lens patriarchal: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

CA-BUSINESS Summary

Record Wall Street boosts sentiment, U.S. holds key in Q2

TOKYO (Reuters) - Whether the world's largest economy can sustain momentum will be a primary focus for investors for the next three months after a general recovery trend in the United States helped risk sentiment for broad markets in the first quarter of 2013. Asian shares edged higher and the euro steadied on Friday after banks in Cyprus reopened to relative calm. Overall trade was subdued, with many Asian markets, including Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, closed on Friday for Easter holidays.

Banks lift TSX on Cyprus calm; index up for quarter

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index powered ahead in a late surge on Thursday, led by strength in financial and industrial shares, on relief that banks in Cyprus reopened relatively smoothly following a bailout deal. The market received further support from BlackBerry after the smartphone maker reported a surprise quarterly profit.

More trouble for Cohen's SAC Capital as Steinberg indicted in NY

(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged Michael Steinberg, a veteran portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund, with insider trading in two technology stocks, the most senior SAC Capital Advisors' employee to be indicted in the government's long-running probe. FBI agents arrested Steinberg at his Park Avenue home in New York City at around 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT). Steinberg, wearing a blue sweater, pleaded "not guilty" to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities when he appeared at a late morning arraignment.

Chesapeake sets up office of chairman, McClendon set to leave

(Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp has set up a three-person office of the chairman to lead the company as the search for a new chief executive to replace Aubrey McClendon likely extends beyond an April 1 deadline. Chesapeake also named Chief Operating Officer Steven Dixon acting CEO. The office of the chairman includes Dixon, Chairman Archie Dunham, and Chief Financial Officer Domenic Dell'Osso.

Loeb's Third Point outperforms hedge fund rivals again

BOSTON (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb outperformed his rivals again in the first quarter with returns that kept pace with the stock market's recent rally, a person familiar with Loeb's returns said. The New York-based manager told investors late on Thursday that his flagship Third Point Offshore Fund rose 2.8 percent in March while the Third Point Ultra fund, the leveraged version of the Offshore fund, gained 4.2 percent.

Big depositors in Cyprus to lose far more than feared

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Big depositors in Cyprus's largest bank stand to lose far more than initially feared under a European Union rescue package to save the island from bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the terms said on Friday. Under conditions expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will get shares in the bank worth 37.5 percent of their deposits over 100,000 euros, the source told Reuters, while the rest of their deposits may never be paid back.

Fiat CEO probed for violation of workers' rights

MILAN (Reuters) - Fiat's CEO Sergio Marchionne is being investigated in Italy over allegations of violation of labor rights in a long-running dispute at a factory near Naples, the automaker said on Friday. Fiat, Italy's biggest private sector employer, said Marchionne and another group manager were notified by the public prosecutor of Nola of a preliminary investigation on Friday.

Exclusive: Indonesia's CT Corp proposes all-cash deal for Bakrie's media unit

TANJUNG BENOA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia's fifth-richest man has proposed to buy a controlling stake in PT Visi Media Asia, valued at up to $1.8 billion, in an all-cash deal that would give him the lion's share of the TV advertising market in Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Chairul Tanjung, the billionaire founder and chairman of CT Corp, a conglomerate with banking and media interests, told Reuters that his company wanted to buy the stake in the media unit of Indonesia's powerful Bakrie family without any partners.

Deutsche Bank probe finds incomplete data given to prosecutors: magazine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - An internal investigation at Deutsche Bank has found that incomplete data related to a carbon tax fraud probe were handed over to prosecutors, German magazine Der Spiegel said on Friday. The probe is one of several legal headaches with which Germany's biggest lender is grappling.

Power firm CEZ files complaint with EU against Bulgaria

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech power producer CEZ filed a complaint with the European Commission against Bulgaria on Friday for the government's moves to take away the company's license in the Balkan country. CEZ has had a rough ride in Bulgaria since public protests against high electricity prices led to the fall of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov in February, and authorities have struck out against CEZ and other power firms.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-business-summary-012855661--finance.html

cspan state of the union drinking game oscar noms college board north korea miami heat

lern2play Resources and Information. This website is for sale!

By using our site, you consent to this privacy policy: This website allows third-party advertising companies for the purpose of reporting website traffic, statistics, advertisements, "click-throughs" and/or other activities to use Cookies and /or Web Beacons and other monitoring technologies to serve ads and to compile anonymous statistics about you when you visit this website. Cookies are small text files stored on your local internet browser cache. A Web Beacon is an often-transparent graphic image, usually no larger than 1 pixel x 1 pixel that is placed on a Web site. Both are created for the main purpose of helping your browser process the special features of websites that use Cookies or Web Beacons. The gathered information about your visits to this and other websites are used by these third party companies in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. The information do not include any personal data like your name, address, email address, or telephone number. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/lern2play

the old curiosity shop jane russell meryl streep martin scorsese sacha baron cohen best picture nominees 2012 academy awards 2012

Full War Declaration Statement From DPRK

The moves of the U.S. imperialists to violate the sovereignty of the DPRK and encroach upon its supreme interests have entered an extremely grave phase. Under this situation, the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu, convened an urgent operation meeting on the performance of duty of the Strategic Rocket Force of the Korean People's Army for firepower strike and finally examined and ratified a plan for firepower strike.

