Write a summary based on this article:

White House Honey Brown Ale, believed to be the first beer brewed on the White House grounds, includes light malt extract, amber crystal malt, honey, gypsum, yeast and corn sugar.

 The recipe was released Saturday while President Barack Obama was campaigning in Iowa.

 Obama has been talking about the White House brew for weeks, but he and other officials had refused to disclose details of how it’s made, despite an online petition and repeated questions from reporters. Obama even took a question on the beer recipe during a chat with the website Reddit.

 Obama and his team frequently talk about the president’s fondness for beer, and Obama has been photographed many times downing a beer, including an appearance at the Iowa State Fair last month.

 Being identified as a beer drinker is an easy way for Obama to connect with voters and serves as a not-so-subtle reminder that his Republican rival Mitt Romney, a Mormon, doesn’t drink.

 Obama even held a “beer summit” after a white police sergeant arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates as he tried to get into his own home.

 White House press secretary Jay Carney announced the beer recipe on Twitter, linking to a blog post entitled “Ale to the Chief” that included a video on the brewing process. The White House was careful to say the president paid for the materials used in the beer-making himself.

 “With public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it” and release the recipe, wrote White House chef Sam Kass, who brews the beer in the White House kitchen.

 The White House included recipes for both the honey ale and a honey porter, both of which are brewed at the White House.

 In the video, Kass is seen drinking the honey ale.

 “That is one incredible beer if I do say so myself,” Kass says, smiling. “America, I wish everybody could taste this but we don’t quite brew enough.”

 ___

 Online:

 White House beer recipe: http://tinyurl.com/97tucgz

 ___

 Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

 Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ||||| Ed. Note: There's been a lot of buzz online recently about the recipe for the White House Honey Ale and White House Honey Porter, including a popular petition on We the People, the White House's online petition platform.

 With public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it.

 Inspired by home brewers from across the country, last year President Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen. After the few first drafts we landed on some great recipes that came from a local brew shop. We received some tips from a couple of home brewers who work in the White House who helped us amend it and make it our own. To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before.

 As far as we know the White House Honey Brown Ale is the first alcohol brewed or distilled on the White House grounds. George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson made wine but there's no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House. (Although we do know there was some drinking during prohibition…)

 Since our first batch of White House Honey Brown Ale, we've added the Honey Porter and have gone even further to add a Honey Blonde this past summer. Like many home brewers who add secret ingredients to make their beer unique, all of our brews have honey that we tapped from the first ever bee-hive on the South Lawn. The honey gives the beer a rich aroma and a nice finish but it doesn't sweeten it.

 If you want a behind the scenes look at our home-brewing process, this video offers some proof.

 So without any further ado, America – this one's for you:

 Download a printable PDF of both recipes.

 White House Honey Porter

 Ingredients

 2 (3.3 lb) cans light unhopped malt extract

 3/4 lb Munich Malt (cracked)

 1 lb crystal 20 malt (cracked)

 6 oz black malt (cracked)

 3 oz chocolate malt (cracked)

 1 lb White House Honey

 10 HBUs bittering hops

 1/2 oz Hallertaur Aroma hops

 1 pkg Nottingham dry yeast

 3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling

 Directions

 In a 6 qt pot, add grains to 2.25 qts of 168˚ water. Mix well to bring temp down to 155˚. Steep on stovetop at 155˚ for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, bring 2 gallons of water to 165˚ in a 12 qt pot. Place strainer over, then pour and spoon all the grains and liquid in. Rinse with 2 gallons of 165˚ water. Let liquid drain through. Discard the grains and bring the liquid to a boil. Set aside. Add the 2 cans of malt extract and honey into the pot. Stir well. Boil for an hour. Add half of the bittering hops at the 15 minute mark, the other half at 30 minute mark, then the aroma hops at the 60 minute mark. Set aside and let stand for 15 minutes. Place 2 gallons of chilled water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons if necessary. Place into an ice bath to cool down to 70-80˚. Activate dry yeast in 1 cup of sterilized water at 75-90˚ for fifteen minutes. Pitch yeast into the fermenter. Fill airlock halfway with water. Ferment at room temp (64-68˚) for 3-4 days. Siphon over to a secondary glass fermenter for another 4-7 days. To bottle, make a priming syrup on the stove with 1 cup sterile water and 3/4 cup priming sugar, bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 1-2 weeks at 75˚.

 White House Honey Ale

 Ingredients

 2 (3.3 lb) cans light malt extract

 1 lb light dried malt extract

 12 oz crushed amber crystal malt

 8 oz Biscuit Malt

 1 lb White House Honey

 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets

 1 1/2 oz Fuggles Hop pellets

 2 tsp gypsum

 1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast

 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

 Directions |||||

– Now anyone with a home-brewing kit can drink President Obama's private beer. The administration gave in today and posted a step-by-step video on how to produce the White House brew, the Washington Post reports. The key ingredients in White House Honey Brown Ale turn out to be amber crystal malt, light malt extract, gypsum, honey, corn sugar, and yeast. But try procuring their fresh honey: It was taken from the South Lawn's first-ever bee hive, according to White House chef Sam Kass. The recipe was inspired by "a local brew shop," Kass admits, and refined with advice from brewers already working at the White House. "As far as we know the White House Honey Brown Ale is the first alcohol brewed or distilled on the White House grounds," even though George Washington distilled whiskey and brewed beer at Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson fermented his own wine, and there was drinking during Prohibition, writes Kass. The recipe revelation comes after a long public campaign that included a petition and Freedom of Information request.


Article:
Hot tea can increase the risk of a deadly cancer five-fold for people who also regularly drink alcohol, Chinese research suggests.

 People who drink at least one alcoholic beverage and a "burning hot" cup of tea on a daily basis were five times more likely to develop esophageal cancer than people who drank tea at any temperature less than once a week, the study found.

 The risks to smokers also increase with high-temperature tea drinking, said the study, which examined data on 456,155 Chinese adults ages 30 to 79. Drinking boiling hot tea every day was associated with roughly twice the risk of oesophageal cancer as consuming tea less than weekly for people who smoked.

 Both smoking and drinking alcohol are already widely-known to be linked to oesophageal cancer, but the new study, which appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine, proved that very hot tea can increase the risks.

 Lv Jun, of Peking University Health Science Centre in China, who co-authored the study, told The Telegraph: “Boiling hot tea will harm the cells in the oesophagus. “If the person also drinks alcohol and smokes, then the harm caused will be more heightened.”

 At the start of the study, none of the participants had cancer. Researchers followed half of the participants for at least nine years. ||||| (CNN) If you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol daily, you may want to consider letting your tea cool before you enjoy it. Drinking tea while it's too hot could increase your risk of esophageal cancer, a new study suggests.

 In the study, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea was associated with a two- to fivefold increase in esophageal cancer, but only in people who also smoked or drank alcohol.

 Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world and is often fatal, killing approximately 400,000 people every year, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer . It is usually caused by repeated injury to the esophagus due to smoke, alcohol, acid reflux and -- maybe -- hot liquids.

 The study, the largest of its kind, followed close to 500,000 adults in China over an average of 9½ years. Because of the large size, it may set the bar for years to come, according to Neal Freedman , senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who was not involved in the new research.

 Participants who drank tea on a weekly basis were asked to describe its temperature as "warm," "hot" "or "burning hot." Drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea was not, by itself, a predictor of esophageal cancer, which is good news for tea aficionados.

 However, for people who smoked tobacco or drank alcohol -- both of which are known to cause esophageal cancer -- drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea made their risk of cancer even higher, according to Jun Lv, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Peking University and a lead author on the study.

 "Drinking hot tea contributed to cancer only when it clustered with smoking and drinking alcohol excessively," Lv said.

 The researchers collected information about tobacco and alcohol consumption at the beginning of the study. "Excessive alcohol consumption" was defined as 15 grams or more of alcohol per day -- slightly more than that found in a 12-ounce glass of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a 1.5-ounce shot of distilled spirits. Tobacco use was defined as one or more cigarettes per day.

 Very hot drinks could make the esophagus more vulnerable to known cancer-causing agents such as alcohol and smoke, Freedman said.

 "Irritating the lining of the esophagus could lead to increased inflammation and more rapid turnover of the cells," he said. "Alternatively, hot liquids may impair the barrier function of the cells lining the esophagus, leaving the tissue open to greater damage from other carcinogens."

