Nora Ephron?s Leukemia Was an Uncommon and Complicated Type

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Acute myeloid leukemia, which took the life of Nora Ephron on Tuesday, is an uncommon disease that accounts for only about 1 percent of cancer deaths in the United States.

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Roberts ruling on Obamacare rebukes partisanship with moderation

Few doubted the Supreme Court ruling on health care, or Obamacare, would be 5-4. Hardly anyone figured Chief Justice John G. Roberts would swing to uphold the law. His moderation is a measured rebuke to the law's politicization. Bipartisanship is needed on big issues.

By Kurt Shillinger / June 28, 2012

President Obama makes a statement about the Supreme Court decision on his administration's Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) at the White House June 28. Op-ed contributor Kurt Shillinger writes: 'At a time when the national to-do list is long with urgent and significant issues...the possibility of devoting another Congress to undoing health care runs contrary to the national interest.'

Luke Sharrett/Reuters

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Seven years after John G. Roberts was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, the conventional wisdom was settled. He was predictably conservative and, to his detractors, activist and hostile to precedent. Few observers doubted the health-care ruling would be 5-4. Hardly anyone figured that Chief Justice Roberts, and not the more centrist Justice Anthony Kennedy, would provide the swing vote.

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It is hard to overstate the significance of what just happened.

No matter which way the court ruled on the Affordable Care Act, the inevitable immediate effect would be that of a boot to a beehive. A contentious presidential election is underway. The incumbent?s signature legislative accomplishment was on the line. The parties were agitated. Amid the swarm of overheated predictions and pronouncements, however, Roberts?s note of moderation is a carefully measured rebuke.

?It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices,? the chief justice wrote toward the tail end of an introductory civics lesson in the majority?s decision to uphold the law.

To the majority of Americans who voted to elect Barack Obama president, that might sound a little derogatory, but that reading misses the point. By recasting himself in the more modest role of justice-as-umpire in what may prove to be the defining decision of his tenure, Roberts threw the ball back across the street to Congress and closed the courthouse doors to anyone looking for a reliable political ally.

The battle over President Obama?s health care law cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and wasted a lot more time than it should have. There was ample room for compromise. Although the two parties held strong ideological differences, few disagreed with the driving needs for reform: ballooning costs and growing disparities in coverage.

But health care ? and most other significant legislative business ? ran headlong into a quixotic and divisive Republican strategy to oppose every Obama initiative in the hope of limiting his presidency to one term.

That strategy saw the Roberts court as its trump card. Now the GOP?s hopes rest with gaining the White House and majorities in both houses of Congress in order to repeal the law the court upheld.

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Laurie Nadel: New Hope Film Festival Gives Emerging Filmmakers ...

New Hope, Penn.: Dozens of filmmakers from 13 different countries are preparing to bring their films, their dreams and their hopes for success to the third annual New Hope Film Festival, which runs from July 6 through July 15th. Set on the banks of the Delaware River, New Hope (population: 3,000) has been hosting performing artists during the summer season for nearly a century. Paul Newman once performed at the Bucks County Playhouse which dates back to the 18th century.

Founded by New Hope businessman and screenwriter Doug Whipple and Thom Mulligan, an actor/producer based in Oceanside, Calif., this emerging "Sundance East" festival has made an impressive start, drawing some 900 people its first year and 1,200 last year. This year, 81 films from 13 countries will be shown and judged for a panel of awards that include best feature, best documentary, and films that best exemplify the indie spirit and new hope.

"The first year was rough in terms of getting it going. But we are here to stay," says Thom Mulligan. As executive director of the festival, Mr. Mulligan is in charge of submissions which pour in from around the globe. "From the very first year, we became an international film festival with filmmakers coming from all over the world even though we are not New York City or Philadelphia, he says. "It is no longer necessary to go to Cannes to see great independent films."

Doug Whipple, the man who gave birth to the idea of an annual film festival spent 15 years on Wall Street and has an MBA from Wharton. "Doug was the guy to do it. He knew how to put business plans and a structure together," Mr. Mulligan says, adding that he brings to the table more than 30 years' experience in the movie industry.

