The Secret World of Home Haunters | Vancouver Weekly

The America Scream - A Netflix Review

Halloween has always been one of my favourite holidays. As a child, my sister and I would join forces with the girl across the street, and the three of us, with our fathers in tow, would traverse the dark and chilled neighbourhood. Pumpkin smoke, dressing up, spooky noises, candy overloads, I loved it all. But the thing I loved the most was being terrified of the brown house halfway down the block. This house went to town adding black lights, cobwebs and to top it off, a figure that would haunt my nightmares for years to come: an enormous Frankenstein?s monster figurine that stood guard by the door. It?s ghastly groans were enough to stop me from climbing the stairs; all I could do was look in horror, deciding that the candy wasn?t worth it. Looking back, this house wasn?t anything like some of the haunted houses I?ve seen since, but it went above and beyond what was in my neighbourhood, and made an impact such that I can remember it now, over 20 years later. Evidently people like this are known as ?home haunters?, a term I recently picked up watching The American Scream. Directed by Michael Paul Stephenson, infamous for his lead role in the film Troll 2, The American Scream is a documentary that follows three families of home haunters as they prepare for Halloween in the suburb of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. All three groups have their own different family dynamics and ideas of what makes a scary Halloween display. Their bonds with family and community, and their passions for their craft make this film a very enjoyable experience.

We are first introduced to Victor Bariteau, a systems administrator whose favourite holiday is Halloween. He spends the entire year building new props for his haunted house and dreams of going pro. Although his family supports his ambitions, his oldest daughter is the only one who comes close to her father?s passion. Tina, Victor?s wife, pitches in to make costumes and help with preparations, but she seems exasperated with his hobby, which is slowly growing to consume all available space in their small home. Victor?s dedication to his work is notable, and he is always trying to outdo himself, building up his props each year. He looks to expand his knowledge by listening to Hauntcast (?radio for haunters and Halloween fanatics?) and going to Hauntcon, a convention for home haunters who are looking to up their game by attending panels and workshops lead by pros and purchasing new props on the trade floor. In this way, Victor stands in stark contrast to the other two families featured in the film. Unlike them, Victor seems to be gaining a lot more personally by growing his passion, rather than doing it mainly to bond with his family.

We are also introduced to Manny Souza, and Rick and Matthew Broeder, all of whom live in the neighbourhood. Manny is a family man whose Halloween attraction is an intricate collection of creepy found objects. His children love helping set up, and his wife is sure to get friends and family involved. Manny admits that family is everything to him, and he?ll keep doing the haunted house for as long as he can because it gives him more time to bond with his children. This is the same for Rick and Matt Broeder, a father and son duo who spend large amounts of time with each other. Matt admits that his father is his best friend, and the two bond together building props for their haunted house. Matt, an award-winning amateur clown who proudly displays his trophies and plaques, also find home haunting an excellent artistic outlet. What Rick and Matthew may lack in artistry they make up for in ridiculous banter that gave this film a comedic edge.

The American Scream is wonderfully constructed. We meet not just the haunters but their families too. The film relies on interviews with family members to open a window into personal histories and of course, everyone?s opinion about their haunted house. The film is very entertaining but at other times it?s sad. Neither Manny nor Rick is in very good health, though thankfully they both have their family to support them. Victor too seems to be so focused on his dreams that he ignores all else around him, losing himself in his craft and burning himself out. His family is very understanding, but the film portrays them as ignoring their own needs and desires.

Many people write off Halloween as a children?s holiday, but these home haunters believe that it?s a time to bring people together. I felt all warm and fuzzy watching this movie, something that?s perhaps unexpected for a film titled The American Scream. This is a documentary with heart that peers into its subject?s successes, failures, troubles and most importantly their connections with their family and the greater community.

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What's Your Earliest Memory of Using a Computer?

We all use computers every day, but at some moment in each of our lives, there was that first meeting. A first interface, if you will. You might not remember the real first time you used a computer, but there's got to be one shining gem of nostalgia that sticks out in your mind. What is it? When you look back on it now, is it laughable or just plain awesome? What was your first time like? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/kmW72Qb5nks/whats-your-earliest-memory-of-using-a-computer

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In-app purchases now account for a staggering 76% of App Store revenue according to report

Love them or hate them, in-app purchases look here to stay. According to a report from Distimo, in-app purchases now account for a staggering 76% of App Store revenue as of February 2013. This has seen a huge increase since January 2012, where in-app purchases accounted for just 53% of revenue.

In-app purchases (IAP) now generate the majority of the revenue in the app stores. This has been the case for some time now, and it continues to rise. In-app purchases generated only 53% of revenue in the Apple App Store for iPhone in January 2012 in the U.S., but generated a record 76% in February 2013 clearly demonstrating the success of this monetization method.

The report goes on to examine ARP (average revenue per download) and it makes interesting reading too. The average for free apps that offer in-app purchase came in at $0.93 per app, straight forward paid apps came in at $2.25 but taking the prize, paid apps with in-app purchases with an ARP of around $2.40. The average cost of all apps for the iPhone is just $0.99.

