Although there have been some recent encouraging signs that the housing industry is getting back on its feet, home prices are still falling in virtually all the nation's big metro areas, according to data released Tuesday.
The latest S&P Case-Shiller home price index shows home prices fell in 19?of the nation's 20 biggest cities in December, compared with a year earlier. Only Detroit -- one of the cities hardest hit by the economic downturn --?bucked the trend, with prices up a scant 0.5 percent from December 2010.
And that was little reason for cheering. Home prices fell 3.8 percent in Detroit from November to December -- the biggest one-month drop of any city in the index. Detroit home prices also have suffered the biggest drop of any city since January 2000, according to the index.
"In terms of prices, the housing market ended 2011 on a very disappointing note," said David?Blitzer, chairman of the Standard and Poor's?index committee.?"While we thought we saw some signs of stabilization in the middle of 2011, it appears that neither the economy nor consumer confidence was strong enough to move the market in a positive direction as the year ended."
Here are the cities where prices have fallen the farthest over the past year, based on the index:
Atlanta, -12.8%
Las Vegas, -8.8%
Chicago, -6.5%
Seattle, -5.6%
San Francisco, -5.4%
San Diego, -5.4%
The index also measures each metro area compared with price levels in January 2000. On that basis, Detroit, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Cleveland have been hardest hit. All have prices that are typically below where they were 12 years ago.
Washington, D.C., New York and and Los Angeles are the metro areas where home prices have had the best performance over the past 12 years. In all three cases prices are up at least 60 percent from the index year.
"After a prior three years of accelerated decline, the past two years has been a story of a housing market that is bottoming out but has not yet stabilized," Blitzer said in the release.
The S&P Case Shiller report is a widely respected measure of metropolitan home prices based on "matched price pairs" of individual homes in each metro area.
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Deaths triple among football players, morning temperatures thought to play a rolePublic release date: 27-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andrew Grundstein andrewg@uga.edu 706-583-0430 University of Georgia
Athens, Ga. Heat-related deaths among football players across the country tripled to nearly three per year between 1994 and 2009 after averaging about one per year the previous 15 years, according to an analysis of weather conditions and high school and college sports data conducted by University of Georgia researchers.
The scientists built a detailed database that included the temperature, humidity and time of day, as well as the height, weight and position for 58 football players who died during practice sessions from overheating, or hyperthermia. The study, published recently in the International Journal of Biometeorology, found that for the eastern U.S., where most deaths occurred, morning heat index values were consistently higher in the latter half of the 30-year study period. Overall, Georgia led the nation in deaths with six fatalities.
"In general, on days the deaths occurred, the temperature was hotter and the air more humid than normal local conditions," said climatologist Andrew Grundstein, senior author of the study and associate professor of geography in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
More than half of the players fell ill on days when practice ended before noon. The majority of the deaths occurred in August, when most high school and college football coaches ramp up preseason training. The American College of Sports Medicine provides guidelines for the intensity of all sports practices based on a measurement called the wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT.
The WBGT reading is calculated using the familiar dry bulb thermometer usually found in homes, a wet bulb thermometer wrapped in damp cotton and, finally, a dry bulb thermometer encased in a black globe or globe thermometer. Each instrument provides, respectively, a measure of the air temperature, the ability of evaporation to cool the player, and the amount of solar radiation absorbed by a surface or, in this case, the player's exposed skin.
The National Weather Service provides a measurement called the heat index that attempts to convey true ambient temperature. The weakness of that measurement, Grundstein explained, is that it does not account for sun exposure or a person's involvement in athletic activity.
Neither method of measuring temperature accounts for the protective pads and helmets football players wear during practice.
"We all want a single magic number to indicate the heat threshold," Grundstein said. "But so many factors contribute to heat stress that it's impossible to draw the line at a single temperature."
Grundstein cautioned against assigning complete blame for the deaths on warmer temperatures and increasing humidity. He found that football players have also grown larger since 1980. Linemen, who tend to have a higher body mass index than other players, seem especially susceptible to hyperthermia. In Grundstein's sample, 86 percent of those who died were linemen. The increase in deaths also could be explained by an overall increase in weight and BMI in the past 15 years.
