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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
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Big Time Rush Have 'Matured' On Elevate
'The songs ... are a better expression of who we are verses the first album, which was written for the TV show,' Nickelodeon stars say.
By Christina Garibaldi
Big Time Rush
Photo: MTV News
The boys of have found a whole new voice for their second album, Elevate. James Maslow, Logan Henderson, Carlos Pena and Kendall Schmidt worked tirelessly to put together an infectious pop album that will no doubt please fans of their hit Nickelodeon TV show, but could earn them some new followers as well.
"We spent almost a year creating it," Maslow recently told MTV News.
"Between the four of us, we wrote eight out of the 12 songs, and everything from the album artwork to the title and, most importantly, the songs really have matured and are a better expression of who we are verses the first album, which was written for the TV show."
For their second effort, Big Time Rush worked with some of the biggest producers in music, including Ryan Tedder, J.R. Rotem and former 'NSYNC member JC Chasez. Yet, they have a different 'NSYNC alum in mind for a dream collaboration: "[We] always talked about working with Justin Timberlake," Maslow revealed. Schmidt added, "We're huge fans of his music." Elevate has some stiff competition on the Billboard charts, including Rihanna's latest album, Talk That Talk, and Adele's 21.
"I don't care if we get to #1," Schmidt said. "The company that we are in is so incredible, to be considered with these people is an honor."
Maslow added, "Those are great artists, but I think we kinda stay in our own little world as well."
Big Time Rush are planning to hit the road in February for their "Better With U" Tour, their first in the U.S.
Share your review of Elevate in the comments!
Related Videos Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675039/big-time-rush-elevate.jhtml
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U.S. to world: Dude, where's my vacation?
Sean Gallup / Getty Images file
Bathers relax on inflatable water mattresses near the beach at Porto Katsiki, on the island of Lefkada, Greece, in 2010.
By Rob Lovitt, msnbc.com contributor
There?s good news and bad news on the American vacation front courtesy of a survey from Expedia.com.
Released on Wednesday, the Vacation Deprivation Study revealed that U.S. workers let two days of vacation go unused this year, down from three days last year.
Unfortunately, the drop wasn?t realized because people took more vacation days ? the average American worker took 12 days in both years ? but because they received, on average, 14 days of vacation this year vs. 15 in 2010.
Live Poll
Do you take all of your allotted vacation time?
169594
Yes -- and I'd take more vacation days if I had them.
57%
169595
No -- it's too tough to get away from work.
13%
169596
Almost -- I take time off work, but I give up some time each year.
9%
169597
Are you nuts? -- I wish I had the time and money for vacations.
20%
VoteTotal Votes: 1075
?In terms of days they left on the table, as in ?It?s yours and you gave it way,? it went down,? said Joe Megibow, vice president and general manager. ?But we?d like to see the gap get closed by people using more of their vacation days rather than having employers give them less.?
Less, of course, is a relative term as the annual study once again showed Americans getting far fewer vacation days than their peers in most other developed countries. Surveying 7,800 employed adults in 20 countries, the study (as usual) showed that workers in Europe get far more time off ? 25 to 30 days per year ? and tend to use almost all of it.
?In Europe, vacations are considered a way of life not a luxury,? said Megibow. ?Even in countries where respondents reported less financial strength, they still go on vacation.?
Conversely, almost half of U.S. respondents reported their financial situation as ?solid? or ?good,? which according to Megibow, suggests a very different point of view: ?In the U.S., people view vacations as a luxury,? he told msnbc.com. ?Even though Americans report slightly stronger financial health, vacations are still one of the things that gets cut.?
Part of the problem may be that such feelings are being tempered by past events. ?People are still focusing on the bad news and not taking in good news like retailers doing well,? said Alden Cass, a performance coach and CEO of Competitive Streak Consulting Inc. ?They?re almost having a PTSD-like reaction to things that are out of their control.?
Far better, suggests Cass, is to just let go. ?People need to get away to reduce the amount of anxiety in their lives, to disengage from their BlackBerrys and iPhones and to not worry about the things they do on a daily basis,? he told msnbc.com. ?Sometimes lying on a Caribbean beach where there?s no Internet access is the best recipe for coming back with a clear head, an objective mindset and a better attitude.?
On the subject of disengaging, at least, Americans seem to be getting the message. When survey participants were asked how often they checked e-mail or voicemail while on vacation, 41 percent said never, 34 percent said sometimes, 20 percent said regularly and just 4 percent said constantly.
?Americans don?t get a lot of vacation,? said Megibow, ?but on the few days they take, most are checking out [from work], which is great.?
More stories you might like:
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.?
Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9097884-us-to-world-dude-wheres-my-vacation
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Ex-fiance focus of 'People's Court' missing case
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? Orlando's police chief says a former fiance is the primary focus of the investigation into a woman who went missing after appearing on "The People's Court" with the suspect to resolve a dispute over a $5,000 engagement ring.
Thirty-three-year-old Michelle Parker of Orlando was last seen Nov. 17. It was the day the previously taped episode aired of the case between her and 40-year-old Dale Smith. The abandoned SUV of the mother of three was found the next day.
Chief Paul Rooney said at a news conference Monday that Smith of Orlando is the probe's focus and there are no other suspects.
He says Smith has refused to take a lie-detector test. The Orlando Sentinel reports that court papers show the couple has a history of violence.
Attempts to find a telephone listing for Smith were unsuccessful.
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"Marilyn", "Artist" "Method" have strong debuts (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Michelle Williams' portrayal of America's most iconic actress debuted strongly over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with the Weinstein Company's "My Week With Marilyn" opening to $2 million at 244 domestic locations.
