NEW YORK (Reuters) ? A former New York mobster who turned against the mafia and helped convict Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, then acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday despite being involved in multiple murders.
Prosecutors said Dominick Cicale, 44, was convicted of racketeering and involvement in two murders and assaults in aid of racketeering. He avoided a maximum life sentence by agreeing to turn against his former crime-world associates, according to a motion filed in court on Monday by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York.
He was sentenced to 10 years prison and was given credit for about seven years already served.
Prosecutors said that Cicale, who grew up in the Bronx in New York City, ascended the ranks of the Bonanno family from 1999 until his arrest in January 2005, during which time he took part in two "brutal" murders and other violence on the crime family's behalf.
He began cooperating with the government in January, 2006, the prosecution's motion said, giving information and testimony that helped convict Basciano and a dozen other reputed Bonanno family members.
Basciano, known by his nickname Vinny Gorgeous, was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2011.
The prosecution's motion argued for a lenient sentence for Cicale based on his help to the government.
In February, 2001, during his tenure with the Bonanno family, Cicale took part in the fatal shooting of Frank Santoro, who was out walking his dog near his home in the Bronx, the motion said. Basciano, the acting boss, had ordered the killing on suspicion that Santoro was planning to kidnap his son, prosecutors said.
In December, 2004, Cicale orchestrated the murder of Randolph Pizzolo, an associate of the mob family that Basciano had ordered killed as a "wake-up call", the motion said.
The prosecution's motion said Cicale had since proved an "important and effective" government witness.
"While he has engaged in a multitude of crimes, including three murders, he has nonetheless provided information and testimony that has put dangerous criminals behind bars," the prosecutor's motion said.
Russell Neufeld, Cicale's lawyer, declined to comment on Monday.
LOS ANGELES ? Ian Abercrombie, a veteran British stage and screen actor whose TV roles included Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on "Seinfeld" and the voice of Chancellor Palpatine in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," has died. He was 77.
A website statement from LucasArts said Abercrombie died Friday. A friend, Cathy Lind Hayes, told the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/A6xXRE) that he died at a Los Angeles hospital from complications of kidney failure and recently had been diagnosed with lymphoma.
"Though he played a villain on our show, you would be hard pressed to meet a kinder person," said Dave Filoni, a supervising director for "Clone Wars." "He loved to laugh and his sense of humor always lightened our record sessions. I will miss his stories, I will miss his performances, and I will miss his contribution to our show."
Abercrombie began his career as a dancer and made his American stage debut in a 1951 production of "Stalag 17."
He appeared in the film "Army of Darkness" and on such TV shows as "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "Birds of Prey," in which he played Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler.
He also voiced the worldly owl Ambrose in the animated movie "Rango" starring Johnny Depp.
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LOS ANGELES ? Clare Fischer, a Grammy-winning composer who wrote scores for television and movies and worked with legendary musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, has died. He was 83.
Fischer died Thursday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank after suffering a heart attack two weeks ago, family spokeswoman Claris Sayadian-Dodge said.
An uncommonly versatile musician, Fischer worked as a composer, arranger, conductor and pianist for more than 60 years.
He is best known for his arrangements for Prince, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Branford Marsalis, Raphael Saadiq, Usher and Brandy.
Nominated for a Grammy 11 times in the Best Instrumental Arrangement category, Fischer won in 1986 for his album "Free Fall" and in 1981 for "Salsa Picante plus 2+2."
Born in Durand, Mich., Fischer got his start playing piano and writing jazz-inspired arrangements for the group The Hi-Lo's, an a capella quartet popular in the 1950s.
He worked as the arranger on Gillespie's "Jazz Portrait of Duke Ellington."
Fischer recorded 51 albums over his lifetime with his son Brent Fischer. The music ranges in style from jazz to salsa to symphonies.
"Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept," Herbie Hancock is quoted as saying on Fischer's website.
"(Fischer) and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were," Hancock said.
Clare Fischer is survived by his wife, Donna; sons Lee and Brent; daughter Tahlia; and three grandchildren.
FILE - This is a Tuesday, May 25, 2010 file photo of actress Cynthia Nixon attending the Designing Women Awards in New York. Gay rights activists say actress Cynthia Nixon's insistence she chose to be a lesbian gives fodder to those who argue gays don't deserve marriage rights. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)
FILE - This is a Tuesday, May 25, 2010 file photo of actress Cynthia Nixon attending the Designing Women Awards in New York. Gay rights activists say actress Cynthia Nixon's insistence she chose to be a lesbian gives fodder to those who argue gays don't deserve marriage rights. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Cynthia Nixon learned the hard way this week that when it comes to gay civil rights, the personal is always political. Very political.
