Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180573815?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
How Will Prince William and Kate Middleton Spend New Year's Eve?
The UK's (and THG's) favoritest couple Prince William and Kate Middleton will be surrounded by loved ones when they ring in their first year as newlyweds.
According to reports, William and Kate, both 29, will travel to Aberdeen, Scotland, and will stay at Birkhall, a 53,000-acre estate belonging to William's dad.
"They will stay for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day," a source reveals. "Prince Charles and Camilla will be flying there, too." But that's not all ...
William and Kate's whirlwind holiday plans continue ...
Unlike her first Christmas at the Palace, Kate's parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, are "expected at Birkhall for the festivities," the source believes, which is nice.
"They are staying at Teapot Cottage or another cottage on the estate, not Birkhall itself," says the insider, although the Middletons will be welcomed by the family.
No word yet on the NYE plans of Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton, but we hope it involves them being together. Someone really needs to start a petition for that.
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Box office: "M:I:4" set to lead slow New Year's weekend (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? The 2011 box office will officially close its books this weekend, with no new movies debuting in wide release. Christmas holiday holdovers "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Thrones" are expected to lead what is typically a weak New Year's weekend frame.
As usual, a handful of specialty movies will use the schedule opening to make their limited debuts: Among them, Focus Features' "Pariah," which opened in four New York and California theaters Wednesday, averaging an impressive $5,456 per location; and the Weinstein Company's "Iron Lady," a Margaret Thatcher biopic starring Meryl Streep, opening at four locations Friday.
Paramount's "M:I:4," directed by Brad Bird and shot at a cost of about $145 million, had grossed an estimated $94.6 million domestically and $180 million internationally through Wednesday.
The Tom Cruise thriller is expected to gross another $40 million over the long four-day holiday weekend.
After getting out of the gate slow in mid-December, meanwhile, Warner's "Sherlock Holmes" sequel has found momentum at the box office and aims to keep it this weekend.
The Guy Ritchie movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, grossed $39.6 million in its first weekend -- significantly less than the $62.3 million that its predecessor, the 2009 "Sherlock Holmes," took when it opened.
But the PG-13 movie, which cost $125 million to make, has steadily attracted audiences. On Wednesday, it became the first film of the holiday season to cross the $100 million threshold domestically.
The second "Sherlock" movie is predicted by box-office watchers outside Warner to gross somewhere around $30 million over the four-day holiday-weekend frame.
Meanwhile, also looking to sustain box-office momentum will be "War Horse," Steven Spielberg's World War I drama.
The DreamWorks movie cost about $70 million to make and opened on Christmas Day to a surprisingly strong $7.5 million. It has grossed $22.4 million since Sunday.
DreamWorks expects the film, which has been nominated for two Golden Globes and is widely expected to receive several Oscar nominations, to have a steady run through February.
Spielberg's other movie now in release, Paramount's "The Adventures of Tintin," on the other hand, is still searching for a domestic audience.
Despite being nominated for a Golden Globe for best animated feature film, the movie has failed to spark the sort of interest at home as it has internationally.
Paramount is hoping the PG-rated movie, based on the Belgian comic books, to gross $18 million over the four days. That would bring its domestic total to $54 million.
But don't cry for Spielberg.
While American audiences aren't quite embracing "Tintin," international audiences love it. The movie, which cost about $135 million to make, has grossed nearly $240 million abroad. And it's just entering its second week of domestic release.
Reserve the sympathy for two directors who usually don't require tears: David Fincher and Cameron Crowe.
Fincher's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Sony's R-rated movie based on Stieg Larsson's bestselling novel, is limping into its second week of release. The movie opened the evening of December 20.
As of Tuesday, the movie, which stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, had grossed only about $32.5 million domestically. A movie with a big-name actor, a big-name director and big-name source material would be expected to perform better. But it's a tough movie for Christmastime -- a hard R film about murder, incest and rape.
While there's plenty to be said for counterprogramming, this highly anticipated movie, which cost an estimated $100 million to make, hasn't yet caught on in nearly the numbers initially expected. But it's certainly a better New Year's Eve movie than Christmas film.
Crowe, meanwhile, wrote and directed Fox's PG-rated family film "We Bought a Zoo," which opened December 23, may have his second miss in a row.
His 2005 Paramount film "Elizabethtown" grossed only $52 million worldwide -- $26.8 million domestically -- on a $45 million budget.
"We Bought a Zoo," which opened to a soft $9.4 million, is certain to beat that movie's domestic total. As of Wednesday, it had taken in $23.4 million in North America.
The movie stars Matt Damon, and had a budget estimated at $50 million.
Although it grossed a mere $3 million on opening day -- a figure that tumbled to $1.9 million on Christmas Eve -- it has rebounded nicely, taking $4.5 million on Christmas Day, $5.2 million on December 26, $4.3 million December 27 and $4 million December 28.
Because "Zoo" and Fox's other movie now in release, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" are the only family movies playing, "Zoo" could have a respectable weekend.
