desultory pizazz: June 2013

Saturday, June 29, 2013

'Glee' star Matthew Morrison engaged

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

10 hours ago

Dave M. Benett / Getty Images Contributor

Matthew Morrison and Renee Puente.

"Glee" star Matthew Morrison is engaged to his girlfriend Renee Puente, a fact he confirmed with a simple tweet, saying he was going to "marry my best friend!"

The news initially came out during Elton John's White Tie and Tierra Ball on Thursday, an event the couple often attend. Coldplay singer Chris Martin dedicated John's "Your Song" to the couple, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and then sang the tune with John himself.

The proposal appears to have been done earlier; E! Online reported that the couple arrived at the event with her already wearing a "huge sparkler" in the appropriate left-hand finger.

Morrison tweeted the news Thursday morning.

They reportedly began dating in 2011, and this will be a first marriage for both.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/glee-star-matthew-morrison-engaged-6C10480930

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American-US Airways merger: Feds investigate possible antitrust issues

Airlines

Reuters

5 hours ago

A U.S. Airways jet departs Washington's Reagan National Airport next to American Airlines jets outside Washington, in this February 25, 2013 file phot...

LARRY DOWNING / Reuters

A U.S. Airways jet takes off from Washington's Reagan National Airport outside Washington, passing an American Airlines plane, February 25, 2013. Reuters reports the Justice department is probing the proposed American-US merger for antitrust issues.

The U.S. Justice Department is taking depositions as part of a probe into a planned merger of American Airlines and US Airways that would create the world's largest airline, three sources close to the discussions told Reuters.

The sticking point in talks between the Justice Department and the companies is whether the airlines will agree to sell slots -- take-off and landing rights -- to reduce their dominance at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., according to one source.

The three sources spoke privately to protect business relationships.

US Airways announced on February 14 that it planned to merge with American, which is emerging from bankruptcy, to create an $11 billion airline. The deal requires the approval of the Justice and Transportation Departments. The companies hope to wrap up the merger by the end of September.

American Airlines and US Airways declined comment. Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said only that the agency's investigation was continuing.

The fact that the Justice Department is taking sworn testimony in the form of depositions indicates it has concerns that the proposed merger creates antitrust problems. Depositions will be needed if the agency approves the deal with conditions or, in rare cases, if it decides to try to stop it. The department could also decide to approve the merger without requiring asset sales.

Depositions preserve testimony if the department decides to challenge the merger, said Robert Doyle, an antitrust expert with Doyle, Barlow and Mazard PLLC.

If the deal is approved, the new airline would have 68 percent of the slots at Reagan National, far more than Delta Air Lines with 12 percent, United Airlines with 9 percent and the 11 percent held by other airlines, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The companies have pushed back hard against any suggestion that takeoff and landing slots at Reagan National be sold.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker told lawmakers in congressional testimony last week that requiring the combined company to surrender slots could mean fewer flights to small and medium-sized cities.

Antitrust experts have said the Justice Department could request divestitures of some slots at Reagan National and a small number of other airports. Outside these hubs, the carriers fly different routes for the most part.

In late May, more than 100 members of Congress asked U.S. regulators to allow the new American to keep all the slots at Reagan National. The airport is used by many members of Congress to travel to and from their home districts.

The U.S. airline industry has undergone five years of rapid consolidation. Delta acquired Northwest Airlines in 2008, United merged with Continental in 2010 and Southwest Airlines Co bought discount rival AirTran in 2011.

With fewer carriers competing, ticket prices have risen. The average fare rose about 8 percent to $375 in the third quarter of 2012, compared with $346 in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2def37a2/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Camerican0Eus0Eairways0Emerger0Efeds0Einvestigate0Epossible0Eantitrust0Eissues0E6C10A480A485/story01.htm

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Nelson Mandela and the qualities 'within easy reach of every soul'

President Obama shouted him out today. Only recently has Mandela's private thinking during his darkest days come to light: ?'Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.'

