She always knows how to make an entrance, and earlier tonight (November 6) Sheryl Crow had everyone’s full attention as she arrived at the 2013 CMA Awards.
It seems the hours of primping definitely paid off as the “Soak Up the Sun” star charmed the fans and shutterbugs with her gorgeous getup ahead of the big Bridgestone Arena event.
There's plenty to look forward to as the CMA Awards get underway, with Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood serving as hosts as well as performers.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the difficulties plaguing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,. The massive failure at healthcare.gov website is getting new criticism for lack of proper cybersecurity protections. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the difficulties plaguing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,. The massive failure at healthcare.gov website is getting new criticism for lack of proper cybersecurity protections. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2013 file photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sebelius is returning to Capitol Hill for a fresh interrogation on the health care law, this time from senators with growing concerns about President Barack Obama's crowning legislative achievement. Sebelius was due to face questions Wednesday from the Senate Finance Committee. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)
File-This April 17, 2013 file photo Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. questions Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as she testifies on Capitol Hill before the committee's hearing on President Barack Obama's budget proposal for fiscal year 2014. After warning months ago that a “train wreck” was coming in implementing the nation’s new health care law, Baucus now says he thinks the rollout can get back on track after a bumbling beginning. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite,File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prodded to be more candid with Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday the administration's flawed health care website needed a couple of hundred fixes when it went online more than a month ago and conceded, "we're not there yet" in making all needed repairs.
At the same time, she turned aside any suggestion that the system be taken off line until it could be fixed fully. Doing so "wouldn't delay people's cancer or diabetes or Parkinson's" disease, she told the Senate Finance Committee.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the panel's chairman, said Sebelius must be "candidly, fully totally" forthcoming with Congress about the repair effort, "so that we don't wake up at the end of November and find out we're not there yet." He referred to the administration's goal for completing the repairs.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the panel's senior Republican, was harsher.
"While I am glad that you are accepting responsibility for this disastrous rollout, I would have preferred that you and the rest of the administration were honest with us to begin with," he said.
But Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who faces a tea party-backed challenger in 2014, was harsher still. "You have said the American people should hold you accountable, which is why today I repeat my request for you to resign."
Sebelius, a former governor of the state Roberts represents, sat impassively as he spoke.
Despite the web site's well-chronicled woes, Sebelius said it has improved dramatically since the administration launched its repair effort. Echoing testimony delivered on Monday by another administration official to a different committee, she said it is now able to process nearly 17,000 registrations an hour, with almost no errors.
She said a punchlist drawn up by Jeff Zients, who was brought in to oversee repairs, contained "a couple of hundred functional fixes that have been identified and they are in priority grouping."
While progress has been made, "we're not where we need to be. It's a pretty aggressive schedule," she said.
One Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, urged Sebelius to make sure contractors who built the faulty website are held accountable. "I want you to burn their fingers and make 'em pay for not being responsible and producing a product that all of us can be proud," he said.
Republicans focused increasingly on issues of security, cost and coverage cancellations rather than the website, which Hatch said he assumed would be fixed.
Sebelius and Sen. Mike Crapo sparred after the Idaho Republican said many individuals will face far higher premiums next year when the program is in effect than they currently do.
The HHS secretary responded that the prices that insurance companies are charging are 16 percent lower than the Congressional Budget Office estimated. Crapo asked if she was saying prices would fall in 2014 compared to this year, and she conceded she was not. At the same time, she said that for the first time, the law will provide millions of Americans with government assistance in paying for insurance.
To the chagrin of increasingly nervous Democrats, Republicans are also on the attack about the millions of Americans whose health insurers have told them their current policies are being canceled. Obama has said that people who liked their coverage would be able to keep it.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, peppered Sebelius with questions about President Barack Obama oft-stated pledge that anyone who likes their coverage will be able to keep it — a promise the administration no longer makes.
Asked if that was an accurate statement, Sebelius declined Cornyn's request for a yes or no answer.
Insurers are sending cancellation notices to customers whose current policies lack enough coverage to meet the law's more demanding standards — at least 3.5 million Americans, according to an Associated Press survey of states.
The Obama administration has said people facing cancellations will be able to find better coverage from their current insurance company or on state or federal exchanges where competing policies are being offered.
Lawmakers of both parties have introduced rival bills that would let people retain their existing health insurance policies. But administration officials refused to state their views Tuesday on those proposals.
___
AP Special Correspondent David Espo and AP reporters Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
Check out the UFC Fight for the Troops 3 undercard below.
