Adele dismisses throat cancer rumors (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? British singer Adele has dismissed rampant speculation in the media that she has throat cancer following the cancellation of her remaining tour dates and promotional appearances in 2011, due to surgery.

"We would like to reiterate that Adele is to undergo surgery for a hemorrhaged vocal chord. All reports regarding any other condition are 100 percent false," Adele's spokesman said in a statement released on Monday.

The speculation arose after the Grammy-winning singer announced late last week she was pulling out of performances in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The "Rolling In The Deep" singer also topped the American Music Award nominations in October with four nods, beating out stiff competition from fellow female artists Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. The American Music Awards will be held in Los Angeles on November 20.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111104/hl_nm/us_adele_rumors

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Decline in dead zones: Efforts to heal Chesapeake Bay are working

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) ? Efforts to reduce the flow of fertilizers, animal waste and other pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay appear to be giving a boost to the bay's health, a new study that analyzed 60 years of water quality data has concluded. The study, published in the November 2011 issue of Estuaries and Coasts, was conducted by researchers from The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

The team found that the size of mid- to late-summer oxygen-starved "dead zones," where plants and water animals cannot live, leveled off in deep channels of the bay during the 1980s and has been declining ever since. The timing is key because in the 1980s, a concerted effort to cut nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay was initiated through the multistate-federal Chesapeake Bay Program. The goal was to restore the water quality and health of the bay.

"I was really excited by these results because they point to improvement in the health of the Chesapeake Bay," said lead author Rebecca R. Murphy, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins. "We now have evidence that cutting back on the nutrient pollutants pouring into the bay can make a difference. I think that's really significant."

Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, agreed. "This study shows that our regional efforts to limit nutrient pollution may be producing results," he said. "Continuing nutrient reduction remains critically important for achieving bay restoration goals."

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuary, a body of water where fresh and salt water mix. According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the bay is about 200 miles long, has about roughly 4,480 square miles of surface area and supports more than 3,600 species of plants, fish and other animals.

But the bay's health deteriorated during much of the 20th century, contributing to a drop in the Chesapeake's fish and shellfish populations. Environmental experts blamed this largely on a surge of nutrients entering the bay from sources such as farm fertilizer, animal waste, water treatment discharge and atmospheric deposition. Heavy spring rains typically flush these chemicals, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, into the Susquehanna River and other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake. There, the nutrients promote the prolific growth of algae.

When the algae die, their remains sink to the bottom of the bay, where they are consumed by bacteria. As they dine on algae, the bacteria utilize dissolved oxygen in the water. This leads to a condition called hypoxia, or depletion of oxygen. As this process continues through the spring and summer, the lack of oxygen turns vast stretches of the Chesapeake into dead zones. Hypoxia sometimes results in fish kills.

To find out whether these dead zones are expanding or diminishing, the Johns Hopkins and Maryland researchers retrieved and analyzed bay water quality records from the past 60 years. They determined that the size of the dead zone in mid-to-late summer has decreased steadily since the late 1980s and that the duration -- how long the dead zone persists each summer -- is closely linked each year to the amount of nutrients entering the bay.

That timeline coincides with the launch of state and federal efforts to reduce the flow of algae-feeding pollutants into the bay. For example, farmers were encouraged to plant natural barriers and take other steps to keep fertilizer out of waterways that feed the Chesapeake. Also, water treatment plants began to pull more pollutants from their discharge, and air pollution control measures curbed the movement of nitrogen from the atmosphere into the bay.

"By looking at existing data, we have been able to link decreasing hypoxia to a reduction in the nutrient load in the bay," said study co-author Michael Kemp, an ecologist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Horn Point Laboratory. "The overall extent and duration of mid-to-late summer hypoxia are decreasing."

Another part of the study looked at a trend that has troubled some bay watchers. In recent years, Chesapeake researchers have seen an early summer spike in dead zones. They feared that keeping more nutrients out of the bay was not improving its health. But the new study found that the early summer jump in dead zones was influenced by climate forces, not by the runoff of pollutants.

In a phenomenon called stratification, fresh water from the rivers entering the bay forms a layer on top of the more dense salt water, which comes from the ocean. The two layers don't easily mix, so when air near the surface adds oxygen to the top layer, it doesn't reach the deeper salt water. Without oxygen at these lower depths, marine animals cannot live, and a dead zone is formed.

