Palestinians certain to win recognition as a state

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, right, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at U.N. headquarters Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, right, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at U.N. headquarters Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, right, meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at U.N. headquarters Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrives at the United Nations Plaza Hotel, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, in New York. The Palestinians predicted a historic U.N. vote recognizing their statehood this week, praising important new support from France on Tuesday and likely backing from other European nations seen as critical to enhancing their international standing. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, right, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at U.N. headquarters Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The Palestinians are certain to win U.N. recognition as a state on Thursday but success could exact a high price: delaying an independent state of Palestine because of Israel's vehement opposition.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, mounted an aggressive campaign to head off the General Assembly vote, which the Palestinians view as a historic step in their quest for global recognition.

The Palestinians say they need U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967, to be able to resume negotiations with Israel and the non-member observer state status could also open the way for possible war crimes charges against the Jewish state at the International Criminal Court.

In a last-ditch move Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns made a personal appeal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas promising that President Barack Obama would re-engage as a mediator in 2013 if Abbas abandoned the effort to seek statehood. But the Palestinian leader refused, said Abbas aide Saeb Erekat.

For Abbas, the U.N. bid is crucial if he wants to maintain his leadership and relevance, especially following the recent conflict between his Hamas rivals in Gaza and Israel. It saw the Islamic militant group claim victory and raise its standing in the Arab world while his Fatah movement was sidelined and marginalized.

The Palestinians chose the "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People" for the vote. Before it takes place, there will be a morning of speeches by supporters focusing on the rights of the Palestinians. Abbas is scheduled to be a speaker at that meeting, and again in the afternoon when he will present the case for Palestinian statehood in the General Assembly.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday that the U.N. vote will not fulfill the goal of independent Palestinian and Israeli states living side by side in peace, which the U.S. strongly supports because that requires direct negotiations.

"We need an environment conducive to that," she told reporters in Washington. "And we've urged both parties to refrain from actions that might in any way make a return to meaningful negotiations that focus on getting to a resolution more difficult."

The U.S. Congress has threatened financial sanctions if the Palestinians improve their status at the United Nations.

Ahead of the vote, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch filed an amendment to a defense bill Wednesday that would eliminate funding for the United Nations if the General Assembly changes Palestine's status.

"Increasing the Palestinians' role in the United Nations is absolutely the wrong approach, especially in light of recent military developments in the Middle East," he said in a statement. "Israel is one of America's closest allies, and any movement to strengthen one of its fiercest enemies must not be tolerated."

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that by going to the U.N., the Palestinians violate "both the spirit and the word of signed agreements to solve issues through negotiations," which broke down four years ago.

But Israeli officials appeared to back away from threats of drastic measures if the Palestinians get U.N. approval, with officials suggesting the government would take steps only if the Palestinians use their new status to act against Israel.

Regev, meanwhile, affirmed that Israel is willing to resume talks without preconditions.

U.N. diplomats said they will be listening closely to Abbas' speech to the General Assembly on Thursday afternoon before the vote to see if he makes an offer of fresh negotiations with no strings, which could lead to new talks. The Palestinians have been demanding a freeze on Israeli settlements as a precondition.

As a sign of the importance Israel attaches to the vote, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman flew to New York and was scheduled to meet Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before the vote. Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor had been scheduled to speak in the General Assembly after Abbas, but it appears Lieberman may now make Israel's case opposing the resolution.

Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly. The 193-member world body is dominated by countries sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and the resolution to raise its status from an observer to a nonmember observer state only requires a majority vote for approval. To date, 132 countries ? over two-thirds of the U.N. member states ? have recognized the state of Palestine.

The Palestinians have been courting Western nations, especially the Europeans, seen as critical to enhancing their international standing. A number have announced they will vote "yes" including France, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland. Those opposed or abstaining include the U.S., Israel, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia.

A high vote could boost Abbas' standing.

"If there is a poor turnout, a poor vote, the radicals gain," said India's U.N. Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri.

The Palestinians turned to the General Assembly after the United States announced it would veto their bid last fall for full U.N. membership until there is a peace deal with Israel.

Following last year's move by the Palestinians to join the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, the United States withheld funds from the organization, which amount to 22 percent of its budget. The U.S. also withheld money to the Palestinians.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-29-UN-Palestinians-Status/id-292faed7498c490394d170f44cdf8f2e

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Chinese paper congratulates Kim Jong Un on being named ?Sexiest Man Alive? by the Onion | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

Kim Jong Un (KNS/Getty Images)

In a hilarious if increasingly common example of a real newspaper taking a satirical newspaper seriously, the People's Daily?the website for the Communist Party of China's newspaper?published a story on Tuesday congratulating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on being named 2012's "Sexiest Man Alive" by the Onion.

"U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the 'Sexiest Man Alive' for the year 2012," the story announces before quoting the Onion's sarcastic write-up:

"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," it said.

"He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time," said Marissa Blake-Zweiber, editor of the Onion Style and Entertainment.

The accompanying 55-page slideshow includes images of Kim in varying degrees of sexiness?riding a horse, posing with military leaders, aiming a rifle, riding a horse and, uh, riding a horse.

Of course, this isn't the first time the Onion's sarcasm has been lost in translation.

In 2002, the Beijing Evening News picked up an Onion story asserting the U.S. Congress would leave Washington "unless a new Capitol is built."

In September 2011, Capitol Police in Washington were forced to investigate after the Onion's Twitter feed teased a satirical article?"Congress Takes Group of Schoolchildren Hostage"?with a series of tweets proclaiming breaking news of a hostage situation inside the Capitol building.

A month later, the Onion caused real confusion when it published a satirical story?"Study Finds Every Style of Parenting Produces Disturbed, Miserable Adults"?that cited the California Parenting Institute in its findings.

The real institute was soon deluged with emails and phone calls from concerned residents.

And in September, Iranian news agency Fars plagiarized an Onion story that claimed an "overwhelming majority of rural white Americans" would prefer Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over President Barack Obama.

[Hat tip: BuzzFeed]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/kim-jong-un-onion-sexiest-man-alive-newspaper-144736602.html

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Source: http://dancingmom72.blogspot.com/2012/11/gaylesbian-relationships.html

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Spanish poet wins Cervantes literature prize

MADRID (AP) ? Spanish poet and essayist Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald has won the 2012 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.

Education Minister Jose Ignacio Wert said Thursday the 86-year-old was chosen for the contribution his life-long work has made to enriching Spanish-language literature.

