Veteran performers wow crowds on final day of Glastonbury

By Isla Binnie

PILTON, England (Reuters) - An octogenarian entertainer and a veteran country music singer had fans of all tastes and ages roaring on the final afternoon of the Glastonbury music festival on Sunday.

The sun beat down on the sprawling 900 acre farm in southwest England that this year showcased the Rolling Stones and Arctic Monkeys and features British folk rockers Mumford & Sons on Sunday, playing to up to 150,000 music fans.

Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis is known for bringing eclectic and surprising acts to the venue, which this year has 2,000 acts performing across 58 stages.

In the lead-up to Sunday's headline slot, crowds flocked to see 85-year-old British TV presenter and all-round entertainer Bruce Forsyth or country music's Kenny Rogers.

"It's not usually my bag but he's great," said Kevin Watt, a 32 year-old computer games tester, as he watched Rogers play hits including "We've Got Tonight" and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town".

The average age of ticket buyers has gone up to 36 since Eavis first invited 1,500 hippies to a festival on his farm in 1970, and the lineup reflects the range of ages.

Forsyth said: "I'll try to do a programme that will suit every one of you," before impersonating Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to chants of "We love you, Bruce!" from the crowd.

"I grew up with Bruce Forsyth," said Jane Douglass, 50, a dance teacher from Buckinghamshire. "He was in my living room every Saturday night when I was growing up and now he's in the living room every Saturday night for my kids."

It is the first time that Mumford & Sons will headline at the world's best known music festival and it marks their return to the stage after bassist Ted Dwane underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot on the brain this month.

"After our set, I will make my annual trip up to the stone circle where I hope to kick back, reflect on the weekend and maybe even catch the sunrise," wrote keyboard player Ben Lovett on the band's website.

The main headline act was the Rolling Stones who played on Saturday to more than 100,000 fans, in a two and a quarter-hour Glastonbury debut topped with fireworks.

Festival organizers said the event had run smoothly despite rain on the first day temporarily turning the site into a mudpit and proving too much for British rapper Wiley who headed home, complaining about the weather, before his Saturday slot.

But the rain stopped on Friday and festival-goers dispensed with their waterproofs.

A team of about 300 police were on duty at the site but reported a 30 percent drop in crime since the last Glastonbury festival held in 2011.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie and Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/veteran-performers-wow-crowds-final-day-glastonbury-180043513.html

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Can Google Really Crack The Game Console Market?

Look, we've all heard the rumors that Google is toiling away on a smartwatch, and the company has said the Nexus Q isn't completely dead, so part of that recent report from the Wall Street Journal doesn't completely out of the blue. That said, Google is reportedly also working on an Android-powered game console in response to murmurs of a similar Apple gaming push in the works. Pretty ballsy, if you ask me.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7KVB8boAhxA/

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GOP accuses Democrats of holding transportation funding plan hostage

House Republicans are accusing their Democratic colleagues of holding a transportation funding hostage and refusing to negotiate the terms for its release.

The House Republican leadership adjourned abruptly on Saturday night, hoping that the break might buy the time needed to prod the Democrats to share what their demands were in exchange for providing the votes needed to pass a bill out of the chamber.

The House was expected to discuss amendments to a plan approved by the House Transportation Committee that raised nearly $2 billion in new spending. It proposed uncapping the oil company franchise tax, as well as myriad of fines and fees on motorists.

Democratic support is needed since the plan drew rabid opposition from conservative members who saw it as a tax increase at a time when people can?t afford it.

Rep. Dave Reed, R-Indiana, declined to say how many of the 111 GOP caucus supported the bill, except that it was a majority. But he added there has been a longstanding understanding that transportation funding bills would be a bi-partisan effort.

?We are prepared to deal with transportation. It is our understanding the House Democrats are somewhat united in opposing transportation completely and at that point, we do not have the votes to do transportation in the House,? Reed said at an impromptu news conference in the Capitol newsroom late Saturday night.

He said they are willing to alter the bill to meet Democratic needs provided it doesn?t go too far that it costs them support from a majority of Republicans.

But Democrats saw it differently. They complained that Republicans excluded them in all the big-table discussions about issues being tied to the budget.

"If the governor and Republican leaders truly expected significant help from House Democrats, they needed to honestly work with us sooner than two days ago," said House Democratic spokesman Bill Patton. "Since 2011, House Democrats consistently explained our goals for transportation, and the things we could not accept. The Republicans ignored us at every turn."

As for the House Transportation Committee-approved plan that they price out at $1.8 billion in new spending, Democrats say it comes up short on mass transit and doesn?t generate enough money.

"If you look at the current transportation bill, I don't think anybody's sacrificing transportation. If anything, we're holding out to try and make sure transportation actually does get funded," said Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster.

This hold-up blows any chance of meeting Gov. Tom Corbett?s goal of having this public works legislation ready for him to sign by the midnight Sunday, along with a budget, unless both chambers break all of their procedural rules.

Senate Democrats along with Senate and House Republicans and Corbett have trumpeted the need to invest more money in addressing the state?s crumbling infrastructure for safety reasons as well as economic ones. They also touted that it offered the side benefit of creating jobs all across the state.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, voiced disappointment at the way the transportation issue is playing out in the House after a $2.5 billion plan passed the Senate by a 45-5 vote this spring.

"It's unfortunate that the House Democrats are clearly jeopardizing, I think, millions of dollars in work, mass transit, jobs. I've heard for days here that they're all for jobs, but they're killing the biggest jobs bill that we have in the state. Clearly they can change their position yet tonight or tomorrow (Sunday), but we're a little disappointed that a bipartisan effort in the House is failing because of the House Democrats,? Scarnati said after a late-night meeting with Corbett.

Meanwhile, House Republicans pointed to an email from union leaders as perhaps the culprit behind the Democrats? stubbornness about negotiate their demands. The email urged union members to call on lawmakers to vote against the transportation bill ?until the Senate pulls the plug on privatization of the state stores.?

The transportation stalemate also had implications for the liquor privatization effort sitting in the Senate. Sources close to that issue said that it was highly unlikely that the Senate leadership would send that bill to the House before they received the transportation plan.

Patton said Republican leadership is grasping to place the blame for Saturday's inaction on somebody other than themselves.

"The only people who ever linked liquor and transportation are the Republican leaders. Democrats are not linking the issues. We oppose the Republican transportation bill because it is a terrible bill, pure and simple," he said.

Reed declined to say how many Democratic votes were needed to reach the magic number of 102 to move the bill to the Senate for a vote.

But he and Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery, noted that both Corbett and former Gov. Ed Rendell were working to curry some Democratic support.

?They are not returning phone calls. They are not returning phone calls to our leader. They are not returning phone calls to us trying to get in touch with them, trying to have meetings, trying to figure out what their concerns were,? Vereb said.

