Readers’ tips: your favourite local pubs [ BeritaTerkini ]

WINNING TIP: The Verulam Arms, St Albans

St Albans has a lot of pubs to choose from but this place is different: no Stella. Where else can you get a hogweed and bloete martini? The food and drink are brought in from the Hertfordshire countryside by a group of local hunter-gatherers called The Foragers is surprisingly bountiful. Add a friendly atmosphere, cosy interior, approachable bar staff and a great choice of craft beers, and this is the place for a pint and good food, all in the shadow of the cathedral.
the-foragers.com/the-verulam-arms
cand82

The Eagle, Cambridge

The highlight of my Saturday visit to the market is a pint in the Eagle, which dates from the 14th century and, much later, was where Watson and Crick announced they had discovered “the secret of life”, or DNA. The Eagle is also famous for its ceiling: in the second world war, RAF pilots signed the ceiling with anything to hand: lipsticks, cigarette lighters, candles, even candle smoke. It also does fantastic cask ales and home-cooked food.
8 Bene’t Street, 01223 505020
Kimmy90210

The Bell, Bath

The Bell really is the local’s local. After facing closure last year, it sold shares to its customers and is now a co-operative. As well as regular guest ales and local beers, it’s the music at the Bell that draws many. The food is OK, but it’s not what you would go there for. It’s just a great boozer!
103 Walcot Street, 01225 460426, thebellinnbath.co.uk
joolsy

Y Delyn, Mold, Flintshire

From its unprepossessing exterior, you would never guess at the wonder that awaits you inside Y Delyn. As well as walls adorned with old theatre posters, tables from spinning machines and fairy lights around the bar, there is a vast choice of beers, including Leffe and Hoegaarden on tap, reasonably priced delicious tapas, live music nights and an atmosphere that means you can easily lose several hours imagining you have stepped into continental Europe.
3 King Street, 01352 759642
mattnash

Prince of Wales, Kenfig, Bridgend

The 16th-century Prince of Wales must be the best pub in Wales. It’s walking distance from my house, and full of family, friends, locals, ghosts, history on the walls, great food, the finest cask beers and wonderful hosts – there is no better way to spend an evening. After a walk to Kenfig Pool and through the local nature reserve, it’s a wonderful place to relax and refresh those tired bones.
01656 740356, princekenfig.co.uk
wxerri

The King and Queen, Hamble, Hampshire

Got a bag of dirty laundry? Take it to the King and Queen, where there’s a laundrette, and relax by the inglenook with a book from the shelf while waiting for it to finish. This is a haven for sailors from near and far, and filled with locals whose faces you might recognise from Howards’ Way. This pub has a jovial feel, with good food, great beer, excellent rums and friendly staff.
023-8045 4247, thekingandqueenpub.co.uk
FarawayVisions

The Three Compasses, Hornsey, London

If planning an ascent up the south face of Muswell Hill, pause in the foothills of Hornsey High Street at this regular winner of best community pub awards. It has one of the finest ale selections in north London, with new ones appearing weekly, and the menu is ambitious without being terrifying. But it is the ambience that keeps ‘em coming back: a modern interpretation of the traditional London boozer, popular without being poncey.
62 High Street, N8, 020-8340 2729, threecompasses.com
winskill

Inn on the Green, Bristol

From the raucous beer festival over May Day to the cosy Sunday night quiz, the Inn on the Green is our second living room. A short stumble from Horfield common, it’s the last best stop on the A38 out of Bristol, with its ever-changing ales, wood fires, good food and amusingly graffitied Jenga. Yes it’s a bit tired (gents toilets), yes it’s a funny shape (old bowling alley bit), but it’s my local and I like it!
2 Filton Rd, Horfield, 0117 952 1391
crodd

The Jolly Brewer Lincoln,

The Brewer has a jarringly bright interior and a questionable selection of artwork. It makes up for that with a friendly and eclectic clientele and a great selection of real ales and ciders. It’s also popular with the local steampunk scene, so there are often amazing outfits to gawp at, and the beer garden is full well into autumn.
26 Broadgate, 01522 528583
Rosie Kelly

The Woodbine, Finsbury Park, London

Our favorite local in Finsbury Park is near where Blackstock Road runs into Highbury. The Woodbine is one of the cosiest pubs around, coupled with amazing music (on vinyl and usually of the Neil Young/Rolling Stones/Springsteen ilk), fantastic beers on tap (rotating casks along with Meantime and Camden breweries), great staff and awesome regulars. I would copy the decor in my house if I had the balls to do it. Good pub quiz, good specials, decent Thai food.
215 Blackstock Road N5, 020-7354 1061
ID6725784

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Could concentrated HIV epidemics make AIDS unbeatable? [ BeritaTerkini ]

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) – HIV epidemics are becoming more concentrated in marginalized groups such as sex workers, drug users and gay men, and could defy global attempts to combat AIDS without a change in attitudes, according to a U.N. special envoy.

Michel Sidibe, formerly head of UNAIDS and now tackling HIV and AIDS in Eastern Europe, says he would like to be able to celebrate without reservation vast global progress made in the past decade, but stubborn infection rates and alarming growth of outbreaks in hard-to-reach populations make that difficult.

The risk, he says, is that as the world turns the tide of the generalized global AIDS epidemic, the virus will return to being a disease that plagues only certain groups, and the political will to overcome it there may fade.

“If we do not address the roots of the problem, if we do not address stigma, discrimination and inappropriate legislation, if we don’t look at these people from a public health perspective, rather than from a delinquent, criminal perspective as we do now, then the trend will only go on,” Sidibe said in an interview.

“Then the AIDS epidemic will become more and more a sum of these concentrated epidemics.”

EXTRAORDINARY PROGRESS BREEDS HOPE

Some 35.3 million people worldwide are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, but the rising number of patients reflects great strides in recent years in developing sophisticated HIV tests and combination AIDS drugs and getting them to many of those who need them to stay alive.

The annual AIDS death toll is falling, dropping to 1.6 million people in 2012, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005, and there are also steadily declining rates of new HIV infections: a third fewer in 2013 than in 2011.

The progress has generated much hope – and many headlines – about the possible end of AIDS, or a potential world without HIV, or the chance of an AIDS-free generation, in our lifetimes.

Sidibe refers to this – both the progress and the hope – as “extraordinary”.

“I’m really concerned about the future of the AIDS epidemic, especially at a time when we are perhaps a little too optimistic because of the huge progress we are making from a technological and scientific perspective,” he said.

“As we celebrate the extraordinary progress, we should also be conscious that we will not stop HIV and AIDS by just having more sophisticated drugs and only focusing on the generalized epidemic and not focusing enough on the complexities of the concentrated epidemics.”

The worrisome groups are fairly clearly defined: Injecting drug users, who can pass the AIDS virus to each other by sharing needles and syringes, prostitutes and sex workers, who are often criminalized and have little access to health service, and gay and bisexual men – the population in which the HIV epidemic first started.

A TALE OF TWO WOMEN

To illustrate how little has changed in the battle against HIV among drugs users – particularly in regions such as Eastern Europe and central Asia – Sidibe tells the stories of two women.

The first is Andrée, a drug user he met in Paris in 1986 who had no hope of effective HIV treatment, since there was none yet developed, and who ultimately died a lonely death. The second was Larissa from Yekaterinburg in Russia, a drug addict repeatedly arrested and locked up, deprived of medications for years and at one time sentenced to five years in a labor camp.

“These stories are remarkably similar,” he said. “But Larissa’s is not from 1986, it’s from this year. Some 25 years passed between my meeting these two women, but their predicament was depressingly, tragically, the same.”

Among gay men, Sidibe said, the situation is little better.

In poor and middle-income countries, men who have sex with men and female sex workers are 19 and 13 times more likely to have HIV, respectively, than the rest of the population.

Even in wealthy regions like western Europe and North America, HIV rates among gay men – or men who have sex with men (MSM) as Sidibe refers to them – stubbornly refuse to shift.

