Baby, 1, run over by father; Dad arrested for DUI

WOODLAND, CA - A Woodland father was arrested and faced felony driving under the influence charges after police said he accidentally drove over his 1-year-old son in a parking lot early Sunday morning, according to Woodland police investigators.

The child was transported by helicopter to the UC Davis Medical Center following the accident in the parking lot of the Masonic Lodge at 228 Palm Avenue in Woodland around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, Woodland police Sgt. Steve Sexton said.

Sexton said the child's father Alejandro Ramirez Lopez, 27, was arrested on DUI and other charges and booked into the Yolo County Jail following an investigation into the accident. The circumstances that led to the accident were not immediately known.

The boy suffered life-threatening injuries in the collision. UC Davis officials could not comment on the boy's condition Sunday afternoon.

Colts' Owner Irsay Says Team Will Break Bank To Retain Peyton Manning

By Ross Everett

In what has to be one of the least difficult front office personnel decisions in sports history, Indianapolis Colts' owner Jim Irsay has confirmed that the team will sign quarterback Peyton Manning to a contract extension that could make him the highest paid player in NFL history. Manning's current deal will expire after the end of the 2010 season, with the final two years having been voided due to his meeting a number of performance based criteria. Despite losing the Superbowl this year, the Colts have not wavered on their commitment to Manning as the longterm QB for the team.

You can tell that an owner is adamant about resigning a player when he tells the media that he wants to make him the highest paid player in league history, and Irsay did just that at the NFL's Superbowl media day on Monday:

"You know it's going to get done. I think it's clear, and we'll start on it this summer. That's been the way we do things [to hammer out an extension when a player is entering the final year of his contract]. And it'll be the biggest [contract] in history; there's not much doubt about that."

Not exactly the most advantageous negotiating position to make public that you're committed to breaking the bank to resign a player. Then again, it's not like Manning is a quarterback that can easily be replaced as Irsay emphasized:

"It simply comes to one question, and that's replaceability. Everything is based on the replaceability factor. You make decisions based on who you can afford to target and keep. ... Other guys you really want to [re-sign] you might have trouble doing it, because of what it costs you, and how much attention they're getting [from other teams in free agency]. We don't have that luxury and we've had to work hard."

Manning's agent, Tom Condon, has already had preliminary discussions with the Colts' management about a new deal. Condon also represent's Peyton's brother Eli Manning, and negotiated a $97.5 million contract extension from the New York Giants for him last year. Peyton's contract will almost certainly exceed those figures, with some speculating that he could receive $20 million per year with a $50 million signing bonus up front.

About the Author:

Ross Everett is a staff handicapper for Anatta Sports and one of the world's foremost experts on NFL football handicapping. He is a widely published freelance writer specializing in soccer, fencing, auto racing and fantasy role playing games. He provides daily free sports picks to a number of broadcast media outlets. Ross lives in Las Vegas with an Asian houseboy, three dogs and a retired racing wombat.

Me real beauties: Cap’n Jack bans false breasts

Times Online IF the predatory molls and purse-snatching lassies in the next Pirates of the Caribbean blockbuster seem a little deflated compared with their swashbuckling predecessors, blame it on Walt Disney’s new ban on actresses with artificial enhancements.

Under Rob Marshall, the director of the fourth chapter of the family films, only the naturally endowed will stand a chance of crossing swords with Johnny Depp.

In a request to casting directors circulated around Los Angeles last week, the film-makers say they are seeking “beautiful female fit models. Must be 5ft 7in-5ft 8in, size 4 or 6, no bigger or smaller. Age 18-25. Must have a lean dancer body. Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants.”

The film-makers warn that there will be a “show and tell” day with costume designers where potential actresses will be expected to run — a venerable Hollywood test to detect false breasts, which move less freely than the real thing during action sequences.

The actresses, who must also be able to dive and swim, are needed for scenes to be shot in Hawaii this summer. The film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, is due to be released in May 2011.

Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in what Disney hopes will be the start of a new trilogy. Ian McShane, the British actor, has been cast as Blackbeard and Penelope Cruz will replace Keira Knightley as the love interest.

Knightley, 24, who was 18 when she shot the first Pirates movie, did not have to face the indignity of an enhancement test. “I am not that well endowed so they literally painted in my cleavage,” she said.

“It took about 45 minutes every day for make-up artists to add shade and volume and it looked fantastic until it got too hot shooting. Then the make-up would start smearing and the lines running away.”

She tried alternatives such as a bodice which shrunk her waist to 18 inches. It gave her a tremendous cleavage by squeezing her breasts “up and out” but also left her with only enough oxygen to breathe for 10 minutes: “After that I started passing out.”

However, publicity posters for the film King Arthur, in which Knightley played Guinevere, were digitally enhanced to give her bigger breasts.

Sources said this was the first time such an edict had been passed on a Pirates film: “In the last movie there were enhanced breasts to give that 18th-century whoreish look and men were pretty well padded, too, and no one worried,” said a former casting agent. “But times are changing and the audience can spot false breasts.”

Cruz, the Spanish Oscar winner, is said not to know about the casting decisions. But she said that acting in Nine had exposed her “to some wonderfully beautiful women of all shapes, styles and sizes”.

If Marshall and Disney are frowning on plastic surgery “cheats”, they may reflect a change in public attitudes. A Disney spokesman said: "We never comment on casting rumours." Earlier this month the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (Asaps) announced that while breast augmentations remained the most popular procedure in America, the number of operations had dropped from 365,000 to 312,000 — and is expected to decline again this year. “Not only are numbers down, which can be partially explained by the recession, but women are asking for smaller enlargements,” said Renato Saltz, the president of Asaps and a Utah plastic surgeon.

“Women used to want the most bang for their buck, but now I see many opting instead for a C-cup over a traditional double-D because they want something more subtle, not something that stops a room talking.”

The former casting agent said: “Directors such as Martin Scorsese already avoid employing actresses using Botox or with collagen inflated lips. They know what they want, which is to avoid vulgar distractions. In Hollywood movies, where everything else is false, nothing is more valued than natural beauty.”

Tanning Beds the New Marlboro Reds - Goverment Tax

latimesblogs.latimes.com

December 22, 2009 | 

Baking your body inside a tanning bed has always been detrimental to your skin. But it may soon also wreak havoc on your wallet.

This past weekend, the Senate amended the embattled healthcare bill by replacing the proposed 5% tax on elective plastic surgery procedures with a proposed 10% tax on indoor tanning. The tax would raise an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years.

