Saturday, December 31, 2011

Event offers advice for small community farmers

11:59 a.m. EST, December 30, 2011

GRAYLING, Mich. (AP) ? An event next month will bring together people offering advice for small community farmers.

The Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference takes place Jan. 28 at Grayling High School in Grayling, about 45 miles east of Traverse City. Small-scale farmers, people considering becoming farmers and those interested in learning about the food system are invited.

Michigan State University Extension is among the sponsors. It says the aim is to provide tools that are needed for success. Topics include farming season extension, basic meat cutting, building profitability while helping families and using social media.

The registration deadline is Jan. 19. The cost is $50 for the first person and $35 for each additional person from the same family or farm.

Details and registration information are posted online.

___

Online:

http://www.smallfarmconference.com


Source: http://www.petoskeynews.com/news/pnr-event-offers-advice-for-small-community-farmers-20111230,0,7860709.story?track=rss

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Chesapeake Energy sells unit for $865 million

(AP)? OKLAHOMA CITY ? Chesapeake Energy Corp. plans to sell a pipelines unit to an affiliated company for $865 million, its latest asset sale.

Chesapeake Energy, the country's second largest natural gas producer, has been cutting debt by selling off company assets.

Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP, which was formed by Chesapeake Energy and another company, went public in July 2010. It said Wednesday that it had agreed to acquire Chesapeake Energy's Appalachia Midstream Services LLC unit, boosting its share of a pipeline that connects to a major shale formation.

As a result of the Appalachia Midstream Services LLC acquisition, Chesapeake Midstream Partners will own about 47 percent of assets that consist of about 200 miles of gathering pipeline in the Marcellus Shale.

Chesapeake Midstream Partners said it will finance the transaction with $600 million drawn from its revolving credit line and 9.8 million common units. That increases Chesapeake Energy's limited partnership ownership of Chesapeake Midstream Partners to 46.1 percent from 42.3 percent.

The acquisition is expected to close by Friday.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/EJQlVqIQQt8/

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Daily Deal: Incipio DRX Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 only $16.95

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Incipio DRX Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $16.95!. Get them before they’re gone! Get...


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/QPBplwiJnxs/story01.htm

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Verizon to charge $2 fee for some methods of bill payment

Verizon fee

We're used to getting nickled-and-dimed by our wireless carriers, but this is just getting ridiculous. Verizon confirmed to PhoneScoop today (update: and issued a press release - link below) that it's set to start charging a $2 "convenieince" fee for paying your bill come Jan. 15. With a few caveats, of course. Here's the breakdown:

You'll be charged the $2 if you:

  • Pay with a credit or debit card online
  • Pay with a credit of debit card via Verizon's call-in channels

Now that's not necessarily a complete stroke of evil by Verizon -- it wouldn't surprise us at all to learn that Verizon's getting charged more for those transactions by whichever service it uses. Passing the buck to the customer isn't new, but nor does it make it any easier to swallow. 

The "good" news here is that there are ways to avoid that $2 fee. You can:

  • Pay by electronic check
  • Use auto-pay -- which allows you to pay via  debit or credit card, or electronic check
  • Direct bill pay via your bank
  • In-store payments
  • Verizon gift, rebate or rewards cards
  • An old-school paper check mailed to Verizon

It's pretty clear that Verizon's looking to push people toward automatic bill payments. But we'd rather see Big Red use a carrot than a stick here. Perhaps discounts for using auto-pay instead of penalties for using completely reasonable and accepted payments might be a better way to go, especially given that Verizon is very much in the doghouse of late.

Source: PhoneScoop; Verizon Wireless



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/hi4Mc58b7_I/story01.htm

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Website says Sinead O'Connor's marriage is over (AP)

LONDON ? A statement on Sinead O'Connor's website says her brief marriage to therapist Barry Herridge has ended amicably.

The statement on sineadoconnor.com says "the marriage was 16 days. We lived together for 7 days only.. Until Xmas eve."