"Rebecca discovered that the increase in these early summer dead zones is because of changes in climate forces like wind, sea levels and the salinity of the water. It was not because the efforts to keep pollutants out of the bay were ineffective," said William P. Ball, a professor of environmental engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins. Ball, a co-author of the new study, is Murphy's doctoral adviser.

"We believe," Ball added, "that without those efforts to rein in the pollutants, the dead zone conditions in June and early July would have been even worse."

The study was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA. The research was undertaken as part of a larger five-year Chesapeake Bay Environmental Observatory project, funded through the Chesapeake Research Consortium, which involves seven institutions. Ball serves as lead principal investigator for this project.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Rebecca R. Murphy, W. Michael Kemp, William P. Ball. Long-Term Trends in Chesapeake Bay Seasonal Hypoxia, Stratification, and Nutrient Loading. Estuaries and Coasts, 2011; 34 (6): 1293 DOI: 10.1007/s12237-011-9413-7

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

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103190353.htm

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Chaz Bono to Die Young From Gender Reassignment, Tabloid Claims; DWTS Star Threatens Lawsuit


Will Chaz Bono die young because he became a man?

That's the implication of a story in the National Enquirer. One that has him threatening to sue, claiming the article is a "smear campaign" and "blatantly false."

The "story" is plastered right on cover of the November 11 issue with a headline that screams, "Chaz Bono: ONLY 4 YEARS TO LIVE." Pretty overt, and awful.

The article cites "expert" opinions about Chaz's weight, stress and medication linked with gender reassignment, concluding he'll likely kick it by 2015.

Chaz Bono Will Die

The Dancing With the Stars cast member, understandably, is royally pissed, and has fired off a letter demanding a retraction and apology for this ASAP.

In the letter, Chaz's lawyer calls the story, "blatantly false and defamatory," not to mention "salacious and inflammatory," and "crafted for the malicious purpose of discriminating against our client's gender and sexual orientation."

Enraged over the "misleading and blatantly false" medical "opinions," his lawyer says if the tabloid does not retract the story pronto, Chaz Bono will sue.

Your move, Enquirer.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/chaz-bono-will-die-young-from-gender-reassignment-tabloid-claims/

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Lessons from MF Global's unraveling

The unraveling of MF Global provides a stark reminder of why we need to implement financial reform legislation

The unraveling of MF Global provides a stark reminder of why we need to implement the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, a policy that every R candidate for president has promised to repeal.

Skip to next paragraph Jared Bernstein

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Before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow, Jared was chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden and executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. He is a contributor to MSNBC and CNBC and has written numerous books, including 'Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?'

Recent posts

Two things to look at here.? First, I?ve been on this rant re the importance of capital reserves.? There are a lot of moving parts to financial regulation, but at the end of the day, investors will find ways to make bets that are unregulated and systemically risky.? And what we (should have) learned in the late 2000s was the extent to which leverage amplifies such risks.

MF was leveraged 44 to 1, according to the link above (leverage ratios below 20 used to be the norm).

If financial institutions have enough of a capital cushion to absorb such losses, it serves as built in insurance against the next new form of ?innovative? finance that gets ahead of the regulators.

Second, there?s interesting moral hazard in the MF case.? The firm, and its benighted chief, former Gov Corzine, appears to have been betting on a bailout.? And it probably wasn?t a crazy bet, except for the timing, which was what sunk the firm.? (I know it?s 20-20 hindsight, but betting on the alacrity of the European?s timing in their debt crisis is really a very risky bet.)

The firm surmised that the banks exposed to troubled sovereign debt would get bailed out, and thus leveraged up to buy a lot of that debt at a steep discount.? Had the bailout come sooner, MF and their investors would have made a lot of money?at the expense of European taxpayers.? A classic case of socializing losses and privatizing gains.

It?s not obvious how to prevent this.? Dodd-Frank has oversight provisions designed to spot trouble in systemically connected institutions before bailouts are necessary, but there?s every reason to believe that we?ll be back here again someday.?? I suspect some would say, ?no bailouts ever.?? That?s not realistic.

The answer is to provide regulators with the information to track leverage, exposure, and the risk profile of the global system.? ?Dodd-Frank is surely not perfect by a long shot, but to repeal it without a better replacement?to return to the assumption that markets will self-regulate?is policy by amnesia.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on jaredbernsteinblog.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/zoYxDCIrpbU/Lessons-from-MF-Global-s-unraveling

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Service sector growth dips, initial claims ease (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fewer Americans filed new claims for jobless benefits last week while the country's vast service sector continued to grow last month, according to data on Thursday that showed the U.S. recovery was on track, though not speeding along.