Another interesting point to note from the report is that Japan is way out in front when it comes to in-app purchases. The United States, United Kingdom and Germany are all reasonably level but Japan shows more than double the amount of in-app purchases compared to the others.

You can read the full report over at Distimo and also view graphs showing all of the information that it has collated. Love them or hate them, in-app purchases look set to play a major part in apps now and in the future.

How do you feel about the in-app purrchase model?

Source: Distimo

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Healthy Brunch Tips: Avoid Mistakes During The Celebratory Morning Meal

As many of us celebrate Easter with a festive brunch, we may find ourselves staring down a monster buffet table. What should you grab? When is it okay to indulge and what constitutes a major diet setback? We asked our favorite nutrition experts to outline their absolute brunching don'ts as we head into the holiday.

What's your strategy for eating healthfully at brunch? Tell us in the comments!

1. Brunching In The First Place

"Honestly, the biggest mistake is going to brunches at all," says Ruth Frechman, M.A., R.D., C.P.T. "It?s calorie suicide. Typically, brunches are expensive. Most people want to get their money's worth. They could easily consume 4,000 calories in one meal. The average person only needs 2,000 calories for the entire day."

2. Choosing Sweet Over Savory

This is the central question of brunch: Do you go sweet or savory? Pancakes or eggs? Now we have an answer: savory (but not too salty!).

"My number one brunch don't would be dishes that are practically made of pure carbs like pancakes or waffles. Because these are digested so quickly they're guaranteed to make your blood sugar spike and then plummet," says Karen Ansel, R.D. "While you might feel fine for a while you're inevitably going to get that carb coma feeling a couple of hours later. Adding sugary maple syrup to these only adds insult to injury. Instead pick something that's more balanced with a combination of protein, complex carbs (preferably from whole grains) and some healthy fat like huevos rancheros with avocado."

3. Confusing Brunch and Breakfast

"One of the biggest mistakes people make, they do before they even get to brunch. And that's not eating anything at all," says Rachel Begun, M.S., R.D., registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "You need calories to burn calories, meaning you need to eat food to get the metabolism going. If you wait until late morning or early afternoon to eat something, your metabolism is sluggish and not operating at maximum capacity. Plus, going to brunch starving is a recipe for overeating."

Joy Dubost, Ph.D R.D. C.S.S.D. agrees: "We may think because we are combining two meals we can [eat more]," she says. "But if you are not careful on choices and portion-size, brunch can quickly exceed calories consumed in two separate meals."

Instead, try to have a healthful snack in the morning before you head out the door -- something that combines fiber and protein, like low-fat cheese with an apple or yogurt with berries and slivered almonds.

4. Ordering From The Drink Menu

Alcoholic brunch drinks like bloody marys and "adult" coffee drinks are an easy way to go overboard on the calories without even realizing it. "Consuming multiple beverages, particularly those that are higher in calories, can end up being a high calorie meal on its own," explains Dubost. "I would recommend keeping it to one 12-ounce beverage. For lighter options you may want to choose mimosas or wine spritzers."

5. Beware Customizable Options

We're looking at you, omelet bar. The egg base might be just fine, but add enough meats and cheeses and you've got a calorie bomb on your hands.

"Many dishes can be higher in calories because we load them with numerous ingredients," says Dubost. "Try to keep it more basic or include various flavorful vegetables."

6. Thinking About Calories, Fat ... But Not Sodium

Between the bloody mary mix, hollandaise sauce and hash browns, brunch can amount to a salt lick. And while you might choose egg whites for your omelet and salad on the side, it won't do much to lower the sodium of your meal. That means you can easily surpass the government's daily recommendation of 2,300 mg within a matter of bites.

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/healthy-brunch-tips-mistakes_n_2980091.html

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'Facebook phone' likely to put social network at front of Android

Rosa Golijan , NBC News ? ? ? 1 day

"Come See Our New Home on Android," the invitation sent to members of the press on Thursday declared. Does this mean the long-rumored Facebook phone is about to become official? What is the social network's next move? And does it stand a chance?

Facebook is intending to introduce a modified version of Google's Android operating system, according to sourcing from TechCrunch's Josh Constine, the New York Times' Nick Bilton and Brian X. Chen, and the Wall Street Journal's Evelyn M. Rusli and Amir Efrati. This version of Android will put Facebook front and center and "will debut on a handset made by HTC, according to a Facebook employee and another person who were briefed on the announcement," Chen and Bilton explain.

"Imagine Facebook?s integration with iOS 6, but on steroids, and built by Facebook itself," Constine adds. "It could have a heavy reliance on Facebook?s native apps like Messenger, easy social sharing from anywhere on the phone, and more."

?It?s putting Facebook first,? a person familiar with the matter emphasized to Wall Street Journal reporters. But unlike competitors such as Amazon and Google, it is not putting Facebook itself into the hardware game.

"With Amazon, it's pretty clear," mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma told NBC News. "They want to sell their content and services. They're building their own devices, which is different from what Facebook is doing."

