Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity -- not changes in solar activity -- are the primary force driving global warming.

The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth's energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth's surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers' calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more energy than it returned to space.

James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, led the research. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics published the study last December.

Total solar irradiance, the amount of energy produced by the sun that reaches the top of each square meter of the Earth's atmosphere, typically declines by about a tenth of a percent during cyclical lulls in solar activity caused by shifts in the sun's magnetic field. Usually solar minimums occur about every eleven years and last a year or so, but the most recent minimum persisted more than two years longer than normal, making it the longest minimum recorded during the satellite era.

Pinpointing the magnitude of Earth's energy imbalance is fundamental to climate science because it offers a direct measure of the state of the climate. Energy imbalance calculations also serve as the foundation for projections of future climate change. If the imbalance is positive and more energy enters the system than exits, Earth grows warmer. If the imbalance is negative, the planet grows cooler.

Hansen's team concluded that Earth has absorbed more than half a watt more solar energy per square meter than it let off throughout the six year study period. The calculated value of the imbalance (0.58 watts of excess energy per square meter) is more than twice as much as the reduction in the amount of solar energy supplied to the planet between maximum and minimum solar activity (0.25 watts per square meter).

"The fact that we still see a positive imbalance despite the prolonged solar minimum isn't a surprise given what we've learned about the climate system, but it's worth noting because this provides unequivocal evidence that the sun is not the dominant driver of global warming," Hansen said.

According to calculations conducted by Hansen and his colleagues, the 0.58 watts per square meter imbalance implies that carbon dioxide levels need to be reduced to about 350 parts per million to restore the energy budget to equilibrium. The most recent measurements show that carbon dioxide levels are currently 392 parts per million and scientists expect that concentration to continue to rise in the future.

Climate scientists have been refining calculations of the Earth's energy imbalance for many years, but this newest estimate is an improvement over previous attempts because the scientists had access to better measurements of ocean temperature than researchers have had in the past.

The improved measurements came from free-floating instruments that directly monitor the temperature, pressure and salinity of the upper ocean to a depth of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet). The network of instruments, known collectively as Argo, has grown dramatically in recent years since researchers first began deploying the floats a decade ago. Today, more than 3,400 Argo floats actively take measurements and provide data to the public, mostly within 24 hours.

Hansen's analysis of the information collected by Argo, along with other ground-based and satellite data, show the upper ocean has absorbed 71 percent of the excess energy and the Southern Ocean, where there are few Argo floats, has absorbed 12 percent. The abyssal zone of the ocean, between about 3,000 and 6,000 meters (9,800 and 20,000 feet) below the surface, absorbed five percent, while ice absorbed eight percent and land four percent.

The updated energy imbalance calculation has important implications for climate modeling. Its value, which is slightly lower than previous estimates, suggests that most climate models overestimate how readily heat mixes deeply into the ocean and significantly underestimates the cooling effect of small airborne particles called aerosols, which along with greenhouse gases and solar irradiance are critical factors in energy imbalance calculations.

"Climate models simulate observed changes in global temperatures quite accurately, so if the models mix heat into the deep ocean too aggressively, it follows that they underestimate the magnitude of the aerosol cooling effect," Hansen said.

Aerosols, which can either warm or cool the atmosphere depending on their composition and how they interact with clouds, are thought to have a net cooling effect. But estimates of their overall impact on climate are quite uncertain given how difficult it is to measure the distribution of the particles on a broad scale. The new study suggests that the overall cooling effect from aerosols could be about twice as strong as current climate models suggest, largely because few models account for how the particles affect clouds.

"Unfortunately, aerosols remain poorly measured from space," said Michael Mishchenko, a scientist also based at GISS and the project scientist for Glory, a satellite mission designed to measure aerosols in unprecedented detail that was lost after a launch failure in early 2011. "We must have a much better understanding of the global distribution of detailed aerosol properties in order to perfect calculations of Earth's energy imbalance," said Mishchenko.

###

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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: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity -- not changes in solar activity -- are the primary force driving global warming.

The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth's energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth's surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers' calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more energy than it returned to space.

James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, led the research. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics published the study last December.

Total solar irradiance, the amount of energy produced by the sun that reaches the top of each square meter of the Earth's atmosphere, typically declines by about a tenth of a percent during cyclical lulls in solar activity caused by shifts in the sun's magnetic field. Usually solar minimums occur about every eleven years and last a year or so, but the most recent minimum persisted more than two years longer than normal, making it the longest minimum recorded during the satellite era.

Pinpointing the magnitude of Earth's energy imbalance is fundamental to climate science because it offers a direct measure of the state of the climate. Energy imbalance calculations also serve as the foundation for projections of future climate change. If the imbalance is positive and more energy enters the system than exits, Earth grows warmer. If the imbalance is negative, the planet grows cooler.

Hansen's team concluded that Earth has absorbed more than half a watt more solar energy per square meter than it let off throughout the six year study period. The calculated value of the imbalance (0.58 watts of excess energy per square meter) is more than twice as much as the reduction in the amount of solar energy supplied to the planet between maximum and minimum solar activity (0.25 watts per square meter).

"The fact that we still see a positive imbalance despite the prolonged solar minimum isn't a surprise given what we've learned about the climate system, but it's worth noting because this provides unequivocal evidence that the sun is not the dominant driver of global warming," Hansen said.

According to calculations conducted by Hansen and his colleagues, the 0.58 watts per square meter imbalance implies that carbon dioxide levels need to be reduced to about 350 parts per million to restore the energy budget to equilibrium. The most recent measurements show that carbon dioxide levels are currently 392 parts per million and scientists expect that concentration to continue to rise in the future.

Climate scientists have been refining calculations of the Earth's energy imbalance for many years, but this newest estimate is an improvement over previous attempts because the scientists had access to better measurements of ocean temperature than researchers have had in the past.

The improved measurements came from free-floating instruments that directly monitor the temperature, pressure and salinity of the upper ocean to a depth of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet). The network of instruments, known collectively as Argo, has grown dramatically in recent years since researchers first began deploying the floats a decade ago. Today, more than 3,400 Argo floats actively take measurements and provide data to the public, mostly within 24 hours.

