http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-07/new-york-will-ask-obama-to-bar-food-stamps-in-purchase-of-sugary-drinks.html

New York Will Ask Obama to Bar Food Stamps in Purchase of Sugary Drinks
Henry Goldman
Oct 7, 2010

New York City and state officials want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ban the use of food stamps to buy sugary soft drinks for two years to curb obesity- related diseases among the city’s poor. 

Sugar-sweetened beverages are “the largest single contributor to the obesity epidemic,” Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a joint statement in advance of a City Hall news briefing today. Obesity is almost twice as prevalent among the city’s poorest households as in the wealthiest, they said. 

The state’s office for disability assistance intends to ask the USDA to exclude the drinks from the list of items that can be purchased with food stamps, a welfare program that started in 1964, the statement said. The ban, requested by both the state and local governments, would affect only the city. 

“The use of food stamp benefits to support the purchase of sugar sweetened drinks not only contradicts the intent of this vital program, but it also subsidizes a serious public health epidemic,” Paterson said in the statement. “There is clear evidence that low-income individuals have higher rates of obesity and are more at risk of becoming obese than other groups.” 

Fat Costs Big 

Obesity-related illness costs New York state residents almost $8 billion annually, or $770 for each household, according to city and state health officials. Overweight or obese adults compose 57 percent of the city’s population, they said. Almost half, or 46 percent, of the 22,300 people hospitalized for obesity-related diabetes each year live in low- income neighborhoods, the statement said. 

The proposal “will only have an unfair impact on those who can least afford it,” the American Beverage Association, an industry group in Washington, said in an e-mailed statement. 

“There is nothing unique about the calories in sugar- sweetened beverages -- which include flavored waters, sports drinks, juice drinks and teas -- to justify singling them out for elimination from eligible purchases in the food stamps program in New York City,” the association said in its statement. 

Heavy Kids 

Almost 40 percent of New York City’s public-school students in kindergarten through eighth grade are overweight or obese, including 46 percent of Hispanic students and 40 percent of black students, according to the statement from Paterson and Bloomberg. A child who consumes one sugary drink a day has a 60 percent higher risk of becoming obese than those who don’t, the statement said. 

In September 2010, 1.7 million New York City residents out of 2.9 million statewide received food stamp benefits. USDA surveys have estimated that 6 percent of nutrition-assistance benefits nationwide are used to buy sugared soft drinks, amounting to $75 million to $135 million a year in benefits spent in New York City, the officials said. 

The proposal for a ban is a “sensible request,” Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in an e-mailed statement. 

“The empty calories in soft drinks pose a major public health problem by promoting tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and other health problems,” he said. “It’s also the case that those diseases have a disproportionate impact on low-income Americans.” 

Abandoned Effort 

This year, Paterson proposed and Bloomberg supported a half-cent-per-ounce tax on sugared drinks as a health initiative that Paterson said would have raised $1 billion to help close the state budget deficit. The governor abandoned the effort after beverage-industry lobbyists persuaded legislative leaders to oppose it. 

“This is one of the most heinous examples of lobbying and the way in which lobbying has affected and influenced the outcome of what would have been needed budget changes,” Paterson told reporters. 

Richard Daines and Thomas Farley, the state and city health commissioners, described the effort in an article in today’s New York Times. 

The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP. 

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net

***

Kool Website of the Week: TheUFOlogists.com

http://www.theufologists.com

In this website you will find caricatures of Ufologists from the world over along with a brief biography on each. You'll also find links to UFO related websites that will help you understand why it is important that we get a full disclosure on the UFO phenomenon. Abductees, witnesses, contactees and a few 'Hochstetters' are also included.

***

http://news.discovery.com/tech/flying-saucer-shaped-airship-could-carry-cargo.html

Flying Saucer-Shaped Airship Could Carry Cargo. 
Tracy Staedter

Oct. 04, 2010 -- Shipping awkwardly large, heavy objects -- think buildings and ships -- crosscountry is not the easiest thing to do. Usually, the items are broken down into smaller pieces and transported by rail and then transferred to a truck that can handle wide loads. That takes time, fuel and depending on the load's size, assistance from local law enforcement. Flying objects via airplane or heavy-transport helicopter isn't easier because of flight and weight restrictions. 

