Saturday, 31 December 2011

Air strike kills 35 in southeast Turkey: officials (Reuters)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) ? Turkish warplanes killed at least 35 people in an air strike in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border overnight, apparently mistaking smugglers for Kurdish militants, a pro-Kurdish party and local officials said on Thursday.

Turkish warplanes strike militant targets regularly in the region in their battle against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, and have stepped up raids after a PKK attack in August.

"We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned. The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region. This kind of incident is unacceptable. They were hit from the air," said Fehmi Yaman, mayor of Uludere in Sirnak province.

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said in a statement 35 people had been killed, adding that party leaders were heading for the area.

The Turkish government was not immediately available for comment.

Smuggling is an important source of income for locals in provinces along the Iraqi border, with many villagers involved in bringing fuel, cigarettes and other goods from Iraqi villages on the other side of the border.

PKK militants also cross the border in these areas.

"There were rum ours that the PKK would cross through this region. Images were recorded of a crowd crossing last night, hence an operation was carried out," a Turkish security official said.

"We could not have known whether these people were (PKK) group members or smugglers," he said.

Television images showed a line of corpses covered by blankets on a barren hillside, with a crowd of people gathered around, some with their head in their hands and crying.

People loaded the corpses onto donkeys which were led down the hillside to be loaded into vehicles to be taken to hospital in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country.

Security sources said those killed were carrying canisters of diesel on mules and their bodies were found on the Iraqi side of the border.

They said those killed were from Uludere on the Turkish side of the border on what was a regular smuggling route.

The Firat news agency, which has close ties to the PKK, said that 17 people were still believed to be missing. It said those killed were aged around 17-20.

The PKK, regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, launches attacks on Turkish forces in southeastern Turkey from hideouts inside the remote Iraqi mountains.

Turkey and Iran have often skirmished with rebels in the region and Turkish leaders vowed revenge in October with air and ground strikes after the PKK killed 24 Turkish soldiers in raids on military outposts in southeastern Turkey.

It was one of the deadliest attacks since the PKK took up arms in 1984 in a conflict in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111229/wl_nm/us_turkey_iraq_airstrike

spanier jorge posada walmart black friday ad walmart black friday ad rick perry gaffe rick perry gaffe graham spanier

GOP Foreign Policy v. Reality -- A Messy Divorce

The-Madness-of-King-Georg-001With war fever?mounting for an attack on Iran, Michael builds on Steve Walt's and Dan Drezner's take-downs of the new Matthew Kroenig?charge bugle call?Foreign Affairs essay.?Like Michael, I want to look through a wider angle lens so that we see the bigger problems with the far-Right GOP approach to the world. The right wing's tendency to inflate threats and discount potential blowback is indeed part of a larger pattern of playing fast and loose with reality.

In a weird way, I'm kind of envious of the critics who offer themselves as a replacement for the Obama administration. Foreign policy is so much easier the way they do it. True to Mencken's classic put-down, they have a clear and simple answer for every complex problem. I like how?Michael encapsulated it in a recent ForeignPolicy.com piece on the candidate debates:

To listen to the GOP candidates on Iran is to think that an American president can use a little military force here, drop a few sanctions there, and voil?, the Iranian nuclear program will be stopped dead in its tracks.

Right, magical thinking.

Plus, they get to feel all Winston Churchill-ey -- which may indeed be a main point. As Churchill's presumptive heirs, they pride themselves on unique insight into the true nature of the threats we face (i.e. worse-than-Democrats-recognize) and the necessary response (i.e. tougher-than-Democrats-would-do). Republicans have become so entranced by this political self-image that they are staking their entire foreign policy on?moral clarity, threat-inflation, defiance toward the rest of the world, and toughness for its own sake.

It's left them with a strange commander in chief test in their primary contest. Rather than showing how they'd serve as wise stewards of American power and steer the country through turbulent times, the candidates have been straining to outdo one another in pure bluster. When second-generation North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il dies, obviously the priority is to express America's repugnance, rather than to worry about possible escalation in one of the world's hottest flashpoints.

And since this is a competition to reinforce ultra-conservative image and ideology, facts and reality have no bearing on the matter. As I outlined in my recent?Republican FP Mad Libs post, part of the formula is to call for "tough-sounding steps that might / might not be practical and President Obama may or may not already be doing." Michele Bachmann's proposal to shut down an American embassy in Iran that's been closed for over 30 years was merely a high/lowpoint in a steady flow of absurdity. In her own mind, and those of the GOP base, it was plausible that President Obama has an ambassador in Tehran -- since, you know, he's such a reason-with-evildoers appeaser. Conversely, the Republican monopoly on toughness means President Obama must be denied any credit for killing Osama bin Laden. If you'll recall, the cognitive dissonance prompted several true believers to actually give Obama's predecessor the credit, which must have set some kind of world record for audacity.

This is how a major political party loses its foreign policy sanity: via a slippery slope from delusions of Churchillian grandeur to just plain delusional. But let me trace back to where I began. The topic was the way Republicans rig up a whole parallel universe to bolster their foreign policy approach -- one where a nuclear-capable Iran brings the most dire of consequences, but attacking Iran is nearly cost-free. Again, this is part of a much more extensive pattern. As a close observer of the proponents of ultra-hawk foreign policy, let me run through the main precepts of their approach:

  1. Get-tough policies will consistently produce the desired result, and without unintended consequences.?These people are so good at painting rosy scenarios, it's just astounding that they try to tag Dems with being naive.?
  2. The targets of US policy will do terrible things if we don't show them who's boss, but will be cowed by our displays of strength.?I've always liked Phil Gordon's retort to Donald Rumsfeld's pet idea about weakness being provocative; as Phil noted in his Winning the Right War book, "it turns out that toughness can be provocative as well." As I read Cohen, Walt, and Dresner, I was struck particularly by the Right's beilef that Iranian leaders will somehow make a lot of mischief if we don't attack them, but will behave if we do.
  3. The rest of the world should just say "thank you," and go on their way. Fans of "A Few Good Men" can call it the Col. Jessup Doctrine, but international sentiment isn't much of a factor in the Right's foreign policy -- except as something they make a big show of flouting. For all the conservatives' talk about respecting America's allies, they can be rolled right over whenever they take issue with US unilateralism.?
  4. Do as I say, not as I do.?Another convenience of American exceptionalism (more properly labeled infallibility or narcissism, as I've argued) is that it gives us a HUGE amount of license for us to shrug off international obligations while we run around telling others to abide by international obligations. Since our moral authority is inherent, America's actions cannot be questioned along with the behavior of others. According to the Right wing's rules of domestic political debate, anyone drawing a link between the two will be accused of believing in a moral equivalence between America and the bad guys.?

Which is a long way of saying they haven't learned anything from the Iraq War debacle. During our time in the political wilderness, we progressives actually wrestled with the challenges of exerting American influence in a fast-changing world. By the look of things, our conservative friends -- the loudest ones any way (a key distinction) -- have become intellectually inbred. I'm not hearing anything that sounds like it's been updated since 2002. Put it this way, if Pamela Geller and Donald Trump are associated with your movement as any kind of spokespersons, you have a problem. (Sharia law, really!?@?#?)