 Participants did not objectively measure the temperature of their tea, one of the study's main limitations. However, previous research has suggested that drinking hot beverages at temperatures above 149 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius) could lead to esophageal cancer.

 In a 2016 review in The Lancet Oncology, drinking beverages this hot was classified as "probably carcinogenic to humans." The review looked at all types of hot beverages, including coffee and tea. Only some of the studies in the review took alcohol and tobacco use into account.

 In the United States and Europe, tea is rarely consumed at temperatures above 149 degrees -- but in places like Russia, Iran, Turkey and South America, it is common to drink tea that hot or even hotter.

 "If you go to the Middle East or to Russia, they drink it out of a samovar that's constantly under heat," said Peter Goggi, president of the Tea Association of the USA . "It's very, very hot."

 By contrast, "80% of the tea here is iced, so that's a completely different story," he said. "But even in the hot areas, which is in the Northeast and West Coast, most people will be adding something to it, whether it's a little sweetener or lemon," slightly decreasing the liquid's temperature.

 Follow CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

 Tea also has many health benefits. According to a 2009 study in the journal Nature Reviews Cancer , components of tea leaves have been shown to have antioxidant properties and may protect against other types of cancers, particularly colon and prostate cancer.

 "Tea is probably one of the most studied food and beverages in the world today," Goggi said. "Green tea has been shown to be a little more effective in cancer inhibition versus black tea, but black tea has been more effective in cardiovascular health."

 So tea drinkers who don't smoke or drink alcohol excessively probably don't need to switch to a different beverage anytime soon, according to Lv.

 "Of course, keeping away from both tobacco and excessive alcohol use is the most important means for esophageal cancer prevention," she added. ||||| TIME Health For more, visit TIME Health

 Smoking cigarettes and drinking too much alcohol both raise your risk for developing esophageal cancer, which affects the tube connecting the throat to the stomach. Now, a new study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds another lifestyle linked to the cancer, this one more surprising: drinking hot tea, if people also smoke and drink alcohol.

 Among people who regularly smoked cigarettes and drank at least one drink per day, drinking hot tea was linked to a five-times higher risk of developing esophageal cancer, compared to those who didn’t do any of those three habits. In people who didn’t have those two vices, however, drinking tea did not seem to have a significant effect on cancer development.

 “We found that the association between high-temperature tea consumption and esophageal cancer risk was dependent on alcohol and tobacco consumption,” said lead author Jun Lv, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Peking University School of Public Health in China, in an email to TIME.

 In the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 456,000 Chinese adults between ages 30 and 79 who didn’t have cancer at the study’s start. People were asked to answer questions about their tea, alcohol and cigarette consumption. Then researchers followed the people in the study for about nine years to see how many developed esophageal cancer. (About 1,700 total people did.)

 MORE: Coffee in California May Soon Come with a Cancer Warning

 The researchers found that people who regularly drank hot tea, smoked and drank alcohol had the highest esophageal cancer risk. Those who regularly drank tea and either drank alcohol or smoked — but not both — also had an increased risk for developing cancer, but it was not as great. People who only drank hot tea did not see a significant increase in cancer risk.

 The study was only observational, so a cause-and-effect link cannot be determined. But the authors speculate that hot tea may damage the tissue lining the esophagus, which could increase the chance of injury from other risk factors like smoking and drinking. Another potential way that hot tea may contribute to cancer risk, the authors write, is through the formation of inflammatory compounds, which occurs after repeated irritation to the esophagus.

 In recent years, there has been some contradictory information about tea and cancer. In 2016, the World Health Organization concluded that hot beverages above 149 degrees F, including tea, were linked to an increase risk of esophageal cancer. However, tea has been singled out many times in the past for its potential cancer-fighting abilities. Green tea, in general, is associated with a lower risk of cancer.

 The findings suggest that tea may contribute to cancer formation under the right circumstances, Lv says, but it’s probably not the main factor at work. “It’s important to abstain from high-temperature tea in excessive alcohol consumers and smokers for esophageal cancer prevention,” Lv wrote in an email. “Of course, keeping away from both tobacco and excessive alcohol use is the most important means for esophageal cancer prevention.” |||||Summary:

– It's a specific health warning for a specific group of people: If you smoke, drink alcohol, and also happen to drink tea, let the latter cool down before you drink it. Failing to do so might raise your risk of esophageal cancer, suggests a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Chinese researchers. The idea is that hot tea (or, presumably, any hot beverage) can damage cells in the esophagus and make it more vulnerable to the damage caused by cigarettes and alcohol, the lead researcher tells the Telegraph. How hot is too hot? The researchers didn't specify, but CNN notes that previous research on hot beverages pegged the danger zone at 149 degrees Fahrenheit and above. "Irritating the lining of the esophagus could lead to increased inflammation and more rapid turnover of the cells," explains a National Cancer Institute investigator who was not involved with the study. "Alternatively, hot liquids may impair the barrier function of the cells lining the esophagus, leaving the tissue open to greater damage from other carcinogens." The observational study was a massive one, following nearly 500,000 Chinese adults ages 30 to 79 for about a decade. Those who drank hot tea and either smoked or used alcohol, but not both, also saw an increased risk of cancer, though it wasn't as great, reports Time. And hot tea alone did not carry a significant risk increase.


– Using methods borrowed from Google, a group of researchers has analyzed all Wikipedia pages and determined that, at least on the English language version of the site, Frank Sinatra is the world's most important person. Second place goes to Michael Jackson, and third to Pope Pius XII. When factoring in all 24 language editions of the online encyclopedia, the team found that Adolf Hitler ranked the most important person, while Michael Jackson was again second and Madonna third, reports the Guardian. "Our analysis shows that most important historical figures across Wikipedia language editions are born in western countries after the 17th century, and are male," the authors write. The researchers combined two algorithms to reach these conclusions. First, Google's PageRank algorithm, which determines a page's importance based on how many other pages link to it. In using PageRank on Wikipedia, the most important person in the world was 18th-century Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, likely because the pages of organism after organism link back to the "father of taxonomy." So the researchers added an algorithm called CheiRank, which determines importance based on the number of outgoing links, the thought being that an important person would himself be connected to other important people, things, and events. Using the two together—an approach they dubbed 2DRank—no one beat out Frank Sinatra on English pages or Adolf Hitler across all language versions. Last year, in a separate study analyzing academic references, one team deemed Karl Marx to be the world's most important scholar, according to the Smithsonian. (Click to read about one of Sinatra's quirks.)

Expand this summary.

The most important person in the English-language world is Frank Sinatra, according to an analysis of Wikipedia articles led by the University of Toulouse's Young-Ho Eom.

 Number two is Michael Jackson, and number three is Pope Pius XII.

 Eom arrived at this somewhat surprising conclusion by using methods borrowed from Google to analyse Wikipedia pages and determine which individuals have the most important articles linking to them.

 Taking all 24 major language editions of Wikipedia into account, Eom's team carried out the same study and came to a more plausible conclusion: Adolf Hitler. (Even then, Michael Jackson takes the second slot, and Madonna is in third place.)

 The point of the study wasn't strictly to determine who the most important people are on Wikipedia, but instead to discover if the online encyclopaedia was skewed in the level of attention it gives to various figures, either by gender, time, or location.

 "Our analysis shows that most important historical ﬁgures across Wikipedia language editions are born in western countries after the 17th century, and are male," the authors write. But, they add, "each Wikipedia edition highlights local figures, so that most of its own historical figures are born in the countries which use the language of the edition. The emergence of such pronounced accent to local figures seems to be natural since there are more links and interactions within one culture."

 The study takes as its starting point Google's PageRank algorithm. This is still the basic method the search engine uses to decide the basic importance of webpages in its index, although the system has received an almost total overhaul since it was first introduced in 1998.

 PageRank says that a page is important if a lot of important pages link to it. While the definition sounds self-referential, in practice, it recreates a lot of features which we intuitively understand: the more sites link to a newspaper's website, for instance, the more important that website is; and being linked to from a national newspaper probably says more about a site's importance than being linked to from a nondescript blog.

 But when the study applied PageRank to figures on Wikipedia, the results were odd. The most important person in the world comes out as Carl Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish naturalist – certainly an important feature in natural history, but possibly not the most important in the world.

