Posted by: Lucía de Gispert

THE TELEGRAPH 

Time's up for siestas, delayed meetings and late nights, Spaniards told in effort to make them work better

Spaniards should ditch their siesta culture, stop being late for meetings and get to bed earlier, MPs have been told.

A carriage driver in Seville taking a siesta

By Martin Roberts in Madrid

Their three-hour lunch breaks have long been the envy of workers in neighbouring countries, their business meetings often start late and millions of them rarely get to bed till well after midnight.

But now Spaniards face growing pressure to give up their siestas, bring their working day into line with the rest of western Europe - and switch their clocks to the same time zone as Britain.

A parliamentary commission has called for fundamental reform to traditional working hours and practices as part of Spain's effort to break out of recession and reduce the chronic unemployment that has dogged its economy for the best part of a decade.

The review, by the National Commission for the Rationalisation of Working Hours, is expected to win the backing of a panel of MPs on Thursday.

"We need more flexible working hours, to cut our lunch breaks, to streamline business meetings by setting time limits for them, and to practise and demand punctuality," says the report.

Long lunch breaks are a throwback to the time when working outdoors became unbearable in midday temperatures of 40C or more but have persisted - along with the habit of working till 9pm, then socialising until late at night - despite the advent of air conditioned factories, offices and shops.

The result is that even though Spaniards put in more hours in total than equivalent workers in Germany, they waste more time and produce far less. They also have on average one hour less sleep per night.

"In these difficult and critical times, Spain urgently needs more humane working hours," the Commission says. "This would raise productivity, lower absenteeism and accidents, as well as reducing drop-out rates from school."

The report also recommends ditching the use of Central European Time which - since Madrid is further west than Plymouth - means daylight and working hours are out of synch. Spain adopted Berlin time in 1942, at the height of the Second World War, when it was sympathetic to Nazi Germany.

The Commission has told MPs that a shorter, sharper and better timed working day would improve Spaniards' quality of life, raise the country's low birth rates and reduce the rate of marriage breakdown.

Smokers Die Ten Years Sooner Than Non-Smokers (by María Valero)

We all know that smoking is bad for our health. But how bad is bad? The answer is very bad, life changing in fact. But everyone also knows someone who has smoked all their adult life, never gotten lung cancer or a respiratory disease of any kind and lived to a ripe old age. George Burns, the famous comedian, who lived to be 100 hundred years old, often remarked "I smoke ten to fifteen cigars a day. At my age I have to hold on to something".

So, true enough - but in the discussion ahead you will find that these individuals are very much the rare exception and certainly not the rule. It is important to know that, on average, smokers die twelve years sooner than non-smokers. Twelve years! That's more than a decade! It means life for smokers is more than ten percent shorter than for non-smokers. These are big numbers.

Is this just fear mongering or is there substance to such a statement? It is real. The data is in and it is very strong.

No other preventable cause of illness or death is more important than smoking. This is the clear message of two new studies that investigated the overall impact of smoking across a very large cohort of Americans. The studies, conducted by Jha et al¹ and by Thun et al ² along with an editorial by Schroeder³, were published by the New England Journal of Medicine on January 24, 2013. They support earlier studies that came to similar conclusions based on smaller numbers of observed individuals.

So, here are the facts of the matter. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States and that, in 2011, an estimated 19 percent of U.S. adults were cigarette smokers.⁴ This is down from over 40% a few decades ago. Good progress. But for those who do smoke, diseases leading to death are common.

Smoker's mortality rates are nearly 3 times greater than those of nonsmokers and essentially equal between men and women. People who smoke are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 443,000 deaths each year, including approximately 49,000 deaths due to exposure to secondhand smoke.

Smoking also causes most cases of chronic obstructive lung disease. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States, and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths among men and approximately 80 percent of lung cancer deaths among women are due to smoking currently or in the past. Certain diseases, such as ischemic heart disease (heart attacks and related coronary artery disease), stroke, chronic lung disease and lung cancer, have been clearly linked to smoking and were found to be the cause of death in approximately 60% of the smokers' in these studies.

Smoking causes or predisposes to many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, and acute myeloid leukemia.

The chance that a young person will live to age 80 is about 70% for nonsmokers but only 35% for smokers. Stated differently, a smoker loses about 11(women) to 12 (men) years of life compared to nonsmokers. Sadly, the NCI's 2011 report confirms that nearly 16 percent of high school students smoke cigarettes.

