For the first time in decades, interest rates for jumbo home loans are lower than rates for a typical mortgage. And because of that, the luxury market is the fastest growing sector of home loans. In Phoenix, sales of homes that cost more than $500,000 are up 64 percent.
Washington (AFP) - The United States was spared the ignominy of a disastrous debt default Wednesday when Congress passed a bill extending the nation's borrowing authority and ending a two-week government shutdown.
After weeks of tumultuous debate, the measure passed first with less than two hours to run until October 17, the date from which the Treasury had warned it might not be able to pay its bills.
The last-gasp plan will stave off the most pressing crisis by extending the US Treasury's borrowing authority until February 7.
Lawmakers also reached agreement on re-opening shuttered federal agencies, bringing hundreds of thousands of furloughed employees back to work and funding government through January 15.
Even before the acrimonious battle reached its finish with the House vote, President Barack Obama said he would sign the bill "immediately" as he sought to heal the wounds caused by the showdown.
But he also warned that Washington must stop governing by crisis.
US leaders needed to "earn back" the trust of the American people in the aftermath of the crisis, Obama said.
"We'll begin reopening our government immediately, and we can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people."
The administration's budget director Sylvia Burwell said "employees should expect to return to work in the morning."
With a bitterly divided Congress locked in stalemate for a month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid worked behind closed doors with his Republican rival Senator Mitch McConnell to craft the compromise that had eluded Washington.
"The bipartisan senate rose to the occasion and broke this deadlock," number two Senate Democrat Dick Durbin said.
The mood from many House Republicans was a begrudging acceptance of a deal many of them felt failed to address their desire to rein in outsized federal spending and roll back the president's health care law known as "Obamacare."
House Budget chairman Paul Ryan, who voted against the bill, called it a "missed opportunity."
"Today's legislation won't help us reduce our fast-growing debt," he said. "In my judgment, this isn't a breakthrough. We're just kicking the can down the road."
While the deal was welcomed on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broader S&P 500 index up almost 1.4 percent, the signs of a close-to-humiliating, last-minute bid to avert possible global economic turmoil were plain to see.
The International Monetary Fund's managing director Christine Lagarde, who over the past week had pleaded with US lawmakers to come to their senses, praised them for taking the "necessary step" of lifting the debt ceiling.
"Looking forward, it will be essential to reduce uncertainty surrounding the conduct of fiscal policy by raising the debt limit in a more durable manner," she said.
After the agreement was unveiled, House speaker John Boehner bowed to the inevitable and admitted there were "no reasons" to vote against the bill, while maintaining that Republicans didn't like its terms.
"We fought the good fight, we did everything we could. They just kept saying no, no, no," Boehner said of lawmakers in Obama's Democratic Party.
"Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president's health care law will continue," Boehner added, apparently seeking to placate Tea Party-backed Republicans.
The legislation would allow government to borrow beyond its current $16.7 trillion debt ceiling to meet its obligations.
It also provides full retroactive pay to those ordered off the job during the shutdown.
The US economy has faced uncharted waters during the more than two-week crisis, with the Treasury saying that from Thursday it would no longer be able to borrow more money and avert a devastating debt default.
Ratings firm Standard & Poor's said the government shutdown had already taken $24 billion out of the economy and will cut growth in the fourth quarter significantly.
House conservatives have thus far thwarted votes on the debt ceiling and on passing a budget, demanding concessions from Obama.
Democrats have refused to allow Republicans to hold those issues to "ransom" with attempts to slash spending or dismantle Obamacare.
But Wednesday's deal includes a mechanism that forces lawmakers into entering long-term budget negotiations, with recommendations due by December 13.
As a sign of good faith regarding what is bound to be a brutal budget battle, Democratic Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray said she would sit down for breakfast Thursday with Ryan to discuss the path forward.
US officials and lawmakers are likely to seek to soothe rattled world markets and re-iterate that the full faith and credit of the United States remains intact.
The Fitch ratings agency on Tuesday underlined the seriousness of the situation by putting the US government's AAA credit rating on a downgrade warning.
Major world powers have been left looking on in dismay, unable to do anything to protect their own economic interests, with many deeply invested in US Treasuries -- hitherto seen as a safe haven.
China and Japan, which between them hold $2.4 trillion in US Treasuries, have expressed alarm and annoyance at the bitter political partisanship that has caused the weeks-long crisis.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — American Express says its net income rose 9 percent in the third quarter, as cardholders spent more in the U.S. and elsewhere. The results trumped Wall Street estimates.
The New York-based company said Wednesday that spending on its global network jumped 7 percent in the June-September period. It also benefited from growth in income from interest charges, as well as card loans.
American Express cardholders tend to be more affluent than other credit card users, which is one reason the company has done well as the nation's economy has gradually improved despite a sluggish global economy.
Unlike Visa and MasterCard, which only process transactions, American Express issues its own cards. When cardholders charge more on their AmEx cards, the company earns even more in interest income and a variety of fees.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, American Express reported net income of $1.36 billion, or $1.25 per share. That compares with net income of $1.25 billion, or $1.09 per share, in the same period last year.
Revenue increased about 6 percent to $8.3 billion, from about $7.86 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting, on average, earnings of $1.22 per share on revenue of $8.23 billion.
Shares in American Express ended regular trading up $1.07 at $76.32. The stock added 23 cents to $76.55 in extended trading.
EE, the UK's largest 4G LTE provider, has today announced a range of new tiered data plans, along with the country's first pay as you go 4G LTE offering. The new plans are designed to offer the benefits of super-fast mobile data, yet become more affordable than ever before, and could be worth a look with a new iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c.
