3-vehicle crash preceded fatal mass pileup in Fla.

GAINESVILLE, Fla.?? The Florida Highway Patrol says there was a three-vehicle crash just hours before a series of pileups killed 10 people and injured 18 others on the same stretch of Interstate 75.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Romney: Gingrich attacks ?painful to watch?
   2. Updated 69 minutes ago 1/30/2012 10:11:25 PM +00:00 FDA whistleblowers sue, alleging electronic spying
   3. These Super Bowl ads didn't need toilet humor
   4. Fast food goes around-the-clock
   5. Updated 84 minutes ago 1/30/2012 9:55:54 PM +00:00 Gazans break(dance)ing boundaries
   6. Teen eats mainly McNuggets for 15 years

According to the report released Monday, heavy smoke and fog resulted in low visibility along I-75 south of Gainesville late Saturday. About 11:55 p.m. Saturday, a tractor-trailer hit a Toyota in the northbound lanes. A Lexus then hit the back of the truck.

Authorities say a passenger in the Lexus was sent to the hospital in serious condition.

The Highway Patrol closed I-75 and nearby U.S. 441 a short time later, due to worsening road conditions. But the highway was then reopened early Sunday and a series of pileups began around 3:45 a.m., some of them fatal.

'People were screaming'
Steven R. Camps and some friends were driving home on the interstate when they heard "cars hitting each other."

"People were crying, People were screaming. It was crazy," the Gainesville resident told The Associated Press hours later. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."

Some of the road's asphalt melted.

Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, described the pileup as "probably the worst one I've seen in 27 years."

Riordan said investigators are still trying to determine how many separate collisions occurred on the interstate.

The pileups happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75. When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile.

"That's a very scary thing when you can't see anything and hear the squealing of tires and don't know if 2,000 pounds of metal is coming at you,? Alachua County Sheriff's Sgt. Todd Kelly told the Gainesville Sun.

At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.

Hours later, twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage.

Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Fog bank
Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and urged Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area, just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to him when another vehicle hit that man's car.

Explosions
The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities. A "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup, police said.

All six lanes of the interstate were closed most of Sunday as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames.

The northbound lanes were reopened at about 5:30 p.m. The Gainesville Sun reported that the southbound lanes reopened at around 11 p.m. on Sunday.

No sign of lightning
At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved, police said. Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46186780/ns/us_news-life/

kevin hart idris elba kelsey grammer donald driver donald driver mlk day octavia spencer

Study may answer questions about enigmatic Little Ice Age

Monday, January 30, 2012

A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study appears to answer contentious questions about the onset and cause of Earth's Little Ice Age, a period of cooling temperatures that began after the Middle Ages and lasted into the late 19th century.

According to the new study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism and sustained by a self- perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to CU-Boulder Professor Gifford Miller, who led the study. The primary evidence comes from radiocarbon dates from dead vegetation emerging from rapidly melting icecaps on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, combined with ice and sediment core data from the poles and Iceland and from sea ice climate model simulations, said Miller.

While scientific estimates regarding the onset of the Little Ice Age range from the 13th century to the 16th century, there is little consensus, said Miller. There is evidence the Little Ice Age affected places as far away as South America and China, although it was particularly evident in northern Europe. Advancing glaciers in mountain valleys destroyed towns, and famous paintings from the period depict people ice skating on the Thames River in London and canals in the Netherlands, waterways that were ice-free in winter before and after the Little Ice Age.

"The dominant way scientists have defined the Little Ice Age is by the expansion of big valley glaciers in the Alps and in Norway," said Miller. "But the time it took for European glaciers to advance far enough to demolish villages would have been long after the onset of the cold period," said Miller, a fellow at CU's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

Most scientists think the Little Ice Age was caused either by decreased summer solar radiation, erupting volcanoes that cooled the planet by ejecting shiny aerosol particles that reflected sunlight back into space, or a combination of both, said Miller.

The new study suggests that the onset of the Little Ice Age was caused by an unusual, 50-year-long episode of four massive tropical volcanic eruptions. Climate models used in the new study showed that the persistence of cold summers following the eruptions is best explained by a sea ice-ocean feedback system originating in the North Atlantic Ocean.

"This is the first time anyone has clearly identified the specific onset of the cold times marking the start of the Little Ice Age," said Miller. "We also have provided an understandable climate feedback system that explains how this cold period could be sustained for a long period of time. If the climate system is hit again and again by cold conditions over a relatively short period -- in this case, from volcanic eruptions -- there appears to be a cumulative cooling effect."

A paper on the subject is being published Jan. 31 in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. The paper was authored by scientists and students from CU-Boulder, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, the University of Iceland, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Icelandic Science Foundation.

As part of the study, Miller and his colleagues radiocarbon-dated roughly 150 samples of dead plant material with roots intact collected from beneath receding ice margins of ice caps on Baffin Island. There was a large cluster of "kill dates" between A.D. 1275 and 1300, indicating the plants had been frozen and engulfed by ice during a relatively sudden event.

Both low-lying and higher altitude plants all died at roughly the same time, indicating the onset of the Little Ice Age on Baffin Island -- the fifth largest island in the world -- was abrupt. The team saw a second spike in plant kill dates at about A.D. 1450, indicating the quick onset of a second major cooling event.

To broaden the study, the team analyzed sediment cores from a glacial lake linked to the 367-square-mile Langj?kull ice cap in the central highlands of Iceland that reaches nearly a mile high. The annual layers in the cores -- which can be reliably dated by using tephra deposits from known historic volcanic eruptions on Iceland going back more than 1,000 years -- suddenly became thicker in the late 13th century and again in the 15th century due to increased erosion caused by the expansion of the ice cap as the climate cooled, he said.

"That showed us the signal we got from Baffin Island was not just a local signal, it was a North Atlantic signal," said Miller. "This gave us a great deal more confidence that there was a major perturbation to the Northern Hemisphere climate near the end of the 13th century." Average summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere did not return to those of the Middle Ages until the 20th century, and the temperatures of the Middle Ages are now exceeded in many areas, he said.

The team used the NCAR-based Community Climate System Model to test the effects of volcanic cooling on Arctic sea ice extent and mass. The model, which simulated various sea ice conditions from about A.D. 1150-1700, showed several large, closely spaced eruptions could have cooled the Northern Hemisphere enough to trigger Arctic sea ice growth.

The models showed sustained cooling from volcanoes would have sent some of the expanding Arctic sea ice down along the eastern coast of Greenland until it eventually melted in the North Atlantic. Since sea ice contains almost no salt, when it melted the surface water became less dense, preventing it from mixing with deeper North Atlantic water. This weakened heat transport back to the Arctic and creating a self-sustaining feedback system on the sea ice long after the effects of the volcanic aerosols subsided, he said.

"Our simulations showed that the volcanic eruptions may have had a profound cooling effect," says NCAR scientist Bette Otto-Bliesner, a co-author of the study. "The eruptions could have triggered a chain reaction, affecting sea ice and ocean currents in a way that lowered temperatures for centuries."

The researchers set the solar radiation at a constant level in the climate models, and Miller said the Little Ice Age likely would have occurred without decreased summer solar radiation at the time. "Estimates of the sun's variability over time are getting smaller, it's now thought by some scientists to have varied little more in the last millennia than during a standard 11-year solar cycle," he said.