"Alvin," a $75 million G-rated movie that opened to $23.2 million December 16, continues to have better numbers than "Zoo." It has grossed just short of $70 million domestically, and is drawing strong audiences and hasn't grossed less than $6.5 million a day since Christmas, when it grossed $4.4 million.
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Stock futures rise on optimism after Italy auction (AP)
NEW YORK ? Wall Street is set to open higher Wednesday after two successful Italian bond auctions raised hopes that Italy will be able to roll over billions of euros of its debt this year.
Dow futures rose 0.2 percent at 12,244, while S&P 500 futures moved up 0.3 percent to 1,263.40. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 percent to 2,290.75.
The Bank of Italy said the average yield on its euro9 billion ($11.8 billion) six-month offering was 3.251 percent, half the 6.504 percent rate it had to pay at the equivalent auction last month. In an auction of two-year bills, the yield fell to 4.853 percent from 7.814 percent last month.
The news pushed up stock prices across Europe. The euro was flat at $1.3069.
In France, the CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent to 3,119, while Germany's DAX was up 0.1 percent at 5,893. The FTSE index of leading British shares gained 0.6 percent at 5,546.
Despite those gains, significant uncertainty remains for the countries that use the euro. The European Central Bank reported that the continent's banks parked a record euro452.00 ($590.72) billion overnight at the bank Tuesday, surpassing the previous record of euro411.80 billion set Monday.
Those figures reflect the distrust that still reigns among banks and indicates that instead of lending to one another, banks would prefer to hold money at low interest rates at the ECB. However, levels also rise and fall for technical reasons as banks adjust their liquidity requirements.
It also reflects a huge infusion of cheap three-year loans to banks from the ECB, carried out last week in an attempt to inoculate the system against the debt crisis.
In Asia, stocks fell overnight, mostly because of concerns about the broader economy.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.2 percent to close at 8,423.62 after news that its industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent last month ? the first decline in two months.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.6 percent to 18,518.67, while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9 percent at1,825.12.
There are also concerns about a slowdown in China's economy.
The Shanghai Composite Index reversed course after early losses, rising 0.2 percent to 2,170.01. But the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index sank 0.5 percent to 849.76.
Benchmark crude oil fell 40 cents to $100.94 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Running a country? There's an app for that, almost (AP)
LONDON ? Britain's government says experts are considering developing a bespoke iPad app that would deliver key data straight to Prime Minister David Cameron's tablet computer.
Officials said Wednesday that the idea is being discussed, though Cameron's Downing Street office declined to comment on the details.
The Times of London newspaper reported the app could include statistics and information from government departments, real time news and Twitter updates.
Cameron has previously discussed his affection for his iPad, but acknowledged he needed "a little bit of help from someone in IT" to set up the gadget.
The British chief has frequently championed the country's technology sector and hailed the so-called Silicon Roundabout cluster of digital companies in east London.
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Long Term Care Insurance And Legal Worries | AHIP's Health Care ...
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There is some risk to changing long term care insurance agents. One agent may be better suited for your specific needs, while others may not lawsuit your lifestyle. You must compare long term care insurance agents, and this goes beyond just glancing at price. You must look at what each long term care insurance plan covers and for example if you can be protected from everything that can happen to you. Only then are you prepared to pick the best long term care insurance agent. Know your facts right before you switch from one long term care insurance agency. Question for a new long term care insurance quote to find the very best long term care insurance rate.
You never understand what?s going to happen next in life. That?s why you need a long term care insurance plan. You can get a XYZ insurance quote today. We will allow you to compare XYZ insurance to other company?s procedures. Your XYZ insurance rate will likely be inexpensive. Get your inexpensive XYZ insurance today from the XYZ insurance agency.
Source: http://www.ahipbelieves.com/long-term-care-insurance-and-legal-worries/
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Over half Japanese against sales tax hike; PM support falls (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? More than half the Japanese public oppose a proposed doubling of the country's 5 percent sales tax by mid-decade, a newspaper poll showed on Monday, boding ill for the government's aim of fleshing out its plan on overhauling taxes by a self-imposed year-end deadline.
The government is in the final stage of debate on sales tax hikes to pay for rising welfare costs, a step towards fiscal consolidation in a nation whose public debt is already twice the size of its $5 trillion economy.
But Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, a fiscal hawk who took office in September, is struggling to win broad support for the proposal to double the tax rate that was originally floated in June, with some ruling party members against it.
Among the public, those who disapprove of the sales tax increase comes to 53 percent, while more than 38 percent support it, a poll conducted over the weekend by the Nikkei business daily showed.
The sticking point in the ongoing debate is the exact timing of sales tax rises, along with which areas of welfare spending to expand and on tax credits for low-income families.
The opposition, which controls the upper house, earlier this month voted to censure two of Noda's ministers in the chamber, signaling he may face an uphill battle obtaining support for the tax plan.
