Right in time to steal all the attention away from New Year's Eve, Kim Kardashian has made a big announcement: She's pregnant with Kanye West's baby!
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Clinton remains hospitalized with blood clot
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spent a second day at a New York hospital on Monday, under observation for a blood clot, stemming from a concussion she sustained while battling a stomach virus.
The illness has kept her out of the public view since Dec. 7, and has started to raise a host of questions as her team keeps typically tightlipped about the details: Where is the clot located? How severe is her condition? How soon will she recover? And, as Democrats are privately if not publicly speculating, how might her illness affect a decision about running for president in 2016?
Aides disclosed the blood clot Sunday, with her spokesman, Phillipe Reines, issuing a statement that said: "Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion." He had no immediate update Monday on her condition, raising the question of whether she will return to work before she steps down as secretary of state.
After decades in politics, Clinton, 65, says she plans to spend the next year resting. She has long insisted she had no intention of mounting a second campaign for the White House four years from now. But the door is not entirely closed, and she would almost certainly emerge as the Democrat to beat if she decided to give in to calls by Democratic fans and run again.
Her age ? and thereby health ? would likely be a factor under consideration, given that Clinton would be 69 when sworn in, if she were elected in 2016. That might become even more of an issue in the early jockeying for 2016 if what started as a bad stomach bug becomes a prolonged, public bout with more serious infirmity.
Not that Democrats are willing to talk openly about the political implications of a long illness, choosing to keep any discussions about her condition behind closed doors. Publicly, Democrats reject the notion that a blood clot could hinder her political prospects.
"Some of those concerns could be borderline sexist," said Basil Smikle, a Democratic strategist who worked for Clinton when she was a senator. "Dick Cheney had significant heart problems when he was vice president, and people joked about it. He took the time he needed to get better, and it wasn't a problem."
It isn't uncommon for presidential candidates' health ? and age ? to be an issue. Both in 2000 and 2008, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had to rebut concerns he was too old to be commander in chief or that his skin cancer could resurface.
Two decades after Clinton became the first lady, signs of her popularity ? and her political strength ? are ubiquitous.
Obama had barely declared victory in November when Democrats started zealously plugging Clinton as their strongest White House contender four years from now, should she choose to take that leap.
"Wouldn't that be exciting," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi declared in December. "I hope she goes ? why wouldn't she?"
Even Republicans concede that were she to run, Clinton would be a force to be reckoned with.
"Trying to win that will be truly the Super Bowl," former House Speaker and 2012 GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said in December. "The Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level."
Americans admire Clinton more than any other woman in the world, according to a Gallup poll released Monday ? the 17th time in 20 years that Clinton has claimed that title. And a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 57 percent of Americans would support Clinton as a candidate for president in 2016, with just 37 percent opposed. Meanwhile, websites have already cropped up hawking "Clinton 2016" mugs and tote bags.
Clinton returned to the U.S. from a trip to Europe, then fell ill with a stomach virus in early December that left her severely dehydrated and forced her to cancel a trip to North Africa and the Middle East. Until then, she had cancelled only two scheduled overseas trips, one to Europe after breaking her elbow in June 2009 and one to Asia after the February 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Her condition worsened when she fainted, fell and suffered a concussion while at home alone in mid-December as she recovered from the virus. It was announced on Dec. 13.
Reines, her spokesman, said her doctors discovered the clot Sunday while performing a follow-up exam on the concussion. He said she was being treated with anti-coagulants and would remain at New York-Presbyterian Hospital until at least Tuesday so doctors can monitor the medication.
This isn't the first time Clinton has suffered a blood clot. In 1998, midway through her husband's second term as president, Clinton was in New York fundraising for the midterm elections when a swollen right foot led her doctor to diagnose a clot in her knee requiring immediate treatment.
Medical experts said the seriousness of a blood clot diagnosis varies widely based on where it is located.
Clots in the legs are a common risk after someone has been bedridden, as Clinton may have been for a time after her concussion in December. Those are "no big deal" and are treated with blood thinners, said Dr. Gholam Motamedi, a neurologist at Georgetown University Medical Center who is not involved in Clinton's care.
But a clot in a lung or the brain is more serious. Lung clots, called pulmonary embolisms, can be deadly, and a clot in the brain can cause a stroke, Motamedi said.
Last Thursday, before the blood clot was discovered, Reines said that Clinton expected to return to work this week after the New Year holiday.
Beyond talk of future politics, Clinton's three-week absence from the State Department has raised eyebrows among some conservative commentators who questioned the seriousness of Clinton's ailment after she cancelled planned Dec. 20 testimony before Congress on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Clinton had been due to discuss with lawmakers a scathing report on the attack she had commissioned that found serious failures of leadership and management in two State Department bureaus were to blame for insufficient security at the facility. Clinton took responsibility for the incident before the report was released, but she was not blamed. Four officials cited in the report have either resigned or been reassigned.
___
Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Washington and AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-remains-hospitalized-blood-clot-212529697--politics.html
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Israel eases ban on building material for Gaza
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel eased its blockade of Gaza on Sunday, allowing a shipment of gravel for private construction into the Palestinian territory for the first time since Hamas seized control in 2007.
A Palestinian official with knowledge of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that ended eight days of fighting last month between Israel and Gaza militants said the move had been expected as part of the deal.
"This is the first time gravel has been allowed into Gaza for the Palestinian private sector since the blockade," said Raed Fattouh, the Palestinian official overseeing the shipment of 20 truckloads of the material.
Israel tightened the blockade after Hamas, an Islamist group that refuses to recognize the Jewish state, took power five years ago. But under international pressure, Israel began to ease the restrictions in 2010 and has allowed international aid agencies to import construction material.