An Australian company called Skylifter thinks they may have a solution: a saucer-shaped dirigible that can be flown directly between two points without stopping traffic. Their helium-filled airship is round, instead of the cigar shape familiar above baseball games, eliminating a front or back that needs to be pointed in a particular direction. This makes wind direction less important; the ship can use whatever's available. 

It's also flat, instead of big and round like a balloon, which makes it easier to steer. Upon landing, the surface area acts like a parachute, making the vehicle more stable. Stability also comes from the position of the load, which dangles enclosed on a platform below the ship, shifting the center of gravity to a lower point. 

A full-sized Skylifter should measure nearly 500 feet in diameter, and should be able to haul 150 ton as far as 1,240 miles away at about 50 miles per hour. Right now, the vehicle is still in a smaller, prototype stage to demonstrate how it works. But scan the horizons about three years from now and you may just see flying saucers hauling payloads across the sky.

***

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-09/space-beer-being-tested-supplement-space-tourism

First Beer Brewed For Drinking in Space Will Undergo Testing in Low-Gravity Pub
Julie Beck 
09.30.2010

With the announcement that Boeing plans to take tourists into space in five years, it was really only a matter of time before somebody started thinking about refreshments. Because where would space tourism be without space beer? Luckily, Astronauts4Hire, a non-profit space research corporation, has the situation in hand. They are about to test an Australian beer that's brewed and bottled especially for consumption in microgravity. 

One of the problems experienced by astronauts is numbing of the taste buds, causing even the finest Earth beer to taste bland. Astronauts have been known to douse their food in hot sauce when on missions to make it tastier. According to Ben Corbin, PR director for Astronauts4Hire, this particular brew is a stout with all the naturally darker chocolaty flavors amplified for the astronauts’ less-than-refined palates.

The carbonation in beer also poses a problem for drinkers in space. Bubbles that normally rise up and escape from a beverage on Earth simply stagnate in microgravity. Without the buoyancy force that Earth’s gravity provides, carbon dioxide stays in the liquid and prevents astronauts from burping, adding additional discomfort to the lives of people whose fingernails already come off inside their gloves. To combat this, the carbonation of this beer will be lower than most. Since this is a stout, though, which naturally has less carbonation than lighter beers, not too much has to be sacrificed.

Testing for the space beer will begin this November in the simulated weightless environment on board Zero Gravity Corporation’s Boeing airplane. Specially designed packaging will prevent it from spraying all over the place and ruining space station equipment, but at present Corbin says he is "not at liberty to talk about" that. 

***

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/fashion/07rolfing.html

Rolfing, Excruciatingly Helpful 
Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
Rey Allen tries to get a body in alignment. 
AUSTIN CONSIDINE
October 6, 2010

A FORMER dancer of 14 years, Anna Zahn is in touch with her body. To gain more flexibility, and to counteract some of the strain from dancing, she has tried a number of remedies: Reiki, acupuncture, yoga. 

But she still felt tight, her body tense. So she started getting Rolfed — a kind of deep-tissue bodywork that can be so intense that some jokingly liken it to masochism. 

“It’s not going to massage and lighting aromatherapy candles,” said Ms. Zahn, a 20-year-old student at New York University, who gets a Rolfing treatment every week or so. “It’s tough to go to these sessions. It’s painful, very painful, emotionally and physically. But you feel such a relief when you leave that it’s just the most amazing feeling.” 

Others are feeling it, too. Popular in the 1970s, Rolfing once evoked hairy-chested, New Age types seeking alternative therapies — perhaps most famously spoofed in the 1977 football movie “Semi-Tough,” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. 

But today, Rolfing is experiencing something of a resurgence, especially among younger city dwellers for whom the novelty of yoga has worn off, and who are now seeking more intense ways to relieve the stresses of modern life. 