The so-called "Botax" on elective surgeries raised the ire of the American Medical Assn., which cried discrimination against women (as they're more likely to opt for plastic surgery than men). Apparently, the tanning bed industry doesn't pack as much clout -- so weekly trips to the local tanning salon might be significantly more expensive in the future.

Lawmakers love to tax things that are bad for you -- the higher costs are meant to be a further deterrent. And like smoking a pack of Camels every day, "bronzing" your epidermis regularly has been inextricably linked to cancer. Nose jobs may be steeped in vanity, but they at least have the power to improve mental states.

So I started thinking about what other societal "ills" could raise a little bread for our hobbled economy...
* Stiletto heels over 4 inches tall. Bad for the back, bad for the foot arch -- good for the economy?
* Vanity dogs. That pint-sized Pomeranian in the Louis Vuitton case that yaps at you in line at Whole Foods could pitch in for the greater good.
* "Embellished" jeans and T-shirts dripping with tattoo graphics and "crystals." OK, so they're not exactly detrimental to the wearer. But they've been making our eyes bleed for some time now.

Ohio Experiments with One Drug for Lethal Injection - News Video

lasvegasnow.com - COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The man considered the father of lethal injection in the United States said it doesn't matter whether three fatal drugs are used or one - as his home state of Ohio has proposed - as long as the drug works efficiently.

Dr. Jay Chapman, who developed the lethal three-drug cocktail in the 1970s when he was the Oklahoma state medical examiner, said Ohio's decision to become the first state in the nation to use only one drug achieves that goal.

He said there was no particular reason he didn't propose a single drug, other than a concern that it might take a little longer to work. His three-drug method became widespread after states copied Oklahoma.

Now Chapman, semiretired in California at age 70, said he believes the system he helped create shows condemned inmates too much mercy.

"Their death is made much too easy by this sort of protocol for the crimes that they committed," he told The Associated Press last week.

But he said the hope was injection would avoid the pain-and-suffering arguments and allow executions to take place.

Under Ohio's new system, executioners would use a single large dose of thiopental sodium, an anesthetic, to put inmates to death, similar to the way veterinarians euthanize animals.

The one-drug system has never been used on condemned inmates in the United States.

State officials proposed the change after state executioners tried unsuccessfully Sept. 15 to find a usable vein for condemned killer Romell Broom. Broom, who raped and killed a 14-year-old girl in 1984 in Cleveland, is challenging the state's right to try a second time.

The new protocol would provide a backup method using two drugs injected into a muscle if no usable vein can be found, as happened with Broom. The current system uses one drug that puts inmates to sleep, a second that paralyzes them and a third that stops their heart.

Death penalty opponents have long argued that the three drugs could cause offenders severe pain if the first drug didn't adequately knock out an inmate.

Capital punishment entered Chapman's life early. A childhood friend, Chester Gregg, was executed for killing his wife in July 1952.

Chapman, who grew up in the southwest Ohio town of Blanchester, and his mother stayed up with Gregg's mother the night of the execution. He said the event had no bearing on his later work.

"It's a totally separate thing," Chapman said. "It's just an experience I had along the way."

Chapman, a forensic pathologist, was the Oklahoma medical examiner while state officials were looking for a new execution method shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court declared capital punishment constitutional. Lawmakers then began looking for a humane method of execution to replace the electric chair.

Chapman initially proposed a two-drug approach: an anesthetic followed by a paralytic drug. He later added potassium chloride, to provide for instantaneous death.

"We felt that by going with this type of regimen, no one could suggest that it was cruel and unusual because people undergo this very protocol every day for anesthetic for surgery world-round," Chapman said.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection, ruling on Kentucky's three-drug method, which is similar to that in Ohio and many other states.

A separate lawsuit challenges Ohio's protocol, questioning in recent months the qualifications of executioners, some of whom are paramedics.

Attorneys for death row inmates mention the case of Joseph Clark when raising questions about executioners' ability to perform lethal injection. In 2006, Clark's execution had to be restarted after he pushed himself up and announced the drugs weren't working. An execution in 2007 also took much longer that usual. The state has repeatedly said it's confident in its execution team.

The state argues that the new method renders the lawsuit moot, since it removes the possibility of pain, and it addresses situations such as the Broom case. Opponents says moving ahead quickly with the new, untested method amounts to "human experimentation."

Ohio hopes to have its new system in place in time for a possible execution Dec. 8.

Alabama county celebrates official Obama holiday - Taxpayers Pay for Day Off

By BOB JOHNSON- lasvegasnow.com
Associated Press Writer

MARION, Ala. (AP) - The sign going on the front door at the Perry County courthouse reads: "Closed for the Obama Holiday."

The rural, mostly black county has proclaimed Monday as an official holiday celebrating the election of the nation's first black president, Barack Obama. It's one of Alabama's poorest counties, but it's sparing little during five days of festivities.

County employees, as well as city workers in Marion and Uniontown, will get a paid holiday Monday as government offices close, culminating a series of events including an old-fashioned civil rights rally and march, a golf tournament, a weekend carnival and a parade Monday through Marion.

"I feel great about the holiday," said county maintenance worker Leon Brown. "It's history. It's the first time ever we've had a black president. I hope it's not the last time ever."

Located in the heart of the economically depressed Black Belt region named for its rich soil, Perry County is sparsely populated, with a little over 11,000 residents, and an unemployment rate of more than 18 percent, one of the highest in the state.

County Commissioner Brett Harrison, who cast the lone "no" vote when the commission voted 4-1 to set up the holiday, questions adding a paid day off in such a poor county. He said the county already had 14 paid holidays and it didn't seem like the right time for such an ambitious event in the middle of a recession.

"The timing didn't make any sense," Harrison said, pointing out that many private businesses will be open Monday, including his full-service gas station.

The Obama holiday was proposed by Commissioner Albert Turner Jr., whose father was one of the marchers beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" voting rights march in Selma. Many of the marchers were voting rights activists from Marion upset about the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson during an earlier demonstration in the town.

Turner, taking a break Friday while participating in the Obama Holiday Golf Tournament, said it's only right to celebrate the election of the first black president.

"We hold holidays for Columbus and for Lincoln. There's been no event more historic in my lifetime than the election of Barack Obama," Turner said.

He said another reason for the holiday was to let the nation know the role Perry County played in protests that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act. Some of the events recall the demonstrations.

"It's not that we're celebrating Obama. We're celebrating America living up to it's creed that all men are created equal," Turner said.

Activities Friday included a jamboree at Marion Military Institute, where high school students from public and private schools in three counties had a chance to meet with representatives of colleges from across the Southeast and were given instructions on how to apply for college.