Other data showed factory orders rose in September, while capital spending plans by businesses surged in a sign of underlying strength in manufacturing. But October retail sales offered a more sober view of thrifty consumers.

"The majority of the economic data we got today looked constructive and points to a continuation of growth in the U.S. economy," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.

"A few weeks ago investors were extremely worried we were, if not in, then about to head into recession imminently. Economic data over the past few weeks has been encouraging and lessens likelihood of a quick drop into recession."

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index eased to 52.9 in October from 53.0 the previous month, falling shy of economists' forecasts for a 53.5 reading. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.

A gauge of new orders declined, but the employment component improved to its highest level since June.

"It is still showing that the economy is expanding but not as strong as before," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group LLC in Princeton, New Jersey.

Jobless claims data also was mildly encouraging for the sluggish labor market, with new claims falling below the 400,000 level regarded as reflective of a stable jobs market for the first time in five weeks.

Still, the government's non-farm payrolls report due on Friday is expected to show 95,000 jobs created in October, not enough to push down the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said economic growth had "strengthened somewhat" in the third quarter. But it also downgraded its long-term outlook, saying it now expects the economy will expand by a tepid 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent next year, down from the 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent it forecast in June.

In financial markets, investors were more focused on events in Europe as Greece backed away from a proposed referendum on a bailout package. Wall Street stocks climbed nearly 2 percent, while U.S. Treasuries prices fell and yields rose.

FRUGAL SHOPPERS

With the services sector accounting for about two-thirds of the economy, analysts are eager to see growth accelerate and consumers spending more robustly. But sales at major retail chains rose less than expected last month, illustrating the apprehension many shoppers feel.

Labor Department data showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 9,000 in the week ending October 29 to a seasonally adjusted 397,000.

"The labor market continues to stabilize in terms of the amount of people losing their jobs but ... the pace of adding new ones still remains underwhelming," said Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak and Co. in New York.

Separately, the Commerce Department said orders for manufactured goods increased 0.3 percent in September. Economists had expected orders to slip 0.1 percent.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft -- seen as a measure of business confidence and spending plans -- jumped 2.9 percent in September, the largest increase in six months.

As well, the Labor Department said U.S. nonfarm productivity increased during the third quarter while growth in wages and benefits slowed sharply, showing that some inflation pressures were easing even as the economy picked up pace.

Productivity rose at a 3.1 percent annual rate, the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2010. Unit labor costs fell 2.4 percent, a much bigger decline than the 0.8 percent rate forecast by analysts.

(Additional reporting by Jason Lange and Lucia Mutikani in Washington and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/bs_nm/us_usa_economy

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Case against Michael Jackson's doctor goes to jury

Judge Michael Pastor listens during the redirect cross-examination of Dr. Paul White (not pictured) in the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Los Angeles. Dr. Murray decided not to testify for his defense. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Judge Michael Pastor listens during the redirect cross-examination of Dr. Paul White (not pictured) in the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Los Angeles. Dr. Murray decided not to testify for his defense. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray looks on during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Los Angeles. Dr. Murray decided not to testify for his defense. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray looks on during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Los Angeles. Dr. Murray decided not to testify for his defense. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren speaks during rebuttal testimony in the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Los Angeles. Dr. Murray decided not to testify for his defense. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray and Defense Attorney Ed Chernoff listen during the final stage of Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, pool)

(AP) ? The trial of Michael Jackson's doctor was transformed Thursday into a contest between the superstar and the physician, with a prosecutor saying Dr. Conrad Murray killed his patient and a defense lawyer blaming Jackson for his own death.

Prosecutor David Walgren called Murray a liar and an opportunist who put his own welfare before that of Jackson.

Defense lawyer Ed Chernoff cast Murray as a victim of Jackson's celebrity, saying he would never have been charged with wrongdoing if his patient was someone other than Jackson.

"If it was anybody else, would this doctor be here today?" Chernoff asked during his closing argument at the involuntary manslaughter trial of Murray.

The case later went to the jury, with deliberations set to begin Friday.

Chernoff said prosecutors hadn't proven that Murray committed a crime by giving Jackson doses of the anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid in the singer's bedroom.

"They want you to convict Dr. Murray for the actions of Michael Jackson," Chernoff said.