The gravel was transferred a day after Egypt allowed building material into Gaza through its Rafah crossing, departing from a six-year ban. It was part of a shipment donated by the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which has pledged $400 million to finance reconstruction.
Gaza economists say nearly 70 percent of the enclave's commercial needs - including building material and fuel - were being met through shipments via Israel and a network of smuggling tunnels running under the Egyptian border.
One Palestinian official said Israeli counterparts had promised "other building items" would be allowed into Gaza in the coming days.
"Israel has promised to ease the blockade more if the truce continues to hold," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, said more than 300 truckloads of goods have been moving from Israel to the Gaza Strip on a daily basis.
"They can have much more if they would like to," he said.
(Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Angus MacSwan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-eases-ban-building-material-gaza-104048304--business.html
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sony Vaio VPCZ11NGX Intel SATA RAID Driver 9.5.4.1001 for Windows 7 x64
This utility installs the originally shipped version of the Intel ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E/5 Series SATA RAID Controller driver.
Important Notes
- During the installation of this file, be sure that you are logged in as the Administrator or as a user with Administrative rights.
- To ensure that no other program interferes with the installation, save all work and close all other programs. The Taskbar should be clear of applications before proceeding.
- It is highly recommended that you print out these instructions for use as a reference during the installation process.
It is highly recommended to always use the most recent driver version available.
Do not forget to check with our site as often as possible in order to stay updated on the latest drivers, software and games.
Try to set a system restore point before installing a device driver. This will help if you installed a wrong driver. Problems can arise when your hardware device is too old or not supported any longer.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
9GAG - Long Distance Relationships
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Source: http://9gag.com/gag/6169750
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Climate Model Coverage: Far from Model Journalism
November 2012 temperatures relative to average across the globe
With a less-than-stellar end to the Qatar climate talks, and with all eyes on the US for more ambitious commitments ahead of the next round, it is more important than ever for the American public to be better educated on the dire implications of a rapidly warming world.
Despite a recent shift toward greater belief in anthropogenic climate change, perception of its risks remains low among the US public.
A study published in the September issue of Nature Climate Change may help explain why. After analyzing climate coverage in major newspapers, and radio and television shows, the authors find a disproportionately large focus on op-ed and editorial topics in favor of actual explanations of science. The article concludes that the media not only provides insufficient scientific coverage, but also significantly undermines the reliability of climate models (in all news sources analyzed, almost two times the coverage of climate models was negative vs. positive).
Rather than merely focus on their imprecise nature, the media should take some time to elaborate on the complexity of computer models and shed light on why they are imprecise, describing what we know along with what we don?t know.
Reporting should emphasize that simulating the forces that drive climate, such as, ocean circulation and heat exchanges between land, air and sea, and their interactions with living ecosystems requires very sophisticated mathematical analysis. Systems of differential equations based on the laws of physics, fluid movement, and atmospheric chemistry take data from satellite observations, ocean buoys and other environmental monitoring equipment, which are then solved on supercomputers.
More importantly, these models entail dividing the Earth?s atmosphere into hundreds of thousands of grid points and predicting values for various physical factors, such as temperature, heat transfer, moisture content, and radiation at each grid point. The temperature at a given grid point is predicted five to 20 minutes at a time, until a projection far in the future, say the year 2100, is reached. Because of the short time-step of just a few minutes (which enables greater accuracy), even a one-year simulation would need to process this calculation tens of thousands of times; according to the World Meteorological Organization, for just one year, this would require processing 27,000 times for each of the 2.5 million grid points on Earth.
Climate models are by no means precise. Given their complexity, assumptions and simplifications have to be made to allow even supercomputers to generate projections in a reasonable amount of time. Nonetheless, they are rigorously mathematically tested, and data from past years have reliably been able to recreate the Ice Age and volcanic eruptions from past decades.
If the general public is given an intricate look at the processes that drive climate and the methods used to predict it, anyone with the ability to recall even a basic problem from middle school physics should begin to comprehend the sheer complexity of these projections. This will, perhaps, dispel the notion of climate scientists sitting in their labs and spewing conspiracy theories about a rapidly warming world.
In the aftermath of a political campaign where Republican candidates made a mockery of science, outrightly denying evolution, stem cell research, and human-induced climate change, it is even more important for the media to step up and defend science instead continuing to insist that there are two sides to this issue.
The fact that the Nature study found that The Rush Limbaugh Show provided the most ?explanation? of climate models among major news publications and programs should be disconcerting enough. More than a third of articles and shows explaining models were also seen to be in political commentary outlets.
Previous studies have called for greater transparency on the part of computer modelers in order to increase public trust in modeling. A paper that argues this in the Communications of the ACM aptly quotes the ?reasonable person doctrine?: ?information givers should provide enough information to takers for reasonable people to make decisions.?
Any less information is unacceptable, the authors state, since it does not give users the ability to make informed decisions, and instead forces them to place blind faith in the ?black box? that is computer modeling. The general public are users of information with regard to global warming, no doubt, because they make decisions everyday on energy consumption and carbon footprints: reusable vs. paper vs. plastic bags, energy-efficient vs. regular bulbs, cars vs. public transportation, and so on and so forth.
While all scientific issues suffer from perfunctory reporting due to lack of time, resources and expertise of journalists, climate change particularly lends itself well to the ?two sides to every issue? narrative, since so much of the research is still preliminary. And when the media encounters an event whose conclusion is unknown, it plays a guessing game, trying to predict a possible conclusion and argue for or against it, often based on little factual evidence (think presidential elections).
While this kind of coverage is corrosive anywhere, it?s even more so in the case of scientific stories, where it is important to report on the uncertainty itself rather than using it as a launching pad for pet theories.
