Sunday, October 27, 2013

Lou Reed, iconic punk poet, dead at 71

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 file photo, Lou Reed performs at the Lollapalooza music festival, in Chicago. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/John Smierciak, File)







FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 file photo, Lou Reed performs at the Lollapalooza music festival, in Chicago. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/John Smierciak, File)







FILE - In a March 27 1989 file photo, musician Lou Reed poses at the American Sound Studio in New York. Reed's literary agent Andrew Wylie says the legendary musician died Sunday morning, Oct. 27, 2013 in Southampton, N.Y., of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant. He was 71. (AP Photo/Wyatt Counts, File)







FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, Lou Reed takes the podium as the Velvet Underground, the group he once headed, is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Band mate John Cale is at left, and at right is Martha Morrison, accepting for late band member Sterling Morrison. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)







FILE - In a June 13, 1986 file photo, Lou Reed performs during musical number at a benefit in Chicago, for Amnesty International. Reed's literary agent Andrew Wylie says the legendary musician died Sunday morning, Oct. 27, 2013 in Southampton, N.Y., of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant. He was 71. (AP Photo/Fred Jewell, File)







FILE - In a Wednesday, Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, members of the band the Velvet Underground, from left, Maureen Tucker; Martha Morrison, attending for her late husband, Sterling Morrison; John Cale and Lou Reed pose backstage after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Joe Tabacca, File)







NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Reed was a pioneer for countless bands who didn't worry about their next hit single.

Reed, who died Sunday at age 71, radically challenged rock's founding promise of good times and public celebration. As leader of the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, he was the father of indie rock, and an ancestor of punk, New Wave and the alternative rock movements of the 1970s, '80s and beyond. He influenced generations of musicians from David Bowie and R.E.M. to Talking Heads and Sonic Youth.

"The first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years," Brian Eno, who produced albums by Roxy Music and Talking Heads among others, once said. "I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"

Reed and the Velvet Underground opened rock music to the avant-garde — to experimental theater, art, literature and film, from William Burroughs to Kurt Weill to Andy Warhol, Reed's early patron. Raised on doo-wop and Carl Perkins, Delmore Schwartz and the Beats, Reed helped shape the punk ethos of raw power, the alternative rock ethos of irony and droning music and the art-rock embrace of experimentation, whether the dual readings of Beat-influenced verse for "Murder Mystery," or, like a passage out of Burroughs' "Naked Lunch," the orgy of guns, drugs and oral sex on the Velvet Underground's 15-minute "Sister Ray."

Reed died in Southampton, N.Y., of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who added that Reed had been in frail health for months. Reed shared a home in Southampton with his wife and fellow musician, Laurie Anderson, whom he married in 2008. Tributes to Reed came Sunday from such friends and admirers as Salman Rushdie and former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale, who mourned his "school-yard buddy."

His trademarks were a monotone of surprising emotional range and power; slashing, grinding guitar; and lyrics that were complex, yet conversational, designed to make you feel as if Reed were seated next to you. Known for his cold stare and gaunt features, he was a cynic and a seeker who seemed to embody downtown Manhattan culture of the 1960s and '70s and was as essential a New York artist as Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Reed's New York was a jaded city of drag queens, drug addicts and violence, but it was also as wondrous as any Allen comedy, with so many of Reed's songs explorations of right and wrong and quests for transcendence.

He had one top 20 hit, "Walk On the Wild Side," and many other songs that became standards among his admirers, from "Heroin" and "Sweet Jane" to "Pale Blue Eyes" and "All Tomorrow's Parties." An outlaw in his early years, Reed would eventually perform at the White House, have his writing published in The New Yorker, be featured by PBS in an "American Masters" documentary and win a Grammy in 1999 for Best Long Form Music Video. The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 1996 and their landmark debut album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," was added to the Library of Congress' registry in 2006.

Reed called one song "Growing Up in Public" and his career was an ongoing exhibit of how any subject could be set to rock music — the death of a parent ("Standing On Ceremony), AIDS ("The Halloween Parade"), some favorite movies and plays ("Doin' the Things That We Want To"), racism ("I Want to be Black"), the electroshock therapy he received as a teen ("Kill Your Sons").

Reviewing Reed's 1989 topical album "New York," Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that "the pleasure of the lyrics is mostly tone and delivery — plus the impulse they validate, their affirmation that you can write songs about this stuff. Protesting, elegizing, carping, waxing sarcastic, forcing jokes, stating facts, garbling what he just read in the Times, free-associating to doomsday, Lou carries on a New York conversation — all that's missing is a disquisition on real estate."

He was one of rock's archetypal tough guys, but he grew up middle class — an accountant's son raised on Long Island. Reed was born to be a suburban dropout. He hated school, loved rock 'n' roll, fought with his parents and attacked them in song for forcing him to undergo electroshock therapy as a supposed "cure" for being bisexual. "Families that live out in the suburbs often make each other cry," he later wrote.

His real break began in college. At Syracuse University, he studied under Schwartz, whom Reed would call the first "great man" he ever encountered. He credited Schwartz with making him want to become a writer and to express himself in the most concrete language possible. Reed honored his mentor in the song "My House," recounting how he connected with the spirit of the late, mad poet through a Ouija board. "Blazing stood the proud and regal name Delmore," he sang.

Reed moved to New York City after college and traveled in the pop and art worlds, working as a house songwriter at the low-budget Pickwick Records and putting in late hours in downtown clubs. One of his Pickwick songs, the dance parody "The Ostrich," was considered commercial enough to record. Fellow studio musicians included Cale, a Welsh-born viola player, with whom Reed soon performed in such makeshift groups as the Warlocks and the Primitives.

They were joined by a friend of Reed's from Syracuse, guitarist-bassist Sterling Morrison; and by an acquaintance of Morrison's, drummer Maureen Tucker, who tapped out simple, hypnotic rhythms while playing standing up. They renamed themselves the Velvet Underground after a Michael Leigh book about the sexual subculture. By the mid-1960s, they were rehearsing at Warhol's "Factory," a meeting ground of art, music, orgies, drug parties and screen tests for films that ended up being projected onto the band while it performed, part of what Warhol called the "Floating Plastic Inevitable."

"Warhol was the great catalyst," Reed told BOMB magazine in 1998. "It all revolved around him. It all happened very much because of him. He was like a swirl, and these things would come into being: Lo and behold multimedia. There it was. No one really thought about it, it was just fun."

Before the Velvets, references to drugs and sex were often brief and indirect, if only to ensure a chance at radio and television play. In 1967, the year of the Velvets' first album, the Rolling Stones were pressured to sing the title of their latest single as "Let's Spend Some Time Together" instead of "Let's Spend the Night Together" when they were performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The Doors fought with Sullivan over the word "higher" from "Light My Fire."