The vertical lines at 80 years of age represent the 99% confidence intervals for cumulative survival probabilities, as derived from the standard errors estimated with the use of the jackknife procedure. Survival probabilities have been scaled from the National Health Interview Survey to the U.S. rates of death from all causes at these ages for 2004,13,16 with adjustment for differences in age, educational level, alcohol consumption, and adiposity (body-mass index). Source: NEJM.

 The Thun Study

The Thun study compared data from three time periods reaching back 50 years. Overall, mortality rates during this fifty year period declined by 50%; largely as a result of the progress against heart disease. However, this was a benefit enjoyed solely by the nonsmokers.

Thun made some key observations:

• Smoking deaths continue to increase among women because women who smoke now smoke as much as men do


• Death from all causes is at least 3X higher for smokers than for nonsmokers with at least two thirds of all deaths in smokers directly related to smoking


• The rate of death from chronic lung disease (COPD) is rising among both men and women. They hypothesize that this rise in incidence is related to the changes in cigarettes over the years that encourage deeper inhalation; consequently delivering more toxins to the deep, peripheral regions of the lungs - the alveoli or air sacs.
  
  Using the same reasoning, they suggest that deeper inhalation than in the past may be causing the increased incidence of peripheral lung cancers, especially adenocarcinomas, versus the more centrally located and mostly squamous cell cancers that were more common in the past.


• Quitting smoking lowers death rates quite substantially and quitting before the age of 40 can eliminate the relative risk of early death.

Economic Implications

The economic realities of smoking do not stop there, either. The cost of smoking-related disease is a significant cost burden on the Gross Domestic Product of the US economy. Of the $2.2 trillion the US spends on health care, annually, $1.1 trillion of that spend is related directly to the cost burdens of chronic non communicable diseases. Of this $1.1 trillion cost burden pulmonary disease and lung cancer account for $154 billion. Nearly 15%! The cost of heart disease and stroke accounts for a $444 billion cost burden.

A quick extrapolation of the statistics from Thun et al and Jha et al would relate that smoking related diseases, associated with just lung, heart and vascular ailments, pose an economic cost burden to the US GDP in the hundreds of billions of dollars, annually. So, both the humanitarian and financial consequences of smoking and tobacco certainly cannot be overstated.

The Value of Quitting

It is well understood that tobacco is addictive and that smoking is easy to start and hard to quit. Many try each year only to go back on. If someone has smoked for a long time, does it make any difference or is it just too late? What value does quitting smoking have, if any in these circumstances? The answer is that quitting is exceptionally valuable and it is never too late to have a meaningful effect.

Those who quit smoking will gain back substantial years of life, with more years gained the sooner one ceases smoking. For example, in Jha's analysis, those who quit in the age range 25-34 reverted almost to the nonsmoker status - they gained back 10 years of life. Stopping between 35-44 years of age gained 9 years and between 45-54 years of age the gain was 6 years. So it is always a good time to quit.

The total and excess risks of death are shown for NHIS participants who continued smoking, as compared with those who quit smoking. CI denotes confidence interval. Source: NEJM.

 Quitting today is the single most important step a smoker can take to improve their health over the years to come. Some argue that if they quit they will gain weight and that will make them more susceptible to diabetes mellitus or coronary artery disease. A possibly logical argument, but the data is in - quitting may lead to some weight gain, but it is hardly enough to have a significant or serious impact and so does not - by far - overcome the benefits of smoking cessation. Moreover, it is an argument that fails in comparison to the extension of one's life.

Quitting is difficult. No question. Nevertheless, it is well worth it! The best approach is to use a combination of techniques all at once. Counseling by the patient's physician and augmented by a professional cessation counselor can have a major impact. Nicotine patches can help slowly and gently ease one off of the nicotine addiction. Support groups, whether they be real or virtual, in person or via social media can be very helpful; after all, each person in the group is going through the same difficult transition. Incentives help as well as a strong family and friends' support system. Workplace tobacco cessation programs are very useful and if one is not available many health departments can make a referral. The success of quitting goes way up when these and other techniques are used together, rather than just trying to quit "cold turkey" on one's own.

To assist an individual, the provider (physician, nurse, nurse practitioner) needs to follow the Public Health Service "5As" model:

1. Ask each patient if they smoke
2. Advise all smokers to quit
3. Assess the smoker's willingness to quit (readiness)
4. Assist with the quitting
5. Arrange appropriate follow-up contact both with the provider and others such as counselors

This all takes some time, but it is essential to high rates of success.

