Best AV Receivers from CNET

When people ask "Which AV receiver should I buy?" the answer depends on what you're looking for. 

Click to enlarge table to see side by side comparison of specs for 7 popular models.

For some, the Pioneer VSX-1020-K's excellent out-of-the-box iPod connectivity is a must-have feature, but audiophiles couldn't care less about listening to an iPod on their home stereo system; they're better off with the Denon AVR-1911. 

Our list of best AV receivers is still the easiest way to see how rank different models, but here we've tried to narrow down the choices based on what kind of buyer you are.

Best overall value: Pioneer VSX-1020-K
The Pioneer VSX-1020-K isn't the highest-rated receiver we've tested, but it's the one we'd most frequently recommend for the average buyer. That's because it offers unparalalled value, with its street price running as low as $360 these days. That low price is even more impressive when you consider it has excellent sound quality, six HDMI inputs and the ability to connect your iPod directly to its front panel USB port--and Pioneer even includes a cable.

Best overall midrange receiver: Yamaha RX-V667
If you don't mind paying a little extra, the Yamaha RX-V667 is the flat-out best overall midrange receiver we tested. Great sound quality, six HDMI inputs, 7.1 analog inputs and a best-in-class graphical user interface add up to the top-rated AV receiver for 2010. It's not quite as good of a value as the Pioneer because of its $500 street price, but it may be worth paying for if you want any of its niche features.

Best-sounding AV receiver: Denon AVR-1911
For the audiophile, the choice is easy: buy the receiver that sounds the best. That's the Denon AVR-1911, which outclasses both the Pioneer VSX-1020-K and Yamaha RX-V667 in audio performance. Its overall rating was held back a litte by its lack of a graphical user interface and less overall connectivity, but if you can get past those shortcomings, the AVR-1911 will wow you with its sound.

Best looking AV receiver: Marantz NR1601 or Harman Kardon AVR 2600 Honestly, looks aren't a high priority when I'm choosing an AV receiver, but for some buyers decor matters. The Marantz NR1601 is truly unique with its slimline design, and its sleek metal front panel is attractive, too. The Harman Kardon AVR 2600 is another excellent design pick, with its handsome two-tone style giving it a more refined look than other "black box" AV receivers.

Most HDMI connectivity for the money: Onkyo HT-RC260

The Onkyo fared worse in our review than some of the company's previous AV receivers, but its ace in the hole is that the HT-RC260 offers six HDMI inputs and sells online for a little over $300. On the other hand, with the VSX-1020-K available for only $360, we think most buyers would be wise to spend a little more.

Want more details? Be sure to check out all the full reviews, plus our full AV receivers comparison chart.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20029196-1.html#ixzz1CA5KBVT5

Ontario Tractor Trailer Narrowly Misses Oncoming Traffic

MSNBC Director Flips Out !!

Listen closely to the director track as all hell breaks loose behind the scenes.
This is way better than a test pattern!

Celebrating Frank Zamboni

We can't resist watching the Zamboni at work...

There are three things in life that people like to stare at: One is a rippling stream, another a fire in a fireplace, and the other is the Zamboni going around and around and around -- Charlie Brown



Today, like "Kleenex" for tissue and "Xerox" for photocopying, Zamboni is the generic name most people use to descibe ice resurfacing machines.

No matter how well-groomed the ice rink, the ice will eventually be cut and pitted, and dust and bugs will dull it. The ability to quickly and effectively resurface the ice is as important to skating as the development of indoor ice itself.

Before ice-resurfacing machines, ice rinks were resurfaced manually, using scrapers, towels, a water hose and squeegees. Resurfacing a regulation-size rink was time-consuming and labor-intensive. In the 1940s, Frank Zamboni began to experiment with building machines that would shave, scrape, wash and squeegee the ice surface all at once before putting down a fresh layer of water.

Early ice-resurfacing machines cost about $5,000 and were built by hand on war-surplus jeeps. Today, ice-resurfacing machines cost significantly more (about $55,000), are mass-produced, and every rink has at least one. Professional hockey teams, including the Carolina Hurricanes, routinely use two machines to cut down on the time needed to resurface the ice between periods. Most ice-resurfacing machines have a maximum speed of 9 to 10 mph (14 to 16 kph) and weigh between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds (2,300 to 2,700 kg)!

The NHL requires that two machines resurface the ice between periods. The ice is resurfaced before the game, after warm-ups, between periods, during playoffs, and when the game is over. With two resurfacing machines, it takes three minutes to complete the floor, each making four full passes up the ice. With one, it takes between six and seven minutes with eight full passes up the length of the ice.

The basic driving pattern is a clockwise motion of slightly overlapping ovals. MacMillan says that he uses 80 to 100 gallons (300 to 380 liters) of heated water between periods to resurface the ice. "With both machines," says MacMillan, "we can scrape about three-quarters of a bucket during each game."

While MacMillan's Olympia machines have an 84-inch long, 1/2-inch thick blade, most Zamboni machines have a 77-inch long, 1/2-inch thick blade (A). The blade scrapes a 1/16-inch to 1/8-inch layer of ice off the ice surface. The blade runs the width of the machine and looks like a thick razor blade. The amount of ice taken off depends on the ice conditions. The rougher the ice surface (i.e., the more use it has had), the deeper the blade cuts.

Just above the blade is a horizontal, rotating screw, or auger (B). The auger gathers the shaved ice, or snow, and rotates it up to a vertical auger (C), where a spinning blade picks up the moving snow and throws it into the bucket (D). The bucket can hold an amazing 2,600 pounds (or 300 gallons) of snow!

Under the bucket, there are two tanks of water, one for "washing" the ice as it's shaved and one for making ice. As the resurfacing machine moves over the ice, the blade shaves layers of the ice off. Water from the wash-water tank (E) is pumped over to a cleaner (F) that blasts the water into the deep cuts in the ice and forces out dirt and debris. The excess water left on the ice is squeegeed off with a rubber blade (known as a towel) at the back end of the machine (G) and vacuumed up. The hot water loosens the crystal structure of the old ice underneath, so the new ice will form a solid bond with the old ice, instead of a separate layer that chips off easily.

The last step is to resurface the ice. Warm water from the second water tank is pumped over to the squeegee blade and spread evenly over the ice. This softens and fills in the deep cuts in the ice and helps to even out its surface.

After the final pass on the ice, tbe uce-resurfacing machine returns to its garage. At this point, the snow bucket is raised and the snow is dumped into the snow pit. As the snow melts, the pit is drained.

