$299 gets you an entry-level Micro 4/3 camera with Android on-board
The last time we laid eyes on the Polaroid iM1836 it was at CES in January with some non-working demo units, but now you can actually plunk down some cash for one at retailers. The entry-level Micro 4/3 camera is coming in at just $299 with a 10-30mm kit lens, $50 less than was expected based on its initial launch details.
For that price you're getting the aforementioned kit lens, along with a glossy plastic body, an 18.1MP sensor, basic controls and a 3.5-inch touchscreen. That screen will give you access to Android 4.1 running on this device, which should open up the possibilities of sharing and photo creation. The iM1836 also has Bluetooth and Wifi, naturally, giving you access to Google Play to download apps but also to transfer images between the camera and your phone.
Powerfully persuasive drama of family dealing with 18-year-old boy with severe autism.
Venue
Rogue Machine in Theatre/Theatre, mid-Wilshire (through Dec. 1)
Director
Elina de Santos
Cast
Anna Khaja, Matthew Elkins, Karen Landry, Matt Little, Tara Windley
Scenic Design
Stephanie Kerley Schwartz
Josh Martin (Matt Little), a strapping autistic young man, easily prone to getting upset, comforts himself by standing under a basket he tilts over to shower himself with soothing feathers. As he has grown older, the continuing needs of his care, which require endless attention and escalating risk, place severe strains on the rest of his household.
The family drama and the social problem play have perhaps, for too long been staples of a conventionally earnest theater -- well meaning, maybe even enlightening. It comes as a relief that the strong and forthright Falling is not one of those shows. We spend the entire action inside the Martin home, exclusively with members of the family. Their self-contained, almost hermetic world bespeaks an emotional isolation in which whatever support exists beyond it is discouragingly inadequate. Mother Tami (Anna Khaja) must be a continual master of distraction and sensitive stratagems, not only with her son, but also with her supportive husband, Bill (Matthew Elkins), and understandably frustrated teenage daughter, Lisa (Tara Windley).
Playwright Deanna Jent excels at developing her exposition almost entirely through indirection, a skillful technique that happens to mirror the demands on everyone who deals with Josh, who can veer from endearing to dangerous at the slightest stimulus. She involves us deeply in the mechanics of coping so that some honest sense of the challenge and hardship can be imparted. The Martins lead lives of passionate intensity and few credible hopes, and sharing their anxieties and commitment offers us far more understanding than any exhortation to awareness. Jent holds back a long time before allowing her characters to argue the case for social action, and when they do, it is founded on genuine frustration and desperation, at a point when the audience can no longer bear not to hear the message.
To work, Falling requires the most committed emotional authenticity, which director Elina de Santos achieves with her uniformly splendid cast. Little and Windley refreshingly skirt the cliches that linger perilously close by their characters, assisted by the unhackneyed writing. The redoubtable Karen Landry as visiting grandmother Sue embodies the inescapably clueless viewpoint of the well-intentioned outsider, who, despite the limitations of her narrow religious perspective, never descends into an object of derision. Elkins has become an increasingly valuable local actor (A Bright New Boise), and here he invests his sympathetic dad with sincerely conflicted intentions with a distinctive vibe that is uniquely his own.
But above all, praise must be lavished on Khaja, an actor of apparently protean range, who incarnates fierce maternal love and the wearyingly impossible push-pull of omnipresent necessity, a Mother Courage for today’s Midwestern suburbs. Volcanic and vulnerable by hairpin turns, seemingly transparent yet filigreed precise, simultaneously in command yet profoundly out of control, Khaja suppresses rage and anxiety the better to expose their ravages. This extraordinary role has had the fortune to find this most splendid avatar.
Venue: Rogue Machine in Theatre/Theatre, mid-Wilshire (through Dec. 1)
Director: Elina de Santos
Cast: Anna Khaja, Matthew Elkins, Karen Landry, Matt Little, Tara Windley
Scenic Design: Stephanie Kerley Schwartz
Costume Design: Elizabeth A. Cox
Lighting Design: Leigh Allen
Sound Design: Christopher Moscatiello
Producers: John Perrin Flynn and Diane Alayne Baker
LONDON (AP) — Dressed in a lace and satin gown designed in the 1840s, Britain's 3-month-old future monarch, Prince George, was christened Wednesday with water from the River Jordan at a rare gathering of four generations of the royal family.
The occasion had historic overtones: the presence of Britain's 87-year-old monarch and three future kings, Princes Charles, William and, of course, little George.
Queen Elizabeth II, usually the center of attention, quietly ceded the spotlight to her rosy-cheeked great-grandson, who seemed to wave at her when he arrived — an illusion created by his father, Prince William, playfully moving the infant's arm.
The private affair at the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace was also attended by Prince Charles, next in line to the throne, and the queen's 92-year-old husband, Prince Philip, who has shown remarkable stamina since returning to the public eye after a two-month convalescence following serious abdominal surgery.
All told, it was an exceptional day for a monarchy that seems to be basking in public affection since the 2011 wedding of William and Kate Middleton and the maturing of Prince Harry, who appears to have put his playboy days behind him.
George, who was born on July 22, wore a replica of an intricate christening gown made for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and first used in 1841.
When William was christened in 1982, he wore the original gown — by then well over a century old — but the garment has become so fragile that a replica was made.
