Saturday, July 30, 2011

Russia to de-orbit International Space Station (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia plans to de-orbit the mammoth International Space Station in a controlled descent into the Pacific in 2020, a top space official said Wednesday.

Deputy head of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos Vitaly Davydov said that the station "cannot be left in orbit" after it stops operation.

He said in a web-posted statement that the station will have to be de-orbited in a "planned crash so that there is no space junk left behind."

The colossal station that cost billions is the biggest orbiting outpost ever built and can sometimes be seen from the Earth with the naked eye.

It now consists of more than a dozen modules built by the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.

Russia sank its Mir space station in the Pacific in 1998 after five years in operation.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects plans)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110727/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_space_station

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Friday, July 29, 2011

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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Taxes Simple- Helpful Guide For Free Tax Software | Taxes Tools

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Source: http://financehouston.com/taxestools/26/taxes-simple-helpful-guide-for-free-tax-software/

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

[nba] Rajon Rondo s Elbow Is Still Not Right After Dislocation

Rajon Rondo?s elbow is still not right after dislocation

It was the most gruesome sight of the playoffs (unless you?re a Lakers fan, then it was Game 4 against Dallas) ? Rajon Rondo falling in the series against Miami and his elbow bending the wrong way. An entire nation winced at the replay.

Months later, hanging out at his youth camp in his native Louisville, Rondo told ESPNBoston his elbow still isn?t right.

?It?s the most pain I?ve ever been in playing ball. I?m feeling a little pain now, but the swelling is down. The only thing is there?s swelling in my joint. I?ll be fine, it just takes time. I?ve got a couple more weeks that I?m off, as far as rest and the repetition of weights.?

He will be back and ready to go whenever the season starts. And he thinks the Celtics have one more run in them.

?I?m not concerned about the Big Three. There?s a lot of things that people don?t see, behind the scenes. They take care of their bodies. They are in the gym early, in the gym late? We still have a chance to get another ring.?

> Rajon Rondo?s elbow is still not right after dislocation - Photo posted in BX SportsCenter | Sign in and leave a comment below!

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Review: Google all the time on the Chromebook (AP)

ATLANTA ? New laptops running Google's Chrome operating system offer a new approach in portable computing: Games, productivity tools and anything else you might need are handled by distant computers connected to the Internet.

With this method, you don't store data on a hard drive inside the computer. That streamlines things, at the cost of having stronger, standalone applications that normally handle these tasks. But the trade-off might be worth it for the more casual consumers of online content.

Google already has a good variety of online services that will be key to any success for the set of laptops known as Chromebook. There's Gmail for messages, Google Plus for sharing photos and links and Google Docs for word processing, spreadsheets and other common tasks. Other companies also make free programs, which run through Google's Chrome browser.

All that is important because you can't install Microsoft Office or other software suites on the Chromebook. Everything done on the Chromebook has to be Web-based.

Chromebook is Google's way of showcasing its "cloud computing" philosophy, in which everything you need is available on the Internet. Google believes storage and services are better handled by Internet-connected data centers located far from you. By contrast, computers running Microsoft's Windows tend to keep files and programs on the individual machines in front of you.

Samsung Electronics Co. and Acer Inc. are making the first Chromebooks using Google's Chrome Web browser and an underlying operating system based on Linux.

Samsung's cheaper, Wi-Fi-only model retails for $429. It comes co-branded with Google's Chrome logo on the cover. It has two USB ports and slots for an SD memory card and a SIM phone card. You can connect an external monitor to it. You can also connect to the Internet wirelessly through Wi-Fi, but there's no Ethernet port to allow wired connections to a network or Bluetooth capability to connect to untethered external devices.

For $70 more, you can get a model that can connect through Verizon's 3G cellular network when Wi-Fi isn't an option. That's the model I tested, though I didn't end up needing the 3G capabilities because I always had Wi-Fi at work, at home and in cafes.

The unit I tried only had a 16 gigabyte solid state storage drive, but that's fine. I wasn't planning on hoarding video clips or music files. Documents, for the most part, are supposed to be stored online as part of Google's cloud philosophy.

Chromebook is a lean, mean browsing machine primarily because it urges users to move away from the local storage of content and data. Google's approach is to have you store your photos in a Web-based album such as Picasa, rather than in your "My Pictures" folder on your machine. Google Docs can store your writings and Google's Music beta (still invite-only at this stage) is positioned to handle your music collection.

Although you'd think it be slower storing your files elsewhere, the experience is actually faster because the Chrome system doesn't have to be loaded with programs handling various tasks. You simply call those up online as you need them.

This approach will require faith. There is certainly more control and better access to storing content locally, and there's more privacy as well. With its growing suite of services, though, Google is betting some habits will change with time.

The Chromebook took me to my login screen less than five seconds after turning it on. Less than five seconds later, I was staring at the Chrome browser and an initial offering of apps such as YouTube, Google Talk and Gmail. With my home Windows 7 install, I would likely still be starting at the Windows start-up logo in this same time frame.

I began by adding some of my own favorites to the browser, which essentially served as my home screen for launching apps. I pulled several apps from Google's Chrome Web Store.

Tweetdeck was among the better Chrome apps for displaying my Twitter feed. Adjusting the Tweetdeck application to full screen delivered an experience that is almost the same as what I'd get when using Tweetdeck's standalone application with a desktop PC.

Another decent app for Chrome is Wikihood. It's a Wikipedia-styled page that uses your wireless connection to determine your location and then provides you with some fast facts about the vicinity you're in. As I sat sipping coffee in an Atlanta cafe, Wikihood revealed to me that I was near the site of the Atlanta Campaign, a series of battles fought during the Civil War around Atlanta. There was links to information about the area in case I decided to explore on foot.

Popular Science has a slick app for Chrome, though it's more about form than function. Upon launching, the app delivered the magazine's online articles with beautiful photos and artist's renderings of scientific topics that covered the entire screen. The articles aren't extremely long; more than a tweet but shorter than a 3,000-word long-form piece that some of the magazine's readers might be accustomed to.

Aside from the apps, there isn't too much personalization you can do here. There is no desktop to dress up with family photos or high-resolution screenshots from "Avatar." There is no Microsoft Quick launch toolbar or Apple Dock for accessing frequently used programs. It was just me and Chrome, and this quieter approach wasn't half bad.

There is a media player for playing content such as music and video stored on an SD card, which can be inserted into a slot at the front left corner of the Chromebook. The software didn't have many features, such as equalizer settings, but it worked fine when I wanted a little background music.

Not all is rosy with the Chromebook. At one point I lost the wireless connection at my office, and the online magazine I was reading suddenly rendered a lot of broken links. I edit a lot of photos and video, and those tasks just aren't possible with the degree of control I'm used to without some standalone applications.

When you're offline with the Chromebook, you are truly going off the grid and you're not likely to accomplish much of anything. It's a brick without a connection to the cloud.