The Velvets said everything other bands were forbidden to say and some things other bands never imagined. Reed wrote some of rock's most explicit lyrics about drugs ("Heroin," ''Waiting for My Man"), sadomasochism ("Venus in Furs") and prostitution ("There She Goes Again"). His love songs were less stories of boy-meets-girl, than ambiguous studies of the heart, like the philosophical games of "Some Kinda Love" or the weary ballad "Pale Blue Eyes," an elegy for an old girlfriend and a confession to a post-breakup fling:

___

It was good what we did yesterday

And I'd do it once again

The fact that you are married

Only proves you're my best friend

But it's truly, truly a sin

___

Away from the Factory, the Velvets and were all too ahead of their time, getting tossed out of clubs or having audience members walk out. The mainstream press, still seeking a handle on the Beatles and the Stones, was thrown entirely by the Velvet Underground. The New York Times at first couldn't find the words, calling the Velvets "Warhol's jazz band" in a January 1966 story and "a combination of rock 'n roll and Egyptian belly-dance music" just days later. The Velvets' appearance in a Warhol film, "More Milk, Yvette," only added to the dismay of Times critic Bosley Crowther.

"Also on the bill is a performance by a group of rock 'n' roll singers called the Velvet Underground," Crowther wrote. "They bang away at their electronic equipment, while random movies are thrown on the screen in back of them. When will somebody ennoble Mr. Warhol with an above-ground movie called 'For Crying Out Loud'?"

At Warhol's suggestion, they performed and recorded with the sultry, German-born Nico, a "chanteuse" who sang lead on a handful of songs from their debut album. A storm cloud over 1967's Summer of Love, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" featured a now-iconic Warhol drawing of a (peelable) banana on the cover and proved an uncanny musical extension of Warhol's blank-faced aura. The Velvets juxtaposed childlike melodies with dry, affectless vocals on "Sunday Morning" and "Femme Fatale." On "Heroin," Cale's viola screeched and jumped behind Reed's obliterating junkie's journey, with his sacred vow, "Herrrrrr-o-in, it's my wife, and it's my life," and his cry into the void, "And I guess that I just don't know."

"'Heroin' is the Velvets' masterpiece — seven minutes of excruciating spiritual extremity," wrote critic Ellen Willis. "No other work of art I know about has made the junkie's experience so horrible, so powerful, so appealing; listening to 'Heroin' I feel simultaneously impelled to somehow save this man and to reach for the needle."

Reed made just three more albums with the Velvet Underground before leaving in 1970. Cale was pushed out by Reed in 1968 (they had a long history of animosity) and was replaced by Doug Yule. Their sound turned more accessible, and the final album with Reed, "Loaded," included two upbeat musical anthems, "Rock and Roll" and "Sweet Jane," in which Reed seemed to warn Velvets fans — and himself — that "there's even some evil mothers/Well they're gonna tell you that everything is just dirt."

He lived many lives in the '70s, initially moving back home and working at his father's office, then competing with Keith Richards as the rock star most likely to die. He binged on drugs and alcohol, gained weight, lost even more and was described by critic Lester Bangs as "so transcendently emaciated he had indeed become insectival." Reed simulated shooting heroin during concerts, cursed out journalists and once slugged David Bowie when Bowie suggested he clean up his life.

"Lou Reed is the guy that gave dignity and poetry and rock 'n' roll to smack, speed, homosexuality, sadomasochism, murder, misogyny, stumblebum passivity, and suicide," wrote Bangs, a dedicated fan and fearless detractor, "and then proceeded to belie all his achievements and return to the mire by turning the whole thing into a monumental bad joke with himself as the woozily insistent Henny Youngman in the center ring, mumbling punch lines that kept losing their punch."

His albums in the '70s were alternately praised as daring experiments or mocked as embarrassing failures, whether the ambitious song suite "Berlin" or the wholly experimental "Metal Machine Music," an hour of electronic feedback. But in the 1980s, he kicked drugs and released a series of acclaimed albums, including "The Blue Mask," ''Legendary Hearts" and "New Sensations."

He played some reunion shows with the Velvet Underground and in 1990 teamed with Cale for "Drella," a spare tribute to Warhol. He continued to receive strong reviews in the 1990s and after for such albums as "Set the Twilight Reeling." And "Ecstasy" and he continued to test new ground, whether a 2002 concept album about Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven," or a 2011 collaboration with Metallica, "Lulu."

Reed fancied dictionary language like "capricious" and "harridan," but he found special magic in the word "bells," sounding from above, "up in the sky," as he sang on the Velvets' "What Goes On." A personal favorite was the title track from a 1979 album, "The Bells." Over a foggy swirl of synthesizers and horns, suggesting a haunted house on skid row, Reed improvised a fairy tale about a stage actor who leaves work late at night and takes in a chiming, urban "Milky Way."

___

It was really not so cute

to play without a parachute

As he stood upon the ledge

Looking out, he thought he saw a brook

And he hollered, 'Look, there are the bells!'

And he sang out, 'Here come the bells!

Here come the bells! Here come the bells!

Here come the bells!'

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-27-Obit-Lou%20Reed/id-6716c629b45d41899675b697fc7d0e14
Related Topics: penn state football   Preachers of LA   Miriam Carey   gizmodo   Robocop  

Focus: UFC 166 Edition


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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/27/5034374/focus-ufc-166-edition
Category: chris brown   The Crazy Ones   houston texans   backstreet boys   Hunter Hayes  

GOP, Not Botched Web Site, Is Real Problem



By Sally Kalson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - October 27, 2013





Read Full Article »














Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/27/gop_not_botched_web_site_is_real_problem_318692.html
Category: Cam McDaniel   Prince George christening   atlanta falcons   chargers   Daft Punk  

Phoenix shooting leaves family, dogs, gunman dead


PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities released details Sunday from a weekend shooting attack that left four family members and two dogs dead at a central Phoenix townhouse before the gunman turned the weapon on himself.

Michael Guzzo, 56, killed his next door neighbors in a deadly confrontation Saturday that may have been touched off by loud barking, police said.

Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said there is "some indication that perhaps that was a problem." But he added that because of the deaths, a motive may never be known.

The victims have been identified as Bruce Moore, 66; his daughter, Renee Moore, 36; her husband, who took his wife's name, Michael Moore, 42; and Renee's son, Shannon Moore, 17.

After the killings, Guzzo shot at another townhouse before returning to his unit and killing himself, police said.

Police said they found a pump shotgun, apparently the weapon used in the killings, next to his body. Thompson said there was no indication he had a violent past.

A neighbor said Guzzo usually kept to himself.

