Hookah smoking delivers carcinogens and carbon monoxide

Along with nicotine, user gets toxic substances from water pipes

By Nathan Seppa

Web edition: April 26, 2013

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SMOKE IN THE AIR

Compared with smoking cigarettes, using a hookah (shown) sends more carbon monoxide and carcinogens into a smoker?s body.

Credit: Aptyp_koK/Shutterstock

The tobacco and fruit mixture smoked in public hookah bars might be considerably more dangerous than its pleasant scent would suggest. An analysis of people who smoked from water pipes three times a day finds that the pipes deliver more carbon monoxide and benzene, a carcinogen, than does smoking half a pack of cigarettes daily.

In an upcoming issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers document those and several other cancer-causing compounds that showed up in urine tests of the water-pipe smokers. The research calls into question a common assumption: that hookahs are safe.

?This is a great addition to the literature,? says Thomas Eissenberg, a psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He and his colleagues had previous found toxic substances in hookah smoke. The new paper extends his findings by detecting carcinogens and other bad actors in water-pipe smokers themselves, he says.

Hookah smoking goes back hundreds of years in India, the Middle East and North Africa, but it is newer in parts of Europe and North America. The substances heated in a hookah vary. In the study, researchers used pastes chosen by the participants that were 5 to 10 percent tobacco combined with honey, molasses and bits of fruit. This paste goes in the bowl of the pipe, which is covered with a perforated piece of aluminum foil and topped with a burning piece of charcoal, says study coauthor Peyton Jacob III, a research chemist at the University of California, San Francisco. The smoker then inhales.

In the new study, 13 healthy volunteers -- all smokers who used both cigarettes and hookahs -- smoked only a hookah for four days and then, after a week with no restrictions, only cigarettes. The volunteers averaged three water pipe sessions or 11 cigarettes per day.

Urine tests revealed that the volunteers had higher benzene levels when smoking hookahs than when smoking cigarettes. Benzene inhalation is associated with leukemia and lung cancer. The volunteers? tests also showed higher levels of pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon? or PAH, when smoking the hookah. Similar amounts of the probable human carcinogen acrylamide and the PAH phenanthrene showed up during cigarette or hookah smoking. Exposure to PAHs is linked to cancer and immune problems (SN: 3/23/13, p. 19).

Using breath tests, the researchers found that levels of carbon monoxide, a poisonous, odorless gas, were 2.5 times greater in volunteers after the water-pipe sessions than after cigarette smoking. The volunteers? blood samples while smoking the water pipe showed about half as much nicotine as when smoking cigarettes, but researchers estimated that the level was enough to be addictive.

Carbon monoxide and PAHs have been traced to burning charcoal, Eissenberg says. The contributions from the incompletely combusted paste are less clear.

Water-pipe smoking delivers more smoke per puff, Eissenberg says, because the taste is sweet, the smoke is cooled, and inhaling is easier when a smoker doesn?t have to drag air through a filter or tightly packed cigarette. A 2004 study done in an upper class neighborhood in Beirut found that people take 50 to 200 puffs during a water-pipe smoking session, which lasted 20 to 80 minutes. A cigarette smoker takes eight to 12 during an average smoke, the research found.

In the U.S., three in 10 university students have tried a hookah, Eissenberg and colleagues reported in a 2008 survey. Despite the apparent risks, Eissenberg says, hookah pipes and packages of hookah paste carry no regulatory warnings.

?Many water-pipe smokers tell me they know cigarettes are dangerous,? he says. ?It?s written on the pack. They say, ?I haven?t heard anything about water pipe smoking. It must be safe.? ?

---

Suggested Reading

N. Seppa. Tracing pollution links to asthma, allergy. Science News. Volume 183, March 23, 2013, p. 19. [Go to]

B. Primack et al. Water-pipe tobacco smoking among middle and high school students in Arizona. NeoReviews. Vol. 123, Feb. 1, 2009, p. e282.?doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-1663. [Go to]

B. Primack et al. Prevalence of and associations with waterpipe tobacco smoking among U.S. university students. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Volume 36, August 2008, p. 81. doi: 10.1007/s12160-008-9047-6. [Go to]

W. Maziak et al. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control. Volume 13, December 2004, p. 327. doi:10.1136/tc.2004.008169. [Go to]

World Health Organization, ?Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research Needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators.? [Go to]

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349987/title/Hookah_smoking_delivers_carcinogens_and_carbon_monoxide

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Texas inmate shouts 'Wow' during execution

By Michael Graczyk, The Associated Press

AP

This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Richard Cobb. Cobb is set for lethal injection Thursday evening, April 25, 2013 in Huntsville, Texas for the slaying of 37-year-old Kenneth Vandever.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A Texas inmate was executed Thursday evening for fatally shooting one of three people he and a partner abducted during a convenience store robbery nearly 11 years ago.

Richard Cobb, 29, didn't deny using a 20-gauge shotgun to kill Kenneth Vandever in an East Texas field where two women also were shot and one was raped. He was convicted of capital murder.

"Life is death, death is life. I hope that someday this absurdity that humanity has come to will come to an end," Cobb said when asked if he had any last words. "Life is too short. I hope anyone that has negative energy towards me will resolve that.

"Life is too short to harbor feelings of hatred and anger. That's it, warden."

---

But that wasn't it.

Just before the lethal drug took effect and at the conclusion of his statement, Cobb twisted his head back, raised it off a pillow placed on the gurney and then toward the warden standing behind him.

"Wow!" the inmate exclaimed in a loud voice. "That is great. That is awesome! Thank you, warden! Thank you (expletive) warden!"

His head fell back on the pillow, and his neck twisted at an odd angle, with his mouth and eyes open.

