Key shift in brain that creates drive to overeat identified

Apr. 29, 2013 ? A team of American and Italian neuroscientists has identified a cellular change in the brain that accompanies obesity. The findings could explain the body's tendency to maintain undesirable weight levels, rather than an ideal weight, and identify possible targets for pharmacological efforts to address obesity.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition this week, identify a switch that occurs in neurons within the hypothalamus. The switch involves receptors that trigger or inhibit the release of the orexin A peptide, which stimulates the appetite, among other behaviors. In normal-weight mice, activation of this receptor decreases orexin A release. In obese mice, activation of this receptor stimulates orexin A release.

"The striking finding is that you have a massive shift of receptors from one set of nerve endings impinging on these neurons to another set," said Ken Mackie, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. "Before, activating this receptor inhibited the secretion of orexin; now it promotes it. This identifies potential targets where an intervention could influence obesity."

The work is part of a longstanding collaboration between Mackie's team at the Gill Center for Biomolecular Science at IU Bloomington and Vincenzo Di Marzo's team at the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry in Pozzuoli, Italy. Both teams study the endocannabinoid system, which is composed of receptors and signaling chemicals that occur naturally in the brain and have similarities to the active ingredients in cannabis, or marijuana. This neurochemical system is involved in a variety of physiological processes, including appetite, pain, mood, stress responses and memory.

Food consumption is controlled in part by the hypothalamus, a portion of the brain that regulates many essential behaviors. Like other important body systems, food consumption is regulated by multiple neurochemical systems, including the endocannabinoid system, representing what Mackie describes as a "balance of a very fine web of regulatory networks."

An emerging idea, Mackie said, is that this network is reset during obesity so that food consumption matches maintenance of current weight, not a person's ideal weight. Thus, an obese individual who loses weight finds it difficult to keep the weight off, as the brain signals the body to eat more in an attempt to return to the heavier weight.

Using mice, this study found that in obesity, CB1 cannabinoid receptors become enriched on the nerve terminals that normally inhibit orexin neuron activity, and the orexin neurons produce more of the endocannabinoids to activate these receptors. Activating these CB1 receptors decreases inhibition of the orexin neurons, increasing orexin A release and food consumption.

"This study identifies a mechanism for the body's ongoing tendency to return to the heavier weight," Mackie said.

The researchers conducted several experiments with mice to understand how this change takes place. They uncovered a role of leptin, a key hormone made by fat cells that influences metabolism, hunger and food consumption. Obesity causes leptin levels to be chronically high, making brain cells less sensitive to its actions, which contributes to the molecular switch that leads to the overproduction of orexin.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Indiana University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Luigia Cristino, Giuseppe Busetto, Roberta Imperatore, Ida Ferrandino, Letizia Palomba, Cristoforo Silvestri, Stefania Petrosino, Pierangelo Orlando, Marina Bentivoglio, Kenneth Mackie, and Vincenzo Di Marzo. Obesity-driven synaptic remodeling affects endocannabinoid control of orexinergic neurons. PNAS, April 29, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219485110

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/xM2F7rud-Lw/130429154214.htm

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Big Sibling's Big Influence: Some Behaviors Run In The Family

Patricia East is a developmental psychologist who began her career working at an OB-GYN clinic in California. Thursday mornings at the clinic were reserved for pregnant teens, and when East arrived the waiting room would be packed with them, chair after chair of pregnant adolescents.

It was in this waiting room, East explains, that she discovered her life's work ? an accidental discovery that emerged from the small talk that staff at the clinic had with their young clients as they walked them back for checkups.

"The nurses and the doctors there would bring a teen back for her prenatal visit and they would say, 'Hey! Aren't you Maria's younger sister?' And the young woman would say, 'Yeah, I am!' And they would say to another patient, 'You know, haven't I seen you before?' And she would say, 'Yes, I was here for my older sister when she was pregnant.' "

Over and over East heard variations of this conversation, until it came to the point that when she saw a younger sibling sitting next to her sister in the waiting room an involuntary thought flashed across her mind.

"It's almost as if you're watching the younger sister get pregnant," she says.

And so East decided to do a study. She wanted to figure out if having an older sister who got pregnant as a teen really did affect the likelihood that the younger sibling would find herself in the same position. She identified a large number of sister pairs ? all pairs came from roughly the same socioeconomic and life circumstances. And by comparing them, she found that a pregnancy in an older sister did often seem to change the trajectory of the younger sibling.

"The younger sisters are five times more likely to get pregnant as other young women who have an older sister who hasn't been pregnant."

In the aftermath of the bombings in Boston many of us have been thinking a lot about siblings ? particularly how older siblings can shape the lives of younger siblings. But until pretty recently, the role siblings play in determining the trajectory of each other's lives hasn't been a particularly hot topic in psychological research. Psychologists, very understandably, have focused on the influences they see as more important ? such as parents and peers and genetics.

But in the past decade that's been changing a bit. Psychologists interested in how siblings affect one another are taking a new look at all kinds of behavior, particularly anti-social behavior.

Richard Rende, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University, is one of the people doing this work, and he says that some of the new findings really challenge the idea that parents are the most important influence on children.

Consider, for example, the research that looks at how much a parent who smokes influences his child to smoke, versus the degree to which an older sibling who smokes influences a younger sibling.

"Both can have an effect, but in a lot of studies they've found that the effect 'older sibling smoking' has is greater than the effect that 'parental smoking' has," Rende says.

It's the opposite of what many people assumed, he says. Older siblings are more influential.

Rende says you can see this influence of big brothers and sisters in all kinds of families ? rich, middle class and poor. But their power is really magnified in the particular subset of families he studies: families that are psychologically and economically unstable. In those families the power of the older sibling is much greater because parents aren't around as much, and the siblings tend to spend a lot of time together.

As part of his research, Rende gives sibling pairs electronic devices like cellphones that, every half hour, prompt both siblings to report what they're doing. Through such reports you can actually see each one ghosting the other's behavior, he says.

"When one sibling is smoking ? in real time [we see] they're having a cigarette, and the other sibling is very likely to report smoking at the same time."

In fact, when one sibling is a smoker, the other is 25 percent more likely to smoke. With drinking the risk is even higher; a person is 36 percent more likely to drink if a sibling does.

Rende, by the way, believes that the reverse is also true. Good behavior in older siblings can be as contagious as bad. It just seems that ? particularly when families are struggling ? the fate of the kids is more tethered to their siblings than we originally thought. For good and, apparently, for bad.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/29/179266284/Big-Siblings-Big-Influence-Some-Behaviors-Run-In-The-Family?ft=1&f=1007

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Aging Out: Kids With Autism 'Fall Off Cliff' After Graduation

For four years, Janet Mino has worked with her young men, preparing them to graduate from JFK High School, a place that caters to those with special needs in the heart of one of the poorest cities in America, Newark, N.J.

