Articles by admin

No Image

Sports September 9, 2016

Serena Williams Loses Chance To Break Grand Slam Record

On Monday, Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim said the U.S. Open was Serena Williams’ to lose, and on Thursday night, she did. He tells NPR’s Audie Cornish what happened Thursday when she lost not just her match, but her chance to surpass Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam singles titles.

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

After she won Wimbledon in July, it seemed like Serena Williams was poised to break Steffi Graf’s long-standing record of winning 22 grand slam singles titles. But after a surprising loss last night at the U.S. Open, Williams will have to wait for another chance. It’s just the latest drama in an exciting U.S. Open. The men’s title is up for grabs this weekend as well. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated is at the U.S. Open in New York City. Welcome back, Jon.

JON WERTHEIM: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

CORNISH: So what exactly happened with Serena Williams? What’s the explanation here?

WERTHEIM: My four-letter explanation – T-I-M-E. Serena turns 35 later this month. And she looked like someone in their mid-30s about to leave the 18-to-34 demographic last night. She had a very exciting match on Wednesday night, but it was a three-set match that I think depleted her a little bit. And she came back on Thursday with less than 24 hours rest and looked like a spent player. She ran into a powerful opponent. This player – Karolina Pliskova – had beaten Venus earlier in the tournament. But I do think last night was really more about Serena being far from her best. She had some injuries and her timing was flat. She had 18 aces in her previous match, only five last night. And basically she looked, sadly, mortal.

CORNISH: Well, settle down here because she’s been number one for – what? – like, 186 weeks? I mean, it’s not like she’s playing poorly.

WERTHEIM: No, that’s what’s been interesting about this

WERTHEIM: Serena’s kept her number one ranking up through this tournament. She reached the finals of the first three majors. She won Wimbledon. She reached the semifinals here. So part of what’s interesting about her year is that this hasn’t been – she hasn’t fallen off a cliff. This hasn’t been a dramatic drop off. She’s just had a hard time closing matches late in the tournament, which is completely new for her.

I mean, it used to be if she got to this stage in an event you may as well start engraving her name. You had to – the book was you had to get to Serena early, and nobody’s really done that this year. And yet she’s had a hard time closing, which is something we’ve never seen from her before.

CORNISH: Well, tomorrow in the finals it’s Karolina Pliskova and who? Tell me what this setup is going to be.

WERTHEIM: She is facing Angie Kerber, a German player who is the player who will now take over the number one ranking from Serena. I think the casual fan will see this and think, oh, and how in the world is Serena not number one? But Kerber’s having this fantastic year. She actually beat Serena in the Australian Open final, lost to her in the Wimbledon final. She was a silver medalist. She plays sort of subtle, tactical tennis. She moves very well. This number one ranking is very well deserved.

But again, I think the big takeaway from this story is a year ago, Serena was trying to win the Grand Slam, all four majors in the year, and she came up just a little bit short. This year, it was not nearly as decorated a year. She only won one major and lost at three others, including the U.S. Open, obviously.

CORNISH: I want to talk about the men now. Of the so-called big four, you had Roger Federer sitting out due to injury, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray both upset earlier in the tournament. So who’s left? What’s going on?

WERTHEIM: Novak Djokovic will have to carry the banner of the big four. This is – just to give you an idea of how their excellence has been such a dominating theme – this is the first tournament in more than six years at which at least two of them hasn’t been represented in the final four of a tournament. So Djokovic will have to represent the big four. He is the defending champion, the number one ranked player, the number one seed.

But there are three outsiders who have crashed the party and again, as with Serena, I wonder if time isn’t our theme here. Rafael Nadal is now north of 30. Roger Federer is 35. And I – sadly maybe this transition is just inevitable, time doing its thing.

CORNISH: That’s Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports Illustrated, talking to us from the U.S. Open in New York. Thanks so much.

