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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Russell Brand Files For Divorce
So Russell Brand has filed for divorce. Guess the year long marriage is over. I am so over celebrity marriages. I think that if gays are banned from being married, so should celebrities. If anyone abuses the ?sanctity of marriage? it is celebs. After 14 months of marriage and avid rumors of marital issues, Russell Brand finally filed for divorce today. Yesterday I wrote a post calling BS: I was being optimistic. It is right after Christmas, a few days before the new year, surely they wouldn?t split NOW. Wrong, I need to go with my gut (and the public display of NO WEDDING RINGS) more often cause these two are dunzo for sure. I always felt Russell was just in it to become more famous over here in the US, and mission accomplished. He is now known as a douche over here, as well as in his homeland. I never got what a beautiful glam girl like Katy Perry saw in that crass, needs a shower and haircut worse than a bum, over rated schmuck. That?s just my opinion. Rumor has it he is a womanizer. Katy is said to be surprised that Russell filed for divorce, as they [...]
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
ELBARADEI: U.S., EGYPT IN SECRET TALKS ON FATE OF ISRAEL PEACE TREATY
Posted on29 December 2011.
NOVANEWS
Remark by top Egyptian opposition leader and former IAEA chief comes following significant gains by Islamist parties in country?s recent parliamentary vote.
Haaretz
The United States is engaged in secret talks with Egypt?s ruling military council geared at ensuring that the country?s democratically elected regime will maintain its peace treaty with Israel, top Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday.
Want to know more about how the Arap Spring affects Israel?s Mideast standing? Join the discussion on Haaretz.com? official Facebook page
Results from Egypt?s recent parliamentary vote, which saw considerable gains for Islamist factions such as the Muslim Brotherhood?s Freedom and Justice party and the radical Salafi movement?s Al-Nour Party, have caused some to question the future of Israel?s 1979 peace treaty with its neighbor to the north.
In an apparent attempt to assuage some of these concerns, Al-Nour officials indicated last week that the Salafi movement intended to respect all treaties that Egypt has signed, including the peace deal with Israel.
Al-Nour, which won 25-30 percent of the votes in the first round of Egypt?s parliamentary elections, also said that they are in favor of negotiating with Israel.
Meanwhile, a senior diplomatic official in Jerusalem said Sunday that Israel?s new ambassador in Cairo, Yaakov Amitai, will attempt to open communication channels with Islamic officials in Egypt, including representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical Salafi movement?s Al-Nour Party.
Speaking to the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency on Tuesday, Elbaradiei, the former International Atomic Energy Agency head, indicated that the future of Israel?s peace treaty with Egypt was at the center of a recent and secret round of talks between U.S. officials and members of the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
?The negotiations were completely secret and confidential,? ElBaradei told Fars, adding that what the ruling military indicated ?said was that the talks were about bilateral and mutual relations, but I believe that Americans wanted to ensure that the deals signed between Egypt and Israel will remain intact if Islamists ascend to power.?
Speaking to Egyptian media on the subject last week, new Israeli envoy to Egypt Yaakov Amitai was asked if he was concerned about the political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He replied that he did not wish to get involved in Egypt?s internal affairs and needed to study the situation further.
Until now, the Israeli government has not attempted to open official contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Jerusalem official?s comments are unusual in light of the Brotherhood?s failure to recognize Israel.
However, representatives of the Islamic movement have told American diplomats that the group did not intend to seek the revocation of Egypt?s peace treaty with Israel.
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Cal State Bakersfield (SID): MBB Preview: 'Runners at Texas Tech Tonight
LUBBOCK, Texas-The long well-travelled month of December will come to an end for the CSUB Roadrunners (6-6) Tuesday night as they play their final road game of 2011 in Lubbock, Texas against the Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-5) out of the Big 12 Conference in what will be the first meeting between the two programs.
While the schools will be meeting for the first time, head coach Rod Barnes and Texas Tech first-year head coach Billy Gillespie are no strangers to each other having faced one another several times while Barnes was the head coach at Ole Miss and Gillespie led the Kentucky Wildcats. When Barnes was hired by Bakersfield back in March, Gillespie, then an ESPN College Basketball analyst praised the hire, calling Barnes one of the toughest coaches he's ever faced both on the recruiting trail and on the opposing bench.
The 'Runners and Red Raiders both enter with .500 records on the season and having taken a few days off for the Christmas holiday. While their winning percentage is the same, the teams enter on two different ends of the win spectrum. CSUB is coming off their biggest win of the season, a 30-point drubbing of Pacific at home while Texas Tech enters coming off their worst loss of the season, losing 72-56 at Oral Roberts last Thursday night.
While the win at home for the Roadrunners last Thursday snapped a four-game losing streak, they are hoping to close December with an illusive road win, having gone 0-5 this month on the road, a swing that has thus far included five games in five different states. After winning three of their first four outside of Bakersfield, the Roadrunners are still searching for victory outside the state of California this season.
Texas Tech has proven to be a tall order at home this season posting a 4-0 mark at United Spirit Arena with wins over Troy, Stephen F. Austin, North Texas and Grambling State. The Red Raiders are not a flashy team, true to Billy Gillespie's grind-it-out style, the team is averaging 67.8 ppg but allowing just 66.9 ppg and has shown the ability to shoot well at home posting over 40% every game this season from beyond the arc while they ranked 23rd nationally in field-goal percentage at .493 this season.
