Continue reading SOPA: Who's in and who's out?
SOPA: Who's in and who's out? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? The skies above New York City were clogged with planes waiting to land in winds gusting up to 50 mph Tuesday night, forcing long delays at two of the three major metropolitan airports and causing some flights to be diverted to other cities.
National Weather Service meteorologist Adrienne Leptich said the delays occurred because the number of planes that can land each hour must be decreased in high winds, forcing some planes to circle the region or be diverted to other airports if fuel runs low.
"The winds were a little bit stronger than we anticipated," she said. "We're getting into the season now where we have stronger storms. It's not completely out of the ordinary that this would happen."
The Federal Aviation Administration reported at 10 p.m. that some arriving flights at Newark International Airport were delayed an average of 2 hours and 8 minutes while flights into LaGuardia Airport were delayed an average 1 hour and 34 minutes. Kennedy International Airport reported minor delays.
By early Wednesday, all three airports were reporting average delays for arrivals and departures of less than 15 minutes.
Daniel Kennedy said his 4:48 p.m. Delta flight operated by Shuttle America left Madison, Wis., bound for New York's LaGuardia Airport, only to be diverted to Albany, where passengers were kept on board while the plane was refueled. It did not land in New York until shortly before midnight.
"Our gate is occupied by another aircraft diverted from LaGuardia as well," one of the plane's pilots could be heard telling passengers as Kennedy spoke to The Associated Press while the plane was on the ground in Albany.
"They tell us we can't get up because we're sitting on an active taxiway," Kennedy said. Shortly afterward, a flight attendant announced that they could get up one at a time to use a restroom.
After landing in New York, Kennedy said the flight attendants had been helpful, passing out bottled water at one point to passengers who remained in good spirits. He said he wished there had been more communication from the pilots.
"I'm impressed by how well people are behaving," he said.
Chris Kelly Singley, a Delta spokeswoman based in Atlanta, said two LaGuardia-bound Delta aircraft were diverted to Boston Tuesday night "as a direct result of the winds we were seeing in the three New York airports."
She said the diversions are necessary when fuel starts to get low as planes circle while waiting for their turn to land.
A message left Tuesday with Shuttle America's parent company, Republic Airways, was not immediately returned.
Leptich said the space between planes must be increased in bad weather conditions. She had good news for those traveling in or out of New York City through New Year's, saying the next possibility of any kind of significant storm appeared to be at least eight days away.
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MUSCATINE, Iowa ? Mitt Romney and Rick Perry on Wednesday assailed Republican presidential rival Ron Paul for saying the U.S. has no business bombing Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, drawing a sharp contrast with their rising rival as he returned to Iowa to campaign before the lead-off caucuses.
"One of the people running for president thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon," Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said in this eastern Iowa city in response to a question from the audience. "I don't."
It was the first time Romney has challenged Paul directly since the Texas congressman jumped in polls. Neither Romney nor Perry, the Texas governor, named Paul, but the target was clear.
"You don't have to vote for a candidate who will allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Because America will be next," Perry said in Urbandale, reiterating a line of argument from a day earlier.
"I'm here to say: You have a choice," Perry added.
As if in rebuttal, Paul's campaign launched a new television ad describing him as "principled, incorruptible, guided by faith and principle" and the man to restore the economy. "Politicians who supported bailouts and mandates, serial hypocrites and flip floppers can't clean up the mess," it says as photos of Newt Gingrich and Romney appear on screen.
The stepped-up criticism of Paul, the libertarian-leaning Republican, comes as surveys show he's in contention to win Tuesday's caucuses.
In recent days, conservative opponents including Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann have increased their criticism of Paul on social issues, foreign affairs and inflammatory comments in his decades-old newsletter. By tearing him down, they hope voters will give their campaigns another, closer look after a season marked by candidates who have risen quickly in public standing only to fall back down.
Gingrich, whose slide in surveys over the past week has come as Paul has risen, said Tuesday he couldn't vote for Paul if he were to become the GOP nominee and called his views "totally outside the mainstream of every decent American" during an interview with CNN.
Gingrich, the former House speaker, began Wednesday, the second day of his Iowa bus tour with a speech to about 200 people in the atrium of the Southbridge Mall in Mason City. He plugged his support for supply-side economics favored by President Ronald Reagan.
Gingrich said the primary is giving voters a "choice between a populist supply side approach ... and a much more timid Washington-centered approach that will not create jobs."
Bachmann, who was on the 86th stop of her tour of Iowa's 99 counties, criticized both of her rivals from Texas. She accused Perry of spending "27 years as a political insider." He was a Texas legislator and agriculture commissioner before becoming governor in 2001.
Bachmann said Paul would be "dangerous as president" because of his hands-off views on national security.
Paul, for his part, was meeting with supporters near Des Moines, his first visit to the state since before the campaigns went dark for the Christmas holiday. He planned a series of events over the next two days as he looked to take advantage of a burst of momentum.
A conservative, Paul commands strong allegiance from his supporters but appears to have little potential to expand his appeal and emerge as a serious challenger for the nomination. Yet he could complicate other candidates' pathway to the nomination.
His opponents were spreading out across the state to woo potential caucus-goers, many of whom are still undecided amid a flood of television and radio ads.
In Independence, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum mingled with 25 people at a diner and touted his plan to give a tax break to businesses that bring their operations back to the United States.
He told diners: "Things are going great, we've got momentum." He began airing a new radio ad Wednesday that promotes his hardline opposition to abortion and describes him as a "father of seven, a home-schooler and a devoted husband for 21 years."
