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British troops in Afghanistan have enjoyed a festive treat, tucking into a traditional Christmas dinner: bit.ly/vz5hVLIl y a environ 4 heuresvia ITN News AlertsRetweeted by 1 person
WASHINGTON ? On a political high, President Barack Obama capped a bruising year by securing a tax cut for millions of Americans ? an achievement that overshadowed Washington's deepening dysfunction and the slow progress of the economy on his watch.
The White House has ended a year with a political victory before. This time around the stakes are higher, and the president is by no means assured of carrying the momentum deep into an election year.
Addressing reporters before heading to Hawaii on Friday, Obama looked like a president in command of the stage again, for now. He left the capital after presiding over a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut ? about $40 per paycheck for someone making $50,000 a year ? that came when House Republicans caved on demands for a longer deal.
Yet on this issue, like many, enormous work remains for Obama after the new year, just when voters begin choosing a Republican nominee to try to oust him from his job.
Obama initially had pushed for a year-long extension of both the Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. He got only two months on both because Congress could not agree on how to pay the bill for more without gutting their own political priorities ? the same problem that awaits all sides in the weeks to come.
Although Obama calls a full-year extension a "formality," politically, it is not. So he pushed Congress to work "without drama, without delay" when they return from their own recess.
The whole scene was reminiscent of a year ago, when Obama took a self-described "shellacking" in the midterm elections but still ended up leaving for his yearly Hawaiian holiday on a high note.
In a news conference at the time, a jubilant Obama claimed a "season of progress" after stringing together legislative victories in a lame-duck congressional session, including the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members and approval of a new nuclear treaty with Russia.
But progress was short-lived. Obama returned to Washington in January to face a divided Congress and a Republican party prepared to push him to the brink.
This time, Obama left without taking questions from reporters, ensuring no disruption from the narrative all over Washington ? a win for him, a capitulation for House Republicans. Had he engaged the press, Obama may well have been challenged about violence in Iraq since a U.S. troop withdrawal, or his own flip-flop over an oil pipeline included in the tax deal.
Obama may have won the messaging war this December, preventing higher taxes for 160 million Americans. But he gave up plenty to get a deal.
In securing the short-term extension, Obama caved on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The president had boldly said he would reject any effort to tie the payroll tax extension to the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline; he later gave in to GOP demands to make a decision on the project within 60 days.
Given that the House Republicans' backpedaling far overshadowed the president's compromises, GOP consultant John Feehery said Republican lawmakers are likely to come back to Washington in January even more motivated to take on the president.
"This is a temporary victory," Feehery said. "We're going to go back to the fight once again in a month and a half. This is one battle, not the whole war."
Obama's willingness to stand firm could help rally support among Democrats who have complained that the president too often seems to give in too much.
Obama's hard line at the end of the payroll tax cut talks sent an important message both to his supporters and Republicans, Democratic strategist Karen Finney said. She said both have misinterpreted Obama's prior compromises as a sign of weakness.
"In this instance it was certainly critical that the president not give any more ground," Finney said. "He showed that he does have a point at which he won't go farther."
The economy has been showing signs of coming around, too, which is vital to Obama's chances for a second term. But this is another area in which today's optimism can turn troubling at any time, with outside forces such as Europe's economic woes threatening to dampen the American recovery.
Each year, partisan debate and unfinished business have forced the president to delay departure for his cherished Christmas vacation in Hawaii. This December's stalemate threatened to derail the trip entirely, given that Obama himself pledged to stay in Washington until a deal to extend the cuts was reached.
Obama's original Dec. 17 departure date came and went.
It was only Friday, after the House and Senate finalized the deal, that the White House announced Obama's departure for later in the day.
The president has no public events planned during what is expected to be about a 10-day vacation. He typically spends his days in Hawaii playing golf or going to the beach with his family, though he makes occasional outings for dinner with friends.
The White House says the president's focus will be on spending time with his family. But there will be a small team of advisers traveling with Obama to brief him daily on domestic and international events ? and to help him get ready for the work, and the battles, that wait in January.
From left, Jake Finkbonner in kindergarten in 2005, Jake one day after he contracted flesh-eating bacteria, and Jake on his sixth birthday just eight days after the accident.
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By James Eng, msnbc.com
Jake Finkbonner is bouncing about, teasing his sisters and playing basketball again. That is a miracle ? not only to him and his family but also to the Pope Benedict XVI.
The 11-year-old Ferndale, Wash., boy?s stunning recovery from the flesh-eating bacteria that chewed up his face and nearly killed him in 2006 has been officially deemed by the Vatican as a miracle attributable to Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century American Indian woman who converted to Catholicism at a young age.
The pope on Monday signed a decree authenticating the miracle, clearing the way for Tekakwitha to be canonized as America?s first indigenous saint.
?There is no doubt in me or my husband?s mind that a miracle definitely took place,? Jake?s mother, Elsa Finkbonner, told msnbc.com on Tuesday. ?There were far too many things that could have and should have gone wrong with his illness. The doctors went through every avenue they could to save his life and he survived. It?s a miracle that all of the other things that could have gone wrong, didn?t.?
Fateful day Jake's face-off with death started at age 5 on Feb. 11, 2006, when he fell and bumped his mouth against the base of a portable basketball hoop while playing basketball for the Boys & Girls Club. Lurking on the surface of that base was Strep A bacteria, which causes a tissue-destroying disease known as necrotizing fasciitis, a very rare condition commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria.
Within a couple of days Jake found himself in Children?s Hospital in Seattle, fighting for his life as the bacteria gnawed away incessantly at his head, neck and chest.
?They had taken him apart. There was nothing to see of Jake?s face except his nose and chin. Everything else on his head was completely covered in bandages,? Elsa Finkbonner recalled.
jakefinkbonner.com
Jake Finkbonner two months later with skin grafts.
Doctors told Elsa and her husband, Don Finkbonner, who works at a BP refinery in Ferndale, that the prognosis was grim.
?They opened up Jake and said, ?If you are praying people, you need to pray. You need to get your family here because we are trying to save his life,?? Elsa said.
A priest and family friend, Fr. Tim Sauer, was called in to administer what he thought would be last rites.
?When I was called to the hospital it was basically to help the family prepare to say goodbye and let go. His probability of survival at that point was very slender,? Sauer told mnsbc.com.
The Finkbonners are devout Catholics and Don Finkbonner is also a Lummi Indian. At the urging of Sauer, they began praying for the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha to intercede on Jake?s behalf. Friends, neighbors, community members and strangers joined them.
After numerous surgeries to remove his damaged flesh, Jake suddenly and unexpectedly took a turn for the better on the ninth day of his hospitalization, Sauer recalls. That was the same day that a relic of Tekakwitha was brought to the hospital from the national office of the Tekakwitha Conference, a Catholic Native American religious organization, in Great Falls, Mont.
jakefinkbonner.com
Jake Finkbonner with some of his buddies in 2007. From left, Rick, Jason, Jake and Ben.
