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Photo by Dezajny via Shutterstock.com

Why are people drawn to vegetarianism? Some just want to live longer, healthier lives. Others have made the switch to preserve Earth''s natural resources or from a love of animals and an ethical opposition to eating them.

Thanks to an abundance of scientific research that demonstrates the health and environmental benefits of a plant-based diet, even the federal government recommends that we consume most of our calories from grain products, vegetables and fruits.

And no wonder: An estimated 70 percent of all diseases, including one-third of all cancers, are related to diet. A vegetarian diet reduces the risk for chronic degenerative diseases such as obesity, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and certain types of cancer including colon, breast, prostate, stomach, lung and esophageal cancer.
Why go vegetarian? Chew on these reasons:
You'll ward off disease. Vegetarian diets are more healthful than the average American diet, particularly in preventing, treating or reversing heart disease and reducing the risk of cancer. A low-fat vegetarian diet is the single most effective way to stop the progression of coronary artery disease or prevent it entirely. Cardiovascular disease kills 1 million Americans annually and is the leading cause of death in the United States.

But the mortality rate for cardiovascular disease is lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians, says Joel Fuhrman, MD, author of Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss. A vegetarian diet is inherently healthful because vegetarians consume less animal fat and cholesterol (vegans consume no animal fat or cholesterol) and instead consume more fiber and more antioxidant-rich produce—-another great reason to listen to Mom and eat your veggies!

You'll keep your weight down. The standard American diet-high in saturated fats and processed foods and low in plant-based foods and complex carbohydrates-—is making us fat and killing us slowly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a division of the CDC, the National Center for Health Statistics, 64 percent of adults and 15 percent of children aged 6 to 19 are overweight and are at risk of weight-related ailments including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

A study conducted from 1986 to 1992 by Dean Ornish, MD, president and director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, found that overweight people who followed a low-fat, vegetarian diet lost an average of 24 pounds in the first year and kept off that weight 5 years later. They lost the weight without counting calories or carbs and without measuring portions or feeling hungry.

You'll live longer. If you switch from the standard American diet to a vegetarian diet, you can add about 13 healthy years to your life, says Michael F. Roizen, MD, author of The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat. "People who consume saturated, four-legged fat have a shorter life span and more disability at the end of their lives. Animal products clog your arteries, zap your energy and slow down your immune system. Meat eaters also experience accelerated cognitive and sexual dysfunction at a younger age."

Want more proof of longevity? Residents of Okinawa, Japan, have the longest life expectancy of any Japanese and likely the longest life expectancy of anyone in the world, according to a 30-year study of more than 600 Okinawan centenarians. Their secret: a low-calorie diet of unrefined complex carbohydrates, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, and soy.

You'll build strong bones. When there isn''t enough calcium in the bloodstream, our bodies will leach it from existing bone. The metabolic result is that our skeletons will become porous and lose strength over time. Most health care practitioners recommend that we increase our intake of calcium the way nature intended—-through foods. Foods also supply other nutrients such as phosphorus, magnesium and vitamin D that are necessary for the body to absorb and use calcium.

People who are mildly lactose-intolerant can often enjoy small amounts of dairy products such as yogurt, cheese and lactose-free milk. But if you avoid dairy altogether, you can still get a healthful dose of calcium from dry beans, tofu, soymilk and dark green vegetables such as broccoli, kale, collards and turnip greens.

You'll reduce your risk of food-borne illnesses. The CDC reports that food-borne illnesses of all kinds account for 76 million illnesses a year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), foods rich in protein such as meat, poultry, fish and seafood are frequently involved in food-borne illness outbreaks.

You'll ease the symptoms of menopause. Many foods contain nutrients beneficial to perimenopausal and menopausal women. Certain foods are rich in phytoestrogens, the plant-based chemical compounds that mimic the behavior of estrogen. Since phytoestrogens can increase and decrease estrogen and progesterone levels, maintaining a balance of them in your diet helps ensure a more comfortable passage through menopause. Soy is by far the most abundant natural source of phytoestrogens, but these compounds also can be found in hundreds of other foods such as apples, beets, cherries, dates, garlic, olives, plums, raspberries, squash and yams. Because menopause is also associated with weight gain and a slowed metabolism, a low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian diet can help ward off extra pounds.

You'll have more energy. Good nutrition generates more usable energy-—energy to keep pace with the kids, tackle that home improvement project or have better sex more often, Michael F. Roizen, MD, says in The RealAge Diet. Too much fat in your bloodstream means that arteries won''t open properly and that your muscles won''t get enough oxygen.

The result? You feel zapped. Balanced vegetarian diets are naturally free of cholesterol-laden, artery-clogging animal products that physically slow us down and keep us hitting the snooze button morning after morning. And because whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables are so high in complex carbohydrates, they supply the body with plenty of energizing fuel.

You'll be more 'regular.' Eating a lot of vegetables necessarily means consuming more fiber, which pushes waste out of the body. Meat contains no fiber. People who eat lower on the food chain tend to have fewer instances of constipation, hemorrhoids and diverticulitis.

You'll help reduce pollution. Some people become vegetarians after realizing the devastation that the meat industry is having on the environment. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. Runoff from farmlands is one of the greatest threats to water quality today. Agricultural activities that cause pollution include confined animal facilities, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing and harvesting.

You'll avoid toxic chemicals. The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of the pesticide residue in the typical American diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products. Fish, in particular, contain carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium) that can''t be removed through cooking or freezing.

Meat and dairy products can also be laced with steroids and hormones, so be sure to read the labels on the dairy products you purchase.

You'll help reduce famine. About 70 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population. "If all the grain currently fed to livestock were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million," says David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell University. If the grain were exported, it would boost the US trade balance by $80 billion a year.

You'll spare animals. Many vegetarians give up meat because of their concern for animals. Ten billion animals are slaughtered for human consumption each year. And, unlike the farms of yesteryear where animals roamed freely, today most animals are factory farmed: —crammed into cages where they can barely move and fed a diet tainted with pesticides and antibiotics.

These animals spend their entire lives in crates or stalls so small that they can''t even turn around. Farmed animals are not protected from cruelty under the law—-in fact, the majority of state anticruelty laws specifically exempt farm animals from basic humane protection.

You'll save money. Meat accounts for 10 percent of Americans'' food spending. Eating vegetables, grains and fruits in place of the 200 pounds of beef, chicken and fish each nonvegetarian eats annually would cut individual food bills by an average of $4,000 a year.

Your dinner plate will be full of color. Disease-fighting phytochemicals give fruits and vegetables their rich, varied hues. They come in two main classes: carotenoids and anthocyanins. All rich yellow and orange fruits and vegetables—-carrots, oranges, sweet potatoes, mangoes, pumpkins, corn-owe their color to carotenoids. Leafy green vegetables also are rich in carotenoids but get their green color from chlorophyll. Red, blue and purple fruits and vegetables-—plums, cherries, red bell peppers-—contain anthocyanins. Cooking by color is a good way to ensure you're eating a variety of naturally occurring substances that boost immunity and prevent a range of illnesses.

It''s a breeze. It''s almost effortless these days to find great-tasting and good-for-you vegetarian foods, whether you're strolling the aisles of your local supermarket or walking down the street at lunchtime. If you need inspiration in the kitchen, look no further than the internet, your favorite bookseller or your local vegetarian society''s newsletter for culinary tips and great recipes. And if you''re eating out, almost any ethnic restaurant will offer vegetarian selections. In a hurry? Most fast food and fast casual restaurants now include healthful and inventive salads, sandwiches and entrees on their menus. So rather than asking yourself why go vegetarian, the real question is: Why haven''t you gone vegetarian?

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Why are people drawn to vegetarianism? Some just want to live longer, healthier lives. Others have made the switch to preserve Earth''s natural resources or from a love of animals and an ethical opposition to eating them.

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Phoebe-
	
	
	


Why
thinking you're ugly is bad for you

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Why
thinking you're ugly is bad for you

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Transcript of "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: About 10,000 people a month Google the phrase, "Am I ugly?" Meaghan Ramsey of the Dove Self-Esteem Project has a feeling that many of them are young girls. In a deeply unsettling talk, she walks us through the surprising impacts of low body and image confidence-from lower grade point averages to greater risk-taking with drugs and alcohol.

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Damon  China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists

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Damon  China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists

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Chinese scientists have warned that the country's toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants - and potentially wreaking havoc on the country's food supply.

Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday. Beijing's concentration of PM 2.5 particles - those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream - hit 505 micrograms per cubic metre on Tuesday night. The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25.

The worsening air pollution has already exacted a significant economic toll, grounding flights, closing highways and keeping tourists at home. On Monday 11,200 people visited Beijing's Forbidden City, about a quarter of the site's average daily draw.

He Dongxian, an associate professor at China Agricultural University's College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, said new research suggested that if the smog persists, Chinese agriculture will suffer conditions "somewhat similar to a nuclear winter".

She has demonstrated that air pollutants adhere to greenhouse surfaces, cutting the amount of light inside by about 50% and severely impeding photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into life-sustaining chemical energy.

She tested the hypothesis by growing one group of chilli and tomato seeds under artificial lab light, and another under a suburban Beijing greenhouse. In the lab, the seeds sprouted in 20 days; in the greenhouse, they took more than two months. " They will be lucky to live at all," He told the South China Morning Post newspaper.

She warned that if smoggy conditions persist, the country's agricultural production could be seriously affected. "Now almost every farm is caught in a smog panic," she said.

Early this month the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences claimed in a report that Beijing's pollution made the city almost " uninhabitable for human beings".

The Chinese government has repeatedly promised to address the problem, but enforcement remains patchy. In October, Beijing introduced a system of emergency measures if pollution levels remained hazardous for three days in a row, including closing schools, shutting some factories, and restricting the use of government cars.

According to China's state newswire Xinhua, 147 industrial companies in Beijing have cut or suspended production. Yet schools remained open and government cars remained on the road.

One person not put off by the smog was President Xi Jinping, who braved the pollution to make an unannounced visit to a trendy neighbourhood popular with tourists.

Dressed in a black jacket and trousers - and no facemask - Xi made a brief walkabout in Nanluoguxiang district last Thursday morning. The visit prompted approving coverage in Chinese news reports, but also mockery on social media sites. "Xi Jinping visits Beijing's Nanluoguxiang amid the smog: breathing together, sharing the fate," said a Xinhua headline.

