With enemies like John Boehner, a president hardly needs friends.
“Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president’s health care law will continue,” the House Speaker blustered Wednesday night after failing yet again to derail, defund or even delay the Affordable Care Act. With their latest assault on Obamacare, Boehner’s House Republicans have not only emasculated their own party but boosted public support for health care reform. With the shutdown and the threat of a default now behind us for the moment, the greatest expansion of the social safety net in a half century is set to proceed on schedule.
Making the business case for cardiac rehab programs
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Jane Diane Fraser jfraser@hsf.ca 613-569-4361 x273 Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Life-saving programs significantly reduce hospital readmissions and deaths -- and more than pay for themselves
Montreal − You know the saying: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When it comes to cardiac rehabilitation, a study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress has the numbers to prove it.
"We found that cardiac rehabilitation programs have a financial 'return on investment' of about seven per cent," says author Dr. Dennis Humen, a professor of medicine at Western University. "Not only is cardiac rehab the pillar of preventing a second cardiac event; it also makes good business sense."
The study also revealed that, for patients, the 'return on investment' (ROI) for participating in these programs also makes good heart sense: cardiac rehab (CR) leads to a 31 per cent reduction in hospital readmission and a 26 per cent drop in cardiovascular mortality.
"There are more than 60,000 hospitalizations for heart attacks in Canada each year and another 160,000 due to coronary heart disease," says Dr. Humen.
"This opens a huge window of potential: if we could provide intensive cardiac rehab services to just 60,000 individuals, there could be a reduction in healthcare costs for this group of about $8.5 million per year."
If CR reduces cardiac events, mortality and hospital readmission rates, why isn't it funded more broadly?
Governments often cite high costs as a barrier to funding comprehensive CR, which combines regular exercise with intensive education around lifestyle changes. Yet the Western University study shows that on a financial basis the investment is more than offset by the ensuing cost savings.
Partly due to a lack of resources, a minority of patients take CR following a cardiac event. With funding an issue, the researchers wanted to test the business model.
The study started with a review of outcomes from 47 randomized trials that included 10,794 patients who had gone through CR.
This analysis was projected over two years of follow up. To create a model, the team assumed a hypothetical scenario where CR programs would be available to all 3,500 patients who suffer cardiac events yearly in southwestern Ontario. Then they enlisted colleagues at the university's Ivey Business School to analyze the data, for their skills in assessing business investments, and for what Dr. Humen calls their 'independent scrutiny.'
The number crunching revealed that costs for 3,500 patients enrolled in a comprehensive CR program and followed for two years would be about $5.4 million.
If this same population was not managed in a CR program, the estimated treatment costs due to cardiac events and hospital readmissions (many resulting in death) would be more than $5.8 million.
That's a cost savings of nearly $400,000 due to CR an ROI of about seven per cent over two years.
To Dr. Humen, it's critical to make the business case like this. "We have to be vigilant of whether we're getting good value for healthcare investments," he says. "If we're going to have a formula for appropriateness, it has to extend beyond what's medically appropriate to what's financially appropriate."
He notes that the costs incurred in one area of healthcare delivery could be offset by subsequent savings, but those might happen in an entirely separate area. That can make big picture planning difficult. Too many silos 'paralyze' forward-thinking decisions, says Dr. Humen.
"Cardiac rehabilitation helps patients living with heart disease to integrate lifestyle changes, with powerful results," says Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson. "Beyond reducing health costs, the cost savings related to avoiding future cardiac events would be more than enough to offset the costs of these programs."
"We know that people are often under-referred to these programs," she says. "If you or a loved one is living with heart disease, make sure you are referred to one of these life-saving programs."
###
The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress is co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
Statements and conclusions of study authors are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect Vascular 2013 host organizations' policy or position. They make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation's mission is to prevent disease, save lives and promote recovery. A volunteer-based health charity, we strive to tangibly improve the health of every Canadian family, every day. 'Healthy lives free of heart disease and stroke. Together we will make it happen.' Heartandstroke.ca
HSF spokesperson Beth Abramson is the author of the newly released book Heart Health for Canadians.
Vascular 2013 is a unique, one-time Canadian event bringing four separate scientific meetings together under one roof: the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, the Canadian Diabetes Association/Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism Professional Conference, the Canadian Stroke Congress and the Canadian Hypertension Congress. vascular2013.ca
It is a joint initiative of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Canadian Diabetes Association/Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Canadian Stroke Network, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and Hypertension Canada.
For more information and/or interviews, contact the
VASCULAR 2013 MEDIA OFFICE AT 514-789-3402 (Oct 17-20)
OR
Massy Forget Langlois Public Relations
Christian Ahuet, Consultant
514-842-2455, ext. 29 / Cell. 514-994-7496
Congress information and media registration is at http://www.vascular2013.ca
After October 20, 2013 contact:
Jane-Diane Fraser
Heart and Stroke Foundation
jfraser@hsf.ca
613-569-4361x273
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Making the business case for cardiac rehab programs
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Jane Diane Fraser jfraser@hsf.ca 613-569-4361 x273 Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Life-saving programs significantly reduce hospital readmissions and deaths -- and more than pay for themselves
Montreal − You know the saying: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When it comes to cardiac rehabilitation, a study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress has the numbers to prove it.
