Monthly Archives: June 2012

Alliance Health Networks Announces Sponsorship of 35 Stanford Medicine X ePatient Scholarships

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SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Alliance Health Networks, the leading social networking company serving consumers and the healthcare industry, today announced its sponsorship of 35 ePatient scholarships for the 2012 Medicine X conference at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The scholarships, granted by Medicine X, provide the funds needed for these ePatientshighly informed and engaged patients who make significant use of online resources to track and manage their healthto attend the 2012 Medicine X conference in September.

Medicine X is a catalyst for new ideas about the future of medicine and healthcare, and is designed to explore the potential of social media and information technology to advance the practice of medicine, improve health, and empower patients to be active participants in their own care. The Medicine X conference aims to bring a broad academic approach to understanding emerging technologies with the potential to improve health and advance the practice of medicine.

Medicine X is an academic conference designed for everyone, said Dr. Larry Chu, associate professor of anesthesia at Stanford and executive director of the conference. And, through our scholarship program, 10 percent of the seats are being given for free to patients. We hope this will unite patients with healthcare providers, researchers and technologists to solve healthcare problems.

Alliance Health sponsored the ePatient scholarship program to help bring an active patient voice to the Medicine X conference. The company owns and operates more than 50 specific social health networks such as Diabetic Connect, Heart Connect, Sleep Connect and Arthritis Connect, among others that connect more than 1.5 million registered patients and caregivers to each other and to valuable condition-specific information.

The ePatient perspective is critical when exploring the new shape of healthcare, and Alliance Health is thrilled to provide the means for these 35 individuals to lend their voices to the conversation, said Stead Burwell, CEO of Alliance Health Networks. As a health-based social engagement platform, we know firsthand that people are using social networks to manage their health journey in ways that were never imagined even just a few years ago. We are happy to partner with Stanford Medicine X to help propel this important healthcare discussion forward.

Applicants for the scholarship had to demonstrate a history of patient engagement, community outreach and advocacy, with a preference given to individuals using emerging technologies such as blogs, Twitter, and social media to pursue these goals. Scholarship recipients will have the opportunity to participate both as attendees and speakers, and will also be given the chance to contribute to a patient-centered design project facilitated by the health and wellness team at the international design firm IDEO.

Under the direction of Chu, Medicine X is a project of the Stanford AIM (Anesthesia Informatics and Media) Lab. The 2012 Medicine X Conference will be held September 28-30.

About Alliance Health Networks

Alliance Health Networks is building a free and independent social engagement platform that gives people the power to navigate their personal health journey. The company owns and operates more than 50 social networks and 20 mobile versions serving over 1.5 million registered members. Alliance Health leverages social networks to help consumers more actively manage their care through personal connections, powerful tools, and deeper insights. The company's investors include New World Ventures, Physic Ventures, Highway 12 Ventures, and EPIC Ventures. For more information, visit: http://www.alliancehealthnetworks.com.

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Alliance Health Networks Announces Sponsorship of 35 Stanford Medicine X ePatient Scholarships

Groundbreaking AIDS Researcher Dies at 62

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Harvard Medical School professor Norman L. Letvin 71, who was renowned as one of the scientific communitys leaders in the quest to develop an AIDS vaccine, was remembered after his death last month for not only his groundbreaking research but also his welcoming demeanor, musical gifts, and devotion to family.

Letvin, a pioneer in the use of non-human primates in AIDS vaccine research, died of pancreatic cancer on May 28 at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was 62.

After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, Letvin earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1975. Whilecompleting post-graduate training at the University of Pennsylvania, Letvin married Marion Stein 71, a fellow doctor. The two returned to Boston, where Letvin completed his senior residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In the early 1980s, Letvin discovered simian immunodeficiency virus, a virus similar to HIV that causes an AIDS-like illness in monkeys. That momentous finding led to a workable way for scientists to test HIV vaccines.

From 1994 until his death, he served as chief of the Division of Viral Pathogenesis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He also edited the AIDS section of Science for 13 years.