He remained that way for some 15 minutes before a physician entered the death chamber to examine him and pronounce him dead at 6:27 p.m. CDT. Sixteen minutes had passed since the drug had been injected.

The father, stepmother and stepbrother of the man shot and killed by Cobb were among the witnesses. Also in the viewing area was one of the women who was shot and attacked but survived to testify against Cobb.

"I think justice was served but it doesn't change anything to speak of," the slain man's father, Don Vandever, said after watching Cobb die. "I do think the justice system needs to be more of a deterrent.

"All he did was go to sleep. That's it."

Nikki Daniels, 29, who was raped and shot during the 2002 attack but survived to testify against Cobb, said, "I thought he was going to be remorseful, I thought he was going to be apologetic, was hoping that he was going to address me.

"I saw the same evil person I saw 11 years ago. ... He definitely showed his true colors."

The Associated Press generally does not name victims of sexual assault but Daniels agreed to be identified.

Daniels said Cobb's punishment in the end "was far too easy."

About two hours before the lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Cobb to be executed, rejecting a last-day appeal. It was Texas' fourth execution this year.

On Sept. 2, 2002, Kenneth Vandever and the two women were abducted from a store in Rusk, about 120 miles southeast of Dallas, and taken to a field about 10 miles away. All three were shot and left for dead. Vandever, 37, died, but the women managed to get help.

Cobb was 18 at the time of the attack, on probation for auto theft and a high school dropout. Cobb and his partner, Beunka Adams, were arrested in Jacksonville, about 25 miles away, the day after the crime. It was the latest in a series of robberies tied to them.

Cobb testified at his trial he began using drugs at age 12 and turned to robbery to pay off a drug debt.

Adams was executed a year ago this week for his participation in the slaying.

Vandever had frequented the store in Rusk and would do things like take out the trash. An auto accident had left him with the mental capacity of a child.

Cobb's trial attorneys unsuccessfully tried to show Adams forced Cobb to shoot Vandever by threatening Cobb. The survivors of the attack said they never heard such threats, but heard Vandever plead that he needed his medication and scream when he was shot.

"Basically, it was an act of compulsion," Cobb said of the abductions and shootings. He described himself to the AP shortly after arriving on death row in 2004 as "young, dumb and made a mistake."

"I'm guilty of the crime," he said.

He told the Jacksonville Daily Progress last month from prison he didn't want to die "but I'm ready for it."

At least 11 other Texas inmates have executions scheduled for the coming months, including three in May.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b3a0a28/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C260C179351130Etexas0Einmate0Eshouts0Ewow0Eduring0Eexecution0Dlite/story01.htm

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Danish government stops Danish teachers lockout

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- The Danish government has proposed emergency legislation aiming to put an end to a lockout of some 52,000 teachers that has shut schools throughout the country for the past four weeks.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt says she expects that 875,000 students will return to classes on Monday if the law is passed over the weekend.

The prime minister said Thursday that a majority of lawmakers are ready to back the proposal. It requires teachers to teach more hours per week and phases out the right to work less after turning 60, but earmarks 300 million kroner ($5.2 million) for salary increases.

Municipalities imposed a lockout on April 2 after teachers rejected a deal on working hours. There have been no talks between the two sides, forcing the government to intervene.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/danish-government-stops-danish-teachers-130803303.html

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Israel says it shoots down Hezbollah drone

JERUSALEM (AP) ? The Israeli military says it has shot down an unmanned aircraft sent by the Hezbollah group into Israeli skies.

Military officials said the aircraft was downed Thursday off the Israeli coast in Israeli airspace near the northern city of Haifa.

It is the second known instance in which the Lebanese militant group, a bitter Israeli enemy, has sent a drone into Israeli airspace. Last October, the Israeli air force shot down an unmanned aircraft in a similar incident.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighboring Syria to obtain what he calls game-changing weapons.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-says-shoots-down-hezbollah-drone-132939753.html

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Pitt team finds melatonin delays ALS symptom onset and death in mice

Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Anita Srikameswaran
SrikamAV@upmc.edu
412-578-9193
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Melatonin injections delayed symptom onset and reduced mortality in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In a report published online ahead of print in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, the team revealed that receptors for melatonin are found in the nerve cells, a finding that could launch novel therapeutic approaches.

Annually about 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS, which is characterized by progressive muscle weakness and eventual death due to the failure of respiratory muscles, said senior investigator Robert Friedlander, M.D., UPMC Endowed Professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology and chair, Department of Neurological Surgery, Pitt School of Medicine. But the causes of the condition are not well understood, thwarting development of a cure or even effective treatments.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that is best known for its role in sleep regulation. After screening more than a thousand FDA-approved drugs several years ago, the research team determined that melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that blocks the release of enzymes that activate apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

"Our experiments show for the first time that a lack of melatonin and melatonin receptor 1, or MT1, is associated with the progression of ALS," Dr. Friedlander said. "We saw similar results in a Huntington's disease model in an earlier project, suggesting similar biochemical pathways are disrupted in these challenging neurologic diseases."

Hoping to stop neuron death in ALS just as they did in Huntington's, the research team treated mice bred to have an ALS-like disease with injections of melatonin or with a placebo. Compared to untreated animals, the melatonin group developed symptoms later, survived longer, and had less degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord.

"Much more work has to be done to unravel these mechanisms before human trials of melatonin or a drug akin to it can be conducted to determine its usefulness as an ALS treatment," Dr. Friedlander said. "I suspect that a combination of agents that act on these pathways will be needed to make headway with this devastating disease."

###

Co-authors of the paper include other scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Harvard Medical School; Ohio State University; Weifang Medical University; Bedford VA Medical System, Boston; St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix; University of Texas Medical School at Houston; and VA Pittsburgh Health Care System.

