We will train you. Work is temporary for 3-10 weeks. Could become permanent.
Salary/Wage: 9.00 hr
Status: Full-time, Part-time, Temp/Contract
Shift: Days, Nights, Weekends
? Location: St. Louis, Stl
Source: http://stlouis.backpage.com/TradesJobs/wanted-college-age-male-for-factory-work/11394542
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Polymath bandleader Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson chronicles his life in beats.
Mo'Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove, by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Grand Central Publishing, 282 pages
EnlargeBy?Robert Christgau for Barnes and Noble Review?
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Ahmir Thompson's?emergence as a major celebrity is the kind of anomaly that seemed beyond the reach of popular music in the 21st century. Not because he's a hip-hopper: Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and many lesser others are boldface names.
But they're all rappers, natch, and even the brightest of them isn't as damn verbal, or as damn humane, as Questlove, who's only a damn drummer. Which is also an anomaly ? groups are rare in hip-hop these days, bands like Questlove's Roots unheard of, Questlove himself the first major drummer to emerge from the music since Sugarhill's Keith LeBlanc and arguably the best working anywhere.
And for his band to somehow become the house band of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"?is very nearly miraculous. Questlove's range and acuteness are so integral to the show that many believe they're why Fallon is about to displace Jay Leno and turn a hip-hopper into the thinking man's Paul Shaffer.
As is clear from Mo'Meta Blues, Questlove isn't precisely an intellectual. Although he attended private school for a while, his family wasn't middle-class enough to afford college, and if they had been it would have been Juilliard.
But where all musicians know music better than the vast majority of their fans and many are fairly encyclopedic about it, Questlove is a musical polymath of monumental obsessiveness ? a polymath who needs a warehouse for his record collection, a polymath who once sent out a drum greeting to D'Angelo by quoting "a Prince lick that wasn't in the song we were playing, but that was in my head while I was thinking about the song we were playing," a polymath who points out that the Milli Vanilli song he chose for Ashlee Simpson's Fallon walk-on was the VH-1 version. (Really now ? hadn't you always wondered about that?)
This guy thinks so much about music he's devoured reviews since he was eight. As a kid he made a mind game of predicting "Rolling Stone" grades in advance, complete with supporting rationale.
As is also clear from "Mo' Meta Blues," this phenomenally intelligent 42-year-old is in most things an autodidact, the exception being one you wouldn't figure from a be-Afroed galoot who prefers hoodies and T-shirts to the suits he wears on TV. To wit: Questlove is a showbiz kid.
His father was a doowop stalwart who, after his boutique went under in the late '60s, built a family nightclub act on the nascent oldies circuit. Financially, it was a living, nothing more. But in addition to preparing Questlove for the trying life of a touring musician ? pre-Fallon, the Roots were getting up to 200 gigs a year ? growing up on the road broadened young Ahmir in a way unknown to the kids in his West Philly hood or even at CAPA, the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, a monument to public education that just in Ahmir's time generated the seminal Boyz II Men and jazz standard-bearers Christian McBride, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Joey DeFrancesco. I
t was at CAPA that nerdy Ahmir met streetwise Tariq Trotter, who as lead rapper Black Thought has been Questlove's partner in the Roots since before Tariq bestowed that name on them.
In a world where there are many more rock memoirs than anyone dare read, my own perusing, skimming, and gossiping indicate that three stand out as literature: Bob Dylan's, Patti Smith's, and Richard Hell's. But several hip-hop entries are strikingly competitive ? formally adventurous, multi-vocal. Aided by Ghostwritah Chris Norris, the RZA's 2005 "The Wu-Tang Manual" begins with solid character sketches of the nine original Wu-Tang Clan members and devotes 50 pages to close readings of various Wu gods' lyrics. With who knows how much advice from Dream Hampton, Jay-Z's 2010 "Decoded" toggles back and forth chronologically and drops key info and insight in footnote-sized glosses on the many lyrics it "decodes."
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xBvuZASVHHk/Mo-Meta-Blues
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Dan Bylsma has never coached hockey at the international level. The Pittsburgh Penguins coach does, however, know how to win while juggling a roster dotted with superstars.
That was good enough for USA Hockey to select Bylsma as coach of the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team at the 2014 Winter Olympics on Saturday, hoping the free-flowing style he teaches translates well to the wider rinks that await in Sochi, Russia in February.
Click to read more.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52351062/ns/local_news-pittsburgh_pa/
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New York, June 28 (ANI): A coffee executive has created a new coffee, which has butter as it?s driving ingredient., and is said to boost your energy and increase weight loss.
Dave Asprey, executive of the Bulletproof brand and blog told the Daily News said that just putting butter into bad coffee is a bad idea.
Asprey came out with the Bulletproof recipe, which calls for three ingredients, which are upgraded coffee, MCT (medium chain triglycerides) coconut palm oil and grass-fed butter.
The Bulletproof plan has caught the attention of people following paleo diet - a nutritional plan focusing on eating animal proteins and fats, a ?Today? show report said.
Asprey said that he re-engineered the process of making green coffee, and calls it the Bulletproof process.
He added that it affects how the coffee is grown, how it is treated and how it is shipped to the U.S.
On average, a cup has about 100 - 200 calories depending on how much butter has been added. (ANI)
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? A federal judge says Hobby Lobby and a sister company will not be subject to daily fines for refusing certain birth-control for workers.
U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton on Friday set a hearing for July 19 on claims by Hobby Lobby and the Mardel Christian bookstore chain that they should not have to provide some types of birth control, as required under the federal health care overhaul.
The companies faced fines totaling $1.3 million daily beginning Monday. But Heaton ordered the federal government to not impose a penalty.
An appeals court said Thursday the companies could fight the new law on religious grounds but Heaton first had to reconsider an injunction request. Heaton said Hobby Lobby showed it would suffer consequences and that an injunction was in the public interest
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LAS VEGAS (AP) ? There are no sure things in this city ? with one exception: Allegiant Air.
While other U.S. airlines have struggled over the past decade from the ups and downs of the economy and the price of jet fuel, Allegiant has been profitable for 10 straight years.
The tiny airline focuses on a niche ignored by other airlines: It only flies from small cities to sunny vacation spots.
Allegiant entices people who otherwise wouldn't fly with low fares and non-stop flights. Then it aggressively pitches them hotels, rental cars, show tickets and other entertainment, earning millions in commissions.
Passengers face fees for almost every service and amenity imaginable. At Allegiant, fees for checked baggage and changing an itinerary ? which are common on many airlines ? are just the beginning.
