Eating insects could help fight obesity, U.N. says

By Catherine Hornby

ROME (Reuters) - The thought of eating beetles, caterpillars and ants may give you the creeps, but the authors of a U.N. report published on Monday said the health benefits of consuming nutritious insects could help fight obesity.

More than 1,900 species of insects are eaten around the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, but people in the West generally turn their noses up at the likes of grasshoppers, termites and other crunchy fare.

The authors of the study by the Forestry Department, part of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said many insects contained the same amount of protein and minerals as meat and more healthy fats doctors recommend in balanced diets.

"In the West we have a cultural bias, and think that because insects come from developing countries, they cannot be good," said scientist Arnold van Huis from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, one of the authors of the report.

Eva Muller of the FAO said restaurants in Europe were starting to offer insect-based dishes, presenting them to diners as exotic delicacies.

Danish restaurant Noma, for example, crowned the world's best for three years running in one poll, is renowned for ingredients including ants and fermented grasshoppers.

As well as helping in the costly battle against obesity, which the World Health Organization estimates has nearly doubled since 1980 and affects around 500 million people, the report said insect farming was likely to be less land-dependent than traditional livestock and produce fewer greenhouse gases.

It would also provide business and export opportunities for poor people in developing countries, especially women, who are often responsible for collecting insects in rural communities.

Van Huis said barriers to enjoying dishes such as bee larvae yoghurt were psychological - in a blind test carried out by his team, nine out of 10 people preferred meatballs made from roughly half meat and half mealworms to those made from meat.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Philip Pullella and Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eating-insects-could-help-fight-obesity-u-n-141716167.html

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Bosch introduces affordable Power Max home EV charger range, starts at $450

Electric vehicles still have a few obstacles that prevent them from going fully mainstream. These typically center on the price of the vehicle itself (though this is changing), and its range. One other barrier has also been the price of home-based chargers. Now, Bosch is offering a level 2 (quicker than the usually cheaper, and slower level 1) home charging system for just $450. For that price you get 16 amp charging and a 12 foot cord. There are two other options that increase the amperage to 30, with a choice of 18 or 25 foot cables -- costing $593 and $749 respectively. These don't include any additional networking features and so on, but for this price, and reduced reliance on external charging networks, it'd be worth clearing out the garage for.

Filed under: Peripherals, Transportation

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Source: Bosch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/11/bosch-introduces-affordable-home-ev-charger/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Taiwan Gives Philippines Apology Deadline After Seaman Killed (Voice Of America)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Monday last day for morning-after pill appeal

NEW YORK (AP) ? The government is running out of time to try to halt implementation of a federal judge's ruling that would lift age restrictions for women and girls wanting to buy the morning-after pill.

U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn last week refused to delay enforcement of his month-old decision while the government challenges his ruling, but said it would have until Monday to appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

Korman said politics is behind efforts by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to block the unrestricted sale of the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill and its generic competitors.

Justice Department lawyers want the ruling stayed while they appeal.

If the government fails, it would clear the way for over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill to younger girls. The FDA announced earlier this month that the contraception could be sold without a prescription to those 15 and older, a decision Korman said merely sugarcoated the appeal of his order lifting the age restriction.

Sales had previously been limited to those who were at least 17.

The government warned that "substantial market confusion" could result if Korman's ruling was enforced while appeals are pending. The judge dismissed the reasoning as a "silly argument."

Korman ordered levonorgestrel-based emergency contraceptives be made available without a prescription, over-the-counter and without point-of-sale or age restrictions. The order was supposed to take effect on Friday.

The judge said he ruled against the government "because the secretary's action was politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent" and because there was no basis to deny the request to make the drugs widely available.

In court papers, attorneys for the Center for Reproductive Rights have said that every day the ruling is not enforced is "life-altering" to some women.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-13-US-Morning-After-Pill/id-c2363ca633b1455093bb95736f24a024

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Exit polls: No clear winner in Bulgarian vote

Supporters of Boiko Borisov, former Prime Minister and leader of center-right GERB party applaud as they wait to see him outside a polling station in Bankya, Bulgaria, Sunday May 12, 2013. Bulgarians are voting Sunday in parliamentary elections with no party expected to win a majority to form a government, fueling fears about more political and economic instability in the country. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

Supporters of Boiko Borisov, former Prime Minister and leader of center-right GERB party applaud as they wait to see him outside a polling station in Bankya, Bulgaria, Sunday May 12, 2013. Bulgarians are voting Sunday in parliamentary elections with no party expected to win a majority to form a government, fueling fears about more political and economic instability in the country. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