The project was funded by grants NS051756, NS039324, and NS055072 of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health; the U.S. Department of Defense; and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

As one of the nation's leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In rankings recently released by the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked fifth among all American universities in total federal science and engineering research and development support.

Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region's economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see http://www.medschool.pitt.edu.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Anita Srikameswaran
SrikamAV@upmc.edu
412-578-9193
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Melatonin injections delayed symptom onset and reduced mortality in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In a report published online ahead of print in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, the team revealed that receptors for melatonin are found in the nerve cells, a finding that could launch novel therapeutic approaches.

Annually about 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS, which is characterized by progressive muscle weakness and eventual death due to the failure of respiratory muscles, said senior investigator Robert Friedlander, M.D., UPMC Endowed Professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology and chair, Department of Neurological Surgery, Pitt School of Medicine. But the causes of the condition are not well understood, thwarting development of a cure or even effective treatments.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that is best known for its role in sleep regulation. After screening more than a thousand FDA-approved drugs several years ago, the research team determined that melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that blocks the release of enzymes that activate apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

"Our experiments show for the first time that a lack of melatonin and melatonin receptor 1, or MT1, is associated with the progression of ALS," Dr. Friedlander said. "We saw similar results in a Huntington's disease model in an earlier project, suggesting similar biochemical pathways are disrupted in these challenging neurologic diseases."

Hoping to stop neuron death in ALS just as they did in Huntington's, the research team treated mice bred to have an ALS-like disease with injections of melatonin or with a placebo. Compared to untreated animals, the melatonin group developed symptoms later, survived longer, and had less degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord.

"Much more work has to be done to unravel these mechanisms before human trials of melatonin or a drug akin to it can be conducted to determine its usefulness as an ALS treatment," Dr. Friedlander said. "I suspect that a combination of agents that act on these pathways will be needed to make headway with this devastating disease."

###

Co-authors of the paper include other scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Harvard Medical School; Ohio State University; Weifang Medical University; Bedford VA Medical System, Boston; St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix; University of Texas Medical School at Houston; and VA Pittsburgh Health Care System.

The project was funded by grants NS051756, NS039324, and NS055072 of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health; the U.S. Department of Defense; and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

As one of the nation's leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In rankings recently released by the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked fifth among all American universities in total federal science and engineering research and development support.

Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region's economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see http://www.medschool.pitt.edu.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uops-ptf042413.php

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Q&A: Who ultimately bears responsibility for Bangladesh factory disasters?

Low wages and lower safety standards have made Bangladesh a major garment producer - and a source of workplace deaths like the more than 200 killed in a Dhaka factory collapse this week.

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / April 25, 2013

Bangladeshi rescue workers watch from a damaged section of a wall at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday.

Kevin Frayer/AP

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When an eight-story factory outside Bangladesh?s capital Dhaka collapsed Wednesday, the ensuing devastation was met with horror (more than 200 were killed), but not disbelief.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

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Catastrophic industrial accidents are something of a regular occurrence in the south Asian nation, which is the second-largest garment exporter in the world. Lax labor and building standards, coupled with a rock bottom minimum wage for garment workers ($37 per month), have played a large part in that boom, though at a high cost.

In fact, only five months ago, a fire at another factory in the city killed 111, prompting a flurry of apologies and promises of reform from both the Bangladeshi government and the western companies whose goods were produced there, including Walmart.

But who ultimately bears the responsibility for these disasters ? and can they be stopped? The Monitor spoke to Aman Singh, editorial director of the CSRwire, a website for corporate social responsibility news, about consumer choices, the supply chain blame game, and who sets the standards for global garment production.

When a disaster like the one in Bangladesh occurs, everyone involved immediately starts pointing fingers ? at the factory owners, at the government, at the Western companies who source goods there. So whose fault is it?

The chain of command between retailer and source is purposefully pretty complex. And in the middle of the chain of command you have all these different players ? the subcontractors, the auditors, the analysts, the people negotiating these contracts every year. Because the responsibility is so thinly distributed, no one person or group of people is really being held accountable for compliance with building standards, say, which makes it really hard to pinpoint where the issue started.

And then you have companies like Walmart that come forward and say, we contract out to suppliers, so we don?t even know if our products were made in this factory or not. Is that a good excuse?

No, it?s really not. Walmart is so big and so powerful that they really could go to any supplier they want and say, stick to our wage and safety policies or get out. And they can do that far more effectively than government legislation ever could. These companies have more power than entire governments, entire nations.

It sounds like the corporate supply chain is often very opaque ? is there any attempt being made to change that on a global level?

That?s the million dollar questions we?re all trying to answer: We have to work in a global economy, we have to work with different understandings of what?s acceptable in terms of labor and workers. It?s acceptable culturally, for instance, for women as young as 14 to work in a lot of countries. But it?s not OK in the UK or US markets. ?

The UN is trying to standardize this supply chain management. The International Trade Center has a standards map out that?s visible online, and what they?re trying to do is bring all these apparel companies together to see what standards everyone is using and where they stand against their peers. They?re billing it as a competitive advantage for companies. It?s an interesting strategy because we all know when [labor practices] impact the dollar they?re all going to want to be interested in making them better. The maps are only available to the companies participating now, but the hope is to make it publicly eventually. And I think when that kind of information becomes public it?ll force companies to be more transparent in their supply chain policies.

What about consumers ? do disasters like this change their buying habits?

I don?t know if they?re really impacting consumers ? I don?t know if they?re really starting to come out and say, you know what, I?m not going to buy from this company because this kind of thing is just happening way too often. There?s a real gap there. We as consumers have a very short memory and we tend to forget these disasters after they happen.