Read the whole story at Reuters

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/full-declaration-war-state_n_2982530.html

katie couric barista university of kentucky oakland news alec baldwin alec baldwin college basketball

Key groups reach immigration deal as overhaul advances

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects for a broad U.S. immigration overhaul brightened on Saturday after major U.S. business and labor groups reached an agreement on a guest-worker program, a source familiar with the deal said.

The agreement was reached on Friday night in a conference call between the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, and the president of the AFL-CIO labor organization, Richard Trumka, with New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer acting as the mediator, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A guest-worker program has been a major stumbling block to efforts by a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight to reach a compromise on a way to create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of whom are Hispanics.

Labor unions have argued against a guest-worker program, worrying that a flood of low-wage immigrant laborers would take away jobs from Americans. The agreement covers the pay levels for low-skilled temporary workers and the types of jobs that would be included.

Schumer briefed White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on Saturday on the breakthrough, the source said.

The agreement still must be approved by the Gang of Eight senators, four Democrats and four Republicans. If they do so as expected, Senate legislation on a broad new immigration law would be advanced in the Senate in the coming weeks.

In recent days, the immigration effort had been stalled by failure to forge an agreement on the guest-worker program, although the White House insisted that progress was being made.

President Barack Obama wants to fulfill a campaign pledge by gaining passage of a law that would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently in the country. He has vowed to do what he can on immigration through executive actions in the absence of legislation.

Immigration long has been a controversial issue in the United States and previous efforts to craft a comprehensive overhaul of American immigration laws have failed, with Democrats and Republicans remaining far apart.

Many Republicans previously had taken a hard position against illegal immigrants. Obama's unsuccessful Republican challenger last year, Mitt Romney, had advocated "self-deportation" of illegal immigrants. Republicans in Arizona and other states passed tough laws cracking down on illegal immigrants.

But the mood for a deal is ripe because Republicans saw Hispanic Americans vote overwhelmingly for Obama and other Democratic candidates in last November's elections and they need to woo this increasingly important voting bloc.

Many Republicans see gaining favor with the Hispanic voting bloc, which accounts for 10 percent of the U.S. electorate and is growing, as a matter of political survival.

Republicans want to ensure that security along the U.S.-Mexican border is improved before immigrants can get on a path to citizenship. Obama feels security is sufficient but this disagreement is not seen as a deal-breaker.

"We're seeing right now a good bipartisan spirit," Obama told Spanish-language network Univision on Wednesday. "I want to encourage that and hopefully we'll be able to get it done."

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/business-labor-groups-reach-immigration-deal-overhaul-advances-193136796.html

john scott barry sanders barry sanders jimmie johnson juan pablo montoya crash chardon high school shooting mark martin

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Patients of Okla. doctor line up for tests

TULSA, Okla. (AP) ? Hundreds of patients of an Oklahoma oral surgeon accused of unsanitary practices showed up at a health clinic Saturday, looking to find out whether they were exposed to hepatitis or the virus that causes AIDS.

Letters began going out Friday to 7,000 patients who had seen Dr. W. Scott Harrington during the past six years, warning them that poor hygiene at his clinics created a public health hazard. The one-page letter said how and where to seek treatment but couldn't explain why Harrington's allegedly unsafe practices went on for so long.

Testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and the virus that causes AIDS began at 10 a.m. Saturday, but many arrived early and stood through torrential downpours. The Tulsa Health Department said 420 people were tested Saturday at its North Regional Health and Wellness Center. Screenings resume Monday morning.

Kari Childress, 38, showed up at 8:30 a.m., mainly because she was nervous.

"I just hope I don't have anything," said Childress, who had a tooth extracted at one of Harrington's two clinics five months ago. "You trust and believe in doctors to follow the rules, and that's the scariest part."

Inspectors found a number of problems at the doctor's clinics in Tulsa and suburban Owasso, according to the state Dentistry Board, which filed a 17-count complaint against Harrington pending an April 19 license revocation hearing. According to the complaint, needles were reinserted into drug vials after being used on patients, expired drugs were found in a medicine cabinet and dental assistants, not the doctor, administered sedatives to patients.

One patient, Orville Marshall, said he didn't meet Harrington until after he had two wisdom teeth pulled about five years ago at the Owasso clinic. A nurse inserted the IV for his anesthesia; Harrington was there when Marshall came to.

"It's just really scary. It makes you doubt the whole system, especially with how good his place looked," said Marshall, 37.

An instrument set reserved for use on patients with infectious diseases was rusty, preventing its effective sterilization, and the office autoclave ? a pressurized cleaner ? was used improperly and hadn't been certified as effective in at least six years, according to the complaint.

Dr. Matt Messina, a Cleveland dentist and a consumer adviser for the American Dental Association, said creating a safe and hygienic environment is "one of the fundamental requirements" before any dental procedure can be performed.

"It's not hard. It just takes effort," he said.

Weekly autoclave testing can be performed for less than $400 annually, according to the website of the Autoclave Testing Services of Pearl River, New York.

Autoclaves typically can be purchased for $1,000 to $8,000, depending on their size and features. And an average dental practice can expect to pay more than $40,000 a year in equipment, tools and supplies alone, according to several dental organizations.

Attempts to reach Harrington have been unsuccessful. No one answered the door Thursday at his Oklahoma home, which property records show is worth more than $1 million. His practice a few miles away, in a tony section of Tulsa where plastic surgeons operate and locals congregate at bistros and stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, has a fair-market value of around $851,000.

