U.S. doctors urge transparency on insurer payments

* Doctors group says transparency means savings

* AMA urges more openness on out-of-network services

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - Requiring health insurers to be more open about how they set reimbursement rates for out-of-network medical services would save everyone money, the top U.S. doctors group told Congress on Thursday.

American Medical Association President Nancy Nielsen said such a move would prevent insurance companies from shortchanging patients and upsetting their relationship with their doctors by underestimating what doctors should be charging for services.

"The AMA believes enormous savings would accrue to patients, physicians, health insurers and other third-party payers if there were complete transparency," she told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Insurer reimbursement rates for out-of-network services are often set at what are considered "usual" or "customary" charges. The problem for doctors and patients is that insurers have been systematically underestimating those charges, Nielsen said.

Recent lawsuits are changing those practices, Nielsen said. But she urged Congress to make sure health insurance payment transparency is part of a broad healthcare overhaul that President Barack Obama wants enacted by the end of the year.

Neilsen's testimony comes a day after the AMA and others sued WellPoint Inc (WLP.N), accusing it of fixing payments for out-of-network services artificially low.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, followed similar federal claims led by the AMA against Cigna Corp (CI.N) and Aetna Inc (AET.N) in New Jersey, and against UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) in New York.

WellPoint said on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit that it was "committed to providing appropriate reimbursement for out-of-network services."

In January, UnitedHealth agreed to pay $350 million to resolve class action litigation and $50 million to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo into its Ingenix database.

Eating Red and Processed Meats May Increase Risk of Death

The News Said about that Eating Red meat and red things is not good for body it will just make your body going bad and maybe you will die !! MUAHAHAHAHAHA =]
Or maybe if you eat the meat that plus more things or plus more other meat and it will also make your body health go bad and you will also die !! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH =]

Why it's not good it's because red meats aren't as healthy as "lean meats" doesn't mean that you shouldn't eat them. Everything is good in moderation and meat has a lot of protein so limiting yourself to only one variety doesn't open up a lot of doors. So you can still eat them, just eat them in moderation.

And Why is not good to eat the meat that plus more other meat is because that other meat mix with the fresh meat you eat it will be unhealthy.

QUESTION TIME'S =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =]

Who?:
The Doctor and people said that it's unhealthy.
What?:
About eating RED MEAT is not good and also eating the meat that PLUS OTHER KIND OF MEAT is not good and unhealthy it will make you DIE !! MUAHAHAHAHAH =]
When?:
Everytime!
Where?:
In the whole world.
Why?
Because it's unhealthy!
There is information WHY on the top of QUESTION TIME'S =]





Bye Bye~~
Why?

YouTube takes down thousands of fair-use videos

Thousands of user-created videos- or at least their audio tracks - have disappeared from YouTube, and the question is who’s fault is it?

The New York Times reports that many YouTube users have found themselves in the same position as high school sophomore Juliet Weybret, who posted a video of herself playing piano and singing “Winter Wonderland.”

Her video was removed “as a result of a third-party notification by the Warner Music Group,” YouTube informed her.

But Warner says it’s not their fault.

“We and our artists share the user community’s frustration when content is unavailable. YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used,” said Will Tanous, a spokesman for Warner Music.

In other words, Warner provides a very long list of copyright materials and Google’s tool goes through and wipes them all out, regardless of how fair the use might be.

It’s yet another example of how broken the DMCA regime is. Google believes it is legally obligated to take down every instance of a reported copyright work. More to the point, the scale is so huge it sends its robots out to do the takedowns.

Under DMCA, users can file an objection to the take-down, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Fred von Lohmann says:

“People are somewhat intimidated by the possibility of being sued by one of the music companies, even if they have a free lawyer, like us.”

So a very large amount of fair-use works are simply taken down, and the digital speech that is the currency of our modern age simply goes offline.

Volcano in Alaska blows top again

Mount Redoubt volcano in the US state of Alaska has erupted for the sixth time in 24 hours, spewing ash and steam 15km (9.3 miles) into the air.

The volcano, 166km (103 miles) south-west of the state's biggest city, Anchorage, began erupting late on Sunday after a 20-year lull.

Ash has fallen on towns north of Anchorage, but the city itself has not been affected by the eruption.