A concept called self-efficacy is important here. Those with low self-efficacy are those with low personal expectations that they will be successful at quitting. Their relapse rate is higher so they need to be identified early and offered special assistance.

Often not recognized by the general population is the value of smoking cessation before a surgical procedure. Smokers have higher rates of complications during and after surgery than do nonsmokers. For elective procedures many surgeons now insist on cessation for some month's pre surgery. This is a good idea which needs to be augmented post-surgery to prevent later relapse.

Fortunately, there have been active efforts for many years to warn of the dangers of smoking and to assist individuals to quit. However, smoking has become a stigmatized behavior so that those who smoke are shunned and those who develop smoking related illnesses like lung cancer are stigmatized ("you brought it on yourself") as well.

Lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer, but there is no "Pink Ribbon" Campaign or "Race for the Cure." Women have proven themselves to be the best advocates for a healthy society. Women's leadership in the fight against breast cancer has been the single best disease advocacy and funding initiative ever seen. The reality is that lung cancer killed 74,000 women in 2010 as compared to the 38,000 lost to breast cancer. Nearly twice as many women were lost to lung cancer in 2010 than breast cancer.

So, where are the voices? There is a compelling case to be made for a renewed focus on prevention and treatment of pulmonary disease and lung cancer, in particular. Over 96 million Americans have admitted to smoking for at least six months during their lifetime, an exposure rate that puts one third of America's population at least at some level of risk.

So, why be prejudiced toward those with pulmonary disease and lung cancer? The fact is that we are all paying for the cost burden of smoking on our society in real dollars and in real lives. There is a significant need for a nonjudgmental attitude toward those who are afflicted. Getting past the "blame game" removes the stigma and allows a more constructive approach to tobacco cessation and disease prevention and treatment.
( from :http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/261091.php )

September 30th, 2013

04:16 PM ET

Equal work for equal pay? Posted by your teacher

http://worldsport.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/30/equal-work-for-equal-pay/?hpt=hp_c4  

Usually the practice of equal work predates the debate for equal pay. In tennis, the practice of equal pay pre-dated the debate for equal work.

In the 40 years since Billie-Jean King’s historic victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” which lit the fuse for the global expansion of women’s tennis, the game has become the biggest women’s sport on the planet, with the stars of the game known on a first name basis the world over.

Eventually, the financial rewards slowly followed suit, culminating in 2007 when Wimbledon become the last of the four grand slam events to award equal prize money to both the men and women.

While this would seem like a non-controversial sign of gender equality and progress, opposition to equal prize money at the grand slams is not isolated to the misogynistic fringe of the tennis community. Their argument is simple; men play best-of-five sets whereas the women just best-of-three.

Blog: Are Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic boring?

Back in 2009, former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt weighed in on the subject, saying, "The training you have to do to last five sets, especially seven best of five-set matches, it's a lot more than three-set matches. There would obviously be question marks [over whether] a lot of them could last."

Former world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko has also spoken out publicly against this perceived injustice, citing the extra physical demands of playing five sets.

The latest player to make headlines in the debate was Wimbledon champion Andy Murray who recently gave his two cents, stating, “I’m not saying the men work harder than the women, but if you have to train to play five sets, it’s a longer distance.

"It’s like someone training to be a 400-meter runner and someone training to be a 600-meter runner.

"I think either the men go three sets or the women go five sets. I think that’s more what the guys tend to complain about, rather than the equal prize money itself."

The discrepancy between time spent on court was highlighted during last month’s U.S. Open, when Serena Williams walked away with the trophy after just nine hours and 54 minutes on court, as opposed to Rafael Nadal who took 16 hours and 19 minutes to claim the same honor.

Last week, when asked why women do not play best-of-five sets at the grand slams, Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Chairman and chief executive officer Stacey Allaster insisted that her players were, “Ready, willing and able… all you have to do is ask.”

So the men say they want it, and the women say they’re ready for it. So what’s stopping it?

The primary issue is the logistical nightmare of having to schedule 128 first-round matches, each with the potential of going five hours long.

Blog: Can Serena become the greatest ever?

One proposed suggestion would be to have both the men and women play best-of-three sets for the opening rounds, and best-of-five for the latter. This would allow for the more competitive matches featuring the biggest names to generate the greater drama.

After all, drama is what brings in the money.

Looking retrospectively, this format would not have impacted the epic best-of-five set finals, such as the classic Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe clash in 1980, or the remarkable Roger Federer-Nadal final from 2008. However, early round battles such as the 11+ hour marathon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut would have been over in under two hours.

