ATLANTA (AP) — Cable TV's "The Walking Dead" has inspired a new convention, a podcast, and a one-man play.
The podcast and Atlanta-based convention are the creations of Eric Nordhoff and James Frazier, also known as the "Walker Stalkers" because of a road trip they made last fall from Nashville, Tenn., to Georgia to see the AMC show being filmed.
The convention, Walker Stalker Con, is expected to draw 10,000 or more participants when it's held early next month, Nordhoff said.
"The Walking Dead" characters battle zombies known as "walkers" in the streets of downtown Atlanta and in forests, small towns and a prison south of the city.
The convention will feature appearances by some of the show's actors, including Norman Reedus, who slays walkers with a crossbow as Daryl Dixon; Andrew Lincoln, who plays Sheriff Rick Grimes, and Lauren Cohan, also known as Maggie Greene on the show.
The series returned for its fourth season this month with its biggest audience ever. The 16.1 million people who watched the Oct. 13 series premier shattered the show's previous record of 12.4 million, the Nielsen company said.
Nordhoff and Frazier are neighbors in suburban Nashville, and had gathered every Sunday in Frazier's basement to watch "The Walking Dead." They'd heard talk of a big day of filming in Senoia, the town south of Atlanta where much of the show is produced, so they got up before sunrise and made the trip to Georgia.
"It was our dream day," recalls Nordhoff, 42.
"We got to meet I think eight members of the cast," he recalls. "Somebody called us the 'Walker Stalkers' when we were there."
The two decided to develop a podcast that has become popular with fans of the show. The podcast features discussions of many aspects of the show's storyline and interviews with people behind the scenes, such as special effects makeup expert and show producer Greg Nicotero.
In April, Nordhoff and Frazier came up with the idea of holding the convention, which will take place Nov. 1-3.
The show has also inspired one of its actors to stage a one-man play.
Robert "IronE" Singleton, who played "T-Dog" in the first three seasons of the show, will portray 18 characters in "Blindsided by the Walking Dead," which tells the story of how he grew up in the Perry Homes housing project during Atlanta's crack cocaine epidemic before he found work as an actor.
A key scene of "The Walking Dead" was filmed on a downtown Atlanta rooftop just a few miles from the project, where violence was ever-present during Singleton's childhood and teenage years.
"Blindsided by the Walking Dead" is a work of drama, comedy, dance, spoken word and rap. Its characters include a thug, a crack addict, Richard III from Shakespeare, God and Singleton's deceased mother.
"I think it could inspire people and save lives," said the 38-year-old actor, who also will take part in a panel discussion during the convention.
"It's about embracing truth and love through everything you do."
___
Online:
Walker Stalker Con http://www.walkerstalkercon.com/
Vertebral augmentation for spinal fractures offers greater patient survival and overall cost savings
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: John Lazarou jlazaro1@jhmi.edu 410-502-8902 Johns Hopkins Medicine
A study of 69,000 Medicare patient records led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows that people with spine compression fractures who undergo operations to strengthen back bones with cement survive longer and have shorter overall hospital stays than those who stick with bed rest, pain control and physical therapy.
Although so-called interventional augmentation procedures were initially more expensive than conservative medical management of the fractures, the researchers say the former were associated with lower in-hospital mortality and increased survival compared with non-operative management.
"Our results suggest that the beneficial impact of minimally invasive surgery for vertebral compression fractures reaches beyond the acute phase and improves post-discharge survival and morbidity," says Richard L. Skolasky Jr., Sc.D., associate professor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Spine Outcomes Research Center.
Osteoporosis, which mostly affects the elderly, is responsible for more than 700,000 vertebral compression fractures and an estimated 150,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States, Skolasky notes, and can cause significant pain and disability in the elderly. Traditional medical treatment is almost always tried first, while interventional procedures known as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty consist of injecting bone cement through a small hole in the skin into a fractured vertebra. Skolasky noted that vertebral compression fractures are associated with a substantial economic burden, a medical management cost estimated at $13.8 billion in 2001.
In a report on the new study, published in the October edition of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, the researchers said that vertebral augmentation procedures not only appear to be associated with greater patient survival than non-operative management, but also that kyphoplasty which uses balloon inflation to create an opening for the cement tends to have a more striking association with survival than vertebroplasty.
"Treating vertebral compression fractures with vertebral augmentation procedures is associated with acute pain relief and improved mobility, but direct comparisons are limited," said Skolasky.
For the study, Skolasky and his colleagues conducted a "post-hoc" analysis and comparison of information on some 69,000 patients sorted into three categories of fracture care: non-operative, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. The team examined differences in survival at six months, one year, two years and three years along with complications, length of hospital stay, charges assessed by the discharging hospital and/or the health care provider delivering services, 30-day readmission rates and repeat procedures.
Results showed that the overall survival rate for the entire study population was 77.8 percent at one year and 49.6 percent at three years. The kyphoplasty group had the highest survival rates at one and three years, at 85.2 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively. When examined by age, individuals in the kyphoplasty group consistently had higher survival rates. The study also discovered that patients treated non-operatively on average were hospitalized approximately eight days longer. The total charges for kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty were $12,032 and $7,805 more than those treated non-operatively.
Skolasky said that the study showed that there was no statistically significant difference in postoperative infections and neurologic complications between surgical and non-operative patients. Surgically treated patients were less likely to be diagnosed with pneumonia or a decubitus ulcer, probably owing to shorter hospital stays. Those undergoing kyphoplasty were least likely to have those complications.
Skolasky also noted that other studies have examined differences in mortality associated with these three treatment methods, but that theirs is believed to be the first to examine those elements along with morbidity and costs associated with care.
Skolasky added that their findings may reflect "selection bias," and lack of racial and ethnic diversity, and such further prospective studies are needed to affirm them.