Derek Brunson vs. Brian Houston Round 1: We're off. Huge head kick instantly floors Houston. Brunson leaps onto his back and sinks in a rear-naked choke. It's under the neck. This one could be over. Houston is fighting this off valiantly. Brunson continues to adjust and finally, there's the tap. Wow, hell of a way to start.
Derek Brunson def. Brian Houston via submission (rear-naked choke) at 0:48 of round one.
Neil Magny vs. Seth Baczynski Round 1: Big John McCarthy is our referee. Both fighters trade leg kicks. Baczynski whiffs on a looping right. Magny closes the distance against the fence. Baczynski reverses. Short knees to the body from Magny, who gets double underhooks then reverses. McCarthy calls for action. And there's the split. Baczynski wings a one-two in the center of the cage. Baczynski pressures forward and Magny cliches. More fighting for position against the cage. The crowd is getting restless here. McCarthy wants action. Magny peppering Baczynski with short shots, but nothing significant. And McCarthy steps in. Baczynski dives for a double leg, hoists Magny over his head, then slams him down. Magny lands a hard shot from the bottom. Baczynski postures up and dives into half guard, now full mount. Slick transition. Baczynski postures up and rains down body shots. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Baczynski.
Round 2: Baczynski headhunting early with his right hand. Baczynski stuffs a takedown and muscles Magny against the fence. McCarthy calls for action again. No tolerance for cage grappling today. Big John split them up. Baczynski wades in and connects on a hard right hand. Magny fights off a takedown then hunts for a single against the fence. Baczynski defends and reverses. More fence work and McCarthy isn't having it. He splits it. Good right hand from Magny, who then reverses a takedown. Baczynski climbs back to his feet but eats another right hand off the break. Magny's tape is loose on his gloves. McCarthy stops the action and fixed it. We're back, and Baczynski lunges into a double. He gets it, diving into full guard. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Magny. (19-19 overall.)
Round 3: Baczynski's corner calling for urgency. Magny catches a kick, but Baczynski twirls out and bullrushes into the clinch against the fence. Baczynski drops for a single but can't get it. McCarthy wants work. Magny releases to the center of the cage. Baczynski lunges for another double, then takes Magny's back standing and almost pulls him down. Magny instantly pops to his feet but winds up with his back against the fence. McCarthy splits it up. Baczynski dives right back into a double and finally gets it. Magny working double butterflies from the bottom. Baczynski postures up then dives back into guard. Magny with wrist control on Baczynski's right hand. Magny pushes Baczynski off then jumps to his feet. Baczynski not giving him an inch against the fence. Magny reverses then powers Baczynski to the mat. Baczynski back to his feet, only to get slammed down. Wild scramble ends with Baczynski hunting for a standing guillotine. Magny defends but ends with his back once again against the fence. Huge flurry at the end hurts Baczynski. Wow, that might've stolen it. Close fight, but Magny wins on damage for me. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Magny. (29-28 Magny.)
Seth Baczynski def. Neil Magny via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Yves Edwards vs. Yancy Madeiros Round 1: Big John is once again our referee. Medeiros pressuring forward with hard combinations. Medeiros not giving Edwards an inch. Medeiros rockets a front kick straight down the middle, then wades forward with his jab. Edwards fires back with a solid one-two. Edwards unleashes a kick into Medeiros' midsection. Edwards going over the top with a right hook. Medeiros with another front kick. Big knee blasts Medeiros. Wild exchange here. Edwards slips. Edwards tags Medeiros with another right hook, and once again Medeiros nods his head. Huge counter left uppercut crumbles Edwards! Medeiros lunges on top and unloads a finishing salvo. That's all she wrote.
Yancy Medeiros def. Yves Edwards via KO (punches) at 2:47 of round one.
Chris Camozzi vs. Lorenz Larkin Round 1: Herb Dean is the man in charge. Larkin with an early leg kick. Larkin goes up high, Camozzi counters with a kick to the thigh. Larkin misses a wild capoeira kick. Larkin blasts Camozzi with a hard straight right! Camozzi tumbles down. Larkin lets him up. Larkin pressures forward and connects on a stiff counter. Camozzi measuring distance, then rushes inside. Larkin smiles and shakes his head. Camozzi continues to work low kicks. Solid jab from Camozzi. Larkin fires back. Big flying knee from Camozzi. Larkin rockets a kick into Camozzi's midsection then follows it up with punches. Camozzi separates. Larkin rips an uppercut up the middle. Hard, hard body kick from Larkin. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Larkin.
