Monday, September 30, 2013

US facing first government shutdown in 17 years

Washington (AFP) - Lawmakers have one final day to try to prevent the first US government shutdown in 17 years, but a deal appeared remote Monday as congressional leaders showed little intent to compromise.

With Congress going into crunch sessions ahead of an 11:59 pm (0359 GMT Tuesday) deadline, a House Republican leader offered a glimmer of hope when he hinted that his party could offer a new plan that might pass muster in the Democratic-held Senate.

"I think the House will get back together in enough time, send another provision not to shut the government down, but to fund it, and it will have a few other options in there for the Senate to look at again," number three House Republican Kevin McCarthy told Fox News Sunday.

Congress must pass a stopgap funding measure before the new fiscal year begins Tuesday or much of the US federal government will close down.

The procedure became dramatically more complicated when Republicans linked the budget legislation to an attempt to thwart President Barack Obama's health care law.

The impasse is already affecting global markets: In Asian trading on Monday oil prices tumbled, markets slumped and the Japanese yen jumped in value while the dollar weakened, mostly due to fears that a budget deal will not be reached before a shutdown.

After the Senate passed a straightforward spending bill on Friday, the House countered after hours of debate Saturday by attaching amendments seeking a one-year delay to so-called Obamacare, as well as repeal of a medical device tax which helps fund the law.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who refused to call the chamber into session over the weekend despite the rapidly approaching deadline, warned before the vote that such a measure would be dead on arrival.

The White House also sharply rebuked the move, and warned that the president would veto it even if the Senate did approve it.

On Monday "the Senate will do exactly what we said we would do and reject these measures," Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said."

"At that point, Republicans will be faced with the same choice they have always faced: put the Senate's clean funding bill on the floor and let it pass with bipartisan votes, or force a Republican government shutdown."

Republican McCarthy hinted that if the Senate rejects the measure as expected, the new House approach would still retain a provision "that I believe the Senate can accept, that will have fundamental changes into Obamacare."

That provision may well be the medical device tax. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the tax in March, but it was a non-binding budget resolution.

The Senate's number two Democrat, Dick Durbin, appeared open to the possibility.

"I'm willing to look at that, but not with a gun to my head, not with the prospect of shutting down the government," he told the CBS Sunday talk show "Face the Nation."

With Republicans and Democrats in a dangerous game of political chicken, the government was on the verge of ordering hundreds of thousands of federal workers to stay home.

As lawmakers traded blame, the Democratic leadership sounded resigned about a pending shutdown.

Asked if he believed government would shutter on Tuesday, Durbin grimly said "I'm afraid I do."

House Speaker John Boehner has been under intense pressure from his party's most conservative wing, a small band of lawmakers who forced Republican leaders to double down on their anti-Obamacare strategy.

Reid insisted that "the American people will not be extorted by Tea Party anarchists," referring to the ultra-conservative faction of Republicans.

But Boehner warned that if the Senate waits until hours before the deadline to vote, "it would be an act of breathtaking arrogance by the Senate Democratic leadership."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-plot-unified-position-shutdown-crisis-171104310.html

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Sunday, September 29, 2013

Roche immunotherapy drug may be 'game changer' in lung cancer

By Kate Kelland

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - An experimental Roche drug that seems to work particularly well against lung cancer in smokers may be a "game changer" for these normally difficult-to-treat patients, researchers said on Sunday.

Presenting detailed data from an early-stage trial of the drug, called MPDL3280A, in patients with a form of the disease called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), investigators said what they had found was "great news for lung cancer patients".

Of 53 patients with NSCLC tumours treated with the drug, 23 percent saw their tumours shrink, according to results presented at the European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Amsterdam.

But the most encouraging numbers were among smokers, where the response rate was 26 percent compared with 10 percent of patients who had never smoked, said Professor Jean-Charles Soria of France's Institut Gustave Roussy, who led the study.

Lung cancer, which is usually caused by smoking, is extremely difficult to treat successfully and once it has started to spread to other parts of the body, it is incurable.

Roche's MPDL3280A is an engineered antibody that targets a protein called PD-L1 - a defence mechanism that tumours use to trick the immune system's T-cells into being inactive.

By blocking PD-L1, the drug allows the T-cells to wake up and recognize the cancer, and then grow and multiply to attack it more efficiently.

Rival drugmakers including Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb are developing immunotherapy drugs in a similar class of drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors, also designed to mobilize the body's own immune system to fight cancer.

Soria's team suspected that because lung tumours in smokers have a higher rate of genetic mutations than tumours of lung cancer patients who have never smoked, their immune systems may be more likely to respond vigorously when PD-L1 is blocked.

So they drilled down into the data more closely, separating out the 81 percent of the 53 patients who were smokers or former smokers, and the 19 percent of them who were not.

"And bingo, this is the first targeted agent (drug) that shows more activity in smokers than in non-smokers," Soria told reporters in a briefing at the ECC.

Cora Sternberg, co-chair of the ECC's scientific committee and an oncologist at the San Camillo and Forlanini hospitals in Rome who was not involved in the study, said that although the results were from very early-stage trials, they suggested the drug was "definitely a game changer" in lung cancer.

Roche is also investigating MPDL3280A's potential for treating a range of other cancers, including melanoma skin cancer and kidney cancer, where it has already shown some promise in early trials.

Cornelis van de Velde, an oncologist at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and president of the European Cancer Organisation, said Soria's was an extremely important study for NSCLC patients, who currently have very few treatment options that make much impact on their disease.

"Hundreds of millions of euros have been spent chasing the dream of immunotherapy for lung cancer patients, but with zero results." he said. "These early findings..suggest that it has the potential to open new therapeutic approaches."

(Editing by David Cowell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/roche-immunotherapy-drug-may-game-changer-lung-cancer-093453959--finance.html

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Video: Evaluating collision avoidance systems

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/53124936/

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Friday, September 27, 2013

Bynes' lawyer hopes for resolution to NY bong case

NEW YORK (AP) ? A lawyer for Amanda Bynes said Thursday that he thinks her New York bong-throwing case will be resolved soon.

The troubled actress didn't appear during a brief court appearance in Manhattan; she remains in a psychiatric hospital in California.

She was charged earlier this year with reckless endangerment and marijuana possession after building managers called police because they said she was smoking pot in the lobby of her Manhattan apartment. When officers entered her 36th floor apartment, they said they saw her heave a bong out the window.

The 27-year-old "Hairspray" star later appeared in court in a disheveled blond wig and said she didn't do anything wrong. It was one episode in a string of erratic incidents involving the star in recent months. She was institutionalized in August after authorities said she set a small fire in the driveway of a home in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Bynes pleaded not guilty to drunken driving in California, and her attorney there argued Wednesday that she needed a competency hearing because she was unfit for trial.