But hey, I guess it's good for Democrats, even if it is tragic for the two-party system. The Republican foreign policy argument has been so tailored to their base that it's?left them without a plausible case for being able to govern. As scary and out-of-touch as these ideas are, though, the good news is that a sizable majority of Americans (and certainly of swing voters) will find them just as horrifying in 2012 as they did in 2006 and 2008. They haven't forgotten the Iraq debacle and know very well that the real world doesn't work according to Right wing dogma.

Source: http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2011/12/which-party-is-naive-about-national-security-foreign-policy.html

wale weather denver weather denver ambition dorothy rodham rick hendrick plane crash marco rubio

CAIRNational: NYC Muslim leaders to skip mayor's breakfast - http://t.co/gEe9zTV0

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
NYC Muslim leaders to skip mayor's breakfast - crainsnewyork.com/article/201112? CAIRNational

CAIR National

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/CAIRNational/statuses/152186908250877952

andrew luck day light savings time 2011 hocus pocus hocus pocus bj penn roasted pumpkin seeds roasted pumpkin seeds

Iowa leaders Romney, Paul leave stage to rivals (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? The two leading Republican presidential candidates in Iowa left the stage to their rivals to make their final pitches to voters just three days before the state's Republican caucus.

Mitt Romney was to campaign in New Hampshire on Saturday while Ron Paul was taking time off in his home state of Texas. Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry all remained in Iowa, touring the state as they worked to win over the many still-undecided conservative voters.

Romney and Paul are absent, but they're poised to do well here. Both are leading in polls and have the money and organization to turn supporters out to caucus Tuesday night.

But with just days until voters begin to select the GOP nominee, the other candidates are still fighting in a volatile race that's seen candidate after candidate rise only to quickly fall. The same polls suggest large numbers of Iowa Republicans could change their minds before the first test of the 2012 campaign.

Santorum is the latest to draw intense interest. He has been rising in polls and drawing larger and larger crowds in recent days. The once resurgent Gingrich has fallen behind as negative ads have battered him on the airwaves and in mailboxes.

Bachmann's campaign has struggled. She's lost key staffers and some activists have urged her to drop out of the race. Perry, meanwhile, has spent millions on TV ads and is continuing a bus tour that consumed much of December.

Romney will return to Iowa later Saturday and will hold events in the western part of the state in areas he won when he first ran for president four years ago.

On Friday, he focused on Paul ? his closest rival in recent polling ? calling the Texas congressman out of step with most Republicans.

"I don't think Ron Paul represents the mainstream of Republican thought with regards to issues, particularly in foreign policy," Romney told Fox News.

Paul planned to spend the weekend out of Iowa. Campaigning Friday, he said he would have trouble voting for any of his Republican rivals if they won the nomination.

"They all are part of the status quo," he said.

Gingrich, now struggling, has said he wouldn't vote for Paul.

The usually combative former House speaker made headlines Friday when he broke down and wept as he talked about his mother's end-of-life illnesses.

"I do policy much easier than I do personal," Gingrich told an audience of women as he tried to regain his composure. The tears flowed as he responded to questions about his mother from a pollster and longtime political ally.

"My whole emphasis on brain science comes in directly from dealing with the real problems of real people," he said, his face distorting as he began to cry. "And so it's not a theory. It's, in fact, my mother."

Kathleen "Kit" Gingrich died in 2003. She was 77.

Whatever the impact of Gingrich's tears on the race for the White House, the video clip seemed destined to be played repeatedly on television and the Internet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111231/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

j r martinez long island serial killer wizard of oz jeff green saturday night live aortic aneurysm syracuse basketball

Myanmar blast kills, injures dozens

Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

People walk at the scene of an explosion in Yangon early Dec. 29, 2011. Dozens of people were killed in a strong explosion that rocked eastern suburb of commercial city Yangon at about 2 a.m., witnesses and officials said.

YANGON ? Dozens of people were killed and injured early Thursday?in a large unexplained explosion and fire in Myanmar's commercial hub and former capital Yangon early?Thursday, officials and witnesses said.

Myanmar police told Reuters that 17 people were confirmed dead, 80 were injured.

Residents in several areas of the city were woken by the?2 a.m. blast?at a state-owned medical warehouse in the eastern township of Mingalar Taung Nyunt. The explosion?caused?neighboring houses, many of which were wooden, to collapse and burn,?The Associated Press?reported.

Fire was?spread to a nearby shipyard and factories, Reuters said.

A security official at the scene said the dead included 10 men, including three firefighters, and five women,?while at least 65 people were injured, including some 30 firemen.

"We are still trying to make the list. We are also trying to find out the cause of the explosion and the fire," he told AFP, the French news agency.

Soe Than Win / AFP - Getty Images

Myanmar rescue workers carry a dead body from a large unexplained explosion and fire in Yangon on Dec. 29, 2011. At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured in an explosion and fire in Myanmar's commercial hub and former capital Yangon early on Thursday, officials and witnesses said.

Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

Rescue workers help an Buddhist monk after an explosion at a warehouse in Mingalar TaungNyunt township, Yangon, Myanmar, 29 December 2011. The loud explosions occurred early morning around 2:00 am at a warehouse killing at least 10 people.

Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9780427-myanmar-explosion-kills-15-dozens-injured-official

britney spears engaged craig smith craig smith eat to live eat to live ron paul money bomb ron paul money bomb

joyonlineghana: China seeks to combat hi-tech crimewave .... http://t.co/ksxNCfCf

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
China seeks to combat hi-tech crimewave .... bit.ly/sPjEUD joyonlineghana

Myjoyonline.com

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/joyonlineghana/statuses/152823846980947968

anagram 180 degrees askew cory smoot do a barrel roll jimmy kimmel tilt

Grand Haven golf course sold to Texas firm

PALM COAST -- The Club at Grand Haven, a private golf course in the 1,400-acre Grand Haven community, has been sold to a Fort Worth, Texas-based company.

Escalante Golf, which owns and operates 14 properties, six of them in Florida, announced the purchase Thursday. It did not disclose the purchase price.

Crescent Resources, a Charlotte, N.C.-based real estate development company, sold the club. Crescent Resources had previously filed for bankruptcy protection but since emerged from it and put some golf clubs, including Grand Haven's, on the market.

Hampton Golf, a Jacksonville-based management company, operates The Club at Grand Haven, which was designed as a signature course by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1998. Escalante did not say in its announcement what role, if any, Hampton Golf would have going forward.

The 18-hole, par-72 Club at Grand Haven stretches more than 7,000 yards from the back tees and is along the Intracoastal Waterway.

"The Club at Grand Haven is one of the region's best golf courses, and we are honored to be part of the exceptional Grand Haven community," said David McDonald, president of Escalante Golf, in the announcement.

Escalante has added 10 properties in the last three years, the company said in a press release. The company was established in 1991 and bills itself as an operator of luxury golf properties in states including Florida, California, Colorado, Ohio and New Mexico.

This is the company's first course in Central Florida.