The statement says "from the moment myself and my husband got together ... there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not to be involved with me."

She adds: "As my good friend said `well, at least you got married in Vegas in a pink Cadillac! Can't get more Rock n Roll than that.'"

Roman Szendrey, who maintains the site, told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday the report is accurate and was personally posted by O'Connor.

______

Online: http://www.sineadoconnor.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_en_ce/eu_people_sinead_o_connor

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Review of the year 2011: Telegraph photographers' pictures of the royal wedding

Review of the year 2011: Telegraph photographers' pictures of the royal wedding - Telegraph

Catherine waves upon arriving at Westminster Abbey.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/royal-wedding-pictures/8968417/Review-of-the-year-2011-Telegraph-photographers-pictures-of-the-royal-wedding.html

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5666588077

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Daily iPhone App: SkySafari

SkySafari from Southern Stars is an app for the astronomy enthusiast with an iPhone. It's the perfect companion for a new telescope owner, who can use the app to help locate celestial bodies in the sky, or the casual observer who wants to know the name of that bright star cluster overhead. It's also useful for the seasoned astronomer who wants a pocket reference that's chock full of information.

The basic app (US$2.99) displays over 120,000 stars and has images of all the major planets and their moons. It also includes information on well-known asteroids and comets. SkySafari lets you look up details on each heavenly object including its catalog number and its coordinates in the sky. The app also explains the history and mythology behind each celestial object, so you can learn about the object as well as find it in the sky.

If you have an iOS device with a compass or gyroscope, you can point the app at the sky and use an augmented reality view to locate stars and planets. It even includes a night mode which preserves your dark-adjusted vision when you're out stargazing at night.

One of the best features is "Tonight's Best," which lists the best celestial objects to observe that night. The app generates this list based on your location and the local date and time. The app also has SkyWeek, a list of notable astronomical events pulled from Sky and Telescope Magazine's popular weekly column. Both Tonight's Best and SkyWeek are fantastic places to start if you're new to astronomy and don't want to miss an important event.

SkySafari is also available in a Plus ($14.99) and Pro ($59.99) version which includes information on millions of stars, deep sky objects and every comet or asteroid ever observed. If you have a motorized GoTo mount, the Plus and Pro versions also let you control your telescope using the iPhone app.

SkySafari is similar to Star Walk, another iPad and iPhone-based astronomy app. Both apps give you an augmented reality view of the sky and have information on the objects that you see. SkySafari, though, has additional features like SkyWeek that'll appeal more to the serious hobbyist than the casual observer. The depth of the information available and the option to control your telescope make SkySafari one of the leading astronomical apps available for iOS.


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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/27/daily-iphone-app-skysafari/

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 All Editions (x32/x64)

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fullversions/~3/MyKVqS2kMsI/x64)-full-crack-serial-keygen-rapidhare-by-down-warez.org-4413308.html

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The Christmas Wreath Lichen in the Corkscrew Swamp Wishes You a Happy Holiday

When I was in Florida a few weeks ago, I visited the Audubon Society?s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (highly, HIGHLY recommended should you be in southwest Florida), which features a two and a quarter mile boardwalk through old-growth cypress swamp. Bald and pond cypress towered over a swamp filled with alligators, snowy egret, and white ibis. We got to see a six-foot alligator and her progeny through a spotting scope. For the plant enthusiasts, there were 500 and 600 year old cypress, strangler figs perched in their treetops, swamp lillies, and cypress knees ? woody protuberances that stick up from the swamp from the roots of the cypress.

