charles addams republican debate tonight tinker tailor soldier spy rich forever rick ross project runway all stars elin nordegren tangled ever after
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
WiGig's Super-Fast Transfer Demo Is a Glimpse of a Magical Future World [Video]
Dems: Fast & Furious just 1 of 4 misguided probes (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Democrats looking into Operation Fast and Furious say a yearlong investigation has turned up no evidence that the flawed gun smuggling probe was conceived or directed by high-level political appointees at Justice Department headquarters.
The probe, the Democrats say, was just one of four such operations that were part of a misguided five-year-long effort, during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, in the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against firearms trafficking along the Southwest border.
"Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office," the report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says.
It is expected to differ sharply with the conclusions of Republicans, who will question Attorney General Eric Holder about Operation Fast and Furious at a hearing Thursday before the committee.
Beginning six years ago, according to the Democrats' report, ATF agents in Phoenix devised a strategy to forgo arrests against low-level straw purchasers of guns while attempting to build bigger cases against higher-level traffickers, a risky tactic known as gun-walking.
"The committee has obtained no evidence indicating that the attorney general authorized gun-walking or that he was aware of such allegations before they became public," said the Democrats' report, "Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona." "None of the 22 witnesses interviewed by the committee claims to have spoken with the attorney general about the specific tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious prior to the public controversy."
Rather than halting operations after flaws became evident, the ATF's Phoenix division "launched several similarly reckless operations over the course of several years, also with tragic results," the report said. "Each investigation involved various incarnations of the same activity: Agents were contemporaneously aware of illegal firearms purchases, they did not typically interdict weapons or arrest straw purchasers, and firearms ended up in the hands of criminals on both sides of the border."
Operation Fast and Furious came to light following the December 2010 slaying of U.S. border agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz. Two guns connected to suspects in the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the Terry murder scene.
Operation Fast and Furious was the fourth such ATF gun-walking probe, according to the Democrats' report, which was based on documents collected by the committee.
The first gun-walking probe, said the report, was Operation Wide Receiver, in which ATF agents, for over a year starting in 2006, watched traffickers buying guns from a gun dealer and driving them across the border into Mexico. According to a memo by William Newell, who was in charge of the Phoenix division at the time, one of the suspects told the gun dealer that the "firearms are going to his boss in Tijuana, Mexico, where some are given out as gifts." ATF officials believed they had sufficient evidence to arrest and charge the suspects, but as one agent said at the time, "we want it all," according to an email between two ATF supervisors in Arizona.
A year after Wide Receiver began, ATF initiated attempts to coordinate with Mexican officials. Numerous attempts at cross-border interdiction failed, according to the Democrats' report, with ATF agents expressing concern over the operation.
In a 2007 case, ATF agents targeted Fidel Hernandez and several alleged co-conspirators who purchased over 200 firearms and were believed to be transporting them into Mexico.
William Hoover, then ATF's assistant director of field operations, temporarily halted operations after being informed of several attempts at coordinating with Mexican law enforcement authorities.
The defendants were brought to trial in 2009, but acquitted after prosecutors were unable to obtain the cooperation of the Mexican law enforcement officials who had recovered firearms purchased by Hernandez.
In a 2008 case, ATF agents in Phoenix focused for a year on a network of illicit gun buyers who were purchasing weapons from the same gun dealer who had cooperated in Operation Wide Receiver.
Members of the network, led by Alejandro Medrano, were eventually sentenced to multiyear prison terms for trafficking more than 100 firearms to a Mexican drug cartel.
In Operation Fast and Furious, ATF agents in Phoenix late in 2009 identified a network of more than 20 straw purchasers believed to be trafficking military-grade assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Agents tried to build a case with wiretaps. They made no arrests and made few intercepts of weapons.
ATF Deputy Director William Hoover became concerned about the number of firearms involved in the case and ordered a strategy for the investigation to be brought to an end. Newell in Phoenix expressed frustration with ATF headquarters in Washington and "the operation continued to grow and expand rather than wind down over the months to follow," the Democrats' report said.
snowy owl forrest gump powerball bulls tiger woods one for the money 10 minute trainer
Monday, January 30, 2012
Dentist who used paper clips gets year in jail
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) ? A former Massachusetts dentist was sentenced to one year in jail Monday for using paper clips instead of stainless steel posts in root canals.
Dr. Michael Clair pleaded guilty earlier this month to a list of charges, including assault and battery, defrauding Medicaid of $130,000, illegally prescribing medications and witness intimidation.
Prosecutors said Clair sometimes used sections of paper clips when performing root canals in an effort to save money. Some of his patients reported infections and other problems.
Brenda Almeida said her teenage son's tooth turned black and had to be removed after Clair performed a root canal on him in 2005. She said Clair also performed shoddy dental work on her other two children.
Almeida, who watched Clair get sentenced in Fall River Superior Court Monday, said she was angry about what she considers to be a light sentence.
"He put my kids in pain for months ... I hope he rots there," she said after Judge Richard Moses sentenced Clair to a year in the Bristol County House of Correction.
Prosecutors, who asked for a sentence of five to seven years, declined to comment immediately after the sentence was imposed.
Clair, who had a dental practice in Fall River, now lives in Crofton, Md.
The judge said he considered Clair's acceptance of responsibility, lack of a criminal record and "certain mental health issues" Clair is dealing with in deciding on the one-year sentence. He did not give any specifics on the mental health issues.
Clair's lawyer, John Dingee, declined to comment.
Moses granted a request from prosecutors to order Clair to stay away from his victims and seven people who worked in his office. Assistant Attorney General Toby Unger said Clair's former staff members "have expressed concern for their safety," but did not elaborate.