Property and tax records show Harrington owns another residence in Carefree, Ariz., in an area of upscale homes tucked into in the boulder-strewn mountains north of Phoenix.

Nobody was at home Saturday at the low-slung, 1950s-style vacation home, across from the Boulders Resort. Neighbors said they had seen a lot of activity at the home in recent weeks.

Harrington's malpractice lawyer, Jim Secrest II, did not respond to phone messages left Thursday or Friday. A message at Harrington's Tulsa office said it was closed and an answering service referred callers to the Tulsa Health Department.

Suzy Horton, an old friend of Harrington's, said she can't believe the allegations about the man who removed two of her teeth in the early '90s. Horton's ex-husband sold Harrington his home in Carefree ? a home where she once lived.

"I've been to dentists my whole life, so I know what a professional office looks like," Horton, who now lives in Phoenix, said in a telephone interview. "His was just as professional as anybody."

Horton hasn't seen Harrington in years, but she said he has sent her a Christmas card and wreath every year since her 1999 divorce.

"It was a long time ago, so I suppose anything can change, but the kind of person they're portraying in the news is not the kind of person who sends you a Christmas" card, she said.

___

Associated Press writers Traci Carl in Carefree, Ariz., and Jeannie Nuss in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/patients-oklahoma-doctor-line-tests-204306341.html

jobs act greg mortenson jim marshall died 2013 toyota avalon the secret life of bees full moon aubrey o day

Artificial spleen to treat bloodstream infections: Sepsis therapeutic device under development

Mar. 30, 2013 ? The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced today that it was awarded a $9.25 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further advance a blood-cleansing technology developed at the Institute with prior DARPA support, and help accelerate its translation to humans as a new type of sepsis therapy.

The device will be used to treat bloodstream infections that are the leading cause of death in critically ill patients and soldiers injured in combat.

To rapidly cleanse the blood of pathogens, the patient's blood is mixed with magnetic nanobeads coated with a genetically engineered version of a human blood 'opsonin' protein that binds to a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and toxins. It is then flowed through microchannels in the device where magnetic forces pull out the bead-bound pathogens without removing human blood cells, proteins, fluids, or electrolytes -- much like a human spleen does. The cleansed blood then flows back to the patient.

"In just a few years we have been able to develop a suite of new technologies, and to integrate them to create a powerful new device that could potentially transform the way we treat sepsis," said Wyss founding director and project leader, Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. "The continued support from DARPA enables us to advance our device manufacturing capabilities and to obtain validation in large animal models, which is precisely what is required to enable this technology to be moved towards testing in humans."

The team will work to develop manufacturing and integration strategies for its core pathogen-binding opsonin and Spleen-on-a-Chip fluidic separation technologies, as well as a novel coating technology called "SLIPS," which is a super-hydrophobic coating inspired from the slippery surface of a pitcher plant that repels nearly any material it contacts. By coating the inner surface of the channels of the device with SLIPS, blood cleansing can be carried out without the need for anticoagulants to prevent blood clotting.

In addition to Ingber, the multidisciplinary team behind this effort includes Wyss core faculty and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty member Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D., who developed the SLIPS technology; Wyss senior staff member Michael Super, Ph.D., who engineered the human opsonin protein; and Mark Puder, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School who will be assisting with animal studies.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wyss Institute.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/O8CKu3xNkz0/130330130531.htm

jon bon jovi jon bon jovi Kliff Kingsbury Amish Mafia Dave Grohl 121212 Cal State Fullerton

Where do you stand on fracking?

Few topics in the energy sector generate more debate than the relative merits and demerits of fracking, Stuebi writes.?

By Richard T. Stuebi,?Guest blogger / March 29, 2013

A drilling rig is set up near a barn in Springville, Pa., to tap gas from the giant Marcellus Shale gas field. It?s up to us as engaged citizens to ensure that the powers-that-be fully hold accountable those who participate in fracking activities, Stuebi writes.

Alex Brandon/AP/File

Enlarge

In the energy sector, there are few topics that generate more debate today than the relative merits/demerits of fracking.? To see just how strongly-held yet evenly-divided opinion is, check out this?online debate?moderated by?The Economist?and sponsored by?Statoil (NYSE: STO).

Skip to next paragraph Cleantech Blog

A premier site for commentary on clean tech, energy, and the green economy, Cleantech Blog is edited by longtime clean-tech industry investor and executive Neal Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners LLC, and venture capitalist and industry analyst Richard Stuebi. For more clean-tech news and analysis, click?here.

Google launching same-day delivery service for online shoppers

MICHAEL LIEDTKE ? ? ? 14 min.

Internet search leader Google is taking another step beyond information retrieval into grocery delivery.

The new service, called Google Shopping Express, will initially provide same-day delivery of food and other products bought online by a small group of consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., didn't say how many people will be part of the test.

If the pilot program goes well, Google plans to expand delivery service to other markets.

"We hope this will help users explore the benefits of a local, same-day delivery service, and help us kick the tires on the new service," Google said in a Thursday statement.

The delivery service is part of Google's effort to increase consumer reliance on the Internet, so it will have more opportunities to show online ads, which generate most of its revenue.

Google has learned that the more time people spend online, the more likely they are to use its dominant search engine or one of its other popular services, like its YouTube video site or Gmail, that include advertising.