The relic was placed on a pillow next to Jake?s head. ?On that day his vital signs began to make an unaccountable improvement,? Sauer says.
Vatican investigators would later interview hospital officials about Jake?s case, and the doctors said ?they did not have any clear medical explanation for why his condition turned around on that day,? Sauer says.
About nine weeks after he was admitted to Children?s, Jake was cleared to go home.
Vatican investigates After Jake?s recovery, Sauer sent a letter to the Seattle archbishop detailing the possible miracle.
The Vatican in Rome eventually sent a panel of investigators ? including a doctor and a church lawyer ? to Ferndale and Seattle to examine the claims. Community members were asked if they indeed did pray for the intercession of Tekakwitha. Doctors who attended to Jake were also interviewed.
The findings were forwarded to the Congregation for Causes of Saints, a committee of cardinals and bishops in Rome who review all the testimony that leads to the canonization of saints and presents the case to the pope.
On Monday, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI formally recognized the miracle attributed to Tekakwitha ? the last step on her way to canonization.
Tekakwitha, known as ?the Lily of the Mohawks,? was born in 1656 in upstate New York to a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin mother. A smallpox epidemic killed both her parents and left her with partial blindness and a disfigured face. She converted to Catholicism after meeting several priests. Ostracized from her tribal community, Tekakwitha devoted herself to a life of deep prayer. She died in 1680 at age 24.? According to the Catholic Church, witnesses said that within minutes of her death, the scars from smallpox completely vanished and her once-disfigured face suddenly shone with radiant beauty.
Pope John Paul II beatified Tekakwitha in 1980 ? the first Native American to be declared ?blessed? ? a step below sainthood. Usually, proof of two miracles must be attributed to someone who becomes a saint -- one before beatification, one after. But Pope John Paul II waived the first miracle requirement in order to beatify Tekakwitha in 1980, according to the Albany Times Union.
It?s not known yet when and where Tekakwitha?s canonization ceremony will be held. Canonizations are usually done in Rome but there have been cases where it has taken place elsewhere, Sauer said.
Whatever the case, Jake?s family will be invited and will attend. ?Wherever it will be, we?ll be on our way,? Elsa Finkbonner says. Sauer notes that it?s not mere coincidence the news comes on the week before Christmas. ?It?s a statement of faith that God continues to work miracles in people?s lives today and do it through simple, ordinary people like Kateri Tekakwitha and Jake Finkbonner.?
Back on the court As for Jake, ?he?s doing fantastic,? his mother says. ?He?s an excellent student, a typical, happy 11-year-old-boy who plays video games and punches his?sister in the head and makes her cry.? He?s also playing basketball again on an AAU league.
Elsa Finkbonner
?He said, ?I?m not afraid of that infection. I beat it the first time and I can beat it again,?? Elsa said.
As for the nonbelievers, Elsa is quick to explain that attributing Jake?s miracle survival to a future saint is in no way a discredit to the doctors who treated him.
?We know Jake would not be here if those doctors were not so fabulous,? she says. But she also notes that the doctors themselves told the Vatican interviewers they don?t know how to account for the boy?s turn of fortune.
?They stated they did everything humanly possible and that the death rate for this disease is very high. They had also made comments as to they don?t know why he survived. They, too, have stated that, yeah, it is a miracle that he has survived.?
For more on Jake's story, visit his website, jakefinkbonner.com.
UNITED NATIONS ? The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the U.N. peacekeeping force along the Israeli-Syrian border, warning that events in the region could impact its operations.
The 15-member council renewed the mandate of the more than 1,000-strong force for six months until June 30.
The U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, known as UNDOF, was established in 1974, following the 1973 Yom Kippur war, to monitor the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, and Syria wants the land returned in exchange for peace.
The council resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Russia, doesn't directly mention Syria's ongoing crackdown on demonstrators demanding an end to President Bashar Assad's regime. But it notes that "evolving conditions in the region could have an impact on the functioning of the force."
The resolution also expresses "grave concern" at the serious events in UNDOF's area of operations on May 15 and June 5 when Syrian demonstrators crossed into Israel and "put the long-held ceasefire in jeopardy." The incidents marked the first serious border violations in decades.
On the May 15 anniversary of Israel's birth in 1948, hundreds of Palestinians and their supporters poured across the Syrian frontier and staged riots, drawing Israeli accusations that Damascus, and its ally Iran, orchestrated the unrest to shift attention from the uprising back home. The June 5 clashes, in which Israeli forces reportedly killed 20 people and wounded scores more, marked the anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Mideast war.
In a recent report to the Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said UNDOF fortified its positions after these events "to ensure that the force has the operational capability to mitigate risks in the future." He added without elaborating that UNDOF has also done contingency planning "for various scenarios relating to the operational environment."
The Security Council echoed the secretary-general in noting "with concern that the situation in the Middle East is tense and is likely to remain so, unless and until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached."
Ban urged all parties to resume negotiations as soon as possible on a comprehensive Mideast peace agreement, which would involve Israel, the Palestinians, Syria, Lebanon and the broader Arab world.
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By Sean FallonNerd Approved? If there's one thing that I miss about living in an area that sees snowy, wintry weather, it's making snowmen. I mean, it just doesn't feel right to make a snowman out of dirt while wearing shorts.
Well, we know that Snooki has been both naughty and nice this year! Jersey Shore's favorite guidette finished up her Christmas list yesterday and tweeted her only request from Saint Nick -- "All I want for Christmas is big knockers like @JENNIWOWW. Thanks Santa."
COMMENTARY | Nine years and $1 trillion later, we now find out Iraqi security forces are incapable of defending their own borders. This is ominous news for the U.S. military, which spent nearly a decade training the Iraqis.
They number more than 700,000, but Associated Press reported the Iraqi security forces are more trained for inner city and terrorist network combat than they are for protecting their own borders. That's not a good sign right now considering there are fewer than 7,000 American forces remaining in Iraq. The withdrawal will be completed before month end, leaving the Iraqis to protect themselves ? for a change.
Iraq doesn't really have that many external concerns at the moment. Iran is always a threat, but I suspect it is sufficiently distracted by the Israeli threat to worry about invading Iraq at the moment. Saudi Arabia isn't an aggressor, so that's a nonthreat as well.
Iraqi military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari said defending air space will take until 2020, citing limited training, insufficient personnel and inadequate aircraft. All of those will take time and money to establish -- something Iraq needs to pay for on its own.
With Americans leaving en masse, Iraq will still be able to rely upon the expertise of a 16,000-man strong embassy detachment, including several hundred Marines. It might need to rely on their neighbors for additional military training, although it's hard to believe that after nine years of instruction it will still need more intense training.
CNN reports several hundred U.S. soldiers will remain in Iraq to facilitate arms sales and tie up loose ends. That has to be a disappointment for the Pentagon, who undoubtedly hoped for a more permanent base in the Middle East.
Regardless of Iraq's ability to protect itself, the American soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines that served there can stand proud for a job well done. Those who gave the ultimate sacrifice are patriots not only of this country, but of Iraq as well. It now rests with the Iraqis to defend Iraq.