Sergey Sanishev, leader of Bulgarian Socialist Party talks to journalists after casting his vote for parliamentary elections in Sofia, Sunday, May 12, 2013. Bulgarians are voting Sunday in parliamentary elections with no party expected to win a majority to form a government, fueling fears about more political and economic instability in the country. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A demonstrator shows a poster depicting former PM Boyko Borisov, Simeon Dyankov, minister of finance and Tsvetan Tsvetanov, interior minister as prisoners during a protest against the center-right GERB party in Sofia, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Bulgarian prosecutors have stormed a printing house and seized 350,000 illegally printed ballots just hours before the start of parliamentary elections. Vote-buying and other election fraud concerns have prompted the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to dispatch its biggest monitoring mission to Bulgaria since 1990 for Sunday's vote. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest against the center-right GERB party in Sofia, Saturday, May 11, 2013, after 350,000 illegally printed ballots were seized just hours before the start of parliamentary elections. Vote-buying and other election fraud concerns have prompted the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to dispatch its biggest monitoring mission to Bulgaria since 1990 for Sunday's vote. (AP Photo / Valentina Petrova)

An elderly Bulgarian casts his ballot for parliamentary elections in Sofia, Sunday, May 12, 2013. Bulgarians are voting Sunday in parliamentary elections with no party expected to win a majority to form a government, fueling fears about more political and economic instability in the country. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) ? Bulgaria's center-right party and its main challenger, the Socialists, finished first and second in Sunday's parliamentary election, with neither one winning a majority needed to form a government, two exit polls indicated.

If that outcome is confirmed, it could lead to more political and economic instability in this financially strapped Balkan nation.

Some 6.9 million eligible voters were choosing among candidates from 36 parties. But voter apathy was widespread, and allegations of vote fraud and an illegal wiretapping scandal marred the campaign.

The Alpha Research exit poll said former Prime Minsiter Boiko Borisov's GERB party won 31.1 percent, with the Socialists were second with 27.1 percent. A separate exit poll by Sova Harris said Borisov's party won 31 percent of the vote, with the Socialists at 25.3 percent.

Recent opinion polls had predicted that outcome.

With up to five other parties expected to enter the 240-seat parliament, formation of a stable government may prove difficult. "I expect that the country will soon head to another election," Anton Todorov, a political analyst, said before the vote.

Bulgaria has been led by a caretaker government since February, when Borisov, who guided his Citizens for Bulgaria's European Development party to victory in 2009, resigned as prime minister amid sometimes violent protests against poverty, high utility bills and corruption.

The ex-ruling party has seen its reputation tarnished further since prosecutors alleged that former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov was responsible for illegally eavesdropping on political opponents during his term. Media leaks have also fueled suspicion that Borisov may have tried to interfere with the case.

But perhaps more than anything, Borisov's party may struggle to win the public's confidence due to economic issues. Six years after Bulgaria's entry into the European Union, the Balkan state of 7.3 million remains the bloc's poorest member.

Bulgarians have been angry over austerity measures designed to reduce public debt, which have meant cuts in health care and education programs.

Many Bulgarians feel squeezed by low wages ? the lowest in the EU at 400 euros ($524) a month ? and relentless inflation. They feel betrayed by promises that joining the EU would bring them a better life. Now, more than 22 percent of the people live below the official poverty line.

According to official statistics, the unemployment rate is 12 percent, but experts suggest that the real rate is more than 18 percent.

Allegations of vote-rigging that have accompanied elections in the past prompted five major former opposition parties to seek an independent vote count; the first such count since 1990 will be conducted by the Austrian agency SORA. More than 250 international observers monitored Sunday's election.

On Saturday, prosecutors stormed a printing house and seized 350,000 ballots that were printed over the legally fixed number.

The country's president urged Bulgarians to vote in large numbers to counter possible vote-buying practices that could influence the outcome of the race.

"As many as the scenarios may be, these do not stand any chance against millions of Bulgarians who can cast their votes for their own country and its future," Rosen Plevneliev said after casting his ballot.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-12-EU-Bulgaria-Elections/id-ffc9eee3b231483aac6896e80a34d68a

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Wet Seal Pays Out $7.5 Million In Horrendous Race-Bias ... - Aol Jobs

Teen clothing brand Wet Seal has reached a $7.5 million settlement over allegations that it horrendously discriminated against employees of color, because they didn't have the "white," "blue eye," "thin and blond" look the brand wanted, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Three former managers filed the lawsuit last year, accusing the nationwide retail chain of actively firing and denying raises and promotions to black workers. One plaintiff, former manager Kai Hawkins, said that her boss threatened to fire her unless she hired more white employees. Another, Nicole Codgell, claimed that she was fired the day after the company's senior vice president for store operations toured several outlets and sent an email to lower managers, "African American dominate -- huge issue."

The lawsuit also accused senior vice president Barbara Bachman of commanding managers to "lighten up" the staff in stores serving mainly white customers, and telling one regional manager that she must have "lost her mind" to put a black person in charge of a certain store.

More: Weather Channel Anchor Says She Was Fired For Her Military Service

Wet Seal had denied the allegations. The company, calling the settlement a "no-fault resolution of the case," agreed to pay at least $5.58 million in damages to current and former African American managers, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which was co-counsel in the suit. As part of the settlement, Wet Seal, which has over 7,000 employees, must also track applications to ensure diversity in hiring, expand its human resources department, post management openings, and regularly report on the hiring, promotions and firings of minority employees.