All six of them have the severest form of autism, struggling to communicate, but Mino's high-energy style evokes a smile, a hug and real progress.

Much of the work that she does may ultimately unravel because after these young men earn their diplomas, their future options are bleak -- lingering at home, being placed in an institution or living on the streets.

New Jersey has the highest rate of autism in the nation and some of the best intervention resources. But after graduation, programs are scarce.

"They are adults longer than they are children," Mino, 46, told ABCNews.com. "We need to give them a light. It's up to us and up to me."

"There's nothing -- nothing out there," she said.

Mino, a whirling dervish of enthusiasm and warmth, is the subject of a documentary, "Best Kept Secret," that recently premiered at the Independent Film Festival in Boston and will be shown at this weekend's Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey.

Mino's efforts to find resources for her students are Herculean in a school that is touted as the state's "best kept secret." Her efforts are exacerbated by poverty and lack of funding, but her classroom is a happy place as she finds ways to reinforce that they are capable and worthy.

"I look at it as a challenge -- if I can get them as independent as possible," she said. "They are so wonderful. They make you laugh. ... They just think differently.

Flu During Pregnancy Linked to Autism: Study Watch Video

"Some people think that because they are nonverbal and can't communicate, they can't understand, but that's not true. From my experience, they read us better than we read them."

Director Samantha Buck ["21 Below"] and producer Danielle DiGiacomo, who is manager of video distribution at the Orchid, follow Mino and her students in their hardscrabble lives for 18 months leading up to their 2012 graduation.

"Autism is part of who we are as a society," said Buck, 30. "Across the country, young adults who turn 21 are pushed out of the school system. They often end up with nowhere to go; they simply disappear from productive society. This is what educators call 'falling off the cliff.'"

This year alone, 50,000 children with autism will turn 18, according to Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who has sponsored federal legislation to provide funding for adult programs. Within two years of high school, less than half of those with autism spectrum disorder have paying jobs, the lowest rate of any disabled group.

"Meanwhile, adults with ASD run the highest risk of total social disengagement," Menendez told ABCNews.com in an email. "By the time they are in their early 20s, they risk losing the daily living skills they developed as children through supportive services."

"Their families still need support," he said. "The challenges they face will not disappear but only grow greater, and ultimately we will all pay the price for that."

Today, an estimated 1 in 50 U.S. school-age children are diagnosed with some form of autism, a number that has been on the rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the filmmakers said they did not want to focus on the "causes of autism and why."

"Here are these human beings and they live in our world and are part of our society," said Buck. "How do we integrate this huge population into our society?"

While on the festival circuit, Buck noticed the industry's interest in films about autism.

"I pretty much cried at every single one," said Buck. "They were predominantly centered around young Caucasian families with money."

The filmmakers looked for an inner-city school that would tell a different story. With the help of Menendez, they found JFK High School, where they followed Mino's students.

But funding is just part of the problem. Many of her students come from dysfunctional families that are challenged by poverty and lack of support.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/kids-autism-fall-off-cliff-turn-21/story?id=19068035

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Don't blame Canada: Former ambassador to Iran on Argo, America, and nukes

Canada's envoy to Tehran at the time of the Islamic revolution and the US hostage crisis, says Argo disappointed him and that he's worried about where Iran's nuclear program might lead.

By Ariel Zirulnick,?Staff writer / April 26, 2013

Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor and his wife Pat, pose for photographers at the premiere of the film Argo in Washington, Oct. 2012. Taylor, who protected Americans at great personal risk during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, has achieved some name recognition in the US since the 2012 movie 'Argo' swept theaters and the Academy Awards.

Cliff Owen/AP/File

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Former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor is neither the James Bond lookalike he hoped might portray him in the Hollywood blockbuster "Argo" nor is he quite the Austin Powers double he says might have been a more accurate choice.

Skip to next paragraph Ariel Zirulnick

Middle East Editor

Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?

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But he's achieved some name recognition in the US since the 2012 movie swept theaters and the Academy Awards, and he has plenty to say about Iran in 1979 and the country it has become since.?

Mr. Taylor was Canada's ambassador to Tehran in 1979 when the US embassy there was stormed and dozens of Americans were taken hostage. Six Americans escaped and spent months holed up with him, waiting for their extraction.

Those months are the premise of the Ben Affleck-directed movie, which Taylor mildly says took ?a bit of poetic license.?

Speaking before a gathering of the New England Canada Business Council in Boston yesterday, Taylor, who now lives in New York, joked that after friends saw "Argo" at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, they called him and said, ?I thought Canada was involved.?

According to Taylor, he replied, ?That?s odd, So did I.?

As the tense months of being trapped inside the embassy wore on, Taylor tried to reassure the Americans that they would be home by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then the Super Bowl. He warned the US that ?they?re going to wonder if Washington forgot about them.?

Taylor revealed little about the actual operation that got the six men and women safely back to the United States. But, he joked, at least the movie showed that he ?opened the front door of the embassy with great dexterity.?

Iran then

When Taylor arrived in Tehran in 1977, ?the country was booming.?

There were rumors that Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi ? more commonly referred to as simply ?the Shah? ? was preparing to buy Pan American Airways. It did not seem like the ?stalwart of the West? was going anywhere.

For all the blame heaped on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for not predicting the Islamic Revolution, almost nobody saw it coming, he said. Afterward, the Ayatollah?s secular advisers told Taylor that even they didn?t expect the Shah?s government to fall like it did. ?

Revolutionary fervor did not sweep up the whole country the way it seemed to be portrayed in "Argo." And Taylor said a great disappointment for him was the way the movie portrayed Iranians, some of whom became ?marvelous friends? with him during his posting in Tehran.

?The movie was too heavy handed,? he said. ?It gave no idea that there is another side to the Iranian character. Everybody isn?t on the street. Everybody isn?t part of the revolution.?

Too many sanctions, too little talking

He is on board with the growing chorus of voices in Washington urging the Obama administration to ease up on its sanctions-heavy approach to negotiations with Iran although he acknowledges that Iran needs to give ground too.

Sometimes sanctions work, he says, citing South Africa during the apartheid era, but ?sometimes they strengthen resolve.?

When asked his opinion of whether Tehran has nuclear weapon ambitions, he cautions that ?Iran is an opaque society,? and there?s too little information to guess.