Alaskan Airlines has cancelled a number of flights because of the ash.

Officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory were able to monitor the latest eruption live via a webcam.

"We were able to see mudflows, pyroclastic flows and a nice ash column shooting out of the summit," geologist Janet Schaefer told the BBC. "It was quite spectacular."

Karen Timmers picks up her daughter Kaila Kais, who suffers from asthma, and son Johann from Talkeetna Elementary School, in Talkeetna, Alaska on 23 March
People living in the path of ash cloud have taken precautions

Ms Schaefer said the ash, which can cause skin irritation and breathing problems, was so far was not too dangerous for people living in the vicinity but was dangerous for air traffic.

The ash can cause damage to jet engines. People with respiratory problems have been warned to stay indoors until the ash settles or to wear a face mask if they go outside.

Ms Schaefer said the Observatory was working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Weather Service to track ash clouds and ensure flights were diverted or cancelled if necessary.

Dozens of aircraft at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage were being sheltered as a precaution against the falling ash.

Mount Redoubt, which stands 3,100m (10,200ft) high, last erupted over a four-month period from 1989 to 1990.

Scientists monitoring the area warned in late January that an eruption was likely.

On Sunday, officials raised the alert level after researchers recorded increased seismic activity.

"If it is anything like the 1989 eruption, we could expect activity to continue for three to four months," Ms Schaefer said.







Vidio


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7960825.stm

House passes bill to capture most of AIG bonuses

WASHINGTON - Struggling to keep ahead of public outrage over the actions of Wall Street firms, the House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that seeks to recoup the lion's share of the $165 million in bonuses paid to executives of American International Group Inc.

The House measure, hurriedly drawn up on the orders of Democratic leadership, imposes a 90 percent tax on those who were paid bonuses at AIG and other firms as long as their families earned more than $250,000 annually and their companies received more than $5 billion in federal bailout funds. It passed by more than a two-thirds majority, 328 to 93.

All but one of the representatives from Maryland voted in favor of the measure. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Frederick, the state's lone Republican, voted against it.

The Senate is taking a different approach. It is readying a bill that would levy a 35 percent excise tax on executive bonuses. Both the company and the recipient of the bonuses would pay the tax. The Senate could take up the measure next week, or perhaps attempt to reconcile it with the House tax bill.

Even as the House voted, New York's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, announced that AIG had complied with a request to turn over the names of those in the company who had received the bonuses. Cuomo pledged to be cautious in releasing the names because of concerns over the employees' safety.

The House bill, sponsored by New York Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, garnered significant Republican support. But that did not come without a bitter debate, with conservative Republicans angrily denouncing the measure as a charade intended to deflect blame from Democrats about how the AIG bonuses were permitted to be paid.

They remained focused on an embarrassing disclosure by Senate Democrats Wednesday that they acceded to a Treasury Department request in February to scale back language in the economic stimulus bill that would have limited the payments.

"This bill is nothing more than an attempt for everybody to cover their butt up here on Capitol Hill," said Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader. Opponents advocated a separate plan that would require the Treasury Department to seek repayment of the funds immediately. And some suggested the bill was an unconstitutional attempt to penalize a specific company, though legal experts said yesterday that the bill would probably pass muster by the courts.

Supporters said the bill was the most effective means for the government to seek redress of the bonus money.

"This vote is the difference between solving the problem or continuing the problem," said New York Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat. "The only way to get their money back is to tax it back."

Some Republicans agreed. "At the end of the day, this insult to taxpayers cannot, should not, and will not stand," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan.

Republicans were clearly divided, with nearly half supporting the Rangel measure, perhaps worried about how constituent anger over the AIG payouts might be visited upon them.

Democrats charged that Republicans had opportunistically changed their tune on the compensation issue, noting that many have resisted past attempts to limit executive pay.

Nearly a third of U.S. bird species in trouble

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly one-third of all U.S. bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline, with birds in Hawaii facing a "borderline ecological disaster," scientists reported on Thursday.

The State of the Birds report, issued by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar along with conservation groups and university ornithologists, also noted some successes, including the recovery of the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon and other species after the banning of the chemical DDT.

