Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the store

Apr. 29, 2013 ? At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it's also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.

University of Washington engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.

"A lot of times people think they have to inconvenience themselves to be greener, and that actually isn't the case here," said Anne Goodchild, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "From an environmental perspective, grocery delivery services overwhelmingly can provide emissions reductions."

Consumers have increasingly more grocery delivery services to choose from. AmazonFresh operates in the Seattle area, while Safeway's service is offered in many U.S. cities. FreshDirect delivers to residences and offices in the New York City area. Last month, Google unveiled a shopping delivery service experiment in the San Francisco Bay Area, and UW alumni recently launched the grocery service Geniusdelivery in Seattle.

As companies continue to weigh the costs and benefits of offering a delivery service, Goodchild and Erica Wygonik, a UW doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, looked at whether using a grocery delivery service was better for the environment, with Seattle as a test case. In their analysis, they found delivery service trucks produced 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide than the corresponding personal vehicles driven to and from a grocery store.

They also discovered significant savings for companies -- 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emitted -- if they delivered based on routes that clustered customers together, instead of catering to individual household requests for specific delivery times.

"What's good for the bottom line of the delivery service provider is generally going to be good for the environment, because fuel is such a big contributor to operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Wygonik said. "Saving fuel saves money, which also saves on emissions."

The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.

The UW researchers compiled Seattle and King County data, assuming that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.

They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.

Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.

"We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well," Wygonik said.

Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store, Goodchild said.

In the future, Goodchild and Wygonik plan to look at the influence of customers combining their grocery shopping with a work commute trip and the impact of the delivery service's home-base location on emissions.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/kNz_k9R6AKw/130429095147.htm

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Mississippi man makes court appearance in ricin case

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) ? A Mississippi man appeared briefly in court Monday on a charge that he made a deadly poison that was sent in letters to President Barack Obama, a senator and a judge.

James Everett Dutschke was brought to federal court in Oxford wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands shackled. The 41-year-old suspect said little during the brief hearing other than to answer the judge's questions about whether he understood the charges against him. He said he did.

Dutschke's arrest early Saturday on a charge of making and possessing ricin capped a week in which investigators initially zeroed in on a rival of Dutschke's, then decided they had the wrong man. Dutschke has denied involvement in the mailing of the letters, saying he's a patriot with no grudges against anyone.

The judge ordered Dutschke to remain jailed until a preliminary and detention hearing scheduled for Thursday. More details are likely to emerge at that hearing, when prosecutors have to show they have enough evidence to hold him.

An attorney from the public defender's office appointed to represent Dutschke declined to comment after Monday's hearing. Another attorney who had been representing Dutschke, Lori Nail Basham, no longer is.

Dutschke's house, business and vehicles in Tupelo, Miss., were searched last week, often by crews in hazardous materials suits, and he had been under surveillance.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted. A news release from federal authorities said Dutschke (pronounced DUHS'-kee) was charged with "knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon, to wit: ricin."

He already had legal problems. Earlier this month, he pleaded not guilty in state court to two child molestation charges involving three girls younger than 16. He also was appealing a conviction on a different charge of indecent exposure. He told The Associated Press last week that his lawyer told him not to comment on those cases.

The letters, which tests showed were tainted with ricin, were sent April 8 to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland.

The first suspect accused by the FBI was Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, an Elvis impersonator. He was arrested on April 17 at his Corinth, Miss., home, but the charges were dropped six days later and Curtis, who says he was framed, was released from jail.

The focus then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge. Earlier in the week, as investigators searched his primary residence in Tupelo, Dutschke told the AP, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"I'm a patriotic American. I don't have any grudges against anybody. ... I did not send the letters," Dutschke said.

Curtis' attorney, Christi McCoy, said Saturday: "We are relieved but also saddened. This crime is nothing short of diabolical. I have seen a lot of meanness in the past two decades, but this stops me in my tracks."

Some of the language in the letters was similar to posts on Curtis' Facebook page and they were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message." Curtis often used a similar online signoff.

Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on a conspiracy that Curtis insists he has uncovered to sell body parts on a black market. But he said they later had a feud.

Curtis' attorneys have said they believe their client was set up. An FBI agent testified that no evidence of ricin was found in searches of Curtis' home. Curtis attorney Hal Neilson said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis and Dutschke's came up.

Judge Holland also is a common link between the two men, and both know Wicker.

Holland was the presiding judge in a 2004 case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney a year earlier. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.

Holland's family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke. Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said he thinks his mother's only encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.

Dutschke said Steve Holland exaggerated the incident, and that he has no problem with Sadie Holland. "Everybody loves Sadie, including me," he said.

___

Follow Mohr at http://twitter.com/holbrookmohr.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brief-hearing-held-suspicious-letters-case-150754186.html

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Eastwood says he'd love to be directing at age 105

NEW YORK (AP) ? Clint Eastwood may be 82 years old, but he dreams of making films for two more decades.

In a wide-ranging conversation Saturday about the art of film directing, Eastwood expressed admiration for the 104-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.

"It would be great to be 105 and still making films," Eastwood said. Chuckling, he called such a hope "the ultimate optimism."

Eastwood last directed 2011's "J. Edgar," a biopic of the FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. After acting in last year's baseball drama "Trouble With the Curve," he has several films in development.

The "Million Dollar Baby" and "Unforgiven" director joined fellow filmmaker Darren Aronofsky for a staged talk at the Tribeca Film Festival following a screening of Richard Schickel's documentary "Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story." Eastwood regaled the Tribeca Performing Arts Center crowd with the accrued, pragmatic wisdom from his late career as an acclaimed filmmaker.

Some of the highlights:

? On preferring to begin a take with "Go when you're ready," rather than the traditional "Action!": "'Action' puts a bad connotation out there, like some firecracker that goes off to get everyone going."

? On his willingness to take suggestions for a scene from anyone: "You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director."

? On the role of the director in a film production: "A lot of people fell in love with the auteur theory, but you're merely a platoon captain."

? On studio executives who told him no one wants to see a women's fight film (the best picture-winning "Million Dollar Baby"): "Who the hell wants to see anything? You never know until you get into it."

? On struggling to get films green-lit: "In the early days it was more of a fight. Now, they go, 'Oh, well, if he's the old guy."