The actress best known for portraying fiery lawyer Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City" is up to her perfectly arched eyebrows in controversy since The New York Times Magazine published a profile in which she was quoted as saying that for her, being gay was a conscious choice. Nixon is engaged to a woman with whom she has been in a relationship for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.
"I understand that for many people it's not, but for me it's a choice, and you don't get to define my gayness for me," Nixon said while recounting some of the flak gay rights activists previously had given her for treading in similar territory. "A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it's a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn't matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not."
To say that a certain segment of the gay community "is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice" is an understatement. Gay rights activists have worked hard to combat the idea that people decide to be physically attracted to same-sex partners any more than they choose to be attracted to opposite-sex ones because the question, so far unanswered by science, is often used by religious conservatives, including GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum and former candidate Michelle Bachman, to argue that homosexuality is immoral behavior, not an inherent trait.
Among the activists most horrified by Nixon's comments was Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen, whose organization monitors and tries to debunk programs that claim to cure people of same-sex attractions with therapy. Besen said he found the actress' analysis irresponsible and flippant, despite her ample caveats.
"Cynthia did not put adequate thought into the ramifications of her words, and it is going to be used when some kid comes out and their parents force them into some ex-gay camp while she's off drinking cocktails at fancy parties," Besen said. "When people say it's a choice, they are green-lighting an enormous amount of abuse because if it's a choice, people will try to influence and guide young people to what they perceive as the right choice."
Nixon's publicist did not respond to an e-mail asking if the actress wished to comment on the criticism.
While the broader gay rights movement recognizes that human sexuality exists on a spectrum, and has found common cause with transgender and bisexual people, Nixon may have unwittingly given aid and comfort to those who want to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, adopt children and secure equal spousal benefits, said Jennifer Pizer, legal director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a pro-gay think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles.
One of the factors courts consider in determining if a law is unconstitutional is whether members of the minority group it targets share an unchangeable or "immutable" trait, Pizer noted. Although the definition of how fixed a characteristic has to be to qualify as immutable still is evolving ? religious affiliation, for example, is recognized as grounds for equal protection ? the U.S. Supreme Court still has not included sexual orientation among the traits "so integral to personhood it's not something the government should require people to change," she said.
"If gay people in this country had more confidence that their individual freedom was going to be respected, then the temperature would lower a bit on the immutability question because the idea of it being a choice wouldn't seem to stack the deck against their rights," Pizer said.
Nixon stirred the identity politics pot further when she explained in a follow-up interview with The Daily Beast this week that she purposefully rejected identifying herself as bisexual even though her history suggested it was an accurate term.
"I don't pull out the "bisexual" word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals," she said. "But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men. And then I met (her fianc?) Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt."
Although science has not identified either a purely biological or sociological basis for sexual orientation, University of California, Davis psychologist Gregory Herek, an expert on anti-gay prejudice, said Nixon's experience is consistent with research showing that women have an easier time moving between opposite and same-sex partners.
A survey Herek conducted of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals of both genders bore this out. Sixteen percent of the lesbians surveyed reported they felt they had had a fair amount of choice in their sexual orientations, while only five percent of the gay men did. Among bisexuals, the figures were 40 percent for men and 45 percent for women.
What remains to be teased out, Herek said, is how a representative national sample of heterosexuals would answer the same question, and what people mean when their sexual orientation was a choice or not. Are they talking about their sexual desires? Acting on those desires? Or simply the identity they choose to show to the world?
"The nature vs. nurture debate really is pass?," he said. "The debate is not really an either/or debate in the vast majority of cases, but how much of each. We don't know how big a role biology plays and how big a role culture plays. A possibility not often discussed is it's not the same for everybody."
ST. LOUIS ? Veterans who attended the nation's first major Iraq War parade Saturday in St. Louis said they appreciated the welcome home, even though some expected to be redeployed to Afghanistan or elsewhere in the coming months. Here are a few of their stories:
___
Army Maj. Rich Radford had two long tours of duty in Iraq under almost constant threat of violence.
Radford, a combat engineer, spent 15 months on his first tour starting in January 2004, then about 10 months when he went back in September 2009. He earned the Bronze Star for his service.
"Every day we were in danger," Radford, 40, said, "because the Iraqis didn't like us, didn't want us in their country. They would sell out our positions, our missions."
Radford, a 23-year military veteran, marched in the parade with his two children, Aimee, 8, and Warren, 12. An image of the father and daughter upon his return home from the second tour of duty is emblazoned on T-shirts and posters associated with the parade, fashioned from a photo taken by Radford's sister of Aimee, then 6, reaching up for her father's hand as family greeting him at Lambert Airport in St. Louis.