Since I?ve started working in this field though, I have really changed my shopping habits. The biggest shift is I?ve become far more conscious of how much I buy. I try to not over-consume. I?ve realized that the core of our problem is over-consumption. But also buying very cheap goods is a part of it: If you?re paying $5 for a pair of pants, you can only assume the person making them is getting much less than that, although volume does play a huge factor in price margins and wages.

But if you pay more, does that guarantee the conditions the garment was made under were any better?

That?s true. There?s no way of making that correlation.

Is there any way for consumers to know from the information on their garment ? the brand, the country it?s made in ? if they?re getting something produced under decent conditions?

The problem is we don?t have any labeling with clothing that identifies ethical sourcing. It almost always requires going back to the Internet and looking at their supply chain policy. Many brands are starting to put their whole supply chain on their website, but from a consumer perspective who has time to do that? You want to be able to just pick up a piece of clothing and know if it has an ethical history. And right now you can?t.

In the late 1990s, Nike and other major sporting apparel companies faced a large protest movement led by American college students against the labor conditions in their factories. It forced them to reexamine a lot of these kinds of problems. Is any similar movement building now?

Activism had such a big role to play at that time. And it still does. But that activism has slowly changed into collaboration ? the NGOs that once fought these companies are now working with them. And obviously the companies prefer that because they have a partner rather than someone working against them. But I think for Nike the protests and their extremely public nature was the big motivator in changing their policy. And I think we need?more of?that.?Apple for example: What is stopping us from saying we're going to stop using its products until it proves it can provide better working conditions in its factories? Do we as consumers have the courage to boycott some of our favorite brands over ethics?

Overall, when you look at supply chain issues around the world, are you optimistic? Is the world trending towards progress?

It?s such a complex sector. We?re doing better in so many things but we?re starting to go the wrong way in so many others that it?s hard to stay optimistic for too long.?Incidents like these tell us the road ahead is long and will require continuous courage.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BRdEYJ7sBkg/Q-A-Who-ultimately-bears-responsibility-for-Bangladesh-factory-disasters

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This Yemeni Man Loves America, Hates Al Qaeda, and Says Drone Strikes Make Them Stronger (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301200021?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Anthony, Knicks rout Celtics for 2-0 series lead

NEW YORK (AP) ? The New York Knicks are heading to Boston, then perhaps finally back to the second round.

The once-mighty Celtics don't seem capable of stopping them.

Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points, Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith added 19, and New York opened a 2-0 lead over Boston with another dominant second half in an 87-71 victory on Tuesday night.

Raymond Felton added 16 points for the Knicks, who used a 27-4 run spanning halftime to blow it open and move halfway to their first series victory since the 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals. This is their first 2-0 lead since sweeping Toronto in the first round that year.

"For us, we know what type of team we are," Anthony said. "We know when we really buckle down on the defensive end, it's been hard for teams."

It's been brutally difficult for Boston.

Paul Pierce scored 18 points for the Celtics, who will host Game 3 on Friday in their first home game since the Boston Marathon bombings.

They will have to be much sharper to avoid their first opening-round elimination since 2005, before they became one of the NBA's power teams again.

"We have to figure out the offensive side of the ball and not be so stagnated," Boston's Kevin Garnett said. "Figure out ways to score more often."

Garnett had 12 points and 11 rebounds, but battled foul trouble and spent too much time walking back to the bench with a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd finally experiencing playoff success again hounding him every step of the way.

Plagued by turnovers in Game 1, when they managed eight points in the decisive fourth quarter, the Celtics watched it all fall apart 12 minutes earlier this time. They managed only 23 points after halftime, two fewer than in their 85-78 loss Saturday.

"I thought we attacked them in the first half, but they hung in there," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "They didn't let us throw a knockout punch and I thought in the second half they turned that on us and they threw a knockout punch. Several."

Anthony followed his 36-point opener by making 8 of 13 shots in the second half to finish 11 of 24 for the game.

He had said the Knicks needed to treat the game as a "must-win," aware of the difficulty of winning in Boston on Friday with the emotional boost the Celtics will get from finally being home.

They showed that mentality after halftime, outscoring Boston 32-11 in the third quarter.

"I think guys know what's at stake. We don't have to talk about it," veteran forward Kenyon Martin said. "Guys know what it's about right now and it's about winning a championship."

Iman Shumpert drilled two 3-pointers to open the third and tie it before Pierce scored to give Boston its last lead at 50-48. The Knicks scored 18 of the next 20 points, with the Celtics getting just two free throws from Jeff Green over the next 5-plus minutes. Anthony's jumper with 4:25 remaining in the third capped the run before Garnett finally gave Boston its second basket of the quarter 10 seconds later

The Celtics missed 10 of their first 11 shots of the third while getting outscored 24-4 to open the period.

"I thought in that third quarter we were as good as we've been all year in terms of ball movement and pushing it and making shots," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said.

The Celtics vowed to get Garnett more involved after he shot 4 of 12 while scoring eight points in the opener. But that plan was quickly wrecked when he picked up two fouls in the first 3 minutes, 20 seconds. The Celtics shook it off and led 20-15 when Jason Terry made a 3-pointer with 1:57 left for his first basket of the series.

But the Knicks scored 11 straight to end the period. Smith, recognized before the game for the award he won Monday, kept the celebration going with five points in the final 6.8 seconds, hitting a 36-footer at the buzzer with Celtics all over him to make it 26-20.

The Celtics quickly settled down again, ripping off an 11-0 run to take a 31-27 lead on another 3-pointer by Terry. The lead later grew to eight when Pierce made a jumper, then fired a lob pass that traveled about three-quarters of the court to a streaking Green.

They led 48-39, gave up the last three points of the half ? and probably never realized they gave away momentum for good with it.

"We made a good run in the first half, we played our style of basketball," Terry said. "But in the second half we definitely got away from what gave us success."