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eastwood-says-hed-love-directing-age-105-210648052.html

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787 Dreamliner flies to Kenya from Ethiopia

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? An official with Ethiopian Airlines says one of the company's Dreamliners is scheduled to fly from Ethiopia to Kenya's capital, the first commercial flight since air safety authorities grounded the passenger jets after incidents with smoldering batteries on two different planes in January.

The Boeing 787 passenger jet was scheduled to arrive in Nairobi from Addis Ababa on Saturday afternoon.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has approved Boeing's redesigned battery system, which the company says sharply reduces the risk of fire.

A Boeing engineer told reporters in Nairobi this week that all potential causes of battery fire have been eliminated with the new system.

There are 50 Dreamliners in service around the world. Boeing said Wednesday that deliveries of the 787 should resume in early May.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/787-dreamliner-flies-kenya-ethiopia-103257857.html

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Four arrested as Bangladesh building toll rises to 352

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - Two factory bosses and two engineers were detained in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands killed at least 352 people.

More were being pulled alive from the rubble at the building, where police said as many as 900 people were still missing in Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident.

The owner of the eight-storey building that fell like a pack of cards around more than 3,000 mainly young women workers was still on the run.

Police said several of his relatives were detained to compel him to hand himself in, and an alert had gone out to airport and border authorities to prevent him from fleeing the country.

Officials said Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, had been built on spongy ground without the correct permits, and the workers were sent in on Wednesday despite warnings the previous day that it was structurally unsafe.

Anger at the negligence has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police on Saturday using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to quell demonstrators who burned cars.

Two engineers involved in building the complex were picked up at their homes early on Saturday, Dhaka district police chief Habibur Rahman said. He said they were arrested for dismissing a warning not to open the building after a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars the previous day.

The owner and managing director of the largest of the five factories in the complex, New Wave Style, surrendered to the country's garment industry association during the night and they were handed over to police. They will be kept in remand for an initial 12 days.

The factory, which listed many European and North American retailers as its customers, occupied upper floors of the building that officials said had been added illegally.

"PEOPLE ARE ASKING FOR HIS HEAD"

"Everyone involved - including the designer, engineer, and builders - will be arrested for putting up this defective building," said junior internal affairs minister Shamsul Huq.

Anger over the working conditions of Bangladesh's 3.6 million garment workers - most of whom are women earning as little as $38 a month - has grown since the disaster.

Hundreds were on the streets again on Saturday, smashing and burning cars and sparking more battles with police, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon. Eyewitnesses said dozens of people were injured in the clashes.

An alliance of leftist parties which is part of the ruling coalition said it would call a national strike on May 2 if all those responsible for the disaster were not arrested by Sunday.

Rahman identified the owner of the building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front.

"People are asking for his head, which is quite natural," said H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister.

Wednesday's collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory nearby the latest disaster killed 112 people.

Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Saturday asked garment factory owners to produce building designs by July in a bid to improve safety.

Remarkably, rescuers armed with rod cutters and drills were still pulling people alive from the precarious mound of rubble - 29 in all since dawn on Saturday.

Marina Begum, 22, spoke from a hospital bed of her ordeal inside the broken building for three days.

"It felt like I was in hell," she told reporters. "It was so hot, I could hardly breathe, there was no food and water. When I regained my senses I found myself in this hospital bed."

Frantic efforts were under way to save 15 people trapped under the concrete who were being supplied with dried food, bottled water and oxygen.

Heavy machinery will not be used to remove the remaining bodies and debris until all the survivors are rescued, junior minister for local government Jahangir Kabir Nanak said.

About 2,500 people have been rescued from the remains of the building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from Dhaka.

WRONG PERMIT, ILLEGAL FLOORS

Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA), said the owner of the building had not received the proper building consent, obtaining a permit for a five-storey building from the local municipality which did not have the authority to grant it.

"Only CDA can give such approval," he said. "We are trying to get the original design from the municipality, but since the concerned official is in hiding we cannot get it readily."

Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said. "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.

Islam said the building had been erected on the site of a pond filled in with sand and earth, weakening the foundations.

Duty free access offered by Western countries and low wages helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry. Sixty percent of the clothes go to Europe. The United States takes 23 percent and Canada takes 5 percent.

North American and European chains, including British retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw, a unit of George Weston Ltd, said they were supplied by factories in the Rana Plaza building.

Loblaw, which had a small number of "Joe Fresh" apparel items made at one of the factories, said on Saturday that it was working with other retailers to provide aid and support.

It said it was sending representatives to Bangladesh and was also joining what it described as an urgent meeting with other retailers and the Retail Council of Canada.

(Writing by John Chalmers and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Paul Tait and Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-arrested-bangladesh-building-toll-rises-325-043614507.html

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Meet The Top Five Startups From ERA's Latest New York Demo Day

Another year has come and gone, and with it a brand new class of Entrepreneur Roundtable Accelerator graduates. At demo day today, we saw ten companies launch out of development and into the public eye. Yes, all of them are interesting, disrupting industries from real estate to big data to financial services. But a handful of companies truly stand out as potential game-changers in the tech world. So without any further ado, these are TechCrunch’s picks for the ERA Accelerator spring class: Acquaintable Online dating is more than a trend these days; it’s how young people make connections. Acquaintable focuses on some sort of common thread, connecting people who have mutual friends. According to the company, Acquaintable has a much lower cost for user acquisition because the friend-of-friends model offers natural virality. Plus, it has a better shot at actually creating relationships that last, as the company says that 70 percent of couples have met through friends Using Acquaintable is easy. You hit up the website, give the service Facebook access, and then see pictures of those you might be interested in. It has a similar set up to HotOrNot.com or FaceMash, letting you approve or disapprove of someone’s picture and basic info before moving on to another suitor. All your “likes” and “passes” are completely anonymous. Only after you and your suitor show a mutual interest can you begin communicating via messaging. Acquantainable has had an Alpha out for a while now, with 15 percent of users returning daily, and 35 percent of users sharing and inviting an average of four people. Plus, since Acquaintable focuses on friends-of-friends, it’s less of a sausage fest than online dating services that don’t ensure that this is a real, normal human being and not a creepy stranger. Acquaintable is available now here. Consignd Consignd is trying to give power back to the social influencers who determine shopping habits, while still providing perks to big brand retailers and businesses. Anyone with a web presence, like bloggers, pinners, and website owners can open up a store on their site. Founder Neil Parikh explained that you can do this without ever having to source or ship inventory. Sounds weird, right? But wait. Consignd believes that inspiration and discovery play integral roles in shopping. In fact, 48 percent of products that were bought last year were discovered socially. The breakdown between big brand retailers, affiliates, and

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Kd5Uhw5Z4uM/

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Gunman kills Hamelin politician then himself - The Local

A 74-year-old gunman killed a top official in the northern German town of Hamelin on Friday before shooting himself dead, police said.

