Jack Lew, sensitive scribbler

Go ahead and mock White House Chief of Staff Jacob “Jack” Lew for his odd, loopy signature — the one likely to grace dollar bills if, as expected, he becomes Treasury secretary. But be gentle with him, please.

It turns out the hard-charging Lew probably has a softer side, according to one handwriting analyst.

The roundness of the characters in Lew’s impossible-to-read John Hancock indicates he just might be the cuddly sort, says
Kathi McKnight
, a professional graphologist — that is, someone who gleans people’s personality traits from their writing. Such strokes are common among those who prefer a “softer” approach to problem-solving, she says.

The signers of the Constitution, by contrast, used very strong, angular lettering, McKnight notes — not that leaders throughout history haven’t used circular strokes like Lew’s. Like who? “Well, Princess Di had very loopy writing,” she says.

And the fact that Lew’s signature is illegible may mean that he wants to keep his true identity unknown. “People with illegible signatures . . . like to keep some things private,” she says.

Perhaps Lew will want to spruce up his signature before it makes its prime-time debut, as his predecessor did. The current Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, told NPR last year that he had to work on his penmanship to make his name legible enough to befit its place on U.S. currency.

The chosen

When is a nominee a nominee? Sounds like the kind of question philosophy grad students could spend hours chewing over (along the lines of chestnuts like “What is truth?” and “Is there a God?”), but this conundrum has a bit more practical application.

Although President Obama stood in the East Room of the White House and proudly declared former senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to be his nominee for secretary of defense — and a few weeks before that, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as his secretary of state — neither man can properly be called a “nominee.” That’s because a nominee isn’t actually a nominee until the president sends official nomination papers (really serious stuff, too — we’re talking heavy, old-fashioned parchment in an envelope with a wax seal) to the Senate.

Oh, the Senate isn’t in session, you say? Well, that shouldn’t hamper the process. After all, it’s not as if the White House messenger would just leave a note on the closed chamber door like the UPS man delivering a package. The secretary of the Senate has the power to receive messages when the body is not in session.

And so far, the old-school parchment hasn’t arrived. Not that that’s stopping everyone (including the Loop) from using the “nominee” nomenclature to describe Kerry and Hagel. It seems that’s a colloquial term.

But until it’s officially official, perhaps should we call them “presumptive nominees”? Maybe “nominees in waiting”? “Pre-noms?”

Too cold for fire?

If you think the air in Washington is a tad brisk, you’ll need more than mittens in Seoul, South Korea, where it’s been so cold that the U.S. Embassy recently had to postpone its annual Christmas-tree bonfire.

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SIA to recruit & train intern cabin crew from polys

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) is working closely with three polytechnics to recruit and train cabin crew, as part of efforts to attract the best talent.

It has special programmes with Nanyang Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic, covering recruitment activities.

It's also starting an internship-recruitment programme to hire and train selected students to become full-time cabin crew.

These are provided under Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) that the carrier signed with the three polytechnics on Thursday.

Besides recruitment, the MOUs also cover areas of potential cooperation such as curriculum development in service, operations, safety and security.

SIA will also work with the polytechnics on continued education programmes for cabin crew.

SIA employs about 7,500 cabin crew. New crew undergo an extensive 15-week training programme in areas such as service delivery, customer relations, deportment, security and safety.

- CNA/ck

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TOI Social Impact Awards: Kudos for solo work & team effort

The National Institute of Open Schooling was an instant choice. The sheer scale of operations — NIOS gave 5 lakh out-of-school students the chance to get an education in 2011-12 — ensured its selection as a winner in the government category. If NIOS was about scale, Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya No.2 of Zeenat Mahal won admiration for the determination with which its turnaround was achieved. Facing shutdown at one point, this Urdu-medium school became one of the top performing government schools in Delhi.

There was unanimity among the jury that NIOS and the Sarvodaya school deserved a joint award — if one was a shining example of macro intervention, the other showed what can be achieved with micro-level efforts.

There was some debate about whether the turnaround of the Sarvodaya school, catering mostly to Muslim girls in the Walled City of Delhi, was sustainable as it seemed largely the effort of one principal. However, JM Lyngdoh pointed out it was difficult to imagine a principal could turn a school around on her own. "It's very difficult to turn around something from nothing. Others at the school also must have worked to make it possible," he added. Sunita Narain pointed out that the school was a micro effort but a very important and challenging one in a very difficult place.