Those who knew Letvin remembered his stunning intuition as a scientist.

I think he just had a natural talent for asking the right questions in science, his wife Marion said. He knew how to set up experiments in a way that whatever the results were, the data would be useful.

Though his laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess was at the forefront of vital AIDS research, Letvin did not foster a tense working environment, colleagues recalled.

His door was always open. He made everyone feel that he was extremely approachable, said Wendy W. Yeh, a Medical School professor who worked in Letvins lab.

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UMass Medical School Enrolling Patients in Study of Tissue Expansion for Breast Reconstruction

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WORCESTER, MA--(Marketwire -06/13/12)- The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and UMass Memorial Medical Center have enrolled their first participant in a clinical study designed to evaluate a new tissue expansion method for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy. The randomized, controlled clinical study is designed to directly compare the outcomes of the traditional saline tissue expansion method to an investigational, remote-controlled, needle-free, tissue expansion system known as The AeroForm Patient Controlled Tissue Expander System.

Tissue expansion is a process required to stretch the skin and tissue at the site of a mastectomy so that a standard saline or silicone breast implant can be placed.

"Traditionally, women undergoing breast reconstruction have had to endure a long process of inconvenient and often painful inflations using conventional saline expanders to create a pocket for a standard implant following a mastectomy," said John Castle, MD, clinical assistant professor of surgery at UMMS and plastic surgery director at the UMass Memorial Comprehensive Breast Center. "This investigational system eliminates the need for saline injections by allowing the patient to trigger the release of small amounts of compressed carbon-dioxide through the valve of a tiny chamber located inside the expander. The patient uses the remote control to gradually inflate the investigational expander in small, pre-set amounts on a daily basis at home, eliminating the need for weekly doctor visits."

Participants in this clinical trial will undergo outpatient surgery to have the investigational tissue expansion device implanted. They will then use a wireless dose controller to trigger the release of small, regulated amounts of carbon-dioxide to fill the tissue expander, according to a protocol directed by their surgeon. Once the tissue is adequately expanded, participants will return to UMass Memorial Medical Center to have the implant surgically inserted. During earlier feasibility trials, the average expansion time associated with the remote-controlled tissue expander was 15 days, a fraction of the time required using traditional expanders which can take months to achieve full expansion.

Patients in the study will be randomly selected to receive the investigational expander or a traditional saline expander. The patients who receive the investigational expander will use a wireless remote control to trigger the release of small, regulated amounts of carbon-dioxide to fill the tissue expander, according to a protocol directed by Dr. Castle. Once the tissue is adequately expanded, the patient will return to have the expander removed and a standard implant placed.

The current standard of care in tissue expansion involves implanting a saline expander under the skin and pectoral muscle following a mastectomy procedure. The patient returns to her doctor weekly for bolus saline injections, which many patients say is the most painful, difficult part of the reconstruction process. The traditional saline process can take as long as five to six months.

UMass Memorial Medical Center and other hospitals across the U.S. are participating in the study. Enrollment will continue until a total of 92 AeroForm expanders and 46 saline expanders have been implanted in patients. AeroForm will be evaluated based on its ability to successfully and safely expand the tissue to the point that the expander can be replaced with a standard breast implant. Secondary measurements will include the average number of days needed to achieve the desired expansion, total reconstruction time, pain and patient satisfaction.

The AeroForm Patient Controlled Tissue Expander was designed and manufactured by AirXpanders, a medical device company in Palo Alto, CA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted AirXpanders an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to conduct the study and it has been approved for enrollment by the U Mass Memorial Medical Center Review Board.

For more information on the study, please visit clinicaltrials.gov. (NCT01425268) If you or someone you know is interested in joining the study, please call 508-334-7692.

About the University of Massachusetts Medical SchoolThe University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of the fastest growing academic health centers in the country, has built a reputation as a world-class research institution, consistently producing noteworthy advances in clinical and basic research. The Medical School attracts more than $270 million in research funding annually, 80 percent of which comes from federal funding sources. The mission of the Medical School is to advance the health and well-being of the people of the commonwealth and the world through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. For more information, visit http://www.umassmed.edu.

