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Statement by Dr. Shirley Charter,
Commissioner of Social Security
before the Senate Finance Committee
Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy
March 22, 1995
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability programs. As you requested, I will address the reasons for growth in both disability programs and some measures we are actively pursuing to address the growth and the resulting costs.
Before I begin my discussion, Mr. Chairman, let me point out that there are some indications that the growth of the program has slowed. In 1993 and 1994 SSOI applications and awards have remained about the same, and applications and awards for the SSI disability program have actually decreased. However, it is impossible to draw a conclusion for the long term based on this limited experience. Nevertheless, I would like to make it clear that the Administration is concerned about the increase in the disability programs over the past several years. As I will be discussing in further detail later in my testimony, preliminary findings show that program growth is driven by both an increase in applications and a decrease in terminations. The fluctuation in the number of applications and terminations are, in turn, driven by economic, demographic, and program-specific factors which I will describe. There are actions we have taken and can take to address program-specific factors relating to growth; however, as you know, certain changes are beyond the Social Security Admnistration's (SSA's) control, such as personal health status, environmental conditions, and general economic and demographic factors.
It's important to realize that the current growth in disability costs is not a new experience for the disability program. In the Social Security Amendments of 1977, Congress increased the funding of the DI program to accommodate this growth in program costs. However, by the time the Social Security Amendments of 1983 were enactd into law, disability incidence rates had declined significantly, and the future cost of the DI program was projected to be much lower than previously estimated. The funding for the DI program was accordingly reduced in the 1983 amendments. Subsequent developments, including legislative changes and court decisions, have led to higher rates of program growth approaching the growth experienced in the 1970s. Had the funding provided for the DI program in the 1977 amendments been retained, the DI Trust Fund today would actually have an actuarial surplus over the next 75 years.
To facilitate our discussion today, as you requested, I will begin by providing you with a look at what we believe are the reasons for the recent overall growth in the SSDI and SSI programs, particularly focusing on the last 5 years. I would then like to briefly address the two categories of benefits in the SSI disability program which have been the focus of much attention in recent years--children and drug addicts and alcoholics. Following that, I will describe our initiatives to address program-specific factors contributing to growth in the disability programs. Finally, I will discuss our action plan for the future.
Reasons for SSDI and SSI Disability Program Growth
The number of people receiving disability benefits from these two programs rose from 5.4 million in 1989 to 7.9 million in 1994, an increase of 46.6 percent. As a result, benefit payments grew from $33.8 billion 1989 to $58 billion in 1994, an increase of 72 percent.
To determine the causes for the recent growth in disability, SSA, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), conducted an analysis in 1992 of the SSDI program and prepared a report for the Board of Trustees of the Federal OldAge and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds. We surmised that certain factors--such as unemployment and demographics--contributed to the recent growth in the SSDI program. However, although there has been general agreement among experts that these factors account for much of the recent growth in the disability program, we were unable to quantify the impact.
After receiving our 1992 report, the Board of Trustees recommended that we initiate a research effort to establish whether the growth represents a temporary phenomenon or a longerterm trend.
In response to this recommendation, and in cooperation with our colleagues in HHS, we contracted with Lewin-VHI, in 1993, to produce an independent assessment which would quantify the reasons for disability program growth. While we do not yet have a final report on this study, preliminary findings confirm many of our earlier assumptions.
Both our past and current analyses and that of Lewin-VHI indicate that disability program growth can be attributed to the reasons I mentioned earlier, the economy, demographics, and program changes. Let me explain how these three elements have influenced the increase in disability applications.
Economic Factors
Economic conditions appear to be a large factor in affecting application rates for the SSDI program. The most direct way this can occur is when severely impaired workers, who previously worked despite their disabilities, lose their jobs and apply for benefits. Similarly, the most recent recession put more people in poverty, thus increasing the universe of potential eligibles for SSI benefits. As the economy has improved, the SSDI program is experiencing a slowing in applications.
Demographic Factors
In addition, two demographic factors have largely contributed to increased applications:
- the aging of the baby boomers has made them more vulnerable to disability; and
- an increasing proportion of women have worked long enough to be insured for SSDI benefits.
We believe these demographic trends will continue to be a source of program growth in the future.
Program-Specific Factors
In addition to the influence of economics and demographics, there are a number of program-specific factors which have caused increases in the disability program. For example:
- Legislation, regulations, and court decisions have resulted in chang.es to both the SSDI and SSI disability programs. One example is the Supreme Court's decision in Sullivan v. Zebley which mandated a change in the way SSA evaluates disability in children. The Court held that instead of evaluating children with disabilities using solely a medical listing criteria, SSA must provide children with a functional assessment based on their ability to perform age appropriate activities. The new criteria increased the number of children eligible for SSI benefits. While the Zebley case involved children applying for SSI benefits, we believe that the wide publicity given the case may have prompted some workers to apply for SSDI benefits as well.
- As a result of a 1984 congressional mandate, we revised the criteria for evaluating disability, particularly involving mental impairments. These revisions contributed to recent increases in the proportion of applications that result in benefit awards.
- SSA's "outreach" efforts have also influenced the disability growth in recent years. Outreach efforts--intended to inform potential eligibles about the SSI program--have also influenced the number of SSDI applications, because many of the SSI applicants are eligible for SSDI benefits. Also, the growth has been influenced by increased public awareness of the disability programs due, for example, to congressional actions or class action court cases which sometimes mandate that SSA conduct public information initiatives. Advocacy groups also conduct their own outreach efforts.
- Finally, State cuts in general assistance and State and local efforts to have persons with impairments apply for Federal programs have contributed to the increase in SSI disability claims.
We expect to have a final report on Lewin-VHI's study this aummer. This report will further refine and extend their preliminary findings and attempt to det rmine if these effects are likely to recur in future recessions.
Disability Termination
Having discussed the underlying reasons for the increase in the number of people applying for disability benefits, I would now like to turn to the other end of the spectrum--disability terminations, or the number of people leaving the disability rolls.
Disability benefits are terminated when a beneficiary medically recovers, returns to work, or dies. In addition, disability benefits are terminated when beneficiaries reach age 65 because they are transferred to the retirement rolls. The percentage of beneficiaries whose disability benefits are terminated has steadily declined. There are several reasons this has occurred. For example:
- The baby boom cohort has contributed to a general lowering of the average age of disability beneficiaries;
- There have been more awards to people with mental impairments who tend to be younger and physically healthier, and therefore remain on the disability rolls longer;
- The 1984 Disability Benefit Reform Act required a medical improvement standard for continuing disability reviews;
- Medical and technvlogical advdnces have increased life expectancy; and
- There has been an increase in the number of female beneficiaries, who tend to have a greater life expectancy than males.
Clearly, these factors are, to a great extent, beyond our control. However, SSA conducts two important activities- continuing disability reviews (CDRs) and "employment strategies"--which can affect the number of disability terminations. CDRs help ensure that only those who are truly disabled continue to get disability benefits, whereas our employment strategies are intended to help beneficiaries who remain disabled enter the workforce, despite their disability. I will discuss these activities in greater detail in just a moment.
Growth in Specific SSI Program Areas
Now that I have described some of treasons for growth in both the SSDI and SSI programs, let me turn to a discussion of the area where growth has been most controversial--the SSI program. While it is true that both programs have been growing rapidly, in tha last 5 years, the SSDI program has grown by about 37 percent compared to approximately 53 percent for the SSI disability program. In the SSI program, thre are two groups of SSI recipients which togetiaer represent about 20 percent of the SSI disabled population--children (18.5%) and drug addicts and alcoholics (2%). Much discussion has surrounded these categories of recipients in recent years. Therefore, I would like to briefly discuss the growth in the number of these recipients.
Growth in the Number of SSI Children
I will focus first on the growth in the number of disabled children receiving SSI benefits. Growth in this category of beneficiary is the single most important factor in the growth of the SSI disability program. During the past 5 years, the number of disabled children receiving SSI has tripled--growing from about 296,000 in 1989 to just over 890,000 at the close of 1994. Children now represent about 18.5 percent of the total SSI disabled population compared to 9 percent 5 years ago.
Moveover, during that same period, program costs associated with children grew from about 1 billion dollars annually to five billion dollars annually.
We believe that this increase can be attributed to three major causes: the Zebley decision (which I mentioned earlier); updates to the medical criteria for evaluating mental disorders in children; and outreach efforts mandated oy the Congress.
The increase in the number of children receiving SSI, particularly based on ental impairments, along with the evaluation of behavioral criteria, has led to allegations about abuse in the SSI program. SSA, the Congress and the media have received inquiries from school teachers, psychologists, and State legislators alleging that some children with relatively mild impairments, such as learning disabilities and other behavioral problems, are being found disabled; and that parents may be coaching their children to misbehave or underperform in an effort to receive benefits.