The ?125,000 ($167,000) prize generally alternates between Spanish and Latin American writers. Last year, it went to Chilean poet Nicanor Parra.

First handed out in 1976, previous winners include Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, and Nobel prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru and Spain's late Camilo Jose Cela.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-11-29-Spain-Cervantes%20Prize/id-1d3cfc13225d48d2ba8fa77f56d47f89

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Review: Kabul Bank sent millions of dollars abroad

FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2010, file photo, Afghan soldiers chat in front of the main office of Kabul Bank in Kabul, Afghanistan. A new report offers previously undisclosed details about how the owners of Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861million in fraudulent loans _ a Ponzi scheme using customer deposits that operated under nascent banking oversight in the war-torn country.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2010, file photo, Afghan soldiers chat in front of the main office of Kabul Bank in Kabul, Afghanistan. A new report offers previously undisclosed details about how the owners of Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861million in fraudulent loans _ a Ponzi scheme using customer deposits that operated under nascent banking oversight in the war-torn country.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)

FILE- In this March 27, 2011, file photo, an Afghan man walks past by a branch of Kabul Bank in Kabul, Afghanistan. An independent Afghan financial commission has been asked to recommend whether to dissolve Kabul Bank, the nation's largest financial institution that nearly collapsed last year after allegations of mismanagement, cronyism and questionable lending, an Afghan official said Sunday. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)

FILE- In this Sept. 1, 2010, file photo, Afghans pass by main office of Kabul Bank in Kabul, Afghanistan. A new report offers previously undisclosed details about how the owners of Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861million in fraudulent loans _ a Ponzi scheme using customer deposits that operated under nascent banking oversight in the war-torn country. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank were spirited out of Afghanistan ? some smuggled in airline food trays ? to bank accounts in more than two dozen countries, according to an independent review released on Wednesday about massive fraud that led to the collapse of the nation's largest financial institution.

The report, which was financed by international donors, offers new details about how the men at Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861 million in fraudulent loans in what the International Monetary Fund has called a Ponzi scheme that used customer deposits and operated under nascent banking oversight in the war-torn country.

The report describes Kabul Bank as a sophisticated operation with one set of books for the eyes of regulators and another in the back room that logged how those running the bank and others were fattening their wallets.

Loans were made, but rarely repaid. Borrowers took out loans to pay back loans. Company documents and financial statements were fabricated. The bank's credit department used more than 100 corporate stamps for fake companies to make documents look authentic. The bank operated some of its more than 100 branches without a permit from the government.

The 87-page report, which was conducted to satisfy one of several benchmarks the IMF asked the Afghan government to meet in cleaning up the scandal, points to poor oversight by Afghan banking regulators, political interference in the criminal investigation and activities by a special judicial tribunal hearing the case that it said were "well outside the legal norms of criminal procedure."

The bank's failure and subsequent bailout represents more than 5 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, making it "one of the largest banking failures in the world," according to the report by the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee. The report said "hundreds of millions" were sent out of the impoverished nation where Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces are fighting an 11-year-old war with the Taliban and other militants.

The committee behind the report consisted of three Afghan professionals and scholars and three international corruption experts, and was funded by Britain's Department of International Development and the Danish International Development Agency.

"Every citizen in Afghanistan will bear the cost of the hundreds of millions of dollars required to secure deposits and the tens of millions of dollars required to deal with the aftermath," the report said.

The Kabul Bank scandal is a saga about money-grabbing, weak banking oversight, lax prosecution, nepotism, political contributions and fraud. The cast of characters includes a poker-playing bank chairman, an Afghan central bank chairman who feared his life was endangered and fled to the U.S., the wealthy brothers of the Afghan president and vice president, and bank shareholders ? some who bought posh properties in Dubai and spent lavishly on themselves and their circle of friends and relatives.

In October 2011, Afghan lawmakers passed a bill to provide up to $825 million to recapitalize Afghanistan's central bank for bailing out Kabul Bank. Whatever money is recovered from debtors will offset this amount.

"This is the money from the budget of Afghanistan ? from the pockets of Afghan people," Drago Kos, chairman of the committee, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday in Kabul. "This money should be much better used for health care, education and security."

President Hamid Karzai announced in April 2011 that Kabul Bank would be put into receivership. Earlier this month, a trial began for more than 20 people indicted in the debacle, which has become a symbol of the country's deep-rooted corruption and cronyism. The case is being closely followed by Afghans and international donors because it is a barometer of government officials' pledge to root out patronage, graft and show accountability to international donors.

The report said Afghan authorities learned in late 2009 that "Kabul Bank was moving money through food trays" on flights operated by Pamir Airways, a multimillion-dollar Afghan airline that was established with loans from the bank and has since gone out of business.

An official knowledgeable about the report said as much as $900 million ? a majority derived from loan schemes ? was moved out of the country through electronic transfers from the bank between March 2007 and April 2011 and ended up in the bank accounts of related parties in 28 countries. The list of countries includes the United Arab Emirates, Latvia, China, Turkmenistan, Britain, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Turkey, Russia, the United States and Switzerland.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information, which was not included in the report.

According to the report, 10 Pamir Airways pilots were paid $320,000 in salaries between March 2008 and November 2010 under the description of "pilots of cash delivery."

The report said the Afghan attorney general's office recently asked for international assistance in tracking the funds abroad but the request was limited to help from four countries ? Switzerland, France, Britain and India ? for information on funds tied to the former top two bank executives.

The report also criticizes the attorney general's office for not undertaking a substantial probe into the bank until April 2011 ? a year after the news of the bank's problems surfaced, eight months after nervous customers ran to withdraw deposits and five months after the central bank had asked the attorney general's office to start a criminal investigation.

The indictment names more than 20 bank executives, bank employees, central bank workers and others who allegedly benefited from the fraud. The charges include money laundering, misuse of authority, using counterfeit documents and opening accounts under pseudonyms. But the report claims the indictment is tainted by political influence.

"Information received during the inquiry indicates that the final decision about who to indict was made at the political level in the spring of 2011 by a high-ranking (Afghan) committee ? and that prosecutors from the attorney general's office were called in to amend the indictment to conform to the decisions taken," the report said.

Basir Azizi, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said Tuesday that the Kabul Bank case was not treated as a political issue.

"We strongly reject any comments that the attorney general's office dealt with this case as a political issue," he said.

