World's most expensive cities

1. Tokyo, Japan

Despite a weakening yen and the accompanying drop in the relative cost of living, Tokyo once again earns the distinction as the world's most expensive city. The Japanese city has held the spot for 14 of the last 20 years, said survey author Jon Copestake.

Loaf of bread: $9.06

Liter of milk: $2.93

Bottle of table wine: $15.95

High-end 3-course dinner for four, with wine: $1,266.30

2. Osaka, Japan

Asian cities like Osaka have seen their cost of living climb in recent years, so much that they now represent 11 of the world's 20 most expensive cities, and three of the top ten. A decade ago Asian cities accounted for just six of the top 20.

Loaf of bread: $7.94

Bottle of table wine: $17.55

Liter of unleaded gas: $1.96

High-end 3-course dinner for four, with wine: $915.32

3. Sydney, Australia

Australian cities like Sydney were once relatively affordable locales. But in recent years they've been moving up the ranks of the world's most expensive cities as a strong local currency has pushed up prices.

Loaf of bread: $5.03

Bottle of table wine: $25.38

Pack of brand-name cigarettes: $15.48

High-end 3-course dinner for four, with wine: $731.96

4. Oslo, Norway

Oslo, which is Norway's capital and its most populous city, is the most expensive city in Europe, according to the index.

Loaf of bread: $6.31

Pack of brand-name cigarettes: $15.24

Liter of milk: $2.58

High-end 3-course dinner for four, with wine: $813.36

5. Melbourne, Australia

Like Sydney, Melbourne has seen its cost of living jump significantly in the past decade due to the strengthening Australian currency.

Loaf of bread: $4.87

Bottle of table wine: $25.03

Liter of milk: $2.00

High-end 3-course dinner for four, with wine: 794.85

Read more >>

Jim Rogers: Nobel Farce Prize won't save EU from pain, cuts & riots

The Nobel academy's decided that 2012's best example of delivering peace and harmony is - the EU! Its prize is a million euros - money it can certainly do with right now. But it'll be tough to swallow for the hundreds of thousands of Europeans who've been angrily and violently protesting for years against governments forcing harsh cuts and tougher living conditions on them. For more, RT talks to international investor James Rogers, author of 'A Gift To My Children'.

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Earth is undergoing true polar wander, scientists say

Scientists based in Germany and Norway today published new results about a geophysical theory known as true polar wander. That is a drifting of Earth’s solid exterior – an actual change in latitude for some land masses – relative to our planet’s rotation axis. These scientists used hotspots in Earth’s mantle as part of a computer model, which they say is accurate for the past 120 million years, to identify four possible instances of true polar wander in the past. And, they say, true polar wander is happening now. These scientists published their results in the Journal for Geophysical Research today (October 1, 2012).

The scientists – including Pavel V. Doubrovine and Trond H. Torsvik of the University of Oslo, and Bernhard Steinberger of the Helmholtz Center in Potsdam, Germany – established what they believe is a stable reference frame for tracking true polar wander. Based on this reference frame, they say that twice – from 90 to 40 million years ago – the solid Earth traveled back and forth by nearly 9 degrees with respect to our planet’s axis of rotation. What’s more, for the past 40 million years, the Earth’s solid outer layers have been slowly rotating at a rate of 0.2 degrees every million years, according to these scientists. Read more >>

D225G Ukraine Norway Link and China Spread

Recombinomics Commentary 14:15
November 25, 2009
The same mutation has been found in both fatal and mild cases elsewhere, including in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United States, said the WHO.

WHO's spokeswoman in Beijing, Vivian Tan, said the agency is aware of three such cases in China that occurred in June and July that were similar to the cases being investigated in Norway. Tan said WHO had no information on the cases mentioned in the Xinhua report Wednesday.

There is no evidence the mutated swine flu virus is circulating widely in the world, Tan said, but since it has been linked to deaths in Norway and elsewhere, investigators are focusing on whether this mutation could be a marker for more severe disease.

The above comments are associated with a report of eight D225G isolates with in China. Genbank has three of the sequences, as noted earlier. The increase in examples to eight is not surprising since D225G was in four of four fatal cases in Ukraine and reports from Norway cited detection in three isolates, 2 fatal and 1 severe case who had recovered.

However, 25 HA sequences deposited at Genbank had an HA sequence that contained D225G, A/Norway/2924/2009, but also had the wild type sequence, raising concerns that D225G was circulating as a mixture that was most easily detected in lung samples, because the D225G was more than a "marker". It is a polymorphisms that was found in 1918 and 1919 samples which were well characterized for receptor binding properties, which indicated the change conferred increased binding to gal 2,3 receptors which are present in lung.

Concerns that this receptor binding domain change was widely circulating were increased because an HA marker on the Norway isolate with D225G was found on additional isolates in Norway, and worldwide (see list here). This marker was also in the HA sequences from the fatal cases in Ukraine. Full sequences from one of the Norway isolates, A/Norway/3364-2/2009, were deposited, and a marker on the NA sequence matched isolates with the HA marker, linking this broader set of isolate from Norway with the Ukraine sequences, which also had the NA marker, as did multiple other isolates (see list here).

These associations link Ukraine to Norway, but the D225G polymorphism has jumped onto multiple genetic backgrounds, which are widespread, increasing concerns the D225G is circulating undetected because it is concentrated in lung tissues and is poorly represented in nasopharyngeal swabs. Release of full sequences from China, as well as Norway, would be useful.