Moses sentenced Clair to 2? years, with all but one year suspended, followed by five years of probation.
Clair did not speak during the sentencing, except to thank the judge.
"Thank you, your honor, for your consideration," he said.
Clair's license to practice dentistry was suspended in Massachusetts in 2006. A spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley said Clair is no longer licensed to practice dentistry in any state.
Prosecutors said Clair was suspended by Medicaid in 2002, but continued to file claims from August 2003 to June 2005 by using the names of other dentists in his practice.
Associated Pressnl mvp nl mvp verlander verlander justin verlander pepper spraying cop pepper spraying cop
Abigail Noble: Impact Investing: How Do We Harness The Hype?
There is a lot of hype about impact investing. Investors speak of a 1 trillion USD sized market. Social enterprises reposition their business model and restructure their financial model to attract, absorb and grow through investor capital. Despite the enthusiasm, the actual volume of impact investment transactions remains minimal at best. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship took this week at Davos to convene several important discussions about how to harness the hype and create results that are both practical and impactful.
On Tuesday, before the Annual Meeting began, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship hosted a private discussion on the possible future scenarios for impact investing. The participants were asked to map out what the space could ideally look like in 2030, and work backwards to identify the constraints and facilitating factors for this ideal state. The intimate discussion, which included a handful social entrepreneurs and several mainstream investors who are just entering the space, was moderated by Professor Johanna Mair, Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Later in the week, the Schwab Foundation and the investors community of the World Economic Forum co-hosted a gathering that brought together some 30 CEOs, CFOs and Chief Investment Officers of the world`s most powerful private equity, venture capital, and investment management firms with 20 leading social entrepreneurs, as well as important players in the field including foreign investment authorities, pension funds and leading business professors. In an interactive and dynamic simulation, they were challenged to build a concrete investment case comprising both an economic and ESG (environmental, social, governance) bottom line. This exercise helped build empathy and a spirit of collaboration among the diverse participant group. The ensuring dialogue created actionable next steps and helped defuse some of the hype around the impact investment class.
Discussions like these are critical to help investors and social entrepreneurs start speaking the same language. Financial institutions like
For this reason the Schwab Foundation partnered with Credit Suisse to produce the report Investing for impact: how social entrepreneurship is redefining the meaning of return. Contributors include Jed Emerson, Cathy Clark, and Acumen Fund's Brian Trelstad and Rob Katz. The investment profiles of five social enterprises in the Schwab Foundation network are featured in the report. Working in sectors as diverse as health care, education, and job creation, these organizations are united by their innovative yet pragmatic approaches to solving social problems. They are:
? Felipe Vergara of Lumni in the US and Latin America; investment funds would be used to set up a Chile Fund to finance the university education of low-income students
? Asher Hasan of Naya Jeevan in Pakistan; equity and grant funding would underwrite a new initiative to provide health insurance to workers making less than $6 a day
? Patrick Shofield of The Indalo Project in South Africa; grants and low-interest loans would be used to establish twelve new craft producer groups
? Bam Aquino of Hapinoy in the Philippines; investment funds would allow Hapinoy to expand its model to less developed islands in the archipelago
? Kyle Zimmer of First Book; a loan will finance expansion of their services to reach 35,000 children in Mumbai, India.
The social enterprise sector is on the cusp of achieving significant scale and impact, thanks in no small part to the recent influx of investment capital. But to ensure the capital remains a tool to build the sector and not the other way round, investors must take the longer view, get comfortable assuming greater levels of risk, and be willing to deploy a mix of financial tools most suitable for social enterprises' needs. And take heart: you are laying the foundations for a new economy.
?
Follow Abigail Noble on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ab_noble
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abigail-noble/impact-investing-how-do-w_b_1240237.html
ray lewis baltimore ravens steven tyler national anthem penn state paterno newt gingrich joe paterno dead
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Huawei Ascend II (U.S. Cellular)
The original Huawei Ascend was a low-end, free-with-contract smartphone?released on a number of different carriers. It sold well because of its low price, but it wasn't a very good device. The Huawei Ascend II for U.S. Cellular addresses some of that phone's issues, but it's a case of too little, too late. The Ascend II won't cost you a dime, but you can get a much better phone if you're willing to spend some cash.
Design and Call Quality
Like a diet-version of the original, the Ascend II measures 4.6 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.1 ounces. It looks and feels nicer than the Ascend, clad all in black with a soft touch plastic back and a shiny plastic ring around the display. The display is the same 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch screen as the last time around, which looks reasonably sharp and bright. There are four haptic feedback-enabled touch keys beneath it, and typing on the on-screen keyboard felt fine.
The Huawei Ascend II is a dual-band EVDO Rev A (850/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. In New York where we test, U.S. Cellular phones use Sprint's network. Signal reception was fine, and it connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network without a problem. It can also function as a mobile hotspot with the appropriate data plan.
Call quality was decent on the Ascend. Voices sound clear, but thin and a touch robotic. Calls made with the phone are easy to understand and feature good noise cancellation, but can sound a bit muffled. The speakerphone sounds fine and is loud enough to use outdoors. Calls sounded clear through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked fine. Battery life was on the shorter side of average at 5 hours, 8 minutes of talk time.
Android and Apps
The Ascend II runs Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread). There's no word on whether it will receive an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but we wouldn't hold out hope. Huawei has added some very limited customizations to the UI. Unfortunately, they give off a bargain bin vibe; Huawei would've fared better leaving well enough alone in this case.
