However, these players have a long way to go and they will need to achieve at both club level and national level to be counted amongst the best.

It is no secret that players like Ajax Amsterdams midfielder Thulani Serero, Helsingborgs May Mahlangu and PSL-based SuperSport United goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, all have the potential to play anywhere in the world.

But what is it that these young talented players need to do in order to be in Goal50 in future?

Ajax Amsterdam and Bafana midfielder - Thulani SereroAt 23, Serero has already competed against European football powerhouses; Manchester United and Real Madrid in the Uefa Champions League.

This is something most South African footballers have wished to achieve, but Serero will have to do a lot more than just playing against big guns.

He hasnt been a regular since joining Ajax in 2011, but his skill and ability to dribble past defenders have contributed towards his stay at the club.

Serero will also need to improve his game at national team level after he failed toshine during the recent 2013 Afcon tournament in South Africa.

Perhaps if Bafana coachGordon Igesund can be patient with him to settle into the team, then Serero might eventuallyfind his touch and reach his potentialin the national team.

He is the kind of player South African fans would expect to play a huge role for Bafana in the 2015 and 2017 Afcon tournaments as well as in the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Helsingborgs and Bafana midfielder - May MahlanguThe 24-year-old Mahlangu has been a star in the Swedish Premier League for the past two seasons or so, and his brilliant performance has made him a regular in the Bafana squad.

His career highlight has to go back to 2011 when he walked away with Player of the Season award after helping Helsingborgs IF to Allsvenskan (league title), Svenska Cupen and Supercupen.

Mahlangu has been linked with several European clubs, but nothing concrete has come out of those rumours.

However, Mahlangu would need to help his team become the force in European football as they often fell behind in the Uefa Champions League and therefore had to settle for a spot in the Europe League.

Perhaps, his best option is to move to another European league like theBundesliga in Germany, if theirstyle of football suites him better.

The German league helped Steven Pienaar improve his game and he later moved to England to join Everton.

The Mpumalanga-born maestro had a fantastic 2013 Afcon tournament and hugely contributed towards Bafanas quarterfinal success.

SuperSport United goalkeeper - Ronwen WilliamsThe young goalkeeper has been apillar of strength in the SuperSport United defence for the past three seasons and he has won several individual awards including the Young Playerof the Year award last season.

Williams has been earmarked as the future Bafana goalkeeper although he might find it hard to break into the Bafana starting eleven as yet.

The 21-year-old shot-stopper has gained a lot of experience over the years, as SuperSport United have done well in almost every competition since he came in.

He has always been the difference between the sticks, and his performances in the Caf Confederations Cup havemade him oneof the best prospectsin the country.

Of course, he will be overshadowed by the presence of Itumeleng Khune, but he is definitely not far off and the Bafana captain can expect a challenge from Williams.

He will need to work a lot harder to be in the Bafana squad, and also help Matsatsantsa win the league title and at least a trophy or two to make it in the top 50 list.

KV Kortrijk goalkeeper - Darren KeetThe 23-year-old Keet has been playing in Belgium for the past two seasons, and although he did not get enough game time during his first season at KV Kortrijk, he improved his game last season.

He has been consistent this past season for Kortrijk in the Belgian Pro League, and his club rewarded him with the Player of the Season award for his efforts.However, he will need to cement his place in the Kortrijks starting line-up in the next few seasons, and force his way into the Bafana squad as we approach the 2015 Afcon.

Keet has got the opportunity to compete in European competitions, and he could get the attention of bigger clubsshould he do well in those competitions.

In particular, populations of(Hexactinellida) animals previously believed to grow and reproduce very slowly have tripled between 2007 and 2011, allowing them to completely take over the seafloor.

"The shelf broke off, split into tiny pieces and was gone in a couple of weeks," said lead researcher Claudio Richter, a biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. "Now the benthos, which we believed would take decades or centuries to move and change, is transforming quickly in just a matter of years." []

Nobody knows what lived beneath the floating ice shelf before it disappeared. But scientists think the seafloor communities were very poor because animals could only get food when strong currents brought it in, said Richter, who likens the thick ice shelf to a large balcony attached to a house or building, blocking the sun, which gives organisms at the base of the marine food chain energy.

"If you have a balcony that extends really far out, you would have a difficult time growing vegetables beneath it," Richter told LiveScience.