"Despite these limitations, our study did capture a large percentage of the elderly population that was acutely hospitalized for treatment and also assessed long-term complications and survival," he concluded.
###
The research team included Andrew T. Chen, M.P.H., from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and David B. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Related Web site:
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsortho.org/index.html
Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a $6.7 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the leading health care systems in the United States. JHM unites physicians and scientists of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, health professionals and facilities of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. JHM's vision, "Together, we will deliver the promise of medicine," is supported by its mission to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, JHM educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness. JHM operates six academic and community hospitals, four suburban health care and surgery centers, and more than 30 primary health care outpatient sites. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, was ranked number one in the nation for 21 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Vertebral augmentation for spinal fractures offers greater patient survival and overall cost savings
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013 [
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| Share
]
Contact: John Lazarou jlazaro1@jhmi.edu 410-502-8902 Johns Hopkins Medicine
A study of 69,000 Medicare patient records led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows that people with spine compression fractures who undergo operations to strengthen back bones with cement survive longer and have shorter overall hospital stays than those who stick with bed rest, pain control and physical therapy.
Although so-called interventional augmentation procedures were initially more expensive than conservative medical management of the fractures, the researchers say the former were associated with lower in-hospital mortality and increased survival compared with non-operative management.
"Our results suggest that the beneficial impact of minimally invasive surgery for vertebral compression fractures reaches beyond the acute phase and improves post-discharge survival and morbidity," says Richard L. Skolasky Jr., Sc.D., associate professor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Spine Outcomes Research Center.
Osteoporosis, which mostly affects the elderly, is responsible for more than 700,000 vertebral compression fractures and an estimated 150,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States, Skolasky notes, and can cause significant pain and disability in the elderly. Traditional medical treatment is almost always tried first, while interventional procedures known as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty consist of injecting bone cement through a small hole in the skin into a fractured vertebra. Skolasky noted that vertebral compression fractures are associated with a substantial economic burden, a medical management cost estimated at $13.8 billion in 2001.
In a report on the new study, published in the October edition of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, the researchers said that vertebral augmentation procedures not only appear to be associated with greater patient survival than non-operative management, but also that kyphoplasty which uses balloon inflation to create an opening for the cement tends to have a more striking association with survival than vertebroplasty.
"Treating vertebral compression fractures with vertebral augmentation procedures is associated with acute pain relief and improved mobility, but direct comparisons are limited," said Skolasky.
For the study, Skolasky and his colleagues conducted a "post-hoc" analysis and comparison of information on some 69,000 patients sorted into three categories of fracture care: non-operative, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. The team examined differences in survival at six months, one year, two years and three years along with complications, length of hospital stay, charges assessed by the discharging hospital and/or the health care provider delivering services, 30-day readmission rates and repeat procedures.
Results showed that the overall survival rate for the entire study population was 77.8 percent at one year and 49.6 percent at three years. The kyphoplasty group had the highest survival rates at one and three years, at 85.2 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively. When examined by age, individuals in the kyphoplasty group consistently had higher survival rates. The study also discovered that patients treated non-operatively on average were hospitalized approximately eight days longer. The total charges for kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty were $12,032 and $7,805 more than those treated non-operatively.
Skolasky said that the study showed that there was no statistically significant difference in postoperative infections and neurologic complications between surgical and non-operative patients. Surgically treated patients were less likely to be diagnosed with pneumonia or a decubitus ulcer, probably owing to shorter hospital stays. Those undergoing kyphoplasty were least likely to have those complications.
Skolasky also noted that other studies have examined differences in mortality associated with these three treatment methods, but that theirs is believed to be the first to examine those elements along with morbidity and costs associated with care.
Skolasky added that their findings may reflect "selection bias," and lack of racial and ethnic diversity, and such further prospective studies are needed to affirm them.
"Despite these limitations, our study did capture a large percentage of the elderly population that was acutely hospitalized for treatment and also assessed long-term complications and survival," he concluded.
###
The research team included Andrew T. Chen, M.P.H., from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and David B. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Related Web site:
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsortho.org/index.html
Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a $6.7 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the leading health care systems in the United States. JHM unites physicians and scientists of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, health professionals and facilities of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. JHM's vision, "Together, we will deliver the promise of medicine," is supported by its mission to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, JHM educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness. JHM operates six academic and community hospitals, four suburban health care and surgery centers, and more than 30 primary health care outpatient sites. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, was ranked number one in the nation for 21 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A freshwater Amazonian fish has evolved scales with microscopic armorlike structures specially designed to resist a piranha's piercing bite, new research shows.
Arapaima gigas is the largest — and evolutionarily, one of the oldest — fish species living within the lakes of the Amazon River basin. A team of researchers based at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory interested in determining how this fish evolved to coexist so successfully with the vicious predatory piranha examined A. gigas scales at a higher resolution than any past examination had. They found that each individual scale contains stacked spiral staircaselike layers of proteins that rotate inward and outward to absorb or repel the force of a piranha bite. [Biodiversity Abounds: Stunning Photos of the Amazon]
Scaly defense
The spiral staircaselike structures within each scale provide the last line of defense in what the team considers a hierarchy of defenses that range from macroscopic to microscopic scales. For a first line of defense, the fish scales each overlap by about 60 percent, which provide a double layer of protection across the majority of the fish's body. A piranha tooth can easily penetrate the thickness of one scale, but not the thickness of two, the researchers said.
Zooming deeper into the scales, each has a protective hard outer shell that is about 0.5 millimeters thick — about the thickness of a human hair — and a softer inner core that is about 1 mm thick. This inner core is made of collagen, a protein found in human skin, and provides a degree of elasticity lacking to the brittle outer shell.
Finally, each soft inner core consists of multiple spiral staircaselike structures that rotate inward and outward in response to the force of a bite.
