Digidrench whets our appetite for water-based Arduino adventures (video)

Wondering what you get when you mix an Arduino kit with some food coloring and plenty of water? Well, the Digidrench team came up with the concept of developing a media controller that mimics the flow of water in and out of three separate containers. The pay-off? Seeing three of the team get coated in a brightly colored mess. An Arduino kit is connected to a sensor that gauges the amount of water in the tanks and transmits the watery action to a corresponding video slice. Take the water out, and the deluge reverses. Pour faster, and the test subjects get poured on faster. Pour slowly and, well, you get it. You can laugh at their cheerfully colored misery right after the break.

Continue reading Digidrench whets our appetite for water-based Arduino adventures (video)

Digidrench whets our appetite for water-based Arduino adventures (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/digidrench-whets-our-appetite-for-water-based-arduino-adventures/

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Study stirs debate over transplants for alcoholics

In this July 11, 1995 file photo, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle speaks to reporters during a news conference following his recovery from a liver transplant at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. More alcoholics can benefit from liver transplants, according to a new study that could boost demand and intensify debate about who should get scarce organs. Heavy drinkers with severe hepatitis usually must stay sober for six months to qualify for a new liver. But researchers found that granting transplants to some of them sooner improves their survival chances - and most stay sober years afterward. The findings reopen an old debate over who deserves desperately needed transplant organs. Celebrities with alcohol problems receiving liver transplants have sparked public outrage. In the 1990s, Larry Hagman, David Crosby and the late Mickey Mantle got transplants. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

In this July 11, 1995 file photo, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle speaks to reporters during a news conference following his recovery from a liver transplant at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. More alcoholics can benefit from liver transplants, according to a new study that could boost demand and intensify debate about who should get scarce organs. Heavy drinkers with severe hepatitis usually must stay sober for six months to qualify for a new liver. But researchers found that granting transplants to some of them sooner improves their survival chances - and most stay sober years afterward. The findings reopen an old debate over who deserves desperately needed transplant organs. Celebrities with alcohol problems receiving liver transplants have sparked public outrage. In the 1990s, Larry Hagman, David Crosby and the late Mickey Mantle got transplants. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

In this Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 photo, Jane Sussman sits on the porch of the Shadyside Family House, where she has lived since May 2011, waiting for a liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Sussman, a pre-school teacher from Cambridge, Mass., who has been waiting for a liver transplant of more than a year does not want heavy drinkers to be added to the waiting list for organs. Doctors aren?t sure what caused her liver condition, but it wasn?t alcohol and she?s never been a drinker. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

FILE - In this Thursday, March 4, 2004 file photo, former Northern Ireland soccer star George Best arrives for a gala dinner in London to mark FIFA's 100 year anniversary and to receive a FIFA trophy for being one of the 125 best soccer players of all time. More alcoholics can benefit from liver transplants, according to a new study that could boost demand and intensify debate about who should get scarce organs. Heavy drinkers with severe hepatitis usually must stay sober for six months to qualify for a new liver. But researchers found that granting transplants to some of them sooner improves their survival chances - and most stay sober years afterward. The findings reopen an old debate over who deserves desperately needed transplant organs. Celebrities with alcohol problems receiving liver transplants have sparked public outrage. In the 1990s, Larry Hagman, David Crosby and the late Mickey Mantle got transplants. More recently, the British soccer star received a new liver in 2002, started drinking again and died three years later. (AP Photo/Max Nash)

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 28, 2004 file photo provided by the National Kidney Foundation, actor Larry Hagman bares his chest to show off his scar from his liver transplant surgery at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games in Minneapolis, Minn. More alcoholics can benefit from liver transplants, according to a new study that could boost demand and intensify debate about who should get scarce organs. Heavy drinkers with severe hepatitis usually must stay sober for six months to qualify for a new liver. But researchers found that granting transplants to some of them sooner improves their survival chances - and most stay sober years afterward. The findings reopen an old debate over who deserves desperately needed transplant organs. Celebrities with alcohol problems receiving liver transplants have sparked public outrage. In the 1990s, Larry Hagman, David Crosby and the late Mickey Mantle got transplants. (AP Photo/Eric Miller)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Some gravely ill alcoholics who need a liver transplant shouldn't have to prove they can stay sober for six months to get one, doctors say in a study that could intensify the debate over whether those who destroy their organs by drinking deserve new ones.

In the small French study, the vast majority of the patients who got a liver without the wait stopped drinking after their surgery and were sober years later. The study involved patients who were suffering from alcohol-related hepatitis so severe that they were unlikely to survive a six-month delay.

The findings, reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, could boost demand for livers, already in scarce supply, and reopen a bitter dispute over whether alcoholics should even get transplants.

The controversy peaked in the 1990s when celebrities with drinking problems ? Larry Hagman, David Crosby and Mickey Mantle ? got liver transplants. More recently, British soccer star George Best received a new liver in 2002, started drinking again and died three years later.

Alcohol can cause lethal, liver-destroying diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatitis. Nearly one in five liver transplants in the U.S. go to current or former heavy drinkers. Transplant hospitals commonly require patients waiting for a new liver to give up drinking for six months as a way of assuring doctors they are serious about staying sober after the operation.

Drinkers severely ill with hepatitis account for a very small share of patients needing transplants. The French study suggests that dropping the six-month rule for these patients would increase demand for livers by only about 3 percent.

The study's lead author, Dr. Philippe Mathurin of Huriez Hospital in Lille, France, said a strict application of the six-month rule may be unfair to such patients. He said they are just as deserving as other liver patients, many of whom have diseases caused by poor lifestyle choices such as drug use or obesity.

Mathurin said he favors keeping the rule for other alcoholics with liver disease, noting that some can recover liver function simply by staying sober.

Dr. Robert S. Brown Jr., transplant director of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, agreed it is time to rethink the six-month rule. "The challenge of this paper is to come up with better ways, both to treat alcoholism as a disease and to predict who will succeed with transplantation," he said.

Mathurin acknowledged that such a change could put more patients on the waiting list for organs, and said: "It means we have to increase the number of donors."

Nearly 6,300 liver transplants were performed last year in the United States, but more than 1,400 Americans died waiting for a new liver, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Adding more people to the list could mean longer waits and more deaths among non-drinkers.

Preschool teacher Jane Sussman, 59, has been waiting for a liver for more than a year. Doctors aren't sure what caused her liver condition, but it wasn't alcohol and she has never been a drinker. She doesn't want the list to get longer by adding more alcoholics.

