Charlize Theron was known for her trademark long blonde locks prior to shaving her head earlier this year for her role in upcoming movie, Mad Max: Fury Road.
But it would seem Charlize Theron has had a little help along the way in the form of a bottle of hair dye.
Showcasing her seemingly natural brunette roots, Charlize Theron, 37, showed off her dramatic buzz cut as she enjoyed a lunch date with her mother, Gerda.
With her locks cropped close to her head, Charlize Theron looked happy and relaxed as she chatted to her relative over a bottle of rose champagne.
The actress looked thrilled to be back in her native South Africa as the mother-daughter duo enjoyed a bite to eat at Cafe Caprice in Cape Town, South Africa.
Although Charlize Theron was without her usual flowing locks, it wasn’t long before she was recognized by a group of fans, and happily posed alongside them for photographs.
Charlize Theron looked her typically effortlessly chic self as she stepped out for the day, showing off her slim legs in a pair of indigo skinny jeans, which she teamed with a bright yellow off-shoulder jumper and a white vest.
The actress completed her look with a pair of RayBan aviator sunglasses, pretty tan sandals and a matching handbag.
Charlize Theron shaved head reveals she is actually brunette
Charlize Theron chopped of her trademark long blonde locks in June to play Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film in the post apocalyptic series.
She will feature opposite Tom Hardy, who fills the role made famous by Mel Gibson, and she said she cannot wait for the cameras to roll.
Charlize Theron recently said: “I feel like the original Mad Max created such a vivid world, that to go back and re-imagine it and kind of replay in that sandbox sounds like fun to me.
“George [Miller] really created a female character that I’ve never read anything like this. I mean, I’m scared!
“I’m very excited about it; I’m dying! It’s been three years; it’s time to skin this cat already!”
Barack Obama said Burma is on a “remarkable journey” of reform that has much further to go, on his first visit to the South East Asian nation by a serving US president.
A desire for change had been met by an agenda of reform, he said, and he was there to extend a “hand of friendship”.
But, in a speech at Rangoon University, Barack Obama urged Burmese people to accept Muslim Rohingyas after recent violence.
Crowds of people, some waving US flags, lined the streets as he arrived.
The visit was intended to show support for the reforms put in place by Thein Sein’s government since the end of military rule in November 2010.
Activists have warned that the visit may be too hasty – political prisoners remain behind bars and ethnic conflicts in border areas are unresolved.
On Monday another prisoner amnesty was announced, with about 50 of the 66 inmates freed reportedly political detainees. About 200 political prisoners remain behind bars, activists say.
Barack Obama spent about six hours in Burma and did not visit the capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
The highlight of his visit was a speech at Rangoon University, which was at the heart of pro-democracy protests in 1988 that were violently suppressed by the military regime.
Addressing students, he said America would help to rebuild Burma’s economy and could be a partner on its journey forward.
Referring to his 20 January 2009 inauguration speech in which he pledged the US would extend a hand to any country that was willing to unclench its fist, he said: “Today I’ve come to keep my promise and extend the hand of friendship.
“But this remarkable journey has just begun, and has much further to go.
“Reforms launched from the top of society must meet the aspirations of citizens who form its foundation. The flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished.”
He called for an end to communal violence between Muslims and Buddhists in the western state of Rakhine that has left more than 100,000 people displaced. They are mostly Muslim Rohingyas who are stateless and face severe discrimination in Burma.
“National reconciliation will take time, but for the sake of our common humanity, and for the sake of this country’s future, it is necessary to stop the incitement and to stop violence,” he said.
Earlier Barack Obama met Thein Sein, saying the reform process “here in Myanmar… is one that can lead to incredible development opportunities”.
He used the country name preferred by the government – US officials described the move as a “diplomatic courtesy” but not a policy shift.
Barack Obama met Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside home where she spent years under house arrest
Barack Obama then met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside home where she spent years under house arrest. She thanked the US for its support but warned that difficult times could lie ahead.
“The most difficult time in any transition is when we think that success is in sight,” she said, saying people should not be “lured by a mirage of success”.
The US president and his team also made a brief stop at Shwedagon Pagoda, the Rangoon landmark that has been at the heart of many key moments in the country’s history.
Barack Obama was accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – who was returning to Burma almost a year after her first visit.
Thein Sein’s government came to power after widely criticized polls in November 2010 that saw military rule replaced with a military-backed civilian government.
Since then – to the surprise of many – his administration has embarked on a reform process. Many – but not all – political prisoners have been freed, censorship has been relaxed and some economic reforms enacted.
Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest shortly after the polls. Her NLD party, which boycotted the elections, has since rejoined the political process. It now has a small presence in parliament after a landslide win in by-elections deemed generally free and fair in April.
In response to the reforms, many Western nations have relaxed sanctions against Burma and begun a process of engagement.
But rights groups have cautioned against a rush to embrace the South East Asian nation, warning that political prisoners remain behind bars and ethnic conflicts are unresolved.
After visiting Burma, Barack Obama headed to Cambodia to join a meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations, in a trip that underlines the shift in US foreign policy focus to the Asia-Pacific region.
At least 26 people have died in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces kept up air strikes they say are aimed at stopping rocket attacks into Israel.
Fewer rockets have been launched, but Israeli towns are still being hit.
Ninety-five Palestinians and three Israelis have died in six days of violence, the latest including a militant group commander.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire continue, with a senior Egyptian official saying there are “encouraging signs”.
Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of the Islamist movement Hamas which controls Gaza, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had requested a ceasefire but that it was up to Israel to stop the war that, he said, it had started.
Israel immediately denied making any such request, Reuters news agency reported.
Khaled Meshaal said that a truce was possible in Gaza, as was further escalation of the conflict.
Morale in Gaza was high and anyone who attacked the Palestinians would be “buried”, he added.
Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has said an Israeli ground invasion would have “serious repercussions”, saying Egypt would never accept it “and neither will the free world”.
At least 26 people have died in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces kept up air strikes
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he was ready to expand the operation, after Israel authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 army reservists.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they targeted about 80 sites overnight into Monday alone, including militant-owned buildings, weapons storage facilities and police stations, bringing its total to 1,350 sites targeted since Wednesday.
Strikes continued on Monday, with a leading figure in the militant group Islamic Jihad, named as Ramez Harb, killed as a building housing media workers was targeted.
One of the overnight blasts destroyed a Hamas police headquarters.
Gaza militants launched 32 missiles into Israel on Monday, of which four were intercepted, said the IDF. One hit a school in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Classes had already been cancelled. Another hit a house. There are no reports of casualties.
At least nine children were killed in Gaza on Sunday – the bloodiest day so far – and TV reports showing horrific images of their burned and bloodied bodies have been fuelling Palestinian anger.
In one strike, nine members of the family of Hamas policeman Mohamed Dalou were killed – four of them children.