Source: http://www.news-journalonline.com/business/local-business/2011/12/30/grand-haven-golf-course-sold-to-texas-firm.html

justin bieber baby justin bieber baby credit unions tower heist reviews recursion amy schumer amy schumer

Marvin Moore submitted this photo of a deer taking a nap as part of the newspaper?s Your Community S

Marvin Moore submitted this photo of a deer taking a nap as part of the newspaper?s Your Community Snapshots photo submission series. Submit your favorite photos ? of any subject matter ? to Your Community Snapshots by bringing your submission to the newspaper office at 466 Yampa Ave., or submitting online at www.craigdailypress.com/submit/photo. Be sure to include caption information.

Source: http://www2.craigdailypress.com/photos/2011/dec/30/46155/

aircraft carrier apocalypse now happy veterans day happy veterans day brian eno tomb of the unknown soldier tomb of the unknown soldier

Is the Obama Boomlet Over? (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180351215?client_source=feed&format=rss

new york city marathon andy williams andy williams nyc marathon nyc marathon coriolis effect coriolis effect

Sinead O?Connor Ends Marriage After 16 Days

Sinead O’Connor has split from her new husband Barry Herridge after a 16 day marriage and isn’t holding back details about the pair’s short lived married life. Singer Sinead O’Connor’s latest marriage is now officially over after just 16 days. Recently tying the knot with therapist Barry Herridge in Las Vegas on December 8th in a pink Cadillac at A Little White Wedding Chapel, O’Connor has shared via her blog that the two have already amicably parted ways due to outside pressures. “I had for reasons u will all understand, wished to keep this private but have been told today it is to be leaked in the next few days despite my best efforts. So I must now leak it myself so as the record is straight. I won’t under any circumstances ever have any further comments to make on this matter than those I write here this evening.” Per O?Connor, the pressures came from her new husband’s family and friends, who reportedly felt Herridge should not have married the Nothing Compares 2U artist. ?From the moment myself and my husband got together not long ago, there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/NueyPEKCrWM/

herman cain harry potter and the half blood prince city of ember city of ember virgin diaries kevin smith kevin smith

Look out featherweights, neophyte Jimy Hettes crushes Nam Phan at UFC 141

Look out featherweights, neophyte Jimy Hettes crushes Nam Phan at UFC 141

LAS VEGAS - The UFC must have a lot of faith in Jimy Hettes because it rolled the dice by putting the 24-year-old on the pay-per-view portion of UFC 141. Hettes made the bosses look smart by putting on a three-round exhibition of grappling, takedowns, submissions, and ground and pound on his way to an easy win over Nam Phan, 30-25, 30-25 and 30-26.

Hettes, 24, only had one UFC fight under his belt and he was taking on a grizzled veteran of the sport in Phan. He came out strong with takedowns 16 and 35 seconds into the fight. From there, Hettes used trip takedowns and judo throws to dump Phan (17-10, 1-2 UFC) on his head whenever he wanted.

On the ground, Hettes (11-0, 2-0 UFC) shifted between working for submissions and pounding away at Phan's head was super accurate punches.

Look out featherweights, neophyte Jimy Hettes crushes Nam Phan at UFC 141

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Look-out-featherweights-neophyte-Jimy-Hettes-cr?urn=mma-wp11334

beyonce dance for you video asu football asu football arkansas lsu storage wars storage wars millionaire matchmaker

Friday, 30 December 2011

Why Redshirt College Runners?

Last January, Indiana junior Andy Bayer was on fire, blazing a 3,000m in 7:48.35--a time that broke the school record and was the fastest collegiate mark of the season. The next week he ran a world-leading 3:57.75 open mile.

At the NCAA indoor championship meet in mid-March, he finished a close third in the 3,000m and then split a 3:53.29 1600m leg to anchor IU's second-place distance medley relay. He certainly seemed ready to crank out fast times outdoors. Instead, coach Ron Helmer ended his star third-year runner's competitive year before outdoor track began. Bayer was redshirted.

A similar scenario played out for Minnesota junior Ben Blankenship, who took second in the NCAA indoor 3,000m and ran a 3:53 anchor split in the DMR, finishing third. Like Bayer, he was scratched from the outdoor season, not for injury, but strategy.

Although there are exceptions, collegiate athletes generally have five years to get in four seasons of cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. Stretching an athlete's college career to five years can be beneficial for both the program and the runner--no matter if it's an NCAA contender or a hardworking up-and-comer--but there are plenty of variables to consider, including age, history of wellness, finances and even gender.

Intentionally redshirting freshmen has always made sense, especially on the men's side, where it's harder for a first-year runner to contribute. The sharp increase in both the volume and intensity of collegiate training and racing, the drama of dorm life and class schedules and adjusting to a new coach guarantee an onslaught of stress and fatigue. The trickier decision comes with holding out older, more successful runners who are healthy.

"It's hard when you have a guy who is running well and having the kind of year Ben was having," says Minnesota coach Steve Plasencia, "because there are no guarantees in this sport."

Blankenship had spent his freshman year at Mississippi State, which doesn't offer indoor track. That meant, after transferring to Minnesota in 2008, he'd be able to use that final season of indoor eligibility during a fifth year in 2012. But, as of last winter, he didn't think he'd come back only for an indoor season, so he and Plasencia decided to forgo the outdoor season so he could benefit from another year of training and then finish with a bang in 2012, possibly catapulting him into the U.S. Olympic trials.

Combining the college season with post-NCAA meets--whether it's the U.S. championships or international meets--only adds to the physiological and mental strain. Galen Rupp redshirted the indoor and outdoor track seasons in 2008 so he could focus on that summer's U.S. Olympic trials--thus not having to score points or qualify for NCAA meets--and it paid off when he placed 13th in the Olympic 10,000m, later that fall won a duel with Sam Chelanga at the NCAA cross country championships and then won five individual championships the following winter and spring on the track.

Jenny Simpson (nee Barringer) red-shirted the 2008 cross country season after the Beijing Olympics, even though she could have been one of the top finishers in the NCAA that fall. She wound up having a breakthrough season on the track in 2009, winning two NCAA titles and setting five collegiate records.

"No world-class athlete races for nine and a half months," says Colorado coach Mark Wetmore. "Our decision with Jenny was based on what would get her through those three years fresh and successful. It was a plan from the very beginning." But, he adds, it's harder for an athlete to make that decision than it is for a coach to make the call.

It's not always so clear-cut for coaches, either, who can be under pressure if conference championships and national meets matter most to the athletic director.

In Bayer's case, it came down to his coach's instinct. He had begun to emerge as one of the country's better runners in 2010 but a sore Achilles developed after the Big Ten outdoor meet, and Helmer wanted to avoid a similar scenario last spring. He believed a period of training without the intensity of racing would benefit Bayer best, so he shut him down, leaving him two full seasons of track in 2012 and 2013.

"Like anything, it's a calculated risk, an educated guess," Helmer says. "An athlete can get better, but won't if the training can't grow. You can train volume and intensity for a long time, but when you inject high-level racing, that can be the straw that breaks the camel's back. You have to give up something."

Source: http://milespl.it/pr12eb7

unclaimed money richard hamilton richard hamilton paris jackson paris jackson howard stern americas got talent china aircraft carrier

Dos carteles de The Baytown Disco

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://thekankel.blogspot.com/2011/12/dos-carteles-de-baytown-disco.html

kevin durant kid cudi maurice sendak rose bowl zooey deschanel joseph gordon levitt baylor

Apocalypse Tourism: Where To Celebrate Doomsday?