One of the primary questions pertaining to the Little Ice Age is how unusual the warming of Earth is today, he said. A previous study led by Miller in 2008 on Baffin Island indicated temperatures today are the warmest in at least 2,000 years.

###

University of Colorado at Boulder: http://www.colorado.edu/news

Thanks to University of Colorado at Boulder for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 54 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117183/Study_may_answer_questions_about_enigmatic_Little_Ice_Age_

austin box austin box the academy is the academy is colorado avalanche colorado avalanche bass lake

Mattek-Sands, Tecau win Australian mixed title

Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US, right, and Horia Tecau of Romania in action during their mixed doubles final against Elena Vesnina of Russia and Leander Paes of India at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Sarah Ivey)

Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US, right, and Horia Tecau of Romania in action during their mixed doubles final against Elena Vesnina of Russia and Leander Paes of India at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Sarah Ivey)

Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US takes a drink ,as she and Horia Tecau of Romania play Elena Vesnina of Russia and Leander Paes of India during their mixed doubles final at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Elena Vesnina of Russia, left, and Leander Paes of India in action during their mixed doubles final against Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and Horia Tecau of Romania at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Sarah Ivey)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Romanian Horia Tecau won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open on Sunday, beating Elena Vesnina and Leander Paes 6-3, 5-7, 10-3.

It was the first Grand Slam victory for the 26-year-old Mattek-Sands, known as much for her eccentric on-court attire as her tennis. For the final, she wore a lime, one-sleeve top, black skirt, black knee-high socks, purple streaks in her hair and her regular eye black on her cheeks.

Tecau also captured his first Grand Slam title. He has lost twice before in the men's doubles final at Wimbledon.

Paes, a 38-year-old doubles specialist from India, was playing in his second championship match in as many days. He won the men's doubles trophy with Radek Stepanek on Saturday night.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-29-TEN-Australian-Open-Mixed-Doubles/id-5e0370c72749414c9315b2e6dda0269a

bret michaels the unit bob weston david wilson bill obrien reggie mckenzie epiphany

Three Kazakh activists detained after rally for change (Reuters)

ALMATY (Reuters) ? A Kazakh court ordered the arrest and detention of three opposition activists Saturday for holding an unauthorised rally, at which protesters condemned the recent election as fraudulent and demanded the release of jailed colleagues.

The three were arrested hours after about 300 people, opposed to long-serving President Nursultan Nazarbayev, gathered in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, calling for democratic change.

At the rally, Bolat Abilov and Amirzhan Kosanov, leaders of the opposition All-National Social Democratic Party, had demanded a transparent investigation into riots last month in the oil-producing region of Zhanaozen, the Central Asian state's deadliest violence in decades.

"After the rally, Abilov and Kosanov were brought to an administrative court in Almaty," an aide to Abilov told Reuters, requesting anonymity. "Abilov was given 18 days in custody and Kosanov 15 days for holding the unauthorised rally."

Amirbek Togusov, the head of the Social Democrats' Almaty headquarters, was put under arrest for 15 days, he said.

"We saw them off right to the threshold of the detention center. They appeared to be in good spirits and were confident in their actions," Abilov's aide said. The court could not be reached for comment because it had closed.

Abilov and Kosanov, addressing the rally, had demanded that their colleagues jailed on charges of inciting the oilmen's riots in Zhanaozen, western Kazakhstan, be freed.

It was the second peaceful protest since the January 15 parliamentary election gave Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party an overwhelming victory. After denouncing the election as rigged and faulty during an unauthorised rally on January 17, Abilov and Kosanov were fined and warned they could be arrested next time.

"WE WANT PEACEFUL CHANGE"

Saturday, the protesters had originally planned to gather at a monument to the 19th century Kazakh poet and philosopher Abai but city authorities, who denied permission for the rally, fenced off the square and unarmed police stood guard. The demonstrators gathered instead outside a nearby hotel.

"We want change, peaceful change and democratic change. We want to be reckoned with," Abilov, co-chairman of the All-National Social Democratic Party, told the crowd.

A solitary Kazakh flag waved among a crowd that was swollen by the presence of journalists and plain-clothes police. A succession of speakers took the megaphone over nearly two hours, before Muslim prayers ended the rally.

Nazarbayev, a former Soviet Communist Party boss, has ruled Kazakhstan since before independence with little tolerance for dissent. This month's election admitted three parties to parliament for the first time, but Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers said it lacked any genuine opposition presence.

"The election wasn't legitimate. We want them to hear us," said Ravilya, a pensioner who stood in the crowd in temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius. "There are more police than people. It's a good thing they're armed only with sticks," she said.

Nazarbayev, 71, is popular among most of Kazakhstan's 16.7 million population for bringing stability that has made the country's economy the most successful in ex-Soviet Central Asia.

But the riots in the oil town of Zhanaozen, which officials say killed 16, shook that image of stability. Police fired live rounds at crowds who set buildings ablaze in the town. Another person was killed in a nearby village the next day.

"We demand a just and large-scale investigation into the tragedy," Abilov said. "The president should promise that never again will weapons be used against citizens of Kazakhstan."

The prosecutor-general's office said this week that police generally acted within legal bounds when resorting to the use of weapons on December 16, but four senior officers are being prosecuted for using excessive force.

Opposition leader Vladimir Kozlov and newspaper editor Igor Vinyavsky have been detained for two months pending trial on charges of fomenting social hatred and trying to overthrow the constitutional order.

"We demand that authorities stop fighting against their opponents with such methods," Abilov said.

(Additional reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_kazakhstan_protest

stanford football lsu football schedule lsu football schedule terrapin terrapin manny pacquiao vs marquez manny pacquiao vs marquez

Why exotic animal trade grows in Asia

Rising wealth?lifts demand for exotic pets and delicacies in Asia. Meahwhile, enforcers are stretched thin.

On a traffic-snarled Jakarta roadside, a market trader thrusts out a forearm with a terrified looking primate clasping tightly to his skin.

Skip to next paragraph

"You can have it for 300,000 rupiah [$30]," he says of the slow loris, a protected species whose sluggish movement makes it easy prey for poachers. The destruction of its habitat and its low reproduction rate are why the loris is classified as facing extinction under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which bans their trade.

But here at the Jatinegara market, there is no attempt to conceal the sale of loris or many other endangered species. Orangutans, Sumatran tigers, and Javan eagles are just a few of the threatened species in Indonesia's animal markets.

It is a scenario that has been playing out across Southeast Asia for centuries, but with increased speed in the past decade, as a burgeoning class of wealthy Asians who cherish rare creatures as exotic pets, delicacies, or for supposed medicinal qualities fuel a booming and illegal trade.

The plunder ? a small piece of the greater challenge of environmental conservation in Indonesia ? is happening in conjunction with habitat depletion, and conservationists fear some species will soon disappear while new ones tumble onto the endangered list.

"Rare animals have become status symbols. They are trophies for people to demonstrate their wealth and the collateral damage of Asia's economic rise," says James Compton, senior director for Asia-Pacific at Traffic, a conservation group that monitors wildlife trade.