Some Ice Milestones

* 1876: The first indoor ice rink opens in London. The ice is made through an expensive process of sending a mixture of glycerin and water through copper pipes.

* 1879: The first indoor ice rink in the United States opens in Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.

* 1908: The first Olympic figure-skating competition is held on a refrigerated indoor rink as part of the Summer Games in London.

* 1976: Ice dancing becomes a Winter Olympics sport.

Years before hockey or the Winter Olympics, ice skating was a means of getting across the frozen waterways in northern Europe. It was only when ice became available year-round that sports such as hockey and figure skating took off.

The success of modern ice rinks owes a lot to Lester and Joe Patrick, two brothers who created hockey leagues in Canada in the early 1900s. On Christmas Day 1912, the brothers opened Canada's first indoor ice rink in Victoria, Canada. The arena cost $110,000 to build and seated 4,000 people. Three days later, the Patrick brothers opened another arena in Vancouver, Canada. This was a more expensive arena -- $210,000 to build -- and it could hold more than 10,000 people. Underneath the ice was the world's then-largest refrigeration and ice-making system.

Over the next few decades, the Patricks were responsible for creating arenas all across the northwest United States and throughout western Canada. Today, the United States has more than 1,700 ice rinks. New arenas today can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build.

The underlying technology behind indoor ice rinks is the same technology at work in refrigerators and air conditioners.

Other than sheer size, the main difference in an ice rink is that the refrigerant doesn't cool the ice directly. Instead, it cools brinewater, a calcium-chloride solution, which is pumped through an intricate system of pipes underneath the ice. In most rinks, the pipes are embedded in a concrete or sand base.

To freeze the rink surface, the system pumps 9,000 gallons (34,000 L) of freezing brinewater through the pipes and then onto the ice-bearing concrete slab.

The brinewater is pumped into the pipes embedded in the ice-bearing concrete slab. The ice-bearing slab sits between the skating surface and a layer of insulation which allows the ice to expand and shrink as temperatures and time demand. The brinewater helps keep the ice-bearing slab's temperature just below 32 F so that the water spread onto it can freeze.

Underneath the layer of insulation, a heated concrete layer keeps the ground below the ice from freezing, expanding and cracking the rink structure. The entire rink sits on a base layer of gravel and sand which has a groundwater drain at the bottom.

To defrost the skating surface, the brinewater is heated and pumped through the ice-bearing concrete slab. This heats the under layer of the ice, making it easier to break up and remove with front-end loaders.

It takes between 12,000 and 15,000 gallons (45,000 to 57,000 L) to form a Hockey rink surface. The maintenance crew forms the ice in several different layers, in many steps:

1. The crew sprays the first two layers on using a paint truck. The paint truck creates a fine mist of water to create the first two layers, each only 1/30 of an inch thick. The first layer freezes almost immediately after it is sprayed on.

2. Once the first layer is frozen, the crew sprays on the second layer.

3. The crew paints the frozen second layer white with the paint truck, allowing for a strong contrast between the black hockey puck and the ice.

4. The crew then sprays on the third layer. This layer, which is only one-sixteenth of an inch thick, acts as a sealer for the white paint. The crew paints the hockey markings (the lines, creases, face-off spots and circles) and team and sponsor logos on top of this third layer.

5. Once the markings and logos dry, the crew gradually applies the final layer.

The crew slowly applies the remaining 10,000 gallons with a flooding hose. "We put on 500 to 600 gallons per hour until the remaining layer is complete," says MacMillan. "That means 15 to 20 hours (1 hour/500-600 gallons) for that final layer. Each of those layers is allowed to freeze before we put the next 500 to 600 gallons on. The less water you put on the floor at one time, the better your ice will be."

Temperature: Good Ice vs. Bad Ice

Brand new ice is called "green ice" because it hasn't been broken in yet.
When creating a new ice surface, indoor conditions are very important. MacMillan says he likes to "keep the skating surface at 24 to 26 F (about -4 C), the building temperature at about 63 F (17 C), and the indoor humidity at about 30 percent. But if it's warm outdoors and we have an event where the doors are open and all that warm air comes in, then we have to adjust it. Even one degree can make a big difference in the quality of the ice."

An indoor high humidity can create a fog over the ice. A Raleigh, N.C. arena has more than 770,000 square feet, and requires 12 dehumidifiers throughout the building to keep the air dry indoors. The outdoor temperature can also affect the ice conditions. The arena and ice temperatures must change to compensate for the heat and humidity that will come in when the arena doors are opened to fans and spectators.

Many NHL players have expressed concerns about ice conditions in very warm-weather cities during the Stanley Cup playoffs. They fear the outdoor temperature may be hot enough to soften the ice inside the building. In Canada, the problem is just the opposite. The buildings often have to be heated because the extremely low temperatures outside can cause problems with the ice.

Ice conditions can vary greatly with a temperature change as small as one degree. The type of water also can change conditions. For example, ice made with water that contains dissolved alkaline salts may have a sticky feel to it and will dull skate blades. To counteract these problems, many rinks -- including the Raleigh arena -- use water purifiers or add chemical conditioners to tap water.

Figure skaters and hockey skaters have different ideas of what good ice and bad ice are. Figure skaters prefer an ice temperature of 26 to 28 F. Ice in that temperature range is softer, so it grips the skate edges better. It is also less likely to shatter under the impact of jumps. Hockey players, though, prefer colder, harder ice. With many skaters on the ice simultaneously, it's easy for the ice surface to get chewed up at the temperatures preferred by figure skaters. For hockey games, the top of the ice is usually kept at 24 to 26 F. Ice that's too warm might cause players to lose their edge during a crucial play, but ice that's too cold may chip too readily.

Painting the Ice

Water-based paint is used to create lines and logos. The white paint used for the ice surface comes in 40-pound bags of powder that have to be mixed with water. The blue, black, red and yellow paints used for the lines and logos come in pre-mixed containers.

Now that you know about ice rinks and ice-resurfacing machines, you'll never look at them the same again. On a hot summer day when you go to the arena, you'll understand why the building is so cool and how the ice stays frozen!

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/ice-rink.htm/printable

United Airlines Broke My Guitar

The indignity of luggage-damage by the airlines...



Here's a forum for United Airlines complaints !

http://www.untied.com/

Video source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&playnext=1&list=PL8D762D266FA15F5C&index=3

Thanks Alexis !