HIV AMONG GAY MEN

“In MSM populations, there is no sign it has decreased,” said Sidibe. “It has either been a stable number of new infections every year for 10 years, or it is an increasing trend. And this, in western Europe at least, is in the context of basically free and easy access to therapy and services.”

Elsewhere, in China, for example, gay men alone account for more than 33 percent of new HIV infections, and projections indicate that gay men may account for half or more of all new infections in Asia by 2020.

Sidibe admits that he is as frustrated and worried now, faced with these smaller but relentless HIV epidemics, as he was more than a decade ago when the vast generalized HIV and AIDS outbreak in Africa looked too overwhelming to begin to tackle.

“We are a bit in disarray. We don’t know quite what it is that we should do. Here we are, we have all the technology, we have extraordinary scientific progress, and we just cannot translate that into making a difference in these populations.”

Yet if nothing changes, the AIDS virus may never be beaten.

Sidibe called for a “shift in the collective mindset” to put equity and human rights at the centre of the battle against HIV in these groups: “If we do not deliver the right response, we will fail to deliver an end to AIDS,” he said.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; editing by Ralph Boulton)

• Disease & Medical Conditions
• Infectious Diseases
• HIV and AIDS

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‘Homeland’ Recap: Great Expectations [ BeritaTerkini ]

Tonight’s episode was bloody unpredictable, but did it take things a twist too far?

You know that moment in this week’s installment of Homeland where Carrie Mathison takes off the polygraph equipment and ends her big “job interview” with terrorist mastermind Majid Javadi, and Javadi’s all “What. Are. You. Doing?” That’s kind of a familiar sensation after watching this episode, isn’t it? For both good and bad, “Still Positive,” directed by Lesli Linka Glatter from a script by Alexander Cary and Barbara Hall, threw curveballs left and right. Some of them landed right in the strike zone, but others beaned the proverbial batter.

Let’s start with the strong stuff. Turning the tables on Javadi so quickly – I mean, like, what, within ten total minutes of screentime from when she was initially abducted by his goons? – was one of Homeland‘s trademark plotting masterstrokes. Ever since the pilot, which revealed the truth about Brody when most other shows would have drawn out the is-he-or-isn’t-he guessing game for nearly an entire season, Homeland‘s surprises have frequently come not from doing something totally unexpected, like the reveal that Carrie and Saul were in cahoots about her mania and hospitalization, but from doing an expected thing far, far earlier than expected. Think back to the first half of Season Two, when Saul discovered Brody’s martyrdom tape and Carrie busted and turned him all within the first few episodes. It was clear Carrie and Saul were gonna drop the hammer on Javadi at some point; doing it in literally her first meeting with the guy was a fresh, fun take on the way spy games usually play out.

Seven Ways to Save ‘Homeland’

What’s more, it gave Carrie the chance to do something she hasn’t done in forever: swagger. She’s spent pretty much every moment since flipping Brody back to the side of the U.S. in Season Two in some kind of distress: captured by Abu Nazir, covering for Brody’s involvement in Vice President Walden’s death, flattened by the Langley bombing, helping Brody escape, deliberately experiencing a manic episode, getting sold out by Saul to Congress, spending time in the psych ward, pretending to sell out her country to Iran, running around trying to find Dana Brody, getting kidnapped by Javadi’s minions. Sure, the whole scheme with Saul showed she’s still a brilliant operative, but her brilliance hinged on being unhinged. Here, it was demonstrated by her coolly stopping her own polygraph test and methodically telling one of the most skilled and dangerous intelligence operatives in the world that she’d beaten him at his own game. She even got some good jokes in at his expense, like when she told him they were going to have to leave together: “Now?” “You can finish your cigarette.” Smoke on that, Javadi.

And at first it seems that Javadi will be similarly enhanced as a character by this development. We’d already heard that he was more of an opportunist than a fanatic, having transferred his loyalty from the Shah to the Ayatollah when he saw which way the wind was blowing. Saul’s story about Javadi’s betrayal of four of Saul’s informants cemented this opportunism in brutality, but still, Javadi’s a far cry from a true believer like Nazir. His behavior after discovering that Carrie had tricked him – applauding her with an elegant “Brava,” nervously smoking his cigarette, asking about how long she and Saul had been working on this with something approaching awe, calling Saul by his first name to begin with – further conveyed the idea that, his bosses and his methods aside, this guy isn’t a world away from the CIA. Certainly he’s got more in common with a guy like Dar Adal, who at that very moment was busy switching his own allegiance from Saul to Senator Lockhart, than he does with the devout Nazir.

 But Javadi’s subsequent suburban killing spree undoes a lot of that hard work. Not because it’s implausible, which is frequently the main problem with the actions of Homeland‘s villain characters – it’s not that hard to believe that in nearly 35 years, a high-ranking Iranian intelligence official could have tracked down his defector ex-wife. Nor simply because it was brutal – Homeland‘s renewed commitment this season to depicting violence as horrifying, from the mosque massacre in Caracas to this repulsive outburst of domestic violence, is welcome in a genre that could easily devolve into dubiously bloodless shoot-’em-ups.

No, the problem with Javadi’s murder of his wife and daughter-in-law is that it makes him a mere monster. As both a glib political opportunist and a gleeful killer of women whose only crime was not wanting to have anything to do with him, how is Javadi ever going to get anyone in the audience to see his side of things in the slightest? Even Nazir had the genuine trauma of the loss of his son and the simple beauty and peace of his religious faith (the prayer-based aspects of it, of course, not the bomb-based ones) going for him. The idea seems rather to be that it’s Saul, Carrie, Quinn et al who are made more complex and conflicted by their involvement with a guy like this, by their cover-up of his crimes, but not including the man himself in that complexity is a wasted opportunity. It’s also a politically dubious move: Homeland‘s done little to erase the impression that it takes the same dim view of Iran, and the same paranoiac assessment of its hostile intent and capabilities to make good on it, as your average Cheney.

It’s a shame, in part because Homeland could really use an unimpeachable storyline right about now. I don’t care how funny the image a drawer full of positive pregnancy tests was – and it was pretty freaking funny – but giving Carrie a pregnancy plot to handle on top of everything else was this show at its soapiest, and most baffling. (Though I guess it explains how she remembered the address of her red-headed one-night-stand: She’d have to find out where to collect child support.) And the Dana material is as inert as ever: The well-meaning religious busybody at the government office who intrusively asks to pray for her and her family was a fine little detail, but not enough to make this Lifetime-movie storyline worth the screentime. If only the whole family could change their names, move in with friends, and stay out of our faces.

Last Week: Carrie’s Class Act

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Herbal tea company JDB pays 250 million yuan to be the main sponsor of ‘The … – Global Times [ BeritaTerkini ]

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Kickstarter raises £17m in a year [ BeritaTerkini ]

Press Association – 

More than £22 million has been pledged to hundreds of different projects including films, computer games and albums on the i nternet funding platform Kickstarter since it launched in the UK a year ago.

The website runs on an all-or-nothing basis with projects given deadlines to raise certain amounts. If a project succeeds in reaching its funding goal, all backers’ credit cards are charged when the time expires, but if it falls short no one is charged.

More than 1,500 projects have hit their funding targets, with £17 million handed over since the UK version of the site started on October 31 last year.

David Wardrop, a 28-year-old parks worker from Glasgow, has personally backed 276 projects – the most in the UK – and reckons he has handed over hundreds of pounds to people including three first-time novelists, musicians and film-makers.

He said: “It is the diversity of the projects that I like, there is such a wide range, and it is nice to be part of something”.

Mr Wardrop, who visits the site most weeks, said his favourite project among the hundreds he has supported was a wind-powered land-mine detonator.

He was one of more than 4,000 people who ended up giving more than £100,000 to develop the idea.

He said: “To support something that could save lives is amazing.”

The most successful UK project is Elite: Dangerous – an attempt to develop an updated version of a popular computer game from the 1980s – with £1.6 million raised.

Peter Lord, the co-founder of Aardman Animations studio, launched a campaign on the site last week to raise £75,000 to make a new 12-episode online series of animated character Morph.

More than £55,000 was pledged by more than 1,000 backers within days.

