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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Rodney Allen Rippy, child star, bows out of Compton mayor race

Rodney Allen Rippy finished back in a pack of 12 candidates vying for mayor of Compton, Calif. Rodney Allen Rippy shot to fame as the kid in the Jack in the Box "Too bigga eat!" TV ads.

By John Rogers,?Associated Press / April 27, 2013

Former child actor Rodney Allen Rippy outside Compton City Hall in Compton, Calif. Rippy ran running for Mayor of Compton.

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

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Before he suddenly surfaced in the race for mayor of this hardscrabble Los Angeles suburb, Rodney Allen Rippy's name was likely to evoke that question inspired by that class of former child stars who didn't die young, end up in jail or a celebrity rehab series: "Whatever happened to that guy?"

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Rippy was just 3 in 1972, when he became the toast of a generation as the pint-sized TV pitchman for the Jack In The Box fast-food chain. When he picked up a hamburger that looked as a big as a hubcap and tried to cram it into his mouth, America was entranced. When he finally said, "Too bigga eat!" a national catchphrase was born.

Soon the cute, chubby-cheeked youngster with the Afro as big as his head was hanging out in Hollywood with Michael Jackson. He made movie cameos and recorded a hit album called "Take Life a Little Easier."

Then the 1970s ended, and so did Rippy's career.

More than 30 years later, he resurfaced as a candidate for mayor in a city known variously over the years as the birthplace of gangsta rap, the murder capital of the country and the home of the drive-by shooting.

Although he got only 75 votes, finishing 10th among 12 candidates. The final results in the primary election, released Thursday, show that Aja Brown beat long-time Mayor Eric Perrodin, and will now compete in a run off with former Mayor Omar Bradley, who is currently facing corruption charges.

But Rippy's earnest but futile campaign raised the inevitable question of where he had been.

Rippy never strayed far from Hollywood, it turns out. He simply stepped away from the cameras.

When his Jack In The Box career ended about the time he was finishing high school, he went to college and earned a marketing degree.

"I wanted to continue to act, but at the time acting was a thing that unless you were really burning hot, you better have something on the back burner," he said recently over lunch at a Compton restaurant down the street from City Hall.

Seeing how the adults around him had turned a cute little kid from Long Beach into a national star, he decided marketing was the way to go.

He formed Ripped Marketing Group in 2000 and has promoted everything from smokeless cigarettes to leisure wear to country music. It gave him the idea, he says, that he could promote Compton too. He wanted to change the image of a city that, although financially troubled, has seen crime and gang violence drop precipitously in recent years.

He wasn't the first child star to remerge from anonymity to run for office. His contemporary, the late Gary Coleman, did the same when he launched his quixotic campaign for governor of California in 2003.

Unlike Coleman and many other former child stars, Rippy never got into a fistfight with an autograph seeker. He hasn't been caught in a crack house or drunkenly crashed his car.

"Don't get me wrong, I know the good, the bad, the ugly, but I have sense enough to stay away from it," he said. "My mom always said, 'Rodney, you need to understand this: It's very easy to get into trouble. It's very difficult to get out."

The Afro and the chubby cheeks are gone, but Rippy's appearance often has people scratching their heads, wondering where they've seen him before. Their reaction when they find out is sometimes like that of Saudia Pearsall's.

"THE RODNEY ALLEN RIPPY?" the waitress shouted with glee after she spotted him at a back table.

"Ahhhhh! I might vote for you just because I like you," she added, laughing. "That little Afro. 'This burger's too bigga eat!'"

A day later, she was having second thoughts, realizing she didn't know much about his campaign.

Her reaction ? delight at meeting a celebrity but wondering what the heck he's doing here ? is something Rippy says he sees often.

Rippy lost out on a marketing job once, when the person he was to work for started to believe he was being punked for a reality show: "He thought it was some kind of game, like I had some sort of hat-cam on."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/dMWfhErUqN8/Rodney-Allen-Rippy-child-star-bows-out-of-Compton-mayor-race

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Ambulatory Services taps Morgan Stanley to explore sale: sources

By Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ambulatory Services of America Inc, a U.S. operator of healthcare facilities controlled by private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg LLC, has appointed Morgan Stanley to explore a sale, three people familiar with the matter said this week.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based company may fetch between $700 million and $800 million based on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of around $75 million, two of the people said on condition of anonymity because the sale process is confidential.