?All they did here was stick it to the building trades of Pennsylvania, stick it to Pennsylvania. And when you want to hold a hostage, you better know what you want. And if they don?t come to the table, we?re never going to know what they want.?

Staff writer Charles Thompson contributed.

*This post has been updated to include House Democratic spokesman Bill Patton's comments.

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/06/gop_accuses_democrats_of_holdi.html

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Obama to meet with Mandela family

U.S. President Barack Obama, middle, and first lady Michelle Obama, right, react as Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, left, gestures during their arrival at Waterkloof Airbase in Pretoria, Friday, June 28, 2013. President Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

U.S. President Barack Obama, middle, and first lady Michelle Obama, right, react as Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, left, gestures during their arrival at Waterkloof Airbase in Pretoria, Friday, June 28, 2013. President Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

President Barack Obama, holding hands with daughter Sasha, and first lady Michelle Obama and eldest daughter Malia exit Air Force One at Waterkloof Airbase, Pretoria, Friday, June 28, 2013. President Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are greeted upon their arrival at Waterkloof Air Base, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - This two-picture combination of file photos shows Nelson Mandela on Aug. 8, 2012, left, and President Barack Obama on May 31, 2013. It was as a college student that President Barack Obama began to find his political voice. Inspired by Nelson Mandela?s struggle against South Africa?s apartheid government, the young Obama joined campus protests against the white racist rule that kept Mandela locked away in prison for nearly three decades. Now a historic, barrier-breaking figure himself, Obama will arrive in South Africa Friday to find a country drastically transformed by Mandela?s influence, and a nation grappling with the beloved 94-year-old?s mortality. (AP Photo/File)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at Waterkloof Air Base, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama plans to visit privately Saturday with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid activist he has called a "personal hero."

The White House did not disclose any details for Obama's plans to meet the family in a brief statement issued upon Obama's first morning in South Africa during a weeklong tour of the continent. The statement simply said that Obama and his wife would offer their thoughts and prayers at the family's difficult time.

"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the statement said.

Obama told reporters on the flight to South Africa Friday that he was grateful that he, his wife and daughters had a chance to meet Mandela previously. Obama hangs his photo of the introduction he had to Mandela in 2005 in his personal office at the White House ? their only meeting, when Obama was a senator.

"I don't need a photo op," Obama said. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition."

Obama will be just a couple miles from the hospital where 94-year-old Mandela has been for three weeks after being admitted with a lung infection. The U.S. president has a bilateral meeting and news conference with President Jacob Zuma at the Union Buildings, where Mandela was inaugurated as the country's first black president in 1994 after 27 years behind bars under racist rule.

Obama has said the imprisoned activist's willingness to risk his life for the cause of equal rights helped inspire his own political activism. Obama said his message during the visit will draw on the lessons of Mandela's life, with a message that "Africa's rise will continue" if its people are unified instead of divided by tribe, race or religion.

"I think the main message we'll want to deliver if not directly to him but to his family is simply a profound gratitude for his leadership all these years and that the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with him and his family and his country," Obama said on his flight into the country.

Obama also is paying tribute to the fight against apartheid by visiting the Soweto area Saturday afternoon for a town hall with students at the University of Johannesburg. At least 176 young people were killed in Soweto township 27 years ago this month during a youth protest against the apartheid regime's ban against teaching local Bantu languages. The Soweto Uprising catalyzed international support against apartheid, and June is now recognized as Youth Month in South Africa.

The university plans to bestow an honorary law degree on the U.S. president, while protesters are planning demonstrations against U.S. policy on issues including the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the war in Afghanistan and global warming. Hundreds marched to the U.S. Embassy on Friday, carrying signs that read: "No, You Can't Obama," a message inspired by Obama's "yes, we can" campaign slogan.

Obama, the son of an African man, has been trying to inspire the continent's youth to become civically active and part of a new democratically minded generation. Obama hosted young leaders from more than 40 African countries at the White House in 2010 and challenged them to bring change to their countries by standing up for freedom, openness and peaceful disagreement.

Obama wraps up his South Africa stay Sunday, when he plans to give a sweeping speech on U.S.-Africa policy at the University of Cape Town and take his family to Robben Island to tour the prison where Mandela spent 18 years.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-29-Obama/id-3fe2fddd05e741bc96de2f88f1d47f3d

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98% A Hijacking

All Critics (59) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (1)

To refuse to call A Hijacking a thriller is not to say it isn't thrilling, in a dryly cerebral way.

It's the second feature from the young writer-director Tobias Lindholm, and it showcases his gift for tightly focused stories told without an ounce of fat.

Lindholm doesn't present the film as a procedural for hostage negotiations because he knows too well that there are too many movable parts, too many things that can go wrong.

Methodical and tense ... has the feel of something based on real-life events ... boils down to an arresting portrait of two men, with different backgrounds and abilities, doing everything they can not to break.

We're impatient for action, any kind of action - but preferably the sort that involves a team of Navy SEALs, maybe led by Dwayne Johnson. Instead, we get something like a merger meeting.

Hand-held camerawork, so often a confounded nuisance, here makes the conditions on board the Rozen feel nauseatingly urgent.

When the gut-wrenching conclusion of A Hijacking comes in the form of a single, random act, it's only then you realize how far you've been pulled into its emotional core.

A Hijacking delivers all the thrills the title suggests, but in none of the places you'd expect them.

The danger never reaches the level of chaos, but the subtext and metaphor in the slow-moving humanistic commentary on the motivations and byproducts of capitalism make for an intriguing film.

A smart movie derived out of the small moments that collectively comprise the hostage experience, rather than grandiose gestures.

Lindholm's you-are-there docudrama works as a tense thriller, but themes of negotiation and the ability to empathize provide a rich subtext.

...slow, mostly talk, but tense and realistic...

The level of suspense in this riveting Danish thriller doesn't build in sweeping melodramatic fashion, but rather at a low-key simmer that emphasizes authentic character dynamics.

A Hijacking accomplishes a tricky task, generating tension through talk rather than action.

This absorbing chronicle of a hijacking in the Indian Ocean has the strengths of the best procedural dramas -- it assumes a distanced and objective tone and packs an emotional wallop.

Moment by moment we find ourselves wondering what will happen next...

Auteur Tobias Lindholm does a striking job in grabbing your attention and running with it as he succinctly tells the story of "A Hijacking."

A Hijacking is an absorbing, highly moving film that's lingered heavily on the mind for a couple of days now.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_hijacking/

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Scentography: the camera that records your favourite smells

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6 Americans, 1 Briton vanish at sea while sailing from New Zealand to Australia

"Nina," a historic schooner built in 1928, was last seen in the South Pacific off the north coast of New Zealand three weeks ago.