There are five customizable home screens you can swipe between, which come preloaded with a number of useful apps and widgets, along with a bunch of nonremovable bloatware.
Everything is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm S1 MSM7627 processor. This was standard for lower-end smartphones a year ago, but it's really starting to show its age. The Ascend II turned in some of the worst benchmarks we've seen for a device sporting these specs, and you can really feel that while using the phone. Most tasks felt sluggish, and it took longer to open and close apps than usual.
App-wise, you get Google Maps Navigation for free voice-enabled, turn-by-turn GPS directions, along with all that bloatware from U.S. Cellular. You should also be able to run most of the 300,000+ third-party apps in the Android Market, but again, be prepared to encounter stalls and crashes.
Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The Ascend II has 146MB of internal memory, along with a 2GB microSD card; my 32GB and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine as well. Thankfully, the phone has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack this time around, which makes it easy to find a pair of earbuds. Music tracks sounded fine over both wired earbuds and Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). I was able to play AAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV files, but not FLAC or WMA.
Video playback is lackluster. I was able to watch movies at resolutions up to 800-by-480, but anything above 640-by-480 looked choppy. I could play H.264 and MP4 files, but not AVI, DivX, or Xvid.
The Ascend II's 5-megapixel camera lacks auto-focus and an LED flash. Test photos looked soft and dark, with muted color detail. The camera also records 640-by-480 video at 16 frames per second indoors and 19 outside.
The Huawei Ascend II isn't a terrible phone, it's just not a very good one. It's sluggish today; a year from now, it will probably feel glacial. If you're looking to score a smartphone on the cheap, you'll get a faster processor but slower Internet with the Samsung Repp?(Free, 3 stars). For $49.99 there's the LG Genesis?(3 stars), which gets you two higher-res displays, along with a physical QWERTY keyboard. But you'd do best to spend $100 and pick up the HTC Hero S?(3.5 stars), or $149.99 for the Motorola Electrify?(4.5 stars). Both phones feature faster processors, sharper displays, and better cameras than the Ascend II. The Electrify can even convert into a laptop PC with the proper accessories. And even better, in both cases you won't be itching to upgrade your phone in just a few months.?
Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 5 hours 8 minutes
More Cell Phone Reviews:
??? Huawei Ascend II (U.S. Cellular)
??? ZTE Score (Cricket Wireless)
??? RIM BlackBerry Curve 9370 (Verizon Wireless)
??? Samsung Replenish (Boost Mobile)
??? HTC Titan (AT&T)
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Ui3j0zUK4Hk/0,2817,2399392,00.asp
sarah mclachlan shakespeare bipolar symptoms qi osama bin laden osama bin laden main
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Dow slips to first losing week of 2012
In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stocks faced multiple headwinds Friday Jan. 27, 2012 after disappointing Japanese earnings, higher unemployment in Spain and weak U.S. home sales. Investors awaited quarterly growth figures from the U.S. later in the day. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stocks faced multiple headwinds Friday Jan. 27, 2012 after disappointing Japanese earnings, higher unemployment in Spain and weak U.S. home sales. Investors awaited quarterly growth figures from the U.S. later in the day. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market closed mostly lower Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its first losing week of 2012, after the government reported that economic growth was slower at the end of last year than economists expected.
The Dow spent the whole day in the red. It ended down 74 points, or 0.6 percent, at 12,660.46. The loss snapped a three-week winning streak for the Dow, which fell 60 points for the week but is still up 3.6 percent for the year.
The Standard & Poor's 500 struggled above even with an hour to go in trading, but it lost the gains and finished down 2.10 points at 1,316.33. The S&P finished the week up a sliver ? 0.95 points.
The Nasdaq composite, which has more than doubled the Dow's gain for the year, edged up 11.27 to 2,816.55. It rose about 30 points this week.
Economic growth for October through December came in at an annual rate of 2.8 percent. That was the fastest of 2011 but lower than the 3 percent that economists were looking for.
Utility companies led the way down with a fall of 1.3 percent. Most of the other nine industries in the S&P also fell, but only slightly, continuing a curious trading pattern this year: Trading has been calm in the past four weeks, a big change from the violent moves up and down that marked much of 2011.
Friday was the 17th day in a row of moves of less than 100 points up or down for the Dow. The last time the index had a longer period of such small moves was a 34-day stretch that started Dec. 3, 2010.
Despite the drift lower, investors displayed some bullishness.
Roughly two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. And the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks rose nearly 2 percent for the week. Investors tend to sell stocks in the Russell when they're worried, not buy them, because smaller firms often don't have much cash and other resources when times get tough.
"Risk-taking is picking up," says Jeff Schwarte, a portfolio manager at Principal Global Equities. He says his firm has been buying small firms since late last year. "We're still finding attractive stocks."
Next week, investors will turn their attention to Facebook, the powerhouse social network, which appears headed for the most anticipated initial public offering of stock in years.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Friday that Facebook could raise as much as $10 billion in an offering that would value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion.
That would vault Facebook into the largest public companies in the world, on par with the likes of McDonald's, Amazon.com and Visa. The Journal said Facebook could file IPO papers as early as Wednesday.
Investors earlier in the week had plenty of reason to hope the indexes would keep moving higher.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it would likely keep benchmark interest rates near zero through late 2014, more than a year longer than it previously indicated. That helped send the Dow to its highest close since May.
Also lifting spirits: Apple had its best quarter for profits, trouncing expectations.
On Thursday, the Dow kept rising, briefly passing its highest close since the financial crisis three years ago. But the rally faded after news that new home sales in December had dropped, capping a year that ranked the worst for home sales since record-keeping began in 1963.