Notes: Amare Stoudemire still hopes to return from right knee surgery for the second round if the Knicks advance. He hopes to be running full speed soon so he can see how the knee responds to the additional work. ... NBA TV's analysts have made their postseason awards picks, and former Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas chose Woodson, his friend and former Indiana University teammate. "That's good, but I mean, again, I'm not in this for Coach of the Year, I'm in to try to see if we can get this team to the championship round to try to win a title," Woodson said. "If that happens, it happens, but I'm not sitting here holding my breath about a Coach of the Year award." Woodson added that he and Thomas are friends and talk all the time.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anthony-knicks-rout-celtics-2-0-series-lead-024639959--spt.html

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Fisker Automotive, Energy Department officials face congressional ...

The Fisker Karma / AP

BY: Andrew Evans
April 24, 2013 5:00 am

The chief executives of embattled electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive and an official from the Department of Energy loan program will face questions from Congress Wednesday on the failure of the government-backed company.

Fisker Automotive?s Karma, a long-range luxury car, had a sticker cost of more than $100,000. The car earned a failing grade from Consumer Reports, faced multiple technical problems, and was temporarily halted after Fisker?s battery manufacturer, A123 Systems, went bankrupt.

Fisker was one of several companies to receive millions in direct loans from the Department of Energy under the Alternative Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program.

The department approved a $529 million dollar loan to Fisker to support the development of two different electric cars, the Karma and Nina. Only a portion of the loan was delivered after the company failed to meet development milestones.

Fisker?s bankruptcy announcement has been expected for weeks. The company recovered only 10 percent of its claim against A123 for contractual failures and in April?laid off 75 percent of its workforce.

It is now facing a lawsuit from workers who contend they did not receive the legally mandated forewarning of their firing.

The company missed its first loan payment, totaling $10 million, to the federal government on Monday. The Department of Energy disclosed this week it seized more than $20 million from the company?s assets on April 11 and will apply that money to the loan.

It is unclear if the federal government will face losses from its loan to Fisker.

Fisker?s founder Henrik Fisker and current chief operating officer Bernhard Koehler will testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee alongside Nicholas Whitcombe, a senior investment officer for the Department of Energy?s Loan Program Office.

The hearing is titled ?Examining the Department of Energy?s Bad Bet on Fisker Automotive.?

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) has criticized the Department of Energy?s efforts to support the green energy sector.

?Attempts to create an artificial green economy have instead created a ?house of cards? economy,? Issa said in December when A123?s bankruptcy was announced.

A123 itself received a grant from the Department of Energy. A Chinese firm now owns the battery manufacturer and renamed it B456 Systems.

Fisker and A123 are the latest in a string of failures of companies the Department of Energy supported financially.

?It?s certainly not an outlier for the loan or loan guarantee programs,? said Nicolas Loris, an economist at the Heritage Foundation.

Fisker is the twentieth business that has gone bankrupt after participating in the loan or loan guarantee program, Loris said.

The bankruptcy of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra was the highest-profile failure of a government-supported green energy company. Solyndra was the first loan guarantee recipient under the 2009 stimulus, with the federal government guaranteeing more than $500 million in loans.

The government was projected to recover less than 20 percent of the portion of the loan that had been disbursed, according to a settlement plan in October. The government could still recover the entire loan in a lawsuit against Chinese solar panel manufacturers.

Mirror manufacturer Flabeg Solar went bankrupt after receiving tax credits from the federal government. The bankruptcy potentially delayed some government-backed solar power projects that were planning on using Flabeg?s mirrors.

President Barack Obama, who targeted much of the 2009 economic stimulus package at the green energy sector, reiterated his support in his most recent State of the Union address.

?Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America,? he said. ?So let?s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year?so let?s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.?

The failure of Fisker is indicative of the government?s inability to prop up whole sectors of the economy, said William Yeatman, an energy policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

?Industrial policy doesn?t work,? he said. ?It never has and it never will.?

Yeatman said the government subsidized both the battery manufacturer and the car manufacturer in Fisker?s case, beyond subsidizing the car?s purchase with tax credits.

A business? success after receiving help from the federal government does not justify the tax dollars invested in the company,?Loris said.

The federal subsidies crowd out private investment in successful companies, he said, while the failing companies should not have received taxpayer support in the first place.

?It?s just kind of depressing that this much money was wasted,? Yeatman said.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/overseeing-failure/

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Conversing with Adults on the Autism Spectrum - Disabled World

Ways to Support Adults on the Autism Spectrum When Engaging in Conversation.

Even the most well-intentioned and informed adults can flounder when it comes to communicating effectively with peers, co-workers, classmates, or gym buddies on the autism spectrum. While no two individuals with autism have the same language and social skills, there a few basic courtesies that you can extend to enhance the level of comfort and understanding between you and another.

Colleagues Scott Chausse , M.Ed., Director of Vocational Services at the Todd Fournier Center for Employment Training and Community Inclusion in Massachusetts, and Teka J. Harris , M.A., BCBA, Clinical Director for the May Center for Adult Services in Western Massachusetts, team up to share five universal tips to keep communication respectful and productive for all parties.