Mr. Chairman, although these complaints are anecdotal in nature, I want to assure you that we have investigated every allegation and will continue to do so. I am determined to maintain the fiscal integrity of the SSI program.
For instance, in an effort to determine whether these alleged abuses exist, we undertook a study of childhood disability claims to see if new regulations were being applied correctly and whether there was any evidence of malingering or coaching. Our study focused on impairments involving behavioral abnormalities and learning disorders.
We found that the rules governing the evaluation of disability in children were generally being applied correctly by those making disability determinations. Of course, if any problems are found, we will certainly take corrective action. In addition, studies by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services and the General Accounting Office have not found evidence of widespread abuses in the program. Nevertheless, we are continuing to look for ways to ensure that only those children who meet the current statutory and regulatory definition of disability receive benefits. Let me mention here that the Commission on the Evaluation of Disability in Children, which was mandated by the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994 is examining the statutory definition of disability for children. The Commission, in consultation with the National Academy of Sciences will study the effects of the current SSI definition of disability as it applies to children under age 18 and their receipt of services, including the appropriateness of an alternative definition. It will also examine the feasibility of other major changes in SSI benefits for children, including the desirability of providing benefits through non-cash means, such as vouchers. In addition, the Commission will look at other issues, including ways to increase the extent to which benefits are used to help a child achieve independence and an ability to work. We understand that the Commission has expedited its review and we are very optimistic that the forthcoming recommendations from the Commission will assist us in determininappropriate reform in the eligibility criteria and payment options for childhood disability benefits.
While we feel confider that we are administering current law and regulations properly, we do agree with the concerns about the growth of the program. The criteria for determining whether a child's impairments are significant enough to warrant Federal assistance for that child and his or her family is an appropriate subject for serious discussion. While change may be warranted, we are not convinced that the measures currently under consideration in the House provide the answers.
- Changing a large part of the program from direct cash benefits to state block grants reduces the flexibility of families to determine the best way to spend money to assist their children with disabilities. At the same time, it would require the creation of State bureaucracies to administer programs for service that would be more complex than the Federal cash benefit program currently in place.
- "Fixing" the definitional issue by simply removing a step in the process rather than better defining by law and regulation the population of children to whom assistance should be provided may lead to the inadvertent exclusion of children with serious disabilities.
The Administration sees the need for careful reform in this area. We believe prudence dictates waiting until the reviews identified above are completed.
Growth in the Number of Drug Addicts and Alcoholics
Mr. Chairman, let me now briefly address one other area of growth in the SSI disability rolls: the inrease in the number of individuals who receive benefits based on drug addiction and alcoholism. Although DA&A recipients currently represent only 2 percent of the SSI disabled population, this area of growth has been the subject of much attention and controversy, as well as recent legislation. And, in fact, over the past 5 years, the number of individuals receiving SSI based on DA&A has significantly increased--from about 17,000 in 1989 to just over 100,000 in December 1994. The growth in the DA&A rolls has primarily resulted from two factors:
- Emphasis on the need for the State Disability Determination services (DDS), which make the disability determination for SSA, to code accurately cases involving DA&A impairments; and
- Active outreach activities to promote awareness of the availability of SSI payments for those who have serious mental illness in addition to substance addictions.
The growth in the number of SSI recipients receiving disability benefits based on DA&A has also led to increased public concerns and questions about the fun mental nature of the SSI program and whether it is appropriate to provide cash benefits to such recipients. Questions have also been raised about the responsibility these individuals have to.seek recovery. Unlike many other disabled individuals, those suffering from substance addictions can, to varying degrees, influence their recovery by their own actions.
In response to such concerns, the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994 included new restrictions on the payment of benefits to SSDI and SSI beneficiaries whose disability is based on DA&A. The new provisions generally limit the payment of SSDI and SSI benefits to 36 months, establish mandatory, progressive sanctions for noncompliance with treatment, and require installment payments of retroactive benefits to representative payees.
We are implementing the new provisions and are hopeful that these new measures will provide strong motivation for individuals disabled by substance addiction to improve their condition and become self-supporting.
Initiatives to Address Program-Specific Factors
Mr. Chairman, you also asked me to disccss options to address the increasing proqram growth. As I stated previously, preliminary findings of the Lewin-VHI study clearly indicate that high unemployment is one of the most important factors influencing growth in the SSDI program. Again, the state of the economy is beyond SSA's control; however, if low levels of unemployment are maintained, it may have a corresponding effect of decreasing the number of SSDI and SSI applications filed.
Although economic and demographic influences are beyond SSA's control, let me describe to you efforts we have been making to address factors within our control.
SSI Children
Let me turn first to initiatives to ensure that only children who are eligible under current law and regulations receive SSI disability benefits. Since the implementation of the childhood disability regulations in 1991, we have conducted a special review of SSI disability childhood medical determinations to ensure that they are correct In addition, we have:
- Provided training to all adjudicatcrs on those issues which are most easily misinterpreted and on the adjudicator's role in detecting coaching and malingering;
- Reviewed all childhood disability claims in which coaching or malingering is either alleged or suspected;
- Established several 800-numbers across the country for teachers and other school personnel to make confidential anonymous reports about perceived coaching or malingering; and
We are assessing the childhood disability regulations to determine whether the new standards are being applied correctly or whether they require some adjustment. On this point we are working with the Commission on the Evaluation of Disability in Children.
Drug Addicts and Alcoholics
We have also made excellent progress in implementing the provisions of the 1994 legislation placing restrictions on the payment of benefits to drug addicts and alcoholics. For instance, we developed and published regulations necessary to implement the new law despite a 6-month timeframe and the complex nature of the issues addressed in the regulations. We also issued notices to DA&A beneficiaries explaining the new provisions and advising that they are subject to them. Additionally, we now have referral and monitoring contracts or agreements in place for treatment purposes for the District of Columbia and all states except one. (We expect to have a contract in that State by the end of the year.)
Quality Assurance
Mr. Chairman, in addition to the efforts we are directing to specific populations of beneficiaries, we have a number of safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of the disability programs overall. For example, we review a statistically reliable sample of decisions to assess the accuracy of all aspects of disability claim processing.
Moreover, we established sunset provisions on our regulations involving disability criteria to ensure that they reflect up-to date medical knowledge and that our rules are being applied accurately. We will be aggressively reviewing these rules as they sunset.
Continuing Disability Reviews
Let me now focus on the two activities I mentioned earlier which can affect the number of terminations: continuing disability reviews, or CDRs, and employment strategies. Once beneficiaries are on the rolls, Mr.Chairman, CDRs ensure that only those beneficiaries who continue to be disabled remain on the rolls. The upsurge in initial disability applications required that difficult decisions be made about the prudent use of limited administrative resources. Accordingly, in recent years, decisions were made to give highest priority to processing initial claims in order to e.ure that eligible applicants with disabilities receive their benefits as quickly as possible, because these benefits are often the only means of support for the disabled and their families.
Nevertheless, to help preserve the integrity of the disability programs, we recognized that we need to strike a better balance between addressing the growing wcrkloads in initial disability claims and conducting CDRs. However, the increasing pressure of other major workloads would not allow continued use of the traditional lengthy, labor-intensive CDR process. Thus, in 1993 SSA implemented a more efficient CDR process through the use of a mailer and statistical profiles.
This new process is twice as cost effective as our previous process and has increased the number of people we identify as medically improved. We are further refining this process to develop mailers that are specifically related to the beneficiary's impairments, and to evaluate the use of additional information to determine the likelihood of medical improvement, such as Medicare utilization data.
Although we continue to be faced with resource constraints, I want to assure you that I am determined to increase the number of CDRs we conduct. In fact, the Administration's FY 1996 budget includes a request for funds to increase the number of CDRs we conduct in FY 1996 to 431,000--a threefold increase over FY 1994.
Employment Strategies
Mr. Chairman, let me now focus on employment strategies, which is our other initiative related to terminations. Employment strategies are designed to help individuals with disabilities enter the workforce. This is a crucial effort since, historically, less than one-half of 1 percent of the individuals who receive SSDI benefits ever leave the rolls to return to work. I would add, Mr. Chairman, that the trends I mentioned earlier- that beneficiaries are younger on average, live longer, and are less likely to leave the rolls--underscore the importance of initiatives designed to encourage persons with disabilities to receive rehabilitation services and enter the workforce.
Most individuals with disabilities have a strong desire to work, and we want to make sure they have the opportunity to do so. That is why we are intensifying our effort to assist beneficiaries and applicants in making the transition from dependence to independence.
I have established a proactive strategy team to develop approachs to increase the employment of current anpotential disability beneficiaries, thereby promoting economic self sufficiency and reducing their dependence on disability benefits. This team is headed by our Associate Commissioner for Disability, Dr. Susan Daniels. Dr. Daniels' team has been obtaining information from Federal agency partners, members of the disability community and outside experts to obtain broad input on the problems and barriers individuals with disabilities face.