"I've seen him every morning — come in quiet every morning," Donald McKenzie told Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV (http://bit.ly/1a8DGFH ). "Never would expect him to be the guy who did this at all."

Another neighbor, Barry Hatchett, told Phoenix station KNXV-TV (http://bit.ly/19JezfR ) that he was friends with Renee Moore. Hatchett said he had planned to take his dog to the Moore's home for a grooming appointment later Saturday.

After shooting the Moores and the dogs, Guzzo then walked across the large complex and shot at the door and second floor of another townhouse, police said.

KNXV-TV reports the second home belongs to Libni DeLeon, who said bullet holes are now scattered around his house.

DeLeon told the station he heard a knock Saturday morning before the gunman shot through his front door.

"I ran upstairs and when I got there I got a glance at him, and I yelled at him, and he turned around and shot two more rounds upstairs," DeLeon said.

No one was injured at the home.

___

AP Writer Barry Massey contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/phoenix-shooting-leaves-family-dogs-gunman-dead-195315479.html
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Police chase gunman, hostages across Mojave Desert

This undated photo provided by the Ridgecrest, Calif. police shows Sergio Munoz. Ridgecrest police have identified Munoz, 39, as the gunman who fatally shot a woman, injured another and then led police on a wild chase before he was killed in a shootout on Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Ridgecrest Police)







This undated photo provided by the Ridgecrest, Calif. police shows Sergio Munoz. Ridgecrest police have identified Munoz, 39, as the gunman who fatally shot a woman, injured another and then led police on a wild chase before he was killed in a shootout on Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Ridgecrest Police)







This video image provided by KCBS-TV shows the site of s shooting Friday Oct. 25, 2013 ion Ridgecrest, Calif. A homicide suspect was killed by police on this Mojave Desert highway early Friday after a lengthy pursuit in which the man fired at vehicles and two hostages in his car trunk, authorities said.(AP Photo/KCBS-TV)







Passersby peer into a house Friday Oct. 25, 2013, where gunman Sergio Munoz shot two people, a man and a woman, killing the woman, before leading police on a chase through the Mojave Desert, before being shot and killed by police near Ridgecrest, Calif. (AP Photo/Justin Pritchard)







A view of the bloodied front door at a house where gunman Sergio Munoz shot two people, Friday Oct. 25, 2013, a man and a woman, killing the woman, before leading police on a chase with two hostages, through the Mojave Desert, before being shot and killed by police near Ridgecrest, Calif. (AP Photo/Justin Pritchard)







A view Friday Oct. 25, 2013, of the front door and two bibles, at a house where gunman Sergio Munoz shot two people, a man and a woman, killing the woman, then leading police on a chase with two hostages, through the Mojave Desert, before being shot and killed by police near Ridgecrest, Calif. (AP Photo/Justin Pritchard)







(AP) — Police were investigating a deadly shooting in this Mojave Desert city when they got a chilling call — from the killer.

Sergio Munoz said he wanted to deliver a "package" to police and kill officers, but to avoid being outgunned at the station he would instead "wreak havoc" elsewhere.

Munoz kept his word Friday during a nearly hour-long chase. With two hostages in the trunk of his car, Munoz sped along some 30 miles of desert highway, taking shots at passing motorists and trying to run oncoming cars off the road before police finally killed him in a hail of gunfire.

Investigators were puzzling over what triggered the rampage by Munoz, 39, a reputed heroin dealer with a criminal record stretching back at least two decades.

There were signs that his life had been unraveling.

The sister of the man wounded in a pre-dawn shooting that began the deadly day said Munoz was a heroin dealer who had been staying at her brother's house for about two weeks.

Dawn Meier told The Associated Press her brother, Thaddeus Meier, told her Munoz was a good friend he wanted to help out so let him crash, but that Munoz had been using and dealing black tar heroin.

She moved out of the house a week ago to join her boyfriend, who lived next door, after he insisted she get her 7-month-old son away from the drug-related traffic.

Her boyfriend, Derrick Holland, said that on Thursday he heard Munoz complaining in the yard about how his life was falling apart and he was losing everything "due to drugs."

Ridgecrest police said Munoz had lost his job recently.

Early Friday morning, Munoz showed up and told Thaddeus Meier, "We're going to reduce all of the snitches in town," Dawn Meier said her brother recounted from the hospital.

When her brother declined, Munoz shot him at least twice, then shot and killed Meier's girlfriend.

Later that morning, Munoz called a police officer on his cellphone, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a press conference.

Munoz said he had a package for police and wanted to come to the police station and "kill all the officers but they had too many guns," Youngblood said.

Police now believe the "package" was the hostages.

Nearly two hours later, a sheriff's deputy spotted Munoz's car and a pursuit began through the shrub-dotted desert about 150 miles north of Los Angeles.

Munoz ran traffic off the road, firing at least 10 times at passing vehicles with a shotgun and a handgun. No motorists were hurt, Youngblood said.

At one point during the chase, Munoz pulled over and the car's trunk popped open, revealing a man and woman inside. They appeared to shut the trunk, the sheriff said. Munoz got back in the car and sped off.

In the end, Munoz pulled over again on U.S. 395, turned in his seat and began shooting into the trunk. As many as seven officers opened fire and killed the man.

The hostages were flown to a hospital in critical condition, but were expected to survive.

Munoz is a felon with convictions dating back to 1994, when he was sentenced to more than two years in prison for receiving stolen property.

In May, he was arrested for possessing ammunition as a felon, but the felony charge was dismissed. Munoz was most recently arrested Sunday for investigation of possessing controlled substance paraphernalia and a felony charge of possessing ammunition as a felon. Dawn Meier said police found a syringe at the home where the slaying would happen five days later.

Ridgecrest is a city of about 27,000 people adjacent to the vast Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, which sprawls over more than 1,700 square miles of desert. U.S. 395 runs through the western Mojave, below the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada.

Ridgecrest Mayor Dan Clark called the incident disturbing, especially because the small city is relatively crime free.

___

AP Writers Tami Abdollah and Greg Risling in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-26-Mojave%20Desert%20Shootout/id-da986d7aae8340feb9752971c0c22a0a
Related Topics: Heartbreaker Justin Bieber   What Is Labor Day  

Katy Perry Ends her Birthday Weekend in Sydney

Dressed down for a leisurely day Down Under, Katy Perry and friends went shopping on Crown Street in Surry Hills, Sydney on Sunday (October 27).


The "Roar" singer wore her hair pulled back in a grown sweater, red floral top, and black jeans with her black Chucks as the group headed to a local pub afterwards.