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Travellers booking trips on tablets [ BeritaTerkini ]

Press Association – 

Travellers are taking to tablets to book their holidays, according to a travel trends report.

Smartphone bookings are also becoming fashionable, the report from World Travel Market (WTM) and market research company Euromonitor showed.

The report is published as the WTM four-day travel trade show opens in London.

Euromonitor is forecasting global smartphone volume sales and sales of tablets will soar over the next few years.

Euromonitor international head of travel and tourism research Caroline Bremner said: “By 2017, the mobile channel is expected to account for over 30% of online travel value sales. All the signs indicate that mobile will be at the core of customer relationships in travel.”

Although communications on the go offer great opportunities, travel firms must also be aware that they increase customer expectations, the report said.

Travellers now expected real-time answers and greater customisation, wherever they are and at any time, before, during and after the trip.

Peter Long, chief executive of TUI Travel, which includes holiday company Thomson, said: “Mobile is revolutionising customer relationships.”

WTM senior director Simon Press said: “The dominant role of tablets and apps has created an ‘always-on’ culture among consumers. Travel companies need to make sure they are engaging with consumers in this way and through these channels.”

Now in its 34th year, WTM – at the ExCeL exhibition centre in London Docklands – is expected to attract around 48,000 people this week.

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Britons turn to junk food after financial crisis – study [ BeritaTerkini ]

LONDON (Reuters) – Britons hurt by lower incomes and rising food prices after the financial crisis have cut back on fruit and vegetables and turned instead to fatty, sugary, processed food, an academic study showed on Monday.

Britain has seen food prices rise much more sharply than most other developed economies between 2005 and 2012, while wage growth has been low and unemployment has risen.

The net effect has been that Britons are spending 8.5 percent less in real terms on food purchased at home than before the recession – with the trend even greater for pensioners and families with young children.

The research is likely to be politically sensitive at a time when Britain’s Conservative-led government is under pressure from the Labour Party, over declining standards of living and sharply rising demand at food banks which hand out free food to the poorest Britons.

People have economised by buying less food, measured in number of calories, but also on its quality, picking products that are less nutritious and higher in saturated fat and sugar.

“Various measures of nutritional quality declined over this period, with bigger decreases for pensioner households and households with young children,” said the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economics research body.

OBESITY

Families with children were prone to switching to more sugary food, while pensioners favoured food high in saturated fat, the study showed. Both groups often have lower incomes.

While the economy is starting to show signs of growth after suffering the biggest hit to economic growth since records began during the 2008-09 recession, households’ disposable incomes are no higher than a decade ago.

However, the IFS said a lower-quality diet was not an inevitable consequence of having less money, and that some households had been able to eat as healthily as before while spending less. More research was needed to see why this was not the case for other households, the researchers added.

The study looked at data on more than 15,000 households’ shopping habits collected by market research company Kantar Worldpanel between 2005 and 2012.

The figures do not include meals purchased or provided away from home, for example in restaurants or at schools, which in England provide free lunches for poorer pupils.

The study was released alongside a piece of longer-term research from the IFS, which showed the English now consume 15-30 percent fewer calories than in 1980, despite higher obesity rates probably due to less physical activity.

This contrasts with the United States, where calorie consumption has risen as well as obesity. The IFS said it was were researching further into trends in Britons’ physical activity over the period.

* For the full studies, go to http://www.ifs.org.uk/

(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Morgans Hotel Group Gets Unsolicited $261 Million Bid From Yucaipa [ BeritaTerkini ]

Morgans Hotel Group Gets Unsolicited $ 261 Million Bid From Yucaipa

The Yucaipa Companies, an investment firm controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle, made an unsolicited and conditional proposal to Morgans Hotel Group for $ 8 per share, or roughly $ 261 million.

Earlier this year Morgans had signed agreements with the Yucaipa Companies to cancel Yucaipa’s interests in the company’s convertible notes, preferred stock and stock warrants in exchange for its ownership interests in Delano South Beach and The Light Group, a Las Vegas nightclub operator that it acquired in 2011.

A proxy battle, in which OTK, Morgans’ largest shareholder, was the victor, killed the Yucaipa Companies’ proposal. Stockholders voted to elect the seven OTK Associates’ nominees to the board of directors, which was thought to end the contentious battle between the two companies. Morgans said the company’s board would “carefully review the proposal with its financial and legal advisors and will determine the appropriate response in due course.”

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Dorchester Group reports 5% rise in revenue to a record [ BeritaTerkini ]

The group’s UK properties include the Dorchester, Coworth Park and most recently 45 Park Lane. Photograph: Nikos Vinieratos/Rex Features

London’s economy is booming and nowhere more so than in the glitzy hotels of Mayfair and Belgravia if profits at the Dorchester group are any guide.

The hotel group, a collection of ten of the world’s most luxurious hotels including the London landmark it is named after, has reported a 5% rise in revenue to a record £304.5m in 2012.

Over the past five years revenue has surged 17.4% as its ultimate owner, the Sultan of Brunei – who is worth an estimated £20bn – has added more hotels to the group.

In the year to 31 December 2012 revenue was boosted by the opening of 45 Park Lane, a 45-room art deco hotel which sits opposite the Dorchester on the former site of London’s Playboy club. In its first full-year of trading in 2012 the five-star hotel contributed to the group’s UK revenues, which increased by £18.8m to £106.6m.

The Sultan’s shopping spree continued in September when the group paid an estimated €105m (£89m) for the 121-room Hotel Eden in Rome, which counts Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson amongst its guests.

The 45 Park Lane joins the group’s two other UK properties – the Dorchester and Coworth Park, a country-house hotel in Ascot.

Operating profits from the three hotels rose four-fold to £15.5m compared to a £1.3m loss from the group’s hotel in Milan and its two in Paris.

Although average occupancy at the group’s hotels remained flat at 69% in 2012, the average room rate was up £10 to £518.

It is nearly four times the 2012 London average of £138.50 according to research firm Hotstats. The key industry data of revenue per available room also rose by £10 to £359 at the Dorchester group compared to the London average of £112.37.

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‘Ender’s Game’ Leads Film Newcomers [ BeritaTerkini ]

Plus: ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ opens strong in limited release

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Old men. That includes Thor – who, being a Norse god and all, is a lot older than Chris Hemsworth looks. This weekend, Thor: The Dark World opened in most major box office markets around the globe and earned an estimated $ 109.4 million, upstaging whatever little ticket raffles were going on here in the States. That’s the fourth-biggest box office weekend worldwide this year; three of those top four now belong to Disney/Marvel (two others belong to Iron Man 3 and the third to Universal’s Fast and Furious 6.) Most of all, the hammer-wielder’s success is yet another sign that, for these giant franchise movies, U.S. box office is almost an afterthought.

Since The Dark World doesn’t open here for another week, it gave some elbow room to another old man, Harrison Ford, whose Ender’s Game topped the North American box office chart with an estimated $ 28 million. That’s a tad higher than the $ 27 million many had predicted for the launch of Orson Scott Card’s galactic war saga. It helped that Ford was so ubiquitous promoting it this week that you might have thought the 71-year-old Star Wars veteran was the star of the movie and not 16-year-old Asa Butterfield.

What Are the 25 Must-See Movies of Fall 2013?

Another old men who did surprisingly well: Irving Zisman, the slapstick senior played by Johnny Knoxville in Bad Grandpa. After topping the chart when it premiered last week, it was expected to plummet and lose more than half its business in Week 2, but it lost just a third, coming in at No. Two with an estimated $ 20.5 million. As a result, the film has banked $ 62.1 million in 10 days.

Finally, there was the hard-partying codger quartet of Last Vegas. They opened in third place with an estimated $ 16.5 million, also outperforming expectations (in the $ 11 million to $ 15 million range). The comedy enjoyed very good word-of-mouth (measured by an A- at CinemaScore), which was apparently strong enough to overcome middling reviews.