Fransia Foster, president of the Marion branch of University Women of America, which sponsored the event, said it was planned before the holiday was established. But she said the coincidence was appropriate.

"Look what education has done for President Obama and his family. I think this ties in very nicely with the holiday," Foster said.

Roshawd Shepherd, a junior at R.C. Hatch High School in Uniontown, said he's only 16, but will be old enough to vote for Obama if he runs for re-election in 2012.

"I think he's made a big change in our community and the United States. If he does the things he says he's going to do, I'll vote for him," Shepherd said.

The host of the golf tournament Friday, state Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said he hopes publicity surrounding the holiday will help lure new industry and jobs to the depressed region.

But Michael Brooks, a Judson College professor who is a Republican Party official in Perry County, wondered if the five days of events celebrating Obama's election wasn't a little too much for the small, poor county.

"I question whether we needed another paid county holiday in the middle of a recession," Brooks said. "For the first year, it seems it could have been a bit more modest."

"Gossip Girl" Threesome Prompts Parents Television Council Campaign Against Show

huffingtonpost.com



NEW YORK — On-air promos for a sexual threesome on an upcoming episode of "Gossip Girl" have spurred the Parents Television Council to ask affiliates of the CW network to pre-empt the show.

Airing the teen tryst, which is being teased in an ad as a "3SOME," is "reckless and irresponsible," said PTC president Tim Winter in a statement Wednesday. The threesome involves three main characters in the show but they are not identified in the promos.

The PTC has urged CW affiliate stations not to air the episode, scheduled for Nov. 9.

In a letter to the affiliates, Winter asked: "Will you now be complicit in establishing a precedent and expectation that teenagers should engage in behaviors heretofore associated primarily with adult films?"

This is not the first time the PTC has complained about the sexy prep-school soap, which Winter said is "expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers."

In July 2008, the organization spoke out against a racy marketing campaign for its new season. Ads showed intimate moments between the show's characters (on a couch, in the sack or apparently skinny-dipping), accompanied by headlines like "A Nasty Piece of Work" and "Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate."

"CW has been defending graphic content on 'Gossip Girl' by asserting that they don't target teenagers," Winters said Wednesday. "Such a claim doesn't even pass the 'laugh test.'"

CW spokesman Paul McGuire said the target audience for "Gossip Girl" is 18- to 34-year-old women, with a median viewer age of 27 years old. The network had no comment on PTC's complaint, he said.

The Parents Television Council describes itself as a nonpartisan education group advocating responsible entertainment.

'Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew' premiere: Sure, why not make a bunch of sex addicts live together?

by Jennifer Armstrong

Here’s the problem with these rehab-on-TV shows: They are showing rehab. On TV. Um, most sobriety programs have “anonymous” in their names for a reason. Because anonymity is a key aspect of getting over addictions, which means television might make the process a bit tougher. VH1’s Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew becomes the latest semi-serious attempt to depict the process of overcoming addiction. And with its Sunday premiere, the series, like Celebrity Rehab before it, achieved the same odd combination of attacking important issues and allowing a salacious look at people who seem far worse off than most of us. It’s truly great for anyone in any public forum to treat masturbation, condom use, STDs, and the tricky connection between sex and emotion as serious subjects worthy of genuine, nonjudgmental discussion. But there’s no denying the more voyeuristic elements of this series:

While not a “celebrity” reality show per se, every attempt was clearly made to satiate viewers with characters who have as sexy a public connection as possible — a pro surfer, a Playmate, a rock drummer who worked with Skid Row, a porn star, the gorgeous wife of a guy who won Rock Star: Supernova, and even the requisite reality crossover star, Celebrity Rehab grad/swimsuit model Amber Smith. And yes, all these pretty darn beautiful people are expected to live together while fighting their urge to sleep with other beautiful people, and these people who for the most part perform for a living are supposed to ignore the cameras while doing this. It’s the kind of show that can seamlessly move from painful admissions of repeated childhood sexual abuse to funny, camera-ready demonstrations of sexual frustration (when hyperactive surfer James Lovett hits the treadmill). Uncomfortable? Yes. Reprehensible? Maybe. Watchable? Absolutely.

ACORN in Las Vegas: Voter Registration Fraud Charges, “Blackjack” Bonus Plan (video)

frugalcafe.com
More ACORN in the news, in the courts… now it’s Las Vegas, Nevada for its suspected voter registration fraud:

Associated Press - Vegas judge binds ACORN, former employee for trial
By Ken Ritter
September 30, 2009

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The political advocacy group ACORN and a former supervisor were ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges that they illegally paid canvassers to register Nevada voters during last year’s presidential campaign.

Evidence heard during more than six hours of testimony left “a lot of issues that have to be answered” before trial, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen said.

He set arraignment for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and former regional supervisor Amy Busefink for Oct. 14 in Clark County District Court.

“I think the statute is clear,” Jansen said. “It’s unlawful to provide compensation for the registration of voters that is based on the total number of voters that a person registers.”

The judge referred to testimony that ACORN wanted to register 1.7 million new voters nationwide for the 2008 presidential election.

“To me, that is a quota,” the judge said.

ACORN officials say they set goals, not quotas, and didn’t necessarily punish canvassers who didn’t meet them.

“There was no hard-and-fast standard we were holding employees to,” ACORN regional organizer Matthew Henderson insisted after the judge’s decision.

Lawyers for ACORN and Busefink said they will plead not guilty.

ACORN lawyer Lisa Rasmussen said outside court she was disappointed but argued that Deputy Nevada Attorney General Conrad Hafen needed only to prove only “slight or marginal” evidence to move the case to trial.

In court, Busefink’s lawyer Kevin Stolworthy accused the state’s star witness, Christopher Edwards, of creating and proceeding with an unauthorized bonus plan dubbed “blackjack.”

“He tried to fly this under the radar,” Stolworthy said.

Edwards, 33, was initially charged along with ACORN and Busefink. But in a plea agreement in August, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges in return for his testimony and a promise that he’ll receive probation, a fine and community service.

Edwards testified during a hearing on Tuesday that ACORN supervisors knew and payroll records showed that canvassers making $8 per hour were paid “blackjack” bonuses of $5 per shift if they collected 21 or more voter registration cards last August and September.

Rasmussen and Stolworthy said the state law didn’t apply because ACORN didn’t actually register voters but turned registration forms over to county registrars.

Henderson said he was proud ACORN collected and submitted 91,000 registration forms to the Clark County Registrar of Voters last year.

