tennis tournament in August despite her provisional suspension for failing a drug test.

Sharapova has been suspended since last month, when she admitted she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium at January's Australian Open.

Sharapova said she had been taking meldonium for medical reasons for 10 years and had not seen a World Anti-Doping Agency ruling last year that it would be banned for 2016.

Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpishchev says in a statement ''we really hope that Sharapova will still be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games.''

No date has been announced by the International Tennis Federation for a hearing into the case of Sharapova, who won Olympic silver in 2012.

US women want equal pay or else

US women raise prospect of Olympic boycott

Los Angeles (AFP) - The United States women's football team could boycott the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro if demands to be paid the same as their male counterparts are not met, World Cup winner c said.

Sauerbrunn, a member of the USA team that lifted the World Cup in Canada last year and a gold medal-winning veteran of the 2012 Olympics, told ESPN that players would not rule out the possibility of a boycott.

The 30-year-old defender said a boycott would be discussed by the team if they believed no progress on the increasingly acrimonious dispute had been made.

"It would still be on the table," Sauerbrunn said. "We are reserving every right to do so and we're leaving every avenue open. And if nothing has changed, if we don't feel real progress has been made, then that's a conversation that we're going to have."

Sauerbrunn is one of five members of the US team who have filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the US Soccer Federation alleging wage discrimination.

High-profile stars such as World Cup Most Valuable Player Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan are the other signatories to the complaint, which was filed with support from the rest of the squad, Sauerbrunn said.

Sauerbrunn said she hoped the legal action would lead to "equal pay for equal play."

"I think, compensation-wise, respect-wise, that's what I'm really hoping comes out of this complaint," she told ESPN.

"I hope that it puts enough pressure on the federation to show them our worth, our value."

The US women earned $2 million in prize money for winning last year's World Cup, which the federation distributed to the women and the organization.

The men's team received $9 million after losing in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

"The message they've been putting out by paying us drastically less than the men is that they don't value our contributions to the game as much as the men," Sauerbrunn told ESPN.

Opponents of the women players' complaint justify the disparity by asserting that the men's game generates more revenue than the female game.

However the US women are also pointing to other areas such as the quality and type of pitches used for their fixtures as evidence of discrimination.

For last year's "victory tour" following the World Cup, eight out of 10 games took place on artificial turf.

"The men never played in any friendlies on (artificial) turf so why are we playing eight out of 10 on turf when we just won a World Cup?" Sauerbrunn said.

"You'd think they'd want to present us on these beautiful sparkling pitches. It was mind-boggling to me that they would make us play on (artificial) turf on eight out of 10 games in our victory tour."

London new North Pole

Why the North Pole is now slowly moving towards London

London is calling. The planet’s North Pole mysteriously changed the direction of its travel in 2000, turning eastwards towards the Greenwich meridian. It now seems that this change in direction is down to the redistribution of water on land as well as to melting polar ice.

The Earth’s rotational axis, and with it the location of the physical North Pole, was travelling at a rate of about 10 centimetres a year over the last century towards Canada’s Hudson Bay along a line of longitude that runs through Toronto and Panama City.

This movement was down to the redistribution of Earth’s mass as the crust has slowly rebounded after the end of the last ice age.

But since 2000 it has made a dramatic 75-degree eastward shift heading along the Greenwich meridian. Some evidence suggested that the shrinking of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica caused by climate change was behind the surprise shift.

Now, a study says this change is also influenced by the changing distribution of water on land.

“This is the first time we have solid evidence that changes in land water distribution on a global scale also shift which direction the axis moves to,” says lead researcher Surendra Adhikari of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

For example, Adhikari says, the Indian subcontinent and the Caspian Sea are losing a massive amount of water, pulling the axis eastwards.
Always on the move

The study used data from NASA’s GRACE satellites to investigate how the distribution of water mass was related to the direction of Earth’s axis movement between 2002 and 2015.

The results also shed light on another long-standing puzzle: why the axis oscillates every few years. This oscillation is also down to changes in water mass around the planet, says Adhikari.

“The precise knowledge of polar motion, and Earth rotation in general, is indispensable for many applications,” says Florian Seitz of the German Geodetic Research Institute in Munich. This includes GPS navigation systems and the positioning of satellites. The findings could also help us study climate change, he says.

