Would you wear these outfits? You be the judge about the stars' (Kylie Jenner! Eva Longoria!) fashion choices.
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Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
A Tiny Grill That Looks as Lovely as Your Beautifully Marbled Meats
Ikea is typically the go-to furniture store for apartment dwellers with minimal space, students on a budget, or do-it-yourselfers with a hex wrench fetish. The Swedish chain doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone, particularly furniture snobs, but it's hard to not see the charm in this sleek Lillon BBQ.
Looking something like the awkward spawn of an over-sized insect and a lanky shaved poodle, the $99 Lillon is adjustable so you can use it fully standing as pictured, or in a tabletop configuration like a hibachi. And a few charcoal briquettes is all that's needed for a relaxing BBQ on your sprawling deck or cramped balcony. [Ikea via BLTD]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-tiny-grill-that-looks-as-lovely-as-your-beautifully-m-510329441
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Saturday, May 25, 2013
Doodle 4 Google shows us that to support our troops we must support their kids
Today's Doodle 4 Google image, the winning entry submitted by Wisconsin teenager Sabrina Brady, shows an emotional military parent-child reunion and reminds us that the kids of military parents go through their own suffering, and they need our support too.?
. Today's Google Doodle, depicting a girl embracing her father upon return to the US, reminds us that life's tough for the kids whose parent is on a tour of duty abroad. Here, a military dad catches his daughter by surprise after she throws the first pitch at a baseball in Florida, May 17.Today?s Doodle 4 Google image by Wisconsin teenager Sabrina Brady illustrates the powerful emotion of a military parent-child reunion. Looking at it, I suddenly realized?the images I usually associate with soldiers coming home from a tour of duty are images of adults in the throes of emotion ? Norman Rockwell?s famous?Saturday?Evening Post cover of a GI returning home, the sailor dipping a nurse and stealing a kiss on VJ Day.?
Skip to next paragraph Lisa SuhayLisa Suhay, who has four sons at home in Norfolk, Va., is a children?s book author and founder of the Norfolk (Va.) Initiative for Chess Excellence (NICE) , a nonprofit organization serving at-risk youth via mentoring and teaching the game of chess for critical thinking and life strategies.
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Sabrina's image shows it?s actually more powerful to see images of children in a moment of?commingled?relief and joy. It reminds us that supporting our troops also means supporting their kids.
The theme for this year?s Doodle 4 Google competition, which invites K-12 students to submit an illustration incorporating the search giant's logo, was ?My Best Day Ever...? Sabrina won with her piece, ?Coming Home,? an illustration of her running toward her father upon his return from an 18-month deployment in Iraq.
The image shows the stages of military childhood: from steadfast support, through expectation, and into embrace.
While my family members are not in the military, nearly all our friends and neighbors here in Norfolk, Va., are Navy families. Deployments are hard on anyone who has a loved one in harm?s way. However, I believe the greatest price paid for our freedom comes from the emotional piggy banks of the children of military families.
Nearby to Naval Station Norfolk ? a Navy base supporting US naval forces in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans ? this is sure to be the most popular Google Doodle of the year.
The image resonates even more strongly as President Barack Obama draws overseas troop levels down and military personnel return from deployments.
One such moving reunion moment came a week ago when Alayna Adams, 9, threw out the first pitch at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game in honor of her father, a lieutenant colonel in the Army stationed in Afghanistan. However, when Alayna threw the pitch, the catcher took off his mask and revealed himself to be her father.
I watched that moment on television at the gym while I ran on the treadmill and had to stop to cry my eyes out along with four others in the room. Women and grown men who were there pumping iron alongside me paused, too. The emotion of the images on the big flatscreen flattened us all.
Seeing today?s Google Doodle brought it right back, and here I sit, at my computer, with tears running down my face in unison with the downpour outside my window.
In another TV reunion moment, Army Spc. Larry Shaffer arrived home last week from his stint in Afghanistan to his wife Misty who had lost over 100 lbs in his absence.
But for me, the more gut-wrenching moment came when Mr. Shaffer tried to hold his daughter Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backward) at the Wilmington, N.C., airport, but had to hold back as the little one shrieked and cried in panic at the sight of this ?stranger? trying to hug her. She clung to her grandmother, hysterical, as her father helplessly looked on, powerless to reconnect for the moment.
Parents in the military make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our nation?s security and freedom. There are men and women, fathers and mothers, in every branch of service who would rather face death a thousand-fold rather than their own child who has been separated from them for so long they recoil from their parent?s ?strange? embrace. Maybe it was just the excitement that had Nevaeh unglued, but here in Norfolk it?s not uncommon to see children becoming tense and either overly emotional or shut-down as they wait in anticipation for a military mom or dad to come home after being away for many months.
For her ability to capture that in a ?doodle? and bring it all home for use, I believe Sabrina deserves all the accolades and prizes heaped on her today. Besides the home-page display, Google announced in a press release that Sabrina has won ?a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook computer and a $50,000 technology grant for her school.? She beat out a field of 130,000 submissions that collectively drew millions of online votes. Google reports that she?ll attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design this fall.
I want to thank Sabrina for letting us into her moment. We should all take a moment to do something kind for the child of a military family to show them that we support all our troops, great and small.
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Francona manages at Fenway for 1st time since 2011
BOSTON (AP) ? Terry Francona felt right at home in the visiting dugout.
Back at Fenway Park as a manager for the first time since being let go by the Boston Red Sox in 2011, he was calm and occasionally funny while wearing the cap of the Cleveland Indians.
After all, he's back in baseball.
"Being in a dugout or clubhouse, there's no place I'm more comfortable," Francona said Thursday night as he sat in the opposite dugout from where he spent eight seasons as Boston's manager. "Part of the reason I'm OK with this is I'm really proud of coming here with this hat on, this uniform.
"And that takes nothing away from the eight years I was here. It makes it easier for me to look back on some of the fonder memories and now you start new ones in another place."
In his first season as their manager in 2004, the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. Three years later, they won another. And four years after that he was let go following a September collapse that cost the Red Sox a playoff berth.
"I wish the ending would have been different," Francona said before Cleveland's 12-3 win in Thursday night's opener of a four-game series.
He spent last season as an ESPN analyst then was hired after Manny Acta and interim manager Sandy Alomar Jr. lost 94 games.
The Indians started and ended Thursday in first place in the AL Central, one-half game ahead of the Detroit Tigers.
