Australia's hybrid shark reveals evolution in action

Hybrid sharks have been discovered swimming in the waters off Australia's east coast. The finding may be driven by climate change, a research team says, suggesting such discoveries could be more common in the future.

The hybridization is between the Australian black tip shark which favors tropical waters and the larger, common black tip shark, which favors sub-tropical and temperate waters.

While the distribution for the genetically distinct species overlaps along the northern and eastern Australian coastline, the finding that they mated and produced offspring is unprecedented, according to the discovery team from the University of Queensland.

"To actually find something like this and prove it genetically is unprecedented," Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, told me Tuesday.

Hueter was not involved with the research, though one of the scientists responsible for the discovery used to work in his lab, which he said lends the finding credibility. The finding is based on genetic testing and body measurements and reported December 2011 in the journal Conservation Genetics.

The team identified 57 of the hybrids from five locations spanning 1,250 miles along the Australian coast.

"Wild hybrids are usually hard to find, so detecting hybrids and their offspring is extraordinary," Jennifer Ovenden, an expert in genetics of fisheries species and team member, said in a news release.

The hybridization could be an adaptation to climate change, the team noted, allowing the tropical Australian black tip shark to live in the cooler, sub-tropical waters.

It could also be a technique to survive in over-fished waters, speculated Hueter. As fisheries are depleted, hybridization is a way to keep reproducing.

"In a sense, it is catching evolution in action," he told me.

UC Davis chancellor says she won't step down over pepper-spraying

DAVIS, Calif. — The chancellor of the University of California, Davis on Saturday afternoon called video images of an officer calmly pepper-spraying a line of student protesters a day earlier "chilling" but said she would not step down.

Linda Katehi, who earlier Saturday said in a letter that she was forming a task force to investigate the incident, told an afternoon news conference that what the video shows is "sad and really very inappropriate."

The events surrounding the protest have been hard on her personally, but she had no plans to resign, she said.

"I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution. I have worked personally very hard to make this campus a safe campus for all," she said.



A UC-Davis professor called for the chancellor to step down, saying she was to blame for police pepper-spraying students during an Occupy protest on campus.

"You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt," Nathan Brown, an assistant professor in the Department of English, wrote in an open letter to Katehi.

He said she was accountable for "the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest."

Brown was referring to an incident Friday in which UC Davis police arrested 10 protesters and pepper-sprayed about a dozen more while trying to clear an Occupy encampment on campus, according to the Davis Enterprise.

The students who were pepper-sprayed were sitting on the ground, arms linked in solidarity. Brown said several of them had to be treated at the hospital.

"You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds," Brown wrote.
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Katehi did not directly respond to Brown's letter. But in a statement Saturday to the UC Davis campus community, she said she will create a task force of faculty, students and staff to look into Friday's incident.

"Yesterday was not a day that would make anyone on our campus proud; indeed the events of the day need to guide us forward as we try to make our campus a better place of inquiry, debate, and even dissent," she wrote.
Story: Occupy protests spread to college campuses

She noted that a group of protesters stayed overnight Thursday despite repeated notices by university staff that their encampment violated university policies and they were told to disperse.

"On Friday morning, the protesters were provided with a letter explaining university policies and reminding them of the opportunities the university provides for expression. Driven by our concern for the safety and health of the students involved in the protest, as well as other students on our campus, I made the decision not to allow encampments on the Quad during the weekend, when the general campus facilities are locked and the university staff is not widely available to provide support."

She said many students followed orders to dismantle their tents, but others chose not to.

Annette Spicuzza, UC Davis police chief, told the Sacramento Bee that police used the pepper spray after they were surrounded. Protesters were warned repeatedly beforehand that force would be used if they didn't move, she said.

"There was no way out of that circle," Spicuzza said. "They were cutting the officers off from their support. It's a very volatile situation."

Said Katehi in the letter: "The events of this intervention have been videotaped and widely distributed. As indicated in various videos, the police used pepper spray against the students who were blocking the way. The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this," the chancellor wrote.

