Demi Moore Replaced By Mary-Louise Parker In ‘Lovelace’
In other Demi news, Madonna reportedly reaches out to actress after her hospitalization.
By Jocelyn Vena
Demi Moore
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/ WireImage
Amidst her personal woes, Demi Moore, who had been set to play Gloria Steinem in the Linda Lovelace biopic, has been replaced by “Weeds” star Mary-Louise Parker.
Sources confirm to UsMagazine.com that the TV star will fill in for Moore, who had to drop out of the film earlier this week after she was hospitalized for “exhaustion.” On Thursday, there was speculation that Chloë Sevigny would play the feminist icon when she was cast as a feminist journalist, but now it seems that those are two different roles.
“Lovelace” is currently shooting in Los Angeles with Amanda Seyfried playing the film’s central character, ’70s porn actress Linda Lovelace.
As the Demi drama rolls on, there are reports that Madonna reached out to the actress shortly after she was hospitalized. Moore has since been released from the L.A.-area hospital.
Sources tells E! News that the singer called her actress pal. “Madonna told Demi she was there if she needs anything,” the E! source says, adding, “They’re pretty tight.”
The ladies last hung out during Golden Globes weekend, and they reportedly were going to see one another again over Super Bowl weekend; Madge is slated to perform during the halftime show. The status of their annual post-Oscars bash is currently up in the air.
While speculation runs rampant about why Moore was hospitalized, sources say that her ex, Ashton Kutcher, is “deeply concerned” for her. Moore is rumored to have been doing nitrous oxide before landing in the hospital. “He still cares about her and wants the best for her,” the source added. “But their marriage is ending and they are both moving on with their lives.”
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678022/demi-moore-mary-louise-parker-linda-lovelace.jhtml
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Analyst predicts Google?s mobile ad revenue to hit $5.8 billion this year (Appolicious)
Google?s Android mobile operating system continues to sweep the world and has a huge number of devices using it, but the way that Google really makes money off the OS and the apps sold for it is through advertising. And one analyst expects that the amount of money Google stands to bring in by targeting ads at Android users to hit $5.8 billion this year.
TechCrunch has the story, which cites Cowen analyst Jim Friedland, who estimates that Google is raking in $7 per mobile device per year, both running Android and Apple?s iOS platform, since Google ads reach other platforms through search and web ads as well. That?s going to help Google?s mobile ad revenues jump significantly, Friedland says ? going from $2.5 billion in 2011 to his estimated $5.8 billion this year.
The biggest driver for that spike is the greater proliferation of mobile devices around the world. This benefits Google as much as any other company by allowing Google to advertise. Smartphone activations in 2012 are expected to rise to 914 million worldwide from 508 million last year. The chunk of Google?s ad revenue that comes straight from mobile ads (as opposed to web ads) is expected to pick up significantly as well, rising from an estimated 3 percent in 2010 to 7 percent in 2011, and doubling again by 2012 to 14 percent, Friedland says. He expects it to increase to a $20 billion revenue stream by 2016, accounting for an estimated 23 percent of Google?s ad business. All those figures are estimates because Google doesn?t release mobile ad revenues regularly.
Whether Google?s mobile ad revenue really could get up above $5 billion depends on smartphone sales for 2012. Last year, Google said during an earnings call that its total display ad business, including mobile, was hitting around a $5 billion annual run-rate. This suggests a really big increase to get just the mobile side up that high. Then again, if smartphone sales really do hit nearly a billion worldwide, that increase in Google?s ad revenue could definitely happen.
More big advertising figures from Google are a good thing when it comes to smartphones, if only because it continues to support the proliferation and refinement of Android and Google?s other mobile offerings. Even Google apps spread to other platforms like iOS are made with an eye toward advertising revenue.
Given the pace at which the smartphone and mobile markets have been growing just in the last few years and months, it seems entirely possible we could be seeing 914 million smartphones worldwide by the end of 2012. It?ll be interesting to look back in 11 months and see how the landscape changes, with more mobile devices, an increasing market and of course, more advertising.
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Tensions high as FA Cup games revive racism rows
By ROB HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 11:46 a.m. ET Jan. 25, 2012
LONDON (AP) -The specter of two recent racism rows will hang over the FA Cup fourth round this weekend, with tensions high as the clubs involved prepare to play each other again.