By Henry Austin, NBC News contributor

Six Americans and a Briton have been missing at sea for more than three weeks after setting sail from New Zealand, officials said Thursday.

The seven?were aiming to sail the 70-foot schooner Nina to Newcastle, Australia.

The New Zealand Herald on Friday identified four of the people on the boat: David Dyche, 58; his wife, Rosemary, 60; their son David, 17; and Evi Nemreth, 73, of Boulder, Colo., a maritime technology expert and retired University of Colorado professor.

A 35-year-old British man, a 28-year-old American man and an 18-year-old American woman on board have not yet been identified.

A statement from Maritime New Zealand released early Thursday expressed "grave concerns" for the Nina's crew.

Maritime New Zealand via AP

The Nina was built in 1928.

The vessel left the Bay of Islands area of northern New Zealand?on May 29. It has not been heard from since June 4, when the ship was 370 miles west-north west of Cape Reinga in "very rough" conditions with winds gusting to 68 mph and 26-foot swells.

Authorities said the vessel's emergency beacon has not been activated.?

Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand?search and rescue mission coordinator Kevin Banaghan said that a military aircraft had covered a 160,000 square nautical mile search area on Tuesday, with an additional 324,000 square nautical miles examined on Wednesday.

"No sign of the vessel has been found," Banaghan said. "We do hold grave concerns for the Nina and her crew but remain hopeful of a positive outcome."

On Thursday, the rescue center was set to search the northern shores of New Zealand, in case the crew had abandoned ship and attempted to raft to safety ? but ?windy and rainy? weather conditions delayed the effort, said spokesman Steve Rendle.

The huge search was launched after family and friends raised concerns about the crew's whereabouts.

The Nina was built in 1928. It is also?equipped with a satellite phone and a spot beacon, which allows tracking signals to be sent manually.

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 27, 2013 4:03 AM EDT

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Friends & Family Attend ?Sopranos? Star James Gandolfini?s Funeral (VIDEO)

Friends & Family Attend “Sopranos” Star James Gandolfini’s Funeral (VIDEO)

James Gandolfini’s family, friends, and co-stars gathered to remember the beloved “Sopranos” star, who passed away last week at the age of 51 of a heart attack in Italy. Gandolfini’s wife, Deborah Lin, described him as a person that “cared more for others than himself”. Deborah Lin said at the service, “Jim, one of the ...

Friends & Family Attend “Sopranos” Star James Gandolfini’s Funeral (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/06/friends-family-attend-sopranos-star-james-gandolfinis-funeral-video/

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Four habitable planets orbiting three tiny suns? New first in planet-hunting.

Scientists have found at least three and perhaps four planets that appear to be in the habitable zone of a triple-star system. Finding so many exoplanets in one star system's habitable zone is a first.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 25, 2013

This artist's impression shows a sunset seen from the super-Earth Gliese 667Cc. The brightest star in the sky is the red dwarf Gliese 667C, which is part of a triple star system. The other two more distant stars, Gliese 667A and B appear in the sky to the right.

L. Cal?ada/ESO/Reuters/File

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Three, perhaps even four potentially habitable planets are orbiting a star in a triple-star system some 22 light-years from Earth, a team of astronomers announced Tuesday.

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It's the first time researchers have found so many planets orbiting within a star's habitable zone ? a region around a star where a planet receives enough energy for water to gather and remain stable on the planet's surface.

Three of the planets are so-called super-Earths, with masses ranging from 2.7 to 3.8 times Earth's mass. At 1.1 times Earth's mass, the fourth is the smallest and least well observed of the group ? an object that the researchers say will require more observations to determine if it truly orbits in the habitable zone.

It's a packed neighborhood. All four orbit their star, Gliese 667C, in a 11.5-million-mile-wide belt that would comfortably fit within the distance between the orbits of Earth and Venus. In this case, however, the planets' orbits are much closer to their star ? a red dwarf with only one-third the sun's mass and perhaps 1 percent of the sun's brightness.

The habitable zones for such faint stars are far closer to the star than is the case in our solar system. The most distant of the four planets orbits Gliese 667C once every 62 days, while the closest of the four orbits once every 16 days.

The team, led by Guillem Anglada-Escud? from the University of G?ttingen's Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, had focused its formal report, accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, on the three planets representing the most solid detections.

"This is the first time that three such planets have been spotted orbiting in this zone in the same system," said Paul Butler, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and a member of the research team, in a prepared statement.

Indeed, the three are among five to seven planets thought to be orbiting Gliese 667C. Last year, another team of astronomers reported the discovery of three planets orbiting the star. One was located within the star's habitable zone. The evidence for the three was strong, but researchers suspected more planets were lurking in the data the team had gathered from the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert.

Dr. Anglada-Escud?'s team added fresh observations to previously gathered data and applied a pair of statistical tools to sift through the data for more planets. Both approaches turned up "five very secure signals and up to seven low-mass planets" in very tight orbits around the star, he said.

For any sentient creatures living on any of the three super Earths, the two other stars in the triple-star system would bathe the the landscape with moon-like light and would remain visible during the day.

But the presence of a landscape, or even seascape ? let alone life ? on any of these objects remains speculative. The team used an approach to planet-hunting that yields an estimate of a planet's mass and orbital period. The technique involves hunting for the wobble a planet imposes on a star's spectrum as its gravity tugs the star to and fro with each orbit. However, nothing in the technique, known as the radial-velocity approach, gives enough information to estimate a planet's size and bulk density. Density would indicate whether a planet is rocky, mostly gas, or perhaps a water world.

Another approach, which looks for the dimming a planet imparts as it transits in front of its star, can provide the information that would permit density calculations. But none of these planets has been detected via the transit method.

Instead, the team offers speculation informed by what astronomers have been learning about the distribution of planets in other star systems where bulk composition has been determined, as well as what's known about solar-system formation.

The team posits that because the trio of planets is less massive than the lightest known gas planet or the most massive-known rocky planet, it will consider them rocky for the sake of discussion.

Gliese 667C, thought to be substantially older than 2 billion years, appears to lack the outbursts of radiation often seen in red dwarf stars. Astrobiologists have expressed concerns that such outburst could fry organisms on the surface of a planet in the habitable zone.

The planets also appear to be in circular, or nearly circular orbits and so would present the same face to Gliese 667C throughout their orbits. If the planets have thin atmospheres, the day side probably would be too hot and the night side too cold for life ? at least on the surface. A thick atmosphere could redistribute heat among both hemispheres, moderating the climate in at least some locations on the surface.

For astrobiologists, finding such a high-density neighborhood around a star so close represents a scientific goldmine as a new generation of space telescopes come on line.