If you picked up The Poisoner?s Handbook (amazon.com) looking for a fool-proof recipe, I hope you have read the book through and realized at the end that such a thing does not exist: you?ll get busted. If they could figure it all out back in 1930s, can you imagine how much easier they can figure out a case of poisoning today, with modern sensitive techniques? And if you have read the book through, I hope you found it as fascinating as I did. Perhaps you should use your fascination with poisons to do good instead, perhaps become a forensic toxicologist?
Deborah Blum (blog, Twitter) has done it again ? written a fast-paced page-turner, full of action and intrigue, and with TONS of science in it. It reads like a detective novel. Oh, wait, it is a detective novel. Who said that an author has to invent a fictional detective, an Arsene Lupin or Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes or the Three Investigators? There existed in history real people just like them, including Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, the heroes of The Poisoner?s Handbook.
Charles Norris was the first Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, or at least the first one who was actually qualified for that position which, before him, was a political appointment not requiring any expertise. Norris served in this role from 1918. to 1935. and revolutionized both the position and the science of forensic medicine. Alexander Gettler was one of his first appointees, who served as New York City?s chief toxicologist until 1959.
The two of them used their prominent position to set the new high standards for the profession of a public medical examiner, and also set the new high standards for the scientific research in forensic pathology, including forensic toxicology ? the study of the way poisons kill and how to detect it. They affected rules and legislation with their work, they sent clever murderers to the electric chair, and exonerated the innocents who were headed that way due to mistakes of the non-science-based courtroom battles. And in order to do that, they needed to do a lot of their own research during many years of long days and nights in the lab performing meticulous and often gruesome studies of the effects of various substances on animals, people, living and dead tissues and coming up with ever more sensitive and clever methods for detecting as small quantities of the poison as was technically possible at the time.
In the author?s note at the end of the book, Deborah Blum notes that there were many other forensic scientists before, during and after the Norris-Gettner era, and many of them got mentioned in the book or are cited in the EndNotes (which I discovered only once I finished the book ? I hate the way publishers do this these days!). But it is also true that Norris and Gettner were the leaders ? they used their prominent position and political clout, and their meticulous research defined the high standards for the nascent discipline. In a way, the central importance and prominence of these two men worked well for the book ? here we have two interesting characters to like and follow instead of a whole plethora of unfleshed names. And as each chapter focuses on one poisonous substance and one or two notorious cases of its use, it is just like following Holmes and Watson through a series of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?s stories ? the two characters are the connecting thread, and they evolve throughout their lives and throughout the book, case by case.
Apart from being a history of forensic toxicology, the book has several other themes that keep recurring in each chapter, as they chronologically unfold. The book is also a history of 1920/30s New York City, and a history of technology and engineering. Carbon monoxide poisoning? That was the beginning of the car craze. Gas? Everyone cooked and heated with it at the time. Some other poisons were easily found in many over-the-counter products in stores and pharmacies.
Having just read On The Grid, I was also attuned to the discussions of infrastructure of NYC in the early 20th century. How did people transport themselves? Air pollution? Gas? Clean water? Wastewater? All sources of potentially toxic chemicals. How efficient was garbage collection? Not much?.thus there were many rats. And rats needed to be controlled. And for that, there was plenty of rat poison to be bought. And rat poison can kill a human as well ? inadvertently, as a method for suicide, or as a murder weapon. It is kinda fun to see some of the same infrastructure issues, like garbage disposal and pest extermination in N.Y.City, addressed from different angles in different books ? this one, On The Grid, as well as Rats, another fascinating science book that covers New York City engineering, infrastructure and politics of the time. All the threads tie in together?.
Another topic addressed in each chapter was Prohibition. One can certainly die of a huge overdose of ethyl alcohol normally found in drinks, but at the time when producing and selling drinks was illegal, people still drank, perhaps even more. And what did they drink? Whatever they could find on the black market ? home-made concoctions brewed by unsavory types more interested in profit than the safety of their product. Instead of ethyl, those drinks were mostly made of methyl (wood) alcohol which is much more dangerous in much smaller doses. Prohibition saw a large increase in drinking-related deaths, a fact often loudly pronounced by Norris, leading to the eventual end of Prohibition. Can we apply that thinking to the War On Drugs now?
And the story of Prohibition has another element to it ? the importance of regulation. An unregulated substance is potentially dangerous. By solving a number of poisoning cases, and by doing their research on the toxicity of then easily available substances, Norris and Gettner have managed to initiate regulation of a number of toxins, or even their removal from the market altogether. Some substances that were found in everything, even touted as health potions (even radioactive substances!!!) were discovered by forensic toxicologists to be deadly, and were subsequently banned or rigorously controlled. Today we have entire federal agencies dealing with regulation of dangerous chemicals, but in the early 20th century, it was the time of laissez-faire murder, suicide, suffering and death.
Finally, after I finished this fascinating book, I realized it gave me something more: an anchor, or a scaffolding, or a context, for every story about poisons I see now. Now every blog post on Deborah?s blog makes more sense ? I can fit it into a body of knowledge and understanding I would not have if I have not read the book. This really goes hand in hand with the recent discussions of #futureofcontext in journalism ? see The Future Of Context for starters. The idea is that news stories do not provide enough context for readers who tune into a new topic for the first time. A story that is an update on an ongoing story is not comprehensible without some context, which the news story cannot provide. So now various media organizations are experimenting with ways to provide context for people who are just tuning in. The perfect source of context for a topic is a book, especially now that every book appears to have its own website with links and news and a blog and a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. The book provides context, and all these other things provide updates.
For example, reading Bonobo Handshake may not provide much more context for me about animal behavior and cognition since I already have that context, but it certainly now makes it easier for me to understand the news stories regarding conservation of great apes. And without that book I would never have sufficient background in the recent history of Congo to understand and appreciate this comment thread. ?On The Grid? gives me context for all news regarding infrastructure. Explaining Research is a great recent example of a book that is a great start on the topic, but which constantly reminds the reader that this field is in flux and that the book?s website contains frequent updates and additional resources. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks provides fantastic context for the discussions of medical ethics and its evolution in the USA in the past several decades, which I riffed off a little bit in my latest interview.
What reading The Poisoner?s Handbook did for me is to give me enough knowledge and understanding on the topic that I can really appreciate it. I now get excited about news stories regarding poisons because I feel I understand them better. While reading Deborah Blum?s blog was interesting before, now it is more than interesting ? it is exciting and I can?t wait for a new post to show up. I did not know how much I did not know. Now that I do, I want to know more. I am hungry for more knowledge, and more news, and more stories about toxins and poisons and how various strange and not so strange substances affect our bodies ? where they come from, how they get in, how they hijack or disrupt our normal biochemical processes, how they kill us, and how do we figure that all out in the laboratory or in the basement of the mortuary. I hope you will feel the same once you finish reading this book. You will do that now, OK?