EE will start offering a range of 'entry-level' tariffs starting from £18.99 per month and offering download speeds of up to 30Mbps. Along side this, a "4GEE Extra" offering is being brought to the table, beginning at £26.99 a month, which claims to offer customers "access to the worlds fastest 4G speeds," the biggest UK data allowances for 4G, inclusive roaming calls and texts in 30 countries worldwide and fast track customer service.
Some bold claims aside – especially since Three is yet to come on board with its promised unlimited LTE – it's great news for UK smartphone owners that EE is beginning to drive the prices down for 4G LTE. The network is a year older than competitors, but competition is what we need to drive the prices to more affordable reaches. For full information on the new plans, head on over to the source link below.
Source: EE
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Kirkuk (Iraq) (AFP) - A bomb ripped through a crowd of worshippers as they left a Sunni mosque in Iraq Tuesday, killing 12 people, as they marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Three children, a policeman and an army officer were among the dead from the blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, which also wounded 26 people, police and a doctor said.
Bodies, their clothes covered in blood, were placed in the back of a police pickup truck to be taken away, an AFP journalist reported.
Angry and grieving people railed against those who carried out the attack, shouting: "God take revenge on those who are evil!"
Worshipper Khalaf al-Obaidi said he narrowly avoided the blast because he had gone to greet one of his brothers inside the mosque instead of leaving.
"Then the bomb exploded," Obaidi said.
"You look and you see your friend or your brother or your relatives (on the ground). Even an infidel would not do this," he said. "God willing, there will be security and safety for this country and its poor people."
Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) to sacrifice his son at God's command, is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year.
In Iraq, as around the Islamic world, people mark the holiday by slaughtering an animal, normally a sheep, and giving the meat to the poor.
As with various other religious occasions in Iraq, observance differs between Sunnis and Shiites.
Eid al-Adha begins for Sunnis on Tuesday this year, while most Shiites consider Wednesday to be the first of the holiday.
"We ask God to keep the ghost of sectarian strife... and civil war, on which those who sold their soul to the devil are insisting, away from our country," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in pre-recorded remarks broadcast on Tuesday.
"Our region today is in a storm of violence moved by sectarianism and terrorists, and our country is in the heart of this storm," he said.
On Monday, UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov had called for unity in Iraq on the occasion of the holiday.
“On this Eid and at this crucial time, I would like to plead for unity and understanding among all the Iraqis and their political, religious, and civil leaders," Mladenov said in a statement.
"It is only through working together that the people of Iraq can stand up to the violence that is tearing society apart."
Other attacks in Kirkuk, Nineveh and Baghdad provinces on Tuesday killed three people and wounded three more, officials said.
Almost nothing is safe from attack by militants in Iraq, and violence has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.
Secure targets such as prisons have been struck in recent months, along with cafes, markets, mosques, football fields, weddings and funerals.
Attacks on both Sunni and Shiite gatherings have raised fears of a relapse into the intense sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007.
Analysts say the Shiite-led government's failure to address the grievances of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority -- which complains of being excluded from government jobs and senior posts and of abuses by security forces -- has driven the surge in unrest.
Violence worsened sharply after security forces stormed a Sunni anti-government protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23, sparking clashes in which dozens died.
And while the authorities have made some concessions aimed at placating anti-government protesters and Sunnis in general, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-Al-Qaeda fighters, underlying issues remain unaddressed.
The government has enacted new security measures, stepped up executions and carried out wide-ranging operations against militants for more than two months, but has so far failed to curb the violence.
The latest unrest takes the number of people killed so far this month to more than 310, and to over 5,000 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.
Promoting their spinoff reality show, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jenni “JWoww” Farley headed to "Extra" in Universal City, California on Tuesday (October 15).
The pint-sized realty star wore a pretty white and black blouse with black pants while her bestie dwarfed her in a black top, tan jacket, and jeans.
Though the new season of "Snooki and JWoww" doesn't air for another week, fans can get their dose of Nicole on "Dancing with the Stars."
Last night, Snooki celebrated the most memorable year of her life by dancing in honor of her baby boy, Lorenzo.
5 hours ago
Craig Sjodin / ABC
Christina Milian and "Dancing With the Stars" pro Mark Ballas.
"Dancing With the Stars" pro Mark Ballas didn’t do the press line after getting booted from the ballroom alongside star Christina Milian on Monday night. The two-time mirror ball champion wasn’t planning on being ousted, and since the ejected duo leaves immediately for a New York media tour, Ballas had to go home and quickly pack some clothes.
As for his celebrity partner, Milian spoke to the media after the live broadcast about her surprise expulsion from the reality competition.
“I was shocked, for sure,” she told TODAY. “I’m not saying it should have been anybody else, but to be honest, after having a great performance you feel a bit more confident.”
Milian and Ballas indeed had excellent reasons to believe they were safe. Head judge Len Goodman gave them the first 10 of the season for their cha-cha Monday, and the duo was tied with Corbin Bleu and his partner, Karina Smirnoff, at the top of the leaderboard with a score of 28.
So why were fan votes — the lack of which sent Milian and Ballas packing — so far out of line with the scores?
Maybe last week's brouhaha, caused when guest judge Julianne Hough joked that Ballas tends to outshine his dance partners, played a role.
“Who knows?” Milian said. “I don’t want to blame it on her, (but) she is very present. She has a presence and is very likable.”
Milian's cha-cha kicked off with a series of solo moves that, as it turns out, were in direct response to Hough's remark.
