New head of National Weather Service named

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="asset-metabar-wrap" style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 20px 0px 23px 70px;"><div class="asset-metabar" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); display: table-cell; margin: 20px 0px 0px; width: 888px;"><span class="asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item" itemprop="name" style="float: left; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">Doyle Rice, USA TODAY</span><span class="asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item " style="border-left-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: #999999; float: left; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">3:05p.m. EST February 7, 2013</span></div></div><div class="asset-double-wide double-wide" itemprop="articleBody" role="main" style="color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative; width: 600px;"><div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative;"><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; width: 180px; z-index: 100;"><div class="image-wrap" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; padding: 3px; position: relative;"><img alt="uccellini" class="expand-img-vertical" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/02/07/louis2-3_4_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 232px; vertical-align: middle;" /><span class="toggle" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/sprites/asset-sprite.png); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 21px; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 21px; z-index: 200;"></span></div><div class="image-credit-wrap" style="color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;"><span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: National Weather Service)</span></div></aside><div class="article-metadata" style="position: relative;"><aside class="comp story-highlights " style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 60px; width: 180px;"><h3 class="hlts" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px auto; text-transform: uppercase;">STORY HIGHLIGHTS</h3><ul class="hlt" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Uccellini has been with the weather service since 1989</li><li class="hlt-item" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">He has co-written two books on northeastern snowstorms</li></ul></aside></div></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Louis Uccellini will be the new director of the National Weather Service, effective Sunday.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Uccellini, 63, has been with the weather service since 1989, most recently as the director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in College Park, Md. He will be the 16th director of the weather service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">He was the president of the American Meteorological Society and the author of more than 60 journal articles and chapters in books. He literally wrote the book about blizzards as the co-author of the two-volume book <i>Northeast Snowstorms.</i></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Uccellini replaces acting director Laura Furgione, who served since May. She replaced Jack Hayes, who was director from 2007 until last May. Hayes retired after an internal investigation found that agency staff improperly moved money among different accounts without congressional authorization.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Furgione will return to her position as weather service deputy director.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Uccellini becomes director at a challenging time for the agency, dealing with budget issues that could hamper efforts to improve such critical needs as weather satellites and weather prediction models.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In a telephone interview Wednesday, Uccellini stressed the importance of maintaining transparency in budget issues.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">He agreed with concerns within the meteorological community about the state of the top U.S. weather prediction model (the GFS), saying he will be "moving aggressively" toward its improvement.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"It's an honor to lead such a prestigious agency with the unbeatable mission of protecting lives and livelihoods," Uccellini said. "The past year had its success stories with superior outlooks, forecasts and warnings, including those for Sandy, but difficulties remain.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"Our eyes remain locked on the future to ensure a National Weather Service that is second to none and supports a weather-ready nation."</div></div></div>

National Weather Service NWS New head of National Weather Service named

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY 3:05p.m. EST February 7, 2013 (Photo: National Weather Service) STORY HIGHLIGHTS Uccellini has been with the weather s...

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Tiger Woods apparently loaned Lindsey Vonn his plane

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">By </span><span class="fn" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Jay Busbee, From: </span>http://sports.yahoo.com<br /><img height="400" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4.1DcritkErjQeoa6G.7uQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptusgolfexperts/d0209vonn.jpg" width="327" /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #414141; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.383333206176758px;">Lindsey Vonn boards Tiger Woods' plane. (Via TMZ)</span><br /><br /><div class="first" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.450000762939453px; padding: 0px;">Man, it's tough being a global celebrity. You do a friend a favor by sending them a plane, as friends do, and all of a sudden the press is all over it, making a big deal. Can't a multimillionaire get a little peace?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.450000762939453px; margin-top: 11px; padding: 0px;">By now you've probably heard that Tiger Woods allegedly sent his plane to help Lindsey Vonn get home following her injury during the world championships in Austria. TMZ snapped Vonn boarding the plane, and other outlets, including the Swiss tabloid-eseque newspaper Blick (as cited by Ski Racing Magazine) also reported that the plane was Woods'. While planes are indeed trackable and identifiable by their tail numbers, Woods' plane is private and therefore does not register its travels, and as you can see above, there's no plane number visible in that photo.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.450000762939453px; margin-top: 11px; padding: 0px;">Woods and Vonn have been the subject of plenty of rumors; Woods' story you know, and Vonn finalized her divorce in January. So there you go. However, Woods has made no public statement on the matter, and Vonn actually released a statement trying to shut down the rumors:</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.450000762939453px; margin-top: 11px; padding: 0px;">"Lindsey is currently in the midst of the World Cup season in Europe," the statement read. "Her focus is solely on competing and on defending her titles and thus she will not participate in any speculation surrounding her personal life at this time."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.450000762939453px; margin-top: 11px; padding: 0px;">Woods isn't scheduled to play again for several weeks. We're certain that he'll be forthcoming about his private life at his next press conference.</div></div>

Lindsey Vonn Tiger Woods Tiger Woods apparently loaned Lindsey Vonn his plane

By  Jay Busbee, From:  http://sports.yahoo.com Lindsey Vonn boards Tiger Woods' plane. (Via TMZ) Man, it's tough being a global cele...

