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Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Scotty McCreery's Lip-Sync Snafu At The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (omg!)
It appears Lauren Alaina wasn't the only former "American Idol" Season 10 alumnus with song issues on Thursday.
The show's most recent winner, Scotty McCreery, had a very obvious lip-syncing issue while taking part in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
PLAY IT NOW: Access Exclusive: On The Set Of Scotty McCreery?s First Music Video
As his song, "The Trouble with Girls" began, following an introduction by "Today's" Matt Lauer, the country star didn't have his mouth open in song, or the microphone near his face as his recorded voice came streaming out of the loud speakers.
Click HERE to watch.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Season 10 ?American Idol? Winner Scotty McCreery Comes To Access Hollywood
The same thing happened for Avril Lavigne, who didn't have the microphone at her mouth as her song, "Wish You Were Here," began.
Click HERE to watch Avril's lip-sync incident.
As for Lauren, as previously reported on AccessHollywood.com , she seemed to forget the lyrics to the National Anthem - "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- going silent for a verse on Thursday at the Lions/Packers game in Detroit.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Lauren Alaina: From High School Student To Superstar
Later, on Twitter, she took ownership of her mistake.
"Thank you everyone for the kind words," she wrote on Thursday afternoon. "But the truth is I messed up. I'm gonna spend the rest of the day being thankful for all my blessings."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Punk Pop Godess Avril Lavigne
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Video: Hollywood treasure up for auction
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45444302#45444302
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Gun issue represents tough politics for Obama (AP)
WASHINGTON ? They are fuzzy about some issues but the Republican presidential candidates leave little doubt about where they stand on gun rights.
Rick Perry and Rick Santorum go pheasant hunting and give interviews before heading out. Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain speak to the National Rifle Association convention. Michele Bachmann tells People magazine she wants to teach her daughters how to shoot because women need to be able to protect themselves. Mitt Romney, after backing some gun control measures in Massachusetts, now presents himself as a strong Second Amendment supporter.
President Barack Obama, on the other hand, is virtually silent on the issue.
He has hardly addressed it since a couple months after the January assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., when he promised to develop new steps on gun safety in response. He still has failed to do so, even as Tucson survivors came to Capitol Hill last week to push for action to close loopholes in the background check system.
Democrats have learned the hard way that embracing gun control can be terrible politics, and the 2012 presidential election is shaping up to underscore just how delicate the issue can be. With the election likely to be decided largely by states where hunting is a popular pastime, like Missouri, Ohio or Pennsylvania, candidates of both parties want to win over gun owners, not alienate them.
For Republicans, that means emphasizing their pro-gun credentials. But for Obama and the Democrats, the approach is trickier.
Obama's history in support of strict gun control measures prior to becoming president makes it difficult for him to claim he's a Second Amendment champion, even though he signed a bill allowing people to take loaded guns into national parks. At the same time, he's apparently decided that his record backing gun safety is nothing to boast of, either, perhaps because of the power of the gun lobby and their opposition to anything smacking of gun control.
The result is that while Republicans are more than happy to talk up their support for gun rights, Obama may barely be heard from on the issue at all.
"Gun control is a fight that the administration is not willing to pick. They're not likely to win it," said Harry Wilson, author of a book on gun politics and director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Virginia. "They certainly would not win it in Congress, and it's not likely to be a winner at the polls. ... It comes down to one pretty simple word: Politics."
Administration officials say they are working to develop the gun safety measures promised after the Giffords shooting, and they say have taken steps to improve the background check system. White House spokesman Matt Lehrich says the White House goal is to "protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens while keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them under existing law."
But when it comes to guns and politics, Democrats haven't forgotten what happened in 1994. That year, President Bill Clinton was pushing for passage of a landmark crime bill featuring a ban on assault weapons, and then-House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., twisted Democrats' arms to get it through the House. Come November, Democrats suffered widespread election losses and lost control of the House and the Senate. Foley was among those defeated, and Clinton and others credited the NRA's campaigning with a big role in the outcome. And when the assault weapons ban came up for congressional reauthorization in 2004, it failed.
Given that history, the NRA expects to see Obama treading carefully on guns through 2012.
"It's bad politics to be on the wrong side of the Second Amendment at election time," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president. "They're trying to fog the issue through the 2012 election and deceive gun owners into thinking he's something he's not, which is pro-Second Amendment."
For gun control advocates, it adds up to frustration with Obama and the Democrats. The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns argues that polling shows voters support certain gun safety measures like stronger background checks ? although a recent Gallup poll also finds more support for enforcing current laws than for passing new ones.
"Good policy here is good politics," said John Feinblatt, an adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a co-chair of the mayors' group. "Unfortunately, for too long the administration has bought the conventional wisdom" that gun control is bad politics.
But the NRA outspends gun-control groups by wide margins, and analysts say that when it comes time to vote, the gun issue is more likely to motivate gun rights activists than gun control supporters.
Since becoming president, Obama has been extremely cautious on the issue. In his 2004 Senate race, for example, Obama said it was a "scandal" that then-President George W. Bush didn't force renewal of the assault weapons ban. But Obama himself has done nothing to promote that issue since becoming president.
Obama's commitment to act on gun safety may also be complicated by an unrelated controversy over a Justice Department program aimed at stanching gun trafficking into Mexico. The government lost track of numerous weapons in connection with the program.
Obama has vowed to figure out what went wrong with the operation and make sure it's corrected, but with Republicans seizing on the issue to attack the White House, the politics around taking action on guns hasn't gotten any easier.
So for now, supporters who hoped to see Obama adopt a stronger stance on guns and act in the wake of the Giffords shooting look like they're going to be disappointed. "We haven't given up hope," said Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "but our impatience is growing with each passing day."
