| Eating Well, Harvard-Style
These days, it's a piece of (low-calorie) cake to find sugar-free, fat-free, or even carb-free foods. Politic-free foods, on the other hand, are not so easy to come by. If you're worried about how food industry lobbyists have corrupted the government's dietary guidelines, fret no more: Harvard has created its own food pyramid! In 2005, the USDA replaced its 1992 food pyramid with a new version, which Walter C. Willett, Frederick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, dubbed “a complete joke." The pyramid's recommendations (heavy on dairy, meat, and grains) are rife with political undertones, according to Jami M. Snyder, Communications Coordinator of Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS). “It's very convenient for the industry," Willett said. “Everyone's in the game." So Willett created his own food pyramid, displayed in Harvard's dining halls and his book “Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy." Willett's design distinguishes between good and bad fats and carbohydrates, less dairy than the government's dietary guidelines, and “sparing" servings of red meat and white bread.
Pay reforms said to need scrutiny, care-taking
New agency pay-for-performance initiatives are highly vulnerable to bias and need extra evaluation and money to succeed, several witnesses told a House subcommittee on Tuesday. Human capital experts and union representatives pointed to pay systems at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service to make their case before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce. In September 2007, an arbitrator ruled that SEC's new pay system held vague and subjective performance requirements and discriminated against African Americans and employees age 40 and over. Meanwhile, employees have demonstrated little buy-in for pay reforms at the IRS. "The implementation of these systems must be evaluated with the same intensity that the Bush administration, and other pay-for-performance proponents, advocated that these systems be implemented," said subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis, D-Ill.
Hollywood Shuffle: Eminem’s Grand Theft? Tyra Gets Messy? RZA’s ...
If you haven't heard or seen from me lately that's because I have been crawled up in a little ball still trying to recover from the Patriots' Super Bowl loss. But as they say, the show must go on! At least the bright side of this week is it looks like the Writer's Strike here in Hollywood might finally be coming to a close. Alright…let's move on to this week's Hollywood Shuffle!
Eminem was attached to Grand Theft Auto - The Movie
According to various sources around Hollywood, a Grand Theft Auto Movie was pitched to Rockstar, the video game producers, last spring with Eminem attached as the lead. Like other best-selling video games such as Halo, Grand Theft Auto is considered one of the premiere projects for a movie studio to land but it has been met with difficulty bringing to film.
MISSY SAYS NAME MY ALBUM: Five-Time Grammy Award Winner Let's Her Fans ...
Five-time Grammy Award winner Missy Elliott is giving fans the opportunity to name her new album, due out on Goldmind/Atlantic late Spring 2008. Fans can enter immediately via Missy's website, www.missy-elliott.com. The contest closes on February 20th and the winner will be announced on March 2nd. The winner will receive credit on Missy's new album and a $500 "Respect Me" adidas gift card. Fans have already gotten a sneak peek of what Elliott has been up to with "Ching-A-Ling," a new song which, along with Elliott's "Shake Your Pom Pom," will appear on both the "STEP UP 2 THE STREETS - ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK" (due out today, February 5th) as well as on Elliott's forthcoming 7th studio album (due out Spring 2008).
Wyldwood closings delayed again; Developers ask for patience in ...
Closings on local properties were initially scheduled to be completed at the end of January, but were then rescheduled for late this month. Those closings will now come at the end of March, officials with the venture said.Speaking on behalf of the developers, attorney Gerald J. Kelly urged patience."Everyone needs to be patient. It is rare that a $600 million project tries to move forward in a relatively rural venue. Many of the traditional strengths of a venue are not in place, such as infrastructure, airports and other significant attractions. It takes a great deal of time stating the case for this project and insuring everyone remains on board," he said.
.
U of M identifies more evidence linking obesity to increased risk of ...
A cancer researcher with the University of Minnesota Hormel Institute in Austin has found further evidence of a link between obesity and an increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Approximately 40 percent of the 45 million women in the United States between the ages of 45 and 75 are obese.
Margot Cleary, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and metabolism at Hormel Institute and member of the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, led the research team on this laboratory study. Their findings are published in the current issue of the British Journal of Cancer.
This research study is one of the first to investigate the function of a hormone protein called adiponectin (Acrp30) that is only produced in body fat. The study was done in mice and breast cancer cell lines developed from women of postmenopausal age and diagnosed with breast cancer.
A Growth Maven's New Favorite: Gold
NOT MUCH ESCAPES THE ATTENTION OF THIS wise and wily investor. Near visionary in his ability to identify trends and capitalize on them, Joseph McNay has made a lot of people and institutions wealthy in the 40-plus years he's been plying the investment trade. He manages more than $3 billion at Essex Investment Management in Boston, a firm he founded, including its flagship long-short fund and a natural-resources fund. One of the all-time greats of growth investing, McNay is now pounding the table for, of all things, gold. Attention must be paid. Barron's: Are we in a recession or are we perhaps talking ourselves into one? McNay: We certainly are in an economic slowdown, and my personal opinion is that we are in the early phases of a recession. Whether we are in a recession or not is irrelevant because we are slowing down, and results are becoming more negative.
Calcium rich, budget-wise foods to build bones
If you're bemoaning the high price of milk, we've got a surprise: It's still the best deal in town when it comes to calcium. Even at $4 a gallon, milk costs just 25 cents for an 8-ounce serving, and an 8-ounce glass delivers 30 percent of the Daily Value for calcium plus 25 percent of the DV for vitamin D, as well as other important nutrients."I had always heard that [milk was the cheapest way to get calcium], but had never done the math," says registered dietitian Georgia Kostas, founder and former director of the department of nutrition at the Cooper Clinic. But it makes sense, she says: The more food is processed – into cheese, for example, and shredded after that – the more it costs. Milk prices started rising sharply in 2004, according to U.S.
Search continues for gunman in suburban strip mall killings
Tracy Caccavella was shopping at a Pet Smart store late Saturday morning across the parking lot from the Lane Bryant when she saw police enter the pet supply store."Six police entered the store with their hands on their gun holsters," Caccavella said.The small red and brown brick Lane Bryant is part of a cluster of four or five stores isolated on one side of a large blacktop parking lot, with big box stores including Target and a Best Buy several hundred yards away.A message left Sunday with a spokeswoman for Lane Bryant's parent company, Bensalem, Pa.-based Charming Shoppes Inc., was not immediately returned Sunday. .
Fire alarm: The cost
Long Islanders are paying big-city prices to preserve a small-town volunteer fire service that struggles to keep pace with the growing demands placed upon it.
High cost of fire protection
Long Island is the last densely populated region in America served almost exclusively by volunteers. Their service is cherished by many residents as the ideal of what a community should be, neighbor caring for neighbor. But between 1980 and 2000, the costs to taxpayers of supporting fire districts more than doubled after adjusting for inflation, growing almost three times as fast as spending by other local governments.
With 179 different agencies -- each with its own rules, budgets and closely held membership lists -- fire protection on Long Island is so fragmented that it has long defied analysis.
|