"I wasn't going to Cleveland to go to pasture," Francona said. "Every game means the same to me here in Cleveland as it ever did here. Our goals are exactly the same ? to win the game we're playing. But I like where I'm at and maybe for me, where I'm at in my life and baseball, this is a really good place."
There's less media and fan scrutiny. And there are fewer big-name players than he had in Boston where he managed Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Josh Beckett.
After Francona spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes, Ortiz walked into the dugout with a big smile and embraced his former manager.
Francona said he hadn't had much time to think how emotional the night would be.
"Everybody kept saying, 'well, are you going to be emotional?' You don't know," he said. "We played a late game (Wednesday) night. We got in about 5 (a.m.), got up at 8. It's been a busy day and, for people that know me, I really don't think that far ahead. I know I've been accused of that in the games, but I just kind of take it as it comes."
Before the game, Red Sox president Larry Lucchino visited Francona. They had parted with some bad feelings when Francona's time as manager ended.
"He was very, very kind" on Thursday, Francona said. "He just came down to say hello, which I appreciate."
After the first inning, a video tribute on the center field scoreboard showed former Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills, now Francona's third-base coach, former Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash, now Francona's bullpen coach, and former Red Sox players Justin Masterson, Mike Aviles and Rich Hill, all with the Indians.
It ended with several scenes of Francona in the dugout and on the field as Boston's manager, one of them in which he hugged Martinez.
He received a standing ovation and remained in his dugout. He waved his left hand and patted his heart with his right hand.
"I was honored and I was also thrilled that they showed Cashie, Mike Aviles, Matt, Rich Hill and then Millsie standing next to me may be my best friend in life," Francona said. "So to share that was pretty awesome."
Francona said he hadn't spent time thinking how the fans might react.
"These are some of the best fans in the world," he said. "If you like baseball, this is a good place to be and I got to be a part of that. I feel very fortunate."
Francona actually managed as a Fenway visitor while with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997-2000, going 4-4. This season, the Red Sox swept the Indians in a three-game series at Cleveland from April 16-18.
Francona had been back at Fenway several times last year. He returned with ESPN and for the 100th anniversary celebration of the park on April 20.
Among the bigger cheers that day was the chant of "Tito!" that greeted him. He had been angered by a newspaper article revealing details about personal troubles during the 2011 season and said he would not attend but then relented.
"He did a lot to really put Red Sox baseball back on top of the world," Masterson said. "Everyone here loved him. Everyone on our team loves him. And everyone in Cleveland loves him. He's just an incredible guy."
On Thursday, he visited with clubhouse attendants and Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick. He spoke with his good friend John Farrell, who took over as Boston manager after Bobby Valentine was fired following a last-place finish in which the team went 69-93.
Aviles ended up in Cleveland after being traded by Toronto. The Blue Jays had obtained him to allow Boston to hire Farrell, who had been their manager.
"It is a great opportunity to play for Tito again," Aviles said. "You couldn't ask for a better manager."
Francona said he hasn't changed much since he managed the Red Sox, although the year off refreshed him.
But his goal remains the same, no matter which dugout he manages from ? just win.
"Every game I've ever been here I've never rooted against the Red Sox," he said. "Now I will be."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/francona-manages-fenway-1st-time-since-2011-222938762.html
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British police ponder conspiracy after soldier murder
By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) - Police investigating the murder of a soldier hacked to death on a busy London street were looking on Friday into whether the two suspected killers, British men of Nigerian descent, were part of a wider conspiracy.
The two suspects, aged 22 and 28, are under guard in hospitals after being shot and arrested by police following the murder of 25-year-old Afghan war veteran Lee Rigby on Wednesday in broad daylight. They have not yet been charged.
Detectives were also questioning another man and a woman, arrested on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, as they tried to determine whether those responsible had links to militants in Britain or overseas.
"This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop," police said in a statement.
"Many lines of inquiry are being followed by detectives, and the investigation is progressing well."
One of the assailants, filmed justifying the killing as he stood near the body holding a knife and meat cleaver in bloodied hands, was named by acquaintances as 28-year-old Londoner Michael Adebolajo, a British-born convert to Islam.
Little is known so far about the other man.
The murder, just a month after the Boston Marathon bombing and the first Islamist killing in Britain since local suicide bombers killed 52 people in London in 2005, revived fears of "lone wolves" who may have had no direct contact with al Qaeda.
Police chiefs said they would have 1,200 extra officers on the streets in London overnight and at key locations such as religious venues and transport hubs.
"It will be assessed on a rolling basis depending on the picture. I'm sure there will be heightened numbers for a little while to come," a spokesman said.
A source close to the investigation told Reuters the attackers were known to Britain's MI5 internal security service, raising questions about whether it could have been prevented. Adebolajo had handed out radical Islamist pamphlets, but neither was considered a serious threat, a government source said.
Another source close to the inquiry said the local backgrounds of the suspects in a multicultural metropolis - nearly 40 percent of Londoners were born abroad - and the simplicity of the attack made prevention difficult.
"Apart from being horribly barbaric, this was relatively straightforward to carry out," the source said. "This was quite low-tech, and that is frankly pretty challenging."
Anjem Choudary, one of Britain's most recognized Islamist leaders, told Reuters Adebolajo was known to fellow Muslims as Mujahid - a name meaning 'fighter': "He used to attend a few demonstrations and activities that we used to have in the past."
He added that he had not seen him for about two years: "He was peaceful, unassuming, and I don't think there's any reason to think he would do anything violent."
POLICE LOOKING FOR LINKS
The two men used a car to run down Drummer Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London and then attacked him with a meat cleaver and knives, witnesses said.
Police officers speak with the driver of a car displaying a banner reading, "We R British! Stand Together Stand Strong", outside an army barracks near the scene of a killing in Woolwich, southeast ... more? Police officers speak with the driver of a car displaying a banner reading, "We R British! Stand Together Stand Strong", outside an army barracks near the scene of a killing in Woolwich, southeast London May 23, 2013. British authorities believe that two men accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries are British of Nigerian descent, a source close to the investigation said Thursday. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (BRITAIN - Tags: CRIME LAW MILITARY POLITICS) less? The pair told shocked bystanders they acted in revenge for British wars in Muslim countries."We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day," Adebolajo was filmed saying by an onlooker. "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
Rigby, who had a two-year-old son, was not in uniform. The bandsman was working locally as an army recruiter.
"All he wanted to do from when he was a little boy was to be in the army," his family said in a statement. "He wanted to live life and enjoy himself."
In Nigeria, with a mixed Christian-Muslim population and where the authorities are battling an Islamist insurgency, a government source said there was no evidence the Woolwich suspects were linked to groups in west Africa.
