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Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes
Click here to download TV listings for the week of Feb. 2 - 8, 2014 in PDF format
How I Met Your Mother Robin and Ted (Cobie Smulders, Josh Radnor) reminisce about past relationships as they search for a drunken Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) on the day of the wedding in this new episode. 8 p.m. CBS
Hart of Dixie Zoe and Joel (Rachel Bilson, Josh Cooke) buy a house, but soon realize they can't afford to fix it up. Brick (Tim Matheson) offers to help, but, of course, there's a catch. Cress Williams also stars in this new episode. 8 p.m. KTLA
The Bachelor Juan Pablo and the bachelorettes travel to Vietnam and New Zealand. 8 p.m. ABC
Beauty and the Beast Cat and Vincent (Kristin Kreuk, Jay Ryan) work together to rescue J.T. (Austin Basis) from a kidnapper, but things turn deadly when Tori (Amber Skye Noyes) tries to intervene in this new episode. 9 p.m. KTLA
Castle When an employee at a fashion magazine is found dead, Castle and Beckett (Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic) must dive into the world of high fashion to investigate. 10 p.m. ABC
POV In the new episode "American Promise," middle class black parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., document their son's progress through private school. 10 p.m. KOCE
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: 50 Years of Beautiful Heidi Klum hosts this new special marking the 50th birthday of a publishing institution. It includes interviews with current and former SI swimsuit models including Kate Upton, Tyra Banks, Christie Brinkley and Marisa Miller and music from Tim McGraw, Enrique Iglesias, John Legend and Lady Antebellum. 9 p.m. NBC
Quality Balls: The David Steinberg Story Canadian comic David Steinberg discusses his life and work in this 2013 documentary. 9:30 p.m. Showtime. The season premiere of "Inside Comedy" follows at 11, with guests Zach Galifianakis and "Tonight Show" host-to-be Jimmy Fallon.
CBS This Morning Sarah Jessica Parker; Elon Musk; Ken Jennings. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS
Today Cultural groups in America; Olympic athletes; Tony and Lauren Dungy. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC
KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA
Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC
Good Day L.A. Elisabeth Rohm ("American Hustle"); Zoey Deutch ("Vampire Academy") (N) 7 a.m. KTTV
Live With Kelly and Michael Elizabeth Banks ("The Lego Movie"); Kermit the Frog. (N) 9 a.m. KABC
The View Guest co-host Dana Loesch; Thomas Gibson. (N) 10 a.m. KABC
The Talk Mariska Hargitay; Lisa Guerrero; Ann Gentry. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS
The Queen Latifah Show Liza Minnelli; Michael K. Williams; Adam Brody; extreme athletes perform high-flying stunts. (N) 2 p.m. KCBS; 7 p.m. KCAL
The Dr. Oz Show Bloating; cravings; how to stop your face from aging fast. (N) 2 p.m. KABC
Dr. Phil A woman speaks out from prison about the night her boyfriend and accomplices killed her family. (N) 3 p.m. KCBS
Katie 3 p.m. KABC
The Ellen DeGeneres Show Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Modern Family"). (N) 4 p.m. KNBC
The Doctors (N) 5 p.m. KCAL
The Arsenio Hall Show Magic Johnson and his wife, Cookie; La La Anthony. (N) 11 p.m. KTLA
Charlie Rose (N) 11 p.m. KVCR; midnight KOCE; 1 a.m. KLCS
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York). (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central
Chelsea Lately Sarah Tiana; Whitney Cummings ; Michelle Monaghan. (N) 11 p.m. E!
Conan Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller ("That Awkward Moment"); Neko Case performs. (N) 11 p.m. TBS
The Colbert Report (N) 11:30 p.m. Comedy Central
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Jimmy Fallon; Betty White; Bonnie Raitt performs. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC
Late Show With David Letterman Will Arnett; Broken Bells performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS
Jimmy Kimmel Live 11:35 p.m. KABC
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Musical sketches with Bruce Springsteen and Robin Thicke. (N) 12:36 a.m. KNBC
The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Larry King; Henry Cho. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS
Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC
Tavis Smiley Philip Seymour Hoffman remembered. (N) 1 a.m. KOCE
Last Call With Carson Daly Terence Winter; Albert Hammond Jr. performs; Brody Stevens. (N) 1:36 a.m. KNBC