The delivery service also could spur merchants to buy more online ads if Google's same-day delivery service encourages consumers to do more of their shopping online. Having to wait days or, in some cases, more than a week for the delivery of online orders ranks among the biggest drawbacks to Internet shopping.

It's a problem that Amazon.com and eBay, which operate the largest e-commerce sites, already have been trying to solve by offering same-day service in some U.S. markets. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, also offers same-day delivery in five markets.

A mix of national, regional and neighborhood merchants are enlisting in Google Shopping Express. The best-known names on the list include Target and Walgreen. All the merchants in the Google program will sell certain items through a central website. Google has hired courier services to pick up the orders at the merchant stores and then deliver them to the customer's home or office.

Although the couriers will be working on a contract basis, they will be driving Google-branded vehicles and wearing company-issued uniforms.

It remains unclear whether Internet shopping and same-day delivery can be profitable. Online grocer Webvan collapsed in 2001, largely because it couldn't devise a pricing plan that would pay for the costs of same-day delivery without alienating shoppers unwilling to pay too much extra for the added convenience.

Google is still trying to figure out how much to charge for its same-day delivery service. For the six-month test period in the San Francisco area, consumers won't have to pay a surcharge. Google instead will receive a commission from participating merchants.

The expansion into same-day delivery comes at the same time that Google is preparing to close some of its older online services so it can devote more attention and money to other projects.

The realignment has irked some Google users. The biggest complaints have centered on Google Reader, which allows people to automatically receive headlines and links from their favorite sites, and iGoogle, which allows Web surfers to design a page consisting of the Google search engine surrounded set up other online features, such as local weather reports and stock market quotes.

Google Reader is scheduled to close in July and iGoogle will shut down in November.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a2418e3/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cgoogle0Elaunching0Esame0Eday0Edelivery0Eservice0Eonline0Eshoppers0E1C9143458/story01.htm

jason wu for target collection nick diaz vs carlos condit the patriot hall of fame occupy dc ufc 143 fight card my fair lady

Scientists create robo-ant colony

28 March 2013 Last updated at 21:09 ET By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

On its own, each robot would 'just get lost' but as a colony they can navigate

Scientists in the US have built and tested robotic ants that they say behave just like a real ant colony.

The robots do not resemble their insect counterparts; they are tiny cubes equipped with two watch motors to power the wheels that enable them to move.

But their collective behaviour is remarkably ant-like.

By being programmed simply to move forward toward a target and avoid obstacles, the robot colony finds the fastest way through a network or maze.

The secret, the researchers report in the open access journal Plos Computational Biology, is in their ability to take cues from one another - just like an insect swarm.

"Each individual robot is pretty dumb," said Simon Garnier from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, lead researcher on the study. "They have very limited memory and limited processing power."

"By themselves, each robot would just move around randomly and get lost... but [they] are able to work together and communicate."

This is because, like ants, the robots leave a trail that the others follow; while ants leave a trail of chemicals - or pheromones - that their nest mates are able to sniff out, the robots leave a trail of light.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

You don't need something as complex as choice to get some of the behaviour you see in ants?

End Quote Dr Paul Graham University of Sussex

To achieve this, the researchers set up a camera to track the path of each robot. A projector connected to the camera then produced a spot of light at regular intervals along their route, leaving a "breadcrumb trail" of light that got brighter every time another robot tracked over the same path.

Dr Garnier explained: "[The robots each] have two antennae on top, which are light sensors. If more light falls on their left sensor they turn left, and if more light falls on the right sensor, they turn right."

"It's exactly the same mechanism as ants."

The researcher explained how both the robots and ants worked together, describing their navigation skills as a "positive feedback loop".

"If there are two possible paths from A to B and one is twice as long as [the other], at the beginning, the ants [or] robots start using each path equally.

"Because ants taking the shorter path travel faster, the amount of pheromone (or light) deposited on that path grows faster, so more ants use that path."

Learning from nature Continue reading the main story

Superorganisms

There are an estimated 20,000 species of ants in the world
Ant colonies have structured social system, with different castes - worker, soldier, queen and drone - all of which carry out specific tasks for the colony
Ant colonies are sometimes referred to as "superorganisms" because ants appear to operate as a single entity

There are many other research and engineering projects that take inspiration from nature to solve problems or design robots, as Dr Paul Graham, a biologist from the University of Sussex, explained.

"The classic example," he said, "is the way in which we design information networks to move packets of data around.

"Ants don't have someone in charge telling them where to go, so you can [mimic this].

For instance - in a complex network, there may be a junction with different possible routes that packets [of data] could take. Packets would leave messages for each other at the junction to give information about which routes were quick."

This, he explained, is the basis of an algorithm called ant colony optimisation which has already been used in telecoms networks.

And although Dr Graham doesn't see an immediate practical use for these particular robotic insects he says the study demonstrates an important and interesting piece of biology.

"Lots of animal behaviour gets described using words like 'choice'.

"This shows that you don't need something as complex as choice to get some of the behaviour you see in ants.

"And these things look pretty cool, too."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/21956795#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Medal of Honor Warfighter Richard Mourdock d t p zynga Tropical Storm Sandy

Tribeca to close with 'King of Comedy' restoration

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Tribeca Film Festival will close with a 30th anniversary restoration of Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy."