In the near future, we will make decisions about how best to implement employment strategies. I am optimistic that we can help many of our beneficiaries achieve a more rewarding life, while at the same time reducing disability program costs.
Action Plan For The Future
Given the recent growth in the SSDI and SSI disability programs, Mr. Chairman, it seems clear that we may need to take steps to control future program growth particularly since as, I have indicated, demographics will continue to be a source of growth in the future.
I have already outlined a number of actions we are taking to ensure that only those who are disabled actually receive benefits. We are also working to help those who remain disabled enter the workforce.
For example, within the next few months, we will have the results of important reports that will help us better understand the reasons for the growth in the prngram and the best ways to deal with that growth. For instance, I have already mentioned the work being done by the commission on the Evaluation of Disability in Children. Also, at the request of the House Committee on Ways and Means, the National Academy of Social Insurance has convened a Disability Policy Panel which is currently examining the interrelationship of income support policy and employment of people with disabilities. More specifically, the panel has been asked to review the definition of disability and its effect on employment and receipt of benefits.
I believe we need to have the information all of these groups will provide in order to make informed decisions about the future of the disability programs. For, when we talk about changes in the SSDI and SSI programs, we must consider the importance of those programs to millions of Americans, and to American society as a whole--nearly a million beneficiaries receive SSDI and SSI benefits each year.
Therefore, it is critical that we maintain appropriate support for children with disabilities and move cautiously in recommending changes to the SSDI and SSI programs, so we do not hurt the programs and the millions of Americans who depend upon them.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, let me stress that, while there are indications that the situation may be improving somewhat, the Administration remains concerned about the growth in the disability programs. That is one reason we have undertaken major initiatives to improve the CDR process, and to help disabled individuals become productive members of the workforce. We are, of course, also working hard to implement new rules for drug addicts and alcoholics, as required by legislation enacted last year.
One of the most fundamental requirements in controlling program growth is to have an understanding of the factors underlying that growth. To that end, the Lewin-VHI research project begun in 1993--which will be completed a few months from now--will help us better identify and quantify those factors. Moreover, it should help us determine whether this recent growth represents a temporary phenomenon, or a longer-term trend.
We look forward to working with you, Mr.Chairman, to determine what changes need to be made in the SSDI and SSI disability programs.


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Rangers give Perez plenty of support vs. Red Sox
BOSTON -- Rangers pitcher Martin Perez accomplished quite a feat on Tuesday night, when he allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base in seven straight innings.
That can often lead to disaster, but Perez had two things going for him on a cool New England evening. He received some big run support early from his offense and he was able to keep getting the Red Sox to hit into rally-killing double plays.View Full Game Coverage
BOSTON -- Rangers pitcher Martin Perez accomplished quite a feat on Tuesday night, when he allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base in seven straight innings.
That can often lead to disaster, but Perez had two things going for him on a cool New England evening. He received some big run support early from his offense and he was able to keep getting the Red Sox to hit into rally-killing double plays.View Full Game Coverage
The combination helped Perez earn his first win of the season in a 10-7 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The Rangers led 9-1 after five innings before holding on at the end for their second win in five games on a road trip that ends on Wednesday afternoon.
Perez went 6 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, three walks and three strikeouts. He was able to get the Red Sox to ground into five double plays, tying him for second most by a Rangers pitcher in one game. Matt Harrison holds the Rangers record with six against the Yankees on April 15, 2011. Perez is now tied for second most, along with George Medich in 1982 and Kevin Gross in 1995.
"A pitcher's best friend and he was able to use it tonight," Rangers manager Ron Washington said of the double plays. "You don't want it to happen all the time like that, but he was able to take advantage of it tonight. He really threw the ball well."
Perez knew coming in that he had to keep the ball down and not let the Red Sox hitters take advantage of that left-field wall. So he came out from the beginning relying on his sinker and that was the pitch that kept bailing him out of trouble inning after inning.
"I'm not a power pitcher, I'm a ground ball pitcher," Perez said. "I throw good pitches down in the zone and that's what happened. When you have conviction and throw good pitches, that's what happens. You stay on the attack."
Adrian Beltre, who started at designated hitter, was 2-for-3 with two RBIs for the Rangers, but had to leave the game after five innings with tightness in his left quad muscle. It's a similar problem to one that forced Beltre to miss a week in Spring Training and he is flying back to Texas on Wednesday to be examined by Dr. Keith Meister to see the extent of the injury.
Shin-Soo Choo was 2-for-3 with two walks and Prince Fielder was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. But the guy who started everything was catcher Robinson Chirinos, who was making his third start behind the plate. He led off a five-run third inning with a home run off of Red Sox starter Felix Doubront, the second of his career and first since Aug. 3, 2011. He also had a double and scored another run in the fifth.
"Thank God for a great day," Chirinos said. "I couldn't ask for a better day."
The Rangers were 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position after going 0-for-8 in those situations in a 3-1 loss on Monday.
"Yesterday we had some opportunities, tonight we had the big innings," Choo said.
Doubront walked Choo to lead off the first but had retired six straight hitters before Chirinos, his teammate from winter ball in Venezuela, took him deep over the left-field wall on a full-count fastball.
"We were getting good pitches to hit and trying to stay in the strike zone," Chirinos said. "I know he sometimes has a hard time throwing strikes so we just made him put it in the strike zone and put good swings on it."
After Josh Wilson grounded out, Choo singled to left. Doubront struck out Elvis Andrus, but Fielder bounced a double over first base to score Choo. Beltre brought him home with a single. After Alex Rios singled, Donnie Murphy doubled home a run, then walks to Michael Choice and Robinson Chirinos forced in another. Doubront was done after that with the Rangers leading 5-0.
"I gave up the homer to start, being too perfect and overthrowing ... started trying to do too much," Doubront said. "I was feeling comfortable with my arm. My body feels really good. Like I said, I was trying to do too much. It's hard to explain. I don't know what happened. It's one of those games."
The Rangers added three more in the fourth and an RBI double by Choo gave the Rangers a 9-1 lead after five. The game didn't end comfortably. The Red Sox had baserunners on in every inning, and the leadoff hitter on in eight of nine innings. Perez got double-play grounders in five of the first six innings.
But when the double plays stopped, the Red Sox made it interesting with three in the seventh and three in the ninth. Joakim Soria finally put it away by striking out Mike Napoli.
"In this ballpark, late in games, those guys have taken away a lot of ballgames," Washington said. "We needed every run tonight."
They also needed every double play.
T.R. Sullivan is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Postcards from Elysian Fields, and follow him on Twitter @Sullivan_Ranger.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi, this is Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum's "Techwise Conversations."
We all have things we don't want to put on Facebook, and for some, the loss of privacy is so large that they stay off the social network entirely. But it turns out that, to quote heavyweight champion Joe Louis, "You can run, but you can't hide."
To quote a research paper published last month on PLoS One, "With the help of machine learning, social network operators can make predictions regarding the acquaintance or lack thereof between two nonmembers with a high rate of success."
It's been known for a while that Facebook makes a shadow profile of people it learns about who aren't on Facebook. What the researchers here found was that they could predict, with a surprising degree of accuracy, whether two such nonmembers were acquainted with each other.
The paper, entitled "One Plus One Makes Three (for Social Networks)," was written by a team from the University of Heidelberg, and my guest today is the corresponding author, Katharina Anna Zweig. Nina, as her colleagues call her, is a professor of theoretical computer science, specializing in network analysis and graph theory. She joins us by phone from her home in Heidelberg, where it's late at night already.
Nina, welcome to the podcast and guten abend.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Thank you very much for this invitation to speak to you.
Steven Cherry: So, there's maybe several parts to this. First, social networks often make guesses about whether two people know each other, and we've all seen this. LinkedIn, for example, has a "people you may know," Facebook has a whole column on the side called "Know them?" Google + has something similar. How do these networks make those inferences?
Katharina Anna Zweig: So, I don't know, actually. So we—actually, this was the starting point of our project. So my colleague, Professor Hamprecht, got such an e-mail, like "You are a nonmember, but you might know these members of"—in this case—"Facebook," and he was startled. Because these people were not people that invited him personally. It was—it was a good set of people, and he actually knew almost all of them, and he's in machine learning, so he—he was really startled, and so the...how? How do they know? And then we found out that whenever you register with Facebook, Facebook will ask you for your full e-mail address book. And so it's quite easy for them to know that these members know him, even if they didn't choose to invite him personally.
Steven Cherry: Okay, so tell us about your research and how you tried to figure out what Facebook was doing.