Katehi said the university is committed to free speech and expression while ensuring the safety of all others.

"Through this letter, I express my sadness for the events of past Friday and my commitment to redouble our efforts to improve our campus and the environment for our students," she said.

Your grocery bill is getting higher, and higher

By Allison Linn
Paula McGowan has cut out soda, switched to store brands for other foods and even sent her boyfriend hunting for deer so she can put food on the table.

Still, she finds herself struggling with higher food prices.

“It’s milk, bread, just the basic stuff,” she said. “We’re looking at basics and it’s all going up.”

After two years in which overall food prices barely budged, groceries are getting more expensive.

The price of food at home is projected to rise by 4 to 5 percent this year, and another 2 to 3 percent next year, according to the Agriculture Department. That’s adding another financial worry for many people already living with tight budgets thanks to the weak economy and high jobless rate.

The percentage of people who say they had enough money to buy food in the last 12 months fell to its lowest level in three years, according to a Gallup poll released this month.

The vast majority of Americans surveyed — 79.4 percent — said they have been able to buy the food they need. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

McGowan, 44, lives with her boyfriend in Versailles, Ky. Her job in information technology has been stable, but her boyfriend has had bouts of unemployment and now runs his own lawn mowing business. That’s making it difficult to keep up with rising costs.

“I literally live paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

McGowan isn’t alone. Nearly one-third of Americans say rising food and gas prices are making it difficult to save money, according to a recent poll from Country Financial.

When she goes to the grocery store, McGowan said she brings a detailed list, coupons and a strict budget. She buys low-cost but filling food like rice and pasta in bulk and relies on cheaper protein like eggs to stretch the couple’s meals.

“For us, having bacon on a Sunday morning is a luxury,” she said.

She’s counting on deer hunting season to provide them with meat for the winter.

Ricky Volpe, a research economist with the USDA’s Economic Service, said there are many reasons food prices are rising.

Some crops have been hurt by bad weather, and a surge in fuel prices has made it more expensive to produce and transport food.

In addition, he said, the weak dollar and growing overseas demand for meat are pushing up the prices of beef, pork and dairy products.

advertisementSome foods, including beef, are in shorter supply because ranchers cut back on how much they were producing when the economy weakened and now must play catch-up. The price of beef was 10 percent higher this September than it was a year ago, according to government data.

For many food producers, it’s a combination of things.

“Companies can usually handle one or two of their commodities ticking up,” said Ryland Maltsbarger, senior economist with the agriculture service at IHS Global Insight. “But when you get labor costs on top of transportation costs on top of commodity costs on top of a few other costs … it all plays into it.”

There are ways to save money.

For example, Volpe noted that while the price of fresh fruits and vegetables has gone up considerably, prices for canned or frozen produce aren’t going up as quickly. Fresh fruits and vegetables costs 7.6 percent more in September than a year earlier, while processed produce prices were up by 4 percent over that same period.

Also, while beef prices have gone up substantially, chicken farmers have been able to respond more quickly to increased demand, so poultry prices aren’t expected to rise as fast. Poultry prices were up 3 percent in September over a year ago.

As the holidays approach, food costs add another challenge for people on a budget. The American Farm Bureau is projecting that a turkey dinner will cost 13 percent more this year than last year.

McGowan said she planned ahead for Thanksgiving last year, when she got a $10 Butterball coupon from ordering office supplies and a $25 grocery gift card from her employer.

Those funds went toward a turkey that’s already in her freezer. Now she only has to budget for side dishes and oil – to deep-fry the bird.

Police: 75 Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested- "All day, all week, shut down Wall Street!' crowd chants

New York City Police officers prevent protesters from entering Wall Street from the east on Thursday. Demonstrators marched through New York's financial district and promised a national day of action with mass gatherings in other cities.


NEW YORK — Police arrested protesters who sat on the ground and blocked traffic into New York City's financial district on Thursday, part of a day of mass gatherings in response to efforts to break up Occupy Wall Street camps nationwide.