However, the idea of a modified version of Android may be viewed as an act of hostility directed at Facebook's frenemy, Google.

"The reaction from Google will be interesting to see," Sharma pointed out. "There's obviously overlap ... It seems to Google that it's underpinning their Google+ efforts. Longer term, I don't see them letting it go and letting other people do their work."

But even if Google lets Facebook's plans fly, there are other issues to consider, Sharma says. "If it's just a phone that's going to be pushed by HTC, its chances are going to be limited," he explains. "[HTC] doesn't have the marketing powers." To truly stand a shot, Facebook needs to join hands with carriers.

Of course, some might wonder whether any carriers would be game. After all, Facebook's VoIP efforts and its baked-in Messenger service might conflict with carriers' business agendas, right?

Not necessarily so, says Sharma. "In certain markets [VoIP and Messenger] would be challenging," he elaborates. "In markets where unlimited voice and messaging is already bundled in ? in those scenarios operators have less resistance to the idea. They already make money on voice and messaging and they'll also make money on the data used by Facebook."

Initial whispers don't suggest that "Facebook Home," as the social network's device/software combo is expected to be named, is going to be pitched by any carriers, so we'll have to see how things fare with merely HTC. (Of course, that's assuming all these rumors and reports pan out.)

Things will be official on Thursday, April 4, and we'll be in Menlo Park, Calif., to report live.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

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Kenyan Supreme Court upholds election result

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Kenya's Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president and the loser accepted that verdict, ending an election season that riveted the nation with fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 postelection violence.

Jubilant Kenyatta supporters flooded the streets of downtown Nairobi, honking horns, blowing plastic noisemakers and chanting.

But supporters of defeated Prime Minister Raila Odinga angrily protested after the verdict and police fired tear gas at them outside the Supreme Court as well as in the lakeside city of Kisumu, Odinga's hometown.

Two young men participating in riots were fatally shot in Kisumu, police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi told The Associated Press, although it was not clear by whom, and residents there said they could hear gunshots late in the night.

Outbreaks of violence by Odinga supporters were also reported in some Nairobi slums and truckloads of police were called in to quell the demonstrations, according to reports on a police radio heard by an Associated Press reporter.

In a victory speech late Saturday, Kenyatta urged Kenyans to move past the election and pledged to "work with, and serve, all Kenyans without discrimination whatsoever."

"Above all, let us continue to pray for peace in our country," he said.

Odinga, who had challenged the election results, accepted the court ruling and urged national unity and peace.

"It is our view that this court process is another long road in our march toward democracy, for which we have long fought," he said. "The future of Kenya is bright. Let us not allow elections to divide us."

However, Odinga said it was unfortunate that some of his legal team's evidence had been disallowed by the court. This, he said after the court's verdict, means that "in the end Kenyans lost the right to know what indeed happened" in the counting of votes.

"Although we may not agree with some of its findings, and despite all the anomalies we have pointed out, our belief in constitutionalism remains supreme," he said. "Casting doubt on the judgment of the court could lead to higher political and economic uncertainty, and make it more difficult for our country to move forward."

Odinga wished Kenyatta success and said he hopes the incoming government "will have fidelity to our constitution, and implement it to the letter for the betterment of our people."

Saturday's Supreme Court verdict ? following a drawn-out court case that raised tensions across the nation ? means that Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president, is to be sworn in as president on April 9. He will become the second sitting president in Africa to face charges at the International Criminal Court.

Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto both face charges that they helped orchestrate the 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died. Both deny the charges. Ruto's trial is set to begin in late May; Kenyatta's is to start in July. Kenyatta has promised to report to The Hague.

Kenyatta's win may complicate the U.S. relationship with Kenya, which has the largest American embassy in Africa. Because of the ICC charges against Kenyatta, the U.S, Britain and other European countries have said they may have limited contact with Kenya's new president.

But Western powers can't completely sever the relationship. Kenya is a key component in the fight against the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab. Additionally, as East Africa's largest economy, China is strongly courting Kenya's leaders, and the West will be loath to lose economic influence here.

The office of British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose government did not congratulate Kenyatta by name after he was declared the winner, said in a statement that Cameron wrote to Kenyatta on Saturday to note "his strong commitment to the partnership that exists between Kenya and the U.K." The statement said "the Kenyan people had made their sovereign choice" in electing Kenyatta.

The White House congratulated Kenyatta in a statement, which urged Kenyans "to peacefully accept the results of the election."

Lawyers for Odinga, the loser in Kenya's last two elections, had argued before the Supreme Court that the election was marred by irregularities and that Kenyatta did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff election. According to official results, Kenyatta won 50.07 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff election against Odinga, who said his case before the Supreme Court would put Kenya's democracy on trial.

But the Supreme Court's unanimous decision, read out by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, said the election was "conducted in compliance with the constitution and the law" and that Kenyatta and Ruto were legally elected.

