iapetus catastrophe: December 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

College Football Preview - BCS Odds and Predictions - Part 2

The college football season hasn't gone at all according to plan for our predictions, but there is still hope of a big finish with some of the biggest bowls still on the table. We'll go over the 2nd part of the college football games coming up in the next week or two and see if we can't peg down some wagering winners. Best of luck to everyone that comes back week after week, and we'll do our best to go out with a bang. There are still 8 huge bowl games left after these predictions are finished so make sure to check back for more *winners.

*My track record indicates that there may not be many winners.

Utah vs. Georgia Tech -2.5

Georgia Tech's run-based style is tough for anyone to match up with, but Utah is familiar with it since they face off against a similar offense in Air Force every year. That will be the key to this game, and I'm calling for an upset as the Yellow Jackets don't fool anyone in the bowl.

UCLA vs. Illinois -3

The Bruins are a hit-and-miss team and I just can't trust them. Illinois is tough to peg down as well but I think they have small edges on both sides of the ball and will be able to figure out a way to win by 7-10.

Cincinnati vs. Vanderbilt -2

The SEC is getting overrated here and I don't think that Vanderbilt will be able to stop the Cincinnati offense from passing for 300 yards in an upset win. The Commodores are solid and will present some problems, but the wrong team is favored.

Virginia vs. Auburn -3

Auburn's offense should be able to put up big points, and I'm not sure that the Cavaliers will be able to keep pace. They looked horrible last time out against Virginia Tech and I have questions about how good they are on both sides of the ball. Go with the Tigers to win comfortably.

Penn State vs. Houston -7

Houston has been one of the most overrated teams all season long and their lack of defense finally caught up with them. Penn State is far from an offensive juggernaut but they should be able to run for 200 or more yards in an upset over a team that has no business being favored.

Michigan State vs. Georgia -3.5

The Spartans have used their defense and special teams to make up for an offense that is inconsistent, but I don't feel they'll have that luxury against Georgia. The Bulldogs should be able to move the ball successfully and are experienced to limit the type of mistakes that Michigan State has grown accustomed to receiving.

Nebraska vs. South Carolina -2.5

I'm usually looking to fade the SEC in bowl games because the odds makers generally overrate them, but this is not one of those instances. The Gamecocks are better on both sides of the ball and they have the defensive speed to stop Nebraska's offense. South Carolina wins easily.

Florida -2 vs. Ohio State

The Gators are far too inconsistent on both sides of the ball to be favored here. Ohio State has problems of their own, but they also have the superior playmakers in my opinion. This bowl game could go either way but I like the Buckeyes to pull off the upset.

Source: http://fantasyfootballjungle.com/article/1575/College_Football_Preview_-_BCS_Odds_and_Predictions_-_Part_2/

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Gene linked to increasing pancreatic cancer risk

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Mutations in the ATM gene may increase the hereditary risk for pancreatic cancer, according to data published Thursday in Cancer Discovery, the latest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most morbid cancers, with less than five percent of those diagnosed with the disease surviving to five years. Approximately 10 percent of patients come from families with multiple cases of pancreatic cancer.

"There was significant reason to believe this clustering was due to genetics, but we had not, to this point, been able to find the causative genes that explained the cluster of pancreatic cancer for a majority of these families," said lead author Alison Klein, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and director of the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry.

Klein and colleagues used next-generation sequencing, including whole genome and whole exome analyses, and identified ATM gene mutations in two kindreds with familial pancreatic cancer.

Klein said knowledge of the presence of the ATM gene could lead to better screening for pancreatic cancer, the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death.

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5678837595&f=378

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[OOC] Reserved Slots for ATMT

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This is just a list of reserved spots. Mostly for my reference. Names will be eliminated based on characters I receive. (When the person gets the part)

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Yo! Can I reserve the on-tech person? This is an awesome idea. ^^

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Running up the score (Unqualified Offerings)

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Debate Persists on Deadly Flu Made Airborne

[unable to retrieve full-text content]An experiment that took a dangerous flu virus and made it more so has raised fears of terrorism and questions about whether the experiment should have been done.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

University-level Chemistry tutor at Toronto Elite Tutorial Services, ON

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College Basketball?s Top 10 Disappointments

