Diner’s Journal Blog: PepsiCo Will Halt Use of Additive in Gatorade

PepsiCo announced on Friday that it would no longer use an ingredient in Gatorade after consumers complained.

The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, which was used in citrus versions of the sports drink to prevent the flavorings from separating, was the object of a petition started on Change.org by Sarah Kavanagh, a 15-year-old from Hattiesburg, Miss., who became concerned about the ingredient after reading about it online. Studies have suggested there are possible side effects, including neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones.

The petition attracted more than 200,000 signatures, and this week, Ms. Kavanagh was in New York City to tape a segment for “The Dr. Oz Show.” She visited The New York Times on Wednesday and while there said, “I just don’t understand why they can’t use something else instead of B.V.O.”

“I was in algebra class and one of my friends kicked me and said, ‘Have you seen this on Twitter?’ ” Ms. Kavanagh said in a phone interview on Friday evening. “I asked the teacher if I could slip out to the bathroom, and I called my mom and said, ‘Mom, we won.’ ”

Molly Carter, a spokeswoman for Gatorade, said the company had been testing alternatives to the chemical for roughly a year “due to customer feedback.” She said Gatorade initially was not going to make an announcement, “since we don’t find a health and safety risk with B.V.O.”

Because of the petition, though, Ms. Carter said the company had changed its mind, and an unidentified executive there gave Beverage Digest, a trade publication, the news for its Jan. 25 issue.

Previously, a spokesman for PepsiCo had said in an e-mail, “We appreciate Sarah as a fan of Gatorade, and her concern has been heard.”

Brominated vegetable oil will be replaced by sucrose acetate isobutyrate, an emulsifier that is “generally recognized as safe” as a food additive by the Food and Drug Administration. The new ingredient will be added to orange, citrus cooler and lemonade Gatorade, as well Gatorade X-Factor orange, Gatorade Xtremo citrus cooler and a powdered form of the drink called “glacier freeze.”

Ms. Carter said consumers would start seeing the new ingredient over the next few months as existing supplies of Gatorade sell out and are replaced.

Health advocates applauded the company’s move. “Kudos to PepsiCo for doing the responsible thing on its own and not waiting for the F.D.A. to force it to,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Mr. Jacobson has championed the removal of brominated vegetable oil from foods and beverages for the last several decades, but the F.D.A. has left it in a sort of limbo, citing budgetary constraints that it says keep it from going through the process needed to formally ban the chemical or declare it safe once and for all.

Brominated vegetable oil is banned as a food ingredient in Japan and the European Union. About 10 percent of drinks sold in the United States contain it, including Mountain Dew, which is also made by PepsiCo; some flavors of Powerade and Fresca from Coca-Cola; and Squirt and Sunkist Peach Soda, made by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

PepsiCo said it had no plans to remove the ingredient from Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew, both of which generate more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Heather White, executive director at the Environmental Working Group, said of PepsiCo’s decision, “We can only hope that other companies will follow suit.” She added, “We need to overhaul how F.D.A. keeps up with the latest science on food additives to better protect public health.”

Ms. Kavanagh agreed. “I’ve been thinking about ways to take this to the next level, and I’m thinking about taking it to the F.D.A. and asking them why they aren’t doing something about it,” she said. “I’m not sure yet, but I think that’s where I’d like to go with this.”

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 26, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the 15-year-old who started a petition on Change.org to end the use of brominated vegetable oil in Gatorade. She is Sarah Kavanagh, not Kavanaugh.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/26/2013, on page B1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: PepsiCo Will Halt Additive Use In Gatorade.

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Court rules Obama recess appointments unconstitutional

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court, dealing a defeat to President Obama, has sharply limited the chief executive’s power to bypass the Senate and to make temporary “recess” appointments to fill vacant slots in government agencies.

The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 3-0 ruling,  said the president can make recess appointments only when the Senate has formally adjourned between sessions of Congress, not when lawmakers leave Washington for a brief break.