"It is the decision of the court that (Kenyatta and Ruto) were validly elected," the ruling said. The reasons behind the judges' decision were not given Saturday. The chief justice said a detailed judgment would be delivered within two weeks.

Unlike after the 2007 election, which degenerated into tribe-on-tribe violence that damaged Kenya's reputation as a stable country, this time Odinga said he had faith in the judiciary's ability to give him a fair hearing.

The court's ruling ended days of anxiety since March 9, when Kenyatta was declared the winner of the March 4 vote that many described as the most complex in Kenya's history. More than 12 million Kenyans participated in the election. Some observers had expected a low registration of voters because of apathy following the 2007-08 violence, but campaigns by Kenyatta, Odinga and other presidential candidates led to the highest registration in the country ever. Kenya's electoral commission registered 14.3 million people.

Election day, though, did not go as planned. An electronic voter ID system intended to prevent fraud failed for reasons yet to be explained by the electoral commission. Vote officials instead used manual voter rolls.

After the polls closed, results were to be sent electronically to Nairobi, where officials would quickly tabulate a preliminary vote count in order to maximize transparency after rigging accusations following the 2007 vote. But that system failed, too. Election officials have indicated that computer servers were overloaded but have yet to fully explain the problem.

As the early count system was still being used, election results showed more than 330,000 rejected ballots, an unusually high number. But after the count resumed with the arrival in Nairobi of manual tallies, the number of rejected ballots was greatly reduced, and the election commission said the computer was mistakenly multiplying the number of rejected ballots by a factor of eight.

Odinga's lawyers told the Supreme Court this week that the switch from electronic voter identification to manual voter roll was contrived to allow inflation of Kenyatta's votes to take him past the 50 percent threshold. That accusation was vehemently denied by the electoral commission and Kenyatta's legal team.

___

Associated Press reporters Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Jason Straziuso in Mombasa, Kenya, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenyan-supreme-court-upholds-election-result-164134832.html

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Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard Welcome a Baby Girl!

The Veronica Mars star and Parenthood actor welcome their daughter to the world! Plus, see more stars who welcomed new bundles of joy.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/celebrity-babies-2013/1-b-16266?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Acelebrity-babies-2013-16266

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SoundHound now scavenging tunes in more tablet-friendly Android version

If you've ever had an earworm you just can't put a name to, the SoundHound music recognition app -- that even translates your humming -- can be just the sorcery you need. There's now an Android version with a more tablet-centric design and tighter Google integration that brings "streamlined sharing to Facebook, Twitter and more," according to the company. It also trumpeted a stronger relationship with digital music service Rdio, which added interactive music mapping to its SoundHounded track-linking abilities, letting you see others across the globe with the same musical tastes and bad memory. You can grab it at Google Play or Amazon's Appstore for Kindle, but if you're as tone deaf as some of us, don't forget the auto-tune.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/29/soundhound-reveals-new-rdio-and-tablet-friendly-android-update/

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Parkinson's disease protein gums up garbage disposal system in cells

Friday, March 29, 2013

Clumps of ?-synuclein protein in nerve cells are hallmarks of many degenerative brain diseases, most notably Parkinson's disease.

"No one has been able to determine if Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, hallmark pathologies in Parkinson's disease can be degraded," says Virginia Lee, PhD, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

"With the new neuron model system of Parkinson's disease pathologies our lab has developed recently, we demonstrated that these aberrant clumps in cells resist degradation as well as impair the function of the macroautophagy system, one of the major garbage disposal systems within the cell."

Macroautophagy, literally self eating, is the degradation of unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular bits and pieces by a compartment in the cell called the lysosome.

Lee, also a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and colleagues published their results in the early online edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry this week.

Alpha-synuclein (?-syn ) diseases all have clumps of the protein and include Parkinson's disease (PD), and array of related disorders: PD with dementia , dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. In most of these, ?-syn forms insoluble aggregates of stringy fibrils that accumulate in the cell body and extensions of neurons.

These unwanted ?-syn clumps are modified by abnormal attachments of many phosphate chemical groups as well as by the protein ubiquitin, a molecular tag for degradation. They are widely distributed in the central nervous system, where they are associated with neuron loss.

Using cell models in which intracellular ?-syn clumps accumulate after taking up synthetic ?-syn fibrils, the team showed that ?-syn inclusions cannot be degraded, even though they are located near the lysosome and the proteasome, another type of garbage disposal in the cell.

The ?-syn aggregates persist even after soluble ?-syn levels within the cell are substantially reduced, suggesting that once formed, the ?-syn inclusions are resistant to being cleared. What's more, they found that ?-syn aggregates impair the overall autophagy degradative process by delaying the maturation of autophagy machines known as autophagosomes, which may contribute to the increased cell death seen in clump-filled nerve cells. Understanding the impact of ?-syn aggregates on autophagy may help elucidate therapies for ?-syn-related neurodegeneration.

###

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Diapers of tomorrow may be a real gas

Berkskoetter lab / Brown University

Acrylate, a chemical found in diapers, can be made from CO2 and ethylene gas. The reaction forms a five-membered ring that must be cracked open so a carbon double bond can form.