The committee also is critical of the special tribunal that Karzai created to hear the case. The report said the tribunal has had off-the-record meetings with accused individuals and potential witnesses, has conducted its own probes on the sidelines and has held meetings with shareholders, urging them to repay money ? a job tasked to the receivership.

As of Oct. 31, the receivership has recovered $135.3 million in cash as well as assets with a book value of $181.1 million, according to the committee.

The report gives the Afghan central bank credit for carrying out various examinations of the bank, saying it tried to take enforcement measures or corrective actions four times after consistently spotting regulatory violations. But the committee said that unless the central bank and other Afghan institutions move to operate independently, stand up to political interference and hold wrongdoers accountable, the Afghan government will never be able to sustain a fully functioning democracy.

The report said $861 million, or 92 percent of Kabul Bank's loan book, went to 19 individuals and companies. Among them are key bank shareholders, including Sherkhan Farnood, the former bank chairman and a world-class poker player, former chief executive officer Khalilullah Ferozi, and the brothers of Karzai and first Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Other bank funds ? an estimated $66 million ? were spent on lavish expenses, cars, rent, bonuses, salary advances and salaries for employees that did not exist

In 2009, the central bank advised Afghan banks to refrain from making political contributions in the presidential campaign.

"This letter was not enough to dissuade Kabul Bank, which reportedly provided millions of dollars to the campaign of at least one presidential candidate ? in addition to dozens of cars, and payment of the entire media campaign including billboards and television advertisements," the report said.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-28-Afghan-Kabul%20Bank%20Scandal/id-b52dbd6b415d4d5db948e235205d4b52

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One Strategy For Generating Traffic Is By Using RSS Feeds

Are You Using RSS Feeds To Market Your Blog Or Websites

Yes, it can be difficult to write about web business processes because you do not know how far to go with explaining everything. one minute cure review can be intimidating for a lot of people if they have never done it in their business, and it cannot be learned quickly and executed with authority.

There are certain advertising and marketing methods that so many have the wrong idea about due to people spreading rumors and false information on the net.

We know you want to do well, so just keep in mind that even the following tips will not be all you need to know or should know. If you like learning and discovering, then you can find a nice home in IM because those two aspects are a natural part of it. Also, do not forget to roll-out in smaller test runs because sometimes that will reveal a problem you can correct.

In order to earn money on the web you need traffic, and this is true for any sort of product or service you plan on advertising online. Although there are tons of different ways that men and women can use for driving traffic to their web site one technique that plenty of individuals seem to overlook is the utilization of rss feeds. For individuals who don?t understand what this stands for a means really simple syndication, and it is a wonderful way to obtain the word out about your website or blog. In the following paragraphs we are going to be taking a look at a number of the benefits of using RSS feeds to be able to promote internet sites.

Many people that have a word press blog do not even have to worry about generating this RSS feed, simply because this is a thing that is produced for you. You are in addition going to see that when you create a post for this blog it will automatically be updated on the RSS feed. This is setup to show your last 10 posts, but you need to be aware that this is something you can change through your word press admin panel. I typically change my settings so it shows my last 20 posts on this feed.

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You know what can happen anytime you are rushed, and that is why getting the sequence of things backward, or missed altogether, is so likely to happen. Very often what is in your best interest and what you will eventually do can sometimes diverge. Remember that the nature of testing by default implies it will be a small scale operation.

You will obviously need traffic for testing anything, and so with a site-based test just choose those pages that receive the greatest amount of traffic. It is your tracking that is the second component of any kind of testing you decide to do, and hopefully you understand why you must track. There is also a program online called feedburner, and you can use this program to develop another feed for your existing feed. This is something which is owned by google, and it?ll help ensure that google indexes your brand new posts as quickly as possible.

You should also remember that you have the ability of advertising this RSS feed just as you would any other sort of website. You might see that you are going to be able to boost the amount of subscribers you have substantially by just promoting this feed directly. One final thing I would like to mention is that the feed itself can also be monetized, which will provide you with the opportunity of making more cash online.

You have to approach learning about facebook timeline template review in a methodical fashion only so you will not be overwhelmed by the volume of information on the subject.

You can see that a cursory understanding of SEO, for example, will not necessarily allow you to be successful with it; there is much more required than superficial knowledge. If you want to expand on your business, then you can easily put more into your marketing funnel by using new forms of advertising. One thing we want to mention is to avoid rushing into anything that is foreign to you and your business. Ask your self if running a small test campaign would be in your best interest. There are enough things that we do not always have a complete picture about, so no need to make it worse than it needs to be. Yes, that and much more will help to take care of you with your business.

Source: http://acorunacultura.org/one-strategy-for-generating-traffic-is-by-using-rss-feeds/

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Are Republicans Really Breaking with Grover Norquist?

Grover Norquist speaks at an Americans for Prosperity summit. Is Norquist worried about congressional Republicans breaking a pledge not to raise taxes?

Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

Grover Norquist is used to it by now. A reporter corners a Republican on the tax extensions/debt deal/fiscal cliff. The reporter asks: Will you break the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and consider raising taxes? The Republican waffles, and the reporter?s next call is to Norquist, the president of Americans of Tax Reform, to see whether a heresy has been committed.

?Somebody answers a hypothetical?would you raise taxes a teeny bit if someone would give you a jillion dollars of entitlement reform?? says Norquist, taking a few minutes to talk between ?some cable news things? on Monday. ?That?s the question that Sen. Lindsey Graham keeps getting.?

Over the weekend, Graham had joined the latest round of the game by going on ABC News and appearing to break the pledge, which puts its signatories on record against any net tax increase. ?I think Grover is wrong when it comes to we can?t cap deductions and buy down debt,? said Graham. ?I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform.? The Washington Post called this a ?break with Grover Norquist.?

That wasn?t how Norquist saw it. ?I?ve talked to Lindsey Graham on the phone after some of his pronouncements, and he?s said: ?Oh, I would need 10-1 [ratio of cuts to tax hikes], and it would have to include permanent, unalterable entitlement reform.? I said: ?Lindsey, if that?s what it?s going to take to get you to raise taxes, I?m not going to worry about you. You are not in danger of being offered a silver unicorn, because unicorns don?t exist.? ?

