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Sunday, March 31, 2013
This Week's Top Comedy Video: Chris Brown's Publicist
Governments Getting Into Patent Buying Business: ReutersTammy's ...
Patent competition in the United States is usually a fierce arena for private companies, but now the South Korean and French governments are suiting up.
Both countries have launched patent-acquisition companies, with the goal of helping domestic technology firms and possibly making some money in the process. China and Japan are making moves into the business too.
The Korean and French firms, dubbed Intellectual Discovery and France Brevets, are similar to the handful of private patent-acquisition firms in the U.S. derisively called ?patent trolls.?
U.S. patent aggregators such as closely-held Intellectual Ventures ? which don?t produce products ? are often accused of unfairly targeting companies that actually build things by threatening to sue unless they are paid royalties.
The aggregators say they create a more-liquid market for valuable intellectual property, and help assure that legitimate inventors ? especially those who don?t work for big corporations ? get paid for their breakthroughs. The French and Korean firms haven?t yet filed any U.S. lawsuits.
The advent of state-sponsored intellectual property dealers adds a fresh geopolitical element to the debate about patent trolls and how to protect legitimate inventions without stifling innovation. It could also complicate efforts to improve global cooperation on trade-related matters such as online piracy and computer security.
Congressman Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon and co-sponsor of a bill designed to limit patent litigation, called the new government-backed patent entities a form of ?protectionism? that nobody had anticipated.
?This is a whole new level of jeopardy,? said DeFazio, who had not been previously aware of them.
Government-sponsored aggregators are still comparatively minor players in the patent deals market, and officials involved with Intellectual Discovery and France Brevets say they have no intention of pursuing aggressive litigation strategies.
Intellectual Discovery presents itself as a defensive alliance: if a South Korean company finds itself targeted in a lawsuit, for instance, it can access the patents being compiled by Intellectual Discovery to hit back.
?It is still in an incubating stage and focusing pretty much on aggregating IP,? said Park Jong-Pil, deputy director at South Korea?s Ministry of Knowledge Economy, in reference to Intellectual Discovery. ?It is not close to a stage of earning big revenues or identifying entities violating our patents or taking legal action.?
Intellectual Discovery has bought over 200 U.S. patents, including one for retinal eye scan technology from Singaporean chipmaker Avago Technologies Ltd last July, U.S. government records show.
And in a sign that its strategy is not limited to aiding Korean companies, it promptly sold that patent to Google Inc , which is busy developing its Google Glass product. A source familiar with the deal said the price was less than $100,000.
Intellectual Discovery and Google declined to discuss the details.
France Brevets, for its part, owns only four patents in the United States and 50 total patent ?families,? according to vice president Yann Dietrich and U.S. patent records. He didn?t disclose the total number of patents worldwide.
Dietrich said the goal was investing in quality IP so French companies can better monetize their technology.
?We are not playing with the rules to extract money,? Dietrich told Reuters.
Patent reform advocates say patent aggregators have exploited loopholes in the system and are often little more than quick-settlement artists who threaten lawsuits with flimsy patent claims registered years after a product hits the market.
But big players such as Intellectual Ventures, launched by former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, say they prevent upstart companies and independent inventors from being ripped off and create a much-needed market for innovation. Several tech companies, including Microsoft Corp. and Google, as well as universities and foundations, are investors in Intellectual Ventures, according to court filings.
Companies used to deploy their patents largely for defense, and big tech firms routinely entered into broad cross-licensing agreements enabling them to use many of one anothers? technologies.
But that equation has changed over the past several decades as the value of breakthrough inventions in digital technology has soared. Tech firms began to see patents as a strategic weapon ? and entrepreneurs like Myhrvold saw a business opportunity.
The result has been an explosion of patent litigation ? especially in the mobile computing arena, where Apple has filed numerous patent infringement lawsuits against its major rivals, with mixed results.
The spiraling patent litigation, which some attribute at least in part to the aggregators, is seen by many in the industry as wasteful, and a threat to innovation. That in turn has attracted the attention of Congress.
DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat, has co-sponsored the SHIELD act, which aims to deter patent lawsuits by requiring most entities which sue over a patent they have acquired (as opposed to going to court over an invention of their own) to pay their opponents? legal fees if they lose. Trial lawyers have fiercely opposed the legislation, in part out of concern that ?loser pays? could spread to other areas of tort law.
Stanford Law School professor Mark Lemley said the emergence of state-sponsored companies could drive more support for the bill, now in committee. Legislators may view them as foreign governments sucking away the fruits of U.S. research, Lemley said, regardless of whether that is a realistic threat.
So far, the government-backed aggregators don?t have nearly the same scale as Intellectual Ventures, which says it has over $5 billion in committed capital and owns roughly 70,000 IP assets.
France Brevets was launched in 2011 with 100 million euros, half from the state and half from the Caisse des Depots, a publicly managed investor in French economic development.
Pascal Asselot, licensing director for France Brevets, said that by assembling patent pools with intellectual property bought from French and foreign businesses, France Brevets aims to convince other companies to sign licensing deals and pay royalties. If France Brevets can show a healthy revenue stream, the hope is to attract sustainable private investment, Asselot said.
Korea?s Intellectual Discovery, which was started in 2010 amid government fears that domestic companies were losing key patents that could be used against them by foreign companies, has a $140 million government commitment.
Prominent South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and LG Electronics have signed up as ?shareholders,? providing Intellectual Discovery with additional revenue in exchange for a license to its patent portfolio.
Intellectual Discovery chief general manager Chant Kim compares the company to San Francisco-based RPX Corp., which acquires patents to protect its members but doesn?t initiate lawsuits.
Edward Jung, chief technology officer at Intellectual Ventures, said his company hasn?t competed with Intellectual Discovery on as many patent acquisition deals as he had thought they would.
?It?s a more difficult business model than they initially expected,? he said.
Countries around the world are eager to strengthen their patent punch. The Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, a joint public-private investment company, launched a fund in 2010 to acquire and license life sciences patents. Officials there were unavailable to comment.
China, meanwhile, has plans to set up around 20 IP ?investment service platforms,? along with exploring a joint government-industry-university patent funding model and extending pilot programs for patent insurance, according to a 2013 strategy plan from the state intellectual property office.
