Monday, October 31, 2011

Cain manages crisis with denial, humor, song

Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain holds up a muffin that has his catch-phrase 9-9-9 tax plan printed on it, before speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain holds up a muffin that has his catch-phrase 9-9-9 tax plan printed on it, before speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Denying he sexually harassed anyone, Cain said Monday he was falsely accused in the 1990s while he was head of the National Restaurant Association, and he branded revelation of the allegations a "witch hunt.". (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain wipes his forehead before answering questions at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct., 31, 2011. Denying he sexually harassed anyone, Cain said Monday he was falsely accused in the 1990s while he was head of the National Restaurant Association, and he branded revelation of the allegations a "witch hunt.". (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(AP) ? It's one of the starkest tests of viability for any presidential candidate: crisis management, the ability to step past an explosive charge and re-direct the news. Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, a relative newcomer to national politics, had trouble passing Monday during a whirlwind of speeches and interviews in the shadow of sexual harassment allegations.

"I'll never know why Jesus came to love me so," Cain crooned at the invitation of the event's moderator in closing Monday's National Press Club appearance. "He looked beyond all my faults and saw my needs."

It was a dramatic counterpoint to the rest of Cain's day in Washington, which he largely spent denying that he had sexually harassed anyone and calling any such reports "a witch hunt." His consistency began to fall apart by the evening, however.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Cain was asked whether he was aware of the women's specific allegations. "Some of them," he responded.

But when pressed, he said was not aware of any of the allegations.

Later, in a series of television interviews, Cain said he remembered some details after all.

Politico reported Sunday that the National Restaurant Association gave financial settlements to at least two female employees who worked for Cain and had accused him of inappropriate, sexually suggestive behavior when he headed the trade group.

The report upended Cain's series of speeches and meetings with members of Congress designed to reassure the nation's rule makers that he is ready for public office. But the revelations raised questions anew about his fitness ? and whether he can manage a crisis.

The former Godfather's Pizza chief executive confronted the situation rather than canceling his Washington schedule.

At the first event of the day, an appearance at the American Enterprise Institute, he announced that he'd address the issues later: "I will take all your arrows," Cain said.

He then went full denial in back-to-back appearances and refused to talk specifics, either on Fox News or at the National Press Club.

And, even amid new questions about the viability of his White House bid, he tried to argue that it was business as usual.

"What you can expect from my campaign is for me to stay on message, for us to continue to do the things and execute our strategy in order to win the nomination," he said.

His campaign, meanwhile, attacked Politico, whose story was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.

And Cain, himself, tried to employ humor.

"As a result of today's big news story, I really know what it feels like to be No. 1."

He also painted himself a victim.

"This bull's eye on my back has gotten bigger," Cain said. "We have no idea the source of this witch hunt."

And, finally, he invoked charm ? and the bigger picture.

"My faith is a big part of who Herman Cain is. It's a big part of how I made this decision. It is a big part of this journey that we're on," Cain said. Invited to sing, he agreed. "Since it's an opportunity for me to share a little bit of my faith, I will."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-31-Cain-Crisis%20Management/id-7b8b1e15e9ed4d9397a7bd9c7362cb2b

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Ubergizmo's Gaming Digest #2: Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, Modern ...

The gaming news world moves fast. Every day, thousands of nuggets of new gaming info drips out like a leaky faucet. We understand that most people don?t have the time to keep up with every single gaming blog, but what the to stay on top of the most important news. In addition to the gaming coverage that we bring to you daily, we?re dishing out a weekly feature that?ll keep you informed of the latest and greatest happening, so you can go into the weekend after a hard worked week and just game.

With the launch of Battlefield 3, it?s been a fantastic week to be a hardcore game on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. But if you don?t care for first-person shooters, fret not, because there?s plenty of Nintendo Wii and PS Vita news that broke out this week. Join us inside for this week?s best gaming news.

Game of the Week: Battlefield 3

It?s without competition that this week?s must-have/must-buy game is the one and only Battlefield 3 developed by DICE and published by EA. It goes up against Activision?s Call of Duty franchise and so far, things are looking pretty good. The FPS managed to get a respectable 90/100 on Metacritic?for PC, 84 on Xbox 360 and 85 on PS3. However you wish to perceive the game, the writing is clear on the wall: the singleplayer mode leaves much to be desired but the multiplayer is where the action is at. I?m giving it an initial run on Xbox 360, so we?ll see how it goes. Definitely download the texture pack if you haven?t. It?s a must for the 360.

PlayStation 3

We?re only days away from Nathan Drake?s latest installment of Uncharted 3: Drake?s Deception ? it launches on Monday, November 1. Things are already looking pretty swell for Naughty Dog?s action adventure game. Early reviews have totaled its Metacritic score?to a 94/100, making it one of the PS3?s best games yet. It supports stereoscopic 3D. Naughty Dog originally experimented with implementing PlayStation Move support into the game, but ultimately decided against it, saying that tacked on motion controls just didn?t feel right for Uncharted. While we agree that motion control doesn?t always fit, it did work quite well for Socom 4 and Resistance 3 ? perhaps they?ll have a change of heart for an update that patches support in.

If you?re interesting in the technology, here?s a great look at the motion capture techniques behind Uncharted 3. It?s quite fascinating stuff.

Xbox 360

Fighting fans are in for a treat with Namco Bandai?s Soul Calibur IV coming out next January. Hardcore fighting games require arcade sticks, not game pads. That?s where MadCatz steps in to fill the gap. Coinciding with Soul Calibur IV?s release, MadCatz is releasing the FightStick Tournament Edition. It?s ideal for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and if it?s anywhere as well built as the fighting stick that came with Tekken 6 Limited Edition (I picked one up for $35 on Amazon during the summer), it should provide should be able to withstand a good amount of button mashing.

Nintendo Wii / Wii U

Aside from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Wii is looking a little dry. That?s okay because the console is already on its way out. Next year, we get the Wii U and Iwata promised in a recent investors meeting that Nintendo has learned from its mistakes in executing the 3DS?s launch. The Wii U?s final form factor will be shown off at next year?s E3 expo in June, which pegs a release for what?s almost assuredly going to be the holiday shopping season.

Nintendo says it?s not going to repeat the same mistake it did with the 3DS?s lack of games at launch. Here?s to hoping the Wii U delivers with games people will actually care about, like Mario, Zelda and Pokemon.

PC Gaming

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Those itching to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will have to wait for when the game officially launches on November 8, but a few thieves managed to get their hands on Disc 2 of the PC version of Activision?s latest in the franchise. But, they won?t be playing it.

Activision isn?t taking the theft lightly. In fact, they?ve sent police investigators to hunt down those with the pirated copies and slap them with a $5,000 fine as well as repossess the stolen property. As they say, crime doesn?t pay.

Last week?s major release was of course Batman Arkham City and what better way to cross-promote the game than with Samsung?s new 830 SSD drives. There?s no magic trick here. Just buy Samsung 830 SSD in sizes ranging from 64-512GB and you?ll get a free download code for the PC version of Batman: Arkham City. Why should you go SSD? Way faster loading times.

