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By Helen A.S. Popkin

via BuzzFeed

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee today

Ding, ding ding! Your time is up! This is not a drill: You can no longer avoid using Timeline on Facebook, something that until now has been optional.

Oh, and Google plans to unify its privacy policy and terms of service across its online offerings, including its flagship search, Gmail and Google+ products, to make them easier to use, but the move could attract greater scrutiny from anti-trust regulators.

Does that make Google "evil?" Meh. Not so much.

But on the other hand ...

Whether you're worried about hackers, advertisers or your own inability to keep your data locked down, it's time for a chat. Join msnbc.com's Helen A.S. Popkin? (that's me) Thursday at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, and bring all of your questions, concerns and observations about your personal privacy, on Facebook or on the Internet in general. (Fingers crossed I don't mess it up!)

Speaking of piracy: Oh that crazy Kim Dotcom (of Megaupload infamy)! "Come for coffee, don't forget the cocaine,'" Dotcom joked in an email to the Neighborhood Watch soon after moving into his New Zealand neighborhood.

Meanwhile, last night's State of the Union address will be the first time reporters will be able to bring their electronic devices into the House gallery, according to a post in Roll Call. Photography and video won't be allowed, but if all goes well, electronic reporting will be permitted going forward.

In attendance at the address, Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell, looking lovely, as President Obama name-checked her late husband in discussing the economy, and how the U.S. needs to support the next of Jobs' ilk.

That said, Samsung just topped it's last set of Apple Fanboy-bashing commercials with this.

Now go crap up everyone's Facebook wall with a bunch of pictures themed on The True Meaning of Friendship.

????compiled by Helen A.S. Popkin, who invites you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook.?Also, Google+.??

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Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10233644-pre-caffeine-tech-dotcom-craziness-best-friend-memes

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Job or Vacancy Description:
Applications are invited for the following posts

1. Research Scientist : 05 Posts
Pay: Rs. 20250/- (Consolidated)
Qualification : M.Sc. (Physics / Electronics ) with 60% marks / BE/B.Tech . (Physics / Electronics / Telicommunicaton) with 60% marks
Age Limit : 32 Years (Relaxable as per rules)

2. Project Assistant : 04 Posts
Pay: Rs. 10470/- (Consolidated)
Qualification : B.Sc. (Physics / Physics Hon ) with 60% marks / Diploma (Eletronics / Electronics & Telecom / Electrical Engineering ) with 60% marks
Age Limit : 28 Years (Relaxable as per rules)

Tentative Last Date : 15-08-2011

About the organization :
SAMEER was set up as an autonomous R & D laboratory at Mumbai under the then Department of Electronics, Government of India with a broad mandate to undertake R & D work in the areas of Microwave Engineering and Electromagnetic Engineering Technology. It is an offshoot of the special microwave products unit (SMPU) set up in 1977 at the TATA INSTITUTE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH (TIFR), Mumbai. SAMEER, Mumbai was setup in 1984. The centre of Electromagnetics, Chennai of the then Department of Electronics (DOE) was merged with SAMEER in 1987.SAMEER Kolkata centre was set up in 1994 for research & Development in Millimetrewave Technology A new centre is being established at Navi Mumbai campus of SAMEER for augmentation of EMI/EMC FACILITY for CE Marking of Electronics products.SAMEER, Mumbai is pursuing research and development in the field of Opto electronics, medical Electronics, Radar based instrumentation, Atmospheric Remote sensing & Meteorology, RF & Microwave systems and components, Navigational electronics etc. Many of it?s R&D outputs and spin-offs have found applications and acceptance in industry .SAMEER-CEM, Chennai is pursuing Research and Development, Consultancy, test and evaluation services in the areas of electromagnetics and antennas, EMI/EMC, communications and thermal management.This is an electromagnetically coupled planar microstrip array antenna for application in portable satellite communication terminal. The circulary polarized antenna operates in two frequencies; one for transmission and other for reception. It consists of two stacked layers separated by dielectric material of optimized thickness. The top layer consists of 4?4 array of radiating patches with removed ground plane. The bottom layer consists of 4?4 array of feed patches along with 3db branch line hybrids and associated feed lines.This CW bistatic radar operates at 712 Mhz as an attachment to Doppler Sodar. Normally Doppler Sodars are capable of giving wind speeds and wind direction profiles upto a height of 1km. This when combined with RF Radar system works as a RASS [Radio Acoustic Sounding System], giving temperature profile upto about 1 km.This ground based clear air pulsed Doppler radar working at 404.37 Mhz transmits 16KW pulsed RF power using a 40ft x 40 ft coaxial collinear antenna and receives echoes from various atmospheric layers. A sensitive receiver with state of art signal processing system has been used to detect the return echoes and derive wind parameters upto about 12km height with range resolution of 300m. This is also equipped with RASS attachment which gives temperature profiles upto 3kms. A state of the art atmospheric radar system called Mesospheric Stratospheric Tropospheric [MST] radar has beeen designed, developed and installed at Gadanki village , near Tirupati . This radar, which is considered second largest in the world , is capable of detecting and measuring wind velocities, wind shear and other atmospheric turbulences upto a height of of 100 kms into the sky. The radar was commissioned in 1993 and since then it is fully operational. Scientists from all over the country primarily use the radar for atmospheric research. Doppler Sodar [Acoustic sounder] is a standard technique used for measurement of atmospheric wind and turbulence parameters in the lowest 1000 mts of atmosphere. The data obtained from such instruments is needed for environmental impact assessment due to thermal as well as high risk chemical industries. Radio Theodolite is a classical ground instrument for getting atmospheric parameters like pressure, temperature and humidity upto a height of 30 km . The transmitter is launched in the atmosphere using high flying balloon and receives telemetered data. Several of these systems have been installed at various locations of India Meteorological Department. This unit is useful to prevent cell phone operations in sensitive areas like VIP conference rooms , Silent zones of hospitals , cinema halls etc. It features Low cost, low power consumption, battery back-up . Coverage 100` x 100`. Larger area coverage can be achieved with multiple units. The UHF wireless data modem provides reliable high speed digital communication between data terminals using RF spread spectrum technology . These modems can be configured for point to point , point to multipoint , broad cast mode and as a repater . The wireless modems support data rate upto 115.2 kbps and communication range upto 500-1500 feet [indoor] and upto 25 kms [outdoor] under line of sight conditions. The code transmitter is an integral part of Disaster Warning System [DWS] provides cyclone-warning messages to the area prone to cyclone . When a particular area [called station] is to be addressed, a unique code for that station is set and data is transmitted from the cyclone warning center . The addressed code combined with disaster warning message will be transmitted to the satellite earth station through line modem and dedicated telephone line . The receiver which is addressed by the code transmitter only receives the audio warning message.