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South African Journal of Science
On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.103 n.7-8 Pretoria Jul./Aug. 2007
GM biotechnology: friend and foe?
L. Chetty; C.D. Viljoen
GMO Testing Facility, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have received much controversial publicity in the last decade, leading to a polarized debate on GM biotechnology. As a result, the public is left either perplexed or distrustful of GMOs. This technology may hold solutions for poverty and hunger in Africa. However, there are various issues that continue to hinder its implementation. Proponents of genetic modification (GM) believe that NGOs portray an unconstructive view of GMO technology, contributing to increased public mistrust. Advocates of GM believe also that there is an overestimation of the risk posed by GMOs. There is further heated debate over whether GM and non-GM products are substantially equivalent. In addition, some perceive that the Convention on Biological Diversity impedes the implementation of biotechnology in developing countries. Other contentious issues include the various regulatory systems that govern GMOs as well as GM labelling. It is important that these issues are addressed transparently by NGOs, biotechnology companies as well as government bodies, so that the ideal of making biotechnology a 'friend' can be realized.
The opinion piece 'Biotech's defining moments' in Trends in Biotechnology indicates a frustration shared by many scientists.1 This discontent stems from a perception that regulation of biotechnology in the name of biosafety is futile and research on biosafety excessive.1,2 At the same time, advocates of biosafety are too easily branded as anti-biotechnology, unscientific and unnecessarily shortsighted. Important but contentious issues are currently being debated. These include: 1) a perception that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) stigmatize genetic modification (GM), 2) the notion that risk assessments do not make a positive contribution, 3) a belief that distinguishing between GM and non-GM products has no scientific basis, 4) the opinion that studies of coexistence between GM and non-GM crops are unnecessary, and that 5) some regulatory systems are scientific and others not, 6) that the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) impedes genetic engineering research as well as its promotion in developing countries, and 7) that mandatory labelling has no scientific basis.1 As a result, the biotech community appears to be at loggerheads with itself so that, regrettably, the potential benefactors of this technology in developing countries are the losers. It is therefore necessary to depolarize the debate so that African countries can make informed decisions about introducing GM biotechnology.
Proponents of biotechnology believe that NGOs stigmatize and undermine public confidence in recombinant-DNA technology.1 Ironically, there are as many NGOs that unscrupulously advocate that biotechnology is a 'silver bullet' to alleviate hunger in developing nations, without any scientific basis. Some of the unsubstantiated statements, referring to GM technology, include: 'The biggest threats that hungry populations currently face are restrictive policies stemming from unwarranted public fears.'3; 'A growing number of agricultural researchers, food experts and policymakers are pointing to plant biotechnology as a critical tool that can help increase food production and alleviate hunger without depleting natural resource.'4; and 'As Kenya faces yet another famine, food experts say that irrigation and adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops could be the way out of the perennial hunger problem.'5 Antagonists, equally, express negative sentiments towards biotechnology, such as 'Genetic engineering in its present form cannot form part of the solution; it is part of the problem.'6; 'African countries are being targeted by the biotech industry and its lobbyists with unprecedented backing from the US government. Even food aid has been used to push GM into Africa.'7; and 'It is clear that GM crops offer no benefits and cannot feed the world.'8 Propaganda on both sides of the argument therefore contributes to a skewed public perception of biotechnology, and creates confusion, mistrust and cynicism among consumers and scientists alike.
Many scientists who develop genetically modified organisms (GMOs) believe that risk assessments are unnecessary or go beyond what is required to establish a lack of risk.1 Nonetheless, risk assessments are vital to determining human safety. For example, a transgenic soybean engineered to contain a protein from Brazil nut would have been fatal for those with nut allergies. The allergy studies performed during the risk assessment were therefore necessary.9 Moreover, there is a case where a risk assessment may have proved vital. In 1989, the Eosinophalia Mayalgia Syndrome epidemic in the US, caused by the GM dietary supplement L-tryptophan, resulted in 37 mortalities.10 It is not certain whether the risk assessment performed was insufficient or whether it was undertaken at all. By claiming that risk assessments are excessive, GMO advocates unwittingly impede the progress of biotechnology by implying that the technology is above risk or that they fear scrutiny. In addition to determining health safety, environmental risk assessment is just as important. The conservation of biodiversity, including the preservation of landraces, is a global concern. A recent study in the US found that an unreleased transgenic herbicide-resistant creeping bentgrass introgressed into wild populations.11 Risk assessments are therefore imperative and not futile if performed with diligence. However, most African countries do not have the resources or expertise to do this.
A debate continues among scientists as to whether a GMO is substantially equivalent to its non-GM counterpart. Substantial equivalence implies that a GMO, with the exception of the transgene, and the corresponding non-GMO are not significantly different. However, the recognition of intellectual property rights (IPR) makes a clear distinction between GM and non-GM products in terms of plant breeder's rights and patenting. In fact, GM and non-GM products are biologically dissimilar (one has a transgene) and the GM variety is subject to patent rights and technology fees. Patent laws are alien to farmers in Africa, especially subsistence farmers, who customarily save and share seed. Thus whether the scientific community agrees or not, the legalities of transgene technology prohibit classification of GM and non-GM crops as substantially equivalent.
The numerous examples of 'gene escape' over the last few years indicate that coexistence of GM and non-GM crops requires careful management. In Nebraska in 2002, Prodigene's pharmaceutical maize commingled with soybean and, in the same year in Iowa, cross-pollination with conventional maize occurred.12 Prodigene's financial losses were more than US$3 million, which included fines and cleanup costs. Similar incidents of accidental transgenic entry into the food chain have occurred with Starlink maize13 and Liberty Link rice 601.14 Clearly, there is an urgent need for management to allow for coexistence and minimize commingling. The entry of a pharmaceutical crop into the human food chain would have devastating consequences for Africa, where maize is a staple food and resources to deal with such a situation do not exist. The recurring examples of gene escape suggest that more research is required to prevent this situation persisting.
A sector of the biotechnology community believes that GMOs are unscientifically over-regulated, while others consider that regulations are insufficient. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) procedure to regulate GMOs is not that of approval but rather a consultation process, which is voluntary. This involves an audit of a risk assessment based on information provided by the biotech company: 'During the consultation process, the FDA does not conduct a comprehensive scientific review of data generated by the developer.'15 In contrast, the European Commission, on behalf of the European Union, requires verification of information provided and may additionally perform necessary food safety and environmental risk assessments before granting approval of a GMO.16 In South Africa, the Department of Agriculture, through the GMO Act of 1997, also performs a risk assessment audit using independent scientific expertise.17,18 While some regulatory systems are more stringent than others, it is uncertain which of these is more scientific. In reality, bureaucratic requirements are no indication of scientific content.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and specifically the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety,19 are often seen as an attempt to hinder the spread and acceptability of biotechnology in developing countries.1 The biosafety protocol deals specifically with the transboundary movement of living modified organisms (LMOs) and its impact on the conservation of biodiversity as well as human health. The protocol is therefore a facilitation mechanism to help countries manage the introduction of GMOs through the implementation of regulatory frameworks.19 It would seem short-sighted of biotech companies, NGOs and scientists to view the biosafety protocol in a jaded light when the CBD has proved to be an effective enabling mechanism in developing countries, some in Africa.20
Mandatory labelling of GMO products is criticized as unscientific and an unnecessary expense.1 Food products are nevertheless already being labelled with regard to potential allergens, ingredients and nutritional value. In addition, market-directed labelssuch as kosher, halaal, vegetarian, fat-free, low-fat, cholesterol-free and gluten-freeare globally accepted. Thus labelling food products with regard to GM content is no less scientific than some other market-directed labels. Additional information on the GM status of a product would allow for consumer choice and possibly contribute to an awareness of GM.21 However, to deny consumers the right of choice, between GM and non-GM, in product selection is draconian and will taint biotechnology in the eyes of economically influential consumers.
South Africa is currently the only country growing GM crops commercially in Africa. The lack of acceptance of GMOs became evident during the food aid crisis in 2002, when southern African nations initially refused to accept GM food aid.22 Recipient countries raised concerns about the potential health effects of GM food, its impact on agricultural biodiversity and export markets.22 Although Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe finally decided to accept GM food aid after it was milled, Zambia did not, and was instead supplied with non-GM food aid. This incident highlights some of the commonly raised concerns regarding GM in Africa, including: 1) issues of food safety, especially since consumption patterns on the continent differ from those in the EU and US; 2) patents on GM products and their impact on food security; and 3) the threat of gene escape into locally adapted land-races and its consequences for food exports. In addition, African countries are unable to compete with subsidized agriculture in the EU and US and have to consider niche markets for non-GM and organic production.22 The GM debate in Africa is thus not fickle, and countries have to consider these issues for agricultural and economic sustainability.
Biotechnology can potentially benefit developing countries but socio-economic, political and infrastructure constraints in Africa must also be taken into account.23 To claim that starving millions will be saved and then charge a technology fee is paradoxical, especially in Africa, where a culture of seed-sharing and seed-saving has existed for generations. For GM technology to be beneficial, it is important that interested parties including NGOs, government bodies, biotech companies and scientists work proactively to resolve conflicts. Hunger alleviation in Africa can best be realized if the GM debate is depolarized and the issues addressed with transparency and forthrightness from proponents as well as opponents of recombinant-DNA technology. This would inspire public confidence and perhaps make GM biotechnology more palatable to Africa.
1. Miller H.I. (2007). Biotech's defining moments. Trends Biotechnol. 25(2), 5659. [ Links ]
2. McHughen A. (2006). The limited value of measuring gene flow via errant pollen from GM plants. Environ. Biosafety Res. 5, 12. [ Links ]
3. Prakash C.S. and Conko G. (2004). Technology that will save millions from starving. The American Enterprise. Online: http://www.agbio world.org/biotech-info/articles/agbioarticles/save-billions.html [ Links ]
4. Council for Biotechnology Information (2007). Enhanced crops for the developing world. Online: http://www.whybiotech.com/index. asp?id=2756 [ Links ]
5. Opiyo G. (2004). End world hunger with GMOs. East African Standard. Online: http://www.africa biotech.com/news2/article.php?uid=103 [ Links ]
6. The South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (2007). Will genetic engineering feed the world? Online: http://www.safeage.org/ worldhunger.htm [ Links ]
7. GM Watch (2007). Focus on Africa. Online: http:// www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=37&page= 1 [ Links ]
8. Ho M.W. (2007). Genetically modified (GM) crops are neither needed nor beneficial. They are a dangerous diversion from the real task of providing food and health around the world. Online: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/jaguar.php [ Links ]
9. Nordlee J.A., Taylor S.L., Townsend J.A., Thomas and Bush R.K. (1996). Identification of a Brazil-nut allergen in transgenic soybeans. Engl. J. Med. 334, 688692. [ Links ]
10. US Food and Drug Administration (2001). Information paper on L-tryptophan and 5-hydroxyL-tryptophan. Online: http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/ ~dms/ds-tryp1.html [ Links ]
11. Reichman J.R., Watrud L.S., Lee E.H., Burdick C.A., Bollman M.A., Storm M.J., King G.A. and Mallory-Smith C. (2006). Establishment of transgenic herbicide-resistant creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) in nonagronomic habitats. Mol. Ecol. 15, 42434255. [ Links ]
12. Elbheri A. (2005). Biopharming and the food system: examining the potential benefits and risks. AgBioForum 8(1), 1825. [ Links ]
13. CRS report for Congress (2001). Starlink corn controversy: Background. Online: http://www. nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RS20732.pdf [ Links ]
14. US Food and Drug Administration (2006). Statement on report of bioengineered rice in the food supply. Online: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/ ~lrd/biorice.html [ Links ]
15. US Food and Drug Administration (1997). Guidance on consultation procedures for foods derived from new plant varieties. Online: http:// www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/consulpr.html [ Links ]
16. Official Journal of the European Union (2003). Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2003 on genetically modified food and feed. Online: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/ 2003/l_268/l_26820031018en00010023. pdf [ Links ]
17. Department of Agriculture (1997). Genetically Modified Organisms Act. Online: http://www. nda.agric.za [ Links ]
18. Departments of Agriculture (2005). Genetically Modified Organisms Act Amendment Bill. Online: http://www.nda.agric.za. [ Links ]
19. Convention on Biological Diversity (2000). Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Online: http:// www.cbd.int/doc/legal/cartagena-protocolen.doc [ Links ]
20. UNEP-GEF (2006). A comparative analysis of experiences and lessons from the UNEP-GEF Biosafety Projects. Online: http://www.unep. ch/biosafety/development/devdocuments/ UNEPGEFBiosafety_comp_analysisDec2006.pdf [ Links ]
21. Viljoen C.D., Dajee B.K. and Botha G.M. (2006). Detection of GMO in food products in South Africa: Implications of GMO labelling. Afr. J. Biotechnol. 5(20), 7382. [ Links ]
22. Zerbe N. (2004). Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO debate in southern Africa. Food Policy 29, 593608. [ Links ]
23. Robinson J. (1999). Ethics and transgenic crops: a review. Electr. J. Biotech. 5, 7182. [ Links ]
Author for correspondence. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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SHAW Residents' Association (SRA) kicked off a year of litter picks in their village on Saturday, with 90 minutes of filling bin bags and gardening around the community.
The association has set five dates for 2014 when it will call on committee members and volunteers from the area to help out with tidying up the village centre garden and picking up litter.
There are plans in place for repeats on March 8, May 10, September 13 and November 8.
Speaking after Saturday's successful operation, which included 15 volunteers, SRA chair Kevin Fisher said: "We carry out regular litter picks and have, in the past, done a fair bit of work in Shaw village centre.
"We have planted hundreds of bulbs in the village gardens and hope they will come out in the spring time.
"For this year we have planned a series of dates. There are five throughout the year and we are hoping to get people to come along to litter pick or do some village centre tidying."
Anyone interested in attending should meet at The Village Inn in Ramleaze Drive at 10.30am.