"The perpetrator killed district administrator R?diger Butte and then killed himself," a police spokesman said. Officers were still at the scene on Friday afternoon, collecting evidence to support an investigation.

Shots were heard shortly after 10am in the city's main administrative building, where 63-year-old Butte was later found dead along with the body of his assailant.

The attacker was not identified. Police refused to comment on media speculation that the shooter was a gun fanatic but did say that the suspect was known to officers in the area. He used a heavy-calibered revolver to shoot Butte.

Butte was married with two adult children and five grandchildren, according to his profile on the district website. By Friday afternoon, his personal website had been taken off line.

Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement that Butte's murder had left him stunned. ?He will be missed by everyone. My thoughts go to his wife and children.?

He served as a police officer, rising through the ranks to become the head of the State Crime Investigations Office of Lower Saxony from 2001 to 2005. He had served as district administrator of Hamelin-Pyrmont, an elected office, since 2005.

The town is best known for the folk tale of the Pied Piper, later popularised by the Brothers Grimm.

Gun violence is rare in Germany, although major massacres in Erfurt in 2002 and Winnenden in 2009 made headlines around the world.

Gun crime, never high in Germany when compared with many other countries, dropped considerably over the past decade ? in 2000, police registered 19,400 crimes in which involved a firearm. By 2011, this figure stood at 11,700.

Of the 2011 statistics, 5,600 were shootings and 132 were incidents in which a gun was involved in a murder, manslaughter or assisted suicide investigation.

AFP/DPA/The Local/jcw

Source: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130426-49387.html

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Lip-Sticking: Top 7 corporate citizens

By Amanda Ponzar @LivingUnited

Many organizations publish top 100, top 50, top 10 lists. So?here?are my top 7.

United Way Worldwide ?- the largest privately funded nonprofit in the U.S. and the world ?- just announced its highest national awards for philanthropy, volunteer engagement and community impact. Companies that are #1 when it comes to corporate citizenship. The awards process is very competitive with corporate judges and local United Ways pouring over detailed applications, reviewing financial numbers and volunteer hours, analyzing the education, income and health impact of the company's partnerships and programs,?etc. so this is the real deal. ?

Check out the 2013 winners -- 7 top corporate citizens:

3M (NASDAQ: MMM): 3M?s focus is encouraging innovation through STEM (science, technology, engineering, math). In 2012, 3M donated $56.6M in cash and in-kind to education, health and human services, arts and the environment. Education programs supported by 3M reach over 7.6 million young people each year; programs include science fairs and Generation Next that are closing the achievement gap of low-income and minority students. More than 1,700 3M employees volunteer to support education, including 500 employees serving as mentors in the company?s headquarters of St. Paul, increasing graduation rates in focus schools. 3M is the first company to earn an Excellence in Mentoring in America Corporate Leadership Award.

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) invested more than $334 million in programs and partnerships in 39 states and Washington, DC in 2012, including $9.5 million of cash and in-kind support to United Way agencies around the country, with $2.5 million in value of in-kind support
airing public service announcements. Last year, Comcast employees volunteered more than 454,000 hours, unleashing another $1.5 million in Comcast Foundation matching funds for nonprofits. One of Comcast?s signature programs is Internet Essentials, the nation?s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program, which provides low-cost Internet access, computers and free digital
literacy training to struggling families to help close the digital divide. More than 60 United Ways across the country support this program.

?

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and its employees celebrated a major milestone in 2012:? $1 billion in employee giving and matching funds to more than 31,000 nonprofit organizations around the world since the employee giving program began in 1983. In 2012, Microsoft donated more than $900 million in cash and software to more than 62,000 nonprofits worldwide. Microsoft also provides a $17/hour match for employee volunteer hours ?- 450,000 hours logged in 2012 -- generating more than $7.5 million in volunteer matching funds to U.S. nonprofits last year alone. Microsoft?s citizenship focus is creating opportunities for youth through innovative programs that leverage Microsoft?s software and skilled employees. Microsoft YouthSpark is a company-wide global initiative, which aims to create opportunities for 300 million youth in more than 100 countries during the next three years, and includes programs such as Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS), Partners in Learning, Imagine Cup and more.

?

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and its employees raised more than $30.5 million through the United Way campaign, once again as a top 10 national partner. In addition, bank employees volunteered 1.5 million hours globally, including 1,500 employees leveraging their financial expertise at volunteer
tax assistance sites. Since 2006, Bank of America has invested $8 million in Financial Stability grants with United Way, especially around free tax preparation and assistance, and was the first financial institution to nationally support this important work. In 2012, the bank donated $200 million
to nonprofit organizations serving community needs as part of its 10-year $2 billion philanthropic goal.?

?

General Motors ?(NASDAQ: GM) -- The GM Foundation in December 2010 pledged $27.1 million to United Way of Southeastern Michigan to create a ?Network of Excellence? within seven metro Detroit high schools and increase graduation rates from 50% to 80% over five years. Attendance rates at all seven schools improved last year -- an early indicator for improved graduation rates. Last year, GM employees contributed more than $5.8 million through the company?s United Way campaign, plus teamGM Cares Volunteers provided nearly 1,200 hours of service to the Network of Excellence schools.

?

The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS), its employees and The Mosaic Company Foundation contributed $25.4 million in community investments worldwide in 2012 -- including in-kind gifts totaling $3.7 million and $4 million raised through the company?s annual United Way campaign. Mosaic employees contributed expertise and volunteer time to execute campaigns across its North American operations. To achieve its mission to help the world grow the food it needs, Mosaic helps farmers worldwide produce more food through crop nutrients and science-based agronomy. Its unique The Mosaic Villages Project also helps smallholder farmers move beyond subsistence farming and improve their livelihoods through increased crop production and sustainable agricultural practices.