The New York judge on Thursday said Bynes didn't need a separate mental health hearing. Her attorney, Gerald Shargel, said she remained hospitalized and wished her a speedy recovery. He said he's working with prosecutors to resolve the case. That could mean charges would be dropped if she agrees to stay out of trouble.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bynes-lawyer-hopes-resolution-ny-bong-case-160301789.html

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

SPORTS: Golf teams see weekend successes

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Source: thedartmouth.com --- Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Dartmouth?s men?s and women?s golf teams traveled this past weekend to compete in large collegiate tournaments at Cornell University and Yale University. The Dartmouth men?s golf team traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., to compete at the Cornell Invitational. The team collectively shot a total of 301 points, securing a fourth-place finish. Dartmouth opened shooting 305 and shot 297 in the second round. Their 54-hole total was 903, just one stroke shy of beating third-place winner Cornell. The men competed at the Robert Trent Jones golf course, which boasts a total of 904 yards on its par-71 course. However, weather conditions provided a challenge for the invitational and the players had to end day one early, finishing round two and starting round three on Sunday. Towson University and Drexel University proved to be great competition at the invitational, with Towson taking first place with a total score of 895 and Drexel coming in only five strokes behind for second. While the invitational was only the second tournament of the season, the Big Green men had an impressive showing, with 37 birdies and placing second for par-3 scoring. Jeffrey Lang ?17 had a remarkable tournament, scoring 13 birdies overall and posting round scores of 74, one-over-par 72, and one-under-par 70. These scores earned Lang second place individually, with Drexel sophomore Christopher Crawford securing first. Sean Fahey ?17 also performed well this weekend, with a fin ...

Source: http://thedartmouth.com/2013/09/24/sports/golf/

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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Asian shares flat despite good China survey, more Fed talk ahead

By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Most Asian markets slipped on Monday as a soft lead from Wall Street and renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve's policy stance took the shine off an upbeat survey on China's manufacturing sector.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, up early in the day, was off 0.1 percent.

European stocks were seen mixed, with German equities set to gain ground following the re-election of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Financial spreadbetters expect Britain's FTSE 100 to open around 15 points lower, or down 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX to open 7 points higher, or up 0.1 percent, and France's CAC 40 to open 8 points lower, or down 0.2 percent.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly firmer open on Wall Street.

Some Asian markets had significant gains, thanks to a survey that showed a promising pick up in Chinese export orders, another sign of stabilisation in the world's second biggest economy.

The preliminary HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China climbed to 51.2 in September, from August's 50.1, with 10 out of 11 sub-indices up in the month. Dealers had looked for a reading of around 50.9.

New export orders jumped to a 10-month peak of 50.8, the first time in six months that exports have grown. Readings on manufacturing across Europe are due later on Monday.

Shares in Shanghai gained 1.0 percent and Taiwan's main index was up 0.9 percent. South Korea firmed initially, but then was off 0.1 percent flat. Australian shares were down 0.5 percent and Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

The upbeat China survey sent the Australian dollar a quarter of a U.S. cent higher to $0.9422. China alone takes around one-third of all Australia's exports, chiefly commodities such as iron ore.

Earlier, the euro had only the briefest of lifts from Chancellor Angela Merkel's victory in Germany's general election since she would still need a new coalition partner to rule.

Having initially gained a quarter of a U.S. cent to $1.3555, it quickly faded to $1.3530. Against the yen, the common currency eased to 134.10, from an early 134.56.

That left the dollar index little changed at 80.382, not far from a seven-month trough of 80.060 plumbed last week.

While Merkel won by a landslide, her conservatives appeared just short of the votes needed to rule on their own.

That left open the possibility of a "grand coalition" with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who came a distant second. In the past, establishing a coalition accord has taken between four and eight weeks.

"The formation of a grand coalition could be a positive outcome for the euro zone," said Peter Dragicevich, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"The SPD is in favour of further euro zone integration. As such, a grand coalition may be more willing to work with the ECB and euro zone governments to find a sustainable solution to the issues plaguing the euro zone periphery."

He noted one of the SPD's 2013 election policy proposals was the creation of a European debt redemption fund funded by euro zone bonds.

SECOND-GUESSING THE FED

The Dow Jones industrial average finished Friday with a loss of 1.2 percent, while the S&P 500 Index eased 0.7 percent.

Some of Friday's dip was attributed to comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard who said that a start to winding down the stimulus program was possible in October, depending on coming economic data.

That was a surprise to most analysts who had thought there would not be enough fresh economic news by the October 29-30 meeting to swing the Fed from its dovish course.

"We do not expect the economy to look much different in the coming months and, in fact, some of the data on housing could look softer," said Michelle Girard, chief economist at RBS.

Girard thought it more likely the taper would begin in either December or March next year.

"We think the hurdle for tightening in December is somewhat high, and thus believe that the time frame for tapering has most likely been pushed back all the way to March," she said.

If it is March, then the Fed could continue buying debt for much of 2014. That in turn would further push back the day when it might finally start raising interest rates.

Some clarity might come later on Monday since no less than three Fed officials are speaking, headlined by New York Fed President William Dudley. He is thought to be close to Chairman Ben Bernanke and to speak for the dovish majority of voting members.

Even the thought the Fed might start tapering in October jolted commodity markets, leaving gold down at $1,321.81 an ounce, from Thursday's peak of $1,374.54. Copper futures were off 1.2 percent.

Brent crude oil was steady at $109.20 a barrel, while U.S. crude was also flat at $104.79.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-flat-despite-good-china-survey-more-065608689--finance.html

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Health care law reuniting Obama, Bill Clinton

President Barack Obama, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, arrives at JFK International Airport in New York, Monday Sept. 23, 2013. On Tuesday, the president is scheduled to attend the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly. (AP Photo/ David Karp)

President Barack Obama, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, arrives at JFK International Airport in New York, Monday Sept. 23, 2013. On Tuesday, the president is scheduled to attend the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly. (AP Photo/ David Karp)

(AP) ? Health care is reuniting President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

The two are set to appear together Tuesday to discuss Obama's health care law at a session sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative, the former president's foundation.

The joint appearance comes exactly one week before people who don't have health insurance can start signing up on Oct. 1 for coverage plans through new insurance marketplaces. It also comes as the Obama administration and those who stand to benefit from the law's success, such as insurance companies, launch a campaign to inform consumers about their options under the law.

The Affordable Care Act requires everyone to carry health insurance or face penalties. Obama has said the goal is to make health care more affordable while extending coverage to millions of people who don't have it.

Clinton's appearance will be his second in recent weeks to help promote the 3-year-old law, which has been contentious from the start. In a speech earlier this month in his home state of Arkansas, the former president explained how the law works and argued that it makes the country stronger. He urged opponents to quit trying to undo the law and to work instead to improve it.

The law "does give us the best chance we have to achieve nearly universal coverage, provide higher quality health care and lower the rate of cost increases, which we have got to do in a competitive global economy," said Clinton, who failed to expand access to health care during his eight years as president.

The Republican-controlled House has voted more than three dozen times to repeal, delay or eliminate funding for the law, arguing that it is hurting the economy by imposing too many requirements on businesses and individuals, and driving health care costs higher as a result. None of the bills have advanced in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Obama highlights popular, consumer-friendly provisions of the law, such as requiring that mammograms and other health screenings be conducted free of charge, and allowing parents to keep children on their plans until they turn 26. He also has highlighted requirements for insurers to spend a certain percentage of premiums on health care.