This year's festival will bow out on April 27 with a classic from one of its founders: Robert De Niro. In the 1983 dark comedy, he stars as the aspiring comedian Rupert Pupkin, whose obsessive celebrity hounding leads to kidnapping.

Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal said it had always been a goal of Scorsese's to use the festival, with which he's closely associated, to showcase restored and rediscovered films.

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival opens April 17.

___

Online:

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tribeca-close-king-comedy-restoration-182027297.html

Duck Dynasty sequestration Van Cliburn Sequester Miami Heat Harlem Shake Harlem Shake Miami Heat stephen curry

Friday, March 29, 2013

Ashley Judd says no, but Sen. Mitch McConnell can?t rest easy

Ashley Judd brought star power to a potential US Senate run, but she had negatives. Now GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has to worry about another young woman the Democrats are wooing to run against him.

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / March 28, 2013

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, right, talks with student Nini Edwards after an event at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., March 20, 2013. Edwards, news editor of UK?s student newspaper The Kentucky Kernel, asked Grimes about a potential run for U.S. Senate. Grimes said she is concentrating on state legislative concerns right now.

Roger Alford/AP

Enlarge

Republicans are chortling over the long line of Democrats who have said they won?t run against Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in 2014, the top Republican in the Senate.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

The Democrats are ?zero for 10? in recruitment for the race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee declared Thursday, following actress Ashley Judd?s announcement that she?s out.

But Senator McConnell, who is trying for an unprecedented (for Kentucky) sixth term, can?t sit easy. Polls show he?s unpopular, both on the left and the tea-party right, and Democrats have another potential candidate in the wings: Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Former President Bill Clinton met with Secretary Grimes earlier this month and encouraged her to run for the Senate, not the House or for governor, as she is reportedly considering, according to ABC News. Grimes is young, photogenic, and politically connected. Her father, Jerry Lundergan, is a former state party chairman and longtime supporter of both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The 2014 fight for the Senate ? currently controlled by the Democrats, 55 to 45 ? got hotter this week with the announcement that Sen. Tim Johnson (D) of South Dakota is retiring. That seat is now a prime pickup opportunity for the Republicans. But if the GOP is going to have a shot at taking back the Senate, it needs to hold onto seats like McConnell?s.

McConnell should worry about Grimes, because of the stark generational contrast and her gender, says Jennifer Duffy, Senate analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

?He could be faced with a candidate who?s going to be more difficult to run against, more difficult to define,? Ms. Duffy told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Ms. Judd brought to the table star power, deep Kentucky roots, and Democratic kudos for her political activism, but she has never run for office ? and she lives in Tennessee. Both McConnell and Republican strategist Karl Rove had already made Web ads ridiculing Judd.

Now she?s out ? and some Democrats say that?s a blessing. Judd has been outspoken in opposition to a coal mining technique called mountaintop removal, which put her on the wrong side of many Kentucky voters. She was also a strong supporter last fall of President Obama, who lost Kentucky by nearly 23 percentage points.

McConnell, meantime, knows he?s running from behind, and has been preparing to wage a ?scorched-earth strategy? to keep his seat, according to Politico. He is in many ways like Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, who ran a shrewd reelection campaign in 2010 ? and won ? despite low popularity. Senator Reid was helped by weak opposition: The Republicans nominated tea partyer Sharron Angle, who made off-key comments about immigrants in a state with a fast-growing Latino population.

In Kentucky, McConnell has worked hard to woo the state?s tea party movement, through outreach, fundraising, and political help, Politico reports. So far, he faces no serious primary opposition.

Back in Washington, McConnell is a dealmaker on fiscal matters, which doesn?t always play well with the home-town conservatives. So far, he has not stated a position on immigration reform, in particular the issue of a citizenship path for illegal immigrants. But he is wooing moderates by talking up his recent role in bipartisan compromises on the budget and taxes.

Without an opponent, polling on McConnell?s reelection prospects reveals only so much. Still, he has clear cause for concern. A Courier-Journal poll taken in late January found that only 34 percent of the state?s Republicans will vote for him regardless of his competitor.

Among all voters, 34 percent said they will vote against him, versus 17 percent who say they will vote for him. Forty-four percent are waiting to see who runs against him.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/-wjlmS9z-Xo/Ashley-Judd-says-no-but-Sen.-Mitch-McConnell-can-t-rest-easy

angelina jolie leg daytona artie lange nascar daytona 2012 kasey kahne angelina jolie right leg saving face

Google posts Android 4.2.x factory images for Sprint and Verizon Galaxy Nexus models

Many would call the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus the only true Nexus of its era. Still, Google is willing to treat the CDMA versions as equals, and it just posted factory images with the latest available Jelly Bean builds for those devices. Anyone with a Verizon model can now flash with Android 4.2.2 if their existing OS install ever goes awry; Sprint users aren't quite on an equal plane, but do get a 4.2.1 image to work from. Relevant driver binaries are also available. Whether you're a custom ROM creator looking for a starting point or just want a fallback for any risky experiments, the relevant source links should have what you need.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Google, Verizon, Sprint

Comments

Via: Droid-Life

Source: Google Developers (1), (2)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/h4fqXes7bO0/

UFC 151 empire state building Hurricane prince harry hunger games Joey Kovar Expendables 2

Google Street View takes former residents on virtual tour inside Japan nuclear zone

Google via AP

A screenshot made from the Google Maps website shows stranded ships left as a testament to the power of the tsunami which hit the area, near a road in Namie, Japan.