Ambulatory Services of America and Morgan Stanley declined to comment, while Lindsay Goldberg did not respond to requests for comment.

Ambulatory Services of America manages 85 dialysis programs in 13 U.S. states that provide care to approximately 7,000 patients. It also manages 17 radiation oncology centers in five states.

Lindsay Goldberg, a New York-based buyout firm with about $10 billion of capital under management, invested $75 million in Ambulatory Services of America in 2008, two years after the medical facility company was founded by former Renal Care Group chief operating officer Timothy Martin.

Martin joined Renal Care Group, a dialysis services provider, in 1997, and left the company when rival Fresenius Medical Care AG agreed to buy it in 2006 for $4 billion.

(Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ambulatory-services-taps-morgan-stanley-explore-sale-sources-214453700.html

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Four questions that will be answered by UFC 159

UFC 159 is just over 48 hours from now. What questions will be answered by Saturday's fights?

Does Chael Sonnen have any real chance at beating UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones? Sonnen's moving up to 205 lbs. after spending his entire UFC career at middleweight. He is 2-3 in his last five fights, with both losses coming to Anderson Silva. Two of those wins were decisions, including a close one with Michael Bisping. Though Sonnen talks a good game, he just isn't on the same level as Jones. Every fighter has a puncher's chance in the cage. Will Sonnen find that one punch to get it done?

Will any punches be thrown in Phil Davis and Vinny Magalhaes' bout? When a Division I NCAA champion wrestler and a world champion jiu-jitsu player face off, will their ground game be neutralized? Watching their match will be like a chess match unfold.

Can Jim Miller change UFC president Dana White's mind about the next lightweight title shot? After Benson Henderson defended the UFC lightweight championship belt, White said the next title shot will go to the winner of Gray Maynard's May bout with T.J. Grant. Miller said this week that he wants to perform so well against Pat Healy that White will be forced to reconsider.

"It all comes down to timing and performances," he said. "I'm looking to make a statement on Saturday night. I'm hoping Dana forgets all the things he just said about the Maynard-Grant fight. It's happened before. Nothing's guaranteed about a No. 1 contender spot. I might (have to do some talking). But I plan on making some noise with my fists and my elbows and my knees."

Will Miller be able to get that title shot he's always wanted?

Can Sheila Gaff's finishing ability neutralize Sara McMann's wrestling? McMann is one of the most well-credentialed wrestlers to ever enter the octagon. She was an Olympic silver medalist in 2004, plus has three medals from world championships. Gaff's last three fights have ended in a first-round knockout, so will she be able to come up with another big finish against McMann's elite wrestling?

Don't forget to make your picks for UFC 159 on Cagewriter's Facebook page.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/four-questions-answered-ufc-159-160657311--mma.html

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Movement of pyrrole molecules defy 'classical' physics

Apr. 26, 2013 ? New research shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the centuries-old laws of 'classical' physics that govern our everyday world.

Using uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics -- believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels -- can actually impact on a molecular level.

Researchers at Cambridge's Chemistry Department and Cavendish Laboratory say they have evidence that, in the case of pyrrole, quantum laws affecting the internal motions of the molecule change the "very nature of the energy landscape" -- making this 'quantum motion' essential to understanding the distribution of the whole molecule.

The study, a collaboration between scientists from Cambridge and Rutgers universities, appeared in the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie earlier this month.

A pyrrole molecule's centre consists of a "flat pentagram" of five atoms, four carbon and one nitrogen. Each of these atoms has an additional hydrogen atom attached, sticking out like spokes.

Following experiments performed by Barbara Lechner at the Cavendish Laboratory to determine the energy required for movement of pyrrole across a copper surface, the team discovered a discrepancy that led them down a 'quantum' road to an unusual discovery.

In previous work on simpler molecules, the scientists were able to accurately calculate the 'activation barrier' -- the energy required to loosen a molecule's bond to a surface, allowing movement -- using 'density functional theory', a method that treats the electrons which bind the atoms according to quantum mechanics but, crucially, deals with atomic nuclei using a 'classical' physics approach.

Surprisingly, with pyrrole the predicted 'activation barriers' were way out, with calculations "less than a third of the measured value." After much head scratching, puzzled scientists turned to a purely quantum phenomenon called 'zero-point energy'.

In classical physics, an object losing energy can continue to do so until it can be thought of as sitting perfectly still. In the quantum world, this is never the case: everything always retains some form of residual -- even undetectable -- energy, known as 'zero-point energy'.

