Coconut-Yam soup with ginger and lime

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As for me, one of best starchy carbohydrates that could consume for both energy, nutrition, fat loss and muscle building is the Yam (sweet potato). We could argue that is that the potato is orange or yellow, I mean, but from what I understand, is the yellow tubers. Steamed potatoes are great, as are baked versions, but something different, I decided to combine some of the things that I prefer in a small beautiful coconut soup yam with some football and flavor.

6 Yams or sweet potatoes
7 Cups water distilled or homemade vegetable stock
2 Tbsp (or more) of fresh ground ginger root
6 tablespoons lime juice
2 cans of coconut milk (not the lite version)
1 teaspoon fresh ground of Celtic Sea salt
cool 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1 teaspoon coriander

1. Dice the sweet potatoes into bite-sized pieces and then put them, ginger root and distilled water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are cooked. (stick 'em with a knife or a fork to test for tenderness).

2. Blend

3. return ginger Yam soup mixture to the pot and then mix the remaining coconut milk and spices and lime juice.

4. Thermal.

I rely on food systems and have learned to prepare enough food at one time for some meals. This big pot of soup coconut-yam is perfect to separate single or double size serving containers and freeze. Take out of the freezer a day in advance and heat in a pot on the stove. Do not use a microwave oven (never use a microwave actually). Liven up the soup with cayenne pepper, chili oil or any other preferred method you like. Excellent with a piece of chicken, some steamed broccoli and a slice of coconut bread flour

: Thick Soup The soup can be like potato soup concentrate. This can be good or bad depending on your needs. When the soup of freezing, freeze thick soup, then add the desired amount of water when heated on the stove (not the microwave, remember?). Otherwise, add distilled water to create the desired consistency. You are a human adult, use your own judgment here.

Calories: unknown
Carbohydrates: good ones
Fat: Super fat
Factor of taste: awesome
Portions:14 to 20 depending on

First: fat doesn't make you fat. Eat more calories than you expend causes gain fat, eating fewer calories which did create a calorie deficit or put another way, will allow the body to tap into body fat reserves. 2500 Calories worth of oranges consumed by someone who only require 2000 calories per day will cause fat storage. Fat itself does not make you fat.

Second: coconut milk, coconut oil and coconuts in general are one of the healthiest foods anyone could put in their bodies, on so many levels. Coconut milk is a very healthy fat, then a generous portion of it each day is very good for you. For example, lauric acid in coconut oil is a natural antibiotic and kills candida. Coconut oil is a medium-chain triglyceride and immediately is used for energy, not stored. Increases metabolism, helping to reduce body fat, and that makes you feel good at the same time.

Third: Fat calories per serving are between 70 and 100. 2 cans of coconut milk, equal to 1400 calories. 144 grams [coconut beautiful, loving,] grease (remembrance of a plant), 26 grams of carbohydrates and 12 grams of protein. This breaks down to between 70 and 100 calories per serving from FAT (or 7 to 10 grams per serving). If it becomes really a problem for you, cut the amount of coconut milk in half. But then, why bother with a coconut-Yam soup recipe? Why not just make butternut squash soup with almond butter?

Soup adding Notes: When I have my steam broccoli, I rarely use the stem. Their save for soups. When I have enough, detach the external edges, cut into thick slices or dice them and cook them in the basics of soup that I do. Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamin c and has huge anti-cancer properties. It is also full of fiber. I added 6 broccoli stems and a good slice of thick green cabbage for this soup when I did.

Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable that has properties anti-estrogenic among his repertoire and cabbage is also very good for ass. How to eat a lot of cabbage (as in salads, juice Blend such as sauerkraut and as cole slaw), I always have some on hand. A nice thick slice made its way into the soup. BTW, broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable as well.

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Charlie Sheen's Sobriety Questioned by Steve-O After Party

By Hollie McKay

Published September 22, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Charlie Sheen did a good job being Mr. Nice Guy during the Emmys telecast this past Sunday, and he’s managed to stay out of the headlines for any raucous acts over recent weeks. 

But according to at least one other entertainment industry personality, he may not have changed all that much.

"I shouldn't say I know anything, but I don't think so, no," Steve-O, who himself battled addiction, told Zap2it this week when asked whether Sheen is sober. "But it is what it is. I try to stay off my soapbox.”

The “Jackass” star partied with the Emmy-winning actor on Monday evening to celebrate the airing of Comedy Central’s highly-anticipated “Charlie Sheen Roast,” and tweeted a picture with him accompanied by the caption: “I believe I'm at the most expensive crack house on the planet.”

The photograph, featuring a thin-looking, smiley Sheen, prompted hundreds of fans to weigh in on the troubled actor’s health online.

“What’s in Charlie’s teeth?” questioned one person, “Charlie looks sooo old,” commented another, while others responded to the picture with such things as “it’s just sad, Charlie totally looks like a junkie” and “won’t be long before he does a Winehouse.” 

Dr. Sack, who runs the Malibu-based Promises Rehab Center, but does not treat Sheen, said that weight loss and teeth problems can be a result of continued substance abuse.

“Weight loss is common with addictions although the cause differs from drug to drug. For example, alcohol has calories but very little nutritional value and so people lose weight and become malnourished. Stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine directly suppress appetite through a neuropeptide in the hypothalamus that regulates appetite," Sack said. "Neglect of basic dental hygiene is common and contributes to gum disease. Stimulants are vasoconstrictors that over time deprive the teeth and gums of a normal blood supply.  This problem is made worse if people smoke cigarettes (which addicts are much more likely to do) since nicotine is also a vasoconstrictor.”

A rep for Sheen did not respond to a request for comment.

Sheen’s oddly civilized behavior in recent weeks (he issued an apology to his “Two-and-a-Half Men” team at the Emmy’s on Sunday night and advocated support for replacement Ashton Kutcher) has many questioning its authenticity.

According to multiple reports, the fired sitcom star is putting on his best front as he is in negotiations with Warner Bros. over his termination settlement, and also prepping for his new show on TBS. Sheen's syndication profits from “Two and a Half Men” could potentially add up to $100 million in the next seven to 10 years, and he’s already owed $25 million for the episodes previously shot.

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California Couple Fined $300 for Holding Home Bible Studies

Published September 21, 2011

| NewsCore

A southern California family has been fined for holding regular Bible studies at their home because it violates a city zoning code, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The city of San Juan Capistrano, in Orange County, fined Charles and Stephanie Fromm $300 for having as many as 50 people assembled at their home twice a week, the Times reported. City officials also warned the couple that subsequent fines could increase if they continued to host the Bible studies without obtaining a special permit.

A religious legal non-profit group, the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), has taken up the case saying the fine was a violation of religious freedom.

A spokeswoman for the city of San Juan Capistrano stressed that local authorities were not trying to prohibit home Bible study.

Instead, she said the city fined the Fromms for transforming a residential area into a place where people regularly assemble.

"The Fromm case further involves regular meetings on Sunday mornings and Thursday afternoons with up to 50 persons, with impacts on the residential neighborhood on street access and parking," spokeswoman Cathy Salcedo said in an email to The Los Angeles Times.

Brad Dacus, an attorney for the Public Justice Institute, said the Fromms live in a semi-rural area and have not caused any parking problems for neighbors.

The city "needed some kind of rational basis to justify their rigid intolerance towards this family for having a Bible study in their home," Dacus told the Times.

He said the Fromms should have their money returned, adding that PJI intends to defend "this family's home Bible study all the way to the US Supreme Court, if necessary."

The Fromms could not be reached Wednesday for comment, the Times said.

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Conservative Group Calls for Boycott of Ben & Jerry's 'Schweddy Balls' Flavor

By Joshua Rhett Miller

Published September 22, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Ben & Jerry's latest ice cream creation -- "Schweddy Balls" -- doesn't agree with the tastes of at least one national conservative group.