Helmeted officers hauled several protesters to their feet. Most of the crowd then assembled in Zuccotti Park, from which the protesters' camp was evicted this week. There were more rallies planned later in the day.

Frustrations seemed to spill over in the park at the center of the protest as hundreds of people shoved back the metal police barricades that have long surrounded the area. A live television shot from above showed waves of police and protesters briefly pushing back and forth before the barricades appeared to be settled at the edge of the park once more.

"All day, all week, shut down Wall Street!" the crowd chanted.

By 10 a.m., police spokesman Paul Browne said, about 50 people had been arrested at various locations in the financial district, mainly for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. That number increased to 75 by midday, including the arrest of a demonstrator who allegedly threw a liquid, possibly vinegar, into the face of an officer, according to NBC New York.

Some of the police hit protesters as they resisted arrest. Most of the marchers retreated. At least four cops were injured in the confrontations, NBC reported.

Hundreds of protesters thronged intersections around the financial district, an area of narrow, crooked streets running between stately sandstone buildings housing banks, brokerage houses and the New York Stock Exchange.

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The protesters began marching just before 8 a.m., according to NBC New York, but were initially blocked by police once they reached the intersection of Nassau and Pine streets. A law-enforcement source estimated there were about 700 protesters by the time the group met police.

Story: To demand or not to demand? That is the 'Occupy' question
"You do not have a parade permit! You are blocking the street!" a police officer told protesters through a bullhorn.

A few blocks away, a separate group of about 50 protesters sat in a circle on the ground and said they would not budge.

Only on msnbc.com Occupy protesters take to the streets
msnbc.com
Updated 49 minutes ago 11/17/2011 4:50:27 PM +00:00 Occupy divides over whether to make demands .

Iran official: Iran’s nuclear program not for making arms .
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Sorry, your grocery bill is going up .
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Jet passengers told to pay up to get home .
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..The congestion brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt. Police were allowing Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs.

The protest marked two months since the Occupy Wall Street Movement sprang to life on Sept. 17 with a failed attempt to pitch a protest camp in front of the New York Stock Exchange. After police kept them out of Wall Street, the protesters pitched a camp in nearby Zuccotti Park, across from the World Trade Center site.

On Tuesday police raided Zuccotti Park and cleared out dozens of tents, tarps and sleeping bags.

Occupy protesters take to the streets
"This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night," Paul Knick, 44, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J., said as he marched through the financial district with other protesters on Thursday. "It seems like there's a concerted effort to stop the movement and I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen."

Similar protests were planned around the county.

In Dallas, police evicted dozens of protesters from their campsite near City Hall citing public safety and hygiene issues. They arrested 18 protesters who refused to leave.

About 500 sympathizers of the Occupy protest marched in downtown Los Angeles. The protesters, chiefly a coalition of labor unions, gathered between the Bank of America tower and Wells Fargo Plaza, chanting "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."

Protesters in Las Vegas vowed to pitch tents in front of a federal building. In Albany, N.Y., protesters from Buffalo, Rochester and other encampments were coming in by bus to join a demonstration in a downtown park.

Police in Portland, Ore., closed a bridge in preparation for a march there.

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The New York group announced it would rally near the New York Stock Exchange, then fan out across Manhattan and head to subways, before gathering downtown and marching over the Brooklyn Bridge.

A past attempt to march across the bridge drew the first significant international attention to the Occupy movement when more than 700 people were arrested.

The police department said it would have scores of officers ready to handle protesters in the subways.

"The protesters are calling for a massive event aimed at disrupting major parts of the city," Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said. "We will be prepared for that."

Passer-by Gene Williams, a 57-year-old bond trader, joked that he was "one of the bad guys" but that he empathized with the demonstrators.

"They have a point in a lot of ways," he said. "The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it's getting wider."

New York City officials said they had not spoken to demonstrators but were aware of the plans.

"The protesters are calling for a massive event aimed at disrupting major parts of the city," Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said. "We will be prepared for that."

Some of the latest developments in other Occupy protests:

WASHINGTON STATE
An 84-year-old woman has become a face of the national Occupy Wall Street movement after she was hit with pepper spray during a Seattle march.

