Beijing on Wednesday urged Tokyo not to take any action that could endanger Chinese lives or property, including those of Taiwan compatriots. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin made the remarks in response to a Taiwan fishing boat entering waters near China's Diaoyu Islands.
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SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) -
The Islands Gymnastics team from the Islands YMCA recently competed at the 2012 YMCA National Gymnastics Championship in Milwaukee. 1,700 gymnasts from 22 states and 106 YMCA's took part in the competition.
The Islands Team sent 22 girls and three boys, all ages 6 to 16, to compete. It was the first year that the men's competition was included in the meet. By the end of the three day competition, the Islands Team won over 40 gold, silver and bronze medals and eight of the gymnasts walked away with first place all around in their age division.
Jill Conway, from the Islands Team, competed in the championship event, which only the top 25 in the country qualify for, and placed 12th. She also made the All America Team.
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Islands Gymnastics team dominates at YMCA National Championship
A doctor and patient consult in Miami. GOP Gov. Rick Scott of Florida says he will delay implementing the health care law.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- Repeal and replace -- or at least resist -- is the Republican mantra in the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling upholding President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law.
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney promises to get rid of Obamacare if elected, and at least four Republican governors say their states will hold off implementing main provisions of the 2010 law to see what happens in November.
However, analysts and industry experts contend the reality is that health care reform will happen out of necessity, whether through the Affordable Care Act or the momentum it already has created since being passed over two years ago.
According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute, 14 states and the District of Columbia have made "significant progress" toward implementing reforms, while another 19 states have made "moderate progress," leaving 17 states -- or about a third -- that have yet to change their laws or take other steps toward implementation.
The report, titled "Implications of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Healthcare," says all players in the health care industry -- state governments, hospitals, insurance companies, employers and drug companies -- need to participate in the emerging reform process or risk getting left behind.
"Despite the political uncertainty, private-sector initiatives -- accentuated and accelerated by the law -- are moving forward," the report says. "The crucial question now is: Will health reform define your organization, or will your organization define the post-reform landscape?"
Republicans launch blitz against health care law
A repeated recommendation in the report advises industry leaders to "stop putting off key decisions," and it specifically calls on states to "stop taking a wait-and-see approach to health reform implementation."
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With the Capitol in the background, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks about the Supreme Court's health care ruling, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WOLFEBORO, N.H. -- Contradicting one of his senior advisers, Mitt Romney said Wednesday, July 4, that the individual mandate in President Barack Obama's health care plan is a tax, and stands as evidence that Obama has broken a promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.
Just two days earlier, campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney agreed with Obama that the individual mandate was a penalty, not a tax -- despite the Supreme Court ruling that the law was constitutional precisely because it was a tax.
Fehrnstrom said Romney "agreed with the dissent, which was written by Justice (Antonin) Scalia, and the dissent clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax." The Scalia dissent said the health care plan was unconstitutional because it violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The court's majority agreed that it violated that clause, but said it was legal because Congress had a separate power to impose taxes.
Fehrnstrom's comments caused consternation among many Republicans, who believed that the Supreme Court had handed Obama a gift when it used the tax argument to justify upholding the health care plan. In an interview with CBS News on Wednesday, Romney backed off from his adviser's remarks.
Asked about the Supreme Court ruling, Romney said that "while I agreed with the dissent, that's taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it was a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken."
He went on: "There's no way around that.
The remarks, coming during Romney's vacation at his New Hampshire vacation home, were the second time in recent months that the candidate has been forced to do damage control after controversial remarks by Fehrnstrom.
In March, as Romney closed in on the Republican nomination, Fehrnstrom suggested that the campaign would move more toward the political center in the general election. In words that brought undisguised glee to the Obama campaign, he said: "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."
Romney was quick to assure conservatives that that wouldn't be the case.
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(CBS News) WOLFEBORO, N.H. - Mitt Romney tried to clear up the confusion about where he stands on President Obama's health care reform. Two days ago, his campaign spokesman said the requirement that every American buy health insurance is a penalty, not a tax. But on Wednesday, the candidate shifted his position.