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How One Woman Incorporated 100000 Businesses
Most students in law school end up being lawyers, but that?s not the path Nellie Akalp took.
Nellie, an Iranian immigrant and co-founder of CorpNet, chose to become an entrepreneur. ?Both she and her husband were in law school full time when they decided to start an online incorporation document filing business to pay the bills.
Their first company became MyCorporation, which did so well, Nellie never quite made it to the courtroom. ?In 2005, the company was grossing $1 million in sales a month, which got the attention of Intuit. They wanted to buy the company. Nellie was hesitant, noting, ?How do I put a price on something I love doing??
But with the assurance from Intuit that she and her husband would still be involved in running the company, she went ahead with the sale. After a few months, Nellie missed her entrepreneurial freedom, so she resigned. ??As an entrepreneur, I?m an innovator. I can?t follow other people,? she says.
That Wasn?t the End
Under the noncompete agreement she?d signed with Intuit, Nellie couldn?t get back into the incorporation business for three years. She tried other things, like teaching kickboxing and aerobics, as well as opening a clothing company. Nothing inspired her.
What she realized is how much she loved helping small business owners. The second the noncompete agreement expired, she was back in the incorporation business. Her new company, CorpNet, also offers DBA and LLC filings and other business services. Anyone else might be daunted by the fact that this industry is oversaturated and has bigger players with bigger pockets. But not Nellie. Her determination and vision, as well as ability to hold the hands of the small businesses she helps through the process of starting a business, makes her company a formidable competitor to bigger companies like LegalZoom.
Not as Digital as It Sounds
And while you might assume that filing for a corporation online is a completely digital process, Nellie says that?s far from the truth. Behind the scenes, she and her team are searching business names, inputting data onto state approved forms, following up with the state the paperwork is filed in, putting finishing touches on the documentation and sending final paperwork to the client. They use paper file folders, color coding and large bins to organize their processes. ?All in all, it takes an average of 20 to 30 days to process a standard corporation or LLC filing, and many people are involved.
So processing 100,000 incorporation filings (as Nellie has done) is no easy feat!
How the Game Has Changed
Once thing Nellie notices this time around with her business is that the game of getting customers online has changed. ?Starting a Web-based business today, versus starting in the 1990s or early 2000s, couldn?t require a more different approach. It?s no longer about buying pay-per-click ads, something she did with her first company. ?Today you can?t pay to play. It?s too expensive.? ?Now it?s about engagement, something she does when networking at conferences and events. ?Nellie is a big believer in social media, including Twitter and blogging on the CorpNet blog (she?s also a?Small Business Trends?contributor).
It?s also about providing personalized service. ?Nellie and the CorpNet team revel in the fact that they are still able to be hands-on, and that they can give personalized attention to customers. ?For instance, CorpNet?s website features a photograph of Nellie front and center on the home page. ?(That?s no stock image!) ?The company offers a free trademark search and a free business name search. ?You can call them and they will actually speak with you by phone.
Nellie says:??You have to keep changing. Adapt to your clients? needs.?
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/11/woman-incorporated-100000-businesses.html
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Happy Feet Two 2011
Happy Feet Two ( 2011) DVD DVDRip 1 Link NO RAR
IMDB Rating: Happy Feet Two (2011) - IMDb
Genre: Animation | Comedy | Family
Director: George Miller
Writer: Warren Coleman, Gary Eck, Paul Livingston, George Miller
Stars: Elijah Wood, Robin Williams and Pink
Trailer: Happy Feet 2 - Official Teaser Trailer [HD] - YouTube
Spoken language: English
Texted language (subtitles): English/Spanish
Plot:
Mumble's son, Erik, is struggling to realize his talents in the Emperor Penguin world. Meanwhile, Mumble and his family and friends discover a new threat their home -- one that will take everyone working together to save them.
DOWNLOAD LINK:
>>>DOWNLOAD Full Movie HERE!!!<<<
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lern2play/~3/wLdXb_gUWWw/124439-happy-feet-two-2011-a.html
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Retirement Guide on Life Insurance | Retirement Income Blog
Maybe you have reached retirement, don?t have any dependents, and now feel life insurance coverage is unnecessary for you. You could possibly be right. But if, later on, you have gathered debts and need them covered once you die, you may decide to do it with life insurance coverage ? or a different option. Here?s is a retirement guide? on various choices with life insurance coverage.
Retirement guide on obtaining a new life insurance policy
Should you worry about qualifying for new life insurance coverage to fulfill you?re demand?
Sure, if you want a coverage more than say $50,000 of death benefit. In such a case, your health wll decide qualifications. Health isn?t a concern for a small coverage. You?ve seen these late nigh Tv advertisements from AARP and Colonial Life on purchasing a $50,000 coverage regardless of health. The will charge you a lot but they will sell a policy to anybody.
Retirement guide on utilizing an existing life insurance coverage
If you have a life insurance coverage and really feel you may need it to handle spectacular debts at your death (e.g. mortgage, credit cards, etc), then keep it. One other reason to keep life insurance in retirement would be to equalize your estate. Say you?re leaving an asset that is difficult to separate, your home, to once son. You can leave the life insurance reward to the other son.
Retirement guide on life insurance coverage options
Financial companies have discovered it lucrative to provide insurance to take care of debt you incur with them. Credit card corporations and banking institutions provide insurance deductibles on your outstanding balances. This?ll probably cost you a few bucks every month. And if you die, this debt-based insurance policy pays that particular financial debt in full. Sometimes they do this for car loans.
Therefore if this kind of debt-based insurance is a better option than paying for a regular life insurance plan to cover your financial debt, go for it. And if so, and also you nonetheless have additional use for a normal life insurance coverage, be sure to subtract off the debt covered by your debt-based insurance from your forecasted death benefit needs for the regular life insurance coverage.