The Las Vegas-based airline charges extra to book flights online, or to use a credit card. Selecting a seat in advance costs $5 to $75 each way, depending on the length of a flight. Even a bottle of water costs $2.
Flying Allegiant isn't glamorous. While other airlines tout new aircraft with Wi-Fi and TVs in every seat, Allegiant buys old planes to avoid hefty aircraft loans. And to pack in as many passengers as possible, its seats don't recline. But for small-town Americans with limited flight options, these inconveniences are worth it for a few days of sunshine.
"They could be the worst airline in the world and we'd fly them because we want to go to Vegas," says Tom Mayo of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who recently flew there with his family. "It's our only option."
Allegiant offers non-stop service from places like Owensboro, Ky., Casper, Wyo. and Appleton, Wis., to popular destinations in Nevada, Florida, Hawaii and Arizona. These may not be the most coveted routes in the airline business, but that is precisely why Allegiant likes them.
Only 17 of Allegiant's 203 routes are flown non-stop by another airline.
"Typically, the best way to make money is not to compete with somebody," says Andrew C. Levy, president of Allegiant Travel Co., who sits in a cubicle next to the rest of his staff.
Rather than battle major carriers for customers on routes between major cities, Allegiant uses its marketing muscles to convince people in small towns to fly away for a vacation.
"Allegiant tends to bring people into the airport who wouldn't normally fly," says Tim Bradshaw, director of the Eastern Iowa people Airport in Cedar Rapids. "It brings people off the couch."
Last year, 7 million passengers took a flight on Allegiant. That is a sliver of the 642 million people who took a domestic flight last year. But Allegiant earned a whopping $11.22 each way from those passengers. On average, the airline industry earned 37 cents each way, per passenger, according to Airlines for America, the industry's lobbying group. Southwest Airlines, one of the industry's most profitable carriers, made $3.85 per passenger last year.
Allegiant is ruthless about keeping its costs down. Its employees are some of the lowest paid in the industry, in some cases making $20 an hour less than colleagues at other airlines. It pays cash for airplanes nearly twice as old as everyone else. It only sells directly to vacationers, refusing to pay Expedia, Orbitz or other sites to list its flights.
And if you have a question, it will cost you: the airline doesn't have a toll-free number.
Like some other budget airlines, Allegiant advertises extremely low base fares and then tacks on numerous fees. A roundtrip ticket with Allegiant costs $195, on average. But passengers pay an additional $83 in fees ? or 30 percent of the total cost of flying.
To book a trip by phone, Allegiant charges $50 for each roundtrip ticket. To book online costs $20 for each roundtrip ticket. The only way to avoid the fees is to purchase tickets at the airport, something fewer than 3 percent of its customers did last year.
But whether you book by phone, Internet or in person, paying with a credit card costs an extra $8.
Placing a suitcase in an overhead bin is $10 to $25. Boarding passes signify who has paid the fee. If passengers show up at the airport with a large carry-on bag and haven't prepaid the fee, the airline penalizes them an additional $25 to $50, depending on the route.
But what really makes Allegiant different are the commissions it earns from selling hotel rooms, rental cars and other extras including Everglades boat tours and theme-park tickets. It even gets people to attend timeshare sales presentations. Before a passenger can finalize a ticket purchase online, they must click through page after page offering them these add-ons.
Last year, revenue from commissions totaled $36 million, or nearly $12 per roundtrip passenger.
"I don't think of them as an airline. I think of them as a travel company," says Helane Becker, an airline analyst at Cowen Securities.
Once onboard, Allegiant passengers are again bombarded with sales pitches. On a recent flight from Cedar Rapids to Las Vegas, flight attendants came over the loudspeaker and hawked show tickets and airport shuttles. The in-flight magazine is filled with ads for shows and attractions instead of stories. One ad offers $30 off a Las Vegas helicopter tour if purchased from flight attendants, who are paid extra for each item sold.
"They do a fantastic job packaging," says JetBlue CEO David Barger. "I think we can learn a lot from what Allegiant does."
Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit Airlines ? the only other U.S. carrier to charge for overhead bin space or for booking over the Internet ? also respects Allegiant's ability to sell extras, such as a round of golf in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
"They developed that expertise earlier than we did," Baldanza says.
Spirit focuses on getting passengers between big cities cheaply; Allegiant taps into people's desire to escape small-town life for a few days.
Most airlines promote their new first-class seats or individual TV screens. Allegiant ? which only offers coach seats ? promotes its destinations: Las Vegas gamblers smiling after winning at roulette, a hot-air balloon floating over the Arizona desert or a woman in a bikini sipping a frozen drink on a Hawaiian beach.
Allegiant's passengers aren't sold on the airline but on the escape.
An hour and a half before a recent flight from Cedar Rapids to Las Vegas, a spare seat couldn't be found in the airport bar. It was only 11 a.m., but travelers like Bridget Estrada and her four friends were too excited for their trip to wait.
It was only Estrada's second trip on a plane and her first in 13 years. She was nervous and gave a quick thought to her husband and three kids at home. But she and her friends quickly got back to drinking hard lemonade, mapping out their weekend away from Iowa.
A few feet away, other passengers shared tips on attractions, buffets and the cheapest blackjack tables.
"You must see the pirate show," one insisted.
Allegiant finds ways to profit on routes other airlines couldn't make work, often swooping in after they pull out. This month, it started flying between Asheville, N.C., and Tampa, Fla., a route abandoned by AirTran after Southwest Airlines acquired it.
Like other discount carriers, Allegiant prefers small airports that charge airlines lower rents, even if they aren't the most convenient. In Orlando, that means flying into Sanford, Fla., 30 minutes further from Walt Disney World than Orlando International Airport.
Frugal decisions like that helped Allegiant post a net profit of $78 million last year on revenue of $909 million. Its 8.6 percent profit margin was the highest of any U.S. airline, making it a darling of Wall Street.
The last five years have been good for airline investors. After a major spike in fuel prices in 2008 and a drop in business travelers, airlines tweaked their business models, adding baggage fees and cutting unprofitable flights. They started to make money and their stock prices climbed. While the S&P 500 climbed 26 percent in the past five years, an index of all U.S. airline stocks has tripled. Allegiant's stock has done even better, increasing more than fivefold to $105.40
Allegiant has 64 planes and flies to 87 cities, but it's tiny compared with an airline like United, which carried 20 times as many people last year, often on much longer flights.
