AT&T Galaxy Note available Feb. 19 for $299, preorders start Feb. 5

The AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note will be available Feb. 19 for $299 on contract, Samsung announced this morning. It'll be available in carbon blue and ceramic white, and preorders will begin Feb. 5 and will be delivered by Feb. 17.

Along with the phablet itself -- remember that this bad boy is 5.3 inches -- there are a number of accessories available, including a desktop dock, spare battery charger, flip cover case and pen holder kit.

Be sure to check out our hands-on video with the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note from CES earlier this month. We've got the full release after the break.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/uMopp1nJWjc/story01.htm

bruce arians braveheart the misfits hook troy miracle andy whitfield

Incident highlights fate of pets in domestic violence | St. Louis Family ...

Pets are an often-overlooked factor in domestic violence, especially when a national survey revealed that 85 percent of all women entering a domestic abuse shelter told officials that a violent partner has threatened, injured or killed a family pet. Worry over a pet's well-being could keep women away from making a decision that is best for their safety.

The Kansas City domestic violence shelter has taken a step to remedy this, now accepting companion pets to its facility.

Were it not for her pet dog, a Kansas City, Missouri woman could have been even more seriously injured, after an incident of physical altercation with her boyfriend. During the argument, the woman's boyfriend attempted to strike her with a hammer.

However, during the occurrence, the woman's Great Dane jumped on top of her, and helped to spare her from some of the hammer's blows. After giving up with the hammer, the man then pushed the woman and her dog out of a second-story window. Their fall to the ground gave both the woman and canine serious injuries.

Even after that incident, the woman was hesitant to seek the aid of a domestic violence shelter. She did not want to check in to the facility and leave her heroic dog behind or with her violent boyfriend.

Workers at one Kansas City-based domestic violence shelter said that around 40 percent of women who inquire about rooms do not take them because the facility does not allow pets. This will leave those women living in places like cars or back in dangerous situations with an abusive partner.

There are many reasons why an individual chooses to stay in an abusive relationship. Fortunately for this woman, she was able to not only leave an unhealthy situation, but also find shelter for herself and her brave canine.

Source: The Huffington Post, "Dogs now welcome at domestic violence shelter thanks to heroic pooch," Jan. 14, 2012

Source: http://www.stlouisfamilylawyersblog.com/2012/01/incident-highlights-fate-of-pets-in-domestic-violence.shtml

lettuce recall lettuce recall zanesville ohio zanesville ohio light field camera world series game 1 exotic animals

Business case studies: Overused, and often abused - Fortune ...

By Michael E. Raynor, guest contributor

FORTUNE ? Consider the last business book you read. What kind of evidence did it provide to support its claims? True, examples from the real world can be illuminating, but case studies have their limits. You need to know what those limits are to avoid getting duped.

In many management books, apparently successful companies, like Southwest Airlines (LUV), are dissected ad nauseum in an attempt to discover what makes them tick. Yet the many different accounts often disagree. Is Southwest recognized because of its strategy? That's certainly a plausible view, but what about its culture? That is in many ways an equally compelling position, although one based on very different information. Could it be because of its strategy and its culture? And, oh yes, its leadership, an attribute that seems critical when the company is viewed from yet another perspective. When everything seems important, how are we supposed to know what to focus on?

This problem comes from an over-reliance on case studies to make conclusions, almost to the point of excluding other types of evidence. Careful observation can offer recommendations that might help you repeat -- or avoid -- a particular result. But we run into problems when we don't take into account the limitations of case studies, which are as follows:

Description: What happened

Alfred Sloan's 1963 book My Years with General Motors is representative of just how careful you need to be in order for a descriptive case study to be useful. Having served as president, CEO, and chairman of General Motors (GM) in a few different combinations from 1923 to 1956, Sloan's book provided his perspective on his role at the company and the principles he used to fulfill that role.

Sloan leaves it to the reader to draw generalizations beyond his experiences, and is careful to make no claims to underlying or enduring insights. His observations, however, have inspired generations of managers and researchers as they have sought to specify ways to cope with challenges similar to the ones Sloan confronted.

For descriptions to go beyond the constraints of Sloan's approach, we must be sure that the cases are broadly applicable. Once again, popular business books typically overreach on this front. There are some worthwhile exceptions but, in general, most of these books show one of two deep flaws.

One is to illustrate a theory that is based on lots of data with carefully chosen cases, but leave the larger population that justifies the theory invisible. In other words, we are offered "for instance" instead of proof. The second is to examine only carefully chosen outliers, usually high-performing firms. This is especially problematic since, without showing any connection between the sample and some larger population, there is no good reason to conclude that the sample is representative of anything other than itself.

Explanation: Why it happened

What happened is one thing; understanding why it happened is something else. Alfred Chandler, one of the great business historians, used case studies to help us understand the emergence of the multi-divisional organization. He focused on four companies: DuPont (DD), General Motors, Sears (SHLD), and Standard Oil in his seminal classic Strategy and Structure. Out of that research emerged a set of hypotheses that have been tested and found valid hundreds of times in hundreds of subsequent case studies, which have supported Chandler's idea that in sufficiently diverse companies, organizing around business functions (accounting, production, marketing) is less effective than organizing around markets.

When it comes to the explanations offered by popular business analysis, however, there is rarely such care. Companies with great track records are immediately lionized as great companies for all sorts of reasons, and the business press always has a favorite. For a decade or more, it was Southwest Airlines; today it's Apple's (AAPL) turn: there are any number of competing arguments that can attribute success to varying combinations and types of strategy, culture, leadership, and other elements.

All of these explanations make sense, but the right explanation needs to make sense of all the pertinent facts, and it needs to make sense of them better than the alternatives. This is a standard that Chandler's work rose to. But when it comes to today's business case studies, unfortunately, it is often left to the reader to determine what the competing explanations might be and to weigh the evidence.

Prediction: What happens next

When it comes to prediction, it gets worse. Most business books move from overstated claims of explanation to entirely unjustified predictions based on the notion that because something seems to have worked for them over there it will work for you over here. This belief is based on a flawed assumption that using ideas that worked out in the past will somehow allow you to shape the future in a desired way.

The only way to justify a prediction is to make one and see if it holds up under repeated tests. I don't know of any business book that has subjected its prescriptions to tests of predictive accuracy that bear even a distant relationship to the scientific method. (Well, I know of one. But I wrote it, so I'm not in a position to offer an opinion on its merits.)

The real world is a messy place, which can make controlled experiments impossible. But the inability to generate evidence of predictive accuracy does not allow us to change the rules of evidence. And it is dangerously misleading to treat fables as fact. Only when case studies are elaborations of a validated connection between cause and effect can they contribute to our ability to predict outcomes accurately.

Case studies can be useful in support of description, explanation or prediction, but in different ways and with different degrees of confidence. So the next time someone begins a sentence with "for example," think twice.

Michael Raynor is the author of The Innovator's Manifesto: Deliberate Disruption for Transformational Growth and is a director at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He lives just outside of Toronto.

Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/30/case-studies-abuse/

st. nicholas heisman finalists heisman finalists kepler 22 b kepler 22 b rosie o donnell st nicholas

Police open fire at Bangladesh protesters, 3 dead (AP)

DHAKA, Bangladesh ? Police fired guns and used batons on crowds of stone-throwing opposition activists in several Bangladesh towns Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100, a news report and doctors at two hospitals said.

The opposition party said 1,200 of its activists were arrested, but the figure could not immediately be confirmed.

The main Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its key Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami are demanding an independent caretaker government oversee elections. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina scrapped the 15-year-old system last year, saying it contradicted the constitution.

The opposition, led by Hasina's archrival former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, says elections will be rigged if held under the current government and without a caretaker system in place.

Clashes during Sunday's nationwide protests were reported in about a dozen towns, Desh television station said.

Two men died from bullet wounds at a government hospital in the eastern town of Chandpur, physician Mahmudunnabi told The Associated Press by phone.

They were shot by police who fired at a procession of protesters trying to march forward by breaking a police barricade, the United News of Bangladesh agency said.

Separately, a youth died and four people with bullet wounds were being treated at a government hospital in Laxmipur, another eastern town, said doctor Mohammad Nizam Uddin.

The identities of the dead were not immediately clear. Zia's party claimed one was a party activist while media reports said two others were rickshawpullers.

Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, the country's police chief, said authorities would investigate the violence to determine what actually happened.

Police arrested about 1,200 activists, opposition spokesman Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said. The figure could not be confirmed immediately.

The South Asian nation's politics became tense recently as the opposition has geared up its anti-government protests targeting the next general election due in 2014.

Hasina's government is also at loggerheads with Zia and the largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami over its effort to try suspected war criminals involving the 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

Five top officials and a former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami facing charges of war crimes are currently behind bars for their alleged role in the nine-month war in which the government said at least 3 million people were killed by the Pakistani army in collaboration with the suspects. Two others of Zia's party also face similar charges of crimes against humanity that include killing, rape and arson.

Zia and Jamaat-e-Islami party have rejected the trial and said it is politically motivated to eliminate the opposition.

The opposition parties also held several general strikes in recent months.

Violent protests are common opposition tactics to embarrass the government in Bangladesh, a fragile parliamentary democracy that has a history of two successful and 19 failed military coups since 1971 when the country won independence from Pakistan.

On Jan. 19, the Bangladesh military said it foiled a plot by a group of hardline officers, their retired colleagues and Bangladeshi conspirators living abroad to overthrow Hasina.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_bangladesh_opposition_protest

gurkha cobra starship cobra starship blue whale melissa joan hart sylvia plath def leppard

What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?

Friday, January 27, 2012

In a study published in the journal Geology, scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggest that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as 'Snowball Earth,' are unrelated to worldwide glacial events.

"Our study suggests that the geochemical record documented in rocks prior to the Marinoan glaciation or 'Snowball Earth' are unrelated to the glaciation itself," said UM Rosenstiel professor Peter Swart, a co-author of the study. "Instead the changes in the carbon isotopic ratio are related to alteration by freshwater as sea level fell."

In order to better understand the environmental conditions prior to 'Snowball Earth', the research team analyzed geochemical signatures preserved in carbonate rock cores from similar climactic events that happened more recently ? two million years ago ? during the Pliocene-Pleistocene period.

The team analyzed the ratio of the rare isotope of carbon (13C) to the more abundant carbon isotope (12C) from cores drilled in the Bahamas and the Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The geochemical patterns that were observed in these cores were nearly identical to the pattern seen prior to the Marinoan glaciation, which suggests that the alteration of rocks by water, a process known as diagenesis, is the source of the changes seen during that time period.

Prior to this study, scientists theorized that large changes in the cycling of carbon between the organic and inorganic reservoirs occurred in the atmosphere and oceans, setting the stage for the global glacial event known as 'Snowball Earth'.

"It is widely accepted that changes in the carbon isotopic ratio during the Pliocene-Pleistocene time are the result of alteration of rocks by freshwater," said Swart. "We believe this is also what occurred during the Neoproterozoic. Instead of being related to massive and complicated changes in the carbon cycle, the variations seen in the Neoproterozoic can be explained by simple process which we understand very well."

Scientists acknowledge that multiple sea level fluctuations occurred during the Pliocene-Pleistocene glaciations resulting from water being locked up in glaciers. Similar sea-level changes during the Neoproterozoic caused the variations in the global carbon isotopic signal preserved in the older rocks, not a change in the distribution of carbon as had been widely postulated.

###

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu

Thanks to University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science 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 85 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117150/What_really_happened_prior_to__Snowball_Earth__

gabby giffords geithner elizabeth banks gabrielle giffords juliette lewis nancy pelosi nancy pelosi

Suicide car bombing in Baghdad underscores spike in Iraq violence

A suicide car bombing at a Baghdad funeral procession comes amid growing questions about the ability of Iraq security forces to contain violence that has killed more than 200 since last month.

? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Skip to next paragraph

More than 30 people were killed and at least another 60 were injured by a suicide bombing at a funeral procession in one of Baghdad?s predominantly Shiite neighborhoods on Friday in Iraq.

The?bomber struck the funeral procession?of?a man killed alongside his wife and son in violence the day before that left a 16 people dead and about 65 people injured, reports the BBC.

The attack Friday was the deadliest in a month and came as part of a wave of attacks that has left more than 200 people dead since US forces withdrew on Dec. 18, reports Al Jazeera. Amid the violence, concerns are mounting that Iraq?s security force may be unable to control the situation.

Those present for Friday?s bombing, which occurred outside a hospital in east Baghdad, say it left behind a gruesome scene. In addition to the death toll, several nearby shops and houses were burned or destroyed, windows shattered, while an ambulance and multiple cars were completely burned out, according to Agence France-Presse.

"I saw a yellow taxi going in the direction of the funeral procession, and then it exploded," said Ayman Rabiyah, an employee of the Baghdad municipality.

As violence and political tension continue to mar daily life in Iraq, President Obama's response is becoming something of a political issue, especially as he prepares to make his bid for reelection.

?On the right, the withdrawal has been a gift, an opportunity to now hold Mr. Obama responsible for anything which goes wrong in Iraq over the next year and to frame him as weak on national security,? writes Marc Lynch on his Foreign Policy blog. Still, he adds, for many Americans, Iraq has completely dropped off the map. ?Iraq dominated the foreign policy debate for years, but at this point very few people care. It barely shows up in public opinion surveys as a concern of voters, and stories about Iraq rarely even make it into the media anymore.?

While serious concerns will no doubt plague Iraq for the foreseeable future, Middle East expert Juan Cole writes in his blog, the Informed Comment, that ending the war in Iraq cannot be seen as ?anything other than a success.? Obama, however, has been reluctant to take a strong position on ending the war, which Mr. Cole says could cause some observers to overlook the accomplishment.