Be aware that any policy issues where wellness is not an issue for the insurance corporation usually costs much more. Your least costs policies always come from insurance organizations who need looking at your health history and sometimes a health insurance examination.
Retirement guide on liquidating an active life coverage
If you have a policy in retirement and no longer require it while you do not have debts or estate equalization issues as described above, you then could either surrender it to the insurance organization or sell it to a 3rd party. Just consult your insurance professional about both alternatives and also to get you the quotations.
Retirement guide: disclosures about life insurance
The acquisition of life insurance involves costs, fees, expenditures and possible surrender costs and relies on the overall health of the candidate. Not every candidates are insurable (excluding for instances exactly where the insurance provider provides a no-health review coverage). If a coverage is arranged as a changed endowment agreement, withdrawals will be subject to tax as ordinary income and withdrawals prior to age fifty nine ? are subject to a 10% penalty.
Source: http://www.retirement-income.net/blog/retirement-guide/retirement-guide-on-life-insurance/
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Tamagotchi turns 15, wonders why you haven't fed it in a decade
Tamagotchi turns 15, wonders why you haven't fed it in a decade originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Friday, November 25, 2011
The Mind's Hidden Switches
Science Talk |
Mind & Brain
Eric Nestler, director of the Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City talks about his article in the December issue of Scientific American magazine, on epigenetics and human behavior, called Hidden Switches In The Mind.
November 22, 2011
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Eric Nestler, director of the Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City talks about his article in the December issue of Scientific American magazine, on epigenetics and human behavior, called Hidden Switches In The Mind.? ?
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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=bf428efb16ccf0bf13fe9d13c65b9d30
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Italy's Cinque Terre, hit by flash flooding, digs out
Thirty-two years ago, I met two American college girls while hitchhiking in Switzerland. They were studying in Florence, and I asked them their favorite place in Italy. They surprised me by naming a place I had never heard of before: the Cinque Terre. Curious, I headed south and discovered a humble string of five villages along Italy's Riviera coast with almost no tourism ? and, it seemed, almost no contact with the modern world. I fell in love with this stretch of Mediterranean coastline and have returned almost every year since.
On Oct. 25 of this year, a freakishly intense rainstorm ripped through the region and inflicted serious damage on the Cinque Terre towns of Monterosso and Vernazza. Torrents of water rampaged from the surrounding mountains into town, carrying with it tons of mud and debris. Massive flooding destroyed homes and businesses, and landslides filled the streets with rocks, dirt, and debris up to 12 feet deep. Entire ground floors were buried.
Photos and videos of the devastation show storefronts ripped off and fishing boats crumbled on rocks. The images of spindly, pastel Vernazza buried in rubble were especially difficult to look at. I've been there so many times that I actually think of it as a person. I believe I know more people in Vernazza than in all of Spain. After the disaster, the town looked like a crime scene. I felt as if I'd lost a friend ? as if nature had murdered someone I loved.
For some, it did. At least six people died in the flash floods, and several are still missing. In one heartbreaking account on the Save Vernazza website, Valentino Giannoni recalls the tense hours in his father's gelato shop as he did everything he could to keep his wife and 3-year-old son above the rising tide. They survived ? but Valentino's father was swept away while trying to keep the flood from consuming his family.
One of my staff members was also in Vernazza at the time. She and her family were eating pesto pasta when water started seeping into the restaurant. As the water level rose, everyone migrated into another room and took refuge on tabletops while several people held their bodies against the door to try to keep the water from raging in.
Danger doubled
As the group waited for the storm to subside, they started to smell gas. The floodwaters had ripped the restaurant's stove from the wall, leaving an exposed gas connection. As she recounted, they didn't know if they were going to drown or die in an explosion.
After more than two hours, the floodwaters receded momentarily (likely slowed by a pile-up of jumbled, overturned cars in the ravine), allowing everyone in the restaurant to escape to higher ground. Shortly thereafter, the rain increased, and the river rose even higher, pushing everything in its path into the sea. My staff member and her family ended up at Al Castello restaurant, where the owners provided food for about 100 tourists and townspeople. Later that evening, the owners of the Gianni Franzi hotel took them in; they were evacuated by boat the next morning.
Emergency responders have been working nonstop since the disaster and have made a lot of progress clearing the streets. I've heard from many friends in the region. The communities of Vernazza and Monterosso are in for a bleak, backbreaking winter of digging out and rebuilding, but they are determined to come back. One hotelier in Monterosso has promised to fix the damage in time to welcome our first tour group next year, in March.
I'll be back too. One of my favorite rituals in Vernazza is to walk the main drag at midnight, from top to bottom. In ancient times, a stream rushed down the middle of this street. At some point, generations ago, the stream was put under the pavement. But it still flows, draining water from the terraced vineyards that surround the town on three sides. At one point, you can actually hear the soft sounds of water flowing beneath the road, from vineyards to the sea. It's strange to imagine that within the course of a few hours, this underground rivulet turned into a roaring river that claimed lives.
When people ask me what they can do to help, I tell them to keep the Cinque Terre in their travel dreams. Like I do almost every year, I'll be traveling here next spring to do some filming and update my guidebook. Witnessing the damage ? and the progress ? firsthand will be both inspirational and bittersweet. Most of all, I look forward to taking that midnight stroll, stream trickling underneath my feet, just like I have for the past 30 years.
(Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020.)
? 2011 Rick Steves ... Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45307159/ns/travel-destination_travel/
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Leigh Vinocur, M.D.: 5 Tips for Reducing Black Friday Shopping Stress
Those irresistible deals on Black Friday might come with a bigger price tag than you think! The recent economic climate of unemployment, declining home values with record number of foreclosures, rising energy and food prices, along with rising credit card debt can take its toll on your health.