In the corporate category, the jury was not impressed with the finalists and decided they would award none. They felt the claims by the corporate houses were not backed by enough evaluation of their initiatives. It sparked a debate about the need for private investment in education. Jury chairman Naresh Chandra said that from his stint as finance secretary of Rajasthan he knew states did not have the budget for school expansion, even with an educational cess. He clarified he wasn't biased against government schools as both his schooling and college education have been in government institutions. Some of the jury felt private capital ought to be used to strengthen the existing system such as improving sports facilities.

The award for NGOs went to Room to Read. The organization works with rural and urban slum communities, establishing libraries in schools and publishing original children's books in seven languages to encourage the habit of reading. They have established over 4,000 libraries in India. Syeda Hameed said the Room to Read model seemed both scaleable and practical. Aruna Roy, who was familiar with the organization's work, said it was functioning well and had helped make the concept of libraries familiar to children.

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Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee

Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.

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Arias Caught Lying to Cops in Recorded Phone Calls

Jodi Arias blatantly lied to police who asked her about Travis Alexander's death, telling them in recorded phone calls that she kept trying to call and message Alexander the week of his death but never heard back from him.

The phone calls were played as evidence during the fourth day of Arias' trial, in which she is charged with murder and could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Alexander in a "depraved and heinous" way. Arias has admitted to killing her former boyfriend, but claims it was self-defense.

During the phone conversations played in court, Arias can be heard telling Mesa, Ariz., detective Esteban Flores that she last talked to Alexander on Tuesday night, June 3, 2008, around 10 p.m. She had been in Los Angeles, about to leave to go to Utah to visit a new love interest, she said.

After June 3, he stopped calling her back, she said.

Photos of Key Players and Evidence in the Jodi Arias Murder Trial

"On Tuesday night (I talked to him), it was brief though, 10 o'clock maybe. I'd say 10 p.m. or 9 - 9:30. I was calling people because I was bored on the road. He was nice and cordial, but kind of acting like he had hurt feelings," she said.

"I may have called him Wednesday, from the road, and I sent him a couple of text messages, and a couple of pictures," she said, though Alexander didn't pick up and his voice mailbox was full. "That's unusual. He deletes all of his messages. I didn't want to be obsessive about it because we're not together anymore and I didn't like to call too much."

According to court records, Arias, 32, actually went to Alexander's home on in Mesa on Wednesday morning. There, the pair had sex and took graphic photos of one another with Alexander's camera.

Then, Arias is believed to have killed Alexander, 30, in his shower by stabbing him, slashing his throat from ear to ear, and shooting him in the head.

In the phone conversations, Arias told Flores that she considered calling Alexander's friends when he stopped returning her calls on Wednesday, but didn't want to act like "his mother."

Alexander's friends found his body five days later with stab wounds and a bullet wound, lying in blood in his home.

Flores asked Arias if she ever considered buying a gun, she said she was too scared of handguns.

Jodi Arias/Myspace | ABC News

Jodi Arias Murder Trial: Who Is the Alleged Killer? Watch Video

Jodi Arias Trial: Defense Claims Victim Was Sex Deviant Watch Video

"I've looked into handguns. I have a list of things I'm scared of that I'm trying to overcome," she said. "I got that from Travis, you know, to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and do things you're afraid of. But handguns are expensive and not really in my price range right now."

Arias is accused of stealing her grandmother's handgun and using it to shoot Alexander in the head during the attack.
The detective interviewed Arias by phone multiple times in June after Alexander's body was discovered by his friends on June 9.

Arias was indicted on July 9, 2008, and changed her story again before her arraignment, telling a TV news station that she was at Alexander's house when he was killed and witnessed two intruders kill him.

After she was arraigned, Arias told police she killed Alexander, but did it in self-defense. Arias's attorneys have said that Alexander was controlling and abusive toward Arias, and described him as a "sexual deviant."

In earlier testimony in court today, Arias's new love interest, Ryan Burns, testified that Arias showed up to his house on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 5, just 24 hours after she killed Alexander.

There, the pair cuddled, kissed, and watched movies, according to Burns.

Burns, who met Arias at a business conference in spring, 2008, said he exchanged frequent long phone calls and online conversations with Arias before inviting her to come visit him in West Jordan, Utah, in June. Arias lived in California at the time.