PolygamousRanchKid writes "December 21, 2012 marks the end of the current cycle of the Mayan 'Long Count' calendar. And while this has had some fearful types preparing for the end of the world, others have been preparing to travel. The Mexican government is expecting 52 million tourists as part of their "Mundo Maya 2012," campaign to visit the five regions ? Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche, over the next 12 months. So, if you're wondering where to spend the last tourist dollars you'll have as a breathing human being or just want to see the looks on those faces when December 21 comes and goes uneventfully, President Felipe Calderon hopes you'll choose Mexico."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/rRjhpK2oRfQ/apocalypse-tourism-where-to-celebrate-doomsday

steve johnson norman reedus norman reedus sears john 3 16 office max office max

Grauman's Chinese: Movie star prints' futures not set in cement

Grauman's Chinese Theatre is hallowed Hollywood tourist ground, the famed site where silver-screen stars such as Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra literally cemented their legends by making hand- and footprints in concrete. On a recent November morning, those movie icons were joined by three gigantic rodents: Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Or, more precisely, as Alvin, Simon and Theodore are cartoon characters, by three anonymous guys in chipmunk suits who stuck their "paws" in wet cement while their squeaky, high-pitched version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" blared over the sound system. Some of the goop stuck to Theodore's belly fur.

The pace of paw and other print-making at Grauman's has taken off in recent months. The complex has hosted 11 ceremonies so far this year for actors including Robert Duvall, Jennifer Aniston, Mickey Rourke and the young cast of the "Twilight" movies ? Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart. Kobe Bryant, French DJ David Guetta and the Smurfs also have dipped their digits in cement.

That's the largest number of ceremonies the theater has held since its opening in 1927, when nine individuals put their prints in cement. The influx has raised concern among some film buffs, who believe that Lautner's cinematic oeuvre doesn't exactly compare to, say, John Barrymore's or Jack Nicholson's. And with limited space available in the forecourt, some say the theater owners should be pickier about who they allow into the landmark.

Donald Kushner, a movie producer who bought the legendary theater with entrepreneur Elie Samaha in May from Warner Bros. and Viacom Inc., acknowledged that the theater has been holding more ceremonies ? which are paid for by movie studios and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Some of the older prints are deteriorating, he said, and will have to be removed from the forecourt to be preserved. But he added that not all the new prints are getting prime real estate in front of the theater, so don't look for the Chipmunks or the Smurfs there.

"They're not going in the forecourt. They weren't real ceremonies ? they were mock ceremonies," said Kushner. Though he said he was still uncertain where the blocks would end up, he surmised that all of the "kids' stuff" would be displayed at the Chinese 6 theaters, located in the adjacent Hollywood & Highland mall complex and operated by Kushner and Samaha.

Plans also are in the works to relight the forecourt and restore old theater signs to resemble their 1930s appearance. The theater is also trying to entice movie studios to hold after-parties for their premieres in the lobby of the Chinese 6, hiding the concession stands with curtains and bringing in other decorative elements to transform it into what owners describe as a "ballroom." (Many premieres are already held at Grauman's, but the after-parties are typically staged at nearby restaurants or hotels.)

Kushner also said he wants to broaden the range of individuals the theater pays tribute to in the forecourt to include athletes and musicians. He revealed that Grauman's is in preliminary talks with boxer Muhammad Ali and is also speaking with the family of Michael Jackson about a square that could use the imprints of a shoe and glove the pop star donned in some of his music videos.

Currently, forecourt honorees are selected by a committee made up of the theater's executives who evaluate "the impact someone has had on cinematic history and how they have contributed to cinema today," said the cinema's director of operations, Alwyn Kushner, daughter of Donald Kushner. Still, most of the ceremonies seem to be tied to the release of an honoree's new film ? Rourke, for one, got his square less than two weeks before the November opening of "Immortals," a sword-and-sandals epic in which he starred. His tablet, along with Aniston's July imprint and a November block stamped by some "West Side Story" 1961 film cast members, have yet to be placed in the forecourt.

"It has nothing to do with who is an authentic, for-the-ages star," said Richard Schickel, a film critic and movie historian. "That has deteriorated. It's obviously driven entirely by what is hot at this moment, publicity and money. I guess it's kinda nice, but it's not the ultimate accolade for a movie actor."

Studios are willing to cough up the dough for the ceremonies ? $25,000 for "cement and labor" directly to Grauman's, plus around $20,000 to cover costs of the ceremony, according to an executive familiar with the process who requested anonymity to preserve relations with the theater ? because they feel the event carries strong promotional value.

"We used it as the kickoff for our advertising campaign and all of the public appearances," said Nancy Kirkpatrick, president of worldwide marketing for Summit Entertainment, which released "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" last month. "It's absolutely a big deal, and we knew the fans would be excited to go there and visit the actors' squares."

Donald Kushner insisted that the ceremonies are not a "real big revenue source, but are good for the Grauman's brand and tradition." The company that handles publicity for the theater boasted in a recent press kit that the November print ceremonies and AFI Film Festival ? also held at Grauman's ? resulted in "over 15 million TV hits" and "$3.5 million publicity value" in one week.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame, which runs up and down the city sidewalk near Grauman's and is run by the nonprofit Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, charges $30,000 for its honors. About two dozen terrazzo stars with a famous person's name are installed each year. The selection committee is composed of 36 entertainment industry professionals.

Grauman's began the practice of having public figures leave their prints in 1927, when silent-film star Norma Talmadge accidentally stepped into wet cement. Sid Grauman saw a business opportunity in the mishap and decided to ask the theater's principal investors ? of which Talmadge was one ? to follow in the tradition. Soon, studios began paying to be included as well. There are about 200 squares currently in the forecourt.

"Basically, it was all the important stars in the films of the time until 1960, when things changed dramatically and they started bringing in more modern, younger stars," explained Marc Wanamaker, a Hollywood film historian and photo archivist. He noted that with each generation, there's been chatter about whether certain inductees are worthy of a square. "There's been controversy with purists saying, 'How dare you put Tom Cruise next to Marilyn Monroe?'"

Kushner says the theater will need to begin taking out some imprints in the near future. "Some of the handprints are going to have to be removed so we can preserve them," he said. "Some of them, like Groucho Marx, have almost disappeared."

Asked if permanent or even temporary removal might upset some of the honorees, their families or fans, Kushner replied: "Whatever. In three or four years, those squares won't exist anyway, because they're disintegrating. They'll eventually find their place."

amy.kaufman@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/entertainment/news/movies/~3/nxql2_XhA1c/la-et-graumans-20111229,0,5878832.story

bernard madoff ct news hemlock hemlock mark rothko mark rothko wiccan

Thursday, 29 December 2011

Book Review: Our Magnetic Earth, by Ronald Merrill

pole flip

A magnetic sense is now well documented in dozens of animal species. It turns out that tracking the geomagnetic field?that same invisible thing that points compasses?is handy for life, in lots of situations. Using their internal compasses, naked mole rats in Africa navigate their pitch-black underground mazes. Lobsters off Bermuda find their way to regions of the seafloor where they congregate to spawn. Thrushes migrate south in the autumn and north in the spring. Honeybees know which way is home to their hive. And humpback whales swim for hundreds of kilometers at a time in the open ocean without deviating by more than one degree from the course they initially set.

