People magazine says Channing Tatum is sexiest man

NEW YORK (AP) — Channing Tatum is People magazine's "sexiest man alive" for 2012.

The 32-year-old actor says his first thought on hearing the news was: "'Y'all are messing with me.'"

Tatum's film roles include "Magic Mike" and the upcoming "Foxcatcher."

Other actors who have received the "sexiest" label include George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Ryan Reynolds. Last year's "sexiest man" was Bradley Cooper.

People announced its 2012 list Wednesday.

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Online:

http://www.people.com/people

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Well: Thanksgiving From Jerusalem

If you are looking to add some international flair to your Thanksgiving table, Jerusalem is a good place to start.

The city’s diverse Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities have created unpredictable and exciting culinary combinations, the London chef and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi writes in the stunning new cookbook “Jerusalem.” The book, which Mr. Ottolenghi wrote with his friend and business partner Sami Tamimi, explores the history, culture and people of the city through its varied cuisines.

“Jerusalem is a fantastic place, and by that I mean it’s a place of fantasy,” Mr. Ottolenghi said. “There are so many layers of culture and history, almost placed one upon each other, that you start digging and find so many stories that are really the stories of the world.”

Both men grew up on opposite sides of the city in the 1970s — Mr. Tamimi as a Palestinian in East Jerusalem and Mr. Ottolenghi in Jewish West Jerusalem — but didn’t meet until years later in a bakery in London. Away from their birthplace for 20 years, they began to reminisce about the foods and flavors of their childhood. The result is a uniquely personal exploration of their cross-cultural childhood, told in recipes inspired by their mothers’ cooking, trips to local markets and the herbs, fruits and vegetables that surrounded their homes.

“Our first inclination was to cover everything, but we realized that would be impossible because there are so many communities and backgrounds of people in this city that it would be a cookbook of the world,” Mr. Ottolenghi said. “So now the majority of the recipes are just things we like to cook that have the essence of the city, the flavors, the aroma and the signature techniques. It’s a very private choice.”

Although food in Jerusalem is influenced by the incalculable number of cultures and subcultures that make up the city, there are some distinct food traditions, Mr. Ottolenghi said. Everybody uses chopped cucumbers and tomatoes to make a salad; stuffed vegetables are eaten regularly; and olive oil, lemon juice and olives are ubiquitous. Popular local ingredients include okra, cauliflower, artichokes, beets, eggplant, figs, lemons, pomegranates, plums and apricots.

For Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving series, the authors of “Jerusalem” offer three new recipes for your holiday table, including a flavorful stuffed eggplant, a roasted cauliflower and pomegranate salad and a radiant fig and sweet potato dish certain to become a new Thanksgiving tradition.

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“Jerusalem”
Chermoula Eggplant With Bulgur and Yogurt

Chermoula is a mixture of spices used in North African cooking, often to season fish. Here it’s rubbed over eggplant, which is then roasted and topped with a Middle Eastern salad of bulgur wheat and herbs, something like tabbouleh. “It’s a hybrid that could only happen in Jerusalem,” said Yotam Ottolenghi, an author of the new “Jerusalem” cookbook.

2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons finely chopped preserved lemon peel (available in stores)
2/3 cup olive oil, plus extra to finish
2 medium eggplants
1 cup fine bulgur
2/3 cup boiling water
1/3 cup golden raisins
3 1/2 tablespoons warm water
1/3 ounce (2 teaspoons) cilantro, chopped, plus extra to finish
1/3 ounce (2 teaspoons) mint, chopped
1/3 cup pitted green olives, halved
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
3 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. To make the chermoula, mix together in a small bowl the garlic, cumin, coriander, chili, paprika, preserved lemon, two-thirds of the olive oil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

3. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Score the flesh of each half with deep, diagonal crisscross cuts, making sure not to pierce the skin. Spoon the chermoula over each half, spreading it evenly, and place the eggplant halves on a baking sheet, cut side up. Put in the oven and roast for 40 minutes, or until the eggplants are completely soft.