The Chromebook isn't the best choice as your only computer, but it's a fine second computer for the type of casual use that is becoming the primary activity for many people busy living in their social graph.

___

Online:

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/chromebook

___

Ron Harris can be reached at http://twitter.com/Journorati

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110713/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_digital_life_tech_test_samsung_chromebook

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Pet Cats :Are two cats better than one? | Cat Blog

Until Buckley came into my life in 2006, I?d been an ?only cat? person.? I didn?t get my first cat?until I was in my twenties.?Feebee was a grey tabby cat who was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to a cat named Blue, who belonged to a childhood

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Article Content:

Until Buckley came into my life in 2006, I?d been an ?only cat? person.?

I didn?t get my first cat?until I was in my twenties.?Feebee was a grey tabby cat who was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to a cat named Blue, who belonged to a childhood friend of my former husband. We were living in Germany at the time, but knew we would be moving back to the Washington, DC area shortly, so Walt?s friend saved one of the kittens in Blue?s litter for us. Meeting Feebee was love at first sight for me. We took him home as soon as we had moved into our new house in Northern Virginia, and for the next fifteen and a half years, Feebee was the one and only feline?love of my life.

After Feebee passed away following a lengthy battle with lymphoma, Amber came into my life. She was a stray who was brought to the animal hospital I worked at with her five kittens. I did not think I was ready for another cat yet. The wound from Feebee?s passing was still very fresh and raw, but coming home to an empty house was becoming increasingly difficult, so I took Amber home, ?just for the weekend.? I really liked having her quiet, gentle energy around, and decided I was going to foster her. She became the classic ?failed foster,? and for?almost ten years, her gentle, loving, wise presence, not to mention her almost constant purr, brought love and affection into my life until she passed away after a sudden illness last May.

With both Feebee and Amber, I had occasionally thought about bringing another cat home with me. I worked at various animal hospitals, so there were?always a cats that needed homes, and some touched my heart more than others. But I held off. I intuitively knew Feebee was the classic ?only cat.?

And then Buckley came into my life in the spring of 2005. Those of you who?ve read?Buckley?s Story?already know this story, but for those of you who haven?t, here?s the abbreviated version. She was brought to the animal hospital I managed after being rescued from a farm in Southwestern Virginia. I took one look at her and fell in love. Hard. And fast. She became my office cat at the animal hospital. In 2006, I left the animal hospital to start my own business, and the thought of leaving Buckley behind was more than I could bear.

Everybody said I was crazy to try to introduce two adult tortoiseshell cats to each other. If you know anything about torties, you know about ?tortitude.? They?re known to have some pretty distinct personality traits, and they?re not always known for getting along with other cats. I won?t go into the details of what I went through to introduce Buckley to Amber, but?I also won?t spoil the book for you if you haven?t read it yet, because it?s no secret that they ended up getting along beautifully.

For the first time in my life, I had more than one cat ? and I really loved it. A year and a half after Buckley died in November of 2008, I adopted Allegra to join Amber and me. Sadly, Amber passed away suddenly only five short weeks after Allegra joined our family, and it took another year before I had worked through my grief and was ready to add another cat to our family. Ruby joined us in April of this year.

I?ve been lucky. Amber and Buckley got along very quickly. Amber initially wasn?t too thrilled when Allegra joined us. She?was twelve years old at the time, Allegra was seven months old. On paper, that?s not a great match. It?s usually better to match up cats who are close in age and temperament. Amber and Allegra were neither. But Amber was laid back and mellow enough to accept the rambunctious newcomer after just a few days.

Allegra and Ruby were a perfect match. They were well matched on paper, they?re about a year apart in age and have similar temperaments. I knew all along that Allegra needed a companion ? she came to me with some behavior issues, and even though I worked with her successfully on my own, we would probably have made faster progress if I had added another kitten to our family sooner.

Even when the match sounds good in theory, you still never know until you get the two cats together whether things will work out. With Allegra and Ruby, it was magic. I went on gut instinct and against all the traditional recommendations of how to introduce two cats to each other, and within a few hours, the two of them were comfortably hanging out in the living room together. They bonded incredibly fast. They love to play with each other, chase each other around the house, and they both sleep with me at night.

The biggest benefit of having two cats, in the case of Allegra and Ruby, has been for Allegra. She has blossomed since Ruby?s arrival. She?s become more confident, her behavioral problems have all but disappeared, and while she certainly wasn?t an unhappy cat before, now she?s far more?relaxed and content.

As for me, I can no longer?imagine not having two cats. It?s been such a joy to watch Allegra come into her own, and to watch Ruby and Allegra together. Do I regret not getting another cat sooner? Sometimes I do. But if I hadn?t waited, I wouldn?t have Ruby, and if the past two months are any indication, Allegra and Ruby are truly a match made in heaven.

So are two cats better than one? When they get along, absolutely. But like so many things with cats, it?s an individual decision. What may be right for one cat or one person may not be right for the next one. By doing your homework, knowing your existing cat, and learning as much as you can about the cat you?re thinking about adding to your family, you?ll make sure that you get the best possible match. And if that?s the case, then two cats are, indeed, better than one.

This post is sponsored by the Pets Add Life campaign and the American Pet Products Association. The Pets Add Live?campaign spreads the word about the benefits and joys of pet ownership. Visit?PAL?s Facebook Page, post pictures of your pets, and join the conversation!

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We're stuck in Bush's America

Stuck in George W. Bush's America

AP/Reuters

George W. who? I mean, the guy is so over. He turned the big 6-5 the other day and it was barely a footnote in the news. And Dick Cheney, tick-tick-tick. Condoleezza Rice? She's already on to her next memoir, and yet it's as if she's been wiped from history, too. As for Donald Rumsfeld, he published his memoir in February and it hit the bestseller lists, but a few months later, where is he?

And can anyone be surprised? They were wrong about Afghanistan. They were wrong about Iraq. They were wrong about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong about what the U.S. military was capable of doing. The country imploded economically while they were at the helm. Geopolitically speaking, they headed the car of state for the nearest cliff. In fact, when it comes to pure wrongness, what weren't they wrong about?

Americans do seem to have turned the page on Bush and his cronies. (President Obama called it looking forward, not backward.) Still, glance over your shoulder and, if you're being honest, you'll have to admit that one thing didn't happen: They didn't turn the page on us.

They may have disappeared from our lives, but the post-9/11 world they had such a mad hand in creating hasn't. It's not just the Department of Homeland Security or that un-American word "homeland," both of which are undoubtedly embedded in our lives forever; or the Patriot Act, now as American as apple pie; or Guant?namo which, despite a presidential promise, may never close; or all the wild, overblown fears of terrorism and the new security world that goes with them, neither of which shows the slightest sign of abating; or the National Security Agency's surveillance and spying on Americans which, as far as we can tell, is ongoing. No, it's scores of Bush policies and positions that will clearly be with us until hell freezes over. Among them all, consider the Obama administration's updated version of that signature Bush invention, the global war on terror.