Ed Helms' Andy Bernard and Louis C.K.'s Louie also make MTV News' list, which will be unveiled all week. By MTV News staff
Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle in "Castle" Photo: ABC
As 2011 draws to a close, the MTV News team has been looking back on our favorite moments of the year in music and movies — and now, it's time to turn our attention to another obsession of ours: television.
The year brought us countless memorable TV turns from not just your favorite stars, but even some more obscure personalities you may not have heard about. To recognize those achievements, we're happy to present MTV News' Top 50 TV Characters of 2011!
Our list kicks off with a healthy mix of adventurous animated characters, impossibly hilarious comedians, reality stars worth their weight in laughs and gasps, and smug (but heroic) leading men.
50. Finn ("Adventure Time") At 26, I'm probably too old to be watching cartoons, but I can't help but get transfixed and regress to an 8-year-old whenever Cartoon Network's amazing series "Adventure Time" is on. Set 1,000 years from now in the Land of Ooo, "Adventure Time" follows Finn the Human (possibly the last of us) and his pal Jake the Dog. While Jake is his own ball of awesome and the Land of Ooo has a whole host of great characters, it's Finn who comes in at #50 on our list. A 13-year-old boy, Finn is on a never-ending quest to discover how awesome the world is and to protect what is righteous by kicking evil's butt. From his wholesome naiveté and endless curiosity to his never-say-die attitude and sweet skills as a warrior — not to mention his luscious blond locks and his crush on the fair (and older) Princess Bubblegum — Finn is more than deserving to be on our list. Hopefully, you'll turn back the clock and get to know him too. -Steven Roberts
49. Louie ("Louie") In "Louie," comedian Louis C.K. takes a page out of Larry David's "Curb" playbook insofar as he plays a hyper-pathetic version of himself. But whereas Larry seems to be asking for it half the time, Louie is placed in the most painfully awkward situations as if by magic. Whether it's sidestepping a charging homeless man who's swiftly decapitated, sucking up to Dane Cook for Lady Gaga tickets or sheepishly hitting on everyone from a teen cheerleader to Joan Rivers, you still root for the guy. -Kara Klenk
48. Boston Rob ("Survivor") "Survivor" fans (yes, we do exist) waited a long time to see someone play the perfect game, and after 22 seasons, it finally happened. Granted, it took him a record four seasons to make it happen, but "Boston Rob" Mariano finally earned his "Survivor" crown during this year's aptly titled "Redemption Island" season. From finding a hidden immunity idol without a single clue to commanding his tribe with all the ruthless efficiency of a mob boss, the Robfather played a flawless game of "Survivor" and delivered one of the year's most entertaining TV performances along the way. -Josh Wigler
47. Andy Bernard ("The Office") Michael Scott's shoes were destined to be hard to fill. When he left "The Office" earlier this year, it seemed like no one would be kooky enough to replace him as the head of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. Enter longtime employee Andy Bernard: Always a bit silly, he has been the perfect guy to lead the charge but also rein in the zaniness. He has just enough heart and common sense. Since his promotion, "The Office" has regained the magic it seemed to have lost. -Jocelyn Vena
46. Stefon ("Saturday Night Live") If your idea of a fun night includes going to "New York's hottest club" and partying with human fire hydrants, FUBU sleeping bags, twinks, puppets in disguise, germfs, puke people, a Teddy Ruxpin wearing mascara, black George Washington, Snoozin' Lucci and Tranderson Cooper, then Stefon (played by Bill Hader) is the tour guide for you! Weekend Update's city correspondent, Stefon Zolesky, is one shy gay club kid who makes it worth staying up to watch "Saturday Night Live." -Kara Klenk
45. NeNe Leakes ("Celebrity Apprentice," "Real Housewives of Atlanta") Nene probably wouldn't like how low she is on this list, but that's what makes her so amazing — her irony-free awareness and appreciation of her outrageousness. Whether she was clawing her way through Star Jones on "Celebrity Apprentice"; earning her independence from Greg this season on her launching pad, "Real Housewives of Atlanta"; paying cash for a car for her son (because she's "rich"); or just mining feuds with fellow Housewives, we love Lenethia Leakes for all she's become, and we brace ourselves for what's to come. -Rya Backer
44. Doctor John Watson ("Sherlock") Sometimes the sidekick, the buddy, the right-hand man is more compelling than the main guy. Not that Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock isn't a fascinating character, but his partner-in-crime-solving, Dr. John Watson, is the one we really root for. As an injured war vet newly returned to civilian life in London, Watson (played by future big-screen Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman) is as twisted and tormented as Holmes in his own way. And because he manages to tolerate — and keep up with — Sherlock's highly unconventional lifestyle and investigative methods, Dr. Watson often proves to be just as heroic as his celebrated friend. -Tami Katzoff
43. Jeff Medolla ("The Bachelorette") Most contestants on "The Bachelorette" use cheap intimidation tactics and gimmicks to gain an edge on the competition. That's not what Jeff Medolla did; he wore a mask. Insisting that he would rely on his personality instead of good looks to win Ashley's heart, Medolla masqueraded through the first few rounds before the Bachelorette sent him packing. Unfortunately, the mask didn't stop him from talking mainly about his divorce. -Kevin P. Sullivan
42. George Christopher ("Bored to Death") "MTV News has a list of the year's 50 best TV characters? I want to be on that!" Your wish is our command, George. The Edition founder, veteran marijuana smoker and occasional assistant detective stands out as one of the funniest, finest and flawed characters not just of the year, but of Ted Danson's whole career. Given his 40 years in the industry, that's quite the accomplishment. -Josh Wigler
41. Richard Castle ("Castle") There's a reason Detective Kate Beckett has the hots for crime novelist Richard Castle — many reasons, actually. How can you not fall in love with a character who's smart, witty, adventurous, charmingly geeky, chivalrous, wealthy yet generous and undeniably handsome? And Richard Castle also makes a mean mug of espresso. This is a role that's perfect for Nathan Fillion, who's been roaming the TV universe since his soap-opera days in the 1990s. Is Castle his most iconic character to date? Probably not; that would be Captain Malcolm Reynolds on "Firefly." But Fillion has inhabited Richard Castle longer than any other character he's played — Castle's stuck around because he's just so damn lovable. -Tami Katzoff
MTV will reveal the best artists, songs and movies of the year. Come to MTV News each day to see more big reveals and check out more of MTV's Best of 2011 music, TV, movies, and news coverage.