On Friday, the peppy pop star celebrated her 29th birthday, tweeting, "Wow. What an incredible day full of 3am starts, different cities, birthday cakes, good friends & drifting in & out of sleep! Thank u for... An incredible birthday & all ur birthday messages. I saw so MANY of them & my ❤ was filled with so much ❤ I have the best friends & fans!"


Sharing a collage of the gals together on Instagram, Rihanna sent her best wishes, writing, "Happy Birthday to my lover and friend !! I miss you so much!! I love the phuck outta you!! I hope I could squeeze on you soon!! #KatyAnna @katyperry."


Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/katy-perry/katy-perry-ends-her-birthday-weekend-sydney-950717
Tags: Helen Lasichanh   Nick Pasquale   Steve Ballmer   Zayn Malik   Dustin Keller  

Review: WebEx vs. GoToMeeting vs. MyTrueCloud


October 25, 2013








Thomas Friedman famously announced that "the world is flat" in his 2005 book of that name. He was writing about globalization. In Friedman's view, voice over Internet (VoIP), file sharing, and wireless were the "steroids" that have accelerated the flattening of global commerce. Today I would add video over Internet, which has become more and more prevalent as bandwidth has improved.


The two leaders in the business Web conferencing space are Cisco WebEx and Citrix GoToMeeting. A new product, My Web Conferences from a company named MyTrueCloud, promises to offer these leaders some lower-priced competition, though it lacks some of the refinements of the older products -- and the established players are both upgrading their offerings and decreasing their base prices in response to less expensive business services and free consumer offerings.


[ Bossies 2013: The best open source applications | Discover what's new in business applications with InfoWorld's Technology: Applications newsletter. | For quick, smart takes on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]


Some businesses do use consumer products for voice and video over the Internet: Microsoft Skype, Google Hangouts, and Google Voice (no video) are three I've used extensively. While these can be useful, they don't quite meet the criteria for business-grade Web conferencing.


These higher-end products are expected to simultaneously deliver desktop shares, video, and audio; to provide high reliability and high quality; to integrate with common desktop software; and to work with mobile devices. They're also expected to handle large conference broadcasts, either in the base service or via a separate product. As we will see, there's a bit of variation among the business-grade products we are considering in all of these areas, as well as some differences in the bundling strategies.





Source: http://images.infoworld.com/d/applications/review-webex-vs-gotomeeting-vs-mytruecloud-229198?source=rss_applications
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ObamaCare Isn't a Single-Payer Conspiracy


What Walter Russell Mead dubbed the “pivot" to single payer has begun as various folks point out that if we only had a total government takeover, these issues wouldn’t put the whole system in danger. I’ve seen more than a few progressive commenters suggest that maybe an epic fail will finally open the way to the single-payer system we should have had in the first place.



In private, and occasionally in public, conservatives are expressing the same fear. There’s a pretty popular conspiracy theory running around to the effect that this was the Barack Obama administration’s intent all along: Design this big Rube Goldberg apparatus that couldn’t possibly work, and when it fails, sweep in and “fix” things by enacting the single-payer scheme you wanted all along.





Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/24/obamacare_isn039t_a_single-payer_conspiracy_318555.html
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States' Refusal To Expand Medicaid May Leave Millions Uninsured





Protesters fill the Miami office of Florida state Rep. Manny Diaz Jr. on Sept. 20 to protest his stance against expansion of health coverage in the state.



Joe Raedle/Getty Images

President Obama Tuesday appointed one of his top management gurus, Jeffrey Zeints, to head the team working to fix what ails Healthcare.gov, the troubled website that's supposed to allow residents of 36 states enroll in coverage under the Affordable Care Act.


But even if the team gets the website working as it should, millions of Americans may still log on to discover that they aren't eligible for any health coverage at all. And that won't be due to any technical glitch. It's because their state has decided not to expand its Medicaid program.


This is not the way the health law was designed and enacted, says Bruce Siegel.


"Originally the idea was that millions and millions of Americans would get health insurance," says Siegel, president and CEO of America's Essential Hospitals, a group that represents safety net institutions around the country. "They'd get coverage through Medicaid or through private insurance on the exchanges."


Currently in most states you have to be a child, be pregnant or disabled to get Medicaid. The health law was supposed to change all that — expanding the program to include nearly everyone with incomes up to about 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,000 a year for an individual.


But in the summer of 2012, when the Supreme Court upheld the health law as constitutional, it did something unexpected, Siegel says. "They said states had the option of expanding their Medicaid program or not expanding it. And that led to a very, very different landscape than what we expected."



Even with Ohio's decision earlier this week to opt in, still only half the states have said they will expand their Medicaid programs, even though the federal government is paying the entire cost of the additional people for the first three years, and 90 percent going forward.


As a result, according to the Urban Institute, between 6 and 7 million low-income uninsured adults live in states that are so far not expanding their programs.


And some of those states have among the largest populations of low income uninsured people.


"Over 3 million of them live in just four states," says Genevieve Kenney, senior fellow and co-director of the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center. Those states are Florida, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.


The problem, says Kenney, is that for many of those people the law offers them nothing. Because they were supposed to get Medicaid, they're not eligible to buy private insurance at the exchanges unless their incomes are above the poverty line. That's about $11,000 a year for an individual.


"I think it's going to be confusing for individuals who are applying for coverage," says Kenney. "It certainly makes the message about the new affordable coverage that's available a lot more complicated to target."


Among the people who could get left behind is Ellen Wall. She's a nanny and sometime music teacher from Atlanta. She says her income fluctuates, but most years it's right around the poverty line. She says as long as she can pay her bills, she doesn't mind earning that amount.


"I love doing what I do because I'm very good at what I do, that's why I've chosen this profession," she says. "But there are those years when it's quite lean and then I'm just barely making it. And what am I gonna do if something comes up and I'm really sick and I need some help?"


Wall doesn't have and hasn't had health insurance. She says that was a real problem a few years back when she was in the hospital after an asthma attack.


"It was kind of a very embarrassing situation to be in, not to have the health insurance that could have covered that few days that I was in the hospital," she said.


If Wall lived in a state expanding Medicaid she would clearly qualify. But so far, Georgia isn't. And her income may or may not be high enough to let her qualify for help buying private coverage on the state's exchange. So she'll likely remain working, poor and uninsured.


Most advocates say people like Wall should turn to community clinics and public hospitals if they can't get insurance. But there's a problem there, too, says public hospital advocate Siegel. The health law cut funding for public hospitals because it assumed so many more people would have insurance. But in those states that aren't expanding Medicaid, the need for free care is likely to go up instead of down.


"Many of these hospitals will be overwhelmed," Siegel says. "Some of them are already overwhelmed; many of them are already losing money, providing a high level of service to people in need. And this will simply not be a tenable position."