Address :
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & Information technology
Department of Information Technology
IIT Campus , Powai , Mumbe ? 400076

VACANCY DETAILS

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46079304/

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Indianapolis' Brown runs from Tennesee's Finnegan during an NFL football game in Indianapolis

Reuters

A few East-West Shrine Game participants that could fit with the Bills.

An analysis of the Dolphins? choice to hire Joe Philbin as their head coach.

Patriots CB Devin McCourty is looking forward to facing off with Ravens RB Ray Rice, his teammate at Rutgers.

The Jets signed G Trevor Canfield to a futures contract.

The Ravens defense knows that they need to make Tom Brady uncomfortable on Sunday.

Some reaction to the Bengals? decision to hold training camp at Paul Brown Stadium.

The healthy return of G Eric Steinbach will give the Browns needed depth on the offensive line.

The Steelers may buck their tradition of promoting from within when it comes to hiring a new offensive coordinator.

Texans C Chris Myers and DE Antonio Smith are fired up for their first trip to the Pro Bowl.

Peter King of SI.com believes Peyton Manning?s status will have nothing to do with the Colts? search for a new coach.

The Jaguars signed four more assistant coaches for Mike Mularkey?s staff.

Titans CB Cortland Finnegan doesn?t think shuffling the front office will change much about the organization.

The Broncos will spend some time evaluating QB Adam Weber this offseason.

The New Yorker checks in on the phone tapping allegations hurled at the Chiefs last week.

Paul Gutierrez of CSNBayArea.com thinks the Dolphins making a coaching hire puts the pressure on the Raiders.

Ron Meeks is the leading candidate for the job as Chargers? defensive backs coach.

Cowboys LB Keith Brooking hopes that WR Dez Bryant doesn?t waste his talent.

Giants defensive backs credit group meetings for their improved play.

More questions about where the Eagles defense is going this offseason.

A trial date has been set for the man accused of shooting and killing Redskins S Sean Taylor.

A look at what Phil Emery might bring to the table as Bears general manager.

Does RB Kevin Smith have a future with the Lions?

Packers S Nick Collins will learn more about his future after a meeting with doctors in March.

USC T Ryan Kalil and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon are both candidates for the Vikings in the first round.

The Falcons signed RB Dimitri Nance to a futures contract.

It isn?t guaranteed that the Panthers will opt for a defensive player in the first round of the draft.

Looking back at Gregg Williams? run as defensive coordinator of the Saints.

Five players the Buccaneers should be watching at the Senior Bowl.

The Cardinals lost painful games to the Ravens and Giants, but managed a split with the 49ers.

Said Rams executive vice president of football operations Kevin Demoff of the team?s plans to play games in London the next three years, ?And our fans are going to have conspiracy theories and be skeptics of our intentions. But hopefully throughout this process, our actions about wanting to be here will speak for us.?

49ers coach Jim Harbaugh didn?t get a chance to hold a practice in rainy conditions.

The Seahawks did well in sudden change situations this season.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/20/confirmed-patriots-will-face-rams-in-london/related/

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ROME (Reuters) ? Though the search for survivors or, more likely, bodies on the Costa Concordia goes on, attention is turning to what to do with the hulk of wrecked Italian super-liner - and who will win the rich contract to break it up or salvage it.

Startling though it may seem, it could be only be a matter of months before the beached carcass is once more ready to shuttle tourists, over 3,000 of them per voyage, around the Mediterranean.

"My guess is they will try to salvage the ship intact," said Ted Thompson from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a body that promotes the industry in North America.

"If you go back to Pearl Harbor, most of those ships were salved and not cut up," he said of the U.S. warships sunk by the Japanese in 1941. "Many were raised intact and refurbished and sent to war. So it is possible to salvage a ship intact."

Less than 48 hours after the Costa Concordia hit a rock last Friday, the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio was hosting not only rescue teams but also Dutch and American salvage experts assessing how to refloat the 114,000-tonne vessel, which is twice the size of the Titanic and the biggest liner ever wrecked.

The decision on how to remove the ship, which lies half-submerged on its side less than 50 meters (yards) offshore, will be made jointly by its owner Costa Cruises, a unit of Florida's Carnival Corp, insurers and specialists in salvage techniques.

A tender will then be held and the world's foremost salvage companies are positioning themselves to bid. Having cost some half a billion dollars to build in 2006 - rather more than a jumbo jet - there is plenty of value remaining in the wreck.

"The ship is definitely re-floatable, but it's a question of cost-benefit about whether that is worth it," said a salvage expert appointed by Royal Sun Alliance, one of a group of insurers for the ship.

Speaking at the quayside on Giglio, he said companies likely to bid include Smit Salvage, an arm of Dutch group Boskalis-Westminster, Titan Salvage, owned by U.S. group Crowley Maritime Corp and Denmark's Svitzer, owned by Maersk.

Like many of those directly involved in the future of Concordia, he declined to be identified by name, a measure of the sensitivity of the operation and high financial stakes.

GIANT BALLOONS

Pier Luigi Foschi, the head of Costa Cruises, said this week that removing the ship from its resting place would be "one of the most difficult things in the world." He said large holes in the hull below the waterline would have to be sealed and then it could possibly be lifted by giant balloons and towed away.

He also did not rule out that it may need to be cut into pieces, once fuel tanks have been pumped out to limit pollution.

Salvage companies eyeing the potentially huge contracts are confident it can be put back on the water.

Smit Salvage, which was first on the island with a sizeable team of workers in distinctive yellow and blue uniforms, will pump the 2,300 tonnes of fuel from the ship, and have made clear they are also ready for the bigger task of salvaging it.

"Our involvement is limited to fuel extraction and does not pertain to the eventual removal of the vessel, but our track record shows we are also capable of doing that," said spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer.

A smaller team of five experts from Titan salvage arrived on Giglio close on Smit's heels.

"We're here to look at how it can be raised," a Titan expert told Reuters, again speaking anonymously. "It could definitely be done, with balloons, cables. There are various techniques."

A spokesman for Svitzer, which is currently trying to salvage the cargo ship Rena off New Zealand, told Reuters it might also bid on the Costa Concordia.