?I think they?ve got some military use in the back of their mind,? he says. ?But they don?t want to destroy themselves ? Maybe they are working at capabilities, but not necessarily producing [a nuclear weapon].?

That the military option for halting Iran?s nuclear development is ?on the table? worries Taylor, who points to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as cautionary for anyone considering going to war with Iran.

"A bombing mission would be a fatal error. It would solve nothing,? he says. ?It would postpone [Iran?s nuclear program] for two to three years,? but nothing more, because Iran?s nuclear facilities are too dispersed.

He says, ?I wake up every morning hoping [the military option] is still on the table? ? instead of being used.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/hjWdZ6cfd7U/Don-t-blame-Canada-Former-ambassador-to-Iran-on-Argo-America-and-nukes

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WH: Anthony Foxx in line for transportation post

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2012 file photo, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday, April 28, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2012 file photo, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday, April 28, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace outgoing Secretary Ray LaHood.

Foxx is Obama's first black nominee among the new Cabinet members appointed for the second term. The president faced criticism early in his second term for a lack of diversity among his nominees.

The official insisted on anonymity to avoid public discussion of the pick before the official announcement.

The official noted that Foxx has led efforts to improve his city's transit infrastructure to expand economic opportunity for businesses and workers. During Foxx's term as mayor, Charlotte has broken ground on several important transportation projects, including the Charlotte Streetcar Project to bring modern electric tram service to the city as well as a third parallel runway at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The city has also moved to extend the LYNX light rail system to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the official said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would take over a department that has been at the center of Washington's debate over the impact of the so-called sequester cuts. The automatic cuts resulted in furloughs for air traffic controllers that helped cause delays at many airports.

Congress reached a deal last week to provide the Transportation Department flexibility that allowed it to end the air traffic controller furloughs.

Foxx, an attorney who has worked in several positions with the federal government, was first elected mayor in 2009. He raised his national profile last year when Charlotte played host to the Democratic Party's convention.

He also served as a member of the Charlotte City Council.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-28-Obama-Foxx/id-4cb31e8242cf4fe0a8e0736d0b372e29

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Adafruit explains how to build your very own HAL 9000 for less than $100

It may be 2013, but 2001 will forever hold a special place in our hearts, in no small part due to the that lovable, red-eyed supercomputer known as HAL 9000. ThinkGeek has given us a couple ways to purchase HAL for our homes, but for folks who'd rather build their own, Adafruit's got you covered. User Phillip Burgess has posted the full instructions on how to craft one, provided you've got access to a laser cutter and the requisite soldering, spray painting and sanding chops to complete the task. Adafruit's version will have you making HAL out of an oversized arcade button and a sheet of acrylic -- and if you want your HAL to talk (and really, why wouldn't you), you'll need to build a voice box from an Arduino Uno board and an Adafruit Wave Shield. Total cost: just shy of $100. Check out the video of it in action after the break, and head on down to the source link for the full how-to. Oh, and feel free to whistle Sprach Zarathustra while you work.

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Everything You Need to Grill Everything But Steak

Your grill may be an altar for red meat but why partake only in steak when there are so many other delicious animals and vegetables to try? Here?s what you?ll need to roast birds and bivalves alongside your bevy of beef.

Poultry

Beer Can Chicken is both delicious and easily prepared, even if you?re already three sheets to the wind. Take a medium (4 pound) roaster chicken, remove the giblets, and rinse out the cavity and exterior. Pat it dry with a paper towel and rub it down, inside and out, with salt, pepper, and your favorite dry rub. Crack open a fresh can of beer, drink half of it. Now drink the other half. Open a new brew, drink half of this one, then set it on a firm, level surface and jam the open end of the bird carcass over the open end of the beer can, like Martha Stewart eating a turkey. At this point, you can either attempt to set the bird on the grill using its legs and the bottom end of the can like a tripod or you can use something like the Bayou Classic ChickCAN Rack. This stainless steel rack fits between the can and the bird, securely holding both atop a 7-inch diameter base.

It doesn?t take much to make delectable barbecue chicken either. Marinate the various pieces?thighs, wings, drumsticks, and breasts overnight (a 1/2 cup of soy sauce with an Italian seasoning packet works well, for example) then toss them on the grill for a half hour until the outside is crispy brown and the inside is no longer pink. Slather with barbecue sauce and you?re done. If the drippings keep causing flare ups or the skin starts to stick to the grill, try using a wing and drumstick rack. This device hangs the various chicken bits over a shallow drip tray, catching the grease before it hits the flame.

Seafood

Nothing beats grilling a trout you?ve freshly caught yourself. Wrapping the cleaned fish in aluminum foil with herbs and lemon is a popular method but doesn't really create that smokey flavor you?d expect from barbecue. Instead of foil, marinate the fish in a mix of olive oil, basil, parsely, rosemary, garlic (2 cloves) and basil overnight, then spread the meat over the flame using a rack. This lets the meat absorb the BBQ essence without burning the delicate skin to the grills.

Grilled oysters are freakin? delicious?especially with a little butter, herbs, and pepper?grilling oysters, on the other hand, is a pain in the ass. The little bastards will go sliding out of their shells at a moment?s notice. To keep your bivalves in line, don?t just stack them willy-nilly on the grill, set them securely in an oyster rack for the five minutes they take to cook.

Veggies

The great thing about jalapenos is that you can stuff just about anything into them?sausage, cheese, bay shrimp, smaller peppers?and it will still come out delicious. And with a jalapeno rack, you'll be able to stuff them more easily and lose less filling to the fire once they get to the grill. Jalapeno racks hold the pepper upright, which leaves you with both hands for filling and prevents the filling from extruding from the open end while it grills.

Your backyard barbecue may be a mecca of meat but without a little greenery no meal is complete. Coarsely chop some carrots, zucchini, white and red onions, cauliflower, and mushrooms, then put them in a ziplock bag with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Shake the bag until the veggies are coated then dump them into a grilling basket like this one from Weber. The basket keeps the delicate veggies concentrated in one easy place, making it easier to reposition them on the grill as they cook or as you add meat.

Chimera

Who says you have to eat just one kind of meat at a time? This is America, dammit, the land of opportunity, nation of choices. And if you choose to eat all of the meats all of the times, then by gawd, you shall. First, there?s the unlimited skewer technique: Marinate your desired cubes of meat (chicken, steak, lamb, prawns, etc) and vegetables, then load them onto a flexible cable skewer and drape it over a grill. With a sufficiently long cable, you?ll be able to effectively loop the kebabs, pulling cooked pieces off one end as new bits are added to the other.