But the strangest sight of all were the lichens I noticed peppering the railings of the boardwalk that led us through the swamp, and the bark of the occasional tree. They had bright red borders and sometimes speckled centers on either a white or green ground. I had to know what they were. When I got home and looked them up, I discovered they were called ?Christmas lichens?, or Christmas wreath lichens?. And so I use these photographs to wish you a happy Christmas, should you happen to celebrate it. Here they are (along with a fascinating assembly of other lichens and mosses that leave no wooden surface uncovered in the heart of the swamp):

Here?s a closeup of a slightly different section of the railing:

What a spectacular and unexpected sight! Here we have another strange red pigment, like the prodigiosin produced by Serratia marcescens that I wrote about earlier this year. This red pigment is chiodectonic acid, which like many lichen chemicals likely serves as a UV protectant. Beta-carotene (which might help with DNA repair after exposure to UV) and chlorophyll are also found in the bright red areas. For some more lovely photographs of Cryptothecia rubrocincta (the species epithet means ?red-girdled? or ?red-wreathed?) that show the green of the red/green Christmas lichen a little better, see here.

Merry Christmas!

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=10dd89e4e76c373bd122975e33280776

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Texas family gets trapped in their car under 4-feet of snow in New Mexico

Huddled and shivering from the cold, David Higgins, his wife Yvonne, and their 5-year-old daughter, Hannah, stayed burried for almost two days in the deep snow that surrounded their sport utility vehicle.

The family had been headed for a pre-Christmas skiing vacation at Angel Fire resort in New Mexico on Monday, December 19, when their 2003 GMC Yukon got stuck in a blizzard on U. S. Highway 412 about 30 miles outside the town of Clyaton.

David and his wife used their cellphones to call family members and 911. They gave Mile Marker 52 as their location but as it turns out, they were just about halfway between markers 51 and 52.

Fortunately, as they awaited rescuers, the family had three flashlights in the car, along with two cases of water, cereal, two loaves of bread, sandwich meat, peanut butter and jelly, a gallon of milk, two sleeping bags, two pillows and their ski gear.

The parents used DVD's and games to distract their daughter the best they could.

On Wednesday, rescuers using poles to search the snow struck the top of the Yukon. They dug down to the driver's side window, broke it with an ax, and pulled the family out through a 4-foot snow tunnel to the surface.

All three are recovering in Raton at the Miners Colfax Medical Center. They hope to make it back home to the Houston area in time for Christmas.

Source: http://santafe.kob.com/news/families/104530-texas-family-gets-trapped-their-car-under-4-feet-snow-new-mexico

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Russian Communications Sat Falls After Launch | AVIATION WEEK




A Russian communications satellite fell to the ground on Friday soon after it was launched, adding to a string of disasters that have haunted the country?s space industry, Russian news agencies reported on Friday, quoting military sources.

The agencies said the Meridian satellite, which can have both military and civilian use, did not reach its orbit and fell to the ground near the city of Tobolsk in Siberia, about 2,300 km from Moscow.

The sources blamed the accident on the carrier rocket?s failure. A source in the space industry told Interfax news agency the Meridian failure could delay the launch of Progress cargo craft, due in January.

Several incidents have marred the celebration of the 50 years since Yuri Gagarin?s pioneering flight to space. A cargo craft taking supplies to astronauts aboard the International Space Station broke up in the atmosphere in August.

Three Glonass navigation system satellites launched in December last year veered off course and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, costing Moscow around $160 million and setting back the program to develop a rival to U.S. GPS.

Russia is also likely to have lost the $165-million Phobos-Grunt probe, which is stuck in orbit and may drop to Earth after it failed to set a course toward Mars?s moon last month.

? 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Soyuz rocket file photo. Credit: Arianespace

Source: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/awx/2011/12/23/awx_12_23_2011_p0-409253.xml

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Robert De Niro welcomes baby girl (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actor Robert De Niro and his wife Grace Hightower have become the proud parents of a baby girl born via a surrogate, the actor's spokesman confirmed on Friday.

The child is the second for De Niro, 68, and Hightower, 56. She is named Helen Grace Hightower De Niro, and weighed a healthy 7 lbs 2 oz at birth.

The "Meet the Parents" star married actress Hightower in 1997, and the couple have a son, Elliot, born in 1998.