The army’s chief military spokesman, Yoav Mordechai, told Israel’s Channel 2 TV that the intended target of the strike had been Yehiya Rabiyah, the head of Hamas’s rocket-launching unit, but that there had been “civilian casualties”.
Later, the IDF said the house had been targeted because it was thought Yehiya Rabiyah might be hiding there but officials did not know whether he was inside at the time of the attack.
Egypt has been leading efforts to broker a peace deal, with both senior Israeli and Hamas officials in Cairo for talks. An Egyptian official said he hoped to be able to make an announcement on Monday or Tuesday.
Since the conflict began, 877 rockets were fired towards Israel – 570 hit Israel and 307 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, the IDF says.
Before the recent offensive, Israel had repeatedly carried out air strikes on Gaza as Palestinian militants fired rockets across the border.
But the aerial and naval bombardment is its most intense assault on the territory since Israel launched a full-scale invasion four years ago.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning a decisive victory in general elections. Israel withdrew from the strip in 2005 but maintains a blockade around it.
Israel, as well as the United States and the European Union, regards Hamas as a terrorist organization.
AC/DC has released their music on Apple music store iTunes.
The rock band had previously voiced strong opposition to the digital service.
Until now AC/DC maintained their songs should not be made available for individual download because they were all integral parts of various albums.
But the Australian band’s 16 studio albums, four live albums and three compilations, which have sold more than 150 million physical copies worldwide, are now available in the iTunes store.
AC/DC’s music videos were already viewed about 600,000 times a week online, their record label, Columbia Records, said.
“This iTunes, God bless ’em, it’s going to kill music if they’re not careful,” lead singer Brian Johnson told Reuters on the release of their last album, Black Ice, in 2008.
“It just worries me. And I’m sure they’re just doing it all in the interest of making as much… cash as possible. Let’s put it this way, it’s certainly not for the… love.”
AC/DC has released their music on Apple music store iTunes
Alice Enders, from media analysts Enders Analysis, said she believed the band’s decision was ultimately a commercial one.
“AC/DC probably now understand that their future sales reside on iTunes given the steep decline of the CD in the US, long its top market,” she said.
“If you can’t get your music in front of people in the retail outlet, then you have no choice but to embrace digital sales.”
AC/DC has just released their first live album in 20 years and have a 40th anniversary tour planned for 2013.
But Alice Enders pointed out the band’s recordings were still not available on Spotify.
“It’s not embraced access services yet,” she said.
AC/DC is among the last of the high profile “refuseniks” to make themselves available on iTunes.
The Beatles back catalogue was released for download in 2010 after years of disputes between rights holders.
Some musicians are taking legal action against their record labels over the royalties they earn from download sales.
James Taylor, Eminem and Sister Sledge are among those who have filed complaints.
A vote to decide who will lead France’s conservative opposition UMP has plunged the party into disarray and acrimony.
Both candidates, Jean-Francois Cope and Francois Fillon, have claimed victory and accused their rival of fraud and ballot-stuffing.
Only a handful of votes separate right-wing candidate Jean-Francois Cope and ex-Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
A final result is expected later on Monday, but party grandees said the UMP had been damaged, and urged both candidates to end their war or words.
“The movement has emerged divided and thus weakened by this excessive confrontation,” wrote the former prime minister and foreign minister, Alain Juppe, in his blog.
“Throughout the campaign, it has been less a question of the future of the UMP and more about the two candidates’ obsession with 2017 the date of the next presidential election.
“We have to get out of this lamentable situation to avoid the implosion of our party.”
Alain Juppe called on both Jean-Francois Cope, the party’s secretary general since 2010 and Francois Fillon, prime minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, to “accept the decision of the electoral commission when it is delivered”.
Jean-Francois Cope and Francois Fillon have claimed victory in France’ opposition election and accused their rival of fraud and ballot-stuffing
When initial results emerged late on Sunday, Jean-Francois Cope was narrowly in the lead, surprising political pundits who had expected the former prime minister to win. Opinion polls had consistently given Francois Fillon the edge.
The contest has been bitterly fought throughout by the two rivals and, even before the result came through in the southern coastal city of Nice, Jean-Francois Cope’s team complained of fraud and demanded an investigation.
A UMP deputy mayor backing Jean-Francois Cope said that there had been “a certain number of irregularities” in polling stations in the Alpes-Maritimes area. In one polling station in Paris, a party official complained that there were 40 more ballots than voters on the party list.
Francois Fillon’s team also registered a complaint.
The leading conservative daily newspaper, Le Figaro, called the election an open crisis and French political analysts say the immediate beneficiary of the vote could be the far-right National Front, whose candidate, Marine Le Pen, polled third in the presidential election in April.
The UMP was only created 10 years ago by President Jacques Chirac to unite the diverse wings of the French right.
The party was very much his personal fiefdom until he retired from politics in 2007 and was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy.
The two candidates have different visions for the party.
Jean-Francois Cope is considered more right wing. Last month he produced “A Manifesto for an Uninhibited Right” in which he claimed that gangs in the city suburbs were fostering “anti-white racism”.
Francois Fillon is seen as sober and more restrained.
The winner will inherit a party in difficult financial straits, after a series of electoral setbacks over the past five years, culminating in Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential defeat to Socialist rival Francois Hollande.
A flaw in the latest version of the Android operating system has resulted in the month of December disappearing from People app for storing information about contacts.
The flaw affects the “People app”, which is the default app for keeping contact information on Android devices.
The People app calendar goes from November 2012 straight to January 2013.
Android is Google’s operating system. Version 4.2 was launched in October 2012.
Other Google calendars are unaffected by the flaw.
Google’s Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet run on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean version of the operating system.
The Nexus 4 was reported to have sold out within an hour of appearing on the Google Play website.
A flaw in the latest version of the Android operating system has resulted in the month of December disappearing from People app for storing information about contacts
The flaw was reported by an Android news website called Android Police.
“Christmas is ruined. Santa is dead. At least we’ll save money on buying presents, right?” wrote Android Police’s Artem Russakovskii.
“If you’re an early adopter you’re affected by it, but they will rush out an update very quickly,” said Stuart Miles, editor of technology news and reviews website Pocket-Lint.
“It’s quite a small bug. It’s the equivalent of spelling something wrong on the front page of a newspaper – it’s embarrassing and frustrating but ultimately it’s not going to end the world.”
Google declined to comment but according to Android Police the issue has been noted by Android developers.
Former CIA Director General David Petraeus has hired Robert Barnett, a top Washington lawyer, to help him navigate the fallout from a career-ending affair, Reuters has confirmed.
Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly, is known for negotiating book deals for the political elite, from President Barack Obama to one-time vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Robert Barnett will help David Petraeus as he exits government, Reuters confirmed.
The news was first reported by Politico, which said that no book is planned.
The CIA, the Justice Department and Congress are investigating David Petraeus’ conduct over the extra-marital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus has said his resignation was solely because of the affair and that he did not give classified information to Paula Broadwell.
