Ben Affleck takes Seraphina grocery shopping! Plus, see more photos of celebs spending time with their loved ones!
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Thursday, November 8, 2012
State voters make history on gay marriage
By Allison Linn, NBC News
?
Voters in Maryland and Maine on Tuesday approved measures to allow same-sex marriage, the first time gay marriage has been approved by statewide popular votes.
In all, voters in four states ? Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota? - considered ballot measures Tuesday on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Minnesota voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent, NBC News projected Wednesday morning. In Washington, the vote was still too close to call; however with just over half of the vote counted, the same-sex referendum was leading 52 to 48 percent,?according to NBC?s electoral map.
Proponents of same-sex marriage celebrating their first popular vote victories.
?Tonight we?ve taken the talking point away that marriage equality cannot win at the ballot box,? said Fred Sainz, vice president of communications with the Human Rights Campaign, which invested millions of dollars in same-sex marriage initiatives.
Sainz gave some of the?credit for the victory to President Barack Obama?s support for same-sex marriage.
The president said that his decision was informed by speaking with Americans including servicemen and women he met during the work to end Don?t Ask Don?t Tell.
Obama?s challenger, Mitt Romney, had said that he would support and champion legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Sainz said he thought Americans have become more understanding of why gay and lesbian couples want to marry.
?The hearts and minds of the American public have changed,? he said. ?For years now we?ve been having a long extended conversation and connecting with them about how marriage equality is about love, family and commitment, which are common human factors."
Opponents of same-sex marriage dismissed that argument, however. Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, noted that dozens of states have passed laws in recent years defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
He called states like Maryland ?the most liberal of liberal states? and not a proxy for the general population.
?For the gay marriage groups to win in the most liberal states is not a tipping point at all,? Brown said.
The measures came as Americans appear to be growing more comfortable with the idea of gay marriage.
A?Pew Research Center?poll this summer found that 48 percent of Americans favor same-sex marriage, up from 31 percent in 2004.
Democrats were the strongest proponents, with 65 percent favoring same-sex marriage in the Pew survey. Only 24 percent of Republicans favor gay marriage, while 51 percent of independents favor it.
Although these are the first statewide voting victories for gay marriage, gay marriage has been legalized in some states through legislative or court action. Those include Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and the District of Columbia, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
More than 30 states, including Arizona, Colorado and Texas, have laws or constitutional provisions defining marriage as between a man and a woman, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
Here?s a look at the four states that voted on the issue in this election.
Maine:?This was the second time voters in Maine were faced with a decision over same-sex marriage.?A bill allowing same-sex marriage was passed by the state legislature in 2006, but voters overturned it in 2009.
Maryland:?In Maryland, voters were asked to uphold a law allowing same-sex marriage that the governor signed into law last March.
Minnesota:?In Minnesota, voters were asked whether the state constitution should explicitly define marriage as between one man and one woman. Gay marriage is already banned under state law; writing the ban into to the constitution, proponents argued, would have protected the amendment from being overturned in the future.
Washington:?In Washington state, the legislature approved same-sex marriage earlier this year, and the law was scheduled to take effect in June. But opponents of the law were able to get a referendum on the ballot asking voters if they want to uphold the law.
?
More election coverage from NBCNews.com:
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Houston, we have a problem: firsthand account presented at UH
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Public release date: 7-Nov-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lisa Merkl
lkmerkl@uh.edu
713-743-8192
University of Houston
Famed Apollo 13 mission recounted in lecture by former NASA flight controller
HOUSTON, Nov. 7, 2012 Hear what it was like to be on the front lines in NASA's Mission Control when a monster failure occurred during the Apollo 13 mission to the moon. Former flight controller Sy Liebergot will offer insight on what he calls the "longest hour" of his career in a lecture at the University of Houston (UH) Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Liebergot will share his reactions, NASA footage and details of the explosion and heroic efforts to bring the crew safely back to Earth. He'll also discuss the Apollo 13 movie's accuracy and how he assisted actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard. The event is free and open to the public.