"We will see some local populations of endemic species disappear very quickly. Look at what happened to the tiger population over the past 100 years," he says.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network predicts that between 13 and 42 percent of the region's animal and plant species will be wiped out this century, mostly due to logging and loss of habitat.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organi?za?tion estimates that Indonesia loses 6.2 million acres of forest ? equivalent to the size of Vermont ? every year. By 2008, Indonesia had lost 72 percent of its ancient forests, and what remains is threatened by commercial logging, forest fires, and clearing for palm oil plantations, according to Green?peace.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/R1JCakEFUpA/Why-exotic-animal-trade-grows-in-Asia

miles austin ellen degeneres eddie cibrian washington redskins doritos confederate flag confederate flag

Glitzy new AU headquarters a symbol of China-Africa ties (Reuters)

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) ? Standing on what was once Ethiopia's oldest maximum security prison, the new African Union headquarters funded by China is a symbol of the Asian giant's push to stay ahead in Africa and gain greater access to the continent's resources.

Critics point to an imbalance in what they see as the new "Scramble for Africa." But the prospect of growing Chinese economic influence is welcomed by African leaders, who see Beijing as a partner to help build their economies at a time when Europe and the United States are mired in economic turmoil.

And Africans are hoping for more Chinese largesse.

"The future prospects of our partnership are even brighter," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Saturday at the new headquarters' multi-storey amphitheatre, where an African heads of states' summit will take place Sunday and Monday.

"China - its amazing re-emergence and its commitments for a win-win partnership with Africa - is one of the reasons for the beginning of the African renaissance," he said.

The brown marble and glass monolith was fully paid for by China, right down to the office furniture, and cost $200 million. The office complex and almost 100 metre (330 foot) tower is Addis Ababa's tallest building by far.

For the past decade, Africa has recorded economic growth of an average of 5 percent but its under-developed infrastructure has in part hindered its capacity to develop further.

Chinese companies are changing that. They are building roads and investing in the energy sector, and are active in areas such as telecoms technology.

China's most senior political adviser, Jia Qinglin, said trade between the two partners had grown to $150 billion, and the unveiling of the headquarters was a "milestone" in the ties between China and Africa.

As the biggest consumer of iron-ore, China has a relentless hunger for African minerals and energy.

Beijing now appears keener to flex its diplomatic muscle in the continent. It has also contributed $4.5 million for the African Union peacekeeping force battling Islamist militants in Somalia.

Outside the complex, hundreds of Chinese support staff, delegates and officials snapped pictures of their country's most ostentatious presence yet in Africa.

Critics point to land grabs and mistreatment of African workers on Chinese-funded projects. Even when it comes to job opportunities, in some instances China brings in teams of workers and technical experts.

Yet African officials insist they aren't being manipulated by China, and say the relationship is not based on aid but on trade and development.

"There are people who still consider Africans like children who can be easily manipulated. The good thing about this partnership is that it's give and take," the Democratic Republic of Congo's ambassador to Washington, Faida Mitifu, told Reuters.

(Editing by James Macharia and Alessandra Rizzo)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_africa_china

harry potter and the half blood prince city of ember city of ember virgin diaries kevin smith kevin smith carlos mencia

Suicide bomber kills 29 in Baghdad: police (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? At least 29 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a Baghdad marketplace on Friday, the latest attack on a mainly Shi'ite neighborhood since a political crisis erupted in December, police and hospital sources said.

The bomber exploded his vehicle near a passing Shi'ite funeral procession by a small street market in the Zaafaraniya neighborhood, killing at least 29 and wounding around 60 more, police officials and sources at three hospitals said.

Iraqi authorities blame Sunni Islamist insurgents for attacks targeting Shi'ites in an attempt to stoke the kind of sectarian violence in 2006-2007 which killed tens of thousands.

"The suicide car bomber failed to arrive at the Zaafaraniya police station so he blew himself up close to shops and the market," said an official at the office of Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi.

The funeral was for a Shi'ite real estate agent who was killed by gunmen in Baghdad a day earlier, police said.

A string of attacks has targeted Shi'ites during the crisis triggered when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government sought the arrest of a Sunni vice president and asked lawmakers to remove a Sunni deputy prime minister shortly after the last U.S. troops left Iraq on December 18.

Violence has eased since the heights of sectarian strife unleashed by the 2003 invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. But Iraqi forces are still battling Sunni insurgents and rival Shi'ite militias.

Maliki, a Shi'ite, says his moves against Sunni leaders were legal decisions and not politically motivated. But many Sunnis, already feeling alienated, worry measures are part of a drive by Maliki to consolidate his power at their expense.

(Reporting Kareem Raheem; writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence

john king etta james east west shrine game ohare airport etta james songs underworld awakening haywire

U.S. growth quickens, but speed bumps ahead (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter, but a rebuilding of stocks by businesses and slower business spending warned of weaker growth in early 2012.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent in the prior three months.

It was, however, a touch below economists expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 percent rate, and two-thirds of the increase was due to the build-up in business inventories.

Soft underlying demand and a sharp slowing in core inflation supported the Federal Reserve's decision this week to keep in place an ultra easy monetary policy to nurse the recovery.

"The areas of strength are unlikely to be strong in the current quarter and the areas of weakness are more than likely to be weaker," said Steve Blitz, a senior economist at ITG Investment Research in New York. "Frankly, I don't think there is an awful lot the Fed can do about it."

The data helped push U.S. stocks slightly lower, while longer-dated Treasury debt prices are slipped. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.

The economy got a temporary boost from the rebuilding of inventories, which logged the biggest increase since the third quarter of 2010.

Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a tepid 0.8 percent rate, a sharp step-down from the prior period's 3.2 percent pace and a sign of weak domestic demand.

THE POLITICS OF GROWTH

For all of last year, the economy grew just 1.7 percent, and economists expect only a bit of quickening this year.

Sluggish growth could hurt President Barack Obama's chances of re-election in November, and might lead the Fed to launch a further round of bond purchases to spur the recovery.

"Clearly, much work remains to achieve the Fed's dual mandate of maximum sustainable employment in the context of price stability," New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley told reporters.

The central bank on Wednesday said it expected to keep interest rates at rock bottom levels at least through late 2014, and it warned the economy still faced big risks, a suggestion the euro zone debt crisis could still hit hard.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday also gave a lukewarm assessment of economy's prospects.

"We're still repairing the damage done by the financial crisis. On top of that we face a more challenging world. We have a lot of challenges ahead in the United States," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

The robust inventory accumulation in the fourth quarter - a $56 billion build-up - suggests the recovery will lose a step at some point in early 2012 when businesses throttle back.

But economists said there was no sign businesses were uncomfortable yet with the amount of inventory they had on hand, suggesting they could add more in the current quarter.

"We had dealer stock build in the fourth quarter, but it was really to make sure we had the inventories that support the going-rate in terms of days' supply," Ford Motor Corp Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said on a conference call.

"I think we're at 58 days, which is actually lower than our typical level," he said.

Weak spots during the quarter included business investment spending, which advanced at just a 1.7 percent annual rate, the slowest since 2009.

A sharp drop in defense spending and still weak outlays at state and local authorities combined to yield a fifth straight quarterly contraction in government spending.

Though exports held up, an increase in imports left a trade gap that also chipped growth, and while home construction rose at the fastest pace since the second quarter of 2010, it was helped by unseasonably mild winter weather.

