The New Herald

The Plague That Could Wipe Out Orange Juice

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 07:21:00 +0000

By the spring of 2006, Maury Boyd had grown used to dealing with catastrophe. At 13, he had started working for McKinnon Corporation, his stepfather's family's citrus company comprised of thousands of acres of orange groves in Florida. In the 50 years since then, he'd helped the groves recover from freezes, hurricanes and a disease known as citrus canker -- all of which could easily have destroyed the business.

Yet even Boyd, now the president of the company, got scared when scientists from the Florida Department of Agriculture told him that his trees were infected with huanglongbing -- more commonly known as HLB or "citrus greening."

HLB is the most serious disease a citrus tree can contract. Within 18 months of infection, a tree's leaves develop telltale yellow splotches. Its fruit starts to turn green at the wrong end and taste so bitter that it's almost inedible. Limbs fall off. Roots decay. As little as four or five years later, the tree withers into a brown skeleton and dies. There is no cure.

Greening spreads rapidly through and between groves of any citrus fruit -- limes, grapefruit and, most notably for Florida, oranges. By the time it reached Boyd, just six months after it was first discovered in Florida on a pomelo tree on a farm outside Miami, it had already devastated the commercial citrus industries in Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Reunion Island, Indonesia and southern China. The only widely accepted solution was to remove infected trees and quarantine infected areas.

A grapefruit on a tree in Fort Pierce, Florida shows the signs of HLB. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Forty percent of the trees in some of Boyd's groves were already symptomatic, and Boyd knew that many more could be silent carriers of the disease. He did the math and realized that removing every infected tree would drive the McKinnon Corporation out of the citrus industry after a century growing oranges.

"The tipping point had arrived before we were even diagnosed," Boyd said, in the gravelly drawl he picked up at military school in Virginia.

Thousands of farmers across Florida were facing the same dilemma. Some decided to sell their groves to real estate developers. Others who tried to hang on watched helplessly as their trees stopped producing fruit and died. Many in the industry feared that the disease would soon accomplish what cold snaps, tropical storms and other diseases could not: destroy the Florida citrus industry -- taking orange juice, that rite of the American morning, along with it.

"There aren’t any citrus industries in the world that have encountered this disease and come up with a management system that allows them to continue to produce citrus in the presence of the disease long-term," said Harold Browning, one of the leading experts on HLB and the COO of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation in Lake Alfred, Fla.

"If you’re a pessimist," he continued, "You’ll say no one else has done it, so there’s a likelihood that HLB will take out the industry."

THE BIRTH OF AN EPIDEMIC

Like the black plague, huanglongbing came to the West from Asia.

There are actually two different types of the disease -- an African strain and an Asian one, each of which is caused by a different type of bacteria in the genus Candidatus liberibacter. American citrus trees have caught the Asian kind, which is spread from tree to tree in the saliva of aphid-sized insects called Asian citrus psyllids.

The tiny Asian citrus psyllid spreads HLB from tree to tree. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Once the bacteria enter the tree, they attack the innermost layer of its bark, known as the "phloem," which is to trees what blood vessels are to humans. This attack prevents the tree from effectively transporting water, nutrients and minerals between the roots in the ground and the leaves and fruit at the top, driving the tree into decline.

HLB was first clearly identified as an infectious disease, rather than a symptom of nutrient deficiencies, by a Chinese scientist named Lin Kung Hsiang. After earning a Ph.D. in agricultural sciences at Cornell in February 1941, he returned to his home country to conduct a study of citrus trees. He discovered that the groves in southeast China had been ravaged by a mysterious syndrome that local farmers called "huanglongbing," or "yellow dragon disease," after the yellowed tree shoots that are a characteristic sign of the disease. The farmers told Lin that they had known about the disease since the 1870s, but that it had only become a serious problem around 1936.

In 1956, Lin wrote a landmark treatise on HLB. But because he published it in communist China, his efforts went largely unnoticed by scientists in Europe and the Americas.

The disease continued to spread, becoming endemic in China, southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and southern Africa in the decades following the publication of Lin’s paper. By the end of the 20th century, it had killed over 100 million citrus trees across the globe.

But it still hadn't hit Florida, or Brazil's São Paulo State, which together produce more than 80 percent of the world's orange juice. When Asian citrus psyllids (or “jumping plant lice”) were first spotted in São Paulo State in the 1940s and in Florida in 1998, western scientists assured growers that none of the psyllids had tested positive for the HLB bacteria, so the risk of infection was slight.

Then citrus growers began to notice troubling symptoms. The glossy emeralds of their trees' leaves began to dull into mottled yellows. Some of their oranges and grapefruits started to turn green and bitter. In March 2004 and August 2005, scientists in São Paulo State and Florida, respectively, confirmed what some citrus growers already suspected: Greening had landed in the two biggest citrus-producing regions in the world.

Soon, HLB was epidemic in both regions. By February 2009, less than three years after the first positive HLB test on a citrus tree in Florida, the disease had spread to all 32 of Florida's citrus-producing counties.

An animated gif illustrating the spread of disease throughout Florida's citrus-growing region. (Joe Satran/The Huffington Post)

The disease hit Florida at a particularly vulnerable time. The state's growers had been grappling with citrus canker for several years, compromising trees' immune systems and growers' ability to resist economic pressure. Hurricanes Charley and Ivan in 2004 and Wilma in 2005 destroyed farms throughout the state, just as real estate developers were scrounging for land. Adding HLB to the mix was like aiming a flamethrower at a pile of crumpled newspapers.

"It is perhaps the most devastating disease that the industry has faced," said Matthew Salois, the director of economic research at the Florida Department of Citrus.

These calamities pushed untold numbers of farmers out of the industry. Between 2004 and 2012, the amount of Florida land planted with citrus shrunk by nearly a third, a loss of area bigger than the city of Dallas. Citrus production dropped from 292 million boxes of fruit in 2004 to 171 million in 2012. Average orange yields have sunk from 428 boxes an acre in 2004 to 338 boxes an acre today, despite ever-denser plantings of orange trees. The wholesale price of Florida oranges, meanwhile, has almost tripled, from a low of $2.89 a box in 2004 to $7.96 a box in 2012.

The Best Workout Headphones Of 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:45:00 +0000

As beneficial as the right playlist can be to boosting your workout, the wrong pair of headphones can be equally detrimental. Maybe the sound is too tinny or the earbuds won't stay put. Maybe after a few sweat sessions they start to fall apart or, worse, smell bad. Every runner is different, but every runner who runs with music appreciates the beauty of the right pair of headphones.

While I'm no tech writer, I am a runner who listens to music -- and I most certainly sweat. Which is why I jumped at the chance to take some of the biggest names in the active headphone game out for a spin.

Before we get into my favorites, a few notes about how I conducted this oh-so-scientific test:

The Test Drive

I wore each pair of headphones during a 20- to 30-minute jog along the same stretch of the path along the Hudson River in New York City, at a moderate pace, while listening to the same 10 or so songs.

Two Types Of Quality

I rated sound quality on a scale of one to five, one being "meh", three being average and five being sensational. Durability also got a one to five score, with one being "handle with care" and five being "feel free to toss 'em in your gym bag."

Sound Isolation Isn't Always A Good Thing

When you're listening to music on, say, a long airplane flight, you're probably looking for something that blocks out all other sound. When you're listening to music on a run through a busy city, you need to be able to hear some of the important auditory cues around you. Experts call this "situational awareness." I prefer to drown out my own heavy breathing, but I have to be able to hear the bicyclists and drivers around me. I rated each set of headphones on a one to five scale here as well, but a three was the ideal. A one meant I could hear every surrounding sound, while a five meant I heard no surrounding sound, technically no good for a city runner.

Every Ear Is Different

Just like with running sneakers and sports bras, your experience with the headphones below will likely be somewhat different than mine. This review should be used merely as a guide, not the end-all-be-all.

These Are Not Your Average Headphones

You'll note that just about one of these headphones is affordable. But you get what you pay for, and, because many of the pricier models come with serious warrantees, they could be a worthwhile investment if you're willing to take good care of them.

Phone Calls

You can make or receive calls with most of these models. I didn't test out this feature -- mainly because most of my test runs occurred around 7 a.m., and I don't know many people who would really want to hear from me at that hour. For a review of making phone calls with a number of these models, as well as some really impressive testing methods that would have gotten me in big trouble, head over to The Wire Cutter's review from earlier this year.

Here's What I Found:

BOSE SIE2i

Sound Quality: 5. I put these babies in and did an auditory double-take. So this is what I've been missing!

Noise Isolation: 3. I couldn't hear my panting, but I did hear a particularly loud air conditioner that I mistook for an approaching person!

Fit & Comfort: The StayHear tips fit snuggly under the ridge of your ear, just above the ear canal. A set includes three interchangeable StayHear pieces to accommodate a range of ear sizes. I expected to feel some pressure from the piece that slid under the ridge of my ear, but instead I felt... nothing! These are so light, at times I thought they were slipping out simply because I no longer felt them at all.

Cord Length: Shorter than usual, but the kit includes a cord extender if you prefer a little more length. There's also a clip about halfway down the cord that allows you to fasten extra length to your clothes and prevent bouncing. The SIE2i model is designed to operate with Apple devices, so I could adjust the volume and song order with the buttons on the headphones, as well as operate my phone via voice commands. There's also an SIE2 model that works with most other devices.

Durability: 4 The Sweating Situation: There was zero budge as my ears got slicker. The packaging calls these sweat- and weather-resistant, so you won't want to submerge them in water but you can certainly wipe 'em down.