Photos and shaky video footage apparently of Xi's visit ricocheted around Chinese social media sites. "Why isn't he wearing a facemask?" asked one Sina Weibo user. "Isn't it bad for his health?"

This week Chinese media reported that a man in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province near Beijing, had sued the local environmental protection bureau for failing to rein in the smog. Li Guixin filed the lawsuit asking the municipal environment protection bureau "perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law", the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported.

Li is also seeking compensation for the pollution. "Besides the threat to our health, we've also suffered economic losses, and these losses should be borne by the government and the environmental departments because the government is the recipient of corporate taxes, it is a beneficiary," he told the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily.

Li's lawyer, Wu Yufen, confirmed the lawsuit but refused to comment because of the sensitivity of the case. He said: "This is the first ever case of a citizen suing the government regarding the issue of air pollution. We're waiting for the judicial authority's response."

Li told the newspaper that he had bought an air purifier, masks and a treadmill, but none had helped him to overcome the pernicious health effects of the smog. He is seeking RMB 10,000 (£1,000) in compensation. "I want show every citizen that we are real victims of this polluted air, which hurts us both from a health perspective and economically," he said.

Li Yan, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace East Asia, said the case could bring exposure to polluted cities outside of Beijing, putting pressure on provincial officials to prioritise the problem. She said: "People ... who live in Beijing are suffering from the polluted air, but we have the attention of both domestic and international media. Shijiazhuang's environmental problems are far more serious, and this case could bring Shijiazhuang the attention it has deserved for a long time."
Topics

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China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists

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Chinese scientists have warned that the country's toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants - and potentially wreaking havoc on the country's food supply. Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday.

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Wen    Response to a City’s Smog Points to a Change in Chinese Attitude

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Wen    Response to a City’s Smog Points to a Change in Chinese Attitude

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Awareness of various kinds of pollution - air, water and soil - has risen quickly this year, especially among middle-class urbanites. Chinese news media, including official state outlets, are reporting more aggressively on the causes and effects of pollution. An editorial in Beijing News on Wednesday took note that last week the World Health Organization had classified air pollution as a leading cause of cancer, and said that on days when the air is hazardous, "containing the pollution and protecting the health of residents is the highest priority."

But the advocates say enforcement is often a weak point, even when leaders understand that cleaning up the environment has become critical to maintaining social and political stability.

"I give credit to the local government for taking these measures," Ma Jun, an environmental advocate, said of the emergency actions in Harbin. "Of course, they will have some problem with their image, the city's image - but on the other hand, it shows they put people's health ahead of saving face.

"Having said that, I think it's not enough," he added. "I think people won't be satisfied with just knowing which day to put on face masks or not go to school or keep their children indoors. They really want blue-sky days."

Under pressure from the public, Beijing in 2012 became the first Chinese city to announce levels of an especially hazardous category of particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, in the air. Since then, 113 other cities have followed suit. The data can be seen online in real time, which was how much of China followed the crisis in Harbin.

On Monday and Tuesday, air-quality monitoring stations in some parts of the city reported PM 2.5 concentrations that exceeded 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter - 40 times the level deemed safe by the W.H.O.

Since 2007, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has published an annual list of high-polluting industrial plants around China. The latest identifies 4,189 factories that, together, release 65 percent of China's total industrial air pollutants. "We need to know where they are, what kinds of pollutants they discharge, the volume and whether they are in compliance with discharge standards," Mr. Ma said, adding that local governments gather that data but do not release it.

Advocates hope that identifying the polluters publicly will help to shame them into improving, Mr. Ma said, with pressure coming from "whoever invests in the polluting factories, the banks giving them loans, the brands that source from these polluters."

The central government is apparently stepping up pressure as well. One goal of the national plan announced last month was to reduce the concentration of PM 2.5 in three heavily populated industrial regions by 15 percent to 25 percent, compared with 2012 levels. Prime Minister Li Keqiang said last month that the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the province of Hebei, all in northern China, would cut down their use of coal, the main source of air pollution, by 80 million tons a year in the near future.

Still, environmentalists worry that growth-minded local officials and businesses will be reluctant to go along. "Chinese leaders have produced an impressive flurry of policies on air pollution this year, but regulators still suffer from insufficient authority; rapid economic growth means that a steady stream of pollution sources come on line every day; and vested business interests are sure to scream bloody murder every step of the way," Alex L. Wang, a scholar of Chinese environmental policy and a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in an e-mail.

"It's one thing to have a strategy, and another to execute it well," he added.

Huang Wei, who works on climate and energy issues at Greenpeace East Asia, said officials needed to focus on bigger solutions, not stopgap measures. "The situation will not change as long as China has an over 70 percent energy dependency on coal," she said. "The long-term solution is to get rid of heavy energy-consuming industries."

Until that happens, Chinese citizens are bracing for many more days of heavy pollution, and officials are announcing a wider array of emergency measures for the worst days. On Tuesday, the Beijing government adopted a plan for emergencies when the forecast calls for three or more days with pollution rated as serious. A "red alert" would be issued, schools would be shut down and use of private cars would be limited to alternate days, depending on their license plate numbers.

Skeptics point out that wealthier households can buy extra vehicles to get around that rule. And Beijing News said in its editorial that on "red alert" days, everyone should stay home, not just children. "Faced with the increasingly serious pollution levels in Beijing," it said, "coupled with the carelessness of residents in protecting themselves against pollution, the emergency plan is still inadequate."

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Response to a City's Smog Points to a Change in Chinese Attitude

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Awareness of various kinds of pollution - air, water and soil - has risen quickly this year, especially among middle-class urbanites. Chinese news media, including official state outlets, are reporting more aggressively on the causes and effects of pollution.

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Inca Empire

Lofty Ambitions of the Inca

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Lucas  Opinion: China relies on old tricks to control coverage of Hong Kong protests

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Lucas  Opinion: China relies on old tricks to control coverage of Hong Kong protests

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Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrations have been front-page fodder this past week in international media, which have painted the story as a David-and-Goliath struggle between local Hong Kongers and a powerful but distant authoritarian master in Beijing.

But no such headlines have appeared in China, where the story has been buried deep inside most newspapers and TV broadcasts, and is framed in a way that makes it uninteresting and unintelligible to average Chinese.

The coverage consists mostly of Beijing's reactions to events with little or no explanation of what actually happened to prompt such response. The result is a hodgepodge of reports condemning the protests, saying that Hong Kong leader C.Y. Leung will never resign, and editorials declaring such protests will never spread to China.

It has also been noteworthy for the relative lack of images. From a media perspective, the demonstrations now taking place are a journalist's dream come true, featuring colorful and action-filled images of protesters, police, politicians and conflict that make for great TV viewing and photos .

Yet none of those images have found their way into China's official media, almost certainly on direct orders from propaganda officials who worry such pictures could inspire others in China to take similar action.

Strict bans on such inflammatory images are quite common in order-obsessed China, even when such protests are pro-Chinese. One such ban was a central feature in domestic coverage of a major territorial dispute with Japan two years ago, with major protests that broke out around China eerily absent from all domestic reports.

China's media have also resorted to another old trick of covering the conflict using editorials, which offer a backdoor route into the story with little or no broader context.

In this case the official Communist Party newspaper People's Daily has taken the lead with a series of forceful editorials repeating that such protests are illegal and adding that such actions will never spread to China.

Such editorializing has been a popular tool for stating official views on sensitive subjects since 1949, and was widely used in 2010 when Google got into a high-profile dispute over Beijing's stipulations that it self-censor its China-based search site.

That conflict ultimately saw Google withdrawal from the China search market, only to be cast by Chinese media as a cry baby that couldn't compete with local rivals.

Beijing has also dusted off its tried-and-true tactic of using key "buzzwords" to control the tone of the story. Two such buzzwords this time have been "illegal," to describe the nature of the Hong Kong demonstrations, and "in accordance with the law," to describe how the China-friendly Leung administration is handling the situation.

Finally there's the social media element, which is a new game not only for China but governments throughout the world as they try to harness this powerful force to influence public opinion.

In this case, a number of commentaries have been making the rounds on popular social media platforms like WeChat, playing on themes that criticize the protesters for everything from threatening Hong Kong's prosperity to harboring broader hostility toward all mainland Chinese.

These stories by little-known writers could be genuine, but are most likely a variation on another Beijing tactic to control online public opinion in the Internet age.

Known by the disparaging moniker of the "Fifty-Cent Party," this loosely defined group's "members" reportedly receive government payment for posing as independent commentators who seed the Internet with opinions favorable to the central government's policies and views.

The latest protests in Hong Kong may be providing new challenges for Beijing's leadership from a new generation of democracy-seeking activists on China's periphery.

But the tactics being used by China's media are anything but new, with Beijing resorting to a wide range of time-tested reporting tricks in its bid to shape the issue in the realm of domestic public opinion.

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opinion: how china controls hong kong protest coverage - cnn

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Opinion: How China controls Hong Kong protest coverage - CNN

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Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrations have been front-page fodder this past week in international media, which have painted the story as a David-and-Goliath struggle between local Hong Kongers and a powerful but distant authoritarian master in Beijing.

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Joe - Of All His Numbers, the One on Jeter’s Back Matters Most

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Joe - Of All His Numbers, the One on Jeter’s Back Matters Most

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Jeter was 2 for 5, with three runs batted in and a throwing error. Whatever the box score, it added up to the sum of his career, victory, on the night No. 2 made its last appearance on the back of a pinstriped Yankee, joining the other single digits, all of them retired.

Some numbers are removed from circulation because of sheer greatness, general excellence, extended collective glory and sentiment. Much rarer are numbers that rise above team veneration and become defining symbols for an entire sport. For baseball, none could be weightier than Jackie Robinson's No. 42, sidelined by all teams in 1997 (and destined to have Mariano Rivera, who was allowed to keep wearing the number, attached to it for his 19 seasons at Yankee Stadium).

Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 was retired by the N.H.L. LeBron James lobbied unsuccessfully for the N.B.A. to do likewise for Michael Jordan's No. 23, an indelible symbol of prominence that James will soon wear again in Cleveland. Jim Brown's No. 32 was iconic in football. Mantle's No. 7 and Willie Mays's No. 24 were as impactful to their generations and beyond as Babe Ruth's No. 3 was for his time.