By Tanya Lewis
LiveScience

A chemical found in diapers and other materials could be made more cheaply and sustainably from carbon dioxide, research shows.

Each year, companies produce billions of tons of the chemical known as acrylate, which is used to make the superabsorbent material that lines polyester fabrics and?diapers.?The polymer it forms is one of the components in diapers, along with the polyethylene in their outer layer,?that makes them resist degradation in landfills. Companies usually make acrylate by heating propylene, a chemical found in crude oil. Now, researchers have developed a way to produce the chemical using carbon dioxide and a strong acid.

"What we're interested in is enhancing both the economics and the sustainability of how acrylate is made," chemist Wesley Bernskoetter of Brown University, who led the study, said in a statement. The research was published in the journal?Organometallics. "Right now, everything that goes into making it is from relatively expensive, nonrenewable carbon sources."

Scientists have been working on alternative ways to produce the diaper chemical since the 1980s, for instance by mixing carbon dioxide gas with ethylene gas using a metal catalyst like nickel. The planet certainly has no shortage of carbon dioxide, and ethylene can be made from plant biomass (and is cheaper than propylene).

Ethylene and carbon dioxide undergo a chemical reaction?to form a molecule with a five-atom ring of oxygen, nickel and three carbon atoms. To form acrylate, this ring must be broken so that a double bond can form between two of the carbon atoms, a process known as elimination.

Breaking open that ring has proven challenging. But Bernskoetter and colleagues found that chemicals known as Lewis acids can crack this ring open by stealing electrons away from the bond between nickel and oxygen. Using this method, the researchers were able to quickly slice open the ring to produce acrylate.

The process could ultimately be scaled up to produce acrylate in an industrial setting, Bernskoetter said. The next step will be adjusting the strength of the Lewis acid. As a proof of concept, the researchers used the strongest acid possible, one made from boron. This acid cannot be used in a repeatable process, however, because it bonds to the acrylate.

Bernskoetter is optimistic about finding an acid that will work, because Lewis acids come in a wide array of strengths.

The payoff for developing a successful new method of creating acrylate could be big, Bernskoetter said. "It's around a $2 billion-a-year industry," he said. "If we can find a way to make acrylate more cheaply, we think the industry will be interested."

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Court turns away class action against Comcast

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned away a class action lawsuit against cable provider Comcast Corp., in a decision that could make it harder to file those types of lawsuits in federal court.

The high court on Wednesday overturned a lower court decision to certify as a class customers who say the company's monopoly in parts of the Philadelphia area allowed it to raise prices unfairly.

Justice Antonin Scalia said in a 5-4 decision the customers need to be able to show that they can tie a single theory of how they were harmed to a specific calculation of damages for class certification. The Comcast subscribers had a model that would have shown damages, but it showed $875 million of damages done under four different theories.

Only one of their theories was accepted by the lower courts, so there is no showing of how much in damages was attributable to that theory, Scalia said.

"It is clear that, under the proper standard for evaluating certification, respondents' model falls far short of establishing that damages are capable of measurement on a classwide basis," said Scalia, who was joined in his opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissent jointly for themselves, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. In an unusual move, Breyer and Ginsburg read parts aloud in the courtroom.

First, they said that the court's majority rewrote the question being argued, meaning the issue was "infected by our misguided reformulation." They also said that Comcast had argued in lower courts that the other theories offered up by the Philadelphia area subscribers had no effect on prices, meaning that the damages from the model "must have stemmed exclusively" from the only theory accepted by the lower court.

Breyer and Ginsburg argued that the court's decision would not change class action lawsuit rules. "The court's ruling is good for this day and case only," Breyer and Ginsburg said in the opinion.

But others say this will make it more difficult to file class actions.

The court's decision "reinforces that courts can't rubber stamp proposed class actions without first taking a hard look at the plaintiffs' claims," said Kate Todd, a lawyer at the National Chamber Litigation Center. "The reality is that frivolous class actions impose unjustified litigation and settlement costs on businesses that are passed on to consumers. Today's decision is a victory in the effort to curb class action abuse."

Raul Zermeno, a lawyer with Fisher & Phillips, a labor and employment law firm that represents management, agreed. "The decision in Comcast v. Behrend will significantly impact the future of employment-related class-action lawsuits nationwide," Zermeno said. "The court held that a plaintiff must introduce evidentiary proof to show that the case is susceptible to awarding damages on a class-wide basis, before class-action status is granted."

The decision is the latest in several Supreme Court rulings on class action lawsuits, which increase pressure on businesses to settle suits because of the cost of defending them and the potential for very large judgments.

In 2011, the Supreme Court raised the bar for some class-action suits when it sided with Wal-Mart against up to 1.6 million of its female employees who complained of sex discrimination. In the Wal-Mart case, the court said there were too many women in too many jobs at the nation's largest private employer to wrap into one lawsuit.