Public and other hospitals are among those lobbying hard for Medicaid expansion in the states that so far have opted not to expand their Medicaid programs. Some states are still considering opting in. But in others, patients left behind may have to scramble even harder to find care if they get sick.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/23/239833838/states-refusal-to-expand-medicaid-may-leave-millions-uninsured?ft=1&f=
Category: apple store   carrie   First Day Of Fall 2013   philadelphia eagles   taylor swift  

Bigger, better, faster

Bigger, better, faster


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Contact: Sonia Neves
sonia.furtado@embl.de
European Molecular Biology Laboratory



3D structure reveals protein's Swiss-army knife strategy




The molecular machine that makes essential components of ribosomes the cell's protein factories is like a Swiss-army knife, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centro de Investigaciones Biolgicas in Madrid, Spain, have found. By determining the 3-dimensional structure of this machine, called RNA polymerase I, for the first time, the scientists found that it incorporates modules which prevent it from having to recruit outside help. The findings, published online today in Nature, can help explain why this protein works faster than its better-studied counterpart, RNA polymerase II.


"Rather than recruiting certain components from outside, RNA polymerase I has them already built in, which explains why it is bigger, and less regulated, but at the same time more efficient," says Christoph Mller from EMBL, who led the study. "Because everything is already assembled, there's no time delay," explains Maria Moreno-Morcillo, who carried out the work.


There are three different RNA polymerases, each of which makes specific types of RNA molecule. For example, RNA polymerase II makes messenger RNA the 'middle-man' that carries the information encoded in DNA to a ribosome where it can be used to make a protein. RNA polymerases I and III make parts of the machinery which reads that messenger RNA: I builds the RNA that will eventually form a ribosome, while III makes the transfer RNA that carries the protein building blocks to the ribosome for assembly. Scientists have known for over a decade what RNA polymerase II looks like and how it works, but obtaining detailed information on the structures of its counterparts has proven extremely difficult. Now that they have managed to do so for RNA polymerase I, Mller and colleagues have found explanations for some of the protein's particularities.


Part of the difficulty in studying RNA polymerase I is that it is a larger molecule than RNA polymerase II. When they determined its 3-dimensional structure, the scientists found that some of the 'extra' modules in RNA polymerase I are remarkably similar to other, separate proteins that RNA polymerase II needs to do its job. It seems that RNA polymerase I has brought those helper modules permanently on board. In another part of the molecule, Mller and colleagues found that RNA polymerase I appears to have combined what in RNA polymerase II are two separate modules into a single, multi-tasking component. Together, these changes likely explain why RNA polymerase I can produce RNA molecules at a faster rate than RNA polymerase II.


The findings also imply that the cell has fewer ways of controlling RNA polymerase I's activity, since it can't influence it by changing the availability of helper proteins as it does in the case of RNA polymerase II. But here, too, RNA polymerase I's Swiss-army knife strategy provides a solution. The structure showed that this molecular machine has a built-in regulatory mechanism: it can stop itself from attaching to DNA by bending a loop in its structure to block the space the DNA would usually dock onto.


###


The work was carried out in collaboration with Carlos Fernndez-Tornero's lab at the Centro de Investigaciones Biolgicas in Madrid, Spain, as well as researchers at the University of GÓ§ttingen, Germany and the SOLEIL synchrotron in France, where some of the structural data was obtained. Structural data was also obtained at the Petra III ring at EMBL Hamburg, on the DESY campus in Germany.


Christoph Mller recently received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to study RNA polymerase I and the proteins it interacts with.




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Bigger, better, faster


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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013



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Contact: Sonia Neves
sonia.furtado@embl.de
European Molecular Biology Laboratory



3D structure reveals protein's Swiss-army knife strategy




The molecular machine that makes essential components of ribosomes the cell's protein factories is like a Swiss-army knife, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centro de Investigaciones Biolgicas in Madrid, Spain, have found. By determining the 3-dimensional structure of this machine, called RNA polymerase I, for the first time, the scientists found that it incorporates modules which prevent it from having to recruit outside help. The findings, published online today in Nature, can help explain why this protein works faster than its better-studied counterpart, RNA polymerase II.


"Rather than recruiting certain components from outside, RNA polymerase I has them already built in, which explains why it is bigger, and less regulated, but at the same time more efficient," says Christoph Mller from EMBL, who led the study. "Because everything is already assembled, there's no time delay," explains Maria Moreno-Morcillo, who carried out the work.


There are three different RNA polymerases, each of which makes specific types of RNA molecule. For example, RNA polymerase II makes messenger RNA the 'middle-man' that carries the information encoded in DNA to a ribosome where it can be used to make a protein. RNA polymerases I and III make parts of the machinery which reads that messenger RNA: I builds the RNA that will eventually form a ribosome, while III makes the transfer RNA that carries the protein building blocks to the ribosome for assembly. Scientists have known for over a decade what RNA polymerase II looks like and how it works, but obtaining detailed information on the structures of its counterparts has proven extremely difficult. Now that they have managed to do so for RNA polymerase I, Mller and colleagues have found explanations for some of the protein's particularities.


Part of the difficulty in studying RNA polymerase I is that it is a larger molecule than RNA polymerase II. When they determined its 3-dimensional structure, the scientists found that some of the 'extra' modules in RNA polymerase I are remarkably similar to other, separate proteins that RNA polymerase II needs to do its job. It seems that RNA polymerase I has brought those helper modules permanently on board. In another part of the molecule, Mller and colleagues found that RNA polymerase I appears to have combined what in RNA polymerase II are two separate modules into a single, multi-tasking component. Together, these changes likely explain why RNA polymerase I can produce RNA molecules at a faster rate than RNA polymerase II.


The findings also imply that the cell has fewer ways of controlling RNA polymerase I's activity, since it can't influence it by changing the availability of helper proteins as it does in the case of RNA polymerase II. But here, too, RNA polymerase I's Swiss-army knife strategy provides a solution. The structure showed that this molecular machine has a built-in regulatory mechanism: it can stop itself from attaching to DNA by bending a loop in its structure to block the space the DNA would usually dock onto.


###


The work was carried out in collaboration with Carlos Fernndez-Tornero's lab at the Centro de Investigaciones Biolgicas in Madrid, Spain, as well as researchers at the University of GÓ§ttingen, Germany and the SOLEIL synchrotron in France, where some of the structural data was obtained. Structural data was also obtained at the Petra III ring at EMBL Hamburg, on the DESY campus in Germany.


Christoph Mller recently received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to study RNA polymerase I and the proteins it interacts with.




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




Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/embl-bbf102413.php
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FDA Asks Dog Owners For Help With Illnesses Linked To Jerky





Jerky treats for dogs and cats have been linked to pet illnesses and deaths. But it's still unclear what is causing the problems.



iStockphoto.com


Jerky treats for dogs and cats have been linked to pet illnesses and deaths. But it's still unclear what is causing the problems.


iStockphoto.com


The Food and Drug Administration has a mystery on its hands.