"The beauty of the structure is when you apply a load in a certain direction, the spiral stairs have the ability to rotate, and can modify the loads you have applied to the entire sample to withstand the loads," said study co-author Bernd Gludovatz, a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The team applied forces similar to that of a piranha bite to sample A. gigas scales, and observed the response of microscopic collagen layers using a technique called small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).
Though this is the first time the distinct structural mechanism has been found in fish scales, other fish may have similar structures but have not yet been studied at such a high resolution, Gludovatz said.
Military applications
Aside from explaining the biological mystery of how one fish evolved to coexist with a vicious predator, the new findings may also inform bio-inspired material design, such as innovations in military armor.
"What we want to do is learn from nature how materials evolve to be the most efficient for different individual applications," Gludovatz said. "We want to understand how nature develops these materials, and then try to copy them and make something similar and, if possible, get the mechanical properties maybe even better and more efficient."
The team has also begun studying the elastic properties of chicken and rabbit skin to better understand the microscopic properties responsible for skin elasticity.
The new findings are detailed today (Oct. 15) in the journal Nature Communications.
Follow Laura Poppick on Twitter. Follow LiveScience on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Members of the bipartisan budget conference (from left): Sen. Jeff Sessions, Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Chris Van Hollen. Can they reach a deal by Dec. 13?
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Members of the bipartisan budget conference (from left): Sen. Jeff Sessions, Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Chris Van Hollen. Can they reach a deal by Dec. 13?
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Now that the government has reopened, attention turns to the next phase of the spending fight, a battle that is far from over.
The bill that President Obama signed early Thursday provides only a temporary respite to the partisan tussles that have perennially plagued the budget process. The government stays open through Jan. 15 and the federal borrowing authority is safe until Feb. 7. After that, all bets are off.
"We're going back to regular order," he says. "This is the budget process, the House passes a budget, the Senate passes a budget, you come together to try and reconcile the differences. That's the way we're supposed to do things."
Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is in agreement.
"Chairman Ryan knows I'm not going to vote for his budget, I know that he's not going to vote for mine," she says. "We're going to find the common ground between our two budgets that we both can vote on, and that's our goal."
The Washington Post lists the members of the "bipartisan, bicameral group" here.
However, some odds makers are expressing doubt.
CBS Marketwatch says "the committee ... is a disparate group that has some pundits proclaiming low expectations."
"Pantheon's Ian Shepherdson isn't optimistic about getting a long-term budget deal by Dec. 13.
" 'We think the chance of reaching a long-term budget deal by December 13 is very slim,' he said in a note. 'Congress has been down this road before; indeed, the sequester was triggered by the failure of the bipartisan budget committee to reach agreement in the fall of 2011. If anything, the positions of the parties have become more entrenched since then.' "
NEW YORK (AP) — A stage musical based on the film "An American in Paris" with music by George and Ira Gershwin is aiming for Broadway in 2015 after a stop in — where else? — Paris next December.
Producers said Thursday the new work will be directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and have a story by Craig Lucas. Bob Crowley has been tapped to make the sets and costumes. The story centers on a romantic tangle in post-war Paris.
The score includes the songs "I Got Rhythm," ''S'Wonderful," ''But Not For Me," ''Stairway to Paradise," ''Our Love Is Here To Stay" and "They Can't Take That Away." It will follow on the heels of other recent Gershwin stage hits, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess."
The 1951 film "An American in Paris" starred Gene Kelly and was inspired by a 1928 orchestral composition by the Gershwins.
(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc expects slightly stronger sales growth next year as it makes changes such as opening more smaller U.S. stores and shutting 50 poorly performing stores in Brazil and China, executives said on Tuesday.
The world's largest retailer sees a "tough" and "unpredictable" economy around the world, Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke said, a week after the International Monetary Fund trimmed its outlook for global growth.
Wal-Mart expects its overall sales to rise to $475 billion to $480 billion this fiscal year, a gain of about 1.9 percent to 3 percent over last year's $466.11 billion. For fiscal 2015, which begins in February, it is targeting 3 percent to 5 percent growth, Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said at the company's meeting with investors and analysts in Arkansas. The meeting was also webcast.
Positive economic signs such as a declining unemployment rate, along with Wal-Mart's efforts such as better merchandising plans, new stores and ecommerce plans, makes the company confident it can grow sales faster next year, Holley said.
Still, U.S. customers remain under pressures from higher income taxes, gas and food prices, plus the government shutdown, and they are trying to stick to budgets.
Wal-Mart is not waiting for the holiday season to get aggressive on pricing. Walmart U.S., its largest business by far, is promoting low prices on everything from Kraft's Velveeta cheese and PepsiCo Inc's Doritos chips to Procter & Gamble Co's Pampers diapers and Bounty paper towels this month, while Sam's Club will have another discount booklet for members starting on October 30, as both chains try to boost sales early in the fourth quarter.
More than 1 million people have already signed up for holiday layaway, which allows Walmart U.S. shoppers to put items on hold and pay for them over time. Four of the top five items on layaway are devices including Google Inc Nexus tablets, HP's HP 2000 laptop, the Hisense Sero 7 tablet and Fuhu Inc's nabi 2 Kids' tablets, Holley told reporters.
FURLOUGH IMPACT
Walmart U.S. feels pretty good about its profit but is not satisfied with its sales, Simon said.
Same-store sales at Walmart U.S. unexpectedly fell 0.3 percent in the 13-week period that ended in late July. Same-store sales at the bottom 10 percent of its large U.S. supercenters were down 7.5 percent in that period, he added.
Walmart U.S. said it is testing using its supercenter stores as "cross docks" to supply nearby smaller stores, a move that could help it keep goods in stock and cut costs. The system is set to roll out in the first of three unnamed markets in March.