Hansen's analysis of the information collected by Argo, along with other ground-based and satellite data, show the upper ocean has absorbed 71 percent of the excess energy and the Southern Ocean, where there are few Argo floats, has absorbed 12 percent. The abyssal zone of the ocean, between about 3,000 and 6,000 meters (9,800 and 20,000 feet) below the surface, absorbed five percent, while ice absorbed eight percent and land four percent.

The updated energy imbalance calculation has important implications for climate modeling. Its value, which is slightly lower than previous estimates, suggests that most climate models overestimate how readily heat mixes deeply into the ocean and significantly underestimates the cooling effect of small airborne particles called aerosols, which along with greenhouse gases and solar irradiance are critical factors in energy imbalance calculations.

"Climate models simulate observed changes in global temperatures quite accurately, so if the models mix heat into the deep ocean too aggressively, it follows that they underestimate the magnitude of the aerosol cooling effect," Hansen said.

Aerosols, which can either warm or cool the atmosphere depending on their composition and how they interact with clouds, are thought to have a net cooling effect. But estimates of their overall impact on climate are quite uncertain given how difficult it is to measure the distribution of the particles on a broad scale. The new study suggests that the overall cooling effect from aerosols could be about twice as strong as current climate models suggest, largely because few models account for how the particles affect clouds.

"Unfortunately, aerosols remain poorly measured from space," said Michael Mishchenko, a scientist also based at GISS and the project scientist for Glory, a satellite mission designed to measure aerosols in unprecedented detail that was lost after a launch failure in early 2011. "We must have a much better understanding of the global distribution of detailed aerosol properties in order to perfect calculations of Earth's energy imbalance," said Mishchenko.

###

---

[ | 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/2012-01/nsfc-eeb013012.php

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Obama to target rising college tuition costs (AP)

ROMULUS, Mich. ? President Barack Obama wants to shift some federal dollars away from colleges and universities that aren't controlling tuition costs to those that are. He's also proposing competitions among higher education institutions to encourage them to run more efficiently.

Obama will spell out his plans Friday during a speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor focused on college affordability.

On Tuesday during his State of the Union address, Obama put colleges and universities on notice to control soaring tuition costs or face losing federal dollars.

The money Obama is targeting is what's known as "campus based" aid given to colleges to distribute in areas such as Perkins loans or in work study programs. Of the $142 billion in federal grants and loans distributed in the last school year, about $3 billion went to these programs.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

President Barack Obama has put colleges and universities on notice to control tuition costs or face losing federal dollars. Now, schools are waiting to hear how big a stick he plans to wield to enforce his message.

Obama was expected to spell out his plan in a speech Friday at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor focused on college affordability. His plan could set a new precedent in the federal government's role in controlling the rising costs of college ? a move making people in higher education nervous. Obama's speech will cap a three-day post-State of the Union trip by the president to promote different components of his economic agenda in politically important states.

The president hinted at what's ahead in education during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, which coincided with the release of a White House "blueprint" that said he wants to shift federal aid away from colleges that don't keep net tuition down and provide a good value. But it's unclear exactly what pot of federal dollars Obama plans to target and how his plan would work.

The Obama administration already has taken a series of steps to expand the availability of grants and loans and to make loans easier to pay back, and Obama spelled out Tuesday other proposals to make college more affordable such as extending tuition tax breaks and asking Congress to keep loan interest rates from doubling on July. His administration has also targeted career college programs ? primarily at for-profit institutions ? with high loan default rates among graduates over multiple years by taking away their ability to participate in such programs.

But until now, it has done little to turn its attention to the rising cost of tuition at traditional colleges and universities. The average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges last fall rose 8.3 percent and with room and board now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board. Rising tuition costs have been blamed on a variety of factors, including a decline in state dollars, an over-reliance on federal student loan dollars and competition for the best facilities and professors.

During Tuesday's speech, the president said he'd met with university presidents who described to him ways some universities through technology and redesigning courses were able to help students finish more quickly ? efforts that helped curtail costs.

"The point is, it's possible. So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can't be a luxury_ it's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford," Obama said.

Barry Toiv, spokesman for the Association of American Universities, said some of its members participated in the meeting Obama referred to and agree that there are good examples of things that can be done to make colleges more efficient. But he said universities are concerned that any proposal by the president "doesn't hurt students" because anything that does is "obviously counterproductive."

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former education secretary, said the autonomy of U.S. higher education is what makes it the best of the world, and he questioned whether Obama could enforce any such plan without hurting students. Potentially, billions of dollars are at stake. In the 2010-2011 school year, the federal government awarded $142 billion in federal student aid ? most of it directly to students in the form of grants and loans, according to the Education Department.

"It's hard to do without hurting students and it's not appropriate to do," Alexander said. "The federal government has no business doing this."

Some public institutions worry about being unfairly blamed for state cuts that led to an increase in tuition prices. Neal McCluskey, an education analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said it's difficult for the federal government to dictate what is a reasonable increase because some colleges and universities might have legitimate reasons to raise tuition some years, such as the need to replace buildings in disrepair.

Obama's plan reflects that in the race between subsidizing tuition with student aid and rising tuition, student aid is going to lose, said Andrew P. Kelly, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Instead of redesigning their business model or using more online programs to save money, many colleges and universities have made small changes hoping to wait out the nation's fiscal crisis that don't solve the problem long term, Kelly said.

"This signals I think a sense of how acute that problem is and the fact that it can't just be about pouring money into federal student aid programs and hoping that affordability is maintained, that there has to be some kind of way, or at least a signal sent, to the institutions that benefit, and the states, frankly ... that they just can't continue to ratchet up prices and use federal aid to fill in the gaps," Kelly said.

Even though it's not politically popular, McCluskey said a good way to control rising tuition costs would be to cut federal aid to students, which would force colleges and universities to keep tuition low.

This isn't the first time a politician has sought to control tuition costs. In 2003, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., proposed a plan to hold back aid to colleges and universities that raised tuition much faster than inflation. It met resistance from higher education and wasn't passed.

Come Friday, "we'll be watching and listening carefully," said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education.

___

Hefling reported from Washington.

___

Online:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Education Department: http://www.ed.gov/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Kellie Pickler grows up, gets personal on album (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Kellie Pickler wants you to know she's a traditional gal ? and she's making it very clear with her new album, "100 Proof."

The platinum blonde "American Idol" alum is pulling back from the pop-country tunes that once defined her, like "Red High Heels" and "Best Days Of Your Life," and replacing them with ones that reflect her traditional country roots. The album was released this week.