“Nevada has one of the lowest registration rates in the country,” Henderson said Wednesday. “Rather than do something about it, they’re prosecuting those who did.”

The Nevada criminal case could cost ACORN its nonprofit status in the state, and is one of several battles the community organizer is fighting nationally.

ACORN has been stung by the recent release of a videotape showing ACORN employees offering advice to two people posing as a prostitute and her pimp about cheating on taxes and operating a brothel.

Federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service followed with declarations that they were severing ties with the organization, and Bank of America Corp. said it was suspending its work with ACORN’s housing affiliate.

[...]

ACORN is charged with compensation for registration of voters…

Several other states investigated allegations that ACORN produced fake voter registration cards during the campaign between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, but Nevada was the first to file criminal charges…

This raid on the ACORN Las Vegas office occurred last October, just a few weeks before the presidential election. This story was virtually ignored by the network fringe media of CBS, MSNBC, ABC, and CNN. FOX News DID cover it.

FOX News coverage of Las Vegas ACORN voter registration fraud | October 2008



Task Force Raid on ACORN: Local Las Vegas TV news coverage of voter fraud registration | October 2008

Schools Out for Summer Maybe History

source: news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.

Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.

"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."

Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

___

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

___

Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.

Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.

"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."

In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.

Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.

In Massachusetts' expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.

Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.

Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.

Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.

Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.

Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.

The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.

"Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents," Duncan said. "They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table."

Aubrey O'Day Cancels Las Vegas Show Due To Naked Photo Leak (With Video)

starpulse.com

Pop star Aubrey O'Day pulled out of her burlesque performance in Las Vegas on Wednesday night after learning a previous show-goer had posted nude photos of her on the Internet.

The former Danity Kane singer performs in Sin City revue Peepshow, a semi-nude stage extravaganza, and made her debut performance on Tuesday.

She was disturbed to learn an audience member had snapped her mid-performance during her first show - and took to her website to post a video of her stripping to inform fans of her plans to axe Wednesday's gig.

She says, "I'm making a video for you guys, because instead of being onstage at Peepshow tonight, where I usually am, I decided to call off tonight because of some nude photos that were illegally obtained last night at the show. Last night was my opening night, and it was such an amazing feeling, and I've been told by everyone that the performance that I gave was absolutely amazing, one of the best they've seen. But the photos made me feel like c**p. It made me feel bad. It made me feel insecure about my body, and unfortunately, this is not the first time I felt this way in this industry."

But O'Day has vowed to go on with the show in a bid to hit back at all her critics.

She adds, "A lot of people may not understand what it feels like for women to be judged like that, but as you can see, I'm not performing, which is the one thing I love doing most... I'm not going to let anyone like (gossip blogger) Perez Hilton say that Aubrey looks ugly un-Photoshopped. I am going to be back onstage at 'Peepshow' every night following tonight's cancellation."

Aubrey's video is probably nsfw because of a see-through bra, and it contains some strong language. Watch it:

NBA's Superstar LeBron James May Become a Knick

By Brynn Thompson

Rumblings have surfaced recently that make it seem further possible that LeBron James will be coming aboard with New York after this season.

When LeBron turns into a free agent in the end of the 2010 season, the Cavs will be in the number one position to re-sign him. This is because of the Larry Bird rule, which allows a team to go over the salary limit in order to extend their own free agent.

The New York Knicks will give James a huge deal, although they will not have the talent to offer LeBron as a lot as the Cavaliers. So they got inventive in the big city and found a way to sidestep that darned salary cap.

The rumor is that the Knicks will not only give LeBron a max contract, however additionally his own cable channel. As you can know, the Knicks are wholly owned by Cablevision, a cable TV giant.

LeBron might receive income from the advertisers on his cable channel. According to NBA regulations, the franchise would not be permitted to set up these advertisements/sponsors for LeBron; he might need to do that himself. But I think we would all acknowledge that LeBron possesses enough connections in the commercial sphere to make this possible.

Assumption is that the television network would show reruns of New York basketball games (whose rights are owned by Cablevision), as well as other programming regarding LeBron, the Knicks, in addition to the league. Some have even predicted that Nike would seek to be involved and create their own television series.

The large issue is whether the NBA would consent to this. It seems to be fully within league regulations. The cable television network might be seen as a marginal privilege of playing in New York, similar to a amount of other advertising benefits that come from playing in a particular city. The income would be perceived as non-basketball related revenue.

This is a new and interesting twist in the LeBron-to-be-a-free agent saga. The broad consensus has been that the Cavs are leading the race. Possibly that's starting to change?

About the Author:

If you like basketball, visit the basketball forums at RootZoo. Play trivia questions and get hooked.

Tomatoes thrive on urine diet

sanationupdates.wordpress.com
September 15, 2009 ·

Using human urine as a fertiliser produces bumper crops of tomatoes that are safe to eat, scientists have found.

Their research was published in August 2009 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Surendra Pradhan, an environmental biology researcher at the University of Kuopio, Finland, and colleagues gave potted tomato plants one of three treatments: mineral fertiliser, urine and wood ash, urine only, and no fertiliser. Urine is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Yields for plants fertilised with urine quadrupled and matched those of mineral-fertilised plants. The urine-fertilised tomatoes also contained more protein and were safe for human consumption.

Pradhan says that the method is a free alternative to expensive mineral fertiliser, which is also not easily available in remote or hilly areas. Pradhan also believes that the idea could improve sanitation by incentivising toilet-building.

A pilot programme based on the research will be launched in Nepal in November [2009] , says Pradhan.

But Håkan Jönsson, eco-agriculture and sanitation system technology expert at the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden, told SciDev.Net: “The amount [of urine] that can be collected from a person or a family is fairly small (equivalent to about two bags of fertiliser per year for a west African family).[The technique] is of great value to a subsistence farmer but does not suffice for even a medium-scale cash-crop farm.”

He adds that to fertilise larger areas, many urine-diverting toilets would have to be linked up to a good transportation system.

There are also cultural issues. In most cultures, Jönsson says, faeces are considered impure and urine is viewed in a similar way, even though the hygiene risk associated with it is minimal.

Pradhan says that studies will be done to assess how acceptable the idea is in different cultures. His team will also investigate ways of decontaminating any faecal matter in urine collected from a toilet using a jerry can.

He adds: “For large-scale implementation of this idea, we are trying to find different methods to reduce the volume of the urine in economic way, without losing the nutrients”.