But large numbers of Americans say they don't understand the law. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted earlier this month found just 30 percent of people saying they understand the law and how it will affect them. Sixty-nine percent said they understand the law only some or not very well.

The health care law also is now embroiled in a standoff between the White House and Congress over federal spending for the budget year that also begins Oct. 1. A House-passed bill would continue funding the government while eliminating money to implement the health care law. The Senate is expected to pass and return to the House just the portion of the bill that would fund the government another year.

The hourlong conversation between Obama and Clinton is taking place around the 20th anniversary of Clinton's address to a joint session of Congress in 1993 calling for an overhaul of the health care system. The presidential pair is to be introduced by Clinton's wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who tackled the health care issue unsuccessfully during her time as first lady.

The event during Clinton's annual conference also begins a monthslong education effort by the administration that will employ Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and several Cabinet secretaries to help inform consumers of the health care options they can begin signing up for between October and March 2014.

Besides the discussion, Obama also plans to promote the law during a speech Thursday at a community college in Maryland. Biden will reach out to nurses across the country on a conference call and Obama will hold a separate call with mayors and other state and local officials, the White House said. Mrs. Obama plans outreach to key groups, such as mothers and military veterans, through editorials.

Tuesday will not be the first time Obama has turned to Clinton during a time of need.

Last year, Obama recruited the former president to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Some observers believe the speech helped ease Obama's path to re-election.

___

Online:

Affordable Care Act: http://www.healthcare.gov

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-09-24-Obama-Health%20Care/id-746551e809af4b25816e46a73d224fe1

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Monday, September 23, 2013

Journalism prof placed on leave after anti-NRA tweet

Twitter

14 hours ago

This photo provided by the University of Kansas shows professor David Guth , who has been placed on leave because of a tweet he published after this w...

Chuck France / University of Kansas / AP

David Guth

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A University of Kansas journalism professor was placed on indefinite administrative leave Friday for a tweet he wrote about the Navy Yard shootings which said, "blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters."?

David W. Guth, an associate professor of journalism, made the comment on Twitter after Monday's shootings in Washington, D.C., in which 13 people died, including the gunman. The tweet didn't attract much attention until Campus Reform.org posted a story Thursday, sparking a social media backlash that's spilled over into some state lawmakers calling for his dismissal.?

The university also responded, as Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little issued a statement Friday saying that "in order to prevent disruptions to the learning environment," Guth was placed on indefinite administrative leave pending a review. His classes will be taught by other faculty members.?

Guth, who on Thursday told The Associated Press in a phone interview that his tweet "got a conversation going ? that was exactly what I wanted to do," agreed Friday that the university's action was appropriate in light of email threats he and others at the university had received.?

"It is in the best interests and peace of mind of our students that I remove myself from the situation and let cooler heads prevail," Guth wrote. "I know what I meant. Unfortunately, this is a topic that generates more heat than light."?

He may have gotten more than he bargained for, however.?

Kansas Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said Thursday he was "appalled" by the tweet and called for the university to remove from Guth from the faculty.?

"Wishing death and damnation upon parents and their children is reprehensible and not befitting an employee of such a distinguished university," Bruce said in an emailed statement.?

Rep. Brett Hildabrand, a Shawnee Republican, urged via Twitter that the university to take "appropriate action" against Guth.?

Bruce has received $2,500 in campaign contributions from the NRA since 2004, including $750 in 2012, according to the online database maintained by the state Governmental Ethics Commission. Hildabrand received a $500 contribution last year from the Kansas State Rifle Association.?

The Kansas Board of Regents, expressing its "disgust and offense," said in a statement Friday it appreciated the immediate response by the chancellor.?

Members of Kansas' faculty also distanced themselves from Guth's viewpoint.?

"While the First Amendment allows anyone to express an opinion, that privilege is not absolute and must be balanced with the rights of others. That's vital to civil discourse," Ann Brill, dean of the journalism school, said in a statement. "Professor Guth's views do not represent our school and we do not advocate violence against any group or individuals."?

The Kansas State Rifle Association has called his statements "outrageous," and president Patricia Stoneking said in a news release her group will "do everything possible" to see to his removal.?

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam added Friday: "This is hate speech. It is disgusting and deplorable. It has no place in our society."?

Guth, whose Twitter account is no longer available, said Thursday that gun rights advocates had orchestrated a social media campaign against him.?

"I respect their First Amendment rights and it would be nice if they would respect mine," Guth said. "And, by the way, I even respect their Second Amendment rights.?

"Frankly, my plan is to be the calm in the center of the storm," Guth said.

Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., contributed to this report.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/3186678f/sc/7/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cjournalism0Eprof0Eplaced0Eleave0Eafter0Eanti0Enra0Etweet0E4B112220A83/story01.htm

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Miley Cyrus performs at iHeartRadio music festival

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Miley Cyrus can't stop.

The pop singer was a crowd favorite at the iHeartRadio music festival day event Saturday in Las Vegas. Before she hit the stage, the crowd of a few hundred chanted: "Miley! Miley! Miley!"

The 20-year-old emerged onstage in all white, wearing a tight corset and high wasted shorts that revealed some of her backside.

Her four-song set opened with the anthemic "We Can't Stop," where people onstage were dressed in flower, mushroom and rainbow costumes. She gyrated and slapped a dwarf-sized dancer's butt onstage. She followed the colorful performance with "Party In the USA."

But it was her emotional rendition of "Wrecking Ball" that was her set's highlight. Cyrus' mascara was running as she left the stage after the song and the performance comes days after she announced she was no longer engaged to actor Liam Hemsworth. She thanked the audience for helping the song top the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week.

"I couldn't have done it without all you guys," she said.

Cyrus broke a record with the debut of the song's provocative video, which features her in the nude. It became the fastest music video to reach 100 million views on VEVO.

The wild child singer said she knows "things I'm doing that's getting me into trouble and it's just me doing what my heart and soul is telling me what to do."

Everything she's done is "inspired by the music," she said.

Cyrus, who will release her new album "Bangerz" next month, also sang a cover of Melanie Safka's "Look at What They've Done to My Song." The guitar tune featured lyrics like "They think I'm half insane" and "I wish I could find a book to live in."

Cyrus has been added as one of the main performers for the second night at iHeartRadio's festival at the MGM Grand Arena, joining a list that includes Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Paul McCartney and Drake. Elton John, Katy Perry and Chris Brown performed Friday.

Saturday's day line-up also featured Jason Derulo, Avril Lavigne, The Wanted, The Band Perry and others.

___

Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/miley-cyrus-performs-iheartradio-music-festival-214736121.html

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Stardock's Partnership with Parallels Eases the Transition to Windows 8 for Mac Users

PLYMOUTH, MI -- Sept. 12, 2013 -?Stardock, leading developer of desktop enhancement software, announced a partnership with Parallels today. With 90% market share, Parallels Desktop for Mac is the No. 1-selling Mac software that lets users seamlessly run Windows on a Mac without rebooting. The agreement bundles both Start8 and ModernMix from Stardock with every copy of Parallels Desktop 9.