?Ending the war is indeed a great achievement, but Obama may not get so much credit for it because he is too conflicted over the episode to take strong stances,? he writes.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged the country?s central government to ?act like a democracy? this week.? In addition to numerous attacks, the country has seen considerable political turmoil after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of many of his political opponents.

?It is indeed unlikely that Clinton really objects to Maliki?s tactics so much as his inefficiency in ?acting like? a democrat, an effort which has not only failed to fool anyone but has also drawn him international scorn for his widespread use of torture and shocking number of executions,? writes Jason Ditz of Antiwar.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DMeA_dVviOk/Suicide-car-bombing-in-Baghdad-underscores-spike-in-Iraq-violence

sam houston state university sam houston state university bradley manning whoopi goldberg tebowing tebowing washington wizards

Iran could ban EU oil exports next week: lawmaker (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? A law to be debated in Iran's parliament on Sunday could halt exports of oil to the European Union as early as next week, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted a lawmaker as saying on Friday.

"On Sunday, parliament will have to approve a 'double emergency' bill calling for a halt in the export of Iranian oil to Europe starting next week," Hossein Ibrahimi, vice-chairman of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying.

Parliament is pushing for the export ban to deny the EU a 6-month phase-in of the embargo on Iranian oil that the bloc agreed on Monday as part of a raft of tough new Western sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to curb its nuclear program.

The EU accounted for 18 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the first half of 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), making it Iran's second biggest customer after China.

"If the deputies arrive at the conclusion that the Iranian oil exports to Europe must be halted, the parliament will not delay a moment (in passing the bill)," Fars quoted Moayed Hosseini-Sadr, a member of parliament's energy committee, as saying.

"If Iran's oil exports to Europe, which is about 18 percent (of Iran's oil exports) is halted the Europeans will surely be taken by surprise, and will understand the power of Iran and will realize that the Islamic establishment will not succumb to the Europeans' policies," he said.

Reflecting how seriously Tehran was taking the idea, Iran's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi told the ILNA news agency the country might choose to raise the issue at the next OPEC meeting.

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has previously shown it is ready to force the government to take action against what it sees as hostility from the West.

In November it voted to expel the British ambassador after London announced new sanctions ahead of other EU countries.

The day after that vote, radical Iranians stormed the British embassy, causing London to withdraw all staff and close the mission.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; editing by James Jukwey)

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

tmobile iphone van jones van jones dark energy dark energy sherri shepherd sherri shepherd

House Dems raised $61M in donations last year (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it raised $61.4 million last year, claiming a good showing for a party in the minority.

The committee is the political arm of House Democrats. The fundraising blitz gives it $11.6 million in cash on hand to help Democrats win House seats in November.

The group's GOP counterpart is the National Republican Congressional Committee. It would have to raise about $9.6 million to match that figure. Those fundraising numbers are not yet available.

A full report for the House Democrats' committee will be filed with the Federal Election Commission by Jan. 31.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_ho/us_democrats_house_fundraising

kat dennings listeriosis bonobos recent earthquakes club paradise earthquakes today twilight breaking dawn trailer

iPhone 5 said to get 4-inch screen, new design

The iPhone 5 will get a larger screen and a new shape, according to a new report.?

Last fall, the tech press ? and we include ourselves in this category ? got extremely jazzed up about the imminent arrival of the iPhone 5, which many bloggers thought would be thinner and faster and flatter than all other iPhones that had come before. Of course, what Apple actually unveiled was the iPhone 4S, essentially an internally bulked-up version of the iPhone 4, with a better camera and the Siri voice-activated personal assistant.?

Skip to next paragraph

Have no fear! An Apple iPhone 5 is actually on the way, according to the tech site 9 to 5 Mac, which cites a source at Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer that provides many Apple parts.?

"The?iPhone 5, as it is currently being called, is now gearing for production," writes Seth Weintraub of 9 to 5 Mac. "The source said various sample devices are also floating around (they vary slightly from one another), so it is impossible to tell which one will be the final."

Still, Weintraub says that all of the sample devices have a few things in common. For one, they all have different body shapes than the current iPhone ? although none of the samples are teardrop shaped, as had been previously rumored. And all of the devices have screens larger than 4 inches, up from the current 3.5-inch display. Finally, Weintraub notes, none of the samples are in final form.?

In other words, things can change, and they probably will. Apple is known for throwing out finished prototypes because they weren't perfect.

For what it's worth, the rumors floated by 9 to 5 Mac don't seem that outlandish to us. After issuing two phones with identical boxy curves, and identical 3.5-inch displays, Apple is due for a shake-up. And a screen size shake-up is a good way to do that, especially considering the recent arrival of some tremendously large smartphone displays, like the 4.65-inch monster screen on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.?

Up, up, and away.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/AUVSYPMYFo4/iPhone-5-said-to-get-4-inch-screen-new-design

david garrard indy car kinder morgan zachary quinto zachary quinto ashley judd brewers

NC Democratic Gov. Perdue won't seek re-election (AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. ? Democratic North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue, the first woman elected governor in the state, said Thursday she would not seek re-election this year because she believes a bid would make it more difficult to fund education.

Perdue has faced poor poll numbers, continued budget troubles and a campaign investigation while Republicans took over the Legislature last year.

She announced last week she would offer a budget this spring that would seek a sales tax increase for education. Republicans let a temporary sales tax increase expire last summer, and at least one legislative leader called her proposal dead on arrival.

"We live in highly partisan times, where some people seem more worried about scoring political points than working together to address the real challenges our state faces," Perdue said in an email to supporters. A re-election bid, she added, "will only further politicize the fight to adequately fund our schools."

Perdue faced a tough rematch against former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican she narrowly defeated in 2008 in the state's closest gubernatorial contest since 1972. Perdue's win was partly attributed to Barack Obama's surprise victory in North Carolina ? the first in 36 years for a Democratic nominee for president.

News of Perdue's decision came as North Carolina Democratic Rep. Brad Miller said he also would not seek re-election, avoiding a potential primary contest against fellow Democrat David Price after the Republican-controlled Legislature drew them into the same district.

North Carolina is considered an important state for Obama's re-election prospects and Democrats decided to hold the party convention in Charlotte in September.

Perdue, 65, has struggled with a state economy hit hard by the recession and an unemployment rate persistently above the national average. Polling conducted throughout her term has consistently shown her approval ratings hovering around 40 percent.

She's had to deal with state budget problems that led her and fellow Democrats to raise the sales tax by a penny in 2009 and make deep cuts to education and health care. The first-term governor more recently clashed with the new Republican leadership in the General Assembly, which swept into power after the 2010 elections and gave GOP control of the Legislature for the first time since the 1870s.

Perdue has traded jabs with Republican leaders on issues ranging from jobless benefits to a measure allowing death row inmates to use statistical evidence of racial bias to challenge their convictions. In a sign of the tension, she vetoed a record 16 bills last year.