Manchester United will travel to Anfield on Saturday for the first time since defender Patrice Evra was repeatedly racially abused by Liverpool striker Luis Suarez in a league match in October.
Chelsea captain John Terry is set to feature at Queens Park Rangers just days before appearing in court, charged with racially abusing Anton Ferdinand in the last meeting of the west London clubs in October.
Chelsea and QPR tried to quell any tensions Wednesday, issuing a statement describing the match as “a unique opportunity to show the world that hatred has no place in our game.”
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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US women to do-or-die semis
The U.S. women’s soccer team was still on the field, having dispatched rival Mexico, when Abby Wambach gathered her teammates for a little speech.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45324854/ns/sports-soccer/
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Summary Box: Siemens quarterly net down 17 percent (AP)
LOSING STEAM: Industrial equipment maker Siemens AG said Tuesday that net profit fell 17 percent to euro1.46 billion ($1.89 billion) in the final quarter of 2011 due to delays in major wind-power and rail projects.
EUROPE DEBT IMPACT: CEO Peter Loescher said the result showed that troubles In financial markets from Europe’s debt crisis “have left their mark on the real economy” through weaker demand.
WORLD VIEW: Siemens fortunes are a clue to demand in the global economy, since the company is active far beyond its German home ? in the U.S., Asia and the developing world.
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Benefits of a Prepaid Wireless Plan (ContributorNetwork)
Today’s prepaid wireless carriers like Virgin Mobile and MetroPCS don’t offer the iPhone. But they do sell fully-capable Android smartphones, along with an array of traditional featurephones. And they don’t just offer pay-as-you-go minutes; they offer a la carte data and messaging plans, and some even offer unlimited plans.
What is a prepaid plan?
With most smartphone (and featurephone) plans, you sign a two-year contract with a major wireless carrier, like Sprint or T-Mobile. That includes a monthly fee which gives you a certain number of minutes and things, extra fees if you go over, and an Early Termination Fee if you decide that you want to switch before the end of your contract.
In exchange, you get to use your phone on one of the bigger nationwide networks for less than you would on a traditional contracted plan.
With prepaid, you pay the full cost of your smartphone up front and it’s yours, no questions asked. After that, you pay the cost of your chosen plan each month, and if you don’t like it you can just stop service without paying any extra fees. You aren’t locked in.
What are the cost advantages if you have to pay up front?
It’s true that you pay a bit more for your smartphone up front, on a prepaid plan. The LG Optimus S that I got was selling for $199, which is the subsidized cost of an iPhone 4S. This phone was more like a generic-brand iPhone 3GS, the model from 2009.
The thing is, this can save you money in the long run. Some prepaid carriers offer unlimited everything for much less than the major networks, as long as you’re within their areas of coverage (which tend to include all big cities). Others, like AT&T GoPhone, let you choose how much you want to pay. I personally got burned by underestimating my own usage, but in the end the amount that I needed was still a lot more affordable than a normal AT&T plan would’ve been.
Who are prepaid plans not a good choice for?
Let’s put it this way. If your heart skipped a beat at the sight of an “unlimited everything for $79″ commercial, you probably don’t want a prepaid wireless plan. Or, if you’re one of the lucky few who was grandfathered in on one of AT&T or Verizon’s old unlimited plans, there’s no way it’s in your financial best interests to switch.
Who are prepaid plans the right choice for?
People who can live without the latest smartphones, who are able to cover the cost of a smartphone up front, who live in a prepaid network’s coverage area (some actually use Sprint’s nationwide network), and who know how many minutes and megabytes they use on average per month are the ideal consumers for prepaid plans.
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Va jobless rate unchanged at 6.2 pct in December (AP)
RICHMOND, Va. ? Virginia’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in December after falling the two previous months.
The Virginia Employment Commission says the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in December was 6.2 percent. That’s unchanged from November and down from 6.6 percent in December 2010.
The rate had been decreasing since peaking at 7.2 percent from December 2009 to February 2010, but had risen slightly from July through September this year.
Officials say nonfarm employment decreased by 7,100 jobs in December but was still 1 percent above a year ago.
Virginia’s rate is still below the national average, which dropped to 8.5 percent in December.
