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[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

YES, YOU CAN COMMENT HERE, TOO

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10 Promotional Stunts That Horribly Backfired

Monday, August 3, 2009

Cartoon Network Bomb Scare

To promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force animated film, Cartoon Network hired ad reps Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky. The 2 men decided to hang electronic LED displays in several cities, each boasting a "Lite-Brite" depiction of one of the film's characters.

Citizens of Boston mistook the devices as explosives which caused the city to shut down major roads and bridges. Matters weren't helped any when — during a post-arrest press conference — the 2 men opted to discuss wacky 70s haircuts instead of the controversy.

McDonald's Tainted MP3 Players

In Japan — where even virtual pets have their own MP3 players — McDonald's ran a contest in which customers were eligible to win their very own MP3 device. After roughly 10,000 gadgets were handed out, customers discovered that each came bundled with 10 free songs and its very own QQPass trojan malware, capable of communicating user logins and passwords.

A software patch was dispersed and a recall was instituted — thereby ending McDonald's worst campaign since the Arch Deluxe.

SanDisk Attempts to Be Hipper Than Apple

With the release of its iPod line, Apple performed a rare feat in the corporate world: The company became hip. In May 2006 — facing Apple's overwhelmingly dominant market presence — SanDisk launched the "iDont" campaign, which portrayed iPod users as mindless sheep, donkeys, and chimps.

Besides the fact that the ads nowhere referenced the company's own Sansa MP3 line, SanDisk failed to realize that customers are rarely won over by insults. Though it continues to live in the iPod's shadow, it still outsells Microsoft's Zune. Naturally.

Icy Response to Snapple

With the Snapple Lady on permanent hiatus, Snapple strove for the quirky gold medal once again with an attempt to overtake the Guinness World Record for the largest ice pop — made with the company's tasty kiwi-strawberry drink.

The problem: The stunt took place mid-June. Immediately upon unloading, the melted juice poured from the truck, creating a syrupy tidal wave down Union Square and a massive headache for cleanup crews. The worst part — aside from the few minor injuries: The 25-foot-tall ice pop needed to be free-standing to be declared a record.

LifeLock CEO Tempts Fate

The personal fraud protection company LifeLock guarantees the security of your identity under their employ. So much so that, in a nationwide ad, CEO Todd Davis posts his personal social security number on the side of a van — daring identity thieves to give it a shot.

Turns out, they did. No fewer than 25 motivated thieves stole Davis' social security number — with one successfully receiving a $500 loan. LifeLock maintains its diligence, claiming that for a nationwide ad, only one case of stolen identity isn't too bad. It doesn't advise posting your mom's maiden name on your car, however.

Sony's Sacrifice to God

When a company is said to emerge from a scandal "red-faced," rarely is it due to the errant splatter from a goat's decapitated head. Celebrating the PlayStation 2 release of the game God of War II, Sony threw a gala event in Athens, Greece.

In honor of the barbaric revelry found in the game, a goat carcass was brought in and attendees were invited to feast on fake entrails. Those who weren't privy to the unusual event were treated to a graphic photo of the centerpiece in the official Sony magazine. The company recalled the issues but garnered some pretty bad press in return.

General Motors Inspires Amateur Filmmaking

Three years before declaring Chapter 11, General Motors influenced a new wave of modern film auteurs. Tapping into that YouTube craze the young kids had been talking about, GM launched a website allowing users to create their own commercial about the Chevy Tahoe SUV and upload it for public view.

Apparently, GM hadn't realized that it bore an already unfavorable connotation, and the contest gave way to short films about global warming, the war in Iraq, or negative attacks against the auto's quality. Worse yet, almost a month went by before GM caught on.

KFC and Pepsi Underestimate Fan Frenzy

The allure of the free giveaway is usually proportional to the popularity of the product. So who wasn't expecting a slew of people clamoring for free KFC or Pepsi-sponsored Yankees tickets? Surprisingly, KFC and Pepsi.

After Oprah announced a KFC giveaway on her much-watched program, the food chain couldn't keep up with the lines of customers — which led to sit-ins and riots. And when Pepsi didn't deliver the full amount of promised tickets to Yankee fans, crowds quietly understood and politely left. Just kidding. A riot ensured and Pepsi was poured into the streets in protest.

Thwarted Zombie Invasion Credited to Dr. Pepper

It's hard to dislike a treasure hunt, unless the X lies somewhere atop a historical landmark. An international campaign from Dr. Pepper's then-owner Cadbury Schweppes hid coins within 23 American cities to promote the soft drink's "23 flavors."

But the agency in charge of Boston's location selected the Granary Burying Ground — current home to John Hancock, Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. Before a flood of shovels swept through the cherished site, Cadbury Schweppes ended the contest, but the contest forced owners to shutter the graveyard to prevent a zombie outbreak.