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Liberty Auction House Offers Jewelry Auctions, Coins and Police Auctions Services

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Liberty Auction House is now offering a free list of updated information on police auctions, government auctions and car auctions on a regular basis. The website has become a frontrunner when it comes to selling auction items and shows a great deal of variety in the products.Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) June 13, 2012 Liberty Auction House, an exclusive auction website, is providing latest ...

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Liberty Auction House Offers Jewelry Auctions, Coins and Police Auctions Services

Liberty Interactive in Neutral Zone – Analyst Blog

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Referenced Stocks: HSNI, LINTA, VVTV

We reiterate our long-term Neutral recommendation on Liberty Interactive Corp. ( LINTA ) following its mixed first-quarter 2012 financial results. We believe the TV home shopping business will continue to flourish in the near future as the global macro-economy is expected to gradually stabilize compared with the massive fluctuations in the last couple of years.

Liberty Interactive's most prestigious division QVC continues to perform well. QVC shopping network has successfully transformed itself into a powerful global brand, which may facilitate the company to boost its revenue in double digits. The strategic move taken by management to offer QVC programs on mobile platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, was a huge success. Furthermore, the company is generating positive free cash flow. We believe Liberty Interactive is currently fairly valued as the company is undergoing a process to create Liberty Ventures tracking stock.

Liberty Interactive's QVC division has become the undisputed market leader in the $8 billion TV home-shopping business. Currently, QVC commands an estimated 69% market share, far ahead of its nearest rivals, HSN Inc. ( HSNI ) and ValueVision Media Inc. ( VVTV ). Furthermore, Liberty Interactive also owns a 32% stake of HSN Inc. TV home-shopping business is characterized as having quite stable customer base, generally women. QVC accounts for over 11 million customers in the U.S., which is expected to grow in the long term.

Currently, QVC's services are distributed to approximately 195 million homes worldwide. Despite facing devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, resulting in severe disruption of QVC TV shows in the country, Liberty Interactive managed to retain its sales momentum in Japan.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

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Liberty Interactive in Neutral Zone - Analyst Blog

Liberty Tax Service to Announce Fiscal 2012 Results on June 14, 2012

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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

JTH Holding, Inc., the parent company of Liberty Tax Service, will announce its year-end 2012 financial results on June 14, 2012 before the market opens. The companys fiscal year ended April 30, 2012.

Liberty executives John Hewitt, Founder and CEO, and Mark Baumgartner, CFO, will discuss the financial results on a conference call at 8:30am EDT on June 14, 2012. To hear the call, dial 866-831-6267 in the United States or 617-213-8857 from international locations. The participant passcode for the call is 29370301. The conference call may also be heard live via webcast at http://ir.libertytax.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=233197&p=irol-calendar

Replay Information

The audio webcast will remain available on Libertys investor relations website for one week after the conference call.

About Liberty Tax Service

Liberty Tax Service is the fastest-growing retail tax preparation company in the industrys history. Founded in 1997 by CEO John T. Hewitt, a pioneer in the tax industry, Liberty Tax Service has prepared over 10 million individual income tax returns. With 43 years of tax industry experience, Hewitt stands as the most experienced CEO in the tax preparation business, having also founded Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. Liberty Tax Service is the only tax franchise on the recently released Forbes Top 20 Franchises for the Buck.

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Liberty Tax Service to Announce Fiscal 2012 Results on June 14, 2012

Liberty Interactive in Neutral Zone

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We reiterate our long-term Neutral recommendation on Liberty Interactive Corp. (LINTA) following its mixed first-quarter 2012 financial results. We believe the TV home shopping business will continue to flourish in the near future as the global macro-economy is expected to gradually stabilize compared with the massive fluctuations in the last couple of years.

