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Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
Topic Overview
What is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)?
Polycystic ovary syndrome (say "pah-lee-SIS-tik OH-vuh-ree SIN-drohm") is a problem in which a woman's hormones are out of balance. It can cause problems with your periods and make it difficult to get pregnant. PCOS also may cause unwanted changes in the way you look. If it isn't treated, over time it can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Most women with PCOS grow many small cysts on their ovaries. That is why it is called polycystic ovary syndrome. The cysts are not harmful but lead to hormone imbalances.
Early diagnosis and treatment can help control the symptoms and prevent long-term problems.
What are hormones, and what happens in PCOS?
Hormones are chemical messengers that trigger many different processes, including growth and energy production. Often, the job of one hormone is to signal the release of another hormone.
For reasons that are not well understood, in PCOS the hormones get out of balance. One hormone change triggers another, which changes another. For example:
- The sex hormones get out of balance. Normally, the ovaries make a tiny amount of male sex hormones (androgens). In PCOS, they start making slightly more androgens. This may cause you to stop ovulating, get acne, and grow extra facial and body hair.
- The body may have a problem using insulin, called insulin resistance. When the body doesn't use insulin well, blood sugar levels go up. Over time, this increases your chance of getting diabetes.
What causes PCOS?
The cause of PCOS is not fully understood, but genetics may be a factor. PCOS seems to run in families, so your chance of having it is higher if other women in your family have it or have irregular periods or diabetes. PCOS can be passed down from either your mother's or father's side.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms tend to be mild at first. You may have only a few symptoms or a lot of them. The most common symptoms are:
- Acne.
- Weight gain and trouble losing weight.
- Extra hair on the face and body. Often women get thicker and darker facial hair and more hair on the chest, belly, and back.
- Thinning hair on the scalp.
- Irregular periods. Often women with PCOS have fewer than nine periods a year. Some women have no periods. Others have very heavy bleeding.
- Fertility problems. Many women who have PCOS have trouble getting pregnant (infertility).
- Depression.
How is PCOS diagnosed?
To diagnose PCOS, the doctor will:
- Ask questions about your past health, symptoms, and menstrual cycles.
- Do a physical exam to look for signs of PCOS, such as extra body hair and high blood pressure. The doctor will also check your height and weight to see if you have a healthy body mass index (BMI).
- Do a number of lab tests to check your blood sugar, insulin, and other hormone levels. Hormone tests can help rule out thyroid or other gland problems that could cause similar symptoms.
You may also have a pelvic ultrasound to look for cysts on your ovaries. Your doctor may be able to tell you that you have PCOS without an ultrasound, but this test will help him or her rule out other problems.
How is it treated?
Regular exercise, healthy foods, and weight control are the key treatments for PCOS. Treatment can reduce unpleasant symptoms and help prevent long-term health problems.
- Try to fit in moderate activity and/or vigorous activity often. Walking is a great exercise that most people can do.
- Eat heart-healthy foods. This includes lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, and whole grains. It limits foods that are high in saturated fat, such as meats, cheeses, and fried foods.
- Most women who have PCOS can benefit from losing weight. Even losing 10 lb (4.5 kg) may help get your hormones in balance and regulate your menstrual cycle.
- If you smoke, consider quitting. Women who smoke have higher androgen levels that may contribute to PCOS symptoms.footnote 1
Your doctor also may prescribe birth control pills to reduce symptoms, metformin to help you have regular menstrual cycles, or fertility medicines if you are having trouble getting pregnant.
It is important to see your doctor for follow-up to make sure that treatment is working and to adjust it if needed. You may also need regular tests to check for diabetes, high blood pressure, and other possible problems.
It may take a while for treatments to help with symptoms such as facial hair or acne. You can use over-the-counter or prescription medicines for acne.
It can be hard to deal with having PCOS. If you are feeling sad or depressed, it may help to talk to a counselor or to other women who have PCOS.
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The cause of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is not fully understood, but genetics may be a factor.
PCOS problems are caused by hormone changes. One hormone change triggers another, which changes another.
Symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) tend to start gradually. Hormone changes that lead to PCOS often start in the early teens, after the first menstrual period. Symptoms may be especially noticeable after a weight gain.
Symptoms may include:
- Menstrual problems. These can include few or no menstrual periods or heavy, irregular bleeding.
- Hair loss from the scalp and hair growth (hirsutism) on the face, chest, back, stomach, thumbs, or toes.
- Acne and oily skin
- Fertility problems, such as not releasing an egg (not ovulating) or repeat miscarriages.
- Insulin resistance and too much insulin (hyperinsulinemia), which can cause things like upper body obesity and skin tags.
- Depression or mood swings. For more information, see the topic Depression or Depression in Children and Teens.
- Breathing problems while sleeping (obstructive sleep apnea). This is linked to both obesity and insulin resistance.
What Happens
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can affect your reproductive system and how your body handles blood sugar. It can also affect your heart.
Reproductive problems
Hormone imbalances can cause several types of pregnancy problems and related problems, including:
- Infertility. This happens when the ovaries aren't releasing an egg every month.
- Repeat miscarriages.
- Gestational diabetes during pregnancy.
- Increased blood pressure during pregnancy or delivery, having a larger than normal or smaller than normal baby, or having a premature baby.
- Precancer of the uterine lining (endometrial hyperplasia). This can happen when you don't have regular menstrual cycles, which normally build up and "clear off" the uterine lining every month.
- Uterine (endometrial) cancer. Risk during the reproductive years is 3 times greater in women who have PCOS than in women who ovulate monthly.footnote 2
Problems with blood sugar
Insulin is a hormone that helps your body's cells get the sugar they need for energy. Sometimes these cells don't fully respond to insulin. This is called insulin resistance. It can lead to diabetes.
Heart problems and stroke
High insulin levels from PCOS can lead to heart and blood vessel problems. These include:
- Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).
- Coronary artery disease and heart attack.
- High blood pressure.
- High cholesterol.
- Stroke.
What Increases Your Risk
The main risk factor for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a family history of it. Your chance of having it is higher if other women in your family have it or have irregular periods or diabetes. PCOS can be passed down from either your mother's or father's side.
A family history of diabetes may increase your risk for PCOS because of the strong relationship between diabetes and PCOS.
Long-term use of the seizure medicine valproate (such as Depakote) has been linked to an increased risk of PCOS.footnote 1
When should you call your doctor?
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) causes a wide range of symptoms, so it may be hard to know when to see your doctor. But early diagnosis and treatment will help prevent serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease. See your doctor if you have symptoms that suggest PCOS.
Call your doctor right away or seek immediate medical care if:
- You have severe vaginal bleeding. You are soaking through your usual pads or tampons every hour for 2 or more hours.
Call your doctor if you have:
- More vaginal bleeding, or bleeding is more irregular.
- Regular menstrual cycles but you have been trying unsuccessfully to become pregnant for more than 12 months.
- Any symptoms of diabetes, such as increased thirst and frequent urination (especially at night), unexplained increase in appetite, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, blurred vision, or tingling or numbness in your hands or feet.
- Depression or mood swings. Many women may have emotional problems related to the physical symptoms of PCOS, such as excess hair, obesity, or infertility.
Watchful waiting
Taking a wait-and-see approach (called watchful waiting) is not appropriate if you may have PCOS. Early diagnosis and treatment may help prevent future problems.
