Zach Galifianakis, seen with "SNL's" Jason Sudeikis, hosted the show Saturday night.
After the total misfire that was Vince Vaughn?s episode, "Saturday Night Live" was back in fantastic form with host Zach Galifianakisthis week.
The actor played a role in nearly every comedic segment, and we think Galifianakis trails only Justin Timberlake as the best host of the season.
Galifianakis wore a number of hilarious costumes throughout the night, starting with a dragon suit to play Game of Game of Thrones, a Jeopardy!-style quiz show testing contestants on all things George R. R. Martin.
PHOTOS: From Live TV to the Big Screen: 12 'SNL' Sketches Made Into Movies
But for some reason, poor Galifianakis kept getting real-world questions he couldn't answer. For example: The Lannisters are the wealthiest family in Westeros, but let?s say they want to put their money in a Roth IRA. What is a Roth IRA?
Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) showed up as himself, giving Galifianakis a thrill.
?I would make a great best friend,? Galifianakis told the handsome actor. ?We could shower together, and I wouldn?t look down, even though I wanted to.?
Later, Galifianakis got last place in a Jennifer Aniston look-alike contest, while his "Hangover" costars Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms tied for first. It doesn't get much better than seeing the Wolf Pack together in Aniston wigs.
THR COVER: The Uncensored Oral History of 'The Hangover'
In his opening monologue, Galifianakis delivered a number of short jokes and told a story he claimed happens to him fairly often. He said last week a woman came up to him at a gift card shop and asked ?Has anyone ever told you that you look like the guy from 'The Hangover'?...No offense.?
In a sketch that worked because of Galifianakis? inherent sweetness, he played a racist greeter at an M&M store who tried to make amends for the previous day's offenses.
?I continuously referred to you as the wrong type of Indian,? he told a young woman (Nasim Pedrad). ?But I want to get it right, so please tell me which kind you are and I swear I?ll never ask again.?
When informed she was Pakistani, he responded: ?Is that your tribe??
He also apologized for calling a man (Fred Armisen) a ?dirty Mexican," trying to find common ground by saying ?I?m a total slob. Maybe I don?t deserve to be in this country either."
Galifianakis, Jon Hamm and SNL pulled off one of this season?s wackiest creative fetes in the final minutes of the program. To say more would spoil it, but the two-part sketch about a man with a public access TV show (Galifianakis) has a payoff that makes it absolutely worth watching.
In one of the rare pieces not featuring Galifianakis, Match.com touted its newest client,Martha Stewart (Kate McKinnon). In real life, Stewart revealed this week she has joined the service, though the details she gave weren?t put quite so pruient as McKinnon?s take, who said she "likes the simple elegance of a good bang.?
"SNL" is new next week with host Kristen Wiig and musical guest Vampire Weekend.
Childhood disability rate jumps 16 percent over past decadePublic release date: 5-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Debbie Jacobson djacobson@aap.org 847-434-7084 American Academy of Pediatrics
Number of kids with neurodevelopmental disabilities increases, but limitations due to physical conditions decrease
WASHINGTON, DC More children today have a disability than a decade ago, and the greatest increase is among kids in higher-income families, according to a study to be presented Sunday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC.
The study also found that disabilities related to physical health conditions have decreased, while disabilities due to neurodevelopmental and mental health problems have increased greatly.
"Nearly 6 million kids had a disability in 2009-2010 almost 1 million more than in 2001-2002," said lead author Amy J. Houtrow, MD, PhD, MPH, chief, Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Houtrow said previous studies have indicated that the prevalence of childhood disability is increasing. She and her colleagues wanted to look more closely at the conditions and socio-demographic factors associated with disabilities.
The researchers analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001-2002 and survey data from 2009-2010. A total of 102,468 parents of children ages 0-17 years participated in the surveys.
Parents were asked whether their child had any limitations in play or activity, received special education services, needed help with personal care, had difficulty walking without equipment, had difficulty with memory or had any other limitation.
If they answered yes to any of those questions, they were asked whether their child's limitations were due to a vision or hearing problem; asthma or breathing problem; joint, bone or muscle problem; intellectual deficit or mental retardation; emotional or behavior problems; epilepsy; learning disability; speech problems; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; birth defect; injury or other developmental problem.
Researchers classified conditions into three groups: physical, neurodevelopmental/mental health and other.
Results showed that the prevalence of disability increased 16.3 percent from 2001-2002 to 2009-2010.
While neurodevelopmental and mental health-related disabilities increased, those due to physical conditions decreased. This trend was most notable among children under 6 years of age whose rate of neurodevelopmental disabilities nearly doubled over the study period from 19 cases to 36 cases per 1,000 children.