British investigators are looking at information that at least one of the suspects may have had an interest in joining Somalia-based Islamist rebel group al Shabaab, which is allied to al Qaeda, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Al Shabaab linked the attack to the Boston bombing and last year's gun attacks in the southern French city of Toulouse.
"Toulouse, Boston, Woolwich ... Where next? You just have to grin and bear it, it's inevitable. A case of the chickens coming home to roost!" the rebels said on Twitter.
Peter Clarke, who led the investigation into the 2005 bombings, popularly known as 7/7, said that if the Woolwich attackers did turn out to be acting alone, it showed the difficulty the security services faced in trying to stop them.
"An attack like this doesn't need sophisticated fund raising and sophisticated communications or planning," he told Reuters. "It can be organized and then actually delivered in a moment."
(Editing by Will Waterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/british-soldier-hacked-death-suspected-islamist-attack-060253278.html
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Friday, May 24, 2013
Facilities, history at root of Iowa baseball issues | TheGazette
UNI Coach Rick Heller (14) shakes hands with Iowa Coach Jack Dahm following the Corridor Classic Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. UNI, which dropped baseball after that season, won the game 9- 3. Dahm was dismissed as coach on Thursday. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)
IOWA CITY?? Iowa baseball hasn?t finished atop the Big Ten regular-season standings since 1990, and the Hawkeyes are tied with Northwestern for the lowest winning percentage in league tournament history.
Every Big Ten baseball program but Northwestern boasts a newer stadium than Iowa?s Duane Banks Field. Every Big Ten public-school baseball coach made more money than former coach Jack Dahm in 2012.
Iowa?s baseball tradition is as unforgiving as the recent spring, which kept the program from practicing outside all but five times this season. Just twice since 1996, the Hawkeyes have earned winning seasons. Their revenues were the second-lowest among the Big Ten public schools in 2012, and Iowa?s expenses were third from the bottom, according to public records disclosed to The Gazette through the Freedom of Information Act.
Dahm was released as Iowa?s coach Thursday, and the Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta will conduct a national search for his replacement. While Dahm won less than 44 percent in 10 seasons, there are many reasons for the program?s lack of success, such as facilities.
Baseball fans gather at Duane Banks Stadium in Iowa City to watch the Hawkeyes take on Purdue on Thursday, May 17, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)
?From an arms race, from a facilities standpoint, every program has built a brand-new stadium or done major renovations to their stadium except for us and Northwestern,? said Dahm, whose contract was not renewed for next season.
?Iowa?s made a ton of progress with facilities. However the No. 1 thing with baseball/softball is you need to be able to hit at any time. It just hasn?t gotten done here.?
In inclement weather, especially this March and April, the baseball program had nowhere to go. Multiple sports now use the new indoor football facility but football program claims precedence during spring practice. There are four batting cages inside the building, but baseball often was shut out.
?Not many Division I baseball programs don?t have indoor batting cages that they can use at any time,? Dahm said.
Duane Banks Field was built in 1974, and the surface was replaced in 2010. Lights were added in 2002, but most improvements have been cosmetic. Since 2002, seven Big Ten baseball programs have either new or refurbished stadiums costing a minimum of $4 million. Ohio State?s $4.7 million stadium was built in 1996 (and renovated in 2011), and Illinois? 1988 stadium twice has seen major upgrades.
Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta plans to close the gap between Iowa and its Big Ten competitors. In 2015, a $15 million indoor multipurpose facility with FieldTurf will open near the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex. The university?s band will use the building in the fall, and both the baseball and softball teams will have access in the winter and spring.
Barta will unveil a strategic plan this fall with plans to build an Olympic sports village on the west campus. It?s likely to have new stadiums for Iowa?s baseball, softball and track teams.
?It?s the chicken and the egg discussion,? Barta said. ?We?ll be talking to people about it. But at this point we don?t have the funding for it. So it?s not something that?s imminent in the next couple of years, but it?s something that certainly we?re thinking about over the next 5-10 years.?
But Barta believes the baseball program?s current facilities are good enough to compete among the Big Ten?s best right now.
?I certainly don?t think we?re positioned to be in the College World Series on an annual basis,? Barta said. ?But being in the top half of the Big Ten is something that I know we should expect and missing it once in a while might be OK. If we?re in the top half of the Big Ten, and we?re in the tournament every year, it gives us a chance when everything comes together to compete for a championship.?
Until, then Barta wants the new coach to generate interest. Iowa boasts the state?s only Division I baseball program, and said ?it?s a good environment? for the sport to succeed.
?We need Duane Banks Field to be alive again,? Barta said. ?There?s been some apathy, and that?s all of our responsibility, not just the head coach?s. When you take all of that into account, what we need to be competitive, we certainly want to raise the bar to shoot even higher; that?s where we?re at. I?m very confident we can compete with what we have right now and keep working at adding to that.?
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Source: http://thegazette.com/2013/05/23/facilities-history-at-root-of-iowa-baseball-issues/
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
More Information ? Quit Smoking Naturally with EFT (Emotional ...
Now, I know you?re probably skeptical. That?s normal and healthy. Let me give you three good reasons we can back up what we claim: Three Reasons To Believe What I Say
Reason one: This is what I used, personally to quit smoking in 2005. After trying other methods like hypnosis, nicotine gum and cold turkey I always ended up going back to smoking.
Reason two: When I used it to quit smoking I didn?t even really know what I was doing. Someone originally taught me this technique to help reduce stress. Then a few years later I decided to use it to help me quit smoking.
Since then I have been trained in how to use this technique to help people (and myself) overcome many different types of traumas, addictions, pain and limiting beliefs.
Reason three: I have helped family members and complete strangers to quit smoking using this method. It is called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It is also referred to as Acupoint Tapping and Meridian Tapping.
You can master it in 5 minutes or less. Nothing complicated or time consuming. It?s so easy 5 year old children do it.
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HP profit down 32 percent, shares up as results beat estimates
By Poornima Gupta
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co raised its 2013 earnings outlook after beating low expectations, as CEO Meg Whitman's turnaround plan helped to shore up profits and offset shrinking personal computer sales with enterprise computing services.
While fiscal second-quarter profit plummeted 32 percent, Wall Street had braced for worse. HP shares gained 14 percent after the company projected full-year earnings per share of $3.50 to $3.60, raising the lower end by 10 cents.
Whitman, who took the helm at the world's largest PC maker over a year ago, is orchestrating a turnaround to recapture some of the Silicon Valley icon's former strong growth, a process she has said could take years.
