Saturday, December 31, 2011

The BabbaBox: A Fun All-in-One Educational Kit for Kids

BabbaBox is a cool monthly activity set your whole family will enjoy

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/jX-l-E7jvxs/

telenav wade phillips wade phillips new orleans hornets time person of the year sag nominations sag nominations

AP-GfK Poll: In 2012, it can only get better

Graphic shows opinion poll of the year

Graphic shows opinion poll of the year

(AP) ? Americans are hopeful for what 2012 will bring for their families and the country, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, though most say 2011 was a year they would rather forget.

Nearly seven in 10 say the year gone by was a bad one, more than double those who consider it a success, according to the poll. But 62 percent are optimistic about what 2012 will bring for the nation, and more, 78 percent, are hopeful about the year their family will have in 2012.

Jeff Wolfe, 33, of Farmington, W.Va., said 2011 treated him well because he was able to find steady work as a lineman. But for the rest of the nation, things were "pretty rough," with so many Americans looking for jobs, he noted.

"For the first time since 2009, I worked all year," he said. Wolfe said he lost work in 2008 and again in 2010. But in 2011, the father of two school-age children said he was able to catch up on bills, buy his wife a new car and renovate his home.

Overall, the poll found 68 percent of Americans described 2011 as a bad year, compared with 29 percent who felt it was a good one.

A partisan divide, much like the one that ruled Washington this year, seems the only split in public opinion on 2011. Democrats were most likely to view 2011 positively (40 percent called it good), while independents and Republicans were less effusive. Beyond that, the poll found general agreement that 2011 is best left in the past.

Mary Burke, 57, of Ridgeland, S.C., felt economic pain in 2011. She saw prices rise for all of her expenses, from her light bill to groceries. "Paying $5 for a jar of mayonnaise is outrageous," she said.

Food and gas prices surged in 2011, but the most recent Consumer Price Index shows inflation leveling off. November statistics from the government showed a year-over-year inflation rate of 3.4 percent, the smallest such rise since April.

The AP-GfK poll found consumers are sensing the change. Just 18 percent of adults expect consumer prices to rise at a faster pace in the coming year, the lowest share to say so since the poll first asked the question in March. Most (51 percent) expect prices to rise at the same rate or more slowly.

And as the nation's economic fortunes overall appear to be tilting slightly positive, the public's expectations for the economy in the coming year are at their highest point since spring. According to the poll, 37 percent expect economic improvement in the next 12 months, compared with 24 percent who think the economy will slide downhill. That's the first time since May that significantly more people said things will get better than get worse.

On a personal level, 36 percent think their household's financial situation will improve over the next 12 months, while 11 percent think it will worsen. Americans' financial ebbs and flows affect their personal outlook for 2012. Those whose households have faced a job loss in the past six months or who describe their current financial situation as poor are less optimistic about what 2012 holds for them and their families than others, though that does not carry over to their forecast for the nation in 2012.

Optimism about the nation's path varies with views of the economy's direction. Those who say things have looked better in the past month are generally optimistic (79 percent), while just half of those who say things are getting worse feel positive about what 2012 holds for the country. And about 6 in 10 of those who distrust the two major political parties to handle the economy or job creation are pessimistic about how 2012 will turn out for the nation.

Burke said she is angered by politicians in Washington who she believes fail to look out for the interests of the American people.

"They don't care about me and you," she said. "They only care how they are going to line their pockets." As for the economy and nation improving in 2012, she said, "I pray and hope."

The partisan divide in impressions of 2011 persists in the outlook for 2012, with Democrats more optimistic than either Republicans or independents. But expectations for next year's presidential contest appear not to be a factor. Most partisans on both sides foresee victory for their side in the November 2012 presidential election: Three-quarters of Democrats say they think President Barack Obama will win re-election; three-quarters of Republicans say he will not.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

___

Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-29-AP%20Poll-Optimistic%20New%20Year/id-10431f398aa0430b949983852caf6e05

nest williams syndrome jay leno machine gun kelly lindsey lohan reed hastings cujo

Friday, December 30, 2011

Chinese investment seems unlikely to swamp EU

The sign in a boutique selling glass hand-crafted on the Venetian island of Murano betrays an uncertain grasp of English. But the owner is very sure who is to blame for the tough times confronting the 700-year-old local glassmaking industry.

?Everything in this shop is not made in China,? it proclaims.

A few doors away, imported Murano lookalikes sell for much less. To the untrained eye, they appear identical.

With Europe drowning in debt and flirting with recession, China?s influence can only rise further.

Euro zone governments would love Beijing to plough more of its US$3.2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves into their bonds.

China is also likely to chip in with a loan to the IMF to provide a financing backstop in case Italy and Spain are shut out of the bond markets.

Last week?s US$3.5 billion acquisition by China Three Gorges Corp of the Portuguese government?s stake in utility EDP is also a sign of things to come.

Financiers turn instinctively to fast-growing China as they try to flush out buyers for assets that are going on the block as European governments, banks and companies pay down debt.

But, despite Chinese leaders? expressing interest in diversifying the country?s overseas asset base away from government paper, analysts do not expect a sea change in China?s traditionally cautious approach to expanding in Western markets. Africa and Asia are likely to remain China?s top targets for now.

?There are going to be opportunities, but we?re not going to see China buying up Europe,? said Thilo Hanemann, research director at the Rhodium Group, an investment advisory and strategic planning firm in New York.

TREADING SOFTLY

There are many reasons for the wariness.

Lengthy delays in obtaining the approval of regulators in Beijing put Chinese companies at a disadvantage in mergers and acquisitions when the seller wants a quick deal. Companies lack the management skills to integrate overseas acquisitions. And, perhaps most importantly, prospects are much brighter at home than they are in Europe.

?If you compare the rates of growth in China and in Europe, are you sensible buying into a brand that?s seen its best years of growth?? said Edward Radcliffe, a partner in Shanghai with Vermillion, an M&A advisory boutique that focuses on cross-border China deals.

Still, he said some larger Chinese groups, both state-owned and private, had started to explore opportunities in Europe and the US.

The 27-member EU is China?s biggest export market. But foreign direct investment (FDI) has badly lagged, totaling US$8 billion by the EU?s reckoning or US$12 billion on China?s count ? less than 0.2 percent of total FDI in the EU, according to Rhodium.

The firm has kept its own tally since 2003, but its total of US$15 billion through the middle of this year, though greater than the official data, is still small.

Hanemann said he was sure next year would see deals in Europe in technology and consumer products to enable Chinese firms to climb the value ladder and build their domestic market share.

?Ultimately, Chinese companies have to become true multinationals, like Japanese and [South] Korean firms before them,? he said. ?Over the longer term, there?s no reason to believe that China is going to take a different path.?

However, he was skeptical whether most Chinese companies would be able to seize the opportunities that were likely to crop up in the coming year. To do so, they would have to manage public perceptions in Europe and obtain quick regulatory approval at home.