The airline got its start in 1998 as a charter operation with one airplane. By February the following year, it had started scheduled flights between Fresno, Calif. and Las Vegas.
But its business struggled and less than two years later, it filed for bankruptcy protection. Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., the airline's major creditor and a founder of ValuJet Airlines, gained control during the reorganization and became CEO. ValuJet was a low-cost carrier that changed its name to AirTran after a 1996 fatal crash in Florida.
Gallagher moved the airline from Fresno to Las Vegas; secured a lucrative contract with Harrah's to provide charter services to its casinos in Laughlin, Nev., and Reno, Nev.; and started to transform Allegiant into a low-cost carrier.
"The model evolved out of survival," says Gallagher, who is still CEO.
By 2003, the airline started turning profits, and it hasn't stopped. Gallagher's nearly 20 percent stake in the airline is now worth more than $380 million.
Allegiant benefits from paying lower salaries and having work rules that are more favorable to management than at most airlines. Flight attendants with 15 years of experience are paid $34 for each hour their plane is in the air ? $10 to $20 less than colleagues at larger carriers. Planes and crews typically end up at their home cities overnight, avoiding hotel rooms.
Wages could eventually shoot up. Pilots, flight attendants and dispatchers have all voted in the past two and a half years to join unions. The company has yet to sign a contract with any of them.
"We've been told several times at the (negotiating) table: If you don't like this job, there's the door," says Debra Petersen-Barber, who has been an Allegiant flight attendant for eight years and is the lead negotiator for the Transport Workers Union of America. "We have no value. We're easily replaced."
Thanks to its choice of aircraft, Allegiant has more flexibility than other airlines in deciding when and where to fly.
Instead of buying the newest, most expensive planes, the airline buys used, inexpensive jets. Its planes are 23 years old, on average, compared with the industry average of 14 years.
Each used MD-80 costs $3 million, compared with $40 million for a new Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 of similar size.
"When you have such little investment in an aircraft, you only fly it when it's going to be full of passengers," says Peter B. Barlow, an aircraft finance lawyer at Smith, Gambrell & Russell. "Other airlines don't have that luxury. They need to keep their aircraft in the air in order to make the economics work."
So on Tuesdays, when most of Allegiant's customers are stuck in the office, the airline keeps nearly all its planes on the ground.
Flying older planes has drawbacks, though. They burn more fuel, something Allegiant combats by squeezing 166 passengers onto planes ? 26 more than American Airlines has on comparable jets. They also have more mechanical problems, resulting in more delays.
One of every four Allegiant flights last year was at least 15 minutes late, the worst record in the industry, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
The bigger problem is if a mechanical issue forces a plane to be grounded. Given its limited schedule and packed planes, there usually isn't another flight to book passengers on. Instead, they are left waiting six hours while a new plane is flown in.
Sometimes flights are postponed to the next day. In one extreme situation in March, more than 1,700 passengers flying to and from Hawaii saw multi-day delays, including one flight that was 52 hours late.
That's a lot of time to kill at an airport bar.
__
Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tiny-allegiant-air-thrives-low-costs-high-fees-070304427.html
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WASHINGTON ? They're not yet an endangered species, but their steadily diminishing presence has some real estate analysts worried: First-time buyers are missing in action in housing markets across the country.
Traditionally first-timers have accounted for around 40% of purchases in the resale market. But in May, according to the National Assn. of Realtors, they were just 28%, down from 29% in April and 34% in May 2012.
Big deal? Yes. If predominantly young, first-time purchasers are not entering the homeownership pipeline at anywhere near their traditional rate, at some point the system begins to choke.
Owners of modest-priced starter homes find it more difficult to sell and move up. They in turn can't buy the larger homes they crave, reducing demand for houses in the more expensive categories. A shortage of first-time buyers at the intake level eventually triggers problems all the way up.
Where are these previously dependable first-time home buyers in their late 20s and early 30s? A new national study offers important clues: A lot of them are carrying such heavy debts from student loans that they're postponing buying houses.
Researchers for the One Wisconsin Institute found that the rate of homeownership among individuals who are paying off student loans is 36% lower than among their peers who have no student debt. The disparity can be seen at all income levels. Among individuals who earn $50,000 to $75,000 a year, those who are still paying down student loans have a 28% lower rate of homeownership compared with others in the same income group.
Bulging student-loan balances aren't short-term issues either. The institute's study found that the average payoff time is 21 years, ranging from 17 years for those who attended college but did not get a degree to 23 years for those with graduate degrees.
Worse yet, student loans are exhibiting high default rates, currently about 13.4%. That depresses credit scores and makes it more difficult to qualify for a mortgage under today's toughened underwriting standards, where average FICO scores for buyers using conventional mortgages top 760.
Even financial regulators are now acknowledging the troubling link between student debt loads and declining home purchases. In a recent report, researchers at the New York Federal Reserve said heavy student loan balances that limit access to credit "may have broad implications for the ongoing recovery of the housing and vehicle markets, and of U.S. consumer spending more generally."
Total outstanding student debt now exceeds $1.1 trillion. Debt loads for recent graduates average just under $27,000, but an estimated 13% of outstanding balances range from $54,000 to $100,000.
Student debt troubles are hardly the only barrier keeping first-timers out of the market, however. Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, the online real estate site, says there are three additional important reasons behind the trend:
?High down-payment requirements for conventional loans, averaging just below 20%. The Federal Housing Administration's lower down-payment options are attractive, but recent premium hikes can make FHA loans more expensive than competing conventional mortgages.
?Persistent negative equity problems among the potential sellers of the lower-priced start-up homes that first-time buyers traditionally could afford are keeping those properties off the market because owners don't want to take a loss at settlement. Roughly 43% of owners in the 35-to-39 age bracket are still underwater on their mortgages, nearly double the rate for homeowners overall.
?Cash-rich investor competition. For those affordable homes that do come on the market, first-time buyers frequently are losing out to investors who can pay hard cash, with no financing contingencies.
Problems like these aren't likely to go away any time soon, Humphries believes, but they could improve gradually.
For example, financing terms could loosen up as interest rates rise and lenders who have been feasting on refinancings are forced to reach out to purchasers ? including first-timers ? with more favorable deals. Similarly, as home prices rise, investors are likely to cut back on their purchases of starter homes they turn into rentals, thereby opening new doors for first-time buyers.
Student debt burdens are a much tougher nut, though. Until the unrelenting increases in higher education costs get under control, it just may be that some first-timers will have to enter the market later than they have done traditionally.
kenharney@earthlink.net.