Google via AP

A crushed building in Namie, a nuclear no-go zone where former residents have been unable to live since they fled from radioactive contamination near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant two years ago.

By Arata Yamamoto, Producer, NBC News

Google via AP

Google's camera-equipped vehicle moves through Namie in a photo released on March 27, 2013 and taken earlier in the month.

Crumpled homes, abandoned shops, empty streets. The town of Namie has lain virtually untouched since its residents were evacuated two years ago, following the accident at the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant.

On Wednesday they were able to see their town again thanks to Google, which began offering glimpses of Namie on its Street View service.?The town's mayor, Tamotsu Baba, invited Google to document the current state of Namie after receiving numerous requests from constituents who wanted a reminder of their home town.

Although some restrictions on entering the town have been lifted, Namie's 21,000 former residents have not yet been allowed to return to live there due to the still-high levels of radiation.

In a message posted on the Google website, the mayor said he hoped that sharing the images?with the rest of the world?would serve as a reminder of the consequences of a nuclear accident.

Related:

Nuclear refugees visit their home near stricken Fukushima plant

Fukushima: Before, during and after

Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

Google via AP

Google via AP

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a1767dc/l/0Lphotoblog0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C280C1749810A70Egoogle0Estreet0Eview0Etakes0Eformer0Eresidents0Eon0Evirtual0Etour0Einside0Ejapan0Enuclear0Ezone0Dlite/story01.htm

roy oswalt kevin martin 2012 senior bowl chuck series finale welcome back kotter 2001 a space odyssey barefoot bandit

Petraeus: Scandal 'was my own doing' (CNN)

Share With Friends:

| Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294984085?client_source=feed&format=rss

the flintstones etta james ufc on fox evans vs davis fast times at ridgemont high fast times at ridgemont high soylent green

Google Street View takes former residents on virtual tour inside Japan nuclear zone

Google via AP

A screenshot made from the Google Maps website shows stranded ships left as a testament to the power of the tsunami which hit the area, near a road in Namie, Japan.

Google via AP

By Arata Yamamoto, Producer, NBC News

Google via AP

Google's camera-equipped vehicle moves through Namie in a photo released on March 27, 2013 and taken earlier in the month.

Although some restrictions on entering the town have been lifted, Namie's 21,000 former residents have not yet been allowed to return to live there due to the still-high levels of radiation.

In a message posted on the Google website, the mayor said he hoped that sharing the images?with the rest of the world?would serve as a reminder of the consequences of a nuclear accident.

Related:

Nuclear refugees visit their home near stricken Fukushima plant

Fukushima: Before, during and after

Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

Google via AP

Google via AP

drew peterson Argo bonnaroo robin roberts Ashley Morrison El Chapo Guzman Christmas Abbott

Investors struggle to get past Europe's woes

Trader Anthony Riccio, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, March 20, 2013. U.S. stocks rose strongly Wednesday ahead of a decision by the Federal Reserve about whether to push ahead with aggressive measures to boost the economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Investors just can't get past Europe.

Renewed worries about the region's long-running debt crisis weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average on Wednesday, and held the Standard & Poor's 500 index back from reaching an all-time high.

Investors are watching to see if Cyprus can shore up its banking system. They are also keeping an eye on Italy, where political parties are struggling to form a new government in the eurozone's third-largest economy.

The Dow fell 33.49 points to close at 14,526.16, a loss of 0.2 percent. It dropped as many as 120 points in morning trading then spent the rest of the day climbing back.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.92 to 1,562.85, less than three points short of its all-time high set in October 2007.

Bad news out of Europe and good news from the U.S. have tossed the stock market around over the past week.

"There are still plenty of worries about (Europe's) banking system," said J.J. Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade. "But the U.S. really is on a nice little roll."

As stocks slumped early Wednesday, Kinahan said he thought the S&P 500 would recover its losses and could make another run at its record high on Thursday.

Cyprus is working out how to reopen its banks on Thursday after a nearly two-week shutdown. An international bailout calls for money from large depositors to help pay for the rescue of its banking system.

In Italy, a center-left party failed in its attempt to form a new government. The political stalemate has raised fears that the country will be unable to manage its deep debts, undermining confidence in the euro.

Those worries hit Europe's bond markets especially hard. Borrowing rates for Italy and Spain shot higher, a sign of weaker confidence in their financial health. Rates for Germany and France, two of Europe's more stable countries, sank as traders shifted money into their bonds.

In other trading, the Nasdaq composite inched up 4.04 points, or 0.1 percent, to 3,256.52.

Four of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index edged higher. Utilities and health care, which investors tend to buy when they want to play it safe, made the biggest gains.

Kim Forrest, a senior equity analyst at Fort Pitt Capital, said it appears that many investors are treating certain stocks as if they were bonds.

"There's a recognition that bonds are overpriced, so people are moving into healthcare and utilities that pay a nice dividend," she said. "Those are pretty boring investments, and by that I mean their prices don't move a lot."

News about Italy also helped drive traders into the safety of U.S. government bonds, pushing benchmark yields to their lowest level this month. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.84 percent, a steep fall from 1.91 percent late Tuesday.

The S&P 500 closed within three points of its record high of 1,565.15, helped by rising U.S. home prices and orders for manufactured goods. The stock index hit that peak on Oct. 9, 2007, before the Great Recession and a financial crisis roiled financial markets.