She faced scrutiny about her 2008 campaign and more than three dozen flights that she didn't initially report on campaign filings required by state election officials. A local prosecutor has said the governor wasn't the focus of his investigation, but four people have been indicted related to the flight investigation, including her former campaign finance director.

Perdue had said for months she was running again, and she raised more than $2.6 million in 2011. The amount was only slightly more than what McCrory had raised during last year ? a poor showing in a state where Democratic candidates routinely outspend Republicans in statewide elections. Perdue's term goes through the end of the year.

"To those of you who have supported me throughout my years of public service, I will always be grateful for the confidence you have placed in me," Perdue said. "In my remaining months in office, I look forward to continuing to fight for the priorities we share, by putting North Carolinians back to work and investing in our children's future."

Democratic state Rep. Bill Faison, who has been hinting he wanted to run for governor, said he was not surprised Perdue is stepping aside. For weeks, prominent people in the party worried about Perdue's low poll numbers had been visiting the governor and suggesting she not run, Faison said.

"I don't think anyone will be surprised by what that announcement is," Faison said.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, another Democrat, would seem to consider a run. Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who toyed with a gubernatorial bid in 2008 but decided against the idea, announced Thursday he would run for a fourth term as the state's top law enforcement officer.

A native of Virginia, Perdue worked as a teacher and moved in the 1970s to the coastal town of New Bern, where she became director of geriatric services at a hospital before entering politics. She served in the Legislature and as lieutenant governor before being elected governor.

___

Robertson reported from Raleigh. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Tom Breen in Raleigh also contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_nc_governor

buccaneers bernanke bernanke meredith kercher meredith kercher waxahachie waxahachie

Obama claims credit for cheap natural gas (Daily Caller)

President Barack Obama has been taking the credit for the worldwide boon of cheap natural-gas, declining to give credit to the entrepreneurial energy industry.

?The marketplace needed a nudge here,? Obama said at a Jan. 17 meeting of his jobs and competitiveness council. ?Folks are acting as if that [boon] just sprung out of thin air and is one more example of the dynamism of the marketplace,? he complained to the executives.

Obama ?wants to take credit for anything that happens in the private sector because he wants the public to look favorably on government,? responded Dan Kish, a senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research. His gas-fracking claim ?is sort of like Al Gore [claiming credit for] inventing the Internet,? he said.

Obama?s controversial statement came only a few days before his State of the Union speech, where he said government participation in the?successful?gas-fracking industry justifies a central role for government in other energy sectors.

Fracking technology was successfully used in 1999?by a Texas entrepreneur, George Mitchell,?to extract gas from shale rock. His success has forced a worldwide drop in natural gas prices, from an average of roughly $8 per unit in the mid-2000s to a current price below $3.

That drop in price has saved people and companies worldwide many billions of dollars that are now being used for other purchases or new investments. The cheap energy is also boosting the U.S. manufacturing sector following the 2008 economic crash.

Mitchell?s breakthrough is also doing more to reduce the atmospheric release of carbon dioxide than the controversial international treaties that are championed by progressive environmental groups.

Mitchell?s entrepreneurship was aided by some federal technology and advice, but he ? not the government ? spent years and millions of his own dollars pushing his own partners, as well as federal researchers, to develop the gas-fracking technology. (RELATED: Full coverage of Barack Obama)

Mitchell tested his technology in 1999, and sold his gas-fracking business to a bigger energy company in 2001 for $3.5 billion. At the time, Obama was a state senator in Illinois.

Nonetheless, Obama said that progressive government ?nudged? ? not helped or funded ? industry towards the gas-fracking breakthrough.

Obama pitched a similar ? but softer ? credit-grabbing message in his Jan. 24 State of the Union speech.

Cheap natural gas will support more than 600,000 jobs by 2020, he declared, adding, ?by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock, reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.?

Other progressives are also trying to take the credit from entrepreneurs. John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, declared in a Jan. 24 Wall Street Journal article that ?under President Obama?s leadership, we appear to be at the beginning of a domestic gas and oil boom.?

Obama?s grab for credit is ambitious, and is backed by the Breakthrough Institute, a progressive advocacy group. ?The federal government developed and demonstrated every significant technology that led to the shale gas revolution: Hydraulic fracking, horizontal drilling, 3D mapping and imaging,? Ted Nordhaus, a founder of the institute, told The Daily Caller.

?Without those contributions, there is no shale gas revolution, except in the counter-factual fantasies of libertarian ideologues,? he added.

Industry officials deride the progressives? grab for credit.

?The industry?s success ? [is] the result of the fortitude and perseverance of private sector companies and their shareholders, not the benevolence of? the federal government,? said one official who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation by Obama?s deputies. ?Both in rhetoric and regulation, this administration has largely thrown roadblocks in front of the one engine that is propelling a more favorable economic outlook.?

?I don?t know of any large-scale technical developments that have been from government,? said Alan Boras, a vice-president for media relations at Encana Corp., a gas-fracking company.

Government researchers developed some basic technology that was used by industry in the fracking business, but that doesn?t allow government to claim credit for the gas boom, he said. The U.S. government also funded early development of the Internet, he added, but ?did the government develop the technology for the iPad? No, it didn?t.?

?We did at all, [without] a cent? from government, said James Hill, an executive at Gastrac, another fracking company. Gastrac is a Canadian company that was formed by veterans from energy giant Halliburton, and it has developed a newer form of fracking technology that use only small quantities of corrosive chemicals to extract natural gas from rock.

In Canada, Hill said, ?the government got out of the business of helping companies long ago.?

The attempted credit grab ?is part of the never-ending search for more power? [which] is the driving force of progressivism,? said Kish. Power is valuable, he said, because progressives ?can convert that power into everyone having to come to the government to do anything.?

Progressives constantly cast doubt on private-sector successes because they need to boost government power, Kish continued. The progressives? attitude, he said, is ?if [something] is successful, government had to have something to do with it, and if people are successful on their own, they must have done wrong or gotten something by underhanded means.?

Mitchell?s massive success still leaves many opportunities for progressives to play a role in the gas industry

?The economics are such that we don?t have to incentivize industry to extract it, but we do have to make sure the technologies are there to do it safely, where there may be some underinvestment on the private side,? Obama said on Jan. 17. On Jan. 24, he announced plans to regulate companies? use of chemicals.

The industry, however, already invests heavily in safety, partly because natural gas is explosive and can kill workers and destroy equipment, but also because lawsuits and safety violations can eat up profit.

Obama is also using his claim for credit to win a larger role for progressives in the nation?s other energy sectors.

Obama?s 2009 stimulus included about $40 billion in funds for the green-tech industry. Much of that money went to basic research, but much went to companies or consumers to temporarily subsidize the sale of solar power, high-tech batteries, battery-powered autos and other products.

The sector?s infamous poster child is now-bankrupt Solyndra, a California-based solar cell manufacturer. The firm went bankrupt in 2011 after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees following extensive contacts between Obama?s deputies and company advocates.