Among stocks making big moves Friday:
? Chevron fell more than 2 percent, the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow average, after its quarterly profit and revenue came in well below what analysts were expecting. Oil and natural gas production declined.
? Ford fell 4 percent after reporting disappointing earnings because of weak sales in Europe. The company said its results were also hurt by problems at parts suppliers in Thailand because of flooding there.
? Starbucks fell 1 percent after reporting late Thursday that that full-year results were likely to come in less than expectations.
? Procter & Gamble, which makes Tide, Crest and other consumer products, fell less than 1 percent after cutting its earnings outlook.
? Legg Mason dropped 5 percent after the investment management company's earnings fell by half as clients pulled money out. Legg Mason posted earnings of 20 cents per share. Analysts expected 25 cents, according to FactSet.
Associated Pressnebraska football nebraska football online deals leap pad lauren alaina lowes best buy black friday
BBC News Android app now supports tablets
The BBC has updated its BBC News app for Android with Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablet support. The app now offers a larger, split-screen view for tablets running Android 3.0 and above -- the layout seems very similar to the iPad version, which has been available since mid-2010. This tablet-optimized app is apparently designed for "larger" tablets only, and that 7-inch tablets will still default to the portrait-only smartphone app.
Following the initial release, the Beeb says it's looking to add new functionality like live streaming of the BBC News channel, and homescreen widgets. The BBC blog post also notes that an increasing number of people are accessing its news content on mobile devices --
Growing numbers of people are accessing BBC News on mobiles and tablets. In an average week, the BBC News sites and apps are visited by around 9.7m users worldwide on mobile and tablet devices. That represents about 26% of the total.
The BBC News product development team will be working on further mobile and tablet improvements over the coming year.
The tablet version of the BBC News app is currently available on the Android Market in the UK, and will be rolling out internationally "soon". If you're in the UK, you can pick up the latest version of the BBC News app using the Android Market links after the jump.
Source: BBC
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/RZqbi1Hs5Kk/story01.htm
famu martina mcbride terry jones andy reid elf on the shelf elf on the shelf 2012 grammy nominations
Friday, January 27, 2012
Outside Syria's capital, suburbs look like war zone
DAMASCUS?? When Arab League observers headed to the suburbs of Damascus on Thursday, Syrian security refused to accompany them to most areas, because they are no longer in control there.
-
Only on msnbc.com
- Romney revising disclosures for overseas accounts
- NBC/WSJ poll: Majority would vote out entire Congress
- Updated 32 minutes ago 1/26/2012 11:33:37 PM +00:00 No, President Obama isn't actually proposing to cut defense spending
- Banks may not like new mortgage task force
- Sorry I'm late, boss, my cat had the hiccups
- USDA mandates healthier school lunches
- Egyptians see remarkable year not living up to potential
In some towns no more than a 15-minute drive from the capital, the governor of rural Damascus warned that gunmen were walking the streets.
But the monitors went, accompanied by journalists, to the outskirts of Irbin and Harasta, which have become hotbeds for protests and armed revolt since the 10-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began.
At a checkpoint on an intersection heading into the town of Irbin, dozens of soldiers with assault rifles were deployed in full gear and on alert. On the sidewalk near them lay the bodies of two men shot dead, one of them a soldier.
But the soldiers were fixated nervously on the anti-Assad protest just hundreds of meters away, with protesters chanting "Allahu Akbar". Most shops were closed and people gave the Arab League monitors suspicious looks.
Video: Inside Syria: the untold story (on this page)"Some people are angry with us because of the report," one observer said.
The observer team sent a report last week on their mission to check implementation of an Arab peace plan that aims to halt bloodshed from Assad's military crackdown on the unrest that the United Nations says has killed more than 5,000 people.
Syria says the revolt is run by foreign-backed militants that have killed over 2,000 of its forces.
While the Arab League came out with a strong statement calling for Assad to step down, many in the Syrian opposition were angry at the monitors' report, which highlighted violence by Assad's adversaries as much as by the government itself.
They said monitors neglected the balance of power in the struggle between protesters and rebels against the army.
ICRC: Red Crescent official shot dead in Syria
Reuters, which joined the monitors on their first observation trip since the report, is in Syria on a state-sponsored trip and is usually accompanied by a government minder.
The Arab observers watched the anti-Assad demonstration from afar, and minutes later they drove away towards a police hospital in Harasta, another flashpoint in the revolt.
The team head, Jaafar al-Kubaida, said the monitors did not enter Irbin because they were worried the "angry crowd" might harass them. "Teams are harassed sometimes, we feared they might attack the cars or throw stones at us. It has happened before."
Cars with 'Israeli bombs'
At the police hospital in Harasta, the staff said most of rural Damascus was not controlled by the government forces and gunmen were kidnapping and killing those affiliated with the government in those areas.
"Any car plate that belongs to the government cannot drive inside Harasta, we as doctors cannot go, they hijacked one of our cars a week ago," said a doctor in the hospital.
A soldier pointed at a mosque facing the checkpoint and said, "You see that mosque? Their snipers sometimes fire at us from there."
A senior officer said that security forces were in talks with the armed men through dignitaries in the towns, hoping to convince them to hand over their weapons. He said the government had not completely lost control of the Damascus countryside.
"No, you cannot say that they are in control of rural Damascus, they control areas and the army control areas," he told Reuters.
Elderly Syrian man dares to speak out to journalists then says 'I will disappear'
When Arab observers pressed a senior officer to allow them entry into the troubled town, he said it was too dangerous.
"The coordination (team) did not get back to us, we told them you wanted to go but still no reply from them, We want you to go to them under their protection," a senior officer told the monitors.
