Dairy industry wants fake sweetener rules eased

Allison Linn , NBC News ? ? ? 5 hrs.

Two milk trade groups are asking the Food and Drug Administration for greater flexibility in how they inform consumers when artificial sweeteners are added to kid-friendly products such as chocolate milk.

The International Dairy Foods Association and the National Milk Producers Federation are asking the FDA to ease rules that require them to make very clear, on the front of the package, when products like chocolate, strawberry and vanilla milk have reduced calories or sugar because they are sweetened with artificial sweeteners.

As of now, those products have to clearly carry a label such as ?reduced sugar,? and they also have to meet stringent restrictions about how they are using such sweeteners, said Cary Frye, vice president for regulatory and scientific affairs for the International Dairy Foods Association.

If they don?t, the industry can?t say the product is still ?milk.?

Frye said those requirements are more rigorous than for competitors who sell things like sports drinks and fruit-flavored beverages. That makes it hard for them to compete with other thirst quenchers kids want, Frye said.

?They give the dairy industry additional restrictions that aren?t the same for other beverages,? Frye said.

In their petition to the FDA, the trade groups also argued that the required, prominent low-calorie labels are not attractive to children.

Kids are a key market for the milk industry, which has struggled for decades with declining milk consumption.

One thing many kids do like to drink: milk sweetened with chocolate, vanilla or another flavoring.

Most of those drinks are currently sweetened with sugar, making them more caloric. The milk industry argues that if they could reduce the labeling hurdles it would be easier to offer lower-calorie chocolate milk at stores and in schools. That, they say, would help fight childhood obesity.

If the proposal is approved, Frye said the flavored milks would still list artificial sweeteners. But the label would be on the back on the package, where most beverages include nutritional information.

The industry groups asked the FDA to consider the change in 2009, but it wasn?t until late February that the FDA opened the request up for public comment.

In an e-mail, an FDA spokeswoman said it?s not unusual for the FDA to receive hundreds of petitions each year and noted that they act with due deliberation on each.

The public comment period runs through late May, and the FDA said it couldn?t say when after that it would take action on the petition.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/chocolate-milk-fight-industry-asks-fda-ease-fake-sweetener-rules-1C8621251

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Dot Earth Blog: More on Divergent Paths to Human Progress

The University of Illinois has posted a well-produced video of my talk there last October, titled ?9 Billion People + 1 Earth = ?? It?s worth posting here given that this has been the central question shaping this blog since its inception. I explore many ideas, but focus particularly on the need to get comfortable with the wide range of human reactions to risks of various kinds. (Around minute 13, I credit the ?cultural cognition? work of Dan Kahan at Yale University.)

This means there won?t be a clean and neat path to progress, nor should there be. It also means, as Abhas Jha of the World Bank has put it in the context of disaster planning, we need to manage risk for ?graceful failure? ? soft landings amid uncertainty and imperfection. As I?ve put it, that?s the art of ?falling forward without falling down? (one definition of walking).

Here?s my talk, with one transcribed excerpt to serve as a teaser:

At around the sixteenth minute, I illustrate my notion of ?an inconvenient mind? by recalling the reactions of two leading environmentalists to the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plants. (The latest news there is that the World Health Organization this week found almost no evidence pointing to raised health risks among people exposed to radiation.)

On the same day, Bill McKibben and George Monbiot, leading environmentalists in the United States and Britain, wrote columns in the Guardian laying out completely divergent conclusions. Here?s a bit of what I said:

Monbiot, who?s very worried about global warming, said this accident proved nuclear power is robust?. McKibben wrote that this proves we have to turn off all our nuclear power plants and get small?.

There?s no Exxon involvement here. It just says that normal very well-educated people can come away from the same event with completely divergent messages. And I think we need to get comfortable with that. It makes this all seem a lot harder ? the challenge of decarbonizing a global energy economy as we head toward 9 billion people seeking better lives ? but I think it?s doable. And I actually still wake up most mornings optimistic, and I go to bed kind of bummed out. But I usually wake up the next morning optimistic again. Maybe it?s just pathology. That doesn?t mean I?m right. Don?t follow me necessarily.

If you have time to watch this weekend, pick out other sections that irk, excite or confuse you and I?ll respond.

Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/more-on-divergent-paths-to-human-progress/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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President Obama blasts GOP on cuts

President Barack Obama speaks about the sequester after a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House??

Declaring ?I am not a dictator,? President Barack Obama urged Americans on Friday to help him pressure Republicans to help halt painful automatic government spending cuts. Obama acknowledged that the $85 billion ?sequestration? would not be the end of the world but warned that it would slow the tepid recovery and cost jobs.

