HBT: The final three innings of Game 6 were as exciting as can be. The first eight, well, they were rather iffy. But here we are, after a 10-9 Cardinals victory over the Rangers, a Game 7 left to decide who will be crowned champion.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45068534#45068534
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Public release date: 26-Oct-2011
Share ] Contact: Divya Menon
dmenon@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Uh-oh. Here comes temptationfor a dieter, it's a sweet treat; an alcoholic, a beer; a married man, an attractive, available woman. How to defeat the impulse to gratify desire and stick to your long-term goals of slimness, sobriety, or fidelity?
Here's some advice: Don't stop and think. Thinking may not help.
That is one surprising conclusion of a new study by Loran Nordgren and Eileen Chou at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Nordgren and Chou wanted to make sense of two contradictory bodies of literature. "One shows that the presence of temptation contorts cognition in ways that promotes impulsive behavior," says Nordgren. Another shows that "temptation engages protective [thought] processes that promote self-control. You show a dieter a piece of cake, and an early thought is 'I'm dieting'and 'no thanks.'"
Both stories leave out a crucial factor, he says: the interaction between temptation and "visceral state"hunger, thirst, sexual desire, satiation or cravingwhich "dictates whether the same cognitive processes will be oriented toward impulsive behavior or self-control."
The researchers looked at different cognitive mechanisms, including attention and "motivated valuation"how much we care about something depending on other rewardsto see how temptation affected them. In one experiment, 49 male students in committed relationships watched either an erotic film, putting them in an aroused ("hot" visceral) state; or a filmed fashion show, creating a "cool" state. The experimenters then showed them images of attractive women and observed how long they gazed at them. A week later, the procedure was the same, but the men were told the women were incoming studentsthus, available. This time, the aroused men gazed longer. More temptation promoted less fidelity. The cool-state men did the opposite.
In a second study, some of 53 smokers were instructed to smoke directly before the experiment, while the rest abstained for three hours. Then both the satiated and craving groups rated the pleasure of smoking, showing how much they valued cigarettes. Phase two, same conditions, same questionand a choice: Delay smoking for 40 minutes and earn 3 Euros or smoke immediately and earn nothing. Predictably, the sated smokers more readily delay gratification. But they also rated the pleasure of smoking lower than the first time, whereas the cravers rated it higher. The "cool" group gave themselves reasons to wait; the "hot," to indulge.
What does all this tell us? "If we think of the reason versus passion struggle, we tend to think that cognition serves long-term interests and passion serves immediate gratificationthe angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other," Nordgren explains. "We also think that if you are horny or hungry, your thoughtsthe angelare in the right place, but you give into temptationthe devil.
"This is not accurate, actually. Yes, need or desire abets impulsivity, but it also corrupts the cognitive processes that would help you interrupt that behavior," Nordgren concludes. "When you're craving and being tempted, your rationalization succumbing and so, in a hot state, you have the devil on both shoulders."
###
For more information about this study, please contact: Loran F. Nordgren at L-nordgren@kellogg.northwestern.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The push and pull of temptation: The bi-directional influence of temptation on self-control" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011 Share ] Contact: Divya Menon
dmenon@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Uh-oh. Here comes temptationfor a dieter, it's a sweet treat; an alcoholic, a beer; a married man, an attractive, available woman. How to defeat the impulse to gratify desire and stick to your long-term goals of slimness, sobriety, or fidelity?
Here's some advice: Don't stop and think. Thinking may not help.
That is one surprising conclusion of a new study by Loran Nordgren and Eileen Chou at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Nordgren and Chou wanted to make sense of two contradictory bodies of literature. "One shows that the presence of temptation contorts cognition in ways that promotes impulsive behavior," says Nordgren. Another shows that "temptation engages protective [thought] processes that promote self-control. You show a dieter a piece of cake, and an early thought is 'I'm dieting'and 'no thanks.'"
Both stories leave out a crucial factor, he says: the interaction between temptation and "visceral state"hunger, thirst, sexual desire, satiation or cravingwhich "dictates whether the same cognitive processes will be oriented toward impulsive behavior or self-control."
The researchers looked at different cognitive mechanisms, including attention and "motivated valuation"how much we care about something depending on other rewardsto see how temptation affected them. In one experiment, 49 male students in committed relationships watched either an erotic film, putting them in an aroused ("hot" visceral) state; or a filmed fashion show, creating a "cool" state. The experimenters then showed them images of attractive women and observed how long they gazed at them. A week later, the procedure was the same, but the men were told the women were incoming studentsthus, available. This time, the aroused men gazed longer. More temptation promoted less fidelity. The cool-state men did the opposite.
In a second study, some of 53 smokers were instructed to smoke directly before the experiment, while the rest abstained for three hours. Then both the satiated and craving groups rated the pleasure of smoking, showing how much they valued cigarettes. Phase two, same conditions, same questionand a choice: Delay smoking for 40 minutes and earn 3 Euros or smoke immediately and earn nothing. Predictably, the sated smokers more readily delay gratification. But they also rated the pleasure of smoking lower than the first time, whereas the cravers rated it higher. The "cool" group gave themselves reasons to wait; the "hot," to indulge.
What does all this tell us? "If we think of the reason versus passion struggle, we tend to think that cognition serves long-term interests and passion serves immediate gratificationthe angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other," Nordgren explains. "We also think that if you are horny or hungry, your thoughtsthe angelare in the right place, but you give into temptationthe devil.