Source: http://libertytimes.feedsportal.com/c/33098/f/535601/s/1b5e9687/l/0L0Staipeitimes0N0CNews0Ceditorials0Carchives0C20A110C120C30A0C20A0A3521948/story01.htm

bonjovi bonjovi kim jong un antonio brown james harrison james harrison lil kim

PRPLI To Host Beyond Facebook And Twitter

Browse >
Home / Business / PRPLI To Host Beyond Facebook And Twitter

Post a Comment

?Social Media that Delivers Results? on January 10
?
(Hicksville, NY)
Public Relations Professionals of Long Island (PRPLI) will present ?Beyond Facebook and Twitter: Social Media Programs that Deliver Results? on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. at Westbury Manor, 1100 Jericho Turnpike, Westbury, N.Y.
?
Social media plays a frontline role in public relations. But there is more to social media than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As the pressure mounts to drive more traffic and generate more results with websites, what are some other strategies that can impact business? online PR and marketing efforts?? Discussion will include which strategies can enhance social media presence beyond the well-known sites and strategies for leveraging the existing social influencers.
?
Two social media experts will present the program. Lee Bogner is founder of @LeeBogner Social Media Ambassadors, a social business consultancy. Lee was most recently CIO and head of social media business at Marden-Kane where he served as spokesperson and launched its social media business unit, directed social business and technology strategy, social data analytics; and apps development. Lee serves as a board of director for Social Media Club of Long Island, Hofstra?s Zarb IT Executive Board of Visitors and St. John?s U. Tobin College Alumni Association.? Linda Romano is director of Social Media and Interactive Creative Services for Adelphi University. She has extensive integrated and strategic marketing experience, including work with events, print, and digital media. Linda?s interests include the ways in which new and social media can impact education?s current top-down knowledge paradigm, and how social media can be used for advocacy and change.
?
?Beyond Facebook and Twitter: Social Media Programs that Deliver Results? is $50 for PRPLI members, $65 for non-members and $25 for students. More information is available at www.PRPLI.org.
?
Public Relations Professionals of Long Island (PRPLI) is a professional trade association that provides members with the opportunity to network, learn and share new experiences, and advance in their careers. Founded in 1990, PRPLI is the largest regional organization for individuals working in public relations, publicity, media relations, marketing, corporate communications, advertising, event planning, government relations and community affairs.? PRPLI members include PR practitioners from the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, as well as independent communicators.



?

Posted by News LI Editor ? Filed Under Business?

Have a press release or local story you would like us to review? Let us know about it!



More Long Island News


News Comments for this Article

Source: http://www.newsli.com/2011/12/28/prpli-to-host-beyond-facebook-and-twitter/

alec baldwin kicked off plane mumia mumia uss arizona memorial uss arizona memorial d day fun.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Vote Obama ? if you want a centrist Republican for US president | Glenn Greenwald

Illustration by Belle Mellor

Illustration by Belle Mellor

American presidential elections are increasingly indistinguishable from the reality TV competitions drowning the nation's airwaves. Both are vapid, personality-driven and painfully protracted affairs, with the winners crowned by virtue of their ability to appear slightly more tolerable than the cast of annoying rejects whom the public eliminates one by one. When, earlier this year, America's tawdriest (and one of its most-watched) reality TV show hosts, Donald Trump, inserted himself into the campaign circus as a threatened contestant, he fitted right in, immediately catapulting to the top of audience polls before announcing he would not join the show.

The Republican presidential primaries ? shortly to determine who will be the finalist to face off, and likely lose, against Barack Obama next November ? has been a particularly base spectacle. That the contest has devolved into an embarrassing clown show has many causes, beginning with the fact that GOP voters loathe Mitt Romney, their belief-free, anointed-by-Wall-Street frontrunner who clearly has the best chance of defeating the president.

In a desperate attempt to find someone less slithery and soulless (not to mention less Mormon), party members have lurched manically from one ludicrous candidate to the next, only to watch in horror as each wilted the moment they were subjected to scrutiny. Incessant pleas to the party's ostensibly more respectable conservatives to enter the race have been repeatedly rebuffed. Now, only Romney remains viable. Republican voters are thus slowly resigning themselves to marching behind a vacant, supremely malleable technocrat whom they plainly detest.

In fairness to the much-maligned GOP field, they face a formidable hurdle: how to credibly attack Obama when he has adopted so many of their party's defining beliefs. Depicting the other party's president as a radical menace is one of the chief requirements for a candidate seeking to convince his party to crown him as the chosen challenger. Because Obama has governed as a centrist Republican, these GOP candidates are able to attack him as a leftist radical only by moving so far to the right in their rhetoric and policy prescriptions that they fall over the cliff of mainstream acceptability, or even basic sanity.

In July, the nation's most influential progressive domestic policy pundit, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, declared that Obama is a "moderate conservative in practical terms". Last October, he wrote that "progressives who had their hearts set on Obama were engaged in a huge act of self-delusion", because the president ? "once you get past the soaring rhetoric" ? has "largely accepted the conservative storyline".

Krugman also pointed out that even the policy Democratic loyalists point to as proof of the president's progressive bona fides ? his healthcare plan, which mandates the purchase of policies from the private health insurance industry ? was designed by the Heritage Foundation, one of the nation's most rightwing thinktanks, and was advocated by conservative ideologues for many years (it also happens to be the same plan Romney implemented when he was governor of Massachusetts and which Newt Gingrich once promoted, underscoring the difficulty for the GOP in drawing real contrasts with Obama).

How do you scorn a president as a far-left socialist when he has stuffed his administration with Wall Street executives, had his last campaign funded by them, governed as a "centrist Republican", and presided over booming corporate profits even while the rest of the nation suffered economically?

But as slim as the pickings are for GOP candidates on the domestic policy front, at least there are some actual differences in that realm. The president's 2009 stimulus spending and Wall Street "reform" package ? tepid and inadequate though they were ? are genuinely at odds with rightwing dogma, as are Obama's progressive (albeit inconsistent) positions on social issues, such as equality for gay people and protecting a woman's right to choose. And the supreme court, perpetually plagued by a 5-4 partisan split, would be significantly affected by the outcome of the 2012 election.

It is in the realm of foreign policy, terrorism and civil liberties where Republicans encounter an insurmountable roadblock. A staple of GOP politics has long been to accuse Democratic presidents of coddling America's enemies (both real and imagined), being afraid to use violence, and subordinating US security to international bodies and leftwing conceptions of civil liberties.

But how can a GOP candidate invoke this time-tested caricature when Obama has embraced the vast bulk of George Bush's terrorism policies; waged a war against government whistleblowers as part of a campaign of obsessive secrecy; led efforts to overturn a global ban on cluster bombs; extinguished the lives not only of accused terrorists but of huge numbers of innocent civilians with cluster bombs and drones in Muslim countries; engineered a covert war against Iran; tried to extend the Iraq war; ignored Congress and the constitution to prosecute an unauthorised war in Libya; adopted the defining Bush/Cheney policy of indefinite detention without trial for accused terrorists; and even claimed and exercised the power to assassinate US citizens far from any battlefield and without due process?