4. Meanwhile, place the bulgur in a large bowl and cover with the boiling water.

5. Soak the raisins in the warm water. After 10 minutes, drain the raisins and add them to the bulgur, along with the remaining oil. Add the herbs, olives, almonds, green onions, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

6. Serve the eggplants warm or at room temperature. Place 1/2 eggplant, cut side up, on each individual plate. Spoon the bulgur on top, allowing some to fall from both sides. Spoon over some yogurt, sprinkle with cilantro and finish with a drizzle of oil.

Yield: 4 servings

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“Jerusalem”
Roasted Cauliflower, Hazelnut and Pomegranate Seed Salad

The roasted flavors of cauliflower and hazelnuts, combined with the fresh pop of pomegranate seeds, make this a particularly memorable salad for your holiday table. Cauliflower and pomegranate are popular foods in both Arab and Jewish communities, and the sweet and sour combinations in this dish capture the flavors of the region.

1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets (1 1/2 pounds total)
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 large celery stalk, cut on an angle into 1/4-inch slices (2/3 cup total)
5 tablespoons hazelnuts, with skins
1/3 cup small flat-leaf parsley leaves, picked
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds (from about 1/2 medium pomegranate)
Generous 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Generous 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix the cauliflower with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and some black pepper. Spread out in a roasting pan and roast on the top oven rack for 25 to 35 minutes, until the cauliflower is crisp and parts of it have turned golden brown. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool.

3. Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roast for 17 minutes.

4. Allow the nuts to cool a little, then coarsely chop them and add to the cauliflower, along with the remaining oil and the rest of the ingredients. Stir, taste and season with salt and pepper accordingly. Serve at room temperature.

Yield: 2 to 4 servings

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“Jerusalem”
Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Fresh Figs

This dish takes inspiration from a city where fig trees grow in abundance. “Growing up, there were tons of fig trees around, and we would eat figs dry or fresh in fruit salads,’’ Yotam Ottolenghi said. “We wanted to celebrate those memories and came up with this recipe.”

4 small sweet potatoes (2 1/4 pounds total)
5 tablespoons olive oil
Scant 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 
(you can use a commercial rather than 
a premium aged grade)
1 1/2 tablespoons superfine sugar
12 green onions, halved lengthwise and cut into 
1 1/2-inch segments
1 red chili, thinly sliced
6 ripe figs (8 1/2 ounces total), quartered
5 ounces soft goat’s milk cheese (optional)
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Wash the sweet potatoes, halve them lengthwise, and then cut each half into 3 long wedges. Mix with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and some black pepper.

2. Spread the wedges out, skin side down, on a baking sheet and cook for about 
25 minutes, until they are soft but not mushy. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

3. To make the balsamic reduction, place the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer for 2 to 4 minutes, until it thickens. Be sure to remove the pan from the heat when the vinegar is still runnier than honey; it will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in a drop of water before serving if it does become too thick to drizzle.

4. Arrange the sweet potatoes on a serving platter. Heat the remaining oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the green onions and chili. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring often to make sure not to burn the chili. Spoon the oil, onions and chili over the sweet potatoes. Dot the figs among the wedges, and then drizzle over the balsamic reduction. Serve at room temperature. Crumble the cheese over the top, if using.

Yield: 4 servings

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Reprinted with permission from Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

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Instant facial recognition tech a two-edged sword

By the time Joe Rosenkrantz took his seat in his company's conference room, a video camera had already handled the introductions.

An image of Rosenkrantz taken as he walked toward his chair instantly popped up on a nearby TV screen.

"FaceFirst has found a possible match," the caption read. "Joe Rosenkrantz, Founder and CEO."

The process took less than a second, a demonstration of a capability that developer FaceFirst says could transform facial-recognition technology into an everyday security tool.

It addresses one of the key drawbacks in the current generation of video surveillance systems. Such identification technology has been limited to airports and casinos, where security officials have to wait several minutes for the software to identify terrorists or card counters.

But the technology is too expensive for most businesses and too slow to alert store owners or building owners about shoplifters or unwelcome visitors.