Romney has come under fire since the Supreme Court's decision because his position on this tax issue has been at odds with every Republican, that of course they're saying that the health care law is a massive tax hike. But Wednesday, in his first interview since the Supreme Court decision, Romney tried to clear things up. CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford interviewed the GOP presidential hopeful at his vacation home. A transcript follows:
Romney: Well, the Supreme Court has the final word. And their final word is that Obamacare is a tax. So it's a tax. They decided it was constitutional. So it is a tax and it's constitutional. That's the final word. That's what it is.
Crawford: Have you changed your views on this? Do you now believe that it is a tax at the federal level, that the Supreme Court has said it's a tax? So it is a tax?
Romney: Well, I said that I agreed with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost. It's in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken.
Romney: Individual mandate "is a tax"
There's now way around that. You can try and say you wished they would have decided in a different way, but they didn't. They concluded it was a tax. That's what it is. And the American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made. He said he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-income Americans. Not only did he raise the $500 billion that was already in the bill, it's now clear that his mandate, as described by the Supreme Court, is a tax.
Crawford: But does that mean the mandate in the state of Massachusetts under your health care law also is a tax, and that you raised taxes as governor?
Romney: Actually the chief justice, in his opinion, made it very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. They don't need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. And as a result, Massachusetts' mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was described that way by the legislature and by me. And so it stays as it was.
Crawford: So at the state level, you're saying the Supreme Court says that's different? That the federal government--
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The Benton Freedom Festival, formerly held in Bryant, has always been Saline County's largest summertime event.
This year, in its new location at the Saline County Fairgrounds, turnout isn't quite what organizers hoped for. The hot, dry weather and subsequent burn ban in effect means no fireworks this year, which is hurting attendance.
Game and food booths are set up, but there are no lines. The midway at the Saline County Fairgrounds is empty during the biggest event of the year, falling short of what organizers planned to be a huge success.
Benton Mayor David Mattingly says the community has been looking forward to this event. "So many people have been working very hard."
While the Benton Freedom Festival offers food, rides, games, and music, the main attraction of any 4th of July festival is fireworks. Mayor Mattingly says it's a shame the weather has been so hot. "I know that's having an effect on people."
July 3rd, the first day of the two day festival, several thousand people showed up later in the day when the weather cooled off to listen to the musical acts on two separate stages. Festival Director James Ballew says even without fireworks, there are still a lot of attractions. "I still feel like we're the largest event in Saline County. We have a small setback with the fireworks, as a lot of communities do."
Sarah Fallon says it's still a let down for her kids. "They are a little disappointed. We talked about going into Little Rock and watching those fireworks, but were not real sure yet." She and her husband Nathan say they won't stay at the Benton Freedom festival very long in the heat without fireworks to cap off the evening. "I'm a big fireworks person. The 4th of July not being able to shoot off fireworks at the house or anywhere else is kind of a bummer."
Mayor Mattingly says the importance of putting safety first is the number one priority. The City of Benton plans to shoot fireworks off as soon as the burn ban is lifted.
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FREEDOM, Maine Power from moving water, along with the attention of a retired banker, is giving new life to a historic building in the heart of town.
Tony Grassi of Camden is awaiting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to install a 39-kilowatt turbine in the dam on the Sandy Stream, which flows out of Freedom Pond. The dam is adjacent to the old mill building, which Grassi is restoring, following state historic preservation standards.
In addition to the FERC approval, Grassi has sought approval for his Freedom Falls project from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the federal Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Its all sort of slowly working along, he said Monday of the approval process. Grassi took title of the old wood-frame mill building and dam on April 1. Town officials and residents have been helpful, he said, making zoning changes to accommodate the project.
The historic preservation standards were self-imposed Grassi sought and won a listing on the National Register of Historic Places for the old mill building. He is taking advantage of federal and state tax credits for historic renovation, but the project is clearly a labor of love.
A retired investment banker, he left the business in 1990 when it was still fun and became what he calls a full-time volunteer. Grassi has been active in the Nature Conservancy and, beginning in the early 1990s, he and his wife Sally began working with the Horizons National Student Enrichment Program. In fact, they took the then-Connecticut-based program, which provides summer enrichment programs for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, to a national reach.