Smit, together with Dutch heavy lifting and transport company Mammoet, successfully lifted Russian nuclear submarine the Kursk from the bottom of the Barents Sea, where it sank with all hands in 2000.

At less than 10,000 tonnes, the Kursk was a midget compared with the Costa Concordia. But it lay at a depth of 108 meters, while the Italian cruise liner is only half submerged.

A Mammoet spokesman also said the company might make a bid to salvage the Costa Concordia if and when a tender is held.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/wl_nm/us_italy_ship_salvage

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AP

World War II fly guys (from l. David Oyelowo, Elijah Kelley, Leslie Odom Jr., Michael B. Jordan, Nate Parker and Kevin Phillips) face racism in "Red Tails."

By Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

REVIEW

The experience of black American aviators in World War II gets a whitewash in "Red Tails." The story of the 996 pilots (and some 15,000 ground personnel) who distinguished themselves in the air in the face of institutional racism is a great one and, at least, will come to the attention of more people due to this long-gestating project from Lucasfilm. But every character here is so squeaky clean, and the prejudice as depicted is so toothless and easily overcome, that the film feels like a fantasy version of what, in real life, was an exceptional example of resilient trail-blazing. The tale's considerable built-in inspirational value will move and impress black audiences of all ages and would do the same to a wider public if sufficiently promoted, but the determinedly simplistic approach will curtail interest among any viewers hungry for some real history. The anticipated low interest level for this material overseas is cited as a major reason the project took so long to get off the ground.

A key signal of how much you can trust any contemporary movie about either of the 20th century's world wars is how, and even if, it depicts smoking; if, like this one, it buckles to current fashion and scarcely depicts soldiers smoking at all in a period when cigarettes were part of ration kits, then it's frankly not to be trusted in any other respect either. Here, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s major sucks thoughtfully on a pipe and one hot-shot pilot sports a stogie in one scene but, otherwise the environs are as smoke-free as the Brigham Young University campus.

PHOTOS: The Making of Steven Spielberg's "War Horse"

Showing its action-slanted hand at the outset, two pilots in P-40 fighters, ?Easy? (everyone has a nickname like that) and ?Lightning,? make easy work of a German munitions train in Italy. Right away, the film plays fast and loose with period by enabling their buddies back at the base to watch footage of the explosive strike, as if every plane were equipped with a camera that could provide nightly ESPN-style highlights. Talk about kowtowing to a younger generation that supposedly requires instantaneous and repeated gratification.

?Easy? (Nate Parker) is the flight leader whose secret vice is the bottle, while ?Lightning? (David Oyelowo) is his fearless wingman who also has the brass to court a warm signorina (Daniela Ruah) from the nearby picture postcard village. At this stage of the conflict, in the summer of 1944, the all-Negro 99th^{Fighter Squadron remains far from the center of action, restricted to ?mopping floors? in the battle against fascism when the men are ready and eager for real missions.}

The problem lies, specifically, at the just-built Pentagon and, of course, with society at large, neither of which is ready to accept blacks on an equal footing with whites. The military, as with so much else, is strictly segregated and a line or two of dialogue makes the point that the common assumption is that blacks simply aren't up to the demanding job of combat aviation.

Throughout the film, however, all opposition to the universally sympathetic protagonists falls like so many bowling pins. The first time one of the fliers ventures into the whites-only officers' club in Italy, he slugs a guy who calls him the n-word and remarkably isn't court-martialed; the next time, a bunch of the squadron members is invited in with drinks all around. Later, when bomber crews notice their new escorts are ?colored,? they express startled dismay but, after one successful run, one young flier exclaims, ?I hope we meet up with those Red Tails next time!? No relentless and unrepentant redneck characters played by James Woods in this film. And when a Nazi fighter pilot disdains his ?African? opponent, you know he'll be biting the dust in short order.

VIDEO: George Lucas' "Red Tails" Trailer Debuts

And so it goes in a a script that doesn't begin to show what these young men were really up against and how patient and stoical they had to be in the face of so much resistance. Screenwriters John Ridley and Aaron McGruder neglect, or perhaps assume too much common knowledge of, the key component of struggle at the heart of all social drama. There are no difficulties at all in the romantic subplot, as Lightning's inamorata is smiley and sweetly compliant at all times; the squadron's Washington-based representative (Terrence Howard) negotiates pretty successfully on its behalf against dubious superiors and the men themselves are all strictly one-dimensional, without the sorts of characterizing details or personal demons that were commonly found among the men who populated even routine WWII films at the time. Beyond that, there's far too little sense of sacrifice, of something profoundly meaningful earned at significant cost.

But perhaps George Lucas, who reportedly developed this project for 23 years, always saw this as an uncomplicated and uncomplex action film and, in this regard, at least, the results are pretty good. Just a few years ago, the technology would not have produced the sort of a vivid and realistic renditions of airborne warfare that visual effects supervisor Craig Hammock has commandeered here. The planes (most impressively the glistening silver B-17 bombers), the firepower, the crashes and all the pyrotechnics look pretty darn real; we're past the time when, as in ?The Battle of Britain? or ?The Memphis Belle,? all the world's air-worthy vintage warplanes had to be collected and sent aloft one more time for the purposes of restaging dogfights and bombing raids. The hits made by the Red Tails, so named for the paint jobs applied to the rear-ends of the hot new P-51s, seem too easily achieved at times, but the aerial footage is pretty cool throughout. The most explosive sequence is a raid on a German airbase that goes down as one of the squadron's most notable successes.

STORY: "Star Wars" Creator George Lucas Fires Back at Fanboys, "Red Tails" Snub

Gooding, who appeared in "The Tuskegee Airmen," the 1995 TV film on the same subject, postures through his role here as a major required to keep his men inspired and focused, while Howard can never relax from his part's uniform-bound official functions. Like his character, Oyelowo has by far the best time here as a flier whose recklessness is surpassed only by his cockiness. The rest make momentary impressions but should have been supplied by the writers and debuting director Anthony Hemingway (whose TV credits include "The Wire" and "Treme") with more personalizing traits, backstories and idiosyncracies.

In the end, it's the flashy action and innate inspirational elements that make a measure of impact here. But you just know there's so much more to this story.

Based on the true story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat air squadron during WWII. Opens Jan. 20.