The Labor Department says unemployment rates fell in 37 states and the District of Columbia, three states saw increases and 10 states had no rate changes.
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Oil hovers near $99 as Iran boycott expands (AP)
BANGKOK ? Oil prices hovered near $99 a barrel Wednesday, a day after Australia announced it was joining a boycott by Western nations against Iran, the world’s No. 3 oil exporter, over a suspected nuclear weapons program.
Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 6 cents to $98.89 per barrel in the late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 63 cents to end at $98.95 in New York on Tuesday.
Brent crude for March delivery was up 31 cents at $110.34 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced Tuesday during a trip to London that his government had decided to follow the European Union, which announced Monday it would ban the import of Iranian crude starting in July.
The initiative to use oil to force Iran back to nuclear talks began last month, when the U.S. enacted new sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. doesn’t buy Iranian oil, but the new sanctions make it harder for Iran to sell crude.
Asian countries, already Iran’s biggest customers, aren’t joining the Europeans in banning Iranian crude. The move has been harshly criticized by oil-ravenous China, which is believed likely to sop up any excess Iranian crude at advantageous prices.
Meanwhile, analysts said that oil prices, amid expectations of tightening supplies, would remain somewhat elevated until the dust settles.
“There are other nations that will be boycotting Iran. That is probably adjusting market expectations of tighter supplies,” said Natalie Robertson, a commodities analyst with ANZ Banking Group in Melbourne.
“There is going to be a rebalancing. Iran will have to find new customers for its crude since its usual customers are cutting down imports. During that period, there is going to be some time while the market adjusts to the imbalances, and that is what is keeping prices supported.”
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 0.8 cent to $3.02 per gallon and gasoline futures were up 0.7 cent at $2.82 per gallon. Natural gas rose 5.5 cents to $2.61 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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Restored wetlands rarely equal condition of original wetlands
ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects shows that restored wetlands seldom reach the quality of a natural wetland.
“Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn’t recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years,” said David Moreno-Mateos, a University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow. “Even after 100 years, the restored wetland is still different from what was there before, and it may never recover.”
Moreno-Mateos’s analysis calls into question a common mitigation strategy exploited by land developers: create a new wetland to replace a wetland that will be destroyed and the land put to other uses. At a time of accelerated climate change caused by increased carbon entering the atmosphere, carbon storage in wetlands is increasingly important, he said.
“Wetlands accumulate a lot of carbon, so when you dry up a wetland for agricultural use or to build houses, you are just pouring this carbon into the atmosphere,” he said. “If we keep degrading or destroying wetlands, for example through the use of mitigation banks, it is going to take centuries to recover the carbon we are losing.”
The study showed that wetlands tend to recover most slowly if they are in cold regions, if they are small — less than 100 contiguous hectares, or 250 acres, in area — or if they are disconnected from the ebb and flood of tides or river flows.
“These context dependencies aren’t necessarily surprising, but this paper quantifies them in ways that could guide decisions about restoration, or about whether to damage wetlands in the first place,” said coauthor Mary Power, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology.
Moreno-Mateos, Power and their colleagues will publish their analysis in the Jan. 24 issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology.
Wetlands provide many societal benefits, Moreno-Mateos noted, such as biodiversity conservation, fish production, water purification, erosion control and carbon storage.
He found, however, that restored wetlands contained about 23 percent less carbon than untouched wetlands, while the variety of native plants was 26 percent lower, on average, after 50 to 100 years of restoration. While restored wetlands may look superficially similar — and the animal and insect populations may be similar, too — the plants take much longer to return to normal and establish the carbon resources in the soil that make for a healthy ecosystem.
Moreno-Mateos noted that numerous studies have shown that specific wetlands recover slowly, but his meta-analysis “might be a proof that this is happening in most wetlands.”
“To prevent this, preserve the wetland, don’t degrade the wetland,” he said.
Moreno-Mateos, who obtained his Ph.D. while studying wetland restoration in Spain, conducted a meta-analysis of 124 wetland studies monitoring work at 621 wetlands around the world and comparing them with natural wetlands. Nearly 80 percent were in the United States and some were restored more than 100 years ago, reflecting of a long-standing American interest in restoration and a common belief that it’s possible to essentially recreate destroyed wetlands. Half of all wetlands in North America, Europe, China and Australia were lost during the 20th century, he said. S
Though Moreno-Mateos found that, on average, restored wetlands are 25 percent less productive than natural wetlands, there was much variation. For example, wetlands in boreal and cold temperate forests tend to recover more slowly than do warm wetlands. One review of wetland restoration projects in New York state, for example, found that “after 55 years, barely 50 percent of the organic matter had accumulated on average in all these wetlands” compared to what was there before, he said.