“Yes, that was on purpose, absolutely,” Milian confirmed to TODAY. “Mark said, ‘Okay, if she thinks I overshadow you, we’re going to have a whole intro with you dancing.’"
“Mark and Julianne go way back,” noted pro Cheryl Burke. “I thought (her remark) was kind of harsh, but they grew up together and are really close. Maybe it was an inside joke?”
But the joke, if it was one, is now behind them. Milian is now focused on her gratitude to Ballas.
“I told him he did such a great job and (our being voted off) has nothing to do with (him)," she said. "I wish I could be here longer, but I have no regrets.”
But she does have that sense of shock — over that unexpected ouster. Even Leah Remini, who was in jeopardy before Milian got the ballroom boot, was surprised.
“I thought, ‘Wow, the show must be fixed,’” the comedic actress deadpanned.
But when a another reporter asked Milian if she thought that was a possibility, she was quick to shoot it down.
"I don’t think it’s rigged at all," she insisted.
With Mobile You, the final week of Talk Mobile 2013 done, it's time for another survey, because we just love quantifiable data here. These surveys have helped us learn more about you and how you use your devices, as well as giving us the data to build awesome infographics for gaming and keyboards. Bringing together everything we from across all of Talk Mobile, Mobile You week was just full of awesome - from how to pick your device, what's best for you, what they can do for you, and how we truly make these devices our own.
So here is the Mobile You week survey - it's only a few dozen questions so it shouldn't take too long. Plus they're all multiple choice questions, and being a survey there's no "right" answer (so we better not catch you cheating off your neighbor). And because we love you, completing the survey will enter you for a chance to win a $100 Best Buy gift card. Bribery, incentive, cash-for-data, call it what you want, it's potentially gadget money you didn't have before, so that's cool, right?
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc next Tuesday is expected to introduce a new line-up of iPads that will compete with the latest tablets from Amazon.com Inc and Samsung Electronics, amid pressure to preserve market share.
The company sent out invitations to media on Tuesday for the October 22 event that read, "We still have a lot to cover" and sported a close-up, half-view of Apple's logo. The usual stylized, elliptical apple-stalk is replicated and scattered throughout an attached image in multiple hues.
New versions of the iPad, which will go up against Amazon.com's latest Kindle Fires and gadgets made by Samsung, are expected to feature lighter, thinner designs and more powerful processors. The iPhone maker has come under pressure over the past year to preserve market share and bolster sales against rivals that are rapidly raising capabilities and lowering prices.
News of the October 22 event was first reported by AllThingsD last week.
(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Published on October 10th, 2013 |
Edited by: Jim Destefani
Zircotec selected as finalist for British automotive innovation award
The British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders recently announced the shortlisted entries for its Award for Automotive Innovation 2013, and Zircotec Ltd., a supplier of ceramic thermal barrier coatings for exhaust and other automotive applications, is one of the finalists. The company’s coatings, which enable use of lightweight composites in high-temperature applications, have been used in Formula One and other racing applications. The technology’s first application to a production vehicle was on the Aston Martin One-77 (pictured above; credit: Aston Martin). Results will be released on Nov. 26.
NGK Ceramics plans North Carolina expansion
(Area Development Online) NGK Ceramics USA will invest for than $22 million to expand its operations in Mooresville, N.C., with plans to create 18 jobs. The company manufactures ceramic substrates for automotive catalytic converters and currently employs more than 600 people at the Mooresville plant. According to a company official, NGK will expand its powder preparation facility over the course of the next year, enabling increased exports to NGK plants in Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, and China.
Solidia CEO speaks on cement, concrete sustainability
“Sustainability must stand on its own two feet,” Solidia Technologies CEO Tom Schuler said during a panel presentation at the recent annual forum of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Cement Sustainability Initiative. CSI invited Schuler to speak on new sustainable technologies, the challenges of introducing innovation, and the company’s patented technology, which it claims can reduce the carbon footprint of cement and concrete products up to 70%. Cement production is the world’s second largest source of greenhouse gases, accounting for 5–7% of global GHG emissions. Solidia’s cement formulation requires less energy to produce and concrete made using the product cures with carbon dioxide rather than water, effectively sequestering the world’s most common GHG.
Morgan Advanced Materials launches improved stave-shaped ceramic components
Morgan Advanced Materials is offering improved stave-shaped ceramic components for defense and commercial sonar applications. Ceramic materials are used in many sonar systems where high acoustic transmission properties are required in low-frequency environments. According to the company, the new products are operable at extremely low depths and continue to work even in the most severe bathythermal conditions. The “stave” components are assembled to create large ceramic rings and used as underwater projector transducers. Known as segmented construction, the technique allows production of very large rings. The new components are available in lengths and widths from 10–165 mm and thicknesses from 10–40 mm. Materials include the company’s PZT400 and PZT800 piezoelectric formulations, which are said to ensure low dielectric and mechanical losses in the transducer for optimal acoustic output and efficiency.
UK production equipment supplier secures record contract
(Eastern Daily Press) PCL Ceramics, a ceramics processing equipment supplier based in King’s Lynn, UK, has won a record £5.45m contract to supply its RotoBowl pressure casting equipment to Monticello, Ind.-based Patriot Porcelain LLC. The patented machinery will be fabricated at PCL’s King’s Lynn plant before delivery to Patriot, a supplier of ceramic products for the US market. “This is the first major investment into the North American ceramics industry for many years, and it’s an indication of manufacturers pulling back from Chinese manufactured products in favor of local production on cost and environmental grounds,” says PCL managing director Mark Butler.