LOSERS OF THE WEEK: Turkeys. The time-traveling fowl of Free Birds may have bigger neck wattles than the geezers from Last Vegas, but so far, they’re having to settle for fourth place, debuting with an estimated $ 16.2 million. (Then again, that’s only $ 320,000 shy of Last Vegas’ winnings, so by the time final numbers are released on Monday, the Birds could have gobbled up enough to pull ahead.) Expectations for this one were higher, at about $ 18 to $ 22 million, since it’s the first new cartoon since Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 over a month ago. Also, like Last Vegas, it earned an A- at CinemaScore. Still, even with good word-of-mouth, it’s hard to sell kids on a new, unfamiliar story, and word is that the 3D didn’t really add enough to the visuals to justify the surcharge. (Rounding out the top five was Gravity, still holding up well in its fifth week. It earned an estimated $ 13.1 million, for a total so far of $ 219.2 million.)

MATTHEW DOES ‘DALLAS’: Matthew McConaughey is getting a lot of Oscar talk this year, not just for this summer’s Mud but also for Dallas Buyers Club, a drama about the early days of the AIDS epidemic, for which McConaughey lost an alarming amount of weght and spent the last year or so frightening fans with his emaciated appearance. This weekend, some of those fans got to see what all the fuss was about, as Dallas opened on nine screens and earned an estimated $ 264,000. That’s a strong $ 29,333-per-screen average, the best of any film this week. Fellow Oscar hopeful 12 Years a Slave earned a solid $ 11,220 this week after expanding from 123 screens onto 410, earning another estimated $ 4.6 million in the process, good for eighth place on the chart. (By comparison, Ender’s Game opened on 3,407 screens and averaged $ 8,218 per screen.)

Seven other movies opened in limited release this weekend, most notably the dud Diana. This was supposed to be one of the season’s big Oscar contenders, thanks to an uncanny performance by Naomi Watts as the late princess. Unfortunately, the movie earned bad buzz and dismal reviews. It opened this weekend on 38 screens but pulled in just an estimated $ 64,900, averaging a meager $ 1,708 per screen.

About Time, the latest from romantic comedy king Richard Curtis, isn’t an independent movie, but Universal treated it like one. The time-traveling romance starring Rachel McAdams opened on just 175 screens, enough to generate some positive buzz and to earn an estimated $ 1.1 million (averaging a decent $ 6,286 per screen). Watch for both About Time and Dallas Buyers Club to do good business when they expand nationwide next week.

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Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem – New York Times [ BeritaTerkini ]

Americans spend an estimated $ 5 billion a year on unproven herbal supplements that promise everything from fighting off colds to curbing hot flashes and boosting memory. But now there is a new reason for supplement buyers to beware: DNA tests show that many pills labeled as healing herbs are little more than powdered rice and weeds.

Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice.

Consumer advocates and scientists say the research provides more evidence that the herbal supplement industry is riddled with questionable practices. Industry representatives argue that any problems are not widespread.

For the study, the researchers selected popular medicinal herbs, and then randomly bought different brands of those products from stores and outlets in Canada and the United States. To avoid singling out any company, they did not disclose any product names.

Among their findings were bottles of echinacea supplements, used by millions of Americans to prevent and treat colds, that contained ground up bitter weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, an invasive plant found in India and Australia that has been linked to rashes, nausea and flatulence.

Two bottles labeled as St. John's wort, which studies have shown may treat mild depression, contained none of the medicinal herb. Instead, the pills in one bottle were made of nothing but rice, and another bottle contained only Alexandrian senna, an Egyptian yellow shrub that is a powerful laxative. Gingko biloba supplements, promoted as memory enhancers, were mixed with fillers and black walnut, a potentially deadly hazard for people with nut allergies.

Of 44 herbal supplements tested, one-third showed outright substitution, meaning there was no trace of the plant advertised on the bottle — only another plant in its place.

Many were adulterated with ingredients not listed on the label, like rice, soybean and wheat, which are used as fillers.

In some cases, these fillers were the only plant detected in the bottle — a health concern for people with allergies or those seeking gluten-free products, said the study's lead author, Steven G. Newmaster, a biology professor and botanical director of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph.

The findings, published in the journal BMC Medicine, follow a number of smaller studies conducted in recent years that have suggested a sizable percentage of herbal products are not what they purport to be. But because the latest findings are backed by DNA testing, they offer perhaps the most credible evidence to date of adulteration, contamination and mislabeling in the medicinal supplement industry, a rapidly growing area of alternative medicine that includes an estimated 29,000 herbal products and substances sold throughout North America.

"This suggests that the problems are widespread and that quality control for many companies, whether through ignorance, incompetence or dishonesty, is unacceptable," said David Schardt, a senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. "Given these results, it's hard to recommend any herbal supplements to consumers."

Representatives of the supplement industry said that while mislabeling of supplements was a legitimate concern, they did not believe it reached the extent suggested by the new research.

Stefan Gafner, the chief science officer at the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of herbal supplements, said the study was flawed, in part because the bar-coding technology it used could not always identify herbs that have been purified and highly processed.

"Over all, I would agree that quality control is an issue in the herbal industry," Dr. Gafner said. "But I think that what's represented here is overblown. I don't think it's as bad as it looks according to this study."

The Food and Drug Administration has used bar-coding technology to warn and in some cases prosecute sellers of seafood found to be "misbranded." The DNA technique has also been used in studies of herbal teas, which showed that a significant percentage contain herbs and ingredients that are not listed on their labels.

But policing the supplement industry is a special challenge. The F.D.A. requires that companies test the products they sell to make sure that they are safe. But the system essentially operates on the honor code. Unlike prescription drugs, supplements are generally considered safe until proved otherwise.

Under a 1994 federal law, they can be sold and marketed with little regulatory oversight, and they are pulled from shelves generally only after complaints of serious injury. The F.D.A. audits a small number of companies, but even industry representatives say more oversight is needed.

"The regulations are very appropriate and rigorous," said Duffy MacKay of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement industry trade group. "But we need a strong regulator enforcing the full force of the law. F.D.A. resources are limited, and therefore enforcement has not historically been as rigorous as it could be."

An F.D.A. spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

DNA bar coding was developed about a decade ago at the University of Guelph. Instead of sequencing entire genomes, scientists realized that they could examine genes from a standardized region of every genome to identify species of plants and animals. These short sequences can be quickly analyzed — much like the bar codes on the items at a supermarket — and compared with others in an electronic database. An electronic reference library at Guelph called the International Barcode of Life Project, contains over 2.6 million bar code records for almost 200,000 species of plants and animals.

The testing technique is not foolproof. It can identify the substances in a supplement, but it cannot determine their potency. And because the technology relies on the detection of DNA, it may not be able to identify concentrated chemical extracts that do not contain genetic material, or products in which the material has been destroyed by heat and processing.

But Dr. Newmaster emphasized that only powders and pills were used in the new research, not extracts. In addition, the DNA testing nearly always detected some plant material in the samples —just not always the plant or herb named on the label.

Some of the adulteration problems may be inadvertent. Cross-contamination can occur in fields where different plants are grown side by side and picked at the same time, or in factories where the herbs are packaged. Dr. Gafner of the American Botanical Council said that rice, starch and other compounds were sometimes added during processing to keep powdered herbs from clumping, just as kernels of rice are added to salt shakers.

But that does not explain many of the DNA results. For instance, the study found that one product advertised as black cohosh — a North American plant and popular remedy for hot flashes and other menopause symptoms — actually contained a related Asian plant, Actaea asiatica, that can be toxic to humans.

Those findings mirror a similar study of black cohosh supplements conducted at Stony Brook University medical center last year. Dr. David A. Baker, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive medicine, bought 36 black cohosh supplements from online and chain stores. Bar coding tests showed that a quarter of them were not black cohosh, but instead contained an ornamental plant from China.

Dr. Baker called the state of supplement regulation "the Wild West," and said most consumers had no idea how few safeguards were in place. "If you had a child who was sick and 3 out of 10 penicillin pills were fake, everybody would be up in arms," Dr. Baker said. "But it's O.K. to buy a supplement where 3 out of 10 pills are fake. I don't understand it. Why does this industry get away with that?"