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Sara Rosenbaum J.D. is the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University.
The Trump administration is poised to misuse its legal authority in an effort to cull people from the Medicaid rolls.


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In the latest issue of Ethos, guest edited by Olga Solomon and Nancy Bagatell, contributors consider autism from interdisciplinary, ethnographic perspectives rather than the dominant biomedical discourses, and encourage the rethinking of social engagement for those affected by autism, as well as their families and therapists.
Contributors to the issue include Sharon Kaufman, who considers the debate about autism and vaccine safety ("Regarding the Rise in Autism: Vaccine Safety Doubt, Conditions of Inquiry, and the Shape of Freedom"); Dawn Eddings Prince, who provides an emic or "native" point of view, sharing her experience as an anthropologist with Asperger's Syndrome and illustrating autism as a different way of being, rather than merely a medical condition ("An Exceptional Path: An Ethnographic Narrative Reflecting on Autistic Parenthood from Evolutionary, Cultural, and Spiritual Perspectives"); and Solomon, who studies the dynamics of child-dog-other interactions that demonstrate how specially trained dogs can mediate the social interactions of autistic children ("What a Dog Can Do: Children with Autism and Therapy Dogs in Social Interaction").
According to the guest editors in their introduction, "the collected articles encourage readers to rethink autism by embracing its complexity, from the personal experience of those diagnosed with autism and their families to issues of healthcare and educational policy." Contributors come from different disciplines, but "they share a vision of autism as social constructed across institutional, ideological, sociohistorical, and social-interactional contexts," which the editors argue "demarcate[s] a new interdisciplinary domain of inquiry that examines autism as a contestable and contested sociocultural as well as biomedical construct."
A full list of the issue's articles on autism follow. As always, articles may be accessed via Anthrosource for AAA members, or Wiley-Interscience for non-AAA members:
|Introduction: Autism: Rethinking the Possibilities
Olga Solomon, Nancy Bagatell
|Regarding the Rise in Autism: Vaccine Safety Doubt, Conditions of Inquiry, and the Shape of Freedom
Sharon R. Kaufman
|From Cure to Community: Transforming Notions of Autism
Nancy Bagatell
|An Exceptional Path: An Ethnographic Narrative Reflecting on Autistic Parenthood from Evolutionary, Cultural, and Spiritual Perspectives
Dawn Eddings Prince
|Autistic Sociality
Elinor Ochs, Olga Solomon
|Narratives of Distinction: Personal Life Narrative as a Technology of the Self in the Everyday Lives and Relational Worlds of Children with Autism
Karen Gainer Sirota
|"How to Go On": Intersubjectivity and Progressivity in the Communication of a Child with Autism
Laura Sterponi, Alessandra Fasulo
|What a Dog Can Do: Children with Autism and Therapy Dogs in Social Interaction
Olga Solomon
|Commentary: Autism and Anthropology?
Mary C. Lawlor
|Commentary: On Being Autistic, and Social
Roy Richard Grinker
Still want more on the anthropology of autism? Check out these articles from AAA journal archives:
Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism—A Father, a Daughter, and a Search for New Answers by Harold L. Odden in American Anthropologist, Volume 111, Issue 1 (March 2009) Pages: 117-118
Making Scenes by Melissa Park in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Volume 22, Issue 3 (September 2008) Pages: 234-256
Studying Autism Cross-Culturally by Gretchen Bakke in Anthropology News, Volume 46, Issue 7 (October 2005) Pages: 33-33