The existence of the pledge, and of Norquist, turns coverage of big tax deals into something resembling a Brothers Grimm fairly tale. Will a Republican say the magic word and break the pledge? If he does, surely, the GOP?s anti-tax edifice will tumble over. Only 212 members of the incoming Congress have signed the pledge, which means that the power is fading?which means that Republicans will soon be free. ?Everyone acts,? writes Rich Lowry, ?as if Grover is the instrument of the party?s Babylonian captivity.?

This is too easy, which means that it?s wrong. Republicans have mostly mastered the buzzwords of fiscal policy in general and the fiscal cliff specifically. Reporters, for all of the obvious reasons, crank up the headlines and ?Breaking News ?chyrons, when they hear those buzzwords. But as my colleague John Dickerson has pointed out, the Republicans now denouncing Norquist?s pledge don?t represent a critical mass of tax-hike votes. Graham has talked like this for years, as has Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss. And yet there hasn?t been any great compromise that raised taxes. If you were a cynic, you might think that the great GOP moderates were using the pledge to play the press.

And if they were doing that, how would they pull it off? Why, they?d use the sorts of words that imply a separation from GOP tax dogma, but in a way that doesn?t actually worry Norquist. I asked Norquist to thumb through the key buzzwords and buzz-phrases and explain why they don?t spook him.

New revenue. John Boehner kicked off the latest Norquist Games on Nov. 7, when he said that Republicans were ?willing to accept new revenue, under the right conditions.? It didn?t worry anti-tax activists because they understand that Boehner wants this revenue with no further tax hikes. The ?right conditions? are, basically, Republican policies. ?If you mean revenue through growth, you should say revenue through growth, as Boehner does,? says Norquist. ?If you mean tax increases, say tax increases.?

Everything is on the table. Norquist gives Republicans a pass on this one. He doesn?t hear it and assume they?re going to serve themselves hot to Chuck Schumer. ?This means: ?I?m terribly reasonable and I?m not committed to anything,?? he says. ?What the other person is supposed to hear is: I?m a cheap date.? But it?s fine to treat it as a ruse.

Dynamic scoring. Democrats actually try to pre-empt this one. In his post-election presser, President Obama named ?dynamic scoring? among the ?vague? ideas he doesn?t take seriously. He had to, because Republicans like to sound gettable on a tax deal by arguing that cuts will pay for themselves?they should be ?scored? to reflect that. ?It?s usually used by conservatives to mean: Cut the capital gains tax, because every time we?ve done that, we?ve brought in more revenue,? says Norquist. ?You should be able to score it that way. If the government went to a 25 percent corporate income tax, I believe they?d get more revenue. Democrats don?t like it because it makes tax cuts on capital and mobile labor actually free.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=94d28882b28203f34ee717174a4c9f3d

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PFT: Bucs' Wright suspended 4 games for PEDs

AP

Chris Palmer might not have called effective plays for the Titans offense this season, but he?s at least an efficient shopper.

Asked about his reaction to being fired last night, Palmer said he played the role of Santa Claus, handing Titans head coach Mike Munchak a gift and going on his way.

?I gave him his Christmas present, said Merry Christmas, and then left,?? Palmer told Jim Wyatt of the Tennesseean. ?There was nothing I could do at that point. The decision was made. I said, ?OK? And I just left it at that.?

Palmer wasn?t pleased with the decision ??Who ever is when they?re fired? ? but didn?t appreciate the idea he was to blame for the Titans struggles, with second-year quarterback Jake Locker fighting through injuries and a group of young players in a transitional phase.

The Titans rank 24th in total offense, and a loss to the Jaguars was apparently too much to bear without offering someone up.

?I think when you break a quarterback in, you are going to be in a situation where you are going to have your ups and downs,?? Palmer said. ?Young quarterbacks, you have to go through this period. They just don?t step in and become great quarterbacks. It takes time to develop. And [wide receiver] Kenny Britt is not 100 percent. I just think there?s more issues than people want to admit to.

?Is it an easy process? No, it is not an easy process. It is something you just have to get through.

?But I wish them luck. . . . I respect those guys on the staff. Several of them are my friends and I hope it all works out for them. They have families and children, and I hope it works out for them.?

Asked about his replacement, quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains, Palmer was as diplomatic as possible.

?I thought he was doing a good job this year,?? Palmer said. ?Munch has known him for a longer period of time and they have a good feel for each other. But the issues are still there. I wish him luck.?

That?s the proverbial lump of coal in the stocking on his way up the chimney.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/26/bucs-eric-wright-suspended-for-next-four-games/related/

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Lithium and Blue Light for Bipolar Mood Disorders: How to Enjoy the ...

Many view the holidays as being trapped in one huge stress bubble that threatens to explode at any moment. People may even find themselves poking through their medicine cabinets, looking for a dose of Advil to minimize a tension-induced headache.

As a result of all the strain, many resent what should be ?the most wonderful time of year.?

In her article, How to Enjoy the Holiday Season Again, author Debbie Mandel discusses how the holidays may ignite stress, sadness and loneliness. Missing a loved one, for instance, only intensifies those feelings.

?You don?t have to accomplish the impossible, which is to forget your loss and your grief in order to be happy. Turn the loss into a triumph by strengthening your spirit and making yourself kinder and more compassionate,? Mandel says.

Mandel also argues that the holiday season is the perfect opportunity to be a ?romantic and a healthy narcissist.? You can take the time to enjoy the simple gratifications, whether it may be gazing at beautiful window displays, creating spontaneous celebrations, singing carols, or admiring all the pretty lights, tinsel and mistletoe.

While it?s assumed this festive season perpetuates family conflict, the author notes that research from the University of Pennsylvania illustrates how increased community support and family gatherings during the holidays actually uplift the spirit.

April Durret?s article, Enjoying the Holiday Season, relays well-pointed advice from Larry Cammarata, PhD, a clinical and consulting psychologist and a mind-body wellness expert. He advocates that family connections are key for savoring this time of year ? and isn?t that what this season is all about anyway?

?Spend time with the most important people in your life, especially those who offer you emotional support, caring and a good sense of humor,? he notes.

Finally, developing your own inner joy is another component of truly celebrating the holiday season. In ?Enjoying the Holiday Season,? Mary E. Miriani, a personal trainer from Illinois, claims that one definitive way to decrease stress and make the most out of the holidays is to hone in on pure joy.

?As long as I smile at people and offer help when I can, I am giving joy,? she says. ?Joy is always returned in the gratitude people feel. The power to enjoy the holidays resides in me and not in decorations, gifts or holiday meals. It is always with me whenever I choose to bring it up into my consciousness.?