The infant, who will head the Church of England when he becomes king, was christened with water from the River Jordan by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
He arrived at the chapel in his father's arms with his mother by their side.
Kate, smiling broadly on her way into the chapel, wore a cream-colored Alexander McQueen dress and hat by milliner Jane Taylor, with her long hair brushed to the side. William wore his customary dark suit and tie as he proudly carried their first child.
Kate's parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and her sister, Pippa, and brother, James, were also at the ceremony.
Pippa Middleton read from the Gospel of St. Luke and Prince Harry read from the Gospel of St. John. The two hymns were "Breathe on Me, Breath of God" and "Be Thou My Vision."
The chapel has a strong connection to William's mother, the late Princess Diana, whose coffin was laid before the chapel's altar for her family to pay their last respects in private before her 1997 funeral.
Baby George has seven godparents, among them William's cousin, Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne and a close friend of the couple.
They also include Oliver Baker, a friend from William and Kate's days at St. Andrews University; Emilia Jardine-Paterson, who went to the exclusive Marlborough College high school with Kate; Hugh Grosvenor, the son of the Duke of Westminster; Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former private secretary to the couple; Julia Samuel, a close friend of Princess Diana, and William van Cutsem, a childhood friend of William's.
Palace officials said water from the River Jordan — where Christians believe Jesus Christ was baptized — was used for the christening.
In the West Bank, hours before the christening, busloads of Russian tourists descended on Qasr el-Yahud to immerse themselves in the river. The site, five miles (eight kilometers) east of Jericho, is considered Christianity's third-holiest site after Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
The river's waters have often been used to make the sign of the cross on the heads of royal infants.
Some royal watchers camped outside the palace for more than 24 hours to obtain a good vantage point to watch the guests arrive, but the ceremony was private.
William and Kate hired photographer Jason Bell to take official pictures, which are expected to include a historic multigenerational photograph of the queen with the three future kings.
BOSTON (AP) — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers may try to save him from the death penalty in the Boston Marathon bombing by arguing he fell under the murderous influence of his older brother, legal experts say.
The outlines of a possible defense came into focus this week when it was learned that Tsarnaev's attorneys are trying to get access to investigative records implicating the now-dead brother in a grisly triple slaying committed in 2011.
In court papers Monday, federal prosecutors acknowledged publicly for the first time that a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev told investigators that Tamerlan participated in the unsolved killings of three men who were found in a Waltham apartment with their throats slit, marijuana sprinkled over their bodies.
The younger Tsarnaev's lawyers argued in court papers that any evidence of Tamerlan's involvement is "mitigating information" that is critical as they prepare Dzhokhar's defense. They asked a judge to force prosecutors to turn over the records.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction, in the twin bombings April 15 that killed three people and injured more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gunbattle with police days later.
The government is still deciding whether to pursue the death penalty for the attack, which investigators say was retaliation for the U.S. wars in Muslim lands.
Miriam Conrad, Tsarnaev's public defender, had no comment.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the defense may be trying to show that the older brother was the guiding force.
"If I was a defense attorney and was seeking perhaps to draw attention to the influence the older brother had in planning the bombing, I would use his involvement in other crimes to show that he was likely the main perpetrator in the Boston bombing," Dieter said.
"I would take the position that my client, the younger brother, was strongly influenced by his older brother, and even if he is culpable, the death penalty is too extreme in this case."
Similarly, Aitan D. Goelman, who was part of the legal team that prosecuted Oklahoma City bombing figures Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, said the defense may be looking to minimize the younger brother's role in the bombing.
"I think the mostly likely reason is that if they are arguing some kind of mitigation theory that the older brother was a monster and the younger brother was under his sway or intimidated or dominated by him," he said.
Investigators have given no motive for the 2011 slayings. One victim was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's.
Federal prosecutors said in court papers that Ibragim Todashev, another friend of Tamerlan's, told authorities that Tamerlan took part in the killings. Todashev was shot to death in Florida in May by authorities while being questioned.
Prosecutors argued that turning over the records would damage the investigation into the killings.
___
Smith reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE -This Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983 file photo shows the aftermath of a suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The blast _ the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II _ claimed the lives of 241 American service members. It was the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II. (AP Photo/Jim Bourdier, File)
FILE -This Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983 file photo shows the aftermath of a suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The blast _ the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II _ claimed the lives of 241 American service members. It was the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II. (AP Photo/Jim Bourdier, File)
COMBO - This combination of two photographs shows the aftermath of a suicide truck bomb attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon on Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983, top, and the site of the blast as seen 30 years later on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. The blast _ the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II _ claimed the lives of 241 American service members. It was the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II. (AP Photo/Mark Foley, Bilal Hussein)
FILE - In this Oct. 23, 1983 file photo, British soldiers give a hand in rescue operations at the site of the bomb-wrecked U.S. Marine command center near the Beirut airport, Lebanon. A bomb-laden truck drove into the center collapsing the entire four story building. The blast _ the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II _ claimed the lives of 241 American service members. (AP Photo/Bill Foley, File)
FILE - This Oct. 23, 23, 1983 file photo shows the scene around the U.S. Marine barracks near Beirut airport following a massive bomb blast that destroyed the base, in Beirut, Lebanon. The blast _ the single deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II _ claimed the lives of 241 American service members.(AP Photo, File)
FILE - This Oct. 23, 1983, file photo shows the scene of a truck bombing on a U.S. Marine base near Beirut airport in Beirut, Lebanon. This was a rock-solid structure that had withstood Israeli air and artillery attack during the Israeli invasion of 1982. Yet it had been blown to pieces by a truck bomb that exploded just before 6:30 a.m. that day, with the force of 21,000 pounds of TNT.(AP Photo, File)
It had been a massive, four-story building that had withstood air strikes and artillery — now reduced to a mountain of rubble. Enormous chunks of concrete, their twisted steel reinforcements ripped bare, balanced precariously on piles of debris. Only cracked concrete frames on the ground floor bore any semblance to what had stood there before.