A 2008 Associated Press-AOL poll showed as a higher proportion of income is tied up in debt, especially things such as credit card debt, there are also higher levels of physical impairment. Ailments such as ulcers, migraines, anxiety and panic attacks, backaches, severe depression and heart attacks are all linked to increased stress related to increased debt. This corroborates another study that shows this type of high interest debt is bad for your health. It found that people with higher credit card debt had worse and many more health complaints than those with lower amounts of debt.
It is too much of a good thing. Stress is our biological response meant to support and protect us. During prehistoric times this "fight or flight" response was the evolutionary adaptation we developed to help us survive life and death situations while hunting and gathering. It was an adaptation that was supposed to be short-lived to get us out of dangerous situations. However, today we aren't fighting saber tooth tigers. This chronic level of stress over time takes its toll and wears down our bodies. Stress hormones released from the adrenal glands such as cortisol and adrenaline can lead to increased heart rate, cholesterol and blood pressure.
Anger and negative emotions such as anxiety and hostility from economic worries can trigger arrthymias and irregular heart beats. Other studies find people harboring anger and negative emotions are three times more likely to develop premature heart disease and have a five times greater chance of having a heart attack.
Research even suggests stress can also affect our immune system, whether it is susceptibility to developing infections or an increased cancer risk. This immune dysfunction can also lead to chronic inflammation. This in turn can lead to injury and abnormal build up of the lining of our blood vessels as well as constriction of blood vessels, also increasing our risk for heart attack.
There is ongoing research every day lengthening the list of harmful effects related to chronic stress. So here are some tips to help reduce your stress:
1. Sleep -- A more common sleep problem than insomnia is fragmented sleep -- easy awakening due to things like stress and worries. Try for seven or eight hours.
2. Eating right -- Skip processed foods full of fat and loaded with a lot of refined sugars. Limit caffeine and alcohol, and eat whole high-fiber grains, fresh fruits and veggies to stabilize your blood sugar for staying power in the short run, but also in the long run to ward off heart disease and cancers, too.
3. Physical activity -- Force yourself, even if you don't want to. Exercise releases endorphins, which help stabilize your mood and relieve stress, allowing you to sleep better. Even if you think you don't have time, just incorporate physical activity into your daily routine such as walking the five flights up to the office instead of the elevator, park at the farthest spot at the mall, engage in vigorous leaf raking or vacuuming. These short bursts of activity are cumulative throughout the day. Contribute to your fitness and once your mood is elevated, you will probably find yourself wanting to exercise more.
4. Cut yourself some slack -- Try not to over-schedule yourself. Set limits and learn to say "no" as well as make time for yourself. Even 15 minutes to take a bath or shower, go for a walk or listen to music you like, which recent studies show can improve BP, blood vessel function and heart rate. Also, try to relax with activities such as biofeedback, yoga, meditation and massage therapy.
5. Use your support system -- Confide in someone trusted so you don't feel alone, start with a new hobby or participate in a charity; helping others who are suffering more than you puts your stress in perspective
But remember, if your stress is related to debt be strong before you hit the computer for those pre-Black Friday deals or set your alarm for 3 a.m. to be there when the doors open. That ephemeral rush you get when shopping quickly fades when you get the credit card bill. Think hard about whether this year you're putting yourself deeper in debt. The hole you are digging may be your own grave!
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leigh-vinocur-md/black-friday-stress_b_1107780.html
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What Pepper Spray Does to Your Body [Giz Explains]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xiJUKnRMN5E/what-pepper-spray-does-to-your-body
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Astro Sort of Revokes Apology, Believes X Factor Results were "Jiggy"
Perhaps Astro is not so sorry after all.
Less than a week after sulking over his placement in the bottom two of Thursday's results show, and just a couple days after apologizing for his immature behavior, this 15-year old X Factor contestant is speaking out yet again.
And he's telling The New York Post the show was "punishing" him for an off-camera dispute in which Astro insisted on wearing Beats headphones even though the show has a deal with Sony.
“I don’t see how you can have the most followers on Twitter out of everybody in the competition and get voted in the bottom two," Astro aid. "So, I thought something was jiggy.”
Simon Cowell berated the finalist, saying his actions last week showed "disrespect" to his mom. But Astro insists his mother was behind him all the way.
"She knew what was going on,” he says. “She was tellin’ me, ‘Just leave. You need to leave and go home.’ It’s stupid, you know. But I told my mom, ‘Let’s at least try it one more time. Let’s get one more week in.’"
Meaning, what? Astro will walk away this week if he's again in the bottom pair? It's unclear, but Astro defends his attitude by saying The X Factor is a "competition."
“We are all fighting to stay here. How you going to say I’m cocky? Muhammad Ali does this. It’s not cocky, it’s confidence," he says. "Where I am from, I had to fight every day just to keep my name, Astro. I had to battle every day with someone on the corner. On the way to school, on the way everywhere... I am not backing down.”
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Kenneth weakens rapidly to Category 2 hurricane (AP)
MIAMI ? Forecasters say Hurricane Kenneth is weakening rapidly and has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm in the eastern Pacific.
There is no threat to land from what had been the strongest late-season hurricane in that area on record when it earlier reached Category 4 status.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Wednesday that Kenneth has maximum sustained winds near 110 mph (175 kph). The storm was centered about 840 miles (1,350 kilometers) south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico.
It is moving west at 9 mph (15 kph)
Kenneth is expected to weaken further and could be downgraded to a tropical storm by Thursday. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.
The eastern Pacific hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
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AP Enterprise: Todd Palin repaid for hacker trial (AP)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ? The government paid nearly $2,500 for Sarah Palin's husband to come to the trial of a Tennessee college student who hacked into her email ? even though Todd Palin never testified, court records show.
In all, the government paid more than $29,000 to fly members of the Palin family and other witnesses to Knoxville, send a prosecutor to Alaska for research and pay other travel expenses, according to the Department of Justice records obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. Air travel totaled about $18,600, and hotel bills amounted to nearly $3,300.