The same Nikkei poll also showed that support for Noda's government has dropped to 36 percent, a fall of over 30 points since he took office and much less than the 53 percent who disapprove of him.
Fifty percent of the latter cited Noda's poor management of the government and the ruling party while 45 percent said he lacks leadership.
(Reporting by Rie Ishiguro; Editing by Joseph Radford)
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EA Sports: FIFA Street has over 50 ?never experienced skill moves?
EA Sports has detailed some of the features in its upcoming free-style football sim, FIFA Street, particularly the number of skills players can perform on that mini pitch.
According to EA Sports, there will be over 50 ?never-before-experienced skill moves??which accounts for double of that amount of skills viable in the latest yearly football installment, FIFA 12.
Over 50 new tricks should be cool nevertheless, particularly if EA Sports executed them pretty well. FIFA Street is due out for PS3 and Xbox 360 in March 2012.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
DroidDog: DroidDog | Amazon Kindle Fire gets an early taste of Ice Cream Sandwich http://t.co/9u4iuEhM #Android
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First commercial buffalo hunt in Texas
On this day in 1874, Joseph McComb led a party out from Fort Griffin on the first commercial buffalo hunt in Texas. The party consisted of McComb; two assistants, John Jacobs and John W. Poe; and teamsters, skinners, and an ox-drawn wagon. The season's kill brought 2,000 hides, which were marketed at Fort Griffin at $1.50 and $2.00 each. Other hunting trips headed by McComb followed in 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878. McComb estimated that he killed no fewer than 12,000 buffalo during his five hunting seasons. The completion of the transcontinental railroad was a catalyst for the slaughter of buffalo in the 1870s and 1880s, since the railroad made possible the profitable shipment of hides from the Great Plains to eastern markets. Thousands of hunters and skinners participated in the hunts. By 1884 the great herds had been exterminated.
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Source: http://www.tshaonline.org/day-by-day/31345
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Monday, December 26, 2011
4 Chinese Busted With Gold & Guns
FOUR CHINESE nationals who have been engaging in illegal gold mining activities, also known as galamsey, at Dikoto, a village near Wassa Akropong in the Western Region, have been arrested by a joint military-police team under the auspices of the National and Western Regional Security Councils.
The four, Xu Xio Guang, 26, Tang Jian Guo, 59, Tang Lin He, 37 and Yang Xian, 19, were arrested on December 21, 2001 during an operation mounted by the team in the area.
DCOP Moses Ransford Ninson, Western Regional Police Commander, who disclosed this to DAILY GUIDE, explained that the destructive activities of illegal miners on the water bodies, arable lands and forest reserves within the region necessitated the operation.
He indicated that the Chinese alleged that they were brought into the country by a Tarkwa-based Chinese called Dai Ming Shing.
According to the regional police commander, one of the suspects, Tang Neng Bring, 27, managed to escape arrest during the operation while another suspect, Tan Wei Min, was also in China. He noted that efforts were being made to have them apprehended.
Items retrieved from the four Chinese galamsey operators included five gold ingots, two pump action guns together with 19 live AAA cartridges, 179 live BBB cartridges, 169 empty cartridges, one chainsaw machine, one sledge hammer, three domestic and one industrial cylinder.
The rest are one military camouflage uniform, 11 mobile phones, three unserviceable walkie-talkies, one HP computer, notebook, one double cabin Toyota pick-up with registration number GN 1997 Z, one Konka television set, a cash sum of 2,020 Yuan and GH?50.00.
DCOP Ninson said at about 300 metres from the Chinese suspects? site, a Ghanaian, Godwin Jones, 38, and a mechanical engineer were also arrested for engaging in illegal mining with two excavator machines and a washing plant.
The suspect claimed that he and his cousin, Kwabena Amoah, acquired the site from Nana Dikoto of Dikoto village and that they started the illegal mining activities about three weeks ago.
DCOP Ninson said all the suspects were put before court and were remanded into police custody to reappear on January 11, 2012.
The regional police commander appealed to all galamsey operators to make sure they acquired mining licences and permits from the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency respectively before starting their operations.
Source: http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/201112/86235.php
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Rare white Christmas graces Texas panhandle (Reuters)
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) ? A light dusting of snow in north Texas delivered a rare white Christmas to this drought-stricken state, but the majority of the nation was seeing mild weather on Sunday.
Snow showers glazed parts of the Northeast as well, with snowy road conditions cited as a factor in a two-vehicle traffic collision that left four men dead in the town of Palermo, Maine, on Sunday.
But weather forecasters said 99 percent of Americans would see more green and brown for their Yuletide celebrations -- along with plenty of rain, according to Accuweather.com.
Other fair-weather exceptions included freeze warnings posted in the farm-rich Central Valley of California, gale warnings near the Great Lakes, and high winds that left thousands of homes without power in and around Seattle.
