Sunday, December 16, 2012

5 Frustrating Moments When You're Home For The Holidays ...

After grad school ended for the quarter, I decided to use the weirdly long break that DePaul University offers (five weeks, bitches!) to go back home to Ohio and try to take some downtime ? to unwind and zen ? and save some goddamn money by letting my family feed me for awhile. I expected my hometown to be the calm in the eye of the storm, as we often joke that Cincinnati is the ?City That Goes to Bed Early.??We?re known for our great daycares, neighborhoods and schools, the kind of place you go to settle down and make absolutely no noise whatsoever.?Sometimes, when I step out on the porch of the house I grew up in, it?s so quiet I swear I can hear the Man in the Moon blinking at me.

But this time instead of the eye, I got the storm instead.?A month or so before I came home to enjoy the comfort of my grandparents? house, my father decided to move his family back in with his parents ? and neglected to tell me.?This family includes my two younger brothers, who are 13 and 14 and hyperactive as fuck, and the secret Philippine wife that he thinks I don?t know about. They met on the internet. He insists that they aren?t married yet and that she just happened to have our last name already ? which he says is great in case they ever get married. (Yes, and I?m Barbra Streisand.) With these four additions to the family, we counted seven people in a two-bedroom house with an attic.?What could possibly go wrong?

The first moment I entered the house, with my three suitcases, I was greeted by two giant mahogany chests of drawers, which my grandparents had moved into the house and deposited right in the foyer ? not that you wanted to actually go inside.?Their placement was meant to mask the fact that interior of my grandparents? house looked like the remains of Hurricane Sandy, as the migration of all of my family members into the same house reawakened my grandparents? hoarder tendencies. The living room was filled with unopened mail, my old room piled up with boxes and the kitchen table covered in bottles of pills, cereal boxes and more mail ? all while my father was gingerly passed out on the couch.

As the holidays and Gilmore Girls prove, there?s nothing like a family to ruin a family. If you didn?t love them so much, you might just quit altogether.

I.

After sufficiently cleaning the house ? to where I could walk through it without tripping over boxes or the family cat ? I decided to celebrate by taking my little brothers to a movie. I mentioned that I wanted to see Life of Pi, and the words ?boy,? ?tiger,? and ?adventure? were enough to get my brothers to sign on.?(I neglected to bring up the fact that the entire film was a religious parable. We?d cross that bridge when we came to it.) When I told my prissily masculine father that we were going to see a kids? art house movie directed by the guy who did Brokeback Mountain (but not in those exact words), he immediately turned up his nose. He asked, ?Why can?t you go see a guy movie? Like Red Dawn. Now THAT?S a good flick.?

This was one of those moments where we were about to argue about something without actually arguing about the thing we were arguing about.?I collected myself, forcing myself not to ask what comprises a ?girl movie? or how Life of Pi fails at being sufficiently masculine, and I tried logic instead.?I calmly explained that Red Dawn was a notorious misfire for the studio, who let the movie sit on the shelf for years before they finally dumped it.?The only reason it ever saw the light of day was because Josh Hutcherson and Chris Hemsworth are big stars now. Besides, the movie digitally altered the original Chinese villains in the film to be North Koreans, which is racist.?Do we really want to teach the kids jingoistic, America-first nonsense? Do we want to turn them into tiny Pat Robertsons? Instead of hearing my argument and realizing that I made the best choice for my siblings? burgeoning intellects, by trusting them to try something a little different, he rebuffed the entire point: ?Life of Pi is for sissies.? Because he couldn?t just come out and say ?f*gs.?

And this is what I come from.

II.

Because I?m nothing if not stubborn, I decided to try to spend some quality time with him the next week, to let homophobic bygones be bygones and try to bond over something. My dad has weirdly good taste in TV (Two and a Half Men notwithstanding), and I really wanted to get caught up on Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights or Mad Men (all of which I?m still making my way through).?However, none of those passed the test of being sufficiently masculine ? even though one of them is about a womanizer and another is about football. What?s more masculine than watching Tim Tebow dance around in tights, I ask you??Nothing.?But because I didn?t want to press my luck, I suggested Homeland, which I know he?s into.

Like the rest of America, I quickly got obsessed with Homeland, which is simultaneously the most compelling and most ridiculous show on TV.?I know that there?s no universe in which a) pacemakers can be detonated remotely b) the world?s most famous terrorist can just stroll into a gas station and not be recognized or c) someone as wantonly irresponsible as Carrie would be able to keep her job or d) God would allow Dana to live, but I was hooked on its outlandishness.?And at a friend?s suggestion, if Dana got too annoying, I just pretended they were talking about her instead of Abu Nezir. So, whenever they mentioned taking out Nezir, they really meant Dana.?What a relief!

However, my transfixion was interrupted early in the first season, when (SPOILER!) a prince?s ?Professional Girlfriend? ? who?s also an agent for the CIA ? is shot and killed in an alleyway for her gorgeous diamond necklace.?(The terrorists were using the necklace as a human wire to transport money to their operation.)?After Carrie realizes she won?t be able to revive her, I remarked what a shame it was that the PG died ? because I found that character and subplot interesting.?I wanted to see more from her.

My Dad took a second to soak in this information and then shook his head slowly, just as my little brother walked in the room.?He began to reply, ?As a friend used to say, ?That?s a waste of a good??? but I interrupted before he got to the anatomical portion of that statement. There were children present, and misogyny could be genetic. I shouted, ?Mind!??My father then said, ?No, it begins with a P.??So I responded, ?Personality!??After a moment of silence that was like a clenched fist, he yelled, ?Pussy!?It?s pussy.??His wife sure is a lucky lady.

III.

A few days later, I was sitting at our kitchen table with my family, just hanging out and drinking some carrot juice I?d bought myself from the store. My grandparents tend to only have root beer or Coca-Cola in their refrigerator, so if you want anything not loaded with sugar, you have to fend for yourself. During our conversation, my youngest brother ? who has developmental problems, in addition to ADD ? mentioned that he once pooped his pants at school.?I wasn?t quite sure what this was apropos of, but I went with it ? because he?s a kid and I didn?t want to make him feel bad about it.?I told him that when I was his age, I used to poop myself all the time (not true) and that if pooping yourself were cool, I would be Miles Davis (still not true, and ripped off from an Adam Sandler movie).

I then told him that when I lived in France last year, I actually shat myself a couple times.?This was true. He looked happier to hear this information, so I decided to spill my proverbial butt beans.

Being overly sensitive and afraid of ever hurting anyone?s feelings, I tend to feel bad about turning down hospitality ? even if I blatantly don?t want the thing that?s being offered. I?m lactose intolerant, and the family I stayed with for part of my trip were casual cheese aficionados. Their house was filled with every French cheese known to man and at least three that smelled like diapers, and they took having company as an excuse to buy even more. One night, they kept feeding me more dairy, and I couldn?t bear to say no.?So, I kept eating until I got this horrible stomach ache ? one I thought I could relieve if I politely farted. Just a little.

So, I ever so gently lifted myself to fart and rid myself of this burgeoning pain.?Instead, I completely filled my pants with smelly French cheese.?Somehow, the family didn?t notice, and I smiled and continued eating the cheese until I could get away, stewing in my shame in silence.

Although my brother seemed to like the story, my grandfather came in right after my Grand Guginol of a conclusion and asked what we were talking about. My father coldly replied, ?Anything else other than shitting yourself, please.??My grandfather then asked, ?Wait, who shit themselves?? Dad pointed to me and said, ?He did. He crapped his pants.? And then no one said a word, as my face turned fifty shades of red.?If I could have filled that silence with the sounds of my shit out of pure spite and anger, I would have. Where?s the diaper cheese when you need it?

IV.

A couple nights later at actual dinner, I brought up some exciting news to my grandmother ? that I got a freelancing gig I?ve been waiting months to hear back on, one that could change my life. I had landed my dream job ? or something damn close to it. For someone who rarely gives themselves credit for anything good that happens in their life (#lowselfesteem), I was genuinely proud for a moment, and I wanted to honor that.?Or at least get a nice, long hug out of the deal. I love hugs. Hugs are my jam.