?

Wells Fargo (NASDAQ: WFC) is United Way?s #1 national campaign for four years in a row. Team members raised $60.7 million in 2012 ? a 23% increase over 2011?resulting in over $75.3 million with the corporate gift. Wells Fargo team members volunteered 1.5 million hours in 2012, plus the company offers a unique Volunteer Leave Program; it awarded fully paid leave to more than 21 team members in 2012 to work on a significant project for up to four months. Wells Fargo also announced a new $5 million national partnership with United Way to provide financial counseling for low-moderate income households. Wells Fargo promotes significant skilled volunteering, through its free Hands on Banking? program, focused on money management. Last year, Wells Fargo invested $315.8 million in 19,500 nonprofits.

?

The Spirit of America?and Summit Awards program is United Way?s highest national honor for a corporation, recognizing outstanding United Way Global Corporate Leaders. Join @UnitedWay and congratulate the winners on Twitter: @3Mgiving & @3MNews, @BofA_Community, @Comcastdreambig, @GM, @Microsoft & @msftcitizenship, @MosaicCompany and @WellsFargo.

Related articles

Source: http://www.lipsticking.com/2013/04/top-7-corporate-citizens-.html

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China slams Philippine bid to "legalize" occupation of islands

BEIJING (Reuters) - China accused the Philippines on Friday of trying to legalize its occupation of islands in the disputed South China Sea, repeating that Beijing would never agree to international arbitration.

Frustrated with the slow pace of regional diplomacy, the Philippines in January angered China by asking a U.N. tribunal to order a halt to Beijing's activities that it said violated Philippine sovereignty over the islands, surrounded by potentially energy-rich waters.

Claims by an increasingly powerful China over most of the South China Sea have set it directly against U.S. allies Vietnam and the Philippines. Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also claim parts of the waters and China has a separate dispute with Japan in the East China Sea.

Manila said on Thursday that a U.N. arbitration court had set up the tribunal which would hear Manila's complaint, but China said this was an attempt to steal Chinese territory.

"The Philippine side is trying to use this to negate China's territorial sovereignty and attach a veneer of 'legality' to its illegal occupation of Chinese islands and reefs," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

The Philippines must immediately withdraw personnel and facilities from the islands, the ministry added, listing those which it said Manila was occupying.

Manila asked the tribunal of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to order a halt to China's activities.

But the convention did not apply in this case as what the Philippines was actually asking for was a decision on sovereignty, the ministry said.

"China's refusal to accept the Philippines' request for arbitration has full grounding in international law," it said.

China had always believed that the two countries should resolve their dispute through direct talks, the ministry added.

Southeast Asian nations stepped up efforts on Thursday to engage China in talks to resolve maritime tensions, agreeing to meet to try to reach common ground on disputed waters ahead of planned discussions in Beijing later this year.

Efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to craft a code of conduct to manage South China Sea tensions all but collapsed last year at a summit chaired by Cambodia, a close economic ally of China, when the group failed to issue a closing statement for the first time.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-slams-philippine-bid-legalize-occupation-islands-063113444.html

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Stocks edge higher as job market improves

NEW YORK (AP) ? The engines driving the stock market were more tepid than turbocharged Thursday, but they were enough to help stocks rise for a fifth straight day.

The three major U.S. stock indexes all closed higher as good news on the job market and healthy earnings from name-brand companies like Royal Caribbean and Harley-Davidson encouraged investors.

The Standard & Poor's 500 has risen every day since Friday, a record not matched since early March.

The forces driving the gains, however, were tenuous, market watchers said. Hiring remains sluggish, even with the drop in unemployment claims last week. The S&P's five-day winning streak is hardly a blockbuster: on Wednesday it rose just .01 point. And while companies are turning in profits that are beating the estimates of financial analysts, many are missing revenue forecasts.

Some investors think the stock market's most recent gains have more to do with the belief that central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve, will continue to keep interest rates low and buy bonds to encourage borrowing and spending.

"Some of the earnings were OK, but it's more just stimulus, stimulus, stimulus," said Scott Freeze, president of Street One Financial in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. "As long as the world wants to print (money) ... the fears of a global slowdown are going to be muted."

Joe Heider, principal at Rehmann Group outside Cleveland, thought stocks were up mostly because investors can't think of anywhere else to put their money, given record-low interest rates.

"You can leave it in cash and make nothing on it," Heider said.

Heider said he thought the latest report on jobless claims was consistent with a "plodding" recovery: "Not booming, not exciting, but we just keep marching forward."

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 16,000 to 339,000, the second-lowest level in more than five years, according to the Labor Department.

The good news for the job market comes after a series of setbacks. In March, employers added only 88,000 jobs, down from an average of 220,000 for the previous four months. The unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent, but only because more people stopped looking for jobs.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose as much as 91 points before giving up most of that gain Thursday. Investors were underwhelmed by what turned out to be a mixed bag on earnings. The Dow closed up 24.50 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,700.80.

The S&P 500 rose 6.37 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,585.16. Nine of the S&P's 10 industry groups rose, led by telecommunications. Verizon Communications, the biggest component in S&P's telecommunications group, rose almost 3 percent to $53.22 following reports that the company could offer $100 billion to buy out Vodafone's interest in their joint venture, Verizon Wireless.

The S&P 500's last streak this long was March 1 to 11, when it rose on seven straight trading days.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 20.33, or 0.6 percent, to 3,289.99.

Thursday's earnings offered a mixed view of the economy, and mixed reactions from investors. Many companies have been reporting better first-quarter results, though the gains have come more from cost-cutting than from a strong economy.

So far, 71 percent of S&P 500 companies have beaten analysts' profit expectations for the first quarter, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet. But only 44 percent have beaten estimates for revenue.

Dow Chemical, which reported results, was one example. The company managed to increase profit even as revenue slipped because it cut costs and paid down debt. The stock rose nearly 6 percent to $33.97.

Safeway, a major grocery store chain, reported higher profit with the help of tax benefits. Revenue fell and missed analysts' expectations. Safeway's stock plunged almost 14 percent to $24.32. Investors were concerned about competition from dollar stores and big-box retailers.