UCLA: The Bruins possessed a massive frontcourt, a senior point guard (Lazeric Jones) and one of the league?s top forwards (Reeves Nelson). Then, they kicked off the season with double-digit losses to Loyola Marymount and Middle Tennessee, despite entering the season at No. 20 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, and then Ben Howland kicked Nelson off the team.
North Carolina: My email address is mmedcalf3030@gmail.com. But before you shoot off that ?Huh?? message with a variety of expletives, consider my argument. The Tar Heels belong here because they entered the year amid ?The Dark Knight Rises? hype. Sure, their nonconference schedule was a gauntlet. But they were supposed to be a cut above. See: Undefeated. (Please review the preseason praise before venting.)
Alabama: It?s d?j? vu in Tuscaloosa. And not because of the Alabama-LSU rematch for the BCS title next month. Alabama -- the hardwood version -- has encountered the same early struggles that derailed its season a year ago. The Tide had lost three of their past four games entering the week, and on Monday they were dropped from this week?s[..]ociated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches top 25 polls.
Vanderbilt: In a season dominated by young talent, the Commodores returned experienced players and seemed fit for a potential title run. Entering the season, they looked like Kentucky?s greatest threats in the SEC, too. But they?ve already lost four games after entering the season as a top-10 squad. They?ve gone from Final Four talk to potentially finishing outside the top four in the lukewarm SEC. Ugh.
Memphis: So the Tigers are averaging 80 points per game. They have an All-American in Will Barton and contributors with first-round potential (Adonis Thomas). And they?re still 6-5 and seeking a signature nonconference win. Plus, with Marshall and Tulane surging, they could get tripped up in Conference USA action, too.
Arizona: Next season is supposed to be the year that Sean Miller restores the program back to its glory days by adding a highly touted 2012 recruiting class to the mix. But this season?s team seemed to have the talent to make a respectable push. But that hasn?t happened. From Nov. 17 through Dec. 18, the Wildcats lost four of seven games.
Florida State: Leonard Hamilton?s crew can lock down any team in the country. But college basketball ain't a chess game. During three straight losses in November, the Seminoles failed to reach 50 points. That?s not good.
Washington: Let?s just call it a Pac-12 virus. The Huskies received 29 votes in the first ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll and 44 in the preseason[..]ociated Press poll. Despite losing Isaiah Thomas, the Huskies figured to find success this season behind Terrence Ross & Co. Well, they?ve lost 5-of-8, including a 92-73 defeat against South Dakota State at home Dec. 18.
Cincinnati: Before the brawl, the Bearcats had failed to meet expectations. Ranked in both polls before the season started, they have three losses despite playing the No. 308 strength of schedule.
Kansas: This is not a normal Bill Self Jayhawks team. Yes, Thomas Robinson is a very talented forward. But other than the big man inside, the Jayhawks have struggled to find consistent contributors because of limited depth. The loss to Davidson this week highlighted one of their biggest issues -- point guard Tyshawn Taylor committed five turnovers in that game.

College Basketball's disappointments - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN

Source: http://slumz.boxden.com/f16/college-basketball-s-top-10-disappointments-1674216/

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Monday, December 26, 2011

canadagraphs: @jasikanicole Troy & Abed would fit in into #Fringe quite well. #Community #SaveCommunity #SaveFringe

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@jasikanicole Troy & Abed would fit in into #Fringe quite well. #Community #SaveCommunity #SaveFringe Il y a environ 3 heures via web en r?ponse ? jasikanicole

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ENERGY EFFICIENT 4 Bedroom House with appliances, washer/dryer, garage, 2

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Most Weight Regained by Older Women Is Fat, Study Finds (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Some weight regain is common after weight loss, but in older women many of those regained pounds return as fat mass rather than muscle mass, according to a new study.

How this affects strength and health needs further study, but experts said the findings underscore the downside of so-called yo-yo dieting.

The study included 78 women, average age 58, who had lost about 25 pounds during a previous diet study. Looking at data on the regainers, the researchers found a change in body composition.

"A third of the weight lost was muscle," said Dr. Barbara Nicklas, a gerontologist at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"The proportion of weight they gained [back] as muscle was 20 percent." That left them with more fat and less muscle.

The researchers evaluated the women's body weight, lean mass and fat mass before the diet, right after weight loss, and six and 12 months later. At one year, the researchers zeroed in on 68 women for whom complete records were available. Fifty-two (76 percent) had regained some weight, including 11 who weighed more than at the study's start. Sixteen were still losing weight.

The study was published Dec. 13 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The women in the study were sedentary, and their average body mass index (BMI) at the start was 33. BMI is a calculation based on height and weight, and a BMI of 30 is considered obese.

The finding may not apply to women who are less overweight, Nicklas said. She suspects the results would also apply to older men, but perhaps not to younger men or women.

"Some research shows [younger people] regain their weight in the same muscle-fat proportion they lost [it]," she said.

There is a possibility, Nicklas said, that a higher proportion of fat with the regained weight may simply reflect normal aging.

The study of regain after weight loss is a relatively new area, said Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition science at Tufts University, Boston, who is familiar with the study.

"There was a wide range of variability in both weight loss and regain among the postmenopausal women studied," she said. The shift in body composition toward more fat than muscle didn't occur in all women, she said.

Even so, she said the clear message is to try to avoid becoming overweight to begin with, and to keep off the excess weight once you lose it.

"For those women who have gained excess body weight and are then successful in losing it, this finding may add a bit more impetus to maintain the weight loss," Lichtenstein said.

But the study shouldn't deter overweight individuals from trying to slim down, she said.

Protein consumption is important to help minimize the amount of muscle loss, Nicklas said.

U.S. dietary guidelines recommend 0.8 grams of protein (or more) for every 2.2 pounds of body weight. For instance, a woman who weighs 200 pounds should take in about 70 to 90 grams of protein, Nicklas said. A 5.3-ounce container of Greek yogurt has about 13 grams or more of protein, she noted.

Exercise and a balanced diet can help maintain weight loss, Nicklas advised.

More information

For more on body mass index, see the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weightloss/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111222/hl_hsn/mostweightregainedbyolderwomenisfatstudyfinds

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Aptos' Jade Bowdoin prepares to compete in Miss California Teen Pageant

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Aptos High freshman Jade Bowdoin is headed to Palm Springs to compete in the Miss California Teen Pageant in January.