While ostensibly hearing what I was telling her, my grandmother replied, ?That?s nice, honey,? and went back to what she was doing.?I then poked her and shouted, ?Hey, one second.?This is exciting!??She brushed it off by responding that my accomplishments would never live up to my aunt?s, a unibrowed, asexual seeming woman who didn?t fully leave the house until she was 40 ? when she married herself off to a mad German scientist who looks like Werner Herzog, has a past-life counselor and plays us Christmas songs on his acoustic guitar that he makes up on the spot.?(He?s kind of awesome.)?She said, ?Dear, your aunt got straight As, had a full time job and still came back home every weekend.??Outraged, I yelled, ?I work, like, five jobs, have a 3.8, live in Chicago and call you almost every day!?What more do you want from me??

Folding her hands, she sat in silence for a moment, letting this information wash over her. She then ended our discussion match with a Grandma Guilt uppercut: ?You?re six hours away. How do I know what you do?? Maybe I?d been watching too much Telemundo recently, but I swear I almost flipped over a table.

V.

Days after I learned my life meant nothing unless I had an invisible plane by which to fly home every weekend, my grandmother and I had another discussion during dinner ? where I decided to broach the topic of the family cat. His name is Socks, and for reasons I cannot fathom, he hates me.?He hates me when I pet him, when I don?t pet him and when I?m innocently standing next to him and doing absolutely nothing. The other day I woke up and looked down the stairs from my bedroom to see him sitting at the bottom of the steps, patiently waiting for me to wake up so he could snarl at me more. He?s like my personal Mayan curse.

Rather than logically breaking down my relationship with the cat, asking how much I pet him or if I try to pick him up illicitly, Nana suggested that he hates my because of ?my voice.? Taking great care to think about what she said before she said it, my grandmother continued her thought: ?You?re the only person in the family who sounds?like that??which was code for ?like a tra-la-la-la mincing fairy queen.? Because my mouth was full of food, I grumbled lowly, ?Sounds?like what?? I wanted to press her to just say it.?She then blurted, ?Not like that!?Your voice usually isn?t that low.? Although her assessment of the situation was probably incorrect (because cats cannot haz homophobia), it did not help my case that my response was: ?OH NO SHE DID NOT.?

It?s good to be home. TC mark

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Source: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/5-frustrating-moments-when-youre-home-for-the-holidays/

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Quiet town wonders, 'How can we be protected'?

John Makely / NBC News

Residents of Newtown, Conn., embrace outside St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church prior to a vigil for victims of Friday's massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School -- the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

By Miranda Leitsinger and John W. Schoen, NBC News

NEWTOWN, Conn. ? Unexpected and unwelcome, gun violence tore through this hilly, wooded New England town on Friday, claiming more than two-dozen lives ? many of them just beginning -- and shaking what one resident called a ?small lovely village? to its core.

?How can we be protected from people like this?? Jack DeFumeri wondered out loud, saying he moved to Newtown -- founded in 1711 -- years ago from much-larger Danbury because he wanted to raise his three daughters in a safe environment.

?I don?t know anymore,? he said before entering a vigil Friday night at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, as the church's bell's tolled from above. ?You take precautions, but how can you see this coming? ?I can?t imagine what the parents are going through, especially this time of year.?


Friends and family from nearby towns flocked to Newtown to share the town?s grief and offer support. This small city of 28,000, with its tidy clapboard homes and steeple-topped churches, feels farther from New York City than the 90 minutes it takes to reach the metropolis. Residents from surrounding villages expressed similar disbelief that this most modern of crimes had intruded on their quiet corner of the world.?

?It?s a picture-book, storybook town,? said Joan Demato of nearby Brookfield, who was part of the overflow crowd that attended the St. Rose vigil, running the gantlet of news trucks bathing the church entrance with floodlights. ??I don?t know if there are any safe places left in this world.?

After the vigil, Monsignor Robert Weiss told reporters gathered outside that six or seven kids who had attended the church were among the 20 children who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

?I think the families are very broken,? he said. ?I?m sure that they?re still wondering and questioning. I think some of them are still hoping that this really didn?t happen. The rough days are just ahead of them.? ?

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed more than two dozen, 20 of them children, left the quiet community of Newtown, Conn., desperately trying to understand what happened. NBC's Kate Snow reports.

Just a short drive away, parishioners at Trinity Episcopal Church shed tears and wrapped their arms around one another during a solemn prayer service. The quiet crying grew louder when the Rev. Kathleen Adams-Shepherd announced that two children, members of the congregation, were among those killed.

Adams-Shepherd had spent much of the day at the fire station with the families of some of the presumed victims -- though formal identification hadn't yet been made.?

"You've got to keep them in your prayers," she said, later adding,?"I don't think we'll ever be the same."

See more video on the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary on NBCNews.com

"There are no words,? the Rt. Rev. James Curry said in the prayer service. ?There is nothing that we can say but instead we cry out. We cry out in shared grief and pain for the loss of so many children, so many adults .... We do not understand, and we cannot imagine why someone would murder. We cannot comprehend."

Among those attending the service were the Elken family.

John Makely / NBC News

Heather and Karl Elken and their daughter Liia, 17, talk about life in Newtown, Conn., scene of Friday's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as they leave a prayer service at Trinity Episcopal Church.

"We just really felt the need to come in and say a prayer for all of the families," said Heather Elken, 47, an elementary school nurse, who attended with her husband, Karl, 48, and daughter Liia, 17.

"We moved here 10 years ago,? she said. ?We researched where to go for months and picked Newtown over anywhere else in Connecticut, and this is where we've raised our kids from seven years old through high school. We've lived here for the most important 10 years of our lives. We just don't understand."

She said she and her husband learned about the shooting when Liia texted her from her high school at 9:46 a.m.: "Lockdown. Not a drill." ?

"It was the longest day, just the longest day," Heather Elken said.

Earlier, Peter Hugens, 78, had a hard time finding words to describe how the unspeakable tragedy that? unfolded hours earlier at the nearby school would change the town that he has called home for 11 years, since moving from Brooklyn, N.Y.

?We moved up here ? like many people -- to get away from the so-called horrors of the city," he said, standing on his front lawn and looking out over the undulating Connecticut countryside.

He said his new hometown, just a couple miles from the Housatonic River, has ?gotten bigger? over the years. ?But people work very hard to keep a place like this a small lovely village,? he said. ?... They move here with a sense of optimism and hope. And they have every right to feel that way.?

Outside a Dunkin Donuts store at a local shopping center, Kenneth Knapp said he was only beginning to process the horrific crime.

?It's going to take a long time to soak in, that's for sure,? he said. ?Last night I'm looking in the sky for meteors, tonight I'm watching helicopters flying around.?

Knapp, an inspector in a machine shop, said Newtown wasn?t paradise, citing a criminal case still widely known locally as the ?wood-chipper murder.? ?In that grisly case from the late 1980s, local resident Richard B. Crafts, a 50-year-old airline pilot, was convicted of murdering his 39-year-old Danish wife, Helle, then dismembering her body and disposing of it in the dead of night with a wood-chipper.

The heartbreaking mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School was met with disbelief and tears as people across the country reacted to the tragic news. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

?You'll see a lot of things this town has probably gone through, a lot of things, but nothing to this magnitude,? he said.

His friend, Tom Adams, 66, who has lived in Newtown since he was 8, said that his 5-year-old granddaughter was in a classroom adjacent to the ones where Adam Lanza, a troubled 20-year-old, allegedly carried out the massacre, but she escaped unharmed and, so far, untroubled by the horrific crime.

?She doesn't know anything,? he said. ?There was some noise. They took her out of school. That's all.? ?

He said that he was on his way to see her. ?I just want a hug, that's all I want,? he said.