Bells & Whistles: The headphones also come with a nifty Reebok armband, complete with a small pocket for a key.

Cost: $149.95 on the Bose website. If you just want the SIE2 model, those will set you back $119.95.

Philips ActionFit Sports Headband Headphones

Sound Quality: 4.5. The bass was rich and heart-pounding, even at higher volumes.

Noise Isolation: 3. I expected to have to really crank up the volume, since on-ear models typically allow in more ambient noise, but these struck a good balance. I could hear the middle-aged couple running behind me approaching, which definitely pushed me to go faster.

Fit & Comfort: The ear cushions are plump and sumptuous, although I always wonder how makes like these will hold up over many, many sweaty hours, since I basically eroded a pair a few years back. They're incredibly lightweight and not too tight. The non-slip headband helped keep everything in place without squeezing, although I did get a little jiggle on one side.

Cord Length: A little long, but the included cord clip helps keep bounce to a minimum.

Durability: 3. The cable is outfitted with a Kevlar coating to withstand any potential tears. The silicone headband doesn't seem easily breakable, although I do always worry slightly about snapping something that doesn't fold. The set comes with a pouch to carry them in, but it's just cloth.

The Sweating Situation: The ear cushions are detachable and washable, and the whole shebang is sweat-resistant and rainproof. Sweating didn't move these babies a millimeter.

Bells & Whistles: The on-ear design is the big perk here, since there aren't many non-earbud active options. Note that there's no remote on the cable, so you'll have to manage volume and track order from your device.

Cost: $99.99, according to the Philips website

Polk UltraFit 3000

Sound Quality: 3.5. I wasn't completely blown away here, but I was definitely pleased.

Noise Isolation: 3. These were a happy medium of isolation and safety.

Fit & Comfort: With three sizes of silicone ear tips, two pairs of three-tiered silicone ear tips that I found were the best shape for my ears and two pairs of memory foam tips for additional sound isolation (save those for the treadmill), you'd be hard-pressed to not find some combination that works for you. Once I found the right option, I could hardly feel 'em. The over-the-ear section is flexible and bendable, but secures nicely in place and doesn't bounce while running.

Cord Length: Also customizable! The set comes with a 14-inch cable and a 41-inch cable, although only the latter has a remote control. The remote was kind of a dud, though: The volume controls worked fine, but it was nearly impossible to use the central button to change the song. I found myself fumbling and frustrated more than once.

Durability: 5. These also has a Kevlar-enhanced cord for serious lasting power. They also come with a compact carrying case, and the bendable design eliminates fear of snapping.

The Sweating Situation: The Polk website explains that these are protected by "moisture shield technology" that "deflects and resists moisture". They also didn't budge when I got sweaty.

Bells & Whistles: The customization is the big perk here. These are designed to operate with Apple products, but the very similar UltraFit 3000a offer an option for Android users, too.

Cost: $79.95 according to the Polk website

FINALLY: Lena Dunham Lands A Mag Cover!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 18:43:00 +0000

We've been tracking Lena Dunham lately and noticing her increasing attention to fashion: a McQueen dress here, a cute Kate Spade ensemble there. But today brings us the most exciting development yet: Lena has finally landed a fashion mag cover!

The "Girls" star covers the October issue of Marie Claire UK (a women's magazine by definition, but with a heavy focus on style). October is Marie Claire UK's big 25th anniversary issue, and it also features an extended profile of British female icons and a retrospective of the past 25 years in fashion.

And they chose Lena as their big cover star. "I'm not saying I am a great candidate for the cover of a fashion magazine," the actress and writer tells the magazine. "But I do love clothes. People are always surprised to hear that -- they think I walk around in a washcloth or something."

They also might not be used to seeing Lena's figure on a cover -- as we know all too well, there is still a conspicuous lack of non-size zero cover models in the fashion magazine world. And Dunham, for one, is over it:

"I do think it takes fashion magazines a minute to be comfortable with variations of any kind. Adele is one of the most beautiful women in the world, but every time I see her on the cover, it's like a crop of her face and it's just so boring at this point. It's such a boring conversation."

Lena has a point about Adele, whose Vogue UK and Vogue covers were cropped to exclude her torso (Cosmo, thankfully, left it in); Gabourey Sidibe got the same treatment on her Elle cover in October 2010, prompting backlash.

But mags are making headway in diversifying the faces, bodies and personalities on their covers. Case in point: Lena's gorgeous shoot, photographed by Alexei Hay. Check out photos from the spread below, and see the full feature in the special collector's 25th Birthday October issue on newsstands and Apple Newsstand or at MarieClaire.co.uk

Lena Dunham	for Marie Claire

Seven Supermodels, One Stunning Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 19:41:00 +0000

Just when we thought we'd seen all the spectacular September issues... Interview magazine had to come knock out all the competition.

For their "Model Issue," it seems Interview couldn't decide which of the industry's veterans to feature on its glossy cover -- so they chose seven. The special issue has alternate covers featuring Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Amber Valetta, Daria Werbowy and Stephanie Seymour.

Shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, the dramatic black-and-white images show the legends at their finest, and the accompanying text sheds light on the models' lengthy careers. The craziest sound bite in print came courtesy of Daria Werbowy, who revealed her insecurities and doubts about the industry:

Sometimes I am still surprised that I'm a model and that people think I'm good-looking. I've gone through a lot of different phases on what I do and why I do it -- morally and ethically. I've tortured myself about it, especially in dealing with success and money. I just had to learn to look at it as a job, as opposed to identifying myself as a model and thinking of myself as a part of this industry. I just thought, Okay, this is an opportunity to learn and see and meet people... If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it as best I can. I'm going to give it everything.

Inside Interview, there's a portfolio of over 70 more stunners, including big names like Miranda Kerr, Lara Stone and Alessandra Ambrosio, as well as up-and-comers in the industry.

Check out the seven stunning covers below. Which one is your favorite?

Amazon developing Android console to release this year

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 06:40:00 +0000

Online retail giant Amazon will enter the Android console market later this year, according to Game Informer sources. In a brief report, the site claims people with "knowledge of the in-development hardware" said the Amazon console will have its own controller, will use Amazon's own library of Android apps, and will "most likely" be available by Black Friday.

Meanwhile, GamesBeat notes it's "heard rumblings" of the console, including one developer's report that Amazon exhibited a version of it recently. However, GamesBeat also says a couple of sources weren't sure if "Amazon was serious" about developing it.

An Amazon-developed Android console would certainly shake up the market, currently headlined by devices like the Ouya, GameStick, and Nvidia Shield. The company, ranked 149th on CNNs Global 500 Fortune list, generated $61 billion in revenue across 2012.

In June, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google is developing its own Android console, alongside an Android-powered wristwatch. According to WSJ sources, Google is mindful of expectations that Apple will leverage Apple TV to develop its own console.

40 Ways To Eat S'mores

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:59:00 +0000

Let's be honest, most of us only really like camp-side fires because of the s'mores. The roasted marshmallows and melted chocolate are reason enough to go through the trouble of hunting for twigs. But for some of people, like us city-dwellers, camp-side fires aren't really an option. That's when we bring the making of s'mores indoors. With s'mores recipes, you can indulge in your favorite combination of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker in other forms -- like in pies, cookies and even milkshakes.

These indoor s'mores recipes might require a little more work than the simple assembly of the outdoor variety; but take our word for it, they are well worth the effort.

Is Denmark's Princess Mary The Most Stylish Royal Around?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:32:00 +0000

There's a reason she beat out Kate Middleton for the "Most Fashionable Royal" title -- Princess Mary knows how to dress.

The Danish princess hit up the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair yesterday, proving that her regal yet laid-back look is why the people love her. For the occasion, Mary went with a blue and white polka-dot dress, nude sandals and a pink clutch as she took in the up-and-coming designs and sampled all of the beauty products.

Sounds like quite a fun day, no? The royal seems to have no problem running in fashion circles, and she's even been known to attend a runway show or two. So we hope it's not wishful thinking that she'll eventually make it stateside for New York Fashion Week. It wouldn't be the first time we spotted a royal in the front row...

Check out Princess Mary's lovely look from yesterday's fashion fair and tell us if you like her style!

PHOTOS:

Rihanna Is Having a Killer Nineties Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 08:14:00 +0000

Rihanna drastically changed her appearance again, two weeks after she drastically changed her hair the last time. At first, we were like, "Chill with the transformations, Rihanna," but we love this jet black, short, natural look she unveiled on Instagram yesterday. She's totally embracing the nineties vibe of the haircut by going braless in a cropped tank top and metal choker. The throwback R&B-girl-group-member-meets–The Craft look has us so inspired, we're listening to En Vogue's greatest hits while researching how to call the corners.

Jennifer Aniston Is GORGEOUS Without Makeup

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 07:22:00 +0000

Not only does Jennifer Aniston look amazing dolled up for a red carpet, she also looks stunning with no makeup on at all.

Chris McMillan, the actress' longtime hairstylist, the man behind her famous "Friends" 'do and the one who will be styling her locks for her wedding day, posted a photo with a bare-faced Aniston on Saturday (Aug. 3) in New York City, People notes. In the shot, the 44-year-old appears next to her BFF in the summer sun wearing nothing but a smile.

"Best #friends #no makeup #girl-time," McMillan captioned the photo.

Good genes are certainly a part of it, but the "We're the Millers" star and Aveno spokesmodel also credits her glow to lots of water, adequate sleep, a clean diet and exercise, according to The Cut.