Mobile / Portable

Nintendo 3DS eShop

After reporting nearly $1 billion in annual losses for the first time in 30 year, Nintendo is getting eve more serious about its 3DS. In a surprising move, Nintendo is opening up its eShop digital wares storefront and expanding it to allow users to access it from a PC and a smartphone. You won?t get to buy directly from those channels, but you?ll get to browse, which should at least expand the visibility of Nintendo?s digital downloads.

Sony PlayStation Vita Early First Edition Bundle

Last week, Sony blew the lid off the official release date for the PS Vita in the U.S. ? February 22 ? and now it?s trying to bait in PlayStation fans with a ?First Edition Bundle? that?ll give you the next-gen handheld a whole week early on February 15. For $350, you?ll get a 3G model of the PS Vita, a 4GB proprietary PS Vita memory card, a limited edition case and a copy of Little Deviants. Is getting it early worth the extra cash? We?ll let you decide how big of Sony fan you are.

Adobe Flash logo

Also in Vita news, Japanese magazine Famitsu broke news that the handheld?s browser will not support Adobe Flash at launch, but will run Javascript 1.7 and HTML5. Considering the Vita has a quad-core processor and 512MB of RAM, we?re not sure what?s going on. As an owner of a PSP, I can attest that the inadequate amount of RAM on the original handheld greatly hampered Flash performance. What?s Sony?s excuse now?

It?s arguable what is the best looking game on a tablet and most will say it?s Epic?s Infinity Blade, but there?s a new contender in town and it?s Shadowgun. It?s kind of like a Gears of War rip off and in my opinion (played iPad version) gameplay is pretty barebones, stale and repetitive with the onscreen analogs feeling like a huge miss rather than a hit and its cover-system completely ripped from Gears, but boy is the game a looker. It?s available now on the Android Market, so if you?re looking to test a new game, make it this one.

Source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/10/ubergizmos-gaming-digest-2-battlefield-3-uncharted-3-modern-warfare-3-wii-u-ps-vita-and-more/

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Barclays profit up as bad debt costs fall (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Barclays (BARC.L) reported a 5 percent rise in underlying quarterly profit as lower charges for bad debt at the British bank offset a third consecutive sharp fall in investment banking revenues as the euro zone financial crisis deepened.

Barclays said on Monday it did not intend to raise any equity capital.

It said pretax profit in the three months to end-September was 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion). Stripping out a gain on the value of its own debt and other one-off items, profit was 1.34 billion pounds, up 5 percent on the 2010 period.

Top-line income at Barclays Capital, the investment bank arm that provides the bulk of the bank's profit, fell to 2.25 billion pounds, down from 22 percent from the second quarter to be in line with the consensus forecast as capital markets activity has been hit hard across the industry.

($1 = 0.619 pound)

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/bs_nm/us_barclays

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Searching for a long term partner/group

It's that time again! The semester is ALMOST over (yay!) And I will have a bit more time on my hands. This is where you come in! I'm looking for another role play!

Here is what I am looking for and the part that you care about:

Realistic: I live in the real world, on Earth, and plan to stay that way until I die as an old lady.
((The only time I would waiver this is if the partner was something else, and I still got to be plain such as something along the lines of the Dark Series by Christine Feehan or able to do something small such as being able to mind speak (?) ))

Romance: I'm a girl, and therefore, a mushy type of person. I love a good romance.

Iprefer to play a female role, but am willing to double up when necessary.

If I were to participate in a one x one, I would prefer either PM or IM. I really don't have any plot ideas up my sleeve at the moment, so feel free to tell me yours. :)

I do not get a chance to get online here much since school started, but I am going to try to get online more often. However, please bear with me if I don't respond with a post right away. I promise I will not forget you!

If you have any questions, or have a suggestion for a group RP, please let me know. Although I do like one-on-one RPs, I don't want to be a hermit!

I Hope to talk to you soon!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/ESgOo1lz8Fw/viewtopic.php

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Pink Floyd member's son loses jail term appeal

LONDON (AP) ? Appeal court judges on Friday upheld the 16-month jail sentence given to the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour for a violent rampage during student protests last year.

Charlie Gilmour was one of thousands who demonstrated in December against rising university tuition fees and was among a group that broke away from the main demonstration and attacked a convoy carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla. At Gilmour's trial earlier this year, a judge said Gilmour had jumped on the hood of a Jaguar in the royal motorcade and thrown a garbage can at the car.

Gilmour also kicked a store window, stole the leg of a mannequin and was photographed hanging from a Union flag on the Cenotaph, a memorial to British war dead.

The 21-year-old Cambridge University student, who has been in jail since July, pleaded guilty to violent disorder but challenged the length of his sentence.

But three appeals judges said the sentence was neither "manifestly excessive (nor) wrong in principle."

"We do not believe that violence in this context and of the kind displayed by this defendant can normally be met by other than significant sentences of immediate custody even for those of otherwise good character," said one of the three, Anthony Hughes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-28-Britain-Pink%20Floyd/id-8efb5b36824e4a19adacd4aca7b3d278

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Gay and lesbian service members sue government (AP)

BOSTON ? A group of gay active and retired military personnel who are married sued the federal government Thursday for the same benefits as straight military couples, arguing it's a matter of justice and national security.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston says the government's Defense of Marriage Act violates their constitutional rights and asks the military to recognize their marriages and provide spousal benefits.

Under the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Pentagon is required to ignore same-sex marriages, which are legal in six states and Washington D.C. and were legal for a time in California.

Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of eight service members, said it's about "one thing, plain and simple."

"It's about justice for gay and lesbian service members and their families in our armed forces rendering the same military service, making the same sacrifices, and taking the same risks to keep our nation secure at home and abroad," Sarvis said in a press release.

The lawsuit also says the continued denial of benefits to gay spouses "Is a threat to national security." It argues that given the extreme mental and physical demands of modern warfare, the military has already recognized that "service members who are distracted by thoughts that their loved ones are not being cared for may render the service members less effective combatants."

The lawsuit comes about a month after the military officially ended its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which forbade gays from serving openly.

Elaine Donnelly, president Center for Military Readiness, which opposed the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," said Thursday's lawsuit is an attempt to impose throughout the military a definition of marriage that's accepted in just a handful of states.

Military members are very mobile, and if the plaintiffs prevail, gay personnel would have to be treated as if they were married, even if they live in states where gay marriage isn't legal, she said. In addition, there would be pressure to extend the same marriage benefits to service members in committed gay relationships who aren't legally married, she said.

It's all designed to undermine the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which protects one state from having to abide by other states' marriage laws and wasn't supposed to be affected by the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal, Donnelly said.

"What you have here is an attempt to impose a minority view on the majority," she said.

The lawsuit names as defendants Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

The plaintiffs say they don't believe the government will contest the lawsuit, quoting an Oct. 1 statement from President Obama about DOMA in which he said, "I believe the law runs counter to the Constitution, and it's time for it to end, once and for all."

