The U.K Government Calculates a System Ticketing for Transport

U.K. aims to have a plan by the end of this year that lets people use their mobile phones or smart cards to pay for travel across England's public transport system.

U.K government calculates such a system could save £2.6 billion (US$4.3 billion) per year in cash, convenience and the reduced use of motor vehicles. The Department for Transport started a consultation on Thursday to solicit input from the public, which will run through Oct. 28.

Smart cards and mobile phones would use near-field communication (NFC) technology, with embedded microchips storing transport credit. The system would be centered around a technical platform called ITSO, which was created by a nonprofit organization. ITSO is a set of technical standards for integrated smart ticketing, which would allow passengers to use smart cards or their mobile phones for tickets sold by different transport entities.

Smart card technology used in the U.K. is the Oyster card, which is compatible with most transport systems in greater London. But the Oyster card, launched in 2003 and used on 78 percent of bus and subway trips in London, won't be in the running for use across England. "Oyster is a proprietary system with only one supplier and was designed specifically for London, so it is not flexible enough to deal with a wide range of tickets that might be required for a national standard,".

System offers many benefits for passengers. Tickets don't have to be purchased in stations, which reduces queues at stations, passengers can board buses and pass through turnstiles faster, and passengers don't have to deal with loose change. But while smart card and mobile phone payment technology is mature, use of the systems is not widespread due to cost and technology issues, according to the consultation. The up-front infrastructure costs to implement the system could be as much as £1.1 billion, with running costs around £260 million annually. However, the 10-year projection is that for every £1 spent on the system, £7 in benefits would be derived, the document said.

Many European payment cards allow for contactless payments under a certain amount. In the U.K., the maximum purchase allow is £10 without the cardholder entering their four-digit PIN (Personal Identification Number). NFC-enabled mobile phones are not common yet. The Department of Transport, however, said there are indications the mobile phone industry will release those kinds of mobiles in larger numbers soon.

Critics Of The President's Barack Obama Plans

President Barack Obama returns to the White House after a day of diplomacy in Guadalajara, Mexico, His approval ratings slipping, President Barack Obama is retooling his message on health care overhaul, aiming to win over Americans who already have insurance.Polling shows that Americans — especially those who already have coverage — are skeptical of the Democratic proposals to expand coverage to the nearly 50 millions who lack it. So Obama will use a potentially boisterous town hall-style meeting in New Hampshire to highlight how his proposals would affect workers whose employers provide their health insurance.

Critics of the president's plan — his top domestic priority — have grabbed headlines by disrupting town hall meetings, putting the White House on the defensive.Hours before Obama was to arrive at Portsmouth High School, the road leading to the event site was lined with people — about 100 supporters of Obama's health care overhaul on one side and about half as many opponents on the other. "I'm here because I'm an American, I believe in free speech and I'm scared to death," said Barbara Taylor, 65, of Exeter, N.H.

She arrived at 7:30 a.m. and was soaking wet from a severe downpour earlier in the morning. The rain had blurred the red ink on the sign Taylor carried: "Hands Off Our Health Care."On the other side, Linda McVay held her own sign calling attention to Americans without health insurance. She said her son has been without insurance since losing his job in November.

Obama is prepared for possible disruptions Tuesday, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, appearing on television talk shows."I think what the president will do is turn to that person and probably ask them to be civilized and give them an answer to their question," Gibbs told CBS' "The Early Show."

Concerns over Obama's proposal are heating up meetings, chat rooms and radio shows, driving his approval numbers down and threatening the future of his signature issue. While Congress is in recess for the month of August, lawmakers are hearing from frustrated constituents worried about government's role in health care and the costs of an overhaul. "There's a lot of fear out there," said Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a New Hampshire Democrat.

To calm that fear, Obama plans to spend the month highlighting the upside of health overhaul for Americans already with insurance, starting in a state in which 89 percent of residents have health coverage.In Portsmouth, N.H., Obama will speak directly about his proposal to ban insurance companies from denying individuals coverage because of pre-existing conditions. During a Friday trip to Bozeman, Mont., he will talk about how his plan would block companies from dropping an individual's coverage if he or she becomes ill. And in Grand Junction, Colo., the president will talk about how the Democrats' plan would end high out-of-pocket costs in some policies.

The Democratic National Committee began running television ads that ask, "What's in it for you?" and then highlights those goals. Officials said the ad started running Monday night in Washington and on cable; it would follow as early as Tuesday in states Obama planned to visit, including New Hampshire.

About 1,800 people are expected for that midday event in the Democratic-leaning Seacoast region of the Granite State. Of those, 70 percent were given tickets based on a random lottery — a potentially dicey crowd in a state known for its grass-roots political activism.

"Participating in government here in New Hampshire is like putting on socks for the average American," said Ray Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Outside, a dozen grass-roots organizations plan a counter-rally.Republicans say the heated debate is a sign of widespread public dissatisfaction with Obama's ideas. But with some of the anxieties spilling into angry disruptions and even threats, Democrats have accused Republicans of orchestrating the events to sabotage legislation. In an article published Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote, "Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."

Rates Of Severe Childhood Obesity In The United States

In the last 25 years, rates of severe childhood obesity in the United States have tripled, putting increasing numbers of children at risk for diabetes and heart disease, says a new study. Researchers looked at National Health and Nutrition Survey data on 12,384 youths, ages 2 to 19 years, and found that the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 0.8 percent in the period from 1976 to 1980 to 3.8 percent in 1999 to 2004. Severe obesity correlates to a body mass index that's equal to or greater than the 99th percentile for age and gender.

The finding could mean that 2.7 million children in the United States are severely obese, the researchers said. Black and Mexican-American children had the largest increases in severe obesity, along with children in families below the poverty level. For example, the percentage of severely obese Mexican-American children rose from 0.9 percent to 5.2 percent.

The researchers also found that a third of severely obese children had metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for diabetes, stroke and heart attack. The risk factors include high blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels.

The study appears online in Academic Pediatrics.

"Children are not only becoming obese but becoming severely obese, which impacts their overall health," Dr. Joseph Skelton, an obesity expert at Brenner Children's Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., and lead author of the study, said in a news release from the center.

"These findings reinforce the fact that medically based programs to treat obesity are needed throughout the United States, and insurance companies should be encouraged to cover this care," Skelton said.