While 'zero-point energy' is well known to be associated with motion of the atoms contained in molecules, it was previously believed that such tiny amounts of energy simply don't affect the molecule as a whole to any measurable extent, unless the molecule broke apart.

But now, the researchers have discovered that the "quantum nature" of the molecule's internal motion actually does affect the molecule as a whole as it moves across the surface, defying the 'classical' laws that it's simply too big to feel quantum effects.

'Zero-point energy' moving within a pyrrole molecule is unexpectedly sensitive to the exact site occupied by the molecule on the surface. In moving from one site to another, the 'activation energy' must include a sizeable contribution due to the change in the quantum 'zero-point energy'.

Scientists believe the effect is particularly noticeable in the case of pyrrole because the 'activation energy' needed for diffusion is particularly small, but that many other similar molecules ought to show the same kind of behavior.

"Understanding the nature of molecular diffusion on metal surfaces is of great current interest, due to efforts to manufacture two-dimensional networks of ring-like molecules for use in optical, electronic or spintronic devices," said Dr Stephen Jenkins, who heads up the Surface Science Group in Cambridge's Department of Chemistry.

"The balance between the activation energy and the energy barrier that sticks the molecules to the surface is critical in determining which networks are able to form under different conditions."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original article is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Barbara A. J. Lechner, Holly Hedgeland, John Ellis, William Allison, Marco Sacchi, Stephen J. Jenkins, B. J. Hinch. Quantum Influences in the Diffusive Motion of Pyrrole on Cu(111). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201302289

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/RDFpcgJ5_Os/130426115449.htm

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Are $100,000 cancer drugs unethical?

A coalition of cancer researchers have had it with Big Pharma's expensive mark-ups

Life-saving cancer drugs help earn large pharmaceutical companies like Novartis billions of dollars annually ? and doctors say enough is enough.

In a new study published online in the American Society of Hermatology's medical journal Blood, 120 cancer researchers are fighting back, claiming that Big Pharma's premium on cancer-fighting drugs are unsustainable, expensive, and unambiguously unethical.

SEE MORE: WATCH: Apple's sappy-but-sweet new iPhone 5 ad

"As physicians, we follow the Hippocratic Oath of "Primum non nocer", first (or above all) do no harm," they write [PDF]. "We believe the unsustainable drug prices in CML [chronic myeloid leukemia] and cancer may be causing harm to patients."

Take Gleevec, for example, which CNN Money reports is widely heralded as a "miracle pill." Since 2001, it's been shown to dramatically increase a patient's chances of surviving CML, transforming it "from a lethal disease to one that is usually chronic but manageable." It's akin to taking daily medication for diabetes, and cost $30,000 a year when it first hit the market ? which is pretty expensive as is.

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Then the price skyrocketed:

"We agree with those who say the price we have set for Gleevec is high. But given all the factors, we believe it is a fair price," Daniel Vasella, Novartis' CEO at the time, wrote in Magic Cancer Bullet, a 2003 book he penned about his company's wonder drug.

That "fair price" nearly tripled over the past decade. An annual course of Gleevec now wholesales for more than $76,000 in the U.S., according to Novartis. The retail price that patients or their insurers pay is typically much higher. [CNN Money]

How much higher? Analysts say it now costs around $100,000 a year to gain access to this life-saving drug.

SEE MORE: The speech Bill Clinton never gave

"If you are making $3 billion a year on Gleevec, could you get by with $2 billion?? Dr. Brian?Druker, director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, tells the New York Times. "When do you cross the line from essential profits to profiteering?"

In 2012, Gleevec?earned Novartis $4.7 billion ? easily the company's best-selling drug ever. Big Pharma argues that high prices are necessary to fund the cost of research, development, manufacturing, and more. But a?recent TIME cover story (subscription required) shows the toll that such logic has taken on the health care system, with a hard look at the exorbitant cost of medical bills. In addition to bankrupting families and sending them into debt, medical expenses now account for an estimated 20 percent of the United States' GDP ? $2.8 trillion for 2013.

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"I am sure I am going to be blackballed," says Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, the Blood study's lead author and chairman of the leukemia department at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center. "My research career will be hurt? [But] pharmaceutical companies have lost their moral sense."