 It seems the algorithm was thrown by a quirk of Wikipedia: the site contains an almost complete collection of named species – as well as who named them. Since Linnaeus' life work was coming up with a system to classify organisms, and applying that system as widely as possible, he is linked to from a lot of pages, and important ones at that. From the Domestic Cat to the Red Fox, through the mighty Asian elephant and the lowly moss gall, Linnaeus named, and is linked from, them all.

 To get around that issue, the researchers applied a second way of measuring importance: CheiRank. Simply put, "the PageRank… of an article is proportional to the number of incoming links, while the CheiRank… of an article is proportional to the number of outgoing links. Thus a top PageRank article is important since other articles refer to it, while a top CheiRank article is highly connected because it refers to other articles." In other words, an important person is likely to have a lot of other important people and things involved in their lives.

 Mix Pagerank and CheiRank together, and you get the final measure: 2DRank. That's how the authors arrived at the top 100 for all 24 editions of Wikipedia – and how Frank Sinatra took pole position.

 • Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales: 'It's true, I'm not a billionaire. So?' ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Even Sir Isaac Newton recognized that intellectual success depended on what had come before: "If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants,” he so famously said. But while we may all wield influence in our own domains, some people (say, the ones who inspired Newton) are just more influential than others.

 In an intriguing new study, a team led by University of Tolouse researcher Young-Ho Eom sought to figure out who, exactly, should be considered the most influential thinker in the world. Trawling through 24 different language editions of Wikipedia, Eom's team calculated whose intellectual fingers stretched out the furthest. The goal was to study who was at the heart of the biggest branching web of links, the page of the person who, if you spent long enough link jumping through Wikipedia's nearly endless treasures, you'd end up on the most.

 The result was... somewhat surprising. According to Eom and co., the world's most influential mind was Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. Linneaus beat out everyone, from the Pope to President Obama to Frank Sinatra, Hitler, Caesar—even Jesus.

 If it's been a while since introductory biology, you may be scratching your head trying to remember who Carl Linnaeus even is. "The Father of Taxonomy," Linneaus invented the scientific system of naming that is still, generally, in use today. It's under Linnaeus' system that human beings became Homo sapiens, and taxonomical gifts like Llama glama, Vini vidivici, Apopyllus now and Ytu brutus came to be.

 It was Linnaeus' particular scientific penchant, combined with the specifics of Young-Ho Eom's method of searching Wikipedia, says New Scientist, that led to the unexpected result: “Linnaeus topped the chart across all languages because there are so many Wikipedia pages with scientific names in every edition, and they all eventually lead back to him.”

 This isn't the first time people have tried to figure out the influence of various historical people, of course, and Linnaeus is not a reliable entrant on the list. Last year Jasleen Kaur, Filippo Radicchi and Filippo Menczer tried to calculate which academic has had the most influence over the years. Using their approach, which studied how often academics referenced each other in their own work, the team found that Karl Marx was history's most influential scholar. |||||


Summarize this article:

Army suicide testimony: Sergeant taunted Danny Chen with slurs

 An African American soldier, Pvt. Marcus Merritt, testified Wednesday that Holcomb addressed him with a racial slur and threatened to "kill me and put me in a body bag and send me home.’’ Merritt said he became suicidal after enduring punishment and humiliation from Holcomb.

 In their opening statements, prosecutors had said testimony would show that soldiers taunted Chen with racial slurs, kicked him and pelted him with rocks in merciless hazing in the weeks before the private’s suicide.

 Holcomb, 30, is the first to face court-martial in a case that has focused renewed attention on allegations of hazing and racism in the Army, where Asian Americans are a distinct minority. Courts-martial for the other seven soldiers, including an officer, are scheduled for later this year.

 Military prosecutors elicited the testimony in the second day of the proceedings to buttress charges that Holcomb hazed and hounded Chen, a Chinese American, into committing suicide at a remote combat outpost in Afghanistan on Oct. 3. Holcomb, one of eight soldiers charged in connection with Chen’s death, faces charges of negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment and other counts.

 FT. BRAGG, N.C. -- Sgt. Adam Holcomb bombarded Danny Chen, a shy, 19-year-old Army private, with racial slurs and bloodied Chen’s back by dragging him across rocky ground for disobeying a platoon rule, several former members of Holcomb’s platoon testified at his court-martial Wednesday.

 U.S. Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb, right, is the first of eight men facing prosecution… (Raul R. Rubiera, The Fayetteville…)

 "He was in my face constantly,’’ Merritt testified when asked why he had contemplated suicide. "All the stuff he did had a long-lasting effect on me.’’

 Under cross-examination, Merritt conceded that he knew Holcomb wasn’t serious about killing him. But he also said he feared the sergeant, telling a military psychiatrist he wanted to kill Holcomb.

 Holcomb’s immediate superior, Staff Sgt. Darren Holt, told the military panel of 10 officers and non-commissioned officers that he confronted Holcomb after the sergeant dragged Chen across sharp, baseball-sized rocks in late September. Holcomb was angry that Chen had ignored posted rules to turn off power to a water heater after taking a shower.

 Holt said he told Holcomb that physically abusing a soldier was wrong and reported the incident to superiors. "I verbally counseled him [Holcomb] . . . and made it clear that was unacceptable,’’ Holt said.

 Chen shot himself under the chin in a base guard tower a week after the dragging incident, according to the Army.

 Chen’s death outraged some Chinese American activists in New York City’s Chinatown, where Chen grew up with his immigrant parents. Several activists are attending the court-martial, along with journalists from China.

 Holcomb’s military lawyers have said Chen killed himself because his parents had disowned him for joining the Army instead of attending college. They have portrayed Chen as an incompetent soldier who endangered his platoon and required constant discipline for such violations as sleeping on guard duty or reporting for his guard post without his helmet.

 Defense lawyers have also said that nicknames -- even those with racially tinged overtones -- were common "terms of endearment’’ in the small, tight-knit platoon. One African American platoon member, they said, encouraged soldiers to call him "Black Mamba.’’

 Under cross-examination by the defense, former members of the platoon conceded that most discipline meted out by Holcomb was justified by Chen’s failure to follow orders or regulations. Such "corrective training,’’ especially in combat zones, is an accepted way to improve soldiers’ performance, according to testimony.

 Several soldiers testified that Chen never gave any overt indication that he was contemplating suicide. The platoon medic, Spec. Zachary Bolin, who treated Chen’s back abrasions at Holcomb’s request, said Chen denied suicidal thoughts when Bolin asked him about it. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||

– Playing "Taps" on a well-worn bugle, the emotional recitation of "A Soldier's Creed," and calling each other racial slurs one day per week: all time-honored customs in the US Army? That last practice is, at least in one platoon, according to a black staff sergeant who tells the Army Times that he's filed an equal-opportunity complaint against his platoon leader at Alaska's Fort Wainwright for "[encouraging] 'Racial Thursdays' as a way to build morale and camaraderie," the Times notes. The soldier from the 2nd Platoon, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment tells the newspaper that although epithets were never hurled his way, he was told upon arrival that the special day was a "tradition" in which soldiers "can say any racist remark you want without any consequences." "It's degrading to the soldiers," the staff sergeant says. "We've had soldiers almost fight over the crap that's going on here." A junior enlisted soldier anonymously backs up the NCO's claim, telling the Times that "you didn't have to participate, but they'd remind you." He recalls a Latino soldier being called a "wetback" and "border jumper" before almost getting into a scuffle when the others wouldn't stop. The Alaska unit is the same one in which 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen served before killing himself in 2011 after being deployed. Chen, who was Chinese-American, reportedly had rocks thrown at him and was called names like "Dragon Lady" and "Egg Roll" in the weeks before his death in Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2012. A spokesman for the Alaska unit tells the Army Times an investigation into the recent claims is underway and that "there is absolutely no connection between this current investigation and the case of Pvt. Danny Chen. Treating all soldiers with dignity and respect is something this command takes extremely seriously." (Prince Harry once got into hot water with the UK military for using a racial slur.)


Article:

Coffee chain Starbucks is moving its bottled-water operation out of California amid the historic drought, the company said in a statement.

 Starbucks said Thursday it will move its Ethos bottled water production to Pennsylvania over the next six months. It is trying to find a new water source for the West Coast, the company said.

 "We are committed to our mission to be a globally responsible company and to support the people of the state of California as they face this unprecedented drought," John Kelly, Starbucks senior vice president of Global Responsibility and Public Policy, said in a statement. Stores in California will also reduce water use by more than 25 percent, the coffee chain said.