HP received a better investor welcome for its results than smaller rival Dell Inc, which last week reported a 79 percent slide in profit.
Net income fell to $1.08 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $1.59 billion, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier.
The company earned 87 cents per share on an operating basis during the second quarter on revenue of $27.6 billion.
HP had expected earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of just over $28 billion, according to the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"This is another good deposit on the road to our turnaround here," HP Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak said in an interview. "We are roughly where we want to be in total on the company."
Enterprise services and printing units are "probably a little bit ahead," she said, adding that the two businesses helped drive the company's gross margin improvement during the quarter.
STEEP DECLINE IN PC SALES
For its fiscal third quarter, it estimated non-GAAP earnings per share of 84 to 87 cents, higher than 83 cents expected by Wall Street analysts.
Revenue fell across HP's main business divisions, with the steepest decline in the personal systems group. Sales from HP's largest, PC-focused unit dived 20 percent to $7.58 billion.
But that same division recorded a 3.2 percent operating margin, up from about 2.7 percent in the previous quarter, as the company focuses on improving profitability.
The printing division had the smallest revenue decline, of 1 percent, year over year, but the company said it had a "strong operating margin" of 15.8 percent.
HP generated $3.6 billion in cash flow during the quarter and used some of the funds to reduce net debt by $1.8 billion to $2.9 billion. The company had $13.6 billion in gross cash at the end of the quarter.
HP shares rose 14 percent in extended trading after closing at $21.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Richard Chang)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hp-second-quarter-quarter-profit-down-32-percent-201220977.html
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World Bank Announces US$1 Billion Pledge To Africa?s Great Lakes Region: On the...
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Occupy Justice Department: Labor Leaders Hold Event To Support Arrested Protesters
WASHINGTON -- Labor leaders spoke out Tuesday afternoon in support of foreclosed homeowners protesting outside the Department of Justice, a day after many of the protesters were arrested.
Union leaders lauded the actions of those arrested, and condemned the DOJ and the practices of the largest banks in the country during a press conference. The leaders were flanked by about 25 protesters and foreclosed homeowners, who stood in the same place where men and women were arrested Monday afternoon as they demonstrated against the DOJ. The protesters targeted the department's failure to take legal action against major banks that foreclosed on homes due to potential bank errors or using now-banned practices.
"This is wrong," said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, the largest media and communications labor union in the United States. Cohen was referencing flimsy mortgages sold to potential homeowners before the recession hit in 2008.
"Shame ... on the bankers and shame on the Justice Department that somehow they think these banks are not only too big to fail, but too big to jail," Cohen said.
In addition to the protesters arrested Monday, most of whom were homeowners, many of the protesters that spent the night in tents were arrested Tuesday morning in continued acts of civil disobedience. Police used a stun gun on some.
According to Brian Kettering of the Leadership Center for the Common Good, 25 protesters remained in jail at the time of the press conference, five of whom planned to stay at least another night because they refused to give the police their real names. Instead, they gave the names of the CEOs of some of the United State's largest banks.
Those arrested were charged with obstructing traffic.
A couple whose New Jersey home was foreclosed upon three days after Hurricane Sandy talked about the frustration of dealing with mortgage lenders after having difficulty finding work.
"They didn't want to accept our monies. And that was money that we worked so hard to gather," said Theresa Hamilton, choking back tears. "We're here today to ask the DOJ to help us ... make the banks accountable for what they're doing."
Laura McCleary, of National Nurses United, harped on the DOJ's failure to protect people like the Hamiltons. She also chided the federal government for allowing the top-earning 1 percent of Americans to prosper during the economic recovery while stifling the remaining 99 percent, a trademark of the Occupy movement that inspired the DOJ protests.
"The government has really not done what it should to protect people and hold the banks accountable for fraud, shoddy record keeping, predatory loans, fake loan documents, and the suffering of millions of individuals and families who lost their homes to criminality and soulless profiteering," McCleary said.
Big banks have posted huge financial gains since the recession hit and they were bailed out in 2008. In 2012, banks pulled in their second-highest profits on record -- $141.3 billion.
A call for comment from the DOJ was not returned.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/occupy-justice-department_n_3315103.html
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Engineers devise new way to produce clean hydrogen
May 21, 2013 ? Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications.
While hydrogen is ubiquitous in the environment, producing and collecting molecular hydrogen for transportation and industrial uses is expensive and complicated. Just as importantly, a byproduct of most current methods of producing hydrogen is carbon monoxide, which is toxic to humans and animals.
The Duke engineers, using a new catalytic approach, have shown in the laboratory that they can reduce carbon monoxide levels to nearly zero in the presence of hydrogen and the harmless byproducts of carbon dioxide and water. They also demonstrated that they could produce hydrogen by reforming fuel at much lower temperatures than conventional methods, which makes it a more practical option.
Catalysts are agents added to promote chemical reactions. In this case, the catalysts were nanoparticle combinations of gold and iron oxide (rust), but not in the traditional sense. Current methods depend on gold nanoparticles ability to drive the process as the sole catalyst, while the Duke researchers made both the iron oxide and the gold the focus of the catalytic process.
The study appears online in the May issue of the Journal of Catalysis.
"Our ultimate goal is to be able to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells," said Titilayo "Titi" Shodiya, a graduate student working in the laboratory of senior researcher Nico Hotz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. "Everyone is interested in sustainable and non-polluting ways of producing useful energy without fossil fuels," said Shodiya, the paper's first author.
Fuel cells produce electricity through chemical reactions, most commonly involving hydrogen. Also, many industrial processes require hydrogen as a chemical reagent and vehicles are beginning to use hydrogen as a primary fuel source.
"We were able through our system to consistently produce hydrogen with less than 0.002 percent (20 parts per million) of carbon monoxide," Shodiya said.
The Duke researchers achieved these levels by switching the recipe for the nanoparticles used as catalysts for the reactions to oxidize carbon monoxide in hydrogen-rich gases. Traditional methods of cleaning hydrogen, which are not nearly as efficient as this new approach, also involve gold-iron oxide nanoparticles as the catalyst, the researchers said.
"It had been assumed that the iron oxide nanoparticles were only 'scaffolds' holding the gold nanoparticles together, and that the gold was responsible for the chemical reactions," Sodiya said. "However, we found that increasing the surface area of the iron oxide dramatically increased the catalytic activity of the gold."
One of the newest approaches to producing renewable energy is the use of biomass-derived alcohol-based sources, such as methanol. When methanol is treated with steam, or reformed, it creates a hydrogen-rich mixture that can be used in fuel cells.