WERTHEIM: Anytime, Audie.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Business September 9, 2016

VW Engineer Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Violate U.S. Clean Air Act

A longtime Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges as part of a deal with prosecutors. Here, the turbo diesel injection (TDI) engine of a Volkswagen vehicle is seen. Bloomberg/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Bloomberg/Getty Images

A veteran Volkswagen employee has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the carmaker’s use of so-called “clean diesel” engines that actually cheated on U.S. emissions tests. Engineer James Robert Liang worked for VW in both Germany and the U.S.

Liang pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S., to commit wire fraud, and to violate the Clean Air Act; a grand jury indicted him three months ago, but that document was sealed until today.

As part of the plea deal, Liang faces a mutually agreed-upon sentencing guideline that sets a maximum of five years in prison, according to court records. He also could be forced to pay a fine of up to $250,000.

Liang started working for Volkswagen in 1983; in 2006, he helped design the “EA 189” diesel engine that has been linked to a recall of millions of vehicles worldwide, prosecutors say.

NPR’s John Ydstie reports:

“Appearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Liang said he was guilty because he had failed to disclose the software that Volkswagen had installed in vehicles to enable them to fraudulently pass emissions tests. Liang told the court he and his colleagues realized the diesel engines would not meet U.S. emissions standards, so they designed software to recognize when the cars were being tested.

“Liang moved to the U.S. in 2008 to help launch VW’s so-called ‘clean diesel’ vehicles. Nearly 600,000 were sold in the U.S. Liang has agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors, suggesting they are pursuing more VW employees.”

Liang was indicted in early June; later that month, Volkswagen agreed to pay “up to $10 billion to buy back cars and compensate U.S. vehicle owners in the largest civil settlement in automobile history,” in addition to paying nearly $5 billion in environmental reparations, as we reported.

For the past eight years, Liang worked in the U.S. as the Leader of Diesel Competence for Volkswagen’s American subsidiary. He attended meetings with the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss certifying VW diesel vehicles for the U.S. market — meetings at which prosecutors say Liang and his co-conspirators “continued to falsely and fraudulently certify” that the cars met emissions standards.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Entertainment September 8, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: The Best of the Toronto Film Festival, Honoring Tom Hanks the Hero and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Video List of the Day:

With the Toronto International Film Festival kicking off today, Kevin B. Lee and Fandor Keyframe present a countdown of the best TIFF premieres of the past decade:

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

One of the best cosplayers of this year’s Dragon Con mashed up two favorite superhero movie characters of 2016, Deadpool and Suicide Squad‘s Harley Quinn (via Collider):

Supercut of the Day:

We’ve seen enough Batman movie kill counts, so now it’s time for love with this supercut of all 60 of his kisses on the big screen (via io9):

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

Peter Sellers, who was born on this day in 1925, looks on as Stanley Kubrick shows him how to play the title characters of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1963:

Funny Movie Review of the Day:

The Onion‘s Peter K. Rosenthal reviews Sully with focus on how it doesn’t ignores the tragedy for the geese involved in the story:

[embedded content]

Mashup of the Day:

Funny or Die highlights how many characters Tom Hanks has played involving airports and airplanes and captains by mashing his movies up for a new version of Sully:

Actor in the Spotlight:

Also in honor of Tom Hanks starring as hero Chesley Sullenberger in Sully, Fandango and MovieClips present a supercut of the actor saving the day:

[embedded content]

Filmmaker in Focus:

Speaking of Tom Hanks movies about saving the day, The Nerdwriter looks at Saving Private Ryan and how Steven Spielberg constructs a battle scene:

[embedded content]

Fan Art of the Day:

Paul Feig is another filmmaker in focus today, as one of his fans got a tattoo of his face, a unique kind of director tribute (via Paul Feig):

@paulfeig update: this is the finished product pic.twitter.com/FWE05D8Y4u

— frank (@notfrankievalli) September 7, 2016

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 10th anniversary of the release of Hollywoodland. Watch the original trailer for the movie that first put Ben Affleck in a DC superhero suit below.