The thousands of dollars spent by prosecutors helped them win a conviction on one felony and one misdemeanor charge against David Kernell, who finishes his 10-month sentence on Wednesday. Prosecutors have said that Kernell's punishment for the hacking during Palin's failed 2008 vice presidential bid should deter any hackers who considered targeting candidates in next fall's presidential election.
The former Alaska governor, her daughter Bristol and an aide were among the witnesses called to the stand, but the chief prosecutor said he decided Todd Palin's testimony wasn't needed. Sarah and Bristol Palin told jurors that they harassed and their lives were disrupted after Kernell hacked into Sarah Palin's Yahoo! Email account and made screenshots public that included personal email addresses and cell phone numbers.
Records show Todd Palin received $2,244.30 as reimbursement for airfare from Alaska to Tennessee, along with $122 for meals and incidentals and an attendance fee of $120. He was listed as a fact witness.
"We subpoena a lot of witnesses that we think we might need," Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle said, adding about a dozen witnesses in all were subpoenaed. "We decided his testimony was no longer necessary for purposes of trial."
An attorney for the Palins, John Tiemessen of Fairbanks, Alaska, said in an email that Todd Palin was under subpoena and flew to Knoxville prepared to testify. Tiemessen declined to make Todd Palin available for comment, and an email seeking comment sent to Sarah Palin's political action committee wasn't immediately returned.
The 34 pages of Justice Department expense documents obscured the names of witnesses 58 times, making it impossible to discern how much in travel expenses was incurred by Bristol and Sarah Palin and the other witnesses. It also wasn't clear if any other witnesses who flew in from Alaska wound up not testifying.
But one three-page form that authorized reimbursement of unusual expenses showed payment was made to Todd Palin. The section of the form where Weddle provided justification for the unusual expense was blanked out.
Records also show it cost $2,461 for the prosecutor to take a September 2009 trial preparation trip to Alaska.
Weddle said Todd Palin received the "same allowance anybody else would be entitled to," based on a contract rate of $40 per day. The form specifies that attendance days include travel.
"There's no bonus because you've written a book or you are married to a former vice presidential candidate," Weddle said.
Several former prosecutors who weren't involved in the case said it's difficult to compare the cost of a case with the gravity of the charges or the outcome.
"You don't know exactly how things are going to take shape," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble of Chattanooga. "It's just the nature of trials. Unfortunately you have to bring witnesses in from a long way."
He said there are cost-benefit analyses after some cases but: "There's a lot of subjectivity in that and it's a hard line to draw."
Still, Humble described the felony conviction as a "complete win."
Aside from travel expenses, the Justice Department said there were no records for the overall cost of the trial.
J. Tom Morgan of Decatur, Ga., a former district attorney, said that when former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis made a comment about sunshine as the best disinfectant "he wasn't talking about the federal court system."
"It sounds like a lot of money on a hacking case, but once you go to trial you've got to be prepared for anything and everything," he said.
Morgan said prosecutors have discretion in spending and typically if they have a family member tag along they will also have them testify to justify it. Though Morgan couldn't speak to the circumstances of the Palin case, he said sometimes family members do get a "free ride."
Kernell, 24, who was a University of Tennessee student when arrested, was scheduled for release Wednesday after getting credit for good behavior. He was tried on four felony charges. Jurors acquitted him of one, deadlocked on another and reduced a third to a misdemeanor illegal access charge. He was convicted of obstructing an investigation by trying to hide his computer activity.
Defense attorney Wade Davies declined to comment about the trial expenses. Kernell's father, state Rep. Michael Kernell, D-Memphis, said an appeal of the conviction is pending and declined comment.
Davies contended during the trial that Kernell had no criminal intent and that the hacking amounted to a prank. Kernell tapped into the Alaska governor's widely publicized Yahoo! email account by correctly answering a series of personal security questions. He didn't testify at the trial.
Sarah Palin told jurors that the hacking disrupted the lives of her family and close friends when their e-mails and phone numbers were publicized on the Internet. Bristol Palin testified that she received harassing calls and text messages.
Palin has remained highly visible since she and running mate U.S. Sen. John McCain lost the 2008 general election. That star power was on display at the trial in 2010, when she attracted smiles from jurors on the way to the witness stand. The first questions from Weddle was, "May I call you Governor Palin?"
Palin, who quit the Alaska governorship in 2009 midway through her term, was considered a possible GOP presidential candidate this year until ? with polls showing her popularity with voters had waned ? she announced that she was passing on the race.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
45 percent in US struggle to make ends meet
WASHINGTON?? Nearly half of all Americans lack economic security, meaning they live above the federal poverty threshold but still do not have enough money to cover housing, food, healthcare and other basic expenses, according to a survey of government and industry data.
The survey, released on Tuesday by the advocacy group Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), found that 45 percent of U.S. residents live in households that struggle to make ends meet.
That breaks down to 39 percent of all adults and 55 percent of all children, the group found.
"This is a wake-up call for Congress, for our state policy-makers, really for all of us," said Donna Addkison, President and CEO of WOW.
"Nearly half of our nation's families cannot cover the costs of basic expenses even when they do have a job. Under these conditions, cuts to unemployment insurance ... and other programs families are relying on right now would push them from crisis to catastrophe."
The WOW survey compared 2009 pre-tax incomes to a budget of basic and essential monthly expenses for various families that it developed along with researchers at Washington University with funding from the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
For example, in a budget for a family of one worker, it put housing expenses at $688 and food at $244. In a family of two workers with two young children, it assumed housing would cost $821 per month and food $707 a month.
It did not include nonessentials such as vacations, recreation, hobbies, college tuition, and other common expenses of the middle class.