"This is not going to be an apocalypse, I think, as people have said," the president underlined. "It's just dumb. And it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt individual people and it's going to hurt the economy overall."

Obama spoke in the White House briefing room shortly after meeting with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The talks failed to yield a breakthrough to prevent the cuts from going in force by midnight.

"If Congress comes to its senses a week from now, a month from now, three months from now, then there's a lot of open running room there for us to grow our economy much more quickly," Obama said.

Apparently stung by criticisms that he has overhyped the possible damage from sequestration for political gain, Obama pointed to government workers?notably the janitors who mop the Capitol floors?who will get a pay cut as well as small businesses that rely on dwindling government contracts, and warned of a "ripple effect" through the broader economy.

"I don?t anticipate a huge financial crisis, but people are going to be hurt," the president said. "We?re not making that up, that?s not a scare tactic."

Obama said some Republicans have privately signaled they would accept tax revenue increases as part of a compromise to replace sequestration, while some Democrats agree with his calls to overhaul Medicare.

?So there is a caucus of common sense up on Capitol Hill, it?s just it?s a silent group right now,? the president said. ?In the coming days and in the coming weeks I?m going to keep on reaching out to them.?

?I am prepared to do hard things and to push my Democratic friends to do hard things. But what I can?t do is ask middle-class families, ask seniors, ask students to bear the entire burden of deficit reduction," he said. "It's not fair, it's not right."

Obama said Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner face resistance to a grand bargain from rank-and-file GOP lawmakers who like to ?paint horns on my head.?

Obama, pressed by a reporter on how much responsibility he bears for the standoff, tried to turn the tables: ?What more do you think I should do??

"I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that's been floating around Washington that somehow, even though most people agree that I'm being reasonable, that most people agree I'm presenting a fair deal, the fact that they [Republicans] don't take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what's right," he said. (His "Jedi mind-meld" drew swift derision on Twitter, chiefly from conservatives, for mixing the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises.)

Obama has accused Republicans of refusing to raise "a dime's worth" of new tax revenues by closing loopholes that chiefly benefit the wealthiest Americans and rich corporations in order to reduce the deficit. Republicans have countered that revenues raised that way should not go to pay for government spending but to lower tax rates, which they say will create jobs.

"I?d like to think that I?ve still got some persuasive power left " Obama said.

But "I?m not a dictator, I?m the president," he emphasized, saying it was beyond his power to "force Congress to do the right thing" unless the American people help squeeze congressional Republicans.

Rachel Hartman contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-discuss-sequestration-11-35-m-163015466--politics.html

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Nashville, Season 1

Every week in?Slate?s?Nashville TV club, Katy Waldman will have an IM conversation with a different?Nashville?fan. This week, she rehashes episode 1.14 with June Thomas,?a?Slate?culture critic.

June Thomas: Hey Katy! Sorry to be late checking in. I replayed Rayna's song and lost track of time. I've never done that before!

Katy?Waldman: You?re forgiven! It?was?pretty haunting.

Thomas: I kind of loved it, though my enjoyment was tempered somewhat by trying to figure out if it was insensitive to sing it to a recovering alcoholic (?Pour me something stronger than me?) or a sign of how well they knew each other. Anyways,?I just bought it. First time I've done that with a TV song since Mercedes sang "Break the Windows Out Your Car" in Season 1 of Glee!

Waldman: Is it just me, or was this episode particularly musical? Everybody sang: Juliette, Scarlett and Gunnar, Rayna (with assists from Pam Tillis and Kate York)?

Thomas: That's right! It's funny, at the beginning of the episode, I was thinking that it was foolish of the producers to give all the good songs (that is, all the songs I like most) to Scarlett and Gunnar, since they're the rookies of the show, and then Rayna goes and sings my favorite of the whole season.

Waldman: It's always strange and a bit goofy when Scarlett and Gunnar perform and an awed hush descends on the room.?

Thomas:?Yep, the way everyone?real-life stars that even a country know-nothing me recognized as Music City royalty?was nodding and whispering, "They're the real deal" when they played at the Bluebird Cafe was kind of ridiculous. But at the same time...undeniable!

Waldman: Yes! There's a fatedness to those two, or at least, I think fate plays a role on the show. Especially this week, with the themes of birth and death. But Gunnar and Scarlett almost seem "destined for greatness," unbelievably cheesy as that sounds.

Thomas:?Or perhaps it was all about how important a moment can be. There was a lot about families?how the people closest to you can either support and love you unconditionally, or let you down. Or sometimes both. Jolene failed Juliette when she was 9. Teddy lied and left Rayna with the press on her tail. Gunnar? He loved Jason and tried to do the right thing by him, but that kinda sorta maybe led to Jason being killed. Or Jolene breaks her sobriety and Juliette misses her chance to sing in front of that amazing crowd because she has to take her home. Things turn on a dime. The only love you can trust is from your yeller pup. If the cops had come for Gunnar just a few minutes earlier, he'd have missed his big chance. That's fate, I think.