A photo of Dorli Rainey with the chemical irritant dripping from her chin quickly went viral, becoming one of the most striking images from the protests that have taken place in cities across the globe.

Rainey has been active in Seattle's liberal politics for decades and once ran for mayor. She said Wednesday that she showed up at the downtown protest the previous day to show support.

Video: 84-year-old pepper sprayed at ‘Occupy’ Seattle (on this page)
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Police said demonstrators were blocking a downtown intersection.

Rainey was not among the six people arrested.

Mayor Mike McGinn is apologizing to some protesters who were pepper sprayed during a march and said he has spoken to Rainey.

NEVADA
In a city that celebrates behaving badly, Occupy Las Vegas protesters are touting civil obedience and government cooperation as anti-Wall Street efforts elsewhere have turned to violence and police confrontations.

Las Vegas demonstrators have sought approval from government leaders and police before protesting or setting up a camp site. They called off a protest during President Barack Obama's visit to Las Vegas last month because police asked them to do so. And they have created a system of protest rules that ban, among other things, law-breaking and hate signs.

A night of re-Occupation at Zuccotti Park
The good behavior in Las Vegas and other Occupy efforts across Nevada is even more noteworthy because Nevadans may have the most cause to rage against the machine. The state tops the nation in foreclosures and unemployment and entire neighborhoods have been overtaken by vacant homes and storefronts.

But while protesters in other cities riot and rage, the Vegas group is hosting a series of free foreclosure mediation workshops for homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages.

Organizers insist their anti-greed message has a better chance of spreading if they aren't labeled violent anarchists.

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia officials have told protesters camping out next to City Hall to leave because of the "imminent" start of a long-planned renovation project.

Mayor Michael Nutter's office said Wednesday the city has posted an official notice saying the $50 million renovation work at Dilworth Plaza is about to start following selection of a general contractor. Officials issued no deadline and said they would work with the protesters on finding another location for them.

PhotoBlog: Occupy Wall Street
"This project's commencement is imminent," the statement said. "Accordingly, you should take this opportunity to vacate Dilworth Plaza and remove all of your personal belongings immediately."

The protesters have had hundreds of tents camped in the plaza for more than a month. The group has resisted the city's call to move to another plaza across the street to clear the way for the renovation.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Officers started arresting Occupy Columbia protesters Wednesday after Gov. Nikki Haley ordered them to leave the Statehouse grounds. The governor said the people who had been sleeping on the complex for more than a month had cost the state more than $17,000 in property damage and overtime for police.

About 20 people challenge the governor's order and they were arrested in the pouring rain without incident.

The governor said she tired of seeing mattresses, sleeping bags, storage bins and toilet paper on the grounds that house her offices, the state's legislative chambers, office buildings and Court of Appeals.

MASSACHUSETTS
A Boston judge has ordered the city not to remove protesters or their tents from a downtown encampment without court approval, except in an emergency such as fire, a medical issue or an outbreak of violence.

A temporary restraining order was issued after a hearing Wednesday on the protesters' lawsuit. Fuller arguments will be heard Dec. 1, and the judge orders the sides to hold a mediation session before then.

A lawyer for the demonstrators says they are concerned they will be forced out in the middle of the night as Occupy protesters were in New York City this week.

CALIFORNIA
San Francisco police began arresting students and anti-Wall Street protesters who stormed into a downtown Bank of America, sat down and began chanting on Wednesday.

More than 100 demonstrators stormed the bank, chanting, "Money for schools and education, not for banks and corporations."

Riot-clad officers began putting plastic cuffs on the demonstrators, who refused to leave the bank.

The bank protest occurred after ReFund California, a coalition of student groups and university employee unions, bused in protesters from UC Berkeley, the University of California, Merced and other schools to join San Francisco's Occupy demonstrators.

Occupy San Diego protesters also were rousted from a downtown plaza by police.

The San Diego Union-Tribune said nine people were arrested and a 10th was cited during the confrontation early Wednesday.