Among other stocks making big moves:

? Cliffs Natural Resources, an iron ore mining company, plunged 14 percent, the biggest loss in the S&P 500. Analysts warned that falling iron ore prices would likely sink the company's stock. Cliffs fell $2.97 to $18.46.

? Science Applications International Corp. surged 5 percent after the security and communications technology provider reported a fourth-quarter profit that was better than analysts were expecting. SAIC also announced a special dividend of $1 per share, and its stock gained 50 cents to $13.32.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-27-US-Wall-Street/id-72e27cdb004541f792e50026b57b6888

mta Beyonce Superbowl weather.com nemo Nemo Storm redbox weather forecast

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, shot for defying Taliban, to write book

LONDON (AP) ? Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban as she returned home from school, is writing a book about the traumatic event and her long-running campaign to promote children's education.

Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson announced that it would release "I am Malala" in Britain and Commonwealth countries this fall. Little, Brown and Co. will publish the 15-year-old's memoir in the United States and much of the rest of the world.

"Malala is already an inspiration to millions around the world. Reading her story of courage and survival will open minds, enlarge hearts, and eventually allow more girls and boys to receive the education they hunger for," said Michael Pietsch, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown.

A Taliban gunman shot Malala on Oct. 9 in northwestern Pakistan. The militant group said it targeted her because she promoted "Western thinking" and, through a blog, had been an outspoken critic of the Taliban's opposition to educating girls.

The shooting sparked outrage in Pakistan and many other countries, and her story drew global attention to the struggle for women's rights in Malala's homeland. The teen even made the shortlist for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2012.

Malala was brought to the U.K. for treatment and spent several months in a hospital undergoing skull reconstruction and cochlear implant surgeries. She was released last month and has started attending school in Britain.

Malala said in a statement Wednesday that she hoped telling her story would be "part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school.

"I hope the book will reach people around the world, so they realize how difficult it is for some children to get access to education," she said. "I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education."

Publishers did not reveal the price tag for the book deal.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shot-pakistani-teen-malala-yousafzai-writing-book-100913748.html

Taylor Kinney Beach Volleyball Olympics 2012 Jessica Ennis Aliya Mustafina Kirk Urso London 2012 Javelin roger federer

Fungi pull carbon into northern forest soils

Organisms living on tree roots do lion?s share of sequestering carbon

By Meghan Rosen

Web edition: March 28, 2013

Enlarge

The fungus Cortinarius armillatus pulls carbon-rich sugars from tree roots in exchange for water and nutrients. Fungi store substantial amounts of carbon belowground in boreal forests, new research shows.

Credit: Courtesy of Karina Clemmensen

Sequestration may be questionable fiscal policy, but it means good news in the context of carbon cycles. Vast underground networks of fungi may sequester heaps of carbon in boreal forest soil, a study suggests. By holding onto the element, the fungi do the environment a favor by preventing carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere and warming the planet.

Mycorrhizal fungi, which grow underground in and on tree roots, hold 50 to 70 percent of the total carbon stored in leaf litter and soil on forested islands in Sweden, researchers report March 28 in Science. The new findings poke holes in a long-held idea that carbon in boreal forests accumulates mainly above ground in a litter of pine needles, mosses and leaves. The researchers suggest instead that trees direct carbon deeper into the soil via their root systems.

?It?s hard to quantify how important mycorrhizal fungi are in ecosystems,? says forest ecologist Erik Hobbie of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, who was not involved with the study. ?This paper presents hard evidence about their importance.?

Trees suck carbon dioxide from the air and turn the carbon into sugars to fuel growth of branches, leaves and roots. Because trees are so good at capturing carbon dioxide, ecosystems stash loads of carbon in forests. Cold boreal forests are thought to be carbon-storing superstars mostly because litter stacks up on their floors and takes a long time to decompose. These forests stow away nearly a quarter of all the carbon stocked in the Earth?s land surfaces. ?

But scientists have not understood where exactly trees put their carbon. The issue becomes important when researchers build computer simulations that track carbon cycling. ?People talk about how plants shuttle half their carbon to the belowground root system, but it has kind of been neglected in carbon storage models,? says study coauthor Karina Clemmensen, a fungal ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala.

Clemmensen and colleagues measured the age and accumulation of carbon in soil samples from 30 islands sprinkled across two lakes in northern Sweden. At each island, Clemmensen?s team plunged long, hollow tubes with sharpened ends into the ground to extract soil cores.

Since new, carbon-rich litter settles layer by layer on forest floors, prevailing wisdom suggested the scientists would ?find older carbon as they went down. But instead, researchers found stores of young carbon deep beneath the surface. Only sugars shipped down trees to their roots could explain the young carbon?s presence in soil below ground, says Clemmensen.

Next, her team analyzed DNA and fungal molecules in the soil samples. Beneath the forest floor, soil was packed with traces of mycorrhizal fungi, which stretch long filamentous fingers through the earth and sop up water and nutrients. The fungi pull in carbon in the form of sugars from tree roots. Above ground, fungi that break down leaf litter dominated.

The study?s findings could help global carbon modelers tweak their simulations, says climatologist Victor Brovkin of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. ?How to model soil carbon is poorly understood,? he says. ?That?s why this new evidence is important to us.?