"I guess it's been like three-and-a-half years since my last record came out. ... So a lot has happened in my life. I'm married. I've grown up a lot, because when I started this I was 19 and green when I did my first record, `Small Town Girl,'" said Pickler. "So much has happened in my life. Most of it is on the record."

Pickler, 25, took cues from her musical heroes, the big wigs of women in country music. The opening track even name checks one of those legends in "Where's Tammy Wynette."

"I love Tammy Wynette. She's a big reason why I fell in love with country music. You wouldn't know that if you listened to (my) past things," Pickler said. "I love that sound, and I wanted to sprinkle a little bit of the people that influenced me to be here in the first place but make it my record."

Pickler wrote more on this album than in the past, penning six of the 11 songs. Two are very personal and reflect her separate, complicated relationships with her mother and father.

"Mother's Day" explains her mixed feelings about the day ? how she avoids it but wishes for a reason to celebrate. Her mom abandoned her when she was little, and they have no contact today. Pickler wrote the tune with husband Kyle Jacobs and reveals emotional growth that took years.

"I went through all of the stages of hurt and crying and mad and angry and just red, seeing red. I went through all of those emotions, which anyone would ... I had to get it out, and then I realized, this ain't working. This ain't making anything better," she said. "When you get to that place where you can forgive and just let go, it's so freeing."

On "The Letter," Pickler thanks her dad "for never giving up on us" and addresses his past struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. Pickler was raised by her father but lived with her grandparents when he was in prison.

"My dad was very much a part of my life growing up. However, when he was incarcerated we wrote letters back and forth, and I have every single one of them," she said.

"I see so much growth in both of us in a good way. There's a lot that's happened since the first letter was ever written," she said, fighting back tears. "Where we were then versus today, I mean it's night and day. It's my little treasure chest."

As for the rest of the album, Pickler doesn't lose her sassy personality.

"There's songs that are fun, upbeat. We've got `Unlock That Honky Tonk' that's rockin'. There's a lot of banjo. There's a lot of steel. There's a lot of fiddle. There's a lot of my favorite musical instruments," she said.

"Tough" was the first song released from "100 Proof." A friend wrote it for Pickler based on a conversation they had about her life.

"You think physically tough, but this song is about being emotionally tough. It's about being a tough woman. It's about letting the things and the obstacles and the speed bumps you hit in life; it doesn't bring you down. It makes you strong. It doesn't make you weak," said Pickler. "Like it or love it, this is the way I am."

__

Online:

http://www.kelliepickler.com

__

For the latest country music news from The Associated Press, follow http://www.twitter.com/AP_Country

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mu/us_music_kellie_pickler

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Video: After losing legs, teen embraces new life

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46162182#46162182

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THG Presents: Best of Celebrity Marijuana Scandals!

Sorry, Armie Hammer. Your arrest for marijuana possession didn't even make THG's Top 10 favorite marijuana scandals ... though it did inspire us to compile the list!

Note that there are plenty of pot smokers out there who don't appear here simply because they haven't been busted for their antics. We snub them, but they win!

Anyway, take a look at some recent stars involved in weed-related police matters below and vote for which celebrity stoner is your favorite ...

10. Chace Crawford / Matthew McConaughey (tie). The Texans tie for the 10 spot based on the classic mug shots taken after their respective arrests.

9. Snoop Dogg. Snoop's arrest this month was about as shocking as ... the #7 man on this list, who was also cited for possession in the same TOWN!

8. Jermaine Hopkins / Sam Hurd (tie). The Lean On Me star and Chicago Bears player may not be household names ... but were big time DEALERS.

7. Willie Nelson. Seriously, just leave Willie alone cops.

6. Soulja Boy. Recently pulled over with his entourage carrying a bunch of weed, cash and a gun. All in one briefcase. Sometimes you gotta travel light.

5. Michael Phelps. Don't hit the bong after winning a gold medal, kids.

4. Brooke Mueller. Charlie's ex claims her infamous crack pipe incident merely involved weed. Even if you give her the benefit of the doubt, what a mess!

3. Jenelle Evans. Girl can't go 24 hours without smoking up! Or getting arrested. At least some of her probation woes stem from positive drug tests.

Miley Cyrus Bong Video

2. Miley Cyrus. Our #2 scandal didn't even involve weed, necessarily ... but Miles totally smokes it, and who else could compete with this bong video!

1. DMX. The all-time king of celebrity mug shots is only slightly less known for his affinity for the sticky-sticky. Sometimes those things are related!

Who's your favorite celebrity stoner?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/thg-presents-best-of-celebrity-marijuana-scandals/

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Hyundai Motor reports record $7.2B profit for 2011 (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? Hyundai Motor's net profit jumped 35 percent to a record high last year after selling more than 4 million cars for the first time.

The company's 2011 earnings reached 8.1 trillion won ($7.2 billion), up from 6 trillion won a year earlier, the automaker said Thursday in a regulatory filing. Operating profit rose 36.4 percent to 8.07 trillion won.

Company officials said in a telephone conference that sales increased in countries such as the United States and China as well as at home. For the first time, the company sold more than 4 million cars in a year, they said.

Hyundai Motor Co., the maker of the Elantra and Sonata sedans and the Tucson SUV, is South Korea's largest automaker and a major force in the global auto industry. It has expanded aggressively overseas in recent years with factories in China, India, the Czech Republic, the United States and Russia.

Despite last year's growth, the company is wary of uncertainties in the global market as financial worries trouble European and other nations, it said in a statement.

Challenges from U.S. automakers are also expected to intensify in markets for small and medium-size cars while Japanese competitors are poised to unveil new models, Hyundai Motor said.

The South Korean automaker said it will focus on quality and consolidate its internal management rather than excessively expanding this year as it tries to deal with challenges.

"This means the company will concentrate on raising the profitability of its existing models through various sales tactics," said Chung Sung-yop, an analyst with Daiwa Securities in Seoul. He also expects the company to invest further this year in burnishing its brand at home and abroad.

Hyundai Motor owns a large stake in Kia Motors, South Korea's second-largest automaker, and they together form one of the world's largest auto groups.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/as_skorea_earns_hyundai_motor

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After solar flare, massive storm speeds Earthward

A solar flare Sunday triggered an outburst of solar material that should hit Earth Tuesday. The disturbance could lead to voltage swings on some power lines, as well as stronger northern lights.