Liberty Interactives most prestigious division QVC continues to perform well. QVC shopping network has successfully transformed itself into a powerful global brand, which may facilitate the company to boost its revenue in double digits. The strategic move taken by management to offer QVC programs on mobile platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, was a huge success. Furthermore, the company is generating positive free cash flow. We believe Liberty Interactive is currently fairly valued as the company is undergoing a process to create Liberty Ventures tracking stock.

Liberty Interactives QVC division has become the undisputed market leader in the $8 billion TV home-shopping business. Currently, QVC commands an estimated 69% market share, far ahead of its nearest rivals, HSN Inc. (HSNI) and ValueVision Media Inc. (VVTV). Furthermore, Liberty Interactive also owns a 32% stake of HSN Inc. TV home-shopping business is characterized as having quite stable customer base, generally women. QVC accounts for over 11 million customers in the U.S., which is expected to grow in the long term.

Currently, QVCs services are distributed to approximately 195 million homes worldwide. Despite facing devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, resulting in severe disruption of QVC TV shows in the country, Liberty Interactive managed to retain its sales momentum in Japan.

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Liberty Interactive in Neutral Zone

Liberty Mutual Insurance Receives USAA Supplier Award

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BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Liberty Mutual Insurance has been given the Above and Beyond award from USAA for its work to create a program that allows USAA to better manage employee absences. The award recognizes key suppliers for significant contributions to USAAs operations.

In making the award, USAA a leading financial services provider for members of the military and their families recognized Liberty Mutual Insurance for working with USAA to develop and implement a program to manage planned and unplanned employee absences. This system provides near real-time employee absence data, allowing USAA to serve its members with optimal scheduling and staffing.

We take a holistic, proactive approach to helping our employees come to work and be engaged and productive, notes Jeff Weiss, USAA senior vice president. Beyond tracking planned and unplanned absences, we can inform employees of certain benefit programs that provide support for unplanned absence events, such as child care back-up options. By proactively providing resources to employees, USAA minimizes outside issues and stressors, allowing employees to focus on serving our members.

Jean Scarrow, chief operating officer of Liberty Mutual Insurances Group Benefits business unit, was honored by the award. We strive to help policyholders better manage the significant cost of employee absence. The award which validates the value we bring to USAA and other policyholders is tremendously meaningful coming from a leader in absence management.

About Liberty Mutual

Helping people live safer, more secure lives since 1912, Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance is a diversified global insurer and the third largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2011 direct premiums written as reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Liberty Mutual Insurance also ranks 84th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2011 revenue. As of December 31, 2011, Liberty Mutual Insurance had $117.1 billion in consolidated assets, $99.3 billion in consolidated liabilities, and $34.7 billion in annual consolidated revenue.

Liberty Mutual Insurance offers a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, workers compensation, property, commercial automobile, general liability, global specialty, group disability, reinsurance and surety. Liberty Mutual Insurance (www.libertymutualinsurance.com) employs over 45,000 people in more than 900 offices throughout the world.

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Liberty Mutual Insurance Receives USAA Supplier Award

Goodlatte nets Republican nomination for 6th District

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Rep. Robert Goodlatte withstood a challenge from tea party-backed Karen Kwiatkowski on Tuesday to claim theRepublican nomination for his 11th term in Congress from the 6th District.

Goodlatte captured 66 percent of the districts vote, which includes Lynchburg, Amherst County and part of Bedford County. Just 7 percent of registered voters turned out.

Kwiatkowski, a retired Air Force officer who lives in the Shenandoah Valley, attracted small but enthusiastic crowds to campaign rallies where she aligned herself with Ron Pauls brand of libertarianism.

Goodlatte relied on his incumbency, refusing to debate Kwiatkowski.

He will face Democrat Andy Schmookler, a Rockingham County author, in the November election.

The 6th District contest was slightly closer than two other Virginia primaries Tuesday in which incumbent Republican members of the House of Representativesfaced challengers.

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Virginia Beach, captured 90 percent of the vote againstR. M. Bonnie Girard in the 4th District.

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Richmond and House majority leader, was renominated with 79 percent of the vote over Floyd Bayne in the 7th District.