Waldman: What did you make of Jason's death, the first mortality on?Nashville?

Thomas: It shocked me. After the great trio the three of them played a few episodes ago, I had a vision of that little m?nage as the next Lady Antebellum. But apparently that act is destined to be a duet.

I was even more shocked by the post-death makeout sesh, though. Is that a rational response to your collaborator, roommate, and friend hearing devastating news?

Waldman: That scene was thoroughly weird. Not only did the sexy stuff feel all wrong, tonally, but Scarlett isway?too tender-hearted to consider nookie on such a grief-drenched occasion. The real Scarlett would have just sat there weeping sugar-water.

Thomas: Yes, I wondered if we're supposed to think that in all the hours she spent staring at her phone wondering what had happened to Gunnar, she realized how she really felt about him, but even if they'd sold that version of events?and they didn't?it felt all wrong.

Waldman: The adorable cupcake magic, on the other hand, was pure Scarlett.??

Thomas: That's the second show to pull that cupcake trick in the last month or so?was?New?Girl?the other? It has given me a complex about my retro cupcake-eating ways.

Waldman: I eat them the traditional way too. I don?t need frosting in every bite.

Thomas: Once again, the city politics plot managed to find at least 10 ways to be ridiculous. It's the equivalent ofDownton's?Bates in jail?so boring that it's better to ignore it. But let's just stick to one doozy: So the recently defeated Coleman would, within moments of getting the nonsensical request from the guy who played dirty to beat him, accept the position of deputy mayor? Even if Coleman thought Teddy was destined to leave office early (and divorcing Queen of Hearts Rayna James surely means he'd be a one-term mayor), that wouldn't be worth the humiliation.

Waldman: The point, though, was vindication of Teddy's character, rather than development of Coleman's, right? We're supposed to see Teddy turning over a new leaf, finding his integrity as a politician (ha), patching up the mess Lamar made.

Thomas: I might be a little more open to that interpretation if he hadn't just named his mistress to a Cabinet position.

Thomas:?The man's a snake. And since he's now taken it upon himself to get into a feud with Lamar, he's apparently a dumb snake.

Waldman: Well, Peggy?s pretty assertive. When?s the last time you?ve seen a randy TV character kick the door closed unironically?

Thomas: That was totally to provide a cheesy still for the jacket of the DVD release. Speaking of on-the-nose framing devices, how about poor Avery. Dude is on the outside looking in on the other happy, smiley people. Literally.

Waldman: Allow me to voice my profound critical thoughts on Avery. Glad I?m not you, Avery! It?s not that he?s squandered all our sympathy by being a jerk?he?s suffered enough to win some of it back, theoretically?but he?s got just one note, the hungry, brooding, narcissistic artist note, and for me it?s not terribly interesting.

Thomas: On the other hand, the Jolene story line saddens me. It has so much potential, and occasional moments of transcendence, but a lot of the time it feels totally rote. I bought her relapse?she's so new to sobriety, she's at a party with flowing booze (which is maybe more than a little insensitive given Deacon's well-publicized recovery), no one is paying her any mind. I can see her joining in on the toast to the man who saved her life. A little less convincing, though, is the boozy amends for Juliette's thwarted ninth birthday party. Or her sponsor who makes house calls.

Waldman: Donate! The gift that could keep on giving. His prettiness and the intimate moment in which he listens to Juliette sing made me worry that he and the younger Barnes may hook up. Hopefully he is just there to elicit revelations, such as the detail about the burning cigarette that Juliette put out to (grudgingly) save her mother?s life.

Thomas: That's what frustrates me about the Jolene/Juliette relationship. There are moments that are convincingly truthful and real. I understand why Juliette is so cold and guarded with her mother?and I applaud the show for being faithful to that story line even though it goes against the whole mom and apple pie thing. And I agree, remembering that moment when she chose to save Jolene was really powerful. But there's just something that holds me back from connecting.

Maybe I'm channeling my inner Juliette, angry at Jolene's pathetic weakness and hurt by her inability to play her role. Jolene is supposed to be looking after Juliette, and that hasn't been true since, well, at least since Juliette was 9.

Waldman: That's an interesting thought. I was going to suggest that the thing holding me back, at least, was Juliette's occasional abrasiveness. I can't quite invest fully in the storyline because sometimes Juliette turns into a horrible person I can't (don't want to) relate to. I don?t wish for another Scarlett, but it gets painful, watching Juliette reject her mother again and again.