Thousands of dogs and at least 10 cats have become sick after eating various forms of jerky for pets over the past few years. Some 580 animals have died, the agency says. But it's not sure why.


Some of the cases have been diagnosed as "kidney failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and a rare kidney disorder," the agency said. Overall, a little less than two-thirds of the cases have been some kind of gastrointestinal illness. Nearly a third have "involved kidney and urinary systems."


The FDA released a summary of complaints potentially tied to jerky treats, including quite a few from this year. Here's an unedited example involving a 3-year-old miniature pinscher:




"I took my Min-Pin to the vet to get her teeth cleaned and upon doing bloodwork before the procedure, discovered she had high levels associated with kidney disease. A week and a half later, I had to put her down due to a rapid decline of health despite efforts to correct the problem. It was speculated that her cause of death was a more than likely a result of the chicken treats from China that have been removed from the market. I am greatly saddened and heartbroken of her loss and at the same time furious to find out that no one is being held liable for this."




In the FDA's search for answers, the agency has run lots of tests on various jerkies, tenders and strips made with chicken, duck, sweet potato, dried fruit and combinations of those ingredients. "To date, none of the tests have revealed the cause of the illnesses," the agency said in a fact sheet.


What should pet owners be on guard for? Loss of appetite, listlessness, vomiting, diarrhea (sometimes bloody), drinking a lot more water and also increased urination. See a veterinarian if you suspect a problem.


The investigation has focused on products imported from China. "We still are extensively testing treats for a number of things," FDA's Martine Hartogensis, a deputy director at the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, told NBC News. "We do seem to be getting some leads, but we still have a little bit of a ways to go." (The detailed testing report is here.)


The FDA wants your help. "If you have a dog or cat that became ill after eating jerky pet treats, the Food and Drug Administration would like to hear from you or your veterinarian," the agency said in a statement posted to its website Tuesday. You can report information to the FDA online here.


In late 2011, FDA warned pet owners about a potential problem with chicken jerky products for dogs. Many dog owners and vets complained to the agency about illnesses that appeared to be associated with jerky. There were other FDA warnings dating back to 2007.


"Our fervent hope as animal lovers is that we will soon find the cause of — and put a stop to — these illnesses," Dr. Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said on the agency's website.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/23/240227639/fda-asks-dog-owners-for-help-with-illnesses-linked-to-jerky?ft=1&f=
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Fla. Special Election Will Reflect Shutdown's Impact


The death of Florida congressman Bill Young is likely to lead to the first congressional election in a competitive district following the government shutdown and debt ceiling fight. An election date has not yet been set by Gov. Rick Scott, but could be in March.


Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240823230&ft=1&f=1014
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Bored, bothered, and bewildered: Exploring the reaction to the 2013 iPad & Mac event

It's almost impossible to actually watch an event when you're covering it live. Whether you're transcribing what's being said, or providing play-by-play commentary, color, and analysis, you're forced to pay only partial attention to what's going on because the rest of your attention is busy digesting, translating, and expounding on it. So, after I finished doing the [live iMore show[(http://www.imore.com/imore-show-369-ipad-mac-event-live) during Apple's 2013 iPad and Mac event I had to go back and watch it in order to fully appreciate everything that went on, to get the subtleties and nuances, to catch the slips, and to formulate an overall opinion of the event. I've done that twice now. And overall, I'm conflicted.

I can understand what Nick Bilton of the New York Times experienced at the event:

Lately, however, [Apple] events have replaced the “wow” with the “boring.”

Bilton thinks the products are still good, but the presentation is getting old. Marco Arment:

Something felt a bit off about this week’s Apple event.

Arment chalks it up to a combination of lack of surprise, flat presentation, repetitive messaging, and a lack of timely preorders.

I can also understand what John Gruber of Daring Fireball experienced:

Apple’s events are more like watching episodes of the same TV show, but with different bits each time. The show itself grows ever more familiar, but the content changes with each episode.

And Jim Dalrymple on The Loop:

If there was any event in recent memory that demonstrated the depth and scope of Apple’s products, it had to be this one. Every new product tied into the last and the next announcement in one way or another. Whether iOS or Mac, software or hardware, the connection was there.

So, what's going on?

Predictability

The iPad mini going Retina was predictable, but would anyone rather have had it go down in display density instead? That would have been a surprise, but not a good one. The iPad turning into the iPad Air was predictable too, but would anyone have better welcomed it getting heavier and thicker? This, of all arguments against the Apple event, is the most tenuous. Absent new products, any updates to existing products will be logical and incremental. A triangular iPad would be different, but it would also be stupid.

Mavericks and the redesigned Mac Pro were technically new, but Apple had already shown both off at WWDC 2013, so they were expected, and hence not really, truly new. Likewise the new MacBook Pros, even though the 13-inch ended up being thinner and lighter again, were anticipated because their product cycles are linked to Intel's processor roadmap and Haswell had already come to both the MacBook Air and iMac lines. It was their turn. So, again, not really, truly new.

The iWork and iLife app updates were new, but also existing product lines, and it turns out some people aren't very happy with them, so they get to be both not really, truly new, and, by some, unwelcome for their not really, truly newness.

The problem is, the world tends towards patterns, and humans are really good at spotting patterns. When things make sense, they're predictable, and as much as we love that, we also kind of hate it.

Ad to that Apple's massive manufacturing scale, which makes leaks more likely than ever, and we have people doing the gadget equivalent of reading a movie script before going to the theater, and then being upset the movie doesn't surprise them. Spoiler. Alert.

Making the iPad Air as thin as it is wasn't easy. Going to Retina in the iPad mini this year was even less easy. Apple barely got it done in time (look no further than the "later this November" shipping date). Pushing Apple A7 chipsets across the entire new iPad lineup wasn't easy either. It was, dare I say it, a surprise. (Or more technically, a payoff years in the making). Not having Touch ID in the new iPads, most likely because Apple is struggling to produce enough sensors for the iPhone 5s lineup as it is, was also a surprise. Also an unwelcome one by many.

Like "one more things", true surprises at Apple events are few and far between. They're the iPods and iPhones and iPads. They're 2001 and 2007 and 2010. Apple will almost certainly attempt more of them, perhaps even as soon as 2014, and we'll likely suffer the same "oh, a wearable, we expected that!" and the follow on "oh, an updated wearable, where's the iCar?!"

We're an incredibly connected, keyed in, revved up, informed, insightful, and grown up community and customer base now. We've bitten of the Apple, and we've lost the paradise of - and appreciation for - the mysteries of our youth.