?We are pleased to provide our customers the additional functionality delivered by Start8 and ModernMix,? said Nick Dobrovolskiy, Vice President of Desktop Virtualization with Parallels. ?Around the world, people are choosing Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac and telling us they love its indispensable conveniences such as cloud optimization with iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive, plus PowerNap for Windows, 40 percent better disk performance and support of OS X Mavericks (10.9) and Windows Blue (8.1).?

Start8 is a program that gives Windows 8 users the traditional Start button and Start menu that has been part of Windows for nearly 20 years.? ModernMix enables the new Windows 8 modern apps to be run in a resizeable window on the desktop.

?Stardock is proud to work with the developer of the world?s best-selling virtualization software for the Mac,? said Jamie McGuffie, Vice President of Stardock. ?Stardock has spent the last 20 years developing solutions that improve the PC user experience. We are pleased to help bring that experience to the Mac environment.?

Both Start8 and ModernMix are also available from Stardock for users of Microsoft Windows 8 and can be downloaded at www.stardock.com.

?

# # #

?

About Parallels
Parallels is a global leader in hosting and cloud services enablement and cross platform solutions. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 900 employees in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Visit www.parallels.com for details.

?

About Stardock
Stardock is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a leading developer and publisher of desktop software and PC games. Its desktop software includes Start8?, ModernMix?, Decor8?, WindowBlinds?, Fences? and more. Its PC games include Sins of a Solar Empire? and the critically acclaimed Galactic Civilizations? series. Stardock?s solutions have earned awards from CNET, Laptop Magazine and PCWorld and many more. Stardock is also the founder of software publisher EdgeRunner. Visit www.stardock.com for details.

?

Stardock Media Contact
Robert McElroy | mcelroy@stardock.com | 734.927.1524

Source: http://www.wincustomize.com/article/448335

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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Rep. Steve Israel blames gridlock in Washington on a Republican 'civil war'

A ?civil war? in the Republican caucus has lead to chaos, confusion and little getting done in Washington, Rep. Steve Israel, New York Democrat, said Thursday on MSNBC?s ?Andrea Mitchell Reports.?

?The problem with Washington right now is that the polarization is not Democrats versus Republicans, it?s Republicans versus Republicans,? he said.


SPECIAL COVERAGE: Tea Party Voices


Mr. Israel was speaking about House Speaker John Boehner?s plan to vote on a continuing resolution that will also defund Obamacare, risking a government shutdown when the Ohio Republican?s plan does not pass the Democrat-led Senate.

?This is not a speaker who has shown us an ability to compromise, to advance reasonable common-sense solutions,? Mr. Israel said.

To fix the problem, Mr. Israel said that either one side of the Republicans needs to win what he calls a ?civil war,? or the Democrats need to take back control of the House in the next election cycle.

? Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/19/rep-steve-israel-blames-gridlock-washington-republ/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

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Thursday, September 19, 2013

How Stephen Curry Can Become the NBA's Most Lethal Scorer

Despite a myriad of obstacles throughout his career that include lack of size, a never-ending string of injuries and unfortunate coaching early in his career, Stephen Curry has overcome it all and has poised himself to earn the spot as the most lethal scorer in the NBA.

Yes, I understand that Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, James Harden and LeBron James are all still currently employed in the NBA. What Curry possesses that those all-world players don?t, however, is the perfect situation.

Curry has already proven that while size does matter, it?s not necessary to achieve greatness. He?s also shown what he is capable of when his ankles allow him to play the majority of a season. Most importantly, however, he?s shown just how potent he can be when paired with the proper teammates and coach.

Measuring in at only 6?3? and 185 pounds, Curry is as about diminutive as they come in the NBA. Some referred to him as frail and believed his skills wouldn?t translate to the NBA level because he didn?t possess elite level athleticism to cancel out his lack of size.

Well, after dropping a line of 22.9 points, 6.9 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game last season, all while shooting .453 from three-point range and shattering the old single-season record in the process, all of those pundits are eating their words now.

That is what separates Curry from the rest of the league. When it comes to shooters, there?s Curry and then everyone else. He?s not just a catch-and-shoot bomber either. He can get his three-point shot anytime he wants, be it off a screen, off the dribble or even stopping on a dime during a fast-break opportunity and splashing it in from outside.

A hot Steph Curry, quite simply, is the most entertainment the NBA has to offer. Check out this video from his absurd night in Madison Square Garden last season if you need proof.

Enough about last season, though. That was just his coming out party. If this is the year where he firmly entrenches himself among the leagues elite, one aspect of his game must improve: finishing at the rim.

Curry?s shooting percentage on attempts at the rim last season was 59.2, well below the league average of 64.6. This is where his critics will point to his lack of size being a factor, and while that might be true, it was also the area of his game that he improved the most last season.

That 59.2 percent conversion rate at the rim was over six points better than his average from the 2011-12 season, where he converted on only 52.9 percent of his shots near the basket. Players like Curry find ways to enhance their game over the offseason, so it?s safe to assume that this area will be improved even more next season.

While another six percent improvement is likely a stretch, should he manage to at least get to league average, it will open up the rest of his shots even more. The ability to finish at the rim will help keep defenders honest and provide the inches he needs to get a shot off.

As we saw last season, Steph shooting is not something opposing defenses want to see.

What should also contribute to Curry?s ascension into the scoring elite is the combination of his prodigious passing skills and capable teammates. Curry has shown that he is just as capable of making a defense pay with his passing as he is with his shooting. The knowledge that they can?t over help leaves Curry holding all of the cards.

With defenses unable to focus solely on Curry due to the presence of such players as Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and David Lee, Curry can pick and choose his spots, ensuring that every shot he takes is a good one. That on its own should be enough to help Curry improve his efficiency from the field, helping him make the transition from a volume scorer to simply a prolific one.

More than anything else, the system in which Curry is playing in is what will contribute the most to his rise. Now going into his third year with head coach Mark Jackson, the comfort level should be greater than ever before, something the young star alluded to himself, via Marcus Thompson II of San Jose Mercury News:

"I'm 25. Still young. But I know the drill. I know the expectations," Curry said in a chat with local media after working out at the team facility Thursday. "For me to have the same coaching staff, the same leadership, for three straight years is big. ... We have the stability for us to make that move (to another level), and I hope to lead that charge."

Curry understands what he means to his team. His play will ultimately dictate how good the Warriors can be. Expect him to raise his game beyond anything we?ve seen from him before. After all, when you factor in his teammates, coaching staff and his own drive to succeed, joining the scoring elite is the next step in his meteoric rise.

Bryant is still recovering from his torn Achilles tendon, Anthony is mired on an inconsistent New York Knicks team and James, Durant and Harden are each tasked with sharing the ball with other prolific teammates.

While Curry may or may not be able to overcome the talent difference, the situation each star is in is what gives Curry a shot to reach the pinnacle of the NBA scoring summit next season.?

?

All stats courtesy of hoopsdata.com

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1779435-how-stephen-curry-can-become-the-nbas-most-lethal-scorer

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Agawi TouchMarks Reveals Why Typing on Android Phones Harder Than on iPhones

MENLO PARK, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 19, 2013) - Agawi, the company that introduced streaming mobile applications from the cloud to touch devices, today announced the iPhone 5 trounces the competition with the most responsive touchscreen in the industry.