Round 2: Camozzi's corner calls for low kicks and he delivers. Larkin stalks forward. Tons of low kicks from both men. Big straight right backs up Camozzi. Camozzi wades inside with a flying knee. Larkin ties up and powers Camozzi against the fence. Blood is leaking out of Camozzi's nose. Larkin releases and goes back to working his kicks. Camozzi counters with an inside leg kick. Hard straight left cracks Larkin. Camozzi ducks under a wild right and fires back. Larkin darts inside but Camozzi avoids any damage and reverses him against the fence. Big short elbow inside from Larkin. And another. Larkin and Camozzi trade high kicks. Wild exchange closes out the round. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Larkin. (20-18 Larkin.)
Round 3: Larkin with a turning side kick to the thigh, then goes high, then goes for a Mortal Kombat style sweep low kick. That was fun. Camozzi wades inside with heavy shots. Larkin connects to the body, then eats a straight right. Big right hand from Larkin in response. Larkin continues to stalk forward. Camozzi wings a kick to the body then ties up. Larkin lands a knee to the body inside the clinch, then a huge, huge short elbow. Heavy shot there. Camozzi reverses against the fence. His face is bloodied. Larkin calls for the crowd to roar, and again. Camozzi just hanging on. Larkin reverses. Another short elbow by Larkin. Camozzi eats a knee. Spinning back elbow from Larkin. Whew, great performance. MMA Fighting scores it 10-9 Larkin. (30-27 Larkin.)
Lorenz Larkin def. Chris Camozzi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Contact: David Cameron david_cameron@hms.harvard.edu 617-432-0441 Harvard Medical School
Real dangers for high-risk patients when trainees take on new roles
With almost no experience, newly graduated medical students enter teaching hospitals around the country every July, beginning their careers as interns. At the same time, the last year's interns and junior residents take a step up and assume new responsibilities.
In addition to developing their nascent clinical skills, each entering class of interns must grasp the many rules and standards for operating in this "new" hospital structure.
More experienced physicians share a joke about this changing of the guard: Don't get sick in July.
But the data to back up this quip has proven hard to find. Over the years, numerous studies have shown no effect or very slight effects when comparing patient outcomes in July versus the preceding May, when trainees are more experienced and concluding their training cycles. Some researchers have suggested that
the safeguards academic medical centers put in place, such as increased supervision by more experienced doctors during this first phase in the training cycle, protect patients from the effects of inexperience and organizational disruption.
A new study published Oct. 23 in Circulation by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Stanford University Hospitals, University of Southern California and the RAND Corporation, has found that while the so-called "July effect" is negligible in most cases, it is a serious concern for high-risk patients.
"The good news for patients is that in most cases, it's very difficult for a physician to make a mistake that results in a patient's death," said Anupam Jena, HMS assistant professor of health care policy and of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the study. "But for severely ill patients, health can be very tenuous. A small error or a very slight delay in care is potentially devastating."
Jena and colleagues analyzed cases from more than 1,400 hospitals using data from the U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample. They compared patients who came to teaching and non-teaching hospitals with acute myocardial infarctions, commonly known as heart attacks. The researchers separated cases into low-risk and high-risk categories and compared outcomes.
Overall, they found that patients at teaching hospitals had a lower risk of dying than at non-teaching hospitals, but in July, the risk at teaching hospitals rose to the same level that patients at non-teaching hospitals faced. For high-risk patients who came to the teaching hospitals with heart attacks, the risk of death in hospital went from 20 percent to 25 percent. They also found that among teaching hospitals, the difference between outcomes in May and July is greatest in institutions with the highest percentages of trainees.
The researchers ruled out two potential factors that they suspected may have accounted for some of that differencethe prevalence of percutaneous coronary intervention (i.e. cardiac stents) and of complications from the use of blood thinners.
Without evidence for specific procedures or protocols that could prevent increased deaths, the researchers said that their findings suggest that, especially during the early months in the training cycle, oversight should be intensively focused on high-risk cases rather than across cases overall. In July, doctors with more experience should play a greater role in the care of high-risk patients than has typically been the case.
"Teaching hospitals should revisit what steps are needed to safely and effectively care for high-risk patients in July," Jena said.
###
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
'Don't get sick in July'
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
6-Nov-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: David Cameron david_cameron@hms.harvard.edu 617-432-0441 Harvard Medical School
Real dangers for high-risk patients when trainees take on new roles
With almost no experience, newly graduated medical students enter teaching hospitals around the country every July, beginning their careers as interns. At the same time, the last year's interns and junior residents take a step up and assume new responsibilities.
In addition to developing their nascent clinical skills, each entering class of interns must grasp the many rules and standards for operating in this "new" hospital structure.
More experienced physicians share a joke about this changing of the guard: Don't get sick in July.