SANTA CRUZ - Jade Bowdoin is your all-American girl. Confident, outgoing and motivated, she donates her time to community service programs, aspires to study medicine and eventually enter the Peace Corps - but in her immediate sights is the Miss California Teen pageant.

The energetic and talkative brunette is the first to tell you pageants are more than physical beauty.

"Pageants aren't what you think, they aren't about girls being judged; they're about girls going out there and saying I love myself and I don't want to be judged," Bowdoin said. "Most of the girls who do it aren't the stereotype. Most of us are pretty smart and we do pageants for prize money and to get money for college. Most of us have 4.0s (grade point average) - you'd be surprised."

Bowdoin said she hopes to see support in Santa Cruz grow and while dispelling the myths surrounding pageants.

She said that she once saw a protester in Santa Cruz wearing a "meat dress," and protesting pageants - shouting women were not meat but people.

Nonetheless, perceptions of pageants as detrimental to women have limited the community support Bowdoin has received.

Bowdoin's mother, Theresa, said she hopes people will realize that pageants are about awareness and community service as much as they are about the young women who participate.

When entering a pageant, each contestant has a platform or a cause that she supports and hope to spread awareness. Bowdoin's platform is focused on St. Jude's Children's Hospital and Save Our Shores.

Recently, Bowdoin has participated in several Save Our Shores beach cleanups in Half Moon Bay and Seacliff. She is also hoping to organize a fundraiser for Invisible Children and collaborate with Miss Monterey on a collection for Annie's Blankets.

Bowdoin competed in her first pageant in the third grade and has been hooked ever since.

But outside of pageants, she has been involved with community service and Girl Scouts for 10 years. In August, she plans to work as a counselor at a nearby science camp.

An avid runner, a member of her high school track team and a recreational surfer and skateboarder, Bowdoin hopes to show that pageant girls are well-rounded young women and more than a pretty face.

"I'm not trying to be a stereotypical pageant girl I just want to be who I am and go out there," Bowdoin said. "The whole idea of a pageant is to be yourself and just own the stage and get that attention. And I feel it's really positive attention and it's a huge self-esteem booster."

She said she wants people to realize that pageants aren't like "Toddlers in Tiaras," but that overall the girls who participate create a unique support system. Bowdoin said "everyone's a sister" and she said she met one of her closest friends, this year's Miss Santa Clarita, through the pageant.

Bowdoin and her mother both attribute pageants to Jade's personal growth. Theresa Bowdoin said she has seen her daughter's confidence and poise grow.

"Win or lose, packing up from a pageant and leaving a hotel room, I always feel so great about myself," Bowdoin said. "When I put on my sash, I'm the happiest I am it's just the whole experience, meeting all the new girls, all the new people, you cannot be shy."

Jade Bowdoin

PARENTS: Theresa and James Bowdoin

AGE: 15

BORN: Dec. 3 1996 in Santa Cruz

SCHOOL: Aptos High

DETAILS: Bowdoin will compete in the Miss California Teen pageant Jan. 6-8 in Palm Springs

Source: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_19610487?source=rss_viewed

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Sports: Sports Games Stocking Stuffers

'NCAA Football 12,' in all its glory

Looking for a gift for your finicky sports-loving friend? Does he or she have a PS3 or Xbox 360? Click through for a list of games that've been in heavy rotation in my game console of late and a few I'd like to get my hands on. NCAA Football 12
EA Sports
$59.99

Madden 12
EA Sports
$49.99

For the last several months the majority of my video-game-playing time has been spent with the two big football titles: NCAA Football 12 and Madden 12. I've been a regular Madden player for years but had never owned a copy of the college game.

And let me say I was impressed. Maybe it's the novelty of playing something different but I enjoyed the look and gameplay of NCAA over Madden. Not by a lot, but I would give NCAA the advantage if I had to pick between the two.

I also didn't notice much of an upgrade from Madden 12 to 11, which is disappointing but not all that surprising for a franchise that basically has a monopoly on America's most-popular sport. That being said, I'm a die-hard Madden fan and get the new installment every year. For the updated roster, better online play, and slightly improved graphics. But rarely for whatever new feature they feel obligated to add on.

One notable upgrade in both games was improved tackling and more realistic and detailed pregame presentation. Group tackles have been much improved and offensive/defensive players are no longer sucked into each other while in close proximity. This makes for more realistic and thrilling play.

Something new for me this year is participating in the online franchise/dynasty mode. Setting up online leagues with friends and then leading your franchise/dynasty through season after season, playing head-to-head online against your friends, has been so much fun. Highly recommended.

Regardless of Madden's lack of improvement over previous versions, I couldn't see a football-loving video-game player being disappointed with either of these.

NCAA Football 12: (out of five stars)
Madden 12:

FIFA Soccer 12
EA Sports
$49.96

Outside of the U.S., soccer is the dominant sport, as we all know. And FIFA Soccer 12 dominates the world of console soccer games much like its real-life counterpart does in the real world. I just got my hands on this one recently and I am very impressed.

I hadn't played this series since FIFA 10, and while loving that game, FIFA 12 makes all the steps forward you would hope that Madden would.

The new player impact engine is an excellent feature, bringing more accurate and varied results when two players come into contact on the pitch with each player's size and strength taken into account allowing for more realistic action.