[embedded content]

and

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Business September 8, 2016

A Siberian River Has Mysteriously Turned Blood Red

The Daldykan River in Siberia has recently turned red, and the cause is not yet known. Liza Udilova / Greenpeace hide caption

toggle caption Liza Udilova / Greenpeace

Alarmed Russians are sharing photos on social media of a Siberian river that has suddenly and mysteriously turned blood red.

Russian authorities are trying to determine the cause of the ominous change to the Daldykan River, located above the Arctic Circle and flowing through the mining town of Norilsk. Photos posted on Facebook by the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the Taimir Peninsula clearly show the river has turned a vivid red.

[embedded content]

As National Geographic reported, two major theories are emerging to explain the change. “The first is that the red color comes from the large quantity of iron that occurs naturally in the ground in that region,” National Geographic said. “The second is a chemical leak.”

Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said in a statement that it suspects the latter explanation: “According to our initial information, a possible reason for the pollution of the river might be a break in the pipeline” belonging to a local factory, which is owned by the nickel and palladium giant Norilsk Nickel.

The ministry did not specify what kind of chemical may be leaking into the river. According to the BBC, the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta suggested that the pipeline could be leaking waste copper-nickel concentrate.

[embedded content]

Despite the numerous social media posts and the government statement confirming the red color, Norilsk Nickel maintains everything is normal with the river. “The waters show the natural tone; the river and its mainstream are in regular condition, which goes against the information about any color changes due to an alleged case of large-scale river pollution,” Norilsk Nickel said in a statement. It included photos such as this one, which it said were taken yesterday morning:

The company, Norilsk Nickel, released photos of the river it says were taken Wednesday, claiming it is in “regular condition.” Norilsk Nickel hide caption

toggle caption Norilsk Nickel

The company added that it has “strengthened the environmental monitoring in the area of the river and adjacent production facilities” and would test samples from the river this week.

This isn’t the first time the river has changed color, according to multiple news outlets. The Guardian reported that some social media users said it had also happened in June. “Periodically there are accidents when these pipes break and the solutions spill and get into the Daldykan — that’s why it changes colour,” Denis Koshevoi, a Ph.D. candidate studying pollution in the area, told the newspaper.

“Incidents such as the polluting of the waters of Daldykan River is a common occurrence in the Russian Arctic because of a consistent irresponsible attitude towards environmental standards,” Vladmir Chouprov, head of the energy program of Greenpeace Russia, said in a statement. “The Arctic ecosystem is extremely vulnerable; scars of human impact need decades or even centuries to amend.”

Area residents don’t drink this water, as CNN reported. The network quoted the state news agency, saying “the river isn’t connected to the public water supply and the incident doesn’t pose an immediate threat to the residents’ well-being.”

[embedded content]

The area has a tragic history, as NPR’s Michele Kelemen reported from Norilsk in 2000. “Norilsk began as part of the gulag archipelago. Stalin sent prisoners there to extract the mineral wealth of Russia’s frozen north,” she said. “Workers lived in desolate, brutal prison camps. Only after 1956 did Soviets begin to go to Norilsk voluntarily to take high-paying mining jobs.”

Michele described what it looked like during her visit: “As far as the eye can see there are cranes, polluting smokestacks from the smelters and rusty pipes winding through the trashed landscape of this Arctic city.”

And now, a red river flows through it.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Health September 8, 2016

Widespread Use Of Prescription Drugs Provides Ample Supply For Abuse

Nearly half of Americans 12 and older take sedatives, stimulants, painkillers or tranquilizers. Izabela Habur/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Almost half of all Americans take prescription painkillers, tranquilizers, stimulants or sedatives, according to results of a federal survey released Thursday. The prevalent use of these drugs could help explain why millions of Americans end up misusing or abusing them.