By Richard Cowan and Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators said they were closing in on a deal Monday that would reopen the government and push back a possible default for several months, though many hurdles remained as a Thursday deadline drew near.
Ahead of a meeting with President Barack Obama, the Senate's top Democrat and top Republican both said they were optimistic that they could soon reach an agreement that would allow them to avert a looming default and end a partial government shutdown that has dragged on for 14 days so far.
"I'm very optimistic that we that we will reach an agreement that's reasonable in nature this week," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor.
Reid and his Republican counterpart, Senator Mitch McConnell, were due to meet at the White House later with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Any deal would also have to win approval in the House, where conservative Republicans have insisted that any continued government funding must include measures to undercut Obama's signature health law - a nonstarter for Democrats.
The White House meeting, originally set for 3 p.m. (1900 GMT), was postponed to give lawmakers more time for negotiations.
"My hope is that a spirit of cooperation will move us forward in the next few hours," Obama said after visiting a charity organization for low-income families where some furloughed government workers have been volunteering.
The plan under discussion would raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by enough to cover the nation's borrowing needs into 2014, according to Senate aides. It also would fund government operations through January 15, keeping in place the across-the-board "sequester" cuts that took effect in March.
The deal would not resolve the disagreements over long-term spending and health care that led to the crisis in the first place. It would amount to a clear retreat for Republicans who have sought to tie any continued funding and borrowing authority to measures that would undercut Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. Still, McConnell echoed Reid's comments that a deal could come together soon.
"I share his optimism that we we're going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides," he said on the Senate floor.
The Treasury Department says it cannot guarantee that the U.S. government will be able to pay its bills past October 17 if Congress does not raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by then.
A default would likely come by November 1 as Treasury would not have enough tax revenue coming in to cover interest payments, retirement benefits and other obligations.
WEIGHING ON THE ECONOMY
It is unclear whether Congress can meet that deadline. Even if Republicans and Democrats in the Senate reach agreement on Monday, hard-liners such as Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz might be able to exploit Senate rules to delay a vote for several days.
Republican leaders in the House face strong pressure from a vocal conservative flank that is deeply reluctant to make concessions to Obama and his Democrats.
Though Treasury likely will have enough cash on hand to meet its obligations for a week or so, it might be forced to pay a higher interest rate on debt it is due to issue on Thursday.
Banks and money market funds are already shunning some government securities that are often used as collateral for short-term loans and to facilitate many other transactions. In China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, the state news agency Xinhua said it was time for a "de-Americanized world."
U.S. stocks fell at the open on Monday but by the afternoon were showing gains, buoyed by prospects of a fiscal deal. The S&P 500 Index was up 0.33 percent while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.56 percent.
The government shutdown, now in its 14th day, is beginning to weigh on the economy as well. The hundreds of thousands of federal employees who have been temporarily thrown out of work are likely to get back-pay when the standoff is resolved. But they aren't getting paid now, forcing many to dial back on personal spending and cancel holiday travel plans.
The crisis is only the latest in a series of budget battles in recent years that have repeatedly spooked investors and consumers. The uncertainty has weighed on the economy and boosted the unemployment rate by 0.6 of a percentage point, or the equivalent of 900,000 jobs since late 2009, according to a new estimate by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a think tank.
Any agreement that would come in the following days would not resolve disagreements over long-term spending and the Affordable Care Act that led to the standoff in the first place. Despite the objections of Tea Party faction conservatives, many Republicans are eager to move the discussion away from "Obamacare" and toward possible spending cuts.
"All of us now are talking about spending, which is where we should have been in the first place," Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said on MSNBC.
Throughout the shutdown, Obama has said Republicans must agree to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling before the two sides can begin talks on spending or tweaks to his Affordable Care Act.
That position has not changed.
"We will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit," the White House said in a statement on Monday morning.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Tim Reid, Susan Heavey and Steve Holland; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Karey Van Hall, Claudia Parsons and Tim Dobbyn)
Arunachalam Muruganantham installs his machine in a village in Chhattisgarh, India.
Arunachalam Muruganantham installs his machine in a village in Chhattisgarh, India.
Arunachalam Muruganantham had his light bulb moment when he was 29 years old, and holding a sanitary napkin for the first time.
Examining the cotton pads he was buying as a gift for his new wife, the Indian entrepreneur realized that the multinational company that produced them was probably spending cents on raw materials, and making a huge profit.
Women in Muruganantham's village in Tamil Nadu, including his wife, would often forego these expensive pads for rags they used repeatedly through their cycles. Even more uncomfortably, sometimes they utilized husks or leaves during menstruation.
The exorbitant cost of the foreign-made pads cut into their families' meal budget. Given a choice between fresh pads and fresh milk, they chose the latter.
A new movie, Menstrual Man, documents how, at great personal cost, Muruganantham created a cheap machine to address persistent menstrual hygiene challenges for rural women on the subcontinent. But, as director Amit Virmani points out, the product's traction may have more to do with social entrepreneurship than with health concerns.
Women whose self-help groups buy Muruganantham's machine can make more than a dollar a day — close to a global poverty line — selling the pads.
Sanitary napkins from global companies are in Indian stores for about $1.50 for an eight-pack. The ones from Murugantham's machine wholesale at about 25 cents for an eight-pack; the women's groups can sell them at whatever retail price they choose, retaining the profit. The cost of the machines ranges from about $1,200 to $6,000, depending on the features.
"The primary impulse when people are struggling to make a living is either, 'How can I make more money?,' or 'How can I save more money?'," Virmani said. "If you address those needs, your innovation stands a better chance to be adopted, to spread."
