Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166812329?client_source=feed&format=rss
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সোমবার, ২৮ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
রবিবার, ২৭ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
George and Mitt Romney: Like father, like son, until a political parting point (Washington Post)
Prahalis has 25 as No. 18 Buckeyes top Stony Brook (AP)
COLUMBUS, Ohio ? Samantha Prahalis had 25 points and 11 assists in only 28 minutes to lead No. 18 Ohio State to an 84-37 rout of Stony Brook on Friday.
Prahalis equaled her season scoring average of 15 in the first half, despite sitting the final 5 minutes, and the Buckeyes (4-0) forced Stony Brook into missing 24 of its first 26 shots. Ohio State took a 42-12 lead into halftime, the fewest points the Buckeyes have allowed in a first half since leading Longwood 41-9 on Nov. 30, 2006.
The Buckeyes scored the game's first 10 points and it was all Prahalis, who had eight points and assisted on the other basket in the opening run. Tayler Hill added 16 points for the Buckeyes, who face No. 20 LSU at home on Sunday.
Jessica Previlon had seven points for Stony Brook (1-4).
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শনিবার, ২৬ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Lori Day: Does Humor Have a Liberal Bias?
I know this may come off a tad polarizing, but I think liberal comedians are funny as hell and they have no equals on the other side of the aisle. I stand a greater chance of seeing Russia from my house than spotting a genuinely funny conservative comedian anywhere in the continental United States.
There are so many hilarious liberal comedians. Think of the perpetually baffled Jon Stewart with his sharp tongue and soft heart; the slyly satirical Stephen Colbert masquerading as a conservative to dish up a heaping serving of irony; the smirky genius of Bill Maher, who never worries about being popular; enraged and frustrated Lewis Black, always on the verge of a primal scream; politically savvy Chris Rock, who takes no prisoners when it comes to issues of race; fast-talking, tongue-in-cheek Rachel Maddow with her intellectually captivating style; and the late George Carlin, who had the greatest gift on Earth for cutting through BS.
The list is endless.
But where oh where are the conservative political comedians? Rush? NO. Glenn Beck? GOD NO. Bill O'Reilly? SAME ANSWER. Fox News? YES -- but they aren't trying to be funny.
The current GOP candidates are drop-dead funny, but they also aren't trying to be. They're the manna from heaven that falls into the laps of left-wing talk show hosts who have the easiest job in the world these days.
I knew that I needed to do my homework and get out of my own media silo because there must be some amusing Republican comedians out there that I just don't know about. I decided to consult The Google. While I believe that notable conservative comedians must exist, I swear, searching online for them was like trying to find Bigfoot. I scrolled through link after link, but the deeper into the pages I went, the more obvious it became that I was unlikely to find any big names.
The most entertaining thing about the whole process was that well before I came upon any links to obscure right-wing comedians, I had to get through a whole bunch of Google queries that asked some version of "Why aren't there any conservative comedians?" I realized quite a lot of people were wondering the same thing as me. Most of them sounded completely flummoxed.
So all this got me thinking. Why don't there seem to be many well-known Republican comedians, and why are they entirely absent in Tea Party Land? The Dems have Jon Stewart and the GOP has... Rush Limbaugh? Just noticing something here. Stewart is on television and Limbaugh is on radio. There seems to be a left/right pattern along these lines. Why do conservatives dominate the airwaves, while liberals are masters of evening television comedy?
I think it's because radio format is just perfect for yelling into a microphone and ranting about Muslims, gays, feminists, blacks, immigrants, the ACLU, baby killers, and scientists. It's an equally ideal medium for the legions of right-wing acolytes awaiting instructions on how to think and who to hate. So maybe this is all hilarious if you get a chuckle out of material such as, oh, frothing-at-the-mouth racism or sexism, but I like to think better of most conservatives.
Over here on the left, this twilight zone of radio twaddle is not such a great medium for those who prefer to observe the world on their own terms and use humor to explore -- and survive -- the absurd.
While full of its own brand of nonsense, liberal political humor is whip-smart, satirical, and self-deprecating. Liberal comedians understand that laughter helps turn the pressure valve just a little bit clockwise. And it had better be all of these things for those of us attempting to cope sanely with today's political circus.
As Keith Olbermann says at the end of each of his evening talk shows, "Congratulations on surviving another day of this crap." No, congratulations to you, Keith, for helping us survive it with your witty, intelligent, respectful relationship with your audience, who, like you, don't suffer fools lightly. Thank you for not talking down to us or propagating bigotry. Thank you for being so goddamn funny when today's political world isn't. And thank you Current TV for hosting Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Who said Al Gore didn't have a sense of humor?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there are no conservatives who are funny or have an appreciation for humor. Of course there are. I just don't see them using it publicly.
(As a side note, I've recently acquired more Facebook friends back in the red state of my birth than I had actual friends when I was in school there, and lots of them lean right. Ok, so their teabagger rants often make me hide or unfriend them... hey, at least they're funny!)
Although there are not many conservative comedians who are well known in mainstream America, Dennis Miller just came to mind. He was a Democrat back in the days of SNL, but he is now the conservative go-to guy for Fox News when they want an infusion of comedy beyond what they are already providing their viewers through their interchangeable cast of blond spokesactresses and anchormodels, and the occasional talking mustache. Miller, although a famous face, has decidedly lost his edge, if he ever even was that funny. And I seriously can't think of any other conservative comedians who are household names.