Even though specialized tools such as the wet bulb global thermometer are available, not all football coaches decide to use them. In addition to knowing the true temperature outdoors, another approach to avoiding heat illnesses is to make sure players are slowly introduced to an intense workout regime after a summer probably spent inside air-conditioned environments. It is also important to have trained staff watching for signs of heat illness and to have an emergency management plan in place, he said.
Grundstein is currently working with Mike Ferrara, professor of kinesiology in the UGA College of Education, to study heat-related injuries in Georgia high school football players. Deaths from hyperthermia, Grundstein said, are highly avoidable.
###
Co-authors, all from UGA, include associate professor of geography John Knox and graduate students Craig Ramseyer, Fang Zhao, Jordan L. Pesses, Pete Akers, Aneela Qureshi, Laura Becker and Myron Petro.
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Deaths triple among football players, morning temperatures thought to play a rolePublic release date: 27-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andrew Grundstein andrewg@uga.edu 706-583-0430 University of Georgia
Athens, Ga. Heat-related deaths among football players across the country tripled to nearly three per year between 1994 and 2009 after averaging about one per year the previous 15 years, according to an analysis of weather conditions and high school and college sports data conducted by University of Georgia researchers.
The scientists built a detailed database that included the temperature, humidity and time of day, as well as the height, weight and position for 58 football players who died during practice sessions from overheating, or hyperthermia. The study, published recently in the International Journal of Biometeorology, found that for the eastern U.S., where most deaths occurred, morning heat index values were consistently higher in the latter half of the 30-year study period. Overall, Georgia led the nation in deaths with six fatalities.
"In general, on days the deaths occurred, the temperature was hotter and the air more humid than normal local conditions," said climatologist Andrew Grundstein, senior author of the study and associate professor of geography in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
More than half of the players fell ill on days when practice ended before noon. The majority of the deaths occurred in August, when most high school and college football coaches ramp up preseason training. The American College of Sports Medicine provides guidelines for the intensity of all sports practices based on a measurement called the wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT.
The WBGT reading is calculated using the familiar dry bulb thermometer usually found in homes, a wet bulb thermometer wrapped in damp cotton and, finally, a dry bulb thermometer encased in a black globe or globe thermometer. Each instrument provides, respectively, a measure of the air temperature, the ability of evaporation to cool the player, and the amount of solar radiation absorbed by a surface or, in this case, the player's exposed skin.
The National Weather Service provides a measurement called the heat index that attempts to convey true ambient temperature. The weakness of that measurement, Grundstein explained, is that it does not account for sun exposure or a person's involvement in athletic activity.
Neither method of measuring temperature accounts for the protective pads and helmets football players wear during practice.
"We all want a single magic number to indicate the heat threshold," Grundstein said. "But so many factors contribute to heat stress that it's impossible to draw the line at a single temperature."
Grundstein cautioned against assigning complete blame for the deaths on warmer temperatures and increasing humidity. He found that football players have also grown larger since 1980. Linemen, who tend to have a higher body mass index than other players, seem especially susceptible to hyperthermia. In Grundstein's sample, 86 percent of those who died were linemen. The increase in deaths also could be explained by an overall increase in weight and BMI in the past 15 years.
Even though specialized tools such as the wet bulb global thermometer are available, not all football coaches decide to use them. In addition to knowing the true temperature outdoors, another approach to avoiding heat illnesses is to make sure players are slowly introduced to an intense workout regime after a summer probably spent inside air-conditioned environments. It is also important to have trained staff watching for signs of heat illness and to have an emergency management plan in place, he said.
Grundstein is currently working with Mike Ferrara, professor of kinesiology in the UGA College of Education, to study heat-related injuries in Georgia high school football players. Deaths from hyperthermia, Grundstein said, are highly avoidable.
###
Co-authors, all from UGA, include associate professor of geography John Knox and graduate students Craig Ramseyer, Fang Zhao, Jordan L. Pesses, Pete Akers, Aneela Qureshi, Laura Becker and Myron Petro.
[ | 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.
LONDON -- BP chief executive Bob Dudley said the company is able to fight a lengthy court battle over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dudley, who took control of BP in October 2012 after former chief executive Tony Hayward resigned amid criticism over the way he had handled the oil spill, told Sunday Telegraph newspaper that BP can continue to function even if the court case that begins in New Orleans Monday continues for years.
