'Positive thinking' after years of threats keeps South Koreans going

Ahn Young-Joon / AP

Crowds of people shop at Myeongdong, a main shopping street in Seoul, amid a tense situation over North Korea's threat of war, on Sunday.

By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News

SEOUL, South Korea ? As the war drums keep beating on the Korean Peninsula, one would expect to see anxiety on the streets of Seoul, where 10 million people live just 30 miles from 700,000 North Korean soldiers and well within range of thousands of heavily dug-in artillery pieces.?

Instead, people in South Korea's capital have been calmly going about their business. No boarding up of homes or work places. No distribution of emergency drugs or gas masks. Restaurants and hotels are full. The city is bustling.

Don?t these people know that hundreds ? or even thousands ? could die if the North launches a full-scale attack, as it has threatened to do?

?It?s postive thinking,? explained Kwak Keumjoo, a professor of psychology at the Seoul National University. ?If you keep thinking about fear and threats, life wouldn?t be worth it. So people here have a defense mechanism. They tell themselves, ?OK, it will be all right?, or ?Somebody will help us,? or ?I don?t believe it?s really going to happen.??

Keumjoo said it?s not as much a state of denial as a numbness, brought about by living under a constant threat, 60 years after the bloody Korean War ended, not with a peace treaty, but with an open-ended cease-fire.

Claiming they will soon be engaged in a war with South Korea, North Korean officials are advising foreigners to leave the region. Pyongyang is expected to carry out a show of force with a missile that will land in the ocean. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

To survive, Seoulites rarely talk about the North. They bury their worry in the deep recesses of their minds and put their faith in their own system.

?South Koreans have the view that justice and democracy will always win out,? said Keumjoo.

?We?re not worried about the war?
Yoo-Lim, In-Young and Na-Young are all sophomores at Seoul?s Ewha University. During a recent lunch break, none of them was gazing at the horizon, looking for a mushroom cloud.

?We read the papers, listen to the radio, go online,? said Yoo-lim. ?And we?re not worried about the war.?

Why is she so calm when the media has reached a fever pitch? ?Repetitive learning,? she replied. ?The north has done this over and over.?

But what about fire drills? Getting under desks? Bracing under bunkers?

?No, there?s nothing like that,? said Na-Young in between giggles. ?We?re just used to North Korean threats from time to time.?

That?s not to say Seoul lives in a fantasy world.

Jim Maceda / NBC News

An entrance to one of Seoul's many underground malls that also functions as a temporary shelter.

Shopping mall bunkers
Beneath its downtown streets, a maze of malls and passageways interconnect into one of the world?s largest underground shelters, big enough, officials say, to protect 2 million citizens from any potentially withering pounding by North Korea?s heavy conventional weapons ? but not a nuclear attack.

Ironically, the malls are converted underground bunkers left derelict after the Korean War. Today, many buildings here have basement parking lots that descend six or seven levels, and serve as temporary shelters as well.

On the 15^th of most months, sirens announce the beginning of a 15-minute civil drill, where drivers are supposed to pull their vehicles over to the curb and head for the closest shelter, clearing the streets.

But, with no real alert taking place now for some 60 years, Seoulites have understandably become complacent. Drivers stay in their vehicles; pedestrians stop and keep chatting.

?If there was an attack I wouldn?t know where to go,? Julie Yoo, a freelance journalist, admitted. ?

?The Korean men call their reserve units, government officials and bureaucrats have their specially designated shelters, but Korean women, like myself, have no option but to stay at home and watch TV for guidance.?

In fact, if there ever was a nuclear attack here, Seoul has only one bunker where you might survive that kind of attack ? under the Presidential Palace.

Jim Maceda / NBC News

One of Seoul's many underground malls which also functions as a temporary shelter.

?But I?m not worried,? said Yoo. ?It?ll never happen!?

?We have to study!?
In towns along the border, news reports speak of some preparations, like pamphlets distributed to locals, advising them of what signs to look for ? sudden thick clouds or large numbers of birds or fish mysteriously dying.

But only 30 miles away, In-Young has anything but war signals on her mind.

?No one is saying ?Oh there?s gonna be a war, we?re all gonna die!,?? she blurted out. ?No, all our friends care about are exams coming up in two weeks ? we have to study!?

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London, currently on assignment in Seoul, South Korea.

Related links:

Google + Hangout with Richard Engel on North Korea tensions

North Korea warns foreigners to leave South

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

Who is North Korea's secretive leader? Here is what we know

North Korea's overseas apologists dismiss 'propaganda'

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MTV cancels 'BUCKWILD' after W.Va. star's death

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) ? MTV said Wednesday it is canceling its West Virginia-based reality TV show "BUCKWILD" a week after the accidental death of 21-year-old star Shain Gandee.

Network spokesman Jake Urbanski confirmed the news, saying it was "not an easy decision."

"But given Shain's tragic passing and essential presence on the show, we felt it was not appropriate to continue without him," the network said. "Instead, we are working on a meaningful way to pay tribute to his memory on our air and privately."

On Sunday, MTV will air a special, "BUCKWILD: WV to the NYC," which was shot before second-season filming had begun. The network said Shain's parents, Dale and Loretta Gandee, support the move.

Gandee and two others were found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning on April 1. Gandee's SUV was stuck in a mud pit near his home in Sissonville, its tail pipe submerged. That could have allowed the invisible gas to fill the vehicle's cabin.

Gandee, his 48-year-old uncle, David Gandee, and 27-year-old friend Donald Robert Myers had last been seen leaving a bar at 3 a.m. March 31. Friends and family searched all day for them, and authorities issued a missing-persons report the following day.

The Gandees were buried Sunday after a joint memorial service in Charleston that drew hundreds of friends, family and fans. Cameras were not allowed inside the Charleston Municipal Auditorium or at the private family burial in Thaxton Cemetery.

Shain Gandee, nicknamed "Gandee Candy" by fans, was a breakout star of the show that followed the antics of young friends enjoying their wild country lifestyle. Season one was filmed last year, mostly around Sissonville and Charleston.

Gandee favored four-wheelers, pickups and SUVs over cellphones and computers, and "mudding," or off-road driving, was one of his favorite pastimes. It was no coincidence some mourners arrived in mud-splattered trucks.

Shooting was underway on season two at the time of Gandee's death, but MTV said film crews were not with him over Easter weekend and hadn't filmed him since earlier that week.

MTV said the half-hour series in the old "Jersey Shore" time slot was pulling in an average of 3 million viewers per episode since its premiere and was the No. 1 original cable series on Thursday nights among 12- to 34-year-olds.

But many fans, including some at Gandee's funeral, said the show just wouldn't have been the same without him.

The network issued a statement from Loretta and Dale Gandee, thanking fans for their thoughts and prayers.