“Back in the day, Rolfing’s growth was word of mouth,” said Rey Allen, a Rolfing practitioner in lower Manhattan, who has noticed an increase in its popularity. He attributes the rise partly to the Internet, which has introduced the treatment to a new generation. 

“Over half of my clientele are in their 20s,” he added. “Since I opened my practice in the city a few years ago, the average age of my clientele has always been 35. But that has drastically changed since the summer.” 

Could Rolfing be one Madonna endorsement away from becoming the next Pilates? 

Rolfing is named after its creator, Ida Rolf, a biochemist from New York City who studied alternative methods of bodywork and healing beginning in the 1920s. She died in 1979 at the age of 82. 

Dr. Rolf developed a theory that the body’s aches and pains arose from basic imbalances in posture and alignment, which were created and reinforced over time by gravity and learned responses among muscles and fascia — the sheath-like connective tissue that surrounds and binds muscles together. Rolfing developed as a way to “restructure” muscles and fascia. 

The focus on manipulating fascia is part of what distinguishes it from chiropractics, which deals with bones, and from therapeutic massages, which works on muscles. 

That also explains why Rolfing has a reputation for being aggressive, even painful at times. Fascia is stubborn material, particularly if it is marked by knots and scar tissue. Rolfers gouge with knuckles and knead with fists, contort limbs and lean into elbows to loosen tendons and ligaments. Patients, meanwhile, need the fortitude to relax and take it during the hourlong sessions. 

Russell Poses, a 39-year-old international equities trader on Wall Street, who started getting Rolfing treatments after injuring his back, likened the experience to “paying $150 an hour for an Indian burn.” But the benefits, as far as he’s concerned, are well worth it. Chiropractors and years of physical therapy couldn’t accomplish what two or three Rolfing sessions did, he said. 

Plus, he said he could still feel the results two weeks later. “It’s something that actually lasts,” he said. 

It is hard to find reliable statistics on the prevalence of Rolfing. But the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, which was founded by Dr. Rolf in 1971 to educate and certify practioners, says it has noticed a rise in student enrollments at its Boulder, Colo., headquarters. 

Kevin McCoy, a faculty member at the institute with a practice in Milwaukee, said he had seen annual class sizes swell to 100 from 75 students in recent years. In the mid-1980s, he said, the school graduated fewer than 50 a year. Despite the bad economy, he said, “our numbers have been maintaining or growing.” 

An endorsement in 2007 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” by the cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz certainly didn’t hurt. Now the host of the syndicated daytime program “The Dr. Oz Show,” he says he sees the growing popularity of Rolfing as “a general perception by the public that taking medications for discomfort is not giving you the panacea benefits that you would desire.” 

In that regard, he said he viewed the treatment as an extension of practices like yoga, which also offers relief without drugs. “Yoga is in many ways analogous to Rolfing because it takes tendons and it stretches them into a position of discomfort,” Dr. Oz said. “They’re just doing it for you without your doing it yourself.” 

Rolfing practitioners say they have also noticed a shift that may explain why younger clients are seeking out their services. It’s not just to treat injuries, but also stress. “Health is one area where we can find a sense of control,” said Mr. Allen, who has been practicing for about nine years. “The real trend is that people are starting to look within the boundaries of their own skin for meaning in their lives, and to find a sense of security in the world.” 

As with other holistic practices, Rolfing seems to leave the door open for a certain mysticism. Even those who have little use for New Age-type practices like meditation can verge on the metaphysical when discussing Rolfing. 

Beau Buffier, a 35-year-old partner at a corporate law firm in New York, says he started Rolfing treatments after he injured his neck and shoulder in a fall. Despite three M.R.I.’s, surgery, physical therapy, a chiropractor, acupuncture and deep massage, the pain remained. Stress from his high-stakes job didn’t help. 

But somehow Rolfing did the trick. “It’s dealing with the physical manifestations of something that’s kind of emotional or spiritual,” Mr. Buffier said. 

