Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169383477?client_source=feed&format=rss
childish gambino camp drake take care tracklist drake take care tracklist dr murray trial take care drake cain accuser aesop rock
Monday, December 5, 2011
If a fat tax is coming, here's how to make it efficient, effective
Friday, December 2, 2011
A 'sin tax' applied to sweetened goods on store shelves is not the most efficient, effective method of lowering caloric intake from sweet food and would be more disruptive to consumers than necessary, according to Iowa State University research.
With a national debate taking shape about the possibility of a national tax on foods with high sweetener content, ISU economists have examined how such a tax would best be applied.
Rather than assessing a tax on these sugary goods as they are taken through the grocery store checkout lines, the research shows that a better way is to tax the food processers on the amount of caloric sweeteners, such as corn syrup and sugar added in processing before the product hits the shelves.
The economists, John Beghin and Helen Jensen, both professors in the Department of Economics, are quick to point out that they are not advocating for or against any tax, but simply researching how and where a possible sweetener tax would be most effective.
"We are not saying. 'To resolve obesity, here is what you should do,'" said Beghin. "In that sense, we are not advocating anything. We are saying, 'Given that you are considering a panoply of tax instruments, and there is a possibility of a soda tax, is there a better way to use that idea?'"
"This is motivated," added Jensen, "by a lot of ideas out there that say we could tax sweetened products. We wanted to see what the effect of such a tax would be and, alternatively, if you imposed a tax on ingredients, what would be the effect of that."
The research, published in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy, shows that if the goal of a sin tax on sweeteners is to reduce calories consumed, lawmakers should consider taxing the inputs instead of the final product.
Assessing the tax at the processing stage allows food processors to reduce the amount of sweeteners they put into their products. Processors will also have incentives to use more of the lesser-taxed artificial sweeteners, and less of the higher-taxed sweeteners that are heavy in sugary products.
These solutions would also raise the price at the store less than a direct tax on the end product, while reducing the calories attributable to the sweetener, according to the study.
"Taxing the processing ingredients makes more sense when compared with taxing the end product," said Beghin. "You can abate the same number of calories without having consumers face such high prices."
Any new tax on sweeteners, even the tax on food inputs proposed by the study, will cause prices to go up. One drawback of any tax on sweetened goods is the regressive nature of that tax.
In economic terms, regressive taxes are those that impact poorer economic groups more than higher ones.
"Since much of these (sweeter) goods are consumed by poorer economic groups," said Beghin, "you may be increasing the cost of calories for poor people."
The study looks only at calories in food. The research does not make any claims about lowering obesity.
The United States' obesity rate has many factors, and the amount of calories consumed is only one, say the economists.
"We are not looking at health aspects," said Jensen. "Just the consumption of calories from sweetened goods and the disruption to the consumer."
The findings of the study fit generally accepted economic principles that say if you want to change a given behavior or economic decision, you should try to find a policy instrument that is closest to the behavior or decision, according to Beghin.
As part of the study, the two collected data from both government and private sources on industrial food inputs.
"We spent quite a bit of time assembling a data set based on published data on what inputs the food industry uses," said Jensen. "So we know that for all the different food sectors, how much sugar and corn syrup go into that industry group's food processing. You'd be amazed to see how much sweetener goes into food processing."
###
Iowa State University: http://www.iastate.edu
Thanks to Iowa State University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 33 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115684/If_a_fat_tax_is_coming__here_s_how_to_make_it_efficient__effective
chris morris mike stoops mike stoops end of the world end of the world jerome harrison ryan leaf
Sunday, December 4, 2011
S. African chain drops 'last dictator' commercial (AP)
HARARE, Zimbabwe ? A South African fast food and restaurant chain said Thursday it has withdrawn advertising that depicts the aging, authoritarian president of Zimbabwe as "the last dictator standing."
Nando's South Africa said in an announcement it noted with concern "political reaction" in Zimbabwe, including threats against managers, staff and customers at its spicy chicken franchise outlets across the country.
A television commercial shows Robert Mugabe dining alone at Christmas, his empty table set for departed dictators including Moammar Gadhafi.
Nando's says it will no longer air the advertising on South African television, which is beamed by satellite to tens of thousands of Zimbabwean subscribers.
On Tuesday, a militant youth group loyal to Mugabe called for a boycott and other unspecified punitive action against the chain unless the 60-second commercial was dropped and an apology made to Mugabe, 87, who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980.
The announcement said the food chain took the threats seriously.
"We feel strongly that this is the prudent step to take in a volatile climate and believe that no TV commercial is worth risking the safety of Nando's staff and customers." it said.
To the soundtrack of Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days," the commercial shows an actor playing Mugabe reminiscing about his times with former dictators. It portrays him and Gadhafi engaging in a water-pistol fight, with Gadhafi wielding a golden AK-47 water pistol.
