“Walking Dead” midseason finale preview: attack of the bloodthirsty killers, aka our heroes

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – (Spoiler warning: Don’t read this if you don’t want to know what happened this season on “The Walking Dead” or in the comics. We’re also giving some general details about Sunday’s midseason finale.)

As eventful as this season of “The Walking Dead” has been, they’re just getting to the best stuff.

Showrunner Glen Mazzara tells TheWrap that Sunday’s midseason finale will include several intense faceoffs, including one between Michonne and The Governor’s zombified daughter, Penny. It will also introduce Tyreese (“The Wire” star Chad Coleman), one of the most beloved characters in the Robert Kirkman comics that inspired the series. And Daryl will try desperately to reunite with his brother Merle, who has moved to Woodbury and become one of The Governor’s chief lieutenants.

The episode also features an attack on Woodbury by some “bloodthirsty killers” – also known as Rick, Daryl, and the other survivors we’ve been rooting for throughout the show.

Mazzara also talked with us about the season so far, including a horrific encounter between Maggie and the Governor, and how much we should empathize with zombies.

TheWrap: What can you say about the midseason finale?

Mazzara: It all comes to a head. We’ve spent this season introducing all these new characters into the world, introducing the governor and re-introducing Merle and Michonne, and getting these two groups face to face.

The Governor does despicable things, but in his mind, he’s the good guy.

I think you’ll see that in this midseason finale. The Governor is able to say that they’re attacked by bloodthirsty killers. He can certainly make the case that Rick and his group are killers. And if you look at it objectively, they are. They took over the prison, most of those prisoners are now dead, and the people of Woodbury are just peace-loving survivors. The Governor is definitely able to pain Rick as a villain. And in doing that, he can hopefully mobilize the people of Woodbury to war.

He’s spared the people of Woodbury from seeing some ugly stuff. Is he doing it for a noble reason – to preserve their innocence – or is it so he can exploit them?

I think it’s so he can better exploit them. He feels that the people of Woodbury are sheep. He’s not interested in what they think. He just wants them to speak well of him. They are there to be ruled and he’s there to rule by any means necessary.

I feel like Glen and Maggie are our audience surrogates at this point, our pals, and they were both horribly abused. You’ve gotten a lot of feedback from fans relieved that The Governor stopped short of raping Maggie in the last episode.

He’s killed National Guardsmen. Think of all the stuff that he’s done. And the line he’s crossed and the act from which he cannot be redeemed is that he made our beloved Maggie take off her shirt and bra.

It’s very interesting, and I don’t think that would be the case if people did not care about that character as much as they do.

Why did he stop short of raping Maggie?

He didn’t rape Maggie because she wouldn’t have been broken by it. She says ‘Do what you’re gonna do, and then go to hell.’ So then to do that would have been torture for torture’s sake. It wouldn’t have gotten him the information he wanted. So he thinks about that and thinks, this isn’t going to achieve my agenda. He moves on. He brings her in, topless, implying that she was raped, to Glen, and he puts the gun to Glen’s head. … And she gives up that information.

One change you made is that in the comics, Michonne is horribly raped and tortured by the governor.

She still may be. But I think it’s important to say that this is a character who is willing to do whatever he wants or thinks it takes to achieve his goals. … We know he’s capable of rape. We know he’s capable of murder. He knows where the prison is, and he is coming for them. He collects heads. He’s the most dangerous character in this world and he is furious.

Also last episode, we saw an effort to see how much human memory remains with walkers when they transform. How much should we empathize with walkers?

I think the show has always been in a sense compassionate to zombies. The first zombie that we met was bicycle girl and Rick says ‘I’m sorry this happened to you.’ … So I do think there’s something in the DNA of this TV show in which the frightening creatures – our worst fears, walking the earth – are also individuals and people. In a way, they’re the damned. They’ve lost their souls. They’re like a ghost that doesn’t realize that they’ve passed on and can’t make it to the light. They’re dead but they’re not dead and it’s a type of curse. It comes out of a long history of horror movie. There is some type of compassion even though there can’t be.

Does it seem like people who care about the zombies are suckers?

That’s the question. What is the right way within this world? You have people who retain their humanity, like Dale, end up eaten. People who lose their humanity, like Shane, end up dead too. So in a way it’s irrelevant. It’s like a state of war in which anyone can be killed at any time. But there’s a random quality to life and death and that’s what makes it so frightening. No matter what you do, you can still suffer a horrific fate. Who would ever assume that Carol would still be alive at this point? And she is.

She’s a survivor, but she’s not Michonne. And Carol is just as likely to live or die as Michonne.

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Psychiatrists OK vast changes to diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — For the first time in almost two decades the nation’s psychiatrists are changing the guidebook they use to diagnose mental disorders. Among the most controversial proposed changes: Dropping certain familiar terms like Asperger‘s disorder and dyslexia and calling frequent, severe temper tantrums a mental illness.

The board of trustees for the American Psychiatric Association voted Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., on scores of revisions that have been in the works for several years. Details will come next May when the group’s fifth diagnostic manual is published.

The trustees made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several task force groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

Board members were tightlipped about the update, but its impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide.

The manual “defines what constellations of symptoms health care professionals recognize as mental disorders and more importantly … shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care,” said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor who was not involved in the revision process.

The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

The guidebook’s official title is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The new one is the fifth edition, known as the DSM-5. A 2000 edition made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

The manual “seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 … there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders,” Olfson said.

Expected changes include formally adopting a term for children and adults with autism — “autism spectrum disorder,” encompassing those with severe autism, who often don’t talk or interact, and those with mild forms including Asperger’s. Asperger’s patients often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on quirky subjects but lack social skills.

Some Asperger’s families opposed the change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services. And some older Asperger’s patients who embrace their quirkiness vowed to continue to use the label.

But experts say the change won’t affect the special services available to this group.

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College who was on the psychiatric group’s autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger’s in the old manual would be included in the recommended new diagnosis.

One reason for the recommended change is that in some states and some school systems, children and adults with Asperger’s receive no services or fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Other proposed changes include:

—A new diagnosis — disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, which critics argued would medicalize kids’ normal temper tantrums. Supporters said it would address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings from feeling sad and depressed to unusually happy or energetic. Affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums. The new diagnosis would be given to children and adults who can’t control their emotions and have frequent temper outbursts in inappropriate situations.

—Eliminating the term “dyslexia,” a reading disorder that causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words. The term would be encompassed in a broader learning disorder category.

—Eliminating the term “gender identity disorder.” It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender — they dispute their normal biological anatomy. But many activists believe the condition isn’t a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with “gender dysphoria,” which means emotional distress over one’s gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

___

Online:

Diagnostic manual: http://www.dsm5.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Man killed his father in Wyoming community college attack

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Police released more details Saturday of a grisly murder-suicide at a Wyoming community college, saying a man shot his father in the head with a bow and arrow in front of a computer science class not long after fatally stabbing his father's live-in girlfriend at their home a couple miles away.

Computer science instructor James Krumm, 56, may have saved some of his students' lives Friday by giving them time to flee while trying to fend off his son, Christopher Krumm, 25, of Vernon, Conn., Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said.

"I can tell you the courage that was demonstrated by Mr. Krumm was absolutely without equal," he said, adding that his actions could offer some measure of comfort to those affected by the killings.

He said police still were trying to figure out what motivated Christopher Krumm to attack his father and girlfriend, 42-year-old Heidi Arnold, a math instructor at the college. Arnold was found stabbed to death in front of the home she shared with James Krumm.

After shooting his father with the arrow, Christopher Krumm stabbed himself, then fatally stabbed his father in the chest in a struggle in the classroom, Walsh said.

Police arrived to find James Krumm dead and Christopher Krumm barely living; the younger Krumm died soon after students fled in a panic. Authorities locked down the campus for two hours.

Police began getting reports about the attack on Arnold soon after they responded by the dozen to the campus attack.