Because we have an accurate record of the axis’s movement since 1899, we may now be able to use that data to map out past changes in the distribution of land water more precisely.

This, in conjunction with factoring in where the axis is heading, could help make climate models more accurate.

Ja-born Olympians representing other countries

Bridge, Decasseres two Jamaican-born shooters representing the West Indies Federation

Jamaican-born athletes have represented several countries at the Olympic Games —  Canada, Bahamas, Great Britain, United States, and the Cayman Islands.
One of the first and oldest to do so was Keith De Casseres, representing the West Indies Federation in shooting at the 1960 Olympic Games.
The 5-10 Decasseres, born on May 27, 1910, took his place in the men's free pistol, 50 metres. He was 50-years-old and one of 67 men competing in the event.
Decasseres was one of just eight men 50 years and older taking part in the competition, none of whom got on to the podium. The closest oldster coming close to winning a medal was 52-year-old Swede and multiple world champion Tornsten Ulman who shot 550 points for fourth place.
In fact Decasseres was the only competitor who failed to finish the 50m free pistol at that Games.
Another Jamaican-born shooter, Tony Bridge, also representing the West Indies Federation, tied in 60th place in the same event, after shooting 319 points. Bridge was 39 years old at the time.
Decasseres died in 2003, three years after Bridge.
Bridge, however, was the leading pistol shooter in the region, competing in both the 1960 and 1964 Games (for Jamaica), before becoming a leading sports administrator.
A Wolmerian, Bridge graduated from high school in 1938 and became chairman and managing director of Novelty Trading Company. He was director of insurance, banking and other commercial companies in Jamaica.
Bridge, however, was by far one of the most sought-after sports administrators in Jamaica and he made himself available, heading the top sports associations in the land.
He was president of the Jamaica Olympic Association from 1958 to 1977, president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) from 1954 to 1962, and vice-president of the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control from 1947 to 1962.
Bridge was also vice-president of Jamaica Rifle Association (1960-62), Jamaica Amateur Weightlifting Association (1939-49), vice-chairman of the Organising Committee for the 1962 Central American and Caribbean Games, and the 1966 British Commonwealth Games.
Both the 1962 CAC Games and 1966 Commonwealth Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica.
An IOC member in October 1973, Bridge served until his death in December 2000.
He was a member of the Commission for the Olympic Programme from 1974-80 and a member of the Press Commission since 1983.

IAAF tests come too late

WADA says doping cases from 2005 worlds are past time limit

In this Tuesday, July 26, 2005 file photo Russian Tatyana Andrianova crosses the finish line to win the DN Galan 800m event in Stockholm. 

 

Numerous doping cases in track and field may go unpunished because the sport's governing body tested samples after their time limit had expired.

In at least one case, a Russian runner could be allowed to keep her world championship medal even though she tested positive for a banned substance.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the IAAF wrongly interpreted a rule change in April 2015 when it decided to retest samples from the 2005 and 2007 world championships. Testers found 28 athletes had tested positive at both championships, but only the samples from 2005 missed the deadline.
The IAAF believed it was able to retest the 2005 samples because the statute of limitations in the WADA code had increased to 10 years in 2015, but WADA said the previous eight-year limit should have been used.
"If the previous eight-year statute of limitations has expired prior to 1 January 2015, it does not extend to 10 years under the 2015 code," WADA spokesman Ben Nichols told the AP.
The IAAF has been under pressure to clean up the sport since a WADA commission report detailed state-supported doping in Russian track and field. The country's track team has since been banned from competition and could miss this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Doping samples from the 2005 worlds in Helsinki stopped being eligible for retesting in 2013, well before the IAAF began its latest round of checks in April 2015.
One athlete who could benefit from the decision is Russian runner Tatyana Andrianova. She was banned by the IAAF in December after the steroid stanozolol was found in a sample from the day she won bronze in the 800 meters at the 2005 worlds. She has already appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Another athlete linked to the retests is Russian hammer thrower Tatyana Beloborodova, who won silver at the 2005 worlds and gold at the 2012 London Olympics. The IAAF confirmed Monday she has been provisionally suspended but refused to comment on reports in Russian state media that this was because of a retested sample from 2005.
Doping cases from the 2007 world championships and earlier retesting of 2005 samples that the IAAF performed in 2013, catching five medal winners, are within the deadline.
"As to the 2005 world championship retests, there is currently an ongoing case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport concerning an appeal by one of the athletes concerned, Tatyana Andrianova," the IAAF said in an e-mailed statement. "The IAAF will not be commenting further until the conclusion of that case."