Reflecting this difficulty for the GOP field is the fact that former Bush officials, including Dick Cheney, have taken to lavishing Obama with public praise for continuing his predecessor's once-controversial terrorism polices. In the last GOP foreign policy debate, the leading candidates found themselves issuing recommendations on the most contentious foreign policy question (Iran) that perfectly tracked what Obama is already doing, while issuing ringing endorsements of the president when asked about one of his most controversial civil liberties assaults (the due-process-free assassination of the American-Yemeni cleric Anwar Awlaki). Indeed, when it comes to the foreign policy and civil liberties values Democrats spent the Bush years claiming to defend, the only candidate in either party now touting them is the libertarian Ron Paul, who vehemently condemns Obama's policies of drone killings without oversight, covert wars, whistleblower persecutions, and civil liberties assaults in the name of terrorism.

In sum, how do you demonise Obama as a terrorist-loving secret Muslim intent on empowering US enemies when he has adopted, and in some cases extended, what was rightwing orthodoxy for the last decade? The core problem for GOP challengers is that they cannot be respectable Republicans because, as Krugman pointed out, Obama has that position occupied. They are forced to move so far to the right that they render themselves inherently absurd.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/27/vote-obama-centrist-republican

ar 15 costco kmart urban meyer ohio state traffic report traffic report opensky

Santorum to Iowa diners: 'We've got momentum'

A local resident looks at a campaign pamphlet as Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum speaks during a town hall meeting at the Fort Dodge GOP Headquarters, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

A local resident looks at a campaign pamphlet as Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum speaks during a town hall meeting at the Fort Dodge GOP Headquarters, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

(AP) ? Republican hopeful Rick Santorum is claiming momentum heading into the Iowa caucuses.

The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania mingled with 25 people at a diner in Independence, Iowa, and touted his plan to give a tax break to businesses that move their operations back to the United States.

He has lagged in the polls but Santorum told diners Wednesday that things are going great and his campaign has momentum.

Santorum has been arguing that he's the most consistent conservative in the field. He's making that case in a new radio ad that began airing Wednesday and will run through next Tuesday's caucuses. The spot touts his hardline opposition to abortion and describes him as a "father of seven, a home-schooler and a devoted husband for 21 years."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-28-Santorum/id-cf9c646c8a1e4231b478ba82f8e8e065

do a barrelroll bérénice marlohe bérénice marlohe google offers tim gunn tim gunn death clock

Book Review: Our Magnetic Earth, by Ronald Merrill

pole flip

A magnetic sense is now well documented in dozens of animal species. It turns out that tracking the geomagnetic field?that same invisible thing that points compasses?is handy for life, in lots of situations. Using their internal compasses, naked mole rats in Africa navigate their pitch-black underground mazes. Lobsters off Bermuda find their way to regions of the seafloor where they congregate to spawn. Thrushes migrate south in the autumn and north in the spring. Honeybees know which way is home to their hive. And humpback whales swim for hundreds of kilometers at a time in the open ocean without deviating by more than one degree from the course they initially set.

Biological tissues however tend not to respond to, or be affected by, magnetic fields. Thus, for a long time explaining how animals sense these fields has been a holy grail of sensory biology. There now appear to be at least two plausible explanations. One proposed mechanism is based on microscopic particles of iron oxide located inside specialized cells; the other on a quantum effect in which certain chemical reactions?specifically some that may involve a protein in the retina called cryptochrome?slow down or speed up depending on which way points north with respect to the animal?s head.

Each of the two mechanisms has mesmerizing evidence to back it up, as well as detractors. To learn more, you?ll have to read my new feature article ?The Compass Within,? in the January 2012 issue of Scientific American.

Our Magnetic EarthBut how does the planet generate a magnetic field in the first place, and why does that field point, more or less consistently, to a magnetic north? As Ronald Merrill?s fascinating recent book Our Magnetic Earth: The Science of Geomagnetism explains, there are essentially two ways that a relatively permanent magnetic field can arise in nature. One is the magnetization of a solid object, as in the case of a bar magnet or of the iron oxide found in certain animal cells; the other is the so-called dynamo effect, in which electric currents generate the field.

Early on, researchers realized it had to be currents. No known mineral or material is able to maintain a permanent magnetization at temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius. But Earth?s metallic core?where its geomagnetic field originates?is way hotter than that: at an estimated 5,000 degrees, it is as hot as the surface of the sun.

So, dynamo it is. And ours is not the only planet in the solar system thought to harbor a dynamo in its core. So do Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and possibly Mercury and even one of Jupiter?s moons, Ganymede.

This realization however was only the beginning of a long study that is still in progress. One difficulty is that we can only measure the magnetic field on Earth?s surface or in space. From those data alone, it is not possible even in principle to reconstruct the shape of the magnetic field lines deep inside. This, Merrill points out, is known to mathematicians as a ?non-uniqueness? problem?also known as the difficulty of guessing what?s inside a Christmas gift by lifting it and shaking it (which, Merrill informs us, is what his wife used to do) rather than opening the box.

As a matter of fact, not much is even known about the composition of Earth beyond the fact that its most abundant element is iron. According to Merrill, in 1952 the late Harvard University geophysicist Francis Birch wrote, in a classic Journal of Geophysical Research paper on the composition of Earth?s core,

Unwary readers should take warning that ordinary language undergoes modification to a high-pressure form when applied to the interior of the earth. A few examples of equivalents follow:

Certain -> Dubious
Undoubtedly ->Perhaps
Positive proof -> Vague suggestion
Unanswerable argument -> Trivial objection
Pure iron -> Uncertain mixture of all the elements

?In spite of a considerable amount of excellent work,? Merrill writes, ?our understanding of Earth?s core?s composition is remarkably similar to that given by Birch more than a half century ago.?

But while lots of details still need to be ironed out, Merrill says, scientists now believe they have a rough idea of the physics behind (or underneath) the geomagnetic field. When an electrical conductor moves, it drags the magnetic field around with it. But what happens when the conductor is not rigid, and in particular, when it?s liquid, as in the case of Earth?s outer core? As layers of liquid slide over each other, magnetic field lines get stretched, and the result is an amplification of the magnetic field itself, at the expense of the kinetic energy of the fluid. But as long as the motion continues, this phenomenon can sustain a magnetic field that would otherwise slowly dissipate.

In recent years, researchers have produced computer simulations of the geomagnetic dynamo and, crucially, they have shown that such a dynamo would have periodic reversals, which would explain why the north and south poles have switched at seemingly random intervals of time over the eons.

The last such reversal appears to have happened 780,000 years ago. When the next one will be is anybody?s guess. During reversals, the field does not disappear, but rather it becomes weaker, potentially disrupting some animals? migratory patterns as well as letting solar wind destroy part of the ozone layer of the upper atmosphere. This is a favorite disaster scenario for some 2012 doomsayers, but Merrill reassures us that reversals take place very slowly, over centuries if not millennia, and that their effects are probably not that disastrous after all.

This is a supercomputer-based simulation of the geodynamo by Gary Glatzmeier of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues:

[For more on this, check out the Scientific American article ?Probing the Geodynamo,? by Gary A. Glatzmaier and Peter Olson, April 2005 (requires subscription), as well as Glatzmaier?s website.]