Last year, for the first time, the government’s National Survey on Drug Use decided to ask the people it interviewed about all uses of prescription medicines, not just inappropriate use. The survey found that 119 million Americans age 12 and over took prescription psychotherapeutic drugs. That’s 45 percent of the population.

Of those, about 19 million Americans didn’t follow a prescription. Most misuse involved people who acquired the drugs from friends or family. More than a third had a prescription but took those drugs excessively. And about 5 percent bought drugs from a dealer or stranger.

All told, 16 percent of all prescription drug use was actually misuse, according to the report.

There’s no question that these drugs help alleviate pain and suffering for millions of Americans. But it’s also clear that the system encourages overuse.

“Any of us go to the doctor and feel like we don’t get our money’s worth if we don’t come out with a prescription, right?” Kim Johnson told Shots. She is director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“Just like any drug, the more it’s out there, the more it’s available, the more likely it is to be abused,” she said. And many of these drugs pose an additional risk because of their physical effects, including in some cases their addictive properties.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to reform prescribing practices, particularly for opioid drugs, to reduce the overuse of these pain medications. The new survey also documents the dire need for affordable and accessible treatment options.

“One in 12 people aged 12 or over needed treatment for substance use disorder, yet nearly 90 percent of those people didn’t get specialty treatment that could have helped them toward recovery,” said Kana Enomoto, SAMHSA’s principal deputy administrator, at a news conference.

That need for treatment pertains not just to prescription drug abuse but to street drugs such as heroin.

“We need to expand access to treatment and we need to do it now,” said Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “Because, like every other disease, people who want treatment should be able to get it. And it should not be dependent on where they live or how much money they have.”

President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2017 called for more than $1 billion to expand access to drug treatment, but Congress has not acted on it.

You can email correspondent Richard Harris.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Sports September 8, 2016

After Going For Gold, Athletes Can Feel The Post-Olympic Blues

American Margaux Isaksen smiles during the women’s fencing in the Modern Pentathlon on Aug. 19 at the Rio Olympics. She finished fourth in London in 2012 and 20th in Rio. “It makes you feel sort of worthless,” Isaksen says of her performance. She calls this current period a “post-Olympic depression.” Rob Carr/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Rob Carr/Getty Images

The Rio Olympics are in the rear-view mirror. Thousands of athletes have returned home to resume their lives. But for many, this post-Olympic period can be a rough one, with depression and anxiety haunting them after the games.

That depression can affect both stars and lesser-known athletes alike.

Swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, has talked candidly about his downward spiral after the 2012 London games that led to a DUI arrest and time in rehab.

“I still remember the days locked up in my room, not wanting to talk to anybody, not wanting to see anybody, really not wanting to live,” he told NBC’s Bob Costas during the Olympics last month.

Phelps has been something of a savior to his friend and fellow swimmer Allison Schmitt. She also suffered profound depression after the London Olympics and has become an outspoken advocate for mental health treatment, especially for elite athletes.

Consider that these athletes have spent years, maybe decades, building to the all-consuming goal of making the Olympics.

Now, it’s over. All of the buildup, the hype and media attention, the extreme adrenaline rush of competition, have come to a crashing halt.

“You work so hard,” says Karen Cogan, sports psychologist with the U.S. Olympic Committee. “You put everything into it, and for some athletes, their performance is over in a matter of seconds, literally. And then it’s done, and now what?”

Fencer Kelley Hurley (left) with teammate Kat Holmes at the Olympics in Rio in August. “You feel a little empty” after the games, says Hurley, expressing a sentiment felt by many athletes who prepared for years. Melissa Block/NPR hide caption

toggle caption Melissa Block/NPR

That’s what fencer Kelley Hurley, 28, is asking herself.

I talked with her a couple of weeks ago as she was packing up to leave the athletes’ village in Rio, heading back home to San Antonio. Her epee team finished fifth.

“You feel a little empty,” she said. “Everything that you did all came up to one point, and now it’s over and the new chapter begins, and where to start writing?”