"This is not accurate, actually. Yes, need or desire abets impulsivity, but it also corrupts the cognitive processes that would help you interrupt that behavior," Nordgren concludes. "When you're craving and being tempted, your rationalization succumbing and so, in a hot state, you have the devil on both shoulders."
###
For more information about this study, please contact: Loran F. Nordgren at L-nordgren@kellogg.northwestern.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The push and pull of temptation: The bi-directional influence of temptation on self-control" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/afps-wtr102611.php
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An exchange of opinions between a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protests, right, and passersby attracts attention at Zuccotti Park in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in the park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
An exchange of opinions between a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protests, right, and passersby attracts attention at Zuccotti Park in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in the park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
A protester post a sign about the cost of war, reflecting the range of issues found among participants of the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
A protester holds a sign asking for donations for pets at the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Supporters and visitors line up to receive free meals at the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Occupy Wall Street protesters continue to increase their makeshift shelter at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. While some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, organizers say they are receiving and storing heavy duty winter supplies to protest throughout the winter. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? The display of police force in Oakland, Calif., and Atlanta has unnerved some anti-Wall Street protesters.
While demonstrators in other cities have built a working relationship with police and city leaders, they wondered on Wednesday how long the good spirit would last and whether they could be next.
Will they have to face riot gear-clad officers and tear gas that their counterparts in Oakland, Calif. faced on Tuesday? Or will they be handcuffed and hauled away in the middle of the night like protesters in Atlanta?
"Yes, we're afraid. Is this the night they're going to sneak in?" said activist William Buster of Occupy Wall Street, where the movement began last month to protest what they see as corporate greed.
"Is this the night they might use unreasonable force?" he asked.
The message, meanwhile, from officials in cities where other encampments have sprung up was simple: We'll keep working with you. Just respect your neighbors and keep the camps clean and safe.
Business owners and residents have complained in recent weeks about assaults, drunken fights and sanitation problems. Officials are trying to balance their rights and uphold the law while honoring protesters' free speech rights.
"I understand the frustration the protesters feel ... about inequity in our country as well as Wall Street greed," Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said. "I support their right to free speech but we also have rules and laws."
Some cities, such as Providence, R.I., are moving ahead with plans to evict activists. But from Tampa, Fla., to Boston, police and city leaders say they will continue to try to work with protesters to address problems in the camps.
In Oakland, officials initially supported the protests, with Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes "democracy is messy."
But tensions reached a boiling point after a sexual assault, a severe beating and a fire were reported and paramedics were denied access to the camp, according to city officials. They also cited concerns about rats, fire hazards and public urination.
Demonstrators disputed the city's claims, saying that volunteers collect garbage and recycling every six hours, that water is boiled before being used to wash dishes and that rats have long infested the park.
When riot gear-clad police moved in early Tuesday, they were pelted with rocks, bottles and utensils from people in the camp's kitchen area. They emptied the camp near city hall of people, and barricaded the plaza.
Protesters were taken away in plastic handcuffs, most of them arrested on suspicion of illegal lodging.
Demonstrators returned later in the day to march and retake the plaza. They were met by police officers in riot gear. Several small skirmishes broke out and officers cleared the area by firing tear gas.
The scene repeated itself several times just a few blocks away in front of the plaza.
Tensions would build as protesters edged ever closer to the police line and reach a breaking point with a demonstrator hurling a bottle or rock, prompting police to respond with another round of gas.
The chemical haze hung in the air for hours, new blasts clouding the air before the previous fog could dissipate.
The number of protesters diminished with each round of tear gas. Police estimated that there were roughly 1,000 demonstrators at the first clash following the march. Nearly 100 were arrested.
Among demonstrators injured was Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq.
Dottie Guy, of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, a veterans advocacy group, said Olsen was hit by a projectile while marching toward city hall and suffered a fractured skull. A hospital spokesman said Olsen was in critical condition.
Demonstrators planned to try again on Wednesday night to march, and could clash again with police.
In Atlanta, police in riot gear and SWAT teams arrested 53 people in Woodruff Park, many of whom had camped out there for weeks as part of a widespread movement that is protesting the wealth disparity between the rich and everyone else.
Mayor Kasim Reed had been supportive of the protests, twice issuing an executive order allowing them to remain.
Reed said on Wednesday that he had no choice to arrest them because he believed things were headed in a direction that was no longer peaceful. He cited a man seen walking the park with an AK-47 assault rifle.
"There were some who wanted to continue along the peaceful lines, and some who thought that their path should be more radical," Reed said. "As mayor, I couldn't wait for them to finish that debate."
Reed said authorities could not determine whether the rifle was loaded, and were unable to get additional information.
An Associated Press reporter talked to the man with the gun earlier Tuesday.
He wouldn't give his name ? identifying himself only as "Porch," an out-of-work accountant who doesn't agree with the protesters' views ? but said that he was there, armed, because he wanted to protect the rights of people to protest.
People who were arrested trickled out of jail as a crowd of several dozen supporters chanted "freedom" as they left.
"I think Mayor Reed would do well to learn quickly that you cannot intimidate, you cannot threaten, you cannot jail something whose time has come," activist Derrick Boazman said. "The fact of the matter is this movement's time has come."
In Portland, Ore., the protest seems to be at a crossroads. Organizers have been dealing with public drunkenness, fighting and drug abuse for weeks, especially among the homeless who are also in the camp.