"When I started making enough money to afford high-end, fancy skincare products with sexy bottles and impressive claims, I decided to give them a try," she told The Cut last month. "As a result my skin acted up and got irritated. I think sometimes women may be overcleansing their skin. Some products and masks can be too aggressive and irritating for certain skin types. I believe the more simple, natural, and easy the skin care regime, the better off your skin will be."

Summer Love or Something Like It

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 07:24:00 +0000

The third time it happened was outside a house party in that peripheral part of town where the summer employees lived. Waitresses, bus boys and hotel valets out of uniform and in scant beachwear laughed about bands, drugs and surfing -- their lexicon of cool so far beyond my grasp that I regarded its speakers with a lusty reverence reserved for the glossiest untouchables. I was 18 at the time and could count the number of parties I had been to on one hand. That and the fact that my family summered on the island did nothing to enhance my social capital with this crowd. Despite the fact that I was technically part of the summer workforce, I was a Baby in a sea of Johnnys. Swaddled in the particular type of self-loathing that arises from unwitting rigidity in the face of wanton merrymaking, I kept my mouth shut, lest I commit an "I carried a watermelon" offense and get kicked out -- or worse, shamed -- for not belonging.

Riding the wave of late-cresting rebellion in that three-month breath between high school and college, I had followed my younger, cooler brother to the site of this nightly ritual. While I was folding cashmere sweaters at a Main Street boutique, he was down by the wharf, renting bikes to enthusiastic weekenders. The bike shop guys were the nexus of anti-establishment cool -- the chain-smoking, board shorts-clad answer to their yacht-sailing, popped-collar counterparts. After nightfall, everyone who was anyone knew to go to the house they rented, where there would surely be beer, bongs and the promise of promise. Isn't that why people attended those sorts of gatherings, anyway? If not to celebrate a birthday or Christmas, the impetus for assembly seemed to be the tantalizing prospect of an experience or liaison, without which any person in her right mind would've just cozied up at home in her jammies with a DVD and some froyo.

My impetus? The Bike Messenger. I didn't know his name or his story. All I knew was that he was older, seemed dangerous and had eyes that sparkled when they met mine -- which had happened exactly twice: Once when I had visited the bike shop to retrieve my brother from work, and again the following afternoon on the docks. I'd been sitting there alone during my lunch break, dangling my feet over the edge and staring off into the distance. It's what I loved most about the island. That suspended sense of being no one, nowhere, tethered to nothing but the wind and the waves. There was not a soul in sight, and then there he was. I don't know that I had ever seen the docks empty at the height of summer. Somehow, though, we were the only two people there that day. It could have simply been that the crowds were at the beach but, engorged as I was on Seventeen Magazine and Jane Austen, I chalked it up to destiny (cue dramatic look to horizon). We held each other's gaze for longer than was comfortable as he made his way from the end to the beginning, and only looked away after he'd stepped off the wooden planks and onto solid ground. For all I knew he was a greasy Casanova who could smell virgin blood from a mile away. But in that moment his presence was poetry. I'd said nothing. He'd said nothing. We hadn't needed to. In the space between us was a tacit understanding we'd meet again -- not because it was a small island or because he worked with my brother, but, naturally, because it was meant to be.

The party had grown rowdy. The Bike Messenger wasn't even there. Overwhelmed as I was (and am) in crowds, I stepped outside into the moonlight, my ill-advised high-heeled shoes sinking awkwardly into the gravel driveway. I had taken up smoking the year before and found great solace in the myriad opportunities it afforded for quiet contemplation. (P.S. Don't smoke. It's bad for you.) I lit my cigarette, inhaled, and blew smoke up at the stars. I didn't see him until after I had finished the first one. I turned my face away from the wind to light the second, and only then did I notice his silhouette resting in a nearby patch of grass, camouflaged by shadows. He'd been there the whole time.

"I saw you at the shop," he said, cracking a smile with his deviously crooked teeth. "And on the dock," I wagered, stepping close enough to see the sharp, geometric outlines of his tattoos.

We both smoked Camel Lights. This obviously meant we were soulmates. Beneath his ink and piercings, I could see that he was steady and sensitive. Beneath my prep school primness, he could see that I was imploding in a Dead Poets Society sort of way. I got his goodness and he got my turbulence, and the rest of the world didn't seem to get any of that about either of us. And so there we sat. A perfect pair of mismatched socks.

What is it about summer that allowed goody two-shoes Sandy to end up with T-Bird Danny and Mount Holyoke-bound Baby to dirty dance her way into Johnny Castle's arms? As Don Henley points out, the steadfast love of a perennial boyfriend is preferable, because it endures "after the boys of summer have gone." LFO underlines this transient nature of the seasonal relationship: "Summer girls come and summer girls go/ Some are worthwhile and some are so-so." Even Grease warns us that, "It turned colder" and, well, "that's where it ends." Given our collective knowledge of how summer love pans out, why do we continue to covet and celebrate it? Why are there countless movies, songs and magazine articles about it? Admit it. The mere mention of the phrase makes you want to hop up on a cafeteria table and break out into song, as your adorable, poodle skirt-wearing girlfriends chime in, "Tell me more, tell me more!"

My guess is that summer is our version of a Shakespearean green world where all normal rules go out the window. The courtly folks leave the unyielding confines of society and skip off into the enchanted forest where they bend genders, trade lovers, cavort with magical animals and employ the inestimable powers of fairy dust and disguise. The topsy-turvy sequence of events that ensues affords these individuals some much-needed clarity, ultimately allowing them to return to the courtly world refreshed and enlightened. The only difference is that, whereas their escapist playground traditionally leads to marriage (e.g. Rosalind and Orlando, Celia and Oliver, Helena and Demetrius, Hermia and Lysander), ours more often leads to heartbreak. Case in point: What Baby and Johnny had could never have existed beyond the confines of Kellerman's. Just like Zack Morris could only be with Stacy Carosi at the Malibu Sands Beach Club. Back in the real world, he was always going to end up with Kelly. But therein lies the allure. Summer love, like the season itself, is necessarily fleeting.

I knew this when I met the Bike Messenger, but I chose to ignore it. I ignored it when he told me his age. And when I met his on-again, off-again girlfriend. (They were off-again. For the life of me I couldn't understand why. She looked like one of the models from my magazines.) I ignored it when our mutual friends warned me not to get involved. And when my brother looked on disapprovingly. I ignored it because the cocktail of dopamine and serotonin and -- let's be honest -- escapism was too good to resist. And so there I was. Fixated on the clock at every family dinner. Faux-casually strolling past the bike shop during every break from work. Balancing precariously on the white porcelain bathroom sink, shaving my legs higher than I normally would and nicking my skin in the process because I was in such a rush to be deflowered.

Maddeningly and, later, thankfully, my tattooed Casanova had better sense than to take advantage of a wide-eyed teenager. (See? Told you he was sensitive.) In fact, I'm not even sure sex was on the table or if I had completely imagined it. In theaters this summer! The New England retelling of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet starring... me. We tend to do that. Create our own narratives. Break our own hearts. The story I was telling was one of star-crossed lovers. The story he was telling was one of a twent-something surfer dude who built bikes in summer, messengered parcels in winter and spoke lovingly about a 4-year-old son he rarely saw.

People contain within them universes. Each person you meet is a portal into a world of which you do or do not want to be a part. And with someone else, someplace else, you can be an entirely different version of yourself. I mean, what if the whole thing started because Sandy liked who she was with Danny? Ever think about that? Maybe Baby's love for Johnny was real. Or maybe she just loved the version of herself she saw through his eyes. His hungry eyes. Sorry. Couldn't resist. We become enamored of ourselves in situations and call it "love" -- or, as I so eloquently put it in a letter the following fall, "the closest thing I've ever felt to love." I know. I'm sorry you had to hear that. It's embarrassing for us all. But I did it. I committed the cardinal sin of summer romance: the drag-out. Sitting alone in my college dorm room, staring out at gothic turrets, I penned a love letter to a guy whose last name I didn't even know. The address read: [First Name] c/o The Bike Shop [Street, City, State, Zip]. I imagine he'd already gone to the mainland for the winter by then. He was probably on a bike somewhere, weaving dangerously in and out of traffic with an important parcel strapped to his back, à la Puck from The Real World. I imagine the other guys at the bike shop laughing and putting the letter on a joke wall or, if there is any mercy in the world, straight into the garbage.

Before that letter, though, before lunchtime trysts by the wharf, before cosmic conversations and awkwardly fraught goodbyes, was the moment that started it all. We lingered in the dark outside that party and talked for what must've been hours. When it was time to go, I mumbled something about insomnia. Suspended in the liminal space between everything I'd ever known and whatever would happen at the end of that summer, I'd taken to lying awake most nights staring at the ceiling, lost in the frenzied hopes and fears that only exist on the blind precipice of imminent change. My Bike Messenger understood. You see, there are certain types of relationships you can only have with strangers. That night we both recognized that this was one of them.

"I don't like it either," he said of sleep. "I always feel like I'll miss something. The world is just... so much." I couldn't have said it better myself. Toldja. Soulmates. Or at least for the time being. That is, after all, what summer is for.

Moto X Release: Google Bets On Voice Control And Customization With New Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 06:52:00 +0000

Moto X is finally here.

Google on Thursday unveiled the Moto X, the first smartphone fully designed and built by Motorola since it was bought by Google last year.

But thanks to recent leaks, the phone's biggest features didn't come as a surprise: The device can be customized with different colored rear casings and accents, it has a camera that is activated with a flick of the wrist, and like the new Droid lineup announced last week, many of the phone's functions -- including Google search -- can be controlled solely by your voice.