"Who knows for sure if they're not going to start drinking right way?" Sussman said from her temporary home in Pittsburgh near her transplant hospital. An organ from a deceased donor is "the most amazing gift you'll get in your life. If you don't treat it right, it's a wasted gift that could have gone to someone else, like myself."

The French study involved 26 alcoholics with severe hepatitis who were not getting better with drug treatment. They were carefully selected: Among other things, all had support from family or friends. The patients pledged to quit drinking and received transplants. They were compared with a group of similar liver disease patients who weren't offered transplants.

Not surprisingly, those who got transplants did better: 77 percent were still alive six months later, compared with 23 percent of those who didn't get new livers.

Also, far fewer fell off the wagon than expected: Only three of the transplant patients started drinking again two to three years later, a rate much lower than the estimated 30 percent relapse rate in general among alcoholic patients who meet the six-month sobriety rule.

Dr. Christopher Hughes, director of liver transplantation at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he is worried the pool of potential organ donors could shrink if the public believes organs are going to active drinkers.

"I think this will be very controversial. I don't think you'll find a lot of support for adopting this," Hughes said.

___

Online:

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

___

AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-09-US-MED-Transplants-Alcoholics/id-42d814c62abf45698cd3c8cda6ffb4e3

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Rajaratnam ordered to pay $92.8 million in SEC case (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? A federal judge ordered Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group hedge fund founder sentenced to 11 years in prison for insider trading, to pay a record $92.8 million penalty in a related Securities and Exchange Commission civil case.

The penalty imposed by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan is in addition to the $63.8 million that Rajaratnam's lawyers said their client has already paid in his criminal case, including $53.8 million that was forfeited and a $10 million fine.

A federal jury in May convicted Rajaratnam of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy in the criminal case.

Rakoff's colleague, U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell, last month imposed the 11-year prison term, the longest recorded U.S. sentence for insider trading. Rajaratnam is scheduled to begin his term on December 5.

The SEC said Rajaratnam's civil penalty is the largest against an individual in an insider trading case brought by the regulator, including in its 1980s cases against stock trader Ivan Boesky and junk bond financier Michael Milken.

Rakoff said a severe civil penalty for Rajaratnam was needed to make clear that insider trading should be "a money-losing proposition" for all who consider it.

He also said such a penalty was appropriate because the net worth of Rajaratnam, a former billionaire, "considerably exceeds" the penalties in the criminal case.

"When to this is added the huge and brazen nature of Rajaratnam's insider trading scheme, which, even by his own estimate, netted tens of millions of dollars and continued for years, this case cries out for the kind of civil penalty that will deprive this defendant of a material part of his fortune," Rakoff wrote.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the law firm representing Rajaratnam, declined to comment, a spokeswoman said.

LARGEST INSIDER TRADING PENALTY

SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami in a statement said the penalty "reflects the historic proportions of Raj Rajaratnam's illegal conduct and its impact on the integrity of our markets."

Boesky in 1986 agreed to a $50 million civil penalty and give up $50 million of illegal profit to settle with the SEC, while four years later Milken gave up $400 million of illegal profit. Milken also accepted a $200 million criminal fine.

Rakoff said he arrived at Rajaratnam's penalty by tripling a "base figure" for ill-gotten gains or avoided losses by Rajaratnam from alleged insider trading in shares of Intel Corp (INTC.O), Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM.O), ATI Technologies Inc, Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O) and PeopleSupport Inc.

While Rakoff chose Rajaratnam's $30.9 million estimate for the base figure rather than a higher sum proposed by the SEC, he said even the lower base figure would "still fulfill all the purposes of a civil penalty in this case."

The SEC had sought a $96.4 million civil penalty, a lawyer for the regulator said at an October 28 hearing. Galleon settled with the SEC last month.

Last month, prosecutors and the SEC filed charges against Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) director and global head of the McKinsey & Co consulting firm, for allegedly providing Rajaratnam with some of his tips. Gupta pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.

The case is SEC v. Galleon Management et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-08811.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Grant McCool in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bernard Orr)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111108/bs_nm/us_galleon_rajaratnam

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Which way you lean -- physically -- affects your decision-making

Public release date: 8-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Divya Menon
dmenon@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science

We're not always aware of how we are making a decision. Unconscious feelings or perceptions may influence us. Another important source of information -- even if we're unaware of it -- is the body itself.

"Decision making, like other cognitive processes, is an integration of multiple sources of information -- memory, visual imagery, and bodily information, like posture," says Anita Eerland, a psychologist at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In a new study, Eerland and colleagues Tulio Guadalupe and Rolf Zwaan found that surreptitiously manipulating the tilt of the body influences people's estimates of quantities, such as sizes, numbers, or percentages. The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

When we think about numbers, we mentally represent smaller numbers to the left and larger numbers to the right. The researchers surmised that leaning one way or the other -- even imperceptibly -- might therefore nudge people to estimate lower or higher. To test this hypothesis, study participants33 undergraduates -- stood on a Wii Balance Board that imperceptibly manipulated their posture to tilt left or right or stay upright while they answered estimation questions appearing on a screen. The participants were told they probably didn't know the answers and therefore would have to estimate; they were also instructed to stand upright throughout the trials. A representation on the screen, below the question, of the person's posture showed it to be upright even when it was not. The participants answered the questions one by one verbally.

In the first experiment, the estimations were of different kinds of quantities -- e.g., the height of the Eiffel Tower or percentage of alcohol in whiskey. In the second, the quantities were all of the same kind -- How many grandchildren does Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands have? How many Number 1 hits did Michael Jackson have in the Netherlands? The answers were all between 1 and 10.

As expected, participants gave smaller estimations when leaning left than when either leaning right or standing upright. There was no difference in their estimates between right-leaning and upright postures.

The researchers point out that body posture won't make you answer incorrectly if you know the answer. "Your body posture may nudge your estimates in a particular direction," says Zwaan. Adds Eerland: "Posture doesn't overwrite knowledge."

Still, says Zwaan, we should not mistake our cognitive processes as perfectly and consciously rational. "Decision-making is not a pristine process. All sources of information creep into it, and we are just beginning to explore the role of the body in this."

###

For more information about this study, please contact: Anita Eerland at eerland@fsw.eur.nl.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Thought" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Public release date: 8-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Divya Menon
dmenon@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science

We're not always aware of how we are making a decision. Unconscious feelings or perceptions may influence us. Another important source of information -- even if we're unaware of it -- is the body itself.