John Makely / NBC News

Theresa Swift and her son, William, outside St. Rose of Lima church in Newtown, Conn.

But older, more-aware youngsters, even some who were far from the shooting, weren?t immune to the trauma.

Theresa Swift, 47, and her 10-year-old son, William, who attends another Newtown school, were already contemplating what would happen when the alarm sounded on Monday morning.

Asked outside the St. Rose vigil if he would feel OK about going to school again next week, the clearly shaken boy replied, ?I?m afraid they?re going to come for me.?

His mom quickly reacted, reaching to touch William with a steadying hand.

?I don?t know,? she said of the school question. ?We?ll cross that bridge when we get there.?

NBC's Alex Moe contributed to this report.

Michelle Mcloughlin / Reuters

The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

Related content from NBCNews.com:

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/14/15916719-after-school-shooting-quiet-newtown-wonders-how-can-we-be-protected-from-people-like-this?lite

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With wide gap, Obama and Boehner meet for 'fiscal cliff' talks

With an end-of-year deadline looming, the two leaders came together at the White House on Thursday in an attempt to rejuvenate negotiations as frustration mounted over the lack of progress on averting the 'fiscal cliff.'

By Richard Cowan,?Reuters, Jeff Mason,?Reuters / December 13, 2012

This November file photo shows President Obama, accompanied by House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio, speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Enlarge

President?Barack Obama?and?House of Representatives Speaker?John Boehner?met for an hour on Thursday as frustration mounted over the lack of progress on averting the "fiscal cliff" of steep tax increases and spending cuts.

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With an end-of-year deadline looming, the two leaders came together at the?White House?in an attempt to rejuvenate negotiations that had become bogged down in a daily round of finger-pointing.

Earlier in the day, Boehner criticized Obama for putting jobs and the economic recovery at risk by insisting on raising tax rates for the wealthiest 2 percent.

White House?spokesman?Jay Carney?responded by reaffirming Obama's commitment to raising the top rates and complaining there had been no movement from Republicans on that crucial topic.

"What we have not seen from the Republicans is any movement at all on the fundamental issue," Carney told reporters. "Republicans need to accept the fact that rates will go up on the top 2 percent."

Economists say failure to reach an agreement before Jan. 1 could tip the country back into recession. The main hurdle is the expiring tax cuts, which Obama wants extended for all but the rich and Boehner wants extended for everyone.

But with positions seeming to harden, both sides also emphasized their differences on Obama's request for permanent authority to increase U.S. borrowing as part of a fiscal-cliff agreement and on Republican calls for an increase in the eligibility age for recipients of theMedicare?healthcare program.

At a news conference, Boehner occasionally raised his voice in criticism of Obama's bottom-line insistence on raising tax rates on the rich.

"Raising tax rates will hurt small businesses at a time when we're expecting small businesses to be the engine of job creation in?America," said Boehner, who used a chart to illustrate his point that curbing spending increases was the key to deficit reduction.

If Obama persisted on a path of higher spending and higher taxes, he said, "this chart is going to look a lot worse."

Afterward, his spokesman said Boehner would return to his home state of?Ohio?on Friday for the weekend, but was available if there were more talks. "Ohio?has both cellphone service and airports," spokesman?Michael Steel?said. "It won't be a problem."

A seven-day rally in world shares came to a halt and commodity prices slipped on Thursday after negotiations over the fiscal cliff appeared to stall.

Today there's a certain sense that both sides are still apart," said Gordon " C harlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York, describing trading as "tweaking" while investors watch Washington's back-and-forth drama.

While Republicans fumed, Obama planned to continue his public-relations offensive with a round of interviews with anchors from local television stations. He was interviewed by ABC'sBarbara Walters?two days ago.

A flurry of new polls showed strong support for Obama's position. According to a?Wall Street Journal/NBC survey, three-quarters of Americans say they would accept raising taxes on the wealthy to avoid the cliff. Even among Republicans, some 61 percent say they would accept tax increases on high-earners.

'Reality should set in'

A?Pew Research Center?poll showed Obama's approval rating rising and 55 percent saying he was making a serious effort to engage in the fiscal talks, while just 32 percent said Republicans were serious about a deal.

Senate?Democratic leader?Harry Reid, citing the polls, said Boehner "can't ignore the people forever" on the tax issue. "At some point, reality should set in," he told reporters.

The polls have put Republicans in a difficult negotiating position, and pressure has grown on Boehner in recent weeks from the right and left. Some Republicans have expressed a willingness to give in on higher tax rates in exchange for deeper spending cuts, while conservatives have demanded that Boehner stand firm.

"I'm not concerned about my job as speaker," Boehner, who faces re-election to the leadership post in January, told reporters.

Boehner also dismissed any notion that Republicans would agree to giving Obama more authority on the debt ceiling.

"Congress?is never going to give up our ability to control the purse," Boehner said. "The debt limit ought to be used to bring fiscal sanity to Washington."

A group of 72 House Democrats urged Obama to reject Republican calls to raise the Medicare?eligibility age.

Senator?Dick Durbin?of?Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the?Senate, told reporters he was told by the?White House?that raising the eligibility age for qualifying for?Medicare?benefits is not in the mix anymore.

"My understanding is that is no longer one of the items being considered by the?White House," Durbin told reporters.

He said doing so "creates some serious issues for a lot of people who may be caught in the gap between retirement and eligibility. Where are they going to get health insurance? Many of them are sick people."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/5R-B48hEZi4/With-wide-gap-Obama-and-Boehner-meet-for-fiscal-cliff-talks

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Video: Parents asked priest about kids' last moments

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Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50208057/

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Venezuela furious at Obama's comments on ailing Chavez

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government reacted with fury on Friday to U.S. President Barack Obama's criticism of ailing Hugo Chavez's "authoritarian" government at a time of national anxiety over his battle to recover from cancer surgery.

In an interview with U.S. network Univision, Obama declined to speculate on the 58-year-old socialist president's health in Cuba, where he is in a delicate state after his fourth operation since mid-2011 for cancer in the pelvic region.

But he did say U.S. policy was aimed at ensuring "freedom" in Venezuela. "The most important thing is to remember that the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of the Venezuelan people. We've seen from Chavez in the past authoritarian policies, suppression of dissent," Obama told Univision.

Those remarks were a red cloth to officials in Caracas where emotions are running high over the future of Chavez and his self-styled revolution in the South American OPEC nation.

In power since 1999, Chavez is due to start a new six-year term on January 10 after winning re-election just weeks before Obama did. His health crisis has thrown that into doubt, and Chavez has named a successor in case he is incapacitated.

"With these despicable comments at such a delicate moment for Venezuela, the U.S. president is responsible for a major deterioration in bilateral relations, proving the continuity of his policy of aggression and disrespect towards our country," the Venezuelan government said in a statement.

CASTRO'S HEIR

During his tumultuous 14-year rule, Chavez has taken former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's mantle as the U.S. government's main irritant in the region - though oil has continued to flow freely north to the benefit of both nations' economies.

Adored by poor supporters for his charismatic style and channeling of Venezuela's oil resources into a wide array of welfare projects, Chavez is regarded as a dictator by opponents who point to his often harsh treatment of political foes.

Officials said doctors had to use "corrective measures" to stop unexpected bleeding caused during Tuesday's six-hour surgery on Chavez, but his condition had since improved.

A medical update was due later on Friday.

Chavez's situation is being closely tracked around the region, especially among fellow leftist-run nations from Cuba to Bolivia who depend on his generous oil subsidies and other aid for their fragile economies.

"The president is battling hard - this time for his life, before it was for the Latin American fatherland," said President Evo Morales of Bolivia, a Chavez friend and ally who announced he was flying to Havana overnight for an "emergency" visit.

"This is very painful for us."

SPECULATION

Chavez has not divulged details of the cancer that was first diagnosed in June 2011, sparking endless speculation among Venezuela's 29 million people and criticism from opposition leaders for lack of transparency.