As I watched crews struggle to remove wreckage from what remained of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, I thought to myself, "My God. How did anyone survive?"
The Oct. 23, 1983 truck bombing that leveled the barracks near Beirut's airport claimed the lives of 241 American service members in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces abroad since World War II. The attack, amid Lebanon's civil war, was one of the United States' first experiences with the suicide bombings that over the past 30 years have become a trademark of Islamic militants.
By the time I arrived, the bodies were gone, and survivors evacuated. The day of the blast, I was in Cairo, where I was The Associated Press' bureau chief, and I traveled to Beirut in the immediate aftermath.
For me the shock was all the more intense because I had known that building — and doubtless some of the Marines who had perished inside.
During repeated assignments in Lebanon, I spent hours on the barracks' roof, along with other journalists, observing militias on the hills above hit their rivals and sometimes the Marines with artillery fire.
I recall watching visiting Marine generals scurrying for cover one afternoon when militias lobbed mortar shells near their convoy — to the amusement of some younger Marines.
The roof was also the site of the Marines' link to a radio network with the French and British to exchange information about battles around Beirut. If you could tolerate the blazing sun and long periods of boredom, it was a great place to track the fighting.
The structure — once an administrative building for the airport — was rock-solid. It had survived hits by Israeli air and artillery fire in 1982, well before the Marines moved in.
Yet it was pulverized by a truck bomb that exploded with the force of 21,000 pounds of TNT just before 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday. Minutes later, a second suicide bomber blasted the French military barracks a few miles north, killing 58 paratroopers and the wife and four children of the Lebanese janitor.
Shiite militias that were just starting to coalesce into what is now Hezbollah were behind the attacks.
The Marines, along with French and British troops, arrived in Beirut in August 1982. The Marines were to supervise the evacuation of Palestinian guerrillas under a deal to end Israel's invasion of Lebanon.
Instead, the experience became a textbook example of "mission creep."
After the Palestinians departed, the Marines did as well. But they were ordered back about two weeks later when the assassination of Lebanon's new Christian president sparked new fighting among the country's factions.
Syrian-backed militias frequently fired on the Marines' base and barracks, about 10 miles from downtown Beirut, to pressure the United States, which supported the Lebanese government.
A month before the bombing, U.S. warships fired on Syrian-backed militias, and French jets attacked militias in the Bekaa Valley.
Among anti-government factions, those attacks shattered any notion of neutrality.
The Marine commander, Col. Timothy Geraghty, recalled telling his staff that "we were going to pay in blood."
Within months after the bombing, the U.S. Marines were out of Lebanon. The civil war raged for another seven years.
Now on the site of the barracks is a large building of the Lebanese mail service, Liban Post, inside a closed military zone near the airport. On one side, access is barred by a military checkpoint and on the other, by a checkpoint of Hezbollah, now Lebanon's most powerful force.
The following is a gallery of images from the time of the Marine barracks bombing and today.
____
Robert H. Reid, Berlin bureau chief, was chief of bureau for The Associated Press in Cairo from 1982-1986 and has covered Middle East events since 1978. Follow him at: http://twitter.com/rhreid .
Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo
Numbers, Keynote, and Pages which comprise Apple's iWork suite have all been updated for both iOS and OS X. New features include collaboration tools to work in documents in conjunction with others. All three apps are also now free with the purchase of any new iOS device or Mac.
The entire iWork suite has been updated with full file compatibility across all devices, both iOS and Mac. All three apps have been updated with refreshed interfaces on both platforms.
One of the largest new features of iWork for iCloud is collaboration tools for iWork which lets you work live with someone else on the same document, much in the same way you can with other editing tools such as Google Docs. Other new features include the ability to share links from your Mac right to iWork to iCloud with anyone else using iWork for iCloud.
The updated versions of iWork for iCloud is available for free for both Mac and iOS starting today.
Yes, yes, and yes! Y’all know I love when Miley Cyrus hits up a red carpet like she has some sense, and the Wrecking Ball singer attended the 30th annual Fashion Group International Night Of Stars in seriously high fashion. Rocking a stunning emerald Marc Jacobs gown, Miley werked it all over the place. I don’t know what our universe would look like if she continued to dress like this more (and less like this), but I wanna live in that world y’all. Peep the gallery for more! What do you guys think of this look?
She’s always been a fan of the finer things, and Christina Hendricks showed up at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Tuesday evening (October 22) for a special scotch shindig.