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / June 27, 2013

Giant photographs of former president Nelson Mandela are displayed at the Nelson Mandela Legacy Exhibition at the Civic Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 27.

Enlarge

Standing in Africa today, the first black American president called the first black South African president an inspiration and a "hero."?

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Whether Nelson Mandela did open his eyes and smile in the hospital room when he was told days back that Barack Obama was coming for a visit isn't verified. It is what his daughter said.

But while such a scene might seem a little too perfect or scripted, in fact that itself is not out of keeping with much of Mr. Mandela's actual life.?

His life reads like an endless?series of firsts: the first in his family to go to school, the first black man to open a law firm in South Africa, the nation?s first black president.

For many of us, Mandela arrived on the world stage in 1990 as history turned a corner no one could imagine: China was asking itself about democracy in the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. The Soviet Union was falling like a domino, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In South Africa, decades of apartheid were ending.

It was a time of miracles, rainbows, unseen hopes, and new fears. Even though it all arrived together, no one predicted it.

Mandela emerged from prison with a smile like perpetual summer and a light touch. He seemed filled with history and humility, and he waved to the world just as video and celebrity culture were hitting a peak. He bespoke the globalizing times ? articulated racial equality in a way that penetrated to the heart.

?I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people,? he said. ?Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands."

Before that moment, the last time we had heard from Mandela was the year after Martin Luther King gave his ?Dream? speech at the Lincoln Memorial. It was 1964: Mandela was in the dock, on trial, facing a death sentence, saying,??I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.?

Then he disappeared, and in many ways had died to the world.

During the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, he sat in Robben Island prison; it might as well have been the dark side of the moon. Those years had little silver lining: no flowers, meetings with world leaders, plaudits, cameras, attention. No one expected the Soviet Union to collapse, for China to become the workshop of the world, or for a black man named after Britain's Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson to help peaceably end apartheid.

Only recently has Mandela?s thinking at this time come to light. His many public speeches are known. But his interior self during the depths of prison have not been. Yet they bespeak a man who found the strength not to hate, and who, while savvy to the world, also had a separate ?spiritual life.?

In 1975,?he could write:

Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others ? qualities which are within easy reach of every soul ? are the foundations of one?s spiritual life.
Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes. At least, if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10^th ?attempt may yield rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.?

That letter (which is included in his book "Conversations with Myself") was sent to his then-wife, Winnie Mandela, who had just been incarcerated in Kroonstad Prison. At the time, many of Mandela?s friends were being arrested, beaten, killed. The warden of Robben Island took to urinating in the cells and gathering places of inmates.?

Yet Mandela does not talk about malice or feelings of revenge, at least in the letters. He takes a wholly different line:

The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one?s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one?s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one?s development as a human being.?

The potent fears of a bloody civil or racial war in South Africa never materialized. Apartheid at the time had come under terrific opprobrium?in much of the world. It is probably going too far to say Mandela preached the idea of Martin Luther King Jr. in the segregated American South, of a love for the oppressor so serious that it loved in order to wipe away the self-harm done to them who act out of hatred.

But Mandela?s idea certainly was to reconcile differences on the basis of nonviolence, and to honor the other:

I detest white supremacy and will fight it with every weapon in my hands. But even when the clash between you and me has taken the most extreme forms, I should like us to fight over our principles and ideas and without personal hatred, so that at the end of the battle, whatever the result might be, I can proudly shake hands with you, because I feel I have fought an upright and worthy opponent who has observed the whole code of honor and decency.

What distance the man born in 1918 had come. In a fragment of his unfinished autobiography that appears in ?Conversations,? he remembers his early days with some ruefulness:

As a young man I ? combined all the weaknesses, errors and indiscretions of a country boy, whose range of vision and experience was influenced mainly by events in the area in which I grew up and the colleges to which I was sent. I relied on arrogance in order to hide my weaknesses. As an adult my comrades raised me and other fellow prisoners ? from obscurity ? although the aura of being one of the world?s longest serving prisoners never totally evaporated. One issue that deeply worried me in prison was the false image that I unwittingly projected to the outside world of being regarded as a saint. I never was one?.