Robert Barnett has been a partner at Williams& Connolly in Washington for 34 years, according to a biography of him posted on the firm’s website.
In that time, he has built an unconventional practice representing best-selling authors, political leaders, television news correspondents and other high-profile clients.
David Petraeus has hired Robert Barnett, a top Washington lawyer, to help him navigate the fallout from a career-ending affair
In addition to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, other authors he has represented include novelist Mary Higgins Clark and entertainer Barbra Streisand.
Robert Barnett has also helped former government officials from across the political spectrum navigate their return to private life, including former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and former members of Congress.
He joined Williams & Connolly in 1975 and became a partner in 1978.
The news of David Petraeus attaining council comes the day after the White House announced that it did not heavily alter talking points about the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, an official said on Saturday.
“If there were adjustments made to them within the intelligence community, that’s common, and that’s something they would have done themselves,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, told reporters.
“The only edit … made by the White House was the factual edit as to how to refer to the facility.”
After a closed-door hearing with former CIA Director David Petraeus on Friday, Republican Representative Peter King said that unclassified talking points prepared by the CIA for use by lawmakers about the September 11 attack originally pointed specifically to al Qaeda involvement. Peter King said they were edited before being cleared for use.
Ben Rhodes said the White House, and also the State Department, changed references to a “conflict” at diplomatic facilities, “because the conflict in Benghazi was not formally a conflict. Other than that we worked off the points that were provided by the intelligence community, so I can’t speak to any other edits that may have been made”.
The head of the House Intelligence Committee suggested on Sunday that President Barack Obama might have known about former CIA Director David Petraeus’ extra-marital affair before the November election, and said Attorney General Eric Holder should address this question soon before Congress.
U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, said Eric Holder’s statement that the Justice Department had not informed the president before the election implied that Holder might have told Barack Obama privately.
Mike Rogers noted that the FBI investigation of the communications between David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell arose due to concern over a counter-intelligence threat. Both David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell have said they did not share any security secrets, and investigators have said they have found no security breach.
“It probably should have been brought forward earlier as a national security threat,” Mike Rogers said.
“I’m not sure that the president was not told before Election Day. The attorney general said that the Department of Justice did not notify the president, but we don’t know if the attorney general…[notified him],” he said.
Mike Rogers said Eric Holder should come before the intelligence committees to discuss it.
“We could resolve this very quickly with a conversation in the intelligence spaces if he did have that conversation with the president.”
Barack Obama may have known about David Petraeus affair with Paula Broadwell before election
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein disagreed, saying Holder had explained to the intelligence committees there was no notification while the investigation was under way. Justice and the FBI took this approach, she said, “so there is an ability to move ahead without any political weighing-in on any side”.
David Petraeus admitted to the affair and resigned his post at the CIA three days after Barack Obama was elected to a second term on November 6.
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham called the FBI investigation of the affair “the oddest story in the world” and doubted Barack Obama knew before the election.
Paula Broadwell is devastated by the fallout from her affair with David Petraeus, a close friend of hers revealed on Sunday night as she returned to family home after several days in hiding.
The friend said that Paula Broadwell deeply regrets the damage that has been done to her family and others, and insisted she was trying to repair that and move forward.
Paula Broadwell, who was writing a biography of David Petraeus when they started an extra-marital affair, has been staying with her brother in Washington DC ever since news of the relationship broke more than a week ago.
But she moved back in to her home in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday, accompanied by her husband and their two children.
The family was welcomed by a group of friends and neighbors on her return, and a friend – who did not want to be named – said that Paula Broadwell was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
Paula Broadwell maintained her stony silence after being confronted by a number of reporters when she pulled up in an SUV, according to WSOC-TV.
Paula Broadwell moved back in to her home in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday, accompanied by her husband and their two children
Her husband, Dr. Scott Broadwell refused to comment, but appeared happy to joke about the media circus which has surrounded his family since last Friday, when the scandal became public following David Petraeus’ resignation as director of the CIA.
Paula broadwell was wearing large sunglasses and showed no emotion as she tried to hide her face from waiting photographers.
Scott Broadwell was asked: “Is there anything at all you’d like to say, Scott? Now’s your chance, this is it.”
But after pausing for a moment, he simply replied: “No comment at this time.”
Scott Broadwell later returned to the driveway to take groceries out of the car and joked with reporters, saying: “I’ll be out here Tuesday taking out trash, if you want to shoot that.”
The doctor revealed that the family would be releasing a statement soon, but did not elaborate on when it would be.
Paula and Scott Broadwell were seen in public for the first time on Saturday night returning to her brother’s $2.3 million home after apparently going out for dinner in the Washington area.
Looking stern and taking the lead from her husband, Paula Broadwell did not speak to the gathered news reporters as she marched into her sibling’s home.
It was the first time that Paula Broadwell had been seen since Tuesday evening, when she was photographed wearing a hot pink top in the kitchen of her brother’s home.
Friends and family of the pair told reporters in the wake of the affair revelations that the Broadwells had built a happy home in Charlotte, where they live with their two sons, Lucien 6, and Landon, 4.
Barack Obama is practicing a new brand of foreign relations, appearing to flirt with Thailand’s attractive Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on his first stop of his three-day tour of Southeast Asia.
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra could be seen laughing together and exchanging playful glances throughout a state dinner at the Government House in Bangkok on Sunday night.
They were joined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who toasted to the U.S.-Thailand friendship with Yingluck Shinawatra.
Barack Obama is now visiting Myanmar – also known as Burma – followed by Cambodia this week.
He said it is “no accident” that he planned his first foreign trip to Asia after winning re-election.
Barack Obama is practicing a new brand of foreign relations, appearing to flirt with Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday in Bangkok, Barack Obama emphasized that the U.S. is a “Pacific nation”.
Barack Obama said the Asia-Pacific region will be crucial for creating jobs in the U.S. and shaping its security and prosperity.
Barack Obama’s praised Thailand for being a supporter of democracy in Myanmar, the once-pariah state that is rapidly reforming.
He said he appreciated the Thai prime minister’s insights into Myanmar during their meetings on Sunday.
Barack Obama’s visit made quite an impression on Thailand, and adoring crowds gathered around him and chanted “Obama, Obama” as he visited the Temple of Reclining Buddha just after arriving in Bangkok.
Eating more chocolate improves a nation’s chances of producing Nobel Prize winners, a recent study suggests.
But how much chocolate do Nobel laureates eat, and how could any such link be explained?
The study’s author, Franz Messerli of Colombia University, started wondering about the power of chocolate after reading that cocoa was good for you.
One paper suggested regular cocoa intake led to improved mental function in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment, a condition which is often a precursor to dementia, he recalls.
“There is data in rats showing that they live longer and have better cognitive function when they eat chocolate, and even in snails you can show that the snail memory is actually improved,” he says.
