Adding wine while cooking can be fun. Wine enhances the flavour of your dish and also releases the flavour of ingredients you use in your dish. It is great when added to red meat and barbeques. Here are a couple of hints and tips which will help you cook with wine.
Types of Wines
Wine comes in a variety of different flavours. From white wine to red wine, the flavours go from mushrooms, apples, melons, olives, citrus and pineapple to berries, cherries, grapes, oranges, coffee, chocolate and currants.
Originally, wines are sweet since they hold the natural sweetness of the fruit. In dry wines, natural sweetness is removed from the wine making them less sweet. Dry wines have greater alcohol content as compared with sweet wine.
Secret behind wine cooking
Use a good wine while cooking. Do not use one which you won?t drink otherwise. If you prefer a mild taste in food do not add a strong flavoured wine to your dish. Make sure to serve the same wine you add to your food to balance the taste and enhance the flavours of the dish in your mouth.
Appearance matters while cooking with wine. A dark coloured wine will hardly look good when added to white meat like fish and chicken. Red wine goes well with pork, ham, meat, beef and duck while a white wine works best with chicken, fish, turkey and sea food.
While choosing the wine you also need to know the remaining ingredients of your dish. Foods that are spicier will require a wine to balance the taste and enhance the spices. Similarly, if you are cooking creamy chicken breast with cheese, you will add a milder version to enhance the depth of the cream and chicken.
Wine as a substitute
Wine can be added to substitute other ingredients in a dish, especially water, butter and oil. If your recipe requires preparing batter by adding half cup water, you can add wine instead. Similarly, while preparing casseroles, doughs, cakes or simple saut?ed veggies, you can use wine as a substitute to fat and shortening. When you require 2 tbsp oil to saut? your veggies use 1tbsp wine instead.
You can substitute it with vinegar in marination or with oil while basting. The acid factor in wine is similar to lemon juice and vinegar and helps in enhancing the flavour of the dish.
Wine and baking
Wine works best both in baking as well as cooking on the stove. Addition of wine during baking is not only limited to roasts but it works extremely well when added to cakes and biscuits as well.
Quantity of Wine
If you are cooking with wine for the first time, start by adding a little. The taste is very over whelming and just a little wine can make the food very strong. Once wine is added to a dish, most of it evaporates and a small portion is actually present in the dish. The more you cook your food, the more depth the wine will gain in forms of flavour, acidity and sweetness. Taste your dish at various stages and if at the end you desire to add more wine you can do so.
Trying new dishes with wine can be very exciting. So grab a bottle from your pantry and cook a delicious dinner for your family tonight!
Author Bio
Richard Jacobs is a chief editor since early 2007, and he currently works for MyDUIattorney. A website that helps you to find the right DUI lawyer, you can search for a?Gloucester DWI Attorney?or?Phoenix DUI Attorney?online, anytime!
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AP - The Dow Jones industrial average rode a surge of confidence in the economy Tuesday to close above 13,000, a threshold it last crossed four months before the financial crisis of 2008 and the darkest days of the Great Recession.
Dan Klotz
dklotz@burnesscommunications.com
301-280-5756
Burness Communications
LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (28 February 2012)Rare wheat collected from the "Roof of the World" in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan; amaranth, with its exotic blood-red stalks that are used in a "Day of the Dead" drink; barley that helped spawn the craft beer revolution; and once-forgotten forage crops that could sustain livestock in these climate-stressed times are among the 24,948 seed samples arriving this week for the fourth birthday of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV).
With the addition of this latest medley of food and forage varieties, the "Doomsday Seed Vault"so called because it is protecting agriculture systems worldwide from disasters natural or manmadehas now secured over 740,000 samples or "accessions" deep in an Arctic mountain on Norway's remote Svalbard archipelago. The Global Crop Diversity Trust maintains the seed vault, in partnership with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resources Center, as a back-up to the living crop diversity collections housed in "genebanks" around the world.
"The incredible range and importance of the seeds that have been sent here this week for safekeeping provide vivid examples of why we need to carefully collect and preserve our planet's crop diversity," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. "Our crop diversity is constantly under threat, from dramatic dangers such as fires, political unrest, war and tornadoes, as well as the mundane, such as failing refrigeration systems and budget cuts. But these seeds are the future of our food supply, as they carry genetic treasure such as heat resistance, drought tolerance, or disease and pest resistance."
Among the contributors for the fourth birthday are the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym CIAT), and the national crop genebanks of Tajikistan and Armenia. Both CIAT and ICARDA are part of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, which is the largest single contributor of seeds to the vault.
Climbing to the Roof of the World to Collect Wheat
The Tajikistan shipment includes wheat and barley collected from the country's remote Pamir Mountainsone of the highest ranges on the planet, often called the "Roof of the World." The seeds are the first from the former Soviet Republic to be deposited in Svalbard. Wheat grows in abundance on the country's remote mountainsides, across varying elevations and amid hot summers and blistering, snowy winters. And while Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, experts say it hosts a rich diversity of a food crop that billions of people depend upon for survival. Such diversity is particularly important today, as scientists are scouring genebanks in search of wheat that is resistant to a resurgent and virulent strain of wheat stem rust that can devastate yields.
Adding further depth to the wheat collections at Svalbard is a new shipment of wild types that grow in a range of climates and conditions in Armenia. Crop scientists are keen to collect and preserve wild relatives of wheat and other crops because they tend to be more hardy and diverse than their domesticated cousins, and so could offer plant breeders a rich source of valuable genes, including those that confer characteristics such as salt or cold tolerance.
