Apple revamps Apple TV firmware, iOS Remote app to play nicely in an iTunes 11 world

If you're the early adopting type living in an Apple ecosystem, you probably upgraded to iTunes 11 almost as soon as the bits reached the servers. You might not have noticed that Apple gave its iOS Remote app and Apple TV firmware shots in the arm to match. Of the two, Remote 3.0 is the larger update and brings a simpler UI that also takes advantage of iTunes' new Up Next feature to add or prune out songs in ongoing playlists on a host computer. iPad owners reap the most rewards -- the album view now expands in place to quickly drill down to a specific track. Apple TV viewers aren't quite so coddled, although they too get Up Next support for iTunes 11 (and iTunes Match) as well as the usual rounds of speed-ups and bug fixes; we imagine a solution to some of the troubles with 5.1 is part of the package. No matter which update fits into your vision of musical harmony, you'll find details at the source links.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Mobile, Apple

Comments

Via: Cult of Mac (1), (2)

Source: App Store, Apple

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/29/apple-revamps-apple-tv-firmware-ios-remote-app-to-play-with-itunes-11/

Leryn Franco The Campaign Kinesio tape randy travis Allyson Felix Kourtney Kardashian Baby Girl Ashton Eaton

This is ?liberal arts-based education? | Fellowship of the Minds

Students Told to Disavow ?American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality?

The College Fix (Ryan Lovelace): A political science professor at Butler University asks students to disregard their ?American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class status? when writing and speaking in the classroom ? a practice the school?s arts and sciences dean defended as a way to negate students? inherent prejudices.

The syllabus of the course at Butler, a small Midwestern liberal arts institution in Indianapolis, spells out that students should use ?inclusive language? because it?s ?a fundamental issue of social justice.?

?Language that is truly inclusive affirms sexuality, racial and ethnic backgrounds, stages of maturity, and degrees of limiting conditions,? the syllabus states, referencing a definition created by the United Church of Christ.

The syllabus of the class, called Political Science 201: Research and Analysis, goes on to ask students ?to write and speak in a way that does not assume American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class status, etc. to be the norm.? It is taught by a black, female professor.

In an interview with The College Fix, Jay Howard, dean of Butler?s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, denied this practice essentially presumes every student who walks through the door is a racist or misogynist.

He said students must be told not to assume such prejudices because such assumptions are ingrained into the culture and remain there until questioned. With that, a liberal arts education questions these assumptions, and such questions can make for uncomfortable situations, he said.

?Sometimes in order to broaden the conversation and broaden the understandings you?ve got to risk making people uncomfortable,? Howard said. ?There?s nothing about a college education that guarantees you won?t be made uncomfortable. As a matter of fact, if you?re never made uncomfortable in your college education, you?re not really getting a college education.?

Howard said the college he oversees does not want students to continue to harbor such assumptions without question, ?but neither do we want to exclude the dominant group in society in our attempts to make sure that we?re leveling hierarchies.?

In twenty years, white people will no longer be the majority, but they will still be the largest ethnic group, Howard said. He said using inclusive language would help students prepare for a changing world as America becomes more diverse.

He added that American culture makes speaking inclusively difficult, and the English language is partly to blame. ?Our language doesn?t make it easy to write in ways that are inclusive,? Howard said. ?We don?t have a generic singular, I mean we have he and she. There is no pronoun that is gender-neutral there.?

However, not all writing- and language-intensive classes at Butler University mandate students use such ?inclusive? language.

Nancy Whitmore, director of the journalism school in the College of Communication, said in an interview with The College Fix that students in her department are encouraged to use diverse sources with a wide variety of opinions, but are not mandated to use so-called inclusive language.

Whitmore said she is unsure what educators in Butler?s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences mean when they ask students to write without assuming certain things to be the norm. ?I don?t think I could ever write from a black woman?s point of view because I?ve never been a black woman,? Whitmore said.

Indeed.

My name is Ryan Lovelace, and I dropped that politically correct political science class.

Clearly, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University believes its students were raised as racist and misogynist homophobes who have grown to harbor many prejudices, a stance that is both offensive and hostile to any student?s ability to learn.

As a student at an institution predominantly focused on the liberal arts, I expected to hear professors express opinions different from my own. I did not expect to be judged before I ever walked through the door, and did not think I would be forced to agree with my teachers? worldviews or suffer the consequences.

Being judged and forced to act a certain way is antithetical to how any institution of higher education should conduct itself. As a journalism major, I will now strive to avoid the liberal arts college as much as possible, not because the college fails to provide its students with any practical knowledge, but because the college seeks to indoctrinate its students with a hostile paradigm that views people like me?an American, white, heterosexual male from a middle-class background?as evil; whitey-righty need not attend.

Many consider higher education to be in turbulent waters because of rising tuition costs and student loan debt, but students who actually graduate may struggle even more if they view the world as Butler?s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences does.

The liberal arts college seeks to include people, but someone will always be excluded, as it is impossible to always include everyone. Furthermore, I?m not sure how to write assuming any other persona but my own. Any attempts to do so would only be offensive to people different from myself.

Lastly, the idea that people have different views from mine is not what makes me uncomfortable. The idea that I must walk, talk and act as the liberal arts college pleases does. I?ll speak as I always have and conduct myself in the way I deem fit. I think paying $40,000 a year should give me that basic right.

Well said Mr. Lovelace! Social engineering and indoctrination are the causes of so much turbulence in today?s educational system. Good for him for taking a stand against this PC madness.

DCG

Source: http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/this-is-liberal-arts-based-education/

joe pa joe paterno dead marist south carolina primary results betty white ed reed football schedule

How Much Do Antivirus Rankings Matter to You?

German antivirus lab AV-Test recently tested several security suites. Most of them declined since a few months ago, particularly Microsoft Security Essentials, our favorite Windows antivirus app. We still love it, but the recent AV-Test makes us wonder: How much do these ratings matter to you?

Microsoft Security Essentials was half a point shy of passingthe AV-Test, due to problems detecting zero-day threats. Other recent tests by AV Comparatives were better, but still mixed. That said, Microsoft Security Essentials has never been the top ranker in these tests (usually the top spots are the paid security suites), but it's something worth pondering.

What do you think? Does it matter to you?

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/PKwJvq1_o8M/microsoft-security-essentials-fails-av+test-certification-time-to-use-a-new-anti+virus-program

dark knight rises Aurora shooting James Eagan Holmes jeremy lin Sage Stallone Mermaid Body Found Celeste Holm

Potentially toxic flame retardants found in many U.S. couches

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) ? More than half of all couches tested in a Duke University-led study contained potentially toxic or untested chemical flame retardants that may pose risks to human health. Among the chemicals detected was "Tris," a chlorinated flame retardant that is considered a probable human carcinogen based on animal studies.