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said officials will evaluate the complaint and consult with the Justice Department, while continuing to follow the law. Kirby noted that service members can already designate some benefits to anyone they choose, regardless of sexual orientation.

"In connection with `Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal, the Defense Department is engaged in a careful and deliberate review of the possibility of extending eligibility for benefits, when legally permitted, to other individuals including same-sex partners," Kirby said.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, which opposes gay marriage, said he hoped attorneys for the U.S. House of Representatives who've defended DOMA in other cases will step in here if the Justice Department doesn't contest the lawsuit.

"These (plaintiffs) by law and by tradition and culture are not spouses," he said. "The federal government has the right to set its own standards for what it will recognize as a marriage and Congress did that in 1996 in an overwhelming, bipartisan fashion."

The lawsuit lists various benefits given to straight married couples they say gays are being wrongly denied, including medical and dental benefits, housing allowances, travel and transportation allowances, survivor benefits and the right to be buried together in military cemeteries.

"While the repeal of (don't ask, don't tell) was an important first step in the military's march for equality, it is time to take the next step and provide equal benefits for equal work," the lawsuit says.

The lead plaintiff in the case is Maj. Shannon McLaughlin, a judge advocate general in the Massachusetts National Guard who married her wife in Massachusetts in 2009 and has 10-month old twins, according to the lawsuit.

Another plaintiff is Navy Lt. Gary Ross, an Arizona resident who was married in Vermont, but whose husband travels to Mexico for health care_ and was recently at the border when gunfire broke out ? because they can't afford health insurance for him, according to the lawsuit.

Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan of the New Hampshire National Guard said she has cancer and is worried her spouse and their daughter would be unable to receive survivor's benefits if she died.

"We are only asking for equitable treatment as a recognized family," Morgan said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_us/us_gay_marriage_military

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Obama lost many donors from '08 presidential race

President Barack Obama has dinner with campaign donors and winners of the "Dinner with Barack" contest at The Liberty Tavern in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Va., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. From left to right: Ken Knight, U.S. postal worker from Chandler, Ariz.; Wendi Smith, artist and retired professor from Corydon, Ind.; Casey Helbling, enterpreneur from Minneapolis, Minn.; President Obama; Juanita Martinez, retired teacher from Brighton, Colo. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama has dinner with campaign donors and winners of the "Dinner with Barack" contest at The Liberty Tavern in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Va., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. From left to right: Ken Knight, U.S. postal worker from Chandler, Ariz.; Wendi Smith, artist and retired professor from Corydon, Ind.; Casey Helbling, enterpreneur from Minneapolis, Minn.; President Obama; Juanita Martinez, retired teacher from Brighton, Colo. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama has lost millions of dollars in support from former donors in Democratic strongholds and in districts that he won narrowly four years ago, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent federal campaign finance data.

Tens of thousands of supporters who gave him hundreds of dollars or more in the early stages of the 2008 campaign haven't offered him similar amounts of cash so far in this campaign. And in some cases, former Obama contributors gave to GOP candidates, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Obama's re-election effort is hardly hurting for cash: His campaign and the Democratic Party raised more than $70 million for Obama's re-election in the July-September period, outstripping all Republicans combined by tens of millions of dollars.

But the AP's analysis indicates that Obama, beleaguered by a struggling economy, has lost early support from some of his larger financial supporters and will have to work harder to win back party stalwarts and swing voters alike. Obama's approval ratings have slumped to 41 percent in a recent Gallup poll, as steadfast supporters have found themselves less able or less willing to open their wallets again.

"He was our state senator, and when I looked at the Republican side, I thought, 'We need some fresh blood in the campaign,'" said Janet Tavakoli, 58, a financial analyst from Chicago who gave $1,000 to the president in 2008. "But I was dead wrong about it," she said, and isn't supporting any candidate this time.

Obama faced then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008. This time he is running unchallenged and has no primaries or caucuses looming, as the Republican candidates do, so potential Obama donors may not be feeling any sense of urgency. But typically early donors tend to give again, as money is a sign of enthusiasm ? something Obama had in spades four years ago.

For its analysis, the AP compared the names and addresses of Obama contributors who gave between $200 and $2,500 from April to September 2008 with those who gave amounts in the same range during the same period this year. The AP adjusted its analysis to compensate for contributors who might have moved and listed a new address, or whose name or address was listed slightly differently last time.

The Obama campaign said most of its contributors gave small donations this year; it is not required under federal law to provide names of donors who gave less than $200. About 40 percent of total fundraising came from amounts greater than $200 this year, not adjusting for inflation, compared with more than 75 percent during the same period in 2007.

Obama's missing contributors live across the country, mostly concentrated in the Northeast and the West Coast. Obama also missed support from early donors in parts of Texas, Illinois and Michigan ? areas he narrowly won in 2008. But he also picked up some new sources of cash in those places.

"I have little discretionary money, and I just have to take care of myself," said Roger Hodges, 45, an urban designer in Richmond, Calif. Hodges gave Obama $250 four years ago but doesn't plan on donating in this election. Hodges said friends in the liberal-leaning San Francisco Bay Area have become disappointed in Obama.

Romney, a leading GOP contender, has closed in financially in areas of the country that gave a solid stream of checks to Obama in the 2008 campaign, including Southern California, Florida and New England. Records show a handful of Obama contributors from 2008 donated to Romney this time; few, if any, appeared to give to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another front-runner.

Lynda Marren, 48, of Hillsdale, Calif., usually supports Republican politicians, but she paid $500 to hear Obama speak four years ago.

"I wasn't persuaded then, and still am not," she said, and gave $1,000 to Romney this past June.

Many Obama supporters said they will vote for his re-election even if they don't write big checks. About 4 out of 5 of those who voted for the president in 2008 say they are likely to do so again, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

But Obama's contributions this recent fundraising quarter ? absent support from the Democratic National Committee ? are less than the combined cash given to all GOP candidates, hinting at an influx of money to whomever Republicans chose as their nominee. Observers have said this election likely will cost more than $1 billion.

The Obama campaign, for its part, said more than a million people have given to the president's 2012 re-election efforts, a mix of hundreds of thousands of new and returning donors that spokesman Ben LaBolt said points to "evidence of a growing organization." All told, Obama received donations from a wide swath of the United States from the Plains, the Midwest and parts of the South since April, the AP's analysis found.

Among those donors was Laurel Cappa of Washington, who gave $300 to the president four years ago and opened her wallet again this year.

"It was a birthday gift to myself," she said, having turned 70 this year, "and I expect to be giving more."

The campaign reports offer a complicated financial picture for Obama this election cycle. Recent reports show a mixed level of financial support from Wall Street, and an AP analysis earlier this month found Obama garnered continued donations from the nation's most economically hard-hit areas.

The campaign figures, however, didn't capture money raised by new, outside groups known as super political action committees, which can collect unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections. Obama and leading GOP candidates all have super PACs working in their favor, not counting groups like the GOP-leaning American Crossroads that have raised hundreds of millions ahead of the general election.