Here's the thing: there are tons of liberal issues that might make excellent comedic fodder for conservatives if they could put aside the need for red-faced screaming apoplexy in their radio studios and lighten up a bit. For example, they may feel that workers having collective bargaining rights is a crime against humanity -- and that topic certainly lends itself to radio show tirades -- but how many more conservative voters might be reached with a humorous look at unions? I take that back. I never said it. Never mind.
Please allow me to leave you with the best example of liberal humor I've encountered this year on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart is a god! The thirteen seconds from 8:38 to 8:51 did almost kill me, leaving me kicking, convulsing and hypoxic in the fetal position on the floor. That image is on the house -- you're welcome.
After a workout like that, I survived the crap of another day, and so can you. Liberal political comedians rock!
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Follow Lori Day on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Lori_Day
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-day/liberal-comedians_b_1113600.html
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New Zealand polls open with premier riding high (AP)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? New Zealand voters are going to the polls Saturday in an election in which Prime Minister John Key enters with overwhelming popularity and a historic chance to win an outright majority for his center-right party.
Polling stations opened across the country at 9 a.m. local time and will remain open through 7 p.m. A winner is expected to emerge by 10 p.m.
If opinion polls hold, Key's National Party would be the first party to secure a majority on its own since the country abolished a winner-take-all voting system and replaced it in 1996 with a proportional one that generally results in a more fractured parliament.
Anything short of a majority, however, and Key will need to find political partners to form a stable government.
What's not in doubt is Key's personal popularity ? despite a scandal in recent days over a recorded conversation. After three years in power, polls show the former currency trader is far more popular than his main opponent, Labour party leader Phil Goff. Key has earned the nickname "Teflon John" for the way that nothing politically damaging seems to stick to him.
"He's a clever strategist and a good manager," said Jennifer Lees-Marshment, a political studies lecturer at the University of Auckland.
She said Key has been adept at knowing when to forge ahead with policies and when to pull back. His common touch was reassuring to people when a deadly earthquake struck Christchurch in February, she said, and enabled him to share in their excitement in October when the country's national All Blacks team won the Rugby World Cup.
Key's campaign has focused primarily on the economy. He's promising to bring the country back into surplus and begin paying down the national debt within three years. Part of his plan to achieve that is to sell minority stakes in four government-owned energy companies and in Air New Zealand.
That's where the center-left Labour party has found its biggest point of difference. Goff is promising not to sell anything and to raise money by other means, including by introducing a capital gains tax and by raising the age at which people get government pensions by two years to 67.
On the campaign trail, however, those issues got crowded out by something that became known as the teapot tape saga.
Key had invited media along to an Auckland cafe where he was meeting a political ally. After a photo opportunity, Key asked the media to leave in order to talk privately with the man.
However, one cameraman left a recording device running in a cloth pouch. Key complained to the police, saying it was an illegal recording of a private conversation. But the cameraman maintained that he'd taped the conversation inadvertently in the confusion of the media scrum, and besides, it wasn't a private setting anyway.
The tape has never been publicly aired, although opponents, who may have been leaked transcripts, claim the prime minister makes rude and embarrassing political comments. Three days before the election, police began serving search warrants on four media outlets, seeking the tape and related material.
Lees-Marshment said she thinks the saga had a curious effect. At first, she said, people thought Key might have something to hide. But then they tired of the attention given to the story, she said, and may have begun feeling more sympathetic toward Key.
"It became a story about the story," she said. "The voters got put off by it."
The saga certainly didn't seem to do much to boost the campaign of Goff, who was effectively shut out of any coverage for a few days. Labour's lackluster polling, about 28 percent, has pundits speculating Goff will be replaced as leader of the party within days of the election.
But the saga did seem to boost the fortunes of Winston Peters, who leads the small New Zealand First party. Peters grabbed the headlines with pointed criticism of Key over the affair and his poll numbers shot up.
Another winner in the election is likely to be the Green party, which is polling about 12 percent, putting it on target for its best ever showing.
Voters will also decide whether to keep their electoral system, in which parties get a proportion of parliamentary seats based on the proportion of the votes they receive. Some want to return to a winner-takes-all format, although polls indicate most favor sticking with their current system.
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শুক্রবার, ২৫ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Crowds hit stores for "Black Friday" deals (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Bargain hunters flocked to stores late Thursday and overnight Friday, searching for deals on big screen televisions, video games and toys while fretting about their own shaky economic well-being.
Some stores, looking to grab as big a piece as possible of what is expected to be a middling holiday shopping season pushed post-Thanksgiving openings into Thursday evening or opened at midnight for the first time in years, getting a jump start on "Black Friday," the traditional beginning to the U.S. holiday shopping season.
The strategy appeared to be working, judging from the 300 people who were lined up at a Toys R Us store on Long Island, New York before it opened at 9 p.m. on Thursday, while shoppers and employees at other stores said the crowds were bigger than in the past.
Shoppers were looking for bargains, but customers like James McBreaty were just what retailers wanted -- those who will also buy things beyond the "doorbuster" deals that retailers offer to entice customers.
"We came for the deals but we were just discussing if we will buy things that aren't discounted," McBreaty, 32, a paralegal who was waiting with his wife Nicole, said. "Most likely the entire store isn't discounted but we're here so we'll probably buy some crap anyway."
The National Retail Federation expects 152 million people to hit stores this weekend, up 10.1 percent from last year.
In reality, the shopping period has been underway for some time as retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Toys R Us started early by offering layaway programs.
Retailers from Amazon.com to Wal-Mart were also offering online deals as Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.
Retail executives and analysts are predicting a more competitive season than 2010. Unemployment still remains at 9 percent, European debt woes are weighing on the stock market and consumer confidence remains spotty.