"Tris was phased out from use in baby pajamas back in 1977 because of its health risks, but it still showed up in 41 percent of the couch foam samples we tested," said Heather Stapleton, associate professor of environmental chemistry at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

More manufacturers in recent years are treating their couches' foam padding with chemical flame retardants to adhere to California Technical Bulletin 117 (TB 117), she said. TB 177 requires all residential furniture sold in California to withstand a 12-second exposure to a small open flame without igniting, to help reduce deaths and injuries from accidental home fires. Over the years, the statewide standard essentially has become a de facto national standard, due to the economic importance of the California market.

In many cases, the manufacturer may not know what chemicals have been used. Most manufacturers buy their foam padding from a vendor who, in turn, buys the chemicals used to treat it from another vendor. The identity of the chemical flame retardants often gets lost along the way, or is protected under law as proprietary.

Stapleton and her colleagues analyzed 102 polyurethane foam samples from couches purchased for home use in the United States between 1985 and 2010. They published their findings in a peer-reviewed study released November 28 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

In addition to finding Tris, the tests revealed that 17 percent of the foam samples contained the flame-retardant pentaBDE, which is banned in 172 countries and 12 U.S. states and was voluntarily phased out by U.S manufacturers in 2005.

PentaBDEs are long-lasting chemicals that over time migrate into the environment and accumulate in living organisms. Studies show they can disrupt endocrine activity and affect thyroid regulation and brain development. Early exposure to them has been linked to low birth weight, lowered IQ and impaired motor and behavioral development in children.

PentaBDE and Tris were the only flame retardants found in couches purchased before 2005. After 2005, Tris was the most common flame retardant found. In addition, Stapleton and her colleagues identified two new flame-retardant chemical mixtures in more recently purchases couches for which there is little or no health data available.

"Overall, we detected flame-retardant chemicals in 85 percent of the couches we tested and in 94 percent of those purchased after 2005," Stapleton said. "More than half of all samples, regardless of the age of the couch, contained flame retardants that are potentially toxic or have undergone little or no independent testing for human health risks."

"If a couch has a California TB 117 label, you can all but guarantee it contains chemical flame retardants," Stapleton said. "But this is where labeling requirements get confusing: the lack of a TB 117 label on a couch does not guarantee the absence of chemical flame retardants. It's not that cut-and-dried."

Stapleton said that so many new proprietary chemical flame retardants have been introduced in recent years that it has become very difficult for scientists to identify them all or determine their presence consumer products.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Heather M. Stapleton, Smriti Sharma, Gordon Getzinger, P. Lee Ferguson, Michelle Gabriel, Thomas F. Webster, Arlene Blum. Novel and High Volume Use Flame Retardants in US Couches Reflective of the 2005 PentaBDE Phase Out. Environmental Science & Technology, 2012; 121128000142004 DOI: 10.1021/es303471d

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/gJkZGEWMO90/121128093815.htm

Olympics Live Mens Gymnastics Allison Schmitt Olympic Schedule Kyla Ross Ryan Lochte Montenegro

Storm's wrath offers New Jersey's Christie political windfall (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/266906050?client_source=feed&format=rss

Bob Ross Hurricane Categories Hurricane Sandy new jersey atlantic city ocean city maryland Nexus 7

Stock futures point to higher start

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures advanced on Thursday, building on the previous session's steep gains, on expectations of progress toward reaching a fiscal agreement in Washington.

* Markets will continue to focus on discussions in Congress to avoid big spending cuts and tax hikes - dubbed the "fiscal cliff" - and equities may retreat, as they did Tuesday, if the upbeat negotiation environment in Washington shifts.

* Investors await data, including the second estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 2.8 percent annualized pace of growth, compared with a 2.0 percent rate in the first estimate.

* The Commerce Department will issue preliminary corporate profits for the third quarter at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT). At the same time, the Labor Department will release first-time claims for jobless benefits; 390,000 new filings are forecast, compared with 410,000 in the prior week.

* The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds fell to the lowest in two years at an auction, amid relief that immediate risks over Greece had diminished.

* S&P 500 futures rose 8.6 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 78 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 19.5 points.

* Also due for release Thursday are pending home sales for October at 10:00 a.m. (1500 GMT) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City November manufacturing survey at 11:00 a.m. (1600 GMT).

* Tiffany shares tumbled more than 12 percent in premarket trading after the upscale jeweler reported quarterly results and lowered its full-year sales and profit forecasts.

* Kroger , the biggest U.S. supermarket operator, is also due to report third-quarter earnings.

* On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 106.98 points, or 0.83 percent, to 12,985.11. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 10.99 points, or 0.79 percent, to 1,409.93. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 23.99 points, or 0.81 percent, to close at 2,991.78.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-point-higher-start-095311088--finance.html

Aurora victims usher James Holmes Minka Kelly sex tape Colorado shooting Colorado shooting victims aurora

Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) ? Preventing infections from surgery is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million.

The measures included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Practices were standardized at the seven hospitals.

The Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons directed the project. They announced results on Wednesday.

___

Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-11-28-Hospital-Linked%20Infections/id-cbc939d14ab34ab09466524ecf451686

chris cooley chris cooley condoleezza rice Perry Hall High School bill cosby us open bill nye

Researchers make flexible, low-voltage circuits using nanocrystals

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Electronic circuits are typically integrated in rigid silicon wafers, but flexibility opens up a wide range of applications. In a world where electronics are becoming more pervasive, flexibility is a highly desirable trait, but finding materials with the right mix of performance and manufacturing cost remains a challenge.

Now a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that nanoscale particles, or nanocrystals, of the semiconductor cadmium selenide can be "printed" or "coated" on flexible plastics to form high-performance electronics.

The research was led by David Kim, a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science; Yuming Lai, a doctoral student in the Engineering School's Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering; and professor Cherie Kagan, who has appointments in both departments as well as in the School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Chemistry. Benjamin Diroll, a doctoral student in chemistry, and Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Christopher Murray of Materials Science and of Chemistry also collaborated on the research.

Their work was published in the journal Nature Communications.

"We have a performance benchmark in amorphous silicon, which is the material that runs the display in your laptop, among other devices," Kagan said. "Here, we show that these cadmium selenide nanocrystal devices can move electrons 22 times faster than in amorphous silicon."

Besides speed, another advantage cadmium selenide nanocrystals have over amorphous silicon is the temperature at which they are deposited. Whereas amorphous silicon uses a process that operates at several hundred degrees, cadmium selenide nanocrystals can be deposited at room temperature and annealed at mild temperatures, opening up the possibility of using more flexible plastic foundations.

Another innovation that allowed the researchers to use flexible plastic was their choice of ligands, the chemical chains that extend from the nanocrystals' surfaces and helps facilitate conductivity as they are packed together into a film.

"There have been a lot of electron transport studies on cadmium selenide, but until recently we haven't been able to get good performance out of them," Kim said. "The new aspect of our research was that we used ligands that we can translate very easily onto the flexible plastic; other ligands are so caustic that the plastic actually melts."

Because the nanocrystals are dispersed in an ink-like liquid, multiple types of deposition techniques can be used to make circuits. In their study, the researchers used spincoating, where centrifugal force pulls a thin layer of the solution over a surface, but the nanocrystals could be applied through dipping, spraying or ink-jet printing as well.