The “Mad Men” actress brought hubby Geoffrey Arend along for the ride as she toasted Johnnie Walker Platinum Label Blended Scotch Whiskey with Master Blender Stephen Wilson.
On the Walker website, Hendricks explains, “There's just something different about whisky, especially Scotch – the color, the aroma, it's really alluring. I’d take sips of [my husband’s] and started to like it. It's something you linger over, it's not something that gets rushed.”
“It can range dramatically from light and floral to powerful peat and smoke. From what whisky you like, to how you order it – neat, rocks, or with a splash – asking for a Scotch whisky makes a statement. You know what you want and how you want it. That confidence is sexy.”
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Given the choice, World War II veteran Phillip Coon probably wouldn't want the formality and fuss of being honored on a military base with men and women standing at attention, dressed in full regalia — even if it was with a fistful of long-overdue medals he waited decades to receive.
So it's fitting that the awards were presented to the humble Tulsa-area man Monday evening in an informal ceremony at the Tulsa International Airport, with family and fellow veterans in attendance and little pomp and circumstance.
The 94-year-old survivor of a POW labor camp and the Bataan Death March received the Prisoner of War Medal, Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman Badge after he and his son, Michael, returned from a trip to Japan to promote understanding and healing with the U.S.
A couple of dozen people applauded wildly after the medals were presented to Coon, who was seated in a wheelchair. He lifted his ball cap in recognition, exposing a shock of silver hair.
"I've been blessed to come this far in life," he said, a tear streaming down one cheek. "I thank the Lord for watching over me."
Japan's Foreign Ministry said Coon visited the site of the former POW camp in Kosaka next to a now defunct copper mine where he was put to forced labor. The veteran also met the mayor and other officials in Kosaka, in Japan's northern prefecture of Akita.
Coon, who lives in Sapulpa in northeastern Oklahoma, served as an infantry machine gunner in the Army. He is also a survivor of the Bataan Death March in the Philippines in 1942, when the Japanese military forced tens of thousands of American and Filipino soldiers to trek for 65 miles with little food or water in blazing heat. As many as 11,000 died along the way.
It's not clear why Coon didn't get his medals before now, but such occurrences with awards are not uncommon in the military.
"It continues to trouble me that there are instances where service members do not receive the service medals they have earned through the course of their careers," said U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, whose office contacted the military three weeks ago about the missing medals. "But It is extremely rewarding for me and my staff to be able to help veterans and active-duty members receive the honors they have fought for."
Retired Maj. Gen. Rita Aragon, Oklahoma's secretary of military and veterans' affairs, said most veterans were — rightly — more focused on reuniting with their families than chasing after military ribbons when they returned after the war. Aragon presented the medals to Coon during the airport ceremony.
Tulsa veteran David Rule, who served in the Vietnam War, helped Coon and his family to find out why his medals hadn't been issued. For the past 10 years or so, Rule has helped recognize about 150 area veterans by memorializing their names, ranks and branches of service on granite plaques that are presented to them and their families.
"I have a passion for these servicemen," Rule said earlier Monday. "They just sacrificed so much. It doesn't matter to me whether they were a cook or a four-star general, just for them to get this million-dollar smile on their face when they know they aren't forgotten."
___
Associated Press reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When a federal program that promised cash rebates to people who traded in their clunkers for more fuel-efficient vehicles was overrun by demand, President Barack Obama assigned Jeffrey Zients, his deputy budget director, to help eliminate the backlog.
When the same thing happened with sign-ups for an updated version of the GI Bill, one designed to help the 9/11 generation of veterans get a college education, Obama again turned to Zients for help.
Now, as Obama's health care website continues to be plagued by a rash of technical problems that have turned it into an administration embarrassment and a source of frustration for uninsured people trying to sign up for coverage that the law now requires many of them to have, who has Obama called for help? Zients, his Mr. Fix-it.
Faced with mounting questions about the website and its hiccups, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that the longtime management consultant will help fix the problems and turn the site into the breezy, one-stop shopping portal Obama promised it would be.
Zients came out of a temporary retirement from the federal government and quietly dived into his new assignment on Monday. He left the administration earlier this year after the budget director's job went to someone else. Last month, Obama announced that Zients would take over next year as director of the National Economic Council, becoming the president's chief economic adviser.
Zients will provide short-term advice, assessments and recommendations to a Department of Health and Human Services team that officials say has been working around the clock to fix www.healthcare.gov since it went live Oct. 1. Administration officials, from Obama on down, had promoted the federal website as the first stop for uninsured people in 36 states who want to figure out what coverage they can afford. They are now urging people to also try signing up by telephone, mail or in person.
Zients has led some of the country's top management firms, advising companies worldwide.
He joined the administration in 2009 as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the nation's first chief performance officer. He also served two stints as OMB's acting director, and led an effort to streamline government and save money by selling off unused or underused real estate. The effort stalled in Congress.
Zients was acting OMB director from January 2012 through April 2013, when the Senate confirmed Sylvia Mathews Burwell for the director's post.
By many accounts, the 46-year-old Zients, who lives in Washington with his wife and four children, is well-respected and liked inside the White House.
"I think that's why he's continually being handed tough jobs," said Kenneth Baer, who was a senior adviser to Zients at the budget office.