"We found that cardiac rehabilitation programs have a financial 'return on investment' of about seven per cent," says author Dr. Dennis Humen, a professor of medicine at Western University. "Not only is cardiac rehab the pillar of preventing a second cardiac event; it also makes good business sense."
The study also revealed that, for patients, the 'return on investment' (ROI) for participating in these programs also makes good heart sense: cardiac rehab (CR) leads to a 31 per cent reduction in hospital readmission and a 26 per cent drop in cardiovascular mortality.
"There are more than 60,000 hospitalizations for heart attacks in Canada each year and another 160,000 due to coronary heart disease," says Dr. Humen.
"This opens a huge window of potential: if we could provide intensive cardiac rehab services to just 60,000 individuals, there could be a reduction in healthcare costs for this group of about $8.5 million per year."
If CR reduces cardiac events, mortality and hospital readmission rates, why isn't it funded more broadly?
Governments often cite high costs as a barrier to funding comprehensive CR, which combines regular exercise with intensive education around lifestyle changes. Yet the Western University study shows that on a financial basis the investment is more than offset by the ensuing cost savings.
Partly due to a lack of resources, a minority of patients take CR following a cardiac event. With funding an issue, the researchers wanted to test the business model.
The study started with a review of outcomes from 47 randomized trials that included 10,794 patients who had gone through CR.
This analysis was projected over two years of follow up. To create a model, the team assumed a hypothetical scenario where CR programs would be available to all 3,500 patients who suffer cardiac events yearly in southwestern Ontario. Then they enlisted colleagues at the university's Ivey Business School to analyze the data, for their skills in assessing business investments, and for what Dr. Humen calls their 'independent scrutiny.'
The number crunching revealed that costs for 3,500 patients enrolled in a comprehensive CR program and followed for two years would be about $5.4 million.
If this same population was not managed in a CR program, the estimated treatment costs due to cardiac events and hospital readmissions (many resulting in death) would be more than $5.8 million.
That's a cost savings of nearly $400,000 due to CR an ROI of about seven per cent over two years.
To Dr. Humen, it's critical to make the business case like this. "We have to be vigilant of whether we're getting good value for healthcare investments," he says. "If we're going to have a formula for appropriateness, it has to extend beyond what's medically appropriate to what's financially appropriate."
He notes that the costs incurred in one area of healthcare delivery could be offset by subsequent savings, but those might happen in an entirely separate area. That can make big picture planning difficult. Too many silos 'paralyze' forward-thinking decisions, says Dr. Humen.
"Cardiac rehabilitation helps patients living with heart disease to integrate lifestyle changes, with powerful results," says Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson. "Beyond reducing health costs, the cost savings related to avoiding future cardiac events would be more than enough to offset the costs of these programs."
"We know that people are often under-referred to these programs," she says. "If you or a loved one is living with heart disease, make sure you are referred to one of these life-saving programs."
###
The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress is co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
Statements and conclusions of study authors are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect Vascular 2013 host organizations' policy or position. They make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation's mission is to prevent disease, save lives and promote recovery. A volunteer-based health charity, we strive to tangibly improve the health of every Canadian family, every day. 'Healthy lives free of heart disease and stroke. Together we will make it happen.' Heartandstroke.ca
HSF spokesperson Beth Abramson is the author of the newly released book Heart Health for Canadians.
Vascular 2013 is a unique, one-time Canadian event bringing four separate scientific meetings together under one roof: the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, the Canadian Diabetes Association/Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism Professional Conference, the Canadian Stroke Congress and the Canadian Hypertension Congress. vascular2013.ca
It is a joint initiative of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Canadian Diabetes Association/Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Canadian Stroke Network, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and Hypertension Canada.
For more information and/or interviews, contact the
VASCULAR 2013 MEDIA OFFICE AT 514-789-3402 (Oct 17-20)
OR
Massy Forget Langlois Public Relations
Christian Ahuet, Consultant
514-842-2455, ext. 29 / Cell. 514-994-7496
Congress information and media registration is at http://www.vascular2013.ca
After October 20, 2013 contact:
Jane-Diane Fraser
Heart and Stroke Foundation
jfraser@hsf.ca
613-569-4361x273
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ford's Theatre will reopen its doors and resume performances Wednesday, using private funding, even though the government shutdown has continued into a third week.
Theater officials announced Tuesday that the national historic site and performance space will reopen Wednesday. Theater trustee Ronald O. Perelman, the chairman and CEO of MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings Inc., donated $25,000 in emergency funding to pay for the theater's operations for the next eight days.
Ford's Theatre, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, is a National Park Service site. A private group runs the theater's programming.