Some are floating the idea of relocating it, possibly indoors. Others see that as capitulation.
"I don't know if it would be a good idea. Part of the effectiveness of what's going on here is visibility," protester Justin Neff said. "Though I'd do it if there's a possibility that we'd get seen and noticed. I don't know how that would work indoors."
City officials haven't said what would cause them to forcibly evict the protesters. They said they evaluate the camp daily.
In Baltimore, protesters like Casey McKeel, a member of Occupy Baltimore's legal committee, said he wasn't sure aren't sure what to expect from city officials, noting that some cities have arrested protesters in recent weeks.
"Across the country we're seeing a wide range of reactions," he said. "For now we're hoping the city will work with us."
The mayor, Rawlings-Blake, said she is willing to work with them, but they should realize that they are camping out in a city park and that was not its intended use. She said their free-speech rights don't trump the public's right to enjoy the space.
"I have absolutely no interest in a violent exchange," she said. "We want to work with the protesters, but the point is to talk about inequity and talk about how we can work together to have a more just society or more equitable Baltimore.
"It's not about pitching a tent. It's about getting the work done," she said.
___
Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor in Washington, Sarah Brumfield in Baltimore, Md., Verena Dobnik in New York, Harry R. Weber, Errin Haines and Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Erica Niedowski in Providence, R.I., Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa., Ben Nuckols in Washington, Samantha Gross in New York and Jay Lindsay in Boston contributed to this report.
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ORLANDO, Fla. ? For the second time this month, authorities have charged a father with allowing his 9-year-old child to be a designated driver.
Nathan Walter Sikkenga, 31, of Gillette, Wyo., told troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol in Orlando on Saturday that he and his wife "were under the influence of alcohol" and instructed their son to drive the van, according to an arrest report released Tuesday.
The van crashed into a security gate arm bar. An Orange County Sheriff's deputy who witnessed the crash told responding troopers that a child was behind the wheel and the father was sitting in the front passenger seat, the report states.
Sikkenga was charged with felony child endangerment. No current telephone listing could be found for Sikkenga and it wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney. He was let out on bond and had asked for his lawyer when police read him his Miranda rights. The police report did not indicate why the father was charged and not the mother.
On Oct. 8, police say a Detroit-area man had his 9-year-old daughter drive him to the store because he had been drinking. Surveillance video from a gas station shows him telling a clerk that his daughter was his designated driver.
Brownstown Township, Mich., Detective Lt. Robert Grant said the girl was sitting behind the wheel in a child's booster seat before 3 a.m., when an officer opened the driver's side door of the full-sized panel van her father uses for work. He said she was surprised when police pulled her over.
She said to the officer, "What did you stop me for? I was driving good," Grant told the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.
The girl told police that her father had been drinking whiskey all night and that he had allowed her to drive before. Her parents are separated.
The father, who told officers he was teaching his daughter to drive, was arrested and refused a Breathalyzer test, Grant said. He was charged with second- and fourth-degree child abuse during an Oct. 10 arraignment.
He also was charged with being a habitual offender and could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Horror movie "Paranormal Activity 3" jolted awake a sleepy movie box office with an estimated $80 million in global ticket sales over the weekend.
The third installment of the low-budget haunted house movies topped domestic charts with $54 million from U.S. and Canadian theaters, the highest-grossing domestic debut for a horror film and a record for an October release.
The movie added $26 million from international markets over the weekend, distributor Paramount Pictures said on Sunday.
Like the first two films in the series, "Paranormal 3" was released just before Halloween and produced on a budget tiny by Hollywood standards. The latest movie, the most expensive of the trio, cost $5 million to make.
The film opened with after-midnight showings on Thursday night and easily beat the studio's forecast for a domestic debut of around $35 million. The movie is a prequel about two young sisters and their creepy encounters with an invisible presence in their home, all recorded by surveillance cameras.
A largely positive response from critics helped bring in an older-than-25 crowd in addition to the teenagers and young adults who usually flock to horror flicks, said Don Harris, Paramount's president of domestic distribution.
"This is the best of the series. It was well-reviewed," Harris said, adding that "people like to be scared in a Hitchcock-ian way. This isn't a bloody franchise."
The film's strong performance boosted a sluggish box office that has limped along sharply below last year for several weekends this fall following a record summer. This weekend's top 12 films grossed 45 percent more than last weekend's, although 6 percent less than the same weekend a year ago, according to figures from Hollywood.com Box Office.
Robot boxing movie "Real Steel," the domestic box-office champ the past two weekends, slipped to second place with $11.3 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters. The film, starring Hugh Jackman as a father who bonds with his son as they restore a battle-ready robot, has earned $153.3 million globally through its first three weekends of release.
A remake of 1980s dance classic "Footloose" finished third on the domestic charts with $10.9 million, dropping just 30 percent from its debut weekend and earning a total of $30.9 million to date.
'MUSKETEERS' STRUGGLE
New release "The Three Musketeers," a 3D action version of the classic novel about a sword-fighting trio, finished in fourth place with a weaker-than-expected $8.8 million. Critics were not enthused with the film, with just 28 percent giving a positive review on movie website Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences polled by survey firm CinemaScore gave the film a B rating on average.
Overseas, the movie has grossed $64.4 million for a combined global total standing at $73.2 million.
Comedy "Johnny English Reborn" debuted in the North American market at eighth place with a dismal $3.8 million. But the film starring British "Mr. Bean" actor Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling secret agent has already chalked up success overseas, pulling in $104.5 million in international markets since its release five weeks ago.