Using the back room of a supercenter as a "little mini warehouse" for daily deliveries to smaller stores would eliminate the need to send 53-foot trucks from distribution centers to smaller stores, Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said.
"I think it's a fundamental shift in their real estate strategy" to look at things market-by-market rather than store-by-store and is a "sophisticated development," said Stewart Samuel, program director at IGD, who attended Tuesday's meeting.
Those types of efforts, plus continued investment in ecommerce, should pay off over time, Samuel said. Wal-Mart, which is opening more ecommerce fulfillment centers and filling some orders from stores, expects $13 billion in ecommerce sales in fiscal 2015, up from $10 billion or more this year.
Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed in the impasse over the U.S. budget and Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said that if people were not getting paid, they were not shopping as much. Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer said that just over 40,000 people came to shop at its warehouse clubs after the chain waived its usual fee for those who could not access military commissaries closed in the shutdown.
Wal-Mart shares ended the day down 31 cents, or 0.42 percent, at $74.37. Through Monday, the shares were up 10 percent this year, underperforming the 19.7 percent gain in the S&P 500 <.spx>.
SLOWING INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is still committed to trying to grow operating expenses at a slower rate than sales. Overall, capital spending is set to be $12 billion to $13 billion this year and $11.8 billion to $12.8 billion next year.
The company is closing about 50 under-performing stores out of hundreds it has in the major emerging markets of Brazil and China, said Walmart International Chief Executive Doug McMillon. The company said the stores set to close represent about 2 percent to 3 percent of its sales in each of those markets, although it is still opening new stores as well.
For the first time, Walmart U.S. plans to open more smaller-format stores than supercenters. Walmart U.S. plans to open 235 to 265 stores in fiscal year 2015, about 120 to 150 of them small stores. It is planning for about 245 openings this year, slightly above an earlier forecast.
Wal-Mart now plans to open 34 million square feet of new store space this year, down from its original forecast of 36 million to 40 million square feet. For next year, it targeted 33 million to 37 million in new store space, with more than half of the space being added in Walmart U.S., which will open more smaller stores than larger ones. The pace of growth internationally may continue to slow.
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace, Andre Grenon and Krista Hughes)
The Bellator Season 9 heavyweight tournament final has found a home on the promotion’s pay-per-view debut at Bellator 106 as Cheick Kongo will face Vinicius “Spartan” Queiroz. The bout will take place on the PPV main card. Bellator MMA officials first announced the bout earlier today.
The two fighters literally punched their trips to the finals earlier this month at Bellator 102. Kongo advanced to the finals by defeating Mark Godbeer via strikes in his promotional debut. “Spartan” turned a few heads by advancing to the finals by flooring recent signee Lavar Johnson in the opening moments of their semifinal bout.
Bellator MMA will make its PPV debut with Bellator 106: “Tito vs. Rampage” on November 2 with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson taking on Tito Ortiz in the main event. In a rematch of their 2011 “Fight of the Year” nominee, former champion Eddie Alvarez will return to the promotion against champion Michael Chandler in the co-main event. The fight card will air live via PPV from the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California. More bouts are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Bellator 106 Fight Card:
Main Card (PPV)
Rampage Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz
Lightweight Title Fight: Michael Chandler (c) vs. Eddie Alvarez
Light Heavyweight Interim Title Fight: King Mo Lawal vs. Emanuel Newton
Featherweight Title Fight: Pat Curran (c) vs. Daniel Straus
Heavyweight Final: Cheick Kongo vs. Vinicius “Spartan” Quieroz
Spike TV Preliminary Fights
Fight Master Welterweight Final: Joe Riggs vs. Mike Bronzoulis
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Tyler Gaffney ran for 171 yards and two touchdowns, and No. 13 Stanford smothered Brett Hundley and ninth-ranked UCLA 24-10 on Saturday.
Kevin Hogan threw for 227 yards and a spectacular touchdown to Kodi Whitfield as the Cardinal (6-1, 4-1) regrouped again after losing at Utah last week. Stanford has not lost consecutive games since October 2009.
Stanford hurried Hundley all afternoon to slow down UCLA's up-tempo offense.
Hundley completed 24 of 39 passes for 192 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions to Jordan Richards — the second with a little more than 2 minutes remaining to seal Stanford's victory. UCLA (5-1, 2-1) has not started 6-0 since 2005.
The Cardinal came out on top again in a rematch of last season's Pac-12 title game and showed they're not bowing out of the conference race. Stanford has won six straight over UCLA, including three times in the last year, and 14 in a row against teams from California.
The Bruins entered the game averaging 45.8 points per game. That ranked second in the Pac-12 behind Oregon, which hosts UCLA next week before traveling to Stanford on Nov. 7 in matchups that will likely decide the Pac-12's championship game.
Stanford, which had its 13-game winning streak snapped in Salt Lake City last week, showed just why it has been so tough to keep down the last four years.
The Cardinal outgained UCLA 419 to 266 yards, won the time of possession 37:11 to 22:49 and made big the play when it mattered most again.
With Hundley and UCLA's offense taking the field late with 2:57 remaining, the Cardinal hurried Hundley twice before Richards dove for his second interception after receiver Thomas Duarte fell down. Gaffney capped off a quick Stanford drive with a 4-yard TD run that put the game out of reach.
Devon Cajuste caught seven passes for 109 yards for Stanford before leaving with a right leg injury early in the fourth quarter. UCLA also lost a key player, with inside linebacker Eric Kendricks taken to the hospital for tests on his kidney after making nine tackles in the first half.
It was not immediately clear what caused Kendricks' kidney issue.
The Cardinal controlled the flow from the start but missed opportunities in the first half to ahead big.