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Kate Upton lands back-to-back Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="byline" style="background-color: white; color: #292727; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px;">By Chuck Schilken, From: http://www.latimes.com</span><br /><div class="date" style="background-color: white; color: #930000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin-top: 3px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateString" style="display: inline;">February 10, 2013</span><span class="dateTimeSeparator" style="border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: white; display: inline; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-left: 6px;">, </span><span class="timeString" style="display: inline; text-transform: lowercase;">4:00 a.m.</span></div><div class="date" style="background-color: white; color: #930000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin-top: 3px; padding: 0px;"><span class="timeString" style="display: inline; text-transform: lowercase;"><img alt="Kate Upton" height="640" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-51172059/turbine/lat-upton-wre0008189916-20130208/400/300x400" width="480" /></span></div><div class="date" style="background-color: white; color: #930000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin-top: 3px; padding: 0px;"><span class="timeString" style="display: inline; text-transform: lowercase;"><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; color: black; font-style: normal; text-transform: none;">Kate Upton graces the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue for the second consecutive year.</span><span class="credit" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; color: black; font-style: normal; text-transform: none;">(<span class="photographer">Derek Kettela / Sports Illustrated / Associated Press</span>/ <span class="dateMonth">February </span><span class="dateDay">8</span><span class="dateYear">, 2013</span>)</span></span></div><div class="date" style="background-color: white; color: #930000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin-top: 3px; padding: 0px;"><span class="timeString" style="display: inline; text-transform: lowercase;"><span class="credit" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; color: black; font-style: normal; text-transform: none;"></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Kate Upton looks [blank] on the cover of the 2013 <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/sports-illustrated-01026001767.topic" id="01026001767" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Sports Illustrated">Sports Illustrated</a> swimsuit issue.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">While many adjectives might spring to mind, Upton filled in the blank herself Friday after the image used on the front of the annual issue was released to the public.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"I look...Cold lol," Upton tweeted.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">No doubt that's how the model was feeling at the time of the photo shoot, which took place in Antarctica. "Took us 2 months to thaw out," she said in another tweet. </div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Upton and nine other SI swimsuit models will appear on "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday night. The issue will hit the stands the next day.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">After winning rookie of the year honors in her first SI appearance in 2011, Upton graced the front of the 2012 edition, which now makes her the first back-to-back swimsuit cover model since <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/television/tyra-banks-PECLB005432.topic" id="PECLB005432" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Tyra Banks">Tyra Banks</a> in 1996-97.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><br /></div>

hot Kate Upton pix sex Kate Upton lands back-to-back Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers

By Chuck Schilken, From: http://www.latimes.com February 10, 2013 ,  4:00 a.m. Kate Upton graces the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsui...

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MBTA resumes limited service