"When we talk about birds and we talk about wildlife, we're also talking about the economics of this country," Salazar told reporters as the report was released.

Wildlife watching and recreation generate $122 billion annually, the report said.

Salazar mentioned revenue from hunting, fishing and bird-watching, but added that President Barack Obama's stimulus package and proposed federal budgets for the remainder of 2009 and 2010 offer more money for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which aims to protect birds and other creatures.

The report, available online at www.stateofthebirds.org, presents data collected by government and academic scientists, as well as information contributed by amateur bird-watchers.

Wetland bird populations have soared since 1968, with an increase of up to 60 from levels 40 years ago. But birds in other habitats -- forests, grasslands and arid areas -- have declined as much as 40 percent.

HAWAIIAN BIRDS MOST VULNERABLE

It is in the perceived paradise of Hawaii that birds have declined the most, the report said.

"More bird species are vulnerable to extinction in Hawaii than anywhere else in the United States," according to the report.

Before humans arrived in the Hawaiian islands, possibly as early as the year 300, there were 113 bird species that occurred nowhere else on Earth. Since humans arrived, 71 species have gone extinct and 31 more are listed as threatened or endangered.

The main culprits are new plant and animal species introduced into the Hawaiian ecosystem, said George Wallace of the American Bird Conservancy, who wrote the report's section on Hawaii.

"Most Americans would be surprised that a place that we usually associate with being an idyllic paradise would have so many serious bird conservation problems," Wallace said in a telephone interview.

"These types of isolated island flora and fauna tend to be very, very sensitive to introductions of foreign organisms."

John Fitzpatrick of Cornell University went farther, calling Hawaii a "borderline ecological disaster" and "the epicenter of extinctions and near extinctions."

Overall, the United States is home to more than 800 species of birds; 67 of those are federally listed as endangered or threatened, with an additional 184 species causing concern because of they are narrowly distributed or have declining populations, the report said.

(Humanities) -- Two Country Research

Our Groups have Cherine Jasmine and Stephanie.
And I Think I wanna Research South Africa Egypt,
Here is the information of it those country:


South Africa:

The Republic of South Africa, also known by other official names, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa. The South African coast stretches 2,798 kilometres and borders both the Atlantic and Indian oceans.To the north of South Africa lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while the Kingdom of Lesotho is an independent enclave surrounded by South African territory.

History:

South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological sites in the world.Extensive fossil remains at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves suggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago.[13] These were succeeded by various species of Homo, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus and modern humans, Homo sapiens. Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River by the fourth or fifth century displacing and absorbing the original KhoiSan speakers. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier KhoiSan people, reaching the Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. These Iron Age populations displaced earlier people, who often had hunter-gatherer societies, as they migrated.


Egypt:

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers, Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its estimated 76 million live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers, where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely-populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East.



Geography:

At 1,001,450 square kilometers, Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country. In terms of land area, it is approximately the same size as all of Central America, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and the combined size of the US states of Texas and California.

Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area.






Question:

Which country can best use the their funding? Why?


Answer:

Well I think it's all okei and it's all good for doing it and using it because every country have every country's good thing's and bad thing's

In south africa it's pretty and good and a lot of nice people polite people and it' famous in that country even thing's work's a lot of thing's a and there have a lot of good thing's and it's pretty.


And in Egypt I think it's cool too and that that place it's pretty famous too and they have a lot of nice people kind people and polite people even a lot of intresting animal's and a lot of thing's even that there has a lot of kind of aboriginal people and thing's animal it's great.


And I think both country it's cool and that it's good to research too~~

(Humanities) -- Sociology Science Geograpgy.

How did you use the social sciences of Geography, Economics and Sociology to consider what would make strong countries in Kenbrena?

I think maybe America because I think Geography They have a lot of thing's about learning books and things and Economics The money things and some work thing' there are very good at it and they are very cool and nice about it. And Sociology and that the are good at community and very good at couculate and work together and talk together and study together and they are good at work together like a big family so they always do thing's right and nice and good.So I think maybe America is the most strongest country in Kenbrena. Maybe there is a lot of country but I think America is the nest :)

Kenbrena

* If you lived in part of Kenbrena where you did not have energy resources, what could you do to survive?
If one day I live in Kenbrena Than I don't have any energy left im going to die I will call somebody to help me and I will find people and will try to find a idea to make me have a lot of energy and don't die. and I think that i will have a lot of energy and a lot of people are going to help me because that I think there people are very kind and very nice.