 The company said it made the decision in order to help California conserve water. Last week, Mother Jones pointed out that Starbucks' Ethos water sold in the Western United States draws its supply from private springs in Baxter, California, which is classified by the state as being in "exceptional drought."

 Starbucks donates 5 cents for every bottle of Ethos water it sells to the Ethos Water Fund, which makes grants to improve water and sanitation projects in countries that face water challenges, the company said on its website. Starbucks said it has distributed over $12 million since buying the water company in 2005.

 California's water board this week approved a mandatory 25 percent urban water reduction called for by Gov. Jerry Brown, as well as other regulations designed to save water. California is in its fourth year of drought.

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 Update, May 8, 2015: In a statement on Thursday, Starbucks announced it would be moving its California bottling operations to Pennsylvania over the next six months, citing concerns over the drought crisis. “We are committed to our mission to be a globally responsible company and to support the people of the state of California as they face this unprecedented drought,” John Kelly, the company’s senior vice president of Global Responsibility and Public Policy said.

 Ethos Water was supposed to help fix the global water crisis: Founded in 2002 in Southern California, the bottled-water company promised that for every unit it sold, it would donate a small amount of money to water charity projects in the developing world.

 The idea quickly took off. In 2005, Ethos was acquired by Starbucks. Now, for every $1.95 bottle of Ethos water it sells, Starbucks makes a 5-cent donation to the Ethos Water Fund, part of the Starbucks Foundation. “When our customers choose to buy Ethos Water, they’re improving the lives of people who lack vital resources,” Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in 2008.

 Some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood have lent their names to Starbucks’ Ethos brand. Matt Damon starred in an ad campaign, and Starbucks partnered with a company that drives celebrities to the Oscars and filled the cars with Ethos bottles, “so Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz walked into the awards carrying Ethos Water,” as Ethos cofounder Peter Thum explained. In 2011, Ethos’ other cofounder, Jonathan Greenblatt, became special assistant to the president and head of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. Obama himself lauded Greenblatt last fall for his “innovative solutions to America’s challenges.”

 Starbucks says that its partnership with Ethos has raised more than $12.3 million for water charity projects to date.

 So far, media coverage has focused on Starbucks’ goal to quench the thirst of the world’s parched masses; the story behind the bottled water it sells here in the United States has been a nonissue. But now, as California’s historic drought wears on, Starbucks is facing a water crisis of its own.

 Starbucks gets its spring water free of charge—in California, water companies typically don’t have to pay for the groundwater they use.

 The bottling plant that Starbucks uses for its Ethos customers in the western United States is located in Merced, California, which is currently ranked in the “exceptional drought” category by the US Drought Monitor. Its residents face steep water cuts in their homes, and surface water for the region’s many farms is drying up.

 On April 16, the Merced Sun-Star reported that residents were complaining about a private water bottler, owned and operated by the grocery chain Safeway, that ships the increasingly scarce groundwater out for profit. In addition to its own bottled water, the plant also produces Starbucks’ Ethos water. No one knows exactly how much water the plant is using—the city of Merced considers that information confidential. (Starbucks uses a water source in Pennsylvania for the Ethos bottles sold in its locations in the eastern United States.)

 The Starbucks water bottled at the plant comes from private springs in Baxter, a small unincorporated community in Placer County, a few hours north of Merced in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The spring water comes free of charge—in California, water companies typically don’t have to pay for the groundwater they use.

 Like Merced, Baxter is located in “exceptional drought” territory. In a story about the water shortage last year, the New York Times pointed to a community near Baxter, quoting a rancher as saying that the drought was “as bad as I have ever experienced.”

 When I asked a Starbucks spokesman about the company’s reaction to concerns about bottlers’ use of increasingly scarce water, he told me that Starbucks uses “a private spring source that is not used for municipal water for any communities.” But Mary Scruggs, a supervising engineering geologist with California’s Department of Water Resources, notes that communities can be affected by the use of surrounding springs “if you capture and pull it out before it ever makes it” to downstream users.

 The bottling plant that Starbucks uses is located in Merced, California, which is currently ranked in the “exceptional drought” category.

 Bottling companies are trusted to monitor the health of their springs and the recharge rate, though in California the regulation and monitoring of bottled water extraction and its environmental impacts is notoriously opaque. Unlike in other states, well logs are kept confidential and reviewing such data requires permission from the well owner.

 In addition to the spring water it bottles, Starbucks also uses Merced city water to manufacture its bottled water product. A report commissioned by the International Bottled Water Association found that it takes on average 1.32 liters of water to make a liter of bottled water, though critics argue that it can take several times more than that once all the packaging is accounted for.

 In March, Merced County passed an ordinance that will place new permitting restrictions on some groundwater use, though whether this will affect the Starbucks bottling plant remains to be seen. “We’re cautious about setting precedents,” says Ron Rowe, director of the Division of Environmental Health for Merced County, adding that his agency hasn’t yet issued permits for any company under the new ordinance.

 Starbucks declined to provide sales figures for Ethos Water, but the company’s estimate of $12.3 million given to charity works out to about 246 million bottles sold. Given the original price of $1.80 a bottle, by my calculation, that’s more than $442 million in sales.

 While bottled water accounts for just a small fraction of California’s total water use, some residents are nonetheless fed up with bottling plants that profit off their dwindling water supply. Protesters have begun staging events at Nestlé’s bottling facility in nearby Sacramento.

 Starbucks, with its mission to bring water to the world’s thirstiest regions, has so far escaped the kind of scrutiny that Nestlé and others have endured. But as a Merced area resident recently noted during a city council meeting about the bottling plant that Starbucks uses, “You might think that in the midst of a drought emergency, diverting public fresh water supplies to bottle and selling them would be frowned upon.”

 This article was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, with support from the Puffin Foundation. |||||
What is a summary?

– Starbucks will shift its bottled water operation out of California as the state's lengthy drought intensifies. The coffee chain says it will move production of its Ethos water to Pennsylvania for six months while it searches for an alternative West Coast source, NBC News reports. "We are committed to our mission to be a globally responsible company and to support the people of the state of California as they face this unprecedented drought," the company said in a statement. The announcement follows a critical report in Mother Jones that revealed Ethos water came from private springs in Baxter, an area deemed to be in "exceptional drought." Asked by Mother Jones about concerns surrounding a dwindling water supply for residents, a company rep said Ethos' source "is not used for municipal water for any communities." However, the spring water got bottled in nearby Merced, also under severe drought conditions, and the company used city water as part of the process. The article described how the brand has become a favorite among Hollywood celebs because 5 cents from every bottle goes to the Ethos Water Fund, which works to improve access to water and sanitation abroad. Other bottled water brands, including Nestle, also get their water from California.


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– A Tucson firefighter may have slowed down his unit’s response to the Jan. 8 shooting spree targeting Gabrielle Giffords—because he refused to go out on the call. According to city memos, Mark Ekstrum, a 28-year veteran, “mentioned something about 'political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it” when he refused, and said he was acting "for the good of the crew." Upon being told that wasn’t a valid reason for refusing a call, Ekstrum "started to say something about how he had a much different political viewpoint than the rest of the crew" then told his captain he was going home sick. As supervisors considered how to discipline him, he retired two days later, the Arizona Daily Star reports. Ekstrum’s refusal caused “confusion and delay” during the preparatory process, and one fire engine had to stop along the way to pick up a replacement, but his crew was not one of the initial teams on the scene; they responded in a support, not emergency, fashion. Ekstrum later apologized and explained in a statement that he doesn’t have any problem with Giffords and even voted for her in the last election, but that he was distraught over the shooting and thus “distracted to the point of not being able to perform my routine station duties to such an extent that I seriously doubted my ability to focus on an emergency call.” In lighter Giffords news, the Star notes that she sang “American Pie” over the weekend, and knew all the words.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords sang the folk-rock song "American Pie" over the weekend - and knew all the words, her rabbi says.

 Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim, which Giffords attends, visited the congresswoman in Houston and plans another visit soon. She said one of her friends, a rabbi in Houston, is also visiting with Giffords regularly.

 Giffords, 40, is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, where her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, lives. She was one of 19 people shot Jan. 8 at a northwest-side supermarket as she held a meet-and-greet event. Six people died.

 "I sang a prayer with her," Aaron said. "She also sang 'American Pie' and she knew all the words. She was singing it with Mark and Mark's daughters, who noticed that she knew the words better than they did."