The Obama administration is almost certain to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. But if the ruling stands, it strengthens the power of the Senate’s Republican minority at the expense of Obama and the Democrats.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s second inauguration

During his first term, Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), refused to approve Obama’s nominees for several agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency created in the wake of the Wall Street collapse of 2008. McConnell could rely on the filibuster rule by which the minority can block a vote by the majority.

In response, Obama invoked his power under the Constitution “to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate.” Obama used this authority last January to appoint several new members to the National Labor Relations Board, ensuring the group had the necessary three members to make decisions. In addition to the NLRB appointments, Obama also installed Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at the same time.

Business groups and Senate Republicans challenged the move, arguing the Senate was not truly in recess last January when it was out of session for several days.

In Friday’s decision, Chief Judge David Sentelle ruled for the challengers and said a “recess” refers to the break when Congress formally adjourns after a two-year session.

“An interpretation of 'the Recess' that permits the President to decide when the Senate is in recess would demolish the checks and balances inherent in the advice-and-consent requirement, giving the President free rein to appoint his desired nominees at any time he pleases, whether that time be a weekend, lunch, or even when the Senate is in session and he is merely displeased with its inaction. This cannot be the law,” said Sentelle, an appointee of President Reagan. He was joined by Judges Karen Henderson and Thomas Griffith, who are also Republican appointees.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s past

Cordray’s appointment is being challenged in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in a separate lawsuit by a Texas bank and two free-market advocacy groups. They also claim the appointment was unconstitutional because the Senate was not in a formal recess. The suit is pending.

On Thursday, Obama renominated Cordray to the five-year term as director of the 2-year-old agency. Cordray’s recess appointment expires at the end of the year.

Obama said Thursday that Cordray was qualified for the position, but “he wasn’t allowed an up or down vote in the Senate, and as a consequence, I took action to appoint him on my own.”

Staff writer Jim Puzzanghera contributed to this report.

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david.savage@latimes.com

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Cowboys Trade Spurs for Skis in Colorado's Wild Downhill Rodeo

Cowboys wait their turn during the slalom competition at the 39th Annual Bud Light Cowboy Downhill, a mashup of rodeo and skiing that drew 90 people from as far away as Australia.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colorado — Ski rodeo is a perfect weird sport for Colorado, a place with a long history of ranching, a deep love of skiing and people only too happy to combine the two.

Downhill cowboys, and cowgirls, have been hitting the slopes here for the better part of four decades, and 90 of them came from as far away as France and Australia for the 39th annual Bud Light Cowboy Downhill.

The rules are, as in most weird sports, simple: the first one down Mt. Werner wins. Ingenious. This being a weird sport, however, there’s something you must do before crossing the finish line. Namely, lasso a cowgirl and saddle a horse, of course. There was a time when competitors also would pound a beer, but this was never officially sanctioned and has since been outlawed.

There are two geniuses behind this race. Billy Kidd is a former alpine skiing world champ and Olympic medalist who is the director of skiing at Steamboat. Larry Mahan is a six-time all-around world champion cowboy. Four decades ago, they invited a posse of pro rodeo stars, who’d come to Denver for the annual National Western Stock Show and Rodeo, to try their hand on the slopes. They’ve been doing it ever since. And some of these cowboys have actually skied. Once or twice, anyway.

Blake Knowles, a steer wrestler from Oregon, took first place in the dual slalom event on Monday. His time was 22.17 seconds, a number that means nothing beyond this weird sport. Better to say he finished 3.5 seconds ahead of the guy in second place.

Visually, the grand finale was the wildest part of the day. Everyone took to the slopes for what could only be called a stampede. Frenchman Evan Jayne was first across the finish line in an event that was not without drama. Kobyn Williams, 25, who’d ventured westward from Louisiana, broke his collarbone. He’ll miss about six weeks on the rodeo circuit because of it.

“I was rolling and tumbling,” he said. “When I got up, I kinda felt my shoulder fall on me. I knew it was broke before I got up.”

Williams was among the more loquacious competitors. I tried chatting up a cowboy by the name of Randy T. Mason, who told me, “I’m not one of the better guys to ask” and walked away.