On Wednesday, the theater will resume performances of "The Laramie Project," which is part of the theater's Lincoln Legacy Project focusing on diversity and equality. The production marks 15 years since Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was abducted and killed in Laramie, Wyo. Remaining tickets are $25 each.
The Ford's Theatre Society has been losing about $100,000 in revenue per week since the theater went dark at the start of the highly anticipated "Laramie Project" production due to the government shutdown, said spokeswoman Lauren Beyea. The show will run through Oct. 27, but will not be extended because the actors have other commitments.
An agreement was made to reopen Ford's Theatre after several states agreed to provide funding to reopen national parks in other areas. The National Park Service agreed to a similar arrangement for the theater.
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Members of the U.S. Coast Gard examine a small white boat, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Miami Beach, in Miami Beach, Fla. Four women died and 10 people were taken into custody after the boat with more than a dozen people aboard, including Haitian and Jamaican nationals, capsized early Wednesday in the waters off South Florida. It was overloaded and lacked lifejackets, according to the Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Members of the U.S. Coast Gard examine a small white boat, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Miami Beach, in Miami Beach, Fla. Four women died and 10 people were taken into custody after the boat with more than a dozen people aboard, including Haitian and Jamaican nationals, capsized early Wednesday in the waters off South Florida. It was overloaded and lacked lifejackets, according to the Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
A small white boat with its center console missing sits on the dock after authorities lifted it out of the water, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Miami Beach, in Miami Beach, Fla. Four women died and 10 people were taken into custody after the boat with more than a dozen people aboard, including Haitian and Jamaican nationals, capsized early Wednesday in the waters off South Florida. It was overloaded and lacked lifejackets, according to the Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Four women died and 11 people were taken into custody after a boat with more than a dozen people aboard — including Haitians and Jamaicans — capsized early Wednesday in the waters off South Florida.
The U.S. Coast Guard responded around 1 a.m. after one of the survivors called 911 to report that the small vessel had capsized seven miles east of Miami.
"Sadly, and tragically, we did find four females, adults, underneath the boat that had perished," said Cmdr. Darren Caprara.
Most of the survivors were found clinging to the hull, and another was found in an air pocket beneath the boat, officials said.
One survivor was taken by boat to Miami Beach, where he was treated at a hospital and released to federal law enforcement, Barney said.
The rest of the survivors were in good condition and were taken into custody aboard a Coast Guard vessel while authorities investigated whether they were part of a human smuggling operation. It was not immediately clear whether they would be brought to the U.S. or repatriated to their home countries.
"Well, obviously, 15 people on a boat, transiting in the middle of the night with no life jackets is a very, very unsafe condition," Caprara said.
Caprara said that authorities were working to confirm that the people on the boat were Haitian and Jamaican.
"That's still a lengthy process that involves contacting other countries and doing some investigatory research," Caprara said.
Images of the vessel show a small white recreational boat with its center console missing. It was overloaded and lacked lifejackets, Caprara said.
Migrants from Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean countries routinely attempt to illegally enter the U.S. by reaching Florida's coast in overloaded or unseaworthy vessels.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the Coast Guard picked up 508 Haitians and 1,357 Cubans at sea. Since the new fiscal year began Oct. 1, the Coast Guard has reported picking up 93 Haitians and 117 Cubans.
The number of migrants who die in the crossing or disappear into the community after successfully reaching shore is unknown.
Cubans who arrive in the U.S. are generally allowed to stay under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, while those stopped at sea are usually returned home. Other immigrants who make it to land don't receive the same treatment.
A lack of focus and an excessive padding of philosophical and political undertones veers the film away from its potential of becoming an engaging rite-of-passage drama.
Venue
Tokyo International Film Festival
Director
Koji Fukuda
With its focus on a youthful rite of romantic passage on the seaside, the abundance of tracking shots of cycling characters, and intellectuals putting on a fa̤ade to obscure their messy past and present relationships, Koji Fukuda's second feature certainly takes after EricRohmer's A Summer's Tale Рa resemblance made obvious by the film's French-language title itself ("Goodbye to the Summer"). While Au revoir l'ete -- which premiered on Oct. 19 on home turf as a competition entry at the Tokyo International Film Festival -- has flashes of the late French auteur's comic flair and sporadic interesting probing of confused lovelorn minds, Fukuda's fourth feature never comes across with a coherent narrative and a focused perspective.
Adding to his failed attempt to locate all this with some kind of a topical backdrop – the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, for example, is given a really superficial treatment here – and Fukuda could certainly bid adieu to hopes of Au revoir repeating the success of his previous (and comparatively effective social drama) hospitalite, a multiple award winner at Asian festivals in 2011 and a home-video release in the U.S. through the indie label Film Movement.
And hospitality seemed to be in great supply as Au revoir begins, when high-school student Sakuko (Fumi Nikaido) and her aunt Mikie (Mayu Tsuruta) return to their hometown and settle into the villa they borrowed from a family friend for a short break in late August. The teenager is supposed to be studying for her university entrance exams, while her adult companion has brought along her work translating books about Indonesia as part of her career as a development studies expert; inevitably, neighbors drop by to say hello and gossip, while longtime friends also visit to reminisce about the past.