So Franz Messerli took the number of Nobel Prize winners in a country as an indicator of general national intelligence and compared that with the nation’s chocolate consumption. The results – published in the New England Journal of Medicine – were striking.
“When you correlate the two – the chocolate consumption with the number of Nobel Prize laureates per capita – there is an incredibly close relationship,” he says.
“This correlation has a <<P value>> of 0.0001. This means there is a less than one-in-10,000 probability that this correlation is simply down to chance.”
It might not surprise you that Switzerland came top of the chocolate-fuelled league of intelligence, having both the highest chocolate consumption per head and also the highest number of Nobel laureates per capita.
Sweden, however, was an anomaly. It had a very high number of Nobel laureates but its people consumed much less chocolate on average.
Eating more chocolate improves a nation’s chances of producing Nobel Prize winners, a recent study suggests
Franz Messerli has a theory: “The Nobel prize obviously is donated or evaluated in Sweden [apart from the Peace Prize] so I thought that the Swedes might have a slightly patriotic bias.
“Or the other option is that the Swedes are excessively sensitive and only small amounts stimulate greatly their intelligence, so that might be the reason that they have so many Nobel Prize laureates.”
An entirely unscientific survey was conducted to ascertain just how much chocolate Nobel laureates ate.
Christopher Pissarides, from the London School of Economics, reckons his chocolate consumption laid the foundations for his Nobel Prize for Economics in 2010.
“Throughout my life, ever since I was a young boy, chocolate was part of my diet. I would eat it on a daily basis. It’s one of the things I eat to cheer me up.
“To win a Nobel Prize you have to produce something that others haven’t thought about – chocolate that makes you feel good might contribute a little bit. Of course it’s not the main factor but… anything that contributes to a better life and a better outlook in your life then contributes to the quality of your work.”
However, Rolf Zinkernagel – the largely Swiss-educated 1996 Nobel Prize winner for medicine – bucks his national trend.
“I am an outlier, because I don’t eat more than – and never have eaten more than – half a kilogram of chocolate per year,” he says.
Robert Grubbs, an American who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2005, says he eats chocolate whenever possible.
“I had a friend who introduced me to chocolate and beer when we were younger. I have transferred that now to chocolate and red wine.
“I like to hike and I eat chocolate then, I eat chocolate whenever I can.”
But this is a controversial subject.
Grubbs’ countryman, Eric Cornell, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, told Reuters: “I attribute essentially all my success to the very large amount of chocolate that I consume. Personally I feel that milk chocolate makes you stupid… dark chocolate is the way to go. It’s one thing if you want a medicine or chemistry Nobel Prize but if you want a physics Nobel Prize it pretty much has got to be dark chocolate.”
But when More or Less contacted him to elaborate on this comment, he changed his tune.
“I deeply regret the rash remarks I made to the media. We scientists should strive to maintain objective neutrality and refrain from declaring our affiliation either with milk chocolate or with dark chocolate,” he said.
“Now I ask that the media kindly respect my family’s privacy in this difficult time.”
It might surprise you that we are trying to make a serious point. This is a classic case where correlation, however strong, does not mean causation.
Franz Messerli gave us another example. In post-war Germany, the human birth rate fell along with the stork population. Were fewer storks bringing fewer babies?
The answer was that more homes were being built, destroying the storks’ habitat. And the homes were small – not the sort of places you could raise a large family in.
“This is a very, very common way of thinking,” he says.
“When you see a correlation, you do think there is causation in one way or another. And in general it’s absolutely true. But here we have a classic example where we cannot find a good reason why these two correlate so closely.”
Pope Tawadros II, the new leader of Egypt’s Coptic Christian church, has been formally enthroned in Cairo.
Pope Tawadros II was confirmed as the new leader of Egypt’s Christian minority at a ceremony at St Mark’s cathedral in the Egyptian capital.
The 60-year-old succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after four decades on the patriarchal throne.
The enthronement comes at an uncertain time for Egypt’s Christians, following the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year.
Pope Tawadros II, the new leader of Egypt’s Coptic Christian church, has been formally enthroned in Cairo
Sectarian attacks against Coptic Christians and churches in Egypt have increased since his fall, and many Christians are concerned about the rise of Islamist political forces.
Christians make up 5-10% of Egypt’s majority Sunni Muslim population and form the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.
Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Mursi did not attend Sunday’s enthronement, though Prime Minister Hisham Qandil was there.
LAX employees are threatening to strike over being denied healthcare on Thanksgiving eve, the busiest travel holiday of the year.
A coalition of labor and community leaders is calling for the protest of alleged violations by LAX contractor Aviation Safeguards for breaking a healthcare contract with the airport earlier this year.
Andrew Gross-Gaitan, the director of the Southern California Airports Division, told KNX 1070 News Radio that Aviation Safeguards left more than 400 LAX workers without affordable family health care when it failed to comply with the city’s Living Wage Ordinance.
“When people’s lives are on the line, their family members are on the line, they’re not going to be able to enjoy their Thanksgiving,” said Andrew Gross-Gaitan.
“This is really a critical moment for thousands of workers.
“We’re looking at thousands of workers who may face their family benefits being cut,” Andrew Gross-Gaitan added.
“There is one worker whose wife is literally dying of liver cancer, and this has been going on for close to a year. The families of these workers are really in crisis.”
As many as 1,000 airport workers and union supporters are expected to march on Century Boulevard just as an estimated 1.8 million passengers are expected to travel through LAX over the holiday weekend,CBS reports.
LAX employees are threatening to strike over being denied healthcare on Thanksgiving eve
Last May, an estimated 1,200 LAX employees protesting unfair labor laws, picketed outside the airport and prevented passengers from entering.
Andrew Gross-Gaitan said there is definite potential for severe disruptions to airport operations during the protest.
“It’s entirely possible there will be significant travel delays,” he said.
Martin Terrones, Communications Coordinator for the labor union United Service Workers West, downplayed the event.
“It’s not really a strike or a walkout,” he toldL.A. Weekly.
“But it is going to be an action none the less.”
Some delays are already creeping up across the country as Thanksgiving nears.
San Francisco International Airport had delays all day Friday due to rain. In Charleston, South Carolina, passengers were frustrated over glitches in a new radar system that caused mass delays.
As of Saturday, U.S. flights were largely on time, with few delays over 15 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
However, that might change with the weather.
“A Pacific storm train may bring the biggest travel problems for Thanksgiving to the Northwest,” reports Accuweather.
“While there may be some fog that delays travel in the major cities of the Northeast.”
Bottom line: “Between the East and West coasts, fewer widespread weather-related travel delays are forecast.”
While most Americans are preparing to break bread and offer thanks for their bountiful blessings on Thanksgiving, some are already looking ahead to what presents will sit beneath the Christmas Tree and forgoing a traditional feast in lieu of saving a place in line for Black Friday.