Fifth place domestically went to George Clooney's political thriller "The Ides of March," which brought in $4.9 million during its third weekend of release. Clooney has directed, co-written and co-starred in the film about a primary fight between two presidential candidates.
Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released "Paranormal Activity 3" and "Footloose." Summit Entertainment distributed "The Three Musketeers." Walt Disney Co released "Real Steel," which was produced by DreamWorks. "Johnny English Reborn" was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, and Sony Corp unit Columbia Pictures released "The Ides of March."
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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TOKYO (Reuters) ? The European Union is ready to adopt decisive measures to tackle its sovereign debt crisis, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday.
"Member states, including France and Germany, and various EU institutions are ready to take decisive measures," Fillon told reporters after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
EU leaders hold talks Sunday to try to hammer out a comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone debt crisis, but a breakthrough is not expected until another summit on Wednesday.
France hosts the Group of 20 summit early next month and Europe's efforts to contain its debt crisis will be a key issue on the summit's agenda.
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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By Olesya Dmitracova
LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Improving medium-sized firms' access to venture capital and bond markets would help fuel Britain's economic growth, the Confederation of British Industry said on Monday.
Allowing these businesses to grow faster could add 0.1-0.26 percent to Britain's annual rate of economic growth by 2020, the CBI said in a report which touches on a problem that has recently fallen under the political spotlight.
Finance minister George Osborne, focused on cutting a large budget deficit, is under pressure to improve Britain's rate of growth, which was minimal over the past year and is forecast to be very weak in 2012.
With that aim in mind, the government has set targets for banks on lending to businesses, but has since consistently criticised them for not lending enough.
CBI Director-General John Cridland agreed that a lack of finance is a major barrier for British firms with a turnover of between 10 million and 100 million pounds.
'In many ways that's the most critical ingredient...to make sure that the financial support options do help that growth to be achieved,' he told a media briefing held in a smart central London wine bar, part of a chain owned by brewers Adnams which the CBI had identified as a successful medium-sized business.
Medium-sized businesses generate 22 percent of economic revenue and 16 percent of all jobs in Britain, according to the CBI.
As bank lending is constrained, the CBI says it wants the government to help such firms issue bonds backed by public money, encourage venture capital and dilution of ownership, and make it easier for large companies to invest in smaller ones.
As an example of this, the CBI invited Ceres Power, which makes alternative energy devices for use in homes, to the briefing. The firm's commercial director, Bob Flint, said that the company's search for funding led to a deal with Centrica's British Gas, Britain's largest energy supplier, which has invested more than 20 million pounds in the firm.
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova; editing by Ron Askew) Keywords: BRITAIN COMPANIES/FINANCE
(olesya.dmitracova@thomsonreuters.com)(+44 20 7542 8051)(Reuters Messaging: olesya.dmitracova.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)
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WASHINGTON ? Just before an American Airlines plane ran off a Wyoming runway last December, the pilots struggled to engage the brakes and thrust reversers that help slow speed, according to documents released Friday.
None of the 181 people aboard Flight 2253 from Chicago was injured in the incident at the Jackson Hole airport, but the material made public by the National Transportation Safety Board raises questions about the Boeing 757-200's braking system and the pilots' actions.
The pilots had anticipated a rough landing as they approached the airport, according to a cockpit voice recorder transcript and other documents.
Light snow was falling and conditions were icy. On top of that, the airport's runway is short. The pilot of a smaller plane that had just landed told air traffic controllers that the first two-thirds of the runway were fine, but braking was "poor" on the final third.
A few minutes before landing, the American captain told passengers: "We don't try and make a smooth landing here at Jackson Hole. We just put the aircraft on the runway very quickly and firmly and go into full reverse and then use a heavy amount of braking (to) make sure we stop in the first part of the runway. So just be aware of that that's normal procedure for a mountain airport."
As the plane touched down, the pilots struggled several times to engage the thrust. "No reverse ... I can't get it," said the first officer, who was at the controls. They finally succeeded, but by the plane was nearly out of runway.
The captain's call for the brakes to be used was followed by sounds of physical exertion, mechanical clicks and thumps. "All right, I got max brake," he said.
But four seconds later the first officer swore, and then said: "I don't know what the (expletive deleted) is wrong. ... We're screwed."
The plane is then heard thundering off the runway. It came to rest in deep snow 730 feet past the end of the runway.
"Well ... end of our career," the captain said.
But the first officer insisted, "It's not the end. We did everything right. We didn't get the thrust reversers."
The pilots did acknowledge in interviews with investigators that they didn't try to manually engage the plane's speed brakes ? essentially wing panels that pop up ? as American's procedures require under the circumstances.
The safety board is continuing to investigate the Dec. 29 incident. The transcript was released along with more than 300 pages of evidence gathered by investigators, who will try to now figure out what caused to the overrun and make safety recommendations.
Runway overruns are the most common type of airline accident worldwide, according to the Flight Safety Foundation of Alexandria, Va., which promotes global aviation safety. Of the 1,508 aviation accidents between 1995 and 2009, 442, or nearly a third, were runway excursions, the foundation said.
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Tax reform is even more necessary now than it was in 1986. Everyone agrees that the tax system is complex, unfair, and inefficient.
Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, Ronald Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986. It was a beautiful fall day and the signing was on the back lawn of the White House. I was there along with many of the other Treasury staff who worked on the historic legislation, as well as a bus load of tourists from Iowa who were hoping for a White House tour, but had to settle for parts as extras in the stagecraft of official Washington. Because I am really tall (6?6?), one tourist asked me to take a picture of the scene, which she couldn?t see through the crowd. I hope it came out.
Skip to next paragraph TaxVoxThe Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. The Center is made up of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government. TaxVox is the Tax Policy Center's tax and budget policy blog.
I loved tax reform. It lured me away from the sleepy New England college where I was a professor and changed my life. Whether you judge TRA86 a success or a failure, it was a major change to the tax code. It cut top individual income tax rates from 50 to 28% and corporate rates from 46 to 34%. It eliminated a host of loopholes, deductions, and preferences?mostly on the corporate side. It removed poor people from the income tax rolls. It taxed capital gains the same as ordinary income, eliminating the single biggest driver of individual income tax shelters and making it possible to slash top tax rates while maintaining the progressivity of the income tax.
And it was fun. Treasury and Hill staff who worked on tax reform worked incredibly long hours crafting and recrafting provisions as the bill evolved through its many permutations. It was thrilling. Even though almost nobody actually thought it would become law, imagining a complete rewrite of the tax code is about as much fun as a tax geek can have. We were rewriting the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. Exciting!
But there was little reason for optimism until late in the process. The first version that passed the House wasn?t much of a reform. Compared with the pristine blueprint that Treasury produced for the President in 1984, the House bill had restored most of the loopholes and didn?t cut rates much. The Congressional leadership didn?t look promising. Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski was an old school Chicago pol. (Later, he?d go to jail for embezzling postage stamps.) Senate Finance Chairman Bob Packwood used to have weekly meetings with his big donors where they?d tell him about their desires?none of which involved paring loopholes and deductions. (Packwood eventually retired in disgrace after several female staffers recounted his improper advances.) But at some point, these sleazy pols decided that reform was good politics. Ronald Reagan?s style of benign neglect turned out to be perfect for tax reform. He?d be AWOL for months, and then show up at a key point to make a great speech or do some arm-twisting. A junior senator from New Jersey, known more for his jump shot than his legislative prowess, turned out to be a master tactician and strategist. Bill Bradley, who later proved to be a lousy politician on the national stage when he ran for president, had unsurpassed skills in the back rooms and ante chambers of Congress.
Somehow, after multiple near-death experiences, the Tax Reform Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both Houses of Congress and was signed by the president on that beautiful fall day. I stayed in Washington, made some amazing friends, got to work on Health Reform I at CBO in 1994, returned to the Treasury to head up the office where I?d been a staffer during tax reform, started the Tax Policy Center, and eventually returned to academia to hold a chair in memory of one of my legislative heroes, Pat Moynihan (who was a senior Democrat on Senate Finance during tax reform). I?m pretty sure none of that would have happened without tax reform as I?d never have come to Washington in the first place. So I have just warm feelings about the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
And it?s easy to get excited about the possibility of a Tax Reform Act of 2014. Tax reform is even more necessary now than it was in 1986. Everyone agrees that the tax system is complex, unfair, and inefficient. And it doesn?t come close to raising enough revenue to pay for the government, whose needs will only grow as the baby boomers retire and health care costs continue to rise. There are lots of tax reform plans out there, including the ones produced by theBipartisan Policy Center (my favorite since I helped write it), the Bowles-Simpson panel, and an excellent report commissioned by President Bush. There?s even an action-forcing event in 2012 when the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire. Rather than extending what everyone agrees is a deeply dysfunctional tax code, why not remake it to meet the needs of 21st century America?
Cue the patriotic music.
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Nevada Republicans are a battered bunch.
Low on cash and plagued by infighting, the state GOP is engaged in a presidential calendar staring contest with New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner ? a contest it seems destined to lose.
Continue ReadingOn Saturday, the state GOP central committee will vote at a Las Vegas casino on whether to move the caucuses off its Jan. 14 date ? and also to determine the fate of their embattled chairwoman.
While the assumption among party elders in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., is that the party will move its caucuses to Feb. 4 to assuage New Hampshire ? as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus urged in a Thursday night letter ? each side stressed that no deal is in place.
Priebus offered nothing tangible to state GOP leaders when he visited Las Vegas this week for the debate and the Western Republican Leadership Conference, beyond a vague assurance the state can maintain its early status in 2016.
Of course, they were promised that this cycle, too.
Here is POLITICO?s guide to understanding what forces are at work in Saturday?s vote:
Cash
One reason the RNC has the sway that it does over the state party is that Nevada Republicans need the national money. State Democrats outraised them by a more than 4-1 clip in 2010, according to state campaign finance disclosure reports.
Priebus this week made the case to Nevada GOP leaders that the party can do better for itself financially and exert more influence on the process ? not to mention keep all its convention delegates ? if it moves to February.
Republican National Committeeman and former Gov. Bob List told POLITICO this week that, while he shared breakfast with Priebus, no deal was offered.
Asked if the RNC would be helping the state party raise money, List said: ?We certainly hope and expect that that will happen, but not in the context of this flap with New Hampshire. Nevada of course is a key state in the presidential election. I chair the budget committee for the RNC. I?m on executive committee there. We?re going to put money into states all across America, including Nevada.?
The cash component is no small matter.