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Toronto mayor urges police to release video, apologizes for ‘mistakes’ [ BeritaTerkini ]

By Jeffrey Hodgson

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Sunday urged his police chief to release a video that media reports say show him smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and issued an apology for unspecified “mistakes” in his past.

But Ford, who has previously said he does not use crack, and who did not discuss the content of the video, also said he would not step down and planned to run in the next election.

“Chief, I’m asking you to release this video now,” Ford said on his weekly radio show, referring to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

“Whatever this video shows … Toronto residents deserve to see it, and people need to judge for themselves what they see on this video,” Ford said.

“I’m the first one to admit I’m not perfect. I have made mistakes. I have made mistakes and all I can do right now is apologize for the mistakes. I sincerely, sincerely apologize to my family, to the citizens, to taxpayers of this great city.”

Ford said he wanted to move forward, but recognized he has to make changes in his life.

“Unfortunately I cannot change the past. I can just move forward and learn from the past, which I’ll assure you I’m doing,” he said.

The mayor’s apology comes after Toronto police said last week they had recovered a copy of a video that was “consistent” with one reportedly seen by journalists at the Toronto Star newspaper and by media blog Gawker earlier this year.

Both the Star and Gawker said the video shows the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Ford’s lawyer said on Friday that his client was not smoking crack in the video, which has dominated Canadian headlines for months, even though it has been seen by only a few people.

The Star and Gawker said they were shown the video, separately, by a man who wanted to sell it to them. Gawker raised funds to buy the video, but said it was unable to re-establish contact with the seller.

Ford, a right-wing politician elected on a cost-cutting platform in 2010, said on Thursday he could not comment on the matter because the video was evidence in a separate case before the courts.

Police Chief Blair said on Thursday police had retrieved the video from a deleted hard drive recovered in a drug investigation.

Blair would not describe what was happening on the video, but said it showed the mayor, and that he was “disappointed” by what he saw.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

• Society & Culture

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Herbal tea company JDB pays 250 million yuan to be the main sponsor of ‘The … – Global Times [ BeritaTerkini ]

JDB products are seen with a sales promotion poster featuring the judges of popular music talent show “The Voice of China” in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, July 20. Photo: CFP

China’s leading herbal tea company, JDB Group paid 250 million yuan ($ 40.99 million) to be the title sponsor for the third season of popular domestic music talent show “The Voice of China,” news portal sina.com reported Saturday, the latest in a number of large sponsorship deals that companies have signed with domestic shows.

Experts told the Global Times Sunday that timing is crucial for the effectiveness of advertising sponsorships of shows.

Zhejiang Satellite TV, which introduced the show from Holland, held its advertising tender for next year on Saturday, the report said, noting the third season of The Voice of China has attracted most attention. JDB won the exclusive right with 250 million yuan, 25 percent higher than it had paid for the second season, said the report.

The title sponsorship fee for The Voice of China has continued rising since the first season in 2012 when it was only 60 million yuan. The fee for the second season in 2013 surged to 200 million yuan, and jumped again to 250 million yuan for the third season, the report said.

Compared with traditional advertisements, advertisements linked to shows can attract more eyes for brands or products in a short time but the price is higher, so it is more suitable for enterprises which have big budgets for advertising and can take risks, Hou Tao, vice president of EntGroup Inc, a Beijing-based consulting firm, told the Global Times Sunday.

Variety shows match with fast moving consumer goods, Yu Mingyang, the dean of Institute of Chinese Enterprises Development of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the Global Times Sunday, noting that enterprises have accepted the climbing sponsorship fees because they have seen the promotion results.

By becoming the main title sponsor of the second season of The Voice of China, JDB was able to capture 80 percent of the herbal tea market, Wang Yuegui, deputy manager of brand management department of JDB, was quoted by the report as saying.

However, the success of advertising on a popular show may not last long, given that audiences will not be loyal to shows for too long and when one type of show, such as music talent show succeeds, other satellite TV stations will release copycats soon, Yu said.

Besides advertising on popular shows, the distribution network are also very important for products selling, remarked Yu.

The company cannot be reached for comment by press time.

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Merck experimental vaccine shows promise in cancer trial: WSJ [ BeritaTerkini ]

(Reuters) – Merck & Co Inc’s experimental cancer vaccine appeared to provide broader protection against a cancer-causing virus than the company’s Gardasil shot did in clinical trials, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.

The U.S. pharmaceutical company said the study results support its plan to submit the new vaccine, code-named V503, for U.S. regulatory approval by year’s end, which could lead to market launch next year at the soonest, the paper said.

Officials at Merck were not immediately available to comment.

The article said Merck expects health-care providers to eventually switch to V503 if the product receives marketing approval.

Some analysts expect its annual sales could exceed $ 1 billion, the paper said.

Gardasil, launched in 2006, was the first vaccine to protect against human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer in women and other less-common types of cancer in males and females.

Merck ran clinical trials to test the new vaccine’s safety and efficacy, and will present results at an HPV-focused medical meeting in Florence, Italy, this week, the paper said.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

• Pharmaceuticals & Drug Trials
• Health
• cervical cancer
• Wall Street Journal

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Sport picture of the day: shimmering on the ice [ BeritaTerkini ]

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Belize Invites You To A Wild Animal Escape! [ BeritaTerkini ]

Escape to the private and remote paradise, Belize! Located in the heart of Central America, and is bordered by Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south.  Breathtaking Belize consists of a land area of 8,867 square miles and is known for having the longest living Barrier Reef in the world that stretches out along the Eastern Coast of Belize.

One of Belize's main must-see attractions is The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary dedicated to the preservation of the native Jaguar. This spectacular sanctuary consists of forests, fauna and watersheds approximately 400 square kilometers located at the eastern slopes of the Maya mountains. Established in 1990, there is over 128,000 acres of lush jungle ringed by the spectacular Cockscomb Mountains.

A true once in a lifetime memorable experience is visiting Sanctuary Belize. The 14,000 acres of unspoiled natural beauty is found in the heart of Belize's stunning southern region of Stann Creek. You'll find yourself surrounded in a 360 panoramic dream with 111,000 acres of wildlife reserves. Sanctuary Belize takes unprecedented pride and effort in preserving the area's ecological diversity and natural resources.

Belize certainly is the destination for beautiful jungle nature and encourages you to answer your inner call of the wild! Friendly guides will escort you on a magical all day mystery tour to  Xunantunich Mayan Ruins. First, you'll take a scenic 2.5 hour drive on the Hummingbird Highway, past the Citrus Valley, the lush forest at the foot of the Mayan Mountains, and the capital of Belize, Belmopan.

Next, as you approach the exquisite border with Guatemala, you board a small fantasy ferry, which takes you across the Mopan River. This is where you'll discover the magnificent and majestic Mayan Ruins of Xunantunich (the Maiden Rock), surrounded by more than 25 spiritual temples and palaces, Xunantunich is historical ceremonial center, located on a natural limestone ridge, rising 125 feet.

Want to monkey around on your Belize vacay? Get up-close and personal with the Howler Monkeys locally known as "baboons".  Hike through the jungle just on the outskirts of the Bermuda Landing Village and find this monkey-see, monkey-do sanctuary, home to more baboons than resident humans!  Howler monkeys get their "howling" name from their loud, guttural calls that can be heard up to five miles away and are biggest animal in Latin America, growing to four feet tall.

Visit the best little zoo in the world … The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center was started in 1983, and originally provided a home for wild animals used in making documentary films about tropical forests. Today, this sweet zoo is settled upon 29 acres of tropical savanna and exhibits over 150 animals, representing over 45 species. The zoo keeps animals which were orphaned, rescued, born at the zoo, rehabilitated animals, or sent to The Belize Zoo as donations from other zoological institutions. The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center welcomes over 10,000 school children every year as part of their progressive education programs, and popular zoo events!

If sun, sand, and scuba diving are your passion, the Belize Barrier Reef is home to a large diversity of plants and animals, and is one of the most diverse ecosystems including; 70 hard coral species, 36 soft coral species, 500 species of fish and hundreds of invertebrate species. And with only 90% of the reef still needing to be researched, it is estimated that only 10% of all species have been discovered.