• Address him or her as you would an adult, not a child. Do not make assumptions about a person's cognitive skills. An individual's disability may be more language-based and not related to their ability to comprehend the content of the conversation. In other words, a person may understand every word you say, but may have difficulty responding verbally.
• Avoid using words or phrases that are too familiar or personal. For example, terms like "honey," "sweetie," "cute," and "adorable," even when intended as endearments, can come across as demeaning or disrespectful to any person, but particularly to someone working to establish his or her independence.
• Say what you mean. When interacting with an adult with autism, be literal ? clear and concise. Avoid the use of slang, nuance, and sarcasm. These forms of communication may be confusing and not easily understood.
• When asking a question, wait for a response. If someone doesn't respond immediately to your question, do not assume they haven't heard or understood you. Just like typical adults, individuals on the autism spectrum sometimes need a little more time to absorb and process information before giving you their response.
• Don't speak as if the person is not in the room. You may find yourself in a group setting that includes someone on the autism spectrum. As in any other social situation, do not talk about the person as if he or she is not in the room. In a group setting with family members, caregivers, teachers, or others, it is easy to be drawn into this trap. Model the appropriate behavior; this will help inform others on how to be more supportive of adults with autism in these kinds of situations.

Founded in 1955, May Institute has its roots in a family's vision of enabling children with disabilities to lead the fullest lives possible. Today, May Institute provides educational, rehabilitative, and behavioral healthcare services to individuals with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities, brain injury, mental illness, and behavioral health needs. For more information, call 800.778.7601 or visit www.mayinstitute.org

This web page is from the Disabled World Autism Information section which provides: Autism is a brain development disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction communication and restricted repetitive behavior.

Autism Spectrum Disorders - A complex, lifelong condition that affects individuals from all walks of life, as well as their families, friends and caregivers. Autism is a spectrum disorder, defined by certain behaviours which come in combinations and in degrees of intensity that vary in each child and adult affected. Many individuals with ASD have trouble communicating with others or difficulty with regular social interactions. Other signs include a tendency toward repetitive behaviours, and unusual or severely limited activities and interests. ASD develops differently from person to person, and the effects can range from relatively mild to debilitating. Unlike some conditions, there is no "typical" person with ASD.

Source: http://www.disabled-world.com/health/neurology/autism/conversing.php

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Khloe Kardashian Out As ?X Factor? Host

Khloe Kardashian is out as host of The X Factor but Mario Lopez is staying put. The news came down today that the reality TV star would not be returning for season three of the FOX show. Rumors have been running ramped for weeks that Khloe would not be asked back to the hit Simon Cowell show. Today FOX made it official that Kardashian would not be back as host next fall but that Mario would be returning. Although there is a lot of speculation as to why she was not asked back, the network did not give a reason when they made the announcement. It is no secret that The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star had a difficult time as a host. Those who watched Kourtney & Kim: Take Miami know exactly what I am talking about. It was a completely different ball game then reality TV, which is what she is used to. A live show has got to be nerve racking, especially when you are reading from a teleprompter and can’t really be yourself. Personally if you can’t let my favorite Kardashian be herself then why hire her, just sayin. There are numerous conflicting reports out [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/8zu_pGHxTsE/

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Air pollution and hardening of arteries

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Long term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries," according to a study by U.S. researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

The researchers, led by Sara Adar, John Searle Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Joel Kaufman, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Washington, found that higher concentrations of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) were linked to a faster thickening of the inner two layers of the common carotid artery, an important blood vessel that provides blood to the head, neck, and brain. They also found that reductions of fine particulate air pollution over time were linked to slower progression of the blood vessel thickness. The thickness of this blood vessel is an indicator of how much atherosclerosis is present in the arteries throughout the body, even among people with no obvious symptoms of heart disease.

"Our findings help us to understand how it is that exposures to air pollution may cause the increases in heart attacks and strokes observed by other studies," Adar said.

The authors reached these conclusions by following 5362 people aged between 45 to 84 years old from six U.S. metropolitan areas as part of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air). The researchers were able to link air pollution levels estimated at each person's house with two ultrasound measurements of the blood vessels, separated by about three years. All participants in their study were without known heart disease.

After adjusting for other factors such as smoking, the authors found that on average, the thickness of the carotid vessel increased by 14 ?m each year. The vessels of people exposed to higher levels of residential fine particulate air pollution, however, thickened faster than others living in the same metropolitan area.

"Linking these findings with other results from the same population suggests that persons living in a more polluted part of town may have a 2 percent higher risk of stroke as compared to people in a less polluted part of the same metropolitan area," Adar said.

"If confirmed by future analyses of the full 10 years of follow-up in this cohort, these findings will help to explain associations between long-term PM2.5 concentrations and clinical cardiovascular events," the authors wrote.

In an accompanying Perspective, Nino Kuenzli from the University of Basel in Switzerland says: "the [Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution study] further supports an old request to policy makers, namely that clean air standards ought to comply at least with the science-based levels proposed by the World Health Organization."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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. Adar SD, Sheppard L, Vedal S, Polak JF, Sampson PD, et al. Fine Particulate Air Pollution and the Progression of Carotid Intima-Medial Thickness: A Prospective Cohort Study from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution. PLoS Med, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001430

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/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/fNMbl5NT8J4/130423172706.htm

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93% The Sapphires

All Critics (120) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (112) | Rotten (8)

The harmonies they strike in this reality-inspired charmer are sweetly sublime.

You could drive an Abrams tank through the film's plot holes, but you'll likely be too busy enjoying yourself to bother.

"The Sapphires" feels like a movie you've already seen, but it's nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable, like a pop song that's no less infectious when you know every word.

"The Sapphires" sparkles with sass and Motown soul.

Sapphires is hardly a cinematic diamond mine. But this Commitments-style mashup of music and melodrama manages to entertain without demanding too much of its audience.

A surefire crowdpleaser with all the ingredients for the type of little-movie-that-could sleeper success that Harvey Weinstein has nurtured in years and award seasons past.

You've seen this story before, but never pulled off with so much joie de vivre.

They can put a song across just like the Dreamgirls. What's not to like?

Exuberant but fairly formulaic.

Doesn't always mix its anti-prejudice message and its feel-good nostalgia with complete smoothness. But despite some ragged edges it provides a reasonably good time.