Another reason the media gets it wrong is its endless thirst for the sensational, the controversial and the dramatic. Which is why controversies like Climate Gate or Rick Perry?s belief that global warming is a hoax make it to the front pages time and again.
Want dramatic?
Consider this reporting from Bloomberg Businessweek, accompanied by this very explicit cover page in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, which took nearly 200 lives and left millions without power on the East Coast:
?Sandy featured a scary extra twist implicating climate change. An Atlantic hurricane moving up the East Coast crashed into cold air dipping south from Canada. The collision supercharged the storm?s energy level and extended its geographical reach. Pushing that cold air south was an atmospheric pattern, known as a blocking high, above the Arctic Ocean. Climate scientists Charles Greene and Bruce Monger of Cornell University, writing earlier this year in Oceanography, provided evidence that Arctic icemelts linked to global warming contribute to the very atmospheric pattern that sent the frigid burst down across Canada and the eastern U.S.?
Since long-form journalism with context and background is now pass? in mainstream media, the media should at least take advantage of high-priority events like Sandy to shed light on the big picture. Unfortunately, these types of stories are exceedingly rare, but this is one way to educate audiences on the fact that computer models draw on the same logic that lies behind weather models, which most people rely on for their daily activities, and which are?unreliable-weatherman jokes aside?very close to accurate on a day-to-day basis.
Reporters could also make use of immersive multimedia technology to explain how models work, says Larry Pryor. Video games that allow people to ?play? with real simulations can give them firsthand experience in working with computer models.
Games could be specifically designed to allow users to see causes and effects, and to analyze the impact of various factors that affect global warming. The video game, SimCity, has a new version with an additional climate change component to be released next year.
Citizen science and crowdsourcing projects to model and predict climate change can also be great ways to enable the public to not only acquire information, but to also take part in the research. Old Weather, for example, is a crowdsourced effort aimed at gathering meteorological data from naval logs of?US ships from as far back as the mid-19th century, which can be used in climate models.
Initiatives like the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication are also great approaches to get citizens interested and involved in the climate debate. By tracking public awareness of climate change, including American attitudes, risk perceptions, and views on policies, the project tests new and effective ways to involve the public in climate science research.
Recent efforts to push for the teaching of climate science in schools, where children could learn the nuances, complexities and multidisciplinary aspects of climate research would make the job of the media easier, even while preparing the next generation of scientists and engineers who will likely address these challenges head on.
Meanwhile, the media should do its job. It?s the people?s right to know. If there were an impending terrorist attack or dangerous epidemic that could affect millions of people, surely the media would use every channel to communicate that to the public? What about global warming?a phenomenon that may cause entire coastlines to go under water and whole countries to disappear?doesn?t warrant communication?
Image: NOAA
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=99a8757a53f5533622f0c61e73846641
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Washington Roundup: Arguments for and Against Chuck Hagel's Nomination (Atlantic Politics Channel)
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
May we legally restrict when employees can take small amounts of ...
Q. We have recently needed to cut back on some of our employees? shifts, meaning that some of our workers are now working fewer than 40 hours per week. In order to bring their hours up to 40, these workers have been filling their time sheets with varying amounts of their earned vacation. Are we permitted to restrict when our employees use their earned vacation?
A. Neither Texas nor federal law requires private-sector employers to provide paid or unpaid leave of any kind to employees. (However, some amount of unpaid leave may be necessary as a reasonable accommodation in the event of a disability, pregnancy, or certain other conditions and under the federal FMLA?s provisions.) Nevertheless, most employers provide their employees with some form of paid leave.
If employers include provisions regarding paid leave in a written policy or agreement, the leave is an enforceable part of the wage agreement under the Texas Payday Law and this written policy will be enforced according to what it provides.
Depending on the terms of such a policy, employers, to some degree, are able to restrict when employees use their vacation time.
Employers often find themselves in very busy periods in which they would want to ensure that a large number of their employees are not out on vacation simultaneously. Conversely, there may be times when business operations make it necessary to temporarily reduce staffing levels.
In either of these cases, employers generally have the right to control when their employees take vacation and the amount of vacation that may be taken at any particular time.
The key to such policies on vacation use is to ensure that they are applied consistently and without discrimination.
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A Good Business Model For Doing Internet Marketing Is Affiliate ...
It is pretty incredible how much of a significant difference Internet marketing can have, of course you have to think about certain factors.
You must have spotted the many ads on the many websites you visited while browsing online. With a lot of the ads, you are making the owner money simply by clicking on the ad, without even purchasing anything. The people who place these advertisements are affiliate marketers, and practically thousands of them are doing it. Many do affiliate marketing full time and make a monthly income of five figures. Astounding as it may seem, this is genuinely what is being achieved by these online marketers selling other people?s products.
It is quite possible to earn thousands every month, even without a product of your own. All you must do is locate and promote a handful of products belonging to others. Whenever a purchase results from an individual having clicked through on your affiliate link, you get money. If you?re advertising a product for the price of $67 and there?s a 60% commission, you?ll make $40.20 every time you make a sale. Good money can be made without having to be lumbered with any of the logistical obligations such as shipping and delivery, refunds and the like. You simply want to get lots of possible shoppers to visit your site and to get them to click your affiliate link. You will get commission on every unit bought because of your promotion of someone?s product, or even a service. Different affiliate programs pay commission rates varying between 10% and 75%.
We trust that what you?ve observed thus far related to affiliate marketing, likewise additionally the information?? to do? with online business, is of use to you. Please do continue reading?? even more to receive added info related to this topic.
Since it is so easy to get started and generate money, affiliate marketing as a business model is quite alluring. Along with being paid nicely, you won?t need to do things like create sales letters or develop products. None of the issues that come with dealing with the buyers, such as refunds or support, are anything you have to be concerned with. You need to sign up for any affiliate program you wish to belong to, and you are going to get special links to recognize you as the affiliate. This helps to ensure that the sales are ascribed to you.