When the executive committee, besieged with angry donors and grass-roots activists demanding to keep the third spot in line, it caved and went with the Jan. 14 date ? a date which state GOP chairwoman Amy Tarkanian openly disagreed with but was forced to defend. Then she found herself in a stare down with Gardner and is being forced to cave again. None of this is good for fundraising for a cash-poor state party.
Mitt Romney?s angle
Thinking it would win both contests and build early momentum, the Romney campaign originally wanted Nevada?s caucuses to follow the New Hampshire primary.
?Romney?s people were pushing for us to move into January so that he could get some momentum and have a rising tide going into Florida,? List told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this month.
But once Gardner began playing hardball with Nevada, threatening to move his state?s primary into December if there was not one week between Jan. 10, his preferred date, and Jan. 14, a new picture emerged.
In the new, less-advantageous-to-Romney scenario, New Hampshire would vote in December, before the Iowa caucuses, which would then be followed by Nevada.
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In a letter to the journal Nature published this week, astronomers Aaron Geller and Robert Mathieu offer an explanation for the origin of blue straggler stars in a star cluster called NGC 188. Geller suggests the stars fed on neighbor stars, leaving behind white dwarfs.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/21/141591183/did-giant-stars-feed-blue-stragglers?ft=1&f=1007
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Carson Palmer and the Cincinnati Bengals were in a stalemate with Palmer refusing to play and the Bengals refusing to trade him, until Cincinnati was offered a first round pick in 2012 and second round pick in 2013.
The Oakland Raiders acquired disgruntled quarterback Carson Palmer from the Cincinnati Bengals for a pair of draft picks, the two National Football League (NFL) teams said on Tuesday.
Skip to next paragraphPalmer, who had demanded a trade out of Cincinnati saying he would retire before suiting up again for the Bengals, made good on his threat and did not report to training camp.
The Bengals had refused to give into Palmer's demand until Tuesday when they were unable to turn down a first round pick in the 2012 NFL draft and a second round pick in 2013.
In place of Palmer, rookie quarterback Andy Dalton has gone 118 of 189 for 1,311 yards and seven touchdowns in his first five NFL games.
"Several factors made us believe that trading Carson to Oakland was the best move for the Bengals at this time," Bengals president Mike Brown said in a statement.
"The principal development has been Andy Dalton, who has shown himself to be one of the best and most exciting young quarterbacks in the NFL. We have a good, young football team, and Andy can be the cornerstone of that team for a long time."
The teams confirmed the deal shortly after the NFL's 4 p.m. (2000 GMT) Tuesday trade deadline.
Despite no playing time this season, Palmer is expected to step right into the starting job in Oakland after number one quarterback Jason Campbell suffered a broken collarbone during Sunday's win over the Cleveland Browns.
Taken by the Bengals with the first overall selection in the 2003 draft, Palmer spent his entire career in Cincinnati posting a record of 46-51 as starter while passing for 22,694 yards and 154 touchdowns, including a career best 32 in 2005.
The Raiders (4-2), winners of two straight, are in second place in the AFC West division while the Bengals (4-2), winners of three straight, are second in the AFC North.
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LONDON ? British police in riot gear on Wednesday used sledgehammers to clear the way for the eviction of a community of Irish Travelers from a site where they have lived illegally for more than a decade.
A large force of police and bailiffs faced resistance from residents and supporters who threw objects or struggled with officers at the Dale Farm site, 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of London. One mobile home was set on fire as police moved in and several protesters chained themselves to barricades with bicycle locks in a bid to slow down the evictions.
Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and one person arrested and that police officers had been attacked with rocks and other missiles as they tried to enter the site.
The conflict over the settlement has simmered since 2001, when Travelers bought and settled on a former scrap yard next to a legal Travelers' site.
The local authority says it's a simple planning issue ? the 86 families lack permission to pitch homes on the land. The Travelers, a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy or Roma people, call it ethnic cleansing ? the latest chapter in a centuries-old story of mistrust between nomads and British society.
"We are being dragged out of the only homes we have in this world," said Kathleen McCarthy, a Dale Farm resident. "We will do our best to stay but it looks like we have no hope."
Lily Hayes, who identified herself as a human rights observer, accused the police of using unnecessary force. Authorities said the violence was coming from the Travelers and their supporters.
"The premeditated and organized scenes of violence that we have already seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police with iron bars and setting fire to a caravan are shocking," said Tony Ball, leader of Basildon Council, the local authority.
"These are utterly disgraceful scenes and demonstrate the fact some so-called supporters were always intent on violence," Ball said.
There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 30,000 Irish Travelers in Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic minority by the government.
The legal battle over Dale Farm dragged on for years, through eviction orders and last-minute reprieves, until the Travelers lost a final appeal last week.
Traveler evictions are common across Britain, but few are as high-profile as Dale Farm. Oscar-winning actress and political activist Vanessa Redgrave came to the community's support, and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged authorities to find "a peaceful and appropriate solution" to the crisis.
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New York ? Hackers found that Siri ? Apple's new voice-controlled personal assistant ? works on the old iPhone 4, which doesn't mean it'll be available
Some have hailed Siri, Apple's new voice-controlled personal assistant, as a "life changer," but, sadly, the existence-altering feature is only available on the new iPhone 4S. At 9 to 5 Mac, developer Steven Troughton-Smith was able to hack an old iPhone 4 and get Siri to work on it, showing that older iPhones are indeed capable of running Siri. Why then is Apple limiting Siri to the new iPhone? Here, three reasons:
1. Apple wants it to be exclusive
"The first, and most obvious" reason to limit Siri to the iPhone 4S "is that Apple wants to save its 'killer feature' for its latest hardware, giving consumers more of an incentive to upgrade to a device instead of sticking with what they have," says David Murphy at PC Mag.