An outburst from the sun late Sunday night is bathing Earth in the most powerful solar-radiation storm in six years.

Skip to next paragraph

The radiation storm is the first act of an event that will crescendo Tuesday, when the brunt of the outburst ? called a coronal-mass ejection ? arrives at Earth. It could trigger a disturbance of Earth's magnetic field, leading to voltage swings in long-distance power transmission lines as well as the appearance of the northern lights as far south as New York.

The current radiation storm?? rated an S3, or strong, on a scale of 1 to 5 ? could damage satellite hardware and present an increased risk of radiation exposure to passengers flying at high altitudes across polar routes, say space-weather specialists. These risks, however, are expected to be manageable. ?

The outburst, which occurred at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday, marks the second major solar eruption in three days.

Sunday's event began with a moderate solar flare that was "nothing special" on its own, says Doug Biesecker, a solar physicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.

But the flare triggered the release of billions of tons of energetic particles from the sun's atmosphere.?This coronal-mass ejection (CME) is hurtling toward Earth at 4 million miles an hour, "by far the fastest CME directed at the Earth during the current solar cycle," Dr. Biesecker says.?

CMEs are vast clouds of protons, electrons, as well as heavy atomic nuclei formed in the nuclear fusion reactions that power the sun.

This CME's unusually high speed is accelerating some of its protons to nearly the speed of light, and they are arriving in quantities not seen since May 2005.

The resulting radiation storm could cause some hardware or onboard software glitches for satellite operators. And radio communications at high latitudes, as well as navigation-satellite accuracy for high-precision uses, could suffer some degradation for the duration of the radiation storm.?

A geomagnetic storm Tuesday could further affect satellites.

For satellite operators, geomagnetic storms have a Janus-like quality. If strong enough, they can produce voltages on a satellite's exterior that can be powerful enough to arc and cause damage. And the storms can increase the atmosphere's drag on satellites, causing them to lose altitude.

But such storms also can increase drag on space junk that can pose a risk to satellites, sending more of it to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

This week's geomagnetic storm also could bring auroras to viewers farther south than usual.

Biesecker says the storm may reach a level that could render auroras visible as far south as Idaho and New York, and perhaps even Illinois and Oregon if the CME's intensity is large than estimated.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/fEXHPw7btaM/After-solar-flare-massive-storm-speeds-Earthward

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World needs 600 million new jobs in next decade: ILO (Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) ? The International Labour Organization sounded the alarm on the global jobs situation in its annual report on Monday and called for more coordination of fiscal policies, repair and regulation of the financial sector and support for the real economy.

"What has changed with respect to last year is that our forecast has become much more pessimistic," said Ekkehard Ernst, one of the report's authors.

"We had expected a gradual stagnation or coming down of unemployment numbers. That's not something we foresee this year any more. Even in our baseline the unemployment numbers are increasing. With a possibility of a serious deterioration of global growth these numbers actually increase very much."

The ILO says there are nearly 200 million unemployed and that another 40 million jobs need to be created each year for the next decade.

"Hence, to generate sustainable growth while maintaining social cohesion, the world must rise to the urgent challenge of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade, which would still leave 900 million workers living with their families below the $2 a day poverty line, largely in developing countries," the report said.

Even under fairly benign conditions such as a quick resolution of the euro debt crisis, the ILO expects global unemployment to be stuck at about 6 percent until at least 2016.

The data was based on figures for mid- or end-2011 for most countries, although ILO officials use their own estimates for the two biggest countries, China and India.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Ron Askew)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/bs_nm/us_economy_ilo

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Sony Xperia Ion pricing revealed?

Yup, it's another crumb of information making its way from the decidedly leaky ship that is Sony Mobile Communications -- as with all these, let's keep our tinfoil helmets set to skeptical. This time it looks like we've got rumored pricing for the Xperia Ion handset we played with at CES. A pre-order page has appeared at Negri Electronics that offers the handset for $569.50 unlocked. That sum of money will get you the AT&T-LTE phone with 16GB storage, a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 4.6-inch 720 x 1280 display and, erm, Gingerbread (we know ICS is coming to this device, but perhaps not in time for launch). Still, if you're prepared to take the leap, head on down to the source link to mark your place at the front of the post-Ericsson queue.

Sony Xperia Ion pricing revealed? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Arena  |  Negri Electronics  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/23/sony-xperia-ion-pricing-rumor/

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Brittany Kerr: New American Idol Bikini Girl!

Brittany Kerr, a cheerleader for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats and now a contestant on American Idol, probably can't challenge Phillip Phillips on talent alone.

She does bring other attributes to the table, however.

A massive surge in traffic from peeps looking for Brittany Kerr bikini photos crashed her manager's website the following day, according to reports.

Not only that, she's on her way to Hollywood! J.Lo wasn't impressed with her audition (below), but Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson sent her through.

Big surprise. No word if she'll don a two-piece in the next round ...

Brittany Kerr American Idol Audition

Kerr's management company wasn't the only thing affected. Jim Merrill, a photographer who recently shot Kerr in a bikini, had to buy more bandwidth.

Merrill typically gets about 5,000 hits a month on his website. Just moments after Kerr's audition, his traffic ballooned to 20,000 hits ... Wednesday.

The moral of the story? People love their American Idol. And cyber stalking pics of hot girls who become Z-list celebrities overnight. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/brittany-kerr-new-american-idol-bikini-girl/

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GOP race offers scattershot list of angels, demons (AP)

WASHINGTON ? In the short time since Mitt Romney tried unsuccessfully to leave the rest of the GOP field behind in New Hampshire, the presidential race has served up a scattershot cast of angels and demons as the candidates try to strike a chord with different slices of the electorate.

Capitalism was in, then out, then in again. Insurance companies got a sideways sympathetic nod. Mike Huckabee and Betty White proved to have some cachet. The press was an ever-popular whipping child.

Europe and entitlements, felons, food stamps and French: All were on the outs with one candidate or another.

Newt Gingrich even ran an ad faulting Romney for his language skills: "Just like John Kerry, he speaks French," it warned ominously.

The GOP challengers went after Romney's venture capitalist credentials with a vengeance ? most memorably when Texas Gov. Rick Perry rebranded him a "vulture capitalist" ? then eased up somewhat when they caught grief from the defenders of free enterprise.

For a little while, even insurance companies ? typically a popular target for politicians of any stripe ? got a little love after Romney said he liked the idea of being able to fire them for poor performance. The other candidates summoned a chorus of outrage at the notion that Romney would relish firing anyone.