Link to full article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry [750kb]

Diet may cut cow fart emissions

Friday, 04 September 2009
sceincealert.com.au

Everybody loves a good fart joke, but the rise in methane emissions is no laughing matter when it comes to global warming.

Now, James Cook University nutritionist Dr Tony Parker thinks he has found a way to decrease this output and he will be testing it on a herd of heifers at the University’s Townsville campus.

Methane is considered more damaging to the ozone layer than Carbon Dioxide and according to researchers, the world’s cattle population accounts for up to 20 per cent of methane emissions from human-related activities.

Dr Parker, from JCU’s School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, and collaborator Professor Rocky de Nys, from JCU’s School of Marine and Tropical Biology, have just received a $7,000 Collaboration Across Boundaries grant to prove their theory that feeding seaweed to cattle will improve their digestion and in turn result in less methane released into the atmosphere.

“Orkney sheep are ruminants that live off seaweed and they do very well on such a diet; so the obvious question is, why can’t cows?” said Dr Parker.

“I like to call it the reef and beef project because it has far reaching implications that come full circle: starting with seaweed, taking in the beef and aquaculture industries, and extending back out to the sea to help conserve the Great Barrier Reef.”

Professor de Nys said that many aquaculture farms used seaweeds and algae to clean their ponds and effluent streams of the waste from fish and crustaceans.

“Effluent water contains nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous which are responsible in part for the breakdown of aquatic ecosystems in the Inner Great Barrier Reef,” Professor de Nys said.

“At present, however, there is little incentive provided to farmers to use this bioremediation method as it means they will often be left with a huge biomass that they don’t know what to do with and which has little to no financial value.

“Cattle produce a lot of methane due to their diet. Seaweed, algae and other sea grasses have been proven to be much more digestible than land grass because they have less cellulose and more starch. A better diet for cattle, then, will encourage better digestion and thus lead to a decrease in methane emissions.

“If we can get the beef and aquaculture industries to work together on this we can not only help them reduce their impact on the environment but also improve their profitability,” Professor de Nys said.

The hope is that the incentive to sell their seaweed to beef producers will lead to more aquaculture farmers, and perhaps agricultural farmers, adopting environmentally-friendly algal bioremediation methods to clean their water. By improving the digestion of cattle, growth and milk yield rates will also rise.

Dr Parker said that at least 50 per cent of the global cattle population was located in developing nations, many of which are in the tropics.

“Beef cattle production is the largest animal-based primary industry in the tropics,” Dr Parker said.

“The quality of the pasture often deteriorates in the winter compromising animal growth and increasing methane emissions. If seaweed can improve on that and at the same time contribute to a reduction in global warming then we’re going to give it a go.”

Two species of ‘green tide algae’ (Cladophora coelothrix and Chaetomorpha indicia), identified as the best for bioremediation of pond effluence due to their hardiness, fast growth and efficient nutrient uptake, will be used for the experiment.

A herd of tropically-adapted Bos indicus heifers will be split into six groups and, over 28 days, fed a basal diet of tropical forage hay. Each group will have an increased inclusion of dried green tide algae added to their feed to establish the amount of seagrass that can be tolerated by the cows to maintain a healthy, productive weight and milk yield.

Dr Parker will also have the unenviable task of measuring at what quantity the seaweed is most effective in terms of reducing methane emissions.

“I’m not looking forward to that part of the process,” he admitted.

bp-makes-giant-oil-find-in-gulf-of-mexico

Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major BP Plc said it has made an oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, which analysts believe could contain over 1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, reaffirming the Gulf's strategic importance to the industry.

BP said in a statement on Wednesday that it had made the "giant" find at its Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102, by drilling one of the deepest wells ever sunk by the industry.

In this undated photo the ultra-deepwater semi-submersible rig Deepwater Horizon is shown operating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Transocean)

Further appraisal will be required to ascertain the size of volumes of oil present, but a spokesman said the find should be bigger than its Kaskida discovery which has over 3 billion barrels of oil in place.

Estimates of recoverable reserves range from around 20 percent of oil in place.

"Assuming reserves in place of 4 billion barrels and a 35 percent recovery rate, BP's proven reserves .. would rise by 868 million barrels -- equivalent to 4.8 percent of the group's 18.14 billion barrels of proven reserves," Aymeric De-Villaret, oil analyst at Societe Generale said in a research note.

BP, the biggest oil producer in the U.S. and biggest leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico, has a 62 percent working interest in the block, while Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras owns 20 percent and U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips owns 18 percent.

Iain Armstrong, analyst at Brewin Dolphin, said the discovery may have implications for long-term oil prices.

"It will ease concerns about peak oil because it shows there is life left in these mature areas," he said, adding that it could be the second half of the next decade before the find is producing.

The discovery also bodes well for other exploration in that part of the Gulf of Mexico, including at Royal Dutch Shell's nearby Great White field, Jason Kenny, oil analyst at ING in Edinburgh, said.

BP shares, which had been trading slightly down ahead of the statement, closed up 4.3 percent at 541 pence, outperforming a 1.75 percent rise in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index.

The Gulf of Mexico has become increasingly important to Western oil majors as oil rich-countries such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Russia reserve their richest fields to be developed by their state-owned oil companies.

The Gulf is especially attractive because it offers high profit margins, due to relatively low taxation compared to countries such as Russia and Nigeria, and because of the low political risk.

As nearer-shore discoveries dry up, companies have pushed further out to sea, which has forced them to develop new technologies to detect and extract the oil.

The prospects for massive discoveries in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico is also good news for U.S. politicians' ambitions to reduce the country's reliance on imported oil, although oil executives doubt the U.S. is capable of becoming self sufficient in oil.

Jaycee Lee Dugard - How Her Name Has Affected Her Life

By Tania Gabrielle

In August 2009 we all learned about about Jaycee Lee Dugards abduction 18 years ago - and her reunion with her family.

Jaycees personal numbers give fascinating insight into her tragic story.

In 1991 little Jaycee was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido while walking to her school bus stop. She was 11 years old.

She was found in 2009 as a 29 year-old. Notice 11 and 29 both reduce to 11/2. Additionally, 1991 and 2009 reduce to 2. These numbers are about relationship and division.

Her current name reveals even more.

Jaycee Lee Dugard has a challenging 13/4 current name. It can indicate sudden, unforeseen events. Since all the digits of her birthday add up to 26/8 " her Life Purpose Number - Jaycees 13/4 current name creates even more difficulties for her. This is because combining a 4 or 8 current name with a major 4 or 8 in your birth blueprint attracts fateful events and people into your life.

So it goes with Phillip Garrido and his complicit wife Nancy.