Agawi's findings are part of its new TouchMarks benchmark that measures touchscreen latency of popular smartphones and tablets. Most discussions on touchscreen displays are about pixels per inch, and quality of image. Agawi has created the world's first benchmark that measures how fast a touchscreen responds to touch: as important a factor as display image quality.

Agawi's TouchMarks I measures the Minimum App Response Time scores, or MART scores, and the results are surprising. The iPhone 5, with a response time of only 54 milliseconds, is more responsive by a factor of more than 2X when compared to Microsoft's Lumia, Google's Moto X, Samsung's Galaxy S4 and other popular smartphones. In fact even a two-year old iPhone 4 with a MART score of 74 milliseconds does better than the latest phones from the other manufacturers. "Minimum" in MART score is defined by the fact that the benchmark uses the lightest possible app that responds "immediately" to touch, without doing anything in the app.

Agawi is making the benchmark, and the methodology, openly available on its website, and invites the industry to join in outlining future TouchMarks benchmarks that it plans to publish.

"App responsiveness is judged by how quickly the app can respond to your inputs," said Rohan Relan, co-founder and CEO of Agawi. "Smartphones with touchscreens that have lower MART scores feel snappier. This is probably why, to many users, the iPhone keyboard feels more responsive than an Android phone keyboard."

How TouchMarks Measures Response Time
Agawi specializes in providing technology that runs rich, interactive apps in the cloud and streams them to iOS, Android and WP8 mobile devices. In order to make sure that adding cloud based processing to a smartphone app is acceptable to an end user, Agawi's team of engineers from Stanford and Netflix had to build a device they call a Touchscope to measure the response times of touchscreens to an accuracy level of +/-4 ms to get the MART score of the device, and then add the cloud processing response time to calculate the end-to-end user perceived response time.

In future TouchMarks releases, Agawi plans to measure the improvement of the iPhone MART score over the last few generations leading up to the iPhone 5S and 5C; app response times in popular games; tablet MART scores; and app response times in apps streamed from the cloud.

To learn more about AppGlimpse, Agawi's interactive mobile ad unit, email partners@agawi.io or visit www.AppGlimpse.com.

About Agawi
Agawi is a technology platform company focused on low-latency streaming of apps from the cloud to mobile devices.?We work with a variety of partners including Microsoft, Marvell and NVIDIA, leading app publishers, and Cloud Service Providers to provide a high-performance, scalable, and cost effective cloud-based platform for app streaming.?Based in Menlo Park, CA, Agawi was founded by Silicon Valley veteran entrepreneurs and spun out of the YouWeb Incubator in 2010. It recently won a Best in Biz award for fastest-growing small company. Agawi recently introduced AppGlimpse, the world's first interactive ad for apps, where the app is the ad.

Source: http://www.marketwired.com/mw/release.do?id=1832995&sourceType=3

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Pope Francis at Tuesday Mass: reflecting on our Mother Church

(Vatican Radio) The Church has the courage of a woman who defends her children, in order to bring them to encounter her Spouse. This was one of the main focal points of Pope Francis? remarks following the readings at Mass on Tuesday morning in the chapel of the Domus sanctae Marthae in the Vatican. The Pope also reflected on the encounter between Jesus and the widow of Naim, saying that the Church herself is, in history, walking in search of her Lord. Listen: RealAudioMP3

Jesus has, ?the capacity to suffer with us, to be close to our sufferings and make them His own,? said Pope Francis, who began his reflections with the encounter between Jesus and the widow of Naim, of which Tuesday?s Gospel reading tells. He pointed out that Jesus, ?had great compassion? for this widow who had now lost her son. Jesus, he went on to say, ?knew what it meant to be a widow at that time,? and noted that the Lord has a special love for widows, He cares for them.? Reading this passage of the Gospel, he then said, that the widow is, ?an icon of the Church , because the Church is in a sense widow?:

?The Bridegroom is gone and she walks in history, hoping to find him, to meet with Him ? and she will be His true bride. In the meantime she - the Church - is alone! The Lord is nowhere to be seen. She has a certain dimension of widowhood ... and that makes me makes me think of the widowhood of the Church. This courageous Church, which defends her children, like the widow who went to the corrupt judge to [press her rights] and eventually won. Our Mother Church is courageous! She has the courage of a woman who knows that her children are her own, and must defend them and bring them to the meeting with her Spouse.?

The Pope reflected on some figures of widows in the Bible, in particular the courageous Maccabean widow with seven sons who are martyred for not renouncing God. The Bible, he stressed, says this woman who spoke to her sons ?in the local dialect, in their first language,? and, he noted, our Mother Church speaks to us in dialect, in ?that language of true orthodoxy, which we all understand, the language of catechism,? that, ?gives us the strength to go forward in the fight against evil?:

?This dimension of widowhood of the Church, who is journeying through history, hoping to meet, to find her Husband? Our Mother the Church is thus! She is a Church that, when she is faithful, knows how to cry. When the Church does not cry, something is not right. She weeps for her children, and prays! A Church that goes forward and does rear her children, gives them strength and accompanies them until the final farewell in order to leave them in the hands of her Spouse, who at the end will come to encounter her. This is our Mother Church! I see her in this weeping widow. And what does the Lord say to the Church? ?Do not cry. I am with you, I?ll take you, I?ll wait for you there, in the wedding, the last nuptials, those of the Lamb. Stop [your tears]: this son of yours was dead, now he lives.?

And this , he continued, ?is the dialogue of the Lord with the Church.? She, ?defends the children, but when she sees that the children are dead, she crys, and the Lord says to her: ?I am with you and your son is with me.?? As he told the boy at Naim to get up from his deathbed, the Pope added, many times Jesus also tells us to get up, ?when we are dead because of sin and we are going to ask for forgiveness.? And then what does Jesus ?when He forgives us, when He gives us back our life?? He Returns us to our mother:

?Our reconciliation with the Lord end in the dialogue ?You, me and the priest who gives me pardon?; it ends when He restores us to our mother. There ends reconciliation, because there is no path of life, there is no forgiveness, there is no reconciliation outside of Mother Church. So, seeing this poor widow, all these things come to me somewhat randomly - But I see in this widow the icon of the widowhood of the Church who is on a journey to find her Bridegroom. I get the urge to ask the Lord for the grace to be always confident of this ?mommy? who defends us, teaches us, helps us grow and [teaches] us to speak the dialect.?

Source: http://www.radiovaticana.va/EN1/articolo.asp?c=729223

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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

News Summary: S&P 500 index nears a record high

EYES ON FED: The Federal Reserve is widely expected to reduce its stimulus when a two-day meeting wraps up on Wednesday. That stimulus has helped stocks.

NO WORRIES: Analysts believe investors have already priced in the expected reduction of Fed help. Stocks have been rising in advance of the announcement.