On the basis of news, even pure talent, Jeter fell short of those aforementioned stars. But his uniform number reflects a hard baseball lesson across two tumultuous decades. No. 2 was never baseball's No. 1, its leading man. But No. 2 was just right for the guy reputed to have always tried harder. For the purpose of competitive authentication, Jeter was the sport's most essential or ambassadorial player in times of scandal and scorn.

His was a classic storybook tale about a single-minded kid whose dream was to play shortstop for one team, the Yankees. The sixth pick of the 1992 amateur draft, he took a path to the organization highlighted by a series of fortunate events that, in retrospect, might seem to have been preordained.

Perhaps the only serendipitous part of the Jeter legacy is the single-digit number itself, bestowed on him on the day he reported for big-league duty - May 29, 1995 - at the Kingdome in Seattle.

By that point, the only single-digit Yankees numbers not retired were 2 and 6, but it wasn't as if those numbers seemed reserved for potential Hall of Famers. Writing for MLB.com, Marty Noble told of how football's Deion Sanders, issued a spring training invitation in 1989, showed up and announced to the clubhouse equipment manager, Nick Priore: "I don't wear no double digits. I have to have the lowest number on my team."

That would have been No. 2, worn by the veteran infielder Wayne Tolleson.

By 1994, another journeyman, Mike Gallego, wore No. 2 before it became available to Jeter when he arrived in Seattle to substitute for the injured Tony Fernandez.

"The way I remember it, Nick Priore was the toughest guy to sell, the protector of right and wrong," Showalter said. "He was ready to give Derek something else; what, I can't remember. But it didn't take Abner Doubleday to figure out that Derek had a good future with the Yankees. So we talked about it, me, Nick and Stick, and Stick approved giving him No. 2."

Stick, or Gene Michael, then the general manager, recalled: "We had already decided that winter that Jeter would be the starting shortstop in 1996. And we always thought that if a guy was going to be a starter, we could give him a low number. But it wasn't like we had any big idea. We could have given him something higher, and now they'd have to retire that number."

Instead, we have a generation of shortstops - from Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki to Boston's Xander Bogaerts - who wear No. 2, who comprehended what the stat geeks and Jeter critics did not. A printout doesn't measure how he stitches together the fabric of a team.

Beyond yelps of triumph, sentimentalism was never Jeter's way, but close-ups of his face Thursday night made it obvious he was churning inside. But this was Jeter, an everyday player, not about to jog off early in presumed triumph, let this of all games end without him, before Robertson blew the lead.

So the finish was even better, pure Jeter, after Showalter chose not to intentionally walk him with a runner at second, one out. Jeter lined Evan Meek's pitch through the second-base hole, was mobbed by teammates. He jogged out to shortstop - where he had already decided he would not play in Boston, only D.H. - and spent a few seconds in a meditative squat. Soon after, he revealed his goal for the night: "Don't cry." At least not in public.

His farewell tour could never reach the emotional highs set last year by Rivera, who didn't have nine innings daily to obsessively prepare for. Jeter is a very different man, gracious and charitable through his Turn 2 Foundation, but with an almost freakish fixation on the game and - given the corporate orchestration of his farewell - the gifts it provides.

As a nation turned its lonely eyes this week to No. 2, we were reminded that Jeter is not all that unlike No. 23, Jordan, his Nike stablemate. Yes, the crying towel for his grand departure was a souvenir courtesy of a sponsor. But even J. J. Hardy thought it was a keeper because, after all, it was "a Jeter thing."

Two words to explain such shorthand for storied generational transcendence: Who else?

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Derek Jeter's No. 2, Never to Be Seen Again on Pinstripes at Yankee Stadium

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Jeter was 2 for 5, with three runs batted in and a throwing error. Whatever the box score, it added up to the sum of his career, victory, on the night No. 2 made its last appearance on the back of a pinstriped Yankee, joining the other single digits, all of them retired.

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Bananas | Physical Features | Exports | Banana Trade

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Bananas belong to the most popular fruits in the world. They grow on treelike plants in the tropics.

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Rebecca - Recent air disasters spur call for airlines to live-stream aircraft data

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Rebecca - Recent air disasters spur call for airlines to live-stream aircraft data

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A string of aviation tragedies is igniting calls for airlines to adopt technology that can send a plane's flight data - the critical information stored in black boxes - from the air to the ground in real time.

One Canadian maker of the technology, Calgary-based Flyht Aerospace Solutions, is in the midst of installing live-streaming software in the entire fleet of aircraft for First Air, which flies in Canada's remote northern regions. But so far, larger carriers have been hesitant to jump on board.

Experts say the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disaster could have been a very different story if such technology was in place.

"The lay person will say, 'What can we do with our cellphones? We can track each other. Why can't we do the same with an aircraft?' " said University of Toronto engineering professor Doug Perovic. "The answer is, 'Yeah, you can do the same.' "

Black boxes contain cockpit voice recordings and flight data information - such as the plane's speed, altitude and location, various sensor readings and positions of flaps - which are vital in helping crash investigators reconstruct what happened.

But as history has shown, locator beacons can't always be relied upon to recover black boxes when planes crash into the water. It took two years to recover the black boxes of Air France Flight 447 after it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. Investigators have yet to locate the black boxes of Flight 370, which disappeared in March while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

These incidents have spurred calls for the aviation industry to adopt devices that can transmit black box data up to satellites and then to the ground in real time. The devices can be programmed to automatically begin live-streaming data when an anomaly occurs, such as the failure of an engine or loss of pressure in the cabin.

In-flight data streaming can also be activated manually by pilots or by airline staff on the ground.

Personnel on the ground can quickly evaluate the streamed data and provide support to the plane's crew or initiate search-and-rescue operations if a crash is inevitable.

Live-streaming technology "looks increasingly necessary," said an editorial in the trade publication Aviation Week in April, noting that "the equipment for alerting and streaming exists today."

But at a time when the airline industry is reporting a 2.4 per cent net profit margin - which equates to less than $6 per seat - carriers have been slow to adopt the technology.

According to Flyht president Matt Bradley, it costs about $100,000 to install his company's Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS), and $100 per month per aircraft for use of the service. When the live-streaming is activated, it costs $10 per minute.

That means it would have cost Malaysia Airlines about $4,200 to stream data from MH370 during the seven hours it is believed to have been airborne after losing contact, Flyht officials say.

There are signs that the industry is paying more attention to the issue. In the wake of the Flight 370 disaster, the International Air Transport Association, which represents over 80 per cent of the world's carriers, convened a task force to examine options for real-time tracking of aircraft. Draft recommendations are expected by September, said association spokeswoman Mona Aubin.

While real-time data collection has benefits, it also has inherent risks, Aubin said via email. "For the airline industry, those risks include considerations related to data management - who owns it? Who distributes it?" she said. "There's also the issue of developing a rational business case for the more than 100,000 flights that occur every day that would support real-time data streaming when much of the information about the large majority of those flights is already known from surveillance and other (air traffic management) data."

Experts, however, point out that airlines can program devices to stream only certain types of flight data.
Dquan@Postmedia.com Twitter.com/dougquan

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Recent air disasters spur call for airlines to live-stream aircraft data

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A string of aviation tragedies is igniting calls for airlines to adopt technology that can send a plane's flight data - the critical information stored in black boxes - from the air to the ground in real time.

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Parents, students and teachers often argue, with little evidence, about whether U.S. high schools begin too early in the morning. In the past three years, however, scientific studies have piled up, and they all lead to the same conclusion: a later start time improves learning. And the later the start, the better.

Biological research shows that circadian rhythms shift during the teen years, pushing boys and girls to stay up later at night and sleep later into the morning. The phase shift, driven by a change in melatonin in the brain, begins around age 13, gets stronger by ages 15 and 16, and peaks at ages 17, 18 or 19.

Does that affect learning? It does, according to Kyla Wahlstrom, director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota. She published a large study in February that tracked more than 9,000 students in eight public high schools in Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming. After one semester, when school began at 8:35 a.m. or later, grades earned in math, English, science and social studies typically rose a quarter step-for example, up halfway from B to B+.

Two journal articles that Wahlstrom has reviewed but have not yet been published reach similar conclusions. So did a controlled experiment completed by the U.S. Air Force Academy, which required different sets of cadets to begin at different times during their freshman year. A 2012 study of North Carolina school districts that varied school times because of transportation problems showed that later start times correlated with higher scores in math and reading. Still other studies indicate that delaying start times raises attendance, lowers depression rates and reduces car crashes among teens, all because they are getting more of the extra sleep they need.

And the later the delay, the greater the payoff. In various studies, school districts that shifted from 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. saw more benefits than those that shifted from 7:15 to 7:45 a.m. Studies in Brazil, Italy and Israel showed similar improvements in grades. The key is allowing teens to get at least eight hours of sleep, preferably nine. In Europe, it is rare for high school to start before 9:00 a.m.

Studies also show that common arguments against later start times ring hollow. In hundreds of districts that have made the change, students do not have a harder time fitting in after-school activities such as sports or in keeping part-time jobs. "Once these school districts change, they don't want to go back," Wahlstrom says.

Even "the bus issue" can work out for everyone. Many districts bus kids to high school first, then rerun the routes for the elementary schools. Flipping the order would bring high schoolers to class later and benefit their little sisters and brothers; other studies show that young children are more awake and more ready to learn earlier in the morning.

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Parents, students and teachers often argue, with little evidence, about whether U.S. high schools begin too early in the morning. In the past three years, however, scientific studies have piled up, and they all lead to the same conclusion: a later start time improves learning. And the later the start, the better.

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Zlatan-Juventus’s win over Roma overshadowed by the referee – again

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Zlatan-Juventus’s win over Roma overshadowed by the referee – again

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There was much excited chatter in the build-up to Sunday's top-of-the-table clash between Juventus and Roma about the revival of one of Serie A's classic rivalries. Talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists on the peninsula recalled classic encounters from the 1980s, back when Michel Platini ruled the roost in Turin and Paulo Roberto Falcão pulled the strings in the capital.

They remembered how these two clubs dominated the division, claiming five titles and four runners-up spots between them over the course of six years. And now that Roma and Juventus had started the new season with five wins each from as many games, they wondered whether those glory days might be coming back.

But sometimes you ought to be careful what you wish for. At Juventus Stadium on Sunday, it did indeed seem as though the clocks had spun back 30 years. Perhaps to 1981, when linesman Paolo Bergamo raised his flag to disallow a goal by Maurizio Turone in the 74th minute of a crucial head-to-head in Turin. A victory would have placed the Giallorossi top of the table with two games to go. Instead they drew 0-0, and watched Juve take the title two weeks later.

