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- The upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) will likely change the criteria used to assess alcohol problems.
- One proposed change would collapse the two diagnoses of alcohol abuse (AA) and alcohol dependence (AD) into a single diagnosis called alcohol use disorder (AUD).
- Analysis indicates these changes are unlikely to change the prevalence of diagnosed alcohol problems.
Proposed changes to the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) will affect the criteria used to assess alcohol problems. One change would collapse the two diagnoses of alcohol abuse (AA) and alcohol dependence (AD) into a single diagnosis called alcohol use disorder (AUD). A second change would remove "legal problems," and a third would add a criterion of "craving." A study of the potential consequences of these changes has found they are unlikely to significantly change the prevalence of diagnoses.
Results will be published in the March 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
"Updating the DSM could be advantageous if changes are made based on improvements in our understanding of a disorder's etiology, and/or if changes improve the accuracy of the diagnosis," said Alexis C. Edwards, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine as well as corresponding author for the study. "It would probably be a little disappointing if no changes were ever made, because that might suggest that we haven't made much headway in understanding and accurately diagnosing psychiatric disorders, despite all our efforts."
"The DSM represents the 'rulebook' for assigning a psychiatric diagnosis, including one of AA or AD," noted Arpana Agrawal, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. "DSM definitions of psychiatric disorders determine how common or 'prevalent' psychiatric disorders are in the population and who might be eligible for treatment-related benefits. For example, AD is a psychiatric disorder currently diagnosed by the presence of three or more criteria occurring within a single 12-month period versus problematic aspects of behavior such as binge drinking."
Edwards added that there is empirical evidence that AA and AD exist on a continuum. "That is, 'abuse' is different from 'dependence' in degree but not in kind," she said. "If this is the case, then it might be helpful for researchers and clinicians to talk about a general AUD phenomenon rather than operating under a false dichotomy."
Edwards and her colleagues used a population-based sample of twins assessed for lifetime AA and AD diagnoses to explore phenotypic differences across DSM-Fourth Edition and DSM-5. Craving was not included in the analysis due to its exclusion in the fourth edition. "One potential downside to changing the criteria is that information on 'craving' is unavailable in many existing datasets, so many researchers will be limited to examining DSM-IV criteria," observed Edwards.
"One of the key findings is that the prevalence of the new diagnosis, AUD, is unlikely to be much higher than the prevalences we've seen for abuse and dependence combined," said Edwards. "Another key finding is that the genetic etiology of the new diagnosis is almost entirely consistent with that of the current diagnoses. Familial aggregation is an important validator for psychiatric problems, and our findings indicate that the genetic risk captured by AA and AD diagnoses is also captured by the modified AUD diagnosis we used. Finally, our results suggest that the removal of the legal problems criterion in unlikely to adversely affect diagnostic validity as that criterion does not appear to be contributing anything critical to the current diagnosis."
"There are two novel aspects to this particular study," added Agrawal. "First, the authors posit that DSM-5 does not represent a marked improvement in diagnostic validity as those individuals who are newly diagnosed with AUDs do not represent a more severely affected group than those who will no longer be diagnosed – this assertion deserves more research attention and additional study. Second, and particularly unique to this study, they also find that heritable influences on DSM-IV and DSM-5 AUDs, while largely overlapping, do include some genetic factors that are specific to DSM-5 alcohol use disorders – this may turn out to be a particularly exciting research finding."
"It isn't clear that the people who would now be diagnosed with AUD are really any more 'deserving' of that diagnosis than the people who will now be left out diagnostically; rather, it is possible that these changes will result in an exchange of one mildly affected group of people for another," said Edwards. "In addition, craving, which we were unable to include here since it wasn't available in the dataset, could very well add a lot to our understanding of alcohol problems. Furthermore, our findings confirm previous reports that asking about family history can be critical in assessing an individual's risk for alcohol problems. Finally, it's clear that alcohol use problems rarely occur in isolation, so people should be aware that if they've experienced drinking problems, they are also likely to have problems with depression, anxiety, and other substances."
"Clinicians should find it reassuring that an overwhelming majority of those who are currently diagnosed with DSM-IV alcohol abuse/dependence, particularly dependence, will continue to receive a diagnosis with DSM-5 criteria," said Agrawal. "It is important to recognize that the changes coming with the 2013 publication of DSM-5 are based on the accumulated wisdom gleaned from the scientific literature. That said, one group of individuals previously diagnosed with DSM-IV alcohol abuse will no longer receive a diagnosis: these individuals tend to be male, belong to a higher socioeconomic stratum, and frequently endorse drunk driving as the sole symptom of alcohol problems. As these individuals may no longer be eligible for treatment-related benefits, their wellbeing and, in particular, their possible progression to AUDs, should be carefully monitored. Yet overall, the changes are unlikely to have significant impact on the treatment of AUDs."
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "Assessment of a Modified DSM-5 Diagnosis of Alcohol Use Disorder in a Genetically Informative Population," were: Nathan A. Gillespie, Steven H. Aggen, and Kenneth S. Kendler of the Department of Psychiatry at the Virginia Commonwealth University. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. This release is supported by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network at http://www.ATTCnetwork.org.


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Reporter's Note: President Obama won the race, but Mitt Romney grabbed the headlines once again today…that's the subject of today's letter.
Dear Mr. President,
I must say I am surprised by Mitt Romney's comments today. I'm sure that losing was a bitter pill for him to choke down. I would not be surprised if he is embarrassed, angry, and depressed. But to say that you won the election because you gave away things to people who are struggling, even if he really, truly believes that, smacks of the worst kind of poor sportsmanship.
First, the post election polls suggest that his assessment is just wrong. There were millions and millions of Americans who voted for you for all sorts of reasons. Some believe you have the right ideas. Some profoundly dislike the Republicans. Some just like you. And there is precious little evidence that any substantial percentage of your support came from folks who felt like government giveaways would be the Cracker Jack prize in the polling place. In any event, I suspect some sliver of his voters may have done the same thing…voting for him precisely because they thought his policies would hook them up to some kind of monetary opportunities.
Second, saying something like that just reflects badly on the speaker. It makes him look small and bitter. It makes his party (and mind you, he is certainly no spokesman for the entire party) look as if it thinks very little of anyone who voted for you. Note to GOP: That's not a good way to start winning voters over for the next election.
And third, being a sore loser insults the whole contest; it implies that not only was there a type of cheating, but that we all permitted it. And there is just no evidence that that is the case. Yes, it was a tough election. Yes, feelings were hurt. Yes, it was smash mouth politics. But when even a tough race is over, decent people on both sides need to shake hands, say congratulations, and move on. That's it. The victors should not celebrate too loudly. The losers should not whine too much. That is what makes us one country… despite our differences…and not two.
Don't know about you, but I'm glad the week is almost over. Give me a shout if you have some time. Hey, a deer ran into my wife's car last night! She's fine, but not sure about Bambi…more on that later.
Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
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subset: commoncrawl


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One of the enduring debates among presidency scholars is whether and to what degree presidents are more powerful in foreign than in domestic affairs. The answer, as you might expect, depends in large part on how one defines "power" and "foreign" affairs. I won't bother taking you through the extended debate among scholars, much less deign to provide an answer (as with most complicated questions, the best response is "it depends"), but the intellectual roots of this controversy date back at least to a famous article published in 1966 by Aaron Wildavsky in which he claimed that presidents in fact wield much more power in foreign affairs, in part because they have a near monopoly on crucial information pertaining to international events and because there are fewer competing power centers within the foreign affairs bureaucracy. Two recent events remind me of why I have long been skeptical of this portion of Wildavsky's argument, and why I don't think presidents view themselves as very powerful in foreign affairs at all. .
To begin, as most of you know, yesterday in Egypt (their time) it appeared that President Mubarak was poised to step down. Testifying today (our time) before the House Intelligence Committee, CIA director Leon Panetta seemed to confirm that expectation. When Mubarak subsequently went on state television to announce that although he was relinquishing some, or all, of his powers, he was not stepping down, the CIA had to put out a public clarification noting that Panetta was reacting to news stories, and not basing his statements on any inside intelligence gathered by the CIA. Panetta's actions come on the heels of reported exasperation within the White House regarding the intelligence community's failure to give any hint of the impending uprisings in Tunisia or Egypt.
Meanwhile, it is clear that the Obama administration is unsure of how to respond to the unrest in Egypt. Most noticeably, the President's national security team and the State Department issued different responses to news stories reporting that Mubarak's son had been removed from power and that Mubarak was ceding power to his new vice president Omar Suleiman. (Predictably news stories covering this internal debate focused on the role of Frank Wisner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unofficial Egyptian envoy who is also working with lobbying firm Patton Boggs – a firm that has Mubarak as a client. As I have written on many previous occasions, the divide between the White House and State Department is rooted in differing institutional vantage points more than in personalities – this runs deeper than Clinton/Wisner vs. Obama).
The second piece of evidence pertaining to the Wildavsky thesis came courtesy of my coauthor Andy Rudalevige, who forwarded me a link to documents released by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as part of the publicity tour associated with the publication of his memoirs Known and Unknown. The partially redacted nine-page document from Rumsfeld to Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was declassified last month, and contains an assessment of the status of Iraq's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) biological, chemical and nuclear programs. Its contents are succinctly summarized in Rumsfeld's cover letter to Myers, which states, "Please take a look at this material as to what we don't know about WMD. It's big." As it turned out, that knowledge gap regarding WMD's was even bigger than Rumsfeld or the intelligence community surmised.
This, of course, was not the only intelligence summary that got the Iraq WMD issue wrong – declassified portions of the National Intelligence Estimate from that period show that in the collective judgment of the U.S. intelligence agencies Iraq did possess WMD's. In reading Bush's own memoirs, Decision Points, it's not clear if the uncertainty associated with these intelligence estimates was correctly conveyed to him ("Slam Dunk" anyone?) But he was clearly blindsided by the failure to find WMD's – just as Obama has been blindsided by the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
My point is not to defend Bush for acting on faulty intelligence, or to criticize the divisions within the Obama administration regarding how best to respond to the Egyptian crisis. It is instead to point out something that is abundantly clear to anyone who spends even a modicum of time reviewing presidential archives pertaining to foreign policy decisions (as I have spent a good portion of the last decade doing): presidents may feel greater pressure to lead in foreign affairs, but their actual capacity to shape events in this sphere is distinctly limited – often more so than it is at home. And, as Bush's memoir reminds, presidents certainly don't feel any more powerful in the international arena compared to the domestic one. Indeed, the frustration is often greater in foreign affairs. This is in large part because, in contrast to the Wildavsky thesis, presidents are often acting on incomplete or even inaccurate information, and the foreign affairs (or national security) bureaucracy is no more monolithic or responsive to presidential direction than is its domestic counterpart. Indeed, the notion that the president is "in charge" of the national security bureaucracy and can use that authority to act unilaterally in foreign affairs is, in my view, a dangerous perspective, in no small part because presidents quite naturally feel pressured to act on that misperception. The end result of such unilateral efforts is often a weakening of their power base.
Already we are beginning to see an undercurrent of restlessness, especially among progressives, wondering why Obama hasn't acted more forcefully to push Mubarak out. (Presumably they believe there is a happy medium located somewhere between toppling a ruler through invasion versus watching and waiting – but this leaves a very very large grey area for U.S. intervention). We can't be sure what behind-the-scenes steps Obama is taking, of course, but the complaints are a reminder that even in foreign affairs, presidents are not as powerful as we think they are or that they might wish to be.


