Phillip Phillips looks at life beyond “American Idol”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Like the 10 winners before him, Phillip Phillips faces the uneven road from “American Idol” victor to pop-chart mainstay.

After the success of his Top 10 hit, “Home,” the Georgia native is facing a new challenge – to replicate the mainstream successes of past “Idol” winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson on his debut album, “The World from the Side of the Moon,” released on Monday by Interscope Records.

Phillips, 22, spoke to Reuters about making his first proper studio album, what he might do differently on a second one, and whether he could have won “Idol” with this season’s panel of judges.

Q: How do you plan to transition from “American Idol” winner to a mainstream music career?

A: “It’s pretty funny that you mention that because the majority of the people I meet don’t even know that I was on ‘Idol.’ It’s really cool to hear that. When I go home, people ask, ‘What’ve you been doing? I’ve heard your song,’ but they don’t even know that I’ve been on ‘Idol.’”

Q: Your first single “Home” has gone twice platinum. You’ve said that it isn’t a song you would have written yourself. What’s your relationship now with your first hit?

A: “It’s amazing how well it has done, and I look at all the stories that I hear like how it has helped families out with their situation, or something’s happened with their kid, mom or dad, or if their child’s overseas in the war. Something like that’s pretty amazing how many different stories come out of it.”

Q: Did you have any ideas on how you wanted to develop your sound finally getting into a big-time studio?

A: “I already had the songs written, and it was just a matter of throwing in ideas and then just trimming it down to what felt right, because we only had three weeks to do this album. So it was kind of pressured, but that kind of helped out as well. It didn’t make us overthink anything.”

Q: Was there anything in particular you wanted to achieve?

A: “I wanted to make it similar to what I did on the show – a horn section and some rock. I tried to be a little artistic. I just wrote what came from my heart and what felt right.”

Q: Unlike many of the other contestants, you went into “Idol” as a songwriter, how many of the album’s songs did you write?

A: “I think five. Some of the co-writes, (the writers) really just kind of pushed me, so I kind of wrote most of those myself. But it was a lot of fun; it was a great experience.”

Q: Would you do anything differently next time?

A: “It’s still early, but I’d definitely want a little more time to do it. But that’s really about it, because three weeks is just really quick, and also I have just so many other things going on. … It was very kind of stressful and hopefully for the next record I’ll have a little more time.”

Q: What would that time allow you to do in the studio?

A: “Just being able to listen to it a little more. We all knew that it sounded really good but also having to listen to, like 17 songs in a row. You say, ‘Yeah that sounds great’ but you listen to it more and more and (say) ‘Maybe I would’ve brought this instrument down a little bit or brought it up a little bit more.’”

Q: Would you have fared any differently on ‘Idol’ with the current judges Nicky Minaj and Mariah Carey?

A: “I don’t know. I’m curious to see how they’re going to judge. It’s a completely different panel this year. … I don’t really know how I would’ve turned out. Maybe I’ll have to go out and audition again (laughs).”

Q: Would you have had to change your roots-y style?

A: “Naw, I would’ve still been the same dude. If they wouldn’t have sent me through, they wouldn’t have sent me through. And if they did, that’d be awesome.”

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Gunna Dickson)

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No increase in heart disease after food poisoning

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite earlier evidence tying an outbreak of E. coli infections in Canada to later heart disease, an expanded follow up study finds no link between the two.

“Although we definitely want to avoid anyone getting infected in the first place, this new information is reassuring for those who develop an infection from E. coli O157:H7,” Dr. Amit Garg, one of the authors of the study, said in a press release issued by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), which published the study.

This strain of E. coli bacteria polluted the drinking water supply of Walkerton, Ontario in May of 2000, sickening more than 2,300 people and resulting in seven deaths.

Food-borne E. coli infections – which affect about 265,000 people each year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – can damage the kidneys and lead to high blood pressure. That has raised concerns that they might also contribute to heart disease and stroke.

“There’s anecdotal evidence that certain infections immediately predate heart attack or stroke,” said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, the chief of Cardiology at VA Boston Healthcare System, who was not involved in the study.

“It’s not been clear whether it’s the infection or inflammation (from the infection) or coincidence,” Bhatt, also a professor at Harvard Medical School, told Reuters Health.