Christopher Krumm had smuggled the compound bow — a type much more powerful and effective for hunting than a simple, wooden bow — onto campus beneath a blanket, Walsh said.

He said Krumm also had two knives with him and the knife used was "very large."

"It's one of those situations you don't think is going to come home. It's not going to happen here," Walsh said.

Arnold died of multiple stab wounds. Her body was found in the gutter of her street. Evidence suggested much of the attack occurred outside the home, Walsh said.

Christopher Arnold had recently driven to Casper from Connecticut and had been staying at a local hotel. He had no significant history of encounters with police.

Police were uncertain what went awry in Christopher Krumm's relationship with his father.

"It's difficult to say. I don't think it was very close," Walsh said.

Casper, population 56,000, is about 250 miles northwest of Denver and Wyoming's second-largest city after the state capital, Cheyenne. Wyomingites refer to Casper as the "Oil City" because it is a hub of the state's small oil industry.

Casper College is one of seven colleges in Wyoming's community college system. The campus was mostly quiet Saturday morning. Fathers and sons shot hoops in the school gym. A small group of drama students rehearsed a play in the school theater just across the street from the attack.

The building where the attack happened remained cordoned off by police tape that whipped in a brisk wind. A security guard let students back in, one at a time, to retrieve belongings they'd left behind.

Andra Charter, a 20-year-old sophomore, emerged with a coffee mug. She recalled hearing screams outside her biology class before getting word about what had happened.

"As we were walking out, there was a girl screaming, 'There's somebody stabbing Mr. Krumm!'" Charter said.

No students were hurt in the attack.

Krumm was head of the college's computer science department. He was born north of London and also spent part of his childhood in Germany, according to the college website.

He held degrees from Casper College, a bachelor's degree and MBA from the University of Wyoming, and a master's in computer science from Colorado State University.

Arnold held a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Oregon and a bachelor's degree in math from University of California Davis.

The college planned a candlelight vigil and memorial service Tuesday.

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Egypt’s Mursi calls referendum as Islamists march

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt‘s President Mohamed Mursi called a December 15 referendum on a draft constitution on Saturday as at least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo to back him after opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.

Speaking after receiving the final draft of the constitution from the Islamist-dominated assembly, Mursi urged a national dialogue as the country nears the end of the transition from Hosni Mubarak‘s rule.

“I renew my call for opening a serious national dialogue over the concerns of the nation, with all honesty and impartiality, to end the transitional period as soon as possible, in a way that guarantees the newly-born democracy,” Mursi said.

Mursi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he gave himself extensive powers and put his decisions beyond judicial challenge, saying this was a temporary measure to speed Egypt’s democratic transition until the new constitution is in place.

His assertion of authority in a decree issued on November 22, a day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, dismayed his opponents and widened divisions among Egypt’s 83 million people.

Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests by disparate opposition forces drawn together and re-energized by a decree they see as a dictatorial power grab.

A demonstration in Cairo to back the president swelled through the afternoon, peaking in the early evening at least 200,000, said Reuters witnesses, basing their estimates on previous rallies in the capital. The authorities declined to give an estimate for the crowd size.

“The people want the implementation of God’s law,” chanted flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bussed in from the countryside, who choked streets leading to Cairo University, where Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had called the protest.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians had protested against Mursi on Friday. “The people want to bring down the regime,” they chanted in Cairo‘s Tahrir Square, echoing the trademark slogan of the revolts against Hosni Mubarak and Arab leaders elsewhere.

Rival demonstrators threw stones after dark in the northern city of Alexandria and a town in the Nile Delta. Similar clashes erupted again briefly in Alexandria on Saturday, state TV said.

“COMPLETE DEFEAT”

Mohamed Noshi, 23, a pharmacist from Mansoura, north of Cairo, said he had joined the rally in Cairo to support Mursi and his decree. “Those in Tahrir don’t represent everyone. Most people support Mursi and aren’t against the decree,” he said.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a hardline Salafi Islamist scholar and a member of the constituent assembly, said secular-minded Egyptians had been in a losing battle from the start.

“They will be sure of complete popular defeat today in a mass Egyptian protest that says ‘no to the conspiratorial minority, no to destructive directions and yes for stability and sharia (Islamic law)’,” he told Reuters.

Mursi has alienated many of the judges who must supervise the referendum. His decree nullified the ability of the courts, many of them staffed by Mubarak-era appointees, to strike down his measures, although says he respects judicial independence.

A source at the presidency said Mursi might rely on the minority of judges who support him to supervise the vote.

“Oh Mursi, go ahead and cleanse the judiciary, we are behind you,” shouted Islamist demonstrators in Cairo.

Mursi, once a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, has put his liberal, leftist, Christian and other opponents in a bind. If they boycott the referendum, the constitution would pass anyway.

If they secured a “no” vote to defeat the draft, the president could retain the powers he has unilaterally assumed.

And Egypt’s quest to replace the basic law that underpinned Mubarak’s 30 years of army-backed one-man rule would also return to square one, creating more uncertainty in a nation in dire economic straits and seeking a $ 4.8 billion loan from the IMF.

“NO PLACE FOR DICTATORSHIP”

Mursi’s well-organized Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi allies, however, are convinced they can win the referendum by mobilizing their own supporters and the millions of Egyptians weary of political turmoil and disruption.

“There is no place for dictatorship,” the president said on Thursday while the constituent assembly was still voting on a draft constitution which Islamists say enshrines Egypt’s new freedoms.

Human rights groups have voiced misgivings, especially about articles related to women’s rights and freedom of speech.

The text limits the president to two four-year terms, requires him to secure parliamentary approval for his choice of prime minister, and introduces a degree of civilian oversight over the military – though not enough for critics.

The draft constitution also contains vague, Islamist-flavored language that its opponents say could be used to whittle away human rights and stifle criticism.

For example, it forbids blasphemy and “insults to any person”, does not explicitly uphold women’s rights and demands respect for “religion, traditions and family values”.

The draft injects new Islamic references into Egypt’s system of government but retains the previous constitution’s reference to “the principles of sharia” as the main source of legislation.

“We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society,” said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester in Tahrir and member of a party set up by opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.

Several independent newspapers said they would not publish on Tuesday in protest. One of the papers also said three private satellite channels would halt broadcasts on Wednesday.

Egypt cannot hold a new parliamentary election until a new constitution is passed. The country has been without an elected legislature since the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated lower house in June.

The court is due to meet on Sunday to discuss the legality of parliament’s upper house.

“We want stability. Every time, the constitutional court tears down institutions we elect,” said Yasser Taha, a 30-year-old demonstrator at the Islamist rally in Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Jason Webb)

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Sony’s radical PlayStation 4 controller concept: A motion-control device you can split in half

While Nintendo (NTDOY) has been busy innovating with unique controllers on the Wii and Wii U, Sony’s (SNE) DualShock controller for its PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 has remained virtually the same since 1997. A newly discovered patent reveals Sony might be planning on a radical overhaul of the DualShock for the PlayStation 4 that’s rumored to arrive next year. U.S. patent 20120302347A1 details a “hybrid separable motion controller” that resembles a DualShock controller with two PlayStation Move sensor balls attached to it. Much like how the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller combo separated the left and right hand input, the Sony controller patent goes one step further by allowing the two halves to be split and combined at any time – all without reducing the amount of buttons available.

The patent also highlights the inclusion of a “connection sensor for determining whether the controller is in a connected configuration or a disconnected configuration.”

One of the PlayStation Move’s biggest disadvantages is that it’s a separate controller and not the default one. As a result, most developers either saw it as merely a Wii Remote clone or as a niche controller with a limited install base not worth programming special controls for. If Sony were to include proper 1:1 motion controls within the default PS4 controller without turning its back on the “core” controller, it could greatly appeal to casual and core gamers.