?Instead of observing 10 stars to look for a single potentially habitable planet, we now know we can look at just one star and find several of them,? said Rory Barnes, an astrobiologist and member of the research team reporting the results.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/E1R01BcmzFc/Four-habitable-planets-orbiting-three-tiny-suns-New-first-in-planet-hunting

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Republican Battles Over Medicaid Turn To God, Morality

Healthcare In America Is Already 'The Best In The World'

One of the more positive sounding admonitions from health care reform opponents was that the United States had "the best health care in the world," so why would you mess with it? Well, it's true that if you want the experience the pinnacle of medical care, you come to the United States. And if you want the pinnacle of haute cuisine, you go to Per Se. If you want the pinnacle of commercial air travel, you get a first class seat on British Airways. Now, naturally, you wouldn't let just anyone mess with someone's tasting menu or state-of-the-art air-beds. But like anything that's "the best," the best health care in the world isn't for everybody. The costs are prohibitively high, the access is prohibitively exclusive, and the resources are prohibitively scarce. What do the people in America who "fly coach" in the health care system get? Well, at the time of the health care reform debate, they were participating in a system that was, by all objective measurements, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/us-health-care-expensive_n_624248.html">overpriced and underperforming</a> -- if you were lucky enough to be participating in it. As anyone who's fortunate enough to have employer based health care or unfortunate enough to have a pre-existing condition can tell you, health care for ordinary people already involved all of those things that we were told would be a feature of the Affordable Care Act -- long waits, limited choice, and rationing. When the <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2010/Jun/Mirror-Mirror-Update.aspx">Commonwealth Fund rated health care systems by nation</a>, the top marks in the surveyed categories went to the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Ezra Klein examined the study, and <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/06/us_health-care_system_still_ba.html">observed</a>: "The issue isn't just that we don't have universal health care. Our delivery system underperforms, too. 'Even when access and equity measures are not considered, the U.S. ranks behind most of the other countries on most measures. With the inclusion of primary care physician survey data in the analysis, it is apparent that the U.S. is lagging in adoption of national policies that promote primary care, quality improvement, and information technology.'"

Death Panels

The only thing that perhaps matched the vastness of the spread or the depth of the traction of the "death panel" lie was the predictability that such a lie would come to be told in the first place. After all, this was a Democratic president trying to sell a new health care reform plan with the intention of opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who had gone without for so long. What's the best way to counter it? Tell everyone that millions of Americans would have increased access ... <i>to Death!</i> The best account of how the "death panel" myth was born into this world and spread like garbage across the landscape has been penned by Brendan Nyhan, who in 2010 wrote "Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate." <a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/health-care-misinformation.pdf">You should go read the whole thing</a>. But to summarize, the lie began where many lies about health care reform begin -- with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/andrew-sullivans-mccaughe_n_313157.html">polluted the pages of the New Republic</a> with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'" Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five years or more frequently if they become seriously ill. As independent fact-checkers showed (PolitiFact.com 2009b; FactCheck.org 2009a), her statement that these consultations would be mandatory was simply false--they would be entirely voluntary. Similarly, there is no evidence that Medicare patients would be pressured during these consultations to "do what's in society's best interest...and cut your life short." But the match that lit the death panel flame was not McCaughey, it was Sarah Palin, who repeated McCaughey's claims in a Facebook posting and invented the term "death panel." As Nyhan reports, Palin's claims were met with condemnation from independent observers and factcheckers, but the virality of the term "death panel" far outstripped its own debunking. To this day, the shorthand for this outrageous falsehood remains more firmly planted in the discourse than the truth. One thing worth pointing out is that Palin, in creating the term "death panel," <i>intended</i> to deceive people with it. In an interview with the <em>National Review</em>, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/228636/rogue-record/rich-lowry">Palin admitted</a>: "The term I used to describe the panel making these decisions should not be taken literally." Rather, it was "a lot like when President Reagan used to refer to the Soviet Union as the 'evil empire.' He got his point across." Of course, while Reagan was exaggerating for effect, he wasn't trying to prey on the goodwill of those who were listening to him.

The Affordable Care Act Is A "Jobs-Killer"

Naturally, the GOP greeted anything that the Obama White House did -- from regulating pollution to flossing after meals -- as something that would "kill jobs." The Affordable Care Act was no different. As you might recall, Republicans' first attempt at repeal came in the form of an inartfully named law called the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." But did the health reform plan threaten jobs? Not by any honest measure. <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/17/106950/is-health-care-law-really-a-job.html">Per McClatchy Newspapers</a>: <blockquote>"The claim has no justification," said Micah Weinberg, a senior research fellow at the centrist New America Foundation's Health Policy Program. Since the law contains dual mandates that most individuals must obtain health insurance coverage and most employers must offer it by 2014, "the effect on employment is probably zero or close to it," said Amitabh Chandra, a professor of public policy at Harvard University.</blockquote> As McClatchy reported, the "job-killing" claim creatively used the "lie of omission" -- relying on "out of date" data or omitting "offsetting information that would weaken the argument." The Congressional Budget Office, playing it straight, deemed it essentially too premature to measure what the effect the bill would have on the labor market. At the time, Speaker John Boehner dismissed the CBO, saying, "CBO is entitled to their opinion." Perhaps, but lately, job growth in the health care industry has <a href="https://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/2012/03/07/Jobs-report-preview" target="_hplink">bucked the economic downturn and health care has remained a robust sector of employment</a>. And it stands to reason that enrolling another 30 million Americans into health insurance will increase the demand for health care services and products, which in turn should trigger the creation of more jobs. Is there a downside? Sure. More demand, and greater labor costs, could push health care prices upward even as other effects of health reform push them down. But it's more likely that repealing the bill will have a negative impact on jobs than retaining it.

The Affordable Care Act Would Add To The Deficit

The only thing more important than painting the Affordable Care Act as a certain killer of jobs was to paint it as a certain murderer of America's fiscal future. Surely this big government program was going to push indebtedness to such a height that our servitude to our future Chinese overlords was a <i>fait accompli</i>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/cbo-score-on-health-care_n_502543.html">As Ryan Grim reported in May of 2010</a>, the CBO disagreed: <blockquote>Comprehensive health care reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over a ten-year period, but will increase revenue and cut other costs by a greater amount, leading to a reduction of $138 billion in the federal deficit over the same period, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, a Democratic source tells HuffPost. It will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the second ten year period. The source said it also extends Medicare's solvency by at least nine years and reduces the rate of its growth by 1.4 percent, while closing the doughnut hole for seniors, meaning there will no longer be a gap in coverage of medication.</blockquote> Recently, the CBO updated its ten-year estimate by dropping off the first two years of the law (where there was little to no implementation) and adding two years at the back end (during which time there would be full implementation). As you might imagine, replacing two years of low numbers with two years of higher numbers increased the ten-year estimate. But opponents of the bill immediately freaked out and declared the costs to have skyrocketed. <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/obamacare-haters-angered-by-facts.html">As Jonathan Chait reported</a>: <blockquote>The outcry was so widespread that the CBO took the unusual step of releasing a second update to explain to outraged conservatives that they were completely misreading the whole thing: "Some of the commentary on those reports has suggested that CBO and JCT have changed their estimates of the effects of the ACA to a significant degree. That's not our perspective. ... Although the latest projections extend the original ones by three years (corresponding to the shift in the regular ten-year projection period since the ACA was first being developed), the projections for each given year have changed little, on net, since March 2010." That is CBO-speak for: "Go home. You people are all crazy."</blockquote> As Chait goes on to note, the CBO now projects that "the law would reduce the deficit by slightly more than it had originally forecast."