On a flexible plastic sheet a bottom layer of electrodes was patterned using a shadow mask ? essentially a stencil ? to mark off one level of the circuit. The researchers then used the stencil to define small regions of conducting gold to make the electrical connections to upper levels that would form the circuit. An insulating aluminum oxide layer was introduced and a 30-nanometer layer of nanocrystals was coated from solution. Finally, electrodes on the top level were deposited through shadow masks to ultimately form the circuits.

"The more complex circuits are like buildings with multiple floors," Kagan said. "The gold acts like staircases that the electrons can use to travel between those floors."

Using this process, the researchers built three kinds of circuits to test the nanocrystals performance for circuit applications: an inverter, an amplifier and a ring oscillator.

"An inverter is the fundamental building block for more complex circuits," Lai said. "We can also show amplifiers, which amplify the signal amplitude in analog circuits, and ring oscillators, where 'on' and 'off' signals are properly propagating over multiple stages in digital circuits."

"And all of these circuits operate with a couple of volts," Kagan said. "If you want electronics for portable devices that are going to work with batteries, they have to operate at low voltage or they won't be useful."

With the combination of flexibility, relatively simple fabrication processes and low power requirements, these cadmium selenide nanocrystal circuits could pave the way for new kinds of devices and pervasive sensors, which could have biomedical or security applications.

"This research also opens up the possibility of using other kinds of nanocrystals, as we've shown the materials aspect is not a limitation any more," Kim said.

###

University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania for this article.

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

This press release has been viewed 39 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125497/Researchers_make_flexible__low_voltage_circuits_using_nanocrystals

lionel richie kenny rogers avatar the last airbender david wright cory booker cubs cj wilson

Factbox: Key elements of the Greek debt deal with the euro zone and IMF

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund agreed on steps late on Monday to reduce Greece's public debt and help the country regain market access next decade.

Below are the main elements of the agreement.

- Greece will reach a primary surplus target of 4.55 percent of gross domestic product only in 2016, rather than 2014, to give the economy a better chance to start growing again.

- Greece will organize a debt buy-back of its bonds held by private investors. The buy-back will take place by Dec 12.

No amount or price was announced, except that the price offered is to be no higher than the closing prices for Greek debt on Nov 23. A source familiar with the ministers' discussions said the price under consideration was around 35 cents a euro.

- once the buy-back yields a positive outcome, the IMF will join the program and the euro zone will consider the following:

- a cut by 100 basis points in the interest rate on bilateral loans to Greece under the first bailout, reducing the rate to 50 basis points above financing costs or Euribor. Ireland and Portugal do not have to cut the interest because they themselves receive aid.

- the euro zone's temporary bailout fund, the EFSF, will cut its fees charged on loans to Greece by 10 basis points.

- maturities of loans to Greece, both bilateral and from the EFSF, will be extended by 15 years.

- Greece will not have to pay interest on loans received from the EFSF for 10 years.

- Profits from the European Central Bank's Greek bond portfolio, acquired during the bank's Securities Market Programme (SMP) will be handed over to Greece for debt servicing from the budget year 2013 onwards. No amount was given in the statement of the Eurogroup, but a euro zone source said this amounted to 11 billion euros.

- euro zone countries will consider further measures and assistance, including a further interest rate reduction on bilateral loans to Greece to help Athens reach debt sustainability when Greece reaches a primary surplus and meets all the conditions in the reform program.

- Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio is to fall to 175 percent in 2016, to 124 percent in 2020 and substantially below 110 percent in 2022.

- Euro zone countries will continue to finance Greece until it regains market access, if Greece sticks to the agreed reform program.

- Greece will get a tranche of aid of 34.4 billion euros in December, of which 10.6 billion will be for budget financing and 23.8 billion for the recapitalization of banks. A further 9.3 billion euros will be disbursed to Greece in three sub-tranches in the first quarter of 2013 if Athens meets reform milestones set by the lenders.

A formal decision on the disbursement of the money will be taken on Dec 13, if national procedures in euro zone countries are completed and following the review of the results of the debt buy-back operation.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/key-elements-greek-debt-deal-euro-zone-imf-014057003--business.html

chicago bears elizabeth taylor casey anthony chris brown cam newton steelers danielle fishel

Gmail Integrates with Google Drive, Allows for Attachments Up to 10GB

Gmail just added a new feature that lets you "attach" files to messages by selecting them from Google Drive, giving you much more leeway in how much you can send.

Drive allows you to send files up to 10GB in size, which is much larger than you can send with traditional attachments. Just click the "Insert files using Drive" button in the Compose box and choose the file you want to send. Of course, if you're a Dropbox user, you can get similar results with desktop clients like Sparrow and Postbox. Hit the link to read more, and if you don't see it just yet, don't worry?it should be rolling out soon.

Gmail and Drive?a New Way to Send Files | Official Gmail Blog

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2Qyz34rXJvA/gmail-integrates-with-google-drive-allows-for-attachments-up-to-10gb

nick cannon lindsay lohan saturday night live snl lindsay lohan valley fever project x the lorax lorax

Y Combinator Debuts YC VC To Replace The Start Fund; Includes Yuri Milner, Andreessen Horowitz

Two years ago, Yuri Milner and Ron Conway created The Start Fund to put $150,000 into all Y Combinator companies. Y Combinator ended up managing the fund, and encountered a few issues. So the incubator has decided to revamp the program to become more startup friendly. The new fund is called YC VC, and offers less money--$80,000 per startup.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eNLMhBLp8dU/

saul alinsky annapolis wwe royal rumble trisomy leon panetta luck sag awards 2012 nominees

End of an era: Myanmar&#39;s WW2-era &#39;big belly&#39; Chevy buses face ...

This once-isolated country is replacing its fleet of buses cobbled together from the shells of World War II-era Chevy trucks. ?NBC News' Ian Williams reports on this antique roadshow on wheels that is being swept away by rapid change.

By Ian Williams, NBC News

YANGON, Myanmar -- U Ming Kyi affectionately tapped the hood of his dilapidated bus.??Of course I?ll be sad to see it go. They are really reliable. The brakes are great,? he said.

But on this particular morning, bus No. 61 from North Dagon to San Pya market was not cooperating.?The engine screeched and smoked as U Ming sat behind the wheel, turning the key and willing it to life.

He gave up and glanced back at the passengers. As if on cue -- and clearly well practiced -- several jumped from the bus and began pushing until it spluttered, gasped, then finally roared to life.

Bus no 61 was on its way across the north of Yangon, as it has been for decades.

U Ming smiled gingerly. He has been driving these buses for 35 years, and keeping on the road what are possibly the oldest buses in the world still operating needs constant improvisation.

Ian Williams/NBC News

Driver U Ming Kyi at the wheel of bus number 61. He's been driving the Big Belly Chevy for 35 years.

In Myanmar they are called ?big belly? buses and the chassis of no 61 was registered in 1939.?Back then it was a military truck -- a Canada-built Chevy C-15. These were used by the United States, Britain and western allies during the "Burma Campaign" -- the southeast Asia theater of World War II.