In addition to his other nonprofit volunteer work, Grassi has served as co-chairman, with BDN Publisher Rick Warren, of the fundraising committee for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. He chuckles at the irony of working with that group to remove a dam on the Penobscot River while working to restore one in Freedom.
Grassi and his wife moved to Camden eight years ago.
The mill project first came to Grassis attention six or seven years ago when his son and daughter-in-law bought a neighboring property, where they now operate an organic farm.
The project also intrigued Grassi as a test case of sorts, he said. If he succeeds in landing commercial tenants, the now-quiet heart of Freedom could become active again.
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Businessman hopes Freedom hydro power project can make a self-sufficient business
As the nation celebrates 236 years of independence, we also celebrate our freedom.
Dorris, California is proud of their flag - and they're also proud of their freedom.
"Freedom of speech" Notes firefighter Randy Cash of CalFire. "It's just nice to know that no matter what, you can say what you think and you're entitled to that opinion, and voicing that opinion."
Freedom to assemble for a public meeting, or even a parade...
Barbara C of Dorris says she's thankful for "Freedom that I can worship God anywhere I want, go to any church I want, and just glorify Him."
"Our right to bear arms." Says Gene Lane of the Butte Valley Friends of the N.R.A. "It gives us the right to protect ourselves against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
"My favorite freedom is to vote." Adds Troy King of Klamath Falls. "I have a right to go out and vote."
"Freedom of the press is important." States Andrew Creasey, a reporter for the Klamath Falls Herald & News. "Because it's important to stay informed. To know what's going on, it's good to have people that aren't told what to do, and have the freedom to cover what they want."
Ian Andreatta of Dorris summed it up...
"My favorite freedom is the freedom to do what you'd like."
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On Jan. 18 of this year, the Internet went dark. In protest against overreaching copyright legislation that endangered the open architecture of the Internet, online services like Wikipedia and Reddit, along with 115,000 other websites, participated in an Internet-wide "blackout" to educate Internet users about the threat to net freedom. Thanks to the joint efforts of free speech advocates, online innovators and everyday Internet users, Congressional offices were flooded with calls and emails, and within days, the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) were shelved in response to the massive online uprising.
Now, half a year later, many of the people and organizations that helped make that Jan. 18 protest a success including my own, the Center for Democracy & Technology are ready to try something different. We're ready to move from defense to offense; ready to support something, rather than just oppose something; ready to transform that powerful moment, where Internet users rose up as one to oppose online censorship, into a lasting movement for Internet freedom. We're ready to try and harness the energy of January's tsunami of online activism, a shock wave whose effects continue to be seen in the privacy debate over cybersecurity legislation in the U.S. and the protests over the ACTA treaty in Europe.
That's why this July 4, instead of blacking out the Internet, we wanted to shine a light and share a positive vision of the Internet and its future, and beta-test a set of principles that can help serve as a rallying cry for Internet freedom fighters both in America and across the globe principles that are broad and universal enough to speak to all political persuasions yet specific enough to serve as a benchmark against which future Internet legislation can be judged and around which future Internet movements can organize.
We're proud to be publishing those principles today in the form of A Declaration of Internet Freedom, joined by a diverse group of Internet innovators and advocates drawn from the loose but wide-ranging alliance that defeated SOPA and PIPA, including companies like Mozilla, individuals like Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and advocacy and activist groups like Free Press, Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fight for the Future.
We are publishing our declaration on Independence Day to echo the American founding fathers' publication of the Declaration of Independence, though we believe these values can and should apply globally as befits a global network. And what we declare, simply, is that:
We stand for a free and open Internet.
We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:
Expression: Don't censor the Internet.
Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.
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There is a very interesting debate afoot between libertarians and liberals about libertarian beliefs and worker freedom. It started with a joint blog post from liberals Chris Bertram, Corey Robin and Alex Gourevitch (hereafter BRG), with replies by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, and a counter-reply from John Holbo. There are a lot [...]
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NAPLES Central Naples beaches took the brunt of the erosion caused last week by Tropical Storm Debby as it moved through the Gulf, local beach managers said.
But while last week's stormy conditions took a toll on the area's beaches, it's a manageable problem, officials in Collier and Lee counties said.
Gary McAlpin, Collier County government's coastal zone management director, said some beaches appeared to have sustained significant sand loss and erosion from the high tides and waves kicked up by Debby.