Who to see
Health professionals who can diagnose and treat PCOS include:
Exams and Tests
No single test can show that you have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Your doctor will talk to you about your medical history, do a physical exam, and run some tests.
Medical history
The medical history includes questions about your symptoms. Your doctor may ask you about changes in your weight, skin, hair, and menstrual cycle. He or she may also ask you about problems with getting pregnant, medicines you are taking, and your eating and exercise habits.
You will also talk about any family history of hormone problems, including diabetes.
Physical exam
The physical exam checks your thyroid gland, skin, hair, breasts, and belly. You will have a blood pressure check and a pelvic exam to find out if you have enlarged or abnormal ovaries. Your doctor can also check your body mass index (BMI).
You may have a pelvic ultrasound, which might show enlarged ovaries with small cysts. These are signs of PCOS. But many women with PCOS don't have these signs.
Lab tests
You may have blood tests to check for:
- Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), to find out if you are pregnant.
- Testosterone, an androgen. Androgens at high levels can block ovulation and cause acne, male-type hair growth on the face and body, and hair loss from the scalp.
- Prolactin, which can play a part in a lack of menstrual cycles or infertility.
- Cholesterol and triglycerides, which can be at unhealthy levels with PCOS.
- Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) to check for an overactive or underactive thyroid.
- Adrenal gland hormones, such as DHEA-S or 17-hydroxyprogesterone. An adrenal problem can cause symptoms much like PCOS.
- Glucose tolerance and insulin levels, which can show insulin resistance.
Testing for problems from PCOS
Diabetes. If you have PCOS, experts recommend that you have blood glucose testing for diabetes by age 30. footnote 3You may have this done at a younger age if you have PCOS and other risk factors for diabetes (such as obesity, lack of exercise, a family history of diabetes, or gestational diabetes during a past pregnancy). After this, your doctor will tell you how often to have testing for diabetes.
Heart disease. Your doctor will regularly check your cholesterol and triglycerides, blood pressure, and weight. This is because PCOS is linked to higher risks of high blood pressure, weight gain, high cholesterol, heart disease, hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), heart attack, and stroke.
Uterine (endometrial) cancer. Regular menstrual cycles normally build up and "clear off" the uterine lining every month. When the uterine lining builds up for a long time, precancer of the uterine lining (endometrial hyperplasia) can grow. If you have had infrequent menstrual periods for at least 1 year, your doctor may use a transvaginal ultrasound and/or endometrial biopsy to look for signs of precancer or cancer.footnote 4
Treatment Overview
Regular exercise, a healthy diet, weight control, and not smoking are all important parts of treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). You may also take medicine to balance your hormones.
Treatments depend on your symptoms and whether you are planning a pregnancy.
There is no cure for PCOS, but controlling it lowers your risks of infertility, miscarriages, diabetes, heart disease, and uterine cancer.
Healthy lifestyle
- If you are overweight, weight loss may be all the treatment you need. A small amount of weight loss is likely to help balance your hormones and start up your menstrual cycle and ovulation.
- Eat a balanced diet that includes lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products.
- Get regular exercise to help you control or lose weight and feel better.
- If you smoke, consider quitting. Women who smoke have higher levels of androgens than women who don't smoke.footnote 1
For more information, see Home Treatment.
Hormone therapy
If weight loss alone doesn't start ovulation (or if you don't need to lose weight), your doctor may have you try a medicine such as metformin or clomiphene to help you start to ovulate.
If you aren't planning a pregnancy, you can also use hormone therapy to help control your ovary hormones. To correct menstrual cycle problems, birth control hormones keep your endometrial lining from building up for too long. This can prevent uterine cancer.
Hormone therapy also can help with male-type hair growth and acne. Birth control pills, patches, or vaginal rings are prescribed for hormone therapy. Androgen-lowering spironolactone (Aldactone) is often used with combined hormonal birth control. This helps with hair loss, acne, and male-pattern hair growth on the face and body (hirsutism).
You can use other methods to treat acne and remove excess hair. For more information, see Home Treatment.
Taking hormones doesn't help with heart, blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes risks. This is why exercise and a healthy diet are key parts of your treatment.
To learn more about hormones, see Medications.
If weight loss and medicine don't restart ovulation, you may want to try other treatments. For more information, see the topic Fertility Problems.
Regular checkups
Regular checkups are important for catching any PCOS complications, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, uterine cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) cannot be prevented. But early diagnosis and treatment helps prevent long-term complications, such as infertility, metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Home Treatment
Home treatment can help you manage the symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and live a healthy life.
Healthy eating and exercise
Eat a balanced diet. A diet that includes lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products supplies your body's nutritional needs, satisfies your hunger, and decreases your cravings. And a healthy diet makes you feel better and have more energy.
You may see a registered dietitian who has special knowledge about diabetes.
For more information, see the topic Healthy Eating.
Make physical activity a regular and essential part of your life. Choose fitness activities that are right for you to help boost your motivation. Walking is one of the best activities. Having a walking or exercise partner that you can count on can also be a great way to stay active. For more information, see the topic Fitness.
Weight control and weight loss
Stay at a healthy weight. This is the weight at which you feel good about yourself, have energy for work and play, and can manage your PCOS symptoms.
If you need to lose weight, doing so will lower your risks for diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), and high cholesterol.footnote 2
A modest weight loss can improve high androgen and high insulin levels and infertility. Weight loss of as little as 5% to 7% over 6 months can reduce androgen levels enough to restore ovulation and fertility in more than 75% of women who have PCOS.footnote 5
Losing weight can be hard, but you can do it. The easiest way to start is by cutting calories and becoming more active. For help, see the topic Weight Management.
Don't smoke
If you smoke, consider quitting. Women who smoke have higher levels of androgens than women who don't smoke. footnote 1Smoking also increases the risk for heart disease. For more information, see Quitting Smoking.
Caring for skin and hair
Acne treatment may include nonprescription or prescription medicines that you put on your skin (topical) or take by mouth (oral). Some women notice an improvement in their acne after using estrogen-progestin hormone pills. For more information, see the topic Acne.
Excess hair growth (hirsutism) slows when high androgen levels decrease. In the meantime, you can remove or treat unwanted hair with:
- Laser hair removal, in which the hair follicle is destroyed by a laser beam.
- Electrolysis, in which your hair is permanently removed by electric current applied to the hair root.
- Depilatories, which are chemical hair removal products applied to the skin.
- Waxing, which pulls the hair out by the root.
- Shaving.
- Tweezing.
- Bleaching.
Hair removal methods differ in cost and long-term effectiveness. Before trying one, ask your doctor about risks of infection and scarring.
As part of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) treatment, medicines can be used to help control reproductive hormone or insulin levels.
Medicine choices
Medicines to treat reproductive or metabolic problems include:
- Combination estrogen and progestin hormones in birth control pills, vaginal rings, or skin patches. These hormones correct irregular menstrual bleeding or absent menstrual cycles. They may also improve your androgen-related acne problems, male-type hair growth, and male-pattern hair loss.
- Synthetic progestin. If you are not able to use the hormone estrogen, talk to your doctor about using progestin shots or pills for part of your cycle. The progestin makes your endometrial lining build up and shed, similar to a menstrual period. This monthly shedding is what prevents uterine cancer.