While the Red Raiders are in a rebuilding of sorts under first-year head coach Billy Gillespie, their youth has not been a problem with freshman Jordan Tolbert leading the way with an impressive 14.7 ppg and four 20-point performances this season. Tolbert also leads the team in rebounds (6.5), field goal percentage (.624), field goal attempts (98) and makes (58). He's joined by junior guard Ty Nurse who's adding 11 ppg for Texas Tech while shooting 45% this season from the field.
The Roadrunners' 83-53 win over Pacific Thursday night was fueled by a career-high 22 points from junior guard Issiah Grayson who scored 19 in the first half and helped pace CSUB from three-point range where the Roadrunners hit an amazing 15 of 23 attempts on the night. Grayson enters Tuesday night's game as CSUB's leading scorer at 11.9 ppg while he is knocking down 51% from the field and 53% from three-point range. Grayson has also dished out 61 assists through 12 games this season, putting him on pace to break the Division I single-season assist record of 98 held by Donovan Bragg in the 2007-08 season. The all-time record of 198 was set by Wade Green in the 1989-90 season at the Division II level.
The Roadrunners continue to shoot the ball well this season as shown by their solid 56% outing from the field Thursday night.? As a team the 'Runners are shooting .458 from the field and .413 from three-point range. Holding their opponents average down, especially on the road has proved to be the most-recent challenge with teams collectively shooting .476 this season from the field.
Tuesday night game marks the final road game for CSUB for three weeks, as they will return home for a six-game home stand beginning Friday night against Pomona-Pitzer. The home stand continues Monday, Jan. 2 against New Mexico State, Thursday, Jan. 5 against UNLV at Rabobank Arena and Saturday Jan. 7 against Texas-Pan American.
Tuesday night's game in Lubbock will tip at 5 P.M. Bakersfield time with the 3-Way Chevrolet Shootaround Show beginning at 4:30 P.M. on KERN Newstalk 1180. The game is also available via video stream on ESPN3.com.
Source: http://www.bbstate.com/news/443723
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Medvedev: Test of much-heralded new missile done (AP)
MOSCOW ? A ballistic missile that is to be a cornerstone of Russia's nuclear arsenal has completed its rocky test program and will be commissioned by the military, President Dmitry Medvedev announced Tuesday during a meeting with military officers.
The Bulava ICBM, intended to arm a new generation of nuclear submarines, is a three-stage missile that can carry up to 10 individually targeted warheads at a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).
The Bulava suffered a string of failures during tests that dragged on for years, raising doubts about the future of the most expensive military project in the nation's post-Soviet history. Several recent tests, however, have been successful, including last week's simultaneous launch of two Bulavas.
Russian officials have billed Bulava as a new-generation weapon, capable of dodging any potential missile defenses, thanks to its quick start and an ability to perform unusual maneuvers in flight. The Bulava would replace Soviet-built missiles approaching the end of their service lifetimes.
The Russian navy also has finished building the first of a new series of nuclear-powered submarines to be armed with the new missile, the Yuri Dolgoruky. Several other such submarines are under construction.
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AeroShot Pure Energy Delivers a Healthy Energy Boost
Premium beef cuts seasoned in secret 7 Eleven flavor blend and quick dried. Expertly sliced and dried premium cuts of beef with teriyaki seasonings.
Fresh strawberry flavor protein shake with sweeteners, in a tetra prisma with a straw.
An awesome blend of ethically sourced coffee, semi-skimmed English milk and a touch of demerara sugar.
Frozen fruit ice with strawberry and lemonade flavor, in a cardboard cup.
Gummy vitamins for adults, with all natural berry, peach, and orange flavors.
Dietary preparation in tablet form with no less than 99.9% pure melatonin added each tablet. Provides 1mg of melatonin released immediately and 2mg released between the second and the sixth hour after ingestion.
Twelve (30ml) sachets of ready-to-drink probiotic fiber based supplement with orange flavor, in a cardboard box.
Organic rice drink in a tetra brik.
Five twin packs of organic spelt fingers with raspberry and naturally sweetened with spelt syrup, for babies and toddlers aged from 7 months. The perfect healthy finger food when you're out and about or pop them into lunchboxes.
Non alcoholic sparkling drink in a glass bottle.
Organic condensed milk sweetened with organic cane sugar, in a plastic bottle. Sweet and delicious, full of all natural goodness.
Fifty veterinarian formulated soft chews with catnip, for cats. For joint support and flexibility. Lip smacking flavor. For use in cats over the age of twelve weeks. Comes in a resealable foil pouch.
A giant piece of cheesecake covered with caramel and fudge.
Thirty capsules of food supplements with soy lecithin and epigallocatechin gallate ideal for weight loss, in a cardboard box.
A Caesar salad kit with crunchy Romaine lettuce flutes, Caesar dressing, garlic and herb bruschetta and Parmigiano Reggiano shavings.
Almond brittle in a plastic wrapper.
Rum based alcoholic drink with coconut, citrus, and cranberry flavor, in a plastic pouch with spout.