It?s unclear from the document whether any of these programs will be similar to South Korea and France, and government officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Taiwan?s national research lab set up an ?IP service company? but it is not government funded, said Sean Wang, a representative for the lab in the United States in an email to Reuters. He did not respond to follow-up questions.
Stanford?s Lemley said the ultimate method of judging these new players will be who they target. If Intellectual Discovery only uses its patents against companies who already sued Korean businesses ? but leaves everyone else alone ? then the company is a simple extension of Korean trade policy, Lemley said.
However, they might decide everyone is fair game.
?Then it really does look more like an effort by these foreign governments to get in on the boom business model of the last decade,? Lemley said, ?which is patent trolling.?
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Source: http://www.tammyshealtharticles.com/governments-getting-into-patent-buying-business-reuters/
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Smith leads Louisville to 77-69 victory over Ducks
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Louisville coach Rick Pitino is baffled by Russ Smith.
Not by the star guard himself, who is managing to outdo himself each time he steps on the court. No, Pitino doesn't understand why the rest of the country isn't as impressed with Smith as he ? and every opponent who's faced him ? is.
"I look at (player of the year) lists, and I don't see Russ Smith. I don't see him on the All-America teams," Pitino said. "I'm baffled, just baffled, because it wasn't like he was a Johnny-come-lately. He carried us on his back to a Final Four last year."
And he's one game from doing it again.
With Louisville having a rare off night, Smith lifted the Cardinals to a 77-69 victory over Oregon on Friday that put them in the Midwest Region finals. He matched his career high of 31 points, including seven during what would wind up being the game's decisive run.
Smith is averaging 27 points through the first three games of the tournament.
"Russ Smith is a talented young man," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "When he got going, we didn't have an answer."
Louisville (32-5) plays Duke on Sunday, the first time Pitino and Mike Krzyzewski have met in a regional final since Christian Laettner's shot in 1992.
The 12th-seeded Ducks managed to make a game of it, though, which is more than most of Louisville's recent opponents can say.
After Louisville went up 66-48 with 9:01 left, Oregon made six straight field goals to close to 70-64. But Kevin Ware scored on a layup and Chane Behanan threw down a monstrous dunk to put the game out of reach.
Ware finished with 11, topping his previous career best by one, and Gorgui Dieng had 10 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
E.J. Singler's 15 points led five Ducks in double figures. But Damyean Dotson had an off night, held without a field goal until five minutes were gone in the second half, and Oregon could never recover from its poor start.
Early foul trouble didn't help, with Johnathan Loyd picking up his third before halftime and Dominic Artis and Carlos Emory playing the last six minutes of the half with two.
"If it wasn't for the beginning, it would have been a completely different game," Loyd said. "We just came out, we weren't ready and we got smacked. If we were playing the way were playing in the second half the whole game, it's a completely different story."
The Cardinals were barely tested in either of their first two games in the NCAA tournament, beating North Carolina A&T by 31 and Colorado State by 26. They set an NCAA tournament record with 20 steals against A&T, outrebounded one of the country's best rebounding teams in Colorado State and left both teams with ugly shooting lines.
But a hacking cough that Smith has had the last few days is making its way around the Louisville team, and it was clear from the start this wasn't going to be another juggernaut performance by the Cardinals.
Peyton Siva spent the last 15:19 of the first half on the bench after picking up his second foul, and Louisville wasn't nearly as stingy on defense as it's been. The Cardinals (13) actually had more turnovers than the Ducks (12), and Oregon is only the third team to shoot 44 percent or better during Louisville's winning streak.
Thanks to Smith, however, the Cardinals finished like they always do lately: with a win.
After Siva went out, Smith hit a 3 to spark a 14-3 run that put Louisville up 24-8. When he capped the spurt with a layup, it was Russ Smith 9, Oregon 8.
"We really dug ourselves a big hole," Singler said. "We tried to figure back as much as possible, but Louisville's a really, really good team. They just played better than us today."
But the Ducks aren't a team that gives in.
After losing six of their last 11 regular-season games, the Ducks have been on a tear. They won the Pac-12 tournament, then upset Oklahoma State and Saint Louis last weekend.
They went on a 16-4 run that cut Louisville's lead to six points, the smallest it had been since the opening minutes of the game.
"We watched film and seen how they run, and we kind of figured out that would happen," Chane Behanan said.
Instead of panicking, the Cardinals regrouped and regained control. After Ware and Behanan's baskets, Smith shot 3-of-4 from the line to seal the win.
"Coach has been telling me to fight through (his cold), fight through it, dig in. My teammates as well," Smith said. "We're fighting through it and just doing whatever we can to get a win."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smith-leads-louisville-77-69-victory-over-ducks-013024595--spt.html
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NKorea says it's in state of war with SKorea
North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
South Korea's K-1 tanks take part in their military exercise in the border city between two Koreas, Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Friday that his rocket forces were ready "to settle accounts with the U.S.," unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber, center, flies over near the Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 28, 2013. A day after shutting down a key military hotline, Pyongyang instead used indirect communications with Seoul to allow South Koreans to cross the heavily armed border and work at a factory complex that is the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. (AP Photo/Shin Young-keun, Yonhap) KOREA OUT
South Korean soldiers prepare for their military exercise in the border city between two Koreas, Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Friday that his rocket forces were ready "to settle accounts with the U.S.," unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea.
Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely and North Korea's threats are instead aimed at drawing Washington into talks that could result in aid and boosting leader Kim Jong Un's image at home. But the harsh rhetoric from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test have raised worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.
In a joint statement by the government, political parties and organizations, North Korea said Saturday that it will deal with all matters involving South Korea according to "wartime regulations." It also warned it will retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without "any prior notice."
The divided Korean Peninsula is already in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. But Pyongyang said it was scrapping the war armistice earlier this month.
South Korea's Unification Ministry released a statement saying the latest threat wasn't new and was just a follow-up to Kim's earlier order to put troops on a high alert in response to annual U.S-South Korean military drills. Pyongyang sees those drills as rehearsals for an invasion; the allies call them routine and defensive.
In an indication North Korea is not immediately considering starting a war, officials in Seoul said South Korean workers continued Saturday to cross the border to their jobs at a joint factory park in North Korea that's funded by South Koreans
On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned his forces were ready "to settle accounts with the U.S." after two nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions on a South Korean island range as part of joint drills and returned to their base in Missouri.