Even though affiliate marketing is a straightforward model for earning a lot of money, you can as easily make nothing at all. Picking the right programs to sign up for and the sort and scale of marketing promotions you run are key to your success. You?ll need real people to see the products you happen to be marketing, or your dream of earning 5-figures will never be more than a dream.
The affiliate programs supply their affiliates with a variety of tools to help them be successful. These could be engaging web page banners or online ads. To get more success, you ought to be using these tools, because they work.
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Sunday, December 23, 2012
Dangerous Abscesses Add to Tainted Drug?s Threat
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The contaminated drug that caused a nationwide meningitis outbreak has created a second, growing wave of serious spinal infections.
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Busta Rhymes: I Didn't Mean Apocalypse Would Be 'Literal'
'The world as we knew it did come to an end in 2001 ... so my math was correct,' Bus tells MTV News hours before failed doomsday.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Ade Mangum
Busta Rhymes
Photo: MTV News
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699317/mayan-apocalypse-busta-rhymes.jhtml
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Saturday, December 22, 2012
Obama calls for smaller-scale budget deal with GOP
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 before departing for Hawaii. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 before departing for Hawaii. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters about the fiscal cliff negotiations at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. Hopes for avoiding the "fiscal cliff" that threatens the U.S. economy fell Friday after fighting among congressional Republicans cast doubt on whether any deal reached with President Barack Obama could win approval ahead of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts kick in Jan. 1. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama has throttled back his ambitions for a sweeping budget bargain with Republicans. Instead, he's calling for a scaled-back measure sufficient to prevent the government from careening off the "fiscal cliff" in January by extending tax cuts for most taxpayers and forestalling a painful set of agency budget cuts.
In a White House appearance Friday, Obama also called on Congress to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that would otherwise be cut off for 2 million people at the end of the year.
Obama's announcement was a recognition that chances for a larger agreement before year's end have probably collapsed. It also suggested that any chance for a smaller deal may rest in the Senate, particularly after the collapse of a plan by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to permit tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes.
"In the next few days, I've asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction," Obama said. "That's an achievable goal. That can get done in 10 days."
Maybe, maybe not. The latest plan faces uncertainty at best in the sharply divided Senate. GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who wields great power even in the minority, called Friday for Senate action on a House bill from the summer extending the full menu of Bush-era tax cuts. He promised that it will take GOP votes for anything to clear the Senate, where 60 votes are required to advance most legislation. Democrats control 53 votes.
Earlier, Boehner said Obama needs to give more ground to reach an agreement and that both he and Obama had indicated in a Monday telephone call that their latest offers represented their bottom lines. "How we get there," he added, "God only knows."
Congress shut down for Christmas and Obama flew to Hawaii with his family for the holidays. But both men indicated they'd be back in Washington, working to beat the fast-approaching Jan. 1 deadline with an agreement between Christmas and New Year's.
Obama announced his plans after talking by phone with Boehner and meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had previously pinned his hopes on an Obama-Boehner agreement and is wary of dealing with McConnell.
At the White House, Obama projected optimism despite of weeks of failed negotiations. "Call me a hopeless optimist, but I actually still think we can get it done," he said.
Boehner spoke in the morning, describing the increasingly tangled attempts to beat the Jan. 1 deadline and head off the perilous combination of across-the-board tax hikes and deep spending cuts.
"Because of the political divide in the country, because of the divide here in Washington, trying to bridge these differences has been difficult," Boehner said. "If it were easy, I guarantee you this would have been done decades before."
Obama said that in his negotiations with Boehner, he had offered to meet Republicans halfway when it came to taxes and "more than halfway" toward their target for spending cuts.
It's clear, however, that there's great resistance in GOP ranks to forging a bargain with Obama along the lines of a possible agreement that almost seemed at hand just a few days ago: tax hikes at or just over $1 trillion over 10 years, matched by comparable cuts to federal health care programs, Social Security benefits and across federal agency operating budgets.
Obama said he remains committed to working toward a goal of longer-term deficit reduction to reduce chronic trillion-dollar deficits while keeping tax rates in place for nearly everyone.
"Even though Democrats and Republicans are arguing about whether those rates should go up for the wealthiest individuals, all of us ? every single one of us ? agrees that tax rates shouldn't go up for the other 98 percent of Americans," Obama said, citing statistics associated with his promise to protect household income under $250,000 from higher tax rates.
Neither the House nor the Senate is expected to meet again until after Christmas. Officials in both parties said there was still time to prevent the changes from kicking in with the new year.
The week began amid optimism that Obama and Boehner had finally begun to significantly narrow their differences. Both were offering a cut in taxes for most Americans, an increase for a relative few, and cuts of roughly $1 trillion in spending over a year. Also included was a provision to scale back future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients ? a concession by the president that inflamed many liberals..
GOP officials said some senior Republicans such as Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the most recent Republican vice presidential nominee, opposed the possible agreement. But No. 2 House Republican Eric Cantor of Virginia has joined arms with Boehner.
Boehner stepped back and announced what he called Plan B, legislation to let tax rates rise on incomes of $1 million or more while preventing increases for all other taxpayers.
Despite statements of confidence, he and his lieutenants decided late Thursday they were not going to be able to secure the votes needed to pass the measure in the face of opposition from conservatives unwilling to violate decades-old party orthodoxy never to raise tax rates.
The retreat came after it became clear that too many Republicans feared "the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes," Boehner said.
Boehner also said that last Monday he had told Obama he had submitted his bottom-line proposal.