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Police Raid Berwyn Heights Mayor's Home, Kill His 2 Dogs
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George's County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.
Mayor Cheye Calvo was not arrested in the raid, which was carried out about 7 p.m. by the Sheriff's Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers. Prince George's police spokesman Henry Tippett said yesterday that all the residents of the house -- Calvo, his wife and his mother-in-law -- are "persons of interest" in the case.
The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic, said law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
Tippett said police are working to determine for whom the drugs were meant.
Calvo said yesterday that he did not know how the drugs wound up on his doorstep. He works part time as the mayor and serves as director of expansion for the SEED Foundation, a well-known national nonprofit group that runs urban public boarding schools.
"My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs," Calvo said. "They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don't think they really ever considered that we weren't."
Calvo described a chaotic scene, in which he -- wearing only underwear and socks -- and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated for hours. They were surrounded by the dogs' carcasses and pools of the dogs' blood, Calvo said.
Spokesmen for the Sheriff's Office and Prince George's police expressed regret yesterday that the mayor's dogs were killed. But they defended the way the raid was carried out, saying it was proper for a case involving such a large amount of drugs.
Sgt. Mario Ellis, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said the deputies who entered Calvo's home "apparently felt threatened" by the dogs.
"We're not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples' dogs," Ellis said. "If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county."
Calvo, 37, has been mayor of the 3,000-person town near College Park since 2004. His wife is a finance officer for the state, he said.
The investigation that led police to their house in the 8500 block of Edmonston Road began in Arizona, officials said. There, a police dog at a shipping facility identified the package as being filled with marijuana. Prince George's officers posed as deliverymen and brought it to Calvo's home.


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CHILDREN and staff of St Nicholas' Primary School in Marston, Oxford, have been encouraging people to dig deep and give generously to this year's Poppy Appeal.
Like many Oxfordshire schoolchildren, the pupils of St Nicholas' have witnessed the solemn sight of a repatriation as the cortege has passed through the county from RAF Brize Norton to the special armed forces department of pathology at the JR Hospital.
And it has made the children are even more aware of the importance of buying and wearing poppies.
St Nicholas' headteacher Rachel Crouch said: "Our school supports the Poppy Appeal every year by selling poppies around the school and at the school gate, and we have a special assembly with two minutes' silence to remember sacrifices made in the past and present by servicemen and women."


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Although Windows Phone 8 is technically out most users are still waiting to get their hands on the new OS. Luckily, we're already seeing some major apps get bumped with new features such as CNN, SkyDrive and even Nokia's apps.
Rowi Twitter app is one of the more popular apps on the Windows Phone Store and they just posted a video showing off the new super-quick load time. The increase in speed is due to Windows Phone 8 just handling app launching and processing more efficiently, those 1.5GHz dual-core CPUs and in this case by removing the boot screen. The app also has the "fast resume" trick enabled whereby tapping the Live Tile after it is already running will not re-launch the app but instead just resume it.
No word on release but hopefully it won't be too long.
Source: Rowi (Facebook)


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Real Salt Lake Tickets
Real Salt Lake Tickets Tickets Rated 0.00/5 based on 0 customer reviews 100 0
Real Salt Lake entered the MLS with Chivas USA in 2005, and they've made the most of their time in the league. After a few rough years as the new expansion franchise, they turned it around and have been consistently great since then. They've made the playoffs every year since 2008. In fact in 2009 they were just the fifth seed in the west but beat Columbus, Chicago, and the powerhouse LA Galaxy in the MLS Cup to stun the league and win their first championship. They lost to LA in the conference finals in 2011 and lost the MLS Cup to Sporting KC last year, but they're right back at it this season near the top of the Western Conference. Alvaro Saborio, by far the team's greatest scorer all time, leads the team for the fifth straight season this year. Midfielder Kyle Beckerman is the captain. While Seattle and Portland are known for being the MLS' strongest new frontiers for success as a league, RSL has contributed to that plenty as well. A responsive fan base quickly made Utah one of the league's strongest markets as well with some of the top attendance marks in the league the last few years. They play at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, a quick light rail ride away from downtown Salt Lake City. Definitely get out to 'RioT' to see one of the straight up best teams in the MLS at an RSL game! Gold Coast Tickets has the tickets to get you in!
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Celebrating this year's World Water Day, Dr. Milika Sobey from the IUCN Oceania office in Fiji highlights the importance of 'protecting forests, mangroves, and the restoration of river ecosystems to maintain and improve water quality which is vital to preserve ecosystem health, and ultimately provide clean water for people'.
This year World Water Day focuses on Clean Water for a Healthy World and will raise awareness on the importance of water quality for human health and the environment. 'Without healthy ecosystems rivers are more prone to flooding due to sedimentation caused by poor watershed management practices' said Sobey, 'and floods often bring with them disease and pollution as people try and clean up after the event'.
More effort is required to raise awareness to the services a healthy environment provides to society. Water supply services globally extract water from rivers and groundwater, and keeping those sources clean is a priority for the IUCN Water Programme through improved watershed management and good water governance. People often forget that human and industrial waste is treated with, and ultimately ends up in our water environment, and so rivers and other water systems not only provide the sources of water, but also the waste sink – they help to clean and purify wastewater for re-use, either by society, the environment, or by the hydrological cycle to fall as rain or snow on the planet.
The IUCN Water and Nature Initiative (WANI) is now in its second phase. Implemented since 2001 the WANI programme takes a locally grounded approach to implementing integrated water resources management around the globe, from drylands to the tropics, from lakes to glacial fed rivers, wetlands and groundwater, the programme focuses on sustainable development for people and the environment around them.