North Korean state media later released a photo of Kim and his senior generals huddled in front of a map showing routes for envisioned strikes against cities on both American coasts. The map bore the title "U.S. Mainland Strike Plan."
At the main square in Pyongyang, tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for a 90-minute mass rally in support of Kim's call to arms. Small North Korean warships, including patrol boats, conducted maritime drills off both coasts of North Korea near the border with South Korea earlier this week, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing Friday. He didn't provide details.
The spokesman said South Korea's military was mindful of the possibility that North Korean drills could lead to an actual provocation. He said the South Korean and U.S. militaries are watching closely for any signs of missile launch preparations in North Korea. He didn't elaborate.
Experts believe North Korea is years away from developing nuclear-tipped missiles that could strike the United States. Many say they've also seen no evidence that Pyongyang has long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland.
Still, there are fears of a localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999. There's also danger that such a clash could escalate. Seoul has vowed to hit back hard the next time it is attacked.
"The first strike of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will blow up the U.S. bases for aggression in its mainland and in the Pacific operational theatres including Hawaii and Guam," the North said Saturday in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
Pyongyang uses the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a justification for its own push for nuclear weapons. It says that U.S. nuclear firepower is a threat to its existence.
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'Dairy-Free' Baking Mixes Recalled Over Milk
Mar 29, 2013 11:17am
Heartland Gourmet is recalling some "dairy-free" mixes that may contain milk. (Image credit: Heartland Gourmet/FDA)
A gourmet food company is recalling three of its ?dairy-free? baking mixes because they might contain milk, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Heartland Gourmet, based in Lincoln, Neb., announced the voluntary recall Thursday after routine sample testing in Canada uncovered milk in some cookie and pizza crust mixes, which are labeled both gluten-free and dairy-free.
The recall notice cites ?a temporary breakdown in the company?s production and packaging processes? leading to the contamination, but a company spokeswoman said the problem is still under investigation.
Milk is one of the most common food allergens, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious disease. It can cause hives, wheezing and vomiting, as well as abdominal cramps and diarrhea. In rare cases, milk can cause anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction.
17 Scary Allergy Triggers
An ABC News analysis in?December?2012 revealed that more than 400 recalls for undeclared allergens in food were reported to the FDA since March 2009. More than 140 of them were for desserts and snack foods, including cookies, candy and ice cream.
The Heartland Gourmet?mixes were distributed to stores in Minnesota, Texas, Indiana, Connecticut, North Carolina, California and Colorado between October 2012 and March 2013, according to the recall notice. The company also supplies mixes for fundraisers, according to its website. No illnesses have been reported to date.
The recalled products include:
- Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix: Item # 2017 UPC Code 7376967020171 16 oz. Lot #0023065, best buy date of 12/2014 and distributed in March of 2013, and Lot # 0023007, best buy date of 10/2014 and distributed in February 2013.
- Gluten Free Double Chocolate Cookie Mix: Item # 1530 -UPC Code 737697015306 16 oz. Lot #0012289 ? Best buy Date of 10/2014 and distributed in October of 2012; Lot #0022317 with a best buy date of 10/2014 and distributed in November of 2012; and Lot #0012341 with a best buy date of 01/2014 and distributed in December of 2012.
- Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix: Item # 2024 UPC Code 737697020249 15.4 oz. Lot #0073007. Best buy date of 09/2014 and distributed in January of 2013.
Customers are urged to return the recalled products to the place of purchase for a refund, according to the recall notice. Click here for more information.
SHOWS: Good Morning America
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/29/dairy-free-baking-mixes-recalled-over-milk/
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Contact/Call Centre Manager - World Leading Tech Company in ...
Approach People
Contact: Neil Concannon
Address: Quantum house Temple road Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Phone: 01 400 35 46
Approach People - Contact/Call Centre Manager - World Leading Tech Company in Cork - Excellent career progression available
| Location: | Cork |
| Salary: | Euro 50 000 + DOE + excellent benefits |
| Job type: | Permanent, Full-time |
Contact/Call Centre Manager - World Leading Tech Company in Cork - Excellent career progression available
?
Specialist Support Manager:
My Client, a World leading Company is looking for an experienced Contact Centre Manager managing 5 Team leaders - 10/12 members per team, with a multi-lingual work force across their Customer Relations Team and Customer Admin Team.
Job Overview:
This position will have responsibility for managing all aspects of the Specialist Support Teams: Administration and Customer Relations Administration . The ideal candidate must be a strong team player, a great communicator, and a business savvy individual who has an excellent understanding of the needs and challenges facing Specialty Support groups and how they fit with my Client's unique customer focus and passion for excellence.
?
The candidate:
The candidate must be self directed and motivated with strong analytical, management and coordination skills to handle a variety of activities and complexities spanning across the organization. Must be an effective negotiator and skilled at resource balancing and conflict management. Candidate must be able to act as a liaison between the business and the Specialty Support groups. A critical key to success is the ability to gain alignment by proactive partnering with all levels across the organization.
The ideal candidate will have extensive managerial experience working in a fast-paced contact centre environment, excellent project managing skills and a good understanding of the Service Channel and Supply Chain.
Successful candidate will report to the EMEA Customer Relations Area Manager, with strategic report lines to the Agreement Admin Manager and the AMR Customer Relations Admin Manager,
Operational:
- Review daily performance metrics to ensure they are within the agreed service levels
- Proactively address any business operations issues that affect the Contact Centre and Service Channels to meet the requirements of Client Customers
- Conduct and participate in strategic meetings including Global Specialist Support Teams
- Review business operations escalations to and from the Contact Centre and Depots, and drive to resolution
- Provide feedback to the appropriate internal groups on? programs and procedures that impact the Company's ability to meet the Customer requirements
- Facilitate the Quarterly Business and Executive Reviews
?
Process & Performance Improvement:
- Analyze business operations data including service and support metrics and customer satisfaction surveys to identify actionable trends
- Contribute to determining root causes of operational issues by utilizing a structured process improvement methodology
- Create action plans to effectively address root causes
?