- Androgen-lowering spironolactone (Aldactone), which is a diuretic. It is often used with estrogen-progestin therapy. This reduces hair loss, acne, and abnormal hair growth on the face and body (hirsutism).
- Metformin (Glucophage). This diabetes medicine is used for controlling insulin, blood sugar levels, and androgen levels.
- Clomiphene (Clomid), letrozole (Femara), and gonadotropin injections (LH and FSH) can trigger ovulation.
Eflornithine (such as Vaniqa) is a prescription skin cream that slows hair growth for as long as you use it regularly. Talk to your doctor about whether it is right for you.
Treatment for acne includes nonprescription and prescription medicines that are applied to the skin (topical) or taken by mouth (oral). For more information, see Acne.
Combination hormone pills may improve acne that is related to high androgen levels.footnote 6
Surgical treatment is sometimes used for women with infertility caused by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who do not start ovulating after taking medicine.
Surgery choices
Laparoscopic ovarian drilling is a surgical treatment that can trigger ovulation in women who have PCOS and who have not responded to weight loss and fertility medicine. Electrocautery or a laser is used to destroy portions of the ovaries.
What to think about
Surgery for PCOS may be recommended only if you have not responded to any other treatment for PCOS. Each woman will want to discuss the risks and benefits of this surgery with her doctor. Surgery is less likely to lead to multiple pregnancies than taking fertility medicines. It is not known how long the benefits from surgery will last. There is some concern that ovarian surgery can cause scar tissue, which can lead to pain or more fertility problems.
- Keefe K, Pal L (2014). Polycystic ovary syndrome. In EG Nabel et al., eds., Scientific American Medicine, chap. 66. Hamilton, ON: BC Decker. https://www.deckerip.com/decker/scientific-american-medicine/chapter/66. Accessed date April 13, 2017.
- Fritz MA, Speroff L (2011). Chronic anovulation and the polycystic ovary syndrome. Clinical Gynecologic Endocrinology and Infertility, 8th ed., pp. 495–531. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
- American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (2005). Position statement on metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of polycystic ovary syndrome. Endocrine Practice: 11(2): 126–134.
- Ehrmann DA (2005). Polycystic ovary syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine, 352(12): 1223–1236.
- Huang I, et al. (2007). Endocrine disorders. In JS Berek, ed., Berek and Novak's Gynecology, 14th ed., pp. 1069–1135. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
- Ehrmann DA (2005). Polycystic ovary syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine, 352(12): 1223–1236.
Other Works Consulted
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2009). Polycystic ovary syndrome. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 108. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 114(4): 936–949.
- Cahill DJ, O'Brien K (2015). Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): Metformin. BMJ Clinical Evidence. http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/x/systematic-review/1408/overview.html. Accessed September 22, 2015.
- Dronavalli S, Ehrmann DA (2007). Pharmacologic therapy of polycystic ovary syndrome. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 50(1): 244–254.
- Hall J (2007). Neuroendocrine changes with reproductive aging in women. Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, 25(5): 344–351.
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Writing Committee (2005). American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists position statement on metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of polycystic ovary syndrome. Endocrine Practice, 11(2): 125–134.
- Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (2006). The evaluation and treatment of androgen excess. Fertility and Sterility, 86(4, Suppl): S241–S247.
- Rotterdam ESHRE/ASRM-Sponsored PCOS Consensus Workshop Group (2003). Revised 2003 consensus on diagnostic criteria and long-term health risks related to polycystic ovary syndrome. Fertility and Sterility, 81(1): 19–25.
- Setji T, Brown AJ (2007). Polycystic ovary syndrome: Diagnosis and treatment. American Journal of Medicine, 120(2): 128–132.
- Thatcher SS, Jackson EM (2006). Pregnancy outcome in infertile patients with polycystic ovary syndrome who were treated with metformin. Fertility and Sterility, 85(4): 1002–1009.
Current as of: February 19, 2019
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:Patrice Burgess MD – Family Medicine & Kathleen Romito MD – Family Medicine & Martin J. Gabica MD – Family Medicine & Kirtly Jones MD – Obstetrics and Gynecology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. Learn how we develop our content.


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This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. The disasters arrived in waves: the earthquake first; then a massive tsunami that swept ashore on the northeast coast of Japan; a combination that then triggered meltdowns and explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Even in a country alert to tsunamis, more than 19,000 people died. In a country painfully aware of radiation, many worry about the effects of exposure in the air, in the water, in the soil, in the food. Even in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, hundreds of thousands are still displaced. They live in temporary housing, and many worry they'll never be able to leave.
If you have family living in the tsunami zone, Tohoku, or around the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, call and tell us their story. Our phone number is 800-989-8255. Email us, email@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, an argument that Aaron Swartz was right on The Opinion Page this week. But first Japan two years after the tsunami Fukushima power plant meltdowns. Joining us now is Yuri Kageyama. She's Tokyo correspondent the AP and joins us on the phone from Tokyo. Good to have you with us today.
YURI KAGEYAMA: Yeah, thank you for having us.
CONAN: And let's start with those hundreds of thousands still displaced. What kind of housing are they living in?
KAGEYAMA: Well, there are some that are living in temporary housing that has been built. They're sort of like barracks that are in rows. But some people have also, like, you know, opted to look for other kinds of housing like company dormitories or their relatives' homes or apartments of their own, or - it's, you know, various forms.
But there's still a lot of people in those homes and because they're still waiting for a more permanent way of living.
CONAN: So Yuri Kageyama, as - are some of those people displaced by the wave, others by radiation?
KAGEYAMA: Right.
CONAN: And what are their prospects of finding new homes?
KAGEYAMA: Well, the recovery, the rebuilding has been very slow. And also some of the people are farmers or fishermen, or they're a lot more tied to the land than urban dwellers like us in Tokyo. And so it's very difficult for them to make the adjustment. They really want to go back to their homes, and they keep hoping that they can go back, and also a lot of them are old, some of them are sick. So it's just very difficult.
CONAN: Some of them in the immediate area of the reactors will never be able to go back to their homes, certainly not their lifetimes, and others who lived in the tsunami zone, their houses were destroyed by the waves. There's no plans to rebuild there because it's too dangerous.
KAGEYAMA: Yes, the rebuilding in the area where that was devastated by the tsunami, I mean it's a huge area, but there are a lot of factors that they have to consider because a tsunami might come again. There's a lot of cleanup. There's a lot of debris. And of course as you say with the area right close to the plant, it is just - there's just - the contamination is so great and the risks to health so great that it will be a no-go zone for years, just like in Chernobyl.
CONAN: And there's just been an election in Japan, there's a new government. Was the fate of the people in Tohoku, the northeastern region there, was that a factor in the election? Are people - do people still care the same way as they used to?
KAGEYAMA: I think people do care, and the outpouring of, like, donations and volunteers has been great. But, you know, people have, outside of Tohoku region, they have other lives and other things they have to take care of. So now there's a lot of anger toward the previous government and how they did not act quickly enough to get the recovery going or how the dealt with the disaster in general.
And even the people in Tohoku, too, they said that they didn't want to vote in for the same government. So what we have is a return to the government that we had, you know, before, and that government is actually much more pro-nuclear energy. So we have government that's now actually ironically saying that nuclear power is very safe and that, you know, they would put in some more new regulations, and they want to try to see if they can get nuclear power going again.