Life beneath the ice shelf

In 1995, rapidly warming waters in Antarctica's Weddell Sea caused thein a stunning display. In the aftermath, sunlight bathed the surface waters, allowing phytoplankton and ice algae, fed by photosynthesis, to grow. This food supply eventually trickled down to the seafloor, helping sponges, sea squirts and other animals thrive.

In 2007, scientists aboard the ice-breakingvisited the area beneath the former ice shelf using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Though they only went down about 980 feet (300 meters), they discovered communities of deep-sea invertebrates that are normally found at depths of 3,300 feet (1,000 m) or more.

In addition, they also saw occasional small glass sponges and large populations of fast-growing sea squirts, which dominated the seafloor.

Richter and his colleagues returned to the area in 2011 and maneuvered their ROV over the original area surveyed in 2007. They found that the seafloor changed dramatically in just four years: Predatory species such as sea stars were scarce in both surveys, but glass sponges had taken over the seafloor. The pioneering species of sea squirts had all but disappeared.

In fact, despite average temperatures of 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 degrees Celsius) and relatively low food supplies, "the sponges are now three times more numerous and two times as big as before," Richter said. What's even more astounding, he adds, is that satellite images show the area was only productive (in terms of phytoplankton and ) for two out of the four years between the two surveys.

What the future holds

In contrast to what the team observed, some research has previously suggested that hexactinellid species live long, slow lives. One study found that populations of glass sponges in 's McMurdo Sound showed no growth or reproduction over a 10-year period. Other research suggests the animals have a very slow metabolism, allowing them to live for 10,000 years or more. However, scientists have also observed fast growth and reproduction in previously nongrowing settlements of glass sponges.

The new findings, taken together with other work, suggest that Antarctic glass sponges that have endured arrested growth for decades can undergo booming periods that allow them to quickly colonize new areas. At this point, it's unclear what triggers this change. "It's a complex issue," Richter said. "It's difficult to predict the evolution of how things develop, but for now, the sponges seem to be gaining pace."

Just how the glass sponge dominance will affect the rest of the Antarctic seafloor is anybody's guess, Richter notes. The animals are known to provide a habitat and build a framework for other species of fish and invertebrates, so it's possible that the Antarctic seafloor will experience an upsurge of activity as more ice shelves melt. If this is the case, the glass sponges will be on the winning end of climate change.

But at the same time, predators, such as the king crabs that are already , could move in and wreak havoc on the sponge populations.

"There are still many unknowns, so it's very difficult to predict the future," Richter said. "The only thing we can predict is that things will happen very quickly."

The new research was detailed today (July 11) in the journal Current Biology.

Followon . Follow us ,& . Original article on .

According to this idea, the present epoch still known as the Holocene, which started 11,000 years ago would have ended somewhere between the end of 18th century and the 1950s (when the Anthropocene began). The earlier time limit considers the increasing amount of carbon dioxide and otherin Earths atmosphere that is mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels for energy to power our growing industrial technology.

We may consider this process to have started in 1784, with the invention of the steam engine by James Watt. The present high levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are probably causing . The later time period takes into account the increasing background radiation from the nuclear tests by the United States and the Soviet Union during the beginning of the Cold War. []

This new frontier in the geological timeline is potentially more precisely defined than any was before due to its recent occurrence. The Antrhopocene is also supported by increasing evidence of human influence on natural global processes, such as the sediment transport being supplanted by our construction processes; land occupation and transformation; water course deviation and water reserve appropriation; massive extinction and introduction of ; development and widespread use of previously non-existent chemical substances (eg. plastics and persistent organic pollutants); and even the creation of new elements (the last 20 in the periodic table).

In this interview, Dr. David Grinspoon,Chair of Astrobiology at the Library of Congress and Curator of Astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, talks about a book he is writing on the Anthropocene from an astrobiology point of view.

Q: The Anthropocene concept has been slowly emerging in science due to comments from Antonio Stoppani in 1873 (Anthropozoic era), LeConte in 1879 (Psychozoic), Pavlov in 1922 (Anthropogene) and Vernadsky in 1962 (Noosphere). Eugene Stoermer and Paul Crutzen formally addressed the concept and introduced the Anthropocene term in the title of a paper for the Global Change Newsletter in 2000. Could you tell us when and how you got involved with the topic?