___

Follow Jack Gillum at http://twitter.com/jackgillum

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-28-Obama's%20Missing%20Donors/id-03721d5695764a2faffebcc9b5c193c0

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Insurgent safe havens in Pakistan big threat: U.S (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Insurgent safe havens in Pakistan are now the biggest threat to NATO forces in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Overall, enemy attacks in Afghanistan in recent months were 5 percent lower than the same period a year ago, the Pentagon said in a report to Congress. But high-profile attacks were up in Afghanistan, and the enemy remains resilient, it said. (Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/pl_nm/us_usa_afghanistan_report

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Chicago Grocery Store Expansions to Eliminate Food Deserts, Create 2,000 Jobs (ContributorNetwork)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and first lady Michelle Obama announced several major grocery store chains will be opening 36 grocery stores in neighborhoods around Chicago. The stores will help eliminate "food deserts" in the city and will also help create more than 2,000 new jobs for Chicagoans.

Supervalu, Roundy's Supermarkets, Wal-Mart and Aldi's have agreed to open 17 new locations. Additionally, Walgreens has also decided to expand 19 of its locations to offer fresh food. With this announcement, here are facts about food deserts and the steps Chicago and Mayor Emanuel have taken to reduce this problem:

* According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food deserts are areas that lack access to affordable foods that make up a healthy diet like vegetables, fruits, milk and whole grains.

* More than 23 million people live in food deserts, notes the Department of Agriculture. These areas often include urban neighborhoods and rural towns.

* Residing in a food desert can lead to health problems like obesity, diabetes and heart disease due to the lack of affordable and healthy food options.

* The Chicago Sun-Times reported Chicago's food desert has decreased by 40 percent over the past five years, from about 632,974 people to 384,954 people.

* Of the nearly 384,000 people, about 124,000 are children and Chicago's food desert lies in predominantly African-American communities.

* Yahoo! News reported that in mid-June, Mayor Emanuel met with several CEOs from some of the nation's biggest grocery chains to discuss eliminating food deserts in the city.

* Food deserts in the city cover the neighborhoods of North Lawndale, Chatham, Douglas, Englewood, Roseland and West Pullman.

* Tackling the problem of food deserts has long been a major goal of Mayor Emanuel, who, during his election campaign, spoke about his plans to eliminate the issue, according to CBS Local.

* The mayor's initial plan involved engaging small and local grocery stories, encouraging communities to plant gardens, and developing public-private partnerships.

* Emanuel's and Obama's recent announcement includes piloting five new farmers markets on the city's west side over the next two years.

* Obama is also encouraging other mayors to follow Chicago's lead to end food deserts in their city's by bringing healthy and affordable food options to underserved residents, reported Bloomberg Businessweek.

Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111028/us_ac/10296233_chicago_grocery_store_expansions_to_eliminate_food_deserts_create_2000_jobs

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Nokia unveils Windows smartphones to catch rivals (AP)

HELSINKI ? Nokia Corp. on Wednesday launched its long-awaited first Windows cell phones, hoping to claw back market share it has lost in the tough, top-end smartphone race to chief rivals, Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Samsung and Google's Android software.

But some analysts say it may be too little, too late, for the world's top mobile phone maker.

With price tags of euro420 ($580) and euro270, the Lumia 800 and 710 are based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 7 software and come eight months after Nokia and the computing giant said they were hitching up.

"Lumia is reasonably good ... but it's not an iPhone killer or a Samsung killer," Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said. "But where Nokia does stand out is on their price ? it looks like they are going to be very competitive."

Lumia 800, with Carl Zeiss optics and 16GB of internal memory, will be available in selected European countries in November, including France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Britain. It will be sold in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the year-end.

Lumia 710, with a 1.4 GHz processor, navigational applications and Nokia Music ? a free, mobile music-streaming app ? will first be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year.

The company's share price jumped almost 3 percent to euro4.96 ($6.90) in otherwise depressed market in Helsinki.

Nokia also unveiled four cheaper smartphones aimed at emerging markets ? the Asha range priced euro60 to euro115 ? with cameras, navigation applications and fast downloads ? in a bid to help "the next billion" users connect to the Internet, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said at the Nokia presentation in London.

Equipped with QWERTY keyboards and some with the popular dual SIM cards, the Asha handsets will be shipped globally in the fourth quarter or early 2012.

Nokia, which claims 1.3 billion daily users, has steadily been losing ground in smartphones, squeezed in the low end by Asian manufacturers like ZTE and in the high end by the iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry, Korea's Samsung Electronics and Taiwan-based HTC Corp.

The iPhone has set the standard for smartphones among many design-conscious consumers, the Blackberry has been the favorite of the corporate set and increasingly Google Inc.'s Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

Samsung and HTC ? snapping at Nokia's heels for third place in top-end smartphones behind the iPhone and Samsung ? are the biggest users of the Android platform.

Nokia is still operating Symbian software, older than Apple's software and considered clumsy by many, although it has been upgraded. Nokia also introduced the MeeGo platform in its flagship N9 model launched last month.

Elop has said Windows software will become the cell phone maker's main platform but that Nokia won't stop developing Symbian or MeeGo.

Mawston says Nokia has been pushed into a corner as Symbian was unable to compete with other operating systems and MeeGo took too long to develop.

"It's a risk that they may be juggling too many balls at once," Mawston said. "They were pushed into a multi-platform strategy for at least the short-term, but given the competitive situation with Symbian and MeeGo they really had no choice but to develop a third (platform) and juggle all three at once."

Elop described the Lumia phones as a "new dawn" for Nokia.

"Lumia is light ... Lumia is the first real Windows Phone," Elop declared to the London audience.

He acknowledged that since he took over the Nokia leadership a year ago there had been "some difficult moments and some tough decisions to make," including more than 12,000 layoffs, but was upbeat about the future.

"Eight months ago, here in London we outlined a new direction for Nokia," Elop said. "Since then we've gone through a significant transition and we are playing to win ? no holding back, no hesitation, no second guessing."

Ovum analyst Nick Dillon said the success of the new Windows devices will be critical.

"The challenges which Nokia faces are significant ? many potential Windows Phone customers will have already bought an Android or iPhone and will have some form of attachment to those platforms," Dillon said. "Nokia will have a challenge to convince them to switch to what is a largely unknown, and therefore risky, alternative."

____

Online:

Nokia: http://www.nokia.com.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_hi_te/eu_finland_nokia

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Friday, October 28, 2011

NaNoWriMo- Who's with me?!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

As November quickly approaches so does the time honored tradition of National Novel Writing Month, more fondly referred to as: NaNoWriMo.

    1- For those of you unfamiliar with this event please have a look at their website (click me!) and see what they?re all about.

    2- For those of you with attention spans not long enough to read all of that (which means this may not be the project for you) the gist is write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November.


This will be the umpteenth year I?ve attempted this task and with any luck the first year I?ll successfully complete it. If you?re game join me! If you?re not please participate in the non-compulsory but greatly appreciated cheer team! Ra-ra-ra!

I?m looking for die hards here.
I?m looking for spirit, courage and inner strength.
I?m looking for the men and women of our generations to stand up, be proud and write, write, write!