Famous FemBots

Famous FemBots


http://forladiesbyladies.com/index.php/2009/03/18/girly-gadgetry-ten-female-robots-in-pop-culture/

Spyware Infecting Your Smartphone?

Your smartphone may be sharing your secrets. Using "spyware" that sells on the Internet for as little as $15, other people can hijack your phone. This allows them to hear your calls; see your text messages, e-mails, photographs and files; and track your location through constant GPS updates.Your phone can even be turned into a surreptitious microphone. "When the phone is off — in a pocket, purse or on a table it can remotely be turned on so conversations around the phone can be heard," says Tim Wilcox, owner of International Investigators Inc., an Indianapolis security firm.The world now has about 370 million smartphones, according to ABI Research, an Oyster Bay, N.Y., firm that studies wireless communications. They include BlackBerrys, Androids, iPhones and others that easily accept apps and have ample processing power. Security experts say millions of them may already be infected with spyware; the risk for basic "dumb" cellphones is far less.
Mobile phone spyware is illegal in the United States but is sold by websites operating overseas. With at least 600 variations of the app out there, all it takes is a credit card to make an instant wiretapper. Often that person is a suspicious spouse, an overly protective parent or a jealous coworker. "But it's certainly possible for scammers to use it for identity theft," says Wilcox.
The spy's challenge is to install the program in your phone. With some types of software, this is accomplished by getting you to click on an enticing link in a message the spy has sent to your phone. With other types, spies must get their hands on your phone for perhaps 10 minutes. Entering a code to the phone "downloads the spyware with no indication," says Richard Mislan, a professor of cyber forensics at Purdue University.There are even websites that sell phones with spyware already installed. If your phone becomes infected, a text message alerts the spy when you make or receive a call, with no unusual signs on your end.So is your phone infected? Here are some warning signs:

* Your bill may show texts to unknown phone numbers, often occurring at the same time as legitimate calls. It's at these numbers, surreptitiously dialed by the spyware, that someone is monitoring you.
* The battery is warm when the phone isn't in use, or it dies quickly — this may mean power is being drained by the spyware.
* Your phone flickers when not in use.
* Confirming a spyware infection isn't easy. The phone needs to be sent to a lab where experts look for a few lines of identifying programming code. "With the typical smartphone having up to 300,000 lines, it's finding a needle in a haystack," adds Wilcox, whose company charges $2,200 for such jobs. The work can take eight days.

The best prevention: Use a handset pass code to lock your phone and prevent anyone else from using it. And never open links in e-mails sent to you by unknown parties. Says Wilcox: "Your best defense is to buy a $20 phone with prepaid minutes for your sensitive conversations."

thanks to Babs for this

Soaring With Christina Aguilera

Ms. Heather Holley, a songwriter and music producer, writes about developing new artists and helping to launch Ms. Aguilera's career.




In songwriting, it's all about the "hook"—that catchy combination of music, melody and lyric that sticks in your head. The hook is the message we want to leave you with. It's what we're selling.

The trick is to find a hook that expresses a universal theme in a way that hasn't been done yet. I found myself facing that challenge with "Soar," a song that my songwriting partner Rob Hoffman and I produced and co-wrote with Christina Aguilera.

Christina wasn't given the opportunity to write any of her own material on her first album. For her second album—"Stripped," which came out in 2002—she chose to break out of the pop-princess mold and show the world the artist behind the voice. She arrived at our studio with two bulging tote bags of journals. A hit album, world tour, first love, heartbreak, betrayal—all had been poured into those journals. It was time to get it out.

Christina had received countless letters from young fans, particularly women, lamenting the pressure they felt to conform, to please others. Having faced her own struggles with self-acceptance, she asked us to help her to write a song with a message to her fans: "Be yourself and follow your dreams, no matter what anyone else thinks."

Rob went to work on the music. If you listen to the instrumental part of the song, you get a sense of the story: scene-setting in the verse, tension building in the pre-chorus, a payoff in the chorus, a new twist in the bridge and a climactic finale. Next, Rob looped the instrumental track while Christina and I sang along, trying out ideas until we had a melody that reflected the struggle to "be yourself."

Before we began the process of fitting words and phrases into rhyme and melody structure, Christina and I brainstormed, discussed shared experiences and mined nuggets from her journal entries. I summarized from my notes: "We all have the tendency to try to please, to be accepted, so we bend when they want us to change. But after we give up and give in, we realize that it wasn't worth it. We have to let ourselves be."

A strong opening line is crucial. It should draw listeners into the story and lead them to the chorus. How does it feel to be pressured to be someone you're not? Like being pulled in every direction. I suggested:

When you're pushed and you're pulled, baby can you hold on?

When they tell you to change, can you stand your ground and stay strong?

When we co-write songs, we edit each other as we go along. The lyrics need to sing well and sound like natural conversation, so Christina is constantly tweaking and adjusting words as she sings them with the track, even as we're recording the final vocals. She improved my lines by adding action and imagery:

When they push, when they pull, tell me can you hold on?

When they say you should change, can you lift your head high and stay strong?

The hook was frustratingly slow in revealing itself. We considered and rejected "Do Your Thing" and "The World Is Yours." As part of my research, I read teen magazines to get into the heads of Christina's audience. I came across an article encouraging young women not to bow to peer pressure, and I wrote down: "Be like an eagle. Eagles fly alone, not part of a flock. They aren't discouraged by people who question what they're doing." This idea gave me the first two lines of our chorus.

We continued with the chorus lyrics and had an "aha" moment when I suggested the line "What are you waiting for?" We knew it would tug at anyone who feels they're not living to their full potential. It was also a perfect setup for our hook line, the missing piece.

CHORUS

Don't be scared to fly alone

Find a path that is your own

Love will open every door

It's in your hands. The world is yours

Don't hold back and always know

All the answers will unfold

So whatcha waitin for…?

Here's where we needed that missing hook line, whose last word would rhyme with "for."

I opened up the rhyming dictionary for ideas and jokingly proposed "sore." Wait a minute: "soar!" Our eagle metaphor! Let's see: "Believe you can soar"? "Be yourself and soar"? And at last: "Spread your wings and soar!"

And so she did. "Stripped" sold over 10 million albums and won Christina a Grammy and four nominations. "Soar" was featured in movies such as "The Pursuit of Happyness," accompanying tales of characters who beat seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

So whatcha waitin for?


- WSJ

Buddy Hackett Joking Around

Thanks to the Big Boy for this one !