"Decision making, like other cognitive processes, is an integration of multiple sources of information -- memory, visual imagery, and bodily information, like posture," says Anita Eerland, a psychologist at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In a new study, Eerland and colleagues Tulio Guadalupe and Rolf Zwaan found that surreptitiously manipulating the tilt of the body influences people's estimates of quantities, such as sizes, numbers, or percentages. The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

When we think about numbers, we mentally represent smaller numbers to the left and larger numbers to the right. The researchers surmised that leaning one way or the other -- even imperceptibly -- might therefore nudge people to estimate lower or higher. To test this hypothesis, study participants33 undergraduates -- stood on a Wii Balance Board that imperceptibly manipulated their posture to tilt left or right or stay upright while they answered estimation questions appearing on a screen. The participants were told they probably didn't know the answers and therefore would have to estimate; they were also instructed to stand upright throughout the trials. A representation on the screen, below the question, of the person's posture showed it to be upright even when it was not. The participants answered the questions one by one verbally.

In the first experiment, the estimations were of different kinds of quantities -- e.g., the height of the Eiffel Tower or percentage of alcohol in whiskey. In the second, the quantities were all of the same kind -- How many grandchildren does Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands have? How many Number 1 hits did Michael Jackson have in the Netherlands? The answers were all between 1 and 10.

As expected, participants gave smaller estimations when leaning left than when either leaning right or standing upright. There was no difference in their estimates between right-leaning and upright postures.

The researchers point out that body posture won't make you answer incorrectly if you know the answer. "Your body posture may nudge your estimates in a particular direction," says Zwaan. Adds Eerland: "Posture doesn't overwrite knowledge."

Still, says Zwaan, we should not mistake our cognitive processes as perfectly and consciously rational. "Decision-making is not a pristine process. All sources of information creep into it, and we are just beginning to explore the role of the body in this."

###

For more information about this study, please contact: Anita Eerland at eerland@fsw.eur.nl.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Thought" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/afps-wwy110811.php

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Maggie Lamond Simone: Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain the Smart Way: Rationalization

The holiday season is upon us once again -- Halloween just past, Thanksgiving and the December holidays looming -- and already the queries have begun. It's like clockwork.

"Maggie," they ask, "what are those calorie rules you've suggested through the years that we don't quite believe but hold onto regardless because it's the only way we stay sane through these few months of constant eating?" Seriously. Not a day goes by.

I will therefore share once again the common-sense approach to calories and dieting. It follows along the lines of -- and darn well may have sprung from, come to think -- the famous "5-second rule," which of course suggests that if you drop food on the floor/ground, you have 5 seconds to snatch it up before it becomes totally germ/dirt-infested. These are theories that, while maybe not condoned by scientists at large, make a certain amount of sense to me.

For example, the last bowl of cereal in the box has fewer calories. It must. You can't look at the last inch of cereal in that bag and believe it has the same number of calories as the first inch did. It loses potency somehow, in the waiting-to-be-eaten process.

Similarly, the older the candy, the less the calories. If you can hold off eating your Halloween candy until the following summer, as I do, you're eating virtually calorie-free candy. Sure, you may chip a tooth here or there, but oh, the saved calories!

When eating with family or friends, a bite from someone else's meal has no calories. How can it? It's not yours! You can't simply commandeer someone else's calories! I have found it advisable, however, to ask first before stabbing your fork, willy-nilly, into other people's food. Particularly if the other people are at another table.

If you have a dessert -- a big, gooey, chocolatey brownie, for example -- and you eat half of it now and the other half later, the second half has less calories. I can't explain that one. It just seems right. And the corollary is that a dessert -- such as a big, gooey, chocolatey pan of brownies -- given to you as a gift (thanks, Sue!) has no calories. They are lost in the transportation.

Here's a rule of which my husband is particularly fond: If you eat between midnight and six, the calories don't count. They're still there somewhere, but your body just says, "Eh, we'll let this one go. We're too tired to count right now." Voila! Now, if you take one of the aforementioned brownies and eat it after midnight, you might actually be burning calories! Do you see the beauty of this?

Okay, so what else? Well, of course there's the "moving vehicle" rule, which dictates that if you eat in the car, on the subway, in a plane or on a train, the calories are reduced. Your body realizes the concentration it takes to not spill, for example, while your spouse is driving and seemingly aiming for squirrels (I'm not saying this happens in my family), and the calories are deducted accordingly.

Also, and you parents out there may want to listen up -- if you finish something your kids started, you're again absolved. You're "wasting not, wanting not," and you simply can't be hit with calories when there are starving children in the world. If one adheres to that philosophy, then it's a duty to finish a child's meal, and duty-bound eating should be duty-free eating. I'm just saying.

Don't let the holiday foods get you all worked up this year. The more you stress, typically the more you eat, and, sorry to say, stress-eating does not fall within the parameters of the calorie-reduced zone. Of course, if you can maneuver your thinking around to one of the established zones, then you'll be all set. So if holidays with your family cause some, oh, let's call it "anxiety," simply sit at the kids' table and eat all you want ... again, not saying that happens in my family.

Oh, for the love of ... "Honey, cut it out. The kids don't want you out there. Come in here and sit with the grownups."

?

?

?

Follow Maggie Lamond Simone on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MagLamondSimone

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-lamond-simone/avoiding-holiday-weight-g_b_1077953.html

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Fixmo SafeZone

Type

Business, Enterprise, Professional

More

Editor's Note: Product not yet tested. The following description is from the manufacturer.

SafeZone addresses a growing concern in businesses, the risk associated with the introduction of mobile devices.

The solution creates a secured, encrypted container, the SafeZone, providing secure mobile messaging and data for businesses.

Companies allow mobile devices into their own SafeZone and can restrict application and data access ensutring device integrity and compliance. A safe, sandboxed environment is created in which mobile devices can run and access network resources without compromising the internal network's safety.

With SafeZone, employees can use all the features on their iPhones and Androids while a section of those devices is secure for sensitive company data. Data within SafeZone is certified FIPS 140-2 AES 256-bit encryption and encrypted within a company's infrastructure to keep data at rest and in-transit protected.

Customers have full control over SafeZone and usage policies. Organizations can run chosen applications within the sandbox using the SafeZone SDk. APIs are available for developers to create custom applications. Legacy and third-party apps can run in the SafeZone as well.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/zo0PagtIbyM/0,2817,2395415,00.asp

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College Football Today (AP)

STARS

Andrew Luck, Stanford, shook off the rain and the chill to throw for 206 yards and three TDs in the No. 4 Cardinal's 38-13 victory over Oregon State.