CONAN: Some plants in fact were - work was stopped after the disaster two years ago today. Those projects have begun to rebuild, start again.
KAGEYAMA: Well, yes, that's what the prime minister is said. The action is slow going toward that because the distrust is so great, and there are protests all the time again restarting any of the nuclear power plants. And only two out of the 50 that are working, not the four that are not working in Fukushima Daiichi, they two - only two have been able to be restarted.
CONAN: Well, joining us now is Nikki Kininmonth, she's a freelance translator based in Tokyo and spent time in Tohoku, that's the region affected by the earthquake and tsunami. She joins us now by Skype from Hiraizumi in Japan. Nice to have you on TALK OF THE NATION.
NIKKI KININMONTH: Hi, good to talk to you, too, Neal.
CONAN: And take us back to two years ago. What did you see in the first days after the disaster?
KININMONTH: Well, I found myself in Sendai about three days after 3/11 two years ago. I was asked to join a group of Dutch TV crew to just film what was there. And what I saw was just a lot of people who were really not sure what had happened. I mean, they had been struck by the tsunami in their seaside town off Shichirigahama in Sendai.
And we spoke with the people who had safely been able to evacuate themselves to the town halls, which are very basic places. They just had blankets and, you know, canned food. The toilets had no running water, so they had to have lots of buckets to just clean themselves. And we just asked them so, you know, what's going on, and what do you plan to do, and really just their answers were we're just waiting for the government to give us a direction. We're just finding remnants of our houses, our fridges on the beach. We're just picking up food that we can eat and waiting for a new day to come.
It was really quite surreal what I saw.
CONAN: That is quite a scene. I have to ask you: Two years later, in some respects people are still waiting for the government.
KININMONTH: They - sure. I mean, at the moment everyone has been able to live in temporary housing. As Yuri was saying, these are very, sort of, basically built barracks that have got four walls and a roof, but they're very small. I've heard of stories about people getting very depressed because the tight community that they used to once have has been completely dispersed. People have been scattered all over throughout the region. And it's been really difficult for them, especially for the old people who have lost their families, or who've been living alone even before the disaster. They just have no way to find a purpose in life, people who've lost their livelihood like farmers and fishermen.
They can't work, so they just spend their days just wandering around smoking or going through the pachinko gambling parlors. And it's been very hard for the people who've lost their direction in life.
CONAN: And I wonder: Have you detected a change in the national attitude? This was a national crisis two years ago. Is it still seen that way?
KININMONTH: Well yes, completely. There's a very strong attitude in the media, especially in the first few weeks and months after. There was a lot of talk of rebuilding Japan, the tight - the bond between Japanese people. This was a time when the nation had to be strong and support itself. But I personally felt, living in Tokyo, even just a couple of months after March 11, I was starting to feel that people just wanted to get back to their own lives because there was only so much that people felt they could do.
So of course there was a lot of donations and volunteers coming in who were really eager to do their part. But, I mean, this wasn't just about an earthquake and a tsunami. This was also about a catastrophic nuclear disaster. And it's been very difficult for people and local governments to know what exactly to do next.
Like you hear all these towns, they're all about rebuilding themselves, but into what direction? Even just a simple figuring around the question of where do we rebuild a town. Do we just build our houses where they used to once stand? But what if another big tsunami comes in the exact same spot? It's just the physical direction as well as also philosophical direction of where we're heading as a country.
There's a lot of debate and arguments, and I think people are just getting a little bit tired, and it's just too much for them to handle, especially those not (unintelligible) directly affected by it all.
CONAN: Yuri Kageyama, I wanted to turn back to you for a moment. There is of course the trust that people had in government shattered by the experience particularly of the nuclear disaster when, not to put too fine a point on it, they were repeatedly lied to.
KAGEYAMA: Yes, I think they - that that's - seeing how the government dealt with the nuclear disaster or how they did not deal with the disaster unfold over the months, and also most of the people had been told that nuclear power, the way the Japanese did it, was safe. And so of course that was already shattered.
But then they told publicly that there was no meltdown repeatedly, and then of course there were multiple meltdowns, and it was the same for me, as well, as the reporter because I had already - we were already talking to experts who told us immediately that all the signals meant that there were going to be, you know, meltdowns.
And then we saw the government denying that and the authorities denying, regulators denying it repeatedly. I mean, it was awful. Just the lying was - you know, as you were right there and seeing it, you know, it does things, and I don't think Japan will ever be the same.
CONAN: We're talking about what happened two years ago today and what has yet to happen in Japan two years after the disaster of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, the explosions and meltdowns there, the tsunami and earthquake, of course, that caused the disaster and also caused the deaths of 19,000 people. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. With hundreds of thousands of Japanese still in temporary housing two years after the tsunami, clearing debris and rebuilding on the island is a clear priority. But the effects of the catastrophe in Japan are also being felt abroad as tsunami trash, pieces of everyday items from bottle caps to toothbrushes, from houses to boats, wash up in the Hawaiian islands.
Japan estimates 1.5 million tons of junk floated away, and it's littering the Hawaiian coastline and showing up in fish and bird stomachs. It's also arriving on the coast of Washington state and in Alaska, as well. That debris is more than just trash, though. It's little bits and pieces of the lives of the Japanese families that lived in the tsunami zone, many hundreds of thousands of whom are still displaced.
So if you have friends or family living in Tohoku or around the Fukushima Daiichi power plants, call, tell us what you're hearing from them, 800-989-8255. Email is email@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. Go to npr.org, and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Yuri Kageyama is the AP correspondent in Tokyo, and Nikki Kininmonth is a freelance translator based in Tokyo. They're our guests. Joining us now is Marie Mutsuki Mockett, the author of the forthcoming memoir "Above the Waves," which is about her family in Japan. We spoke with her a couple of years ago about how her family was doing in the days following the tsunami. We decided to follow up to see how they're doing two years later. She joins us now on the phone from Hadano. Nice to have you back on the program.
MARIE MUTSUKI MOCKETT: Thank you so much for having me.
CONAN: And when we spoke a couple of years ago, your cousin was staying at a small Buddhist temple 30 miles from the Fukushima power plant. He said it was his responsibility to stay there as long as anybody remained in the town. How's he doing now?
MOCKETT: Well, they're all doing fine. The way that the Buddhist temples work in Japan is they are run by families. And so there's the temple structure, and then right next door is the family home. And my cousin lives there with his wife and his three children, and he did indeed say that he wasn't going to leave, although I was on the - when I finally got through to him, I kept asking him to please leave the area because it was unclear what was going to happen with the nuclear power reactors so close by. But he felt strongly that he had to serve his community.
CONAN: That is laudable. Not all of the priests, sadly, felt that way...
MOCKETT: No, they didn't all feel that way. I - when I was finally able to see my family about four months after the tsunami, I said: Were there priests who stayed, or were there priests who ran away? And they, you know, they very sadly said to me yes, there are plenty of examples of priests who ran away or who used their facilities to house friends and relatives but not their dankasan, those are their parishioners who they're supposed to take care of. And so you hear all kinds of stories, you know, in the months after the disaster.
CONAN: And you have been a periodic visitor in the months since the disaster.
MOCKETT: Yes.
CONAN: How have things changed?