Romney kicked off a three-day bus tour in the eastern edge of the state, in Muscatine, and shook hands with an overflow crowd at Elly's Tea and Coffee House. The line to get in stretched into the street.
Beginning the day, Romney told Fox News Channel that he was only joking Monday when he criticized Gingrich's failure to earn a spot on the Virginia ballot as something out of the sitcom "I Love Lucy."
"I hope the speaker understands that was humor, and I'm happy to tell my humorous anecdote to him face to face," Romney said.
Gingrich on Tuesday challenged Romney to make the "I Love Lucy" comparison to Gingrich's face.
Perry, looking to recapture the enthusiasm that greeted his entry into the race in August, railed against Washington and Wall Street insiders as he met with conservatives for breakfast near Des Moines.
"Why should you settle for less than an authentic conservative who will fight for your views and your values without apologies?" he asked, delivering the core rationale for his candidacy.
The packed crowd of conservatives in Urbandale applauded as he pledged to champion a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget, secure the border within a year and crack down on illegal immigration. He also said he would bring his faith with him into the Oval Office, a nod to the Christian conservatives who have strong sway in the nominating process.
___
Elliott reported from Urbandale. Associated Press writers Mike Glover in Independence, Brian Bakst in Creston, Shannon McCaffrey in Mason City and Charles Babington in Des Moines contributed to this report.
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MEXICO CITY ? Mexico says it has extradited another suspect in the 2010 killing of a U.S. consulate employee, her husband and another man to the United States.
Suspect Joel Abraham Caudillo faces charges of racketeering, drug trafficking, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
Caudillo is alleged a member of the Barrio Azteca gang, which allegedly killed consular employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton and her husband in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
The Attorney General's Office said Monday that Caudillo was extradited Dec. 20.
It said he allegedly helped cover up or destroy evidence in the killings.
A U.S. grand jury indicted a total of 35 gang members in the crime, almost all of whom have been arrested.
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El terror parec?a no querer cesar a lo largo de la jornada y otros testigos al noreste del pa?s africano aseguraban que se hab?an producido nuevas explosiones. En total, tres m?s y en la localidad de Damaturu -en esta ?ltima localidad han muerto cuatro personas-, lo que aumentaban a cinco los ataques en Nigeria.
Los choques de car?cter ?tnico, econ?mico y religioso entre cristianos y musulmanes, como en este caso, han producido centenares de muertos. El ?ltimo protagonizado en Jos fue el pasado agosto, en el que murieron al menos 13 nigerianos.
Al menos 27 muertos se han registrado en el primer balance de las v?ctimas de la primera explosi?n de Madala, en los suburbios de la capital de Abuya. Al poco de producirse los hechos, fuentes de la agencia Reuters indicaron que no hab?a "suficientes ambulancias" para atender a los heridos y evacuar a los muertos.
"La explosi?n se ha producido en la iglesia de Santa Teresa, cerca de Abuya", seg?n ha indicado a France Presse el portavoz de la Agencia Nacional de Emergencias de Nigeria (NEMA), Yushau Shuaib.
Autor?a
Ataques recientes a templos cristianos en las inmediaciones de Abuya han sido reivindicados por la secta islamista Boko Haram. De igual manera, la organizaci?n terrorista ha reivindicado ya estos dos ?ltimos ataques.
"S?, puedo confirmarle que se ha producido la explosi?n de una bomba en una iglesia de Madala", en un suburbio de la capital, dijo Shuaib en conversaci?n telef?nica a Reuters.
"Estamos trabajando all?, en la evacuaci?n de los muertos y los heridos, pero por desgracia no tenemos suficientes ambulancias. La mayor?a de nuestras ambulancias se han desplazado por las principales autopistas del pa?s", agreg?.
Respecto a la segunda explosi?n, ?sta tuvo lugar en la zona de Rikkos de la ciudad de Jos "cuando los fieles asist?an a una ceremonia religiosa con motivo del D?a de Navidad", ha asegurado un testigo del suceso.
Reacci?n en El Vaticano
Los atentados en Nigeria han provocado una fuerte reacci?n en El Vaticano. Federico Lombardi, portavoz de la Santa Sede, ha declarado que las bombas son fruto de "un odio ciego y absurdo".
"El atentado contra las iglesias en Nigeria, el d?a de Navidad, manifiesta una vez m?s el odio ciego y absurdo del que no respeta la vida humana", ha asegurado Lombardi a los periodistas. "Y s?lo buscan aumentar a?n m?s ese odio y confusi?n", ha a?adido.
Nigeria es el sexto pa?s del mundo en n?mero de creyentes, pero las tensiones inter-religiosas aumentan d?a a d?a, lo que inquieta sobremanera a El Vaticano.
Durante su viaje a Benin de noviembre, Benedicto XVI insisti? en la necesaria coexistencia pac?fica entre musulmanes y creyentes.
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Seven towns in Germany have special post offices dedicated to answering children's Christmas letters, which letter writers see as a chance to undermine seasonal greed and instill joy and hope.
As Christmas approaches, children long for things: cars, laptops,?dolls, electric trains. The airwaves are bombarded with news of Christmas sales barometers. A stressed-out society rushes to consumption.
Skip to next paragraphBut in Germany, children still write to the Christkind?("Christ Child"), or to Santa Claus, in the hundreds of thousands ? yearning not for only gifts, but for a bit of comfort and joy.?
Since the beginning of the Advent season in late November, close to?75,000 children have written to the "Christmas Post Office" of Himmelstadt?("Heaven's City"). The tiny Bavarian?village of 17,500 is one of seven towns with special post offices dedicated to?receiving and answering letters with children's Christmas wishes.?