All the info I have for these two are their current names. Even so, a stunning connection to Jaycee Lee Dugard is revealed.

Her kidnapper Phillip Garrido ALSO has a 13/4 current name number.

13/4 is a number of upheaval so that new ground can be broken. It is associated with power, which may not be used for selfish reasons " otherwise it will bring destruction. With this number there is a warning of the unknown and unexpected. Impulsive, sudden action is common.

That's why I never recommend a 13/4 current name number for my clients.

Jaycees personal cycles shed more light. She was kidnapped on June 10, 1991. It was a 35/8 Personal Day for her. She was found on August 26, 2009. Amazingly this date is ALSO a 35/8 Personal Day for Jaycee.

Aside form activating the fateful 4 and 8 connection, the 35/8 also ties her directly to Nancy Garrido, who has a 35/7 current name number.

Finally, what caught my attention right away is the 18 years Jaycee spent in the Dugards back yard. 18 reduces to 9 and shows that she experienced two complete 9-year cycles while in captivity.

She was kidnapped during a 1 Personal Year for her and released last week at the beginning at her brand new 9 year cycle. In 2009 Jaycee began a 19/10/1 Personal Year and is in a 27/9 Personal Month this August. The 9 indicates endings and the 1 year a whole new 9-year cycle. She ended her captivity and is beginning a new life.

Additionally, 19 and 27 in combination are highly fortunate, so Jaycee was able to release herself far more easily during this month.

In September 2009 she will be experiencing a 28/10/1 Personal Month, mirroring EXACTLY the 2810/1 Personal Year she was in 1991. So the memories of that year will flood back, most likely because she will be sharing her story in detail.

Here is what I recommend for Jaycee.

That she use the name Jaycee Dugard. It adds up to the highly fortunate number 36/9 - a vibration which will truly help her get back on her feet and receive the assistance she and her two daughters need now.

If you have been feeling overwhelmed and challenged make sure your current name adds up to a fortunate number and is helping you - not causing unnecessary obstacles in your life.

About the Author:

Tania Gabrielle, Celebrity Numerologist and radio host, is the Author of "The Unrevealed Secrets of Political Success: How Names and Dates Shape U.S. History." Gabrielle is a regular guest on Hay House Radio, wsRadio, The Allan Handelman show and appears on radio shows across the U.S., Europe and Canada. Get her e-book when you sign up for her popular free e-newsletter on current events, politicians and celebrities.

UPDATE telegraph.co.uk sept 2, '09

Starlet, 15, and Angel, 11, grew up believing that Miss Dugard, 29, was also a daughter of their father Philip Garrido, 58, and that there was just a large age gap.

They are thought to have regarded Garrido's wife Nancy, 54, as their mother.

The children, who have been completely sheltered from the outside world, are said to be struggling to come to terms with the sudden disintegration of their family structure.

"They thought Jaycee was their sister," Miss Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said. "People have to realise this will take years of therapy."

Ernie Allen, president of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children which has been working with the family, said: "It's important to reinforce with them that they've done nothing wrong. Jaycee will play a key role in this. It's going to take patience and time to help these children."

In her first prison interview with her lawyer Mrs Garrido claimed she "loved and missed" all three girls and that they were her "family".

Gilbert Maines, her lawyer, said: "She has said to me that she misses the girls, that she loves them and her feeling was they had become a family. They acted like a family. It seems a little strange, given the circumstances, but that's it.

"She's distraught, frightened, and appeared to be a little lost. I would describe her like a ship without a rudder but she understood why she was there."

Mrs Garrido and her husband have denied 29 counts related to the abduction of Miss Dugard in 1991, including rape, kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Mr Maines, who has been threatened on the internet for defending his client, claimed she was "controlled" by her husband and was a "victim". He said she will be examined by a psychiatrist but seemed fit to stand trial.

The prosecution of Mrs Garrido is likely to focus on a five month period in 1993 when her husband was in jail for violating parole. During that time Miss Dugard was still held captive at the Garrido home in Antioch, California.

Detectives are looking into a report that Mrs Garrido worked at a children's centre as part of a child abuse prevention program in the early 1990s, around the time Miss Dugard was abducted.

They believe it was she who grabbed Miss Dugard and forced her into in a car in 1991.

As she grew up Miss Dugard started working for Garrido's printing business and included photographs of herself on business cards she made for him to deliver to potential clients. He told clients the girl on the card was his daughter "Allissa".

A local businessman, who saw one of the cards, said: "Allissa did all the graphic design for him and she put her photo on the cards. Maybe she was trying to reach out to us but nobody recognised her as Jaycee."

Steve Contreras, who runs a car repair business, said Angel came to his shop with Garrido.

He said: "She was small for her age and acted more like a five-year-old. She was talking to an imaginary friend. Garrido said the world was going to end and I thought he was on drugs."

10 Dumbest Taxes in History

No.10 - The Beard Tax

There's supposedly a goatee tax on the books in Massachusetts, but goofy, archaic state laws are often mere urban legends. Luckily, history has more than one beard tax up its sleeve, and for that we have Peter the Great to thank.

Peter gets called everything from "radical" to "absolutely nuts" depending on who you ask; his beard tax certainly seems to place him squarely in the latter column. As additional evidence that Peter just really, really didn't like beards, those of his subjects he taxed for their facial hair were also required to wear medals admitting that their beards were ridiculous.

No.9 - The Dealing-Illegal-Drugs Tax

It's hard enough to get law-abiding people to report under-the-table income on their tax returns, so it's a little mystifying when the Internal Revenue Service expects people to actually implicate themselves in crimes just for the warm feeling of satisfaction you get from filing a comprehensive tax return. The IRS tax income guidelines insist that "…illegal income, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21." This particular pain-in-the-ass tax deserves a spot on the list purely for the extreme unlikelihood that it will ever be paid by anyone, anywhere.

No.8 - The Slave Emancipation Tax

Ancient Rome employed a particularly mean little tax referred to as a manumission tax, which was essentially a tax on not being a slave anymore. In some cases, this applied to masters who'd chosen to free their own slaves, in which case the tax wasn't really all that bad (guys wealthy enough to own slaves could probably afford to pay a one-time tax on emancipating them). It only became an unceremonious pain-in-the-ass tax when the slave himself, having finally worked his way to his own freedom, had to scrounge up 10% of his former sticker price and hand it right over to Rome.