This was Hurley’s third Olympics. Now, she’s wondering if she should try for a fourth.

“Should I do school or make new friends, because I lost them all in the last four years, when I haven’t had time to hang out with any of them,” she says, ruefully.

Hurley hopes that, with the Olympics behind her, she can finish her masters in public health at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

Like Hurley, many athletes have put their lives outside of sport on hold. Some have delayed or taken time off from college. They’ve likely missed out on important family events, like weddings and funerals.

Now they’re reckoning with the future.

For triathlete Greg Billington, 27, of San Diego, becoming an Olympian was a driving goal for nearly 20 years. Ever since he started swimming around age 8, he wanted to qualify for an Olympic team. Posters of Olympic gold medal backstroker Lenny Krayzelburg hung on his bedroom walls.

So when Billington qualified to compete in Rio, he considered it the absolute pinnacle of achievement.

“It kind of changes who you are,” he says. “You’re trying to become the best version of yourself that exists. There’s nothing that quite grips your imagination like qualifying for an Olympic team does, so that’s what makes it hard to replace.”

U.S. triathlete Greg Billington competes in the Olympics in Rio on Aug. 18. He finished 37th. “Currently nothing fills that void,” Billington, 27, says of the post-Olympic period. He plans to seek a spot on the U.S. team in 2020. Bryn Lennon/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

In the end, Billington didn’t have a good triathlon in Rio. He finished 37th. Now that he’s home in California, he says the transition has been tough.

“Currently nothing fills that void. It’s just a little empty part and that’s OK for a little while, as long as it gets filled before it starts to fester,” he says.

Billington says he’ll pursue qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“I think there’s definitely more I can get out of myself in triathlon,” he says. After he retires, he’s interested in going to business school.

For some athletes, retiring from sport can bring its own set of problems.

“Their identity is so wrapped up in being an athlete and in their sport,” Cogan, the psychologist, says. “All of a sudden they don’t have that identity in the same way. So who are they going to be? What is the identity going to be? That sometimes is a big struggle.”

If they’re starting over in a new career, many athletes discover with a shock that they’re not among the best any more.

And even for athletes who made the medal podium, they come down from the ultimate high, an explosion of endorphins.

That success can bring its own set of pressures: can I possibly match that again?

Adam Krikorian, who has coached the U.S. women’s water polo team to gold medals in the past two Olympics, says apart from the medal itself, it’s the shared intense journey that proves impossible to replicate.

“You build this incredible bond, and all of a sudden it’s over,” he says. “They’re gonna go the rest of their life looking to try to emulate this experience. And many of them are gonna have a hard time finding something that’s going to equal that passion and that energy and that love.”

Cogan often counsels athletes disappointed in their Olympic performance, who get stuck replaying part of their competition constantly in their mind, wishing they could have a do-over.

That’s the case for Margaux Isaksen, 24, who competes in modern pentathlon, an event that combines shooting, fencing, swimming, horseback riding, and running.

At the London Olympics in 2012, she finished fourth — so close to a medal.

“I just remember thinking, wow, if I had run a second faster, or I’d got one extra fencing touch, then I would have a medal. And I just came home and I felt so defeated and so sad,” says Isaksen, who lives in Fayetteville, Ark.

This summer in Rio, Isaksen was competing five weeks after surgery for a stress fracture in her leg, and she finished 20th.

“It makes you feel sort of worthless,” she says. “It’s a really strong word, but that’s kind of how I feel right now. I really feel like I’ve let myself down, let my coaches down, and that’s hard. And then you don’t know if you want to put yourself through that again.”

Isaksen calls this period “post-Olympic depression.”

She’s finding some relief with yoga, and spending time outside. She’s also been bolstered by some tough love from her mother.

“She told me right after Rio just how proud she was. She gave me a big hug. And then she just said, ‘You know what, Margaux? There’s so much more to life than sport.’ And she said, ‘Just think about everything that’s going on in the world, all the suffering. And just think for a minute about how lucky you are that this seems like the biggest tragedy in your life right now.'”