At a press event on Thursday, Rick Osterloh, Motorola Mobility's senior vice president of product management, lamented that smartphones today aren't actually very smart.

"Phones today require you to manually enter a pin and touch it," Osterloh said. "It should be able to respond to you."

Motorola is touting Touchless Control as one of its best features. It allows Moto X owners to set alarms, get directions, make calls, send messages and schedule appointments -- all without touching the phone.

Touchless Control works by way of three microphones that are always on, waiting for owners to utter the phrase, "OK Google Now." That phrase activates the phone and makes it perk up, eagerly awaiting your question or command: "Get me directions to Central Park," "Make me an appointment tomorrow at noon" or "What time is it in Singapore?"

A phone that's always listening may seem like a privacy nightmare, but privacy experts told The Huffington Post that Touchless Control is actually executed quite well because it's optional -- and, by default, off -- and processes the information on the phone rather than through Google's servers.

"If it's only happening locally on the device, then that really eliminates most of the privacy issues most people would have," said Sarah A. Downey, a privacy analyst at Abine, a company that makes consumer online privacy tools. "There isn't any data stored."

But it still remains to be seen whether Touchless Control -- which is also available on the Droid Mini, Droid Ultra and Droid MAXX, all announced last week -- will boost sales for the new phone. One of the issues with voice-activation technology, analysts say, is that people may still not be ready to change the way they interact with phones.

"Nobody has really been able to overcome the consumer resistance to people talking to their phones," said Tero Kuittinen, a mobile analyst and vice president at Alekstra, a firm that works to reduce companies' phone bills. "They feel self conscious about doing it if there are other people in a room."

"So I'm somewhat skeptical about whether that feature alone will sell a phone," Kuittinen added.

Charles Golvin, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, agrees.

"By and large, people's decision making is a melange of price, look and feel, ecosystem preference and how invested they are in Android versus iOS," he said. "It's not any one feature."

Motorola is also pushing its new camera, which can be activated by twisting your wrist, a gesture the company likens to "turning a screwdriver." This, combined with the fact that users can take photos by pressing anywhere on the screen, allows for fast picture-taking. Moto X has a 10 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. Both are capable of shooting 1080p HD video.

The company says the phone's customization makes it hugely innovative, but in actuality, the customized features only affect how the phone looks. Customers will be able to use "online studio" Moto Maker to choose from 18 different colored rear casings with accents, pick a black or white front, and engrave messages on the back of the phone. Moto Maker is currently only available to AT&T customers, and there's no timeline of when customers who use other carriers will be able to buy it.

The American version of the phone is assembled in Fort Worth, Texas, which Motorola says will allow the company to complete custom designed phones within four days of an order placement.

Motorola did not provide exact dates as to when Moto X will be available, but said that black and white versions of the phone will be sold with AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless for $199 with a two-year contract. It did not reveal the price of the unlocked version of the phone, or how much it will cost T-Mobile customers.

Central Banks to Keep Steady Hands on the Tiller

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 20:57:00 +0000

Three of the world's leading central banks are likely to reaffirm their determination this week to keep a lid on interest rates for a long time to come, despite signs that their economies are slowly on the mend.

The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are all expected to repeat or refine their "forward guidance" that borrowing costs will remain extraordinarily low as long as growth is sub-par and inflation is not a threat.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's news conference after the U.S. central bank's policy meeting will come in for particular scrutiny for fresh clues over the timetable for phasing-out the Fed's bond buying, running at $85 billion a month.

Bernanke has said the Fed is likely to begin reducing its purchases later this year - markets have penciled in a September start - and end them completely in mid-2014, depending on the economic news flow.

No figures are more important than the monthly employment data and Friday's report is likely to show the economy added 185,000 jobs in July, just shy of the 200,000 average of the past nine months, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Joseph Carson, chief economist with AllianceBernstein in New York, said that pace should be at least sustained in coming months, as job growth in services was being reinforced by strength in construction and an improvement in manufacturing.

Second-quarter GDP figures on Wednesday are forecast to show the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.0 percent, just half as fast as in the first quarter, but Carson expects an acceleration to between 3.0 and 3.25 percent in the second half of this year and to 3.5 percent in 2014.

Although the recovery has just marked the end of its fourth year, it looks in many respects as though it is just getting under way, Carson said.

"We're getting the early-cyclical industries from autos to housing starting to provide leadership. We're starting to get the labour markets improving. And we have low inflation, which is always a feature of the early stages of a cycle," he said.

MANUFACTURING SIGNS

What's more, consumers and companies are in good financial shape. "Wealth is at an all-time high, leverage is low in the household sector and businesses are flush with cash," Carson added.

Carl Riccadonna at Deutsche Bank in New York said the Institute of Supply Management's monthly survey would be critical for assessing the economy's momentum and corroborating recent positive signs from regional manufacturing surveys and, notably, a growing backlog of orders for durable goods.

"This is an encouraging development, because as unfilled orders accumulate, businesses tend to become more confident with respect to hiring, investment and production plans," Riccadonna said in a note.

Deutsche expects GDP growth to accelerate to a 3.3 percent pace in the second half of 2013, as fiscal headwinds fade and housing continues to gather strength.

The euro zone is also hoping for a better end to the year, after last week's purchasing managers' surveys showed the economy is bottoming out after six quarters of contraction.

A batch of European sentiment indicators on Tuesday should confirm the modest improvement.

However, with unemployment forecast to have stayed at a record high of 12.2 percent in June and inflation expected to come in below target at 1.6 percent, ECB President Mario Draghi is likely to reiterate that interest rates will stay at present or lower levels for an extended period.

Grant Lewis, an economist with Daiwa Capital Markets in London, does not expect another reduction in the ECB's main policy rate, already at a record low of 0.5 percent, but said the balance of risk was skewed towards a cut rather than a rise.

"Remember inflation is incredibly low and the risks are firmly on the downside," Lewis said. He described last week's weak bank lending figures for the eurozone as abysmal. "The need for more stimulus may well materialise."

Of 70 economists polled by Reuters, only a quarter expect another rate cut. Only one thought the ECB would act this week.

The Bank of England is also expected to remain firmly on hold - although it might issue another dovish statement - ahead of its next quarterly inflation report on Aug. 7.

That will provide a peg for new Governor Mark Carney to spell out, as Bernanke has done, what conditions would have to be met before the central bank dials back its bond buying and looks ahead to when record-low interest rates will start to rise.

The hope is that a pledge that increased borrowing costs are a long way off will be enough by itself to water the green shoots of recovery.

"In the first instance they will view forward guidance as providing more stimulus, whichever intermediate targets they're going to choose," Lewis said.

Google Glass development with Android

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 19:02:00 +0000

It looks like Google is about to unleash a new wave of more powerful applications for Google Glass. Currently, Glass developers can only build apps that are essentially web-based services that talk to the user’s hardware through a set of relatively limited APIs. At its I/O developer conference earlier this year, Google announced that it would soon release its so-called Glass Development Kit (GDK), which would let them build Android-based apps for Glass that can run directly on the device.

So far, however, Google hasn’t launched the GDK. Instead, Google today encouraged developers who are waiting for the GDK to start working on Android apps for Glass using the standard Android SDK (API Level 15) to try out their ideas.

As Google notes, developers can use the SDK to access low-level hardware to render OpenGL and use stock Android UI widgets, for example. Developers can also access the accelerometer of Glass through the SDK.

Glass, after all, runs Android 4.0.4, so it’s a pretty well-known platform for many developers. To help newcomers get started, though, the company also released a number of sample apps (a stopwatch, compass and level) today that highlight some of the things developers can do with Android on Glass. Over the next few weeks, Glass team member Alain Vongsouvanh writes on Google+ today, the team will also use these sample apps to “demonstrate the migration path between a traditional Android app and a full Glass experience.”

For Glass to reach its full potential, developers need better access to the device’s hardware, so it’s nice to see Google moving ahead with this. It’s still a bit of a surprise that Google hasn’t released the GDK yet. And the fact that it made today’s announcement indicates that it could still be a few weeks out. If you’re a Glass developer, though, now is probably a good time to start thinking about how you would use Android on Glass.

Car hackers use laptop to control car

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 18:22:00 +0000

Next time you have a passenger in the back seat of your car offering infuriatingly "helpful" advice about your driving skills, count yourself lucky that they aren't doing anything more sinister in their attempts to guide your vehicle.

Two security experts in the US have demonstrated taking control of two popular models of car, while someone else was driving them, using a laptop.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of revealing their research at security conference Defcon in Las Vegas in August, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek said they hoped to raise awareness about the security issues around increasingly computer-dominated car control.

"At the moment there are people who are in the know, there are nay-sayers who don't believe it's important, and there are others saying it's common knowledge but right now there's not much data out there," said Mr Miller, a security engineer at Twitter.

"We would love for everyone to start having a discussion about this, and for manufacturers to listen and improve the security of cars."

Their work, funded by the Pentagon's research facility Darpa, has so far received a mixed reaction from the manufacturers themselves.

How they did it

The researchers used cables to connect the devices to the vehicles' electronic control units (ECUs) via the on-board diagnostics port (also used by mechanics to identify faults) inside a 2010 model Ford Escape and Toyota Prius.

Contained within most modern vehicles, ECUs are part of the computer network that controls most aspects of car functionality including acceleration, braking, steering, monitor displays and the horn.

The pair were able to write software which sent instructions to the car network computer and over-rode the commands from the actual drivers of the cars.

They filmed themselves in the back of one of the vehicles steering it left and right, activating the brakes and showing the fuel gauge drop to zero, all while the vehicle was under driver control and in motion.