No.7 - The Disagreeing-With-The-King Tax

One of the time-honored measures taken by rulers who like it when things go completely awry is to tax the hell out of your enemies and hope they put up with it. Oliver Cromwell (though of course not actually a king) instituted one of the better-known such taxes in 1655, levied against the Royalists who were still hanging around England after he took over. As an added kick in the teeth, Cromwell used some of the money he took from the grumbling Royalists to fund a militia that fought against other Royalists. At least they knew where their money was going.

No.6 - The Existence Tax

The very concept of a poll tax is as straightforward and unwelcome as pain-in-the-ass taxes can get: Instead of being taxed on how much you make or what you buy, a poll tax is what you owe a government simply because you had the audacity to be alive. England levied a series of poll taxes in the 14th century that were particularly harsh and ill-advised (even by poll tax standards), culminating in a tax that tripled the rate of the first. Some protests broke out, some peasants revolted, and so began the appropriately named and hugely destructive Peasants' Revolt.

No.5 - The Nobel Prize Tax

Yes, Nobel Prizes are taxed by the IRS. It may seem especially villainous that an entity designed to take everyone's money even demands its fair share from those who, in the words of Alfred Nobel, "have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind," but hey, Pulitzers and other prizes are taxed as well. If it's any consolation, some prizewinners are exempt if they fit certain criteria -- all they have to do is give the entire prize away without touching it (either to a charity or the government and the IRS is willing to let you decide which).

No.4 - The Being-Foreign Tax

Taxes levied specifically against foreigners and immigrants are not all that unusual, even up through the 20th century. Canada started taxing Chinese immigrants in 1885 and didn't stop until 1923. Unfortunately, this pain-in-the-ass tax ended not because anyone had a change of heart, but because that's when the Chinese Immigration Act prohibited the Chinese from entering Canada at all.

No.3 - The Hearth Tax

When you're a monarch who's strapped for cash and you've already tried to tax property, goods and people, the only thing left to do is start picking random parts of structures and taxing those too.

The problem with England's 1660 hearth tax was that the lower class wound up overtaxed -- which somehow always seems to happen -- so people started concealing their chimneys, prompting inspectors to come rooting around everywhere to make sure nobody was hiding hearths. This continued right up until a 1684 fire that destroyed 20 houses and killed four people, thanks to a baker's attempts to discreetly make use of a neighboring house's chimney.

No.2 - The Danegeld

History is filled with instances of countries paying pain-in-the-ass taxes to other (scary and violent) countries, and it has its share of war-related taxes, but the Saxons pretty clearly knew what they were getting into when they began paying the Danegeld. It's right in the name. This was a tax on not being killed by Danes.

The ignominy of being the first to pay the Danegeld rests with poor King Ethelred "The Unready," who essentially spent his rule being kicked around by Danes, died and wound up saddled with an embarrassing nickname.

No.1 - The Salt Tax

Yes, salt. Harmless, innocuous salt.

Unlikely as it may seem, it turns out that taxing salt has been one of the most unthinkably problematic ideas in history. Salt taxes were partially responsible for the fall of the Chinese empire, the French salt tax (the gabelle) helped precipitate the French Revolution and Gandhi himself marched in an anti-salt tax protest in 1930. In doing so he galvanized a burgeoning Indian independence movement, and that specific march inspired the future philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, if you're looking for a nice, quiet tax that won't rock any boats, taxing salt is probably not very wise.

resource: askmen.com

Oprah, Dr. Oz Sue to Block Diet Sites

News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Oprah Winfrey has once again teamed up with surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, but this time they are not dispensing medical advice – they're suing more than three dozen companies that have allegedly been using the duo's image and likeness to hawk dietary supplements on the Internet.

The companies, including FWM Laboratories, Inc. and CPX Interactive LLC, are accused of posting photos and videos of Oprah and Dr. Oz without permission, as well as crafting fake endorsements and testimonials from both TV personalities.

Dr. Oz has appeared in more than 55 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show since 1995, and will star in his own TV show starting in September. The suit, filed in District Court in New York, notes three particular episodes from 2005, 2008, and 2009 during which Dr. Oz discussed colon health, the acai berry, and resveratrol, respectively.

Immediately after the airing of these shows, the suit contends, the companies in question set up Web sites hawking products related to colon health, the acai berry, and resveratrol using photos, videos, and URLs that made it look like Dr. Oz was pushing these products.

The companies are also accused of using embedded meta-tags for search engine optimization purposes, purchasing keywords for sponsored links in search engine results, and placing banner ads via AOL with Oprah and Dr. Oz's images.

They also registered a number of domain names using Oprah and Dr. Oz's names, like drozresveratroltrial.com, (see below) and set up fake blogs and news sites that showed their products in a positive light.

The companies also used video services like YouTube to upload footage from the Oprah Winfrey Show featuring Dr. Oz, which lawyers claim is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"Had their permission been sought, plaintiffs would have flatly refused to consent to the use of plaintiffs' property in connection with the infringing products," the suit said.

In addition, the suit claims that consumers who did purchase items on these sites were often met with credit card scams and undelivered orders.

These Web sites have the potential to damage Dr. Oz's reputation as a surgeon at Columbia University as well as Oprah's credibility, and they pose health risks to consumers who believe the false information on the Web sites, according to the suit.

Oprah's company Harpo has already tried to address this issue via cease-and-desist letters, notices on Oprah.com, and through work with Internet service providers and search engines, but to no avail.

Among the charges are trademark infringement, trademark dilution, cybersquatting, unjust enrichment, and deceptive trade practices.

Lawyers for Dr. Oz and Oprah are requesting that the court shut down these Web sites, and hand down damages not limited to $150,000 per work infringed under the Copyright Act, and $100,000 per infringing domain name under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

WWW.DROZRESVERATROLTRIAL.COM

Dr Oz Resveratrol Research As Seen on Oprah - A Comprehensive Breakdown on This NEW Anti-Aging Tab!
By Rob R Carmichael

Recently on Oprah's show Dr Oz reported on the resveratrol research that red wine has undergone since extensive studies in to longevity were reported on by the National Geographic.

Here they highlighted the hot spots or "Blue Zones" as they are called, where in certain places around the globe being a centenarian is not at all unusual.

The most common source of resveratrol is red wine. Resv, an extract that comes from grapes, vines and other plants, has been found to possess certain properties that may be important in maintaining optimal health. Having isolated this nutrient from organic red grapes skin, a standardized extract has been manufactured to create one of the most useful nutrients in safeguarding ones health.

Chemists actually took wine apart years ago to find out what makes it tick. Basically, it contains a whole host of plant compounds. Unfortunately, resveratrol and some of the other beneficial components were put aside as toxic-ants, and nobody paid much notice to them until one scientist attempted to figure out why the French were able to eat so much fat and stay healthy.