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TAMO is both an instrument of scholarship and a tool for anyone who wants to explore this remarkable work, a milestone in the history of the English printed book and a signal achievement of its printer, John Day.
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Exposure Lights Strada Mk10 Super Bright Rechargeable Headlight
The Strada Mk10 Super Bright Rechargeable Headlight offers a super-bright output with a road-specific beam to illuminate the darkest of rural roads and a large battery for tricky commutes or longer tours in the saddle.
- Road Specific Beam uses dual lenses to deliver an optimum beam for road cycling with a flat beam for the periphery and a spot beam lighting the way ahead, which can by dimmed for oncoming traffic via a wired handlebar-mounted switch
- An OLED display panel gives program mode information and battery status, including run time. When charging, the display will show the remaining time to full charge
- Optimized Mode Selector provides multiple programs for a choice of run times and modes so you can find the right one for your ride
- USB rechargeable Li-Ion battery
- 1500 Lumens
- 2 – 36 hr run time
- Weight: 230g
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals, including Lead, Diisononyl Phthalate (DINP), and Bis-(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate (DEHP), known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.


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Apple adds 21 artists to iTunes Festival London lineup, including Lenny Kravitz & Ryan Adams
Apple today announced several new bands and solo artists that will be appearing at the 2014 iTunes Festival in London next month along with Pharrell Williams, Maroon 5 and more for a total of 60 acts. Among the new additions to the lineup are Lenny Kravitz, Ryan Adams, and The Script.
The annual festival will be held in London's Roundhouse over the course of September, as well as streamed online for viewers around the world. Apple is partnering with radio stations and other outlets in the UK to give away tickets to fans. The complete list of new additions the line up is below:


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Finding yourself wide awake after a few hours of sleep, or waking often during the night is called "parasomnia" or "sleep maintenance insomnia," and it's much more common than people think. A 2005 National Sleep Foundation poll found that 75 percent of adults frequently have symptoms of a sleep problem, including waking during the night.
Just as the victims in slasher flicks make fatal errors (why are you running up the stairs?), we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to a solid night of sleep. "People think that because they're able to fall asleep they'll stay asleep, even if they've had too much caffeine," says Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., a sleep and dream specialist at Andrew Weil's Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona.
But for most of us, the culprit's not that ill-conceived espresso at 5 p.m. "The root of most sleep problems is stress," says Jeffrey Thompson, director of the Center for Neuroacoustic Research and creator of an audio sleeping aid called the Delta Sleep System. (Now that you know about Delta Sleep, how about getting acquainted with Delta Fit? The Speed Shred workout will blast fat and sculp muscles, igniting your body's metabolism in no time.)
More From Men's Health
We're overloaded, over-stimulated, and overwhelming our bodies' ability to relax. "Our nervous system is built for a sprint, but we're living in a stress marathon," he says. "If you go to bed worried you're probably going to wake up in the middle of the night," Dr. Naiman adds. And when that happens, as you probably know, the next day is pretty much shot.
Last night, 10 million men lost their struggle for a good night's sleep. Today, their jobs, maybe even their lives, are in jeopardy.
A new generation of sleep scientists are overturning the conventional wisdom about parasomnia. (Counting sheep? Out.) They say: You can do it. With a few simple changes in your routine, a little visualization, a couple of surprisingly counter-intuitive moves and perhaps an attitude adjustment, a peaceful night of slumber can be yours. Here's their best advice.
Throw out your definition of a good night's sleep
Just as three square meals a day has given way to all-day grazing and smaller portions, "what's good for you" has changed here, too.
"Thinking it's necessary to stay asleep for 8 hours straight may be unrealistic," says David Neubauer, M.D., associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center and author of Understanding Sleeplessness: Perspectives on Insomnia. "Just as we experience a dip in alertness mid-afternoon, the inverse is a dip in sleepiness in the middle of the night. There's strong evidence that there's a kind of awakening that's totally normal."
History supports this take, Dr. Naiman says. "Before the industrial revolution, people had their first sleep for 3 to 4 hours, awoke for an hour or two, then slept for another 3 or 4 hours."
Even waking every 60 to 90 minutes can be part of a healthy sleep pattern. The deeper stages of sleep, or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, occur about every 90 minutes and get longer as the night goes on, so your brain might become more alert between those cycles.
Since we're conditioned to think that waking during the night is a problem, when it happens, we panic. That reaction causes our brains to awaken even further, Dr. Neubauer explains.
If you find yourself awake in pre-dawn hours, Dr. Naiman advises first assessing your physical state. Do you have an ache, a cramp, or need to go to the bathroom? If so, take care of it.
If you don't have a physical complaint, then chances are you are experiencing a normal stage of the sleep cycle. Knowing this "helps replace worries that you'll be useless without 8 solid hours of sleep with more neutral thoughts," suggests Sat Bir Khalsa, Ph.D., instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School. "The useful thought is: 'I can handle the disruption and still feel rested.'"
Get bed-ready
After an action-packed day (or one equally packed with worry), our brains need some time to catch up, to make order of things, and to slow their frenetic firing before we're ready to sleep. Pure bodily exhaustion can probably get you at least that first hour of dozing, but then worries will rise to the surface and cause you to stir. How can you get your mind to chill?
"We need to learn to apply the brakes before the car is in the garage," Dr. Naiman says. "Clearing your head is key to a good night of sleep." Simply taking 15 minutes to sit quietly, meditate, pray, or do rhythmic breathing can allow your mind to slow down enough to sleep through the night.
Establishing any ritual that you do before bed—anything but checking your e-mail!—will do more than relax you right then and there. The repetition also conditions your brain and body for sleep, Thompson explains.
While you're transitioning to Z-mode the same way night after night, you're also creating a Pavlovian response to your ritual. So simply sitting in the spot where you do your breathing or turning on the shower water signals your mind that it will be sleeping soon, Thompson says.
Another way to condition yourself sleepward is by playing off the body's internal clock. Dr. Naiman suggests simulating dusk about an hour before you plan to go to bed and dimming the lights significantly. This triggers natural circadian rhythms that help us prepare for sleep.
Make the breath-brain connection
Dr. Khalsa recently supervised a small Harvard study using specific breathing techniques to treat insomnia, and all subjects reported an improvement in the quality and quantity of sleep. "There is evidence that long, slow abdominal breathing will reduce anxiety and arousal," Dr. Khalsa explains.
Dr. Naiman recommends one breathing exercise (similar to those Dr. Khalsa used) called the 4-7-8 breath exercise. With your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth, just behind your upper teeth, exhale completely. Close your mouth and inhale through your nose for four counts. Hold your breath for seven counts. Then, exhale while mentally counting to eight. Repeat the cycle three more times. Both are important for restful sleep.
Take a pose to the doze
"There's a feedback loop between the muscles and the brain," Dr. Naiman explains. "When you stretch and release tension, the brain relaxes too." The deepest meditative state is known as "sleepless sleep."
To get to a sleepful state, Dr. Khalsa finds the yoga Bridge pose especially useful. Lie on your back with knees bent at a 90-degree angle and your heels parallel, close to your butt. Lift your hips and arch up onto your shoulders. Lace your palms together underneath your body and press your arms into the floor or mat. Hold the posture while taking 10 to 15 long, slow breaths.
When you wake up anyway
Despite all your best efforts, here you are, awake at an hour even a fisherman would call ungodly. What do you do now? First, here's a big don't: "If you open your eyes and see the clock, that's it for many stressed people," Dr. Walsleben says. "Seeing the time can trigger them to become fully awake." Keep your eyes closed, roll over, or move the clock so the display isn't visible.
If you're still far from dreamland try a mantra. Silently repeat any word that's soothing or pleasant to you, or simply think "inhale" as you inhale "exhale" as you release your breath. Thinking the words over and over focuses and relaxes you, but requires less energy and attention than counting sheep, which can actually be too engaging to work the way it's supposed to.
And if you ever feel guilty about sleeping in, just know that there are plenty of advantages to that extra shut-eye. It's the Bizarre Thing You Have in Common With the Pros.
"Get out, get out!"
After 15 minutes of lying awake in bed, you need a change of venue. "When someone can't sleep, the bedroom can become a torture chamber," Dr. Khalsa says. "Staying there is counter-productive." And you risk associating the bed with your trouble sleeping, which will exacerbate the problem in nights to come.
Go to go to another room. You don't want to become too alert, so make sure you have a nightlight in your hallway and won't need to turn on brighter lights. Occupy yourself with something calming like knitting, listening to chill music on your iPod, or even performing your pre-sleep ritual again. Only when you feel drowsy, Dr. Khalsa says, should you go back to bed. In a very short while, you should be the picture of blissful sleep.
Getting your nap on
It's not just for toddlers. Napping makes great sense for adults, whether or not it puts you in touch with your inner child. When adults napped between 2 and 4 p.m., one recent study showed, they performed better on tests and had no problems falling asleep at night.
NASA found that military pilots and astronauts who took a 40-minute nap improved alertness by 100 percent and performance by 34 percent, and recent Harvard University research also revealed that college students who napped between tasks performed better than those who stayed awake.
How does napping work its brain magic? "It may protect brain circuits from overuse until those neurons can consolidate what's been learned about a procedure," says Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., coauthor of the Harvard study.
Unless you know the correct way to conduct a daytime doze, however, you could snooze and lose. "Napping can steal the drive for nighttime sleep, so you need to be cautious," says David Neubauer, M.D., associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. "The key is to nap early and short."
By early he means daylight hours, at least five hours before you plan on going to sleep that night (between 2 and 4 p.m. is prime). Any later and your circadian rhythms will kick in, possibly making you feel disoriented upon waking and likely preventing you from conking out come your regular bedtime. As for short, keep your naps to less than an hour; 20 to 30 minutes is enough for most people to get the benefits.
To help stick to this nap-plan, stay out of the sack—likely not a problem at the office—since you associate your bed with long periods of rest. Find a quiet couch or carpeted floor where you can lie down. Even shutting your eyes in your office chair for 20 minutes will relax and refresh you. (That's if you can stifle your phone; if not, find an unused conference room.)
Home or work, you'll find that—just like in kindergarten—after a nice restorative nap, you'll play much better with others.