SLUGGISH INCOME GROWTH

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, also accelerated, stepping up to a 2 percent rate from the third-quarter's 1.7 percent.

However, it was largely driven by pent-up demand for cars. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami had disrupted supplies early last year, leaving showrooms bereft of popular models.

Consumers also benefited from a moderation in inflation.

A price index for personal spending rose at a 0.7 percent rate in the fourth-quarter, the slowest increase in 1-1/2 years.

A core measure that strips out food and energy costs rose at a 1.1 percent pace, off sharply from the prior quarter and the slowest in a year. The slowdown could worry the Fed, which would prefer it nearer its 2 percent inflation target.

High unemployment has led to sluggish income growth, which in turn has prompted households to tap savings and credit cards to fund their purchases.

A sustained GDP growth pace of at least 3 percent would likely be needed to make noticeable headway in absorbing the unemployed and those who have given up the search for work.

"Though the unemployment rate has improved, the jobs market remains a major challenge," said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.

"The high level of people out of the workforce and underemployed people show there isn't really much income generation to contribute to a better spending pattern."

Even so, another report on Friday showed consumer sentiment reached its highest level in nearly a year this month.

(Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Tim Ahmann)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/bs_nm/us_usa_economy

barnaby giuliana rancic giuliana rancic the cabin in the woods the cabin in the woods trace adkins the darkest hour

13 killed in clashes in Russia's volatile Caucasus

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) ? Russian officials say an Islamist warlord, seven militants, four officers and one civilian have been killed in three separate incidents in Russia's violence-plagued southern Caucasus region.

Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout Friday in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants.

Also Friday, police spokesman Vyasheslav Gasanov said four Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

In another restive Russian province, Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym, police spokesman Andrey Ushakov said.

An Islamic insurgency has spread across Russia's southern Caucasus region since two separatists wars against Russia were fought in Chechnya beginning in the 1990s. The insurgents now launch regular attacks on authorities who they blame for the abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-27-EU-Russia-Caucasus-Violence/id-5ccc6f41feb347588ad459481cbf81b5

fast times at ridgemont high fast times at ridgemont high andrea bocelli john hughes panasonic lumix dmc lx5 ucla football taylor momsen

Google strikes deal to bring 27,000 Chromebooks to US schools in three states

It remains to be seen if they'll be the big game-changer in education that Google hopes they will be, but the company is making some progress at getting its Chromebooks into schools. The latest push is a deal with three US school districts, which will see some 27,000 Chromebooks land in the hand of students in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina. As CNET reports, South Carolina's Richland School District Two is making by far the biggest investment of the lot, ordering 19,000 Chromebooks that will be used as part of a three-year program for students in the third through twelfth grades. As for Google itself, it still isn't being too specific on the total number of Chromebooks now being used by schools, noting only that "hundreds" of schools across 41 states are using them in at least one classroom.

Google strikes deal to bring 27,000 Chromebooks to US schools in three states originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/google-strikes-deal-to-bring-27-000-chromebooks-to-us-schools-in/

stevan ridley breast cancer awareness month breast cancer awareness month new ipod touch new ipod touch dwts results vanessa paradis

PM Saturday: Build This Rugged Iron Pipe Lamp

January 26, 2012 4:30 PM Text Size: A . A . A

1. PREP PARTS

Scrap ?-inch iron pipe and fittings make this stable, rugged lamp. Get a 12-inch nipple, three tee fittings, four 90-degree elbows, one 45-degree elbow, 11 close nipples, four pipe caps, a candelabra socket, a cord, a bulb, a worklight's shade, and a touch-dimmer switch. Use a cobalt bit to drill a 3/8-inch hole in a tee, opposite its center opening. Pull 18 inches of cord through the hole and the tee's center opening.

2. WIRE THE IRON

Screw together the 12-inch nipple, the 45-degree elbow fitting, and a close nipple. Fish the lamp cord through this assembly. Screw the open end of the 12-inch nipple into the drilled tee fitting's opening.

3. FINISH THE LAMP

Wire the lamp socket base to the cord at the nontee end of the 12-inch nipple. Make sure all electrical connections are insulated and not touching pipe. Gently pull the cord from its plug end, tightening up slack until the lamp socket base is even with the nipple's edge. Use a hose clamp to clip the worklight's shade to the 45-degree elbow.

4. GIVE IT LEGS

Assemble the lamp base using two tees, four 90-degree elbows, and 10 close nipples. Insert nipples into the openings of the tee and elbow fittings. Finger-tighten the connections. To make feet, screw the pipe-cap fittings to the nipples.

Screw in a bulb. Plug the cord into the touch dimmer and plug it into an outlet. Hit a pipe to turn it on.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/metalworking/pm-saturday-build-this-rugged-iron-pipe-lamp?src=rss

cole hamels cole hamels curtis painter apple news conference apple news conference apple news apple iphone

Obama's insourcing jobs plan faces an uphill battle

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington Tuesday.

By Eve Tahmincioglu

President Obama decried the outsourcing of jobs to foreign lands in the State of the Union last night while Steve Jobs' widow looked on. Clearly, the administration wanted Apple represented as an example of American ingenuity and success.?

One problem, though: Apple is a big American jobs outsourcer, with the bulk of its manufacturing now being done in China.?

This is Obama's insourcing conundrum. He has long talked about bringing jobs back to the United States, even reportedly sparring with the late Jobs about the issue. Globalization, however, has become a mainstay for U.S. companies, with many finding it profitable to pink-slip American workers in exchange for cheap labor abroad.?

Can Obama break corporate America?s outsourcing habit by removing tax incentives for companies who take jobs abroad, or rewarding those who bring jobs back home??

The president thinks so.?

?It?s time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America,? he said last night. ?Send me these tax reforms, and I?ll sign them right away.???

Whether there?s enough political will to get such legislation passed during an election year is unclear given ongoing congressional gridlock. What is clear, however, is that even if Obama wanted to put an end to tax breaks for offshoring employers, or upped incentives for U.S. job creators, the employment picture won?t brighten overnight.?

?I think that there is an embryonic trend here,? said Jared Bernstein,? the former chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, and a member of President Obama?s economic team. ?There are multinational firms that overdid it on outsourcing, so some producers might respond to tax incentives or disincentives, but I don?t expect anything big to happen quickly.?

Indeed, the impact of outsourcing on the U.S. job market took time to reverberate, starting first with manufacturing more than 30 years ago and extending in the last decade to service jobs.?

One study by The Hackett Group shows the loss of 1.35 million back-office jobs in corporate finance, IT, HR and procurement, thanks to offshoring of jobs, along with automation, since 2000. The company estimates that jobs will continue to be lost due to outsourcing at the rate of about 112,000 jobs per year from now through 2014.

"In total, these losses mean that by 2014 there will be only about half as many jobs in these areas in the U.S. as there were in 2000,? the research found.?

On the manufacturing side, outsourcing led to the loss of 406,000 jobs in 2004, compared with 204,000 in 2001, according to an extensive report conducted by labor researchers at Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2004, the most recent data available.?

?When manufacturing was devastated, workers were supposed to be saved by white-collar jobs,? explained Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and co-author of the study. ?But now those jobs are leaving. Then you?re left with unskilled, low-wage, retail and distribution jobs.??