The start of the Christmas shopping season will kick off on November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, and eager customers have already begun camping out at their favorite retail stores to save a place so they can rush in to nab their discounted deals.
Tony Avitar, an Ohio father-of-five, has set up shop outside a Best Buy in Cuyahoga Falls. He pitched his tent on Thursday to become the first in line for what promises to be a shopping extravaganza next week.
He has camped out for the past nine years, before the busy shopping day, and his family will join him at his tent on Thanksgiving Day for a family meal, which has become a tradition.
“When you have five kids and you have limited income what you want to be able to do is – is want to be able to provide for them and get them decent Christmas presents,” he told WJW-TV about his motivation for coming out so early.
Though most of his time is spent inside the tent, he does venture into the electronic shop to scope out the options.
“Every year, I save at least a thousand dollars. I think this year the good sales are a 40-inch Toshiba flat screen that’s normally about $500 bucks, it’s $179. Also laptops. Anyone who can’t afford a laptop, I think there’s one for $180 bucks,” he said.
Tony Avitar’s friends and family help out and take turns staying in the tent so he can shower and get food.
But even his friend, Summer Morgan, told the local news station that he might be taking his bargain hunting just a tad too far.
“I understand the concept of saving money, but going out a week ahead is a little crazy,” she said. Other shoppers chimed in to agree, also calling it crazy.
But another local resident was inspired by the thrifty dad and a day after Tony Avitar’s tent appeared, another tent joined the queue on Friday.
Eager bargain hunters camp out for Black Friday more than a week before the Christmas shopping extravaganza kicks off
The store manager, Nick Dolansky, expressed his excitement at the scene and said the campers help kick off the season.
“It’s always great to see the passionate customers every year who are camping out, making the effort. It’s a tradition in itself,” he said.
Across the country in El Cajon, California – a pair of shoppers hoping to nab some steep discounts started a line outside a Best Buy on Thursday… but their hopes were soon dashed.
The two ladies, Rhiannon Buckingham and Alicia Gomez, were kicked off the property by mall security, who told them to go home and to return on Thanksgiving.
Rhiannon Buckingham and Alicia Gomez sat in lawn chairs and had packed a full bin of food in preparation for the wait.
“They said, <<You guys can’t stay here. You guys look homeless>>,” Rhiannon Buckingham told KGTV about what she was allegedly told by the security guards.
“I mean, I may be trailer trash but I’m not homeless,” she quipped.
Despite the frosty welcome from security and the jeers from other shoppers, Buckingham insisted that she is only doing what it takes to secure a decent place in line.
“Last year, I came on Tuesday and I was 17th in line,” she said.
“They only had 15 TVs,” she added about the disappointment she experienced.
Undeterred, Rhiannon Buckingham has moved to another Best Buy location in La Mesa, where she expects to save more than $2,000 when she purchases four TVs, a BluRay player and some earphones.
She arrived on Friday and soon another eager shopper, Jason Faust, joined her in line.
“I’ve got nothing else better to do,” he told the local news.
Down in Miami, local news reporter Betty Yu tweeted yet another photo of campers outside a Best Buy.
“Can you believe these guys are already camping out for #blackfriday? Guy took vacation to do this!” she tweeted.
Black Friday, the busiest day of the shopping year since 2005, marks the start of the Christmas shopping season.
Stores typically offer heavy discounts and open their doors in the wee hours of the morning to accommodate the massive demand.
The name indicates the day when retailers start to enjoy a profit or “are in the black” as hordes of customers rush in to nab gifts for the holidays.
It has become a cause for concern though, with violence breaking out and even deaths occurring from stampedes as some customers compete with other shoppers.
In response, heavy security has been set up to monitor the opening of stores and many customers are choosing instead to shop online.
Cyber Monday now indicates the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday when employees return to work and shop online – on the company’s time.
Albert Einstein’s extraordinary genius may have been related to a uniquely shaped brain, a new study suggests.
Researchers compared Albert Einstein’s brain to 85 “normal” human brains to determine, what, if any, unusual features it possessed.
“Although the overall size and asymmetrical shape of Einstein’s brain were normal, the prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices were extraordinary,” Dean Falk, the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology at Florida State, told Science Daily.
“These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance.”
Using 14 recently discovered pictures of the genius’ brain, Dean Falk and her colleagues were able to describe Albert Einstein’s entire cerebral cortex.
Albert Einstein’s extraordinary genius may have been related to a uniquely shaped brain, a new study suggests
Their study, The Cerebral Cortex of Albert Einstein: A Description and Preliminary Analysis of Unpublished Photographs, was published November 16 in Brain, a journal on neurology.
With permission from his family, Albert Einstein’s brain was removed and photographed upon his death in 1955.
It was even sectioned into 240 blocks to make histological slides.
The paper will also outline a “roadmap” to Albert Einstein’s brain made in 1955 by Dr. Thomas Harvey.
Most of those photos, blocks, and slides have been lost from the public eye, and the photographs used by Dean Falk’s team are held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
Kate Moss has revealed her supermodel body is quite literally a work of art – as she has a tattoo inked by Lucian Freud just above her bottom.
Kate Moss, 38, befriended Lucian Freud – widely considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century – when he painted her in the nude in 2002 while she was pregnant with her daughter Lila Grace.
In an interview in America, Kate Moss told how Lucian Freud – who learned how to give homemade tattoos using permanent ink and a scalpel during a brief stint in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War – offered to draw two tiny swallows at the base of her spine.
“He told me about when he was in the navy, when he was 19 or something, and he used to do all of the tattoos for the sailors,” she said.
“And I said, <<Oh my God, that’s amazing>>. And he went, <<I can do you one. What would you like? Would you like creatures of the animal kingdom?>>
“I said I liked birds and he replied, <<I’ve done birds. I’ve got it in my book.>> And he pointed down at a painting of a chicken upside down in a bucket. And I said, <<No, I’m not having that.>>
“And then he said, <<Maybe I should just do you>>. And I thought, I’m not going to have a girl on my a***. So we decided to do a flock of birds.
“I mean, it’s an original Freud. I wonder how much a collector would pay for that? A few million?
“If it all goes horribly wrong I could get a skin graft and sell it! It’s probably the only one on skin that’s still around, because when he was in the navy he was about 19. Can you imagine?”
Kate Moss has revealed her supermodel body is quite literally a work of art as she has a tattoo inked by Lucian Freud just above her bottom
Kate Moss, who this week launched her new book, Kate, has often shown off the tattoo but the provenance of it has never been revealed until now.
She has several other tattoos including a heart on her left wrist, a small anchor on her right wrist and a small star on her ankle.
During the interview Kate Moss spoke movingly about being introduced to Lucian Freud – who died in July 2011 at the age of 88 – after naming him in an interview as the person she would most like to meet. Two days later, Lucian Freud’s fashion designer daughter Bella called and said the artist would like to meet her.