Yes, Obama's national security officials threw that term to the dogs back in 2009 and now pursue a no-name global strategy that's meant not to remind you of the Bush era. Recently, the White House released an unclassified summary of its 2011 "National Strategy for Counterterrorism," a 19-page document in prose only a giant bureaucracy with a desire to be impenetrable could produce. (Don't bother to read it. I read it for you.) If it makes a feeble attempt to put a little rhetorical space between Obama-style counterterrorism and what the Bush administration was doing, it still manages to send one overwhelming message: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al., are still striding among us, carrying big sticks and with that same crazed look in their eyes.

The global war on terror (or GWOT in acronym-crazed Washington) was the bastard spawn of the disorientation and soaring hubris of the days after the 9/11 attacks, which set afire the delusional geopolitical dreams of Bush, Cheney, their top national security officials and their neocon supporters. And here's the saddest thing: The Bush administration's most extreme ideas when it comes to GWOT are now the humdrum norm of Obama administration policies -- and hardly anyone thinks it's worth a comment.

A history lesson from hell

It's easy to forget just how quickly GWOT was upon us or how strange it really was. On the night of Sept. 11, 2001, addressing the nation, President Bush first spoke of winning "the war against terrorism." Nine days later, in an address to a joint session of Congress, the phrase "war on terror" was already being expanded. "Our war on terror," Bush said, "begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

In those early days, there were already clues aplenty as to which way the wind was gusting in Washington. Top administration officials immediately made it plain that a single yardstick was to measure planetary behavior from then on: Were you "with us or against us"? From the Gulf of Guinea to Central Asia, that question would reveal everything worth knowing, and terror would be its measure.

As the New York Times reported on Sept. 14, Bush's top officials had "cast aside diplomatic niceties" and were giving Arab countries and "the nations of the world a stark choice: Stand with us against terrorism or face the certain prospect of death and destruction." According to Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage took that message directly to his country's intelligence director: Either ally with Washington in the fight against al-Qaida, or prepare to be bombed "back to the Stone Age," as Armitage reportedly put it.

Global war on terror? They weren't exaggerating. These were people shocked by what had happened to iconic buildings in "the homeland" and overawed by what they imagined to be the all-conquering power of the U.S. military. In their fever dreams, they thought that this was their moment and the apocalyptic winds of history were at their backs. And they weren't hiding where they wanted it to blow them either. That was why they tried to come up with names to replace GWOT -- World War IV (the third was the Cold War) and the Long War being two of them -- that would be even blunter about their desire to plunge us into a situation from which none of us would emerge in our lifetime. But to the extent anything stuck, GWOT did.

And if everything is in a name, then the significance of that one wasn't hard to grasp. Bush's national security folks focused on an area that they termed "the arc of instability." It stretched from North Africa to the Chinese border, conveniently sweeping through the major oil lands of the planet. They would later dub it "the Greater Middle East." In that vast region, they were ready to declare hunting season open and they would be the ones to hand out the hunting licenses.

Within weeks of 9/11, top administration officials like Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz were speaking of this vast region as a global "swamp," an earthly miasma that they were going to "drain" of terrorists. As the U.S. military had declared whole areas of enemy-controlled rural Vietnam "free-fire zones" in the 1960s, so they were going to turn much of the planet into such a zone, a region where no national boundary, no claim of sovereignty would stop them from taking out whomever (or whatever government) they cared to.

Within days of 9/11, administration officials let it be known that, in their war, they were preparing to target terrorist groups in at least 60 countries. And if they were that blunt in public, in private they were exuberantly extreme. Top officials spoke with gusto about "taking off the gloves" or "the shackles" (the ones, as they saw it, that Congress had placed on the executive branch and the intelligence community in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate affair).

As journalist Ron Suskind reported in his book "The One Percent Doctrine," in a "Presidential Finding" on Sept. 17, 2011, only six days after the World Trade Center towers went down, Bush granted the CIA an unprecedented license to wage war globally. By then, the CIA had presented him with a plan whose name was worthy of a sci-fi film: the "Worldwide Attack Matrix." According to Suskind, it already "detailed operations [to come] against terrorists in 80 countries."

In other words, with less than 200 countries on the planet, the president had declared open season on nearly half of them. Of course, the Pentagon wasn't about to be left out while the CIA was given the run of the globe. Soon enough, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld began building up an enormous CIA-style secret army of elite special operations forces within the military. By the end of the Bush years, these had reportedly been deployed in -- don't be surprised -- 60 countries. In the Obama era, that number expanded to 75 -- mighty close to the 80 in the Worldwide Attack Matrix.

And one more thing, there was a new weapon in the world, the perfect weapon to make mincemeat of all boundaries and a mockery of national sovereignty and international law (with little obvious danger to us): the pilotless drone. Surveillance drones already in existence were quickly armed with missiles and bombs and, in November 2002, one of these was sent out on the first CIA robot assassination mission -- to Yemen, where six al-Qaida suspects in a vehicle were obliterated without a by-your-leave to anyone.

CT to the horizon

That CIA strike launched the drone wars, which are now a perfectly humdrum part of our American world of war. Only recently, the Obama administration leaked news that it was intensifying its military-run war against al-Qaida in Yemen by bringing the CIA into the action. The agency is now to build a base for its drone air wing somewhere in the Middle East to hunt Yemeni terrorists (and assumedly those elsewhere in the region as well). Yemen functionally has no government to cooperate with, but in pure Bushian fashion, who cares?

Similarly, as June ended, unnamed American officials leaked the news that, for the first time, a U.S. military drone had conducted a strike against al-Shabab militants in Somalia, with the implication that this was a "war" that would also be intensifying. At about the same time, curious reports emerged from Pakistan, where the CIA has been conducting an escalating drone war since 2004 (strikes viewed "negatively" by 97 percent of Pakistanis, according to a recent Pew poll). Top Pakistani officials were threatening to shut down the agency's drone operations at Shamsi air base in Baluchistan. Shamsi is the biggest of the three borrowed Pakistani bases from which the CIA secretly launches its drones. The Obama administration responded bluntly. White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan insisted that, whatever happened, the U.S. would continue to "deliver precise and overwhelming force against al-Qaida" in the Pakistani tribal areas.

As Spencer Ackerman of Wired's Danger Room blog summed things up, "The harsh truth is that the Pakistanis can't stop the drone war on their soil. But they can shift its launching points over the Afghan border. And the United States is already working on a backup plan for a long-term drone war, all without the Pakistanis' help." In other words, permission from a beleaguered local ally might be nice, but it isn't a conceptual necessity. (And in any case, CIA flights from Shamsi still evidently continue uninterrupted.)