Distributed by Washington Post Writers Group.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/la-fi-harney-20130630,0,3384983.story?track=rss
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's service sector picked up in April, adding to signs that the country's economy extended its recovery into the second quarter of the year, official data showed on Friday.
The Office for National Statistics said output rose 0.2 percent compared with March, when it was flat, and was 2.0 percent higher than in April last year.
The services sector makes up more than three quarters of British gross domestic product (GDP), and Friday's data adds to signs of some momentum in the economy which grew by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Services output grew 0.5 percent in the three months through March, according to GDP data released on Thursday. The slight acceleration to 0.8 percent in the three months in April adds to modest growth in manufacturing and retail.
Separate data released earlier on Friday showed British consumer morale rose to its highest level in just over two years in June and British house prices rose at their fastest annual pace in nearly three years.
The ONS also said hourly productivity across all sectors of the economy was unchanged in the first quarter, ending a run of six consecutive quarters of declines, as the economy picked up.
In a sign of muted inflation pressures, unit labour costs fell 0.4 percent in the first three months of 2013 and were down 0.5 percent from a year earlier, their first drop since the end of 2010, the statistics agency said.
Bank of England policymakers meet next week for the first time under new governor Mark Carney. Less inflation pressure could eventually help reduce opposition to more bond buying although more than half of the economists in a Reuters poll expected no resumption of asset purchases this year.
(Reporting by William Schomberg and David Milliken)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-services-output-picks-april-adding-recovery-signs-083331520.html
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Clodagh Kilcoyne / Getty Images
Ireland's "Emigrant Flame" memorial was lit using fire brought from John F. Kennedy's grave.
By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News
An Irish memorial lit using fire taken from John F. Kennedy's eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery went out just four days later.
The late president's sister Jean Kennedy Smith, his daughter Caroline Kennedy and?Irish premier Enda Kenny?used torches on Saturday to establish the "Emigrant Flame" in New Ross, Wexford.
The flame forms part of a memorial to generations of Irish people who migrated to the U.S. and other countries, particularly during the Irish famine in the mid-19th century.
President Kennedy's last overseas trip, just five months before his death, was to his family's homeland of Ireland. This year the Kennedy family returned to Ireland for the 50 anniversary of his visit. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
John F. Kennedy, who visited Ireland 50 years ago, was the descendant of Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy, who emigrated to the U.S. from New Ross during the famine period and later married.
Eamonn Hore, of Wexford County Council, confirmed that the Emigrant Flame had gone out on Wednesday night.
He said there had been a buildup of soot at the flame, which has sensors that can detect any problems and turn off the gas supply.
Hore said the council had miner?s lamps that were lit at Arlington so the Emigrant Flame can be restarted.
?It is a fact that with a flame like that as part of the maintenance anyway it will be switched off,? he said.
He said that it had been expected that during the first month at least they would have to make adjustments to the flame.
?It?s a matter of getting the oxygen levels right, the gas right and the position of the sensors,? Hore said.
Hore said the memorial is located about 100 feet away from where Kennedy and Murphy would have left for the U.S.
He said there was still ?great love and affection for the Kennedy family? in Ireland, adding that more than 30 Kennedy family members were present at Saturday?s ceremony.
Shawn Thew / EPA
New Ross Town Council Chairman Paul Crowdle holds the Kennedy Torch, lit from the Eternal Flame, near the gravesite of President John F Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery on June 18.
Kennedy?s 1963 trip to Europe is famous for his ?Ich bin ein Berliner? speech, but Hore said his visit to Ireland had a ?similar if not a great impact.?
?We were really a very young nation,? he said. ?I think he just showed people what could be done. Basically he gave confidence back to the whole Irish nation at a time when we were only just finding out feet.?
On Saturday, Kenny said Kennedy?s visit ?remains one of the iconic moments of 20th century Ireland.?
?The powerful symbolism, memorable speeches and the warmth of the interaction between this Irish American President and the Irish public had an impact on both,? he said.
Witnesses still remember Kennedy's youthfulness and charisma and the way he joined in the singing of a ballad about a 1798 revolt against the British, Reuters reported.
?There was no visit that my father made as president that meant more to him that his visit to Ireland,? Caroline Kennedy said outside the small cottage where her great-great-grandfather was born and where her father sipped tea with relatives half a century ago. ?Growing up in our family, nothing was a greater source of pride than our Irish heritage.?
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Android 4.3 leaks for Galaxy S4, rumored to launch in July
The next version of Google?s mobile operating system will reportedly arrive next month. SamMobile has obtained an early build of Android 4.3 for the Galaxy S4 Google Edition smartphone and posted a number of screenshots, giving us an early look at the upcoming update. The blog had previously suggested that Google would announce a new version of Android at its annual developers conference, however the event came and went with no such announcement. An earlier leak revealed that Android 4.3 would only be a minor update that keeps the Jelly Bean name. SamMobile?s sources claim Android 4.3 will arrive on Nexus and Google Edition devices in July. The website has also posted the early build for Galaxy S4 and Galaxy
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/android-4-3-leaks-galaxy-s4-rumored-launch-152014626.html
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By Marty Graham
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A protester is standing trial on criminal vandalism charges in San Diego, and faces a sentence of up to 13 years in prison if convicted, for a scribbling a series of anti-bank slogans in chalk on a city sidewalk.
Mayor Bob Filner has denounced the prosecution of Jeff Olson, 40, a man with no previous criminal record, as a waste of taxpayer money and an abuse of power that infringes on First Amendment free speech protections in the U.S. Constitution.
"This young man is being persecuted for thirteen counts of vandalism stemming from an expression of political protest that involved washable children's chalk on a city sidewalk," the mayor said last week in a memo to the City Council.
The city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, defended his pursuit of the case in remarks published on Thursday in the U-T San Diego news website, saying: "We prosecute vandalism and theft cases regardless of who the perpetrator or victim might be."
"We don't decide, for example, based upon whether we like or dislike banks," Goldsmith added. "That would be wrong under the law and such a practice by law enforcement would change our society in very damaging ways."
On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Howard Shore issued a gag order in the case, forbidding all parties from discussing the trial further. He previously ruled that Olson would not be permitted to invoke freedom of expression as a defense in the case.
Olson is charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of vandalism, each carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, though he is not expected to receive as harsh a sentence as 13 consecutive years behind bars if found guilty.
He is accused of writing a series of protest slogans between February and August 2012 on sidewalks in front of Bank of America branches.