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Issa won't withdraw W.H. subpoena
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa will not back down from a subpoena calling on a senior adviser to President Barack Obama to testify before the panel on Wednesday.
Issa (R-Calif.) told White House Counsel W. Neil Eggleston on Tuesday that David Simas, the director of the Obama administration's office on political affairs, must still testify about that office's alleged violations of the Hatch Act.
Eggleston asked Issa earlier this week to reconsider the subpoena if the White House gave the committee a private briefing but the committee chairman wasn't persuaded.
( QUIZ: How well do you know Darrell Issa?)
Issa said that during a briefing on Tuesday, White House officials didn't answer the committee's lingering questions and document requests.
"Under this Administration, like previous administrations, members of President Obama's cabinet have committed violations of the Hatch Act, which draws a line between campaign and official business," Issa wrote to Eggleston. "The Committee has outstanding questions for Mr. Simas, who did not take part in the briefing, and it is necessary for him to appear at tomorrow's hearing… I believe his on-the-record testimony will provide valuable insight into White House efforts to ensure appropriate use of taxpayer funds."
The White House sent a set of lawyers to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to brief Issa's staff on the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach. A Democratic source said the lawyers answered 45 questions during a 75-minute briefing. That source also disputed Issa's account that the lawyers - specialists on the Hatch Act - declined to answer questions from staffers.
Neither Issa nor Simas attended the briefing.


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Sometimes the wisest words are spoken by those who are just starting to follow their dreams.
Almost everyone in the small Alaska town where I live sits in the gym bleachers each May for our high school graduation. It's as much a rite of spring as daffodils and fresh salmon. Some years are better than others—I'm glad to say this was one of the good ones.
It wasn't so much what was said by the two top students, who always give the speeches, as what these particular graduates did. Actions really do speak louder than words, and they are often easier to remember.
The valedictorian, a tall, cheerful girl who will be playing basketball at a community college next year, spoke sincerely and succinctly about her classmates. Abby's talk lasted less than 10 minutes. All she did was say one sentence about the best qualities of each student, but that was plenty. As soon as the audience realized she wasn't only singling out the class stars, you could see each graduate anticipate his or her turn, then sit up and bask in the glow from Abby's praise. The dads of those students nodded proudly or held up a camera while the moms reached for a tissue.
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Even the "problem kids" received a good word. Of a boy who barely earned his diploma, she noted that he could always fix your car. (His dad pumped a fist and hollered "Right on.") About a girl who had some issues with attendance—she skipped school a lot—Abby said she always made her classmates laugh when they were down. Her mother and aunts cheered.
Who knows? Thanks to Abby, that boy may become an Army mechanic and save lives with his skills, and the girl may decide to be a nurse's aide and help children in the pediatric wing of a hospital. I have a feeling that if Abby had said, "Follow the golden rule and love your neighbor as yourself," the message would not have resonated in the same way.
The salutatorian, who will be going to the Naval Academy as one of just a handful of young people from here to ever apply to such a place, much less get in, used his few minutes at the podium to acknowledge each of the school's nine teachers. Blake said that without their instruction and support, he would not have even thought about an academy appointment or known how to get one. Understanding that you don't succeed all by yourself will help make him a fine naval officer.
I suppose Blake could have told his classmates to "walk confidently in the direction of their dreams," but instead he said "thank you" to his teachers and the other community members who had helped him do that. One of the local Tlingit Indian elders who live in this part of Alaska once told me that sometimes "thank you" is the most important speech you can make. Blake proved that.
Though you're not supposed to pray out loud in a public school, the impulse to do so, especially at graduation, can be overwhelming. For many parents, teachers and no doubt the principal, just seeing some of these students accept a diploma is proof of the power of prayer.
This year the choir came up with a creative compromise: They sang the Lord's Prayer in harmonious Swahili. When they performed "Moon River," many of us grew teary thinking about all the proverbial rivers we've forded since we were 18, how quickly our lives sped off after our own high school years and how maybe, as Abby had pointed out to her classmates at the conclusion of her address, just maybe, we had changed the world for the better—even a little—with the way we raised our families, ran our businesses or volunteered around town.
The final speaker to take the podium was Ms. Martin, the English teacher. Really, all she had to do was stand there as living proof that each student could be anything he or she wanted to be. Ms. Martin had managed the Bamboo Room Restaurant, a one-room grill in town, for 10 years before going back to college and eventually earning a bachelor's degreein English. She didn't stop there. She also has a master's degree in secondary education. She said that no matter what the students chose to do, she hoped that like her, they would "set goals and never give up on your dreams."
As she finished her speech, we all sprang to our feet and cheered.
I am wiser because of the lessons I learned in the high school gym: Find the good in people, be grateful and work hard to make dreams a reality. As we filed out, my husband said, "That was the best graduation we've had in a long time, maybe ever." He was right—it really was. At least until next year.
"One of the local Indian elders who live in this part of Alaska once told me that sometimes 'thank you' is the most important speech you can make."
HEATHER LENDE is a contributing editor to Woman's Day. Her most recent book is Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs. She lives in Haines, AK.


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This past weekend Henry Gentry took off for the National Ice Cream Championship in Greenville, South Carolina and took second place in both the vanilla and chocolate categories. You know Henry from his Plano ice creamery, Henry's Homemade Ice Cream.
Henry's is pretty amazing and you can also find it in other places without scurrying to Plano. Jimmy's Food Store will generally carry the goods, as does Polka Dot Bakery in Addison. There are plenty of restaurants that serve custom flavors such as Parigi and Komali. Henry actually has over 400 accounts that resells his product.
It would be nice if we all stopped in this week for a scoop and congratulated Henry.


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Flurry: Holiday 2012 sees new 1-week record with 50M iOS & Android activations and 1.76B app downloads
Flurry today released its stats for worldwide app downloads during the 2012 holiday season. It recently released some stats for Christmas Day, including a huge 332 percent increase over previous years to 17.4 million new iOS and Android activations and 328 million app downloads. Today it shared some stats for the entire week starting on Christmas and ending New Year's Day, noting it recorded the highest number of activations and app downloads for any week in history. As highlighted in the images, Flurry estimated 50 million devices activations and an increase of 65 percent to 1.76 billion app downloads:
The final week of the year, between Christmas and New Year's Day, grew by 65% over the early-December baseline, historically breaking through the largest single week record previously set during the same week of 2011. While several weeks since late November delivered billion+ week download levels, the holiday week delivered a record-shattering 1.7 billion downloads… Looking forward to 2013, Flurry expects the trend of one-billion-download weeks to become the norm, and that the industry will surpass the two-billion download week during Q4.