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 12px;">February 10, 2013 From: </span>http://bostonherald.com<br /><span class="views-label views-label-field-byline" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By</span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 13px;"> </span><br /><div class="field-content" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://bostonherald.com/users/laurel_j_sweet" style="border: 0px; color: #222222; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Laurel J. Sweet</a> / Boston Herald</div><br /><br /><div class="field-content" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="248" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://widget.newsinc.com/single.html?WID=1&VID=24356674&freewheel=69016&sitesection=bostonherald&w=440&h=248" width="440"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The MBTA is starting limited service this afternoon and plans to have public transportation service fully restored in time for tomorrow morning’s anticipated post-blizzard, rain-soaked commuter crush, but General Manager Beverly A. Scott cautioned “it will be challenging” through at least Wednesday, and riders need to plan ahead.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“This is an ‘oh my God’ situation,” said Scott, who is advising anyone with a regularly scheduled bus, subway or commuter rail train to catch to show up at least a half-hour early.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We’re going to take it a day at a time,” Scott said. “Plan for the worst and hope for the best. You have to be very, very nimble. It’s not going to be perfect. We’re going to be doing it our way, using good common sense judgement. You can either sit down and roll over and just let things happen to you, or you can have the attitude that this is the deck we’ve got, now let’s deal it.”</div><div id="oas_body_ad_wrapper" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="panel-pane pane-block pane-oas-middle" style="border: 0px; float: left; font: inherit; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="pane-content clearfix" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" hspace="0" id="ad_Middle" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="ad_Middle" scrolling="no" src="http://bostonherald.com/sites/default/files/oascache/bh.heraldinteractive.com/news/regional/article/Top_Bottom_Middle_Middle1_Middle2_Middle3_Position1_Position2_Position3_Right_x01_x05_x14_x15_x16/Middle.html" style="border-width: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" vspace="0" width="300"></iframe></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The T shut down at 4 p.m. on Friday ahead of the blizzard, and T officials say a disabled communications facility in Quincy thwarted an earlier re-opening.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Limited bus and subway service will be back on line as of 2 p.m. today, Scott said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">All subway trains on the Orange and Red Lines will be operational as of this afternoon. The Blue Line will run between Government Center and Orient Heights only. There will be no continuing service to stations in Revere.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Green Line, the hardest hit of T services, will only run between Kenmore and Lechmere stations, she said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also at 2 p.m., the T will restore its 1, 23, 28 and 39 bus routes, which service Boston College, most hospitals and the Massachusetts Avenue corridor from Cambridge to Dudley Square in Roxbury. Scott said returning all bus service is dependent in part on what streets are clear enough for passengers to safely wait and board, and where buses are able to turn around.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Silver Line will operate a 40-foot bus on Washington Street only.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We know folks have to knit their lives around what we say we can and cannot do,” Scott said. She praised the vast number of T employees who have fought their own battles to get into work, but cautioned, “They’re not the Jetsons. They have to be able to get in, too.”</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Furthering hampering efforts yesterday was that a radio tower in Quincy that Scott described as the T’s “central brain” was knocked out for most of the day by the same power outages plaguing everyone else.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Besides the obvious problems created by blizzard conditions on surface roads, Scott said one reason the T has been proceeding with caution is because she didn’t want to jeopardize tomorrow’s commute service.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“People in this community and this region, they depend on us,” Scott said. “We serve with pride - that’s the bottom line. This commonwealth won’t work if we don’t work. It makes you suck it up from inside.”</div></div>

MBTA MBTA resumes limited service

February 10, 2013 From:  http://bostonherald.com By   Laurel J. Sweet  / Boston Herald The MBTA is starting limited service this afternoon a...

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Grammys & Frank Ocean: Breakout Singer Up For Big Awards

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="bold color_1A1A1A" style="background-color: white; border: none; color: rgb(26, 26, 26) !important; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold !important; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By CHRIS TALBOTT</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"> 02/10/13 04:20 PM ET EST</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">From: </span>http://www.huffingtonpost.com<br /><img alt="Frank Ocean Grammys" height="291" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/983640/thumbs/s-FRANK-OCEAN-GRAMMYS-large.jpg?6" width="400" /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">Frank Ocean is in the running for big awards.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">LOS ANGELES — Everybody's thinkin' about Frank Ocean.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Ocean is a cause celebre and the man with the momentum as Sunday's Grammy Awards kicked off with pre-telecast wins by Rihanna and Mumford & Sons. One of six top nominees with six nominations apiece, the 25-year-old R&B singer turned cultural talking point will have the music world's attention.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">It remains to be seen if it will be the "Thinkin Bout You" singer's night, but there's no question he's dominated the discussion so far. Already a budding star with a gift for building buzz as well as crafting songs, Ocean was swept up by something more profound when he told fans his first love was a man last fall as he prepared to release his major-label debut, "channel ORANGE."</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">It was a bold move and one that could have submarined his career before it really even got started. Instead, everyone from Beyonce to the often-homophobic R&B and rap communities showed public support. It was a remarkable moment.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">"It speaks to the advancements of our culture," renowned producer Rick Rubin said. "It feels like the culture's moving forward and he's a representative of the new acceptance in the world for different ideas, which just broadens (our experience), makes the world a better place."</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">A recent altercation in a parking lot with Chris Brown only focused more attention on Ocean. Ocean says Brown was the aggressor; both are competing against each other in one of the Grammy categories.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Ocean is up for the major awards best new artist, album of the year and record of the year when the show airs live on CBS at 8 p.m. EST from the Staples Center, sharing top-nominee billing with fun., Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z and Kanye West.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The Grammy pre-telecast awards show got under way Sunday afternoon at the Nokia Theatre with 70 trophies up for grabs, including rock, pop, rap and country categories. Rihanna's "We Found Love," featuring Calvin Harris, won the day's first award, short form music video. Mumford & Sons took their first Grammy, winning along with Old Crow Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros for their long form video documentary "Big Easy Express."</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Celebrities also began rolling down the red carpet in the early afternoon, but it remained to be seen if any would try to skirt CBS's mandate that stars dress appropriately with butts, breasts and other sensitive areas covered adequately.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">""I think it's just, you know, we should always stay classy and dress according to the event that's being held," Ashanti said on the red carpet. "So I don't think people should be limited so much and told what you can and cannot do. But, you know, you do have to have a certain class and prestige about yourself."</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Ocean might be riding a wave toward some of the night's biggest honors, but R&B and hip-hop performers have had a spotty history at the Grammys recently when it comes to major awards.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Only one R&B act has won album of the year this century, and it's hard to even call him just an R&B act given his legend, artistic scope and material: Ray Charles for his "Genius & Friends," an all-star collaboration that was honored posthumously.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Also limiting Ocean's chances for a clean sweep are his fellow top nominees. Fun. became just the second act to sweep nominations in all four major categories with a debut album, equaling Christopher Cross' 1981 feat. Like Cross' "Sailing," the New York-based pop-rock band has ridden along on the crest of an inescapable song: "We Are Young," featuring Janelle Monae.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Cross won five Grammys, sweeping the major awards. Fun. likely will have a much harder time piling up that number of victories because of the buzz surrounding the group's competitors. It's not just Ocean who has people talking.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">London-based folk-rockers Mumford & Sons had one of the top-selling albums of the year with "Babel" and already has a history with The Recording Academy's thousands of voters, having been nominated for major awards the year prior. Also, The Black Keys have a winning track record at the Grammys.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">And don't count out West and Jay-Z, who were shut out of the major categories but remain very much in voters' minds.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Jack White's "Blunderbuss" competes with fun.'s "Some Nights," Ocean's "channel ORANGE," Mumford's "Babel" and The Keys' "El Camino" for the night's top award, album of the year.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," featuring Kimbra, Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" join the fun., Ocean and Black Keys entries in record of the year.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Fun. and Clarkson also are nominated for song of the year along with Ed Sheeran's "The A Team," Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and Miguel's "Adorn."</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">And rounding out the major categories, fun., Ocean, Alabama Shakes, Hunter Hayes and The Lumineers are up for best new artist.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Those major nominees figure prominently on the 3 1/2-hour telecast, broadcast live on CBS.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Swift will kick things off with a show-opening performance. Fun. and Ocean will take the stage. Others scheduled to perform include Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood, Clarkson, White and Juanes.</div><div style="border: none; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">There will be no shortage of mashups the Grammys have become famous for, either. Elton John, Mavis Staples, Mumford, Brittany Howard, T Bone Burnett and Zac Brown are saluting the late Levon Helm, who won the Americana Grammy last year a few months before his death. The Keys will join Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on stage. Sting, Rihanna and Bruno Mars will perform together. Other team-ups include Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, and Alicia Keys and Maroon 5.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><script src="http://pshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js?sid=281&width=560&height=345&playList=517617251" type="text/javascript"></script> </div></div>