Dos Equis Angers Interesting Men

This giant corporate goodwill effort was the latest extension of the beer company's "Most Interesting Man" ad campaign featuring DJ Z-Trip. Attendees, who were promised a shuttle service that made the 100-mile round trip to and from Waterloo Park, were expecting a veritable cornucopia of rocking activities, such as "karate black belt demonstrations, participatory drum circles, an exotic reptile collection, sleight of hand tricks, international mohawk coiffeurists, bungee lessons, aqua slides, culinary entomologists, medieval weaponry, and a world-class car collection."

Most of the Dos Equis faithful ended up thoroughly screwed, however, since too many tickets were given out for too few spots, shuttles never turned up, and many were forced to loiter in the parking lot outside. At the end of the evening, the 800 lucky people who got in had a rollicking time — but they were largely drowned out by the seething gang of thousands who were turned away.

Edited October 9, 2009 by GothicRavenGoddess

[AstralCrux]

By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Betsy Taylor, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 4, 4:50 pm ET

ST. LOUIS – It's no secret that raising children can be expensive, but how about nearly a quarter of a million dollars expensive?

A government report released Tuesday says a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about $221,000 raising that child through age 17.

The report by the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion identified housing as the largest single expense, followed by food and child care/education costs. The $221,000 in expenses rises to about $292,000 when adjusted for inflation.

USDA economist Mark Lino, who co-authored the report with Andrea Carlson, often hears people say children cost a lot when the annual findings are issued.

"I tell them children also have many benefits, so you have to keep that in mind," he said.

Families with more income spend more money on child-related costs, the report said. A two-parent family that earns less than $57,000 annually will spend about $160,000 on a child from birth through high school. Those with an income between $57,000 and $99,000 spend about $221,000 and those with higher incomes are expected to spend roughly $367,000 through age 17.

Most single-parent households in the U.S. make less than $57,000 and are expected to spend about 7 percent less on child-rearing costs compared to two-parent households in that same income group, according to the report.

Costs of raising a child are highest in the urban northeast and lowest in the urban south and rural areas.

The USDA report helps courts and states determine child-support guidelines and foster care payments. It does not address costs specifically related to childbearing and paying for college.

One of the largest changes over time has been the increase in costs related to care for young children.

The report was first issued in 1960, when such costs were largely negligible, but with more working families turning to outside help with child care, it has grown to be a significant expense for many families. The report does not give total costs related to early child care.

A mother of three, Raben Andrews of St. Louis, said the government figures sounded right to her. "Well, that's not half of it," joked the 42-year-old public school teacher. "I still have to put the little buggers through college."

____

Expenditures on Children by Families report: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

How Anna Chlumsky Got Her Groove Back

(this title is bloody awful)

by Michele Meyer - August 4, 2009

Remember Anna Chlumsky, the fresh-scrubbed kid with the cherry-red grin in the 1991 family flick "My Girl"? Her starring role as Vada, a motherless tomboy going through some growing pains, earned her an MTV Movie Award for "Best Kiss" (with co-star Macaulay Culkin) and a Young Artist Award for "Most Promising Young Newcomer" -- not too shabby for a 10-year-old. Primed for superstardom, Chlumsky's next role was in the dubious "My Girl 2" -- after which she promptly fell off most people's radars. Well, we just spotted a blip on our screen: Now 28, Chlumsky appears in the new movie "In the Loop," a highbrow political parody chock-full of profane and inspired insult-hurling. Although fans hoping to see Chlumsky in another wholesome, feel-good role will be disappointed, some of her other (male) fans will probably find her portrayal of a sexy, power-hungry press aide very appealing indeed.

So what else has Chlumsky been up to these last 18 years? After making "My Girl 2," she starred in two more unremarkable movies: "Trading Mom" and "Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain." Then the teen years hit, and she couldn't land any roles. Why? "Braces and boobs. I got both of them," she reveals in a Chicago Sun-Times article. After years of auditions and rejections, she finally decided to leave acting to preserve her self-esteem. She went to college, majored in international relations at the University of Chicago, and went on to work as an editorial assistant for HarperCollins.

Then one day she caught a Broadway performance of "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" and was inspired by Mercedes Ruehl's performance. In a Back Stage article, she recalls thinking at the time, "I have to do what she just did." Acting classes and roles in New York's free theater soon followed, and slowly Chlumsky built a respectable stage career for herself. In the last couple of years, she did a stint on "Law and Order," guest-starred on "30 Rock," and had a recurring role on the now-canceled TV show "Cupid."

Things continue to look up for Chlumsky: Just last year, she got married to Army reserve member Shaun So. Later this year, she'll appear with Alexis Bledel in the romantic comedy "The Good Guy." And according to IMDb, she has two more movies in the works. While the teen years may not have been so kind to Chlumsky, young adulthood seems to suit her just fine.

[Tacohitts]

Breaking News!!,someone died from sniffing someones elses fart at K-Mart.

[Msterbeau]

Breaking News!!,someone died from sniffing someones elses fart at K-Mart.

Yahoo link, or you're off topic.

[Scales]

Not necessarily news..

On Memorial Day of 2009, in the Yahoo Top Searches, assisted suicide is next to charcoal grills. Thought it was ironic.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Found this through the front page of yahoo, so it still counts LOL:

Finding Smells That Repel

If you're one of those people whom mosquitoes tend to favor, maybe it's because you aren't sufficiently stressed-out.