"She grabbed my hand and said, `I missed you, Daddy,'" Radford recalled. "That's been my Facebook page picture ever since."
___
Air Force veteran Kevin Jackson got a nice welcome-home with Saturday's parade, something his father never got for his service.
Don Jackson, 63, served in Vietnam. America still stings from the treatment of Vietnam veterans. There was no parade, no rally, when that conflict ended in the mid-1970s. Not that Don Jackson is complaining.
"I didn't need a parade. I was just glad to be home. This is for them," he said, nodding to his son and other young veterans.
Kevin Jackson, 33, is glad to be home, too. He has lost track of how many times he was sent overseas ? three or four tours of duty in Iraq, four or five in Afghanistan.
In Iraq, Jackson's job was to teach Iraqis how to fly three C-130s planes that the U.S. donated to the Iraqi Air Force.
It wasn't easy. First, they had to teach them English. And turnover was constant.
"They'd be there for a couple of weeks then go home on break and not come back," Jackson said. "The bad guys would find out they were working with the Americans and threaten their families. So they wouldn't come back."
___
Gayla Gibson didn't know much about improvised explosive devices before the Air Force sent her to Iraq in July 2003. She spent the next four months as part of the first line of help for soldiers wounded by IED attacks.
"We saw some horrible things," she said. "Amputations. Broken bones. Severe burns from IEDs. It was pretty much every day."
Gibson and other medical technicians helped mend the wounded best they could before they were moved to hospitals in Germany.
"We'd talk to them, try to comfort them," she said. "Mostly we wanted to stabilize them."
Gibson, 38, was thrilled that her hometown of St. Louis was the site of the first big parade to welcome home those who gave much for their country.
"I think it's great when people come out to support those who gave their lives and put their lives on the line for this country," Gibson said.
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PHOENIX ? An attorney for one of two white supremacist brothers charged in Arizona with bombing a black city official in Scottsdale is trying to paint a government informant as a temptress who led one of the brothers to believe that she would have sex with him so he would admit to the crime.
Attorney Deborah Williams on Thursday played for jurors numerous tapes of the informant flirting with identical twin brothers Dennis and Daniel Mahon and talking about sex.
Williams is trying to undercut the credibility of the 41-year-old informant, a former exotic dancer.
The Mahons, both 61, have pleaded not guilty to the 2004 bombing of Don Logan, Scottsdale's diversity director at the time. His hand and arm were injured, and a secretary also was hurt.
ORLANDO, Fla. ? Mitt Romney, forced to prove his resilience after a stinging loss in South Carolina, is showing why the so-called Republican establishment thinks he has the best discipline, organization and campaign smarts to challenge President Barack Obama this fall.
The former Massachusetts governor turned in his best debate performance yet Thursday night, putting chief rival Newt Gingrich on the defensive from the opening minutes in Jacksonville, Fla., and never letting up for two hours. It was a striking change after two South Carolina debates in which Gingrich revived his own campaign with fiery populist and media-bashing zingers that made Romney appear pallid in comparison.
Romney hired a new debate coach after those events. He was considerably more aggressive in a debate Monday in Tampa.
Then on Thursday, he urged his supporters to pack the hall in Jacksonville for the debate aired by CNN. As soon as it started, he appeared more prepared, polished and focused than Gingrich, who curiously dropped the fire-breathing aggressiveness he had shown only hours earlier at a morning tea party rally.
In contrast to the rousing ovations that Gingrich, the former House speaker, had received in the two South Carolina debates, the Jacksonville audience seemed mostly on Romney's side.
"When I'm shot at, I'll return fire," Romney said moments after the debate ended. "I'm certainly no shrinking violet."
Many Republicans expect Tuesday's Florida primary to be close. And debate performances are only one part of the GOP presidential campaign. It also features millions of dollars in TV, radio and mail ads and heavy coverage of candidates' events by local news outlets.
This cycle's presidential debates, however, have drawn big audiences and played an unusually large role in shaping the campaign. Gingrich's feisty performances after his near-fatal finish in Iowa helped put him into strong contention with Romney.
Romney's performance Thursday will doubtlessly reassure many mainstream party members who see Gingrich as too mercurial and burdened by past political battles to make the strongest case against Obama.
"Romney took the right lesson from South Carolina: Keep your opponent down, don't let him back up," New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala, who follows the contest closely, said on Twitter before the debate was half over.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul also participated in the forum, although Paul is not actively campaigning in Florida. Santorum scored strong points by noting that both Gingrich and Romney have supported mandatory health insurance for individuals.