A spokesman for Toyota told the BBC that because the hardware had to be physically connected inside the car, he did not consider it to be "hacking".

"Altered control can only be made when the device is connected. After it is disconnected the car functions normally," he said.

"We don't consider that to be 'hacking' in the sense of creating unexpected behaviour, because the device must be connected - ie the control system of the car physically altered.

"The presence of a laptop or other device connected to the OBD [on board diagnostics] II port would be apparent."

Expensive and difficult

Mr Miller and Mr Valasek say this is not the point.

Their work builds on earlier research carried out by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of San Diego in 2010, who demonstrated that it was possible to control a car remotely and developed a tool, which they called CarShark, for the purpose.

"We're big fans of their work but we figured they already proved you can remotely get into a car's network," Chris Valasek, director of security intelligence at consultancy IOActive told the BBC.

"We wanted to see how much control would you have once that's happened."

They admitted that they had destroyed a few cars while refining their technique.

"It's very expensive and difficult to do the research to show you can hack into a car. It's not like you can just download something and look at it," said Mr Miller.

"I wouldn't dare do this to my own car," added Mr Valasek.

They said the cars did not appear to acknowledge the address from where a command was being sent, only the instruction itself.

"There's no authentication," said Mr Miller.

"But there are restrictions - the car has to operate very fast. If you run into a wall you need to kill the engine immediately, engage the airbag.

"Car manufacturers don't have the luxury PC software makers have - if something doesn't work in a car that can't happen, it needs to function."

Mr Miller and Mr Valasek intend to make their research openly available following the conference.

"The information will be released to everyone. If you're just relying on the fact people aren't talking about the problem to stay safe, you're not really dealing with the problem," said Mr Miller.

Toyota said it invested heavily in security research.

"Our focus, and that of the entire automotive industry, is to prevent hacking into a vehicle's by-wire control system from a remote/wireless device outside of the vehicle.

"Toyota has developed very strict and effective firewall technology against such remote and wireless services. We continue to try to hack our systems and have a considerable investment in state of the art electro-magnetic R&D facilities.

"We believe our systems are robust and secure."

Ford also told the BBC the company takes electronic security seriously.

"This particular attack was not performed remotely over-the-air, but as a highly aggressive direct physical manipulation of one vehicle over an elongated period of time, which would not be a risk to customers on any mass level," it said in a statement.

"The safety, privacy, and security of our customers is and always will be paramount."

"Scary"

Security expert Prof Alan Woodward, Chief Technology Officer at consultancy Charteris, said that car hacking hasn't been widely discussed because as yet there has been no criminal incident of it.

"I think [car hacking] is one of the most scary things out there - [the hacking of] cars and medical devices are the two things nobody talks about," he told the BBC.

"You've heard of ransomware - imagine that happening inside a car. It won't take criminals that long."

Ransomware is a computer virus that freezes a victim's computer or threatens to release personal files unless a payment is made.

A car crash caused by a hacked car featured as a storyline on the US TV series Homeland but was widely dismissed as fantasy, he added.

"There was loads of talk afterwards saying it was rubbish. I remember saying on Twitter, 'I'm sorry, it's not.'"

However both the researchers and Prof Woodward agree that hacking into a car is not easy.

"This is a very technical attack, it requires a great deal of technical knowledge," Prof Woodward said.

"A lot of manufacturers are doing work on security software but they don't talk about it. It's not about anti-malware software, it's more about penetration testing - finding any holes left in the system.

"When people build things based on software, it is built with Intention A. They never think about intention B - which could be all sorts of nefarious purposes."

Chinese firm controls UK porn filter

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 18:10:00 +0000

The pornography filtering system praised by David Cameron is controlled by the controversial Chinese company Huawei, the BBC has learned.

UK-based employees at the firm are able to decide which sites TalkTalk's net filtering service blocks.

Politicians in both the UK and US have raised concerns about alleged close ties between Huawei and the Chinese government.

The company says the worries are without foundation and prejudiced.

On Monday the Prime Minister said TalkTalk had shown "great leadership" in setting up its system, Homesafe, which it has offered to customers since 2011.

TalkTalk told the BBC it was comfortable with its relationship with Huawei, and that the service was very popular.

Homesafe is a voluntary scheme which allows subscribers to select categories - including social media, gambling and pornography - that they want blocked.

Customers who do not want filtering still have their traffic routed through the system, but matches to Huawei's database are dismissed rather than acted upon.

Accountability question

Mr Cameron has demanded similar measures be adopted by all internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK, to "protect our children and their innocence".

He said ISPs would be monitored to ensure filtering was done correctly, but that they should choose their own preferred solution.

However, one expert insisted that private companies should not hold power over blacklists, and that the responsibility should lie with an independent group.

"It needs to be run by an organisation accountable to a minister so it can be challenged in Parliament," Dr Martyn Thomas, chair of the IT policy panel at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, told the BBC.

"There's certainly a concern about the process of how a web address gets added to a blacklist - who knows about it, and who has an opportunity to appeal against it," he added.

"You could easily imagine a commercial organisation finding itself on that blacklist wrongly, and where they actually lost a lot of web traffic completely silently and suffered commercial damage. The issue is who gets to choose who's on that blocking list, and what accountability do they have?"

'Policing themselves'

For almost a decade, Huawei has been a core part of telecoms infrastructure in the UK - its biggest client, BT, has routinely said it has no concerns about using the firm.

Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in China's People's Liberation Army, visited Downing Street last year after his company made a £1.3bn investment into its UK operations.

But Huawei's position was recently the subject of an Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report. It criticised the lack of ministerial oversight over the firm's rapid expansion in the UK.

The committee said "the alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese State are concerning, as they generate suspicion as to whether Huawei's intentions are strictly commercial or are more political" - but added that it had not found any evidence of wrongdoing.

It said it had worries that a UK-based testing centre set up to examine Huawei products was staffed by experts employed by the Chinese firm.

The ISC said Huawei was "effectively policing themselves".

In the US, intelligence committees have gone further, branding Huawei a threat to national security.

For its part, Huawei strongly denies having close ties with the Chinese government, pointing out it is 98.6% owned by its employees - with the remaining amount held by Mr Ren. It welcomed the ISC's call for a review of the testing centre.

Huawei executive Chen Li Fang said the company should not be treated unfairly just because it was Chinese.

The UK government said it too agreed with the ISC's call to review the testing centre, adding that it works with all major communications providers to ensure security.

"Our work with Huawei and their UK customers gives us confidence that the networks in the UK that use Huawei equipment are operated to a high standard of security and integrity," a spokesman said.

Policy enforcement

Web filtering, which is not considered critical national infrastructure, was not covered in the ISC's report.

But the logistics of how Mr Cameron's plans will be implemented have been the subject of much debate.

Initially, TalkTalk told the BBC that it was US security firm Symantec that was responsible for maintaining its blacklist, and that Huawei only provided the hardware, as previously reported.

However, Symantec said that while it had been in a joint venture with Huawei to run Homesafe in its early stages, it had not been involved for over a year.

TalkTalk later confirmed it is Huawei that monitors activity, checking requests against its blacklist of over 65 million web addresses, and denying access if there is a match.

The contents of this list are largely determined by an automated process, but both Huawei and TalkTalk employees are able to add or remove sites independently.

Illegal websites - including ones showing images of child abuse - are blocked for all customers with the help of a list maintained by the non-profit Internet Watch Foundation.

Mr Cameron said that the actions of ISPs would be monitored to ensure filtering is done correctly.

Communications regulator Ofcom is expected to play some role in this, possibly by auditing the firms and reporting back to ministers regularly.

Lady Gaga Unveils Artwork For New Single

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 07:49:00 +0000

Lady Gaga is working hard to drum up excitement for her new material after months out of the spotlight. The singer's latest move finds her unveiling the artwork for her new single, which will serve as the first release from the upcoming album "ARTPOP."

Gaga tweeted the image, which features her sitting nude on a very technological chair:

The singer will release the song Aug. 19, followed by a live debut on Aug. 25 during a performance on the MTV Video Music Awards. In the meantime, much speculation is being tossed about in regard to what Gaga's comeback will have in store. Tara Savelo, the "Born This Way" star's makeup artist, recently took to her Little Monsters site to post a photo entitled "Applause," sparking questions as to whether that will be the title of the song.

New Rumours Abut iPhone 5S Release Date

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:11:00 +0000

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to This Week In Apple Rumors, our regular look at unconfirmed gossip and questionably sourced reports radiating from Cupertino. This week we heard speculation about an early September iPhone 5S release date, bigger iPhone and iPad displays, and what Apple may be building for cars. And we saw a video of what some believe is the plastic case for a new, less expensive iPhone. So without further ado, here's This Week in Apple Rumors.

Sept. 6 iPhone 5S Release Date

The iPhone 5S may be just over a month away. Cult of Mac relayed a report from the German blog iFun that says the next iPhone will be "coming to market" on Sept. 6. iFun cites a very credible source "to be taken seriously," according to a HuffPost translation.

If true, the release would come a bit earlier in the year than previous versions of the iPhone to hit the market. The iPhone 5 was unveiled on Sept. 12 of last year and went on sale in the U.S. nine days later. The iPhone 4S was announced on Oct. 4, 2011, and went on sale in the U.S. 10 days later.

The site also said to expect "two new device types, and this doesn't mean two different color or memory variations." Hmmm ... could it be two different screen sizes?

