Motion Pictures Association changing its rating system to include more information on violence

Published April 16, 2013

Associated Press

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The Motion Pictures Association of America is changing its rating system to better inform parents about violence in movies.

CEO Christopher Dodd announced the tweaks in Las Vegas Tuesday at the annual movie-theater convention, CinemaCon.

The White House has called on the movie industry to give parents better tools to monitor violence in media since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

Dodd did not address the shooting directly but spoke generally about the need to help parents control what their kids see.

The new ratings system will include descriptions about why a movie received its ratings.

For example, the rating might cite "strong carnage" or "war violence."

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WARNING LABEL: Movie Rating System to Change After Tragedies

Published April 16, 2013

Associated Press

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The Motion Picture Association of America announced changes Tuesday to its movie rating system, saying the group wants to better inform parents about violence in films.

The new system, called the "Check the Box" campaign, will include a more prominent and detailed description explaining why a movie received a particular rating. One example read, "An intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage, brief strong violence."

The changes announced by MPAA CEO Christopher Dodd in Las Vegas on Tuesday come in the aftermath of explosions at the Boston Marathon and recent shooting rampages, though the former U.S. senator did not address such examples directly.

The White House has called on the movie industry help parents monitor violence in media since the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the state Dodd represented for 30 years as a Democrat until 2011. And in a sweeping proposal this year, President Barack Obama asked specifically for a stricter rating system.

Dodd announced the industry's plan at the annual movie-theater convention, CinemaCon, and spoke generally about the need to help parents "so they can make the best choices about what movies are appropriate for their children to watch."

The plan stated, "The entertainment and video game industries have a responsibility to give parents tools and choices about the movies and programs their children watch and the games their children play."

Also, Dodd listed several types of content the new campaign might highlight, including violence, crude humor and thematic elements.

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Babies' immune system development influenced by birth month

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Newborn babies’ immune systems and vitamin D levels differ – depending on which month of the year they were born, Medical News Today reported.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Neurology, helps explain why a person’s risk of developing the neurological condition multiple sclerosis (MS) is impacted by their birth month.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurological condition in which the body’s own immune system harms the central nervous system. It obstructs the passing of messages between the brain and other areas of the body and can result in issues with memory, hearing, muscle control and vision.

Several studies have indicated that the month in which you were born can influence your risk of developing MS – a phenomenon known as the “birth month effect.”  The risk of MS appears to be highest for people born in May, and lower in those born in November, particularly for people living in England.

The study also identifies the need for more research into the potential advantages of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy, Medical News Today said. Previous studies have suggested that low levels of vitamin D during pregnancy can result in gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and low birth weight in newborns.

And another study, published in the journal Neurology last year, indicated that higher levels of vitamin D during pregnancy could later prevent multiple sclerosis in mothers.

For the JAMA study, blood samples were taken from the umbilical cords of 50 babies born in November and 50 babies born in May. Researchers looked at levels of vitamin D and levels of autoreactive T-cells in the babies’ blood.

T-cells are the white blood cells that help the body’s immune system attack infectious agents like viruses. However, when T-cells are autoreactive, they attack the body’s healthy cells, causing autoimmune diseases.

The blood tests indicated that babies born in May had significantly lower levels of vitamin D and higher levels of autoreactive T-cells, compared to babies born in November, Medical News Today said.

Study co-author Dr. Sreeram Ramagopalan, a lecturer in neuroscience at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, part of Queen Mary, concluded:

"By showing that month of birth has a measurable impact on in utero immune system development, this study provides a potential biological explanation for the widely observed "month of birth" effect in MS. Higher levels of autoreactive T-cells, which have the ability to turn on the body, could explain why babies born in May are at a higher risk of developing MS.

“The correlation with vitamin D suggests this could be the driver of this effect,” Ramagopalan added. “There is a need for long-term studies to assess the effect of vitamin D supplementation in pregnant women and the subsequent impact on immune system development and risk of MS and other autoimmune diseases."

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TINY DISCOVERY:Smallest Planet Yet Found Outside Solar System

Astronomers searching for planets outside our solar system have discovered the tiniest one yet -- one that's about the size of our moon.

But hunters for life in the universe will need to poke elsewhere. The new world orbits too close to its sun-like star and is too sizzling to support life. Its surface temperature is an estimated 700 degrees Fahrenheit. It also lacks an atmosphere and water on its rocky surface.

University of California, Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy, one of the founding fathers of the planet-hunting field, called the latest find "absolutely mind-boggling."

"This new discovery raises the specter that the universe is jampacked, like jelly beans in a jar, with planets even smaller than Earth," said Marcy, who had no role in the new research.

'[Is] the universe jampacked, like jelly beans in a jar, with planets even smaller than Earth?'

- Geoff Marcy, one of the founding fathers of the planet-hunting field

It's been nearly two decades since the first planet was found outside our solar system. Since then, there's been an explosion of discoveries, accelerated by NASA's Kepler telescope launched in 2009 to search for a twin Earth. So far, 861 planets have been spotted and only recently have scientists been able to detect planets that are similar in size to Earth or smaller.

While scientists have theorized the existence of a celestial body that's smaller than Mercury -- the baby of the solar system since Pluto's downgrade -- they have not spotted one until now. Nearest to the sun, Mercury is about two-fifths the Earth's diameter; the newly discovered planet and our moon are about a third the size of Earth.

The teeny planet was detected by Kepler, which simultaneously tracks more than 150,000 stars for slight dips in brightness -- a sign of a planet passing in front of the star. The planet -- known as Kepler-37b -- orbits a star 210 light years away in the constellation Lyra. It's one of three known planets in that solar system.

Discoverer Thomas Barclay of the NASA Ames Research Center in Northern California was so excited when he spied the moon-sized planet that for days, he said he recited the "Star Wars" movie line: "That's no moon." It took more than a year and an international team to confirm that it was a bona fide planet.

The discovery is detailed in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Scientists are looking for an Earth-size planet that's in the so-called Goldilocks zone -- that sweet spot that's not too hot and not too cold where water, which is essential for life, could exist on the surface.

While the newly discovered planet isn't it, "that does not detract from the fact that this is yet another mile marker along the way to habitable Earth-like planets," said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, who was not part of the discovery team.

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