Santorum says that history weakens the two men's ability to challenge Obama on mandated health coverage. Santorum is struggling to compete in sprawling, expensive Florida, however, and he planned to return for a while to Pennsylvania on Friday.
Romney's performance in Jacksonville was by no means perfect. He said he didn't remember a Spanish-language radio ad that his campaign is airing against Gingrich. CNN's Wolf Blitzer assured him the ad was his, and Gingrich needled him about it.
Romney also spent long segments explaining that his millions of dollars in personal wealth are invested by a trustee who keeps the details private to avoid conflicts of interest. Such sound bites might hurt Romney in a general election, which draws independent and Democratic voters who are likely to be more skeptical of a millionaire's hired accountants and complex investing than are some Republican activists.
On balance, however, Gingrich's supporters are likely to look back on the CNN debate and wonder what happened to the fire that boiled inside their champion Thursday morning, when he accused Romney of lies and gross hypocrisy.
One moment was especially telling. Blitzer asked Gingrich to explain his criticism of Romney's investments in, among other places, Swiss banks and Cayman Island accounts. Those locations sometimes are used to avoid U.S. taxes.
Gingrich, who often delights conservative crowds by lecturing or berating reporters, said the question was inappropriate for a presidential debate. Blitzer pressed on, saying Gingrich had made serious allegations about the investments, which Romney defends as above-board.
In what seemed a peace offering, Gingrich turned to Romney and said, "You want to try again?"
Romney answered with a verbal smack. "Wouldn't it be nice if people didn't make accusations somewhere else that they weren't willing to defend here?" he said coldly.
The moment was reminiscent of Tim Pawlenty's refusal in an August debate to repeat a sharp criticism he had recently made of Romney. Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor, soon dropped out and endorsed Romney.
Romney seemed determined to attack Gingrich at the first opportunity, even at the risk of strained indignation. He pounced when Gingrich, pressed on whether Romney is "the most anti-immigrant candidate," said blandly, "I think, of the four of us, yes."
"That's simply inexcusable," Romney retorted.
Immigration is a sensitive issue among Florida's Hispanic voters. Gingrich recently dropped an ad that called Romney anti-immigrant, at the request of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose parents are from Cuba.
Romney said Gingrich's comments were "the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized American politics too long." He said Gingrich should apologize.
Gingrich regained some of his populist groove late in the debate.
"One of the reasons I am running is, there has been an increasingly aggressive war against religion, and in particular against Christianity in this country, largely by a secular elite and the academic, news media and judicial areas," he said. "It's important to have some leadership that stands up and says, `Enough.'"
The campaign question for Gingrich is: Did he do enough in his two debate opportunities in Florida to maintain his eye-popping momentum from South Carolina?
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? Charles Babington covers politics for The Associated Press.
In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner are joined by Slate?s Bryan Curtis to discuss Curtis? New York Times Magazine profile of George Lucas, whose latest film Red Tails, about the Tuskegee airmen in World War II,opened last week. Next, they consider the pros and cons of the collaborative vs. solitary workplace. For their final segment, it?s ?sh*t Gabfesters say? as the new YouTube meme gets thoroughly dissected.
With the exception of owner Jeffrey Lurie explaining that, if he didn?t expect the team to be better in 2012, he would have made a coaching change, Eagles management has been conspicuously quiet in the early stages of the offseason.? Eagles G.M. Howie Roseman has broken the silence.? Not surprisingly, he says that the team will be better in 2012.
Roseman spoke with Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com on Tuesday, from the Senior Bowl.? ?We were 8-8, and we have work to do,? Roseman said.? ?We?ve got to look at everything we?re doing and make sure we evaluate it honestly and learn from our mistakes.? We?ll study everything around the league, the way everybody else does things, and we?ll get better.
?I?m not going to sit here in a bubble and say, ?We?re so great.?? When we look back, there are things we wish we had done better.? I can get better, we all can get better.?
If Roseman were to say, ?We?re so great,? the bubble in which he would be sitting would be one of delusion and/or drunkenness.? Though the four-game winning streak to end the season is encouraging, the Eagles failed miserably in 2011, especially given the standards they not only established but embraced.? On PFT Live, Eagles president Joe Banner declared that the line between success and failure wasn?t making the playoffs but winning the Super Bowl.
?Obviously, when we?re sitting here at the Senior Bowl and not the Super Bowl, it?s not where you want to be,? Roseman said.? ?So we have to get better, and we?ll look at every facet of the team and every avenue possible to improve and make sure next year is different.?