In other words, if Bush's crew is long gone, the world they willed us is alive and well. After all, there are reasonable odds that, on the day you read this piece, somewhere in the free-fire zone of the Greater Middle East, a drone "piloted" from an air base in the western United States or perhaps a secret "suburban facility" near Langley, Va., will act as judge, jury and executioner somewhere in the "arc of instability." It will take out a terrorist suspect or suspects, or a set of civilians mistaken for terrorists, or a "target" someone in Washington didn't like, or that one of our allies-cum-intelligence-assets had it in for, or perhaps a mix of all of the above. We can't be sure how many countries American drones, military or CIA, are patrolling, but in at least six of them -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq -- they have launched strikes in recent years that have killed more "suspects" than ever died in the 9/11 attacks.

And there is more -- possibly much more -- to come. In late June, the Obama administration posted that unclassified summary of its 2011 National Strategy for Counterterrorism at the White House website. It's a document that carefully avoids using the the term "war on terror," even though counterterrorism advisor Brennan did admit that the document "tracked closely with the goals" of the Bush administration.

The document tries to argue that, when it comes to counterterrorism (or CT), the Obama administration has actually pulled back somewhat from the expansiveness of Bush-era GWOT thinking. We are now, it insists, only going after "al Qaida and its affiliates and adherents," not every "terror group" on the planet. But here's the curious thing: When you check out its "areas of focus," other than "the Homeland" (always capitalized as if our country were the United States of Homeland), what you find is an expanded version of the Bush global target zone, including the Maghreb and Sahel (northern Africa), East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, South Asia, Central Asia and -- thrown in for good measure -- Southeast Asia. In most of those areas, Bush-style hunting season is evidently still open.

If you consider deeds, not words, when it comes to drones the arc of instability is expanding; and based on the new counterterrorism document, the next place for our robotic assassins to cross borders in search of targets could be the Maghreb and Sahel. There, we're told, al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), with roots in Algeria, but operatives in northern Mali, among other places, potentially threatens "U.S. citizens and interests in the region."

Here's how the document puts the matter in its classically bureaucratese version of English:

[W]e must therefore pursue near-term efforts and at times more targeted approaches that directly counter AQIM and its enabling elements. We must work actively to contain, disrupt, degrade, and dismantle AQIM as logical steps on the path to defeating the group. As appropriate, the United States will use its CT tools, weighing the costs and benefits of its approach in the context of regional dynamics and perceptions and the actions and capabilities of its partners in the region...

That may not sound so ominous, but best guess: the global war on terror is soon likely to be on the march across North Africa, heading south. And recent Obama national security appointments only emphasize how much the drone wars are on Washington's future agenda. After all, Leon Panetta, the man who, since 2009, ran the CIA's drone wars, has moved over to the Pentagon as secretary of defense; while Bush's favorite general, David Petraeus, the war commander who loosed American air power (including drone power) in a massive way in Afghanistan, is moving on to the CIA.

On his first visit to South Asia as secretary of defense, Panetta made the claim that Washington was "within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaida." Perhaps it won't surprise you that such news signals not a winding down, but a ratcheting up, of the global war on terror. Panetta, as Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post reported, "hinted of more to come, saying he would redouble efforts by the military and the spy agency to work together on counterterrorism missions outside the traditional war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq."

More to come, as two men switching their "civilian" and military roles partner up. Count on drone-factory assembly lines to rev up as well, and the military's special operations forces to be in expansion mode. And note that by the penultimate page of that CT strategy summary, the administration has left al-Qaida behind and is muttering in bureau-speak about Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran and Syria ("active sponsors of terrorism"), and even the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

On the Bush administration's watch, the U.S. blew a gasket, American power went into decline, and the everyday security of everyday Americans took a major hit. Still, give them credit. They were successful on at least one count: They made sure that we'd never stop fighting their war on terror. In this sense, Obama and his top officials are a drone national security team, carrying out the dreams and fantasies of their predecessors, while Bush and his men (and woman) give lucrative speeches and write books, hundreds or thousands of miles away.

To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.

Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/07/12/bush_obama_policy/index.html

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Government moves against Murdoch (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) ? Rupert Murdoch faced an onslaught from lawmakers Tuesday as the government backed calls for him to drop his bid for pay TV giant BSkyB and a committee summoned him to answer questions on phone hacking.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown also piled pressure on Murdoch's media empire, accusing it of hiring "criminals" to obtain his private documents and suggesting it used illegal methods to break the news of his son's illness.

Scotland Yard added to the 80-year-old tycoon's woes, accusing his newspapers of blocking their investigations into hacking at the News of the World, the beleaguered tabloid that Murdoch axed on Sunday.

In a rare show of unity in the fractious parliament against the one-time kingmaker of politics, the coalition government looked set to back a motion being introduced by the opposition Labour party on Wednesday urging Murdoch to withdraw his bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

"We are intending to support it," a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office said.

The government referred the bid to competition authorities on Monday.

Cameron met with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and opposition leader Ed Miliband on Tuesday, shortly before his office said he would make a statement on Wednesday regarding the inquiries he ordered into the scandal last week.

Murdoch flew to Britain on Sunday to take control of the crisis and on Tuesday he met with News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who was News of the World editor at the time of some of the hacking, and other key figures.

Lawmakers took advantage of his presence to call on him, his son, News Corp. executive James Murdoch, and Brooks to appear to face questions about hacking and allegations that Murdoch papers paid police for information.

News International said it would "cooperate" with the request from the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee to appear next week, but did not immediately confirm their attendance.

Parent company News Corp. announced a $5 billion stock repurchase plan on Tuesday after its shares lost 14.6 percent on Wall Street over the past week.

Murdoch is not the only one facing pressure from lawmakers.

Senior police officers were grilled by a committee on Tuesday about how an original probe into the News of the World in 2006, which resulted in the jailing of two people, failed to unearth a trove of further allegations.

The fresh claims, including that the tabloid hacked the voicemails of a murdered teenager and the relatives of dead soldiers, finally emerged last week and unleashed the public outrage that led to the demise of the paper.

Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who decided not to reopen the investigation in 2009, apologised to the victims but blamed News International for failing to hand over key evidence.

"The evidence that we should have had in 2005-6 and in 2009 has only recently been supplied by News International," he said, adding that the company had "clearly misled us".

He revealed that his own phone had been hacked during 2005-06, but strongly denied any suggestion that he decided not to reopen the police probe because he feared his private details would emerge in the press.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said he had found Yates "unconvincing".

A new police investigation was opened in January, and officers are now trawling through 11,000 documents seized from private detective Glen Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 as a result of the original investigation.

In another major twist, Brown accused the Sunday Times, the News of the World's upmarket stablemate, of using con tricks to obtain bank details and legal documents relating to a flat he bought.

He also said he "couldn't think" how The Sun, another Murdoch paper, had obtained information that his son had cystic fibrosis, adding that when the tabloid splashed the news on its front page in 2006 he was left "in tears".