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Officials say most arrests were for resisting or obstructing police.

Officers used bullhorns to roust sleepers at the Civic Center Plaza. A police statement says tables, sleeping bags and other items were removed so the area could be cleaned up.

It is the latest confrontation in the city where 74 people were cited or jailed since the demonstrations began last month.

INDIANA
Occupy Indy protesters have been given 24-hours to clear out their camp on the Statehouse lawn.

In a letter delivered Wednesday, the Department of Administration ordered the handful of remaining protesters to clear out. The state gave protesters until Thursday afternoon to clear out and said protesters who try to stop them will be arrested.

Protesters said the order was not about their safety but about stifling their demonstration.

LONDON, England
Officials attached eviction notices to protest tents outside St. Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday. They are asking demonstrators to remove the camp by Thursday evening or face legal action.

The notices posted by the City of London Corporation said the encampment was "an unlawful obstruction" of a sidewalk, and asked protesters to take down "all tents and other structures."

© 2011 msnbc.com

PornPics spamming Facebook?

Facebook becomes flooded with porn, violence, other graphic images
Security experts say images have spread over the past 24 to 48 hours
Members of hacker collective Anonymous claim they created a virus to attack Facebook
Facebook hasn't commented on the wave of spam
(CNN) -- Porn, violent images and other graphic pieces of content are spreading across Facebook in what appears to be a widespread and ugly spam attack.
Graham Cluley, a consultant with Web security firm Sophos, said Tuesday that "explicit and violent" images had been flooding the News Feeds of Facebook users for the past 24 hours or so.
Cluley wrote on the Sophos blog that the images have included hardcore porn; photoshopped images of celebrities, including teen pop star Justin Bieber, in sexual positions; "extreme violence;" and at least one image of an abused dog.
The researcher said it wasn't clear Tuesday how the images were spreading.
One possibility: "Clickjacking," when clicking on a friend's image shares it in your own feed.
Hackers also may have compromised the accounts of users with weak passwords or tricked people into installing malicious code.
"What's clear," Cluley wrote, "is that mischief-makers are upsetting many Facebook users and making the social networking site far from a family-friendly place."
Several CNN.com staffers reported seeing some of the images by Tuesday morning.
Facebook says it is aware of the images.
"Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms," spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an email. "We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue."
The blog AllFacebook reported that the social-media giant has been quietly taking down the images.
Writer Jackie Cohen said a request for comment on the images merely got a reply thanking her for "flagging" the images.
"The fact that these photos spread for as long as 48 hours unchecked [shows] how much Facebook relies on individual users to flag inappropriate content: people were commenting on the images more than flagging them," she wrote.
Users were, understandably, distraught.
"Seeing a dead dog on my Facebook news feed ........ Officially deactivating it," said one Twitter user in a post collected by Sophos.
"I saw a dead dog, Justin Bieber [performing a sex act] and a naked grandma," said another. "Time to delete facebook."
With questions still abounding, speculation on the Web turned -- as it often does in online hacking cases -- the controversial "hacktivist" collective Anonymous.
A group claiming allegiance to Anonymous announced it was going to make November 5 "Kill Facebook Day." That day came and went with little noticeable activity.
But last week, an Anonymous-affiliated group announced in a YouTube video that it had created the "Fawkes virus," a sophisticated tool that would attack Facebook.
A handful of Twitter feeds widely acknowledged as being run by Anonymous members had made no mention of the Facebook posts Tuesday morning.
At least two members had previously distanced themselves from Operation Facebook, saying it was doomed to fail and that Anonymous is not a cohesive group with unanimously approved goals.
"Using a simple Facebook account, the worm can be carried into other accounts with little or no interaction," an automated voice says in the video posted on the account "AnonSecurity157." "We did not expect the intensity with which this would spread."
The video claims the worm can be controlled remotely and that once it's fully understood it "will use this to its advantage against corruption."