But the data to back up this quip has proven hard to find. Over the years, numerous studies have shown no effect or very slight effects when comparing patient outcomes in July versus the preceding May, when trainees are more experienced and concluding their training cycles. Some researchers have suggested that
the safeguards academic medical centers put in place, such as increased supervision by more experienced doctors during this first phase in the training cycle, protect patients from the effects of inexperience and organizational disruption.
A new study published Oct. 23 in Circulation by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Stanford University Hospitals, University of Southern California and the RAND Corporation, has found that while the so-called "July effect" is negligible in most cases, it is a serious concern for high-risk patients.
"The good news for patients is that in most cases, it's very difficult for a physician to make a mistake that results in a patient's death," said Anupam Jena, HMS assistant professor of health care policy and of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the study. "But for severely ill patients, health can be very tenuous. A small error or a very slight delay in care is potentially devastating."
Jena and colleagues analyzed cases from more than 1,400 hospitals using data from the U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample. They compared patients who came to teaching and non-teaching hospitals with acute myocardial infarctions, commonly known as heart attacks. The researchers separated cases into low-risk and high-risk categories and compared outcomes.
Overall, they found that patients at teaching hospitals had a lower risk of dying than at non-teaching hospitals, but in July, the risk at teaching hospitals rose to the same level that patients at non-teaching hospitals faced. For high-risk patients who came to the teaching hospitals with heart attacks, the risk of death in hospital went from 20 percent to 25 percent. They also found that among teaching hospitals, the difference between outcomes in May and July is greatest in institutions with the highest percentages of trainees.
The researchers ruled out two potential factors that they suspected may have accounted for some of that differencethe prevalence of percutaneous coronary intervention (i.e. cardiac stents) and of complications from the use of blood thinners.
Without evidence for specific procedures or protocols that could prevent increased deaths, the researchers said that their findings suggest that, especially during the early months in the training cycle, oversight should be intensively focused on high-risk cases rather than across cases overall. In July, doctors with more experience should play a greater role in the care of high-risk patients than has typically been the case.
"Teaching hospitals should revisit what steps are needed to safely and effectively care for high-risk patients in July," Jena said.
###
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Steve Young learned about industrial musicals when he started coming across compilations, like this one, in used record stores. (You definitely want to click to enlarge this.)
Courtesy of Blast Books
Why would someone write a sentimental ballad about a bathroom? For the same reason someone would write a rousing song about tractors: So the song could be used in what's called an industrial musical.
These musicals were like Broadway shows, but they were written and performed for corporate sales meetings and conventions from the 1950s to the 1980s. The lyrics were all about the products being sold and how to sell them. Some of them were lavish and costly, even though they'd be performed only once.
And as ridiculous as the songs were, they were often written and performed by really talented people: John Kander and Fred Ebb, who wrote the songs for the musical Cabaret, did an industrial. And a few had lyrics by a young Sheldon Harnick, who co-wrote the songs for the Broadway hits Fiddler on the Roof,Fiorello! and She Loves Me.
Harnick and actor-singer John Russell performed in dozens of these musicals, and Steve Young has co-written a new book about the genre, called Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals.
Young is also a writer for The Late Show With David Letterman, where for a while he was the writer in charge of the regular feature "Dave's Record Collection."
Harnick, Russell and Young joined Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about the genre's history.
Interview Highlights
On the history of industrial musicals
Young: These are musicals — often full, Broadway-style musicals — that were written for company conventions and sales meetings. They were never for the public to hear; they were only to educate and entertain and motivate the sales force so they would leave the business meeting going out revved up to sell more bathtubs or typewriters or tractors or insurance plans, or what have you. ...
We've never had a full picture of how many shows were done. The souvenir records that I've been collecting are clearly the tiny minority of shows that were done, but I would say hundreds of companies were doing them over a period of decades.
On how each of them got involved or interested in industrial musicals, or "industrials"
Young: I've been a writer for The Letterman Show since the early '90s, and when I got to the show I was asked if I could head up the old "Dave's Record Collection" segment in which, on the show, Dave would hold up strange, unintentionally funny records, we'd hear a little clip, Dave would have a joke, we'd all go home heroes.
“ It's a very professional, romantic ballad about a bathroom. ... It's extremely well done.
- Sheldon Harnick
I was the one finding the strange records. And in these days, when there were still used record stores in the city, I would come home with William Shatner singing, or Hear How To Touch Type. I also started finding these very odd corporate artifacts that I didn't really understand at first, but I would find myself singing these songs to myself days or weeks later and thinking, "Why is this song about diesel engines so catchy? Why am I still wandering around singing about my insurance man?"
And it was because they were fabulously well done, in many cases. It was a hidden part of the entertainment world, but with huge budgets [and] professionals doing their best work, oftentimes. And I just decided I had to find out about this myself, and I began collecting and going to record shows [and] calling record dealers.