De Niro also has a son and adopted daughter with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott and two twin sons with former girlfriend Toukie Smith.

The actor can currently be seen in the star-studded, feel-good film "New Year's Eve."

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111223/en_nm/us_robertdeniro

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Brookwood Announces the Acquisition of Maitland 200 in Maitland Florida SunHerald.com

Friday, December 23, 2011

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News > Brookwood Announces the Acquisition of Maitland 200 in Maitland Florida SunHerald.com

by Digital Asset Management Software on December 23, 2011

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalassetmanagementsoftwares/~3/ZgT37yjM5OQ/

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

In payroll tax battle, GOP shows cracks under Democratic pressure (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington ? After a year of clashes on Capitol Hill over trillion-dollar deficits, 40 is suddenly the biggest number in congressional politics, as Democrats and House Republicans clash over a payroll-tax cut and other measures set to expire on Jan. 1.

Forty dollars is the average drop that some 160 million Americans will see in their paychecks, if Congress doesn?t act.

A White House call for responses to what a $40 tax hike means to families produced thousands of tweets in just 24 hours. Replies included: ?nearly a tank of gas,? ?feeding my family for three nights,? ?two months of vet care,? ?co-pay for prescription drugs,? and ?default on my mortgage, so I can feed my son.?

RECOMMENDED: Why 'temporary' tax cuts never die: Payroll tax and 3 other examples

With just 10 days before the payroll tax ?holiday? and other measures expire, the cost to American families of gridlock as usual on Capitol Hill is immediate and personal. Democrats and the White House are counting on public outrage to force Speaker John Boehner ? and the tea-party backed conservatives who pushed GOP leaders to take on this fight ? to cave.

?The average Republican House member is going to hear from their constituents, and the pressure to come back and pass our bill is just going to increase,? said Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

?If it?s really a one-year deal you want, so do we,? he added. ?We will be the first ones on a plane to work out a one-year deal but on one condition: First pass the Senate?s two-month agreement, then we can negotiate right away and maybe have the whole thing done by New Years.?

In a bid to dramatize the impasse, House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer and Rep. Chris van Hollen (D) of Maryland took to the House floor in a bid to pass the Senate bill by unanimous consent. They were gaveled down at the start of a pro forma session that only lasted a few minutes.

?The House Republican leadership never even allowed a vote on the bipartisan Senate bill,? says Mr. Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. ?The reason they didn?t allow a vote was that they knew it would pass on a bipartisan vote.?

The payroll tax impasse began on Tuesday, as House Republicans rejected a Senate bill that would have extended the payroll tax and other expiring provisions for two months, on a party-line vote, 229 to 193. The Senate bill, which passed 89 to 10, also extended expiring federal benefits for jobless workers and blocked a 27.4 percent drop in payments to doctors serving Medicare patients, set to take hold on Jan. 1.

Speaker Boehner called for Senate Democrats to return to Washington to work out differences with the House. He called on President Obama to help persuade Democrats to come to the table.

But on Wednesday, the Speaker and eight negotiators appointed to conference with Senate Democrats met at an empty table and under a hail of criticism.

The Wall Street Journal?s editorial page dubbed the payroll tax strategy ?a fiasco.? 

Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona retweeted the WSJ editorial  to his 1.7 million followers.

Senate Republicans stepped up public criticism of House GOP leaders for blocking a bipartisan solution to the impasse, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, since Sunday, went silent.

?We are here in Washington working today because we want to make sure that the middle class and working families of this country have some certainty that their taxes will not go up for the entirety of next year,? said House majority leader Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia, at a photo op at the start of Wednesday?s meeting.

???Frankly, that's the only issue with which we differ with the Senate. And we're asking, as the Speaker said, for the Senate majority leader to appoint conferees to come join us to try and finish the work for the American people before the end of the year,??