In fact, it was a particularly strong play period for indie adult dramas in general, with Weinstein's "The Artist" also enjoying a big premiere, taking in $210,414 at four theaters -- a huge per-theater average of more than $52,600 per screen.
Sony Pictures Classics' "A Dangerous Method" had an even stronger opening, taking in $240,944 at four locations (per-screen average of $60,233).
Among holdovers, Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants" continued to dominate the indie box office, grossing $9.2 million from Wednesday through Sunday while expanding from 29 to 433 locations.
Sheila DeLoach, executive VP of distribution for Fox Searchlight, told TheWrap that the studio planned to expand the film's playdates by 200 on December 9. "But based on demand, we will be looking to move as many of those theaters as possible up to Friday, December 2," she said. "The audience has clearly crossed from older adults to an all-audience film for adults over 18."
The movie stars Clooney as a land baron who is selling off family property in Hawaii when his wife is very badly injured in a boating accident. Its per-screen average was $16,628 over the five-day weekend.
And "Marilyn," which is generating Oscar buzz for star Williams, had a solid per-screen average of $7,266 for the three days. The movie is about the interaction between Laurence Olivier and Monroe during production of "The Prince and the Showgirl."
Its numbers were strong enough to make "Marilyn" the No. 12 movie in the country.
"The way it played throughout the weekend is an indication that word of mouth is building on the film, and that's what we thought, which is why we opened early -- to get people talking," Erik Lomis, the Weinstein Company's head of distribution, told TheWrap.
The R-rated movie, directed by Simon Curtis, opened on 123 screens Wednesday and expanded to 244 screens on Friday.
"We're getting a more sophisticated audience, an older audience, and people are responding really well," Lomis said. He said that 71 percent of the audience was 35 and older and 89 percent was 25 and older. Women especially liked the movie -- 65 percent of its audience was female.
Lomis said the company will slowly increase the number of screens.
"We'll be judicious with it," he said. "We'll roll it out ... through the awards season."
He said the company will be "even more careful and more judicious" with the rollout of "The Artist."
Michel Hazanavicius directed the silent, black-and-white, PG-13 movie about a silent movie star whose career is threatened as talkies catch on.
"We couldn't be happier," Lomis said. "It's like the little engine that could, this movie -- it's a silent film, it's black-and-white and it's performing with the big boys. It's a great start."
Lomis said the movie's audience was evenly split between men and women, that 67 percent was 35 or older and that 91 percent was 25 or older.
"A Dangerous Method," directed by David Cronenberg, stars Michael Fassbender as the psychoanalyst Carl Jung and Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud.
Among holdovers, Paramount Vantage's "Like Crazy" grossed an estimated $609,000 over the five days and $449,000 over three days.
The PG-13 movie played at 150 locations. That's a per-screen average of just short of $3,000 for the three-day period.
(In 4th paragraph, corrects gross for "Descendants" from $7.2 million to $9.2 million)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111128/film_nm/us_indies
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China prepares for big entry into vaccine market
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, a worker inspects the label on vials containing H1N1 flu vaccine produced by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. in Beijing. The world should get ready for a new Made in China product, vaccines. After years of supplying its own market, China's vaccine makers are gearing up to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, a worker inspects the label on vials containing H1N1 flu vaccine produced by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. in Beijing. The world should get ready for a new Made in China product, vaccines. After years of supplying its own market, China's vaccine makers are gearing up to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, a worker inspects vials containing H1N1 flu vaccine produced by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. in Beijing. The world should get ready for a new Made in China product, vaccines. After years of supplying its own market, China's vaccine makers are gearing up to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, workers inspect labels on vials containing H1N1 flu vaccine during production at the Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. in Beijing. The world should get ready for a new Made in China product, vaccines. After years of supplying its own market, China's vaccine makers are gearing up to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, vials of H1N1 flu vaccine by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. are seen during production at Sinovac facilities in Beijing. The world should get ready for a new Made in China product, vaccines. After years of supplying its own market, China's vaccine makers are gearing up to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, workers prepare to wrap the packages containing vials of H1N1 flu vaccine produced by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. in Beijing. The world should get ready for a new Made in China product, vaccines. After years of supplying its own market, China's vaccine makers are gearing up to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
BEIJING (AP) ? The world should get ready for a new Made in China product ? vaccines.
China's vaccine makers are gearing up over the next few years to push exports in a move that should lower costs of lifesaving immunizations for the world's poor and provide major new competition for the big Western pharmaceutical companies.
However, it may take some time before some parts of the world are ready to embrace Chinese products when safety is as sensitive an issue as it is with vaccines ? especially given the food, drug and other scandals the country has seen.
Still, China's entry into this market will be a "game changer," said Nina Schwalbe, head of policy at the GAVI Alliance, which buys vaccines for 50 million children a year worldwide.
"We are really enthusiastic about the potential entry of Chinese vaccine manufacturers," she said.
China's vaccine-making prowess captured world attention in 2009 when one of its companies developed the first effective vaccine against swine flu ? in just 87 days ? as the new virus swept the globe. In the past, new vaccine developments had usually been won by the U.S. and Europe.
Then, this past March the World Health Organization announced that China's drug safety authority meets international standards for vaccine regulation. It opened the doors for Chinese vaccines to be submitted for WHO approval so they can be bought by U.N. agencies and the GAVI Alliance.
"China is a vaccine-producing power" with more than 30 companies that have an annual production capacity of nearly 1 billion doses ? the largest in the world, the country's State Food and Drug Administration told The Associated Press.
But more needs to be done to build confidence in Chinese vaccines overseas, said Helen Yang of Sinovac, the NASDAQ-listed Chinese biotech firm that rapidly developed the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. "We think the main obstacle is that we have the name of 'made in China' still. That is an issue."