Project Management:
- Work closely with other internal groups (Service Planning and Procurement, Business Development, Service Order Management, Legal, and Contact Centre) to address possible gaps in process and procedures that is impacting the Client's customers
- Develop workable timelines and Service level targets
- Negotiate with internal and external resources for milestones and expected outcomes
Requirements:
- Minimum 5-10 years of demonstrated work experience in a contact centre environment including technical support management and customer service management with phone, email and chat.
- BA/BS Degree in business or related field.
- Strong understanding of both Service and Support Channels.
- Ability to interpret complex analysis and business information.
- Six Sigma process training preferred.
- COPC process training preferred
Email this job to yourself / a friend
Source: http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1249169
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Toddler Mauled by 7 Dogs Dies in Georgia | WebProNews
Family pets are,on the internet at least, normally shown as protective of their family, especially babies and children. One family in Georgia, however, learned that some pets don?t make friends with toddlers.
Local Savannah, Georgia news station WTOC is reporting that a 21-month-old girl was killed when seven dogs attacked her outside her home in Ellabell, Georgia. The seven dogs were all pit bulls or pit bull-mixed, and have now been put down.
The girl, Monica Laminack, reportedly crawled outside through a doggie door while her 12-year-old brother was supposed to be watching her. In total, there were a reported five people in the house at the time of the mauling. The family owned a total of nine dogs. A beagle and Irish setter were not involved in the attack, and were not put down.
Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith told WTOC that the girl was found with multiple bites on her body and had apparently been dragged throughout the yard sometime during the hour-and-a-half after she crawled outside. Smith related that the girl?s body was cold when first responders arrived, indicating that she had been dead for some time. The sheriff indicated that he expects charges related to the death to be filed.
(Image courtesy Dante Alighieri/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: http://www.webpronews.com/toddler-mauled-by-7-dogs-dies-in-georgia-2013-03
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Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope Brings The Universe To Your Fingertips
The Microsoft Research team is building an epic map of the universe using data and photographs collected from the many telescopes around the world, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. They call it The WorldWide Telescope.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dq5lcA910mM/
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Syria rages at Qatar for giving opposition its Arab League seat
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria vented its wrath at Qatar and the Arab League on Wednesday for handing its seat at an Arab summit in Doha to a "deformed" opposition coalition trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
"The emir of Qatar, the biggest bank for supporting terrorism in the region, began his presidency of the Arab League by hijacking it with tainted oil and money," said state news agency SANA, which carries the views of Assad's government.
It said the League had compromised its values for the sake of Gulf Arab and Western interests when it gave Syria's seat to the opposition Syrian National Coalition on Tuesday.
Qatar's Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani "committed a flagrant violation of the league's pact by inviting the deformed body, the 'Doha Coalition', to usurp Syria's seat in the League", SANA said, in a scathing reference to the opposition.
Qatar has funded political opposition groups and is believed to be funneling money and weapons to rebels in Syria.
Assad has long accused his opponents of being "terrorists" funded by Gulf and other foreign powers. A two-year-old revolt against him began with peaceful protests, but evolved into a civil war in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.
Arab countries, like world powers, are divided over the conflict in Syria, with Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon the most reluctant to take any action against Assad's rule.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some others have thrown their support behind the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels in Syria, partly to weaken Shi'ite Iran, the main regional ally of Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is distantly derived from Shi'ite Islam.
Iran, which has sent advisers, money and weapons to help Assad stay in power, also lambasted the Arab League for allowing a foe of Assad to take Syria's seat at the summit, calling this "a pattern of dangerous behavior".
Iran views Assad as a pillar of an "axis of resistance" against Israel and a bulwark against Sunni militants in Syria, a country which for three decades has been the main conduit for Iranian arms supplies to Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah movement.
(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rages-qatar-giving-opposition-arab-league-seat-102907190.html
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Glacial Legacy Set Stage for Washington Landslide
With a loud roar, a seaside cliff collapsed into the ocean yesterday on Washington's Whidbey Island, destroying a home and threatening some 30 more.
The 1,000-foot (300 meter) slide broke free about 4 a.m. local time, waking residents and sending one man fleeing from his house, which now sits on the beach. Damage occurred to a road leading to beachfront homes and power and utility lines, according to the Seattle Times.
January through March is landslide season in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Washington Department of Ecology, as heavy rains soak unstable sediments, provoking landslides. The shifty sediments are a legacy of glaciers scouring the region between 2 million and 10,000 years ago, leaving rubbly piles, sand and clay that haven't yet become rock. Steep sea cliffs prone to slides have formed as the land rebounds from the weight of the glacial ice, as well as further boosts from earthquakes.
Whidbey Island is long and narrow, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) from tip to tip, and many of its steep slopes are prone to slumping landslides, according to the Department of Ecology.
Slumps occur when groundwater concentrates near underground silt or clay layers. The saturated zone can let upper layers slide, sometimes with accompanying rotation. The soil moves as a giant block, with the clay acting as a slippery ramp.
About 18,000 years ago, glacial lakes laid down a thick, impenetrable clay layer on Whidbey Island, according to a geology field guide written by Terry Swanson, a geomorphologist at the University of Washington. Above the clay are fine-grained sediments and sands. The top layer is glacial till, the messy piles left behind as glaciers plow across a landscape.
Water seeping downward hits the clay and can't go any further, saturating the finer sediments above. This greatly increases the likelihood of landslides during excessively wet winters on Whidbey Island, the field guide said.
Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or Google +. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/glacial-legacy-set-stage-washington-landslide-180751294.html
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Saturn is like an antiques shop, Cassini suggests; Moons and rings date back to solar system's birth
Mar. 27, 2013 ? A new analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggests that Saturn's moons and rings are gently worn vintage goods from around the time of our solar system's birth.
Though they are tinted on the surface from recent "pollution," these bodies date back more than 4 billion years. They are from around the time that the planetary bodies in our neighborhood began to form out of the protoplanetary nebula, the cloud of material still orbiting the sun after its ignition as a star. The paper, led by Gianrico Filacchione, a Cassini participating scientist at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome, has just been published online by The Astrophysical Journal.
"Studying the Saturnian system helps us understand the chemical and physical evolution of our entire solar system," said Filacchione. "We know now that understanding this evolution requires not just studying a single moon or ring, but piecing together the relationships intertwining these bodies."