Bigger iPhone and iPad Displays

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal rekindled earlier reports that Apple is testing bigger screens for its iPhone and iPad. While the size of the rumored iPhone screen is unclear, the WSJ said Apple asked its suppliers "for screen designs for a new tablet measuring slightly less than 13 inches." The iPad has a 9.7-inch display and the iPhone 5 has a 4-inch display.

Apple finally took Donald Trump's advice, said Donald Trump.

Plastic iPhone Case (On Video!)

There have been rumors for months that Apple is working on a cheaper version of its iPhone that would have a rear casing made of plastic. Michael Kukielka, a.k.a. DetroitBORG, says he got his hands on the casing (thanks to Sonny Dickson), and made a video.

DetroitBORG calls it "a merger" of the iPhone 3GS and the iPod touch. It's thicker than the iPod touch and bit wider than the iPhone 5, and has the 4-inch display of the iPhone 5.

Apple's Dashboard of the Future

Tim Cook's comments in Apple's earnings call on Tuesday that "having something in the automobile is very, very important" brought renewed attention to what exactly Apple has planned for cars.

Last month, the company announced iOS in the Car, a way to integrate messages, Maps, and the iPhone more closely with new cars from a dozen manufacturers.

But iOS in the Car may be only the beginning. A few weeks ago Apple received a patent for a "revolutionary form of dashboard or instrument panel," with sensors, cameras, heads-up displays and customizable knobs and switches.

"It's something that people want, and I think that Apple can do this in a unique way and better than anyone else," Cook said Tuesday. "So it's a key focus for us."

Lindsay Lohan Euro Trip Post Rehab

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 22:39:00 +0000

Lindsay Lohan has booked a one-way ticket to Europe ... set to depart as soon as she finishes rehab ... because everyone knows an overseas vacation is the best way to keep your nose clean.

Sources close to LiLo tell TMZ ... after her 90-day-court-ordered rehab finishes up she'll head to London for some R&R ... as the first stop on a European adventure.

We're told a gal pal of LiLo offered to take her as a gift for a "job well done in rehab". And since LiLo has some time before her OWN docu-series begins filming she jumped at the opportunity.

Our sources say she booked a one-way ticket and has no return date set (yet), but hopefully it's before she's scheduled to film.

Lindsay believes the trip will give her some privacy during her post-rehab days.

Plus, it's Europe ... what could go wrong?

Dad Jeans Are Back In Style!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 22:19:00 +0000

The next time your teen pokes fun at your "dad jeans," you can let them know just how behind the times they actually are.

The New York Times Style section recently published a piece called "‘Dad Jeans’ Are Making a Comeback," with arbiters of men's style weighing in on the long ridiculed fit. (Dad jeans are known for their lighter wash, higher waist and loser fit in this age of dark denim, low-rise skinny jeans.) Quoth the Times:

"For those willing to push the envelope, dad jeans are one way to stand out at a Bushwick loft party. Besides, roomier washed jeans provide a flourish of ’90s retro, which is making a comeback for Generation Y in the form of Doc Martens, flannel shirts and wallet chains."

While some fashion blogs beg to differ ("'Are actual dad jeans in? No. Menswear-blogosphere-ordained dad jeans? Of course,” Lucky editor John Jannuzzi told Fashionista) The Times has spoken. So continue to avoid the skinny jeans, raw selvage or whatever else the fashion cognoscenti have been pushing on you. You're incredibly hip in your dad jeans, sir. And in good company! Take a look at the slideshow below to see other celebrity men rocking "dad jeans."

Can Fish Oil Cause Prostate Cancer?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 21:39:00 +0000

Whenever a newly-published health study challenges current thinking, you can bet it won't be long before the news media starts ratcheting up the drama and jumping to conclusions. This is true of a recent study called "Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk in the SELECT Trial," published in the July 2013 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. This study suggests a higher risk of prostate cancer among men who eat omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in fatty fish like sardines and salmon or in fish oil supplements.

Because I encourage my patients and readers to get plenty of omega-3s, I want to respond to these reports and offer my answer to the question they've raised: Can fish oil cause prostate cancer? But first, let's examine the findings.

What the Study Found

The study, which was conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, claims a link between increased blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids and increased incidence of prostate cancer. The highest blood plasma levels of these polyunsaturated fatty acids, specifically EPA, DHA and DPA, were associated with the highest risk. The research also showed that higher levels of linoleic acid (or omega-6 fatty acids, which most Americans eat too much of) were actually associated with a lowered risk. This would suggest that the more fish or fish oil a man included in his diet, the greater the chances he would develop prostate cancer. It would also mean that increasing his omega-6 fatty acid intake would be a good idea.

So, have I led you astray by telling you to eat your fatty fish and limit your intake of processed vegetable oils that contain omega-6 fatty acids? Should I warn you against taking fish oil and instead tell you to eat more cottonseed and sunflower seed oils? Let's look at the facts and decide.

A Closer Look at the Study

This study used what is called a retrospective case controlled cohort design. Simply put, to make their conclusions, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center used data from a previous study conducted in 2011 called the SELECT (Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial). It's important to note that the original SELECT study did not have the same objective as this current one. It wasn't designed to determine whether fish oil led to prostate cancer. The fact that both studies didn't have the same goal calls into question whether the old data is even relevant to the new study.

What we can be sure of is that association does not prove cause and effect. If this had been an intervention design study, where half the participants got fish oil and half didn't and they were followed for 20 years to see if they got prostate cancer, then you can say pretty definitively that they are connected. Bottom line, this type of study does not prove cause and effect. If I did a study on sunrise and humans waking up, I would find 100 percent correlation, but that doesn't mean that the sun came up because you woke up. Correlation, yes; causation, no.

Another problem with the study is that the researchers did not address whether the men who were studied got their omega-3 fatty acids from eating fatty fish or from taking supplements. Also, there was no regard for their health status before starting the study. Did they start using fish oil as a therapy once diagnosed with prostate cancer or had they been taking it all along?

And what about the myriad other factors that can lead to the onset and progression of cancer, such as how lifestyle affects genetics? Smoking, nutrition, exercise, environmental toxicity, stress -- none of these things were taken into account. It is too simplistic to reduce a disease as complex as cancer down to one trigger. In fact, perhaps we should be asking if these men were exposed to toxins and heavy metals from eating mercury-containing fish, which can cause cancer. Or did the men smoke or drink to excess? Was there a history of cancer in the family? What was their personal health history prior to diagnosis? Were they overweight or obese, and did they have other symptoms of diabesity?

Another major flaw with this study's design involves the way the researchers got their data. They analyzed blood plasma instead of red blood cells. And they did so with one single blood draw! The conclusions would have been stronger and more reliable had they used red blood cell samples, because those provide a more accurate assessment over the long term (plasma tends to provide only a short-term picture). Because the research was based only on samples of a single blood draw, the red blood cell analysis would have given a better picture of long-term omega-3 intake (a couple months of eating salmon, for example, instead of what happens in the body after a single meal). That's why I suggest people use the omega-3 index test, which measures levels from within the red blood cells.

Consider the Japanese

If it is true that taking fish oil or raising your blood levels of omega-3 phospholipids increases risk for prostate cancer, then why hasn't this been a problem for Japanese men? They certainly eat their fair share of fatty fish and have done so for generations! The Japanese (and other fish-loving cultures) have been studied many times to test this hypothesis, and guess what? Males in Japan, while having some of the highest levels of EPA and DHA, also have some of the lowest rates of prostate cancer. Only in the most recent studies have Japanese men been shown to have an increase in prostate cancer. Could it be that, as the Japanese begin to abandon their traditional diet of fish, seaweed, and other sea vegetables for the typical SAD (standard American diet, high in saturated fat and linoleic fatty acids), their risk of prostate cancer rises?

It seems that for every claim against fish and fish oil, there are several studies that confirm their benefits. One study, "Consumption of Fish Products Across the Lifespan and Prostate Cancer Risk," showed that high blood plasma phospholipids was protective against prostate cancer when fish oil was consumed. Another study showed that omega-3 fatty acids protect against death caused by prostate cancer. And what about the effect of fish oils on the outcome of prostate cancer in men with elevated PSA levels? Again, the literature shows that EPA and DHA have no negative effect.

Personalized Medicine

It's important to stop and remember that each person has a unique inner ecology and external environment. Contributing factors, such as exposure to environmental toxicity, poor nutrition, and other lifestyle variables, as well as genetics, all play a role in the development of cancer. It's a complicated disease, and it would be a good idea to pause and look at the whole picture before drawing any major conclusions.

The simple fact is that countless studies have proven the health benefits of eating a diet rich in antioxidants and fiber from fruits and vegetables. And just as we all know that eating your veggies is good for your health, we are now beginning to prove similar health benefits from including healthy fats in your diet. (For more information on how to increase your intake of healthy fats, please see my discussion here). We also know that limiting omega-6 fatty acids and increasing omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to reduce the risk of diabesity in Western cultures.

So, before we toss good medicine aside, we need to examine carefully the factors that contribute to imbalances in the body. We need to assess what we do know and keep asking questions about what we don't.

We know that a whole foods-based diet, rich in fresh, nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, and lean protein, does make a positive difference in health outcomes. We know that high-quality, purified fish oils are best. We know that a balanced and varied diet is key for maintaining good health. And we know that moderation is the key to a healthy and sensible relationship to food. Any diet or program promoting an extreme is not realistic, sustainable, or even remotely healthy. Remember, the "dose makes the poison," so just the right amount -- and not too much -- will allow you to reap the intended benefits. In the case of fish oil, 1-2 grams daily is appropriate for most people, though some of you may need more. I strongly suggest you work with a trained functional medicine practitioner to help you determine the appropriate doses you need, not only for fish oil but for all supplements. My nutrition coaches are here to help you transform general guidelines into personalized solutions.