David Grinspoon: Its a topic Ive long been interested in. Even as a kid enthralled with science fiction, I wondered about the role of people in the long-term evolution of the Earth, the far future and the fate of humanity. And thinking about advanced life elsewhere in the universe also leads us back to wonder about how long a civilization can last, which raises the same questions. []

In my PhD thesis, written in 1989, I discussed the fact that when a civilization develops the technology to , it marks a significant moment in the evolution of the planet. And the book Im writing now I actually started even before I finished my last book in 2003. Its a natural sequel because in the end of that book I speculate about what the coming of "intelligence" and "civilization" mean for Earth and other planets.

So even though "" is a recently popular term for this concept, Ive been thinking and writing about it for over 20 years. Im so happy that its becoming such a central topic of discussion in the worlds of science, policy and environmental activism. Its about time!

Q: What should be considered the geological marks of the Anthropocene?

DG: There are a number of reasonable suggestions for this, but my favorite is the signature of the . This produces a signature, both isotopic and in terms of new geological structures, that cannot be interpreted in any other way. And the symbolism is so potent the moment we grasped that terrible promethean fire that, uncontrolled, could consume the world.

Now, its true that humans were altering the Earth before this time, as several scientists have pointed out for example, land use, agriculture, urbanization and . But, you know, other species have come along and changed the world before and we dont name a geological epoch after each of them.

What is really different now is that we are aware of our world changing role. Or potentially aware some of us are at least. So for me, regardless of how you define the Anthropocene, this is when it gets interesting when the mass of humanity starts to wake up to our world-changing role. And after the Bomb, certainly after Hiroshima, we could not see ourselves, with our world-changing technology, the same again.

Q: How likely is the possibility that we are now living through the planet'sevent? Is it already big enough to be detected in a future paleontology effort using our present methods and capabilities of investigation?

DG: I have heard differing opinions on whether or not the sixth great extinction is assured at this point, but either way it is obvious we are having a significant impact on the evolution of life on this planet and many species have not, will not, survive our presence here. Our impact will be detectable for the rest of time on this planet. []

For example, it is clear that the existing coral reefs on the planet will not survive our impact. We are going to lose them. This is inevitable now because ofeven in the best-case scenario.

It is slightly comforting that the reefs have disappeared before, due to past episodes of acidification, and they have returned. So they may be back in the future, but there will be a time of no coral reefs in Earth history that will forever be traceable to the actions we are taking now.

Q: Do you believe the Anthropocene should be classified as a new geological epoch within the Quaternary period, or does it stand for a larger time scale? Might the establishment of the Anthropocene geological time period include the presently knownepoch?

DG: One interesting question about the Anthropocene is how long it might last. Geologically, will it be an event like the K/T boundary [which marks the65 million years ago], an epoch like the Paleocene or a transition like the origin of life?

I think it will either be a brief event recording the failed experiment of our so-called civilization, or it will be a transition to an entirely new planet in which intelligent life has a permanent role in managing the planet. But if we call it an epoch it represents an ambition for our species that is somewhere between these two extremes, and maybe that is OK for now.

Q: How do you rate the chances that the Anthropocene Study Group established in June of 2009 can convince the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) in its 2016 meeting to add the Anthropocene epoch to the Geologic Time Scale?

DG: I dont know. To be honest, I havent been following this too closely. Its really not that interesting to me whether or not it becomes formally adopted as part of the geological time scale. What Im interested in is the conversations going on about the Anthropocene and what it means to view ourselves as a part of Earths geological history. These conversations will continue regardless of what this Commission decides.

Q: We can now observe the role of exotic species in many habitats around the world, usually disrupting the local ecology where they were introduced by man. Do you see the growth of development and usage of transgenic organisms, nano-robots and even artificial (synthetic) life as possible key factors that will influence Earths biota in the near future?

DG: Yes, certainly. As youve pointed out we have already become an unprecedented kind of disruptive force in biological evolution, through our purposeful and inadvertent transport of species around the planet. With these new technologies we will have the capacity to much more dramatically affect the mechanics of evolution.

Q: If humanity became extinct (or reduced to nearly that point) today, would the lack of maintenance of our nuclear facilities, biological warfare and disease-control laboratories have a large effect on the biosphere?