The new EA Sports Football Club feature tracks your experience points and uses them to support your favorite real-life team. Liverpool fans will play to increase (or decrease) the Reds overall online ranking, but smaller clubs like the Queens Park Rangers don't suffer from having a smaller fan base as the scores are averaged out over all the players, not accumulated.

Overall an exciting update on an already impressive franchise. FIFA 12 (along with MLB The Show) is perhaps the biggest no-brainer buy on this list.

MLB 11 The Show
Sony Computer Entertainment
$30.59, PS3 only

I know it's weird recommending a game that was released last March (with a new installment due March 6, 2012), but MLB The Show is perhaps my favorite video-game franchise of all time (admittedly, I almost exclusively play sports games) and was a deciding factor (along with Blu-ray) in my switch from Xbox 360 to PS3. The Show is only available for PS3 systems.

For baseball and video-game purists such as myself, MLB The Show is the closest that you could get to actually playing in a Major-League game, aside from actually playing in a Major-League game.

While 11 wasn't a huge improvement over 10, if your loved one loves baseball as much as I do, has a PS3, and doesn't own this game; well then you need to stick one of these suckers under the tree or at least promise to buy him/her the new one when it comes out in March. MLB 11 The Show:

While I can vouch for the quality of the rest of these games in the past, I haven't played their newest incarnations, but I'm assuming they are still the top games in their respective sports and should make for fine gifts.

NBA 2K12
2K Sports
$58.85, PS3; $39.96 Xbox 360

The season proper starts Christmas Day and this game would make for an excellent present for the NBA fan in your life. The addition of many vintage teams and players is especially interesting to me as well as the promise of improved gameplay and presentation. Now if the Rockets would just become contenders again I'd be all set. I plan on gifting myself this game soon.

NHL 12
EA Sports
$49.99, PS3; $54.94, Xbox 360

The hockey season is in full swing so now's the perfect time to pick up the newest installment of EA Sports' NHL series. The best would appear to get better for the most accurate hockey sim on the market. Tweaked gameplay improvements over last year's awesome installment as well as the addition of the Be a Legend mode where you can suit up as hockey legends of the past should slip this one easily past the five-hole into your loved one's stocking.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
Electronic Arts
$38.99, PS3; $32.18, Xbox 360

I have been remiss and have not played a new version of the Tiger Woods franchise in years. That being said, I have always enjoyed it when I did and this one has been receiving positive reviews. I find golf video game to be a calming experience, much like watching on TV. That is when I'm not flubbing easy putts.

The biggest draw here is the inclusion of the course at the Augusta National Golf Club for the first time ever. Augusta is the home of one of golf's four major championships the Masters. Hence the title.

Happy Holidays and see ya next year.

Source: http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/sports/2011-12-22/sports-games-stocking-stuffers/

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Friday, December 23, 2011

f1feedr: #F1 Official: Exclusive Q&A with Force India's Nico Hulkenberg http://t.co/mYZBlqtx

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Holiday showdown over payroll tax tests Obama, GOP

Read?more: National, Politics, Payroll Taxes, Payroll Tax Cut Opposed, House Republicans, Senate Payroll Tax Cut Extension Faces Opposition, White House, President Barack Obama, Payroll Taxes will Go up, Congress, Bipartisan Bickering, Bipartisan Compromise, Tax Policy, Congress Holiday Stalemate, Congress Stalemate

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Stuck in a stalemate, President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals are slugging it out in Washington rather than reaching for a holiday season accord to prevent payroll taxes from going up on 160 million workers.

The tax increases, as well as cuts to Medicare doctors' fees and a lapse in jobless benefits, are due Jan. 1. They are looming even though Democrats and Republicans agree that they shouldn't happen. Instead of stopping them, the factions have painted themselves into a corner.

House Republicans are demanding that the Senate join negotiations to produce an agreement within days; Senate Democrats insist no talks will take place before the House approves a stopgap measure to buy more time.

A House vote Tuesday scuttled a bipartisan Senate deal for a two-month extension of all three policies: the payroll tax cuts, jobless benefits and Medicare fees.

After the House killed the Senate measure on a 229-193 vote, Obama signaled he'll use his presidential megaphone to try to force Republicans controlling the House into submission.

"Now let's be clear," Obama said at the White House. "The bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on Jan. 1. The only one."

The Obama campaign promptly took to Twitter and Facebook to fight it out. With their candidate's poll numbers rising, Democratic operatives seemed almost giddy at the prospect of a prolonged battle.

Republican lawmakers relished the battle as well, though some of them are too inexperienced to know that presidents ? regardless of party ? usually win such high-profile fights, like President Bill Clinton did over a 1995-96 government shutdown or President George W. Bush did in skirmishes on anti-terror policies.

House Republicans instead rallied around a plan passed last week that would have extended the payroll tax cut for one year. But that version also contained spending cuts opposed by Democrats and tighter rules for jobless benefits.

If legislation isn't passed by New Year's Day, payroll taxes will go up by almost $20 a week for a worker making a $50,000 salary. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits as well, and doctors would bear big cuts in Medicare payments.

Whatever the stakes, there was little indication that Republicans would get their wish for negotiations with the Senate any time soon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement saying he would be happy to resume talks on a yearlong measure ? "but not before" the House ratifies the two-month bill and sends it to Obama for his signature.