Or maybe we were back in 1983, and Sergio Brio's late winner for Juventus in a match that finished 2-1. Had Platini been offside before he delivered the assist? Roma's president, Dino Viola, argued that he had. His Juventus counterpart, Giampiero Boniperti, sent him a plastic ruler with which to measure such calls in future.

If life, as Al Pacino told us in Any Given Sunday, is a game of inches, then Italian football remains a game of centimetres. Gianluca Rocchi could have done with that ruler (or better yet, advanced satellite imagery) at Juventus Stadium this weekend, in a match that would be utterly defined by his refereeing decisions.

In the first half alone he awarded three penalties. All of them would provoke debate. The first arrived when a free kick struck Maicon's arm on the edge of the Roma area. Rocchi initially signalled for another free kick, but changed his mind after Juventus's players protested. The defender had been part of a wall formed inside the box, a fact confirmed to the referee as they pointed out the line of "magic spray" he had used to discourage Roma's players from encroaching.

That evidence was good enough for Rocchi, but replays showed Maicon had leapt forward as the ball was in the air. With his arm raised in front of him, had the infringement taken place outside the box? No replay could provide a definitive answer.

Carlos Tevez converted the spot-kick, only for Francesco Totti to equalise by the same means after being rugby-tackled by Stephan Lichtsteiner at a set piece. It seemed a clear-cut decision on first viewing, but Italian papers have since questioned whether the Roma captain might actually have initiated the tussle.

The Giallorossi then took the lead through a scintillating goal from Juan Iturbe, played through on goal by a previously anonymous Gervinho. But just before the break, Juventus were awarded another penalty. Although there was no doubt that Miralem Pjanic clipped Paul Pogba's boot as the Frenchman darted in from the left, it was once again unclear whether the contact had taken place inside the area or out.

Regardless, Tevez made good on his opportunity, ensuring that his team went into the break on level terms at 2-2. The match looked destined to finish that way as both teams tired in the second-half, their pace slowing and the number of chances drying up at either end. But then, in the 86th minute, Leonardo Bonucci crashed home a volley from outside the box.

It was a stunning goal, one that would have been remarkable coming from the boot of a world-class striker, let alone a centre back. But yet again, it was hotly disputed. Several Juventus players had been behind Roma's last defender when he struck the ball. Although none touched it on the way through, there was certainly an argument to be made that Arturo Vidal had obstructed the view of Roma's goalkeeper, Lukasz Skorupski.

Tempers, predictably, boiled over, with Kostas Manolas and Álvaro Morata both shown red cards after a melee in the final moments of the game. Roma's manager, Rudi García, had already been dismissed from the sidelines after miming playing a violin when Juventus received their first penalty.

There were seven other yellow cards in total and condemnation for the referee was universal. "Rocchi Horror Picture Show" ran the headline on Gazzetta's full-page breakdown of all the decisions he got wrong. Even the Turin-based Tuttosport observed that "Rocchi was a disaster" in a front-page editorial - although they were quick to flag up another penalty that he could have given Juventus for a challenge by José Holebas on Claudio Marchisio.

In Rome they were more forthright, the front page of Corriere dello Sport asserting in bold type that this was a "Campionato Falsato" - literally, a falsified league. They were echoing the words of Totti, who claimed that Rocchi's refereeing was no accident.

"We were not beaten by Juve," said the Roma captain. "That much is certain. Three incidents determined a match that we were desperate to win. Unfortunately the images speak clearly, and all of Italy would like to say the things that I am saying right now ... We will finish second again this year. As long as Juve are around, it will always be like this. They should have a separate league."

His manager was more restrained, but made his displeasure with the referee's decision-making crystal clear. "The blame goes to us in the first instance, because we missed two big chances with Gervinho [when the score was 2-1 to Roma] and Pjanic [when it was 2-2]," said García. "But here in Turin they make the penalty areas larger - 17m [instead of 16.5]."

Totti's words provoked a reaction from Juventus's general manager, Beppe Marotta, who told reporters that:"I have great respect for the champion who did it all for the Azzurri, too, but what he said is not acceptable. I understand his bitterness, but I must forcefully reject his comments. Juventus paid for things it did not do, and had two Scudetti taken away that had been deservedly won on the pitch. We won this match with a high-calibre piece of technical skill."

Perhaps the international break arrives at an opportune moment, providing a welcome distraction before both sides get back to the business of swatting aside the lesser sides in the division. There are, despite Totti's convictions about the inevitability of this season's outcome, still 32 games and 96 points up for grabs. Roma will get their chance at revenge against Juve in the Stadio Olimpico in February.

But the shame is that once again a fixture that should have been a showpiece for the best teams in Italian football has instead become something else. If the talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists revisit this game in another 30 years time, they will not remember it as the day when Massilimiliano Allegri made a bold gamble on Andrea Pirlo in his starting XI, nor the one in which Juventus set a new Serie A record by winning a 22nd home game in a row.

They will remember it as another chapter in a rivalry high on refereeing injustice and acrimony. Another game to be measured not in goals, but instead in centimetres.

Talking points

* Rudi García may have more to say yet about Sunday's game. On Monday he posted a tweet that simply read: "With a cool head..this match really damages Italian football". No doubt he will be asked to elaborate next time he meets with the press.

* Sampdoria maintained their unbeaten start with a 1-0 win over Atalanta, moving up to third in the table in the process. Not that Sinisa Mihajlovic is getting carried away. "We are third, but there is still time for us to ruin everything," he said. "To avoid doing so, we must maintain this spirit."

* Signs of life, at last, from Fiorentina, who scored their third, fourth and fifth goals of this Serie A season as they thrashed Inter 3-0 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. But for all that the home team did right, serious questions must now be asked of a Nerazzurri team that has lost consecutive league games by three goals. The wisdom of using a three-man defence has been questioned, but Walter Mazzarri's mid-game switch to a back four smacked of desperation rather than any coherent plan. Informed in the post-game press conference that many fans wanted him fired, the manager replied: "I don't have to reply to anyone. I do my job and that's it."

* Lorenzo Insigne scored a goal, wept and then set up the winner as Napoli beat Torino at the Stadio San Paolo. "They were tears of joy," explained the forward, who has been whistled by his own team's fans at recent games as he struggled to impose himself on proceedings. After three consecutive wins in all competitions, his manager, Rafael Benítez, will also be feeling a lot happier as he heads back to Liverpool for another international break visit.

* What is happening at Parma? The Ducali slumped to their fifth defeat of the season this weekend, giving up a 90th-minute winner to 10-man Genoa. Being stripped of a Europa League place has clearly damaged this team's morale, while Marco Parolo's move to Lazio was a blow, but nobody expected such a sharp decline from a team that were one of the revelations of the last season.

Results: Empoli 3-0 Palermo, Fiorentina 3-0 Inter, Juventus 3-2 Roma, Lazio 3-2 Sassuolo, Milan 2-0 Chievo, Napoli 2-1 Torino, Parma 1-2 Genoa, Sampdoria 1-0 Atalanta, Udinese 1-1 Cesena, Verona 1-0 Cagliari
Topics

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Juventus's win over Roma overshadowed by the referee - again | Paolo Bandini

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There was much excited chatter in the build-up to Sunday's top-of-the-table clash between Juventus and Roma about the revival of one of Serie A's classic rivalries. Talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists on the peninsula recalled classic encounters from the 1980s, back when Michel Platini ruled the roost in Turin and Paulo Roberto Falcão pulled the strings in the capital.

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Jessica-Is the Internet Killing Religion?

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Jessica-Is the Internet Killing Religion?

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New research conducted by Allen Downey, a computer scientist at Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts suggests there is a correlation between the rise in Internet usage and a decrease in Americans with religious affiliation. Downey hit on something when he was reviewing a survey done by the University of Chicago called the General Social Survey, a widely respected sociological survey data going as far back as 1972, when he noticed a declining trend in religious affiliation.

The survey asks such questions as "what is your religious preference?" and "in what religion were you raised?" Aside from that it collects data on age, race, gender, level of education and many other factors that play into peoples lives. So armed with this data Downey got to work.

Downey looked at what causes people to generally be religious and found that most people are religious because of their upbringing, they are raised in one religion and often remain in that religion into adulthood.

However given the increase in people claiming no religious affiliation Downey went looking for causal factors. What he found was that in 1990 less people had a religious upbringing than previous years but could only get that to account for about 25 percent of the drop.

The next obvious place to look was at higher education. Downey found that since the 1980's there has been an increase in adults receiving a college education by 10 percent. Yet Downey says this only accounts for about 5 percent of the drop in religiosity.

Yet a more prominent leading factor he found in looking over the data was the Internet. Starting in 1980 to no surprise he found Internet usage was next to non-existent, though by 2010 Internet usage had increased dramatically. Over 53 percent of people spent at least 2 hours online per week and 25 percent spent more than seven hours. This finding Downey says represents 25 percent of the drop in religious affiliation.

While Downey says here that he found correlation he is not claiming causation. He says that while an increase in Internet usage is not the direct cause of a drop in religious affiliation there is a clear relationship. Downey told the MIT Technology Review, "Correlation does provide evidence in favor of causation, especially when we can eliminate alternative explanations or have reason to believe that they are less likely."

Downey's conclusions make sense on their face: Claims made by church leaders are easily checked online, myths such as the great flood are dispelled with a simple Google search revealing archeological evidence against the Biblical claim and things like evolutionary biology that have ruled out creation myths.

The Internet also opens up people to learn about other cultures and religions, something not as easily done in the past, Downey says, "For people living in homogeneous communities, the Internet provides opportunities to find information about people of other religions (and none), and to interact with them personally."

This means someone living in a more closed off religious community may meet an atheist online and learn they are not the evil devil worshippers they may have been told they are. This means they may realize people worship thousands of other gods around the world and realize maybe their upbringing was wrong. This also puts videos from sites such as YouTube into the hands of people are able to watch debated between atheists and apologists and lectures from some of the worlds top skeptics.

The Internet takes much of the mystery out of life, something that the church used to be able to fill; the church had all the answers. Today though, you only need to jump to your favorite search engine and the answers are in front of you.

As reported in the MIT Technology Review, in 1990 only 8 percent of Americans claimed no religious affiliation, and that number has since more than doubled to 18 percent according to 2010 data.