Mr. Mulligan produced and acted in Callous, an indie feature that depicts physical and emotional violence in a Native American family. Joey Lanai's screenplay is based on events from his own childhood. Actress Kari Messina's shocking performance of a sadistic mother who takes pleasure in punishing her children is simultaneously tough to watch and hard to avoid watching. Mr. Mulligan says that the raw realism of the script struck a chord with him. "I grew up around that stuff in Hell's Kitchen. I saw that kind of stuff go on and recognized the characters. The Universe said to me, 'Go and make this movie.'" That was in 2007 when finding potential investors was relatively easy. But after the stock market tanked in 2008, people were gun shy. Mr. Mulligan invested his own money to get the project going.

In addition to winning the best feature film award at international film festivals in Riverside and Oceanside, Calif., Callous gets accolades from psychologists and social workers. "They say, 'I have been doing this for 35 years and have been dealing with this dynamic every day. You caught it perfectly,'" says Mr. Mulligan. The takeaway message is that "people need to realize what they are doing in families, not only physically but mentally." To pay it forward, the producers are donating 10 percent of the profits to the Mi Casa group homes in San Diego, a program that takes care of children ages five to 18 whose parents are violent criminals, drug dealers, or abusers.

Callous is not on the program at the New Hope festival. "That would be a conflict of interest for me," says Mr. Mulligan who would rather that the venue open the way for new filmmakers from all over the world. Filmmakers like Sisir Shana, whose controversial feature The Soil and the People tells the story of a deaf girl in a provincial village whose residents believe she is infected with an evil spirit and therefore needs to be killed. "My purpose in making this film was to underscore the evils of blind faith," Mr. Shana told The Times of India. Based on rituals that are still practiced today, The Soil and the People could not find a screening venue in India. After winning New Hope's Danny award for best feature film in 2010, Mr. Shana told Mr. Mulligan that when he submitted his film, he thought, "Maybe now I will have new hope."

(For information, schedules and tickets: www.newhopefilmfestival.com)

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Follow Laurie Nadel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drlaurie

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Kiip, The Mobile Ad Rewards Network, Rumored To Raise Another $8-10M To Conquer Games And Beyond

We've been kiiping an eye on Kiip?--?a platform that replaces straight display ads with rewards and contests from brands in mobile apps to offer a less annonying experience for users -- and it looks like we might not be the only ones. The company, which now serves its rewards-based ads into 400 apps across iOS and Android, and has inventory served totalling 100 million moments every month in the U.S.,?has raised another $8-10 million for what may be an equity stake of up to 20 percent in the company, TechCrunch understands. We're still trying to track down more details for this most recent investment; but up to now Kiip has attracted a strong list of backers. Co-founded in 2010 by ex-Digg employees Brian Wong, Courtney Guertin?and?Amadeus Demarzi, when Wong was still a teenager, its?Series A of?$4 million?last year?came from Hummer Winblad, Path's Dave Morin, True Ventures and Crosslink Capital.

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Rock Bottom Remainders saying goodbye to lit-rock

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? It took 20 years but the group Bruce Springsteen once praised as being almost as good as a lousy garage band is finally calling it quits.

The Rock Bottom Remainders, a contingent that has made it clear with every performance that literary giants like Amy Tan, Stephen King and Scott Turow really did make the right decision when they set aside their musical ambitions to write books, is calling it a career after two Southern California shows later this month.

"We've gotten as good as we're ever going to get," says lead guitarist and best-selling humorist Dave Barry, explaining the band's decision.

"You can't get any better," Barry continued. "Well, you actually can get a lot better. But we can't get any better. We're up to almost four chords now, and the Beatles quit at that point, I'm pretty sure."

Truth be told, the Rock Bottom Remainders were always a lot better than they gave themselves credit for. Especially for a band whose members' busy writing schedules prevented them from doing more than one or two gigs a year and who rarely had time to rehearse.