Three cardboard boxes of fruit flavored sugar free gums held in a plastic wrapper.
A bottle of still pomegranate and elderflower drink with a light, crisp, delicate flavor.
Thirty once-a-day capsules of health oil for happy, healthy hearts, with fish oil expertly blended with garlic and vitamins (B1, D, and E).
Source: http://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/AeroShot-Pure-Energy-Delivers-a-Healthy-Energy-Boost.html
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Monday, December 26, 2011
DragonTat2: RT @pari_passu: The #GOP speaking on behalf of the American people is like Ted Bundy speaking on behalf of abused women. #p2 #p21 #tcot
The speaking on behalf of the American people is like Ted Bundy speaking on behalf of abused women. Source: http://twitter.com/DragonTat2/statuses/150989734636818433
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Suspect in Va. slayings, boy's abduction at large
In this image provided by the Virginia State Police authorities late Saturday Dec. 24, 2011 identified the suspect as 27-year-old Jamal Louis Clemons of Richmond, Va. They say Clemons is wanted for abduction, robbery, robbery with a firearm and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony by a convicted felon. A massive Christmas Eve search for a 2-year-old Kaiden Burnside who was in the backseat of an SUV that was stolen following a double-slaying in Richmond ended around midnight with the boy being found safe. (AP Photo/Virginia State Police)
In this image provided by the Virginia State Police authorities late Saturday Dec. 24, 2011 identified the suspect as 27-year-old Jamal Louis Clemons of Richmond, Va. They say Clemons is wanted for abduction, robbery, robbery with a firearm and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony by a convicted felon. A massive Christmas Eve search for a 2-year-old Kaiden Burnside who was in the backseat of an SUV that was stolen following a double-slaying in Richmond ended around midnight with the boy being found safe. (AP Photo/Virginia State Police)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? Richmond, Va., police have identified the two people slain on Christmas Eve that led to a search for a 2-year-old boy abducted from the scene who was later found safe in the backseat of an SUV.
Police on Sunday said 60-year-old Edward Lee Bowmer Jr. and 56-year-old Robin Sheryl Clapp were shot to death.
Bowmer was from the street where the bodies were found and Clapp was from Mechanicsville.
Neither was related to 2-year-old Kaiden Burnside. Police say the shooting suspect stole the vehicle in which Kaiden was seated.
Police are looking for suspect 27-year-old Jamal Louis Clemons. They say Clemons faces abduction, robbery and other charges.
Police say the boy has been reunited with his mother.
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Gratitude Scales. Take A Few Seconds To Say ?I Love You?
Tell someone they're special, remind them you care, share a memory, say "I love you" -- it's easier than ever. Thanks to mobile devices and social networks, love is becoming more scalable. Tweet or status update how you're thankful for their friendship. Text, Skype, message, or email how their support has meant the world to you. Wall post, @reply, +1, upvote the people who make your life more fun. In just a few seconds, you've strengthened your relationships and made someone's day. Today, everyday, take a moment and tell them. We stand above a well of infinite gratitude...Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kkT-5oZjvf0/
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Vogue Mexico, Womens Autumn Winter 2011-12
Damir Doma Womens Autumn Winter 2011-12 featured in Vogue Mexico, September 2011
Styling by Anna Schiffel, photographed by Fabien Montique.
Source: http://damirdoma.paperrain.com/2011/12/vogue-mexico-womens-autumn-winter-2011-12/
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StreetStyleNews: #streetstyle #fashion Paris - 70s Style Redux [Street Style Aesthetic - London] http://t.co/MziNp64A
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Big Blue over Gang Green
New York, New York. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
Unless that anywhere is the playoffs, in which case the loser of the Big Apple showdown Saturday between the Giants and Jets will need loads of help to get in. Even the winner will be guaranteed virtually nothing.
It's not exactly a battle of the elite of the NFL; more like grounded airplanes hosting Lilliputians.
But they're excited in the five boroughs, Westchester, Rockland, Long Island and, of course, New Jersey, where both teams actually live and work.
"We're playing for our playoff lives here and they are too," Jets guard Brandon Moore said. "(It) definitely will be that kind of atmosphere coming up, so I think, to us, that's the biggest focus. Whatever rivalry there is, that'll be taken care of with all of the other type of things that come into play."
The Jets are 3-point favorites, and don't anyone dare say that's for home-field advantage. Somehow, Pro Picks thinks the Giants will be comfortable at Met Life Stadium on Christmas Eve.
"It's one of those environments that is electric," Giants linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka said. "You have two teams that share a building, we hang out, we live and everything within close quarters. We share some fans. We just understand that it's a big game regardless of how often we're going to see them just because of how passionate the fans are on both sides."
There will be plenty of passion, for sure. And probably not much defense, because neither team has shown an ability to cover receivers. That bodes far better for Eli Manning, who's having an excellent year despite the Giants' 7-7 record, than it does for Mark Sanchez and the Jets (8-6).
Jets fans will be Big Blue afterward.
GIANTS, 30-20
Atlanta (plus 6 1-2) at New Orleans, Monday night
Falcons could have wild card sewn up when they kick off. Saints are letting good times roll.