Yet something remarkable develops in the self-described young black man, who joins the Methodist church, and does have an interest in the Bible.

From prison, Mandela describes to his wife a novel he read in 1964 called ?Shadows of Nazareth.? It is about the trial of Christ Jesus. The narrative voice in the novel is that of Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator who is asked by the Sanhedrin to judge Jesus.

Mandela, who in 1964 had just been recently sentenced in court, writes that though the trial of Jesus ?occurred about 2000 years ago, the story contains a moral whose truth is universal and which is as fresh and meaningful today as it was at the height of the Roman Empire.?

He goes on, reciting from memory, and actually adopts the voice of Pilate in the first person, as he remembers it:

But this trial [of] Christ I shall never forget!
I looked at the prisoner and our eyes met. In the midst of all the excitement and noise, he remained perfectly calm, quiet and confident as if he had millions of people on his side?. Christ had become a mighty force in the land and the mass[es] of the people were fully behind him. In this situation the priests felt powerless?

Mandela describes how Pilate agreed to judge Jesus, then offered the public a choice that freed not Jesus but the zealot Barabbas, and then how he, Pilate, finally ordered Jesus brought into the Roman court:?

For the first time in my experience, I faced a man whose eyes appeared to see right through me, whereas I was unable to fathom him. Written across his face was a gleam of love and hope; but at the same time he bore the expression of one who was deeply pained by the folly and suffering of mankind as a whole.
He gazed upwards and his eyes seemed to pierce through the roof and to see right beyond the stars. It became clear that in that courtroom authority was not in me as a judge, but was down below in the dock where the prisoner was.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/amoNcSGUFBs/Nelson-Mandela-and-the-qualities-within-easy-reach-of-every-soul

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Portuguese trade unions strike over austerity

LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? Public transport and government offices are expected to be the worst-hit services as Portugal's two trade union confederations stage a national 24-hour strike against austerity measures.

Unions representing about 1 million workers are protesting Thursday against debt-cutting measures Portugal was compelled to adopt by creditors in return for a 78 billion euros ($102 billion) bailout two years ago.

Public sector pay cuts and hikes in taxes on sales and private and corporate income have contributed to the economy's downward spiral, with the jobless rate growing to 17.8 percent and a third straight year of recession forecast in 2013.

The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers and the General Workers' Union want the center-right government to ease off the austerity measures and take more steps to create jobs and growth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/portuguese-trade-unions-strike-over-austerity-075848250.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Paula Deen dropped by Wal-Mart after 'Today' tears

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, with host Matt Lauer, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen, right, appears on NBC News' "Today" show, with host Matt Lauer, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Paula Deen was dropped by Wal-Mart and her name was stripped from four buffet restaurants on Wednesday, hours after she went on television and tearfully defended herself amid the mounting fallout over her admission of using a racial slur.

The story has become both a day-by-day struggle by a successful businesswoman to keep her career afloat and an object lesson on the level of tolerance and forgiveness in society for being caught making an insensitive remark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday that it ended its relationship with Deen and will not place "any new orders beyond what's already committed."

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said it had been "mutually decided" with Deen to remove her name from its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind.

At the same time, Deen's representatives released letters of support from nine companies that do business with the chef and promised to continue. There's evidence that a backlash is growing against the Food Network, which tersely announced last Friday that it was cutting ties with one of its stars.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Deen had called him and he agreed to help her, saying she shouldn't become a sacrificial lamb over the issue of racial intolerance.

"What she did was wrong, but she can change," Jackson said.

During a deposition in a discrimination lawsuit filed by an ex-employee, the chef, who specializes in Southern comfort food, admitted to using the N-word in the past. The lawsuit also accuses Deen of using the slur when planning her brother's 2007 wedding, saying she wanted black servers in white coats, shorts and bow ties for a "Southern plantation-style wedding."