Zients grew up in the Washington area and spent his career in business before agreeing to work for Obama. That two decades of experience allowed him to bring a different perspective to government and how it should be run, Baer says.
"He's not going to be looking under the hood and tell you, 'I can fix the coding, I can fix it,'" Baer said of Zients' newest assignment. "His skill is going to be how to identify challenges, prioritize what solutions need to be done next, assessing what talent is already available and then how to motivate them to do that job as quickly and as ably as possible."
Aneesh Chopra, who was Obama's chief technology officer, said Zients is extremely skilled in figuring things out from a management perspective.
"If I was confident this issue would be resolved before his participation, I am doubly so now," said Chopra, who also worked with Zients at the Advisory Board Co., one of two business advisory firms where Zients has held top posts. "Jeff's track record is really a relentless focus on execution."
In 2009, after far more drivers than anticipated signed up for the Cash for Clunkers program and the federal website set up to process rebates of up to $4,500 per new car kept crashing under the weight of the demand, Zients helped smooth things out.
He played a similar role following the rocky rollout of a new GI Bill for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The program had become so bogged down that the Veterans Affairs Department began to issue $3,000 advance checks to thousands of veterans who needed help paying expenses until their claims could be processed. At one point, Zients, Chopra and Vivek Kundra, then the chief technology officer, flew to a VA processing center in St. Louis to size up the problems.
Before Zients joined the administration, he was chief executive officer and chairman of the Advisory Board Co., and chairman of the Corporate Executive Board. Zients also founded Portfolio Logic, an investment firm that focused on business and health care service companies.
Zients has a political science degree from Duke University.
___
Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
UCI-led study documents heavy air pollution in Canadian area with cancer spikes
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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Contact: Janet Wilson janethw@uci.edu 949-824-3969 University of California - Irvine
Carcinogens detected in emissions downwind of 'Industrial Heartland'
Irvine, Calif., Oct. 22, 2013 Levels of contaminants higher than in some of the world's most polluted cities have been found downwind of Canada's largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone, in a rural area where men suffer elevated rates of cancers linked to such chemicals.
The findings by UC Irvine and University of Michigan scientists, published online this week, reveal high levels of the carcinogens 1,3-butadiene and benzene and other airborne pollutants. The researchers also obtained health records spanning more than a decade that showed the number of men with leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was greater in communities closest to the pollution plumes than in neighboring counties. The work is a dramatic illustration of a new World Health Organization report that outdoor air pollution is a leading cause of cancer.
While the scientists stopped short of saying that the pollutants they documented were definitely causing the male cancers, they strongly recommended that the industrial emissions be decreased to protect both workers and nearby residents.
"Our study was designed to test what kinds of concentrations could be encountered on the ground during a random visit downwind of various facilities. We're seeing elevated levels of carcinogens and other gases in the same area where we're seeing excess cancers known to be caused by these chemicals," said UC Irvine chemist Isobel Simpson, lead author of the paper in Atmospheric Environment. "Our main point is that it would be good to proactively lower these emissions of known carcinogens. You can study it and study it, but at some point you just have to say, 'Let's reduce it.' "
Co-author Stuart Batterman, a University of Michigan professor of environmental health sciences, agreed: "These levels, found over a broad area, are clearly associated with industrial emissions. They also are evidence of major regulatory gaps in monitoring and controlling such emissions and in public health surveillance."
The researchers captured emissions in the rural Fort Saskatchewan area downwind of major refineries, chemical manufacturers and tar sands processors owned by BP, Dow, Shell and other companies in the so-called "Industrial Heartland" of Alberta. They took one-minute samples at random times in 2008, 2010 and 2012. All showed similar results. Amounts of some dangerous volatile organic compounds were 6,000 times higher than normal.
The team compared the Alberta plumes to heavily polluted megacities. To their surprise, the scientists saw that levels of some chemicals were higher than in Mexico City during the 1990s or in the still polluted Houston-Galveston area.
Simpson is part of UC Irvine's Blake-Rowland Group, which has measured air pollution around the world for decades. She and Batterman said the findings were important for other residential areas downwind of refineries and chemical manufacturers, including parts of Los Angeles.
"For any community downwind of heavy industrial activity, I would say it's certainly prudent to conduct surveys of both air quality especially carcinogens and human health," Simpson said.
"For decades, we've known that exposure to outdoor air pollutants can cause respiratory and cardiovascular disease," Batterman said. "The World Health Organization has now also formally recognized that outdoor air pollution is a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths."
Longtime residents near industrial Alberta have struggled to bring attention to bad odors, health threats and related concerns. The peer-reviewed study is one of few in the region and more investigation of the large and complex facilities is needed.
For example, Simpson said, it appeared in some cases that the companies were not reporting all of the tons of chemicals they release. She and her colleagues documented high levels of 1,3-butadiene that could only have come from one facility, but she said the company had not reported any such emissions.
###
Other authors are Josette Marrero, Simone Meinardi, Barbara Barletta and Donald Blake, all of UC Irvine.
About the University of California, Irvine: Located in coastal Orange County, near a thriving employment hub in one of the nation's safest cities, UC Irvine was founded in 1965. One of only 62 members of the Association of American Universities, it's ranked first among U.S. universities under 50 years old by the London-based Times Higher Education. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UC Irvine has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $4.3 billion annually to the local economy.