"It doesn't do me any good if I'm able to look at a face with a camera and five minutes later, there's a match," said Paul Benne, a security consultant who has recommended that his clients use FaceFirst in high-security areas. "By then, the person's gone."

FaceFirst hopes to leverage the speed of its software to gain military contracts, Chairman Peter Wollons said. But the company's main target is retailers. The software can be installed in almost any high-definition video camera, making it easy for stores to identify potential shoplifters — as well as big spenders.

And that is worrying privacy advocates. Although it isn't much different from retailers pulling personal shopping information from credit cards, the added feature of having a face instantly attached to that data is worrisome, said Jennifer Lynch, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"I see no reason for retail to know everything about us," Lynch said. "People who show their face in public aren't thinking about how their image is being stored or connected with other data."

FaceFirst's technology marks a dramatic advancement for an industry that 10 years ago seemed like it would never make the transition from science fiction to real life. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officials in Tampa, Fla., and at Boston's Logan International Airport installed cameras designed to identify criminals. Within a year, both had scrapped their systems.

It took five more years before facial-recognition technology was reliable enough to be used for security measures, but such systems have been mainly limited to law enforcement and government use. More than 70% of biometrics spending comes from law enforcement, the military and the government.

This year, the industry is projected to gross an estimated $6.58 billion, according to data from IGB, a biometrics analysis company. But that amount is expected to grow to $9.37 billion by 2014 as the technology becomes more affordable, faster and adaptable for nongovernmental uses.

FaceFirst founder Rosenkrantz started developing biometric technology as a way to remember a friend who was on one of the hijacked planes in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Several of the terrorists were later identified in an airport surveillance video.

"I couldn't stop thinking about ways this could have been avoided," Rosenkrantz said. "I realized that with the right technology, we could have saved lives."

He tinkered with existing algorithms and operating systems for more than two years in his Calabasas garage before founding FaceFirst. The company is a subsidiary of Camarillo military contractor Airborne Biometrics Group Inc. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, an $18-billion investment company in Los Angeles, has invested in the development of the FaceFirst technology.

The company's success depends on the wide availability and decreasing prices of computer processors, Rosenkrantz said.

The software program takes a number of steps in less than a second to make an identification, starting with a freeze-frame of the live video feed. The software zooms in on the face, using the distance between the eyes as a guide.

Then an algorithm encodes the face based on distinct patterns and textures. The software cross-references that information with a database of similarly encoded images, which it can comb through at a rate of 1 million comparisons a second.

The database could include Homeland Security's terrorist watch list or a proprietary file generated by the user. When the system finds a match, it sends an alert to desktop computers and mobile devices.

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Secret donation hindered campaigns, GOP advisors say

SACRAMENTO — An $11-million campaign donation that was secretly routed through an obscure Arizona group might have hurt the conservative effort in California on election day more than it helped, Republican operatives say.

The money went to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hikes, Proposition 30, and push a ballot measure to curb unions' political fundraising, Proposition 32. Voters approved the governor's tax plan and rejected the proposal to reduce labor's influence in California politics.

Some people behind the conservative campaigns now have second thoughts about the money's effect.

"At the end of the day, it was a significant distraction that took us off our campaign message," said Beth Miller, a spokeswoman for the Small Business Action Committee, which received the controversial $11 million.

Brown attacked the donation during many of his stump speeches, accusing "shadowy forces" of trying to undermine California's schools. If his tax plan failed, nearly $6 billion would have been cut from the budget, mostly from public schools.

Members of Brown's campaign team said the donation was something of a political gift. "They gave us the issue while hitting us in the nose," said Sean Clegg, a campaign advisor.

The furor over the money became one of the most closely watched sideshows in the final days before the Nov. 6 election.

State authorities sued the Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership. The nonprofit group eventually named its contributors, but the mystery only deepened — the contributors were identified only as other nonprofits, which keep their donors secret.

Aaron McLear, a Republican strategist who worked against the tax plan, said Brown was successful in turning the controversy into a campaign issue.