These gladiatorial battles underscore the exceptional mental and physical demands of a grand slam, in a way conventional tennis tournaments do not. The excitement of a best-of-five set marathon is a unique and special experience in tennis, and one denied to half the grand slam participants.

Doesn’t Maria Sharapova deserve the opportunity to fight back from two-sets down to clinch victory from the jaws of defeat? Doesn’t the New York crowd deserve to see Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka go the distance over five sets, testing their physical and mental superiority to the max?

As Murray continued to say in his recent interview, playing best-of-five sets “is what makes [grand slams] different.”

Maybe this is the point. During the regular season, both men and women must win five best-of-three set matches over a week in order to take home the title. During a grand slam, the men must win seven best-of-five set matches over two weeks, whereas women need only to win seven best-of-three set matches over the same two weeks.

Added pressure aside, the physical demands for women during a grand slam are actually less than during the regular season.

By allowing women to play best-of-five, you are separating the grand slam’s from the rest of the tour, making them special events, for special athletes.

The one major problem with assessing a tennis player’s fiscal worth by their length of play is assuming that their work day begins with the toss of the coin, and ends with shaking hands.

Playing matches is just a small part of the job of a full-time tennis professional, who train and travel year-round, and have done in most cases since they were too young to see above the airport check-in counter. This is just as true for the women as it is for the men.

Former world No. 6 Gilles Simon has been one of the more outspoken and controversial opponents of equal pay, suggesting that the men deserve more money, because they provide greater entertainment.

In response to this, Sharapova quipped, “I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his.”

And she’s right. People watch sports to see their favorite players, and for tennis, these fan-favorites are limited to just a few marquee names.

Serena Williams and Sharapova are just as a big draw for the fans as the top men are, and people tune in in the millions to watch them perform.

At this year’s U.S. Open, the women’s final pulled higher domestic television ratings than the men’s final, scoring a 4.9, with the men’s a comparatively low 2.8.

This can be attributed to Serena Williams being American, but that’s largely the point. People watch players they are rooting for, even if it’s only best-of-three sets, or “not as entertaining."

It’s much like when you choose to see a movie. You’re not looking at the showtimes to see which movie is longest. You choose the films featuring your favorite actors, by your favorite directors or producers. And you certainly would not expect to pay more if the movie was longer.

While the offer from the WTA's Allaster is generous, it is perhaps disingenuous. Of all the events her player participate in, the only events for which she is willing to make such an offer are the four events governed by the International Tennis Federation, where she has no jurisdiction over.

If the WTA were serious about playing best-of-five, they would incorporate it more into their own events.

An ideal time to test best-of-five sets for the women’s game would be at the annual end of year WTA Tour Championships. In fact, from 1984 to 1998, this event culminated in a best-of-five final, including an epic five-set thriller between Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis.

If these matches proved successful and popular, we’ll have a real debate on our hands.

But for now, the debate is essentially a none-starter. The media isn’t clamoring for it, the fans aren’t asking for it, and the players - despite what they say - don’t really want it.

If Andy Murray thinks that someone who trains for a 600 meter race deserves more than someone who trains to run 400 meters, maybe he should speak to Usain Bolt, the highest paid track star on the planet, who makes his money training for a race that lasts less than 10 seconds.

Why Learn English: 10 Reasons to Learn English   (by Pepe Tey)

There are many reasons to learn English, but because it is one of the most difficult languages to learn it is important to focus on exactly why it is you want to learn English. Here we will look at ten great reasons why English is so important. Post this list somewhere you can see it and it will montivate you to keep going even when you are tired of trying to figure out which witch is which!

1. English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. Throughout the world, when people with different languages come together they commonly use English to communicate.


2. Why learn English when it is so difficult? Well, knowing English will make you bilingual and more employable in every country in the world.


3. Despite China, the United States is still a leader in technical innovation and economic development. English is used in the United States and in each of these fields.


4. English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britian’s expansion during the colonial age. People in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. English is the commonly adopted second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Speaking English opens these countries and cultures up to you.


5. Another reason why English is so important is that it is the language of science. To excel in science you need to know English.


6. English is based on an alphabet  and, compared to Chinese, it can be learned fairly quickly.


7. English is also the language of the Film Industry and English means you no longer have to rely on subtitles.


8. In the United States, speaking English immediately opens up opportunities regardless of your ethnicity, color, or background.


9. Learn English and you can then teach your children English -- or if they are already learning, you can now communicate with them in English.