The resulting scandal has significantly damaged public support for Obama?s green-tech policies.

Now, Obama appears to be using his claim about progressives? role in the gas-fracking industry to bolster a larger role for progressives in the green-tech sector.

?The question is whether we apply that insight to things like solar and wind and other renewable energies as well? That?s where the controversy comes in,? he said on Jan. 17.

?Our experience with natural gas shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don?t always come right away,? he said in his State of the Union speech. ?Some technologies don?t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. ? I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany,? he declared.

Obama?s multi-billion dollar support for green-tech production and sales goes far beyond the government labs? traditional sharing of taxpayer-funded research and technology with eager entrepreneurs.

Even Nordhaus ? who argues that the government played a significant role in the gas-fracking sector ? criticized some of Obama?s expensive subsidies, and argued that federal funds should be focused on novel technologies, not on products.

?We think the potential for present generation renewables ? has been overhyped,? he told TheDC. ?We think that has resulted in policies that too often subsidize output from mature technologies that aren?t going to be cost-competitive? rather than subsidizing innovation.?

Amid the controversies, Obama is working to buy allies in the energy industry.

?I think having a business voice on behalf of those [renewable] investments is useful, because I think, if it is just coming from us, it can oftentimes look like we?re picking winners and losers, or that we have an overriding environmental agenda as opposed to an economic development agenda,? Obama told the business leaders on Jan. 17. ?My view has always been that these things are compatible, not contradictory.?

Obama?s attempt to entice companies to accept progressive leadership is regularly slammed by GOP leaders.

?You?ve got to stop the spread of crony capitalism,? former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declared at the Jan. 20 South Carolina debate. Obama ?takes $500 million and sticks it into Solyndra. He stacks the labor stooges on the [National Labor Relations Board] so they can say ?no? to Boeing and take care of their friends in the labor movement? He turns down the Keystone [XL] pipeline, which would bring energy and jobs to America.? he said.

Obama?s audience at the Jan. 17 meeting included at least three business leaders who rely on government support for green tech.

One was the council?s chairman, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric (GE), which is trying to win a large role in the green-energy market.

GE lobbied for Obama?s very ambitious ?cap and trade? bill, but the bill was defeated by GOP opposition. However, the GOP failed to stop a 2008 federal mandate that bars the sale of cheap incandescent bulbs. The mandate requires consumers to buy high-profit, low-power bulbs, which are made by GE and other companies.

?I?m still scratching my head on that whole light bulb [controversy]? I thought it was a pretty good idea, and Jeff did too, because he?s making them,? Obama said at the meeting.

Another attendee was Lewis Hay, the CEO of NextEra Energy, Inc., which is the largest renewable energy generator in North America. Hay urged Obama to continue federal spending on renewable-energy programs, despite the political controversy over Solyndra and other government-subsidized green-tech products.

?I?m shocked there is a little controversy in this area ? its a little disappointing,? Obama responded, prompting more laughter from the CEOs and investors.

If progressives ?thought they could take credit for a sunny day,? Kish said, ?they would try.?

Join the conversation

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

Obama claims credit for cheap natural gas

Death tax showdown heads to Warren Buffet's home state

NYC 'food police' caught in an ad lie

In mocking letter, NC death row inmate taunts town that condemned him

Newt in 1996: Let's build a real Jurassic Park, have sex in space

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20120125/pl_dailycaller/obamaclaimscreditforcheapnaturalgas

jason witten ucla vs usc rich rodriguez rich rodriguez the muppet movie the muppet movie mars rover

Korean research, a first step toward Dr. Smartphone? (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? Tired of long waits at the hospital for medical tests? If Korean researchers have their way, your smartphone could one day eliminate that -- and perhaps even tell you that you have cancer.

A team of scientists at Korea Advanced Institute of Science of Technology (KAIST) said in a paper published in Angewandte Chemie, a German science journal, that touch screen technology can be used to detect biomolecular matter, much as is done in medical tests.

"It began from the idea that touch screens work by recognizing the electronic signs from the touch of the finger, and so the presence of specific proteins and DNA should be recognizable as well," said Hyun-gyu Park, who with Byong-yeon Won led the study.

The touch screens on smartphones, PDAs or other electronic devices work by sensing the electronic charges from the user's body on the screen. Biochemicals such as proteins and DNA molecules also carry specific electronic charges.

According to KAIST, the team's experiments showed that touch screens can recognize the existence and the concentration of DNA molecules placed on them, a first step toward one day being able to use the screens to carry out medical tests.

"We have confirmed that (touch screens) are able to recognize DNA molecules with nearly 100 percent accuracy just as large, conventional medical equipment can and we believe equal results are possible for proteins," Park told Reuters TV.

"There are proteins known in the medical world like the ones used to diagnose liver cancer, and we would be able to see the liver condition of the patient."

The research team added that it is currently developing a type of film with reactive materials that can identify specific biochemicals, hoping this will allow the touch screens to also recognize different biomolecular materials.

But confirming that the touch screen can recognize the biomolecular materials, though key, is only the first step.

Since nobody would put blood or urine on a touch screen, the sample would be placed on a strip, which would then be fed into the phone or a module attached to the phone through what Park called an "entrance point."

"The location and concentration of the sample would be recognized the same way the touch of the finger is recognized," he added.

There are no details yet on a prospective timetable for making the phone a diagnostic tool, however.

(Reporting by Hyunyoung Yi, writing by Iktae Park, editing by Elaine Lies and Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wr_nm/us_korea_doctor_smartphone

coriolanus coriolanus jon corzine v tech the three stooges top model all stars americas next top model