 Giffords was shot in the left forehead and the bullet went clear through the left side of the brain, which typically controls right-side strength, sensation and speech.

 Giffords' medical team has been encouraging her to mouth the words to songs as part of an exercise known to rebuild the brain.

 During her visit to Houston, Aaron said Giffords overheard the rabbi talking about going to get matzo-ball soup for her. And when Aaron returned from the deli, Giffords looked at her and said, "Soup?"

 "She's determined," Aaron said. "She's being her brilliant, amazing self."

 Aaron brought a large poster-board card from students at Emily Gray Junior High School, where Giffords was once a student.

 The card included a picture of Emily Gray students standing with Giffords and her husband. When she saw the picture, Giffords touched the part of the picture that showed her with Kelly.

 The students had also put an Emily Gray T-shirt inside the card. Giffords reached out, grasped it and held it close to her heart, Aaron said.

 "She's really trying," Aaron said. "And Mark is with her every minute."

 Traumatic brain injuries can affect a person's ability to concentrate and remember, as well as cause problems with balance and coordination. Many survivors are severely disabled.

 Experts have said it's a good sign that Giffords is talking, but that she still has a long, difficult road to recovery.

 The first reports of Giffords speaking came last week, when a staff member confirmed the congresswoman asked for toast with her breakfast. There have also been reports of her mouthing the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," as friends sang along.

 Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at sinnes@azstarnet.com or 573-4134. ||||| A veteran city firefighter's refusal to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting spree, citing "political bantering," may have slowed his Tucson Fire Department unit's response to the incident that left six dead and 13 wounded, city memos show.

 The firefighter, Mark Ekstrum, retired from his 28-year career two days later, while his supervisors were still considering how to discipline him, internal memos obtained by the Arizona Daily Star in a public-records request show.

 In a Jan. 9 report on Ekstrum's actions, fire Capt. Ben Williams wrote that when Ekstrum first told him he would not go out on the call, "he mentioned something about 'political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it." He said he was acting "for the good of the crew."

 Williams said he told Ekstrum he could not refuse a call for that reason, and then talked to the firefighter privately in his office. He said Ekstrum "started to say something about how he had a much different political viewpoint than the rest of the crew and he was concerned." Despite being told that was not acceptable, Williams said Ekstrum informed him he was going home "sick," so they answered the call without him.

 In a statement provided to the Fire Department late Wednesday, after he was contacted by the Star about the incident, Ekstrum said he was distraught over the shootings and had no problem with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from a bullet wound to the brain, and even voted for her in the last election.

 Ekstrum was on duty at a station on the far southeast side and was part of a team specially trained to handle large medical emergencies. While the crew was not among those called first to the shooting scene - they were not dispatched until about 90 minutes after the shootings - a memo from Ekstrum's supervisor said his actions caused "confusion and delay" in the emergency circumstances. The department previously sent several paramedic units to the Safeway at North Oracle Road and West Ina Road.

 The Fire Department later backtracked from that statement, saying Ekstrum's actions caused delay during the preparatory process, but did not cause a delay of the actual call.

 However, one of the fire engines had to stop at another fire station to pick up personnel to take Ekstrum's place.

 Crews at Tucson Fire's Station 6,10251 S. Wilmot Road, were dispatched at 12:03 p.m. Jan. 8, seven minutes after the last patient arrived at the hospital, said Joe Gulotta, an assistant fire chief. They responded as a support crew, in a non-emergency way with the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), a large delivery truck with tents, medical supplies, water and cots, used after the shootings to assist those who were not seriously injured.

 Williams said he told Ekstrum they all have differences, but they put those differences aside and respond as professionals, the memo said. However, Ekstrum said "I'm leaving, I am going home," the memo said, and Williams said at that time he realized arguing was pointless and time was wasting so he told Ekstrum to go.

 After the crew returned from the call, Ekstrum was waiting at the station with his wife and asked if he could come in to apologize to the crew, the memo said. The crew accepted his apology, and then Williams talked in his office with Ekstrum and his wife.

 "He stated that there were underlying issues regarding the call that brought up a lot of anger and made him ineffective as a firefighter," the memo said. "I told him that as his captain I had lost confidence in his future ability to perform his duties. He stated that he felt this call was unique and did not think this would happen again."

 When contacted at his house Wednesday, and later by telephone, Ekstrum declined to comment.

 However, in the statement he submitted to the department late Wednesday - a statement the department was not expecting - he said he was distraught over the shootings and was "distracted to the point of not being able to perform my routine station duties to such an extent that I seriously doubted my ability to focus on an emergency call."

 He said he failed to effectively communicate that was the reason he needed to go home and "my communication centered more on how this event would affect the country and them and us, and, of course, led to their misunderstanding about my need to go home because I was at a point of distraction."

 Ekstrum said he realized the next day, "I had crossed a line with myself in relation to our citizens. I should have been there, regardless of how responsible I was attempting to be from the standpoint of distraction."

 Ekstrum said he decided to retire right then, without knowing that the Tucson Fire Department was starting a disciplinary action against him.

 He said in his statement that he voted for Giffords in the last election, and spoke with her early on in her tenure about a communication vehicle that TFD had for mass-casualty incidents. "She asked many pertinent and intelligent questions," Ekstrum said. "She has always impressed me as a person that was willing to listen."

 Ekstrum has been registered as an independent since 1999, Pima County Recorder's Office records show, after being registered as a Democrat for the previous 17 years. He did not appear to be very politically active. The records show he hadn't voted in a primary election in 28 years and his name couldn't be found in campaign finance records as a donor.

 Williams recommended a 20-day suspension, the maximum sanction for a first time offense. In his memo, he said, "I look forward to getting past this incident so that we may work together again in the future."

 However, Gulotta initially said Ekstrum's behavior fit the "most egregious category in our discipline matrix," and he likely would have faced termination if he had not retired.

 But later, after seeing Ekstrum's Wednesday statement, Gulotta said the department's reaction to Ekstrum's actions would have been different. It would have first sent him to a city doctor to measure his fitness for duty and then could have simply disciplined him, or potentially fired him, but Gulotta said exactly what would have happened is unknown.

 Fire Union President Roger Tamietti declined to comment on Ekstrum because Ekstrum was not a member of the fire union.

 In his 28 years with Tucson Fire, Ekstrum had positive reviews and was given "exceed standards" on most of his evaluations. Williams said in his memo that Ekstrum's work ethic and performance had been exemplary and professional.

 In early 2010, Ekstrum used two weeks' vacation time to volunteer in Haiti and help the victims of the earthquake, according to his personnel file.

 He was only reprimanded once, an oral reprimand in 1984 for backing his vehicle into an object, Gulotta said.

 City Manager Mike Letcher said the department took the appropriate action over the Jan. 8 incident, but he is concerned his office didn't know about it until this week.

 On StarNet: Read more about the shooting and its aftermath at azstarnet.com/giffords

 Contact reporter Fernanda Echavarri at fechavarri@azstarnet.com or 573-4224. Contact reporter Rob O'Dell at rodell@azstarnet.com or 573-4346. |||||


Here is a news article: What term do you want to search? Search with google ||||| A psychologist has claimed that he may finally have the answer to the age old problem and has developed a new book scientifically designed to send children to sleep within minutes.

 Since going on sale, The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep has rocketed to the top of Amazon’s best sellers list.

 The paperback was written by Swedish psychologist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin and tells the tale of Roger the Rabbit, the Sleep Snail and Uncle Yawn on their quest to help the rabbit go to sleep.

 Parents are advised to read slowly and methodically and to yawn throughout the narrative. It is believed that these psychological reinforcement techniques transfer to the child who then mimics their parents’ sleepy behaviour.

 Mr Forssen Ehrlin claims to use language patterns and complementary images to lull even the most energetic child to sleep over the course of its 26 pages.

 He claims: "This is an innovative and groundbreaking type of bedtime story that uses sophisticated psychological techniques.

 "These are formed in a way to help the child relax, fall asleep faster and sleep calmer every night. The tale gives suggestions to the child's unconscious mind to sleep."

 It is believed that this is the first time that an independent author has topped Amazon’s best sellers chart. ||||| Do you struggle with getting your child to fall asleep?

 In The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep you will follow Roger The Rabbit when he gets help from Uncle Yawn and other friends to fall asleep in the evening. Your child is quickly compelled by the story and falls asleep when you read it or after. The story is in a lovely way sleep-inducing and helps children all over the world to fall asleep.