NRF, an industry trade group, forecast a 2.8 percent increase in sales for the November-December holiday season, down from the 5.2 percent increase in 2010.
Some shoppers even feel as though the recession has returned, even if it has not shown up in economic data.
"This year, we are going to do shopping but I don't think it is going to be as much shopping as we usually do. Because of the recession, we are not going to shop as much," Desiree Schoolfield, 49, a public service profession from Queens who was shopping at the Toys R Us in Times Square, said.
REALLY EARLY START
Nelson Sepulveda, a building superintendent from Manhattan, was the first person in line at the Best Buy in Union Square, having queued up at 8 p.m. on Wednesday -- 28 hours before the store opened -- to get the $200 Sharp 42-inch LCD television, Play Station 3 games and other items he wanted.
NRF expects 152 million people to hit stores this weekend, up 10.1 percent from last year.
Wal-Mart, Old Navy, which is part of Gap Inc, and KMart, owned by Sears Holdings', were among the few retailers open on Thanksgiving.
Wal-Mart began offering Black Friday deals at 10 p.m. on Thursday.
To narrow the gap in store hours with rivals, discounter Target Corp, electronics chain Best Buy and department store chains Macy's Inc and Kohl's Corp will open at midnight - their earliest starts ever.
About 1,000 people were waiting in line at the opening of the Target in Farmingdale,
Those midnight openings drew online petition protests from store workers, and some shoppers also did not like the early openings.
"Tonight all the stores decided to open at midnight which is difficult when you're trying to enjoy dinner with your family," said Louis Clapper, 24, as he shopped at the Walmart in Farmingdale, New York. "Normally I leave the house at midnight, or 3-4 a.m. for a 5 a.m. opening. The stores are opening earlier and earlier."
For others, staying up late beat waking up for a 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. opening.
"Nobody really has to be out so early to come into the store. I really feel like that's better," Tosha Smith, 21, hotel attendant, lives in Queens, said while shopping at Macy's.
At Macy's in Herald Square, four Occupy Wall Street activists chanted "boycott Macy's" and "stop supporting big corporations" even as about 9,000 people lined up to shop at the store.
Others retailers, including J.C. Penney Co Inc, are opening early Friday morning as they did last year.
Wal-Mart started its Black Friday "doorbuster" deals on Thursday at 10 p.m. at its stores. Amazon.com Inc, not to be outdone, will offer its deals online at 9 p.m.
The knock-down-drag-out fight comes as the rebound in sales cooled in October, when many top chains like Macy's and Saks reported disappointing sales.
It will be even tougher for chains that have struggled with sales declines lately, like Gap and Penney.
Last year, after a strong Black Friday weekend, shoppers sat on their hands until closer to Christmas.
(Writing by Brad Dorfman in Milwaukee. Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan, Liana B. Baker and Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
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Josh Krajcik X Factor Performance: Wild, Awesome Horses
Move over, Susan Boyle. We have a new favorite cover of "Wild Horses."
On last night's two-hour edition of The X Factor, Josh Krajcik delivered his best audition yet, showcasing his versatility with a restrained, piano-based version of this classic single. It was a 180 from last week's rock 'n roll performance and made it clear that Melanie Amaro won't simply waltz to this year's title.
"You have the right amount of everything," L.A. Reid said, while Simon Cowell simply praised Josh for having a "great voice" and Nicole Scherzinger? She cried.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/josh-krajcik-x-factor-performance-wild-awesome-horses/
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৪ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Here's What Leonardo da Vinci's To-Do List Looked Like in 1490 [History]
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বুধবার, ২৩ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Bankruptcy hearing affects more than Harrisburg, finance experts ...
Debt-hobbled Harrisburg?s options might soon be whittled down to one: a state takeover.
Arguments begin this morning to help federal bankruptcy Judge Mary France decide whether City Council had the legal right to file its municipal bankruptcy petition last month. The hearing is expected to last several days.
More than the future of Harrisburg is at stake. Capital city employees could be hit with a commuter tax. Municipalities around the state could see higher borrowing costs, and bond markets around the world are concerned.
Should France decide that the council didn?t have the right to file for bankruptcy, the state takeover is a lock and a state-appointed receiver would take over Harrisburg?s finances. The receiver would be charged with implementing a fiscal-recovery plan for the city.
If France decides Harrisburg was within its rights to file, the council improves its chance of averting the takeover, but Harrisburg would have to jump through one more hoop to get into bankruptcy. France still would rule on whether the city?s fiscal crisis would allow it to receive bankruptcy protection.
And city officials still would be forced to develop a fiscal-recovery plan approved by the bankruptcy court if it gets Chapter 9, and City Council thus far has been unable to produce such a plan.
?What is at stake is the long-term growth and economic development of the city,? said municipal finance expert David Fiorenza, professor at Villanova University School of Business. ?A couple of things go into it. The Democratic majority on City Council, and you have a Republican governor. I think that plays into it. Some of it has to do with non-economic issues like pride.?
Mark Schwartz, the attorney the council hired to file its bankruptcy petition, will argue that the state?s Act 47 program did not give Harrisburg real relief from its $317 million in incinerator debt.
The commonwealth and Mayor Linda Thompson?s office will argue that the council did not have the legal right under the city code or state law to file for the Chapter 9 petition. The state and Thompson supported the adoption of the Act 47 fiscal-recovery plan council rejected.
Thompson?s plan mirrors the Act 47 plan that calls for selling or leasing city assets, cuts in services and increases in fees and taxes. The mayor also wants the option of instituting a commuter tax on workers who live outside the city.