"The main problem with this approach is that it also produces carbon monoxide, which is not only toxic to life, but also quickly damages the catalyst on fuel cell membranes that are crucial to the functioning of a fuel cell," Hotz said. "It doesn't take much carbon monoxide to ruin these membranes."
The researchers ran the reaction for more than 200 hours and found no reduction in the ability of the catalyst to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide in the hydrogen gas.
"The mechanism for this is not exactly understood yet. However, while current thinking is that the size of the gold particles is key, we believe the emphasis of further research should focus on iron oxide's role in the process," Shodiya said.
The Duke team's research was supported by the California Energy Commission and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Duke postdoctoral associates Oliver Schmidt and Wen Peng were also part of the research team.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/pE0368Szr9U/130521153938.htm
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Immune protein could stop diabetes in its tracks
May 20, 2013 ? Melbourne researchers have identified an immune protein that has the potential to stop or reverse the development of type 1 diabetes in its early stages, before insulin-producing cells have been destroyed.
The discovery has wider repercussions, as the protein is responsible for protecting the body against excessive immune responses, and could be used to treat, or even prevent, other immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Professor Len Harrison, Dr Esther Bandala-Sanchez and Dr Yuxia Zhang led the research team from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's Molecular Medicine division that identified the immune protein CD52 as responsible for suppressing the immune response, and its potential for protecting against autoimmune diseases. The research was published today in the journal Nature Immunology.
So-called autoimmune diseases develop when the immune system goes awry and attacks the body's own tissues. Professor Harrison said CD52 held great promise as a therapeutic agent for preventing and treating autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
"Immune suppression by CD52 is a previously undiscovered mechanism that the body uses to regulate itself, and protect itself against excessive or damaging immune responses," Professor Harrison said. "We are excited about the prospect of developing this discovery to clinical trials as soon as possible, to see if CD52 can be used to prevent and treat type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. This has already elicited interest from pharmaceutical companies."
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops when immune cells attack and destroy insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Approximately 120,000 Australians have type 1 diabetes and incidence has doubled in the last 20 years. "Type 1 diabetes is a life-long disease," Professor Harrison said. "It typically develops in children and teenagers, and it really makes life incredibly difficult for them and their families. It also causes significant long-term complications involving the eyes, kidneys and blood vessel damage, and at great cost to the community."
Professor Harrison said that T cells that have or release high levels of CD52 are necessary to maintain normal balance in the immune system. "In a preclinical model of type 1 diabetes, we showed that removal of CD52-producing immune cells led to rapid development of diabetes. We think that cells that release CD52 are essential to prevent the development of autoiummune disease, and that CD52 has great potential as a therapeutic agent," he said.
CD52 appears to play a dominant role in controlling or suppressing immune activity in the early stages of the immune response, Professor Harrison said. "We identified a specialised population of immune cells (T cells) that carry high levels of CD52, which they release to dampen the activity of other T cells and prevent uncontrolled immune responses," Professor Harrison said. "The cells act as an early 'braking' mechanism."
Professor Harrison said his goal is to prevent and ultimately cure type 1 diabetes. "In animal models we can prevent and cure type 1 diabetes," Professor Harrison said. "I am hopeful that these results will be translatable into humans, hopefully in the not-too-distant future."
This research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Victorian Government.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/iaYlvvEkaNs/130520104932.htm
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The good news ? and the bad news ? for Obama in scandal-tinged polls
Given the battering President Obama took this past week on a trio of political scandals, any public opinion survey results that aren?t dreadful probably are viewed with some relief at the White House.
That may be the clearest message from a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday morning.
According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53 percent of Americans say they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45 percent saying they disapprove, CNN reports. That?s actually a tick better than the 51 percent approval rating Obama had in early April ? but not enough to break out the sparkling cider.
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"That two-point difference is well within the poll's sampling error, so it is a mistake to characterize it as a gain for the president," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "Nonetheless, an approval rating that has not dropped and remains over 50 percent will probably be taken as good news by Democrats after the events of the last week."
For those of you blissfully unaware, those events are the administration?s handling of the terrorist attack on the US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, last November (where US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed); the IRS badgering of tea party and other conservative organizations; and the Justice Department snooping into the telephone records of Associated Press journalists as part of a crackdown on national security leaks.
(We would add to that trio a fourth item reported in recent days: losing track of a couple of terrorists in the federal witness protection program.)
Gallup?s latest numbers track closely with CNN?s ? a slight improvement for Obama to 51-42 approve/disapprove.
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For now, as the headline on an AP story puts it, ?Obama agenda seems to be weathering controversies.?
?Despite Democratic fears, predictions of the demise of President Barack Obama's agenda appear exaggerated after a week of cascading controversies, political triage by the administration and party leaders in Congress and lack of evidence to date of wrongdoing close to the Oval Office,? writes AP special correspondent David Espo.
That could change, of course, given the possibility of new revelations, Republican intransigence, or both. GOP leaders certainly spun it in that direction on the TV news shows Sunday.
On NBC?s ?Meet the Press,? Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the IRS scandal ? singling out tea party and other conservative groups for special scrutiny of their tax status ? was part of a broader "culture of intimidation" within the Obama administration.
To what extent are Americans paying attention to all of this?
?Slim majorities of Americans are very or somewhat closely following the situations involving the Internal Revenue Service (54 percent) and the congressional hearings on the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and its aftermath (53 percent) ? well below the average for news stories Gallup has tracked over the years,? writes Frank Newport, Gallup?s editor-in-chief.
CNN?s numbers here seem more troubling for the White House.
More than 70 percent of those surveyed say IRS targeting of conservative groups was unacceptable; a majority (52 percent) say the Justice Department's actions regarding the AP phone records were unacceptable; 59 percent say the US government could have prevented the attack in Benghazi; and a large minority (44 percent) say statements made by the Obama administration soon after the attack ?were an attempt to intentionally mislead the public.?
At this point, according to CNN, most Americans do not think Republicans have overplayed their hand on either the Benghazi or IRS controversies. Gallup finds that 74 percent on the IRS and 69 percent on Benghazi find these situations ?serious enough to warrant continuing investigation.?
"More Republicans than Democrats or Independents say these three issues are very important to the nation, but even among Democrats, nearly half say the matters are very serious," says CNN polling director Keating Holland.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/good-news-bad-news-obama-scandal-tinged-polls-150432515.html
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Physician, hack thyself
My friend Adam, an obstetrician, was getting married. It was the early 1990s. Beside his bride he beamed in the receiving line.