Get Car Insurance With Belowaverage Credit | Azastro Photography

Approaches for obtaining a automobile insurance policies insurance policy once you have low credit score. Giving you better Credit rating Techniques for decreasing monthly premiums is affecting your credit history probably the most Obtaining automobile insurance policies having a credit score previous repeated crashes could be a obstacle. your credit history has been impacted inside the recent depression several or simply made bad decisions, it will likely be a tad bit more hard to becoming an insurance plan. On the other hand, there are plenty of steps you can take to help lower your payments improve the likelihood you get Car Insurance There are various tricks for cutting your automobile insurance policies regular man particular person staff member tips genuinely. On the other hand, several never. One particular frequently used tip will be to maintain push below you actually In order to perform you must usually maintain somewhere around the exact quantity, if you ever reported twelvemonthly usage yearly but your was at they are aware being truthful. Something more important you can do is to buy denver sets automobile on his or her automobile insurance policies insurance policy, because the masai have a superior history income tax, credit score, automobile collision history. It is a much harder thing to try and do since the car or truck recorded in your label, home properly you will need to offer automobile for a comparable. If you are comparable to place your label anyone that operating automobile within the insurance policies insurance policy. This is situations one of the better points you can do if you do not wish to pay out Buck Buck more automobile insurance policies set things right Yet another action you can take
may be the today fast paced community, so many people are hectic needs function performed promptly. Buying insurance policies has long been an overwhelming undertaking. Almost everyone postpone purchasing insurance policies as it would be an extended monotonous method. using the website is likely to make quick and easy. You can get insurance policies insurance policy in a few minutes. Dont need to check out many real estate agents insurance policies providers waste materials time. Along with the great news is you can crank out numerous insurance quotes as you wish. All you have to complete an effective sort. Auto Insurance offer several costs for pretty much the same vehicle insurance policies insurance policy coverage. always have a final decision right after being aware other programs will offer. clearly put on wish to pay out more for a similar thing. you should evaluate insurance quotes provided by And once you would like insurance policies on the web, researching received considerably from the trouble. You can also ask reductions. You will be amazed while using the wide range of reductions the providers supply you with. Youthful motorists are generally regarded as high risk and they are priced higher costs. As a student with an above average Grade point average, you may take advantage student lower price reduce insurance policies charge. For anyone who is higher than years old, you may take advantage older new driver lower price. irrespective of your actual age, insurance policies providers reductions in price for absolutely everyone. All you have to request. Its also possible to lower your vehicle insurance policies seeking better insurance deductibles. When you are involved in an collision, you may tend to pay out before decided amount of money through your pants pocket just before
Young people are viewed a high risk selection of motorists ensure. Automatic insurance policies for teenagers are often very highpriced in comparison to the costs agreed to mature grownups. Deficiency of operating practical knowledge along with the in past statistics higher charge vehicle crashes due to teens factors have an affect on the price tag on insurance policy payments. Thankfully, you can lower the buying price of vehicle insurance policies teenage motorists. Consider an approved new driver education and learning preventative operating system. classes make clear the most widespread Auto Insurance crashes and how to avoid them. Additionally talk about dealing with numerous operating situations for example heavy traffic, adverse varying weather conditions, unexpected emergency predicaments. The side effects appropriate repercussions driving while impaired are educated. After achievement, system certification is disseminated. insurance firms provide reductions motorists put forth your time being more well informed operating correctly on the roads. It is advantageous an advanced senior high school student will get high gpas. providers also offer decrease costs if you ever participate in specific corporations. Folks that function properly educationally and they are included in online community corporations regarded as grow in charge. Insurance organisations believe all those features produce more watchful safer motorists. Subsequently, the price tag on quality are going to be a little diminished. A different way to obtain a decrease fees are by having a clean up record. Many insurance policies providers give a great new driver lower price. Being approved for the kind of lower price needs obtaining traffic seat tickets

Similar Posts:

Source: http://azastrophotography.com/get-car-insurance-with-belowaverage-credit/

john beck mariska hargitay gmcr ohio news caracal beef wellington beef wellington

TCTV Debate: What SOPA & PIPA 2.0 Should Look Like

On Friday The House withdrew the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) from being put to a vote and the Senate postponed voting on its version of the bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). As the debate continues over the best way to shield copyrighted material from being pirated, we invited David Sohn, General Counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology and?Viacom's General Counsel, Michael Fricklas to discuss language that should be included in any future SOPA/PIPA legislation.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/YLt25jIPZnk/

jessica sutta sexiest man alive 2011 ruben studdard ruben studdard black friday sales 2011 black friday sales 2011 whitney duncan

Reno wildfire that destroyed 29 homes contained (AP)

RENO, Nev. ? The wildfire that destroyed 29 homes near Reno is contained. Thousands of evacuees are back home. And the family of the woman found dead says there's no point in prosecuting the remorseful man who accidentally started it.

Fire officials declared the blaze contained Saturday after a storm brought precipitation that the region hasn't seen in months. All evacuations were lifted and U.S. 395 reopened through the 3,200-acre fire zone.

But in addition to two inches of rain, the storm also brought another challenge for emergency workers. Officials fear its potential for causing flooding in burned areas, after one of the driest winters in Reno history.

"I'm confident we'll be able to respond successfully if necessary," Washoe County Manager Katy Simon said, adding that hydrologists and officials were monitoring the situation.

The blaze erupted shortly after noon on Thursday and raced quickly through the dry countryside, propelled by wind gusts of 82 mph. At its height, the fire forced evacuation calls for some 10,000 people.

The blaze was very similar to a wildfire that destroyed 30 homes in Reno in mid-November.

June Hargis, 93, was found dead in a studio apartment next to her daughter's home in Washoe Valley, where the fire started. Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley said her cause of death has not been established, so it's not known if it was fire related. No other fatalities or major injuries were reported.

Her family said Saturday that there was no point in prosecuting the man who admitted accidentally starting it by improperly discarding fireplace ashes outside his home.

Authorities have described man, whose name was not released, as being extremely remorseful.

Haley said that prosecutors will have to give the case a lot of deliberation. "The fact he came forward and admitted it plays a role. But so does the massive damage and loss of life," he said Friday. "It's a balancing act."

Hargis's son, Jim Blueberg, 68, told The Associated Press Saturday that he didn't think filing criminal charges against the elderly man "would do any good."

"The man had the courage to come up and say he did this. He's remorseful. I think he's punished himself enough. It was a silly, stupid mistake to make, there's no doubt about that. But I just want him to know I forgive him, and my heart goes out to him," he said.

His sister, Jeannie Watts, 70, had returned home from an errand to find the apartment next door and a barn with three horses inside engulfed in flames. She agreed that there was probably no need to file charges against the man.

"What good is that going to do? Everything is already gone," Watts said.

"He'll pay the rest of his life for that," she added.

Watts said it took only about 15 minutes for her three-bedroom farmhouse to burn down, though the fire reached her mother's apartment and the barn first. She said her mother appeared to be mentally alert when she last saw her.

"Before I got home, my son told her, `Get your stuff and get out of here,'" Watts told the AP. "She said to him, `Well, I can smell smoke but I can't see any fire,' and she went back inside. She probably suffocated from the smoke because it was so thick."

She said that when she got home, she shouted: "Where's my mom? Where's my mom?"

"The firefighters didn't know," she said. "Later, an official came to me and said, `Yes, she was in (the burned studio).' Then they called the coroner. I was just crying and screaming. I still can't believe it."

Blueberg said the death of their mother comes after his sister had been through "one hard knock after another" in recent years.

The fire left her financially strapped, with virtually no earthly possessions, he said. "She told me the other day, `All I have is my purse, that's all I have,'" he said.

She and her husband, Pat, met with an insurance agent on the property. In addition to the destroyed buildings, three horses in her barn died, though firefighters rescued all five dogs from her home.

"My stomach is up in the air," Watts said. "I want to cry and I can't. I want to say, `Why us? Why anybody? Why does anything like this have to happen to anybody?"

