Sunday 7 September 2008
Home Smoking Bans Prevent Teens From Lighting Up
Thursday 28 August 2008
Chicago Tribune Examines How Health Care Is Playing In Presidential Election, Among Voters
Both presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) have announced "elaborate -- just very different -- health care plans," the Chicago Tribune reports.
In late weeks, Obama and McCain have focused on early issues -- such as the warfare in Iraq, the thriftiness, gasoline prices and national security -- and some polls get found that health upkeep is "languishing far slow" other issues as top concerns for voters, according to the Tribune. While health fear appeared as "daily fodder in the debate all over which candidate would do a better job as president" during the Democratic presidential primary campaign, the Tribune reports that the "silence is deafening" on the way out during the general election campaign.
Reaction
Obama spokesperson Bill Burton said, "The issue of health attention may be getting less attention than it deserves from the media, just it's still a crown concern for voters and among the top issues that Sen. Obama talks about on the campaign trail."
Tucker Bounds, a spokesperson for McCain, acknowledges that, although health tending issues get not received a large amount of attention in the ecumenical election cause, they "could hardly escape the conversation each campaigner will hold with voters" because of the "double-dyed contrast" in their proposals.
Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, aforementioned, "For a lot of people world Health Organization have health insurance, they are remunerative more for health care, but it may not show up as concretely as remunerative $70 to fill their gas tank."
According to Republican pollster Gary Ferguson, world Health Organization specializes in health tutelage, despite the lack of attention to health forethought, the government issue remains role of overall economic concerns.
Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that, although gas prices ar the "canary yellow in the coal mine" for economical concerns, "when you probe, when you ask people what's bothering you around the saving right now, in economic downturns -- problems paying for health care and health insurance really hulk large." He added, "After people's fixations paying for gas prices, problems paid for wellness care ar right at the peak with job issues."
In Congress, Democratic and Republican staffers have begun to fulfill in preparation for the consideration of health guardianship legislation following year, careless of which candidate becomes president. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, added that health care is an important issue in House races nationwide and that he expects Obama to speak the government issue next week during the Democratic National Convention in Denver (Zuckman, Chicago Tribune, 8/21).
Editorial Addresses Obama Comments on Single-Payer System
A recent program line by Obama that he would "'probably go ahead with a single-payer'" wellness care system if he was "'designing a system from scratch'" indicated his support for the "idea of a health care market -- or nonmarket -- alone run by the government," a Wall Street Journal editorial states. According to the editorial, most "liberals support single-payer, aka 'Medicare for All,' because it would carry off the net motive, which by their lights is the reason Americans are uninsured."
Obama "takes a more soften campaign line, though we suppose exactly about everything is 'moderate' compared to a add up government putsch," the editorial states. "Obama's health tutelage plan includes a taxpayer-funded insurance programme, much like Medicare simply open to everyone," and seeks to "displace current private insurance coverage and switch people to the default government pick," according to the editorial.
The editorial states, "What's new is Mr. Obama's sander political packaging." The editorial states, "With good rationality, critics often call this a back entrance route to a centrally planned health care bureaucratism," adding, "For all his lawyerly qualifications, Mr. Obama has basically admitted that his proposal is genuinely the front door" (Wall Street Journal, 8/21).
Broadcast Coverage
NBC's "Nightly News" on Wednesday included analysis from NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd on a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on the presidential election. Among other results, the poll found that 48% of voters believe Obama would address health care more efficaciously, compared with 27% world Health Organization believe McCain would address the emergence more in effect (Curry, "Nightly News," NBC, 8/20).
In addition, NPR's "Morning Edition" on Wednesday reported on how both candidates this week discussed health care and other concerns for veterans during the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention (Horsley, "Morning Edition," NPR, 8/20).
Reprinted with kind permission from hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the integral Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, hunt the archives, or sign up for email deliverance at hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.
Friday 8 August 2008
Indie band does the business on 'Dragons' Den'
He is a middle-aged telecoms tycoon maybe looking to recapture his youth. They are a group of musicians with plenty of youth only not much money.
Today sees the launch unmatchable of the more unusual partnerships in British business when Peter Jones, the Dragons' Den entrepreneur, invests �75,000 of his own money into marketing an aspirant pop band.
Until recently Hamfatter, a Cambridge quintet, whose music has been compared to Belle and Sebastian and The Divine Comedy, were a struggling indie band drudging away on the "john circuit". They had standard a couple of offers from record labels but were put off by the draconian terms and conditions they would induce to sign.
So instead they decided on a rather unconventional pitch for investiture on the BBC2 show Dragons' Den where budding entrepreneurs attempt to sway five financial backers to fund their ideas and innovations.
Tonight, viewers of the show will see Mr Jones captivated by the band's performance and agree to invest in the isthmus in return for 30 per penny of any profits. Both sides say they take in come up with an entirely new business model for the music industry.
