Governor-Generals visit to the Auckland Islands

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Thursday 12 February, 2015

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Press release Governor-Generals visit to the Auckland Islands

The Governor-General, Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae leaves on Friday for a five-night visit to the Auckland Islands.

The Governor-General will be hosted by The Sir Peter Blake Trust, the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute, the Department of Conservation, NIWA and the University of Otago. Weather permitting, he will visit the proposed Blake Station site at Smith Harbour and tour Enderby Island to see albatross, penguins, sea-lions and the Auckland Islands famous megaherbs. It is hoped the programme can also include visits to heritage sites, including the location of Second World War coast-watchers huts, a helicopter tour of the islands, and participation in scientific research activities.

The Auckland Islands are part of New Zealands subantarctic islands, and are considered to be one of the few relatively pristine groups of islands in the world. The subantarctic islands became a World Heritage Area in 1998. Visitors must observe strict quarantine procedures to ensure that no potential pest species are inadvertently introduced. The islands have a challenging climate, with high rainfall, strong winds and a mean summer temperature of 7 degrees.

The Governor-General arrives in the Auckland Islands on Friday 13 February and will return to the mainland onWednesday 18 February.

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Governor-Generals visit to the Auckland Islands

A new species of hummingbird?

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The Bahama Woodstar is a hummingbird found in the Bahamas, and comprises two subspecies. One of these, Calliphlox evelynae evelynae, is found throughout the islands of the Bahamas, and especially in the northern islands. The other, Calliphlox evelynae lyrura ("lyrura" for lyre-tailed, referring to the forked tail of males that resembles a classical lyre harp), is found only among the southern Inaguan islands of the Bahama Archipelago.

A research team, including biologist Christopher J. Clark at the University of California, Riverside, now argues in a research paper published in this month's issue of The Auk that the two subspecies should be recognized as two distinct species.

"The two subspecies were originally described as separate species, partly on the basis of small differences in the tail feathers between them, but were then classified in 1945 as subspecies of the Bahama Woodstar," explained Clark, an assistant professor of biology. "It's time now to call these two distinct species of hummingbirds."

Both Calliphlox evelynae evelynae and Calliphlox evelynae lyrura produce mechanical sounds with their tails during courtship displays. The researchers recorded the pops and whistles produced when air runs along male tail feathers during mating display dives. They also collected field recordings of scolding calls and songs of the two subspecies. They compared beak and wing lengths. Using tissue samples, they investigated the degree to which populations of evelynae and lyrura diverged in genetics.

They found that:

"Our findings suggest that lyrura is best considered a full species," Clark said. "Calliphlox evelynae evelynae should keep Bahama Woodstar as its familiar name. Calliphlox evelynae lyrura could use 'Inaguan Lyretail as its familiar name."

Next Clark and colleagues will petition the American Ornithologists' Union to officially recognize the new species.

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The above story is based on materials provided by University of California - Riverside. The original article was written by Iqbal Pittalwala. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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A new species of hummingbird?

Assemblymember Gipson Urges People to Sign Up for Covered California – Video

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Assemblymember Gipson Urges People to Sign Up for Covered California
(Sacramento) California State Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Compton) wants his constituents in the 64th Assembly District to know that affordable health care coverage is available to all...

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Manatee seeks options to extend health care trust fund

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Published: Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 4:01 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 4:01 p.m.

MANATEE COUNTY - With a fund to provide health care for the uninsured and working poor set to nearly run out by the end of the fiscal year, Manatee County leaders are debating where they can find money to keep it solvent including trying again to get a voter-approved sales tax.

By this fall, the trust fund which started with $45 million from the sale of the county hospital more than 30 years ago is likely to have just $158,000 left.

If it does not get a new infusion of cash, county commissioners and health care providers worry that many lower-income people will avoid doctor visits that could keep them healthy or be unable to get potentially life-saving care, such as surgeries for cancer.

With the clock ticking for the county to come up with a new strategy, the county commissioners on Thursday made a commitment to restore funding but did not resolve the issue of how.

The real question is where does the $9 million come from? Commissioner Larry Bustle said, presuming the county wants to restore annual subsidies from the trust fund at a previous level.

You have property tax, sales tax or nothing, Commissioner Carol Whitmore said. Whitmore said she cannot favor putting the burden solely on property taxpayers.

The only option I see is a sales tax, Commissioner Charles Smith said.