The Affordable Care Act $500 Billion Cut From Medicare

Normally, if you tell Republicans that you're going to cut $500 billion from Medicare, they will respond by saying, "Hooray, but could we make it <i>$700 billion</i>?" But the moment they got it into their heads that the Affordable Care Act would make that cut from Medicare, suddenly everyone from the party of ending Medicare As We Know It, Forever got all hot with concern about what would happen to these longstanding recipients of government health care. In fairness, <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/a-final-weekend-of-whoppers/">as Factcheck pointed out</a>, the GOP opponents of Obama's plan were simply picking up a cudgel that had recently been wielded by the president himself: <blockquote>Whether these are "cuts" or much-needed "savings" depends on the political expedience of the moment, it seems. When Republican Sen. John McCain, then a presidential candidate, proposed similar reductions to pay for his health care plan, it was the Obama camp that attacked the Republican for cutting benefits.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/a-final-weekend-of-whoppers/">Nevertheless</a>! <blockquote>Whatever you want to call them, it's a $500 billion reduction in the growth of future spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or benefits. It's true that those who get their coverage through Medicare Advantage's private plans (about 22 percent of Medicare enrollees) would see fewer add-on benefits; the bill aims to reduce the heftier payments made by the government to Medicare Advantage plans, compared with regular fee-for-service Medicare.</blockquote> The <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i> <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1005588">concurred</a>: <blockquote>A phased elimination of the substantial overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans, which now enroll nearly 25% of Medicare beneficiaries, will produce an estimated $132 billion in savings over 10 years. [...] The ACA also produces nearly $200 billion in savings by assuming that providers can improve their productivity as firms in other industries have done. On the basis of this presumed improvement, the law reduces Medicare's annual "market basket" updates for most types of providers - a provision that has generated controversy.</blockquote> The law doesn't cut any customer benefits, just the amount that providers get paid. Hospitals and drug companies agreed to these cuts based on the calculation that more people with insurance meant more people consuming what they sell and, more importantly for the hospitals, fewer people getting treated and simply not paying for it.

The Affordable Care Act Provides Free Health Care For Undocumented Immigrants

This lie was launched to prominence with the help of a false accuser, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, who famously heckled President Barack Obama during an address to a Joint Session of Congress by yelling "You lie!" after the president had mentioned that undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for the credits for the bill's proposed health care exchanges. As Time's Michael Scherer pointed out, this was not much of a challenge for factcheckers: <blockquote>In the Senate Finance Committee's working framework for a health plan, which Obama's speech seemed most to mimic, there is the line, "No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits." Similarly, the major health-care-reform bill to pass out of committee in the House, H.R. 3200, contains Section 246, which is called "NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS."</blockquote> In fact, <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/why_immigrants_get_short_shrif.html">as Ezra Klein pointed out</a>, the Affordable Care Act "goes out of its way to exclude" undocumented immigrants: <blockquote>As the AP points out...there are about 7 million unauthorized immigrants who will be prohibited from buying insurance on the newly created exchanges, even if they pay out of their own pocket. And the exclusion of this group from health reform -- along with other restrictions that affect fully legal immigrants as well -- could create a massive coverage gap that puts a strain on the rest of the health system as well.</blockquote> Klein goes on to add that "immigrants-rights advocates tried to prevent this scenario from happening," but they ended up losing to the politics of the day. The concession they won was a promise from the president that he would shepherd a comprehensive immigration reform package through the legislature. They lost that round, too.

Republicans, And Their Ideas, Were Left Out Of The Bill And The Process

Were health care policies dear to Republicans left out of the health care reform bill? Totally! <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2009/10/29/171026/top-10-reasons-why-republicans-should-support-the-house-health-bill/">Unless we're counting the following</a>: --Deficit-neutral bill --Longterm cost reduction --Interstate competition that allows consumers to purchase insurance across state lines --Medical malpractice reform --High-risk pools --An extension of the time young people were allowed to remain on their parents' policies --No public money for abortion --Small business exemptions/tax credits --Job wellness programs --Delivery system reform In fact, the Democrats were eager to get GOP input and enthusiastic about including many of their desired components in the bill. Oh, and did we mention that the Affordable Care Act was modeled on a reform designed and implemented by a former Republican governor and presidential candidate, whose innovation was widely celebrated by the GOP while said former governor was running for president? And did we mention that the individual mandate that was used in Romneycare to ensure "no free riders" was originally dreamed up by the Heritage Foundation? And did we add that additional DNA of the Affordable Care Act was borrowed from the Senate GOP alternative to the Clinton plan in the 1990s and the <a href="http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/news/press-releases/2009/08/bipartisan-policy-center-releases-report-improving-health-care-quality-a" target="_hplink">2009 Bipartisan Policy Committee plan</a>, which was endorsed by Tom Daschle, Howard Baker, and Bob Dole? As for the process, you might recall that the White House very patiently waited for the bipartisan Gang Of Six to weigh in with its own solution, and openly courted one Republican gang member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, long after it was clear to every reporter inside the Beltway that Grassley was intentionally acting in bad faith. And perhaps you don't recall the bipartisan health care summit that was held in March of 2009? if so, don't feel bad about it -- RNC Chairman Michael Steele couldn't remember it either, <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201002250005">when he yelled at the president for not having one</a>.