As a NASA Electrical, Environmental and Consumables (EECOM) Flight Controller in Mission Control, Liebergot's professional engineering career spanned the entire Apollo Lunar Program, Skylab, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, early Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. He describes his years with the Apollo program as the "journey of a lifetime" and chronicles those experiences and others in his autobiography titled "Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime." As part of the heroic Apollo 13 operations team, Liebergot was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sponsored by the Houston Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (H-LSAMP) and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the lecture is a Rare Cougar Card event. Under the leadership of chemistry professor Simon Bott, the Cougar Trading Card program offers students trading cards of noteworthy individuals at various activities on campus. Meant to engage students in the full university experience, Bott's trading cards are part of a student retention program encouraging students to expand their horizons by attending on-campus events. As students collect the cards and attend more events, they are rewarded with increasingly valuable prizes, including a $1,000 scholarship and drawings for graduation rings, free flights, dining hall vouchers and signed footballs.
H-LSAMP is a federally funded program between UH and local schools with the goal of recruiting and funding minority students who choose to major in one of the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Since H-LSAMP began more than a decade ago, the number of minority undergraduates receiving science or engineering degrees from UH has risen 50 percent.
For more information on Liebergot, visit http://www.apolloeecom.com/.
WHO:
Sy Liebergot, former NASA Flight Controller
WHAT:
Lecture: "Apollo 13: The Longest Hour"
WHEN:
7 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 13
WHERE:
University of Houston
Science & Engineering Classroom Building (SEC), room 100
Off Cullen Boulevard, Entrance 14
Map: http://www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/SEC.php
###
To receive UH science news via e-mail, sign up for UH-SciNews at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/mailing-lists/sciencelistserv/index.php.
For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/.
For additional news alerts about UH, follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UHNewsEvents and Twitter at http://twitter.com/UH_News.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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: 7-Nov-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lisa Merkl
lkmerkl@uh.edu
713-743-8192
University of Houston
Famed Apollo 13 mission recounted in lecture by former NASA flight controller
HOUSTON, Nov. 7, 2012 Hear what it was like to be on the front lines in NASA's Mission Control when a monster failure occurred during the Apollo 13 mission to the moon. Former flight controller Sy Liebergot will offer insight on what he calls the "longest hour" of his career in a lecture at the University of Houston (UH) Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Liebergot will share his reactions, NASA footage and details of the explosion and heroic efforts to bring the crew safely back to Earth. He'll also discuss the Apollo 13 movie's accuracy and how he assisted actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard. The event is free and open to the public.
As a NASA Electrical, Environmental and Consumables (EECOM) Flight Controller in Mission Control, Liebergot's professional engineering career spanned the entire Apollo Lunar Program, Skylab, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, early Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. He describes his years with the Apollo program as the "journey of a lifetime" and chronicles those experiences and others in his autobiography titled "Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime." As part of the heroic Apollo 13 operations team, Liebergot was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sponsored by the Houston Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (H-LSAMP) and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the lecture is a Rare Cougar Card event. Under the leadership of chemistry professor Simon Bott, the Cougar Trading Card program offers students trading cards of noteworthy individuals at various activities on campus. Meant to engage students in the full university experience, Bott's trading cards are part of a student retention program encouraging students to expand their horizons by attending on-campus events. As students collect the cards and attend more events, they are rewarded with increasingly valuable prizes, including a $1,000 scholarship and drawings for graduation rings, free flights, dining hall vouchers and signed footballs.
H-LSAMP is a federally funded program between UH and local schools with the goal of recruiting and funding minority students who choose to major in one of the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Since H-LSAMP began more than a decade ago, the number of minority undergraduates receiving science or engineering degrees from UH has risen 50 percent.
For more information on Liebergot, visit http://www.apolloeecom.com/.
WHO:
Sy Liebergot, former NASA Flight Controller
WHAT:
Lecture: "Apollo 13: The Longest Hour"
WHEN:
7 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 13
WHERE:
University of Houston
Science & Engineering Classroom Building (SEC), room 100
Off Cullen Boulevard, Entrance 14
Map: http://www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/SEC.php
###
To receive UH science news via e-mail, sign up for UH-SciNews at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/mailing-lists/sciencelistserv/index.php.
For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/.
For additional news alerts about UH, follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UHNewsEvents and Twitter at http://twitter.com/UH_News.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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/2012-11/uoh-hwh110712.php
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No link found between calcium intake and coronary artery calcification
ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) ? Researchers at the Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) at Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS), have published a study that shows no evidence of a link between calcium intake and coronary artery calcification, reassuring adults who take calcium supplements for bone health that the supplements do not appear to result in the development of calcification of blood vessels.
The paper, published November 7 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that study participants who had the highest calcium intake, from diet or supplements or both, had the same coronary artery calcification score as those who had the lowest calcium intake. The coronary artery calcification score represents the severity of calcified plaque clogging the arteries in the heart and is an independent predictor of heart attack.