Such a controller can be considered a natural evolution of the current DualShock 3 controller that sports limited motion controls using its three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope.

Of course, the controller is only a patent that may never make it to market, so don’t get your hopes up if it doesn’t happen.

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Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen get Billboard honors

NEW YORK (AP) — Billboard named Katy Perry its woman of the year, but the pop star thought her year was 2011.

Perry was interviewed by Jon Stewart at Billboard’s Women in Music event Friday in New York City. The singer said she thought her moment had passed. Perry released “Teenage Dream” in 2010, and it sparked five No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts that spilled over to 2011. This year, she rereleased the album, which launched two more hits and a top-grossing 3-D film.

She thanked her mom at the event, which honored women who work in the music industry.

Newcomer Carly Rae Jepsen also thanked her mom — and stepmom — when accepting the rising star honor. The “Call Me Maybe” singer said she’s happy and surprised by her success.

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Awareness of HIV Risk Has Dropped Among Gay Men Even As Infection Rates Rise

More than 30 years after the dawn of the HIV epidemic, the significance of the infection and awareness for how it’s transmitted has dropped precipitously among young people, especially among gay men, according to new data from the federal government.

National statistics for 2010 show that more than one-quarter of all new HIV infections are among youths ages 13 to 24. Of the estimated 47,500 new infections in 2010, more than 83% are among men.

Almost three-quarters are attributed to sex between men, and half of all new cases are among African Americans, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Statistics.

HIV prevalence among blacks is nearly three times higher than among Hispanics and nearly eight times higher than among whites. Men who have sex with men have prevalence rates nearly 40 times higher than other men,  the authors said.

MORE: HIV Vaccine Under Study May Last a Lifetime

An estimated half of HIV-positive young people are unaware they were infected. The study found that HIV testing was low — only 12.9 percent among high school students and 34.5 percent among people ages 18 to 24. Testing is less common among males compared to females and is lower among whites and Hispanics compared to African Americans.

“More effort is needed to provide effective school- and community-based interventions to ensure all youths, particularly men who have sex with men, have the knowledge, skills, resources, and support necessary to avoid HIV infection,” wrote the authors of the report.

The statistics  are sobering news as World AIDS Day approaches on Dec. 1.

“I think the statistics are alarming and that we should be alarmed,” Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, told Take Part. “I think that what we in the gay community need to come to grips with is HIV remains our number-one health equity issue. “

MORE: Can HIV Prevention Be Found in a Pill?

In an essay published earlier this month on the amFar web site, Collins and co-author Jeffrey Levi said it’s time to refocus the HIV-prevention campaign among gay men. Young men who have sex with men represent the only group in which HIV incidence appears to be increasing, he says.

The alarming HIV incidence among gay men stands in contrast to the popular perception that the HIV threat is under control. Efforts by the LGBT community in the ’80s and ’90s resulted in an estimated 89 percent decline in HIV transmission over that time period, Collins says.

“I think the advent of life-saving AIDS drugs in the mid ’90s was both a wonderful thing that saved the lives of so many gay people but also meant that the gay community, to some degree, turned to many other challenges — understandably so,” he says.

MORE: More People Than Ever Living with HIV

Since then, efforts to educate a new generation of young people about HIV prevention have faded. The LGBT community is needed to reinforce the HIV prevention message, he says.

“We saw the power of the gay community in the ’80 and ’90s to confront this epidemic and mobilize the public and private sectors to address a problem that was devastating us,” Collins says. “We need to reconnect with our activism and focus from the 1980s and help everyone in the gay community get tested and get access to the care they need.”

AmFar recently published a brief, “Ending the HIV Epidemic Among Gay Men in the United States” that serves as an agenda for progress. The brief calls for utilizing the Affordable Care Act to improve HIV testing and treatment as well as to promote overall better health among LGBT people.

Stigma is another big reason why people with HIV or who are at higher risk for the infection don’t get the healthcare they need, Collins adds.

MORE: FDA Approves Truvada as First HIV Prevention Drug

“We know for sure is stigma is a huge part of the HIV epidemic in the United States,” he says. “It impedes people from learning their HIV status, getting the care they need and talking to their doctors openly.”

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which advises the federal government on health policy, earlier this month issued preliminary guidelines calling for routine HIV screening as part of a check-up.  In 2006, the CDC recommended that doctors routinely test all patients for HIV, regardless of risk,  however only people at increased risk for HIV were eligible for free HIV screening. The USPSTF recommendation would mean more people could be tested without having a co-pay.

The task force also recommended that people at high risk for infection be tested at least once a year.

“The recommendation from the commission is a hopeful sign and the kind of thing we need to encourage health providers to offer testing,” Collins says. “We need to have HIV testing readily accessible and routine in all kinds of environments. It ought to be something doctors and nurses regularly offer. For gay men, they ought to be getting HIV tests regularly, not just every couple of years but perhaps every six months.”

MORE: Transgender Healthcare: A Work in Progress

Collins says he expects HIV prevention will re-emerge as a top priority in the LGBT community. The topic will be prominent at the 25th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, in January in Atlanta.

“There are a variety of efforts going on to engage the gay community,” he says. “I think we’re going in the right direction.”

Question: Why do so few young people get tested for HIV? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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Boehner: Debt talks are 'at a stalemate’

Republican House Speaker John Boehner (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner on Friday said that despite receiving a counterproposal from the White House as part of a deal to avoid a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, no progress had been made between Republicans and Democrats.

"There's a stalemate, let's not kid ourselves," Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, told reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill. "It's not a serious proposal. Right now we're almost nowhere."

The White House on Thursday sent Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to deliver a proposal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff by increasing taxes by $1.6 trillion over the next decade, including $50 billion in stimulus spending for mostly infrastructure and $400 billion in savings in popular entitlement programs such as Medicare.

Republicans rejected it right away. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly laughed in Geithner's face.

"Our original framework still stands," Boehner said the next day, reiterating his opposition to raising tax rates on any income bracket. He added that he remains open to "closing loopholes [and] getting rid of special interest deductions" within the tax code to raise the same amount of revenue.

"I'm not trying to make this more difficult," he said. "You've watched me over the last three weeks; I've been very guarded in what I have to say. Because I don't want to make it harder for me or the president, or members of both parties to be able to find common ground."

While negotiators continue talks behind closed doors, both parties continue to engage in their own public relations tour to promote their own plans. President Barack Obama on Friday traveled to Pennsylvania, and Republican lawmakers plan to meet with small-business owners over the next few weeks.

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Oliver Stone, Benicio del Toro visit Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Benicio Del Toro didn’t wait long to collect on a favor that Oliver Stone owed him for working extra hours on the set of his most recent movie, “Savages”, released this year.

The favor? A trip to Del Toro‘s native Puerto Rico, which Stone hadn’t visited since the early 1960s.

“I told him, you owe me one,” Del Toro said with a smile as he recalled the conversation during a press conference Friday in the U.S. territory, where he and Stone are helping raise money for one of the island’s largest art museums.

Del Toro, wearing jeans, a black jacket and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of local reggaeton singer Tego Calderon, waved to the press as he was introduced.

“Hello, greetings. Is this a press conference?” he quipped as he and Stone awaited questions.

Both men praised each other’s work, saying they would like to work with each other again.

“I deeply admire him as an actor, the way he thinks, the way he expresses himself,” Stone said. “Of all the actors I’ve worked with, he’s the most interesting.”

Stone said Del Toro always delivers surprises while acting, even when it’s as something as subtle as certain gestures between dialogue.

“I think Benicio is the master of keeping you watching,” he said.

Stone said he enjoys meeting up with Del Toro off-set because he’s one of the few actors in Hollywood who can talk about something other than movies.

“He is very interested in the world around him,” Stone said, adding that the conversations sometimes center around politics and other topics.

Del Toro declined to answer when asked what he thought about Puerto Rico’s referendum earlier this month, which aimed to determine the future of the island’s political status. He said the results did not seem to point to a clear-cut outcome.