He has since gotten in touch with his body in other ways. He began exercising more and eating better. He lost 20 pounds. His blood pressure dropped. “It’s almost as if your body locks up emotions,” he said. 

A version of this article appeared in print on October 7, 2010, on page E1 of the New York edition.

***

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-10-07-mendocino-marijuana-tourism_N.htm

Will Mendocino County become the Napa Valley of marijuana? 
Laura Bly, USA TODAY 
10-7-10

MENDOCINO, Calif. — Swap the Dungeness crab cakes and peasant skirts for lobster rolls and L.L. Bean khakis, and this snug seaside hamlet a few hours north of San Francisco could be a dead ringer for a New England village. (It was a stand-in for Cabot Cove, Maine, in the long-running TV series Murder She Wrote.) 

But if California voters approve a controversial ballot proposition in November to tax and legalize marijuana for recreational use — and it's ahead in several polls — some local growers say Mendocino, pop. 900, might become better known as the tourist capital of a "Napa Valley of cannabis."

The notion of opening marijuana-tasting rooms, meet-the-grower tours and ganja-friendly "bud and breakfasts" in Northern California's pot-farming "Emerald Triangle" is like "tearing down the Berlin Wall. It's not going to happen overnight," says Matthew Cohen of MendoGrown. His 12-member association promotes a "sustainably grown medical cannabis industry" in the county, where legal and illicit pot — sanctioned for medical use by California residents since 1996 — fuels an estimated half to two-thirds of an economy once anchored by fishing and timber. 

Still, he says, passage of Proposition 19 would mobilize entrepreneurs and help jump-start a sluggish tourism industry by putting "Mendocino County on the map as a vision of what cannabis country could look like. The vibration is already here, and if you love (marijuana) enough to smoke it in a coffeehouse, why wouldn't you want to come out and enjoy it at the source?"

Efforts to prevent legalization "are like trying to put your finger in a 100-foot wave," adds longtime resident Tim Blake. Host of an annual Emerald Cup cannabis competition that drew 100 entries last year, the medical marijuana producer wants to turn Area 101, his 150-acre "spiritual and retreat center" near Laytonville, into a springboard for hemp burgers and public hayrides through his heavily guarded (and legal) collection of OG Kush and Sour Diesel plants.

'Entering uncharted territory' 

Hemp shakes and cannabisseries? They're pipe dreams, counter many Mendocino tourism promoters, law officials and business owners.

While 14 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana use in some form, California's groundbreaking Prop 19 would authorize any adult 21 and older to possess, share or transport up to 1 ounce regardless of jurisdiction, and let each city and county decide whether to approve and tax commercial sales.

Proponents say legalization would weaken criminal activity by Mexican drug cartels and funnel as much as $1.4 billion a year into the state's dangerously depleted coffers.

But opponents, including most state officeholders and candidates, the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Police Chiefs Association, argue it would create a hodgepodge of enforcement, boost the ranks of impaired drivers and keep cartels underground to avoid paying taxes. 

What's more, they say, it would be in direct conflict with — and superseded by — federal law.

Famous for its dramatic headlands, redwood groves and down-home wineries producing world-class Pinot Noirs, Mendocino County draws about 2 million visitors a year, mostly from Northern California, to an area that's bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined but home to just 90,000 residents.

Despite its reputation as a refuge for "back-to-the-landers" who took advantage of the rugged terrain and skimpy population to grow high-quality and highly profitable strains of pot, "I'd hate to see people coming up here because of what they think we are, instead of who we really are," says Lark Melesea. She sells hemp clothing at a Mendocino shop called Twist and wants the "sacred herb" used for healing rather than "getting blotto."

If Prop 19 passes, Melesea adds, "the last thing we want to be is a pot-based Disneyland."

Marijuana "is part of the social fabric of our nation, one way or another," says Sheriff Tom Allman, and "the days of sending people to prison for a seed are over. It's the green rush of the new millennium." But he says Prop 19's inconsistencies and loopholes doom it to failure, and it wouldn't stem a growing wave of cartel-related violence that has included multiple armed raids in the vast, deceptively scenic reaches of Mendocino National Forest.