Republican strategist Terry Holt said it all adds up to "a blizzard of buzz words" as candidates try to deliver a headline-grabbing quote that will get people's attention.

But does it work?

"Ultimately, it all blends together into a general sense of the candidate," says Holt. "The back-and-forth is lost on most people."

And there's been a lot of back-and-forthing.

Romney and Gingrich both ran ads trying to claim a little luster from popular conservative Huckabee by rolling out nice things he'd said about them. But it turned out Huckabee hadn't endorsed either of them, and both got a scolding from the former Arkansas governor.

President Barack Obama, watching the GOP race from the sidelines, had to be hoping that a little of Betty White's uncanny popularity would rub off when he taped a video piece for her 90th birthday in which he joked that the actress looks so good she should cough up her long-form birth certificate to prove she's really that old.

The GOP candidates trotted out plenty of reliable enemies ? "Obamacare," federal regulations, big government, the Dodd-Frank financial regulations ? but added some new ones to the mix as well.

Gingrich, catering to South Carolina sensibilities and its port communities, singled out the Army Corps of Engineers, complaining in Thursday's debate that the corps "takes eight years to study ? not to complete ? to study doing the port. We won the entire Second World War in three years and eight months."

Candidates' messages zigzagged all over in search of a winning line that would work with voters.

Earning money was good ? except if your name was Mitt Romney.

A super PAC supporting Gingrich made a half-hour movie attacking Romney for reaping "massive rewards for himself and his investors," complete with sinister music and a baritone-voice narrator.

Romney defended his capitalist credentials by lining himself up with the philosopher known as a father of capitalism, proudly announcing, "Adam Smith was right."

Perry managed to turn the news that U.S. troops had apparently been captured on video urinating on corpses in Afghanistan into an indictment of the Obama administration. The Texas governor accused the Obama team of piling on against "kids" who sometimes make "stupid mistakes."

It didn't do him much good: He was out of the race within days.

Then came the issue of infidelity: Gingrich chose not to comment on the details of his marriage to his second wife after she claimed that he'd asked her for an "open marriage" in which he could have both a wife and a mistress.

Gingrich managed to steer that conversation to the one enemy that all the candidates love to beat up on: the media.

"I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country," he declared.

But even rival Rick Santorum saw through the tactic, urging voters not to be swept away by Gingrich's blast at the press.

Republicans should "get past the glib one-liners, the beating up of the media, which is always popular with conservatives," Santorum said.

Democratic strategist Karen Finney said the Republicans' random list of friends and foes has emerged as candidates "try to pick off pieces of the Republican electorate" with very targeted appeals that will add up to an overall win in each primary or caucus state.

"The narrative is shifting based on the audiences they're speaking to," she said.

"There's always, `Who's the good guy and who's the bad guy,'" she said.

In this campaign, that lineup changes every day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_angels_and_demons

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PlayStation Vita gets updated 3G data plan, offers an extra gigabyte for a Lincoln

We can't say we were overly concerned about busting through the Vita's 2GB monthly data threshold when the handheld's 3G variant hits AT&T next month, but the network, it seems, isn't taking any chances. According to the Vita's AT&T page, Ma Bell's making sure you'll never be blocked from nabbing those download-capped PlayStation Minis by upping the previously announced 2GB for $25 plan to 3GB for $30. Surprised? Don't be -- this change just brings Sony's next generation handheld in-line with the network's updated data plans. The Vita's budget-friendly $15 for 250MB option is still ripe for the picking, but that won't get you far if you plan to watch Netflix on the go, will it?

PlayStation Vita gets updated 3G data plan, offers an extra gigabyte for a Lincoln originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ngX7RpOxRt4/

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James' passion, great range remembered (AP)

NEW YORK ? On her last album "The Dreamer," released just three months before her death, Etta James sings a mix of covers, from the R&B classic "Misty Blue" to the Ray Charles song "In the Evening." But perhaps the most curious tune included on the disc may be the Guns N' Roses staple "Welcome to the Jungle."

That a 73-year-old icon of R&B would tackle the frenetic rock song ? albeit in a pace more fitting her blues roots ? might seem odd. But the song may be the best representation of James as both a singer and a person ? rambunctious in spirit, with the ability to sing whatever was thrown at her, whether it was jazz, blues, pining R&B or a song from one of the rowdiest bands in rock.

"She was able to dig so deep in kind of such a raw and unguarded place when she sang, and that's the power of gospel and blues and rhythm and blues. She brought that to all those beautiful standards and rocks songs that she did. All the number of vast albums she recorded, she covered such a wide variety of material that brought such unique phrasing and emotional depth," said Bonnie Raitt, a close friend, in an interview on Friday afternoon after James' death.

"I think that's what appealed to people, aside from the fact that her personality on and off the stage was so huge and irrepressible. She was ribald and raunchy and dignified, classy and strong and vulnerable all at the same time, which is what us as women really relate to."

James, whose signature song was the sweeping, jazz-tinged torch song "At Last," died in Riverside, Calif., from complications of leukemia. Her death came after she struggled with dementia and other health problems, health issues that kept her from performing for the last two or so years of her life.

It was a life full of struggles. Her mother was immersed in a criminal life and left her to be raised by friends, she never knew her true father (though she believed it was billiards great Minnesota Fats), and she had her own troubles, which included a decades-long addiction to drugs, turbulent relationships, brushes with the law, and other tribulations.

One might think all of those problems would have weighted down James' spirit, and her voice, layering it with sadness, or despair. While she certainly could channel depression, anger, and sorrow in song, her voice was defined by its fiery passion: Far from beaten down, James embodied the fight of a woman who managed to claw her way back from the brink, again and again.

It's an attitude that influenced her look as well. Despite the conservative era, she dyed her hair platinum blonde, sending out the signal that she was far from demure, and owning a brassy, sassy attitude. She relished her role as saucy singer, a persona that she celebrated in her private life as well.

"In terms of 1950s rhythm and blues stars, she had kind of a gutsy attitude and she went out there and did what she did, and she was kind of bold ... and it had a huge influence," said David Ritz, the co-author of her autobiography "Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story." "I think her gutsiness and her lack of fear and just her courage (made her special). ... I believe that made her important and memorable."

Beyonce, who played James in the movie "Cadillac Records" about Chess Records, also spoke about her influence on other singers.