___

Associated Press writers Scott Sonner in Reno, Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and Sandra Chereb in Carson City contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_us/us_reno_brush_fire

jordan jefferson paula abdul redsox amazon prime spina bifida new kindle trill

Why bats, rats and cats store different amounts of fat

Friday, January 20, 2012

Animals differ in the amount of fat they carry around depending on their species, status and sex. However, the causes of much of this variation have been a mystery. The Bristol study shows that many differences can be understood by considering the strategies animals employ to avoid two causes of death: starvation and being killed by predators.

These causes of death often exert opposite pressures on animals, for example, storing lots of fat helps animals survive periods without food but also slows their running and so makes getting caught by a predator more likely. Animals can be stronger to compensate, but the energetic costs of extra muscle mean that the animal would starve quicker during a food shortage.

Led by Dr Andrew Higginson of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, the researchers used mathematical models to explore how much muscle and fat animals should have in their body to give themselves the best chance of survival. They showed that an important consideration was how much carrying fat increases the energetic costs of movement. The models revealed that the size of this cost influenced whether larger animals should have more fat than smaller animals, or vice versa.

Dr Higginson said: "Our results explain differences between different families of mammal. For example, larger bats carry proportionally less fat than small bats but larger carnivores carry more fat than small carnivores. Among rodents, it's the medium-sized species that carry around the most fat! These differences agree with the models predictions if you consider the costs of carrying fat for these three groups. Bats fly and so have high costs of carrying extra weight, whilst carnivores spend much of their time resting and so will use less energy than busy scurrying rodents."

The work, published in The American Naturalist, also shows that much of the variation between animals in their amounts of fat and muscle can be explained by differences between the sexes, how much animals have to fight to get food, and the climate in which they live.

The researchers plan to put the theory to the test by looking in more detail at the amounts of fat stored by different animals. If their theory is correct, much of the mystery in how species and sexes differ in their amount of fat will have been solved.

###

University of Bristol: http://www.bristol.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Bristol 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 99 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116911/Why_bats__rats_and_cats_store_different_amounts_of_fat

westboro baptist church kurt warner kurt warner st. croix st. croix threadworm nick swisher

Study finds internet addiction causes changes in brain development (Yahoo! News)

A new look at the human brain shows little difference between internet addicts and drug addicts

Is Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) real? A new study suggests it may be ? and that its effects can be seen in the?human brain.

The study asked those between the ages 14 and 21 questions about how their?internet use had negatively impacted their lives. Many of these questions run parallel to those that help diagnose an alcohol or drug problem: "Have you lied to your family members, therapist, or others to hide the truth of your involvement with the internet?" "Have you taken the risk of losing a significant relationship, job, educational, or career opportunity because of the internet?" Researchers followed up with questions to the subjects' friends and families.

Participants who were found to be "addicted" to the internet had significant differences in brain development than those who were not. These include areas of lower volume in the parts of the brain that control emotional processing, executive thinking skills and attention, and cognitive control ? very similar to the?brain changes in drug addicts. There also appeared to be disruptions in the white matter between brain cells, affecting how neurons communicate with each other. The longer a person had suffered from IAD, the more pronounced the brain differences were.

There are a lot of questions still present in light of the study. Researchers are not sure whether addiction to the internet causes peoples'?brains to develop differently, or whether the brains were already like this, making people more susceptible addiction.

(Source)

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120120/tc_yblog_technews/study-finds-internet-addiction-causes-changes-in-brain-development

ron white ron white alcs alcs miguel cabrera pay it forward pay it forward

Danes wins pudding pot from Harvard drama group (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ? Golden Globe winner Claire Danes will be picking up a pudding pot from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

The student group named Danes on Friday as its Woman of the Year. She'll get a parade and a roast Jan. 26.

Danes won her third Golden Globe on Sunday for her role as CIA agent Carrie Mathison on Showtime's new "Homeland." She won a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild award last year for her work in HBO's "Temple Grandin."

The 32-year-old gained attention at 15 when she won her first Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination for "My So Called Life."

Julianne Moore won the Harvard club's award last year.

The Man of the Year will be announced next week and honored Feb. 3. Jay Leno won last year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_en_tv/us_people_hasty_pudding_danes

bcs championship bcs national championship 2012 bcs game national championship game university of alabama lsu vs alabama college football

Modern Slavery? (Powerlineblog)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/188840052?client_source=feed&format=rss

nfl playoff schedule tim howard scores consumer financial protection bureau nick cannon kidney failure casey anthony video recess appointment eastman kodak

Tales emerge of missing and dead in ship disaster (AP)

ROME ? An Italian dad and his 5-year-old daughter. A retired American couple treating themselves after putting four children through college. A Hungarian musician who helped crying children into lifejackets, then disappeared while trying to retrieve his beloved violin from his cabin.

As details emerged Wednesday about the missing and the dead in the grounding of the Costa Concordia, the captain was quoted as saying he tripped and fell into the water from the listing vessel and never intended to abandon his passengers.

The search for the 21 people still unaccounted for in the disaster ground to a halt after the cruise liner shifted again on its rocky perch off the Tuscan island of Giglio, making it too dangerous for divers to continue. Rough seas were forecast for the next few days.

The bad weather also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel, as Italy's environment minister warned Parliament of the ecological implications if the ship sinks.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef and capsized Friday after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route and strayed into the perilous waters.

Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, was placed under house arrest Tuesday, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio. Costa has said such a navigational "fly by" was done last Aug. 9-10, after being approved by the company and Giglio port authorities.

However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, said Wednesday its tracking of the ship's August route showed it actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused Friday's disaster.

"This is not a black-and-white case," Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd's List, said in a statement.

"Our data suggests that both routes took the vessel within 200 meters (yards) of the impact point and that the authorized route was actually closer to shore."

New audio of Schettino's communications with the coast guard during the crisis emerged Wednesday, with the captain claiming he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water.

"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.

Initial audio of Schettino's conversations made headlines on Tuesday, showing an increasingly exasperated coast guard officer ordering Schettino back on board to direct the evacuation, and the captain resisting, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping.

The officer's order, "Get back on board, (expletive!)" has entered the Italian lexicon, becoming a Twitter hashtag and adorning T-shirts.

Eleven people have been confirmed dead so far, and 21 are missing. Italian officials have only released 27 names so far, including two Americans, 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.

The Hungarian victim was identified Wednesday as 38-year-old Sandor Feher, who had been working as an entertainer on the stricken cruise ship. His body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother, who had traveled to the Italian city of Grosseto, according to Hungary's foreign ministry.

Jozsef Balog, a pianist who worked with Feher on the ship, told the Blikk newspaper that Feher was wearing a lifejacket when he decided to return to his cabin to retrieve his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to the area where he was supposed to board a lifeboat.

According to Balog, Feher helped put lifejackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.

Others among the missing include 5-year-old Dayana Arlotti and her father, William Arlotti, who were on the cruise with the father's girlfriend. The girl's parents separated three years ago.

The girl's mother, Susy Albertini, said she has been desperately calling police, port officials and the cruise company for days for news of her daughter and estranged husband.

"I last heard from her on Thursday," when she waved goodbye at school, Albertini, 28, told the La Voce di Romagna newspaper.