"They're hiding something, I think," said Venezuelan housewife Alicia Marquina, 57. "I'm not convinced by the announcements they're making. I'm not a 'chavista', but neither am I cruel, I hope he does not suffer much and finds peace."

If Chavez has to leave office, new elections must be held within 30 days. Chavez has named his vice president, Nicolas Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and union leader, as his heir apparent.

Opposition flagbearer Henrique Capriles, who lost the presidential race against Chavez in October, is the favorite to face Maduro should a new vote be held, though first the governor of Miranda must retain his post in local elections on Sunday.

"The regime change is already occurring," Jefferies' managing director Siobhan Morden said in one of numerous Wall Street analyses of events in Venezuela. "The question is whether the alternative is Chavista-light or the opposition."

Even if he dies, Chavez is likely to cast a long shadow over Venezuela's political landscape for years - not unlike Argentine leader Juan Peron, whose 1950s populism is still the ideological foundation of the country's dominant political party.

There are parallels with Cuba too, where Chavez's friend and mentor, Fidel Castro, suffered a health downturn, underwent various operations in secret, and eventually handed over to his brother Raul Castro.

(Additional reporting by Mario Naranjo in Caracas, Carlos Quiroga in La Paz; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-furious-obamas-comments-ailing-chavez-223722399.html

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NASA progressing toward first launch of Orion spacecraft

Dec. 13, 2012 ? Recent engineering advances by NASA and its industry partners across the country show important progress toward Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the next step to launching humans to deep space. The uncrewed EFT-1 mission, launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2014, will test the re-entry performance of the agency's Orion capsule, the most advanced spacecraft ever designed, which will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before.

"These recent milestones are laying the foundation for our first flight test of Orion in 2014," said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The work being done to prepare for the flight test is really a nationwide effort and we have a dedicated team committed to our goal of expanding the frontier of space."

A tool that will allow the titanium skeleton of the Orion heat shield to be bolted to its carbon fiber skin is at the Denver facility of the spacecraft's prime contractor Lockheed Martin. This will enable workers to begin assembling the two pieces of the heat shield. Almost 3,000 bolts are needed to hold the skeleton to the skin. A special stand was built to align the skin on the skeleton as holes for the bolts are drilled. Work to bolt the skeleton to the skin will be completed in January. The heat shield then will be shipped to Textron Defense Systems near Boston where the final layer, an ablative material very similar to that used on the Apollo spacecraft, will be added. The completed heat shield is scheduled to be ready for installation onto the Orion crew module at Kennedy next summer.

To test the heat shield during EFT-1's re-entry, Orion will travel more than 3,600 miles above Earth's surface, 15 times farther than the International Space Station's orbital position. This is farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years. Orion will return home at a speed almost 5,000 mph faster than any current human spacecraft.

This week, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., received materials to begin manufacturing the adapter that will connect the Orion capsule to a United Launch Alliance Delta IV heavy-lift rocket for EFT-1. Two forward and two aft rings will be welded to barrel panels to form two adapters. This adapter design will be tested during EFT-1 for use during the first launch of NASA's next heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), in 2017. SLS will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low Earth orbit, providing an entirely new capability for human exploration.

Data from the adapter on the flight test will provide Marshall engineers with invaluable experience developing hardware early in the design process. Designing the adapter once for multiple flights also provides a cost savings.

Of the two adapters welded at Marshall, one will attach Orion to the Delta IV heavy-lift rocket used for EFT-1. The other adapter will be a structural test article to gain knowledge on the design.

NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program also has passed a major agency review that lays the groundwork at Kennedy to support future Orion and SLS launches. The GSDO Program completed a combined system requirements review and system definition review, in which an independent board of technical experts from across NASA evaluated the program's infrastructure specifications, budget and schedule. The board confirmed GSDO is ready to move from concept development to preliminary design. The combination of the two assessments represents a fundamentally different way of conducting NASA program reviews. The team is streamlining processes to provide the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable launch facility.

The GSDO program last week also led the third Stationary Recovery Test Working Group session in Norfolk, Va. The team presented to the U.S. Navy detachment that will recover the capsule during EFT-1 a complete list of tasks required to accomplish stationary recovery test objectives. The working group outlined the plan for roles and responsibilities to accomplish required test procedures. Included in these presentations were the commanding officer of the USS Mesa Verde and the fleet forces command director of operations, who both expressed complete support for the test.

For more information about NASA's exploration programs: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

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


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/N8udSdmRde8/121213204902.htm

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Art for Wealth?s Sake: Art Basel Paints a Picture of Miami?s Separate and Unequal Worlds

It?s 10 p.m. on a Friday night. A naked girl is splashing about in the swimming pool at the Standard Hotel Miami. She is from New York and runs a nonprofit for homeless teens. We?ll call her Liz: ?You?re so boring!? she yells from the middle of the pool.

It was a common refrain here during Art Basel Miami Beach?now the world?s largest contemporary art fair?where many of earth?s most privileged humans gather for a week of champagne and gawking at art (and at each other) in the sun.

The poolside celebration was for Terry Richardson, a fashion photographer known for his sexually charged (or sexually abusive, depending on your source) shoots. A cell phone company, HTC, spent $100,000 to sponsor the party, a book release for Richardson. This is a typical event, one of hundreds that occur during what is commonly referred to as ?Basel.?

MORE: Scenes From a Class War (VIDEOS)

Basel is now 11 years old. It?s gone from a decent sized art fair to an international marketing and branding orgy with few parallels. Because all the big collectors fly down private, and scores of cool young New Yorkers file in on JetBlue, luxury brands rush in to hit both their ?target demos? and ?tastemakers? in one shot.

In terms of tourism dollars, Basel is Miami?s highest grossing week. Hotels on South Beach were demanding thousands per night for rooms. The fair?s main sponsor was the honorable UBS, the very same Swiss bank that just settled a billion dollar fraud case with international authorities. UBS not only robs the world and stashes terrorist/dictator cash, it sponsors art fairs too?cool guys.

Most Miamians don?t care about Art Basel. The city is only 11 percent white (far and away the primary Basel target demographic), and most of the 40 percent Hispanic and 20 percent black populations live far from the South Beach glam, many in poverty. Miami has the second widest gap between rich and poor in America, after New York. Blacks make an average of $15,000 a year. Whites double that, at $37,000. But at $19,000, the city?s majority Hispanics aren?t doing so well either.

Disparity defines the art world too, with its hungry artists and rich collectors and patrons. So it?s fitting that the largest contemporary art fair in the world happens in Miami.

Few people are more detached from the short-end reality of income disparity than the global art tribe. These arbiters of the cultural elite fly around the world to various openings and fairs then retreat to galleries, museums and studios in their home cities before heading out again. Of course, there are exceptions. Some artists at Basel retain a socio-politico aesthetic. A good example is Barbara Krueger, whose text-orientated pieces mocking consumerism and political power were selling for $200,000 to $500,000 and became the talk of the fair.

Bearing many hallmarks of a third world city, Miami breaks down into two distinct populations. The rich live across Biscayne Bay on beautiful beaches and gated islands. The poor are stretched across downtown?s grid, where every block headed west from the bay is worse than the one before it. The city has few economically diverse neighborhoods.

The two Miamis can easily be visited on the same day. Last week. Alex ?A-Rod? Rodriguez, the New York Yankee third baseman with the largest sports contract in history, was having a party in his $30 million modernist manse.

I skipped A Rod?s soiree, mainly because I hate the Yankees, to hang out with Dee, a 22-year-old drug dealer who lives on west 20th Street downtown. All he wanted was customers: ?Man, who down here needs anything? I?m fucking broke. I live in the projects with my aunt. Gotta get out.?

Dee said he?d take any job?as in, ?I?ll work at Chick-fil-A, man!? Saddled with a criminal record, he?s never been hired anywhere.

We cruised over to 75th Street, the main drag in Little Haiti, where public housing is painted lime green and similarly awesome pastel paint jobs cover buildings advertising W.I.C and Western Union.