If you're looking to see a rare breed of the human kind, you never know which A-list celebrity sighting might happen; Tiger Woods, Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lennox Lewis, and Harrison Ford have all either visited or bought property in Belize. Royal Prince Harry made media headline news when he stopped over in Belize and exhibited some hot dance moves last year as part of his Diamond Jubilee tour of Central American and the Caribbean.

Prince Harry said of Belize, "Her Majesty has asked me to send her good wishes to you all. She remembers so fondly her visits to this beautiful realm and speaks of the warmth of welcome she received on her most recent visit in 1994. I'm only sorry she can't make it and you're stuck with me."

Academy Award winning director, Francis Ford Coppola fell in love with Belize while filming Apocalypse Now in 1979. Coppola created the Turtle Inn, a highly recommended getaway spot admired for Bali-inspired architecture and décor, plus intimacy without exorbitant expense. Turtle Inn boasts three restaurants, a pavilion, eight villas and 17 cottages that are a stone's throw from the beach. The Turtle Inn is a quick jaunt from the charming town of Plancencia, known for friendly cafés, guesthouses, and the "world's smallest mainstreet" by Guinness Book of World Records.

Francis Ford Coppola himself may serve you a slice of his signature pizza at the Turtle Creek Inn!

Francis and Eleanor Coppola pride themselves as conservators and protectors of Belize's pristine environment and are strongly dedicated to ecotourism and continue to explore new technologies and practices that minimize the negative impact on the beautiful paradise. Alexandra Cousteau, the granddaughter of renowned environmentalist Jacques-Yves Cousteau, joined forces with Francis Ford Coppola Resorts last spring and launched an exciting eight-day 'Alexandra Cousteau Discovery Experience with Coppola Resorts' in Belize. Alexandra gathered information for her upcoming documentary, Expedition Blue Planet: Belize, a film created to raise awareness about Belize's crucial freshwater and marine environments.

Robert's Grove is a featured Hacienda-style Belize beach resort neatly situated on 22 acres of white sand beach in Placencia Belize. This strategically placed location provides all welcomed visitors close proximity to the Barrier Reef, Tropical Rainforest & Mayan Ruins.  The Inn at Robert's Grove is the leading resort for Belize fishing in the southern part of the country. Serious fishermen can enjoy amenities such as on-site fly fishing center, proximity to the best fishing spots, abundance of game fish, and highly experienced fishing guides. Robert's Grove also provides a tranquil boating tour down the Monkey River, where sightseers search for manatees and Howler Monkeys (and listen for the loud Howlers)!

One of the Grove's main attractions is their Dive Center, spectacular diving that promises sights of beautiful sea corals, reef sharks, green moray eels, rays, turtles, crabs, lobsters and a variety of colorful reef fish such as spotted drums, creole wrasse, squirrel fish and a host of others swimming along the reef edge feasting away. The Inner Reef dive sites are the Laughing Bird Caye National Park and Robert's Caye (Robert's Cove), displaying sea creatures like the spotted drums, blue tangs, wrasse, goby's and much more.  Once you surface for air, you'll think you have fins of your own after one of these colorful underwater adventures.

Kanantik Reef & Jungle Resort, an eco-sensitive, luxurious resort secluded on 300 acres in scenic Southern Belize. This spectacular resort displays a beautiful 1,300 foot private, palm-fringed sandy beach. The Kanantik hosts 25 exclusive, spacious, thatched-roof cabanas replicating the ancient Maya culture with luxurious touches.

Kanantik Reef Jungle Resort

The Zen inspiring Kanantik's surrounding tropical nature and amazing variety of wildlife creates the sensation that you're living in the wild, sans the busy modern mainstay technology. Jungle myth has it that two crocodiles roam the Kanantik canal named – Baby and Lucky (kidding!), actually the crocs are nameless but very present. This resort might not be the most pet-friendly (crocs deem dogs a delicacy), but don't let that scare you.

Located in Southern Belize a few miles from the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, Kanantik Reef & Jungle Resort offers the best of the both worlds: the deep forest with wildlife habitat and the Caribbean Sea with 180 miles Barrier reef ideal for diving and snorkeling. After a day at the beach consider dining on delicious meals including tropical fresh fruits and vegetables grown on Kanantik's organic farm, and be entertained by the traditional Garifuna Dancers and Singers.

Belize jaguar taking a refreshing drink.

The Mayan culture and cuisine is everywhere to be found in Belize! From the Belizean bartenders and staff at the resorts to the wonderful and friendly locals, the Mayan sensibility and ancestry permeates this esthetically gorgeous, untouched, wild, and historically rich country.  Don't wait and plan your next escape – with ease to Belize!

To see more fabulous photos from Wendy's Trip to Belize click here!

For the Best that Pet Lifestyle and Animal Welfare has to offer follow Wendy Diamond on Facebook, Twitter, and right here at AnimalFair.com!

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Tags: Apocalypse Now, Barrier Reef, Belize, Belize Barrier Reef, Belmopan, Bermuda Landing Village, Central America, charlize theron, Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, Francis Ford Coppola, Garifuna Dancers and Singers, Guatemala, Guiness Book of World Records, Harrison Ford, howler monkeys, Hummingbird Highway, Kanantik Reef & Jungle Resort, Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Lennox Lewis, leonardo dicaprio, Mayan Mountains, Mayan Ruins, Mopan River, Placencia, Prince Harry, Robert's Caye, Robert's Grove, Royal Prince Harry, Southern Belize, Stann Creek, The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center, The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, The Inner Reef, The Turtle Inn, tiger woods, Tropical Rainforest, Xunantunich Mayan Ruin

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In Honor Of The NYC Marathon! Best Dogs For Lazy People And Couch Potatoes! [ BeritaTerkini ]

Often times, people come across a huge problem: they love dogs, but don't want the responsibility or time commitment of actually taking care of an animal. However, with the abundance of dog breeds in the world today, there are canines that suit lazy people quite well, giving those less active individuals a fitting companion. Here are some of the best dogs that are suitable for lazy people!

The Toy or Miniature Poodle is one of the best dogs for dog parents who have little experience, or do not want the big burden that comes with welcoming a new dog into the family. Not only are they small and convenient to carry around or sit on laps while watching television, they are also very easy to groom! Poodles are hypoallergenic, so they don't irritate those with allergies and they also don't shed. This combination works perfectly with those who don't want the burden of constantly vacuuming the house. Because of their size and tameness, they do not require a lot of exercise and thus are content to stay in small living quarters. Poodles are an intelligent breed, meaning they are easy to train and are well-behaved around people.

Rescue Organizations

Poodle Rescue CT: http://www.poodlerescuect.org/

Poodle Club of America: http://www.poodleclubofamerica.org/rescue.htm

The Chihuahua is known for its small size, yet exuberant personality. This dog is among the smallest breeds of canines, so it requires very little exercise or space. It is an ideal pet for either the city or the country. The Chihuahua is easy to train, and does not require a lot of it, thus making it ideal for the lazy pet parent. The Chihuahua is a perfectly content couch potato dog, with a spunky and fun personality. They are also perfect pocket-book dogs, happy to join you in a shopping spree with a view from your bag. Although this pint-sized breed comes in both short haired and long haired, shedding is minimal, so grooming is also an easy task that requires little effort.

Rescue Organizations

Chihuahua Rescue and Transportation: http://www.chihuahua-rescue.com/postit/adoptintro.htm

Next, the Pug is a lovely option for those who itch for a dog but don't want the responsibility. Weighing at most 18 pounds, the Pug is on the smaller side of dog breeds and is therefore easy to have around a smaller area. As the ultimate couch potato, the pug is recommended not to exercise too much because of its thin and compact airway, so long walks and extensive playtime are not necessary. However, they are also great with kids and very playful. In addition, shedding is minimal, and grooming is not necessary because of the Pug's short coat. If sleeping on the couch is your favorite activity, your Pug will be sure to join you. Just don't be alarmed by their snoring!