DG: The breakdown of the nuclear facilities would lead to some local disturbances for a long time, but I dont believe there would be any large global effects from this. I think the biggest signature would be the perturbation to the carbon cycle, which will take tens of thousands of years to repair itself.

The ocean will be acidified for a similar timescale with massive effects on reefs and other biomes. The hydrological cycle will gradually return to normal as dams break down.

Q: How do you see the possibility of the Anthropocene marking a period when humankind not only became a geological force on Earth, but also began to reach the other bodies in the solar system as a first step to largely expand its zone of influence?

DG: I dont see it as coincidence that the great acceleration of the Anthropocene influences on Earth came during the same decades as our first exploration of the other planets. All this represents a certain phase in our technological development; I almost said "maturation" but I dont think we can make this claim yet.

It is the same wave of technological advances that allowed us to make nuclear missiles, truly span the globe with telecommunications, commerce and rapid industrial expansion, develop the capacity to monitor our own planet from orbit and also launch spacecraft to the other planets.

Hopefully the perspective and wisdom gained from exploring the planets and seeing our own planet whole, from a distance, will facilitate the changes in behavior and outlook we will need to survive this precarious transition we are experiencing the transition to being a self-aware, technological species with the capacity to either destroy our own civilization or ensure our long term survival.

I think it will be one or the other; I dont think it will be anything in between. I dont think we will muddle through. We are facing a choice where we will either become a new kind of entity on this Earth, or die trying.

Authors note: This article is a tribute to Eugene F. Stoermer, who coined the term Anthropocene in the 1980s and is an inspiration for a whole legion of new researchers (I speak as one of his fans from Brazil). I offer my condolences to all his family and friends.

This story was provided by, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It's summertime and the stock market is sizzling.

The market reached an all-time high this week, torching its previous record set just before Memorial Day.

Even so, a handful of companies stand out. Six stocks Amazon, Starbucks, UnitedHealth, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover Financial notched their own records this week, helped by the growing confidence of American consumers.

Would buying these stocks now be a hot-weather impulse or a coldly-calculated move?

All six have improving earnings outlooks, analysts say. Credit-card companies and UnitedHealth appear to be the best bets.

The six companies share similar traits that make them attractive. They are consumer-focused, with dominant market positions and growing revenue streams, says Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co.

Their importance to shoppers is crucial to their growth prospects. Americans' confidence in the economy has reached its highest point in 5 1/2 years. The housing recovery is strengthening. Job growth continues at a steady pace.

When consumers feel better about the economy, they splurge on discretionary items like a Venti Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks or a new book or DVD from Amazon. And they pay for those items with credit cards.

Visa and UnitedHealth are the most attractive buys right now, says David Brown, chief market strategist at Sabrient Systems, an investment research firm.

The outlook for Discover and MasterCard is also good, particularly as consumer confidence improves. The companies' biggest challenge remains staying competitive in a crowded field, he says.

While Brown expects Amazon to continue to dominate its market, he sees a big risk in buying the stock now.

"It's a fine company, but I would want to enter it in a pullback a big pullback," Brown says. "It has, by far, the most downside."

Here's a brief summary of each stock:

UnitedHealth Group Inc.

The stock of the nation's largest health insurer has climbed more than 25 percent this year and hit an all-time high of $68.75 in trading on Wednesday, according to FactSet.

Like other health insurers, UnitedHealth stands to benefit from the federal health care overhaul. The company will be able to participate in state-based health insurance exchanges designed to expand coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The company is also the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the government's Medicare program for the elderly and disabled people.

Financial analysts, on average, expect the stock to move higher. Their consensus target price is $71.47, according to FactSet.

On average, the stock has a "Buy" rating from analysts polled by FactSet.

Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon's stock price is up about 23 percent this year and touched an all-time high of $307.55 in trading on Friday.

Sales for the world's biggest online retailer have been growing as Americans' confidence in the economy improves and they shift to online shopping. A key rival, Barnes & Noble Inc., is struggling with weaker sales and big losses driven by its Nook e-reader, a competitor to Amazon's Kindle.

Analysts see Amazon shares moving higher still. The average target price on the stock is $316.79.

Even so, some investment experts sense a bubble.