Given Obama's remarks and Reid's refusal to negotiate, it was unclear what leverage Republicans had in the year-end standoff. It appeared likely the partisan disagreement could easily persist past Christmas and into the final week of the year.

A little-noticed element of the brawl was that the House-Senate parliamentary situation, which can be a critical factor, is all messed up. The Senate adjourned Saturday until Jan. 23 except for so-called pro forma sessions in which legislative business ? like responding to the House moves ? is basically impossible unless all 100 senators agree. That's never a sure thing.

The standoff was sowing confusion among business executives, who were running out of time to adapt to any new payroll tax regimen. Even the Senate's proposed two-month extension was creating headaches because it contained a two-tiered system geared to ensuring that higher-income earners paid a higher rate on some of their wages, according to a trade group.

"There's not time enough to do that in an orderly fashion," said Pete A. Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium trade group. "We're two weeks away from 2012." He wrote a letter to congressional leaders this week warning that the Senate bill "could create substantial problems, confusion and costs."

Meanwhile, Medicare announced Tuesday that, as it has in the past when doctors' reimbursements have been cut through congressional inaction, it would withhold physicians' payments for two weeks in January to avoid passing on a 27 percent cut in Medicare fees. The hope is that the problem gets fixed by then.

Source: http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=699631

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Asian stock markets join US, European rally (AP)

BEIJING ? Asian stock markets rose Wednesday, joining a U.S. and European rally on positive economic data from the United States and Germany and shaking off jitters over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Tokyo's main index gained 1.4 percent and Seoul jumped 3.1 percent. Shanghai, Taipei and Singapore also rose.

The positive signs from key Western export markets helped shore up Asian sentiment that was jolted by Kim's death and fears of a possible power struggle in a country pursuing nuclear weapons. Seoul's main index plunged 5 percent on Monday before recovering.

"We're being driven by what happened in Europe and the U.S. last night," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst for Australia's CMC Markets. "We got some reasonably good news in the form of the well-bid Spanish bond auction and better-than-expected U.S. housing starts."

Investors took heart after Spain's government borrowing costs fell in a weekly debt auction. The U.S. Commerce Department reported unexpectedly strong November home starts at their highest level since April 2010 and up 9.3 percent from October.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a research group reported business confidence rose unexpectedly this month while consumers were resilient.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose to 8,449.9 points, Seoul's Kospi increased to 1,848.9 and China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.1 percent to 2,219.8. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.6 percent to 18,368.6.

Singapore's benchmark added 1.7 percent to 2,659 while Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 gained 2.1 percent to 4,137.7. Taiwan's Taiex soared 4.4 percent to 6,957.1.

Analysts expect Kim to be succeeded by his third son, Kim Jong Un. North Korean state media have stepped up lavish praise of the younger Kim, indicating an effort to strengthen a cult of personality around him similar to that of his father.

Spooner said the strong European and U.S. data were prompting investors to move back into stocks due to concern they might be caught on the sidelines if potential problems in the West fail to materialize and markets rebound.

On Tuesday, major European exchanges all gained strongly after the reports on business and consumer confidence by research institute GfK.

European Union leaders are trying to raise 200 billion euros ($261 billion) to provide the International Monetary Fund with resources to help indebted nations avoid default.

Makets shrugged off news after trading closed Monday that EU finance ministers raised only three-quarters of the target agreed to at a summit last week. At the summit, the 17 countries that use the euro agreed to set up a new treaty to create tighter fiscal rules for the currency union, which has been rocked by a debt crisis for the past two years.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Averages gained 2.3 percent on Tuesday while the S&P 500 jumped 2.4 percent.

In currencies, the euro strengthened to $1.312 from $1.3071 late Tuesday. The dollar rose to 77.8 yen from 77.7.

Benchmark oil for February delivery edged up 71 cents to $97.95 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Christopher Hitchens, militant pundit, dies at 62 (AP)

Cancer weakened but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. As if granted diplomatic immunity, his mind's eye looked plainly upon the attack and counterattack of disease and treatments that robbed him of his hair, his stamina, his speaking voice and eventually his life.

"I love the imagery of struggle," he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. "I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient."

Hitchens, a Washington, D.C.-based author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right, died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. He was 62.

"There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar," said Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. "Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."

He had enjoyed his drink (enough to "to kill or stun the average mule") and cigarettes, until he announced in June 2010 that he was being treated for cancer of the esophagus.

He was a most engaged, prolific and public intellectual who wrote numerous books, was a frequent television commentator and a contributor to Vanity Fair, Slate and other publications. He became a popular author in 2007 thanks to "God Is Not Great," a manifesto for atheists.

"Christopher Hitchens was everything a great essayist should be: infuriating, brilliant, highly provocative and yet intensely serious," said Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. "I worked as an intern for him years ago. My job was to fact check his articles. Since he had a photographic memory and an encyclopedic mind, it was the easiest job I've ever done."

Long after his diagnosis, his columns and essays appeared regularly, savaging the royal family, reveling in the death of Osama bin Laden or pondering the letters of poet Philip Larkin. He was intolerant of nonsense, including about his own health. In a piece that appeared in the January 2012 issue of Vanity Fair, he dismissed the old saying that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

"So far, I have decided to take whatever my disease can throw at me, and to stay combative even while taking the measure of my inevitable decline. I repeat, this is no more than what a healthy person has to do in slower motion," he wrote. "It is our common fate. In either case, though, one can dispense with facile maxims that don't live up to their apparent billing."