Frank Ocean Grammy Grammys & Frank Ocean: Breakout Singer Up For Big Awards

By CHRIS TALBOTT  02/10/13 04:20 PM ET EST From:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com Frank Ocean is in the running for big awards. LOS ANGELES — ...

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IMF DOCTRINES AND ITS GEOPOLITICAL IMPACT

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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_Qzqa9pdsHMjo9PIFdu3ngVcCUwmjEXXeVsPNc1ssOpHQns9LW6b_ddEj63F75s3pO3h8jztsPlh_gsxBDt7F38UddPMi2VFYaocDOMyg042RbgQ8kyVkP3PpWMPleIXvEkupm-ocF0s/s1600/imf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_Qzqa9pdsHMjo9PIFdu3ngVcCUwmjEXXeVsPNc1ssOpHQns9LW6b_ddEj63F75s3pO3h8jztsPlh_gsxBDt7F38UddPMi2VFYaocDOMyg042RbgQ8kyVkP3PpWMPleIXvEkupm-ocF0s/s200/imf.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">IMF PLEADS GUILTY BUT INSISTS ON AUSTERITY </span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">By Julio Godoy via IDN</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Under different conditions, the recent admission by the head economist of the <a href="http://www.imf.org/">International Monetary Fund</a>, Olivier Blanchard, that the Fund was dead wrong when it prescribed tough austerity measures to countries trapped in a sovereign debt crisis and in recession, would be a reason for satisfaction. But the price paid by the youth in GREECE, ITALY, PORTUGAL, and SPAIN, to name only the EUROPEAN victims of the IMF ill advices, is too high for celebrating being right. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The IMF ‘mea culpa’ has been making the rounds in global economic forums since last October, after the Fund’s 2012 <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/02/pdf/text.pdf">World Economic Outlook</a> (WEO) admitted the miscalculations. IMF said that it had underestimated the multiplier effects of the austerity measures it had been preaching since decades.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1XktPydVM_hlcKpyyDpczvnuNWJ2lhWLqWRtgFKlWPRnzTNSBL3yI8FnL7Z3TeU8dTulxBEB66bk2i4_T5muLdzJXJXA_Tl7ecfhuIEl5nZv_JnYFs2qtDX7TDEp7INm4orOlFfjRAUeb/s1600/voting_rts_imf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1XktPydVM_hlcKpyyDpczvnuNWJ2lhWLqWRtgFKlWPRnzTNSBL3yI8FnL7Z3TeU8dTulxBEB66bk2i4_T5muLdzJXJXA_Tl7ecfhuIEl5nZv_JnYFs2qtDX7TDEp7INm4orOlFfjRAUeb/s640/voting_rts_imf.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Until October, IMF assumed that, roughly speaking, the multiplier of fiscal cuts was 0.5 percent. In other words, the Fund estimated that cutting government spending by one percent of gross domestic product would lead to a drop of 0.5 percent of economic activity.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Theoretically, small fiscal multipliers allow states to cut public spending without sacrificing economic growth. Conversely, if fiscal multipliers are large, austerity measures attempting at consolidating the fiscal situation of a given country with large deficits are deemed to be self-defeating, leading to an even larger deficit and to an acceleration of economic downturn.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">AUSTERITY THERAPY APPLIED BY IMF SINCE THE 1980S AND UNTIL THE SUMMER OF 2012 WAS BASED ON A WRONG READING OF THE WORLD'S ECONOMIC HISTORY</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In the title of the now famous box 1.1. of the 2012 WEO, IMF authors rhetorically asked: "Are we underestimating short-term fiscal multipliers?" In the subsequent text, they answered right away: Yes, we are! "A number of policy documents, including IMF staff reports, suggest that fiscal multipliers used in the forecasting process are about 0.5," they said. "In line with these assumptions, earlier analysis by the IMF staff suggests that, on average, fiscal multipliers were near 0.5 in advanced economies during the three decades leading up to 2009." But they were wrong, for the 2012 WEO results "indicate that multipliers have actually been in the 0.9 to 1.7 range since the Great Recession."</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">To put it bluntly: The austerity therapy IMF applied since the 1980s and until the summer of 2012 was based on a wrong reading of the world's economic history, which, however incorrect, fitted very well into the basic tenets of neoliberalism, that public spending is evil and must be consistently curtailed. Only by October 2012, that is, more than three years since the EUROPEAN sovereign debt crisis broke out, and with youth unemployment reaching 50 percent in the affected countries, the Fund came to realise that the negative multiplication impact of austerity actually was two or three times higher; that is, that a fiscal cut of one percent of GDP would make the economy shrink by up to 1.7 percent.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">By so doing, IMF wiped out its own long-cherished anthem, which preaches that cuts in public and social expenditure are sine qua non to fiscal consolidation and sustainable economic growth. Worse still, IMF also found out that during economic downturns, the expenditure multipliers are up to ten times larger than tax multipliers. That means that during a recession, cuts on public spending lead to a dramatic worsening of the fiscal situation of a country in question, instead of helping to consolidate its state accounts.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As if that wouldn't be bad enough, IMF also concluded that the multipliers in the EURO ZONE were actually higher that the above-mentioned estimates: A fiscal squeeze of one per cent of GDP operated in an economic downturn and based on expenditure cuts, leads in the EURO ZONE to a further economic shrinking of 2.5 per cent, thus strengthening a vicious circle of recession, austerity, and impoverishment.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CATASTROPHE</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3YUk-rN1bJA?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Under such assumptions, austerity measures imposed by the IMF in complicity with the EUROPEAN UNION and governments in NORTHERN EUROPE, especially that in Berlin, upon the MEDITERRANEAN country members of the EURO ZONE, which demanded fiscal cuts well over one percent of GDP, constituted a recipe for economic and social catastrophe.