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Literally. This movie looks like if Lucifer impregnated Las Vegas.
I have no real intention of seeing it. Regardless of sexual deviance, or bent genders, the Wachowski's are clearly off their collective gourd. The first Matrix was a fluke. It was nearly (if not totally) perfect SciFi in all respects. Since then they've… faltered. I don't count "V" because it wasn't really their film, any more than "From Dusk Till Dawn" was a Tarantino film. Somehow they eeked out a good screenplay for that movie, but praise be to Robot-Jesus they didn't direct it. Otherwise V would have been played by a neon digital Keanu and it would have taken place in am underground rave-cave.
I can imagine the Wachowski's directing style. One is screaming, "LESS ACTING! MORE EFFECTS!!!" while the other is trying on stilletos and taintless chaps.
I watched the Speed Racer cartoons on Mtv when I was in middle school. I always wondered what Speed was actually hoping to achieve. He just seemed to race, and race and race with no real goal in sight. He often said he had to be "the best" but that's about as vague and "gotta' catch em all. " I'm sure he had a complex or two dozen. Pops named the kid "Speed." That limited his career choices to race car driver or meth addict. I gathered from the show, he was both.
I just realized that the title sequence from the cartoon actually had animated "bullet time" when Speed jumps out of the Mach V. Weird.


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Looking back at my 2016 end-of-the-year post before starting this one off was a pretty interesting little experience. Mostly because I reflected on the fact that last year was a pretty universally divisive time with a lot of personal accomplishment that made things worth it all in the end.
This year, I have essentially the same thing to say. Except I would argue that the divisive part of things had been turned up to 11. Plus, while things have been great for me, a lot of things also have not been so great.
Spoiler alert, I'm basically just ready for 2017 to end.
Unlike in last year's discussion, I won't go too far into detail about my video game playing experiences this year. I kind of already did it with my top 10 games list the other day, even if that was in order of my personal enjoyment rather than the chronological order I played things.
I'm going to just leave this off as a 'check that list out here' note rather than talking too much more about it, especially since I'm probably going to do a few more video game-centric posts soon enough.
Namely tomorrow when Fire Emblem Heroes New Year units are released.
To cover all of my bases in this post just in case you guys don't want to look back, just know that I didn't play nearly as many games as I would have liked this year, and while I thoroughly enjoyed just about everything I did play, it's a shame I couldn't have done more due to my time commitments.
Speaking of, those time commitments wound up bookmarking my 2017 more than my video games did in that respect.
The Daily Titan has been the main driving force of that throughout the year. While last spring semester was my first time being an editor for the paper alongside Megan Maxey, I continued on in that role both semesters this year, only getting better and better at the job (in my opinion, at least).
During the fall semester, I worked together with Sarah Wolstoncroft – who had been one of my amazing assistants the semester before. Then this last semester, I worked together with Brandon Pho – who again had been one of my amazing assistants the semester before. Amazing how that pattern works out in the smaller College-level news industry, especially when you're one of the younger starting people in the room to observe it.
Looking back at my archive, I've written a total of 40 stories between these last two semesters combined. That's a lot of writing, even kind of overwhelming to think back to considering everything else I balanced, and there are some of them I'll probably never forget working on.
A couple of articles were really serious last minute things I've had to do, such as our reporting the night of the Las Vegas shooting. A couple of them have been little passion projects for things like video games, such as my reviews of the Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga remake and Fire Emblem Heroes. I've even done a few things I never quite expected to do at this point in what is a burgeoning career, like writing entire articles off of my phone while translating documents at Downtown Disney. The policies put into place by President Donald Trump, as well as things like the CSU-wide tuition increase, played big parts in the overarching issues we covered.
However, I think the stories I especially won't forget are the massive projects I helped lead during my time as an editor.
During the spring came the work we did on Homeless in OC, a series that blossomed out of the Daily Titan advisor Bonnie Stewart's Investigative Reporting class where I got to participate in the all night Point-In-Time count and do extended research into the Anaheim shelter system, particularly under Mercy House.
Spring was also the semester of the Eric Canin incident that shook up Cal State Fullerton. For those who don't remember, at an anti-Trump rally early on in the year, an anthropology professor reportedly struck a member of the College Republicans club as both the protest and counter-protest made their way through campus. There wound up being many months worth of stories to follow as a political shitstorm erupted over the altercation, eventually resulting in the Professor coming back to teach as the verdict came out that he did strike the student, but there were enough caveats to the moment given it was his first offense that no harsh action was taken outside a few month's suspension. That last story in particular was special for me in that our Chief Communications Officer Jeffrey Cook reached out specifically to give us information ahead of time so I could write a substantial story over the summer wrapping things up.
Part of the Canin story involved me growing a close relationship with members of the College Republicans club, which was extra useful come the fall semester when I got to be the lead reporter in our work on Milo Yiannopoulos coming to CSUF.
Granted, that whole experience did kind of wreck my Halloween this year, but the aspect of working on and learning from such a high-controversy story was something I wouldn't change for the world.
Plus, I got to be on NPR because of it, so I definitely can't complain about that.
The fall semester was also bookmarked by dealing with (current) University President Mildred Garcia. I got to be part of the team that did an interview with her toward the beginning of the semester, and I was also the person that covered the fact that she would be leaving at the end of the semester. In my opinion, it's never a bad thing to build a good reputation with the higher-ups in an organization. Makes it easier to do things like get comments down the line.
Those big stories weren't the only things that made this such a hard-working year for me. I also kept on with Dr. Jason Sexton as a part of Boom, which led to me becoming the inaugural editor for an offshoot publication called California Connections in the spring. That project did get off the ground, but most of the work in creating a publication is going to flourish in 2018, so stay tuned for that.
I also started on probably my first major internship over the summer by joining a non-profit organization called Gladeo. Gladeo's goal is to create a database of business profiles and job descriptions that can all be in one place and help students decide what they want to do for a living. A pretty noble goal, and one that I likely would have benefitted from if I haven't found my place as a Journalist.
Even if certain other events (that I'll go into in a bit) got in the way of working hard for that group over the spring semester as well, I'm sticking on with them too and will continue to produce profiles as the organization revamps its web presence in the early months of this upcoming year.
There are still a few interviews I did with people who work at DreamWorks animation that I have to pull together into articles… But I will get around to that soon enough.
Among my journalistic ventures this year, I also got to do some cool things like visit the LA Weekly office. It was a great place and I got to meet some cool people as a result… It's just too bad they were given a bad break just a few months later. It's a shame, really. Especially since we know people who worked there personally.
On top of that, I've also had a few other fun trips throughout the year. Revisiting Old Fort MacArthur Days comes to mind, as does events I've taken part in at places like The Autry Museum. Plus, I got to go to the Fox studio lot for a movie screening – though I wasn't allowed to take any pictures there, unfortunately.
Being a journalist is only half of my professional moniker, however. The other half is being a student, and I have to say that my classes have been quite enjoyable this year… For the most part.
During the fall I took California Government and got a wider understanding of just how crazy things are in the old Golden State I've grown up in. I also took Primate Anthropology, which gave me a pretty deep appreciation of our mammalian ancestors that I never exactly expected to care so much about. My aforementioned Investigative Reporting class allowed me to work with Bonnie and other members of The Daily Titan and journalism majors in general to do some really fascinating and personally perspective-changing research into Homeless populations. Finally, I also thoroughly enjoyed my honors class, which delved into the history of the modern world from a deep perspective, offering in part some really interesting connections to today's political and social workings.
When spring came along, for some reason I decided to kill myself further by kicking things up a notch and taking five classes.
I coincided my work on California Connections with an internship class out of the English college under the instruction of our internship advisor in Communications, since I was able to get extra credits toward my degree despite not being able to take the Comm-focused internship. Beyond that, I picked up my minor in psychology and jumped right in with a Statistics course (with its corresponding lab) and a course in Developmental Psychology. Both were undoubtedly great entry points into the minor… Even if I admittedly was not the strongest stats student, at least in part due to the fact that I wasn't a huge fan of my professor. However, my Multimedia Journalism class under Bonnie once again gave me a great opportunity to practice doing video journalism, which at one point helped me bolster my working relationship with the Project Rebound program on campus, and my Junior Honors Colloquium course began me down the journey of preparing for my inevitable Senior Honors project.
Plus, I was in the same class as the president of the College Republicans club, which made things vastly easier to keep up on the Milo coverage than it otherwise could have been.
Sheesh, just writing all of that out was a bit exhausting. Like a lot of people have asked me in the past, I too kind of question how I've been able to do all of this with enough competency not to necessarily fall on my ass in any of it.
Who knows, maybe I'm just a bit better at this whole life thing than I give myself credit for.
Despite this wealth of academic and real-life opportunities that have flourished for me over the last year, not everything in 2017 has been all sunshine and rainbows.
Namely, health has been a major concern for my family all throughout.
A lot of the beginning of the year focused on some of my dad's diabetic complications, which led to him being off his feet for a long, long time due to the introduction of a number of foot surgeries into his life. Luckily, he's way better now and did not have to go through anything seriously traumatic, so he'll be apt to tell you that the big take-away from it all was the ease that comes from now having a handicap permit.
My mom and sister also went through their own little arcs, the prior dealing with bronchitis and badly scraping up her knees and the latter dealing with tendinitis that has minorly inconvenienced her blossoming career in music.
However, the other big medical complication of the year came from one other than yours truly.
I haven't exactly talked about this little chapter of my life too publicly because it was a very personal thing, but at this point I'm well past the blunt of it and figure now would be as good a time as ever to recount the details for posterity.
During a blood test as part of my routine check-up in September, the doctor found that my blood platelet count was abnormally, if not dangerously low. When that result continued to show itself, I was sent to a Hematologist, where we tried a number of treatments to resolve the issue, such as taking steroids over a long period of time in hopes of correcting what was believed to be a potential issue with an overactive immune system.
When that didn't show as promising a result as expected, I instead took part in an Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IvIG) treatment. After two days worth of a number of hours sitting in a chair, I wound up being in the lucky .01 percent minority that suffered from aseptic meningitis as a result of the treatment.
It was a viral form of the problem, which meant it wasn't nearly as serious, life-threatening or contagious as a potential bacterial strain would have been. However, I landed in the hospital for a couple days as a result.
On the one hand, I will admit that it was kind of nice getting a reprieve from the world and some quiet time to catch up on work while I was there. Though, on the other hand, it obviously put a wrench in… Basically everything. Even after I got out of the hospital, where I got to try a bunch of new things like a spinal fluid tap, there was at least a week afterward that I still had to rest at home and couldn't look in the light for more than a few minutes.
Once my life began to normalize again, I was still a little fuzzy-headed for a while, but eventually I got to a comfortable place again, where I continue to stay today.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that my blood platelet count normalized perfectly after the IvIG (a rather ironically perfect twist of fate I'd say), the number has fallen back down since. It's an issue I might be dealing with for the rest of my life as things go, but for now I can happily report that things are going fine.
That long, drawn-out experience which interrupted a part of my 2017 was only one part of why I'd say things were so rough. Among them were the echo chamber of news that I now tend to subject myself to as a semi-professional journalist.
I don't like to get very political on my blog here. Or anywhere, in fact. My whole choice in career is built upon the ideal that I should simply be a reporter of things, as objective as possible about as many things as possible. So, I'll leave it at this. Watching things happen in the world of national politics that I don't agree with has been a constantly draining force in 2017, especially given that it seems to be all we hear about day-in and day-out for months on end.
Though as usual things like video games and time with my friends are a great escape from that endless grind, as I mentioned before I've found myself busier than ever with the work that keeps me immersed in that world, so it's been a fairly relentless cycle.
Even with all the negativity that has defined 2017 for me, however, I can't help but continue to look optimistically into the future.
2018 has some big projects in the works, such as the hopefully successful publication of California Connections toward the end of this spring semester.
On top of that, I'm going to be working as a staff member of The Daily Titan through the journalism concentration capstone class, Comm 471. Alongside that opportunity for a break from the hard-working job of editorial board that I've hammered at for the last year-and-a-half, I'm also going to hopefully be an assistant on a more feature-focused desk to give me a better grasp of the newspaper as a whole.
Past that, 2018 should hopefully be a year where I find myself less downtrodden by things like medical concerns. With a Nintendo Switch in my possession for the whole year ahead, it should also be a good opportunity to try even more games should I find the time to do so.
As I like to get meta with this site as well, I've put together 103 posts throughout this year (this one included), and I've gotten a good chunk more views in the process.
I'm looking forward to watching this little passion project of mine grow about as much as everything else, since it really has developed into something I enjoy doing. One thing I'd like to do in the coming year is hopefully diversify what I post just a bit more, but we'll see what my time permits.
Lastly, for now at least, 2018 will also be the year that I turn 21. A typically sought-after time where I'll finally be able to round-out the governmental privileges of adulthood like drinking. Though I don't plan to do a whole lot of that, I admit I am looking forward to a certain sense of prestige that comes with it.
If you have any favorite, or I suppose not-so-favorite memories from 2017, feel free to let me know about them in the comments section. I'm hoping it's been an overall happier year for all of you out there than it has been for me, since I'm just about ready to leave everything behind for something better around the corner.
Here's to a Happy New Year for everyone who continues to stick around on this little journey I call my life!