2. And, to be honest, it's the only exciting thing about the iPhone 4S
"If it hadn't been for Siri, would the iPhone 4S be yet another upgrade and something that most users would pass on?" asks Joel Evans at ZD Net. The new iPhone is faster and has a better camera, but it's not as thrilling as previous new iPhones. "One really cool thing about the 4S, though, is its implementation of Siri."
3. It won't run perfectly
It's also quite possible that Siri won't work as well on the iPhone 4 as it does on the 4S, says Murphy. "Even the slightest hint of performance differences between the iPhone 4 Siri and the iPhone 4S Siri could be enough to eliminate the iPhone 4 from consideration," especially given how fastidious Apple is.
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Medicare has begun publishing patient safety ratings for thousands of hospitals as the first step toward paying less to institutions with high rates of surgical complications, infections, mishaps and potentially avoidable deaths.
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The new data, available on Medicare?s Hospital Compare website, evaluate hospitals on how often their patients suffer complications such as a collapsed lung, a blood clot after surgery or an accidental cut or tear during treatment. The measures also include specific death rates for patients who had breathing problems after surgery, had an operation to repair a weakness in the abdominal aorta or had a treatable complication after an operation.
In addition, Hospital Compare is evaluating rates of some specific medical errors, such as giving patients the wrong type of blood, leaving surgical implements in patients? bodies during surgery and falls that occur during their stay.
The evaluations are part of Medicare?s broad move from paying hospitals a set amount for each procedure. That change was directed by last year?s health care law, which set up new ?value-based purchasing program? that will begin in October 2012. Over time, hospitals with the lowest quality?as judged by a variety of metrics, not just the new patient safety measures?will be at risk to lose up to 2 percent of their regular Medicare reimbursements under the health law.
How to check your hospital
To find find out how hospitals in your area compare to the national average, go to the website http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/, type in the city and state, click on the hospital name and then select the ?Patient Safety Measures? tab at the left. Hospital Compare also gives patients the option of choosing several hospitals at once. The new data covers the period between October 2008 and June 2010.
The new data on patient safety moves Medicare further along toward its ultimate goal, which is to base payments on the actual medical outcomes for patients. To rate hospitals, Medicare is comparing them to the national rates for medical complications and hospital acquired conditions. For instance, on average, 2.1 out of every 1,000 patients discharged suffered an accidental cut and tear from medical treatment. Out of 100 patients, 4.4 on average died after surgery to repair a weakness in their abdominal aorta.
By looking at how a hospital compares to the national average on this and other complication statistics, Medicare has come up with overall evaluations of how good hospitals are at avoiding complications and hospital-acquired conditions. Medicare is aiming to incorporate the new patient safety data into payments in the second year of the program.
Making this information public has been long favored by patient safety advocates. ?This is pulling the curtain back on preventable health care harm to older Americans,? said Rosemary Gibson, co-author of ?The Treatment Trap? and editor of a series of articles on overtreatment in the Archives of Internal Medicine. ?These are really good things to know. We are really getting into the meat of what can happen to patients in hospitals.?
But the latest data is intensifying objections from the hospital industry and some academic researchers that Medicare is using dubious and unfair measurements in ways that will hurt some hospitals, particularly those with sicker patients. The data is based on billing claims that hospitals submit to the government, not clinical medical records. One concern held by hospitals and researchers is that hospitals categorize the same things differently when billing Medicare, skewing comparisons.
?Medicare claims data is the thing a lot of people judge from, but it?s a large database and frankly I?ve always wondered if apples and oranges are being mixed,? said Dr. Gerald Healy, a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Massachusetts nonprofit, and past president of the American College of Surgeons.
Hospital officials said their initial review of the new data has exacerbated their concerns that Medicare?s calculations do not fully take into account the fact that some hospitals do more surgeries or treat sicker patients.
?We believe the data is fairly seriously flawed in the way it?s calculated,? said Nancy Foster, a vice president at the American Hospital Association. ?When inaccurate data is out there, it both misleads the public and generates a lot of activity that is unproductive in the hospital.?
Atul Grover, head of advocacy for the Association of American Medical Colleges that represents teaching hospitals, said some of Medicare?s measures also make teaching hospitals look worse. ?If you?re not appropriately risk-adjusting on this, you?re already selecting a patient population that?s more likely to die,? he said. ?That?s why they come to us, because other people are reluctant to operate on those complex cases.?
Officials at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which designed many of the measures, referred questions to Medicare. Officials there were not immediately available to discuss the new measures. Dr. Patrick Romano, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine who helped the government design the measures, said the measures do take the sickness levels of patients into account, although not as thoroughly as Hospital Compare?s existing evaluations of readmissions and hospital-wide mortality rates.
Still, he said the measures were a good addition to the overall view of how well hospitals are doing. ?We?re trying to understand a large animal like an elephant or a whale,? he said. ?To do that, we take pictures from a variety of perspectives, with different cameras and different techniques.?
Hospital Compare was originally designed to be a helpful consumer tool, but to date it has not been widely used by patients choosing hospitals. Experts caution about drawing dire conclusions from the raw rates of hospitals, as some of the measures are complex and differences not statistically significant. For some of the measures, Hospital Compare categorizes most hospitals simply as ?average,? ?above? or ?below? the national norm, which experts say is a better way for consumers to know whether a hospital is an outlier.