Roseman, like Lurie, believes that will happen.? ?It always starts with your head coach and quarterback, and we are so fortunate to have Andy Reid and Michael Vick in those spots, and we feel like that gives us a chance,? Roseman said. ?We need to get better, but I do feel like we have good players, and in the next few months, we?ll have the opportunity to upgrade in all the areas we feel like we need to.
?There?s a lot of optimism here.? Everybody in the building is very excited about where we are.?
Eagles fans understandably are more guarded.? They all got excited last year, and they suffered a major letdown.? If there?s another letdown in 2012, the excitement next year could come from a new head coach, and possibly a new G.M.
High fructose consumption by adolescents may put them at cardiovascular riskPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@georgiahealth.edu 706-721-4421 Georgia Health Sciences University
Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report.
An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.
Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.
These dangerous trends are exacerbated by fat around their midsection, called visceral adiposity, another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The association did not hold up for adolescents with more generalized, subcutaneous fat.
"It is so very important to provide a healthy balance of high-quality food to our children and to really pay close attention to the fructose and sucrose they are consuming at their home or anyone else's," said Dr. Vanessa Bundy, an MCG pediatric resident. Drs. Bundy and Norman Pollock, bone biologist at MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute are co-first authors on the study published in The Journal of Nutrition.
"The nutrition that caregivers provide their children will either contribute to their overall health and development or potentially contribute to cardiovascular disease at an early age," Bundy said. The best way caregivers can support healthy nutrition is to be good role models, she said. A healthy diet with plenty of physical activity not dieting is the best prescription for growing children.
"Adolescents consume the most fructose so it's really important to not only measure the levels of fructose but to look at what it might be doing to their bodies currently and, hopefully, to look at cardiovascular disease outcomes as they grow," Pollock said.
While animal studies have had similar findings, evidence in children is needed to support dramatic steps to curb consumption, such as asking schools to remove soda and other vending machines or, at least, to limit access, Pollock said. The researchers noted that more study is needed to flesh out the relationship between high fructose consumption and cardiovascular risk and whether these early associations forebode adult disease.
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is found in fruits and veggies but also in high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used liberally in processed foods and beverages. Researchers suspect growing bodies crave the cheap, strong sweetener and companies often target young consumers in ads.
"Fructose itself is metabolized differently than other sugars and has some byproducts that are believed to be bad for us," Bundy said. "The overall amount of fructose that is in high fructose corn syrup is not much different than the amount in table sugar but it's believed there's something in the syrup processing that plays a role in the bad byproducts of metabolism."
The study took a "snapshot" of the adolescents' lives, looking at overall fructose consumption, general diet history and body fat.
"A unique aspect of our study design is that we took into account the fructose released from sucrose during digestion along with the fructose found in foods and beverages," Pollock said. "Because sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose before it arrives at the liver for metabolism, it is important to consider the additional fructose from sucrose when determining the overall health effect of fructose."
###
[ | 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.
High fructose consumption by adolescents may put them at cardiovascular riskPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@georgiahealth.edu 706-721-4421 Georgia Health Sciences University
Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report.
An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.
Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.
These dangerous trends are exacerbated by fat around their midsection, called visceral adiposity, another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The association did not hold up for adolescents with more generalized, subcutaneous fat.
"It is so very important to provide a healthy balance of high-quality food to our children and to really pay close attention to the fructose and sucrose they are consuming at their home or anyone else's," said Dr. Vanessa Bundy, an MCG pediatric resident. Drs. Bundy and Norman Pollock, bone biologist at MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute are co-first authors on the study published in The Journal of Nutrition.
"The nutrition that caregivers provide their children will either contribute to their overall health and development or potentially contribute to cardiovascular disease at an early age," Bundy said. The best way caregivers can support healthy nutrition is to be good role models, she said. A healthy diet with plenty of physical activity not dieting is the best prescription for growing children.
"Adolescents consume the most fructose so it's really important to not only measure the levels of fructose but to look at what it might be doing to their bodies currently and, hopefully, to look at cardiovascular disease outcomes as they grow," Pollock said.
While animal studies have had similar findings, evidence in children is needed to support dramatic steps to curb consumption, such as asking schools to remove soda and other vending machines or, at least, to limit access, Pollock said. The researchers noted that more study is needed to flesh out the relationship between high fructose consumption and cardiovascular risk and whether these early associations forebode adult disease.
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is found in fruits and veggies but also in high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used liberally in processed foods and beverages. Researchers suspect growing bodies crave the cheap, strong sweetener and companies often target young consumers in ads.
"Fructose itself is metabolized differently than other sugars and has some byproducts that are believed to be bad for us," Bundy said. "The overall amount of fructose that is in high fructose corn syrup is not much different than the amount in table sugar but it's believed there's something in the syrup processing that plays a role in the bad byproducts of metabolism."