Brown has a "Sell" rating on the stock, which he believes is overpriced. He points to Amazon's "forward" price-earnings ratio, which compares a stock's price to projected earnings over the next 12 months. Not all agree. Amazon has an average analyst rating of "Overweight," which indicates the average broker rating falls between "Hold" and "Buy."

On that basis, Brown says investors buying Amazon's stock now are paying 100 times future earnings.

Starbucks Corp.

Starbucks' stock is up 30 percent this year and reached an all-time high of $69.72 in trading on Friday. That's barely above the consensus target price of $69.62, according to FactSet.

The coffee chain, with more than 18,000 stores around the world, has delivered strong growth in the Americas and Asia, where it has opened more shops. Last year it introduced a single-serve coffee machine and branched out beyond coffee by acquiring tea shops and bakery chains, and a bottled juice company.

But it faces increased competition from fast-food chains such as McDonald's, which have expanded their coffee offerings. On average, the analyst rating on the stock falls between "Buy" and "Hold."

MasterCard Inc.

The stock is up 22 percent this year and reached an all-time high of $602.74 in trading on Monday.

The credit and debit card company, which makes money from processing charge card transactions, thrives when consumers are in a spending mood.

MasterCard has been focusing on developing countries, where most transactions are still done in cash. As shoppers there shift from paper money to plastic, MasterCard can tap into that growth.

A consensus price target of $614.61 suggests that financial analysts see further growth ahead for the stock. But those surveyed by FactSet are split between "Buy" and "Hold."

Visa Inc.

Visa's stock is up about 26 percent this year and reached an all-time high of $192.77 in trading on Monday. Visa remains the industry heavyweight. It has also taken steps to make its payment-processing business more accessible to mobile-device users.

"Visa has done an amazing job, really, of capturing revenue and new cardholders and turning it into earnings," says Brown.

Analysts see the stock advancing. Its consensus target price is $197.12. Analysts polled by FactSet are divided between recommending a "Buy" and a "Hold."

Discover Financial Services

Discover's stock is up 32 percent this year. It rose to an all-time high of $50.92 in trading on Friday below the consensus target price of $52.73.

Beyond its namesake credit card, Discover has moved into auto, personal and student loans, as well as home equity loans.

The Fed's signal last month that it could begin tapering its bond-buying program, which has helped keep interest rates low, is potentially good news for Discover and other credit card issuers. As interest rates rise, they typically translate into more revenue for card issuers. That's something investors are anticipating, says Dickson.

On average, the stock has a "Buy" rating from analysts polled by FactSet.

Mandela could not speak but his face "changed" and he recognized his visitor "through his eyes," Kathrada said of the July 1 encounter, which was overseen protectively by Mandela's wife, Graca Machel.

This is the image of Mandela that South Africans, and many people around the world, find hard to accept. The man who withstood 27 years in jail and led his country from conflict toward reconciliation, is as vulnerable as anyone his age, and monitored around the clock by doctors.

The 94-year-old was admitted to a Pretoria hospital on June 8 for a lung infection. The government said Thursday he is in critical but stable condition, and responding to treatment. Legal filings by Mandela's family have said he is on life support.

"All the years that we knew him, we knew him, somebody who was very conscious of his health, somebody who exercised in and outside of jail, regularly, and here you see a person who's different. A shell of himself," Kathrada, 83, said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.

"It was an overwhelming feeling of sadness, and of course the unrealistic wish and prayer that he can be with us for longer and longer," said Kathrada, who joined Mandela in pivotal events of the early campaign against minority white rule. The two first met in 1946, before apartheid was even implemented.

Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the 1963 raid on the Liliesleaf farm in Johannesburg that netted most leaders of the African National Congress, then a liberation movement and now South Africa's ruling party. Kathrada was among those arrested there, while Mandela was already in prison at that time.

Then followed the "Rivonia" trial at which Mandela, accused of sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government, declared that he was prepared to die, if necessary, for his belief in racial equality. He, Kathrada and others were sentenced to life in prison and sent to Robben Island, near Cape Town.

"He was a boxer, he was a gymnast, he was a very strong person," Kathrada, a member of parliament after apartheid, said of Mandela. "In prison too, when we were working at the quarry with pick and shovels, we found difficulty... but he was strong enough to adjust to that quickly."