Rather than sign away the ownership of their songs to a label that would then pocket the vast majority of royalties in exchange for financial backing, the band decided to create Hamfatter Ltd, a registered company in which the set members act as directors, retaining all the rights and complete creative control.
Jamie Turner, the band's manager, said the idea to pitch their band to Dragons' Den came after they received offers from a mates of major record labels but decided the footing were merely not good enough. He said that even with Mr Jones taking a 30 per cent cut, the band will still make 10 times as much money in royalties because in that location is no record label pocketing the them. "The bands on the big labels volition be lucky to make perhaps 30p on an album if they're lucky," he aforementioned. "The record label takes the rest. We'll make about �3.50. It's the deal of the century."
Hamfatter's frontman, Eoin O'Mahony, said: "A major percentage of our pitch was to prove the Dragons how wasteful record companies are. We told them that last year, with a budget of �5,000, we released an album, recorded a video for simply �750 and got ourselves on to the radio receiver and into the charts. Can you imagine someone like EMI spending simply �750 on a video?"
The band is working on an record album for release next class, and a new single, "The Girl I Love", is knocked out this workweek.
Mr Turner added: "If it is successful, then we would hope to be able to truly push the concept fore and get other bands on a similar deal. If it's not and so I suppose Peter Jones has bought himself the most expensive CD in existence."
Self-aware liquid body substance redeems Hamfatter
By Elisa Bray
It takes some guts to call your band Hamfatter. While unpleasantly conjuring up cured kernel, it's likewise a term in theatrical slang substance a third-rate performer. It suggests this Cambridge-educated trio have a good signified of humor.
Apply this sentiment to their songs � lightsome numbers that are more pop than the indie genre they define on their MySpace page � and Hamfatter serve up a refreshing burst of guitar drink down.
The single "The Girl I Love" is a buoyant vocal so catchy it could have been made for national radiocommunication play lists. They skirt dangerously come together to the obvious radio-friendly guitar pop up and broad lyrics of Scouting For Girls, but their horns and strings-fuelled orchestration that echoes Belle and Sebastian, and their self-aware humor, just close to redeem them.
The combination of building string section, tinkling gaudy piano with over-blown vocals from isaac Bashevis Singer Eoin O'Mahony in "How Sweet It Is" is verging on show tune backed by big band.
Aside from the touch ballads there's little depth to be found, but the melodies a-plenty all saunter along gleefully and enjoyably enough.
More info
Tuesday 1 July 2008
Frankie Valli And The 4 Seasons
Artist: Frankie Valli And The 4 Seasons
Genre(s):
Rock & Roll
Discography:
Anthology
Year:
Tracks: 26
Thursday 19 June 2008
David Beckham - Beckhams A Big Boy On Giant Ad
Soccer hunk-turned-underwear model DAVID BECKHAM is sure to stop the traffic in San Francisco, California after his sexy new Emporio Armani ad was unveiled on a massive mural on Wednesday (18Jun08).
Wearing nothing but Armani briefs, the buff England and L.A. Galaxy star shows off his fabled 'golden balls' while working out on a Malibu, California beach.
The revealing shot, taken by fashion photographers Mert Alas + Marcus Piggott was unveiled on a giant mural facing MACy's store in the heart of San Francisco at 5pm local time.
The photo will also grace billboards in New York, Los Angeles, Rome, London, Milan, Paris and Tokyo.
See Also
Tuesday 10 June 2008
Xena-do
This convention is one of the few to be held outside America, but the fans still arrive in their droves, many of them wearing T-shirts adorned with her image. There's even a brave handful dressed in Xena costumes which they've painstakingly made themselves. "It's really humbling to be up there," says the Kiwi star. "They are not complete morons these people, they have perfectly full lives but there is something child-like in someone who is allowing themselves to be like that so you don't want to squish that," she says.Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on television screens in 1995. A spin-off from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, it quickly gained a huge international audience and cult following. It also made Lawless a household name. She played Xena for six years, winning an especially loyal following among the gay community who were intrigued by her ambiguous relationship with her travelling companion, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor).The show ended seven years ago, but her relationship with it has done anything but. "It was just a gig to me, but I am so grateful for everything it gave me. It gave me a husband (executive producer Rob Tapert), it gave me my kids (sons Julius, 8, and Judah, 6; she also has daughter Daisy, 19, from her first marriage), good times, great friends and six magical years," says Lawless.She quickly moved on to more TV and film work, and other obsessive fans. Lawless spent two years as Cylon infiltrator D'Anna Biers in the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.
Wednesday 4 June 2008
Second Sex and the City movie planned?
Producers are said to be so confident that the big screen adaptation will be a box office success that they are already beginning negotiations with its stars for the follow-up.
According to the Daily Mail: "The producers are already working on a script for a second movie, they are so convinced the first will be a hit.
"They are exercising the sequel option in all of the stars' contracts. They want it to be a franchise and think they can stretch it over at least three movies."
The first 'Sex and The City' movie completed filming last week in New York. It will be released in cinemas in Spring 2008.