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When the critic rants: a defense
The San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic, Michael Bauer, got some heat from his readers in the "comments" section of his blog yesterday after he [Michael] trash-talked a restaurant for selling him a bad bottle of wine at an inflated price.
The wine was a Portuguese rosé that Michael paid $30 for. "I suspect[ed] the bottle was corked," Michael wrote, explaining that he didn't return it because, as the most famous restaurant critic in Northern California, he didn't want to draw attention to himself.
It wasn't just the bad wine that irked him, it was the service. Waitstaff didn't even put wine glasses on the table, only "small drinking glasses." Moreover, "The staff didn't seem to know anything about wine." (It should be noted that the restaurant, Mau, is a Vietnamese restaurant, in the red-hot Valencia Corridor of the city's Mission District, so maybe you have to cut them some slack.) As for the $30 tab, Michael had a friend do some calculating and determined that the restaurant paid about $6.90 a bottle, meaning they marked it up more than four times, which he called "gouging."
Michael was clearly irked and in ranting mode, and some readers called him out on it. One wrote, "Here is a simple solution Bauer, if you don't like the pricing at a restuarant DON"T eat there." Another: "There's a simple solution to this. Stop wining." And: "There are people homeless in New Jersey and Staten Island and this guy is fuming over a bottle of Rose instead?" and: "This just goes to show that Bauer either has never worked the books at a restaurant or is bad at writing." And: "O cry me a river. As a poster mentioned earlier, we don't see anybody publishing articles about the mark up of popcorn in a movie theater." And: "You suspected the wine was corked but didn't send it back? I don't see how being a reviewer affects the correct behavior in this case." And: "If you are worried about saving money get a case of cheap Zin at Trader Joes and order a pizza to eat at home."
Okay, so maybe Michael brought some of this snarkiness on himself. He was in a bad mood, he was venting, and this wasn't his printed column in the newspaper, it was his blog, where immediacy and emotional transparency come easier and are more appropriate to the medium than in a print publication. But let me tell you, as a critic myself, sometimes you need to rant, and I'll explain why.
It wasn't just Michael's experience at Mau that so distressed him. He's had that same experience scores, if not hundreds of times, over many years, at many restaurants. Mau just tipped him over the edge. It happens. You see a dereliction of duty and, recalling too many such, you lose your temper and let 'er rip. Now, you can argue that a critic should always be evenly-tempered and sweet in disposition, and you might be theoretically correct, but that's not reality. Critics have very high standards of ethical behavior–Michael for restaurants, me for wineries. We bring that high moral code to the industries we report on, and even though we know we're supposed to remain balanced, sometimes the violations just get to you. You think, These people are idiots. They don't deserve to be in business! You want and need to get it out of your system–to cleanse yourself–to rant.
As for the snarky comments, I get a lot of those myself, as some of my readers know. They don't bother me, as I'm sure Michael isn't bothered, either. Both of us know, before we hit that "publish" button, that we're going to get snark, and the stronger we feel about something, the more snark we get. It goes with the territory. But intensity, two-way communication, passion, opinionating, strong expression of feeling, even snark–they're all part of the blogging experience. I'm glad. Readers have been used to being on the receiving end of a one-way communication for a long time, and now that they have the ability to respond, they take full advantage of it.
Bravo, Steve, I appreciated your candid thoughts here. Of course, reading some of those ridiculous comments aimed at Michael reminded me of yelp.
The most important WINE critic? What has he been smoking?
In today's "anti-social" media – anyone who writes anything, anywhere, anytime, is likely to face a barrage of snarky, if not downright nasty comments. Think when people sit behind their computers all day and have no real social contact with others, it makes the grumpy and angry at the world… These folks need to get out more and engage in some real social events… And, probably part of the way the world is today as well, Steve – everything is divided (just look at the silly comments all over the internet about the election yesterday), people seem very angry, and they seem more than willing to take that anger out on anyone who happens to be close by…
I agree with Michael Bauer on the pricing of the Marhalas Rose. I used to work with the importer and it's a great wine meant to be sold at around $10 retail. And he sure didn't deserve the comments flung his way. What was bad was that so many of them were off topic. Those commenters can conflate every discretionary purchase with a tragedy somewhere in the world if they want. Just don't expect me to invite them to dinner
Your statement, "Critics have very high standards of ethical behavior," is right on the money. That is one of the principal differences between the critic and the average YELP reviewer. Dining out at the best restaurants, drinking good wine or attending theatre productions is what we critics do often. Our opinions are usually well-informed. Sometimes we rant, yes, but more often our criticism is designed to be constructive, to spur restaurants and winemakers to do better.
Re: "as the most famous restaurant critic in Northern California, he didn't want to draw attention to himself."
Last week Bauer slipped into Press in St. Helena unannounced for dinner. Within 30 seconds everyone on the staff was made aware he was there and acted accordingly. This pretense that he gets the same service and the same food as everyone else is similar to the wine critic who claims he tastes blind and then does all the tasting standing in the cellar of the winery he is visiting. God forbid the rant in a Bauer review if he actually did have to experience a restaurant anonymously.
Can a restaurant cook better for a certain guest? If the diner gets an especially good table? If the whole meal is done personally by the chef and not delegated? If the chef goes into the locker and selects the best cut? Lf the fries don't sit and cool and stand especially tall in the napkin presentation? If the somm knows the wine knowledge of the guest, is especially helpful, and presents no BS? Lf the service is quick, efficient and spot on? If the pastry chef takes special care in the dessert order and adds something extra to the plate? All are small differences that can influence a review. Andre Simon said the best restaurant is the one where they know you the best. And believe me, they know Bauer by now.
Steve, when I was younger, knew everyone in town, and most were patients(over 86K when I had to leave practice),it was always distressing to go into a decent local restaurant, be recognized, and then get a corked bottle of wine. Admittedly, I ate the cost of the wine, let it sit, untouched on the table, and if either waiter or owner didn't ask, "Sir, don't you care for your wine?", I just let it go. 12 yrs later, mostly unrecognized, I don't think twice about saying, "Unnnhhhh, guys ,this bottle is corked". If you then have a waiter who comes to the table and says, "we'll get you another right away"….that is a good outcome. But woe be it to the yokel who tries to convince me that bottle of drek is fine…when it definitely isn't. I understand the reluctance to say much when you are well known…it can be very embarrassing. Now, not much recognized, I just let them have it. You pay $30 for a bottle of guck, you deserve a $30 bottle.
As an aside, the restaurant markups are ridiculous at times, just painful at others. A yr ago we withdrew all our wines from restaurants, hotels, wine bars, etc….buying at below cost of production and marking up 4 or 5 fold, and in once case, 8 fold….well, that is just pretty hard for a vintner to swallow.
Now we sell just to wine club members or by apptmt only w/ vintner. For us, a much better way than to enrich certain restaurants, wine bars, hotels, etc. It is more palatable, too.
Thanks for bringing this up.
- NEWS FETCH – NOVEMBER 7, 2012 | Wine Industry Insight - [...] When the critic rants: a defense [...]
- The essence of wine snobbery | Wine 2020 - [...] was able to relieve himself in his blog, which eerily comes just days after I blogged my own post,…