The USDA-ARS's NPGS is also depositing a particularly important variety of wheat. It is known as Norin-10 and is one source of the dwarfing genes that have endowed contemporary wheat plants with a strong, short stem capable of supporting more grain. First introduced to US wheat breeders in the 1950s by Dr. Orville Vogel, Norin-10 and the varieties developed from it were later used by Dr. Norman Borlaug in the development of the highly productive wheat of the Green Revolution.
Norin-10 is among the 12,801 samples contained in this most recent NPGS shipment to the seed vault, some of which have been in the US collection for over a century. NPGS now has contributed a total of 69,307 seed accessions to the vault, the most from any national collection.
"The process of cataloguing and delivering seed duplicates to the vault is a timely reminder that we invest in agricultural research to ensure that when our food crops are challengedas they constantly are by pest, disease and weather extremeswe will always have the tools on hand to fight back," said Dr. David Ellis of the NPGS.
Bloody Cocktails for the Dead and Barley for Beer
Another crop sent by the NPGS is amaranth, whose seeds once provided a nutritious grain for the Aztecs and the Incas and was first cultivated 8,000 years ago. Recently, the grain was "rediscovered" by the food industry as a high-protein, gluten-free alternative to wheat. Several of the varieties being sent to Svalbard, Amaranthus quitensis, were also used for healing and medicinal purposes. Today, its stems supply the red pigment that provides rich red color to "colada morada," a traditional South American beverage used in Ecuador during its Day of the Dead observance. The sample sent to Svalbard was collected in 1979 from a family farm in San Andres, Ecuador.
Also coming from the NPGS are several subspecies of barley, Hordeum vulgare, that were imported to the US in 1938 via Poland. Known as "Betzes" barley, an old German variety, the grains took root in the Pacific Northwestern US and now appear in the pedigrees of 18 modern varieties grown in the regionincluding the malting barley known as "Klages" that is a favorite of America's rapidly growing craft beer movement.
Sustaining Livestock in a Time of Climate Stress
The past year brought several reminders of other threats to crop diversity and the food security it maintains. Most recently, a severe drought and cold snap in Mexico have destroyed crops and left livestock starving to death. At least 60,000 cattle have been reported dead so far, as forage crops have been unable to survive in such harsh conditions.
CIAT is sending a collection to the seed vault that includes 1,365 forage crop samplescrops grown to provide sustenance for livestock. Among the varieties are forage crops collected in the 1970s and 1980s that once were considered to have little importance. Yet some of these varieties appear tolerant to flooding while others have exhibited drought tolerance, which makes them of substantial interest today in a world where farmers are increasingly encountering both extremes.
"This is an example of why seed banks need to systematically collect and maintain as many varieties as possible, not just what is currently popular," said Daniel Debouck, head of genetic resources at CIAT. "Weather patterns are rapidly changing as are pests and diseases and other growing conditions. We need to be constantly looking beyond the priorities of today. The abundant moisture of a La Nia could soon revert to a dry El Nio. At every turn in the weather, we could be caught unprepared and the potential economic losses and hunger that result could be significant."
The Trust's Cary Fowler highlighted a recent example of the dangers facing crop diversity. The Trust had been funding the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory (NPGRL) of the Philippines to duplicate their unique varieties of bananas, yams, sweet potatoes and taro. The genebank had almost completed this painstaking and time consuming process when a fire in late January destroyed the work. NPGRL holds the largest national germplasm collection in Southeast Asia.
"Watching years of work destroyed in just a few hours is a costly reminder of the importance of having our crop diversity duplicated and secured. Without safety duplication it only takes a few seconds to lose a crop variety, and all its potential, forever. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to our children to do everything we can to stop this happening," said Fowler.
###
The Global Crop Diversity Trust (www.croptrust.org)
The mission of the Trust is to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. Although crop diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to the very future of agriculture, funding is unreliable and diversity is being lost. The Trust is the only organization working worldwide to solve this problem. The Trust is providing support for the ongoing operations of the seed vault, as well as organizing and funding the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to the facility.
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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.
Barley used in craft beer, Aztec amaranth, and Tajikistan wheat sent to Arctic Seed VaultPublic release date: 28-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Dan Klotz
dklotz@burnesscommunications.com
301-280-5756
Burness Communications
LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (28 February 2012)Rare wheat collected from the "Roof of the World" in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan; amaranth, with its exotic blood-red stalks that are used in a "Day of the Dead" drink; barley that helped spawn the craft beer revolution; and once-forgotten forage crops that could sustain livestock in these climate-stressed times are among the 24,948 seed samples arriving this week for the fourth birthday of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV).
With the addition of this latest medley of food and forage varieties, the "Doomsday Seed Vault"so called because it is protecting agriculture systems worldwide from disasters natural or manmadehas now secured over 740,000 samples or "accessions" deep in an Arctic mountain on Norway's remote Svalbard archipelago. The Global Crop Diversity Trust maintains the seed vault, in partnership with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resources Center, as a back-up to the living crop diversity collections housed in "genebanks" around the world.
"The incredible range and importance of the seeds that have been sent here this week for safekeeping provide vivid examples of why we need to carefully collect and preserve our planet's crop diversity," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. "Our crop diversity is constantly under threat, from dramatic dangers such as fires, political unrest, war and tornadoes, as well as the mundane, such as failing refrigeration systems and budget cuts. But these seeds are the future of our food supply, as they carry genetic treasure such as heat resistance, drought tolerance, or disease and pest resistance."
Among the contributors for the fourth birthday are the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym CIAT), and the national crop genebanks of Tajikistan and Armenia. Both CIAT and ICARDA are part of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, which is the largest single contributor of seeds to the vault.