"We have truly felt all the love and know that Shain is resting peacefully," they said. "Shain was an incredible, outgoing and positive person who was loved by whoever he met. We are honored that we were able to let the world see what a wonderful son we had."

Shain Gandee was the third BUCKWILD cast member to make unwanted headlines.

Last month, 24-year-old Salwa Amin was sent back to jail for violating the terms of her bond following a February arrest on drug charges. She is facing two counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and remained behind bars without bond on Wednesday.

State Police say a multi-agency task force arrested Amin and two other people at a Summersville residence after receiving a tip from an informant. A search found oxycodone pills, heroin and $3,000 in cash.

Another cast mate, Michael Douglas Burford, was charged in February with driving under the influence.

Some detractors, including U.S. Sen. and former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, had publicly worried about the show and its cast before the first episode aired.

Manchin asked MTV to cancel the show, telling the network's president that it would profit from the "poor decisions of our youth" and that it played to ugly, inaccurate stereotypes about the people of West Virginia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mtv-cancels-buckwild-w-va-stars-death-151321583.html

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Angel No More? Miranda Kerr?s $1 Million Victoria?s Secret Contract Not Renewed

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Louisville women join men with shot at NCAA title

Louisville players including Cortnee Walton (13) celebrate after a national semifinal against California at the Women's Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, April 7, 2013, in New Orleans. Louisville won 64-57. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Louisville players including Cortnee Walton (13) celebrate after a national semifinal against California at the Women's Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, April 7, 2013, in New Orleans. Louisville won 64-57. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Connecticut players celebrate in the women's NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament semifinal against Notre Dame, Sunday, April 7, 2013, in New Orleans. UConn won 83-65. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Louisville's basketball teams have been pulling for each other during both NCAA tournaments, sweating through the nail biters, cheering the wins.

There hasn't been a loss yet. It sure is a joyous time to be a Cardinal.

The women got a pep talk from men's coach Rick Pitino after they lost to Notre Dame in the Big East tournament ? and they haven't lost since, beating Cal 64-57 on Sunday night to advance to the school's second NCAA championship game.

The women's players gathered at a New Orleans restaurant to watch the men beat Wichita State on Saturday and will be watching again Monday night when the men play Michigan for the title.

"The way I look at it, I think the men are trying to feed off of our success," women's coach Jeff Walz said with a smirk before adding on a serious note that he'd received word from Atlanta that the Louisville men "were in the hotel lobby, jumping up and down and cheering for us."

Pitino texted Walz after their victory "congratulating us and telling me to tell the players what an unbelievable job they did."

And so they have.

Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma is well aware of what Louisville is going through right now.

Back in 2004, the men's and women's teams at UConn were playing for the national title and both came away victorious, the only time one school won both titles in the same season.

Now Louisville can do it again.

"If it were easy, it would have been done a lot of times, but the fact it's only been done once shows you how difficult it is to do," said Auriemma after his team routed Notre Dame 83-65 to reach the final. "At the same time, this has been a magical year for Louisville. ... It's just amazing what they've been able to do, so I think we're playing against Louisville and we're playing against a certain karma, maybe."

Auriemma's Huskies were finally able to shake off the Fighting Irish, thanks to an incredible effort by star freshman Breanna Stewart. She scored a career-high 29 points to go with four blocks and was seemingly everywhere.

"Given the stage, and what was at stake, I don't know that I've seen any bigger performance," said Auriemma. "I know there's been NCAA tournament games that we've had certain individuals play great, but I don't remember a player having a better game in this environment."

UConn will be going for its eighth championship Tuesday night, which would match Tennessee for the most in the women's college game.

No team has dominated the Huskies under Auriemma the way the Irish had over the past few seasons. UConn (34-4) had lost the previous two national semifinals to Notre Dame and dropped three thrilling games this season to their conference rival.

Stewart and her teammates wouldn't let it happen again, ending the brilliant career of Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins with a thud. Diggins finished with 10 points, going a dismal 3 for 15 from the field.

"Once you get here you're only going to beat great teams. And the reason Notre Dame has beaten us seven of the last eight times is because they're really, really good," Auriemma said. "For one night, that's what's great about the NCAA tournament, for one night, for just this night, we just needed to be better than them, and we were."

The Huskies built a 10-point halftime lead and Notre Dame (35-2) could only get within six in the second half as its school-record winning streak came to an end at 30 games.

UConn and Notre Dame have developed the best rivalry in women's basketball over the past few seasons, and this game might have been the final chapter between the two with the Irish heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

Two years ago, the Huskies won the first three meetings before Notre Dame shocked them in the national semifinals. The Irish had won seven of the previous eight meetings before Sunday night and this one, for once, started slowly. Notre Dame went nearly 7? minutes without a field goal, missing 14 consecutive shots, and neither team led by more than four over the first 16 minutes.

But trailing 26-25 with 3:44 left in the half, UConn started to take over. Bria Hartley, who has struggled all season while recovering from an ankle injury she suffered over the summer, was the spark. The junior guard started the spurt with a 3-pointer and added a nifty pull-up moments later to make it 32-26.

Diggins was 0 for 6 from the field in the first half as the Huskies harassed her all over the court. She scored the Irish's first two points on free throws and didn't have another point until getting a steal early in the second half and converting it for the easy layup to make it 42-35.

The two-time All-American tried to do everything she could to rally her team, twice chasing down Hartley on the break for a block, but her shots weren't falling and her team was falling behind.

UConn led 50-43 with 12:22 left before Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Stewart hit back-to-back 3s to give the Huskies their biggest lead. Notre Dame wasn't done, with star freshman Jewell Loyd scoring five points during a 9-2 run to get the Irish within 61-55.

But that was as close as they could get.

Stewart was the most heralded freshman coming into the season, but struggled through the middle part of the year. But ever since the Big East tournament she's been on a roll.

"Every player, especially young players, deal with things differently," Auriemma said. "And I think when the season ended, it just let the air out of the balloon and she said, 'Now I just want to play basketball.' My God, she was amazing tonight."

Now Stewart and the rest of the Huskies will get ready for the Cardinals, who have beaten Baylor, Tennessee and Cal their last three games to make it to the championship.

But that can wait until after Monday night ? when the Cardinals will watch the men's team try to win their own title.

___

Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg

Associated Press

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Dow ends at record high as cyclicals gain

BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuters) - A French teenager who had hidden inside a garbage container was crushed to death inside a trash truck in Luxembourg on Saturday, police said. Garbage men only discovered the 17-year-old when he shouted out as they emptied the container into the back of the truck early on Saturday morning, but by then he was already in the grasp of the crushing mechanism. "He cried out, but it was already too late," a spokeswoman for Luxembourg police said on Monday. The young man, whose name was not released, died on the scene, in the city of Luxembourg. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-signal-mixed-open-093026199--finance.html

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Get off my back! How to reduce your stress levels

Michael Bond, consultant

Ignoring stress's social background puts the burden of change on the poor (Image: Steve Liss/Polaris/Eyevine)

Two opposing strategies for dealing with the stress of modern life have been put forward by Dana Becker and Marc Shoen, but which is best?