Medicare last week announced 18 more measures it is considering for inclusion in the value-based purchasing program. Many of these measures look at how hospitals handle stroke patients and what steps they take to protect patients from blood clots. Others are intended to address two bacterial infections that can spread through hospitals: Clostridium difficile and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
? 2011 This information was reprinted with permission from KHN. KHN is an editorially independent news service and a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy organization that isn?t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44909622/ns/health-health_care/
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WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama says he's going to travel the country telling lawmakers to do their jobs and vote in favor of his economic proposals, and he says congressional Republicans should stop picking partisan fights and act.
Coming off a week when his nearly $450 billion jobs bill died in the Senate, Obama made no reference to that failure, instead promising to renew efforts to get Republicans to vote on individual components of the legislation.
"Next week, I'm urging members of Congress to vote on putting hundreds of thousands of teachers back in the classroom, cops back on the streets and firefighters back on the job," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday.
"And if they vote `no' on that, they'll have to tell you why," he said. "They'll have to tell you why teachers in your community don't deserve a paycheck again. They'll have to tell your kids why they don't deserve to have their teacher back. They'll have to tell you why they're against common-sense proposals that would help families and strengthen our communities right now."
Obama recorded the weekly address from the Detroit area, where he traveled Friday with the president of South Korea to highlight congressional passage of a free-trade agreement with South Korea as well as pacts with Colombia and Panama.
Obama praised Congress' rare bipartisan action on the trade deals but said lawmakers needed to do more. In the Senate earlier in the week, Republicans who object to higher taxes on the wealthy and spending proposals blocked his jobs bill, but now Obama and Senate Democratic leaders plan to break the measure into pieces and try to pass it that way ? or blame the GOP for standing in the way.
The bill includes extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits as well as spending on public works projects and help for local governments to keep teachers and other public workers on the job.
"There's still time to create jobs and grow our economy right now. There's still time for Congress to do the right thing," said Obama, who is embarking on a three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia on Monday to promote his jobs plans in two politically important states, keeping up a campaign-style push for the measure as the 2012 presidential election gains steam.
Republicans used their weekly address to criticize Obama's proposals while saying that they want to work with the president to create jobs, just without "more Washington spending and taxes."
"The president needs to get off the sidelines and get involved," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "The president needs to come off the campaign trail and get to work."
He said the president should support legislation passed by the Republican-led House, including bills to roll back regulations.
"In the spirit of working together on jobs, I urge the president to call on leaders in his party to follow the House, listen to the American people, stop pushing ideas we know won't work and pass these jobs bills," McCarthy said.
And according to McCarthy it's Obama ? not the GOP ? playing partisan games.
"Americans deserve progress, not partisanship," McCarthy said. "Americans deserve a long-term solution to our nation's spending problem so that we don't run up trillion-dollar annual deficits."
___
Online:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference
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KABUL (Reuters) ? The man who killed the influential half brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai three months ago carried out the attack for personal reasons and was not a Taliban fighter, a senior NATO official said Saturday.
Investigations following the death of Ahmad Wali Karzai at his Kandahar home in July showed that the employee who killed him had learned he would be disciplined for misconduct and shot Karzai to avoid being publicly shamed, the official said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, as part of a string of high-profile assassinations in recent months that underlined their reach even as a surge of foreign troops made gains in their southern heartlands.
Other victims have included former president and government peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, a top police commander for the north, and the governor of Kunduz province. The NATO official did not question the Taliban's role in these other killings.
"It was a murder, not an assassination," the NATO official said of Karzai's killing, in a briefing to unveil NATO statistics showing a fall in Taliban attacks. "It wasn't politically motivated and it wasn't an insurgent masterstroke."
The NATO official said the killer, a guard force commander who ran checkpoints in the Kandahar area, had been reported to Karzai for his alleged mistreatment of local people.
INFILTRATION CLAIMS QUESTIONED
The official also played down Taliban claims that insurgent fighters and sympathizers were behind attacks by Afghan police or soldiers on foreign troops mentoring or working with them, that have killed dozens in recent years.
"This is a gun culture, we've studied infiltrations and in the majority of cases there are no Taliban ties ... insurgents will always claim every attack," the official said.
In the majority of "rogue" attacks, the gunmen were suffering from stress due to personal problems and had no connection with the Taliban.
Some insurgents acquired police or army uniforms to evade security when targeting Afghans and foreigners, but were not actually members of the security forces, he added.
Over the first nine months of the year, insurgent attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) rose 6 percent compared with the same period of 2010, but the overall number of attacks by insurgents fell around 8 percent over the same period, the official said.
ISAF intelligence suggested they had switched to using roadside bombs to avoid losses on the battlefield and were fully aware that more civilian casualties would be incurred.
Many insurgents were unable to pull off most of the attacks their leaders had called for, the official added.
"There's a disconnect between what they said they wanted to do and what they were actually able to do," he said. He conceded however that the Taliban was a "adaptable and resilient" and gains made by coalition forces could easily be undone.
"This is progress, it's real progress, but I still classify it as fragile," he said. "If we don't continue the pressure, it will be reversible and durability will be in question."
Data compiled by the United Nations, however, showed a sharp rise in security incidents and higher numbers of civilian casualties over the first eight months of the year.
(Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Myra MacDonald)
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