A congressional effort to find $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years failed on Monday, raising fears that emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed would not be extended when they expire next month.
Other social programs including Medicare are also under threat as lawmakers seek to slash the nation's huge debt.
Some economists said while they agreed that the debt had to the reduced, targeting programs that helped the low income group survive the harsh economic environment was not the correct path to take.
"I am in favor of austerity, but not in this area," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York. "This is the only austerity going on and this is hitting the long-term unemployed. It's not improving the long-term budget situation anyway."
Currently, the poverty threshold for the United States is an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four.
A little more than 15 percent of the country lives at or below that level, and the group wanted to look at the remainder, "many of whom live on the edge and are chronically at risk of financial crisis or falling into poverty."
More than four out of 10 adult women live in households that cannot cover those basic expenses, slightly more than the proportion of men, 37 percent.
That may be because in 2009 women's median earnings were 70 percent of men's median earnings, the group said.
More than 60 percent of single women live in economic insecurity, it added.
"While married women are more likely to have economic security than unmarried women, much of the stability is attained through a husband's earnings or other household income," the group reported, which can put those women in economic jeopardy if their husbands die or lose their job or if the couple divorces.
The group also found "that full-time work fails to provide economic security for 25 percent of adult workers," because of stagnating and falling wages over the last decade.
"A chief cause of economic insecurity is 1970s level wages that fail to cover modern expenses," it said.
While households with two full-time workers can help boost a family's economic security, 22 percent of adults with children who work full-time and have a partner who also has a full-time job cannot cover basic needs.
At the same time, 21 percent of homes headed by a college graduate lack economic security.
"In the past, threats to economic security were supposedly clear -- dropping out of high school, being a single parent or having a large family. In today's economy, we cannot assume we know who lacks security," it said.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45407937/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
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Bioterror fears could block crucial flu research
A US biosecurity committee is deciding whether crucial research on H5N1 bird flu is too dangerous to publish. The work shows a few mutations that might allow H5N1 bird flu to cause a lethal human pandemic.
The work was reported by New Scientist in September but its formal publication has now been delayed by fears that the information could be dangerous in the wrong hands, including those of other researchers. Virologists argue that publication is essential for keeping watch on natural H5N1, which poses a far greater threat.
H5N1 kills more than half the people it infects, but cannot be readily passed from person to person. Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, reported at a flu conference in Malta in September that giving H5N1 two mutations known to adapt it to mammals, then passing the modified virus repeatedly between ferrets, led to further mutations and an H5N1 that was just as deadly but spread readily in airborne droplets. The five mutations involved have occurred separately in wild H5N1.
The work was submitted to the journal Science, but has now been passed to the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, a committee of researchers which advises on whether published research "may be misused to pose a biologic threat". Its advice is not binding, but it is influential.
Human mistake
"The benefits of publishing this work do not outweigh the dangers of showing others how to replicate it," says Thomas Ingelsby of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, which has long warned of bioterror risks.
Someone might try to make it into a weapon, Ingelsby says, but a more likely threat is that more scientists will work with the modified virus, increasing the likelihood of it escaping the lab. "Small mistakes in biosafety could have terrible global consequences," he says.
"The potential for escape of that virus is staggering," says D.A Henderson, also at the Center for Biosecurity, who spearheaded the eradication of smallpox. If a highly contagious virus with a 50 per cent kill rate got loose "a catastrophe would result", he adds, especially given the world's slow and limited ability to make vaccine. There is a precedent, he notes: the mild H1N1 flu that circulated before 2009 escaped in 1977 from a lab in Russia or China.
The Rotterdam team will not comment while the review is underway, but at the conference in Malta they said the experiment was approved by Dutch and international reviewers before it began, and no one suggested it should not be published. It was performed at the equivalent of BSL4 ? the highest bio-safety level.
Nature vs nurture
Researchers familiar with the work say the risks are overstated. "Nature is much more likely to come up with highly pathogenic influenza than we humans," says Peter Palese of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Daniel Perez of the University of Maryland in College Park says publishing will generate more biosecurity, not less. That's because it will show which mutations to look for in natural H5N1 ? and why more such monitoring is needed. "H5N1 is out of control," he says.
"A bit of a wake-up call on flu might not go amiss," agrees Peter Doherty of the University of Melbourne in Australia, who won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1996 for work in viral immunity and now works on flu. "H5N1 is mutating a lot, and virologists need to know the ferret study so they can watch for those mutations," he says. "The real bioterror threat comes from nature itself."
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Center-right wins Spain election (Reuters)
MADRID (Reuters) ? The opposition People's Party (PP) won a crushing victory in Spain's election on Sunday as voters vented their rage on the ruling Socialists for the worst economic crisis in generations.
The Socialists conceded a humiliating defeat as official results showed the PP projected to take an absolute majority of 187 seats in the 350-seat lower house, with 78 percent of votes counted.
Spaniards voted in a grim mood against a background of soaring unemployment, cuts in public spending and a debt crisis that has put them in the front line of the euro zone's fight for survival.
Further hardship lies ahead, with PP leader Mariano Rajoy committed to bringing in even harsher austerity measures to appease financial markets.
"We can choose the sauce they will cook us in, but we're still going to be cooked," said civil servant Jose Vasquez, 45, who was among the early voters in the capital Madrid.
The Socialists under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero led Spain from boom to bust in seven years in charge of the euro zone's fourth-largest economy.
Spain is now the fifth euro zone country where the government has fallen victim to the debt crisis, following Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy.
Voters fiercely punished the Socialists for failing to act swiftly to prevent the slide in Spain's fortunes and then belatedly bringing in austerity measures that have slashed wages, benefits and jobs.
Spaniards are now resigned to further cuts, including in health and education, in the midst of the wider European crisis that has pushed Spain's borrowing costs to critical levels.