View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week

Friday, April 26, 2013

Canon, Nintendo find solace in Abenomics as weaker yen boosts outlook

By Tim Kelly and Mari Saito

TOKYO (Reuters) - Super Mario creator Nintendo Co Ltd forecast a return to the black after two years of losses and camera maker Canon Inc raised its profit forecast by nearly 10 percent as a weaker yen, spurred by aggressive deflation-fighting policies, bolstered the outlook of Japan's tech companies.

The two companies, however, show no sign of reciprocating the government's helping hand with fresh job-creating investment. Canon, still worried about a struggling global economy, pared its capital expenditure.

As the first blue-chip Japanese tech companies to report quarterly results, Nintendo and Canon are often seen as a barometer for the sector's earnings. The tech sector directly employs around 2 million workers in Japan.

"We welcome Abenomics," Canon Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka said at a news briefing, acknowledging the impact of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic stimulus policies.

"The Japanese economy moves on this kind of mood so we value this and hope to find success," he added.

At Canon, a weakening yen is helping to compensate for a squeeze on compact camera sales as consumers switch to photo snapping on their smartphones. And the softer Japanese currency may buy Nintendo more time to plug its Wii game console successor, the Wii U, which has disappointed with dull sales as it also competes with smartphones and tablets.

For the business year to December 31, Canon, which relies on foreign markets for four-fifths of its sales, lifted its operating profit forecast to 450 billion yen ($4.53 billion).

Nintendo, which generates three-quarters of its revenue abroad, forecast an operating profit of 100 billion yen after two years of losses as its Wii boom ebbed.

Canon raised its forecast dollar rate for the year to 95 yen compared with the 85 yen forecast issued just three months earlier.

Nintendo estimated a rate of 90 yen to the dollar for the year to next March. Its president, Satoru Iwata, told a news briefing in Osaka that the figure was "conservative".

Nintendo sold 3.45 million Wii U consoles from its November launch until March 31, far below the 5.5 million it initially predicted. For this business year, it is aiming to sell 9 million.

LONG-HELD WISH

For Japanese business leaders worried about their ability to compete globally, particularly against South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc, the yen decline fulfils a long-held wish.

Fabricating goods worth almost $400 billion a year, Japanese makers of TVs, mobile phones, printers and personal computers account for a sizeable chunk of Japan's $5 trillion economy.

Canon's operating profit in the first quarter dipped 34 percent to $552 million, which the company blamed on a weakened global economy and the hit to its compact camera business from smartphones. Nintendo posted a full-year operating loss of 36.4 billion yen.

Corporate heads who have praised Abenomics include Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai. His company and other Japanese TV makers, Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp, have struggled to fend off competition from Samsung Electronics as a strong yen bit into profits.

Sony, with its bigger exposure to overseas markets, is the best-placed among TV makers to gain from a weaker yen, particularly versus the euro. A 1 yen drop against the European single currency adds about 6 billion yen to operating profit at the maker of Bravia sets.

At Panasonic, a 1 yen weakening against the euro boosts operating profit by 2 billion yen, while it reaps a 2.5 billion yen gain for declines against the dollar. At Sharp, which more heavily relies on its home market, a 1 yen move is worth around 500 million yen in operating profit against the euro and 700 million yen against the dollar.

More than a third of Japanese companies remain worried about domestic demand stagnating, a Reuters survey of 240 companies released on Friday shows. A quarter said they were likely to increase output in Japan because of the weaker yen.

On balance, however, Wednesday's results produced no signs that Abenomics was encouraging a boost in capital spending.

Canon, which stands to benefit more than most Japanese companies from a weak yen, on Wednesday trimmed its capital expenditure for the business year to 265 billion yen from 270 billion yen.

"Dramatic monetary easing has prompted a revision of the strong yen, but there are still uncertainties surrounding the U.S. budget problems and European debt issues," Tanaka cautioned.

Since mid-November, when an Abenomics-driven stock rally began, Canon's shares have gained 58 percent, in line with a 60 percent gain in the Nikkei 225 benchmark index. Its stock rose 1.3 percent in Tokyo to 3,840 yen on Wednesday.

Nintendo, which has gained 17 percent since November, rose 4.6 percent to 11,950 yen. Quarterly results for both companies were released after the close of trading.

($1 = 99.3600 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canon-nintendo-solace-abenomics-weaker-yen-boosts-outlook-093500269--finance.html

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

The George W. Bush library's version of history

A guard stands outside the Bush library in Dallas (Ron T. Ennis/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Getty Images)

DALLAS?As former President George W. Bush prepares to officially open his presidential library on Thursday, a question arises as it has for his predecessors: How objective will it be about his time in the White House?