* "To have a strong country, it is best to have only rich people with financial control." Support or refute that statement.

I think that that is wrong because to have a strong country is not the problem of living with who or which kind of people because that I think if people want to have a country and work together like a family than they will have a strong country.



* "People of different levels of wealth may not love one another, but they might need each other." Support or refute that statement.

I think it's still wrong too. Because maybe different kind of people will love each other and maybe some will don't love each other and some people don't love each other but they need each other and some people love each other than they work with each other too.. So I think it's not really wrong and I don't agree it.

Kenbrena -- Question

* What are some possible reasons for some groups in Kenbrena to be friendly to each other while other groups do not get along?

Why Do They Some Group's work friendly with each groups and be nice is because some of them are friendly and they think it's better to work together and it's better to talk together and than work together.


And Why Some Group's didn't work well and nice and friendly is because some people think it's bad to work together and some groups think that every group's are enemy so they don't work together.

* Is there a social group above the makes you think of yourself or your family?

Only Kind people and the friendly people and the people are nice that think that we should work together that's the only way that they will think about me and my family.

'More bad news' on climate change

More bad news on climate change is expected as more than 2,000 climate scientists gather in Copenhagen.

They will be trying to pull together the latest research on global warming ahead of political negotiations later in the year.

The scientists are concerned that the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are already out of date.

Their data suggests greater rises in sea levels this century.

For the scientists gathering in the Danish capital, this meeting is about removing as much wriggle room as possible from the political negotiations on a new global climate treaty taking place in December.

While the IPCC reports of 2007 were praised for their recognition of the causes of global warming, the slow, consensus-based nature of the process, meant more recent data was not included.

Greater clarity

But with this meeting taking place outside the IPCC, it means it will have the very latest estimates, and the scientists will have no need to agree every word with the political masters.

This unfettered atmosphere is likely to produce greater clarity about the scale of some very worrying trends, especially sea level rise.

The IPCC was widely criticised for stating that sea level rise this century would only amount to 59cm (23in).

The most recent data, to be presented here, will suggest a far higher figure with dramatic implications for many island nations and coastal regions.

The meeting is being organised by the University of Copenhagen. Its prorector Lykke Friis said the scientists would be presenting the latest and the clearest information, meaning political leaders would not have the excuse that they needed more research before agreeing on a deal.

As well as hearing from scientists, the meeting will also look at the social and economic impacts of the global rise in temperatures.

UPDATE:Apple Plans To Launch Netbook With Touch Screen-Sources

TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Apple Inc. (AAPL) is planning to launch a netbook computer with a touch screen monitor as early as the second half of this year, two people close to the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

The mini laptop computers will likely have monitor screens that are between 9.7-inches and 10-inches, one person, who declined to be named, said.

Another person said other specifications and functions are still under evaluation.

Apple is working with Taiwan's Wintek Corp. (2384.TW), a contract manufacturer of small and medium displays, to make the touch-screen displays and Quanta Computer Inc. (2382.TW), the world's largest notebook maker by revenue, to assemble the new netbooks, the second person said.

Netbooks are primarily designed for Internet browsing and mobile computing. They cost less than conventional laptop computers, and are lighter and smaller.

A slew of PC makers including Dell Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Acer Inc. (2353.TW) have in recent months entered this market segment. The companies are hoping to tap new computer users in emerging markets.

Apple's entry may come in what is expected to be a very tough year for computer sales. Desktop-computer shipments in particular are expected to fall by nearly one-third globally in 2009 as consumers increasingly shift to laptop computers, according to projections released by research firm Gartner Inc. earlier in March.

While netbook computers have become a major sales driver for computer companies, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs last year dismissed netbooks, even going so far as to suggest Apple's third-generation iPhone - a smartphone device that offer multifunctions - could serve as a netbook. Jobs told analysts in October Apple isn't "tremendously worried" the slump will drive customers to less-expensive PCs and added, "we don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk."