Ty Montgomery dropped a deep pass near the goal line on Stanford's first drive. The Cardinal later lost 10 yards on first-and-goal when they fumbled a pitch, and Ishmael Adams intercepted Hogan's pass at UCLA's 6-yard line in the final minute of the half when Cajuste bobbled the ball into his Adams' arms.
But Stanford's scoring erupted with one of the most spectacular plays of the season.
While running to his right on a post route, Whitfield leaped in the air and reached back to make a backhanded catch with his right hand between two defenders. The 30-yard TD reception put Stanford up 10-3 and left most of the crowd "oohing" every time the replay was shown on the video boards.
On UCLA's next drive, Stanford forced a turnover for the 32nd straight game — the second-longest streak in the country — when Richards intercepted Hundley's pass. Richards' return for a touchdown was called back because of a holding penalty.
No matter.
Cajuste caught a leaping 34-yard pass at UCLA's 2 on third down. And three plays later, Gaffney ran for a short TD to put the Cardinal up 17-3 late in the third quarter.
Hundley regrouped to lead UCLA on an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive. He capped it off with a 3-yard TD pass to Shaquelle Evans that sliced Stanford's lead to 17-10 early in the fourth.
Hundley and the Bruins never looked so smooth again. Ka'imi Fairbairn kicked a tying 38-yard field on the opening drive of the second half for UCLA's only other score.
____
Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP
October 15, 2013 – The REAL Trends Housing Market Report for October 2013 shows that the rate of housing sales increased strongly in September 2013 growing 20.9 percent from September 2012, a continuation of the powerful surge in housing sales that started in October 2011. The annual rate of new and existing home sales for September 2013 was 6.228 million up from 5.153 million recorded in September 2012 but down slightly from the rate in August 2013.
The average price of homes sold increased by 5.5 percent in September 2013 compared to September 2012.
Housing unit sales for September 2013 were up 24.4 percent in the Midwest, the strongest showing in the country. The next highest region was in the South region at 23.3 percent, the Northeast region was up 21.5 percent and the West was up 14.2 percent.
The average price of homes sold in September 2013 increased 5.5 percent across the country, down measurably from the results in August 2013. The West had the best results with the average price of homes sold increasing 10.2 percent followed by the South region at 7.3 percent and the Midwest at 7.0 percent. The Northeast region saw prices move downward by 0.3 percent.
“September 2013 sales of new and existing homes were surprisingly strong, especially in view of the rise of mortgage rates over the past few months,” said Steve Murray, editor of the REAL Trends Housing Market Report. “Historically when a recovery starts to drive rates up buyers increase their buying activity to beat the rise in rates and we saw that in the July 2013 results. September results showed a small decrease in the annualized rate of homes sales from the prior month which was also expected. Inventories continue to constrain sales as well and although homes available for sale have increased they remain below historical levels of balanced housing markets.”
REAL Trends Housing Market Report September 2013 August 2013
LYON, France – Quentin Tarantino brought out the big guns – including Harvey Weinstein, Uma Thurman and Harvey Keitel – when he received the Prix Lumiere at the film festival here Friday night.
The Prix Lumiere, which has been awarded to Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, and Ken Loach in the five years since its inception, was envisioned by Cannes and Lumiere film festivals head Thierry Fremaux to become the Nobel prize of filmmakers to honor their bodies of work.
At an exceptionally emotional tribute and award ceremony, which preceded a brief backstage government ceremony in which he was awarded the Commander of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Aurelie Filippetti, the director was honored by his longtime friends and creative collaborators.
Tim Roth got the evening off to a bawdy start with a few well-placed swears, but the mood soon turned more sweet and serious as producers Lawrence Bender and Weinstein took the stage. The famously demanding Weinstein credited Tarantino for both of his companies' successes.
"My first company, Miramax, was the house that Quentin built, and my second company, The Weinstein Company, is the house that Quentin saved," he said, showing an uncharacteristic soft spot when adding that Tarantino is "tough minded and tough, but really one of the most compassionate human beings I know."
Keitel, who took the stage next, was moved by Weinstein's words and grew teary as he began to talk about the director. "Damn, I'm not going to make it through this," he said when composing himself, before comparing his relationship with Tarantino to a great romance. "I always felt we were meant for each other and nothing could keep us apart. Maybe if he had been a woman we could have gotten married, had kids," he joked. "Working with Quentin is like reading a great novel or hearing a great symphony or piece of music -- it changes you. You don't know how, but it has."
With a barrage of superlatives that required Fremaux to translate from her "terribly" hand-written speech on the back of the day's program, Thurman declared: "For all your wildness, your work always has aspirations for justice, freedom from oppression, courage, and most of all love and passion."
"You have been an explosion of dynamite in the art of cinema itself," she said, comparing him to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the namesake of the Nobel Prize. "You invented your own dynamite, your 'cinemite.' May your legacy be your fearlessness and the flicker of light projected through the darkness of a movie house forever be your fuse."
"I don't have words for how I feel -- probably one of the first times that has happened to me," said Tarantino. He credited the actors onstage for bringing his characters to life, and Bender and Weinstein for backing him and his dreams throughout his career.
"I have always thought of myself as a lone wolf, but always because I never really had a family, but these people are my family. Their affection and respect is all I ever want," he said, just before Thurman presented him with the award.
He thanked the roaring crowd, the city of Lyon - where film was invented by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 - and France as well. "Cinema is my religion and France is my Vatican," he said, causing much confusion in the crowd. "I probably just insulted you a little bit with that but it was the best example I could come up with."
"I don't know where I would be if the Lumiere brothers' mother and father had never met," he said. "Probably somewhere selling 'Royale with Cheese.' "
The company is decorating the windows of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center to match the design on press invites sent out for an event on October 22.
Here's a sight that's become familiar for Apple events of late: colors.
Apple is decorating the windows of the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco ahead of a special media event it has planned for next Tuesday. The design, revealed in images sent to blog site MacRumors, is a deluge of autumn leaves amidst a single Apple logo. It matches the pattern on invitations the company sent out to media outlets this week.