In a report to clients, ConvergEx Group chief market strategist Nicholas Colas noted companies' higher earnings but said they don't match the "real feel" of an economy still crimped by "lackluster jobs growth, a flattening rate of improvement in the housing market, and incremental government austerity measures."

"If U.S. companies have proven anything in the last four years of subpar macroeconomic results," Colas wrote, "it is that they can make gallons of lemonade from just a few shriveled bits of citrus."

Among other companies making big moves:

? Children's clothing company Carter's and motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson both rose after reporting higher profit and revenue. Carter's rose 6 percent to $64.12. Harley rose more than 2 percent to $54.31.

? Profit and revenue also jumped at the cruise line Royal Caribbean as more people booked vacations. The stock jumped more than 5 percent, rising to $36.07. This year's comparisons, however, are a bit unusual: Last year's results were hurt because of the sinking of the Costa Concordia, owned by rival cruise line Carnival.

? Profit and revenue also rose at 3M, maker of Scotch tape and construction equipment, but the stock fell almost 3 percent to $104.88. Investors were unnerved when the company cut its profit predictions for the year, citing a "low-growth economic environment."

? Cosmetics company Revlon reported a loss after taking a charge for refinancing, and revenue was virtually flat. The stock dropped nearly 7 percent to $19.16.

? Profit and revenue also fell at Cliffs Natural Resources and Carbo Ceramics, but their stocks went in opposite directions. Cliffs, which sells iron ore, shot 15 percent higher to $20.95. Carbo, which provides services and parts for the petroleum industry, plunged more than 17 percent to $71.55.

At Cliffs, the lower profits were still better than analysts had expected. At Carbo, investors were worried because the company said Chinese ceramic imports were hurting its pricing, and because drilling companies were taking more rigs out of action.

In other markets, trading resumed on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange close to 1 p.m. Eastern after being shut down all morning because of software problems. The CBOE's VIX index, a measure of how volatile investors expect the market to be, was virtually unchanged at 13.62, close to its low point of the year, 11, reached on March 15.

Gold futures rose 2.7 percent to $1,462 an ounce and the price of crude oil rose 2.4 percent to $93.64 a barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 1.71 percent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-edge-higher-job-market-improves-195247245--finance.html

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Baltazar & Franco Finance "The Green Team" - Comic Book ...

Whether it's "Tiny Titans" or "Superman Family Adventures," Art Baltazar and Franco have no problem putting the fun into superhero comics. Come May 22, the dynamic creative duo join forces with artist Ig Guara have the opportunity to inject their unique sense of humor and adventure into DC Comics' new ongoing series "The Green Team: Teen Trillionaires," which explores a team of incredibly wealthy individuals and their adventures in the DC Universe. Among the details teased for the series are the world's most popular actress outfitted with a cybernetic arm, bringing Deathstroke the Terminator on as private security and more.

Comic Book Resouces spoke with the writing duo about their take on what unlimited finances in the DC Universe can purchase, the difficulty of creating new items for the Teen Trillionaires to get their hands on, the challenges of putting together a revival of a series from the 1970s and more.

CBR News: "The Green Team" #1 hits stores next month and explores what a near endless supply of money can buy you in the DCU. How do you guys plan to explore the concept of money as an actual superpower?

Franco: We explore it by spending a lot of it! That's what these guys do. They have a lot of it, more than you or I could ever imagine in a lifetime -- and they use it in new and interesting ways.

Art Baltazar: It's not like spending money, it's like, "I'm hungry, I'm going to go to the fridge and eat an apple." It's just there. They have anything that they want at their fingertips. If they want something, they have somebody make it for them or they order it or they ship it from China or whatever. The concept of money really isn't the same for us as it is to them.

There's an old adage that states restriction breeds creativity. When you have characters that can literally have anything they want at their disposal, do you find it challenging to have no restrictions on what these characters can obtain?

Franco: It's more finding what they don't have and trying to get that. That's kind of what the first story arc is about. These guys have it all, can have anything they want and we explore the things they don't have. The first story arc is kind of interesting to where it leads and what they wind up doing because of the results of that.

Baltazar: The challenge of it is trying to come up with -- you could buy anything you want, but what would be the creative twist in what they buy? You could buy a car, but what if you get a car that turns into a robot? We want to put a twist on everything -- like, you buy a Transformer. That would be cooler. We add a little bit of everything that would be outrageous and DC. DC Comics all the way, because it's a comic, so it doesn't have to be something that exists. Without giving anything away, purchases are bigger than life itself.

Realistically, how many trillionaires are there in the DC Universe? How many of them are actually on the Green Team?

Franco: We know of four definitely and they're all on the team.

Baltazar: [Laughs] Yeah. They all come from different kind[s] of money, too. Their families, some personal, some acquired wealth, but as far as other guys, I'm not really sure how much money Bruce Wayne has or Lex Luthor has. These guys probably have more money than those guys. Batman has a lot of money, though. He has some cool stuff.

Franco: Yeah, but he spends it all on Batman gadgets and Batmobiles and stuff like that. Our guys spend it on flying to Cancun.

Baltazar: [Laughs] Yeah. Batman sets the standard. He's putting up that plateau that we've got to get over -- Bruce Wayne, that is.

The series also features a famous actress with a cybernetic arm, which isn't really a story that's been done so far in the DCU. How have the format and characters of "The Green Team" pushed you into new creative directions in comics?

Franco: For us, every book that we do is a new creative direction, so this is really nothing new to us. We were very excited to take the characters and make them different than what you have seen in 1970-something and put a new twist on them and really update them. We're huge, huge fans of the older "Teen Titans" stuff and we're trying to incorporate some of that team mentality into here, where you have it not gelling together at first, but they've all got the same kind of background and they're all intermingled as far as relationships, so it's an interesting dynamic. We're trying to take these characters and do things with them that you really haven't seen in comics or superhero comics before. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Baltazar: Our comic reading goes way back to when we were kids, so you might see some of that kind of storytelling come through. Like he said, "Teen Titans," but I keep thinking -- I'm going to say the other guys -- but I'm really inspired by "The New Mutants" that was done in the late '80s. For me, the influence was "New Mutants" and "Teen Titans." You're going to see that. To do something never-before-done in comics, I'm sure you could find a cybernetic arm somewhere else, but we're going to do something else.