Eloquent and intemperate, bawdy and urbane, Hitchens was an acknowledged contrarian and contradiction ? half-Christian, half-Jewish and fully nonbelieving; a native of England who settled in America; a former Trotskyite who backed the Iraq war and supported George W. Bush. But his passions remained constant and targets of his youth, from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, remained hated.

He was a militant humanist who believed in pluralism and racial justice and freedom of speech, big cities and fine art, and the willingness to stand the consequences. He was smacked in the rear by then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and beaten up in Beirut. He once submitted to waterboarding to prove that it was indeed torture.

Hitchens was a committed sensualist who abstained from clean living as if it were just another kind of church. In 2005, he recalled a trip to Aspen, Colo., and a brief encounter after stepping off a ski lift.

"I was met by immaculate specimens of young American womanhood, holding silver trays and flashing perfect dentition," he wrote. "What would I like? I thought a gin and tonic would meet the case. `Sir, that would be inappropriate.' In what respect? `At this altitude gin would be very much more toxic than at ground level.' In that case, I said, make it a double."

An emphatic ally and inspired foe, he stood by friends in trouble ("Satanic Verses" novelist Salman Rushdie) and against enemies in power (Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). His heroes included George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Gore Vidal (pre-Sept. 11). Among those on the Hitchens list of shame: Michael Moore; Saddam Hussein; Kim Jong Il; Sarah Palin; Gore Vidal (post Sept. 11); and Prince Charles.

"We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant," Hitchens wrote in Slate in 2010 after the heir to the British throne gave a speech criticizing Galileo for the scientist's focus on "the material aspect of reality."

"He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way. But this latest departure promotes him from an advocate of harmless nonsense to positively sinister nonsense."

Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1949. His father, Eric, was a "purse-lipped" Navy veteran known as "The Commander"; his mother, Yvonne, a romantic who later killed herself during an extramarital rendezvous in Greece. Young Christopher would have rather read a book. He was "a mere weed and weakling and kick-bag" who discovered that "words could function as weapons" and so stockpiled them.

In college, Oxford, he made such longtime friends as authors Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, and claimed to be nearby when visiting Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton did or did not inhale marijuana. Radicalized by the 1960s, Hitchens was often arrested at political rallies, was kicked out of Britain's Labour Party over his opposition to the Vietnam War and became a correspondent for the radical magazine International Socialism. His reputation broadened in the 1970s through his writings for the New Statesman.

Wavy-haired and brooding and aflame with wit and righteous anger, he was a star of the left on paper and on camera, a popular television guest and a columnist for one of the world's oldest liberal publications, The Nation. In friendlier times, Vidal was quoted as citing Hitchens as a worthy heir to his satirical throne.

But Hitchens never could simply nod his head. He feuded with fellow Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn, broke with Vidal and angered freedom of choice supporters by stating that the child's life begins at conception. An essay for Vanity Fair was titled "Why Women Aren't Funny," and Hitchens wasn't kidding.

He had long been unhappy with the left's reluctance to confront enemies or friends. He would note his strong disappointment that Arthur Miller and other leading liberals shied from making public appearances on behalf of Rushdie after the Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death. He advocated intervention in Bosnia and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Rushdie posted on his Twitter page early Friday: "Goodbye, my beloved friend. A great voice falls silent. A great heart stops."

No Democrat angered him more than Clinton, whose presidency led to the bitter end of Hitchens' friendship with White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and other Clinton backers. As Hitchens wrote in his memoir, he found Clinton "hateful in his behavior to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics."

He wrote the anti-Clinton book, "No One Left to Lie To," at a time when most liberals were supporting the president as he faced impeachment over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Hitchens also loathed Hillary Rodham Clinton and switched his affiliation from independent to Democrat in 2008 just so he could vote against her in the presidential primary.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, completed his exit. He fought with Vidal, Noam Chomsky and others who either suggested that U.S. foreign policy had helped cause the tragedy or that the Bush administration had advanced knowledge. He supported the Iraq war, quit The Nation, backed Bush for re-election in 2004 and repeatedly chastised those whom he believed worried unduly about the feelings of Muslims.

"It's not enough that faith claims to be the solution to all problems," he wrote in Slate in 2009 after a Danish newspaper apologized for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that led Muslim organizations to threaten legal action. "It is now demanded that such a preposterous claim be made immune from any inquiry, any critique, and any ridicule."

His essays were compiled in such books as "For the Sake of Argument" and "Prepared for the Worst." He also wrote short biographies/appreciations of Paine and Thomas Jefferson, a tribute to Orwell and "Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)," in which he advised that "only an open conflict of ideas and principles can produce any clarity." A collection of essays, "Arguably," came out in September 2011 and he was planning a "book-length meditation on malady and mortality." He appeared in a 2010 documentary about the topical singer Phil Ochs.

Survived by his second wife, author Carol Blue, and by his three children (Alexander, Sophia and Antonia), Hitchens had quotable ideas about posterity, clarified years ago when he saw himself referred to as "the late" Christopher Hitchens in print. For the May 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, before his illness, Hitchens submitted answers for the Proust Questionnaire, a probing and personal survey for which the famous have revealed everything from their favorite color to their greatest fear.