The October 22 event is expected to bring a variety of announcements, including new models of the iPad and iPad Mini, updates on Macs, and a price and release date for OS X Mavericks.
The facade of Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters was similarly as bright last month when the company invited press and guests in to announce its two new iPhones, the 5S and the 5C -- the latter of which comes in a slew of colors.
Be sure to catch CNET's coverage of next week's event.
Tweetbot maker Tapbots has just posted an entry to their blog stating that an updated version for iOS 7 has been submitted to the App Store and should be available in the coming weeks. According to Tapbots, they think we'll be just as excited as they are about the update:
We were aiming for the iOS 7 launch date, but unfortunately we didn’t make it. We’ve been working night and day for the last 4 months to re-design and develop an app that took over a year to build. The good news is that we are extremely happy with the results and can’t wait to share it with everyone.
Tapbots goes on to explain some of where their thought process and planning is with some of their other apps such as Weightbot, Convertbot, and Calcbot so if you own any of those apps, make sure you hit the Tapbots blog to read more on what's going on with them too.
For all the Tweetbot fans out there, your wait shouldn't be long now.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women who exercise regularly and don't smoke may have a substantially lower risk of late-life disability than their peers with less-healthy habits, say UK researchers.
They found that among women in their 60s and 70s, behaviors like smoking, drinking and exercise could account for up to 17 percent of a woman's risk for disabling conditions like heart disease, arthritis and difficulty walking.
"We set out to quantify the influence of current lifestyle on subsequent disability," Lois Kim, lead author of the study and lecturer in medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Reuters Health.
More than 2,500 British women between the ages of 60 and 79 filled out surveys as part of the British Women's Heart and Health Study. The questionnaires asked about the women's smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption and eating habits. Seven years later, the women reported on whether they had developed any of several disabling health problems.
The study found that women who never exercised were about twice as likely to get arthritis and had about double the risk of developing problems walking; they were also more likely to develop heart disease.
Women who smoked currently or in the past also developed heart disease at more than twice the rate of those who had never smoked.
"This study provides more information - more ammunition - in support of the benefits of exercise as we age," said David Watts, an associate professor of geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in the study.
"We know from other work that exercise is the most proven intervention to prevent not only physical decline, but also the cognitive decline so often associated with aging," he said.
The study found no influence on disability from eating fruit, and only a slight benefit from moderate alcohol consumption, but that effect was small enough to be due to chance.
Together, the four lifestyle factors analyzed explained 17 percent of a woman's overall risk for disabling conditions at the seven-year follow-up, the researchers report in the journal Age and Ageing.
Exercise alone accounted for 9 percent of the risk for walking problems, 5 percent of heart disease risk and 4 percent of arthritis risk, they note. They also acknowledge those numbers mean behavior changes in old age might make a relatively small difference in disability risk.
Watts cautioned as well that the study "does not answer the question as to whether healthy habits need to be continued lifelong. That is, can you start exercising at age sixty, or do you need to start much earlier to get a benefit?"
Other research and common sense would suggest "that a lifelong commitment to exercise is probably most beneficial," he added.
It's possible that the women who did not exercise at the first survey did not do so because they had pain or other limitations, and therefore may already have been "headed for higher rates of disability," Watts noted.
Watts agreed with other researchers, however, that healthy habits are important for long-term wellbeing and they have few drawbacks.
Recommendations to eat well and exercise "are generally safe and inexpensive, and likely have benefits on multiple mental health status, cognition, and cancer risks," said Terri McCarthy, an assistant professor of geriatrics at the University of Minnesota, who also was not involved in the study.
Getting older shouldn't discourage people from adopting new habits, which may be beneficial even if adopted later in life, according to Gerald Pankratz, an assistant professor of geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
"I would certainly advocate that healthy lifestyle choices should be lifelong, but I would never say it is too late to make a change," Pankratz told Reuters Health. "Older adults are frequently under that misconception."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1bsx7B7 Age and Ageing, online September 29, 2013.
Fyodor Bondarchuk, (left) director of "Stalingrad", on set in a production still.
MOSCOW -- Russia's first ever IMAX 3D movie, wartime epic Stalingrad, broke domestic first week box office records.
The lavish epic -- which has been criticized for showing German troops in too kind a light and sparked petitions to have the title banned -- took 713 million roubles ($22 million) in Russia and CIS former Soviet countries since its release Oct. 11.
The figure makes it the ninth biggest grossing Russian film ever. It was seen by more than 2.5 million moviegoers at 1,149 screens.
Previous Russia first weekend chart toppers include comedy spoofs Samyy Luchshiy Film (The Very Best Film) and Our Russia: The Balls of Fate.
Anton Zlatopolsky, the film's producer and director general of TV channel Rossiya, said the film's subject matter -- the bloodiest battle of the war on the eastern front that became a turning point in Stalin's historic struggle with Hitler -- appealed to Russian audiences.
"Viewers can rethink themselves and their country in the context of this story, looking to new sources of inspiration and heroes that inspire them," Zlatopolsky said.
But not all viewers have been inspired. Signatures are being collected for an online petition seeking to have the film banned.
The petition's backers say Nazi troops are show in a favorable light, but, "Soviet soldiers are depicted as poorly education, stupid and second-rate people, driven by low instincts."
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should not use monetary policy tools to head off potential risks to financial stability when other more effective tools, like supervision or monitoring, are available, a top Fed policymaker argued on Friday.
Setting out a view that appears to be in line with the leadership at the U.S. central bank, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said raising rates to tamp down risk-taking, when what the economy needs is support from low interest rates, is a "poor choice."