“He’s shy, like most cowboys,” explained Joel Bob Carlson, a Southern California rancher who seemed to be the exception to that rule. Maybe the beer sitting nearby had loosened him up. Carlson was never a professional cowboy, but he did rodeo in high school and college. “Then the girls took over,” he said with a sly smile. He considers the Cowboy Downhill a “crackup.”

I told him what happened to Williams. Carlson was surprised to learn bull riders were competing on the downhill slalom.

“Bull riders typically don’t do this shit,” he said.

Maybe not, I replied. But then again, cowboys are pretty crazy.

“Truth,” Carlson said. “Truth.”

All photos: Sol Neelman/Wired

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Booker winner Mantel says play next “logical step”

LONDON (Reuters) – Double Booker prize-winning author Hilary Mantel said the characters in her historical novels about the rise of Thomas Cromwell will take the next “logical step” to a stage adaptation at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) this year.

Mantel said in a video interview on the RSC website this week that she has always longed to give “solid form” to her depictions of Cromwell, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in her “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies” books.

“From the moment I started writing Wolf Hall the characters were fighting to be off the page,” Mantel said in the video.

The 60-year-old Mantel said she was delighted to have playwright Mike Poulton, whose works have garnered some of the theatre world’s top awards, recreate her novels for the stage.

“He’s the man who knows about the stagecraft,” she said. “I’m the one who knows the characters inside out.”

The first woman and first Briton to win the Booker twice for her novels set in Henry VIII’s court said she has been inspired by the RSC since the age of 15 when she went alone to its Stratford-upon-Avon home and watched four plays in three days.

“It was a shaping experience, so it really is a dream come true for me to have the opportunity to see the RSC present my plays,” she said.

Mantel is working on a third novel in the trilogy.

The RSC also said on Wednesday that David Tennant will star in the title role of “Richard II” in winter 2013, making his return five years after a turn as Hamlet which earned him a best Shakespearean performance trophy at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards in 2009.

“Both plays will be directed by Royal Court Associate Director Jeremy Herrin, making his RSC directing debut,” RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran said.

The world premiere of “Wendy & Peter Pan” by Ella Hickson and directed by Jonathan Munby will round out the winter season, the RSC said.

Tickets for the RSC’s winter 2013 season, which begins in October 2013 and runs until March 2014 will go on sale for members on February 11 and for the wider public on March 18, the RSC said.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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SciTimes Update: Science News From Around the Web

Matthew Born for The New York Times

An estimated 15,000 crocodiles, like this one, have escaped from a farm in Limpopo, South Africa.

Friday in science, crocodiles on the loose, coffee fraud, a sleepy squirrel wakes up and melting glaciers. Check out these headlines from around the Web.

Crocodiles on the Loose: An estimated 15,000 crocodiles have escaped from a farm in Limpopo, South Africa, reports The Guardian. Heavy flooding forced the farmers to open their gates to keep the walls from crumbling, sweeping the crocs away down the Limpopo River. Experts say it is not easy to catch a crocodile. The best method: sneak up and grab it.

Fertility Rates Drop in Afghanistan: A drop in birth rates in Afghanistan suggests that education and health planning programs for women are making a difference, reports USA Today. The average number of children Afghan women can expect to have in their lifetime fell to 5.1 at the end of the decade from 8 in the 1990s and 6.3 in the mid-2000s , a USA Today analysis of birth data found.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Does your dog truly love you?

Animal Passion: Animals have rich emotional lives, reports Psychology Today. The magazine has republished a 2006 report about an Ohio researcher who has studied animal sadness, fear, rage, attachment and a love of play time.

New Stomach Virus: A new strain of norovirus, the cause of a dreaded intestinal illness, is circulating in the United States, The Washington Post reports. The strain, designated “GII.4 Sydney,” appeared in Australia last March. Norovirus causes vomiting and diarrhea and is responsible for 21 million cases of illness a year in this country. Hand-washing and general cleanliness are the best precautions.

We Like How We Smell: Our brains can detect our own scent and distinguish it from the smells of others, reports Discover.com. Scientists have long known that people are drawn to mates with a different smell than their own, but new research marks the first time that scientists have shown that people recognize and like their own smells.