BEST BET: SAINTS, 30-20
San Diego (plus 2 1-2) at Detroit
Typical late-season charge by Bolts might be too late.
UPSET SPECIAL: CHARGERS, 28-27
Houston (minus 6) at Indianapolis, Thursday night
Can the Colts mess up getting Andrew Luck by winning again? Nah ...
TEXANS, 17-13
Philadelphia (plus 2 1-2) at Dallas
One more step toward .500 season for Philly. But Giants win ends Eagles' playoff chances.
EAGLES, 31-30
Arizona (plus 4 1-2) at Cincinnati
Bengals can taste wild card with a win, but it won't be easy.
BENGALS, 21-20
Oakland (plus 1) at Kansas City
Been a while since this contentious rivalry meant something.
CHIEFS, 19-16
Denver (minus 3) at Buffalo
Tebow and company get back to winning ways.
BRONCOS, 22-13
San Francisco (minus 3) at Seattle
Tough assignment for Niners, who showed they are tough team against Pittsburgh.
49ERS, 15-13
Miami (plus 10) at New England
Patriots going for home-field edge throughout AFC playoffs. This will help.
PATRIOTS, 32-21
Cleveland (plus 13) at Baltimore
A bunch of angry birds take it out on Browns.
RAVENS, 20-10
Jacksonville (plus 8) at Tennessee
After losing to Indy, Titans can fall to anybody ? except Jags this week.
TITANS, 20-13
Minnesota (plus 6?) at Washington
Jared Allen on sacks mission, needs five to tie record.
REDSKINS, 21-10
Chicago (plus 12 1-2) at Green Bay
Injuries have turned Chicago into the Bad News Bears.
PACKERS, 31-10
Tampa Bay (plus 7 1-2) at Carolina
Panthers showing much more life than moribund Bucs.
PANTHERS, 27-13
St. Louis (OFF) at Pittsburgh
Rams, like Vikings, still alive for top draft slot.
STEELERS, 17-3
RECORD:
Against spread: 9-5 (overall 110-94-4); straight up 9-7 (overall 144-80).
Best Bet: 2-13 against spread, 10-5 straight up.
Upset Special: 10-5 against spread, 7-8 straight up.
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Happy Holidays from Android
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Will Your College Survive?
The Internet will save higher education, but it may kill your alma mater Peter Thiel believes smart people don?t need college, and he?s right: There have always been autodidacts who can learn without assistance. Of course, we don?t really need supermarkets and restaurants either; we could all grow and cook our own food. Yet having professionals help us has always been a cost-benefit decision. What are the costs of a great education, including the opportunity cost of four years of work, and how do these costs balance against the impact of that education on your life? The Internet is the first technology since the printing press, which could lower the cost of a great education and, in doing so, make that cost-benefit analysis much easier for most students. It could allow American schools to service twice as many students as they do now, and in ways that are both effective and cost-effective. For reasons that will be outlined below, however, it will probably end up doing this with half as many schools. And your school, even if it?s bumper-sticker worthy, might not make the cut.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2tK_lhgki30/
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Amazon Is Selling the Galaxy Nexus for $150 [Dealz]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tbd-UiZD0_M/amazon-is-selling-the-galaxy-nexus-for-150
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Canada's quest to turn Afghanistan?s army of phantoms into fighters
The current rate at which Afghan soldiers walk away from their jobs, and other kinds of attrition from the army, will make it difficult to adequately build up the force before international troops leave the country in 2014, a top general says.
?Before the end of the NATO mission we really do need to get a grip on attrition,? said Major-General Michael Day, Canada's senior commander in Afghanistan, speaking by telephone from Kabul.
More related to this story
Military trainers are scrambling to build the Afghan National Army into a force that can stop the Taliban and prevent anarchy after foreign troops hand over responsibility for security.
Canada took on one of the toughest jobs during the fighting stage of the mission, on the front lines in Kandahar. Now Canadian soldiers have become central to the next ?mission impossible? ? bulking up the army.
For the 950 Canadian trainers deployed to Afghanistan in the coming years, it's not so much a matter of attracting more recruits, but rather a challenge of stemming the number of Afghan soldiers who simply quit.
?Building this army is like pouring water in a sieve,? said Chris Mason, a senior research fellow at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., who helped with the establishment of the Afghan army while serving as a U.S. diplomat in the country. ?By their own numbers, they are losing almost half the army to attrition every 12 months.?
The man most responsible for solving that problem is Gen. Day, whose experience in Afghanistan spans a decade and who now serves as deputy commanding general of the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTMA). It's hard to understate the importance of his task; while the police and irregular forces are widely seen as a shambles ? or even a detriment to stability ? the Afghan army stands as the best hope for the Kabul government's survival.
The force had a listed strength of 173,000 personnel in October and must reach 195,000 deployed soldiers by the end of 2013, according to military plans.
Deaths, injuries and incapacitations account for only a minority of the losses. The much bigger problem is Afghan soldiers giving up the fight. An estimated 30 to 40 per cent of personnel do not re-enlist at the end of their three-year contracts. On top of that, the attrition rate averaged 32 per cent annually over the 12 months that ended in November. The biggest chunk of that figure represents soldiers abandoning their posts.