Data from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) have revealed how water ice and also colors -- which are the signs of non-water and organic materials --are distributed throughout the Saturnian system. The spectrometer's data in the visible part of the light spectrum show that coloring on the rings and moons generally is only skin-deep.
Using its infrared range, VIMS also detected abundant water ice -- too much to have been deposited by comets or other recent means. So the authors deduce that the water ices must have formed around the time of the birth of the solar system, because Saturn orbits the sun beyond the so-called "snow line." Out beyond the snow line, in the outer solar system where Saturn resides, the environment is conducive to preserving water ice, like a deep freezer. Inside the solar system's "snow line," the environment is much closer to the sun's warm glow, and ices and other volatiles dissipate more easily.
The colored patina on the ring particles and moons roughly corresponds to their location in the Saturn system. For Saturn's inner ring particles and moons, water-ice spray from the geyser moon Enceladus has a whitewashing effect.
Farther out, the scientists found that the surfaces of Saturn's moons generally were redder the farther they orbited from Saturn. Phoebe, one of Saturn's outer moons and an object thought to originate in the far-off Kuiper Belt, seems to be shedding reddish dust that eventually rouges the surface of nearby moons, such as Hyperion and Iapetus.
A rain of meteoroids from outside the system appears to have turned some parts of the main ring system -- notably the part of the main rings known as the B ring -- a subtle reddish hue. Scientists think the reddish color could be oxidized iron -- rust -- or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which could be progenitors of more complex organic molecules.
One of the big surprises from this research was the similar reddish coloring of the potato-shaped moon Prometheus and nearby ring particles. Other moons in the area were more whitish.
"The similar reddish tint suggests that Prometheus is constructed from material in Saturn's rings," said co-author Bonnie Buratti, a VIMS team member based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Scientists had been wondering whether ring particles could have stuck together to form moons -- since the dominant theory was that the rings basically came from satellites being broken up. The coloring gives us some solid proof that it can work the other way around, too."
"Observing the rings and moons with Cassini gives us an amazing bird's-eye view of the intricate processes at work in the Saturn system, and perhaps in the evolution of planetary systems as well," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, based at JPL. "What an object looks like and how it evolves depends a lot on location, location, location."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- G. Filacchione, F. Capaccioni, R. N. Clark, P. D. Nicholson, D. P. Cruikshank, J. N. Cuzzi, J. I. Lunine, R. H. Brown, P. Cerroni, F. Tosi, M. Ciarniello, B. J. Buratti, M. M. Hedman, E. Flamini. The radial distribution of water ice and chromophores across Saturn's system. Astrophysical Journal, 2013; (accepted) [link]
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/r2bvS0rQl3A/130327170155.htm
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Cat walks dog on leash (VIDEO)
Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/cat-walks-dog-leash-video-212019321.html
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Insert Coin: Duo kit lets you build your own 3D motion tracker
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.
Between the Kinect and Leap Motion, gesture control's on just about everyone's minds these days. There's still a ways to go, certainly, before such devices become a mainstream method for interfacing with our PCs, but they've already become a ripe source of inspiration for the DIY community. Duo's hoping to further bridge the gap between the two, with a "the world's first 3d motion sensor that anyone can build." The desktop sensor features two PS3 Eye cameras that can track hands and objects for a more natural interface with one's computer. Duo's unsurprisingly looking to crowdfund its efforts. A pledge of $10 or more will get you early access to the company's SDK. For $40 you'll get the case and instruction. Add $30 to that number, and you've got yourself the kit, which includes everything but the camera ($110 will get you all that). Check out the company's plea after the break, and if you're so inclined you can pledge at the source link below.
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: Kickstarter
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/insert-coin-duo-kit/
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Teach Your Wired Children about Healthy Relationships | Dr. Jim ...
Technology, such as the Internet, smartphones, and social media, can have great benefits in helping your children form and maintain relationships. At the same time, if not used with limits and guidance by your children, such use may prevent them from developing the essential relationship qualities and skills that have allowed us to make real connections and build real relationships for ages.
There is certainly a place for children to have online relationships, but they are no substitute for the depth and breadth of flesh-and-blood relationships where your children are able to fully connect with other people and completely experience the meaning, satisfaction, and joy of deep human relationships.
Yes, children?s (and adults?) real relationships can be untidy, with hurt feelings, anger, frustration, and disappointment. But relationships are like two sides of the same coin; children can?t experience the beauty of relationships?love, ?comfort, and excitement?without also being willing to accept its occasional blood, sweat, and tears. I challenge anyone who can show me that online relationships can provide that.
To raise children capable of having health relationships in this world that is so dominated by popular culture and technology, you must be well informed and deliberate about your children?s exposure to both. Of course, the most basic way to prevent popular culture and technology from having an undue and unhealthy influence over your children?s relationships is to set limits on their exposure. You should establish clear expectations about the quality of the popular culture that your children are allowed to experience and the type and quantity of technology they are permitted to use. Just as importantly, you must create appropriate consequences to add ?bite? the expectations you set in the event of inevitable transgressions on the part of your children.
Another obvious preventive measure is to educate your children about the messages they?re getting from popular culture and technology. The more informed your children are about those messages, the less vulnerable they will be to those messages. As they get older, they will be able to make deliberate choices about what aspects of popular culture they expose themselves to and what technology they use.
Part of this education involves talking to your children about the unrealistic messages that popular culture conveys to them about relationships, for example, that love can be found in a matter of weeks (think The Bachelor) or that physical appearance is a healthy foundation for relationships (think Gossip Girls). You can also show them the differences between online and offline relationships, particularly what is missing from the former and present in the latter, for example, facial expressions, body language, and other nonverbal cues (notwithstanding Skype and other video chatting), voice inflection (notwithstanding phone calls), touch, and smell.
So, you can?t just play defense against popular culture and technology. In fact, to raise children who are capable of healthy relationships in this digital age, teaching your children about healthy relationships may be your most important way to help them resist the unhealthy messages from popular culture and technology and ensure that they are capable of developing healthy relationships.