Smokers in Jail: A proposed bill in Oregon would make nicotine a controlled substance and would make cigarette possession illegal, punishable by a year in prison or a $6,250 fine, reports LiveScience.com. Critics say the bill is overly idealistic and would be extremely difficult to implement.

Squirrels on Video: New Scientist offers a video of hibernating Arctic squirrels waking up.

Dolphins Help Dying Friend: For the first time, dolphins have been spotted teaming up to try to rescue an injured group member, reports New Scientist. You can watch the sad video here.

Yogurt Linked to Better Eating Habits: Yogurt eaters report consuming higher amounts of other good-for-you foods, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish and whole grains, than do people who don’t eat yogurt, reports eScience News. The study was partially funded by a yogurt maker.

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Food Fraud on the Rise: Food fraud – which occurs when food products are mislabeled, diluted or adulterated – is on the rise, reports CNN. The most commonly fraudulent products are olive oil, milk, saffron, honey and coffee. Fillers can be added to spices. Olive oils diluted with cheaper vegetable oil. Pomegranate juice may really be made with grape and pear juices.

An Rx for X and Z: Pharmaceutical companies eager to grab the attention of doctors and patients are returning to drug names starting with X and Z, reports Reuters via The Chicago Tribune. New names for cancer treatments include Xtandi, Xalkori, Xgeva, Zaltrap, Zelboraf and Zytiga.

People Enjoy Safe Sex: A study funded by a condom maker has found that people really like sex, with or without a condom, reports The Atlantic.

Graeme Robinson for The New York Times

Dung Beetles Are Celestial Navigators: Researchers fitted dung beetles with tiny blinders for experiments showing that the feces-eating insects rely on the stars to navigate, reports Scientific American.

Melting Glaciers: Climate change has shrunk Andean glaciers between 30 and 50 percent since the 1970s and could melt many of them away altogether in coming years, reports The Independent. Andean glaciers are a vital source of fresh water for tens of millions of South Americans.

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DealBook: S.E.C. Pick Is Ex-Prosecutor, in Signal to Wall Street

9:13 p.m. | Updated

The White House delivered a strong message to Wall Street on Thursday, taking the unusual step of choosing two former prosecutors as top financial regulators.

But translating that message into action will not be easy, given the complexities of the market and Wall Street’s aggressive nature.

At a short White House ceremony, President Obama named Mary Jo White, the first female United States attorney in Manhattan, to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Obama also renominated Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a position he has held for the last year under a temporary recess appointment without Senate approval.

With the appointments, the president showed a renewed resolve to hold Wall Street accountable for wrongdoing, extolling his candidates’ records as prosecutors.

Ms. White spent more than a decade as a top federal prosecutor in New York City, overseeing the prosecution of the crime boss John Gotti and those responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. As an Ohio prosecutor, Mr. Cordray filed lawsuits against Bank of America and the American International Group.

“It’s not enough to change the law,” Mr. Obama said. “We also need cops on the beat to enforce the law.”

Still, Ms. White and Mr. Cordray face their own challenges.

While Ms. White, 65, is best known as an aggressive prosecutor, she also built a lucrative legal practice defending Wall Street executives, a potential concern for consumer advocates. And she lacks experience in the financial minutiae central to a regulatory role.

Mr. Cordray, 53, presents another potential problem for the White House. The Senate last year declined to confirm him in the face of Republican and Wall Street opposition to the newly created consumer bureau. Several Republicans on Thursday again voiced their concerns.

“There’s absolutely no excuse for the Senate to wait any longer to confirm him,” Mr. Obama said.

Both Midwestern natives, Ms. White and Mr. Cordray arrived in Washington as outsiders. A five-time “Jeopardy” champion from Ohio, Mr. Cordray became the consumer bureau’s enforcement chief after losing re-election for state attorney general. As Ohio’s top prosecutor, he became known as the Midwestern sheriff of Wall Street.