"The president told me that his numbers ? the $1.3 trillion in new revenues, $850 billion in spending cuts ? was his bottom line, that he couldn't go any further."
That contradicted remarks by White House press secretary Jay Carney, who said on Thursday that Obama has "never said either in private or in public that this was his final offer. He understands that to reach a deal it would require some further negotiation. There is not much further he could go."
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Friday, December 21, 2012
Marine demoted for urinating on dead insurgents
The U.S. military is in damage-control mode after a video surfaced of Marines urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
By Reuters
WASHINGTON ? A U.S. Marine staff sergeant who urinated on dead Taliban insurgents and posed for photographs with the bodies has pleaded guilty to two charges in a military court, the Marine Corps said on Thursday.
His sentence was a reduction in rank and forfeiture of $500 in pay.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Chamblin pleaded guilty at a special court martial at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to dereliction of duty for failing to properly supervise junior Marines. He also pleaded guilty to wrongfully urinating on a deceased enemy combatant.
The incident occurred during a counter-insurgency operation in Helmand Province in Afghanistan in July 2011. It came to light in January this year when a videotape of the incident was posted on YouTube and other websites.
The video showed four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them joked, "Have a nice day, buddy," while another made a lewd joke.
'Deplorable': US defense chief condemns urinating Marines video
The video was one of a series of offensive incidents involving U.S. service members that roused Afghan ire and led to heightened tensions between Washington and Kabul earlier this year.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the actions in the video as "inhuman" and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta telephoned him to denounce the incident as "deplorable" and promise an investigation.
An investigation has been launched after video emerged that military authorities say appears to show U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Chamblin was charged with failing to properly supervise junior Marines, failing to require junior Marines to wear protective equipment, failing to report the misconduct of junior Marines, failing to report the negligent discharge of a grenade launcher, and failing to stop the indiscriminate firing of weapons, the Marine Corps said in a statement.
Chamblin waived his right to a jury and pleaded guilty to two counts before a military judge, the statement said. The judge levied a penalty that including 30 days in jail and a $2,000 fine, but because of a pretrial agreement Chamblin received a lesser sentence.
Extreme war stresses to blame in Marine urination video?
The maximum penalty under the agreement was a reduction in rank to sergeant and a forfeiture of $500 in pay for one month, the statement said.
The Marine Corps declined to release details about the evidence or the findings of the investigation because, it said, cases were still pending related to the urination video incident.
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Victorian zoological map redrawn
Patterns that inspired Darwin and Wallace get an update
By Susan Milius
Web edition: December 20, 2012
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
A revised map of major distinctive regions of vertebrate life based on more than 20,000 species gives a new look at patterns that have intrigued evolutionary biologists for more than a century. Similar colors indicate similarity in the mixes of animals.
Credit: Courtesy of Science/AAAS
With a new planet-wide analysis of vertebrate life, an international team has used 21st century science to update an iconic 1876 map of Earth?s zoological regions.
By incorporating data on 21,037 species of mammals, birds and amphibians, Jean-Philippe Lessard, now at McGill University in Montreal, and his colleagues have revised a zoological map created by Alfred Russel Wallace, an oft-overlooked cofounder of the theory of evolution. Wallace?s map divided Earth?s landmasses into six major regions, each with its own distinctive blend of vertebrates.
Over the years scientists have redistricted Wallace?s wildlife precincts several times, mostly to fit the growing trove of information on what species live where. Lessard and his colleagues, however, use not just species distributions but family tree relationships. Incorporating degrees of kinship revives the evolutionary spirit of Wallace?s original map, Lessard and colleagues say online December 20 in Science.
The notion of regional mixes of animals intrigued 19th century thinkers as they struggled toward a theory of evolution by natural selection. Naturalists noted that similar habitats in far-flung places looked as if they could nourish the same fauna, but often didn?t.
CITIZEN LORIS
The red slender loris, found in Sri Lanka, is part of the mix of animals characteristic of the Oriental realm of vertebrates, according to updated biogeographic boundaries.
Credit: Courtesy of James T. Reardon/Zoological Society of London
?A modern reader of Wallace?s and Darwin?s notes and letters on biogeography might say that the signature of evolutionary history lay right in front of them: Regional mixes reflect where animal lineages originated and how shifting continents and emerging barriers or bridges guided the descendants? spread.
One of the most bizarre of these regional breaks occurs to the southeast of the Oriental suite of species in India, Indochina and the islands that trail off toward Australia. When Wallace visited Bali in 1856, he puzzled over how the neighboring island of Lombok has similar soil and climate but noticeably different creatures. Yet Lombok lies within sight of Bali. ?
Lombok marks the border where Australian zoology begins, Wallace eventually concluded. When he published his map of animal regions, he drew a boundary, now known as Wallace?s line, that separates Bali and Lombok and then wiggles northward through the Malay archipelago.
To reevaluate Wallace?s boundaries, Lessard and his colleagues used computers to divide the planet?s land into squares on a grid and compared how many species from the three vertebrate groups each square shared with other squares. Using massive family trees developed at the University of Copenhagen and other places, the researchers gave more weight to differences between squares if their species were only distantly related.
Analyzing just birds, researchers placed a new boundary largely along Wallace?s famous line. Adding mammals and amphibians, however, shifted the line.
The biggest change from older maps, Lessard says, stretches the old Palearctic realm of northern Eurasia into the Western Hemisphere.
The new evolutionary approach also highlights just how unusual Australian animals are, Lessard says. People think of kangaroos and other Australian mammals as odd, but it was the amphibians that launched the realm?s distinctness scores to extremes.