"I write a letter. I sign it 'Your Christkind,' and I give the?children a piece of advice. I send them a little angel, a drawing, a?poem," says Rosemarie Schotte, who, for more than 20 years, has been in?charge of the Christmas post office in Himmelstadt, working with 30 village volunteers to?answer every?single letter.
"We want to bring back the spirit of Christmas, which is a?celebration of love, not necessarily big presents," says Schotte. "One has to?look within one self, to remember how good you have it in life, be?grateful to have a family."
The letter-writing tradition all started decades ago when a letter?addressed to the Christkind ended up in Himmselstadt.?Postal workers, not knowing what to do with it, just answered it. The?following year, a few more children wrote. Over the years, what had?been a few isolated letters turned into a flood.?
In 1965, Germany's first "Christmas post office" opened in Lower Saxony's?Himmelsth?r, or Heaven's Door. Six other post offices?in places with names associated with Christmas popped up, including Engelskirchen ("Angels' Church"), Himmelpfort ("Heaven's Gate") and Himmelpforten ("Heaven's Gates").
The letters addressed to Father Christmas, who is known in?Germany as Saint Nicholas, end up in one of two places: Nikolausdorf?("Nicholas village") in Lower Saxony or St. Nikolaus in Saarland.?
The tradition is an effort to counter the encroachment of?consumption on the spirit of Christmas. Schotte says part of the?idea is is to get families closer together, by encouraging parents to?write with their children.
So far, children from 70 countries have written to the Christkind in?Himmelsfarhrt. This year, for the first time, children from?Mongolia and Vietnam wrote.
Christmas' wishes come in all forms and colors.?Children don't just want?iPods and laptops. In their letters, they?share a bit of their lives, and of their yearnings to have it better.
"We get to read about just about everything," Schotte says. "The children pour their hearts out."?Mostly, they talk about things like their parents fighting, illnesses, and separations. "We try to comfort them, to make them trust life?again," she says.?
Schotte will answer each letter with a personal note, sometimes a poem or a drawing.?She tries to?transmit her own childhood traditions of candles, the advent?crown, eating a few Christmas cookies, the family getting closer to?each other.?She wants to bring togetherness back into the lives of the children's?families.
''When things aren't working in small circles, how can you?expect them to work out in bigger circles? In politics, in the wider?world?" she says.
There is always a reason to keep on writing. Schotte received a candy bar with one letter. "Dear Christ Child," the?child wrote, "I am sending you this so (you) can get energy back when?you give me my presents."
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Continue reading Matt Richardson turns Arduino, Twitter and lasers into art (video)
Matt Richardson turns Arduino, Twitter and lasers into art (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink@mattrichardson | Matt Richardson | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/26/matt-richardson-turns-arduino-twitter-and-lasers-into-art-vide/
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[Gothamist] Newt Gingrich Fails To Get On Virginia GOP Primary Ballot Due To Sloth: Mentions Newt Gingrich and M... fga.me/tVIvdY 
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Demi Lovato took to her Twitter account Friday to scold the Disney Channel for including an eating disorder joke in one of its shows.
The former star of Disney's Sonny With a Chance tweeted about the joke made on the network's comedy Shake It Up ? one of the female characters says, "I could just eat you up -- well, if I ate" ? and blasted Disney for making light of the very medical condition that forced her to exit her series after two seasons. Lovato, 19, underwent treatment last year for an eating disorder and self-injury and has been open about her struggle with bulimia since she completed treatment in January.
The former star of Sonny With a Chance tweeted about the Shake It Up joke ? "I could just eat you up, well, if I ate" ? and proceeded to blast Disney for making a joke about the very medical condition that forced her to exit her series after two seasons. Lovato, 19, underwent treatment last year for an eating disorder and self-injury and has been open about her struggle with bulimia since she completed treatment in January.
Demi Lovato defends weight: I'm healthy and happy
"I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actresses from the pressures of an eating disorder and yet still make joke about that very disease," she tweeted Friday. "Dear Disney Channel, EATING DISORDERS ARE NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT."
Lovato also took Disney to task for its use of increasingly petite actresses. "Is it just me or are the actresses getting thinner and thinner," she wrote. "I miss the days of Raven, and Lizzie McGuire."
Demi Lovato: I will deal with my eating disorder for the rest of my life
Less than three hours after Lovato's complaints, Disney Channel's official Twitter account said it would review the episodes. "We hear you and are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible and reevaluating them," Disney Channel's public relations team tweeted late Friday. "It's never our intention to make light of eating disorders!"
In addition to the Shake It Up episode in question, Disney Channel also pulled an episode of Sonny With a Chance's spin-off series, So Random!, after a fan tweeted to Lovato that it also featured an eating disorder joke.
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
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MEXICO CITY ? Mexico said Friday that it seized 229 metric tons of precursor chemicals used to make methamphetamine, the third such huge seizure this month at the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, all of which were bound for a port in Guatemala.
The seizure brings to more than 534 tons the amount of meth chemicals detected at the Mexican port in less than a month.
Authorities announced on Dec. 19 that they had found almost 100 metric tons of methylamine at Lazaro Cardenas, and earlier said that 205 tons of the chemical had been found there over several days in early December.
Experts familiar with meth production call it a huge amount of raw material, noting that under some production methods, precursor chemicals can yield about half their weight in uncut meth.
The Attorney General's Office said the most recent seizure was found in 1,600 drums, and had been shipped from Shanghai, China. All three shipments originated in China and were destined for Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.