Bronfenbrenner said Obama?s plan to curb outsourcing resonates with the American people, and she?s hopeful his policies will indeed bring back good-paying jobs. But, she added, ?I know it?s an uphill battle.??

Others believe the country should just let the globalization chips fall where they may.?

?You can?t fight it,? maintained Michel Janssen, The Hackett Group?s chief research officer.?

?Politicians can try to legislate business but they can?t, the law of economics is what rules in the end,? he said. ?Apple is a good example. They found the best manufacturing capability in China, while most of innovation comes from U.S. They are going to do what they need to do to be competitive.??

Even if Obama did provide tax incentives to employers to bring back jobs, he continued, the incentives would likely not be big enough to offset the savings companies now get from low-cost labor in places like China and India. ?A starting MBA in India makes $5,000 to $10,000 a year,? he pointed out.?

The end of the outsourcing game will come, he added, when the standard of living goes up in India and China, and wages continue to decline in the United States, to the point where it makes economic sense for employers to again employ American worker. ?Still another 20 years before that happens,? Janssen surmised.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10237006-obamas-insourcing-jobs-plan-faces-an-uphill-battle

van jones van jones dark energy dark energy sherri shepherd sherri shepherd sean avery

New Zealand authorities shut down 'Occupy' camps (AP)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand ? Authorities have effectively shut down the Occupy movement in New Zealand's largest city after more than 100 days of protest.

Auckland Council officers and police Monday confiscated cars, tents and camping gear from more than 50 protesters at four sites in Auckland. The raid came after a local court ruled authorities could remove property from people who were illegally camping.

Police arrested three people in Aotea Square during the raids.

Occupy encampments remain in other New Zealand cities. Protesters in this country joined the movement that began last September in New York as a protest against social and financial inequality.

Auckland Council spokesman Glyn Walters said protesters can return to the sites but are no longer allowed to camp there.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_as/as_new_zealand_occupy_ends

matt forte dr conrad murray verdict take care childish gambino camp drake take care tracklist drake take care tracklist dr murray trial

Egyptians gave ibis birds a packed lunch for the afterlife

Ancient Egyptians paid special attention to the organs of their dead, embalming them so they would continue to function in the afterlife. Now it seems they did the same for sacrificed ibis birds, and even packed their stomachs with food so they wouldn't go hungry.

Ibis mummies are found in their millions at shrines in Egypt, where they were sacrificed to Thoth, the god of writing and wisdom. Andrew Wade at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and his colleagues used a CT scanner to look inside two mummified adult ibises and one hatchling. This revealed that embalmers had removed their internal organs. The adult gizzards, complete with snail shells which may have come from the birds' last meals, were then replaced. The hatchling's body cavity had been stuffed with grain.

Studies of human mummies show that ancient Egyptians often removed and embalmed the lungs and digestion organs before placing them back inside the body ? perhaps so they might work in the afterlife. The ibis mummies suggest Egyptians believed that birds also travelled to the afterlife, says Wade. "It suggests the provision of an afterlife food source to the bird," he says, "and lends support to the idea that the viscera of ibises and humans alike were meant to continue their living function within the afterlife."

Journal reference: Journal of Archaeological Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.003

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1c10ee65/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn213820Eegyptians0Egave0Eibis0Ebirds0Ea0Epacked0Elunch0Efor0Ethe0Eafterlife0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

mezzanine jules verne jules verne als puppies miss universe 2011 contestants hells angels

Mexico authorities unravel child trafficking ring (AP)

ZAPOPAN, Mexico ? The Irish couples ensnared in an apparent illegal adoption ring in western Mexico thought they were involved in a legal process and are devastated by allegations organizers were trafficking in children, the families said Monday.

"All the families have valid declarations to adopt from Mexico as issued by the Adoption Authority of Ireland," they said in a statement, which was read over the phone to The Associated Press by their lawyer in Mexico, Carlos Montoya.

Prosecutors in Mexico contend the traffickers tricked destitute young Mexican women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents.

For 15-year-old Karla Zepeda, the story began in August when a woman came to her dusty neighborhood of cinderblock homes and dirt roads looking for babies to photograph for an anti-abortion ad campaign.

Zepeda told the AP that the woman, Guadalupe Bosquez, asked to use her 9-month-old daughter Camila in a two-week photo shoot for $755 ($10,000 pesos), a small fortune for a teen mother who earns $180 a month at a sandwich stand and shares a cramped, one-story house with her disabled mother, stepfather, and three brothers.

Bosquez later returned with another woman, Silvia Soto, and gave her half the money as they picked the child up. She got the rest two weeks later when they brought Camila home.

"They showed me a poster that showed my girl with other babies and said 'No To Abortion, Yes To Life,'" said Zepeda, a petite teenager cleaning her house to loud norteno music. "I thought it was legal because everything seemed very normal."

Before long, the message spread to her neighbors. Seven other women, most between the ages of 15 and 22, agreed to let their babies be part of the ad campaign. Some already had several children. Some were single mothers. Two of them didn't know how to read or write. Five of them told they AP that they did not even have birth certificates for their babies when they came across Bosquez and Soto.

One said she needed money to pay for her child's medical care. All deny agreeing to give their children up for adoption.

But instead of just posing for photographs, Jalisco state investigators say Camila and other babies were left for weeks at a time in the care of Irish couples who had come to Mexico thinking they were adopting the children.

Camila and nine other children have been turned over to state officials who suspect they were being groomed for illegal adoptions. And authorities hint that far more children could be involved: Lead investigator Blanca Barron told reporters the ring may have been operating for 20 years, though she gave no details. Prosecutors also say four of the children show signs of sexual abuse, though they didn't say how or by whom.

Nine people have been detained, including Bosquez and Soto, but no one has yet been charged.

At least 15 Irish citizens have been questioned, the Jalisco state attorney general's office said, but officials have not released their names and their lawyer says all have returned to Ireland after spending weeks or months in Ajijic, a town of cobblestone streets and gated communities 37 miles (60 kilometers) away, trying to meet requirements for adopting a child. None was detained.

In their statement, the Irish couples said they would not comment further because of the ongoing investigation.

The Mexican mothers say that Bosquez and Soto persuaded three of them to register their children as single mothers so they could participate in the anti-abortion campaign, even though they live with the children's fathers.

Children's rights activists say that also could have made it easier to release the child for adoption: only the mother's signature would be needed.

The mothers were assured that the babies were being taken care of by several nannies and checked by doctors. The children often returned home wearing new clothes.

Some of the mothers said they began having second thoughts. But when they declined to send their children back, they say, Bosquez and Soto insisted they would have to pay for the strollers, car seats, diaper bags and everything else they had bought for the babies.

"We're going through a nightmare," said Fernanda Montes, an 18-year-old housewife who said she took part to pay a $670 hospital bill from the birth of her 3-month-old. "How could we have trusted someone so evil?"

The plan began to unravel on Jan. 9, when local police detained 21-year-old Laura Carranza and accused her of trying to sell her 2-year-old daughter.

Investigators said Carranza denied that allegation, but acknowledged she was "renting" her 8-month-old son. She then led authorities to Bosquez and Soto.