So, where do I stand on whether fish oil causes prostate cancer? I'll be eating sardines in my salad for lunch tomorrow, and I'll be taking my daily fish oil supplement with my dinner tonight. And I hope you will be too!

Now, I'd like to hear from you...

Have you been swayed by recent reports to feel that omega-3s can cause prostate cancer?

Will you limit the amount of omega-6 fatty acids you consume?

What are some of your favorite ways to include fatty fish in your diet?

To your good health!

Are We Leaving Black Students Behind?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 19:17:00 +0000

When Dwight Davis, a black educator from Washington, D.C., thinks about his good teachers, he spouts their names in rapid succession. But when he reflects on the bad ones, their identities fade into a nightmarish blur. It's their actions that haunt him.

There was that time one teacher confused him for a special-education student, so she mistakenly told Davis' mother that he would be held back.

In fourth grade, Davis auditioned for choir, singing "It's A Small World." The choir teacher -- whose name Davis can't recall -- started laughing. It was devastating.

The next year, a friend in the school's science club encouraged Davis to join. "He was from a middle-class family, I was not," Davis recalls. Enthralled by his friend's extensive science knowledge, he asked the club’s teacher if he could join. She rolled her eyes and said no. "It was pretty horrible," he says. "I don't know what happened. She maybe had a Zimmerman moment and thought that because of how I dressed and looked, I was unworthy."

Overall, Davis sensed that no one cared. Though he excelled in elementary school, as he got older, he recalls, he fell in with the wrong crowd. His grades dropped, and he wound up in lower level classes, courses that attracted "all the bad teachers." They were so bad, he explained, that he nearly stopped attending school. But he still mysteriously pulled C's and D's. "They just wanted to push me through," he says. Teachers were passing him on, he felt, because that was easier than catching him up.

Davis’s experiences in D.C.'s public schools mirror nationwide trends among black students, a group that often gets shortchanged on teacher quality. As a result, black students, especially older ones, frequently struggle to perform at the same level as their white counterparts.

Despite the disadvantage, black students in earlier grades have made great strides in closing the so-called achievement gap between black and white students, particularly in reading. Between 1994 and 2012, the gap in ninth-grade reading narrowed from 33 points to 13, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the most reliable national education exam.

But as students progress through the school system -- as they're "pushed through" -- they often drop off academically. The gap between black and white high school students, kids at the threshold of adult life, remains profound. For 17-year-olds taking the same reading test, white students still outscore black students by 26 points.

A major reason for this discrepancy is something that has long plagued America's schools: minority students are more likely to have ineffective teachers -- by any measure. Federal data shows their educators are less experienced and less likely to have majored in the subject they're teaching, and generally, they have less impressive records in helping students grow their test scores. The problem, known as "equitable distribution of teachers," reflects broader arenas in which blacks lose out on resources.

Experts guess that better teachers are often attracted to whiter, less-challenging school districts because they often have more resources, cachet and management. When longtime civil rights activist Amy Wilkins attends D.C. cocktail parties and someone says they teach in Anacostia, a low-income area, guests meander across the room to get another drink, she says. But a teacher at Sidwell Friends, the tony private school where President Barack Obama sends his kids, stirs excitement.

"We have to figure out how to fix the horrible cultural narrative, which says that teaching black kids is at best rewarding and at worst impossible," says Wilkins, who now works on civil rights issues at the College Board. "We've created a narrative around these children that makes them totally unattractive, this big cultural racism that says no."

Over the last few decades, researchers have concluded that teachers are the most powerful in-school determinant of a student's success. And perhaps uniquely, the problem of equitable distribution of teachers among minority students actually has a fix on the books.

The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 included language requiring states to "ensure that poor and minority students are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers.”

But to the dismay of advocates, it has never been consistently enforced. The idea of forcing teachers to work in low-income schools rankles unions, and nobody wants to put a reluctant teacher, regardless of how objectively good they are, in front of the neediest students.

The law also has a major loophole, known in education circles as "comparability": it lets states report teacher salaries in a misleading manner. In effect, this allows wealthier schools to use federal money intended to help the poorer schools across town.

And despite No Child Left Behind, nationally, little has been done to put America's best teachers in front of minority students. In 2006, the Bush administration made states submit plans to show how they would get the job done, but according to a report by the D.C.-based advocacy group Education Trust, "very few states used this opportunity to right an injustice." Most states, EdTrust wrote, didn't even measure inequity, though required by law.

"On the whole, this is not something that's been enforced," says EdTrust's teacher quality director Sarah Almy. "There's a real hesitancy to disrupt the status quo. People hear of equitable distribution, and they think of forced placement."

Since minority students are often poor students, their schools rely on lower property tax bases, and are therefore generally poorly funded as well. It'd hard to find teachers who want to work in schools where limited resources confine them to an existence of smelly bathrooms, outdated libraries and leaky roofs.

Alice Johnson Cain, a former U.S. Senate staffer who now works for Teach Plus, remembers arranging a hearing in East St. Louis, Ill., in the early 1990s. She drove up to the building "through a war zone," and once she arrived, found shoddy plumbing and not one computer. The library was so strapped that even its most recent books didn't reflect the fact that man had, indeed, landed on the moon. "Compared to the education I got, I thought, this was broken," Johnson Cain, who is white, says.

More recently, the "Waiting For Superman" education reform set has fixated on identifying good teachers. Economists have developed an equation known as "value-added," a formula that is supposed to control for student-specific variables and tease out the degree to which teachers affect student learning. Thirty-two states now use value-added as an effort to sort out good teachers from bad ones.

But, Wilkins says, while policymakers may be getting better at identifying good teachers, she hasn't seen these new capabilities being used explicitly to help black students, for the most part. She calls this "the great disappointment" of the teacher quality movement. "Very few people are using the data to ensure that kids of color get a fair share of whatever 'good' is determined to be," she says. "It's heartbreaking."

The Obama administration's stimulus bill included language for correcting teacher distribution problems, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has expressed interest in incentivizing teaching jobs in less desirable schools. But activists such as Wilkins and EdTrust's leader Kati Haycock say the administration has done little to accomplish that goal. "The Obama administration has the support of black people no matter what they do," Wilkins says. "In a cold political calculus, it's like, why do we have to do anything, these people vote for us, they love us?" An administration official did not respond to requests for comment.

While forcing teachers into low-performing schools rarely works, more successful efforts in places like Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C. and Boston take the opposite approach. With tools such as a selective application process, they lend prestige to traditionally undesirable schools, and teachers have responded enthusiastically.

Meanwhile, organizations that intentionally place teachers at tough-to-staff schools try to fill the gap. Teach for America, an elite if controversial two-year teaching corps, says a major goal is to reverse the equitable distribution problem. According to information provided to HuffPost, 55 percent of next year's corps of 5,900 new teachers will come from communities of color, including 15 percent who identify as African-American. One quarter of them are the first in their families to attend college.

Samantha Arpino, who hails from New York City and identifies as multi-racial, is one of them. She grew up "not knowing what college was" as a kid, but wound up in a middle school that directed her there. "So I want to take the opportunity to teach in an urban area, to work with students who have a similar story," she said. "I could potentially be a role model for people like me, and they can see that college is an actual thing and not just a word."

She starts teaching in a Harlem charter school this fall.

Davis, meanwhile, is preparing to begin his 10th year teaching in his own city, Washington. His first years were rough -- he felt he had to insulate his fifth graders from what he saw as bad teachers, teachers who just passed along students who didn't learn or try.

He's now in a better school, and he's mentoring a young, African-American teacher, but he's worried those carefully-honed skills might leave the community. "I'm teaching him as much as I can," he says, "but if he goes to a private school, all of that teaching will be somewhere else. It'll be lost on us."

Eike Batista, Loses $33 Billion In Just 16 Months

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 18:21:00 +0000

You think losing a $10 bill is bad? Trying losing $33 billion, and with it your ranking among the world's richest men.

That’s what’s happened to Brazilian oil tycoon Eike Batista, who last year was quite literally on top of the world. Life was good, he was eighth richest man on the planet, and once he even vowed to overtake Mexico’s Carlos Slim as the planet's richest man.

It didn't last, and Batista has since watched his $34 billion net worth plummet some $33 billion over 16 months or so, according to Bloomberg. The big problem? His oil conglomerate, OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, lost 90 percent of its value over the last year, leaving Batista with a relatively paltry $200 million when including debts he owes to investors.

Batista, known for his charismatic persona and opulent lifestyle, simply may have been overly optimistic at a time when his country was experiencing strong economic growth. (Brazil’s economy has since fallen on harder times.) Sergio Lazzarini, of the INSPER Business School in Sao Paulo, told BBC News that Batista's business model “was exaggerated in every sense.”

Batista’s optimism nevertheless appears undiminished, even in the face of debts to OGX investors such as General Electric, IBM and Abu Dhabi’s state investment fund Mubadala, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“I will honor all of my obligations,” Batista wrote in a Valor Economico newspaper op-ed last week where he admitted regretting taking his companies public. “I won’t leave a single penny unpaid for each one of my debts.”

At such a vast sum, Batista’s losses stand as the greatest decline in personal net worth since March 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.

Other billionaires who've had hard landings in recent years include Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who lost $17 billion in 2010, as well as Sean Quinn, once known as Ireland’s richest man, who declared bankruptcy in 2011 after being worth $6 billion just 3 years earlier, according to Forbes.