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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea said a consortium of Caesars Entertainment and Indonesia's Lippo conglomerate has received a preliminary license to build a casino-resort near the country's largest airport, stepping up competition among Asian countries to lure Chinese tourists.
The Indonesian-U.S. consortium plans to spend 743.7 billion won ($696 million) to open a casino town in Incheon in 2018, South Korea's culture ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
It is the first South Korean casino license given to foreign investors, though a final approval is pending.
Caesars says the consortium hopes to open the resort in time to welcome visitors arriving in Korea for the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang.
It will become South Korea's largest casino serving exclusively foreigners and boost the tourism industry and tax revenues, according to the ministry that oversees culture, sports and tourism.
The only place in South Korea where gambling is legal for residents is the Kangwon Land casino in Gangwon province east of Seoul, which was opened to help revive a former coal-mining town.
The ministry will review in January 2018 whether the Lippo-Caesars consortium's investment is carried out as planned before giving a final casino license. The launch of the resort is expected three months later.
The Lippo-Caesars development will be located on Yeongjong island, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Incheon International Airport on the same island and about 40 kilometers from downtown Seoul.
The resort area will also include a five-star hotel, serviced residences, a theater, a convention center and other commercial facilities, according to the consortium's proposal submitted to the government.


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Mayor Julián Castro and state Sen. Dan Patrick don't agree on much.
Including the ground rules and timing of a debate that spawned during a battle on social media between the two over what Patrick calls the "illegal invasion" in Texas.
Patrick, a GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, wants the immigration debate to take place before the primary election on March 4, particularly to gain momentum and press coverage he hopes to boost him to a victory.
@DanPatrick ? Gave your guy March 19/25/26. You're ok w/March bc u plan to win primary on 3/4, right? Or do u need Feb dates in case u lose?
— Mayor Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 31, 2014
However, Castro, a Democrat, wants to wait until mid-March, after the primary, and says Patrick is scared to wait "in case (he) loses" the election, which he faces incumbent David Dewhurst, among others.
If Patrick wins the primary or, more likely, makes it to a May 27 runoff with Dewhurst, the debate could provide fodder for hometown Democrat state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who is also running for lieutenant governor.
.@juliancastro We sent 3days in February. In middle of statewide campaign but managed to find time. #illegalinvasion topic #1 of importance.
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) January 31, 2014
The Twitter war began last week when Castro called Patrick "the Pete Wilson of Texas."
Congratulations .@danpatrick You are the most anti-immigrant Republican running for statewide office. You are the Pete Wilson of Texas.
— Mayor Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 22, 2014
Patrick, a conservative radio host from Houston who doesn't shy away from the spotlight, fired back with a challenge to debate immigration policy.
Let's do that, @DanPatrick . How about it, @evansmith ?
— Mayor Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 24, 2014
It is still unclear if the debate will take place, or when the opponents will iron out the details.
Data editor Joe Kokenge contributed to this report.


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Tight grain and crumbly bread from Peter Reinharts Whole Grain Bread Recipes
I am a novice baker. I started with a couple of no-knead style recipes and my wife recently bought me Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads". I am finding that with the WGB recipes the bread tastes great, but the crumb is very tight, and is crumbly when cutting. I know that I won't get the open crumb of an all white flour loaf, but I feel like I am doing it wrong. I have also noticed that I have to stir longer than the one minute suggested, and I am also having to knead much longer than the 2/3 minutes plus a minute after rest to get some a decent window pane, which still is barely making a window before tearing. I am kneading more like 10 minutes or more to even start. One thing I will note is that I am in Denver, CO so I am not sure how much the altitude and the dryness is affecting my results. I have had a little better luck with the transitional recipes than the 100% whole wheat, but still doesn't look anything like the pictures ;)
I think my technique for kneading isn't the best. I am mostly just mashing and folding. I have seen a couple of videos that explain the virtues of the french fold, and other very little kneading required techniques. I haven't tried them because I am not sure how the fit into the normal flow of the WGB style recipes. I would appreciate any feedback or knowledge about ways that I can make my bread a little more open and less crumbly.


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Florence continues pouring widespread, heavy rains as it moves Northeast
Emergency workers delivered truckloads of food and water to Wilmington, a city of 120,000 people cut off from the rest of North Carolina by Florence's still-rising floodwaters, as helicopters and boat pulled people from homes swamped by swollen rivers.
The deadly storm still had abundant rain and top winds around 30 mph early Monday, and forecasters said it was expected to gradually pick up forward speed and complete a big turn toward the Northeast, which is in for as much as 6 inches of rain.
Flooding worries were increasing in West Virginia and Virginia, where roads were closed and power outages were on the rise. About 500,000 homes and businesses were in the dark.
President Donald Trump has issued a disaster declaration for North Carolina and that will make federal money available to people in the counties of Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender.
Storm taking lives:
- The death toll from the hurricane-turned-tropical storm climbed to at least 32 Monday with 25 of those being in North Carolina, according to the Associated Press.
Some of the victims have been identified as follows:
- A 41-year-old female and her 7-month-old son died in Wilmington on Sept. 14 when a tree fell on their home.
- A 68-year-old male in Lenoir County died when he was electrocuted while plugging in a generator on Sept. 14.
- A 77-year-old male in Lenoir County fell and died due to a cardiac event while outside checking on his dogs during the storm on the night of Sept. 13-14.
- A 61-year-old woman was killed late Friday when the vehicle she was driving struck a tree near the town of Union, South Carolina, Capt. Kelley Hughes of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said.
- Two people died from inhaling carbon monoxide from a generator in their South Carolina home.
- The storm's death toll climbed to 18 when authorities found the body of a 1-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in North Carolina after his mother drove into floodwaters and lost her grip on him while trying to get back to dry land.
Weather alerts changing:
- Florence weakened to a tropical depression Sunday morning. A turn toward the northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected.
- The storm is about 125 miles west-wouthwest of Roanoke, Virginia, and 145 miles west northwest of Greensboro, North Carolina, according to the NHC's 5 a.m. advisory. Florence's center will curve over the Ohio Valley and Northeast Monday and Tuesday.
- Flash flood warnings are currently in effect across a large portion of southern and western North Carolina and portions of far northern South Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center.
- Flash flood watches are in effect across much of North Carolina, northern South Carolina and portions of western Virginia and southern West Virginia, the National Hurricane Center reported.
- Portions of the Carolinas, mid-Atlantic states, and southern New England are expected to receive an additional 2 to 5 inches of rain, forecasters said.
- Landslides are also possible in the higher terrain of the southern and central Appalachians across western North Carolina into southwest Virginia, according to the National Hurricane Center.
- A couple of tornadoes remain possible from northeast South Carolina and eastern/central North Carolina into parts of Virginia, western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania through Monday.
Crews saving people, working on power problems:
- The Marines, the Coast Guard, civilian crews and volunteers used helicopters, boats and heavy-duty vehicles Saturday to rescue hundreds of people trapped by Florence's onslaught.
- New Bern spokeswoman Colleen Roberts said 455 people were rescued in the town of 30,000 residents without any serious injuries or deaths. Coast Guard helicopters were taking off across the street to rescue stranded people from rooftops and swamped cars.
- Coast Guard members said choppers had made about 50 rescues in and around New Bern and Jacksonville as of noon.
- Marines rescued about 20 civilians from floodwaters near Camp Lejeune, using Humvees and amphibious assault vehicles, the base reported.
- Nearly 700,000 homes and businesses still don't have power in the Carolinas, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks the nation's electrical grid.
- Swiftwater rescue teams are helping residents of one North Carolina coastal community. New Bern spokeswoman Colleen Roberts said more than 360 people had been rescued by midafternoon Friday.
- More than 60 people had to be pulled from a collapsing motel in Jacksonville at the height of the storm.
- By midday Friday, airlines had canceled more than 2,100 U.S. flights from the storm's approach on Wednesday through Sunday, according to tracking service FlightAware.
- Governors of North and South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and Virginia declared states of emergency far ahead of the approaching storm.