"The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive," read a statement released by One Million Moms, a division of the Mississippi-based American Family Association. "Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket."

The limited-batch ice cream -- inspired by a "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy, owner of a holiday bakery -- features vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and fudge-covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls. The skit, which also included actresses Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, concluded with Baldwin deadpanning: "No one can resist my Schweddy Balls."

The flavor has been available since earlier this month at Ben & Jerry's locations nationwide.

"For a long time, I thought that 'Here Lies Pete Schweddy' would end up on my tombstone," Baldwin said in a statement on Sept. 7 announcing the release of the ice cream. "Now, thanks to Ben & Jerry's, the goodness of the Schweddy family recipe won't go with me to the great beyond."

Not everyone's laughing, however.

Officials at One Million Moms are asking the public to send correspondence to Ben & Jerry's public relations manager to request that no additional batches of the ice cream be distributed.

"Also, highly recommend they refrain from producing another batch with this name or any other offensive names or you will no longer be able to purchase their products," a statement read.

Sean Greenwood, a spokesman for Ben & Jerry's, said the Vermont-based company has received "tremendous outpouring of support" since the launch of "Schweddy Balls," which will be available through the end of December.

"It's a great flavor and our fans know it," Greenwood told FoxNews.com. "They get it ... It's flying off the shelves in a lot of places."

Greenwood said the company has received roughly 500 emails in support of the flavor and roughly the same amount criticizing the concoction.

"We have not changed our plan in any way," Greenwood said. "What we're hearing from our fans is, 'We like it, keep it out.' We'll get through this year and see what our fans want next year."

Meanwhile, officials at One Million Moms also objected to a special edition of "Chubby Hubby" released last year by the ice cream maker called "Hubby Hubby" to celebrate gay marriage.

"It seems that offending customers has become an annual tradition for Ben & Jerry's," the group's statement read.

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Facebook Users Outraged Over New Changes

Facebook is at it again. The social network is tweaking the home pages of its 750 million users, much to the chagrin of some very vocal folks.

The world's largest online social network is expected to announce even more changes on Thursday, when it holds its annual f8 conference in San Francisco for developers who create games and other applications for its site.

The gathering follows a trickle of changes to Facebook in the past few of weeks. Some, such as larger photo displays and a feature that makes it easier to group friends into categories, were met with approval - or at least silence, which in the age of social-media oversharing could well be considered an endorsement.

Then came Wednesday, when many users woke up to find their homepages altered, with what Facebook calls "top stories" on the top of their pages, followed by "recent stories" listed in chronological order. On the right side, meanwhile, there's something called a "ticker," a live feed of all the ongoing activity that also appears in users' news feeds. It's a kind of Facebook inside Facebook, if you will.

By mid-morning, the words "new Facebook" quickly became one of the most discussed topics on Twitter. Many comments were negative, though some pointed out that Facebook makes many changes to its site and people eventually get used to it.

Then there were the jokes. John Kovalic from Madison, Wisconsin poked fun at Netflix's recent public relations fiasco, tweeting: "On the plus side, at least the new Facebook isn't calling itself "Qwikface." (Netflix, for those who missed it, is facing a big backlash from its subscribers because it raised prices and renamed its popular DVD-by-mail service "Qwikster.") Another online critic liked Facebook to a pop star who's addicted to cosmetic surgery.

For its part, Facebook has long asserted that it makes changes to keep users engaged, and that those alterations are often based on user requests. Other tweaks derive from the company's study of activity on Facebook and what it thinks people will enjoy using. Privacy advocates, meanwhile, have contended that Facebook changes its site in order to get people to share as much as possible about their habits, hobbies and likes -all to give advertisers a better picture of who to target.

In reality, it's a little of both. The way Facebook sees it, the more people enjoy using the site, the more time they'll spend there.

The latest changes are "tailored at making sure this news feed is what you want to see," said Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Facebook.

And, so far, that's been good for business -despite the grumblings of vocal minority of Facebook users. The company is expected to bring in $3.8 billion in worldwide advertising this year and $5.8 billion in 2012, according to research firm eMarketer.

Facebook is well-aware of perhaps the biggest downside of being the world's largest social network: With so many users, pleasing all of them is difficult. Schroepfer said the tweaks to the news feed are meant to appeal to a broad range of people, whether they have 15 friends and log in once a week or 800 and spend four hours a day on the site.

"We want to make sure we provide the right kind of basics to make sure that the core of Facebook is sharing and (seeing) the right kind of things," he said.

Facebook, though clearly king of social networks, is also competing with Twitter and Google Plus for attention. As such, the race to add new features has the potential to confuse users, said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer.

"It's like...who's going to come up with the best, most interesting features to keep people using their service," she said. "Everyone is copying each other, making sure whatever feature Twitter offers, Facebook offers, whatever Facebook offers, Google Plus offers."

On Thursday, Facebook is likely to push forward again, unveiling a slew of new ways to share content on its site and beyond. It keeps changing because if it doesn't, it could go the way of MySpace, the once-great social network that even an ownership stake by Justin Timberlake seems unlikely to rescue.

"The idea of a social network and what a social network is continues to evolve," Williamson said. "First it was creating a profile and sending status updates to your friends. Facebook is (now) going toward helping companies be more social and helping consumers and users feel like they have a stronger connection to these...businesses, media and things they are interested in."

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Chicago Man Killed Mother Over Avril Lavigne Concert Tickets, Jury Finds

Published September 22, 2011

| NewsCore

CHICAGO -- A Chicago man stabbed his mother to death then doused her body in chemicals after she refused to buy him tickets to an Avril Lavigne concert, a jury found.

Robert Lyons, 39, was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday after a weeklong trial, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Prosecutors said that Lyons began to argue with his mother, Linda Bolek, when she refused to call a friend to arrange tickets for the concert in 2008.

Lyons stabbed his mother nine times in the back, then poured insecticide and drain cleaner on her body, prosecutors said.

A jury deliberated for just two hours before returning their verdict, the report said.

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North America Safe From NASA's Doomed 6.5-Ton Satellite

A dead NASA satellite will plummet to Earth will on Friday (Sept. 23), and while the U.S. space agency doesn't know exactly where pieces of the massive spacecraft will hit, one thing is certain: North America is in the clear.

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, is set to make an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere on Friday. However, it is still too early to tell exactly where the 6.5-ton spacecraft will fall. Scientists will likely have a much better idea of where the debris will land about two hours before the impact, NASA officials said.

But, NASA was able to rule out North America as being in the potential debris drop zone. 

Track NASA's falling satellite in our exclusive online tracker in real-time.

"Re-entry is expected sometime during the afternoon of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time," agency officials said in a statement. "The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period. It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 to 48 hours."

In the meantime, NASA and the U.S. Air Force will be closely monitoring the satellite and its decaying orbit.

"With re-entry we're always interested in day-by-day and hour-by-hour details," Mark Matney, a scientist with NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office, told SPACE.com. "It's very difficult to predict how it's going to happen. With our models, we try to figure out what parts of the spacecraft — what materials — will interact with the atmosphere in terms of temperature and melting, and determine which of those will survive. But it's a very dynamic environment, the force is very intense." [Photos of NASA's Huge Falling Satellite UARS]

 

Wide range of possibilities

Current predictions of the potential impact zone cover a giant swath of the planet — anywhere between the latitudes of northern Canada and southern South America. Scientists will be able to refine these projections as the spacecraft makes its fiery journey through the atmosphere.

"It's partly a matter of not knowing enough," said Ray Williamson, executive director of the Secure World Foundation, an organization dedicated to the peaceful use of outer space. "The shape of the structure is not perfectly spherical, so when it heats up and starts to break up, it will break into odd pieces. Once it begins to break up, then they can get a better sense of where this is roughly going to hit."