Isaksen continues: “When you think about that and you put it in perspective, all of my so-called problems? It really doesn’t seem like anything at all.”

Being an elite athlete is a self-absorbed endeavor, Isaksen admits. Sometimes, she says, you just need a smack in the face to bring you back to reality.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Entertainment September 7, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' VFX Breakdown, The Rock in the DC Universe and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

VFX Reel of the Day:

See how much CG work went into the Oscar-nominated visual effects of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in ILM’s newly shared breakdown reel (via The Playlist):

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

That time a lightsaber battle broke out at Dragon Con between some Jedi, some dinosaurs and Deadpool (via Dragon Con):

Some @DragonCon fun last night pic.twitter.com/HePNNm1eYi

— Cabrina (@ariel1_33705) September 5, 2016

Fan Art of the Day:

Artist Juan Hugo Martinez has seamlessly inserted Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam into a DC Extended Universe scene with Batman and Superman (via Geek Tyrant):

Alternate Ending of the Day:

If Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows wasn’t so set on being a kids’ movie with no violent killings, it could have ended a lot easier:

[embedded content]

Reworked Movie of the Day:

Remember Nine Lives, the new movie where Kevin Spacey is turned into a cat? Maybe you would have seen it if the trailers sold it as a horror movie, like this CineMash job:

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

Elia Kazan, who was born on this day in 1909, directs Carroll Baker and Karl Malden for a scene in Baby Doll, which turns 60 this year:

Filmmaker in Focus:

With A Monster Calls due out at the end of this year, Jorge Luengo looks at J.A. Bayona’s trilogy of mother and son movies, also including The Orphanage and The Impossible:

[embedded content]

Actor in the Spotlight:

Ranker pays tribute to Tim Curry with a supercut of the actor laughing in his movies:

[embedded content]

Supercut of the Day:

Revisit the 1980s with this collection of old production company logos, including Cannon, Carolco and Orion (via One Perfect Shot):

[embedded content]

Classic Trailer of the Day:

The Battle of Algiers recently turned 50, and there’s an anniversary restoration version screening free at the Toronto International Film Festival this Friday. Watch the trailer for the 2004 re-release of the classic foreign film below.

[embedded content]

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Sports September 7, 2016

Paralympics Open in Rio Under A Financial Cloud

The China team enters the stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Games at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The games feature more than 4,300 athletes from 161 countries. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

The international games featuring more than 4,300 disabled athletes from 161 countries opened in Rio de Janeiro amid reports that costs could outpace ticket sales and sponsorships, jeopardizing some aspects of the games.

But organizers say a last-minute push has boosted ticket sales and a bailout by the Brazilian government has helped save the event.

International Paralympic Committee president Philip Craven said he was notified just five weeks ago that funding for the games was tight.

“This is the worst situation that we’ve ever found ourselves in at Paralympic movement,” Craven told The Associated Press. “We were aware of difficulties, but we weren’t aware it was as critical as this.”

The AP reports that the city of Rio contributed more than $46 million and the Brazilian federal government chipped in another $30.7 million funneled through three state-run entities.

Even with that cash infusion, Paralympics officials say venues, seating, and staffing will be scaled back. But they promise no sports or teams have been cut.

Of course, they were speaking after the Russian delegation was disqualified as a result of a doping scandal. During the opening ceremonies, the Russian flag was seen in the ranks of the athletes from Belarus, in an apparent protest against the banning of the Russians.

Organizers say 1.6 million tickets have been sold, but that’s short of the 2.5 million available. Four years ago, the London Paralympics sold 2.7 million tickets, reports the BBC.

Nevertheless, for the athletes it’s all about elevating the international profile of the games.

“I don’t want the movement to plateau or become stagnant,” U.S. wheelchair basketball player Desiree Miller told the AP. Miller also competed in London.