They've decided to wrap things up in part because of the death last month of the group's founder, book publicist and lead singer Kathi Goldmark. It was she who persuaded each one of them to join as she drove them around on book tours over the years.

"We sort of felt this would be a good time to end it because it just isn't going to be the same without Kathi," said Barry during a rare moment of seriousness.

The group's "Past Our Bedtime Tour" (because real musicians don't get up early like writers do) will include a public performance June 22 at LA's El Rey Theatre, followed by a private show the next day for the American Library Association's Anaheim convention.

All profits will go to charity, as has been the case with every Remainders concert since the group formed for a booksellers convention 20 years ago. They have raised an estimated $2 million since then.

"We're always stressing that we're not getting any money," said Barry, adding concert-goers would likely be very unhappy to learn they'd shelled out $40 a ticket if they thought the money was going to a band no better than one they could hear for free in their neighbor's garage.

But despite their musical limitations, the Remainders, (who take their name from the industry term for books nobody wants) have managed to share stages with an impressive list of musicians over the years. Among them, Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Judy Collins, Ronnie Spector, Al Kooper and the Byrds' Roger McGuinn.

It was Springsteen, Barry recalled, who after playing with the group told them they weren't that bad, then offered this advice: "Don't get any better or you'll be just another lousy garage band."

McGuinn, who will join them for this tour, met the band's members through writer Carl Hiaasen a dozen years ago and has played with them off and on ever since.

His assessment of them is a bit kinder.

"Now Dave will tell you that they're just a lousy band, but in fact they're pretty good," McGuinn said recently by phone as he traveled between gigs in Nashville and Tucson, Ariz.

Then he couched that, adding, "They're not as bad as they claim to be."

He has high praise for several members, including keyboardist Mitch Albom ("Tuesdays With Morrie")'' bass player Ridley Pearson ("Middle of Nowhere") and guitarist Greg Iles. The latter was actually a touring musician before he wrote his first best-seller, "Spandau Phoeniz."

Another member, James McBride, is a respected composer as well as a writer.

Tan, meanwhile, studied classical piano as a child, something that in no way seems to have prepared her for the sometimes-goth-dressing, bad-girl rock vixen that "The Joy Luck Club" author portrays onstage when she belts out the old Nancy Sinatra hit "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'."

The group's specialty is '60s rock 'n roll with a few original tunes by band members thrown in.

Still, among the most entertaining segments of a Remainders performance, Barry says, is watching Roy Blount Jr. and "Simpson's" creator Matt Groening clap out of time during an entire show while pretending to sing along with other band members. Neither, he said, will get close enough to a microphone to let the audience hear them.

"We're fun. We're not good but we're fun," Barry says, laughing. "And they do serve alcohol (at the show). This is key. For us as well as the audience."

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New Hampshire Holds Lottery for Moose Hunt

[unable to retrieve full-text content]In one of the few states with enough animals for a hunting season, an annual lottery drew 13,400 people who hoped to secure one of 275 permits for an October hunt.

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Nyko's PlayPad and PlayPad Pro Android tablet controllers (hands-on)

There's a great video game land rush happening on the mobile front, as developers and hardware manufacturers work map out precisely how users will play with their smartphones and tablets. We've seen plenty of peripheral makers give it a shot, hoping to transform decidedly clunky touchscreen gameplay into something more akin to devoted consoles. Some, like Ion, have taken a fairly whimsical approach to the process, giving the world the iCade, a tablet controller shaped like a small arcade cabinet.

Nyko's going a much more straight forward route with PlayPad and PlayPad Pro, Bluetooth controllers that intend on bringing console gaming over to the mobile side. The PlayPad is the smaller of the two devices. It ships in a spring loaded eyeglasses-style case. Also inside is a small stand that you can unfold to prop up your Android tablet in portrait or landscape. The controller itself is quite small and fairly light. It has two circle pads on the front, a d-pad, four face buttons, shoulder buttons and a giant home button in the center.