The machine, which Muruganantham began to research in 1998, has three stages of production. Inside a stainless steel container, a motor fluffs cellulose to prepare it as the core material for the napkins. Hand- and leg-operated tools are used to form the core of the napkin. A heat press is used to seal and apply the outer cover to the napkin. It's sterilized and packaged, and then ready to sell.
Muruganantham's invention was already spreading across India when Virmani found him last year, with 500 machines sold and an innovation award from India's president under the entrepreneur's belt. But getting there had been all uphill.
Once Muruganantham had prototyped the machine, he needed testers. But his wife and other family members refused, as did girls at the nearby medical college. So Muru, as Virmani calls him, decided to become a tester himself.
He filled bottles with animal blood and attached tubes that would press the blood into his drawers as he biked and walked around town. His rural village shunned him, viewing this with suspicion. And his wife's suspicions — that he was chasing medical college girls around town for something other than product testing — ended his marriage.
Still, for six years, Muruganantham pressed on (yup, pressed) — and now more than 1,000 of his machines have been sold in India. There's also been global interest in replicating the model, from Afghanistan to Rwanda.
Virmani said he attributes Muruganantham's success to the inventor's understanding of his core audience, starting with the rudimentary nature of the machine. "It's wooden, and it's got pedals where he could have had motors," Virmani said.
"He knows how to motorize the damn things, but the more complicated you make the machines, at some point they'll break down," Virmani said. "The way he's engineered it, it's pretty much something that (the rural women) can repair themselves, and they don't have to keep paying for servicing."
Muruganantham says he wants to see India become a "100 percent sanitary napkin country" in his lifetime.
As for Menstrual Man, it's on the festival circuit, and will be available on iTunes in January.
You’re a grown-up now, so drinking no longer has to involve doing shots of rotgut and sipping MGD from red Solo cups. At the same time, raising your game to a more sophisticated means of imbibing doesn’t mean you have to track down a bar that requires a password and/or reservations. In fact, you can experience higher-end mixology in the comfort of your own home. Just add your favorite high-grade hooch and a couple of these high-tech gadgets, all designed to bring your drinking into the current age of mixologistic indulgence.
Above:
Why bother with the effort of lifting your arm to drink that fancy single malt when you can inhale it instead?
The final frontier of drinking will come when we no longer have to drink at all. And the Vaportini ($30) is a clever yet surprisingly low-tech way of accomplishing just that. This simple kit revolves around a glass sphere with a small hole in it. Pour a shot of your favorite tipple through the hole, and place a tea candle inside a pint glass. Ignite candle, place sphere atop the glass and wait. Five minutes later the contraption will have heated up enough to turn the alcohol in the sphere into boozy gas. Stick a straw through the hole and breathe deep. You are now inhaling your drink, literally.
Mind you, we’re not talking about post-modern piezoelectric alco-fogs. We’re talking about pure and simple vaporized booze that you consume through a straw, chasing the dragon as the hip kids say.
Why would anyone do this? Vaportini offers a number of reasons. First, it is drinking with zero calories, as you get the effect of the booze while bypassing the digestive tract. Second, the effects are (purportedly) immediate, since you are taking a shortcut to the bloodstream via the lungs.
If getting very drunk very quickly is not your thing, you might also find this novel enough to give a try for more discriminating reasons. True to the company’s claims, you really can taste the essence of what you're drinkhaling -- in fact I might even argue you can experience it more distinctly than you can when consuming a spirit in liquid form. After all, 80-proof booze is still 60 percent water; with Vaportini, you are inhaling almost nothing but alcohol vapors. The water is left behind in the globe. But the effect is fleeting. After one or two puffs, the vapor is depleted and you have to start over.
After the fun wears off (Vaportini again says the buzz vanishes faster than with drinking), the cleanup begins, and here’s where the device shows its biggest weakness. Cleaning a glass sphere with a straw-sized hole in it? That’s madness even when you haven’t been breathing all night!
As for the psychoactive effects, I still can’t say that a shot from the Vaportini is more impactful than a shot from a glass. That said, it did make World War Z a lot more interesting.
WIRED Fun for parties, and it sure beats vodka enemas!
TIRED Cleaning difficulties alone relegate this to novelty status.
Foams, flakes, and soils remain staples of the molecular gastronomy movement, and more recently these wacky ideas have begun to migrate to the bar. "Molecular mixology" brings the pipette into the arena of grown-up drinks, and with Molecule-R's "R-Evolution" mixology kits, you can get in on the fun at home.
A variety of kits are available. I checked out the $30 margarita-centric one, which contains tools, ingredients, and recipes to create three different molecular cocktails. Well, let's step back a bit: You still have to provide most of the actual ingredients yourself, including tequila, limes, fruit juices, liqueurs, and even, in one striking recipe, mango juice and coconut milk. (Now that's a margarita!) What the company provides you are the items you won’t find at Safeway: soy lecithin, sodium alginate, and calcium lactate, in the case of this kit.
Be warned as well that you aren't likely to be making "azure bursting pearls" as part of your nightly constitutional. Unlike the typical cocktail, the tipples in this kit require a substantial amount of time, effort, and patience to pull off correctly. Plan on dirtying a half-dozen dishes and relying on both the stove and the freezer to create most of these drinks.
In the end, the results are…mostly unimpressive to look at. My margarita with citrus foam was fanciful fun (and tasted great), but I was never able to achieve the towering cotton candy-like foam pile that's shown in the picture on the box. My spherified margaritas (the one with the coconut and mango) fared far worse, looking like the saddest fried eggs the world has ever seen.