Director Wayne Blair -- another veteran of the stage show -- finds his footing during the film's many musical numbers.

Despite the prosaic plot and reserved approach taken by Blair, Briggs, and Thompson, it's tough to get cynical about such a warmhearted picture that strives to tell so uplifting a story.

A movie with enough melody and camaraderie to cover up its lack of originality.

Draining most of the blood, sweat and tears from a true story, this music-minded movie capably covers a song we've heard a hundred times before.

"Sapphires," which was inspired by a true story, is propelled by a strong sense of music's power to connect people and change lives.

Fires on all cylinders when it drops all pretense and allows its talented cast to simply belt out a series of pure, unfiltered slices of ear candy.

A rousing soundtrack helps to compensate for some of the historical embellishments in this Australian crowd-pleaser.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_sapphires_2012/

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Officials: Boston bomb suspect read jihadist sites

In this Friday, April 19, 2013 photo obtained by The Associated Press and authenticated by a member of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF and FBI agents check suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for explosives and also give him medical attention after he was apprehended in Watertown, Mass., at the end of a tense day that began with his older brother, Tamerlan, dying in a getaway attempt. Tsarnaev lay hospitalized in serious condition under heavy guard Saturday as investigators continue piecing together the who and why of the two brothers involved in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings. (AP Photo)

In this Friday, April 19, 2013 photo obtained by The Associated Press and authenticated by a member of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF and FBI agents check suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for explosives and also give him medical attention after he was apprehended in Watertown, Mass., at the end of a tense day that began with his older brother, Tamerlan, dying in a getaway attempt. Tsarnaev lay hospitalized in serious condition under heavy guard Saturday as investigators continue piecing together the who and why of the two brothers involved in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings. (AP Photo)

Lt. Mike Murphy of the Newton, Mass., fire dept., carries an American flag down the middle of Boylston Street after observing a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the bombing at the Boston Marathon near the race finish line, Monday, April 22, 2013, in Boston, Mass. At 2:50 p.m., exactly one week after the bombings, many bowed their heads and cried at the makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, three blocks from the site of the explosions, where bouquets of flowers, handwritten messages, and used running shoes were piled on the sidewalk. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A woman wipes a tear at a memorial for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing on Boylston Street near the race finish line, Monday, April 22, 2013, in Boston, Mass. At 2:50 p.m., exactly one week after the bombings, many bowed their heads and cried at the makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, three blocks from the site of the explosions, where bouquets of flowers, handwritten messages, and used running shoes were piled on the sidewalk. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A man prays at a memorial for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing on Boylston Street near the race finish line, Monday, April 22, 2013, in Boston, Mass. At 2:50 p.m., exactly one week after the bombings, many bowed their heads and cried at the makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, three blocks from the site of the explosions, where bouquets of flowers, handwritten messages, and used running shoes were piled on the sidewalk. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Audrey Gasteier, left, of Cambridge, Mass., and Aminata Ndiaye, center, of Boston, join others to observe a minute of silence at City Hall Plaza in Boston for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings Monday, April 22, 2013, one week after the explosions. The remembrance was held at 2:50 p.m., the time the first of the two bombs exploded near the race's finish line. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

BOSTON (AP) ? Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an ardent reader of jihadist websites and extremist propaganda, U.S. officials said Tuesday, adding another piece to the body of evidence they say suggests the two brothers were motivated by an anti-American, radical version of Islam.

As he lay in his hospital bed with a gunshot wound to the throat, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged on Monday with carrying out the bombing with his older brother, who died last week in a gunbattle. Tsarnaev could get the death penalty.

Interrogators questioned him at the hospital, letting him write down his replies, and his answers led them to believe he and his brother were motivated by religious extremism but appeared to have no major terrorist group connections, said U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

However, the written communication precluded back-and-forth exchanges often crucial to establishing key facts, officials said. They warned that they were still trying to verify what Tsarnaev told them and were poring over his telephone and online communications.

On Tuesday, two officials said the older brother frequently looked at extremist sites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate. The magazine has endorsed lone-wolf terror attacks.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose condition was upgraded Tuesday from serious to fair, was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth student was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 on April 15.

The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade.

The next step in the legal process against Tsarnaev is likely to be an indictment, to which federal prosecutors could add new charges. State prosecutors have said they expect to charge Tsarnaev separately in the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was shot in his cruiser Thursday night on the campus in Cambridge.

Federal public defender Miriam Conrad, whose office has been asked to represent Tsarnaev, asked that two death penalty lawyers be appointed to represent Tsarnaev, "given the magnitude of this case."

A probable cause hearing ? at which prosecutors will spell out the basics of their case ? was set for May 30. According to a clerk's notes of Monday's proceedings in the hospital, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler indicated she was satisfied that Tsarnaev was "alert and able to respond to the charges."

Tsarnaev did not speak during Monday's proceeding, except to answer "no" when he was asked if he could afford his own lawyer, according to the notes. He nodded when asked if he was able to answer some questions and whether he understood his rights.

Conrad declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

The criminal complaint outlining the allegations shed no light on the motive for the attack.

In the criminal complaint against Tsarnaev, investigators said he and his brother each placed a knapsack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race. The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his cellphone and lifting it to his ear just instants before the two blasts.

After the first blast, a block away from Dzhokhar, "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm," the complaint says. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, unlike practically everyone else around him, appeared calm, the FBI said.

He then quickly walked away, leaving a knapsack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his cellphone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

Among the details in the affidavit:

? Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands when he was captured hiding out in a boat in a backyard in the Boston suburb of Watertown, authorities said.

? One of the brothers ? it wasn't clear which one ? told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt: "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

? The FBI said it searched Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Sunday and found BBs as well as a white hat and dark jacket that look like those worn by one of the suspected bombers in the surveillance photos the FBI released a few days after the attack.