Related stories

Obama's visit a sign of Myanmar's dizzying pace of change

Politics: My, my, Myanmar

America's 'Pacific president'? Obama opens first post-election trip with visit to Thailand

After the conflict, Myanmar?s military regime converted them into buses. The makeshift vehicles quickly became the mainstay of a transport system that resembled until recently an antiques show on wheels.

But in a sign of the rapid wider changes sweeping this country, they have been banned from the increasingly traffic-clogged center of Yangon, Myanmar?s main city, and are being phased out to be replaced by shiny new Japanese models.

Ian Williams/NBC News

Passengers packed on board bus number 61. Big Belly Bus.

The price of an old ?big belly? has suddenly gone through the roof -- not because of the vehicle, which is off to the junk yard, but because of the valuable operating license that goes with it.

If he had the money, U Ming would buy one himself. ?The new ones just won?t be the same,? he said. He can read every crunch, bang and hiss -- of which there are many on a bumpy, shaky ride across the city.

Like most vehicles here, the ?big belly? is right-hand drive, a legacy of British rule when traffic drove on the left. Yet the traffic in Myanmar now drives on the right, as in the United States, which means drivers like U Ming spend a good deal of their time staining to see what is coming at them.

Former dictator Ne Win made the switch after seizing power in 1962. Some say it was an anti-colonial gesture. Others put it down to his notorious superstition: Britain?s Daily Telegraph said he took the decision after consulting a wizard.

Ian Williams/NBC News

The interior of a Big Belly Bus.

That these buses operated for so long, patched together with whatever parts were available during years of isolation and sanctions, is testament to the ingenuity of men like U Ming.

All is not lost, though. Long-time Italian resident Alberto Peyre has bought three and given them a luxurious face lift to serve the country's tourism boom.

?They are a piece of history, a piece of history,? he said, as immaculately dressed attendants handed us cold towels as we sat in expensively upholstered seats for a mini-tour of the city.

?I love these buses. I just love them,? he said.

Peyre?s company, Elephant Coach, is marketing tours as ?the ultimate luxury in overland travel.? It?s a long way from the U Ming?s no 61, but it will ensure that these remarkable old machines will not entirely disappear from the streets of Myanmar.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

?

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/26/15447661-end-of-an-era-myanmars-ww2-era-big-belly-chevy-buses-face-scrap

archer ibooks 2 ifl indoor football league newt gingrich wife callista rick perry

ohinalbertxy: Daily Tips for Business: Workplace Communication ...

Well, as an entrepreneur I used to laugh at people who wanted to come to work for my company and on their resume they put that they had a Business Communications Degree. I used to think that they studied business communications because it was an easy subject in school, one that you could learn without having to deal with too much math, perhaps even taking the easy way out. Nevertheless workplace communication is an essential tool, and without it your business will not operate efficiently, and you are bound to get your wires crossed more often than not.

Source: http://dailytipsforbusiness.blogspot.com/2012/11/workplace-communication_19.html

dodgers triple play samoyed kenny powers kenny powers carl hagelin triple play virginia tech shooting

Source: http://pkydrucs.posterous.com/daily-tips-for-business-workplace-communicati

monsanto boston weather dr seuss birthday jennifer garner jennifer garner romney michigan derrick williams

Source: http://morphemic-thule.blogspot.com/2012/11/daily-tips-for-business-workplace.html

Jessie Andrews sofia vergara bloomberg bloomberg Daily Caller Staten Island Trick or Treat

Source: http://avilazachery.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/daily-tips-for-business-workplace-communication-pkydrucss.html

the descendants the descendants homeland homeland packers giants game golden globe winners 2012 ricky gervais golden globes

Source: http://seventieth-responsibility.blogspot.com/2012/11/daily-tips-for-business-workplace.html

the chronicle spinal stenosis the forgotten man mike jones just friends chronicle george lopez

Source: http://ohinalbertxy.blogspot.com/2012/11/daily-tips-for-business-workplace.html

carrie underwood blown away chk ryan o neal dark knight rises trailer dark knight rises trailer vince young vince young

Source: http://opuganat.posterous.com/ohinalbertxy-daily-tips-for-business-workplac

national signing day 2012 landon collins dorial green beckham mike kelly kristen bell colbert super pac colbert super pac

Writing The Wrongs: Speaking Truth to Hamas

The remarkably courageous Ramallah-born Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of Hamas cofounder Sheikh Hassan Yousef and a former Hamas activist himself, served time on several occasions in Israeli prison. Yousef is also known as "the Green Prince,"?the code name assigned him by the Shin Bet (Israeli security agency), with whom he later collaborated for a decade to thwart numerous terrorist attacks during the second intifada, sparing hundreds of Israeli lives.?

Now living in the U.S., two years ago Yousef published Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue and Unthinkable Choices. The book elaborated his rejection of Hamas' inherent jihadist violence, his personal forsaking of Islam and conversion to Christianity, and his decision to assist Israel clandestinely for approximately a decade starting in 1996.

In the aftermath of Israel's eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense response to Hamas' latest rocket jihad, brought to a temporary hiatus via a cease-fire, Mosab Hassan Yousef opined about Israel's actions, the contrasting behaviors of the Hamas regime, and why the latter should be dismantled:

Israel helps the Palestinian people more than anyone else: every day it provides electricity and even the salaries paid to employees come from banks in Israel. There is also humanitarian aid that enters Gaza.

I want to say to the members of the organization, including my father, who are listening to this interview -- brave people do not hide behind children and fire missiles. If they had even a bit of courage -- they would be able to leave Gaza instead of hiding like rats.

I have trouble believing that Hamas will be able to one day build a modern state. I hope their lies will be exposed to the Palestinian public."

This [the dismantling of the Hamas regime] is necessary, but we have to work very hard for it. This is necessary not only for Israel -- but for the benefit of humanity. Hamas was born to destroy. It cannot build.

Source: http://writingtw.blogspot.com/2012/11/speaking-truth-to-hamas.html

jambalaya taylor swift and zac efron basketball wives manny ramirez easter 2012 bachelor jeremy lin espn

Why My Son Has A Closed Adoption | Portrait of an Adoption

In honor of November being National Adoption Awareness Month, Portrait of an Adoption is running a special series called 30 Adoption Portraits in 30 Days.? Designed to give a voice to the many different perspectives of adoption, this series will feature guest posts by people with widely varying experiences.

By Anonymous

Picture that your little boy - the light of your life - has two relatives who might be politely described as "troubled." ?They dropped out of high school - the male relative at 13- and they drink a lot. ?This is not good, because both their moms are alcoholics.

They both have tempers and the male relative has been arrested several times - once for hitting his own mother.? He might have sexually abused his little sister.? The female relative has borderline personality disorder, which means she is extremely emotional, needy and insecure.

When your little boy was an infant, these relatives spent time with him.? It didn't go well.? One time, when they were supposed to be watching the little boy, they left him naked and lying in his own pee while they went outside for a smoke. Other times they fought with each other in front of the boy. They forgot to change him and feed him.? He came home with his genitals bright red and you still don't know why.