Will the movie's flaws prevent you from going to see it? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10189804-red-tails-flies-but-never-soars

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46059745/

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In this undated underwater photo released by Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police) Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 two Carabinieri scuba divers swim next to the Costa Concordia cruise ship's bell, off the tiny Giglio island, Italy. The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-marked rocks off the island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route. The ship then keeled over on its side. (AP Photo/Carabinieri)

Rescuers approach the grounded Costa Concordia cruise ship off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

People take photographs of the grounded Costa Concordia cruise ship off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

People watch the Costa Concordia cruise liner off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

People look out toward the Costa Concordia cruise liner off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the supension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME (AP) ? The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place.

It was not clear if the slight movements registered by sensors placed on board the Costa Concordia were just vibrations as the ship settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slowly slipping off the reef.

The sensors detected that the ship's bow was moving about 15 millimeters an hour and the stern about 7 millimeters an hour, said Nicola Casagli of the University of Florence, who has been called in by Italian authorities to monitor the ship's stability.

The Concordia's movements are being watched since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those still missing after the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13. An additional fear is that movement could damage tanks holding a half-million gallons of fuel oil and lead to leaks.

The sea floor drops off sharply a few meters (yards) from where the ship is resting, and Italy's environment minister has warned it risks sinking altogether. Storms forecast for later Friday have added to concerns.

"The ship is not in safe enough conditions for rescue operations to continue," said Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-marked rocks off the island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route. The ship then keeled over on its side. Eleven people are confirmed dead.

Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

On Friday, relatives of some of the 21 missing were at Giglio's port getting briefings from rescue teams.

Casagli told Sky TG24 that some movement in the Concordia was only natural given the immense weight of the steel-hulled ship, which is being held in place by two huge rocks at bow and stern.

But the latest movements indicate it isn't stable, he said. "These are small, regular movements that are being monitored because they're going in the same direction," he told Sky.

Late Thursday, Costa-owner Carnival Corp. announced it was conducting a comprehensive audit of all 10 of its cruise lines to review safety and emergency response procedures in the wake of the Costa disaster. The evacuation was chaotic and the alarm to abandon the ship was sounded after the Concordia had capsized too much to get many life boats down.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-20-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-a27d21c1c4154658a8ef3cd4d2e82f94

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KABUL, Afghanistan ? An Afghan official says 12 people have been killed by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan.

Daud Ahmadi, a provincial spokesman, says at least 23 others were wounded in the Wednesday afternoon blast in Kajaki district of Helmand province.

Mohammad Ismail, the deputy of the Afghan security forces coordination office in the area, says the suicide bomber blew himself at a bridge that was under construction.

Also on Wednesday, an Afghan intelligence official in Nad Ali district of Helmand province and two of his body guards were killed in an explosion.

Ahmadi says a remote-controlled bomb was detonated as the intelligence official, Wali Mohammad Khan, walked out of his house.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A senior Afghan official said Wednesday that NATO forces killed five civilians, including one woman and two children, during a night raid earlier this week in northeastern Afghanistan.

A NATO statement said the alliance was aware of a military operation in Chawkay district of Kunar province on Monday and was checking into the report.

Sayed Fazelullah Wahidi, governor of Kunar province, which includes the district, said the raid occurred Monday night. He said coalition helicopters fired into a compound, killing two militants and five civilians, including a woman and two children.

Coalition troops and Afghan special forces have been carrying out regular nighttime kill-and-capture raids against suspected insurgents across Afghanistan.

But the operations and allegations of civilian deaths have provoked anger over foreign meddling in Afghanistan and whether detention operations will be run by the Afghans or Americans.

President Hamid Karzai has demanded that foreign troops stop entering homes, saying Afghan citizens cannot feel secure if they think armed soldiers might burst into their houses in the middle of the night.

In November, Karzai convened a traditional national assembly known as a Loya Jirga that stopped short of demanding a complete end to night raids. Instead, it asked that they be led and controlled by Afghan security forces.

Meanwhile, Afghan security forces said they had killed nine armed insurgents and captured 23 suspects in a series of raids in the past 24 hours.

An Interior Ministry statement issued Wednesday morning said the operations in eight different provinces also uncovered caches of weapons, ammunition and explosives.

The Afghan Defense Ministry says a soldier was killed and four were wounded in clashes with insurgents on Tuesday.

Fighting across the country appears to have decreased in recent weeks, after heavy snows blanketed much of the mountainous terrain in which the Taliban usually operate.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Everybody knows too much alcohol is not good for you, and scientists continue to study behavior, the brain, genetics and psychology to learn more. Last week alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study on binge drinking and adults, and the British government issued a recommendation that everybody should abstain at least two days every week.

That's against the background that alcohol can be blamed for at least 80,000 deaths in this country every year. That two-days-a-week suggestion made us curious. What rules do you impose on yourself to regulate your drinking? 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Later in the program, we'll listen back to Martin Luther King, Junior's speech "I Have A Dream." But first what we're learning about alcohol. We begin with Dr. Robert Brewer, who leads the Alcohol Program at the CDC and joins us from a studio in Atlanta. Nice to have you with us today.

ROBERT BREWER: Thank you very much, Neal, it's a pleasure to join us.

CONAN: And looking at the outlines of your study, I was surprised to learn that the binge-drinking problem is indeed a problem for people over 65.

BREWER: Yes, it is, and I think one of the key points that we wanted to make in our study is that while binge drinking is certainly a problem for young people, it continues to be a problem throughout the lifespan, and as you noted, among seniors, as well.

Overall, we estimate that about one in six adults 18 and older, about 38 million adults in total, report binge drinking one or more times within the past 30 days. And when we're talking about binge drinking here, we're talking about consuming, for a woman, four or more drinks within a short period of time, within an occasion; and for a man five or more drinks within a short period of time or within an occasion.

What was a little different about this study, though, is that in addition to looking at the proportion of the population, or what we would call the prevalence of binge drinking, which, as I mentioned, was about one in six adults, we also looked at how frequently people report binge drinking and how much they consume when they binge.

And I think that's perhaps where you were particularly going with your comment about seniors, because, in fact, seniors had - seniors who reported binge drinking did so more frequently, even than younger people, which I think is a surprise to a lot of us.

CONAN: And what else in that study surprised you?

BREWER: I think the thing that was most shocking to many of us was the amount that people report consuming when they binge drink. And we had another question in this survey that we were looking at that allowed us to estimate what's referred to as the average largest number of drinks consumed by various drinkers.

And when we focused in on binge drinkers, we found that, on average, they reported consuming eight or more drinks on average during at least the largest episodes of binge drinking within the past 30 days. So that's obviously well above the cut point that we use for defining this behavior and certainly a level of consumption that puts the individual, as well as others that they're with, at substantially increased risk for a whole host of problems.