Franco: You're not going to see what happens with the cybernetic arm. That's what you see, but what really happens is something totally different.

Baltazar: Yeah, as the series goes on, you're going to see the changes that are going to happen. I won't reveal or spoil, but it's going to be cool. We're excited. We know where we're going at least for the first ten to twenty issues, hopefully people will dig it.

Deathstroke's appearance in the third issue is a great opportunity to see how mercenaries in the DCU make a living when not trying to destroy the heroes of the DCU. How does a character like Deathstroke react to the personalities of the teen trillionaires?

Franco: Well, he'll react positively because they've got a lot of money.

Baltazar: You have to remember, he's got a short fuse. If you tease the guy too much or hang around him too much, he might want to kill you too. [Laughs] That's some kind of attitude with Deathstroke. He's definitely in for the money.

What are you most looking forward to explore during the course of this series?

Baltazar: Just to make an awesome book, to make an awesome comic that people come back to. We just want high-end adventure and fun. "Green Team" versus the rest of the DC Universe is going to be the fun. Our goal was to have somebody finish the issue and go, "Wow, what was that? How did they do that?" That's what we want.

Franco: Exactly, at the end of every issue, Art and I want to walk away and say, "Hey, we would read this if we were on the other end of it. We would pick it up and read it." That's how we're approaching this issue.

Baltazar: Yeah, the characters aren't really serious. They're serious about what they're doing and being alive every day. Life itself to them is the awesome part. You're going to see. You're going to see the problems they have just trying to wake up everyday trying to be awesome, but you're going to see they run into problems. Everyone has a little bit of tension in their life -- and mine's getting ready for C2E2! [Laughs]

Wrapping up, in your opinion, are there any problems in the DCU that money can't solve?

Franco: Not according to our guys!

Baltazar: Yeah, our guys could do it. I don't know about the Clark Kent/Lois Lane love thing. I like it when they're kissing, but I don't know if Lois will --

Franco: Yeah, money can't buy love.

Baltazar: [Laughs] That's right. But if you read "Superman Family Adventures" #12, we take care of that problem.

Franco: [Laughs]

"The Green Team" #1 by Franco, Art Baltazar and Ig Guara hits stores May 22 from DC Comics.

Discuss this story in CBR's DC Universe forum. ?|?

TAGS: ?dc comics, new 52, the green team, art baltazar, franco, ig guara, deathstroke

Source: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=45108

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Fake tweet shows country 'sensitive to any news that sounds like terrorism'

By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

A stock market and a nation already on edge was temporarily knocked off its axis on Tuesday by a single fake tweet.?

Following a hack attack, the Associated Press' verified Twitter account posted "an erroneous tweet" claiming that two explosions occurred in the White House and that President Barack Obama is injured. Moments later, the @AP Twitter account ? with nearly 2 million followers ? was suspended.

"That's a bogus tweet," an AP spokesperson initially told NBC News, a statement that was?repeated by the company's corporate communications account. Though the false tweet disappeared, the false message continued to exist on the service in over 4,000 retweets.

The chart of the Dow Jones industrial average just after 1 p.m. may as well have been a chart of America's heartbeat -- stopped for a moment, again, by seemingly horrific information. The Dow lost more than 140 points almost instantly, before recovering five minutes later.

It's incredible what a single 12-word lie can do.

The markets plummet, and then snap back after a fake AP terror tweet, with the "Power Lunch" crew.

"We're in an environment where we're sensitive to any news that sounds like terrorism," said Art Hogan of Lazard Capital Markets.? "That makes it that much more believable. That's the tricky part. When something like AP gets hacked, it becomes reality for a period of time, until it's not."

The market's reaction hints at the our collective fragility right now.? In the past, carefully crafted fake press releases or other Internet disinformation has been able to influence individual stocks both up or down.

But a single Tweet sinking the market?? It's just the latest sign that lies now spread on the Internet as fast as computer viruses, and can have just as much impact. Like the false rumors that spread like wildfire during the Boston bombing aftermath, or Hurricane Sandy before that, Twitter's surge to mainstream popularity ? it now boasts 140 million U.S. accounts???has made it an incredible source of on-the-spot information, but also the world's most powerful rumor-mongering tool.

"You wonder who did it and whether it was done on purpose. It certainly was an instant implosion," said Art Cashin, director of floor operations for UBS Financial Services, who watched the minutes of bedlam on the floor of the NYSE. Cashin said the reaction was especially dramatic because it said the president was injured.

If you define the term "hacking" loosely, you might consider that whoever wrote the fake tweet hacked not only AP's account, but the entire Wall Street trading system. The trades which sank the market Tuesday were almost certainly initiated by automated trading programs designed to profit by fast-twitch reacting to good or bad news.

The combination of a jittery public, automated trading, and a worldwide rumor tool was toxic for the markets.

"That goes to show you how algorithms read headlines and create these automatic orders ? you don't even have time to react as a human being," said Kenny Polcari of O'Neil Securities. "I'd imagine the (Security and Exchange Commission) is going to look into how this happened. It's not about banning computers, but it's about protection and securing our markets."

It's also about figuring out how to handle a world where the firewall between seemingly disconnected systems like Twitter and brokerage servers is really only 91 characters long, particularly a world where skepticism?s classic grains of salt seem to be in short supply.

CNBC's JeeYeon Park, Patti Domm and John Melloy contributed to this story.

Related:?AP Twitter account hacked, posts false White House scare

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b1933f9/l/0Lredtape0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C230C178812150Efake0Etweet0Eshows0Ecountry0Esensitive0Eto0Eany0Enews0Ethat0Esounds0Elike0Eterrorism0Dlite/story01.htm

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Video may help terminal patients make CPR choice

By Trevor Stokes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Terminally ill cancer patients who watched either of two videos about the option to forego resuscitation overwhelmingly elected that route for the patient in the video, if not for themselves, according to a new study.

But the vignettes - whose only difference was whether fictional patients decided on their own to skip cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or got a recommendation from their doctor - elicited high marks from real patients for the video doctors' compassion in discussing a difficult subject.

Importantly, study participants didn't think less of a doctor who recommended that patients forgo life-saving efforts during cardiac arrest.