These relatives - this young man and young woman - really love your little boy. They want to see him, spend time with him, get lots of pictures of him and be part of his life.

But you, as his mother, know they are not safe for him to be around.? They are good people at heart, but they are deeply troubled and you fear they might hurt him.? Either physically or psychologically. They say they "won't take him from you," which is horrifying for the very fact that they even brought it up. Their need for your son seems to have little to do with who he IS but instead, what he REPRESENTS to them as a relative.

Frankly, these relatives scare you.? If they weren't related to him, if they were just neighbors down the street, there is no way in hell that you would let your son spend time with them.

Now picture that these are your son's birth parents.

This is why my son has a closed adoption and always will.? His birth parents are not safe and I will do everything in my power to protect him.

I am the mom, the one who takes care of him and I know what's best.? When he is 18 and he wants to seek them out, I won't stop him.? But this is a CLOSED adoption and will remain so.? Blood is one thing, anger and instability is another.

Child welfare workers took this little boy from his teen parents as an infant because they couldn't even handle the first few weeks of his life.? They were charged with neglect.? I won't go into all the specifics.

Child welfare workers kept him away from his birth parents because they couldn't get it together to even visit with him regularly.? The judge favored them at first because they were such young teens - they were given visitation of two times a week, for several hours at a time.

So in a one-year period, they could have seen this lovely little boy more than 100 times.? Do you know how many times they showed up?? In a whole year?? Fourteen.? And that was with social workers driving TO THEIR HOUSE to pick them up.? Often, they just wouldn't get in the van.? Even if the little boy was inside.

For several of those visits, I actually drove my son there and back.? He was my foster baby, they were his birth parents.? I knew I had no rights; I knew the score.? He needed to visit with them; I would help make that happen, even though I loved him, too.

The birth parents met me four times.? They knew I was adopting their son.? After a year of these failed attempts to parent him, they decided not to fight his adoption.? Since he was my foster baby, I got the first say in whether I wanted to adopt him.? Of course I said yes.? Since he was being adopted through foster care, they knew it would be a closed adoption - no contact.

The last time I saw his birth parents was at the courthouse for a hearing. They paused long enough from fighting with each other to talk to me briefly. They asked me to send photos once a year, around his birthday. That was it.

He was supposed to have one final visit with them, for his first birthday.? They cancelled three times.

After a year of dealing with their nuttiness and drama, I was glad to be dome with them.? I didn't send pictures that year.? If they wanted to know how he was, they could have shown up for the visit.

But when his second birthday rolled around, I was feeling guilty.? Open adoptions are much more in vogue these days. ?And I was watching a lot of "Teen Mom" with Caitlyn and Tyler.? My Catholic guilt set in.

I knew their names, hometowns, etc.? So I looked them up on MySpace (this was a couple years ago) and messaged them.? They responded right away.? To protect my son, I never told them my last name, where we live or where I work.? But we chatted about our son and I sent pictures.? Things were okay for a couple months.? They were, surprisingly, still together as a couple.? They had an apartment and he had a job.

Then the craziness reappeared.? She emailed all the time, in a very needy way, not just for our son but for contact with ME.? I felt like I had to mother her, too.? She didn't understand why I wouldn't text her (um, because then she would know my phone number).

By this point, we had switched over to Facebook.? She started complaining, to all her FB friends, about how she "wasn't allowed to see her son."? I emailed and tried to tell her my reasons why: He was still so young and they were still not all that stable.? Her emails got nasty.? They got mean.? I got angry.? She wanted to see him, talk to him, visit him.? She WANTED him.? It became clear to me that not only is she manipulative, but delusional.

I didn't initiate contact for a while. Then after many months, the guilt returned. i was probably watching "Teen Mom" again, or maybe "Juno." So I responded to her emails. They started off fine and then BOOM she unloaded a crap ton of negative emotions and hate onto me.? It was awful and upsetting.? Her reaction should not be surprising, given the instability of her life and her borderline personality disorder diagnosis.

But having that much hate and vitriol directed at me was horrible.? And it made me very, very worried for my son's safety.? From now on, they will get a very brief email once or twice a year, letting them know our son is fine.? But that's it.? That is it.

I know I screwed up by contacting them. I thought it would make this better for them, but instead, I made it worse.? For that, I am sorry and regretful.? I know they are hurting, I do.? But I have to do what's best for this little boy, since they cannot or will not.

They still don't know our last name, where we live or where I work.? But I know his birth mom is always looking for him.? She is on the Internet all day and we live in the same state.? As soon as my son turns 13 and gets a Facebook account (or its future iteration), I know she will be there: BOOM!? Trying to explode into his life.? I am trying to prevent that from happening for as long as I can.

That's why this blog post is anonymous.? It's why he doesn't show up in my Facebook profile pictures.? It's why I refuse permission for his Little League team or his school to post pictures of him online.? It's why I am not telling you his name or age.

I tried to open up our adoption, maybe just a little bit.? And it was a huge mistake.? The state created closed adoptions from foster care for a reason.

I wish we could all be one happy family.? I envy Carrie's relationship with M (the Portrait of an Adoption family).? But M is older, got her issues worked out and is not harmful to K.

That is not the case here.? I will never badmouth his birth parents to him.? He has seen their photos and I answer whatever basic questions he has.? But he hasn't had many.? When he is 18, he can read my huge, thick file of his records from the state, including his birth parents' full names etc.

But while he is underage, I will protect him and keep him safe. Even from his own relatives.

By An Anonymous Adoptive Mother

Portrait of an Adoption has been nominated to the Circle of Moms Top 25 Book Author Mom Blogs!? If you are enjoying this adoption series, please support Portrait by clicking here and voting!? So easy to do, and you can vote once a day until December 7, 2012.

Portrait of an Adoption is hosted by Carrie Goldman, author of Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear.? This year?s adoption series is full, but if you have a story you would like to submit as a candidate for next year?s series, please email it to portraitofanadoption@gmail.com.

Find the Portrait of an Adoption community on Facebook
Follow Carrie Goldman on Twitter

Filed under: adoption, adoption agency, attachment in adoption, birthmothers, closed adoption, domestic adoption, foster care, honesty in adoption

Tags: 30 Adoption Portraits in 30 Days, closed adoption, Foster Care, Foster-to-Adopt, protective custody

Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/portrait-of-an-adoption/2012/11/why-my-son-has-a-closed-adoption/

jackpot winning numbers mega millions megamillions drawing olbermann mega millions march 30 lucky numbers odds of winning mega millions

Cell biology: Calcium 'accelerator' keeps cell power supply going

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2012) ? A team of scientists from Temple University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania has moved another step closer to solving a decades-long mystery of how the all-important flow of calcium into the cell's power source, the mitochondria, is controlled.

By painstakingly shutting down the activity of 50 genes, one at a time, they have identified a protein, MCUR1, which hugs the inside of the mitochondrial membrane and is part of an elaborate mitochondrial channel pore system. MCUR1 acts as an accelerator to help regulate calcium coming into the mitochondria from the cell's large reservoir.