"This study addresses a critical question about the association between calcium intake and a clinically measurable indicator of atherosclerosis in older adults," said Elizabeth (Lisa) Samelson, Ph.D., associate scientist at IFAR and an assistant professor at HMS and the lead author of the study. "There was no increased risk of calcified arteries with higher amounts of calcium intake from food or supplements."
The November 7 article reported on an observational, prospective study using participants from the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running medical study in history. The investigators examined 1,300 participants, both men and women with an average age of 60, who were asked about their diet and supplement use and then underwent CT scans of their coronary arteries four years later.
In recent years, reports have raised concern regarding a potential adverse effect of calcium supplements on risk of heart attack. However, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that evidence from clinical trials does not support an adverse effect of calcium intake on risk of cardiovascular disease. They recommended the following guidelines for calcium intake considered safe and effective for bone health: 1,200 mg per day of calcium for women over 50 and men over 70 and 1,000 mg per day for men between 50 and 70. The guidelines say supplementation can be used if the minimum requirements are not being met through diet.
This paper reassures people who take calcium at levels within the recommended guidelines for bone health that they can continue to do so safely, without worrying about the risk of calcifying their arteries, according to Samelson. However, "it is critically important that each individual discuss with a health care provider whether the recommendations are appropriate given his or her personal medical history."
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Elizabeth J Samelson, Sarah L Booth, Caroline S Fox, Katherine L Tucker, Thomas J Wang, Udo Hoffmann, L Adrienne Cupples, Christopher J O'Donnell, and Douglas P Kiel. Calcium intake is not associated with increased coronary artery calcification: the Framingham Study. Am J Clin Nutr, 2012 DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.112.044230
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/oyS1bStJn-M/121107145931.htm
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Saturday, November 3, 2012
Athletics, suspended Colon agree on 1-year deal
Associated Press Sports
updated 4:27 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2012
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Suspended pitcher Bartolo Colon is getting a second chance with the Oakland Athletics, agreeing to terms on a one-year contract.
The AL West champions made the announcement Saturday. The 39-year-old Colon was suspended for 50 games on Aug. 22 after testing positive for testosterone. The ban will run five games into the 2013 season.
The former Cy Young winner went 10-9 with a 3.43 ERA in 24 starts for Oakland last season, his 15th in the majors.
Oakland could have a spot at the back end of its rotation after lefty Dallas Braden chose free agency rather than accept a minor league assignment. The status of Brandon McCarthy is unclear after he was hit in the head by a line drive last month and needed brain surgery.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsRivera 'wants to play' in '13
HBT: Mariano Rivera?contacts Yankees GM Brian Cashman and?makes it clear he's not ready to retire after his ACL injury.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/49676434/ns/sports-baseball/
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Hyundai, Kia overstated gas mileage, EPA finds
In this Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, photo, a Hyundai Elantra is seen inside of a Hyundai car dealership in Des Planines, Ill. Major automakers are reporting Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, that sales increased for October despite losing three days of business to the punishing rain and wind from superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
In this Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, photo, a Hyundai Elantra is seen inside of a Hyundai car dealership in Des Planines, Ill. Major automakers are reporting Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, that sales increased for October despite losing three days of business to the punishing rain and wind from superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
DETROIT (AP) ? Hyundai and Kia overstated the gas mileage on 900,000 vehicles in the past three years, a discovery that could result in sanctions from the U.S. government and millions of dollars in payments to car owners.
The inflated figures were uncovered by the Environmental Protection Agency in an audit of gas mileage tests by the two South Korean automakers. The agency, which monitors fuel economy, said Friday that it's investigating how the companies came up with their numbers.
The EPA found inflated gas mileage on 13 models from the 2011 through 2013 model years, including Hyundai's Elantra and Tucson, and Kia's Sportage and Rio. The window sticker mileages were overstated on about one-third of the cars sold by the companies during the three years.
As a result, Hyundai and Kia will have to knock one or two miles per gallon off the vehicle stickers of most of their models. Some models will lose three or four miles per gallon. The Kia Soul, a funky-looking boxy small SUV, will lose six from its highway figure, lowering it from 34 mpg to 28 mpg.
"Consumers rely on the window sticker to help make informed choices about the cars they buy," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator of the EPA's air-quality office. "EPA's investigation will help protect consumers and ensure a level playing field among automakers."