"The reassuring finding here is that both approaches (doctor- versus patient-guided decisions about whether to be resuscitated) are likely to reach very similar results," said study author Dr. Eduardo Bruera, department chair of palliative care and rehabilitation medicine in the cancer medicine division at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Dying cancer patients can survive cardiac arrest if given CPR, but experts note that most of those patients will suffer from serious complications and typically die within days to weeks.

The alternative is for a patient to request in advance not to be resuscitated in a crisis. However, experts find that most cancer patients do not have conversations with their doctors about whether they want CPR in an emergency.

Bruera and his colleagues wanted to test approaches to such conversations and see whether patients would rather be advised what to do or to make up their own minds after hearing the information.

In the study, 78 patients with advanced cancer at MD Anderson watched two videos depicting a middle-aged doctor telling a woman in her 60s with cancer about resuscitation options.

In one video, the doctor recommended a do-not-resuscitate option, whereas in a nearly identical video, the doctor asked whether the patient wanted to opt out of CPR.

All 30 study patients who had already requested do-not-resuscitate orders for themselves chose the same for the patient depicted in the video. Among the 48 patients who hadn't made any CPR decisions, 30 chose the option for the patient in the video.

Factors such as age, gender or socioeconomic status were not linked to patients' do-not-resuscitate decisions, researchers found. Only three patients had had a conversation about resuscitation with their doctors, according to the report that appears in the journal Cancer.

"Patients might be willing to make that decision for themselves if the conversation occurs, they just haven't had the conversation with their doctors yet," Bruera told Reuters Health.

Researchers have already tested videos in clinics as a way to inform patients about the realities of CPR and reduce patient requests for it (see Reuters Health story of December 12, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/UCcGJg ).

"The use of video technology rather than simply a conversation or giving people a piece of paper might provide patients with access to information in a much more effective way," Bruera said. "The potential is for videos to be an educational tool before having a personalized conversation."

For time-strapped doctors, having the sensitive talk about end-of-life options is difficult and doctors frequently cite their fear that the conversation will make them appear uncompassionate to patients, experts said.

But the high compassion scores patients in the study gave to the video doctors could be seen as a sign of appreciation for the conversation taking place in any form, wrote Rebecca Pentz and Anne Lederman Flamm of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in an accompanying editorial.

Videos may act as icebreakers, but won't replace the crucial human interaction, according to Dr. Andrew Shuman, head and neck surgical fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

"Using visual media to educate and guide end-of-life decision-making may be quite useful, but in my opinion, will never replace the importance of direct and open communication between patients and clinicians," Shuman, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health in an email.

"Unfortunately, many clinicians are not comfortable addressing end-of-life decisions with patients due to issues involving lack of training in how to have these difficult conversations, uncertainties in estimating prognosis, and the (often erroneous) perception that patients do not want to discuss these issues either," he said.

Another expert questioned the study's impact on clinical practices since patients made do-not-resuscitate decisions for another person and not themselves.

"Whether (this study) really translates into an action item for healthcare professionals remains uncertain," said Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.

"There's a bit of a distance between saying what someone else should do versus how they might respond to their own situation," Lichtenfeld told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/14J6xUV and http://bit.ly/11V6qOB Cancer, online April 5, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/video-may-help-terminal-patients-cpr-choice-183643387.html

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Amazon to release its own set-top box: Report

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 8 hrs.

Amazon plans to put out a set-top box to compete with the likes of Roku, Apple TV, and other streaming devices, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. No price or timeline was mentioned, except that it would appear sometime in 2013.

The Seattle-based company has been diversifying its product catalog for years, and although it is best known for its all-encompassing online store, it now also offers web hosting, multimedia streaming, and an expanding line of Kindle-branded electronics.

A set-top box would be a natural fit with Amazon's existing products: More people than ever are signing up for streaming video and audio, and the success of the Kindle Fire has shown that Amazon-themed products can find success with electronics buyers at large.

The device is said to be under development in an Amazon research lab in Cupertino, where perennial competitor Apple is also based. It would likely be priced very competitively and offer extremely easy access to Amazon's media library, with the inevitable perks for Amazon Prime customers.

What will it be called? It's anyone's guess: Although "Kindle" is a contender, devices of that name have all been handheld ? tablets and e-readers. We'll find out when the product is announced later this year.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2b20e35f/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cgadgetbox0Camazon0Erelease0Eits0Eown0Eset0Etop0Ebox0Ereport0E6C9587298/story01.htm

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Sprint reports net loss of $643 million in Q1 2013

$7.1 billion in revenue, 5 million phones shipped, $29 million in operating income

Sprint reported their first quarter financial results for 2013 today, which included $7.1 billion in revenue - that's 9% up from Q1 last year, and their new all-time high. Sprint boasted that this quarter they've enjoyed the fastest year-over-year increase in operating income in more than six years: $29 million, which is up 25% from the same figure in 2012. After all was told though, Sprint still reported a net loss of $643 million, which isn't quite as bad as the $863 million loss last year, and definitely the $1.3 billion loss last quarter. 

Sprint felt it necessary to point out that 1.5 million of their 5 million smartphone sales this quarter were iPhones, because nobody cares about where the other 3.5 million phones came from, I guess? 

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/02wIJYjUMVM/story01.htm

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Facebook interests could help predict, track and map obesity

Apr. 24, 2013 ? The higher the percentage of people in a city, town or neighborhood with Facebook interests suggesting a healthy, active lifestyle, the lower that area's obesity rate. At the same time, areas with a large percentage of Facebook users with television-related interests tend to have higher rates of obesity. Such are the conclusions of a study by Boston Children's Hospital researchers comparing geotagged Facebook user data with data from national and New York City-focused health surveys.

Together, the conclusions suggest that knowledge of people's online interests within geographic areas may help public health researchers predict, track and map obesity rates down to the neighborhood level, while offering an opportunity to design geotargeted online interventions aimed at reducing obesity rates.

The study team, led by Rumi Chunara, PhD, and John Brownstein, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital's Informatics Program (CHIP), published their findings on April 24 in PLOS ONE.

The amount of data available from social networks like Facebook makes it possible to efficiently carry out research in cohorts of a size that has until now been impractical. It also allows for deeper research into the impact of the societal environment on conditions like obesity, research that can be challenging because of cost, difficulties in gathering sufficient sample sizes and the slow pace of data analysis and reporting using traditional reporting and surveillance systems.