Kain Colter, Northwestern, ran for two TDs and passed for another after replacing injured starter Dan Persa in a 28-25 upset of No. 9 Nebraska.

J.J. McDermott, SMU, threw for 322 yards and three TDs to lead the Mustangs to a 45-24 victory against Tulane.

Aaron Murray, Georgia, threw five second-quarter TD passes and for 238 total yards in the No. 18 Bulldogs' 63-16 rout of New Mexico State.

Joe Bergeron, Texas, ran for 191 yards and three TDs to help the Longhorns rout Texas Tech 52-20.

Montee Ball, Wisconsin, rushed for a career-high 223 yards with three TDs and the No. 19 Badgers rebounded from back-to-back losses with a 62-17 rout of Purdue.

Kirk Cousins, Michigan State, threw for 296 yards and a pair of TDs in the No. 15 Spartans' 31-24 win over Minnesota.

Dawrence Roberts, Grambling State, ran for 201 yards and scored on a 10-yard run with 1:24 left in a 26-23 win over Jackson State.

Jordan Cramer, Campbell, ran for 170 yards and four TDs in a 41-31 win over Morehead State.

Nick Schwieger, Dartmouth, ran for a school-record 257 yards and a score in a 33-24 win over Cornell.

Austin Sumner, South Dakota State, threw for 328 yards and four TDs in a 45-34 win over Southern Illinois.

Ryan Aplin, Arkansas State, ran for four TDs and passed for another to help the Red Wolves beat Florida Atlantic 39-21.

Nick Fanuzzi, Rice, threw for 405 yards and three TDs to lead the Owls to a 41-37 win over UTEP.

___

INJURED RECEIVERS

Oklahoma receiver Ryan Broyles and Stanford wideout Chris Owusu suffered serious injuries in separate games.

Broyles, an All-American, was lost for the season with a torn ligament in his left knee after going down in the third quarter of the seventh-ranked Sooners' 41-25 win over Texas A&M. The senior had two catches for 87 yards and both helped set up touchdowns.

In Corvallis, Ore., Owusu was taken from Reser Stadium by ambulance after a helmet-to-helmet hit by Oregon State's Jordan Poyer.

He was prone on the field for several minutes after the hit midway through the second quarter, but gave a thumbs-up after he was loaded on to a stretcher and placed into the ambulance.

Stanford reported that Owusu had a concussion but was conscious and had a full range of motion in his extremities. He was taken to the hospital for X-rays.

___

NUMBERS

2_Blocked extra points by Georgia Southern in its 14-12 win over The Citadel.

6_School-record field goals by Montana's Brody McKnight in a 32-7 win over Western Oregon.

11_Consecutive Mountain West Conference road wins by TCU with its 31-20 victory over Wyoming. The Horned Frogs matched the conference record set by BYU from 2005-07.

29_Straight losses by Valparaiso after Marist beat the Crusaders 30-7. Valparaiso hasn't won since a 20-17 victory over Concordia (Wis.) on Sept. 12, 2009.

42_Carries by Terrence Lefall to set a school record in Howard's 10-7 win over Hampton.

59_Years since No. 4 Stanford last opened a season 9-0.

___

BIG 12 EXPANSION

Interim Big 12 Commissioner Chuck Neinas said the conference has no plans to expand further prior to next season, although that doesn't mean a move back to 12 teams couldn't happen eventually.

Leaders of the conference's schools have been divided over whether the league is best with 10 schools, where it settled after losing Nebraska and Colorado prior to this season, or finding a way to expand back to 12.

With Texas A&M and possibly Missouri headed to the SEC, the Big 12 has added West Virginia and TCU this year in an attempt to stabilize.

Neinas said the conference would be OK with 10 or 11, if Missouri stays.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111106/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_college_football_today

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MF Global Asia bidding extended on surge in offers (Reuters)

HONG KONG (Reuters) ? Bidding for MF Global's (MFGLQ.PK) operations in Asia and Australia was extended by one day because of an influx of offers for the collapsed U.S. brokerage, a provisional liquidator for the company's Hong Kong unit said on Saturday.

MF Global filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Monday after risky bets on debt from troubled euro zone nations scared away clients and investors.

Patrick Cowley, a principal at KPMG in Hong Kong and one of the provisional liquidators for MF Global's Hong Kong units, told Reuters on Friday they had received almost 40 inquiries from potential buyers for the business and expected to seal an agreement by Sunday.

That number jumped to more than 50 potential bidders as of Saturday and the bidding was extended to 8 p.m. Monday, KPMG said.

"As we have received a significant increase in the number of interested parties in the last 24 hours, in order to run a full and fair process, and to generate the most value for stakeholders, we have taken the decision to extend the window of opportunity for bidders to prepare, Cowley said in an e-mailed statement.

"We remain confident that a deal can be reached that will keep the MF Global Asian franchise intact," he added.

In Asia the brokerage has large derivative businesses in Singapore and Australia as well as offices in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei, Shanghai and a joint venture in India with Sify Technologies Ltd (SIFY.O).

MF Global's last annual report said it generated around 14.4 percent of its global revenue in Asia during the 2010-2011 financial year, which would be around $321.6 million (200.5 million pounds) before interest and transaction-based expenses.

(Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111105/bs_nm/us_mfglobal_asia

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Video: Starbucks: Profits Brewing?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45155435#45155435

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EyeAsteroids Lets You Save the World With Just Your Peepers [Gaming]

Instead of flailing your arms and legs, or wielding a motion sensing controller, Tobii Technology thinks gaming would be a bit more civilized and effective if players used their eyes. The company specializes in eye tracking and control systems, and created the Eye Asteroids arcade game as a way to show how its technology can be beneficial to more than just those with disabilities. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ewzXpYdip60/eyeasteroids-lets-you-save-the-world-with-just-your-peepers

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PepsiCo swaps China bottling ops for Tingyi stake (AP)

SHANGHAI ? PepsiCo Inc. has agreed to swap its holdings in its mainland China bottling operations for a stake in the beverage business of Tingyi Holding Corp., aiming to beef up its distribution in the fast-growing Chinese market.

PepsiCo said Friday that it will transfer its interests in its bottling operations in China to Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding Co., acquiring in return a 5 percent indirect stake in Tingyi's drinks subsidiary. PepsiCo will have the option to increase that stake to 20 percent by 2015.

Taiwan-based Tingyi, with a market capitalization of $16 billion, is one of China's leading noodle, baked goods and beverages makers.

