The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Washington Post Ombudsman: Climate Change Denial Was Mildly Screwed Up
- Placentas Found In Illinois Sewage System
- The Secret Formula That Destroyed Wall Street
- RNC Finance Director Tim Crawford Quits
- Sumner Redstone Wins Debt Restructuring Deal, Buys Two Years' Breathing Room
- Rihanna And Chris Brown Are Back Together
| Washington Post Ombudsman: Climate Change Denial Was Mildly Screwed Up | Top |
| The editors who checked the Arctic Research Climate Center Web site believe it did not, on balance, run counter to Will's assertion that global sea ice levels "now equal those of 1979." I reviewed the same Web citation and reached a different conclusion. It said that while global sea ice areas are "near or slightly lower than those observed in late 1979," sea ice area in the Northern Hemisphere is "almost one million sq. km below" the levels of late 1979. That's roughly the size of Texas and California combined. In my mind, it should have triggered a call for clarification to the center. There is a disturbing if-you-don't-agree-with-me-you're-an-idiot tone to much of the global warming debate. Thoughtful discourse is noticeably absent in the current dispute. But that's where The Post could have helped, and can in the future. More on Wash Post | |
| Placentas Found In Illinois Sewage System | Top |
| CHICAGO — Someone is disposing of placentas in a central Illinois sewage system and authorities want it to stop. Workers in Urbana on Thursday found a placenta in a filter that keeps large objects out of the sewage treatment plant _ the third such find this year. So police have enlisted medical experts. "It was one of the weirdest calls I've ever received," said Julie Pryde, who heads the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. Urbana Police Lt. Bryant Seraphin remembered: "She said, 'You found a WHAT in the WHERE?'" The unprecedented finds have officials wondering if a midwife or veterinarian, stressed by economic woes, has been avoiding the expense of paying for a medical waste disposal service. Police aren't aiming for an arrest, Seraphin said, and nobody suspects foul play. The umbilical cords, still attached, were cut clean. Placentas are potentially infectious, although health officials said the risk to the public is low. They just want the dumping to stop and hope publicity will achieve that. They are keen on solving the mystery. Storm sewers and toilets drain to the system, so those seem to be the likeliest routes, Pryde said, "but I don't think my personal toilet at home would be able to flush a placenta." Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said the placentas could be from home births, but he's not ruling out hospitals. "We don't believe they were specimens kept for research or testing," Northrup said. "They appear to be fairly fresh, so to speak." A state police lab detected human DNA in the first placenta tested, Northrup said. But since the sewage system is full of human DNA, he's waiting for results of more tests his pathologists are conducting on the two others found. The placenta is an organ that joins mother and fetus and is expelled during birth. Officials don't believe there have been any deaths, the coroner said, and it's likely the babies are healthy. State regulations allow parents to keep their baby's placenta, said state Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Maggie Carson. Some parents may want them for a post-birth ritual, she said. "But it is never acceptable to put placenta into the sewer system," Carson said. "Never." ___ On the Net: http://www.c-uphd.org/pressrelease.html | |
| The Secret Formula That Destroyed Wall Street | Top |
| A year ago, it was hardly unthinkable that a math wizard like David X. Li might someday earn a Nobel Prize. After all, financial economists--even Wall Street quants--have received the Nobel in economics before, and Li's work on measuring risk has had more impact, more quickly, than previous Nobel Prize-winning contributions to the field. Today, though, as dazed bankers, politicians, regulators, and investors survey the wreckage of the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, Li is probably thankful he still has a job in finance at all. Not that his achievement should be dismissed. He took a notoriously tough nut--determining correlation, or how seemingly disparate events are related--and cracked it wide open with a simple and elegant mathematical formula, one that would become ubiquitous in finance worldwide. For five years, Li's formula, known as a Gaussian copula function, looked like an unambiguously positive breakthrough, a piece of financial technology that allowed hugely complex risks to be modeled with more ease and accuracy than ever before. With his brilliant spark of mathematical legerdemain, Li made it possible for traders to sell vast quantities of new securities, expanding financial markets to unimaginable levels. More on Financial Crisis | |
| RNC Finance Director Tim Crawford Quits | Top |
| The finance director for the Republican National Committee resigned abruptly Friday afternoon, and a source familar with the situation said he was forced out. Reince Priebus, who's running the transition team for new RNC Chairman Michael Steele, confirmed that Tim Crawford resigned Friday after just two weeks as the committee's interim finance director. | |
| Sumner Redstone Wins Debt Restructuring Deal, Buys Two Years' Breathing Room | Top |
| LOS ANGELES — Billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone's family theater chain, National Amusements Inc., said Friday it has reached an agreement in principle to restructure $1.46 billion worth of debt. The announcement partially resolves a looming question about the company's finances, and potentially relieves an issue weighing down the shares of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp., which Redstone controls through National Amusements. The company said the agreement will extend the maturity of the existing debt to Dec. 31, 2010, with certain repayments due in late 2009 and 2010. The debt would be secured by substantially all of National Amusements' assets. The company owns more than 1,500 movie theater screens in the U.S., U.K., Latin America and Russia, the land beneath them and large chunks of CBS and Viacom shares. National Amusements' theaters operate under brand names including Showcase, The Bridge and Multiplex Cinemas. An $800 million portion of the existing debt had matured Dec. 19 but the company received a waiver as discussions with lenders continued. National Amusements was forced by its lenders, led by Bank of America, to sell off $233 million in Viacom and CBS nonvoting shares in October to satisfy certain conditions of the loans that pegged debt levels to earnings and the level of CBS and Viacom share prices. Since that sale, Redstone, the executive chairman of CBS and Viacom, has steadfastly maintained that no more shares would be sold to rectify the debt issue. "We have not, since our original sale, sold a single share of CBS or Viacom, and our lenders are not urging us to do so," Redstone told analysts on a conference call last week. According to the agreement announced Friday, National Amusements will be allowed to pay back the debt from cash flows, tax refunds and the sale of assets made at the company's discretion. In December, the company booked an estimated tax loss of $800 million after selling off shares in video game publisher Midway Games Inc. for less than a penny each. That loss could help National Amusements receive a huge tax refund. A person familiar with the situation said in December the company was also looking to sell around 600 movie theater screens in the U.S., in the hopes of raising $230 million to $280 million, plus an unspecified sum for overseas theaters. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were supposed to be confidential. Viacom shares rose 11 cents to close at $16.82 shortly after the deal was announced. CBS shares closed down 28 cents, or 6.2 percent, at $4.27. More on Sumner Redstone | |
| Rihanna And Chris Brown Are Back Together | Top |
| The pair have reunited almost three weeks after Brown, 19, allegedly battered the "Umbrella" singer on Feb. 8, a source tells PEOPLE. "They're together again. They care for each other," says the source. The on-again couple are currently spending time together at one of Sean "Diddy" Combs's homes. | |
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