The case is Comcast v. Behrend, 11-864.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-27-Supreme%20Court-Comcast/id-44757f7e21b54fceb82a16cacbf0afac

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Study finds anti-smoking drug improves smokers' chances of stopping

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Smokers have a higher probability of quitting smoking and a better overall cessation experience when taking varenicline compared to bupropion and to placebo ? unmedicated assisted smoking cessation ?according to a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

A team led by Paul Cinciripini, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Behavioral Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, investigated the relative efficacy of varenicline and bupropion ? both popular anti-smoking drugs on the market ? plus intensive counseling to assess the drugs' effects on smoking-cessation and emotional functioning while quitting.

"National surveys show that about 20 percent of adults continue to smoke, but it's disproportionally high among people in low socioeconomic populations and those with mental illness," said Cinciripini. "When smokers try to quit, many are likely to experience a range of nicotine withdrawal symptoms, including negative mood, difficulty concentrating, irritability and even depressive symptoms making quitting difficult and increases the chances of relapse."

"Our findings suggest that smokers trying to quit will have a better experience with varenicline as opposed to trying to quit on their own or by taking bupropion," Cinciripini said. "The more we can reduce these negative symptoms associated with quitting the better experience of the smoker and this may mean that even if they don't quit this time, they will be encouraged to try again."

In this study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, scientists examined data from 294 smokers who were trying to quit. The participants were randomized into one of three groups; varenicline, bupropion or placebo. QuitRx participants were assessed throughout the 12-week medication portion of the program, and also three and six months after quitting.

The researchers used four different measurements of abstinence and found that only varenicline significantly improved abstinence rates by all measures at all time periods compared with placebo, which is consistent with results from large phase 3 clinical trials with this medication. Varenicline consistently outperformed buproprion, but unlike the placebo comparisons did not reach statistical significance because of small sample size.

All participants received extensive smoking cessation counseling via QuitRx and were assessed for nicotine withdrawal and emotional functioning every week during treatment, using the Wisconsin Smoking Withdrawal Scale (WSWS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). In the QuitRx program, scientists investigated the effects of medication alone, abstinence alone and the combination of the two on each of these measures, specifically evaluating symptoms of depression, negative affect ? a person's mood? and other symptoms of nicotine withdrawal including craving.

Better mood, less anxiety for smokers

When measuring the effects of abstinence alone on emotional functioning, the study found that regardless of which medication the smoker received, people who were able to abstain from smoking had lower scores for overall negative affect, anxiety and sadness but also showed higher positive affect.

"This is a very interesting finding in that it suggests smoking itself may not be a very good anti-depressant," said Cinciripini, director of MD Anderson's Tobacco Treatment Program. "It also suggests that those who were able to abstain from smoking will ultimately feel better than those who continue to smoke."

The study also found that compared to the non-abstainers, abstainers using either bupropion or varenicline experienced lower levels of sadness, but in terms of overall depressive symptoms the varenicline group fared much better. For those taking varenicline, both abstainers and non-abstainers were less depressed. "This is especially intriguing given the post-marketing data with varenicline that suggests that it may worsen depressive symptoms," said Cinciripini. "More research is needed to look carefully at smokers with current psychiatric illness taking varenicline, since they were not included in this research study."

Suppressing other withdrawal symptoms

Smokers are also subject to other withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit including loss of concentration and craving for tobacco. In this study, both drugs reduced craving relative to placebo, however varenicline showed lower levels of craving even among those who did not quit fully.

Findings also indicate that when compared with bupropion, only varenicline reduced the psychological reward, or pleasure derived from smoking, when measured among those who initially lapsed, while trying to retain abstinence during the program.

Cinciripini noted that this is significant because varenicline which is thought to partially stimulate dopamine ? the neurotransmitter associated with reward that lessens overall withdrawal symptoms ? also supports another suggested mechanism of action that involves binding the nicotine receptor for a longer period of time.

He explains the net effect of lower withdrawal and psychological reward improves the overall odds of cessation success, which is consistent with other research. "The difference in our study was that this took place against a background of intense counseling suggesting that varenicline can even be of benefit in those situations as well as low counseling intensity environments."

"It is evident from the findings that varenicline is hitting many more affective targets, in comparison to bupropion or placebo, and there is a distinct benefit of these effects on cessation even among those who do not fully abstain," said Cinciripini.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127487/Study_finds_anti_smoking_drug_improves_smokers__chances_of_stopping

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Why A Hoosier State Scientist Is Stuck On Oysters

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/28/175550939/why-a-hoosier-state-scientist-is-stuck-on-oysters?ft=1&f=1007

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?DOMA is in trouble? (quick read of Supreme Court arguments today) (Americablog)

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Poll: 53% of Americans support same-sex marriage (cbsnews)

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John Kerry in Afghanistan on heels of President Karzai's U.S.-bashing

KABUL U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has flown into Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to see President Hamid Karzai amid concerns the Afghan president may be jeopardizing progress in the war against extremism with anti-American rhetoric.