STRESS is the epidemic of our age, or so it seems: a disfiguring consequence of modern life that we all succumb to from time to time. Yet it is hard to know what it really is, other than a miscellany of physical and psychological symptoms covering everything from anxiety to hypertension. The original medical definition, which, as its derivation from mechanics suggests, is concerned specifically with an organism's response to external pressures, has all but vanished from view.

The effect of the external environment is central to some of the most telling scientific studies on stress, such as those exploring links between wealth inequalities and brain development. But this is not how most of us - or indeed most scientists - talk about stress. The focus has now turned inward, from environmental causes to medical solutions and what individuals should do to cope.

The result of this recalibration, initiated partly by the discovery that stressful experiences affect people's immune systems in different ways, is a vast market for biomedical and psychological interventions. In the scramble for drugs and therapy, the social and developmental context of stress and stress-related disease is conveniently ignored. Children with chronic behavioural issues, for example, are diagnosed with "conduct disorder", a label that pathologises their shortcomings and disregards the deficiencies in care and upbringing that are likely to have contributed to them.

In One Nation Under Stress, Dana Becker argues that the medicalisation of stress and the current infatuation with neurobiology is a disaster for societies, and particularly for women. The problems women face daily in balancing work and family, for example, are so strongly shaped by social attitudes that they have most to lose when social conditions are ignored.

Ignoring the social background to stress, she says, puts the burden of responsibility on vulnerable people to change themselves - to solve their own problems - and it condones the external conditions that lead to their suffering. It allows us to avoid the larger problems. The upshot, writes Becker, is that it becomes "far easier to talk about the 'stressed' African American single mother, say, than to think about the effects of de facto school segregation in our cities, or the effects of discrimination on employment opportunities, or the shortage of affordable childcare".

Becker is a family therapy specialist at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania with a long interest in cultural and historical attitudes to illness. She is a sharp observer of the social and cultural implications of modern attitudes to stress, such as the tendency of researchers and the media to exaggerate the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among both civilians and soldiers.

One Nation Under Stress reads like a manifesto against the current order, and few areas of medicine emerge unscathed. Becker sounds angry and occasionally bitter, which can make for a difficult read. She is convincing but also frustrating, for she offers few solutions, short of the need to "make substantive structural changes in our society", such as reducing inequalities.

Here, she makes the radical and clever suggestion that poverty should be viewed (by researchers and funders presumably) as a direct cause of illness and death, since it is well established that poverty leads to a greater risk of hypertension, depression, heart disease and other life-threatening conditions. But she fails to show how that could affect how science is carried out. Does she want money diverted from biomedicine to social sciences? Should we just give up on trying to discern individual differences in the way people deal with environmental and social pressures?

Marc Schoen's Your Survival Instinct is Killing You, on the other hand, offers to "retrain your brain" to better cope with the stresses of modern living. It looks like just the kind of approach Becker hopes to banish.

Schoen is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a strong believer in the ability of the mind to influence the body (he's been hypnotising people since he was 16). He identifies what he perceives as a growing intolerance of discomfort as a major factor behind many disorders from insomnia to obesity. The modern world puts us on edge, which triggers maladaptive behaviours that then become entrenched.

He suggests ways to correct this distorted response to stress. Some make good sense, though are easier said than done: wind down before trying to sleep, stop procrastinating, delay your need for gratification, use a breathing meditation, learn to experience discomfort without reacting to it.

Others, such as "take a technology time out", seem dubious because they are predicated on the notion that modern technologies are bad for us. Where's the evidence that using computers leads to "a lower tolerance for ambiguity" and makes us less inclined to tolerate human imperfections?

Such self-help solutions are alluring for the reasons that grieve Becker most: we have so little control over the things dictating our health that the best we can do is adapt and survive. Her enduring point is this is not a level playing field, since those whose living conditions make them more susceptible to stress have the least access to tools that would help.

She hails a much-needed revolution, but until it arrives (or is at least signposted) people are likely to grab at anything that offers help and researchers will no doubt strive to provide it.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Get off my back!"

Book information
One Nation Under Stress: The trouble with stress as an idea by Dana Becker
Oxford University Press
$35

Your Survival Instinct is Killing You: Retrain your brain to conquer fear, make better decisions, and thrive in the 21st century by Marc Schoen
Hudson Street Press
$25.95

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Hamas shaves heads of Gaza youths with long hair

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have started grabbing young men with long or gel-styled spiky hair off the streets, bundling them into jeeps, mocking them and shaving their heads, two of those targeted and a rights group said Sunday.

It is the latest sign that the Islamic militants are imposing their strict practices on the population.

Hamas has been slowly forcing its fundamentalist interpretation of the religion on already conservative Gaza since it overran the territory in 2007, but the new crackdown on long hair and tight or low-waist pants ? in several cases accompanied by beatings ? appears to be one of the most aggressive phases of the campaign so far.

The crackdown began last week, and two of those targeted told The Associated Press said they were rounded up in separate sweeps in Gaza City that included more than two dozen young men.

House painter Ayman al-Sayed, 19, had shoulder-length hair before police grabbed him and shaved his head Thursday.

"The only thing I want to do is leave this country," said al-Sayed, who despite his ordeal defiantly wore stylish but outlawed narrow-leg tan khakis Sunday. "I am scared. They just take you from the street without reason. I don't know what they are going to do next."

Hamas officials played down the campaign ? a stance adopted in the past that allows the group to distance itself from a controversial crackdown while at the same time instilling fear in those it targeted.

Ziad al-Zaza, the deputy prime minister of Gaza, said the head-shaving "was a very limited, isolated behavior of the police and is not going to continue."

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights called on Hamas to investigate the "arbitrary detentions and violations of civil rights of civilians."

The hair crackdown came just days after the Hamas-run parliament in Gaza passed an education bill mandating separate classrooms for boys and girls from the age of nine.

Gender separation is already widely practiced in Gaza schools, as it is in the West Bank, where Hamas rival Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed Palestinian president, administers some areas.

Enshrining such separation in law marked another step forward in Hamas' campaign of imposing Islamic practice.

Since seizing Gaza from Abbas six years ago, Hamas has moved gradually in spreading its ultra-conservative version of Islam. It has issued rules restricting women or requiring them to cover up in the traditional Islamic dress of long robes and headscarves, but relented if met by protests.