The wet Christmas in the Texas panhandle and Permian Basin brought some cheer for drought-weary Texans, who were seeing snow in Lubbock and Amarillo on Christmas morning and rain in the eastern part of the state.
The worst drought on record in Texas this year stoked devastating wildfires, killed as many as half a billion trees, and prompted the most serious urban water-use restrictions ever in the state.
By mid-afternoon on Sunday, at least 4 inches of snow had fallen in Amarillo, making it the second snowiest Christmas in that city's history, National Weather Service forecaster Stephen Bilodeau said.
And with winter weather advisories in effect until 6 a.m. on Monday, there was a chance that Amarillo's record for snow accumulation might be broken before midnight.
Bilodeau said he would have preferred that the snow quit early and left the afternoon safer for Christmas Day travel.
"It's a little bit too much," he said. "The white Christmas through the beginning of the day was good, but now these poor people are getting out into this stuff. There have been a few accidents, and it's ruining a few people's day today."
Not so for native Texan and conservationist Don Alexander, 55, who was spending the holiday with his wife's family in Midland, and enjoying his very first white Christmas.
"The snow is a nifty bonus," Alexander said, as his college-aged daughter posted snow pictures on her Facebook page. "The snow will certainly make this particular Christmas memorable. Winter isn't very scenic in West Texas, so the layer of snow is a nice effect. The bad part is having to wipe down the dog's paws every time he goes outside and then back in."
Far to the north, public safety officials in Maine said four men were killed in a head-on crash between an SUV and another vehicle on a road made slippery by light snowfall in Palermo, about 60 miles northeast of Portland. Police said the collision ranks as Maine's deadliest traffic wreck this year.
In the Midwest, a lack of snow was especially welcome news in Minneapolis, where a pre-Christmas storm last year dumped 17 inches of snow, causing the roof of the Metrodome, the Minnesota Viking's football stadium, to collapse.
This year, Minneapolis was without snow and basking in temperatures that climbed into the relatively balmy high-30s over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Very little fresh snow was expected to fall elsewhere throughout the day on Sunday, according to Accuweather.com. But a storm in southern Ontario was forecast to move into Quebec on Sunday night and drop snow near the Great Lakes, with some accumulation expected overnight.
Residents from Watertown, New York, to Bangor, Maine -- many of whom are off work on Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday -- could wake up to an inch of snow on the ground Monday as that storm moves East.
The Weather Service posted a wind advisory for western Washington state on Sunday, warning of gusts reaching 50 miles per hour through mid-afternoon.
Utility companies reported at least 24,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region during the day, mostly from tree limbs blown into power lines.
Most of the Pacific Northwest was experiencing mild weather on Christmas Day, while states like Colorado and New Mexico had lingering snow leftover from a pre-Christmas storm.
(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Steve Gorman)
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Just Show Me: How to watch Netflix on your Kindle Fire (Yahoo! News)
Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to use Netflix on your?Kindle Fire.
Netflix is everybody's favorite online streaming and DVD rental website, and the Kindle Fire app lets you easily watch Netflix shows right from your tablet. All you have to do is have?wifi enabled on your amazon tablet and?be signed up with Netflix; we'll walk you through the rest of the process in your video.
If you'd like more information on Amazon's tablet, check out our?Kindle Fire guide.
For more episodes of Just Show Me,?subscribe to Tecca TV's YouTube channel and?check out all our Just Show Me episodes. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.
This article originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
- Kindle Fire Guide: Everything you need to know about Amazon's new tablet
- Amazon's Kindle Fire vs. Apple's iPad: A choice between price and functionality
- See the new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet in pictures
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
2011 NCAA Division I Football Championship On Record Pace For Attendance
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Source: http://www.gobison.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=2400&ATCLID=205351661
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A Timely Passing
Working in Kim Jong-un?s favor is his striking resemblance to his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who, strangely, held a certain charisma for North Koreans. Looks aside, Kim III will need a lot of help; in the meantime, we can expect further consolidation by the Korean People?s Army of its leadership of the country. Even more than in the past, we must expect the unexpected in North Korea. And above all, the West must work closely with China. In that sense, nothing has changed.?
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=2a1ac7c7176b6af36ee05dba4294066f
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Video: Christmas Flash Mob @ LAX ? Azusa Pacific University Students
Christmas Flash Mob?s are popping up all over the world this time of year. The students at Azusa Pacific University did one for the travelers at Los Angeles International Airport, LAX on December 16th. They sounded pretty damn good, check it out after the jump.
Previous: Video: Flash Mob ?All I Want For Christmas Is You? in University Library
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Houston man paying $1 parking ticket 58 years late
HOUSTON (AP) ? A Houston man says he wants to clear his own conscience and pay a $1 parking ticket he got 58 years ago, even though the city's traffic violation records have been purged.
Dale Crawford sent a letter to city officials after finding the ticket among some keepsakes. He says it's a debt that he wants to pay, though it's a "small, almost unnoticeable amount."