Climbing to the Roof of the World to Collect Wheat
The Tajikistan shipment includes wheat and barley collected from the country's remote Pamir Mountainsone of the highest ranges on the planet, often called the "Roof of the World." The seeds are the first from the former Soviet Republic to be deposited in Svalbard. Wheat grows in abundance on the country's remote mountainsides, across varying elevations and amid hot summers and blistering, snowy winters. And while Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, experts say it hosts a rich diversity of a food crop that billions of people depend upon for survival. Such diversity is particularly important today, as scientists are scouring genebanks in search of wheat that is resistant to a resurgent and virulent strain of wheat stem rust that can devastate yields.
Adding further depth to the wheat collections at Svalbard is a new shipment of wild types that grow in a range of climates and conditions in Armenia. Crop scientists are keen to collect and preserve wild relatives of wheat and other crops because they tend to be more hardy and diverse than their domesticated cousins, and so could offer plant breeders a rich source of valuable genes, including those that confer characteristics such as salt or cold tolerance.
The USDA-ARS's NPGS is also depositing a particularly important variety of wheat. It is known as Norin-10 and is one source of the dwarfing genes that have endowed contemporary wheat plants with a strong, short stem capable of supporting more grain. First introduced to US wheat breeders in the 1950s by Dr. Orville Vogel, Norin-10 and the varieties developed from it were later used by Dr. Norman Borlaug in the development of the highly productive wheat of the Green Revolution.
Norin-10 is among the 12,801 samples contained in this most recent NPGS shipment to the seed vault, some of which have been in the US collection for over a century. NPGS now has contributed a total of 69,307 seed accessions to the vault, the most from any national collection.
"The process of cataloguing and delivering seed duplicates to the vault is a timely reminder that we invest in agricultural research to ensure that when our food crops are challengedas they constantly are by pest, disease and weather extremeswe will always have the tools on hand to fight back," said Dr. David Ellis of the NPGS.
Bloody Cocktails for the Dead and Barley for Beer
Another crop sent by the NPGS is amaranth, whose seeds once provided a nutritious grain for the Aztecs and the Incas and was first cultivated 8,000 years ago. Recently, the grain was "rediscovered" by the food industry as a high-protein, gluten-free alternative to wheat. Several of the varieties being sent to Svalbard, Amaranthus quitensis, were also used for healing and medicinal purposes. Today, its stems supply the red pigment that provides rich red color to "colada morada," a traditional South American beverage used in Ecuador during its Day of the Dead observance. The sample sent to Svalbard was collected in 1979 from a family farm in San Andres, Ecuador.
Also coming from the NPGS are several subspecies of barley, Hordeum vulgare, that were imported to the US in 1938 via Poland. Known as "Betzes" barley, an old German variety, the grains took root in the Pacific Northwestern US and now appear in the pedigrees of 18 modern varieties grown in the regionincluding the malting barley known as "Klages" that is a favorite of America's rapidly growing craft beer movement.
Sustaining Livestock in a Time of Climate Stress
The past year brought several reminders of other threats to crop diversity and the food security it maintains. Most recently, a severe drought and cold snap in Mexico have destroyed crops and left livestock starving to death. At least 60,000 cattle have been reported dead so far, as forage crops have been unable to survive in such harsh conditions.
CIAT is sending a collection to the seed vault that includes 1,365 forage crop samplescrops grown to provide sustenance for livestock. Among the varieties are forage crops collected in the 1970s and 1980s that once were considered to have little importance. Yet some of these varieties appear tolerant to flooding while others have exhibited drought tolerance, which makes them of substantial interest today in a world where farmers are increasingly encountering both extremes.
"This is an example of why seed banks need to systematically collect and maintain as many varieties as possible, not just what is currently popular," said Daniel Debouck, head of genetic resources at CIAT. "Weather patterns are rapidly changing as are pests and diseases and other growing conditions. We need to be constantly looking beyond the priorities of today. The abundant moisture of a La Nia could soon revert to a dry El Nio. At every turn in the weather, we could be caught unprepared and the potential economic losses and hunger that result could be significant."
The Trust's Cary Fowler highlighted a recent example of the dangers facing crop diversity. The Trust had been funding the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory (NPGRL) of the Philippines to duplicate their unique varieties of bananas, yams, sweet potatoes and taro. The genebank had almost completed this painstaking and time consuming process when a fire in late January destroyed the work. NPGRL holds the largest national germplasm collection in Southeast Asia.
"Watching years of work destroyed in just a few hours is a costly reminder of the importance of having our crop diversity duplicated and secured. Without safety duplication it only takes a few seconds to lose a crop variety, and all its potential, forever. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to our children to do everything we can to stop this happening," said Fowler.
###
The Global Crop Diversity Trust (www.croptrust.org)
The mission of the Trust is to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. Although crop diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to the very future of agriculture, funding is unreliable and diversity is being lost. The Trust is the only organization working worldwide to solve this problem. The Trust is providing support for the ongoing operations of the seed vault, as well as organizing and funding the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to the facility.
[ | 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.
I live on a 56 acre parcel of land. I have allowed the farmer next door to cross my property to access another neighbors hay field. I have allowed this for about 5 or 6 years, and every winter I block the access with a snow pile. Should I be concerned with loosing the right to my land, and the neighbor gaining permanant rights to use my land?
FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2010, file photo, Nelda Winslette, grandmother of Deepwater Horizon oil rig floorhand Adam Weise, holds a painting of Weise in her home in Yorktown, Texas. Weise was one of 11 workers killed after the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. Billions of dollars are on the line when a federal trial opens Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 over the reams of litigation spawned by the nation's worst offshore oil disaster, though those whose losses can't be repaid are hoping for something more elusive: justice for lost loved ones. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2010, file photo, Nelda Winslette, grandmother of Deepwater Horizon oil rig floorhand Adam Weise, holds a painting of Weise in her home in Yorktown, Texas. Weise was one of 11 workers killed after the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. Billions of dollars are on the line when a federal trial opens Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 over the reams of litigation spawned by the nation's worst offshore oil disaster, though those whose losses can't be repaid are hoping for something more elusive: justice for lost loved ones. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - In this April 21, 2010 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fire boat response crews spray water on the burning remnants of BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. The gargantuan legal bill for the 2010 catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is coming due for BP as a federal trial opens Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 to determine the company?s liability for the blowout of its Macondo well. On the cusp of trial, phalanxes of lawyers, company officials and state officials spent the final hours in high-stakes settlement talks that law experts believed could still yield a deal right before the courtroom doors open Monday morning. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard, File)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Nearly two years after his brother Gordon was killed in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, Chris Jones had planned to drive in from Baton Rouge with other relatives to attend the start of the federal trial over the nation's worst offshore oil disaster.
But Jones learned Sunday that a judge had delayed the start of the trial from Monday to March 5 because oil giant BP PLC was making progress in settlement talks with a committee overseeing scores of lawsuits. Jones said he has mixed feelings about the prospect of a settlement, adding that he would be disappointed if BP manages to "write a check to solve their problems."
"I was ready to go to trial and see their feet held close to the fire," he said Sunday. "It seems like the easy way out to pay whatever the plaintiffs are willing to take."
Two people close to the case told The Associated Press the decision to postpone was made Sunday during a conference call between parties in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill case and U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the call.
They said the judge told those on the call that BP and the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee were "making some progress" in their settlement talks. The steering committee is overseeing lawsuits filed by individuals and businesses following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010. The blast killed Gordon Jones and 10 other workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from the blown-out well, soiling miles of coastline.
However, the judge did not mention the status of settlement talks between other parties, nor did he mention any figures being discussed, according to the people close to the case.
The brief order issued by Barbier on Sunday said only that the delay was granted "for reasons of judicial efficiency and to allow the parties to make further progress in their settlement discussions."
Among other things, the trial that is now set to begin March 5 is meant to determine the penalties that need to be paid by BP and other companies involved in the oil spill. Billions of dollars are at stake.
BP and the Plaintiffs Steering Committee confirmed in a joint news release that the trial had been delayed. It said the oil giant and the PSC were working to reach an agreement that would "fairly compensate people and businesses affected by the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill."
"There can be no assurance that these discussions will lead to a settlement agreement," the joint statement said.
Separately, BP has had discussions in recent days with the federal government and cement contractor Halliburton Energy Services Inc., according to several people close to the case.
If no settlement is reached, Barbier will preside over a three-phase trial that could last the better part of a year. The first phase is designed to identify the causes of the deadly blowout and to assign percentages of fault to the companies involved in the ill-fated drilling project.
Financial analysts estimate BP could wind up paying anywhere from $15 billion to $30 billion over the lawsuits, and BP has estimated in regulatory filings that its total liability for the disaster is $40 billion.
An AP analysis found that the company could conceivably face up to $52 billion in environmental fines and compensation if the judge determines the company was grossly negligent.
The trial may not yield major revelations about the causes of the disaster, but the outcome could bring much-needed relief for tens of thousands of people and businesses whose livelihoods were disrupted by the spill.
Relatives of the 11 people killed in the Deepwater Horizon blast say they are hoping for something more elusive: justice for lost loved ones.
Sheryl Revette, whose husband, Dewey, was also among the 11 killed when BP PLC's Macondo well blew out and triggered an explosion on the drilling rig, doesn't have anything to gain financially from the trial. She wants an apology from the oil giant, something she said she hasn't received yet.
"I've never heard a word from them," said Revette, 48, of State Line, Miss. "But an apology isn't going to bring my husband back."
The decisions and actions that led to the explosion and spill already have been painstakingly investigated by the Coast Guard, federal regulators and a presidential commission. Their probes concluded that BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton deserve to share the blame for a string of risky decisions that were designed to save time and money.
Transocean spokesman Lou Colasuonno wouldn't comment Sunday on whether the company, which owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, was participating in settlement talks.
"This deal does not change the facts of the case and Transocean is fully prepared to go to trial," he said of BP's settlement talks with the plaintiffs.
The massive scope of the case ? a maze of claims and counterclaims between the companies, federal and state governments and plaintiffs' attorneys ? has elicited comparisons to the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.
Roughly 340 plaintiffs' lawyers have worked on the oil spill case. BP has spent millions of dollars on experts and law firms. More than 300 depositions have been taken. Millions of pages of legal briefs have been filed. One Justice Department lawyer said it would take him 210 years to read all the pages submitted into the record if he read 1,000 pages a day.
Barbier, a former president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association and appointee of President Bill Clinton, has a reputation for speedy but fair trials. He will hear and decide the case without a jury. Each trial phase is expected to last two to three months, with breaks in between. Even if all parties settle their claims before or during the trial, it could take several months for claims to be paid.
Chris Jones, an attorney, said he's not surprised that BP would seek to avoid a long, costly trial.
"I know that is part of the game, so to speak," he said. "As long as they're paying a lot of money for the damage they caused, it would give me some relief."
___
Weber reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this report.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) -- When AT&T started slowing down the data service for his iPhone, Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed truck driver and student, took the country's largest telecommunications company to small claims court. And won.
His award: $850.
Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel found in favor of Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Valley on Friday, saying it wasn't fair for the company to purposely slow down his iPhone, when it had sold him an "unlimited data" plan.
Spaccarelli could have many imitators. AT&T has some 17 million customers with "unlimited data" plans who can be subject to throttling. That's nearly half of its smartphone users. AT&T forbids them from consolidating their claims into a class action or taking them to a jury trial. That leaves small claims actions and arbitration.