Second, you can always just entomb your favored flavors of meat in a ground beef casket using a burger press. This device allows you to create stuffed burgers (they?re cheesier on the inside). Beyond the joys of a burger that bleeds cheddar, anything listed above can be used (in any combination) as well. Let your stomach?s imagination run wild.

[Images - Top: Lev Kropotov / Shutterstock, Chicken: amenic181 / Shutterstock, Veggies: Igor Dutina / Shutterstock, Seafood: Kostenko Maxim / Shutterstock, Chimera: Christopher "Pacula" Corkum]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-grill-everything-but-steak-484753430

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Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390

Although tablets and ultrabooks garner most of the attention in the PC world, few classes of systems have as much flair as gaming rigs, where hulking, ostentatious designs typically outweigh concerns for portability and affordability. Even mainstream vendors are getting in on the action, and the Windows 8-equipped Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390 ($1,949.99 list) is no exception. Its beefy chassis packs a slew of cool features, like a Blu-ray burner and an exceptional 1080p display that supports 3D technology. Unfortunately, its woefully short battery life holds it back from midrange gaming laptop glory. It's an option worth exploring, but better choices are out there.

Design and Features
The Qosmio X875-Q7390's hulking plastic chassis weighs 7.60 pounds and measures 1.7 by 16.5 by 10.7 inches (HWD), so carrying it around?even without the two-pound power brick?nearly constitutes a legitimate form of exercise. Hernia-related fears aside, the Qosmio X875-Q7390's lid and palm rest are appealingly decked out in "black widow styling," which is Toshiba-speak for textured aluminum that's almost entirely black save for red accents around the keyboard, touchpad, and speaker grilles.

The Qosmio X875-Q7390's generously-sized tiled keyboard features an integrated alphanumeric keypad and, despite its slightly shallow key travel, offers a comfortable typing experience. Its red backlighting makes for a cool visual effect that gives the Qosmio X875-Q7390 the edginess that goes hand in hand with gaming laptops. The touchpad, meanwhile, provides excellent tactile feedback while fluidly supporting Windows 8 gesture controls.

The Qosmio X875-Q7390 biggest draw is arguably its 17.3-inch 1,920 by 1,080 display, which brims with rich color reproduction and deep, inky blacks. Naturally, video playback looks fantastic, especially when you toss a Blu-ray disc into the Qosmio X875-Q7390's Blu-ray burner. What truly sets the Qosmio X875-Q7390's display apart from other systems in its class, however, is its 3D display. To enable this feature, simply use the Nvidia control panel to establish an IR connection between the display and the included pair of Nvidia 3D glasses.The end result will impress even the most jaded of gamers. I myself had a healthy amount of skepticism about this feature until I tested it out with a Jurassic Park 3D on Blu-ray. Within moments, dinosaurs and humans alike jumped off the screen with such eye-popping detail that calling it "dazzling" is an understatement.

Audio is pumped out at fairly loud volumes through the Qosmio X875-Q7390's dual Harmon Kardon speakers beneath the display. Although "Idioteque" by Radiohead didn't quite rattle the windows, Thom Yorke's ominous warbling was nonetheless loud enough to fill up a medium-sized room.

Port selection on the Qosmio X875-Q7390 is also quite good. Alongside the Blu-ray burner, the right side houses dual USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet port. On the left side you'll find audio jacks, another pair of USB 3.0 ports, a memory card reader, and VGA and HDMI-out ports.

Although the Qosmio X875-Q7390's four USB 3.0 ports offer plenty of space for external hard drives, that may be entirely unnecessary thanks to the system's generous offering of dual 5,400rpm 1TB hard drives. As was the case with the Samsung Series 7 Gamer, though, gamers must first confront a formidable pile of preloaded software upon initial setup. These programs range from useful (Microsoft Office Trial) to needless bloatware (WildTangent Games; scattered desktop links), with a mountain of proprietary software (Toshiba BookPlace, Disc Creator, and the like) and trial versions (30-day trials of Norton software, including Internet Security, Online Backup, and Anti-Theft Online Banking). Toshiba covers the Qosmio X875-Q7390 with a one-year warranty. That's fairly stingy for a gaming rig, especially when compared against the competition. By contrast, the current Editors' Choice for midrange gaming laptops, the Asus G75VW-DH72, is covered with a two-year warranty.

Performance
The Qosmio X875-Q7390's combined 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-3630QM processor and 3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M GPU, along with 16GB RAM, made for an admirable?though not class-leading?performer in our benchmark tests. Although its PCMark 7 score of 4,547 points fell slightly short of the class-leading Alienware M17x R4 (4,598 points), it nonetheless topped the rest of its class, including the Asus G75VW-DS71 (2,893 points). Its Cinebench R11.5 score of 6.34 points, meanwhile, was outflanked by both the Asus G75VW-DS71 (6.44 points) as well as the Alienware M17x R4 (6.86 points). The Qosmio X875-Q7390's admirable performance extended to its multimedia tests, where it displayed an exceptional capacity for content creation. It completed our Handbrake video encoding test in 37 seconds, only one second short of the Asus G75VW-DS71 (36 seconds). Moreover, the 3 minutes 40 seconds it took for the Qosmio X875-Q7390 to cycle through the dozen or so filters in our Photoshop CS6 test was on par with the Asus G75VW-DS71 (3:32).

As far as high-end gaming goes, the Qosmio X875-Q7390 was able to cross the 30 frames per second (fps) playability barrier in medium-quality settings but its frame rates lagged when the settings were maxed out. In Aliens Vs. Predator (54fps in medium quality;18fps in high quality settings) was eclipsed by the Asus G75VW-DS71 (55fps and 18fps, respectively). Likewise, the Qosmio X875-Q7390's performance in Heaven (42ps in medium quality; 16fps in high quality settings) once again fell short of the Asus G75VW-DS71 (70fps and 28fps, respectively). The Qosmio X875-Q7390's performance in 3DMark11 (4,905 points in Entry-level mode; 921 points in Extreme mode) couldn't quite match that of the Samsung Series 7 Gamer (5,572 points and 1,134 points, respectively) or the Alienware M17x R4 (9,023 points and 2,086 points, respectively).