Del Toro then said he would like the island’s movie business to grow, especially in a way that would encourage learning.

“I’m talking about movies in an educational sense, as a way to discover other parts of the world,” he said. “Create a film class. You’ll see, kids won’t skip it.”

Del Toro also shared his thoughts on being a father after having a daughter with Kimberly Stewart in August 2011.

He said the girl is learning how to swim and is discovering the world around her.

“She has her own personality,” Del Toro said. “She’s not her mother. She’s not me.”

Both Del Toro and Stone are expected to remain in Puerto Rico through the weekend to raise money for the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, which is hosting its annual movie festival and will honor Stone’s movies.

Museum curator Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero said the money raised will be used to enhance the museum’s permanent collection, especially with Puerto Rican paintings from the 19th century and early 20th century.

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Study: DVRs now in half of US pay-TV homes

NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey finds that digital video recorders are now in more than half of all U.S. homes that subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.

Leichtman Research Group‘s survey of 1,300 households found that 52 percent of the ones that have pay-TV service also have a DVR. That translates to about 45 percent of all households and is up from 13.5 percent of all households surveyed five years ago by another firm, Nielsen.

The first DVRs came out in 1999, from TiVo Inc. and ReplayTV. Later, they were built into cable set-top boxes. The latest trend is “whole-home” DVRs that can distribute recorded shows to several sets.

Even with the spread of DVRs, live TV rules. Nielsen found last year that DVRs accounted for 8 percent of TV watching.

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Lohan arrested in NY, charged also for California car smash

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested outside a New York nightclub on an assault charge early Thursday, police said, while in California, she was charged with reckless driving and lying to police over a car crash in June.

Lohan, 26, was arrested shortly after 4:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) on a third-degree misdemeanor assault charge after punching another woman in the face at a club in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, New York police said.

The charges in California were more serious, and could result in the “Mean Girls” actress having her probation revoked and being sent back to jail.

Lohan’s publicist and attorney did not return calls for comment on Thursday.

Lohan, who has been to rehab, jail and court numerous times since a 2007 arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession, is currently on informal probation, following her January 2011 conviction for stealing a gold necklace from a California jewelry store.

A Los Angeles judge had lifted her formal probation in March but told her to comply with all laws and stay out of trouble.

Police in the beach city of Santa Monica said Lohan was formally charged on Thursday with reckless driving and lying to police after telling them she was not driving the Porsche that smashed into a truck on a busy highway. No one was seriously injured in the collision.

Lohan was also charged with obstructing an officer in his duty. A court date has not been set, Santa Monica police said in a statement.

In New York, Lohan was accused of punching a 28-year-old unidentified woman multiple times in the face, said New York Police Sergeant John Buthorn. The victim sustained “minor, minor injuries,” he said.

The actress was released from police custody later on Thursday morning.

The two incidents come during a rough week for the former child star, once one of the most promising young actresses in Hollywood.

Her most recent performance, as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in the TV movie “Liz & Dick,” was panned by critics. Cable TV channel Lifetime said Monday that a modest 3.5 million Americans watched the film, which premiered last weekend.

Lohan’s recent visits to New York have been peppered with run-ins with police and public spats.

Last month, police were called to the Long Island home of Lohan’s mother, Dina Lohan, after a loud argument, though no arrests were made. In September, Lohan was arrested in Manhattan after a pedestrian told police her car had struck him in an alley, but charges were not filed.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins in New York and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Xavier Briand and Bernadette Baum)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Diabetes is a manageable disease

After a family backpacking trip a couple weeks later, he weighed 66.

“It came on pretty quickly,” said Gildon, now 28, reflecting on what led up to his eventual diagnosis: diabetes.

He’s among the 26 million people in the United States with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association, which acknowledges November as American Diabetes Month.

The recently published Diabetes Report Card 2012 from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) listed Oklahoma as having had the highest increase in adult diabetes from 1995 to 2010, with nearly one in 10 Oklahomans having the disease.

Diabetes is a group of diseases characterized by high blood glucose, or blood sugar, the CDC’s report explained. With diabetes, the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or is unable to use its own insulin effectively.

Glucose builds up in the blood and causes a condition that, if not controlled, can lead to serious health complications and even death, the report said.

At the time he was diagnosed, Gildon wasn’t familiar with diabetes.

On the way home from that aforementioned backpacking trip, Gildon kept asking his parents to make pit stops every 20 or 30 minutes. He was also thirsty.

Eventually, he started feeling bad. After the family made it home, their physician said Gildon might have flu, then wrote him a prescription.

That evening, he became sicker still, and couldn’t keep water or Sprite down. That’s when his mother took him to the emergency room.

A normal glucose level is in the 80-100 range, Gildon said. That night in the hospital, his hit 999.

Signs and symptoms of diabetes can be subtle and increase over time, said Dr. Laura J. Chalmers with the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma, 4444 E. 41 St.

Those signs include being more thirsty, urinating more often, waking at night to drink and go to the bathroom, and weight loss, Chalmers said. The appetite may also be increased, and some people will have nausea and vomiting.

Gildon was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, or type 1 diabetes (T1D), one of the three most common forms of diabetes, according to the CDC. Another, type 2 diabetes (T2D), makes up for about 95 percent of diagnosed diabetes in adults; the third, gestational diabetes, develops and is diagnosed as a result of pregnancy in 2 to 10 percent of pregnant women.

With T1D, the body is unable to produce insulin, a hormone secreted by pancreas to regulate blood sugar, Chalmers explained. Treatment for T1D is insulin.

In T2D, there is insulin resistance, she continued. Treatment for T2D involves weight loss, dietary changes and medications that help the body secrete insulin and overcome the insulin resistance. In some situations, patients with T2D require insulin.

Onset of T1D is typically before age 20 but presentable from approximately 6 months of age into adulthood, Chalmers said.

Annette Jones was 24 and pregnant with her youngest daughter when she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

“When women get gestational, it usually goes away after delivery,” said Jones, alluding to the 2 percent of women who remain diabetic after pregnancy.

Jones has had diabetes for 27 years, more than half her life. Like Gildon, she wasn’t too familiar with diabetes, other than having family members who were diabetic – but she was too young to understand what that meant.

“I knew there was not a cure and that you had to take shots,” she said.

Lori Maisch was 45 when she was diagnosed with T1D. She had lost 25 pounds from May to September that year – “all the yard work I had been doing,” she thought.

Constantly thirsty and going to the bathroom every 15 minutes, even at night, Maisch finally attracted the attention of someone in a doctor’s office: her neighbor, who noticed her “sweet odor.”

“It’s the same scent I smell on patients that have diabetes,” Maisch recalled her neighbor saying. “That prompted me to make an appointment with my primary care physician, be tested and diagnosed.”

More than one diabetes

Misconceptions abound regarding diabetes, Chalmers said.

For example, T1D is treated with insulin and carbohydrate counting, she explained. Patients with T1D should have a healthy diet but are allowed to have cake, ice cream and other sweets within reason – as long as they take their insulin to cover the carbohydrates in the food they consume.

Maisch used to be one of those folks with preconceived notions about diabetes, she said. Since her diagnosis, people assume she has T2D because she’s an adult.

“Then they say, ‘I thought that only happened to children,’ ” she said. “Some will say, ‘Oh, if you eat right and exercise more, you can control it.’ No, that’s type 2 – I am insulin-dependent.”

Or she might have people tell her she can’t have certain foods, like birthday cake, refusing to cut her a slice because “you can’t have it,” Maisch said. “I just need to adjust my insulin to eat it.”

Most people don’t know that there is more than one kind of diabetes, Jones said. Others she’s met don’t think that it’s a big deal because diabetics take insulin.

“They don’t realize the deadly consequences that occur with this disease,” she said. “I have actually had people say to me, ‘You have diabetes? You’re not even fat.’ I could go on and on.”