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Boston: Dine at a Discount with GoPapaya App
Whether you're a student or someone with a "real job", everyone loves saving money, right?
Well, Bostonians can now have more opportunities to save money while dining out with this new mobile app startup called GoPapaya.
The idea of GoPapaya is like HotelTonight: they work with restaurants to fill tables during the restaurants' down time by offering discounts to customers, usually between 10-30%. On top of that, since they are new and promoting their app, you can sign up with my referral code "pigs10" and they will send you a $10 Amazon gift card after you complete your first reservation!
The restaurant will set a discount on the app in real time, and you'll have 30 minutes to arrive at the restaurant once you make your reservation. When you open the app, it will show you what discounts are available and for how much, sorted by the distance.
Once you reserve the table, they will hold it for 30 minutes. During this hold and when you're checked in, you can't reserve another table unless you cancel the current one. Here's when I made one for lunch at Patty Chen's Dumpling Room in Central Square.
To use it, you'd turn on your bluetooth, and the app will automatically detect when you get to the restaurant and check you in. You don't need to purchase anything from the app so there's no upfront cost like Groupons.
When I got to Patty Chen's Dumpling Room, I just told them I made a reservation with GoPapaya, and they knew what I was talking about.
|Pork Dumpling "Ramen" at PC Dumpling Room
The discount does not include alcohol (because Massachusetts law) but otherwise there's no restriction and you can order whatever you want. This way it is better than some Groupons where you have to do a special prix fixe menu.
I've used it at India Pavillion, also in Central Square, which was offering 20% off for lunch.
The discount is automatically taken off your bill, so there's no awkward "can I get your voucher number" moment (in case you're trying to impress a date!)
They are still growing the list of participating restaurants, but even now there are quite a few near my work in Cambridge. Other places that I've been meaning to try in other parts of town that are listed are Holly Crab, Limoo Tea Bar, La Voile, and Swish Shabu.
I like to have GoPapaya handy for those times when I can't decide where to eat, and I can just see what's available nearby with a discount. There's no upfront cost to both you or the restaurant (they only pay a small fee when a customer actually comes in, but no setup fee), and no fear of my prepaid vouchers expiring before I could use it. I can't tell you how many times I've let my various vouchers expire!
Don't forget, sign up with code pigs10 to get a bonus $10 Amazon gift card after you complete your first reservation!


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This is what I've been doing for the last year or so. And boy are my arms tired!
I just wanted to show you a little peek so you'll know why I might have seemed a leetle busy for the past 365-plus days.
I did a holiday cookbook, guys!
I've had so much fun with it. Like…a whole lotta fun!
I'm going to show you a few roughly printed pages, which I've been reading through for days and weeks and days and weeks.
My holiday cookbook isn't just about Thanksgiving and Christmas…it's holidays all throughout the year.
Picking which holidays to highlight was both fun and difficult! I couldn't possibly cover every holiday there is…so I picked my faves.
Easter, for one.
And for a couple of holidays (Easter is one) I have a "Leftovers" section where I show ideas for using up your extra ham…or eggs…or Thanksgiving turkey…etc!
Oh, and I've started wearing reading glasses all the time now.
I'm 44-years-old that way!
But Marlboro Man thinks they're kinda cute.
Speaking of Marlboro Man, he took the cover photo of the kids and me. That might explain my grin. He said something that elicited this particular expression.
Anyway, that's why I picked this one. Because I remember the moment!
In addition to the more traditional holidays, I also have some fun ones in there.
This guacamole is…
Well, it's life-changing!
And these homemade tortillas will absolutely make your skirt fly up. Delicious and easy.
And, ohhhhhh.
This ice cream.
I've also got a Mother's Day section.
Hi, Gee!
Hi, Grammie!
And this is something I had a lot of fun with: For many of the holiday events and meals, I include a Do-Ahead Game Plan, which lists all the things you can do ahead of time to save time and sanity on the big day.
On another note: These cupcakes?
Oh my.
I have no words other than that.
I'll show you the book when I have it in my hand in a month or so…right now I'm just giving everything one last read-through to make sure I got every ingredient and quantity (and punchline. ha.) right.
I wrote some really wacky recipe headnotes. I wanted the book to be fun!
And wacky.
I've packed as much as I can into the pages of the book—and the book has 400 pages. I begged and pleaded and worked hard to get to the 400 page count because I wanted to get as much in there for you as possible…but I wanted to make sure the cookbook stayed the same price as my last one. I'm so glad it did.
Here's where you can preorder it for anyone on your gift list…or for you!
Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble Signed Limited Edition!
Books-a-Million Autographed Copy
Indie Bound
Target Edition: Bonus Photos & Recipes
It'll be out October 29…just in time for Halloween. Oh, and I'm just getting ready to plan my book tour, which will happen throughout November and part of December. I haven't decided where I'm going yet…but I'd love to meet you along the way! Let me know where you live. (wink)
I hope you enjoy it, guys. I've had a blast putting it together.


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What is MuTect?
MuTect is a method developed at the Broad Institute for the reliable and accurate identification of somatic point mutations in next generation sequencing data of cancer genomes.
For complete details, please see our publication in Nature Biotechnology:
Cibulskis, K. et al. Sensitive detection of somatic point mutations in impure and heterogeneous cancer samples. Nat Biotechnology (2013).doi:10.1038/nbt.2514
How does it work?
In brief, muTect consists of three steps.
As muTect attempts to call mutations it also generates a coverage file (in a wiggle file format, which indicates for every base whether it is sufficiently covered in the tumor and normal to be sensitive enough to call mutations). We currently use cutoffs of at least 14 reads in the tumor and at least 8 in the normal (these cutoffs are applied after removing noisy reads in the preprocessing step). In addition, wiggle files can also be generated of the observed depth in the tumor and in the normal.
Most cancer genome studies at the Broad Institute have made use of MuTect and have validated the mutation calls as a part of their cancer biology papers, showing that MuTect has a very low false positive rate. A summary of validation rates from these papers are show below:


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I went on a little getaway last weekend. I'm at the point in my design projects where I can't take them anywhere because they involve a lot of swatching and note taking, as well as ripping and re-knitting. Not a good travel companion. I was trapped in a "what to knit" conundrum. I finally decided it would be easier to knit someone else's design so I wouldn't have to think, and I'd be able to converse with my friends. I chose Annis, and the lovely red Luxe B silk/merino yarn from Alpha B. But after five days away, here's what I have to show for it.
Not much, huh? I guess that means I had a good time. I'll tell you all about it in the next post. My question here is, why does the top of my yarn cake look like this instead of the nice criss-crossy way it looks near the bottom? I'm still new to this ball-winder thing, but it's got me puzzled. It still pulls from the center, but it's not aesthetically perfect.
I misread the pattern, and thought there were 18 repeats of the lace, so I brought 20 stitch markers. These don't actually exist; they were a prototype but Lantern Moon doesn't carry them. I just got lucky one day in the office. But there are 29 repeats of the 18 stitch lace pattern, so I had to resort to this.
Cut up bits of a straw that should have been in a mai tai! They work pretty well, except that the straw was black, and so are my ebony knitting needles. I'm home again, so I'm back to blue. And here's my dilemma: Vacation is over, and I have design work that needs to get done. Do I even believe that I'll get back to Annis anytime soon? Should I leave it on the needles, or let the lovely yarn go back to dreaming in its yarn ball state, in case it wants to be something else by the time I get back to it? What would you do?


