17 10 / 2011
Cardinals and Rangers clash in World Series
The representatives of the National and American leagues both send potent lineups to the plate, bullpens bursting with reliable relievers and starting rotations that have been up-and-down in the postseason.Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter is expected to take the mound against C.J. Wilson of the Rangers in the opening game of MLB’s best-of-seven championship, but relievers will be close by the bullpen phone given the damage the batting orders can inflict.Texas has Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Mike Napoli and American League Championship Series most valuable player Nelson Cruz in the heart of their order.St. Louis counters with Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday and red-hot David Freese, the most valuable player of the National League Championship Series.Cruz crushed Detroit pitching in the AL Championship Series, slugging six home runs and 13 RBIs, which are both records by a player for a single postseason series.Freese enjoyed a breakout performance by batting a robust .545 in the NLCS with three home runs and nine RBIs to emerge as a lethal threat.Texas clinched a second successive trip to the World Series with a 15-5 battering of the Detroit Tigers while the Cardinals walloped the Milwaukee Brewers 12-6 to complete their six-game NLCS victory.Off the field, the franchises are polar opposites.The wild card Cardinals are National League royalty steeped in tradition, while the Rangers are relative upstarts having won their first postseason series ever just last year.St. Louis defeated Milwaukee for their NL record 18th pennant, and their 10 World Series titles are the most in MLB after record-holding New York Yankees (27).From Rogers Hornsby of the 1920s, who batted better than .400 in three different seasons, to the Gashouse Gang teams of the 1930s that featured pitching brothers Dizzy and Daffy Dean, to Stan “The Man” Musial and hard-nosed fastballer Bob Gibson in the ’60s, the Cardinals have long personified excellence.That has not changed with their current crop spearheaded by three-time league most valuable player Pujols.The Rangers come from humbler roots.They trace their ancestry to Washington D.C., where they were born in 1961 as the expansion Senators after the original Senators franchise left the nation’s capital to become the Minnesota Twins.They left Washington for Texas in 1972 with former hitting great Ted Williams as their manager, but it took decades for the Rangers to really gel.Texas had some big sluggers in the ’90s but Juan Gonzalez and his cohorts could not hurdle past the Yankees, giving Rangers fans only brief tastes of playoff baseball.That has changed under the current regime of manager Ron Washington, whose temperament offers another contrast between the teams.Presiding in the dugout of the Cardinals is Tony La Russa, veteran of 33 seasons as a manager, winner of two World Series, one with the Oakland Athletics and another with the Cardinals in 2006.He stands third on the all-time list of managerial victories with 2,728. This third pennant with St. Louis matches the three AL titles he won with Oakland.The cerebral La Russa, who holds a law degree, introduced the current strategy of match-ups out of the bullpen, often changing pitchers from batter to batter to utilize any advantage he can find.Leading the Rangers is the animated Washington, a former third base coach in his fifth season in charge at Texas. In the dugout, he behaves like a cross between a coach, windmilling his arms to exhort baserunners, and a rabid fan of the game bubbling over with excitement.Washington looks to lead the Rangers to their first Fall Classic crown after losing last year to the San Francisco Giants in five games.The contrasting styles of La Russa and Washington, however, yield the same effect.Players on both teams swear by their skippers and give them much of the credit for the success they have achieved in getting to the ultimate stage of the sport.
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13 10 / 2011
More trans fat in pregnancy tied to bigger baby
The study did not prove that trans fats alone boost fetal
growth, and if they did, it is unclear how harmful that could
be. But there are risks to having a larger-than-normal newborn,
said lead researcher Juliana Cohen, of the Harvard School of
Public Health in Boston.Big babies may have to be delivered by Ceasarean-section and
studies have found that they may have increased risks of
diabetes and heart disease later in life, Cohen added.”It’s prudent to limit trans fats in your diet anyway.