WIRED Short of pulling out the 30-year-old hooch, there's no more impressive way to make a splash with a cocktail (if you nail it).
TIRED When you get finished, you're too tired to drink the things. Instructions are often misleading and difficult to follow; could use more pictures, not that your creations will look anything like them. But still…
Rating: 4 out of 10
The SodaStream, a countertop device which lets you make your own sparkling beverages at home, has become a modest phenomenon that's now sold just about everywhere. The problem is one of portability: It's a heavy device that's not designed with mobility in mind.
Purefizz ($60) takes on-the-fly carbonation to go through the use of single-shot CO2 canisters and a smaller carafe. To use the device, just fill the stainless steel container with up to three cups of what-have-you, from plain water if you're making seltzer to a standard cocktail that you'd simply like to add some fizz to. The Purefizz doesn’t rely on (or even offer) pre-packaged flavorings. It's up to you to figure out what you want to make sparkle.
Operation is simple after a couple of test runs. A special head unit with a CO2 canister attachment screws into the top, releasing the gas into the chamber. Then shake a few times and it's ready to drink immediately. You can also use the separate screwcap to store your concoction for future consumption.
The results are good. Sparkling water comes out with a good level of bubbliness without being overwhelming. Insta-sparkling cocktails can also be fun…though you have to make them three cups at a time, so it may be best to avoid the top-shelf stuff. One nice little concept included in the manual: You can make a credible mimosa without Champagne by carbonating OJ and white wine.
WIRED Good fizz level, nice body in finished drinks. Relatively easy once you've gotten the hang of things (Hint: Tighten up all seals and do not overfill the canister).
TIRED CO2 not included ($7 for a 10 pack). Tall, narrow design makes it a bit unwieldy and a cleaning challenge.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Serving drinks "on the rocks" no longer cuts it. Now you have to consider the appearance of the rocks themselves. And the cognoscenti are increasingly preferring their ice in the form of giant balls.
The large hunk of globular ice became popular in Japan when it was noted that a single, spherical ice cube maximized the surface area of booze exposed to the cold while minimizing melt runoff. The result: a drink that stays colder, gets watered down less, and looks impossibly cool in a glass.
While high-end Japanese bars were carving balls to order from large blocks of ice with a pick, this kind of commitment wouldn’t fly at even the most upscale U.S. speakeasy, and so the ice press was invented. Ice presses are enormously heavy molds crafted from dense, anodized aluminum. You place a smaller block of ice into the mold, which then quickly compresses it, powered by its own weight as it melts away the ice's corners thanks to aluminum's incredible heat sink capabilities. Eventually only a perfectly shaped ice orb is left in the interior cavity. It's hard to believe, but this happens in the space of 5 minutes, give or take, depending on the size of the initial ice block.
Ice molds like this aren't cheap -- the comparably sized Cirrus Ice Ball Press Kit from Williams-Sonoma costs over $1,000. But the Kickstarter-backed Cumulosphere has managed to create one for just $275 (or $250 if you skip the engraved logo). With a final ball size of 65 mm, it's one of the largest size presses on the market, and the cheapest.
The device works well, though I was not at all prepared for the vast amount of water that comes pouring forth from the thing during the pressing process. When finished, the large ice balls look good and, indeed, do the job they're supposed to…provided you don’t mind having chilly balls pressed up against your nose and lips while you’re drinking. You don’t mind, do you?
WIRED A statement both in your glass, and while it's working.
TIRED Enormously messy; do this in the sink. Ice balls are nearly impossible to remove from tray, even with tongs. Requires preparation via pre-filling ice molds (included).
Rating: 7 out of 10
How refreshing that a company making pretentious beer glasses actually calls itself the Pretentious Beer Glass Company. Proprietor Matthew Cummings blows glass by hand and mouth, producing an increasingly sizable collection of bespoke and incredibly pretentious drinking vessels that are designed to make your beer-swilling evening a far snootier experience than you've previously imagined.
Cummings' glasses ($35 to $50 each) are designed with various beers in mind. The Hoppy Beer Glass is a gently off-kilter tulip with fingertip etchings to aid your grip. The wacky Malty Beer Glass has three concentric layers of bulbs, one on top of the other, and is designed not just to look cool but to trap sediment as you sip. I'm especially partial to the Aromatic Beer Glass, a snifter which has an "abstract mountain" pushed into its base; this offers cavitation points and is slowly revealed as you empty the glass.
Perhaps the centerpiece of the collection, though, is the Dual Beer Glass, which features a swirling vertical divider that lets you pour in two separate beers and enjoy them either alone or together, on a sip by sip basis. A classic Black and Tan is just the start. Try my personal favorite mix to date: wheat beer with IPA. Or go wild and actually try drinking a Black Velvet. Cummings' personal recommendation is Prairie Gold with sour Duchesse De Bourgogne.
The PBGC is adding more spirits-oriented glasses to the collection this fall, including a nifty elongated Glencairn-style nosing glass for whiskey and a "rocks glass that rocks" -- which can only be set down at an angle. They are, of course, equally awesome and every bit as pretentious.
WIRED Sturdy design. Extreme conversation pieces.
TIRED Price will eat into your budget for Pliny. Pretentious.
Rating: 8 out of 10
The Vodka Zinger ($26) is what you'd get if someone were to ask, "What if we combined a standard water bottle with a Slap Chop!?" Believe it, dear consumer, this wild contraption is designed to take the complex task of infusing vodka with fruits and botanicals so much easier.