Last month, the Hamas government barred girls and women from participating in a U.N.-sponsored marathon, prompting a U.N. aid agency to cancel the race. Hamas activists have also exerted social pressure to get all school girls to wear Islamic dress.

Al-Sayed, the house painter, and 17-year-old high school student Tareq Naqib said Sunday that they were targeted by police in separate incidents Thursday.

Al-Sayed said he had just finished his work in Gaza City and was waiting at an intersection for a shared taxi when a police jeep approached. Al-Sayed said he was thrown into the jeep with more than 10 others already squeezed into the back of the vehicle. He said policemen cursed them on the way to the police station.

There, the detainees were lined up, and a policeman began shaving their heads. He shaved two lines, from front to back and from one ear to the other, telling the young men they could finish the job at a neighborhood barber shop.

Those who resisted were beaten, al-Sayed said. He said he asked the policeman to finish the job of shaving so he wouldn't have to step outside with a partially shaved head.

A young man came into the police station, saying he was looking for his cousin, said al-Sayed. One of the officers grabbed the young man, who had his hair in gel-styled spikes, and shaved his head as well.

Naqib, the high school student, said he was seized outside his home and put in a police jeep along with four young men who had come to Gaza City from the southern town of Khan Younis.

On the way to the police station, police insulted them and warned them that Gaza is Islamic, said Naqib.

"They said, 'we want you to respect our tradition,'" Naqib said. "They made a cross on our heads and asked us to leave and finish the shaving at a barber shop."

Naqib's family is originally from Tunisia, and he said he wants to go back there after he finishes high school.

In another incident, a Gaza teen, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said he saw police beat three young men in downtown Gaza City for wearing tight, low-rise pants. The witness said the policemen beat the three with clubs on the backs of their knees and told passers-by watching the scene to move along.

Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas figure identified with the more pragmatic wing of the movement, said the police behavior is "absolutely wrong" and must stop. Hamas is often divided over such campaigns, but the pragmatists have been unable to stop the more zealous members.

Hamas is also competing with the even more fundamentalist Salafis, a movement that has gained in strength and popularity in Gaza in recent years. Salafis have criticized Hamas for not implementing Islamic law in Gaza quickly enough.

For Gaza's young generation, such crackdowns have meant a shrinking space of self-expression. In some, it sparked defiance. Mohammed Hanouna, an 18-year-old high school senior, said he started styling his hair with gel after his friends Ayman and Tareq were targeted by police.

On Sunday, he walked with them in the streets in a show of support, adding that he is not afraid of arrest. "I have nothing to lose except my hair," he said.

___

Daraghmeh reported from Ramallah, West Bank.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-shaves-heads-gaza-youths-long-hair-223026459.html

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Asia stocks muted on Koreas, bird flu jitters

BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets were mixed Monday amid concerns about tensions on the Korean Peninsula and bird flu in China, but European stocks rose as traders looked ahead to corporate earnings season in the U.S.

The Nikkei in Tokyo, meanwhile, piled on more gains as the yen's dramatic fall boosted the country's powerhouse export sector. The Japanese yen has weakened sharply in the aftermath of a surprise decision Thursday by the Bank of Japan to overhaul its monetary policy in a bid to snap Japan out of years of deflation.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shot up 2.8 percent to close at 13,192.59, its highest close since August 2008. The dollar vaulted to 98.56 yen from 94.13 yen late Friday in New York. A weaker currency can help make Japanese exports more price competitive in overseas markets. Suzuki Motor Corp. surged 8.1 percent. Sharp Corp. advanced 7.3 percent.

European stocks rose in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.4 percent to 6,276.88. Germany's DAX rose 0.3 percent to 7,684.48 and France's CAC-40 added 0.6 percent to 3,684.29. Wall Street appeared poised for a higher opening. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 14,516 and S&P 500 futures rose 0.3 percent to 1,550.40.

Aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. kicks off another U.S. earnings season when it reports first-quarter results Monday after the markets close. On Friday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo report quarterly financial results.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4 percent to close at 1,918.69, its lowest level since November 2012 as tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang remained high. North Korea has for weeks been threatening military or other action to punish South Korea and the U.S. for holding joint military drills.

"Compared to the past, the hostility of North Korea this time is extraordinary in some measures. In this regard, there is an impact to our financial markets to a certain degree," Hyun Oh-seok, South Korea's finance minister, told reporters. "We are closely monitoring the impact on financial markets and the economy."

Foreign investors sold more South Korean stocks than they bought for the fourth straight session Monday, while the local currency lost value as investors see growing risks of war on the Korean Peninsula. The dollar rose to 1,140.10 won, its highest level since July 26.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index bounced between gains and losses as investors sized up the potential threat from an outbreak of a new bird flu strain that has sickened 21 people, killing six of them. All cases have been reported in the eastern part of China. The Hang Seng fell marginally to close at 21,718.05.

Health officials believe people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.

"Bird flu and the North Korea situation are still dangling out there. Investors are not very bullish. They are waiting to see how these two things evolve," said Jackson Wong, vice president of Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3 percent to 4,905.50, with investors putting aside a worrisome U.S. jobs report to do some bargain-hunting among some recently beaten down shares.

U.S. employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, which was half the average of the previous six months. The closely watched report, issued Friday, was a letdown for investors who had become more optimistic about the economy after recent positive signs on housing.

Gold-related stocks rose as the price of the precious metal recovered. Newcrest Mining, Australia's No. 1 gold miner, advanced 2 percent. Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group added 2.1 percent.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 59 cents to $93.28 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 56 cents to close at $92.70 in New York on Friday.

The euro rose to $1.3010 from $1.2822.

___

AP Business Writer Youkyung Lee contributed from Seoul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-muted-koreas-bird-flu-jitters-091456099--finance.html

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Lazy? Your Genes May Be to Blame

New research might help explain why some people have trouble getting off the couch. Experiments on rats suggest there could be a genetic predisposition to laziness.

A group of scientists put rats in cages with running wheels ? a subtle suggestion for them to start exercising ? and recorded how much time each spent running during a six-day period. They then bred the top 26 runners with each other and paired up the 26 laziest rats. This selective breeding process was repeated through 10 generations, and researchers found that rats in the more active line were 10 times more likely to run than rats in the couch potato line.

To try to explain why, the researchers compared the two groups' levels of mitochondria, or cells' energy-making structures, in muscle cells (which can be boosted by exercise), physical characteristics and genetic profile.

"While we found minor differences in the body composition and levels of mitochondria in muscle cells of the rats, the most important thing we identified were the genetic differences between the two lines of rats," study researcher Michael Roberts, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine, said in a statement. "Out of more than 17,000 different genes in one part of the brain, we identified 36 genes that may play a role in predisposition to physical activity motivation."