Who?s with me?!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/_i8_grBTAyU/viewtopic.php

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PFT: Bills put Merriman on injured reserve

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On November 1, 2001, I busted a bottle of Boone?s Farm against my Commodore 64, and Profootballtalk.com was born.

There was no mission statement, no business plan, no bucket list.? I had done nine months of unpaid freelance work for the long-defunct NFLtalk.com, which was purchased along with the other Sportstalk.com sites in early 2001 after the tech bubble burst.? I then spent six months working from home for ESPN.com?s subscription-based Insider service, while also practicing law full time.

In October 2001, I was offered a one-year deal with ESPN.com, effective November 1.? (I still have the contract.)? I decided, for a variety of reasons that I won?t bore you with now (but might bore you with later), to launch an independent site (the word blog hadn?t been coined yet, and I have always despised it) that covered the NFL a bit more loosely, with entertainment being as important as information.

PFT launched November 1 of that year, we generated little or no revenue for at least three years, and then the snowball started to roll down the hill, a bit.? The watershed moment came in early 2006, when Ted Moon of Sprint reached out with a desire to explore an advertising relationship.? One thing led to another, we struck a deal, real money was flowing, and I knew at that point that, eventually, I wouldn?t be practicing law at all.

On July 1, 2009, it finally happened, and the two-plus years since then have been an exciting, fulfilling, challenging, and almost entirely enjoyable blur.

I?m not sure what we?ll do to commemorate the 10-year anniversary.? It would be nice if all of PFT Planet shows up next Tuesday and check in, if only to see if the hamsters powering the NBC servers will explode.? Maybe we?ll do something special for PFT Live.? Beyond that, I?m not looking for the day to be ensconced in self-congratulation.? It?s more about reflection and gratitude ? primarily to each of you ? and given the content of this post, the reflection already has started.

Actually, the reflection happens pretty much continuously.? I don?t know how or why this thing has grown, I don?t know how or why 90 percent of the people connected to the NFL read the site (the other 10 percent are lying), and I don?t know where this thing is going and how it will get there.? I?ve been enjoying the ride since Day One, and I?ll keep doing it as long as I can say that.

Hopefully, you?ve enjoyed it, too.? Hopefully, you?ll continue to do that.

If you have any suggestions on how we best should celebrate an unlikely 10-year anniversary, feel free to add them to the comments.? And be sure to check back next Tuesday to see what we do.? And every day between now and then.? And every day after that.? Until I either drop dead or decide to move on, or move out.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/25/merriman-says-hell-have-surgery-on-his-achilles-tendon/related/

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Ustream Forges Joint Venture With South Korea?s KT Corp., Raises $10 Million

ustreamlogoLive video streaming service Ustream continues to expand its presence in Asia with the help of major telecom corporations. Today, the company is announcing that it's teaming KT Corporation, a leading telecommunications provider in South Korea, to launch Ustream Korea. Ustream will be launching its new Korean portal in January 2012, with a new office opening in Seoul that month as well. The joint venture includes a new $10 million funding round for Ustream, which brings the company's total funding to $98.7 million. The bulk of that funding comes from Japanese telecom provider Softbank, which forged a deep relationship with the company in February 2010 and has invested 75 million.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/emhnZy4NueY/

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

iPads Are Why Your Hotel Wi-Fi Sucks (And Might Stop Being Free) [Ipad]

Free Wi-Fi in public places is damn near an unalienable right at this point. And apparently there are so many iPads out there that they're choking it to death, says the New York Times. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cIMzNTiwZIo/ipads-are-why-your-hotel-wi+fi-sucks-and-might-stop-being-free

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Visa 4Q profit rises 14 percent on heavy card use (AP)

NEW YORK ? Increased use of debit and credit cards throughout the world pushed Visa Inc.'s fiscal fourth-quarter profit up 14 percent.

But its quarterly revenue came in shy of Wall Street expectations, in part because because the company has been cutting deals with merchants to hold onto or attract business as it tries to cope with new regulations.

The San Francisco-based company said Wednesday that it earned $880 million, or $1.27 per share, for the three months that ended Sept. 30. That compared with $774 million, or $1.06 per share, in the year-earlier period.

Revenue rose 13 percent to $2.38 billion, up from $2.12 billion last year.

After the company repurchased shares, there were 5 percent fewer outstanding, which also boosted earnings per share.

Analysts, on average, expected profit of $1.25 per share, on revenue of $2.4 billion, according to data from FactSet.

The rare revenue shortfall pushed Visa's stock down about 2 percent, or $2.20, to $90 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report. It had ended regular trading up $1.34 at $92.02.

Visa processed 13 billion transactions during the quarter, up 9 percent from last year. Card holders spent $970 trillion, with debit card use outpacing credit. That total was up 13 percent from the previous year.

The company said 65 percent of the quarter's revenue growth came from outside the United States, and revenue from abroad amounted to about 45 percent of the company's total. The growth abroad is important for Visa, which has stated a goal of generating at least 50 percent of its revenue from overseas by 2015.

"I think we're going to see them hit that target well before 2015," said Edward Jones analyst Shannon Stemm. She noted the prime areas for revenue growth were the emerging economies in Asia and Latin America, and not Europe.

Spending on Visa credit cards in the U.S. rose 15 percent to $228 billion, the seventh-straight quarter of growth after a sharp drop during the height of the recession. That increase came even as the number of outstanding accounts fell another 5 percent.

"While the growth is encouraging, much of this volume over the past year has been driven by affluent cardholders," said Chief Financial Officer Byron Pollitt. There has been no sign of higher use for the broader population, he added although Visa expects credit use to pick up as the economy improves.

Debit card use in the U.S. also continued to increase. U.S. consumers made $288 billion in purchases using debit cards, and accounts numbers continued to rise, adding 5 percent to 309 million.

CEO Joseph Saunders said there has been no sign of debit card use slackening because of the fees some banks are beginning to charge for using them.

Pollitt said it was "way too early" to comment on whether there are signs of changes in debit use related to new rules that took effect Oct. 1, which limit the fees that banks and networks like Visa can collect for processing transactions.

Also new is the option for retailers to choose which networks handle their transactions. To address the potential for lost business, Visa has been offering deals to merchants to get them to stick with or choose its system. The cost of such incentives shot up 37 percent during the quarter to $576 million.

That increase was bigger than many analysts expected, and the main reason Visa's revenue fell short of forecasts. But analyst Glenn Fodor of Morgan Stanley said Visa's aggressive deal signing with merchants "is an important dynamic," though the costs were slightly higher than even Visa forecast.

Bernstein analyst Rod Bourgeois said the increase reflects a long-term worry about Visa, because the regulations create pressure to offer deals that can drag revenue.

For the full fiscal year, Visa earned $3.65 billion, or $5.18 per share, up from $2.97 billion, or $4.03 per share, for its fiscal 2010.

The company said it continues to expect fiscal 2012 earnings-per-share growth in the mid-to-high teens range, and net revenue growth in the high single- to low double-digit range.