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Such warnings had been issued by numerous economists and commentators – practically since the beginning of the crisis in late 2009. And these had been proved by factual economic development in GREECE, ITALY, SPAIN, and PORTUGAL.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The undeniable fact is that austerity measures applied during the recession have strengthened the recessionary tendencies of the economy, leading to a skyrocketing unemployment, without bringing forth a positive perspective that fiscal consolidation can be achieved within a sensitive period of time.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But the IMF, the EU, and leading economists and officials in Berlin, did not want to listen, either deafened by their ill-advised neoliberal dogmas, or maybe intentionally, to squeeze the modest prosperity reached during the last two decades out of Southern EUROPE.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">See:  C<span style="font-size: large;">YPRUS UNDER THE CLAWS OF THE IMF</span></span><br /><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/cyprus-under-claws-of-imf.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/cyprus-under-claws-of-imf.html</a></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Earlier this month, IMF again released <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2013/wp1301.pdf">another working paper</a> on fiscal multipliers and austerity, focused on the EURO ZONE, and co-authored by Olivier Blanchard, the Fund’s top economist. The new paper repeats the admission that the Fund has since decades consistently underestimated the fiscal multipliers – a 'mea maxima culpa', so to speak.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"Forecasters significantly underestimated the increase in unemployment and the decline in domestic demand associated with fiscal consolidation," Blanchard and co-author Daniel Leigh, another IMF fund economist, write in the paper.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Blanchard and Leigh also admit that they could not actually determine what multipliers the IMF economists at the country level were using in their forecasts. As Blanchard and Leigh put it, "Forecasters do not typically use explicit multipliers, but instead use models in which the actual multipliers depend on the type of fiscal adjustment and on other economic conditions. Thus, we can <b><u>only guess</u></b> what the assumed multipliers, and by implication the actual multipliers, have been during the crisis."</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The emphasis is mine. The IMF officials used the low multiplier as given, for it fitted the neoliberal assumptions that cuts in public spending are indispensable for fiscal consolidation and sustainable growth, and not as a variable that needed to be examined and revised and adjusted based on national circumstances.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3hBYAcPPYQM?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">TOO LATE</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Obviously, the IMF's mea culpa comes too late, for at least two reasons. Not only have the policies its wrong reading of economic history inspired, damaged the EUROPEAN economies for years to come, provoking what can be called a lost decade, similar to the one LATIN AMERICA suffered in the 1980s and particularly ARGENTINA, which defaulted in 2001because it followed the ill advice of the IMF. These policies have in fact condemned a whole LATIN AMERICAN and EUROPEAN generation to unemployment, poverty, and emigration.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rpkGhy7BxXw?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Additionally, other centres of economic analysis have long ago confirmed what many assumed since the very beginning of the crisis, and the IMF has been too late in drawing appropriate lessons. For instance, the <a href="http://www.niesr.ac.uk/">National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR)</a>, a London-based research organization, estimated last October that the ratio of debt to gross domestic product will be around 5 percentage points higher in both the UK and the EURO ZONE because of the spending cuts and tax rises pursued from 2011 to 2013.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The NIESR study implicates that the current austerity strategy being pursued by individual member countries, as well as the EU as a whole, is fundamentally flawed and is making matters worse.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"Not only would growth have been higher if such policies had not been pursued, but debt-to-GDP ratios would have been lower," the report, written by economists Dawn Holland and Jonathan Portes, said. "It is ironic that, given that the EU was set up in part to avoid coordination failures in economic policy, it should deliver the exact opposite."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But, if you expected that the IMF would rethink its position on austerity after learning that the basic assumptions underlining it were false, than you were as wrong as the Fund: Blanchard and Leigh still argue in favour of cuts in spending, regardless of their economic and social consequences:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"Our findings that short-term fiscal multipliers have been larger than expected do not have mechanical implications for the conduct of fiscal policy," they say. "Some commentators interpreted our earlier box as implying that fiscal consolidation should be avoided altogether. This does not follow from our analysis. The short-term effects of fiscal policy on economic activity are only one of the many factors that need to be considered in determining the appropriate pace of fiscal consolidation for any single economy."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Blanchard and Leigh obviously believe that the long-term unemployed youth in SPAIN, GREECE and PORTUGAL will certainly appreciate IMF's short-term analysis.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="watch-title"><br /></span></div><h1><a href="http://www.youtube.com/show/empire"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></b></a><span title="The IMF on trial"><span class="watch-title"></span></span></h1>