___

Sullivan reported from Washington. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Steve Peoples, Allen Breed, Bridget Murphy, Jay Lindsay and Bob Salsberg in Boston and Pete Yost in Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-23-Boston%20Marathon-Explosions/id-57068735618241f2af066110a99d2daa

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Facebook building $1.5 billion data center in Altoona, Iowa

Facebook has already set up shop in North Carolina and Oregon, but it's heading to Iowa for its next -- and biggest -- data center. According to the Des Moines Register, the town of Altoona will be home to a 1.4-million-square-foot facility (code-named Catapult), and it will reportedly be the "most technologically advanced center in the world." Why Altoona, you ask? The city is already home to several data hubs, as its fiber-optic cable system, access to power and water utilities and affordable land are big draws for companies. Facebook will complete project Catapult in two $500 million phases, though the entire cost will reportedly ring in at $1.5 billion. The social network is also seeking wind energy production tax credits, which is no doubt connected to its Open Compute Project for promoting energy efficiency. That's all we know so far; suffice to say a center this big won't be built overnight.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Des Moines Register

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/VG1_YHU0IbU/

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PFT: Haslam responds to allegations of wrongdoing

Getty Images

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam apparently has received ? and is heeding ? advice from his lawyers regarding the fact that anything he says can and will be used against him, if/when he personally faces charges for fraud allegedly committed by the billion-dollar, family-owned truck-stop company he runs.

As a result, Haslam met with the media again on Monday, but instead of speaking extemporaneously and then answering questions, he read from a lengthy prepared statement that surely was written or at least reviewed and revised by one or more lawyers.

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has the full text of the statement, which says nothing about the Browns.? While the smartest move at this point would be to say nothing at all about anything, Haslam realizes that his customers could scatter and his employees could flee and the entire operation could disintegrate without real efforts to hold the business together.

But in starting the process of rebuilding trust and restoring confidence, Haslam comes dangerously close to admitting that improprieties occurred.? For example, in explaining that the company will now have a ?Chief Compliance Officer,? Haslam basically acknowledges that, if whoever blew the whistle to the feds had a way to blow the whistle internally, the whole thing could have been fixed without outside scrutiny.

?The establishment of a position of Chief Compliance Officer is important, because had we had one before, perhaps some team member would have raised a question about manual rebates internally before anyone would ever have gone to federal investigators,? Haslam said.

Haslam also continues to emphasize that the situation affects only a ?narrow? portion of the company?s business.? But with 3,300 trucking-company customers, a lot of fraud can still happen to a ?narrow? band of customers.? Reciting instances of compliance with the lawyer is never a defense to the specific instances when the law was broken.

Most significantly, Haslam explained that the company placed on ?administrative leave several members of our diesel fuel team.?? Presumably, that includes V.P. of sales John Freeman, whose colorful and profane terms were caught on tape by an informant, along with an admission that Haslam was aware of the alleged rebate scam.

If/when Freeman agrees to testify against Haslam, Haslam will have a serious problem; in the interim, Haslam and his lawyers necessarily must commence preparations for painting this once-trusted employee as inherently unreliable, especially as to anything he would say under oath about Haslam.

Of course, none of it matters if Pilot Flying J ends up being driven into the ground by the loss of customers and personnel.? Haslam?s statement from Monday is aimed at keeping that from happening.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/22/haslam-reads-lengthy-statement-to-media-takes-no-question/related/

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Boston suspect won't be treated as enemy combatant: White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ethnic Chechen college student suspected in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings will not be treated as an enemy combatant in the legal proceedings, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.

Some Republican lawmakers had called on the Obama administration to designate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant, a designation that would allow him fewer rights such as the appointment of counsel.

The White House rejected those appeals. Carney said Tsarnaev would be handled through the usual civilian criminal court process, particularly since he is naturalized American citizen and as such by law cannot be tried in a U.S. military commission.

"He will not be treated as an enemy combatant," Carney told reporters at a briefing. "We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice. Under U.S. law, United States citizens cannot be tried in military commissions."

The "enemy combatant" status designated for suspects arose in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks and some of these have been detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Carney said the decision was made by Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department and that the "whole national security team supports this decision."

"And let's be clear: There is not an alternative for a U.S. citizen to be tried to a military commission by law," he said.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal and Steve Holland; Editing by Christopher Wilson and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-suspect-wont-treated-enemy-combatant-white-house-185241915--sector.html

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Durex Vibrating Underwear, 'Fundawear,' Enables Phone Sex Via IPhone App (NSFW VIDEO)

Feel that tingle down there? It might be a long-distance call.

Condom-maker Durex has introduced app-controlled underwear that vibrates, the company announced in a YouTube video viewed more than 500,000 times since Wednesday. The promo (watch above) features a slightly naughty demonstration by an Australian couple remotely "touching" each other.

The premise is that if you and the main squeeze want to get busy while you're apart, you can put on the Fundawear and buzz each other via iPhones. You simply drag your fingers across an app diagram of the body parts you want to stimulate remotely. Wires and sensors convey what actual touch cannot.

And we used to think that "Skype me" sounded suggestive!

Fundawear is still in the experimental stage, so no word on a release date. Visit its Facebook page for more on how to score a free prototype.

Outlets have had some fun with Fundawear. Cult of Mac imagined preoccupied users zapping themselves in public. The Sun called the undies "his'n'hers buzzing briefs"

Durex isn't first to the virtual-sex party. LovePalz developed a pair of intercourse simulation gadgets that women and men can connect to their erogenous zones for long-distance loving.

WATCH: Warning, video is NSFW.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/durex-vibrating-underwear_n_3116777.html

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