While correlation does not always equal causation, the data Downey reviewed is remarkable and shows that since 1980 the increase in Internet usage is closely aligned with the decrease in religious affiliation.

It is worth noting that a similar pattern could be inferred in a chart that shows an increase in both ice cream sales and drowning deaths for example. This does not mean ice cream causes people to drown but that warmer weather increases ice cream sales and when the weather is warmer more people go swimming. Weather being the third factor in this case. Though as Downey pointed out, in certain cases evidence does provide a link, as it very well might in this case, and no third factor has been found.

This does leave 45 percent of the drop unaccounted for though and Downey has said there could very well be third factor causing both an increase in Internet usage and a decrease in religious affiliation, though he says it is hard to imagine what that factor would be. During the study they controlled for obvious factors such as income, socioeconomic status, education and rural/urban environments. Ruling those out as third factors.

So while it is easy to imagine that the Internet is a leading cause in the declining number of people claiming a religious affiliation it is also easy to speculate. 45 percent is not small number and unless Downey or another team of researchers can come up with a plausible answer the real reason behind this trend will remain something of a mystery.

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Computer scientist at MIT hits on a compelling correlation between growing internet use and the decline of religious affiliation in the US. New research conducted by Allen Downey, a computer scientist at Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts suggests there is a correlation between the rise in Internet usage and a decrease in Americans with religious affiliation.

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John——Why-and when-you should quit your job

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John——Why-and when-you should quit your job

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You just can't stand it anymore. Your job is all wrong. Getting up for work each morning is an exercise in misery. Or maybe your work is having a negative effect on your life. Should you quit?

It's a topic several LinkedIn Influencers weighed in this week. Here's what two of them had to say about the right time to quit - be it because you hate a job or your life takes an unexpected turn.
Murugan Pandian, project efficiency expert at St Joseph's Hospital Health Center
"Do you ever ask yourself why you are still going to the job that you hate every day? You probably have reluctantly accepted it as being part of your daily life. You might also be thankful that you at least have a job and it pays the bills," wrote Pandian in his post Why you need to quit the job that you hate.

But, wrote Pandian, don't give into those thoughts. "If you are uninspired by your job, then my advice to you is to quit," he wrote.

Why not stick it out? Because, he wrote, if you spend so many hours at something you loathe, "it is going to impede your ability to do your best work."

As much as you try to hide it, others likely know you are disengaged. That hurts your relationships with colleagues. "If you do not have a mentor or people to advocate for you at your current job, then it is going to be very hard to grow professionally," Pandian wrote.

Of course, it's best to have another job or opportunity lined up before you tender your resignation, right? Not always.

"People will always say don't quit your job before you get the next one lined up. It is true that being employed when looking for the next gig does help tremendously," he wrote. "However, if you are that miserable then sometimes it helps to quit, reassess your priorities in life and then come up with a more creative job hunting strategy."

But, don't worry if you've been at a position only a short time when you leave, he wrote. "Do not worry about what others might think, because you are doing what is best for your career. At the end of the day, no one is going to care about how long you were at a particular job," Pandian wrote.
Nicola Roark marketing consultant at Exhilaration Marketing
"The best decision I ever made was when I was 32. I decided to abandon a job I enjoyed at a point when I was finally getting noticed, get on a plane when seven and a half months pregnant and have my baby in England," wrote Roark in her post When to Turn Your Back on Your Career. "I did this so that I could be with my parents while my mum was dying."

Roark had wrestled with the decision for months as she pursued her career in Colorado in the United States. Then her mother's health took a turn for the worst.

"I didn't feel panic about the decision because I knew that was where I needed and, more importantly, wanted to be," she wrote.

Of course, quitting one's job and living at home temporarily with a parent - financial suicide to some - isn't something that can usually be done on a whim. But, wrote Roark when it matters, it's the right choice. "If you find yourself consumed by your career identity... I will tell you that it means nothing," she wrote.

"It would have been easier financially and professionally to stay with my job and go only when I received the inevitable call that we were in the final stretch," she wrote. "Was it the best decision for my career? I'll never know and honestly, I don't care... (It) continues to be the best decision I ever made."

To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, head over to our page or message us on Twitter.

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Why - and when - you should quit your job

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You just can't stand it anymore. Your job is all wrong. Getting up for work each morning is an exercise in misery. Or maybe your work is having a negative effect on your life. Should you quit? It's a topic several LinkedIn Influencers weighed in this week.

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Canadian Health, Disease, & Medication Information - Canada.com

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Discover thousands of in-depth articles on drugs, conditions, and treatments with up-to-date health news, health tips, and medical research.

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Bean - Roomalive (Microsoft’s new gaming technology )

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Bean - Roomalive (Microsoft’s new gaming technology )

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Microsoft has revealed a new version of its Illumiroom projection concept shown off during last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), extending the idea into the realm of augmented reality.

RoomAlive turns any living room into augmented reality, creating virtual objects on your table, couch or any other object, and then allowing you to interact with it in the physical world. In contrast, Illumiroom projected a larger, non-interactive image around a room's walls and floors in an effort to add another level of immersion to a gaming experience.

While the technology is still in the research stages, it's certainly compelling. A video released by Microsoft's research division shows off a whack-a-mole style game that uses a gun, and another one featuring traps popping out of walls. If this product ever makes it to store shelves it'll likely be expensive, especially considering it required multiple high-end projectors, but as just a proof-of-concept idea, RoomAlive is fascinating.

RoomAlive uses a projector, just like Illumiroom, but also a collection of depth cameras to map a room, including the people and furniture inside it. The pixels it maps can then be used for either input or output, allowing people to touch, shoot and dodge augmented reality content. According to Microsoft's recent video about the project, RoomAlive is linked to Unity in order to allow developers to easily design games around its technology.

"The system automatically creates a unified model of the room by combining the depth maps from each pro cam unit. In addition to the 3D model, our system automatically extracts the surfaces in the room, identifying vertical and horizontal surfaces in the floor plan," says the video's narrator.

Imagine a video game that takes advantage of your room's layout and then adapts this to whatever title you're playing? While the sometimes gimmicky fad of motion-based gaming seems to be a thing of the past, unique technology like RoomAlive could help revive it. The potential for the non-gaming related application of RoomAlive's augmented reality technology could also be interesting.

Hopefully, Microsoft at some point has a playable version of RoomAlive at a trade show since its likely the technology will never be released to the public, at least not any time soon.

Follow @Patrick_ORourke.

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RoomAlive: Microsoft's new experimental augmented reality game

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Microsoft has revealed a new version of its Illumiroom projection concept shown off during last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), extending the idea into the realm of augmented reality. RoomAlive turns any living room into augmented reality, creating virtual objects on your table, couch or any other object, and then allowing you to interact with it in the physical world.

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Does any couple really split the chores straight down the middle? According to surveys for Mumsnet and Woman's Hour released on Monday, working mums spend an average of 10 hours a week on household chores, while men chip in with just five hours a week. A survey of almost 1,000 working mothers found that, out of 54 common household tasks, women were chiefly responsible for 36 of them, 15 were shared by men and women, and just three were the preserve of men: changing lightbulbs, taking the bins out and DIY. We asked five Guardian writers to be honest about who does the dirty work in their homes ...

Tim Dowling: 'I tend to subcontract out chores to my children'

Let me just say this: it doesn't feel like I'm doing nothing. I know I'm not pulling my full weight around the house - we probably spend more time arguing about housework than I do on housework. What's worse, I work from home, so any housework not done by me has to be done around me. But there is no actual free time in my day - only stolen time.

I suppose I do about half the cooking. I rarely manage my corresponding half of the washing up, but I also tend to do my share of it first thing in the morning while the coffee is brewing, so I don't get full credit. My wife will come down and point out unwiped spots, or utensils that remain in the sink. When it comes to the washing up, she's a bit of a completist.

Much against my will, I find myself in charge of the bins and all the lightbulbs, and anything involving a ladder. I alone seem capable of putting a cover on a duvet. I am also summarily assigned certain chores during the week, the least challenging of which - feeding the dogs, etc - I tend to subcontract out to my children. I do enjoy the excitement of tackling a DIY project without really knowing what I'm doing, but I try not to let my enjoyment show.

I almost never use the vacuum cleaner - not unless I've created a catastrophic mess that I don't want anyone to find out about. I often assist in moving laundry through the pipeline (transferring wet clothes to dryer, reloading washer, etc), particularly when I need something specific to come out the other end, but I admit I have no real understanding of the overarching system. I do at least know enough not to complain when it goes wrong.

I read somewhere that in the UK, men do about a third of the overall housework. That sounds a pretty generous assessment to me. I'll take that.

Lucy Mangan: 'We live perpetually on the edge of chaos'

I love the idea of being organised enough to have a list of allocated chores. If you've got that far, I think you're already winning at life. In this house, Toryboy does the dishwasher - not correctly, not well, not before we've completely run out of kitchenware and are eating breakfast out of newspaper with our hands - but he does it. I do the cooking - not correctly, not well - but I do it. Everything else is tackled on an ad hoc basis according to what is currently presenting the greatest danger to our child - cholera from insanitary conditions, burial under the piles of crap teetering on the stairs, going to nursery naked because there are no clean clothes in the house - and by whoever has the least-looming deadline.

We have cleaners, from a firm that provides them with holiday pay, sick pay, pension payments and so on, to try to lessen my crippling guilt about employing someone to clean up my shit, but a) they are terrible and b) even if they weren't, they could only do so much in a perennially messy house. My mother does at least two loads of laundry a week for me. The child and I eat over there twice a week. If we didn't, we'd die. I don't know how Toryboy manages. I don't care, either, unless he starts doing the dishwasher properly.

We live perpetually on the edge of chaos. It's exhausting, dispiriting, infuriating. I am permanently uncomfortable in my own home and racked with remorse for what is a practical and a moral failing.

Living in a clean and tidy house is my dream. I wake up meaning to achieve it every day, and go to bed every night crushed by my inability to achieve it. If I could afford to employ more people to help me, I would. If I could afford to give up work to have time to do it myself, I would. But, as things stand, I have to reckon things on the basis that it is better to have a shithole of a house than no house at all.