The Cavern Club Opens For Business … The Beatles Cause A Blackout … Pink Floyd Heads To The Moon …

This is the week that mattered in the music world…

1944, jazz comes to the Met for the first time when Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, and Jack Teagarden take the stage and show 'em how it's done …

1957, this week marks the opening of the Cavern Club in an old wine cellar on Matthew Street in Liverpool … the club becomes world famous thanks to the happy choice of The Beatles as its house band in 1961 and '62 … it remains in business to this day … on this side of the pond, Johnny Cash hits network TV for the first time as a guest on the Jackie Gleason Show …

1958, The Five Royales' "Dedicated to the One I Love" is released … three years later the Shirelles will take it to #3 … in 1967 The Mamas & The Papas revive the tune one more time scoring a #2 hit …

1962, "The Twist" by Chubby Checker tops the charts … the song was written and first recorded by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters …

1963, drummer Charlie Watts debuts with The Rolling Stones at The Flamingo in Soho, London …

1964, The Beatles play the venerable Olympia Theater in Paris … the old venue's electrical system is not up the demands of rock 'n' roll and the show is marred by three power failures …

1965, recording sessions begin at Columbia studios in New York City for Bob Dylan's fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home … the album will feature one side of acoustic songs and one side with (yikes!) a band … the album includes Dylan's first charting single, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" …

1966, British popster David Jones becomes David Bowie in an effort to avoid confusion with The Monkees' Davy Jones … Brian Wilson begins recording Pet Sounds at Western Studios in Los Angeles while the rest of the Beach Boys are on tour in the Far East …

1967, the first Be–In takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park … the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Timothy Leary, and poet Allen Ginsberg entertain and inform … the gatherings of the incense–and–sandals set go on to become a Bay–Area fixture …

1970, in a bizarre latter–day bubble of Victorian flatulence, Scotland Yard confiscates eight prints from John Lennon's exhibit of erotic lithographs … an accountant who has strayed into the Bag One gallery complains to the police, "They were exaggerated distorted caricatures depicting intimate sexual relationships of a repulsive and disgusting nature" … the raiding policeman, Detective Inspector Frederick Luff, says, "Many toilet walls depict works of similar merit. It is perhaps charitable to suggest that they are the work of a sick mind … The only danger to a successful prosecution is the argument that they are so pathetic as to be incapable of influencing anyone" … the gallery is closed and its owners prosecuted for violating obscenity laws … a London magistrate finally dismisses the charges and returns the lithos to the gallery, where they had been on sale for $58 each …

1972, Memphis' Highway 51 South is renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard … within a few years the street goes unmarked because the street signs are stolen as quickly as they can be replaced …

1973, Pink Floyd hits the studio to begin work on what will become one of the most successful albums ever, Dark Side of the Moon …

1974, in a move that jumps the gun on rapper antics by two decades, singer Dino Martin (son of Dean) of the pop trio Dino, Desi, and Billy is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of two machine guns … Bob Dylan and The Band are the cause of a nine-mile-long traffic jam in the sunny state of Florida … the queue takes so long to clear up that many fans do not get into the Hollywood Sportatorium, located just between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, until the show is halfway over …

1978, The Sex Pistols play their swan–song show at San Francisco's Winterland …

1980, Paul McCartney goes down in Japan for a big bag of reefer … he spends 10 days in the slam then gets the ignominious boot … Macca later reports that he spent his time singing Beatles songs with fellow inmates … ruefully he recalls, "I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I'd take it with me." …

1981, Plasmatics singer and former erotic dancer/porn actress Wendy O. Williams is arrested in Milwaukee for becoming too intimate with a sledgehammer on stage … Ms. Williams, who typically performs adorned only in a G string and two tiny strips of electrician's tape, resists arrest valiantly and receives a 12–stitch head wound for her efforts …

1986, Harvard grads Henry Juszkiewicz, David Berryman, and Gary Zebrowski purchase Gibson Musical Instruments from Norlin for about $5 million …

1991, the crowd rushes the stage at an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City, crushing three people to death …

1993, the U.S. Supreme Court decides Tom Waits can keep the $2.6 million judgment awarded him in a lawsuit against Frito Lay … the snack food company had asked to use Waits' song "Step Right Up" in an advertisement, but he declined the offer … in a moment of overwhelming stupidity, Frito Lay hired a Tom Waits-soundalike to record a song strikingly similar to "Step Right Up" and used it in the commercial … ironically, Waits wrote and recorded the song as "an indictment of advertising" and it contains the lyric "What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away" …

1996, a milestone of sorts is achieved when Wayne Newton performs his 25,000th Las Vegas show …

1999, claiming that Victoria's Secret's Metallica lip pencils constitute trademark infringement, the band Metallica files suit against the lingerie company …

2001, bassist Jason Newsted splits with Metallica after 14 years with the band … the split looms large in the 2003 documentary Some Kind of Monster that covers the recording of the album St. Anger …

2003, as part of a sting on users of an Internet child porn site, Pete Townshend is arrested at his home and his computer is seized … the irony is that Townshend is an activist against child pornography and foolishly used his credit card to access the site as part of his research for a book on child abuse … no child porn is found on Townshend's computer or in his house … he is given a reprimand and released … cops stage raids in England and the Netherlands to recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes recorded during the Let It Be sessions … the tapes had been the source of countless bootlegs over the years …

2005, indie band Camper Van Beethoven is robbed again … just three months after having their equipment stolen in Montreal, their gear disappears again, this time from a hotel parking lot in Dallas … the trailer was backed up against a parking deck wall so the doors would not open … the thieves cut through the side of the trailer and helped themselves … the band had even hired a security guard … a $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to the recovery of the gear … in the good news category this week, a horde of comedy and musical heavyweights show up to help Tenacious D raise cash for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami … a benefit show is held at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles and features Will Ferrell, Eddie Vedder, Beck, Chris Rock, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme all performing with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D …

2006, Eminem remarries his ex-wife Kim, who was previously the subject of the rapper's wrath in the 2000 song "Kim" … soulman Isaac Hayes is hospitalized in Memphis for exhaustion …

2007, System of a Down figures large in the debut of the documentary Screamers with concert footage, interviews, and archival film intermixed to tell the story of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century … Ted Nugent helps his buddy, Texas Governor Rick Perry, celebrate at his inaugural ball by appearing onstage with a cutoff tee, sporting the Confederate flag, and rambling on about people who don't speak English …

2008, Eddie Vedder nails a Golden Globe award for "Guaranteed," a song he wrote for Sean Penn's film Into the Wild … Twiggy Ramirez rejoins Marilyn Manson after quitting the band six years earlier … it's announced that Suze Rotolo, who was Bob Dylan's main squeeze circa 1961–1964, will publish a memoir titled A Freewheelin' Time in which she recounts her life with Bobby Z in Greenwich Village and the illegal abortion she underwent when she became pregnant by the singer–songwriter … after failing to show up for a court-ordered drug counseling session, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio is jailed … he is released two days later …

…and that was the week that was.