Jill Tan, a spokeswoman for Apple in Asia, declined to comment Tuesday. Wintek spokeswoman Susie Lee and Quanta Computer investor relations officer Carol Hsu declined to comment.

Apple, like many other big personal-computer and consumer-electronics brands, doesn't actually make most of its products. It hires manufacturing specialists - mainly companies from Taiwan that have extensive operations in China - to assemble its gadgets based on Apple's designs.

The arrangement frees Apple and its fellow vendors from running complicated, labor-intensive production lines, while the ability of Taiwanese companies to slash manufacturing costs helps cut product prices over time.

Quanta assembles Apple's MacBook and iMac computers.

Shares of Wintek and Quanta rose on the news. Wintek shares rose 6.9% to NT$ 11.70, while Quanta shares gained 4.4% to NT$37.60. The broader market closed up 0.9%.

But Yuanta Securities analyst Vincent Chen said the share price gains may be limited as orders from Apple may not be large.

"Apple is unlikely to make very cheap products. The netbook would most likely be very niche, meaning volume is going to be small."

Were Scientists Fair?

When Alfred Wegener proposed his Continental Drift Hypothesis, he was not believed partially because he was not a trained geologist. He was actually trained in metereology. Do you think the scientists were fair when they pointed this out?

I think it's not really fair because that it can't be that if he is a scientists of weather than he can't do anything els. he still can know some thing's about humanities too if it's wrong it's okei but it can't be always wrong you must trust it.
So I think it's not fair
Ex.
If I'm good at math but I still know about science
I can't don't know anything about it.
So I think it's not really fair to say that Alfred Wegener is lying.

:)

Capital Resources

These is the information that say's what does these words mean :)

Human Capital:

Human capital refers to the stock of skills and knowledge embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value.

Financial Capital:

Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation.

Natural Resources:

Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy Motown label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who".

Capital:

A Thing A Word
That is Capital Big Words
For Example
a = not Capital
A = Capital.

Laws to tackle tainted-food cases seem to lack much bite

The salmonella outbreak associated with Peanut Corp. of America’s peanut products is one of the biggest tainted-food cases in recent history.

“In 15 years of litigating most of the major foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S., the PCA case may well be the worst food-safety breach I have ever seen,” said Seattle food-borne illness attorney Bill Marler, who has filed multiple claims against Peanut Corp. in the recent outbreak.

But as federal investigators move forward, they also are aware that few food-related investigations turn into prosecutions and even fewer land anyone in jail.

In the salmonella outbreak that began last fall, nine people are believed to be dead from eating bad peanut products. More than 660 people have been sickened.

A federal criminal investigation of Peanut Corp. of America, the company federal officials have identified as the source of the salmonella, was opened on Jan. 30. The outbreak has been traced to the company’s Blakely plant, though the plant in Plainview, Texas, may have contributed to at least six illnesses in Colorado, officials in that state said.

The probe focuses on the violation of federal food “adulteration” laws, and doesn’t legally address the victims, said former Food and Drug Administration investigators and federal agents familiar with the investigation and prosecution of food-borne illness cases.

“It doesn’t matter if anybody got sick, or if anybody died,” said Benjamin England, a former investigator with the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations and a Washington attorney who runs an FDA consulting firm.

Federal officials won’t comment on the criminal probe springing from the current salmonella outbreak. The FDA is working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI on the probe.

In 1998, the FDA levied a $1.5 million fine against Odwalla Inc., a California juice maker, for selling apple juice tainted with E. coli that led to the death of a Colorado teen. The company pleaded guilty to 16 counts of misdemeanor food adulteration.

In 2007, the president of Lantana, Fla.-based Atlantis Foods Inc. got 15 months after pleading guilty to a scheme to sell adulterated chicken salad and lobster dip.

Former investigators said laws governing food adulteration date to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The act defines adulterated product as food that was “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health.”

The provision offers two types of adulteration charges —- misdemeanor and felony. Intent defines the difference. A felony charge means the food was knowingly contaminated and put on the market. The maximum felony fine is $10,000. The maximum prison term is three years.

States where victims of tainted food were sickened or died can pursue charges such as manslaughter or negligent homicide, said former federal investigators and prosecutors. But states often don’t.