Election volunteers sit on bags containing ballots as they wait for tally sheets to be computed at the Fikin compilation center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. With voting finally wrapping up Thursday, the election is now moving into the next phase. Like the process of voting, the process of counting the ballots that were cast is plagued by massive logistical challenges. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Election volunteers sit on bags containing ballots as they wait for tally sheets to be computed at the Fikin compilation center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. With voting finally wrapping up Thursday, the election is now moving into the next phase. Like the process of voting, the process of counting the ballots that were cast is plagued by massive logistical challenges. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Election volunteers sit on bags containing ballots as they wait for tally sheets to be computed at the Fikin compilation center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. With voting finally wrapping up Thursday, the election is now moving into the next phase. Like the process of voting, the process of counting the ballots that were cast is plagued by massive logistical challenges. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A supporter of President Joseph Kabila stands at his party's headquarters in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. President Joseph Kabila is seeking a second term and his popularity has taken a nosedive in the capital, which is located in the Lingala-speaking region of the country, a language he has never learned. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
An election official sits on a bags containing ballots as she waits for tally sheets to be computed at the Fikin compilation center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. With voting finally wrapping up Thursday, the election is now moving into the next phase. Like the process of voting, the process of counting the ballots that were cast is plagued by massive logistical challenges. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Congolese voters line up to vote after presidential ballots arrived in opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi's stronghold district of Masina in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011, two days after the country went to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections. The vote is only the second since the end of Congo's last war, and the first to be organized by the government instead of the international community. The election was supposed to mark another step toward peace, but if the results are not accepted by the population, especially the country's fractured opposition, analysts fear it could drag Congo back into conflict. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) ? Congo's president, seeking a second term in a nation reeling from poverty and pummeled by war, was leading Saturday in early results, but his opponents insisted he step aside and accused him of trying to engineer "carnage."
President Joseph Kabila had 50.3 percent of the vote in early results from an election marred by technical problems and accusations of favoritism. Analysts had predicted he would likely win because the opposition candidates are splitting the vote.
In a show of unity, the 10 opposition parties held a press conference and accused Kabila of attempting to engineer a situation like Kenya, Zimbabwe or the Ivory Coast, all countries where rulers used the army to try to silence dissent and cling to power after losing at the polls.
"I think that Joseph Kabila could go down in history ... if he were to say, 'I'm a good sport and I lost,'" said opposition candidate Vital Kamerhe, a former speaker of Parliament. "He is preparing a carnage."
International observers noted irregularities including possible instances of fraud, but most said the shortcomings seemed to be due to technical glitches rather than a systematic attempt to rig the vote.
Due to bad weather, planes carrying ballots did not take off in time to reach the remote interior of this gigantic nation, which stretches over a territory as large as Western Europe.
Monday's vote had to be extended for three days in order to give porters carrying ballots on their heads, on bicycles, in canoes and in wheelbarrows to reach the distant corners of Congo.
Election commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda released province by province tallies Saturday he said amounted to 33 percent of all voting bureaus, showing that Kabila was ahead with 3.27 million of the 6.48 million votes counted so far. Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi was trailing with 2.23 million votes, or 34.4 percent.
The gap between them is sure to close when results from Kinshasa are released, where poll workers in the four warehouses processing votes were visibly overwhelmed.
Sacks of ballots were being brought in on the backs of poll workers; there were so many they were being piled in the parking lot outside. Some had split open, and ballots had fallen into the mud or the cement floor of the warehouse, where they were being trampled by election workers.
As of Friday, less than 5 percent of the ballots in one of the four warehouses had been processed, said a poll worker who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The election official complained they were not being brought food or even water, and several of the poll workers were asleep, splayed out across tables with bags of ballots piled up around them.
The results released from Kinshasa represent only 3.33 percent of the capital's precincts, said Mulunda. In the small sample that was released, Tshisekedi had so far received roughly twice as many votes as Kabila, nearly 43,000 compared to the 23,000 cast for the incumbent. Over 3 million voters are registered in Kinshasa, so it's possible that Tshisekedi will be able to catch up once the capital's tallies are in.
Still, the opposition has clearly been hurt by its inability to unite behind a single candidate. In the results released so far, nearly a million votes had been cast for the nine opposition candidates besides the 78-year-old Tshisekedi. That's roughly equal to the gap now separating Tshisekedi from Kabila.
The opposition leaders said they are seeking a group of "African sages," to act as mediators in order to tell Kabila to step aside.
"We know who lost. We know who won," said Kamerhe. "We are asking the sages of Africa ... to go tell their counterpart, change is not the end of the world. You can come back in 10 years, 15 years. But leave the nation of Congo in peace. Because it's not worth burning Congo for one person," he said.
Tshisekedi's supporters on Saturday attacked the car of a team of foreign correspondents, accusing the international community of propping up Kabila in order to help him win re-election. Hotels were emptying out on Saturday as expatriates left the country ahead of what is expected to be a violent week.
(This version CORRECTS Deletes repetition of word 'giant.' Corrects age of Tshisekedi to 78 instead of 79. His birthday is next week.)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2010, file photo, New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes reacts after hitting a double during the first game of a baseball doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field in New York. A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that Reyes and the Miami Marlins have agreed to a $106 million, six-year contract. The deal includes a club option for a seventh season that, if exercised, would make it worth $120 million. The person spoke Sunday Dec. 4, 2011 on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2010, file photo, New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes reacts after hitting a double during the first game of a baseball doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field in New York. A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that Reyes and the Miami Marlins have agreed to a $106 million, six-year contract. The deal includes a club option for a seventh season that, if exercised, would make it worth $120 million. The person spoke Sunday Dec. 4, 2011 on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
DALLAS (AP) ? All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes and the Miami Marlins provided quite a warmup for the winter meetings.
A day before the annual swap session officially began, the NL batting champion and the Marlins reached agreement on a $106 million, six-year deal, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Sunday night.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the free-agent deal had not yet been announced.
The 28-year-old Reyes had spent his entire career with the New York Mets. But the Marlins courted him hard, even though they already had All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Reyes will join another key free-agent acquisition, All-Star closer Heath Bell, when the Marlins move into their new ballpark next year.
Reyes, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder were the top free agents available going into the weekend, all with a chance of finding a landing spot for the future. Gil Hodges, Ron Santo and Minnie Minoso could lock up a legacy forever this week.
Baseball's four-day gathering starts in earnest Monday, and speculation about more moves was rampant.
Will the New York Yankees work out a swap for Cubs pitcher Matt Garza? Will some bullpen add A's All-Star closer Andrew Bailey? Will C.J. Wilson or Mark Buehrle strike riches?
A couple of trades have already been made since Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. Huge swaps, not yet.
Going into the weekend, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson had a theory on why there had been a lack of movement.
"It may have something to do with the top free agents not having moved, Pujols and Fielder and Jose Reyes," Alderson said then. "It may just be the tension ? not the tension, but the dynamic between clubs and free agents. The free agents would like to think that a certain market exists. And the clubs, at this point, are holding out some hope that that market doesn't exist."
"But it can all change in three days in Dallas," he said.
As Alderson's team discovered, it can happen even faster than that.
Surely, there were other general managers itching to get busy. Six teams have hired new GMs, and Houston will become the seventh.
A big name who will be available, if any team wants to take the risk: Manny Ramirez.
Major League Baseball announced Sunday the All-Star slugger had applied to be reinstated from the voluntary retired list and his drug suspension had been cut from 100 games to 50. MLB and the players' union agreed to trim the penalty because he sat out most of last season, when he played a week for Tampa Bay. He turns 40 in May and has 555 career home runs.