"The survey did not break out autism, but we suspect that some of the increase in neurodevelopmental disabilities is due to the rising incidence or recognition of autism spectrum disorders," Dr. Houtrow said.
The data also showed that children living in poverty experienced the highest rates of disability at both time periods but not the highest growth. The largest increase was seen among children living in households with incomes at or above 300 percent of the federal poverty level (about $66,000 a year for a family of four).
"We are worried that those living in poverty may be having problems with being diagnosed and getting services," Dr. Houtrow said.
Since the study could not pinpoint why the disability rate is increasing, more research is needed, she concluded.
###
To view the abstract, "Childhood Disability Trends, 2000-2010," go to http://www.abstracts2view.com/pas/view.php?nu=PAS13L1_2600.3.
The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) are four individual pediatric organizations that co-sponsor the PAS Annual Meeting the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Academic Pediatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Members of these organizations are pediatricians and other health care providers who are practicing in the research, academic and clinical arenas. The four sponsoring organizations are leaders in the advancement of pediatric research and child advocacy within pediatrics, and all share a common mission of fostering the health and well-being of children worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.pas-meeting.org. Follow news of the PAS meeting on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PedAcadSoc.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Childhood disability rate jumps 16 percent over past decadePublic release date: 5-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Debbie Jacobson djacobson@aap.org 847-434-7084 American Academy of Pediatrics
Number of kids with neurodevelopmental disabilities increases, but limitations due to physical conditions decrease
WASHINGTON, DC More children today have a disability than a decade ago, and the greatest increase is among kids in higher-income families, according to a study to be presented Sunday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC.
The study also found that disabilities related to physical health conditions have decreased, while disabilities due to neurodevelopmental and mental health problems have increased greatly.
"Nearly 6 million kids had a disability in 2009-2010 almost 1 million more than in 2001-2002," said lead author Amy J. Houtrow, MD, PhD, MPH, chief, Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Houtrow said previous studies have indicated that the prevalence of childhood disability is increasing. She and her colleagues wanted to look more closely at the conditions and socio-demographic factors associated with disabilities.
The researchers analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001-2002 and survey data from 2009-2010. A total of 102,468 parents of children ages 0-17 years participated in the surveys.
Parents were asked whether their child had any limitations in play or activity, received special education services, needed help with personal care, had difficulty walking without equipment, had difficulty with memory or had any other limitation.
If they answered yes to any of those questions, they were asked whether their child's limitations were due to a vision or hearing problem; asthma or breathing problem; joint, bone or muscle problem; intellectual deficit or mental retardation; emotional or behavior problems; epilepsy; learning disability; speech problems; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; birth defect; injury or other developmental problem.
Researchers classified conditions into three groups: physical, neurodevelopmental/mental health and other.
Results showed that the prevalence of disability increased 16.3 percent from 2001-2002 to 2009-2010.
While neurodevelopmental and mental health-related disabilities increased, those due to physical conditions decreased. This trend was most notable among children under 6 years of age whose rate of neurodevelopmental disabilities nearly doubled over the study period from 19 cases to 36 cases per 1,000 children.
"The survey did not break out autism, but we suspect that some of the increase in neurodevelopmental disabilities is due to the rising incidence or recognition of autism spectrum disorders," Dr. Houtrow said.
The data also showed that children living in poverty experienced the highest rates of disability at both time periods but not the highest growth. The largest increase was seen among children living in households with incomes at or above 300 percent of the federal poverty level (about $66,000 a year for a family of four).
"We are worried that those living in poverty may be having problems with being diagnosed and getting services," Dr. Houtrow said.
Since the study could not pinpoint why the disability rate is increasing, more research is needed, she concluded.
###
To view the abstract, "Childhood Disability Trends, 2000-2010," go to http://www.abstracts2view.com/pas/view.php?nu=PAS13L1_2600.3.
The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) are four individual pediatric organizations that co-sponsor the PAS Annual Meeting the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Academic Pediatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Members of these organizations are pediatricians and other health care providers who are practicing in the research, academic and clinical arenas. The four sponsoring organizations are leaders in the advancement of pediatric research and child advocacy within pediatrics, and all share a common mission of fostering the health and well-being of children worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.pas-meeting.org. Follow news of the PAS meeting on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PedAcadSoc.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
British human rights activists say about 4,000 people have fled the predominantly Sunni Mediterranean city of Banias. At least 62 people, including children were killed Friday by pro-government gunmen and troops.