Deen said she didn't recall using the word "plantation" and denied using the N-word to describe waiters. She said she quickly dismissed the idea of having all black servers.

Deen told Matt Lauer on "Today" on Wednesday that she could only recall using the N-word once. She said she remembered using it when retelling a story about when she was held at gunpoint by a robber who was black while working as a bank teller in the 1980s in Georgia.

In the deposition, she also said she may also have used the slur when recalling conversations between black employees at her restaurants. Asked in the deposition if she had used the word more than once, she said, "I'm sure I have, but it's been a very long time."

Her "Today" show appearance was a do-over from last Friday, when Deen didn't show up for a promised and promoted interview. Deen told Lauer she had been overwhelmed last week. She said she was heartbroken by the controversy and she wasn't a racist.

"I've had to hold friends in my arms while they've sobbed because they know what's been said about me is not true and I'm having to comfort them," she said.

Looking distressed and with her voice breaking, Deen said if there was someone in the audience who had never said something they wished they could take back, "please pick up that stone and throw it as hard at my head so it kills me. I want to meet you. I want to meet you." It's an apparent reference to the Biblical passage about whether a woman guilty of adultery should be stoned: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

"I is what I is and I'm not changing," Deen said. "There's someone evil out there that saw what I worked for and wanted it."

An uncomfortable Lauer tried to end the interview, but Deen repeated that anyone who hasn't sinned should attack her.

Asked by Lauer whether she had any doubt that blacks consider use of the N-word offensive, Deen said: "I don't know, Matt. I have asked myself that so many times, because it is so distressing to go into my kitchen and hear" what some young people are telling each other.

Deen said she appreciated fans who have expressed anger at the Food Network for dropping her, but said she didn't support a boycott of the network. Through social media, the network has been attacked by people who said executives there acted in haste to get rid of Deen.

Save for the brief announcement late Friday that it wasn't renewing Deen's contract, Food Network executives have refused to discuss the case publicly, or say whether the network plans to address Deen's fans. There have been online reports that the Food Network removed Deen's programs from the air as early as Saturday; the network wouldn't speak about what it has or hasn't put on the air.

Starting last weekend, there has been a steady erosion of support for the network. The YouGov Brandindex, a measurement of how consumers perceive a particular company or product, said the Food Network's score ? which had been generally positive ? had dropped by 82 percent in a week. The network has a negative image in the South and West, spokesman Drew Kerr said.

Deen's case has also attracted some odd bedfellows. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck said the network has "contributed to the growing un-American atmosphere of fear and silence. Hello, Joseph McCarthy."

Meanwhile, liberal HBO host Bill Maher also said Deen shouldn't lose her show. "It's a wrong word, she's wrong to use it," he said. "But do we really have to make people go away?"

The Food Channel, a food marketing agency based in Springfield, Mo., said it has been flooded with angry messages from people mistaking the company for the Food Network. There have been so many that the agency posted a message to Deen on its website that it would be happy to work with her if possible.

Among the companies expressing support for her via her representatives was Club Marketing Services in Bentonville, Ark., which helps companies sell products at Wal-Mart, and Epicurean Butter.

___

Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Athens, Ga.; Religion Writer Rachel Zoll in New York; Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio and Writer Tammy Webber in Chicago contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://www.today.com/

___

Follow Dave Bauder on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dbauder

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-26-Paula%20Deen/id-04409b43c6d048f8b62944eb25528eb9

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Will the GOP Embrace Marriage Equality?

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal speaks at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum at the George R. Brown Convention Center, the site for the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Houston, Texas May 3, 2013.

Bobby Jindal has criticized the GOP and told it to stand strong. Which way will the party go?

Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters

It was a busy week in existential threats to the Republican Party.?Two issues that various Republicans have said require the party to evolve or die have been thrust into the national spotlight:?Immigration reform is on its way to passing the Senate, and the Supreme Court offered two major victories for the supporters of marriage equality.?

With comprehensive immigration reform, the more progress it makes, the louder the voices of opposition. But in the wake of the Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage, the reaction was markedly different, suggesting that the forces of progress have momentum on their side.?