THE SCHEDULE: The Fed is expected to release its policy statement at 2 p.m. Eastern, followed by a press conference with chairman Ben Bernanke at 2:30 p.m.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news-summary-p-500-index-202338516.html

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Monday, September 16, 2013

"QUALITY" Baseball Flannel - 1950's King O'shea tagging

Out junking in Toronto and saw this jersey hung on a wall (back facing out) in a vintage clothing store - the pinstripes and "3" had me thinking of The Babe.

Tremendous shape for what I assume is a 1950's jersey? Needle in a haystack time - anyone recognize the team moniker? Thanks!

Source: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=175828&goto=newpost

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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Madison football beats Dover, keeps victory streak intact

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Source: http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20130913/NJSPORTS0110/309130049/1005/RSS

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Jerry Brown Vetoes Sales of Human Eggs in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. ? California Gov. Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian, vetoed a measure that would have enabled a potentially lucrative market for women to sell their eggs for medical research.

?Not everything in life is for sale, nor should it be,? said Brown in his Aug. 13 statement on the veto of bill A.B. 926. ?This bill would legalize the payment of money in exchange for a woman submitting to invasive procedures to stimulate, extract and harvest her eggs for scientific research. The questions raised here are not simple; they touch matters that are both personal and philosophical.?

Brown zeroed in on an increasingly complex aspect of egg sellers' understanding of the implications.

?In medical procedures of this kind, genuinely informed consent is difficult, because the long-term risks are not adequately known,? he cautioned. ?Putting thousands of dollars on the table only compounds the problem.?

Under California law and federal policy, women cannot be paid for contributing eggs for research; they can be paid only for expenses.

This year, Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, authored A.B. 926, which would have allowed women to profit from providing their eggs.

The main beneficiary would have been the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). California voters authorized CIRM in 2004, largely due to a campaign asserting that it would carry out embryonic stem-cell research that was restricted by federal policy.

CIRM?s Geoffrey Lomax had urged passage of A.B. 926, saying that CIRM needs to be able to pay competitive rates for human eggs to compete in the market for them. He cited an Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) researcher who, last spring, announced the creation of new human embryos from embryonic stem-cell lines purchased from egg donors who were paid up to $7,000 each.

That ?is above and beyond any out-of-pocket costs,? Lomax contended, saying the cost competition would prevent CIRM from buying eggs.

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Moral Objections

Critics say that most egg donors for research are college students who donate eggs primarily to make money.

In recent years, stem-cell research has shifted heavily away from embryonic stem cells (ESC) to adult stem cells (ASC), as the success with the latter has opened new possibilities for health solutions. Less than 1% of the clinical studies currently under way around the world involve ESCs.

Yet?CIRM has persisted in promoting ESC research, awarding more than half of its grants for ESC research.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, ?It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material? (2275).

In his 1995 encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II taught that the destruction of the human embryo is a violation of the respect owed to every human life, just as is procured abortion.

Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, praised the veto of A.B. 926. ?We agree with the governor?s wise analysis.?

The conference opposed the bill because it would have put women?s health in jeopardy and would have created a marketing dynamic designed to exploit women who are most in need of resources: college students, immigrants and women with economic challenges.

While federal policy and California law do not allow paying donors for eggs to be used in research, eggs harvested for commercial medical use ? primarily in vitro fertilization (IVF) ??have no such restriction.

While advocates for A.B. 926 posed it as an equality issue, the situation is substantially different from the normal menstrual cycle.

In IVF, a potential mother?s eggs are retrieved, mixed with a donor?s sperm ? often from?the husband ? then transferred to the woman?s uterus. The procedure sometimes is used to assure birth of a baby with a specific sex or to overcome impotency.

IVF has resulted in nearly 4 million births in the last 35 years. In the U.S., it is a billion-dollar business.

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Open-Ended Ramifications

But harvesting eggs for research is far more open-ended than helping a potential mother conceive artificially, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church also rejects as immoral because it separates the sexual act from procreation and, as a result, ?entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person? (2379).

Women who sell their eggs for research are treated to maximize egg production. They are given strong hormones to reduce estrogen production, stop menstrual cycles and ovulation, thus stimulating the development of large numbers of eggs. The eggs are surgically harvested.

Research goals typically focus on a distant horizon, rather than immediate parenting, so the donor does not know how her eggs will be used or what the long-term end of her eggs will be. The donors? consent does not address the question of where or how their potential progeny would be used.

At OHSU, biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov, last spring, announced the creation of human embryos in which nuclei of the fertilized eggs were taken from different eggs. Mitalipov performed the switch by extracting the nucleus from an unfertilized egg and replacing it with the nucleus taken from a different egg. CIRM?s Lomax said the egg donors were paid up to $7,000.

Advocates argue that paying egg donors will help advance stem-cell research.

But biologist Alexander Meissner of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute argues that Mitalipov?s manipulated embryos will have little research value.

?Everything is over by the time you derive those cell lines,? Meissner said recently in Nature. ?There is no signature that would tell you what has happened.?

The alternative research approach uses ASCs. Those cells have naturally developed for a specific role in a mature body. ASCs can come from various parts of the body. Often, they are taken from the skin. They are then reprogrammed for different health roles and are termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

Catholic teaching holds that the use of ASCs for medical health needs is licit because it does not end a human life.

A.B. 926 was sponsored by California?s fertility industry, a billion-dollar business.

?

Gov. Brown?s Unpredictability

Brown?s veto message reflects his often unique analysis of issues. For nearly half a century, he has been an enigmatic and routinely unpredictable public figure.

The son of former Gov. Edmund Brown, Jerry was raised Catholic, graduated from San Francisco?s St. Ignatius High School and attended Santa Clara University for a year before entering the Jesuit novitiate in 1956. He left four years later and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and Yale Law School. He flitted through a range of personal explorations, including a month working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, and later studied Buddhism in Japan after losing a U.S. Senate race.

Brown has spent nearly three decades in public office, starting as an elected trustee of the Los Angeles junior college board, then as California secretary of state, before winning the governorship in 1974.

In 1998, Brown won the Oakland mayor?s race and served eight years; then he?was elected California?s attorney general. In 2010, he won the governor?s office again.

Brown married attorney Anne Gust in 2005 in a ceremony officiated by Sen. Dianne Feinstein in Oakland and?then repeated the same day in a Catholic church in San Francisco.

On many occasions throughout his public life, Brown has shown his knowledge of Catholic teachings and sometimes characterizes his actions in terms consistent with Catholic beliefs, as in his veto message on A.B. 926. ?

In his State of the State speech last January, Brown urged reform of California?s education system, describing it in terms of subsidiarity, often used in Catholic teaching: ?This year, as you consider new education laws, I ask you to consider the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is the idea that a central authority should only perform those tasks which cannot be performed at a more immediate or local level.?

And in 2011, Brown was lauded by Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles for signing a bill making undocumented college students eligible for student aid.

Yet Brown?s Catholic roots do not keep him from also spotlighting positions contrary to fundamental Catholic teaching, such as his support for birth control, same-sex "marriage" and abortion as a woman?s choice.