More lows for Russian athletes

Russian doping scandal spreads to wrestling, sports minister prepared to quit

Mikhail Mamiashvili, President of the Russian Wrestling Federation

MOSCOW - Russia's sports minister said he was prepared to resign over a raging doping scandal in his country which could cost more Russian athletes their places at the Rio Olympics after "tens" more cases of cheating were exposed in wrestling.
Russian wrestlers may now join the country's track-and-field athletes in being barred from competing at the Games in August, after an internal Russian Wrestling Federation (WFR) investigation uncovered multiple doping cases, WFR President Mikhail Mamiashvili said.
The disclosure came a day after four Russian athletes were exposed as having tested positive for the banned drug meldonium, further damaging Moscow's efforts to overturn a doping suspension in time for the Olympics starting in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday his sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, would remain in his position despite the scandal. Mutko later said, however, that he was prepared to end his eight years in the job if asked to do so.
"The country has a leadership who take these decisions. When I see that the matter concerns me, I will leave my post," R-Sport news agency quoted him as saying.
Russian sport was thrown into turmoil last year when a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) exposed endemic cheating and corruption in Russian athletics.
Russian athletes have been suspended from international competition and will miss the Olympics if the country cannot get the ban overturned - a humiliating blow to the pride and prestige of a sporting superpower.
Since then, at least 18 Russian sportsmen and women have tested positive for meldonium, complicating Russia's drive to prove itself compliant with international anti-doping standards.
Mamiashvili said two male wrestlers, 2014 world championship silver medalist Evgeny Saleev and 2015 World Cup silver medalist Sergei Semenov, had been caught using meldonium.
But he said the sport's doping problem was widespread.
"There are tens of positive tests in the team, everyone is in a bad condition psychologically," Mamiashvili told R-Sport.
No female Russia wrestlers have tested positive for meldonium, R-Sport reported. The WFR declined to comment.
Talking to the state-owned TASS news agency about his team's chances of competing at the Rio Games, Mamiashvili said: "It may happen that simply none of us go."
Meldonium, which is used to treat diabetes and low magnesium levels, was banned by WADA on Jan. 1 after being linked to increased sporting performance.
It is particularly popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union, having been invented in Latvia and used to help Soviet soldiers fight at high altitude in the 1980s.
R-Sport reported Monday that around 40 Russian athletes from more than 10 different sports had tested positive for meldonium in the first two months of 2016.

Russians love meldonium

Russian athletics hit by first meldonium cases

Moscow (AFP) — Russia has announced four doping failures for meldonium in athletics as the country battles to be reinstated in time for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
These are the first known cases of the banned drug in Russian athletics in a potential blow to efforts to overturn an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspension from international competition because of doping scandals.
The athletics federation did not name the four athletes who tested positive. It was unclear whether sprinter Nadezhda Kotlyarova, who admitted to taking the banned drug on Sunday, was among them.
An unnamed source told TASS news agency however that the four athletes are Kotlyarova, long-distance runners Andrei Minzhulin and Gulshat Fazletdinova, and steeplechaser Olga Vovk. All are said to have tested positive for the drug at the Russian indoor championships last month.
The federation said in a statement it was conducting a "thorough investigation" into the cases and reiterated it had repeatedly warned athletes and trainers that the World Anti-Doping Agency was banning meldonium from January 1.
The drug is widely used for heart conditions and diabetes. But it also helps recovery from physical exertion so could help athletes.
A number of high-profile Russian athletes, including tennis star Maria Sharapova, short-track speed skater Semyon Yelistratov and swimmer Yulia Yefimova, have tested positive for meldonium.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the meldonium scandal was not affecting Russian athletes' preparations for the Rio Olympics which start August 5.
Russia was suspended by the IAAF for other doping failures said to be "state sponsored". The IAAF will only decide in May whether Russian authorities have made enough efforts to return to international competition.
"All those who are training for the Olympics are being monitored," Mutko told TASS. "The issue of meldonium is a separate issue."
President Vladimir Putin last week blamed Russia's sports officials for failing to warn athletes that meldonium was being banned by WADA.
WADA says that more than 100 suspected positive tests have been recorded since January 1.
The agency moved meldonium from its "monitored" to "prohibited" list "because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance."