Crawford received the ticket Feb. 3, 1953, the day he was inducted into the Army. He left his 1946 Nash at a parking meter at the induction station. When his dad was late retrieving the car, it had been ticketed.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker says she'll personally accept Crawford's payment Wednesday and thank him for setting an example for others who owe debts to the city.
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Pop superstars duet with 'X Factor' final three
Fox
Melanie Amaro kicked out the jams with R. Kelly, but was it a good enough performance to push her over the top?
By Craig Berman, TODAY.com contributor
The three ?X Factor? finalists got two final chances to impress the voters on Wednesday night, once in a duet and once with their audition song. It was an odd choice on the part of the show?s organizers, making the finale a report card where the two categories boiled down to ?Plays Well with Others? and ?Most Improved.?
The duets were ... well, interesting would be one word. Random is another. Josh Krajcik and Alanis Morrissette? Really? How did that conversation go? ?Josh, great news! You get to sing with one of the most prominent female vocalists of the last two decades! But there?s a catch. You have to try to sing ?Uninvited.?
That didn?t go so well, especially since Krajcik?s facial expression never got beyond the ?Holy moly, I?m onstage with Alanis Morissette!? stage. Fortunately, he got a second chance, and ?At Last? drew raves, but it was ultimately the least memorable pair of numbers on the night. He was also the first to perform, which never helps in the voting.
Chris Rene went second, and again had the random pop star partner in Avril Lavigne. ?Complicated,? wasn?t much better than the previous duet, but Rene looked more comfortable and got his chance to take the spotlight with his riff towards the end of the number.
Rene also had a huge advantage in that his audition song became a YouTube sensation in about a nanosecond. Though we?ve all heard ?Young Homie? before, it was a reminder that of all the ?X Factor? finalists he?s the best equipped to have that hit single right away.
That left it up to Melanie Amaro. The judges all picked at her duet with R. Kelly and ?I Believe I Can Fly,? which continues the trend in which she gets nagged at for small things while the other contestants can skate by with pretty much anything. We did get some variety, though, as this time the culprit was ?wrong key? instead of ?predictable.?
But she got to close the show, and made Beyonce?s ?Listen? a song that will resonate in the minds of her fans. If this is based on pure vocal abilities, she?s a lock. But is that ever really the case?
To add to the drama, all three singers had cameras in their hometowns. Krajcik?s were at his old high school, a place he graduated before some of the current students were born. Rene?s were at a nightclub he performed at, and Amaro?s were at her church.
Of course, those selections were far from random. Krajcik, who came to his audition fresh off a job making burritos, is the everyman. Rene?s the club entertainer pulled back from the brink of self-destruction. Amaro defines herself by her faith, and it was Simon?s faith in her in bringing her back (or more likely his desire for some added drama, but why be cynical on such an important night?) that caused her to have the needed faith in her own abilities to become a favorite.
Which storyline will win? Well, as Simon Cowell said, this is likely to be the closest finale in the show?s history. Of course, it?s the first season, so that went without saying.
Krajcik is the longshot, so it?ll likely come down to the best voice against the best song. I?d bet on Amaro to win, but no result would be truly be surprising. And as long as a lot of folks watch and the winner goes onto become bigger than Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry combined, the ?X Factor? brass will be happy. No pressure.
Who do you think has the chops to win it all? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
First Time on Video: Endangered Pygmy Hippo Seen Slipping through Nighttime Liberia
Scientists working in Liberia have captured the first video images of a wild pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis), a rare and elusive nocturnal species that has rarely been observed in its natural habitat.
Western scientists and zookeepers have been aware of the pygmy hippopotamus for more than a century, and the species breeds well in captivity, but very little is known about its behavior in its native forest habitats.
The brief video, which you can see below, shows just a few fleeting seconds of a pygmy hippo as it slips between the underbrush in Liberia?s Sapo National Park. The video was shot using camera traps set by the Forestry Development Authority of Liberia, Fauna and Flora International, and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
At 180 to 275 kilograms, pygmy hippos are less than one sixth the weight and size of the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), their only living relatives. All other hippo species went extinct hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The pygmies are found in Liberia and in tiny ?pocket? populations in Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) puts the wild pygmy hippo population at around 3,000, although that number is based on guesses from research conducted nearly 20 years ago. According to the ZSL?s pygmy hippo conservation web page, ?the numbers have likely declined as its forest habitat has become extremely fragmented and is under increasing pressure from logging, mining and farming. As a result, this has brought pygmy hippos into closer contact with humans and increased the risk of hunting and conflict.? The animals are hunted both for subsistence and to supply the growing bushmeat trade that threatens so many other species in Africa. Both the ZSL and the IUCN indicate that a second pygmy hippo subspecies which used to live in Nigeria but has not been seen in more than 50 years is likely extinct.
According to the IUCN, 303 pygmy hippos were living in 135 zoos around the world in 2004. Almost all of them were born in captivity and descended from a founder population of just 70 animals.