A briefing document from Gen. Day's headquarters shows that the attrition rate increased 26 per cent compared with the previous year, and the rates in both years were significantly above target levels.
Some observers suggest the real figures could be even worse, since the international staff at NTMA often depend on the local Afghan authorities to count their own ranks. Even if they are honest and avoid the temptation to inflate the payroll, Afghan officers assigned to tabulate personnel figures sometimes lack basic math skills. One educated guess at the true size of the Afghan army puts the force at perhaps 100,000 personnel on duty.
?Everyone worried that there were problems with numbers,? said a former official who served at the training headquarters in Kabul. There was never any sign of fraudulent statistics, he said, but the foreign troops lacked the capacity to audit their Afghan counterparts. ?For much of 2010, NTMA was sorely under-strength and lacked the assets to double-check every field report.?
For his part, Gen. Day says he has confidence in the troop numbers and his ability to improve them. ?We run those numbers pretty hard,? he said.
The Canadian commander described a list of recent adjustments designed to improve the morale and quality of life of Afghan soldiers. Their salary, vacation, cafeterias and sleeping quarters have all been improved. Leadership methods have been changed, and soldiers now carry more-modern weapons.
But there's a limit to how much money can be spent on such improvements.
The World Bank predicts Afghanistan will develop a mining industry and generate enough of its own revenue to reach a position where its annual budget shortfall is about $7.2-billion, or 25 per cent of gross domestic product, within about a decade. That's a serious gap, but the intervening years could be even more difficult as transition to local responsibility for security pushes the shortfall to more than 40 per cent of GDP in 2014 ? with the payroll and maintenance of Afghan forces accounting for more than half of the budget crunch.
With attrition rates running at current levels, the financial picture looks even darker. Based on NTMA averages from November, 2010, to October, 2011, the army gains 4,272 soldiers a month but loses another 3,136, leaving a net increase of just 1,136.
A veteran U.S. intelligence analyst reviewed those figures and calculated that the turnover costs a staggering amount of money. ?Each soldier actually added to the number of the ANA force will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and equip,? the analyst said.
Another persistent issue is the Afghan army's ethnic makeup. If the ANA is to serve as the backbone of a government facing potential war between southern Pashtun groups and the other ethnicities from the north, the force needs to dramatically improve recruiting in the south. Less than 4 per cent of recruits were counted as southern Pashtuns until NATO changed its counting methods in June in an effort to label tribes with ancestry in the south as ?southern Pashtuns.? But the relabelling effort in some cases counted as ?southern? tribes that had migrated north more than a century earlier.
Some analysts say NATO commanders appear to grasp such problems more clearly than they have in previous years, however, and Gen. Day himself says the job will be far from easy.
?There's a lot of water to be carried before we can declare success,? the commander said.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
EU in antitrust probe of Apple, e-book publishers
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011 file photo and Apple logo is seen during an announcement at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.. The European Union's antitrust watchdog announced Tuesday Dec. 6, 2011, is probing whether Apple and five major publishing houses have colluded to restrict competition in the market for e-books. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011 file photo and Apple logo is seen during an announcement at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.. The European Union's antitrust watchdog announced Tuesday Dec. 6, 2011, is probing whether Apple and five major publishing houses have colluded to restrict competition in the market for e-books. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Union's antitrust watchdog is probing whether Apple helped five major publishing houses illegally raise prices for e-books when it launched its iPad tablet and iBookstore in 2010.
The probe, announced Tuesday by the European Commission, offers a glimpse into the fierce fight for share of the growing e-book market as Apple tries to take on Amazon and its Kindle e-book reader. It also highlights the struggle for profits between retailers and publishers, as more and more readers download books electronically.
In particular, the Commission is investigating a significant shift in the way the price of e-books is determined that occurred in 2010, just as the Cupertino, California-based Apple introduced the iPad and its own online bookshop, iBookstore.
Apple was the first retailer to allow publishers to move to so-called agency agreements, which let publishers set the price that online bookshops sell e-books to consumers. Until then, publishers were able to set the wholesale price of e-books, while retailers decided what price to sell them on to readers.
"The Commission has concerns that these practices may breach EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices," the regulator said in a statement.
Giving publishers the power to set retail prices could effectively restrict competition between online bookshops, since it takes away the individual retailers' powers to set lower prices. Since Apple's deal with the publishers, several other online retailers have also shifted to the agency model, possibly in an attempt to secure the rights to sell popular e-books.
The EU investigation targets publishers Hachette Livre, a unit of France's Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp.; CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster; Penguin, which is owned by U.K. publishing house Pearson Group; and Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan.
The Commission stressed the probe was in its early stages and did not mean that the companies had actually broken EU competition law. It follows a similar investigation by Britain's Office of Fair Trading and a class action lawsuit against the same five publishers and Apple filed this summer in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The U.K. agency on Tuesday closed its own probe, since the Commission has taken over the case, but said it was cooperating closely with the EU investigation. It said its investigation was triggered by several complaints, without naming any complainants.
Apple representative Bethan Lloyd said the company declined to comment at this time.
Pearson said the fact that the Commission has opened a probe did not prejudge its outcome. "Pearson does not believe it has breached any laws, and will continue to fully and openly cooperate with the Commission," it said.