Insects have very keen powers of smell that direct them to their targets. But for researchers trying to figure out what attracts or repels the pests, sorting through the 300 to 400 distinct chemical odors that the human body produces has proved daunting.

Michael C. Witte

Now scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed. The researchers have identified a handful of the body's chemical odors—some of which may be related to stress—that are present in significantly larger concentrations in people that the bugs are happier to leave alone. If efforts to synthesize these particular chemicals are successful, the result could be an all-natural mosquito repellent that is more effective and safer than products currently available.

"Mosquitoes fly through an aerial soup of chemicals, but can home in on those that draw them to humans," says James Logan, a researcher at Rothamsted, one of the world's oldest agricultural-research institutions. But when the combination of human odors is wrong, he says, "the mosquito fails to recognize this signal as a potential blood meal."

The phenomenon that some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others is well documented. In the 1990s, chemist Ulrich Bernier, now at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, began looking for what he calls the "magic compounds" that attract mosquitoes. His research helped to show that mosquitoes are attracted to humans by blends of common chemicals such as carbon dioxide, released from the skin and by exhaling, and lactic acid, which is present on the skin, especially when we exercise. But none of the known attractant chemicals explained why mosquitoes preferred some people to others.

Rothamsted's Dr. Logan says the answer isn't to be found in attractant chemicals. He and colleagues observed that everyone produces chemicals that mosquitoes like, but those who are unattractive to mosquitoes produce more of certain chemicals that repel them.

Misguided Mosquitoes

"The repellents were what made the difference," says Dr. Logan, who is interested in the study of how animals communicate using smell. These chemicals may cloud or mask the attractive chemicals, or may disable mosquitoes from being able to detect those attractive odors, he suggests.

Besides delivering annoying bites, mosquitoes cause hundreds of millions of cases of disease each year. As many as 500 million cases of malaria are contracted globally each year, and more than one million people die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mosquitoes can also spread West Nile virus, dengue fever, yellow fever and other illnesses.

Currently the most effective repellents on the market often contain a chemical known as DEET, which has been associated in some studies with potential safety concerns, such as cancer and Gulf War syndrome. It also damages materials made of plastic. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has determined that DEET, when used as directed, is safe.

The Rothamsted team set out to get the mosquitoes' viewpoint. The researchers separated human volunteers into two groups—those who were attractive to mosquitoes and those who weren't. They then put each of the volunteers into body-size foil bags for two hours to collect their body odors. Using a machine known as a chromatograph, the scientists were able to separate the chemicals. They then tested each of them to see how the mosquitoes responded. By attaching microelectrodes to the insects' antennae, the researchers could measure the electrical impulses that are generated when mosquitoes recognize a chemical.

Dr. Logan and his team have found only a small number of body chemicals—seven or eight—that were present in significantly different quantities between those people who were attractive to mosquitoes and those who weren't. They then put their findings to the test. For this they used a so-called Y-tube olfactometer that allows mosquitoes to make a choice and fly toward or away from an individual's hand. After applying the chemicals thought to be repellant on the hands of individuals known to be attractive, Dr. Logan found that the bugs either flew in the opposite direction or weren't motivated by the person's smell to fly at all.

The chemicals were then tested to determine their impact on actual biting behavior. Volunteers put their arms in a box containing mosquitoes, one arm coated with repellent chemicals and the other without, to see if the arm without the coating got bitten more.

Significant Repellency

The group's latest paper, published in March in the Journal of Medical Entomology, identified two compounds with "significant repellency." One of the compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, is a skin-derived compound that has the odor of toned-down nail-polish remover, according to George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who is involved in a separate line of research into insect-biting behavior. The other, identified in the paper as geranylacetone, has a pleasant odor, though there is some question about whether the chemical is formed by the human biochemical process or is picked up in the environment, Dr. Preti says.

Dr. Logan declined to comment about the specific chemicals because of proprietary concerns. He says the findings have been patented and the group is working with a commercial company to develop the compounds into a usable insect repellent. One issue that still needs to be resolved: how to develop a formulation of the repellent chemicals that will stay on the skin, rather than quickly evaporating as they do naturally. The hope is to get a product to market within a year or two, he says.

Some of the chemicals researchers identified are believed to be related to stress, Dr. Logan says. Previous research has shown that these particular chemicals could be converted from certain other molecules and this could be as a result of oxidation in the body at times of stress, he says. However, it's not clear if the chemicals observed by the Rothamsted researchers were created in this way, and research is continuing to answer this and other questions.

Dr. Logan suggests that mosquitoes may deem hosts that emit more of these chemicals to be diseased or injured and "not a good quality blood meal." Proteins in the blood are necessary for female mosquitoes to produce fertile eggs, and Dr. Logan says it might be evolutionarily advantageous for mosquitoes to detect and avoid such people.