Scientists are also trying to build small-scale versions of Earth?s core in the lab. In one such experiment, at the University of Maryland, Daniel Lathrop and his collaborators built a rotating sphere three meters (ten feet) in diameter and filled it with liquid sodium. They hope the sphere will help them understand how the chaotic motions in the core lead to a geomagnetic field.

Seen in action, as it spins at four rotations per second, Lathrop?s sphere looks worthy of a Marvel Comics supervillain:

(More on these efforts on my friend Charles Choi?s blog.)

In his book, Merrill gives an honest and captivating account of the scientific process, its uncertainties, and its cultural dynamics. Science is often portrayed as a fight between smart innovators and conservatives who are on the wrong part of history, but in reality, before an open question is settled there are often solid scientific arguments made on both sides of a debate. One good example is plate tectonics. It was an extraordinary claim, and as such it really required extraordinary evidence before the ?drifters,? as Merrill calls them, were able to convince the skeptics?or most of them anyway?in the early 1960s.

Merrill intersperses the narration with juicy anecdotes and personal detail, which often leave us wanting to know more. (At different times, we find our hero-scientist dangling from a rope on one of Yosemite?s climbing walls, or SCUBA diving by a shipwreck, or on a boat surrounded by white sharks who had been tagged for tracking their migrations.)

Often, however, he falls back into professor mode. One aspect of the book that, unfortunately, may turn away some readers, is an eat-your-vegetables-first prescription coming right in the first chapter: the reader has to slog through technical details on the physics of magnetization before he gets to the fun part. I suspect that some readers never did.

I found that the book was at its best when it delved into the friction among scientists in these different disciplines?and the lessons in modesty that researchers often learn (or should) from collaborating with people from other buildings across campus. Geomagnetism and the magnetic sense, to which Merrill dedicates a chapter, are problems that require expertise from a broad range of researchers, incuding chemists, physicists, geophysicists, mathematicians and biologists.

Such friction was prominently on display in the case of Lord Kelvin, who in 1862 calculated that Earth could not be older than 400 million years, and probably was only 100 million years old. Kelvin scoffed at evidence to the contrary that had been discovered by geologists, who he regarded as incapable of doing math, Merrill writes. It is an example of the arrogance some physicists exhibit toward sciences they deem less ?fundamental.? (Ernest Rutherford, the discoverer of atomic nuclei, notoriously said that all science is physics?the rest is just stamp collecting.)

In turn, geophysicists may sometimes scoff at biology as a ?soft? science, Merrill writes, but those who have tried to actually learn some?let alone do research in it?know better. In particular, he says, geophysicists used to underestimate the problem of determining the physical mechanism behind animals? magnetic sense.

(Still on the subject of cultural differences among academic communities, Merrill also makes a very poignant remark about mathematicians. Although the increasingly extreme specialization of science that has occurred over the last century or so is common to most branches of knowledge, so that, say, a nuclear physicist and a solid-state physicist can only talk to each other with some difficulty, the situation is far worse in math, Merrill says: when someone is up for tenure at a a math department, he says, most of the faculty in the department have little understanding of the candidate?s work, and so they often rely on the advice of authorities from other universities.)

I shall conclude by quoting one of my favorite anecdotes from the book, regarding Ted Ringwood, an eminent geochemist at Australian National University and Ray Crawford, a ?far less famous? scientist. Crawford had a penchant for collecting stationary from places he visited, and a skill for practical jokes.

The austere Ringwood had gotten on loan from NASA a few samples of lunar rock to study. NASA did not trust just anyone to guard its precious trophies, and required extraordinary caution in handling them and storing them. One day, Ringwood received a letter, printed on NASA stationery, Merrill writes. ?The letter informed Ringwood that NASA had funded psychologists to study the effects that stress had on scientists studying lunar samples. Would Ringwood help in this study by sending a vial of his urine to the American embassy in Canberra on a weekly basis? Ringwood complied with this request for several weeks before someone in the embassy had the courage to phone him to inquire what the professor wanted done with he urine samples.?

Our Magnetic Earth: The Science of Geomagnetism, by Ronald T. Merrill. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Further readings:

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=35cbebd0b2113bcff7dbcd0a512fba62

gwar guitarist gwar guitarist tower heist daylight savings time humpback whale humpback whale barrel roll

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Obama and the F-Word (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/179349158?client_source=feed&format=rss

josh hamilton beavis and butthead cardinals jennifer nicole lee jennifer nicole lee chris harris peter schiff

E3- legal immigrant | Snowbroader.EU

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://snowbroader.eu/2011/12/27/e3-legal-immigrant/

kurt busch nfl mock draft 2012 adam lambert incendiary floyd mayweather kate upton winter solstice

PIP implants sold to Dutch firm under new name (Reuters)

AMSTERDAM/MARSEILLE (Reuters) ? Potentially dangerous breast implants made by a now-defunct French company were sold to about 1,000 Dutch women under a different name, a Dutch health official said on Monday, broadening a scandal that could already affect some 300,000 women worldwide.

Dutch health authority spokeswoman Diane Bouhuijs said a Dutch company had bought implants made by France's Poly Implant Prothese, which went bankrupt in 2010 after French health authorities shut its doors and is now under investigation, and sold them in the Netherlands rebranded as "M-implants."

"We estimate that some 1,000 women in the Netherlands have those implants. We have advised them to consult their physician," Bouhuijs said.

She declined to disclose the name of the Dutch company.

The rebranding of PIP implants potentially expands the scope of the health controversy in which PIP, once the third-largest maker of breast implants in the world, stands accused of using industrial-grade instead of medical-grade silicone in some of its protheses. They were sold in a number of European and Latin America countries.

The company's founder, Jean-Claude Mas, was able to charge lower prices for the implants using the non-approved silicone.

Health authorities have cited no evidence of increased cancer risk due to the PIP implants but have said they have higher rates of rupture that could cause inflammation and irritation.

While the French government has urged the 30,000 women in France with PIP implants to have them removed, other countries including Britain and Brazil say that women should visit their surgeons for checks.

Health spokeswoman Bouhuijs did not say how long M-implants were sold in the Netherlands before they were banned in March 2010, along with PIP-labeled implants, as in France.

In early 2010 Dutch authorities launched an investigation into breast implants which is still going on, Bouhuijs said.

France's drug and medical device regulator, AFSSAPS, was closed on Monday due to the holidays, so Reuters was unable to ascertain whether health authorities knew about the M-implants.

SICK IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

Mas's lawyer Yves Haddad told Reuters on Monday that his 72-year-old client is in poor health but ready to respond to any court summoning.

No one has been charged in the case, but sources say a Marseilles court could soon announce fraud charges against four to six ex-PIP employees. An investigation into involuntary homicide is going on, following the death from cancer in 2010 of a woman who had PIP implants.

Haddad denied that Mas was in hiding, reiterating that he was still in southern France's Var region.