Every year around Christmastime, I search for my Nsync holiday album (that ?90s boy band will always and forever have a special place in my heart) and head over to my aunt?s, where there is a cozy fireplace, a beautiful tree, and glasses of egg nog, cinnamon sticks and all. Every year, I also sit around a large table, filled with rich conversation, in celebration of Hanukkah, enjoying crispy potato latkes and other (really yummy) traditional dishes.

How do you plan to wholeheartedly enjoy the holidays this year?

?

For More Information?

Debbie Mandel is author of Changing Habits: The Caregivers? Total Workout and Turn on Your Inner Light: Fitness for Body, Mind and Soul. April Durrett, an IDEA contributing editor, is an award-winning health, fitness and lifestyle writer and editor.

Source: http://lithiumsoftbipolar.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-enjoy-busiest-time-of-year.html

IFE

Venture capital has shifted to funding business software - KPCC

Venture Capital in Southern California panel, moderated by the DeBord Report's Matt DeBord. These guys may be looking for different types of startups to invest in.

Fred Wilson, in typical clear and direct fashion, nails the shift as venture capitalists withhold additional rounds of funding from consumer-web companies and pivot toward the search for "enterprise" opportunities ? ways to invest in software for businesses, not for the masses. Here's Fred:

[I]nvestors have moved from consumer to enterprise. there is a large pool of money in the venture capital asset class that is opportunistic, momentum driven, and thesis agnostic. this pool is driven largely by the public markets. this pool of capital was "all in" on consumer web/social web in the 2009-2011 time frame. it drove a lot of activity throughout the venture capital markets because each layer of the VC stack...needs to be aware of what the next layer up wants to fund. when the momentum/late stage wanted web/social, the layers below gave them web/social. Now that the momentum/late stage wants enterprise, we should expect the layers below to give them enterprise.

The combination of these three factors is making it harder for consumer internet companies (web and mobile) to get funding.

When Fred says a "VC stack," by the way, he's talking about a sort of capital ladder, with smaller "seed" amounts assuming the most risk early on, and later, larger sums being raised in subsequent series, usually denoted A, B, C, and so on.

It's an important point, particularly if you're an entrepreneur who hopes to build a software product for people rather than companies (and before any of that, for the VCs that will provide the operating capital). I started blogging about this trend earlier in July, when Dell spent $2.5 billion to buy Orange County's Quest Software. Microsoft's $1.2-billion acquisition of Yammer, a 'Twitter for business," a few weeks later confirmed that there's real money in the enterprise "renaissance," as HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes has called it.

Southern California is at least as well positioned as any other region to jump onto this bandwagon, although the sweet spot of "Silicon Beach" has more to do with advertising/media/entertainment than with building applications for businesses.?SoCal's smaller overall VC scale, relative to Silicon Valley, could fit nicely into Fred's framework: If later stage investors want enterprise, early stage investors can build those companies ? and they can build them in L.A.

Follow Matthew DeBord and the DeBord Report on Twitter. And ask Matt questions at Quora.

Source: http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2012/11/26/11242/venture-capital-has-shifted-funding-business-softw/

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caprice sacrilege: EDU702 Research Methodology: References ...

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Claessens, Amy, Greg Duncan, and Mimi Engel. 2009. ?Kindergarten Skills and Fifth-grade Achievement: Evidence from the ECLS-K,? Economics of Education Review 28(4): 415-427.
Duncan, GregJ., Chantelle J. Dowsett, Amy Claessens., Katherine Magnuson., Aletha C. Huston,, Pamela Klebanov, Linda S. Pagani, Leon Feinstein, Mimi Engel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Holly Sexton, Kathryn Duckworth, and Crista Japel. 2007. ?School Readiness and Later Achievement.? Developmental Psychology, 43(6): 428-46.
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Hoyle, E. (1986). Policies of School Management, Suffolk. The press ltd.

Jailani, Wan Mohd Rashid, Noraini & Wahid (2005). Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) from Malaysia Perspective. Paper presented at 2nd International TT-TVET EU-Asia-Link Project Meeting, VEDC Malang.

Kyoshaba Martha, 2009. Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students at UgandaChristianUniversity.

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Nabi, G. R. and Bagley, D. (1998) Graduates? perceptions of transferable personal skills and future career preparation in the UK, Career Development International, 3(1), 31-39.
Bennett, N., Dunne, E. and Carr?, C. (2000) Skills Development in Higher Education and Employment. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
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Noorlaila Yunus, Salina Noranee and Rohana Ehsan, 2004.The Perception of Employer towards Office Management (OM) Industrial Trainees? Performance during the Internship: A Case Study of Public/Private Organizations in Klang Valley.

Secretary?s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. (1992, April). Learning a Living: A blueprint for High Performance. Executive Summary. A SCANS Report for America 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.

O?Connor, M. C. & Paunonen, S. V. (2007). Big Five personality predictors of post-secondary academic performance. Personality and Individual Differences.
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Thelma Young Monk, 1998. Variables Associated with Academic Achievement of African-American Males in Four-year Undergraduate Educational Institutions: A Synthesis is Studies. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity.

The New Straits Times. (2006, March 21). Experts: Go back to drawing board. Kuala Lumpur

Usoff, C. & Feldmann, D. (1998). Accounting Students? Perceptions of Important Skills For Career Success. Journal of Education for Business. 73, 4, 215-220

Worthington, R. L., & Juntunen, C. L. (1997). Vocational Development of Non-College-bound??

Youth: Counseling Psychology and the School-to-Work Transition of Movement. The Counseling Psychologist, 25(2), 23-24.
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Source: http://edu725nurule.blogspot.com/2012/11/references.html

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Auto-Immune: "Symbiotes" Could Be Deployed to Thwart Cyber Attacks

Running on CPUs to detect malware targeting embedded computers that run car system and utilities, symbiotes may not only serve as immune systems for their devices, but also help reveal a previously unseen ecosystem of malware

By Charles Q. Choi

PRINTER DANGER: In 2011, computer scientists revealed they could hack into printers and break into every computer linked to these printers. Image: Flickr/James F Clay

Anti-hacker defenses have long focused mainly on protecting personal computers and servers in homes and offices. However, as microchips grow smaller and more powerful, new targets for hackers are becoming widespread?embedded computers such as the electronics handling car engines, brakes and door locks; the routers that form the Internet's backbone; the machines running power plants, rail lines and prison cell doors; and even implantable medical devices such as defibrillators and insulin pumps. Many of these embedded devices can now link with other computers, putting them equally at risk to intruders. Indeed, in October, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned that the U.S. faced the threat of a "cyber Pearl Harbor" if it failed to adequately protect these systems, echoing a warning CIA Director John Deutsch gave to Congress in 1996 about an electronic Pearl Harbor (pdf).