Here's the idea: Take a 20 oz. steel water bottle and cut off the base. Then, attach a series of (dull) blades that mesh with another set of slicers in a plastic receptacle that screws onto the bottom of the bottle. Drop your fruit or whatnot into this receptacle and connect the two pieces. As you screw them together, the blades spin, chopping and pulverizing the fruit. Now add vodka. It seeps through holes in the contraption to mix with the fruit, creating instant flavored vodka.
The Zing Anything folks have four different Zinger models available, but they're all a variation on a theme. While my first instinct was to wonder how this really saves me any time against chopping up fruit and dropping it into a bottle of vodka, it does seem to be a modestly more convenient (or at least a more interesting) option over resorting to a knife and cutting board. For fruit infusions, for example, the rind doesn’t even have to be removed before zingification.
The results aren't much different than other home vodka infusions you might have tried and will depend on your raw ingredients. My various fruit vodkas were fresh and lightly flavored -- a far cry from the fruit punch you might be expecting. The good news is that the Zinger lets you experiment with different levels of vodka and different amounts of fruit or botanicals, so you needn't commit to a whole bottle at a time like you would in the typical DIY scenario. You can also easily remove the botanicals if you've decided the vodka doesn't need to steep any longer, something impossible with a standard glass bottle.
WIRED Very little prep required. Infusions are ready in about an hour.
TIRED Lots of pieces to clean up afterwards. Base can be difficult to attach; some fruits can jam blade mechanism.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Cork dorks know that aeration is essential to bringing out the complexities in a bottle of wine, which is why there's always so much swirling and sloshing going on. But what about spirits? Can a good bottle of whiskey get even better after it's been impregnated with air?
Years of experience lead me to say yes. Pour a fresh glass of high-octane tequila and stick your nose in it. You'll smell some agave, but only if your nose hairs don't burn off first. Let that glass sit for a half hour and try again: The alcohol vapors will have wafted away, leaving behind the real essence of the spirit.
Is there a shortcut? Vinturi, which makes a popular wine aerator gadget, thinks so. You pour your wine from the bottle through this plastic, kazoo-like gizmo. Tiny holes suck air in as it passes through, shooting out the bottom with a whoosh. It's instant aeration, and if you don't mind the lack of pageantry when serving wine, it works fairly well.
The Vinturi Spirit Aerator ($40) works along the same lines. The exact same lines, really, except that this Vinturi has a small button on the side that you press to release the spirit into your glass all at once. Markings on the top half of the device let it serve double duty as a jigger.
So does it work? I've found that spirits aerate differently than wine, so I'm on the fence about the value of this product. I've played with it before with decent results, but this time I took things more seriously by taking a number of spirits and evaluating them blind -- one glass poured from the bottle, one poured through the Vinturi.
My results were mixed, but positive: Vinturified bourbon and tequila saw the biggest impact. These spirits, when poured through the device, were much smoother and less hot than I encountered with straight pours. Vodka experienced the same effect -- clearly sweeter and more luscious when poured through the Vinturi, though I found this robbed the spirit of its trademark bite. I had a similar problem with gin. Going through the Vinturi, many of the more delicate botanicals blew off, leaving the ensuing spirit much milder and less fragrant. Only with a well-aged rum could I not tell any difference between the two samples.
That said, by and large the changes were subtle. With a little judicious swirling and some patience you can easily replicate the same effect you get with the Vinturi in a regular glass. I won't deny it's a quick shortcut to mellowing out nearly any spirit, but are you really in that big of a hurry?
WIRED A quick way to blow bruising alcoholic vapors off your hooch. Integrated measuring marks. Tough, sturdy design.
TIRED Noise produced is not exactly classy. Can be prone to splattering, so wear your larger bib.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Editor's Note: WIRED reviewed the Vinturi previously, in 2011. Read what reviewer Mike Lasky thought of it.
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ShareContact: Summer Feeman
summer.freeman@stjude.org
901-595-3061
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
For childhood cancer survivors, risk factors associated with lifestyle, particularly hypertension, dramatically increase the likelihood of developing serious heart problems as adults, according to a national study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) is one of the first to focus on how hypertension, diabetes, obesity and elevated blood lipids contribute to cardiovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors. The research concentrated on risk factors that can often be modified with diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes. The federally funded CCSS follows survivors of childhood cancer treated at 26 medical centers in the U.S. and Canada. St. Jude is its coordinating center.
The risk was greatest for survivors whose cancer treatment had included therapies associated with heart damage. The findings suggest that risk factors linked to lifestyle, particularly hypertension, intensify the impact of those childhood cancer treatments and accelerate development of heart disease.
The findings raise hope that prevention or treatment of such risk factors might help reduce heart-related death and disability among the nation's growing population of childhood cancer survivors. For survivors, treatment-related heart disease is a leading cause of non-cancer death and disability.
The results reinforce the importance of survivors receiving annual medical screenings to check blood pressure, weight, cholesterol and other health indicators, said the study's first and corresponding author Greg Armstrong, M.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control. Screenings have a track record of reducing heart disease in the general population and are recommended for childhood cancer survivors. "For doctors who are caring for survivors, the key message from this study is that aggressive management of hypertension is especially important for this population," Armstrong said.
Nationwide, there are an estimated 395,000 survivors of childhood cancer. With overall pediatric cancer survival rates now 80 percent, the number of survivors will continue to grow.
The study included 10,724 childhood cancer survivors, half younger than 34 years old and 3,159 siblings whose average age was 36 and who had not been diagnosed with childhood cancer. The survivors were all at least five years from their cancer diagnosis and half had survived for more than 25 years.