[Compiled by the Musician’s Friend copywriting staff]

Arrivals:

January 13: singer-actress Sophie Tucker (1884), Modern Records founder Lester Sill (1918), British music publisher David Platz (1929), singer Bobby Lester of The Moonglows (1932), The Dells' original lead singer Johnny Funches (1935), Trevor Rabin of Yes (1954), Earth, Wind, and Fire drummer Fred White (1955), guitarist Tim Kelly of Slaughter (1963), Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine (1970)

January 14: big band vocalist Russ Columbo (1908), doo–wop/R&B record label owner Al Silver (1914), soul man Clarence Carter (1936), songwriter–producer Allen Toussaint (1938), Contours singer Hubert Johnson (1941), soul singer Linda Jones (1944), Allman Brothers bassist Lamar Williams (1949), Jim Croce guitarist Maury Muehleisen (1949), jazz guitarist-trumpeter Mark Egan (1951), Geoff Tate of Queensryche (1959), Chas Smash, born Cathal Joseph Patrick Smyth, of Madness (1959), Patricia Morrison of Sisters of Mercy (1962), LL Cool J, born James Todd Smith (1968), Dave Grohl (1969)

January 15: Gene Krupa (1909), folk music activist Alan Lomax (1915), Earl Hooker (1930), Jack Jones (1938), Don Van Vliet AKA Captain Beefheart (1941), Edward Bivins of The Manhattans (1942), Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1949), Martha Davis of the Motels (1951), ELO bassist Melvyn Gale (1952), Lisa Velez of Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam (1967)

January 16: Broadway diva Ethel Merman (1908), operatic diva Marilyn Horne (1934), Bob Bogle of The Ventures (1937), William Francis of Dr. Hook (1942), Raymond Philips of The Nashville Teens (1942), Ronnie Milsap (1943), Sade – born Helen Folasade Abu (1959), Paul Webb of Talk Talk (1962), Maxine Jones of En Vogue (1966), Aalliyah (1979)

January 17: Eartha Kitt (1927), blues singer Bobby Bland (1930), "British Elvis" Billy Fury (1941), Chris Montez (1943), Mick Taylor (1948), Steve Earle (1955), Paul Young (1956), Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles (1957), dancehall artist Shabba Ranks (1966), Robert James Ritchie AKA Kid Rock (1971)

January 18: producer Bobby Herne (1938), Bobby Goldsboro (1941), David Ruffin of The Temptations (1941), "Legs" Larry Smith of The Bonzo Dog Band (1944), Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins (1956), influential grunge rocker Andrew Wood (1966), DJ Quik (1970), Jonathan Davis of Korn (1971), Irish popette Samantha Mumba (1983)

January 19: Don Lang of The Frantic Five (1925), Australia's first rock star, Johnny O'Keefe (1935), Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers (1939), Janis Joplin (1943), Rod Evans of Deep Purple (1945), Dolly Parton (1946), eclectic Brit vocalist Robert Palmer (1949), Dewey Bunnell of America (1952), Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul (1963)

Departures:

January 13: Teddy Pendergrass (2010), saxophonist Michael Brecker (2007), Brian Keenan, drummer with the Chambers Brothers Band (1985), soul singer–songwriter Donny Hathaway (1979), Stephen Foster, "Father of American Music" (1864)

January 14: New York Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan (1992), bluesman Rube Lacey (1969)

January 15: Junior Wells (1998), Grand Ole Opry performer Vic Willis (1995), Harry Nillsson (1994), Sammy Cahn (1993), Elton John drummer Dee Murray, born David Oates (1992)

January 16: country singer Carl Smith (2010), Pookie Hudson (2007), former Peter Frampton drummer John Siomos (2004), Will Jones of the Coasters (2000), Sollie McElroy, lead singer of the Flamingos (1995), Paul Beaver of Beaver and Krause (1975), Ross Bagdasarian AKA David Seville, creator of The Chipmunks (1972), Arturo Toscanini (1957)

January 17: multi–instrumentalist Norris Turney (2001), Texas blues guitarist T.D. Bell AKA Little T–Bone (1999), bluesman David "Junior" Kimbrough (1998), blues drummer Robert Covington (1996), Tony Duhig, leader of prog–rock band Jade Warrior (1991), commie rocker Dean Reed (1986), R&B singer Billy "Fat Boy" Stewart (1970), Norman P. Rich, William Cathey, and Rico Hightower of Stewart's band, The Soul Kings (1970)

January 18: Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle (2010), Brent Liles of Social Distortion (2007), producer–songwriter Keith Diamond (1997), singer Adriana Caselotti (1997), Mel(anie) Appleby of Mel & Kim (1990), Chicago soul–blues vocalist McKinley Mitchell (1986)

January 19: Belizean Punta musician Andy Palacio (2008), singer-songwriter John Stewart (2008), Denny Doherty of The Mamas and The Papas (2007), Wilson Pickett (2006), Josh Clayton–Felt of School of Fish (2000), rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins (1998), Joe Stubbs of The Falcons (1998), singer–guitarist Buster Benton (1996), leader and sax player for the Mar–Keys Packy Axton (1974).

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?doc_id=106410&audienceId=33592548&tiid=5960&src=3NL1AD&ZYXSEM=0

Britney's Back

Britney's Back... with her new hit "Hold It Against Me". Also below... a B/W mashup of Britney's dance moves.

Inspiration for Marathoners...

Here are funny and provocative quotes about marathoners...