The Demonization Of 'Deem And Pass'

So, here's a fun little story about obscure parliamentary procedures. In May of 2010, as the health care reform michegas was steaming toward its endgame, it looked like the measure might fall. The Senate had passed a bill, but the House was stuck in a bit of a jam. It had no other choice but to take a vote on the Senate's bill, because if the House bill ended up in a conference committee to be reconciled with the Senate's, the whole resulting she-bang was assured of a filibuster, as the Democrats had, in the intervening period, lost their Senate supermajority. But the House had a problem. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/health-care-opponents-dem_n_501353.html">As I wrote at the time</a>: <blockquote>House members are averse to doing anything that looks like they approve of the various side-deals that were made in the Senate -- like the so-called "Cornhusker Kickback." The House intends to remove those unpopular features in budget reconciliation, but if they pursue budget reconciliation on a standard legislative timeline -- where they pass the Senate bill outright first and then go back to pass a reconciliation package of fixes -- they'd still appear to be endorsing the sketchy side deals, and then the GOP would jump up and down on their heads. Enter "deem and pass." Under this process, the House will simply skip to approving the reconciliation fixes, and "deem" the Senate bill to be passed. By doing it this way, the Democrats get the Senate bill passed while simultaneously coming out against the unpopular features of the same.</blockquote> "Deem and pass" is the aforementioned obscure parliamentary procedure. And here's the thing about obscure parliamentary procedures -- everyone <i>loves</i> them when their side is doing them, but when they're being <i>done to you</i>, then they are basically evil schemes from the blasted plains of Hell. So if you're guessing that the Republicans declared the Democrats' use of "deem and pass" -- which also carried the moniker "the Slaughter Rule," after Rep. Louise Slaughter, who proposed its use in this instance -- to be a monstrous and unprecedented abuse of power, then give yourself a prize! And give yourself a bonus if you guessed that in reality, the GOP had used "deem and pass" <i>lots of times</i>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/house-has-long-history-of_n_500623.html">As Ryan Grim reported</a>, "deeming resolutions" had been in use dating back to 1933, and in 2005 and 2006, Republicans employed them 36 times. Other Republicans complained that Slaughter was supporting a tactic that she once vigorously opposed. <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/the_arms_race_of_rules.html">That's true</a>! She fought the "deem and pass" during the Bush administration and lost. Which is precisely when she learned how effective it could be!

The Affordable Care Act Would Create A Mad Army of IRS Agents

Lots of people wouldn't mind having better access to more affordable health care. But what if it came with thousands of IRS agents, picking through your stool sample? That sounds pretty bad. It also sounds pretty implausible! But that was no impediment to multiple health care reform opponents making claims that the tax man was COMMINAGETCHA! In this case, the individual mandate -- which requires people to purchase insurance or incur a tax penalty -- provided the fertile soil for this deception to spread. A March 2010 floor speech from a panicked Sen. John Ensign was typical of the genre: <blockquote>My amendment goes to the heart of one of the problems with this bill. There is an individual mandate that puts fines on people that can also attach civil penalties. And 16,500 new IRS agents are going to be required to be hired because of the health care reform bill.</blockquote> March of 2010 was a pretty great time for this particular lie. In one five day period, Ensign was joined by Reps. Paul Ryan ("There is an individual mandate. It mandates individuals purchase government-approved health insurance or face a fine to be collected by the IRS which will need $10 billion additional and 16,500 new IRS agents to police and enforce this mandate."), Pete Sessions ("16,000 new IRS agents will be hired simply to make sure that this health care bill is enforced.") and Cliff Stearns ("There is $10 billion to hire about 16,000 new IRS agents to enforce the individual mandate on every American"). All wrong! <a href="http://factcheck.org/2010/03/irs-expansion/">Per Factcheck</a>: <blockquote>This wildly inaccurate claim started as an inflated, partisan assertion that 16,500 new IRS employees might be required to administer the new law. That devolved quickly into a claim, made by some Republican lawmakers, that 16,500 IRS "agents" would be required. Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas even claimed in a televised interview that all 16,500 would be carrying guns. None of those claims is true. The IRS' main job under the new law isn't to enforce penalties. Its first task is to inform many small-business owners of a new tax credit that the new law grants them -- starting this year -- which will pay up to 35 percent of the employer's contribution toward their workers' health insurance. And in 2014 the IRS will also be administering additional subsidies -- in the form of refundable tax credits -- to help millions of low- and middle-income individuals buy health insurance. The law does make individuals subject to a tax, starting in 2014, if they fail to obtain health insurance coverage. But IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified before a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee March 25 that the IRS won't be auditing individuals to certify that they have obtained health insurance.</blockquote> As Factcheck goes on to note, <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf">on page 131 of the bill that was passed</a>, the IRS is explicitly prohibited from "from using the liens and levies commonly used to collect money owed by delinquent taxpayers, and rules out any criminal penalties for individuals who refuse to pay the tax or those who don't obtain coverage."

Affordable Care Act Bill Is Way Too Long And Impossible To Read!

Oh, Congresscritters, the poor dears! So many bills to read and so little time -- between raising campaign cash at lush fundraisers and receiving marching orders from powerful corporate interests -- to actually read them all. <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019629.php">And this Affordable Care Act was a real humdinger of a long bill</a>. And long bills are bad because length implies complication and complication requires study and study implies some form of "work." So the proper thing to do is to mulch the entire print run of the bill and use it to power the boiler that heats the "sex dungeon" in the Longworth Office Building, the end! Actually, reading the bill is not that hard, despite the complaints. As the folks at <a href="http://computationallegalstudies.com/2009/11/08/facts-about-the-length-of-h-r-3962/">Computational Legal Studies were able to divine</a>: <blockquote>Those versed in the typesetting practices of the United States Congress know that the printed version of a bill contains a significant amount of whitespace including non-trivial space between lines, large headers and margins, an embedded table of contents, and large font. For example, consider page 12 of the printed version of H.R. 3962. This page contains fewer than 150 substantive words. We believe a simple page count vastly overstates the actual length of bill. Rather than use page counts, we counted the number of words contained in the bill and compared these counts to the number of words in the existing United States Code. In addition, we consider the number of text blocks in the bill -- where a text block is a unit of text under a section, subsection, clause, or sub-clause.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/house-health-care-bill-ac_n_350810.html">As HuffPost noted in March of 2010</a>, "the total number of words in the House Health Reform Bill are 363,086," and when you throw out the words in the titles and tables of contents and whatnot, leaving only words that "impact substantive law," the word count drops to 234,812. "Harry Potter And the Order Of The Phoenix," a popular book read by small children, is 257,000 words long. (Although in fairness to Congress, the Affordable Care Act contains very few exciting accounts of Quidditch matches.)