Thomas: See, in the great game of "Which Nashville Character Are You?" I'm a Juliette. Thank goodness you're a Rayna.

Waldman: Phew! Glad you didn?t say I was Avery, after all.

Maybe this goes along with ?Dear Brother? being a particularly musical episode, but it also struck me as an especially moody one, more atmospheric than dramatic. That?s not to say I didn?t enjoy it, but it didn?t seem to hold a lot of surprises (despite its surprise party). The whole thing felt pensive, subdued, melancholy.

Thomas:?I felt the same way. Which is odd, right, given that we had Jason killed. S + G hooking up, and what I thought was the best song of the season.

About that song, too: Even though I really liked it, it didn't work in a musical sense. That is, I didn't know what Rayna was expressing. Sure, she loves Deacon, she finds him a challenge, but she'll be there for him. But we already knew that. If Nashville were a piece of musical theater, and in a sense it is, you'd want the mood of that song to act as a catalyst for a big change between those characters. A deeper connection, a rupture, something. But I couldn't read the vibe clearly.

Waldman: Maybe because it was just her singing to him. We don't know how it affected him or his feelings for her. I guess they did reconcile by the episode?s end, though that seemed more a function of the divorce than Rayna?s performance.

Of course, if the songs characters sing for each other reveal things about their relationship, it's also probably significant that Juliette was prevented from singing for Deacon at all.

Thomas: Yes?and Juliette was thinking about preventing Rayna from singing. "We'll see. I'll let you know," she said.

Waldman:?Poor Rayna. Can you imagine anything more stressful than going grocery shopping with sister Tammy? I kept waiting for her to micromanage every piece of food Rayna put in the cart. It distracted me from the sisterly Real Talk.

Thomas: That shopping expedition was even more ridiculous than the Nashville politics plot. And couldn't the writers have done better than "COUNTRY QUEEN & MR. MAYOR CALL IT QUITS!" Seriously so-so.

Waldman: You mean: ?Charming!?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=fd70229b7193bdc97e9d3b67e9cfd99d

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Visualized: Nokia's product smorgasbord at MWC 2013

What you see in the shot above (and the gallery below) is a display containing almost every Lumia handset and accessory currently manufactured by Nokia -- all arranged buffet-style for your viewing pleasure. These photos, captured during a special event at MWC 2013, include the Lumia 920, 820, 720, 620 and 520, PlayUp speaker, Purity HD stereo headset and Luna Bluetooth headset (among others).

Gallery: Nokia's product smorgasbord at MWC 2013

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UBek4JCRMSs/

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94Fifty smart basketball can tell when you've got game, teaches when you don't

Everyday street basketball players (and would-be pros) don't have many tools to quantify their progress. InfoMotion Sports thinks they're owed more than just a pat on the back, so it's bringing its 94Fifty smart basketball to everyday hoop fans. Like the existing model for teams, sensors inside the amateur basketball detect the forces involved in a dribble or shot, relaying details such as the throw angle or power through Bluetooth; Android and iOS apps will be available out of the gate. The stats are for more than just bragging rights, too. InfoMotion's custom software centers on training sessions and competitions, including challenges from seasoned veterans. No matter how hard they play, owners will just have to rest the ball on a Qi wireless charging pad at the end of a session. InfoMotion Sports' $295 asking price will be steep when the 94Fifty arrives in the summer -- but it may be one of the better options for amateurs who want to improve the finer points of their game without donning a uniform.

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Source: 94Fifty

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/afVuN1ZadII/

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Boeing, battery maker at odds over 787 fix - report

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Boeing Co and the Japanese company that makes lithium-ion batteries for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner disagree about what should be included in a package of measures aimed at getting the airliner back in the air, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing government and industry officials.

Battery maker GS Yuasa Corp believes the fix for the battery should include a voltage regulator that could stop electricity from entering the battery, the Journal said.

Boeing proposed its fix to the FAA on Friday, but on Thursday, Yuasa told the agency that its laboratory tests indicated a power surge outside the battery, or other external problem, started the failures on two batteries, according to the newspaper.

The FAA confirmed the meeting with Yuasa, but did not give any details.

A Yuasa spokesman declined to comment. Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said that the investigation has not showed that overcharging was a factor and that the 787 had quadruple-redundant protection against overcharging in any case.

"Our proposal includes multiple layers of protection covering the known potential probable causes of the events," Birtel said by email.

He did not respond directly to the comments about Yuasa, although he added that Boeing was coordinating with key suppliers.

No comment was immediately available from Securaplane, the company that makes the charger for the battery.

(Reporting By Jim Wolf, Andrea Shalal-Esa, Mari Saito and Peter Henderson; Editing by M.D. Golan and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boeing-battery-maker-odds-over-787-fix-report-225915826--sector.html

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