“In a perfect world, a state might be right in the middle of it [the investigation] right now,” said Rande Matteson, a former federal agent and chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at Saint Leo University in Florida. “But it’s not a perfect world.”

Laws to tackle tainted-food cases seem to lack much bite

The salmonella outbreak associated with Peanut Corp. of America’s peanut products is one of the biggest tainted-food cases in recent history.

“In 15 years of litigating most of the major foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S., the PCA case may well be the worst food-safety breach I have ever seen,” said Seattle food-borne illness attorney Bill Marler, who has filed multiple claims against Peanut Corp. in the recent outbreak.

But as federal investigators move forward, they also are aware that few food-related investigations turn into prosecutions and even fewer land anyone in jail.

In the salmonella outbreak that began last fall, nine people are believed to be dead from eating bad peanut products. More than 660 people have been sickened.

A federal criminal investigation of Peanut Corp. of America, the company federal officials have identified as the source of the salmonella, was opened on Jan. 30. The outbreak has been traced to the company’s Blakely plant, though the plant in Plainview, Texas, may have contributed to at least six illnesses in Colorado, officials in that state said.

The probe focuses on the violation of federal food “adulteration” laws, and doesn’t legally address the victims, said former Food and Drug Administration investigators and federal agents familiar with the investigation and prosecution of food-borne illness cases.

“It doesn’t matter if anybody got sick, or if anybody died,” said Benjamin England, a former investigator with the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations and a Washington attorney who runs an FDA consulting firm.

Federal officials won’t comment on the criminal probe springing from the current salmonella outbreak. The FDA is working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI on the probe.

In 1998, the FDA levied a $1.5 million fine against Odwalla Inc., a California juice maker, for selling apple juice tainted with E. coli that led to the death of a Colorado teen. The company pleaded guilty to 16 counts of misdemeanor food adulteration.

In 2007, the president of Lantana, Fla.-based Atlantis Foods Inc. got 15 months after pleading guilty to a scheme to sell adulterated chicken salad and lobster dip.

Former investigators said laws governing food adulteration date to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The act defines adulterated product as food that was “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health.”

The provision offers two types of adulteration charges —- misdemeanor and felony. Intent defines the difference. A felony charge means the food was knowingly contaminated and put on the market. The maximum felony fine is $10,000. The maximum prison term is three years.

States where victims of tainted food were sickened or died can pursue charges such as manslaughter or negligent homicide, said former federal investigators and prosecutors. But states often don’t.

“In a perfect world, a state might be right in the middle of it [the investigation] right now,” said Rande Matteson, a former federal agent and chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at Saint Leo University in Florida. “But it’s not a perfect world.”

Amazon releases Kindle for iPhone, iPod Touch

Trying to expand its book sales, Amazon.com Inc. released a free application Wednesday that lets iPhone and iPod Touch users read electronic books purchased at the e-commerce giant's Kindle online bookstore.

The software performs many of the same functions featured on Amazon's $359 Kindle 2 reading device released last month, including bookmarking, noting, highlighting and adjusting the font size, the company said.
But the Amazon Kindle for iPhone application lacks the Kindle's read-aloud feature that garnered controversy. The Seattle online merchant said it would let rights-holders disable the text-to-speech feature after publishers and authors argued that it violates audio-book copyrights.

The Kindle allows owners to download books wirelessly, but iPhone program users can't buy directly through the application. Instead, to shop among the 240,000 electronic book titles, users must access the store via the phone's Web browser or from a computer.

The application could cut into sales of the Kindle device, but it also expands the number of customers who can buy Amazon's e-books. Analysts peg Kindle sales at fewer than half a million. Apple Inc., by comparison, sold more than 13.7 million iPhones in 2008, according to ABI Research. That's not counting the millions of iPod Touch devices also sold.

When it comes to e-books, Amazon will have competition on those Apple devices. Google Inc. offers 1.5 million free e-books in the public domain. Lexcycle's free Stanza application lets iPhone users read digital books bought at online merchants such as eReader and Fictionwise, which has its own application called eReader.