To see whether an E. coli outbreak could increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, Garg, a professor at Western University, Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, and his colleagues collected data on affected individuals from the 2000 event at a health clinic where they had annual visits.

Initially, the group seemed to have a higher risk for heart disease and stroke compared to people who had not suffered an E. coli infection. The researchers point out, however, that nearly half of the participants dropped out of the study, making those findings difficult to interpret.

In the current study, the group included 153 people who experienced severe illness during the outbreak, 414 people with mild illness, 331 people from Walkerton who did not get sick and more than 11,000 people who lived in neighboring towns that were spared from the E. coli outbreak.

In the decade following the outbreak, people who became severely sick were no more likely to later suffer a heart attack or stroke than people who lived outside of Walkerton.

In contrast, people who suffered a mild illness were actually 36 percent less likely to die from heart disease or stroke than residents of the surrounding communities.

Among people with a mild reaction to the infection, about 6 percent died during the study period, compared to about 10 percent of people who lived outside of the outbreak.

The reason is not totally clear. The authors write in their study that perhaps people in the mild-illness group didn’t get that sick from the infection – and also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death – because they were healthier than average.

(Garg would not agree to an interview with Reuters Health unless he was able to review major portions of this article in advance, a practice that violates Reuters’ policy to protect journalistic independence.)

STILL UNCLEAR?

The results from the study don’t necessarily mean infections don’t increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Liam Smeeth, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was not part of the study.

Smeeth told Reuters Health that research has shown that any impact on the coronary arteries from infection and subsequent inflammation is short-lived, and perhaps the numbers in the Walkerton study were not big enough, or the increased risk not large enough, to be detected.

“It’s not crystal clear because it was a relatively small study,” he said.

Bhatt agreed that the findings don’t prove or disprove the idea that infections could be involved in heart disease, and it’s also possible that the type of infection might matter.

He said that it’s important to rule out the types that don’t contribute.

“I think the study’s important because it makes it very, very much less likely that gastrointestinal infections in some way are linked to atherosclerosis, and I think that finding is useful because probably investigators in the future shouldn’t focus on this area as far as causes of atherosclerosis and heart attack and stroke,” he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Te450j CMAJ, online November 19, 2012.

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Infographic: California’s Katrina?

The scenario is known as “California’s Katrina.” An earthquake or superstorm causes Gold Rush-era earthen levees to collapse. Saltwater from San Francisco Bay floods the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, displacing half a million lowland Californians, poisoning the water supply for as many as 28 million more who live in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Silicon Valley, and ruining farmland that produces 11 percent of the nation’s agricultural value. The eighth-largest economy in the world could be sunk for months, even years.

There are two competing proposals to avert all this. The first is to bypass the delta with tunnels carrying fresh water to Southern California. The second is to upgrade the existing levees. A bill that would have required an official cost-benefit analysis of these approaches got shot down in the state legislature. Civil engineers at University of California at Davis don’t think the levees can be earthquake-proofed. Delta landowners, fearful the levees will no longer be maintained if the tunnels were built, have refused surveyors access to their land.

In this fight, if someone doesn’t win, everyone will lose.

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In Mark Cuban’s Humble Opinion, Facebook Still Kinda Sucks

Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban has confirmed reports from last week, in a post on his personal blog today, that he has a serious beef with Facebook. But before getting into all the reasons he no longer loves the social network, he clarifies one small point: “First, I’m not recommending to any of my companies that we leave facebook,” he writes. Last week ReadWriteWeb’s Dan Lyons kind of made it seem like Cuban planned to pull out altogether because of the way Facebook’s algorithm has affected the way people see his brands’s posts. The algorithm, Edgerank, controls brand posts so that not all fans are forced to see each one in their news feeds. Because of this, he quoted Cuban saying “We are moving far more aggressively into Twitter and reducing any and all emphasis on Facebook.” And later he had him talking about all the reasons he finds it horrible for businesses. Like, mainly, that it’s too expensive, a point that GigaOm’s Mathew Ingram called naive. “Really? That surprises you? What else did you think Facebook was going to do when it gave you a giant social platform for nothing?” Cuban now explains that he isn’t bailing on Facebook, just de-emphasizing it in favor of other Internet places, like Tumblr and Twitter. But, that does not mean that he does not hate Facebook as much as everyone has been saying he hates Facebook. He does.