Biological tissues however tend not to respond to, or be affected by, magnetic fields. Thus, for a long time explaining how animals sense these fields has been a holy grail of sensory biology. There now appear to be at least two plausible explanations. One proposed mechanism is based on microscopic particles of iron oxide located inside specialized cells; the other on a quantum effect in which certain chemical reactions?specifically some that may involve a protein in the retina called cryptochrome?slow down or speed up depending on which way points north with respect to the animal?s head.

Each of the two mechanisms has mesmerizing evidence to back it up, as well as detractors. To learn more, you?ll have to read my new feature article ?The Compass Within,? in the January 2012 issue of Scientific American.

Our Magnetic EarthBut how does the planet generate a magnetic field in the first place, and why does that field point, more or less consistently, to a magnetic north? As Ronald Merrill?s fascinating recent book Our Magnetic Earth: The Science of Geomagnetism explains, there are essentially two ways that a relatively permanent magnetic field can arise in nature. One is the magnetization of a solid object, as in the case of a bar magnet or of the iron oxide found in certain animal cells; the other is the so-called dynamo effect, in which electric currents generate the field.

Early on, researchers realized it had to be currents. No known mineral or material is able to maintain a permanent magnetization at temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius. But Earth?s metallic core?where its geomagnetic field originates?is way hotter than that: at an estimated 5,000 degrees, it is as hot as the surface of the sun.

So, dynamo it is. And ours is not the only planet in the solar system thought to harbor a dynamo in its core. So do Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and possibly Mercury and even one of Jupiter?s moons, Ganymede.

This realization however was only the beginning of a long study that is still in progress. One difficulty is that we can only measure the magnetic field on Earth?s surface or in space. From those data alone, it is not possible even in principle to reconstruct the shape of the magnetic field lines deep inside. This, Merrill points out, is known to mathematicians as a ?non-uniqueness? problem?also known as the difficulty of guessing what?s inside a Christmas gift by lifting it and shaking it (which, Merrill informs us, is what his wife used to do) rather than opening the box.

As a matter of fact, not much is even known about the composition of Earth beyond the fact that its most abundant element is iron. According to Merrill, in 1952 the late Harvard University geophysicist Francis Birch wrote, in a classic Journal of Geophysical Research paper on the composition of Earth?s core,

Unwary readers should take warning that ordinary language undergoes modification to a high-pressure form when applied to the interior of the earth. A few examples of equivalents follow:

Certain -> Dubious
Undoubtedly ->Perhaps
Positive proof -> Vague suggestion
Unanswerable argument -> Trivial objection
Pure iron -> Uncertain mixture of all the elements

?In spite of a considerable amount of excellent work,? Merrill writes, ?our understanding of Earth?s core?s composition is remarkably similar to that given by Birch more than a half century ago.?

But while lots of details still need to be ironed out, Merrill says, scientists now believe they have a rough idea of the physics behind (or underneath) the geomagnetic field. When an electrical conductor moves, it drags the magnetic field around with it. But what happens when the conductor is not rigid, and in particular, when it?s liquid, as in the case of Earth?s outer core? As layers of liquid slide over each other, magnetic field lines get stretched, and the result is an amplification of the magnetic field itself, at the expense of the kinetic energy of the fluid. But as long as the motion continues, this phenomenon can sustain a magnetic field that would otherwise slowly dissipate.

In recent years, researchers have produced computer simulations of the geomagnetic dynamo and, crucially, they have shown that such a dynamo would have periodic reversals, which would explain why the north and south poles have switched at seemingly random intervals of time over the eons.

The last such reversal appears to have happened 780,000 years ago. When the next one will be is anybody?s guess. During reversals, the field does not disappear, but rather it becomes weaker, potentially disrupting some animals? migratory patterns as well as letting solar wind destroy part of the ozone layer of the upper atmosphere. This is a favorite disaster scenario for some 2012 doomsayers, but Merrill reassures us that reversals take place very slowly, over centuries if not millennia, and that their effects are probably not that disastrous after all.

This is a supercomputer-based simulation of the geodynamo by Gary Glatzmeier of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues:

[For more on this, check out the Scientific American article ?Probing the Geodynamo,? by Gary A. Glatzmaier and Peter Olson, April 2005 (requires subscription), as well as Glatzmaier?s website.]

Scientists are also trying to build small-scale versions of Earth?s core in the lab. In one such experiment, at the University of Maryland, Daniel Lathrop and his collaborators built a rotating sphere three meters (ten feet) in diameter and filled it with liquid sodium. They hope the sphere will help them understand how the chaotic motions in the core lead to a geomagnetic field.

Seen in action, as it spins at four rotations per second, Lathrop?s sphere looks worthy of a Marvel Comics supervillain:

(More on these efforts on my friend Charles Choi?s blog.)

In his book, Merrill gives an honest and captivating account of the scientific process, its uncertainties, and its cultural dynamics. Science is often portrayed as a fight between smart innovators and conservatives who are on the wrong part of history, but in reality, before an open question is settled there are often solid scientific arguments made on both sides of a debate. One good example is plate tectonics. It was an extraordinary claim, and as such it really required extraordinary evidence before the ?drifters,? as Merrill calls them, were able to convince the skeptics?or most of them anyway?in the early 1960s.

Merrill intersperses the narration with juicy anecdotes and personal detail, which often leave us wanting to know more. (At different times, we find our hero-scientist dangling from a rope on one of Yosemite?s climbing walls, or SCUBA diving by a shipwreck, or on a boat surrounded by white sharks who had been tagged for tracking their migrations.)

Often, however, he falls back into professor mode. One aspect of the book that, unfortunately, may turn away some readers, is an eat-your-vegetables-first prescription coming right in the first chapter: the reader has to slog through technical details on the physics of magnetization before he gets to the fun part. I suspect that some readers never did.

I found that the book was at its best when it delved into the friction among scientists in these different disciplines?and the lessons in modesty that researchers often learn (or should) from collaborating with people from other buildings across campus. Geomagnetism and the magnetic sense, to which Merrill dedicates a chapter, are problems that require expertise from a broad range of researchers, incuding chemists, physicists, geophysicists, mathematicians and biologists.

Such friction was prominently on display in the case of Lord Kelvin, who in 1862 calculated that Earth could not be older than 400 million years, and probably was only 100 million years old. Kelvin scoffed at evidence to the contrary that had been discovered by geologists, who he regarded as incapable of doing math, Merrill writes. It is an example of the arrogance some physicists exhibit toward sciences they deem less ?fundamental.? (Ernest Rutherford, the discoverer of atomic nuclei, notoriously said that all science is physics?the rest is just stamp collecting.)

In turn, geophysicists may sometimes scoff at biology as a ?soft? science, Merrill writes, but those who have tried to actually learn some?let alone do research in it?know better. In particular, he says, geophysicists used to underestimate the problem of determining the physical mechanism behind animals? magnetic sense.