Being young, listless and blooming, Sakuko hardly touches her books. Instead she begins learning more about her aunt and her mother – step-sisters who actually share the same name, and rivals while growing up – and also their links with the people who keep popping up. The jaded Ukuchi (Kanji Futurachi), for example, has put her shady hoodlum past behind – along, seemingly, his love for either or both Mikies – and toil away as the manager of a local motel; his daughter, Tatsuko (Kiki Sugino, who also co-produces the film), is a university student entangled in a love-hate relationship with her father.
Complicating matters is the arrival of Nishida (Tadashi Otake), a visiting married academic whose straight veneer conceals a lewd, selfish character – as seen in his conversations with Tatsuko (which begins with him acting all aloof and dignified and ends with him inviting the young woman to "have a rest" with him) and also the childish tantrums he threw in a row with Mikie (with whom he might be conducting an affair).
Some of Fukuda's diversion into these threads are somewhat distracting: it's obvious Sakuko is supposed to be the center of the narrative, and it would have been best if Au revoir has stuck to her perspective, so as to see the young woman growing into adulthood as she tries to make sense of the messy social maelstroms whirling around her. After all, this is a young adult in bloom, but at the same time unfortunate enough to find herself surrounded by attractive women whose charm have mesmerized by men who seemingly couldn't really handle their emotions well – a difficult place to learn the trick of leading a mature existence.
And one of those fumbling men is Ukuchi's nephew Takashi (Taiga), a gauche young man who couldn't engage with others well: he is working alongside Ukuchi after he dropped out of school, doesn't really react to Sakuko's subtle acts of affection, and diverts all talk away from discussions about his family. And it will take Fukushima to finally move of Sakuko and Takashi's stilted bond forward – the radiation-leak catastrophe, which leads to Takashi becoming part of the internally exiled trying to escape the fallout – has become, indeed, just a plot point to bring him and Sakuko together.
The twist is moot, however: nothing much has changed for Sakuko, with her week by the waterside never really leaving much impact on her bar the odd insight into how brutal and violent ordinary-looking people could stoop to – and how the past, such as Ukuchi's and Mikie's, could not be easily shaken off.
Appearances deceive, she acknowledges in the non-chalant manner which defines her throughout the film; ironically, the same could be said of Au revoir in general, as both the style (which itself is undermined by a few off-focused tracking shots) and substance (all those lines about philosophy, art and all do not really add more layers of meanings to the story) are found wanting. It's exactly like a scene in one of the film's final third, as the pair of uncertain young friends end the night in a club where a mime artist perform comic routines to the sound of Indonesian gamelan music – it's yet another ill-fitting episode to a shapeless film.
Competition, Tokyo International Film Festival Production Company: Wa Entertainment Inc Director: Koji Fukada Cast: Fumi Nikaido, Mayu Tsuruta, Taiga, Kanji Futurachi, Kiki Sugino Producer: Kiki Sugino, Koji Fukuda Executive Producers: Kousuke Ono, Makoto Adachi, Mikiyo Miyata Screenwriter: Koji Fukuda Director of Photography: Kenichi Negishi Editor: Koji Fukada Music Director/Sound Designer: Jo Keita International Sales: Wa Entertainment Inc In Japanese 125 minutes
We had to move Moby's Morning Becomes Eclectic live set to the Village Studios in order to fit all of his singers, band members and special guests like Damien Jurado and Skylar Grey. Moby is now a proud LA resident and his recent album "Innocents" is a reflection of that, with an almost playful approach of incorporating new musical elements. Watch Moby perform "The Perfect Life" live on KCRW.
Charlie Parker started playing as a boy, when his mother gave him a saxophone to cheer him up after his father left. He went on to spearhead a musical revolution.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Charlie Parker started playing as a boy, when his mother gave him a saxophone to cheer him up after his father left. He went on to spearhead a musical revolution.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Charlie "Bird" Parker was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. In his brief life, Parker created a new sound on the alto saxophone and spearheaded a revolution in harmony and improvisation that pushed popular music from the swing era to bebop and modern jazz.
In Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker, scholar and author Stanley Crouch tells the story of Parker's early years and his rise to prominence. But Crouch says he didn't want to tell the same old story of young black musicians overcoming obstacles.
"These guys, they thought about life," he says. "Oh yes, they thought about being colored, but they also thought about life. And people came to hear you because you played life. It wasn't because you played, 'Oh, I'm just a poor colored man over here, just doing some poor colored things. I'm thinking about my poor colored girl and how the white man is not going to let us blah blah.' That wasn't what they were playing."
'I Put Quite A Bit Of Study Into The Horn'
Crouch's book opens with a triumphant moment in Parker's career. It's February 1942 and the 21-year-old alto player is on the bandstand at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, performing with the Jay McShann Orchestra for a live radio broadcast. He steps up to solo and Crouch explains what happens next:
When the band started throwing up stock riffs behind him, Parker sidestepped the familiar shapes, issuing his responses from deep in left field.