It's no secret that gaming laptops aren't renowned for stellar battery life. Even with these lowered expectations, the Qosmio X875-Q7390's removable 47Whr battery yielded dismal results, lasting a meager 51 minutes in our battery rundown test. At this point, it doesn't even matter that the Asus G75VW-DH72 (3:02) lasted much longer than the Qosmio X875-Q7390. What does matter, however, is that the Qosmio X875-Q7390 couldn't even last for a single hour without being plugged in. Just to be sure, I re-tested the Qosmio X875-Q7390. Once again, it clocked in at under an hour. The fact that I was able to run a battery test on the Qosmio X875-Q7390 twice before my lunch break confirmed the worst: Unless users stay near a power outlet or spring for a bunch of extra batteries, they won't be going anywhere with the Qosmio X875-Q7390 any time soon.

There's plenty to like about the Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390, like its cool design, abundant storage capacity, and, of course, its superlative 3D display. At the end of the day, however, performance is the paramount consideration when it comes to gaming laptops. That, along with battery life, ultimately conspire against the Qosmio X875-Q7390 and prevent it from snagging the Asus G75VW-DH72's title as Editors' Choice for midrange gaming laptops. Still, its content creation abilities and incredible display alone make it worth checking out, and we nonetheless recommend doing so.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/PSnNykAtbX0/0,2817,2418288,00.asp

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Medication errors also happen at home: study

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While doctors and nurses can make mistakes with medications in hospitals, a new study says drug errors often happen at home and can lead to harm.

Researchers observed 72 medication mistakes at homes where 92 children with cancer were being cared for between November 2007 and April 2011.

"I was surprised by how much we found," said Dr. Kathleen Walsh, the study's lead author from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine in Worcester.

Previous research by Walsh and her colleagues found that children getting their cancer medicines at home are vulnerable to mistakes. Specifically, they found between 10 percent and 40 percent of oral chemotherapy treatments are missed.

For the new study, Walsh and her colleagues had nurses visit the homes of 92 children with cancer while their parents or guardians were giving them their medicine.

The children were from three medical centers around the U.S. and - on average - about seven years old. Each child took about 10 medications at home. In most cases, mothers were the people responsible for the treatments.

Overall, the researchers reviewed information on almost 1,000 medications and witnessed children getting their medicines 242 times.

There were 72 medication errors recorded, including four that injured the children and 40 that had the potential to cause injury.

The four errors that caused injuries were from children not receiving the proper doses of their medications, which resulted in severe upset stomachs, pain and agitation.

And while 40 were listed as only having the potential to cause injury, some of those were also quite serious.

For example, Walsh told Reuters Health that one family had been sprinkling chemotherapy on their child's food instead of giving the child the pill. Unfortunately, that made the treatment ineffective.

A group of doctors who reviewed the errors found better communication between families and physicians could have prevented over a third of the mistakes.

Walsh also told Reuters Health their new study probably underestimates the actual rate of medication errors among children with cancer, because they only recorded what they saw.

"The way we gathered the data limited the number of errors we were going to find to some extent," she said.

PREVENTION RESEARCH NEEDED

Dr. Christopher Landrigan, who wrote a commentary accompanying the new study, told Reuters Health it's not clear "what will be the best approach outside of the hospital."

Landrigan, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said that improving communication between doctors, pharmacists and families, and making the information on medication easier to understand, could help.

Last year, a study found that the information sheets included in many medications are too complex for the average person to understand (see Reuters Health article of December 14, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/11Sl0YQ ).

"Clearly we are in need of proactive prevention strategies to reduce the error rate," said Dr. John Maris, director of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Center for Childhood Cancer Research.

Maris, who was not involved with the new research, said one possible strategy is for parents to receive text messages about correct drug doses. He also said the new study is a reminder that doctors shouldn't overprescribe medicine.

"There are a number of medications we use every day that can be dangerous if we don't use them properly," said Walsh.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/11wIJNN and http://bit.ly/12IS4UD, Pediatrics, online April 29, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/medication-errors-happen-home-study-194530664.html

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The integrated prom was a whopping success (Americablog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302378509?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Coming to Grips With Marriage: "This is It??" | Relationships in ...

Many individuals and couples come into therapy with a similar relationship complaint: being married isn?t what they expected. More specifically, the reality of marriage is not aligned with their fantasies of marriage.

It?s nice to have fantasies. They give us goals, the drive to achieve, hope, desire, and more. However, when we expect that reality is going to match our fantasies, disappointment results when the picture we painted in our minds doesn?t come true. If our fantasies are unrealistic, even good, positively-functioning relationships can be experienced as bad, negative, and disappointing.

Jennifer and Todd (identities protected here) had been dating for three years and lived together for a year and a half before they got engaged. They were engaged for another year, and then were married. Two years after they were married, they entered couples therapy. Jennifer?s primary complaint was that marriage just wasn?t what she?d expected, and that nothing special happened after they got married. They went on with their daily lives, after getting married, and since they already were living together, nothing was really different.

Todd?s main complaint was that Jennifer didn?t do enough to make his life easier, as he imagined marriage would bring. Todd was more traditional in the idea that marriage meant that his wife would take care of household work, cooking, etc. Todd was becoming more and more frustrated as Jennifer ?nagged? him to help more, especially since Jennifer and Todd both work full time. In Todd?s fantasy, he was the one who would work while his wife would maintain the home.

It quickly became clear that an issue clouding their relationship was the fantasies they both had surrounding marriage. Regardless of their positively functioning relationship prior to being married, they?d both subconsciously expected that the marriage ceremony would create and carry a magical aura of happiness around them that would stay with them through their lives. There would be no negativity, and it would be exactly as they painted it in their minds.

These fantasies set the environment for disillusionment and disappointment. When negativity inevitably enters the picture, which may not have been part of the fantasy, the sense is that the relationship is failing. Something must be ?wrong? if the marriage isn?t meeting the fantasy at all times.

The reality is, relationships will have negativity at times. There may be mundane moments, and there may be times where you don?t want to be around each other at all. Part of any relationship (whether or not married) is learning to accept that things won?t always be exciting, positive, and romantic.

What keeps a relationship healthy is understanding that a relationship isn?t always positive, so the when negativity, or lack of positivity is present, that it doesn?t necessarily mean the wheels are coming off your relationship. In fact, it is very common for people to futilely jump from relationship to relationship (and marriage to marriage) trying to find the unrealistic fantasy whenever the reality starts to sway from it.

Now, this doesn?t mean that all relationships are good, or that a bad relationship automatically means you have an unrealistic fantasy. If you?re experiencing negativity more than positivity in your relationship, or if you?re overall unfulfilled in your relationship as a whole, then it?s something to look into, either with a therapist for yourself, or a couples therapist (it?s often helpful to be in both ? one for you and one for your relationship together). It?s important to be able to discern between a relationship that?s actually bad for you, versus a fantasy that?s bad for your relationship.