A good place to start in teaching your children about healthy relationships is in your relationship with your spouse. Let me say this clearly. There is no greater influence on how your children come to see relationships than your relationship with your ?other half.? From a very early age, your relationship?good, bad, or ugly?likely becomes the template on which their future relationships are based. If you can show your children from an early age how a healthy relationship works, filled with respect, caring, and empathy, simply through your daily relationship with your spouse, you will instill in them a positive view of relationships that will be resistant to those that they receive from popular culture (this, of course, is more of a challenge for divorced couples or single parents).
Also, when you model the healthy use of technology as a tool for strengthening relationships, you provide your children with another template that will encourage the dominance of offline relationships, teach them how to use technology to foster healthy relationships, and make them less vulnerable to the allure of online relationships.
The most powerful way to override the inevitable messages your children will receive from popular culture and technology about relationships is to give your children the most quantity and quality of unmediated (meaning direct) social experiences on which they can build the competence, confidence, and comfort to develop healthy relationships throughout their lives. These encounters can include the spectrum of relationships including family, friends, educational, athletic, cultural, and spiritual.
This depth and breadth of flesh-and-blood relationships will also give your children the ability to compare those relationships and online relationships and, hopefully, see that the latter can?t hold a candle to the former. The more ways in which your children can experience the richness of offline relationships, the more they will come to value them and not be drawn to those gained through popular culture and technology.
In addition to maximizing your children?s in-the-moment appreciation for face-to-face relationships, you can also actively teach them essential relationship skills. Early exposure to social skills and the basics of relationships, for example, saying hello and goodbye and please and thank you, shaking hands, and looking others in the eye, as well as compassion and concern for others, will prevent your children from avoiding real relationships due to doubt, shyness, or social discomfort and give them the competence and confidence to want to explore further unmediated relationships.
You want to give your children direct experience in relationships and the tools to build self-assurance in your children?s relationship capabilities. You also want to instill in them a skeptical attitude toward the messages they get about relationships from popular culture and technology.
When you accomplish these goals, you give your children a true gift, namely, they will see for themselves that real-life relationships are far more rewarding than those found online and they will make sure these relationships take precedence over the virtual kind. And that is a gift that will keep on giving throughout their lives.
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Hate allergy shots? Oral allergy drops are a pretty good option for some allergy and allergic asthma sufferers, review suggests
Mar. 26, 2013 ? A scientific review of 63 published studies affirms that putting small amounts of purified grasses, ragweed, dust mites, pollen and mold, in liquid drops under the tongue is a safe and effective alternative to weekly injections of those allergens or the use of other medications, in treating symptoms of allergies and allergic asthma in some people.
Results of the review, conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins, are contained in a report to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association online March 27. The report is believed to be the largest synopsis of its kind, reviewing previous research comparing various therapies designed to stop the wheezing, sneezing and runny nose that accompany allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic asthma, researchers say.
Specifically, the Johns Hopkins team analyzed 63 studies, involving some 5,131 participants, almost all in Europe, where allergy drops, or so-called sublingual immunotherapy, have been widely available for nearly two decades. Sublingual therapies have not been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but physicians in the United States do use the drops "off-label" for some patients.
In eight of 13 studies evaluated, researchers found what they say is "strong evidence" that drop therapy produced a 40 percent or greater reduction in coughing, wheezing, and tightness in the chest compared with other treatments, including inhaled steroids.
In nine of 36 studies comparing allergy drops to other allergy treatments, including antihistamines and nasal steroid sprays, researchers found that allergy drops produced a 40 percent or greater reduction in symptoms of runny nose, sneezing and nasal congestion, results which they describe as "moderate evidence" in support of using sublingual immunotherapy.
"Our findings are clear evidence that sublingual immunotherapy in the form of allergy drops are an effective potential treatment option for millions of Americans suffering from allergic asthma and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis," says senior study investigator Sandra Lin, M.D.
According to Lin, an associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, allergy drops are more convenient for many people because they can be taken at home, and allow such individuals to avoid the discomfort and travel time needed for regularly scheduled trips to the physician's office for an allergy shot. Lin says that, according to current estimates, as many as 40 percent of Americans suffer from some form of allergic rhinitis or allergic asthma.
Lin cautions that drop therapies may not be for all sufferers of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic asthma, but that many will want to weigh the risks and benefits of sublingual immunotherapy before deciding on long-term treatment options.
Study funding was provided by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The corresponding grant number is HHSA 290-2007-10061.
Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved include Jodi Segal, M.D., M.P.H.; Darcy Ward, B.A.; Yohalakshmi Chelladurai, M.B.B.S.; Catalina Suarez-Cuervo, M.D.; Murugappan Ramanathan, M.D.; Julia Kim, M.D., M.P.H.; and Nkiruka Erekosima, M.D., M.P.H.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Sandra Y. Lin et al. Sublingual Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Allergic Rhinoconjunctivitis and Asthma
A Systematic Review Immunotherapy for Rhinoconjunctivitis and Asthma. JAMA, 2013; 309 (12): 1278 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2013.2049
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/GW_MJ5U1Gsk/130326193829.htm
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Get to Know: EVO Wellness Spa | Spa Week Daily
EVO Aesthetic Center and Wellness Spa in Lakeway, TX (just outside of Austin) is a brand new facility that just opened its doors this past June. Tucked away into a small corner of the city dedicated to health and wellness, EVO is just what the center had been lacking.
EVO is located inside a complete wellness center, and the spa works with multiple different affiliates including a chiropractic center, holistic wellness center, gym, salon and healthy bistro! If you choose to head to EVO for Spa Week, it?ll be easier than ever to spend your whole day in a tranquil oasis of wellness.
Experience this revolutionary approach to wellness, with a $50 Spa Week treatment at EVO Wellness Spa:
????????? 60 Min Spring Rx Therapeutic Deep Healing Massage
????????? 60 Min rEVOlutionary Facial with Choice of Neck or Hand Massage
????????? Two Infinity Organic Air Brush Tanning Sessions
We suggest you book all three for a complete day of pampering!
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Brains over brawn: Why smart people are drawn to 'BioShock Infinite'
After four years of harried development, "BioShock Infinite" has finally arrived. The game faces impossibly high expectations from fans and critics alike, thanks in part to the legacy that developer Irrational Games made for itself with the original "BioShock" in 2007, not to mention the mammoth anticipation drummed up by gamers throughout the sequel?s tumultuous and secretive history.