Media access: UC Irvine maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media at today.uci.edu/resources/experts.php. Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
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UCI-led study documents heavy air pollution in Canadian area with cancer spikes
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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]
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Contact: Janet Wilson janethw@uci.edu 949-824-3969 University of California - Irvine
Carcinogens detected in emissions downwind of 'Industrial Heartland'
Irvine, Calif., Oct. 22, 2013 Levels of contaminants higher than in some of the world's most polluted cities have been found downwind of Canada's largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone, in a rural area where men suffer elevated rates of cancers linked to such chemicals.
The findings by UC Irvine and University of Michigan scientists, published online this week, reveal high levels of the carcinogens 1,3-butadiene and benzene and other airborne pollutants. The researchers also obtained health records spanning more than a decade that showed the number of men with leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was greater in communities closest to the pollution plumes than in neighboring counties. The work is a dramatic illustration of a new World Health Organization report that outdoor air pollution is a leading cause of cancer.
While the scientists stopped short of saying that the pollutants they documented were definitely causing the male cancers, they strongly recommended that the industrial emissions be decreased to protect both workers and nearby residents.
"Our study was designed to test what kinds of concentrations could be encountered on the ground during a random visit downwind of various facilities. We're seeing elevated levels of carcinogens and other gases in the same area where we're seeing excess cancers known to be caused by these chemicals," said UC Irvine chemist Isobel Simpson, lead author of the paper in Atmospheric Environment. "Our main point is that it would be good to proactively lower these emissions of known carcinogens. You can study it and study it, but at some point you just have to say, 'Let's reduce it.' "
Co-author Stuart Batterman, a University of Michigan professor of environmental health sciences, agreed: "These levels, found over a broad area, are clearly associated with industrial emissions. They also are evidence of major regulatory gaps in monitoring and controlling such emissions and in public health surveillance."
The researchers captured emissions in the rural Fort Saskatchewan area downwind of major refineries, chemical manufacturers and tar sands processors owned by BP, Dow, Shell and other companies in the so-called "Industrial Heartland" of Alberta. They took one-minute samples at random times in 2008, 2010 and 2012. All showed similar results. Amounts of some dangerous volatile organic compounds were 6,000 times higher than normal.
The team compared the Alberta plumes to heavily polluted megacities. To their surprise, the scientists saw that levels of some chemicals were higher than in Mexico City during the 1990s or in the still polluted Houston-Galveston area.
Simpson is part of UC Irvine's Blake-Rowland Group, which has measured air pollution around the world for decades. She and Batterman said the findings were important for other residential areas downwind of refineries and chemical manufacturers, including parts of Los Angeles.
"For any community downwind of heavy industrial activity, I would say it's certainly prudent to conduct surveys of both air quality especially carcinogens and human health," Simpson said.
"For decades, we've known that exposure to outdoor air pollutants can cause respiratory and cardiovascular disease," Batterman said. "The World Health Organization has now also formally recognized that outdoor air pollution is a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths."
Longtime residents near industrial Alberta have struggled to bring attention to bad odors, health threats and related concerns. The peer-reviewed study is one of few in the region and more investigation of the large and complex facilities is needed.
For example, Simpson said, it appeared in some cases that the companies were not reporting all of the tons of chemicals they release. She and her colleagues documented high levels of 1,3-butadiene that could only have come from one facility, but she said the company had not reported any such emissions.
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Other authors are Josette Marrero, Simone Meinardi, Barbara Barletta and Donald Blake, all of UC Irvine.
About the University of California, Irvine: Located in coastal Orange County, near a thriving employment hub in one of the nation's safest cities, UC Irvine was founded in 1965. One of only 62 members of the Association of American Universities, it's ranked first among U.S. universities under 50 years old by the London-based Times Higher Education. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UC Irvine has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $4.3 billion annually to the local economy.
Media access: UC Irvine maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media at today.uci.edu/resources/experts.php. Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After a heart attack, patients are often given four or more medicines and directed to take them for life. Those medicines only work to prevent another attack if the patient takes them all consistently and correctly, a new study shows.
"You really have to take your medications all the time to derive any benefit," said Dr. Niteesh K. Choudhry. He led the study at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
That may seem obvious. But drugs that appear to work in clinical trials aren't always as effective in the real world, where nobody is making sure you take your meds on time, he said.
Heart attack survivors are often prescribed beta-blockers to slow heart rate, statins to lower cholesterol and other drugs to keep blood pressure down.
In an earlier trial, Choudhry and his coauthors compared a group of heart attack survivors given free prescriptions to people who had to pay for their medicines as most real-world patients do.
In that trial, people in the free prescription group were about five percent more likely to take their medications at least 80 percent of the time, compared to people with copays. But there was no difference between the groups when it came to later hospital admissions for heart problems.
For the new study, the researchers divided people who got free prescriptions into three smaller groups based on how often they took all their medicines: at least 80 percent of the time, 60 to 79 percent of the time or less than 60 percent of the time.
Study participants who took their free medicines most often were 24 percent more likely to never be readmitted to the hospital for another heart attack or a stroke, chest pain or heart failure than those in the comparison group with copays. Those people varied widely in how often they took their medications.
Taking some, but not all, of the medications regularly was not linked to any benefit, according to results published in the American Heart Journal.