Earlier, during his closing argument, Walgren projected images of Jackson's grief-stricken children on a giant screen and told jurors that Murray took away their father.

With Jackson's mother and siblings watching from the courtroom gallery, Walgren showed a photo of Jackson at his last rehearsal before the picture of the three Jackson children ? Prince, Paris and Blanket ? at their father's memorial.

He also reminded jurors of the scene in Jackson's bedroom when Paris came upon Murray frantically trying to revive her lifeless father and screamed, "Daddy!"

"For Michael Jackson's children this case goes on forever because they do not have a father," Walgren said. "They do not have a father because of the actions of Conrad Murray."

The prosecutor repeatedly called Murray's treatment of Jackson bizarre and said there was no precedent for the cardiologist giving the singer the powerful anesthetic to help him sleep.

Still, Jackson trusted him and that eventually cost the singer his life, Walgren said.

"Conrad Murray looked out for himself and himself alone," the prosecutor said.

Walgren, in a carefully structured argument enhanced by video excerpts of witness testimony, spoke of the special relationship between a doctor and patient and said Murray had corrupted it in the treatment of his famous client.

Murray violated his medical oath to do no harm and "acted so recklessly that it caused the death of Michael Jackson," the prosecutor said.

Walgren portrayed Murray as a greedy opportunist who was more concerned with earning $150,000 a month as Jackson's personal physician and traveling to London for his "This Is It" concert than with the welfare of his patient.

He cited evidence showing Murray did not call for help after finding Jackson unresponsive. Instead he called Jackson's personal assistant, a decision the prosecutor said was just one of the doctor's bizarre actions on the day the singer died.

He suggested Murray delayed the call until he could hide medical equipment and bottles that might incriminate him.

Evan after paramedics arrived, the doctor made no mention of giving Jackson propofol because of "a consciousness of guilt," Walgren said.

Walgren ridiculed the defense theory that Jackson injected himself with the fatal dose of propofol and denounced the testimony of defense expert Paul White who blamed Jackson for his own death.

"What you were presented by Dr. White was junk science. It was garbage science," Walgren said.

Chernoff countered that Dr. Steven Shafer, a propofol expert who testified that evidence showed Murray killed Jackson, was wrong and overstepped his role as a scientist by becoming an advocate for Murray's conviction.

He said Shafer ignored Murray's statement to police in which the physician said he gave the singer a small dose of propofol and left the room after the drug should have worn off.

"It doesn't matter, Dr. Murray did not kill Michael Jackson," Chernoff said.

The prosecutor played statements of several doctors who testified that they would never have agreed to give Jackson propofol for insomnia in a private home.

"The setting represents an extreme violation of the standard of care," Walgren said. "No one ever did it until it was done to Michael Jackson. It is gross negligence and it is a cause of Michael Jackson's death."

At one point, Walgren suggested Murray was conducting "an obscene experiment" on Jackson.

With only Jackson and Murray present in the singer's room on the day he died, there will be things that are never be known about his death, Walgren said. But he said it was clear that Murray, untrained in anesthesiology, was incompetent.

"Conrad Murray is criminally liable," he said. "Justice demands a guilty verdict."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

___

McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-03-Michael%20Jackson-Doctor/id-25e95451eff44ab28e0dd0fe35c8533e

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Video: Should Obama rely on Clinton?

Brain damage makes some blind to the left

The patient demanded to know whose left arm was lying in the hospital bed with him. "He would pick it up and throw it out of bed. The arm would come back and hit him in the chest," recalls Dr. Kenneth Heilman, an American Academy of Neurology fellow. Here's the kicker: It was his own arm.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45125157#45125157

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Comcast profit rises, overcomes NBC drag (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Comcast Corp's profit rose 5 percent thanks to healthy results from its cable business, calming recent worries that the industry was succumbing to pressures from a weak economy and poor housing market.

Comcast relied on its cable business to offset a weak quarter from two of its newer media properties, the NBC television network and Universal Pictures.

"Unfortunately, the public face of NBC Universal is the broadcast network and that is just struggling," said Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein. "The turnaround of a television network doesn't happen overnight. They are showing a lot of resolve but it is not an easy challenge."

The largest U.S. cable operator, and majority owner of NBC Universal, reported third-quarter net income on Wednesday of $908 million, or 33 cents a share, up from $867 million, or 31 cents a share, in the period a year ago.