Scientists at NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office estimate that at least 26 large pieces of the bus-size satellite will endure the scorching heat of re-entry. Approximately 1,170 pounds (532 kilograms) of material are expected to reach the ground, NASA officials said.

These pieces of debris will likely be scattered over a 500-mile (804-kilometer) long path. But agency officials have been quick to stress that there is very little chance that satellite chunks will smash intotowns or cities. [Amateur Astronomer Photographs Doomed Satellite]

Instead, it's much more likely that the debris will fall over water or remote, uninhabited areas, NASA officials said.

"There's always a concern," Matney said. "But, populated areas are a small fraction of the Earth's surface. Much of the Earth's surface has either no people or very few people. We believe that the risk is very modest."

Odds of human injury very low

For comparison, when NASA's space shuttle Columbia tragically broke apart during re-entry in 2003, debris from the 100-ton spacecraft was scattered across Texas, but did not damage any structures or injure any people.

"When [Columbia] came back, as the shuttle heated up, it broke into pieces — some of them very large, and some very small," Williamson said. "Even then, there was difficulty in trying to find the pieces that were spread over such a large area. It was such an unpopulated area that it was very difficult to locate all the pieces, even though they knew from videos pretty much precisely the track that it followed across the atmosphere."

 

NASA has calculated the odds of anyone anywhere in the world being hit by a piece of the UARS satellite at 1in3,200. But, the chance that you personally will get hit is much more remote, on the order of 1inseveral trillion, Williamson said.

Still, if anyone happens to stumble upon a piece of the defunct satellite on the ground, agency officials stress that for safety and legal reasons, it is best to leave the material where it is, and alert the authorities.

"If you find something you think may be a piece of UARS, do not touch it," NASA officials said. "Contact a local law enforcement official for assistance."

- Photos: Space Debris Images & Cleanup Concepts

- Video: Crashing Satellite's Debris Region Predicted: 500 Miles of Possibilities

- Worst Space Debris Events of All Time

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NATO Claims Killing of Afghan Commander Linked to Deadly U.S. Helicopter Downing

Published September 22, 2011

| NewsCore

KABUL –  NATO said Thursday it had killed a Taliban commander who was linked to an operation that ended with the deaths of 30 American servicemen after their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.

Qari Tahir was killed Tuesday in Wardak province in a precision air strike after being located along with an associate, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

"Tahir coordinated ambush attacks against Afghan forces and led fighters under his control to conduct hijackings of convoy vehicles. Additionally, he facilitated abductions and held his hostages for ransom," ISAF said.

The statement added, "Tahir was the Taliban's top leader in Tangi Valley and was the target of a previous combined operation on Aug. 5, 2011, that resulted in the loss of the CH-47 Chinook last month. He led a group of insurgent fighters throughout the valley and was known to use roadside bombs and rockets to intimidate the local populace."

No civilians were harmed in the strike, ISAF said.

The Americans' CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down in Wardak province, in eastern Afghanistan, apparently by a rocket-propelled grenade. U.S. forces later killed the insurgents responsible for the crash in an F-16 air strike.

The crash killed 38 people, including 30 Americans, 17 of whom were U.S. Navy SEALs. It was the biggest single loss of life for international forces in Afghanistan since the conflict began 10 years ago.

But U.S. Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, said at the time that the original Taliban target remained at large.

"We will continue to exploit that target. We will remain in pursuit," Allen said.

The remains of the soldiers were greeted by President Barack Obama, defense secretary Leon Panetta and other U.S. officials in a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when they returned home last month.

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Lost Moon Rock Turns Up in Bill Clinton's Gubernatorial Files

Published September 22, 2011

| Reuters

For years, Arkansas historians have searched for a valuable lunar rock from the Apollo 17 mission, one of the moon rocks NASA presented to each state in the 1970s.

While other states also continue to dig for the rocks that came to be known as the Goodwill Moon Rocks, the mystery in Arkansas was solved Wednesday -- sort of -- when an archivist discovered it in former President Bill Clinton's gubernatorial papers.

Still up in the air is how the moon rock got there.

Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, told Reuters the archivist opened a box previously archived as "Arkansas flag plaque." The tiny flag was also sent to space, Roberts said. The rock was inside.

"The moon rock, which is in a plastic container, had fallen off the plaque," Roberts said. "The archivist immediately knew what he had discovered."

Other states such as New Jersey and Alaska have also misplaced their Goodwill rocks, which some experts estimate could be worth millions of dollars.

Some states have found theirs in recent years, including Colorado, where former Governor John Vanderhoof confessed in 2010 he had the rock in his personal collection and agreed to give it back to the state.

Roberts, who worked for Clinton when he was governor, said the moon rock was presented to Governor David Pryor in 1976. He could only speculate about how Clinton ended up with it.

Roberts' theory is that when Clinton became governor in 1978, Pryor left the plaque in the office. When Clinton lost re-election in 1980, everything in his office was packed up and stored.

"Ironically, I moved those papers out," Roberts said. "I'm a historian and I never saw that plaque."

The Butler Center for Arkansas History and Genealogy, which is part of the library system, acquired the Clinton papers in 2004. The papers, photographs and memorabilia are contained in 2,000 boxes.

"We will talk to the Clinton Foundation and the Governor's office and determine where it should be," Roberts said. "It should definitely be in a museum."

Roberts said that the moon rock, which is now in a safe, will be re-attached to the plaque.

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Marijuana Delivered to Bengals WR Simpson's Kentucky Home

Published September 22, 2011

| FoxSports

CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. –  Cincinnati Bengals players Jerome Simpson and Anthony Collins were detained by authorities after a package containing 2.5 pounds of marijuana was delivered to Simpson's home in Crestview Hills, Ky., according to multiple reports Wednesday.

Michelle Gregory, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Justice, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Simpson and Collins were present when a woman, identified as Aleen Smith, 27, accepted the package Tuesday.

According to the report, Gregory said Simpson gave officers consent to search the property, and they found six more pounds of marijuana and related items.

Neither player was arrested. The Bengals have acknowledged the reports but have made no further comment.

Simpson is in his first year as a starting wide receiver and had a career-best 136 yards receiving in the Bengals' 27-25 loss in Denver last weekend. Collins, also a fourth-year player, is a backup offensive tackle with 16 games of starting experience.

The website CaliforniaWatch.org reported that narcotics agents tracked the shipment of "high-grade" marijuana from Northern California through its arrival at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Police then made a "controlled delivery" to the house, according to the website, where they then detained and interviewed Simpson and Collins.

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A Former Cheerleader Says, Don't Let Today's Cheerleaders Wear Their Short Skirts to School

| FoxNews.com

I was a cheerleader in high school. I wore the short skirt complete with black shiny nylon briefs (we called them "spankies," for God's sake) over my underwear to school, to class, usually three days a week, for all four years of high school and two years of junior high. I was a cheerleader every damn year, forever and ever. And when I heard that a high school banned its own cheerleaders' short skirts from class, I was happy about it.

Not for the reason you'd think.

Are the skirts these days obscenely short? Yes. I really do think they are in the context of class, when you have to sit in a desk and people are like two inches away from you. It's really hard to sit comfortably without showing more than you want to in a cheerleading skirt. Especially the newer ones without pleats. The end.

I always thought it was totally stupid that cheerleaders had to wear their uniforms to school, but I never really thought about it until now. 

None of the sports teams wore their uniforms to school in my high school. I'm pretty sure they don't today, either. Why make the cheerleaders do it? Or better -- why LET them even if they want to?