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Goodlatte nets Republican nomination for 6th District

What is the libertarian solution to crony capitalism? – Video

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12-06-2012 11:44 Welcome to Ask a Libertarian 2012 with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. They are the authors of the book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, coming out in paperback later this month. Pre-order: On June 12, 2012 Gillespie and Welch used short, rapid-fire videos to answer dozens of reader questions submitted via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Reason.com. In this episode, they answer the question: "What is the libertarian solution to crony capitalism? And, if it is possible to abolish crony capitalism, how do people prevent it from coming back?" Produced by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein, Josh Swain, and Tracy Oppenheimer with help from Katie Hooks. To watch answers from 2011's Ask a Libertarian series, go here:

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Libertarian Party supports Islamic terrorists

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On June 10, 2012, The Texas Libertarian Convention hosted a speaker, Mustafaa Carroll, the Executive Director of the Houston Texas Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations or CAIR. He was to speak on Profiling in America.

It sems that the Libertarian Party is a mixture of people similar to any political party in America. The members are usually decent and reasonable people. The Party leaders are insecure control freaks. Then, on the in between level, you have the candidates. Candidates are usually egotistical, mentally deranged people who run for office, mainly to impress themselves and their friends. Libertarian candidates are the epitomy of this mentality.

The various political parties in America are smiply various groups of mentally unstable people, categorized into individual parties, each with it's own idiosyncrasies, which is defined as: quirk: a way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is peculiar to an individual or group, especially an odd or unusual one.

I do believe that most people in any particular Party are somewhat reasonable. The problem cases are usually in the leadership and candidate groups. And I think that most "members" of the Libertarian Party are reasonable. If you look at the Libertarian Party Platform of ideals, it is hard not to expect their members to be reasonable. Their platform is a logical, common sense approach to individual freedom, without harming your neighbors.But too many Libertarians in leadership and the candidates, have somehow ignored the "don't harm your neighbors" part. They have bastardized the ideals to be, "I can do whatever I want and the hell with you!"

Let this article stand as an example of those Libertarians.

As a member of the Libertartian Party in Texas, I sent an email to the Texas Sate Chair, Mr. Pat Dixon, demanding to know why the Party was hosting a member of an "un-indicted co-conspirator to terrorist financing". The past head of the Houston Texas Chapter of CAIR was arrested, convicted and convicted again after his appeal of financing terrorists.

In a World Net Daily article, they say, "Since 9/11, no fewer than 15 CAIR executives, staffers, directors and advisers have been convicted or implicated in terrorism investigations. And in the same article, they show, "Omar Ahmad: U.S. prosecutors named CAIR's founding chairman as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case. Ahmad helped arrange and lead the Hamas meeting in Philadelphia. Court exhibits show he not only picked the location for the secret meeting, but also invited the participants and called their meeting to order. Two years earlier, Ahmad had met with the notorious Blind Sheik, hosting the now-convicted al-Qaida terrorist in Ahmad's Santa Clara, Calif., apartment, according to "Muslim Mafia."

And closer to Texas, from Mustaffa's office, "Ghassan Elashi: A founding director of CAIR's Texas chapter, was convicted in 2008 of providing material support to terrorists in the Holy Land trial. Elashi also attended the secret 1993 Hamas meeting with CAIR's co-founders.

In the Greeley Gazzette of Colorado, we find this: Ghassan Elashi, founder of CAIR's Texas chapter. Elashi received a 65-year prison sentence for funneling over $12 million from the Islamic charity known as the Holy Land Foundation to the jihad terrorist group Hamas, which is responsible for murdering hundreds of Israeli civilians.

And in today's news, we have, The Justice Department's Inspector General is investigating the FBI's contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The FBI has contacts with many groups, said FBI spokesman Chris Allen. "But CAIR is not a group that we work with," he said. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment.