Both are now being held on suspicion they ran the alleged anti-abortion ad campaign as a front for an illegal adoption ring. It was not clear if they have attorneys and they have not yet been brought before a judge to say if they accept or reject the allegations.

Carranza is also being held, as is Karla's mother, Cecilia Velazquez, who hasn't worked since she lost both legs in a traffic accident in 2010. Karla says her mother's only fault was agreeing to the ad campaign.

Seven of the mothers interviewed told the AP that the children had most recently been picked up by Bosquez and Soto between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30 for an alleged photo shoot. They returned the babies on Jan. 9 and 10, saying "there had been problems." The mothers said they didn't notice anything wrong with the babies or any signs of abuse.

Then state police investigators showed up at their homes and drove them and their children to the police department for questioning. The babies were taken from them and put into state protective custody. The women complained that only four of them have been allowed to see their babies since, and only once.

A statement from Jalisco state prosecutors' said authorities seized Carranza's two children from her and the other seven while they were with the Irish couples. Prosecutors didn't respond to requests by the AP to clarify the discrepancy.

Residents of Ajijic, a town on the shore of Lake Chapala favored by American and Canadian retirees, say Irish citizens looking to adopt Mexican children began appearing there at least four years ago.

Jalisco state prosecutors' spokesman Lino Gonzalez said none of the Irish had been charged with a crime.

Even if they had adopted the children, Ireland might not have accepted them because the adoptions were handled privately, said Frances FitzGerald, Ireland's minister for children.

"Obviously, for any couple caught up in this, it's a nightmare scenario," she said.

"What you can't have in Mexico is people going to local agencies or individuals doing private adoptions because when they come back, there is going to be a difficulty."

Prosecutors say they have been trying without success to reach the attorneys who were handling the adoption paperwork in the neighboring state of Colima.

Custody release statements signed by all of the mothers carry the logo of Lopez y Lopez Asociados, a firm owned by Carlos Lopez Valenzuela and his son, Carlos Lopez Castellanos. Authorities raided their home last week.

The release statements were shown to the AP by a local advocate for missing and stolen children, Juan Manuel Estrada of Fundacion FIND, who said they had been leaked to him by a state official. He said Lopez Valenzuela had separately sent him a lengthy statement by email declaring that he too may have been duped in the case and denying wrongdoing.

Prosecutors wouldn't confirm the authenticity of his statement to Fundacion FIND, but it mirrors the stories of seven mothers who were interviewed by the AP.

Lopez didn't respond to emailed interview requests from the AP.

The Irish couples told authorities they found Lopez Valenzuela through a website advertising his services, according to their lawyer, Carlos Montoya.

He said they were charged $6,000 for the search for a baby, $13,600 to gain final custody and $5,000 in legal fees, as well as the biological mother's supposed prenatal care, hospital care and nanny services.

The babies stayed with the couples in Ajijic for weeks at a time. Several of the couples had adopted Mexican children in the past with Lopez Valenzuela and hadn't had any problems, he said.

"They are innocent people who were swindled by the lawyer managing the adoptions," he said.

They all returned to Ireland last week on his advice, he said.

___

Associated Press writer Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_child_trafficking

vitiligo portia de rossi portia de rossi herman cain for president herman cain for president pumpkin bread pumpkin bread

Rewards of Search Engine Marketing for Automotive Organizations ...

The automotive business is among the leaders in search engine marketing. Search engine marketing is extremely essential for companies, as the automotive sector is hyper competitive and multi-faceted.
Competitive Benefit

In accordance to a 2008 iprospect homework research, 39% of investigation motor users believe that company internet sites that show up in top lookup benefits are the leaders in their discipline. Consequently, the efficient utilization of search engine marketing offers a competitive advantage to automotive organizations. Search engine marketing is most valuable in intensive aggressive enterprise like the automotive industry. By effectively working with search engine marketing solutions like research engine optimization, Fork out for each click, and regional investigation marketing and advertising, it is feasible for automotive businesses to get in advance of the competition.
Local Investigation Marketing and advertising:

?Local Search? is system of submitting company facts to a structured database of neighborhood organization listings to achieve customers who search on specialized Net research engines. Local Search Promoting enables enterprises to focus on local shoppers. The benefit with nearby lookup marketing is that it makes it possible for automotive enterprises to not only to reach on the web community focus on consumers and to list on investigation motor outcomes, it also will allow to achieve mobile Web consumers quite drastically.

Automotive organizations typically have problem producing their advertising and marketing campaigns appeal to diverse segments of consumers. Various clients concentration on various aspects whilst purchasing automobiles like price, characteristics, products, luxurious, service, and many others. It is feasible for automotive companies to target precise customers with definite intent only through search engine marketing. Search engine marketing makes it possible for automotive companies to identify, define, and focus on clients in distinct marketing and advertising campaigns.

24/7 promoting
Search engine marketing enables consumers to accessibility organizations whenever they want. It helps make small business providers accessible 24/7. Even though automotive companies are not available offline spherical-the-clock, search engine marketing would make it probable to industry their companies online 24/7.
Expense effective
Search engine marketing is a value-helpful advertising and marketing system particularly in comparison to print or tv media. Automotive organizations can help save excessive promoting price by investing in search engine marketing, which leads to a better ROI.
Whilst search engine marketing is vital for any business, it is more important for automotive enterprises due to the strong competitors in their subject. Search engine marketing allows corporations realize success and aids automotive organizations to raise their return on investment.

Want to find out more about dallas seo company, then visit Casey Watkins?s site on how to choose the best dallas seo company for your needs.

Source: http://iblogndax.vdhdesigns.com/rewards-of-search-engine-marketing-for-automotive-organizations/

unemployment rate stephen hawking drew barrymore keri russell jesse ventura casey anthony will kopelman

webOS gets OTA update, delivers performance improvements and bug fixes

With so many of us performing funeral dirges in honor of webOS it's easy to forget that the tablet and smartphone platform is still officially supported HP. In fact, just today, the company issued yet another incremental update -- pushing TouchPads to version 3.0.5, while Pre 2 and Pre 3 handsets are moving on up to 2.2.4. Both form factors will be getting improvements in calendar and messaging, while the Pre2 gets better Skype support and MAP for Bluetooth. TouchPads are also adding support for HTTP live streaming and bringing the time-saving "double space equals period" typing shortcut to the table. For a complete change log and to download the SDK check out the source link.

webOS gets OTA update, delivers performance improvements and bug fixes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  HP  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/12/webos-gets-ota-update-delivers-performance-improvements-and-bug/

light year light year michelle rounds michelle rounds cabin in the woods dan quayle brett favre

Two former Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule

A child of the Tibetan community in Bodhgaya, north India, at a candle-lit vigil on 8 January held in memory of self-immolations in Tibet.

Two former Tibetan monks have set themselves on fire in western China, in the latest of several self-immolation protests against Chinese rule, activists have said.

The Xinhua news agency said a man burned himself to death in a hotel room on Friday. On the same day, a 22-year-old set himself on fire at a crossroads in Aba prefecture, Sichuan, suffering serious burns.

The London-based Free Tibet group said the men were protesting about the tight Chinese restrictions controlling Tibetan life and culture. At least 14

At least 14 monks, nuns and former monks are believed to have set themselves on fire in the past year, mostly in traditionally Tibetan areas of Sichuan that have been focal points of opposition to central government control.