Both issues test whether the Republican Party will regain its national stature through forward-looking appeals to a changing electorate or whether it will do so through standing fast to principle and letting that new electorate be drawn to the Republican Party. This debate pits social?conservatives against the libertarian populists and generation against generation. It?s been going on since Mitt Romney lost, long enough for there to be a debate about whether the debate is even necessary?long enough, in fact, for some to take both sides of that debate. In January, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal?knocked the GOP as ?the stupid party??for the way some of its members spoke in public, but is now?telling the GOP to stop the "bedwetting" about the way it is perceived. If you like unscripted politics, this has been an exciting week: As these wedge issues have become national news, the leaderless party has been fighting about core principles with a passion that no one can control.

Those who have argued that the GOP must embrace marriage equality hoped that the court's decision would quiet debate. Large majorities of younger voters support same-sex marriage (81 percent in an ABC poll), which means it's a key to reaching a younger demographic and also probably irreversible. "There are a lot of Republicans who believe that it's time to move on from this," says veteran Iowa GOP strategist Dave Kochel who ran Romney's campaign there. "Same-sex marriage is legal in Iowa and has been for four years. And regardless of need for some Iowa activists to continue to raise money and apply litmus tests on candidates, it's time to move on and allow the GOP to be open and hospitable to people who may disagree with our platform. I don't think anyone will be successful in rolling back the clock."?

"Jesus wept," is how Mike Huckabee characterized his reaction to the Supreme Court rulings in a?fundraising?letter.?For those who view the decisions as a blow to traditional marriage, the battle now turns to the states. Presidential hopefuls courting social conservatives will need to campaign in those local battles. "Twenty years ago Republican establishment figures were saying abortion was a losing issue," says one conservative strategist. "Earlier this year, Time magazine's cover said that the battle is over and the pro-life side has won. More than 30 states have voted to protect marriage. It's not the end, it's just the?beginning." Once and future presidential candidate Rick Santorum made the abortion link immediately in his response to the ruling "The DOMA decision is another case of the high court overstepping its role, just as it did with Roe v. Wade.??

The abortion analogy is flawed though, say Republicans in support of marriage equality. "This is not abortion," says a GOP veteran strategist. "You cannot convince this nation's young people that two same-sex?people, in love, just like them, are not entitled access to the same institution as they are because they are straight. It doesn't hold water.?Same-sex marriage?is about freedom, fairness, equality?"the right to life,?liberty?and the?pursuit of happiness" if you will. With abortion, you can in fact change minds because you have new technology, sonogram images and a better chance for survival later in the term."

The Republican Party is already a long way from 2004, when George Bush sought to help his re-election by proposing a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage. No party leaders are calling for that now, and most of the initial responses were muted. Lawmakers talked about disappointment in the ruling, but not in the emphatic tones that might inspire social conservatives. Judging by their public comments, they were much more focused on President Obama's climate-change proposals and his "war on coal." The clear message from the tepid reaction to the Supreme Court rulings is that on this question about the party's future, the momentum in the Republican Party is toward changing with the times.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/06/supreme_court_and_gay_marriage_will_the_gop_finally_embrace_marriage_equality.html

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Can You Be Addicted To Carbs? Scientists Are Checking That Out

Eating refined carbohydrates like bagels may stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, research suggests.

iStockphoto.com

Eating refined carbohydrates like bagels may stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, research suggests.

iStockphoto.com

Fresh research adds weight to the notion that certain foods (think empty carbs like bagels and sweet treats) can lead to more intense hunger and overeating.

Fast-digesting carbohydrates can stimulate regions of the brain involved in cravings and addiction, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Prior studies have shown that highly desirable foods, perhaps a cheesecake or pie, can trigger pleasure centers in the brain. But what's new about this research is that it shows that even when people are unaware of what they're eating, the intake of fast-digesting carbs can activate parts of the brain associated with pleasure, reward and addiction.