Pregnant women may want to think about how (the fats) could
affect fetal growth as well,” she said.Artificial trans fats are found in foods that contain
partially hydrogenated oils, including many baked and fried
packaged foods like chips, crackers and cookies, as well as fast
food.Some meat and dairy products contain natural trans fats, but
people get the bulk of their trans fat in the artificial form -
although food producers and some restaurants have been cutting
back in response to poor publicity.The latest study was based on about 1,400 Boston-area women
who gave birth between 1999 and 2002. The women completed
dietary questionnaires during their first and second trimesters.The relationship between higher trans fat intake and birth
size held even after researchers accounted for factors such as
pre-pregnancy body weight, income, education and calorie intake.They calculated that for every 1 percent increase in trans
fat as a replacement for carbohydrates in a woman’s daily diet,
her baby’s fetal growth “Z score” — which takes into account a
newborn’s birth weight and the week of pregnancy during which
the baby was born — inched up slightly.Cohen said that while the effects of this would likely be
limited in later life, the foods that contain trans fats were
best limited for overall health.Unfortunately, she added, these sorts of foods are often the
ones women crave during pregnancy.
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12 10 / 2011
UPDATE 1-United Community Banks to record special loan loss provision in Q3
Oct 12 (Reuters) - United Community Banks said it
will record a special loan loss provision of $25 million in the
third quarter, which will hurt its earnings for the period.The provision, which is related to the bank’s largest single
loan relationship, will affect quarterly earnings by about 26
cents a share, the bank said in a statement.United Community now expects third-quarter earnings of 10
cents a share. Analysts on average were expecting the bank to
earn 10 cents a share in the quarter, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S.Shares of the company closed at $8.80 on Tuesday on Nasdaq.
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11 10 / 2011
CDC official accused of child molestation and bestiality
Lindsey is deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC. Westerman is a resource management specialist in the CDC’s Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.A medical professional told police in late August about allegations that Lindsey and Westerman had molested a 6-year-old boy, police said.Police spokeswoman Pamela Kunz said the bestiality charge does not involve the child, but declined to disclose further details about the allegations.Westerman was released on Monday on a $15,000 bond, but Lindsey remained in jail on Tuesday on a $20,000 bond, police said. They will have a court hearing on December 1.CDC spokesman Tom Skinner declined to comment on the case other than to confirm that Lindsey and Westerman work at the CDC.
11 10 / 2011
CDC official accused of child molestation and bestiality
Lindsey is deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC. Westerman is a resource management specialist in the CDC’s Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.A medical professional told police in late August about allegations that Lindsey and Westerman had molested a 6-year-old boy, police said.Police spokeswoman Pamela Kunz said the bestiality charge does not involve the child, but declined to disclose further details about the allegations.Westerman was released on Monday on a $15,000 bond, but Lindsey remained in jail on Tuesday on a $20,000 bond, police said. They will have a court hearing on December 1.CDC spokesman Tom Skinner declined to comment on the case other than to confirm that Lindsey and Westerman work at the CDC.
11 10 / 2011
Report indicates India’s shores danger zone for turtles
A recent study by an environmental group, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has identified the 11 most threatened sea turtle populations from around the world. And five of these so-called danger zones for sea turtles are in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtles, which nest on Indian shores, are an endangered species and there was a drive by environmentalists against the poaching and killing of these sea reptiles. The study also reveals that the turtles face other dangers.
“The most significant threats across all of the threatened populations are fisheries bycatch, the accidental catch of sea turtles by fishermen targeting other species and direct harvest of turtles or their eggs for food or turtle shell material for commercial use,” the report said.
This report may need to be taken seriously by India’s environmental bodies. While some high visibility animal projects like those for tigers in India have gained some success, the same cannot be said of any drive to preserve or sustain marine life on India’s coastlines. Poaching and killing of protected wildlife is known to be rampant on India’s shores. And perhaps environmental officials can’t do much along with the Coast Guard, given there may be bigger threats like smuggling and militant infiltration through the sea.
But something needs to be done and fast. In spite of repeated warnings by wildlife activists, reports like these expose India’s position and lack of seriousness in tackling marine pollution, unchecked fishing and poaching, and protection of marine life.
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