WADA takes charge of anti-doping for Rio 2016

IOC: WADA to lead anti-doping task force for Rio Olympics

 

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - A special World Anti-Doping Agency task force will identify athletes who should be targeted for drug-testing ahead of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to deter and weed out any cheats before they get to the games, the IOC said Tuesday. The IOC also confirmed, as reported by The Associated Press last week, that hundreds of doping samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Games are currently being re-analysed with enhanced tests before Rio to catch any athletes who escaped detection at the time. The International Olympic Committee said a WADA task force is gathering information and intelligence, identifying any gaps in pre-games testing and coordinating extra doping checks in the lead-up to the Rio Games in August. The task force "will identify athletes or groups of athletes who should be included in registered testing pools, and those who the IOC should test during the four-week period" of the Olympics, it said. The WADA group will work with national anti-doping agencies of Australia, Denmark, Japan, South Africa, Britain and the United States. The task force will advise the IOC and Rio organizers who should be tested, both in and out of competition. The intelligence will be used to finalize the day-by-day testing plan during the period of the games, which begins with the opening of the athletes village on July 24. "We are trying passionately to protect those clean athletes who are going to Rio," IOC medical director Dr. Richard Budgett said. "And the best way to do that is to catch the cheats and deter the cheats before we get to Rio de Janeiro." As Budgett told the AP in an interview in London last week, the IOC said hundreds of selected samples from the Beijing and London Olympics are being re-analysed before Rio. The IOC stores samples for 10 years so they can be retested when improved techniques become available. "The IOC and WADA have together identified and agreed on the sports and countries being targeted," the committee said. "This includes in particular athletes likely to compete in Rio de Janeiro who also competed in London and Beijing, and specific methods of analysis where there have been advances." Budgett said the results will be known in a number of weeks or months. "The aim of the program is to prevent athletes who cheated in London or Beijing, and got away with it because we didn't have as advanced methods of analysis as we do now, from competing in Rio de Janeiro," he said.

Jamaica at the Summer Olympic Games

 

Jamaica set for their 17th Olympic Games

By Paul Burrowes

This Summer in Rio, Jamaica will take part in their 17th Olympic Games in 14 countries.
Already, 320 athletes have represented Jamaica at the Games, 207 men and 112 women. The island's medal count stands at 67, one from cycling and the other 66 in athletics, led by none other than Merlene Ottey-Page.
Only 10 countries have won more medals than Jamaica in athletics and living and still competing legend Usain Bolt needs three more medals to join Ottey on nine, the most Olympic medals ever won by a Jamaican.
Ottey, Veronica Campbell-Brown (seven medals) and Bolt (six medals) have established themselves as three of the 10 best Olympians ever to take the part in athletics at the Games.
Like Bolt, Campbell-Brown can also join Ottey on nine medals, and both will likely be taking part in their last Olympic Games.
When Jamaica set foot in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1948, 68 countries had experience in the quadrennial event.
Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana joined Jamaica in debuting at the Olympics at the Games in London, along with Syria, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Lebanon and Iraq.
Swimmer Belinda Phillips and sailor Michael Nunes remain the youngest and oldest respectively to have represented Jamaica at the Summer Olympic Games. Belinda was 13 and Nunes 54 when they took part in the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany from August 26 to September 11.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jamaica fielded the most athletes (50) while in the 1972 Games, the country competed in the most sports (six).
The flag-bearers have been many, including Ottey twice (1988 and 1992), Wint the first (1952) and Bolt the last (2012).
Bolt could well be asked to carry the flag again, joining Ottey as the only two athletes that will carry the Jamaican emblem twice.
Campbell-Brown, Sandie Richards, Deon Hemmings, Juliet Cuthbert, Bert Cameron and Lennox Miller had all been flag-bearers at the Olympic Games.
Arthur Wint, known as the Gentle Giant, was the first Jamaican to win an Olympic gold medal (in the 400m at the 1948 Olympic Games in London).
Rio 2016, the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 to 21. More than 10,500 athletes from 206 countries are expected to participate, with 306 sets of medals in 28 Olympic sports. Rugby sevens and golf are included in this edition.
The motto of Rio 2016 is 'Live Your Passion'.