Kate Moss revealed: “I was, <<Oh my God!>> Bella said, <<He just wants to go for dinner with you. Don’t be late>>. So I went to the house and he started [the nude painting] that night. Couldn’t say no to Lucian. Very persuasive. I phoned Bella the next day and said, <<How long is it going to take?>>
“She said, <<How big is the canvas?>> I said, <<It’s quite big>>. She said, <<Oh dear, could take six months to a year>>.”
The painting took nine months to complete, with the model sitting seven nights a week from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. It was sold to an anonymous bidder at auction in 2005 for £3.9 million ($6 million). Kate Moss said of that time: “I could not be one minute late. He was really powerful. You wanted to please him. But I wish I hadn’t posed like that.
“It’s just the first thing I did – I just fell on the side of the sofa and he said, <<That’s fine>>, and started painting. It’s not like modelling where you can change it. I had a dead arm.”
The supermodel also told Vanity Fair magazine of the famous photograph of the pair cuddling in bed in 2010 when Lucian Freud was recovering from an accident. She said: “I took all these flowers, those little ones he loved . . . and he was in bed.
“He pulled back the covers and went, <<I’ve been keeping it warm for you>>.
“I love the picture. Ijust got under his arm. Lucian was always really kind. I adored him.”
Former hotel staffer Jacob Tomsky has detailed the sketchy, raunchy, and sometimes scandalous things that hotel workers do when guests’ heads are turned in his new book, Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustlers and So-Called Hospitality.
After 11 years in the industry, including a couple years at a high-end hotel in New Orleans and several years at a luxury hotel in Manhattan, Jacob Tomsky says he’s come to know the dark underbelly of the hospitality industry.
Jacob Tomsky writes that long hours and rude guests lead staffers to seek an outlet for their frustration through mischief – which sometimes involves plotting revenge against the wealthy jerks they are forced to accommodate.
“A lot of people are watching <<Downton Abbey>> now, and they think, <<Oh, I’ve got servants, too!>>” Jacob Tomsky told the New York Post.
“Especially the affluent. They treat people as they never would otherwise. Meanwhile, hardworking people – who might be getting screwed – won’t say anything. It’s the people who have way more money who want everything now, and they want it for free.”
Daily shortcomings in cleanliness are commonplace, Jacob Tomsky says.
The dirty secrets that luxury hotels don’t want you to know revealed by Jacob Tomsky
Duvets are never cleaned. The covers sometimes are – but the duvets? Never.
Drinking glasses are not washed with soap and water, but shined up with furniture polish to make them sparkle like new.
For particularly difficult guests, a staffer might seek revenge on their toothbrush or even change their key card to lock them out of their room – something that gave the overworked employees a small sliver of pleasure when the exasperated guest approached the front desk for a new card.
Jacob Tomsky said he also came across staffers who stole from minibars and from valet-parked cars.
Often, the mischief that staffers engaged in was purely out of boredom, he said.
“I’ve worked a month straight without a day off,” he said, describing “the mind-numbing boredom of an overnight shift”.
Boredom led to rifling through guests’ stuff, reading intimate information about them and giggling over their collections of sex toys.
“I found a pretty foul letter left in a room,” he said.
“It was about someone’s wife being a whore. It was probably a joke, because there was a stamp on it of genitalia, addressed to a Mr. Cuckold, with details about her sexual activities.”
Jacob Tomsky’s book is a warning, as well as a wake-up call, to hotel guests. He offers some suggestions for dealing with hotel staffers in a way that won’t leave you with a soiled toothbrush and a deactivated key card. As expected, those suggestions typically involve a generous tip for the staffer.
He has since quit the hotel industry and immediately sought anger management therapy to recover from his decade in the business.
Retailers this year will open for Black Friday sales early enough to make shoppers choose between hot deals and hot apple pie after Thanksgiving dinner.
From Toys R Us to Target to Walmart, retailers are opening as early as 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving night.
Toys R Us announced Monday that its Black Friday will begin on November 22nd, when doors open at 8:00 p.m. an hour earlier than last year.
To entice shoppers to line up even earlier, the toy retailer will give the first 200 customers at each location a free “Great Big Goody Bag” full of stocking-stuffers up to $30 in value.
“You can have your dinner, then come to our store. We all know that everybody gets burned out on turkey and football,” says Troy Rice, chief of store operations, who expects stores to have lines from 500 to more than 1,000 people by the time doors open.
Despite an increase in online shopping, Black Friday isn’t going anywhere. About 51% of consumers plan to go holiday shopping Thanksgiving weekend, according to a study out Monday from consulting firm Bain.
Opening earlier every year:
• Target. The discounter said Monday that doors will open earlier than ever at 9:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving, offering sales such as $199.99 Sony PS3 consoles and $49 Nook Simple Touch e-readers. From 4:00 a.m. to noon on the day after Thanksgiving, the retailer will give $10 gift cards to shoppers spending over $50 in some categories.
“Many prefer to shop following their family gatherings rather than in the very early hours of the morning,” says Target spokeswoman Jenna Reck.
• Walmart. Target’s announcement follows Walmart’s last week saying its Black Friday will start on Thursday at 8:00 p.m., two hours earlier than last year.
• Sears. Consumers can start shopping at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving and keep on going until 10 p.m. the next day, says Sears spokesperson Brian Hanover.
“They drop their drumsticks, and they pick up doorbusters,” he says. Members of Sears’ ShopYourWay program can access Black Friday deals online starting on Sunday.
• Kmart. The discounter will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving, with a break for dinner until 8:00 p.m. after which stores are open until 3:00 a.m. Stores re-open two hours later on Friday morning, and stay open until 11:00 p.m. Kmart has opened on Thanksgiving since 1991.
• Staples. The office supplier will give shoppers until 5:00 a.m. to digest their turkey dinners and start shopping its new inventory of big-screen TVs and video game consoles an hour earlier than last year. Those who arrive before noon on Friday can score savings over $200 on certain HP PCs with Windows 8. Additional deals will be offered all week starting on Sunday in store and online with free shipping to boot.
Retailers this year will open for Black Friday sales early enough to make shoppers choose between hot deals and hot apple pie after Thanksgiving dinner
• PetSmart. And pets won’t be left out of the holiday excitement, either. Feline and canine Santa Clauses will be able to shop for their furry friends at PetSmart starting at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, the retailer announced Tuesday.
Black Friday deals include $19.99 Sunbeam Gourmet Dog Treat Makers, and 50% off pet toys and doggy sweaters. Select online-only pet products will be 75% off starting on Monday. After all, 76% of pet owners give Fido or Fluffy presents for the holidays, according to PetSmart.
President Barack Obama defended Israel’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, but he warned that escalating the offensive with Israeli ground troops could increase the death toll and undermine any hope of a peace process with the Palestinians.
“Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory,” Barack Obama said at the start of a three-nation tour in Asia.