"He's currently in very bad health because he has just undergone a difficult surgery that prevents him from walking," Haddad said.

The news that Mas had recently been operated on was confirmed by a second source, who cited a vascular problem.

"He is worried by the importance this matter is taking on. He is angry at those who pointlessly add to people's suffering,"

Haddad said.

Haddad denied reports that Mas was a former butcher, saying that before founding PIP in 1991 he worked for more than 15 years as a medical sales representative for Bristol Myers.

PIP AT FOREFRONT

French plastic surgeon Patrick Perichaud, who implanted over 600 women with protheses made by PIP between 2001 and 2009, defended the devices, saying their rupture rates were no higher than other makers' products.

Perichaud told Reuters PIP was at the forefront of breast implant technology in the past two decades. Whereas other implant makers made saline protheses that had to be filled once inside the breast, PIP introduced a pre-filled version, he said.

In 2001, after a 10-year ban of silicone implants was lifted in France, PIP was the first to make asymmetrically shaped implants whose look was more natural than competitors', he said.

"This made for very natural-looking breasts, and allowed me to put the protheses in front of the muscle and not behind it, like we had to do often before," said Perichaud, who is based in the southern city of Toulon.

The cost of the implants was 610 euros ($800). He said the patients bought the implants directly from PIP and that he as a surgeon did not get any financial incentive to steer clients towards the company.

The current breast implant health scare was "more psychological than scientific" he said, adding that no concrete link had been made between PIP implants and cancer.

"Breast cancer affects one in ten women, even one in eight, so if 30,000 patients received PIP implants, statistically that would make 3000 cancers," he said.

Since the start of the PIP scandal in 2010, Perichaud has re-operated on 148 women to remove the implants at issue. ($1 = 0.7669 euros)

(Reporting by Jean-François Rosnoblet; additional reporting by Alexandria Sage and Sophie Louet; writing Alexandria Sage; editing by Geert De Clercq)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/ts_nm/us_breast_implants_netherlands

payroll tax aisha khan alanis morissette r kelly vanessa bryant vanessa bryant kurt busch

Microsoft's Visual Studio now has Achievements

Achievements are the only thing you need to keep a gamer striving towards their next goal. The premise of a few more virtual points for their effort seems to be enough to drive people to do much more. Channel 9 have realised this, and as WPCentral are reporting, are gleefully making the most of the opportunity, with their own achievement system.

While currently in beta, the idea shows a lot of promise. The coders responsible have created a Windows Phone application to go alongside their idea, and it even supports Live Tiles. This has led to the application offering a similar feature set to Microsoft's own Achievement infrastructure for the WP7, Games for Windows, and Xbox LIVE platforms. Appealingly, the service even allows you to compare the Channel 9 equivalent to Gamerscore with other users of the same service.

The app is only usable by those who have signed up to the beta for the system, but if you are not one of the beta entrants, then you still have an opportunity. The designer has invited people to get in contact via his blog, should they want to get into the beta and try the Visual Studio Achievements ahead of the pack.

The move is undoubtedly creative, but since it does have to monitor your code to verify that you have fulfilled the criteria it could lead to some questions being raised among more security-conscious coders. Images from the Windows Phone application are below:

?

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/microsofts-visual-studio-now-has-achievements

advent calendar adobe air 2005yu55 advanced search personhood amendment haynesworth haynesworth

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Kendall and Kylie Jenner Get Two Lab Puppies for Christmas! (omg!)

Kendall and Kylie Jenner Get Two Lab Puppies for Christmas!

The Kardashian household size just increased by two bodies and eight legs.

Mom and dad Kris and Bruce Jenner made it a Christmas-to-remember by giving their teen daughters Kendall and Kylie Jenner two chocolate lab puppies.

PHOTOS: The Kardashians' sexy beach vacation

"OMG OMG OMG!!!! Best Xmas present ever!!!!!!! 2 beautiful puppies!!!!! Ahhhh thanks mom and dad!!!!" Kendall, 16, tweeted on Saturday with a pic.

"One of my babies!" sister Kylie, 14, added with another pic.

PHOTO: See the Kardashian Christmas card

And although the matching pups are now part of the famous household, their names surprisingly don't begin with a 'K."

"Kendall & Kylie got 2 chocolate lab puppies for Christmas...A boy & a girl! Check out little Louis & Vuitton sleeping shhh," big sis Kim Kardashian tweeted Monday.

PHOTOS: Kim Kardashian's terrible year

Tell Us: What do you think of the puppies' names?

Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly

Kendall and Kylie Jenner Get Two Lab Puppies for Christmas!

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_kendall_kylie_jenner_two_lab_puppies_christmas195650319/44007776/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/kendall-kylie-jenner-two-lab-puppies-christmas-195650319.html

nfl scores college football scores arkansas razorbacks arkansas football maggie daley black friday online deals black friday news

Vienna Girardi Storms Off Relationship Rehab Set After Lee Smith Shows Up


Bachelor train wreck Vienna Girardi ripped off her microphone and walked off the set of Relationship Rehab last week after producers shocked her by having her ex show up.

No, not Jake Pavelka, though that would've done the trick too.

Vienna and boyfriend Kasey Kahl, her Bachelor Pad partner in crime and the second half of the world's douchiest couple were hammering out their issues on the show.

Of course they were. But, things got awkward on Relationship Rehab (a new show debuting soon on VH1) when she was blindsided by the arrival of ... Lee Smith.

Vienna Girardi, Boyfriend

For those who don't keep tabs on Vienna Girardi - we're actually jealous of you - Lee dated V before she went on The Bachelor and got engaged to Pavelka.

Lee is also the guy she was allegedly sending flirty emails to - and exchanging bodily fluids with, according to him - while she was still engaged to Pavelka.

In any case, it got ugly last week. Vienna had an emotional breakdown and walked off the show, screaming at producers that she "hates" them. Ouch!!

She hasn't been back since and the show has finished shooting.

It's unclear if she violated her contract by ditching the show early, or if anyone cares, but you have to love that Vienna was surprised by such a move.

She's not smart.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/vienna-girardi-storms-off-relationship-rehab-set-after-lee-smith/

jeff probst jeff probst king jong il dead south korea baron davis duggar family dingo

escravoroger_rf: Esqueci o iPad ma casa dos meus pais. u_u

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
Esqueci o iPad ma casa dos meus pais. u_u escravoroger_rf

escravo roger{RF}

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/escravoroger_rf/statuses/150819180382392321

frank lucas lego man lego man cheryl hines john lackey john lackey ed lee

SonyStore: Did you hear? Sony Store Launches e-Gift Cards with Special $20 Bonus Card: http://t.co/nWUNHBYW

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
Did you hear? Sony Store Launches e-Gift Cards with Special $20 Bonus Card: ow.ly/89dr7 SonyStore

Sony Store US

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/SonyStore/statuses/150638166527852545

college football bowl schedule bcs double mastectomy 2011 bowl schedule bcs games kennedy center honors bcs championship

Want Face Unlock on your Nexus S? We've got it

Face Unlock

Because of the Samsung Nexus S' VGA front camera, face unlock was left out of the official and AOSP builds of last year's reference phone.  You know where this is going -- the files have been yanked out of the Galaxy Nexus and face unlock is working in all it's gimmicky goodness.  It's even working with a beard and glasses. 