"The absurd thing is that no one can tell me anything, and what little I know is from the newspapers," she said. "Sometimes they ask absurd questions, like if my daughter knows how to swim. Do they understand she is 5 years old? What kind of question is that?"

William Arlotti, 36, had gone on the cruise with his girlfriend, Michela Marconcelli, who survived. She reported seeing Dayana, who was wearing a lifejacket, slide into the water when the boat shifted, but said someone helped retrieve her, the newspaper reported.

Marconcelli said she was pushed forward onto the life raft, and lost track of her companion and his daughter.

Other missing include retirees Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minn.

Sarah Heil, their daughter, told WBBM radio in Chicago that her parents had been looking forward to the 16-day cruise after raising four kids and sending them all off to college.

"They never had any money," she said. "So when they retired, they went traveling. And this was to be a big deal ? a 16-day trip. They were really excited about it."

The Heil children said in a blog post Wednesday that their parents were not among the passengers whose bodies were recently recovered, and they were praying that weather conditions would improve so authorities could resume search operations.

A U.S. congressional committee announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing next month on the safety implications of the Costa Concordia accident, saying U.S. and international maritime organizations need to ensure standards are in place to protect passengers' safety on cruise ships.

Passengers have complained vocally about the chaotic evacuation and poor treatment by Costa officials once they got on land, with some saying they were provided only a single night of hotel accommodations and denied help getting to their embassies to get new passports.

Costa owner, Miami-based Carnival Corp., responded Wednesday, saying it was offering assistance and counseling to passengers and crew and was trying to take stock of lost possessions.

"Costa has also begun the process of refunding all voyage costs including both passenger cruise fares and all costs incurred while on board," Carnival said in a statement. "Our senior management teams are working together to determine additional support."

Rescue operations were suspended early Wednesday after instruments attached to the ship detected it had shifted, raising concerns for the safety of rescuers. By evening, officials still did not have enough data to assure the ship had stopped resettling and it was unclear when the search would resume.

Environment Minister Corrado Clini, who has warned of an environmental catastrophe in the waters around Giglio, a sanctuary for marine mammals, briefed Parliament on the effort to extract the half-million gallons of fuel. He said the ship risked sinking if it slips off its rocky perch.

Schettino was questioned by a judge for three hours Tuesday, then ordered held under house arrest rather than jailed ? a decision that federal prosecutors plan to challenge.

The judge, in her reasoning released Wednesday, said Schettino didn't represent a flight risk since he had stayed near the ship even after abandoning it, the ANSA news agency reported.

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters house arrest made sense.

"He never left the scene," the lawyer said. "There has never been a danger of flight."

Leporatti added that Schettino was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.

"He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life," Leporatti said.

Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors shortly. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.

_____

Barry reported from Milan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

aaron hernandez aaron hernandez portland news portland news tibetan mastiff manny pacquiao pacquiao

Five Great Alternatives to MegaUpload [File Sharing]

The FBI shuttered file-sharing web site MegaUpload this afternoon, arrested its executives, and have called the site an "international organized criminal enterprise." Even though there's little doubt that MegaUpload was host to some copyrighted material, it was also a great way to upload and share large files, like photo archives and video, and send them to friends without worrying about hosting, Dropbox quotas, or overloaded inboxes. Now that it's gone however, here are some other great sites that let you share large files effortlessly.

RapidShare

With MegaUpload down, RapidShare is your next natural alternative for a site that allows you to upload large files and send your friends a link to download them. You'll need to sign up for an account to use RapidShare, but once you do, you can upload files as large as you like and keep them stored as long as you like. Once your files are uploaded, you'll get a short URL you can send to friends so they can download the file from another computer, or that you can use to re-downlaod the file on a different system. If you're willing to pay for a RapidPro membership ($13/mo to $130/yr), your uploaded files will never expire, your file storage and your file transfers are encrypted, and you never have to wait for downloads to start.

---

MediaFire

MediaFire promises to make file uploads and sharing dead simple, as in drag-and-drop simple. The service offers unlimited file storage, although you're limited to uploading files no larger than 200MB at a time (with free accounts). Your files only stay active for a short time (usually 30 days), but for even though it has its limitations, MediaFire doesn't force you to queue up to download files, doesn't require an account to upload or download files, and doesn't keep you from downloading multiple files simultaneously. If you sign up for a MediaFire Pro account ($9/mo), you can upload files up to 2GB each, store them as long as you want without worrying they'll expire, go ad-free, and even let other users drop files into your account for you to review later.

---

YouSendIt

YouSendIt has been around for a long time, and has grown from offering users a fast way to send one another large files without killing each other's inboxes to an enterprise tool where businesses let employees drop documents to securely share with people outside of their organizations. You can still sign up and use the service for free however?free users have to deal with ads, but they get 2GB of storage and can upload files no larger than 50MB. Once uploaded, you can share them with anyone, effectively "email" your files to other people by attaching the YouSendIt link in your email signature, upload or download files from mobile devices, and more. Shell out $10/mo or $50/yr for YouSendIt Pro, and your storage is bumped up to 5GB and uploads to 2GB each. Spend $15/mo or $149/yr for Pro Plus to get unlimited storage and unlimited upload sizes, as well as other advanced tracking and file management features.

---

Minus

Minus started off as an image sharing service, but quickly bloomed into a richly featured file sharing service. You can drag and drop any file to upload it to Minus, and send a short link to your friends so they can view it on the web, download it, or even open it and collaborate with you on it before sending it back. Sign up for an account and you get 50GB of storage, and you can upload files up to 2GB, share any of them, and keep them indefinitely without worrying they'll be deleted. Minus users also get the benefit of mobile apps and browser extensions to make sharing and downloading easy.

---

Dropbox and Its Alternatives

While services like Dropbox, SugarSync, and Windows Live Mesh don't have the same hands-off, "upload it and forget it" approach that MegaUpload and similar webapps have, they all offer some ability to sync a cloud storage account with a folder or set of files on your computer, and then quickly share those synchronized files with someone else. Dropbox lets you use your public folder to share files and your photos folder to share galleries, for example. While none of the services offer you unlimited file storage or uploads the way some webapps do, you can always follow our guide to maximizing your Dropbox space to give it a boost.

---

In addition to these services, you can always upload your files to sites like Multiupload, Gazup, and previously mentioned Uploading.to, which send your file to multiple file sharing hosts and return a single link that you or a friend can use to download from one or any of them.

The future is unclear for MegaUpload, and while the people behind the service vow they're innocent and that they'll fight to come back, it's likely that even if the site returns it'll be the same MegaUpload we all know today. Thankfully there are plenty of alternatives if you need to move large files from one computer to another.

Photo remixed from an original by Pavels Hotulevs/Shutterstock.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/J3mc_mtCd5I/five-great-alternatives-to-megaupload

kowloon walled city knicks lakers oklahoma city thunder florida state football florida state football ben breedlove