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Canadian Orebodies Commences Drilling Program on the Belcher Islands

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TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 13, 2012) - Canadian Orebodies Inc. (CO.V) ("Canadian Orebodies" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company's 2012 exploration program has commenced on the Belcher Islands, Nunavut. Drilling has started on the Kihl Bay Anticline target area, which is located to the northeast of Haig Inlet and is comprised of relatively closely spaced north-plunging anticlines and synclines. The Company believes the anticlines may elevate the Kipalu Iron Formation close to surface, thereby giving potential for low strip ratio and open pitable iron mineralization.

The Kihl Bay Anticline is one of three high priority targets to be tested during this summer's exploration program. The company plans to conduct the exploration drilling this season in two phases: wide-spread exploration holes on the Kihl Bay Anticline, Haig West, and the Haig North Extension, followed by infill drilling on the areas which would be most amenable to developing an open-pit mineral resource.

"We are excited to get a head start on this summer's season by flying our first drill into the Belcher Islands in order to capitalize on favourable weather conditions in June, which should allow for better production. Our second drill rig is scheduled to be brought in by barge in mid- July once ice conditions allow." said Gordon McKinnon, President and CEO of Canadian Orebodies. "The Kihl Bay Anticline is the first area selected for drilling of the three very large and highly prospective targets that have never previously been drill tested. We are eager to prove management's belief that the wide spread iron formations on the Belcher Islands have the potential to host significant additional tonnage outside of what the Company has already proven at Haig Inlet."

About Canadian Orebodies Inc.

Canadian Orebodies is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with a portfolio of properties in Nunavut and Ontario. Canadian Orebodies' primary focus is on advancing and developing its Haig Inlet Iron Ore Project, located on the Belcher Islands in Nunavut. The Haig Inlet Iron Ore Project is host to an indicated iron ore resource of 230 million tonnes at 35.17% Fe and an additional inferred resource of 289 million tonnes at 35.47% Fe. Canadian Orebodies trades on the TSXV under the symbol "CO".

This press release has been prepared under the supervision of Mr. George Wahl (P.Geo.), who is an independent consultant to the Company and a "qualified person" (as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101). Mr. Wahl has verified the technical data disclosed in this press release.

For more information please visit http://www.canadianorebodies.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements relating to mineral resources, potential mineralization, exploration results and the Company's plans with respect to the exploration and development of the Properties) are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, changes in commodity prices, changes in equity markets, failure to establish mineral resources, changes to regulations affecting the Company's activities, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required regulatory approvals, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other ecological data, and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

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Japan official wants disputed islands

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By Kyung Lah, CNN

updated 11:12 AM EDT, Wed June 13, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Japanese national pride has attracted $14 million and counting. That's how much citizens have chipped into a public fund to buy a set of islands the Japanese say is rightfully theirs.

The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have been a diplomatic and emotional wedge between the two Asian superpowers, as both countries lay claims to the five uninhabited rocky islets in the East China Sea.

The dispute, which dates back decades, came to a boiling point in 2010 when a Chinese fishing trawler rammed into a Japan Coast Guard vessel on patrol in the island's waters. Japan detained the crew but later released them under Chinese diplomatic and trade pressure.

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara never got over that dispute and his national government's response, which he characterizes as "weak." Ishihara, an unrepentant nationalist who is loudly anti-China, said when it comes to the islands, China is acting like "a burglar in Japan's house."

"Chinese hegemony is totally intolerable to us," said Ishihara. "We do not want to become a second Tibet and Mongolia. We have no intention of becoming China's annex. We shall stop China, who is coming to steal our land."

Driven by that nationalist fury, Ishihara cooked up a plan with a family, who claims to own four of the five disputed islands. That family, the Kuriharas, says it has documents showing the islands' Japanese ownership dating back to 1890.

Ishihara established a public fund for donors to send in money to the Tokyo metropolitan government. The city of Tokyo would eventually use that money to buy the islands from the Kurihara family, turning them from private Japanese property into government property. Hiroyuki Kurihara said his family would sell the islands to Tokyo's government, calling a sale in his country's "national interest."