RELATED: Shafted Facebook Founder Is Living Like a Kardashian in Singapore

You can read the laundry list of reasons over at his personal blog, but some highlights include:

RELATED: Eduardo Saverin May Be Barred from Returning to the U.S. After Renouncing Citizenship

• Its a time waster … FB doesn’t seem to want to accept that it’s best purpose in life is as a huge time suck. 


• IMHO, FB really risks screwing up something that is special in our lives as a time waster by thinking they have to make it more engaging and efficient.


• So by default you are not going to use your newsfeed as a primary source of information. It’s more like the township newspaper


• I also think that FB is making a big mistake by trying to play games with their original mission of connecting the world.  FB is a fascinating destination that is an amazing alternative to boredom which excels in its SIMPLICITY.  One of the threats in any business is that you outsmart yourself. FB has to be careful of just that.

Basically Mark Cuban thinks Facebook should stop trying to make money and stop trying to get too smart, which might work in the favor of Cuban who doesn’t want to spend too much money on something silly like social media. But,this doesn’t sound too appealing to Facebook, which as a public company needs to make money. Unless more join his cause, which could maybe happen. At least the Miami blog the 305 agrees with him. Anyone else? 

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Rock band AC/DC releases entire catalog on iTunes

NEW YORK (AP) — AC/DC is finally releasing its music digitally on iTunes.

Columbia Records and Apple announced Monday that the classic rock band’s music will be available at the iTunes Store worldwide. Sixteen studio albums will be released, including “High Voltage” and “Back in Black.”

AC/DC was one of the few acts that would not release music through the digital outlet. The Beatles and Kid Rock were also against selling music on iTunes, but have since jumped onboard. Country star Garth Brooks has yet to release his music on iTunes.

Four of AC/DC’s live albums and three compilation records are also available. The statement said the songs have been mastered for iTunes “with increased audio fidelity.”

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Why Sanofi’s Zaltrap Deal Won t Help Patients

Nurse administers chemotherapy to patient. Credit: National Cancer Institute.

I got excited when I read the New York Times story Nov. 9 (“Sanofi Halves Price of Cancer Drug Zaltrap After Sloan-Kettering Rejection)”. Zaltrap is an intravenous infusion colon cancer drug for metastatic colorectal cancer that is resistant to or has progressed with platinum-based chemotherapy. With a list price of $ 11,000 per patient per month, Zaltrap is about double the cost of Genentech’s Avastin. Sloan Kettering doctors rejected Zaltrap, claiming it offered no added value over Avastin, because it works no better than Avastin, and costs twice as much. Doctors from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one the United States flagship cancer hospitals, published an op-ed in the NYTimes Oct. 14, titled “In Cancer Care, Cost Matters,” arguing that hospitals need to put their foot down when drugs are outrageously expensive with no added value. They wrote: “Soaring spending has presented the medical community with a new obligation. When choosing treatments for a patient, we have to consider the financial strains they may cause alongside the benefits they might deliver.” The importance of getting bang for your buck, or value in healthcare, has been a huge point in health policy circles in the United States. In fact, politicians of all stripes are quick to point to health outcomes data that show that despite the United States spending in the top tier of all nations for healthcare, health outcomes are far lower. What Sanofi announced in its response Nov. 8 to Sloan-Kettering, one could have easily thought that it was a victory for patients. However, the New York Times headline stating “Sanofi halves price…” is misleading. Sadly, the Zaltrap half-off deal is not a list price reduction at all. It is just a business discount plan for hospitals and oncologists. As Lisa Jane Hubbell, who uses high-cost disease modifying drugs for a noncancerous, chronic condition told me: “It won’t help patients, will it? Our copay will be based on full price, the docs will pocket the extra from insurance companies. It doesn’t really help anyone who is in need of help paying for healthcare.” Another woman with stage IV breast cancer says that she has been deemed ineligible for any discount for her high-priced cancer drugs because she is insured. In general, drug discount plans go to the uninsured. She emailed me: “The drug I took for five years was re-patented three times while I was on it, as I recall. It was orders of magnitude more expensive than the old standby tamoxifen for only a slight advantage in efficacy.” As The Times points out, Medicare patients are unlikely to see a lower price for Zaltrap for a long while until the discount is incorporated into Medicare payment calculations for Part B, which covers physician-administered drugs. In addition, oncologists have long marked up drugs that they administer for insurers and patients. Fortunately, Sloan-Kettering doctors are on the patients’ side and question whether Sanofi’s discount will make Zaltrap more affordable for patients. Peter Bach, MD, told me: “I don’t know if they’re going through steps to ensure reimbursement goes down to follow price or not. I’m hoping that is in their plans. If not, then yes, the windfall goes to providers, and our concern is the costs passed on to patients.” Leonard Saltzman, MD, the op-ed coauthor, and gastroenterology oncologist, from Sloan Kettering also called Sanofi to task for missing the boat in making Zaltrap affordable for patients. But pharmaceutical price fixing is nothing new, according to Frederic Kaye, MD, professor of hematology and oncology at the University of South Florida in Gainesville, Florida. “I saw this happen for the first time in the late 1980s when a veterinary pill levamisole, which cost pennies for the treatment of heartworm, underwent a 100 times price escalation when it was used for treating colon cancer. There was outrage at the time over lack of regulations for price fixing, but you see almost 25 years later, it is the same.” Sanofi’s drug discount plan is clearly a business imperative. If one of the US flagship cancer treatment centers says that they will not use Zaltrap, others could follow. But the refusal to lower Zaltrap’s list price is worrisome because patient copays are based on price. More importantly, if the Sanofi plan becomes the pharmaceutical industry’s modus operandi to the era of value-based healthcare, patients will still remain out in the cold, without any added relief for the high cost of drugs. Value-based healthcare will be something for facilities and hospitals and leave patients out in the cold. These days, you have to critically review the hoopla about “patient-centered health care” and the allegedly positive partnerships shaping healthcare. Were patients included when it really mattered in drafting this drug discount program? We need to maintain a high level of skepticism about deals made strictly between drug companies and hospitals, or arrangements made between industry and physicians, or industry and health plans. It’s been said before and it must be said again: “Nothing about me [the patient] that pertains to me should be done without me at the table.”  