“Current thinking holds that many ecosystems just reach an alternative state that is different, and you never will recover the original,” he said.
In future studies, he will explore whether the slower carbon accumulation is due to a slow recovery of the native plant community or invasion by non-native plants.
Coauthors with Moreno-Mateos and Power are Francisco A. Comin of the Department of Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology in Zaragoza, Spain; and Roxana Yockteng of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France. Moreno-Mateos recently accepted a position as the restoration fellow at Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.
The work was supported by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology and the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics of the U.S. National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California – Berkeley.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- David Moreno-Mateos, Mary E. Power, Francisco A. Com?n, Roxana Yockteng. Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems. PLoS Biology, 2012; 10 (1): e1001247 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001247
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/dUxQMBSOWPU/120124184157.htm
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Parents Are Key in Helping Obese Kids Lose Weight, AHA Says (ContributorNetwork)
The key to combating juvenile obesity lies with parents, the American Heart Association says. The AHA released a scientific statement in its most recent issue of “Circulation” journal. Here are tips for parents to curb weight problems in kids, based on that report.
* According to the American Association of Adolescent and Pediatric Psychiatry, 33 percent of kids and teens in the U.S. are overweight and nearly 20 percent are clinically obese.
* The key message in the AHA statement is parents and caregivers need to be on board with whatever treatment, diet or program that doctors use with children. If parents are included on decision-making and involved in treatment, kids stand a better chance to succeed at maintaining a healthy weight.
* Nagging kids about weight loss, diet slip-ups or failing to lose weight as fast enough is counter-productive. The AAACP lists depression, stress, low self-esteem and problems with parents as some of the leading causes of childhood obesity.
* Statement author Myles S. Faith, a nutrition specialist with the University of North Carolina, says it’s important for parents to lead by example in matters of healthy eating, exercise and weight loss. Parents who maintain healthy eating and exercise habits help their children to do likewise.
* Faith recommends families develop weight-reduction goals and strategies. They should identify specific goals such as limiting TV and screen time, and engaging in fitness activities together.
* When children have setbacks, parents should help them identify where they made their mistakes and how to correct them in future weight-loss efforts.
* Rewarding children from making and keeping weight loss goals is encouraged, but food should never be used as positive reinforcement.
* Faith recommends simple steps like gradually eliminating the fatty, sugary snack foods and replacing them with fresh fruit. Limiting food choices and reducing temptation makes weight loss easier for kids.
* Parents should help kids keep a food journal and track goals. The AHA hasn’t established how useful Internet or cellphone fitness and weight-loss apps are for individual age groups but suggests those tools as a possibility.
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about parenting from 23 years raising four children and 25 years teaching K-8, special needs, adult education and home-school.
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Device makers urge coverage of weight-loss surgery (Reuters)
CHICAGO (Reuters) ? Device manufacturers are pushing the U.S. government and health insurers to cover weight-loss surgery, an effort that could give millions more obese Americans access to the treatments.
Advocates say it will give obese patients a complete arsenal for fighting the condition that can spur a host of life-threatening illnesses and help save billions of dollars in healthcare costs for employers and the government.
Critics argue that bariatric surgery has high rates of complications and that, ultimately, surgery does not change the behavior underlying obesity.
The most vocal of the manufacturers is arguably Allergan Inc, the maker of Botox and breast implants. The company wants to revive weak sales of its LapBand, a silicone cuff that is implanted around the top portion of the stomach to constrict food intake.
“It’s all about reimbursements,” Allergan Chief Executive David Pyott told Reuters. The benefits of weight loss surgery, he added, “are not well understood by policy makers.”
Allergan recently beefed up its staff working on securing reimbursement for LapBand to more than 100 people from seven.
Pyott is spending more time in Washington D.C. speaking with officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as with lawmakers about having bariatric surgery included in the package of standard benefits that all insurance plans must offer under the 2010 Affordable Care Act health system overhaul.