Most of the activists called for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

China rogularly blames supporters of the Dalai Lama for encouraging acts of opposition. Xinhua cited a Tibetan expert as saying "the Dalai Lama clique" had "instigated and enticed" the two men to set themselves on fire.

The Dalai Lama and representatives of the self-declared Tibetan government in exile say they oppose all violence.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/08/tibetan-monks-fire-protest-chinese-rule

famu famu martina mcbride terry jones andy reid elf on the shelf elf on the shelf

Forget your manners and talk about money

Keeping quiet about you finances, particularly with your loved ones, is a surefire way to run into money problems

For the first two years of our marriage, Sarah and I barely spoke to each other about money. We?d touch base with each other just enough to make sure the bills were paid, and that?s about all.

Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm

The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

Recent posts

?Honey, did you drop off the rent check?? ?I took care of the bills for this month.? ?Do you have your wallet handy to cover the bill??

Comments like these were the extent of our communication about money. We just trusted that the other person had their money under control and never really bothered to investigate it further.

We never had a plan for the future. We never had a joint checking account. We never had a cohesive idea of what our retirement might look like.

Is it really any surprise that our finances bottomed out?

One of the first things Sarah and I did once we really began to grasp our situation was to sit down and have a long chat about our money and our future. What did we want out of our lives? Were we ever going to buy a house? Were we ever going to retire? Were we ever going to dig out of our debt hole?

It was from that initial conversation ? and many more that followed it ? that a cohesive plan for our finances came together. We came up with a plan that suited us for buying a house (do everything we could to save for a down payment until a second child forced our hand and forced us out of our tiny apartment). We came up with a joint plan for retirement.

We started talking about other life goals in a much more concrete fashion, too. We planned carefully for a second and, later, a third child. We agreed that I should devote a significant amount of spare time to writing (although The Simple Dollar took us completely by surprise).

In short, we constructed the scaffolding of the life we have built together. All it took was a conversation about money to get things going.

What did it take to get the ball started? It took one of us (me) to simply get the ball rolling. The biggest key was that I assigned no blame for the situation we were in. Any blame that was out there, I placed directly on my own shoulders, even if I felt it was a shared blame. If you start out a discussion like this with accusations, you?re not going to get very far.

Another key element was to stick with numbers. When we talked about money, we didn?t say things like ?I think we can afford it.? We got out our checking account balance and our bills and started calculating to see if we really could afford it.

The final essential element was honesty. I had not really revealed the extent of our credit card debt to Sarah, as I had been ?taking care? of that bill for a year. When it was all laid out there, she was upset for a while, but then it became clear to both of us that if we have all of the cards out there on the table and are being fully honest, we can actually solve this problem together.

There?s another key element to all of this. Money talks aren?t just useful with your partner. There is a lot of benefit to talking financial issues over with trusted friends, close family members, and other people around you. You don?t ever have to reveal your full financial picture, but talking about the challenges of debt reduction, great frugality ideas, and other such issues can be a great way to not only learn new ideas, but to relieve the burden of dealing with such issues through conversation.

I have quite a few people that I talk to about various aspects of our financial life. I have a small business friend who often discusses taxes and tax opportunities with me. I often trade frugality tips with various friends and family members. I have another friend with which I?ve discussed retirement planning many times. All of these people have proven invaluable in getting my finances in better shape. Each of them started very tentatively (mostly because I was uncomfortable talking about it), but each grew into a valuable series of conversations for all parties involved.

If you?re dealing with money challenges, don?t bottle them up inside of you. Conversation about them lets you relieve some stress, plus it often opens the road to solutions to those problems. That?s a double win.

This post is part of a yearlong series called ?365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),? in which I?m revisiting the entries from my book ?365 Ways to Live Cheap,? which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my ?photography intern? for this project.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/NSC0o3lEjaU/Forget-your-manners-and-talk-about-money

pro bowl voting kindle fire update college board pasco county rooney mara solstice x factor results

Video: GOP sees through Romney disguise

All that stress may be shrinking your brain

Everyone knows stress can cause headaches and sleepless nights. But a new study suggests it can actually shrink your brain. However, we?re not talking run-of-the-mill stressors here, like a looming deadline or a missed bus.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45934009#45934009

kenny chesney matt kemp rumpelstiltskin rumpelstiltskin occupy oakland occupy oakland yahoo.com/mail

Iran group say U.S. responsible for members in Iraq (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? The leader of an Iranian dissident group in Iraq said Friday the United States would be responsible for any harm that came to 3,000 of its members who could be forcefully moved to a camp outside Baghdad that they describe as a prison.

Maryam Rajavi, who heads the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), had in principle backed a proposal to begin moving the residents of Camp Ashraf based on assurances from both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the United Nations that their safety and security would be respected.

Mortars hit the camp at the end of last year, just days after Baghdad extended a December 31 deadline for the facility to be closed as the United Nations negotiated resettlement of its residents.

Rajavi said, contrary to what had been agreed as part of a U.N. deal, Iraqi authorities were turning the proposed new camp, previously a U.S. military base, into a prison.

"The U.S. has adopted irresponsible positions vis--vis the criminal and unlawful actions of Iraq against the residents of Ashraf," she told about 1,000 of her supporters, who had gathered in Paris from across Europe. "The U.S. government would be completely responsible for any harm to the residents."

Ashraf, 65 km from Baghdad, has been home for 25 years to the PMOI, an Iranian opposition group the United States and Iran officially consider a terrorist organization, which makes relocating its members to other countries difficult.

Rajavi's opposition group, exiled in Paris, invited dozens of former high-ranking U.S. and European officials -- including ex-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, ex-Federal Bureau of Investigation chief Louis Freeh and General David Phillips, a former commander responsible for protecting Camp Ashraf -- to speak on its behalf.

She called for a special conference that would gather players from all sides to break the impasse.

"At end of the Bush administration the recommendation of the coordinator for counter-terrorism was to delist the group, but Condoleeza Rice kept them on the list in hope of facilitating negotiations with the regime in Iran," Bolton told Reuters, adding that he saw no reason to keep the group on a terror list.

NOT A SIDE ISSUE

Camp Ashraf's future became unclear after Washington turned it over to the Iraqi government in 2009, a move that provoked a backlash in the United States, with former officials saying the country had broken promises to protect the residents.

Baghdad has repeatedly said it does not want the group on Iraqi soil.

The United Nations, along with the European Union, has been trying to resolve the issue. The mortars fell just a week after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, almost nine years after the 2003 invasion.

The PMOI's political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has blamed the rockets on the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps "and its Iraqi agents," although Baghdad has not said who was behind the attacks.

In the 1970s the group, which is also known as the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran, including attacks on U.S. targets. It says it has since renounced violence.

"Ashraf is not a side issue," said 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. "We gave our word to protect them. When the U.S. makes a promise it should keep it."

(Reporting By John Irish; Editing by Roger Atwood)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120106/wl_nm/us_iran_ashraf_us

jeff green saturday night live aortic aneurysm syracuse basketball minnesota timberwolves jr martinez melasma

ET Solar supplies PV modules for solar energy systems in UK

EBR Staff Writer
Published 06 January 2012

China-based ET Solar has supplied 600kW of photovoltaic (PV) modules for various rooftop solar energy systems in Newcastle, UK.