SELENA GOMEZ PREGNANT WITH BIEBER’S BABY | Weekly World News

SELENA GOMEZ PREGNANT WITH BIEBER’S BABY | Weekly World News

IPAD 3 RELEASE

The iPad 3 is expected to release sometime in 2012, however it could be either in spring or autumn and it is going to be preceded by an iPad 2S first. This was revealed following speculations that the iPhone 4S would not be released, or at least not be a flagship model of iPhone.
Apple had been planning to release a brand new iPhone in 2011 but technical constraints could not make it possible. Hence, they opted for the iPhone 4S as a back up plan, quoted a source at SF Gate. Thus, even if Apple faces similar constraints with the ambitious iPad 3, they would have the option of repeating history by releasing another tweener iPad 3S in spring, waiting for autumn to release the actual iPad 3.
Again, it reflects what Apple had intended by creating a two year gap between the iPhones by bringing out iPhone 3G and 3GS, which externally looked like similar models. Hence, Apple would not try to bring in an intermediary model of iPad 2S unless forced by circumstances.
The key dissimilarity between smartphone and tablet users is that the former do not need to buy all new annual models that come along because they have the eligibility of upgrading for a span ranging from a year to 20 months, depending on whether they were transacting on Sprint, Verizon or AT&T and also on the monthly plan that they were subscribing.
This would have prevented many users of the iPhone 4 from switching to iPhone 5 in mid 2011; similarly as many iPhone 3GS users skipped buying the iPhone 4. This is the reason why the iPhone 4S added a second year to the iPhone 4.x era so as to give the users time enough to reach their upgrade eligibility. Such things do not exist in the case of tablets.
Even though the iPad does have an optional data plan, it’s on monthly basis and no contracts are involved. Hence, iPad 2 users can upgrade to iPad3 the very moment the latter releases, if they want to.
Therefore, Apple does not seem to have any reason for bringing out the iPad 2S, unless the iPad 3 is technically not ready for launch. As seen with the iPhone 4S this year itself, such a possibility cannot be ruled out.

Want to lose weight? Shut your mouth

-- Anita Mills was 382 pounds when a family doctor gave her four simple rules to lose weight:

1. Eat 8 ounces of food every 3 hours

2. No sugary drinks

3. Do not skip meals

4. Do not tell anyone what you're doing

Now 242 pounds lighter, Mills credits that last tip for helping her through the most difficult months of her weight loss journey. Not having someone questioning every bite or trying to persuade her to relax on weekends helped her focus on the goal.
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"It's so much better to walk into a room and have someone say, 'Hey, did you do something different?' than to announce, 'I'm on a diet,' and have people pointing fingers at you," she said.

The advice seems counterintuitive. Weight Watchers and similar groups tout support as a major reason for their programs' success, and studies have found that accountability is important in accomplishing a goal. But telling family, friends and Facebook about your diet plans could have a detrimental effect, some experts say.

Mills' doctor, Jon Walz, gives all of his weight loss patients the same rules. He blames the need for secrecy on the culture of obesity. Since childhood, he says, we've searched out people who look and act like us.

"People who are obese live with obese people. They find obese friends. Most (patients) don't recognize how bad a lifestyle they have, how self-defeating a lifestyle is.. They think that culture's normal."

As human beings we have a difficult time with change, Walz continues. So when someone we love alters his or her lifestyle, we have a problem dealing with it -- even if that transformation is positive.

"Deliberately or not, the family, the friends, the other people who are part of that individual's culture will resist the change," Walz says. "(They) will try to change them back to what the culture tolerates."

Mills has discovered the truth in his theory. After she dropped a significant amount of weight, she couldn't hide her diet anymore. That's when friends started drifting away.

"People are mean -- people who you would normally think would be supportive. One friend told me she liked it better when I was the fat friend. That hurt," Mills said.

There are other reasons to keep your weight loss plans to yourself.

Dr. Peter Gollwitzer, a professor of psychology at New York University, studies how goals and plans affect cognition and behavior. In his research paper, "When Intentions Go Public," Gollwitzer describes how spilling the beans -- and the resulting response -- can change someone's actions.