The office has not indicated which cartels may have been moving the chemicals, but U.S. officials have noted that the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful, has moved into meth production on an industrial scale.
Sinaloa also has operations in Guatemala, and given recent busts by the Mexican army of huge meth processing facilities in Mexico, the gang may have decided to move some production to the Central American country.
Lazaro Cardenas is located in the western Michoacan state, which is dominated by the Knights Templar cartel and previously by the La Familia group.
However, a series of arrests, deaths and infighting may have weakened those gangs' ability to engage in massive meth production.
Also Friday, the attorney general's office in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz reported that it had found ten bodies in an area along the border with the neighboring state of Tamaulipas. The office said investigators were alerted to the bodies by a tip, and are working to identify them and the cause of death.
The area has been the scene of bloody battles between the Gulf and Zetas cartels.
Finally Friday, federal police captured Javier Mercado Guerrero, alias "El Indio," who allegedly led the operations of the Zetas drug cartel in the Veracruz city of Poza Rica and surrounding areas inland.
Police said Mercado Guerrero had served as a local police officer in 2010, and passed information to the Zetas.
Local police in Veracruz have become so corrupt that on Wednesday, the government decided to dissolve the entire police force in the state's largest city, also known as Veracruz, and sent the Navy in to patrol.
State spokeswoman Gina Dominguez said 800 police officers and 300 administrative employees were laid off. Dominguez said they can apply for jobs in a state police force, but must meet stricter standards.
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BEREA, Ohio ? Browns quarterback Colt McCoy still hasn't shaken symptoms from a concussion sustained nearly two weeks ago, one that has reformed the NFL's game-day procedures on head injuries.
McCoy was not cleared to practice again on Wednesday, keeping him sidelined since he was blasted in the face mask by Pittsburgh's James Harrison on Dec. 8. Browns coach Pat Shurmur said McCoy was evaluated by team doctors and did "a little physical activity" as he continues to recover.
McCoy has not been seen at the team's training facility this week. The second-year QB, who has displayed immense toughness while being roughed up all season, will miss his second straight game Saturday at Baltimore. Backup Seneca Wallace will start against the Ravens, although Shurmur has not made that announcement official.
Wallace doesn't know Cleveland's plans beyond this week.
"I just get ready," he said. "Colt started the season, he should finish the season as the starter if he's healthy. All the other stuff will take care of itself."
The Browns are being extra careful in their treatment of McCoy. It was their failure to check him for a concussion on the field or sideline at Heinz Field that prompted the league to institute a policy of having an independent certified trainer in the press box at games to monitor for head injuries and help identify players who need to be tested.
The league has not provided any details on the trainer's responsibilities.
McCoy wasn't tested for a concussion until after the loss to the Steelers, and was sent back into the game after missing just two plays. The Browns said McCoy wasn't showing symptoms of a concussion so they didn't test him. Also, team doctors were treating other players and didn't see the impact from Harrison's vicious hit, which earned the Steelers' linebacker a one-game suspension he served in Pittsburgh's loss to San Francisco on Monday.
Harrison returned to practice on Wednesday and delivered another shot on the Browns. He believes they should be disciplined for their handling of McCoy.
"If he was hurt so bad I don't know why they let him back in the next two plays later," Harrison said. "Something should be done to them I would think. I got a game, what should they get?"
The Steelers will finish the regular season at Cleveland on Jan. 1.
Shurmur said he was aware of the league's new policy, but didn't know exactly how the system would work.
Also, Shurmur was vague when he was asked if McCoy had visited any specialists on head trauma. Tight end Benjamin Watson sought outside medical advice last week after suffering his third concussion since July. The Browns, who have had eight players sustain concussions, placed him on injured reserve Friday.
"You can't say he hasn't seen one," Shurmur said. "He's been evaluated just like Ben, by all the proper people. They're all doctors. No real difference."
Browns Pro Bowl tackle Joe Thomas believes adding a trainer as an observer is a good thing.
"Anything they can do to protect player safety is always a positive," Thomas said. "Is it perfect? I don't know. Maybe. Is it better than nothing? I think so."
The league's medical staff and Players Association had input into the changes following their meeting with the Browns last week to discuss McCoy's post-injury treatment. Commissioner Roger Goodell took part in the talks via teleconference as did Browns president Mike Holmgren.
Notes: The Browns are battered as they near the finish line of another losing season. Starting CB Joe Haden (thigh) and WRs Mohamed Massaquoi (foot) and Jordan Norwood (head) missed practice Wednesday. Also out were DL Scott Paxson (hand; calf), LB Ben Jacobs (head) and S T.J. Ward (foot) sat out. Ward has missed six straight games and is unlikely to play next week. .... Shurmur said there's a good chance rookie DB Buster Skrine will return kickoffs this week in place of WR Josh Cribbs, who was limited in practice by a groin injury. Skrine returned one kick 32 yards last week. ... Shurmur expects newly signed TE Dan Gronkowski to play this week. The Browns are short on run blockers following the loss to Watson and Alex Smith. "We're teaching him the game plan, not the system," Shurmur said.
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COMMENTARY | When politicians poke fun at themselves, it removes a layer of mystery that relates to their human side. In November, Rick Perry appeared on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" to read the top 10 things you'd like to hear him say. Of course, it was comical. This week, Mitt Romney loosened his tie and did the same. Both men exposed a down-to-earth side of their personality. Is this unbecoming to a presidential candidate? I love a politician who can make me laugh.