Detroit manager Jim Leyland was among the early arrivals Sunday at the 1,606-room Anatole, a familiar baseball site. The hotel is hosting the meetings for the sixth time ? inside its walls in 2000, more than a half-billion dollars was spent in a hurry as Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Mike Hampton each got nine-figure contracts.
Last year's meetings got off to a rousing start, too, when free-agent outfielder Jayson Werth and the Washington Nationals reached a $126 million, seven-year deal. The agreement came on a Sunday, a day before the official opening. In fact, workmen were still assembling the podium when the Nationals and agent Scott Boras walked into the press room to make the announcement.
Also in town early this year were former Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals president Stan Kasten, and Chicago White Sox special assistant Dennis Gilbert, both part of groups lining up to bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Kasten is aligned with former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson and investor Mark Walter in a group called Guggenheim Baseball Management. Gilbert, a former agent, is aligned with former talk show host Larry King and Jason Reese of Imperial Capital.
Earlier Sunday, representatives from MLB and the umpires' union met, and replay was a prominent subject. Baseball is still figuring out when and how to expand the system, with fair-or-foul calls and trapped balls likely to be reviewed next season. Also under discussion is how to pick umpires for extra wild-card playoff games that could occur as early as next year.
On Monday morning, history is at stake. The Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee will reveal whether it has elected any new members.
Hodges, Santo, Luis Tiant and Jim Kaat are on the 10-person Golden Era ballot covering 1947-72. The 16-member voting panel talked about the candidates Sunday and turned in the secret ballots. The announcement is set for 11 a.m. EST.
Minoso, Ken Boyer, Tony Oliva, Ron Santo, Charlie Finley and Buzzie Bavasi also are under consideration. It takes 75 percent for election, and those picked will be inducted into Cooperstown next July.
At next year's meetings in Nashville, Tenn., retired managers Tony La Russa, Joe Torre and Bobby Cox could gain election when the Expansion Era from 1973 on is considered.
WASHINGTON ? Michael Eric Dyson parses Jay-Z's lyrics as if analyzing fine literature. The rapper's riffs on luxury cars and tailored clothes and boasts of being the "Mike Jordan of recording" may make for catchy rhymes, but to Dyson, they also reflect incisive social commentary.
Dyson, a professor, author, radio host and television personality, has offered at Georgetown University this semester a popular ? if unusual ? class dedicated to Jay-Z and his career. The course, "Sociology of Hip-Hop: Jay-Z," may seem an unlikely offering at a Jesuit, majority-white school that counts former President Bill Clinton among its alumni. But Dyson insists that his class confronts topics present in any sociology course: racial and gender identity, sexuality, capitalism and economic inequality.
"It just happens to have an interesting object of engagement in Jay-Z ? and what better way to meet people where they are?" Dyson said. "It's like Jesus talking to the woman at the well. You ask for a drink of water, then you get into some theological discussions."
Classes centered on pop culture superstars like Bruce Springsteen have sprouted on college campuses in recent years; Dyson himself says he's previously taught classes on Tupac Shakur and Marvin Gaye at the University of Pennsylvania. He says Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is a worthy subject because of his diversity of business interests ? a clothing entrepreneur, he's also a part owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets (soon to move to his native New York borough of Brooklyn) ? as well as his immense cross-cultural appeal and "lyrical prowess" in articulating contemporary black culture and his place in it.
"I think he's an icon of American excellence," Dyson said.
Though hardly as rigorous as organic chemistry, the course does have midterm and final examinations and required readings, including from Jay-Z's book, "Decoded." Classes ? the final one is Wednesday ? focus more on African-American culture and business than on the particulars of the rapper's biography, which include millions in record sales, Grammy Awards, a marriage to Beyonce with a baby on the way and tours with Kanye West and Eminem.
One recent lecture centered on how popular black artists reflect their culture and race to the public at large, with Dyson name-dropping LL Cool J, Diahann Carroll and Bill Cosby. The professor and one student went back and forth on whether the rapper's lyrical depictions of his extravagant lifestyle ? "Used to rock a throwback, balling on the corner/Now I rock a Teller suit, looking like an owner" is one of many examples ? amounted to bragging and rubbing his taste for fine living in the faces of his listeners.
The student took the position that Jay-Z appears overly boastful, but Dyson countered that the rapper, who grew up in a Brooklyn housing project but has since become a multimillionaire, has never lost his ability to relate to the struggles of everyday people and has continued giving voice to their concerns. Though Jay-Z raps about Saint-Tropez and expensive cigars, he also talks about being nurtured by Brooklyn. And in one song, "99 Problems," he attacks racial profiling with a stark depiction of a racially motivated traffic stop: "Son, do you know why I'm stopping you for?" the officer asks. Jay-Z replies: "`Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low."
The chairman of Georgetown's sociology department, Timothy Wickham-Crowley, says he supports Dyson's course for trying to show how Jay-Z's music fits into American society, and Steve Stoute, an author and marketing executive who has done business with Jay-Z and has spoken to the class, said the course has practical value for students interested in business.
But others have concerns.
Kevin Powell, who writes about hip-hop and has run unsuccessfully for Congress in Brooklyn, said any discussion of Jay-Z should account for what Powell says are the rapper's derogatory lyrics toward women and his expressions of excessive materialism. Kris Marsh, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in the black middle class, said that while she appreciated Jay-Z's cultural significance, she was wary of structuring an entire course around him and using his narrative alone to reflect black America. Though hip-hop artists can focus a lens on urban life, she said, "sometimes these artists use poetic license" and blend fact and fiction to an audience that is often suburban and white.
"We're not sure if it's fiction or real life. It can be almost indistinguishable sometimes in hip-hop," she said.
In an opinion piece published in the student newspaper, The Hoya, junior Stephen Wu dismissed as "poppycock" Dyson's belief that Jay-Z could be compared to Homer or Shakespeare.
"It speaks volumes that we engage in the beat of Carter's pseudo-music while we scrounge to find serious academic offerings on Beethoven and Liszt. We dissect the lyrics of "Big Pimpin'," but we don't read Spenser or Sophocles closely," Wu wrote.
Danielle Bailey, a senior international business and marketing major who is taking the class, said she was a Jay-Z fan before enrolling but now has greater appreciation for his business acumen.
"I know a lot of people are upset, but I think the point of college is to think outside the box. I rarely have classes that allow me to look at things differently," she said, adding, "It's not always about Mozart and Homer."
Dyson makes no apologies, saying the course is a conduit for studying the "major themes of American life" and that hip-hop artists at their best deserve to be classified alongside literary luminaries.
Jay-Z was on tour and not available for an interview, his representative said. But Dyson, who considers himself a friend of the rapper, says Jay-Z has told him he appreciates the course. And Bailey said she heard Jay-Z give a "shout-out" to the class at a recent concert of his she attended.
"You're doing the class there," Dyson says Jay-Z told him. "I'm doing kind of the master class while I'm in concert."