Past research identified two genes in mice that, when turned off, turned the active rodents into couch potatoes.?

In that study, detailed in 2011 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, scientists turned off genes that enable the muscles to make energy from sugars. "Mice love to run," said researcher Gregory Steinberg of McMaster University at the time. "While the normal mice could run for miles, those without the genes in their muscle could only run the same distance as down the hall and back. It was remarkable." [Don't Sit Tight: 6 Ways to Make a Deadly Activity Healthier]

Roberts and his colleagues are now trying to zero in on which genes might play a role in the motivation to exercise. And if the research proves to be relevant to human biology, it could help identify causes for obesity, a growing problem, especially among children, in the United States, Roberts' colleague Frank Booth said.

"It would be very useful to know if a person is genetically predisposed to having a lack of motivation to exercise, because that could potentially make them more likely to grow obese," Booth said in a statement.

Even though rats are good models for much of human biology, the results must be replicated in humans to see how they translate.

The new study was detailed April 3 in the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lazy-genes-may-blame-122638541.html

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US Lawmakers Seek Details on Beyonce, Jay-Z Cuba Trip (Voice Of America)

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5 Senate Staffers to Watch on Immigration

Immigration is clearly a top priority for the Senate during the 113th?Congress. Eight Democratic and Republican lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight are meeting to hammer out bipartisan immigration legislation, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is promising to give it a prompt hearing in his committee. That has meant long hours for the aides preparing for hearings and turning a set of guiding principles into actual legislative language.

Here are five key Senate staffers who will shape any immigration legislation:

Kerri Talbot,chief counsel, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Talbot?s knowledge of immigration law runs so deep that before she even joined Menendez?s staff four years ago, she helped staffers navigate the maze of amendments during the last big immigration fight (she worked for an NGO called the Rights Working Group then). Now, she?s Menendez?s staff representative in the Gang of Eight talks, and says that both the lawmakers and their aides have a good working relationship. Talbot got her start working on immigration when she taught English to Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants as a college student. She and her boss share a passion for family immigration. ?He?s always been considered a champion of the immigrant community,? she said of Menendez. Even though the senator doesn?t sit on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration reform, Talbot will probably play a similar role helping the staff there handle the amendments. Her colleagues are grateful for her deep expertise on the issue, not to mention her ability to draft legislative text.

Cesar Conda,chief of staff, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Conda has one of the toughest jobs in town right now: He has to help Rubio negotiate an immigration bill with the rest of the Gang of Eight that will be palatable to Republicans and not damage his boss?s conservative credentials in the process. ?That?s a tough circle to square, but I think Cesar is the right man for the job,? said Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of the pro-immigration reform group America?s Voice. ?Rubio is really lucky to have Cesar Conda as his chief of staff.? Conda, known among colleagues for his even temper, has been working on the issue since the early 1990s when he was part of a group of young, libertarian-minded, pro-immigration conservatives. His government experience runs deep: He worked for former Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., and was an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. He also spent time in the private sector as a lobbyist and analyst for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and founded the Washington office of a consulting firm called Navigators Global.

Serena Hoy, chief counsel, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

For years, Hoy thought she wanted to work in foreign policy?and with a broad language portfolio that includes Spanish, French, Arabic, and Hebrew, it was definitely within reach. But after working at the immigration clinic at Yale Law School, she decided that this issue was ?a nice marriage? of her interests in law and foreign affairs. She worked as an immigration lawyer with nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C., and Florida before coming to Reid?s office in spring 2005 as an adviser on immigration policy and other Judiciary Committee issues. ?He comes from a state where there are a lot of immigrants who would be helped by this bill and he?s been hearing from those immigrants personally for many years,? Hoy said of Reid?s connection to the issue. Her day-to-day job puts her in frequent communication with the staffers on the Gang of Eight and the Senate Judiciary Committee, and she?ll soon be involved in the process of helping educate the caucus on the bill, work with outside advocates, and anticipate amendments. ?Everything is ? heading in a very good direction,? she said. ?So I am cautiously quite optimistic.??

Matthew Virkstis, senior counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee

There was a time when it didn?t look like Virkstis would become an immigration lawyer. After graduating from college, he was a fly-fishing guide in the Rocky Mountains for four years. But after that, the Vermont native returned to his home state to get a J.D. at Vermont Law School, and then a desire to get involved in public policy led him to Leahy and the Judiciary Committee in 2005. His first eight months were spent in the intense preparation for the confirmation hearings of three Bush Supreme Court nominees, but after that he started working with the counsel handling immigration. Now, it?s his main issue, along with guns?which has made for a busy spring. He works alongside Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director Kristine Lucius, a longtime aide, and Senior Counsel John Amaya. ?For Chairman Leahy, there?s a real humanitarian angle to this in terms of doing good for people who are here and are contributing to our society,? he said. Reflecting on the lessons from the last immigration-reform effort, he and his boss will strive to keep the focus on the people and families affected by reform. ?Building consensus is just key,? he said.

Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, legislative assistant, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

After graduating from Denison University in 1998, Kovarik went straight to work for Grassley, and she?s been there ever since. With 15 years under her belt, she?s had plenty of experience advocating for Grassley?s issues on the Judiciary Committee, where he is ranking member. ?She is absolutely tireless in representing the senator on the immigration issues,? said Rosemary Jenks of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for lower immigration levels. Kovarik?who Jenks described as one of the hardest workers on the Hill?will be a key staffer working on behalf of members like Grassley who are pushing back against any rush to pass the Gang of Eight?s immigration bill through the committee. Grassley is an advocate for reforms of the high-skilled worker visas, E-Verify, and border security, but is far less enthusiastic about providing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

Hot Seats is a weekly series highlighting significant staff positions in the 113th Congress. To suggest a position or staffer for the list, please tweet to @NJLeadership or e-mail Managing Editor Kristin Roberts at?kroberts@nationaljournal.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-senate-staffers-watch-immigration-142349330--politics.html

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Fire official: 2 trapped N.C. children likely dead

DENVER, N.C. (AP) ? Two young children trapped when dirt fell on them at a home construction site Sunday were not expected to be found alive and crews expected to work through the night to recover their bodies, a fire official said.

A father of one of the children called 911 at about 6 p.m. to report what happened, said Lincoln County Emergency Services public information officer Dion Burleson. Crews were on the scene in minutes, but couldn't get to the 7-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, Burleson said.

Crews used shovels and climbing gear trying to get to the children at the Denver neighborhood. Emergency personnel from several places, including nearby Charlotte, were on the scene late Sunday.

Video from WSOC-TV shows backhoes scooping dirt from a deep hole surrounded by dirt. Equipment surrounded the hole. Burleson said it is hard to estimate how far down the children might be.