Kerry arrived in the Afghan capital on Monday for a 24-hour visit and was to meet Karzai, civic leaders and others to discuss continued U.S. assistance to the country. His visit coincides with the handover of a major detention center to Afghan officials.

It also comes as Karzai has infuriated U.S. officials by accusing Washington of colluding with Taliban insurgents to keep Afghanistan weak even as the Obama administration presses ahead with plans to hand off security responsibility to Afghan forces and end NATO's combat mission by the end of next year.

CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan reports that Kerry met Sunday night with a top Pakistani general, with whom he discussed how Pakistan can help ease the U.S. transition to Afghan security forces.

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The changing U.S., Afghanistan relationship

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Hagel denies Karzai claims that U.S. working with Taliban

Karzai irked Washington in early March with a suggestion that U.S. troops had acted in concert with Taliban militants to keep his own leadership weak -- a charge flatly denied by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who happened to be visiting Afghanistan when it was made.

The U.S. military gave control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan to Kabul, meanwhile, a year after the two sides initially agreed on the transfer.

The Monday handover of Parwan Detention Facility ends a bitter chapter in American relations with Afghanistan's mercurial president Karzai, who demanded control of the prison as a matter of national sovereignty.

The dispute threw a pall over the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford handed over Parwan, located near the U.S.-run Bagram military base north of Kabul, at a ceremony there after signing an agreement with Afghan Defense Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi.

"The transfer of the detention facility is an important part of the overall transition of security lead to Afghan National Security Forces. This ceremony highlights an increasingly confident, capable, and sovereign Afghanistan," Dunford said.

An initial agreement to hand over Parwan was signed a year ago, but efforts to follow through on it constantly stumbled over American concerns that the Afghan government would release prisoners that it considered dangerous.

A key hurdle was a ruling by an Afghan judicial panel holding that administrative detention, the practice of holding someone without formal charges, violated the country's laws. The U.S. argued that international law allowed administrative detentions and also argued that it could not risk the passage of some high-value detainees to the notoriously corrupt Afghan court system.

1/2

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Fruit flies fed organic diets are healthier than flies fed nonorganic diets, study finds

Mar. 26, 2013 ? A new study looking at the potential health benefits of organic versus non-organic food found that fruit flies fed an organic diet recorded better health outcomes than flies fed a nonorganic diet.

The study from the lab of SMU biologist Johannes H. Bauer, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, found that fruit flies raised on diets of organic foods performed better on several tests for general health.

"While these findings are certainly intriguing, what we now need to determine is why the flies on the organic diets did better, especially since not all the organic diets we tested provided the same positive health outcomes," said Bauer, principal investigator for the study.

Fruit flies on organic diets showed improvements on the most significant measures of health, namely fertility and longevity, said high school student researcher Ria Chhabra.

"We don't know why the flies on the organic diet did better. That will require further research. But this is a start toward understanding potential health benefits," said Chhabra, a student at Clark High School in Plano, Texas, who led the experiment.

Chhabra sought to conduct the experiments after hearing her parents discuss whether it's worth it to buy organic foods to achieve possible health benefits.

Bauer, an assistant professor in SMU's Department of Biological Sciences, mentored Chhabra by helping guide and design her research experiments. The research focus of Bauer's fruit fly lab is nutrition and its relationship to longevity, health and diabetes.

"It's rare for a high school student to have such a prominent position in the lab. But Ria has tremendous energy and curiosity, and that convinced me to give this research project a try," Bauer said.

The findings, "Organically grown food provides health benefits to Drosophila melanogaster," have been published in the open access journal PLOS One. Buaer and Chhabra co-authored the paper with Santharam Kolli, a research associate at SMU.

Flies on organic food performed better on some health tests

"The data demonstrated that flies raised on organic food extracts by-and-large performed better on the majority of health tests," reported the researchers.

It remains unclear why organic diets delivered better health, the researchers said.

The Bauer lab results come at a time when the health effects of organic food are widely debated.

Prior studies by other researchers have found conflicting results when reviewing the scientific literature for data. While several studies have shown elevated nutrient content and lower pesticide contamination levels in organic food, a recent publication reporting a large-scale analysis of all available studies concluded no clear trend was apparent.

Fruit flies were fed extracts from produce purchased at a grocery store

In order to investigate whether organic foods are healthier for consumers, the lab utilized one of the most widely used model systems, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Because of the low costs associated with fly research and the fly's short life cycle, researchers use fruit flies to study human diseases, from diabetes to heart function to Alzheimer's disease.

The Bauer lab fruit flies were fed organic and nonorganic produce purchased from a leading national grocery retailer of organic and conventional foods. The flies were fed extracts made from organic and conventional potatoes, soybeans, raisins and bananas. They were not fed any additional nutritional supplements. The researchers tested the effects of each food type independently and avoided any confounding effects of a mixed diet.

The health tests measured longevity, fertility, stress and starvation resistance.