We'd better think about the people who hire us, Commissioner Betsy Baugh warned, noting that in a June 2013 referendum voters rejected a half-cent sales tax to replenish the diminishing trust fund.

You didn't market it well, Smith, who was elected last fall, told other commissioners regarding the referendum's failure. The public will buy into something that makes sense... Do we have the backbone to do what's right?

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Manatee seeks options to extend health care trust fund

Gulf Countries Migrant Workers: Health Care Providers Are Mostly Foreigners In Saudi Arabia And Neighboring Countries

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As droves of migrant workers sweat and die on construction sites and in homes in the wealthy countries of the Arabian Peninsula, a different army of expatriates is quietly laboring away in those countries hospitals and clinics. They are the main providers of health care to populations with blossoming rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic medical problems.

Saudi Arabia, where 76 percent of physicians are expatriates, and other countries in the Persian Gulf region have few doctors and nurses of their own. A recent report described Middle Eastern countries as heavily dependent on expatriate health care workers, and as rates of chronic diseases in those countries continue rising, some worry that maintaining a medical workforce of expats will be unsustainable in an increasingly burdened health care system. These concerns are especially relevant in a region where at least 30 percent of the population is between the ages of 15 and 29 and leading lifestyles that are increasingly unhealthy, marked by high rates of smoking and growing levels of childhood obesity, all of which could lead to costly health conditions in the near future.

If Gulf countries want to lower their rates of chronic diseases, you cant address that alone by just bringing more people here, because theres an issue of sustainability, saidDr. William Hsu, who leads a team at the Joslin Diabetes Center. The Boston research center is addressing diabetes in the region by working with countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.You have to sustain a workforce in your country, incentivize, encourage the next generation.

Unemployment in Saudi Arabia stood at 11.5 percent at the end of 2013, but for Saudi youth, or those between the ages of 16 and 29, its far higher, at29 percent. There are a lot of people who are not working but have the potential to be trained, Hsu said, yet theyre employing lots of expat workers, physicians and nurses.

Dependency Issues

Over the past half century, countries in the Gulf region rapidly became wealthy with the discovery, production and exportation of oil. As money poured in, state economies developed and cities modernized. Mere generations ago, those in the region survived a harsh desert environment on little food; today, fast-food restaurants offer home delivery. But other sectors, like labor and health awareness, did not develop at the same pace.

With the new wealth, everything changed, Hsu said. From a biological standpoint, people who survived in truly sparse conditions had to be genetically predisposed to holding on to calories. Now take those genes and put them in an environment of plenty, a virtually limitless amount of food and calories, he said.

In Kuwait, 42.8 percent of the population is obese. Other Gulf nations are not far behind, with 35.2 percent of Saudis and 33.1 percent of Qataris also grappling with obesity. Regional obesity has been tied togreater consumption of fast foods and sugar-saturated beverages like soda, along with poor exercise habits. The region also is facing a diabetes epidemic, with an estimated 20 percent of the population suffering from the disease. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the top 10 nations with the highest rates of diabetes. By 2035, nearly 68 million people in the region are expected to have diabetes.

The six countries that make up the GCC have 10 times as many doctors and nurses per 1,000 people as some of the worlds most impoverished nations, like Afghanistan, Sudan or Yemen. But 75 percent of these physicians and 79 percent of nurses are not nationals from the countries in which they work, according to apolicy briefon health worker migration in the GCC published by the Aspen Institute. These statistics are in spite of nationalization programs aimed at injecting local, not expatriate, labor into the workforce. In 2001, after 20 years of Saudization, only 21.7 percent of physicians in Saudi Arabia were Saudi nationals.

Instead, health care workers come from just about everywhere else Asia, Africa, Western Europe or North America. Eight hundred doctors emigrate from Sudan every year, the brief estimated, with 70 percent going to Saudi Arabia and 25 percent heading to other Gulf countries. The brief estimated that in 2020, Saudi Arabia will need to hire 32,660 doctors from outside the country.

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Gulf Countries Migrant Workers: Health Care Providers Are Mostly Foreigners In Saudi Arabia And Neighboring Countries

How Cubas Health Care Sector Aims to Gain a Greater Foothold

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This report was produced by Knowledge@Wharton in collaboration with TTR Transactional Track Record.