China's food and drug safety record in recent years hardly inspires confidence: in 2007, Chinese cough syrup killed 93 people in Central America; one year later, contaminated blood thinner led to dozens of deaths in the United States while tainted milk powder poisoned hundreds of thousands of Chinese babies and killed six.
The government has since imposed more regulations, stricter inspections and heavier punishments for violators. Perhaps because of that, regulators routinely crack down on counterfeit and substandard drugmaking.
While welcoming WHO's approval of China's drug safety authority, one expert said it takes more than a regulatory agency to keep drugmakers from cutting corners or producing fakes.
"In the U.S., we have supporting institutions such as the market economy, democracy, media monitoring, civil society, as well as a well-developed business ethics code, but these are all still pretty much absent in China," said Yanzhong Huang, a China health expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "For China, the challenge is much greater in building a strong, robust regulative capacity."
Last year, a Chinese newspaper report linked improperly stored vaccines to four children's deaths in northern Shanxi province, raising nationwide concern. The Health Ministry said the vaccines did not cause the deaths, but some remained skeptical.
Meanwhile, Chinese researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year that a pandemic flu vaccine given to 90 million people in 2009 was safe.
WHO's medical officer for immunization, Dr. Yvan Hutin, said WHO's approval of the Chinese drug regulatory agency is not "a blank check." Each vaccine will be evaluated rigorously, with WHO and Chinese inspectors given access to vaccine plants on top of other safety checks, he said.
Vaccines have historically been a touchy subject in the Western world, rife with safety concerns and conspiracy theories. Worries about vaccine safety resurfaced in the late 1990s triggered by debate over a claimed association between the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella and autism. The claim was later discredited.
For China, the next few years will be crucial, as biotech companies upgrade their facilities and improve procedures to meet the safety and quality standards ? a process that is expected to be costly and challenging. Then they will submit vaccines to the U.N. health agency for approval, which could take a couple of years.
First up is likely to be a homegrown vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease that can cause seizures, paralysis and death. The vaccine has been used for two decades in China with fewer side effects than other versions. Its manufacturer expects WHO approval for it in about a year. Also in the works are vaccines for polio and diseases that are the top two killers of children ? pneumonia and rotavirus, which causes diarrhea.
Vaccines also are a significant part of a $300 million partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the development of new health and farming products for poor countries.
China's entry into this field is important because one child dies every 20 seconds from vaccine-preventable diseases each year. UNICEF, the children's agency and the world's biggest buyer of vaccines, has been in talks with Chinese companies, said its supply director Shanelle Hall. The fund provides vaccines to nearly 60 percent of the world's children, and last year spent about $757 million.
Worldwide, vaccine sales last year grew 14 percent to $25.3 billion, according to healthcare market research firm Kalorama Information, as drugmakers which face intensifying competition from generic drugs now see vaccines as key areas of growth, particularly in Latin America, China and India.
China's vaccine makers, some of whom already export in small amounts, are confident they will soon become big players in the field.
"I personally predict that in the next five to 10 years, China will become a very important vaccine manufacture base in the world," said Wu Yonglin, vice president of the state-owned China National Biotec Group, the country's largest biological products maker that has been producing China's encephalitis vaccine since 1989.
CNBG will invest more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) between now and 2015 to improve its facilities and systems to meet WHO requirements, Wu said. The company also intends to submit vaccines to fight rotavirus, which kills half a million kids annually, and polio for WHO approval.
Smaller, private companies are also positioning themselves for the global market.
Sinovac is now testing a new vaccine for enterovirus 71, which causes severe hand, foot and mouth disease among children in China and other Asian countries. It is also preparing for clinical trials on a pneumococcal vaccine Yang says could rival Pfizer's Prevnar, which was the top-selling vaccine worldwide last year with sales of about $3.7 billion.
Pneumococcal disease causes meningitis, pneumonia and ear infection.
"In the short term, everyone sees the exporting opportunities, because outside of China the entire vaccine market still seems to be monopolized by a few Big Pharma (companies)," Yang said.
The entry of Chinese companies is expected to further pressure Western pharmaceutical companies to lower prices. Earlier this year, UNICEF's move to publicize what drugmakers charge it for vaccines showed that Western drugmakers often charged the agency double what companies in India and Indonesia do.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders criticized the vaccine body GAVI for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-pneumonia vaccines from Western companies, saying it could put its buying power to even better use by fostering competition from emerging manufacturers like those in China.
GAVI's Schwalbe said the vaccine body has to buy what is available and negotiates hard for steep discounts. "We need to buy vaccines now to save children's lives now. We can't wait."
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
This Way to Mars: How Technologies Borrowed from Robotic Missions Could Deliver Astronauts to Deep Space
BEING THERE: An asteroid, Mars's moon Phobos and the Red Planet's surface are all on the proposed itinerary. The moons are exaggerated in this artist's fanciful conception.
Image: Illustration by Patrick Leger
In Brief
- Space policy in the U.S. has gone through an upheaval. NASA has retired the shuttle, given up the Constellation program that was to have replaced it and outsourced orbital launches. It is supposed to return to what it does best?going where no one has gone before. But how?
- The authors argue that engineers need to assume that the political process will continue to be unpredictable?and plan for it. They must design mission options that can be ramped up or down as circumstances change.
- Deep-space vehicles propelled by ion drives can mount progressively more complicated expeditions to lunar orbit, near-Earth asteroids and eventually Mars.
In October 2009 a small group of robotic space exploration geeks decided to venture out of our comfort zone and began brainstorming different approaches to flying people into space. We were spurred into action when the Augustine com?mission, a blue-ribbon panel that President Barack Obama set up earlier that year to review the space shuttle and its intended successor, reported that ?the U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory.? Having worked in an exciting robotic exploration program that has extended humanity?s reach from Mercury to the edge of the solar system, we wondered whether we might find technical solutions for some of NASA?s political and budgetary challenges.