Now computer scientists are devising guardians they call symbiotes that could run on embedded computers regardless of the underlying operating systems. In doing so, they may not only help protect the critical infrastructure of nations and corporations but reveal that warfare against these devices may have been going on unseen for years, researchers say.

The problem is worse than you might think. Already research has shown that a vast number of machines lie completely open to attack. For instance, in 2011, after scanning large sections of the Internet, computer scientists Ang Cui and Sal Stolfo at Columbia University identified more than 1.4 million publicly accessible embedded computers in 144 countries that still had factory default passwords that would give anyone with online access total control over the machines. These devices, which make up about one in five of the embedded computers they found (pdf), included routers, video-conferencing units, cable TV boxes and firewalls used to defend computer networks.

These vulnerabilities pose a host of dangers. In 2011 Cui and Stolfo revealed they could hack into printers (pdf) made by Hewlett?Packard with infected documents or by connecting to them online, allowing them to spy on everything printed with those machines and to break into every computer linked to the printers. (HP has since fixed this vulnerability.) Cui also explains it could be easy to develop malicious software or malware that would allow hackers to shut down infected routers just by pinging them an innocuous data packet.

Attacks against embedded system aren't the kind "where criminals are trying to get credit card data," Cui says. "They're more stealthy. More sophisticated. This is corporate espionage?level stuff. Cyber war?level stuff. The people looking to target these systems aren't out to make a big splash, but might aim to take down a country's critical infrastructure."

One problem researchers face in designing safeguards for these vulnerabilities is the incredible diversity found in the programs running embedded computers. For instance, Cui notes that routers made only by Cisco possess about 300,000 different firmware images?the operating systems of embedded computers and their accompanying programs.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=cc0a949bce084c4e2a7aa29a6a818183

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Iconic street foods every world traveler must try

20 hrs.

Nikki Maniscalco , The Daily Meal

While many travelers make it a priority to book a table at Michelin-starred?restaurants around the world, some of the best food ? street food ? can be had for a fraction of the cost, in the most unlikely of places.

From stainless steel push carts and dubious-looking night market stalls, to kiosks?and the backs of bicycles, street food is ubiquitous around the world.

From the familiar New York City hot dog and Belgian pomme frites, to the venerated?Vietnamese b?nh m? and lesser-known Taiwanese stinky tofu, street food comes?in a palette of palate-pleasing dishes, from savory, deep-fried munchies like Amsterdam?s kroket to sweet treats like a Breton cr?pe.

The Daily Meal has canvassed the globe, eating everything from crowd-pleasing?gelato to a fear-inducing but oh-so-amazing spleen sandwich, to curate its list of 27?favorite street foods sure to provide any traveler???from the novice to the pro???with a?memorable, moveable feast.

Slideshow: See which?iconic street foods every world traveler must try

Takoyaki (Osaka, Japan)
Takoyaki, battered golf-ball-sized balls stuffed with octopus, are a typical street food in Japan. Made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special pan to shape the snack into a ball, the small, round treat is filled with diced or minced octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger and green onion. Takoyaki are drizzled with okonomi sauce (similar to Worcestershire) or mayonnaise.

Juso, the red light district in north central Osaka, is the best place to try takoyaki, as it was invented in Osaka. Look for takoyaki stalls near the train station.

Also from The Daily Meal: 27 iconic street foods every world traveler must try

Cr?pes (Brittany, France)
The popular thin French pancake, usually made from wheat (cr?pes de Froment) or buckwheat flour (galette), originated in Brittany in northwest France. The batter is spread onto a billig???a big, round cast-iron griddle???and spread in a circular motion with a rozell, a wooden utensil. Sweet cr?pes dusted with sugar or topped with freshly-sliced fruit and savory versions stuffed with meats and cheeses are folded into cones and sold in cr?peries across France, including Fleur de Bl? Noir cr?perie in?Saint-Quay Portrieux, where visitors can take a cr?pe-making class?and eat the results.

Also from The Daily Meal:?101 best food trucks in America

Empanadas (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Empanadas are hand-held pies stuffed with meat, cheese or vegetables and surrounded by pastry dough that is baked or fried. El Sanjuanino in Buenos Aires serves some of the best empanadas in the capital.

Tamales (Clarksdale, Miss.)
There are several stories about the origins of tamales in the Mississippi Delta, a leaf-shaped alluvial plain in Western Mississippi defined by the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. Some say tamales were introduced during the U.S.-Mexican War, while others contend Mexican migrant workers brought tamales with them when they came to work the cotton fields. Still others contend the tamale was always in the area, with Native Americans making the snack. No matter its origins, the tamale is a staple of snack foods here.

Enthusiasts can tour the Southern Foodways Alliances Tamale Trail. A tamale here is smaller than Latin-style ones. Traditionally made with boiled or browned pork (but beef and turkey are also used) and masa or cornmeal and wrapped inside a corn husk, the bundles are simmered and have a grittier texture than those made south of the border. Some even fry their hot tamales here.

Abes BBQ serves bundles of hot tamales along with its famous barbecued pork, beef and ribs at the fabled crossroads of highways 49 and 61 (where blues pioneer Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil in return for prowess on the guitar.

Also from The Daily Meal:?31 best airport restaurants around the world

Peel-and-Eat shrimp (Oslo, Norway)
Best enjoyed dockside, fresh peel-and-eat shrimp are a popular treat in the Norwegian capital.?Shrimp by the bagful can be bought at the Fisherman?s Coop or at the new Mathallen food hall.

More from The Daily Meal:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/itineraries/iconic-street-foods-every-world-traveler-must-try-1C7201763

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Algeria scandals mask high level power struggle

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? Nearly a week from regional elections, Algerians are less interested in the public vote than an intensifying behind-the-scenes power struggle ? one that is playing out through a flurry of corruption probes.

Though ostensibly a democracy, Algeria is really ruled by a powerful president and a shadowy collection of military generals and intelligence chiefs, making figuring out who has real power a constant preoccupation.