• "To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind."
  Jerome Drayton

• "Marathon running is a terrible experience: monotonous, heavy, and exhausting."
  Veikko Karvonen, 1954 European and Boston Marathon Champ

• "You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."
  Frank Shorter

• "Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when awareness comes, it is excruciating."
  John Farrington, Australian marathoner

• "There is the truth about the marathon and very few of you have written the truth. Even if I explain to you, you'll never understand it, you're outside of it."
  Douglas Wakiihuri speaking to journalists

• "We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."
  Emil Zatopek

• "I'm going to go out a winner if I have to find a high school race to win my last race."
  Johnny Gray

• "Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity."
  Michael Johnson

• "I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs."
  Jesse Owens

• "Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."
  Steve Prefontaine

• "It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse."
  Ann Trason

• "Tough times don't last but tough people do."
  A.C. Green

• "I cannot have survival as my only goal. That would be too boring. My goal is to come back in my best running form. It is good for me to have that goal; it will help me."
  Ludmila Engquist (Olympic champion hurdler facing cancer and chemotherapy)

• "When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference?"
  Jesse Owens

• "There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open."
  Nike

• "What matters is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog."
  Dwight D. Eisenhower

• "The gun goes off and everthing changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters."
  Patti Sue Plummer

• "You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."
  Frank Shorter

• "Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible."
  Doug Larson

• "If you start to feel good during an ultra, dont' worry you will get over it."
  Gene Thibeault

• "The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep."
  Robert Frost

• "I have met my hero, and he is me."
  George Sheehan

• "No negative thoughts cross my mind on race day. When I look into their eyes, I know I'm going to beat them."
  Danny Harris

• "Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
  Jules Renard

• "I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners."
  Sebastian Coe

• "We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."
  Will Rogers

• "The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare."
  Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner

• "The start of a World Cross Country event is like riding a horse in the middle of a buffalo stampede. It's a thrill if you keep up, but one slip and you're nothing but hoof prints."
  Ed Eyestone

• "The freedom of Cross Country is so primitive. It's woman vs. Nature."
  Lynn Jennings

• "Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better."
  Juha Väätäinen, Finland

http://www.hornetjuice.com/marathon-quotes.html

Have a Laugh with Cartoonist David Horsey

Please click on cartoons to enlarge...















http://blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/

Branding and Logos - Keeping It Current, Simple and Consistent

Here's how a photographer sees logo development and branding...

One of the many factors as a business person and photographer that is going to separate you from your competition is your branding, your logo, use of your logo and how you convey your message through print and web material.

Design of a Logo

Not every photographer is a designer. That doesn’t mean you cannot turn out an amazing logo that represents your company. Anytime you go into the infant stages of logo design you need to continually remind yourself it is for your company. Many photographers use their names for their photo business. Nothing is wrong with this as long as you can separate the emotional aspect of using your name when designing a logo. The design must capture the target audience you are seeking. Personally, I am in the belief of people either loving it or hating it. If your design falls in the middle of the road where most people critique it with an “it’s ok” I highly recommend going back to the drawing board.

Help! I am Not a Designer
In today’s world of technology and information at your fingertips it is now easier than ever to get a professional logo designed for your company. Initially you may want to start with local high schools, career centers and colleges who have students looking for intern work. This is a great way to get your design cheap and to help start a portfolio for an aspiring designer.

Another avenue includes online design contests such as Hatchwise where logo designers compete for your business.

Here's what they say...

7,546 creatives are ready to help! It only takes a few minutes to
start a project, and the average project gets over 95 entries to choose
from, so what are you waiting for?

http://www.hatchwise.com/

Here you can set a project bid price of $100 or more and designers will submit their designs to win your bid. I assume the higher the bid the greater amount of designs may be submitted.

Key Things to Look For in a Photography Logo

Developing an Icon.
An icon will be a stand-alone design that is incorporated with the name of your business.

The nice thing about having an icon is as brand recognition grows for your logo the icon can be used on its own in places where your entire logo may not seem fitting. The icon becomes the recognized symbol associated with your name and or business.

Keeping uniform colors and fonts.
The most important part of your logo design will be the fonts and colors used. These items were selected based on information gathered about your company. The designer determined his color selection and choice of fonts based on that information. It is extremely important to keep your colors and fonts consistent throughout your advertising. Let’s talk colors. For my logo I chose to use Pantone colors.

Pantone color matching system is a standardized color matching system. This allows the different media companies you will deal with to refer to the Pantone matching system to ensure your colors are consistent. For example anytime I have shirts made or embroidery work done using our logo I give the print shop the Pantone colors of our logo to refer to.

Another major concern will be your fonts and ensuring they stay consistent throughout print and web. For web it is really not too much of a worry as you are usually using a compressed file such as a jpeg or bitmap where the font cannot be altered. For print I recommend providing a font layout of your logo.

You can also supply the design shop with the true type font from your font library on your computer. There are ways to embed the font in your design software as well so it is recognized as a curve and not as a font. What this means is when your file is opened by another computer that does not contain your font in its library it will not seek out another choice of font and replace it. It is simply recognized as an object and will remain the same. Every design software has a different way of embedding fonts. I recommend checking the help section of your software to see how to.

Distributing Your Logo
As you begin to distribute your logo for print, web and any other types of design media it is important to have your logo saved in many file types for different uses. Many ad/print agencies will want several types of files of your logo. They will want raster base file types such as jpeg., bmp., png., or even a flattened psd. Raster base files are compressed file types. They are resolution dependent. Meaning as you increase their size they will begin to lose quality, basically like a picture. Another file type that will be used most commonly is a vector base file. Most common file types include AI. (Adobe Illustrator) and CDR. (Corel Draw). A vector based file is unlocked, generally it can be enlarged to any size without losing image quality and the fonts and colors can be manipulated. When a logo is designed, it is generally designed in a vector base format and then saved as vector and raster file types.

Select a Logo that can Withstand the Test of Time
Your logo will take time to catch on and create brand recognition. It is imperative to select or design a logo that can withstand, trends, fads and received by people for decades. Most Fortune 500 companies logos have withstood years of recognition and with minor tweaks remain current. No, you may not a Fortune 500 company yet, but you should think like one.

This is by:

See more of Ty & Shannon’s work HERE.

www.fischink.com

http://www.fischink.com/

and was originally printed in the ShootSmarter.com website

http://www.shootsmarter.com

Registered members can log in here:

http://www.shootsmarter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=672&acat=14

March: A Good Month to Buy a Television

March is a good month for TV shopping. Prices drops after new models are introduced at the International Consumer Electronics Show each January.

Retailers clear out old inventory to make way for the latest items, which ship in March, says Greg Tarr, executive editor of This Week in Consumer Electronics.