"I'm shocked, I'm genuinely shocked to find that this happened because of their links with criminals, known criminals who were undertaking this activity, hired by investigators who were working with the Sunday Times," he told the BBC.

But News International later denied his claims following what it said was an internal inquiry.

It said the Sun story about his son came from a member of the public whose family had experienced cystic fibrosis and who "wanted to highlight the cause of those afflicted by the disease".

The Sunday Times meanwhile "pursued the story (about the flat) in the public interest", it said, adding that "no criminal was used".

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110712/wl_uk_afp/britainmediapolitics

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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Legal questions raised on NY's gas-drilling rules (AP)

ALBANY, N.Y. ? While an energy industry economist says New York's proposal to place large areas off-limits to gas drilling is overly restrictive, an environmental lawyer says the proposed watershed protections don't go far enough.

The Department of Environmental Conservation posted its 700-plus-page blueprint for hydraulic fracturing in the lucrative Marcellus Shale region on its website on Friday, allowing industry and environmental groups to start dissecting the proposed plan to allow gas drilling in an area where it's been on hold since 2008.

More than 3,300 gas wells have been drilled since 2005 across the border in Pennsylvania, bringing new jobs and economic benefits as well as environmental problems such as accidental chemical spills, gas-tainted well water and river pollution. New York state regulators have upheld permitting for three years while they conduct an environmental review and draft new regulations.

The proposed New York rules include a section describing several gas-drilling operation accidents in Pennsylvania and outlining New York's measures designed to mitigate such incidents.

"Our biggest concern is the restrictions that have been added," said John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. "In particular, the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, and taking state lands off the table. Those are big areas."

Felmy said natural gas development in New York's economically depressed Southern Tier would bring billions of dollars in economic activity, thousands of jobs, and new tax revenues. But a coalition of 47 health and environmental groups has called for a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, saying it poses unacceptable risks.

Joe Martens, the state's environmental commissioner, said the watersheds and state lands where gas-drilling would be prohibited amount to about 15 percent of the land in New York's part of the Marcellus Shale, the nation's largest-known natural gas reservoir. The formation underlies southern New York, much of Pennsylvania, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

"We think the drilling in watersheds needs to be reviewed," Felmy said. "We think it can be done properly. To unilaterally take it offline is a concern."

Kate Sinding, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the proposal to place the watersheds off-limits to drilling doesn't go far enough because it doesn't include a sufficient buffer around the ancient underground tunnels that carry water to New York City from its upstate reservoirs.

"We're very worried about that," Sinding said. "This is a far cry from what the city's Department of Environmental Protection has argued for."

Tom West, an oil and gas attorney who represents operators in New York state, said the industry is unlikely to mount any court challenge to the ban on drilling in the watersheds because those areas aren't considered as gas-rich as other areas.

The first wave of Marcellus development in New York would likely run along Interstate 86 from Binghamton through Tioga and Chemung counties, near the Millennium Pipeline, according to Penn State geologist Terry Engelder.

More likely to spur lawsuits are attempts by municipal governments to use zoning or local ordinances to regulate natural gas activities, West said. A drilling company recently filed a court challenge to such an ordinance in Morgantown, W. Va.

"We believe the environmental conservation law in New York is very clear in that it pre-empts the municipality from enacting any ordinance or law, including zoning, regulating natural gas activities," West said.

Sinding said environmental groups have long believed that the local authority issue would have to be resolved by the courts or the state Legislature.

"It's safe to say that very good legal minds have come up with opposing conclusions," Sinding said. "There's enough ambiguity in the law that one could make a persuasive argument either way."

If local bans on gas drilling end up in court and industry wins, it could provide momentum for state lawmakers to pass home rule laws supporting the right of municipalities to enact such bans, Sinding said.

Other legal questions are whether the DEC has the statutory authority to ban drilling in certain areas, and whether such a ban amounts to an illegal taking of mineral rights, West said.

"I don't think the industry will be inclined to go down that path," West said. "Clearly, the government is trying to strike a balance and open up as much of the state as they can and trying to give additional protection to areas they deem warrant additional protection."

The environmental review and proposed regulations will be opened to an official 60-day public comment period after the addition of a section on economic and community impacts in early August, according to DEC. Permits won't be issued until the regulations are finished, likely in 2012, the agency has said.

___

Online: Department of Environmental Conservation http://www.dec.ny.gov

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110711/ap_on_re_us/us_gas_drilling_ny_rules

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Nelnet buys residual interest in federal student loan - Financial News

(Reuters) ? Nelnet (NNI.N) said it bought a residual interest in $1.9 billion of federal student loan from an affiliate of Greystone & Co Inc.

The student finance company acquired the interest in notes issued by GCO Student Loan Interest Margin Securities Trust-I (GCO SLIMS Trust-1), giving the company rights to the residual interest in GCO Education Loan Funding Trust-I.

The company expects the purchase to add immediately to base net income.

Nelnet said the loans and debt within the trusts will increase its student loan portfolio to more than $25 billion.

(Reporting by Anil D'Silva; Editing by Don Sebastian)

Source

Source: http://finance.blogrange.com/finance-news/nelnet-buys-residual-interest-in-federal-student-loan/

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Process may be helpful when a home-Brick Fire Pit

Everyone likes to collect and outdoor cooking. Based on the above outdoor cooking is really fun and surprisingly can add another level of taste for food and experience. You can have a immediate opportunity to do so by purchasing a barbecue at a local store or online. However, a house makes bricks grate pit can be more exciting and unique experience. This is certainly the best alternative to a meeting andCooking.

Make a personalized brick also not as difficult as you thought. I suggest you one or two days for this task, and we invite family members to help them make this fireplace. These are the steps to make a fireplace brick house ..

* Finding a suitable location

The first step you should do is to select the best location in your garden. Note that a suitable place enough distance for your house has windows, orto prevent other parts of your house, the risk of fire accidents. Make sure that the location of the fire pit can be emptied easily.

* Pad Excavation

To illustrate, let's dig ourselves the pad 2 to 4 cm deep. Make sure the output level of the pad for the fireplace brick.

Use * 2?4 foot wood and wine

In the manufacture of molds for the specified size, use size of 2?4 wood and their lives. With the screw is a simple way toRemove the molds. Preparing the right mix of cement, according to the manufacturer's recommended combinations indicated on the bag of cement. After we pour the correct mixture of cement, it is in the brick foundations. Latus Make a template and place the steel bars in concrete. After this point, a mark on the concrete and get ready for wall preparation.

* Has provided the cement mortar

In general, the proportion of a partCement and three parts sand. However, the relationship a good result is two to one. This is done to get an ice structure that is easy to handle. Be sure to avoid the mixture very watery. They note that a mixture of cement used to fix can help create a balanced elements.