... Each chorus was getting hotter; it was clear, from the position of his body and the sound of his horn, that Charlie Parker was not going to give in. All the nights he had worked on it, the flubs, the fumblings, the sore lips, mouth, and tongue, the cramped fingers — they all paid off that afternoon. Suddenly, the man with the headphones was signaling McShann, Don't stop! Don't stop! Keep on playing!
In 1980, the late pianist and bandleader Jay McShann described how Parker's sound grabbed him the first time he heard it.
"One particular night, I happened to be coming through the streets and I heard the sound coming out. And this was a different sound, so I went inside to see who was blowing," he said. "So I walked up to Charlie after he finished playing and I asked him, I said, 'Say man,' I said, 'where are you from?' I said, 'I thought I met most of the musicians around here.' Well, he says, 'I'm from Kansas City.' But he says, 'I've been gone for the last two or three months. Been down to the Ozarks woodshedding.' "
All that woodshedding — practicing in isolation, running through every tune in every key — took Parker's playing to the next level. In a 1954 radio interview, Parker told fellow alto player Paul Desmond that that was his goal from the beginning.
"I put quite a bit of study into the horn, that's true," he said. "In fact, the neighbors threatened to ask my mother to move once when we were living out West. She said I was driving them crazy with the horn. I used to put in at least 11 to 15 hours a day. ... I did that for over a period of three or four years."
Crouch says Parker was intense about everything. When he was researching Kansas City Lightning, Parker's friend Bob Redcross told him that Parker had a deep intellectual curiosity.
"They read history books. They went to museums," Crouch says. "Redcross told me, once he said, 'Yes, Charles and I, we would sit and we would discuss Sherlock Holmes, or we would talk about history. We were always reading magazines. We were always doing stuff that people don't think that we did.'"
Stanley Crouch's previous works include The Artificial White Man: Essays on Authenticity and Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz.
Zack Zook/Courtesy of Harper
Stanley Crouch's previous works include The Artificial White Man: Essays on Authenticity and Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz.
Zack Zook/Courtesy of Harper
Finding Redemption In 'Beautiful Notes'
Then there are the more well-known stories about Parker: He dropped out of high school and picked up a heroin habit; he married his teenaged sweetheart, then abandoned her and his child; he missed rehearsals and didn't show up for gigs. In 1942, McShann fired him.
"We told Bird to take a little vacation because we were in Detroit, and he got feeling pretty good there, you know," McShann remembered. "And so we says, 'Why don't you take a little vacation, Bird, and just cool it. And so he did."
Parker may have neglected his personal and professional relationships, but Crouch says he was never unfaithful to his music.
"The thing to me that's most inspirational about Charlie Parker is that he felt that you could only redeem yourself for bad things by doing something that was beautiful," he says. "He felt that he could give the world beautiful notes."
Crouch is currently writing the second volume of his Parker biography, which will cover the saxophonist's New York career, the 1940s bebop revolution and Parker's death in 1955 at the age of 34.
I asked -- and the people responded! Fun fact No. 1: Apparently only 28 percent of Java developers write Java full time.
My survey may not be a truly scientific poll, but I was able to grab a good sampling of folks in the Java group on Google+ along with people in my Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook networks. Many of those folks in turn retweeted and reposted, so I actually know a only few of the people who responded. Throwing out duplicates and errors didn’t significantly affect the results.
[ Think you know Java? Test your programming smarts in InfoWorld's Java IQ test. | Work smarter, not harder with InfoWorld's roundup of the tips and trends programmers need to know in the Developers' Survival Guide. Download the PDF today! | Keep up with the latest developer news with InfoWorld's Developer World newsletter. ]
How do these responses track with your experiences? I'd love to know.
Are you still doing exclusively Java?
Yes, only Java
27
27%
No, mix of Java and other things
72
73%
What other JVM languages are you using?
Groovy
38
32%
Scala
24
21%
JavaScript (Rhino/Nashorn)
21
18%
JRuby
9
8%
Jython
7
6%
PHP (Quercus, etc.)
6
5%
Clojure
6
5%
Other
5
4%
Erjang
1
1%
OCaml
0
0%
What surprised me is that at 33 percent, Groovy was the top JVM language. I had expected Scala, which came in second at 20 percent, to rule the roost. Note: The numbers don't add up to 100 percent because developers could and did pick multiple languages.
As post-shutdown Washington struggles to squeeze itself into its ill-fitting "new normal" suit, this amazing, dispiriting, baffling week finally comes to a close with some same-old, same-old.
Republicans are refocusing on undermining Obamacare (which is doing a pretty good job of that on its own).
Democrats are taking gleeful potshots at Republican opponents who carried the banner for the failed shutdown/debt crisis strategy.
And the American people, particularly Republicans who say they see their ideals being undermined by incompetent Capitol Hill strategy, are left shaking their heads.
We'll start with the GOP's intraparty recriminations, which continue apace.