Thursday's local elections, like last May's legislative ones, mean little to people who know that real power lies with officials that have been appointed, not elected.

Aging President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has said he will retire in April 2014 after three terms and 15 years in power, setting the stage for a wide open presidential contest for the first time in the country's history.

Voters expect to have little direct say in the outcome.

Like the rest of North Africa, Algeria was shaken by protests calling for reform in the wake of Tunisia's dramatic overthrow of its long-ruling dictator in January 2011.

But in this North African country of 35 million, the protests never truly caught fire and were crushed by a combination of ruthless security forces and public sector salary increases, as well as lingering fears of instability after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s that claimed more than 200,000 lives.

The stakes are high for the presidential elections for not only this oil-rich nation, but for the region as a whole: Algeria has the strongest military in North Africa and neighbors unstable Libya and even more fragile Mali, where al-Qaida appears to control much of the north.

When a new daily newspaper began printing stories last week about three prominent politicians with close ties to Bouteflika taking bribes, it was widely taken as an opening salvo ahead of the presidential polls.

"These revelations are directly related to current politics and the upcoming 2014 presidential elections," said Rachid Tlemcani, a politics professor at Algiers University. "Corruption has reached grotesque proportions in Algeria, but rather than being fought with the law, it is unfortunately used as a weapon by the different clans in the system fighting among themselves since the war for succession to Bouteflika has opened."

That fight involves control over billions of dollars.

Algeria is awash in oil and natural gas money and has foreign reserves of almost $200 billion. It has embarked on a string high profile infrastructure projects ? and accusations are rife that foreign companies have been paying massive bribes to secure contracts. That has all contributed to Algeria's ranking of 112 out of 183 countries on Transparency International's 2011 corruption index.

The head of the ruling party, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, the minister of public works, Amar Ghoul, and well as the minister of industry, Cherif Rahmani, have all been accused by Algerie News of taking bribes to influence bids for the $12 billion East-West highway project (won by a Chinese-Japanese consortium), the Algiers metro and an extension of the tramway.

Belkhaddem and Ghoul are both close to the 75-year-old Bouteflika and are seen as possible candidates for the 2014 elections.

While Ghoul, for his part, has denied the allegations, the other two have remained silent ? as has the Ministry of Justice.

Noureddine Benissad, the president of the Algerian League to Defend Human Rights, expressed outrage over the ministry's lack of action. "The Ministry of Justice should order a judicial investigation," he said, lamenting the lack of independence of the ministry from the executive.

After his appointment in September, Bouteflika's new prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, like many Algerian leaders before him, promised to lead the fight against corruption. Yet just last week the daily El Watan also published a four page expose over the misuse of public funds, including fancy cars for ministers and the construction of new seaside villas for them from public money.

Algerie News has said it has confidential files in its possession and more corruption revelations are expected ? suggesting it is being fed by the feared "Research and Security Department" or DRS, as the intelligence service is known.

The military and security services are meanwhile reportedly backing Ahmed Ouyahia for the presidency, a former prime minister and head of the other main party in the ruling coalition.

Ouyahia coexisted uneasily with Bouteflika for years, but after May's elections and the overwhelming victory of the president's National Liberation Front, he was not asked back as prime minister.

Members of his own party, the National Democratic Rally, have even criticized Ouyahia for using the party to further his presidential ambitions.

According to political expert Mohammed Said, the fact that the revelations involve two politicians close to the president could also be the military's way of warning Bouteflika against harboring any ideas of staying in power.

"It is a likely a warning shot to discourage him from running for a fourth term," he said.

The president, who is rumored to be ailing, had already said that he would not run again and just a week before the May parliamentary elections, he made a landmark speech in which he said that the mission of his generation, the generation that fought the war of independence from France in 1962 and had ruled the country ever since, was over.

He also announced a series of reforms and promised to rewrite the constitution during the start of 2013.

On Tuesday, however, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said that the constitution reform process had been postponed ? indefinitely.

Columnist Ihsane el-Kadi has suggested that the reform and talk of other candidates is all a smoke screen for Bouteflika's own continuing presidential ambitions.

"For several months, he's been pushing the idea that if there is no agreement on his successor, it should be him," he said in the online news site Maghreb Emergent. "I sincerely doubt he ever thought it wouldn't be him."

___

Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-24-Algeria-Power%20Struggle/id-596934076b5445839f269d12ad39ce51

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Cartilage made easy with novel hybrid printer

ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2012) ? The printing of three-dimensional tissue has taken a major step forward with the creation of a novel hybrid printer that simplifies the process of creating implantable cartilage.

The printer has been presented 22 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Biofabrication, and was used to create cartilage constructs that could eventually be implanted into injured patients to help re-grow cartilage in specific areas, such as the joints.

The printer is a combination of two low-cost fabrication techniques: a traditional ink jet printer and an electrospinning machine. Combining these systems allowed the scientists to build a structure made from natural and synthetic materials. Synthetic materials ensure the strength of the construct and natural gel materials provide an environment that promotes cell growth.

In this study, the hybrid system produced cartilage constructs with increased mechanical stability compared to those created by an ink jet printer using gel material alone. The constructs were also shown to maintain their functional characteristics in the laboratory and a real-life system.

The key to this was the use of the electrospinning machine, which uses an electrical current to generate very fine fibres from a polymer solution. Electrospinning allows the composition of polymers to be easily controlled and therefore produces porous structures that encourage cells to integrate into surrounding tissue.

"This is a proof of concept study and illustrates that a combination of materials and fabrication methods generates durable implantable constructs," said James Yoo, M.D., Ph.D., Professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and an author on the study. "Other methods of fabrication, such as robotic systems, are currently being developed to further improve the production of implantable tissue constructs."

In this study, flexible mats of electrospun synthetic polymer were combined, layer-by-layer, with a solution of cartilage cells from a rabbit ear that were deposited using the traditional ink jet printer. The constructs were square with a 10cm diagonal and a 0.4mm thickness.

The researchers tested their strength by loading them with variable weights and, after one week, tested to see if the cartilage cells were still alive.

The constructs were also inserted into mice for two, four and eight weeks to see how they performed in a real life system. After eight weeks of implantation, the constructs appeared to have developed the structures and properties that are typical of elastic cartilage, demonstrating their potential for insertion into a patient.