Holtzbrinck echoed that statement, saying it found the Commission's case "without reason." HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster said they are cooperating with the investigation, while Hachette Livre declined to comment.
The e-book market has been dominated by Amazon.com Inc. and its Kindle reader, with both Apple and Barnes & Noble's Nook reader fighting to break in.
In a summary of its complaint, the U.S. law firm Hagens Berman, which filed the U.S. class-action suit, claims that "Apple believed that it needed to neutralize the Kindle when it entered the e-book market with its own e-reader, the iPad, and feared that one day the Kindle might challenge the iPad by digitally distributing other media like music and movies."
The lawsuit also alleges that, following Apple's deals, Amazon was forced to abandon its discount pricing model and move to the agency model.
However, Keith Hylton, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, said Monday that allowing publishers to set prices for retailers didn't necessarily hurt competition in the market for e-books.
"Resale price maintenance can enhance competition by giving retailers a stronger incentive to promote the goods that they are selling," he said in an email. "In the absence of resale price maintenance, some retailers may cut their promotional efforts in order to 'free ride' on the promotional investments of other retailers."
In fact, such lack of promotion of books could hurt sales and thereby competition, Hylton said. "Given this, it's not at all clear that Apple's efforts were harmful to competition."
___
Robert Barr in London, Hillel Italie in New York, Elaine Ganley in Paris, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Note?s Must-Reads for Tuesday, December 6, 2011 (ABC News)
Monday, December 5, 2011
Singer Mindy McCready's 5-year-old son in custody
FILE - In this undated file photo, country singer Mindy McCready performs in Nashville, Tenn. A missing persons report has been filed for McCready and her 5-year-old son Zander. The Department of Children and Families says the report was filed with Cape Coral Police Tuesday night after McCready took Zander from McCready's father's home. McCready doesn't have custody of her son ? her mother does ? and was allowed to visit the boy at her father's home. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)
FILE - In this undated file photo, country singer Mindy McCready performs in Nashville, Tenn. A missing persons report has been filed for McCready and her 5-year-old son Zander. The Department of Children and Families says the report was filed with Cape Coral Police Tuesday night after McCready took Zander from McCready's father's home. McCready doesn't have custody of her son ? her mother does ? and was allowed to visit the boy at her father's home. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) ? By the time Arkansas authorities took country singer Mindy McCready's 5-year-old son from her and into custody on Friday evening, one thing had already become apparent to much of America: McCready's life has come to resemble a bad country song.
Since her success in the mid-1990s as a honey-voiced success story out of Nashville, McCready has been increasingly known for her personal foibles instead of her music.
This week's custody battle was the latest in a long saga of personal heartache and brushes with the law.
Florida Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Terri Durdaller said in an email Friday night that her agency was working with Arkansas state officials to bring McCready's son, Zander, back to his maternal grandmother in Florida. His grandmother has been his guardian since 2007.
Officials say he's safe and in good health.
Gayle Inge, Zander's grandmother and McCready's mother, was tearful when she talked about the news by phone Friday night with The Associated Press.
"I'm real excited that he's safe," she said. "But I can't explain what this is like. We feel for Mindy and we feel for Zander."
Inge said Zander was taken into custody at McCready's boyfriend's lake home in Arkansas. Inge said that her son ? McCready's half-brother ? texted McCready, who responded with a text that said her mother would never see her again.
"I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her that I love her," Inge said, adding that her daughter and grandson were found by authorities "hiding in a closet."
McCready, who turned 36 on Wednesday, did not respond to emails late Friday.
The evening's developments capped a days-long struggle between McCready ? who is seven months pregnant with twins ? and several others, including state of Florida child welfare authorities, a Fort Myers, Fla. judge and her own mother.
Authorities say McCready took the boy during a visit late last month to her father's Florida home, where she was allowed to visit the boy. McCready's parents are divorced.
A Florida judge signed an order Thursday telling authorities to take the boy into custody and return him. It's not yet clear whether the singer could face criminal charges.
McCready said earlier in the week that she would not bring her son back from Tennessee, where she has a home, despite violating the custody arrangement. She told the AP that her son had suffered abuse at her mother's house, a claim that Inge vehemently denies.
"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an email to the AP on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."
McCready told the AP Wednesday night she was in Tennessee and couldn't travel because she is pregnant with twins.
The boy's father, Billy McKnight, told NBC's "Today" show Friday he spoke on the phone with McCready and their boy after the judge's 5 p.m. EST Thursday deadline expired.
"He did sound healthy and ok. He wasn't crying or scared," McKnight said about their son.
"I think she believes she has a case and doesn't realize she's pushing her luck on this one," he said.
McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy, who was living with McCready's mother.
"We can confirm that Zander has been taken into custody and we are working with Arkansas state officials to bring him back to his legal guardian in Florida," Durdaller wrote late Friday. "He is safe and in good health.
McCready had provided a series of emails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy.
"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."
McCready found fame in the mid-1990s when she moved to Nashville at the age of 18, armed with only her karaoke tapes. Her first album, "Ten Thousand Angels," sold two million copies.