Sometimes, people with diabetes might have a change in mood, experiencing “highs and lows,” as Maisch said.

“If I am having either, I can come across irritable or out of it,” she said. “I don’t mean to but can’t help it sometimes. I’ve found a lot of people don’t understand that part of the disease.”

Having diabetes can be expensive, too. Even with insurance, the two insulin shots Maisch needs each month are $ 100 each. Plus, she has test strips and syringes to buy. In all, it’s about $ 400 out of her own pocket each month.

“I used to be more impulsive,” Maisch said, “but now am more mindful regarding my meals and making sure I have my T1 pouch – blood glucose monitor, test strips, glucose tablets, insulin, syringe – every time I leave the house.”

It takes planning

Another challenge is always having to be more prepared than the average person.

Like if a buddy of his asks him to go on a spur-of-the-moment bike ride, Gildon has to know what his blood sugar is, possibly take extra food with him in case he takes too much insulin or exercises too heavily.

If he goes on a long trip, he has to think ahead in case his insulin pump breaks – what would he do then? Gildon has to have a back-up plan.

When he’d go on a Boy Scout camping trip, Gildon and his dad crafted a case out of PVC pipe for his insulin so he could keep it in his sleeping bag on freezing nights – and insulin doesn’t freeze.

One of the main challenges for Jones was changing her eating habits, like cutting back on carbs.

“Simplicity is gone,” she said. “I can’t go anywhere – store, work, park, ride my bike – without a plan, a snack or juice, something to treat low blood sugar.”

Jones has to have her blood monitor with her at all times, and she checks her blood at least four, sometimes eight times a day.

Like Gildon, she wears a pump 24-7. “It is still better than six to seven shots a day,” Jones said – but added, “I don’t feel free.”

Such adjustments aside, a normal, active life is achievable for most diabetics.

Jones wanted to have another baby after her second daughter, but the doctor said it was “probably best” she didn’t.

“This was 27 years ago, so that mentality has changed now,” said Jones, who has three beautiful daughters.

“God worked everything out,” she said. “Maybe not the way I had planned it, but just perfect anyway.”

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Stop diabetes before it starts

American Diabetes Month takes place each November in order to raise awareness of this disease.

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), it is estimated that nearly 26 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes. Another 79 million Americans have prediabetes and are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

To stop this disease before it starts:

Get moving. Physical activity lowers blood sugar and boosts your sensitivity to insulin. Research shows both aerobic exercise and resistance training can help control diabetes. The ADA recommends a half-hour of mild aerobic activity five times per week.

Eat more whole grains. White bread, white rice and potatoes have a high glycemic index, which can cause spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels. Whole grain foods help with diabetes prevention because they slow down carb absorption.

Limit your sugar intake. Be sure to read nutritional labels and steer clear of anything that lists sugar, sucrose, corn syrup or other sweeteners, such as evaporated cane juice or molasses, as one of the first ingredients.

Stop smoking. According to a Harvard School of Public Health study, smokers are about 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes than nonsmokers. New research shows that inhaling secondhand smoke may also lead to an increased risk of diabetes.

Get more sleep. Not getting enough sleep increases hunger, which leads to weight gain and, therefore, raises your risk of getting diabetes.

Check your glucose levels. The ADA recommends blood glucose screening for everyone age 45 and older. Generally, this testing is repeated every three years. But if you have known risk factors (like high blood pressure or obesity), discuss them with your doctor.

For more, visit the ADA’s website tulsaworld.com/diabetes

And to learn more about Hillcrest’s Center for Diabetes Management, visit tulsaworld.com/hillcrestdiabetes

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Support for diabetes

After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and not having a support system in place, Lori Maisch went into action.

She looked at the American Diabetes Association, JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and local support groups.

“I found that there were great meetings for type 2 (diabetes), for children with type 1, but none specifically for adults with type 1,” Maisch said.

So she formed a group called T1Tulsa for adults older than 18 living with type 1 diabetes. They meet once a month. Sometimes they have speakers; sometimes they just visit and learn from one another.

“It is a special meeting for me, as it is the one time month I can look around the room, say anything, and everyone gets it,” she said.

If you’re interested in T1Tulsa, email Maisch for meeting details, [email protected]

Original Print Headline: Diabetes a race that can be won

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Jason Ashley Wright 918-581-8483
[email protected]
Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Ice on Mercury, despite nearby Sun

New evidence suggests Mercury's north polar region contains large deposits of ice. (NASA/Johns Hopkins Univers …NASA's Messenger spacecraft has discovered evidence that the planet Mercury has enough ice on its surface to encase Washington, D.C., in a block two and a half miles deep.

"For more than 20 years the jury has been deliberating on whether the planet closest to the Sun hosts abundant water ice in its permanently shadowed polar regions," writes Sean Solomon of the Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the principal investigator of the Messenger mission. The spacecraft "has now supplied a unanimous affirmative verdict."

"These reflectance anomalies are concentrated on poleward-facing slopes and are spatially collocated with areas of high radar backscatter postulated to be the result of near-surface water ice," Gregory Neumann of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center writes in the paper. "Correlation of observed reflectance with modeled temperatures indicates that the optically bright regions are consistent with surface water ice."

The study results were published on Wednesday in Science magazine, which explains in its summary, "The buried layer must be nearly pure water ice. The upper layer contains less than 25 wt.% water-equivalent hydrogen. The total mass of water at Mercury's poles is inferred to be 2 × 10¹⁶ to 10¹⁸ g and is consistent with delivery by comets or volatile-rich asteroids."

Radar imaging of Mercury has long suggested that there could be large deposits on the planet's surface, with reports dating to 1991. But today's report presents harder evidence supporting that theory.

Messenger has fired more than 10 million laser imaging pulses at Mercury's surface since arriving in its orbit in 2011. Feedback from those pulses have helped NASA in its quest to verify whether ice is present in Mercury's poles, which are largely shielded from exposure to the sun's rays.

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Noisy city: Cacophony in Caracas sparks complaints

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — This metropolis of 6 million people may be one of the world’s most intense, overwhelming cities, with tremendous levels of crime, traffic and social strife. The sounds of Caracas‘ streets live up to its reputation.

Stand on any downtown corner, and the cacophony can be overpowering: Deafening horns blast from oncoming buses, traffic police shrilly blow their whistles and sirens shriek atop ambulances stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Air horns routinely used by bus drivers are so powerful they make pedestrians on crosswalks recoil, and can even leave their ears ringing. Loud salsa music blares from the windows of buses, trucks with old mufflers rumble past belching exhaust, and “moto-taxis” weave through traffic beeping high-pitched horns.

Growing numbers of Venezuelans are saying they’re fed up with the noise that they say is getting worse, and the numbers of complaints to the authorities have risen in recent years.

One affluent district, Chacao, put up signs along a main avenue reading: “A honk won’t make the traffic light change.”

“The noise is terrible. Sometimes it seems like it’s never going to end,” said Jose Santander, a street vendor who stands in the middle of a highway selling fried pork rinds and potato chips to commuters in traffic.

Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega recently told a news conference that officials have started “putting an increased emphasis on promoting peaceful coexistence” by punishing misdemeanors such as violations of anti-noise regulations and other minor crimes. That effort has translated into hundreds of noise-related cases in recent years.

Some violators are ordered to perform community service. For instance, two young musicians who were recently caught playing loud music near a subway station were sentenced to 120 hours of community service giving music lessons to students in public schools.

Others caught playing loud music on the street have been charged with disturbing the peace after complaints from neighbors. Fines can run as high as 9,000 bolivars, or $ 2,093.

On the streets of their capital, however, Venezuelans have grown used to living loudly. The noisescape adds to a general sense of anarchy, with many drivers ignoring red lights and blocking intersections along potholed streets strewn with trash.