Ms. White, who was born in Kansas City, Mo., changed career paths after graduating with a master’s degree in psychology. She obtained a law degree from Columbia University in 1974, and a few years later, began her first stint as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

She ultimately became the United States attorney in Manhattan, earning a reputation as a tenacious prosecutor with an independent streak. Ms. White embraced the often-repeated joke that her office was the United States attorney for the “sovereign,” rather than Southern, district of New York.

In 1997, aides to Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau accused her of trying to thwart a state insider trading investigation by allowing a defendant charged by the district attorney’s office to plead guilty to federal charges. Doing so effectively ended Mr. Morgenthau’s case, but Ms. White was unapologetic. “To prosecute such crimes under only state law diminishes their seriousness,” she said at the time.

As the chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Ms. White pursued white-collar crime and Wall Street fraud. She secured a $340 million fine against Daiwa Bank for illegally covering up trading losses and other crimes.

She distinguished her career with a series of terrorism cases. She supervised the original investigation into Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and oversaw six major trials, including those stemming from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to blow up New York landmarks.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the former United States attorney in Chicago who previously worked under Ms. White, called her “a force of nature.”

She also trained a generation of federal prosecutors. Two former assistants became high-level S.E.C. officials: Robert S. Khuzami, the departing enforcement chief, and George S. Canellos, his deputy. Preet Bharara, the current United States attorney in Manhattan, whom Ms. White hired in 1999, emphasized her “legendary work ethic,” citing her 1 a.m. e-mail dispatches. Her philosophy, Mr. Bharara said, was that prosecuting wrongdoing was “not just about earning notches on your belt.”

While former employees described her as “no nonsense,” she was often spotted sipping a Bud Light at a weekly social gathering for junior prosecutors. And despite being barely 5 feet tall, she also was an exuberant point guard in a local lawyers’ basketball league, and once arrived at a tennis match on a red motorcycle, while Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” blared loudly.

With her prosecutorial victories and independent political status, Ms. White is expected to receive broad support on Capitol Hill. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York joined a chorus of Democratic enthusiasm on Thursday, declaring that Ms. White was a “tough-as-nails prosecutor.”

But she could face questions about her command of Wall Street arcana.

Regulatory chiefs are often market experts or academics. If confirmed, Ms. White will succeed Elisse B. Walter, a longtime S.E.C. official, who took over as chairwoman after Mary L. Schapiro stepped down as the agency’s leader in December. Ms. Schapiro, a seasoned policy maker and specialist in market structure, overhauled the agency after it was blamed for missing the warning signs of the financial crisis. Ms. White, in contrast, built her career on the law-and-order side of the securities industry, with just a brief stint as a director of the Nasdaq.

The gaps in her résumé could complicate Ms. White’s agenda in the face of fierce Wall Street lobbying. Under the next chairman, the agency must write dozens of rules to carry out the Dodd-Frank act, a regulatory overhaul passed in response to the crisis. The agency also must grapple with the increasingly complex markets and rapid-fire trading that dominate Wall Street.

People close to the S.E.C. note, however, that her husband, John W. White, is a veteran of the agency. From 2006 through 2008, he was head of the S.E.C.’s division of corporation finance.

Ms. Schapiro also argued that Ms. White’s outsider status could inject new life into the agency. “Nobody comes in an expert across the board,” Ms. Schapiro said. “A fresh look on some of these policy issues might be exactly what we need.”

Ms. White could face additional questions about her career, a revolving door in and out of government. In private practice, she defended some of Wall Street’s biggest names, including Kenneth D. Lewis, a former chief of Bank of America. As the head of litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton, she also represented JPMorgan Chase and the board of Morgan Stanley.

Barbara S. Jones, who retired recently from the federal bench in Manhattan and now practices law at the firm Zuckerman Spaeder, said Ms. White, a close friend, would benefit from both prosecuting and defending executives over her career. “She has been on both sides,” Ms. Jones said. “She will be tough when she has to be, but she’ll be fair.”

At the White House on Thursday, Ms. White spoke only briefly, saying she would work “to protect investors and to ensure the strength, efficiency and the transparency of our capital markets.” Mr. Obama noted that Ms. White, whose 43rd wedding anniversary fell on Thursday, was a childhood fan of “The Hardy Boys,” as he was, adding that she “built a career the Hardy boys could only dream of.” “You don’t want to mess with Mary Jo,” he said.