"We have to remember we are a business that invests in decade-long cycles," he said in an interview published Sunday. "For the vast majority of people now at BP, the company is back on its feet and it is starting to move forward," he said.
BP has set aside $40 billion to deal with fines and associated costs of the April 20, 2010, blowout of BP's deepwater Macondo well which killed 11 workers and injured 17. The burning drilling rig Deepwater Horizon toppled and sank to the Gulf floor, where it sits today.
It took engineers 85 days to permanently cap the well. By then, more than 200 million gallons of oil leaked from the well and had covered much of the northern half of the Gulf of Mexico - endangering fisheries, killing marine life and shutting down offshore oil drilling operations.
President Barack Obama called the BP spill "the worst environmental disaster the nation has ever faced."
Dudley said BP had improved safety standards on its rigs, five of which are working again in the Gulf of Mexico, and that the company was still committed to deepwater drilling.
"We had a choice whether or not to back away from the offshore industry and the deep water industry but we have a lot of great strengths in this area and so, rather than move away, we have gone in with even more commitment, more time and more people, more expertise," he said.
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) president Pat McQuaid has presented a speech at the World Conference on Women and Sport in Los Angeles, USA, this week dealing with the issue of gender equality within cycle sport.
During the speech, McQuaid outlined the advances made by the UCI in creating and integrating women's events into professional cycling - but said that there was still a lot more work to be done in preventing the prejudice and discrimination of women.
"Women are challenged by many barriers based on prejudice - not only within a political, economic and social framework but equally within the local, national and international sports environment," said McQuaid during his speech entitled 'Equal opportunities: How to make it happen'.
"This is particularly true for endurance sports which have at times in history, including in modern history, been considered too difficult or even harmful for women," he continued.
"The heritage of these stereotypes has been damaging to the advancement of women and it has deeply affected decades of coverage by sport media, decisions of sport organizations, access to education and the participation of girls and women in recreational and competitive sport."
Last year, British professional cyclist Emma Pooley openly attacked 'sexism' in cycling, saying that the UCI had been "extremely backward" in addressing the issue.
In January, Australian professional Chloe Hosking was forced to apologise to McQuaid after calling him "a dick" for saying that there should be no minimum wage for female cyclists, as there is for male riders.
In his speech, McQuaid outlined the work that the UCI has undertaken in recent decades to strengthen the position of women in cycle sport.
He cited the addition of women's cycling events to the Olympic Games, culminating in the decision to create equal numbers of cycling events for men and women at the 2012 Games in London, as an example of the advances made to eliminate discrimination.
"Female athletes from a large number of nations have now won Olympic medals in cycling disciplines which means that Olympic role models have been created for girls and women across the globe and the number of role models can be expected to grow significantly in 2012 given that there will be more women's cycling medals up for grabs in London," said McQuaid.?
Despite this - and although the Olympic disciplines themselves are equal - the London 2012 road race test event last August only featured a men's race.
McQuaid quoted that the number of elite women cyclists has increased 153 per cent since the inception of the UCI Women's World Cup road race series in 1997. He also said that television interest in the womens World Cup has grown across Europe, Asia and Australasia.
Working conditions for women professional cyclists were also dealt with, with McQuaid citing the introduction of the scrutiny of women's teams to ensure they adhere to UCI criteria for financial guarantees.
More introspectively, McQuaid stated that the UCI has committed to an internal equal opportunities policy, with 49 per cent of current employees being female.
Rather than resting on its laurels, McQuaid admitted that "much work remains to be done and the UCI is committed to creating better visibility for women and to providing the best possible conditions for the development of women's cycling."?
"To quote a thinker who has had no small affect on changing the world: Albert Einstein who put it quite simply when he said 'Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving'
"Even if riding a bicycle is somewhat easier than moving forward with change, let us keep up the momentum so that we get our balance right."
External link A transcript of the full speech is available for download from the UCI website
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[unable to retrieve full-text content]Time.com - Libya should be celebrating the one-year anniversary of the revolution that toppled Gaddafi. Instead, the country remains fractured and dangerous due to its powerful militias
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2012
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