Routinely touted as the greatest achievement of the Cuban Revolution alongside universal education, Cubas health care system has extended beyond the islands shores to represent one of the countrys biggest exports. Professional services carried out by Cuban doctors and nurses who number some 37,000 working in 77 countries are generating foreign exchange to the tune of $8 billion a year, Cuban officials say.

Cuban doctors and nurses are dispatched in medical brigades to far-flung countries ravaged by war and disease that are ill equipped to face humanitarian crises without external support, including earthquake-shattered Haiti and Ebola-stricken Liberia.

Cuban health workers are also sent to nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean that lack sufficient medical professionals to meet their own needs. These countries compensate Cuba with oil (in the case of Venezuela), good-will and cash. Venezuelas late president, Hugo Chavez, signed an agreement with Fidel Castro in 2000 to fund 43 medical centers in Cuba that attend to Venezuelan patients free of charge. Cuba, meanwhile, stations 31,000 medical professionals in the South American country and receives oil in return.

Cuba has a long tradition of training students from across the world in 16 medical schools scattered across the island. These students have typically been sponsored by United Nations programs or by their home governments, or are recipients of scholarships granted directly by the Cuban government. Even American citizens from low-income communities have been offered scholarships to study at Cuban medical schools, in exchange for a commitment to return to practice in underserved communities.

The nations medical facilities are, by and large, better equipped than hospitals in neighboring countries of the Caribbean, and

If there were any doubt about the level of training provided in the countrys medical institutions, foreign dignitaries dont share it; many frequently seek out Cuban doctors, some of whom are also professors at the countrys medical schools, to perform specialized procedures.

With modest investment, observers say, Cuba could attract more students and trainees from hospitals and managed care providers in the U.S.

Rodrigo lvarez Cambras, director of the International Orthopedic Complex Frank Pais on the outskirts of Havana, for example, was asked to operate on Saddam Husseins spine and treated Iraqs late leader over the course of nearly two decades. lvarez notes that U.S. policy is encouraging the same brain drain of Cuban doctors today as it did after the 1959 revolution, when about half the countrys 6,000 doctors fled. Despite the fact that the number of doctors on the island has multiplied more than tenfold since the start of the revolution, lvarez says he doubts Cuba will willingly supply medical professionals to the U.S. market as long as doctors from the country are being actively encouraged to defect under the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) Program.

The CMPP program was established in 2009 by the U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security. It allows Cuban doctors, nurses, paramedics, physical therapists, lab technicians and sports trainers working in third-world countries to apply for U.S. entry simply by proving their Cuban citizenship and medical credentials at any U.S. embassy or consulate.

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How Cubas Health Care Sector Aims to Gain a Greater Foothold

Providence Health Care begins to reap ACA benefits

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Amid the turbulent ongoing statewide and national debates over health care policy and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act last year, Elaine Couture, CEO of Providence Health Care, remains optimistic that the complex law will push health care providers to focus on positive patient outcomes and operate more efficiently overall.

Couture says Providence, the Spokane-based nonprofit network of hospitals, physician clinics, and other health care organizations and programs, is flourishing, at least in the initial stages of ACA implementation, in part because of the increasing number of insured patients the law has produced

Couture says Providence has seen an increase in the number of patients at its facilities, as well as a decrease in the number of uninsured patients.

It also has improved access by growing the number of Providence Medical Group physicians and advanced practice clinicians from about 50 five years ago to more than 550 today, at more than 50 clinics in Spokane and Stevens counties. Providence, one of Spokane Countys largest employers, has nearly 7,400 employees in Spokane and Stevens counties.

The health care network has seen a significant increase in its number of patient visits at Providence Medical Group clinics to nearly 625,000 in 2014 from 453,000 in 2013.

The network includes three urgent-care locations in Spokane County that are part of its effort to shift care to locations outside of the hospital.

With expanded urgent-care facilities, Providence nearly has tripled the number of patient visits to those facilities over two years. Nearly 62,000 patients visited its three urgent-care clinics in Spokane in 2014, up from about 23,000 patient visits at two clinics in 2013 when it added its third clinic, Couture says.

Net operating revenue has increased as well during the past two years. In 2014, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Childrens Hospital, the largest hospital in the network, had total net operating revenue of $790 million, up from $731 million in 2013. Providence Holy Family Hospital reported total net operating revenue of $186 million last year, up from $176 million in 2013. Providence Medical Groups total net operating revenue was $159 million, up from $135 million in 2013.