Honestly, I don't care for most politicians. I liken it to my loathing of calamari: no matter what sauce it's served in, it's still calamari. However, as a voter following the presidential hopefuls, I truly appreciate any humor that serves to soften the blow of the normal political campaign philosophy and nastiness.
At this moment, I can't recall a single thing any of the 2012 presidential candidates have babbled about so far. Perhaps I tend to tune most of that out right now. There is a long way to go in this race to the White House.
I can't forget, though, how darn funny it was to hear Rick Perry say on Letterman, "You try concentrating when Mitt Romney is smiling at you. That is one handsome dude!"
It's that kind of light-hearted moment that makes me stop and think, hey, maybe I've been too hard on this politician after all. Sometimes all it takes to sway me from a totally negative view of a politician is a good dose of humor.
Mitt Romney, in his appearance on Letterman, good-naturedly participated in reading the top 10 things he would like to say to the American people.
Even though he looked a tad uncomfortable in his humorous role, Romney faced the world and said, "Isn't it time for a president who looks like a 1970s game show host?"
He also said, "It's a hairpiece." It wasn't fall-down funny, but for me, it hit the spot. This simple humor did not make me fall in love with Romney. It did provide me with some relief from his often overconfident political strategies.
I can say I definitely like him more after seeing this frivolous side of him.
Any politician who steps away for a moment from hardball campaigning to trigger a few chuckles is OK in my book. It has no bearing on my vote, though.
Sometimes, especially in the political realm, a good laugh is critical. That goes for the politicians and the voters as well.
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Source: www.forsythnews.com --- Thursday, December 22, 2011
JOHNS CREEK?? Fortunately for some of the best senior Football players in Forsyth County, Saturday afternoon?s North Fulton/Forsyth Touchdown Club Chamber Bowl All-Star Game was merely an exhibition. The South squad?s 49-0 slaying of the North culminated in the worst way imaginable an otherwise enjoyable experience for local seniors. ?It was fun ? that?s pretty much it,? North team and West Forsyth safety Trevor Guthrie said. ?Of course, I wanted to win. I don?t like losing. None of us do.? South team quarterback Jimmy Meyer, a Centennial senior headed to Harvard next year, sandwiched a touchdown pass to Chris Dore and a 2-yard rushing touchdown around Joe Bartlett?s 5-yard, end-around run in the first quarter. The three scores all came in the same six-minute time frame, giving the navy-blue clad home team a 21-0 first-quarter lead it never looked back from. Dore caught six passes for 76 yards and two scores. His second touchdown reception, this one a 14-yarder from Riverwood quarterback Robert Beckley, made it 35-0 with 1:21 left in the third. The lack of cohesion stemming from just four organized practices together was evident. The teams combined for 432 yards of offense and seven fumbles. Four straight possessions ended in a lost fumble during a five-minute, first-half stretch. The North?s offense gave the ball away six times via three Spencer Transue (Forsyth Central) interceptions, and fumbles by Lambert quarterback David Br ...
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? George Clooney vs. Ryan Gosling ... it really is a matter of personal preference, isn't it? And maybe it's a generational thing, too.
Both actors are sexy and gorgeous, of course, but both also have chosen difficult film roles that intentionally play down their looks. Both ooze movie-star charisma but both have displayed versatility, as well.
And both will be competing in the category of best actor in a drama at the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 15; nominations were announced Thursday morning. Clooney is up for "The Descendants," in which he plays a father struggling to raise his two daughters while his wife is in a coma; Gosling is up for "The Ides of March," in which he plays a cunning campaign strategist for a democratic presidential hopeful ... played by Clooney. (Gosling also received a nomination for best actor in a comedy for playing a ladies man in "Crazy, Stupid, Love.")
Perhaps a little tale of the tape can help us determine an early winner:
AGE: Clooney just turned 50 this year; Gosling is 31.
HEIGHT: Clooney is 5-foot-10; Gosling is 6-foot-1.
HOMETOWN: Clooney was born in Lexington, Ky.; Gosling grew up in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.
MOST IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE: For Clooney, it's so hard to choose, simply because he's been around longer and made more movies. Maybe "Syriana" (see below) because it was so demanding both physically and emotionally. But man, is he great in "Michael Clayton." As for Gosling, he had to dig deep for "The Believer" (2001), in which he played a Jewish man who becomes an anti-Semitic skinhead. It was an early indication of his vast talent. But man, is he great in "Blue Valentine."
MOST OUT-THERE PERFORMANCE: Clooney showed his goofy side as a smooth-talking escaped convict in the Coen brothers' 2000 comedy "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Gosling fell in love with a life-sized doll named Bianca in 2007's "Lars and the Real Girl."
BRUSHES WITH OSCAR: Clooney packed on the pounds, grew a shaggy beard and became virtually unrecognizable to play a CIA operative in 2005's "Syriana," which earned him the Academy Award for best supporting actor. That same year, he also was nominated for directing and co-writing the TV news drama "Good Night, and Good Luck." Since then, he's earned two other best-actor nominations: for "Michael Clayton" (2007) and "Up in the Air" (2009). Gosling was a surprise nominee for 2006's "Half Nelson" ? not because he was undeserving, far from it, but because it was such a small, little-known film. He played a middle-school teacher with a drug problem.
EMBARRASSING BEGINNINGS: Clooney rocked the mullet in the mid-'80s on the sitcom "The Facts of Life," where he played a handyman named George. Gosling was a member of "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the early 1990s, around the same time as Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
"SEXIEST MAN ALIVE" STATUS: Clooney has the rare distinction of winning the annual honor from People magazine twice: in 1997 and 2006. Gosling hasn't won ? yet ? but this year's winner, Bradley Cooper, has conceded that Gosling deserved the title more than he did.