Here's what Matias Elliott, a Colorado Springs taxi driver, told the New York Times: "It's stupid that you shut down the economy just to get Obamacare off the list. Get Obama out of there, and get your candidate in there."
Noah Bierman and Tracy Jan report in the Boston Globe today that the motivated Tea Party base mainstream Republicans were happy to have in their corner in recent elections, has come to bite them in the behind.
They write: "The ironies are rich. Many in the mainstream GOP fed off the Tea Party movement's considerable passion in 2010 and 2012. Now those same Republicans face an environment in which, according to national polls, the entire party is suffering from a backlash over the fiscal showdown."
And over at Politico, Maggie Haberman and Anna Palmer find that some big GOP donors are lamenting the events of the past several months. They're also fretting, the reporters say, about the business community's diminishing influence and "rising clout of groups like the Senate Conservative Fund, which have run ads against incumbent Republican senators for not taking a hard enough line on the shutdown."
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats have been licking their chops, relishing the aftermath of the debacle - and no one more than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
In post-crisis/on-to-new-crisis Huffington Post interview, Reid called Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the standard bearer for the failed GOP defund-Obamacare-or-else stratety, a "laughingstock to everybody but him." And, Reid, not a doctor, diagnosed Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter, who proposed stripping congressional workers of employer-provided insurance subsidies , as "not playing with a full deck."
Democrats have also immediately gone after the guy who, with Reid, brokered a final-hours deal to end the shutdown and avert default - Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In emails to McConnell's home state Kentuckians, who will decide next year whether to return the incumbent to the Senate, Democrats had this to say: "McConnell's shutdown hurts Kentucky, creates disastrous political consequences for himself..."
In his own exit interview, McConnell, who faces a primary challenge, told the National Review that there will be no more shutdowns. "A government shutdown is off the table," he said. "We're not going to do it."
Cruz also blocked the nomination of Democrat Tom Wheeler to Federal Communications Commission chair. Reuters reports that he "held up the vote over questions about the FCC's power to enforce disclosures of who sponsors political television advertising."
And, finally, the GOP push to cripple Obamacare moves to the House, where the Energy and Commerce Committee announced it would hold an Oct. 24 hearing on the health care system's disastrous launch.
Republican strategists are enthusiastically circulating accounts of the trouble-plagued program. Here's one from Wisconsin, where the state's insurance commissioner says fewer than 50 residents have signed up. Worth noting that Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker declined to have his state set up its own exchanges, choosing to rely instead on the national exchange. Next-door Minnesota, with its own state-based exchange program, has signed up more than 5,500, Gannett reports.
Republicans have also begun to highlight their weeks-long campaign to oust Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius, who has overseen Obamacare's rollout. Here's NPR's report.
To wrap up for the week, we'll let Chicago Sun Times Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet tell you how "Obama's a sore winner."
We'll have Edward Snowden tell you that, really, he took no secret documents with him to Russia.
And have NPR's Marilyn Geewax fill you in on how declining gas prices, below $3 a gallon in some parts of the country, are giving the economy a boost.
Your favorite Angry Birds characters, now on wheels
It's no secret that Rovio has a line of hits on its hands with the Angry Birds franchise, and the latest installment in the series is a downhill racing game. Any Birds Go! is not unlike kart racing games of the past like Mario Kart, with side-by-side racing taking you through difficult obstacles, collecting coins and taking out opponents along the way.
Rovio is also telling us up front that the game will be free-to-play, with several game modes and features included from the start. But we know there will be some kind of catch here, and can expect things such as kart customizations and unlocks to be managed through in-app purchases.
Ready to play? Rovio says that the game will be hitting Android (as well as other platforms) on December 11th.
The stepmother of a 14-year-old accused of bullying a Florida girl prior to her suicide was arrested and charged with child abuse after a video depicting the woman beating a boy was posted on Facebook, a sheriff said Friday.
During a news conference, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the arrest of 30-year-old Vivian Vosburg on two counts of child abuse with bodily harm and four counts of child neglect is a shocking chapter in a months-long tragic story in Central Florida.
Judd said Vosburg is the stepmother of one of two girls charged with felony aggravated stalking earlier in the week. Officials say the girls, 14 and 12, bullied and harassed 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick before she climbed a tower at an abandoned concrete plant and hurled herself to her death Sept. 9.
It was a Facebook comment over the weekend that Judd said led him to arrest the girls. He repeated the online post from the older girl almost word for word at a news conference last week.
"'Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself but I don't give a ...' and you can add the last word yourself," Judd said
He identified the girls and showed their mug shots during the news conference, but AP generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.
Vosburg identified herself as the teen's mother when she appeared on CNN and ABC to say the girl didn't bully Rebecca and that she checked her stepdaughter's Facebook every night.
Vosburg was booked into the Polk County Jail Friday evening and it's unclear whether she had retained an attorney. A voicemail message left on her home phone wasn't returned.
Judd said that after detectives arrested Vosburg's stepdaughter, people from the community saw her on TV — then sent tips to the law enforcement agency, urging them to look at the Facebook page of another of Vosburg's children.