Katharina Anna Zweig: So as we teamed up with a machine learner and a network analysis guy; then we wanted to understand whether we could infer something about the relationship between nonmembers if we had information about the network between members and who they know outside of any social network. And so what we did is that for each two nonmembers, we looked at the people that are on the membership site and how they are connected to each other. And you can, you can call this "features." So, for example, we looked at person A and person B, and these are nonmembers. And we looked at how connected...their friends on the social network platform would be connected. And this would give a vector of 15 features—properties. And then with a quite standard machine-learning algorithm, we tried to give a prediction value to these vectors, and what happens then is that for each two people we get a score. And we would then say that the highest 10 percent or 20 percent we would predict as being connected, and then we can check in our data whether they really are connected or not. And this is what we did. And yeah, we saw that we can under some assumptions, we can predict about 40 percent of the connections between nonmembers correctly.
Steven Cherry: We should point out that we, I guess, you were looking at both predicting that members were friends when they were and were not when they were not. And that both went into the 40 percent.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Yes, it did. In a way, because it's always easy if you predict everyone to be connected, then you will always get a 100 percent score, but you will make a lot of wrong guesses.
Steven Cherry: Yeah, I guess we should talk about the machine learning a little bit. I gather this involves taking a training set, so you take a sample where you do know everything, and you figure out basically an algorithm, and then you—I'm sorry—you figure out an algorithm, and then you point it to a training set where you already know all of the answers.
Katharina Anna Zweig: And of course we also know it for doing the quantitative analysis. So we not only know the answers for the training set, but we also know it for the nontraining sets, and this information is used to assess the quality of the algorithms. So the training phase is used to find out—so I told you earlier about these 15 properties in the vector. And not all of these properties are really important. The machine-learning algorithm helps us to find out which of the properties is really important for predicting whether two nonmembers are connected or not. And the machine-learning algorithm understands, based on some training sets where we tell him, which of the nonmember pairs are really connected, are friends. Based on this, the machine-learning algorithm learns ways. So, for example, he learns that if two nonmembers have at least five friends together on the social network platform side, and these five friends are also connected with a probability of 0.5, then this is a very good indicator that the two nonmembers are also connected or are also friends. And so this is the first phase of the machine-learning algorithm, where we learn the ways of the teachers. And then [in] the second phase, we will then make our predictions on a set of samples that the algorithm has not seen before. And these two sets are really independent, so there's no choice of doing anything spooky there. And in the second phase, we will then evaluate how good our algorithm was. So hopefully in the second phase we do have the real relationships, and we only try to predict as many relationships as there are really in the data sets. And based on this known "ground truth," we call it, based on this, we can say how many of the ones that are really there were predicted by our algorithm.
Steven Cherry: So what was your—what was the set of people that you worked on?
Katharina Anna Zweig: Okay. So, this is a very good point, crucially, so we were able to get access to five real Facebook data sets from five universities. So this is data from 2005, and at this point almost 80 percent of all of the students in these five universities were really members of Facebook. And we know the total network structure there. What we did not know is who these people knew outside. Yeah, so we just had the data between the people on Facebook. So, what can you do if you don't have the data that you need? You need to emulate it in a way. So we took this data and had five very different evolutionary models of how people decide to become a member of a new social network platform. So how did you decide to become a member of any social network platform? Maybe one of your friends was already there. Or you thought it was just a very cool social network platform. And so our five models scales between a totally dependent behavior, where your own decision depends on how many of your friends already are members, and the totally independent decision. And we have five different models, but we're kind of scaling between these extremes. And we used these models to artificially divide this real data set into members and nonmembers. For this artificial division, we knew exactly who is connected to whom, but our algorithm would not know this. So for all five evolutionary models of how somebody decides to become a member, we got almost the same results qualitatively.
Steven Cherry: Now, it turns out that the prediction is more accurate, I gather, the more, the higher percentage of people are on Facebook. So I guess in the United States, for example, something like 70 percent of all adults in the U.S. are on Facebook, and that makes it relatively easy, I gather, to make predictions about the remaining 30 percent.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Yes it does. So this is one parameter we took into account. I really need to stress that we are not talking about Facebook because we are just talking about all social network platforms that have information about their members and the connection of members to nonmembers. So of course you're totally right that this parameter is very important. If we were looking at a social network platform where only 5 percent or 10 percent of any population is a member of, then we couldn't do much because basically machine learning is always depending on statistics. But what we saw is that, first of all, we don't need to look at the full population. Sometimes we might be only interested in schoolkids or students of a given university. And in the subpopulation, as you said, the percentage might be very high and might go to 70, 80 percent. For our machine-learning algorithm, we don't need much more than 50, 60 percent.
Steven Cherry: So I guess the lesson here is that if people stay off of a social network, whether it is Facebook or any other, because they basically don't want that social network to have information about them, in a way, staying off may not be sufficient, because the social network may know about them through the people who are members and can start to collect information and make inferences about them, even if they're not members.
Katharina Anna Zweig: You know, I'm a scientist, I always want to say that "What can I really infer, and what can I not infer?" Ah, yeah, there is an important point. The important point is that in our study, we only used the contact data. Because we didn't have any other social information about the people. So if we were a social network platform, we would have additional information on the age, on the location, on the education, whatever. And if you take this additional information into account, it's very likely that you can do a better inference than what we did now.
Steven Cherry: So these supplement the 15 features or replace some of them.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Totally.
Steven Cherry: And the accuracy could potentially be much, much higher than that 40 percent.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Yes. So this is what my experts, my colleagues in machine learning, say. They expect that if you take these additional information into account—we know that a connection between people is always driven by homophilies, so it's much more likely that two people of the same age will be connected than two people that are very different in age, and so on. So taking this additional data into account would certainly improve the quality. And also the social network platform has a time, or dynamic, information, because they can see when a former nonmember...whether their predictions were right or not. So...and it's very, very important to us that we don't say that social network platforms are currently doing this, and I also wouldn't know what type of harm can be done with it. And so our study is not about this. We don't know anything about this. It's just about this fact that staying away from social network platforms is not enough. And I was so much surprised, because when I thought about these results, I felt guilty. So we have a very famous German magazine, and I often sent an article to my brother, to my father, via this website, yeah? I just click on the link "send article to friend." And so I'm actually doing the same because this platform can see what types of articles I like. And when I give an information or when I enter the e-mail address of my brother, then this platform also gets information that I have a relationship to this person and that I think this person is interested in the article. So I think actually our study hints at something much bigger. We are constantly leaving information about relationship to others, and relationship is by definition an information between two people. But if I give you the information that I know my brother, I know this person, can he use this information? Is this okay or not? And I think as a society we need to speak about this. What's—what do we want companies or others to do with information about a relationship that is only revealed from one of the two sides?
Steven Cherry: And the information implied by these connections can be pretty personal. They could involve political beliefs; they could involve, perhaps, illnesses that a person might be suffering from; they could involve a person's sexual orientation—or anything.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Yes, definitely. So I saw on some wall on a social network platform something like "Get well soon." And this...this was an information that the other person revealed about the person whose wall it was. So I think we cannot—I think we cannot really prohibit that our friends are posting these informations, but we need to talk about whether this information can be used or should be free in any way.
Steven Cherry: Very good. Well Nina, as social networks become more powerful, it's very important to figure out just how powerful they're becoming, so thank you for your research, and thank you for joining us today.
Katharina Anna Zweig: Yeah, thank you very much.
Steven Cherry: We've been speaking with network researcher Katharina Anna Zweig about how when a social network gets big enough, it can figure out a lot about the people who stay off the network. For IEEE Spectrum's "Techwise Conversations," I'm Steven Cherry.
Announcer: "Techwise Conversations" is sponsored by National Instruments.
This interview was recorded 9 May 2012.
Audio engineer: Francesco Ferorelli
Read more Techwise Conversations or follow us on Twitter.
NOTE: Transcripts are created for the convenience of our readers and listeners and may not perfectly match their associated interviews and narratives. The authoritative record of IEEE Spectrum's audio programming is the audio version.


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GASTONIA � Grier entered the 2012 Gaston County Middle School football championship game feeling it had one of the best defenses around.
After the Knights shutout Bessemer City 22-0 Wednesday night at Ashbrook High�s Eccles Field, Grier KNOWS it has one of the best defenses in county history.
�Our defense held up for us tonight,� said Grier coach Tyson Graham, whose team finished 8-0 for its second straight county title and fifth all-time in school history. �It�s been our backbone all year.�
Has it ever.
Wednesday was the exclamation point on a dominating season in which Grier yielded only eight points � a late touchdown in a season-opening 52-6 win over Chavis and a safety in an 8-2 win over Southwest to clinch the Division I title.
But Bessemer City (7-1) came in with the county�s most powerful offense � and the county�s highest-scoring unit in 14 years.
�Our first defense hadn�t given up a TD all year,� Graham said. �Coming into this game, I wasn�t so sure we�d be able to keep that up.�
Instead, Grier recorded its sixth shutout of the season with perhaps its most dominating performance.