?Congratulations, Adam! You look amazing!? I said, adding awkwardly: ?Jeez, how?d you lose so much weight??
?The old-fashioned way,? the good doctor said. ?Laxatives and speed.?
Laxatives and speed. That was two decades ago. Over the years, while trudging the righteous road of kale and crunches, I?ve often recalled Adam?s can-do mantra. Laxatives and speed. The old-fashioned way. The hack that doctors know. Metamucil and Adderall. The hack that works.
So maybe I was unconsciously vulnerable two weeks ago, while I was logging new habits on Lift, a retro good-girl app that encourages me to drink more water and call my mom. My heart unexpectedly revved when I noticed a new habit trending among users of the app. It wasn?t ?do more cardio??oh no. It had the ring of a big, fat health hack.
There I saw it: Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast.
Curiosity hit, then thrill?and in seven days that adrenaline took me from those three weird words, ?Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast,? to the architect of the phrase, Dave Asprey, a nutty, charmingly solipsistic rich person, hacker of his own biology and brewer of the hot buttered joe that gives the "Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast" its name. Some consider the coffee?for now?the world?s ultimate wellspring of lean muscle and manly, laserlike focus.
It sounded too good to be true. And too good to be not true?both. Once I suspended my dutiful, ladylike commitment to incremental self-betterment?in a split second?I threw in with a biohacker of the first rank.
So yes, I?ve been drinking the steaming blonde elixir, which looks like the amber-white lava flow at Yellowstone, if you know what that looks like, each morning since and the results have blown my mind?
Oh, but I?ll get to that.
I found Asprey, of course, where the mentally healthy California rich belong, and neurotic East Coast cardio chumps like myself do not: cavorting with dolphins and children in somewhere called Roat?n. (Where?s Roat?n, Wikipedia? ?Between the islands of ?tila and Guanaja, it?s the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands,? naturally.)
Forunately, Asprey, holder of a dozen superhero titles and currently VP of cloud security at Trend Micro, could get some satellite action for his iPad on the boat. He probably could use his ears as a wireless router, if pressed. He agreed to ignore the dolphins for awhile and answer my questions about biohacking and coffee.
Yeah, he is a biohacker, one of those dudes like Tim Ferriss and Josh Whiton, who think way too much about women?s orgasms, the weight of their own feces and how to game the Red Cross so they can do more bloodletting. Once again, I?m not kidding. These are the guys, many from the tech world, who nap bionically, intermittently fast, binge on bacon and ketose, swing paloelithically from trees and aim with gadgets and venture capital to drive their IQs and erections into the stratosphere. Some of them even embrace transhumanism?the sort of neo-Nietzschean notion that mortality can and should be transcended with technology.
They?re insufferable, in other words.
Which is not to imply that I didn?t knock back Aspey?s buttered Kool-Aid?and that I don?t recommend the coffee and the concept to anyone who?ll listen.
So how did Asprey find his way to buttered coffee, and a life of biohacking in the Honduran Bay and beyond?
?Enlightened self interest,? Asprey told me by email. ?I weighed 300 pounds and had cognitive dysfunction in my mid twenties, despite being a very successful entrepreneur and exercising six days a week.?
Fact check: Asprey was a computer-science major who got his start online as Cyboman, e-tailing t-shirts emblazoned with caffeine molecules and spent the turn of the century doing strategic planning and product development at infrastructure-as-a-service companies, from the obsolete Exodus to the marquee Citrix. Asprey, who worked on WAN optimization and other wack protocols at a critical time, is considered a pioneer in cloud computing.
But back to biohacking. ?It helped enormously that I was wealthy enough to do what I wanted at a young age, and my health was poor enough to motivate me,? Asprey explained. ?I was doubly motivated by a 3D SPECT scan of my brain showing poor blood flow and likely cognitive dysfunction, and other tests showing I was at extreme risk for stroke and heart disease.?
Become rich and smart and sick! And let my condition incentivize an upgrade! Why didn?t I think of that?
?I decided to use the same techniques we use to manage very large, very complex systems like the Internet in order to upgrade myself.? (Biohacking in a nutshell.)
What Asprey came up with?after much grueling testing on his own body, and discussions with every doctor and research scientist he could get his alpha-male hands on?is a diet based around heaps of extremely pure meat and fat, squeaky-clean organic fruit and vegetables and zero milk, cheese, soy or grains. Beef plasma, ghee, sardines and pastured pork are your friends. Tangerines and soy are to be avoided on pain of obesity, ADD and brain fog. The diet is free in a downloadable infographic here.
The Bulletproof diet, Asprey told me, is what first turned him Nietzschean; it?s at the heart of his superpowers. He lost 100 pounds and found he could focus better. But then Asprey hacked his nervous system, too. This part took chutzpah. Like many meditators and cognitive-therapy patients, Asprey realized he was ill-served by reflexive brain patterns like jealousy and greed that may have more properly served the primitive brain in a earlier and more hostile environment, Asprey now says he has trained his brain to ?turn off? the "useless survival reflexes? that were inhibiting him.
Finally, he says, he hacked his brain with a form of ?neurofeedback? that showed him how his brain worked and automatically kicked off an ?optimization? and ?upgrade? of his mental operating system.
?One specific form of neurofeedback I did allowed me to do in seven very intense, very expensive days what it normally takes you forty years of daily Zen meditation to achieve. One hour of this kind of biohacking equals two-hundred hours of doing it the old way. The process took one week instead of two thousand weeks.?
It took a few days for this to sink in: Dave Asprey was talking about enlightenment. Insta-enlightenment. He?s also a guy who stays in top shape exercising about 45 minutes a month. You read that right. 45 minutes. Per month.
Now, I like this guy?s spirit, and he?s evangelically persuasive, but because I generally favor health systems like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Alisa Vitti?s WomanCode that emphasize yin-yang ?harmony? over Max-YANG ?performance,? I thought I?d ask Asprey if his Bulletproof health strategies plays well with women.
?You?d be surprised??he said, though I wasn?t at all surprised, and I braced for salespeak??Forty percent of visitors to bulletproofexec.com are women. It?s because both men and women want to be in control of their bodies and minds. Biohacking is about using technologies ? old and new -- to take control of your biochemistry and your nervous system. Men and women want the same things ? to feel unlimited energy, to feel in charge of their emotional states, and to be able to focus when and how they choose. They also want to look good naked.?