It goes along great with a pair of AOSP builds and a few tweaks for the Nexus S twins, which are available as well.  This is why we love Android, open-source, and Nexus phones.  Ice Cream Sandwich is running better than most expected on year-old hardware, and we're having a blast playing with things.  We have the phones, we have the code, let's tear the roof off this mother.

Be sure to grab the right version for the right phone below.

Sprint only: AOSP 4.0.3 for the Nexus S 4G
AOSP 4.0.3 for the GSM Nexus S



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/iOg6p9c9y-I/story01.htm

kepler 22 b kepler 22 b rosie o donnell st nicholas st nicholas mindy mccready mindy mccready

Monday, December 26, 2011

hypervocal: Twitter needs WAY more jokes about Justin Tuck's recovering a fumble overturned by the Tuck Rule. Way more jokes.

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
Twitter needs WAY more jokes about Justin Tuck's recovering a fumble overturned by the Tuck Rule. Way more jokes. hypervocal

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/hypervocal/statuses/150681339534909441

mississippi personhood herman cain press conference joe frazier dead joe frazier dead topamax lexapro

Renewable energy: glossary of terms

Solar panels being fitted

Renewable energy is still a relatively new area for many farmers and landowners, so to kick off the New Year, Paul Spackman sheds some light on a few of the most common terms.

Advanced biofuel

Also known as "second generation" biofuels. Second generation processes use a wider range of feedstocks than conventional "first generation" processes, but technology is still under development. Many use BTL technology, including cellulosic biofuels

Anaerobic digestion (AD)

A biological process where bacteria breakdown organic matter under oxygen-free conditions to produce a biogas containing methane

Biobutanol

An "advanced biofuel" produced from biomass. Butanol is more similar to conventional gasoline than bioethanol, but more complex to produce

Biofuel

Generic term given to a range of fuels derived from some form of biomass. They can be a liquid (bioethanol or biodiesel), solid (wood chips, energy crops) or gas (methane biogas)

Biodiesel

Produced from plant oils via transesterification?? oils are mixed with methanol and sodium or potassium hydroxide to form fatty acid methyl esters (FAME, or biodiesel) and glycerol. Suitable crops include oilseed rape, palm, sunflower and soya bean

Bioethanol

Produced by the fermentation of plant-derived sugars and starch to ethanol. The fermentation process is similar to brewing: yeast digests the sugar and produces ethanol as a by-product. Ethanol is purified by distillation. Suitable crops include wheat, maize, sugar beet, sugar cane

Biogas

A combustible gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in anaerobic conditions (for example,?methane). Used to generate heat and electricity, or can be cleaned and concentrated into gas for the grid

Biomass

Any biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms. Includes everything from wood waste to other plant and animal matter

B100

Another name for pure (100%) biodiesel

Biomass-to-liquid (BTL)

Also known as second generation biodiesel production. It is the process which converts biomass into liquid biofuels and there are several different methods?? many include Fischer-Tropsch, hydrogenation or pyrolysis

Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

The sequential production of electricity and heat from the same fuel source

Co-firing

The process of burning energy crops such as miscanthus or wood chip alongside fossil fuels in power stations

Dried Distillers Grain with Solubles (DDGS)

A?high protein by-product of ethanol production used for livestock feed

Digestate

A nutrient-rich substance produced by anaerobic digestion that can be used as a fertiliser. It consists of left over indigestible material and dead micro-organisms. Often separated into solid and liquid portions prior to spreading on land

Digestor

The tank in which anaerobic digestion takes place. Many AD plants will have both a primary and a secondary digestor to maximise gas production

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS)

A study of the environmental effects of a proposed project

Energy crops

Crops grown specifically for their fuel value. Includes short rotation coppice (willow/poplar), miscanthus, sugar cane

Feedstock

Generic term for any biomass resource used for conversion to energy or biofuel

Feed-in Tariff (FiT)

An incentive scheme designed to promote the generation of renewable electricity production via long-term index-linked payments. Launched in April 2010. Payment rates vary depending on type and size of technology employed and are subject to periodic review

Fermentation

A biochemical reaction that breaks down complex organic molecules (for example,?carbohydrates) into simpler materials (such as ethanol, carbon dioxide, and water). Bacteria or yeasts can ferment sugars to bioethanol

Flex-fuel vehicle

A vehicle with a single fuel tank designed to run on varying blends of unleaded gasoline with either ethanol or methanol

Geothermal energy

Energy derived from the natural heat of the Earth contained in hot rocks, hot water, hot brines or steam

Greenhouse Gas (GHG)

The main greenhouse gas of concern due to global warming is carbon dioxide. Others include methane, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide

Glycerine

A liquid by-product of biodiesel production, used for making dynamite, cosmetics, inks, soaps, and lubricants

GTL Gas-to-liquid

Refinery process where gas is converted into liquid fuels

Hydrolysis

A chemical reaction that releases sugars. In bioethanol production, hydrolysis reactions are used to break down cellulose and hemicellulose in the biomass

Kilowatt

A measure of electrical power equal to 1,000W. Kilowatts are a measure of power, in the same way as a tractor's power is rated in horsepower?? 1hp is about 3/4 of a kW. Energy installations are often rated by their maximum power output in kW. Heat installations are measured as kW thermal (kWth)

Kilowatt hour (kWh)

A measure of total energy produced, one kWh being also known as a unit of electricity. Therefore a boiler of 500kW rating, running at full power for one hour, will produce 500kWh of heat. A 40kW generator running for 24 hours will produce 960kWh.

Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS)

An industry-funded assurance scheme to ensure the quality of renewable technology installations, companies and products. MCS-certified products and installation company needed to qualify for FiTs in sub-50kW category

Megawatt (MW)

A unit of power equal to one million watts

Methane

The odourless, flammable gas produced during anaerobic digestion. Can be captured and used to generate energy

Miscanthus

Also known as elephant grass. A perennial grass with high biomass yield. It can be baled and burned when used as an energy crop

Octane number

The octane rating of a fuel is indicated on the pump. The higher the number, the slower the fuel burns. Bioethanol typically adds two to three octane numbers when blended with ordinary petroleum

Power Purchase Agreement

A financial agreement between someone who generates electricity (eg farmer with solar panels) and an electricity buyer (eg utility company). Pricing conditions and length of term can vary

Pyrolysis

One way of converting biomass into biodiesel, using heat

Renewable Energy Directive/Fuel Quality Directive

A set of stretching renewables targets for 2020 across the EU. Includes targets for uptake of renewable fuels and sustainability criteria. The UK has submitted a National Action Plan to the European Commission, detailing how it will meet its obligations

Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)

Incentive for the generation of renewable heat?? similar to Feed-in Tariffs. RHI came opened to applications on 28 November 2011. Managed by DECC, but administered by Ofgem

Renewables Obligation

The main support scheme for renewable electricity projects in the UK. It places an obligation on UK electricity suppliers to source an increasing proportion of their electricity from renewable sources. Suppliers meet their obligations by presenting sufficient Renewables Obligation Certificates. Where suppliers do not have sufficient ROCs, they must pay an equivalent amount into a fund, the proceeds of which are paid back on a pro-rated basis to those suppliers that have presented ROCs.

Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC)

A green certificate issued to an accredited generator for eligible renewable electricity and supplied to customers within the UK. One ROC is issued for each megawatt hour (MWh) of eligible renewable output generated, although some technologies get more, some less

Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO)

The government's target for fuel suppliers to ensure that a given percentage of road vehicle fuel is derived from sustainable sources. It is administered by the Renewable Fuels Agency

Switchgrass

Native to the US and known for its hardiness and rapid growth. It is often cited as a potentially abundant second generation feedstock for ethanol

Transesterification

The chemical conversion process used to convert vegetable oils into biodiesel

Wet mill

A wet mill is an ethanol production facility where the corn is soaked in water before processing. Wet mills can produce by-products such as industrial starch, food starch, high fructose corn syrup, gluten feed and corn oils, alongside bioethanol

Source: http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2012/01/05/130758/renewable-energy-glossary-of-terms.html

nfl power rankings week 13 nfl power rankings week 13 patrice patrice tether lana peters lana peters

96% Tomboy

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (2)

Sciamma pictures the story in dappled sunlight and wooded fields that, though not far from dull apartment blocks, have an out-of-time seductiveness.

Open-minded and open-ended, Tomboy is a portrait of pubescence on the brink of chrysalis.

There are nevertheless some marvelous moments.

Coming-of-age tale tackles gender confusion with humor and heart.

Tomboy reveals a side of pre-adolescence rarely (if ever) depicted on the big screen, yet it never feels like a curiosity piece, nor is Laure (Zo? H?ran), the titular character, portrayed as an outsider from a troubled home.

Sciamma (Water Lilies) deserves great praise for what she has accomplished with a simple film addressing a complex subject.

"Tomboy" is so specific and intuitive that I kept thinking, "How do the filmmakers know this stuff?"

Tomboy captures a delicate moment in time before issues of sexuality so much more complicated and calculated.

As the sisters come to see that dresses and haircuts and behaviors are a means to create a self, to communicate with others, Tomboy doesn't offer an easy answer; instead, it lets you wonder why gender must be so definitive.

...a well-intentioned yet hopelessly inert piece of work.

Tomboy is a charming film about childhood and identity.

Seems like the first episode of a TV mini-series rather than a stand-alone feature film.

Against a backdrop of overly programmed 'issue dramas,' this superb movie is notable for its strong foundation in character and wholesale investment in psychological motivation, rather than salacious plotting.

Tomboy was the deserving Jury winner at the Berlin Film Festival of the Teddy Award for the Best Gay or Lesbian film.

a melding of youthful allure, keen dramatic structure and the delicate art of directing the young

Celine Sciamma is a filmmaking force to be reckoned with in the coming years. Her story-writing ability, deft hand at directing and understanding of her young actors makes her someone to watch.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tomboy_2011/

alec baldwin rock and roll hall of fame erin andrews erin andrews blagojevich sentence mythbusters cannonball uss arizona

Demi Lovato Goes Off on Disney for Eating Disorder Joke


The folks at Disney forced Demi Lovato out of the Christmas spirit last night.

The former star of Sonny With a Chance - who left that series earlier this year to battle personal problems that included an eating disorder - took MAJOR exception to a joke on the Disney Channel show Shake It Up this week, as a character quipped:

"I could just eat you up, well if I ate."

Demi Lovato in Parade

The line promoted the following Tweets from Lovato:

I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actress' from the pressures of an EATING DISORDER and yet still make joke about that very disease...

And is it just me or are the actress' [on Disney Channel] getting THINNER AND THINNER.... I miss the days of RAVEN, and LIZZIE MCGUIRE...

Dear Disney Channel, EATING DISORDERS ARE NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT.

The network, meanwhile, has actually responded and agreed with Lovato, releasing the following statement:

"We hear you & are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible & reevaluating them ... It’s NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders!"

Way to go, Demi! And happy holidays! Go stuff your face. You've earned it.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/demi-lovato-goes-off-on-disney-for-eating-disorder-joke/

nhl realignment kristin chenoweth country music awards new earth light year light year michelle rounds

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Peace Corps cites safety in pullout from Honduras (AP)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras ? Honduran officials on Friday lamented a U.S. decision to pull 158 Peace Corps volunteers out of the Central American country in January for safety reasons.

Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales said he believes the situation is temporary as Honduras works to restore peace and security in a country notorious for having the highest homicide rate in the world.

"The Peace Corps has done an outstanding job in our country," added Security Minister Pompey Bonilla. "We are dismayed by the pullout."

The government reaction came two days after the U.S. government announced it is suspending training for new Peace Corps volunteers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and bringing home 158 volunteers from Honduras. The current volunteers will remain in the other two countries.

All three make up the so-called northern triangle of Central America, a region plagued by drug trafficking and gang violence.

A recent U.N. report said Honduras and El Salvador have the highest homicide rates in the world with 82.1 and 66 per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively, in 2010. Guatemala had a rate of 41 per 100,000 last year. All three are more than double the homicide rate of 18 per 100,000 in Mexico, where drug violence has drawn world attention.

"The safety and security of all Peace Corps volunteers is the agency's highest priority," Director Aaron Williams said in a statement Wednesday. "During this time, we are going to conduct a full review of the program. We thank the people of Honduras for their strong support of Peace Corps over the years."

The Peace Corps has operated in Honduras since 1963, according to the statement, and more than 5,500 Americans have served there.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_peace_corps

zombie boy harvard yale julia child the descendants the descendants joe paterno lung cancer joe paterno lung cancer

Meet Canada?s team: top young players ready to fight for gold

Daniel Girard Sports Reporter

As always, the Canadians have assembled an impressive line-up.

A dozen of the 22 players on the roster of the host team and pre-tournament favourite for the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship, are first-round NHL draft picks. More than half have already played for Canada in other international competitions. Three have scored goals in the NHL this season.

Here?s a closer look at the players on Team Canada:

Goaltenders

Mark Visentin

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 194 pounds

Hometown: Waterdown, Ont.

Teams: Niagara (OHL), Phoenix (NHL)

Scouting Report: Had a great tournament a year ago and took over the starting job from Olivier Roy, which is forgotten because he gave up five goals in the third period in the gold-medal game collapse against Russia

Scott Wedgewood

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-1; Weight: 194 pounds

Hometown: Brampton, Ont.