“If that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable,” he said.
“It’s not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It’s also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they’re much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded.”
Barack Obama’s comments came as Israel’s campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza blasted into its fifth day. Israel is at a crossroads of whether to launch a ground invasion or pursue Egyptian-led truce efforts, and Barack Obama sought to clearly defend the U.S. ally’s military rights while pushing for a halt in the violence.
From Thailand, Barack Obama also defended his decision to go to Myanmar, also known as Burma. He will be the first U.S. president to visit the country, which is moving from a brutal reign toward democracy, but still holds political prisoners and is living with ethnic violence.
Barack Obama defended Israel’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Sunday that Israel was prepared to significantly expand its military operation in Gaza. Barack Obama has been lobbying Benjamin Netanyahu along with the leaders of Egypt and Turkey to try to halt the crisis – including stopping rocket strikes on Israel.
He said Israel was justly responding to “an ever escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory, but in areas that are populated. And there’s no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders”.
Barack Obama also said Palestinians will have no chance to pursue their own state and a lasting peace with Israel as long as rockets are fired into Israel. He said he hoped for a clearer process over the next 48 hours – showing how much the Mideast conflict had intruded on his diplomatic mission to Asia.
An Israeli strike on a home in Gaza has killed at least 10 people, officials say, as Sunday became the deadliest day since Israel launched an operation against Hamas militants this week.
The strike targeted a Hamas official and that a number of children were killed.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is ready to expand its operation.
Gaza militants continue to fire rockets at Israel, with injuries reported in towns including Ashkelon and Ofakim.
Sources on both sides say attempts to reach a ceasefire are continuing.
At least 21 people are reported to have been killed in Gaza by Israeli bombardments so far on Sunday. Of the total, at least nine were children and at least four were women, Gaza health officials said.
This brings the death toll in Gaza since Israel launched its Operation Pillar of Defence on Wednesday to 67, the officials said.
Three Israelis were killed on Thursday.
Diggers were trying to scoop rubble from flattened buildings and with rescuers frantically trying to find survivors.
The man targeted was Mohamed Dalou. Hamas said eight members of his family also died, including a number of children, along with two other people.
Hamas’s military wing later said in a statement: “The massacre of the Dalou family will not pass without punishment.”
The casualties were taken to Shifa hospital, where earlier our correspondent had seen injured children brought in, one covered in blood.
The hospital went from organized calm to frantic chaos as doctors tried to dress wounds. One nurse broke down in a corner and colleagues tried to comfort her.
Seven homes belonging to Hamas officials have been targeted by Israeli strikes on Sunday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that 76 missiles fired from Gaza had hit Israel on Sunday, while 37 were intercepted by its Iron Dome missile defence system, including at least one over Tel Aviv.
The Israeli ambulance service reported two people were seriously injured, with 10 moderately or lightly hurt.
Israel’s state radio reported that a volley of 10 rockets had been fired at Ashdod, with three falling in a residential area and seven people treated for shock.
One rocket from Gaza made a direct hit on a residential building in Ashkelon, causing injuries and damage.
Another rocket hit a car in Ofakim, causing injuries, the IDF said.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza had been stepped up again at about 02:00 a.m.
Israeli media reported that the head of Hamas’s rocket-launching unit, Yehiya Bia, had been killed in a strike.
Two media buildings were struck in Gaza City, injuring eight Palestinian journalists, one of whom had to have a leg amputated.
Among those using the buildings were a Hamas television channel, al-Quds TV, as well as Sky News and ITN.
The World Health Organization says hospitals in Gaza are now overwhelmed with casualties and short on supplies.
Palestinian officials say a number of people are still missing under rubble and the total of injured since Wednesday is now 560.
Steps are continuing to try to reach a ceasefire.
Egyptian security officials said a senior Israeli official had arrived in Cairo for talks but Israel has made no comment.
President Barack Obama, speaking on Sunday, said Washington was “fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself”.
Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israeli soldiers were ready “for any activity that could take place”.
“We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations and the Israel Defense Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation,” he said.
Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has said an Israeli ground invasion will have “serious repercussions”, saying Egypt would never accept it “and neither will the free world”.
The Arab League, which met in emergency session in Cairo, is sending a delegation of foreign ministers to Gaza on Tuesday.
Before the recent offensive, Israel had repeatedly carried out air strikes on Gaza as Palestinian militants fired rockets across the border.
But the aerial and naval bombardment is its most intense assault on the coastal territory since Israel launched a full-scale invasion four years ago.
Airplane food has long been the butt of jokes for being bland, unimaginative and generally unappetizing, but now there is evidence to suggest that the meals served by airlines are not just lackluster, but they might actually make passengers sick.
Inspections of airlines and outside caterers conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have revealed facilities crawling with mice, roaches and ants, and food preparation areas swarming with flies.
According FDA health violation records obtained by ABC’s 20/20, over the past four years, there have been more than 1,500 violations in the airline food industry. The federal agency said that “significant” problems were found at a much higher rate than in other industry it inspects.
The FDA reported evidence of mice on Delta Airlines planes. In response, the carrier released a statement calling the findings an “isolated incident’. The statement goes on to say that the inspections, some of them dating back to 2009, were conducted in lavatory service trucks and aircraft potable water, and the problems uncovered by the agency have since been addressed.
Insects were also found inside the facilities of the industry giant LSG Sky Chefs which provides food for several airlines. According to the FDA records, inspectors have observed ants crawling over discarded food, flies both dead and alive, and roaches through the company’s food preparation facilities.
The company issued a statement saying that after being issued a warning letter by the FDA regarding food safety violations, LSG immediately addressed the problems to ensure complete compliance.
The catering service added that “food safety and quality are out number one priority”.
Inspections of airlines and outside caterers conducted by the FDA have revealed facilities crawling with mice, roaches and ants, and food preparation areas swarming with flies
Another company cited in the FDA records is airline food provider Gate Gourmet, whose facilities were said to be crawling with gnats “too numerous to count”, as well as roaches.
Besides critters in food facilities, FDA reports indicate that at several companies inspectors found other gross violations such as filthy cooking areas, old and moldy products and employees not washing their hands. For example, at the Gate Gourmet facilities, food was left outside refrigerators and utensils were stacked on dirty racks.
This is not the first time that airplane food safety concerns have been raised in the media.
In 2010, USA Today obtained FDA records painting a similarly unsettling picture: food being stored at improper temperatures, dirty equipment and signs of improper pest control in the shape of cockroaches, flies and mice.
Catering companies like LSG and others told ABC that they take food sanitation very seriously and make sure to address problems at once. They also said that they serve tens of millions of meals a year both at home and abroad without incident.
Passengers who spend several hundred dollars extra to fly first or business class in hopes of getting not only better plane accommodations, but also a superior meal, may find themselves disappointed.