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349265/title/Fungi_pull_carbon_into_northern_forest_soils

Texas A&m cotton bowl Fiscal cliff deal kathy griffin jadeveon clowney orange bowl Rose Parade 2013

NJ boy, 4, found with dead mom was living on sugar

UNION, N.J. (AP) ? A naked, malnourished 4-year-old boy found inside an apartment with the body of his mother, dead for days, had resorted to eating from a bag of sugar and weighed only 26 pounds, well below normal, police said Wednesday as adoption offers poured in from around the world.

The boy's first request after being examined, police said, was a grilled cheese sandwich and a juice.

His mother, identified Wednesday as Kiana Workman, 38, of New York City's Brooklyn borough, was discovered dead Tuesday on the floor of her bedroom after maintenance workers at the apartment complex in northern New Jersey reported a foul odor. Because the chain lock was on, police said, the toddler couldn't get out.

Officer Joseph Sauer said the boy was naked but coherent and not crying when he kicked in the door and his partner lifted the youngster up by the arms and pulled him out of the overheated apartment.

"The only way to describe the little boy was it was like a scene from World War II, from a concentration camp, he was that skinny. I mean, you could see all his bones," Sauer told The Associated Press.

The apartment in this city 15 miles west of New York belongs to Workman's mother, who is recuperating from surgery at a nursing center, said police, who could not track down any other relatives.

The boy, now in state custody, remained in a hospital where he was being treated for malnourishment and dehydration, police said.

"Physically, he's fine. Whether there are any mental problems later on ... I'm not a child expert," Police Director Daniel Zieser said.

The boy was not strong enough to open the refrigerator and was unable to open a can of soup. Police said he told them he had been eating from a bag of sugar.

The boy could not say how long his mother had been dead.

Police said he put lotion on his mother, leaving behind handprints, in an attempt to help her.

Officer Sylvia Dimenna, who traveled in the ambulance with the boy and stayed with him at the hospital, said he was very bright and articulate but tired.

"He said he missed his mommy," she said.

Police initially estimated she had been dead five days before the discovery was made, but Zieser said Wednesday it may have been two to three. Nobody had talked to her for about a week.

The boy weighed 26 pounds, but at the age of 4? should have weighed 40 pounds or more, Zieser said.

"It's possible he was improperly cared for before the mother's death; we just don't know yet," Zieser said.

Autopsy results that would help them better determine the time of death were pending. Police said they did not suspect foul play.

Police said they were getting calls from around the world from people offering to adopt the child or donate money or toys.

"It's overwhelming," Zieser said.

"I just hope everything works out for the child," the police director said. "We're just going to take it one step at a time and do the best that we can for the child."

Police said they were trying to find someone in the family capable of taking care of the boy, including a brother of Workman believed to live out West. But he said it would be up to the state's child welfare agency to determine where the child is placed.

Zieser described the apartment complex as a well-maintained property with few problems.

But he said everyone there "basically stays to themselves."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nj-boy-4-found-dead-mom-living-sugar-212828288.html

cbs sports ncaa tournament kids choice awards ncaa Miley Cyrus Twerk ncaa march madness cbs

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Hands-on with MiiPC, the $99 kid-safe Android PC (video)

It was only two days ago that ZeroDesktop launched MiiPC, a $99 kid-safe Android PC, and the Kickstarter campaign's already surpassed its $50,000 goal. To jog your memory, MiiPC is an attractive 4.7 x 4.7 x 3.1-inch desktop computer running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It's powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Marvell New Armada SoC with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The system features an SD card slot in front, a power button on top and a full array of ports in the back, including two USB 2.0, HDMI, analog audio I/O, Ethernet and power.

What makes this device so unique is the software, which is optimized for use with a large screen (up to 1080p), keyboard and mouse. It provides a desktop-class web browsing experience with Flash and runs standard Android apps. MiiPC supports multiple user accounts which can be controlled and monitored remotely in real-time using a companion app for iOS and Android. The idea is for parents to create a safe online environment for their kids by managing their access to the web and to apps. We got the chance to play with a prototype MiiPC yesterday -- read our impressions and watch out hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC hands-on

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC screenshots

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC companion app

Filed under: Desktops

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/miipc-hands-on/

oral roberts les paul fred thompson fred thompson red hook romney tax return the tree of life movie

Recyclable organic solar cells: a clean fuel future made possible by trees

You don't have to know Shel Silverstein to know that trees are exceptionally giving. They're responsible for our homes, paper, air, furniture and, now, energy -- the "clean" kind, that is. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University have jointly devised a patent-pending method to build organic solar cells using plant-derived substrates. Known as cellulose nanocrystal substrates (or CNC), these solar cells benefit from being truly disposable, eliminating the waste that results from the use of alternative materials like petroleum or glass. The CNC-made cells are not only transparent enough to allow light to pass into an embedded semiconductor, but they also dissolve when submerged into water, thus earning the esteemed recyclable distinction.

Although this is undoubtedly a breakthrough for clean energy tech, it's by no means a near-future reality. Apparently, current cells can only yield a 2.7-percent conversion efficiency rate, which falls far below the 10-percent threshold met by rival fabrication methods (i.e., petroleum and glass). So, there's still significant work to be done before the team can improve production and achieve parity with those less "recyclable" options. Until that time, consider this a comforting reassurance that a clean fuel era is well within reach.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

Via: Forbes

Source: Georgia Tech, Nature