Through their work in couples therapy, Jennifer and Todd began to understand the internal issues that were plaguing their relationship (stemming from childhood and their relationship role models, and other influences). They also realized that their current relationship functions on a decent level, but both were disillusioned by the fact that the fantasy didn?t cone true when they got married.

Learning to except relationships as they are, and making relationships function according to our own efforts? isn?t as easy as it sounds. It?s ego-bruising to realize that we create fantasies in our lives that keep us from realistic happiness (not only in relationships). Some fantasies can come true, if they?re realistic, while others aren?t realistic (such as having a relationship free of all negativity and being exactly as fantasized).

Jennifer and Todd remain in couples therapy, now more accepting of each other and the positives?and negatives that surface at different times in their relationship. They are now working to create a realistic relationship dream that they can achieve together.

????Last reviewed: 29 Apr 2013

APA Reference
Anonymous. (2013). Coming to Grips With Marriage: ?This is It???. Psych Central. Retrieved on April 29, 2013, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships-balance/2013/04/29/coming-to-grips-with-marriage-this-is-it/

?

Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships-balance/2013/04/29/coming-to-grips-with-marriage-this-is-it/

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US-INDUSTRY Summary

Iraq watchdog suspends 10 TV channels for inciting violence

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has suspended the licenses of satellite news network Al Jazeera and nine other channels, accusing them of inciting violence through their coverage of recent sectarian clashes. The Communication and Media Commission (CMC) regulator criticized their reporting of violence triggered by a security forces raid on a Sunni Muslim protest camp in Hawija on Tuesday.

Time Warner Cable shifts away from "triple play"

(Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc, the second-largest U.S. cable provider, will no longer aggressively push "triple play" packages of Internet, video and voice on its customers, moving away from the long-held industry practice of bundling the services together. Time Warner Cable is the first cable company in the U.S. to acknowledge that customers would prefer to only pay for television and Internet, as demand for landline service has been declining steadily with many people only using cellphones, even at home.

NY Times to roll out new products in search of revenue

(Reuters) - New York Times Co reported a decline in quarterly revenue on weak advertising sales but said it would try to grow out of the slump by expanding its suite of digital products. The 11.2 percent drop in advertising revenue in the first quarter underscores the pressure that the New York Times faces to increase its subscription revenue, especially for its digital products, and find new veins of income.

Hyundai Motor suicide ad draws ire for South Korean company

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co has been forced to apologize for an advertisement that sought to promote the zero carbon emissions of one of its cars by featuring a man failing to commit suicide using a hose attached to the exhaust. The ad debacle is the latest to hit the carmaker, the world's fifth largest by sales when combined with its Kia Motors affiliate, after it exaggerated fuel performance figures in the United States, and announced a large-scale vehicle recall this month.

Watchdogs to focus on new media in Nielsen/Arbitron deal: experts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. antitrust regulators are likely to scrutinize new forms of advertising as they mull the planned purchase by television rating giant Nielsen Holdings NV of Arbitron Inc, which dominates radio ratings, legal experts say. The Federal Trade Commission, in assessing the $1.26 billion merger to ensure it complies with antitrust law, will likely focus on the emerging frontier - cross-platform data designed to tell advertisers in a holistic way what customers watch on television, listen to on the radio, look at online and see on their mobile devices.

Analysis: Truth and consequences - a dilemma for Twitter and its users

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Does Twitter have a credibility problem? For many, a single fake tweet from the Associated Press account that briefly roiled financial markets on Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones industrial average down about 145 points, vividly reaffirmed the fearsome, near-instantaneous power of the 140-character message.

Netflix has good hand with "House of Cards", shares soar 24 percent

(Reuters) - Netflix Inc impressed investors with solid subscriber growth and better-than-expected profits in the first quarter, sending shares of the video subscription service soaring 24 percent higher in after-hours trade. A big push into original shows, a strategy aimed at hooking new customers with content they can't get anywhere else, seems to be working, with its February release of the series "House of Cards", a drama starring Kevin Spacey, generating plenty of buzz.

Nexstar, Mission Broadcasting to buy 19 TV stations for $270 million

(Reuters) - Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Mission Broadcasting Inc said they would buy privately held Communications Corporation of America and White Knight Broadcasting for $270 million. The deal involves 19 television stations in Louisiana and Texas, out of which Nexstar will acquire 11 stations that belong to Communications Corporation of America while Mission Broadcasting will acquire the rest.

USA Today founder Al Neuharth dies at 89

(Reuters) - Al Neuharth, who founded USA Today more than 30 years ago and saw the newspaper become one of the largest in the United States, died on Friday at age 89, the newspaper reported. Neuharth died after sustaining injuries in a fall at his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA Today said.

Publicis to consider cash return by year end

LONDON (Reuters) - Advertising group Publicis could return cash to shareholders this year via a share buyback or special dividend by sticking to a plan of only making small acquisitions, its chief executive said. Speaking to Reuters during an investor event eight days after a trading update rattled the market, Maurice Levy said he was confident shareholders would keep faith in the French group's ability to improve as the year goes on.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-industry-summary-132452147.html

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May 4 Peachstate Wrestling Alliance event in Mount Zion, GA

May 4 Peachstate Wrestling Alliance event in Mount Zion, GA

From Brian Slack:

?

Peachstate Wrestling Alliance will be at the Mount Zion Recreation Center in Mount Zion, GA on May 4th. Advertised: Rick Michaels defends the PWA Heritage championship against Shane Noles. Simon Sermon defends the Georgia Junior championship against Zach Daniels. Ace Haven vs. Mike Jackson. Dusty MacWilliams vs. Trevor Aeon. Black Baron vs. Chris Steel. Doors open at 6:30 and bell time is at 7:30. For more information call (770)328-1162 or (770)328-2251.

Source: http://www.gwhnews.com/2013/04/may-4-peachstate-wrestling-alliance.html

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'Iron Man 3' rules world, 'Pain & Gain' takes US

This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg in a scene from "Pain and Gain." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaime Trueblood)

This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg in a scene from "Pain and Gain." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaime Trueblood)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "Iron Man 3" was the heavy-lifter at theaters with a colossal overseas debut that overshadowed a gang of mercenary bodybuilders in a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.

The Marvel Studios superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets, distributor Disney reported Sunday.

That topped the $185.1 million start for Marvel's "The Avengers," which opened in 39 markets over the same weekend last year a week ahead of its record-breaking domestic debut of $207.4 million.