Rita Arens is the assignment and syndication editor for BlogHer.com. She blogs at "Surrender Dorothy." Her parenting anthology and BlogHer's first book, "Sleep is for the Weak: The Best of the Mommybloggers Including Amalah, Finslippy, Fussy, Woulda Coulda Shoulda, Mom-101, and More!" was published by Chicago Review Press in September 2008 and was awarded a 2009 gold NAPPA. To continue reading her piece about a ban on cheeerleaders' short skirts, click here.

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As Candidates Prepare for Latest GOP Debate, Time All But Up for Late Entries in 2012 Race

When the Republican presidential candidates take the stage Thursday for the Fox News/Google debate, the field viewers see could be the field they get.

Time is just about up for late entries into the 2012 race.

Despite the chatter from GOP analysts uneasy with the lineup, the sideline-sitters appear to backing away more and more from the prospect of running. And given the rancor that's characterized the primary battle to date, voters might not see any new faces on the campaign trail until the eventual nominee chooses a running mate.

And don't expect that eventual running mate to be a runner-up from the current field, analysts say, as the nominee will likely look elsewhere for a No. 2.

"There are very, very attractive candidates who are not running for president," GOP pollster Adam Geller said, and those individuals will probably be considered as running mates.

Noting the hardship involved with launching a full-fledged campaign at this point, Geller said GOP luminaries who thus far have brushed off calls to run at the top of the ticket will continue to do just that. 

"It takes an enormous amount of organization, an enormous effort to raise money, to work in each of the early states to build a team," he said. "The first caucuses and primaries are now just a few months away. ... It is just hard to imagine that someone new will come in the field." 

On one hand, Texas Gov. Rick Perry proved with his August entrance and subsequent surge in the polls that a late-filing campaign can prosper. Prominent conservatives suggested over the weekend that it's not too late for someone like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to follow the same route. 

But Perry was also plotting for that move well in advance. While he missed the famed Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, he made his candidacy announcement the very same day, in South Carolina, and then scooted his budding operation over to Iowa for meet-and-greets. 

Perry also gave the race something it was missing -- a red-state, folksy alternative to New England businessman and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose closest competitor before Perry entered was Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. 

Geller, who counts Christie among his clients, said he takes the New Jersey governor at his word that he will not run. 

Other potential candidates have publicly bowed out of consideration. They include Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and, more recently, former New York Gov. George Pataki. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has brushed off speculation about his intentions, saying in a recent interview that the field is "pretty well set." 

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, while pushing for Christie to enter the race, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he's "given up" on the prospect of House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., entering. 

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said earlier this month that he'd still consider running, but only if the party were "desperate." 

So far, only one non-candidate shows up consistently in the polls, and that's Sarah Palin. And she's made no secret of her fondness for tormenting the political establishment by not making a definitive announcement. 

"I'm getting kind of a kick out of this," she told Fox News in early September. While showing up at the occasional Tea Party rally, Palin said she's still "very engaged internally" in discussions with her family about whether to run. 

If the field is set, that leaves the question of who might enter in Round 2, when it's time to choose running mates. 

Geller said that individual will probably come from outside the field. GOP strategist John Feehery said Perry or Romney might have it in them to pick the other -- after all, one would complement the other geographically -- but with the two locked in bitter debate over Social Security and other hot-button topics, Feehery said that possibility is "remote." 

"There's no love lost between those two," he said. 

Bachmann, while drawing enthusiastic support from some in the conservative base, also has gotten on Perry's bad side by hammering him over his executive order requiring girls in Texas to receive the so-called HPV vaccine. 

When it comes to potential running mates, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio would almost certainly be at the top of the list, both Feehery and Geller said.

There's also Daniels, who in a weekend interview with The New York Times talked up the possibility of another candidate entering the presidential race but has stayed mostly mum about the idea of joining someone else's ticket. 

Meanwhile, the airwaves and newspaper pages are filled with politicians denying any interest in the vice presidential slot. 

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, after endorsing the Texas governor, in an interview dismissed the notion that he was angling for a spot on Team Perry. 

Giuliani has also said he has no interest in the job of vice president. And Rubio, for whom the buzz is much stronger, similarly waves off the rumors. 

"The surest way to become the vice presidential pick is to say, 'I don't want to be vice president,'" Feehery said.

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American Apparel Caves to Plus-Size Protester, Flying Her Out for Meeting

 

Published September 19, 2011

| FoxNews.com

The plus-size woman that clothing company American Apparel rejected even after she won their recent modeling contest is heading out to Los Angeles to meet with the retailer and advise them on how not to alienate larger women.

“[American Apparel] extended an offer to tour the factory and sit with some of the creative directors to discuss what happened with the contest and have a dialogue about advertising to a different demographic,” Nancy Upton tells Fox411 exclusively.

But Upton, 24, doubts that her upcoming visit, scheduled for later this month, will change her mind about the company’s approach to bigger gals, and tells Fox411 that if they ask her, she will refuse an offer to model in an American Apparel ad.

“No I would not appear in an ad campaign," Upton said. "I have opinions about the company that won’t be changed by my visit."

Upton entered American Apparel’s plus sized models search in August as a joke. The "Next BIG Thing" contest was, according to the company, a search for "booty-ful" models who need "a little extra wiggle room.

Then a strange thing happened. She won.

"In my entry I said I’m a size 12 and I just can’t stop eating. The idea was that here is a girl being as sexy as possible and she can’t stop eating because she is plus size and plus size women love to eat,” Upton explained. “I wanted to convey that size and beauty are not mutually exclusive. You can be beautiful and fat and that’s not a problem.”

The size 12 Texas student won the contest’s popular vote after submitting pictures of herself eating an entire chicken and bathing in ranch dressing, among other food-based poses. Even though voters chose her as their ideal plus size woman, the company rejected her bid claiming they found her entry insulting.

"I entered the contest as a spoof and a satire because I felt it was being executed in a condescending manner,” Upton tells Fox411. “They have been notorious for the size of their models, and I found the contest language pandering and condescending, and I couldn’t get it out of my head and thought it would be funny if I entered. I guess people picked up on it and started voting for me.”

But American Apparel, which has had prior problems with the plus sized community, namely a 2010 incident when plus-sized adult film star April Flores was told by an American Apparel representative that they did not carry clothes in her size because she was not their demographic, chose to reject Upton’s win. In a letter to Upton, American Apparel creative director Iris Alonzo told her that she did not exemplify their idea of beauty inside and out.

“It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language,” Alonzo wrote in an open letter to Upton. “ ... I wonder if you had taken just a moment to imagine that this campaign could actually be well intentioned, and that my team and I are not out to offend and insult women, would you have still behaved in the same way, mocking the confident and excited participants who put themselves out there?”

Alonzo must have had a change of heart, as she soon did an about face and reached out to Upton and offered to fly her to American Apparel headquarters.

Repeated calls and emails to Alonzo were not returned.

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Music Fan Owes $675,000 for Illegal Downloads, Court Rules

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AppId is over the quota
Published September 19, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Enjoy that song: It'll cost you.

In 2009, a Boston jury downgraded a ruling against Joel Tenenbaum for illegally downloading music files from $675,000 to just $67,500, deeming the original penalty "unconstitutionally excessive."

Not so fast, an appeals court has ruled.

On Friday, following pleas for further leniency from Tenenbaum and indignant filings from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a federal appeals court revisited the ruling -- and decided Tenenbaum ought to pay.

“We affirm the finding of liability against Tenenbaum and in favor of plaintiffs,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Sandra Lynch said in the written opinion released Friday -- reinstating the $675,000 judgment against Tenenbaum, a 28-year-old graduate student pursuing a physics PhD at Boston University.

A spokesman for the RIAA did not respond to FoxNews.com requests for comment.