10. English speakers in the United States earn more money than non-English speakers. Learning English will open your job prospects and increase your standard of living.

10 common nightmares and dreams-Bea Ferrer

Having a nightmare is something that you may think of as an unpleasant experience, and it may even be a scary experience, and if so would you ever wish to have a nightmare again? Well a nightmare could be pure terror, but having this type of nightmare is really a kind of dream that gives you a lot of anxiety! So is there any benefit from all of this in a real nightmare, or is it just simply a bad dream, and nothing more than that? We will discuss this further as we continue.

What are Nightmares, and Dreams?

Have you ever woke up after a bad dream, and being so thankful that the terrifying nightmare was not at all true?

When you are sleeping the REM is a cycle of your sleep which means "rapid eye movement", and no matter if you have a nightmare, or a dream it normally happens the latter part of the REM cycle during your sleep.

While sleeping every night about two hours are just dreaming nightmares can sometimes be more than just having a bad dream as they are sometimes a condition, or a disorder that people have. Nightmares can happen over an extended time, and are sometimes very intense. In fact the nightmare can be so intense that it causes that person having it to feel very distressed in addition to the nightmare even causing interference with their work, or social life.

Although nightmares happen most often in children they happen at a young age. But bad dreams are very normal for children unless the dreams disturb their pattern of sleep. Adults have nightmares as well though not as often as children do. Still 50 percent of all adults say they have had bad dreams before, but women experience them more often than men do.

So What Causes Nightmares?

There are many theories about the causes of dreams, and nightmares. Many psychologists believe that dreams are from the unconscious mind, and they are expressing all the desires, and fears of a person.

When sleeping the conscious mind is quiet, but now the emotions begin to surface, and manifest themselves into nightmares and dreams. Additionally it is believed that dreams are all significant, and that they all have a definite meaning. In order to find out the meaning of a dream you must first interpret the dream.

What Does Your Nightmares, and Dreams Actually Mean:

Most people have the occasional nightmare, and some people may even have them more than every few nights. But what can these nightmares, and terrors really mean? Even though some nightmares can be sometimes random episodes of the subconscious brain without any particular interpretation still many other nightmares do actually have certain, and specific meanings, or causes related to them.

Nightmares can actually allow you to take a deep look into your feelings and thoughts, and to get a real feel of your present emotional, and mental state.

10 of the Most Common Nightmares:

The tenth most common nightmare that people have.

10. "Natural Disasters":

When having nightmares such as these particular types people have a real sense of fear, or a very strong feeling of anxiety within themselves. This can apply to a person that is very nervous, or is having some anxiety over such things as an exam, appointment with a doctor, issues on a relationship, or even an important speech.

9. "Seeing the Dead":

This is having the feeling as though your being contacted by, or even being approached by a person who is dead. This could be a person that you had known in the past, or someone that has passed away only recently. It may also be someone you did not know at all.

These nightmare types can be connected with inability of letting go. Additionally people that experience these nightmare types may have health problems that are life threatening, or even terminal. They may also be terror linked to the unknown.

8. "Missing Important Events":

With these type of nightmares they can be related to a person that has completely missed their own wedding, or has missed an appointment that was important to them, or an event of some type that is common for people living in a fast paced life.

People who have anxiety in fear of failing, or is just not at all able to live up to the potential of what may be expected of him or her can be common for these type of nightmares.

7. "Naked":

It may seem funny to be naked when in public once you actually wake up from the dream. But this type of  nightmare can be associated with other big issues that are not so funny. Dreaming about being naked in public can relate to the fear of other people judging you, and so it would make this type of nightmare very annoying for the person that is having the dream.

6. "Teeth":

This dream again involves the insecurities of the person having the dream. Much the same as the nightmares of being naked while in public are the nightmares for teeth that are falling out. Associated with these type of dreams are people that have a lot of anxiety, and inner thoughts of being judged solely by other people.

An example of this dream would be a nightmare that you had of your grandmother due to her recent passing, and you having difficulty emotionally trying to deal with the impact of the terrible loss.

5. "Injuries":

The cause can often be the feeling of being weak in your own lives when having nightmares of being wounded, or injured. Your brain may be trying to alert you of feeling weak in some precise area of your life when dreaming of injuries, or even the breaking of bones may enter into the picture of this kind of dream.

However by relieving, and improving your particular circumstances when having this type of nightmare is to find out just what your weakness is, and work on improving it.