"He was able to create a bigger boogeyman than Sacramento politicians, which is hard to do," he said.

Despite the $11-million cash infusion, conservatives still didn't have the money to match the Democrats and labor unions. Brown's campaign outspent its opponents, and unions flooded the airwaves to help sink Proposition 32.

Americans for Responsible Leadership did not admit any wrongdoing when it disclosed its contributors as other nonprofits. One of them, also located in Arizona, has been tied to Charles and David Koch, billionaire energy executives and Republican donors.

California officials are pushing forward with an investigation into who gave the money and are considering civil and criminal penalties for what they called "campaign money laundering."

"It ain't over," state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said in a recent speech. "It wasn't over on election day and we're going to keep pushing it through."

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ken Bensinger contributed to this report.

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Storm volunteers mingle with stars at Glamour fest

NEW YORK (AP) — Sandra Kyong Bradbury was star struck. She had just spied Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a few feet away.

"How can you top that?" asked Bradbury, a New York City neonatal nurse who had helped evacuate infants from a hospital that lost power during the height of Superstorm Sandy. She was amazed that she was being honored at the same event as a Supreme Court justice — the annual Glamour Women of the Year awards, where stars of film, TV, fashion and sports share the stage with lesser-known women who have equally impressive achievements to their name.

Few events bring together such an eclectic group of honorees, not to mention presenters. At the Carnegie Hall ceremony Monday night, HBO star Lena Dunham, creator of "Girls" and a heroine to a younger generation, was introduced by Chelsea Handler and paid tribute in her speech to Nora Ephron, who died earlier this year. Ethel Kennedy was praised by her daughter, Rory, who has made a film about her famous mother. Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, 17, was honored along with swimming phenom Missy Franklin, also 17, and other Olympic athletes, introduced by singer Mary J. Blige and serenaded by American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. Singer-actress Selena Gomez was lauded by her friend, the actor Ethan Hawke.

But the most moving moments of the Glamour awards, now in their 22nd year, are often those involving people of whom the audience hasn't heard. This year, the most touching moment came when one honoree, Pakistani activist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, brought onstage a woman who'd been the victim of an acid attack in her native Pakistan. Obaid-Chinoy won this year's documentary short Oscar for a film about disfiguring acid attacks on Pakistani women by the men in their lives.

The evening carried reminders of Superstorm Sandy, with Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker introducing some 20 women who'd been heavily involved in storm relief work. "They held us together when Sandy tried to blow us apart," Booker said. The women worked for organizations like the American Red Cross, but also smaller volunteer groups like Jersey City Sandy Recovery, an impromptu group formed by three women in Jersey City, N.J., who wanted a way to help storm-ravaged communities.

Singer-rapper Pharrell Williams introduced one of his favorite architects, the Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid, 62, who designed the aquatic center for the London Olympics and is now at work on 43 projects around the world.

Activist Erin Merryn was honored for her work increasing awareness of child sex abuse — a horror she had endured during her own childhood. A law urging schools to educate children about sex abuse prevention, Erin's Law, has now passed in four states. "I won't stop until I get it passed in all 50 states," Merryn insisted in her speech.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour saluted a fellow fashion luminary, honoree Annie Leibovitz, the creator of so many iconic photographs over the years. Jenna Lyons, the president of J. Crew, got kind words from her presenter, former supermodel Lauren Hutton. Chelsea Clinton brought up a stageful of women from across the country who had been involved in politics this year, noting that, while there is still a long way to go, progress was made in 2012.

The lifetime achievement award went to Ginsburg, 79, who made a few quips about being honored by a fashion magazine. "The judiciary is not a profession that ranks very high among the glamorously attired," the justice said. She also noted that although she was only the second female Supreme Court justice (Sandra Day O'Connor came first), she was the first justice to be honored by Glamour.

An affectionate tribute to the late Ephron followed, with three actresses — Cynthia Nixon, and two Meryl Steep daughters, Mamie and Grace Gummer, reading from a graduation speech she had given at Wellesley College.