The ersatz Mugabe also makes sand angels with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, sings karaoke with Chairman Mao, and holds overthrown Ugandan dictator Idi Amin astride a tank in a scene parodying Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the hit movie "Titanic."
The head of Nando's Zimbabwe franchise said Tuesday it was not informed of the South African television and press campaign, and is independent of them.
Musekiwa Kumbula, corporate affairs director at Innscor Africa, holders of the Nando's franchise in Zimbabwe, said the commercial already widely seen on Zimbabwe websites and shown for the first time on television Wednesday was generated in South Africa for its market and clientele.
The Innscor group "strongly feels the advertisement is insensitive and in poor taste," he said.
It is an offense under Zimbabwe law to insult Mugabe or undermine the authority of his office.
Mugabe once maintained close ties with Gadhafi. But relations became strained over payments for a gasoline deal during acute fuel shortages and shortly before the Libyan leader befriended Western leaders such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom Mugabe harshly criticized for his policies toward Zimbabwe.
Chairman Mao's China helped train Mugabe's guerrillas to end white rule in the former British colony of Rhodesia and Mugabe has been a frequent visitor to China ever since.
Mugabe played host to Saddam Hussein at a world summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1986. And though Mugabe was a sharp critic of apartheid-era South African President P.W. Botha ? depicted in the commercial being pushed on a swing by Mugabe ? apartheid South Africa remained Zimbabwe's biggest trading partner.
Business tycoon Ray Kaukonde, a major stockholder in Innscor and a former provincial governor in Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said the advertising denigrated Mugabe. He called it "a violation of business ethics" and said it was "in total disregard of African values."
Critics, Western governments and rights groups have said Mugabe became increasingly authoritarian and unleashed a decade of violence, vote-rigging and intimidation amid a breakdown of the rule of law after he ordered the seizures of thousands of white-owned farms in 2000.
Human rights activists accuse the militant Mugabe youth group known as Chipangano of forming violent gangs that roam Harare's impoverished townships and seize property from those seen as supporters of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's former opposition party in the nation's fragile 30-month coalition government.
ashram ashram merce cunningham saints tim hightower tim hightower waldorf school
Saturday, December 3, 2011
crossroadsclt: Nimish Bhatt, Jess George, Hendrik van Vuuren & Ellen Dubin head the panel discussion at Many Cultures One Community http://t.co/YQGfcN7f
- Passer la navigation
- Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
- Passer cette ?tape
- Connexion
Nimish Bhatt, Jess George, Hendrik van Vuuren & Ellen Dubin head the panel discussion at Many Cultures One Community fb.me/1aGsYLlVs 
crossroadsclt Crossroads Charlotte
Pied de page
Source: http://twitter.com/crossroadsclt/statuses/143011445431472128
gmail app phentermine port of oakland grand theft auto 5 grand theft auto 5 kris jenner kris jenner
Napster's Seven Lives Are Finished (The Atlantic Wire)
Instead of mourning Napster's last day on this Internet planet, we thought we'd point out Napster's many deaths. Most things get one life, die, get one overly kind eulogy and then stop living, forever. Death is kind of final like that. Not Napster, though. The Internet relic has been dying and living and dying pretty regularly over the last decade. We're just going to make the bad joke: It's no coincidence that it's logo was a cat.
Related: Say Goodbye to Napster's Kitty Logo
First Death: February 2001?After a long drawn out lawsuit, a judge ruled that Napster in its original form was illegal. "Ding, Dong, Napster's Dead" proclaimed the New York Post.
Related: Dave Chapelle's Return to TV; Prada's Shrinking IPO
Second Death: July 2001?But Napster was not yet really, really dead until the court ruled to shut it down in July 2001. Napster, again, was a goner.?
Related: How Much Are Your Used MP3s Worth?
Third Death: September 2002?A year and a half after the original ruling, Napster proclaimed itself extinct, posting the words "Ded Kitty" over its logo. The company, which had declared bankruptcy earlier that year, had what could have been a life-saving sale blocked by a Delaware judge.
Related: The Hits and Misses at Coachella
Fourth Death: May 2003?A more existential death, "Napster" would continue to exist under Roxio. But as a paid service that totally eliminated the peer-to-peer aspect, Napster as we once knew it: Dead.?
Related: Beastie Boys Meet Action Figure Zombies in Spike Jonze Video
Fifth Death: July 2005 ?Death by irrelevance. The Times of India proclaimed the service deceased, as Torrent sharing had replaced the type of MP3 swapping Napster had pioneered.?
Sixth Death: March 2010?After launching a free version of its service (again) in March 2006, that died, after getting shutdown in March 2010.?