Wall Street is expecting earnings of $5.73 per share for next year, on revenue of $10.12 billion in revenue.

Visa also plans to keep buying its shares back. Last week, the company said its board approved another $1 billion share buyback program. For the full fiscal year, Visa spent $3.2 billion to repurchase 43 million shares at an average price of $74.94.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_visa

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Police Busted for Alleged Gun Smuggling

Eight NYPD officers and one New Jersey corrections officer have been arrested on charges that they were running a gun-smuggling ring that trafficked more than $1 million in illegal weapons and stolen goods.

The officers arrested include five active-duty officers assigned to Brooklyn and three retired NYPD officers, although two of the retired officers were active when committing the alleged crimes, prosecutors said. All those arrested were picked up by FBI agents and NYPD Internal Affairs investigators early Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint, some of those arrested smuggled 20 firearms as recently as Sept. 22. The cache included three M-16 rifles, one shotgun and 16 handguns, most of which had their serial numbers removed.

One officer bragged to an informant in July, as an associate displayed a shotgun for sale, that it was a "sample" and that they could get anything "from A to Z."

The allegations are no doubt troubling for the NYPD, whose commissioner, Ray Kelly, has joined with Mayor Bloomberg in speaking out on illegal guns as a nationwide scourge that threatens public safety, particularly that of police officers.

Bloomberg said in a statement that the charges, if true, are a "disgraceful and deplorable betrayal of the public trust."

Several of those arrested are also accused of illegally transporting other stolen goods. The group is accused of transporting stolen slot machines from Atlantic City, N.J., to Port Chester, N.Y., in March. Two months later, they allegedly stole more than 200 cases of cigarettes from trucks in Virginia and hauled them to New York.

A common tactic, prosecutors said, included breaking into tractor-trailers that were hauling cigarettes.

At one point while transporting stolen slot machines, one of the officers said to an informant, "Listen, when you're doing stuff like this you gotta be intelligent ... you gotta set it up where if I'm a cop on the side of the road, am I gonna stop that Ryder truck there?"

The same officer later said all the policemen participating in the slot machine scheme were "risking a lot for a little," the complaint said.

"They know what's going, and how much trouble they could get in, and what they're risking," he said. "They're risking a lot."

The investigation involved interviews with the informant, undercover work, surveillance, and intercepted phone conversations.

Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of the FBI in New York, said the crimes were "reprehensible."

'The public trusts the police not only to enforce the law, but to obey it," she said. "These crimes, as alleged in the complaint, do nothing but undermine public trust and confidence in law enforcement."

Most of the officers worked out of the 68th Precinct, which serves the Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods.

One officer who allegedly participated in cigarette smuggling expressed concern about trafficking weapons, saying at one point he was fine "as long as there's no drugs and guns involved."

Before the details were unsealed, a PBA spokesman declined comment, saying he was unaware of the specific charges as well as which officers were being charged.

In all, 12 people are charged with multiple federal conspiracy counts announced Tuesday by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Kelly and FBI officials.

The alleged NYPD corruption arrests come as other officers could also be charged this week in a separate ticket-fixing investigation headed by the Bronx District Attorney's office.

Interestingly, the criminal complaint in the gun-smuggling case indicates that the investigation began in late 2009, when the informant was introduced to one of the officers as a person who could "fix" his traffic tickets. The informant then developed a relationship with that officer.

Officials have said more than a dozen NYPD officers could face charges in the ticket-fixing case, including some police union delegates.

In the gun-smuggling case, the suspects appeared in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45028595/ns/local_news-new_york_ny/

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Know All the pieces About Child Automotive Safety. | Seening.Org

Please learn this to know more about baby automobile seats and preserving your child protected whereas in the car.

Q. What?s the finest child car seat?

The very best automotive seat is the one which matches your baby?s measurement and weight. It also matches correctly in your automobile and is easily installed.

Q. What kinds of child automobile seats can be found?

There are several forms of child car seats akin to infant seats, front going through car seats, and convertible seats. There are also combination seats (can face front or rear), booster seats and built-in automobile seats. With every sort of seat there are variations.

Q. Is a 5-level harness or a protect safest for my baby?

A 5 point harness offers your youngster the greatest safety as a result of it holds your baby tighter within the seat within the event of a crash. A T-Defend or over-the-head restraint permits too much room or can get in the way in which of chubby tummies and legs. The stalk of the T-Defend can cause critical damage to your baby.

Q. How can I find out how to soundly install my child?s automobile seat?

All automotive seats (besides most second hand seats) come with printed directions. If after studying the directions you still aren?t sure how you can properly install it. You possibly can name or email the manufacturer. Some police stations and hospitals have help packages as well.

Q. Is there an accurate way to safe my baby within the baby automotive seat?

Sure, there?s a right method by which to secure your baby in his automotive seat. The way you secure your baby within the car seat will seemingly depend upon the age and measurement of your baby. For youngsters beneath a 12 months of age they should be positioned in rear-dealing with seats in the center of the rear seat. Older kids can sit facing front and their seat are usually positioned behind the driver or passenger with a view to make the most of the shoulder/lap belts.

Q. What?s LATCH?

LATCH refers to Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. It?s a child automotive seat set up system. The lower hooks are connected between the bottom of the again of the seat and seat itself. The tether piece is a strap made of seat belt material with a clip that secures forward dealing with baby automobile seats and prevents excessive motion of the newborn?s head in crashes.

Q. What?s a Tether?

The tether is a strap fabricated from seat belt material with a clip. It attaches to the clips on the seat and secures entrance going through child automobile seats. In a crash it prevents excessive movement of the seat and the newborn?s head, lowering the severity of injuries.

Q. How can I tell when my youngster is able to use car seat belts with out a booster seat?

Your youngster might be ready for using the automotive safety restraint system when s/he can sit all the best way back within the seat and the knees can bend comfortably over the edge of the seat. The belt crosses the shoulder between the neck and the arm and the lap belt is low and touches the thighs. Your baby should be capable of remain seated the whole trip.

Q. Can a child automotive seat be used safely in an airplane?

Sure it can. Airways require youngsters age 2 and beneath, to be in authorised automotive seats. The seats have to be sixteen inches or much less to fit in the airplane seats. Call ahead and find out in case your seat is an authorized seat. Once on the airplane, the hostess/es, will be able to help you.

Q. Is it safe for me to make use of second-hand child automotive seats?

Yes it is secure to make use of second-hand baby automobile seats supplied you do a safety check. Belts and harnesses should not be frayed or cracked. There should be no cracks or tears within the seat cowl and the seat ought to recline easily and stay upright when the infant is seated. Look into the history of the seat, if it has been in an automobile crash do not purchase it, its skill to safely restrain your baby has been compromised. If the seat does not include a handbook contact the producer to make sure the seat can be correctly installed. If the seat is more than 5 years previous do not use it, it might have been in a crash and older baby automotive seats could not slot in new mannequin cars.