The study took a "snapshot" of the adolescents' lives, looking at overall fructose consumption, general diet history and body fat.
"A unique aspect of our study design is that we took into account the fructose released from sucrose during digestion along with the fructose found in foods and beverages," Pollock said. "Because sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose before it arrives at the liver for metabolism, it is important to consider the additional fructose from sucrose when determining the overall health effect of fructose."
###
[ | 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.
The iPhone Dev team just released numbers for the Absinthe A5 jailbreak. According to the site, 953,232 new jailbreaks were recorded. That's a whole lotta hacking. More »
ABC has picked up the supernatural drama pilot 666 Park Ave., according to The Hollywood Reporter.
ABC picks up Shawn Ryan's Last Resort
From the producers of The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle and Gossip Girl, the project is based on Gabrielle Pierce's book series about an innocent Midwestern couple who get hired as resident managers of an Upper East Side apartment building in New York. Unbeknownst to them, the residents have all made deals with the Devil to have their desires fulfilled.
David Wilcox is on board to adapt the book and executive-produce, alongside Alloy Entertainment's Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo.
ABC orders pilot for Shonda Rhimes' period drama
666 Park Ave. is the fourth drama pilot ABC has ordered this season, following Shawn Ryan's Last Resort, Roland Emmerich's untitled election project and Shonda Rhimes' Gilded Lilys.
Ahead of any possible Ultrabook announcements, Sony's looking to give its existing VAIO catalogue a (relatively underwhelming) shot in the arm with a bundle of hardware retweaks. The Z series looks to gain the most out of the Spring refresh, with a new off-white Carbon Fiber Silver color option set to be offered up alongside an optional LTE modem. The series also gets a processor step-up, with new Intel Core i5 and i7 options rounded off with the choice of SSD storage. Including the connectable drive, prices for the series refresh will start from $1,950. Meanwhile, both the S (13-inch, $800, 15-inch, $980)and E series will get a similar bump to Core i7 processors, with both the S and aforementioned Z series able to lock into an extended sheet battery accessory. If minor processor improvements, more battery options and LTE connectivity warrant forking over your cash, you can expect the revitalized units to arrive early next month.
We talk about a lot of small bags and organizer pouches here at The Gadgeteer.? Most of them work great, but many of them are utilitarian looking.? If you’d like an elegant, leather pouch to carry your cables and flash drives in, check out the Premium Leather Accessory Pouches from MacCase.? They’re made from premium [...]
(Reuters) ? The Miami Dolphins named Joe Philbin as the team's new head coach on Friday.
A statement released by chairman of the board and managing general partner Stephen Ross and general manager Jeff Ireland confirmed Philbin as the franchise's 10th head coach.
"We are thrilled to have Joe Philbin join the Miami Dolphins as our head coach," Ross said. "Joe has all the attributes that we were looking for when we started this process.
"Joe was the right choice to bring the Dolphins back to the success we enjoyed in the past. I know I join our fans in welcoming him as the newest member of the Dolphin family."
Philbin has been the offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers since 2007 and originally joined the team as the assistant offensive line coach in 2003.
"I want to thank Steve Ross and Jeff Ireland for giving me the opportunity to become the head coach of one of the premier franchises in professional sports," said Philbin.
"I also want to thank the Green Bay Packers for all the support the organization has given me during my time there."
Philbin replaces interim head coach Todd Bowles, who took over from Tony Sparano with three games remaining in the season. Sparano had coached Miami since 2008.
"The Dolphins have a strong nucleus to build around, and together we will return the team to its winning tradition," added Philbin.
"I have seen how much the fans in South Florida care about the Dolphins, and that passion is one reason why I'm really excited to be here. I can't wait to get started."
(Reporting by Mike Mouat in Windsor, Ontario. Editing by Alastair Himmer)
Ear-numbing firecrackers, amazing noodle dishes and feeding crisp dollar bills to dancing lions; these are three things I remember most about celebrating Chinese New Year in my hometown of Hilo, Hawaii.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to ring in the start of the Chinese lunar calendar in paradise this year. However, that doesn't mean I won't be having fun ushering in the Year of the Dragon.
This January 23rd, grab the kids, don your most festive red outfits and wish each other a hearty "Xin Nian Kuai Le." Then, raid your craft closet to make these simple Chinese New Year projects which you can feature in your own parade.
Homemade Dancing Lion Costume
Materials:
Large cardboard box
Bright colored paint (red, orange, green, gold)
Construction paper
Glue
Long pieces of scrap fabric
Stapler
Directions:
Cut eye holes in the cardboard box.