* Making the wall of the brick fireplace

Place a generous amount of mortar on the point you made earlier. Be sure to include the ends and sidesBricks. If the stones so that they correctly on the mortar. Take a setting, until the stones are set correctly and organized. Use a string to make sure that the customization you have done is properly aligned.

* Make sure the string properly and horizontally at the top of the stone.

You can also use a straightening machine for this step. You should be sure that the brick is on top in a position of the overlap set. Amake the strongest brick, a round half the actual size of the bricks.

If you are considering metal grid, select the desired height of the tile and place. In this case, the wall is covered with stones or bricks.

Now you have your new fireplace in the house. Enjoy your family holidays and summer kitchen at home.

Source: http://home-improvement-stone-brick.chailit.com/process-may-be-helpful-when-a-home-brick-fire-pit.html

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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Zombie Economics: A Guide to Personal Finance | ZombieSlam.com

zombie economicsI *almost* ignored this one completely when it first showed up on the shelves.? Then I gave Zombie Economics a second look.? (No, it wasn?t JUST because my pocket book has recently lightened)? My expectations were that I would find another heavy reading, boring, and information-bogged personal finance book that I would inevitably discard after 5 pages.

So what is this all about really?? It IS an information heavy personal finance book, there is no getting around that fact.? The difference is in the way it is presented.? Not only does it make fun of and fun out of finance (and more importantly, zombies and the apocalypse!) but it sets itself apart by being a bold approach to living within your means.

The friendly and approachable reading means that this book does well for many different age groups, manages to grab the attention of both adults and teens, and manages to teach even me, a bit about personal finance.? (Me! Virtually unteachable!)? I recommend this for teenagers just staring jobs, university students, and adults that are so sunk in they can?t see the light of day.

Zombie Economics: A Guide to Personal Finance
By: Lisa Desjardins & Rick Emerson
Publisher: Avery Trade
Buy The Book:
Paperback
Kindle

Source: http://zombieslam.com/2011/07/zombie-economics-a-guide-to-personal-finance/

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Retirement Planning ? Are You Investing in the Right Places ...

After buying our own home, the savings we make for our retirement are probably the biggest investment we make. The trouble is, unless you?re fortunate enough to own a crystal ball that actually works, what happens to your money whilst it?s waiting for you to retire is often left in the lap of the gods.

Most of us know that we should be investing for our retirement but there are so many other demands on our money that our retirement pot is either neglected or the decision is made on the basis of promises that we hope are true.

A lot of pension schemes are put into stocks and shares. The logic for this is that ? over time ? they go up in value. Whilst that is true, it hides a lot of things.

Individual shares can go down in price as well as up. You?ve read the warning at the bottom of the advert and thought (or hoped) that the firm selecting the shares for your pension pot will be OK.

If you take the time to actually study the charts, you could be in for a shock.

An awful lot of pension fund managers ? likely including yours ? underperform the market.

And that?s before they start charging you for the privilege of doing so.

Keeping with stocks and shares, most people would be better off using a tracker fund than an actively managed fund. The charges are significantly lower and by its nature the fund will do roughly as well as the index it is tracking.

Bonds are another option for your retirement investment. They?re not as ?sexy? as shares and don?t pay as high a commission, so they?re not pushed as much.

As with shares, not all bonds are created equal and the rate of interest they pay will vary because of this. As a general rule, the higher the interest rate relative to other bonds, the riskier the investment. Not even government debt is safe ? it?s not unheard of for countries to default on their debt ? so keep this in mind if you decide to go down this route for your retirement investment.

Property is another option that a lot of people choose for their pension fund. Like shares, property tends to rise in value over time. But it also has its ups and downs, so timing can be critical.

Whilst shares usually pay out income in the form of dividends, property costs money to maintain: ground rent, utilities, rates and other taxes. But it can also be rented out which should at least contribute to these costs.

You need a good advisor if you decide to use property for your retirement fund. Ideally, you should choose someone who knows the property market you are considering entering. UK residents should also make sure that the investment you are considering is covered by the Inland Revenue?s rules (other countries will have similar conditions) so that everything is legal and above board.

The important thing for your retirement planning is to ensure that you?ve actually spent some time considering what you?re investing in and also that you carefully monitor your retirement plans ? what seemed like the best thing since sliced bread a decade ago may be less glittery now.


Retrieved from ezinearticles

Source: http://pennystocks-towatch.org/retirement-planning-are-you-investing-in-the-right-places/

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Libya rebels launch assault on gateway to Tripoli (AFP)

ZINTAN, Libya (AFP) ? Libyan rebels launched a promised assault on a key gateway to Tripoli early Wednesday, attacking positions just 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital, an AFP correspondent reported.

Buoyed by controversial French arms drops and intensified NATO-led air strikes on the regime's frontline armour, the rebels attacked positions in the Gualish area, in the plains north of their enclave in the Nafusa mountains southwest of Tripoli.

After a retreat from around the plains town of Bir al-Ghanam last week, spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani had pledged on Saturday that the rebel army would soon try to push the front line northwards.

"In the next two days, the (revolutionaries) will come up with answers. Things will change on the front line," he said.

A rebel leader from the hilltown of Zintan said the rebels had coordinated their assault with NATO.

"We waited before launching this assault and finally got the green light from NATO this morning and the offensive began," the rebel leader said.

There were intense exchanges of artillery, mortar and cannon fire between the rebel fighters and government troops dug in around Gualish, the AFP correspondent reported.

NATO-led warplanes flew over the battlefield but there were no immediate air strikes.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110706/wl_africa_afp/libyaconflictnafusarebels

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NEA Passes Teacher-Evaluation Policy, With a Catch-22 on Test ...

posted by Loki on Jul.5.2011 at 1:37 pm

July 4, 2011
Stephen Sawchuk | Education Week

The National Education Association just approved a policy statement on teacher evaluation theoretically permitting use of standardized-test scores as one measure of teacher performance?but the union?s leaders underscored that no existing standardized tests currently meet the criteria for inclusion spelled out in the policy.

The move was urged by the union?s leaders as a way of putting forth a coherent vision for the place of evaluations in promoting teacher effectiveness. It amends all the union?s current resolutions dealing with teacher evaluations, support, and due process.

As Teacher Beat reported earlier, the union?s board of directors put many qualifications on the use of test scores in teacher evaluations even before delegates got a whack at the proposal.

In introducing the proposal, NEA Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle made it clear that the NEA?s main focus is on teacher improvement. ?The decision is whether we will define a truly high-quality evaluation and accountability system that honors our profession,? she said.

Given that no existing tests currently meet the requirements as stated, she said the union would engage in ?ongoing work to ensure they are created.?

On the convention floor, delegates added a few additional amendments. Let?s take a look at them:

? Objective evaluators must now ?be agreed to by the local affiliate,? which would, for example, not permit evaluators like the district-hired ?master educators? used by the District of Columbia?s IMPACT teacher-evaluation system.