His vision of earthly bliss: "To be vindicated in my own lifetime."

His ideal way to die: "Fully conscious, and either fighting or reciting (or fooling around)."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_en_ot/us_obit_hitchens

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Jurors deadlock in $1B lawsuit against Microsoft (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? Attorneys for a Utah company that brought a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. said it will seek to retry the case with a new jury after a federal jury failed to reach a verdict.

Novell Inc. sued the software giant in 2004, claiming Microsoft duped it into developing the once-popular WordPerfect writing program for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own product. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.

The trial began two months ago and included two days of testimony from Bill Gates last month. Jurors got the case on Wednesday. After much confusion, and some perplexing questions from the panel, they told U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz they were deadlocked by early Friday evening.

Motz repeatedly asked them if they could keep trying.

"This has been a very long and expensive case," the judge told the panel.

Novell attorneys pleaded with Motz to give the panel just one more day. In the end, however, the 12 jurors told the judge they were "hopelessly" deadlocked, and they later told lawyers a single holdout refused to vote in Novell's favor.

"He had strongly held views about the technical evidence and refused to budge," Novell attorney Jeffrey Johnson said. Jurors offered no comment after the trial.

Novell was left with little to show for a decade of effort.

"Although it's a technically complicated case, we're hoping to convince another jury that our claims have merit," Novell's corporate counsel Jim Lundberg said.

Microsoft said it would file a motion asking the judge to dismiss Novell's complaint for good and avoid a second trial.

"We remain confident that Novell's claims don't have any merit and look forward to the next steps in the process," said Steven Aeschbacher, Microsoft's associate general counsel.

Novell waited until 10 years after Microsoft left WordPerfect behind to file the lawsuit. The company said it was waiting for the U.S. government's antitrust enforcement against Microsoft to wrap up. At first Novell's case was dismissed, but it was later reinstated on appeal.

Microsoft lawyers have argued that Novell's loss of market share was its own doing because the company didn't develop a compatible WordPerfect program until long after the rollout of Windows 95. WordPerfect once had nearly 50 percent of the market for word processing, but its share quickly plummeted to less than 10 percent as Microsoft's own Office programs took hold.

Gates testified last month that he had no idea his decision to drop a tool for outside developers would sidetrack Novell. Gates said he was acting to protect Windows 95 and future versions from crashing.

He said that the company's preferred Word software was superior to WordPerfect, which was a "bulky, slow, buggy product" that did not integrate well with Windows 95.

Novell could have worked around the problem but failed to react quickly, he said.

Novell has argued that Gates ordered Microsoft engineers to reject WordPerfect as a Windows 95 word processing application because he feared it was too good.

Novell's lawsuit is the last major private antitrust case to follow the settlement of a federal antitrust enforcement action against Microsoft more than eight years ago.

Novell is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the result of a merger that was completed earlier this year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_on_hi_te/us_antitrust_lawsuit_microsoft

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Arrests as Occupy Wall Street tries to set up camp

Miranda Leitsinger/msnbc.com

Occupy Wall Street protesters in Duarte Square in lower Manhattan.

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET

NEW YORK, NY --? A?festive and celebratory mood quickly turned tense and angry Saturday as New York police arrested about 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters at?a church-owned lot?demonstrators?had hoped to use as a?camp site.

A dozen or so protesters climbed a wooden?ladder into the fenced?lot at Duarte Square, according to J.A. Myerson, a writer with Truthout.

He said George E. Packard, an Occupy Wall Street supporter and retired Episcopal bishop to the Armed Forces and Chaplaincies, was among those who had used the ladder to enter the site.

About a thousand people gathered across the street, where dozens of police tried to clear sidewalks as?people shouted and screamed at them. Protesters chanted obscenities and screamed: "Make them catch you!"

After the arrests, about 300 protesters made a?blocks-long, late-afternoon march to the church rectory.?

Earlier in the day, demonstrators played drums, cymbals and trombones, held group meetings and waved signs with a variety of messages -- "Disobedience is civil" and "Sorry to inconvenience your apathy" -- as they marked the completion of three?months with a major direct action that could give them a new home as authorities continue to shutter camps nationwide.?

Protesters -- flanked by police officers -- coalesced on a nearly half-acre plot about one mile northwest of their former camp at Zuccotti Park. But their potential new landlord at Duarte Square, Trinity Church, has voiced strong opposition, and the move by Occupy is seen by some as applying strong pressure to them to cave in and let the protesters install themselves.

Under the banner of "Re-Occupy," the protesters said more than 1,400 people -- elders of the civil rights movement, prominent artists, faith leaders and community members -- will help them try and set up camp there after they were evicted from Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15.

"I'm just loving seeing everybody from Zuccotti Park and it really puts an exclamation point on the (question) that's been asked today so many times, 'Do you guys need a space?' ... and the answer is, 'yes.' When you walk around and see the familiar faces and the kindred spirits and the unification of effort, then you realize yes we do need a space so that we can all be together and function as whole as a group and move forward, no doubt," said Thorin Caristo, a 37-year-old protester who is part of an independent livestream team.