Paint the box to look like a traditional Chinese dancing lion.
While paint is drying, cut out a nose and mouth from the construction paper.
Glue paper facial features on box.
Glue scraps of fabric on the box to mimic a lion's mane.
Save a long piece of fabric to use as the lion's tail.
Staple tail on back of box, and get dancing.
Handheld Chinese Dancing Lion
Materials:
Construction paper (red, green, orange, yellow)
Scissors
Markers
Glue
Tape
2 wooden chopsticks
Glitter
Feathers
Directions:
Use a black marker to draw the head and tail of the lion on a piece of yellow construction paper.
Use the scissors to cut the head and tail, and then decorate them with glitter.
Glue on the feathers to make a mane for the lion.
Fold a piece of red construction paper in half the long way.
Cut along the fold line, making two long rectangles.
Fold each piece of paper back and forth to make it look like an accordion.
Glue the two pieces together, forming one long piece. This will be the lion's body.
Glue one end of the lion's body to the cut-out head.
Glue the other end of the body to the lion's tail.
Tape one chopstick to the head and the other to the tail.
Allow glue to dry thoroughly before making your lion dance.
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Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.
DMX may soon make news for something other than getting arrested! Amazing!
X says he and his legendary rap crew Ruff Ryders are getting back together and that a big reunion tour is already in the works. Perhaps the best known Ryder, Eve, is also on record saying to expect a massive comeback from the Ruff ones.
The tour is supposed to kick off in a few months, with CEO Waah Dean currently booking venues. DMX says the whole Ruff Ryders crew - Eve, The L.O.X., Swizz Beatz, Drag-On, Murda-Mook - are on board and ready to run this $h!t. Take heed.
THG's celebrity mug shot all-star says, "We are all family and we're going to come back stronger than when we left ... It's going to take the nation by storm."
It seems the rumors were right: Apple used its announcement today in New York to drop iBooks 2 on the world, with brand new support for textbook publishing in the app that stands to revolutionize the way students consume learning materials, and how publishers create it.
For a lot of tech writers around the Internet, iBooks 2 sounds a death knell for the print publishing of textbooks. Of course, it?s easy and tempting to call the race right out of the gate, and Apple has some compelling things going for it. For one, iBooks 2 is going to help provide textbooks for substantially cheaper than they have been in the past, and any college student alive can tell you what a racket the current textbook system is. A single $500 iPad can cost the same as a semester?s worth of books, and having that iPad can eliminate a lot of stress long-term for students, like carrying heavy books, selling them back at the end of the semester (which always compounded the feeling of being ripped-off for me) and struggling to find correct editions. The up-front cost is high, but the long-term benefits seem to be in the iPad?s favor.
College students know going into each semester that they?re getting ripped off by a system set up against them, and with textbooks on iBooks 2 dropping the price tag considerably, from between $50 and $100 to a mere $15, it already is set up to make a big splash among lots of students.
What?s more, Apple?s conception of iBooks will make for better textbooks. Interactive questions, glossary searches from within text, video and audio integrated with the material ? these are things that just make sense in terms of education. Apple says it already has 1.5 million iPads in classrooms and schools across the U.S., with 200,000 iPads developed specifically for education. Expanding that base will be important if Apple is going to really revolutionize education, but Apple already has the know-how to make it happen, given the proliferation of Apple II and iMac computers in schools during the 1990s. If there?s a thing Apple does well, it?s get in good with educational institutions.
It?ll come down to whether Apple can convince people who don?t have an iPad that they need one for education purposes, and offering the devices cheap to elementary and high schools will go a long way toward that end. There are a lot of benefits that can come out of an Apple-driven revolution of the way we use information in education, and iBooks 2 can be the forefront of that push; it?s just a matter of showing enough people that the new way far outpaces the old. Expect to see iPads showing up in a whole lot more classrooms as Apple sets about convincing the world that learning from a tablet textbook is far superior to the old method. If that proves to be true, educators could have a powerful new tool for facilitating learning at their disposal.
But the first step is getting more iPads into the hands of students, so the initial cost of the device is going to play a big role.
A sun-watching spacecraft has for the first time tracked a comet's path all the way into the solar atmosphere
By John Matson
?|
January 19, 2012
COMETARY CATACLYSM: Imagery from the Solar Dynamics Observatory documents the demise of a comet plunging toward the sun. The comet streaked in from the right of the image.Image: ? Science/AAAS
As dramatic exits go, it's on par with Major T. J. "King" Kong riding a falling nuclear bomb like a rodeo bull at the end of Dr. Strangelove. A NASA spacecraft has documented a comet's demise as it plunged toward the sun at 600 kilometers per second, broke apart and vaporized inside the solar atmosphere.