She arrived at Burns's home 24 hours after she was expected there, telling him that she got lost, drove the wrong way on a freeway for a few hours, fell asleep for awhile, and then got lost again, Burns testified today.

She never told him that she had confronted Alexander with a knife or gun and ended up killing him just hours before their date.

When she arrived, the pair quickly got physical, he testified.

"We went back to my house. We talked for awhile, and agreed that we were going to watch a movie. At some point we were talking and we kissed. Every time we started kissing it got a little more escalated. Our clothes never came off, but at some point she was kissing my neck, I was kissing hers, but our clothes never came off," he said.

Burns said that both he and Arias stopped kissing at the time, though they again became physically involved later in the evening when Arias climbed on top of Burns and began kissing him. Burns said that they stopped kissing because he did not want her to "regret the visit" because of her Mormon beliefs about sex.

He also told prosecutors upon questioning that Arias was physically strong.

"She's very fit," he said, describing their encounter when she climbed on top of him. "She's very strong. She has close to a six pack (of abs)."

Prosecutors likely asked about the strength of Arias because in testimony Tuesday Maricopa County medical examiner Kevin Horn said Alexander was stabbed so forcefully that the blade chipped his skull and his neck was cut all the way back to the spinal cord.

Burns, who is also a Mormon, said he noticed two bandages on Arias's hand when she arrived at his house, which she told him she got when a glass broke at her place of employment, Margaritaville.

During her visit, the pair also went to a business meeting and went out with Burns' friends where Burns described Arias as acting "shy" and a "little awkward."

"She was fine, she was laughing about simple little things like any other person. I never once felt like anything was wrong during the day. With a crowd she was a little awkward in social areas, but one on one she was very talkative and excitable," he said.

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Obama criticized for visiting Afghan intelligence official at U.S. hospital

On Dec. 20, President Obama made another in a series of semi-regular trips to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he met privately with 10 wounded U.S. service members — and a high-ranking Afghan government official who had recently been admitted.

Asadullah Khalid, the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, suffered severe abdominal injuries in a suicide attack in Kabul on Dec. 5. According to the State Department, he had been granted entry to the United States in mid-December for medical treatment at the request of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration.

The White House did not publicly announce that Obama had visited Khalid, but Afghan news outlets reported on the brief meeting. And a snapshot purportedly showing Obama standing by Khalid’s bedside — the spy chief wearing splints on his forearms and a bandage on his face — made the rounds on social media.

A leading U.S. human rights organization said it is outraged by the president’s decision to greet Khalid, who has been accused of abuses including torture and drug trafficking even as he distinguished himself as a Karzai ally and anti-Taliban figure in his native Kandahar.

“Even if your administration determined that humanitarian arguments justified his entry for medical treatment, a presidential visit to his bedside . . . was a major misstep,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote Dec. 23 in a letter to Obama, who is scheduled to meet with Karzai at the White House on Friday.

The president’s visit “created the impression that the United States is not concerned about his record of brutality and the abuse and corruption ordinary Afghans have suffered at his hands,” Roth wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

Khalid’s standing as head of the National Directorate of Security illustrates the often conflicted nature of the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, which relies on the intelligence and partnership of local officials who have tangled alliances and employ questionable tactics.

“Given the reasons we’re in Afghanistan and the primacy of the counterterror mission, obliviously the head of the intelligence agency is going to play a very critical role” and is someone the United States would go to great lengths to help, said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Khalid is a longtime U.S. ally who climbed the ranks of the Afghan government with ease, even as allegations mounted against him. He was governor of Ghazni and Kandahar provinces before becoming minister for border and tribal affairs and one of Karzai’s most trusted cabinet ministers.

White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama thinks “it was appropriate” to check on Khalid’s condition.

“Mr. Khalid and the team he oversees work closely with the United States to protect Afghan citizens and American civilians and military service members in Afghanistan,” he said.

Vietor noted that the White House confirmed that Obama had met with Khalid on the day of the president’s visit to Walter Reed when a Washington Post reporter asked about it.

Khalid also recently received a visit from Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, according to Afghan media, which published a photo of the two together at the hospital. Pentagon officials said Panetta visited Jan. 4.

There is precedent for foreign government officials — even those surrounded by controversy — to be allowed into the country for medical treatment. Early last year, Ali Abdullah Saleh, then the president of Yemen, was granted a medical visa, even as human rights officials denounced abuses during his rule.