While similar percentages of survivors and siblings reported at least two preventable risk factors, by age 45 survivors were far more likely than the siblings to report severe, life threatening or fatal heart problems. For example, 5.3 percent of survivors, but 0.9 percent of siblings, reported a diagnosis of coronary artery disease and, 4.8 percent of survivors, but just 0.3 percent of siblings, reported suffering from heart failure.
The difference was even more dramatic when investigators focused on survivors whose cancer treatment included either chest irradiation or a class of chemotherapy drugs known as anthracyclines. Both are associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems. While treatments have changed since survivors in this study battled cancer in the 1970s and mid-1980s, anthracyclines and chest irradiation still play essential roles in childhood cancer treatments.
Such treatment-related risk left survivors with normal blood pressure at a five-fold increased risk of coronary artery disease. Researchers found survivors with the same treatment history but who had also developed hypertension were at a 37-fold increased risk. Researchers found similarly dramatic differences in the likelihood of heart failure, heart valve disease or arrhythmia depending on whether the at-risk survivors reported treatable risk factors in addition to their cancer-treatment-related risk.
"For survivors whose cancer treatment included cardio-toxic therapy, we found that preventable factors, particularly hypertension, resulted in a risk beyond what is likely from a simple additive effect," Armstrong said. Having both treatment-associated risk and hypertension resulted in double-digit excess risk of coronary artery disease, heart failure and other serious heart problems.
###
The study's other authors are Kevin Oeffinger and Charles Sklar, both of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York; Yan Chen and Yutaka Yasui, both of University of Alberta, Edmonton; Toana Kawashima, Wendy Leisenring and Eric Chow, all of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; Marilyn Stovall and Jean-Bernard Durand, both of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Daniel Mulrooney and Leslie Robison, both of St. Jude; and Ann Mertens, William Border and Lillian Meacham, all of Emory University, Atlanta.
The research was supported in part by grants (CA55727 and CA21765) from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health and ALSAC.
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ShareContact: Summer Feeman
summer.freeman@stjude.org
901-595-3061
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
For childhood cancer survivors, risk factors associated with lifestyle, particularly hypertension, dramatically increase the likelihood of developing serious heart problems as adults, according to a national study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) is one of the first to focus on how hypertension, diabetes, obesity and elevated blood lipids contribute to cardiovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors. The research concentrated on risk factors that can often be modified with diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes. The federally funded CCSS follows survivors of childhood cancer treated at 26 medical centers in the U.S. and Canada. St. Jude is its coordinating center.
The risk was greatest for survivors whose cancer treatment had included therapies associated with heart damage. The findings suggest that risk factors linked to lifestyle, particularly hypertension, intensify the impact of those childhood cancer treatments and accelerate development of heart disease.
The findings raise hope that prevention or treatment of such risk factors might help reduce heart-related death and disability among the nation's growing population of childhood cancer survivors. For survivors, treatment-related heart disease is a leading cause of non-cancer death and disability.
The results reinforce the importance of survivors receiving annual medical screenings to check blood pressure, weight, cholesterol and other health indicators, said the study's first and corresponding author Greg Armstrong, M.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control. Screenings have a track record of reducing heart disease in the general population and are recommended for childhood cancer survivors. "For doctors who are caring for survivors, the key message from this study is that aggressive management of hypertension is especially important for this population," Armstrong said.
Nationwide, there are an estimated 395,000 survivors of childhood cancer. With overall pediatric cancer survival rates now 80 percent, the number of survivors will continue to grow.
The study included 10,724 childhood cancer survivors, half younger than 34 years old and 3,159 siblings whose average age was 36 and who had not been diagnosed with childhood cancer. The survivors were all at least five years from their cancer diagnosis and half had survived for more than 25 years.
While similar percentages of survivors and siblings reported at least two preventable risk factors, by age 45 survivors were far more likely than the siblings to report severe, life threatening or fatal heart problems. For example, 5.3 percent of survivors, but 0.9 percent of siblings, reported a diagnosis of coronary artery disease and, 4.8 percent of survivors, but just 0.3 percent of siblings, reported suffering from heart failure.
The difference was even more dramatic when investigators focused on survivors whose cancer treatment included either chest irradiation or a class of chemotherapy drugs known as anthracyclines. Both are associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems. While treatments have changed since survivors in this study battled cancer in the 1970s and mid-1980s, anthracyclines and chest irradiation still play essential roles in childhood cancer treatments.
Such treatment-related risk left survivors with normal blood pressure at a five-fold increased risk of coronary artery disease. Researchers found survivors with the same treatment history but who had also developed hypertension were at a 37-fold increased risk. Researchers found similarly dramatic differences in the likelihood of heart failure, heart valve disease or arrhythmia depending on whether the at-risk survivors reported treatable risk factors in addition to their cancer-treatment-related risk.
"For survivors whose cancer treatment included cardio-toxic therapy, we found that preventable factors, particularly hypertension, resulted in a risk beyond what is likely from a simple additive effect," Armstrong said. Having both treatment-associated risk and hypertension resulted in double-digit excess risk of coronary artery disease, heart failure and other serious heart problems.
###
The study's other authors are Kevin Oeffinger and Charles Sklar, both of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York; Yan Chen and Yutaka Yasui, both of University of Alberta, Edmonton; Toana Kawashima, Wendy Leisenring and Eric Chow, all of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; Marilyn Stovall and Jean-Bernard Durand, both of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Daniel Mulrooney and Leslie Robison, both of St. Jude; and Ann Mertens, William Border and Lillian Meacham, all of Emory University, Atlanta.
The research was supported in part by grants (CA55727 and CA21765) from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health and ALSAC.
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