MOCKETT: Well, in the beginning, I mean, I think you've got a pretty good description. Everything was so surreal. And it's funny because from a distance, I was most concerned about the radiation and the long-term effect of this on my family. But my family, on the other hand, for, I think, easily a month didn't have any water. And so if I talked to them about their experience, this is the thing that comes up repeatedly, how difficult it was to live without water.
And when I finally saw them four months later, they were exhausted. They were mentally exhausted. They were - very unusually for them, they were heavier than they had ever been. I mean, people in Japan are very fit and very trim, and they had all put on weight because they hadn't gone outside. One of the young guys in the temple said to me that he and his wife very, very much wanted to start a family, but he didn't know if he should, and actually here he'd brought up radiation as the reason why.
Although I'm going up in a week, and I did learn that this young man's wife is pregnant. So I think there's a - they have a little bit more of a sense of optimism than they did before. But certainly this has had a tremendous impact I think not just on the community but probably in the way that they think about the work that they do as Buddhist priests.
CONAN: It also reminds us that Japan is a society that has suffered disasters on enormous scale many times in the past.
MOCKETT: Yes.
CONAN: We of course remember the devastation of 1945, but there have been other earthquakes and other tsunamis. It's a resilient nation, a resilient people.
MOCKETT: Very much so, and Tohoku I think in particular the thing you always hear is that people in Tohoku are very, very tough, which is true. They're - it's - when you tell people in Japan that you're going to Tohoku, and certainly before that tsunami earthquake, people in the southern cities or the western cities like Tokyo and then Kyoto, et cetera, would say oh, Tohoku, well, that's a wild place, or that's a very strange place because it's a little bit disconnected from the other parts of Japan and for a long time was considered a little bit less civilized, and people had it a little bit harder, and a lot of farmers, very rugged people. So they are very, very strong and very resilient, and they do take a lot of heart from that, and they do cheer each other on quite a bit.
But it is a really - it is a disaster that has very, very strongly affected them. And I think one thing to remember is there was the earthquake, there was the tsunami, and then it's certainly - in my family's town there was a very large earthquake on April 11, which did even more sort of structural damage to the temple than the one in March.
And then there were earthquakes every day after. So there just was a constant sense of anxiety, you know, is another one coming, how big is this earthquake going to be, what's going to happen next, really, really hard to relax.
CONAN: Nikki Kininmonth, I wanted to ask you about that reputation of Tohoku, this area of the northeast part of Japan. You are based in Tokyo. Had you been there before? What kind of place did you find it?
KININMONTH: Actually, it was really my first time ever to visit the northern part of Japan. This was my first experience, and although before 3/11, I had lived in Fukushima briefly, working in a hotel for about 10 months. So my first impression of the people in Fukushima was that they were really just hospitable people.
You know, I met some very lovely people during my time before 3/11, and it was really saddening for me and as I started, you know, hearing about this horrible nuclear disaster, although the part of Fukushima where I had stayed was about 60 kilometers west of Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
So although they weren't really directly affected by the radioactivity, basically the whole of Fukushima has been hit by - hit hard by this impression that anything that comes from Fukushima must be contaminated or is poisoned, or it's going to make you sick, whether it's the food or just simply going there for a visit.
And that really makes me sad because when you actually look at the map of Japan, you see how Fukushima is laid out. And it's not just simply getting a compass and drawing a clear circle around Fukushima Daiichi and saying anything within this radius is contaminated because as people now know, that contamination has now spread out in a very kind of sporadic manner just depending on natural elements like the wind, of course.
And so there are parts of Tokyo or even west of Tokyo that are more contaminated, we call them hot spots. There are more radioactive hot spots in certain parts of Tokyo than there are in (unintelligible) parts of Fukushima. So all this information about, like Fukushima, oh, it's a very dangerous place, it's simply not true. But unfortunately we don't really have the proper kind of specific detailed information as consumers living in these parts of Japan, which kind of leads me on to want to talk about the food issue because we have a nationwide campaign called Eat and Support, which is basically saying let's support the farmers and the fishermen, the local people of Tohoku, by buying and eating their produce, which is all very good, and I totally support that.
However, there's a lot of fear, especially for mothers with children, who are feeling a little bit reserved about feeding their children potentially contaminated food. And these have been detected, not by governments but by citizen groups with their own Geiger counters, and they measure various kind of food gathered in all parts of the country.
And surprisingly enough, a lot of foods that are already on the markets have considerably high ratings of radioactivity, which, you know, most consumers wouldn't even think about. And it's...
CONAN: People remember the hot spot phenomenon after the Chernobyl disaster, as well. There were places as far away as Wales that had very high radiation readings. Let's see if we can get a caller in on the conversation. Derrick(ph) is on the line with us from Round Lake in Illinois.
DERRICK: Yes, thank you so much. It's a good program. I actually used to live in Japan. My wife is from there. And I go business very often. I recently actually covered the Fukishima and the Tohoku situation for Foreign Policy and Focus magazine. The problem is, as your guests specifically stated correctly, that people in Tohoku are tough. The question - basically, the comment I'd like to make is that rarely you had no choice. If you're (unintelligible) by the Japanese government, there's absolutely no rebuilding or any kind of construction going on in areas which were affected.
And also there's a degree of rather inhospitable feelings towards a lot of different people. For example, the term (unintelligible) came back which is actually radiation affected where a lot of refugees who had been displaced to other parts of Japan are experiencing a high degree of animosity - I would say even discrimination, among their own people. So it is a very, very difficult situation. And the government seems to be totally helpless or unwilling to really readdress those issues, such as that.
CONAN: Yuri Kageyama of The Associated Press, is - are there - is there some sort of shame being heaped upon these people because they're - they have been exposed to radiation?
KAGEYAMA: Well, there's not an active campaign to do that, but the people who are in that situation have said that they're afraid of that, and the experts are also afraid of it. They would tell you that informally. That's because Japan is a very insular community and - society, I mean. And there has been cases of discrimination like that, similar to that, for example, people who were victims of the - who are there when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and there was discrimination marriage, you know, about not wanting to marry them because they're worried about genetic defects and that kind of thing, all unfounded, of course.
So there's a lot of fears about that. And also there's also division within the community, from - between people who have - are really nervous about the radiation versus those who are not nervous about the radiation - the same thing that we were talking about earlier about the food. Some people want - are actively promoting the food be consumed whilst others are really like jittery and don't want - or don't want anything to do with the food that may be contaminated. So it's very difficult for these people because they're a lot more tightly networked than we are in the urban communities, and they're tied to their land, as I said before. So it's difficult on many fronts.
CONAN: Derrick, thanks very much for the call. Appreciate it.
DERRICK: Thank you.
CONAN: We're talking about the triple disaster that struck Japan two years ago today. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And our guests, again, Yuri Kageyama, the correspondent for The Associated Press in Tokyo; Nikki Kininmonth, who's a freelance translator based in Tokyo and interpreter; and Marie Mutsuki Mockett, author of the forthcoming memoir "Above the Waves." And I wanted to turn back to you, Marie Mutsuki Mockett.
As you talk to people about these towns that have been eradicated, some of them, just completely gone, these are places that were there for hundreds of years that had traditions like no other place.