"You don't know that you could ever repeat the kind of experience we had a year ago, and here the Marvel team brought together another incredible movie," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. "We've had this as a pattern for Marvel films to kind of let momentum internationally help signal to the domestic audience that the film is coming, something big is coming."

Director Michael Bay's "Pain & Gain," a true-crime tale of bodybuilders on the make, muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.

The Paramount release starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure "Oblivion" after a week in the No. 1 spot. Universal's "Oblivion" slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.

Lionsgate's all-star nuptial comedy "The Big Wedding" tanked at No. 4 with just $7.5 million. The ensemble cast includes Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon and Katherine Heigl, but the movie was almost universally trashed by critics and held little interest for audiences.

Paramount, which distributed the earlier "Iron Man" movies and still has a financial stake in the comic-book flicks after Disney bought Marvel, had a small-scale success with "Pain & Gain."

A passion project for Bay, who has made Paramount a fortune with his "Transformers" franchise, "Pain & Gain" was shot for a modest $26 million, spare change compared to the director's usual budgets.

The movie has the director taking a breather from his usual sci-fi action spectacles for a story based on a kidnapping-extortion caper carried out by bodybuilders in the 1990s. Yet "Pain & Gain" still has Bay's usual visual flair, and the reviews generally were better than what he's used to.

"With that kind of budget, to open to $20 million the first weekend is a very strong opening," said Don Harris, Paramount's head of distribution. "You see what a director really in his prime, at the top of his game, can do with a small budget, what he can make a movie look like."

"Oblivion" was down a fairly steep 53 percent from the movie's $37.1 million domestic debut the previous weekend.

Overseas, "Oblivion" took in $12.8 million to lift its international haul to $134.1 million and worldwide total to just under $200 million.

Hollywood's domestic downturn continued, with revenues totaling $90 million, off 18.5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Think Like a Man" led with $17.6 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Receipts have trailed 2012's for most of the year, with 2013 domestic ticket sales running at $2.9 billion, nearly 12 percent behind last year's.

That pattern could continue as Hollywood opens its summer season domestically this coming weekend. Despite a huge haul expected for "Iron Man 3," the film will be competing against that gigantic start over the same weekend last year for "The Avengers," the only movie to open with more than $200 million domestically.

"Iron Man 2" debuted with $128.1 million over the first weekend in May 2010. Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian has been pegging the "Iron Man 3" potential at $125 million-plus, though the mammoth international start could fire up domestic prospects even higher.

"This ups the ante in a big way for "Iron Man 3," Dergarabedian said. "It just raises the profile of the film. It raises expectations. But to expect something in the realm of $207.4 million? Well, the fact that we're even talking about it is really amazing."

Said Disney's Hollis: "I wouldn't even want to get ahead of ourselves on something like that. But to say we're encouraged by the results this weekend would be a gross understatement."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Pain & Gain," $20 million.

2. "Oblivion," $17.4 million ($12.8 million international).

3. "42," $10.7 million.

4. "The Big Wedding," $7.5 million.

5. "The Croods," $6.6 million ($13.1 million international).

6. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $3.6 million ($10.2 million international).

7. "Scary Movie 5," $3.5 million ($6.7 million international).

8. "Olympus Has Fallen," $2.8 million ($4.2 million international).

9. "The Place Beyond the Pines," $2.7 million ($1.1 million international).

10. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $2.3 million ($410,000 international).

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Iron Man 3," $195.3 million.

2. "The Croods," $13.1 million.

3. "Oblivion," $12.8 million.

4. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $10.2 million.

5. "Scary Movie 5," $6.7 million.

6. "Olympus Has Fallen," $4.2 million,

7. "Les Profs," $3.8 million.

8 (tie). "Evil Dead," $1.1 million.

8 (tie). "The Place Beyond the Pines," $1.1 million.

10. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $410,000.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-28-Box%20Office/id-f43f93ccb3784444aefe85a69f2c0ffc

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Six months after Sandy, thousands homeless in N.Y., N.J.

MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) ? The 9-year-old girl who got New Jersey's tough-guy governor to shed a tear as he comforted her after her home was destroyed is bummed because she now lives far from her best friend and has nowhere to hang her One Direction posters.

A New Jersey woman whose home was overtaken by mold still cries when she drives through the area. A New York City man whose home burned can't wait to build a new one.

Six months after Superstorm Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful, recovery. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless. Housing, business, tourism and coastal protection all remain major issues with the summer vacation ? and hurricane ? seasons almost here again.

"Some families and some lives have come back together quickly and well, and some people are up and running almost as if nothing ever happened, and for them it's been fine," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference Thursday. "Some people are still very much in the midst of recovery. You still have people in hotel rooms, you still have people doubled up, you still have people fighting with insurance companies, and for them it's been terrible and horrendous."

Lynda Fricchione's flood-damaged home in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, N.J., is gutted; the roof was fixed just last week. The family is still largely living out of cardboard boxes in an apartment. But waiting for a final decision from federal and state authorities over new flood maps that govern the price of flood insurance is tormenting her and many others.

"The largest problem is, nobody really knows how high we're going to have to elevate the house," she said. "At town hall they told us 5 feet, but then they said it might go down to 3 feet in the summer. Most of us are waiting until the final maps come out. It's wait-and-see."

But more than anything, Fricchione is optimistic, buoyed by a recent trip to New Orleans with her daughter during which they met a resident of the Lower Ninth Ward who was one of the first to move back in after Hurricane Katrina inundated the neighborhood that has become a symbol of flood damage ? and resilience.

"Talking to that man was wonderful!" Fricchione said. "He said it takes time and you just have to have hope and know it will all work out eventually."

By many measures, the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which struck Oct. 29, has been slow. From Maryland to New Hampshire, the National Hurricane Center attributes 72 deaths directly to Sandy and 87 others indirectly from causes such as hypothermia due to power outages, carbon monoxide poisoning and accidents during cleanup efforts, for a total of 159.

The roller coaster that plunged off a pier in Seaside Heights, N.J., is still in the ocean, although demolition plans are finally moving forward. Scores of homes that were destroyed in nearby Mantoloking still look as they did the day after the storm ? piles of rubble and kindling, with the occasional bathroom fixture or personal possession visible among the detritus.

Throughout the region, many businesses are still shuttered, and an already-tight rental market has become even more so because of the destruction of thousands of units and the crush of displaced storm victims looking to rent the ones that survived.

Homeowners are tortured by uncertainty over ever-changing rules on how high they'll need to rebuild their homes to protect against the next storm; insurance companies have not paid out all that many homeowners expected; and municipalities are borrowing tens of millions of dollars to keep the lights on, the fire trucks running and the police stations staffed, waiting for reimbursement from the federal government for storm expenditures they had to fund out of pocket.