The new map is ?really the closest we?ve got to mapping life on Earth while considering the way it evolved,? says ?erban Proche? of the University of Zwazulu-Natal?s Westville campus in South Africa. He and a colleague published their own version of zoological regions in March. Their map didn?t adjust for species relatedness, but Proche? muses that it may be easier for people to grasp because it offers examples of characteristic species.
These, of course, are animal species. Plants tend to be better than animals at dispersing across oceans, according to genetic analyses, says James Richardson of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. ?For this reason floristic divisions may not be as clear as zoogeographic ones,? he says.
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347214/title/Victorian_zoological_map_redrawn
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Movie review: The Carbon Rush | canada.com
The Carbon Rush
Narrated by: Daryl Hannah
Directed and written by: Amy Miller
Parental guidance: No problems
Running time: 84 minutes
(In English and in Portuguese, Hindi and Spanish with English subtitles)
Rating: 3? stars out of 5
On one street in the town of Grangemouth, Scotland, three of the world?s top 10 polluters have factories spewing out smoke and pollutants. They?re allowed to do it because they have taken part in ?carbon trading,? a system that allows factories in the rich First World to buy permission to pollute by financing something ?green? in the poor Third World.
In the case of Grangemouth, it?s a eucalyptus plantation in Brazil, where ? it turns out ? big companies are making lots of money growing eucalyptus trees, then burning them for charcoal to make pig iron for steel. The burning creates more pollution, and also money for the big companies. The people who used to live on the land, and grow fruit trees there, have been evicted. The trees also use so much water that the small-scale farmers can no longer support cattle.
And so it goes: in Delhi, carbon credits have helped finance a huge waste management plant that burns garbage and at the same time has thrown thousands of people out of work. They?re the poor who go through rubbish dumps, searching bits of glass or scrap metal that they can sell. ?In those days, sorting waste was a good business,? says one woman in an unconscious (and poverty-stricken) echo of older workers everywhere. In Panama, hydroelectric dams financed by the credits have taken land from peasants and polluted their waterways. In Honduras, a wealthy landowner is accused of hiring hit men to kill the poor farmers who stand in the way of his new green energy: palm oil, from African palm trees.
It?s an old story ? the poor live on the land with the most resources; the wealthy use those resources and set the rules ? that?s told in a new way in The Carbon Rush, a documentary about the evils of carbon trading.
Directed by Canadian filmmaker Amy Miller, The Carbon Rush takes a complex subject and makes it clearer. Carbon-trading ? mandated by the Kyoto Protocol ? is a multi-billion dollar business that has become something of a stock market. Polluters buy and sell credits, and then set up environmentally friendly ?offsets? that often turn out to be vast industrial projects that upend the local ecology, displace powerless natives and enrich the companies even further.
It?s a revealing look at a system that sounds fishy even on the surface: should companies be allowed to buy permissions to pollute? By following the trail, Miller has discovered that it?s often a double-whammy, creating a vast field of windmills in rural India, for instance, while sending the local people off their land and ultimately making money for the giant Tata Motors, India?s largest car company.
The benefits of the windmills, if any, is never explored. The Carbon Rush is firmly on the side of the dispossessed ? everyone interviewed is a victim of the multinational giants ? but the film ends with an impressive list of companies and agencies that refused to talk to the filmmakers. What?s on the screen is an indictment that says the official plan to fight global warming has become just another way to rape the land, oppress the poor and despoil the planet.
CAPSULE _ The Carbon Rush: A documentary on the system of ?carbon credits,? that allows big companies to pollute more in exchange for doing something green somewhere else. Filmmaker Amy Miller has found, though that the ?something green? is frequently just another form of pollution taking place in a Third World nation. The result is a searing indictment of the whole system. 3? stars out of 5 _ Jay Stone
Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/12/20/movie-review-the-carbon-rush/
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Discovery Cancels ?American Guns? After Newtown Tragedy
Discovery Cancels “American Guns” After Newtown Tragedy
Fans of the popular Discovery show “American Guns” are pissed after learning the reality series has been given the axe. A rep for the show confirms the cancellation, which apparently was brought on by the recent shootings at a Connecticut elementary school. The program’s rep said, “American Guns concluded earlier this year. Discovery Channel chose ...
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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/12/discovery-cancels-american-guns-after-newtown-tragedy/
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Google to sell part of Motorola for $2.35 billion
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Google is selling Motorola Mobility's TV set-top business for $2.35 billion, lightening the load that the Internet search leader took on earlier this year when it completed the biggest acquisition in its history.
The cash-and-stock deal announced late Wednesday will turn over Motorola's set-top division to Arris Group Inc., a relatively small provider of high-speed Internet equipment that is looking to become a bigger player in the delivery of video. Investors applauded the move, driving up Arris' stock by nearly 17 percent.
Google's decision to jettison the set-top boxes comes seven months after the Mountain View, Calif., company took control of Motorola Mobility Holdings in a $12.4 billion purchase.
The set-top boxes were never a big allure for Google, although the company is interested in finding ways to pipe its service on to TVs so it can sell more advertising.
Google prized Motorola for its portfolio of more than 17,000 mobile patents. Those form an arsenal that it can use in a fierce battle that has broken out over intellectual property as smartphones and tablet computers have emerged as hot commodities in recent years.
Motorola also makes smartphones and tablets, a manufacturing business that Google will retain, despite lingering concerns on Wall Street about the hardware shrinking Google's profit margins and possibly alienating other device makers that use the company's Android software.
Besides not being a natural fit for Google, Motorola's set-top box also has become a potentially expensive liability. Digital video recorder pioneer TiVo Inc. is seeking billions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit alleging that Motorola's boxes infringed on its patents. Those claims are scheduled to go to trial next year in federal court in Texas.
Although they declined to provide specifics, Arris Group executives told analysts in a Wednesday conference call that Google still must cover most of the bill for any damages or settlement that TiVo might win.