To evaluate this, Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity prevention center at Boston Children's Hospital, and his colleagues conducted brain scans in 12 overweight men after they consumed two different kinds of test milkshakes.

Both milkshakes had the same number of calories and similar ingredients, but one contained more fast-digesting carbs and the other was made of slower-digesting carbohydrates. The concept here is that so-called high-glycemic index foods such as sugar and highly processed breads move through the body faster than low-glycemic index foods such as fruit and whole grains.

After the participants drank the rapidly digesting carb shake, their blood sugar spiked and then crashed four hours later. And it's at this point that researchers documented activation of a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, a small area that is involved in emotions and addiction. Ludwig told The Salt: "The scans showed intense activation in brain regions involved in addictive behavior."

The idea that certain foods may be addictive is controversial. Some scientists think it's overstating the matter. And clearly it's not settled as to whether activity in these brain regions would be seen widely in the population, or perhaps only among those who are overweight or prone to overeating.

As Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, points out, this research can't tell us if there's a cause and effect relationship between eating certain foods and triggering brain responses, or if those responses lead to overeating and obesity.

"[The study] doesn't tell you if this is the reason they got obese," says Lustig, "or if this is what happens once you're already obese."

Nonetheless, Lustig told The Salt that he thinks this study offers another bit of evidence that "this phenomenon is real." He has been a leading voice in suggesting that sugar is the cause of obesity and other health problems.

Increasingly, the concept of food addiction is gaining attention from researchers. There's a body of work exploring the connection, says Nicole Avena, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida who studies food and the brain.

This study, she says, adds to the growing literature that suggests that high-sugar foods can affect the brain "in ways that can alter reward processing and potentially fuel overeating."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/06/26/195292850/can-you-be-addicted-to-carbs-scientists-are-checking-that-out?ft=1&f=1007

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Exposure to high pollution levels during pregnancy may increase risk of having child with autism

June 18, 2013 ? Women in the U.S. exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first large national study to examine links between autism and air pollution across the U.S.

"Our findings raise concerns since, depending on the pollutant, 20% to 60% of the women in our study lived in areas where risk of autism was elevated," said lead author Andrea Roberts, research associate in the HSPH Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

The study appeared online June 18, 2013 in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Exposure to diesel particulates, lead, manganese, mercury, methylene chloride and other pollutants are known to affect brain function and to affect the developing baby. Two previous studies found associations between exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and autism in children, but those studies looked at data in just three locations in the U.S.

The researchers examined data from Nurses' Health Study II, a long-term study based at Brigham and Women's Hospital involving 116,430 nurses that began in 1989. Among that group, the authors studied 325 women who had a child with autism and 22,000 women who had a child without the disorder. They looked at associations between autism and levels of pollutants at the time and place of birth. They used air pollution data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to estimate women's exposure to pollutants while pregnant. They also adjusted for the influence of factors such as income, education, and smoking during pregnancy.

The results showed that women who lived in the 20% of locations with the highest levels of diesel particulates or mercury in the air were twice as likely to have a child with autism as those who lived in the 20% of areas with the lowest levels.

Other types of air pollution -- lead, manganese, methylene chloride, and combined metal exposure -- were associated with higher autism risk as well. Women who lived in the 20% of locations with the highest levels of these pollutants were about 50% more likely to have a child with autism than those who lived in the 20% of areas with the lowest concentrations.

Most pollutants were associated with autism more strongly in boys than girls. However, since there were few girls with autism in the study, the authors said this finding should be examined further.

Senior author Marc Weisskopf, associate professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at HSPH, said, "Our results suggest that new studies should begin the process of measuring metals and other pollutants in the blood of pregnant women or newborn children to provide stronger evidence that specific pollutants increase risk of autism. A better understanding of this can help to develop interventions to reduce pregnant women's exposure to these pollutants."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/_Rz1cN_xQGk/130618101734.htm

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Asian shares ease as Fed meeting keeps markets on edge

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares eased on Tuesday as investors waited for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to clarify the U.S. central bank's plans for its stimulus programme - with the mere suggestion of fine-tuning it enough to unnerve market sentiment.