The researchers state that in a future scenario, cartilage constructs could be clinically applied by using an MRI scan of a body part, such as the knee, as a blueprint for creating a matching construct. A careful selection of scaffold material for each patient's construct would allow the implant to withstand mechanical forces while encouraging new cartilage to organise and fill the defect.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics (IOP), via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Tao Xu, Kyle W Binder, Mohammad Z Albanna, Dennis Dice, Weixin Zhao, James J Yoo, Anthony Atala. Hybrid printing of mechanically and biologically improved constructs for cartilage tissue engineering applications. Biofabrication, 2013; 5 (1): 015001 DOI: 10.1088/1758-5082/5/1/015001

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_technology/~3/n-Qlb40dWJM/121121210109.htm

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Engadget's holiday gift guide 2012: smartphones

Welcome to the Engadget holiday gift guide! Picking presents for friends and loved ones is never a simple task, and with thousands of options for each category, buying technology can be an especially frustrating experience. We're here to help. Below you'll find today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to our hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. And don't forget to enter our giveaway -- leave a comment for a chance to nab AT&T's LG Optimus G.

If you have any gadget junkies in your life, there's a good chance they're craving a new smartphone. Whether you're on a tight budget or have a fat wallet, simply look to our surefire list of the best and most unique mobile devices to place under the tree. But enough with the chatter... let's start shopping!

Continue reading Engadget's holiday gift guide 2012: smartphones

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, LG

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/21/holiday-gift-guide-smartphones/

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Restaurant Industry Already Preparing for Obamacare Consequences

Will the restaurant business survive a second Obama term? Can it? Since the president?s reelection earlier this month, four large restaurant chains, Papa Johns, Applebee?s, Denny?s?and Darden Restaurants?(the company that owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and LongHorn Steakhouse chains)?have all recently released statements about their companies? plans to respond to the increased costs of complying with Obamacare regulations. According to the healthcare law, every full-time employee must be provided with comprehensive medical coverage if the company employs more than 50 full-time workers. If a company refuses to comply, they will be faced with fines of $2,000 per year, per employee, as of January 1, 2014.?

The announcements from companies grappling with the increased costs of Obamacare have, expectedly, been met with disbelief and consternation by the left, still?seemingly?unaware of basic economics. Appearing on Fox News Business early last week, Applebee?s CEO Zane Tankel explained the steps his business would have to take in order to stay in operation:

The costs of fines or healthcare for dozens of employees per restaurant have the potential to bankrupt individually owned chains across the country. The Applebee?s in New York City would face fines of $600,000 per year if insurance isn?t provided for full-time staff, and estimates for offering federally approved insurance would cost ?some millions? across the Applebee?s system. Both scenarios, according to Tankel, ?[would] roll back expansion, roll back hiring more people. In the best case scenario [it] would only shrink the labor force minimally.? The restaurant industry, already operating with razor thin margins, doesn?t have the ability to absorb tens of thousands more in healthcare expenditures without a considerable increase in sales. It?s a basic realty of economics: more has to be coming in than going out.

The only solution for restaurants that want to stay open and maintain competitive pricing would be to cut employee hours to part-time status. This is the conclusion already reached by several large chains?companies that provide jobs to tens of thousands of working class Americans. Two of the four companies went public after the election, and thus cries from the left about companies and their CEOs ?playing politics? ring empty. Despite the fact that these provisions don?t go into place until January 1, 2014, with the reelection of President Obama and the control of the Senate in Democratic hands, the future of Obamacare is now all but certain as businesses across the country are planning for their companies? futures.?

If workers are moved to part-time status, the onus for paying for insurance would then be placed on employees who have suddenly seen their incomes reduced drastically. Another provision of Obamacare is the requirement for Americans to purchase insurance or face a financial penalty, a tax as defined by the Supreme Court. Some of these employees may qualify for Medicaid and would be exempt from the tax specifically designed to compel Americans to purchase insurance, regardless of their desire to do so. Cash-strapped states would then be on the hook for expanding Medicaid in order to?fulfill?the needs of the estimated 11-17 million Americans newly enrolled on Medicaid thanks to Obamacare. These workers, directly pushed further into poverty by Obamacare via reduced hours would then be enrolled in a system with the worst healthcare outcomes in the country, including the ranks of the uninsured. The costs of providing millions more with insurance would then be passed on by states unable to afford the Medicaid loads they already have. As a result, residents should expect fewer services from their states or higher taxes, if not both.?

In anticipation for January 1, 2014 restaurants are already cutting staff hours in order to classify themselves as companies with fewer than 50 full-time employees. As we saw with regard to Hostess Brands, left-wing groups? perception of how much companies can afford to give to employees while still maintaining a healthy business doesn?t always align with companies? bottom lines. Just because liberals think that companies should be able to provide more in compensation and benefits doesn?t mean they can. Hostess was the first company to throw in the towel in the face of unreasonable demands for worker compensation and benefits, and unfortunately, given the burden Obamacare is placing on businesses, it may not be the last.

Source: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/11/19/restaurant-industry-already-preparing-for-obamacare-consequences/

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Planet 'devoured in secret' by its own sun

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2012) ? A planet roughly 1.4 times the size of Jupiter is being consumed by its own star behind a shroud thanks to a magnesium veil absorbing all of certain light wavelengths, according to new observations by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

WASP-12 b, originally spotted in 2008, is a gas giant planet orbiting extremely close to its parent star. The distance between the star and planet is so small that the planet completes an orbit of its star in just over one Earth day. This proximity has "boiled off" a superheated gas cloud roughly three times the radius of Jupiter which feeds the star. However, some of this gas is moving out towards interstellar space, creating a shroud around the star.

The gas shroud is thin, and barely noticeable in optical light, but the new observations were made with HST using near-UV light. The team discovered that one element in the cloud is magnesium, which is extremely efficient at absorbing near-UV light. These wavelengths are extremely sensitive to the presence of tenuous gas, and in them the star can appear completely invisible.

The study was made by researchers from the UK's Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) consortium, who originally found the planet in 2008, as well experts on the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the HST, stellar activity, and interstellar absorption from the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy at the University of Colorado.

Senior Lecturer in Astronomy at The Open University Dr Carole Haswell, who led the study, said that a structure like this had never before been observed around a star, adding: "It's as though a veil has been drawn over the planet's demise."

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Haswell et al. Near-UV Absorption, Chromospheric Activity, and Star-Planet Interactions in the WASP-12 system. The Astrophysical Journal, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/MJHEiIQaA3M/121119213147.htm

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