"I feel like Etta James, first of all, was the first black woman I saw with platinum, blonde hair. She wore her leopard and she wore her sexy silhouette and she didn't care. She was strong and confident and always Etta James," said Beyonce in a 2008 interview.

James could often be irascible. Ritz remembers when he was working with her on her autobiography, touring with her around the country, that one time he approached her with his tape recorder and she barked: "If see that tape recorder again I'm going to cram it up your (expletive)."

But at other times, she'd be effusive and warm and anxious to talk.

"Once she did talk, she was always candid and unguarded. She was a free spirit," Ritz said.

While Ritz put her in the category of other greats like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, she never enjoyed their mainstream success. Though "At Last" has become an enduring classic, there were times when James had to scrounge for work, and while she won Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she did not have the riches, the multitude of platinum records or the hits that some of her peers enjoyed.

"She at least enjoyed a great resurgence like John Lee Hooker did and B.B. King, (and) has had some great decades of appreciation from new generations around the world," said Raitt. "There's no one like her. No one will ever replace Etta."

And Ritz said the lack of commercial success does nothing to diminish her greatness, or her legacy.

"Marvin certain knew it and Ray knew it ... the people who know that she was in that category," he said. "Whatever the marketplace did or didn't do or whether her lack of career management didn't do, it has nothing to do with her talent."

And on Friday, the Queen of Soul was among those who paid tribute to James greatness, calling her "one of the great soul singers of our generation. An American original!

"I loved `Pushover,' `At Last' and almost any and everything she recorded! When Etta SUNG, you heard it!"

___

AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott and AP Writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_en_ce/us_etta_james_appreciation

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A big leap toward lowering the power consumption of microprocessors

Friday, January 20, 2012

The first systematic power profiles of microprocessors could help lower the energy consumption of both small cell phones and giant data centers, report computer science professors from The University of Texas at Austin and the Australian National University.

Their results may point the way to how companies like Google, Apple, Intel and Microsoft can make software and hardware that will lower the energy costs of very small and very large devices.

"The less power cell phones draw, the longer the battery will last," says Kathryn McKinley, professor of computer science at The University of Texas at Austin. "For companies like Google and Microsoft, which run these enormous data centers, there is a big incentive to find ways to be more power efficient. More and more of the money they're spending isn't going toward buying the hardware, but toward the power the datacenters draw."

McKinley says that without detailed power profiles of how microprocessors function with different software and different chip architectures, companies are limited in terms of how well they can optimize for energy usage.

The study she conducted with Stephen M. Blackburn of The Australian National University and their graduate students is the first to systematically measure and analyze application power, performance, and energy on a wide variety of hardware.

This work was recently invited to appear as a Research Highlight in the Communications of the Association for Computer Machinery (CACM). It's also been selected as one of this year's "most significant research papers in computer architecture based on novelty and long-term impact" by the journal IEEE Micro.

"We did some measurements that no one else had done before," says McKinley. "We showed that different software, and different classes of software, have really different power usage."

McKinley says that such an analysis has become necessary as both the culture and the technologies of computing have shifted over the past decade.

Energy efficiency has become a greater priority for consumers, manufacturers and governments because the shrinking of processor technology has stopped yielding exponential gains in power and performance. The result of these shifts is that hardware and software designers have to take into account tradeoffs between performance and power in a way they did not ten years ago.

"Say you want to get an application on your phone that's GPS-based," says McKinley, "In terms of energy, the GPS is one of the most expensive functions on your phone. A bad algorithm might ping your GPS far more than is necessary for the application to function well. If the application writer could analyze the power profile, they would be motivated to write an algorithm that pings it half as often to save energy without compromising functionality."

McKinley believes that the future of software and hardware design is one in which power profiles become a consideration at every stage of the process.

Intel, for instance, has just released a chip with an exposed power meter, so that software developers can access some information about the power profiles of their products when run on that chip. McKinley expects that future generations of chips will expose even more fine-grained information about power usage.

Software developers like Microsoft (where McKinley is spending the next year, while taking a leave from the university) are already using what information they have to inform their designs. And device manufacturers are testing out different architectures for their phones or tablets that optimize for power usage.

McKinley says that even consumers may get information about how much power a given app on their smart phone is going to draw before deciding whether to install it or not.

"In the past, we optimized only for performance," she says. "If you were picking between two software algorithms, or chips, or devices, you picked the faster one. You didn't worry about how much power it was drawing from the wall socket. There are still many situations today?for example, if you are making software for stock market traders?where speed is going to be the only consideration. But there are a lot of other areas where you really want to consider the power usage."

###

University of Texas at Austin: http://www.utexas.edu

Thanks to University of Texas at Austin for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116910/A_big_leap_toward_lowering_the_power_consumption_of_microprocessors

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Video: Obama to GOP: Game on!

>> and in a thursday debate mitt romney said it does not matter who wins the republican nomination because all of the candidates would be a better president than president obama . the president's first campaign ads hit the airways on friday. they defend the president's records, but republicans claim it shows a campaign that is panicked.

>> secretive oil billionaires attacking president obama with ads fact checkers are say not based on facts.

>> and joining us now, congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz. congresswoman, thank you so much for your time.

>> hi, tamron .

>> before we start about the president and the strategy, i'm so intrigued about what's going on between you and mitt romney . after new hampshire you said the victory for mitt romney wasn't really a victory. it's basically his second home. and he was at an event. i want to play what he had to say regarding you and defending the president's record. let's play it.

>> the president only got 80% last night. so i feel sorry for debbie wasserman-schultz. she's got to stand up for the president's record. and it's bad.

>> he reiterated a similar comment in south carolina . why is he so focused on you?

>> that's a good question. i think we've been able to throughout the early primary process, you know, put him back on his heels because he's out of touch with middle class and working families . he continues to refuse to come clean about his own financial record . why won't he release his tax returns . he won't be honest and forthright about what his real role at bain capital was, which which outsourced jobs to other countries and deliberately bankrupted companies. when you have a record as unacceptable as his is, it's not surprising to lash out at the person who is pointing that out. tamron , even the middle class republicans now are upset and are leaving mitt romney here in south carolina because at the end of the day you just want your candidates to be forthright and honest.