Actress Dunham, in her speech, touched on politics and expressed her own relief that President Barack Obama had won re-election, saying she felt it was crucial for reproductive freedom and other issues of women's rights. "I wanted control of my womb before I really knew what my womb was," she quipped.

After the ceremony, which was presided over by Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive, honorees and presenters headed to a private dinner. There, Sandy volunteers mingled with the stars. One woman, Lynier Harper, had spent six nights during Sandy at the Brooklyn YMCA where she works, taking care of other people. "When I finally went back home, my house was totally destroyed," she said. She has moved in with her sister while she seeks a new home.

A group of seven nurses came from New York University's Langone Medical Center, which lost power during the storm. The neonatal intensive care nurses had to carry the babies down nine flights of stairs, in the dark, squeezing oxygen into their lungs, to get them to safety.

And there were the three women from Jersey City Sandy Recovery, sinking in the proximity to the so many impressive people.

"I just shook Ruth Bader Ginsburg's hand," exulted one of them, Candice Osborne. "How awesome!"

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Lance Armstrong Cuts Officials Ties With His Livestrong Charity

In the wake of being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, Lance Armstrong last week cut all official ties with Livestrong, the charity he founded 15 years ago while he was treated for testicular cancer.

On Nov. 4, he resigned from the organization’s board of directors; he had previously stepped down as the chairman of the board Oct. 17. He has distanced himself from the charity to try to protect it from any damage caused by his doping controversy, the new board chairman, Jeff Garvey, said in a statement.

“Lance Armstrong was instrumental in changing the way the world views people affected by cancer,” Garvey said. “His devotion to serving survivors is unparalleled, and for 15 years, he committed himself to that cause with all his heart.”

Garvey said that the Armstrong family had donated nearly $7 million to the foundation and that the organization under Armstrong had raised close to $300 million to serve cancer survivors.

Last month, the United States Anti-Doping Agency made public its evidence in its doping case against Armstrong, saying he had doped and encouraged his teammates to dope so they could help him win races. He was subsequently barred from Olympic sports for life and was stripped of all the cycling titles he won from August 1998 on.

Since then, Armstrong has spent several weeks in Hawaii, out of the public eye. On Saturday, though, he posted a photograph on Twitter showing him at home in Austin, Tex. He is lounging on a couch with his seven yellow Tour jerseys framed on the wall in the background.

In the post, he said, “Back in Austin and just layin’ around.” The photograph had more than 400,000 page views as of Monday evening, with many people posting negative comments on the page.

“Lance, you have no moral conscious and it’s obvious many of your followers don’t either,” said one person who went by the Twitter handle “irobot,” who also posted that Armstrong needed “professional help.”

A person posting under the name “Aumann” said: “An art thief enjoying all his da Vincis.”

Other people posted words of support, including many who said they still thought Armstrong was the top cyclist in history.

“TomShelton” said of Armstrong’s seven Tour titles, “You earned all 7 of them no matter what is being said about you!”

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U.S. to become world's largest oil producer by 2020, report says

Energy reporter Ronald D. White and deputy business editor Joe Bel Bruno discuss a report that says the U.S. will become the world¿s top producer of oil within five years.

Step back, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The U.S. will become the world's top producer of oil by 2020, a net exporter of oil around 2030 and nearly self-sufficient in energy by 2035, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

It's a bold set of predictions for a nation that currently imports some 20% of its energy needs.

Recently, however, an "energy renaissance" has begun in the U.S., marked by a boost in oil, shale gas and bioenergy production made possible by new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling, said the report by the Paris agency, which acts as an energy watchdog for industrialized nations.

Quiz: Why are California gas prices so high?

"North America is at the forefront of a sweeping transformation in oil and gas production that will affect all regions of the world," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said. The organization Van der Hoeven heads was formed after the oil crisis of the early 1970s and serves as an energy research arm and advisor to its 28 member nations.