Ideas abounded: using ion engines to ferry up the components of a moon base; beaming power to robotic rovers on the Martian moon Phobos; attaching high-power Hall effect thrusters to the International Space Station (ISS) and putting it on a Mars cycler orbit; preplacing chemical rocket boosters along an interplanetary trajectory in advance so astronauts could pick them up along the way; using exploration pods like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than space suits; instead of sending astronauts to an asteroid, bringing a (very small) asteroid to astronauts at the space station. When we crunched the numbers, we found that electric propulsion?via an ion drive or related technologies?could dramatically reduce the launch mass required for human missions to asteroids and Mars.
It was like being back in the NASA of the 1960s, minus the cigarette smoke. We talked about what we can do and avoided getting mired in what we cannot. After our initial analysis, we put together a lunchtime seminar for our colleagues at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that synthesized these notions and calculations. Throughout the following spring and summer we met other engineers and scientists who were interested in our approach and gave us ideas to make it better. We learned about experiments that people inside and outside NASA had been conducting: from tests of powerful electric thrusters to designs for lightweight, high-efficiency solar arrays. Our discussions have grown and become part of a larger groundswell of inventive thinking across the space agency and aerospace industry.
We have now combined the most promising proposals with tried-and-true strategies to develop a plan to send astronauts to the near-Earth asteroid 2008 EV5 as soon as 2024 as preparation for an eventual Mars landing. This approach is designed to fit within NASA?s current budget and, crucially, breaks the overall task into a series of incremental milestones, giving the agency flexibility to speed up or slow down depending on funding. In a nutshell, the aim is to apply lessons from the robotic scientific exploration program to renew the human exploration one.
Small Steps Make a Giant Leap
The Augustine commission?s report ignited a mighty political fight, culminating in the decision to delegate much of the task of launching astronauts into orbit to private companies [see ?Jump-Starting the Orbital Economy,? by David H. Freedman; Scientific American, December 2010]. NASA can now focus on transformative technology and push human exploration on to new frontiers. But how can the agency move forward without the political support and resources it enjoyed during the glory days of the Apollo moon landings?
The established approach in robotic exploration is incremental: develop a technology portfolio that enables increasingly ambitious missions to take place. Rather than relying on an all-or-nothing development path to a single target, the robotic exploration program makes use of novel combinations of technology to reach a variety of targets. To be sure, the robotic program has suffered its own mistakes and inefficiencies; nothing is perfect. At least it does not grind to a halt when the political winds change or when technological innovation lags. The human program can borrow from this strategy. It need not commence with ?one giant leap? as with Apollo. It can embark on a series of modest steps, each building on the one before.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9ebbd3a6d2c008c29a684b135fc78e23
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Hope Solo: Too Much Muscle For DWTS
Hope Solo had too much muscle for DWTS! The soccer player should be muscular right? She did make it to the semi-finals, so why does she feel this way? Hope Solo told Anderson Cooper that she was told she was eliminated from ‘Dancing with the Stars’ because she had ‘too much muscle’. “I was told I had too much muscle and I was too intense and wasn’t very dainty. Well, hello — you cast a female professional athlete. Help me get better as a dancer. There’s no hard feelings at all. I understand that it’s television,” Get the details at POST CHRONICLE. Here are my other favorite Monday Funday links!!! First let me remind you about our monthly contest. Usually we have over 200 entries, this month so far we only have 11 and there are only three days left! This is a good time to enter the $50 November giftcard contest! Gossip Girl Season 5 Episode 9 ?Rhodes to Perdition? Synopsis & Preview Video at CELEB TEEN LAUNDRY. Glee Season 3 Ep 7 Preview and Songs 11/29/11 ? ?I Kissed a Girl? ? Photos and Video at HAVE U HEARD. Emma Watson Insanely Pretty at CELEB GURLZ. Maria Yeater [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/A1PVCw40Opo/
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British Library puts 19th C newspapers online (AP)
LONDON ? The newspaper coverage was troubling: London's huge international showcase was beset by planning problems, local opposition and labor woes ? and the transport was a mess.
It sounds like the 2012 Olympics, but this was the Great Exhibition of 1851 generating stories of late trains, unscrupulous landlords and dangerous overcrowding.
Coverage of the event is found in 4 million pages of newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries being made available online Tuesday by the British Library, in what head of newspapers Ed King calls "a digital Aladdin's Cave" for researchers.
The online archive is a partnership between the library and digital publishing firm Brightsolid, which has been scanning 8,000 pages a day from the library's vast periodical archive for the past year and plans to digitize 40 million pages over the next decade.
A glance at the stories of crime and scandal shows some things haven't changed ? including grumbling letter-writers complaining about disruption caused by the 1851 exhibition, held inside a specially built Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park.
"People were saying, 'This isn't good, I can't ride my horse in Hyde Park,'" said King. One regional newspaper editor complained that the "celebrated p.m. fast train service to London" arrived two hours late and warned visitors "not to trust themselves to the tender mercies of the numerous private housekeepers" renting out rooms at exorbitant prices.
The library hopes the searchable online trove will be a major resource for academics and researchers. The vast majority of the British Library's 750 million pages of newspapers ? the largest collection in the world ? are currently available only on microfilm or bound in bulky volumes at a newspaper archive in north London, where the yellowing journals cover 20 miles (32 kilometers) of shelves.
"We've got 200 years of newspapers locked away," King said. "We're trying to open it up to a wider audience."
There will be a cost to download articles online, though they can be accessed for free at the library's London reading rooms.