CONAN: So frequency and intensity, how many drinks in what period of time?

BREWER: Exactly, and I think that's - a key take-home message here is that binge drinkers do tend to do so frequently. If you look across all binge drinkers, it's on average about four times a month or roughly once a week, and consume as I mentioned, about eight drinks per binge.

What's also interesting here, I think, though, is that some of the groups that have the highest prevalence - where binge drinking is most common - are not necessarily the groups that are drinking the most when they do. So, for example, if you look at this by income, one thing that surprises a lot of people is that the prevalence of binge drinking is actually higher among people with higher household incomes, whereas the amount consumed per binge episode, was actually higher among those with lower household incomes.

And I think the finding in particular of high prevalence of binge drinking in higher household income populations, also more highly educated populations, is in stark contrast to what we see with smoking, for example, which has become increasingly a problem, still, across the entire population, but much more common among those with lower household incomes, often lower educational levels.

So I think it says we have a lot more to do as a society to address this problem.

CONAN: There also were some interesting findings regarding different ethnic groups.

BREWER: Yes, that's true. Overall, again, binge drinking tends to be most common among white non-Hispanics, which is again very different than what we see with some other risk behaviors. But when you look at who is binge drinking most frequently and who is consuming the most when they binge drink, it was actually other racial and ethnic groups, which could include, for example, American Indians and Alaska natives, Asian-Pacific Islanders. We sort of looked at those groups together. We didn't separate them out in this particular study.

But there are certainly some interesting variations across race ethnicity, as well.

CONAN: I wonder, what did you make of the - I don't know if you saw it - but the British government recommendation just don't drink at all at least two days a week.

BREWER: Well, I think it's an interesting idea. The big concern we have, though, is with excessive drinking, which we would define as binge drinking, certainly, which is drinking, as I've mentioned, a large amount on a particular occasion - or heavy drinking, which we would define as drinking, for a woman, more than one drink on average per week, or per day, rather, and for a man more than two drinks on average per day.

So it's really, from my standpoint and from CDC's standpoint, much more a question of how much people are drinking when they're drinking and not necessarily the frequency of their drinking in particular. In the U.S., you know, we have dietary guidelines for drinking, which recommend that a woman drink up to or no more than one drink per day and a man drink no more than two drinks per day.

So I think it's the amount that people are consuming when they're drinking that's most important.

CONAN: We're talking about what we're learning about alcohol. Dr. Robert Brewer is with us from the CDC. What rules do you set for yourself to control your drinking? 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. We'll start with Peter(ph), Peter with us from San Ramon in California.

PETER: Hi, yes, good afternoon. Real simply, what I have done, about 10 years ago, I was drinking all the time, we had two little infants, and my wife looked at me one time when we were fighting, and she just simply said, have another drink. It embarrassed me, and I realized I had two children to raise, and I was going to lose my family, and I just stopped drinking.

And how I control it, whenever I have that urge, is I just simply, for me, I just look at my family and what I have to lose.

CONAN: And how old are your kids now?

PETER: Josh(ph), he's 11, and Isabel(ph) is 10.

CONAN: So have you had the chance to talk with them about drinking? It's probably not too early.

PETER: Yes, we starting talking, matter of fact, Joshua and I had a conversation yesterday when we were driving. We saw - there was a movie that was on, and there was a lot of drugs involved, and I just happened to stop the movie, and then we - I ended the movie, and then we just discussed that issue. And then what happened to my brother Greg(ph), he died on the result of drinking too much. That's basically what killed him.

CONAN: I'm sorry to hear that, Peter.

PETER: It ended his life.

CONAN: Yeah, thanks very much, appreciate it.

PETER: Thank you.

CONAN: The finding of the CDC study, by the way, that is of the 80,000 deaths that alcohol is responsible for, at least in this country every year, half of them the result of binge drinking. Dr. Bankole Johnson is a professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia and joins us today from a studio in Charlottesville. Good of you to be with us today.

BANKOLE JOHNSON: Thank you for inviting me, Neal, it's great to be on your program.

CONAN: And you've been studying addiction and treatment for more than two decades and how alcohol, and the idea of alcohol, affects our brains. What are we learning now that surprises you?

JOHNSON: One of the most important things to know about alcohol is that alcohol has important effects on the brain in that it releases brain chemicals. Basically when somebody becomes addicted to alcohol, is using alcohol very frequently, the pathways in the brain or the circuits in the brain that basically give the brain the ability to make good decisions, go-no-go decisions about whether to drink more become hijacked.

And therefore the person starts off in a spiral of drinking a little bit, then drinking a little bit more, and then they eventually get into this spiral in which their brains basically tell them they need to drink more.

CONAN: Their brains tell them, that's an odd way to put it.

JOHNSON: Well, what happens to these pathways in the brain, is they become more plastic; therefore, they become sensitive to the effects of alcohol. And therefore when the person withdraws alcohol from the brain, the brain basically is looking for those chemicals that are released when the person is drinking.

So this is really a corruption of the way the brain truly works, but because it's using pathways that already exist in the brain, the effects of drinking excessively are very powerful, and it's very difficult for people to stop.

CONAN: And Dr. Brewer, does that kind of information factor into your studies, too?

BREWER: Well, it does. I think what Dr. Johnson is particularly talking about are people who have more severe drinking problems, alcohol dependence, for example, and I think that is a huge public health problem, and I certainly agree with him that it's an important one that we need to address.

The reality, however, is that most people who are drinking to the point of intoxication, which is really what binge drinking is, actually don't meet diagnostic criteria for dependence. And if you wanted to put a number on this, it varies across different studies, but on the order of 80 percent of people who report binge drinking would not meet diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence.

So I think the kind of feedback loops that he's describing in the brain are certainly very important, particularly for those who meet dependence criteria, but for the large bulk of people who are binge drinkers, I think we have to look at some of the other stimuli that exist within the environment, that actually encourage people to binge drink and to continue to drink at high levels over time.

CONAN: Other stimuli such as?

BREWER: Well, frankly, I think we have to look at social norms around drinking. And I would say that at a minimum, they are often rather confusing for people. I think a lot of people get the message that drinking to the point of intoxication, which again is what binge drinking really is, is not only something that is socially acceptable but actually is encouraged.