“This is something that everybody does. Nobody should be complaining,” said Gregorio Hernandez, a 23-year-old college student, as he listened to Latin rock songs booming from his car stereo on a Saturday night in downtown Caracas. “We’re just having fun. We’re not hurting anybody.”

Adding to the mess is the country’s notoriously divisive politics, which regularly fill the streets with marches and demonstrations.

On many days, the shouts of protesters streaming through downtown can be heard from blocks away, demanding pay hikes or unpaid benefits.

And the sporadic crackling of gunfire in the slums can be confused for firecrackers tossed by boisterous partygoers.

It’s difficult to rank the world’s noisiest cities because many, including Venezuela’s capital, don’t take measurements of sound pollution, said Victor Rastelli, a mechanical engineering professor and sound pollution expert at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas. But Rastelli said he suspects Caracas is right up there among the noisiest, along with Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Mumbai.

Excessive noise can be more than simply an annoyance, Rastelli said. “This is a public health problem.”

Dr. Carmen Mijares, an audiologist at a private Caracas hospital, said she treats at least a dozen patients every month for hearing damage caused by prolonged exposure to loud noises.

“Many of them work in bars or night clubs, and their maladies usually include temporary hearing loss and headaches,” Mijares said. For others, she said, the day-to-day noise of traffic, car horns and loud music can exacerbate stress and sleeping disorders.

Several cities have successfully reduced noise pollution, said Stephen Stansfeld, a London psychiatry professor and coordinator of the European Network on Noise and Health.

One of the most noteworthy initiatives, Stansfeld said, was in Copenhagen, Denmark, where officials used sound walls, noise-reducing asphalt and other infrastructure as well as public awareness campaigns to fight noise pollution.

But such high-tech solutions seem like a remote possibility in Caracas, where streets are literally falling apart and aging overpasses regularly lack portions of their guard rails. Prosecutors, angry neighbors and others hoping to fight the noise will have to persuade Venezuelans to do nothing less than change their loud behavior.

For Carlos Pinto, however, making noise is practically a political right.

The 26-year-old law student and his friends danced at a recent street party to house music booming from woofers in his car’s open trunk, with neon lights on the speakers that pulsed to the beat.

When asked about the noise, he answered: “We will be heard.”

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AP freelance video journalist Ricardo Nunes contributed to this report.

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Christopher Toothaker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ctoothaker

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Dear President Obama: My White House petition requires your magical powers

By Chris Wilson

Since President Barack Obama won reelection, the White House website for citizen petitions has received secession requests from all 50 states. In the case of Texas, more than 100,000 people have endured the inconvenience of entering their name and email address in order to support the state’s bid for autonomy. Apparently, in a sign of Americans’ growing distaste for physical activity, 2012 is the year when people stopped threatening to move to a foreign country if their candidate lost the presidency. Instead, they want foreign countries to move to them.

The forum-happy Internet activism crowd has never had a realistic sense of what happens when you to plug government directly into the Ethernet port. This is what happens: In addition to petitions for secession, you get ones calling for Bigfoot to be recognized as an endangered species, naturopathic medicine to be covered by Obamacare, and funding for a Death Star beginning in 2016.

The petition website, called We the People, is not very useful as a guide to what Americans really care about. But it is useful as a guide to how people think of what the government can do, down to the specific words the authors use in the petitions.

Of the 300 most recent petitions, only three request that the government “protect” something—states rights, email privacy, the planet—while seven request that it “recognize” something—same-sex marriage, hate groups, and so forth. Dozens ask that Obama “grant” or “allow” a certain privilege, while only a few suggest he “ban” an action or “prevent” an outcome.

The interactive below arranges the petitions into a tree structure by the principal verb in the title. When you click a blue dot, the tree expands to show all the petitions that begin with that verb. You can mouse over those branches to see the original wording of the petition and search for any word you like by typing a phrase into the box at the top.

 

Bigfoot aside, most of the petitions on the site are earnest. This does not mean they are all sane. About 37,000 people have signed a petition suggesting that it be illegal to offend the prophets of major religions. Another petition demands recognition that Israel is responsible for 9/11—that one with only some 600 signatories.

But many present very good ideas. There’s one for reforming the Electoral College and another that suggests all scientific papers based on taxpayer-funded research should be freely accessible online.

If there is one binding force behind the petitions, it is that most of them request that Obama intercede in matters that he has no authority over or rightful business meddling with, regardless of where one comes down on the subject of big government. While the site is technically designed to lobby the government, most petitions appear personally directed at Obama.

Even the petitions to secede are written in a tone of distinct obeisance: “Peacefully grant the state of Connecticut to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government.” Oregon’s petition is particularly careful to specify that there are no hard feelings: “Allow Oregon to vote on and leave the union peacefully and remain an ally to the nation.”

Secession always seemed to me to be something that, by definition, you did without asking permission. (Mutual breakups are as rare in history as they are in love.) But for all the rampant anti-government sentiment in America, many people still believe the president is an omnipotent force who can pass laws on a dime, ban unsavory behavior, manipulate foreign countries with precision, expel citizens at will and otherwise bend the world to his fancy.

This does not mean people love the government. We know they do not. But they still want it to fix their problems with as little trouble as possible.

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There are some great open-source tools, like Python’s Natural Language Toolkit, that can automatically identify verbs and objects in sentences with fairly high accuracy. But a lot of human intervention is still required to clean up the results. I posted the code for retrieving the petitions from the White House website on my Github page, and the White House offers the full code for the petitions website on its Github page. Questions or comments? Email me at [email protected]
Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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A Minute With: Pop star Ke$ha on new album “Warrior”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop star Ke$ ha made a name for herself with infectious dance-pop hits but the singer-songwriter is stepping out of her Auto-Tune comfort zone on “Warrior”, out this week.

Ke$ ha, 25, stormed the charts with hit songs about drinking, partying and having a good time, such as “TiK ToK” and “Your Love is my Drug” from her 2010 platinum-selling album “Animal”.

Ke$ ha talked with Reuters about the pressures of following up the success of her first album and responding to her critics.

Q: Did you feel additional pressure while working on this album after the success of your debut, “Animal”?

A: “Everybody keeps asking me about pressure, and I think a lot of other people maybe are feeling pressure about this record, but I just want to make a good record. If I sat around trying to make a number one record, I’d just be too consumed with that. I just want to make an awesome, kick-ass record that I love and that my fans love.”

Q: Was there anything that you weren’t happy with on the first album and that you wanted to change for the second?

A: “I just wanted to make sure my entire personality was presented more accurately. I feel like people really got to know the super-wild side of me but then sometimes a more vulnerable side. I didn’t really feel comfortable expressing it. So this time I kind of forced myself to express a little bit more vulnerability, less Auto-Tune, less vocal trickery. It’s a little more raw.”

Q: You received a lot of criticism for your use of Auto-Tune, masking your true singing voice. Was that a valid criticism for you, when many others use it?

A: “I remember having this conversation with my producer, and him saying, ‘We’re using a lot of vocal tricks,’ and I said, ‘People will get to know me as my career goes on, I just want it to sound really weird and cool and clubby right now, and super electronic.’ I made a conscious decision to use Auto-Tune for effect, as ear candy, and vocoders and chop up my words.

“This time around, I have heard so many different people say I can’t sing, it’s quite frankly irritating, so I … made a five-song acoustic EP (‘Deconstructed’, out on December 4) that’s kind of like my middle finger to all those people that said I couldn’t sing, and there’s more of my voice on this record. You know, haters are going to hate, you just have to do what you want to do.”

Q: Talk us through some of the collaborations on “Warrior”. There’s quite a variety, such as with Iggy Pop and Ben Folds.

A: “Ben Folds is a friend of mine. He gave me a giant glitter grand piano that’s in my house, so that one was natural. The Flaming Lips was probably surprising for a lot of people because we’re two super-different genres of music but we had the most fun and we made so many songs, it was super insane. We’re like best friends, we text everyday now, so that kind of came naturally. The one that I really have been working on for years was a collaboration with Iggy Pop. He’s one of my favorite musicians and artists of all time, so that was super exciting for me, because I respect him so much.”