Senate Republican leaders and eight members appointed to serve on the conference committees say they are committed to staying in Washington to find a solution. But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi or Senate majority leader Harry Reid say they will not appoint conferees or negotiate with the House until the House votes to accept the Senate measure.

In a letter on Wednesday, Senator Reid again called on the House to take up the Senate bill. ?Because we have a responsibility to assure middle-class families that their taxes will not go up while we work out our differences, we must pass this immediate extension first,? he wrote.

Summing up how Democrats view House GOP leverage on this issue, Senator Schumer told reporters today: ?They?re at the end of the rope.?

RECOMMENDED: Why 'temporary' tax cuts never die: Payroll tax and 3 other examples

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111222/ts_csm/440772

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SB Nation Minnesota's Week Sixteen NFL Picks

Dec 23, 2011 - This will teach me to get a little too cocky about my proclivity when it comes to picking football games.

Yes, thanks to last week being Bizarro Week in the National Football League, we managed to turn in one of our worst weeks of the season, going 6-9 straight-up and 5-9-1 against the number, with the push coming courtesy of Oakland's one-point loss to Detroit late on Sunday afternoon. That puts us back under break-even against the spread, even though our numbers straight-up are still pretty good.

Sadly. . .or, perhaps, not. . .I managed to miss Thursday night's battle between the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts, so I'm already starting this week one game down, so let's get to it with all the games this week being on Saturday. All of the point spreads are brought to you by our good friends from Oddsshark.com.

Game of the Week - New York Giants "at" New York Jets (-3)

This is technically a Jets home game, but it's essentially a home game for both teams. This one has playoff implications for both teams, but while the Jets can still get into the post-season party with a loss, the Giants can't, as a loss here will pretty much knock them out of contention. Hey, since my own team can't bring themselves to be interesting, I need to hope for interest from somewhere.

Straight-Up - Giants, ATS - Giants

Lock of the Week - Denver Broncos (-2.5) at Buffalo Bills

Last week, the Fightin' Tebows got lit up pretty good by New England at Mile High Stadium. The Bills aren't the Patriots, and Ryan Fitzpatrick isn't Tom Brady (even less so since he signed that huge contract extension). The Broncos still hold all the cards in the AFC West, and should be able to keep it that way against the train wreck in Buffalo.

Straight-Up - Broncos, ATS - Broncos

Upset of the Week - Arizona Cardinals at Cincinnati Bengals (-4)

All John Skelton does is win, folks. . .he's 6-1 as the Arizona starter this year, and will get the nod over an apparently healthy Kevin Kolb in this one. The Bengals are still hanging in there in the AFC playoff chase, and a loss here would be devastating. Of course, this is the Bengals. . .

Straight-Up - Cardinals, ATS - Cardinals

The Rest of the Week

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers (-7.5)

Remember when Raheem Morris was a rising star in the coaching ranks and Josh Freeman was going to turn the world in it's ear? Yeah, neither do the fans in Tampa Bay, who may be ready to run Morris out of town after this one. I don't like that extra half-point on the spread, though.

Straight-Up - Panthers, ATS - Buccaneers

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens (-12)

With the Steelers losing in San Francisco on Monday night and the Texans falling apart against Indy, the Ravens have the inside track to a first-round bye. . .if they can stop shooting themselves in the foot long enough to take advantage. I'm not taking the Ravens to cover a spread this big, though.

Straight-Up - Ravens, ATS - Browns

Jacksonville Jaguars at Tennessee Titans (-7.5)

The Titans' loss to the Colts last week may have torpedoed their playoff chances, but if they'll keep themselves alive into Week 17 with a victory in this one. Blaine Gabbert continues to look completely overmatched at quarterback for the Jags, and there's no reason to think he's going to do significant damage here.