Q. What should I do if my child car seat is recalled?

Most often, the producer will give you instructions of what to do if child automobile seat is recalled. In some circumstances they will change it without spending a dime they may have you carry it somewhere to get alternative components also without charge to you.

Q. Are there baby automotive seats available for kids with particular wants?

Children with particular needs could require different restraint systems. Talk about your options together with your pediatrician.

Q. What?s the finest type of harness for my baby automotive seat?

There are 4 varieties of harnesses in baby automotive seats. The six-level harness has straps on the shoulders, at the hips and two at the crotch. The five-point harness has straps on the shoulders, two on the hips and one at the crotch. The t-protect is a padded triangle that latches on the crotch whereas the overhead shield comes down from over the head and latches on the crotch. The safest harnesses are the 5 ? 6-level harnesses. These prevent extreme motion of the child in crash situations. The t protect and the over-head protect allow for too much room and will cause your child to be ejected from the automotive in a crash.

In Conclusion

You can by no means go flawed if you err on the facet of caution on the subject of your baby. The scale and weight of your baby in addition to your budget will resolve what type of seat you will purchase.

If you want extra data with respect to combi car seat, drop by Darnell Morgocomd?s web site immediately.


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Source: http://seening.org/know-all-the-pieces-about-child-automotive-safety.aspx

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Fukushima's Fallout Worse Than Thought

Hmm, looking at the numbers...

From the pool of old fuel rods (NOT the reactors), we have 5kg of Cesium.

Plus a lot of Xenon. The Xenon release has a half life of ~126 hours. So, March 11 to today...

That leaves 0.000000000000074 of the original amount left. Or about 1MBq....

Oddly enough, most of this release seems to have happened as a side-effect of a complete lack of reprocessing of spent fuel rods, since they'd have been shipped off for reprocessing if that had been legal....

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/9PcSot174mY/fukushimas-fallout-worse-than-thought

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PFT: Dolphins sign Losman as backup

Bud Light And Marcus Allen Launch NFL Fan CampGetty Images

Last week, NFLPA spokesman George Atallah explained to PFT the union?s ongoing concerns regarding the proposed HGH testing procedure, and he acknowledged that the NFLPA surely will be experiencing renewed pressure from Congress based on the union?s position that no agreement was reached on October 14 to commence the collection of blood samples.

The pressure from Congress has been renewed.

Three members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have requested that public hearings be held on the issue.? Per Mark Maske of the Washington Post, the request came from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Cal.), Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), and Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) in a letter sent to the committee?s chairman, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

It?s the second House committee to show interest in the HGH testing issue.? The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform arranged the October 14 meeting, via Representatives Darrell Issa (D-Cal.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).

?Committee hearings will allow us to learn about these issues, hearing from top scientists about the validity of HGH testing and from the NFL and the NFLPA about the extent of HGH use in the league and their plans for testing to eliminate such use,? Waxman, Butterfield, and Rush write.? ?We urge you to hold a hearing on this issue as soon as possible.?

The letter, the full text of which has been posted on the committee?s website, also questions the NFLPA?s stated reasons for refusing to proceed, citing former NFL quarterback and CBS analyst Boomer Esiason, who has said that the NFLPA is ducking the deal ??because they have players guilty of using this substance . . . [a]nd there are many who believe it is at least 20 percent in the league.??

The NFL thinks that a hearing isn?t necessary, because in the league?s opinion the NFLPA already has agreed to proceed.? ?We appreciate the committee?s commitment to this issue, but there should be no need for this hearing if the union would simply live up to its agreements,? NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told PFT via email.? ?One was made in August as part of the new CBA to begin testing for HGH and another was reached with Congressmen Issa and Cummings on October 14.? The October 14 agreement was to begin collections immediately and then work out the remaining details of the HGH testing program promptly.? We stand ready to move forward.?

As we?ve explained several times in the past, the NFLPA?s primary concern is that the World Anti-Doping Agency developed the permissible threshold for naturally occurring HGH based on the testing of Olympics athletes, who may have a lower amount than football players.? This would result in players potentially generating false positives.

Then again, if players already are using HGH on a widespread basis (Bucs running back Earnest Graham once pegged the number at 30 percent of the league, and there are whispers that the number could be much higher than that, even though Browns linebacker Scott Fujita told NBC SportsTalk last month that the number is in the range of one percent), a population study including HGH users would potentially give NFL players a buffer zone, thanks to the inclusion in the group to be tested of men who are already using the substance.

?I applaud the members in their request for a hearing and look forward to fully discussing all of these issues as soon as possible,? NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, pictured with Commissioner Roger Goodell on the day the new CBA was signed, said in an email to the Associated Press.? ?We are sending letters to the teams immediately in order to assist Congress in its fact finding mission.?

Though it?s inevitable that HGH testing will be implemented, with each passing day the likelihood of testing during the 2011 season decreases.? And that meshes with the still-lingering theory that the strong resistance among the players to the idea of being stuck with a needle and tested for HGH will result in the players choosing not to re-hire Smith as their leader when his contract expires in March, if HGH testing is implemented before then.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/25/j-p-losman-is-back/related/

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Obama to take action to ease student loan burden (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama plans to use his executive powers to ease the burden of student loan repayments by allowing loans to be bundled and by accelerating an income-based repayment program, the White House said on Tuesday.

Obama will announce the measures in Denver on Wednesday, as he wraps up a swing through electorally important western states to convince voters he is using the power of his office to bypass congressional Republicans who oppose his jobs plans.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/pl_nm/us_obama_students_plan

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How would you change Apple's OS X 10.7 (Lion)?

Apple's most highly sophisticated OS yet? Cupertino would have you think so, but as with any major update, there have been plenty of quirks to work through in the months following the introduction of Lion. For those of you who've made the 0.2 leap from 10.6.8 (or from further back, actually), we're interested in learning how your overall experience has been. A good move? Still regretting it? What apps have broken on you? Has your workflow changed at all? Do you prefer "natural" scrolling? How would you tweak Lion if given the chance? What apps would you overhaul? What factory settings would you alter? Carefully considered thoughts are welcome in comments below.

How would you change Apple's OS X 10.7 (Lion)? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nlhiehFc_go/

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Fly on wall sees things it wishes it hadn?t

?Where there are humans,

you?ll find flies,

and Buddhas.?

?Kobayashi Issa

Each day, in each country, a housefly is born. Lots of houseflies really. Houseflies have been being born around us for thousands of years. They are born of what everyone else abandons, corpses, cakes, and excrement. And yet their story is inescapably a version of our story. They spread early out of Africa, bound to us. You find them wrapped in mummies, their bodies held tight against the bodies of pharaohs [1]. You find them in ancient latrines, as larvae, tunneling through what we would rather be done with. At picnics they sit on hot dogs. In bedrooms, they look down from walls. In war and tragedy, they mouth what we cannot even countenance. They brushed upon Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Caesar, but also Mussolini and you. And before they brushed upon you (or Mussolini) they brushed upon, well, you don?t want to know.