Gallery: Nyko's PlayPad and PlayPad Pro Android tablet controllers (hands-on)

Continue reading Nyko's PlayPad and PlayPad Pro Android tablet controllers (hands-on)

Nyko's PlayPad and PlayPad Pro Android tablet controllers (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Herbal Medicine in Modern Society

Have you ever tried a natural or herbal remedy to cure a condition or possibly for everyday usage? Some people think of herbal remedies are a ruse to lure people in and buy products. However now a days even medical doctors are realizing the benefits of natural herbal remedies.? Herbs have been in use for over 5,000 years with several different cultures including Sumerian, Greek, Egyptian, Arabian, Roman, German, Swiss, and English.

The western culture has been using herbal medicine for thousands of years making herbalism one of the oldest forms of medicine. Additionally it is possibly one of the most widespread medicines with about 80% of the world?s population still using herbal medicine. Herbal medicine unlike conventional medicine is not only used forespread medicines with about 80% of the world?s population still using herbal medicine.

Herbal medicine unlike conventional medicine is not only used for treatment of symptoms or conditions. Herbal medicine prevents diseases and illnesses, maintains proper daily body functioning and enhances mental attitude, appearance and performance. Herbal remedies can be used to help in areas such as digestion, respiratory, circulation, immune, endocrine, nervous system, detoxification, and externally for the skin, hair and nails. Herbal experimentation has been the basis for both Indian herbal medicine known as Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal medicine.

Chinese herbal medicine reflects Chinese belief that the universe is made up of energy called chi. Additionally human beings have an innate relationship with the world and environment surrounding them through chi; the human body is a small universe within itself made up of complex systems of energy and matter that works to maintain health of body and mind. Chinese herbal medicine is the primary therapeutic modality for internal medicine in China. This is used in conjunction with external modalities such as acupuncture, acupressure, massage, tai chi, meditation, dermabrasion and food therapy. With over 500 Chinese herbs, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) combines herbs to create specific formulas to fit the individual patient.

Indian herbal medicine also known as Ayurvedic medicine and is the oldest organized system of medicine. Today we classify it as a complementary and alternative medicine but to Indians is known as the divine medicine due to its long history. Ayurvedic is grounded in the understanding that the universe and the body are composed of five great elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Additionally Ayurveda stresses the importance of balance through three elemental energies. Everyone possesses these energies or doshas as they are known. These doshas are important because when they are balanced within the body, then you are healthy, but when they become imbalanced the body possesses diseases. Ayurveda stresses the importance of a healthy metabolic system, proper digestion, and proper excretion to lead to vitality. In addition exercise, yoga, meditation and massage maintain the external body. Therefore, Ayurvedic medicine addresses the body, mind and spirit as a whole for perfect health.

Herbal medicine no matter where it is being used derives from the earth?s plants. A natural remedy can use any part of that plant, the root, the stem, the flower, the seeds, even the liquid inside the plant. This is why there are so many herbs that exist because from each plant there can be several different herbs extracted and several different uses as well. Herbal remedies come in all types of forms such as a pill, capsule, gel, ointment, cream, liquid, oil, or tea. Many common herbal remedies can be found right under our noses in our very own kitchens. Such as garlic, cinnamon, ginger, peppermint, tumeric, and chamomile tea. Herbal supplements can be taken singularly or mixed together to achieve a specific result.? Common conditions that have found relief through herbal remedies include angina, arthritis, skin care, thyroid, urinary tract infections and many more. New products are coming out that help for additional problems such as smoking cessation, removing unwanted hair, and eliminating wrinkles.

The switch to herbal and natural medicine has been a long and slow process, however the population as a whole has shown a shift from traditional medicine with prescriptions and nasty side effects to natural, organic products. With more and more healthcare practitioners promoting more natural ways to relieve symptoms, herbal medicine is making its official debut into modern medicine. Why wait to go see a doctor to get a prescription that costs outrageous amounts of money that could cause them additional symptoms? Natural herbal remedies can be bought at the local store or you may already have it in your kitchen cabinet.? So why not try a natural herbal remedy to treat your problem? It may change the way you live your life.

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If you are unsure whether an herbal remedy is right for you, ask your healthcare profession for help.

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