10 Really Dumb Things You Do With Credit Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 17:30:00 +0000

Like it or not, we are a credit card culture. They seem to be everywhere. They are on TV, being promoted by the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Alec Baldwin and "Ogre" from Revenge of the Nerds. The imagery is pervasive, and some places ONLY take credit or debit cards. They are also, obviously, in our wallets. There are an estimated 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the United States and that can make them seem pretty ubiquitous. Nevertheless, access to credit cards is a privilege not a right, and if you make mistakes, you'll pay a price -- sometimes a hefty one.

With that in mind, we offer this list of serious credit card mistakes and their equally serious repercussions.

Credit card issuers have responsibilities, too. Many of those responsibilities are codified under the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure ("CARD") Act. But consumers' first responsibility is to themselves:

1. Paying Late

A due date is not a guideline, it's a deadline. Always make timely payments. Set up automatic notifications either by text or email and/or automatic debits from your bank. While the CARD Act mandates a set of rules that must be followed regarding, among other things, when credit card issuers and banks can raise rates on existing balances or future purchases, these things are a certainty when you pay late:

If you fail to pay your bill within 30 days, you will be reported as late to a credit reporting agency.
You will be assessed a late fee.
That negative information will remain on your credit report for seven years.
Your payment history represents 35% of your credit score.
In addition to facing higher interest rates on future purchases from the offended credit card company, you run the risk of paying higher rates and/or having your application rejected when you apply for other credit products.

2. Paying the Minimum

If you have to pay the minimum now and again, it's not a huge deal, but don't make a habit of it. Depending on your balance, making only minimum payments can increase the life and sum of your debt considerably. (Try this calculator if you doubt me.) One provision of the CARD Act requires credit card bills to disclose the length of time it will take to pay off a credit card when you only make the minimum payment versus a 3-year plan. It's an important addition, because the reality of nearly endless payments is jarring.

3. Charging Anywhere Near Your Credit Limit

There may be certain life crises that require you to charge a large amount, like an emergency car repair. Try to pay down the balance as quickly as possible. Creditors look very closely every month at the percentage of your available credit that you are using. If you use more than 10% for any meaningful period of time, it will hurt your credit score. 30% of your credit score relates to your credit utilization. If your credit score declines, your cost of borrowing will increase and your access to credit will become more limited. (If you're not sure what your credit utilization ratio is, use Credit.com's free Credit Report Card for a breakdown.)

4. Taking Credit Card Cash Advances

While there may some instances when you need to take a cash advance and have no other options besides your credit card, keep in mind that it is not a cheap date (often more than 10-15 percentage points higher than the interest rate on purchases). Generally, credit card cash advances only make sense compared to payday loans or a bevy of overdraft charges, but it is an expensive way to borrow money. Consider a personal loan if you really need the cash, but definitely don't use a credit card cash advance for a discretionary purchase that you otherwise can't afford.

5. Closing Old Credit Card Accounts

Closing a credit card account may seem like the best way to celebrate paying off a big, old debt, but consider this: every account represents a component of your available credit and each time you remove such a component by closing it, you are reducing the pool of available credit against which all your credit balances are measured. The less available credit you have, the greater percentage you are using whenever you charge something in another account. Exceed 10% and your credit score is likely to be negatively impacted. When you pay off an account, feel free to cut up the card, but think twice before you close the account. (For more on this, read my recent column.)

6. Ignoring the Fine Print

Everybody loves a deal and there are some delicious 0% introductory offers out there. Unfortunately, all things must come to an end and so do introductory offers. Make sure you read the fine print to understand your real rate when the music stops and the interest free chair is no longer available. Also, never forget that even the most gorgeous introductory offers get real ugly if you miss a "principal" payment date and the creditor jumps your rate to the default rate.

7. Failing to Pick Up the Phone

Negotiation is an American pastime. Ask car dealers. If you are running a balance and you feel the interest is too expensive, do some legwork. Check out the other guys and see what rate they would charge. If you find a better deal (including the obligatory balance transfer fee), don't be afraid to call your credit card issuer and haggle. The worst they can say is "no!" In this competitive environment, banks are fighting for your business. Make them work for it.

8. Getting Sucked in By Your Favorite Brand

Never forget that sales "associates" are often incentivized to get people to sign up for a store credit card. They love to offer you the 10-15% discount deal today, while your acquisition ecstasy is running rampant, against the higher interest rates tomorrow when you run a balance. However, it's amazing how unfashionable retail cards feel once the ether clears and you understand the true cost that you pay to run a balance. If you must have the discount, do the deal, but pay off the balance immediately. Just like the little black dress you couldn't pass up that now hangs in isolation in your closet. Stick the cards in your drawer and sale away (elsewhere).

9. Failing to Check Your Credit Card Accounts Daily

It's amazing how we can check out our personal email accounts every chance we get, or share everything we do with everyone we know on Twitter, Facebook, and all other forms of social media, but we can't take a few minutes and keep up with our finances! Reviewing credit accounts frequently will alert us to potential identity theft issues, as well as let us know how close we come to our credit limits. Ben Franklin reminded us that "A Stitch in Time Saves Nine." You better believe it when it comes to credit.

10. Sending Credit Card Information Via Email

The only thing dumber than entering your credit card information on a website that you discovered by way of a random email link is to send credit card information through your email account. A great number of hackers are looking forward to sharing your credit card information with their friends and associates for their profit and amusement. Their enrichment is not your mission. If you want to buy something or pay a bill online, go to the right financial or retail site, type in the correct URL and make sure it is secure (look for the lock and the "https" in the web address field).

A credit card is a vehicle. You are the driver. If you operate it safely and responsibly it will give you access to the things you want while helping you build a credit portfolio that is an asset, not a liability.

Sandra Bullock On 'The Heat 2': 'I Can't Imagine It'

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 17:03:00 +0000

"The Heat," Paul Feig's hilarious buddy cop comedy with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, has been one of the surprise hits of this summer, earning $130 million in North America since its release on June 28. Before "The Heat" even debuted, studio Twentieth Century Fox commissioned screenwriter Katie Dippold to work on a sequel, owing to the advance buzz humming off the comedy in the lead-up to its premiere.

"I really like the idea we have for the sequel. I'm really excited about it," Dippold told HuffPost Entertainment in an interview. "I can't say what it is. I wish I could. I really wish I could, but I can't: I would be immediately fired and murdered. But I really think it could be so fun. So I'm hopeful that we get to do it."

Unfortunately, Dippold may not get the chance. Speaking with EW.com at Comic-Con, Bullock said she wasn't interested in doing a sequel to "The Heat" at this stage in her career.

"I know they say never say never, but right now, I can't imagine it," Bullock told EW.com. "I don't want to ruin what Melissa and I had. If a miracle happens where [a script] shows up that really and truly outdid the first and provided an experience that was better than the first one, then I would look at it. But I'm not there."

Bullock's comments echo those made by Kristin Wiig about why she never made another "Bridesmaids" following the first film's breakout box office success.

"When something does well at the box office, people assume that there's going to be a second one, so when you don't, it doesn't make sense to them," Wiig told The Daily Beast. "But I approach things in my career a different way, and creatively, it's just not something I'm interested in doing. That's kind of it, and should be it.”

Both "Bridesmaids" and "The Heat" were directed by the aforementioned Feig, who told HuffPost Entertainment that he would only make a sequel to "Bridesmaids" if Wiig herself was onboard. "We'll try to get other franchises going," he said.

Indeed, just maybe not "The Heat."

For more from Bullock, head to EW.com.

Chinese Fast-Food Ice 'Dirtier Than Toilet Water

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 14:52:00 +0000

China Central Television reports that Beijing franchises of McDonald's, KFC and Shanghai-based fast-food restaurant Kungfu used ice that was found to contain up to 19 times the amount of bacteria than the acceptable limit for drinking water.

The amount of bacteria in ice cubes used for carbonated beverages at one KFC location was reportedly found to be 13 times higher than in toilet water in a lab test. The South China Morning Post reported that ice from a Beijing McDonald's "tested cleaner than toilet water, but still did not meet national hygiene standards."

According to The Wall Street Journal, KFC issued a public apology following the CCTV report, which aired Saturday. McDonald's and Kungfu announced investigations into the matter.

Experts told CCTV that dirty ice machines, poor awareness of food safety and sub-par sterilization routines contributed to the high amounts of bacteria in the ice.

Ding Ke, an associate professor of food science at Beijing University, said that these levels of bacteria could lead to dangerous diseases such as dysentery in people who consume contaminated ice, according to Shanghai Daily.

The story went viral on Sina Weibo after airing on CCTV, the predominant state television broadcaster in mainland China. A Huffington Post translation of the Sina Weibo post confirmed details about the levels of bacteria found in beverage ice.

In China, 100 colony-forming units (CFU) of bacteria per milliliter is the national standard for drinking water. The McDonald's sample was found to contain 120 CFU per milliliter, and the Kungfu sample 900 CFU per milliliter.

Qaurtz pointed out that although the sheer amount of bacteria allegedly found was alarming, CCTV did not mention what kind of bacteria was present in the ice cubes.

Without that information, it's especially doubtful that anyone is likely to investigate the South China Morning Post's assertion that "you're better off drinking from a fast-food chain's toilet than its carbonated drinks."

This is not the first time ice in fast-food chains has come under scrutiny for bacterial content. In 2006, a sixth-grade student tested ice collected from south Florida fast-food restaurants as part of a school science project. Shockingly, she found that "70 percent of the time, ice from ... [the] restaurants was dirtier than toilet water," Good Morning America reported at the time.