Olson has admitted to the graffiti protests, but said nothing he wrote was profane or vulgar and suggested his prosecution was politically motivated.
"I wrote, 'No thanks big banks.' I wrote, 'Shame on Bank of America,'" he told San Diego CBS television affiliate KFMB-TV. He told another local station, ABC affiliate KGTV: "If I had drawn a little girl's hopscotch squares on the street, we wouldn't be here today."
The mayor's office would not rule out the possibility that Filner might appear as a witness for Olson.
The Olson case has become the latest flashpoint in a deepening rift between Filner and Goldsmith, who was elected city attorney under the former mayor by promising to improve the office's ability to work with the city's top elected official.
The mayor and city attorney have clashed over medical marijuana dispensary crackdowns, tourism district funds, bond issues and the mayor's recent successful effort to cut $500,000 from the city attorney's budget.
(Reporting by Marty Graham; Editing by Steve Gorman and Eric Beech)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/san-diego-protester-faces-vandalism-charges-sidewalk-chalk-031251879.html
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CAIRO (AP) ? Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi rallied Friday in Cairo, and both sides fought each other in the second-largest city of Alexandria, where two people were killed ? including an American ? and 85 were injured while at least five offices of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood were torched, officials said.
The competing camps were trying to show their strength before even bigger nationwide protests planned by the opposition Sunday ? the first anniversary of Morsi's inauguration ? aimed at forcing his removal.
The opposition says it will bring millions into the streets across Egypt, and more violence is feared. Already, six people have been killed in clashes this week, including Friday's deaths.
The Cairo International Airport was flooded with departing passengers, an exodus that officials said was unprecedented. All flights departing Friday to Europe, the U.S. and the Gulf were fully booked, they said.
Many of those leaving were families of Egyptian officials and businessmen and those of foreign and Arab League diplomats ? as well as many Egyptian Christians, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The U.S. State Department warned Americans against all but essential travel to Egypt, citing the uncertain security situation. It also said it would allow some nonessential staff and the families of personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to leave until conditions improve.
Opposition protesters in Alexandria broke into the local headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and set fires, throwing papers and furniture out the windows.
For several days, Brotherhood members and opponents of Morsi have battled in cities in the Nile Delta. With Friday's deaths, at least six have been killed this week.
"We must be alert lest we slide into a civil war that does not differentiate between supporters and opponents," warned Sheik Hassan al-Shafie, a senior cleric at Al-Azhar, the country's most eminent Muslim religious institution.
Morsi opponents massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests in 2011 that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. The crowd shouted, "Leave, leave" ? this time addressing Morsi. Tents were put up on the grass in the middle of the historic square.
Dozens of protesters also gathered at the gates of the presidential palace in the Heliopolis neighborhood of Cairo, urging him to resign, Egypt's state news agency reported.
At the same time, tens of thousands of Morsi supporters, mainly Islamists, filled a public square outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, not far from the palace. Islamist parties have decided to hold a sit-in.
"They say the revolution is in Tahrir," said young activist Abdel Rahman Ezz, a Morsi supporter who addressed the crowd. "It is true the revolution started in Tahrir. But shamefully, today the remnants of the old regime are in Tahrir. The revolutionary youth are here."
The palace is one of the sites where the opposition plans to gather Sunday and has been surrounded by concrete walls.
In Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, fighting began when thousands of anti-Morsi demonstrators marched toward the Brotherhood's headquarters, where up to 1,000 supporters of the president were deployed, protecting the building.
When an unidentified person on Islamist side opened fire with birdshot on the marchers, and the melee erupted, according to an Associated Press cameraman. Security forces fired tear gas at the Brotherhood supporters, but when the two sides continued battling, they withdrew. Protesters later broke into the building and began to trash it. Online video posted by witnesses showed a protester carrying a gun who appeared to be shooting at the Brotherhood building.
Alexandria security chief Gen. Amin Ezz Eddin told Al-Jazeera TV that an American was killed in Sidi Gabr Square while photographing the battle. The U.S. Embassy told The Associated Press it was trying to confirm the report.
A medical official said the American died of gunshot wounds at a hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The Alexandria health department reported an Egyptian also died from a gunshot wound to the head. It was not immediately known if that victim was a Morsi opponent or supporter.
The country witnessed a wave of attacks against Muslim Brotherhood offices across the country. The Brotherhood's media spokesman, Gehad el-Haddad, said on his Twitter account that eight of his group's headquarters were attacked and looted, and two were burned down.
He accused thugs, remnants of the old regime, including members of Mubarak's disbanded National Democratic Party of being behind the attacks.
Much of the violence was in the provinces of the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.
Protesters stormed an office of the Brotherhood, attacked members inside, injuring 10, and set the office on fire in the city of Shubrakheit, the state news agency said. Others stormed a Brotherhood office in the coastal city of Baltim, destroying electronic equipment, and another of the group's branches was torched in the city of Aga.
Hundreds of protesters in the city of Bassioun threw stones at Freedom and Justice Party offices, tearing down the party sign.
The Brotherhood says at least five of those killed this week were its members. Some people "think they can topple a democratically elected President by killing his support groups," el-Haddad said earlier on his Twitter account.
There were reports of violence from the Islamist side in the Delta as well.
At least six people were injured when an anti-Morsi march was attacked by the president's supporters in the city of Samanod, according to a security official. Attackers fired gunshots and threw acid at the protesters as they passed the house of a local Brotherhood leader, the official said.
In the city of Tanta, four men believed to be Morsi supporters tried to attack a mosque preacher during his sermon, in which he called on worshippers to stand with Al-Azhar's calls to avoid bloodshed.
In Qalioubia, north of Cairo, "popular committees" charged with managing traffic stopped a caravan of more than 90 Islamists heading to Cairo, according to a security official. The group, traveling in a bus and three minibuses, carried Molotov cocktails, clubs and gas cans, the official said.
One small bus escaped, but the others were turned over to police, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk with the press.
In the Suez Canal city of Port Said, an explosion left one dead and several others wounded at an opposition rally, a security official said. But the official and a witness said the blast was caused by a butane canister hit by fireworks.
In the southern city of Minya, a stronghold of hardline Islamic groups, a security official said that men affiliated to the Gamaa Islamiya group, a Brotherhood ally, fired in the air while an opposition rally was marching in the street, causing panic.
Each side has insisted it is peaceful and will remain so Sunday, blaming the other for violence.