Both companies said the deal would boost Tingyi's product offerings while allowing Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo to improve its distribution and bottling as it seeks an edge in its eternal rivalry with Coca-Cola Co.

Last year, Pepsi announced it would invest $2.5 billion in its China business over the next few years, on top of a $1 billion investment announced in 2008.

"Tingyi and PepsiCo will continue building up the capacity to seize market opportunities and satisfy consumers' diversified demands with world-class products," Tingyi's chairman and CEO, tycoon Wei Ing-Chou, said in a statement.

PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra K. Nooyi cited Tingyi's local partnerships and distribution as key advantages of the companies' strategic alliance.

PepsiCo operates its China beverage business through 24 wholly-owned and joint venture bottling operations. Subject to necessary approvals, it will transfer its holdings to Tingyi-Asahi, which will work with PepsiCo's current bottlers to make, sell and distribute its soft drink and Gatorade brands, the companies said.

Tingyi-Asahi will also be able to sell its products using PepsiCo's Tropicana brand name under license and hold the sole right to distribute PepsiCo's products in China.

The Taiwanese company also will gain access to PepsiCo's product development plans.

The tie-up with Tingyi will not affect PepsiCo's separate food business in China, which includes brands such as Quaker and Frito-Lay, the companies said.

___

Online:

PepsiCo: http://www.PepsiCo.com

Tingyi Holding Corp: http://www.masterkong.com.cn

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111104/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_pepsi

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Relatives shocked by alleged Ga. militia plot

ATLANTA?? Relatives of four Georgia men accused of plotting attacks with poisons and explosives against government officials and buildings say they're shocked over the charges.

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The four, arrested Tuesday, live in the north Georgia towns of Cleveland and Toccoa and are members of a fringe Georgia militia, the FBI says. Frederick Thomas, 73, Dan Roberts, 67, Ray Adams, 65, and Samuel Crump, 68, were due to appear in federal court in Gainesville, Ga., on Wednesday afternoon.

Thomas' wife, Charlotte Thomas, called the charges "baloney."

"He spent 30 years in the U.S. Navy. He would not do anything against his country," she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Roberts' wife, Margaret Roberts, said she and her two children were in disbelief over the charges.

?I don?t know these people,? she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ?I can?t say anything about them, but I know Dan. Dan wouldn?t hurt a fly. And he is not anti-government. He respects the law.?

The men tried to obtain an unregistered explosive device and sought out the complex formula to produce ricin, a biological toxin that can be lethal in small doses, according to a federal complaint.

No attacks were ever attempted. Federal officials say the men were disrupted before they could act on the plot.

One suspect discussed ways of dispersing ricin from an airplane in the sky over Washington, court records state. Another suspected member of the group intended to use the plot of an online novel as a model for plans to attack U.S. federal law officers and others, authorities said. Court documents state that Thomas told others he intended to model their actions on the online novel "Absolved," which involves small groups of citizens attacking U.S. officials.

At least two of the suspects are former federal employees, court records show.

Adams used to work as a lab technician for a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency known as the Agricultural Research Service. Court documents say officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that another suspect, Crump, worked there in the past for a contractor that did maintenance at the Atlanta-based agency.

Read court documents (.PDF)

The court records do not provide a timeline for when the men worked for the agencies, nor do they offer further details on their roles and responsibilities.

On Sept. 17, prosecutors say Crump was recorded by a confidential informant as saying he would like to make 10 pounds of ricin, which would be simultaneously placed in several U.S. cities. Prosecutors say possible cities mentioned were Washington; Newark, N.J.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Atlanta and New Orleans and Crump suggesting the ricin could be blown out of a car speeding down an interstate highway.

The group had been talking about "covert" operations since at least March, according to court records, discussing murder, theft and using toxic agents and assassinations to undermine the state and federal government.

At one meeting, investigators say, Thomas openly discussed creating a "bucket list" of government employees, politicians, corporate leaders and members of the media he felt needed to be "taken out."

"I've been to war, and I've taken life before, and I can do it again," he told an undercover investigator, according to the records.

Thomas and Roberts are accused of buying what they believed was a silencer and an unregistered explosive from an undercover informant in May and June. Prosecutors say he discussed using the weapons in attacks against federal buildings.

Thomas is accused of driving to Atlanta with a confidential informant on May 24 and scoping out an Internal Revenue Service building there and an ATF building "to plan and assess for possible attacks," the indictment states.

"We'd have to blow the whole building, like Timothy McVeigh," Thomas said during the Atlanta trip, referring to the man executed for bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City, the indictment states.

Adams, meanwhile, is accused of showing an informant the formula to make ricin and identifying the ways to obtain the ingredients.

Crump claimed he could produce ricin, a deadly biological agent, and talked about dispersing it from a car driving on an interstate highway, according to court documents.

"Ya get on the trunk of Atlanta, you get up on the north side, ya get on 41, ya throw it out there right on 285, ya go up 41 or 75, go up 75 to get away from it. Keep the heater on, that way keeps the pressure out. Don't roll your window down," he told the informant, according to court documents.

The story "Absolved" is by Mike Vanderboegh, a former Alabama militia leader who drew broader attention in 2010 when he urged people opposed to federal health care legislation to throw bricks through the windows of Democratic Party offices. Several such incidents occurred after Vanderboegh's call.

Vanderboegh wrote on his blog Wednesday that his book, about a deadly federal gun raid on the wrong target and the resistance that builds from that, was fiction and meant as a "useful dire warning." He said he was skeptical about the Georgia case and called the alleged militia "pretty geriatric."

Charlotte Thomas said her husband was arrested in a restaurant in Cornelia, Ga., and federal agents were at her home when she returned from the grocery store Tuesday afternoon. She said the agents wouldn't let her in her home.

"They tore up my house," Charlotte Thomas said.

Margaret Roberts of Toccoa said FBI agents showed up with a search warrant and went through her home, handcuffing her and taking a computer and other items. She said her husband is retired from the sign business and lives on pensions.

"He's never been in trouble with the law. He's not anti-government. He would never hurt anybody," she said.

A woman reached at Adams' residence said she was unaware of the charges and also had no comment. A listed numbers for Crump could not be found.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said the case is a reminder that "we must also remain vigilant in protecting our country from citizens within our own borders who threaten our safety and security."

This story includes information from The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45133828/ns/us_news-security/

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U.S. military retirees fret about healthcare fees (Reuters)

FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) ? When Wayne Johnson flew missions in Vietnam in the 1960s, one of the allures of a military career was the pledge that those who risked their lives for the United States would be repaid with healthcare in old age.