State Department officials said Khalid was not granted a visa, but rather admitted under the Department of Homeland Security’s “parole” process, which grants temporary stays for foreign nationals under emergency conditions.

Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the State Department, would not directly address allegations against Khalid but said rights allegations are a regular issue of discussion with the Karzai government.

It is not clear when Khalid will leave the United States. Karzai was scheduled to visit him Tuesday afternoon.

Kevin Sieff in Kabul contributed to this report.

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Football: Liga-dominated FIFPro World XI raises eyebrows

LONDON: With Spanish clubs having supplied all 11 members of the FIFPro World XI for 2012, La Liga's claim to be considered the world's best league appears stronger than ever.

Barcelona and Real Madrid may have missed out in last season's Champions League, losing to Chelsea and Bayern Munich respectively, but they still supplied 10 of the players voted into FIFA's all-star team by over 55,000 professional footballers around the world.

Atletico Madrid's Colombian striker Radamel Falcao completed the line-up, meaning that for the first time in the eight-year history of the selection, all 11 players were drawn from teams playing in the same country.

In recent years, coinciding with Spain's dominance of both club and international football, the make-up of the FIFPro World XI has crystallised around a small coterie of players.

Serial Ballon d'Or-winner Lionel Messi has been a mainstay of the side since 2007, Iker Casillas and Xavi since 2008, and Andres Iniesta and Cristiano Ronaldo have been included in the team for the past four years.

In fact, so enduring is the appeal of the players at Spain's top two clubs that there were only two changes to the 11 voted into the FIFPro World XI in 2011.

Manchester United pair Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic were the men to make way, for Falcao and Madrid's Brazilian left-back Marcelo, as the English Premier League had its grip on the team prised away finger by finger.

England has at least mustered representation in recent years, which is more than can be said for the German Bundesliga and France's Ligue 1, while the leading lights from Italy's Serie A have been ignored since 2010.

Amid criticism that the FIFPro selection amounts to nothing more than a glorified popularity contest, dissenting voices have emerged.

Germany captain Lothar Matthaus, present at the Ballon d'Or ceremony in Zurich, claims "people were shaking their heads" when the line-up was announced, while Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole jokingly tweeted: "#iwantspanishpassport."

Given the Spanish national team's stellar achievements in 2012 and the enduring brilliance of Messi and Ronaldo, it is difficult to quibble with much of the team, but there is room for conjecture.

Xabi Alonso won the league with Madrid and scored twice against France in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals, but his performances in Poland and Ukraine were eclipsed by those of Italy's Andrea Pirlo.

The elegant Juventus midfielder narrowly missed out to Iniesta in the voting for the player of the tournament and UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh described his displays as "magnificent".

His Italy and Juve team-mates Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini also enjoyed excellent years, including success in Serie A, although both were members of the back line pierced four times by Spain in the Euro 2012 final.

In attack, Manchester United striker Robin van Persie, Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea's Champions League hero Didier Drogba all presented strong cases for inclusion as well, albeit not with a Spanish accent.

FIFPro World XI 2012:

Iker Casillas (ESP/Real Madrid); Dani Alves (BRA/Barcelona), Gerard Pique (ESP/Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (ESP/Real Madrid), Marcelo (BRA/Real Madrid); Xabi Alonso (ESP/Real Madrid), Xavi (ESP/Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (ESP/Barcelona); Lionel Messi (ARG/Barcelona), Radamel Falcao (COL/Atletico Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Real Madrid)

-AFP/ac

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Bring Army tribunal under govt control: HC

CHANDIGARH: In a significant verdict, Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday directed the Union government to bring armed forces tribunal (AFT) under the control of ministry of law and justice.

Ever since it was constituted in 2009, the ministry of defence (MOD) has been directly in charge of the AFT. The HC passed the directions while acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Major Navdeep Singh, founder president of AFT Bar Association, Chandigarh. In his petition, the territorial army (TA) Major had accused the MOD of excessive control in the appointments, rules, infrastructure and functioning of the AFT.