The ZSL is accepting donations to help fund its efforts to conserve the pygmy hippo in the wild. Money will go to help buy things like Wellington rubber boots and tents for community research assistants as well as additional camera traps. If the first video didn?t whet your appetite for pygmy hippos, check out this footage of a baby hippo born at Australia?s Taronga Zoo in 2008:
Photo: screen grab from Zoological Society of London video
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e809c897e9a1d0381711d7cc3f35b5e0
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Justin Bieber stages concert at Las Vegas school
LAS VEGAS?? Teen pop icon Justin Bieber plans to perform a private Christmas concert Friday morning for an east Las Vegas elementary school known for providing needy students' families with food, clothes, money for utility bills ? and just about everything in between.
The 17-year-old star's concert, featuring songs from his holiday album "Under the Mistletoe," at Whitney Elementary School comes after the singer pledged to donate $100,000 to the school.
After Bieber announced the gift and concert on a Nov. 1 episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show," the hundreds of students watching the taping from a multi-purpose room at their Las Vegas school erupted into screams and cheers. One girl is seen jumping up and down, and school officials say some of the students burst into tears of joy.
"For the kids, it shows that someone loves them and cares about them to follow up," Principal Sherrie Gahn told the Las Vegas Sun after the taping. "When you live in an existence where everything seems so hopeless, it's an amazing gift they will never forget. It's beyond their wildest dreams."
Whitney Elementary was first featured on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" in September. The episode highlighted how the school provides a food pantry, clothes closet, free haircuts and literacy training for students' families.
Gahn said more than 85 percent of the school's 600-plus students receive free or reduced lunch. The school also has one of the highest homeless student populations in the Clark County School District.
Gahn, who said she used to see students pocketing ketchup packets from the cafeteria in hopes of having dinner at night, told "The Ellen Degeneres Show" she made a pact with families after she arrived about eight years ago. "I'll pay your electrical bill, your utilities, I'll give you food or clothes, whatever you need, as long as you give me your child and then help raise that child as a person of character," she said.
Families at the school told the show Gahn has stayed true to her promise. One girl said Gahn provided her with a bed. A mother said the principal bought her son glasses. Another mother said the school provided her children with Christmas presents when she planned to skip the gift giving.
Gahn said most of the donations come from individuals or businesses, and she said the show has brought an outpouring of support from across the country. The school also posts a "wish list" on its website, asking for granola bars, pop-top cans of soup and other non-perishable foods that homeless students can eat for dinner or over the weekend.
Bieber's gift matches a $100,000 donation from Target that was announced on the September TV special about the school. That money is set aside to start an after-school program and continue providing services to struggling families.
"My biggest motivator for the kids and the thought and the hope that they don't have to live in this existence when they grow up ? that they break the cycle," Gahn said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45697391/ns/today-entertainment/
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Obama???s marriage advice to soldiers: ???Punch above your weight??? (Daily Caller)
President Barack Obama addressed soldiers at Fort Bragg today as he marked the end of American military presence in Iraq.
As he stepped up to the lectern, he offered some unsolicited marriage advice to the uniformed audience.
?Gentleman, that?s your goal: to marry up,? declared the president, following an opening speech by first lady Michelle Obama. ?Punch above your weight.?
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Friday, December 16, 2011
China shifts focus to growth, as momentum falters (AP)
SHANGHAI ? Weakness in the West is exposing China's failure to make consumers a bigger part of the economy, pushing its leaders to promise a more balanced response to tough times than they managed during the previous barrage of stimulus. For China's stability, and world growth, they need to get it right.
After two years of cooling the economy following the splurge in spending in 2009, China has pledged a more "pro-active" economic agenda for 2012. The aim: to keep growth steady while preventing a potentially destabilizing rebound in inflation through what Beijing calls a "prudent" monetary policy.
But the long-promised shift to growth that is less reliant on supercharged and often wasteful levels of investment could be even harder to swallow this time around: China cannot count on support from recoveries in the U.S. and Europe to buoy exports, and another investment binge would lead to even greater imbalances.
Foreign investment in China fell nearly 10 percent in November in the latest evidence of the rising toll that weakness in the West is taking on the world's No. 2 economy.
With the European Union ? China's largest export market ? in the doldrums, Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang described trade prospects Thursday as "grim."
An economic planning meeting this week ended with pledges of greater flexibility in moving to fend off the chill from the European debt crisis.
After 30 years of rapid growth, the economy is bound to slow, Yu Bin, head of macroeconomic research at the Development Research Center of the State Council, or Cabinet, said Thursday.
"We believe China is now coming to the end of this period of high economic growth," he told reporters in Beijing.
The question is by how much.
China's economy grew 9.1 percent in July-September, after expanding 9.5 percent in the first half of the year. Yu said the government's forecast for growth in the coming year was "lower than 9 percent."
Three years ago, with exports plunging, a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package backed by lavish bank lending helped China's manufacturing sector bounce back quickly from the ripple effects of the global crisis. Investment in construction projects and real estate went into overdrive.