Other Research

Other research includes an effort by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, who published a paper in the journal Nature last week identifying a recently discovered class of molecules that inhibit fruit flies' and mosquitoes' ability to detect carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide emissions from long ranges, so turning off the ability to detect the gas, perhaps by releasing the inhibiting molecules into the environment, may be a way of keeping the bugs at bay, the researchers suggest. Another team, at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, is launching a study into whether the taste of human skin and blood are related to the insects' interest in biting certain individuals.

[AstralCrux]

I'm a walking ball of "stressed out" and mosquitos love me. Dunno man... I'm not buying that bridge.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Why 09/09/09 Is So Special

Heather Whipps

Special to LiveScience

LiveScience.com heather Whipps

special To Livescience

livescience.com – Tue Sep 8, 10:46 am ET

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.

Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated - while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math magic

Modern numerologists - who operate outside the realm of real science - believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.

• The Most Popular Myths In Science
• Review: Animated "9" Destined to Be Next Great Cult Film
• World to End in 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far?

• Original Story: Why 09/09/09 Is So Special

LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

Edited September 9, 2009 by GothicRavenGoddess

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Questions arise over how kidnapper went undetected

ANTIOCH, Calif. – His neighbors knew he was a registered sex offender. Kids on his block called him "Creepy Phil" and kept their distance. Parole agents and local law enforcement regularly visited his home and found nothing unusual, even after a neighbor complained children were living in a complex of tents in his backyard.

For 18 years, Phillip Garrido managed to elude detection as he pulled off what authorities are calling an unfathomable crime, kidnapping and raping 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard, keeping her as his secret captive for nearly two decades and fathering two of her children.

The question about how he went unnoticed became more pressing Friday when Garrido came under suspicion in the unsolved murders of several prostitutes, raising the prospect he was a serial killer as well.

Several of the murdered women's bodies — the exact number is not known — were dumped near an industrial park where Garrido worked during the 1990s. Authorities acknowledged that they blew a chance three years ago to rescue Dugard from the backyard labyrinth of sheds, tents and outbuildings that were concealed from the outside world.

A neighbor called 911 in November 2006 and described Garrido as a psychotic sex addict who was living with children and had people staying in tents in his backyard.

The investigating officer spent a half-hour interviewing Garrido on his front porch but did not enter the house or search the backyard, Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said. The deputy, who did not know Garrido was a registered sex offender even though the sheriff's department had the information, warned Garrido that the tents could be a code violation before leaving.

"We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation," Rupf acknowledged. "I cannot change the course of events but we are beating ourselves up over this and continue to do so."

"We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two."

It was not the only missed opportunity.

As a parolee, Garrido wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his every movement, met with his parole agent several times each month and was subject to routine surprise home visits and random drug and alcohol tests, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle said.

The last unannounced visit by a team of local police agencies was conducted in July 2008. Paramedics also were summoned to the house five times since 1999, presumably to help Garrido's 88-year-old mother, who had dementia.

"There was never any indication to my knowledge that there was any sign of children living there," Hinkle said.

As it turns out, Dugard and her two children were living there as prisoners, authorities say. The heavily wooded compound was arranged so that people could not view what was happening, and one of the buildings was sound-proofed and could only be opened from the outside.

Neighbors knew there were children living there. Damon Robinson has lived next door to the Garridos for more than three years and his then-girlfriend in 2006 told him she saw tents in the backyard and children.

"I told her to call police. I told her to call right away," he said.

Dugard, now 29, was reunited with her family and said to be in good health, but feeling guilty about developing a bond with Garrido over the years. Her two children, 11 and 15, remained with her.

"Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy. She really feels it's almost like a marriage," said Dugard's stepfather Carl Probyn, who was there when little Jaycee was snatched from a bus stop in 1991.

Probyn has been in constant contact with Dugard's mother, his ex-wife Terry Probyn, since she found out her daughter was alive on Wednesday.

Probyn said both mother and daughter are trying to avoid the public eye for now. After not seeing each other for 18 years, Dugard greeted her mother by saying, "Hi, mom, I have babies," according to Probyn. Dugard had her two daughters with her at the reunion, and it appears she never told them she was kidnapped by their father, he said.

The authorities say they do not yet know whether she ever tried to escape or to alert anyone of her whereabouts, but she had chances to escape Garrido, who did a stint behind bars during the period of captivity.

Garrido and his wife pleaded not guilty Friday to a total of 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment. Phillip Garrido appeared stoic and unresponsive during the brief arraignment hearing. His wife cried and put her head in her hands several times.

Garrido gave a rambling, sometimes incoherent phone interview to KCRA-TV from the county jail Thursday in which he said he had not admitted to a kidnapping and that he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago. He told the television station that he walked into the FBI's San Francisco office on Monday with Dugard's daughters and dropped off several documents containing rambling passages about religion, sexual compulsion and mind control.

FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler confirmed Garrido left the documents with the agency, but declined to discuss any further details.

Garrido was required to register as a sex offender because he was convicted in 1977 of kidnapping a 25-year-old woman from parking lot in South Lake Tahoe, the same town Jaycee Dugard lived in when she was snatched from a school bus stop.