"We're entering uncharted territory," says Visit Mendocino County's Scott Schneider, digging into a Thai burrito with organic tofu at the Mendocino Café. "But we're certainly not going to promote something that's still illegal at the federal level." Weed aficionados "are not our target audience," he says.

Pot at the end of the rainbow? 

Right on cue, diner Matt Kotlarczyk lowers his fork to join the debate. A Cincinnati-based sculptor who's winding his way up the California coast, Kotlarczyk didn't choose Mendocino for its counterculture, ganja-friendly ambience. But, he says, "it's definitely an enhancement."

Mendocino isn't the only California destination calculating whether, and how, to attract similar-minded travelers.

Joey Luiz, a winery sales manager who's running for city council in neighboring Lake County, says marijuana tourism could be a plus: "We've struggled to find any kind of industry, and the more bodies you can bring in, the better." Farther north in Siskiyou County, Dunsmuir Mayor Peter Arth has been nicknamed "Mayor Juana" for his support of a downtown pot garden, across from the sheriff's substation, to draw visitors and provide organic marijuana to patients.

And in a hardscrabble swath of downtown Oakland dubbed "Oaksterdam," Segway tours already cruise by Oaksterdam University (a trade school that has trained more than 12,000 students in how to grow marijuana), medical dispensaries stocked with pot-laced Belgian chocolates, and a souvenir store that peddles ganja-themed boxer shorts.

But marijuana doesn't always translate to a tourist pot of gold: Though Amsterdam's laissez-faire coffeehouses have drawn smokers for decades, the Dutch border city of Maastricht recently voted to ban sales to foreigners in a bid to stave off an influx of weed-seeking backpackers.

Along Mendocino County's Anderson Valley wine trail, Raul Touzon of Miami and Andree Thorpe of Bermuda sip glasses of Pinot Noir rosé on a sun-dappled lawn at Goldeneye Winery. Would they return for a few tokes along with their liquid relaxers?

Not likely. "There's a mystique to sitting here, enjoying the experience: the land, the scenery, the grapes," Touzon says. "No one is going to come here to smoke a joint." 

Adds Milla Handley, owner of the nearby Handley Winery: "How do you deal with driving and smoking? We try to be conscientious (in limiting wine samples) because our kids are on these roads. You add another drug, and it's a cause for concern."

But Mendocino County fisherman, construction worker and pot grower Tyler Kidwell begs to differ. "When I went to Hawaii," says Kidwell, "I got two questions: Have you ever surfed Point Arena (a famous county break), and did you bring us any pot?"

Whether or not it's legalized for recreational use, "Mendocino is known around the world as a pot mecca," adds Kidwell. "And if you're going to get stoned, the redwoods are a great place to do it."
 
IF YOU GO 
 
Getting there: Mendocino County's closest major airports are in San Francisco and Sacramento; count on three to 3 1/2 hours to the village of Mendocino from SFO, and another hour to the northern part of the county, which encompasses nearly 4,000 square miles. 

Where to stay: Most lodgings (more than two dozen B&Bs in Mendocino alone) and vacation rentals are located along the Pacific Coast or along Highway 101. In the heart of Mendocino, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Blue Door Group's Packard House and J.D. House offer a sleek, Restoration Hardware-esque ambiance for $130-$275 per night (888-453-2677; innsofmendocino.com). Near tiny Booneville, along the Anderson Valley wine trail, try the newly renovated, four-room Toll House Inn (rates $150-$250; 707-895-2572 or tollhouseinn.com). 

What to do: Along with hiking through redwood groves in preserves like Hendy Woods State Park and beachombing along the Pacific (Glass Beach near Fort Bragg is a favorite), many visitors head for the Anderson Valley wine trail. It's a throwback to what Napa was like 40 years ago, with most of the wineries offering free tastings and a chance to hobnob with the owners. 

More information: 866-466-3636 or visitmendocino.com