Another smart time to shop: the day after Thanksgiving, when there is aggressive competition among retailers. You'll find jaw-dropping deals (up to hundreds of dollars off) on limited supplies of popular models, says Tarr.

http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/spending/best-time-to-buy-00000000028717/page2.html

Happy New Year - The Beauty of Nature !

May you always make the right moves.

May your cup overflow with love.



May you find shelter from any storm.



May you remain good looking and looking good!



May you find the perfect diet for your soul.



May you find perfect balance in the company you keep.



May you have as much fun as you can before someone makes you stop.



May the worst thing that happens to you come in slobbery pink and furry tan.



May you manage to make time for siesta.



May all the new folks you meet be interesting and kind.



May your accessories always harmonize with your natural beauty!



Should your mouth be bigger than your stomach, may you have a chewing good time!



May you always know when to walk away and know when to run.



And may your friends always bring you joy!


MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR
FILLED WITH LOVE, HAPPINESS, AND HOPE.

thanks to Linda for this gem

I Am An Angry Woman Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah !!!

NINE WORDS WOMEN USE
(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' . that will bring on a 'whatever').
(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F-- YOU!
(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

* Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.
Thanks to Carolynn for this gem !

Man With Golden Voice Gets A New Life

A Brooklyn panhandler whose "golden radio voice" made him an overnight web sensation was stuck in Ohio Wednesday afternoon - delaying his long-awaited reunion with his mother in New York.

Ted Williams, 53, had expected to fly to New York to do a live interview on the "Today Show" tomorrow morning and see his 92-year-old mom after years apart.

But TMZ reported that airport officials will not let him board a plane because he doesn't have proper identification to make the trip. Instead, he spent the afternoon at a Columbus, Ohio, courthouse trying to obtain a copy of his birth certificate, the site said.

A convicted felon and recovering addict, Williams was living in a homeless encampment in Columbus until two days ago, when a video showcasing his startling talent went viral on the Internet.

The video, produced by the Columbus Dispatch, shows him begging for change on a street in exchange for a soundbyte of his buttery, baritone voice.

The interview has led to a whirlwind of media attention and job offers, including one to do voice-over work for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But perhaps the greatest opportunity to come from his newfound fame was a reunion with his mom, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the home he was raised in.

During the an interview on "The Early Show," Williams broke down in tears when he spoke about his mother.

"I apologize. I'm getting a little emotional. I haven't seen my mom in a great deal of time," he said on the program.

"One of my biggest prayers that I sent out was that she would live long enough for me to see me rebound or whatever, and I guess God kept her around and kept my pipes around to maybe just have one more shot that I would be able to say, 'Mom, I did do it before,'" he said. "I might pass away before her or whatever, but my dad didn't get a chance to see this. But God is good."

Meet Wally Sparks

Rodney Dangerfield is hilarious

Great Legs - Highlights from Letterman

Love how Letterman just blurts out to a couple of the women, "You've got tremedous legs". Classic. Women in order: Jennifer Aniston, Katie Holmes, Charlize Theron, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Maria Sharapova, Gwen Stefani, Kat von D, Cindy Crawford.

Fat and Sugar Can Be As Addictive as Heroin

"Fat and sugar can be as addictive as heroin, making mind resist efforts to shed pounds"

It seems so simple: Too much food and not enough activity make people fat.

But the actual processes that create and perpetuate that imbalance are proving to be astoundingly complex.

Biology, physiology, psychology, genetics and environment figure in the obesity equation to varying degrees. Scientists across North Carolina and beyond are trying to understand how, in recent decades, the population has bloated to a point that lean people are a minority.

"There is no simple answer," said Bernard Fuemmeler, a Duke University researcher who is studying the mind-body link in obesity. "People tend to think that it may be willpower or just a lack of control. And these may be reasons, but not explanations for what is driving the epidemic."

In their quest to find explanations, researchers across the state - at Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest and East Carolina universities - are discovering or are building upon findings that prove just how intractable a foe fat can be:

Rich foods work much like heroin on the brain, making it hard to stop eating them.

Depression and obesity can be so tightly linked, it's hard to determine which comes first.

And as people gain weight earlier in life, they not only get chronic diseases sooner, they also set the course for a lifetime of weight battles.

The consequences are huge. Obesity is estimated to directly kill 112,000 people a year in the United States and to contribute to the deaths of many hundreds of thousands more. Health costs associated with the epidemic are tabbed at $147 billion a year, according to an analysis by health economists at RTI International.

"We evolved from species that have lived for the last millions and millions of years in environments in which food was hard to come by," said Wayne Pratt, a behavioral psychologist at Wake Forest University who has explored the connection between food and addiction. "And the food environment has changed in the last 50 years."

Those changes - cheap, abundant and tasty food choices that require almost no physical effort to obtain - have upset an intricate equilibrium within the body that is at the very essence of existence.

Food is life; every system in the body depends on it. But too much of anything, even a basic necessity, can create a poison.

Simply survival instinct

Well-educated and motivated, Jennifer Joyner woke up every day determined to lose weight. By noon, she was off course.

"I used that failure to go ahead and eat (poorly) the rest of the day," said Joyner, 38, who lives in Fayetteville with her husband and two children. At her heaviest, she carried 336 pounds on her 5-foot-5-inch frame.

Joyner firmly believes she was addicted to food.

"Nobody is that heavy because they don't know how many calories they should limit themselves to," Joyner said. "That's absurd."

There's growing evidence she might have a case.

High-energy foods hit the same pleasure centers of the brain that heroin and cocaine activate, recent research has found. Pratt, the Wake Forest psychologist, said that particular brain circuitry was once an evolutionary benefit.

Humans were programmed to like sweets and fatty foods so they would eat more of them during those fleeting moments of abundance - finding a berry bush or a trove of tree nuts.

"It makes sense to eat more than you'd need for that day, so you could put down a layer of fat to survive" during the inevitable periods of scarcity, Pratt said. "The reward system is there to take advantage of things that are beneficial to us."

Even though people are hard-wired to find rich foods pleasurable, most are not addicted in the sense of becoming increasingly compulsive and self-destructive.

But in an unprecedented environment of food abundance, a steady diet of cheeseburgers, pizzas and doughnuts can trigger some the same profound cravings and tolerances that an addict gets from heroin or cocaine. Recent brain studies show that drug addicts and people who are obese have similar neurobiological circuitry.

Studies with rats show why we start craving fat. Rats on high fat and sugar diets begin craving the foods because the reward centers in their brains grow numb to the pleasure signals, much like the addict develops a tolerance to cocaine that fuels more and bigger binges. As a result, the rats eat more and more, growing obese.