Detectives discovered a video posted in July 2013. According to the arrest affidavit, the video shows two boys fighting on a bed, then Vosberg steps in and begins punching and hitting the boys. One of the boys falls off the bed and appears to not move. Judd said none of the children were injured.
Judd, who showed the chaotic, minute-long video during the news conference, said there were four other children in the home at the time.
"This clearly indicates to us that this appears to be a normal way of life," he said. "They're laughing and cussing and throwing the F bomb around. Then they're posting that conduct for all to see."
Judd did not release the names of the victims or their relationship to Vosburg, stating only that "these are children she has access to. Vivian in this context was in charge of their well-being."
The video was up on the family member's Facebook site as recently as this morning Judd said. He questioned why no one took it down during the bullying investigation.
Child welfare authorities have been called to investigate.
___
Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush
The U.N. Security Council votes on a resolution that will require Syria to give up its chemical weapons, at U.N. Headquarters last month.
Craig Ruttle/AP
Saudi Arabia says it will turn down a two-year seat on the United Nation's Security Council in protest over "double standards" in resolving international conflicts.
"Saudi Arabia ... is refraining from taking membership of the U.N. Security Council until it has reformed so it can effectively and practically perform its duties and discharge its responsibilities in maintaining international security and peace," said a Foreign Ministry statement issued on state media.
"The kingdom sees that the method and work mechanism and the double standards in the Security Council prevent it from properly shouldering its responsibilities towards world peace," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
"The gesture seemed to reflect Saudi Arabia's simmering annoyance at the Security Council's record in Syria, where Russia and China — two of the five permanent members — have blocked Western efforts, broadly supported by Saudi Arabia, to pressure President Bashar al-Assad. The other permanent members are the United States, Britain and France.
"The Saudi announcement came a day after Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia were elected to seats on the 15-member Security Council for a two-year term starting in January. They replace Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo.
"It was the first time that Saudi Arabia had sought to gain one of the nonpermanent seats on the council. Its decision to turn down the seat seemed all the more surprising because its efforts to seek representation had been taken by experts as a reflection of the kingdom's wish to be more assertive in resolving the Syrian civil war and the Arab-Israeli conflict."
"It is the second time this month that Saudi Arabia has made a public gesture over what it sees as the Security Council's failure to take action to stop the civil war in Syria that has killed more than 100,000 people.
"Earlier this month, the Saudi foreign minister cancelled a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in frustration over the international inaction on Syria and the Palestinian issue, a diplomatic source said."
(Reuters) - Google Inc shares jumped to an all-time high above $1000 after the search engine giant reported a surge in mobile and video advertising that helped drive quarterly revenue up 23 percent.
At least 16 brokerages raised their price targets on the stock to between $880 and $1,220, with Deutsche Bank bumping up its target price by 26 percent.
The shares rose 13 percent to $1007.40 after the opening bell on the Nasdaq, before easing back a few dollars.
Google said paid clicks increased by a quarter in the three months ended September 30, from a year earlier, the highest rate of growth in the past year.
This offset an 8 percent fall in average cost-per-click, the price advertisers pay Google when consumers click on their ads.
"We view solid paid clicks growth to be a good indicator of demand, driven by the continued shift to mobile," J.P. Morgan analysts said. They had expected 21.5 percent growth.
In contrast, analysts say Yahoo, which this week reported a tepid quarter, has lost market share in display and search advertising in the face of strong competition from Facebook Inc and Google.
Google shares have climbed 38 percent this year, rewarding investors such as Fidelity Investments' $101 billion Contrafund.
Contrafund added to its stake in Google in the third quarter and got a big lift from the surging performance of Facebook and Tesla Motors Inc as well. The fund, managed by star stock picker Will Danoff, returned 8.94 percent in the third quarter, easily beating the 5.24 percent advance of the S&P 500 Index.
Facebook is expected to report its third-quarter results on October 30.
To counter declines in cost-per-click rates, Google rolled out in February a service to help advertisers market through a mix of smartphones, tablets and desktops.
The J.P. Morgan analysts said this drive was a major opportunity for Google in the upcoming holiday season.
Analysts also highlighted Google's ability to generate revenue from its video-streaming website, YouTube.
YouTube branded video-ads grew more than 75 percent in the quarter, from a year earlier, with 40 percent of traffic now coming from mobile devices.
"We estimate that Google's key YouTube asset generated approximately $4 billion in revenue in 2012, positioning Google extremely well for the strong growth in video advertising," RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote in a note.
Analysts at Jefferies said Google is best positioned to benefit in mobile with one billion Android activations. The company sells applications and content through its Google Play Store.
The Mountain View, California-based company - known for its Google Maps service, Chrome browser and Nexus line of smartphones and tablets - reported a 32 percent jump in revenue from the rest of world (excluding UK) during the quarter with growth coming from Japan, South Korea and Australia.
" is an encouraging bright spot. Google should be a good play off any European and Emerging Markets recovery," analysts at RBC Capital markets said.