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Forsyth Team collaborates with Human Microbiome Project

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Public release date: 13-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jennifer Kelly jkelly@forsyth.org 617-892-8602 Forsyth Institute

Forsyth scientists have made a significant contribution to the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), an initiative which has defined the normal bacterial makeup of the human body for the first time in history. As leading experts in oral and craniofacial microbiology, the Forsyth team provided three of the four body site experts for the mouth and oralpharyngeal surfaces.

The Forsyth Scientists from the Department of Molecular Genetics are Floyd Dewhirst, DDS., Ph.D., Senior Member of Staff; Katherine P. Lemon, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Member of Staff; and Jacques Izard, Ph.D., Assistant Member of Staff. They provided key advice on the biology of the oral cavity, expert analysis of the complex microbiome, and advice on the methodology.

In a series of coordinated scientific reports to be published on June 14, 2012, in Nature and several journals in the Public Library of Science (PLoS), some 200 members of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Consortium from nearly 80 multidisciplinary research institutions report on five years of research. The HMP, launched in 2007, received $153 million from the NIH Common Fund, a trans-NIH initiative that finances high-impact, large-scale research. Over 240 adults were carefully screened and phenotyped before sampling one to three times at 15 (male) or 18 (female) body sites using a common sampling protocol.

Microbes inhabit just about everywhere in the human body, inside the mouth, living on the skin, in the gut, up the nose, etc. Most microorganisms live in harmony with their human hosts and are essential for humans to thrive, although a few sometimes cause illness. Studying human-bacteria interactions could lead to new ways to monitor human health status and to new methods for preventing or treating oral and systemic human diseases. The Forsyth efforts are supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, NIH.

"Like 15th century explorers describing the outline of a new continent, HMP researchers employed a new technological strategy to comprehensively define, for the first time, the normal microbial makeup of the human body," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "HMP created a remarkable reference database by using genome sequencing techniques to directly detect microbes in healthy volunteers. This lays the foundation for accelerating infectious disease research previously impossible without this community resource."

HMP researchers also reported that this plethora of microbes contribute more genes responsible for human survival than humans themselves. Where the human genome contains some 22,000 protein-coding genes that carry out metabolic activities, researchers estimate that the microbiome contributes some 8 million unique protein-coding genes or 360-times more bacterial genes than human genes.

After NIH launched HMP in December 2007, the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC) formed in 2008 to represent funding organizations (including NIH) and scientists from around the world interested in studying the human microbiome. The consortium has coordinated research to avoid duplication of effort and insure rapid release of molecular and clinical data sets. It also has developed common data quality standards and tools to share research results.

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Announcing the Human Microbiome Project Collection

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Public release date: 13-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: jlaloup@plos.org jlaloup@plos.org 415-624-1220 Public Library of Science

The healthy adult body hosts ten times as many microbial cells as human cells, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, and eukaryotic microbes resident on nearly every body surface. The metagenome carried collectively by these microbial communities dwarfs the human genome in size. For the first time, a consortium of researchers has mapped the full community of microbes that inhabit various parts of the healthy body.

The new PLoS Human Microbiome Project Collection encompasses genome sequencing research that shows reference data for microbes living with healthy adults. The studies were conducted by individual groups that make up the Human Microbiome Consortium and include publications from PLoS ONE, PLoS Computational Biology and PLoS Genetics.

The manuscripts within the Collection provide a comprehensive baseline of the microbial diversity at 18 different human body sites. This includes reference genomes of thousands of host-associated microbial isolates, 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequences, assemblies, and metabolic reconstructions, and a catalogue of over 5 million microbial genes.

A number of studies also look at the relationships between the microbiome and the host, and how these interactions relate to health. They describe the shifts in the composition of various microbial communities as they relate to a number of specific conditions: the gut microbiome and Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and esophageal adenocarcinoma; the skin microbiome and psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis and immunodeficiency; urogenital microbiome and reproductive and sexual history and circumcision and a number of childhood disorders, including pediatric abdominal pain and intestinal inflammation, and neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis.