Teams: Plymouth (OHL), New Jersey (NHL)

Scouting Report: Not ranked in the tops in any OHL goaltending categories, he?s a four-year Plymouth Whaler who won a spot on the roster because of his performance in the four-day selection camp

Defencemen

Jamie Oleksiak

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-7; Weight: 244 pounds

Hometown: Toronto

Teams: Saginaw (OHL), Dallas (NHL)

Scouting Report: Big but not overly physical blueliner who is mobile and moves the puck well, he holds dual citizenship and played for the U.S. at the 2009 Ivan Hlinka Tournament (U18) but has now chosen to play for Canada

Brandon Gormley

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 196 pounds

Hometown: Murray River, PEI

Teams: Moncton (QMJHL); Phoenix (NHL)

Scouting Report: Cut from the team at age 17 and injured just before selection camp at age 18, the point-a-game rearguard is just the second P.E.I. native to make the team after Brad Richards of the New York Rangers

Dougie Hamilton

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot-4; Weight: 192 pounds

Hometown: Toronto

Teams: Niagara (OHL); Boston (NHL)

Scouting Report: The leading scorer among OHL defencemen, he, along with older brother Freddie, is part of the second brother combination to play for Canada at the tournament following Randy and Mike Moller in 1982

Mark Pysyk

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 187 pounds

Hometown: Sherwood Park, Alta.

Teams: Edmonton (WHL); Buffalo (NHL)

Scouting Report: The only Albertan to crack the lineup for the tournament in his home province, head coach Don Hay describes him as a very dependable, solid defender who doesn?t play a high-risk game

Scott Harrington

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot-3; Weight: 200 pounds

Hometown: Kingston, Ont.

Teams: London (OHL); Pittsburgh (NHL)

Scouting Report: As an 18-year-old, he was considered to be a bit of a longshot to crack the lineup on the blueline but won over the coaches with his steady defensive play

Ryan Murray

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot; Weight: 201 pounds

Hometown: White City, Sask.

Teams: Everett (WHL); Eligible 2012 NHL draft

Scouting Report: Just back from a high ankle sprain that?s limited him to just 11 WHL games this season, the youngest member of the team and shortest defenceman is known for his maturity and solid defensive game

Nathan Beaulieu

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 189 pounds

Hometown: Strathroy, Ont.

Teams: Saint John (QMJHL); Montreal (NHL);

Scouting Report: An offensive defenceman who is very adept at moving the puck, sees the ice well, makes good decisions and passes and complements all of that skill with a good shot

Forwards

Jaden Schwartz

Age: 19; Height: 5-foot10; Weight: 190 pounds

Hometown: Wilcox, Sask.

Teams: Colorado College (NCAA); St. Louis (NHL)

Scouting Report: The captain, only player on the team from U.S. college and one of only four returnees, he was a stocky, first-line winger on last year?s team before an ankle break in the second game ended his tournament

Michael Bournival

Age: 19; Height: 5-foot-11; Weight: 191 pounds

Hometown: Shawingan-Sud, Que.

Teams: Shawingan (QMJHL); Montreal (NHL)

Scouting Report: Limited by injury to just 16 games so far this season, he?s still scored at a point-and-a-half-game pace and is expected to fill a variety of roles as a solid, two-way centre or winger

Jonathan Huberdeau

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot-1; Weight: 176 pounds

Hometown: St.-Jerome, Que.

Teams: Saint John (QMJHL); Florida (NHL);

Scouting Report: Out since Nov. 5 with a broken foot, he missed the entire selection camp but if the third overall pick in last June?s NHL entry draft can get his conditioning back he?ll bring some much-needed offensive punch

Brendan Gallagher

Age: 19; Height: 5-foot-8; Weight: 178 pounds

Hometown: Tsawwassen, B.C.

Teams: Vancouver (WHL); Montreal (NHL)

Scouting Report: An under-sized winger with coach Hay?s Vancouver Giants, he?s well on his way to a third straight 40-goal season in the WHL but is not afraid to mix it up and will bring some scrappiness to the lineup

Freddie Hamilton

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-1; Weight: 191 pounds

Hometown: Toronto

Teams: Niagara (OHL); San Jose (NHL)

Scouting Report: A slick-skating winger on pace to top his career-best 83-point total of a season ago, the older of the two Hamilton brothers he is a solid two-way player who was also an OHL scholastic player of the year

Brett Connolly

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 199 pounds

Hometown: Prince George, B.C.

Team: Tampa Bay (NHL)

Scouting Report: Another returnee from last year after being loaned to Canada by Tampa Bay, where he had four goals and four assists in 28 games. He?s a top-notch skater with great offensive skills and his hit on teammate Quinton Howden in an intra-squad game shows he?ll play physically

Tanner Pearson

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot; Weight: 198 pounds

Hometown: Kitchener, Ont.

Team: Barrie (OHL); Eligible for 2012 NHL draft

Scouting Report: Passed over in the NHL entry draft twice, he leads the OHL scoring race with 66 points in 30 games and has ?a great shot and good vision offensively,? according to Dale Hawerchuk, his head coach in Barrie

Mark Stone

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-3; Weight: 206 pounds

Hometown: Winnipeg

Teams: Brandon (WHL); Ottawa (NHL)

Scouting Report: While his skating is still a work in progress, he makes up for it with his size, willingness to play aggressively and along the boards and offensive talent, which has him leading the WHL in scoring

Ryan Strome

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot; Weight: 183 pounds

Hometown: Mississauga, Ont.

Teams: Niagara (OHL); New York Islanders (NHL)

Scouting Report: Expected to be the second-line centre behind Mark Scheifle, he?s gifted offensively and can score as well as set-up, which is clear from the 33 goals and 73 assists he had in 65 games last season

Mark Scheifle

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 192 pounds

Hometown: Kitchener, Ont.

Teams: Barrie (OHL); Winnipeg (NHL)

Scouting Report: A highly-skilled player who is very creative with the puck, he?s considered the top-line centre and with a two-point-per-game pace since returning to Barrie from a seven-game stint in the NHL, is full of confidence

Boone Jenner

Age: 18; Height: 6-foot-1; 205 pounds

Hometown: Dorchester, Ont.

Teams: Oshawa (OHL); Columbus (NHL)

Scouting Report: While he can score, his big asset is his ability to do all the gritty things well ? block shots, win faceoffs, work hard along the boards and play a solid, two-way game

Quinton Howden

Age: 19; Height: 6-foot-2; Weight: 187 pounds

Hometown: Oak Bank, Man.

Teams: Moose Jaw (WHL); Florida (NHL)

Scouting Report: One of four returnees from last year?s silver medal-winning team, he?s a great skater and plays well at both ends of the ice but was slowed in pre-tournament action by concussion-like symptoms following a hit by Brett Connolly in an intra-squad game

Devante Smith-Pelly

Age: 19; Height: 5-foot-11; Weight: 212 pounds;

Hometown: Scarborough, Ont.

Team: Anaheim (NHL)

Scouting Report: Loaned to Canada by Anaheim for the tournament after 26 NHL games, the former Mississauga St. Michael?s Major has the offensive skill to be on the top line but also promises to be a force physically

Source: http://www.thestar.com/sports/article/1106889--meet-canada-s-team-top-young-players-ready-to-fight-for-gold

penn state riot state college pa wilson ramos kidnapped mcqueary mike mcqueary joe paterno fired joe paterno fired