Which brings me to the coffee. Asprey recommends the coffee for ?mental clarity,? but says a side-benefit is weight loss. I was in it for both?but mostly I did it just to show I could do it: Be game, be alpha, give Bulletproofness a shot. I?ve spent decades in the Gretchen Rubin ?Happiness Project? trenches of becoming happier by doing nifty little things like deep breathing, kissing more and laughing with your friends. I?m pretty happy these days. But nothing in the Rubin approach brings the supercharge or the bulletproof or the Tony Robbins/Tim Ferriss laxatives speed muscle mass zero fat executive kickboxer sharpshooter billionaire. In my heart of hearts, I sometimes crave that drama. That hacker?s exhilaration.
I ordered Asprey?s special coffee: expensive and processed or grown or roasted with some cockamamie idea that it is supposed to eliminate the hideous brain-damanging ?toxins? that pollute ordinary cups of Starbucks. I swear I tried hard to understand what was so great about the coffee, cold-washed and toasted and charcoal-filtered with rack-and-pinion steering, or...something. Low in something that?s bad for you or high in something that?s good for you, I know that.
And then by gosh I brewed it, and melted two tablespoons of good unsalted butter in it, and put the whole thing in a blender. I microwaved it for extra heat (hopefully the microwave did not add back extra toxins) and out came a very, very, very delicious cup of insanely creamy coffee.
Yes, it was delicious. Unsalted butter blended into coffee does not taste like butter: it just tastes good. I made cups for my friends, for my boyfriend, for the babysitter, for my neighbors. Having drunk the buttered coffee, some of us have found, unscientifically, ?clarity,? some jitters, some food cravings, some suppressed appetite, some dizziness, some nothing at all.
One thing we?ve all found though: a love for the taste of Bulletproof Coffee. And, I have to admit, in the two weeks I?ve been drinking it, I?ve lost about four pounds. Who knows?
I have to admit something, though: one day the stuff made me super-dizzy, nauseated and faint. That was the day I made it with Asprey?s special MCT oil, which he thinks makes the drink a real stand-out. I couldn?t tolerate the MCT oil at the recommended dose, and I found out on Asprey?s website forums that others can?t either. I started to hunt down the reason for that and was led to the idea of organophosphate poisoning, which, by the way, accounts for about of a third of suicides worldwide, especially in rural areas. Maybe I couldn?t process the MCT oil because my liver was deficient and I?d need to?do something to restore it. Maybe I was having a ?candida die-off? because, inspired by Asprey?s meat-fat diet, I wasn?t eating as much sugar and starch.That?s when it hit me: I could try to hack my biology, and think I had found a shortcut, but then like any hacker I could spend the rest of my life debugging the code that was supposed to make everything so instant and quick and easy. I could spend thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars hacking my own biology, as Dave Asprey did, but I?d rather just spend the two thousands hours meditating, finding enlightenment (or not) the real old-fashioned way.
Do you ever feel guilty about hacking? I asked Asprey. Like you should be more methodical and conscientious, like a scientist instead of a hacker?
It?s fair to say Asprey scoffed.
?LOL, God no I don?t feel guilty about any kind of hacking, including biohacking. Hacking is about figuring out how things work so you can control them. It?s about discovering unwritten rules so you can break them, even if you don?t. It is the cutting edge of science, where innovation happens long before double blind studies will ever get funded.?
It helps that Asprey long ago hacked his emotions.
?Guilt is an emotion that you can quantify, with specific feelings in your physical body. It?s not something I waste much energy on because I trained my nervous system not to do that to me. I would be doing myself a disservice, and taking away from my family and my community, if I intentionally wasted time based on outdated puritanical guilt. I save energy by recycling ? why wouldn?t I do it with biohacking too??
So what?s the biohacked existence like? You don?t feel guilty about hacking because you?ve hacked your conscience. Got it. And the time you save not feeling guilty you can spend debugging your hack?looking up stuff about your cortisol levels and aiming for different kinds of orgasms as a way to ?win? at the biological part of life. For some, maybe that is meditative. And in itself maybe it?s an electrifying way to be alive.
But I don?t think it is for me. Not because I?m so principled, but because I don?t like the part of me that likes to find quick responses to the eternal verities?love and grief and guilt and fear and rapture and aging. That hacker in me has led me to take apart many laptops, and lose no end of data. The desire not to feel guilt, or anxiety, also led me for years to wine, Ambien and Xanax?my most successful hack, maybe, if not highly original. It worked wonders. Until it didn?t.
So now I opt for a measured and sober way, for which I credit some very happy years. But, wow, I still admire guys like Asprey, who style a fanciful ?edge? and then contrive to live on it. And I still drink coffee with butter in it. Because it?s delicious, and easy to make, and it makes this failed lifehacker feel like I?m getting away with something.
Join the author Virginia Heffernan, Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast creator Dave Asprey and Woman Code author Alisa Vitti for a live chat about biohacking at 12:30PM EST on Monday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biohacking-dave-asprey-coffee-140004741.html
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Particle vs. Antiparticle
Ettore Majorana Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Leo Kouwenhoven is a professor of physics at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He ended the 75-year hunt for the Majorana fermion?a particle that is its own antiparticle?by creating it on a chip.
Lisa Grossman: What is a Majorana fermion?
Leo Kouwenhoven: It is named for the physicist Ettore Majorana, who found that a particle could be its own antiparticle. If a particle has properties with values unequal to zero, then its antiparticle has the opposite values. What that means is that all the properties of a Majorana fermion, the charge, energy, what have you, it's all zero. It is a particle, but it doesn't have properties that we can measure. That makes it very mysterious. It also makes it difficult to find.
LG: Why hunt for these tricky particles?
LK: My background is quantum computing. Measurement is problematic for a quantum computer, because observation changes the quantum state. But if you don't have an apparatus that can measure a Majorana fermion, you cannot change it. Its insensitivity makes it a robust quantum state. This could lead toward qubits that do not collapse. Usually everything dies, but these would be very robust and could live for a long time.
LG: Qubits store information. How would these particles do that?
LK: The information is stored in a topological number. It's like in a M?bius ring: There is just one twist. You can deform the ring, but it doesn't change the twist number. If the twist number is the code for information, that's a very robust way of encoding.
LG: As someone who isn't from a particle physics background, how did you get into the particle-hunting game?
LK: In condensed matter physics, we also hunt particles?known as quasiparticles. They're not so well-known as the high-energy particles they're chasing at CERN. In the last decade or so, the field has discovered some very interesting quasiparticles. One of them is the Majorana.
LG: How did you find the Majorana?