? On tenure-granting (or as the union calls it ?career status?), the original proposal said that teachers after receiving two ?meets? or ?exceeds? ratings on evaluations should earn tenure. But the final version says tenure should be granted for a good evaluation ?at the end of their probationary period.?

? On top of all the other requirements, standardized tests used in evaluations would now have to be ?developmentally appropriate,? too.

Strong statements both pro and con during the debate on this item. Here?s a delegate from Michigan, speaking on behalf of his state?s delegation:

?It is disturbing that the largest labor union in the U.S., the largest teachers? union 3.2-million members is flipping on this position. ? Standardized tests narrow our curriculum. Standardized tests are not an accurate measure of teacher performance or student achievement.?

And here?s Ken Swanson, president of the Illinois Education Association, speaking on behalf of the union?s board of directors, in favor of adoption:

?We act on many things every year at the RA. Some are somewhat trivial, some are important, some are profound. But occasionally we act on something that fundamentally charts the course of the organization and fundamentally changes the national debate about public education. This is one of those items. This is a change to get off of defense and start playing offense. ? Now it the moment, now is the opportunity. ? It is time to act. It is time for us to talk about what makes for effective teaching and effective evaluation.?

An interesting subtext also emerged during the debate. A few education support personnel were not happy that the statement does not reference how they should be evaluated.

Source: http://www.nje3.org/?p=5485

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China pledges to boost restive west's development (AP)

BEIJING ? The governor of China's restive western region wants to boost its economy by further opening it up to external trade and investment, state media said Monday, the eve of the second anniversary of the region's worst ethnic violence in over a decade.

Gov. Nur Bekri said he would promote Xinjiang's foreign trade and economic cooperation with neighboring countries, work on establishing special economic zones in the cities of Kashgar and Horgos and attract domestic and foreign investors, the China News Service said.

China's leaders believe faster economic development will reduce ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, and its efforts resemble those already under way in also tense Tibet. Xinjiang is China's Central Asian frontier, bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and other countries, and was long a gateway, the region crossed by the Silk Road caravan routes that sent Chinese silk to the Middle East and Europe.

Bekri said further expanding trade and economic links was key to Xinjiang's long-term stability, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

He urged the region to participate more in international cooperation and competition in economic and technological areas, it reported.

Xinjiang remains tense after deadly clashes erupted between predominantly Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants in 2009. Uighurs attacked Hans, overturning buses and torching shops in the regional capital of Urumqi in a riot the government says killed 197 people.

In the aftermath, hundreds were arrested and about two dozen sentenced to death. Many other Uighurs remain unaccounted for and are believed to be in custody.

Uighur activists say the riots, which were followed by retaliatory attacks by Han people, were the result of decades of pent-up frustration with Chinese rule.

China's leaders say all ethnic groups are treated equally and point to the billions of dollars in investment that has modernized the strategically vital region with significant oil and gas deposits. Many Uighurs say they suffer discrimination in jobs and cannot get loans and passports, while many Hans see the Uighurs as a privileged minority with government jobs and university places reserved for them in Xinjiang.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, said official pressure on Uighurs continues to intensify and accused the government of using Bekri's remarks in the state media to "distort the worsening situation."

"The monitoring and investigating of Uighurs is strengthening. Racial discrimination is further increasing," he said, warning that "China's systematic policy of repression is fueling the emergence of new local unrest."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110704/ap_on_re_as/as_china_xinjiang

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Why drinking green tea?

Some people ask. Why should drink green tea, is not this one of those horrible taste?
Green tea is no different in taste to other drinks such as regular tea and coffee. You can make great mixes, and you can get all these horrible way, and like all the drinks you do not like, and those who do it.

The advantages of looking for a brand or type it is worth. Some say that the mixture found in your supermarket or hypermarketcurrent example, but an expert will tell you that the place to get your power from a Chinese supermarket, or a good health food store.

It was the Chinese and Japanese green tea is popular there, and it is estimated that the drinks for 4000 years as a health drink were, and to treat things such as headaches and depression.

More recent research has been done on green tea, and the results show a significant difference to people's healthwho have tried it. Some studies have shown that antioxidants in green tea may be useful to a number of diseases. These include cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and lowering cholesterol. It is also believed that the ability to convert to convert into body fat, and energy, so that means losing weight, too.

Lowering cholesterol reduces the likelihood of blood clots, which in turn reduces the risk of heart attacks andStokes. When you consider how many people are going through cardiovascular overweight it makes sense, a green tea that suits you for their own health benefits found.

Now I am not a medical person, and I'm not very qualified to give you a recommendation, but if you have the wealth of information about the benefits of green tea regularly certainly worthwhile out of the way to start taking it. A report that was for me was sick with cancer, and how it reduced tumorswere present in the body, and also contributed to the spread of cancer.

To limit the amount of money that each year is spent be considered medically useful things such as cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, heart attack, stroke, and a good number more, it's almost worth telling about your life insurance, your doctor or insurance broker ask if they offer you a discount if you drink green tea. (If you do not ask, do not get)

A good place to read aboutGreen tea has on Wikipedia.com, which give an unbiased view on the benefits, and an interesting article, was all the different kinds of tea in the from.

Source: http://drink-cooking-supplies.chailit.com/why-drinking-green-tea.html

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Quiksilver, MSG Action Sports Claiming New York As Surfin' Turf ...

When people think of surfing, the places that immediately come to mind are Hawaii, Australia and Southern California.

Quiksilver is trying to add Long Beach, NY, located about 30 miles east of New York City, to that list.

The Quicksliver Pro New York, scheduled for Sept. 1- Sept. 15, is expected to draw more than 25,000 people who in turn are expecting to see the best of the three ?B? atmosphere that comes with surfing: boards, brew and babes.

As to whether or not the waves will be tough enough to make people temporarily forget about Manhattan Beach and Long Beach, California, the field is expected to include most of the 35 top-ranked men and women surfers in the world competing for a $1 million prize purse.

The two-week event will be supported by action sports demos, live music from more than 45 bands, films and other ?fashion and cultural events.?

According to Bob McKnight, CEO for surfing and action sports equipment, swimwear and clothing company Quiksilver, ?We are beyond excited to host the biggest pro surf event in the world on Long Island this September. There has always been a huge contingent of dedicated surfers and surf enthusiasts on the East Coast and they will now get a chance to watch the world?s best surfers in Long Beach.

?We are also bringing the best and brightest Quiksilver, Roxy and DC athletes to New York . . . for 12 days of surf, skate, BMX, fashion, art and music that will bring incredible global attention to these phenomenal athletes and the action sports culture and lifestyle,? said McKnight.

As the first Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour Pro Surf competition on the East Coast, it has already attracted significant marketing support. MSG Action Sports said it would partner with Quiksilver to make MSG Networks and national music network Fuse the official broadcast partners of the event.