BuzzFeed dubbed the new installment "the most important game of the last five years." Wired said that creator Ken Levine?s work on "BioShock Infinite" might finally prove to the medium?s skeptics that "a videogame [can] become an influential cultural artifact." And now that the game is out, NBC News? own Todd Kenreck calls it "a masterpiece."
It's not the first time a game has been labeled a work of art. "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" were released to universal acclaim years before "BioShock" saw the light of day. But at the moment, "BioShock Infinite" has captured the hearts and gamepads of the entire gaming nation. So what is it about it that gamers find particularly intriguing?
Also read: 'BioShock Infinite' takes the artificial out of artificial intelligence
Much of this acclaim is thanks to the famously sequel-averse Levine himself, who brings a quirky kind of intellectual charisma to the gaming world. "BioShock Infinite" tackles political and social problems with an unflinching, almost journalistic gaze. When I asked Levine last year about his favorite characters from "Infinite," he started comparing Cornelius Slate, a former captain of the U.S. military who confronts the protagonist Booker DeWitt early in the new game, to Pat Tillman, the pro football player turned soldier who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.
Rather than rattle off features and specs of his new game, Levine prefers to dig into the intricacies of 20th-century American or European intellectual history. The city of Columbia was built around fierce ideals of American exceptionalism, and "BioShock Infinite" casts the white supremacist underpinnings of much of this ideology into sharp relief.
The player picks up audio recordings throughout the game from Comstock, Columbia's founder, that opine with unsettling honesty about the white man's burden. Non-player characters sneer at Booker and ask if you "like your coffee black" when you show sympathy to African-American characters, and one character jokes about being "half a Jew when it comes to silver." Games ? even ones with a far more obvious debt to realism than "Infinite" ? have never been this courageous when it comes to broaching the reality of race and class.
Levine openly sold the original "BioShock" not as a steampunk horror game that gives players magical superpowers (which it is) but as a critique of Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism. In a genre that spends most of its time and money showing players all the ways they can shoot terrorists, that alone could have been enough to turn Levine into an industry icon.
What's weirder about the series' success is that many gamers felt that the first installment wasn't all that great for a first-person shooter. Even a stalwart gaming publication like Edge Magazine admitted in a recent write-up of "Infinite" that Irrational never truly mastered the art of making solid guns that are fun to use.
Although our review of "BioShock Infinite" shows that the gameplay really has improved, the focus on story over software extends all the way to back to Ken Levine?s cyber-punk "BioShock" predecessor "System Shock 2," a game that was more of a role-playing game than a full-fledged shooter.
Even fans of "System Shock 2" admit that that game had abysmal graphics when it was first released in 1999. But everyone who has played it will tell you it's the scariest game they've ever experienced. No matter how flat and polygonal the zombies looked, I still remember cowering in the smallest closet spaces I could find in the Von Braun spaceship, desperately searching for some respite as these monsters continued to relentlessly taunt me.
Also read: 'BioShock Infinite' developer hires stunning real-life Elizabeth lookalike
What "System Shock 2" and "BioShock" always had that no other first-person shooter has ever captured quite as masterfully is what Levine calls a sense of "place." Shooting mechanics aside, these games always felt like living, breathing worlds, rather than simply hollow bits of code in which players could do some target practice. Without that, I would have stopped searching for a place to hide in "System Shock," and just stopped playing the game.
Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at ylejacq@gmail.com.
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Monday, March 25, 2013
McCaskill Vows Support For Same-Sex Marriage ? CBS St. Louis
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Missouri?s senior U.S. senator has vowed her support for same-sex marriage. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) posted the statement on her Tumblr page Sunday night.
?The question of marriage equality is a great American debate. Many people, some with strong religious faith, believe that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman. Other people, many of whom also have strong religious faith, believe that our country should not limit the commitment of marriage to some, but rather all Americans, gay and straight should be allowed to fully participate in the most basic of family values,? the statement read.
?I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love. While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.
My views on this subject have changed over time, but as many of my gay and lesbian friends, colleagues and staff embrace long term committed relationships, I find myself unable to look them in the eye without honestly confronting this uncomfortable inequality. Supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is simply the right thing to do for our country, a country founded on the principals of liberty and equality.
Good people disagree with me. On the other hand, my children have a hard time understanding why this is even controversial. I think history will agree with my children.?
Source: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/03/25/mccaskill-vows-support-for-same-sex-marriage/
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Protesters end siege of Libyan PM's office
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? About 200 militiamen and protesters demanding the resignation of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan have ended their day-long siege of his office, a group leader said Monday, easing fears of renewed unrest and challenges to the country's parliament and government.
The protest in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, ended after the prime minister sneaked out of the building through a back door late Sunday, said Osama Kabar, deputy leader of the previously little-known group called the Supreme Council of Libya Revolutionaries.
Zidan's office said the prime minister left Monday for Qatar to attend an Arab League summit.
Kabar, whose group is packed with Islamists and militiamen from the city of Misrata, said the move against Zidan was in response to controversial remarks the prime minister made last week, threatening to summon outside help to confront militias.
Less than two years after the country's uprising-turned-civil war, Libya is struggling to build a unified army and police force amid increasingly powerful militias. The government depends on some of the militias to fill the security vacuum, but has no control over their actions.
"These remarks were very dangerous," Kabar said.
"There is no security problem in Libya," he said. "The real revolutionaries are protecting the country."
Kabar's group also is against appointing members of the former Moammar Gadhafi regime to the Libyan Cabinet.
Zidan, who served as an ambassador under Gadhafi before joining opposition decades ago, retracted his remarks. He made them at a new conference on Tuesday after a short trip to Benghazi where he escaped an assault at the airport. The assault was carried out by disgruntled militiamen demanding salaries.
Many fear the siege on Zidan's office, the assault at the airport and other attacks targeting parliament are all part of a coup.
"Forcing change by weapon is a coup and Libyans have chosen their way through democracy, not through coups," said Fathi Baja, an analyst and member of the former opposition group, the National Transitional Council.
While meeting with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week, Zidan challenged militias, saying: "The government will not break and will not submit to anyone but to Libyans' will through the ballot boxes."
Adding to security woes, the country's parliament and political scene is split into two main factions.