I mean, we've just finished the holiday season here, and I think a lot of people tend to associate binge drinking with having a good time over the holidays, and New Year's Eve in particular. And I think they do so often not recognizing the tremendous dangers associated with this behavior, which you've described before.

I think it's also reflected that those social norms are also reflected in the policies that we have around alcohol. Alcohol tends to be relatively inexpensive, it tends to be readily available in many communities and quite heavily advertised.

And we're particularly concerned in terms of advertising about youth exposure to alcohol marketing, which we know to be a significant risk factor for initiation of drinking by young people and that young people who are exposed to more advertising tend to drink more, as well.

So I think many of the factors that influence people's drinking behavior actually relate to the environment in which they're making their drinking decisions. And in that way, the situation with alcohol is really very similar to what we know to be true for tobacco and what we also recognize to be true in terms of people's eating behavior, as well.

CONAN: Interesting, you were talking about the comparison with tobacco, yet we're seeing an expansion of alcohol advertising, rather than a retraction. It's going the other way. We'll talk more with Dr. Brewer from the CDC and Dr. Bankole Johnson from the University of Virginia when we come back from a short break. We'd like to hear what rules you devised to control your drinking. 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. For two years running, the Daily Beast has weighed market research with the CDC's data on heavy and binge drinkers by metro area to list the drunkest cities in America: Boston, Milwaukee and Austin, Texas, all make the top 10, and whether that's a sports bar culture, a brewing history or, well, the weather we can only guess.

But many of those cities' denizens drink to excess, and even outside the top 10, of course, drinking is a significant part of many of our rituals and celebrations. We want to know: How do you regulate your own drinking? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email is talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation at our website. Go to npr.org, and click on TALK OF THE NATION.

A couple of emails that we have, this from Samuel in South Korea: Although more expensive, I tend to buy just one or two beers from my nearest convenience store than buy a cheaper six-pack at the supermarket. I drink more responsibly when I have no more than two alcoholic drinks in my apartment at any one time.

Then we have this from J.J.(ph) in Cincinnati: As an occasional drinker, mostly when I'm out at the club, I've learned from hard experience that when I become drunker than I intended to by drinking too fast or drinking beers when I'm thirsty, in order to slow myself down, my rule is to drink a large glass of water for every beer or shot or glass of wine. Each is a drink I consume. Also, the best remedy for a hangover is to avoid one. Water and aspirin after a night on the town before bed can help.

And we've gotten a lot of questions along these lines, this from John(ph) in Oakland: What do you define as one drink exactly? Dr. Brewer, is that the shot of hard liquor, the eight ounce of beer or wine?

Yeah, that's - yes, there is a standard definition for a standard drink, and it is a 12-ounce beer, five ounces of wine or, as you said, Neal, one shot of hard liquor, an ounce and a half of hard liquor. And those would all include the same amount of alcohol, which would be about 0.6 ounces or 14 grams of alcohol.

And Dr. Bankole, as you listen to this conversation, is it right that your research is more with people who are abusive drinkers rather than the kinds of drinkers that Dr. Brewer is talking about?

JOHNSON: Actually, the research of our group encompasses a wide variety of individuals, including those who actually binge drink. For example, we're looking - we're currently doing a study in which we are looking at individuals around the college years who are drinking excessively, and they are also binge drinking.

One of the things that Dr. Brewer mentioned that I think is very important to reinforce is quite a number of people who - and I think it's about half - who actually binge drink don't meet diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse.

Now, you have to think what this means. What this means it that these people tend to slip through the cracks. So the family practitioner doesn't recognize who these folk are because they're not presenting as having a problem. This is not being presented to an addiction specialist.

Yet the problem with society and the problem of the health consequences are there. So this is really an under-recognized group and an under-recognized problem that is very important to address (unintelligible) of drink behavior and drink-related consequences of behavior.

CONAN: When you say - so you say they should be diagnosed as being alcohol abusers or people with an addiction problem?

JOHNSON: I think that they need to be recognized, and they need to have either some kind of intervention or treatment. The most important intervention, I think, for most people who are drinking and not meeting our dependence criteria is education. A lot of people are not told whether their drinking is hazardous, they don't have clear guidelines as to how much they can drink. So education is very important, very powerful.

The second is simple behavioral methods in order to identify how one's drinking is progressing. So just like the idea given for dieting and overeating, being able to measure and take account of your drinking in this high-risk population is very important to modulate drinking.

And I would say the third most important is when you think about where these risk populations are - Dr. Brewer talked about the elderly, but certainly with college students, it's very important to understand that binge drinking is associated with all sorts of horrible things like date rape and sexually inappropriate behavior and drunk driving. And therefore colleges also need - also have a very important part to play in monitoring drinking on campus and setting appropriate rules.

CONAN: Let's go next to Janet, Janet with us from Santa Rosa, California.

JANET: Hi.

CONAN: Hi, go ahead, please.

JANET: Yes, actually my question is not about binge drinking specifically but more broader about drinking. I work in weight management, and I'm very curious as to what kind of statistical evidence there is regarding obesity and excessive drinking.

CONAN: Dr. Brewer, can you help us out?

BREWER: Well, I think the evidence about the relationship between excessive drinking and obesity is somewhat mixed. But I think the overall point is that you're not getting beneficial or nutritious calories from alcoholic beverages. They're excess calories. And alcohol also is quite energy dense, so you're getting a number of calories per ounce of alcoholic beverage you're consuming.

So whether or not strictly speaking you can tag obesity to the amount of alcohol that people are drinking on average in the population, I think it is certainly safe to say that you're adding a lot of excess calories that don't really have nutritional benefits.

Now, in extreme amounts, there's no question you're adding a lot of excess calories that can't help but contribute to problems with weight management. So I think once again it's all the more reason why we would recommend that people comply with the dietary guidelines, which as I mentioned before; recommend that a woman consume no more than one drink per day and a man consumer no more than two.

JANET: I have a little bit more of a question here. Something that I have heard, and I don't know is true, is that alcohol slows your metabolism down.

BREWER: I'm certainly not aware of any research that has said that alcohol consumption slows your metabolism down. There is some variation in metabolism in the population, but I'm not aware that alcohol in particular affects your metabolic rate.

CONAN: If it did, it would then reduce the number of calories you would consume just sitting around. But Dr. Johnson, do you have any information on that?

JOHNSON: There is no known effect on alcohol in terms of metabolomics or basically energy production. What she might be referring to is that individuals who drink tend to get tired, but that's due to a lot of other effects, mainly neuronal effects or effects in the brain due to various neurochemicals and endorphins being released, which can make the person feel sleepy. But there's no obvious, direct effect in terms of metabolism in the body.

CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Janet.

JANET: Thank you.

CONAN: Here's an email from Tristan in Apple Valley, Minnesota: I only allow myself to drink on Friday or Saturday. Then if I drink on Friday, I shall not drink on Saturday. And this from Ron in Berlin, Maryland, and this - he writes: My cardiologist prescribes one small glass of red wine or an occasional dark beer per day. Who's to argue with the good doctor? I rarely go over that for health reasons and because I know it would be unwise.

But having a new craft brewer a short walk away sure tests my commitment. And Dr. Brewer, I wonder, given the advice that we do hear from time to time, a glass of wine helps your heart, is that right? And does that also counter-intuitively lead people to drink more than they might - maybe should?

Well, it certainly is a question that comes up quite frequently, Neal. I think in doctor-patient encounters, and we encounter this question in our interactions with the public, as well. First of all, just to put this in appropriate context, I want to emphasize what we were looking at in our study was specifically binge drinking, drinking to the point of intoxication and not what would often be referred to as moderate drinking, which is defined at the level that I described before.

BREWER: Now, as far as the scientific evidence on the - I'm going to call them alleged health benefits of moderate drinking. I would say the jury is still out. And the reason I say that is that the studies that have found beneficial effects from moderate drinking, particularly related to heart disease, are all observational studies and therefore are really subject to a lot of what we would call confounding, that is where they might be other factors in addition to the alcohol or instead of the alcohol that are really resulting in the health benefits that people are attributing to alcohol.

And the reality is that people who drink moderately, again, up to say one drink a day for a woman, up to two drinks a day for a man, tend to be very different in a lot of ways than people who don't drink at all. They tend to have better health habits, more likely to exercise, tend to have healthier body weight, tend, if they have high blood pressure, for the blood pressure to be controlled.

So there are a lot of known and suspected risk factors for heart disease that tend to be less common in people who are drinking moderately. So I think one has to be very cautious about ascribing the health benefits, and particularly lower risk of heart disease, among moderate drinkers to the alcohol consumption itself.

CONAN: Dr. Johnson, I wondered if you wanted to weigh in on that.

JOHNSON: I think, actually, the data is fairly complex. I think that one of it is to do with the attribution of groups. But I think it is reasonable to say that individuals who don't drink at all tend to actually seem - or seem to have higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Now, the exact mechanism by which these metabolic changes due to alcohol produce an effect that could lower blood pressure or reduce cholesterol are not well-known or established, and they really need further study. But I think it is an area that is very important to look, especially vis-a-vis a comparison with nicotine.

JOHNSON: So one of the good analogies that I always say we always teach is that there are not obvious good benefits of smoking. But if to the extend that there might be some benefit - or let us put it this way, some amount of alcohol consumption that is not associated with a negative health benefit, then I think it's possible to manage alcohol consumption in a slightly different way than smoking. And therefore, moderation of drinking might actually be an important target rather than absolutely banning people from drinking.

CONAN: Well, we're asking callers today about how they moderate their drinking; what rules do they set for themselves. 800-989-8255. Herb is on the line from Oswego in New York.

HERB: How we doing today, gentlemen?

CONAN: Good. Thanks.

HERB: All right. Well, I neglected to let you screener know, I started drinking when I was, you know, my teens. I was 16 years old. And some people say it was from my divorce. My parents were divorcing, but I was just drinking because it was cool. And by the time Michigan's age was - they lowered their age to 18, and then they raised it back up to 21. By the time it was up to 21, I was in Navy, and I was drinking about $100 worth of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday.

CONAN: That can vary from place to place. But anywhere you are, that's too much.

HERB: That's a lot, yeah. And - but when I got out of the military, I roamed around for a little while. I got my CDL. I'm now a truck driver. And the public limit is .08, so the private sector people just driving their cars, but our limit is .04. If I'm even going to drive anywhere, I limit myself actually to one beer if I'm drinking anywhere. If I drink anymore than that, my wife gets the car keys. I can't afford to lose my livelihood.

CONAN: I can understand that. And so oddly enough, government regulation seems to have done the trick for you.

HERB: Yeah, unfortunately. I mean, I like to have fun now. I'm 53 years old, and it's not - your body begins to throw it out. It just doesn't take the abuse anymore, so I just, like I said, I limit myself now because of my CDL. I want to keep my career. I want to keep my family and earning money, and I just don't imbibe any - past a certain limit. It's on my own control.

CONAN: All right. CDL, the commercial driving license. Herb, thanks very much for the time and stay steady on the road.

HERB: All right, sir. Take care. I'll see you out there.

CONAN: We're talking with Dr. Robert Brewer, who's the lead of the alcohol program at the CDC in Atlanta, and Dr. Bankole Johnson, who's the professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia about what we're learning about alcohol. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

Dr. Brewer, I wanted to ask you one question about - you're talking about numbers of drinks per event. If that's a drink per hour over the course of four or five or six hours, that, to a lot of people, is not going to be binge drinking.

BREWER: That's a very good point, Neal. I think one of the key points about binge drinking is that it's not only drinking a large number of drinks, again, four or more drinks for a woman and five or more drinks for a man, but it's doing so within a short period of time. And the strict definition from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism about binge drinking actually would state that that level of consumption needs to occur within a two-hour period.

When we do survey work on binge drinking, we are not quite as specific about the time period, in that most people are not timing their drinking occasion. So the kind of terminology we would use would be asking people if they've had four or more drinks again for a woman, five or more drinks for a man within an occasion, which is defined as a short period of time, two to three hours. So it does matter, certainly, the length of time that people are consuming this alcohol.

I think it's important to recognize, though, that in other studies they have looked at the relationship between binge drinking and drinking to get drunk, asking people about drinking to get drunk. The two are very strongly related. And some of what we're finding in our public health surveillance work - the results of these surveys - I think reflects the fact that people are, to a large degree and to a medical terminology, titrating their dose of alcohol in order to experience acute intoxication or impairment. So that's why, again, we tend to talk about binge drinking as more or less equivalent to drinking to get drunk. And the levels of consumption here, I - we were talking about, Neal, I think it's important to recognize are way above the levels of consumption that we would use to define moderate drinking.

So the message here is not about prevention of moderate drinking. It's about the prevention of people drinking too much, and with binge drinking being by far the most common pattern of excessive drinking in the U.S.