Seventh Death: December 1, 2011?As a result of the Rhapsody deal, today Napster will no longer exist on the Internet. At all. And we mourn. But we wouldn't be surprised if it came back two more times.?
grady sizemore grady sizemore samhain great pumpkin charlie brown the strangers all hallows eve all saints day
Friday, December 2, 2011
Hoop Dreams: Riots cast shadow over Games (AP)
LONDON ? Four days of rioting last August has cast a shadow over the neighborhoods where some of the world's top athletes will compete next summer at the 2012 London Games. Some Olympic events will occur only a few miles away from where Britain's worst riots in a generation shook the country.
Both London and the Olympics were irrevocably altered.
And so were the lives of those who live here. Sam Kato, 12, practices with the Newham All Star Sports Academy, an oasis in east London from the crime, gangs and drugs that helped fuel last summer's riots. The program helps keep kids out of trouble and teaches them the value of teamwork.
"It's like a family to me," the 6-foot-1 Kato said as the gym reverberated with basketballs rhythmically hitting the wooden floor. "If there were more programs like this, I doubt there would be riots."
Newham hosts the Olympic Park, center of the 2012 games.
Complex security plans for the Olympics have been altered after the riots, which shocked Britain and damaged London's image abroad. Those plans were also updated after student demonstrations in London that included a spontaneous attack on Prince Charles and wife Camilla and the "Occupy London" encampment near the city's financial district.
The riots exposed the limits of what police could handle in terms of dramatic and unforeseen events. After a weak initial response, thousands of police officers were brought in to help swamp London's streets in a show of force, discouraging further trouble.
The Olympics will already keep 12,000 officers occupied on the busiest days, so any riot repeat will push resources further still.
"(Planners) are learning the lessons from the riots," said Margaret Gilmore, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a respected think tank. "Some demonstrations and protests are almost inevitable and they are likely to take a tougher line and use more officers in dealing with riots."
Fears over street unrest come alongside the biggest Olympic worry: terrorism. Security has been an intricate part of the games since a terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. London has not been immune from terror attacks ? four suicide bombers targeted the city's transit network in 2005, killing 52 commuters.
But the advent of riots was a late addition to the planning mix, which has been under way for years. Even now plans are still being refined.
"What you have to remember is that in the last Olympics people were worried about al-Qaida threats," said Ellis Cashmore, a professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University. "What the riots have done is alert people to the fact that London may not be such a safe city after all."
Tough economic times in Britain mean underlying tensions aren't getting better any time soon. Unemployment this year passed the 1 million mark for young people for the first time since the mid-1980s.
Austerity measures meant to put the country back in the black have cut support for many programs geared at helping young people, and Britain's youth unemployment rate has risen to about 20 percent. Youth workers say the desperation and hopelessness felt by many British teens and young adults is likely to be even worse next summer than this year.
Olympic officials have declared themselves unconcerned about any legacy from the riots. Denis Oswald, head of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for London, told reporters recently that he was in London during the unrest and believed the situation was "quite quickly under control."
Oswald looked at the bright side, noting that many people showed up for impromptu work crews to help hard-hit merchants clean up after the looting.
"I don't think this has put any negative image on London or on the games," he said.
The riots were triggered by the fatal police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan in the working-class London district of Tottenham. Duggan's death, under disputed circumstances, touched off anger, quickly followed by thrown bricks, burning cars and looting. An interim report on the unrest concluded this week that the slow police response to the looting led people to believe they wouldn't get caught.
Between 13,000 and 15,000 people took part in the riots and the report said more than three-quarters were 24 or younger.
But there were 460 notable exceptions ? the members of Newham basketball club. Director Natasha Hart and her coaches quickly organized a training camp to give them somewhere to go for several days.
"No one was involved," she said. "I don't think that's a coincidence."
Newham is one of the poorest areas in Britain, with 25 percent of its households below the poverty line. A primary stopping point for new immigrants, dozens of languages are spoken in its schools. Many immigrants are also transient, fraying any sense of community cohesion.
Kids here worry about gangs, for gang territory is strictly defined. A block or two in any direction can become a no-go zone.
But on the basketball court, everyone is welcome.
Hart, a Russian emigre, is the daughter of an Olympic basketball player and a professional boxer who simply wanted to share her love of basketball with her two sons. The single mother started by organizing pick up games and practices at a local park.
Seven years later, she listens to the hooting and hollering in the sparkling gym at Rokeby school and shakes her head. There are little kids running around, big little kids like Kato refining their moves, teenage girls who dream of playing at American powerhouses like the University of Tennessee, and young men without jobs who just want to play.
The abbreviation of the club's name ? NASSA ? evokes the U.S. space program and its reach for the heavens, something the kids joke about.
"These children, they want to belong to something," Hart said. "I think we deserve it. Don't you?"