He described Machel as a gatekeeper who makes sure visitors, including relatives, old friends and President Jacob Zuma, don't stay too long during trips to see her frail spouse. Her first husband, Mozambican President Samora Machel, died in a plane crash in 1986.

Human rights lawyer George Bizos, a member of the legal team that defended Mandela and others at the Rivonia trial, said Machel invited him to see Mandela in the hospital last month. The visit was canceled when the health of his friend deteriorated.

"None of us are immortal, but I can't really come to terms that he may pass away in the near future," Bizos said in a telephone interview.

He recalled a visit to Mandela in Johannesburg a week before the hospitalization at which the two men, along with Machel, chatted about "many things" for more than half an hour, including talk of their days together as law students in Johannesburg.

"He would ask me, 'Do you remember 'so-and-so,' is he still around? When did you last see him?'" Bizos said. Mandela sometimes repeated questions, like many elderly people whose minds are no longer sharp.

"They may not remember what they said 10 minutes before, but they remember what happened 50 years ago," he said.

Yet Mandela still had caring instincts. Bizos had left his jacket in his car, but Mandela thought he had taken it off in the house.

"'George, don't leave your jacket behind,'" he fondly instructed Bizos on that South African winter's day.

Memories pervade Kathrada's apartment in Johannesburg, where a framed prison dish hangs on the wall. It was a birthday gift in 1999 from Mandela, whose inscription reads: "To Kathy, Best wishes to a remarkable comrade."

A large photograph of the two men hangs in the foyer. Both are smiling broadly, and Mandela has his hand on Kathrada's knee.

Prior to last week's visit, Kathrada last saw Mandela in September in his rural home in Eastern Cape province, shortly before the former president was moved to the Pretoria-Johannesburg area for the first in a series of hospital stays.

Kathrada brought an album of photographs from Kazakhstan, where he had traveled for events held to honor Mandela's ideals on July 18, the beloved figure's birthday. The photographs showed children who had drawn images of Mandela or the South African flag with crayons on the ground.

"We went for lunch, while he stayed," Kathrada said. "And when we came back from lunch, he was still paging through this album."

Jim Meyer, chief executive officer of Sirius, said the 715,000 net new subscriber additions in the second quarter, up 15 percent, set a record since the 2008 merger of Sirius and XM.

For the year, Sirius increased its forecast of net subscriber additions by 100,000 to 1.5 million.

Sirius competes with a host of music services, including Pandora Media Inc, which is also making a push to make its online streaming service more easily available in autos.

(This story is refiled to correct milestone record of subscribers to 2008 merger with XM)

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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While many of Jackson's controversial statements are unique to him — that , that Planned Parenthood is like the KKK, that evolution isn't real because monkeys can't talk — this idea is not. Republicans have long been attacked for using welfare as a code word to rally racist whites — . You can't say the n-word anymore, GOP strategist Lee Atwater famously explained, but you can say you want to cut welfare, and racist whites will know what you're talking about. Think of this slavery-wasn't-all-bad theory as having evolved to counter that: It's not cutting welfare that's racist — welfare itself is racist!

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In 2011, the Iowa evangelical group The Family Leader had Republican presidential candidates sign .

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household* than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Since it is unfortunately not obvious, let's state for the record that under slavery, human beings were bought and sold at their owners' whims with little regard for their families. Slave marriages .

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Nevertheless, some conservatives have been eager to get actual black people to make this case. During the 2012 Republican primary, Herman Cain talked about how he left "." Allen West said in 2011 that the Democratic Party is a "21st Century plantation," with some black leaders being "nothing more than the overseers." At the Conservative Political Action Conference in March, a packed audience listened to a panel titled "?," about how liberals were the true racists. This panel descended into chaos when a white supremacist and a liberal in the audience repeatedly interrupted the speaker to note that in the 1960s and 1970s, the GOP welcomed segregationists (the white supremacist and the liberal agreed on the history, but disagreed about whether this was a good move for the GOP).

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Jackson urged listeners not to depend on government for freedom, but on faith. "We are founded on the principle of truth that our rights, our freedoms do not come from a government, a king, a president, a potentate... They came from almighty God; they come from our creator. And even while slavery still existed in this nation those words resonated in the consciences of the American people." That's a nice added touch — even during slavery people weren't that racist!

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But businessman Matt Lombardi says just one day of the programs strenuous routine .