Most of the first batch of 4 million pages are from the 19th century, and include stories about huge international events, freak accidents and local crimes, as well as articles about Victorian celebrities such as Florence Nightingale, whose nursing of troops in the Crimean War made her famous.
There are stories of war and famine, crime and punishment, alongside birth and death notices, family announcements and advertisements for soap, cocoa, marmalade, miracle cures and treatments for baldness.
Crime columns provide a glimpse at rough 19th-century justice. Newspapers printed lists of people transported to Australia for stealing money, silver, cloth, hay and, in one case, "seven cups and five saucers."
The archive includes national and regional newspapers from Britain and Ireland, as well as more specialized publications. The Cheltenham Looker-On reported on society, fashions and gossip in the genteel English spa town. The Poor Law Unions' Gazette contained vivid accounts of workhouse life, and descriptions of inmates who had absconded.
King said the library hopes the archive will also help amateur genealogists find information about their ancestors.
Library staff have already highlighted a few links to the famous, including an 1852 appearance in insolvency court by Simon Cowell's great-great-great grandfather, Michael Gashion, and a local newspaper item about the great-great grandfather of actress Kate Winslet, who was "embedded in a mass of bricks and timber" when a hotel facade fell on him in 1903.
Bob Satchwell of press trade group the Society of Editors welcomed the archive ? some good news for newspapers amid all the negative press from Britain's ongoing phone hacking scandal.
He said the website "opens up a magical new window on a magnificent treasure trove of real history, recording the lives of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in vibrant communities, rather than merely the cold facts of politics and pestilence."
___
Online: http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
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NTU-led research probes potential link between cancer and a common chemical in consumer products
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lester Kok
lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg
65-679-06804
Nanyang Technological University
A study led by a group of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) researchers has found that a chemical commonly used in consumer products can potentially cause cancer.
The chemical, Zinc Oxide, is used to absorb harmful ultra violet light. But when it is turned into nano-sized particles, they are able to enter human cells and may damage the cells' DNA. This in turn activates a protein called p53, whose duty is to prevent damaged cells from multiplying and becoming cancerous. However, cells that lack p53 or do not produce enough functional p53 may instead develop into cancerous cells when they come into contact with Zinc Oxide nanoparticles.
The study is led by Assistant Professor Joachim Loo, 34, and Assistant Professor Ng Kee Woei, 37, from NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering. They worked with Assistant Professor David Leong, 38, from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, a joint senior author of this research paper.
The findings suggest that companies may need to reassess the health impact of nano-sized Zinc Oxide particles used in everyday products. More studies are also needed on the use and concentration levels of nanomaterials in consumer products, how often a consumer uses them and in what quantities.
"Currently there is a lack of information about the risks of the nanomaterials used in consumer products and what they can pose to the human body. This study points to the need for further research in this area and we hope to work with the relevant authorities on this," said Asst Prof Loo.
The groundbreaking research findings were published in this month's edition of Biomaterials, one of the world's top journals in the field of biomaterials research. The breakthrough also validated efforts by Asst Prof Loo and Asst Prof Ng to pioneer a research group in the emerging field of nanotoxicology, which is still very much in its infancy throughout the world.
Nanotoxicology studies materials to see if they are toxic or harmful when they are turned into nano-sized particles. This is because nanomaterials usually have very different properties when compared to when the materials are of a larger size.
Asst Prof Ng said the team will carry out further research as the DNA damage brought about by nano-sized Zinc Oxide particles is currently a result of an unknown mechanism. But what is clear is that besides causing DNA damage, nanoparticles can also cause other harmful effects when used in high doses.
"From our studies, we found that nanoparticles can also increase stress levels in cells, cause inflammation or simply kill cells," said Asst Prof Ng who added that apart from finding out the cellular mechanism, more focused research is also expected to ascertain the physiological effects and damage that nano-sized Zinc Oxide particles can cause.
Asst Prof Loo pointed out that besides enhancing the understanding of the potential risks of using nanomaterials, advancements in nanotoxicology research will also help scientists put nanomaterials to good use in biomedical applications.
For example, although killing cells in our bodies is typically undesirable, this becomes a positive outcome if it can be effectively directed towards cancer cells in the body. At the same time, the team is also studying how nanomaterials can be "re-designed" to pose a lesser risk to humans, yet still possess the desired beneficial properties.
This research discovery is one of the latest in a series of biomedical breakthroughs by NTU in healthcare. Future healthcare is one of NTU's Five Peaks of Excellence with which the university aims to make its mark globally under the NTU 2015 five-year strategic plan. The other four peaks are sustainable earth, new media, the best of the East and West, and innovation.
Moving forward, the team hopes to work with existing and new collaborative partners, within and outside of Singapore, to orchestrate a more concerted effort towards the advancement of the fledgling field of nanotoxicology here, with the aim of helping regulatory bodies in Singapore formulate guidelines to protect consumer interests.
The research team would also like to work with the European Union to uncover the risks involving nanomaterials and how these materials should be regulated before they are made commercially available. Asst Prof Joachim Loo, who received his Bachelor and Doctorate degrees from NTU, was the only Singaporean representative in a recent nanotechnology workshop held in Europe. At the workshop, it was agreed that research collaborations in nanotoxicology between EU and South-east Asia should be increased.
###
Media contact:
Lester Kok
Assistant Manager
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Tel: 6790 6804
Email: lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg
About Nanyang Technological University
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. In 2013, NTU will enrol the first batch of students at its new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, which is set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to four world-class autonomous institutes the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.
Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore's science and tech hub, one-north, and is setting up a third campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district.
For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg.
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Public release date: 29-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
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lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg
65-679-06804
Nanyang Technological University
A study led by a group of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) researchers has found that a chemical commonly used in consumer products can potentially cause cancer.