"We think the worst is behind Google from a sentiment perspective," Deutsche Bank analysts said.
(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Rodney Joyce)
Scotty McCreery can see us anytime! He certainly doesn't even have to ask!
But the American Idol country crooner is always the gentleman and is asking to See You Tonight in an EXCLUSIVE acoustic performance that is simply AH-Mazing!
He stopped by PerezHilton.com and wooed us like none other with his smooth voice and straight up adorableness!
And better yet, his new album has JUST been released today on iTunes!
Ch-ch-check out his flawless performance (above) and then go get the album!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richard Ledgett, who heads a new task force at the National Security Agency to handle information leaks, is expected to take over as the deputy director of the spy agency after the current No. 2 retires in January, sources told Reuters.
Ledgett is the executive in charge of matters related to unauthorized media disclosures, a position that was created after the unauthorized leaks to media of top secret spy surveillance programs by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden this year.
Ledgett's duties include overseeing improvements to internal systems and assessing what information was taken in unauthorized disclosures.
He was previously director of the NSA's Threat Operations Center and director for collection/national intelligence manager for cyber at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
He is expected to replace John "Chris" Inglis who is due to retire in January, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
An NSA spokeswoman declined to comment.
Next year, the director and deputy directors of NSA and Cyber Command will be stepping down, giving President Barack Obama an opportunity to reshape the leadership structure.
Army General Keith Alexander, who wears the dual hat of NSA director and head of Cyber Command, plans to leave in March.
Cyber Command has the authority to engage in both defensive and offensive operations in cyberspace. The vacancies give Obama the opportunity to decide whether the NSA and Cyber Command should have separate leaders.
The deputy at Cyber Command, Marine Corps Lieutenant General Jon Davis, is due to leave in June when his two-year assignment is completed.
Hulu said Thursday that, effective immediately, MikeHopkins is officially its new chief executive and that acting CEO AndyForssell will be leaving the company.
A Hulu board member since 2011, Hopkins was most recently president of distribution for Fox Networks Group, a division of 21st Century Fox, which owns Hulu along with Disney and Comcast.
Hopkins beat out not only Forssell for the permanent CEO job but also former NBCUniversal executive Lauren Zalaznick, Intel executive Erik Huggers and ABC executive Albert Cheng, all of whom were reportedly on Hulu's shortlist.
Word leaked last week, though, that Hopkins had been offered the role.
Forssell had been acting CEO since March, when Jason Kilar exited the company with a $40 million payout.
"After an extensive search, Mike was simply the best candidate for the job," said Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group. "He has a strong understanding of programming, digital distribution and consumer behavior and a great vision for Hulu's next chapter."
Hopkins takes over Hulu at an interesting time in its six-year history, having recently ended unsuccessful negotiations with a slew of potential acquirers and also having twice scrapped plans for an initial public offering.
Once derided as ClownCo by skeptics who thought the company's business model of streaming shows for free over the Internet was a nonstarter, the company has proved resilient. In 2012 it posted $695 million in revenue, up 65 percent from a year earlier, with revenue coming from advertising and its Hulu Plus subscription service.
When Kilar announced in January he was leaving Hulu, he had a history of disagreements with the bosses at Disney and Fox whereby he argued for a larger budget to acquire more content while others wanted to rein in costs and pursue steady profits. A month after leaving Hulu, Kilar joined the board of directors at DreamWorks Animation.
At Fox, Hopkins oversaw distribution, sales and marketing for 45 U.S. channels, and he oversaw a team that developed digital products like BTN2Go, a digital-video college sports offering, and Fox Now, which supplies TV shows on demand over the Internet.
"The team at Hulu has created a beloved user experience that feeds the undeniable need for quality, convenience and ease of use," Hopkins said Thursday. "I am honored to have the opportunity to work with this dynamic, innovative team."
Now that everyone's caught up, I'm sure we can all agree that, intentional or not, these secret links are phenomenally well-hidden/clever/awesome. That being said, there must be more of them—or rather, for our purpose, more opportunities to stick some in. So for this week's photoshop contest, we want you to show us what other coincidences might be hiding in these surprisingly similar sagas. Interpret that however you will; the world/jungle/Empire is your oyster.
Submissions will be graded on originality, technique, and laffs; you'll have from now until the end of the day this coming Tuesday, October 22 to submit your entry in Kinja down below. We'll announce the lucky winners that Wednesday. And until then, may the force be with you and something-or-other about snakes.
From October 16 to October 23 OKMagazine.com will give 5 lucky readers the opportunity to win a copy of Anger Management Volume Two on DVD! How do you enter? It’s easy! Simply fill out the form below and stayed tuned to see if you landed a copy of Charlie Sheen and Selma Blair’s hit show.
OK! SWEEPSTAKES: WIN ANGER MANAGEMENT VOLUME TWO ON DVD OFFICIAL RULES - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
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3. Prize: Five (5) winners will win a copy of Anger Management Volume Two On DVD:
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