Her next four albums weren't as successful. Her personal troubles began encroaching on her professional success. According to her website, she suffers from severe depression.
McCready fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.
In August, she filed a libel suit against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.
And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.
During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.
Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Egypt parliament election had 62 percent turnout (AP)
CAIRO ? The head of Egypt's election commission says 62 percent of eligible voters turned out for the first round of parliamentary elections.
Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim called the number "the highest since the time of pharaohs."
The parliamentary election is the first since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February. The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm is expected to take the largest share of votes, followed by an ultraconservative Islamist party and a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian bloc.
More than 13 million voters cast ballots in Monday and Tuesday's vote, the first of three rounds for the lower house. Three other rounds lasting until march will elect the less powerful upper house.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist party plans to push for a stricter religious code in Egypt after claiming surprisingly strong gains in the first round of parliamentary elections, a spokesman said Friday.
Final results are to be announced later in the day for a first phase of voting held in half of Egypt's 18 provinces, but preliminary counts have been leaked by judges and individual political groups.
Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Salafists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give the religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.
Spokesman Yousseri Hamad says the Salafi Nour party expects to get 30 percent of the vote. Their party appeared to lead the polls in the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheik, in the rural area of Fayoum, which is known for high rates of illiteracy and poverty, and in parts of their longtime stronghold of Alexandria.
Hamad also said the party faced its toughest challenge in Cairo because of the small presence of Salafi supporters there.
The strong showing would put them in a position to influence policy, although it's unclear how much power the new parliament will have with the ruling generals still in power. For example, the military, which is not keen to see Egypt delivered to radical Islamists, maintains that it ? not the largest bloc in parliament ? will choose the next Cabinet. It is also poised to closely oversee the drafting of a new constitution.
The Nour Party's purist pursuit of strict Shariah, or Islamic law, would also face tough opposition from a diverse array of youth activists in the streets, Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, as well as liberal and secular political parties pushing for more social and political freedoms ? perhaps forcing it to veer less toward the large role that religion plays in Saudi Arabia.
The Nour Party is the main political arm of the hard-line Salafi movement, which was inspired by the Saudi-style Wahhabi school of thought.
Salafists are newcomers on Egypt's political scene. They long shunned the concept of democracy, saying it allows man's law to override God's. But they formed parties and entered politics after Mubarak's ouster to position themselves to try to make sure Shariah law is an integral part of Egypt's new constitution.
The more moderate and pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, has been around since 1928 and has for decades been the largest and best organized opposition movement in Egypt, despite being officially outlawed until Mubarak's ouster.
Seeking to broaden its political appeal, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has described its election platform as civil but with an Islamic background, setting them up to be more rival than ally to harder-line Islamists.
Hamad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that his party is willing to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as with secular and liberal forces "if it will serve the interest of the nation."
Still, Salafi groups speak confidently about their ambition to turn Egypt into a state where personal freedoms, including freedom of speech, women's dress and art are constrained by Islamic Shariah codes.
"In the land of Islam, I can't let people decide what is permissible or what is prohibited. It's God who gives the answers as to what is right and what is wrong," Hamad said. "If God tells me you can drink whatever you want except for alcohol, you don't leave the million things permitted and ask about the prohibited."
Their surprisingly strong showing worries many liberals and Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population.
"We want democracy and what they want is anything but democratic," said Amir Fouad, a Coptic Christian who trained as an engineer but drives a taxi because he can't find another job. "They want Egypt to be like Saudi Arabia, all Islamic."
Fouad, 40, said he worries the Salafists will force Christian women to wear Islamic veils.
"I feel like it will be very hard for me to live in Egypt if they rule," he said. "They will take Egypt backward."
Even some religious Egyptians see the Salafists as too extreme.
"I am religious and don't want laws that go against my beliefs, but there shouldn't be religious law," said Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a geography teacher. "I don't want anyone imposing his religious views on me."
Islamist victory in Egypt ? long considered a linchpin of regional stability ? would be the clearest signal yet that parties and candidates connected to political Islam will emerge as the main beneficiaries of this year's Arab Spring uprisings.
Tunisia and Morocco have both elected Islamist majorities to parliament, and while Libya has yet to announce dates for its first elections, Islamist groups have emerged as a strong force there since rebels overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in August. They also play a strong opposition role in Yemen.
This week's vote, held in nine provinces, will determine about 30 percent of the 498 seats in the People's Assembly, parliament's lower house. Two more rounds, ending in January, will cover Egypt's other 18 provinces.
The new parliament, in theory, is tasked with selecting a 100-member panel to draft Egypt's new constitution. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country after Mubarak's fall in February, has suggested that it will choose 80 of those members.
The Carter Center, which sent teams to observe the parliamentary vote, said in a Friday statement that participation was high and that all parties appeared committed to a democratic transition in Egypt.
The center, which visited more than 300 stations in the nine provinces that voted, also called on election officials to better prepare workers at polling and counting stations and issue clearer regulations about campaigning before future rounds of voting.
Despite a legal ban on campaigning on election day, many parties actively distributed flyers outside polling stations.
Also Friday, more than 5,000 protesters demonstrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square to call for a speedier transition to civilian rule and trials for security officers accused of killing protesters.