 This is a new safe and innovative way to help your child fall asleep and is recommended by psychologists and therapists. The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep will help you accomplish the task of getting your child to have its beauty sleep and sleep well all night.

 "Have you ever struggled to help your child get to sleep and wished that you had a magical spell? Carl-Johan’s enchanting book will soon have your young ones dreaming."

 – Matt Hudson, Bestselling author and psychotherapist

 No need for How-to skills, it’s as easy and simple as reading a normal bedtime story with improved language pattern that will help your child to relax and fall asleep. After massive feedback from parents all over the world it’s safe to say that The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep is a quick and guaranteed way to help your child relax in the evening or during a nap.

 This children’s book will with ease help your child to fall asleep, at the same time its fun for you to read a bedtime story that’s written in a special compelling way. While reading the kids book you can also enjoy the lovely pictures that improves the sleep-inducing state of the bedtime story. The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep also gives you opportunities to personalize the story by using the child’s name and commit them even more to the story.

 Make your evening routine to something special and loving; buy the Rabbit Who Want’s To Fall Asleep today.

 "Use the story about The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep when exciting things are happening, or when something temporarily makes it difficult for your child to fall asleep."

 – Mikael Odhage, Psychologist

  ||||| For many parents, getting kids to fall asleep can be a nightmare. But a children's bedtime story currently topping Amazon's Best Sellers List promises to make the process easier and help kids to drift off to sleep faster.

 "The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep," a self-published picture book written by Swedish author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin, employs psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to promote relaxation and induce sleep.

 The tale follows Roger The Rabbit and his mother as they journey to meet Uncle Yawn to help him find sleep. Along the way, they meet characters like Sleepy Snail and the wise Heavy-Eyed Owl who give Roger advice on how to fall asleep faster.

 The key is the story's language pattern and sentence structure, Ehrlin says. "The entire story is focused on getting the child involved and to get the child to identify with Roger who will fall asleep in the end," he told CBS News. "The main goal is to keep the child focused on the goal of relaxation. One could say that this story is the verbal equivalent of rocking the baby to sleep."

 By the time Roger reaches Uncle Yawn, he is already feeling tired. Magical sleeping powder ultimately does the trick and he can barely get home before falling asleep and getting a good night's rest.

 The book - with the words "I can make anyone fall asleep" emblazoned on a sign on the front cover - allows parents to personalize it by using the child's name, and it offers written cues for parents, such as encouraging them to yawn at the end of a sentence, to help them tell the story more effectively.

 Dr. Umakanth Khatwa, Director of Sleep Laboratories at Boston Children's Hospital, likened the book to "gentle hypnosis."

 "The authors have created a character that is just like the child and who has a similar problem as the child - trying to fall asleep," he told CBS News. "So the whole time, you're talking about sleep, you're trying to solve a problem about sleep and you see how the character falls asleep. The authors use the words, the patterns and the story in a way to induce a kind of hypnosis. The characters' names even sound like sleep initiation."

 "The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep" was originally published in Swedish in 2011. In 2014, an English translation was released and it is now available in seven different languages. It is currently outselling big releases like Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman" and Dr. Seuss' "What Pet Should I Get?" on Amazon.

 This is Ehrlin's third book, and his first for children. His previous two books, focusing on adult psychology, leadership and personal development, have not been translated into English.

 Reviews of the book online are largely positive. "My two year old daughter always fights sleep," one parent wrote. "It normally takes 1 -2 hours & she was out cold within minutes. This will definitely be a regular part of our bed time routine."

 "I am amazed!" another parent said. "We battle sleep every night with my now 2 year old. We got to page 3 and he was out!"

 "It feels almost like a guided meditation," another reader observed.

 Ehrlin said he is happy the book has reached so many families, many of whom have reached out to him with suggestions for future stories that could help their children. His next book, he said, may focus on similar techniques for potty training. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A new children's book isn't just written for kids—it's written to make them fall asleep, and fast. Author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin, a Swedish behavioral psychologist, says he filled The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep with psychological reinforcement techniques to make young listeners doze off in minutes, the Independent reports. "These [techniques] are formed in a way to help the child relax, fall asleep faster and sleep calmer every night," Forssen Ehrlin says. "The tale gives suggestions to the child's unconscious mind to sleep." Not only does protagonist Roger The Rabbit encounter characters like Sleep Snail, Heavy-Eyed Owl, and Uncle Yawn, but parent-readers are instructed to yawn often and speak italicized words in a calm and slow manner, the Telegraph reports. Think it's bizarre? Well, it's the first self-published book to top Amazon's best-seller list. Forssen Ehrlin says he got the idea on a long road trip when his mom dozed off, and he realized the power of his techniques. He devised a story within three years, and saw the Swedish version published in 2011; the English translation appeared last year. In the story, Roger The Rabbit "is just like the child" in needing to fall asleep, a doctor tells CBS News. "So the whole time, you're talking about sleep, you're trying to solve a problem about sleep and you see how the character falls asleep." But while Amazon reviews are mostly glowing, Imogen Williams at the Guardian considers the book's manipulation "sinister" and "terrifying": "Bedtime stories are not, to me, about deceiving your child into conking out," she writes, and vows to continue her "bedtime pilgrimages up and down the stairs. After all, there’s always gin." (See 15 sad, strange things that keep us awake at night.)


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Director John Singleton defended the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday in the wake of the renewed #OscarsSoWhite controversy, which saw the organization’s members nominate exclusively white actors in top acting categories for a second straight year.

 While fellow director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith have vowed to boycott the February 28 awards show, the two-time Oscar-nominated Singleton said in a recent interview that Academy nods are subjective honors, and don’t necessarily reflect the quality of a given film.

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 “There’s only so many slots, though,” Singleton, who became the first African-American to earn a Best Director nomination for 1991’s Boyz ‘N The Hood, told Variety. “There are a couple of movies that may have (warranted attention) but… It’s all subjective. It’s almost like the lottery.”

 “It’s like every year people complain,” the director added. “People even complain even when we have a lot of nominations. It is what is is. I’ve been in the game for 25 years. You never know – it’s the luck of the draw for you. To me, I’m not surprised. I’m not disappointed either, as much as other people are disappointed. There’s a whole elevation of work that happens.”

 Singleton’s opinion differs greatly from that of Spike Lee; the Do The Right Thing director vowed Monday to boycott the Oscars, writing in an Instagram post that “until minorities are [in film studios’ boardrooms], the Oscar nominees will remain lily white.”

 But in his comments to Variety, Singleton suggested that Lee should know better than most that Oscar nominations are not a reflection of a film’s strength.

 “Every year there’s at least a few films that don’t get nominated and you have all these films that do get nominated and then the films that aren’t nominated are elevated over time, he explained. Do the Right Thing never got nominated for best picture, but that year, nobody’s talking about Driving Miss Daisy any more. Everybody’s still talking about Do the Right Thing. It happens every year.”

 The #OscarsSoWhite controversy was renewed again last week, when critics blasted the Academy for failing to nominate any people of color in each of the top four acting categories. Critics said that films like Straight Outta Compton, Creed, Beasts of No Nation and Concussion deserved recognition for their acting performances.

 Compton producer Will Packer called the lack of nominations for people of color a “complete embarrassment,” while the Rev. Al Sharpton blasted Hollywood at large for perpetuating what he called a “fraudulent image of of progressive liberal politics and policies.”

 Despite defending the Academy, Singleton told Variety there was one film he hoped would earn a nomination that ultimately did not.

 “I do think Straight Outta Compton could have been nominated for Best Picture,” he said. He added that Jason Mitchell, who played Eazy-E in the NWA biopic, should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

 Singleton’s work can be seen next in an episode of American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson, premiering February 2 on FX. ||||| In the wake of Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith announcing they will not be attending this year's Oscars, Cheryl Boone Isaacs says she was "heartbroken and frustrated" by the nominations, which did not include any performers of color.

 Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, on Monday issued a lengthy statement on the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations, which has become the subject of mounting criticism.

 "I’d like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year’s nominees," she said. "While we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes.

 "The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond," Boone Isaacs said in what amounted to a rare and unusual move on the part of the Academy.

 "As many of you know," she continued, "we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly."

 "This isn’t unprecedented for the Academy," added Boone Isaacs. "In the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was about recruiting younger members to stay vital and relevant. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. We recognize the very real concerns of our community, and I so appreciate all of you who have reached out to me in our effort to move forward together."

 Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter earlier Monday evening just before she was honored with the Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award at the King Legacy Awards, presented at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Los Angeles, Boone Isaacs said that “there’s been enough conversation” and that it is time for the entertainment industry to take action to improve diversity.

 She said that she was “disappointed” that, for the second year in a row, the Oscar nominations, announced last week, failed to include any performers of color. Academy CEO Dawn Hudson, who was also in attendance, added that she was "devastated" by the nominations.

 The Academy again finds itself the focus of criticism over the lack of opportunities for minorities within the film industry. Earlier on Monday, Spike Lee, who received an honorary Oscar from the Academy at its Board of Governors Awards in November, announced in an Instagram post that he and his wife Tonya Lewis Lee “cannot support it” and would not attend the upcoming Oscars on Feb. 28.

 "Mean No Disrespect To My Friends, Host Chris Rock and Producer Reggie Hudlin, President Isaacs And The Academy," Lee wrote. "But, How Is It Possible For The 2nd Consecutive Year All 20 Contenders Under The Actor Category Are White? And Let's Not Even Get Into The Other Branches. 40 White Actors In 2 Years And No Flava At All. We Can't Act?! WTF!!"

 The Academy president said she had not heard from Lee about his decision, but that she remained a strong supporter of his in general.

 Boone Isaacs, who is African-American, said she herself has experienced racism, but declined to go into detail.

 At the same time, she said even if it is the industry that is to blame for not creating more diverse product, it would be wrong for the Academy to avoid responsibility in a year when there has been at least a handful of movies with actors of color that she found worthy of nomination.

 'There've been four or five wonderful movies,' she said, citing Lee’s own Chi-Raq, Concussion, Creed, Beasts of No Nation and Straight Outta Compton.

 Boone Isaacs noted that the Academy has formed a committee, made up of members of the industry, to explore how to improve diversity. She announced earlier at the Governors Awards that the Academy is developing a five-year plan called A2020 with an eye toward improving diversity within the Academy itself and the industry at large. ||||| Immediate reaction within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to president Cheryl Boone Isaacs’ statement promising “dramatic steps” to increase diversity ranged from skepticism that AMPAS could make real changes to enthusiasm over the idea of diversity as a true Oscars priority.

 But most members surveyed by TheWrap applauded Isaacs’ comments, in which she described herself as “heartbroken and frustrated” over the nominations that excluded many potential black nominees.

 And Isaacs was not even the first Academy official to issue a call for diversity on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — she was just the first to do so publicly.

 Also Read: Oscars 'Heartbroken' Over Lack of Diversity, Academy Pledges 'Big Changes'

 Early in the day, according to members who spoke to TheWrap, screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson, a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors and the board’s secretary, sent an email to other members and governors urging that each branch make a major push for increased diversity.

 Robinson called on governors to examine the membership requirements within their branches with an eye to bringing in more minority members, and also encouraged them to identify existing minority members within their branch who would be willing to run for office to make the board more diverse.

 Isaacs is currently the only African-American member of the Board of Governors, and one of only 17 women on the 51-member board. She issued her statement after a public outcry over the failure of Academy voters to nominate any non-white acting nominees for the second consecutive year.

 Also Read: Oscar Nominations Renew #OscarsSoWhite Backlash

 Among the African-American performers who were overlooked in Oscars nominations: Michael B. Jordan for “Creed,” Idris Elba for “Beasts of No Nation,” Will Smith for “Concussion” and the cast of “Straight Outta Compton,” which was nominated for screenplay by the Writers Branch (typically the most adventurous AMPAS branch) but left out of the Best Picture and acting races.

 “They’re not embarrassed today,” one Academy member and former governor said. “They’re disgusted.”

 The steps urged by Robinson could be part and parcel of the campaign described by Isaacs, which focuses on the invitations to membership that will be sent out in the spring of this year.

 “The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership,” she wrote. “In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond.”

 Also Read: Nina Simone Sings a Song for MLK in Trailer for Netflix Doc (Exclusive Video)

 That emphasis dovetailed with the opinion of one member who supported Isaacs’ statements and told TheWrap: “The problem is not the nominations. It’s the makeup of the Academy, and more than that the makeup of Hollywood.”

 But other members were skeptical of the organization’s ability to truly change the makeup or biases of the Academy, which includes almost 6,300 voting members. “Any way you slice it, it’s a knee-jerk reaction,” one member said, who believed the way to increase the diversity of nominations would be to expand the Best Picture field to 10 (which would presumably have included “Straight Outta Compton”) or turn the nomination voting over to select committees instead of the general membership, the way the Television Academy handles Emmy nominations.

 With Isaacs’ statement focusing entirely on the admission of members later this year, it raises the question of whether an organization the size of the Academy can be changed significantly just through an influx of new members. Many AMPAS-watchers have suggested that any real Academy makeover would have to also include purging the voting rolls of older members who have not worked in the movie industry in years or even decades.

 Also Read: Black Hollywood Calls Out Oscars for Lack of Diversity: It's 'Embarrassing'

 That, however, would be a huge step that would likely anger an enormous number of members, and one that Isaacs’ statement does not address.

 “There’s an argument to be made that you should have to be an active participant in the industry in order to be eligible to vote,” one member said. “But eliminating voting members would require a massive bylaws change.”

 Added the member, “The irony is, if Hollywood is not open to diversity, then we’re in real trouble as a country, because Hollywood is supposed to be liberal and open.”

 14 Award-Worthy Performances by Non-White Actors the Academy Overlooked (Photos)

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 The Weinstein Company Open Road Previous Slide Next Slide From Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation” to Mya Taylor in “Tangerine,” these roles prove the Oscars needn’t be so white 1 of 15 ||||| The backlash against this year's Academy Award nominations escalated Monday with announcements by director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith that they would boycott the Feb. 28 Oscars ceremony, citing the absence of people of color in all four acting categories for the second year in a row.

 If other prominent entertainment industry figures join the boycott, it has the potential to spoil Hollywood's annual showcase event. And should large numbers of African American viewers tune out, it could dent ratings for the Oscars telecast — the primary source of revenue for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 "It has such high ratings most years, so the image of Hollywood that the academy presents is at stake," said Ana-Christina Ramón, assistant director and associate researcher at UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

 Could this be the beginning of a larger boycott? Join the conversation on Facebook >>

 Ramon noted that the academy strives to present an image of diversity, an image that could be jeopardized by a boycott.

 "People will take notice," she said. "Even when they're not nominated, minority actors are trotted out. They try to show diversity among presenters."

 "I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion," academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement released Monday night. "This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big change."

 She added that the academy would be taking "dramatic steps" to alter the makeup of its membership and to accelerate diversity efforts.

 A statement from Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs pic.twitter.com/Nqhgc7sbqG — The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 19, 2016

 Lee's decision to skip the Oscars had an extra sting because the academy recently bestowed the director with an honorary Oscar in November for his career work, which includes such racially charged movies as "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X."

 It's customary for honorary Oscar winners to attend Hollywood's biggest night at the Dolby Theatre and to receive a moment of recognition during the telecast. But in a message posted to on his Instagram account, the outspoken director said that he and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, won't be at the ceremony. Lee demanded to know "how is it possible for the [second] consecutive year all 20 contenders in the acting category are white?"

 He added: "For too many years when the Oscars nominations are revealed, my office phone rings off the hook with the media asking me my opinion about the lack of African-Americans and this year was no different."

 His announcement came shortly after a Facebook video from Pinkett Smith in which the actress said she would not attend or watch the Oscars this year. Pinkett Smith, wife of "Concussion" actor Will Smith, said the academy has the right to acknowledge and invite whomever it chooses, but leaving black actors "begging for acknowledgment" diminishes the community. "We are a dignified people," she said.

 We must stand in our power! We must stand in our power. Posted by Jada Pinkett Smith on Monday, January 18, 2016

 Will Smith, who doesn't appear in the video, wasn't nominated for "Concussion."

 Even with Chris Rock lined up as host, the announcement Thursday of the Academy Award nominations saw the return of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite on Twitter as people expressed their anger.

 The academy announced its nominations last week, and all of the 20 nominees in the acting categories were white for a second year in a row. In addition to Will Smith, other minority actors whose work drew plaudits include Samuel L. Jackson of "The Hateful Eight," Idris Elba of "Beasts of No Nation" and Michael B. Jordan of "Creed."