I simply wanted to get back in shape. I could have killed myself in the process, Lombardi writes on his site, .

Lombardi says he has always been an athlete and that he didnt wander recklessly into the program. Instead, he says he wanted to try P90X to help lose the 20 pounds he had gained while developing College Spun.

After completing only half of the first day of workouts, Lombardi said he woke up the next morning feeling sore and ill.

If youve done P90X, then you know that the first day (chest & back) is really, really difficult, he writes. Youre asked to do push-ups, then pull-ups, then push-ups, then pull-ups. I lost count of my how many of each I did but it was a lot. Eventually, my muscles just shut down.

Despite the pain, he decided to try day two of the program. Instead, he found himself back in bed. On the third day, he describes using the bathroom and being shocked when his urine looked like Coca-Cola.

After a quick Web search, Lombardi guessed he was experiencing rhabdomyolysis. The National Institutes of Health describes the condition as the breakdown of muscle fibers that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is harmful to the kidney and often causes kidney damage.

The condition is commonly brought on by excessive physical activity and results when excessive toxins are released into the bloodstream.

So, why did Lombardi end up in the hospital when thousands of other individuals, many without a background in athletic activity, have a positive experience with P90X? Several experts warn that jumping into P90X, or any intense workout routine, .

Of course, like any other trendy exercise program, P90X is not without its critics. In a YouTube video,jokes that the program has been great for his business, by increasing the number of patients who come to him with lower-back pain resulting from P90X.

I see a lot of people trying to do, or being asked to do, abdominal exercises that their abs are simply not strong enough to actually do, he says in the video.

Ill be honest P90X has a number of warnings about what strenuous exercise can do to your body, Lombardi wrote. But if Id specifically known about rhabdomyolysis, I dont think Id have ever even taken the plunge.

Lombardi then checked himself into an emergency room, where he says the levels of toxins in his bloodstream were literally off the charts.

My blood test came back with a CPK (creatine phosphokinase) level of over 16,800 (the max they can test for), he wrote. Normal CPK levels, I was told, usually run between 10-200 micrograms per liter. These levels are a huge indicator of severe rhabdomylolysis.

Doctors hooked him up to an IV, Lombardi wrote, and he spent the next several days under observation while doctors waited for the toxicity levels in his bloodstream to return to normal.

Going forward, he was told to approach future exercise routines with caution.

My two biggest takeaways from the entire ordeal? You cant put your muscles through a strenuous workout without leading up to it, and you need to recognize when youre body is telling you that there is something wrong, Lombardi writes. The first could have killed me, while the second may have saved me.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Japanese practice of catching and killing nearly 1,000 whales a year cannot be justified as science, an expert witness told the World Court on Thursday in a case Australia has brought against Japan.

Despite an international whaling moratorium in force since 1986, Japan continues to catch the aquatic mammals in the Antarctic under a clause allowing scientific research, but critics say the real reason for the hunt is to continue harvesting whale meat.

That view was supported by Marc Mangel, a mathematical biologist from the University of California Santa Cruz, who told the International Court of Justice that "lethal take" - catching and killing specimens - needed to answer specific scientific questions if it was to count as science.

"Lethal take can only make sense if we have a question that needs to be answered ... a meaningful question," said Mangel, who was called as a witness by Australia to the World Court, a U.N. body that settles legal disputes between nations.

Japan and Australia have both agreed to be bound by the Hague court's verdict and activists are hoping for a ruling against Tokyo that they believe will put an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean.

One of only a handful of countries that continues to hunt whales, Japan says the 815-or-so whales it kills each year contribute to research designed to establish if whale stocks are recovering from previous over-hunting. The meat is eaten by the many Japanese consumers who consider it a delicacy.

Japan says its whaling is no threat to the survival of any species, but environmentalists and animal rights activists say whale hunting should be stopped completely.

Under a 1946 treaty on whaling, to which Japan is a signatory, countries can catch unlimited numbers of whales if they are needed for scientific purposes, regardless of the moratorium agreed in the 1980s.

The treaty does not address what counts as science. But lawyers for Australia said the collection of raw data without having in mind a specific question did not count.

"What you have before you is not a scientific research programme. It is a heap of body parts taken from a pile of dead whales," said Phillippe Sands, a lawyer for Australia.

Japan will start presenting its case to judges on Tuesday. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)