The monitors were frustrated they could not enter, but also said they were unsure if their presence was wanted after their first report. "We would love to go, but I'm not sure we are welcomed there," one observer told Reuters.
Security officials showed monitors three cars which they said were towed from inside Harasta and Douma. They said the vehicles were confiscated from "terrorists" and loaded with Israeli bombs.
Inside Harasta, the army was heavily deployed. Dozens of soldiers in full gear were deployed in a 1,650-foot-long street, their guns pointed up as they nervously watched the nearby houses. People peeked from their windows but few went out. The trash-littered streets was almost deserted.
"Free Syria" was written on a wall.
"Yes, it is not safe," said a veiled woman who was walking a man down the street. She looked worried and scared. "There are gunmen but we do not have the Free Syria Army here."
More of msnbc.com's Syria coverage
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46150156/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
syracuse university best buy black friday 2011 ads broncos jets jessie james clayton kershaw osu basketball dale sveum
Iran won't move toward nuclear weapon in 2012: ISIS report (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.
The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran's nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.
"Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today," the report said.
The United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over sanctions, with Iran threatening to retaliate by blocking oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States said it would not allow that to happen.
The escalating rhetoric and tensions have led to concerns about the potential for missteps between the adversaries that might spiral into a military confrontation that neither wants.
But the report, financed by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace, said Iran had not made a decision to build a nuclear bomb. The USIP is an independent, non-partisan center created by the U.S. Congress in 1984 that receives federal government funding.
"Iran is unlikely to break out in 2012, in great part because it is deterred from doing so," said the ISIS report, which has not yet been publicly released.
The report turns down the temperature, saying that sanctions and the fear of a military strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities have worked as a deterrent.
The institute has advised U.S. and foreign governments about Iran's nuclear capabilities and Albright is considered a respected expert on the issue. The report tracks closely with what is known of official U.S. government assessments.
U.S. officials say Iran has not made the decision to build a nuclear weapon and that Iranian leaders haven't made the decision because they have to weigh the cost and benefits of building a nuclear weapon.
Much of what the Iranians are doing with their nuclear program has civilian uses, but they are keeping their options open, which significantly adds to the air of ambiguity, U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Some conservative and Israeli analysts in the past have challenged these types of assessments, asserting that Iranian nuclear efforts are sufficiently advanced that they could build a bomb in a year or less.
But according to the institute's report: "Although Iran is engaged in nuclear hedging, no evidence has emerged that the regime has decided to build nuclear weapons."
"Such a decision may be unlikely to occur until Iran is first able to augment its enrichment capability to a point where it would have the ability to make weapon-grade uranium quickly and secretly," the report obtained by Reuters said.
It added that despite a report last November by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency alleging that Iran had made significant progress on nuclear weaponization, "Iran's essential challenge remains developing a secure capability to make enough weapon-grade uranium, likely for at least several nuclear weapons."
Some European intelligence officials have disputed a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate published in 2007 which said that Iran had stopped working on a program it had launched earlier to design and build a bomb.
The Europeans maintain that Iran never stopped research and scientific development efforts which could be bomb-related.
Tensions spiked after Iran announced earlier this month that it had begun to enrich uranium deep inside an underground facility near the holy city of Qom. The secretly built facility was publicly revealed by the United States in 2009.
AIRSTRIKES 'OVERSOLD'
Among possible policy options for halting Iran's nuclear program, one of the least likely to be successful is a military attack on its nuclear program, according to the institute's report.
Limited military options, such as airstrikes against nuclear facilities, are "oversold as to their ability to end or even significantly delay Iran's nuclear program," the report said. Limited bombing campaigns would be "unlikely to destroy Iran's main capability" to produce weapon-grade uranium, it said.
Iran has taken precautions by dispersing the centrifuges it uses for enrichment to multiple locations, has mastered the construction of centrifuges, and has probably stockpiled extra centrifuges, the institute said.
A bombing campaign that did not totally eliminate these capabilities would leave Iran "able to quickly rebuild" its nuclear program and even motivate it to set up a Manhattan Project-style crash program to build a bomb, which would only make the region more dangerous and unstable, according to the institute.
The report said that clandestine intelligence operations aimed at detecting secret Iranian nuclear activities, including the construction of new underground sites, are "vitally important." Known methods used by spy agencies include the recruitment of secret agents, cyber spying operations, overhead surveillance by satellites and drones, and bugging of equipment which Iran buys from foreign suppliers.
The report says another "well known tactic" used by Western spy agencies against Iran has been to infiltrate Iranian networks that smuggle nuclear-related equipment and supply them with plans or items which are faulty or sabotaged. The report says this tactic has helped the West to uncover at least one of Iran's secret nuclear sites and, according to official statements by the Iranians, has caused enrichment centrifuges to break.
Other more violent covert operations strategies, particularly the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, have "serious downsides and implications," such as high risks of Iranian retaliation through militant attacks which could be directed against civilian targets. The United States has emphatically denied any involvement in the assassinations.
The report said that since thousands of specialists are involved in the Iranian nuclear program, assassinations were unlikely to be effective in slowing it down. It also warned that Iran could construe assassinations as acts of war and use them to justify retaliation.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
(This January 25 story was corrected in paragraph 16 to change the date of the NIE report to 2007 from 2003)
psa test real steel real steel iphone 4 cases dean ornish dean ornish yom kippur
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Judge's order raises issue over encrypted evidence (AP)
DENVER ? A federal judge has ordered a woman to provide an unencrypted version of her laptop's hard drive in a ruling that raises the question of whether turning over a password amounts to self-incrimination.