"Being targeted for termination from a job I loved because of my race was a nightmare," Cogdell said in a statement. "... Wet Seal has now committed to strong, fair policies because we took a stand. I hope these changes will create opportunities for all deserving employees, regardless of their race."

More: 4 Retail Jobs That Pay Surprisingly Well

This isn't an isolated case in the retail industry, where the pursuit of a specific "brand image" can end up leaving many out. "There's sort of an assumption about what the employees who interact with the customers have to look like," ReNika Moore, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund's economic justice group, told AOL Jobs. "And there's a bias and prejudice that's filtering into these workspaces, and it's really acting as a barrier for workers of color to advance."

The Wet Seal case was just a particularly extreme example, she said. "You rarely get situations where it's so explicitly recorded, in email, especially from someone at such a high level in the company."

In 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch paid $40 million to minority and female employees and job applicants to settle a massive class-action federal discrimination suit. The settlement also demanded that Abercrombie increase the number of non-whites in its ads.

But it wasn't just African Americans who didn't fit into Abercrombie's idea of itself; an employee, who claimed that she was forced to work in the stockroom, away from customers, because of her prosthetic arm, filed suit in 2009; and two women said that they were fired or refused a job for wearing a head scarf.

More: Why Is It So Hard To Get An $8 An Hour Job At Walmart?

Just this week, Abercrombie has come under fire for refusing to stock XL sizes, and media outlets resurfaced a 2006 quote from CEO Mike Jeffries. "In every school there are cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he told Salon. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

But for many retail chains, there's a built-in bias when it comes to the question of who belongs. A 2012 survey of New York retailers by the worker advocacy group, Retail Action Project, and CUNY's Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies found that minority workers were more likely to have their hours reduced without their consent, and significantly less likely to get a promotion.

White employees also earned an average of $11.30 an hour, compared to $10.49 for black workers, and $9.45 for Latinos, according to the report. All of them earn more than the average Wet Seal sales associate, however. According to employment review site Glassdoor.com, he or she takes home just $7.90 an hour.

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Source: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/05/11/wet-seal-settles-race-bias-suit/

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TAG Blog: Investing To Win

The Big Picture reminds us:

The Math of Active Management is Daunting:

1. Only 20% of active managers (1 in 5) can outperform their benchmarks in any given year;

2. Within that quintile, less than half (1 in 10) outperform in 2 out of the next 3 years;

3. Only 3% stayed in the top 20% over 5 years (1 in 33);

4. Once we include costs and fees, less than 1% (1 in 100) manage tooutperform (net).

5. What are the odds you can pick that 1 in 100 manager?

Source: Morningstar, Vanguard

Probably not good.

The TAG 401k) Plan has a wide array of index funds (also a number of actively managed funds, in case you want to hook your wagon to some out-performer's star. But remember ... today's hot financial adviser is tomorrow's loser.)

I remind people about index investing because I've gotten shafted investing with a smarter-than-thou financial adviser picking individual stocks. It's not that the adviser was super wrong, it's that the adviser charged Big Money to be only mildly right.

Months ago, TAG 401(k) Plan trustees were faced with having to replace an actively-managed Mid Cap fund that had been sucking bad over the previous year. Not only did it suck against other actively managed funds, but it didn't keep up with the index fund that it tracked. We tried to replace it with another actively managed fund, but they all were worse than the index.

So we deep-sixed the active fund and went with the index. Forbes magazine points out that indexes dominate over time.

An actively-managed five-fund portfolio held for 20 years has only a two percent chance of outperforming a comparable index fund portfolio.

Said another way, if you hold five index funds in different fund categories for 20 years, your portfolio has a 98 percent chance of outperforming a portfolio holding five comparable, actively-managed funds. ...

Even actively managed bond funds, often thought to wallop indexes, aren't so spiffy:

"On average, about 70 percent of all actively-managed bond funds underperformed their benchmarks over the five-year period ending in 2012. ..."

Factoids to think about when you're putting money into retirement investments.

401(k) Enrollment Meeting Dates (May-June)

Disney

Disney Feature - Southside Bldg.
Tue. May 14th, 10 am Rm. 1300

DisneyToon
Thur. May 16th, 2 pm,
Conf. Rm. 101

Disney TVA - Sonora Bldg.
Wed. May 22nd, 10 am, Rm. 1172

Disney TVA - Empire Cntr..
Wed. May 22nd, 2 pm, Rm. 5223

Cartoon Network
Wed. May 15th, 1 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Dreamworks Animation
Thur. May 30th, 2 pm,
Dining Rm. B&C

Dreamworks - Dragons
Thur. May 23rd, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Fox TV Animation
Wed. June 5th, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Marvel Animation
Thur. June 13th, 10 am,
Marvel Anim. Conf. Rm.

Nickelodeon
Wed. May 29th, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Robin Red Breast
Tue. May 21st, 2 pm,
Large Conf. Rm.
Santa Monica Bldg.

Starz/Film Roman
Tue. May 28th, 2 pm,
?Glass? Conf. Rm.

Sony Pictures Animation
Tue. June 4th, 2 pm,
North - Rm 2050

Source: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/investing-to-win.html

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