Late last year, AT&T started slowing down data service for the top 5 percent of its smartphone subscribers with "unlimited" plans. It had warned that it would start doing so, but many subscribers have been surprised by how little data use it takes for throttling to kick in - often less than AT&T provides to those on limited or "tiered" plans.
Spaccarelli said his phone is being throttled after he's used 1.5 gigabytes to 2 gigabytes of data within a new billing cycle. Meanwhile, AT&T provides 3 gigabytes of data to subscribers on a tiered plan that costs the same - $30 per month.
When slowed down, the phone can still be used for calls and text messaging, but Web browsing is painfully slow, and video streaming doesn't work at all.
AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said the company will appeal the judge's ruling.
"At the end of the day, our contract governs our relationship with our customers," he said.
AT&T area sales manager Peter Hartlove, who represented the company before Nadel, declined to comment on the ruling. He argued in court that his employer has the right to modify or cancel customers' contracts if their data usage adversely affects the network.
Companies with as many potentially aggrieved customers as AT&T usually brace themselves for a class-action lawsuit. But last year, the Supreme Court upheld a clause in the Dallas-based company's subscriber contract that prohibits customers from taking their complaints to class actions or jury trials.
Arbitration and small-claims court cases are cheaper and faster than jury trials, but they force plaintiffs to appear in person and prepare their own statements. In a class-action suit, the work can be handled by one law firm on behalf of millions of people.
That means thousands - and possibly hundreds of thousands - of people who feel abused by AT&T's policy could seek to challenge the company, one by one, in arbitration or small claims court. The customer contract specifies that those who win an award from the company in arbitration that is greater than the company's pre-arbitration settlement offer will get at least $10,000. Spaccarelli picked the same amount for his claim, though AT&T's stipulation about a minimum award doesn't apply in small claims.
Nadel looked instead at the remaining 10 months in Spaccarelli's two-year contract with AT&T and estimated that he might pay $85 a month on average for using additional data. AT&T charges $10 for every extra gigabyte over 3 gigabytes.
Nadel said it's not fair for AT&T to make a promise to Spaccarelli when he buys the phone while burying terms in his contract that give the company the right to cut down data speeds.
Spaccarelli, 39, researched his case for a few months, and then spent three days putting together a binder of documents to bring to court.
"I need the money, but for me, this case is not about money at all," Spaccarelli. "You don't tell somebody `you have unlimited' and then cut them off."
Spaccarelli didn't quite uphold his side of the customer contract, and that's one reason his data usage was high. He used the iPhone to provide a link to the Internet for his iPad tablet, a setup known as "tethering." AT&T doesn't allow tethering unless customers pay extra for it, which Spaccarelli didn't do. It detected his tethering last year, and switched him from the "unlimited" plan to a limited one. He complained, and got his "unlimited" plan reinstated.
Even with the tethering, Spaccarelli's data usage wasn't excessive, he said - about 5 gigabytes per month. AT&T's Hartlove told Nadel about the tethering, and Spaccarelli admitted to it.
Earlier this month, a Southern California woman won a small-claims action against Honda over the gas mileage she got out of her Civic hybrid car. She was awarded $9,867. Meanwhile, a pending class action against Honda over the same issue would net Civic owners a few hundred dollars each. The plaintiff, Heather Peters, is an ex-lawyer who had opted out of the settlement.
AT&T's throttling of "unlimited" data comes as it tries to deal with limited capacity on its wireless network. When the iPhone was new, AT&T had ample capacity on its network, and wanted to lure customers with the peace of mind offered by unlimited plans. Now, a majority of AT&T subscribers on contract-based plans have smartphones, and the proportion is growing every month. That's putting a big load on AT&T's network.
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA also throttle users, but their policies are gentler. Verizon only throttles if the specific cell tower a "heavy user" subscriber's phone is communicating with is congested at that moment. T-Mobile's throttling levels are higher for the same price, and the levels are spelled out ahead of time. AT&T subscribers have no way of knowing if they'll be throttled before a warning message drops in. If they keep using their phones, throttling kicks in a few days later.
---
AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson reported from New York. He can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/petersvensson
With settlement talks grinding on, the trial of BP over its culpability for the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico looks set to begin Monday in a New Orleans courtroom ? and two nearby overflow rooms ? packed with lawyers, public relations specialists, reporters and other observers.
District Court Judge Carl Barbier, a former plaintiffs? lawyer in maritime accident cases, has allotted a total of 6 hours 40 minutes for 11 opening statements from private plaintiffs, the Justice Department, Gulf Coast states and corporate defendants. More than 300 depositions and 72?million pages of documents have been produced, according to one lawyer involved in the case. Legal fees alone will eventually run well into the billions of dollars.
?I?ll be down there, and I?m sure other folks will be down there, as well,? said Val Exnicios, a lawyer representing an association of shrimpers and oystermen. Other plaintiffs include hotels, vacation-home owners, fishermen and coastal business owners. ?I?m sure it will be a very crowded affair,? Exnicios said.
Lawyers involved in the case said settlement talks were continuing through the weekend. Unlike Exxon, which spent two decades fighting damage claims over the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Alaska, BP has been eager to put to rest the entire affair surrounding its ill-fated Macondo exploration well. But while opposing sides often reach agreement on the eve of trials, lawyers familiar with the case said the trial would probably move ahead. ?The parties remain significantly far apart,? said one of the lawyers, on the condition of anonymity because negotiations are ongoing.
Firm numbers were hard to come by, but some sources said that the private plaintiffs group and the Justice Department were each seeking more than $25?billion in civil claims. If the Justice Department decides to file criminal charges, that would be a separate trial.