"The beaches got beat up pretty good," he said.
Seaweed and other debris littered Southwest Florida beaches after the storm, and a sandbar was created along a stretch of Naples beach that left a pool of water on the land side of the sandbar.
Near the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, drainage pipes have been exposed by the beach erosion.
Jason Parsons, the hotel's general manager, said the resort experienced sand loss and the beach isn't as wide as normal, but he added that it isn't going to put a damper on the holiday week.
"It's just going to be more crowded on the beach because there is less room to spread out," he said.
The hotel is near one of the spots in Naples where the beach is its narrowest.
"It's not going to completely return to what it was before Debby, probably until a few months," Parsons said.
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Beach managers: Central Naples beaches got the worst of erosion caused by Debby
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New email-based attacks, some of which target the aerospace industry, are distributing new variants of the Sykipot information stealing malware, according to researchers from security firm AlienVault.
"We have detected a new wave of Sykipot campaigns that has been running during the past weeks," AlienVault Labs manager Jaime Blasco, said Monday in a blog post. "There are several changes between the new Sykipot campaigns and the older ones."
There are clues suggesting that these attacks originated in China, although this cannot be confirmed with one hundred percent certainty, Blasco said Wednesday.
The rogue emails sent in the new attacks no longer distribute malicious attachments that exploit vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader, Microsoft Excel or Internet Explorer to install Sykipot.
Instead, they contain links to compromised websites that exploit a 2011 Flash Player vulnerability or a yet-to-be-patched vulnerability in the Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) to install the malware.
The MSXML vulnerability is believed to have been exploited in June attacks that prompted Google to warn its Gmail users about state-sponsored attacks. Microsoft released a manual fix for this vulnerability on June 12.
However, the company should provide a proper automatic security patch as soon as possible because the number of attacks that exploit it are increasing, Blasco said.
The Sykipot Trojan program has been used during the past year in targeted attacks against U.S. federal agencies, defense contractors and other organizations that store sensitive data on their computer systems.
One of the new Sykipot attack campaigns targeted potential attendees to the 2013 IEEE Aerospace Conference, a conference intended for aerospace experts, academics, military personnel and industry leaders.
Each Sykipot variant is tailored for a particular group of targets, Blasco said. For example, in January, AlienVault researchers found a version designed to bypass two-factor authentication based on PC/SC x509 smart cards, which commonly used for access management in the defense sector.
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Targeted Attacks Against Aerospace Industry Use Sykipot Malware
PHOENIX, AZ. -Do honeybees hold the key to longevity?
Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that older honey bees effectively reverse brain aging when they take care of baby bees,a phenomenon that could have implications for humans.
While current research on human age-related dementia focuses on potential new drug treatments, researchers say these findings suggest that social interventions may be used to slow or treat age-related dementia.
In a study published in the scientific journal Experimental Gerontology, a team of scientists from ASU and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, led by Gro Amdam, an associate professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences, presented findings that show that tricking older, foraging bees into doing social tasks inside the nest causes changes in the molecular structure of their brains.
"We knew from previous research that when bees stay in the nest and take care of larvae -- the bee babies -- they remain mentally competent for as long as we observe them," said Amdam. "However, after a period of nursing, bees fly out gathering food and begin aging very quickly. After just two weeks, foraging bees have worn wings, hairless bodies, and more importantly, lose brain function -- basically measured as the ability to learn new things. We wanted to find out if there was plasticity in this aging pattern so we asked the question, 'What would happen if we asked the foraging bees to take care of larval babies again?"
During experiments, scientists removed all of the younger nurse bees from the nest -- leaving only the queen and babies. When the older, foraging bees returned to the nest, activity diminished for several days. Then, some of the old bees returned to searching for food, while others cared for the nest and larvae. Researchers discovered that after 10 days, about 50 percent of the older bees caring for the nest and larvae had significantly improved their ability to learn new things.
Amdam's international team not only saw a recovery in the bees' ability to learn, they discovered a change in proteins in the bees' brains. When comparing the brains of the bees that improved relative to those that did not, two proteins noticeably changed. They found Prx6, a protein also found in humans that can help protect against dementia -- including diseases such as Alzheimer's -- and they discovered a second and documented "chaperone" protein that protects other proteins from being damaged when brain or other tissues are exposed to cell-level stress.