___
Online:
http://www.georgetown.edu/
http:// www.michaelericdyson.com
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Eric Tucker can be reached at http://twitter.com/etuckerAP
Usually a finicky phenomenon limited to tiny, ultracold objects, entanglement has now been achieved for macroscopic diamonds at room temperature
By John Matson
?|
December 1, 2011?|
NOT SO SMALL: One of the diamond wafers used in the entanglement experiment, with a coin for scale.Image: CQT
Diamonds have long been available in pairs?say, mounted in a nice set of earrings. But physicists have now taken that pairing to a new level, linking two diamonds on the quantum level.
A group of researchers report in the December 2 issue of Science that they managed to entangle the quantum states of two diamonds separated by 15 centimeters. Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon by which two or more objects share an unseen link bridging the space between them?a hypothetical pair of entangled dice, for instance, would always land on matching numbers, even if they were rolled in different places simultaneously.
But that link is fragile, and it can be disrupted by any number of outside influences. For that reason entanglement experiments on physical systems usually take place in highly controlled laboratory setups?entangling, say, a pair of isolated atoms cooled to nearly absolute zero.
In the new study, researchers from the University of Oxford, the National Research Council of Canada and the National University of Singapore (NUS) showed that entanglement can also be achieved in macroscopic objects at room temperature. "What we have done is demonstrate that it's possible with more standard, everyday objects?if diamond can be considered an everyday object," says study co-author Ian Walmsley, an experimental physicist at Oxford. "It's possible to put them into these quantum states that you often associate with these engineered objects, if you like?these closely managed objects."
To entangle relatively large objects, Walmsley and his colleagues harnessed a collective property of diamonds: the vibrational state of their crystal lattices. By targeting a diamond with an optical pulse, the researchers can induce a vibration in the diamond, creating an excitation called a phonon?a quantum of vibrational energy. Researchers can tell when a diamond contains a phonon by checking the light of the pulse as it exits. Because the pulse has deposited a tiny bit of its energy in the crystal, one of the outbound photons is of lower energy, and hence longer wavelength, than the photons of the incoming pulse.
Walmsley and his colleagues set up an experiment that would attempt to entangle two different diamonds using phonons. They used two squares of synthetically produced diamond, each three millimeters across. A laser pulse, bisected by a beam splitter, passes through the diamonds; any photons that scatter off of the diamond to generate a phonon are funneled into a photon detector. One such photon reaching the detector signals the presence of a phonon in the diamonds.
But because of the experimental design, there is no way of knowing which diamond is vibrating. "We know that somewhere in that apparatus, there is one phonon," Walmsley says. "But we cannot tell, even in principle, whether that came from the left-hand diamond or the right-hand diamond." In quantum-mechanical terms, in fact, the phonon is not confined to either diamond. Instead the two diamonds enter an entangled state in which they share one phonon between them.
To verify the presence of entanglement, the researchers carried out a test to check that the diamonds were not acting independently. In the absence of entanglement, after all, half the laser pulses could set the left-hand diamond vibrating and the other half could act on the right-hand diamond, with no quantum correlation between the two objects. If that were the case, then the phonon would be fully confined to one diamond.
If, on the other hand, the phonon were indeed shared by the two entangled diamonds, then any detectable effect of the phonon could bear the imprint of both objects. So the researchers fired a second optical pulse into the diamonds, with the intent of de-exciting the vibration and producing a signal photon that indicates that the phonon has been removed from the system. The phonon's vibrational energy gives the optical pulse a boost, producing a photon with higher energy, or shorter wavelength, than the incoming photons and eliminating the phonon in the process.
GENEVA (Reuters) ? Syria is in a state of civil war with more than 4,000 dead and increasing numbers of soldiers taking up arms against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the top U.N. human rights official said Thursday.
"We are placing the figure at 4,000, but really the reliable information coming to us is that it is much more than that," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told a news conference.
"I have said that as soon as there were more and more defectors threatening to take up arms - I said this in August before the Security Council - there was going to be a civil war. At the moment that's how I am characterizing this," she said.
The U.N. Human Rights Council is holding an emergency session on Syria Friday following a report by an independent U.N. commission of inquiry that said Syrian forces have committed crimes against humanity including executions, torture and rape.
"I intend to add my voice to the finding of the commission of inquiry with regard to evidence pointing to the commission of crimes against humanity," said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge who will address the one-day session in Geneva.
Pillay noted that she had called in August for the Security Council to refer Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.
"In my own view, based on our own monitoring of the situation, there is need for prosecution of perpetrators at the highest level for crimes against humanity," she said on Thursday.
The Arab League put Syrian VIPs on a travel ban list on Thursday and European Union foreign ministers readied a raft of economic sanctions against Assad to press him into stopping an eight-month military crackdown on popular protests.
"I want to endorse what was said to me by one of the Arab state ambassadors who is sponsoring the special session tomorrow, and that is of course they also feel totally hopeless, they feel that the sanctions will bite because the wealth is concentrated on the family around him," Pillay said, in a reference to Assad.
"And they feel that the momentum has to be maintained. So the Council session is important, my statements are important, eventually to get to the Security Council and also to get the message to those who are holding back on drastic action by the Security Council, so they will also understand this is serious."
Russia and China, which both have oil concessions in Syria, teamed up in October to veto a Western-backed Security Council resolution condemning Assad's government for violence.
The two powers, joined by Cuba, are also trying to tone down an EU resolution being presented at the rights forum Friday that would strongly condemn Syria and call for the U.N. report on crimes against humanity to be sent to the Security Council, diplomats said.
The United States is among the official co-sponsors of the EU text.
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) ? A man who admitted online fraud and helped federal agents investigate search engine giant Google was sentenced in Rhode Island on Friday to more than five years in jail and ordered to pay $10 million.
David Whitaker, 36, pleaded guilty in 2008 to bilking small businesses and individuals out of millions of dollars through Mixitforme Inc., an online company formed in Rhode Island three years earlier and purporting to sell consumer electronics.
As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Whitaker assisted federal agents in an investigation into Google that led to a $500 million settlement by the company in August. The probe focused on advertisements for prescription drugs that were illegally imported into the United States from Canada.
"He played a significant role in that investigation," said Jim Martin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Rhode Island, without describing exactly how Whitaker was able to help prosecutors.
Whitaker was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay victims more than $10 million, including $7.8 million to various businesses and $2.2 million to a credit card processing company, Martin said.
Whitaker, originally from Bristol, Tennessee, had been charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and commercial bribery.
He was arrested in California in 2008 after being expelled from Mexico and was brought to Rhode Island, where he has been held at a detention facility.
Whitaker's attorney, George J. West, said the sentence was "appropriate, and it struck a balance," given his client's "sincere and diligent efforts to try to make amends" by participating in the Google investigation.
West said his client suffered from medical and mental health problems, and that the judge had ordered that he receive treatment. "He's struggled with these things," West said, without elaborating.
(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Johnston)
'Just chill?' Relaxing can make you fatterPublic release date: 1-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
50 percent more fat can be produced by sustained stretching, Tel Aviv University researchers say
Conventional wisdom says that exercise is a key to weight loss a no-brainer. But now, Tel Aviv University researchers are revealing that life as a couch potato, stretched out in front of the TV, can actually be "active inactivity" and cause you to pack on the pounds.