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The 2011 Charity Countdown
Hi, guys! I know the holidays can leave us hectic, hassled, and (sometimes) decking more than halls. That's why I first introduced the Cake Wrecks Charity Countdown back in 2009: I wanted to reconnect with that holiday spirit everyone's singing about, and I wanted a way to band together as Wreckies to make a difference for those who needed it, one teensy, easy-to-give dollar at a time.
The results were awesome, inspiring, and downright sweet. (Remember this?)
So this year, by oh-so-much popular demand, we're doing it again.
Here's how it works:
I'm asking each of you to give one dollar - just a single buckaroo - to each of our featured charities. Most of our picks are signed up with First Giving, a charity payment service, which means you can enter your info once and it wil remember it for each charity - a real time saver.
And because we're all so busy this month, I'm going to switch things up by announcing all of our charity picks today, so you won't miss any of the later ones while you're off traveling and celebrating and whatnot. Feel free to give to them all today, or come back and give one day at a time with your families. (I've heard from lots of folks who use this as a teaching tool for their kids - cool idea!)
By itself, a dollar can't do much. But that's the whole point: if we work together, our individual dollars WILL make a difference. And seeing that happen - knowing that a new well was drilled or a little boy got his surgery or a family will have full bellies this Christmas - and knowing you made that happen? Well, wow. Just...wow.
Let's do that, Wreckies.
So, without further ado, here's our 2011 Charity Countdown lineup:
Give Kids The World provides children with life-threatening illnesses and their families truly magical experiences at the Give Kids The World Village, a 70-acre Orlando resort specifically designed for children with special needs.
Click here to donate your dollar.
Love146 has one simple, compelling, gut-wrenching goal: "The abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation. Nothing less."
Cick here to donate your dollar.
Operation Smile provides free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for children around the globe.
Click here to donate your dollar.
Share Our Strength's goal is to end childhood hunger in America. "Working with others, we believe we can do this by 2015."
Click here to donate your dollar.
charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We use 100% of public donations to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need.
Click here to donate your dollar.
Free Wheelchair Mission is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations.
Click here to donate your dollar.
To Write Love On Her Arms is dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.
Click here to give your dollar.
Heifer International works to end hunger and poverty by providing livestock, training, and related services to communities worldwide.
Click here to give your dollar.
Also, feel free to share links to your favorite charities in the comments - especially local or lesser-known ones - so we can all find some new causes to support this year!


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With Thought Bubble only a week away, I thought I'd share some news/plans with everyone. Firstly, if you're not planning on going to Thought Bubble - GO! It really is the finest convention the UK has to offer. Just the right kind of focus for anybody's tastes, just the right kind of atmosphere to make creators, guests and families feel welcome. This will be my fourth time exhibiting and I'm more excited about it than ever before!
I'll be sharing table 169 in New Dock Hall with P M Buchan, who I've been collaborating with for 8 years, since the first issue of our and Phil Marsden's collaborative anthology Blackout. They were humble beginnings, and we've periodically released 3 more issues since that first one, as well as completing a slew of other strips that Bucky has written and I have drawn, which have featured in, among other places, Starburst and SCREAM magazines. Meanwhile, Marsden has surpassed even himself, managing to weasel his way into illustrating for NME and Kerrang! magazines.
But none these accomplishments even remotely resemble the magnificence of our latest effort, which also features work by the incredible Andrew Waugh, some splendid colour and design work by Michael Barnes, and a guest strip and pin-up by Harley Poe's Joe Whiteford... ladies and gentlemen, I give you Blackout #5. In fact, so much does it eclipse the other issues that we've done away with the issue number and simply christened it BLACKOUT. It is a completely stand-alone, monolithic behemoth of pain, filth and gore. Within its confines, I have a silent, four-page strip entitled "Wages of Sin", written by Buchan, coloured by Barnes, and a seven-page romantic tragedy soaked in blood, affectionately named "What's Inside A Girl?" after the mini-comic of the same title that Bucky produced some 6 years ago. I was also roped into doing the cover, much like the first time we ever put an issue of Blackout together.... typical!
Bucky will also be releasing issue one of his Gothic-horror series La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and has work featured in the anthology Disconnected vol. 2 - read more about these delights on his website. As for moi, I'm disappointed to say no new issue of The Big Bang this year, as it's been all kinds of busy. But I do plan on putting out a beastly issue (if not a concluding issue) next year to make up for it. I will be doing some super sweet deals on comics and prints though:
The Big Bang Issues One, Two and Three - £6.00
John Henry Split My Heart - £2.50
The Gentleman Ghost - £1.50
Costume Party - £2.00
One print - £5.00
Two prints - £9.00
Three prints - £12.00
And I will be offering my customary "Anything you Like" A4 b/w commissions for £5.00 too!
The price of Blackout is yet to be announced, but you're looking at about £3.00 for 32 full-colour pages, on sexy uncoated stock - the only comic that come with a 100% guarantee that all contributors are going straight to hell! Blood sacrifices, hearts of virgins and other offers may be accepted.


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Steve Stricker said over the weekend that he is going to the Match Play Championship now that his brother had a successful liver transplant.
Stricker was leaning against playing next week in Arizona because his 50-year-old brother, Scott Stricker, was waiting on a transplant in Wisconsin. He said he has been practicing, but his mind was not on golf and that it would be a "long shot" if something didn't happen soon.
Later that evening on Thursday, while Stricker was at a Wisconsin basketball game, he received a call that a liver was available. His brother had a 10-hour surgery the next day that went into Saturday morning.
"It went way better than they expected," Stricker said. "It's still going to be tough. He got through the hard part."
Stricker said his only sibling had been in the hospital since Jan. 6, and the six-week stay was going to make the recovery that much more difficult. But all the signs were positive in the hours after transplant surgery.
He said his parents were staying at his home to look after his brother, and that they encouraged him to play.
"It's been crazy, but I'm going to come play since he's doing so well," said Stricker, who announced the news on this Twitter account.
Stricker is No. 12 in the world ranking and a past champion of this World Golf Championship when it was held in Australia in 2001. A year ago, he lost to Ian Poulter in the quarterfinals.
The Accenture Match Play Championship starts Wednesday at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., just north of Tucson.
Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson have already said they were not playing this year. That leaves Kiradech Aphibarnrat at No. 67 in the world as the last man in the field, with Brooks Koepka as the first alternate.