"Online social networks like Facebook represent a new high-value, low-cost data stream for looking at health at a population level," according to Brownstein, who runs the Computational Epidemiology Group within CHIP. "The tight correlation between Facebook users' interests and obesity data suggest that this kind of social network analysis could help generate real-time estimates of obesity levels in an area, help target public health campaigns that would promote healthy behavior change, and assess the success of those campaigns."

To connect the dots between Facebook interests and obesity, Chunara, Brownstein and their colleagues obtained aggregated Facebook user interest data -- what users post to their timeline, "like" and share with others on Facebook -- from users nationally and just within New York City. They then compared the percentages of users interested in healthy activities or television with data from two telephone-based health surveys: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System-Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (BRFSS-SMART), and New York City's EpiQuery Community Health Survey (CHS). Both surveys record geotagged data on body mass index, a reliable measure of obesity.

The comparison revealed close geographic relationships between Facebook interests and obesity rates. For instance, the BRFSS-SMART obesity rates were 12 percent lower in the location in the United States where the highest percentage of Facebook users expressing activity-related interests (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) compared that in the location with the lowest percentage (Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.). Similarly, the obesity rate in the location with the highest percentage of users with television-related interests nationally (Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, S.C.) was 3.9 percent higher than the location with the lowest percentage (Eugene-Springfield, Ore.).

The same correlation was reflected in the New York City neighborhood data as well, showing that the approach can scale from national- to local-level data. The CHS-reported obesity rate on Coney Island, which had the highest percentage of activity-related interests in the city, was 7.2 percent lower than Southwest Queens, the neighborhood with the lowest percentage. At the same time, the obesity rate in Northeast Bronx, the neighborhood with the highest percentage of television-related interests, was 27.5 percent higher than that in the neighborhood with the lowest percentage (Greenpoint).

"The data show that in places where Facebook users have more activity-related interests, there is a lower prevalence of obesity and overweight," said Chunara, an instructor in Brownstein's group. "They reveal how social media data can augment public health surveillance by giving public health researchers access to population-level information that they can't otherwise get."

The study also bolsters the case for using social media as a means of delivering targeted interventions aimed at reducing rates of obesity and other chronic diseases, as applicable.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Boston Children's Hospital.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Rumi Chunara, Lindsay Bouton, John W. Ayers, John S. Brownstein. Assessing the Online Social Environment for Surveillance of Obesity Prevalence. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e61373 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061373

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/TNeEtWOw3jM/130424185209.htm

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Video: Scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cells

Video: Scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cells

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss.

Two types of adipose (fat) tissue ? brown and white -- are found in mammals. Unlike the more predominant white adipose tissue (WAT) which stores fat, BAT burns fat to produce heat when the body is exposed to cold and also plays a role in energy metabolism. Human studies have shown that greater quantities of BAT are associated with lower body weight. BAT has been a major focus of study among scientists and pharmaceutical companies based on its potential as a treatment to combat obesity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

Studies in mice have identified two types of BAT: constitutive or "classical" BAT which is present at birth and persists throughout life and recruitable or "beige" BAT which can be produced from within white fat in response to metabolic conditions. These two types of BAT may also be present in humans.

Previous studies have identified the human neck as a primary location for BAT deposits. To determine the precise locations of these deposits, Joslin scientists obtained fat samples from five neck regions of patients undergoing neck surgery. Analysis of the samples showed that BAT was most abundant in deep regions of the neck, near the carotid sheath and longus colli muscles. These samples expressed the BAT marker gene, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which is involved in heat generation. "BAT is most abundant in the deep locations of the neck, close to the sympathetic chain and the carotid arteries, where it likely helps to warm blood and raise body temperature. Now that we know where brown fat is, we can easily collect more cells for further study," says Aaron M. Cypess, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and Assistant Investigator in the Section of Integrative Physiology and Metabolism and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

In analyzing genetic expression in superficial and deep human neck fat tissue, the fat from deep locations was found to most closely resemble cells from constitutive mouse BAT, the kind already known to consume large quantities of glucose and fat.

The Joslin scientists compared the oxygen consumption rate (OCR), which demonstrates the capacity to burn calories, of human BAT cells to mouse constitutive BAT cells and human WAT. This is the first study to directly measure brown fat cells' OCR at baseline. The OCR of the human BAT cells from the deep location next to the longus colli was nearly 50 percent of the mouse BAT cells; in contrast, the OCR of human WAT was only one-hundredth of the OCR found in the most active human BAT from the longus colli depot. "We show that at baseline, brown fat cells have a great capacity to burn fat," says Dr. Cypess.

Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss. Credit: Joslin Communications

The scientists were able to grow new functional brown fat cells (adipocytes) by differentiating precursor cells (preadipocytes) derived from both superficial and deep human neck fat tissue. When stimulated, the cells expressed the same genes as naturally occurring brown fat cells. This is the first report of the production of brown fat cells (adipogenesis) that can respond to pharmacological stimulation.

The Joslin scientists are following up on this study to learn more about the functions of BAT, including how it affects energy balance and uses glucose. Having the ability to produce brown fat cells outside the body will make it possible to develop drugs and other potential treatments that increase BAT activity to combat obesity. "Our research has significant practical applications. If we stimulate the growth of brown fat in people, it may burn their white fat and help them lose weight, which lessens insulin resistance and improves diabetes," says Dr. Cypess.

###

Joslin Diabetes Center: http://www.joslin.org

Thanks to Joslin Diabetes Center for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127868/Video__Scientists_advance_understanding_of_human_brown_adipose_tissue_and_grow_new_cells

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Apple?s Q1 smartphone market share reportedly sinks as Samsung dominates

By Karolos Grohmann DORTMUND, Germany, April 23 (Reuters) - Manchester United's Premier League title win came as no surprise to Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, who praised coach Alex Ferguson on Tuesday and said winning was his life. Mourinho, who challenged United's domestic dominance while at Chelsea between 2004-2007, was speaking Real's their Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund. Real eliminated United in the last 16. "What he did is what he has been doing all his life, winning," Mourinho told reporters. "Sometimes not consecutively because it is impossible to do it. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-q1-smartphone-market-share-reportedly-sinks-samsung-115017558.html

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