MSG Networks will telecast live and live-to-tape surfing action, including the quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds. Additional programming from the festival will air daily on both MSG Networks and Fuse during the competition and will also include live and live-to-tape daily segments showcasing the surf competition, BMX, skate and Motocross athletes and exhibitions, as well as contest highlights, athlete interviews, action sports exhibitions, daily concerts and cultural events.

Marketing includes a 30-second spot, print, radio, outdoor, Internet focusing on social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

MSG Action Sports had its official unveiling in June with ?Air in the Square,? a BMX and skateboarding competition in Times Square on June 16. It featured a 195-foot-long MegaRamp ASA Triples course that featured a 25-foot-high roll-in ramp, two 25-foot-wide jumps and a course-ending 14-foot-high quarter pipe.

According to McKnight, ?The newly launched MSG Action Sports group will elevate awareness for our industry?s athletes and events in New York City and throughout the U.S., and their understanding of sports, music and television production will be a great asset to promoting our sports and lifestyle.?

Source: http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2011/07/05/quiksilver-msg-action-sports-claiming-new-york-as-surfin-turf/

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Eliminating Your Addiction With Self-Help Tapes Asap! | Self Help ...

Looking for someone to love? Find that special someone here.

Article by Sam Weston

Self improvement tapes help you to achieve your goal of quitting by detailed instructions. Full audio support can make a difference when you don?t have the time for lengthy therapy sessions and just don?t have the privilege of affording them. I have included some of the data?s which the tapes features and what it could do to help you along the way.

Hypnosis is an amazing tool for self-help. There is nothing as pleasant as allowing yourself to sink into a nice and easy trance and meditation from hypnosis and guided imagery. This self-esteem hypnosis tape is dedicated to helping you gain control over your life and your health by just sitting back and allowing the guided imagery to lead you to a healthy life and general self-esteem.

This self-esteem hypnosis tape is a safe and effortless way to aid in your goal to better health by inducing a trance state. It should be used at least a couple of times a day. It is important to find a quiet and secure place to listen to this hypnosis tape. It should never be played while operating a car and works best in complete isolation.

Pets often find a trance inducing tool such as this self-help tape intriguing and will try and be part of it so make sure they are out of the room before listening. I would also suggest that you keep the room semi-dark for the best trance quality. Allow yourself not to work hard at ?doing it right.? All you need to do is let yourself go and enjoy the meditation trance state that develops naturally.

The self help tape or a CD ?Attain and experience Inner Peace with -Tools For Balanced Living?. Is an example. ?Tools For Balanced Living? is a Mindfulness Practice that guides you toward personal insight, body awareness, yoga postures and meditation. The Sedona Method will show you how to tap your natural ability to let go of any unwanted thought or feeling on the spot even when you are right in the middle of life?s greatest challenges.

This will free you to quickly and easily have all that you choose including the following: unshakable inner security, more money, better relationships, more radiant health and well being, more effective goal achievement plus break bad habits and other self-sabotaging behaviors, lose weight, stop smoking and sleep better.

THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY by by Susan Jeffers. Arrow (1987) 1991. How to turn your fear and indecision into confidence and action. As well as ?OUR OWN HANDS ? A BOOK OF SELF-HELP THERAPY? by Sheila Ernst and Lucy Goodison describes all kinds of therapy, from bodywork to psychoanalytically-based therapies, shows with sensitivity and clarity how to use those techniques which can actually free us and help us, and gives exercises to use in a self-help situation.

It is also important to realize that this meditation self-help and self-esteem tape is only one highly effective aid in your plan to induce self-esteem successfully. A good dietary program, exercise, and acupuncture will make your self-help program permanent over time. All you need is to assess the problems you need to focus on first as there are a lot of self-help topics which these audio books have.

Due to the fact that they all do have good results doesn?t mean you don?t need to chose which is right for you. Handpicking your choices can make a better difference and you can do it at your own home.

The author of this article is a contrubuting editor at ArticlePosts.com, today?s one stop resource on many different subjects. Active hyperlink must stay w/article.

Related Self Help Therapy Articles

Source: http://www.selfhelp-motivation.net/eliminating-your-addiction-with-self-help-tapes-asap/

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News and Society Category - Retirement Communities in Florida, Fl ...

Forest Trace is the Ft. Lauderdale?s number one Luxury Resort Fl Active Adult Communities. You can live the carefree lifestyle at Forest Trace, where you can feel every day like you are on a vacation. They provide luxury resort-style amenities that make Forest Trace truly unique. Forest Trace offers the very finest resort-style amenities and luxury services for active adults who want more out of life. It?s like being on vacation every day.

Situated on 73 beautiful acres, including a 30-acre lake, this Forest Trace scenic resort community defines excellence in service, facilities and accommodations, setting the standard for luxury resort adult living in Fort Lauderdale for the assisted living retirement Communities in Florida. Conveniently located just south of Commercial Boulevard between Florida?s Turnpike and University Drive, Forest Trace features 324 spacious one and two-bedroom apartments with balconies in a private, gated community near the Inverrary Country Club. For one monthly rental fee, their residents enjoy an active, worry-free lifestyle where great food, wonderful entertainment and fabulous activities let you do the things you never had the time to do before. With their luxury amenities, you can be challenged by a round of golf, a game of tennis, or a workout in their fitness center, be rejuvenated by a nature walk along their 30-acre lake surrounded by a 73-acre wooded enclave, be entertained by talented performers in their famous Jennie Grossinger Theater, be tantalized by chef-prepared meals and resort-style dining in the Grossinger tradition, be comforted by spacious, beautifully appointed apartments in a gated community and also be inspired at Forest Trace and enjoy the freedom to be yourself. You can find the best Assisted Living Facilities In Florida like Free golf at Inverrary Country Club, On-premises Putting Green and Golf Practice Cage, Jennie Grossinger Theater with top entertainment, Multi-purpose Clubhouse, Steam, Sauna, and Spa Facilities, Locker Rooms, Fully-Equipped Fitness Center, 73-acre Wooded, Tranquil Walking Trail, All-weather Cushioned Tennis Court, Dock Overlooking our 30-acre Lake, Arts and Crafts Studio, Heated Olympic-size Swimming Pool, Lounging Deck and Shaded Huts, Beauty Parlor and Barber Shop, Sundry and Convenience Shop, Full-Screen Movie Projection, Library, Shuffleboard and Billiards, Card Room, Computer Center, On-site Nursing and Medical Offices. Residents can be as active as they choose. A full itinerary of events and activities are scheduled daily, coordinated by a professional activities director and staff. You can enjoy the recreational lifestyle like playing cards, participating in crafts, working out in the exercise room, taking a soothing steam bath, or simply to lounge in the shade by the pool with friends.

Source: http://authorarticle.com/news-and-society/retirement-communities-in-florida-fl-active-adult-communities-by-forest-trace/

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Monday, July 4, 2011

[OOC] Captive

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