According to Roy Costa, a food-industry consultant and former health inspector, a filet mignon presented on a china platter may suffer from the same problems as the grey mystery meat patty served on a plastic trey in coach.
“Fancy food isn’t safe food. The bacteria really don’t care,” he told 20/20.
The White House did not heavily alter talking points about the attacks on US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, an official said on Saturday.
“If there were adjustments made to them within the intelligence community, that’s common, and that’s something they would have done themselves,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, told reporters.
“The only edit … made by the White House was the factual edit as to how to refer to the facility.”
After a closed-door hearing with former CIA Director David Petraeus on Friday, Republican Representative Peter King said that unclassified talking points prepared by the CIA for use by lawmakers about the September 11 attack originally pointed specifically to al Qaeda involvement. Peter King said they were edited before being cleared for use.
Ben Rhodes said the White House, and also the State Department, changed references to a “conflict” at diplomatic facilities, “because the conflict in Benghazi was not formally a conflict. Other than that we worked off the points that were provided by the intelligence community, so I can’t speak to any other edits that may have been made”.
After David Petraeus hearing on Friday, it emerged that unclassified talking points prepared by the CIA for use by lawmakers about Benghazi attack originally pointed specifically to al Qaeda involvement
The assault on the US mission and nearby CIA annex in Benghazi has turned into a flash point between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republicans.
Republicans accuse the White House and in particular the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, of misleading the public just after the attack by suggesting the assault was a spontaneous act instead of a planned terrorist operation. The Obama administration denies misleading anyone and says it discussed information about the Benghazi tragedy as it came in.
“What I can say is those points, and what Susan said, indicated that we believed extremists were involved in this attack,” Ben Rhodes said.
When Paula Broadwell, the biographer mistress of David Petraeus, was discovered to be hiding out at her brother Stephen Kranz’s handsome Washington D.C. townhouse, many would have thought that as far as bolt holes go she did just fine.
After figuratively going to ground following the revelation of her affair with CIA chief David Petraeus and his resignation, Paula Broadwell was photographed earlier in the week with glass of wine in hand preparing an evening meal in the grand kitchen of the $2.3 million home.
Since then, Paula Broadwell has evaded the massed ranks of the media who have camped outside the Mount Pleasant home, but with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, cabin fever might not set in for the 40-year-old West Point graduate any time soon.
It was Paula Broadwell who was allegedly responsible for setting off the chain of events which led to her being hounded by the world’s press to the front door of her brother Stephen Kranz’s home at 1841 Park Road.
Paula Broadwell is believed to have sent threatening emails to Tampa socialite, Jill Kelley, who she perceived as a rival for the affections of retired four star general David Petraeus.
Jill Kelley in turn reported these messages to a friendly FBI agent who set off an investigation which uncovered evidence of the affair and “inappropriate” exchanges between Kelley and General John Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
In fact the bombshell of the illicit affair that rocked the nation broke when Paula Broadwell and her husband Scott were enjoying a two-day break at the Middleton Inn in Little Washington, Virginia.
The beautiful and stately home became the centre of the world’s news when Paula Broadwell was seen looking strained and tense while holding a glass of wine in her hand on Tuesday evening.
Stephen Kranz’s home became the centre of the world’s news when Paula Broadwell was seen looking strained and tense while holding a glass of wine in her hand on Tuesday evening
Reporters were first alerted to her possible presence in Washington D.C. when her drivers licence was found by a jogger in nearby Rock Creek Park.
Indeed, 1841 Park Road is part of local history for the civil rights movement.
In 1950, two years after the U.S. Supereme Court ruled that neighborhood covenants restricting home ownership on the basis of race, the house was purchased by a Dr. Robert Deane, who was black.
The all-white residents of Mount Pleasant tried to sue to block the sale, but courts threw their complaints out and the sale went through.
Dr. Robert Deane lived in the property until his death in 2001.
The Tampa, Florida, military base that has gained notoriety for its connection to General David Petraeus’ sex scandal has been compared to Wisteria Lane from the show Desperate Housewives where out-of-control parties with top brass are a nightly occurrence, and where social climbing is a favorite pastime.
Those visiting MacDill Air Force Base for the first time will likely be surprised to see the sprawling bay front homes with covered porches, the upscale gym, golf course, boat rentals and other trappings of the good life that bear little resemblance to nearly any other military outpost.
“It’s the nicest base I’ve ever seen,” a private contractor with base access told The Daily Beast.
“It blew me away, as far as what the taxpayers pay for.”
People familiar with the culture of MacDill say they are not surprised by the recent revelations that David Petraeus had an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, which was made public after Jill Kelley, a Tampa socialite with close ties to the base, set off an FBI investigation into the CIA director’s mistress.
Jill Kelley, described as a social climber and fierce self-promoter who was obsessed with powerful men, allegedly exchanged flirtatious emails with another general, John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
The sexual intrigue and heady mix of power and wealth appear to be mainstays on the military base known in Tampa as Wisteria Lane, referring to the infamous street where the philandering characters of Desperate Housewives reside.
“It’s well-known in social circles that all the big wigs do a lot of partying,” said Jack Belich, a private investigator in nearby St. Petersburg told the Daily Beast.
“That’s just part of the way they operate over there, and Tampa has always had these social gadflies and liaisons.”
MacDill Air Force Base, which has gained notoriety for its connection to David Petraeus’ sex scandal, has been compared to Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives
Jill Kelley was well-connected with people on the base, among them a White House attorney who gave her and her family access to the presidential residence on three separate occasions.
Tampa Bay Magazine Editor Aaron Fodiman described Jill Kelley as “charming, lovely, and vivacious” hostess who would frequently throw parties for top military officials at her lavish $1.3 million home on Bayshore Boulevard.
Aaron Fodiman pointed out, however, that Jill Kelley was just one of “hundreds” of people in the affluent community eager to entertain military heroes who have been enjoying a superstar status in Tampa.
Jill Kelley was one of about 800 members of Friends of MacDill who are allowed to access the base unescorted in the daytime hours.
Tim Sweeney, a fellow member of the group, said that its purpose is to involve the community in the base’s daily life, and most of those who participate are driven by noble motives, not by a desire to get rich or make a name for oneself.
That said, Tim Sweeney conceded that the top military brass in Tampa are the people that Jill Kelley and her ilk would have wanted to rub shoulders with.
“MacDill folks are the closest thing Tampa comes to having real celebrities. The Kelley’s are clearly the exception to the rule,” Tim Sweeney said.
“I just think it was a way for them to become socially prominent in the community.”
Jill Kelley has been tied to the scandal that prompted the resignation of retired General David Petraeus as CIA director.
David Petraeus admitted having an affair with his married biographer, Paula Broadwell.
Federal officials say Paula Broadwell sent emails to Jill Kelley, perceiving her as a romantic rival. That FBI investigation uncovered emails between Jill Kelley and Gen. John Allen during his time as head of Central Command in Tampa.