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intro: Now that the Duchess of Cambridge is in the hospital, the countdown is on for what happens after the royal baby is born.
Click here for the inside scoop on Kate's pregnancy.
Though much has changed in the world since the baby's father, Prince William, 31, and his brother, Prince Harry, 28, were born, it remains true that whenever a royal heir is welcomed into the world, pomp, circumstance and tradition follow.
Click here for full coverage of the royal baby.
Click through to see what you can expect when it comes to the public's first glimpse of the baby, the formal birth announcement and more.
Sign the royal baby guest book here!
quicklist: 1 category: title: How Will the Royals Announce the Baby's Birth? url: media: 19232440 text: The world will learn of the baby's birth, and whether it's a boy or a girl, in the same way the births of generations of royals have been announced, with a note on the front gate of Buckingham Palace.
Once the baby is born, the medical staff that delivers the baby will sign an announcement that will be taken by car from the hospital to Buckingham Palace. Once the note arrives, a liveried footman will place the note in front of the palace on the same easel that was used to announce Prince William's birth 31 years ago.
Check out Prince William from toddlerhood to fatherhood.
The note will contain the baby's gender, weight and time of birth, but not necessarily its name. When Prince William was born, the note also included a few details about the young prince, namely that he "has blue eyes and cried lustily."
As modern-day royals, Kate and William will also utilize modern technology to announce their child's birth. The palace will send out an email to formally announce the birth, in addition to the traditional gate announcement.
"I also think they will utilize things like Twitter, social media and the website, as well," said ABC News' Royal Contributor Victoria Murphy.
quicklist: 2 category: title: When Will the Public Get Its First Glimpse of the Royal Baby? url: media: 19376279 text: Kate will follow the tradition of her mother-in-law, Princess Diana, and give birth at a hospital rather than the royal palace. What that means for the public is that the first chance to see the royal baby will come as soon as the duchess is discharged from the hospital.
Princess Diana left St. Mary's Hospital in London by the front door after giving birth to Prince William in 1982 and, two years later, his younger brother, Prince Harry. Kate, who was photographed carrying a bouquet of yellow flowers outside of King Edward VII Hospital in December when she was discharged after treatment for morning sickness, is expected to do the same.
The front door exit gives the royal family a chance to control the photo opportunity while making themselves visible and accessible to their subjects, royal experts say. Prince William, who plans to be in the delivery room with Kate during the birth, may also say a few words outside of the hospital with his family.
The baby will be born in the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital, just like his or her father. The family of three will then likely retreat to the comfort and privacy of their home at Kensington Palace. When Princess Diana gave birth to William in 1982, she left the hospital the day after his birth.
"If she has a straightforward natural birth, then there's absolutely no reason why she couldn't be out within a day," ABC News' Royal Contributor Victoria Murphy said of the duchess. "She will obviously have the option to stay for as long as she wants, but she'll have the best care wherever she's going back to."
quicklist: 3 category: title: The Royal Christening url: media: 19376267 text: When it comes to the traditional christening of their bouncing baby boy or girl, Kate and William have a choice. They can either go with the century-old tradition of holding the baptism ceremony in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace, or they can follow the lead of Princess Diana and Prince Charles and choose to baptize their baby in Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel, as was done with Prince Harry.
Prince Harry's christening there in December 1984 marked the first royal christening in the chapel since 1889. His brother, Prince William, was christened in Buckingham Palace's Music Room by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, who also christened Harry.
Regardless of location, the ceremony will in all likelihood be a small, private affair closed off to media and attended by the couple's close circle of family and friends. Prince William was baptized less than two months after his birth and Prince Harry at three months. The christening could take place as early as the end of July so the queen and Prince Philip could attend before departing for Balmoral estate in Scotland. If it is not held before the royal matriarchs leave, the christening could take place at Crathie Church, located just outside of Balmoral, royal experts said.
Prince William's christening in 1982 was an approximately 30-minute ceremony that included the traditional pouring of baptismal water over his head and calling for his parents and godparents to "bring up this child to fight against evil and follow Christ," according to reports at the time.
The ceremony, attended by the queen and other royals, was followed by a lunch featuring champagne and the christening cake, the top layer of William's parent's wedding cake. The young prince wore an 1841 christening robe made for Queen Victoria's son, the future Edward VII.
quicklist: 4 category: title: Who Will Be the Royal Godparents? url: media: 17877636 text: One of the most tradition-laden tasks for new parents Kate and William after the baby is born will be to name their child's godparents. It's something the soon-to-be parents likely began thinking about as soon as they found out Kate was pregnant, and they may have already decided.
Given the American public's fascination with the couple's siblings, William's younger brother, Prince Harry, and Kate's younger sister, Pippa Middleton, there is almost universal hope they will be named the baby's godparents. The pair stole the spotlight as best man and chief bridesmaid, respectively, at the couple's wedding in April 2011, and have been in the headlines almost as much as the married royals themselves ever since.
Not so fast, however, say royal experts. Following in the British royal tradition of having several godparents, the royal baby will have godparents outside of both the royal and familial circles. William himself has six godparents ranging from a former king of Greece to his father's cousin and close friends of both his mom, Princess Diana, and dad, Prince Charles.
William is already a godfather to children of his friends, including Grace van Cutsem, the then-3-year-old bridesmaid who angrily stood on the palace balcony with her hands over her ears after the royal wedding. One possibility outside the royal circle would be for a member of the van Cutsem family or the Straubenzee family, more close friends of William's, to be tapped as godparents to the heir.
"I'm pretty certain we'll see the godfathers and godmothers recruited from the same circles [as the wedding party]," said Robert Lacey, royal historian and author of "The Queen: A Life in Brief." "This will be a combination of royal relatives and friends of the couple's."


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Planet of Slums
Verso, 2006 - Political Science - 228 pages
According to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the South. In this brilliant and ambitious book, Mike Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world.
From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, even economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly original development unforeseen by either classical Marxism or neoliberal theory.
Are the great slums, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined, volcanoes waiting to erupt? Davis provides the first global overview of the diverse religious, ethnic, and political movements competing for the souls of the new urban poor. He surveys Hindu fundamentalism in Bombay, the Islamist resistance in Casablanca and Cairo, street gangs in Cape Town and San Salvador, Pentecostalism in Kinshasa and Rio de Janeiro, and revolutionary populism in Caracas and La Paz.Planet of Slums ends with a provocative meditation on the "war on terrorism" as an incipient world war between the American empire and the new slum poor.
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LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - HadriantheBlind - LibraryThing
Read for class. This is utterly terrifying and damning. These slums are the exemplification of hell. I have seen some of these slums myself, and can confirm, if only to a minor degree, some of the ... Read full review
LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - paperloverevolution - LibraryThing
I'm not going to lie: this is dry. Really, really dry. I like dry, as a general rule, or at least it doesn't bother me - but this? Man. Maybe it's because the things he covers are so wrenchingly ... Read full review
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according Africa Alan Gilbert areas Asia Asian Bangalore barrios Beijing Bombay Breman Buenos Aires Cairo capital Caracas China city's colonial countryside crisis Delhi Developing Countries Devisch Dhaka economic employment Environment and Urbanisation Erhard Berner estimated evicted example families favelas forced formal gecekondu global growth homes huge human illegal income India industrial inequality informal sector infrastructure International Jakarta Karachi Kibera Kinshasa Kolkata labor Lagos Latin America Likewise live London low-income Manila meanwhile megacities Mexico City middle class migrants million Mumbai Nairobi neoliberal NGOs Oberai official peasants percent peri-urban periphery political projects rent rental researchers residents rural sanitation Sao Paulo SAPs Seabrook Settlements shanty shantytowns slum slum-dwellers social South sprawling squatters squatting street structural adjustment suburbs tenements tenure Third World Third World Cities toilets UN-HABITAT Urban Development urban land urban poor urban poverty villages women workers World Bank World Cities York