Adding to the biological evidence, a team of scientists that included UNC Chapel Hill researchers reported in 2009 that they had found a gene, NRXN3, associated with obesity in some people. The same gene previously was identified as playing a role in substance abuse.

Keri Monda, an epidemiologist at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and one of the study's authors, said the finding draws a strong inherited link between overeating and drug addiction - two problems characterized by difficulties limiting enjoyable experiences.

"We do know there are common underpinnings," Monda said, adding that additional studies are needed to make a definitive association.

For Joyner, the science only confirms her experience. In March 2008, she had weight-loss surgery and has since dropped 150 pounds and written a book about her experience, "Designated Fat Girl." But overcoming her addiction, she said, has taken counseling and work beyond the operation.

"You don't treat addiction with a diet-and-exercise plan," she said. "There needs to be intervention, family support, ongoing counseling."

The depression question

As anyone who has battled obesity knows, the struggle is as much mental as physical. Sadness, self-loathing, disgust and frustration often accompany weight gain. Bad health begets a bad frame of mind, which begets more bad health.

Maureen Leslie of Raleigh started that spiral six years ago, when she was diagnosed with pre-diabetes, a condition of early metabolic failure characterized by a growing inability to clear sugar from the bloodstream. It can often be reversed with diet and exercise, or it can bloom into full-blown diabetes.

Leslie then lost her job, her marriage fell apart and she sank into despair. Sweets offered a poisonous escape, turbocharging the tailspin.

"The stress of all that stuff was overwhelming," said Leslie, now 45.

The connection between depression and obesity, long linked by the anecdotal experiences of people who suffer from both, is only recently becoming better understood. Some of the same hormones and neurotransmitters are active in both diseases.

Fuemmeler, the Duke researcher, was the lead author of a 2009 study that investigated the intersection of depression and obesity.

It's a confounding area of research.

"There is some controversy about the relationship between obesity and depression," Fuemmeler said, noting that many factors cause depression and that an equal number cause obesity. Often, the two diseases overlap, and it's hard to determine whether one causes the other.

Fuemmeler said his colleagues are studying brain chemicals that regulate reward and mood.

"These biobehavioral mechanisms might be driving both depression and/or a tendency to eat when not hungry," he said.

For Leslie, the two problems had to be addressed as one. A year ago, she carried 209 pounds on a 5-foot-4-inch frame and was well on her way to full-blown diabetes. She had blurred vision, and her feet and hands tingled from nerve damage caused by the high glucose levels in her blood. Every night, she cried herself to sleep.

Finally, through a free clinic in Raleigh and a diabetes intervention called Project DIRECT that provided free education and resources, Leslie began addressing her sadness and learned that, with proper attention and management, diabetes isn't a death sentence.

She has lost more than 30 pounds, eats more vegetables and fewer sweets and gets her workouts by mowing her neighbors' yards - an activity that boosts her mood, as well.

"It's a mental thing," she said. "You know you need to eat right, you know you have something to accomplish, but you may not be fully prepared to commit to it. Finally, I realized I couldn't keep doing this to myself. I was slowly killing myself."

The 17-year window

Most people gain their greatest amount of excess weight between ages 18 and 35.

There are lots of reasons: People go to school or work and don't exercise as much, eat convenience foods, party more, keep odd hours, have children. The weight inches up by an average of 30 pounds over that 17-year period of young adulthood.

It can be a dangerous accumulation, giving a head start to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and other diseases once associated with old age.

Courtney Ward actually wanted to gain a little weight after high school. At 6 feet 5 inches and 170 pounds, he thought he was too skinny. But he hit his desired weight of 200 pounds and kept on gaining.

A year ago at age 43, the office manager at RDU International Airport weighed 269 pounds, putting him at a 31.9 on the height-weight calculus known as the body mass index. A BMI over 30 is considered obese.

Suffering high blood pressure and other signs of poor health, Ward was committed to shedding the weight. He has lost about 45 pounds, primarily by cutting out junk food and exercising daily at the Institute of Diet & Weight Management, a doctor-guided program in West Raleigh.

"I had to realize it was a lifestyle change," he said. "The dieting thing was never me. It had to be a total lifestyle change."

But Ward has a difficult task ahead. By gaining that weight, he might have created a monster because his body will challenge his willpower and try to drive his weight back up.

It's the yo-yo effect dieters know all too well. Most people gain all of their weight back within five years, and 33 percent have some weight return in the first year after a successful diet.

Scientists attribute this to basic physiology. For the same survivalist reasons the brain is hard-wired to favor rich foods, the body's cells are programmed to sock away extra fuel as a hedge against periods of famine.

That extra fuel is stored as fat. And once the body has created a fat bank, it fights to protect it, perceiving a successful diet as a heist.

To restock, the body sets into motion a complex cascade of hormones and brain signals that trigger hunger, while it simultaneously downshifts energy. The food cravings and a lack of energy often get worse the longer a dieter tries to stay compliant.

And in a diabolical irony, the body's pepped-up metabolism appears to store fat more efficiently. This makes it difficult for even the most committed to maintain a hard-won weight loss

Heba Salama and Ed Brantley are a Raleigh couple who appeared on NBC's "The Biggest Loser" reality show two years ago and dropped more than 130 pounds each. They still fight to keep the weight from returning - even under the extra pressure of being local celebrities. Each has put back on about 30 pounds.

"It's hard," Heba said, noting that her body seems comfortable maintaining a weight that's about 10 pounds heavier than she'd like.

But the couple took the show's boot-camp mentality to heart and now work to promote healthy eating and exercise. They work out regularly, running along Ridge Road or attending hot yoga and other workouts at a gym. They're also training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in February.

Exercise may be the secret to success.

Deborah Tate, an associate professor of nutrition at UNC Chapel Hill, said she worked on a study while at Brown University that showed the benefits of exercise outlast a diet, even when people return to unhealthy eating.

Tate noted that 90 percent of the people on the National Weight Control Registry, a research compendium of more than 5,000 dieters who have kept off significant amounts of weight, exercise on average an hour a day.

At the same time, Tate said, her research has reinforced a difficult truth: "People who successfully kept it off had to work a little harder than those who never gained in the first place."

Thanks to Lorrie for this one !

By Sarah Avery
sarah.avery@newsobserver.com

Posted: Saturday, Jan. 01, 2011