One is an Islamist faction led by the Muslim Brotherhood along with independents. The other is headed by Mahmoud Jibril, a former war-time prime minister whose coalition won the largest number of seats during the country's first free elections in July.
The parliament, which has been criticized for incompetence and its inability to meet its obligations, such as making preparations to draft the country's constitution, has been further weakened by successive attacks by militiamen.
One of the worst attacks occurred in mid-March when the parliament met to discuss a controversial law away from its usual venue. In its current draft form, the law would deprive anyone who served under Gadhafi from 1969 to 2011 from playing any political role. If passed, a whole ruling class would be banned from politics.
While parliamentarians were discussing the law, militiamen stormed the building and fired gunshots in the air. Members of parliament were trapped in the building for several hours before they were allowed to leave. On the way out, the convoy of Mohammed al-Megarif, the head of the parliament, came under fire.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/protesters-end-siege-libyan-pms-office-140420636.html
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Apple buys indoor location startup WifiSLAM for $20 million
$20 million has bought Apple WifiSLAM, a startup specializing in indoor location mapping. Apple confirmed the sale, but wouldn't discuss specifics or future plans. Jessica E. Lessin of the Wall Street Journal reports:
The two-year-old startup has developed ways for mobile apps to detect a phone user?s location in a building using Wi-Fi signals. It has been offering the technology to application developers for indoor mapping and new types of retail and social networking apps. The company has a handful of employees, and its co-founders include former Google software engineering intern Joseph Huang.
Their website, wifislam.com, is already down. Their YouTube account, which contains several demo videos, remains up, as does their Twitter account, though neither has been updated recently.
Apple has acquired numerous mapping-related companies over the years, including Placebase, Poly9, and C3 technologies, and used them to create features like Flyover in iOS 6 Maps. Presumably Apple will keep updating their new Maps app, both as part of iOS 7 and iOS 8, and hopefully one day de-coupled from the main firmware distribution as well. What, if any, role WifiSLAM technology will play in that future remains unknown.
I'd settle for it being able to help me get out of CES alive. You?
Source: Wall Street Journal
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/f2Vn8TgbwDM/story01.htm
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Increasing Your Personal Worth Through Self Improvement ...
TIP! You can use your willpower to make your life more positive, which means that the wishes you have for others can impact your circumstances, as well. For this reason, it is important to wish only positive things for the people in your life.
Self improvement means working to improve awareness and build your identity. Self awareness is improved by reaching personal goals and growing spiritually. This article is your source for top-flight self-improvement strategies. Take it slow, there is no rush and soon you will begin to understand yourself in a more positive light.
TIP! Avoid shopping as a way to comfort yourself. Taking up a hobby is a better alternative.
Go to the movies with a friend. This allows you to be in a social setting without the added pressure of talking to a lot of people. This will help get you used to being in the same vicinity with lots of different people.
TIP! Try and improve one thing at a time rather than broadening your focus. There may be multiple things that you would like to improve about yourself, but by limiting your focus to one item at a time, you improve your chances for success.
Get as much work done as you can during the day. The simple trick is to take more breaks when you work. It can seem like the opposite would be true, but taking mini breaks frequently will allow you to feel less bored, and get more done during the times you are working.
TIP! Write down your goals to help you grow on the inside. If you hope to boost your self-confidence, include this on your list.
You should always strive to be the best in your area. You should always try to be the best you can be. While it is almost impossible to be the best at everything we do, aspiring to inspire other people is an admirable and worthy goal for oneself. Increase your professional skillset, and you will feel a lot better about yourself.
TIP! Look for different sources of encouragement, like books. Religious books are very uplifting to some, while others may prefer inspirational quotes, autobiographies or poetry.
Employers usually don?t care where you went to college. They only care that you got your degree and are capable of doing the work. Larger companies, such as financial institutions, may be the exception to this. The degree is what is critical, and what will produce opportunity.
TIP! Measure your progress by organizing as much as you can. You may find it easier to achieve your goals if you break them down into smaller components.
Unless you take care of yourself, you won?t be able to care for anyone else. Whether you?re just starting your self improvement plan or are well down the road and regardless of whether you?re succeeding or failing, you have to set aside time for yourself to rest, relax, and regroup.
TIP! It can be difficult to reach goals that are too hard or vague, and this may discourage you on your path to personal development. Set a clear, well-defined goal for yourself.
You need to have an emergency fund. The only constant in life is change, and sometimes those changes require use to take on unexpected expenses. If you take a few dollars and put them into an emergency fund every week, you will build a nice amount of money to use whenever something unexpected arises. Having an emergency fund in place can help provide a safety net throughout all the phases of one?s financial life.
TIP! Watch successful people; learn and follow their habits. Start with a couple habits and then practice them until they?re permanent parts of your life.
Are you a steady drinker? Do you smoke or participate in other actives that can harm your body? Your body is sacred, and you have to learn to respect it. Sometimes, eliminating bad habits is what it takes to make your life better. Look at how you are living your life, and check if you are participating in any negative habits that should be eliminated.
TIP! It is normal to find unhealthy foods tempting. Admit your poor choices, and move on with your life.
Ultimate happiness may lie in assuming a manageable amount of risk. It is not uncommon for an individual to avoid the feeling of rejection or failure while at at the same time, leading a life that they feel is confining and unfulfilled. Have the courage to take some risks so that you can find your happiness.
TIP! A useful personal development tip is that you always cherish the things you believe are most valuable. Therefore, you must value your best and make it an important aspect of your life.
Always be up for a challenge. Trying new things is a way to broaden your horizons. You can learn new skills and gain knowledge. You could end up creating something new or doing something no one else has done. Unique challenges can help to yield more satisfaction down the road.
TIP! As you ascertain your needs and how you will approach them, there is one thing that must be done. You need to participate in life and not watch from the sidelines.
Gauging how far you?ve come and how far you have yet to go is a crucial part of self improvement. The advice in this article should be implemented into your quest for reaching your personal goals. Write down your goals and compare your achievements regularly.
Stephanie Deltor is a Spelman College student aiming to achieve her dreams of becoming a licensed psychologist and author. With her ambition here she write to inspire and encourage others in any way she sees fit. To learn more about her, her business, and her words, Click the following link: http://letters2thesoul.blogspot.com/
Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/sdeltor/blog/increasing-your-personal-worth-through-self-improvement/
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