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Video chatting—the future is now! But it sure is expensive. Between Logitech's Revue ($300 for the box and $150 for the cam), and Cisco's $600 Roman emperor-priced offering, you might feel left out. But you have (affordable) options.
FaceTime is new, and awesome, and laptop video calls are cool—of course. But being able to plop down on your couch with your kids, wife, dog, or just by yourself, and fill your television screen with the live video of loved ones (or enemies) has always been one of tech's big promises. And now it's gradually reaching the consumer market—which is great, and will make grandparents across the world ecstatic. But does vividly and conveniently keeping in touch have to be so expensive? No.
So what does the playing field look like?
Cisco Umi - $600
Cisco's video offering isn't just chat, it's telepresence, baby. Which means nothing. So what are you getting for your delicious marketing buzzword? 1080p video calls, 720p call recording, and a staggering $600 price tag, plus $25 per month for unlimited calls (an extra $300 a year). As Kyle reported yesterday, the Umi "has autofocus, autoexposure, white balance, optical zoom, and a motor for panning and tilting as needed." It'll also interface with Google video chat. But $600 is prohibitively expensive for many (most?) of us. Let's keep digging.
Logitech Revue - $450
In the name of fairness, we'll get this out of the way right now: the Revue does far, far more than video chat. So, with that caveat, let's make it clear that we're only taking its video chat functionality into consideration here. The Google TV-capable box alone will run you $299—it's the separate camera and mic apparatus that bumps the price up to $450. That being said, Logitech is aiming to sell the box with a heavy emphasis on video calls.
When we checked out the Revue's first live demo yesterday, we were quite impressed by the fidelity of its video chat powers. Placing and receiving calls seemed to be a cinch, our video interlocutors were easily heard, and the zoom function seemed handy for those with distant couches. That being said, $450 is still $450—likely far more than most want to spend to see their friends' pretty faces, and a relevant knock against the Revue given the time Logitech reps spent fawning over the video chat functionality.
So there we have it—the heavyweights. Cisco's Umi and Logitech's Revue are atop a price tag hill. But they are by no means king of the vid chat mountain. If you don't want to spend more than $200, you can still enjoy clear, easy video calling from your TV.
Microsoft LifeCam Studio - $100
Jason's impressions say it all—only a hundred bucks for 1080p video that's "pretty darn good." Now, this is just a webcam—it doesn't have internet connectivity of its own. But all you'll need to get yourself couch-chatting with it is something you probably have anyway—a laptop. Hooked up to a PC or Mac, you can place video calls via Skype or Windows Live Messenger for free. Stick the LifeCam atop your TV, plop the laptop next to the TV, and connect the two with a dirt cheap DVI or HDMI cable. Boom. You've got HD video calling on your television with an SD price.
Skype for TV - $149 to $179
If you've got a Panasonic or Samsung TV, there's a chance you'll be able to place video calls with the hardware you already own, adding only a Skype-approved camera that goes right up top. Several TV series within both companies lineups have Skype support built in. For Samsung owners, the $149 FREETALK cam will give you free VGA video calls, while the $169 Panasonic version offers full 720p calls.
Microsoft Kinect - $149
If you own an Xbox, the $149 Kinect will give you free VGA video calls to any other Kinect owner or Windows Live Messenger user. Like the Samsung Skype cam, this isn't HD, but it's specifically designed to keep couch-based chatters in the picture. Windows Messenger support also means you'd be able to use the Kinect to video dial anyone using the aforementioned Microsoft LifeCam setup.
So there you have it. No solution is perfect, and each has clear limitations, whether they be quality, setup, interoperability, or the thing is just too damn expensive. But before you consider sinking part of your paycheck into any of them, consider your options. And please, feel free to contribute your own budget couch call solution below in comments.


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SXSW 2013: Day Two Highlights
For the All Songs Considered gang, the second day of the South By Southwest music festival was packed with familiar favorites and new discoveries. On the heels of NPR Music's SXSW Showcase at Stubb's, Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson and Ann Powers once again huddled in their favorite Austin churchyard to discuss the standouts and surprises from the day.
The lesson from this second late-night dispatch: If you want to get the most out of SXSW, go hard. Robin credits an "aggressive" calendar with helping him catch up on things he had missed before, including Torres, which the rest of the crew saw Tuesday, and The Lone Bellow, the folk-pop trio who provided his big "OMG" moment of the day.
Unique instrumentation was a highlight on Wednesday. Sydney native Jonathan Boulet charmed Stephen with his pummeling, percussion-filled set. Bob caught Japanese singer-songwriter Shugo Tokumaru, who kept things playful with toys for instruments. But his favorite performance of the day — maybe the best of festival so far — was put on by the four British women in Savages, whose charisma made their '80s-era post-punk sound into something their own.
Commanding performances were the theme at Stubb's, too, where NPR Music hosted its annual SXSW showcase. (If you missed the show on Wednesday night, we'll have audio and video up soon.) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds won over the crowd as the sun went down (as Stephen says: "If there's anybody who can conjure the night ... ") with a surprisingly hard hitting, career-spanning set of songs. Mexico City-based Cafe Tacvba's undeniable blend of rhythms crossed the language barrier and brought out the dance moves from everyone in the crowd. In back-to-back sets, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O and New York rapper Le1f displayed similarly flamboyant moves, while the more-reserved Waxahatchee and Youth Lagoon fleshed out solo recordings with full band sets. The young British quartet Alt-J, recent Mercury Prize-winners for its debut album, rounded out the show with a carefully crafted, knotty songs that served as a palate cleanser for the night.
Bob Boilen (@allsongs):
- Savages
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- Alt-J
- Lucius
- Jacco Gardner
Robin Hilton (@nprobin):
- The Lone Bellow
- Paws
- Wildcat! Wildcat!
Ann Powers (@annkpowers):
- NZCA/Lines
- "A Little Bit of Everything" by Dawes
Stephen Thompson (@idislikestephen):
- Jonathan Boulet
- Lucius
- Marnie Stern
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Nick Bonino's OT winner vs. Red Wings lifts Ducks to 3-2 lead
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- After two agonizing overtime losses in the previous three games, Ryan Getzlaf figured the Anaheim Ducks were overdue for a break when they headed into extra time yet again.
Defenseman Ben Lovejoy created that break by venturing deep into the Red Wings' zone. When the puck ended up on Nick Bonino's stick, he put the Ducks on the brink of the second round.
Bonino scored 1:54 into overtime, and the Ducks took a 3-2 series lead with a 3-2 victory over Detroit in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Getzlaf tied it late in the second period, Kyle Palmieri also scored and Jonas Hiller made 29 saves in Anaheim's first victory in three overtime games against the Wings. While the second-seeded Ducks have been pushed to their limits by Detroit in this tense series, they've discovered a postseason tenacity they weren't sure they had.
"This is a big situation, and we need guys who haven't done it before to step up," said Getzlaf, Anaheim's captain. "It's not an easy task, but that's why the playoffs are fun."
Game 6 is Friday night at Joe Louis Arena, where the Ducks will attempt to close out just their second playoff series victory since winning the Stanley Cup in 2007.
Bonino has scored his first three career playoff goals in each of Anaheim's three victories in this series. He put the puck into an open net when Lovejoy made a move around Detroit's Brian Lashoff and pushed it across the slot while Detroit's defense concentrated on Teemu Selanne.
"He's a great opportunist," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said of Bonino, a former NCAA champion at Boston University. "He comes up with big goals. He's just that kind of guy."
The teams returned to California for the pivotal Game 5 after splitting the first four games of an entertaining series, each winning once at home and once on the road. Anaheim and Detroit have alternated wins and losses throughout the series, and the Ducks made the most of their turn after three tense periods, including a scoreless third.
"We finally found a way to score in overtime," Hiller said. "They're a good opponent, and they keep pushing us. We have to find a way to be our best every night."
Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson scored for the Red Wings, who had two brief leads. Jimmy Howard stopped 31 shots, but the Red Wings hit the post three times by their own estimate, repeatedly failing to capitalize on scoring opportunities.
"We had some chances to get the job done, and we didn't," Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "There's not a lot of room out there. They had a lot of good chances, and we let it happen. We have to find a way to get the job done on defense."
Although Anaheim outscored and outshot the Red Wings in the first four games, Detroit kept pace by winning twice in overtime despite playing with a lead in just one game. In Game 4 on Monday night, Anaheim was less than seven minutes from returning home with a chance to close out the series, but Pavel Datsyuk tied it before Damien Brunner won it in overtime.
After getting roundly outshot in Game 4, the Ducks showed obvious intentions to get into Howard's crease. But they were whistled for two interference penalties in the first five minutes. Franzen converted on the Wings' second power-play chance, coming out from behind the net and tapping his own rebound underneath Hiller.
"We really took over at times, but I thought we could have been better," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "There's a lot of things you can look at. The bottom line ... we hit three posts tonight, and it didn't go in."
Anaheim kept up its pressure on Howard with little success until late in the period. David Steckel won a faceoff and got the puck to Palmieri for a long shot through traffic. The 22-year-old Palmieri scored his first NHL playoff goal in Game 2.
The Red Wings took control in the second period, repeatedly peppering Hiller with long shots through traffic. Hiller, though sharp, eventually gave up a long rebound on a shot by captain Henrik Zetterberg, and the puck went straight to the onrushing Samuelsson for his 23rd career playoff goal.
Samuelsson missed all but four games of the regular season with injuries, and the 36-year-old Stanley Cup champion sat out the first two games of this series before rejoining the lineup for Game 3.
Hiller stopped Brunner on a clean breakaway moments later while Detroit dominated play. The Red Wings got a five-minute power play when Daniel Winnik boarded Daniel Cleary, who went to the dressing room after a long moment on the ice. Anaheim finally upped its aggression, holding Detroit to one shot before the power play ended on a Red Wings penalty.
Getzlaf then evened it with 31 seconds left in the period, following Matt Beleskey into the slot for a quick shot past Howard for his third goal of the series. The Ducks' talented playmaker had an outstanding bounce-back season after a rough 2011-12, leading Anaheim with 49 points in 44 games while getting an eight-year contract extension.
Game notes
Detroit LW Justin Abdelkader completed his two-game suspension for a dangerous hit in Game 3 on Anaheim D Toni Lydman, who also missed his second straight game. ... Zetterberg and Anaheim's Corey Perry still don't have a goal in the series. Zetterberg hasn't scored in seven straight playoff games, the longest skid of his career. ... Anaheim nearly went ahead with 11:55 left in the third period, but the officials blew the play dead as Palmieri slid into Howard's net behind the puck. ... NHL commissioner Gary Bettman attended the game, talking up the Ducks' outdoor game against the Los Angeles Kings at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 25.
ANA leads 3-2
Game Information
- Referees:
- Kevin Pollock
- Linesmen:
- Darren Gibbs
- Pierre Racicot