The chemical, Zinc Oxide, is used to absorb harmful ultra violet light. But when it is turned into nano-sized particles, they are able to enter human cells and may damage the cells' DNA. This in turn activates a protein called p53, whose duty is to prevent damaged cells from multiplying and becoming cancerous. However, cells that lack p53 or do not produce enough functional p53 may instead develop into cancerous cells when they come into contact with Zinc Oxide nanoparticles.
The study is led by Assistant Professor Joachim Loo, 34, and Assistant Professor Ng Kee Woei, 37, from NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering. They worked with Assistant Professor David Leong, 38, from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, a joint senior author of this research paper.
The findings suggest that companies may need to reassess the health impact of nano-sized Zinc Oxide particles used in everyday products. More studies are also needed on the use and concentration levels of nanomaterials in consumer products, how often a consumer uses them and in what quantities.
"Currently there is a lack of information about the risks of the nanomaterials used in consumer products and what they can pose to the human body. This study points to the need for further research in this area and we hope to work with the relevant authorities on this," said Asst Prof Loo.
The groundbreaking research findings were published in this month's edition of Biomaterials, one of the world's top journals in the field of biomaterials research. The breakthrough also validated efforts by Asst Prof Loo and Asst Prof Ng to pioneer a research group in the emerging field of nanotoxicology, which is still very much in its infancy throughout the world.
Nanotoxicology studies materials to see if they are toxic or harmful when they are turned into nano-sized particles. This is because nanomaterials usually have very different properties when compared to when the materials are of a larger size.
Asst Prof Ng said the team will carry out further research as the DNA damage brought about by nano-sized Zinc Oxide particles is currently a result of an unknown mechanism. But what is clear is that besides causing DNA damage, nanoparticles can also cause other harmful effects when used in high doses.
"From our studies, we found that nanoparticles can also increase stress levels in cells, cause inflammation or simply kill cells," said Asst Prof Ng who added that apart from finding out the cellular mechanism, more focused research is also expected to ascertain the physiological effects and damage that nano-sized Zinc Oxide particles can cause.
Asst Prof Loo pointed out that besides enhancing the understanding of the potential risks of using nanomaterials, advancements in nanotoxicology research will also help scientists put nanomaterials to good use in biomedical applications.
For example, although killing cells in our bodies is typically undesirable, this becomes a positive outcome if it can be effectively directed towards cancer cells in the body. At the same time, the team is also studying how nanomaterials can be "re-designed" to pose a lesser risk to humans, yet still possess the desired beneficial properties.
This research discovery is one of the latest in a series of biomedical breakthroughs by NTU in healthcare. Future healthcare is one of NTU's Five Peaks of Excellence with which the university aims to make its mark globally under the NTU 2015 five-year strategic plan. The other four peaks are sustainable earth, new media, the best of the East and West, and innovation.
Moving forward, the team hopes to work with existing and new collaborative partners, within and outside of Singapore, to orchestrate a more concerted effort towards the advancement of the fledgling field of nanotoxicology here, with the aim of helping regulatory bodies in Singapore formulate guidelines to protect consumer interests.
The research team would also like to work with the European Union to uncover the risks involving nanomaterials and how these materials should be regulated before they are made commercially available. Asst Prof Joachim Loo, who received his Bachelor and Doctorate degrees from NTU, was the only Singaporean representative in a recent nanotechnology workshop held in Europe. At the workshop, it was agreed that research collaborations in nanotoxicology between EU and South-east Asia should be increased.
###
Media contact:
Lester Kok
Assistant Manager
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Tel: 6790 6804
Email: lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg
About Nanyang Technological University
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. In 2013, NTU will enrol the first batch of students at its new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, which is set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to four world-class autonomous institutes the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.
Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore's science and tech hub, one-north, and is setting up a third campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district.
For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/ntu-nrp112911.php
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Fired FAMU band director: hazing warnings ignored
Julian White, former director of Florida A&M University's famed Marching 100 band, speaks at a news conference Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, in Tallahassee, Fla. White, who was fired by the college following the death of drum major Robert Champion, said he feels he was unfairly dismissed. Police suspect hazing contributed to Champion's death, but have not released any more details. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)
Julian White, former director of Florida A&M University's famed Marching 100 band, speaks at a news conference Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, in Tallahassee, Fla. White, who was fired by the college following the death of drum major Robert Champion, said he feels he was unfairly dismissed. Police suspect hazing contributed to Champion's death, but have not released any more details. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)
Julian White, former director of Florida A&M University's famed Marching 100 band, speaks with his wife Dennine at his side during a news conference Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, in Tallahassee, Fla. White, who was fired by the college following the death of drum major Robert Champion, said he feels he was unfairly dismissed. Police suspect hazing contributed to Champion's death, but have not released any more details. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)
Julian White, center, former director of Florida A&M University's Marching 100 band, and his wife Dennine White, listen as their attorney Chuck Hobbs speaks at a news conference Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, in Tallahassee, Fla. White, who was fired by the college following the death of drum major Robert Champion, said he feels he was unfairly dismissed. Police suspect hazing contributed to Champion's death, but have not released any more details. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)
Robert Champion Sr., left, and his wife, Pam, center, are led away from a news conference by their attorney Christopher Chestnut on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, in Lithonia, Ga. The Champions, parents of Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion who died of suspected hazing Nov. 19, in Orlando, Fla., said they plan on filing a civil lawsuit in the matter. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
Robert Champion Sr., left, and his wife, Pam Champion, participate in a news conference on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, in Lithonia, Ga. The Champions, parents of Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion who died of suspected hazing Nov. 19, in Orlando, Fla., said they plan on filing a civil lawsuit in the matter. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) ? The fired director of Florida A&M's famed "Marching 100" band said he repeatedly warned university leaders over two decades about the dangers of hazing and that he's been made the scapegoat for a band member's death in which the practice is suspected.