European stocks are seen easing, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX will open down as much as 0.3 percent. U.S. stock futures traded almost flat, hinting at a subdued Wall Street start after a rise overnight.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 percent, with Chinese and Australian bourses leading the declines. The materials sector in the pan-Asian index was the top loser.

Australian shares faced selling in high-yielding stocks while Hong Kong shares slipped 0.5 percent after two days of gains with investors selling recent outperformers. Shanghai shares also struggled to gain as the People's Bank of China again refrained from injecting funds into the interbank market despite short-term funding costs staying high.

South Korean shares bucked the trend and rose 0.9 percent while Southeast Asian shares were also mostly higher.

The Fed's bond-buying programme, along with very accommodative monetary policies by other central banks to promote growth, such as the Bank of Japan, has underpinned market sentiment broadly, providing investors abundant funds they could put to work in higher-yielding "risk" assets, such as shares.

"The Federal Reserve has really been driving the top-down investment themes globally with quantitative easing and record low U.S. rates," said Peter Esho, investment adviser at Wilson HTM. "It has implications really into all other asset classes."

Market volatility was likely to remain elevated until the outcome of the Fed meeting and Bernanke's news conference on Wednesday.

"The sensitivity of asset prices to headlines and seemingly inconsistent moves among them - U.S. Treasury yields moving higher but the U.S. dollar coming under pressure...shows the degree of nervousness and confusion among investors regarding the most likely path of the Fed's monetary policy," Barclays Capital said in a research note.

DOLLAR OUTLOOK MIXED

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average gave up early gains and fell 0.2 percent, swinging from Monday's 2.7 percent rise.

The dollar rose 0.3 percent against the yen to 94.78, off its 10-week low of 93.75 yen hit on Thursday, but well below last month's 4-1/2-year peak of 103.74 yen. Against a basket of six key currencies, however, the dollar index was down 0.09 percent.

Uncertainty over the Fed's thinking has weighed on the dollar recently, but its fall against the yen has also been linked to speculators and investors cutting back their yen short positions after the Bank of Japan took no action last week to quell a highly volatile domestic bond market.

The sell-off in the Nikkei, sparking yen buying, erased gains made since the central bank's big-bang stimulus unveiled on April 4, which had helped propel the index up to a 5-1/2-year high last month. Growing views that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may not deliver as aggressive a reform as previously hoped for also led to the unwinding of short-yen and long-Nikkei positions.

"The Fed is likely to stress its commitment to stimulus and signal that any tapering will not mean tightening liquidity, and that should tame recent market jitters and induce stability," said a senior official at a big Japanese investor.

At a meeting of leaders of the Group of Eight developed countries on Monday, the euro zone came under pressure to press on with a banking union and Japan was urged to follow up on massive central bank stimulus with structural reforms and measures to tackle its budget deficit.

The G8 said in a statement world economic prospects remained weak even though downside risks have lessened due partly to policy action taken in the United States, the euro zone and Japan.

Data on Tuesday showed Japan's industrial output rose 0.9 percent in April, showing a steady pickup in firms' productive activity, while Monday's economic reports showed firming recovery in U.S. housing markets.

"In general any decision to taper would signal confidence in the ongoing recovery of the U.S. economy, that is potentially an upside for markets depending on how investors take it."

U.S. crude futures inched up 0.1 percent at $97.85 a barrel and Brent also was up 0.1 percent to $105.55.

Spot gold fell 0.3 percent to $1,380.41 an ounce as muted physical demand and fears of any cut in the Fed's $85 billion monthly bond purchases weighed on sentiment.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-ease-fed-meeting-keeps-markets-edge-065632370.html

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Putin and Obama set to spar over Syria arms at G8

By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama faces what could be a frosty G8 meeting with Vladimir Putin on Monday after the Russian leader clashed with the West over plans to arm Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

At their first private face-to-face meeting in a year, Obama will try to convince Putin to bring Assad to the negotiating table but the Russian leader has shown little sign of compromise.