The man who called was the father of at least one of the children, Burleson said. Neighbors told WBTV that the children were cousins.

This is "devastating for both the family members and responders who are on the scene," Burleson said. "This is a tragic night in Denver."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fire-official-2-trapped-nc-children-likely-dead-021803356.html

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By Ken Levine: Coping with comedy writer depression

This is a serious Friday Question. More humor tomorrow but today I need to address this. Usually I frown on Anonymous posters but not in this case.?

Here's his question:

Ken, I'm a mid-level writer and have been writing on sitcoms for about six years. Alan Kirschenbaum (pictured above) and Lester Lewis' suicides were chilling because I see how this job may have driven them to it. I see that kind of pain all around me, in other sitcom writers, in myself. How did you keep your head straight when you did your time working on staffs? Yes, I'm aware of how great the WGA's mental health benefits are, but aside from that, did you land upon an effective way to deal with all the lows? Sorry to be anonymous, but I'm sure you understand why.

First off, my heart goes out to you. And anyone who feels despondent in their life or life?s work. Depression can be a killer.? But therapy and proper medication have helped millions recover and go on to lead normal, healthy, happy lives.?

Besides advising you strongly to seek counseling I can only tell you what works for me. I?m not a medical professional, nor can I speculate on the reasons why Alan and Lester chose to take their own lives. My guess is their careers were a factor but there were others as well.?? I didn?t know either of them very well. I worked with Alan briefly on a couple of shows; Lester I never met.

I can also point out that like any writer, I have weathered my share of disappointments, doubts, failures, and frustrations. They come with the territory.? There was one period, after doing the MARY show that I needed to drop out and not do anything for three months. So these are battle-tested methods, at least regarding me. I hate when actors give acceptance speeches after winning big awards and say, ?This just proves if you love what you?re doing and stay with it you?ll make it.? Bullshit! You made it. You were incredibly lucky, were blessed with God-given talent, or your slept your way to the top, but don?t be giving advice to others as if anyone can follow your path.

Here was mine:

David Isaacs and I were just starting out. We had sold a couple of freelance scripts and were completely starry-eyed. And then we heard that a writer for ALL IN THE FAMILY, on his way to a Sunday rewrite after working grueling hours every day for weeks, felt chest pains, pulled off to the side of the freeway, had a heart attack and died. He was in his 50?s. This was a sobering moment for us. Even then, even in the euphoria of finally breaking into the business, we realized that literally killing yourself for the sake of a script was foolhardy.? As a result, our mantra has always been?

It?s just a stupid television show.

It may not seem it at the time of crisis but if you step back, allow yourself a little perspective, you?ll see that it?s true.

It?s just a stupid television show.

Yes, you want to make your show great. You want it to be something you?re immensely proud of, something seen by millions of people. You work your ass off, as you should. But at the end of the day?

It?s just a stupid television show.

A few years ago a writer killed himself after a bad table reading of a MR. ED reboot pilot. Can you imagine something that tragic and absurd?

Look for other things in your life that you enjoy or give you meaning. If as a God-forbid you have to get out of television, you will probably find that?s not the worst thing that's ever happened to you.? It might just be the best. Re-inventing yourself is not a bad thing. I will admit it?s harder to do that the older you get. Opportunities dry up with age. But it?s certainly worth exploring. A lot of my contemporaries have found satisfaction in other fields. One former comedy writer teaches Russian Studies in college, another is now an author, still a third runs a bed & breakfast in Vermont.

Is there something else you?d like to do? It may not even be a dream job, but if the stress is way less, if you go home at a decent hour, if you?re able to watch basketball for the first time in fifteen years, then maybe it?s worth it.

I got very lucky. At the end of that MARY experience I had an ?Is that all there is?? moment and decided to chase my other passion, baseball announcing. It was a lark more than anything. When I went to the upper deck of Dodger Stadium with a tape recorder I never seriously believed I?d make it to the major leagues. The truth? After spending a year locked in a writing room, I was just thrilled to be outdoors. It worked out for me amazingly well, but that was just a bonus.

And then there?s Alan Ball. I?ve told this story before but he was on staff of CYBILL and was miserable. So at night, for his own sanity, he wrote a spec screenplay. That was AMERICAN BEAUTY.

I offer these merely as examples that there are alternatives. A lawyer I knew said ?Fuck it? and opened a crepe restaurant. A former big league ballplayer is writing a musical. A former comedy writer is going to nursing school. What else floats your boat?

And finally, to the person I say, you are welcome to contact me. My email is bossjock@dslextreme.com. I?m happy to sit down and have coffee with you and do whatever I can. Comedy is hard but shouldn?t be that hard.

My best wishes to all of you in this painful situation.

It's just a stupid television show.

Source: http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2013/04/coping-with-comedy-writer-depression.html

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The Final Four by the numbers

David J. Phillip / AP

University of Louisville players work during practice Friday, April 5, in Atlanta for their NCAA Final Four college basketball semifinal game against Wichita State.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Your favorite player's number isn't the only one you'll need to know if you want to impress at Final Four viewing parties this weekend. About 100,000 fans are expected to flood into Atlanta from Saturday to Monday to cheer on college basketball's biggest stars. The Louisville Cardinals will face the Wichita State Shockers, and the Michigan Wolverines will come up against the Syracuse Orange.

The NCAA said it has trucked in an additional 18,218 additional seats to add to the 74,000-capacity Georgia Dome, from which face-painted spectators can peer down at the spankin' new $100,000 court.

Sure, you can scrape by reciting stats and recounting stunning moments from championship games past. But any sports fan worth his or her salt knows those. Here are the numbers you need to know what's really going on behind the scenes during the year's most anticipated weekend of college hoops:

---

2,700 ? Feet scalpers are required to stay from the complex that includes the Georgia Dome in order to ply their trade under Peach State law. State regulations require that unofficial ticket-hawkers steer well clear of the Georgia World Congress Center, which includes the stadium.

29 ? Inches the championship court is elevated above the stadium floor. The final team standing literally gets to take the field ? it's given the option of taking the court home. If the national champion declines, the NCAA sells the court after the tournament.

32,942 ? Amount in dollars on StubHub for a single ticket to view the semifinals and the championship from a posh suite. The average price tag for a semifinals seat in 2013 was an all-time high of $1,190, according to secondary-market aggregator TiqIQ.com.

315 ? Lowest price in dollars for a single semifinals ticket on TicketLiquidator.com, for a seat way up in the Dome's stratosphere. Or luckless fans can try and strike a deal with those friendly scalpers lingering a few blocks from the stadium.

1,125 ? Credentialed members of the pencil-pushing, camera-toting media who will be jostling for laptop real estate over the weekend. One of the most popular annual sporting events in the United States, the Big Dance's finale also draws in a sizable contingent of foreign media.