>> and it's interesting. i was having a conversation with a viewer of msnbc just recently. and they were saying mitt romney might be able to in the there's no way that newt gingrich could gravitate anywhere near the center. so i'll have to ask you, is there a so-called dream candidate, since everyone seems to say the president would love to run against mitt romney , or does it matter at this point?

>> it really doesn't matter. we've watched through the entire republican primary all of the candidates engaged in this circular firing squad . they've been obsessed with trying to out right wing each other. so at the end of the day , whether it's mitt romney who is simply continuing to play by a different set of rules, not release his tax returns , not be forthright about his true job was or newt gingrich , who continues to really go after the president when his own record certainly isn't one that anyone could write home about. the republican peefield is dramatically out of step with the needs of working families who president obama is fighting for so they can be successful, too. the republican field is fighting to keep people who are already doing well.

>> i want to play a few of the cl clips from thursday's debate. some of the criticism regarding the president. i'm intrigued what you have to say about the tone especially.

>> because he has to bow to the most extreme members of the environmental movement , he turns down the keystone pipeline , which would bring energy and jobs to america. this president is the biggest impediment to job growth in this country, and we have to replace barack obama to get america working again.

>> we have unemployment rate two and a half times, those who are college educated, and feel that no party cares about. you have the democratic party and barack obama and all he wants to do is make them more dependent. gives them more food stamps , more medicaid.

>> why is president obama being for young people allowed to stay on their parent's insurance until 26? because he can't get jobs for them to go out and buy their own insurance.

>> you have words like the president bowing down. the notion of food stamps and even with gingrich, people not being able to be independent enough to move out of their family's house because of the president. how soon will we see the re- election campaign really aggressively tout the successes of the president's resum? from health care , even though the republicans say they want to repeal it. you can now keep your child on your insurance. when will we see an aggressive push of the things the president's base really want to have him sell?

>> tamron , those clips wow showed weren't the most outrageous things that the republican presidential candidates said about president obama . and we are out there focused on -- well, president obama is making sure he can continue to be president, championing getting the jobs turned around. we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month when he took office. but president obama promised change when he campaigned for the presidency. the kind of change he brought us was rescuing the american automobile industry and making sure we save those 1.4 million jobs. making sure, as he promised, brought our troops home from the war in iraq , which he did at the end of december after promising that he would end that war. making sure that we could provide affordable quality health care to all americans , including the two and a half million young people who no longer have to worry about whether they can get health insurance because they can stay on their parent's insurance, or breast cancer survivors like me. the 47 million americans who live with a preexisting condition. thanks to the affordable care act , that gave them the no longer. barack obama has promised change. he delivered change. he made sure that we brought this country from the precipice of economic disaster to beginning to turn this economy around. he's going continue to fight hard for working families why we watch the republican field try out right wing each other. by continuing to tout an economy record that was one in which he devastated communities like those in south carolina when he was ceo of bain capital . there's a dramatic contrast. i think at the end of the day americans will reelect barack obama because they want to go in the direction he is going.

>> congressmthank you so much.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/46083255/

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Best of the US

updated 5:20 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2012

CHICAGO - Abby Wambach has been voted the U.S. Soccer Federation's female athlete of the year for the fifth time, matching Mia Hamm's record. Clint Dempsey has been voted top male athlete for the first time since 2007.

The USSF also said Friday that Brek Shea and Sydney Leroux were the top young athletes.

Wambach won previously in 2003, 2004, 2007 and last year. Hamm won from 1994 to 1998. Wambach scored four goals at the Women's World Cup, including one in the 122nd minute in the semifinals that forced penalty kicks and enabled the Americans to reach the final, where they lost to Germany.

Dempsey scored three goals at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Playing for Fulham, he passed Brian McBride to become the highest-scoring American in the Premier League.

Online votes counted for half the total, with the rest from media and USSF representatives.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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First American EPL hat trick

??Clint Dempsey became the first American to score a hat trick in England's Premier League, helping Fulham rally from a halftime deficit to rout Newcastle 5-2 Saturday.

Boris Streubel / Getty Images

Best of the US

Abby Wambach and Clint Dempsey are voted top players by the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46076706/ns/sports-soccer/

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Spotted: The Death Throes of a Sun-Grazing Comet

Sun-grazing comets are frustratingly elusive. As they approach the intense heat of the sun, these dirty snowballs turn to gas in a hurry and put on an impressive show before they disappear. But the intense solar radiation also makes the comet?s death extremely difficult to detect.

On July 6, 2011, solar physicist C.J. Schrijver of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center and colleagues became the first to directly witness a comet falling within the solar corona, a sort of blazing-hot atmosphere that surrounds the sun. Labeled C/2011 N3 (SOHO), the comet is from the Kreutz family, the source of about 80 percent of the comets that pass so close to our star. The comet, moving at roughly 1.3 million miles per hour, was only visible to scientists for 20 minutes before vaporizing.

Schrijver and his colleagues describe their observations of the destructing comet in a study released in Science this week. A series of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images captured by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on NASA?s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite enabled researchers to document the comet?s death plunge into the sun.

Before astronomers had the AIA, those studying the sun had just one megapixel camera at their disposal and could take a picture of a sun-grazing comet only about once every 5 to 15 minutes. But the 16-megapixel cameras aboard SDO can capture eight pictures every 10 seconds, and a dedicated ground station allows for much more information to be sent down from the satellite at one time. The sequence of frames enabled Schrijver and his team to track the comet?s glowing tail as it moved within about 62,000 miles of the solar corona before disintegrating.

Schrijver?s study provides a fascinating window into something that had always been hidden from view by the sun?s intense radiation. But researching the death throes of these sungrazing travelers could reveal some surprises about the sun and comets.

The researchers think the comet glows as it tears apart because charge-exchange collisions excite electrons into emitting EUV light as they transition to lower energy states. This glow lets researchers track the tail and thereby estimate the comet?s deceleration, as well as the total mass of the comet that was lost.

From the images, the researchers could also tell that the comet wasn?t one solid body. Instead, it was made of a number of clustered fragments that began to break off the closer the comet moved to the sun. Some of those fragments were larger than 10 meters in diameter.

Sun-grazing comets could also increase our understanding of the sun itself. Schrijver says that a comet can act almost like a probe, moving into otherwise obscured regions of the solar atmosphere and showing what?s going on in there. For example, the researchers suspect there are small variations in the density and speed of the solar wind?the stream of charged particles steadily emanating from the sun?and hope they can determine these variations by seeing how much of the comet?s tail is blown away from the sun?s surface.