(Still on the subject of cultural differences among academic communities, Merrill also makes a very poignant remark about mathematicians. Although the increasingly extreme specialization of science that has occurred over the last century or so is common to most branches of knowledge, so that, say, a nuclear physicist and a solid-state physicist can only talk to each other with some difficulty, the situation is far worse in math, Merrill says: when someone is up for tenure at a a math department, he says, most of the faculty in the department have little understanding of the candidate?s work, and so they often rely on the advice of authorities from other universities.)

I shall conclude by quoting one of my favorite anecdotes from the book, regarding Ted Ringwood, an eminent geochemist at Australian National University and Ray Crawford, a ?far less famous? scientist. Crawford had a penchant for collecting stationary from places he visited, and a skill for practical jokes.

The austere Ringwood had gotten on loan from NASA a few samples of lunar rock to study. NASA did not trust just anyone to guard its precious trophies, and required extraordinary caution in handling them and storing them. One day, Ringwood received a letter, printed on NASA stationery, Merrill writes. ?The letter informed Ringwood that NASA had funded psychologists to study the effects that stress had on scientists studying lunar samples. Would Ringwood help in this study by sending a vial of his urine to the American embassy in Canberra on a weekly basis? Ringwood complied with this request for several weeks before someone in the embassy had the courage to phone him to inquire what the professor wanted done with he urine samples.?

Our Magnetic Earth: The Science of Geomagnetism, by Ronald T. Merrill. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Further readings:

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=35cbebd0b2113bcff7dbcd0a512fba62

hurricane tracking flat tax flat tax divine bettie page harry caray northern lights

New Mexico to Mexico Livestock Exports

USDA ??|?? Updated: December 27, 2011

AL_LS604?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Las?Cruces,?NM????Tue?Dec?27,?2011????USDA?Market?News???????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
New?Mexico?to?Mexico?Livestock?Exports???????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Dairy?totals?include?577?head?of?Canadian?Dairy.?????????????????????
Hog?totals?include?1508?head?of?Canadian?Hogs.???????????????????????

???????????????????????????Current?????Previous???Current????Previous
????????????????????????????Week?????????Week??????Y-T-D???????Y-T-D*
Species???????????????????12/24/2011???12/17/2011????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Beef?Cattle??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???Slaughter??????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Breeding?Males?????????????????0???????????0???????98?????????183?
???Breeding?Females???????????????0???????????0??????168?????????451?
???Total?Beef?Cattle??????????????0???????????0??????266?????????634?

Hogs?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???Slaughter??????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Breeding?Males?????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Breeding?Females???????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Total?Hogs?????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?

Sheep????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???Slaughter?Lambs????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Slaughter?Ewes?????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Breeding?Males?????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Breeding?Females???????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Total?Sheep????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?

Dairy?Cattle?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???Breeding?Males?????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????4?
???Breeding?Females???????????????0???????????0????3,015??????10,571?
???Total?Dairy?Cattle?????????????0???????????0????3,015??????10,575?

Goats????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???Angora?????????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Spanish????????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Other??????????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Total?Goats????????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?

Horses???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???Slaughter????????????????????178?????????320???11,853??????10,167?
???Breeding?Males????????????????15??????????48????1,047???????1,150?
???Breeding?Females??????????????25??????????79????1,314???????1,638?
???Geldings???????????????????????7??????????15??????284?????????478?
???Burro/Mule/Pony????????????????0???????????0????????0???????????0?
???Total?Horses?????????????????225?????????462???14,498??????13,433?

Exotics???????????????????????????0???????????0????????0?????????600?

Grand?Total?All?Species?????????225?????????462???17,779??????25,242?

Source:???USDA?Market?News?Service,?Las?Cruces,?NM????????????????????????????????????????
??????????John?Langenegger?(575)527-6861??FAX(575)527-6868?LasCruces.LGMN@ams.usda.gov????
??????????www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/AL_LS604.txt?????????????????????????????????????????
??????????www.ams.usda.gov/lsmarketnews??????

0832M?LG?????????????????????????????????????????????

Source: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/markets/feeder-cattle/New-Mexico-to-Mexico-Livestock-Exports-147962-136270948.html

ultimate fighter 14 ultimate fighter 14 2011 bowl projections michigan state michigan state ndamukong suh ndamukong suh

New Couple Alert? Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana

Looks like the year's Sexiest Man Alive has found his match! Bradley Cooper is reportedly dating newly single Zoe Saldana. According to E! News, sources say the supremely sexy couple is so happy they've begun to tell their family and friends they're together.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/new-couple-alert-bradley-cooper-and-zoe-saldana/1-a-414355?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Anew-couple-alert-bradley-cooper-and-zoe-saldana-414355

how to make moonshine patti labelle the weeknd the weeknd payroll tax payroll tax aisha khan

NKorea calls Kim Jong Un 'supreme leader'

In this image made from KRT video, North Korea's next leader Kim Jong Un is seen during a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN) TV OUT, NORTH KOREA OUT

In this image made from KRT video, North Korea's next leader Kim Jong Un is seen during a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN) TV OUT, NORTH KOREA OUT

In this image made from KRT video, North Korea's next leader Kim Jong Un, 3rd left, and ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam, 4th left, bow their head to take a moment of silence during a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor, was declared "supreme leader" of North Korea's ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the first public endorsement of his leadership by the government. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN) TV OUT, NORTH KOREA OUT

In this image made from KRT video, North Korean military personnel take a moment of silence during a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor, was declared "supreme leader" of North Korea's ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the first public endorsement of his leadership by the government. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN) TV OUT, NORTH KOREA OUT

In this image made from KRT video, North Koreans gather for a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor, was declared "supreme leader" of North Korea's ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the first public endorsement of his leadership by the government. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN) TV OUT, NORTH KOREA OUT

In this image made from KRT video, North Korea's next leader Kim Jong Un, 2nd right, and Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the ceremonial head of state, right, attend a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor was declared "supreme leader" of North Korea's ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the first public endorsement of his leadership by the government. (AP Photo/KRT via APTN) TV OUT, NORTH KOREA OUT

(AP) ? North Korea declared Kim Jong Il's son and successor "supreme leader" of the ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the government's first public endorsement of his leadership.

Kim Jong Un ? head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat ? stood watching from a balcony at the Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square, flanked by the top party and military officials. Also on the balcony was Kim Jong Il's younger sister, Kim Kyong Hui, who is expected to play a guardian role for her young nephew.

Given Kim Jong Un's inexperience and age ? he is in his late 20s ? there are questions outside North Korea about whether he is equipped to lead a nation engaged in sensitive negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and chronic food shortages.

But support among North Korea's power brokers was unequivocal at the memorial service, attended by hundreds of thousands of people filling Kim Il Sung Square and other plazas in central Pyongyang.

"The fact that he completely resolved the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong Il's most noble achievement," Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, told the massive audience at the Kim Il Sung Square.

"Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un is our party, military and country's supreme leader who inherits great comrade Kim Jong Il's ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage," said Kim, considered North Korea's ceremonial head of state.

Life in Pyongyang came to a standstill as mourners packed the plaza from the Grand People's Study to the Taedong River for the second day of funeral ceremonies for the late leader.

Kim Jong Il, who led his 24 million people with absolute power for 17 years, died of a heart attack Dec. 17 at age 69, according to state media. He inherited power from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, who died of a heart attack in 1994, in what was the communist world's first hereditary succession.