Hugh Muir: 'The chores are a shared endeavour'

There are two things you need to know about growing up in a traditional West Indian household in the 1970s and 80s. One is that you learned to do chores. Not just the occasional chore. Not just a dinner table cleaned up after a family meal. Hardcore stuff. Window-cleaning, cupboard-cleaning, oven-cleaning, vacuuming (if you were lucky enough to have one - otherwise it was the dustpan and brush all the way up the stairs). You learned to cook, because Mum was off to church on Sunday and the rice and peas and roast potatos weren't going to cook themselves. You learned to wash up. A dishwasher? Don't make me laugh. You learned which liquid soaps really were kind to your hands. You learned to clean and re-lay the dirty, coal-heated, gas-fired boiler. There was no negotiation. You could drag your heels a bit, sulk, protest, but that made no sense because only on completion of the chores were you free to play football or ride bikes or chase girls.

The second thing to note is that there was the strictest age-based hierarchy. Thus, older siblings could subcontract their chores to the youngest. I was the youngest. No remuneration was involved.

So the chores are a shared endeavour in the Muir household. On alternate weeks my wife and I grab the hoover, grip the bucket laden with surface cleaners of all descriptions and assault the house from top to bottom. The children, having not been raised in a traditional West Indian household, watch the process with interest. Occasionally they complain about the noise made by the Hoover. The division of labour largely involves the distinction between wet and dry cleaning. My forte is scrubbing things. From scummy to clean in a second ... instant gratification. With Miles Davis in the background; my version of therapy.

Hannah Marriott: 'I don't seem to have an antenna for housework'

I once made my boyfriend an unforgettable meal: a pallid omelette broken into fragments, a handful of cheesy Doritos and a mini Babybel. On seeing his reaction to this shiny, beige mess I laughed a little hysterically until, unexpectedly, the tears started to flow as I wondered how I had become so appalling at life.

My boyfriend is a brilliant cook: a smearer of butter, a sprinkler of salt, a marinader of meat. For him, a happy home is a full fridge and a trip to the supermarket is a pleasure - so it makes sense that he manages our food. What we are unsure of is what, exactly, I am in charge of in return.

I realise this is a shameful admission, but I just don't seem to have an antenna for housework. I don't notice overflowing bins and washing baskets until there is a weird smell or I have long run out of socks. My well-brought-up boyfriend, on the other hand, anticipates tasks before they have become a problem - so clothes washing and bin-emptying tend to fall under his remit, along with vacuuming, buying the milk, paying the bills and cleaning the loo.

In my defence, I am tidy. I will straighten up a room, make the bed and zhuzh up the cushions for - gosh - minutes. I also do about half of our paperwork and a lot of the washing up. But it's not quite enough to break even, is it?

In response, my boyfriend sometimes initiates a passive protest and leaves the bins to overflow (unfortunately for him, I don't usually notice). His other techniques are more effective: arguments - sometimes quite cross ones - negotiations, eye rolls, rewards, expressions of disappointment and exasperation. Consequently, I have started buying the odd pint of milk and cooking properly every now and then, which is just as well given that we are getting married next year - unless the housework gets us first.

Alexis Petridis: 'Some jobs are divided along gender lines'

We have two young kids, we both work and we don't have a cleaner, partly because of the expense and partly, I suspect, because I was brought up in a house where having a cleaner was held to be an early step on the irreversible path to abominable decadence: one minute you're paying someone to do your vacuuming; the next thing you know, you're spending your every waking hour sprawled in a pitiful opiated haze, weakly quoting Baudelaire while dressed like Mick Jagger in 1967. Worse, having a cleaner was somehow thought to be symbolic of not really being clean. Having a cleaner was something southerners did, and it seemed to be a bizarre article of faith that southerners had a disturbingly lax attitude to domestic hygiene. Once you got past Watford Gap, they were apparently all sitting around knee-deep in dust and detritus, like Quentin Crisp, while their cleaners ... actually, I'm not quite sure what their cleaners were supposed to be doing.

So we do the housework ourselves, which under the circumstances means a division of labour: nothing set in stone, we don't have a rota, but it seems to work itself out. It is a matter of who is around to do it. At the moment, my wife works part-time, so she does the majority, a state of affairs that has brought with it her faintly worrying tendency to carry on as if vacuuming and dusting are an arcane dark art, the secret of which has been exclusively revealed to her: if I get involved I'm only going to cock it up, like the sorceror's apprentice calling spirits only the master understands. But it wasn't ever thus, and it won't be in the future.

There are jobs that seem to be divided along traditional gender lines. I go to the tip and bleed the radiators and indulge in a kind of feeble pantomime where I pretend to know what's wrong with the car before taking it to the garage. My wife cooks more than me, a hangover from when we first met and I was pathetically incapable of cooking anything without poisoning someone or causing a small fire or having some kind of nervous breakdown in the process.
Topics

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Who does the housework? Five Guardian writers reveal all

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Does any couple really split the chores straight down the middle? According to surveys for Mumsnet and Woman's Hour released on Monday, working mums spend an average of 10 hours a week on household chores, while men chip in with just five hours a week.

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Caroline-Why Finland's schools are top-notch

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Caroline-Why Finland's schools are top-notch

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Editor's note: Pasi Sahlberg is visiting professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and former director general in the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. Follow him on Twitter: @pasi_sahlberg. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN) -- Millions of American parents spend countless hours trying to figure out how to help their children get better grades, better teachers or better schools.

They may want to take a page from Finland, which is considered to have one of the leading education systems in the world. Finnish students consistently score near the top in the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, for reading, mathematics and science. The 2012 PISA results tell us that in these three subjects combined Finland ranks third after Korea and Japan. In comparison, American students' combined performance in reading, mathematics and science places the United States at 21st among 34 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

For some, education in Finland is utopia: a dreamland where teaching is the most desired profession, authorities trust schools and political parties agree on the direction of educational reforms.

For others, they are surprised to hear that in Finland children don't start school until they are 7 years old. They have less homework than their peers in other countries. A child's socioeconomic background is less of an impediment to academic performance. And there is only one standardized test, which is administered in the final year of high school.

What are the main factors that prevent American students from achieving the kind of success that Finnish students attain?

There are three things that have positively affected the quality of Finnish schools that are absent in American schools. First, Finland has built a school system that has over time strengthened educational equity. This means early childhood education for all children, funding all schools so they can better serve those with special educational needs, access to health and well-being services for all children in all schools, and a national curriculum that insists that schools focus on the whole child rather than narrow academic achievement.
Opinion: Should schools ban homework? Spurlock visits Finnish classroom
Second, teachers in Finland have time to work together with their colleagues during the school day. According to the most recent data provided by the OECD the average teaching load of junior high school teachers in Finland is about half what it is in the United States. That enables teachers to build professional networks, share ideas and best practices. This is an important condition to enhancing teaching quality.

Finally, play constitutes a significant part of individual growth and learning in Finnish schools. Every class must be followed by a 15-minute recess break so children can spend time outside on their own activities. Schooldays are also shorter in Finland than in the United States, and primary schools keep the homework load to a minimum so students have time for their own hobbies and friends when school is over.

The difference is pronounced in America, where a national poll of elementary school principals found that up to 40% of U.S. school districts have reduced or eliminated recess in order to free more time for core academics, and one in four elementary schools no longer provides recess to all grades.

I hear people often arguing that because the United States is much bigger, more diverse, and more unequal, it's harder to reach higher quality education. But even if this were true, it would not explain why in Finland students learn better in their schools than in most other places in the world.
Opinion: Let kids sleep late
Some aspects of the American school system are not helpful in improving education quality and equity. First, education in the United States is too much defined by testing and data. If getting the data using frequent standardized tests occupies up to one-third of all available time to teach, that will alone prevent students from making the marks they should.

Second, American education places too much faith in marketplace choice, which parents have because of expanded access to charter schools. This weakens the public school structure that is fundamental to many successful education systems elsewhere.

Finally, more students in America have novice or nonprofessional teachers in their classrooms today than ever. Frequent turnover of teachers in thousands of American schools undermines the entire education system.

What would be the way forward then? The United States can't become Finland, but there is a lot it can learn about what works and what doesn't.

One affordable and smart step would be to terminate policies and practices that prevent American teachers from teaching what matters most to their students. Redesigning current punitive accountability for schools and abolishing unnecessary standardized tests would remove a big burden from schools and leave teachers with more time to focus on real learning.
Opinion: Get schools out of the 1890s
The ultimate test for the American education system will be whether it can bring equity to the forefront of education policies. When poverty explains up to half of student achievement, schools must have measures to better cope with the harmful consequences that disadvantaged family backgrounds have on teaching and learning in many schools. Enhancing equity has been one key to success in Finland.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.

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Editor's note: Pasi Sahlberg is visiting professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and former director general in the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. Follow him on Twitter: @pasi_sahlberg. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

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Rogue Parrish

An award-winning writer and editor, Rogue Parrish has worked at the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and at newspapers from England to Alaska. This world adventurer and travel book author, who graduates summa cum laude in journalism from the University of Maryland, specializes in travel and food -- as well as sports and fitness. She's also a property manager and writes on DIY projects.

In 1989, no championship rings yet decorated the fingers of Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan. He was in his fifth year as a pro and able to pour in 30 to 40 points most games, but the Bulls hadn't been able to get past the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference postseason. Personal trainer Tim Grover saw an article on Jordan's frustrations with the physical, strong play of the Pistons and contacted the Bulls' team physician, leading to his being hired to train Jordan in 1989. Added strength in his upper body, core and legs helped Jordan propel the Bulls to six championships from 1991 to 1998.

Video of the Day

Grover's workout for Jordan focused on core strength, on the theory that a solid core is essential to helping an athlete run faster, jump higher and reach his athletic potential. While athletes and gym goers typically presume that core training means abs strengthening via crunches, these can neglect your oblique and erector muscles, Grover told "Stack" magazine. Strengthening all the core muscles increases athletic performance and helps you to avoid injury.

Jordan's workout included the anterior reach on one leg, involving extending the arms forward and extending the nonplant leg straight back. His Airness worked on squats on an unstable object, such as a balance board, holding the squat with his thighs parallel to the ground. Walkouts required bending at the waist and walking forward on the hands with the legs straight until the body was fully extended and then walking the hands back to the feet. Jordan is also shown in a rare video on Stack.com performing dumbbell and bench presses, as well as biceps curls with an EZ bar. Grover suggests extra attention to the shoulders and legs for basketball players, including deadlifts, squats and power cleans, as well as good mornings -- forward bends performed with an unweighted bar on the shoulders.