Q: You’ve written tracks for Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears, and you’ve written all the songs for “Warrior”. What did you want to bring out in your lyrics this time round?

A: “I definitely wanted to maintain the irreverence, because that’s why my fans like me. It’s because I’m super honest, not always PG rated … but I didn’t want to let the haters somehow cramp my style or get the best of me, so I maintain my irreverence … I also really wanted to show the other side of my personality, which kind of is more nerve-wracking to show people, being a real person and the vulnerable side of my personality and voice. So there are tracks on this record that are super vulnerable and were hard even to write. I had to force myself to sit down and write these songs.”

Q: You’ve carved a distinctive image and also just launched your latest collaboration with Baby-G watches. How do you want to evolve your career in the future?

A: “I think that with this record, I really wanted to show that there are no rules or boundaries in art, at all, like I sing and I can use crazy Auto-Tune vocoders and I can rap and I can do a song with Iggy Pop. You can do all these things that make sense. You don’t have to just be one thing, like, you don’t adhere to any sort of stereotype or any boundaries or any rules, so for me it’s really fun to break down these boundaries.”

Q: You came in at the forefront of the electronic dance music explosion in the pop charts two years ago. Why do you think EDM is doing so well?

A: “Dancing is one of the ways we, as adult human beings, still get to play and it’s socially acceptable. Little kids play all the time, but as we grow up, we’re supposed to just not play anymore, so our version of that is going out and dancing, and I think it’s one way people are still visceral and animal-like.”

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Dale Hudson)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Cialis impotence drug helps muscular dystrophy patients

LONDON (Reuters) – Eli Lilly‘s erectile dysfunction drug Cialis can correct abnormal blood flow in patients with a certain type of muscular dystrophy and could in future be used to slow progression of the disorder, researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings suggest that while Cialis can’t cure the condition, known as Becker muscular dystrophy, it could be used as a treatment to slow or prevent muscle weakening and help patients retain more function for longer.

Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) is an inherited disorder that involves slowly worsening muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis. It is mostly found in boys and occurs in about 3 to 6 out of every 100,000 births.

Patients with BMD often have difficulties with walking that get worse over time. There is no cure for the condition, and by the age of 25 to 30 many patients are unable to walk.

In a small study involving men with the disorder, researchers from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, in the United States took measurements when volunteers’ forearm muscles were either rested or lightly exercised with a handgrip.

They found that almost all the patients had defective blood flow when they exercised. This lack of blood flow may contribute to muscle fatigue and weakness, the researchers wrote in a study in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

But after giving some of the patients a single oral dose of Cialis and comparing them to others given a placebo, or dummy pill, the scientists found that normal blood flow was restored to the muscles of 8 out of 9 patients who got the drug.

Like other erectile dysfunction drugs, Cialis, known generically as tadalafil, dilates blood vessels and is designed to increase blood flow. In the impotence drug market, it is a longer-acting alternative to Pfizer’s blue pill, Viagra.

Sales of Cialis for erectile dysfunction brought in $ 1.875 billion for Eli Lilly in 2011, up 10 percent on 2010.

While using the drug in BMD may be a possibility in future, the researchers cautioned that doctors should not prescribe it for this indication until more, larger studies have been conducted to show whether the improved blood flow has a meaningful effect on dystrophic muscles.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Louise Heavens)

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Behind the curtain of the Great and Powerful Grover

(Michael D'Antuono/www.artandresponse.com)

WASHINGTON -- If aliens landed in Washington, D.C. right now, they might assume in their search for a terrestrial leader that a bespectacled man called "Grover Norquist" controlled the planet's most powerful nation. They might also conclude that this person had magical powers.

The misunderstanding wouldn't necessarily be their fault.

Grover Fever has swept the nation's capital this week, shortly after thousands of politicos waddled back into the city after a Thanksgiving break. After years of notoriety in Washington but near obscurity elsewhere, Norquist is becoming a household name around the dinner table.

The Colbert Report recently devoted a feature to Norquist, portraying the 56-year old Harvard graduate as a omniscient creature whose power knows no bounds. Norquist has been all over cable news shows and the subject of lengthy pieces in prestigious newspapers and magazines. Outside Washington's Metro stations this week, hawkers handed out free tabloid dailies bearing the image of his face. Politico devoted an entire hour to him at a newsmakers breakfast Wednesday morning.

His name is on the lips of top Democrats in Congress who blame him for single-handedly bringing the United States of America to an immediate standstill. Norquist is "one obstacle standing between Congress and compromise," Democratic Senate Majority Harry Reid exclaimed from the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

His crime? Norquist has convinced more than 1,000 politicians to sign a pledge never to raise taxes through his organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). But with Congress now debating how to avoid the so called "fiscal cliff"  -- a series of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to kick in January 1st if a budget deal isn't reached with President Barack Obama -- some Republicans appear to be wiggling away from Norquist's grip.

A few GOP lawmakers have voiced a willingness to eliminate deductions within the tax code, which, without offsetting tax cuts elsewhere, would technically violate the pledge. One of the possible pledge violators, Republican Rep. Steve King of New York, called Norquist a "lowlife" and said his wife would "knock his head off" after Norquist compared the taxpayer pledge to King's marriage vows.

But Norquist is like a bearded Lernaean Hydra who only grows more powerful the more you attack him. The evidence? A majority of Republicans have not joined the rogue moderates publicly, reinforcing the narrative that they remain under Norquist's binding spell.

But Norquist isn't necessarily the most powerful conservative activist in town. And many conservatives don't always move in lockstep with him, which is clear in the current debate over the fiscal cliff.

While there is a consensus among Republicans against increasing marginal tax rates for the sake of a deal, the disagreement lies in whether to eliminate deductions and close loopholes in the tax code.

Norquist insists that eliminating the loopholes without offsetting them by tax cuts would violate the pledge, but others say the deductions violate conservative principles by inserting the hand of government into the market.

"We look at things differently than Grover does," Chris Chocola, president of the free-market  group The Club for Growth, told Yahoo News. "We have always been advocates of lowering the marginal rate, broadening the base, eliminating what we think or market-distorting tax credits and loopholes."

Chocola said the approach would produce benefits that could please both parties: It would force companies that manipulate the system of loopholes to pay more in taxes and increase revenue by growing the economy.

Matt Kibbe, who heads the tea party organizing network FreedomWorks, agreed that any deal that scrapped the thousands of tax code loopholes would be progress.

"An ideal tax code doesn't choose favorites and it shouldn't matter that you have a great lobbyist in Washington, D.C," Kibbe said. "I think all conservatives generally support fundamental tax reform--they don't like the idea that GE gets a special credit for green energy or that some other company gets different treatment from anyone else."

Despite the differences, Norquist remains the man in the spotlight. He seems to be enjoying every minute of it, using the opportunity to promote his organization and raising his own profile.

On Wednesday, Norquist presided over a gathering of conservative activists who piled into a massive conference room at ATR's Washington office. The hump-day confab, known as "The Wednesday Meeting," puts what Hillary Clinton famously called "the vast right-wing conspiracy" in one room for an hour and a half every week.

The meeting is strictly off the record, but reporters can attend if they agree not to disclose details of the discussion.

On each chair in the room, representatives stacked press releases, pamphlets and articles promoting their organizations. From ATR, everyone received a full-page, color picture of former Republican President George H.W. Bush, whose bid for a second term was foiled after he agreed to raise taxes. It was a warning for anyone who might be thinking of breaking the pledge.

This week's meeting was standing room only, and Norquist, wearing a headset microphone, was in his element, roaring through presentations. Seated at the head of the table, he called on activists, think-tankers and members of Congress to share how they are promoting the conservative movement.