“I want it to catch fire after Rio so by the time Tokyo comes around there’s not a person in the States or a person in the world that doesn’t know who a Paralympian is.”

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Business September 7, 2016

Apple Nixes Headphone Jack In iPhone 7, Reveals Cordless AirPods

Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses the company’s new wireless AirPods headphones during an event in San Francisco on Wednesday in which Apple also presented the iPhone 7. Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Bloomberg via Getty Images

Apple had waited many years to send its very first tweet. It finally happened on Wednesday, with a release of a sponsored tweet, promoting the new iPhone 7: New cameras. Water-resistant. Stereo speakers. Longer battery life.”

Except — oops! — CEO Tim Cook had yet to announce the new version of the smartphone. When he finally did, he said, as always: “It’s the best iPhone that we have ever created.”

The long-running speculation about the new features on the phone proved largely true. The 7 and 7 Plus, for sale later this month, look very much like the 6 and 6 Plus, though ever-so-slightly lighter — and, yes, without a headphone jack.

“The reason to move on [is] courage,” said Apple’s Phil Schiller in revealing the change. “The courage to move on, do something new that betters all of us.”

Instead, new phones will come with special adapters that plug into the same port as a charging/data cord. But what Apple really wants you to do is buy its new $159 product: AirPods — wireless headphones that look like the buds of the regular Apple headphones but cordless — for an “effortless and magical listening experience,” as Cook put it.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, talks about the new iPhone 7 during an event to announce new products Wednesday in San Francisco. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP hide caption

toggle caption Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

The new iPhone is also water- and dust-resistant, has a new home button that doesn’t physically click, stereo speakers, a bit longer-lasting battery, a really fancy camera setup (with low-light capacity and color recognition, and better zoom on the two-camera 7 Plus) and new body options in matte black and “jet black.”

These changes may seem like a far cry from significant iPhone overhauls Apple had done in the past to encourage users to buy a new device every two years. Some observers had argued this is a sign of iPhone’s maturing as it approaches its 10th birthday.

But Forrester analyst Julie Ask argues the iPhone 7 will pick up momentum after a possibly lukewarm response. “Consumers underestimate the engineering feats that the iPhone 7 brings, like the audio, camera, processing power, etc. in such a small package,” she said in a statement.

Shipping in mid-September, the new phones are priced starting at $649 for the iPhone 7 and $769 for the iPhone 7 Plus, which has a bigger screen. They will also start with a higher memory capacity of 32 gigabytes, as Apple gets rid of the 16GB option.

In other releases, the company unveiled a “Series 2” of the Apple Watch that is waterproof and includes a GPS — an appeal to the workout market of runners/hikers/bikers/swimmers/surfers, where the watch has faced persistent competition from other wearables.

The watch also gets in on the Pokemon Go craze of the summer with a game adaptation specifically for the device.

But perhaps a bigger gaming piece of news came from Nintendo, which announced that Super Mario is finally coming to the app store.

Shigeru Miyamoto, known as the father of Mario, took the stage to announce a new game called “Super Mario Run,” which you can play on the phone with one hand — “while eating a hamburger or eating an apple,” as Miyamoto said.

Shares of Nintendo, which as The Verge points out “has been slow to bring its iconic characters and games to smartphones,” jumped on the news. Apple’s shares didn’t see major gains.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Health September 7, 2016

How Much Do Drugs For Rare Diseases Add To Health Care Spending?

How big a deal is the spending on drugs for rare diseases? Mark Airs/Ikon Images/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Mark Airs/Ikon Images/Getty Images

Rising concerns about spending on prescription drugs that treat rare diseases are overblown, according to an analysis published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs.

“We wanted to focus on the true impact of orphan drugs,” said Victoria Divino, a senior consultant at IMS Health and an author of the study. Researchers at IMS Health, a health care analytics firm, and drugmaker Celgene Corp. looked at U.S. pharmaceutical spending from 2007 to 2013 on more than 300 drugs that had orphan approval under the 1983 Orphan Drug Act.