Jordan had to do pushups on medicine balls and medicine ball situps, holding the medicine ball above his chest with both hands throughout the entire motion of the situp. He also did 6-inch leg raises that involved lying on his back and raising his straightened legs off the floor, holding the position for two to three seconds and returning to the starting position.

The core workouts occurred twice a week and involved two to three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. On other days, Jordan worked for an hour on agility, quick repetitions and light weight lifting as part of an early morning workout plan, beginning by 8 a.m. and lasting for one hour. He completed his strength workouts before going to the Berto Center in Deerfield, Illinois, for the Bulls' two-hour practice beginning at 11 a.m.

Teammates, including Scottie Pippen, began to join the morning strength and agility sessions. Jordan's chef would cook the players breakfast afterward, and thus they became known as the Breakfast Club. The results were especially clear at the foul line, where Bulls players displayed some of the most developed biceps and deltoids in the NBA, and in the scoreline, as the team became capable not only of defeating the rival Pistons and Celtics with superior strength but also besting the Western Conference champs in the NBA Finals.

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In 1989, no championship rings yet decorated the fingers of Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan. He was in his fifth year as a pro and able to pour in 30 to 40 points most games, but the Bulls hadn't been able to get past the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference postseason.

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Kelly- Laundry mistakes you're probably making

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Kelly- Laundry mistakes you're probably making

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This can make the stain worse and possibly wear away the fabric. Instead, be gentle and methodical. Treat the stain as soon as you can; the less time that elapses, the more success you'll have. And always use a white cloth so that colors can't transfer. Dab, rather than rub, working from the outside in to keep the stain contained.

Mistake 2: Using too much detergent

Excess suds can hold dirt pulled from clothes and get caught in areas that won't always rinse clean, like under a collar, leading to bacteria buildup. The remedy: Use only half the amount of detergent that you normally do, then gradually increase that amount if your clothes are not coming out as clean as you would like. An exception: If you have hard water, you may actually need more soap than you are using. Check the recommendation for hard water on your detergent bottle.

When washing in a top-loader with liquid detergent, you should first fill with water, then add soap, then add clothes, right? Well, no. This protocol from the past was meant to prevent residue on the fabric and the machine. But modern detergents are phosphate-free and not harmful to clothes the way old formulas were. As long as you're not using bleach, don't add clothing after the water (a pain, because clothes can float). Instead, use this order to distribute detergent best: clothes, then water, then soap.

This isn't necessarily a blunder. Most items that say "dry-clean" can be hand-washed and air-dried. This includes natural fibers, such as linen and most silks. First check for colorfastness; moisten a cotton swab with mild detergent and dab it on a hidden seam to see if any dye comes off. If not, go ahead and dunk the garment in soapy water just once or twice, then rinse and immediately roll it in a towel to extract moisture. However, you should stick with dry-cleaning for certain categories: leather, suede, silk dupioni, anything with embellishments and structured pieces (like blazers).

Metal teeth can snag delicate and woven clothing that's being washed in the same load.

This seems like a good idea, but it can stress buttons and buttonholes and lead to premature poppage. Take the time to unbutton before tossing clothes in the washer (or the hamper).

Think twice before you reach for the bleach: You actually don't need it to get rid of protein stains, like blood, sweat and tears. (Okay, maybe tears are not a big laundry issue.) One natural option: Toss stained socks, tees and undies into a big pot of water with a few lemon slices and bring to a boil for a few minutes.

If your washer is not level, vibrations can damage your floor and prematurely wear out key components, like the shock absorbers and the tub bearings. (Plus, there's that terrible noise.) Place a level on top of the machine and adjust the feet, which typically screw up and down, accordingly. If this doesn't help, beef up the floor with a 3/4-inch-thick piece of plywood that's a little larger than the machine's base. It will help absorb vibrations.

Some folks like to wait an hour after one cycle concludes before putting in a new load. But in fact, running back-to-back dryer loads is smart and efficient. It lets you take advantage of retained heat from the previous cycle, cutting down on energy usage.

This medium-heat cycle with a cool-down period at the end is a proven crease curber. More tips: Don't pack clothes in; they need to float freely or they'll wrinkle. (Note: Ditto for the washer. Stuffing it can create wrinkles and prevent your clothes from getting clean. On top of that, it can put pressure on the machine's bearings and shock absorbers, causing them to wear down prematurely.) And procrastinators, take note: It really does eliminate creases if you fold clothes when they're still hot, right out of the dryer (or, if you prefer, right out of the pile that you dumped onto your bed). Give each item a quick shake so wrinkles don't set in. If you don't have time to fold a load immediately, shake out the pieces and lay them flat in the laundry basket, one on top of another, while they await further attention.

Here's a sock-saving tip: Place socks in the washer tub first, so they're less likely to attach themselves to other garments and then go missing.

Even though you empty the lint filter after each use (right?), lint buildup can clog the duct over time and become a fire hazard. A sure sign that your dryer is clogged? It takes more than an hour to dry a load. Once a year, detach the hose from the back of the dryer and snake a long brush through to push out lint. Also scrub the lint filter once a year with a small toothbrush and a bit of detergent. Rinse, then air-dry completely.

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Copyright © 2015 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

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12 laundry mistakes you're probably making - cnn

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12 laundry mistakes you're probably making

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This can make the stain worse and possibly wear away the fabric. Instead, be gentle and methodical. Treat the stain as soon as you can; the less time that elapses, the more success you'll have. And always use a white cloth so that colors can't transfer.

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Clashes have erupted again in Hong Kong after the authorities moved in to clear protest camps. For two months pro-democracy activists have occupied various parts of the territory, and protests have occasionally turned violent.

Why are the authorities cracking down now?

Since the street occupations began in September in three key spots - Mong Kok, Admiralty and Causeway Bay - the authorities have largely tolerated protesters.

But the High Court began granting injunctions to businesses and industry groups to clear roads in November, triggering a round of clearances by bailiffs and the police.

The first clearance in Admiralty on 18 November passed off peacefully.

But clashes erupted the following week when the authorities demolished the entire Mong Kok camp.

Student protesters accused the police of violence, and tried to shut down government offices in Admiralty on 1 December, prompting a strong response from the police.

Another injunction has been granted to clear a section of Connaught and Harcourt Roads - the major stronghold of protesters.

Does this mean protests are dying out?

The students have insisted that public opinion is still on their side, but the numbers at protest sites and polls indicate that the public has grown increasingly weary of the disruption and unrest.

At its peak, the pro-democracy movement saw tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents from all walks of life take to the streets. Two months on, just a few hundred remain camped out in tent cities, most of whom are students and young workers.

Meanwhile, a mid-November poll done by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme found that a majority of respondents did not support the protests.

A majority also backed the Hong Kong government's clearance of the sites, though some believed that it could allocate other areas for protesters.

Student leaders have also found it difficult to make headway. Earlier talks with city officials proved fruitless, an attempt to travel to Beijing was blocked by Hong Kong authorities, and two leaders - Joshua Wong and Lester Shum - were arrested for obstructing police in Mong Kok and are now out on bail.

On 2 December, three of the co-founders of the Occupy Central movement called for protesters to retreat. The three turned themselves in to a police station the next day, though the authorities have not charged them with any offence.

What is the Chinese government saying?

China's central government has continuously condemned the ongoing street occupations, and state-controlled mainland media outlets have accused pro-democracy activists of "intensifying" the crisis with the latest clash.

One of the Hong Kong business groups that has taken out an injunction to clear the protest sites is a joint-venture controlled by Chinese state-owned Citic Group.

Though it remains unclear whether Beijing had a direct hand in the applications, many in the business sector - which is increasingly reliant on China - have opposed the protests since day one, on the grounds that it would hurt the economy and anger Beijing.

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Hong Kong protests: What changed at Mong Kok?

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Clashes have erupted again in Hong Kong after the authorities moved in to clear protest camps. For two months pro-democracy activists have occupied various parts of the territory, and protests have occasionally turned violent. Since the street occupations began in September in three key spots - Mong Kok, Admiralty and Causeway Bay - the authorities have largely tolerated protesters.

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You likely know that being overweight increases your risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But did you know it also increases your risk for cancer?

If you didn't, you're not alone. While around 90% of Americans know that smoking is linked to higher rates of cancer, Dr. Clifford Hudis says, the inverse is true for obesity and cancer; less than 10% of us realize how fat is related to this chronic disease.

"Obesity is a major, under-recognized contributor to the nation's cancer toll and is quickly overtaking tobacco as the leading preventable cause of cancer," Hudis and his colleagues at the American Society of Clinical Oncology write in a new position paper.

In fact, as many as 84,000 cancer diagnoses each year are linked to obesity, according to the National Cancer Institute. Excess fat also affects how cancer treatments work and may increase a cancer patient's risk of death, either from cancer or from other related causes.

The key word, Hudis says, is preventable. While we can't change the fact that we're all getting older (incidence rates for most cancers increase as patients age), we can change our weight through diet, exercise, sleep and stress management.

In 2003, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a study that included more than 900,000 American adults. Researchers followed the healthy study participants for 16 years, and found the heaviest participants were more likely to develop and die from cancer than participants who were at a healthy weight.

After their analysis, the study authors concluded that excess fat "could account for 14% of all deaths from cancer in men and 20% of those in women."

Since then, research has simply strengthened the link between obesity and cancer. Studies have found a relationship between weight and the risk of as many as 12 cancers, says Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, including endometrial, colorectal, esophageal, kidney and pancreatic cancers.

A recent report published in the American Association for Cancer Research's journal predicted the top cancer killers in the United States by 2030 will be lung, pancreas and liver -- in part because of rising obesity rates.

"It's not enough to say there's an association between obesity and cancer. We need to know why," Hudis says. "With the why, we can do something about it."

Scientists are exploring several hypotheses on how excess fat increases a person's risk for cancer. The answer may be slightly different for each type of cancer, but the encompassing explanation seems to be that obesity triggers changes in how the body operates, which can cause harmful cell growth and cell division.

Many of these changes may be linked to inflammation. In general, inflammation occurs when your body is reacting to something out of the norm -- say a virus or a splinter in your foot. Obesity seems to cause chronic inflammation, which in turn may promote cancer development.

Take for example, Hudis says, hormone-sensitive breast cancers. Chemicals in the body meant to regulate inflammation also increase production of the hormone estrogen. And studies have shown excess estrogen can cause breast cancer tumors.

Fat tissue also produces hormones called adipokines, which can stimulate or inhibit cell growth, according to a fact sheet from the oncology society. If these hormones are out of balance, the body may not be able to properly fight cell damage.