And yet, by other measures, remarkable progress has been made. Boardwalks, the tourism lifeblood of the region, are springing back to life. A handful of homes are going up, and the whine of power saws and the thwack of hammers is everywhere in hard-hit beach towns as contractors fix what can be saved and bulldozers knock down what can't.

Volunteers in Highlands, N.J., are rebuilding the home of Bromlyn Link, the single mother of a 17-year-old boy, both of whom are members of the town's first aid squad and who spent 12 to 14 hours a day helping friends and neighbors forced to live in shelters for weeks after the storm.

Mantoloking, which was cut in half by the storm and saw all 521 of its homes damaged or destroyed, is creeping back to life. The post office recently, reopened, and the first of 50 demolitions will start next week, which is also when Mayor George Nebel will join the 40 other residents who have been able to move back home.

Beaches that were washed away are coming back, due both to nature and bulldozers, and real estate agents say demand for this strangest of upcoming summers appears good, particularly in the large portions of the Jersey shore that were relatively unscathed by Sandy. Beach badges, required for access to most of New Jersey's shoreline, are selling at a near-record pace in Belmar, N.J.

And while towns fortify beaches and dunes and put up sea walls, rock barriers or even sand-filled fabric tubes to guard against future storms, state governments are readying hundreds of millions of dollars to buy out homeowners in flood-prone areas who want to leave.

"We've made a lot of progress in six months; I know we still have a long way to go," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at a recent town hall meeting. "By Memorial Day, every boardwalk that was destroyed at the Jersey shore will be rebuilt. Businesses are reopening. Rentals are picking up again, roads are back open."

Christie estimated 39,000 New Jersey families remain displaced, down from 161,000 the day after the storm. In New York, more than 250 families are still living in hotel rooms across New York paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, while others are still shacking up with relatives or living in temporary rentals.

Everyone simply wants to make their homes livable again, said Ray Marten, whose home in the Belle Harbor section of New York City's Queens borough burned down when a fire swept along his street during the storm, and whose family of six is renting a nearby house.

"If you go up my block now, all the houses have been demolished and removed," Marten said. "They're pretty much just holes in the ground. Sand pits."

Separation is the new reality for the Gatti family, a clan of several generations that shared the same three-story home near the ocean on Staten Island until Sandy destroyed it. The flood-soaked place was demolished months ago, and they're waiting for a government buyout. Now the family is scattered across New Jersey, New York and Texas.

"The whole family's separated," said Marge Gatti, the matriarch. "And it's terrible, you know?"

Her son, Anthony, recently drove a U-Haul packed with his meager belongings to Killeen, Texas, where he will start a new life as a car mechanic.

"Mentally, I'm not all that well in the head," said Anthony Gatti, who slept in a tent in front of the ruined home for weeks after the storm. "I know I've got to get some kind of help. I can't seem to shake it out of my life."

Ginjer Doherty was 9 years old when Sandy bubbled up through the floor of her Middletown, N.J., home and ripped the front wall off it. She and her parents went to a firehouse a few days later to see Christie talk about what was being done to recover.

The governor comforted Ginjer, telling her she would be all right, that the grown-ups were on top of things and would take care of her. Ginjer recently had an essay published in Time magazine recalling the encounter and describing her life after Sandy.

"My house was all messed up, and people told us we couldn't stay there anymore," she wrote. "The governor told me not to worry ? that my parents would take care of everything ? and he looked very serious and sad, and he cried.

"Things are going O.K. for my family," she wrote. "We want to go back home, but rebuilding is going to take a long time. But we have a place to live for now. I even rescued a cat that was homeless after Sandy; I wanted him to be safe and loved like I feel."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ginjer, now 10, said she is sad that her home won't be ready until October; her mom says it has been gutted and needs to be elevated.

Of the delay, Ginjer said simply, "It stinks."

Sandy also damaged interior areas, particularly those along rivers in northern New Jersey. Cities including Hoboken and Jersey City were inundated, and officials continue try seek exemptions for skyscrapers and large apartments from federal rules requiring flood-prone buildings to be elevated. George Stauble, whose Little Ferry house took in four feet of water, said FEMA payouts caused some rifts between neighbors.

"Everybody's house had pretty much the same amount of damage, but people are getting different amounts of money, and that's caused some problems," he said, adding some homeowners received as little as $8,000, while others received as much as $29,000.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Meghan Barr and Deepti Hajela in New York and David Porter in Little Ferry, N.J.

___

Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/6-months-sandy-thousands-homeless-ny-nj-154507020.html

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Fatal stabbing of girl, 8, prompts NorCal manhunt

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Residents of a rural Northern California county were being told Sunday to keep their doors locked and report anyone considered suspicious as authorities continued the search for the killer of an 8-year-old girl.

Calaveras County deputies and law enforcement officials from nearby agencies were looking for a suspect after Leila Fowler was found stabbed in her Valley Springs home around noon Saturday.

The girl was found by her brother ? reported by local media to be 12-years-old ? after he encountered a male intruder in the home. When the intruder ran away, the boy found his sister stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.

Initially Leila was reported as being 9-years-old, but Coroner Kevin Raggio said Sunday that she would have turned 9 in June.

Authorities spent Saturday night and into Sunday conducting a door-to-door sweep of homes scattered across hilly terrain, checking storage sheds and horse stables, and even searching attics.

"It is a difficult area to search, it's rural, remote," sheriff's Capt. Jim Macedo said.

Reverse 911 calls and Nixle mass notifications alerted area residents about the incident and the search for the suspect, officials said.

"I was working on my tractor and a CHP copter kept flying over my house," area resident Roger Ballew, 35, told The Associated Press on Sunday, referring to the California Highway Patrol.

A SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night and told him to stay inside, Ballew said.

"It was nerve-wracking, I didn't sleep well," he said.

Investigators on Sunday were interviewing several people, but no suspects have been named.

"It's just terrible," area resident Paul Gschweng told Sacramento television station KCRA. "What can I say about it, it's just a tragedy."

The station reported that a neighbor told police that a man was running from the girl's home after the incident.

The suspect was seen wearing a black shirt and blue pants. Authorities considered him armed and dangerous.

Investigators were asking area residents to call authorities if they had any information, or knew of anyone who may have unexplained injuries, or may have left the area unexpectedly after the girl was killed.

Valley Springs is a community of about 2,500 people in an unincorporated area of Calaveras County, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fatal-stabbing-girl-8-prompts-norcal-manhunt-194628919.html

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