Garvey: African Nationalist Pioneer

Garvey had over eight million followers

Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940), a black man from the West Indies, was the first to forcefully articulate the concept of African nationalism—of black people returning to Africa, the continent of their forefathers, to build a great nation of their own.

Marcus Garvey was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on Aug. 17, 1887. He went to elementary school there and at the age of 14 became an apprentice in the printing trade. In 1903 he went to the capital, Kingston, to work as a printer. He soon became involved in public activities and helped form the Printers Union, the first trade union in Jamaica. He subsequently published a periodical called the Watchman.

In 1910 began a series of travels that transformed Garvey from an average person concerned about the problems of the underprivileged to an African nationalist determined to lift an entire race from bondage and debasement. He visited Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. After briefly returning home, he proceeded to England, where contacts with African nationalists stimulated in him a keen interest in Africa and in black history. In each country he visited, he noted that the black man was in an inferior position, subject to the whim, caprice, and fancy of stronger races. His reading of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery at this time also had great effect upon him.

On his return in 1914 from England, where he had done further study, Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League. These organizations were intended "to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world."

In 1916 Garvey went to the United States to raise funds to carry on the work of his Jamaican organizations. He was immediately caught up in the agitation of the times, and his voice thundered in the evenings on the streets of Harlem in New York City. A New York branch of the UNIA was established, soon followed by branches in other cities in the United States, in Central and South America, and in the Caribbean. The expansion of the UNIA was fostered by its official organ Negro World, a newspaper published in English, Spanish, and French. Published in New York City from 1918 to 1933, it was succeeded by the monthly Black Man, which ran through the 1930s, published after 1934 in London.

The Negro World reached out to black communities all over the world. It even penetrated into the interior of Africa, although it had been banned there by the white rulers. Garvey stressed the need for blacks to return to Africa for the building of a great nation, but he realized that until this was accomplished Africans needed to make themselves economically independent wherever they were. He encouraged blacks to start their own businesses, taking the commerce of their ghettos into their own hands.

Together with the American clergyman Archbishop George A. McGuire, Garvey formed the African Orthodox Church. This was in accordance with one of his basic principles, for he believed that each race must see God through its own racial spectacles. The Black Christ and the Black Madonna were proclaimed at the UNIA convention of 1924.

The Black Star Line shipping company and the Negro Factories Corporation were to be the commercial arms of the Garvey movement. It was the failure of the shipping venture that gave Garvey's enemies their chance to destroy him. Investments in the line were lost, and Garvey was imprisoned in 1925 in the United States. After serving 2 years 10 months of a 5-year sentence, he was deported to Jamaica. Previously, his plans for colonization in Liberia had been sabotaged by the colonial powers who brought pressure to bear on the Liberian government. As a result, the land which had been granted to the Garvey organization for the settlement of overseas Africans was given to the white American industrialist Harvey Firestone, and the expensive equipment shipped to Liberia for the use of Garvey's colonists was seized.

In Jamaica, Garvey attempted to enter local politics, but the restricted franchise of the time did not allow the vote to the black masses. He went to England and continued his work of social protest and his call for the liberation of Africa. He died in London on June 10, 1940.

Marcus Garvey was married twice. His second wife, Amy Jacques, whom he married in 1922, bore him two sons.

The Garvey movement was the greatest international movement of African peoples in modern times. At its peak, in 1922-1924, the movement counted over 8 million followers. The youngest cadres were taken in at 5 years of age and, as they grew older, they graduated to the sections for older children.

Garvey emphasized the belief in the One God, the God of Africa, who should be visualized through black eyes. He told black people to become familiar with their ancient history and their rich cultural heritage. He called for pride in the black race—for example, he made black dolls for black children. His was the first voice clearly to demand black power. It was he who said, "A race without authority and power is a race without respect."