In general, researchers are interested in creating a drug that could help people maintain brain function, yet they may be facing up to 30 years of basic research and trials.
"Maybe social interventions -- changing how you deal with your surroundings -- is something we can do today to help our brains stay younger," said Amdam. "Since the proteins being researched in people are the same proteins bees have, these proteins may be able to spontaneously respond to specific social experiences."
Amdam suggests further studies are needed on mammals such as rats in order investigate whether the same molecular changes that the bees experience might be socially inducible in people.
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Do honeybees hold the key to longevity?
Scientists can now test a baby for genetic disease if the paternity is not known
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 13:00 EST, 4 July 2012 | UPDATED: 13:00 EST, 4 July 2012
Scientists have mapped the complete DNA of an unborn baby - using just the mother's blood.
The breakthrough could allow doctors to test for a range of genetic diseases in future such as cystic fibrosis and Down's syndrome without the need of the father.
It follows a similar study reported last month which required which successfully sequenced a foetus' genome from the mother's blood, along with a sample of saliva from the father.
Routine? Scientists say the discovery brings foetal genetic testing closer to becoming an every day procedure
This time researchers at the University of Stanford in California managed the task using material only found circulating in the mother's blood.
Current techniques used to pick up genetic diseases in unborn babies require invasive sampling, which carries certain risks to the health of the mother and child.
But early diagnosis of such problems can allow doctors to pre-empt whether treatments are needed immediately after a baby is born.
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DNA of unborn baby mapped from just mother's blood paving way for new genetic disease screening
MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Cancer Therapeutics, a company focused on translating cancer biology research into novel treatments for cancer, today announced the validation and performance of a new targeted drug, CTx-294886, in combination with Avastin (bevacizumab Genentech/Roche) in a preclinical model of breast cancer. At the same time the Company announced that it has developed a new High Throughput Screening (HTS) platform for the identification of small molecule inhibitors of protein ubiquitination, a key element in the essential cellular process of protein homeostasis, which is an exciting new target pathway for cancer treatment. Both scientific developments will be presented as posters at the EACR conference in Barcelona Spain on July 7-10 2012.
The anti-tumour response to CTx-0294886, a potent small molecule inhibitor of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 3 (VEGFR3), was compared with that of the Companys first product CTx-0294945, a potent selective FAK inhibitor. CTx-0294886 in combination with Avastin, showed additional benefits to those previously demonstrated by CTx-294945 (previously presented at the AACR conference in Chicago on the 3rd of April this year). In both cases the small molecules in combination with Avastin inhibited angiogenesis, and increased the duration of tumour response in a model of basal breast cancer. In addition CTx-294886 in combination with Avastin also provided a highly statistically significant increase in the median survival time compared to the Avastin only group.
The new Ubiquitin HTS platform closely replicates cellular ubiquitination pathways, and provides a mechanism for HTS of multiple targets. Ubiquitins are small regulatory proteins that attach to other target proteins allowing their destruction and recycling. This process requires a family of dedicated enzymes, such as ligases, for completion. E6AP, an E3 ligase, was selected to validate the platform. E6AP ubiquitinates p53 and PML in human papilloma virus (HPV) related and other cancers. Both p53 and PML are well known suppressors of tumour growth so substances that inhibit E6AP would be expected to retard tumour growth in cancers such as cervical and head and neck cancers. The platform was able to identify several small molecules that are now undergoing further investigation.
Dr Warwick Tong, CEO of Cancer Therapeutics, commented:
Having achieved preclinical validation for our first product candidate in conjunction with Avastin, we are delighted to be announcing that our second candidate is even more potent at prolonging and strengthening the effects of Avastin. We are excited to have two targeted molecules that will allow rational combinations with other therapies in the fight against cancer. We are now starting to reap the benefits of our highly collaborative approach to drug discovery, working hand in hand with some of the top research institutes in Australia and our international partner, Cancer Research Technology UK.