?There are no banks here,? Dee tells me. ?We don?t have enough money.?

UBS?where are you?

The South Beach Basel crowd hosted quite a few Hurricane Sandy benefits. But I didn?t find one art world benefit for Miami?s poor. There is a definite willful ignorance in plopping your billionaires down at dinners and six-figure parties in the name of ?culture? while ignoring masses of people who are in dire need of said culture and are readily at hand: The impoverished residents of Miami.

Back in New York, I catch up with Liz, the naked pool gal. She?s in Tompkins Square Park, the epicenter of Manhattan?s Lower East Side. Stella is smiling. Her art world disdain has clearly dried off.

?I have no idea why I was in Miami,? she says. ?Who were those people? Why are they so boring, and why did that one guy in the black suit keep saying Le Baron over and over again??

Around the same time I get a text from Dee. ?You know anyone still down here? Tryna get that $.?

I inform Lee that Le Baron is a Parisian disco that does a chic party every night of Basel.

Lee receives this information as she?s handing out clean needles and Narcan to the local crust punk populace, all of whom she knows by name.

?Do these people really care?? she asks.

Sadly, Basel people do seem to express more concern about French discos and wearing aggressive outfits than they do about the inequality in America?maybe best seen in Miami?s two worlds.

I have an idea for Art Basel next year. In the process of exchanging all those millions for bought and sold visions, try and help some of the people from Miami.

Are wealthy visitors obligated to alleviate some of the local misery when they party in the midst of poverty? Take a position in COMMENTS.

These are solely the author's opinions and do not represent those of TakePart, LLC or its affiliates.

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Dispatch From Morocco: ?Excuse Me, Aren?t We About to Start a War Here??

? America, Syria and the State of Child Soldiering 2012

? Census Shows Sharp Increase in U.S. Poor


Ray LeMoine was born in Boston and lives in New York. He?s done humanitarian work in Iraq and Pakistan and has written for various media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Magazine and the Awl.

?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/art-wealth-sake-art-basel-paints-picture-miami-221206514.html

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Harsh winter weather turns up heat on FLSA compliance - Business ...

snowy weatherThe Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is generally a fairly straightforward law?for most of the year. But winter weather?and the delays and closures that sometimes accompany it?can make wage-and-hour compliance more difficult. When employees have a hard time getting to work, here?s the FLSA guidance you need.

Employees come in late, leave early

Employees may straggle in late or leave early because of bad roads or disruptions to mass transit?or they may decide to just stay home. Whether you must pay for the time not worked depends on whether employees are nonexempt or exempt.

FLSA rules: Nonexempts need only be paid for the time they work. So nonexempts who arrive late, leave early or just stay home don?t have to be paid for time not worked.

You may dock the pay of exempts who stay home for a full day. Exempts who come in late or leave early may have their leave banks debited in partial-day increments provided they continue to receive their full salaries even if they run out of accrued time and continue to take partial days off.

Policy tip: Specify how late is late enough (or how early is early enough), to trigger a partial-day deduction. Trap: If you don?t use leave banks, exempts who come in late or leave early must still receive their full pay.

You?re closed

If you decide to keep the business closed for a day or two, nonexempts can take a paid or unpaid day off, since you need to pay them only for their working time.

Exempt pay issues, however, are more complicated. Exempts can be required to take a paid day off provided you have a bona fide benefits plan and they continue to receive payments equal to their guaranteed salary. Same trap: Exempts who would run out of accrued time, so that debiting their leave banks would result in a negative balance, or those who have already run out of accrued time, must be paid their full salaries.

Too few employees show up to make the day productive

Employers sometimes reward those who trek in by paying them for a half-day, even if they were at work for only an hour or so. The pitfall here is overtime. When figuring nonexempts? regular rates, count as hours worked only the time they spent on the premises; don?t count the extra pay for showing up when figuring their regular rates.

Key: Stick to your decision to close. Don?t let employees think you?ll open later, weather permitting. Why: You may have to pay for the time they spend waiting at home.

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"Lincoln" leads Golden Globe movie nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Lincoln," the tale of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's battle to end slavery, ruled at the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday, while a very different movie take on slavery - "Django Unchained" - got a big boost in Hollywood's crowded awards season.

Steven Spielberg's portrayal of one of America's most revered presidents won a leading seven nominations, including best drama, best director, best screenplay and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.

But "Lincoln" faces stiff competition at the Golden Globes from Ben Affleck's Iran hostage drama "Argo" and Quentin Tarantino's dark and quirky slavery-era Western, "Django Unchained."

The best drama nominees were rounded out by thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, with four mentions, and the shipwreck tale, "Life of Pi," with three.

The Golden Globe Awards, which will be given out by about 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on January 13, are among the most widely watched honors programs leading up to the Oscars in February, although their ultimate choices for best movie rarely coincide.

'LINCOLN' SEEN AS OSCAR FRONTRUNNER

"Lincoln" is already regarded as an Oscar frontrunner after picking up multiple accolades from U.S. critics' groups and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

Producer Kathleen Kennedy said the film's portrayal of Lincoln's battles in Congress to get slavery abolished had struck a chord with Americans at a time of political gridlock in Washington.

"People have become frustrated with the political process, and the movie takes you on a journey that shows the democratic process is difficult but the end result is a very satisfying process...I think that's what people are excited about after watching 'Lincoln,'" Kennedy told Reuters on Thursday.

Tarantino's violent and sometimes comic "Django Unchained," starring Jamie Foxx, has fared less well - until now.

"This was a huge boost. 'Django Unchained' was very much SAG snubbed. But now they are really back in the game," Thelma Adams, contributing editor at Yahoo! Movies, told Reuters.

"It's very gratifying to get this many nominations from the HFPA for a film I worked so hard on and am so passionate about," Tarantino said in a statement.

Unlike the Academy Awards, the HFPA has separate categories for film dramas and comedies.

"Les Miserables," the movie version of the worldwide hit stage musical, earned four Golden Globe nominations in the comedy/musical category, as did "Silver Linings Playbook," about an unlikely romance between a man suffering from bipolar disorder and a young widow.

The stars of both films - Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables," and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper for "Silver Linings Playbook," - will be among those competing for acting awards.

FROM STAGE TO SCREEN

"Les Mis" director, Tom Hooper, who failed to get a nomination for his work on the movie, acknowledged the challenge of translating the beloved musical to the big screen.

"Millions of people hold this musical so close to their heart. I had to make a film that honors that experience...and I needed to find a way to work, which is why I chose to do all live singing," Hooper told Reuters.

The HFPA also opened the door to smaller, sometimes overlooked movies and performances, while largely snubbing high profile contenders such as the James Bond film "Skyfall," which got just one mention, for Adele's best original song.

Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" and admired British senior ensemble film, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," were both nominated in the best musical or comedy category.

"They are precious little films that now have to be taken seriously," said Tom O'Neil of awards website Goldderby.com.

In the acting race, Jessica Chastain's CIA agent in "Zero Dark Thirty" will square off against Helen Mirren in "Hitchcock," British actress Rachel Weisz in period drama, "The Deep Blue Sea," France's Marion Cotillard for "Rust and Bone," and Naomi Watts in tsunami survival tale "The Impossible."

Chastain said that aside from being a true-life thriller, "Zero Dark Thirty" also aimed at asking questions about society.

"To be involved in a movie that does that - the 9/11 hunt for Osama bin Laden pretty much defined this decade for us - and to be playing the woman who sacrificed so much to find him is such an honor," the actress told Reuters.

Day-Lewis's performance as Lincoln will compete against Denzel Washington's alcoholic airline pilot in "Flight," Richard Gere's role as a corrupt financial executive in "Arbitrage," John Hawkes as a severely disabled man in "The Sessions," and Joaquin Phoenix's drifter in the cult tale, "The Master."