Attention turned to Kim Jong Un after he was revealed last year as his father's choice among three sons to carry the Kim dynasty into a third generation.

The process to groom him was rushed compared to the 20 years Kim Jong Il had to prepare to take over from his father, and relied heavily on Kim family legacy as guerrilla fighters and the nation's founders.

Kim Jong Un was made a four-star general last year and appointed a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party. Since his father's death, state media have bestowed on him a series of new titles signifying that his succession campaign was gaining momentum: Great Successor, Supreme Leader and Sagacious Leader.

Kim Jong Un's leadership is not expected to become formal until top party, parliamentary and government representatives convene to confirm his ascension.

He is expected to formally assume command of the 1.2 million-strong military, and become general secretary of the Workers' Party and chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University in South Korea.

In a speech during the memorial, Gen. Kim Jong Gak, a top political officer in the Korean People's Army, said the military will dedicate itself to protecting Kim Jong Un, calling him the "supreme leader of our revolutionary armed forces."

This week's events have been watched closely for clues to who in the military and Workers' Party will form Kim's inner circle of trusted aides during the sensitive transition to leadership.

During the mourning period, Kim made at least five visits to his father's begonia-bedecked bier when the late leader was lying in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, accompanied at times by the old guard that is expected to support him.

At Wednesday's funeral procession, he was accompanied by Jang Song Thaek, Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law and a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, who has family ties to the military and is expected to be crucial in giving his nephew guidance.

On Thursday, North Koreans packed the main square as well as the plaza in front of a Workers' Party monument of a hammer, sickle and writing brush.

They bowed their heads as eight artillery guns fired; military officers removed their hats while the booms resonated across the square.

North Korea's senior officials, including Kim Jong Il's sister, Kim Kyong Hui, stood in silence on the platform during the gun salute.

Workers, citizens, children and soldiers across the country then bowed for three minutes of tribute to Kim Jong Il as trains and boats blew their sirens.

State TV showed people lined up neatly in rows, or outside their places of work, on sidewalks, in squares, beneath giant portraits of Kim Jong Il.

His two other sons, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Chol, were not spotted at either the funeral or memorial.

___

Associated Press Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee and writers Hyung-jin Kim, Foster Klug and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. Follow AP's North Korea coverage at twitter.com/newsjean, twitter.com/APKlug and twitter.com/samkim_ap.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-28-AS-Kim-Jong-Il-The-Funeral/id-81f845d76b214b0ca682bb6e79a26f27

weta rudolph the red nosed reindeer rudolph the red nosed reindeer adam carolla desean jackson rick neuheisel rick neuheisel

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Wayne Gurnick: 6 Do's For The Perfect Wedding At Home

Inspired weddings take place in different locations -- vineyards, hotels, country clubs, social halls and parks. But the most romantic, emotional and personal weddings that I've ever seen were those at a family's home. To pull off that perfect home wedding, consider these important "Do's".

"Do" a realistic assessment of the number of guests you can entertain comfortably and use your space wisely. Select a focal point for the ceremony, such as a shady majestic tree or a water fountain for a backdrop. For the ceremony, create a meandering garden pathway using potted flowering plants to seat your guests. These plants can be used later to decorate food stations or line the dance floor.

A useful rule of thumb is that you need 10-12 square feet of open space per guest for a seated reception -- this allows for ample space between tables for walkways. Use this handy calculator. Keep in mind that you can change up the size and shape of your tables for a better fit. Long feasting tables are a good option for a narrow room or yard, and cocktail tables may do the trick in confined spaces. Wide open areas, whether in the front or the back of your home, are the blank canvas for an interesting design concept, such as tables in the shape of your initials. I like using the dining room table for dessert buffets and to showcase the wedding cake because it's protected from the elements and offers better lighting.

"Do" pay special attention to light. Consider where the sun will be during your ceremony so that you end up with a warm glow instead of blinding light. (Visit timeanddate.com to find out what time the sun will set on a given date.) And as the sun sets, d?cor lighting will be important for the comfort and safety of your guests, as well as the ambiance. Perimeter up-lighting illuminates plants and trees, creating the feeling of larger spaces, while directional and ambient lighting is used to draw attention to centerpieces, and to illuminate walkways and the dance floor. Existing lighting such as halogen floodlights can be softened with colored filters.

"Do" mix and match your d?cor items in a cohesive way. In your home, you have creative license and resources to pull off the greatest "mix and match" design concepts, and it's guaranteed to look charming! No need to rent 50 of the same dinner plate -- borrow china from your Mom, your aunts and your grandma, too! Place a different set of china on each table and tie it all together with a consistent color scheme. Select your favorite flowers to be featured on each table, so that you have the tulip table, the rose table and the hydrangea table and so on. Clustering of a single type of flower is a manageable DIY wedding project. The mix and match concept works well for the bridesmaids' dresses, too -- they can be within the same style or color scheme and each lady can hold a bouquet of one type of flower... they don't have to be identical.

"Do" remember the small stuff. Check with your local law enforcement agency about the noise ordinance applicable to your area. By doing this early in your planning process you'll have plenty of time to adjust the wedding schedule to comply with sound restrictions. In most communities, the party has to quiet down at 11 pm. Plan ahead by planting flowering plants, fertilizing the lawn and trimming the hedges. Stop watering the lawn two days before the wedding day and make sure that all the automatic sprinklers are shut off. Stock up on battery-pack candles in lieu of open flamed candlelight so that you don't have to worry about the wind. For outdoor weddings, be sure to spray outdoor areas and under each table with insect repellant several hours before guest arrival. For an extra touch, have High Heel Savers from Diva Dilemmas to make the walk on the lawn more comfortable for the ladies in spiked high heels; they will protect your lawn, too.

"Do" include a surprise after-party snack. The food truck phenomenon has created incredible and affordable options. Here is an opportunity to spice up the party with the unexpected taco truck, French fries and grilled cheese sandwiches or fresh donuts, cookies and milk. Comfort food is everybody's favorite for a late-night treat.

"Do" be good to your neighbors. Go beyond the basic courtesy of notifying your neighbors that you will have a wedding at your home; drop off a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates and watch all the apprehension about the music and partying melt away. While you are there, ask your neighbors to keep their dogs inside and skip mowing the lawn on the day of your wedding.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wayne-gurnick/6-dos-for-the-perfect-wed_b_1159292.html

xbox update nba schedule nhl realignment nhl realignment kristin chenoweth country music awards new earth

Ovulatory High FSH, Thyroid Issues, Using Acupuncture, Using Traditional Chinese Medicine, ...

FertilityFriend.com's Chart Gallery

[Click Here] to visit the full gallery.

View All Charts in Celsius



Keywords: High FSH | Thyroid Issues | Using Acupuncture | Using Traditional Chinese Medicine | Using Sperm Friendly Lubricant | Using OPK | No Meds | Age: 40 | Months TTC: 4

Direct Access: http://www.fertilityfriend.com/ChartGallery/142346.html


?

IMPORTANT: Text, data, graphics, graphs and photos presented on this page are intended for personal use only. Any other usage as well as any derived work (papers, studies, re-prints, reproductions on web sites...) is prohibited without explicit written consent from Tamtris Web Services Inc., owner and operator of FertilityFriend.com.