In the case Garrido took the woman across the state line into Nevada, where he raped her in a mini-warehouse in Reno that had been furnished with rugs, pornographic magazines and sex toys, according to prosecutors and news accounts from the time.

Gail Powell, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Public Safety, said Garrido met his wife while he was serving time for the rape at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan.

He served about 10 years of a 50-year federal sentence for kidnapping, and less than a year for a concurrent Nevada sentence of five years to life in prison for sexual assault. He was paroled in 1988, said Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman Suzanne Pardee.

A violation of Garrido's parole conditions sent him back to federal prison from April to August of 1993. Dick Carelli, spokesman for the federal Office of Court Administration, did not know what Garrido did to violate parole. Authorities are trying to piece together how and by whom Dugard was held during Garrido's four-month absence.

Hinkle said the alarm raised by the neighbor who contacted the sheriff's department never were relayed to Garrido's parole agent. But there was no ban on him having contact with children, nor restrictions on his travels.

Hinkle said Garrido's parole agent was shocked Tuesday when University of California, Berkeley, police told him that the man he had been monitoring for years had been seen with two small children.

The agent, whom officials refused to name or make available for interviews, called Garrido into his office the next day. Garrido arrived with his wife, the children and a woman who initially identified herself as Allissa. She turned out to be Dugard and investigators said Garrido confessed to the kidnapping.

Monica Adams, 33, whose mother lives on their street, said she knew Phillip Garrido was a sex offender and that he had children living with him. Other neighbors knew, too, but they assumed police were keeping tabs on him.

"He never bothered any one, he kept to himself," Adams said. "What would we have done? You just watch your own."

Probyn said he was frustrated to find out that a car matching the description of the one he saw speeding Dugard away in the day she was kidnapped was found in the yard of Garrido's home. Nancy Garrido also fits the "dead-on" description he gave of the woman who pulled her into the car, he said.

"He had every break in the world," Probyn said of Garrido's close encounters with the law.

___

Associated Press Writers Don Thompson in Sacramento, Terence Chea in Berkeley, Paul Elias in San Francisco, Juliet Williams in Placerville and Michelle Rindels in Orange, Calif., contributed to this story.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writers Marilynn Marchione And Michael Casey, Associated Press Writers – Thu Sep 24, 3:27 am ET

BANGKOK – For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.

The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok.

Even though the benefit is modest, "it's the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine," Col. Jerome Kim said in a telephone interview. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The institute's director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that this is "not the end of the road," but said he was surprised and very pleased by the outcome.

"It gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result" and developing a more effective AIDS vaccine, Fauci said in a telephone interview. "This is something that we can do."

Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact. Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N. agency UNAIDS estimates.

"Today marks an historic milestone," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international group that has worked toward developing a vaccine.

"It will take time and resources to fully analyze and understand the data, but there is little doubt that this finding will energize and redirect the AIDS vaccine field," he said in a statement.

The Thailand Ministry of Public Health conducted the study, which used strains of HIV common in Thailand. Whether such a vaccine would work against other strains in the U.S., Africa or elsewhere in the world is unknown, scientists stressed.

"This is a scientific breakthrough," Thai Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai told a news conference in Bangkok. "For the first time ever there is evidence that HIV vaccine has preventative efficacy."

The study actually tested a two-vaccine combo in a "prime-boost" approach, where the first one primes the immune system to attack HIV and the second one strengthens the response.

They are ALVAC, from Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis; and AIDSVAX, originally developed by VaxGen Inc. and now held by Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, a nonprofit founded by some former VaxGen employees.

ALVAC uses canarypox, a bird virus altered so it can't cause human disease, to ferry synthetic versions of three HIV genes into the body. AIDSVAX contains a genetically engineered version of a protein on HIV's surface. The vaccines are not made from whole virus — dead or alive — and cannot cause HIV.

Neither vaccine in the study prevented HIV infection when tested individually in earlier trials, and dozens of scientists had called the new one futile when it began in 2003.

"I really didn't have high hopes at all that we would see a positive result," Fauci confessed.

The results proved the skeptics wrong.

"The combination is stronger than each of the individual members," said the Army's Kim, a physician who manages the Army's HIV vaccine program.

The study tested the combo in HIV-negative Thai men and women ages 18 to 30 at average risk of becoming infected. Half received four "priming" doses of ALVAC and two "boost" doses of AIDSVAX over six months. The others received dummy shots. No one knew who got what until the study ended.

All were given condoms, counseling and treatment for any sexually transmitted infections, and were tested every six months for HIV. Any who became infected were given free treatment with antiviral medicines.

Participants were followed for three years after vaccination ended.

Results: New infections occurred in 51 of the 8,197 given vaccine and in 74 of the 8,198 who received dummy shots. That worked out to a 31 percent lower risk of infection for the vaccine group.

The vaccine had no effect on levels of HIV in the blood of those who did become infected. That had been another goal of the study — seeing whether the vaccine could limit damage to the immune system and help keep infected people from developing full-blown AIDS.

That result is "one of the most important and intriguing findings of this trial," Fauci said. It suggests that the signs scientists have been using to gauge whether a vaccine was actually giving protection may not be valid.