TiVo already has negotiated about $1 billion in combined settlements in other patent-infringement cases it has brought against other companies, including Dish Network Corp., AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications.
The proposed sale of Motorola's set-top division calls for Google to receive $2.05 billion in cash and $300 million worth of Arris stock. If the deal wins regulatory approval, Arris Group expects to take over the division before the end of June.
Google will also pare its expenses, something likely to please investors concerned about Motorola being a drag on the company's earnings. Arris said about 7,000 people work in Motorola's set-top division. Google ended September with about 53,500 employees, including 17,400 who worked on the Motorola side of its operations. More than 20,000 people worked at Motorola Mobility when Google became the owner in late May, but the payroll was slashed as part of an effort to pare the losses that have been piling up within Motorola as its once popular cellphones lost market share to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics.
But Motorola's set-top business had been making money, according to Google, though the company didn't say how much.
In the past year ending in September, Motorola's set-top operations generated $3.4 billion in revenue. That makes it twice as big as Arris Group, whose revenue totaled $1.3 billion during the same period. Arris Group, which is based Suwanee, Ga., had earned $39 million through the nine months of last year after suffering a loss of nearly $13 million for all of 2011.
"This represents a great leap forward for Arris," CEO Bob Stanzione said during Wednesday's conference call.
Arris' stock surged $2.46 to $17 in extended trading Wednesday while Google's stock dipped $2.61 to $717.50.
The other half of the old Motorola Inc., Motorola Solutions Inc., remains an independent company. Based in Schaumburg, Ill., it sells communications equipment to government and corporate customers.
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Badger sleeping habits could help target TB control
Dec. 19, 2012 ? Sleeping away from the family home is linked to health risks for badgers, new research by the University of Exeter and the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) has revealed.
Scientists found that badgers which strayed away from the family burrow in favour of sleeping in outlying dens were more likely to carry TB.
The 12-month study of 40 wild badgers was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and could have implications for the management of bovine TB in parts of the UK. The behaviour of individual animals is thought to be a key factor in how the disease is spread among animals and livestock. The new findings could help to understand and develop measures to manage TB in badgers.
The study was published online in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The work was carried out by Dr Nicola Weber of the University of Exeter's Cornwall Campus, who said: "At a time when stopping the spread of TB is vital for British farming, it's crucial to understand all of the factors involved in the transmission of the disease. Our research found that some individual badgers are more likely to sleep in setts in the outskirts of their territory. These individuals may be coming into contact with other sources of infection more frequently, meaning they could be more likely to both contract and to spread the disease, either to other badgers or to cattle."
Dr Weber attached electronic surveillance collars to badgers from eight groups at Woodchester Park in Gloucestershire, where the badger population is naturally infected with TB. Scientists selected a sample of 40 badgers from across the groups to provide a representative sample of age and sex.
In the study, each group had a territory made up of one or two main setts, which are used as the primary year-round underground den. They also had between three and eight outlying setts, which were occupied less frequently. The badgers were monitored for 28 consecutive days per season for one year to investigate how patterns differed between individuals.
Professor Robbie McDonald of the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute said: "Badgers occupying outlying dens are most likely to be looking for a mate, or defending their group territories. We think they acquire infection as a result of living on the periphery and contacting more individuals from other social groups, rather than because they are ostracised as a result of contracting the disease. It would be valuable to test the relationship between behaviour and infection more thoroughly.
"For all sorts of human epidemics, from typhoid to the common cold, some people are known to behave in a particular way which means they are more likely to spread the disease than the average individual. Our research demonstrates that this may also be true of TB in badgers. This knowledge could have long-term implications for managing the disease. Whatever the means of tackling infection in wildlife, it would be beneficial to know which individuals are most likely to spread TB to badgers and to cattle, and to design cost-effective management measures accordingly."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Exeter.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Nicola Weber, Stuart Bearhop, Sasha R. X. Dall, Richard J. Delahay, Robbie A. McDonald, Stephen P. Carter. Denning behaviour of the European badger (Meles meles) correlates with bovine tuberculosis infection status. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s00265-012-1467-4
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Mark Wahlberg Reveals The 'Broken City' During Exclusive Set Visit
Actor takes MTV News behind the scenes of crime thriller co-starring Russell Crowe.
By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Mark Wahlberg on the set of "Broken City"
Photo: MTV News
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699079/mark-wahlberg-broken-city-set-visit.jhtml
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Clearwire, Sprint set $120 million breakup fee
(Reuters) - Sprint Corp promised to pay Clearwire Corp a $120 million breakup fee if its $2.2 billion purchase of roughly half of the smaller wireless service provider does not go ahead but it restricted Clearwire's ability to entertain other offers.
Sprint, the majority owner of Clearwire, announced details of its purchase agreement in a regulatory filing on Tuesday, the day after it said it would buy out the rest of Clearwire for $2.97 per share.
Clearwire shares were below the offer price at $2.88 in morning trade.
Some shareholders said they were disappointed by the price, which requires approval from a majority of Clearwire's minority shareholders. While one shareholder is looking for support for a class action lawsuit against the deal, another is still holding out hope for a higher bid.
But Sprint said in the filing that Clearwire had agreed to a no-shop restriction of its ability to solicit other offers.
It also said that Clearwire would be restricted from providing information to or engaging in discussions or negotiations with third parties regarding an acquisition proposal, subject to certain exceptions.
It did not disclose the potential exceptions to the rule.
The Clearwire deal is conditional on the sale of a 70 percent stake in Sprint to Japan's SoftBank Corp for $20 billion, which is expected to close around mid-2013.