Now, as the 65-year-old retired Air Force major nears an age when he may need to bank on that promise, support is building in Washington for changes that could make it more costly for military retirees and their dependents to receive healthcare. It is a move Johnson finds worrying.

"It's something that was an unwritten contract when we joined the military back in the '60s," said Johnson, who flew an OV-10 Bronco light strike aircraft as a forward air controller in Vietnam. "And now to change the rules when it's time to use it, certainly it's a violation of trust."

That sentiment, said Joe Davis, director of public affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is widespread among the nearly 10 percent of U.S. military veterans, a little over two million people, who spent 20 years or more in the service.

"This is being perceived by the military, those in uniform today, by their families and all the retirees as a total breach of faith," Davis said. "I mean an absolute, 100 percent breach of faith."

Those remarks underscore how perilous it can be for politicians to make even modest changes to military healthcare programs, even when it involves raising premiums that have not budged since Bill Clinton was president.

Nonetheless, in an era of government belt-tightening, support appears to be growing for reining in the spiraling expense of military healthcare.

In recommendations to the budget-cutting congressional "super committee" in September, President Barack Obama proposed two steps to offset rising military healthcare costs.

He said Congress should impose a $200 annual fee on Tricare-for-Life, a health insurance plan for military retirees 65 and older that pays for most expenses not covered by the government's Medicare insurance plan for the elderly.

The fee on Tricare-for-Life, which is now free, would then increase annually according to a cost of living adjustment. The White House estimated the proposal would save $6.7 billion in mandatory federal spending over 10 years.

Obama also proposed changing Tricare co-payments on prescription drugs to encourage people to use cheaper generics rather than brand-name pharmaceuticals. The change, which would affect all but active duty military personnel, would reduce mandatory spending by $15.1 billion and discretionary spending by $5.5 billion over 10 years, the White House estimated.

Tricare is the military's main health insurance program.

Obama's suggestions received some support from senators. Democrat Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Republican John McCain, the senior Republican on the panel, both supported Obama's suggestion for fees on Tricare-for-Life.

"While this fee increase would hit those age 65 and over, a group mostly on fixed incomes who are vulnerable to unanticipated changes in expenses, I believe this fee increase is a reasonable step and should be considered," McCain, himself a Vietnam veteran, said in a letter to the committee.

How detailed the deficit-cutting committee will be is unclear. Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said he thought the panel was more likely to set a top-line number for defense spending and ask the Pentagon to figure out the details.

Harrison said he hoped the committee would take a more holistic approach to reforming military pay and benefits. What is needed, he said, is a commission that would "try to understand what they (military personnel) value rather than just making little changes here and there to save money."

UNSUSTAINABLE COSTS?

Even before Obama and the U.S. Congress agreed in August to cut military spending by $450 billion over the next decade as part of a debt reduction deal, officials were warning that spiraling healthcare costs were becoming a problem.

Care for another generation of warriors, those wounded, many grievously, in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to raise the burden further.

The rising cost of the military healthcare system is "simply unsustainable," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said before he left office earlier this year.

The overall military healthcare program, which covers 9.6 million active-duty troops, retirees and their dependents, is expected to cost $52.5 billion this fiscal year -- about 10 percent of the Defense Department's base budget -- up from $19 billion in 2001.

The nonpartisan CSBA says military healthcare costs rose at a real annual rate of 6.3 percent between 2001 and 2011, faster than the rate of inflation.

Government officials say the proposed fees are modest compared to the cost of health insurance and co-pays in the private sector.

Nationwide, family premiums in employer-sponsored health plans jumped 9 percent in 2011, and single premiums rose 8 percent, the Kaiser Family Foundation found in an annual study released in September.

But veterans wonder where it will all stop.

"I guess I could afford it, but I wouldn't like it," said Terry Lindsay, a retired Air Force senior master sergeant who also served in Vietnam. "I generally hate to see them messing with the benefit ... Once they start doing it, you lose confidence in what more is to come."

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have been more circumspect in their stance toward raising fees on military benefits.

Republican Representative Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, did not explicitly rule out the idea. But he urged the super committee to avoid any action that would break faith with veterans and active duty troops -- a position echoed by McCain and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

But veterans say that is exactly what officials are doing with their efforts to impose more fees.

Johnson, who flew commercial planes for American Airlines after his military career, said he understands the financial pressures on the government and wouldn't be badly affected by the new fees. But he expressed concern for those who were more dependent on the program.

"I hope something gets done here that's not devastating for a lot of these elderly widow ladies that rely on this very, very much," he said. "It would hurt them a lot worse than it would hurt me."

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/seniors/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111102/hl_nm/us_usa_defense_healthcare

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Dying for Chocolate: Pets and Halloween Treats

Here's an important post on Pets and Halloween Candy. It's a Q &A between Neenda Pellegrini and Dr. Sheppard Thorpe, an emergency veterinarian at Puget Sound Veterinary Referral Center in Tacoma about Halloween and Pets that appeared in the Seattle Times.?Dark chocolate is always dangerous to pets, and candy in various forms is, too. Read the entire article HERE.

Question: This is that scary time of year again, full of ghosts, witches, pumpkins -- and sugary bags of trick-or-treat candy. A fun time for kids and adults can be a disastrous time for pets who share those bags of treats, landing them at the vet's office or emergency clinic. What kind of health emergencies do see most often during the Halloween holiday?

Answer: Around the trick-or-treating time, we see many dogs that eat chocolate and other Halloween candy.

Pet ingestion of Halloween treats can cause vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, pancreatitis, heart arrhythmias, seizures, liver disease, kidney disease, gastrointestinal obstruction and even death.

Dangerous or even fatal chocolate toxicity is rare because knowledgeable owners usually get their chocolate-eating pets into the clinic within a few hours of ingestion. Once the pet arrives, we do what is called "decontamination" -- vomiting is induced and then activated charcoal is administered.

We also see pets with general vomiting and diarrhea from gastrointestinal upset after they've eaten candy, wrappers and holiday decorations. This can be very serious if the pet develops pancreatitis or if the pet becomes very dehydrated.

A quick and timely response makes the treatment much easier on your pet and your wallet.

Question: Why is chocolate dangerous? Is some chocolate -- dark or bittersweet chocolate -- worse than others, such as milk or white chocolate?

Answer: Chocolate contains an active ingredient called theobromine, which is toxic to pets. Theobromine is a stimulant that pets are more sensitive to than people and can cause hyperactivity, elevated heart rate, twitching and tremoring, vomiting and diarrhea and, worst of all, seizures.