The results, appearing November 25, 2012 in an advance online issue of the journal Nature Cell Biology, may also point to new treatment opportunities. Understanding how to manipulate MCUR1 may help in the development of treatments for disease conditions involving excessive calcium in the cell, such as cardiovascular disease and stroke.

"Calcium is a key to regulate many fundamental processes in cells," said co-senior author Muniswamy Madesh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Temple University School of Medicine and a member of Temple's Center for Translational Medicine. "Excessive calcium in the cell's mitochondria could lead to heart and neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death. This pathway could be contributing to disease conditions during ischemia/reperfusion injury and stroke, and this discovery opens up possible therapeutic interventions."

Maintaining calcium at an appropriate level is crucial for cells to work properly, and especially important in the mitochondria. Cells rely on mitochondria to generate usable energy in the form of the chemical ATP, which is necessary to carry out normal cellular and metabolic activities. ATP production in turn depends on calcium -- more specifically, charged calcium ions -- that can enter into the mitochondria from the cell's vast supply in the cytoplasm. Dr. Madesh, co-senior author Kevin Foskett, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania, and their co-investigators recently described the role of a gatekeeper protein in maintaining a calcium "set point" under normal resting conditions in the mitochondria. But a long unanswered question remained: the details of how calcium entry into the mitochondria is controlled.

How MCUR1 Dictates Calcium Load

In the current study, Drs. Madesh and Foskett and their co-workers may have come closer to solving this puzzle. Dr. Madesh and his group sought to identify the genes involved in the flow of calcium into the mitochondria. They developed a way to use a technology called targeted RNA interference (RNAi) to screen 50 mitochondrial proteins, systematically testing whether eliminating the function of each of these genes individually altered the movement of calcium into the mitochondria. They found a mitochondrial inner membrane protein -- MCUR1 -- that regulates a calcium channel pore during active calcium uptake.

MCUR1 is part of a calcium channel pore called the uniporter, the existence of which has been known for some five decades. Recent studies identified two important pieces of the pore -- a subunit protein, MCU, and the gatekeeper protein, MICU1, to maintain calcium levels at a resting, set point. The researchers found that MCUR1 interacts with MCU to accelerate the movement of calcium into mitochondria when the cell's calcium level rapidly rises.

"MCUR1 is an essential third component of the uniporter complex," Dr. Madesh said. "In the absence of MCUR1, mitochondrial calcium uptake is markedly reduced, with adverse cellular consequences, including compromised cellular bioenergetics."

Without this accelerator, the mitochondria channel pore alone cannot take up calcium. When MCUR1 is physically attached to the pore, it is functional, and when it is not attached, it is much less active. "The regulator is always on, and its activity level increases when the extra-mitochondrial calcium levels increase. When there is a high calcium level, say during a disease state, the MCUR1 senses this and facilitates the channel activity, dumping calcium inside," Dr. Madesh explained.

Calcium Control as a Targeted Therapeutic

Dr. Madesh explained that in some disease conditions -- such as ischemic reperfusion injury (tissue damage that occurs when blood returns to tissue after a period without oxygen), stroke involving brain injury from ischemia, and myocardial infarction -- calcium floods into the mitochondria. "The mitochondria have a massive membrane potential and grab external calcium. The mitochondria then are overloaded and rupture, leading to cell death and possible organ injury."

Because some diseases are characterized by an overabundance of calcium in the mitochondria, a possible therapy could involve slowing down the amount of calcium coming into the mitochondria. "We want to control the calcium entering the mitochondria," he said.

"Further studies already underway should reveal the precise molecular mechanisms by which MCUR1 accelerates the channel pore MCU, providing insights into mitochondrial bioenergetics," said first author Karthik Mallilankaraman, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Temple University Health System, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Karthik Mallilankaraman, C?sar C?rdenas, Patrick J. Doonan, Harish C. Chandramoorthy, Krishna M. Irrinki, T?nde Golen?r, Gy?rgy Csord?s, Priyanka Madireddi, Jun Yang, Marioly M?ller, Russell Miller, Jill E. Kolesar, Jordi Molg?, Brett Kaufman, Gy?rgy Hajn?czky, J. Kevin Foskett, Muniswamy Madesh. MCUR1 is an essential component of mitochondrial Ca2 uptake that regulates cellular metabolism. Nature Cell Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ncb2622

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/RQn9u8Ek9Y4/121125193053.htm

nfl schedule 2012 Fox News Suicide Google Ryder Cup Standings Dexter Season 7 Ryder Cup 2012 Johnny Lewis

Use These Tips For The Greatest Payday Loan | Finance on ...

Get urgent $ 600 paydayloans online Raleigh North Carolina bad credit ok .

Are you currently caught in a monetary jam? Do you need cash in a big hurry? Then, then this pay day loan could be beneficial to you. A pay day loan can ensure you have enough money if you want it and then for what ever goal. Before you apply for any pay day loan, you need to almost certainly see the adhering to write-up for several suggestions that will assist you.

Get urgent $ 600 paydayloansonline Raleigh North Carolina bad credit ok .

Constantly issue the warranties made by pay day loan organizations. A number of these forms of organizations are predatory loan providers. They are their cash by giving financial loans to inadequate borrowers, which may have a tiny potential for paying back promptly. Usually, you will see that for each assure or assure these organizations make, there exists always an asterisk, or perhaps a qualifier that allows them from the catch.

You should do not forget that payday cash loans should basically be employed for the temporary. If you need to borrow cash for an extended time, take into account obtaining a distinct sort of financial loan, like a credit line through your financial institution. Even a charge card may charge significantly less curiosity and provide a longer period in order to repay the amount of money.

Tend not to extend your pay day loan if you do not totally have to. The monthly interest is very at the top of a pay day loan that it can be hard to pay the financial loan away should you extend it past the very first pay out day. Payday cash loans are temporary financial loans and ought to be treated consequently.

It is advisable to look about before you decide on a paycheck lender. Diverse loan providers will offer distinct rates and cost distinct charges. When you just go for the very first provide you with get, you could possibly wind up spending far more. Shopping around can save you a great deal of cash.

Find out the laws in your state concerning payday cash loans. Some loan providers make an effort to get away with better interest rates, fees and penalties, or different charges they they are not legally permitted to charge. Most people are just thankful for the financial loan, and do not issue these matters, that makes it feasible for loan providers to carried on obtaining aside with them.

Ensure that you get a pay day loan immediately. Many people have the blunder of looking for a pay day loan via a agent. These individuals usually do not recognize that pay day loan broker agents usually cost extortionate charges, and fail to disclose the entire terms of a pay day loan to borrowers.

When looking for a pay day loan, you need to never ever wait to inquire questions. In case you are unclear about some thing, specifically, it can be your obligation to request clarification. This will help understand the stipulations of your financial loans in order that you won?t have any unwanted excitement.