"It is conceivable that we haven't even identified yet" what really shows immunity, which is both "important and humbling" after decades of vaccine research, Fauci said.

Details of the $105 million study will be given at a vaccine conference in Paris in October.

This is the third big vaccine trial since 1983, when HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS. In 2007, Merck & Co. stopped a study of its experimental vaccine after seeing it did not prevent HIV infection. Later analysis suggested the vaccine might even raise the risk of infection in certain men. The vaccine itself did not cause infection.

In 2003, AIDSVAX flunked two large trials — the first late-stage tests of any AIDS vaccine at the time.

It is unclear whether vaccine makers will seek to license the two-vaccine combo in Thailand. Before the trial began, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said other studies would be needed before the vaccine could be considered for U.S. licensing.

Also unclear is whether Thai volunteers who received dummy shots will now be offered the vaccine. Researchers had said they would do so if the vaccine showed clear benefit — defined as reducing the risk of infection by at least 50 percent.

Those issues, plus how to proceed with future studies, will be discussed among the governments, study sponsors and companies involved in the trial, Kim said. Scientists want to know how long will protection last, whether booster shots will be needed, and whether the vaccine helps prevent infection in gay men and injection drug users, since it was tested mostly in heterosexuals in the Thai trial.

The study was done in Thailand because U.S. Army scientists did pivotal research in that country when the AIDS epidemic emerged there, isolating virus strains and providing genetic information on them to vaccine makers. The Thai government also strongly supported the idea of doing the study.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Pregnant woman pregnant again

Link To The Video

In an extremely rare case, an expectant woman conceives another child.

But they aren't twins

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Before Lucy came Ardi, new earliest hominid found

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid, Ap Science Writer

Here's a link to the pictures. (<---Clicky)

WASHINGTON – The story of humankind is reaching back another million years as scientists learn more about "Ardi," a hominid who lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. The 110-pound, 4-foot female roamed forests a million years before the famous Lucy, long studied as the earliest skeleton of a human ancestor.

This older skeleton reverses the common wisdom of human evolution, said anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University.

Rather than humans evolving from an ancient chimp-like creature, the new find provides evidence that chimps and humans evolved from some long-ago common ancestor — but each evolved and changed separately along the way.

"This is not that common ancestor, but it's the closest we have ever been able to come," said Tim White, director of the Human Evolution Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

The lines that evolved into modern humans and living apes probably shared an ancestor 6 million to 7 million years ago, White said in a telephone interview.

But Ardi has many traits that do not appear in modern-day African apes, leading to the conclusion that the apes evolved extensively since we shared that last common ancestor.

A study of Ardi, under way since the first bones were discovered in 1994, indicates the species lived in the woodlands and could climb on all fours along tree branches, but the development of their arms and legs indicates they didn't spend much time in the trees. And they could walk upright, on two legs, when on the ground.

Formally dubbed Ardipithecus ramidus — which means root of the ground ape — the find is detailed in 11 research papers published Thursday by the journal Science.

"This is one of the most important discoveries for the study of human evolution," said David Pilbeam, curator of paleoanthropology at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

"It is relatively complete in that it preserves head, hands, feet and some critical parts in between. It represents a genus plausibly ancestral to Australopithecus — itself ancestral to our genus Homo," said Pilbeam, who was not part of the research teams.

Scientists assembled the skeleton from 125 pieces.

Lucy, also found in Africa, thrived a million years after Ardi and was of the more human-like genus Australopithecus.

"In Ardipithecus we have an unspecialized form that hasn't evolved very far in the direction of Australopithecus. So when you go from head to toe, you're seeing a mosaic creature that is neither chimpanzee, nor is it human. It is Ardipithecus," said White.

White noted that Charles Darwin, whose research in the 19th century paved the way for the science of evolution, was cautious about the last common ancestor between humans and apes.

"Darwin said we have to be really careful. The only way we're really going to know what this last common ancestor looked like is to go and find it. Well, at 4.4 million years ago we found something pretty close to it," White said. "And, just like Darwin appreciated, evolution of the ape lineages and the human lineage has been going on independently since the time those lines split, since that last common ancestor we shared."

Some details about Ardi in the collection of papers:

• Ardi was found in Ethiopia's Afar Rift, where many fossils of ancient plants and animals have been discovered. Findings near the skeleton indicate that at the time it was a wooded environment. Fossils of 29 species of birds and 20 species of small mammals were found at the site.

• Geologist Giday WoldeGabriel of Los Alamos National Laboratory was able to use volcanic layers above and below the fossil to date it to 4.4 million years ago.

• Ardi's upper canine teeth are more like the stubby ones of modern humans than the long, sharp, pointed ones of male chimpanzees and most other primates. An analysis of the tooth enamel suggests a diverse diet, including fruit and other woodland-based foods such as nuts and leaves.

• Paleoanthropologist Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo reported that Ardi's face had a projecting muzzle, giving her an ape-like appearance. But it didn't thrust forward quite as much as the lower faces of modern African apes do. Some features of her skull, such as the ridge above the eye socket, are quite different from those of chimpanzees. The details of the bottom of the skull, where nerves and blood vessels enter the brain, indicate that Ardi's brain was positioned in a way similar to modern humans, possibly suggesting that the hominid brain may have been already poised to expand areas involving aspects of visual and spatial perception.