IMF DOCTRINES AND ITS GEOPOLITICAL IMPACT

IMF PLEADS GUILTY BUT INSISTS ON AUSTERITY By Julio Godoy via IDN Under different conditions, the recent admission by the head economist o...

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2013-02-08 Spike activity « Mind Hacks

<base href="data:"><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><i>The New York Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/sunday-review/raging-again-against-the-robots.html?smid=tw-share" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">covers</a> the recent upsurge of robots-taking-over-the-world anxiety. To the bunkers!</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The dodgy practice of psychologists trying to <a href="http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/still-profiteering-from-anxiety.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">patent</a>therapeutic techniques is covered by <i>Neuroskeptic</i>.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><i>The Humanist</i> discusses the explosion of the unhelpful concept of <a href="http://thehumanist.org/july-august-2012/you%E2%80%99re-addicted-to-what/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">sex addition</a>.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Forensic psychology nerds: <i>In The News</i> covers the latest in the debate on the<a href="http://forensicpsychologist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/showdown-looming-over-predictive.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">accuracy</a> of violence risk assessments.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><i>The Bangkok Post</i> on the <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/health/334826/technology-damages-brain" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">bizarre</a> Thai government announcement that calculators, phones "and even karaoke machines" could damage memory, lead to Alzheimer's disease. Bryan Adams covers, screaming fits. 80s hair metal, unfortunately lycra incidents.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">People without an amygdala can experience <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2013/feb/03/neuroscience-health" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">fear</a>. <i>Neurophilosophy</i> covers an intriguing new study.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><i>Wired Danger Room</i> on the cost of war to the US: currently, <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/cost-of-war/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">at least</a> 253,330 brain injuries, 129,731 cases of PTSD – and counting.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><i>Missouri Public Radio</i> on how <a href="http://kbia.org/post/former-army-psychologist-larry-james-speaks-mu-audience-about-potential-hire" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">ex- Abu Ghraib</a> chief psychologist Larry James wants to launch a national gun violence prevention center. Presumably, by waterboarding assault rifle owners.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Short-term exercise boosts <a href="http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/short-term-exercise-boosts-body-image.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">body image</a> without making any physical difference. The <i>BPS Research Digest</i> on the short-term psychological effects of exercise.</p><p style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><i>Scientific American</i> has an important piece on the science of what life events can trigger <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=triggers-of-depression" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">depression</a>.</p><div style="font-family: Helvetica; color: black; text-align: left; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; ">After a nonsense article on 'girls and the science gap' two neuroscientists write a stirling <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/feb/08/pseudoscience-stereotyping-gender-inequality-science" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(225, 212, 57); ">reply</a> on why pseudoscience and stereotyping won't solve the problem in<i>Notes and Queries.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; color: black; text-align: left; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; "><br></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; color: black; text-align: left; "><a href="http://mindhacks.com/2013/02/09/2013-02-08-spike-activity/">http://mindhacks.com/2013/02/09/2013-02-08-spike-activity/</a></div>