Julian White, 71, said he suspended 26 band members for hazing two weeks before drum major Robert Champion's death on Nov. 19. He reported his actions to university administrators, he said.
Hazing has been "rampant on university campuses," and the suspensions would serve notice it wouldn't be tolerated at A&M, he said.
But instead of being supported, White said, he was second-guessed, particularly from some parents of band members, and said the punishments were akin to suspending star football players.
"And so the band members were apprehensive. 'Doc, you think we can go without 19 trombone players?'" said White, who replaced "Marching 100" founder William P. Foster as director in 1998. "And other folks. 'Doc, do you thing you can do it without them?' My comment was, it doesn't matter, I am not going to sacrifice the performance for the principle."
After A&M's football team lost its annual game against rival Bethune-Cookman, Champion collapsed on a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel. The 26-year-old junior had been vomiting and complained he couldn't breathe shortly before he became unconscious. When authorities arrived about 9:45 p.m., Champion was unresponsive. He died at a nearby hospital.
Authorities have not released any more details, except to say hazing played a role.
Less than a week later, White, a tenured professor, was fired by FAMU President James Ammons.
"I walked into his office and he said, 'Doc, I don't know any other way to put it, this is it for you,'" White recounted. "He said 'you can resign or you can be terminated.'"
Ammons, meanwhile, met Monday with former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, who was named last week to head a task force investigating what led to Champion's death.
"If some strong actions had been taken, then Robert Champion may be alive now," said White, who was asked by the student's family to speak at Wednesday's funeral service.
White, who was the lead drum major as a student, said he fears the tragedy could doom the showy high-energy, high-stepping band that has performed at Super Bowls, the Grammys and presidential inaugurations and in Paris on France's 200th anniversary.
Since Champion's death, the school has shuttered the marching band and the rest of the music department's performances.
Shutting it down was a meaningful decision, White said. The band would have been the first of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities to perform at Carnegie Hall.
"That hurts," White said.
Hazing has a long history in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges, where a spot in the band is coveted for its tradition and prominence.
FAMU has been at the center of some of the worst cases. In 2001, former band member Marcus Parker suffered kidney damage because of a beating with a paddle. Three years earlier, Ivery Luckey, a clarinet player, said he was paddled around 300 times and had to go to the hospital.
"It's a culture," White said. "Not just a Florida A&M culture, a college phenomenon."
Champion's parents said Monday their son never spoke of hazing. Robert Champion Sr. said he talked to his son just a few days before his death and everything was fine.
"I wanted to believe stuff like that wouldn't happen," he said. "I would ask my son questions. 'Is there anything you need to tell me? Let me know.' He told me, 'Dad everything is going OK. I'm working, trying to go to school and practice.'"
Hazing "needs to stop," said Champion's mother, Pam, during a news conference whose purpose she said was "to put this out there and let people know there has to be a change."
Family attorney Christopher Chestnut said from what they have learned, hazing played a part in the student's death.
The family hopes a lawsuit will lead to changes at FAMU and prompt other hazing victims to come forward, he said.
"We want to eradicate a culture of hazing so this doesn't happen again," said Chestnut. "Hazing is a culture of, 'Don't ask, don't tell.' The family's message today is: 'Please tell.'"
Champion fell in love with music at about age 6 when he saw a marching band at a parade in downtown Atlanta.
"His experience in the band was, in his words, great. Robert was happy," his mother said. "He loved the band and everything that went with it. He loved performing. That was his life. You couldn't take him out of it."
___
Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid kills up to 28 (Reuters)
YAKKAGHUND, Pakistan (Reuters) ? NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan relations, already deeply frayed, further into crisis.
Pakistan retaliated by shutting down vital NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in just under a third of the alliance's supplies.
The attack is the worst single incident of its kind since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with Washington in the days immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan, its ally in the war on militancy, have been strained following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in a raid on the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in May, which Pakistan called a flagrant violation of sovereignty.
A spokesman for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan confirmed that NATO aircraft had been called in to support troops in the area and had probably killed some Pakistani soldiers.
"Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely caused the Pakistan casualties," said General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
He added that he could not confirm the number of casualties, but ISAF is investigating the "tragic development".
"We are aware that Pakistani soldiers perished. We don't know the size, the magnitude," he said.
The Pakistani government and military brimmed with fury.
"This is an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty," said Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. "We will not let any harm come to Pakistan's sovereignty and solidarity."
The Foreign Office said it would take up the matter "in the strongest terms" with NATO and the United States.
The powerful Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, said in a statement issued by the Pakistani military that "all necessary steps be under taken for an effective response to this irresponsible act.
"A strong protest has been launched with NATO/ISAF in which it has been demanded that strong and urgent action be taken against those responsible for this aggression."
Two military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the outposts, about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the Afghan border. The Pakistani military said 24 troops were killed and 13 wounded.
EARLY MORNING ATTACK
It remains unclear what exactly happened, but the attack took place around 2 a.m. (2100 GMT) in the Baizai area of Mohmand, where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban militants.
"Pakistani troops effectively responded immediately in self-defence to NATO/ISAF's aggression with all available weapons," the Pakistani military statement said.
The commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, General John R. Allen, said he had offered his condolences to the family of any Pakistani soldiers who "may have been killed or injured".
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad also offered condolences.
About 40 Pakistani army troops were stationed at the outposts, military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead.
"The latest attack by NATO forces on our post will have serious repercussions as they without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep," said a senior Pakistani military officer, requesting anonymity.