Straight-Up - Titans, ATS - Titans

St. Louis Rams at Pittsburgh Steelers (-12)

A few days ago, I might have predicted this to be a Pittsburgh blowout. Then I watched a completely ineffective Ben Roethlisberger limp around the field against the Niners, and now I'm not so sure. The Steelers have already punched their ticket to the playoffs, and really don't stand to benefit from throwing Roethlisberger out there. They're still the better team, but they're not blowing anybody out without Big Ben taking the snaps.

Straight-Up - Steelers, ATS - Rams

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots (-9)

The Dolphins have had a huge turnaround since the early part of the season, but Bill Belichick knows that there's a very good chance to ensure the road to the Super Bowl runs right through Foxboro. He and Tom Brady don't often miss out on opportunities like those.

Straight-Up - Patriots, ATS - Dolphins

Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs (-1)

I have no idea what in the heck is going on in the AFC West any more. But the Raiders failed me last week, and they shall pay for their insolence now against the team that, mercifully, ended Green Bay's run at perfection.

Straight-Up - Chiefs, ATS - Chiefs

San Diego Chargers at Detroit Lions (-1)

For the second straight week, the Lions are a one-point favorite. This weekend, however, the Chargers are likely going to be without Vincent Jackson, and Detroit knows it can clinch its first playoff spot since the Truman Administration (or thereabouts) with a victory. Congratulations in advance to Detroit.

Straight-Up - Lions, ATS - Lions

San Francisco 49ers (-1) at Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks have, somehow, gotten themselves back to .500. The Niners appeared to be going into the post-season in reverse, until they throttled the Steelers on Monday Night Football. San Francisco knows that a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs is still at stake, and I still don't trust Tarvaris Jackson. Sorry, Seattle fans.

Straight-Up - Niners, ATS - Niners

Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys (-1.5)

You want to hear something crazy? If the Eagles, Giants, and Cowboys all finish 8-8, the "Dream Team" Eagles would go from potentially being the NFL's biggest disaster to winning the NFC East and hosting a first-round playoff game. I, for one, would like to see that.

Straight-Up - Eagles, ATS - Eagles

Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers (-12.5)

The Bears have been falling apart at the seams since Jay Cutler went down. Last week, the Packers' offense looked thoroughly useless without Greg Jennings running routes. A win for Green Bay wraps up home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. Ugh.

Straight-Up - Packers, ATS - Bears

Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints (-7.5)

The Falcons are fighting for their playoff lives, while the Saints are still hunting for a first-round bye. It should be a pretty good contest, but in the end, I'm not sure if the Dirty Birds have the power to keep up with the Dirty Team.

Straight-Up - Saints, ATS - Saints

Straight-Up For Season: 132-74 (6-9 last week)
ATS For Season: 98-100-8 (5-9-1 last week)
Lock of the Week: 7-7
Upset of the Week: 5-8-1

Do you like this story?

Source: http://minnesota.sbnation.com/2011/12/23/2658552/nfl-picks-week-16-predictions

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Party with the stars Dec. 30 at College Hill Reservoir

The Eugene Astronomical Society's next star party will be held Friday, December 30, from 6 p.m. onward at the College Hill Reservoir at 24th and Lawrence in Eugene.? This is one of their series of "First Quarter Fridays" held each month on the Friday nearest the first quarter moon.?

This event draws dozens of people to share the view of the night sky.

The EAS will have a variety of telescopes for people to look through and astronomers on hand to explain what people are seeing.? The public is welcome to attend, and admission is free.

When: Friday, December 30, from 6:00 p.m. onward, weather permitting.

Where: College Hill Reservoir, 24th & Lawrence in Eugene.

Source: http://southeugene.kval.com/news/community-spirit/252844-party-stars-dec-30-college-hill-reservoir

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Spanish town celebrates after $940 million lottery win

Days before Christmas, a town of 2,000 in cash-strapped Spain found itself richer by ?720 million ($940 million) Thursday after scooping the top prize in the nation's famed Christmas lottery.

Billed as the world's richest, the lottery dishes out some ?2.52 billion ($3.29 billion) to winners across the nation.