As patient numbers have risen, the percentage of patients paying for care out of their own pockets has declined. At Sacred Heart, Couture says, 1.2 percent of all patients last year paid for their own care, down from 3.3 percent in 2013.

At Holy Family, the percentage of self-pay patients, fell to 2.5 percent last year from 6.7 percent the previous year.

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Providence Health Care begins to reap ACA benefits

Health Care Sector Update for 02/12/2015: MDWD,INCR,ACHN

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Top Health Care Stocks

JNJ -1.65%

PZE +1.93%

MRK +0.36%

ABT +0.12%

AMGN +0.01%

Health care stocks were narrowly higher, with the NYSE Health Care Sector Index rising just 0.1% and shares of health care companies in the S&P 500 climbing 0.2% as a group.

In company news, MediWound Ltd ( MDWD ) slumped Thursday after this morning reporting a wider Q4 net loss than analysts had anticipated despite the first substantial sales of the company's NexoBrid burn care products.

Net loss during the three months ended Dec. 31 grew to $7.12 million, or $0.33 per share, from just $736,000 during the same quarter last year and trailing the Capital IQ consensus looking for a $0.26 per share loss.

The company said the Q4 deficit was in-line with its expectations as it expanded its commercial organization and marketing infrastructure. Also adding to the shortfall was the start of Phase III testing of NexoBrid in pediatric patients and a Phase II study of its EscharEx enzyme treatment for hard-to-heal wounds.

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Health Care Sector Update for 02/12/2015: MDWD,INCR,ACHN

More genetic links to obesity discovered

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New research offers more evidence that genes play a significant role in obesity.

The findings may help explain why some people are more likely to put on extra pounds and develop obesity-linked conditions, the investigators said.

The researchers analyzed genetic samples from more than 300,000 people and identified more than 140 locations across their sets of DNA that play a role in obesity. They also pinpointed new biological pathways that play important roles in body weight and fat distribution.

The findings appear in two companion papers published Feb. 11 in the journal Nature.

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This is the first step toward identifying individual genes involved in body shape and size, the researchers said. The proteins produced by the genes could offer targets for the development of new drugs to fight obesity.

One of the papers focused on genes that affect where fat is stored in the body, which affects health risk. For example, people with more belly fat are more likely to have metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease than those with more fat in the hips or distributed throughout the body.

"We need to know these genetic locations because different fat deposits pose different health risks," senior author Karen Mohlke, a professor of genetics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a University of Michigan Health System news release.

"If we can figure out which genes influence where fat is deposited, it could help us understand the biology that leads to various health conditions, such as insulin resistance/diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease," she explained.

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More genetic links to obesity discovered

New option for Jewish genetic testing

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When a Jewish couple is planning their wedding or anticipating starting a family, they probably arent thinking much about rare genetic conditions. But JScreen, an educational and screening program, urges couples to add genetic testing to their to-do list. And by offering home-based testing, JScreen hopes to eliminate any obstacles to this process.

Based at Emory Universitys Department of Human Genetics, JScreen (jscreen.org) provides a Web-based portal for individuals to request a genetic-screening kit. Participants provide a saliva sample most genetic tests involve a blood draw and mail it back for analysis. Before receiving the kit, participants must view an educational video and enter health information that is reviewed by an Emory genetic counselor.

We all carry [recessive genes for] various genetic diseases. We just dont know what they are, said Karen Grinzaid, a genetic counselor and instructor at Emory University School of Medicine and the senior director of outreach initiatives for JScreen.

The problem occurs when both parents are carriers of the same disease. In that case, each of their offspring has a 25 percent chance of manifesting the condition.

According to Emorys Department of Human Genetics, about one in five Ashkenazi Jews in the U.S. carries a genetic disease. However, most dont have a family history of the disease and are unaware of their status of carriers. In fact, 80 percent of babies with genetic diseases are born to parents with no known family history of that disease.

The only way to know if you are a carrier for a Jewish genetic disease is to have an affected child or be screened, Grinzaid said. For the vast majority of couples, genetic screening gives couples reassurance that theyre not at risk.

Saliva samples returned to Emorys lab are tested for 40 diseases prevalent in the Jewish community. Nineteen of them are more common in Ashkenazi populations, and 21 of them are common in Jews of Sephardic or Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) origins. Testing for an additional 47 diseases found in the general population is available at no extra cost. Many of the diseases included in the tests are fatal, and all impact the individuals quality of life.