Such inactivity actually encourages the body to create new fat in fat cells, says Prof. Amit Gefen of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Along with his Ph.D. student Naama Shoham, Prof. Gefen has shown that preadipocyte cells the precursors to fat cells turn into fat cells faster and produce even more fat when subject to prolonged periods of "mechanical stretching loads" the kind of weight we put on our body tissues when we sit or lie down.
The research, which has been published in the American Journal of Physiology Cell Physiology, demonstrates another damaging effect of a modern, sedentary lifestyle, Prof. Gefen notes. "Obesity is more than just an imbalance of calories. Cells themselves are also responsive to their mechanical environment. Fat cells produce more triglycerides, and at a faster rate, when exposed to static stretching."
Stretching the fat
Prof. Gefen, who investigates chronic wounds that plague bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound patients, notes that muscle atrophy is a common side effect of prolonged inactivity. Studying MRI images of the muscle tissue of patients paralyzed by spinal cord injuries, he noticed that, over time, lines of fat cells were invading major muscles in the body. This spurred an investigation into how mechanical load the amount of force placed on a particular area occupied by cells could be encouraging fat tissue to expand.
In the lab, Prof. Gefen and his fellow researchers stimulated preadipocytes with glucose or insulin to differentiate them into fat cells. Then they placed individual cells in a cell-stretching device, attaching them to a flexible, elastic substrate. The test group of cells were stretched consistently for long periods of time, representing extended periods of sitting or lying down, while a control group of cells was not.
Tracking the cultures over time, the researchers noted the development of lipid droplets in both the test and control groups of cells. However, after just two weeks of consistent stretching, the test group developed significantly more and larger lipid droplets. By the time the cells reached maturity, the cultures that received mechanical stretching had developed fifty percent more fat than the control culture.
They were, in effect, half-again fatter.
According to Prof. Gefen, this is the first study that looks at fat cells as they develop, taking into account the impact of sustained mechanical loading on cell differentiation. "There are various ways that cells can sense mechanical loading," he explains, which helps them to measure their environment and triggers various chemical processes. "It appears that long periods of static mechanical loading and stretching, due to the weight of the body when sitting or lying, has an impact on increasing lipid production."
Counting more than calories
These findings indicate that we need to take our cells' mechanical environment into account as well as pay attention to calories consumed and burned, believes Prof. Gefen. Although there are extreme cases, such as people confined to wheelchairs or beds due to medical conditions, many of us live a too sedentary lifestyle, spending most of the day behind a desk. Even somebody with healthy diet and exercise habits will be negatively impacted by long periods of inactivity.
Next, Prof. Gefen and his fellow researchers will be investigating how long a period of time a person can sit or lie down without the mechanical load becoming a factor in fat production. But in the meantime, it certainly can't hurt to get up and take an occasional stroll, he suggests.
###
This research was done in collaboration with TAU's Ruth Gottlieb, Dr. Uri Zaretsky, and Dr. Orna Shaharabani-Yosef from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Prof. Dafna Benayahu from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University (www.aftau.org) supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
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'Just chill?' Relaxing can make you fatterPublic release date: 1-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
50 percent more fat can be produced by sustained stretching, Tel Aviv University researchers say
Conventional wisdom says that exercise is a key to weight loss a no-brainer. But now, Tel Aviv University researchers are revealing that life as a couch potato, stretched out in front of the TV, can actually be "active inactivity" and cause you to pack on the pounds.
Such inactivity actually encourages the body to create new fat in fat cells, says Prof. Amit Gefen of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Along with his Ph.D. student Naama Shoham, Prof. Gefen has shown that preadipocyte cells the precursors to fat cells turn into fat cells faster and produce even more fat when subject to prolonged periods of "mechanical stretching loads" the kind of weight we put on our body tissues when we sit or lie down.
The research, which has been published in the American Journal of Physiology Cell Physiology, demonstrates another damaging effect of a modern, sedentary lifestyle, Prof. Gefen notes. "Obesity is more than just an imbalance of calories. Cells themselves are also responsive to their mechanical environment. Fat cells produce more triglycerides, and at a faster rate, when exposed to static stretching."
Stretching the fat
Prof. Gefen, who investigates chronic wounds that plague bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound patients, notes that muscle atrophy is a common side effect of prolonged inactivity. Studying MRI images of the muscle tissue of patients paralyzed by spinal cord injuries, he noticed that, over time, lines of fat cells were invading major muscles in the body. This spurred an investigation into how mechanical load the amount of force placed on a particular area occupied by cells could be encouraging fat tissue to expand.
In the lab, Prof. Gefen and his fellow researchers stimulated preadipocytes with glucose or insulin to differentiate them into fat cells. Then they placed individual cells in a cell-stretching device, attaching them to a flexible, elastic substrate. The test group of cells were stretched consistently for long periods of time, representing extended periods of sitting or lying down, while a control group of cells was not.
Tracking the cultures over time, the researchers noted the development of lipid droplets in both the test and control groups of cells. However, after just two weeks of consistent stretching, the test group developed significantly more and larger lipid droplets. By the time the cells reached maturity, the cultures that received mechanical stretching had developed fifty percent more fat than the control culture.
They were, in effect, half-again fatter.
According to Prof. Gefen, this is the first study that looks at fat cells as they develop, taking into account the impact of sustained mechanical loading on cell differentiation. "There are various ways that cells can sense mechanical loading," he explains, which helps them to measure their environment and triggers various chemical processes. "It appears that long periods of static mechanical loading and stretching, due to the weight of the body when sitting or lying, has an impact on increasing lipid production."
Counting more than calories
These findings indicate that we need to take our cells' mechanical environment into account as well as pay attention to calories consumed and burned, believes Prof. Gefen. Although there are extreme cases, such as people confined to wheelchairs or beds due to medical conditions, many of us live a too sedentary lifestyle, spending most of the day behind a desk. Even somebody with healthy diet and exercise habits will be negatively impacted by long periods of inactivity.
Next, Prof. Gefen and his fellow researchers will be investigating how long a period of time a person can sit or lie down without the mechanical load becoming a factor in fat production. But in the meantime, it certainly can't hurt to get up and take an occasional stroll, he suggests.
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This research was done in collaboration with TAU's Ruth Gottlieb, Dr. Uri Zaretsky, and Dr. Orna Shaharabani-Yosef from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Prof. Dafna Benayahu from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University (www.aftau.org) supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
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Originally posted on July 6, 2010.
If you picked up The Poisoner?s Handbook (amazon.com) looking for a fool-proof recipe, I hope you have read the book through and realized at the end that such a thing does not exist: you?ll get busted. If they could figure it all out back in 1930s, can you imagine how much easier they can figure out a case of poisoning today, with modern sensitive techniques? And if you have read the book through, I hope you found it as fascinating as I did. Perhaps you should use your fascination with poisons to do good instead, perhaps become a forensic toxicologist?
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Public release date: 1-Dec-2011
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