But bankruptcy could be the end result even if a takeover should take place, said Juliet Moringiello, a bankruptcy law professor at Widener University School of Law. Council members supported bankruptcy because a court could approve a plan that calls for bondholders to accept less than what they are owed.
?There is a third option out there. It might be possible the receiver tries to get through a plan and not all the creditors agree to it,? Moringiello said. ?It could be in the best interest of the receiver to file for bankruptcy. The receiver for Central Falls, R.I., filed its bankruptcy.?
No municipality that has entered the Act 47 program has exited it, and some towns use the program as a crutch, said Fiorenza, who also is a member of the Pennsylvania and National Government Finance Officers Association.
That could be a valid argument the council uses in bankruptcy court, he said.
A takeover still is better for the city than bankruptcy, though, because Harrisburg would continue to get state assistance in developing a fiscal-recovery plan and bankruptcy paints a bad picture for the capital city, Fiorenza said.
?Act 47 brings into play people who work in economic development throughout the entire commonwealth. So, [a takeover] would bring a broader sense of what kind of city it can be,? he said. ?With bankruptcy, I think just the perception of the public throughout the commonwealth and the nation lends itself to failure. It?s failure with people?s tax money.?
Harrisburg and Jefferson County, Ala., filed for municipal bankruptcies during the past month, but Chapter 9 filings are rare.
A decision regarding Harrisburg?s legal right to file for bankruptcy will not set a precedent because the city?s situation is so unique, Moringiello said.
?If it were about the judge granting orders for relief and plan confirmation issues, it might be precedental. But we?re not there yet and we might not ever be,? she said.
Harrisburg essentially already is in bankruptcy, as its filing has stayed lawsuits creditors filed against the city, Moringiello said.
?The city is in bankruptcy. What it hasn?t gotten yet is an order for relief. Once an individual is in bankruptcy, it gets an order of relief. For Chapter 9, [municipalities] gets the benefit of an automatic stay [of lawsuits],? she said. If the city is accepted into bankruptcy, lawmakers argue it would shake up the municipal bond market in Pennsylvania and perhaps across the nation.
That isn?t necessarily the case, however, said Bill Brandt Jr., president and CEO of Development Specialists Inc., an Illinois firm that specializes in turning around troubled companies.
The bond market is built to sustain one-off situations that devastate municipalities, and it definitely will not rock the international bond market, Brandt said. Brandt said he doesn?t believe Harrisburg will be accepted into Chapter 9. But how the debt crisis is handled could affect the municipal bond market across the state.
?Like everything else in life, how it is handled will absolutely affect how other Pennsylvania bonds are seen in the marketplace,? Brandt said.
Schwartz said the state takeover is moving too fast and in a response to DCED?s receivership petition to the Commonwealth Court, he asked the for a stay of the takeover until France rules on the legality of the city?s bankruptcy filing.
Thompson asked the court Tuesday to require David Unkovic, whom Gov. Tom Corbett has chosen as city receiver, to implement her fiscal-recovery plan for the city. She also requested the court only allow the receiver to control the city?s purse strings for a year.
Takeover time line
State officials are proceeding with the state takeover of Harrisburg on the premise that the city didn?t have the legal right to file for bankruptcy. The following are key dates pertaining to the takeover process:
? Tuesday: The date parties must file objections with Commonwealth Court against Gov. Tom Corbett?s pick of David Unkovic as city receiver.
? Dec. 1: Commonwealth Court will hold a public hearing on Unkovic?s nomination for receiver.
? Jan. 17: Commonwealth Court must rule on Unkovic?s nomination by this date. ?
Unkovic would have 30 days after his appointment to develop and implement a recovery plan for the city.
Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/bankruptcy_hearing_affects_mor.html
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L-3 Communications Raises Funds
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LLL) announced that L-3 Communications Corporation, its wholly owned subsidiary, has made an public offering of 3.95% Senior Notes worth $500 million due November 15, 2016.
L-3 Communications? intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to redeem $500 million of its outstanding $1 billion aggregate principal amount of 6.375% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2015. However, the offer will refinance the half the outstanding notes due 2015. The 2.425% fall in interest expense owing to the refinancing of $500 million worth of notes will lead to annual savings of around $12.1 million or 12 cents per share.
Headquartered in New York City, L-3 Communications is a prime contractor in C3ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems, aircraft modernization and maintenance, and government services. L-3 is also a leading provider of a broad range of electronic systems used on military and commercial platforms. The company reported fiscal 2010 sales of $15.7 billion.
L-3 Communications stands out among pure defense players by virtue of its non-platform focus, broad diversification of programs, strong order bookings and funded order backlog of $11.5 billion versus $11.1 billion at fiscal end-2010.
Revenue and earnings growth continues to be driven by its strong presence in the current focus areas of C3ISR equipment, precision-guided weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other electro-mechanical robotic capabilities, networked information technologies, special operations forces and missile defense.
L-3 Communications? strong balance sheet provides financial flexibility in matters of incremental dividend, ongoing share repurchase and earnings accretive acquisitions. As of third quarter-end of 2011, the company had a low long-term debt-to-capitalization of 37.4% (Zacks industry average was 42.4%) with a total long-term debt of $4.1 billion, along with cash holdings of $538 million and an unutilized credit facility close to $990 million.
L-3 Communications? topline is spread over a large number of contracts, which are in process. In fiscal 2010, its largest contract in terms of annual sales was the Army Fleet Support contract with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, which accounted for only 3% of its sales. A diversified revenue base insulates the financial performance of the company from any contract-specific risk.