Everyone has what Gollwitzer terms an "identity goal" of some kind, whether it's to be a good mother or a better scientist. In the case of weight loss, that goal is to be a successful dieter.

To reach an identity goal, you need indicators of your accomplishments. For a scientist it's published research papers or a boss' recognition. For a dieter it could be pounds dropped or praise from friends/family when they see how great you look.

Gollwitzer's studies found that when you tell people what you intend to do, and that intention is acknowledged, the recognition qualifies as an indicator of accomplishment.

"The danger is that you feel that you have already reached the goal and because of that you don't have to act on it any more," Gollwitzer says.

In other words, when you tell a friend that you're planning to drop 20 pounds and she notices your good intention, you no longer feel the need to follow through with exercise or healthy eating.

There are a number of ways to avoid this phenomenon.

"One is simple -- you can keep your mouth shut," Gollwitzer says. "Another one is to form different kinds of intentions, not only say what you want to do but also when, where and how you want to do it."

Such planning helps create situational action control, he explains. When you find yourself at the gym before work, the situation you mentally mapped out controls your behavior instead of your intention to exercise more.

The third way, Gollwitzer says, is to tell only one or two people who hold power over you (metaphorically) so that they help you stick to your intentions.

Select those people carefully, fitness and nutrition expert Bonnie MeChelle warns. The author of "Accountability is Key" says people with negative energy or a trainer that doesn't fit your style, won't help. But if you do find someone who will hold you responsible, share away.

"Tell them everything," MeChelle says. "Accountability is key because if you keep everything to yourself, no one is going to know what you're doing -- no one is going to know if you fall off the wagon."

Whether you choose to share your diet plans or keep them secret, it's important to remember exactly who you're losing weight for.

"If you're losing weight to please other people, your motivation will not be sustained to keep going when the going gets rough," MeChelle says.

And until you drop those extra pounds, you're the only one who has to know.

Respiratory Health

More than 35 million Americans suffer chronic lung disease such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis, according to the American Lung Association. Lung disease and other breathing problems are the No. 1 killer of babies younger than 1 year old. Other conditions, including cystic fibrosis, lung cancer and AIDS, also make breathing difficult, according to the American Association for Respiratory Care.

Health Matters

More people die in America every year from prescription drug abuse than die from heroin and cocaine combined. That stunning finding comes in a new report Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Zombie Apocalypse'

Are you prepared for the impending zombie invasion?
That's the question posed by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention in a Monday blog posting gruesomely titled, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse." And while it's no joke, CDC officials say it's all about emergency preparation.
"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for," the posting reads. "Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That's right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency."
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The post, written by Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan, instructs readers how to prepare for "flesh-eating zombies" much like how they appeared in Hollywood hits like "Night of the Living Dead" and video games like Resident Evil. Perhaps surprisingly, the same steps you'd take in preparation for an onslaught of ravenous monsters are similar to those suggested in advance of a hurricane or pandemic.
"First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house," the posting continues. "This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored)."
Other items to be stashed in such a kit include medications, duct tape, a battery-powered radio, clothes, copies of important documents and first aid supplies.
"Once you've made your emergency kit, you should sit down with your family and come up with an emergency plan," the posting continues. "This includes where you would go and who you would call if zombies started appearing outside your doorstep. You can also implement this plan if there is a flood, earthquake or other emergency."
The idea behind the campaign stemmed from concerns of radiation fears following the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in March. CDC spokesman Dave Daigle told FoxNews.com that someone had asked CDC officials if zombies would be a concern due to radiation fears in Japan and traffic spiked following that mention.
"It's kind of a tongue-in-cheek campaign," Daigle said Wednesday. "We were talking about hurricane preparedness and someone bemoaned that we kept putting out the same messages."
While metrics for the post are not yet available, Daigle said it has become the most popular CDC blog entry in just two days.
"People are so tuned into zombies," he said. "People are really dialed in on zombies. The idea is we're reaching an audience or a segment we'd never reach with typical messages."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/cdc-warns-public-prepare-zombie-apocalypse/#ixzz1cU74dA8G

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