Facing two of the three highest scoring running backs in Bessemer City history � Kristen Bell and Deon Eaddy � Grier limited the Tigers to 64 yards rushing and 64 yards total offense in 24 total plays. Eaddy had 50 yards on eight carries, with Bell being limited to 15 yards on 10 tries.
�They just made all the plays all night long,� Bessemer City coach Greg Stalcup said of Grier.
Graham�s defense was a collective effort, as four players (Cameren Lowery, Ja�Quail Brown, Thomas Smith and Jordan Love) made tackles for losses.
�My defensive coaches just did a great job with that group,� Graham said of coordinator Jamar McKoy, line coach Edgar Nixon and backs coach Julius Curry.
The eight points allowed matches a school-record for defensive excellence set in 1971; The county record is six points allowed (by Ashley in 1980 and Bessemer City in 2004).
If anything, a mistake on Grier�s first offensive play allowed the Knights� defense to take charge early in the contest.
Bessemer City got one of its three first downs of the game on its opening play � Bell�s 11-yard run � before the Grier defense forced a punt.
On the Knights� first play, Bessemer City�s Savion Schenck recovered a Grier fumble at the Knights 32. Four plays later, Grier had pushed the Tigers back 10 yards and forced another punt.
It would be Bessemer City�s best chance to score all night long.
On the ensuing possession, Grier would score all it would need as Lowery�s 25-yard run capped a 12-play, 80-yard drive with 3:35 left in the opening half.
Grier made it 14-0 in the third quarter on Lowery�s second TD run � a 4-yarder � in a 59-yard drive highlighted by Dallas Danner�s 16-yard fourth-and-14 conversion run.
Danner, who rushed for a game-high 111 yards on 17 carries, closed the scoring with a 22-yard TD run with 5:12 left in the game.
�I�m so proud of these guys,� Graham said of his team. �We put in the work all year long.�
For Bessemer City, whose 246 points was only four shy of the Tigers� school record set in 1996, the loss was the Tigers� second straight in the title game.
�Tyson�s got a great football team and every position,� said Stalcup, whose team lost at home 30-12 to Grier in last year�s title game. �But I can�t say enough about my team and it was a privilege to coach them.�
Grier 22, Bessemer City 0
BessemerCity 0 0 0 0 � 0
Grier 0 6 8 8 � 22
Second quarter
G�Cameren Lowery 25 run (Run failed), 3:35
Third quarter
G�Lowery 4 run (Lowery run), 3:10
Fourth quarter
G�Dallas Danner 22 run (Junathaen Hager run), 5:12
BC Grier
First downs 3 11
Rushes-yards 20-64 35-248
Passing yards 0 0
Total yards 64 248
Comp-Att-Int 0-4-1 0-0-0
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 4-30 6-45
Punts-avg. 2-41.5 0-0
RUSHING�BC, Kristien Bell 10-15, Deon Eaddy 8-50, Kevin Goodwin 2-minus 1. Grier, Danner 17-111, Lowery 7-62, J. Hager 7-59, Terrell Hager 1-6, British Brooks 1-0, Jabreeze Robbs 1-11, Team 1-minus 1.
PASSING�BC, Bell 0-3-0 0, Eaddy 0-1-1 0. Grier, none.
RECEIVING�BC, none. Grier, none.


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Thanks to this new teaching resource, students will attain significant knowledge of broad concepts related to the following aspects of Natural History: Origin of Universe and History of the Earth (Precambric and Paleozoic Era).
Its extraordinary illustrations, photographs, and interactive elements cover the current learning needs of students by increasing their comprehension and motivation for achieving success.
Natural History: Origins, we have focused all of our efforts on making the most of the didactic and pedagogical potential of interactive textbooks, taking full advantage of their capacities as learning tools in order to make this a first-rate, innovative work that promotes quality education.


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The Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites - Tampa, offers beautifully decorated and well appointed guest accommodations. Each one of our King-bedded guest rooms is thoughtfully appointed to assure that you have the most comfortable and productive stay while you are a guest in our Tampa hotel.
. . a large desk w/lamp, 2 phones with data port & high speed internet access. Includes coffee maker, iron, ironing board, hair dryer, 32" Flat Panel LCD TVs w/ cable TV & pay-for-view movies. Free local calls & free breakfast bar. Review the accommodations feature list below for more detail.
There are many Tampa, Florida hotels for you to choose from. The number and types of hotel lodging amenities and services we offer makes your stay more like home -and- at a great value that will make us your Tampa lodging choice. Business class rooms help you to both work and relax. Our guest room amenities make family travel more convenient and less expensive.
More important than the hotel features and guest room amenities, you will find that our friendly staff, and emphasis on quality service will keep you coming back to our Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites whenever your travels bring you to Tampa, Florida.
Experience our SimplySmartTM proprietary showerhead that adjusts automatically for perfect water pressure all the time. Our new, fluffier towels and bath mats will pamper your skin; new curved shower rods provide much more room in the shower. This upgraded shower experience is rounded out by a new line of bath amenities and facial products. [Simply Smart Bath Details]
This bedding upgrade replaces the bedspread with an attractive decorative top sheet, a medium-weight duvet blanket and soft 200 thread-count sheets. The duvet blanket will be sandwiched between two top sheets for added plushness. Making up beds in this manner - known as triple-sheeting - makes bed spreads obsolete all the while creating a softer feeling, more inviting bed.
[Simply Smart Bedding Details]
Standard King Room
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Judge Makes Company Pay More For Infringement Because The CEO Complained Publicly About The Patent System
from the first-amendment-issue? deptMatt writes in and summarizes the details of a ridiculous ruling perfectly below, so I'll let him takeover and chime in again at the end:
"On Friday, a Texas federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an astonishing order. In essence, it fined InnoLux because its CEO stated his belief, in China, that the US sometimes over-enforces patents.Judge Ward, of course, is the judge who put Eastern Texas on the map as the place to go for patent lawsuits, so it's no surprise that he seems to think saying something bad about the US patent system opens you up to greater damages. But it seems like a pretty serious First Amendment issue when the judge is, quite clearly, punishing someone for their speech. What's really scary is that this could create a significant chilling effect on the people who need to speak out most: those attacked over questionable infringement claims. If they now know that they can face even higher damages merely for complaining about the patent system that put them in this mess in the first place, isn't that a huge problem?
InnoLux admitted infringing some of Mondis's patents in connection with computer monitors. A jury found some of the infringement to be willful. So InnoLux was in a bad place, and was warming up to get skewered on damages. The judge (Judge Ward, who is famous for his scathing opinions) ordered that a 0.75% royalty be paid for all of the infringing monitors sold. But then the judge caught wind of a statement InnoLux's CEO made to a Chinese newspaper, that "patent infringement is 'being taken too seriously sometimes.'" The judge doubled the royalty rate to 1.5%. His basis?"The court finds that this statement by InnoLux's CEO shows InnoLux's lack of respect for this court and the jury's verdict. It is also an affront to the U.S. patent system - a system of constitutional origin. The court, therefore, finds that this also warrants a strong enhancement because it further reflects the egregiousness of InnoLux's conduct."This is an astonishing usurpation of authority. The patent law does not require (or permit) damage enhancements based on evidence of a lack of respect for judges or verdicts. Instead, "upon a finding for the claimant the court shall award damages adequate to compensate for the infringement, but in no event less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention by the infringer, together with interest and costs as fixed by the court." This means lost profits or a reasonable royalty or a little of both, but at least a reasonable royalty.
But even if the court had power to set damages at his own discretion, not bounded by a requirement that he award just enough to be "adequate to compensate," this would still be shocking. First, criticizing things that are "constitutional in origin" is the great American pastime, and is certainly not lawfully restricted by a court. American courts may only enforce Congressional laws (since Erie v. Tompkins, there is no federal common law). So whatever authority the court thinks it has to spank someone for something non-damaging that they have said must come from the court's interpretation of a Congressional enactment. But since Congress shall make no law restricting the freedom of speech, any interpretation that provides for a damage enhancement on the basis of non-damaging speech must be incorrect. In any event, the First Amendment amended the document containing the IP clause, and therefore supercedes it.
Should I be worried if I criticize a regime that permits states to sell booze? While Constitutional in origin, it seems to make liquor a publicly owned and distributed good. Do we want to be a country of socialized inebriation? Must we tolerate bourbon lines? What's next, gin stamps?
The fact that the Framers missed the boat on patents does not, and should not, mean we cannot criticize their miss. Even if they got it right in their first outing, if it is being misapplied now given modern circumstances (it is) we should be free to point that out however and wherever we want without fear of government intrusion or repercussion.
Filed Under: east texas, free speech, judge ward, patents
Companies: innolux


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Happy 101 Award – Ten Things that Make Me Happy!
by Sherry Stocking Kline
January 12, 2010
It's award Season again, and I'm grateful to each of you who awarded me the Happy 101 Award!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is an honor to be on your Award list!