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

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China approves Land Rover deal

18 November 2012 Last updated at 07:39 ET

Jaguar Land Rover is to make vehicles in China for the first time after Beijing approved a £1bn joint venture.

The West Midlands-based luxury carmaker agreed a “milestone” deal with Chery Automobile and will build a plant near Shanghai, which is due to open in 2015.

JLR said any cars produced would be in addition to its existing output, and it had no intention of moving its manufacturing base out of Britain.

Sales of JLR models in China have risen by 80% so far this year.

The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, began talks with Chery months ago, but had been awaiting approval.

A joint statement released by the Chinese and British companies said: “We are delighted to have reached this milestone, achieved thanks to the understanding and foresight of the Chinese authorities and we want to thank them for recognising the potential of our joint venture in the fast-growing Chinese market.

“Together, we will now begin working in close collaboration on our partnership plans to harness the capabilities of our respective companies, to produce relevant, advanced models for Chinese consumers.”

JLR has not said officially which model would be built at the factory, although the company has said in the past that is likely to be either the Land Rover Freelander or Evoque.

A research and development facility and engine production plant will also built as part of the venture, with the main manufacturing plant expected to be completed during 2014, with production starting the following year.

With China now a crucial market for JLR, building vehicles in the country means it can avoid import duties.

However, JLR says that being in China will enable it to build vehicles designed specifically for the Chinese market.

BBC News – Business

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Summary: A look at the 4 new Kindle Fire models

Amazon.com Inc. started shipping a large-screen version of its Kindle Fire tablet computer on Thursday, ahead of schedule. Here is a look at the new Fires announced in September:

— Kindle Fire, with 7-inch screen, 1024 by 600 pixels. $ 159, with 8 gigabytes of storage. Weighs 14.1 ounces. Battery life of 8.5 hours. Started shipping Sept. 14.

— Kindle Fire HD, with 7-inch screen, 1280 by 800 pixels. $ 199 with 16 GB of storage or $ 249 with 32 GB of storage. Weighs 13.9 ounces. Battery life of 11 hours. Started shipping Sept. 14.

— Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, with 8.9-inch screen, 1920 by 1200 pixels. $ 299 with 16 GB of storage or $ 369 with 32 GB of storage. Weighs 20 ounces. Battery life of 10 hours. Started shipping Thursday.

— Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Wireless, with 8.9-inch screen, 1920 by 1200 pixels. $ 499 with 32 GB of storage or $ 599 with 64 GB of storage. Can connect to AT&T Inc.‘s 4G LTE wireless network. Weighs 20 ounces. Battery life of 10 hours. Will start shipping Tuesday.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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‘Twilight’ finale dawns with $141.3M weekend

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The sun has set on the “Twilight” franchise with one last blockbuster opening for the supernatural romance.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2″ sucked up $ 141.3 million domestically over opening weekend and $ 199.6 million more overseas for a worldwide debut of $ 340.9 million.

The finale ranks eighth on the list of all-time domestic debuts, and leaves “Twilight” with three of the top-10 openings, joining 2009′s “New Moon” (No. 7 with $ 142.8 million) and last year’s “Breaking Dawn — Part 1″ (No. 9 with $ 138.1 million).

Last May’s “The Avengers” is No. 1 with $ 207.4 million. “Batman” is the only other franchise with more than one top-10 opening: last July’s “The Dark Knight Rises” (No. 3 with $ 160.9 million) and 2008′s “The Dark Knight” (No. 4 with $ 158.4 million).

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Questions of Blame Linger 34 Years After Jonestown

From the age of 13, Leslie Wagner Wilson had been indoctrinated in the California-based Peoples Temple, led by the charismatic Jim Jones, whose mission was to foster racial harmony and help the poor.

But on Nov. 18, 1978, she and a handful of church members fought their way through thick jungle in the South American country of Guyana, escaping a utopian society gone wrong where followers were starved, beaten and held prisoner in the Jonestown compound.

She walked 30 miles to safety with her 3-year-old son, Jakari, strapped to her back and a smaller group of defectors. But just hours later, the mother, sister and brother and husband she left behind were dead.

“I was so scared,” said Wagner, now 55. “We exchanged phone numbers in case we died. I was prepared to die. I never thought I would see my 21st birthday.”

Today, on the 34th anniversary, Wilson said it’s important to remember the California-based Peoples Temple Jonestown massacre, especially the survivors who have wrestled with their consciences for decades.

PHOTOS: Jonestown Massacre Anniversary

Nine members of her family were among the 918 Americans who died that day, 909 of them ordered by Jones to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in the largest ritual suicide in history.

Her husband, Joe Wilson, was one of Jones’ top lieutenants who helped assassinate congressman Leo Ryan and his press crew when they tried to free church members who were being held against their will.

After arriving back in the United States, Wilson said she “went through hell” — three failed marriages, drug use and suicidal thoughts she describes in her 2009 book, “Slavery of Faith.”

“I was like Humpty Dumpty, but you couldn’t put me back together again,” she said.

Survivors, many of them African-American like Wilson, say they felt guilt and shame and faced the most agonizing question surrounding the nation’s single largest loss of life until 9/11: Was it suicide or murder?

Full Coverage: Jonestown Massacre

In the now-famous “death tape,” supporters clapped and babies cried as Jones instructed families to kill the elderly first, then the youngest in protest against capitalism and racism. Mothers poisoned 246 children before taking their own lives.

“We really can’t understand the Peoples Temple without looking at the historical time period when it arose,” said Rebecca Moore, a professor of religious studies at San Diego State University.

“With the liberation movements of the ’60s and ’70s, the collapse of the black-power movement, the Peoples Temple was the main institution in the San Francisco Bay area that promoted a message of integration and racial equality.”

Moore lost her two sisters and her nephew, the son of Jim Jones. “They were hardcore believers,” she said of her siblings.

Jim Jones, who was white, came from a “wrong side of the tracks,” poor background in Indiana where in the 1950s he became known as a charismatic preacher with an affinity for African-Americans.

“A number of survivors, including those who defected, believe to this day he had paranormal abilities,” said Moore, who met him years later. “He could heal them and read their minds.”

In the 1960s, Jones moved to San Francisco, where at the height of the Peoples Temple there were about 5,000 members.

WATCH: A Look Back at Jonestown Massacre

“They wanted my parents to join,” she said. “Like most outsiders, we didn’t have any idea what was happening outside closed doors.”

Jones ingratiated himself with celebrities and politicians, mobilizing voters to help elect Mayor George Moscone in 1975 and becoming chairman of the city’s housing authority.

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