The comet, known as C/2011 N3 (SOHO), met its fiery fate on July 6. The object's official name designates that it was discovered in early July 2011 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Many comets meet a similar end, but astronomers and solar physicists have never been able to track a comet's trajectory all the way into the depths of the solar corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere.
With the help of another spacecraft?NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which was launched in 2010?a group of scientists were able to witness the final minutes of the comet's existence. The observations of C/2011 N3 as it broke apart allowed the researchers to estimate the comet's mass and the size of its nucleus; similar events in the future may provide clues about the origins of comets as well as probe conditions near the sun that are otherwise difficult to explore. The team of researchers published their findings in the January 20 issue of Science.
SOHO has discovered more than 2,000 comets near the sun, most of them thanks to the help of unpaid amateur astronomers who comb through imagery from the spacecraft. Most of the sun-grazing comets, like C/2011 N3, belong to the Kreutz family, which is thought to have originated from a single progenitor that broke apart within the past few thousand years. The smallest of these comets are destroyed by the sun before they draw too close, so C/2011 N3 was rather sizable for a Kreutz-family comet, with a nucleus 10 to 50 meters across.
"It must have been on the large side," says lead study author Carolus Schrijver, a solar physicist at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. The comet's size contributed not only to its survival deep into the solar atmosphere but also to its receiving close scrutiny during the sunward plunge. "This was noted as a particularly bright one," Schrijver says. "That morning as it was approaching the sun I said, 'Well, let's see if we can see it.'"
An atmospheric imaging camera on SDO was indeed able to track the inbound comet, watching it bear down on the sun in an ultraviolet streak that lasted about 20 minutes before it disappeared. By that time the comet was only about 100,000 kilometers above the solar surface and had broken into a number of fragments, further hastening its vaporization.
"The temperatures [at that point] are so high that things are evaporating," says astronomer Matthew Knight of Lowell Observatory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who did not contribute to the new study. "Not just gases and ices, but heavy elements."
The comet's total obliteration in the solar atmosphere let Schrijver and his colleagues estimate how much material was lost in the process. "Because it vanished, we could actually measure its mass," Schrijver says. The researchers estimate that the comet may have shed as much as 60 million kilograms of material in its plunge?about the mass of the Titanic. But the comet's composition is less clear. "We're still trying to understand what was glowing," he says. The imager used to track C/2011 N3 is most sensitive to iron, but Schrijver notes that the glow could also have been produced by carbon or oxygen.
If you weigh that against the odds of being poisoned by a normal Black Widow, it balances out, right? Everybody knows that if you see a normal Black Widow, you can?t go up and start pounding with 50g of force. Yes, you?ll see that Black Widow throw a 1ms response time back at you, but the end result isn?t going to be up to ten customizable software profiles. It?s going to be an angry spider hoping to make you lunch.
But with this refurbished Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Gaming Keyboard? Well, we?re told it?s optimized so as not to try and kill you (and also minimized ghosting). But it?s Razer, so, you know, maybe there?s some kind of edgy ?Doom Mode? or something as an Easter Egg. However the odds are in your favor!
Warranty: 90 Day Razer
Condition: Refurbished
Features:
The Razer BlackWidow?s mechanical key technology provides a distinctive tactile feedback in form of a light pronounced tap to your fingers giving you an entirely new feel on your keyboard
With its optimized actuation force of 50g and a reduced actuation distance of 2mm the Razer BlackWidow?s keys allow you to actuate your commands faster than on any other standard gaming keyboard
Record unlimited macros on-the-fly without having to take your eye off the game and immediately change between up to 10 profiles without the hassle of going into complex driver menus
With the simple click of two buttons you initiate and end the recording and you?re all set
Expand the amount of easy-to-reach commands with the additional 5 Macro keys on the side and avoid any distractions by switching on the Gaming Mode
Specifications:
Full mechanical keys with 50g actuation force
1000Hz Ultrapolling / 1ms response time
Programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording
Gaming mode option for deactivation of the Windows key
10 customizable software profiles with on-the-fly switching
5 additional macro keys
Gaming optimized key matrix for minimized ghosting
Multimedia controls
Braided cable
Approximate Dimensions: 18.70?(W) x 6.73?(H) x 0.79? (Depth)
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 24-Jan-2012
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It seems the rumors were right: Apple used its announcement today in New York to drop iBooks 2 on the world, with brand new support for textbook publishing in the app that stands to revolutionize the way students consume learning materials, and how publishers create it.