My Thanks go to:
1. Missy Corley of Bayside Blog
2. Thomas MacEntee of Destination Austin Family blog
3. Joan of Roots N' Leaves
4. Jenna of Desperately Seeking Surnames
5. Luckie of Our Georgia Roots
One of the duties when you accept this award is to list TEN things that make you happy.
Only Ten? What happens if you cheat?
1. My family: my husband, my children, my mom & dad, my brothers and their wives. Some of them are gone now, but I have the memories.
2. My two granddaughters. They always brighten my day!
3. Searching for ancestor clues! What could be more fun? Unless of course it's finding ancestor clues…
4. Finding a missing puzzle piece in the family tree. One that fills in an important blank spot! This is major happy dance thing for days, but then it's on to finding the next blank spot.
5. Going through photographs & remembering…
6. The sweet, fresh, clean smell of rain.
7. Out-bowling my son on his Wii (or out-racing him in Mario Kart on his Wii!) Don't tell him I said this!
8. Reading a good 'who-dun-it', one that you can't guess 'who dun it'. (but I'm not into gory books, either!)
9. Figuring out how to do something I didn't know how to do yesterday. This is usually associated with computers and the Internet, but it can be just anything!
10. Knowing that I've helped someone.
Another wonderful, difficult duty is to pass on the award to TEN other bloggers…
But I'm trying not to cheat, so here it goes:
1. Thomas MacEntee of Destination Austin Family blog and Geneabloggers. Thomas, I know that you will probably receive a dozen of these Happy 101 Awards, but you have been so very encouraging and very helpful to this newbie blogger that I just want to say "Thanks once again!"
2. Missy Corley of Bayside Blog. Missy, you are a great, encouraging Twitter friend (@baysideresearch) as well as a great blog-buddy friend! Bless you!
3. Joan of Roots N' Leaves. Joan, you have been a great source of encouragement, and your posts touch my heart.
4. Luckie of Our Georgia Roots. Luckie, your writing touches a kindred chord in my heart, and when you wrote about the ancestors 'talking' to you, well, I know what you are talking about. It's like they beckon me to look, and guide me to find. I've had the most serendipitous finds, though I'm still Hunting…
4. Jenna of Desperately Seeking Surnames. I enjoy reading your blog, and am honored to be one of your nominees!
5. Elyse's Genealogy Blog I was just reading on Elyse's Genealogy Blog some tips for getting your genealogy 'stuff' organized. I NEED that!
6. Louise Bernero of Our Twigs Blog Thanks, Louise, for your encouragement!7. Mavis of Georgia Black Crackers – Thanks Mavis, for all your encouragement and for being a great Twitter friend!
8. http://www.twitter.com/A_CAIN Great Twitter friend and soon to be blogger!9. Low Country Africana – What an awesome resource for African American Research and History!
10. Cathy at DesperatelySeekingwp.com and StrawberriesareGlutenFree.com. She keeps my blog happy!
3 Responses to "Happy 101 Award – Ten Things that Make Me Happy!"
Thanks for your kind words! You're the best!
Thanks, Sherry! I am missing out on all the fun! But not to worry, I am about to join the land of the bloggers! (-:


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- Big Breakfasts for Big Results
- Tony Horton's Triple Threat!
- 6 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Kitchen
- Brett Hoebel Brings It to Extra
- Recession-Proof Ingredients
- Recipe: Mexi-Cal Breakfast Tacos
I went to a café that advertised breakfast anytime, so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance
Big Breakfasts for Big ResultsBy Joe Wilkes
Breakfast. It seems like forever since Mom told us breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but one study shows it's actually true—she wasn't just nagging us. Breakfast is a key component of weight management: A study presented at the 90th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society showed that participants who consumed large breakfasts high in protein and carbohydrates followed by a low-carb, low calorie diet for the rest of the day lost almost five times as much weight as the participants who followed a low-carb, high-protein diet throughout the day. So what's the big deal about breakfast? And what is a big breakfast anyway? It doesn't seem like the lumberjack special at the local diner would do much to get the pounds off, so what should we be eating?
The study supported the idea that when we wake up in the morning, our bodies want food. You've burned through all the fuel from the previous day, and now your body's ready to burn anything—even muscle—to get a jump-start on the day. And if you skip breakfast, muscle is indeed what your body will burn. Later in the day, your brain is still in starvation mode from breakfast (or lack thereof), so your body will store all the calories you eat as adipose tissue, or fat, to save up for the next day when you try to starve it again. This study also found that levels of serotonin, the chemical responsible for controlling cravings, were much higher in the morning, which is why breakfast is the meal so many of us are willing to skip. But if our bodies are left unfed, our serotonin levels drop, and our bodies' craving for sweets begin to rise throughout the day.
But before you hit McDonald's for their 800-calorie Big Breakfast, or worse, their 1,150-calorie Deluxe Breakfast, or swing by Denny's for a 740-calorie Grand Slam or 950-calorie All-American Slam with hash browns, keep in mind, these weren't the breakfasts the study participants consumed. The big-breakfast group had a 610-calorie breakfast as part of a 1,240-calorie day. Breakfasts included milk, lean meat, cheese, whole grains, a serving of healthy fat, and one ounce of chocolate or candy to defray the craving for sweets. The other group's participants consumed 1,085 calories per day as part of a high-protein, low-carb diet; only 290 of their daily calories were consumed at breakfast. Both groups were on their respective diets for eight months. The high-protein group lost an average of nine pounds, but the big-breakfast group lost an average of 40 pounds. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the big-breakfast group complained less about cravings and hunger.
The big-breakfast group's breakfast consisted of 58 grams of carbs, 47 grams of protein, and 22 grams of fat. Study reviewers attribute some of the success of the big-breakfast group to the fact that the protein and healthy fats eaten kept the participants full and reduced cravings. They also said that nutritional requirements were well met and that there weren't empty calories consumed, because the breakfasts included lots of whole grains, fruits, lean proteins, and healthy unsaturated fats. So bad news for the lumberjack-special devotees—a big plate of greasy hash browns, bacon, and biscuits with gravy isn't going to get the job done, unless the job we're discussing is clogging your arteries.
Here are some healthy big breakfasts, similar to the ones consumed by the study's participants.
Chicken and the Egg
2 large eggs, scrambled
2 slices whole wheat toast
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, grilled
1 grapefruit
589 calories, 52 grams carbohydrates, 48 grams protein, 19 grams fat, 5.5 grams saturated fat, 12 grams fiber.
Oats 'n' Berries Breakfast
1 packet plain instant oatmeal, prepared, with 1 scoop Beachbody® Whey Protein Powder
1 cup fresh blueberries
3 oz. roasted turkey breast
1 large hard-boiled egg
1 oz. dark chocolate
631 calories, 62 grams carbohydrates, 47 grams protein, 21 grams fat. 8 grams saturated fat, 10 grams fiber.
Two Egg Sandwiches
2 whole wheat English muffins, toasted
2 large poached eggs
2 slices low-fat Swiss cheese
2 slices Canadian bacon, grilled
597 calories, 57 grams carbohydrates, 45 grams protein, 13 grams fat, 5 grams saturated fat, 8 grams fiber.
Vegetarian Breakfast
1 cup cottage cheese (2% milk fat)
1 cup sliced peaches, canned in juice, not syrup
1 slice whole wheat toast
1/2 avocado
2 vegetarian sausage links, cooked
621 calories, 62.5 grams carbohydrates, 47 grams protein, 26.5 grams fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat, 16.5 grams fiber.
Pescetarian Breakfast
1 6-oz. can light tuna, canned in water, drained
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise (preferably olive oil- or canola oil-based)
2 slices whole wheat toast
1 oz. dark chocolate
592 calories, 45 grams carbohydrates, 51 grams protein, 22 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat, 10 grams fiber.
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6 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your KitchenBy Joe Wilkes
It's almost springtime, which for a lot of us means it's time to do a deep-clean of our homes—throwing out the old, organizing the new, storing the winter clothes, and getting ready for warmer weather and a fresh start. For others, it's the beginning of another season of denial about how squalid our living conditions have become. Even more than New Year's, Spring is a good time to make some new resolutions and create an environment that'll make us want to keep them. Here are some ideas for getting your kitchen into shape.
- Out with the old. I like to think of my refrigerator as a cabinet of hope. Most times, it's full of fruits and vegetables, purchased in a fit of confidence that I would steam and stir-fry my way to a slimmer me. Then I end up going out to restaurants with friends, and my Sunday produce ends up looking pretty bad by week's end. Yet, unbelievably, I leave it all in my refrigerator with the hope that it'll somehow return to a state of edibility. Similarly, expired dairy products and aging condiment bottles litter my shelves, the result of my misguided optimism that they too will come back in fashion—like my '80s wardrobe will, if I just wait long enough. I'm here to tell you, however, that there's been no grocery miracle in my refrigerator these many years. And now, it's time to give the expired residents of this frosty food hinterland a proper burial.