"If more restrictive monetary policies were pursued to generate higher interest rates, they would likely result in higher unemployment and a sharp decline in asset prices, choking the moderate recovery," Evans said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Financial Management Association's annual meeting.
With the understatement that is typical of many central bankers, he added, "Such an adverse economic outcome is unlikely to set a favorable foundation for financial stability."
In an effort to pull the economy from its worst downturn in decades, the Fed has kept short-term interest rates near zero since December 2008 and is buying $85 billion in Treasuries and housing-backed securities each month to lower long-term borrowing costs as well.
Low rates are aimed at encouraging investment and hiring, and Evans -- one of ten current voters on Fed policy this year -- has been an ardent supporter of the policies.
Some of Evans' Fed colleagues who oppose the central bank's super-easy monetary policy have cited financial stability concerns as one reason the Fed should pare its bond-buying program.
Kansas City Fed President Esther George, who has dissented at every Fed policy-setting meeting this year, has warned that keeping rates too low for too long could fuel excessive risk-taking. Her equally hawkish colleague Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher on Thursday said he was increasingly concerned that low rates were contributing to a nascent housing bubble.
Evans acknowledged that part of the goal of the Fed's easy-money policies is indeed to encourage risk-taking, because in times of a weak economy, people and businesses often go into a defensive crouch. He also said that leaving rates too low for too long can lead to excessive risk-taking among some investors.
But raising rates prematurely is likely to do more damage than good to the economy as a whole, he said.
"Higher interest rates would reduce risk-taking where it is excessive; but they also would result in a pullback in economic activity in sectors where risk-taking might already be overly restrained," Evans said. "That's how a blunt tool works."
The Fed should instead use its enhanced supervisory powers to prevent excessive risk-taking, and focus not only on individual banks but on the risks to the financial system as a whole, he said.
While it is possible that the complexities of the financial system make it difficult to properly oversee, "I have a more favorable view of the social value of our financial system and the efficacy of supervision and regulation" Evans said, adding that he believes that proper regulation provides the best way to minimize the risks of another financial crisis.
"We can achieve these objectives without having to resort to wholesale changes to the financial system and without degrading our monetary policy goals," he said.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Betterment Acquires ImpulseSave, The App That Encourages You To Save Money Rather Than Spend It
I have something to get off my chest: I live in New Jersey, so by definition that makes me a “Jersey driver”. I’ve never thought of myself as the sort of manically aggressive road warrior that befits the stereotype (and I’d argue that Pennsylvania drivers are way worse), but Y Combinator-backed Automatic’s Link dongle begs to differ. It’s been plugged into my car for the better part of two weeks now, dutifully tracking all my hard stops, all my hasty starts at green lights, and all the times I’ve perhaps pushed the car a bit too hard.
And the verdict is in: I’m exactly what I thought I wasn’t. I’m a stereotypical New Jersey driver. As the old adage goes, the first step to recovering is admitting you have a problem, and Automatic’s neat little dongle + app combo has helped me to realize just that.
Automatic Link Review Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Realtime Driving Feedback
The Rundown
But let’s back up a moment — how does this all work? Let’s back up a moment first. Since 1996, every car that’s been sold in the United States has what’s called an OBD-II port nestled in it somewhere. Odds are good you don’t even know what it looks like (it’s a little trapezoidal thing with 16 pins) or where it is. It’s there so mechanics and car dealers can troubleshoot automotive issues by connecting a computer to the thing, and the Automatic team has whipped up a consumer device that pops in there to monitor your car’s speed, fuel injection rate, and more.
There are a few extra bits in there that make the Link dongle more than your average diagnostics tool. The accelerometer means that it can detect sudden stops and starts, and there’s a tiny speaker built into the that audibly alerts you in those moments.
It sounds like sort of a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Consistently slamming your brakes isn’t doing your car any favors, but the dongle is much more sensitive than that — seemingly normal stops can trigger the alert which sort of forces you to reconsider how normal your driving really is. The dongle also beeps at you when you’re too quick off the line (something I’m apparently guilty of way too often), and when you push your car over 70 miles per hour. In the end, you’re left with a gadget that’s capable of giving you realtime driving feedback while you tool around town (and it’s much more pleasant than having a backseat driver bark at you).
Of course, the (currently iOS-only) app plays a big role in all this too as the Link connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy. You can’t glance down at your phone in-the-moment for immediate status updates — the only feedback you’re getting while driving is those audio notifications — but it dutifully chews on all of that data post-drive to show you your route and how many of those driving faux pas you made on the road. It also displays a rough estimate of your fuel economy, and I do mean rough — some quick, back of the napkin calculations gave me figures that weren’t always as peachy as the ones the app displayed. Automatic says this is a known issue though, and they’re apparently working on improving accuracy.
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All of those metrics get boiled down into a single weekly score so users can easily track their progress over time.
And thankfully, there are some features that I haven’t had to use yet. In the event that your car throws up a Check Engine light, the Automatic app is capable of showing some detailed information about what may be causing it and how to potentially fix it. And if you’ve got Crash Alert enabled, the Link will be on the lookout for the sort of incredibly hard stops that usually signify, well, a crash. In the event it detects one, it collects your location information using your phone’s GPS and attempts to send it along to the local authorities by way of Automatic’s backend servers. It’s exclusive to the U.S. and still very much in beta though — Automatic admits that at this point there’s no guarantee that any nearby police stations or fire departments will respond.
There are, as always, some caveats to be aware of. While years and years worth of cars physically have an OBD-II port somewhere, the Automatic Link can’t decipher the data from every single one of them (you can check your car’s compatibility here).
That crucial Bluetooth connection presents some problems of its own too — if you’re the type of person who relies on Bluetooth to stream your music through your car stereo or access your contact list on the go, you may to have to decide which of these experiences means more to you. Then again, there’s a fair to middling chance that if your car came with Bluetooth functionality out of the gate, it’s already going to replicate some of the Automatic Link’s more basic features.