These probe comets could also reveal new information about the sun?s mysterious magnetic fields, according to Karl Battams, a researcher at the Naval Research Lab and co-author on the paper. Unlike the earth?s magnetic field, the sun?s is constantly changing, creating sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other general outflows of matter that have a massive effect on earth, Battams says.

On December 15, 2011, an even bigger and brighter comet than C/2011 N3?this one called Lovejoy?cruised into the solar corona. But unlike its predecessor, this comet traveled through the corona and back out again. "[Lovejoy] gave us opportunity to see what the sun?s magnetic field is like," Schrijver says. "We can?t see it, we can only sense it because it does something to material that can glow."

The AIA images open an entirely new field of science that we never knew about before, Schrijver says. "It?s nice that nature gives us a tool to go there?by throwing a big piece of rock into that area and seeing what happens."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/telescopes/spotted-the-death-throes-of-a-sun-grazing-comet-6642150?src=rss

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Chef Paula Deen hid diabetes, pushed high-fat food (AP)

NEW YORK ? Paula Deen, the Southern belle of butter and heavy cream, is making no apologies for waiting three years to disclose she has diabetes while continuing to dish up deep-fried cheesecake and other high-calorie, high-fat recipes on TV.

She said she isn't changing the comfort cooking that made her a star, though it isn't clear how much of it she'll continue to eat while she promotes health-conscious recipes along with a diabetes drug she's endorsing for a Danish company.

"I've always said, `Practice moderation, y'all.' I'll probably say that a little louder now," Deen said Tuesday after revealing her diagnosis on NBC's "Today" show. "You can have diabetes and have a piece of cake. You cannot have diabetes and eat a whole cake."

Health activists and one fellow chef called her a hypocrite for promoting an unhealthy diet along with a drug to treat its likely effects. Deen added her support of the Novo Nordisk company to a collection of lucrative endorsements that include Smithfield ham and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Deen, who will turn 65 on Thursday, said she kept her diagnosis private as she and her family figured out what to do, presumably about her health and a career built solidly on Southern cooking. Among her recipes: deep-fried cheesecake covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, and a quiche that calls for a pound of bacon.

"I really sat on this information for a few years because I said, `Oh, my gosh, what am I going to do about this? Is my life fixing to change? Am I no longer going to like my life?" she asked. "I had to have time to adjust and soak it all in and get up all the information that I could."

While Deen, who lives in Savannah, Ga., has cut out the sweet tea she routinely drank straight through to bedtime and taken up treadmill walking, she plans few changes on the air.

Government doctors say that being overweight (as Deen is), over 45 (as Deen is) and inactive (as Deen was) increase the risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. Growth of the disease in the U.S. has been closely tied to escalating obesity rates. Roughly 23 million Americans are believed to have the most common Type 2 diabetes; patients' bodies either do not produce enough insulin or do not use it efficiently, allowing excess sugar, or glucose, to accumulate in the blood.

Deen is the pitch person for Novo Nordisk's new online program, Diabetes in a New Light, which offers tips on food preparation, stress management and working with doctors on treatment. She has contributed diabetes-friendly recipes to the website and takes the company's drug Victoza, a once-daily noninsulin injection that had global sales of $734 million in the first nine months of 2011.

A recipe for Lady and Sons Lasagna, on her diabetes-conscious site, uses extra-lean ground beef and cans of unsalted tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, for a dish estimated at 260 calories a serving. Turn to Deen's collection of recipes on The Food Network's site and find Grandmother Paul's fried chicken, with Crisco shortening for frying, or baked French Toast casserole, with two cups of half-and-half and a half-pound of butter. No calorie counts are estimated.

The Novo Nordisk site links to promotional materials for the drug Victoza. Company spokeswoman Ambre Morley and Deen declined to disclose how much she is being paid.

Deen said she had no help or advice to offer the public when she was first diagnosed, but feels she's making a contribution now.

None of that matters much to outspoken chef Anthony Bourdain, who has never been a Deen fan. He told Eater.com of her diabetes announcement: "When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2 diabetes ... it's in bad taste if nothing else."

In Yuba, Wis., Judd Dvorak watches Deen cook on TV all the time with his wife. He thinks Bourdain has the right idea. Dvorak said it's wrong for Deen to accept money to become a paid spokeswoman for a diabetes drug after espousing a cooking style that helps lead to diabetes.

"It would be like someone who goes on TV and brags about how wonderful it is to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day and then when he or she gets lung cancer becomes a paid spokesperson for nicotine patches," Dvorak said. "I feel it is in very poor taste and if she chose to become an unpaid spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association, that would be a better way for her to make a difference and help fight this horrible disease."

Deen also smokes, but she considers her heavy-handed food only one piece of the diabetes puzzle, with genetics, lifestyle, stress, age and race. She said she would never advocate smoking and her diabetes is "well under control."

While making changes in her personal life, she doesn't think her TV shows ? there are three ? will look much different. She spends about 30 days a year taping, "so I'm not cooking and eating that way every day."

That's something the public doesn't necessarily know. The food, Deen said, isn't really to blame.

"I am who I am," she said. "I think the South gets a bad rap sometimes, saying our food is very unhealthy, but frankly I don't think that's the case. I think it's like any other food, whether it be Italian, French, Cajun. They all can be very high in calories and that's where we have to practice portion control and moderation."

Morley said the company didn't know Deen had diabetes when it approached her about promoting the new health initiative.

"We really just wanted to ask her, `Hey, Paula, do you think we could challenge you to change up some of your recipes and make them diabetes-friendly," Morley said. "And her reply was, `How did you guys know I had diabetes?'"

It was a surprise to the Food Network as well. Network officials found out only last week, said spokesman Jesse Derris.

"As part of the Food Network's family, our only concern is for Paula's health. We will continue to support her as she confronts this new challenge, taking her lead on what future episodes will offer her fans," he said.

Some health experts question the delay between the time Deen was diagnosed with diabetes and her move three years later to promote a healthier way of cooking and living.

"A more responsible approach would have been that once she was diagnosed with diabetes to really emphasize to her viewers the importance of eating a healthy diet," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

____

AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Paula Deen's Food Network page: _http://bit.ly/pGT9n

Paula Deen's diabetes-friendly recipes: ? http://www.diabetesinanewlight.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_en_ot/us_paula_deen_diabetes

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