L-3 Communications? presently retains a short-term Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term Hold rating. We have a long-term Neutral recommendation on the stock. In-lieu of the uncertainty in the movement of the defense budget the sideways stance is consistent with its peers like Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) and FLIR Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR).
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FLIR SYSTEMS (FLIR): Free Stock Analysis Report
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Source: http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2011/11/21/l-3-communications-raises-funds/
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মঙ্গলবার, ২২ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Chronic fatigue researcher arrested in US
Controversial chronic fatigue researcher Judy Mikovits is in police custody in the US and facing allegations relating to a civil lawsuit filed by her former employer.
The Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) in Reno, Nevada, has accused Mikovits of appropriating lab notebooks, a laptop and other electronic data following her sacking on 29 September. On 7 November, it won a restraining order requiring Mikovits to return the alleged material and forbidding her destroying, deleting or altering it.
Mikovits was arrested on 18 November as a "fugitive from justice", and denied bail.
The arrest is another twist in a saga that began in 2009 when Mikovits's team claimed to have found a link between a mouse leukaemia virus and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Several teams failed to repeat the results and some authors on the original paper retracted their contribution blaming contamination.
Mikovits's lawyer said she does not have any items from WPI. As New Scientist went to press a hearing was set for 22 November to extend the restraining order.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
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সোমবার, ২১ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Analysis: Obama gets little pushback on Asia trip (AP)
BALI, Indonesia ? An assertive President Barack Obama got much of what he wanted during his Asia-Pacific trip because the results didn't depend on negotiating with the world.
He mostly just announced them.
Obama expanded the U.S. military presence in southeast Asia, sent tough signals to China in its backyard, ordered his top diplomat on a breakthrough mission to Myanmar and presided over the jobs-creating sale of Boeing planes to an Indonesian airline company.
It was a trip on his terms, unlike the dynamic he has with the U.S. Congress.
Obama might as well have borrowed his mantra of "We Can't Wait" ? a slogan from his re-election campaign ? and applied it to his foreign agenda.
Still, Obama returns home without any firm commitments from Russia or China over stiffer penalties against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Obama insisted that the three countries were unified on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and he said in general terms that they would figure out the next steps together.
The president has few lasting images to show from the nine-day trip, which was ending Sunday with his return to the White House. One was the scene aboard a docked aircraft carrier in San Diego, where Obama saluted veterans and watched a college basketball game.
But much of his time was spent in summit ballrooms, without defining moments of diplomacy or much engagement with local citizens.
Far from Washington, Obama had few domestic distractions on his nine-day trip. That allowed him to stay on his message of trade, security and human rights.
The region was eager for America's presence and influence, often as a counter to China's might. So Obama held more sway and ran into less visible pushback, except for bristling from the Chinese. The White House was careful not to promise too much from this trip all along, making its goals all that much more possible to achieve.
This was not, for example, the Middle East, where Obama's many attempts to pull the Israelis and Palestinians back together have left him little to show.
It did not hurt that Obama had home-field advantage for about half the time he was away.
The United States hosted the yearly Asia-Pacific economic forum for the first in about 20 years. For the site, Obama chose Hawaii, the American foothold in the Pacific and his birthplace.
When he made time to squeeze in a political fundraiser outside Honolulu, Obama saw longtime friends and acknowledged the bias for "the hometown kid."
In Hawaii and across Australia and Indonesia, the goal was to show a deep U.S. commitment to the fastest growing part of the world. It is a message with major implications. For example, which region may suffer from coming U.S. defense cuts (not Asia) and how the Obama administration sees a way out of economic stagnation (definitely Asia).
Getting the relevance of that message through to voters at home was another matter.
Obama had stretches without much news and competed for media coverage with the Penn State child sex abuse scandal and the politics of the 2012 election.
To the degree Americans saw Obama on the world stage, he looked comfortable and confident. That was surely a picture the White House enjoyed. Compare that with Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's "oops" debate moment when he forgot that the Energy Department was one of the agencies he wanted to eliminate or Herman Cain's bungling of a basic question about Libya in a videotaped interview.
Right before this trip came Obama's visit to France for a meeting of the world's major economies. There, Europe was the driver and Obama seemed secondary.
Not the next trip.
In Hawaii, Obama announced at least a framework of a deal for a new Pacific trade zone with eight other countries. Then Japan, Canada and Mexico showed interest.
Asked often about China, he offered familiar assurances that the U.S. wants to China to grow without containment, but he did so while admonishing the rising Asian giant.
Obama sent a message to China about its military buildup, following earlier signals from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. When Obama said the United States is a Pacific power, China was listening. That was especially true when Obama ordered Marines to start setting up a hub of operation in Australia.
As the president put it: "We will preserve our unique ability to project power and deter threats to peace."
That declaration came after he had already challenged China to show more maturity in its economic relations with other nations.
"That requires them to take responsibility, to understand that their role is different now than it might have been 20 years ago or 30 years ago, where if they were breaking some rules, it didn't really matter, it did not have a significant impact," Obama said. "Now they've grown up, and so they're going to have to help manage this process in a responsible way."
By the final stretch in Indonesia, where Obama joined East Asian leaders to talk about matters of disaster responses and security on the open sea, he had one more move to make.
He announced that he was sending Clinton to Myanmar to take stock of a fledgling reform movement after years of brutal repression. The U.S. had not made such an overture to Myanmar, also known as Burma, in decades, and Obama didn't need any legislative approval to seize what he called an historic opportunity.