• Ardi's hand and wrist were a mix of primitive traits and a few new ones, but they don't include the hallmark traits of the modern tree-hanging, knuckle-walking chimps and gorillas. She had relatively short palms and fingers which were flexible, allowing her to support her body weight on her palms while moving along tree branches, but she had to be a careful climber because she lacked the anatomical features that allow modern-day African apes to swing, hang and easily move through the trees.

• The pelvis and hip show the gluteal muscles were positioned so she could walk upright.

• Her feet were rigid enough for walking but still had a grasping big toe for use in climbing.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and others.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

TLC's Duggar Reality Family Welcomes First Grandchild

The Article

TV's biggest reality family just got a little bigger.

Joshua and Anna Duggar - from TLC's "18 Kids and Counting" -- welcomed daughter Mackynzie Renee Duggar on Thursday, according to People.

Meredith Vieira also announced the news on Friday's "Today" show on NBC, noting the baby weighed in at 8 pounds and was 19.5 inches long.

The newest Duggar was born at Joshua and Anna's home, with a midwife and doula assisting in the birth.

"Josh was excited to participate in the birth as well," a family friend told People. "They are both so happy."

Although she is the first child for the young couple, both 21, she certainly has a lot of family who were anxious to meet her, with 17 aunts and uncles in the Duggar clan.

In fact, the brood is about to grow again in 2010, as Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are expecting their 19th child in the spring.

Joshua is the Arkansas couple's oldest son - all of whom have names that start with the letter J.

Mackynzie Duggar's birth will be featured on an "18 Kids and Counting" special, titled "First Grandduggar", airing Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 9 PM on TLC.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, TLC will change the name of the Duggars' reality show to "19 Kids and Counting," following Mackynzie's birth.

Really? wow... she hasn't stopped yet? That can't be healthy for her body...

[Slogo]

Marge Simpson makes cover of Playboy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "D'oh!" doesn't even start to cover it.

Marge Simpson -- the blue beehived matriarch of America's most loved dysfunctional family - is Playboy magazine's November cover, the magazine said on Friday.

Simpson, tastefully concealing her assets behind a signature Playboy Bunny chair, is the first cartoon character ever to front the glossy adult magazine, joining the ranks of sex symbols like Marilyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford.

Playboy said the cover and a three-page picture spread inside was a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the "The Simpsons" and part of a plan to appeal to a younger generation of readers.

Scott Flanders, the recently-hired chief executive of Playboy Enterprises, told the Chicago Sun-Times in an interview that the Marge Simpson cover and centerfold was "somewhat tongue-in-cheek."

"It had never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual," Flanders told the newspaper. He said the magazine hoped to attract readers in their 20s compared to the average Playboy reader's age of 35.

Playboy also promises a story inside called "The Devil in Marge Simpson". The issue arrives on newsstands on October 16.

Playboy magazine's circulation has slipped in recent years in the face of competition from the Internet, which offers free and plentiful pictures of naked women online.

The magazine's circulation fell 9 percent as of the end of June 2009, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

But Flanders told Reuters earlier this week that there were no plans to close the print edition. "Over my dead body will we quit producing the magazine in print," he said.

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have already been honored this year with a set of U.S. postal stamps marking the 20th anniversary of the longest-running comedy series on U.S. television.

Animated series "The Simpsons" debuted in December 1989 with a Christmas-themed episode called "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." It has won 24 primetime Emmys and was renewed by Fox television earlier this year for two more seasons.

[AstralCrux]

I find it awsome that Flanders works for Playboy... Dang I woulda fell on the floor if his first name was Ned.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Survey of top economists find most believe recession is over

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

On 10:28 am EDT, Monday October 12, 2009

More than 80% of top economists believe that the recession that started almost two years ago is finally over. But most don't expect meaningful improvement in jobs, credit or housing for months to come.

That's according to a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). The group asked 43 top economists last month if they believe the battered U.S. economy has pulled out of the worst U.S. downturn since World War II. Those surveyed include economists from leading Wall Street firms and major corporations, as well as from highly respected universities and research firms.

Thirty-five respondents, or 81%, believe the recovery has begun. Only four, or 9%, believe the economy is still in a recession. The other four say they're uncertain.

Economists in the survey forecast that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3% in the three months that ended in September, though the official reading of gross domestic product won't be out for weeks.

And all of the economists surveyed expect the recovery to be slow and painful, leaving many people and businesses feeling the effects of the downturn for years to come.

The only organization that can officially declare the beginning or the end of a recession is the National Bureau of Economic Research. But that group doesn't make any sort of declaration until months after the fact, in order to take into account final readings of various economic measures such as employment, income and industrial production. For example, the NBER didn't declare that the recent recession had begun in December 2007 until a full year after the fact.

Lingering weakness

The NABE survey results echo comments made by many other prominent economists who have recently said they think the economy hit bottom at some point this summer.