The Denver Post reports ( http://bit.ly/Ai8BH4) that U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn decided requiring Ramona Fricosu to provide the contents of her computer doesn't violate her Fifth Amendment protections. Blackburn says the content of the computer adds nothing to what the government already knows.
Friscosu's attorney, Philip Dubois, says he plans to appeal Monday's ruling.
Prosecutors say allowing criminal defendants to beat search warrants by encrypting their computers would make it impossible to obtain evidence.
Civil-liberties groups across the country are opposing the government. They're calling it a test of rights against self-incrimination in a digital world.
___
Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
nor easter nor easter st.louis cardinals st.louis cardinals drag me to hell alot alot
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Nation's oldest federal judge dies at age 104 (AP)
WICHITA, Kan. ? As the nation's oldest sitting federal judge in history, U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown allowed himself few concessions to his advancing age as he insisted on presiding over significant and often complex cases right up until his death at 104.
Brown died Monday night at the Wichita assisted living center where he lived, his law clerk, Nanette Turner Kalcik, said Tuesday.
During his long tenure, the senior judge in Wichita repeatedly tried to explain why he had not yet fully retired from the federal bench.
"As a federal judge, I was appointed for life or good behavior, whichever I lose first," Brown quipped in a 2011 interview with The Associated Press. How did he plan to leave the post? "Feet first," Brown said.
He came to work at the federal courthouse every day until about a month ago when his health deteriorated, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten said. Undeterred, the ailing Brown then had his law clerks bring work to the hospital and later to the assisted living center while he recuperated. His law clerks were with him virtually non-stop, taking turns to be there except at night during the past few weeks.
Brown was appointed as a federal district judge in 1962 by then-President John F. Kennedy.
"When Judge Brown spoke, we listened because_ while nobody has seen it all ? he certainly came closer to it than anybody I have ever known," Marten said. "And his message was always the same: remember who you are and what your job is."
In 1979, Brown officially took senior status, a type of semiretirement that allows federal judges to work with a full or reduced case level. He continued to carry a full workload for decades.
"I do it to be a public service," Brown said in the AP interview. "You got to have a reason to live. As long as you perform a public service, you have a reason to live."
His long tenure on the federal bench surpasses even that of Joseph Woodrough, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit who, until Brown, had been the longest practicing judge in the federal judiciary when he died in 1977 shortly after turning 104.
"Judge Brown always said he hoped he would be remembered as a good judge, not just an old judge ? and I think it was a sincere concern of his," U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren said.
As a federal judge, Brown could have retired at full salary, but he never had a real interest in that, Melgren said.
"He frequently encouraged ? or, you know, frankly even admonished us ? to remember that our duty as judges was to take the responsibility for the administration of justice in our courtrooms and collectively in our district court," Melgren said. "He was very committed to it."
Brown's stooped frame nearly disappeared behind the federal bench during hearings. His gait was slower, but his mind remained sharp as he presided over a tightly run courtroom even after turning 104 last June.
Brown removed himself from the draw for assignment of new criminal cases in March, and by the time he died he was no longer presiding over hearings. He kept an active civil caseload, but during the last months of his life referred evidentiary hearings on his remaining civil to magistrate judges for their recommendations before making a decision.
"I will quit this job when I think it is time," Brown said last year. "And I hope I do so and leave the country in better shape because I have been a part of it."
Another of his law clerks, Michael Lahey, said he took a turn for the worse just a week before his death.
"He finally wore out," Lahey said. "He maintained his abilities right up to the end."
Among the cases he was still handling when he died is a constitutional challenge to a new Kansas law restricting insurance coverage for abortions. He also was presiding at the time over a multi-defendant lawsuit filed by Omaha-based Northern Natural Gas Co. in its bid to condemn more than 9,100 acres in south-central Kansas to contain gas migrating from an underground storage facility.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson has practiced law in Brown's courtroom for 20 years as a federal prosecutor and for more than seven years before that as a private attorney.
"Judge Brown ran his courtroom in a firm and fair manner so you knew when you were going into Judge Brown's courtroom you had better know the rules and you had better follow the rules," Anderson said. "On the other hand, there was no more compassionate judge than Judge Brown."
Anderson recalled an incident that occurred when Brown was about 98. A cell phone started ringing in the courtroom ? twice. Nervous lawyers pulled out their cell phones to make sure they were turned off. Then, while sorting through some paperwork on the bench, the judge realized it was his own cell phone that had gone off.
"He immediately fined himself $100 and held himself in contempt and said, `I guess I learned my lesson,'" Anderson recalled.
Brown ? who was born on June 22, 1907, in Hutchinson, Kansas ? was six years older than the next oldest sitting federal judge. At least eight other federal judges are in their 90s, according to a federal court database.
Brown started his career with the law firm of Williams, Martindell and Carey in Hutchinson. He graduated from the Kansas City School of Law, which later became the law school for the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Except for two brief breaks from the firm ? one at age 27 when he was elected Reno County attorney and the other at age 37 when he joined the Navy ? Brown spent his Hutchinson career practicing law there. In 1939, he became a partner.
He moved to Wichita at age 50 after receiving his first federal appointment as a bankruptcy judge in 1958. Four years later, he was appointed a federal district judge.
He outlived two wives and only moved into an assisted living center in recent years.
"His impact is more than he lived to be 104," Melgren said. "He was a model for us for how we are to conduct ourselves as judges."
kim richards scott walker recall cruise ship derek fisher martin luther king jr. john elway john elway
Five Things You Don't Know About Heidi Klum (omg!)