The HC has directed the Union government that after bringing the tribunal under the purview of the law ministry, suitable amendments in the selection committee could also be carried out. The court has also asked the Centre to fill all vacancies of judicial members in the near future. "The idea behind setting up of the AFT and the reason behind passing of the AFT Act was 'independence'. and since the function of the tribunal is purely judicial and adjudicatory, keeping in view the doctrine of separation of powers inherently ingrained in our constitutional system, the government per se ideally should have minimal say in the working of the AFT," the HC observed in its verdict. Major Navdeep had also pointed out that out of 15 courts of AFT in the country, only a few were functioning since the government had not appointed judicial members after retirements resulting in absolute absence of legal remedy to serving and retired personnel in some areas.

The Chandigarh bench, having the largest jurisdiction of five states, was also partially functional with only one judicial member appointed out of three. It was also argued by the petitioner that MOD has not been implementing orders passed by the AFT and 95% of decisions were not implemented without resort to multiple rounds of litigation. Some reports were also placed on record before the HC showing that MOD had allegedly provided a wrong figure of only '303 unimplemented decisions' to a parliamentary committee whereas the number was between 3,500 and 4,500. It was further stated that there seems no logic of having two serving bureaucrats on the selection committee examining the suitability of serving or retired judges of high court for their appointment to tribunal.

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Pictures: Wildfires Scorch Australia Amid Record Heat

Photograph by Jo Giuliani, European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke from a wildfire mushrooms over a beach in Forcett, Tasmania, on January 4. (See more wildfire pictures.)

Wildfires have engulfed southeastern Australia, including the island state of Tasmania, in recent days, fueled by dry conditions and temperatures as high as 113ºF (45ºC), the Associated Press reported. (Read "Australia's Dry Run" inNational Geographic magazine.)

No deaths have been reported, though a hundred people are unaccounted for in the town of Dunalley, where the blazes destroyed 90 homes.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AP.

"We are at the catastrophic level, and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Published January 8, 2013

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Menu Calorie Counts: How Accurate Are They?

They are supposed to help America's obesity problem: calorie counts boldly displayed on restaurant menus across the country and important information, considering Americans now eat one-third of their meals outside the home.

Two states and nine counties require them today, and by the middle of next year, a federal law is expected to force chain restaurants, convenience stores and vending machines nationwide to post calorie counts.

But how accurate are those numbers that so affect your waistline?

A 2011 study by Tufts University sampling food from 42 restaurants says it depends.

Fast food restaurants were the most accurate because of the uniform recipes and portions, but there were wide variations found in sit-down restaurants.

"We found that 20 percent of the foods we tested had 100 calories or more over what was stated on the menu," Lorien Urban, a postdoctoral associate in the energy metabolism lab at Tufts University and first author of the study, told ABC News. "We would consider that to be a considerable amount."

Urban explained that consuming an extra 100 calories per day can lead to an extra 10 pounds in one year.

Most concerning was that a majority of the errors Urban and her colleagues found were made on the diet side of the menu.

Calorie Check: How Many Servings Are You Eating? Watch Video

"These were the foods that people who are trying to manage their weight would gravitate towards and they may be getting more calories than they expect," she said.

ABC News sent producers in three cities that already require posting menu calories to major chains to do a sampling under the direction of a nationally known lab and found that more than half of the low-cal meals tested had more calories than listed on the menu.

In total 24 food samples from four sit-down restaurants and one McDonald's were collected and the results were surprising.

McDonald's did the best. Its Big Mac Meal (posted: 930) and its Premium Chicken Sandwich (posted: 400) tested 30 calories below the menu posting.

But the sit-down restaurants had results sometimes wildly different than advertised.

In all, only one calorie count was accurate -- a Skinnylicious chicken salad sandwich from the Cheesecake Factory.

Eleven meals had more calories than on the menu and 10 had fewer calories. Some were over by only 40 calories; another was over by as much as 420 calories, again at the Cheesecake Factory: This time an order of the fish and chips dinner.

Urban said that fast food restaurants tended to be more accurate than sit-down because of the formulaic preparation that fast food restaurants use.

"Things are arriving already packaged into the restaurants and it's just a matter of warming it up and serving it to the consumer," she said. "A sit-down restaurant, things are being prepared on [the] spot [and] by chance some extra butter gets into the pan."

That can change the calorie amount.

All the restaurants and their trade association say that most calorie counts are as accurate as possible and tested extensively to make sure.

They conceded that there are variations, mostly due to portion size and individual restaurant preparation, and that the menus warn actual calories may vary.

What can you do? Take control of what is put on top of the entree by asking for everything fattening -- such as cheeses, sauces or dressings -- on the side.

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