Tamarod, the activist group whose anti-Morsi petition campaign evolved into Sunday's protest, said in a statement it opposed "to any attack against anybody, whatever the disagreement with this person was," and accused the Brotherhood of sparking violence to scare people from participating Sunday.
Tamarod says it has collected nearly 20 million signatures in the country of 90 million demanding Morsi step down.
"We are against Morsi because he does not govern in the name of the Egyptian people, but in the name of the Brotherhood group," said Ayed Shawqi, a teacher at an anti-Morsi rally in Alexandria.
Outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, the pro-Morsi crowd waved Egyptian flags while speakers addressed them from a stage. A banner proclaimed, "Support legitimacy," the slogan Morsi's supporters have adopted, arguing that protests must not be allowed to overturn an elected president.
They also waved the Brotherhood's flag ? a green banner with two swords ? and carried Morsi posters and portraits.
"This is a revolution, and there is no other one!" they chanted. Speakers onstage praised the military and the crowd responded with, "The army and the people are one hand," seeking to keep the military on the side of the president.
"Those who burn and those who kill are the traitors of this nation," Brotherhood preacher Safwat Hegazi told the crowd. "Mr. President, use a heavier hand, your kind heart won't be any use. ... We want to complete our revolution and purify our country."
Assem Abdel-Maged, leader of the formerly militant Gamaa Islamiya group, threatened to "sever heads" of opposition supporters if they attacked the military. Rafai Taha, one of the leading figures of Gamaa Islamiya, was also onstage, next to Brotherhood leaders.
In his Friday sermon, the cleric of Rabia el-Adawiya warned that if Morsi is ousted, "there will be no president for the country," and Egypt will descend into "opposition hell."
Pro-Morsi marchers ? many wearing green headbands with the slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood ? chanted religious slogans. "It is for God, not for position or power!" they shouted. "Raise your voice high, Egyptian: Islamic Shariah!"
The anti-Morsi demonstrators in Tahrir Square also waved Egyptian flags. They cheered, clapped, whistled and chanted, "Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. Long live Egypt!" and "The people want the fall of the regime," a phrase heard repeatedly in 2011.
One banner depicted President Barack Obama and said, "Obama supports terrorism."
___
Associated Press writer Steve Negus and Mohammed Khalil of Associated Press Television News contributed to this report from Alexandria.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-flares-egypt-weekend-protests-223018375.html
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June 27, 2013 ? A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows, that our imagination may affect how we experience the world more than we perhaps think. What we imagine hearing or seeing "in our head" can change our actual perception. The study, which is published in the scientific journal Current Biology, sheds new light on a classic question in psychology and neuroscience -- about how our brains combine information from the different senses.
"We often think about the things we imagine and the things we perceive as being clearly dissociable," says Christopher Berger, doctoral student at the Department of Neuroscience and lead author of the study. "However, what this study shows is that our imagination of a sound or a shape changes how we perceive the world around us in the same way actually hearing that sound or seeing that shape does. Specifically, we found that what we imagine hearing can change what we actually see, and what we imagine seeing can change what we actually hear."
The study consists of a series of experiments that make use of illusions in which sensory information from one sense changes or distorts one's perception of another sense. Ninety-six healthy volunteers participated in total.
In the first experiment, participants experienced the illusion that two passing objects collided rather than passed by one-another when they imagined a sound at the moment the two objects met. In a second experiment, the participants' spatial perception of a sound was biased towards a location where they imagined seeing the brief appearance of a white circle. In the third experiment, the participants' perception of what a person was saying was changed by their imagination of a particular sound.
According to the scientists, the results of the current study may be useful in understanding the mechanisms by which the brain fails to distinguish between thought and reality in certain psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Another area of use could be research on brain computer interfaces, where paralyzed individuals' imagination is used to control virtual and artificial devices.
"This is the first set of experiments to definitively establish that the sensory signals generated by one's imagination are strong enough to change one's real-world perception of a different sensory modality" says Professor Henrik Ehrsson, the principle investigator behind the study.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/SDPHCPJBUGM/130627125156.htm
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The book publishing industry is in such upheaval these days that many authors, even those who have been very successful with traditional publishing, are searching for useful, relevant information to help them move more books.
One of the first questions that publishers will ask an aspiring author is ?how big is your platform?? followed quickly by ?what is the marketing plan for your book??
People who want to self-publish face a similar quandary: how can you get your message, and your books, into the hands of interested readers?
For the last three years, I have been working with Tim Grahl, CEO of Out:think Group, who specializes in helping authors sell more books, as well as related products to drive revenue, including courses, workshops and speaking engagements. He and his team have been the main reason I have been able to increase my offerings, grow my mailing list and double my revenue.
Tim?s other clients include other well-known authors like Daniel Pink, Chip and Dan Heath and Dan Ariely. (It is obvious he is biased toward clients with the first name ?Dan? -? I am just glad he agreed to work with me).
Earlier this year, Tim sent me a text message with the amazing note ?I have 5 authors on the New York Times list this week!? As someone who is counting on him to execute my upcoming book launch in December, this was very encouraging news (and you better keep your record Tim, no pressure or anything!).
I am thrilled to share that Tim has released his own book today, called Your first 1000 copies: the step-by-step guide to marketing your book. In it, he shares specific, actionable information that he has used to launch bestselling books like To Sell is Human and Decisive.
If you may be concerned that these techniques will only work with established authors like Dan Pink and the Heath brothers, think again. First-time authors will benefit greatly from the pragmatic step-by-step book marketing instruction.
The only thing you can absolutely count on as an author is knowing that you are the greatest engine behind your book?s success. Writing a book is a bear (believe me, I know, I have 4 days left to write mine!), but all that effort and energy will be wasted if you don?t create a great launch plan.
Selling your? first 1,000 copies is so critical, especially if they are made to your natural, raving fans, who will each tell 10 of their friends about it.
Pick up your copy of Tim?s book today ? you won?t regret it!
Paperback version: Click here
Kindle version: Click here
?
Disclosure: I use affiliate links in my book references. I only write about books I love.
Source: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/2013/06/27/how-to-sell-the-first-1000-copies-of-your-book/
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Strong home sales in Wisconsin for May helped boost prices up, according to the most recent statistical report released by the Wisconsin REALTORS??Association (WRA).?The sale of existing homes in May increased 18.2 percent over last May, now the 23rd straight month of positive sales growth in Wisconsin, which helped push the median price up 4.3 percent to a statewide median of $144,000.