Ukraine Dead Approach 400 - D225G Spreads
Recombinomics Commentary 23:30
November 24, 2009
1,679,237 Influenza/ARI

99,661 Hospitalized

397 Dead

The above figures from the latest daily update from the Ukraine Ministry of Health support a decline in the rate of increases of cases and deaths, but the total is now almost 400 fatalities (see map). The spread was likely slowed by the country-wide closing of schools along with warmer weather. However, it is likely that the virus will return as temperatures drop and the traditional flu season begins, although it is unclear if seasonal flu will be in circulation in 2010.

The receptor binding domain change, D225G, was in four of four sequence from fatal cases, raising concerns that the 2,3 alpha specificity of D225G drove the H1N1 to the lungs and the total destruction. Three patients in Norway were said to also have D225G, and two of the three died while the third had been in serious condition. 25 HA sequences from Norway were deposited at Genbank, but only one had D225G, and it was a mixture. In Brazil both patients with D225G in lung samples had died, and the case in China had been in serious condition.

However, the severity of the infection may be related to the ratio of sequences with and without D255G, as well as viral load, because milder cases involving D225G have also been reported in the United States and Hong Kong.

More detail on additional cases, including sequences from upper and lower respiratory tract from the same patient would be useful.

A/H1N1 has mutated to something more deadly - 1918 RBD D225G in Lung Cases in Ukraine and Norway

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1918 RBD D225G in Lung Cases in Ukraine and Norway
Recombinomics Commentary 11:29
November 21, 2009

For the two 1918 HA variants, the South Carolina (SC) HA (with Asp190, Asp225) bound exclusively alpha2-6 receptors, while the New York (NY) variant, which differed only by one residue (Gly225), had mixed alpha2-6/alpha2-3 specificity, especially for sulfated oligosaccharides.

The above description is from a paper analyzing receptor binding domain differences in sequences from the 1918 pandemic. The New York variant had D225G, the same change found in lung tissues from fatal swine H1N1 sequences in Brazil, Ukraine, and Norway. The above result clearly demonstrated a change in receptor specificity for D225G, which was present in A/New York/1/1918 and A/London/1/1919, demonstrating the same change I 1918 that has been described in 2009. Although WHO stated that this change was "not significant" in the Ukraine samples, it was associated with the fatal cases and is cause for concern. The concern was increased by the announcement from Norway indicating the same change was found in fatal H1N1 lung infections there also.

Although there have been comments that this change was "spontaneous" and did not spread, the finding of the same change in all four deceased patients in Ukraine from two distinct locations, indicates it did spread, as did the finding of the same change in multiple cases in Brazil and Norway. Although the concept of "random mutation" has been used to explain away the sudden appearance of the same polymorphism on multiple backgrounds, the appearance via recombination is a much stronger argument for the same change to appear at multiple locations at the same time.

The spontaneous mutation theory, which is the foundation of WHO policy and statements on significance of changes relies heavily on a "selection" component, arguing that the same change keeps appearing on different backgrounds because of string selection pressure. However, this same phenomenon was described for a silent mutation on H5N1, which offers no clear selection pressure. Similarly, a silent change was also found in seasonal H1N1 in sequences that had acquired the Tamiflu resistance marker, H274Y. Thus, these silent (synonymous) changes string argue against a coincidental spontaneous mutation, and instead argue that this acquisition is concurrently acquired because of a widespread common donor.

The concept of acquisition via recombination has serious implications for the current pandemic. It was used to predict the D225G change, in part because the change was "in play" and appearing in July/August sequences at increasing frequency, even though the H1N1 sequences represented different genetic backgrounds. Similarly the clusters of Tamiflu resistance in Wales and North Carolina are also driven by recombination, as happened when the identical change was acquired in H1N1 seasonal flu in patients who were not taking Tamiflu (oseltamivir).

Thus, the concept of recombination predicts that the D225G receptor binding domain change, and the H274Y Tamiflu resistance change, which continue to spread via recombination

300,000 Norwegians Infected with Swine Flu Last Week

Socio-Economics History Blog
The entire 13 per cent of Norway’s population is now infected with the swine flu. The estimates of Public Health (FHI) for the latest updated situation report that was published late Wednesday night.

Both the incidence of influenza-like illness and the number of confirmed flu cases has increased sharply throughout the country in recent weeks. But last week was a steep upward curve.

Rekorduke
According to the NIPH was all as many as 300,000 Norwegians infected with swine flu only last week.

- We estimate that just under 630,000 Norwegians are now infected and that nearly 300,000 were infected just last week. There are a large number and it tells us that we are in the middle of a new and powerful wave of infection which is significantly stronger than the one we had this summer, “said Hans Blystad, superintendent at the NIPH.

He will not mean anything if, or when, we can expect to reach a temporary peak of infection, but said a leveling off of the number of new infected first is probably when even more is vaccinated. Infection estimates of the NIPH is based on reported cases in the last week from 201 physician offices spread across the country, including laboratory tests and how many were diagnosed with “influenza-like illness”.

14 percent of those who went to the doctor last week had this diagnosis. Of the tests that were done in more detail in the laboratory showed all samples swine influenza virus.

Hospitals
Svineinfluensavirset has now spread epidemic in the whole country, and is most extensive in the Southeast and West Coast. So far, 772 Norwegians hospitalized in connection with the swine flu pandemic. 94 received intensive treatment, and 16 are dead. 13 of them died in hospital. Yesterday was the 93 people hospitalized, and 20 in intensive care. Deputy Health Director Bjorn Guldvog believe that the number of infected in Norway will increase.

- We believe we are on a rising wave in the number of infected people. But soon, almost all the risk groups vaccinated, so we hope for a avflating in the number of critically ill and died, “said Guldvog.