By Bassem Mroue,?Associated Press / May 4, 2013
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (c.) walks among his supporters during an inauguration of a memorial dedicated to university students who died during the country's ongoing civil war at Damascus University May 4. On Saturday, thousands of Sunni Muslims fled the Mediterranean city Banias after pro-government gunmen shot more than 60 people Friday.
Reuters
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Thousands of Sunni Muslims fled a Syrian coastal town Saturday, a day after reports circulated that dozens of people, including children, had been killed by pro-government gunmen in the area, activists said.
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The violence occurred as embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad made his second public appearance in a week in the capital, Damascus. Also, Israeli officials confirmed that the country's air force carried out an airstrike against Syria, saying it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of the Assad regime.
It was the second Israeli strike this year against Syria and the latest salvo in its long-running effort to disrupt Hezbollah's quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel's air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.
The violence in the coastal region of Syria underscored the sectarian nature of the two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands and sent more than 1 million Syrians refugees to neighboring countries.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said around 4,000 people were fleeing from the predominantly Sunni southern parts of the Mediterranean city of Banias amid fears that pro-government gunmen "might commit a massacre."
There were conflicting reports of the death toll in Banias on Friday. The Observatory said at least 62 people, including 14 children, were killed in Ras al-Nabeh, a neighborhood in Banias, but that the number could rise as many people are still missing. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said 102 people were killed.
The Observatory said security forces were checking people's identity cards and asking them to return to Banias so that the situation could appear normal. It said those fleeing were mostly heading to the city of Tartus to the south and the town of Jableh just north of Banias.
Banias residents told The Associated Press by telephone that the central market was mostly closed Saturday amid fears of more violence. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.
The reported exodus from Banias came after activists said Friday that regime troops and gunmen from nearby Alawite areas beat, stabbed and shot at least 50 people in the Sunni Muslim village of Bayda, near Banias.
The killings in Bayda brought wide condemnation as footage of dead children were widely circulated on TV stations and social media sites.
"We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"Those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of human rights law must be held accountable," Psaki said.
Syria's crisis, that began in March 2011 with pro-democracy protests and later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, has largely broken along sectarian lines.
The Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime's security services and the military's officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.
Syria's mountainous coastal region is the Alawite heartland, although it is also dotted with Sunni villages
An amateur video released by the Observatory Saturday showed a man and at least three children dead inside a room. A baby had burned legs and a body stained with blood. Next to him was a young girl whose face had been deformed after apparently being hit with a sharp object.
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, identified the man killed as Haitham Sahyouni. He said Sahyouni was found dead along with his three children, his brother Hamid and mother Watfa. He said it was not clear if Sahyouni was an opposition supporter.
Elsewhere in Syria, activists and state media said troops have captured most of the villages and towns around the town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon.
The Observatory said five rebels, including a local commander, were killed in Qusair. It added that members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group are taking part in the battles against the rebels.
Hezbollah had acknowledged that it is aiding Lebanese villagers who live on the Syrian side of the border after they cane under rebel attacks.
State TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops put under control al-Abadi and Tel Ghraifi areas near Damascus. He said "tens" of rebels were killed or wounded in the fighting.
Also Saturday, Syrian state TV said Assad, who rarely appears in public, visited a Damascus campus and was walking in the middle of hundreds of people. The report said Assad inaugurated a statue dedicated to "martyrs" from Syrian universities who died in the country's uprising and civil war.
A photograph posted on Assad's Facebook page showed him surrounded by bodyguards as young men, who appeared to be students, waved at him. On Wednesday, Assad visited a Damascus power station to mark May Day, according to the media.
May 3, 2013 ? A research group at the University of Alicante (Spain) has invented an algae removal and treatment system that turns this underused residue into a renewable source of energy: biomass. The process involves several stages of washing, drying and compacting without leaving the beach. Therefore, according to the team led by Professor Irene Sentana Gadea, the system is cheaper, more efficient and more environmentally friendly than the procedure commonly followed now.
With the invention, protected with a national patent, up to an 80 percent of the weight and volume currently removed would stay on the beaches, as now with the seaweed water and sand are also sent to rubbish tips or treatment plants. Professor Eloy Sentana Cremades says that as well as considerable savings on transportation, the new procedure would allow to give more uses to the dried seaweed.
The system is based on a moving platform with wheels where three hoppers are installed. The first receives shovelfuls of wet seaweed with sand attached. Seawater is pumped in and poured back into the sea dragging the sand with it. In the next hopper, water purified with a solar-powered device would wash most of the residual salt from the algae, and in the third hopper it would be dried with air heated also by solar energy. The clean and dry seaweed could be then pressed by a system similar to the one used by rubbish trucks or converted into bales or pellets, ready to be commercialized. No chemical products would be used in the process.