And you know what? That’s just fine. My car rolled off an assembly line in 2006, which was apparently the model year just before the one when neato options like AUX inputs and in-dash fuel economy gauges became standard fare. A drill and a $15 gewgaw from Amazon fixed that first problem, and now a $99 gadget + app combination have taken care of the latter for me (and then some). On some level though, I just wish the Automatic system did more — I’d love a web view that lets me dig into all this information in aggregate, and some maintenance reminders every few thousand miles since I’m probably running a little behind on that too.
The Verdict
Now this is all well and good, but there’s a bigger question to tackle: am I actually a better driver?
Well, I’m getting there. The thing to remember about Automatic is that it isn’t going to magically make you a more conscientious driver — you have to work at it. The name of the game is behavior modification through better data. In that sense the Automatic dongle is a sort of Fitbit for your car, a reasonably inexpensive doodad that shines a little more light on what you put your car (and your wallet) through on a weekly basis. Exactly what you do with that data is entirely up to you.
In my case, I’ve slowly grown to be a bit more thoughtful on road in the two or so weeks since I first jammed the dongle in my ODB port. That’s not to say that I’ve given up my leadfoot tendencies completely — sometimes you just need to crank things up a bit — but I’m noticeably more cognizant of how fast I’m going at any given moment. It’s even gotten to the point where I finding myself driving as close to 70 MPH as possible without actually going over, even when the Automatic isn’t plugged in.
It’s also not meant to be a replacement for more robust, capable ODB scanners. Needless to say, dyed-in-the-wool car buffs may not find enough value here to warrant a purchase. The same goes for people who are more than happy putting pedals to the metal on a regular basis — chances are they’re not planning to change their behavior very soon. But for cost-conscious consumers? Or people like me who actively want to change their driving style? The Automatic experience is worth the asking price, and with any luck it’ll only get better with time.
The photo-sharing social network Instagram is worried about Lady Gaga.
"omg at this email INSTAGRAM just sent me," the singer tweeted on Wednesday, sharing a screenshot of an email she received from the service. She followed up with a note saying, "what the actual hell. hahahaha."
"Members of the Instagram community have raised concerns for your well-being after seeing posts you've shared," the note from Instagram read. "We're reaching out to provide you with some important safety information."
Gaga had recently posted photos of some handwritten lyrics, including the words "might not awake without you" and "I'm sorry and I love you," which could sound like she's threatening suicide to some. Instagram did not respond to media inquiries about the email.
As for Lady Gaga, she didn't let the note bother her for long, quickly moving in to tweeting fun facts and even the cover of her upcoming album, "ARTPOP," which will be released Nov. 11. The cover shows a Jeff Koons sculpture of a naked, blonde Gaga, with a shiny blue mirrored ball strategically placed between her legs.
(Reuters) - Two senior U.S. senators on Tuesday lauded Ireland for its decision to close a loophole used by Apple Inc to shelter over $40 billion from taxation, but stressed questions linger about Dublin's role in corporate tax dodging.
"Ireland's promise to reform its tax rules to stop multinationals from using Irish subsidiaries to escape or defer paying taxes anywhere in the world is encouraging," senators Carl Levin and John McCain said in a joint statement.
"Important questions do remain, however," they said.
The Irish government said on Tuesday it planned to shut down a tax arrangement used by Apple, but would leave open a bigger loophole that means the computer giant may not pay more tax.
Edward Kleinbard, a former chief of staff to the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation and now a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, described Ireland's move as "a very small step."
"The specific legislation ... proposed appears on its face to be relevant basically only to Apple," Kleinbard said.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, chairs a Senate panel that in recent years has run the U.S. Congress's hardest-hitting tax-avoidance investigations. McCain, a former presidential candidate from Arizona, is the panel's top Republican.
High-tech titan Apple came under fire in May from their Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations, which said that the company had kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries and paid little or no taxes to any government.
Levin urged closing loopholes like those he said Apple used to avoid $9 billion in U.S. taxes in 2012.
The subcommittee said Apple used Ireland as a base for a web of offshore holding companies and negotiated a deal with the Irish government for a tax rate of less than 2 percent. The top U.S. corporate income tax rate is 35 percent.
At a May 21 Senate hearing, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook made no apology for saving billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through Irish subsidiaries. He told lawmakers his company backs corporate tax reform, though it may end up paying more.
With Washington paralyzed by political gridlock over spending and tax issues, no overhaul of the U.S. tax code has gained momentum and analysts say it is unlikely soon. The code has not been comprehensively cleaned up in 27 years.
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday that he planned to make it illegal for a company registered in Ireland to have no tax domicile anywhere.
A spokesman for the Irish Department of Finance declined to explain the change but denied it was due to U.S. pressure.
He added that companies could still nominate any country they liked as their tax residence, including zero tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda.
U.S. high-tech groups Google Inc and Microsoft Corp have cut their overseas tax rates to single digits by establishing Dublin-registered units, which they have designated as tax resident in Bermuda. Google and Microsoft say they follow tax rules in every country where they operate. Apple has said it has paid all the tax it should have.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West and Tom Bergin in London; Editing by Howard Goller and Bob Burgdorfer)
Kendra is only 8 weeks along in her pregnancy, but she and her hubby couldn’t be more excited! The couple has been vocal both in real life and on their show on We TV, Kendra on Top, about wanting to have more kids, and it seems like now is the perfect time. Their son Hank is 4, so he’s totally old enough to take on the responsibilities of big brother.
Maybe this baby will have playdates with former playmate Holly Madison‘s newborn daughter, Rainbow? Or Rachel Zoe‘s soon-to-be-born second child? Or Kevin and Danielle Jonas‘ baby girl that’s due in January? So many playdate possibilities.
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