First thing to do: Get rid of everything that even looks old. Be merciless. If it's past the expiration date, throw it out. If it doesn't have an expiration date, throw it out. Another scourge in my fridge is the many plastic containers filled with leftovers. I don't remember exactly what meal they are left over from, but I can't recall anything that included frizzy mold as an ingredient. Much of the reason the containers languish in the back of the fridge is because I'm avoiding the horror of having to wash out the science experiment they've become. This year, I'm going to throw money at the problem, and throw out the leftovers in their containers without ever lifting the lid. Then, I will treat myself to shiny, new plastic containers as a reward for my new hygienic lifestyle. Additionally, if my plastic cutting boards are beyond bleaching, it's a good annual tradition to replace them.
- Out with the bad. While I'm gripped in the mania of throwing away all the food that has literally turned to garbage, I'm also going to throw away the food that's metaphorically garbage. All the unhealthy snack foods that lure me away from my healthy eating plan are going to have to go. I'm evicting the half-full bags of tortilla and potato chips from my cupboards. Ben and Jerry's® are moving from the freezer to the dumpster. Any empty-calorie snacks I can steal a spoonful or handful of and pretend they don't count have to hit the road. Once I clear the cupboards and refrigerator, I can go to the store and load up on healthy staples, whose temptations I won't have to resist.
- In with the new. Now that the refrigerator's clean and the cupboards are bare, it's time to shop. Stock up the larder with delicious, healthy foods from the first two tiers of Michi's Ladder. And make sure to get lots of easy-to-prepare snacks to keep within easy reach when hunger pangs hit. Great snacks include cottage cheese, nonfat yogurt, hummus, salsa, and raisins. Instant oatmeal, whole-grain cereals, and egg whites are good to have on hand for breakfast. And foods like brown rice, dried beans, canned broths, water-packed tuna, and frozen fruits and vegetables are good staples to always keep in supply for mealtime. Of course, you should also try eating plenty of fresh produce, seafood, and lean meats. Just don't be like me and go crazy at the Sunday farmers' market only to have to throw food away at the end of the week. Buy enough perishable items to last a couple of days, then make short trips to the supermarket or farmers' market during the week. Your food will taste better and fresher, and you won't have a CSI episode in the crisper drawer at the end of the week.
- When life gives you lemons . . . I know I've talked a lot about throwing all your produce away. But some of it can do a little cleaning work for you before it hits the compost bin. Lemons are very acidic, and their juice is naturally antibacterial and antiseptic. You can use lemon juice to bleach countertop stains and shine up metal. And it makes your kitchen smell lemony fresh to boot! Instead of throwing those lemons in the trash, throw one or two in the garbage disposal and grind away. It'll help get rid of food dried onto the blades while filling your kitchen with the smell of lemons. (If the lemons are really old and the rinds have turned hard and leathery, don't try this. The disposal blades might not be able to chop them, and they'll just rattle around in your disposal forever. Trust me, I know.) Another great tip a friend gave me is to cut a bunch of lemons in half and put them in a big microwave-safe bowl filled with water. Then microwave the bowl of lemons on high for a few minutes, until the water steams. Keep the microwave closed. The lemon-juice-infused steam will permeate all the stuff cooked onto the microwave walls from various exploding culinary attempts. The crud will wipe off easily and your microwave will smell great. Best of all, no toxic cleaners will accidentally find their way into your meals!
- Vinegar—not just for salad. While you're cleaning and staying nontoxic, try using the Michi's Ladder top-tier favorite vinegar to spruce up your kitchen. Diluted with water, white vinegar can be used to clean windows, wash floors, and wipe countertops. It cuts grease and removes stains from cookware, and if you run a pot full of the vinegar and water solution through your coffeemaker, you'll be amazed at the kind of hard-water deposits it removes. It's also good for removing hard-water stains on your glassware. It even cuts soap scum and kills mildew, so you might give good, old-fashioned, cheap white vinegar a try before investing in expensive cleaners that can introduce toxins into your kitchen.
- Baking soda—not just for baking. Here's a fun fact. Did you know that baking soda mixed with grease makes soap? It's true. It's a great, cheap, nontoxic way to wipe off your stovetop and the surrounding areas that have been spattered by a season's worth of stir-fries. An open box can absorb odors in the refrigerator, and a little sprinkled in your garbage can will do likewise. If you have a grease fire, you can put it out with baking soda. If you have pots with burned-on food, let them soak in baking soda and water overnight. Also, if you have plastic storage containers that are a bit stinky from their previous occupants, try soaking them overnight in baking soda and water. You can make a baking soda paste with water and polish your silver. It's a miracle product—nontoxic and cheap!
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Brett Hoebel and the RevAbs® Core Crew were on Extra for Workout Wednesdays at The Grove in Los Angeles where they got the crowd working out on the famous mall's trolley tracks.
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Recession-Proof Ingredients
In today's uncertain economic times, everyone's looking for ways to save money while staying healthy. What's one of the best ways? Stock your kitchen with recession-proof ingredients that are both healthy and easy on your wallet.
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Recipe: Mexi-Cal Breakfast Tacos
It may say "breakfast" in the name, but these tasty tacos are great for lunch or dinner too! Tofu and fresh vegetables mingle with savory Mexican spices for a treat that's delectable no matter what time of day you decide to enjoy them.
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 8 corn tortillas
- 1 small white onion, peeled and diced
- 2 Tbsp. crushed garlic
- 4 stalks green onion, ends trimmed and diced
- 1/2 cup sliced white mushrooms (may substitute marinated cactus)
- 1/2 cup diced green pepper (may substitute chopped spinach)
- 1 14-oz. package firm tofu, crumbled
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp. sesame seeds
- 1 Tbsp. unsalted Mexican spices (one or all of the following: cumin, chili powder, chipotle seasoning, habañero seasoning, and/or cayenne pepper)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 2 tsp. lime juice
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- 1 small avocado, cut in 1/2-inch slices
Place olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat and heat until hot but not smoking. Add onion, garlic, and green onions and sauté until onion is clear and caramelized. Add mushrooms and pepper, and sauté until tender. Stir in crumbled tofu, cilantro, sesame seeds, Mexican spices, salt, and pepper and continue to sauté until tofu is lightly browned. Add lime juice, mix well, and reduce heat to a simmer. Gently heat corn tortillas either in microwave (about 30 seconds), or in a pan on stovetop (1 or 2 minutes). Garnish four plates with diced tomato and sliced avocado; place two tortillas on each plate. Remove tofu mixture from heat, divide evenly among tortillas, and fold over to make tacos. Serve with salsa or hot sauce, and enjoy! Serves 4.
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
|Nutritional Information (per serving)
|Fat Total
|Saturated Fat
|12 grams
|8 grams
|34 grams
|16 grams
|2 grams
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Anyone who's read my blog or even some of the articles I've authored over the years knows that hydraulic hybrids are one of my favorite topics. Mostly because as a non-engineer, I can truly grasp how hydraulic hybrid drivetrains work and I can truly see their benefits in the real world. I see a hydraulic hybrid drivetrain as much more useful, efficient, and cost-effective than a battery/electric hybrid ever well be.
In fact, my husband proved my point last night when he told me about a woman who was donating her electric-hybrid car because the battery had finally died (which they all do) and to replace the battery would cost her $7000! Yikes. That right there is the main reason I would never own such a car. The dealers don't tell you that the batteries won't last forever and when they do finally die, you'd be better off buying a new car.
So once again, I feel a bit of joy reporting on yet another great research project from the Center for Compact & Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) university Georgia Institute of Technology, where undergraduate and graduate engineering students led by Dr. Michael Leamy have developed a hydraulic hybrid retrofit of a school bus. A release yesterday from the CCEFP said the project is yielding impressive results. Not only is their work realizing the potential of new fuel efficiencies for school buses everywhere, but it also provides a model for effectively engaging college and pre-college students in hands-on learning about eco-friendly fluid power.
The rest of the news release is below but it's just a great story all-around. Helping kids and helping students learn about the power and efficiency of hydraulics in a real-life way. These are the kinds of stories I love to write about!
First graders at Mary Lin Elementary School (Atlanta, GA) paint the school bus, which is being converted by Georgia Tech researchers and students, into a hydraulic hybrid that runs on biofuel.
Over the last two years, Dr. Leamy and his students have designed, built and have begun testing a hydraulic hybrid propulsion system retrofit and biofuel conversion of a public school bus donated by the Atlanta Public Schools. Much of the design and fabrication work to date has been carried out by undergraduates in Georgia Tech's mechanical engineering program; ME graduate students have taken on leadership roles in the project.