__
http://www.nassa2012.org.uk/
michael jackson kids michael jackson kids father of the bride father of the bride bluebeard blue angels weather miami
Strong winds down trees, power lines in Southwest
Los Angeles City firefighters look over a eucalyptus tree that fell on a house and knocked down power lines, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Fierce Santa Ana winds hit Southern California on Wednesday night, causing scattered power outages and property damage, with gusts exceeding 50 mph. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles City firefighters look over a eucalyptus tree that fell on a house and knocked down power lines, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Fierce Santa Ana winds hit Southern California on Wednesday night, causing scattered power outages and property damage, with gusts exceeding 50 mph. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
This NOAA satellite image taken Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 1:00 PM EST shows variable cloud cover over the West. Areas of light snow showers and high winds form in southeastern Idaho and Utah, ahead of cold front extending from the Northern Rockies through northern California. A variety of Wind Advisories and High Win Watches and Warnings remain in effect for parts of California through western Utah. Meanwhile, light to moderate snow showers with periods of heavy snowfall and windy weather conditions occur from Montana through the Northern Plains, ahead of a Canadian cold front dropping down from southern Canada. Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories are in effect for these regions through the evening. Snow accumulations for today are expected to range from 6 to 12 inches above 5,000 feet and 3 to 6 inches at lower elevations in the Northern Rockies. Snow Accumulations in the Northern Plains will range from 1 to 3 inches in the southwest and between 3 and 5 inches in the northwest. (AP Photo/Weather Underground)
A significant wind event will continue across California and the Great Basin, while snow will persist from the central Plains to central Great Basin. A cold front will trigger more snow showers to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Some of the worst Santa Ana winds in years blasted through California, toppling trees and power lines and delaying flights as a low-pressure front threatened bring fierce gusts throughout Southwestern states, authorities said Thursday.
Northern Santa Ana winds sweeping down through canyons created gusts of up to 80 mph through the night, with a 97-mph gust recorded Wednesday night at Whitaker Peak in Los Angeles County. High gusts Thursday morning topped 60 mph.
The National Weather Service issued high wind warnings and wind advisories for parts of California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.
"What's driving this is a large, cold low-pressure system that's currently centered over Needles, Calif. The strong winds are wrapping around it," weather service forecaster Andrew Rorke said.
The system will sit and spin counter-clockwise over the area for the next day, although "it won't be quite as hellacious" as on Wednesday night, Rorke said.
The pressure front will then begin moving cross-country, eventually bringing blustery weather to Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana, he said.
More than 250,000 customers in Southern California were without electricity Thursday morning and about 26,000 more in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. San Francisco was spared any blackouts but thousands elsewhere in the Bay area were in the dark.
In Southern California, 23 flights were diverted and several delayed beginning Wednesday at Los Angeles International airport because of severe crosswinds and debris on runways, officials said.
The winds had died down by Thursday morning but some delays were reported in both arriving and departing flights, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
Northeast of Los Angeles, foothill communities were hard hit as the winds swept down the San Gabriel Mountains.
Residents of Pasadena "are advised to stay home if possible until the wind situation improves because some roads are impassable," a city statement said.
Schools in Pasadena and nearby Arcadia closed their schools because of concerns about power problems and safety.
Trees ? some more than 100 feet tall ? crashed down in the suburbs Wednesday and landed on homes in Pasadena and near Beverly Hills, but no major injuries were reported. Several dozen people in Pasadena were evacuated from an apartment complex when a tree fell on it and smashed the roof.
A gas station in Pasadena was damaged overnight after a tree crashed onto the gas pumps, but an employee shut off the pumps and no fuel leaked.
"We probably have over 100 trees that are down and arcing wires and transformers that have blown," police Lt. Jari Faulkner told the Los Angeles Times.
The winds were colder but fiercer than the Santa Ana winds that often hit California in late fall, but they carried the same ability to dry out brush and push fires into conflagrations.
Los Angeles boosted its fire department staffing because of a red flag warning of high fire danger. Early Thursday morning, crews doused a 2-acre grass fire in a park near Occidental College. Downed power lines sparked the blaze in the midst of 80-mph wind gusts.
In northwestern Los Angeles County, sheriff's deputies rescued two men trapped on a dam spillway near a 200-drop. The men had gone sailing in a 10-foot boat Wednesday but gusting winds kicked up a 5-foot swell and they capsized. They clung to the boat as high winds pushed them to the dam, according to a Sheriff's Department statement.
They were rescued and treated for mild hypothermia, and one man, a former opera singer, was so appreciative that he serenaded the rescuers with "God Bless America," according to the statement.
In Wyoming, the prevailing winds usually come from the west but the storm is bringing winds from the northeast. The weather service said the shift in the winds could result in more damage than winds of the same magnitude from the normal direction.
Associated Pressgabby giffords gabby giffords hunger games trailer hunger games trailer gabrielle giffords austin rivers austin rivers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)