The 2012ers Join The Fun

We couldn't have a list of Affordable Care Act distortions without noting the ways some of your 2012ers have added to the canon. Herman Cain said that if the ACA had been implemented, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/177511-video-cain-if-obamacare-had-been-implemented-already-id-be-dead-">he'd be dead</a>. Not likely! The new law expands coverage so that uninsured individuals who face what Cain faced (cancer) have a better chance of getting coverage, and it restricts insurers from tossing cancer patients off the rolls based on their "pre-existing condition." But more to the point, Cain would have always been the wealthy guy who could afford to choose his doctor and pick the care he wanted. The Affordable Care Act doesn't prohibit wealthy people from spending money. Rick Santorum says that his daughter, who is diagnosed with a genetic disorder called trisomy 18 and who required special needs care, <a href="http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/04/25/santorum-more-disabled-people-will-be-denied-care-under-obamacare/">would be "denied care" under the Affordable Care Act</a>. Nope! Again, the law restricts insurers from throwing people with pre-existing conditions off their rolls. And for individuals under 19, that went into effect in September of 2010. Michele Bachmann believes that the Affordable Care Act would open "sex clinics" in public schools. This is Michele Bachmann we're talking about. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/bachmann-sex-clinics-will_n_306292.html">Do you even need to ask</a>? And finally, Mitt Romney has said, as recently as March 5, that he never intended his CommonwealthCare reform to serve as a "model for the nation." "Very early on," he insisted, "we were asked -- is what you've done in Massachusetts something you would have the entire government do, the federal government do? I said no, from the very beginning." Unless "very early on" and "from the very beginning" mean something different from the conventional definition of those phrases, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/05/438044/romney-mandate-model-video/">Romney should augment his daily pharmaceutical intake with some memory-enhancing gingko biloba</a>.

So Many More To Choose From!

Obviously, we did what we could to include as many of these lies and distortions as possible, but there's no way to include them all. If you're a completist, however, be sure to check out the <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-03-14/fact-or-fiction-obamacare%E2%80%99s-1-dollar-abortions/">Impossible Tale Of The One-Dollar Abortion</a>, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020905682.html">Story of the State-Based Inflexibility That Wasn't</a>, <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201101210006">The Curious Case of the Politically Connected Waivers</a> and <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/dc-dispatches/2011/03/michele-bachmanns-health-care-cover-charges-hard-fathom">Nancy Drew And The Hidden $105 Billion Expenditure</a>.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/republicans-medicaid_n_3500515.html

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Fresh Flipboard, Facebook and NFL Fantasy Football apps coming to Windows 8 (update: Flipboard video)

Windows 8.1 preview was the first big announcement to come out of Build 2013, but Ballmer's not done with the software goodies. Turns out, Facebook, Flipboard and NFL Fantasy Football apps are coming to Windows 8. Naturally, we haven't seen what these (presumably) Metro-styled apps will look like, but it's good to know they're coming, right?

Update: The folks at Flipboard have uploaded a (very) brief video of their new Windows 8 app, and we've embedded it after the break for your viewing pleasure.

Filed under: Microsoft

Comments

Source: Inside Flipboard

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/R8N0gZZOdtU/

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Miesha Tate Nude: Coming to ESPN the Magazine!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/miesha-tate-nude-coming-to-espn-the-magazine/

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Hedge fund alternative investors love ? Bankrate, Inc.

Institutional investors are increasingly turning to mutual funds over hedge funds for strategy diversification. Just over a quarter, 26 percent, of institutions use hedge funds for exposure to long-short strategies this year, compared to 61 percent in 2010, according to a survey released this week by Morningstar and Barron's.

Long-short mutual funds take mostly long positions, buying investments they believe will go up, while hedging their bets with a smaller amount of short positions, or investments they think will go down. There are other types of alternative strategies --?for instance, market neutral strategies that take long and short positions but avoid stocks to lessen volatility. In general, alternative investment strategy funds "provide a smoother ride over time," says Nadia Papagiannis, CFA, director of alternative fund research at Morningstar.

During the events of 2008, institutional investors found themselves stuck in illiquid, highly leveraged hedge funds that only a year or two before had returned outsized returns.

"In 2008, hedge funds delivered high losses. Investors were stuck with illiquid investments they had to pay management fees on but couldn't get out of," says Papagiannis.

Mutual funds offer liquidity and transparency, plus lower fees for similar strategies. "When you are getting double-digit returns, it's?OK to pay 2 percent management fees and a 20 percent performance fee. But with mediocre returns, that eats away at benefits. Plus, if you can find something with lower costs, that is something that as a fiduciary, you have look at," she says.

The average expense ratio of the long/short equity fund category on the Morningstar website is 1.96 percent.

Advisers to small investors are also interested in the risk-management benefits of alternative strategies. For investors, allocating a portion of their portfolio to an alternative strategy fund helps cushion the downside when big stock market drops happen. That downside cushion means less return on the upside as well.

"In order to build wealth over time, you need to have a little bit of a smaller upside and a lot smaller downside. That way, you can build wealth more effectively over time rather than having a couple good up years and then big down years," says Papagiannis.

Investors scared of living through another stock market drop like the one in 2008 and 2009 may want to consider incorporating some strategies that behave differently than the rest of their investments.

Follow me on Twitter: @SheynaSteiner.

***
Senior investing reporter Sheyna Steiner is a co-author of "Future Millionaires' Guidebook," an e-book written by Bankrate editors and reporters. It's available at all the major e-book retailers.

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/investing/hedge-fund-alternative-investors-love/

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One in five students in Grades 7-12 say they have had a traumatic brain injury in their lifetime

June 25, 2013 ? One in five adolescents surveyed in Ontario said they have suffered a traumatic brain injury that left them unconscious for five minutes or required them to be hospitalized overnight, a statistic researchers in Toronto say is much higher than previously thought.

Sports such as ice hockey and soccer accounted for more than half the injuries, said Dr. Gabriela Ilie, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael's Hospital.

Traumatic brain injuries, such as concussions, were reported more often by males than females, by those with lower school grades and by those who used alcohol or cannabis in the previous 12 months, she said.

The study was to be published Wednesday (June 26) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Ilie said this is one of the first studies of traumatic brain injury to focus only on adolescents and to include all of their self-reported TBIs. Most previous studies based their reporting only on hospital records. Concussion is the most common form of traumatic brain injury.

The data used in the study were from the 2011 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) developed by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The survey, one of the longest ongoing school surveys in the world, contains responses from almost 9,000 students from Grades 7-12 in publicly funded schools across Ontario. The OSDUHS began as a drug use survey, but is now a broader study of adolescent health and well-being. For the first time in 2011, questions about traumatic brain injury were added to the survey.

"The questions about TBI were added to the OSDUHS because there were no current data on prevalence in the adolescent population," said Dr. Robert Mann, a senior scientist at CAMH and director of the OSDUHS. "Early research has indicated that there may be links between TBIs and mental health and substance use during adolescence -- we plan to study this in the near future."

The survey found that 20 per cent of adolescents in Ontario said they had had a traumatic brain injury in their lifetime. It found that 5.6 per cent of them had had such an injury in the past 12 months.

Dr. Ilie said this suggests the prevalence of TBI among young people is much higher than previously known, because many head injuries remain uncounted when they are not being reported to parents, teachers, sports coaches or health care workers. In Canada, 50 per cent of all injuries that kill and disable youth involve a TBI.

This new research found that 46.9 per cent of the TBIs reported by adolescent females occurred during sports (e.g., hockey, skate boarding); the figure was 63.5 per cent for males.