The solar systems were installed on 30 commercial rooftops of Your Homes Newcastle, an entity that manages properties on behalf of Newcastle City Council.

The power project was designed and installed by UK-based commercial project developer OPUS Green.

ET Solar CEO Dennis She said the collaboration between ET Solar and OPUS Green demonstrates ET Solar's continued commitment to expand the role that it plays in facilitating UK PV market growth.

ET Solar is a vertically integrated producer and provider of PV modules and related solutions to the global solar market.

Source: http://solar.energy-business-review.com/news/et-solar-supplies-pv-modules-for-solar-energy-systems-in-uk-060112

jacksonville jaguars jacksonville jaguars iraq war over iraq war over maurice jones drew golden globe nominees megyn kelly

Conn. man gets 70 years for kidnapping ex-wife

Richard Shenkman, left, listens as Judge Julia D. Dewy sentences him to 70-years in prison Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 at Hartford Superior Court in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman a prominent former advertising executive was sentenced Wednesday to 70 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for hours and burning down the Connecticut home they once shared. (AP Photo/ Sean D. Elliot, Pool)

Richard Shenkman, left, listens as Judge Julia D. Dewy sentences him to 70-years in prison Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 at Hartford Superior Court in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman a prominent former advertising executive was sentenced Wednesday to 70 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for hours and burning down the Connecticut home they once shared. (AP Photo/ Sean D. Elliot, Pool)

Richard Shenkman, left, looks at the gallery as his attorney Hugh F. Keefe, right, addresses the court after Shenkman delivered his personal statement to the court Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 at Hartford Superior Court in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman a prominent former advertising executive was sentenced Wednesday to 70 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for hours and burning down the Connecticut home they once shared. (AP Photo/ Sean D. Elliot, Pool)

Richard Shenkman, left, listens as Judge Julia D. Dewy sentences him to 70-years in prison Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 at Hartford Superior Court in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman a prominent former advertising executive was sentenced Wednesday to 70 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for hours and burning down the Connecticut home they once shared. (AP Photo/ Sean D. Elliot, Pool)

Richard Shenkman listens as prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre addresses the court before Judge Julia D. Dewy sentenced Shenkman to 70-years in prison Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 at Hartford Superior Court in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman a prominent former advertising executive was sentenced Wednesday to 70 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for hours and burning down the Connecticut home they once shared. (AP Photo/ Sean D. Elliot, Pool)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? A prominent former advertising executive declared that he has hired an "assassin" to kill his ex-wife just before being sentenced Wednesday to 70 years in prison for holding her hostage for more than 13 hours and burning down the Connecticut home they once shared.

Richard Shenkman, 62, was sentenced in Hartford Superior Court, where a jury convicted him in October of 10 charges including kidnapping, arson, assault and threatening. He faced a potential of nearly 80 years in prison.

Shenkman and his ex-wife, Nancy Tyler, were in the middle of divorce-related court hearings when he abducted her from her office's parking garage in downtown Hartford on July 7, 2009, and forced her at gunpoint to drive about nine miles to the home in South Windsor.

Authorities said Shenkman and Tyler were due in court for a divorce-related hearing later that morning, and he was supposed to turn over the house to her or face jail time for contempt of court.

Tyler testified that Shenkman threatened to kill her, fired a gun near her head and threatened to blow up the house. She escaped unharmed during a standoff with police, and he was arrested after running out of the burning house.

During Wednesday's sentencing hearing, Shenkman told Judge Julia Dewey that he has hired an experienced killer to murder Tyler. The judge had rejected a motion by Shenkman's attorney to delay sentencing for further psychological evaluation of his client.

"When Nancy Tyler's lifeless body is lying in the morgue ... I will have made my point," Shenkman said. "There is nothing this system can do to prevent Nancy Tyler's murder."

Shenkman is the brother of Mark Shenkman, founder and president of one of the nation's largest money management firms, Shenkman Capital Management. Richard Shenkman's former advertising firm, Primedia, produced the "Gayle King Show" in 1997, starring Oprah Winfrey's best friend.

Shenkman wore an orange prison jumpsuit and his hands and legs were shackled. Dewey rejected his request to have the handcuffs taken off for the hearing. He had also grown a full gray beard since he was convicted, and his shoulder-length hair that was in a ponytail during the trial was untied.

Defense attorney Hugh Keefe said Shenkman's remarks show his client is mentally ill.

"I've never seen a defendant say things like that at sentencing," Keefe said. "He demonstrated he was off the reservation big time."

Keefe called the prison term "ridiculously stiff" and said he will appeal the convictions.

Tyler had urged the judge to impose the maximum prison sentence, saying Shenkman has terrorized her, her family and her friends for years. She begged the judge to "give us some peace."

"Mr. Shenkman's campaign of destruction has been devastating," Tyler said. She said after the hearing that she wasn't worried about the murder threats.

"I am very relieved and planning to go back to my life with my family and friends in safety," she said.

Prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre told the judge that Shenkman "will never stop trying to destroy" Tyler, and she asked for the maximum sentence.

"He got exactly what he deserved," Melchiorre said later. "I think he was pathetic. I think this was his last opportunity to terrorize her and he took it."

Dewey called Shenkman a narcissistic and self-centered man who would do anything to get his way.

"You are never going to be rehabilitated," the judge said before announcing the sentence, which also included an order for Shenkman to pay $100,000 restitution to Tyler.

Shenkman had mounted an insanity defense, but Tyler testified that her ex-husband often acted "crazy" to get his way.

Tyler testified at the trial about her harrowing ordeal, saying Shenkman handcuffed himself to her, fired a handgun twice near her head, prepared a noose for her and claimed to have rigged the house with explosives as swarms of police surrounded the home. Tyler had called a friend on her cellphone in concern over seeing Shenkman's minivan near her office and urged her to call police just before she was kidnapped.

Tyler said Shenkman handcuffed her to an eyebolt in a basement wall at one point, and that she managed to unscrew the bolt and run outside when Shenkman went upstairs to check on police activity.

Shenkman talked on the phone to dispatchers and police officers several times during the ordeal. The jury listened to the recorded conversations, in which Shenkman sometimes sounded frantic, screamed, used profanity and several times counted down the seconds to his threatened killing of Tyler.

Tyler described how Shenkman became increasingly enraged at police during the ordeal for not meeting his demands, which included having a priest administer Tyler last rites and having authorities fax over a marriage license so he and Tyler could get remarried.

Police testified that the nearly 15-hour standoff ended when Shenkman came out of the burning home, which was uninsured at the time, and pointed a handgun at his own head. Minutes later, officers shot Shenkman with rubber bullets and used a stun gun on him twice before subduing him and taking him into custody.

Shenkman and Tyler married in 1993, and she filed for divorce in 2006. A judge approved the divorce in 2008, but court proceedings continued as Shenkman appealed.

He also is charged with burning down his and Tyler's beachfront home in East Lyme in 2007 just before he was to hand it over to Tyler as part of their divorce. He awaits trial on those charges.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-04-US-Divorce-Hostage/id-d5e198d35bea4db291e547712888610a

scarlett johansson glee project winner kris humphries remember the titans wale wale weather denver