Dark chocolate is more potent, having a higher concentration of theobromine, and, therefore, is more toxic. All chocolate (cakes or brownies, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate syrup, cocoa powder) is considered "rich." Although not as serious as theobromine toxicity, foods with high sugar and fat contents can cause serious stomach and bowel problems. Decontamination and quick treatment is key.

Question: What harm can one little candy bar do?

Answer: It depends on the size of your pet, the presence of any underlying conditions and the amount of chocolate your pet has ingested.

A Hershey's Kiss is safe for a 70-pound Labrador retriever to eat but harmful to a 3-pound Chihuahua.

Another problem with "just one little treat" is that dogs can develop a liking to chocolate and soon may be climbing on the table to help themselves to that whole bowl of Halloween candy.

The power of the dog nose can also help them find that wrapped box of chocolates under the Christmas tree or hidden away for Valentine's Day. I know one Beagle who learned to open the pantry, and he loved to eat the brownie mix.

Question: What should I do if my pet accidentally eats chocolate? What symptoms should I watch for?

Answer: Call your regular veterinarian or local emergency/referral veterinary hospital for recommendations.

It helps to have the candy wrapper with the list of ingredients and percentage of cacao or cocoa in the product.

Monitor your pet for hyperactivity, elevated heart rate, vomiting/diarrhea, tremors, twitches and seizures although preventive treatment long before any of these symptoms is the best approach.

If you have access to the Internet, check out www.veterinarypartner.com and look up chocolate toxicity. The website has an excellent chart comparing the number of ounces of chocolate a pet would need to ingest for toxicity.

Consider calling the National Animal Poison Control Center (1-800-548-2423; $65/call) or the Pet Poison Helpline (1-800-213-6680; $50/call) to speak directly with a veterinary poison specialist.

READ MORE HERE.

Source: http://dyingforchocolate.blogspot.com/2011/10/pets-and-halloween-treats.html

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Report: Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment (Los Angeles Times)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/155527588?client_source=feed&format=rss

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RIM Offers Buy Two, Get One Free BlackBerry PlayBooks (NewsFactor)

Research In Motion hopes to move some PlayBooks before the end of the year with a promotion that aims at business users. The BlackBerry U.S. Web site is making an offer it hopes mobile business users won't be able to refuse.

From now until Dec. 31, BlackBerry business customers can get one free PlayBook tablet with every two purchased from an authorized retailer. To make the pot even sweeter, business customers can also choose a premium accessory for each tablet, either a leather sleeve, a charging pod or a six-foot cable.

Optimizing for Enterprises

The promotion comes just days after RIM announced a delay in PlayBook OS 2.0. David Smith, senior vice president of BlackBerry PlayBook for RIM, specifically mentioned enterprise plans in his Oct. 25 blog post. In a move that plays on RIM's historic strengths,, he said, RIM is addressing barriers to tablet adoption, including device manageability and enterprise application deployment.

"Enterprises will uniquely have the ability to manage tablets from a centralized server, while BlackBerry Balance ensures a seamless user experience for personal and professional needs and gives CIOs the peace of mind that corporate data is secure," Smith wrote.

Smith said BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 will also offer dedicated shelf space inside the BlackBerry App World storefront to make approved enterprise applications available to an organization's end users more quickly. RIM hopes these features will help change the way enterprises view and use tablets.

The PlayBook OS 2.0 update will also include advanced integrated e-mail, calendar and contact apps, a new video story, as well as new functionality that will allow your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook to work together even better.

Overcoming Downsides

"RIM is trying to boost sales with this promotion and this is one way to do it. The PlayBook is obviously not selling and it can't compete with the iPad, and it has shortcomings that we've discussed before," said Michael Disabato, managing vice president of Network and Telecom at Gartner.

The PlayBook offers true multitasking capabilities. But a major downside so far is that it has to be paired with a BlackBerry smartphone via a special application to access e-mail, calendar, address book, memo pad, task list, BlackBerry Messenger, and browsing functions. With the OS update put off, it remains to be seen if business users will take the PlayBook plunge before they see the software improvements.

Another downside is the lack of a strong system of developers and applications. As Disabato sees it, if RIM is going to compete with Apple and Android, it needs to attract more developers and roll out a user experience that doesn't require two pieces of equipment. At the end of the day, Apple still has the advantage.

"With this promotion, RIM will get traction with people who are thinking about buying a PlayBook or planning to buy one," Disabato said. "The government might decide employees don't need an iPad, they just need a tablet, and decide to buy the PlayBook. But this promotion is not going to displace any iPad sales before Christmas."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111031/bs_nf/80804

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Obesity and depression independently increase health costs

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2011) ? Obesity and depression both dramatically increase health care costs, but they mainly act separately, according to a study published in the November 2011 Journal of General Internal Medicine by Group Health Research Institute scientists. Gregory Simon, MD, MPH, a Group Health psychiatrist and Group Health Research Institute senior investigator, led the research.

"Previous research shows that both depression and obesity are associated with higher health care costs," he said. "But depression and obesity often occur together, so it was important to know if the relationship between obesity and cost is really due to depression -- or vice versa."

Simon and his colleagues tested whether depression confounds the increase in health care use that is associated with obesity. Confounding means an apparent connection -- such as the link between increased health care costs and obesity -- is influenced or even caused by a third factor. In this study, the authors tested if depression confounds the increase in health care seen in obese patients.

The study used telephone interviews to determine obesity and depression, and Group Health's extensive medical records to calculate health care costs for 4,462 women aged 40-65. All were enrolled in Group Health Cooperative, a nonprofit health care system in Washington and northern Idaho. Obesity was measured as body mass index (BMI), a standard obesity measure that is calculated from height and weight. A BMI below 25 is considered normal weight, 25-30 considered overweight, and over 30 is considered obese. Depression was measured with a 9-item American Psychiatric Association questionnaire.

The researchers found:

• In middle-aged women, health care costs increased with obesity. Specifically, costs increased 65 percent in women with a BMI of 30-35, and 157 percent in women with a BMI higher than 35, compared to women of normal weight.
• The trend was similar for all types of health care that the researchers examined: primary care, outpatient prescriptions, specialist visits, inpatient care, and mental health care.
• Health care costs increased with higher depression scores, but depression was a not a major confounder of the obesity results.
• Even accounting for depression, health costs increased with every rise in BMI category.

The study concluded that in this population of women, obesity is associated with higher health care costs, but not because of co-occurring depression. Similarly, depression is associated with higher costs, but not because of co-occurring obesity. These higher costs have an economic impact. Increased costs associated with depression were spread across all types of health care, not just mental health care.