LK: We made one. The Majorana comes out of the superposition of an electron and a "hole"?the absence of an electron in a metal. By applying a magnetic field to semiconducting nanowires laid across a superconductor, you can move electrons along these wires, creating two points in space that each mimic half an electron. The electrons go back and forth, so the hole jumps from left to right. If it spends an equal amount of time on each side, then, quantum mechanically, it's in a superposition of being on the left and right. If it's stable, then we call it a particle. It's not a Majorana that only comes by quickly and then is gone again. You can keep it and look at it as long as you like.
LG: Now you've found the Majorana, what's next?
LK: Usually, if you exchange two particles, their quantum state changes by 1 or -1. If you change it once more, it goes back to the same old state. In contrast, the Majoranas have different phase factors, so you only go back to your old state by switching four times, instead of two. There's no other particle in nature that we know of which has this property. So it's not just a new particle; it also opens up a new class of particles. I'm not sure if they exist in nature, but I think we can create them by designing nanostructures. And I think that's extremely cool.
This article originally appeared in New Scientist.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4abb14c9458facb3cbfa410e69685b75
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Witnesses: Car drives into crowd at Va. parade
DAMASCUS, Va. (AP) ? Witnesses in southwestern Virginia said a car drove into a crowd at a parade Saturday and hurt several people, but the nature of their injuries wasn't immediately known.
It happened around 2:30 p.m. during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, a small mountain town near the Tennessee state line about a half-hour drive east of Bristol.
A call to Damascus police was handled by the Washington County Sheriff's Office. A sheriff's dispatcher said she had no immediate information. State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says troopers have been sent to the scene but she had no further information. She said Damascus police were handling the release of information.
Four helicopters arrived to airlift victims to area hospitals. An emergency room worker at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon said she didn't have any information before hanging up.
What caused the car to drive into the crowd wasn't immediately known. It appeared to come from a side street, and a thud could be heard. People yelled stop, and at some point, the car finally stopped.
Witnesses said the car had a handicapped parking sticker and it went more than 100 feet before coming to a stop.
"He was hitting hikers," said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. "I saw hikers just go everywhere."
Damascus resident Amanda Puckett, who was watching the parade with her children, ran to the car, where she and others lifted the car off those pinned underneath.
"Everybody just threw our hands up on the car and we just lifted the car up," she said.
There were ambulances in the parade ahead of the hikers and paramedics on board immediately responded to the crash.
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
Merkel and Pope talk about a 'strong' Europe
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel, mindful of the importance of Christian voters in September elections, met with Pope Francis on Saturday during a quick trip to Rome that focused on helping victims of Europe's economic crisis and emphasizing the continent's Christian roots.
Merkel spoke privately for 45 minutes with the pope at the Apostolic Palace, after exchanging cordial greetings in German.
Her Christian Democrat party depends heavily on support from Protestant and Catholic voters, and the chat and photo opportunity could be a welcome campaign boost for a leader largely identified by Europe's economically suffering citizens as a champion of debt reduction, including painful austerity across much of the continent.
For its part, the Vatican is eager for allies in its campaign to win over more Catholics. Francis was leading a sort of pep rally for the faith in St. Peter's Square Saturday evening, attended by about 150,000 people.
Most were from Europe but many came from the pope's native South America. They sang and prayed during an hours-long gathering ahead of the pope's appearance.
On Thursday, Francis blasted what he called a "cult of money" in a global financial system that ends up tyrannizing, not helping, the world's poor.
Asked whether they had also talked about the pope's recent criticism, Merkel said they spoke about the regulation of the financial markets.
"The regulation of the financial markets is our central problem, our central task," Merkel told reporters on the Vatican grounds. "We are moving ahead, but we are not yet where we want to be, where we could say that a derailment of the guard rails of social market won't happen again."
Merkel added: "It ought to be like this: the economy is there to serve the people. In the last few years, this hasn't been the case at all everywhere."
Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and especially Greece have seen governments concentrate on debt reduction while slashing state spending. With growth stymied, unemployment, especially among young people, has soared. Businesses, many of them family-run in southern Europe, have failed as bank lending dried up.
The chancellor said the pope had stressed the world needs a strong and just Europe, and she described the overall conversation has encouraging.
Merkel is currently campaigning for re-election in September's general elections. Half of Germany's population is Catholic. In Bavaria especially there is a strong conservative and Catholic tradition.
According to a Vatican statement, Francis and Merkel discussed the socio-political, economic and religious situation in Europe and in the world, including "safeguarding human rights, the persecutions faced by Christians" and religious freedom.
Francis, who is Argentine, has picked up on campaigns by the two previous popes, the Polish John Paul II and German Benedict XVI, to reinvigorate what the Catholic church sees as flagging religious enthusiasm on a continent with Christian roots, including dwindling number of churchgoers in much of Western Europe.
"I see continuity in the missionary aspect, in becoming aware of the importance of Christianity for our Christian roots," said Merkel, adding that the "simple and touching words" of Francis, who was elected pontiff two months ago, are already reaching people.
The Vatican also uses papal visits with major leaders to seek allies in lobbying on behalf of Christians who face discrimination and in some cases physical violence in parts of the world.
Merkel said she has reflected on how she and Francis both had spent part of their lives in countries once under dictatorships ? her native East Germany under Soviet-influenced communist rule, and the pope's Argentine homeland, once ruled by a bloody military dictatorship.
___
AP correspondent Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/merkel-pope-talk-strong-europe-140331095.html
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Medical Education in India: Possible Illegalities Post NEET Interim ...
[xx] Swatanter Kumar, J. Priya Gupta vs. State of Chhatishgarh & Ors., Civil Appeal No. 4318 of 2012, (Arising out of SLP (C) No.27089 of 2011), with Civil Appeal No. 4319 of 2012 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 29306 of 2011), Date of Judgment: 08.05.2012
?Dr.Mukesh Yadav
B.Sc., M.B.B.S., M.D., M.B.A. (HCA), LL.B., PGDHR
Editor,?Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine
Professor and Head of Department,
Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology
School of Medical Sciences & Research,?Sharda University
Off. Add.: Plot No. 32, 34, Knowledge Park 3, Greater Noida
Gautam Budha Nagar, NCR, Delhi, pin: 201306
Mobile: +91-8527063514
Email:?drmukesh65@yahoo.co.in
Web address:?http://www.qme.co.in
Group:?http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Quality_of_Medical_Education
Source: http://qualityofmedicaleducation.blogspot.com/2013/05/possible-illegalities-post-neet-interim.html
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