The method currently used has drawbacks such as the deterioration of beaches due to the extraction of sand that then has to be replaced, the weight of the waste, and the saturation of certain landfills to which it is taken. Also, as the material is impregnated with sand and salt and mixed with other wastes, the use of the dead seaweed is limited to rudimentary applications, such as aerating the ground for agricultural purposes.
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The United States will remain the world's most powerful nation for years to come, but the Obama administration and U.S. lawmakers are now focused on debt, immigration, guns and growth.
A war-weary, under-employed American public wants results at home, leaving U.S. officials to look for allies willing to share costs and risks abroad.
Unfortunately, it's not easy to build and sustain alliances in a world where America can't afford its traditional share of the heavy lifting.
No wonder then that the Obama administration's greatest foreign policy successes haven't depended on such alliances.
Withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't require consensus among the world's powers. President Barack Obama's single indisputable foreign policy triumph, the killing of Osama bin Laden, needed buy-in only from the members of Seal Team 6.
Nor should we look to Europe for help. Its leaders are still hard at work duct-taping the euro zone, and cash-strapped governments consider an activist European foreign policy prohibitively expensive.
Nor will next-wave powers look to shoulder new burdens. Economic slowdowns in China, India and Brazil remind us that not every emerging market will fully emerge, much less accept the costs and risks that come with a share of global leadership.
In this G-Zero world, where no single government or alliance can lead others toward compromise, solutions to transnational problems range from ad hoc to beyond reach. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the U.N.'s Conference on Sustainable Development last June with a warning: This gathering is too big to fail.
But for Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the event was simply too big to attend. None of them has the muscle, individually or together, to force compromise on the policies that fuel climate change ? and they know it.
This leadership vacuum continues to expand. The risk of confrontation in Asia has grown ? between China and Japan (the world's second- and third-largest economies) in the East China Sea, and between China and several Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea.
Making matters even more dangerous, the U.S. transition toward a sharper foreign policy focus on Asia, progress toward a massive U.S.-led transpacific trade deal that excludes China and conflict in the under-governed expanse of cyberspace are worsening tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Fights over commercial and investment rules and the clash between the state-driven and free-market varieties of capitalism have gathered momentum. In years to come, no ties will be more important for global peace and prosperity than those that bind America and China, the world's most powerful developed and developing states, and no development would more quickly exacerbate the G-Zero dilemma than a dramatic worsening of relations between them.
In the Middle East, Syria's civil war grinds on with worrisome implications for Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and even Russia. Sectarian tensions are again stoking violence in Iraq. Attacks on U.S. diplomatic targets in Libya, Egypt and Yemen have heightened Washington's aversion to direct involvement in the region's conflicts. This is another region in which a lack of global leadership and rivalries among local heavyweights ensure that pain will get worse before real progress can be made.
Ironically, the nation most likely to fill the leadership vacuum left by America the Vulnerable is America the Resilient. A technology-driven U.S. energy boom has begun to create jobs, revitalize U.S. manufacturing and offer Washington the chance to use exports of natural gas, technology and knowhow to reverse the decline in U.S. international influence.
Over the longer term, Washington will have to address the growing imbalances on U.S. books, but as the financial crisis reminded us, when volatility and fear are the order of the day, safety becomes the world's most valuable commodity. That's why the United States remains the world's investment safe haven ? and why, for better and worse, not even ratings agency downgrades can make it more difficult for America's government to borrow money, at least for the moment.
Nor is it inevitable that America and China will collide. Washington and Beijing seem at times destined for conflict, a dispute more likely to be fought in financial markets and in cyberspace than on more familiar battlegrounds. Yet heavy volumes of bilateral trade and investment ensure that neither side has much to gain from the other's weakness.
The two countries can't afford a zero-sum, Cold War-style confrontation, and both governments know it. It remains to be seen, however, if Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping have the vision and political will to build the sort of pragmatic partnership that might finally bring the G-Zero era to an end.
(Ian Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm. Bremmer created Wall Street's first global political risk index, and has authored several books, including the national bestseller, The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?, which details the new global phenomenon of state capitalism and its geopolitical implications. He has a PhD in political science from Stanford University (1994), and was the youngest-ever national fellow at the Hoover Institution.)
(Ian Bremmer)
(Ian Bremmer is a Reuters columnist but his opinions are his own.)
May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...
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Public release date: 5-May-2013
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