Large crowds marched into the square carrying dozens of coffins wrapped in Egyptian flags to represent those killed in clashes with the police near the square in the week before the elections.
Islamist groups did not join the protests, hanging their hopes ? for now at least ? on the election results.
While the number of protesters was smaller that in recent weeks, many said they had voted but still considered protest necessary.
"People haven't given up on the square just because there were elections," said Ibrahim Hussein, who voted this week for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. "They all have the same demands and they haven't been met yet."
In Cairo's Abdeen neighborhood, a few thousand protesters marched in support of the military, saying only it can bring stability at this time.
___
Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard contributed to this report.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Olive: the first feature film 'intentionally' shot on a smartphone (video)
Continue reading Olive: the first feature film 'intentionally' shot on a smartphone (video)
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Wealthfront Debuts Customized, Intelligent Online Investment Advisor For The Tech Community
You may have heard of Wealthfront (formerly kaChing), a startup that has been disrupting the investing and personal finance space. As we've written in the past, Wealthfront made it possible for average investors to access registered money managers who otherwise might require a minimum investment of $1 million or more. Today, Wealthfront is launching its online financial advisor for the tech community, appealing to professionals from the tech communities who favor doing everything online, and are looking for ways to have their new wealth managed for far lower fees.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dmHi4E1Uqxc/
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Friday, December 2, 2011
"Look at that!" -- ravens use gestures, too
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Pointing and holding up objects in order to attract attention has so far only been observed in humans and our closest living relatives, the great apes. Simone Pika from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and Thomas Bugnyar from the University of Vienna, however, now provide the first evidence that ravens (Corvus corax) also use so called deictic gestures in order to test the interest of a potential partner or to strengthen an already existing bond.
From early childhood on, children frequently use distinct gestures to draw the attention of adults to external objects. So-called deictic gestures such as "pointing" ("look here") and "holding up of objects" ("take this") are used by children for the first time at the age of nine to twelve months, before they produce their first spoken words. Scientists believe that such gestures are based on relatively complex intelligence abilities and represent the starting point for the use of symbols and therefore also human language. Deictic gestures are thus milestones in the development of human speech.
Surprisingly, observations of comparable gestures in our closest living relatives, the great apes, are relatively rare. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the Kibale National Park in Uganda, for example, use so-called directed scratches, to indicate distinct spots on their bodies to be groomed. Deictic gestures thus represent an extremely rare form of communication evolutionarily and have been suggested as confined to primates only.
According to the two researchers from Seewiesen and Vienna, however, such behaviour is not restricted to humans and great apes. For two years, Simone Pika und Thomas Bugnyar investigated the non-vocal behaviour of individually marked members of a wild raven community in the Cumberland Wildpark in Gr?nau, Austria. They observed that ravens use their beaks similar to hands to show and offer objects such as moss, stones and twigs. These distinct gestures were predominantly aimed at partners of the opposite sex and resulted in frequent orientation of recipients to the object and the signallers. Subsequently, the ravens interacted with each other, for example, by example billing or joint manipulation of the object.
Ravens are songbirds belonging to the corvid family like crows and magpies, and they surpass most of the other avian species in terms of intelligence. Their scores on various intelligence tests are similarly high than those of great apes. Ravens in particular can be characterized by complex intra-pair communication, relatively long-time periods to form bonds and a relatively high degree of cooperation between partners.
This new study shows that differentiated gestures have especially evolved in species with a high degree of collaborative abilities. "Gesture studies have too long focused on communicative skills of primates only. The mystery of the origins of human language, however, can only be solved if we look at the bigger picture and also consider the complexity of the communication systems of other animal groups" says Simone Pika from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.
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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: http://www.mpg.de
Thanks to Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 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.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115548/_quot_Look_at_that__quot_____ravens_use_gestures__too
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Monday, November 28, 2011
90 people in Indonesia injured in line for BlackBerry Bold 9790 (Digital Trends)
If you thought local?Black Friday deals were good, you need to go to Indonesia. A crowd of over 1,000 people formed outside an Indonesian mall on Friday for a sale on the newly released BlackBerry 9790, pictured on the left above. The phone that retails for around $520 was available at half price. ?
Customers had been in line since 4 pm the day before waiting for the sale to start. Rumors started spreading throughout the massive crowd that there wasn?t enough phones for everyone in line so they started to get a little rowdy. The crowd pushed through a barricade which caused at least 90 people to pass out and three people to suffer broken bones. It took 200 police officers and security guards to restore order to the mob. ?Three people were rushed to the hospital for treatment to their injuries.
While it might be a little surprising for us here in the U.S. but BlackBerry is by far the most popular phone maker in Indonesia. Four of the top five selling phones are made by BlackBerry. Combine the insane popularity of the device with a half off discount on a recently released device and this sort of situation is predictable.
Local police said that BlackBerry officials will be questioned for failure to provide a safe environment for the sale. The police were not informed by BlackBerry prior to the event, and say that if they were they would have been able to control the situation.
After the initial mob was dispersed phones went back on sale for a short time until ultimately the sale was shut down prematurely. ?There is no word as of right now if other retailers will attempt a similar promotion, but Indonesians should be able to buy the 9790 at any of their local BlackBerry retailers starting tomorrow.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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