"Obesity and depression are both very common," Dr. Simon said, "so the increased costs we find add up to a very large amount in the general population." The relationships among obesity, depression, and chronic illness related to obesity are complex, as are the effects of depression on behavior and health. But one thing is clear, the study's authors said: Effective obesity prevention is a crucial factor in tackling our rising health care costs.

The National Institute of Mental Health funded the work.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Group Health Research Institute.

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. Gregory E. Simon, David Arterburn, Paul Rohde, Evette J. Ludman, Jennifer A. Linde, Belinda H. Operskalski, Robert W. Jeffery. Obesity, Depression, and Health Services Costs Among Middle-Aged Women. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2011; 26 (11): 1284 DOI: 10.1007/s11606-011-1774-x

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/~3/ljvQ4PCNm8k/111031220558.htm

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No. 6 Clemson stumbles in 31-17 loss to Ga. Tech (AP)

ATLANTA ? The Clemson players straggled off the field, trying to avoid thousands of Georgia Tech students who hopped out of the stands to celebrate.

The Tigers' unbeaten season was over.

In all likelihood, so were their national title hopes.

Tevin Washington rushed for 176 yards ? the most ever by a Georgia Tech quarterback ? and broke the two longest runs of his career, leading a 31-17 upset of No. 6 Clemson on Saturday night.

Clemson, which had scored 115 points in its two previous games, turned it over four times. Tajh Boyd threw for 295 yards, and freshman Sammy Watkins had 10 catches for 159 yards and a touchdown. But starting back Andre Ellington didn't play because of a sprained ankle, and his replacements ? freshmen D.J. Howard and Mike Bellamy ? each had a fumble.

"We kind of self-destructed," said Boyd, who had two interceptions. "We did have a shot to make a run to do something that hasn't been done here in a long time. We've got to keep building from it."

Indeed, the Tigers (8-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have to adjust their goals. They still lead their division. They still have the inside track to play in the ACC championship game. No wonder coach Dabo Swinney told his players afterward, "Get your heads up. We're an 8-1 football team."

The Yellow Jackets (7-2, 4-2) raced to a 24-3 halftime lead and made it hold up. So much for Clemson's best start since 2000 (which, in an interesting twist, also ended with a loss to Georgia Tech). So much for climbing to fifth in the BCS standings. The Tigers figure to take a tumble and are unlikely to have enough games left to re-enter the national race.

"It's a very disappointed locker room. I'm disappointed in the turnovers in particular," Swinney said.

The Yellow Jackets snapped a two-game losing streak behind their junior quarterback, who had runs of 46 and 56 yards and touchdown among his 27 carries. He broke the school quarterback mark of 151 yards rushing, set by Joshua Nesbitt in 2008. Overall, Georgia Tech finished with 383 yards on the ground, compared to 95 for Clemson.

"I had some real big holes," Washington said. "Anybody could've run through 'em. I'm just lucky to have my number called."

No one could've seen this coming. These were teams headed in opposite directions.

Georgia Tech got off to a dynamic start, winning the first six games for its best start since 1966. But Washington slumped and the triple-option bogged down badly, leading to losses at Virginia and Miami.

"We know what we can do as a team," Washington said. "It's not about falling down. It's about getting back up."

Clemson got off to a sluggish start with lackluster wins against Troy and Wofford. But a victory over defending national champion Auburn seemed to ignite the Tigers, who took command of the ACC race and arrived in Atlanta having put up more than 50 points the two previous weeks in wins over Maryland and North Carolina.

More of the same on the first possession, when Clemson drove right down the field before settling for Chandler Catanzaro's 34-yard field goal.

It was all Georgia Tech the rest of the first half.

The tide swung toward the Yellow Jackets when Howard caught a pass out of the backfield, but lost the ball just before he hit the ground. The officials initially ruled him down, but changed the call after a video review. Rod Sweeting was credited with a recovery at the Clemson 19, and Orwin Smith scored the first of his two TDs on a fourth-down run from the 1.

Washington broke off the 46-yard run down the sideline ? the longest of his career, though that mark wouldn't last long ? to set up Justin Moore's 23-yard field goal for a 10-3 lead. The Yellow Jackets followed by going 80 yards in 10 plays, making it 17-3 on Smith's 3-yard TD.

Stephen Hill, who had earlier dropped a long pass that might've gone for a touchdown, made up for it ? and then some. The 6-foot-5 receiver stretched out with both arms to make a diving catch, pulling the ball into his body with the left hand before slamming into the turf. He rolled over and did a little dance with his arms, celebrating the 44-yard completion.

Two plays later, Washington ran it in from the 3 to push the lead to 24-3 with just 37 seconds left in the half.

The Tigers have been a great second-half team, and they came out of the locker room looking to pull off their biggest comeback yet. They took the kickoff and needed only four plays to reach the end zone for the first time. Boyd hooked up with Watkins on a 48-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-10.

But Georgia Tech quickly answered. Again, it was Washington with the big run. With Georgia Tech facing third-and-6 and the Clemson defense waving their arms to rev up a sizable contingent of orange-clad fans, the quarterback spotted a hole up the middle and took off for the 56-yard gain.

David Sims finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown run, restoring Georgia Tech's 21-point lead.

After Clemson's second fumble of the game, this one by Bellamy, the Yellow Jackets were on the verge of putting the game away. They drove to a first down at the Tigers 1 and were back there on third down after a delay of game. Then, a break for the visiting team.

Defensive tackle Rennie Moore shot through a gap ahead of the snap, appearing on the replay to be clearly offsides. But the officials didn't catch it, and Moore snatched the ball away from Washington just as he was taking the snap. It was ruled a fumble, and Clemson took over at the 3.

The Tigers took advantage of their good fortune, driving 97 yards in 10 plays. Boyd tried to sneak it over, fumbled in the pile of bodies and 300-pound Brandon Thomas fell on it for the first touchdown by a Clemson offensive lineman since 1966, cutting the deficit to 31-17.

Clemson had one more chance to make a game of it. Washington made his only big mistake of the night, throwing a pass down the middle that was picked off by Rashard Hall and returned to the Georgia Tech 9 with about 10 1/2 minutes to go. But Clemson gave it right back when Boyd threw a fade route, only to have Watkins pull up short. Jemea Thomas made an uncontested pick in the corner of the end zone.

The Tigers were done.

___

Follow AP Sports Writer Paul Newberry on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_t25_clemson

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