MARKETS TO WELCOME RESULT
Analysts said the result would be welcomed by markets.
"From a market standpoint, an absolute majority for the PP is just what the doctor ordered. Mr. Rajoy will have a freer hand than his predecessor in that he will no longer be dependent on the support of the Catalans and the Basques to govern," said Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London.
"The risk however, is that more retrenchment pushes the economy back into recession. Mr. Rajoy will have to tread very carefully given the dire state of Spain's economy."
The bleak economic outlook hung over the election campaign. One in five Spanish workers are without a job, the worst unemployment rate in the euro zone.
"Something's got to change here in Spain...People like us just want to work." Juan Antonio Fernandez, 60, an unemployed construction worker, said as he voted in Madrid.
The 56-year-old Rajoy will not be sworn in until December but he is likely to swiftly lay out his plans during the government handover to reassure fraught markets.
"I'm prepared to do what Spaniards want," Rajoy said after he voted in the wealthy Madrid neighborhood of Aravaca.
Underlining the fragile situation, Spain's borrowing costs hit euro-era highs during the election campaign, almost reaching the 7 percent level at which other nations like Ireland and Greece sought international bail-outs. Growth has stalled.
Hundreds of PP supporters savoured their victory, waving blue party banners and Spain's red and yellow flag and dancing to 1970s disco music outside their headquarters in Madrid.
CHEAP CREDIT THEN CRASH
Zapatero decided against running for a third term as his approval ratings sank. The Socialists chose veteran politician Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba as their leader for the campaign but he suffered because of his association with Zapatero and failed to inspire voters.
Sunday's election took place on the 36th anniversary of the death of dictator General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War until 1975.
Following the restoration of democracy, Spain joined the European Union in 1986 and the euro in 1999, enjoying years of prosperity and a real estate boom driven by cheap credit.
When the property market crashed in 2007 the government, companies and consumers found themselves over their heads in debt.
Many disillusioned Socialist voters stayed home on Sunday or turned to smaller parties such as the United Left, the former communist party, which was heading for its strongest showing since the mid-1990s.
In the Basque Country, people voted for the first time in years without the threat of violence, after the separatist guerrilla group ETA announced last month that it was giving up its armed struggle.
A new Basque pro-independence party, Amaiur, performed strongly and looked like winning several seats in the northeastern region.
(Additional reporting by Nigel Davies, Tomas Cobos, Fiona Ortiz, Sonya Dowsett, Martin Roberts and Carlos Navarro in Madrid and Arantza Goyoaga in Bilbao, writing by Angus MacSwan, editing by Barry Moody)
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Switched On: Between a Nook and a hard place
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
In the 1988 comedy Coming to America, a blatant McDonald's rip-off named McDowell's draws the legal ire of the empire built by Ray Kroc. In explaining his pathetic defense that includes noting that McDowell's uses golden arcs instead of golden arches, the eatery's manager notes that while both the Big Mac and his Big Mick both include the 1970s jingle-immortalized ingredients of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, the McDowell's flagship burger bun has, in fact, no sesame seeds.
This state of differentiation isn't a far cry from what characterized some of the earliest 10-inch Honeycomb devices -- a few fractions of an inch of thickness, a higher-quality display, a full-sized USB port, an hour or two of running time and some bundled apps constituted how many of the tablets asserted their competitiveness. Of course, there was the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer with its keyboard add-on and its follow up, the Eee Pad Slider, which finally brought an integrated one. But whether it's been from a lack of of options for manufacturers or disadvantages of the overall Honeycomb approach, larger Android tablets have made limited inroads versus the similarly sized iPad and are now going after it more aggressively on price. 
This state of differentiation isn't a far cry from what characterized some of the earliest 10-inch Honeycomb devices -- a few fractions of an inch of thickness, a higher-quality display, a full-sized USB port, an hour or two of running time and some bundled apps constituted how many of the tablets asserted their competitiveness. Of course, there was the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer with its keyboard add-on and its follow up, the Eee Pad Slider, which finally brought an integrated one. But whether it's been from a lack of of options for manufacturers or disadvantages of the overall Honeycomb approach, larger Android tablets have made limited inroads versus the similarly sized iPad and are now going after it more aggressively on price.
Continue reading Switched On: Between a Nook and a hard place
Switched On: Between a Nook and a hard place originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Researchers find synthetic RNA lessens severity of fatal disease
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
A team of University of Missouri researchers have found that targeting a synthetic molecule to a specific gene could help the severity of the disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) ? the leading genetic cause of infantile death in the world.
"When we introduced synthetic RNA into mice that carry the genes responsible for SMA, the disease's severity was significantly lowered," said Chris Lorson, researcher at the Bond Life Sciences Center and professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. "The mice that receive synthetic RNA gain more weight, live longer, and had improvements in motor skills. These results are very exciting."
SMA is a rare genetic disease that is inherited by one in 6,000 children, who often die young because there is no cure. Children who inherit SMA are missing a gene that produces a protein which directs nerves in the spine to give commands to muscles. Lorson's lab focuses on targeting a partially functioning back-up copy of the missing gene, known as SMN-2, into producing the needed protein.
While the results are promising, Lorson notes additional research is needed before synthetic RNA could be used on humans for SMA. Clinical trials for similar synthetic RNAs are currently being performed in other neurodegenerative disease such as Lou Gehrig's or ALS. In SMA, there are clinical trials taking place in many labs across the country that are investigating drug compounds to increase SMN-2 protein production.
"It's been remarkable to watch how quickly SMN-2 knowledge has transformed from basic molecular biology to being modified targets for novel therapeutics," Lorson said. "SMN-2 is like a light that's been dimmed, and we're trying anything to get it brighter. Even turning it up a little bit would help dramatically."