Dr Ian Street, Chief Scientific Officer of Cancer Therapeutics, added:
The launch of our new Ubiquitin HTS platform opens up the potential to collaborate with industry by screening chemical libraries to address multiple targets in this new and exciting area of cancer biology. We are ready to begin discussions with other companies who would like to work with us to include their targets of interest and screen their chemical libraries using this platform.
The titles of the posters being presented throughout the conference are:
Poster 846: Inhibition of Focal Adhesion Kinase in Combination With Bevacizumab Reduces the Rate of Tumour Revascularization and Increases Survival in a Pre-clinical Model of Basal Breast Cancer by I. Street et al.
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Cancer Therapeutics Reveals Proof of Concept for Second Development Drug
General News of Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Source: Daily Graphic
The DNA Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital says it has the facilities to assist the law enforcement agencies in the detection of crime.
It said its machines could determine the identity of criminals by extracting DNA from saliva, hair, blood, semen or any other bodily fluid left at a crime scene or on the victims by the perpetrators.
The Director of the centre, Dr Bartholomew Dzudzor, told the Daily Graphic that unfortunately, however, officials at the centre had not been trained in the collection of forensic samples from crimes, adding that the centre would be willing to partner the police if the police could perform that task.
He explained that during the commission of violent crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery, minute traces of blood and other bodily fluids, as well as hair, were left at the crime scene.
He said what was needed was well-trained forensic experts to carefully collect those samples, adding that extreme caution was essential to ensure that the samples were not contaminated.
According to him, DNA extracted from the samples would then be compared to the DNA of suspects and if they matched, the suspects could then be charged with the crime.
"DNA may point at an individual and yet he or she may not be the perpetrator of the crime only if he or she was a homozygous (identical) twin," he said, adding that homozygous twins were formed from the same egg and, therefore, had similar DNA. "Even if he or she is a twin, the police could easily establish where they were at the time the crime was committed and, thereby, establish which of them committed the crime," he noted.
Dr Dzudzor said it would have been easier if the country had a DNA database or if the police had DNA profiles of people who lived close to crime scenes.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -07/03/12)- Attention: Travel and Lifestyle Editors
Expedia.ca, Canada's leading online travel provider, today announced the Expedia 2012 Insiders' Select results. This annual global review identifies the top hotels available on Expedia.ca and all Expedia sites worldwide based on quality and value scores. Celebrating its sixth year, Insiders' Select rankings are largely determined by the more than 500,000 Expedia customer reviews received during the course of 2011. Hotels that consistently deliver value in the form of competitive pricing, pristine amenities and superior customer service will see that commitment rewarded in their ranking.
This year, 650 hotels from among the more than 150,000 properties available on Expedia.ca are designated as Insiders' Select hotels and made the list after receiving a minimum guest review score of 4.0 out of 5.0. On average, the designated hotels on the list earned a guest review score of 4.4 during 2011, the qualifying year. Marrol's Boutique Hotel, a five-star property in Bratislava, Slovakia, topped the 2012 Insiders' Select list, edging Hotel Al Codega of Venice, Italy. The top Canadian hotel was the LHotel Montreal, listed at number 59. The top ten hotels in this year's ranking include:
1. Marrol's Boutique Hotel (Bratislava, Slovakia)
2. Hotel Al Codega (Venice, Italy)
3. Hotel Royal Corin (Costa Rica)
4. Hilton Garden Inn Aberdeen (Aberdeen, Scotland)
5. Four Seasons Miami (Miami, Florida)
6. Madison Hotel Hamburg (Hamburg/Hanover, Germany)
7. Element Omaha Midtown Crossing (Omaha, Nebraska)
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Michael Wigge endeavored to travel the world without any money, driven only by the necessities to eat, get to the next destination and find a place to sleep. In How to Travel the World for Free, he discusses his amazing, arduous and life-affirming experience. Heres an excerpt.
Chapter 12: My life as a Peruvian (Peru to Bolivia)
The tourists laugh at my rather foolish outfit: Before my departure, Stefan had lent me a traditional poncho and a woolen cap with earmuffs and pompoms, but now it looks like the only Peruvians wearing this attire are the ones you would find in European pedestrian zones.