"We're pls'ed the crt agreed that the finding of liability was correct and that the d crt erred in finding the verdict unconst," wrote Jonathan Lamy, senior vice president of communications for RIAA, on Twitter.

Tenenbaum's lawyers argued that federal copyright laws and the Digital Theft Deterrence Act were not meant to target consumers. Lawyers representing the recording industry argued that the economic impact of illegal downloading is much greater than the sharing of one song.

The case ultimately came down to one of constitutionality, according to the ruling. The appeals court determined that original judge Nancy Gertner did not have the power to reduce damages in a copyright trial.

There's one ray of hope for Tanenbaum, however: an open question about just how the Copyright Act is being applied.

"This case raises concerns about application of the Copyright Act which Congress may wish to examine," it reads.

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The 'Jimmy Buffett' Rule

By Ellis Henican

Published September 19, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Forget Warren Buffett. The coddle-the-rich crowd has now discovered "The Jimmy Buffett Rule."

You know how that works, right? For the folks who own really big sailboats and shelter their wealth on islands with swaying palm trees, it’s always margarita time! Go ahead and squeeze the middle class some more!

Speaking from the Rose Garden on Monday, President Obama offered a more populist approach to cutting $3 trillion from the federal debt. His plan includes whacks in war funding and various programs Democrats are usually loathe to trim. It also advances what at any other time would be considered in a perfectly modest suggestion: That people at the very top should kick in too. The president would do this by letting the Bush tax cuts expire for upper-earners and by adding a special new tax on people who earn $1 million-plus a year.

My gosh, with all the shouts of “class warfare,” you’d have thought he’d asked hedge-fund executives to pay the same tax rates as receptionists and security guards. The uproar from some of the president’s critics was just that loud.

Here’s an important addendum to the Jimmy Buffett Rule: If you ask the bottom 98 to sacrifice, that’s a prudent fiscal policy. If you ask the top 2 percent to sacrifice, that’s class warfare.

And one other thing to remember: The rich-mustn’t-pay argument goes down a whole lot easier if you have the right phrases for the small, privileged group you are trying to protect. Don’t call them “fat cats.” Never use terms like “the super-rich” or “millionaires and billionaires.” Avoid all of that. They are “job creators,” “small business owners” and “people with the entrepreneurial spirit to get us out of this mess.”

Who’d want to raise taxes on someone like that?

The truth is that lately, things have been very sweet for those at the very top. The middle class keeps shrinking. More working families are tumbling into poverty, the second-highest poverty rate in 45 years. A greater and greater percentage of the wealth in America is held in fewer and fewer hands.

Yet over the past few years, those who could most afford to help have been largely insulated from any pain. You’ve seen the statistics: These days, the top 1 percent of Americans earn a higher percent of the nation’s income than at any time since 1928. Lately, the income of the top 1 percent of household has been growing 10 times faster than the bottom 90 percent.

The middle class was always the strength of America. That’s what gave the country its energy, its creative, its drive. But for middle-class Americans, a solid career with benefits is becoming more the exception than the rule. Kids are coming out of college today with huge student loans and shrunken opportunities. Fifty million Americans can’t afford health insurance. For young people especially, home ownership is an increasingly distant dream.

There’s lots of head-shaking right now over the economic mess in Europe -- and rightfully so. But there’s another specter worth considering and it doesn’t come from across the ocean. It comes from the South.

I don’t mean to get all class-warfare on you...But unless we find a way to spread the burden upward and cut the middle class some slack, it isn’t Greece or Portugal we will soon be resembling. It’s those old Caribbean islands Jimmy likes to sing about. Where a few super-rich families own just about everything. Where the vast majority of others have hardly anything at all.

Ellis Henican is a political analyst on the Fox News Channel and a columnist at Newsday. His website is www.henican.com. His email is ellis@henican.com.

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Journey Rocker Neal Schon's New Wife Slams Alleged Micheale Salahi Affair, Report Says

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AppId is over the quota
Published September 19, 2011

| New York Post

White House gate crasher Michaele Salahi spent her weekend rocking backstage in Tampa with Journey, waiting to run into the open arms of guitarist Neal Schon -- whose new wife teed off on him.

“This is very painful for me, and I’m very hurt,’’ Schon’s soon-to-be-ex, Ava Fabian, told TMZ.

Fabian, 49, a former Playboy pinup, tied the knot with Schon, 57, in July. Asked if she’d take Schon back after his antics with the equally married Salahi, Fabian replied: “No!’

But they apparently developed serious marital problems soon after. When Michaele ran off to be with Schon last week, Tareq said he thought she’d been kidnapped and called the cops. Deputies soon discovered she was with her new beau.

Tareq Salahi is now filing for divorce.

“She continually exposes our friends and acquaintances to her adulterous relationship and has flaunted the same throughout the community, the nation and indeed the world,” he Salahi said in papers filled in Warren County, Va.

Click here to read the full report from the New York Post.

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Venezuela Asserts Control of Gold Mining Industry

Published September 19, 2011

| Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela -- A new law regulating gold mining in Venezuela took effect Monday and will require mining companies to sell all the gold they extract to the government.

The decree, which was signed by President Hugo Chavez last month, is aimed at boosting government control of gold mining operations.

Private companies will still be allowed to participate in mining, but as minority partners in joint ventures with the government.

The law took effect with its publication in the Official Gazette. It says all gold mined in the country must be sold and turned over to the government.

There was no immediate reaction from Rusoro Mining Ltd., the one company with significant mining operations under way in Venezuela. Chavez said last month that officials had contacted the company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, to continue mining as a joint venture.

The government also aims to fight rampant illegal mining by informal miners in the forests of southern Venezuela.

The law says anyone involved in small-scale mining operations as well those with contracts to mine should form new joint companies with the government within the next three months. The government is to have a 55 percent stake in each of the joint ventures and it will also receive 13 percent royalties under the terms laid out in the law.

The new measures are to take precedence over those in a 1965 law that nationalized gold mining in Venezuela.

Another change is that the new law stipulates that any legal conflicts may be resolved only in Venezuelan courts, eliminating the route of international arbitration.

In February, a Canadian mining company, Crystallex International Corp., sought international arbitration after Venezuela rescinded its contract to develop a major gold mine. The company claimed it was due $3.8 billion in compensation.

Chavez launched the changes in the mining sector last month while also announcing that Venezuela would repatriate about $11 billion in Venezuelan gold reserves, more than 211 tons of gold currently held in U.S. and European banks.

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Secret Cold War Spy Satellite Program Declassified, Finally Revealed

CHANTILLY, Va. –  Twenty-five years after their top-secret, Cold War-era missions ended, two clandestine American satellite programs were declassified Saturday (Sept. 17) with the unveiling of three of the United States' most closely guarded assets: the KH-7 GAMBIT, the KH-8 GAMBIT 3 and the KH-9 HEXAGON spy satellites.

The vintage National Reconnaissance Office satellites were displayed to the public Saturday in a one-day-only exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Va. The three spacecraft were the centerpiece of the NRO's invitation-only, 50th Anniversary Gala celebration held at the center last evening.

Saturday's spysat unveiling was attended by a number of jubilant NRO veterans who developed and refined the classified spacecraft and its components for decades in secret, finally able to show their wives and families what they actually did 'at the office' for so many years. Both of the newly declassified satellite systems, GAMBIT and HEXAGON, followed the U.S. military's frontrunner spy satellite system CORONA, which was declassified in 1995. [See photos of the declassified U.S. spy satellites]

Big spy satellites revealed

The KH-9 HEXAGON, often referred to by its popular nickname "Big Bird," lived up to its legendary expectations. As large as a school bus, the KH-9 HEXAGON carried 60 miles of high resolution photographic film for space surveillance missions. 

Military space historian Dwayne A. Day was exuberant after his first look at the KH-9 HEXAGON.