"It's difficult to determine which medications are most important," Choudhry said.
"They all appear to be important," he told Reuters Health. "It's not like patients can take one and not another."
That's too bad, because being saddled with so many prescriptions can be a drain on patients, he said. That's why some may not take their medications consistently, even though they help protect the heart.
"If anyone is going to be motivated to take their blood pressure and cholesterol medications, it will be patients who have just had a heart attack," Dr. Walid Gellad said.
Gellad is a physician at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center and Co-Director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing. He was not involved in the new study.
There are lots of reasons people may skip doses, including cost, forgetfulness, side effects, attitudes and beliefs, the experts agreed.
Text messages or electronic pill bottles may help remind patients to take their medications, but that too is unlikely to completely solve the problem.
People who have serious side effects should talk to their doctors and look into alternative treatments, Choudhry said.
He said doctors and researchers can improve health by getting people to correctly take current drugs, not just by developing new drugs.
"For patients, providers and policymakers this is a really critical message," Dr. Nihar Desai, a cardiologist at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, told Reuters Health. He also didn't participate in the new research.
"Perhaps, we should be investing more in interventions aimed at improving adherence to currently available therapies rather than finding additional therapies that may be of only marginal benefit," Desai said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/GYtWqM American Heart Journal, online October 17, 2013.
Today at Apple's event, they announced that 170 million iPads total have been sold, making it one of their most successful product to date. Apple also boasted 475,000 dedicated iPad apps, and that usage eclipses the competing tablets - 81% vs 19%. As you might expect, the iPad also ranks at the top customer satisfaction.
Woo, iPad, but we wanna see some new hardware. Should be hearing about it soon, so keep an eye on our ongoing event coverage today!
AAAOct. 22, 20132:23 PM ET Police: Nev. middle school gunman was 12 years old By SCOTT SONNERBy SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press
A Sparks Middle School student and her mother walk near Agnes Risley Elementary School, after students were evacuated to the school after a shooting at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nev. on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, in Sparks, Nev. A student at the Sparks Middle School opened fire on campus, killing a staff member who was trying to protect other children, police said Monday. (AP Photo/Kevin Clifford)
A Sparks Middle School student and her mother walk near Agnes Risley Elementary School, after students were evacuated to the school after a shooting at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nev. on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, in Sparks, Nev. A student at the Sparks Middle School opened fire on campus, killing a staff member who was trying to protect other children, police said Monday. (AP Photo/Kevin Clifford)
A Sparks Middle School student cries with family members after being released from Agnes Risley Elementary School, where some students were evacuated to after a shooting at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nev. on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 in Sparks, Nev. A student at the Sparks Middle School opened fire on campus, killing a staff member who was trying to protect other children, police said Monday. (AP Photo/Kevin Clifford)
A unidentified woman holds her son after picking him up at Sparks high school were some students where taken after a shooting that left two dead at Sparks Middle School on Oct. 21, 2013. Police said that two dead are a teacher and shooter. (AP Photo/Reno Gazette-Journal, Andy Barron) NO SALES; NEVADA APPEAL OUT; SOUTH RENO WEEKLY OUT
Bianca Flores is comforted by her sisters following the shooting that left two dead, including the shooter, at Sparks Middle School Monday Oct. 21, 2013. A student at the school opened fire on campus just before the starting bell Monday, wounding two boys and killing a teacher who was trying to protect other children, Sparks police and the victim's family members said. (AP Photo/The Reno Gazette-Journal, Marilyn Newton) NO SALES; NEVADA APPEAL OUT; SOUTH RENO WEEKLY OUT
A Sparks Middle School student cries and is comforted after being released from Agnes Risley Elementary School, where some students were evacuated to after a shooting at SMS in Sparks, Nev. on Monday, October 21, 2013 in Sparks, Nev. A middle school student opened fire on campus just before the starting bell Monday, wounding two boys and killing a staff member who was trying to protect other children, Sparks police said Monday. The lone suspected gunman was also dead, though it's unclear whether the student committed suicide. (AP Photo/Kevin Clifford)
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — The student who wounded two classmates and killed a teacher and then himself on a Nevada middle school campus was 12 years old.
Authorities say they're withholding the Sparks Middle School student's name out of respect for his family. But Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras released the seventh-grader's age at a news conference Tuesday.
District police say the boy brought the weapon used in the Monday morning spree from home. They're still working to determine how he obtained the 9mm semi-automatic Ruger handgun.
Police say the boy's parents are cooperating with them and could face charges in the case.
Also at the new conference, police lauded the actions of 45-year-old math teacher and former Marine Michael Landsberry. They say he tried to stop the rampage before he was fatally shot in the chest.
Associated PressNews Topics: General news, School shootings, School violence, Shootings, Violent crime, Crime, Violence, Social issues, Social affairs, School safety, Education issues, Education
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, center, arrives for a meeting of the North Atlantic Council of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. NATO defense ministers open a two-day meeting beginning on Tuesday to discuss Syria, Afghanistan, cyber security and ballistic missile defense. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, center, arrives for a meeting of the North Atlantic Council of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. NATO defense ministers open a two-day meeting beginning on Tuesday to discuss Syria, Afghanistan, cyber security and ballistic missile defense. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, left, speaks with Romanian Defense Minister Mircea Dusa during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. NATO defense ministers open a two-day meeting beginning on Tuesday to discuss Syria, Afghanistan, cyber security and ballistic missile defense. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S and Afghanistan officials said Tuesday that they are confident tribal elders and the Afghan population will agree to keep U.S. and coalition troops in the country after 2014, even as a senior U.S. military official warned of high profile attacks and assassinations leading up to Afghanistan's presidential elections next year.