Fly foot (AKA tarsus)

Actually, you might want to know. Or at least some scientists think you might want to know. So it is that there is now a large book worth of scientific studies of just what can be found living on flies. All of these studies are interesting, some are a bit disgusting, and a new study from a pig farm in North Carolina is the kind of thing that might just change how you live your life.

Although we have seen houseflies for millennia, complained about them in a thousand languages using a hundred thousand adjectives, in some ways they are still among the least known guests at the table. No one knows where they come from (only that they had already found us as of five thousand years ago). No one knows what they did before they found us (though one imagines it involved decay). What we do know about houseflies is that they gather a little bit of life from everything they touch and redistribute it, a sort of Robin Hood of germs.

Some of the bacteria living on houseflies are their partners. Housefly eggs and larvae depend on beneficial bacteria (such as the species Klebsiella oxytoca) bestowed upon them by their mothers. These bacteria produce compounds that kill fungi and, in doing so, help hungry young flies outcompete those same fungi for their otherwise rapidly decaying food [2]. Others though are hangers on, gathered by accident as the flies bump around the world. When a fly lands, its sticky hairs become covered in bacteria, which can then be transferred to whatever the flies land on next (insert image 1 here). Flies also store bacteria (gathered from their food) in their alimentary tract. These germs are brought to new places in fly poop, but also?as one treatise on flies delicately puts it? ?in small droplets of regurgitated matter which have been called vomit spots.?

Just where do houseflies pick up these other bacteria, the ones the give back to us in vomit spots, feces and footsteps? Well, they find them in what we have abandoned, the remains on which they can survive. Once, houseflies emerged from horseshit by the billions (insert image 2 here). When that ran out (thanks to the invention of cars), they turned to our garbage and so we collected it more frequently and took it far away. When the garbage become rare (some places, though not everywhere), they found the dog waste we left behind in cities. And now that New Yorkers, for instance, in their fancy shoes and dark clothes, gather the dog poop in bags, the flies have found those places we have taken our waste to hide it from them (and from ourselves ;) . At garbage dumps flies flock in dense halos. They are born too out of the rough parts of towns?smoke signals of neglect. They have even found the places we have moved our animals, the modern mangers of chickens and pigs where waste is dumped into vast pools (insert image 3 here). Here, their naked children eclose as writhing maggots only to be born again later to their, hairy, adult, flying forms.

It is among these last flies that my friend Coby Schal recently decided to spend some of his days [3]. Coby has studied insects at pig farms for a while. There are probably worse places to study insects, though I can?t think of them right now. Coby has looked at the movement of roaches from one pig farm to another, but what he wanted to study with the flies was something different. Along with colleagues at Kansas State University, Coby wanted to know just what was being carried aloft as those flies rose. Flies, incidentally, take care in their rise. They bend their legs a little and, ever so gingerly, bounce, while flapping their wings.

Horse and housefly. This is not really the relationship I was talking about, but this drawing was too funny to resist. Certainly, the idea of houseflies riding into cities on horses is right, it is just that they would be riding a little further back. From the funny houseflies collection.

Coby and his colleagues found fecal bacteria in 93.7% of the flies at the pig farm (The aptly named Enterococcus faecalis was the most common species). This came as no surprise. Houseflies the world over carry fecal bacteria. The surprise was many of those bacteria were resistant to antibiotics, such as tetracycline and erythromycin, antibiotics used to treat human bacterial diseases [4]. Such resistant forms, so-called superbugs, can kill, and while finding them on flies near pig farms does not guarantee they are making their way from the farms to our bodies via flies, it certainly suggests the possibility.

But why would the flies in pig farms tend to have antibiotic resistant bacteria? Herein lies the secret you might not have heard. Most pigs in the U.S., as well as most farm animals more generally, are fed antibiotics. By some estimates, eighty percent of antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used on animals. The antibiotics are not used to treat infections. Instead they serve solely to promote rapid growth, to make your bacon or burger cheaper and faster. As an evolutionary side effect when pigs are fed those antibiotics their weak bacteria, those susceptible to the antibiotics being used, die. Those most likely to survive are the lineages resistant to antibiotics, the tough mothers. If isolated on pig farms, all of this is imprudent but not tragic in as much as it seems isolated, faraway from our daily lives. Then the flies enter the story.

Canoe ride anyone? This is a typical waste pond at a pig facility. From a distance (or in a photo) it seems pleasant enough, but that pleasantness is an illusion.

Houseflies can fly and they can do so more effectively than you might imagine. They fly with the wind, but even against it. Individual houseflies have been recorded having traveled more than ten miles [5]. Consider the geography of farms. Imagine the flies rising up from them and flying toward you. Whatever new resistant strains of bacteria they bear may be closer than you think. They might be tapping at your window now or, as Chekhov said of them, ?brushing against the ceiling,? their bodies bouncing along as they leave their bacteria behind.

Humans tend to dislike successful animals. We scorn the murders of crows, the flocks of starlings and the even the ants that boil up around and into our houses. Their bodies seem vulgar. The flies though, we conclude, are not just loathsome but dirty and even, in the context of Coby Schal?s new study, potentially deadly. This is one lesson to take from the flies, but the wrong one. The real truth they offer, if we pay attention, is more about the nature of humans than it is the nature of flies. Anopheles mosquitoes are vectors of malaria, but houseflies, well, they are vectors of what we leave behind, carrying it back to us, as though to say, ?Over here! You forgot something?? They are the messenger nobody asked for, bearing the messages nobody wants, whether about the overuse of antibiotics or some other of our failings. And so go ahead and kill the messenger, but heed the message. Meanwhile, billions of fly eggs are ready to hatch out of whatever we leave behind.

1-Panagiotakopulu E, Buckland PC, Kemp BJ (2010) Underneath Ranefer?s floors?urban environments on the desert edge. J Archaeol Sci, 37:474?481

2-Zvereva EL (1986b) Peculiarities of competitive interaction between larvae of the house fly Musca domestica and microscopic fungi. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 65:1517?1525, Lam K, Thu K, Tsang M, Moore M, Gries G. 2009. Bacteria on housefly eggs, Musca domestica, suppress fungal growth in chicken manure through nutrient depletion or antifungal metabolites. Naturwissenschaften, 96 :1127-1132.

3-Well, and to send his students, postdocs and technicians, to spend theirs.

4-Ahmad A., A. Ghosh, C. Schal, and L. Zurek. 2011. Insects in confined swine operations carry a large antibiotic resistant and potentially virulent enterococcal community. BMC Microbiology, 11:23.

5-Chakrabarti S, Kambhaampati Zurek L. 2010. Assessment of house fly dispersal between rural and urban habitats in Kansas, USA. J Kans Entomol Soc, 83:172-188.

Images:

Image 1. Fly foot (AKA tarsus)

Image 2. Horse and housefly. This is not really the relationship I was talking about, but this drawing was too funny to resist. Certainly, the idea of houseflies riding into cities on horses is right, it is just that they would be riding a little further back. From the funny houseflies collection.

Image 3. Canoe ride anyone? This is a typical waste pond at a pig facility. From a distance (or in a photo) it seems pleasant enough, but that pleasantness is an illusion.

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