2013-02-08 Spike activity « Mind Hacks

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news: The New York Times   covers  the recent upsurge of robots-taking-over-the-world anxie...

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News - Beware of neuro-bunk

<base href="data:"></base><br /><div style="color: black; text-align: left;"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; z-index: auto;"><strong style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Can a cheese sandwich or chocolate help you make better decisions? Can a brain scan cure mental illness?  Or are these just two examples of neuro-bunk, where neuroscience is being overly simplified and distorted to sell products and newspapers?</strong></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">In a recent <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk.html" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">TED talk</a>, neuroscientist and Gates Cambridge Alumna <a href="http://www.gatescambridge.org/our-scholars/Profile.aspx?ScholarID=4831&keywords=molly&search=Search" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Molly Crockett</a> [2006] talks about how to spot when neuroscience has been simplified to support unrealistic claims.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">She talks about an experiment she conducted which involved people drinking a horrible-tasting concoction which depleted the amino acid tryptophan. She found that depleting tryptophan made people more likely to take revenge when they were treated unfairly.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">The headlines that emerged from the study suggested cheese sandwiches and chocolate, which contain tryptophan, could help people make better decisions.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Does this oversimplification matter, asks Molly. After the reports were published, she was approached by marketeers and others interested in getting her to endorse their products. She says neuroscience is being increasingly used to sell products without any evidence to back up the claims made on their packaging.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">In the TED talk, she shows how putting a picture of a brain on something makes people more likely to believe in the product. "Brains sell," she says.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Molly, who did a PhD in Experimental Psychology, says there is some very exciting neuroscience taking place, but a lot of the deductions made by non-scientists about neuroscientific research are neuro-bunk.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">One report, for instance, claimed that brain scans show that people love their iPhones because they show that a part of the brain linked to love is active when people look at pictures of iphones. However, that part of the brain - the insula - is also involved in other emotions, such as pain and anger, says Molly.  Another study claims the hormone oxytocin is the 'moral molecule' because it is involved in trust and empathy, but other studies suggest it is also linked to envy and bias towards one's own group. Boosting it could therefore lead to a decrease in co-operation. It could just as easily be called the 'immoral molecule', says Molly.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">She adds that clinics in the US are making millions by offering brain scans to people, including children, claiming they can identify and prevent mental illness and help overcome marital conflicts.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">"The broad consensus in neuroscience is that you cannot yet diagnose mental illness from a single brain scan," says Molly, who is currently working with support from the four-year Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship studying human altruism in laboratories worldwide.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">She says there is tremendous potential for neuroscience, but it is too early to make overblown claims about its abilities.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">"Real science is playing a much longer game," she says. In the meantime, people should question any claims on products which say they are backed by neuroscience and they should expect the answers not to be simple, because the science is not simple.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #192126; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; z-index: auto;">She states: "[Neuroscientists] haven't found a 'buy' button inside the brain, we can't tell whether someone is lying or in love just by looking at their brain scans, and we can't turn sinners into saints with hormones."</div></div><a href="http://www.gatescambridge.org/news/detail.asp?ItemID=13676">http://www.gatescambridge.org/news/detail.asp?ItemID=13676</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>TED Talk:</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Brains are ubiquitous in modern marketing: Headlines proclaim cheese sandwiches help with decision-making, while a "neuro" drink claims to reduce stress. There's just one problem, says neuroscientist Molly Crockett: The benefits of these "neuro-enhancements" are not proven scientifically. In this to-the-point talk, Crockett explains the limits of interpreting neuroscientific data, and why we should all be aware of them.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk.html</a></div><div><br /></div>

News - Beware of neuro-bunk

Can a cheese sandwich or chocolate help you make better decisions? Can a brain scan cure mental illness?  Or are these just two examples of ...