Results take less than four weeks. If they are negative, individuals are notified via email. Those who are identified as carriers speak via phone or videoconference to an Emory University genetic counselor about their results and options. They might also be referred to a local genetic counselor for more extensive counseling. Grinzaid said that about 2 percent of couples will be found to be carriers of the same disease.

If both members of a couple carry the same genetic disease, they have several options. One is to undergo in-vitro fertilization using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. This technology allows embryos to be tested for the affected gene before being implanted. Other options include using a donor egg or sperm, or pursuing adoption.

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LYSOGENE, UMM and AU Collaborate To Develop IND-supporting Preclinical Studies In GM1-gangliosidosis

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Collaboration entails development of gene therapy treatment for severe neurodegenerative disease GM1-gangliosidosis

LYSOGENE, a leading, clinical stage gene therapy biotechnology company committed to the development and commercialization of breakthrough treatments for severe orphan pathologies affecting the central nervous system (CNS), recently announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Auburn University (AU) in Auburn, Alabama. Through the collaboration, LYSOGENE, UMMS and AU will develop IND-supporting preclinical studies in GM1-gangliosidosis, a rare, inherited disorder characterized by severe neurological impairment, using adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy technology.

The collaboration will combine LYSOGENEs outstanding translational and clinical expertise in gene therapy for CNS disorders with the unique preclinical expertise and infrastructure of UMMS and AU to design and test innovative AAV-based gene therapy approaches to treat GM1-gangliosidosis.

The development of a potential treatment for GM1-gangliosidosis using AAV gene therapy was initiated in 2005 by Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, associate professor in the Neurology Department and the Gene Therapy Center at UMMS, and Douglas R. Martin, PhD, associate professor in the Scott-Ritchey Research Center and Department of Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology at AU. The approach developed by the investigators uses AAV vectors to treat the entire brain and spinal cord after injection of only a few intracranial sites. Preclinical studies demonstrated a remarkable extension in lifespan from 8 months in untreated GM1 cats to greater than 4.5 years in AAV-treated cats, with dramatic improvements in quality of life. Results were published in Science Translational Medicine in 2014 (McCurdy, V.J., et al., Sustained normalization of neurological disease after intracranial gene therapy in a feline model. Science Translational Medicine, 2014. 6(231): p. 231ra48).

We are thrilled by our collaboration with University of Massachusetts Medical School and Auburn University, which constitutes a significant step towards the development of a treatment for patients affected with GM1-gangliosidosis, a severely debilitating disease. For each of these patients and their families, there is currently no option and an urgent need for a safe and effective therapy, said Karen Aiach, founding president and CEO of LYSOGENE. AAV-based therapies are particularly suitable for inherited disorders of the CNS. In this new program, LYSOGENE will leverage its unique capacity to develop these therapies and bring them to patients with unmet needs. We will also reinforce our scientific and technology base through our collaboration with leaders in the field.

Collaborating with LYSOGENE will allow us to leverage their clinical and translational expertise and advance the development of a gene transfer therapy for treating patients affected with GM1-gangliosidosis, said Sena-Esteves. In our minds, what ultimately matters is the ability to deliver a potential treatment to the children suffering from this horrible disease. Ultimately, thats what drives us all.

About Gangliosidosis with GM1 GM1-gangliosidosis is a rare inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by severe cognitive and motor developmental delays resulting in death of most patients at a very young age.

It is caused by mutations in the GLB1 gene, which encodes an enzyme called beta-galactosidase necessary for recycling of a molecule (GM1-ganglioside) in neurons. This brain lipid is indispensable for normal function, but its overabundance causes neurodegeneration, resulting in the severe neurological symptoms of GM1-gangliosidosis.

GM1 affects 1 in 100,000 - 200,000 newborns and is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. GM1-gangliosidosis can be classified into three major clinical phenotypes according to the age of onset and severity of symptoms: Type I (infantile), Type II (late infantile/juvenile) and Type III (adult). There is currently no treatment for this disease.