ON-SCREEN ROMANCES: Clooney: Michelle Pfeiffer ("One Fine Day"); Jennifer Lopez ("Out of Sight"); Julia Roberts ("Ocean's Eleven" and "Ocean's Twelve"); Catherine Zeta-Jones ("Intolerable Cruelty"); Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air"). Gosling: Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook"); Michelle Williams ("Blue Valentine") Emma Stone ("Crazy, Stupid, Love"), Carey Mulligan ("Drive"); an anatomically correct sex doll ("Lars and the Real Girl").
OFF-SCREEN ROMANCES: Clooney is divorced from actress Talia Balsam and has dated model Lisa Snowdon, former reality show contestant and cocktail waitress Sarah Larson and actress Elisabetta Canalis. He is now dating former WWE star Stacy Keibler. Gosling previously dated his "Notebook" co-star McAdams and has been linked most recently to Eva Mendes.
THE WINNER: A tie. While Clooney will probably win on Golden Globe night, Gosling is so hot these days he seems unstoppable.
___
Contact AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire through Twitter: http://twitter.com/christylemire.
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WASHINGTON ? The last American prisoner in Iraq, a Hezbollah commander linked to the kidnapping deaths of four U.S. soldiers, was turned over to the Iraqi government Friday, the White House said.
U.S. officials have long feared that such a transfer would lead to Ali Mussa Daqduq's release from prison. But his case became enmeshed in both international diplomacy and the Washington political debate over how best to prosecute suspected terrorists.
Under President George W. Bush, prosecutors had planned to someday charge Daqduq in a U.S. criminal court. But those plans were scrapped after Obama took office and lawmakers began restricting the president's ability to bring terrorist suspects into the United States for trial.
Many Republicans had wanted Daqduq prosecuted before a military tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. The Obama administration had hoped a compromise would be to prosecute Daqduq in a first-of-its-kind military commission on U.S. soil.
But the Iraqi government would not let the United States take Daqduq out of the country for trial, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
"We have sought and received assurances that he will be tried for his crimes," Vietor said Friday.
It was not immediately clear what charges he could face. The U.S. has said he was part of a brazen raid in which four American soldiers were abducted and killed in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala in 2007.
Iraq has had a shoddy record on detainee security. Last year, just a week after the U.S. turned more than 1,000 detainees at its Camp Cropper prison over to Iraqi control, four al-Qaida-linked detainees escaped. An investigation showed that the detainees had inside help.
That had lawmakers worried that Daqduq would return to Hezbollah soon after his transfer. Shortly before the White House announcement, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was gathering signatures on a letter to Obama.
"Daqduq's Iranian paymasters would like nothing more than to see him transferred to Iraqi custody where they could effectively pressure for his escape or release," Kirk wrote. "We truly hope you will not let that happen."
With the war over and Iraq a sovereign country, the United States is now bound by its diplomatic agreements with Baghdad. Shuttling Daqduq out of the country without the approval of the Iraqi government would have risked damaging U.S.-Iraqi relations.
Vietor said a trial at Guantanamo Bay was never an option, either for the Iraqis or for the administration.
"The policy of this administration, because we believe it's in our national security interest, is to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, not add to the population," he said.
Two Iraqi officials, speaking under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said Daqduq was in the custody of Iraqi judiciary authorities in Baghdad. Daqduq will stand before an Iraq investigative judge, one official said. Investigative judges decide whether there is enough evidence for a trial and recommend specific charges, somewhat like a grand jury does in the U.S. system.
___
Associated Press writers Donna Cassata in Washington and Qassim Abdul Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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Microsoft
By Suzanne Choney
You may be waiting for the ball to drop for 2012, but Microsoft has another countdown underway that the company deems more urgent: Getting rid of Internet Explorer 6, a decade-old version of the Web browser that seems to have more security holes than Swiss cheese but is still in use by some.
"10 years ago a browser was born. Its name was Internet Explorer 6. Now that we?re in 2011, in an era of modern Web standards, it?s time to say goodbye," the company says on its IE 6 countdown site.?
More than 8 percent of the world still uses IE 6 (in the U.S., it's less than 1 percent), and the company would like to see global usage down to less than 1 percent worldwide. And soon.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
To help expedite the farewell (or rather, the execution) of its ancient Web browser, Microsoft says next month it will start to upgrade Windows customers automatically?to the latest version of IE available for their computer.
"This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward," wrote Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager of Internet Explorer business and marketing, on a company blog. "We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update. Similar to our release of IE 9 earlier this year, we will take a measured approach, scaling up over time."
And, he wrote:
For consumers, the safety benefits are one of the key reasons that the industry has been moving towards automatic updates as the norm. This is increasingly important since the biggest online threat these days is socially engineered malware, which typically targets outdated software like Web browsers. The latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, which is based on data from over 600 million systems in over 100 countries, is good reading to give you a sense of risks that stem from outdated software.
But what if you don't want to update your version of Internet Explorer? Under a section of the post called "Respecting Customer Choice and Control," Gavin says that IE 8 and IE 9 Automatic Update Blocker toolkits "prevent automatic upgrades of IE for Windows customers who do not want them. Of course, we firmly believe that IE 9 is the most compelling browser for business customers, and we want them to make the decision to upgrade at their convenience."
Customers "who have declined previous installations of IE 8 or IE 9 through Windows Update will not be automatically updated," he wrote. "Customers have the ability to uninstall updates and continue to receive support for the version of IE that came with their copy of Windows. And similar to organizations, consumers can block the update all together and upgrade on their own. Finally, future versions of IE will provide an option in the product for consumers to opt out of automatic upgrading."