Obesity can affect a cancer patient's outcome from diagnosis to remission, Hudis says.

Obesity-related pain or unbalanced hormone levels may distract patients from the early warning signs of some cancers. Fatty tissue can also make it difficult for doctors to see tumors on imaging scans. And a late diagnosis often means a lower chance for survival.

The relationship between cancer and obesity also matters after diagnosis. Cancer treatments, such as radiation or chemotherapy, may be hindered by a patient's size. If the patient needs surgery, studies show excess fat puts them at a higher risk of complications, infections and death.

A recent study of 80,000 breast cancer patients found that pre-menopausal women with a BMI over 30 had a 21.5% chance of dying, compared to women with an average BMI who had a 16.6% chance of death.

Remaining obese as a survivor can also increase your risk of developing what's called a secondary cancer, the authors of this new position paper say.

What you can do to reduce your risk

In general, "people should be aware that overweight and obesity, as common as they are in our population, have serious consequences," Hudis says. "Cancer is really just another one."

Start reducing your risk now: Stay active. Eat nutritious foods that are low in calories. Get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Manage your stress levels. All these behaviors will help you reach a healthy weight.

If you or someone you know is a cancer survivor, talk to your oncologist. He or she should be aware of the link between cancer and obesity, Hudis says, and able to help you find resources in your community.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology is recommending more research be done on weight loss in the cancer survivor population to determine the best intervention method -- and whether losing weight after a diagnosis improves patient outcomes. The results of these future studies could help persuade insurance providers to reimburse patients for weight management programs.

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Obesity and cancer are linked, ASCO says - CNN

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You likely know that being overweight increases your risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But did you know it also increases your risk for cancer? If you didn't, you're not alone.

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Joon-How to avoid the dreaded ‘car buyer’s remorse’

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Joon-How to avoid the dreaded ‘car buyer’s remorse’

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New and Used Car Reviews, Comparisons and News | Driving

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by Lorraine Sommerfeld |

"I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you..."

Air Supply was right. I should have bought the navigation system in the last car. I admit it; I messed up. In that down-to-the-wire grind of price, options and where-will-we-be-in-three-years, I left out something I forgot I rely on in all the other cars I drive. We all have GPS on our phones, but I don't like the kids mucking with that on the road. Don't get me wrong, I'm still happy with my purchase, but if someone asked me what I'd do differently, there it is.

Someone did ask. A recent Auto Trader survey commissioned by Angus Reid reveals that a full third of Canadians who bought new cars are less than thrilled with their purchase. Maybe we just get crabby when the shine wears off, maybe we don't do enough research, or maybe we get overwhelmed on the showroom floor. More likely, it's some combination of all of these things.

You can have a car almost immediately, once you've made up your mind. Sales people are trained to get you into that chute and, sometimes, you end up choosing between three cars that are available rather than three cars you've narrowed it down to. There's a big difference, and choosing from the former is more likely to have you doing the walk of blame the next morning.
Read more: Not in love with your daily driver? You're not alone
People frequently ask me what I think they should buy. I drive a lot of cars, but likes and dislikes are subjective, so I tell them the truth: let me ask you a series of questions, and from that I'll be able to tell you what not to buy. The rest is up to you.

Buying a car is difficult. You have to factor in reliability, warranty, price, cargo room, your primary driving needs, whether you'll love it in February as much as you do in July, fuel economy, maintenance costs ... the list goes on. We joke about some people making a decision based only on colour, but frankly, you pretty much only have a half dozen hues to choose from these days, and you can live with any of them. But no heated seats at -20 degrees Celsius, or wiper blades tucked so far out of sight you can't de-ice them? Yeah, those are things you wish you'd paid more attention to.

There are some important notes to glean from the survey. Ontarians especially - half of them - said their next car purchase would be from a manufacturer other than the car they have now. That's sending up a flare to all manufacturers; for generations, they've relied on repeat customers as they predict what changes to make to their lineups. If truly half of their existing base will be up for grabs, it doesn't just change the playing field, it stands it on its head.

As the market splinters between more manufacturers, they know one bad experience will be enough to lose a customer. It doesn't take much; years ago I went to lease a new version of my older van from one of the Big Three; same model and trim package. They'd removed the radio controls from the steering wheel. Might have saved them a handful of bucks on the new model, but it cost them a customer. I consider that a safety feature and they messed with it.

Don't want to be in the whine cellar?

* Do your research. The Internet doesn't know if you're male or female, old or young, frugal or a spendthrift. Never before have so many people been able to gather so much information while sitting around in their underwear.

* Test drive, test drive, test drive. Don't laugh. Some people don't, and others don't test enough. Like a dating profile or a job resume, just because it works on paper doesn't mean the chemistry will be there.

* Fast forward six months. Flip the seasons over and cover it in snow or picture it in sweltering temperatures.

* Got a 14-year-old? In two years, she might be learning to drive this car.

* Get over your minivan hate. Great, practical vehicles that work for people and gear, sometimes it's the right answer.

* Get over your oversized love affair. If you're driving - and paying for - too much car, downshift.

* Be realistic. Subcompacts are terrific for urban drivers, but if you're constantly moving child seats in and out, you'll only be making your chiropractor rich.

* Ask about the costs you can't see. Run-flat tires will run over your wallet; if you're leaving behind a domestic for your German dream, get ready for $150 oil changes.

* Buy the whole car. Too often we get swept up in "how much does it cost a month" and realize we're paying for too many years.

* If you think you're getting ripped off, check out Unhaggle or Car Cost Canada or use the Automobile Protection Association's (APA) excellent car buying service. Driving also has a handy Car Comparison tool that helps you compare up to eight cars at a time and a Local Pricing & Incentives tool that shows you what other people are paying for their cars and the promotions your local dealers are offering.

What would end your love affair?

Twitter: @TweeetLorraine
contact@lorraineonline.ca
www.lorraineonline.ca

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How to avoid the dreaded 'car buyer's remorse'

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by Lorraine Sommerfeld | "I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you..." Air Supply was right. I should have bought the navigation system in the last car. I admit it; I messed up. In that down-to-the-wire grind of price, options and where-will-we-be-in-three-years, I left out something I forgot I rely on in all the other cars I drive.

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Sungbae Jung-  Song of the Summer race over before it began

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Sungbae Jung-  Song of the Summer race over before it began

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Like the season it qualifies, a Song of the Summer is nebulous until it manifests into a fully formed assault on your health. Its singular purpose is to supernova - to burn so brightly its ubiquity outshines such trite classifications as age, hipness and/or genre before imploding. Such a song will often leave its album and its performer behind as it becomes a touchstone of an era, to one day signify a bygone age of innocence and to rouse an older audience to their feet at weddings and bar mitzvahs.

"Songs evoke feeling and being a youngster growing up, sometimes that marks a moment in your life," says Sean Paul, who has authored and featured on a deluge of summer hits including "Like Glue," "Gimme the Light," Blu Cantrell's "Breathe" and Beyoncé's "Baby Boy." "A summer song is definitely an anthem for a generation at that period. Summer songs need to become so popular that little kids as well as their grandparents sing them. Those are summer anthems."

By definition, a Song of the Summer must peak both culturally and commercially between the end of May and the start of September, though it doesn't necessarily have to have been released during that time. More often than not its lyrics are simple, playfully nonsensical and suggest a heavy degree of carelessness (often of a sexual nature) but not so much as to be offensive to an older generation. And, most importantly, its chorus and hooks must be both whistleable and relentless so that it may be played at barbecues, dance clubs and celebrations.

Though the concept is rather intuitive, the title wasn't mentioned in any official capacity until 1979, when, randomly, a Globe and Mail profile of The Knack described their hit "My Sharona" as "the runaway song of the summer."

The modern definition likely began to take shape in 1991 when Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff's meta anthem "Summertime" reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was fine-tuned into an easy-to-digest grudge match in 1999, when critic Ann Powers introduced a bracket-style competition in The New York Times (Winner: Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way").

Since then each year has had an ultimate exemplar of the sunny months. Which is why, 12 years later "Hot in Here" can still transport a listener to the first post 9/11 summer while every spin of "I've Got a Feeling" sizzles with post-recession denialism.

Over the last decade in particular, the Song of the Summer evolved from critical parlour game to a serious commercial enterprise. Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" and Rihanna's "Umbrella" were legitimate hits, the Internet amplified their reach with covers and parodies and, in 2010, Billboard magazine began officially tracking the Song of the Summer. For North American record companies and pop stars constantly looking to make up for slumping album sales, achieving SOTS status became as lucrative as a Christmas No. 1 is in the U.K. As such, a breakdown of recent entrants can be clearly split into intentional SOTS (LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," Katy Perry's "California Gurls") and groundswell underdogs (Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe").

The Song of the Summer phenomenon may have peaked last year when two songs featuring Pharrell Williams (Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines") battled for the title in such a public manner that no less an authority than Stephen Colbert felt compelled to declare a winner ("Blurred Lines"). And this year's selection, or lack thereof, seems to support that theory.

At the end of July, Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" is holding a weak top position, chased by a hobbled crop led by Canadian suburban broggae stars MAGIC! and Iggy's pal Ariana Grande. There is some thought that it's simply an off year - none of the major stars of the summer song have ventured an entry - but as Vulture's Amanda Dobbins recently pointed out, a low tide shouldn't necessarily sink all ships. "It has been a barren year, pop-wise, and we didn't have many options. But we do not have to accept it," Dobbins wrote in a post titled "We Deserve a Better Song of Summer." "So let's not. Let's turn this ship around ... It's not too late for a new Song of Summer. And we deserve it."

With that in mind, let's break down the current batch to see if, indeed, we can find a worthy SOTS or if, as musicologist Questlove recently wrote, "Songs that I consider personally bad are also effective, and songs that I think are great don't stick. For me, I think it's a crime that Chromeo is not up there, because their level of pop songs - aw man, it's everything I could ever want. It isn't sticking. I want 'Jealous' to win so bad, but it's obvious 'Fancy' is pretty much ruling the summer."
Moneyballing the 2014 Song of the Summer shortlist

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Song of the Summer race over before it began

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Like the season it qualifies, a Song of the Summer is nebulous until it manifests into a fully formed assault on your health. Its singular purpose is to supernova - to burn so brightly its ubiquity outshines such trite classifications as age, hipness and/or genre before imploding.