It was a festive atmosphere, with people being photographed at the "99% photobooth" and people dancing around musicians and chanting, "Occupy." A group of hunger strikers with a sign reading "Day 15" also gathered at the site.

Miranda Leitsinger/msnbc.com

A protesters plays the drums at Occupy Wall Street's bid to take over a lot in lower Manhattan.

"Outdoor public space plays a crucial role in this civic process and encourages open, transparent organizing in our movement, unbeholden to a broken political system.?As we saw in Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), outdoor space invites people to listen, speak, share, learn, and act.?It is a source of inspiration and empowerment," Occupy Wall Street said in a statement.

Trinity Church has provided the protesters with meeting rooms and use of their neighborhood center but is opposed to having them stay at the Duarte Square lot. An attempt to move in there on Nov. 15 was rejected by the church.

?In all good conscience and faith, we strongly believe to do so would be wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious,? its rector, The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, said in a statement dated Dec. 9 and posted to the church website. ?The health, safety and security problems posed by an encampment here, compounded by winter weather, would dwarf those experienced at Zuccotti Park. Calling this an issue of ?political sanctuary? is manipulative and blind to reality.?

Linda Hanick, a spokeswoman for the church, said earlier this week that their position would not change and on Friday, a statement from the city's bishop sided with Trinity.

The church's operations include an Episcopal parish, a commercial realty business and a grant-making organization.

"Here's a extremely wealthy church ... that can choose between its real estate empire and its conscience. This would be a big help to social justice organizing," Bill Dobbs, of the public relations working group, said Friday.

Miranda Leitsinger/msnbc.com

Occupy think tank working group meets at Duarte Square in lower Manhattan as part of their bid to set up a new camp.

Dobbs said the movement had suffered a ?setback? with the loss of its camp, but the organizing and protests had continued.

Still, ?it sure is helpful to have ? a center of gravity,? he said.

One of the former leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society, Todd Gitlin, said the movement "stands on the sidewalk."

"It's in the process of adjusting to two things: Number one, the loss of camps, and number two, we stand on the brink of an election year," Todd Gitlin, a sociologist and journalism professor, said standing near the fence encircling the proposed new camp. "The eviction means that what was already a major tendency in the movement is even more prominent now, namely decentralism. It's dispersed. Lots of things are going on all the time."

If they don't succeed in taking the lot, Gitlin said he didn't think it was a big deal, noting that Occupy Wall Street had become a more organized structure since it began with events going on all the time: "I think it's always a mistake to judge very much from what happens on a particular day."

The protesters say they?ll do things differently this time with a new camp to prevent problems -- such as a few assaults -- that tainted their efforts at Zuccotti Park. There won?t be personal tents, for example, only large ones for group meetings, said Brendan Burke, 41, of Brooklyn, who helped start the Occupy Wall Street security team.

Ashley Perry, 24, traveled from her home in Tampa, Fla.., to support her New York counterparts.

?This whole occupation has been a lesson in freedom for me," Perry said, adding, "If you still think that you?have your First Amendment rights, go out and try to express them? and see how long it takes for someone to come?and shut you down -- it will happen quickly."

Occupy Wall Street would not be the first of the movement's encampments to set up in a church-owned space: In London, protesters are occupying the forecourt of St Paul?s Cathedral, next to the London Stock Exchange.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/17/9517974-occupy-wall-street-makes-bid-for-new-new-york-city-camp

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Europe crisis "serious risk" to outlook: Treasury (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Europe's debt crisis has deepened and become more entrenched, posing a serious risk to the economic outlook, a senior Treasury official told lawmakers on Friday.

Mark Sobel, Treasury deputy assistant secretary for international affairs, said in prepared testimony before the House of Representatives Oversight subcommittee that the crisis has sharply weakened Europe's economic prospects for next year.

"Growth in the euro area is projected by most analysts to be negative this quarter and into early 2012, with weak growth persisting in 2012," Sobel said.

He added that Europe's problems were a "serious risk for the U.S. economic outlook and said that President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were "actively engaged" with European counterparts to help them deal with the crisis.

Sobel also repeated Obama administration's views that stronger European countries must do more to contain the crisis on their own.

"As European countries act to develop critical economic reforms and to strengthen fiscal governance, Europe must also continue mobilizing the requisite resources to put in place a strong and credible firewall commensurate with the scale of the challenge," he said. It must do so quickly, with force and determination."

While the International Monetary Fund can play a role in easing the crisis, "the IMF cannot substitute for a strong and credible European firewall and response," he added.

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/bs_nm/us_eurozone_usa_treasury

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Locals Gather For Annual Woodhaven Christmas Parade

Members of the Woodhaven Residents? Block Association (WRBA) gathered in front of their office on December 3 to watch the annual Woodhaven Christmas Parade. Members blew whistles and horns while cheering on those that participated in the 20-block march along Jamaica Avenue. ?Community spirit is alive and kicking,? said WRBA President Ed Wendell. ?We appreciate the effort that went into this parade, and we wanted to come out and show that appreciation.? The parade is an annual tradition in Woodhaven, sponsored by the Woodhaven Business Improvement District and attracts local schools, organizations and also features the Franklin K. Lane ROTC.

Source: http://www.qgazette.com/news/2011-12-14/Features/Locals_Gather_For_Annual_Woodhaven_Christmas_Parad.html

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