It was just announced that Heidi Klum and her famous musician husband Seal had decided to separate after seven years of marriage. This gorgeous supermodel became an American?TV star as host/judge of Project Runway,?and she also hosts Germany's Next Top Model in her native country. Here are five things you may not know about this busy fashion icon, entrepreneur and mother of four.
1. After?beginning her modeling career in America, she jokingly referred to her breasts "Hans and Franz."
2. When she travels,?she carries her baby teeth in a small pouch as good luck charms.
3. In 2006, released a single called Wonderland, which was written for a series of TV ads for a retailer.?The song reached? No. 13 on the German singles?chart.
4. Portrayed Swiss bombshell Ursula Andress in the 2004 Peter Sellers biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
5. Has her own flower named after her --?called the "Heidi Klum" rose --?that was created at a German rose farm. ?
pellet gun zambrano clay aiken orange bowl jonbenet ramsey tim howard goal ben gibbard
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Obama to focus on tax inequality in State of the Union (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama will frame an election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday in starkly populist terms by calling for tax reform to get rid of inequalities that allow the wealthy to pay a lower rate than middle-class Americans.
His message follows the release of tax records by Mitt Romney, a potential Republican rival and one of the wealthiest men to ever run for the White House. With income mostly from investments, Romney pays an effective tax rate that is much lower than the top tax rates on wages.
"Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same," Obama said in advance excerpts for his 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT Wednesday) speech to Congress.
"It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts."
Taxes are the most divisive issue at the heart of this year's election campaign. Obama, seeking a second term despite a slow economic recovery and a high jobless rate, hopes to tap into middle-class voters' resentment against Wall Street while their families are hurting.
Democrats have hammered Republicans in Congress for supporting tax breaks that favor the wealthy while Republicans staunchly oppose tax hikes, even on the richest Americans, arguing they would hurt a fragile economic recovery.
Obama was set to revive his call to rewrite the tax code to adopt the so-called "Buffett rule," named after the billionaire Warren Buffett, who supports the president and says it is unfair that he, Buffett, pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.
Obama is also expected to roll out new initiatives on easing the nation's home-mortgage crisis and reforming the corporate tax system.
Most of Obama's proposals will face stiff Republican resistance, limiting the chance of any headway in a divided Congress before the November 6 election.
Although Obama is fully aware of the legislative obstacles, his aides see this approach scoring political points by turning up the heat on Republicans he accuses of obstructing economic recovery.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by," Obama will say. "Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share."
The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in December. No president in the modern era has won re-election with the rate that high.
(Editing by David Storey)
ted nugent dash diet how to make moonshine joel osteen emmy rossum moonshine tony blankley
Conservative takes early lead in Finnish election (AP)
HELSINKI ? Polls closed in Finland's presidential election Sunday with advance ballots giving the conservative pro-Europe favorite a clear lead, but without the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
The count of 1.3 million early ballots, representing a quarter of the electorate, showed Sauli Niinisto, a former finance minister, winning 40 percent, according to official preliminary results.
Former foreign minister Paavo Vayrynen, who opposes Finland's membership in the debt-ridden eurozone, was in second place with 17.6 percent. Pekka Haavisto of the Greens ? the first openly gay presidential candidate in Finland ? was third with 14.8 percent.
Populist leader Timo Soini, the face of euroskepticism in Finland, was a distant fourth with 9.5 percent.
Full results were expected later Sunday. If no one gets 50 percent, a second round will be held next month between the top two candidates.
The vote comes as the Nordic country braces for cutbacks amid a European financial crisis that threatens the economy and the top credit rating of the eurozone member.
The president has a largely ceremonial role and is not involved in daily politics, but is considered an important shaper of public opinion in the small Nordic country.
Niinisto, 63, of the conservative National Coalition Party, was narrowly defeated in the previous election in 2006 by outgoing President Tarja Halonen. This time, he had topped surveys for months in the field of eight candidates.
"It's 99 percent sure that Niinisto will win the presidency, if not in the first round then in a runoff. A miracle would have to happen for him not to win," said Olavi Borg, a political analyst.
A smooth-talking political veteran, Niinisto is viewed by many Finns as the most statesman-like of the candidates.
Vayrynen, a veteran politician is a two-time presidential candidate and government minister during five different decades.
But Haavisto also has strong resume. The 53-year-old former environment minister has held several positions in EU and U.N. operations helping to solve crises in Sudan, Darfur and the Middle East.
"He's extremely cultured and civilized. We need a member of a new, educated generation who hasn't been corrupted by politics," said Laila Halme, a retired graphic artist, as she walked her dog through thick snow to vote in a Helsinki suburb.
Soini, 49, didn't have the same impact in the presidential election as he did in last year's parliamentary ballot, when his True Finns party won a stunning 19 percent of votes with demands that relatively well-off Finland stop supporting bailouts for debt-stricken eurozone members.
Finland's 12th president since independence from Russia in 1917 will replace Halonen, the country's hugely popular first female head of state who has served two six-year terms.
An opinion poll published Thursday showed Niinisto still in the lead, but down eight points from a previous survey, to 29 percent support. Haavisto had 12 percent, while Vayrynen, who tied with Haavisto in previous surveys, was given 10 percent support.
Soini had fallen one point to 6 percent, in the survey published by national broadcaster YLE. The poll gave the four other candidates each 2-6 percent. Pollster Taloustutkimus interviewed 1,457 people between Jan. 10 and 18. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
brown recluse brown recluse joplin tornado heather locklear hospitalized there will be blood there will be blood extreme makeover home edition
Monday, January 23, 2012
BlackBerry maker's CEOs hand reins to insider (Reuters)
WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) ? Research In Motion's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have bowed to investor pressure and resigned as co-CEOs, handing the top job to an insider with four years at the struggling BlackBerry maker.