His official gubernatorial website points out that, as attorney general, ?Brown refused to defend Proposition 8 in court.? Proposition 8 is the?state constitutional amendment that?passed, defining marriage as between one man and?one woman, but which was ruled unconstitutional in California courts?and was not defended by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Similarly, when asked about the Republican presidential candidates early in 2012, of the many issues being discussed, Brown chose to chide them about birth control. ?They're so far out of it. They're talking about birth control. I remember when I was in the seminary in 1960, and Dr. [John] Rock invented the pill, and this was a controversy. Now, we're 50 years later. ... This is crazy,? The Sacramento Bee quoted Brown as saying.

In a similar vein, during his run to become the Democratic state chair in 1989, Brown declared himself to be personally against abortion but in favor of a woman?s choice to have an abortion, after his personal views became an issue when it was disclosed that he had written a letter in support of a prominent jailed pro-life activist.

As governor, he has not made any effort to limit funding for abortion in the state health-care program.

?

Debate Continues

Brown?s veto of the eggs-for-profit bill is significant, yet the debate is likely to continue, as suggested by the legislative shift in just seven years. In 2006, the California Legislature passed S.B. 1260 protecting human eggs by prohibiting their sale for profit, as part of a larger review of the state?s stem-cell agency. Opponents of the sales, meanwhile, continue to make the case that they are scientifically unnecessary as well as damaging to the dignity of human life and the women who sell their eggs.

Ironically, the author of A.B. 926, Assemblywoman Bonilla, the mother of four daughters, in early August, sponsored a soccer clinic in her district that she titled ?Taking the World by Storm: Building Self-Confidence and Leadership Skills for Girls On & Off the Field.?

Register correspondent Al Donner writes from California.

Source: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/jerry-brown-vetoes-sales-of-human-eggs-in-california

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Yoga... - Health, Fitness, and Sports - Wrong Planet

I did yoga for a few years and found it very beneficial physically, mentally and emotionally; I want to get back to it again after a break due to life getting a bit hectic...

However, I didn't go to a class or see an instructor; I followed a DVD at home which was made by a very respected instructor who does teach class in Boston, apparently. So, even though it's only a DVD, I trust the authenticity of the moves and postures taught in it, and the guidance she gives throughout.

The upside is I don't have the stress factor of having to go out to a class, be around other people, get home probably in the dark if it's an evening deal.

The downside is that I don't get the one-on-one, instant fixing of whatever I might be doing wrong, from a live instructor right there helping me. Many people say it isn't real yoga (or pilates, or etc) if you're not doing it under the instruction of a live person. I totally get where that viewpoint is coming from, but none the less, I did really feel that I was reaping rewards from the DVD instruction. Plus, it's just "my style" to do things alone and at home if I possibly can. I've never been a "joiner" and I hate group activities with strangers.

Perhaps you could find a good DVD by a qualified and actively practicing teacher who does hold classes in "real life" and thus is giving you the same class, just on your TV? I really loved mine. It's called "Power Yoga For Every Body" and is by Barbara Benagh. She has a really soothing voice too. Don't be put off by the "power" in the title, which sounds rather over-strong -- that's only the 3rd level. The second level is very relaxing and gentle, yet effective.

Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt240363.html

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Saturday, September 14, 2013

Teachers on strike clash with police in Mexico City protest

By Agence France-Presse
Friday, September 13, 2013 19:47 EDT

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Anti-riot police raided Mexico City?s historic center to remove striking teachers on Friday, using water cannons and tear gas to clear the area while protestors responded with firebombs.

Hundreds of officers flooded the Zocalo square after some 200 protestors disobeyed a deadline to vacate the area to make room for the nation?s independence day celebrations this weekend, AFP correspondents said.

The teachers, many armed with sticks and wearing masks, had set trash on fire and placed metal barriers in adjoining streets to block the police from entering the Zocalo, home to the National Palace, Aztec ruins and the city?s cathedral.

Police cleared the Zocalo within half an hour, an AFP photographer said.

But clashes continued on side streets with television images showing police using water cannons, while thousands demonstrated in one of the city?s main boulevards.

Thousands of teachers had been occupying the Zocalo for the past three weeks, but most had left the plaza before the deadline, leaving plastic tarps and trash behind. Police put out several small fires. Local businesses had shut their doors before the raid.

Manuel Mondragon y Kalb, head of the federal police, had warned earlier that the officers would clear the Zocalo after the deadline passed ?otherwise this will go on forever and we will never resolve the issue.?

He warned that aggressive protesters would be detained. The police were not carrying firearms or truncheons, he said.

The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto had insisted that the traditional independence commemoration would take place as scheduled in the Zocalo on Sunday and Monday.

Traditionally, the president delivers the ?Cry of Independence? from the National Palace balcony on the evening of September 15, shouting ?Viva Mexico!? and waving the Mexican flag before a military parade the next day.

Pena Nieto signed an education reform this week that requires teachers to undergo mandatory performance evaluations. The teachers say the new rules violate their labor rights.

The dissident National Education Workers Coordinator (CNTE) union led several protests in the city for the past three weeks, disrupting traffic in the already congested megalopolis and blocking road access to the international airport in two occasions.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]

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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/13/teachers-on-strike-clash-with-police-in-mexico-city-protest/

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Friday, September 13, 2013

Celebrity Silence on Syria

In the era of "warmonger" Republicans in the White House, the Toronto International Film Festival would have been fertile ground for bold, outspoken "dissent" from actors against war in the Middle East. Now with Obama on the brink of missile attacks in Syria, you would expect the same agitation, but this time coupled with a dash of betrayal.

Instead, the Hollywood Reporter found nothing there but an icy pile of "no comments" from more than a dozen celebs, including Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, Penn Jillette and Tim Robbins.

For divorced Sarandon and Robbins, left-wing rabble-rousing against the Pentagon was too reminiscent of "The Way We Were." It's the Obama era; the government now can do no wrong.

Meryl Streep skipped the Toronto swirl, so what might she have said? Push the replay button on her remarks about Bush and Iraq at a 2004 Kerry-Edwards fundraiser: "I wondered to myself during 'Shock and Awe,' I wondered which of the megaton bombs Jesus, our president's personal savior, would have personally dropped on the sleeping families of Baghdad?"

Not in your wildest dreams would this lady say that about this president. Since Obama's version of Christianity came from a preacher who thought we deserved 9/11 and yelled "God damn America," he's spared this kind of movie-star character assassination.

Ed Asner didn't mince words when he told the Hollywood Reporter that celebrities won't be mobilizing against any Obama wars: "A lot of people don't want to feel anti-black by being opposed to Obama." People in Tinseltown watch a little too much MSNBC.

Asner sounded very cynical. "It will be a done deal before Hollywood is mobilized. This country will either bomb the hell out of Syria or not before Hollywood gets off its ass." He doesn't even think clogging the town square in protest accomplishes anything any more: "We had a million people in the streets, for Christ's sake, protesting Iraq, which was about as illegal as you could find. Did it matter? Is George Bush being tried in the high courts of justice?"

The Left used to want the president and his national-security minions frog-marched to court and tried as war criminals. But with the Hope and Change President running the wars, even the "idealistic" folks in Hollywood are running for the tall grass.