"This was some bad-ass technology," Day told SPACE.com. "The Russians didn't have anything like it."

Day, co-editor of "Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CoronaSpy Satellites," noted that "it took the Soviets on average five to 10 years to catch up during the Cold War, and in many cases they never really matched American capabilities."

Phil Presser, designer of the HEXAGON's panoramic 'optical bar' imaging cameras, agreed with Day's assessment.

"This is still the most complicated system we've ever put into orbit …Period."

The HEXAGON's twin optical bar panoramic mirror cameras rotated as the swept back and forth as the satellite flew over Earth, a process that intelligence officials referred to as "mowing the lawn."

Each 6-inch wide frame of HEXAGON film capturing a wide swath of terrain covering 370 nautical miles — the distance from Cincinnati to Washington — on each pass over the former Soviet Union and China. The satellites had a resolution of about 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to nearly 1 meter), according to the NRO. [10 Ways the Government Watches You]

According to documents released by the NRO, each HEXAGON satellite mission lasted about 124 days, with the satellite launching four film return capsules that could send its photos back to Earth. An aircraft would catch the return capsule in mid-air by snagging its parachute following the canister's re-entry.

In a fascinating footnote, the film bucket from the first KH-9 HEXAGON sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in spring 1972 after Air Force recovery aircraft failed to snag the bucket's parachute.

The film inside the protective bucket reported contained high resolution photographs of the Soviet Union's submarine bases and missile silos. In a daredevil feat of clandestine ingenuity, the U.S. Navy's Deep Submergence Vehicle Trieste II succeeded in grasping the bucket from a depth of 3 miles below the ocean.

Hubble vs. HEXAGON

Former International Space Station flight controller Rob Landis, now technical manager in the advanced projects office at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, drove more than three hours to see the veil lifted from these legendary spacecraft.

Landis, who also worked on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope program, noticed some distinct similarities between Hubble and the huge KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite.

"I see a lot of Hubble heritage in this spacecraft, most notably in terms of spacecraft size," Landis said. "Once the space shuttle design was settled upon, the design of Hubble — at the time it was called the Large Space Telescope — was set upon. I can imagine that there may have been a convergence or confluence of the designs. The Hubble’s primary mirror is 2.4 meters [7.9 feet] in diameter and the spacecraft is 14 feet in diameter. Both vehicles (KH-9 and Hubble) would fit into the shuttle's cargo bay lengthwise, the KH-9 being longer than Hubble [60 feet]; both would also fit on a Titan-class launch vehicle."

The 'convergence or confluence' theory was confirmed later in the day by a former spacecraft designer, who declined to be named but is familiar with both programs, who confided unequivocally: "The space shuttle's payload bay was sized to accommodate the KH-9."  [Infographic: NASA's Space Shuttle from Top to Bottom]

The NRO launched 20 KH-9 HEXAGON satellites from California's Vandenberg AFB from June 1971 to April 1986.

The HEXAGON's final launch in April 1986 — just months after the space shuttle Challenger explosion — also met with disaster as the spy satellite's Titan 34D booster erupted into a massive fireball just seconds after liftoff, crippling the NRO's orbital reconnaissance capabilities for many months.

The spy satellite GAMBIT

Before the first HEXAGON spy satellite systems ever launched, the NRO's GAMBIT series of reconnaissance craft flew several space missions aimed at providing surveillance over specific targets around the world.

The  satellite program's initial system, GAMBIT 1, first launched in 1963 carrying a KH-7 camera system that included a "77-inch focal length camera for providing specific information on scientific and technical capabilities that threatened the nation," according to an NRO description. A second GAMBIT satellite system, which first launched aboard GAMBIT 3 in 1966, included a175-inch focal length camera. [Related: Anatomy of a Spy Satellite]

The GAMBIT 1 series satellite has a resolution similar to the HEXAGON series, about 2 to 3 feet, but the follow-up GAMBIT 3 system had an improved resolution of better than 2 feet, NRO documents reveal.

The GAMBIT satellite program was active from July 1963 to April 1984. Both satellites were huge and launched out of Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The satellite series' initial version was 15 feet (4.5 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide, and weighed about 1,154 pounds (523 kilograms). The GAMBIT 3 satellite was the same width but longer, stretching nearly 29 feet (9 m) long, not counting its Agena D rocket upper stage. It weighed about 4,130 pounds (1,873 kg).

Unlike the follow-up HEXAGON satellites, the GAMBIT series were designed for extremely short missions.

The GAMBIT 1 craft had an average mission life of about 6 1/2 days. A total of 38 missions were launched, though 10 of them were deemed failures, according to NRO documents.

The GAMBIT 3 series satellites had missions that averaged about 31 days. In all, 54 of the satellites were launched, with four failures recorded.

Like the CORONA and HEXAGON programs, the GAMBIT series of satellites returned their film to Earth in re-entry capsules that were then snatched up by recovery aircraft. GAMBIT 1 carried about 3,000 feet (914 meters) of film, while GAMBIT 3 was packed with 12,241 feet (3,731 meters) of film, NRO records show.

The behemoth HEXAGON was launched with 60 miles (320,000 feet) of film!

HEXAGON and GAMBIT 3 team up

During a media briefing, NRO officials confirmed to SPACE.com that the KH-8 GAMBIT 3 and KH-9 HEXAGON were later operated in tandem, teaming-up to photograph areas of military significance in both the former Soviet Union and China.

The KH-9 would image a wide swath of terrain, later scrutinized by imagery analysts on the ground for so-called ‘targets of opportunity.' Once these potential targets were identified, a KH-8 would then be maneuvered to photograph the location in much higher resolution.

"During the era of these satellites — the GAMBIT and the HEXAGON — there was a Director of Central Intelligence committee known as the 'Committee on Imagery Requirements and Exploitation' that was responsible for that type of planning," confirmed the NRO's Robert McDonald, Director of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance.

NASA's Rob Landis was both blunt and philosophical in his emotions over the declassification of the GAMBIT and HEXAGON programs.

"You have to give credit to leaders like President Eisenhower who had the vision to initiate reconnaissance spacecraft, beginning with the CORONA and Discoverer programs," Landis said. "He was of the generation who wanted no more surprises, no more Pearl Harbors." 

"Frankly, I think that GAMBIT and HEXAGON helped prevent World War III."

  *   Gallery: Declassified US Spy Satellite Photos & Designs
  *   7 Sci-Fi Weapons of Tomorrow Here Today 
  *   Top 10 Space Weapons

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Sex Vacation Not What You Think

Anticipation. It’s one of life’s most underrated and overlooked sensations. Remember the moments leading up to your first kiss? How you felt seconds before you touched someone you’d been longing for? The wondering. The waiting. Would it happen? When? What would it be like?

When we’re dating, we have the chance to experience this again and again. But once we have a partner to whom we’ve committed monogamy, well, then, the anticipation is gone. You know your partner is there. You know what it’s going to be like. You know how he or she will react and how you will as well.

Well, there is one surefire way to bring back the sweet agony of anticipation. Don’t do it.

Seriously. Put an all out ban on all things sexual. Make it a rule. Set a date. And don’t cheat. It’ll ruin all of the fun. Decide on the rules. No touching at all? Only non-sexual touching? Fooling around, but no sealing the deal?

It’s totally up to you as a couple how you play. Or, rather, don’t play, in this case. But I can tell you this, the more extreme the ban, the more delicious the reward.

Now, just because you’re not having sex doesn’t mean that all things sexual are off limits necessarily. Here are three ways to help stoke the fire when you’re just not doing it:

1. Something to talk about. Just because you’re not actually doing it doesn’t mean you can’t write about it or talk about it. Leave your partner notes about how much you can’t wait for the ban to be lifted and what you plan to do to him or her. Call your partner in the middle of the day and tempt him or her with promises you intend to keep. It’s all about keeping your minds engaged until your bodies can get back into the game too.