Most notably, a recent statement from the Federal Reserve declared that economic readings "suggest economic activity has picked up following its severe downturn."

Still, the NABE survey found that economists are forecasting lingering weakness in the labor and housing markets, and that the tight credit markets will continue to be a drag on economic growth into next year.

Unemployment, which was at a 26-year high of 9.8% in September, is forecast to hit 10% during the last three months of this year, and stay there through the first quarter of 2010. By the end of next year, it's only expected to fall back down to 9.5%.

About 54% of those surveyed don't expect the economy to regain the jobs it lost during the recession until 2012, while another 38% expect that to take even longer. Just three of the economists that the NABE spoke to expect these jobs to come back in 2010 or 2011.

And many don't think the worst is over yet for housing either. About a third of economists believe that home prices won't bottom out until early 2010 or later, while a quarter of them believe the low will come in the fourth quarter.

Half of those surveyed expect the financial markets to continue to be a drag on the economy until next year, while 30% of them said that trend could continue into 2011.

The NABE last surveyed economists in May, and they were far less optimistic at the time. Only 18% of them thought the economy would recover in the last quarter of 2009, while 7% saw a turnaround sometime in 2010

Edited October 12, 2009 by GothicRavenGoddess

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Was the photoshopped Ralph Lauren model fired for being overweight?

(Click for article)

by Joanna Douglas, Shine Staff, on Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:34am PDT

Last week Ralph Lauren came under fire for (what looked to be) an extremely altered photo of a model in one of its ads. Bloggers at the website BoingBoing.net posted the image online, and lawyers for Ralph Lauren attempted to sue them for copyright infringement. Unfortunately for Ralph Lauren, this only furthered public interest and outrage over the dangerously thin looking model and, eventually, the clothing company released this apology:

"For over 42 years we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman's body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately."

Unfortunately,"addressing the problem" may have included firing the model, 23-year-old Filippa Hamilton. She is 5'10" and weighs 120 pounds--clearly more full-bodied than the photoshopped girl we see in the advertisement. Though Hamilton has modeled for Ralph Lauren since she was 15, the company let her go "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us." But the story gets worse: Hamilton says she was let go because she'd become too fat to model for them. "They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn't fit in their clothes anymore," she explained. "I was shocked to see that super skinny girl with my face...It's very sad, I think, that Ralph Lauren could do something like that."

Most of us know that a tall, young woman who weighs 120 pounds is not overweight. But Hamilton claims Ralph Lauren was dissatisfied with her body, and therefore fired her six months ago. However, the company continued to use her image, whittling down her arms, waist, thighs, and possibly several other body parts in the above ad. If they were so unhappy with how she looked, why not get another model for the campaign? Why use the photos and alter and distort them?

Today, Ralph Lauren himself is distancing himself from the ad, claiming, "The image in question was mistakenly released and used in a department store in Japan and was not the approved image which ran in the U.S." So we're confused. They say the photoshopping was an error, that Hamilton is "beautiful and healthy," yet they allegedly fired her for her size? With all these apologies and statements it sounds like the brand still has yet to accept responsibility for their actions.

When I searched for more images of Filippa Hamilton, I instantly remembered her—she was the face of Ralph Lauren's fragrance, Romance, has been featured on the cover of international editions of Vogue and Elle, and has appeared in many ads. She's a gorgeous woman. "I think they [Ralph Lauren] owe American women an apology, a big apology," says Hamilton. "I'm very proud of what I look like, and I think a role model should look healthy."

The truth is, models get fired or overlooked all the time for being what the industry considers overweight, we just rarely see or hear about it. Eating disorders are not only common among models, but they're also common among the women and young girls who emulate them. We're happy to see that Hamilton has come forward, and wish more models and celebrities would do the same. It's awesome and empowering when stars admit they've been photoshopped for an ad or movie poster and say how dissatisfied they are about it. With foreign countries banning underweight models from their fashion weeks, and the increasing presence of "plus size" models in women's magazines, we wish the unhealthy representation and falsified depiction of models—and women—would come to an end entirely. Do you think the day will ever come? Sources: [NYDN] [Extra] [Hulu]

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Earhart's Final Resting Place Believed Found

Oct. 23, 2009 -- Legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart mostly likely died on an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, according to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR).

Tall, slender, blonde and brave, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Her final resting place has long been a mystery.

For years, Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director and author of the book "Finding Amelia," and his crew have been searching the Nikumaroro island for evidence of Earhart. A tiny coral atoll, Nikumaroro was some 300 miles southeast of Earhart's target destination, Howland Island.

A number of artifacts recovered by TIGHAR would suggest that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on the island's smooth, flat coral reef.

According to Gillespie, who is set to embark on a new $500,000 Nikumaroro expedition next summer, the two became castaways and eventually died there.

"We know that in 1940 British Colonial Service officer Gerald Gallagher recovered a partial skeleton of a castaway on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, those bones have now been lost," Gillespie said.

The archival record by Gallagher suggests that the bones were found in a remote area of the island, in a place that was unlikely to have been seen during an aerial search.