Harnick: I started writing lyrics out of desperation. I was broke and wondering where my next job, my next meal was coming from, although I had had several successful revue songs on Broadway. And then I got a phone call from an advertising agency. They did industrials: They helped write them; they produced them. And they had an in-house writer, and it turned out that they were doing a new industrial, I think it was for the Shell gasoline company, and whoever the executive was did not like what he had read, so they decided to get somebody else. They knew my revue songs, so I got a call to do an industrial, and I had no idea what that was.
Russell: I came to New York to be an actor, and the first industrial I did was for Bell Telephone. And it was choreographed by a lovely man named Frank Wagner, who was my dance teacher. I auditioned and I got the job, and that's what started me. That was in 1970, and over the next 25 years, I did 82 different industrial shows.
Young: This is from a 1969 American Standard convention show in Las Vegas, and it was for the distributors of all of the American Standard bathroom fixtures. Many of the songs on the record are filled with details about the new line of shower stalls and tubs, but this was really more of an anthem, an ode to the business as a whole — why they do what they do.
And it's a remarkable piece of work that I've been humming around the house for 20 years. And everybody who hears it is just floored by it, so I think it has some enduring value well beyond 1969 and the convention.
Harnick: It's a very professional, romantic ballad about a bathroom. ... It's extremely well done.
On the difficulty of writing lyrics for the Ford Tractor Company
Harnick: I remember my heart sank when the company gave me the information that I was supposed to put in the song. I thought, "Oh, good gracious, how am I going to do this and make it a singable song?" But I managed, and I managed particularly because [composer] Jerry Bock was so clever at taking all of these words, and some unmusical words, and finding ways to put them into singable songs.
On the purpose of these musicals
Young: There was the belief for quite a long time, I don't know if there was ever hard data to back it up, but if you bring everyone together for this thrilling theatrical experience — and it often actually was thrilling to the audience — then they'd have a sense of purpose, they would get out there, they would charge ahead and have a renewed energy for selling.
Many of the songs were packed with information about details of the new products, or the marketing strategies that were being presented. So you'd go home, ideally, all fired up, with a new sense of your pride in working for the company and a way forward for what you were going to do as a sales person.
On how audiences received industrial ballads
Young: Some of the composers I've spoken to over the years have told me they've seen audiences full of hardened sales executives and middle managers brought to tears by these beautifully crafted and performed songs that tell them, "What you're doing is important for you, for your family, for the company, for America, for the world." This was stuff that hit them right where they lived.
And yes, it was to promote sales, but it was also to tell them, "We understand what you do out there when you go into the field of battle, and we appreciate it, and you're not forgotten."
Google has added some new privacy controls to Google+ to give business users a more secure way to share sensitive information on the social network.
On Tuesday the company added "restricted communities" to Google+, as a way to have conversations on the social network but with privacy-aware controls. Users can decide whether to open the community to everyone at their company, or open only on an invite basis.
Communities in Google+ were designed to let people start conversations around any number of topics. But Google hopes the new feature will attract business users without them worrying about spilling company secrets on the site.
"At most organizations, it's important to make sure that private conversations remain private," Google+ Product Manager Michael Cai said in a blog post.
Whether it's designs for a product in beta testing, or notes from an off-site meeting, "anything you post will remain restricted to the organization," Cai said.
Administrators will be able to make restricted communities the default for their organization, Google said. After creating the restricted community, users can share files from Google's Drive file storage service as well as videos, events and photos. Administrators can later invite other team members to join the conversation, Google said.
Users can also create communities open to others outside the company, so clients, agencies and other business partners can join in, Google said.
Other social networking applications for business users include Yammer, Socialtext and Salesforce.com's Chatter service.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's email address is zach_miners@idg.com.
The dramatic overhaul of Google Maps on the desktop saw the world lose a good friend. That friend: Pegman. The tiny yellow avatar that you could drop almost anywhere to get instant access to Street View disappeared. Instead, the ground level perspective was accessed by first clicking on a point on ...
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sMfBLb3WezNJq1ggQQu54YLna5plIMUOPdejvMbCoTgaBIZ1F3BO-2uMa39jUoyVTyGT_fxIFXiKfbcyI0CTd1xLUH1Pz-yeD1XtztaPo=s0-d){kind=small}
Share
The dramatic overhaul of Google Maps on the desktop saw the world lose a good friend. That friend: Pegman. The tiny yellow avatar that you could drop almost anywhere to get instant access to Street View disappeared. Instead, the ground level perspective was accessed by first clicking on a point on ...
Source: 