2. Fly solo. There’s no reason you can’t still take care of business yourself even though the partner play is temporarily off the table. This can be the perfect time to take some time for yourself that you might not otherwise bother to take. Maybe experiment with a new toy or two or tend to yourself differently then usual. And be sure to tell your partner what you’re up to. He or she will likely be terribly jealous that you’re pleasuring yourself instead of him or her.

3. Do your homework. If you’re not doing it, you have more time to learn more about doing it in other ways. Read an erotic book. Watch an educational adult film. Maybe even take a class. It’s vital that you sharpen your saw when it comes to your career. And it’s just as important when it comes to sex. How can you be the best possible partner if you don’t do your homework? Practice may make perfect. But you have to have something to practice first!

So much of sex has to do with the build-up. But, at least for some, it also has to do with the forbidden. Sex in public, talking dirty, any number of fetishes, all of that has to do with the how being naughty ramps things up when you’re, well, being naughty. That’s what purposefully not having sex can simulate, because once you do it again, you have the sensation of being bad.

I say purposefully because it’s not just a matter of not doing it. It’s about not allowing yourselves to do it. It’s the game that gives it its appeal. And, yes, it is a game. And, no, it isn’t rocket science. But the point is, it’s a simple way to play with a partner who once drove you mad and can once again if you just reset your thinking a bit.

That’s why, believe it or not, this works for couples who aren’t having enough (or any sex). If you’re carelessly not having sex, your head isn’t in the right place to improve things. The less sex you have, the more you forget about it. But when you disallow sex, when you all out ban it, you may suddenly find you want it. Just like telling a kid they can’t have something. They didn’t care about it before. But now that it’s unattainable, they want it. A lot. Same phenomenon at play here.

The only thing hotter than having great sex is having even better sex after taking a hiatus. So, have one last hurrah and mark your calendars. You’ll be amazed at how hot your engine will burn once it’s been banned from the track and had plenty of time to rev up in earnest. Ladies and gentleman, start your engines!

Jenny Block is a freelance writer based in Dallas. She is the author of "Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage." Her work appears in "One Big Happy Family," edited by Rebecca Walker and "It’s a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters," edited by Andrea Buchanan.Visit her website at www.jennyonthepage.com or check out her blog at www.jennyonthepage.blogspot.com.

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UFO Sightings Spiked This Summer

According to an organization that tracks UFO reports, this summer has been an especially busy period for UFO sightings. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) noted that sightings increased over the past six weeks, with some states more than doubling their normal numbers.

Are we on the cusp of an alien invasion? Or maybe people just have more time on their hands to spot — and report — strange things in the sky?

"It's pretty exciting," said Clifford Clift, the international director of MUFON. "When you average 500 a month [nationwide] and go to 1,013 in one month, that's an interesting spike in sighting reports."

Clift told Life's Little Mysteries that he's not sure what to make of the data at this point. It could be the start of something big, or it could merely be a computer glitch that accidentally counted some reports twice. Another possibility is that we're simply in the midst of a "UFO flap," one of many periodic increases in sightings over the years.

There are several reasons UFOs might appear in flaps, or clusters. One is that objects in the sky are usually seen by many people, especially when they appear over urban areas. UFOs typically don't hover close to Earth or in someone's back yard; instead, they are often sighted high in the sky — just far enough away so that we can't see details or get sharp photos. 

Thus, whatever a particular UFO really is — a plane, a comet, an extraterrestrial spacecraft, or something else — that one object or strange light in the sky could trigger hundreds, or even thousands, of reports. And even reports of the same object will probably differ depending on the reporter's perspective. [Look! Up in the Sky! A History of Recent UFO Sightings]

Thus, if there were hundreds of UFO reports in a state during a given period, it's important to know how those reports were categorized because it might mean hundreds of different UFOs were sighted by single individuals, or that one UFO was sighted by hundreds of people.

There are also psychological and social explanations. Sightings are often fueled by the mass media; people read about mysterious things or see TV shows about them, and interest or concern about them spreads from person to person. It's not that anyone is hoaxing or making up  sightings: Research has shown that if you tell people what to look for (a phenomenon called "priming"), people will often see what they are looking for — whether those things exist or not.

As Clift noted, "It's likely that the media and [alien-themed] movies that are coming out, like 'Apollo 18' and 'Paul,' are piquing people's interest in UFOs." People hear about UFOs, and for a while they tend to look at the sky more often, wondering if they might have their own sighting. And precisely because people are spending more time looking at the sky, they will for the first time notice (normal) lights and objects that have always been there.

So it may not be that UFOs are actually appearing more often, but instead we're noticing them more. An identical process can be found in the medical field, where an increase in reports of a disease may not represent an increase in the actual number of cases, but instead reflects more public awareness of the disease or better screening techniques. In other words, scientists know that just because more people report a phenomenon does not necessarily mean the phenomenon is occurring more often. [Could NASA Launch a Secret Moon Mission?]

Why might UFOs be seen more often in the summer months? One possibility is that people spend more time outdoors; we spend warm nights outside at parties and barbecues, thus we have more opportunity to notice things in the sky than in the winter when we're inside watching television. That said, Clift pointed out that his organization doesn't normally see such dramatic seasonal increases in reports.

Whether the increase in sightings is rooted in reality, a computer glitch, or psychological and social influences remains to be seen. One thing is certain: This is not the first time that UFO reports have increased, and it won't be the last.

  *   7 Things That Create Convincing UFO Sightings
  *   Dead Aliens and Magnetic Boys: 6 Paranormal Videos Debunked
  *   Are We Alone in the Universe? New Analysis Says Maybe

Copyright © 2011 LiveScience.com. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Obama Yields to Liberal Outcry on Entitlement Reform

President Obama has tried for months to convince critics on the left that entitlement programs such as Medicare had to be cut in order to save the programs, but he seems to have yielded under pressure from his political base.

In his new $1.5 trillion deficit-cutting plan, unveiled Monday at the White House, Obama backed away from the changes he had been talking about for months.

Those changes had been part of Obama's pitch as recently as Sept. 8, when in his speech to a joint session of Congress Obama called for changes to the popular insurance program for Americans age 65 and over.

"With an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program," he said. "And if we don't gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won't be there when future retirees need it. We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it."

But after that speech, several Democratic groups and lawmakers sent letters, held news conferences and even staged protests, including one Monday in front of the White House by activists challenging the idea of any cuts in Medicaid benefits.

The president seems to have heard the objections. In his Rose Garden speech Monday, he proposed only half as much in savings as he did in debt talks this summer, offering $320 billion in changes instead of $650 billion, and he took a very different tone:

"We will reform Medicare and Medicaid, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment that this country has kept for generations," he said.

"He's pulled way back on those proposals specifically on Medicare, Medicaid," says Alison Fraser of the conservative Heritage Foundation, "Even on Social Security, which at one point was in the mix, now it's completely off the table. So it's a disappointing step, rather than an encouraging one."

The president had proposed changes in Social Security to keep the program from having to cut benefits across the board in future decades. That is now gone. And he had proposed raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67. That too is gone.

The changes to Medicare may or may not soften criticism from the left. The liberal group MoveOn.org urged its members last week to call the White House. And the group warned in a letter, "if the President comes out on Monday calling for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid benefits, the enthusiasm he's built up in the last week will disappear in an instant."

Ninety percent of the changes Obama has proposed are in the form of cuts to providers, such as doctors and hospitals instead. But reimbursements to them have already been cut.

And many policy experts are concerned about access to care for seniors on Medicare, a trend already under way in some areas of the country.