That helped shift the economy toward a greater reliance on domestic demand instead of exports ? a needed rebalancing sought both by Beijing and by its trading partners. But the lending spree was so heavily weighted toward investment that it failed to raise consumer spending as a share of the economy, economists say.
Investment rose from 43 percent of economic activity in 2008 to over 50 percent in 2010. Consumer spending, the lion's share of activity in most modern industrial economies, fell.
"The failure to make significant progress in reorienting the economy toward household spending is now being exposed as foreign demand is again slowing," economist Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in a research note Thursday.
Despite the double-digit growth in retail sales, partly because it is coming from a low base, spending remains too low to make up for the demand lost from the no longer free-spending American baby boomers.
China's leaders have acknowledged the country's need to expand social services, slash household tax burdens and put more money in consumer pockets.
"It is unsustainable to have China's long term economic growth be overly reliant on investment," said Yu, of the Development Research Council. "The government has recognized that, which is why it has emphasized the importance of boosting domestic demand, especially consumer demand, to shift away from a model excessively reliant on investment."
Still, as China's leaders prepare for a succession to a new generation of communist leaders, the likelihood of major reforms appears slight. With labor unrest flaring and financial conditions deteriorating across many sectors, from small companies to government-backed building projects, Beijing is obsessed with stability.
Though most recognize the urgency for a more balanced, consumer-led economy, "Officials are most likely to err on the side of maintaining growth," Williams said. "In practice, the imbalance is likely to grow."
For now, China's leaders are committing to "fine-tuning" policies, such as easing credit by further loosening bank reserve requirements to put more cash back into the economy.
Reports say the government will support exports by setting up special trade "bases" and aiding exporters in inland areas, which have lagged behind the richer coastal regions.
Controls on the property sector will remain as authorities work to deflate a bubble brought on by the lending spree unleashed in 2009.
Stringent curbs on bank lending helped bring inflation down from a 6.5 percent peak in July to 4.2 percent in November. Property prices also have begun coming down, but they remain a priority for leaders anxious to prevent unrest linked to a weakening of the gains in quality-of-life that buttress the Communist Party's claim to power.
Other likely strategies include tax cuts and increased government spending in areas such as high-tech and renewable energy that Beijing hopes will help drive growth while keeping inflation in check.
Beijing has little choice, given the massive debt loads for banks and local governments left over from the 2009 lending bonanza, says Ren Xianfang of IHS GlobalInsight.
Though the investment boom worked wonders then, it carried risks of its own.
"The bottom line is: the policy tools available to China this time around will be much more limited compared with three years ago ? leaving the country's economy much more vulnerable to severe shocks," she said.
___
Alexa Olesen in Beijing contributed to this story.
___
Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ekurtenbachsh
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Euro zone decline eases, recession still looks certain: PMI (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? The decline in the euro zone's private sector eased a little this month, but a recession still looks inevitable with the region's periphery struggling badly, a key business survey showed on Thursday.
Markit's Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which measures the activity of thousands of euro zone companies, rose for a second month in December to 47.9 from 47.0, confounding expectations for a fall to 46.5.
But the preliminary reading lingered well below the 50 mark that divides growth and contraction for a fourth month.
Survey compiler Markit said France and Germany were responsible for the improved headline figure, while debt-laden peripheral countries remained firmly in contraction territory.
"It's an encouraging sign that (the index) didn't fall any further. Quite what will happen henceforth remains highly uncertain," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
But overall the data point to a deep contraction.
"The euro zone suffered its worst quarter for two and a half years in the final three months of 2011, with the PMI data suggesting that the region's economy is likely to have contracted by 0.6 percent."
That forecast is worse than the median consensus of 0.3 percent in a Reuters poll of economists on Wednesday.
Williamson pointed to steep falls in incoming new orders and very low levels of confidence about the year ahead in the services industry as reasons to expect more decline.
"Whether the rates of decline continue to moderate or accelerate is largely in the hands of the political leaders, and financial markets in their reaction to any changes in the sovereign debt situation," said Williamson.
EU leaders last Friday took a historic step towards fiscal union at a summit last week, but economists have warned this will do little to repair a debt crisis that is choking off market funding for Spain and Italy.
Williamson warned that further weakness in these peripheral economies could yet knock the stronger core economies of France and Germany off track.
Taking a step back, he said the surveys could be viewed as a sign that the euro zone economy is beginning to restructure itself although improvements in output so far haven't been forthcoming.
Perhaps the notable bright spot in the composite PMI was the jobs index, which rose to 50.9 from 50.1 in November. Williamson said this was encouraging, but he noted that this also was largely due to Franco-German strength, with dole queues lengthening in the periphery.
The services PMI, which accounts for the bulk of the euro zone economy, rose to 48.3 in December from 47.5. But the survey's business expectations index stayed at 53.5, low by historical standards.