 The film "Straight Outta Compton," a fan and critical favorite with an African American cast and director, was also bypassed for a best picture nomination.

 Lee's Instagram message said that he "means no disrespect" to Oscars host Rock and producer Reginald Hudlin or to academy President Boone Isaacs.

 He said the root of the problem lies in the industry's failure to give people of color more opportunities to make films.

 "As I see it," the New York-based director wrote, "the Academy Awards is not where the 'real'' battle is. It's in the executive office of the Hollywood studios and TV and cable networks. This is where the gate keepers decide what gets made and what gets jettisoned to 'turnaround' or [the] scrap heap."

 Through a representative, Lee declined to comment beyond his Instagram post.

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 The Bunche Center at UCLA releases an annual report on diversity in Hollywood. Its most recent study, released last year, reported that film studio heads were 94% white and all male and that film studio senior management was 92% white and 83% male.

 The boycotts by Lee and Pinkett Smith are a "good thing because it draws more attention to the issue," the center's director, professor Darnell Hunt, said Monday. "To have prominent figures … to go on the record to lodge their outrage with business as usual keeps it in the conversation."

 Last year, the #oscarssowhite hashtag took off after David Oyelowo was snubbed for his turn as Martin Luther King Jr. in "Selma," and the film's director, Ava DuVernay, also failed to score a nomination. The last time a black actor won an Academy Award was when Lupita Nyong'o took home a supporting actress statuette for "12 Years a Slave," released in 2013.

 In his movies, Lee has frequently addressed the issue of racial unrest in contemporary urban society.

 MORE: Oscars 2016: It's time for Hollywood to stop defining great drama as white men battling adversity

 He received a screenwriting Oscar nomination for "Do the Right Thing," his 1989 movie that explored seething resentments between blacks and Italian Americans in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

 His second nomination was for the 1997 documentary "4 Little Girls," about the deaths of four young black girls during the bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963.

 Despite these nominations, Lee has never won a competitive Oscar. His latest feature, "Chi-Raq," earned the director his best reviews in years when it opened in December but failed to generate much awards-season buzz.

 No stranger to controversy, Lee has garnered a reputation for sparing few feelings when it comes to race. He has taken aim at other filmmakers, including Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino, for their cinematic depiction of blacks.

 When accepting his honorary Oscar in November, he gave a speech that was critical of the studios and spoke about the lack of black executives in positions of power in Hollywood.

 He later told The Times that "I get tired of [the conversation about diversity], but it's necessary."

 Twitter: @DavidNgLAT

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 Oscars 2016: The nominations are as white as MTV was in 1983 -- and it might cost the academy

 #OscarsSoWhite creator on Oscar noms: 'Don't tell me that people of color, women cannot fill seats' |||||

– Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs isn't in a position to boycott the Oscars—but she wants Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee to know that she is "heartbroken and frustrated" by this year's lack of diversity and there are big changes ahead. "This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big changes," she said in a statement Monday night, per the Hollywood Reporter. "The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership," she added, promising a "review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond." Smith and Lee announced their boycott after the Academy released an all-white acting nominee list for the second year in a row. Boone Isaacs noted that the Academy worked hard to stay relevant by recruiting younger members in the '60s and '70s, and the goal now is "inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation." Insiders tell the Wrap that Academy governors and board members received an email Monday asking them to make a push for more diversity in each branch of the organization. In its most recent report on the issue, UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African-American Studies found that senior management at movie studios is 92% white and 83% male, reports the Los Angeles Times. If black stars stay away from the Oscars, "the image of Hollywood that the academy presents is at stake," researcher Ana-Christina Ramon tells the paper. (The Oscars were recently defended by one perhaps surprising person.)


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– The future is now, people! Ever since Marty McFly donned self-lacing shoes in Back to the Future, people have been dreaming about sporting a pair of their own—because, you know, tying laces sucks. Nike has finally brought the dream to life, reports the Verge. The company has announced a power-laced shoe called the HyperAdapt 1.0, which uses a sensor in the sole to read your foot position, then automatically tightens with a series of battery-operated pulleys, per Wired. You can adjust the fit with buttons on the sides of the shoes, which will learn your preferred setting after a few wears. But that's just the beginning. Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield suggests a more automatic version of the shoe that uses biometric data to sense the perfect fit could be on the way. "Wouldn't it be great if a shoe, in the future, could sense when you needed to have it tighter or looser? Could it take you even tighter than you'd normally go if it senses you really need extra snugness in a quick maneuver? That's where we're headed," he says on Nike.com. The yet-to-be-priced shoes will be available in three colors around the holidays, but only for Nike+ members. The downside? You'll have to charge them every two weeks.

Nike just announced a self-lacing shoe called the HyperAdapt 1.0, bringing to life the dream that sneaker fans have shared since Back to the Future II premiered almost 30 years ago.

 When you step into the HyperAdapt 1.0 your heel hits a sensor that automatically tightens the laces, according to the Nike website. Wearers can adjust the tightness of the fit with buttons on either side of the shoe.

 Nike did make real-life versions of the self-lacing Air Mag sneakers from Back to the Future, and the company spent years teasing the public about them, but the company never intended them for the mass market. Late last year Nike gave a pair to Michael J. Fox, and even announced plans to sell them in extremely limited quantities, but that seemed to be the end of it all.

 Now we have the HyperAdapt 1.0, which shares the same tech that Nike used in those commemorative Air Mags, but comes in a much more consumer-ready form factor. It will actually be sold to regular customers this year, though you'll only be able to buy a pair if you're a member of the company's fitness portal, Nike+. They will be available during the holiday season in three colors, according to Nike.

 While the adaptive laces on the HyperAdapt 1.0 can be manually controlled, Nike is hinting that much more automatic versions of the technology could be seen in the future. Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield says in a statement that sneaker could eventually sense when you need a tighter or looser fit and adjust on the fly. "That’s where we’re headed," he says.

 This is what Back to the Future got right about 2015 ||||| The world got its first glimpse of the Nike Air Mag in 1989, when Marty McFly sported a pair in Back to the Future. In the intervening 27 years, there’s been plenty of speculation about when (and if) science fiction would ever become fact. Then, last fall, Nike casually dropped a bomb: Yes, power-lacing shoes were possible. In fact, not only were they possible, they were actually going to be something you and I could buy sometime in the near future.

 It appears that the future is suddenly the present, because today Nike announced that its first pair of self-lacing shoes will be hitting stores later this year (price to be determined). The shoes are called HyperAdapt 1.0, and they're a pleasantly elegant reimagining of McFly's flashy high tops.

 John Hoke, Nike's vice president of design, explains that the shoe doesn't use a traditional lacing system, but rather a battery-powered series of pulleys that cinch the throat of the shoe. When the wearer steps inside the shoe, sensors at the bottom register his or her weight and the position of the foot inside. "It reads if you're heavy on your heel or heavy on your forefoot," Hoke says.

 Once the sensors get a read on your foot position, a series of tiny pulleys will contract the throat of the shoe tightly around the foot by winding thread around a spool. "Imagine a fishing rod," Hoke says. The wearer can adjust the tightness by pushing on a plus or minus sign on the left side of the shoe. Hold it down for two seconds, and the shoe will loosen fully, allowing increased blood flow and removal. Eventually, Nike says it wants to make the micro-adjustments automated and reactive to biometric data, so they adjust on the fly.

 Hoke says that, after a couple of wears, the shoe will automatically adjust to your preferred setting, much like a car seat that knows how close you like to sit to the wheel. As the "1.0" designation suggests, the team is already looking to how this technology can improve and adapt to create a hyper-personalized platform. He wouldn't give much away, but Hoke did say that, eventually, you could imagine how your shoe might gather biometric data that can be fed into an entire adaptable, reactive ecosystem of Nike wearables. And by wearables we mean clothes.

 It's a compelling vision for sure, but as with all technology there are potential tradeoffs. Traditional laces are reliable—you'll never have to worry about them running out of juice or malfunctioning during a pivotal moment. Any time a shoe's functionality is tied directly to technology, there's going to be a risk factor.

 Nike says the shoes operate on a battery that will last for two weeks on a single charge. That's the other catch. Yes, you're gonna have to charge your shoes, just like you charge your phone and FitBit. But come on. It's a small price to pay to wear a piece of the future, is it not? |||||