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- Mercedes news
Mercedes prioritising 2014 over 2013
Ross Brawn says his Mercedes team will not compromise 2014 by chasing after the title this year.
Mercedes has gone from strength to strength this season and now lies second in the championship after winning three of the last five race and taking pole position at seven of the last eight. Lewis Hamilton, who starts from pole position in Belgium on Sunday, is 48 points off championship leader Sebastian Vettel, but team principal Brawn said Mercedes would not be lured into compromising its 2014 programme in pursuit of the 2013 title.
"We're not thinking in terms of winning the championship," he said. "I don't want that to sound like we don't want to win the championship, of course we do, but we're not compromising our 2014 programme.
"Our 2014 programme is well defined, in good shape and progressing well. There are some big challenges remaining but we are certainly not going to compromise that. There is always a float of people you can move around a bit and that is what we are working with. We want to try and win as many race weekends as we can, but we don't want to compromise the 2014 programme."
Brawn said it would require some "unusual circumstances" for his divers to beat Vettel to this year's title.
"It's great to win races, that's why we are here. We want to win as many races as we can this year and things will develop as they develop. I think everyone recognises what a great job Sebastian is doing and it would have to be some pretty unusual circumstances, it could happen.
"We're not changing our approach and I think that's the important thing. I think we have a very good programme, with the 2014 car is progressing well and lots of our team is focused on that and won't be distracted from that. There are a small amount of things we can do for the rest of this year and a number of things we will continue with. The reality is that if you are in a position where you abandon the season, it's normally because you don't have a very good car. Fortunately we have a good car this year and we want to keep it going.
Brawn's last title came with his self-titled Brawn GP team in 2009, which rose from the ashes of the abandoned Honda team that struggled throughout 2008 and took advantage of regulations changes. The new engine formula for 2014 could present another opportunity to steal a march on the field but Brawn said the circumstances are different this year.
"In 2008 we had a pretty poor car that year and it was a very easy decision to say 'Let's forget it' and we left a crew of people to run it for the rest of the year and then went 100% focused on the next year. If you're in good shape you never have that opportunity and you have to manage your resources all the time. Red Bull have to manage their resources all the time, Ferrari are, all those teams are. It's a matter of where you are, but if you are having to manage your resources it's because you are in a good position. We certainly won't compromise 2014 and what comes from 2013 will come."


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Given how simple this is, and that it is probably taught in the second or maybe even first semester of any decent applied statistics program, there is no excuse for the British study. This is not something that an even slightly competent researcher could possibly fail to notice in the data even if they somehow overlooked the information about how the definition changed ("hmm, let's look at the trend from year to year: down a bit, down a bit, same, down a bit, huge increase, down a bit, down a bit – yup, it sure looks like an upward tend to me").
Either someone was intentionally trying to mislead their audience or they were in so far over their heads – and by this I mean they knew absolutely nothing about analyzing statistics, but did so anyway – that they had no excuse for claiming their analysis was worth anything. Either way, it is important to recognize the difference between honest disagreement (which this obviously was not, since the ONS retracted it), honest mistakes (which this was not because the mistake is too glaring to make honestly), and dishonesty (either in the form of lying about the world or about one's qualifications).
This, of course, is a reference to the ONS's claim (since debunked and retracted) that women's drinking is on the rise in Britain. Go read.


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Planning Tips
- Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com/kenya) Destination information, hotel bookings, traveller forum and more.
- Kenya Wildlife Service (www.kws.org) Conservation news and information on national parks and reserves.
- Safari Bookings (www.safaribookings.com) Invaluable resource for choosing safari operators and destinations.
- Kenya Association of Tour Operators (www.katokenya.org) Full list of KATO-approved member companies.
- Eco Tourism Kenya (www.ecotourismkenya.org) Excellent resource for gauging the sustainability of Kenyan tourism.
- Why I Love Kenya (www.facebook.com/WhyWeLoveKenya) Evolving collection of good news stories about Kenya and its attractions.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it was working with drugmaker Merck & Co and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to gather information on the cattle feed additive Zilmax and determine if it is unsafe.
The FDA, in an email response to a Reuters query, said it had received "a very small number of reports of lameness or lying down" in cattle whose feed contained zilpaterol, also known as Zilmax.
The agency said it would review any new information about the additive and would notify Merck and the public if it determined the product posed safety concerns.
The USDA had no comment and referred questions to the FDA, which does not typically reveal its investigations.
Merck said on Friday it was temporarily suspending sales of Zilmax in the United States and Canada, following concerns about the drug, which is given to cattle to increase their weight before slaughter.
Last week, Tyson Foods Inc said it would stop accepting beef from Zilmax-fed cattle after it observed animals arriving at its slaughter facilities with signs that they had difficulty walking or moving.
Merck on Tuesday revealed a new program to retrain and certify beef producers in administering Zilmax, which had sales of $159 million last year.
On Friday, K.J. Varma, the head of research at Merck's animal health unit, told Reuters the company had not seen any safety or effectiveness issues with Zilmax beyond those observed in clinical trials before it was introduced in 2007.
The FDA, which is responsible for ensuring that drugs on the market are safe and effective, requires drugmakers to report any adverse events. "We are always interested in new information about the safety and effectiveness of approved animal drugs," the regulator said on Friday.
Tyson Foods, the nation's largest meat processor, said its rejection of Zilmax-fed cattle was based on animal welfare, not food safety. It said it did not know what was causing the animals' behavior, but animal health experts have suggested the use of the weight-adding drug may be a possible cause.
Zilmax, approved by the FDA in 2006, is one drug in the class of beta-agonists, which is approved and deemed safe by the FDA and long used by the livestock industry to add muscle weight to cattle, pigs and turkey in the weeks before slaughter.
Beta-agonists have come under scrutiny in recent months over industry concerns that animals showed signs of distress and had difficulty walking after being fed the additives.
Additional reporting by Charles Abbott in Washington and Ransdell Pierson in New York; editing by Karey Van Hall, John Wallace and Matthew Lewis


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The way cancer affects spirituality is different for everyone. Spirituality can be defined as an individual's sense of peace, purpose, connection to others and beliefs about the meaning of life. Cancer may weaken one person's spirituality while strengthening someone else's. And for some people, spirituality plays no role in their cancer journey at all.
Spirituality can be expressed through an organized religion or in other ways. Spirituality and religion have different meanings for many people, even though the terms are often used in place of each other. Religion can be defined as a specific set of beliefs and practices, usually with an organized group.
Cancer may challenge long-held beliefs. Sometimes, people living with cancer feel that their faith has let them down. For example, you may struggle to understand why you have cancer or question your relationship with your god. This unresolved spiritual conflict and doubt is sometimes called spiritual distress.
For others, a cancer experience can encourage new and stronger beliefs. Many people living with cancer find that their spirituality is a source of comfort and support. Cancer may bring a new or deeper meaning to their faith. They find they can cope better with cancer's difficulties when they:
- pray
- read spiritual books
- meditate
- talk with members of their spiritual community
If you'd like to talk to someone about spiritual issues, don't worry if you haven't attended religious services regularly or aren't sure what you believe. Spiritual care providers are used to dealing with uncertainty. Their job is to help you sort through your ideas, doubts and beliefs, and find peace of mind.
If you don't have a spiritual care provider to talk to, ask a member of your healthcare team if there is a chaplaincy service available to you. Hospitals and treatment centres often have chaplains on staff to help you and your family with spiritual concerns. While they come from specific faith traditions, they are trained to provide support to people with traditions different from their own.
Cancer affects all Canadians
Nearly 1 in 2 Canadians is expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.