The Golden Globes also honor the year's best TV shows. "Game Change," the HBO film about Sarah Palin's 2008 bid to become U.S. vice-president, led the nominations with five, followed by post-9/11 psychological thriller, "Homeland," with four.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Paul Simao and David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lincoln-leads-golden-globe-nominations-135631182.html

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Google 'winter cleaning' is coming, Google Sync and Calendar features are going away

Google Account Sync

We're nearing the end of 2012, and that means Google is doing some "winter cleaning" around the office and some less-popular services are going away. Google will be shutting down several services related to sync and calendar, all within the next month. First, several Google Calendar features are going away -- reservable times can no longer be created in appointment slots, but currently set slots will remain for one year. Two calendar "labs" features are going away as well: "Smart Rescheduler" and "Add gadget by URL." Google is also removing features that let users check and make appointments via SMS. 

Next, traditional Google Sync is going away -- this was the protocol that let users sync their mail, contacts and calendar to devices via the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. With the introduction of CardDAV and CalDav, Google can now offer much the same service with the IMAP protocol instead. Google Sync will shut down to new users on January 30, 2013, but will remain active for anyone that sets it up prior and all Google Apps users.

It sounds like a doomsday scenario of Google services getting shut down, but most users won't notice. Android syncs natively with Google Apps and therefore won't be affected by the Google Sync shutdown. You may want to take a look if you happen to use any of these Google Calendar tools, though.

Source: Google Official Blog



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/tHMEcd1jSrk/story01.htm

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Long-term anabolic-androgenic steroid use may impact visuospatial memory

Dec. 14, 2012 ? The long-term use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) may severely impact the user's ability to accurately recall the shapes and spatial relationships of objects, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School investigators.

In the study, published December 14 online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, McLean Hospital Research Psychiatrist Harrison Pope, MD, used a variety of tests to determine whether AAS users developed cognitive defects due to their admitted history of abuse.

"Our work clearly shows that while some areas of brain function appear to be unaffected by the use of AAS, users performed significantly worse on the visuospatial tests that were administered. Those deficits directly corresponded to their length of use of anabolic-androgenic steroids," explained Pope. "Impaired visuospatial memory means that a person might have difficulty, for example, in remembering how to find a location, such as an address on a street or a room in a building."

The study looked at 44 individuals whose ages ranged from 29-55, with 31 having used AAS for an average of seven years. Each participant was asked to complete five cognitive tests that assessed a wide range of brain functions, including memory for shapes and locations of objects, memory for lists of words, reaction time, ability to maintain attention, and speed of information processing .

Pope and his colleagues discovered that those participants who were long-term AAS users did significantly worse than nonusers on a test called "Pattern Recognition Memory," where participants are asked to try to remember a collection of patterns that they have been presented on a computer screen. The scores on this test declined noticeably with increasing lifetime AAS dose. These results remained stable in sensitivity analyses addressing potential confounding factors, indicating that the findings were unlikely to be attributable to some factor other than AAS use.

Pope explained, "We have seen a significant rise in AAS use within the general population over the last 20 years, and are finding that people are taking doses that are often 10 times stronger than those typically used in the 1960s and 70s. We are worried that with higher doses of AAS and longer periods of lifetime exposure, some people might even eventually develop visuospatial deficits similar to those sometimes seen in elderly people with dementia, who can become easily become lost or disoriented. "

According to Pope, science still knows very little about the very long-term effects of AAS abuse, so few in fact that the McLean team did not know if they would even find that the extended use of AAS resulted in any cognitive defects. "The magnitude of our findings was quite shocking and we hope that they will lead to larger studies and increased awareness regarding the possible dangers of the use and abuse of AAS," said Pope.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by McLean Hospital.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Gen Kanayama, Joseph Kean, James I. Hudson, Harrison G. Pope. Cognitive deficits in long-term anabolic-androgenic steroid users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.11.008

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/xEnN-pzLTKY/121214143025.htm

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Friday, December 14, 2012

Karzai says he'll meet with Obama in Washington

KABUL (AP) ? President Hamid Karzai said Thursday he will meet President Barack Obama in Washington next month to discuss a postwar U.S. role in his country, whose fragile security was highlighted hours earlier by a suicide bombing that killed one U.S. troop and two Afghan civilians.

At a news conference with visiting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Karzai said he and Obama will discuss how many U.S. troops will remain after the Western combat mission ends in December 2014. He said he understands that immunity from Afghan laws for those remaining Americans is of "immense importance" to Washington, but he added that he has his own priorities in negotiating a postwar U.S. role.

"Give us a good army, a good air force and a capability to project Afghan interests in the region," Karzai said, and he would be ready to argue "with ease and with reason" that his country should grant immunity to U.S. troops.

Obama has said the U.S. will not abandon Afghanistan and risk that it might revert to the al-Qaida haven it became in the 1990s after the Taliban came to power. Nor has he indicated what size and scope of post-2104 military mission he thinks is necessary and affordable.

The Taliban are a small but resilient force, even after 11 years of fighting a vastly larger U.S.-led international force. They managed to send a dramatic reminder Thursday, claiming credit for the suicide bombing that killed three and wounded 17 near an entrance to Kandahar Air Field, the largest Western base in southern Afghanistan. Panetta and his traveling party had left the air field about two hours before the attack.

The U.S. military did not identify the American who was killed. It said an investigation was under way.

Panetta was at the air field for about three hours, receiving a briefing from U.S. commanders. Panetta also spoke to about 350 U.S. troops and took questions from them before flying back to Kabul, where he met with Karzai at the presidential palace.

Panetta described the Kandahar attack as further evidence of insurgent brutality.

"This is what they resort to in order to try to continue to stimulate chaos in this country," he said. "They will not be successful."

The Karzai-Obama meeting, which Panetta said would occur during the week of Jan. 7, with no specific date set, also is intended to discuss prospects for establishing a process for pursuing peace with the Taliban.

The main message of Panetta's two-day visit to Afghanistan was one of reassurance to Afghans that they will not be abandoned after 2014. And he made a pitch for patience among Americans tired of war.

"For the first time since 9/11 we have a chance to achieve the mission that we are embarked upon," Panetta said. "To achieve that mission will require a continued commitment, continued perseverance, continued partnership and continued sacrifice on the part of our nations."

He told Karzai that his country should not doubt U.S. resolve to prevent the Taliban from regaining power and potentially facilitating al-Qaida's return.

"America will not turn away from Afghanistan," he said.

The Pentagon chief, who is expected to step down early in 2013 and return to private life, also made a plea for Pakistan to do more to clear al-Qaida, the Taliban and other extremist groups from havens on its side of the border with Afghanistan.

He said Pakistani leaders have often promised to take action, "but have not followed through." Without such action, peace and security in Afghanistan will remain elusive, Panetta said.

Another major issue facing Panetta in the closing weeks of his tenure is how many U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2013 and 2014. There currently are 66,000 in the country, down from a peak of about 100,000 in 2011.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of international forces in four southern provinces, including the key province of Kandahar, told reporters Thursday that he foresees further troop cuts in coming months, but he did not specify whether he was talking only about U.S. troops.

"I fully expect by next summer we will have less ISAF forces here because we'll need less ISAF forces," Abrams said, using the acronym for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force. He said believes fewer will be needed because Afghan forces will be more capable by then.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/karzai-says-hell-meet-obama-washington-190735849--politics.html

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Thad McIlroy ? Future Of Publishing ? Higher Education and ...

I?m participating in a live chat on The Guardian tomorrow,?Universities in 2012. As The Guardian phrases it, the past 12 months have indeed been heady. For me it?s the most important year in higher education since I began following the ?industry? two decades ago. I think the developments we?ve followed this year???MOOCs, enhanced digital textbooks, mobile devices in the classroom, and much more???are truly taking root and will continue their explosive growth next year. I expect that 2012 will come to be designated as the year that education ?tipped?. Not only higher education. Because of the deserved popularity of tablets as teaching tools, K-12 as well.

Here?s a selection of the most significant online articles from the past year. Read these and you?ll be able to see the pattern of a year just passing, and a foundation for the year to come.