MOCKETT: Yeah. It's true. You know, I was looking through some old journals that I kept when I was really, really little, when I was about four and a half or five and a half. My mother would take me to Japan in the summer. We always went to Tohoku. So I'll just interject quickly and say one of the things that makes me so sad is when we talk about Tohoku now, of course, it's linked in our minds with this disaster; but in my mind, it's a wonderful place with wonderful traditions.
And in the minds of people who are kind of experts on Japan, Tohoku is the place you went to, to find authentic Japan. Tokyo had become too Westernized, but Tohoku is still very, very authentic. So one of the journal entries that I have from the summer in the '70s my mother had taken me to see these horse races in a town called Soma, and I have a little childish drawing of a man and a horse holding a banner. And, of course, Soma is one of these towns that was very close to the exclusion zone. I think parts of it are in the exclusion zone.
And I remember reading, last year I think it was, that an effort was being made to put on a smaller version of this horseracing festival that would have been handed down to the citizens of the town from feudal times. That made me very emotional just to think of people still trying to put on this (unintelligible) that's a festival that had been going on for so many hundreds of years. And I wondered what was going to happen to it. And it's, you know, it's very upsetting.
And there are also strange things that happened with the tsunami. When you go and visit one of these towns that's been struck, it's so clear how the flat area of the town was a very dangerous location to build any sort of settlement because it just opens right up into the sea. If you were in the town before the tsunami struck, there would have been buildings and roads and streetlamps. And there's so much stuff that you couldn't see how you were on a plain that opens right out into the ocean.
And in some of these towns, half of the town was perhaps swept away, and then half of it or a portion of it that was just a little bit higher up in the hill is still intact. And that - you just sort of have this sense of arbitrary fate or even just the bad luck to have had your house a few feet lower, it's very, very upsetting. And as your other guests have said I mean it's so unclear how one is supposed to proceed forward. And when I was here in Japan last August for the Obon festival, which is kind of a day of the dead in Japan, it's a weeklong or so period in which the souls of the dead are said to return home.
And it kind of has this spirit of like Thanksgiving for us in the West, where when Thanksgiving comes we go home to be with our parents and our families. Similarly for Obon, you - if you're Japanese, you might go home to stay with your parents and eat some good food and remember your relatives who have passed away. And there were so many stories - last summer, people who were able to get home, or, in some cases, people who were able to go to their hometown to visit the graves of their ancestors for the first time, but then had to leave to go back to wherever they were staying. It's very - this disaster has really stuck right at the fabric of what keeps people together. And I think it's the fabric of what makes so much of this part of Japan so beautiful.
CONAN: Thank you very much for being with us, Marie Mutsuki Mockett. Her forthcoming book again is called "Above the Waves." Appreciate your time today.
MOCKETT: Thank you.
CONAN: Our thanks as well to Nikki Kininmonth, who freelance interpreter based in Tokyo. Thank you, Nikki.
KININMONTH: Thank you very much.
CONAN: And to Yuri Kageyama, the - or correspondent of The Associated Press based in Tokyo. We appreciate you taking the time. We know it's late there.
KAGEYAMA: Thank you.
CONAN: After Internet activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide, the word JSTOR became part of the national conversation. Our next guest says Swartz was right to crusade for access to academic publishing. We'll have more on the Opinion Page after a short break. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
(LAUGHTER) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

subset: commoncrawl


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NYC homeless man shoeless again despite gift of boots from officer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York City homeless man - whose gift of boots from an NYPD police officer became an online sensation - is back on the streets with no shoes.
The New York Times found him Sunday night wandering barefoot in Manhattan. The paper identified him as Jeffrey Hillman, formerly of South Plainfield, N.J.
Asked about the $100 all-weather boots Officer Larry DePrimo gave him on Nov. 14, Hillman says he's hidden them because "they are worth a lot of money."
He says he's grateful for the gift, but he wants "a piece of the pie" because the photo was posted online "without permission."
An Arizona tourist snapped the photo of the officer presenting new boots to Hillman. It went viral after it was posted on the NYPD's Facebook page.
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On Message: What Obama's Saying (And What He's Not) About Sequester
If you're confused about who owns the sequester, what it means and what it will do, you have lots of company.
In Washington, the key players can't even agree on what's at stake, much less find a way to stop the automatic government spending cuts set to begin Friday.
In an effort to interpret some of the political messaging, today we're taking a closer look at the words being used by President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
First, President Obama:
"Are Republicans in Congress really willing to let these cuts fall on our kids' schools and mental health care just to protect tax loopholes for corporate jet owners? Are they really willing to slash military health care and the border patrol just because they refuse to eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies? Are they seriously prepared to inflict more pain on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the very top?" — Feb. 23
The Message
The White House and Democrats in Congress come back to this theme again and again. In short, they say, Republicans favor the rich over the middle class. It worked for the president in his campaign against Mitt Romney, in part because so many Americans identify themselves as middle class. According to a Gallup/USA Today poll from late last year, a full 55 percent of Americans consider themselves part of the middle class, while just 2 percent say they are upper class or wealthy. It turns out, raising taxes on someone else to save you from pain is a pretty effective message.
If you unpack the president's statement, he's saying that the sequester is going to lead to all kinds of painful cuts to schools, mental health care, the border patrol and beyond. But if Republicans would just agree to close some corporate loopholes and tax breaks for fat cats, there could be a deal that involves a mix of smarter spending cuts and and more revenue, and these cuts could be avoided, the president is saying.
What He's Not Saying
It's not that simple. First, most of the awful no-good effects of the sequester won't happen immediately. The White House has been portraying this as another cliff, when in reality it is more of a slope.
Second, while the president emphasizes closing tax loopholes, they aren't the whole answer. Far from it. Over a decade, the sequester would cut discretionary government spending by $1.2 trillion. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, eliminating the tax breaks for corporate jet owners, the big oil companies and hedge fund managers would generate about $59 billion over a decade. Put another way, that would raise enough money to replace about 6 months of the decade-long sequester.
Republicans do oppose using tax increases to reduce the deficit or offset the sequester. That includes eliminating loopholes — many of which exclusively benefit the wealthy. (If tax breaks are eliminated, they want that money to go to lowering marginal tax rates, which would most benefit those with the most income.) That's what makes this message from the president such a powerful weapon in the partisan battle over spending and taxes. But what Democrats and the president fail to mention is that there are also many Democrats quietly working to keep these tax breaks in place because they benefit their constituents.


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Motor operated valve condition monitoring
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Product Description
This is a DOWNLOAD product.
Celebrated authors John Dickson Carr and Bret Halliday (by proxy) are the hosts of Murder by Experts. This scintillating series was crafted by the suspense specialists who also brought Mysterious Traveler, The Sealed Book, and Strange Dr. Weird to radio: David Kogan and Robert A. Arthur.
Each tightly-woven thriller has been selected by an elite member of the Mystery Writers of America. And, whether the plots of these tales play out on an isolated island, in the snow-swept surge of a blizzard, in a locked room, or in the warm bed right beside you, they all lead to just one place…murder!
The fine ensemble cast includes performances by Lawson Zerbe, Bryna Raeburn, Miriam Wolfe, Maurice Tarplin, Ann Shephard, Wendell Holmes, Gertrude Warner, Larry Haines, Leslie Woods, Santos Ortega, and more.
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The decision of the government in Cyprus to simply take money out of people's bank accounts there sent shock waves around the world. People far removed from that small island nation had to wonder: "Can this happen here?"