But say good-bye to IE 6 if you have it. And some of you may already be saying good-bye to IE in general. Google's Chrome appears to be gaining more of a foothold among users, as IE's market share continues to drop.
Related stories:
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
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DAMASCUS, Syria ? A Syria-based TV station that provided an outlet to late Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi and strongly criticized U.S. forces in Iraq has gone off the air, the owner said Tuesday, because of the American withdrawal from Iraq and improved Syrian-Iraqi relations.
Mishan al-Jabouri, a former Iraqi lawmaker and Damascus-based exile, said it was "no longer suitable" to have a Damascus-based channel run by Iraqi opposition figures and so he has closed Al-Rai TV.
Established in 2004, Al-Rai rose to prominence after broadcasting late night messages from Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi during the final days of his regime. Although al-Jabouri denies the channel had links to Gadhafi, he said he enjoyed good relations with the man who ruled Libya for more than 42 years as well as with his family.
The station gave the late Libyan leader a platform to air his views from hiding before he was captured by Libyan revolutionary forces and killed on Oct. 20.
Al-Jabouri has long touted himself as an Arab nationalist opposed to U.S. interventions in the Middle East and a supporter of Iraqi Sunni insurgents against American troops. But now, with the last U.S. soldiers to leave Iraq by the end of the month, al-Jabouri said there was no longer a need for the station, which went off the air Dec. 5.
"This page has been closed, thus resistance in Iraq should come to an end as a result," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Al-Jabouri said he also made his decision in light of the "positive development" in Syrian-Iraqi relations and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent stance in support of Damascus.
The Iraqi government was one of two countries that opposed sanctions imposed by the Arab League against Syria last month over Damascus' brutal crackdown on a nine-month uprising that the U.N. says has killed more than 5,000 people.
Asking about future plans for the station, al-Jabouri said he would be ready to grant it to Gadhafi's daughter, Aisha, to be a "voice for the Libyan opposition."
In an audio message broadcast on Al-Rai station from her exile in Algeria late last month, Aisha urged Libyans to overthrow their new rulers whom she said "arrived with the planes of NATO."
Al-Jabouri has a murky past. He fled to Syria in 2006, a year before an Iraqi court convicted him of embezzling millions of dollars. He and his son Yazan were accused of embezzling some $7 million a month intended for units of a special force created to protect oil pipelines from attacks by insurgents. Al-Jabouri has denied the charges, but he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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The most striking observation from testing the Fire is that everything...
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/M0g4E9DehH8/story01.htm
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WASHINGTON ? U.S. military officials said Monday they are concerned that Tehran may have an opportunity to acquire information about the classified surveillance drone program after one of the stealthy aircraft crashed in Iran while patrolling in western Afghanistan.
But experts suggested that even if the Iranians have found parts of the unmanned spy plane, they can probably glean little from it. Because it likely fell from a high altitude, there may be very few large pieces to examine.
The RQ-170 ? known as the Sentinel ? has been used in Afghanistan, particularly along the border, for several years. The U.S. Air Force has just "a handful" of them, said defense analyst Loren Thompson, with the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.
"I think we're always concerned when there's an aircraft, whether it's manned or unmanned, that we lose, particularly in a place where we're not able to get to it," Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Monday.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that the military lost control of one of the stealthy drones while it was flying a mission over western Afghanistan. Iran's official IRNA news agency has said that Iran's armed forces shot it down.
U.S. officials have rejected that claim, saying there are no indications the Sentinel was shot down. In either case, officials said this would be the first Sentinel lost by the U.S.
Analysts, however, played down any serious impact of the drone ? or pieces of it ? falling into Iranian hands.
"This is an aircraft that evades radar because of its shape and because of the special material used," said Thompson. "It won't enable the Iranians to build a stealthy unmanned aircraft."
Analysts said that stealth technologies ? primarily the low-observable shape and the materials used ? are fairly well known, but often hard to replicate. The Sentinel, made by Lockheed Martin, has a swept-wing shape, much like the B-2 stealth bomber. And it's been called the "Beast of Kandahar" because of its use in Afghanistan.
"They were designed to be silver bullets that could go places that other manned or unmanned aircraft would not be able to go. It specifically is designed to be very difficult for enemies to track and target," said Thompson. "This is a high-flying unmanned aircraft that malfunctioned and then fell to earth. It's likely to be broken up into hundreds of pieces."
John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org think tank said the Iranians already have all the data on the drone's external shape, "and there is nothing particularly unique about this configuration."
He said the key to America's success with the stealthy aircraft is the fuel efficient engines, which give it the ability to stay aloft for days rather than hours.
"Are we going to stop flying them? No. Was it a secret we were flying them? No," said Pike. "Did Iran shoot it down? Probably not. Because Iranian air defenses are not very good, and it is a good stealth vehicle. And did Iranian hackers hack into it and bring it down? No. It's just too hard to do."
The Sentinel gained notoriety earlier this year when officials disclosed that one was used to keep watch on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan as the raid that killed him was taking place.
____
Associated Press broadcast reporter Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.
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PSFK hosted a very exciting event last Friday. Our Gaming For Good salon focused on how game mechanics can encourage constructive actions to tackle difficult or challenging problem ? in this case Climate Change ? to make them fun. Alongside The Climate Reality Project (CRP), an events-based organization that targets people denying the reality of climate change, we collected and evaluated strategic concepts from creative agencies all over the world, based on concepts from our Future Of Gaming report that leverage games as a cultural force of change. In a statement by President and CEO of CRP, Maggie L. Fox said:
Gaming presents us with new and innovative ways to engage more people in the climate fight?interesting, fun and empowering ways to make change. Many of the submissions we offered today will help more people focus on solutions in creative and original ways.