Their work, originally funded by grant from the Ford Motor Co. Fund, has been further enabled through donations of components as well as guidance from engineers at Eaton Corp., Evonik RohMax, Linde Corp. and Poclain Hydraulics, all industry affiliate members of CCEFP. The CCEFP will provide funding for work during the project's third year.
School buses are ideal for hydraulic hybrid power due to their large mass and typically stop-and-go drive cycles. The hydraulic retrofit captures braking energy using a pump-motor which first pumps hydraulic fluid into a high pressure accumulator (thereby storing energy), and then releases this energy to the drivetrain through the motoring capability of the pump-motor. A microcontroller-based system developed at Georgia Tech controls the mode of operation of the pump-motor, its displacement and various valve components. Next steps involve incorporating complementary technologies including a clean start technology in which the diesel engine is shut down at bus stops and restarted using a hydraulic motor, saving children's lungs from harmful emissions.
The hybrid retrofit has moved from the lab to the street, and tests are underway aimed at verifying predicted gains of over 20% in fuel economy. Considering that more than 700,000 gal of diesel fuel are used by school buses each year in Atlanta alone, a 20% gain in efficiency could significantly lower both fuel costs and emissions through widespread adoption.
The impact of the project's education and outreach efforts grows, too, as more undergraduates and graduate students get involved, some even taking on the role of teacher as they use the bus to show precollege students not only how hydraulic systems operate but also why the work of engineers is so important.
Email Dr. Leamy at [email protected] or Dr. Kim Stelson, CCEFP Director at [email protected] for more details.


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Hey all!
There is a thread on YouTube, 'Cooking With Dog'. Just type that in the search and you will get quite a few authentic recipes!
Anyway, I was watching the one on ramen and had a thought, what if I could incorporate some of these with just plain-ol cup ramen?!
Yeah, ok its probably not the healthiest thing to do, but sometimes you have to make due with what you have.
So here is what I did:
- popped Maruchan cup ramen (I LOVE Shrimp with Lime flavor) in the microwave for 3 minutes
- while ramen is cooking bring water to a boil
- by this time your ramen should be done, so let it sit in the microwave till you are ready for it.
- add 2 eggs and cook them for about 3 minutes. YOU WANT THEM TO BE SOFT BOILED... runny yokes.
- as soon as the 3 minute boiling is up IMMEDIATELY take the eggs out of the boiling water and place them into ice water. This will stop the cooking ;)
- you will want to let them cool for a minute or so.. but not too cool.
- crack the shell... ALLL OVER ... and peel it UNDER the water. I find that doing this makes it easier to remove the shell...
- BE CAREFUL you don't want to be too rough with the eggs, or you will get yoke all over your hands... hence the reason there is only one egg in my pics LMAO the other one kinda... died hahahaha
- anyway, then you want to CAREFULLY cut each egg in half. You will want to turn the egg on the end quickly after its cut so the yoke doesn't come out.
- finally, pour the ramen contents in a pretty bowl, add the eggs, and a little bit of pepper, and, VIOLA!
*NOTE: IF you squish an egg, THATS OK! still put it in the Ramen. For this particular flavor of ramen (Shrimp with Lime) the taste of the yoke REALLY adds an amazing touch.
At least in my opinion :P
That does look yummy. You know the main trick to easy-to-peel eggs? You need elderly eggs. Holding them under the water helps with a borderline egg, but won't make a jot of difference to a really fresh one. Keep your freshest eggs for poaching (the whites stay together) and use the oldest ones for boiling.
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May 25, 2018
Owning a new car is an exciting feeling. But no one likes shopping for a new car. Spending hours going from dealership to dealership. Dealing with pushy sales people.Wondering if you really did get a good price.
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Academic Support Services is one-stop shopping for information on UW-Bothell Library, Media Center, Information Center, Quantitative Skills Center, Writing Center, Teaching and Learning Center and Visual Resources.
Book Store
A branch of the University Book Store is located on campus. The UBS carries texts for classes as well as other items. It is open 5 days a week; check the posted schedule for exact hours of operation. During summer quarter and between quarters the days/hours of operation may be limited.
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Deborah Jowitt began to dance professionally in 1953, to show her own choreography in 1962, and to write a regular dance column for The Village Voice in 1967. In the 1950's and 1960's, she appeared in works by Mary Anthony, Valerie Bettis, Harriette Ann Gray, Doris Humphrey, Pauline Koner, Pearl Lang, José Limón, Sophie Maslow, Anna Sokolow, Helen Tamiris, and others. In the 1960s, she became affiliated with the then-collaborative group, Dance Theater Workshop, presenting her choreography and dancing in works by colleagues such as Jeff Duncan and Art Bauman. In the 1990s, she performed in concerts by Phyllis Lamhut, Victoria Marks, and Marta Renzi, and created an autobiographical solo, Body (in) Print, that she has since shown in many venues both in the United States and overseas.
Her articles on dance have appeared in numerous publications, among them The New York Times, Dance Magazine, Ballet Review, and Dance Research Journal, as well as in catalogues and anthologies. She has published two collections: Dance Beat (1977) and The Dance in Mind (1985). A third book, Time and the Dancing Image (William Morrow; paperback, University of California Press), won the de la Torre Bueno Prize for 1988. She also edited and wrote the introduction for Meredith Monk (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) and the introductions for the revised and expanded edition of Jill Johnston's Marmalade Me and José Limón's An Unfinished Memoir (both from Wesleyan University Press). She has contributed essays to Reinventing Dance in the 1960s (ed. Sally Banes) and Of Another World: Dancing Between Dream and Reality (ed. Monna Dithmer). Her most recent book, Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance, was published by Simon and Schuster in August, 2004.
Keynote speeches include "Writing through the Body" (annual conference, Congress of Research in Dance, Ohio State University (1998); "Beyond Description: Writing Beneath the Surface" (Korean International Dance Event, Seoul, 1996); "Form as an Image of Human Perfectability and Natural Order" (Doris Humphrey Centennial Celebration, Congress on Research in Dance conference, Columbia Teachers College, New York, 1995); keynote address, Green Mill Dance Project (Melbourne, 1994); "The Uses of Memory: The Influence of Noh on the Work of Jerome Robbins and Martha Graham" (Taipei, 2004).
She has lectured, taught, and/
Dance Theater Workshop awarded her a "Bessie" in 1985 for her contributions to dance criticism, and the American Dance Guild honored her in 1991. In 1998, she received an "Ernie" -- an award reserved for dance's "unsung heroes" -- from Dance/
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Bluffton High and Beaufort's wrestling teams met as region foes Wednesday for the first time, and depth made all the difference.
Beaufort, fielding a full lineup of 14 wrestlers, got three forfeits and won enough head-to-head matches to pull ahead late for a 38-28 victory.
Visiting Bluffton, which has a smaller-than-usual roster of 22, could not fill the 160-, 220- and 285-pound weight classes and had to give away 18 points.
"We don't have the numbers," said Bluffton coach John Hollman, who could not pinpoint a reason for the lack of participation this season. "You can't be competitive giving up three, four forfeits a match. Without the numbers, we're hurting."
Still, the Bobcats had a chance late. They trailed 33-28 entering the final match, with Buddy Drew wrestling up a class at 113 pounds against Beaufort's William Spann.
Bluffton needed a major decision or a pin to beat the Eagles and Drew hung tough, trailing 9-7 after the second period. But Spann managed to win by pinfall with 58 seconds remaining to make it 39-28. Beaufort had one point deducted from its final score because a wrestler incorrectly reported to the scorer's table before his match.
The Bobcats, strong in the lower weight classes, got out to a 13-0 start with a 15-3 victory by Levi Joly, a 7-5 victory by Lloyd Williams and a second-period pin by Talon Seitz.
Alex Waddell gave Bluffton a 19-3 lead with a quick pin of Wesley Hunt, but the Eagles quickly closed the gap. Michael Holmes slipped past Michael Meyerink 4-3 and, after a forfeit at 160 and Trey Arant's 12-second pin of Andres Nava, it was 19-18.
Kyle Waddell won by pin at 182 and Edgar Prada posted a 7-4 victory over Connor Lundgaard at 195, but two forfeits gave Beaufort a 30-24 lead.
The Eagles closed it out with Jake Sharp's 10-3 decision against Nick Stead at 106 and Spann's pin at 113.


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This is Sunshine Week in America, a press-organized annual observance to stress the importance of openness in government. Lord knows Sunshine Week (March 14-20) deserves attention here in Vermont.
How Vermont's laws on public meetings and public records got so messed up is a mystery, but there's no question they're messed up. The man who wrote the law, a former attorney general and state senator, put 27 exemptions in the law for the usual stuff — personnel matters, land acquisition, legal strategy in a lawsuit, that kind of thing.
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