"So what we've seen from the president so far: more price controls and rationing," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan told Fox News. "No plans to save it from bankruptcy."

Taken together, the Medicare and Social Security programs have promised $46 trillion dollars more in benefits than the government can pay for with the revenues it now receives. Most agree cuts are inevitable, and conservatives warn that unless eligibility rules are tightened, beneficiaries will suffer, especially in Medicare.

"If we continue with even more of these provider crackdowns, you know, you're going to have a lot more doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, and so forth, dropping out of the program," Fraser said.

The plan does shift a small portion of additional costs to beneficiaries, but those changes would not start until 2017, after Obama’s second term, if he wins one.

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Crash Kills New York Groom Hours After Wedding

DOVER PLAINS, N.Y. –  State police say a groom died in a New York accident just hours after his wedding.

According to the Journal News, Nicholas Hoag of Wingdale died late Saturday night in Dover Plains, N.Y.

He was a passenger on a utility terrain vehicle that struck a tree and overturned, pinning him underneath.

Police said his brother was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Hoag and Amber Sartori had married earlier that day at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Sherman, Conn.

The bride is a nurse at the Putnam Valley Hospital Center.

Her father, Michael Sartori of Wingdale, calls the tragedy a "living nightmare."

The groom's brother was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The paper says a call placed to their parents was not answered.

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Billionaire Backer Disputes Charges That Company Sought White House Help to Influence Testimony

The billionaire backer of a wireless company accused of using White House connections to interfere with a Pentagon commander’s congressional testimony last week emphatically rejected that and other charges relating to the embattled firm on Monday.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, private equity titan Phil Falcone – the chief investor in LightSquared, a Virginia-based firm aiming to establish a new wireless broadband network – rejected as “absolutely false” allegations that LightSquared had obtained in advance the written testimony of Air Force Gen. William Shelton.

As head of Space Command, Shelton had told a House Armed Services subcommittee that the LightSquared network could interfere with critical GPS systems used by fighting men and women the world over. After last Thursday’s hearing, subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, told Fox News that Shelton had confided to lawmakers that he believed his testimony had been leaked to LightSquared, and that he had rebuffed requests to soften his testimony to benefit the company.

“No one,” Falcone answered, when Kelly asked if anyone at LightSquared had obtained an advance copy of Shelton’s testimony. “I didn't have it, nobody in the company had it. So I don't know where that came from. It's just people planting things.”

When asked why the general said the company had it, Falcone responded, “Well, the general, again, is wrong,:

On Friday, Turner told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that Shelton made his startling claims during a closed-door session of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services subcommittee.

“He did say that he believed his testimony had been with LightSquared themselves,” Turner said. “We did not press the general for him to finger-point, but he did say that he resisted the efforts to put the language in his testimony.”

LightSquared executives and the company’s political action committee have donated to both political parties, but the PAC tilted Democratic over the last two election cycles. Falcone said he is a registered Republican and has never met President Obama. In 2005, then-Sen. Obama invested close to $100,000 in Skyterra, the company that later changed its name to LightSquared.

As well, White House emails obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show that on the very day LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja donated more than $30,000 to the Democratic Party, a representative sought to arrange for Ahuja a meeting with the president’s top technology adviser, Aneesh Chopra.

“Hi Aneesh!” LightSquared representative Dave Kumar wrote to Chopra on Sept. 23, 2010. “I touched base with my client Sanjiv Ahuja and he expressed an interest in meeting with you. … He is going to be in DC next week for a fundraising dinner with the President.”

The White House has denied any improper conduct with respect to LightSquared and Shelton’s testimony.

LightSquared executives and the company’s lawyers say the firm has been targeted by a broad and powerful coalition of entrenched interests who falsely cite the potential for interference with GPS systems to conceal their true motive: to prevent LightSquared from revolutionizing the wireless industry, by enabling smaller carriers to compete on a national level.

“We have taken the step to fix any interference issue that the GPS or any of the agencies have come forward with, and have been concerned with,” Falcone told Kelly. “These fixes are technology issues. It's not a physics issue.”

Members of the Coalition to Save Our GPS, which includes such organizations as the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, say tests of the technology developed by LightSquared continue to show persistent problems. They also believe the company should subsidize billions in equipment upgrades and other expenses that current GPS users would face if the LightSquared network ultimately materializes.

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6.5-Ton Defunct Satellite Falling to Earth Faster Than Expected, NASA Says

NASA space junk experts have refined the forecast for the anticipated death plunge of a giant satellite, with the U.S. space agency now predicting the 6 1/2-ton climate probe will plummet to Earth around Sept. 23, a day earlier than previously reported.

The defunct bus-size spacecraft is NASA's Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), which launched in 1991 and was shut down in 2005 after completing its mission. The satellite was expected to fall to Earth sometime this year, with experts initially pegging a weeks-long window between late September and early October, then narrowing it to the last week of this month.

That window, NASA now says, has been trimmed to just three days.

"Re-entry is expected Sept. 23, plus or minus a day. The re-entry of UARS is advancing because of a sharp increase in solar activity since the beginning of this week," NASA officials wrote in a status update today (Sept. 16). The projection is a day earlier than a previous forecast released by NASA yesterday.

NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey confirmed with SPACE.com earlier today that the reason UARS is expected to fall early in its re-entry window is because of the sharp uptick in solar activity. Solar effects from the sun can create an extra drag on satellites in space because they can heat the Earth's atmosphere, causing it to expand, agency officials have said. [Photos: Space Debris & Cleanup Concepts]

Where will UARS fall?

But exactly where the UARS spacecraft will fall is still unknown.

NASA expects at least 26 large pieces of the massive satellite to survive the scorching temperatures of re-entry and reach Earth's surface. Titanium pieces and onboard tanks could be among that debris, but the UARS satellite carries no toxic propellant (NASA used up all the fuel in 2005).

The debris is expected to fall over a swath of Earth about 500 miles (804 kilometers) long, NASA officials said. [Video: Where Could UARS Satellite Debris Fall?]

There is a 1-in-3,200 chance of satellite debris hitting a person on the ground, odds that NASA says are extremely remote. Outside experts agree.

"Look at how much of Earth is covered with water," Victoria Samson, the Washington Office Director of the Secure World Foundation, an organization dedicated to the peaceful use of outer space, told SPACE.com this week. "There's a really good chance it's going to go straight into the ocean."

Constant satellite watch

NASA officials expect the UARS satellite to fall over a region somewhere between the latitudes of northern Canada and southern South America, which leaves a vast swath of the world open as a possible re-entry point. About 75 percent of the Earth's surface is covered in water, which makes an ocean splashdown likely, NASA and experts have said.

NASA and the Joint Space Operations Center of U.S. Strategic Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., are keeping a close watch on the falling satellite, but will only be able to pinpoint its actual crash zone to within about 6,000 miles (10,000 km) about two hours before re-entry.

As of Thursday, the UARS satellite was flying in an orbit of between 143 and 158 miles (230 to 255 km) above Earth. That orbit is dropping lower each day, NASA officials said. [Infographic: NASA's Falling UARS Satellite Explained]

NASA has advised the public not to touch any debris that may reach the surface, should it be discovered. Instead, the space agency says that anyone who finds satellite debris should contact their local law enforcement agency.

The $750 million UARS mission was designed to measure ozone and other chemical compounds found in Earth's ozone layer in order to better understand how the upper atmosphere affects our planet. It also recorded wind speeds and temperatures in the stratosphere, as well as the energy Earth received from the sun.

To follow NASA's UARS satellite updates, click here.

  *   Worst Space Debris Events of All Time
  *   Fear of Ozone Loss Launched UARS Satellite
  *   Falling Space Junk: The Facts About NASA's Doomed UARS Satellite

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