155,000 ? Weight in pounds of the monster video board looming over the court, blowing the athletes to superhuman size. And so fans don't miss a single moment, 660 television monitors also dot walls throughout the stadium.

30 ? Length in seconds of a campaign finance ad the Fair Elections for New York Campaign is planning to run during the Syracuse-Michigan matchup Saturday. (Also, approximate length of bathroom break fans will take during said ad.)

1904 ? Year the school that would become Wichita State adopted the team nickname "Shockers," for the harvesting, or "shocking," of wheat that went on in fields not far from the school. The men's basketball team, then playing for what was known as Fairmount College, first took the court in 1906.

32,952 ? Feet of soft drink supply lines that snake to drink dispensers through the stadium to provide sugary soda pop nectar to throats hoarse from rooting on the team. The 21-year-old Dome is better known for hosting football games, but it has been home to three previous Final Four matchups.

11,088 ? Distance in feet that fans have to drive from the Dome to get a chili dog at Hotlanta's nearest Varsity drive-in restaurant. The chain's been dishing up slaw dogs and orange shakes for Atlanta customers since 1928.

1 ? Ubiquitous hand gesture (the high-five) that Louisville claims was invented by its 1978-79 men's basketball team. That team, also known as the Doctors of Dunk, featured players Wiley Brown and Derek Smith, who allegedly came up with the celebratory slap. (Other sources claim Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers invented the high-five during the 1977 baseball season.)

3.9 ? Dollar amount, in millions, that Louisville coach Rick Pitino pulls down as his base salary. That makes him the biggest earner before performance bonuses of this year's Final Four coaches. It also explains those snazzy white suits.

1 ? Television and six-pack of light beer required to enjoy the game in the comfort of one's own home.

Related:

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Stocks move higher on Wall Street; Best Buy soars

Trader Timothy Nick, center, works with Geoffrey Friedman, right, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, April 4, 2013. Stocks are notching small gains in early trading after the U.S. government reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since late November. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Timothy Nick, center, works with Geoffrey Friedman, right, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, April 4, 2013. Stocks are notching small gains in early trading after the U.S. government reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since late November. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Neil Catania, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, April 4, 2013. Stocks are notching small gains in early trading after the U.S. government reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since late November. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist John McNierney, right, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, April 4, 2013. Stocks are notching small gains in early trading after the U.S. government reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since late November. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Michael Bercovici, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, April 4, 2013. Stocks are notching small gains in early trading after the U.S. government reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since late November. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Dow Jones industrial average closed higher Thursday, regaining half of its decline the day before, as buyers returned to the market.

The Dow rose 55.76 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 14,606.11. On Wednesday it dropped 111, its worst fall in more than a month, following weak reports on hiring and service industries. The decline was enough to make stock prices seem attractive again.

"Investors have been looking for a reason to sell, given the rally we've seen in the market in the past couple of months," said Joseph Tanious, a global market strategist at JPMorgan Funds. "Today, you're seeing investors come back into the market and buy on the dip."

The stock market got off to a strong start in 2013. The Dow climbed 10 percent in the first three months of the year and closed at a record high of 14,662 Tuesday. Investors have been encouraged by signs that the housing market was recovering and that hiring was picking up.

The market continued a steady advance through the first two weeks of March, but since then indexes have been alternating between gains and losses on a nearly daily basis as investors' confidence in the U.S. economic recovery weakened.

There was more discouraging economic news Thursday that held the market in check. The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose to a four-month high of 385,000 last week, the Labor Department said. The government will issue its employment report Friday, which investors look at closely for insight into how the U.S. economy is doing.

"The trend seems to be worsening," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. "We're seeing a little hesitation in anticipation of tomorrow's job report."

Safer industry groups rose Thursday. Telecommunications companies and utilities led the gains for the S&P 500, rising 1.3 percent and 0.9 percent.

So-called defensive industries, such as health care, consumer staples and utilities, which have stable earnings and dividends, have led the market rally this year. Investors have been seeking out stocks that give them similar characteristics to debt investments after a powerful rally in bonds over the last year pushed yields sharply lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note has traded below 2 percent for most of the last year.

The 10-year yield fell to 1.76 percent Thursday from 1.81 percent a day earlier, within a fraction of its lowest level of the year. The note's yield has declined over the last month as demand for less risky assets increased following the financial crisis in Cyprus and signs of a slowdown in the U.S. The yield was as high as 2.06 percent on March 11.

Japanese stocks jumped and the yen sank after the country's central bank announced aggressive measures for getting the world's third-largest economy out of a two-decade slump. The Bank of Japan, under new Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, surprised markets by saying it would greatly increase the country's money supply with the goal of encouraging people and businesses to borrow and spend. The yen weakened 3.6 percent against the dollar, to 96.33 yen, while Tokyo's Nikkei stock index rose 2.2 percent to 12,634.54.

U.S.-listed shares of Japanese automakers rose sharply. A weaker yen would make Japanese vehicles less expensive in markets outside Japan, and therefore more competitive. The U.S. shares of Toyota rose $4.75, or 4.7 percent, to $105.63, Honda's rose $2.01, or 5.4 percent, to $39.21 and Nissan's rose $1.03, or 5.5 percent, to $19.85. Japanese electronics makers also rose. Sony rose 57 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $17 and Panasonic climbed 27 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $6.69.

In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.29 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,559.98. The Nasdaq composite fell rose 6.38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,224.98.

Among stocks making big moves, electronics retailer Best Buy jumped $3.48, or 16 percent, to $25.13 after saying it would collaborate with the Korean smartphone and tablet maker Samsung to open kiosks in its stores.

Facebook rose 82 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $27.07 after the social network unveiled a new product for Android phones that will bring content to users on the phone's home screen. More Android integration could help Facebook Inc. attract more mobile advertisers.

MetroPCS rose 16 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $11.12 after Reuters reported that Deutsche Telekom is considering amending the terms of the proposed merger between its T-Mobile USA business and local rival Metro PCS.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-04-Wall%20Street/id-224f50a7ea4146da93a1e1b1c18bfb1f

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Local union expects sequester-related layoffs today at Cape Canaveral

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130405/NEWS01/130404023/1086/rss07/Local-union-expects-sequester-related-layoffs-today-Cape-Canaveral

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Kellan Lutz to Star in Millenium Films' ''Hercules 3D''

By Greg Gilman

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - 'Twlight: Saga" franchise star Kellan Lutz has been cast as the titular son of Zeus in director Renny Harlin's "Hercules 3D," Millennium Films announced on Friday.

The action flick will center on the half-man-half-god's passionate love story with the Princess of Crete, who was promised to his older brother despite her undying love for Hercules.