Accompanying this Collection are two articles published in the journal Nature by the Human Microbiome Project Consortium. The results of these two papers provide the foundation for the research published in the Human Microbiome Project Collection.

"Recently developed genome sequencing methods now provide a powerful lens for looking at the human microbiome," said Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which managed HMP for NIH. "The astonishing drop in the cost of sequencing DNA has made possible the kind of large survey performed by the Human Microbiome Project."

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Collection Citation: PLoS Collections: The Human Microbiome Project Collection (2012) http://www.ploscollections.org/hmp

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Announcing the Human Microbiome Project Collection

Cost of health care will continue to rise

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WASHINGTON If only the economy were growing as fast.

Despite a recent easing of medical costs, the nations health care spending will keep outpacing economic growth for the foreseeable future, government experts said Tuesday in a forecast that signals more upheaval for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as private insurance.

President Barack Obamas health care overhaul will add $478 billion in spending over the 2011-2021 period covered by the projections, expanding coverage to some 30 million uninsured people. But the issue of rising costs will not go away even if the Supreme Court overturns Obamas law or his Republican foes ultimately succeed in repealing it.

By the beginning of the next decade, health care spending will be growing roughly 2 percentage points faster than the overall economy, which is about the same differential experienced over the past 30 years, said the report from Medicares nonpartisan Office of the Actuary.

The findings have implications for both sides of the political divide. If health care spending isnt brought in line with overall economic growth, Americans will eventually face agonizing choices between paying medical bills and funding other priorities such as education and infrastructure.

By 2021, health care will account for nearly 20 percent of the U.S. economy, the report found, up from under 14 percent in 2000. Controlling costs is one of the keys to solving federal budget woes, but that probably cant be done without major changes to Medicare and Medicaid.

The annual spending projections usually attract little attention. But with health care a central theme both of the nations polarized political debate and the federal budget, the report is now getting close scrutiny.

This year the biggest looming question has been whether fledging payment revisions in Obamas law, also mirrored by private insurance plans, are succeeding in holding costs down. The rate of growth the past three years has hovered under 4 percent, historically low. Thats coincided with a shift to paying hospitals and doctors for better quality, not just their sheer volume of tests and procedures.

Obama has argued that his overhaul would begin to bend the cost curve to more affordable levels.

The analysts remained skeptical.

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Cost of health care will continue to rise

3 steps to avoid health care hassles on vacation

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Five hospitals sit within an easy drive of my Indianapolis home. It's comforting to know, considering that my wife will deliver our second child in late August.

But that information will become temporarily useless next month when we take our annual family vacation to Holden Beach, N.C., a strip of Atlantic Ocean sand about an hour's drive from even a small city. The lack of beach-side maternity services won't keep us from making the trip. It just requires planning and prudent steps that doctors recommend for all travelers, regardless of whether they are great with child.

Here are some health care considerations to think about before hopping in a car or plane for your summer vacation.

1. DO A LITTLE RESEARCH

If you're staying somewhere for more than a few days, do a quick Internet search to learn what health care help might be available, especially if you have a medical condition. In our case, a new medical center with birthing rooms and a nursery is located roughly 30 minutes inland from the beach house if the baby comes early.

If time and my wife's contractions allow us to drive farther, we might be able reach a hospital in Wilmington, N.C., that provides a neonatal intensive care unit equipped to handle premature babies.

It's not enough to just know what's available. Know which hospitals are in your health insurer's provider network. Costs can pile up quickly for care outside the network.

Depending on the plan, a patient may have to pay a separate deductible. You also could pay a higher co-insurance percentage. That's the amount of the bill leftover after the deductible is met.

On top of all that, the doctor or hospital can bill patients for the balance between what they charge and what the insurer pays, something they can't do for in-network care. All this can add up to thousands of dollars in extra expenses.

Big insurers like UnitedHealth Group Inc. or Cigna Corp. maintain national provider networks, but don't fret if you have coverage through a small insurer. Check to see if they offer the use of a larger insurer's network under certain conditions.

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3 steps to avoid health care hassles on vacation