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Babe of the Week...Ladies of the Write

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Last night Jay and Matt talked about writing and writers on the IWS Radio Show, so in keeping with that, here's a few Writing Babes of the Week:<br /><br /><b>Sylvia Plath</b>...A hot and tortured writer of the past.  Mysterious, dark, but I hear she was a hoot at parties....<br /><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJpciMLneF2aOwVwkXhUTq4etScBhjEh7P8PEX_IiVxk3YDOoopN16Apyfp_N7Otfnu3JjDdOpZwn6o5uEzOsWpufv9Y83c9KyWX1MQrQ497BBzPLYV0T2XjMv2GP3S5Qv1Xv7oPVYuSM/s1600/Sylvia+Plath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJpciMLneF2aOwVwkXhUTq4etScBhjEh7P8PEX_IiVxk3YDOoopN16Apyfp_N7Otfnu3JjDdOpZwn6o5uEzOsWpufv9Y83c9KyWX1MQrQ497BBzPLYV0T2XjMv2GP3S5Qv1Xv7oPVYuSM/s400/Sylvia+Plath.jpg" width="317" /></a></div><br /><b>Nora Roberts</b>...Prolific author of romance novels who looks like a less attractive Pat Benatar...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIT4pAC73XBMZegpbSYO4PET4v8vdDoreF6x4hPoBTexfy_9wJOUqevMtkkg1ALOc03dioTN9fINI0wNJdK0PrnPFF87H1ADGpySxUCXtKmWxiJcS4w6SqQbQGLXLheqfvm1aUdocJw4k/s1600/Nora+Roberts.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIT4pAC73XBMZegpbSYO4PET4v8vdDoreF6x4hPoBTexfy_9wJOUqevMtkkg1ALOc03dioTN9fINI0wNJdK0PrnPFF87H1ADGpySxUCXtKmWxiJcS4w6SqQbQGLXLheqfvm1aUdocJw4k/s400/Nora+Roberts.jpeg" width="322" /></a></div><br /><b>J.D. Robb</b>...Prolific author of thriller/mystery books who looks like a less attractive Nora Roberts...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxzEZBp-dPq9S3aKXMY0fiP1dDOiwFGhirAQuFuws9YBDkQtMXo8IdGNR78FDYroM-zRzyAHdpBQFrVJatOO5QlZA2pE9rVde_LKrhqNVFhtXZmYMOBKlfyYYU11GdNDm5lEo7o22b_s/s1600/J.D.+Robb.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxzEZBp-dPq9S3aKXMY0fiP1dDOiwFGhirAQuFuws9YBDkQtMXo8IdGNR78FDYroM-zRzyAHdpBQFrVJatOO5QlZA2pE9rVde_LKrhqNVFhtXZmYMOBKlfyYYU11GdNDm5lEo7o22b_s/s400/J.D.+Robb.jpeg" width="322" /></a></div><br /><b>J.K. Rowling</b>...The creator of Harry Potter and ruler of a vast empire consisting of fame, wealth, and a legion of geeky followers...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwKCMO8otvO9SqivQ-7HwYkm0NPzQbsNmGjPYhUfIA1xZKFlg2J4tnI7JhYaIipRluzr-r-znxWd-y_MV2RYruRdMl7Ch3xJm-jV_v0TewJOszrZ0hQZHuy55XO9izFH5h1SaS1LvVd8/s1600/JK+Rowling+Sexy+Harry+Potter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwKCMO8otvO9SqivQ-7HwYkm0NPzQbsNmGjPYhUfIA1xZKFlg2J4tnI7JhYaIipRluzr-r-znxWd-y_MV2RYruRdMl7Ch3xJm-jV_v0TewJOszrZ0hQZHuy55XO9izFH5h1SaS1LvVd8/s400/JK+Rowling+Sexy+Harry+Potter.jpg" width="288" /></a></div><br />And there you have it...If you missed Jay and Matt live as they talked about writers and writing, you can catch the show right here:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" height="105" id="143577" name="143577" width="210"><param name="movie" value="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf?file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4387595&autostart=false&bufferlength=5&volume=80&corner=rounded&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flashplayercallback.aspx" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="menu" value="false" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf" flashvars="file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4387595&autostart=false&shuffle=false&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashPlayerCallback.aspx&width=210&height=105&volume=80&corner=rounded" width="210" height="105" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" wmode="transparent" menu="false" name="143577" id="143577" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object></div><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 220px;"><br /></div></div></div>

Babe of the Week...Ladies of the Write

Last night Jay and Matt talked about writing and writers on the IWS Radio Show, so in keeping with that, here's a few Writing Babes of t...

Read more »