The agency would not comment when asked if the companies will be fined or if a criminal investigation is under way. Hyundai and Kia are owned by the same company and share factories and research, but they sell different vehicles and market them separately.
The reduced mileage figures are a black eye for the companies, which have seen explosive sales growth in the U.S. partly because of advertising campaigns that touted gas mileage. Hyundai even poked fun at competitors who promoted special high-mileage versions of their cars, claiming that its cars had high mileage across the model lineup.
The EPA said it's the first case in which erroneous test results were uncovered in such a large number of vehicles from the same manufacturer. Only two similar cases have been discovered since 2000, and those involved single models.
Company executives apologized for the discrepancies and promised to compensate customers because they're using more gasoline than expected. The executives said the higher mileage figures were unintentional, caused by errors in following EPA mileage test procedures. The customer payments are likely to cost Hyundai and Kia millions of dollars.
The EPA testing requirements are specific enough so the companies should have been able to come up with accurate results, said Naeim Henein, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Wayne State University in Detroit. "This might have been a mistake or intentional," he said. "Nobody knows until the investigation."
An examination of test results should show the EPA if the figures were raised intentionally or by errors, Henein said. Intentionally boosting mileage figures is a crime, he said.
Intentional or not, overstating the mileage could cut into Hyundai and Kia sales, especially with people who are deciding between brands and ready to buy soon, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for the TrueCar.com auto pricing website. But in the long run, the brands still offer good value for the money, even with lower mileage numbers, he said.
"I don't think it's going to be necessarily a major hit. It's probably going to be a speed bump," Toprak said.
The EPA said it began looking at Hyundai and Kia when it received a dozen complaints from consumers that the mileage of their 2012 Elantra cars fell short of the window sticker numbers. The EPA included the Elantra in an annual fuel economy audit, and that led to the investigation.
Automakers do their own mileage tests, following procedures set by the EPA, and the agency enforces accuracy by auditing about 15 percent of vehicles annually.
Other automakers are closely watching the EPA's action against Hyundai and Kia, said Alan Baum, an auto industry consultant from suburban Detroit who deals with fuel economy regulations.
"This will send kind of a warning to the automakers that if there's a consumer reaction to these fuel economy numbers, that the EPA will act," he said.
John Krafcik, Hyundai's CEO of American operations, said the companies are sorry for the errors. "We're driven to make this right," he said Friday.
Michael Sprague, executive vice president of marketing for Kia Motors America, said the companies have a program in place to reimburse customers for the difference between the mileage on the window stickers and the numbers from the EPA tests.
Dealers will find out how many miles the cars have been driven and figure out the increased cost to owners due to the lower gas mileage.
For example, a customer in Florida whose car got 26 miles per gallon instead of 27 and drove 15,000 miles would wind up using 21.4 more gallons because of the inflated mileage. At a local gas price of $3.59 per gallon, the companies would pay them $76.83. Hyundai and Kia are adding a 15 percent premium for the inconvenience, so the customer would get about $88.
The payments would be made by debit cards that can be refreshed every year as long as the person owns the car, Sprague said.
If all 900,000 owners get $88, it would cost the automakers more than $79 million a year.
Hyundai will have to cut two mpg from the 2012 Elantra's 40 mpg highway mileage because of the EPA audit. The two-wheel-drive 2013 Santa Fe SUV with a 2.4-liter engine and automatic transmission was supposed to get 33 mpg on the freeway, but that will drop to 29. And the 2013 Soul with a 2-liter engine and automatic transmission will lose six mpg from its highway mileage.
Sung Hwan Cho, president of Hyundai's U.S. technical center in Michigan, said the EPA requires a complex series of tests for fuel economy, and results can vary in a number of procedures. "These were just honest procedural errors," Cho said.
Engineers did the tests as the companies were making a large number of changes in their cars designed to improve mileage, and the changes further complicated the tests, Cho said. There are hundreds of test parameters, most of which are spelled out by EPA regulations, but "there's also some points where we also need some interpretation," he said.
Krafcik said the companies have fixed testing procedures and are replacing window stickers on cars in dealer inventories. Owners can be confident in their mileage stickers now, he said, adding that Hyundai will still be among the industry leaders in gas mileage.
Through October, Hyundai sold 590,000 vehicles in the U.S., up 30 percent in two years. Kia sold more than 477,000, an increase of almost 60 percent. Strong warranties and improved styling, technology and quality have vaulted them into serious competition with larger auto companies.
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