If the crisis has arrived, and also you were required to utilize the help of a paycheck lender, be sure you reimburse the payday cash loans as quickly as it is possible to. Lots of men and women get their selves inside an even worse monetary bind by not paying back the loan in a timely manner. No only these financial loans possess a maximum twelve-monthly portion amount. They have high-priced extra fees that you simply will wind up spending should you not reimburse the loan promptly.

Check the interest rates just before, you get a pay day loan, even when you require cash horribly. Often, these financial loans come with ridiculously, high rates of interest. You should examine distinct payday cash loans. Select a single with reasonable interest rates, or search for one more way to get the amount of money you need.

Your credit rating document is very important with regards to payday cash loans. You could nonetheless can get financing, but it will most likely amount to dearly with a sky-higher monthly interest. In case you have great credit rating, paycheck loan providers will prize you with greater interest rates and particular settlement courses.

Making use of anything that you discovered nowadays, you need to really feel far more assured in regards to the potential. You do not have to worry about producing an unacceptable choices down the road any further. All the best in finding out where to start. You need to have no monetary worries any further. Keep that in mind, because you have options for your potential.

Source: http://www.mandarinmnemonics.com/use-these-tips-for-the-greatest-payday-loan/

joyful noise one life to live jeff fisher van der sloot

Tagliabue expects to rule on bounties by December

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has advised league officials and players implicated in the NFL's bounty probe that he plans to complete all hearings by Dec. 4 and make a ruling shortly after.

In a document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Tagliabue directs the NFL to produce key witnesses in the New Orleans Saints cash-for-hits program, including former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and former defensive assistant Mike Cerullo.

Four players initially were suspended, but those punishments were vacated and Tagliabue to oversee new hearings. Meanwhile, Saints linebacker Jon Vilma and defensive end Will Smith are still playing.

Even as Tagliabue moves the process forward, a federal judge is still considering arguments by players that Tagliabue should be removed as arbitrator because he is biased in favor of the NFL. Based on the schedule laid out by Tagliabue, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan could choose to rule as early as next week.

For now, only Williams, Cerullo, Vilma, Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt, NFL chief security officer Jeff Miller are the only scheduled witnesses.

They are scheduled to appear in a series of hearings in Washington D.C. running from Tuesday through Dec. 4. That means Vilma and Smith likely will be available at least for the Saints' next two games against San Francisco this Sunday and at Atlanta on Nov. 29. They could also play at the New York Giants on Dec. 9.

None of the players have served a single game of their suspensions yet, though Vilma was barred from attending Saints training camp before Commissioner Roger Goodell's initial rulings were vacated during Week 1 of the regular season.

Vilma initially was suspended the entire 2012 season and Smith for four games.

The two other players punished are former Saints: Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita, who is now on injured reserve, and free-agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove. Hargrove initially was suspended eight games, but that later was reduced to seven with credit given for the first five games he missed as a free agent. Fujita initially was suspended three games and that was later reduced to one game.

In the face of relentless resistance by the NFL Players Association and lawyers separately representing Vilma, who had argued that Goodell could not be objective, the commissioner removed himself as arbitrator in the bounty matter and appointed Tagliabue, his predecessor, in his place on Oct. 19.

Tagliabue noted in his most recent memo that other witnesses could be scheduled. Tagliabue also said he expects to decide by Monday whether to allow the Saints' personnel file on Cerullo to be included as evidence.

Players have argued that Cerullo was the NFL's primary source of information about the Saints' performance pool. They've also argued that Cerullo's credibility is in question because he was fired by the club after the 2009-10 season and he had accused the club of preventing him from getting a job on another NFL coaching staff.

The NFL investigation concluded that Saints players were rewarded for hits that knocked targeted opposing players out of games from 2009-2011. The league said there was evidence that the Saints placed bounties on star quarterbacks including Brett Favre, Kurt Warner and Aaron Rodgers.

Saints players and coaches have acknowledged they had a pool that rewarded players for big plays that included interceptions, forced fumbles, sacks and big hits, similar to programs other teams have had across the league for generations. However, Saints players and coaches say no one ever intended to injure an opposing player.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tagliabue-expects-rule-bounties-december-164853678--nfl.html

neil degrasse tyson davy jones death born this way foundation lytro camera lytro camera andrew brietbart branson mo

Hewlett-Packard takes $8.8 billion charge, revenues fall

(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co said on Tuesday it took an $8.8 billion charge related to its acquisition of software firm Autonomy, citing "serious accounting improprieties," as it swung to a fourth-quarter loss.

HP said personal computer sales shrank again and its quarterly revenue fell 6.7 percent.

The stock lost 11.8 percent to $11.73 in premarket trading.

The company, fresh off a nearly $11 billion charge last quarter for its EDS services division, said more than $5 billion of the Autonomy charge was tied to "improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures" discovered after a whistleblower came forward.

HP said it has referred the matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division and the UK's Serious Fraud Office for civil and criminal investigation. It said it will take legal action to recoup "what we can for our shareholders."

The charge and the revenue miss were driving down shares, said Neil MacDonald, an analyst at Gartner.

"Earlier in the year when HP took a charge for EDS, the question we had was, 'When are you going to take the charge for Autonomy'? It was clear they had overpaid," MacDonald said. "At least they came clean about it."

The Silicon Valley technology company, in the midst of a multiyear turnaround plan, said the charge is linked to the "associated impact of those improprieties, failures and misrepresentations on the expected future financial performance of the Autonomy business over the long-term."

The rest of the Autonomy charge is related to the declining value of HP's stock and the difficulties of achieving anticipated synergies and market performance.

HP stock is down 48.4 percent year to date.

HP said the accounting issues occurred prior to its acquisition of Autonomy in 2011 for $11.5 billion.

It launched the internal investigation, which included an outside firm's forensic review, after a senior member of Autonomy came forward after founder Mike Lynch left. HP pushed out Lynch in May after its software division posted disappointing results.

Net revenue fell 6.7 percent to $29.96 billion for the fourth quarter ended October 31 from $32.12 billion a year earlier. Analysts, on average, expected $30.43 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue from all of its main business units fell, with the personal computer division recording the steepest drop at 14 percent.

HP reported a quarterly net loss of $6.85 billion, or $3.49 a share, versus a profit of $239 million, or 12 cents, a year earlier.

The sprawling company, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, is undergoing a restructuring aimed at focusing on enterprise services in the mold of International Business Machines Corp.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta in San Francisco and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hewlett-packard-quarterly-revenue-falls-6-7-percent-123741296--finance.html

soulja boy did the groundhog see his shadow punxsutawney phil groundhog day ground hog groundhog day 2012 serrano

Internet Promotion Tips For The Professional User - Internet ...

So, you?ve made the decision to enter the world of Internet marketing. It can actually be pretty exciting. It is, except you have tons of information and do not know where to begin. But do not be concerned, the information you need is right here! These tips can get you organized and ready, so you will be the best Internet marketer you can be.

Always stay on top of what your website marketing competition is doing. Whatever your niche, there is always going to be competition.

Your website should be interesting and well-designed. The way you build your website is going to reflect how customers receive you. Also, you want to make sure that your site has a very good design concept. The design should engage the audience to pay more attention to what is within the site and will keep them looking through it.