June: Secretary of Education Duncan Declares August ?Connected Educator? Month
The Obama administration made it very clear this year that it supports the increasing digitization of education. ?Every educator needs to be connected with the best digital content, tools, and resources in order to enliven the learning environment for students, and to fully connect with peers and experts,? said?Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in announcing that August 2012 would be ?Connected Educator Month.?

June: Reworking a Course Into an Online Format: ?Sort of?Like Moving?
The Chronicle of Higher Education?asked four professors teaching free online courses to?describe their experiences.

October:?University of Phoenix to Shutter 115?Locations
For-profit education had a rough year, for good reason. For the?University of Phoenix the result was shuttering 115 locations and?laying off 800 employees out of a staff of 17,000.

November:?The Most Important Education Technology in 200 Years
The MIT Technology Review?declares?the move to online is of major significance: ?It?s rare to see major technological advances in how people learn.?

November:?Online Courses Put Pressure on Universities in Poorer Nations
The move to online is a major shift in First World nations. For poorer nations it?s a radical game changer, disrupting entrenched interest and opening up education to millions of students who could never have afforded it before.

November:?Fleeing From ?Free?
Flat World Knowledge announces?plans to eliminate the free versions of its textbooks as of January 1, 2013.

December:?Online learning site Udemy nabs $12M to expand to new platforms, targeted content
Venture money increases its flow into online education: ?The San Francisco startup competes with plenty of other online learning sites,? but ?Udemy is unique in that it lets anyone become an instructor by creating and offering free and paid video-based classes on a range of subjects its site.?

More to follow?

Source: http://thefutureofpublishing.com/2012/12/higher-education-and-educational-publishing-in-2012/

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Familiar names line up for Golden Globe noms

This undated publicity photo provided by DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox shows Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln looking across a battlefield in the aftermath of a terrible siege in this scene from director Steven Spielberg's drama "Lincoln." A familiar lineup of Hollywood awards contenders are expected among Golden Globe nominations coming out Thursday morning, Dec. 13, 2012, whose prospects include past Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro and Sally Field. Other Oscar recipients may be nominated, such as Mirren and Anthony Hopkins for ?Hitchcock,? Philip Seymour Hoffman for ?The Master,? Helen Hunt for ?The Sessions,? Marion Cotillard for ?Rust and Bone,? Russell Crowe for ?Les Miserables? and Alan Arkin for ?Argo.? (AP Photo/DreamWorks, Twentieth Century Fox, David James)

This undated publicity photo provided by DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox shows Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln looking across a battlefield in the aftermath of a terrible siege in this scene from director Steven Spielberg's drama "Lincoln." A familiar lineup of Hollywood awards contenders are expected among Golden Globe nominations coming out Thursday morning, Dec. 13, 2012, whose prospects include past Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro and Sally Field. Other Oscar recipients may be nominated, such as Mirren and Anthony Hopkins for ?Hitchcock,? Philip Seymour Hoffman for ?The Master,? Helen Hunt for ?The Sessions,? Marion Cotillard for ?Rust and Bone,? Russell Crowe for ?Les Miserables? and Alan Arkin for ?Argo.? (AP Photo/DreamWorks, Twentieth Century Fox, David James)

This undated publicity image provided by Universal Pictures shows Russell Crowe as Javert, center, in a scene from the motion-picture adaptation of "Les Mis?rables,? directed by Tom Hooper. A familiar lineup of Hollywood awards contenders are expected among Golden Globe nominations coming out Thursday morning, Dec. 13, 2012, whose prospects include past Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro and Sally Field. Other Oscar recipients may be nominated, such as Mirren and Anthony Hopkins for ?Hitchcock,? Philip Seymour Hoffman for ?The Master,? Helen Hunt for ?The Sessions,? Marion Cotillard for ?Rust and Bone,? Russell Crowe for ?Les Miserables? and Alan Arkin for ?Argo.? (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Laurie Sparham)

(AP) ? A familiar lineup of Hollywood awards contenders are expected among Golden Globe nominations, whose prospects include past Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro and Sally Field.

Nominations come out Thursday morning for the 70th Globes ceremony, Hollywood's second-biggest film honors after the Academy Awards.

Among potential contenders are two-time Oscar winners Day-Lewis and Field for Steven Spielberg's Civil War saga "Lincoln," whose Globe possibilities also include past Oscar recipient Tommy Lee Jones.

Two-time Oscar winner De Niro is in the running for the lost-soul romance "Silver Linings Playbook," along with the film's lead performers, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

The field of contenders is loaded with other Oscar recipients such as Mirren and Anthony Hopkins for "Hitchcock," Philip Seymour Hoffman for "The Master," Helen Hunt for "The Sessions," Marion Cotillard for "Rust and Bone," Russell Crowe for "Les Miserables" and Alan Arkin for "Argo."

One of the year's big action hits, the James Bond adventure "Skyfall," could bring the latest Globe nomination for past Oscar winner Javier Bardem, who elevates his super-villain role into one of the year's most entertaining performances.

Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a relatively small group of about 90 reporters covering Hollywood for overseas outlets, the Globes sometimes single out newcomers to Hollywood's awards scene. Hilary Swank's Globe win for 1999's "Boys Don't Cry" helped put her on the map on the way to winning her first Oscar.

The possibilities this time include veteran French performers Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, who star as an elderly couple in "Amour," and first-time actors Quvenzhane Wallis and Dwight Henry for the low-budget critical darling "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

Globe acting winners often go on to receive the same prizes at the Oscars. All four Oscar winners last season ? lead performers Meryl Streep of "The Iron Lady" and Jean Dujardin of "The Artist" and supporting players Octavia Spencer of "The Help" and Christopher Plummer of "Beginners" ? won Globes first.

The Globes have a spotty record predicting which films might go on to earn the best-picture prize at the Academy Awards, however.

The Globes feature two best-film categories, one for drama and one for musical or comedy. Last year's Oscar best-picture winner, "The Artist," preceded that honor with a Globe win for best musical or comedy.

But in the seven years before that, only one winner in the Globe best-picture categories ? 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire" ? followed up with an Oscar best-picture win.

Along with 14 film prizes, the Globes hand out awards in 11 television categories.

Jodie Foster, a two-time Oscar and Globe winner for "The Accused" and "The Silence of the Lambs," will receive the group's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Jan. 13 ceremony.

Tina Fey, a two-time Globe TV winner for "30 Rock," and Amy Poehler, a past nominee for "Parks and Recreation," will host the show, which airs live on NBC.

Fey and Poehler follow Ricky Gervais, who was host the last three years and rubbed some Hollywood egos the wrong way with sharp wisecracks about A-list stars and the foreign press association itself.

With stars sharing drinks and dinner, the Globes have a reputation as one of Hollywood's loose and unpredictable awards gatherings. Winners occasionally have been off in the restroom when their names were announced, and there have been moments of onstage spontaneity such as Jack Nicholson mooning the crowd or Ving Rhames handing over his trophy to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon.

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Online:

http://www.goldenglobes.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-13-US-Golden-Globe-Nominations/id-a1e2d3da10fc4236bb960e25b75a7320

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Video: ?Lincoln? leads 2013 Golden Globe nominations



>>> golden globe nominations are out. "lincoln" did very well, leading the way with seven. on the tv side, sarah palin depiction "game change." this year's award hosts are tina fey and amy poehler . the winners will be announced on january 13th right here on nbc.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50192674/

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: Capitalfundinghardmoney.com: The best provider of commercial ...

December 12, 2012

Borrow loans from Capitalfundinghardmoney.com at best rates and let your business grow rapidly

Houston, Texas - For the expansion of their business, often businessmen need to make purchase of commercial properties. Refinancing of commercial properties can be made possible through a reputed commercial mortgage lender who offers better terms and rates for the hard money commercial Real Estate Loan that the business badly needs and the loan that can make the business flourish, meet all business goals that the businessman has. A commercial real estate loan is different from the residential real estate loan. The difference lies in the collateral; i.e. the security which in the case of commercial real estate loans is business building whereas in the case of residential loan, it is a residential property. Another difference is that commercial real estate mortgage loans are borrowed by a business entity rather than an individual. Business owners can enjoy a number of benefits by borrowing a commercial real estate loan from a trusted lender.