Findings suggest beneficial health effects dependent on specific foods

Some negative or neutral results were obtained using diets prepared from organic raisins, which suggests the beneficial health effects of organic diets are dependent on the specific food item, Bauer said. That might explain some of the inconsistent results in the published studies in the scientific literature, he said, noting some studies suggest there is a nutritional benefit from organic food, while others suggest there is not.

"To our surprise, in the majority of our tests of flies on organic foods, the flies fed organic diets did much better on our health tests than the flies fed conventional food," Bauer said. "Longevity and fertility are the two most important aspects of fly life. On both of these tests, flies fed organic diets performed much better than flies fed conventional diets. They lived longer, had higher fertility, and had a much higher lifetime reproductive output."

Factors such as soil condition and latitude where the produce was grown weren't considered, mimicking a typical grocery store shopping experience.?

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Southern Methodist University. The original article was written by Margaret Allen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ria Chhabra, Santharam Kolli, Johannes H. Bauer. Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits to Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e52988 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052988

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/xdeiKpzalhY/130326121732.htm

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Toy Poodle Looks Just Like A Teddy Bear (PHOTO)

This puppy's doppelganger is a teddy bear.

Ergo, there is officially no better way to end a Monday.

Redditor vodkamort posted the photo to the site's aww subreddit today. We've inferred that this dog is a toy poodle and that his name is Jett.

We would like a Jett, too, please.

Also on HuffPost:

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Apple Acquires Indoor GPS Startup WiFiSlam For $20M

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Apple has acquired WiFiSlam, an indoor GPS startup that enables smartphones to pinpoint its location -- along with that of your friends -- in realtime up to 2.5 meters in accuracy.

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Can Lactose Intolerance Be Cured? - Shape

Cheese, ice cream, Greek yogurt?so many of women's favorite foods can't be enjoyed by those who are lactose intolerant?or so we've been told. But a group of researchers says those with the condition may be able to have their ice cream cake and eat it too.

The 14-member panel at the Development Conference on Lactose Intolerance and Health concluded that diagnosing lactose intolerance isn't as simple as it sounds: Many people lacking the digestive enzymes necessary to digest dairy tolerate the foods just fine, while some who have problems with dairy produce plenty of enzymes.

Even better, they say that "avoiding dairy products isn't even necessary for lactose-intolerant individuals." Instead, they may be able to eat dairy in moderation and?get this?lactose intolerance may even be able to be cured.

Sounds crazy, but it may be true. "The key to successfully overcoming this is to not just eliminate dairy for a time but to 'heal and seal' the gut before trying it again," says Jill Brunewald, a holistic health coach and expert in treating food intolerances. Thanks to an unhealthy diet, illness, or antibiotic useage, many people suffer from "leaky gut syndrome" where the lining of the intestinal wall has thinned, thereby allowing pathogens and undigested food into the blood stream, Brunewald explains. She offers five steps for helping cure your dairy issues:

RELATED: The next time you have tummy troubles, try one of the seven foods to ease an upset stomach.

1. Identify. To figure out if dairy is the real issue, eliminate it entire for at least 21 days. Be sure to check for the bold "Contains milk" under the allergy warning to weed out sneaky sources that you may not realize have dairy in them. After the elimination period, it's time for elimination provocation. Eat a large serving of whatever type of dairy you like, such as 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup ice cream, or two ounces of cheese, and see if you experience pain, bloating, diarrhea, brain fog, skin problems, fatigue, and/or irritability within 72 hours of eating the food. If you experience any of these symptoms, move on to step 2.

2. Eliminate. This step is as simple as it is hard: Remove dairy?even minute sources like icing on a granola bar?out of your diet for a minimum of six months in order to give your body plenty of time to ?seal and heal? the intestinal lining.

3. Substitute. During the elimination period, find healthy substitutes. Brunewald likes coconut, such as coconut milk, coconut oil instead of butter, and coconut yogurt, which are gentle on your sensitive system and offer healthy medium-chain fatty acids. If coconut isn?t your thing, almond milk and goat milk are also good substitutes, but stay away from soy, as it can mess with your hormone balance.

RELATED: Whether you can stomach cow's milk, are vegan, or just want to mix things up, find the best milk for you.

4. Heal. To fix the "leaky gut," Brunewald recommends bone broth, probiotics, fish oil, apple cider vinegar, and fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, and kombucha on a daily basis. While there isn't any strict amount of the foods to take daily, she says that the more you eat, the quicker your gut will mend, as these are all high in prebiotics or probiotics, as well as other compounds that encourage a healthy immune system and intestinal function.

5. Reintroduce. After six months, baby-step your way to eating dairy again. The National Institutes of Health recommends starting with a couple of tablespoons of yogurt because it comes with digestive enzymes built in. You can also try other foods, but always start with one tablespoon and work up to two or three small servings of dairy a week, slowing adding another tablespoon every three days until you're eating a normal serving size. Depending on how severe your reaction was to lactose and how well your gut has healed, you still should eat it in moderation?which frankly is good advice even if you don't have tummy troubles.

Source: http://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/can-lactose-intolerance-be-cured

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Kerry stikes out in Baghdad (Powerlineblog)

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