The manufacturing index also rose modestly, to 46.9 from 46.4, but still its fifth month below the breakeven 50 point.
Its output component, which feeds directly into the composite PMI, showed a bigger rise -- to 47.1 from 45.7.
Factory order books continued to shrink sharply, however, albeit at a slightly reduced pace, with that sub-index rising to 43.3 from 42.4 in November, which was its lowest since May 2009.
Overall, Williamson cautioned against reading the improvement in the headline figures as a meaningful step towards growth.
"It's really too early to say whether this represents a proper turning point and that the situation won't deteriorate in the coming months," he said.
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Monday, December 5, 2011
A more ethical way to compare epilepsy treatments
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 5-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer
Epilepsy drug-switching study shows that using more ethical control groups could be the way forward for testing both drug efficacy and safety
For the first time, a new research methodology recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration has been used to demonstrate that converting patients from one anti-epileptic drug to another - in this case, lamotrigine extended-release (LTG XR) - is well-tolerated, effective and safe. The work by Jacqueline French and her team, from New York University in the US, illustrates how the new methodology addresses ethical issues inherent in more traditional study designs. It is published online in Springer's journal, Neurotherapeutics.
The use of traditional control groups in experimental designs can raise some ethical concerns, such as using inferior treatments for the control group in the study of an illness with significant morbidity and mortality, such as epilepsy. What French and team have done is compare their intervention group - the one where they are moving patients from one drug to another - with a so-called 'historical control group' obtained from a dataset of eight previously published studies, rather than recruit a new control group and give them a potentially less effective drug.
In their study, a total of 226 patients aged 13 years or older undergoing treatment for epilepsy across seven countries were randomly allocated to one of two groups: the first group received LTG XR 250mg; the second received 300mg once daily. During the conversion phase (11-12 weeks), the LTG XR dose was increased progressively as the previous drug was withdrawn gradually. The subjects then had a 12-week maintenance phase with LTG XR as monotherapy. Throughout the study period, the researchers monitored both the type and frequency of seizures and compared them to pre-intervention assessments.
The results demonstrate that LTG XR is effective as monotherapy. Approximately half of the study participants experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in seizure frequency compared to the number recorded before the study. More than half the group reported minor adverse events, including headache and dizziness predominantly.
The authors conclude: "A conversion-to-monotherapy study like ours, which incorporates a historical control, provides important information to clinicians, who often wish to convert their patients from one anti-epileptic drug to another. Without putting a group of patients at undue risk of seizure worsening, we demonstrated that it is possible to convert patients from another drug to LTG XR and that this conversion is well tolerated."
###
Reference French J et al (2011). Lamotrigine XR conversion to monotherapy: first study using a historical control group. Neurotherapeutics. DOI 10.1007/s13311-011-0088-3
The full-text article is available to journalists on request.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 5-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer
Epilepsy drug-switching study shows that using more ethical control groups could be the way forward for testing both drug efficacy and safety
For the first time, a new research methodology recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration has been used to demonstrate that converting patients from one anti-epileptic drug to another - in this case, lamotrigine extended-release (LTG XR) - is well-tolerated, effective and safe. The work by Jacqueline French and her team, from New York University in the US, illustrates how the new methodology addresses ethical issues inherent in more traditional study designs. It is published online in Springer's journal, Neurotherapeutics.
The use of traditional control groups in experimental designs can raise some ethical concerns, such as using inferior treatments for the control group in the study of an illness with significant morbidity and mortality, such as epilepsy. What French and team have done is compare their intervention group - the one where they are moving patients from one drug to another - with a so-called 'historical control group' obtained from a dataset of eight previously published studies, rather than recruit a new control group and give them a potentially less effective drug.
In their study, a total of 226 patients aged 13 years or older undergoing treatment for epilepsy across seven countries were randomly allocated to one of two groups: the first group received LTG XR 250mg; the second received 300mg once daily. During the conversion phase (11-12 weeks), the LTG XR dose was increased progressively as the previous drug was withdrawn gradually. The subjects then had a 12-week maintenance phase with LTG XR as monotherapy. Throughout the study period, the researchers monitored both the type and frequency of seizures and compared them to pre-intervention assessments.
The results demonstrate that LTG XR is effective as monotherapy. Approximately half of the study participants experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in seizure frequency compared to the number recorded before the study. More than half the group reported minor adverse events, including headache and dizziness predominantly.
The authors conclude: "A conversion-to-monotherapy study like ours, which incorporates a historical control, provides important information to clinicians, who often wish to convert their patients from one anti-epileptic drug to another. Without putting a group of patients at undue risk of seizure worsening, we demonstrated that it is possible to convert patients from another drug to LTG XR and that this conversion is well tolerated."
###
Reference French J et al (2011). Lamotrigine XR conversion to monotherapy: first study using a historical control group. Neurotherapeutics. DOI 10.1007/s13311-011-0088-3
The full-text article is available to journalists on request.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/s-ame120511.php
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