The economic repercussions of having people feel that their money is not safe in banks can be catastrophic. Banks are not just warehouses where money can be stored. They are crucial institutions for gathering individually modest amounts of money from millions of people and transferring that money to strangers whom those people would not directly entrust it to.
Multi-billion dollar corporations, whose economies of scale can bring down the prices of goods and services — thereby raising our standard of living — are seldom financed by a few billionaires.
Far more often they are financed by millions of people, who have neither the specific knowledge nor the economic expertise to risk their savings by investing directly in those enterprises. Banks are crucial intermediaries, which provide the financial expertise without which these transfers of money are too risky.
There are poor nations with rich natural resources, which are not developed because they lack either the sophisticated financial institutions necessary to make these key transfers of money or because their legal or political systems are too unreliable for people to put their money into these financial intermediaries.
Whether in Cyprus or in other countries, politicians tend to think in short run terms, if only because elections are held in the short run. Therefore, there is always a temptation to do reckless and short-sighted things to get over some current problem, even if that creates far worse problems in the long run.
Seizing money that people put in the bank would be a classic example of such short-sighted policies.
After thousands of American banks failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s, there were people who would never put their money in a bank again, even after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created, to have the federal government guarantee individual bank accounts when the bank itself failed.
For years after the Great Depression, stories appeared in the press from time to time about some older person who died and was found to have substantial sums of money stored under a mattress or in some other hiding place, because they never trusted banks again.
After going back and forth, the government of Cyprus ultimately decided, under international pressure, to go ahead with its plan to raid people's bank accounts. But could similar policies be imposed in other countries, including the United States?
One of the big differences between the United States and Cyprus is that the U.S. government can simply print more money to get out of a financial crisis. But Cyprus cannot print more euros, which are controlled by international institutions.
Does that mean that Americans' money is safe in banks? Yes and no.
The U.S. government is very unlikely to just seize money wholesale from people's bank accounts, as is being done in Cyprus. But does that mean that your life savings are safe?
No. There are more sophisticated ways for governments to take what you have put aside for yourself and use it for whatever the politicians feel like using it for. If they do it slowly but steadily, they can take a big chunk of what you have sacrificed for years to save, before you are even aware, much less alarmed.
That is in fact already happening. When officials of the Federal Reserve System speak in vague and lofty terms about "quantitative easing," what they are talking about is creating more money out of thin air, as the Federal Reserve is authorized to do — and has been doing in recent years, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a month.
When the federal government spends far beyond the tax revenues it has, it gets the extra money by selling bonds. The Federal Reserve has become the biggest buyer of these bonds, since it costs them nothing to create more money.
This new money buys just as much as the money you sacrificed to save for years. More money in circulation, without a corresponding increase in output, means rising prices. Although the numbers in your bank book may remain the same, part of the purchasing power of your money is transferred to the government. Is that really different from what Cyprus has done?


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4 Simple Ways to Enjoy Summer Outdoor Fun
I like to be outside.
All … the … time.
I relish the heat and sun — as long as I keep on the sun block.
But there's more than a sunburn to worry about when you're having fun in the sun. Here are four ways to enjoy the hot summer without getting burned: Read more


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Today's Names to Know: Sportsman of the Year, Tim Tebow, Andruw Jones, Johan Santana, Jimbo Fisher, Jim Grobe, Bears-Redskins, Allen Iverson, Manu Ginobili, Washington State, Todd Bertuzzi, Kevin Coble and More!
Dan Shanoff's Sportsman SportsMEN of the Year:
Why "Them Gator Boyz?" Because this year, more than any other athlete, they stood out.
Because, coming off a national title, they deferred the guaranteed NBA millions to stay together in college for one more year to stay together (and have one more year of college fun) as a unit and to try to make history: To become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Duke in 1991 and 1992.
They were they ultimate team, in an era of sports (particularly of college sports) where individual ambition usually trumps selflessness and devotion to a greater goal. For my (admittedly biased) money, they were the greatest starting five in modern college basketball history. The on-court success matched by the off-court commitment to each other and the program.
SI had a chance to make a statement about what it means to be a team-first group in a me-first sports world (a world that Brett Favre, ironically, could be argued to personify). They overlooked the two-time national champion Florida Gators basketball starting five.
Specifically for 2007: Of any year, when sports news hit rock-bottom -- arguably the worst year ever in sports, in terms of bad news (or "bad newz") -- them Gator Boyz were a reminder of everything that is RIGHT about sports.
(* - My response to SI's pick of Brett Favre as Sportsman of the Year. Let me start by acknowledging that I sat on this until today, not knowing that Michael Wilbon would make the same call on PTI last night. I disagree with Wilbon's opinions on many topics, but I commend him on his insightful choice about this. What a reminder: When it comes to blogging, better to be early than astute!)
MLB Hot Stove: Andruw Jones to Dodgers for 2Y/$$36.2M. Not exactly the $20 million per year that Scott Boras was talking about, but $18M per year isn't bad for a guy considered perhaps on the downslope of his career. Certainly a glamorous pick-up for the Dodgers, a team that needed one.
Johan Santana Watch: Are the Twins going to keep him after all, in order to compete with the Tigers? That will be great, right up until Santana leaves eventually and they get nothing in return.
Rumor: Are the Cubs working on a deal to get both Brian Roberts AND Erik Bedard?
CFB Awards Season: The Appetizer Show is tonight, all the position-specific awards, in advance of the Heisman ceremony on Saturday.
Here are my picks:
Maxwell (Outstanding POY): Tim Tebow
Bednarik (Defensive POY): Glenn Dorsey
O'Brien (Best QB): Tim Tebow
Walker (Best RB): Darren McFadden
Biletnikoff (Best WR): Michael Crabtree
Outland (Interior Lineman): Jake Long
Thorpe (Best DB): Craig Steltz
Groza (Best K): Jose Martinez
Guy (Best P): Durant Brooks
Dorsey wins Lombardi Award: Given to nation's best lineman or linebacker. Along with the Nagurski, it could be a clean sweep tonight with the Bednarik and Outland.
(And, yet, Dorsey gets not even a hint of Heisman buzz. How can a guy be the most dominant player – offense or defense – on a team in the national title game (and favored to win it) and not even get Top 5 consideration for the Heisman?
It's time to officially reclassify the Heisman as the "best offensive player." The Nagurski Award (or maybe the Bednarik) really needs a marketing team to re-brand their award as the "Heisman of Defense," complete with a distinctive trophy.
Heisman finalists named: Tebow, McFadden, Daniel, Brennan. They had been inviting 3 recently. I had heard they were inviting 5. I think they settled on 4 because, based on projections at StiffArmTrophy.com, Daniel and Brennan were running nearly even for 3rd. I'm all for inviting both (would have been nice to see Pat White there, or even Central Florida RB Kevin Smith, who had a monster year in relative anonymity).
Tim Tebow has never been to
CFB Coaching Carousel: Jimbo Fisher to succeed Bobby Bowden at
Meanwhile, is
CFB Scandal: I'm a few days late, but the blatant gamesmanship from coaches voting in the final Coaches' Top 25 poll should be enough to get the BCS to remove the Coaches' poll from the equation. With such a wide-open race for No. 2, coaches (and their particular coaching buddies) pulled out all the stops, ranking teams way ahead of where they should be -- or way below.