About LYSOGENE LYSOGENE is a clinical stage biotechnology company committed to the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for patients affected with rare disorders and high unmet medical needs. LYSOGENEs team translated its rAAVrh10 lead product for Sanfilippo from bench to bedside in an unprecedented fashion over the last years. Its lead product is for Sanfilippo syndrome, a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder considered to be a perfect model for gene therapy. LYSOGENE is currently expanding its pipeline to additional diseases with high unmet medical needs. Lysogene was launched in 2009. It completed a Series A financing in May 2014 with leading life sciences investors Sofinnova Partners, BPI Innobio and Novo AIS.

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LYSOGENE, UMM and AU Collaborate To Develop IND-supporting Preclinical Studies In GM1-gangliosidosis

Black Beauty -"Absolute Zero Infinity" Federal Futurism Fantasy (alien angels) Valentine’s Day 2015 – Video

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Black Beauty -"Absolute Zero Infinity" Federal Futurism Fantasy (alien angels) Valentine #39;s Day 2015
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Seizing a Super Bowl moment, Missy Elliott announces that shes working on new music with Timbaland

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Its been more than a week since Missy Elliott became the breakout star of the Super Bowl, her old hits burning up the Spotify and iTunes charts, and shes still riding a wave of reignited stardom. After the performance, she said, she was getting offers to tour. Dont get your hopes up just yet she didnt actually confirm that shes going, but it appears new workis on the horizon.

On Tuesday, Elliott posted a picture of herself in a recording studio with Timbaland on Twitter.Timbalands the chief songwriter and producer for the FOX series Empire. Its possible that Elliott could have been recording a song for the show she missed the Grammys to work with Tim in the studio.

Katy Perry gave a colorful performance on the big stage during the Super Bowl halftime show. Rock star Lenny Kravitz and rapper Missy Elliott also performed. (AP)

Could something more be afoot? In a recent interview with Sirius XMs Sway in the Morning, Elliott was pretty cagey.

I dont want to say too much cause in this day and time, you say too much, boy, you say something, they will come back two weeks later like, Uhhh, where your album at? Elliott said. Okay, fine. But its worth noting that Timbaland and ASAP Ferg both posted new pictures on Instagram early Thursday morningwith Elliott in the studio.

In the late 90s, wewere obsessed with futurism just look at the videos for No Scrubs, 808, or Missys own song, The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly). Everything was forward-looking, but its rare to find work that can realistically make the leap to 2015 and still hang. Missys Super Bowl performance resurfaced that work, and evidenced just how forward-thinking she and Tim were. Work It and Get Ur Freak On still sound distinctive and modern. Years before natural hair took off as a major trend, Elliott had hairdressers sporting enormous fros in the background of the video for Work It, a song about female sex positivity in which Elliott is unambiguously pro-sex worker. Girls, girls, get that cash, if its nine-to-five or shaking your a, she rapped. Aint no shame, ladies do yo thang. Just make sure you ahead of the game.

Aside from her rapping and producing, Missy Elliotts calling cards were her customized track suits and her high-energy, complicateddance routines, which is why it might surprise you to see her rocking a goldlam Elizabethan gown, complete with high collar, in the video for Beep Me 911. Lady Gaga wore something similar crafted from red PVC to meet the queen of England both mixed elements of Elizabethan and Victorian-era costuming. Get a good look at Elliotts pink surrounds and the Barbie-like backup dancers. Who else spies a heavy visual influence on early Nicki Minaj?

And has anyone noticed the shocking similarity between the logo on the space suit Elliott rocks in Sock It 2 Me and the Gmail icon? Sock It 2 Me came out in 1997. Gmail lauched in 2004.

Hopefully her performance at the Super Bowl with Katy Perry is a signal that shes been able to overcome or at least manage her symptoms resulting fromGraves disease, anautoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland. Elliott was diagnosed with the disorder in 2008, and revealed that she experienced hair loss and mood swings as a result. At one point, she said in the Guardian, I couldnt write because my nervous system was so bad.

Its been 10 years since Elliott dropped her last studio album, The Cookbook.

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Seizing a Super Bowl moment, Missy Elliott announces that shes working on new music with Timbaland

DEBATE – Dr Zakir Naik – Religious Fundamentalism and Freedom of Expression – Video

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DEBATE - Dr Zakir Naik - Religious Fundamentalism and Freedom of Expression
Nouman Ali Khan is a Muslim speaker and the CEO and founder of Bayyinah Institute, an Arabic studies, educational institution in the United States. His early education in Arabic started in...

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