I am lucky and get a grace period on the first day of the trekking tour. The porters halve the normal carry load for me from 80 pounds to 40 pounds. However, this weight is not carried as it would (or should) be in a normal backpack, but is instead made of plastic bags tied up together with ropes that are then carried as a makeshift backpack. While the porters run in the front at high speed, on the first day I am allowed to walk with the rest of the group at the normal European pace. We cover almost 12 miles and climb from 8,500 feet to the height of 111,800 feet.
Around five in the evening, I reach the first bivouac shelter with the group and help the porters set up the tents for the tourists and to prepare the dinner. The porters have two gas cookers in a small shelter, and for the next two hours, my task is to peel the peas. The evening then becomes a nightmare: while the group can at least sleep protected from the extremely cold temperature in tents, I spend the night with the three other porters in the shelter and only a blue plastic sheet to separate my sleeping bag from the extremely cold, extremedly hard ground. Lying near me is Gomerciendo, the cook for the group. I ask him how he endures this. Gomerciendo explains to me that he sleeps only rarely in beds. While he is snoring away, I remain awake during most of the night; it's noisy, cold, the ground is hard, and the high altitude at 11,000 feet makes me toss and turn all night.
At four in the morning,Gomerciendo's alarm clock rings. We have exactly one hour to prepare the breakfast for the group. I sit impassively, shivering in the corner. At six o'clock, the group starts for the second leg of the trip; they have six hours time to reach the afternoon stop over the 15,000 feet high Abra-Salkantay pass. The porters have to make it in three hours' time, hence, we have to walk twice as fast, basically running. The reason for this lack of time is that in the morning we took 90 minutes to dismantle the tents, wash the utensils and load the horses that morning, and the porters must arrive at the next stop 90 minutes before the group does so that we have time to prepare and have lunch ready by the time everyone else arrives.
It quickly becomes clear to me that the decision to go along with the group as a porter and as worker was, and is, insane. I can hardly keep up the pace, although I am carrying only half the weight that Gomerciendo, Yuri and Nico have on their backs. After nearly half an hour, I manage to remain standing but pant and bend forward in order to breathe in gulps of air. Yuri asks me to pull myself up and to keep up pace because we are under enormous time pressure; after all, the tourists would like to have their lunch on time. I continue to follow the three porters and the three horses, but physically I am just not able to make it. I am dizzy and my legs feel like rubber.
A short while later I am far behind them. Yuri is up ahead of me me, as the path goes up the mountain in a serpentine trail. He calls out again and again: Amigo, vienes. No tenemos tiempo! Rpido! Translated, that is: Come, my friend, we have no time to lose! Hurry But it doesnt help me; the air is too thin and I am not trained. I lie down on the path and breathe in and out deeply. Shortly thereafter, Yuri, Gomerciendo and Nico come down with the horses and look at me hopelessly. Gomerciendo laughs, because he has never seen such an incapable porter in his entire life, but Yuri is annoyed and asks me to stand up. He anxiously explains to me that we need to be at the next camp before the tourists in order to prepare the lunch. If the food is not ready, there will be complaints to the agency, and it might cost them their jobs. I realize that I have behaved carelessly as a porter.
Two evenings ago I had boasted to the boss of the agency (who, by the way, is called Fidel Castro) that I was a thousand-meter runner and that the 50 miles would not be a problem. Now I was a burden on the tour. Due to their care of duty, the porters cannot leave me behind, but also cannot continue to wait for me. I promise them to keep up with the pace, if we could buckle up my weight on one of the horses. The three porters consult among themselves and reach the decision that about 20 more pounds from by baggage could fit on the horses, any more than this would be unbearable for them, too. So now I carry only twenty pounds up the mountain pass, but because of the height it feels like 80 pounds.
Even after this lightened load, I am not able to match the speed of the porters and quickly fall behind. I drag myself through a breathtaking landscape with its snow-covered mountain peaks and glaciers that go up to a height of 20,000 feet, but all this makes no difference to me because I am totally knocked-out and overwhelmed. I come across a wooden hut selling chocolate bars and beverages to the trekking enthusiasts. I hear a German couple trying to decide between a Twix or Snickers, and between a large or a small Coke. I am completely envious and can only drag myself frustratingly past them. Oh, the things I would do now for just a two-liter bottle of Coke and a chocolate bar!
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