Where is Sean Penn? Crickets. Where is the Sean Penn movie where he stars as the idealistic lefty like Joe Wilson who exposes the corruption of a war-mongering president? Silence.

The Valerie Plame Wilson scandal even caused "socially conscious" comedian Al Franken to joke to David Letterman in 2005 that as a result, "(Scooter) Libby and Karl Rove are going to be executed" and then joke that the country was close to executing a sitting president. Now the Minneapolis press reports, "Al Franken is way more hawkish on Syria than Michele Bachmann."

Some are still pretending Obama is the state senator opposing the "dumb wars". Barbra Streisand tried to support both Obama and "peace" by reprinting leftist Katrina Vanden Heuvel on her website: "President Obama has sensibly pushed to bring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to an end." Earth to Barbra and friend: Obama expanded the war in Afghanistan, and 73 percent of the American deaths there have occurred during his presidency.

But the desperation continued: Obama "has resisted those who wanted earlier intervention in the Syrian civil war. And now he may just need the American people and Congress to keep him from getting more deeply involved in a war that he knows will only further weaken the nation and hurt our interests and our values."

In other words, Obama was against it before he was for it. He just needs a nudge from the people to get back in touch with the American people's liberal values.

Hollywood still has a few serious radicals, the ones who think all wars are cynical profiteering opportunities and Obama and Bush are both willing tools of the military-industrial complex. There's John Cusack, and Danny Glover, who's circulating a no-war petition. Michael Moore is attacking John Kerry on Twitter. But they are the outliers. The "mainstream" in the entertainment world sound like Robert DeNiro on CNN, "I know he'll make a decision and whatever decision he makes, I go with it." It sounds like that wonderful Second City comedy skit gone viral, with a group raising money for World War III called, "The Americans for Whatever Barack Obama Wants."

What Obama wants right now from his leftist base is support or at least silence on Syria ? and his friends in Hollywood have sycophantically obliged.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To find out more about Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/celebrity-silence-syria-070000275.html

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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Digital competition lawsuit challenges Minnesota's biggest real ...

In the Internet age of shared information and digital competition, an intriguing and important legal battle has emerged in Minnesota challenging the area?s biggest real-estate agents.

The outcome of the case in U.S. District Court could change the way we buy and sell our homes and threaten businesses practices of real-estate agents in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

A California listing website has sued a large group of Minnesota and Wisconsin Realtors and challenged their protection of listing information under federal and state antitrust rules.

The dispute surrounds the use of information in databases that anyone who has recently bought or sold a house is likely familiar with: multiple listing services or MLSs. These are databases run by real-estate members and heavily relied on by those members to display and evaluate listings. The databases contain information supplied by member realtors about listed homes, along with commission splits between seller and buyer brokers.

One large MLS ? NorthstarMLS ? is in St. Paul and serves 13,000 realtors in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. Agents guard MLS information; NorthstarMLS will only share with subscribers and licensed third parties.

California-based NeighborCity.com is not licensed. NeighborCity provides data on real estate and it offers buyers and sellers information to compare and evaluate agents, offering ratings based on transaction and listing history. According to NothstarMLS, NeighborCity obtained NorthstarMLS content from licensed websites and used the information on its own site without permission.

Focus on copyright law

In 2012 NorthstarMLS sued NeighborCity, alleging that it displayed the MLS?s photos and listing information without a license and in violation of U.S. copyright law. NeighborCity then brought its own claims against NorthstarMLS, attacking the very efforts and litigation tactics by the MLS that kept its information away from sites like NeighborCity, alleging violations of federal and Minnesota antitrust laws. NeighborCity says that NorthstarMLS ? coordinated by the National Association of Realtors ? only licenses sites to access its data if that site refers prospective buyers to the agent that listed the property (namely, the seller?s agent).

Basically NeighborCity believes it was denied license because it gives viewers independent and competing realtor referrals. According to NeighborCity, the MLS?s mission is to steer buyers to selling agents and cause ?dual agency? ? where a single agent collects commissions from both seller and buyer (and which NeighborCity and some consumer groups say is a conflict).

The countersuits have raised interesting questions of whether and how agents can protect and pool their listing information under antitrust laws. Already the judge in the case made a preliminary ruling that the MLS?s photos and notes about listed homes are likely protected by copyright law (stopping NeighborCity from using the pictures and comments without license while the litigation goes on).

But the bigger question is whether the MLS is systematically preventing sites like NeighborCity from using its information, as NeighborCity says it is, and whether such actions are meant to stifle competition. NorthstarMLS had asked the court to throw out the antitrust attacks as invalid, but the judge rejected that effort in a July 5 ruling.

The antitrust laws involved are simple on their face but can be complicated when played out in courts. Section 1 of the federal Sherman Act (and Minnesota?s similar antitrust statute) generally bans market coordination that ?unreasonably restrains? competition. With that standard, it shouldn?t be a surprise that courts are often challenged in determining what type of activity is illegal. Over the years the courts have answered this challenge by attempting to treat certain categories of agreements consistently. Those types of agreements deemed ?manifestly anticompetitive? are always unlawful (or ?per se? unreasonable). But others are analyzed on their specific aspects and effects to determine whether they are illegal. ?

On July 5, the judge in the MLS case found that activity between the National Association of Realtors and NorthstarMLS, as alleged by NeighborCity, could fall in the category of ?per se? unlawful conspiracies. NeighborCity?s allegation ? about NAR meetings, a series of ?cease and desist? efforts to stop sites like NeighborCity, MLS emails about how to deal with NeighborCity and real-estate agent reports to NeighborCity that the MLS systematically refused licensing to sites that did not refer buyers to listing agents ? were enough to potentially establish an agreement that (if proven true) would be ?anticompetitive.?

'Group boycott'

The judge said that NorthstarMLS and its members dominate the home-listing market and that their alleged agreements could amount to a ?group boycott? that ?cut off access to information that is critical to any business attempting to compete with them.? NeighborCity?s allegation that these efforts are motivated by boosting dual agency and NAR realtors? profits added to the unreasonableness of the alleged arrangement. In other words, NeighborCIty alleged a fact pattern that may violate the law.

NeighborCity will now have to prove its case through a (no doubt costly) discovery process. The July 5 order affirming, on its face, the validity of NeighborCity?s claims was not based on evidence or determined facts. But the opinion at least gives heft to NeighborCity?s legal claims. If what NeighborCity says turns out to be true, the National Association of Realtors and NorthstarMLS may face trouble.

Needless to say, NeighborCity?s allegations raise interesting questions about how the Internet challenges well-established business interests. NeighborCity will try to prove a coordinated effort by Big Realty to keep out digital competitors trying to share information to benefit consumers. ?This is a powerful storyline ? one we?ve seen before in other industries ? but is just that at this point: a story. Determining whether the conspiracy is true ? or whether NeighborCity is just another rogue website stealing from the efforts of upright real-estate agents ? is, of course, what we have litigation for.

Adam Welle is an attorney with the law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP in Minneapolis. His articles have appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal, Law360, and the Wisconsin Law Review.

Source: http://www.minnpost.com/business/2013/09/digital-competition-lawsuit-challenges-minnesota-s-biggest-real-estate-agents

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