Thorsten Heins, a former Siemens AG executive who has risen steadily through RIM's upper management ranks since joining the Canadian company in late 2007, took over as CEO on Saturday, RIM said on Sunday.
The shift ends the two-decade long partnership of Lazaridis and Balsillie atop a once-pioneering technology company that now struggles against Apple and Google.
With RIM's share price plummeting to eight-year lows, a flurry of speculation that RIM was up for sale has enveloped the company in recent months. But investors have pointed to the domineering presence of Lazaridis and Balsillie as one reason a sale would prove difficult.
Activist investors have clamored in recent months for a new, "transformational" leader who could revitalize RIM's product line and resuscitate its once cutting-edge image. It remains to be seen whether RIM has found such a leader in Heins, analysts said.
"It's the first positive thing that they have done in months," said Charter Equity analyst Ed Snyder, even as he expressed caution over the choice of Heins, a longtime lieutenant of Lazaridis and Balsillie. "My feeling is that it's a figure-head change."
Michael Urlocker, an analyst with GMP Securities, questioned whether Heins had the right background for the job that faces him. "I am not sure that an engineer as new CEO really gets to the central issues faced by RIM," he said.
Lazaridis and Balsillie also gave up their shared role as chairman of RIM's board. Barbara Stymiest, an independent board member who once headed the Toronto Stock Exchange, will take over in that capacity.
The pair, who together built Lazaridis' 1985 start-up into a global business with $20 billion in sales last year, have weathered a storm of criticism in recent years as Apple's iPhone and the army of devices powered by Google's innovative Android system eclipsed their email-focused BlackBerry.
"There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now," Lazaridis said in a hastily arranged interview at RIM's Waterloo headquarters, flanked by Balsillie and Heins and with Stymiest joining via telephone.
DEPICTED AS ORDERLY TRANSITION
The executives were keen to paint the shuffle as an orderly transition on a succession plan mapped out at least a year ago, and not a retreat in the face of a plummeting share price, shrinking U.S. market share and criticism of their products.
Both Lazaridis and Balsillie - two of RIM's three largest shareholders with more than 5 percent each - will remain board members, with Lazaridis keeping a particularly active role as vice-chair and head of a newly created innovation committee.
Lazaridis said he plans to buy an additional $50 million of RIM shares on the open market.
In the group interview announcing the change, Heins said his most immediate concern is to sell RIM's current lineup of BlackBerry 7 touchscreen devices, deliver on a promised software upgrade for its PlayBook tablet computer by February, and rally RIM's troops to launch the next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.
"Their problems are deep-rooted, and it's going to take time," Snyder said.
In the longer term, Heins, previously one of RIM's chief operating officers, said he would push for more rigorous product development and place greater emphasis on executing on the company's marketing and development plans.
"We need to get a bit more disciplined in our own processes," he said in a YouTube video posted by RIM. "We are a great, innovative but sometimes we innovate too much while we are building a product." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUFwhpcrCTw)
Heins said RIM, which suffered a damaging outage of much of its network last year, has embarked on a global search for a chief marketing officer to improve advertising and other communication with consumers. Consumers now account for the majority of RIM's sales even though the BlackBerry built its reputation as a business tool.
For RIM critics, the focus on customers may seem long overdue. The company seemed blindsided by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and was also slow to launch a competitor to the iPad. When its PlayBook tablet finally hit the market last spring, it was not equipped with RIM's trademark email service. The reviews were scathing, sales were anemic and the company has been forced to offer steep discounts.
Heins said it would be wrong of RIM to focus on licensing its software or integrated email package, a strategy that many analysts and investors have thought the company might pursue. Even so, the new CEO said the company would certainly be open to discussions of that nature.
Neither Lazaridis nor Basillie detailed any future plans outside RIM, with Lazaridis particularly eager to point out his still-active role as a confidante to the new CEO.
Both have other interests outside of RIM. Lazaridis donated hundreds of millions of dollars to set up an independent theoretical physics institute and also a quantum computing institute attached to his alma mater, the University of Waterloo. Balsillie heads a think-tank in international governance and long dreamed of owning a National Hockey League franchise.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Additional reporting by Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty and Janet Guttsman)
tcu xfactor frankincense cloudy with a chance of meatballs the hobbit movie orcl hanukkah
How would you change ASUS' Zenbook UX31?
How would you change ASUS' Zenbook UX31? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ZKnkv846xi8/
st.louis cardinals drag me to hell alot alot are you afraid of the dark are you afraid of the dark dallas news
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Economics and Investing: - SurvivalBlog.com
Debasement of 5 Pence and 10 Pence coins in England is causing problems: New coins won't work in parking meters and vending machines. (Thanks to G.G. for the link.)
B.B. sent this charming news: Treasury dips into pension funds to avoid debt: "The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills."
China Brings US Treasury Holdings To One Year Low, Russia Cuts Treasury Exposure By 50% In One Year. (Thanks to S.M. for the link.)
Craig D. flagged this: World Bank warns on risk of global recession
Items from The Economatrix:
Europe Must Move Quickly After Downgrades--Merkel
S&P Downgrades Eurozone's EFSF Bailout Fund
How to Prepare for the Difficult Years Ahead
Oil Pries Waver On Concerns About Global Demand
Source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2012/01/economics_and_investing_1058.html
mike wallace mike wallace is jon bon jovi dead jon bon jovi jon bon jovi kim jong il died warren hellman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)