Rescue Organizations

Pug Rescue of New England: http://www.pugrescueofnewengland.org/

Curly Tail Pug Rescue: http://www.curlytailpugrescue.org/

Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue: http://www.midatlanticpugrescue.org/

If you prefer a dog on the larger side, look no further than the Chow Chow. This lion look alike is quite the opposite of an active Jungle King. In fact, he is a gentle, calm, and lazy dog that doesn't mind relaxing at home with its parents. The Chow Chow does not have a high activity level, and thus does not require large amounts of exercise- just a short walk once a day. The blue-tongued guard dog is a medium to large sized companion weighing in at around 45-60 pounds who is happy to spend the day quietly lounging by your side.

Rescue Organizations

The Chow Chow Rescue of Central New York: http://www.chowrescuecny.org/

Lastly, the most popular dog that suits lazy people are those of the stuffed variety. With soft and carpeted fur that does not smell or shed, these dogs are the easiest to care for because they do not bark, move, or go to the bathroom. In fact, they don't even require food or water, which gives you one less thing to do! If you are too lazy to take care of a living animal, then the stuffed dog is the best breed for you!

For the Best that Pet Lifestyle and Animal Welfare has to offer follow Wendy Diamond on Facebook, Twitter, and right here at AnimalFair.com!

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Tags: best dogs for lazy people, calm dogs, couch potato dogs, lazy dogs

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No seating room from eDreams [ BeritaTerkini ]

Marooned in Venice: flying back to London cost €879. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

I booked two flights through eDreams, flying to Venice with Ryanair and returning to London with BA. I received a booking confirmation by email, including confirmation numbers.

The first flight proceeded without hitch, but when I arrived for the return leg I found that my seat had not been confirmed. EDreams told me my card payment had failed despite both flights having been paid for in the same transaction, but I never received any prior warning.

BA staff at the airport told me they’d had this problem before with eDreams and that it often fails to pass on payments for bookings. I had to pay €879 for a flight home, instead of the £300 I’d have paid if the eDreams booking had gone through. JO, London

EDreams insists that its first email – despite its title “booking confirmation” – merely reiterates the details of your reservation and that a flight is not actually confirmed until a second email is received as per its terms and conditions. You never received this, but understandably assumed that if the booking had failed you would be alerted.

When I contact eDreams, I’m told it has been in touch with you to resolve the issue and that the case is closed. This turns out to mean it’s reiterated its terms and conditions to you and absolved itself of all blame. It declines to explain why it cannot inform passengers when a booking cannot be confirmed. Obviously, you should always read terms and conditions and contact the company if promised messages don’t arrive, but given eDreams confusing system and uncompromising stance I’d steer well clear in future.

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Please note that Anna cannot respond to letters individually.

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Brussels’ vibrant Matonge quarter [ BeritaTerkini ]

“Smile” reads the sign over the ramshackle shopping centre, where racks of highly flammable vest tops rub shoulders with vats of hair relaxer. “You’re in Matonge.”

Tucked incongruously between the plate-glass and concrete of European Union institutions on one side and the high-end boutiques of the Avenue Louise on the other, the African quarter of Brussels hasn’t always had the best reputation. Scruffy and anarchic, it has been a frequent flashpoint for conflict, particularly in 2011 following the Congolese elections, but it’s emerging as one of the most exciting, creative parts of the city.

Named after a lively area of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Matonge took shape in the wake of the country’s independence in 1960, though the area already had African associations. The following year, as more Congolese citizens moved to Belgium to study, an aristocratic philanthropist called Monique Van der Straten founded “Maisaf” (La Maison Africaine), a hostel for these students, on rue Alsace-Lorraine, in the heart of today’s Matonge.

A community – with nightclubs, bars and shops – grew up in the network of streets south of Chaussée de Wavre, and other African immigrants followed in the wake of the Congolese pioneers.

At the Kuumba cultural centre, which organises excellent walking tours of the area with local guides, Jeroen Marckelbach explains that, after that first wave of students, Matonge has not been a place where Africans lived (the area has been too expensive for poor migrants for decades), but a meeting place: somewhere to shop, eat and party.

Le Soleil d’Afrique restaurant Photograph: Emma Beddington

Walk down Chaussée de Wavre at night and you’ll see batik shops, hairdressers and exotic grocers all open late, packed with groups of all ages gossiping and hanging out. In the pedestrian rue Longue Vie, restaurants such as Le Soleil d’Afrique serve cheap, delicious chicken mafé, a Senegalese dish with peanut sauce, and dubious cocktails with names like Viagra to customers at packed communal tables, lanyard-draped Eurocrats sitting elbow-to-elbow with Congolese students.

The European Union institutions grew up alongside Matonge, just a few hundred metres to the east but, until recently, the two communities largely kept a cautious distance. Initiatives such as last summer’s Matonge-Europe football tournament, are working to bring them together.

And Matonge has more to offer than wigs, nails and dried fish: it’s a fascinating place to soak up a mix of African culture, bobo (the much-derided bourgeois-bohème) hangouts and historic Brussels.

Afrikamäli – the word means “African treasures” in Swahili – is a community project that set out to show another side to the area: in a bright, appealing shop on rue Ernest Solvay, Magali Sylvestre sells fair traded and ethical crafts from across sub-Saharan Africa, assisted by long-term unemployed locals, for whom the shop is a springboard into work.

Afrikamali shop, Matonge

The central location and relatively forgiving business rents have allowed other small creative entrepreneurs to move in, giving Matonge a more varied texture: places like Le Petit Boudoir, which sells delicate, quirky accessories, or Les Midinettes (30 rue Ernest Solvay, lesmidinettes.be), a sewing atelier, cafe and clothes shop promoting young Belgian designers. There are cavernous vintage shops, second-hand bookstores, cool neighbourhood bars like Stam Café (1 rue Bouré, facebook.com/stam1050) and an excellent art house cinema, the Vendôme.

On the western edge of Matonge, on rue du Berger, is another extraordinary slice of Brussels history. Hôtel le Berger is a former hôtel de rendez-vous, renting rooms by the hour to well-to-do Brussels residents for discreet liaisons. It has kept its louche 1930s charm while adding a few 21st-century comforts.

In the south of Matonge, rue St Boniface is another kind of meeting place, crammed with restaurants and bars, from Japanese ramen to Belgian mussels and all points between. It’s a magnet for young Belgians and expats, and responsible for coaxing a younger, richer public into the area.

From the beautiful Comptoir Florian cafe at number 17, owner Vincent has watched the area evolve. “When I opened 19 years ago, all my friends thought I was mad. There was nothing here. But I knew the area and its history and I loved it. I like how mixed it is.” His customers reflect that: out on the terrace a group of middle-aged African men are laughing over cheesecake, while inside students, galleristas and locals drink Japanese brown rice tea and flick through the piles of interiors magazines.

“Mixed” is a word you hear a lot from the residents of Matonge: that’s a huge part of its appeal. From 78-year-old Bartholomé and his parrot Chirac, still mending shoes on rue de l’Athénée, to the kids checking each other out in the fried chicken shops, all human life is there.

Elisabeth and Sinem of Unico

Looking back over a year since they opened, Elisabeth and Sinem of Unico, a tiny Italian wine bar and restaurant have embraced the area in all its contradictions. “It can seem scary,” says Sinem, “but it’s been wonderful.”

Isabelle and Mathilde of Les Midinettes add a reminder to look up above the bustle and the chaos to discover the wonderful façades and glorious art nouveau details that are everywhere in Matonge’s streets. “Every day, I discover something new” says Isabelle, which would certainly give you something to smile about.

• Eurostar (eurostar.com) trains from London St Pancras to Brussels take under two hours, from £69pp return

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Our Post Office Travel Money Card was in credit, but was not accepted [ BeritaTerkini ]

Dining in Manhattan: most of us spend more on holiday. Photograph: Ambient Images Inc./Alamy

We purchased a Post Office Travel Money Card to avoid taking large amounts of cash on holiday in the US. Unfortunately, we had quite a few embarrassing moments when the card was declined in stores and restaurants. After a balance check, we established that we had plenty of funds, but still the transactions were declined.