Joining forces with a charity can help your business, increase your visibility and help the charity also. Commit to your customers that you will donate a percentage of all profits to a charity that appeals to their interests. This charity will advertise for you, and it will also make your company look better. You can even support several charities and allow customers to decide which one they are interested in supporting.

It can sound good on paper to have ten different social media profiles, but if you can?t give them each plenty of time to seem active, it won?t do any good. When profiles are not updated regularly, people start to view them as being spam.

Use popular websites to advertise your company online. With the right investment, you can get your company and your products seen by a vast audience. Make the effort to find out which websites have high traffic, because you need your advertisement to be seen by more customers, rather than fewer.

If your online marketing plan is strong, you already have a good grasp on which products will bring you the most profit. Advertise these products more intensely so your products that have a lower return. Advertise your big sellers and provide bridges to complementary products once you have sold your most popular product. These products are virtually guaranteed to be profitable, and advertise themselves through the main product.

Draw traffic to your site by featuring regular events and promotions. Possibly, you could offer a particular e-book for $1 for one or two days. Those buying the e-book are more likely to check out the site afterward. More times than not, the visitors that are drawn in by your promotion will also make a secondary purchase, increasing your overall profit.

Offer a promotion for a short period to improve the page rank of your website. If the deal you offer is good enough, consumer deals sites will offer links to your website. This is similar to a store selling a loss leader item to turn a profit later.

Having a simple URL makes it easier for customers to find you. You will want to incorporate your brand name or your business?s name into your site address, if you can. Create an easy to remember website address so that your customers do not have to look you up in a search engine.

Offering your visitors any type of course which is free is a great way to lure them to your site. This is an excellent Online marketing strategy as you can package the course with a related product that will entice your customers to buy. You can start an ad campaign that details the contest.

Make sure that your site includes content that is creative and original. The site you are running should have interesting content that search engines will notice, while providing your audience with originality they appreciate and ensuring yourself of the best possible results from the search engines.

To help you stay informed on user opinions, it is a good idea to have user polls along your site?s content. If you use the results you will be able to tell what your users want to see, and allow them to be involved in the decision making process.

You will need to attract people to make money. Testing out different versions of your site can be achieved through split testing, where one page is served to half your audience and another to everyone else. You then decide which version is best by looking at how many people subscribed.

Now, don?t you feel relieved after reading all those tips? Although it may seem like there is a large amount of information, you can use what you learned to develop your marketing plan. Remember that you?ll always be able to refer back to this article if you need to refresh your memory on the topic.

If the title of your site is professional, people will tend to have more respect for you. If you are the business owner, you should call yourself the CEO. If it?s not your business, find another title that commands respect. Use your title in the signature line of your emails and articles.

Internet Marketing, SEO

_________________________________________
Here are some other Internet Marketing/SEO related sites that I would like to share with you.
Thanks for visiting Website Host Direct reviews!

Internet Marketing - Twitter
Engineworks inc encyclopedia topics | Reference.com
Page 2: Charities see potential risk with social networks - ABC News
How To Direct-Market Farm Products on the - Agricultural Marketing ...
This Boring Headline Is Written for Google - New York Times

Related posts:

1. Need Help With Internet Promotion? Try These Tips!
2. Get More Customers With Internet Promotion
3. Looking For Professional Internet Marketing Advice? Read This!
4. Improving Your Bottom Line ? Internet Promotion Tips!
5. Lucrative Tips To Give Internet Promotion Gurus A Run For Their Money

Source: http://www.websitehostdirect.com/internet-promotion-tips-for-the-professional-user/

slab city super bowl snacks appleton super bowl recipes denver weather planned parenthood what time does the superbowl start

Really? Eye Problems can Cause Headaches in Children ...

Really?

Anahad O?Connor tackles health myths.

THE FACTS When a child complains of frequent headaches, many pediatricians order an eye exam. ?In some pediatric ophthalmology practices, it?s a daily occurrence,? said Dr. Zachary Roth, a resident in ophthalmology at Albany Medical Center in New York.

Often, a child may experience headaches while reading or doing schoolwork, leading parents to think the child needs glasses. But are eye problems really a cause of childhood headaches?

In a recent study, Dr. Roth and his colleagues examined 158 children under age 18 who were referred to ophthalmologists for frequent headaches. Then, they evaluated the children?s medical records and looked at the results of earlier vision exams.

Ultimately, the researchers could not find any significant link between headaches and diagnoses of vision problems. In three-quarters of the subjects, the headaches went away over time, both in those who received new glasses and those who did not.

The study, which was presented at a recent American Academy of Ophthalmology conference, was not designed to look for causes of the headaches. But there were ?quite a few? children with family histories of migraine, Dr. Roth said. Sinus problems and stress headaches also appeared to be common issues, he added.

?I think the take-away message is that it?s very unlikely for headaches to be caused by an eye problem,? he said. ?The experience of all the ophthalmologists we talked to is that it almost never seems to be related to the eyes, so it?s probably more fruitful to investigate other causes.?

THE BOTTOM LINE Vision problems are often blamed for childhood headaches, but in reality, the two are rarely related.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/really-eye-problems-can-cause-headaches-in-children/

real life barbie zipper armenian genocide asteroid mining memorial day

Software Development Engineer in Test, Principal - Windows Phone (817389) Job (Redmond, WA, US)

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: Redmond, WA, US
Job ID: 817389-97854
Division: Windows Phone Division

The Windows Phone Core Platform team is looking for strong Principal SDETs to help us drive the next wave of releases that will impact many millions of customers around the world. Our responsibilities are vast, our timelines are short, and we?re operating in an extremely competitive market.

We are looking for the right individuals who can help us tackle big challenges across a wide breadth of responsibilities. From the base O/S to device performance and reliability across the entire phone and all the way to how we update millions of phones in the field.

Job responsibilities will include lots of thinking. You will also be responsible for improving our existing test efforts, but the thinking part definitely comes first. To be successful in this role, you should be pragmatic, results driven, and of course technically sharp. College degree NOT required. Specific programming skills NOT being prescribed as we expect you?ll apply the best solution as needed. We DO require you to be smart and have the innate ability to get tough testing challenges solved.

Customers are the number one reason we exist, and ensuring they have magical experiences by delivering the best performing and most reliable OS possible is key in delivering this magic. Their excitement helps drive our own passion to create compelling products. A successful candidate will need the strong built-in desire to deliver magic.

Qualifications

5+ years of experience in software development and/or testing

WPD.WPE.MB

Nearest Major Market: Seattle
Nearest Secondary Market: Bellevue
Job Segments: Developer, Engineer, Software Engineer, Testing, Test Engineer, Technology, Engineering

Source: http://www.microsoft-careers.com/job/Redmond-Software-Development-Engineer-in-Test,-Principal-Windows-Phone-(817389)-Job-WA-98052/2281546/?utm_source=J2WRSS&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=J2W_RSS

ncaa final country music awards autism awareness angelman syndrome total recall troy tulowitzki katie couric good morning america