Analysts expected Comcast to report earnings of 40 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Comcast blamed part of the shortfall on swings in its investment income from quarter to quarter.

Revenue rose about 5 percent to $14.3 billion.

While Comcast lost basic video customers, it slowed the bleeding during the quarter, losing 165,000 customers compared to a 275,000 in the period a year ago. It also added a better-than-expected 261,000 Internet subscribers.

Overall, it added 229,000 telephone, video and Internet customers, which calmed worries that arose last week when Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems Corp, two rivals, posted disappointing subscriber numbers.

While cable companies have been losing customers to phone companies such as Verizon Communications, a more immediate worry has been the economy. Without jobs, people are far less likely to pay up for premium cable packages; and if they aren't moving into new homes, they aren't signing up for new services.

Cablevision's earnings report sent its shares plunging as much as 16 percent on Friday and dragged down other stocks in the sector, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Dish Network and DirecTV.

"In the context of relatively weak results from Time Warner and Cablevision last week, these results were a welcome relief," Moffett said of Comcast's numbers.

Revenue from Comcast's cable business climbed 5 percent.

NBC Universal also posted higher revenue, but the cost of investing in the media division hurt its profit. The NBC broadcast network, which Comcast has said is a long-term turnaround project, posted a operating cash flow loss of $7 million. And its Universal Pictures movie division saw its profit drop by 17 percent.

Comcast shares crept up 1.6 percent to $23.35 in light premarket trading.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in New York; Editing by Derek Caney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111102/bs_nm/us_comcast

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Boston Dynamics PETMAN portends the pending robot apocalypse

If the sight of Boston Dynamics' unstoppable Alpha Dog didn't convince you of the coming robot apocalypse, then perhaps a glimpse of its bipedal relative, PETMAN, will. Last time we saw the two-legged bot, It was walking well enough, but it lacked the humanoid visage needed to infiltrate and overthrow. In the time since, however, PETMAN has gotten a more anatomically-correct body and some arms -- giving it some push-up prowess to go with its jaunty gait. As the video below demonstrates, this robot isn't a T1000 just yet, but is seems certain PETMAN and its progeny will be running and leaping over us meatbags on the way to the top of the evolutionary food chain soon enough. So our anthropomorphic replacements are on the way, but there's no need for full-blown panic... yet.

Continue reading Boston Dynamics PETMAN portends the pending robot apocalypse

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'Prairie Home' sound effects man Keith dies at 64 (AP)

ST. PAUL, Minn. ? "A Prairie Home Companion" host Garrison Keillor is remembering his longtime sound effects man Tom Keith as "one of radio's great clowns."

Keillor says Keith was "serious about silliness and worked hard to get a moo exactly right and the cluck too and the woof." Keith died suddenly after collapsing at his home Sunday.

In a statement, Keillor says the 64-year-old Keith died of a heart attack. Keillor says Keith performed on the "Prairie Home" show Oct. 22 at St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater, where he did a sound effect of a grade-school teacher being shrunk from 6 feet to 3 inches.

Keillor says Keith complained of shortness of breath the next week but put off seeing a doctor.

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

Tom Keith, a longtime sound effects man who was the source of creaking doors, clucking chickens and more on "A Prairie Home Companion," has died. He was 64.

Keith's death was announced Monday by Jon McTaggart, chief executive of Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media, which distributes "A Prairie Home Companion." He died suddenly after collapsing at his home Sunday, and the cause wasn't immediately known.

Keith had performed with "Prairie Home" host Garrison Keillor since 1976, when Keillor hosted an early version of MPR's "The Morning Show." Keith worked as a board operator but began appearing more and more in skits Keillor produced.

When Keillor moved to "A Prairie Home Companion" full time, Keith co-hosted "The Morning Show," appearing in his alter ego of Jim Ed Poole.

He retired from that program in 2008 but continued to appear on Keillor's show. Along with other regular cast members, he appeared as himself in the 2006 Robert Altman movie "A Prairie Home Companion."

"We're just stunned," said Tim Russell, a voice actor on the show. "He was such a joy to work with and such a master at his craft. He's really going to be missed."

He said he'll remember Keith for his generosity and kindness, as well as his talent.

"We always had just the greatest time," Russell said. "He really kind of reinvented the whole genre of radio sound effects, going back to the earliest days of `A Prairie Home Companion,' and he was so generous to the rest of us as actors and other cast members."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_en_ot/us_obit_tom_keith

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