It was also costly as I had to use a credit card to make the payments, which in turn incurred a charge along with a poor exchange rate. As a result, we returned with in excess of $ 500 on the card which we had been unable to withdraw. When I tried to get the balance refunded in sterling I was told the rate they would buy back at was $ 1.82 to the pound. The failure of their card to work as claimed on their website will mean we only get around £280 back out of the remaining £350 we put on it. JR, Rochdale

Yours is one of many similar complaints I receive after the holiday season. The problem is that the Money Card has a daily transaction limit to guard against fraud. The terms and conditions warn of this, but the Post Office won’t disclose what this limit is for “security reasons”. A spokeswoman says: “Given the volume of transaction attempts in a short space of time, a risk rule was triggered on the account which resulted in them being declined. In line with most other banks and card issuers, we have rules in place to highlight untypical behaviour on the account.”

The trouble is most of us do spend more on holiday and the Money Card, being temporary, is not in our possession long enough for “typical” behaviour to be recorded. In future, if you’re likely to be shelling out frequently, you’re better off using the Money Card as back-up and relying on your credit card for bigger purchases.

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Please note that Anna cannot respond to letters individually.

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Zest at JW3: restaurant review | Jay Rayner [ BeritaTerkini ]

Clean lines: the open and light interior at JW3. Photograph: Katherine Rose for the Observer

Zest at JW3: 341-351 Finchley Road, London NW3 (020 7433 8955). Meal for two, with drinks and service: £70-£90

Something terrible has happened to my people. They have lost their way. It’s worse even than that whole 40-years-in-the-desert thing which, in any case, was just a map reading issue. This is about sense of identity. It’s about the very essence of what it is to be a Jew; or at least a north west London Jew like me whose forebears came from that bit of Eastern Europe, where a pogrom was the nearest anyone had to a spectator sport and the menus were written with the bitter winters in mind.

Yes, it’s all to do with dinner. For decades being an Ashkenazi Jew in London meant going nose down in lumps of salted meat, boiled to a point whereby you could eat them without a full complement of teeth. It meant pucks of shredded potato and onion that have taken a long, shameless bath in the deep fat fryer. There were pickled bits and dirty notions involving large amounts of chicken fat. Oh the things we could do with chicken fat. For decades this diet also held sway under the unforgiving, Middle Eastern sun of Israel, which isn’t that surprising. Many of the original Jewish settlers were Ashkenazis. This was what they ate. It was who they were.

Do I need to tell you this food is truly awful? A Jewish cuisine? Don’t be silly. It’s nowhere near refined enough to be called that. The only people who should ever talk about a “Jewish cuisine” are French Jews showing off their new kitchens. If it emerged now as a food trend, public health officials would set up outreach centres in an attempt to nudge people away from a lifetime of ever-hardening arteries. But it’s our food. It’s my food. And I love it.

Tuna croquets. Photograph: Katherine Rose for the Observer

So what’s gone wrong? I’ll tell you what’s gone wrong. The food of the Ashkenazis has been usurped by the food of their Mediterranean brothers, the Sephardim. Theirs is a culinary tradition full of sunlight and warmth and zest and life, rather than dead things and chicken fat. We’ve seen it in the dishes served at Ottolenghi and at Honey & Co and now it’s at Zest, the thrilling restaurant in the newly opened Jewish cultural centre JW3, off London’s Finchley Road. The chefs are north Londoner Josh Katz and Israeli- born Eran Tibi, both of whom previously worked for Yotam Ottolenghi, because it’s the law that you must do so before setting up a restaurant like this. Quietly, unexpectedly – and without anybody bothering to consult me – Jewish food has become really, really good. Frankly, I’m appalled.

It all reflects a demographic and cultural change in Israel, which may once have been dominated by the Ashkenazis but increasingly has become a Middle Eastern country. Inevitably it is those flavours which now hold sway. Perhaps they noticed that the food of the Sephardim is simply much better suited to keeping kosher. The Ashkenazi repertoire is essentially the diet of the Slavic peoples minus the pig. Sephardic food is far less reliant on meat or butter. It focuses on vegetables, olive oil and occasional outbreaks of fish. Gastronomically, a lot of kosher Ashkenazi food is about compromise, to keep true to the imperative not to mix milk and meat. There is very little in the way of compromise about the Sephardic diet. The food is exactly the same as that eaten by the non-Jews in that part of the world.

The meat-free menu at Zest is a case in point. It is completely and utterly kosher – witness the preponderance of men in yarmulkes eating there, gratefully – but that is the least interesting thing about it. What matters is that the food is delicious; that it tastes like you are both being kind to yourself and showing your mouth a good time.

Mackerel salad. Photograph: Katherine Rose for the Observer

The restaurant occupies a huge, airy vault at the base of a quite extraordinarily beautiful new building, full of white walls which will be a bugger to keep clean. A wall of glass – have they thought of the dust? – looks out on a huge public space which in the summer it will doubtless expand across. It reminds me of a modern museum space in Manhattan. For all the hard surfaces it is calming.

The menu is divided between mezze at £3 to £4 a plate, and salads and mains in the low teens. There are caramelised florets of cauliflower, in a sharp dressing of sweet dark pomegranate molasses and tahini – they do love their tahini – with lots of sliced spring onion; there’s a chewy and soft stew of aubergine with walnuts and the high fresh breathy notes of coriander. There is a bowl of mesabaha, a kind of hummus for people like me who hate hummus, made with smoked paprika, peppery olive oil and more tahini. It turns up again gloriously adulterated with fiery harissa as a dipping sauce for crisp tuna croquettes. There are dribbles of yogurt here and there, and bursts of acidity and sweetness.

It all continues into the mains. A vast salad of seared mackerel – both crisp-skinned fillets are included; the place is full of Jews and we don’t do small portions – is served with a crunchy autumn slaw, some squidgy caramelised fennel and the soft yogurt cheese labneh, with a touch of saffron. Best of all is the Zest fish burger: a crisp battered tranche of hake with harissa aioli, dill cucumber and onions caramelised until they are more dark savoury sugars than allium. All of it is served on a brioche-style glazed bun the size of my head. And I have a very large head.

Zest had been open just two days so they only had three desserts. A quince crumble is the one disappointment. It eats like muesli with undercooked fruit. Far better are glazed sweet potato doughnuts, straight from the fryer, and a bread-and-butter pudding made with rugelach, a famously light pastry rendered rich and heavy by this treatment. There are glazed plums with it and the gauche prettiness of jade green crushed pistachios. The wine list is short and, being aimed at Jews who do not drink, an afterthought. Just know this: we had a bottle of rosé and it definitely had alcohol in it. What’s most striking about Zest is the vigour, the briskness and, well, zestiness of it all. It is a Jewish restaurant which is utterly inclusive. It is also a Jewish restaurant serving really good food. That is something I will have to get used to.

■ For those still craving the artery-hardening joys of salt beef, the London mothership remains the 47-year-old Brass Rail, now located in Selfridges food hall. It may not be the cheapest, but its luscious thick-cut beef is still the one against which all others must be rated. It’s also consistent. For example, carver Sag Musa has just celebrated 40 years at the chopping board. In that time he’s cut five double-decker buses’ worth of salt beef. The Brass Rail, Selfridges, Oxford Street, London W1.

■ Reasons to be cheerful: the loss-making Pizza Hut chain is about to pony up £60m to revamp its restaurants in a desperate attempt to attract back customers. Other strategies include launching the crime against common decency which is the cheese burger pizza, with a mini burger built into each slice. Just 2,880 calories a pop.

The cheese burger pizza, served at Pizza Hut.

■ There are bad seasonal food ideas (what were you thinking, Pringles, with your Mint Choc Chip flavoured crisps?) and there are good ones. Step forward the six-strong Ginger Pig chain of butchers which is marking bonfire night with toffee-apple flavoured sausages: pork, apple and treacle. thegingerpig.co.uk

Email Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or visit theguardian.com/profile/jayrayner for all his reviews in one place. Follow Jay on Twitter @jayrayner1

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