FertilityFriend.com is a trademark of Tamtris Web Services Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

?

?

Source: http://www.fertilityfriend.com/ChartGallery/142346.html

walmart black friday walmart black friday raiders vincent jackson veterans day paterno oakland raiders

State cuts to Medicaid affect patients, providers

(AP) ? Just as Medicaid prepares for a vast expansion under the federal health care overhaul, the 47-year-old entitlement program for the poor is under increasing pressure as deficit-burdened states chip away at benefits and cut payments to doctors.

Nearly every state has proposed or implemented a plan in its current budget to rein in costs, and many are considering additional cuts in the year ahead.

For the tens of millions of poor and disabled who rely on the program ? approaching nearly one in five Americans ? the cuts translate into longer waits for doctors, restrictions on prescription drugs, a halt to vision and dental care, staff cuts at nursing homes and dwindling access to home health care.

Ruth Wohlforth, 70, is among those feeling the effects.

Her $700 monthly income qualifies her for both Medicare and Medicaid, but she says her benefits have been reduced, she's being forced her to make co-pays for the first time on prescription drugs, and she now has to drive about 30 minutes from her home near the southern tip of New Jersey to see a doctor. Some of her friends have been assigned to doctors in Philadelphia.

She said she feels lawmakers are not aware of the real-world consequences of their spending cuts.

"I've seen so many people in tears, and they don't know what to do," Wohlforth said. "People that are older than I am, and are in worse shape, they get befuddled by the whole thing. They don't know where to go for help; they just feel they're not being listened to."

States are reshaping the Medicaid landscape even as the need has grown along with joblessness during the recession.

The $427 billion-a-year program, a combination of state and federal funding, also had been targeted for additional cuts at the federal level this year as members of Congress sparred over how to reduce the nation's debt. But funding seems safe for now after a special committee failed last month to reach an agreement on how to cut overall spending.

Already, many changes at the state level have been dramatic and are testing the legal bounds of what Medicaid must provide:

? Arizona, for a time, eliminated life-saving transplants for Medicaid patients, and hospital officials in the state blame at least one death on the halt in coverage. Gov. Jan Brewer restored transplants but is prohibiting thousands of low-income, childless adults from entering the program and has added fees on those who smoke and the obese.

? New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is pushing a plan under which only the poorest would qualify. A parent of two making more than $103 per week would no longer be eligible for coverage.

? The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether California has the right to continue cutting payments to physicians and other Medicaid providers to help close the state's ongoing budget deficit.

Cuts to provider fees, as in California, have been the most frequently used tactic by states to save Medicaid costs. A recent survey by the National Association of State Budget Officers found that 33 states wanted to reduce provider rates and another 16 sought to freeze them.

California was granted permission by federal officials to make broad cuts to reimbursement rates to its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, in October. The cuts include a 10 percent reduction to payments for outpatient services for doctors, clinics, optometrists, dental services, medical equipment and pharmacy. They are intended to save the state an estimated $623 million.

A coalition of trade associations representing doctors, pharmacists and chain drug stores has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the cuts. Doctors who care for Medi-Cal patients say they already have been subjected to multiple pay cuts, and some say they no longer will be able to serve the state's neediest patients.

About 70 percent of Dr. Douglas Tolley's practice in Yuba County is covered by Medi-Cal. The 64-year-old obstetrician, who practices in a largely agricultural region about 40 minutes north of the state capital, said he is the old-school sort of doctor who "was brought up in a time when doctors took care of all comers."

Yet he has seen his income steadily drop over the last 18 years ? down one-third from what it was when he started.

"Everybody understands that doctors are basically small business people, and we have to meet our cost plus make a living." Tolley said. "Just meeting our cost doesn't mean staying in business."

Even more state cuts could be on the horizon. In Maine, Gov. Paul LePage recently proposed removing 65,000 residents from the program, citing a state Medicaid shortfall estimated to reach $221 million through mid-2013. The Republican governor says he will not consider tax increases to make up the difference.

State officials, who are required to balance their budgets, argue they have no choice but to cut into Medicaid after four straight years of budget deficits. With state and federal funds combined, Medicaid makes up 22 percent of total state spending, the largest single portion of most state budgets, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Critics say the moves are shortsighted.

Joan Alker, co-executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, said slashing Medicaid will not stop the sick from seeking care, sending them to emergency rooms and ultimately inflating private medical insurance premiums.

"At the end of the day, for the children, the individuals with disabilities, the seniors in nursing homes, their health care needs are not going to go away just because someone cuts the Medicaid program," Alker said.

Jerry Kemmer, a former Democratic state assemblyman in New York, said Medicaid has long been an issue lawmakers did not want to touch. Now, they simply have no choice.

"It's ballooned to the extent that it's just become a budget-buster," he said.

Six million people have joined the Medicaid rolls since the recession began in late 2007. Enrollment nationally topped 50 million for the first time in June 2010, a number that is projected to keep rising, especially as the nation's unemployment rate remains high.

Billions of dollars from the federal stimulus program helped avoid deep Medicaid cuts through the worst of the recession, but the last of that money dried up this year.

In Florida, Medicaid reimbursement rates were reduced this year by 12 percent for most hospitals, although rural and children's hospitals were cut just 3 percent, and rates for nursing homes were cut 6.5 percent.

But the start of the next legislative session in January already has some people worried about additional cuts.

Debra St. Fleur, 25, of Miami, is covered by Medicaid, along with her 1-year-old son. Many of her neighbors in the city's Little Haiti section are on Medicaid, too, and she worries what would happen if services continue to be eroded.

"It's really scary," she said. "If they can't get their medicine, what's going to happen? They're going to die."

The Obama administration is concerned enough about the widespread Medicaid provider cuts that it has introduced a rule that would make it harder for states to slash the rates. The move is designed to ensure that those eligible for Medicaid are not denied access due to a shortage of health care resources.

Medicaid reimbursement rates already trail those physicians receive for treating Medicare patients and those with private insurance. A study by the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change found that on, average, Medicaid would reimburse a doctor $39 for 45 minutes for a new patient hospital visit, compared to $63 for Medicare.

Physician groups say that has left more and more doctors declining to see Medicaid clients. Some providers are trying to find other ways to make up for the cuts.

In Columbia, S.C., Julie Ann Avin, executive director of the private, nonprofit Mental Illness Recovery Center Inc., has decided not to fill staff vacancies and also cut back on some rehab services because of Medicaid's new authorization process. The center serves about 650 people annually, close to 60 percent of whom are on Medicaid.

"We accept folks regardless," Avin said. "Everything that we do is not based just on a reimbursement."

Molly Collins Offner, director of policy development for the American Hospital Association, said emergency rooms must accept Medicaid clients, as well as those without insurance.

"More and more, you are seeing ER's becoming primary care docs," she said.

She said deep cuts rippling through the Medicaid system will only exacerbate that.

___

Associated Press writers Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J., Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles and Matt Sedensky in Miami contributed to this report.

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey at www.twitter.com(backslash)smccaffrey13

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-27-US-Broken-Budgets-Medicaid/id-c71d59230abc465591f7b5def51cf938

miranda lambert kim kardashian divorce generators generators lesean mccoy while you were sleeping while you were sleeping