U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 at slightly more than 9.63 million barrels a day. Except for a modest recovery to fewer than 9 million barrels a day in 1985, U.S. crude production had been on a precipitous decline until 2008, when it bottomed out at 5 million barrels a day, seeming to validate the "peak oil" theory that output would continue falling. That was also the year that oil reached a record price of $147.27 a barrel.

But those oil prices spurred important technological developments that enabled those looking for oil to essentially see through the bottom of rock as though it were transparent, said Philip K. Verleger Jr., a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

High prices also spurred important advances in how to extract the oil that had been found. Spurred by drilling booms in North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma and a few other locations, production has been climbing.

"It's been a huge change," said Verleger, who noted that many smaller companies with relatively few employees, and not the major oil firms, have been the driving force behind America's oil spring.

"The major oil companies abandoned the U.S. and went looking for oil overseas," Verleger said, "but they left behind a lot of smart engineers who found the oil and natural gas and they figured out how to extract it at relatively low costs."

By 2015, U.S. oil production is expected to rise to 10 million barrels per day and increase to 11.1 million barrels per day by 2020, overtaking second-place Russia and front-runner Saudi Arabia, according to the IEA's World Energy Outlook. The U.S. will export more oil than it brings into the country in 2030, the report said.

"Just a few years ago, people were still talking about peak oil. Now we're talking about the U.S. becoming the new Saudi Arabia," said Phil Flynn, an analyst with the Price Futures Group. "They said we couldn't drill our way out of this mess, but we are drilling our way out of this mess."

Around 2030, however, Saudi Arabia is expected to be producing some 11.4 million barrels of oil per day, outpacing the 10.2 million from the U.S., the IEA report said. In 2035, U.S. production will slip to 9.2 million barrels per day, far behind the Middle Eastern nation's 12.3 million daily barrels. And by 2035 Iraq will have exceeded Russia to become the world's second-largest oil exporter.

At that point, inflation-adjusted oil prices will reach $125 a barrel. By then, however, the U.S. won't be relying much on foreign energy, according to the IEA report.

Globally, the energy economy will undergo a "sea change," the report said, with nearly 90% of Middle Eastern oil exports directed toward Asia by 2035.

"No country is an energy 'island,' and the interactions between different fuels, markets and prices are intensifying," the report said.

Some energy experts said the U.S. oil production boom carried environmental consequences. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will creep up, according to the IEA report, causing a long-term average temperature increase of about 6.5 degrees.

They also worried that the new oil data might ultimately have the same effect of the Prudhoe Bay oil gains in Alaska in the 1970s — fostering more complacency about developing alternative forms of energy.

"New supplies alone cannot solve our energy problems," said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at UC Davis. "It has to be combined with greater efficiency and the continued development in alternative fuels."

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Mike D'Antoni to be next coach of the Lakers

Mike D'Antoni, not Phil Jackson, will be the next coach of the Lakers.

"We signed Mike D'Antoni to a multi-year deal," Lakers spokesman John Black said, mentioning the team's owner and top two executives. "Dr. [Jerry] Buss, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak were unanimous that Mike D'Antoni was the best coach for the team at this time."

D'Antoni, 61, coached the New York Knicks last season and the Phoenix Suns before that. He will officially take over the Lakers within a week or two, depending how quickly he recovers from knee-replacement surgery.

The Lakers will introduce their new coach at a news conference as early as Tuesday but more likely later in the week. Bernie Bickerstaff will remain the team's interim coach for now.

D'Antoni signed a three-year deal for $12 million. The team holds an option for a fourth year.

Jackson was the overwhelming favorite to return to the Lakers until they heard his informal demands, which included a stake in team ownership, according to a person familiar with the situation.

"He was asking for the moon," said the person, who also declined to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the situation.

The Lakers then moved quickly to sign D'Antoni. He replaces Mike Brown, who was fired Friday after the Lakers began the season 1-4, their worst start since 1993.

Earlier Sunday, Lakers guard Steve Nash said it would "be a coup" for the Lakers to bring back Jackson, but he also had kind words for D'Antoni.