Sprint would have to pay the breakup fee if the SoftBank deal does not happen, if it or Clearwire terminates the agreement, or if their deal has not been consummated on or before October 15, 2013, according to the filing.
The merger agreement also includes a "no-shop" restriction on Clearwire's ability to solicit acquisition proposals.
Sprint has support for the deal from at least three Clearwire shareholders owning 13 percent of the company - Intel Corp, Comcast Corp and cable company Bright House.
Clearwire shares were down 3 cents or 1 percent at $2.88 in morning trade on Nasdaq. Sprint stock was down 8 cents or 1.4 percent at $5.48 on New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Nick Zieminski)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clearwire-sprint-set-120-million-breakup-fee-143311128--sector.html
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Monday, December 17, 2012
Nees language blog: Get some inspirations ... - glenkurma - fylaryp's ...
Dec 10 2012
- Which is the easiest language?
- How many speaker of the language?
- How important is the language?
- Which is the most popular language?
- And the list goes on?
Have you ever had those questions in your mind whenever you face the decision to learn a language? I bet you have. Well, one consideration of the easiness of a language depends much on the language that the learners know. A Korean friend told me that it is easier to learn Chinese Mandarin than English. If we take a look deeply in the structure and vocabulary of Korean language, it has much more similarities with Chinese Mandarin than that in English. Moreover, Korean used Chinese characters along with the Korean characters in the past.
I found an interesting article listing top 10 languages to study including facts about each of them. There are two categories that I would like to point here.
- German
- French
- Spanish
- Mandarin
- Polish
- Arabic
- Cantonese
- Russian
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Easiest foreign language (for English speaker)
- Afrikaans
- French
- Spanish
- Dutch
- Norwegian
- Portuguese
- Swedish
- Italian
- Esperanto
- Frisian
reference.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationpicturegalleries/9722196/Easiest-foreign-languages-in-pictures.html?frame=2418200
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9487434/Graduate-jobs-Best-languages-to-study.html?frame=2314799
Source: http://okwa.blogspot.com/2012/12/get-some-inspirations.html
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Overnight Video: President Obama's Speech in Newtown (Little green footballs)
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Diet Pepsi quietly changes sweetener
NEW YORK (AP) ? Diet Pepsi is quietly changing its sweetener ahead of a major rebranding of the soft drink set for next month.
The change comes as PepsiCo Inc. looks to reinvigorate its namesake brands after losing market share to Coca-Cola Co. in recent years.
Cans of Diet Pepsi around the country now list a mix of two artificial sweeteners, a pairing that is commonly found in newer diet sodas. Previously, Diet Pepsi used only aspartame, which is sensitive to heat and breaks down more easily.
This summer, PepsiCo had declined to say whether it would go ahead with such a change after reports surfaced that it was testing the new sweeteners. Although the switch is only intended to help prevent the taste from degrading over time, companies are often sensitive to public perceptions that they might be tinkering with major brands. PepsiCo executives likely don't want to call any attention to the use of artificial sweeteners in the drink either.
When reached for comment Sunday, PepsiCo spokeswoman Andrea Canabal said that Diet Pepsi using the new sweetener mix started hitting shelves in early December. She said the new mix will be more widely available in the coming weeks.
"It's not like a light switch. It'll start appearing as shelf space clears," she said. In January, Canabal said the company is planning a major ad campaign that will include a new logo with a heart and the theme "Love Every Sip."
The sweetener change will not be explicitly communicated in the ads, which will feature actress Sofia Vergara.
In addition to aspartame, cans of Diet Pepsi found in New York, Omaha, Neb., and the Bay Area now list acesulfame potassium as an ingredient. The ingredient is often used in combination with other artificial sweeteners and can be found in a wide range of foods including baked goods, chewing gum and gelatin desserts.
John Sicher, editor and publisher of the industry tracker Beverage Digest, said the synergistic effect of mixing the two sweeteners is intended to help keep the drink's sweetening power at a constant level, making it taste fresh longer.
"A change in sweetener does not change the flavor," he noted.
PepsiCo said in a statement Sunday that it was adding a "very small amount" of acesulfame potassium "to ensure consistency with every sip." The sweeteners used in Diet Pepsi vary depending on the region of the world.
The move to improve Diet Pepsi comes amid a broader push by PepsiCo to boost sales of its flagship soda. Under pressure from investors, CEO Indra Nooyi earlier this year announced the company would step up investment in its flagship brands.
Already this year, PepsiCo has made several splashy moves including a wide-ranging partnership with singer Beyonce and a multiyear deal with the National Football League to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show. TV ads for Pepsi have also featured singer Nicki Minaj, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, the boy band One Direction and international soccer stars including Lionel Messi.
Whether the efforts will pay off with increased sales remains to be seen. In the latest quarter, PepsiCo said its soda volume in North America fell 2 percent, reflecting the broader decline in soft drink consumption that has plagued the industry since 1998. But the company noted that its share of the market had improved.
For now, Diet Pepsi remains the No. 7 carbonated soft drink with 4.9 percent of the market, according to Beverage Digest. That's down from 5.3 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, Diet Coke's share has increased in that time from 8.7 percent to 9.6 percent. Diet Coke, which still only uses aspartame, overtook regular Pepsi to become the No. 2 soda brand in 2010.
Coke remains No. 1 and Pepsi is No. 3.
Still, Diet Pepsi rakes in roughly $5 billion in a year in revenue and remains one of PepsiCo's biggest moneymakers. The company, based in Purchase, N.Y., also makes Frito-Lay snacks, Tropicana juices and Quaker oatmeal.
It's not the first time a soda company is tweaking the sweeteners in its drinks; PepsiCo made a similar move with Diet Mountain Dew in 2006, while Coca-Cola did the same with Diet Sprite in 2000.
___
Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi
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