###
University of Missouri-Columbia: http://www.missouri.edu
Thanks to University of Missouri-Columbia for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115388/Researchers_find_synthetic_RNA_lessens_severity_of_fatal_disease_
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Pakistani Taliban, government hold initial talks
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) ? Government intermediaries have held talks with the Pakistani Taliban in recent months exploring ways to jump-start peace negotiations, intelligence officials and a senior militant commander said.
As reports of the talks emerged, officials said Monday that gunmen ambushed a paramilitary convoy in southwestern Baluchistan province, killing 14 soldiers. Baluchi nationalists have waged a decades-long insurgency against the government, demanding greater independence and a larger share of the province's natural resource wealth.
The Pakistani Taliban have waged a separate war against the government. A peace deal between authorities and the group could represent the best hope of ending years of fighting that has killed thousands of security personnel and civilians.
But it is unclear whether the preliminary talks will gain traction or if the Pakistani Taliban are unified enough to actually strike a deal. It is also uncertain whether a deal could last.
The government has cut peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban in the past, but they have largely fallen apart. The agreements have been criticized for allowing the militants to regroup and rebuild their strength to resume fighting the government and foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Talk of a new peace deal could be troubling to the United States if it is seen as providing militants with greater space to carry out operations in neighboring Afghanistan. However, Washington's push for a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban could make it difficult to oppose an agreement in Pakistan.
The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have primarily focused their attacks on opposite sides of the border. The Pakistani Taliban also trained the Pakistani-American who carried out a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010.
The government delegations that held preliminary talks with the Pakistani Taliban over roughly the past six months have included former civilian and military officials and tribal elders, the intelligence officials and a senior militant commander said in recent interviews with The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
As a confidence building measure, the Pakistani Taliban released five officials from the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency who were kidnapped in Baluchistan province, the officials and the commander said in the interviews.
The Pakistani Taliban's top demand is that the army pull out of the South Waziristan tribal area, which served as the group's main sanctuary before a large military offensive in 2009, said the commander, who is close to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
The army could be replaced by the paramilitary Frontier Corps, but the militants have demanded that only local police conduct patrols. They also want the government to pay compensation for damages incurred during the South Waziristan operation, free Pakistani Taliban prisoners and allow the group's leaders to move freely throughout the country.
According to the intelligence officials and the militants, the Pakistani Taliban's leadership council held a meeting in mid-September in which they came up with these demands. They also authorized the group's deputy leader, Maulana Waliur Rehman, to hold talks with the government regarding South Waziristan and other tribal areas.
On Saturday, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman told the AP the group has added another demand ? that the government cut ties with the United States if it wants to make peace with the militants.
"Do it and we are brothers, but if not, our war against the government will go on," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
Some analysts have argued that the Pakistani Taliban has splintered into so many different groups that it might be difficult for the leadership in South Waziristan to agree to a comprehensive peace deal.
The government held a meeting of all major political parties at the end of September in which they agreed that the government must attempt to start peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban. But it is unclear what conditions the government and, more importantly, the powerful military would agree to.
The military has conducted a series of offensives against the Pakistani Taliban in the country's semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border over the past few years.
For their part, military officials have said they have not held any recent peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban.
The attack on the paramilitary Frontier Corps convoy in Baluchistan occurred Sunday night about 90 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of the provincial capital, Quetta, said Frontier Corps spokesman Murtaza Baig. Ten soldiers were also wounded.
The Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group's spokesman, Azad Baluch, who alleged the group's fighters killed 40 paramilitary soldiers.
____
Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar contributed to this report from Quetta.
(This version CORRECTS that the attack in Baluchistan province was on Sunday night, not Monday.)
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MLS makes changes for 2012 playoff schedule
updated 10:08 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2011
CARSON, Calif. - Major League Soccer will have 10 playoff teams and more games between regional rivals under new competition policies in 2012.
MLS made several announcements about next season's schedule before Sunday's MLS Cup between Los Angeles and Houston.
Next year's MLS Cup will be hosted by the finalist with the most regular-season points, a long-rumored change from the league's tradition of neutral-site championship games.
After a regular season weighted for games within each conference, five teams will make the postseason from each conference. The bottom two seeds will play a knockout game to determine who takes on each conference's top seed in a two-game aggregate-goal format.
The conference finals also will be played in a two-game series, a change from this season's winner-take-all finals for an MLS Cup berth.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsAmerica?needs Beckham back
Trash Talk: Aside from American football, the rest of the public?s attention is up for grabs, which is why it?s an opportune time for soccer to make its move. And an ideal opportunity for the MLS to bring David Beckham back.
War, then soccer
For the first time in decades, football in Libya is just about, well, football.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45381333/ns/sports-soccer/
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Monday, November 21, 2011
Religion-related lobby groups thrive in Washington (Reuters)
CHICAGO (Reuters) ? The number of religion-related lobbying groups in Washington has grown five-fold in the past 40 years, with their spending reaching almost $400 million annually, a study showed on Monday.
The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life study identified 212 groups, up from 158 a decade ago and 40 in 1970.
Their collective budgets for lobbing efforts in Washington were estimated at $390 million a year. For 131 of the groups for which data could be obtained, median spending was $890,000 in 2009, down from $970,000 the year before.
Forty groups accounted for the bulk of the spending, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent nearly $88 million in 2008, the last year for which data was provided.
Also in 2008, the Family Research Council spent $14 million and the American Jewish Committee $13 million.
In 2009, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spent $27 million, Concerned Women for America $13 million, Bread for the World $11 million, the National Right to Life Committee $11 million and the Home School Legal Defense Association $11 million.
Issues the various groups lobbied on included support of Israel, church-state issues, and religious rights.
The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life said other topics were bioethics, abortion, capital punishment, and end-of-life and family-marriage issues. Many of the groups also addressed international issues such as poverty.
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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