?These are very positive signals and represent an uptick from the pace of sales established in the first four months of the year,? said Renny Diedrich, chairman of the WRA board of directors. Existing home sales rose 10.3 percent from January through April this year compared to that same four-month period in 2012. ?There?s no doubt consumer demand has been strong over the last couple of years, but now we?re also seeing sellers jump back in the market as well,? Diedrich said.
?Prices showed solid but sustainable growth,? said Michael Theo, WRA President and CEO. ?We saw some large increases in median prices in March and April, so it?s good to see more modest increases in May.?
Below are the number of Home Sales and Median House Prices for the state of Wisconsin, Rock County, and Dane County. These stats include Janesville and Madison. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions pertaining to these figures. As you probably have heard, home sales & prices have been increasing over the past few years. Both Dane and Rock counties are showing marked improvements in the number of homes sold and the price at which they are being sold at. This spring has been really hot for the properties that are priced right! There?s been a large increase in the number of home sold, as you can see below.
If you would like some insight into how much your home is currently worth, I would be happy to provide you with a free comparative market analysis. This is a report that gives a close estimate to what your home might sell for in your current local Wisconsin real estate market.?Has your home value?fallen?below?what you currently owe??A?short sale?may be right for your situation. Visit the following page on?Wisconsin Short Sales.
Housing Statistics for the State of Wisconsin:
May 2013
Home Sales: 7,403
Median Home Price: $144,000
May?2012
Home Sales: 6,181
Median Home Price: $138,000
Housing Statistics for Dane County, WI:
May 2013
Home Sales: 925
Median Home Price: $207,000
May?2012
Home Sales: 623
Median Home Price: $211,000
Housing Statistics for Rock County, WI:
May?2013
Home Sales: 205
Median Home Price: $114,000
May?2012
Home Sales: 173
Median Home Price: $100,000
View my report from last month.?Wisconsin April 2013 Housing Statistics
Google+Source: http://blog.rockrealtywi.com/wisconsin-2013-housing-statistics/
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Alan Myers, the third and most well-known of Devo?s drummers, the so-called ?human metronome? who anchored the classic albums Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, Duty Now for the Future, Freedom of Choice and more, died this week, according to Ralph Carney, a jazz musician and friend of Myers?, and current Devo drummer Josh Freese.
Carney, a onetime bandmate of Myers? and uncle of The Black Keys? drummer Patrick Carney, tonight posted on Facebook earlier tonight: ?i just got some bad news. Alan Myers passed yesterday from cancer. he was Devo?s best drummer and one of the first people to teach me about jazz. i cry???.?
UPDATE: Devo?s Gerald Casale has paid tribute to his former bandmate, tweeting:
?
Myers joined Devo in 1976, replacing Jim Mothersbaugh, and played with the band through its formative years in the mid-to-late ?70s and then into the group?s commercial peak with the hit single ?Whip It? and beyond. He left the band in 1986, having last appeared on Devo?s album Shout, after reportedly feeling a lack of creative fulfillment.? He was replaced by Sparks? David Kendrick, but continued to play music in Los Angeles with a variety of ensembles.
Freese has credited Myers? playing on 1980?s Freedom of Choice as his own inspiration to drum.
In 2010, he told Spin magazine:
?It was the first album I got, when I was eight years old. I sat in my basement and played along to it all the time, so it was crazy when we did that tour last year where we played it top to bottom. It?s fun in the way that it?s very metronomic and the patterns are very deliberate and kind of nursery rhyme. A lot of people think that it?s a drum machine on ?Whip It.? But that?s Alan Myers.?
?
Tonight, Freese tweeted:
?
And some of Myers? best-known performances:
?
Devo, ?Whip It?
?
Devo, ?(I Can?t Get No) Satisfaction?
?
Devo, ?Freedom of Choice?
?
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
?
?
?
Source: http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/06/25/alan-myers-devo-drummer-dies/
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Meiman Marcus IPO registration papers were filed yesterday, with the company asking to raise the standard $100 million. Neiman Marcus' private equity owners are eyeing an exit for their long-held investment through the IPO.?
The Chicago skyline is reflected in the exterior of Neiman Marcus on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 2009. Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus plans to raise up to $100 million from an initial public offering of its common stock, according to reports.
M. Spencer Green/AP/File
EnlargeNeiman?Marcus?Inc filed registration papers on Monday for an initial public offering as its private equity owners eye an exit for their long-held investment in the luxury department store operator.
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The Dallas-based retailer has been in the hands of private equity since 2005, when TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus LLC led a group that bought the Dallas-based retailer for $5.1 billion.
The IPO registration may signal little more than?Neiman?Marcus' desire to keep its options open. Private equity-owned companies routinely try to sell themselves to other companies or funds while they are also preparing for an IPO in a practice referred to by investment bankers as "dual-track."
Last month for example, Warburg agreed to sell eyecare company Bausch & Lomb Holdings Inc to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International for $8.7 billion after it had registered it for an IPO.
Private equity funds typically have a lifespan of ten years. Owned by private equity for eight years already,?Neiman?Marcus?is considered a mature investment by industry standards.
Neiman, which operates 41 namesake departments stores, Bergdorf Goodman as well as the lower-price outlet chains Last Call and CUSP, would not receive any proceeds from the IPO, according to the prospectus filed with U.S. regulators. All shares in an IPO would be sold by existing shareholders.
The initial prospectus did not set out a timeline for the IPO, how many shares will be sold and by whom, nor on which exchange?Neiman?shares would trade. The company indicated it was asking to raise up to $100 million, but that amount is the standard used in many IPO filings as a placeholder to calculate a company's registration fees. The actual amount raised could be smaller, or, most likely in the case, larger.
During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, luxury sales plummeted in the United States.?Neiman?revenues had not yet recovered to pre-recession levels at the end of its most recent, complete fiscal year but are poised to for the fiscal year ending in late July.
Neiman, which competes most directly with Saks Inc, Nordstrom Inc and Macy's Inc's upscale Bloomingdale's chain, reported revenues in the nine months ended April 27 rose 5.7 percent to $3.53 billion while comparable sales were up 4.8 percent.
Saks reported comparable sales rose 4.4 percent in fiscal 2012, while for Nordstrom they were up 7.3 percent.
Neiman?was the first high-end U.S. retailer to offer e-commerce and gets about 21.7 percent of sales on line, better than Saks and Nordstrom.
In its prospectus,?Neiman?said e-commerce would continue to be a major source of growth, including more sales to overseas shoppers. It also plans expand its Last Call and CUSP chains of small format outlet stores.