Some of the major benefits that a good commercial real estate loan company can provide to a borrower are asset appreciation, tax benefits, controlling overhead expenses. Nowadays there are many providers of commercial real estate loans operating online and one such provider that has been able to win the confidence of its clients through its credible services is Capitalfundinghardmoney.com. This company is a globally-reputed provider of private equity real estate hard money loans as well as bridge loans. The company adopts Capital Direct Funding method to provide the hard money real estate commercial loan in order to help both domestic as well as international clients.

The mission of the company is to help businessmen buy properties for the growth of their business with ease even in the unstable economic climate of the present times. Capitalfundinghardmoney.com through its hard money real estate commercial direct funding loan aims at helping people fight back the terrible blow or set back that the world economy has suffered due to the 2007 economic recession. Now the world economy is recovering from the blow and companies like Capitalfundinghardmoney.com are setting completely new standards allowing the economy to recover.

The Key Features of the Commercial real estate loan offered by the company are:

  • Limitless cash out
  • Par pricing
  • Brokers are completely protected
  • Amortization schedules are highly flexible
  • Borrowers don?t have to pay any fine in case of pre-payments
  • Borrowers can receive as much as 90% LTV
  • Exciting non-recourse feature
"I wanted to buy 50 acres for the expansion of my apparel factory and was looking for a trustworthy commercial real estate loan provider. I searched online, found Capitalfundinghardmoney.com and their services took my business one step up," says one who benefited from the Company?s services. For more info visit www.capitalfundinghardmoney.com

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Media Contact:
Capital Direct Funding
12 Greenway Plaza 11th Floor
Houston, Texas 77046
Toll Free: 1-877-273-7823
Local: 281-274-8706
Corp Fax: 1-877-702-5586
capitalfundinghardmoney.com
info@capitaldirect-funding.com

Labels: fiverr deal, post to linkedin newsgroups

Source: http://www.pressreleasesonline.net/2012/12/capitalfundinghardmoneycom-best.html

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Charleston Cooks! Gift Giving Guide Part 2 ? Restaurant & Food ...

Still looking for that perfect gift? Enjoy part two of our Gift Giving Guide. Let Charleston Cooks! help find the perfect gift for creating culinary magic and memories with these great gadgets, products and tools! Whether cooking for fun or for work, Charleston Cooks! is the destination for food and drink lovers of all kinds. Visit our store in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville to pick up your gifts today! Click here to visit our online store.

Get away for an exotic night with this international cookware:

North African Tagine

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Tagine -?? Beautiful, natural-looking ceramic cookware for slow stews, heats evenly and maintains temperature for long periods of time. The flat base has a cone-shaped cover that returns moisture back to the food and the base can be used as a serving dish.

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Woks ? Great for stir fry, steaming, pan frying, deep frying, poaching, boiling, braising, searing, stewing, making soup, smoking or any exotic meal.
We carry everything you need to be a mixologist ? group together for 1 great gift:

Whisky Stones

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Whisky Stones ? chill your spirits without diluting it with these special soapstones shaped like ice cubes.

Cocktail Shakers ? A must have for any party host, great for mixing up any cocktail.

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Try these great gifts for Wine & Cheese Lovers:

VinoIce

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VinoIce - In bottle wine chiller that features a stainless steel chill rod which maintains the wine temperature at the optimal drinking temperature.

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Wine & Cheese Tote Bags ? Picnic at Ascot?s Wine & Cheese Cooler includes: acrylic glasses, napkins, corkscrew, bottle stopper, cheese knife, and hardwood cutting board. This unique set holds two bottles and can be used as a three bottle carrier with glasses removed. Includes adjustable padded bottle dividers. Attractive slim profile case has a comfortable adjustable shoulder strap to carry.

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Try this ?must have? item for the Griller:

Emile Henry Grilling Stones

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Emile Henry Grilling Stones - The Grilling/Baking Stone can be used on barbeque grills for grilling meats, poultry, fish and vegetables. It can also be used in the oven for baking breads, cookies, rolls, biscuits, pizzas and other baked goods. Available in Round and Square.

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Try these gadgets for Saturday morning breakfast with the kids:

Egg Poacher

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Egg Poacher - Avoid mess and make poach eggs in no time with the Poachpod? Egg Poachers (set of 2). Simply crack your egg into the pod and set in a pot of boiling water. The perfect domed-shaped egg will slip out of the pod easily without leaving residues.

Pancake Pens ? Make the most fun, mess-free pancakes. The Pancake Pen lets you write words, numbers, hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers or anything you can draw. Perfect for use on griddles or fry pans, the Pancake Pen has a high-heat resistant silicone lid and nozzle that can handle temperatures up to 600 degrees. Fill the bottle with pancake batter and let your imagination do the rest.

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Source: http://www.mavericksouthernkitchens.com/blog/charleston-cooks-gift-giving-guide-part-2-3/

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Social Media Campaigns and Food ? Social Media is Always Ready ...

Social media has restructured, both in conceptual and practical terms, many aspects of human communication and activity. Admittedly, not all changes are to be considered value adding upgrades. Social media provided the necessary digital infrastructure for the protesting masses in the Middle East and elsewhere, created a new venue for showing off ?expressive? pictures and for making instant celebrities, and established new revenue streams for dying charities. Let?s look at how social media has impacted our eating habits.

The story starts with the advent of the Internet. According to Just Eat CEO, Klaus Nyengaard, smart entrepreneurs quickly took notice of how rewarding the Internet could be for the hospitality industry beginning in mid-90s. One of the first large scale efforts came in 1998 and 2000 in the form of online take-away aggregation sites. The sites Alloresto.fr of France and Yemeksepeti of Turkey were the pioneers and were promptly followed by many others. This infographic shows that ?foodie sites? like Yelp and Urbanspoon followed suit and established an ever-growing online foothold since 2004. ?Eating? and ?food? have been gaining significant online traffic and presence over the past decade, and social media sites and communities came into existence in a time when the Internet had already been revolutionizing the way people were consuming food.

In the February 2012 survey cited by the aforementioned infographic, 49 percent of surveyed American consumers say that they learn about food via social media, and 46 percent claim to spend more time looking online than looking at print for food research. The survey has even more eye-popping results. For example, 48 percent of consumers have been online and active on Facebook and/or Twitter during a meal. Young consumers aged 18-32 are the most inclined to keep social sharing live during a meal as they keep on texting, tweeting and chewing on their delicious food at the same time! In fact, 47 percent of the ?millenials?, as the survey puts it, keep a virtual presence and share live during mealtime. Recipe research was also covered in the survey and 21 percent of consumers seek recipes before and during a meal. Social media and eating are getting more and more intertwined.

The sheer volume of online traffic and activity was something food producers could not ignore. Interesting and fun examples of social media campaigns are aplenty, popping up all over the world as companies are almost obliged to have a strong social media presence for their products. A current example comes all the way from Australia. KFC and the Madden Brothers partnered on a Facebook-based social media campaign celebrating Australia. Eating fresh and good food, they say, is a fundamental part being a member of the Australian community and, therefore, in connecting with other Australians. ?The ?Good Times? campaign, as KFC named it, has been recently launched and hopes to capitalise on the growing usage of social media. There are many more examples of the effective use of social media, and a quick Facebook search could give a clue or two about the dimensions of this popular social media trend.

Eating is a must for survival. Sharing what is going on around you is becoming a must for acquiring a rationale for social survival and meaning. Linking these two will definitely have consequences in the long run. Let?s see where social media moves next.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-campaigns-and-food-social-media-is-always-ready-to-serve-0355792

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