4. "Partner Leaving":

Nightmares of having a spouse, or partner leaving you is definitely a common problem, and there may be a need for help. Because of the feeling of dreaded times ahead, and of the partner leaving along with the thought of just being alone is not at all comforting for the person having the dream.

Not feeling good enough for your partner, or the feeling of not being secure in the relationship can result from a nightmare of this type.

3. "Being Trapped":

People who have a fear of being trapped in tiny spaces, and unable to move much are known to have a claustrophobic condition.

These type of nightmares are people who are afraid of not getting out of their own type of frustrating situation (space). This can include a problem job, a bad relationship, money problems, and while the person having the nightmare feels that they cannot escape it all which can be a very common issue in this type of nightmare.

2. "Falling":

By feeling that you are falling to absolute death when associated with a person is when they are unable to control an aspect of his or her life. Often these types of nightmares can be experienced by people in places of high power which may include career troubles, or some other type of abuse.

1. "Being Chased, or Attacked":

The most common nightmare of all are people who believe that they're being chased, or even attacked by other people, animals, or even creatures of a paranormal type. These nightmares are often from being very afraid of something that is associated with their life. These things could be a parent that is abusive, or a boss that is too pushy, or even a difficult teacher.

By your feelings in the nightmare to try to get away from being attacked can be related to your actual life issues. A good example is when dreaming you see yourself as hiding, this may in fact mean you are actually hiding from your real life issues.

By recognizing your actions within your dreams, and by taking the necessary steps in your real life can help you. By helping yourself to deal directly with your troubles, and to help put an end to both your troubles, and your nightmares are something that is very possible for you to do.

2013 Emmys

He's Back: Neil Patrick Harris to Host the 2013 Primetime Emmys (Uploaded by: your teacher)

Neil Patrick Harris is set to emcee the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards® on Sept. 22 on CBS, marking the renowned entertainer's second time hosting the Primetime Emmys.

- See more at: http://www.emmys.com//news/awards-news/hes-back-neil-patrick-harris-host-2013-primetime-emmys#sthash.rrj9U1y3.dpuf
http://www.emmys.com//news/awards-news/hes-back-neil-patrick-harris-host-2013-primetime-emmys

Neil Patrick Harris has been named Host and Producer of the 65th Primetime Emmy® Awards, his second time at the helm of television's biggest night. 

"I couldn't be more honored and excited to be hosting this year's Emmy Awards," said Neil Patrick Harris. "And what perfect timing — I'll just do the exact same script I'm about to use for the Tonys. 'And the Emmy for Best Revival of a Musical goes to "Breaking Bad!"' See, told you it works." 

The 2013 Primetime Emmys broadcast will air live from the Nokia Theater L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 22, on CBS. 

Multitalented television, film and stage star Harris emceed the 2009 Primetime Emmys on CBS to critical acclaim. 

"Neil is the quintessential host — engaging, entertaining, and a true showman — with a passion for celebrating the medium we all love. We're thrilled for him to return for CBS's broadcast of the Emmy Awards," said Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment. 

"Four years ago, Neil was an amazing Emmy host and we are excited to have him back," said Television Academy Chairman and CEO Bruce Rosenblum. "Neil is an extremely gifted and inventive performer, and we look forward to seeing what he has in store this year." - See more at: http://www.emmys.com//news/awards-news/hes-back-neil-patrick-harris-host-2013-primetime-emmys#sthash.rrj9U1y3.dpuf

THE PASSIVE VOICE: AGENT vs OBJECT FOCUS

Agent vs. Object Focus (From your teacher) 

PROJECT FOCUS
In science, business, and other collaborative fields, writers place the project in the subject position and the workers in a by phrase or a list at the end of the writing. This effectively shifts the focus to the interesting, important content and avoids repetition of the agent(s).
The human genome has been mapped by scientists.
Three billion base-pairs of DNA were determined. (by scientists who are too many to list)
This knowledge is expected to lead to better treatments for diseases like cancer and diabetes.  (by an unknown future research team)
The discovery must be linked to responsible use.  (by everyone)

AGENT FOCUS
Reporting information with active sentences is preferred whenever possible because the inclusion of the agent(s) is more personal; and the use of active verbs is more dynamic. However, sometimes there are too many agents to list and the collective work is the actual focus.
Scientists have mapped the human genome.
Scientists have determined three billion base-pairs of DNA
Scientists expect this knowledge to lead to better treatments for diseases like cancer and diabetes.
Everyone must link this discover to responsible use.

 You will find some interesting exercises at:

  http://grammar-quizzes.com/passive1a.html