"Kellan has the look and charisma that Harlin envisioned for the character," said Boaz David, Millennium's head of creative affairs, "Renny had him in mind from the start, and we are really excited to have him on board."

Production is scheduled to start next month at the company's Nu Boyana Film Studios in Bulgaria.

Sean Hood, Renny Harlin and Giulio Steve wrote the script for the film, which will be produced by Les Welden and Danny Lerner - the duo behind Millenium's "Olympus Has Fallen."

Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, John Thompson and Boaz Davidson will executive produce with the hopes of topping MGM's "Hercules," another big screen adaptation of the Roman hero who will be played by Dwayne Johnson. Brett Ratner is directing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kellan-lutz-star-millenium-films-hercules-3d-230333090.html

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Cancer patients turned away as sequester digs into Medicare ? RT ...

Budget cuts that took effect on April 1 due to the sequester are already taking their toll on Medicare, as cancer clinics turn away thousands of patients due to fears that treating them could jeopardize the bottom line.

Oncologists across the country are finding it impossible to administer chemotherapy drugs while keeping their clinics afloat, let alone turning a profit, the Washington Post reports.

?The drugs we?re going to lose money on we?re not going to administer right now,? said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York, as quoted by the Post. ?If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we?d be out of business in six months to a year.?

In tandem with the new cuts, two major National Cancer Organizations issued a statement on what they call the devastating impact of sequestration on cancer patient treatment.

"Never before have I been forced to consider financial concerns when deciding which patients to treat," commented Community Oncology Alliance (COA) president Dr. Mark Thompson. "Oncologists should not be put in the untenable position of continuing to treat patients at a loss -- which will result in clinic closings -- or being unable to treat Medicare seniors fighting cancer in order to keep the clinic doors open."

Since cancer drugs are administered by a physician they are paid for by Medicare Part B, which pertains to doctor visits - and is impacted by the sequester.

According to the joint statement released by the COA, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and several other groups, the government does have the authority to modify the implementation of sequestration cuts and exclude Part B drugs, thus sparing chemotherapy.

If no action is taken, one survey indicates that up to 72 per cent of cancer clinics will likely have to deny Medicare cancer patients, or send them to hospitals that, according to the Washington Post, may not have the capacity to treat them.

Some hospitals, such as the Eastern Connecticut Health Network, have attempted to prepare for additional patients ahead of the looming cuts. Regardless, the 66 per cent of Medicare cancer patients that typically receive care at an oncology clinic will still have to come up with the money to cover bigger out-of-pocket costs.

Medicare patients may, at least, have an easier time at finding affordable cancer treatment at non-profit hospitals, as a federal program requires double-digit discounts from pharmaceuticals for those treating low-income and uninsured patients.

What frustrates oncology professionals the most is that these drastic measures could have been avoided.

"Most frustrating is that this did not have to happen. There are several ways that the Administration and Congress can act to avoid the most devastating of sequestration impacts," explained Ted Okon, COA's executive director. "However the cuts are addressed, it must be done immediately. In the absence of government action to stop sequestration cuts, practices will have no choice but to adopt emergency measures to deal with the sequester cuts to cancer drugs."

In addition to the impact faced by Medicare, the sequester cuts may deal another blow to the cancer patient community, as cuts affecting the National Institutes of Health will likely hamper genomic study and the development of new cancer drugs.

Source: http://rt.com/usa/cancer-patients-rejected-sequester-301/

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Quantum tricks drive magnetic switching into the fast lane

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, and the University of Crete in Greece have found a new way to switch magnetism that is at least 1000 times faster than currently used in magnetic memory technologies. Magnetic switching is used to encode information in hard drives, magnetic random access memory and other computing devices. The discovery, reported in the April 4 issue of Nature, potentially opens the door to terahertz and faster memory speeds.

Ames Laboratory physicist Jigang Wang and his team used short laser pulses to create ultra-fast changes in the magnetic structure, within quadrillionths of a second (femtosecond), from anti-ferromagnetic to ferromagnetic ordering in colossal magnetoresistive materials, which are promising for use in next-generation memory and logic devices. Scientists, led by Ilias E. Perakis, at the University of Crete developed the theory to explain the observation.

"The challenge facing magnetic writing, reading, storing and computing is speed, and we showed that we can meet the challenge to make the magnetic switches think ultra-fast in the femtosecond range ? one quadrillionth of a second ? by using quantum 'tricks' with ultrashort laser pulses " said Wang, who is also an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State University.

In current magnetic storage and magneto-optical recording technology, magnetic field or continuous laser light is used. For example, photo-excitation causes atoms in ferromagnetic materials to heat up and vibrate, and the vibration, with the help of a magnetic field, causes magnetic flips. The flips are part of the process used to encode information.

"But the speed of such thermal magnetic switching is limited by how long it takes to vibrate the atoms, and by how fast a magnetic field can reverse magnetic regions" said Wang. "And it is very difficult to exceed the gigahertz switching speed limit of today's magnetic writing/reading technology."

So, some scientists have turned their attention to colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) materials because they are highly responsive to the external magnetic fields used to write data into memory, but do not require heat to trigger magnetic switching.

"Colossal magnetoresistive materials are very appealing for use in technologies, but we still need to understand more about how they work," said Wang. "And, in particular, we must understand what happens during the very short periods of time when heating is not significant and the laser pulses are still interacting with magnetic moments in CMR materials. That means we must describe the process and control magnetism using quantum mechanics. We called this 'quantum femto-magnetism.'"

Wang's team specializes in using ultra-fast spectroscopy, which Wang likens to high-speed strobe photography, because both use an external pump of energy to trigger a quick snapshot that can be then re-played afterwards. In ultra-fast laser spectroscopy, a short pulse of laser light is used to excite a material and trigger a measurement all on the order of femtoseconds.

"In one CMR manganite material, the magnetic order is switched during the 100-femtosecond-long laser pulse. This means that switching occurs by manipulating spin and charge quantum mechanically," said Wang. "In the experiments, the second laser pulse 'saw' a huge photo-induced magnetization with an excitation threshold behavior developing immediately after the first pump pulse."

The fast switching speed and huge magnetization that Wang observed meet both requirements for applying CMR materials in ultra-fast, terahertz magnetic memory and logic devices.

"Our strategy is to use all-optical quantum methods to achieve magnetic switching and control magnetism. This lays the groundwork for seeking the ultimate switching speed and capabilities of CMR materials, a question that underlies the entire field of spin-electronics," said Wang. "And our hope is that this means someday we will be able to create devices that can read and write information faster than ever before, yet with less power consumed."

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DOE/Ames Laboratory: http://www.external.ameslab.gov

Thanks to DOE/Ames Laboratory for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127590/Quantum_tricks_drive_magnetic_switching_into_the_fast_lane

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