"Obviously, I think everyone knows how much I love Mike," said Nash, who played four seasons and won two MVP awards under D'Antoni in Phoenix. "If he were the coach, it would be seamless and terrific for me, and I think the team as well.”

D’Antoni was most recently employed by the Knicks, when he was forced to resign under pressure last season after an 18-24 start.

Kobe Bryant did not hide his excitement for the prospect of Jackson returning but, like Nash, he was also on board with D'Antoni.

"They know how I feel about Phil. They know how I feel about D'Antoni," Bryant said Sunday. "I like them both."

D'Antoni's coaching staff with the Lakers likely will start with two longtime assistants -- his brother, Dan D'Antoni, and Phil Weber.

The new Lakers coach has a 388-339 coaching record in the NBA. He led the Suns to the Western Conference finals in 2005 and 2006 with Nash running the show.

Bryant became familiar as a boy with D'Antoni, who was a star in the Italian league in the 1980s, when Bryant's father also played in Italy. D'Antoni helped Olimpia Milano win five league titles and two European club titles. D'Antoni also worked with Bryant on the U.S. national team as an assistant.

ALSO:

Photos: Lakers Coach Mike D'Antoni

Lakers, Steve Nash playing waiting game

Interim Coach Bernie Bickerstaff tries to keep it simple

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Laughing in the storm: Comics don't shy from Sandy

NEW YORK (AP) — Comedian Dave Attell told a packed house at the Comedy Cellar that New York after Superstorm Sandy had a familiar feel. "It was dark. Toilets were backing up. ... It was pretty much like it always was."

Another comic, Paul Mecurio, told the same crowd that he got so many calls from worried family members that he started making things up about how bad it was.

"I'm drinking my own urine to survive," he joked.

New York's comedy clubs, some of which had to shut down or go on generator power in the aftermath of the storm, dealt with a bad situation like they always have — by turning Sandy into a running punchline.

"If they're going to do jokes on Sept. 12 about Sept. 11, then this thing isn't going to slow us down," said Vic Henley, the emcee of a show Oct. 28 at Gotham Comedy Club.

Sean Flynn, Gotham's operating manager, said comics were including the storm in their acts but had to be careful nonetheless not to make people feel worse than they already did.

"There's the old adage that tragedy plus time equals comedy. The variable is the time," he said. Still, he added: "You can't ignore the subject. That's what comedy's all about."

The Comedy Cellar, a regular stop for decades for the country's most notable comedians, was closed from Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, but reopened on Nov. 2 after a generator was brought in at a cost of several thousand dollars. Power didn't return until the next day, and the crowds came with it.

Everyone has a bad case of cabin fever," said Valerie Scott, the club's manager.

Mecurio said he thought the joke was on him when he got a call from the Comedy Cellar saying the club was going ahead with its show even though there was no light in the West Village. He headed downtown from the Upper East Side, hitting dark streets after midtown.

"It's pitch dark," he said. "And there's a room packed with people laughing. It was so surreal. ... I'm calling it the generator show. It was a really cool thing."

"You could feel there was something special about the show," he said. "The audiences were tempered in their mood. You could tell something was up, something was in the air. I knew it was cathartic for people."

He said a woman approached him after the show to thank him, saying: "You kind of brightened my day."

Sometimes, comics used the storm to get a laugh at the expense of the crowd, like when Mark Normand looked down from the Comedy Cellar stage at a man with a thin beard.

"I like the beard," he told him. "Is that because of Sandy? You couldn't get your razor working?"

And Attell used Sandy to mock a heckler, telling him: "You must have been a load of laughs without power."

At another point, Attell looked for positives in the storm.

"There's nothing better than Doomsday sex," he said.

Mecurio said he has made a point of including the storm and the havoc it caused whenever he takes the stage.

"I feel like as a comedian in the spirit of social satire, it's what we're supposed to do," he said. "It's the elephant in the room. How do you not do it?"

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Well: Can Foods Affect Colon Cancer Survival?

A new study suggests that what you eat may affect your chances of surviving colon cancer.