Students who reported drinking alcohol occasionally/frequently and those who reported using cannabis 10 or more times over the past 12 months had more than five times and more than three the odds, respectively, of acquiring a traumatic brain injury in the past 12 months than students who reported abstinence. The survey also showed that students who reported overall poor grades at school (below 60 per cent) had almost four times the odds of a lifetime acquired brain injury than students who reported grades at or above 90 per cent.

"Traumatic brain injury is preventable," said Dr. Ilie. "If we know who is more vulnerable, when and how these injuries are occurring, we can talk to students, coaches, and parents about it. We can take preventive action and find viable solutions to reduce their occurrence and long-term effects."

Brain injuries among adolescents are particularly concerning because their brains are still developing. There is growing evidence that people who have had one or more concussions are at greater risk of future concussions, and evidence that multiple brain injuries can result in lasting cognitive impairment, substance use, mental health and physical health harms.

This study is part of a team project grant awarded to Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon and concussion researcher at St. Michael's, by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation. The work was also supported by grants to Dr. Mann from AUTO21.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/zD1TKCooUnc/130625172356.htm

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UCLA one win away from first CWS championship

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? UCLA is one win away from its first national championship in baseball. If Game 1 of the College World Series finals was an indicator, it won't be won easily.

The Bruins defeated Mississippi State 3-1 on Monday night, but the Bulldogs pressured them to the end, leaving runners in scoring position in four of the last six innings.

"They're great hitters, they grind it out every at-bat, and they're not going away," UCLA closer David Berg said. "They want to win this thing as bad as we do. They're not going to give it up."

UCLA (48-17) will send Nick Vander Tuig (13-4) to the mound for Game 2 on Tuesday night. Mississippi State (51-19) will start either Ben Bracewell (1-1) or Will Cox (3-1).

"What we're going to try to do is put everything behind us and try to win two ball games," Bulldogs coach John Cohen said. "I think we're very, very capable."

UCLA followed its script yet again Monday, churning out a few early runs and letting its pitching and defense take care of the rest.

"We dodged some bullets, no doubt about it, but you have to give credit to our defense," UCLA coach John Savage said. "Kind of a Bruin game. Tight game, and at the end of the night we were fortunate to come out with the win."

Bulldogs second baseman Brett Pirtle said he and his teammates can't give the Bruins any openings because they're so capable of capitalizing on them.

"Nobody that's extra special," Pirtle said of the Bruins. "They're just small ball. They bunt and put pressure on the defense, and that's what helped them out, and that's the kind of ballclub they are. So keeping runners off base and just catching the ball and putting pressure on them will help us win the game (Tuesday)."

Adam Plutko limited the Bulldogs to a run on four hits in six innings and was helped by his defense. Eric Filia made a catch close to the wall against Nick Ammirati and hauled in a liner off the bat of Trey Porter with the bases loaded. Cody Regis made a couple diving stops and also started both of UCLA's double plays.

The Bruins made it 3-0 in the fourth on Filia's two-out, two-run single off Chad Girodo, who replaced starter Trevor Fitts (0-1) in the second. That was the last of the Bruins' six hits.

Mississippi State's fans started the "Maroon and White" chant in the bottom of the ninth after C.T. Bradford and pinch-hitter Sam Frost singled to put runners on first and second with one out against Berg.

Ammirati flew out, and pinch-hitter Jacob Robson ended the game with his comebacker to Berg, who sprinted toward first base before under-handing the ball to Pat Gallagher.

Berg, making his 50th appearance of the season, earned his NCAA-record 24th save for 1 2-3 innings of work.

"Records are meant to be broken, but titles are what matter," Berg said. "So if we all win a national championship, I'll enjoy that. But right now I don't think about it at all."

The loss spoiled a splendid performance by Girodo, who pitched the last 7 2-3 innings in relief of Fitts. He allowed three hits, walked two and struck out nine. Both runs against him were unearned.

Plutko (10-3) walked in Mississippi State's only run in the fourth.

The Bruins brought a .248 season batting average into the finals, and a .182 average through their first three CWS games.

They eked out enough offense to win again. In the first three innings, they had batters reach on a dropped third strike, infield single, two hit batsmen and a throwing error.

But there were big hits, too.

Filia, who came in 1 for 9 in the CWS, doubled after Kevin Kramer struck out but reached because strike three was in the dirt. Pat Valaika's single to center drove in Kramer for a 1-0 lead.

"First baserunner of the game kind of spells it out," Bulldogs coach John Cohen said. "I really wish that kid hadn't swung at that pitch. I'm not saying it to be a smart aleck, but that kid doesn't swing at that pitch, it lands in front of the plate, I think the ballgame could be different. But crazy things happen in sports."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ucla-one-win-away-first-cws-championship-082421964.html

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South Africa: Mandela still in critical condition

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Nelson Mandela's condition in a Pretoria hospital remained critical for a second straight day Monday, said South Africa's president who described the stricken anti-apartheid hero as being "asleep" when he visited Mandela the previous evening

President Jacob Zuma told at least 60 foreign and South African journalists that doctors are doing everything possible to ensure the 94-year-old's wellbeing and comfort on his 17th day in the hospital. The president repeated some of the content of a presidential statement issued on Sunday and refused to give any details about Mandela's condition, saying: "I'm not a doctor."

"Madiba is critical in the hospital, and this is the father of democracy. This is the man who fought and sacrificed his life to stay in prison, the longest-serving prisoner in South Africa. He is one of those who has contributed to democracy," Zuma said, using Mandela's clan name. "All of us in the country should accept the fact that Madiba is now old. As he ages, his health will ... trouble him and I think what we need to do as a country is to pray for him."

Zuma, who in the past has given an overly sunny view of Mandela's health, briefly described his visit to the hospital in the capital and seeing Mandela.

"It was late, he was already asleep," Zuma said. "And we then had a bit of a discussion with the doctors as well as his wife, Graca Machel, and we left."

Asked why none of Mandela's doctors had been made available for a news briefing, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said an arrangement had been made in consultation with Mandela's family whereby information would be provided through a "single source in an authoritative way."

"We've come to that arrangement on the basis that we need to respect the privacy of the family, we need to adhere to doctor-patient confidentiality," he said.

"You can be assured that what we are saying is based on agreement with the doctors," Maharaj said. Doctors approve the text of announcements on Mandela's health, and believe some media reporting has transgressed professional ethics, he said.

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection. This is his fourth hospitalization since December.

Mandela was jailed for 27 years under white racist rule and was released 23 years ago, in 1990. He then played a leading role in steering the divided country from the apartheid era to an all-race democracy, becoming South Africa's first black president in all-race elections in 1994.

As a result of his sacrifice and peacemaking efforts, he is seen by many around the world as a symbol of reconciliation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-mandela-still-critical-condition-082546750.html

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