"Millions of people may get the chance to live with a greater measure of freedom, prosperity, and dignity. And that possibility is too important to ignore," he said.
In other words, he won't wait.
____
EDITOR'S NOTE ? AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller has covered the Bush and Obama presidencies.
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UFC 139 all-timer: Henderson wins 25-minute classic against Rua
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dan Henderson has put on some amazing shows over the years, but Saturday night may have been his best.? In a all-time classic fight, Henderson stumbled to the finish line, but he did so much heavy damage over the first three rounds that he earned a unanimous decision victory, 48-47 on all scorecards, over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in the main event of UFC 139 at the HP Pavilion.
UFC analyst Joe Rogan said multiple times during the post-fight interviews in the Octagon that the bout was one of the greatest MMA fights in history. It just might have been. Both fighters escaped terrible predicaments and landed shots that would've finish most opponents at light heavyweight. They both held on and survived in those situations.
It was a tale of two fights. Henderson had Rua in trouble in each of the first three rounds. His jackhammer right hands had nearly closed Rua's left eye after 15 minutes. Henderson outlanded Rua 106-66 in the first three.
That's when the championship rounds arrived. Earlier this year, the UFC decided to make all main events, title and non-title fights, five rounds.
Henderson, 41, spent so much energy trying to pound out Rua that he was exhausted in the fourth and fifth. Rua almost took him out in the fourth. Henderson stumbled around the cage over the final 90 seconds with his hands down by his sides. In the fifth, Rua scored a takedown with 4:25 left in the fight and Henderson never got up. Rua mounted Henderson several times. He outlanded Henderson 84-19 down the stretch.
Cagewriter scored the final round 10-8 for Rua, but none of the judges did. If they had, their scores would have matched the 47-47 we had as the final outcome.
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রবিবার, ২০ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Warren Beatty's Trans Son Calls Chaz Bono a Misogynist
Chaz Bono isn't the only transgender son of a celebrity couple. Stephen Ira Beatty (born Kathlyn), the eldest child of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, is also an F-to-M man, and he has a big problem with Bono acting like a spokesperson for the trans community.
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Speedy software designed to improve drug development
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Creating new, improved pharmaceuticals is sometimes very similar to cracking the code of a combination lock. If you have the wrong numbers, the lock won't open. Even worse, you don't know if your numbers are close to the actual code or way off the mark. The only solution is to simply guess a new combination and try again.
Similarly, when a newly created drug doesn't bind well to its intended target, the drug won't work. Scientists are then forced to go back to the lab, often with very little indication about why the binding was weak. The next step is to choose a different pharmaceutical "combination" and hope for better results. Georgia Tech researchers have now generated a computer model that could help change that blind process.
Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) allows scientists to study interactions between molecules, such as those between a drug and its target. In the past, computer algorithms that study these noncovalent interactions have been very slow, limiting the types of molecules that can be studied using accurate quantum mechanical methods. A research team headed by Georgia Tech Professor of Chemistry David Sherrill has developed a computer program that can study larger molecules (more than 200 atoms) faster than any other program in existence.
"Our fast energy component analysis program is designed to improve our knowledge about why certain molecules are attracted to one another," explained Sherrill, who also has a joint appointment in the School of Computational Science and Engineering. "It can also show us how interactions between molecules can be tuned by chemical modifications, such as replacing a hydrogen atom with a fluorine atom. Such knowledge is key to advancing rational drug design."
The algorithms can also be used to improve the understanding of crystal structures and energetics, as well as the 3D arrangement of biological macromolecules. Sherrill's team used the software to study the interactions between DNA and proflavine; these interactions are typical of those found between DNA and several anti-cancer drugs. The findings are published this month in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
Rather than selling the software, the Georgia Tech researchers have decided to distribute their code free of charge as part of the open-source computer program PSI4, developed jointly by researchers at Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, the University of Georgia and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It is expected to be available in early 2012.
"By giving away our source code, we hope it will be adopted rapidly by researchers in pharmaceuticals, organic electronics and catalysis, giving them the tools they need to design better products," said Sherrill.
Sherrill's team next plans to use the software to study the noncovalent interactions involving indinavir, which is used to treat HIV patients.
###
Georgia Institute of Technology: http://www.gatech.edu
Thanks to Georgia Institute of Technology for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115294/Speedy_software_designed_to_improve_drug_development
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শনিবার, ১৯ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Deciding Between Heritage and Hard Cash in Afghanistan (Time.com)
Many in Afghanistan hold that the country's future lies underground, in vast mineral deposits with the potential to boost the country's economy for decades. Nowhere is that more true than Mes Aynak. The ancient mine, 30 km south of Kabul in Logar province, is believed to be the world's second largest untapped copper source. According to Afghanistan's Mining Ministry, the site is worth tens of billions of dollars at today's prices. Extracting the metal could deliver thousands of jobs and $1.2 billion in revenue a year to a country in desperate need as international assistance dries up ahead of the planned U.S. and NATO withdrawal in 2014.
Copper, however, is not the only treasure at Mes Aynak. Archaeologists are also excavating an ancient Buddhist temple complex located on top of the deposits. It has so far yielded manuscripts, Buddha statues and stunning ancient architecture. The discovery rivals Machu Picchu in terms of historic import, says Philippe Marquis, a French archaeologist overseeing the project, and could also rewrite the history of Buddhism and the Silk Road. (See "Why Afghanistan Is Far from Hopeless.")