Private equity firms have been busy this year trying to cash out on portfolio companies: Other recent large deals involving private equity-backed companies include SeaWorld Entertainment Inc and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
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Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
Share ] Contact: Eileen Leahy
ajpmedia@elsevier.com
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Elsevier Health Sciences
Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2013 Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe pathologic findings from 40 case reports of fungal infection in patients who had been given contaminated epidural, paraspinal, or intra-articular (into joints) steroid injections and correlate these findings with clinical and laboratory data. The report, published in the September issue of The American Journal of Pathology, alerts clinicians and the general public to the catastrophic dangers of contaminated epidural injections.
In September 2012, CDC began hearing multiple reports of fungal meningitis in patients following epidural steroid injections. By June 2013, 745 people had confirmed infections and 58 had died, making this the largest reported outbreak of infections associated with epidural and intra-articular injections.
After intensive investigation, the contamination was traced to more than 17,000 vials from three contaminated lots of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) originating from a single compounding pharmacy. More than 13,000 people were injected with the potentially contaminated drug. Most cases were attributable to Exserohilum rostratum, a dark-colored environmental mold that rarely infects humans.
Researchers, including the CDC's Exserohilum Infections Working Group, report that of 40 cases reviewed, 16 were fatal, and all except two fatal cases had a clinical diagnosis of meningitis. Autopsy examination showed extensive hemorrhage and necrosis (tissue decay) around the base of the brain and thrombi (clots) involving the basilar arterial circulation.
Tissue specimens from infected individuals showed inflammation of the leptomeninges (thin membranes lining the brain) and blood vessel walls within the brain. Distinctive abnormalities were observed around blood vessels, and fungus was found around and within arterial walls. Interestingly, fungus deep within the brain tissue itself was found in only one case.
Similar pathologic findings were seen at the epidural injection site. Fungus was not found in tissue samples taken from the heart, lung, liver, or kidney.
Investigators wondered why fungus injected in the spinal region should target the base of the brain. "The observation of abundant fungi in the perivascular tissues, but relatively low numbers of fungi inside blood vessels, suggests migration of fungus into, rather than out of, vessels at this location. This supports the hypothesis that Exserohilum migrates from the lumbar spine to the brain through the cerebrospinal fluid with subsequent vascular invasion, rather than migration through the vasculature," suggests Jana M. Ritter, DVM, a veterinary pathologist at the CDC's Infectious Diseases Pathology Branch.
In addition to characterizing the histopathology seen in this outbreak, the authors also provide practical information for pathologists, including an evaluation of various diagnostic methods to detect the fungal infection in tissues. Polyfungal immunohistochemistry (IHC) in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues (FFPE) was found to be the most sensitive method. IHC identified fungus in 100% of cases, compared with 43% by standard hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and 95% with Grocott's methenamine silver (GMS) stains. Factors that may affect cellular inflammatory patterns and fungal concentration are discussed, and the authors note that their findings may reflect the simultaneous introduction of the fungus along with the steroid.
###
Contributors to the investigation also included researchers from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Louisville, KY and the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
[ | 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: 26-Jun-2013 Share ] Contact: Eileen Leahy
ajpmedia@elsevier.com
732-238-3628
Elsevier Health Sciences
Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2013 Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe pathologic findings from 40 case reports of fungal infection in patients who had been given contaminated epidural, paraspinal, or intra-articular (into joints) steroid injections and correlate these findings with clinical and laboratory data. The report, published in the September issue of The American Journal of Pathology, alerts clinicians and the general public to the catastrophic dangers of contaminated epidural injections.
In September 2012, CDC began hearing multiple reports of fungal meningitis in patients following epidural steroid injections. By June 2013, 745 people had confirmed infections and 58 had died, making this the largest reported outbreak of infections associated with epidural and intra-articular injections.
After intensive investigation, the contamination was traced to more than 17,000 vials from three contaminated lots of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) originating from a single compounding pharmacy. More than 13,000 people were injected with the potentially contaminated drug. Most cases were attributable to Exserohilum rostratum, a dark-colored environmental mold that rarely infects humans.
Researchers, including the CDC's Exserohilum Infections Working Group, report that of 40 cases reviewed, 16 were fatal, and all except two fatal cases had a clinical diagnosis of meningitis. Autopsy examination showed extensive hemorrhage and necrosis (tissue decay) around the base of the brain and thrombi (clots) involving the basilar arterial circulation.
Tissue specimens from infected individuals showed inflammation of the leptomeninges (thin membranes lining the brain) and blood vessel walls within the brain. Distinctive abnormalities were observed around blood vessels, and fungus was found around and within arterial walls. Interestingly, fungus deep within the brain tissue itself was found in only one case.
Similar pathologic findings were seen at the epidural injection site. Fungus was not found in tissue samples taken from the heart, lung, liver, or kidney.
Investigators wondered why fungus injected in the spinal region should target the base of the brain. "The observation of abundant fungi in the perivascular tissues, but relatively low numbers of fungi inside blood vessels, suggests migration of fungus into, rather than out of, vessels at this location. This supports the hypothesis that Exserohilum migrates from the lumbar spine to the brain through the cerebrospinal fluid with subsequent vascular invasion, rather than migration through the vasculature," suggests Jana M. Ritter, DVM, a veterinary pathologist at the CDC's Infectious Diseases Pathology Branch.
In addition to characterizing the histopathology seen in this outbreak, the authors also provide practical information for pathologists, including an evaluation of various diagnostic methods to detect the fungal infection in tissues. Polyfungal immunohistochemistry (IHC) in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues (FFPE) was found to be the most sensitive method. IHC identified fungus in 100% of cases, compared with 43% by standard hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and 95% with Grocott's methenamine silver (GMS) stains. Factors that may affect cellular inflammatory patterns and fungal concentration are discussed, and the authors note that their findings may reflect the simultaneous introduction of the fungus along with the steroid.
###
Contributors to the investigation also included researchers from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Louisville, KY and the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/ehs-utl062013.php
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Aspyr Media has announced the release of Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, the newest Downloadable Content (DLC) for the hit action game Borderlands 2. It's available for download from Steam, and it's out the same day as it was released for the PC.
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep adds some Dungeons & Dragons-style flavor to Borderlands 2. It's a game within a game, as Tiny Tina assumes the role of Bunker Master in "Bunkers & Badasses." You fight skeletons, orcs, dragons and other creatures as you make your way through dungeons, castles and magic forests on a quest to save the queen.
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep requires the original Borderlands 2 to play.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/GfZZdiJ8rQE/story01.htm
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