In emphasizing the need to have separate black institutions under black leadership, Garvey anticipated the mood and thinking of the future black nationalists by nearly 50 years. He died, as he lived, an unbending apostle of African nationalism. The symbols which he made famous, the black star of Africa and the red, black, and green flag of African liberation, continued to inspire younger generations of African nationalists.

Drink to the heart

Three to five drinks a week good for your heart

People who drink wine, liquor or beer regularly are less prone to heart failure and heart attacks than those who rarely or never drink. Three to five drinks a week can be good for your heart.

Drinking a little alcohol every day may be part of a healthy lifestyle, according to Imre Janszky, a professor of social medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He says alcohol does more good than harm for your heart when consumed in moderation.

And, Janszky says, it doesn't matter much whether you drink wine, liquor or beer.

"It's primarily the alcohol that leads to more good cholesterol, among other things. But alcohol can also cause higher blood pressure. So it's best to drink moderate amounts relatively often," he says.

Decreased risk with each additional serving

Along with a number of colleagues from NTNU and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Janszky has published two studies regarding the relationship between alcohol and heart health. One, published in the January 15 issue of the International Journal of Cardiology, is about heart failure. The second, from September 2015, is on acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and has been published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

In both cases, research shows that people who regularly drink alcohol have better cardiovascular health than those who consume little or no alcohol.

The studies showed that those who drank three to five drinks per week were 33 per cent less prone to heart failure than those who abstained or drank infrequently. In the case of heart attacks, the risk appears to be reduced by 28 percent with each additional one-drink increment.

This does not surprise the researchers at all.

A majority of researchers worldwide seem to think three to five drinks a week can be good for your heart.

Different drinking patterns

"The relationship between alcohol and heart health has been studied in many countries, including the USA and southern European nations. The conclusions have been the same, but the drinking patterns in these countries are very different than in Norway. In countries like France and Italy, very few people don't drink," says Janszky. "It raises the question as to whether earlier findings can be fully trusted, if other factors related to non-drinkers might have influenced research results. It may be that these are people who previously had alcohol problems, and who have stopped drinking completely," he says.

For this reason, the researchers wanted to examine the theory with a Norwegian population where a significant population drinks rarely or not at all. In the myocardial infarction study, 41 per cent of participants reported that they did not drink at all or that they consumed less than half of one alcoholic beverage per week.

Both studies are based on the longitudinal HUNT 2 Nord-Trøndelag Health Study conducted between 1995 and 1997.

The greater the drinking frequency, the lower the risk

The study, which looked at the relationship between heart failure and alcohol, followed 60,665 participants who enrolled in the HUNT study between 1995-1997 and who had no incidence of heart failure at that time. Of those, 1588 of them developed heart failure during the period of the study, which ended in 2008. The risk was highest for those who rarely or never drank alcohol, and for those who had an alcohol problem.

The more often participants consumed alcohol within normal amounts, the lower their risk of heart failure turned out to be. Those who drank five or more times a month had a 21 per cent lower risk compared to non-drinkers and those who drank little, while those who drank between one and five times a month had a two per cent lower risk.

Drinking isn't necessary for a healthy heart

"I'm not encouraging people to drink alcohol all the time. We've only been studying the heart, and it's important to emphasize that a little alcohol every day can be healthy for the heart. But that doesn't mean it's necessary to drink alcohol every day to have a healthy heart," says Janszky.

In the heart attack study, 58,827 participants were categorized by how much and how often they drank. 2966 of the participants experienced an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) between 1995 and the end of 2008. The adjusted analyses showed that each additional one-drink increment decreased the risk of AMI by 28 percent.

Alcohol may increase other problems

The researchers stressed that few participants in the study drank particularly much, so they cannot conclude that high alcohol intake protects against heart attack or heart failure. They also encourage looking at the findings in a larger context, since the risk of a number of other diseases and social problems can increase as a result of higher alcohol consumption.

For example, the researchers observed that the risk of dying from various types of cardiovascular disease increased with about five drinks a week and up, while those who drank more moderate amounts had the lowest risk. High alcohol consumption was also strongly associated with an increased risk of death from liver disease.