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Remains of Two Civil War Sailors Head for Arlington
(WASHINGTON) -- The remains of two sailors from the Civil War's USS Monitor arrived at Washington's Dulles Airport Thursday morning in preparation for their burial Friday at Arlington National Cemetery. The remains of the two unidentified sailors were found inside the turret of the iconic ironclad ship when it was found in the waters off of Cape Hatteras, N.C., in 2002.
The Union ironclad sank in a storm off the cape on Dec. 31, 1862, nine months after its landmark sea battle with the Confederate ironclad, the CSS Virginia -- previously known as the Merrimack. The two sailors were among the 16 believed to have perished with the ship when it sank to the ocean floor. Fifty other sailors were able to survive the ship's sinking.
The Navy plans to bury the two unidentified sailors on the 151st anniversary of its encounter with the Virginia in the Battle of Hampton Roads. The battle of the ironclads was considered a draw, but the era of wooden ships was over.
For the past decade the Navy has tried to identify the sailors' remains through genealogical research and forensic work conducted at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii, the same lab that identifies the remains of Americans recovered from the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam.
Though their identities still remain to be determined through DNA analysis, the forensic work determined that both were Caucasians who stood about 5-feet-7, one was in his late teens to early 20s, the other in his 30s.
A year ago, clay models of what they may have looked like were made public after a forensic reconstruction of their skulls.
The two flag-draped caskets were transported from Hawaii aboard Delta Airlines flights. The plane that arrived at Dulles was a connecting flight from Atlanta.
Following military custom and the law, Navy officers and a Navy Ceremonial Guard were on the windswept tarmac as part of the Dignified Transfer to escort the remains to two waiting hearses.
The plane's passengers remained aboard the aircraft as airport workers made preparations to off-load the caskets from the plane's cargo hold onto a conveyor belt. Throughout the Dignified Transfer many of the passengers could be seen peering through the plane's windows snapping photos with their phones. The ceremony was also witnessed by people inside the terminal looking out the picture windows by the plane's airport gate.
As each casket was moved down the conveyor belt it was greeted by a Navy chaplain and other Navy officers who stood at attention and saluted the remains.
As the chaplain said a brief prayer over each casket, airport workers could be seen bowing their heads in prayer.
Sailors from the Ceremonial Guard then approached to carry solemnly each casket to its hearse.
The burial of the two sailors has generated nationwide interest. Juan Garcia, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, the senior official on hand for Thursday's arrival, said the interest is easy to explain.
"This resonates for the Navy, for the Navy's and for the whole country. Everyone has a stake in this," he told ABC News.
He described it as a message that carries over to today's service members.
"The sense of 'thank you, folks,' for paying the last full measure of devotion, for being willing to raise their right hand, to go into harm's way. And fulfilling our promise to bring them home and to lay them to rest properly, even if it takes a century and a half to do so," Garcia said.
Navy officials have said that these sailors could be the last two Navy personnel from the Civil War to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, a cemetery established during the Civil War on Robert E. Lee's estate.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio


text: A frail Selena Gomez, troubled by her off-and-on relationship with Justin Bieber and a recent health scare, celebrated her new partnership with adidas NEO Label in Los Angeles yesterday. Sources said an elaborate set had been built for a performance by Selena, who on Monday sought medical treatment for throat problems. A source at the launch told us, "Selena wasn't feeling up to a performance. She is still having throat problems, so her performance was canceled at the last moment. But she put on a smile, posed for pictures and did everything else she was required to do." We revealed Selena and Justin split earlier this month when he was flirting with a series of Victoria's Secret models. But they reconciled and were together at the AMA after-parties Sunday before she visited an LA hospital Monday for a sore throat and suspected bronchitis. Reports said Bieber waited outside in a van during her 20-minute visit. They were later seen dining with friends at Benihana in Encino.


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Daily builds for branch SLE15-SP2-AZURE
Daily builds are done in the Kernel:SLE15-SP2-AZURE buildservice project. Here is the download repository. If you want to try latest packages from this branch, use the following commands:
zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/SLE15-SP2-AZURE/standard \ Kernel:SLE15-SP2-AZURE zypper in --from Kernel:SLE15-SP2-AZURE kernel-default
More information about branch SLE15-SP2-AZURE
Please note: The packages are built for the distribution they are targetting. In case of the vanilla and linux-next branches, this is the latest released openSUSE version. While the packages should work fine on fine on a distribution that is slightly newer or slightly older, installing ancient kernels on the latest distributions is asking for trouble. Same goes for the opposite case, e.g. installing the Factory kernel on SLES 9.


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Mitt jokes about his birth certificate
COMMERCE, Mich. — While campaigning here in his home state, Mitt Romney joked about his birth certificate, an apparent jab at President Barack Obama that drew immediate rebuke.
"Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital," he said. "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised."
Story Continued Below
The crowd — that Romney pegged as between 5,000 and 10,000 — erupted in cheers.
( Also on POLITICO: 8 Romney lines that drew a firestorm)
Romney barely finished speaking before Obama's campaign shot back.
"Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them," said Ben LaBolt, Obama's press secretary, in a statement. "It's one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney's decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America."
Romney's camp was quick to dismiss the idea that he was latching onto the birther movement, which claims that the president wasn't born in the United States.
A Romney spokesman said afterward that Romney was "just illustrating that he was born and raised here in Michigan" and that the GOP nominee has been "on the record a number of tim
es" on the birther issue.
"The governor has always said, and has repeatedly said, he believes the president was born here in the United States," spokesman Kevin Madden said. "He was only referencing that Michigan, where he is campaigning today, is the state where he himself was born and raised."
Ryan spokesman Michael Steel said the congressman, like Romney, believes Obama was born in the United States.
"He's been very clear throughout this entire process, as I believe the governor has."
Romney has previously struggled to keep some distance between himself and the birther movement, which remains alive despite the April 2011 release of Obama's long-form birth certificate. Romney has accepted the endorsement of Donald Trump — a vocal proponent of the push that Obama wasn't born in the United States — who will be in Tampa at the Republican convention this coming week.