The answer to this French paradox was discovered to be resveratrol found in red wine.

While red wine contains resv, the quantity varies wildly depending on the time of harvest, where the grapes are grown and other factors. After more than three years of painstaking research, a standardized resv extract is now available as a dietary supplement. This grape extract contains a multitude of polyphenols that are naturally contained in red wine such as flavonoids, proanthocyandins, anthocyanins, etc.

Another crucial aspect of resveratrol is that it can be paired with other phytofactors to potentially enhance its effectiveness. Resv naturally grows with other polyphenols such as quercetin in plants such as grapes. Quercetin may therefore enhance resv's bio-availability. The resveratrol used in the pharmaceutical product is extracted from organic grapes and is a natural recipe that includes many alternative polyphenols. Another European plant extract, indole-3-carbinol, or the I3C, may also work synergistically with resv.

Since resveratrol research began in the 1990s, it has been the subject of thousands of scientific papers, making it one of the most intensely debated studies regarding health supplements sold on the market today. Findings from published scientific literature indicates that it may be the most powerful plant extract for maintaining optimal health.

With such positive research, drinking wine in moderation therefore appears to be a healthy recommendation. However, drinking wine is obviously not the best way for getting a consistent amount of resv as it's concentration varies, depending on the growing conditions of the grapes and how the wine is made. If the wine isn't made with organic grapes, it may not contain any resveratrol.

Over the last three years, the Life Extension Foundation has been working with a European pharmaceutical manufacturer to produce a high-potency resv extract as a low cost dietary supplement. The result of this collaboration is a standardized grape formula containing resv in a specified amount suggested by medical studies to favorably impact the health of your body.

In order to make this promising nutrient as widely available as possible, resveratrol is now sold not only in the U.S but globally.

Woman pregnant with 12 babies

By NIYI ODEBODE punchng.com

Published: Wednesday, 19 Aug 2009

A Tunisian woman, in her thirties, has been told by doctors that she is carrying 12 babies.

According to a report by The Daily News of South Africa, the unnamed Tunisian woman is expecting six boys and six girls. Medical experts, across the world, have described the woman as a record breaker.

The South African newspaper reported that the woman went for fertility treatment after having two miscarriages in two years.

The report said it was unclear how many weeks she had been carrying the pregnancy, but added that ultrasound scans could work out a baby‘s sex only after about 16 weeks.

The newspaper quoted the woman as saying, ”All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love.”

She told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 400 kilometres south of the capital, Tunis that pregnancy would change her life positively.

Her husband, named only as Marwan, said, ”In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered. Our joy was increased with the growing number. The medical team told us that my wife would give birth naturally.”

A woman had in January given birth to eight children in Carlifonia in the United States. The single mother of six defied doctors‘ predictions when she gave birth to eight healthy babies.

At the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State, a woman, Ajoke Bello, was delivered of six children in February this year. The woman died a day after the delivery, while only three of the babies survived.

Reacting to the Tunisian woman‘s pregnancy, the Medical Director of St. Ives Hospital, Ikeja Lagos, Dr. Tunde Okewale and a consultant gynaecologist, Dr. Femi Oloyede, said that it was fraught with dangers.

Okewale said, ”Such a pregancy can only be possible with assisted reproduction. Many foetuses must have developed. In assisted reproduction, it is unethical for any doctor to permit such multiple pregnancies.”

According to him, the woman can give birth to the babies prematurely and the pregnancy will be stressful to the mother. To ensure the survival of the babies, he said that there must be a well-equipped intensive care unit.

Also, Oloyode stated that such pregnancy could not be achieved through natural conception. ”It is fraught with many problems. There will be complications for the mother and the babies,” he said.

In Britain, fertility experts also said that although it was possible to conceive 12 babies, such a pregnancy was fraught with risk.

A fellow of Britain‘s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Peter Bowen-Simpkins, said, ”It is certainly possible to carry 12 babies, but not for long. The problem is the capacity of the uterus. This woman is going to be enormous by 20 weeks. And when the uterus goes into labour, there‘s nothing you can do about it.

”The youngest that babies have survived is at 22 to 23 weeks. They need intensive nursing and (most) have permanent neurological damage. You‘d need a very good intensive paediatric unit to cope with this.”

“We can‘t do it in (Britain), we don‘t have a unit with 12 intensive care cots.

”I don‘t like to dampen her enthusiasm, but the chances are she will deliver at 20 weeks. I wouldn‘t even give her a one in 100 chance of even one surviving. It‘s frightening.”

Meanwhile, security has been tightened around the woman while a lawyer has been hired to deal with the media.

The Echourouk newspaper in Tunisia reported that the woman, identified only by her initials of A.F, “is doing well and so are her future babies.”

According to her husband, “She is very happy and is anxiously waiting to see all 12 bouncing healthy babies in her hands.”

Health officials and social workers in Tunisia have already announced their intention to get involved in the case, the Essabah daily said.

Palin says Obama's health care plan is 'evil'

news.yahoo.com
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama's health plan "downright evil" Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a "death panel" that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

"Who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course," the former vice Republican presidential candidate wrote on her Facebook page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters.

















Palin Pointing Fingers Again
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote.

An e-mail sent to Palin's spokeswoman to confirm authorship was not immediately returned Friday.

Obama, a Democrat, campaigned on a promise of offering affordable health care to all Americans. He has proposed a system that would include government and private insurers.

Republicans say that private insurers would be unable to compete, leaving the country with only a government-run health program. They warn that could leave Americans with little control over their health care.

Republican criticism has included claims that the reform plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have. However, millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover.

Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.

In the posting, Palin encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate. "Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back," Palin wrote.

"Let's stop and think and make our voices heard before it's too late," the posting said.

Palin resigned as Alaska governor on July 26 with nearly 18 months left in her term. She cited not only the numerous ethics complaints that had been filed against her also her wish not to be a lame duck after the first-term governor decided not to seek re-election next year.

Palin, popular with conservatives in the Republican party, has said she wants to build a right-of-center coalition, and there is speculation she will seek the presidency in 2012. In the two weeks since she resigned, Palin has made only one public appearance, giving a Second Amendment rights speech last Saturday before a gun owners group in Anchorage.

Palin also has been largely silent before Friday's post. She was a voracious user of the social networking site Twitter, and promised to keep her supporters updated with a new private account after she left office. But that hasn't happened, leaving some of her fans begging for updates in the past two weeks.