Reflecting the confusion of war in an ill-defined border area, an Afghan border police official, Edrees Momand, said joint Afghan-NATO troops near the outpost on Saturday morning had detained several militants.
"I am not aware of the casualties on the other side of the border but those we have detained aren't Afghan Taliban," he said, implying they may have been Pakistani or other foreign national Taliban operating in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan border is often poorly marked, and Afghan and Pakistani maps have differences of several kilometres in some places, military officials have said.
However Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said that NATO had been given maps of the area, with Pakistani military posts marked out.
"When the other side is saying there is a doubt about this, there is no doubt about it. These posts have been marked and handed over to the other side for marking on their maps and are clearly inside Pakistani territory."
The incident occurred a day after Allen met Kayani to discuss border control and enhanced cooperation.
"After the recent meetings between Pakistan and ISAF/NATO forces to build confidence and trust, these kind of attacks should not have taken place," a senior military source told Reuters.
BLOCKED SUPPLIES
NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar hours after the raid, officials said.
"We have halted the supplies and some 40 tankers and trucks have been returned from the check post in Jamrud," Mutahir Zeb, a senior government official, told Reuters.
Another official said the supplies had been stopped for security reasons.
"There is possibility of attacks on NATO supplies passing through the volatile Khyber tribal region, therefore we sent them back towards Peshawar to remain safe," he said.
The border crossing at Chaman in Baluchistan was also closed, Frontier Corps officials said.
Pakistan is a vital land route for nearly half of NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said. Land shipments only account for about two thirds of the alliance's cargo shipments into Afghanistan.
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2010, which killed two Pakistani troops, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.
NATO apologised for that incident, which it said happened when NATO gunships mistook warning shots by the Pakistani forces for a militant attack.
U.S.-Pakistan relations were already reeling from a tumultuous year that saw the bin Laden raid, the jailing of a CIA contractor, and U.S. accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
The United States has long suspected Pakistan of continuing to secretly support Taliban militant groups to secure influence in Afghanistan after most NATO troops leave in 2014. Saturday's incident will give Pakistan the argument that NATO is now attacking it directly.
"I think we should go to the United Nations Security Council against this," said retired Brigadier Mahmood Shah, former chief of security in the tribal areas. "So far, Pakistan is being blamed for all that is happening in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's point of view has not been shown in the international media."
Other analysts, including Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, said Pakistan would protest and close the supply lines for some time, but that ultimately "things will get back to normal".
Paul Beaver, a British security analyst, said relations were so bad that this incident might have no noticeable impact.
"I'm not sure U.S.-Pakistan relations could sink much lower than they are now," he said.
(Additional reporting by Bushra Takseen, Saud Mehsud, Jibran Ahmad and Saeed Achakzai in Pakistan, Tim Castle in London, and Hamid Shalizi and Christine Kearney in Afghanistan; Writing by Augustine Anthony and Chris Allbritton; Editing by Ron Popeski and Rosalind Russell)
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Belgian finance minister: Downgrade makes budget deal urgent (Reuters)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Belgium's political deadlock sparked a downgrade in its debt on Friday, possibly forcing the country to pay higher interest rates as it nears 18 months without a formal government.
Standard & Poor's downgraded Belgium's credit rating to double-A from double-A-plus, citing concerns about funding and market pressures, as the euro zone debt crisis continues to worsen.
"We need a reply that is clear and credible if we are to avoid the worst," Belgium's caretaker prime minister, Yves Leterme, told Belgian television immediately after S&P's announcement.
The downgrade followed difficulties this week in Belgium's drawn-out attempt to form a government. Elio Di Rupo, leader of the French-speaking Socialists, had been trying to form a government based on a six-party coalition.
But he tendered his resignation on Monday after talks for a 2012 budget - agreement on which is a condition for forming a government - ground to a halt.
"The announcement by Standard & Poor's reinforces further the necessity to finalize the 2012 budget in a very brief period," Finance Minister Didier Reynders said in a statement.
Economists said that the downgrade might force the political parties to forge an agreement over the weekend, but that this would still be too late for the country to avoid higher borrowing costs.
"Even if they have an agreement tonight we will have to pay higher interest rates due to the lower rating," said Philippe Ledent, an economist at Bank Degroof.
In its statement, S&P said: "We think the Belgian government's capacity to prevent an increase in general government debt, which we consider to be already at high levels, is being constrained by rapid private sector deleveraging both in Belgium and among many of Belgium's key trading partners."
Barclays Capital economist Francois Cabau pointed out that Belgium had been on a negative outlook for a year, so the announcement was not big news.
"I guess they saw enough in terms of the political uncertainty," he said.
Reynders said that Belgium's credit rating was still one of the most solid in Europe, and that its heavy debt burden was already heading downwards.
Though Belgium's outstanding debt is nearly as big as its gross domestic product, making it one of the most indebted countries in Europe, the country's budget deficit is forecast to be relatively low this year at 3.6 percent.
The six parties involved in the budget talks are aiming at a budget deficit of 2.8 percent of GDP for next year, but have failed to agree how much of the savings should come from higher taxes and how much from public spending cuts.
The budget wrangling and a wider loss of confidence in European sovereign debt have pushed up Belgium's borrowing costs sharply. At the end of September, the yield on benchmark 10-year government bonds was under 3.9 percent. On Friday, it was up to 5.9 percent.
Belgium's downgrade followed another rough week in European sovereign debt markets. Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday, raising the pressure on Rome's new emergency government.
The S&P announcement is a sign of "further deterioration across the euro zone," said Mark Luschini, chief market strategist in Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. "The threat is creeping closer to the core member. It's evident that their situation is untenable."
(Reporting By Sebastian Moffett. Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in Paris and Richard Leong in New York. Editing by Jan Strupczewski and Kenneth Barry)
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