The Coaches' Poll already had a massive credibility problem, and it was exposed (again) this week, worse than ever. It's a goddamn embarrassment. Fans shouldn't stand for it. (Cripes, the BCS would honestly be better off replacing it with the BlogPoll Top 25. I'm only partly kidding. At least we all take it seriously enough to vote honestly. (H/T: Bleacher Report.)
NFL Tonight: Bears-Redskins. Even without Sean Taylor's death, it has been a rough year for Redskins fans, who have seen their team blunder game-endings in new and unenjoyable ways all season long. Meanwhile, Bears fans have to be bummed that their team has taken a BIG step back from NFC Champs to NFC dud. Hey, at least they've still got must-see Devin Hester. Oh, that's right, the game is on the NFL Network tonight; not much "must-see" about that. Pick: Redskins.
NFL: We've got a guarantee! Steelers DB Anthony Smith guaranteed
NBA Stud of the Night: Allen Iverson, who had 51 points, but it wasn't enough for the Nuggets to beat the Lakers on national TV.
Tale of Missing Players: Without Tim Duncan, the Spurs still beat the Mavs (Ginobili 37); without LeBron James, the Cavs lost to the Wizards.
Cavs keeping Varejao. Won't help 'em if LeBron ain't healthy.
Freshman Watch: I swear I'm not intentionally trying to go Gator-heavy today. But ad d
NHL: Cripes, was Todd Bertuzzi's "hit" on Scott Moore ORDERED by Canucks then-coach Marc Crawford (who now coaches the Kings)? (If that's the case, why didn't Bertuzzi say that immediately after the incident?)
Must-Read: Andy Katz on Northwestern's Kevin Coble. As an analogy, it's hardly a perfect fit, but I truly appreciate the choice that Coble made: 11 years ago, I was a rising young editor at ESPN.com in


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Security Tools Show Many Dots, Few Patterns
Today's security software wastes valuable time by delivering data dumps, rather than focusing on trends. But you can create your own visualizations.
February 28, 2013
"What do you want to know?"
Great question, right? Then why do few security products -- or rather, the developers, product managers, and vendors who build them -- ask that question of their customers?
Instead, your firewall, intrusion detection system, antivirus management console, LAN manager, or other security tool report tells you about its day: The quantity of events it's detected, whether antivirus is activated, which country seems to be lobbing the most attacks your way.
If there's one commodity information security personnel don't have, it's time. Furthermore, sitting through meaningless alerts risks "banner blindness" -- so often seen in airport baggage x-ray monitoring personnel, not to mention beach lifeguards -- in which emergencies go unspotted due to input overload.
[ It's time to rethink current cyber privacy legislation. Read more at Hacking, Privacy Laws: Time To Reboot. ]
But there's a relatively easy solution: Spend a few hours tearing up your existing interfaces and create your own reports, says Jonathan Grier, a digital forensics consultant who often focuses on better ways to visualize security information.
"When I'm doing a forensic investigation, I want to see patterns and trends, but those aren't visible [in off-the-shelf products]," Grier said by phone. "The whole point of visualization, the whole point of showing me, is completely absent. It's treating me like I'm another database."
The tool you use to corral your security data isn't important. Instead, it's the ethos, and here's how to apply it: "As incident responders, sit down, take some logs -- take a real log -- and think out loud about how you'd analyze it," Grier said. "Look at the trends and the activity they're doing, then see clusters of information and think about how to assemble the data visually, and keep asking about the next step: How do we assemble this data into a bouquet of examples?"
Bouquets of examples, or "security paintings," are Grier's terms for interfaces that don't present raw data to security professionals, but rather help them find the patterns they're already seeking. "It's not that hard, if you have in-house programmers, to program up those reports," he said. Nor is it hard to know what security managers need; just ask them. Typical security managers responses may include: Do I need to call an incident response team? Do I need to shut down the network?
Grier's security interface design thinking arguments stem in part from a recent project for which he consulted that involved improving software for parents to keep tabs on their kids' Web surfing habits. Before, the monitoring software generated low-value reports, such as a pie chart illustrating the percentage of time spent on sites designated as appropriate for adults, mid-teens, pre-teens, or suitable for everyone.
But after asking parents what they were looking for and then using that input to help redesign the software, Grier created an application that first reports on patterns, including the time spent and number of sites visited across numerous site categories, such as adult, drugs, alcohol and tobacco, social networking, keywords and searches, and sports. Clicking on any of those report results then allows parents to drill down to see not only the sites visited, but also similar sites.
"[After the redesign,] we did a usability test for the consumer product, and we knocked off our socks -- parents were noticing things that we weren't even trying to show them," Grier said. "We just gave them the information, and they saw things we hadn't even thought of, because they know their family much better than we do."
One upside parents noted was getting more insight into what their kids were interested in. "One parent said, 'My son's a teenager, I asked him how his day had been and what he'd done, and of course he said nothing ... but now, I see he's really into basketball,'" Grier said.
What if the software detects harmful behavior? "Very often, knowing about it was better than blocking it," said Grier. As examples, parents cited "pro-ana" sites that encourage anorexia and eating disorders, and even musical preferences -- to learn, for example, if their son's listening habits had changed from classic rock to death metal. The point wasn't the site they were visiting, but being able to quickly spot a bigger problem.
Such clarity is all too lacking not just in kid-monitoring software for parents, but in information security products in general. "I'm a security researcher, and I can't make heads or tails of most security reports either," said Grier. "They're all, without exception, one of two types: data dumps, where they take their table information and put it on the screen and you can sort it ... or there's a nice summary report: 30% of viruses came from Hong Kong."
Neither of those works, and it's not just parents who are lost in the noise, but anyone whose job involves interacting with a security console.
Creating a fix, as noted, requires sitting down with end users -- in this case, information security professionals who use security software to track events -- and asking them to think out loud: What are they seeking from the data, and when they find something, what's their next question? In the case of the monitoring software, parents requested to not see only that their kids were visiting potentially dangerous sites, but to see -- and be able to click on the URL for --the sites, along with a list of "similar sites" that would let them quickly drill down and quickly understand the bigger picture.
Same goes for security logs: If there are log-in alerts for a user, for example, and the interface can show that 19 failed attempts came from the same IP address in the Ukraine, and also that the user has been logging in all week from the Baltimore office, then it's probably time to freeze the account.
Such data slicing and dicing gets to a reporting maxim: If 95% of security log and event data is meaningless, the imperative is to help security professionals focus on the 5%. From an interface design standpoint, then, less means more. "I'd like to see, in five years, that you by default see a pattern -- and if you want to see a pie chart or data dump, then you have to choose that," said Grier.
No one pattern will provide forensic investigators with ready-made answers to every problem. But showing patterns and trends -- especially as security big data efforts amass ever-greater quantities of event data -- will help people more easily spot anomalous behavior and focus on problems, while avoiding the cognitive waste of having to even think about non-problems.
Because after all, who's got the time?
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Sweet Themes Cookie Cutters are made from sturdy high quality 18/0 grade stainless steel, and will not rust. Because of the quality of the steel they have a sharp cutting edge therefore give a crisp finish when cutting. The cutter is 2cm deep. Perfect for fondant, cookie dough, sandwiches, fairy bread, pizza dough, play dough, fruit, cheese and modelling clay just to name but a few uses.
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