The Orphan Drug Act has long been considered a success for encouraging the production of hundreds of drugs for rare diseases. But the law’s very success has raised economic concerns as the number of high-priced drugs for rare diseases has grown.

The review found that orphan drug spending in the United States totaled $15 billion in 2007 and $30 billion in 2013, an increase from 4.8 percent of total pharmaceutical spending to 8.9 percent. The current study projects orphan drug spending will remain fairly stable as a proportion of total drug spending. That stands in contrast to other published reports that estimate orphan drugs will account for 20 percent of worldwide spending on drugs (other than generics) by 2020.

The rise in orphan drug spending since 2007, Divino said, was caused by an increase in the number of orphan drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The number of orphan drug approvals increased from 16 in 2007 to 33 in 2013, the analysis’ time period.

The Health Affairs article is the latest in a growing debate about the causes of high prescription drug prices and how orphan drugs may play a role. Drugs that win orphan approval have been cited for commanding premium prices, costing up to $300,000 per year or more, according to market research reports.

The Orphan Drug Act provides a seven-year exclusivity period that blocks competition and other financial incentives to companies that develop drugs for diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people.

The pharmaceutical industry’s interest in orphan drugs has escalated in recent years and, increasingly, doctors and researchers have raised questions about unintended consequences of the act.

Celgene has been one of the top beneficiaries of the orphan drug law. The company’s flagship drug Revlimid, which has orphan status for multiple myeloma and many other cancers, had sales of $5.8 billion in 2015. Evaluate Ltd., a London-based research firm, forecasts that Celgene will become the No. 1 orphan drug company in world, as measured by sales, in 2020.

“When those financial incentives become sort of an investment opportunity to take advantage of the Orphan Drug Act. That’s a huge, huge concern,” said Clare Krusing, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a national association for health insurance companies. AHIP released a paper in August that questioned prices on orphan drugs when they were being used outside of their approved orphan indication.

For the Health Affairs paper, Divino and her team narrowed their analysis to orphan drug spending on drugs when they were used only on the rare diseases they were approved to treat under the act. The researchers used a database estimated to represent 98 percent of overall U.S. sales.

“The number of orphan drugs is increasing but when we look at this line of the actual spending and the forecast as well … yes, there is growth but it’s a consistent linear trend,” Divino said.

Still, the authors’ write, “in a broader context, drug expenditures are minimal when considered as part of total health care expenditures.” Total orphan drug spending represented approximately 1 percent of total U.S. health care spending, according to the authors.

Divino said the study’s focus was on aggregate spending and they didn’t look at the effect of orphan drug prices on individual patients.

In an email statement, the pharmaceutical industry trade group PhRMA, said the study “reinforces that the overall impact of orphan medicines on payer budgets is relatively small and contrary to rhetoric, the percentage of medicines with both orphan and non-orphan indications is small.”

But AHIP and others say that not including the cost of orphans when they aren’t used to treat rare diseases skews the pricing issue for patients.

“It’s not really the true orphans we worry about. It’s about the other types of gaming and abusing the orphan drug act which drives up expenditures,” AHIP’s Krusing said.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine called on lawmakers last year to close loopholes in the act, saying the law’s financial incentives encouraged high prices and motivated companies to apply for orphan designation even when a drug is known to treat more common conditions.

The paper, published in the American Journal of Clinical Oncology, noted that seven of the top-10 selling drugs worldwide in 2014 had received orphan status. Those listed included popular drug such as Crestor, a cholesterol fighter, and Humira, for rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.

“There are a lot of factors I think that have come up in pricing in general, but what people are getting a glimpse of is the sheer greed,” said Dr. Martin Makary, an author of the 2015 paper and professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent news service supported by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Follow Sarah Jane Tribble on Twitter: @sjtribble.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)