Peter Baker and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/25/2013, on page A1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Sign to Wall St. In Obama’s Picks For Regulators.

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'California did the impossible,' Brown says in State of the State

SACRAMENTO -- In a strident and sweeping State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown declared Thursday morning that "California did the impossible," bouncing back from the precipice of fiscal collapse to emerge as an economic leader.

With references to the Bible, the history of the California republic and Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Brown mapped out a vision for the state that includes big investment in its water and rail systems and schools free of regulations that he says inhibit flexibility and creativity.

Brown also called a special session of the Legislature for implementation of President Obama's healthcare law, "to deal with those issues that must be decided quickly if California is to get the Affordable Care Act started by next January."

But he stressed that his top priority is keeping the state from falling back into financial chaos.

"We have promises to keep," Brown said, alluding to his successful campaign last fall to persuade voters to raise taxes by billions of dollars. "And the most important one we made to the people if Proposition 30 passed: that we would guard jealously the money…. Fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our good intentions but the basis for realizing them."

He praised lawmakers for helping the state dig out of its fiscal morass but also called on them to show restraint. "What we need to do for our future will require more than producing hundreds of new laws each year," Brown said.

He warned of the dangers of "constantly expanding the coercive power of government by adding each year so many minute prescriptions to our already detailed and turgid legal system."

The governor cited schools as an area where the deluge of laws has undermined good policy. Returning to one of his favorite themes, he urged lawmakers to consider the "principle of subsidiarity … the idea that a central authority should only perform those tasks which cannot be performed at a more immediate or local level."

Brown repeated the call he made earlier this month to free local districts from dozens of state mandates for school spending and to shift more state money to districts with poorer students and non-native English speakers.

He said the steady tuition hikes at the state's institutions of higher education need to stop.

"I will not let the students become the default financiers of our colleges and universities," Brown said, to standing applause in the packed Assembly chamber that held the entire Legislature.

In calling a special session on healthcare, Brown said the state will next year begin providing insurance to nearly 1 million Californians under the federal law and in the coming years will steadily reduce the number of uninsured.

But he warned of attendant risks: "The ultimate costs of expanding our healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act are unknown."

The governor also used his address to tout his ambitious plans for refurbishing the state's water systems. He acknowledged that it will be costly. But inaction, he said, would likely prove more expensive, leaving California exposed to an economic disaster on the scale of that wrought elsewhere by Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

The governor also made a plug for his other costly infrastructure initiative, high-speed rail. He said the United States is lagging far behind other countries in this sector, saying that even Morocco is building a high-speed train system.

He called the state's bullet-train plan, which would eventually link San Francisco and Los Angeles, bold, like "everything about California."

The governor also announced will lead a trade mission to China to strengthen California's economic ties with that country and officially open the state's new trade and investment office in Shanghai.

evan.halper@latimes.com

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Curiosity Rover Uses Ultraviolet Vision to Work the Martian Night Shift

NASA’s Curiosity rover is working late into the night, shining white and ultraviolet light on rocks similar to the ones it hopes to drill into in the coming weeks.

Unlike its solar-powered siblings, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity has a nuclear battery that lets it run at any time of day. The rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera is fitted with four white and two ultraviolet LEDs to help it explore once the sun goes down. In addition to throwing killer Martian raves, the ultraviolet flashlight allowed the rover to look for fluorescent minerals in a rock nicknamed “Sayunei” (above).

Very little is currently known about the fluorescent properties of Martian soil and the UV LEDs are mostly being used for exploratory purposes for the time being. Tests conducted on Earth (.pdf) using Martian meteorites showed that phosphate minerals such as whitlockite glowed under UV illumination. If the science team sees anything shining green, yellow, orange, or red under the UV lights, it could indicate interesting mineralogy that might go undetected using normal white lights or sunlight.

Curiosity’s MAHLI camera also used its white light LEDs to take a closer look at “Sayunei” (below). The rover scuffed the rock with its wheel to clear it of dust and then examined it up close. The information may come in handy when Curiosity drills.

Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Adam is a Wired reporter and freelance journalist. He lives in Oakland, Ca near a lake and enjoys space, physics, and other sciency things.

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Follow @adamspacemann on Twitter.

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Aretha Franklin Approves of Beyonce’s ‘Beautiful’ Inaugural Lip-Syncing

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Aretha Franklin r-e-s-p-e-c-t’s Beyoncé’s decision to use a “beautiful” pre-recorded rendition of the national anthem during President Barack Obama‘s inaugural ceremony on Monday.

The Queen of Soul, who sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” during Obama‘s inauguration in 2009, told ABC News that the cold weather warranted Beyoncé lip-syncing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“The weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather,” Franklin said after noting the news gave her a good laugh. “When I heard that I just really cracked up. I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record … next time I’ll probably do the same.”

She says “next time,” because she wasn’t afraid to brave below-freezing temperatures in Washington D.C. when she performed live four years ago. “In 2009, I wanted everything to be live and on the real side for the moment as it actually happened. Those were my feelings for my performance, but having come face to face with 28, 22 degrees I am not surprised she pre-recorded,” Franklin continued. “She wanted her performance to be what she wanted to be and she realized it wasn’t going to be the way she wanted it to be or she was going to be running a risk. That’s probably why she pre-recorded exactly how she wanted it to be heard.”

The 70-year-old Franklin isn’t the only music star shrugging off Beyoncégate. Jennifer Lopeztold Jon Stewart on Tuesday’s episode of “The Daily Show” that “all performers do have to” lip-sync at some point in their career.

“You know, sometimes it happens,” she explained. “When you’re in certain stadiums and in certain venues, they do pre-record things.”

Lopez’s former “American Idol” judging panel partner, Steven Tyler, isn’t particularly bothered by Beyoncé lip-syncing either. “It doesn’t matter,” he told TMZ.

“Beyoncé’s so hot, she can do anything,” the Aerosmith frontman added to give some shallow perspective. “Let’s just get real.”

Whether or not Beyoncé would agree with Tyler’s flattering statement, she has yet to comment on the matter herself, aside from posting the performance on her Tumblr — an action that suggests she has no regrets.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Band that previously admitted to using a pre-recorded track to back her performance and suggested Beyoncé did the same for her vocals, has changed its tune.

“Each piece of music scheduled for performance in the Inauguration is pre-recorded for use in case of freezing temperatures, equipment failure, or extenuating circumstances,” a spokesman for the Marines told TheWrap on Tuesday. “Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter’s vocal performance, no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded.”

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Ask Well: Long-Term Use of Nicotine Gum

In small doses, like those contained in the gum, nicotine is generally considered safe. But it does have stimulant properties that can raise blood pressure, increase heart rate and constrict blood vessels. One large report from 2010 found that compared to people given a placebo, those who used nicotine replacement therapies had a higher risk of heart palpitations and chest pains.

That’s one reason that nicotine gum should, ideally, be used for no more than four to six months, said Lauren Indorf, a nurse practitioner with the Cleveland Clinic’s Tobacco Treatment Center. Yet up to 10 percent of people use it for longer periods, in some cases for a decade or more she said.

Some research has raised speculation that long-term use of nicotine might also raise the risk of cancer, though it has mostly involved laboratory and animal research, and there have not been any long-term randomized studies specifically addressing this question in people. One recent report that reviewed the evidence on nicotine replacement therapy and cancer concluded that, “the risk, if any, seems small compared with continued smoking.”

Ultimately, the biggest problem with using nicotine gum for long periods is that the longer you stay on it, the longer you remain dependent on nicotine, and thus the greater your odds of a smoking relapse, said Ms. Indorf. “What if the gum is not available one day?” she said. “Your body is still relying on nicotine.”

If you find yourself using it for longer than six months, it may be time to consider switching to sugar-free gum or even another replacement therapy, like the patch or nasal spray.

“Getting people on a different regimen helps them break the gum habit and can help taper them off nicotine,” Ms. Indorf said.

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