In a reversal of the theory that religious centers grew up alongside but separate from commercial activity, Marquis and his team suspect that in Mes Aynak, religious leaders may have actually directed copper mining and refining and used the monastery network to trade the metal as far away as Japan and Korea. "People always talk about the Silk Road," says Marquis. "What if it was the Copper Road or the Buddhist Road that established trade across the region?"
The clock, however, is ticking. The Chinese-government-backed China Metallurgical Group Corp., which successfully bid on the mine in 2007, wanted to start mining in '09. The work will destroy the temple complex, so the group agreed to a three-year pause for a basic excavation. The short window is emblematic of the difficult compromises that must be made as Afghanistan struggles to balance financial and cultural concerns. "I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that the Buddha statues would last far longer than copper in terms of generational value," says Laura Tedesco, an archaeologist and manager of the U.S. embassy's cultural-heritage programs. "But the needs of the country right now are in the revenue from the mine." (Read "Afghanistan's Buddhas Can Be Rebuilt. But Should They?")
Mes Aynak's more recent history is less glorious than its ancient past. The hidden valley, located at the end of a dusty road that zigzags past rocky hills streaked with chalky green stains of oxidizing copper, was once an al-Qaeda training ground. No one has found graffiti from Osama bin Laden yet, but most archaeologists familiar with the site agree that the terrorist group, among others, looted statues to sell on the international antiquities black market. According to a recent article in the Journal of Art Crime, Mohammad Atta, the lead hijacker in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, attempted to sell looted artifacts from Afghanistan to a German archaeologist in order to fund his Florida flight training.
The irony is that although the Chinese mine will eventually destroy the archaeological site, it has contributed to the protection of its artifacts. "We have enough examples of other Buddhist sites in Afghanistan destroyed because of looting, ignorance and lack of care," says Marquis. But because of the international attention brought to Mes Aynak in the wake of the Chinese bid, archaeologists now have some $50 million from the World Bank, USAID and other foreign donors to invest in excavation and the construction of a nearby interpretive museum. Security for the mine also helps protect the archaeologists, and the site, from nearby insurgents. Besides, Marquis adds, the ancient mud construction materials and unbaked-clay statues would not last long exposed to the Afghan elements. "The fact is that preservation in situ would be impossible." (Read "Why the U.S. Will Never Save Afghanistan.")
If Marquis's theories are correct, copper once made Afghanistan the hub of central Asian trade. And if he and his team of archaeologists dig fast enough, Mes Aynak could yet restore some of Afghanistan's regional luster, not just in copper, but in culture as well.
See photos of making movies in Afghanistan.
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
View this article on Time.com
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শুক্রবার, ১৮ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Boxee Box Live TV dongle shipping for $49 in January 2012, pre-orders open today
Boxee Live TV works with signals from HDTV antennas (using ATSC) or an unencrypted cable connection (using ClearQAM), and a portable antenna is included. Users who live out in the 'burbs may want to consider something a bit beefier, and if you're hoping to use this thing with something other than the Boxee Box... well, keep dreaming. In fact, Boxee has confirmed that even the forthcoming update of its Boxee software for Mac and PC won't support the device, so you'll be forced to pony up for D-Link's hardware if you're looking to party. There's also no DVR function in sight (sort of defeating the purpose, given just how many TVs have tuners already), but hey -- who knows what'll roll out at CES. Pre-orders are available down in the source link, with $49 claiming your spot in line.
Boxee Box Live TV dongle shipping for $49 in January 2012, pre-orders open today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ১৭ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Piranhas bite toes off swimmers in Brazil
SAO PAULO?? Thousands of flesh-eating piranhas have infested a beach popular with tourists in western Brazil and have bitten at least 15 unwary swimmers, authorities said Wednesday.
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Officials in the city of Caceres in Mato Grosso state said this is the first time they have had a problem with piranhas at the Daveron beach on the Paraguay river, where the aggressive fish began schooling about two weeks ago.
"People have got to be very careful. If they're bitten, they've got to get out of the water rapidly and not allow the blood to spread," firefighter Raul Castro de Oliveira told Globo TV's G1 website.
Elson de Campos Pinto, 22, was bitten Sunday.
"I took a dip in the river and when I stood up, I felt pain in my foot," Pinto told G1. "I saw that I had lost the tip of my toe. I took off running out of the river, afraid that I would be further attacked because of the blood. I'm not going back in for a long time."
City officials said the beach will remain open because it's an important draw for tourists in Brazil's Pantanal region, known for its ecotourism.
Each September, Caceres hosts what local officials bill as Brazil's biggest fishing festival, a weeklong event that draws 200,000 people for fishing tournaments and concerts.
Gonzaga Junior, a spokesman for the city government, said he didn't think the piranha attacks would hurt that event since it is many months away.
He tried to put the best face on the problem.
"Everyone knows there are piranhas in the region and have always taken the necessary precautions," he said. "What is different this time is that they've appeared where they never appeared before."
The city has seen far fewer people than normal use the beach recently because of the piranha attacks. It was deserted Tuesday, a national holiday in Brazil, normally a heavy beach day.
Officials have put up large signs warning swimmers about the piranhas, reading in blood red letters: "Attention swimmers. Area at risk of piranha attacks. Danger!"
Local fisherman Hildegard Galeno Alves said that when he throws out a fishing net near the beach of late he catches numerous piranhas.
"I come here with my kids and I always see blood on the river banks," he told G1. "The worst is that the attacks are in shallow water, next to the bank."
Despite making his living off the river, Alves left no doubt about his feelings for the water.