Possible outcomes
Any settlement by the Justice Department could have political impact if voters see it as not large enough given the size of the spill and of BP, still one of the world?s biggest oil giants. The associate attorney general in charge of negotiations, Thomas J. Perrelli, also oversaw talks that led to the recent $26?billion foreclosure abuse settlement with major banks. Perrelli, a law school acquaintance of President Obama, is leaving the department March?9 after three years as its No. 3 official.
If the trial moves ahead, lawyers for the plaintiffs? steering committee and the Justice Department are expected to attack BP and rig owner Transocean, saying that their gross negligence and willful misconduct led to the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which caught fire and sank April 20, 2010, killing 11 people and eventually spilling as much as 4.9?million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
If found guilty of gross negligence, BP and Transocean could have to pay $4,300 a barrel instead of $1,100 a barrel in federal fines under the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act for oil that was not recaptured. (Under one scenario, BP pays $3.5?billion. Worst case: roughly $17?billion.) A gross negligence finding would also hurt BP?s case against private plaintiffs and affect criminal charges the Justice Department is weighing against the company and several individuals.
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The U.S. economy began to rebound in 2011, but that was not enough to convince law firms to ramp up associate hiring. The National Law Journal has ranked the top 50 law schools by the percentage of 2011 juris doctor graduates who took jobs at the nation's largest law firms. The report identifies firm favorites -- the schools where NLJ 250 firms recruite [?]
Judge Peck Issues Opinion on Computer-Assisted Review
A federal judge has issued a much-anticipated opinion which he acknowledged "appears to be the first in which a Court has approved of the use of computer-assisted review" in electronic data discovery, but said that the technology "is not a magic, Staples-Easy-Button, solution appropriate for all cases."Visit Law Technology News [?]
In a Switch, Seventh Circuit Cites Dukes to Support Class Certification for Black Merrill Lynch Brokers
The 7th Circuit has ruled that a group of black financial advisers who are suing Merrill Lynch for racial discrimination can proceed with their class action, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the Supreme Court's Wal-Mart ruling could be used to support class certification rather than deny it. [?]
TD Bank agrees to settle lawsuit over Rothstein scheme
TD Bank, which lost a $67 million jury verdict to one set of investors in Scott Rothstein's Ponzi scheme, has settled with another group to head off a trial set to start this week. The confidential agreement left a judge wrestling with whether to grant an injunction to stop a trial for the last defendant. [?]
Judges Weigh Disqualification for Former Big Firm Lawyers in NPE Patent Battles
As patent litigation brought by non-practicing entities continues, it's no surprise that big firm castaways are leaping in to get a piece of the action on the plaintiffs side. But representing NPEs carries risks for lawyers who earned their patent pedigrees at defense firms, as a pair of recent decisions shows. [?]
Littler Mendelson's Weiner, McGuire on BigLaw E-Discovery
Littler Mendelson's Paul D. Weiner, national e-discovery counsel, and Michael J. McGuire, chief information security officer, speak to LTN magazine's editor-in-chief, Monica Bay, about how the firm manages e-discovery, and compare its efforts to other BigLaw models. [?]
DLA Piper's Browning Marean on E-Discovery Proportionality
Browning Marean, senior counsel at DLA Piper, speaks to LTN magazine's editor-in-chief, Monica Bay, about the challenges of fashioning responses to discovery requests that are appropriate -- and proportional -- to a case. [?]
Judge John Facciola on E-Discovery Training at a Crossroads
D.C. District Judge John Facciola speaks with LTN magazine's editor-in-chief, Monica Bay, about how e-discovery training is at a crossroads, constrained by limited financial resources at the governmental level. He proposes several solutions to address these challenges, particularly when individuals are unable to meet face to face. [?]
Litigator of the Year Winner - David Boies
The Boies, Schiller & Flexner founder explains how he prepared for the key cross-examinations in the Proposition 8 case. [?]
Revamped deal would allow litigator to retain bar card
Los Angeles attorney Pierce O'Donnell has reached a revised plea deal with federal prosecutors that would require him to serve 60 days in prison but allow him to retain his California Bar license. The deal was the second reached in a campaign finance violations case against the noted trial attorney. [?]
If you are looking for a fulfilling and rewarding career in the area of healthcare, physical therapy assistant programs is a good choice to make. The program is specially designed to train health assistants to improve the mobility and fitness of the aged and those with injuries. As more and more people discover ways to stay stronger and live longer in life, there is the need for more people to enrol in this program to provide the services that are required.
The physical therapy assistant programs are closed programs that require interested applicants to apply separately to any of the universities and colleges that offer the course nationwide. With openings each year, the program usually takes four semesters to complete. To gain admission, applicants need to demonstrate that they get along with all types of people, are be able to motivate patients and solve problems.
Once applicants graduate from the physical therapy assistant programs, they are referred to as PTAs (Physical Therapy Assistants). They can work in a wide variety of employment settings including rehabilitation centers, athletic facilities, out-patient therapy centers, etc. They provide needed care and treatment to patients, only under the direction and supervision of a physical therapist.
We're back in the studio this week -- well, Brian and Dana are. Tim's still in his undisclosed location upstate. Join us tonight at 5PM, as we gear up for Mobile World Congress and discuss the surprisingly busy week that was. You can join along in the fun with the streaming video and chat after the break.
The owner of the?funeral home that?handled Whitney Houston's funeral is vehemently denying that her staff was responsible for the?National Enquirer's photograph of the singer in her casket.
?"I'm going to answer you as the publicist told me to answer you: We have no comment. But it was not the funeral home," Carolyn Whigham told the Los Angeles Times. "Whitney was a personal friend to me and my family. We would not do that."
She also told the newspaper, "I am very angry, very upset, just like the family, just like the fans."
She also said that Houston's family would release a statement to the media shortly.