The comments come amid persistent uncertainty about the security agreement, including provisions allowing the U.S. military to continue to conduct counterterrorism operations and insuring that U.S. military courts, not the Afghans, would maintain legal jurisdiction over American forces that stay in the country.
A senior U.S. official said that Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi told U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that he has strong confidence that the agreement would be endorsed soon and that the vast majority of Afghans support it. The two spoke during a NATO meeting where leaders were getting updates on the war and progress of the Afghan forces.
In a separate discussion, a senior U.S. military official said he is pretty confident that the agreement will be signed, adding that he has spoken to Afghans at every level and none have said the bilateral security agreement was a bad idea.
The military official also said that Afghans recognize that keeping U.S. and coalition troops in the country after 2014 to train and assist the Afghan forces is key to getting the more than $4 billion in financial support that allied nations have pledged to provide.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issues publicly due to NATO rules.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Hamid Karzai reached an agreement about a week ago on the key elements of a deal that would allow American troops to stay after 2014, when combat troops are scheduled to leave. One key unresolved issue — which is a deal breaker for the U.S. — is whether U.S. military courts maintain legal jurisdiction over the troops.
The U.S. official said Hagel made it clear to Mohammadi that jurisdiction is a must for the security agreement.
Karzai said that issue must be discussed by the consultative assembly of tribal elders, or Loya Jirga, before he makes a decision.
The national meeting is expected to start between Nov. 19 and 21 and could last as long as a week, with as many as 3,000 people attending. The Loya Jirga is not binding but Karzai is likely to follow it. The agreement would then have to be ratified by the Afghan Parliament.
There have been repeated worries that the complex agreement could fall apart in much the same way that U.S. negotiations with Iraqi leaders collapsed over the issue of troop immunity. The U.S. then pulled all of its troops out of Iraq.
Officials Tuesday sought to present a more optimistic view of the Afghan situation, while still acknowledging that there are still challenges ahead.
In particular, the military official warned that based on intelligence reports and discussions with Afghans, the U.S. is expecting the Taliban to try to disrupt April's elections with high-profile attacks and targeted killings aimed at candidates and high-level officials.
The military official said that although the peak fighting season is ending, the winter is likely to focus more on kinetic attacks than in the past. He said he expects a concerted effort by the enemy to try and prevent successful elections and the Afghan security forces are preparing for that fighting campaign now.
The official added that in the coming months the U.S. and coalition forces will focus less on building the proficiency of individual Afghan units, and more on improving broader capabilities such as logistics, intelligence gathering, budgeting and command and control.
U.S. officials have said that the U.S. and NATO would like to keep between 8,000-12,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan force and conduct counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida. Both Hagel and the U.S. military official said they are still comfortable with that range of numbers.
They noted, however, that the number of troops is just one of the key components for success. The state of the Taliban, cooperation from Pakistan in battling the insurgency and the Afghan political process are also important.
Hagel told reporters traveling with him that the sooner an agreement is reached, the better. But he said there is still sufficient time.
"I don't think there's any deadline that we have to have it by Thanksgiving," said Hagel, as he was traveling to the NATO meeting. "If we stay on track — that gives us plenty of time."
If the security agreement is not signed, all troops would leave at the end of next year. President Barack Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press he would be comfortable with a full pullout of U.S. troops.
The initiative was endorsed by the highest executive in the world, had plenty of lead time, and had a relatively straightforward mandate. But, as a recent New York Times article pointed out, deadline after deadline was missed on the multi-contractor project for a variety of reasons -- from government agencies slow to issue their specifications to last minute changes to the Healthcare.gov's primary features.
It's not surprising that the project was problematic, says Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of outsourcing consultancy and research firm Everest Group. "When you make such a huge change all at once and you're trying to implement systems and processes for the first time, the unintended consequences that cascade are enormous," Bendor-Samuel says. "We see this all the time in business, albeit on a smaller scale. The only surprise to me is that it worked at all."
"It's important to keep in mind the experience of the user when designing systems like Healthcare.gov. A big takeaway is to try to simplify processes and keep in mind the user's experience . Healthcare is complex enough, why do these guys need to add more complexity?" -- Adam Luciano, principal analyst with sourcing analyst firm HfS Research.
The rocky start, however, serves as a reminder of several steps any IT outsourcing customer should take to ensure a smooth rollout.
1. Conduct robust capacity planning. "Start by gathering feedback from subject matter experts and key stakeholders across all teams to design a solution with the capacity for planned usage profiles as well as the elasticity to meet unexpected levels of demand," advises Craig Wright, principal with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon.
"Ensure that outsourcing agreements include meaningful expectations around agile service delivery performance structures and relevant provisions to hold service providers responsible for quickly responding to changing needs, aggregating their services into an ecosystem-wide, seamless, end-to-end service experience for users," Wright says
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