"I would never even think of going in there," he said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45328989/ns/world_news-americas/
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বুধবার, ১৬ নভেম্বর, ২০১১
Ex-prosecutor knocks Casey Anthony lawyer, jurors
FILE - In this July 4, 2011, file photo, Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton gives the final rebuttal in the Casey Anthony murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla. Ashton takes aim at the Florida mother's attorneys in his new book, "Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony," calling her lead counsel "smarmy." (AP Photo/Red Huber, Pool, File)
FILE - In this July 4, 2011, file photo, Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton gives the final rebuttal in the Casey Anthony murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla. Ashton takes aim at the Florida mother's attorneys in his new book, "Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony," calling her lead counsel "smarmy." (AP Photo/Red Huber, Pool, File)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? A retired prosecutor from the Casey Anthony murder trial calls her lead attorney "smarmy" in a new book and says he didn't think a jury would ever agree to the death penalty for the Florida mother, who was ultimately acquitted of killing her 2-year-old daughter.
Jeff Ashton writes in Tuesday's "Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony" that he would have been happier if the prosecution team had left the death penalty off the table. He also confirmed that toward the end of the trial, Anthony's attorneys tried to persuade the 25-year-old to accept a plea deal but she refused to listen.
"Personally, I think I would have been happier if the death penalty had not been reintroduced into the case, even though I think on some level I think Casey may have deserved it," Ashton said in the 324-page book. "Simply put, I just didn't think the jury would go there."
As it turns out, Anthony refusal to accept a deal paid off. Jurors in July acquitted her in the killing of her daughter, Caylee, and she was released from prison, though she is in hiding somewhere in Florida, serving probation for an unrelated check fraud case.
Ashton's book is the first account written by one of the key players in the trial that captured the attention of the nation last summer. The 54-year-old career prosecutor retired as planned after the trial, following 30 years of trying cases.
The film and television rights for the book have already been bought by Fox Television Studios, studio spokeswoman Leslie Oren said. The project is being developed for the Lifetime cable network.
In the book, Ashton takes direct aim at Anthony's defense attorneys, specifically Jose Baez, whom he says he genuinely dislikes. He said Baez was careless with the facts, unmindful of deadlines and encouraged Anthony to be uncooperative with detectives searching for her daughter.
"There is an unearned air of arrogance about the man that is incredibly frustrating to witness," Ashton writes. "The word I used in describing Jose is smarmy: somebody who is slick, underhanded and doesn't shoot straight."
Baez said in a statement that Ashton's characterizations were false.
"Having read several of the comments Mr. Ashton makes in his new book, I am both surprised and somewhat disappointed he has chosen to attack me on a personal level," Baez said. "Without going into specific detail, I will say only that many of his accusations are absolutely false."
Ashton also displays an unflattering view of the jurors. He wrote they seemed to give a lot of thought and discussion to which movies they wanted to watch or which restaurants to go to while they were sequestered. Yet no juror asked a single question about the evidence during deliberation.
"From the moment our jury had been fielded ... we'd had concerns over their apparent absence of strong opinions as well as over the amount of effort they seemed willing to expend on this," Ashton writes. "In retrospect, I think those concerns were justified."
Three jurors gave television interviews immediately after the verdict, but they have since refused to talk to reporters about the case.
Ashton said people who disagreed with the acquittal and still think Anthony was guilty should leave her alone and ignore her, in hopes she'll fade from the public memory.
"My advice to people who are angry about this is to ignore Casey, and I hope that's what they do," he said on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday.
"I hope that someday, and I know this probably won't happen, the name Casey Anthony will invoke a 'who's that?'"
The book, for the first time, also discloses the results of two psychological evaluations taken of Anthony.
Two defense psychologists who did the evaluations never testified. But Anthony told the psychologists that she was sexually abused by her father, Ashton wrote.
As part of their defense, Anthony's attorneys said Caylee drowned in the family swimming pool, and that her father, a former police officer, helped cover it up. Anthony's partying and shopping during the month before her daughter was reported missing was caused in part by her father's sexual abuse, according to the defense theory. Her father, George Anthony, repeatedly denied those claims in court and afterward.
One psychologist expressed apprehension about his evaluation being used to support that defense theory, Ashton writes, especially since Anthony had scored in a normal range on a test designed to discover mental disorders. The other psychologist gave Anthony a battery of tests to diagnose stress from trauma such as sexual molestation. The tests didn't support the theory that she had been molested, Ashton writes.
A few weeks before trial, prosecutors met with George Anthony, and his wife, Cindy, to give them a heads-up about the molestation accusations that the defense planned to use at trial.
"George looked like he had been crying, like someone had just killed Caylee all over again," Ashton writes. "He was just devastated."
More than six months after she disappeared, a meter reader found Caylee's remains in a swampy, wooded area near where she lived with her mother and grandparents. Ashton said in the book that law enforcement and volunteers never examined that area until Roy Kronk reported seeing the remains there in December 2008.
"In the end, Murphy's Law prevailed: everyone assumed that someone else had searched there, but in fact no one actually had," Ashton writes. "Everyone, including law enforcement, assumed that the most obvious place had to have been combed and given the all clear ? which just proves the adage about what happens when you assume. Everybody ends up looking like and ass and a nation spent an extra four months searching around the country for a lost little girl who was a quarter mile from home."
A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, the lead agency investigating Caylee's disappearance and death, said Monday that pinpointing a place to search for the toddler was challenging.
"Mr. Ashton, as part of the prosecution team, was well aware of the difficulties in establishing a starting point," Capt. Angelo Nieves said. "Casey Anthony told numerous lies to law enforcement throughout the investigation concerning her daughter's whereabouts."
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