CONAN: And let me ask you a question. You talked about our culture and, indeed, you're right. But how do you change that?

BREWER: Well, you know, again, I think we can learn a lot of lessons from our experience with tobacco control. And I don't think - to get to Dr. Johnson's point - that the endgame here is necessarily to say that people shouldn't drink at all. There are certainly some people who should not drink at all. And I'm sure Dr. Johnson would agree that people who are in recovery, for example, from alcohol dependence would be among those who may - for whom it may be important if they don't drink at all; underage youth, pregnant women.

But by and large for the population, what we're talking about, again, is trying to prevent people from drinking too much. So how do we do that? Well, there are a number of strategies that have been shown to be effective, and I'm talking about, based on scientific evidence here. One of the key ones is looking at the price of alcoholic beverages. And we know that people's alcohol consumption is very sensitive to price. If the price goes up, consumption tends to go down, just as it's true with many different products. The availability of alcohol, again, is a key thing. If you're in an area that has a very high concentration of alcohol establishments - retail alcohol establishments, bars, liquor stores within a small geographic area - that tends to be associated with higher rates of alcohol consumption and with more problems related to it. The age 21, minimum legal drinking age, that one of your callers talked about is also another very effective strategy to reduce access to alcohol, particularly among young people. So there are actually a number of different things that we can do as a society for which science has told us, and really make a very significant difference on reducing excessive drinking.

CONAN: And if it seems fantasy land to change those things, go back and look at an episode of "Mad Men" or the new film "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and look how much smoking has changed in our culture over a few decades and realize these things are possible to do. Dr. Brewer, thanks very much for your time today.

BREWER: Thank you so much. I really appreciate being on your program, Neal.

CONAN: Dr. Robert Brewer is the lead of the alcohol program of the CDC in Atlanta. And our thanks as well to Dr. Bankole Johnson, professor and chair at the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Thanks very much for coming in.

JOHNSON: Thank you so much, Neal.

CONAN: When we come back, we'll turn back the clock to August 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up to the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered one of the most important speeches of the 20th century. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145305298/deciphering-mixed-messages-on-drinking-and-health?ft=1&f=1007

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Chris Roush of TalkingBizNews looks at new Association of Magazine Media data and finds that business magazines are doing well?better than the rest of the magazine industry, anyway.

The 13 business magazines reported ad revenue of $1.24 billion in 2011, up 6.2 percent from the previous year, far outpacing the slight increase for the entire magazine industry, according to data released by the Publishers Information Bureau and analyzed by Talking Biz News.
Ad pages also rose 1.4 percent to 11,413.30 for the business magazines, which also outperformed the 3.1 percent decline in ad pages for the entire industry.

Even better, Bloomberg BusinessWeek is the standout with a 29 percent jump in ad revenue and a 19 percent jump in ad pages. It?s good to see a magazine (and the company that funds it, obviously) that has dramatically upped its investment in journalism reaping the rewards. It took in $51 million in new ad revenue in 2011, bringing its haul to $223 million for the year.

? I like this Wall Street Journal story showing how capital investment is robust, productivity is high, and new jobs are scarce. One big reason, it says, is that tax breaks have helped spur investments in automation whose benefits will be seen mainly in the long term:

Spending on gear and hiring usually are more synchronized. Since the economy began growing again in 2009, spending on equipment and software has surged 31%, adjusted for inflation. In the postwar period, only in the wake of the 1982 and 1970 recessions has such spending grown faster. Private-sector jobs have grown just 1.4% over the same span. Only recoveries following the 1980 and 2001 recessions saw slower job growth?
The U.S. today is second only to Japan in the use of industrial robots. Orders for new robots were up 41% through September from a year earlier, according to the Robotics Industries Association trade group. That has helped fuel a larger boom in productivity. Output per hour worked in nonfarm businesses has increased 6% during the recovery. Hours worked are up only 1.5%.

I do have one bone to pick: The Journal calls Sunny Delight ?juice.? It?s definitely not juice.

? Joe Nocera wrote an outstanding column this weekend on justice and the NCAA.

A ballplayer at St. Joe?s in Philly graduated early and wanted to use his last year of eligibility to take graduate courses the school didn?t offer. He asked coach Phil Martelli to release him so he could play at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Martelli refused:

Let?s put aside the question of why college athletes usually have to sit out a year when they transfer, even though coaches can switch schools at the drop of a hat. That?s a column for another day. Let?s focus instead on O?Brien?s plight. How can a student who has graduated from one institution be prevented from participating in an extracurricular activity at a different school? How can a miffed coach?s pique control the activities of a student who doesn?t even play for him anymore? Can a music teacher who is angry at a violin student prevent him from playing in another school?s orchestra? The very idea is absurd. Why is it any less absurd when the student is an athlete? Why is it any less wrong? Yet that is precisely what the N.C.A.A.?s rules make possible.
And which it then reinforces with its own iron fist. Unable to persuade St. Joe?s to change its mind, O?Brien appealed to the N.C.A.A. Did the N.C.A.A., which purports to care about the welfare of its ?student-athletes,? take stern action against St. Joe?s? Of course not.

This is classic column-writing: Flush out an individual injustice, show what it says about an institution or system on a larger scale, and don?t mince words about it. Nocera?s kicker:

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, a small Catholic school has disgraced itself because it won?t stand up to its bully of a basketball coach.

Source: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_bloombergs_bw_inve.php

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Watch: Gov. Jan Brewer's Heated Exchange With Obama (ABC News)

Pre-caffeine tech: Dotcom craziness, best friend memes!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Vacancies of Research Scientist in Ministry of Communications ...

Acer's Aspire One 722 kitted with HSPA+, sold by AT&T

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

In Florida, Romney takes aim at resurgent Gingrich (Washington Post)

Monday, January 23, 2012

2 dead in Ala. as storms pound South, Midwest (AP)

Video: Will Congressional Gridlock Continue?

Sunday, January 22, 2012

PFT: Rams to play London games next 3 seasons

Salvage firms jostle for wrecked Italian liner (Reuters)

Saturday, January 21, 2012

'Red Tails' flies, but never soars

Friday, January 20, 2012

Video: SEC Goes After BankAtlantic

Grounded ship shifts overnight, rescue ops halted

Afghan official: 12 killed by suicide attacker (AP)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Deciphering Mixed Messages On Drinking And Health

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Audit Notes: Bloomberg's BW Investment, Jobs For Robots, NCAA Injustice