Whigham owns the Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., where Houston's private funeral service was held Feb. 18. Earlier, she had told the U.K.'s Daily Mail that the Houston family had asked her not to comment.
The Enquirer's photo, showing a woman who appears to be Houston lying in a?casket with her?nickname, "Nippy," written on its silk lining,?provoked widespread outrage. It appears to have been taken in a?viewing room prepared to receive guests for Houston's service.?While the photo has not been officially confirmed to be Houston, neither Whigham nor anyone from the Houston family has?said that it was fraudulent.
It "seems doubtful" the photo was leaked by a family member, the Times reports, citing the Houston family's attempts to keep the media away from the service.?Houston's funeral was invitation-only to preserve privacy, although an?Associated Press camera was allowed to film the service, which was streamed live online.
Focus does seem to be shifting from Houston's death to the press coverage of her death, especially as it relates to how information is leaking out.? Radar Online is reporting?that hotel staffers at the Beverly Hills Hilton, where Houston died on Feb. 11,?have been fired for speaking to the media about the death.
?Hotel employees that talked to the media were fired because they violated hotel policy," Radar Online's anonymous source says. "They weren?t high level employees, but the hotel didn?t want anyone to talk about Whitney?s tragic death.?
There is still no official cause of death given for the late singer. Los Angeles Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter says an autopsy was performed, but that results are being held until toxicology tests have been performed.
While the Beverly Hills police department has said the death is not a criminal case and they are not conducting a homicide investigation, Nancy Grace of HLN has brought up that?angle, saying?"I'd like to know who was around her...and who let her slip, or pushed her, underneath that water."?
Comedian Lewis Black criticized Grace's speculation, saying "she manages to turn the tragic accident into murder mystery dinner theater."
No less than legendary singer Aretha Franklin, Houston's godmother and a 50-year friend of Houston's mother Cissy,?has pleaded for media sanity,?issuing a statement Wednesday saying,?"Cissy does not need ridiculous speculation and neither do I.?
Will people always sell out the deceased to make a buck? Tell us what you think on Facebook.
There is a saying that ?no man is an island?. It means that one cannot live alone for extended periods of time. Since human beings are social animals, it is therefore safe to assume, that if we need to live a happy life, we should interact with other human beings.
The most common form of interaction in human beings is speech. What happens when someone has speech disorders? It all comes down to the severity of each case. Some people stutter slightly, while the worst cases would be individuals incapable of speaking since birth or those suffering from brain damage caused by old age or accidents.
Speech pathologists are therapists that help with people having this disorder. They rehabilitate patients using drills, rhymes, and other activities everyday. Sign language is also taught because this addresses concerns in areas where audio communication is absent.
For the more severe cases, there are devices like electro larynges and speaking valves that were designed for people who once had the ability to speak.
Reports from speech therapists often indicate a happy working environment. The emotional reward after being able to help a patient is satisfaction in itself. Being content that their patients will now be able to fully function in the society comes with the sense of achievement and pride.
Schools, hospitals, and speech institutions offer treatments for this disorder. Schools often have kids as their patients. And most of the time these are government supported programs. While professional help comes with a hefty price tag, the range of treatment programs is also much broader. There are a lot more options for the patients to choose from.
If you want an online guide for speech pathology treatment plan, go to this website: http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/nextplease.htm.
I suggest that you see Speech Pathology to learn more about handling and coping to this situation.
Meatloaf. Mashed potatoes. Chicken parmesan. These and other comfort foods can be satisfying ? and loaded with fat and calories. The "Everyday Food Light" cookbook from Martha Stewart Living shows how to cook such dishes without too much fat. Read more
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Eating Dessert for Breakfast Can Make You Skinny [Food]
# food Your mother, doctors and life lied to you. According to scientists (science, people!), combining a low-calorie diet that includes dessert for breakfast will help you lose weight. Sweets, cookies, creme brulee, cake. ALL OF IT will help you lose weight if you start your day off like that. I love breakfast now. More?? Read more
Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:11:22 -0800
You Docs: The good-to-be-slow weight-control plan
Slow down your eating habits by making your first bite a healthy fat which will make you think your full; spend 30 minutes eating so you're not cramming food into an already full stomach; eat more often and indulge by putting more low calorie foods on your plate. Read more
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:07:06 -0800
Low Calorie Super Bowl Menu Options!
In a recent survey of women who are planning to watch the Super Bowl, many believe that traditional game day party menus are lacking. Skinny Cow Candy has teamed up two of the most knowledgeable women in football, Sarah and... Read more
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Wodraska: Diets and the low-calorie myth
Wodraska: Diets and the low-calorie myth By Lya Wodraska The Salt Lake Tribune Published Jan 26, 2012 03:46PM MDT If you still believe that drastically cutting calories is the best way to lose weight, I hope a new study will get you to change your thinking. Researchers at the Genesis Prevention Center at University Hospital in South Manchester, England, found that restricting carbohydrates for ... Read more
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Winter comfort foods, done the right way
Why do we gain weight during the winter? Is it because we need fat on our bones to keep us warm? Is it because the body happens to store more fat in the winter months because it?s trained to do so? Could it be that our excess clothing just makes us feel fatter? Sorry, but no, no and NO. Read more
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The Truth About Food Labels
A hundred years ago, food was simple. People didn't worry about trans fats in their cheese crackers or artificial colors in their fruit snacks. They didn't have to?they were eating real cheese and real fruit. And food companies used to focus more on making food than on enticing people to buy it. That's why supermarkets are so daunting today: It's easy to make a false move, even when you're ... Read more
A small population of rattlesnakes that already is in decline in southern Illinois faces a new and unexpected threat in the form of a fungus rarely seen in the wild, researchers report. The finding matches reports of rattlesnake deaths in the northeast United States.
The eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus), a candidate for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, suffers from habitat loss and environmental stresses wherever it is found, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences visiting instructor and wildlife veterinarian Matthew Allender, who led the health investigation. Long-term population studies of the snake ? in Illinois and elsewhere ? had never turned up evidence of debilitating fungal infections. But in 2008, biologists studying the snake reported to Allender that they had found three sick snakes in a park in southern Illinois, all with disfiguring lesions on their heads. The snakes died within three weeks of their discovery. A fourth snake with a similar syndrome was discovered in the same park in the spring of 2010.
Allender conducted necropsies on the snakes and identified the pathogen that had killed them: Chrysosporium, a fungus that plagues portions of the pet reptile industry but is not normally seen in the wild, he said.
"Chrysosporium causes disease in bearded dragons and in other snakes and it's a bad bug," Allender said. "We see it in captive animals worldwide, but we don't typically find it in free-ranging animals."
Chrysosporium also is emerging as a dangerous infection in humans with weakened immune systems, he said.
Shortly after he first presented his findings at a meeting of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Allender heard from other biologists about similar infections in snakes in the northeast United States.
"They seem to be having a similar problem in timber rattlesnakes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts," Allender said. Although biologists have sporadically identified Chrysosporium in those snakes, the symptoms they report ? facial swelling and ulcers and malformations of the jaw ? are the same, he said. These infections also occurred only within the last five years.
"Fungal pathogens have been increasingly associated with free-ranging epidemics in wildlife, including the well-known effects of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on frog populations globally and white-nosed syndrome in bats," Allender wrote in a December 2011 report in Emerging Infectious Diseases. "Both of these diseases cause widespread and ongoing deaths in these populations that seriously threaten biodiversity across the United States."
Allender sees this new occurrence of a fungal infection in endangered snakes as a "yellow flag" that warrants more study.
"Wildlife diseases and human health are not that different," he said. "And often wildlife are our window into a weakened environment that leads to disease in both people and animals."
###
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://www.uiuc.edu
Thanks to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for this article.
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President Barack Obama speaks at a production facility of a Boeing plant in Everett, Wash., Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at a production facility of a Boeing plant in Everett, Wash., Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? This time around, President Barack Obama's message can sound decidedly down-to-earth.
Four years after winning the White House, Obama is dealing with a different economic and political reality as he seeks re-election. He's focused less on a lofty vision for overcoming divisions and remaking Washington, and more on the most basic building blocks of middle-class economic security: a job, a house, a college education for the kids, health care, money for retirement.
What Obama describes as the American Dream can seem a spare, fundamental aspiration, tailored for a campaign that looks to be fought over who is best equipped to safeguard the interests of middle-class Americans.
The question is whether it will convince, even as Mitt Romney and the other GOP presidential hopefuls mount a counter-argument that the president has made the American Dream harder, not easier, to achieve. And Obama must overcome the grinding realities many voters confront daily, even with the economy showing signs of life: no jobs, mortgages they can't pay, dwindling retirement funds and college savings.
The president is betting that if he shows voters he understands their yearning for economic stability and security, they'll reward him over Republicans he's casting as just watching out for the rich ? even though he hasn't succeeded in fully reviving the economy so far.
"If you're willing to put in the work, the idea is that you should be able to raise a family and own a home; not go bankrupt because you got sick, because you've got some health insurance that helps you deal with those difficult times; that you can send your kids to college; that you can put some money away for retirement," Obama said recently in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"That's all most people want," he said. "Folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American Dream."
The goals can seem almost humdrum in comparison with some of the rhetoric from Obama's 2008 White House campaign. But the message sounds made for the times, with the country emerging haltingly from recession, the income gap widening and unemployment stuck above 8 percent.
"He can't run on change because he's the incumbent, and he can't paint too rosy a scenario because things aren't that rosy," said John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. "He's got to come up with a theme that appeals to voters, especially middle-class voters, alleviates their fears and gives them reason to believe the future will be better."
The message also creates an implicit contrast with the portrait Democrats are trying to create of front-runner Romney as preoccupied with the concerns of the rich. But Romney is answering Obama's message head-on, seeking a careful balance between sounding optimistic about the nation's future and accusing Obama of destroying the American Dream.
"I've met Hispanic entrepreneurs who thought they had achieved the American Dream and are now seeing it disappear," Romney said after his recent victory in Florida's GOP primary. "We want to restore America to the founding principles that made this country great."
GOP candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich also have accused Obama of tarnishing American opportunity, as Republicans make clear that no matter their nominee, Obama's claim to be the one to restore the American Dream is sure to be challenged.
The candidates' focus on the American Dream is in itself a sign of the times, said Michael Ford, founding director of the Center for the Study of the American Dream at Xavier University. The phrase was coined during the Great Depression and since then has tended to become a central theme during economic downturns, Ford said.
He said rhetoric about the American Dream has been featured during this election cycle more than in decades, which he attributed to the tough times the nation has been suffering.
"It's pretty basic stuff (Obama) talks about and I think as it turns out that's pretty much where the dream is right now," Ford said. "We can say the dream might have been lowered a little bit in terms of its aspiration but the aspiration is still there, and it's always there."
Some polling suggests that, despite voters' continued unhappiness with the economy and Obama's handling of it, the president may be convincing Americans he's on their side. A recent CBS/New York Times poll shows people view Obama as the candidate who best understands the needs and problems of "people like you," and see his policies as more apt than those of the GOP candidates to favor the middle class or the poor.
Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said "the viability of the middle class is the central economic challenge of our time, so I think that this is very essential in terms of this election."
"He's been talking about this for years, that there are certain things that are pillars of a middle-class life, and he's been very focused on those things and addressing them as president," Axelrod said.
___
AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 28-Feb-2012
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