In this case, with this complaint, it's not Apple that's failing to deliver, it's our expectations that can no longer reasonably be met.

Presentation

Yeah. There were stumbles. Black Knight? It was like watching dad try to twerk. (Or watching me try to use twerk in a sentence.) It was a script pulled too tightly over too much event. Apple used to release new iPads in the spring, new iPhones in the summer, new iPods in the fall, and new Macs whenever they were ready. For the last two years, they've released everything but iPods, iPhones, and a smattering of Macs at one small event in October. It is, arguably, too much.

Mavericks, new MacBook Pros, the new Mac Pro, iWork for iOS, OS X, and iCloud. The iPad Air. The Retina iPad mini. And updates to a bunch of other Apple apps. It's almost inarguably too much. I'm tried merely from typing it out. Yet October was when Mavericks was ready. It was when the new MacBook Pros got the Haswell chipsets they needed. It was when the iPad Air and, especially, the Retina iPad mini could be shipped before the holidays. It was Apple putting the pedal to the metal and getting stuff out as fast as technology and components would allow. And it was exhausting just to watch, never mind orchestrate.

Eddy Cue in his Kung Fu shirt, and Roger Rosner awkwardly helping him make mock album art was painful. But there have been awkward - and slow - moments at keynotes for years. It's when it all adds up, the slips, the pace, and the pain, that it begins to create that "off" feeling.

Steve Jobs wasn't immune to this either. Tossing cameras into the audience, losing it over Mi-Fis, getting lost in small features for minutes at a time. But he was Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, he's who Apple's current slate of presenters, from Tim Cook on down are following. Worse, the romanticized memory of Steve Jobs is what Apple's current slate of presenters, from Tim Cook on down, are following. And that's an impossible position for anyone to be in. Apple is still lightyears ahead of most other tech companies when it comes to presentations, but they're held to a higher standard than any other tech company because of it.

There were moments - "mind blown", for example - that stood out, but given it was an Apple event, given all the announcements were recapitulations or upgrades, given the sheer mass of them, and given the stumbles, there weren't enough.

Repetitiveness

As a result of incremental updates and presentation problems, Apple's events have felt more repetitive than they have in the past. They're not, of course - Apple events have been repetitive for years - but once an illusion shatters, it tends to stay that way.

The advantage to repetitiveness is that, when it works, it's magical. It's the chorus in the song you can't stop playing over and over again. It's the signature line you're always waiting for the hero to utter. It's the moment when anticipation becomes reality.

The disadvantage to receptiveness is that, when it doesn't work, it falls absolutely flat.

There's an old saying that the key to a great fight is in the matchmaking. Fighters can have great skills and great game plans, and without changing a thing, explode one night and fall apart another. Likewise with presentations. An off night for Apple's executives, a malaise among the media, and a few flubs plus a few long moments of silent non-reaction and things start to go south fast.

Does that mean Apple's gotten stale? Does it mean the media is hopeless jaded? Maybe, and of course not. It's not immediately clear to me how Apple could, or even if Apple should change their event formula. Having attended numerous events by other companies, including almost all of Apple's competitors, I can objectively say no one else comes close in terms of clarity of message delivered. Apple tells you what they're going to say, says it, then tells you what they said. With big, helpful, charts detailing products, pricing, and availability.

Would sideways cars on a broadway stage, or HALO jumpers landing on the roof make Apple events more interesting? Maybe. But would it make them better? I'm not convinced.

What would make it better is a little more relaxation on stage. A little more energy and a little more sense of fun. Apple introduced some great products. The executives knew that as well as the media. We just needed to see that knew it. That they loved it. And that they were willing to worry less about script, and risk getting lost in it just a little more.

Immediacy

There were no pre-orders for the iPad Air, just like there were no pre-orders for the iPhone 5s. My guess is its for similar reasons - there's simply not enough stock to allow for meaningful pre-orders and supply retail stores for launch day. Instead of having an almost immediate sell out thanks to low pre-order quantities in advance, and under serve people who go to the actual stores on day one, Apple is opting to give retail some breathing room by starting online the same day. In a perfect world, Apple would have enough iPad Air stock to have started pre-orders last week, but we live in the real world and sometimes deadlines are sprints all the way to the end.

Likewise the iPad mini, which is crossing the finish line so hot it isn't even going to be ready to ship with the Air. Whether or not Apple announces pre-orders for it remains to be seen, but there simply aren't enough to start selling this week. Even more so with the new Mac Pro. However, that's such a niche, high-end product it doesn't have the holiday sales pressure on it that the iPad line does.

Mavericks, iWork, iLife, and the new MacBook Pros shipped the same day as the event. Can't get any more immediate than that.

So

As Apple events go, the products announced last week were absolutely amazing. The equivalent of nuclear weapons in a conventional theater. I still can't believe they managed to get the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini ready to go as quickly as they did. Mavericks is solid, and the new Mac Pro is porn. I understand the complaints about the new iWork suite, but I also have an idea of the compromise that had to be made there. And there new MacBook Pros are pretty damn fine as well.

But the presentation was rough. They had all the elements, but they just didn't nail the landing. That's something that can and should be improved. They'll never be Steve Jobs, but they can all be good, and relaxed, and happy, and paced, and themselves. The predictability, the repetitiveness, those are things that shouldn't and almost certainly aren't concerning Apple. Keep making great products and nail the presentation, and no few, if anyone, will complain about either of those things next time.

That, or save something like the new Mac Pro for the October event next time. WWDC already had iOS 7 and Mavericks, after all.


    






Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/J29amVGiMvE/story01.htm
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Pediatricians tackle controversial issues in new point-counterpoint sessions at AAP conference

Pediatricians tackle controversial issues in new point-counterpoint sessions at AAP conference


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Contact: Debbie Jacobson
djacobson@aap.org
847-434-7084
American Academy of Pediatrics



Discussions on mandatory ECG screenings, medicating for ADHD, infant formula for breastfeeding, and testing for Strep infections



ORLANDO, Fla. -- Pediatric experts will debate the pros and cons of the most contentious issues pediatricians face in their daily practice during the new point-counterpoint sessions at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando Oct. 26-29.


For the "Controversies in Pediatrics" series, a new topic will be debated each day by some of the most influential pediatricians in the fields of sports medicine, infectious disease, children with disabilities, and breastfeeding. Reporters interested in covering any of these sessions should check in at the press room, W203B.


The schedule includes:


ECG Screening Prior to Competitive Sports: Should it be Mandatory in the US?

4-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26

Pro: Victoria Vetter, MD

Con: Reginald Washington, MD, FAAP


When a seemingly young, healthy athlete dies suddenly while competing in a sporting event, people want to know how, why, and more importantly, what could have be done to prevent it?