The Movie

In Science Class We Watched A Movie And I forgot The Name Of That Movie. And That Movie is Talking About Some Body and Some Head And There is a people are talking about Science and Talking about how there design and talking about how they do it and They Make a lot of slide show too and it's talking about how long did it take them make that and also talk about some science.
And I really like that movie I think it's cool ad the people are cool too.
We Don't need to write this post but I wanna write it.
And What I'm Going to say it's hat I think that This movie is so cool.

Isolating the Variable -- [Science]

In Science We did a activity called chocolate attack we are going to do that activity last time but because there is no time so we do it this time
first everyone make up with group of three and me with jasmine chao and annchi wan and we first draw the boat that we wanted to design and make sure that it can help the HIS student because there is a chocolate attack that's why it called chocolate attack.
And after that we had three pice of paper and 3 straws and a meter of tape and we have to make the boat using those given thing to make the boat that we design.
And after we finish we need to go down stairs in school and try them we put little thingy on the boat and also some fat one. the thin one is elementry one and the fat one is high school student and we put one by one and i also record it too who get's the most lot people in the boat who win's and a lot of people get 20... or something more and less and our group got 31. haha:D:D
WE WON!!



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Congratulatoins~


SCIENCE IS FUN
=]

Tokyo

In Humanities there is a task that tell you to write a place that you travel it before and you really like that place and it keep save it in your mind.

I'm talking about A Place in japen called tokyo I think it's a place like perceptual.
It can't really find on he map because it's a place in japan and it's not really big and so that you only can find japan in the map but you can't find tokyo in the map.

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Main Part of Tokyo:

Tokyo officially Tokyo Metropolis is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people. The population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million. The prefecture is the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, the world's most populous metropolitan area with 35 million people and the world's largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$1.191 trillion at purchasing power parity in 2005.
Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of
the Japanese Imperial Family.

The History:

Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the town became the center of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century.It became the de facto capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital. After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already the nation's political and cultural center,and the emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established, and continued to be the capital until it was abolished as a municipality in 1943 and merged with the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo.



How Did Tokyo This name come from?:

Tokyo was originally known as Edo, meaning estuary.Its name was changed to Tokyo when it became the imperial capital in 1868.During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tōkei", an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei". This pronunciation is now obsolete.

The Culture of Japan Tokyo:

Tokyo has many museums. In Ueno Park are four national museums: Tokyo National Museum, the country's largest museum and specializing in traditional Japanese art; the National Museum of Western Art; and the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, with its collections of Japanese modern art as well as over 40,000 Japanese and foreign films. Also in Ueno Park are the National Museum of Science and the public zoo. Other museums include the Nezu Art Museum in Aoyama; the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Sumida across the Sumida River from the center of Tokyo; and the National Diet Library, National Archives, and the National Museum of Modern Art, which are located near the Imperial Palace.

Tokyo has many theaters for the performing arts as well. These include national and private theaters for traditional forms of Japanese drama as well as modern dramas. Symphony orchestras and other musical organizations perform Western and traditional music. Tokyo also hosts modern Japanese and Western pop and rock music at venues ranging in size from intimate clubs to internationally known arenas like the Nippon Budokan. Many different festivals occur throughout Tokyo. Major events include the Sannō at Hie Shrine, the Sanja at Asakusa Shrine, and the biennial Kanda Festivals. The last features a parade with elaborately decorated floats and thousands of people. Annually on the last Saturday of July, an enormous fireworks display over the Sumida River attracts over a million viewers. Once cherry blossoms, or sakura, bloom in spring, many residents gather in Ueno Park, Inokashira Park, and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for picnics under the blossoms.

Harajuku, a neighborhood in Shibuya, is known internationally for its youth style and fashion.

Cuisine in Tokyo is internationally acclaimed. In November 2007, Michelin released their guide for fine dining in Tokyo, garnering 191 stars in total, or about twice as many as its nearest competitor, Paris. Eight establishments were awarded the maximum of three stars, 25 received two stars, and 117 earned one star. Of the eight top-rated restaurants, three offer traditional Japanese fine dining, two are sushi houses, three serve French cuisine.


The Picture Of Japan Tokyo:




This Place is cool and fun and pretty and I really like there I think that Japan is good and fun not even tokyo also a lot of place but I went tokyo the most time so I really remember about there so I think I wanna write there talked about there.