The research is among the first to look at the impact that specific nutrients have on the likelihood of disease recurrence in people with colon cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death in the United States. It found that people treated for Stage 3 disease, in which tumor cells have spread to lymph nodes, had greatly increased chances of dying of it or experiencing a recurrence if their diets were heavy in carbohydrate-rich foods that cause spikes in blood sugar and insulin.

The patients who consumed the most carbohydrates and foods with high glycemic loads — a measure of the extent to which a serving of food will raise blood sugar — had an 80 percent greater chance of dying or having a recurrence during the roughly seven-year study period than those who had the lowest levels. Stage 3 colon cancer patients typically have a five-year survival rate of about 50 to 65 percent.

The study, however, was observational, meaning it could only highlight an association between carbohydrates and cancer outcomes without proving direct cause and effect. The researchers also obtained some of their data from food questionnaires that required patients to recall details about their diets, a method that can be unreliable.

Still, the researchers, who published their findings in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, believe insulin may play a critical role in colon cancer recurrence. Chronically high insulin levels have been linked to cancer recurrence and mortality in previous research, and people with a history of Type 2 diabetes or elevated plasma C-peptide, a marker of long-term insulin production, have also been found to have an increased risk of colon cancer. One hypothesis is that insulin may fuel the growth of cancer cells and prevent cell death, or apoptosis, in cancer cells that have spread.

“It’s not simply that all carbs are bad or that you should avoid all sugar,” said Dr. Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. It’s not as simple as ‘sugar causes cancer to grow.’”

He added: “Different carbs and sugar lead to different responses in your body. I think people should focus on a well-balanced diet” and substitute foods associated with lower glycemic loads or carbs for foods that have higher levels.

Earlier research published by Dr. Meyerhardt’s group showed that Stage 3 colon cancer patients who most closely followed a Western-style diet — with high intakes of meat, fat, refined grains and sugary desserts — had a threefold increase in recurrence and death from the disease compared with those who most strongly deviated from Western patterns of eating.

For this study, Dr. Meyerhardt and his team wanted to see to what extent carbohydrate intake could influence the progression of the disease, so they followed about 1,000 Stage 3 colon cancer patients taking part in a clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The patients, who had all had surgery and chemotherapy as part of their treatments, provided information on their diets and lifestyle habits. But the researchers went beyond just carbohydrate and sugar intake, taking into account glycemic measures.

The glycemic index, an increasingly popular nutritional measure, looks at the rate at which carbohydrate-containing foods raise a person’s fasting level of blood sugar and subsequent need for insulin. Sugary drinks, white bread and other highly processed carbohydrates rank higher on the index, while those that are digested more slowly, like brown rice, many vegetables, unrefined grains and legumes, have a lower index value.

Another barometer, however, is the glycemic load, which refers to the blood sugar effect of a standard serving of a food. A glycemic load of 10 or less for a food is generally considered low, while 20 or more is high. The latest study showed that glycemic load and total carbohydrate intake were the best predictors of cancer recurrence and mortality, and the link was strongest in people who were overweight or obese.

Dr. Meyerhardt said the findings suggest that colon cancer patients would be wise to keep glycemic load in mind while making food decisions, looking for ways to work into their diets foods that rank lower on the scale.

“So if you think about beverages, most juices and certainly sodas have a higher glycemic load than flavored waters and tomato juice and things like that,” he said. “Fruits like a date or raisins have very high glycemic loads, whereas fresh fruits like an apple, orange or cantaloupe all have sugar but have a very low glycemic load. Substitute brown rice for white, whole grains instead of white bread, and instead of having a starchy potato as your side dish, substitute beans and vegetables.”

One expert who was not involved in the research, Somdat Mahabir, a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute’s division of cancer control and population sciences, said the findings from the latest study must be borne out in further research. But in the meantime, making dietary changes that reduce glycemic load is a reasonable recommendation for colon cancer patients, he said, since it can only be helpful, not harmful.

“The results of the current study need to be confirmed, but the current indications are that diet is important to colon cancer survival,” Dr. Mahabir said.

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