On the summit's eve, Putin described Assad's foes as cannibals who ate their enemies intestines in front of media cameras.

"Are these the people you want to support? Is it them who you want to supply with weapons?" Putin said in London on his way to the G8.

British Prime Minister Cameron, who chairs the summit, acknowledged that there was "a big difference" between the positions of Russia and the West on Syria but he stressed there was also common ground between the world's richest powers.

Other leaders were less diplomatic: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Putin, as Assad's only big-power ally at the G8 table, was supporting thugs.

"We are not, unless there is a big shift in position on his part, going to get a common position with him at the G8."

Obama and Putin are due to meet at about 6:30 pm local time at the Lough Erne golf resort about 10 km (7 miles) outside the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen.

But Cameron could face some awkward questions at the G8 table after a Guardian newspaper report that Britain spied on officials taking part in two Group of 20 meetings in 2009.

The leaders of the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy - representing just over half of the $71.7 trillion global economy - will also discuss the global economy.

MARKET TURMOIL TO FOCUS MINDS

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders will likely discuss the role of central banks and monetary policy.

They are likely to say they are not content with progress so far in fixing their economies in the wake of the global financial crisis, according to a draft communiqu? seen by Reuters.

Japan's Abe will use the opportunity to explain his cocktail of fiscal and monetary stimulus known as 'Abenomics' to the leaders as investors try to absorb the implications of a signal by the U.S. Federal Reserve that it may start to slow its money-printing.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will not attend. He and his colleagues hold a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bond yields have climbed and share prices have sagged globally since Bernanke shocked investors on May 22 by saying the bank might ?take a step down' in the pace of bond purchases - a blow to a global economy still growing well below trend due to the after effects of the great financial crisis.

"Japan's decisive moves to reflate its economy will support growth in the near term, but it will need to manage the twin challenge of providing near-term stimulus and achieving longer-term sustainability," the draft communiqu? said.

The version circulated by Britain and seen by Reuters was put together before the recent market turmoil.

The leaders of the European Union and United States are likely to announce the start of formal negotiations on a free trade deal that could be worth more than $100 billion a year to each economy. Negotiators aim to finish their work by the end of next year.

TREASURE ISLAND TAX

Cameron has made tackling tax avoidance - which campaigners say costs about $3 trillion a year - a main part of the formal agenda at the summit.

He has turned up the pressure to clamp down on secretive money flows by pressing Britain's overseas tax havens into a transparency deal and announcing new disclosure rules for British firms.

Representatives of overseas tax havens linked to Britain on Saturday agreed to sign up to an international transparency protocol. Aid campaigners said Britain's action will count for little if the rest of the G8 does not follow suit.

G8 leaders will probably shy away from adopting a measure aimed at curbing tax avoidance by highlighting when companies channel profits into tax havens, and will include a watered-down alternative, according to the draft communiqu?.

Tackling corporate tax avoidance has become a political goal internationally following public anger about revelations over the past year that companies like Apple and Google had used structures U.S. and European politicians said were contrived to minimize the amount of taxes paid.

The draft summit text suggested there will be no agreement on a rule that would force companies to publish their profits, revenues and tax payments on a country-by-country basis.

(Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-putin-face-tough-talks-syria-g8-summit-072959981.html

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Putin: Russian hasn't sent S-300 missiles to Syria, won't to preserve 'stability'

President Putin's statement to EU leaders seems to put an end to often contradictory Russian and Syrian stories about whether the Assad regime would get the weapons.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / June 4, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin (c.), European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (l.) and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attend a news conference in Yekaterinburg, Russia, today. Putin today said Moscow had not yet delivered advanced S-300 air-defense systems to Damascus.

Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Reuters

Enlarge

Russia has changed its story, yet again, about its intention to fulfill a 3-year old contract to sell "game-changing" S-300 advanced air defense systems to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Now the answer is "no."

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?