Our panelist judges included CEO of FearLess? Alex Bogusky, Undercurrent?s Aaron Dignan, and former Vice President, Al Gore. For 40 years, Al Gore, who is a firm believer in gaming, has been working to establish methods to engage people and align their behavior with the urgent mission to reverse climate change. He highlighted several concepts: Climate Trail, RealiTree, and GreenSquare as particularly effective ideas. To learn more about the winning ideas, read our post on the finalists.
Insights & Highlights from Al Gore?s Talk
- Paralysis in Policy: People, not governments, are the ones showing conviction to address climate change. Since mainstream media caters to companies and not people, Al Gore called for the preservation of ?the public square,? especially as the Internet develops more ?gatekeepers who charge tolls.? Additionally, people must also continue to ask about environmental policy at the schools they attend, the companies they do business with, and the places they work, in order to make sustainable practices the norm. Everyone has heard a story about how a single individual changed the entire course on a particular issue.?We must pressure markets and political leaders to respond to this desire and address this crisis.
- Becoming More Sustainable Means Overhauling Underlying Systems: Changes in policy is a must from the bottom up. The solution must be put in place not only through new technology, but new financing systems and new social models for encouraging efficiency.
- On Brands: While companies are not shifting their environmental practices fast enough, their missions are still rising. Brands cannot get consumers to adopt political frameworks directly. Greenwashing exists, but increasingly there is a shift that is consequential.
- Leveraging Exponential Growth: Computational power has been increasing exponentially; imagine such an innovation curve that produces successive generations of renewable energy technology that will be cheaper than electricity and coal.
- Why Gaming Matters: Gaming concepts help us solve for connecting people and getting them to think deeply through new ways of engagement. The immense crisis presents an immense opportunity for positive change.
- On Power: Too much power in one place is never a good thing; no matter the character, virtue, nature, politics, or ideology of the individuals involved. It?s a basic thermo-dynamic equation.
- How Were We Impacted by Climate Change This Year: Within the last half-decade, many communities have been getting once-in-a-thousand-year-rainfall: Pakistan, Nashville Tennessee, New Zealand, Salvador, and Thailand. The east coast got hurricane Irene this year too. Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe are experiencing the worst drought in decades leading to fluctuations in food prices that can lead to massive political backlash. He asserted the idea that Tunisia?s Arab Spring was sparked by a food vendor in response to rising crop prices.
Insights & Highlights from Our Presenters:
The game concepts submitted were highly focused on providing rewards for daily activities and injecting a social experience into their platform. All avoided creating a ?self-monitoring? approach, where a player would compete with him or herself to improve the impact of their consumption, instead focused on strategies to leverage community action, building awareness, information sharing, solving the unsolvable and/or teaching new skills, all of which are intentions we point out in the Future of Gaming trends report.
Serious Games: Empowered Activism Through Daily Habits
These games are focused on a real world skill set or initiative. Esterni?s Climate Heroes, Parlor?s Climate Reality Patrol, and LG2?s Mission Green integrate commenting, activism, and online monitoring into an ecosystem where users are environmental watchdogs that are expected to report on climate abuse and sources of misinformation, thereby ?separating fact from fiction? as creator Alex Poole commented. People are rewarded for organizing their communities to stop negative practices in the public space and to engage with brands via their business practices.
A Roadblock Strategy
Wieden + Kennedy?s Climate Reality execution is something that could occur on Earth Day. The initiative would build relationships with makers of popular games (such as Call of Duty, Angry Birds, World of War Craft) and have climate change related virtual incidents disrupt gameplay in their incredibly popular games in a surprising way that would reach a massive audience.
Playing to Expand Knowledge
While they have different purposes, Zemoga?s Climate Trail, Awkward Hug?s Greensquare, and Arnold?s Destination Reality: Farmville all draw inspiration from established games (i.e. Oregon Trail, Foursquare). While Climate Trail is a text-based concept focusing on getting users to bolster their climate-related knowledge through the gaming narrative, Greensquare rewards users for checking-in to locations that observe eco-friendly business practices. Both tactics successfully add to the knowledge of the participants in different ways. Destination Reality puts weather pattern algorithms in Zynga?s Farmville game play. Aaron Dignan pointed out that Arnold?s idea adds an educational layer the original Farmville concept.
Measuring And Visualizing Collective Action
These concepts are about taking something abstract and visualizing it. Cynergy?s Sprout and Stark Design?s RealiTree measure collective swarms of activity to generate awareness, inspire playful and beneficial behavior to transform careless habits into informed decisions. Sprout augments in-store experiences and shopping behavior; the ultimate goal is to pressure companies to develop better ecological practices. RealiTree measures local activity by aggregating tweets, Foursquare check-ins, links, and all kinds of ecological statements. The visual spectacle reflects the climate reality and health of the surrounding community. Cities may compete as the platform scales.
As Alex Bogusky said, climate change is not anyone?s fault, but something that is shared. By tackling this fundamental challenge through gaming, a new energy is brought into environmentalism.
Click through the thumbnails below to see more photos from the event:
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Images via Louis Caldarola.
To check out all the concepts, click the banner below to access our Gaming For Good report.
Source: http://www.psfk.com/2011/12/round-up-insightful-ideas-from-our-gaming-for-good-salon.html
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