Bush left office five years ago as one of the most unpopular presidents in history, his poll numbers weighed down by public discontent over his handling of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and worries about the economy.

But the former president wanted to take the controversies about his presidency head on, say several former aides who worked closely with him on the library. One way of addressing the challenge is an interactive exhibit allowing visitors to see what it was like for him to make decisions as leader of the free world. People will hear information Bush was given by aides, then be asked to make their own choices. Afterwards, the former president's image will appear on a screen to explain what decision he ultimately made and why.

?He really wants people to go in there and get a sense of what it was like to be president during that time and to use that to make an informed decision about his presidency,? said Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush adviser.

But Bush?s museum is likely to face scrutiny over what version of history he?s telling?especially with his time in office still fresh in the minds of many Americans.

He?s not the only one who has faced this dilemma. When former President Bill Clinton?s library opened in Little Rock, Ark., in 2004, the library was criticized for not devoting more space to what some at the time believed was the biggest issue of his presidency: the scandal of his inappropriate relationship with a former White House intern that ultimately lead to the House voting to impeach him.

While the goal of presidential libraries is to be more focused on history than politics, those involved in creating them say it?s unreasonable to think they won?t be influenced by a former president?s point-of-view?especially as libraries are increasingly seen as vehicles through which former leaders try to shape legacies.

?Bush wants to people to know the kind of decisions he had to make in the course of his presidency and give [a rationale] for why he made those decisions,? said Mark Updegrove, director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Tex., who is also working on a book about Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

?There is great value in trying to understand why Bush did what he did,? Updegrove added. ?You don?t have to agree with him, but there?s value in trying to understand his perspective.?

Aides say Bush and his wife, Laura, were ?heavily? involved in the creation of the library?s exhibits, though they haven?t said exactly how hands-on the former president was.

Skip Rutherford, a longtime friend and adviser to Clinton who led the 42nd president?s library effort, recalls ordering Clinton to do a ?brain dump? with the people who designed exhibits while Clinton was still president.

?I basically said to him, ?Just talk to them about your successes and failures, what you thought you did well, where you thought you felt short, your best day and your worst day, what you would have done differently,?? Rutherford recalled in an interview with Yahoo News.

?Bring as many Diet Cokes as you need,? he recalled telling Clinton.

A few days later, Clinton spent more than three hours talking to the designers of his library, doing just what Rutherford had asked. And not surprisingly, his discussion with the group was very detailed. ?(Clinton) was passing on names of people they should talk to and recalling pictures of certain meetings he had that could be used,? Rutherford said. ?He has an incredible memory.?

In some ways, Bush?s library will be the first draft of history about his administration. Not unlike other museums, presidential libraries often go through renovations and exhibit changes over the years, as history gains a better understanding of a certain presidency.

When the LBJ Library opened in 1971, the former president asked staffers to include an exhibit on the Vietnam war and to quickly work to assemble and declassify his presidential papers related to it, in hopes the public would come to understand his thinking behind the events that clouded his final days in office.

Over the years, that exhibit has been updated?most recently with a $10 million renovation which expanded the section on LBJ and Vietnam to include more perspectives, including his efforts to gain input from members of Congress and how media coverage was effecting his decision making.

But the exhibit also plays up LBJ?s work on domestic issues, including civil rights, education and health care?issues largely overshadowed by controversies over Vietnam.

In that vein, Updegrove sees parallels between LBJ and Bush, who designed a library that also tries to call attention to domestic accomplishments he and his aides believe were overshadowed by the war. Updegrove says the Iraq War, not unlike Vietnam for LBJ, is likely to cloud the public?s assessment of Bush for ?many years to come,? especially since Iraq's fate is still largely unknown.

By then, Bush will likely want to renovate his library?just as the other living presidents have done in order to keep up with modern technology and evolving public opinion about issues in their presidency.

At the Clinton Library, staffers there are waiting to see what Clinton has to say after seeing the new Bush library.

?Everybody thinks he?s going to go down to Dallas and come back and say, ?We need this, we need to do that,? Rutherford says. By contrast, George H.W. Bush pushed for a major overhaul of his library after attending the Clinton opening in 2004.

?Everybody is bracing for when [Clinton] comes back from Dallas.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/bush-past-presidents-faces-scrutiny-over-library-version-122739710--politics.html

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