Despite his image as a puppeteer who controls the strings of Republican lawmakers, Norquist is not so much the Secret Master of the GOP as he is the Grand Facilitator of the coalitions that hold it together.

In the meantime, he doesn't seem to mind the confusion.

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Rapper PSY wants Tom Cruise to go ‘Gangnam Style’

BANGKOK (AP) — The South Korean rapper behind YouTube’s most-viewed video ever has set what might be a “Mission: Impossible” for himself.

Asked which celebrity he would like to see go “Gangnam Style,” the singer PSY told The Associated Press: “Tom Cruise!”

Surrounded by screaming fans, he then chuckled at the idea of the American movie star doing his now famous horse-riding dance.

PSY’s comments Wednesday in Bangkok were his first public remarks since his viral smash video — with 838 million views — surpassed Justin Bieber‘s “Baby,” which until Saturday held the record with 803 million views.

“It’s amazing,” PSY told a news conference, saying he never set out to become an international star. “I made this video just for Korea, actually. And when I released this song — wow.”

The video has spawned hundreds of parodies and tribute videos and earned him a spotlight alongside a variety of superstars.

Earlier this month, Madonna invited PSY onstage and they danced to his song at one of her New York City concerts. MC Hammer introduced the Korean star at the American Music Awards as, “My Homeboy PSY!”

Even President Barack Obama is talking about him. Asked on Election Day if he could do the dance, Obama replied: “I think I can do that move,” but then concluded he might “do it privately for Michelle,” the first lady.

PSY was in Thailand to give a free concert Wednesday night organized as a tribute to the country’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turns 85 next month. He paid respects to the king at a Bangkok shopping mall, signing his name in an autograph book placed beside a giant poster of the king. He then gave an outdoor press conference, as screaming fans nearby performed the pop star’s dance.

Determined not to be a one-hit wonder, PSY said he plans to release a worldwide album in March with dance moves that he thinks his international fans will like.

“I think I have plenty of dance moves left,” he said, in his trademark sunglasses and dark suit. “But I’m really concerned about the (next) music video.”

“How can I beat ‘Gangnam Style’?” he asked, smiling. “How can I beat 850 million views?”

___

Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Italian tax police probe Google Italy again

ROME (Reuters) – Italian police launched a new tax probe into Google Italy this week after earlier investigations found the group had failed to declare income and still owed sales tax, an economy ministry document showed on Wednesday.

The earlier probe, which was launched by Italian financial police in 2007, found that Google had developed a system to transfer profits from its Italian operations to Ireland so it could benefit from a more favorable tax regime.

The investigation is the Internet search giant’s latest entanglement with European tax authorities, following problems in France and Britain over its Irish strategy.

In Italy, investigations of the years 2002-2006 found that Google had failed to declare at least 240 million euros ($ 310 million) of income to authorities and owed more than 96 million euros in sales tax, according to the ministry’s response to questions in parliament.

It said police had launched a new probe on Monday to check the company was meeting its fiscal obligations in Italy.

Google said in a statement that it complies with tax law in every country in which it operates.

“We are confident we comply with Italian law,” a spokeswoman said, adding the firm would cooperate with authorities and answer any questions for the investigation.

Italian officials have stepped up tax surveillance and collection efforts in recent months as part of government efforts to bring Italy’s huge public debt under control.

Police have also been assessing the practices of other multinational online businesses who are managing to shift profits made in Italy into countries where they can pay less tax, the ministry said.

($ 1=0.7746 euros)

(Reporting By Danilo Masoni, Giuseppe Fonte and Catherine Hornby; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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‘Two and a Half Men’ actor not expected on set

NEW YORK (AP) — The teenage actor who stars in “Two and a Half Men” and called the CBS comedy “filth” may have some time before he faces the show’s producers.

Angus T. Jones wasn’t expected at rehearsal Tuesday because he is not going to be in the episode they are filming, according to a person close to the show who spoke on condition of anonymity because producers were not commenting publicly.

Jones, 19, has been on the show, which used to feature bad-boy actor Charlie Sheen and remains heavy with sexual innuendo, since he was 10 but says in a video posted online by a Christian church that he doesn’t want to be on it anymore.

“Please stop watching it,” Jones said. “Please stop filling your head with filth.”

The person familiar with the production schedule said Jones does not appear in either of the two episodes filming before the end of the year, so he wouldn’t be expected back at work until after the New Year.

His character has been largely absent because he has joined the Army.

CBS and producer Warner Bros. Television have not commented.

“Two and a Half Men” survived a wild publicity ride less than two years ago, when Sheen was fired for his drug use and publicly complained about the network and the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre.

Jones plays Jake, the son of Jon Cryer’s uptight divorced chiropractor character, Alan, and the nephew of Sheen’s hedonistic philandering music jingle writer, Charlie. Sheen was replaced by Ashton Kutcher, who plays billionaire Walden.

In the video posted by Forerunner Chronicles in Seale, Ala., Jones describes a search for a spiritual home. He says the type of entertainment he’s involved in adversely affects the brain and “there’s no playing around when it comes to eternity.”

“You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that,” he said. “I know I can’t. I’m not OK with what I’m learning, what the Bible says, and being on that television show.”

The show was moved from Monday to Thursday this season, and its average viewership has dropped from 20 million an episode to 14.5 million, although last year’s numbers were somewhat inflated by the intense interest in Kutcher’s debut. It is the third most popular comedy on television behind CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” and ABC’s “Modern Family.”

The actors on “Two and a Half Men” have contracts that run through the end of the season.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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AAP Recommends Prescribing Emergency Contraception for Teens

In a new policy statement released online on Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) officially recommended that physicians consider prescribing teens emergency contraception in advance. This assertion by the AAP follows on the heels of a new recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) last week that advocated making birth control pills available to women as an over-the-counter medication.

The AAP stated in a press release published ahead of the policy statement that much of the justification for the organization’s stance lies in the fact that the “United States continues to see substantially higher teen birth rates compared to other developed countries.” Prescribing emergency contraception ahead of time, according to the AAP, may help lower those rates.

What exactly is the AAP recommending?

The AAP is recommending that physicians prescribe emergency contraception, more commonly known as “morning after” pills, to teens, particularly, although not limited to, those that are currently sexually active. Specifically, the AAP is recommending prescribing emergency contraception for those teens who are under the age of 17, as the organization notes that females who are already 17 years of age or older can obtain emergency contraception without a prescription.

What information is the AAP basing its recommendation on?

The AAP has looked at the available research and determined that there is a need for teens to be prescribed the pills in advance in order to try and mitigate the number of unplanned pregnancies, which account for 80 percent of all pregnancies in girls between the ages of 15 and 19. The organization’s policy statement cited the need for teens to be protected against improper use or failure of other contraceptive methods, such as condoms, and also made note of the need to protect teens who may be the victims of sexual assault. The AAP also cited research indicating that teens who are prescribed emergency contraception “in advance of need” are more likely to use it if that need presents itself later, as opposed to teens who must ask for emergency contraception after the fact.

What are the risks involved in prescribing emergency contraception in advance?

The biggest risk factor, according to the AAP’s policy statement, is the fact that emergency contraception can prevent pregnancy (by preventing ovulation), but not sexually transmitted infections. According to a Reuters report, studies have shown that there is no known correlation between a teenager being given access to emergency contraception and them becoming sexually active any earlier.

What has been the reaction to the AAP’s decision to publish this policy statement?

The statement has gotten mostly positive reviews from women’s health advocates, including Susan Wood of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health at George Washington University in Washington, who told Reuters on Monday that the AAP’s decision is “significant.” Bill Albert, who is the chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, also praised the decision, telling the Washington Times that his organization “supports wider access to all birth-control products.”

Not everyone is convinced that the AAP’s recommendation is a good thing, however. In that same Washington Times piece, Wendy Wright, who is the vice president for government relations at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, said that “there are too many questions to be answered” before the idea of prescribing emergency contraception to teens should be entertained.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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