LapBand competes with a device called Realize made by Johnson & Johnson, which says it is also working toward better reimbursement.
Gastric banding is only one type of bariatric surgery. Others are more complicated, involving stapling portions of the stomach to limit food intake or re-routing the path of digestion, limiting calorie absorption. As with any major surgery, all carry the risk of complications and infection.
Allergan is pushing for coverage for all bariatric surgery, including methods that compete with its LapBand device, because it is more likely that private and public insurers would approve the entire category.
The company says some private insurers have changed their policies as a result. For example, the Midwest Blue Cross/Blue Shield Plan and the Health Alliance Medical Plan in Southern Illinois and Iowa recently eliminated the requirement that a patient must have tried and failed to lose weight under the supervision of a physician before getting surgery.
COSTS IN THE BILLIONS
Nearly 73 million Americans are considered obese, defined as having a ratio of weight to height, or Body Mass Index (BMI), of more than 30. For example, a 5’9″ adult weighing more than 203 pounds is consider obese. About 12 million people are classified as morbidly obese, defined as having a BMI over 40.
The condition is the second leading cause of preventable death in the country behind smoking, as it can cause type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, gall bladder and liver disease and many types of cancer. It leads to nearly $150 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs.
A survey by Hewett Associates found that 45 percent of U.S. employers cite obesity as one of the most significant health concerns for their businesses, but many of their insurance plans – 44 percent of those with 5,000 or more employees – do not cover bariatric surgery.
Bariatric surgery coverage is often viewed as a separate benefit, said Gus Georgiadis, president of Triad USA, an employee benefits services and consulting firm. Larger employers tended to have better coverage.
Employers who do cover surgery often define patients as eligible at a higher BMI and require them to first try other methods for an extended period of time – even if they already have already made such attempts – and undergo a psychological evaluation. Most plans have high co-payments of around $5,000 to $7,500, making it too expensive for many.
“If you’re making $25,000 a year and you have a $5,000 co-pay, that’s 20 percent of your salary,” said Joseph Nadglowski, President and CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, a patient advocacy group. “High co-payments and the hoops and hurdles insurance companies put in front of surgery is limiting.”
But Nadglowski still wants to see patients first try diet and exercise programs, followed by medications and then surgery as a last resort.
“There’s a gap between Weight Watchers and surgery,” Nadglowski said.
His organization is pushing for more access to all kinds of treatment, including nutrition counseling.
Georgiadis argues that certain treatments are more or less appropriate for a patient, given their condition.
“Diet and exercise at a BMI of 35 or greater will fail more often than it will succeed,” he said.
Studies show that bariatric surgery is almost 10 times more effective for losing weight and keeping it off than other approaches. Some research has shown that gastric bypass is superior to banding, with bypass patients losing more weight and keeping it off better than patients who got the band.
Patients who choose gastric bands may do so because the surgery is less invasive and the device can be removed. But they require more maintenance and follow-up doctor visits for adjustments.
The band sometimes slips from where it was placed and in rare cases can erode into the stomach, complications that require removal.
The number of all types of bariatric surgeries was down about 8 percent in 2010, a year that saw a decline across the board in medical procedures as many Americans lost health insurance when they lost their jobs. High co-payments are also to blame.
Although just a small part of Allergan’s revenue, LapBand sales fell 14 percent from a year ago to $156 million in the first 9 months of 2011, even after the Food and Drug Administration lowered the weight requirement to get the device.
STATE BY STATE COVERAGE
Some states already require some level of coverage.
Virginia and Georgia, for instance, mandate that state-regulated insurers offer bariatric surgery, but employers are not required to buy that coverage. Michigan has a unique provision that says all “medically necessary” procedures, not just bariatric surgery, are covered.
The government’s Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the elderly and the poor, respectively, cover bariatric surgery and use the same guidelines as private insurance companies.
Convincing employers has been challenging, especially if they have a high turnover of employees, said Dr. Richard Feifer, Medical Director for National Accounts for Aetna Inc, the third largest U.S. health insurer.
“Employers who have significant turnover every year may not want to invest in bariatric surgery for employees who may not be working for them in 2 or 3 or 4 years when the benefits start to accrue,” he added.
(Reporting by Debra Sherman; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Andre Grenon)
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