Research has found that mandatory electrocardiograms (ECGs) for student athletes can save more lives, but nationally, it would cost more than $2 billion a year to cover everyone. Estimates from the American Heart Association have shown that the false-positive rate can range from 10 percent to 40 percent because athletes can undergo changes while training that can alter test results. In Italy, all student athletes are required to have a physical exam and ECG, at no cost to the child or parent. In the U.S., not everyone can afford the test, and it is not always covered by insurance. The controversy remains: if even one life can be saved, should cost be an issue?


Kung Fu PANDAS: Stealth Attacks of Streptococci?

4-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27

Pro: Susan Swedo, MD, FAAP

Con: Donald Gilbert, MD, FAAP


For the past 15 years, there has been conflicting research results regarding PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) being etiologically associated with some cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and tics. Highlights of this session will involve discussion of the controversies about appropriate testing and treatment.


Dr. Swedo will present the pro-PANDAS case, that Strep is a trigger for acute-onset OCD and other neuropsychiatric symptoms. She will argue that pediatricians should obtain a throat culture from any child who suddenly develops obsessions, compulsions, separation anxiety or other signs of PANDAS. If the strep infection isn't recognized and appropriately treated, symptoms can worsen. Repeated episodes may result in chronic, treatment-resistant OCD or other debilitating mental illness.


Dr. Gilbert will debate that if a child presents with new onset OCD or other neuropsychiatric symptoms, the child should be managed with standard-of-care behavioral or pharmacological treatments, and pediatricians should rarely be testing for Strep with throat cultures or blood tests. These approaches are validated in longstanding practice and published evidence.


Preschoolers with ADHD: To Medicate or Not?

4-5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28

Pro: Mark Wolraich, MD, FAAP

Con: William Barbaresi, MD, FAAP


Is it appropriate or necessary to treat children 4 to 5 years of age with stimulant medications? In 2011, the AAP published a clinical practice guideline recommending behavioral therapy as the first line of treatment for preschool-age children.


Dr. Wolraich will present evidence why stimulant medication should be considered if behavior therapy is not successful for preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD. Dr. Barbaresi will make his case against using medication as treatment in the primary care setting.


What's Wrong with Just One Bottle? Pros and Cons of Choosing to Supplement Breastfed Babies

8:30-9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29

Pro: Mandy Brown Belfort, MD, FAAP

Con: Susan Landers, MD, FAAP


It has been longstanding AAP recommendation for babies to be exclusively breastfed for about 6 months, followed by continued breastfeeding as complementary foods are introduced. However, a recent study has shown that small amounts of formula can be used to supplement breastfeeding with positive results. Experts will present both sides of this debate, as well as review the factors that lead breastfeeding mothers to use formula and stop breastfeeding.


###


The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit http://www.aap.org.




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Pediatricians tackle controversial issues in new point-counterpoint sessions at AAP conference


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

26-Oct-2013



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Contact: Debbie Jacobson
djacobson@aap.org
847-434-7084
American Academy of Pediatrics



Discussions on mandatory ECG screenings, medicating for ADHD, infant formula for breastfeeding, and testing for Strep infections



ORLANDO, Fla. -- Pediatric experts will debate the pros and cons of the most contentious issues pediatricians face in their daily practice during the new point-counterpoint sessions at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando Oct. 26-29.


For the "Controversies in Pediatrics" series, a new topic will be debated each day by some of the most influential pediatricians in the fields of sports medicine, infectious disease, children with disabilities, and breastfeeding. Reporters interested in covering any of these sessions should check in at the press room, W203B.


The schedule includes:


ECG Screening Prior to Competitive Sports: Should it be Mandatory in the US?

4-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26

Pro: Victoria Vetter, MD

Con: Reginald Washington, MD, FAAP


When a seemingly young, healthy athlete dies suddenly while competing in a sporting event, people want to know how, why, and more importantly, what could have be done to prevent it?


Research has found that mandatory electrocardiograms (ECGs) for student athletes can save more lives, but nationally, it would cost more than $2 billion a year to cover everyone. Estimates from the American Heart Association have shown that the false-positive rate can range from 10 percent to 40 percent because athletes can undergo changes while training that can alter test results. In Italy, all student athletes are required to have a physical exam and ECG, at no cost to the child or parent. In the U.S., not everyone can afford the test, and it is not always covered by insurance. The controversy remains: if even one life can be saved, should cost be an issue?


Kung Fu PANDAS: Stealth Attacks of Streptococci?

4-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27

Pro: Susan Swedo, MD, FAAP

Con: Donald Gilbert, MD, FAAP


For the past 15 years, there has been conflicting research results regarding PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) being etiologically associated with some cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and tics. Highlights of this session will involve discussion of the controversies about appropriate testing and treatment.


Dr. Swedo will present the pro-PANDAS case, that Strep is a trigger for acute-onset OCD and other neuropsychiatric symptoms. She will argue that pediatricians should obtain a throat culture from any child who suddenly develops obsessions, compulsions, separation anxiety or other signs of PANDAS. If the strep infection isn't recognized and appropriately treated, symptoms can worsen. Repeated episodes may result in chronic, treatment-resistant OCD or other debilitating mental illness.


Dr. Gilbert will debate that if a child presents with new onset OCD or other neuropsychiatric symptoms, the child should be managed with standard-of-care behavioral or pharmacological treatments, and pediatricians should rarely be testing for Strep with throat cultures or blood tests. These approaches are validated in longstanding practice and published evidence.


Preschoolers with ADHD: To Medicate or Not?

4-5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28

Pro: Mark Wolraich, MD, FAAP

Con: William Barbaresi, MD, FAAP


Is it appropriate or necessary to treat children 4 to 5 years of age with stimulant medications? In 2011, the AAP published a clinical practice guideline recommending behavioral therapy as the first line of treatment for preschool-age children.


Dr. Wolraich will present evidence why stimulant medication should be considered if behavior therapy is not successful for preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD. Dr. Barbaresi will make his case against using medication as treatment in the primary care setting.


What's Wrong with Just One Bottle? Pros and Cons of Choosing to Supplement Breastfed Babies

8:30-9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29

Pro: Mandy Brown Belfort, MD, FAAP

Con: Susan Landers, MD, FAAP


It has been longstanding AAP recommendation for babies to be exclusively breastfed for about 6 months, followed by continued breastfeeding as complementary foods are introduced. However, a recent study has shown that small amounts of formula can be used to supplement breastfeeding with positive results. Experts will present both sides of this debate, as well as review the factors that lead breastfeeding mothers to use formula and stop breastfeeding.


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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit http://www.aap.org.




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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/aaop-ptc101813.php
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