The top prize ? dubbed "El Gordo" (The Fat One) ? was split among the holders of tickets bearing the number 58268. The number appeared on 1,800 tickets, giving winners ?400,000 for their ?20 ticket ($27).

The state lottery agency said all 1,800 tickets with that number were sold in the town of Granen, located in the arid and barren northeastern Los Monegros area.

Sparkling wine
The news brought the town's residents out onto the street to dance, sing, hug each other and spray sparkling wine all over.

"It's brilliant!" Pilar Azagra, who runs the town's lottery store, told Spanish National Television. She appeared a bit stunned.

"I haven't had time to react, the number came out and then people started flocking to the shop," she said, adding that many in her family had bought ?20 tickets.

Azagra said the windfall was more than welcome as several companies in Granen had closed because of the economic crisis forcing many residents to seek employment in neighboring towns and cities.

Spain is struggling to emerge from a near two-year recession that has left it with a eurozone-high 21.5 percent unemployment rate. However, about 90 percent of adult Spaniards play the Christmas lottery.

Share-the-wealth system
The Gordo lottery aims for a share-the-wealth system, rather than a single jackpot, and thousands of numbers yield at least some kind of return. Lots of people chip in together and buy shares of several or many tickets, meaning it is common for multiple prizes to go to the same town.

Other lotteries have larger individual top prizes but El Gordo is ranked as the world's richest for the total sum paid out.

The winning number was picked and announced by pupils of Madrid's Saint Ildefonso School in a nationally televised draw.

Since it began in 1812, the Dec. 22 lottery has become a favorite holiday tradition. This year, it sold an estimated ?2.7 billion in tickets and the state lottery agency estimated per-capita spending of about ?70.

"The lottery is part of the Spanish DNA," said Loterias y Apuestas del Estado chairman Aurelio Martinez earlier this year at a presentation of the planned sale of 30 percent of the lottery operator. The sale was pulled in September due to tough market conditions.

Spain holds another big lottery Jan. 6 to mark the Feast of the Epiphany. It is known as "El Nino" (The Child), in reference to the baby Jesus.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45764573/ns/world_news-europe/

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Eric Church's First Christmas With Son Boone

Eric Church's First Christmas With Son Boone

Eric Church and wife Katherine welcomed son Boone McCoy this past October, and the country singer says this holiday is filled with many special 'firsts.'

"There's not a lot of firsts in your life ? first child and first Christmas with him is certainly not something I'm going to miss," the 'Guys Like Me' singer says. "We're gonna be in North Carolina with my family. I just look forward to relaxing and enjoying our first Christmas at home and can't wait."

But Eric says he's already making tour plans for 2012 ? that include Boone's first experience as a tour groupie. "[At the] same time, I can't wait to dial it back up next year. We're gonna take him on the road, so it'll be his first tour," he says. "So, it's gonna be a lot of firsts over the next year, and we're just soaking it in and enjoying every one."

The new dad seems to be soaking up every minute of his role as a family man. "Everybody always tells you what an awesome and unique experience being a parent is. But words can never do the feeling justice," Eric gushes. "The way our life changed in that 24-hour period alone after he was born ? just by putting a little boy in the house ? was awesome."

Photos: Google

Source: http://www.celebritybabyscoop.com/2011/12/21/eric-churchs-first-christmas-with-son-boone

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Beware; Health Insurance Scam in the Midwest ? CBS St. Louis

SPRINGFIELD, Ill (IRN/KMOX)? ? Going without health insurance is risky, but paying money for a phony policy is even worse. Illinois insurance regulators say a company calling itself ?Re-Assurance? is selling fraudulent policies in Illinois and other Midwestern states.

Alka?Nayyar, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Insurance, says the state has issued a cease-and-desist order. She says about 50 Illinoisans have bought the bogus policies, but the state wants to know if any more victims are out there.

She says among the things people considering an insurance purchase should be wary of are: unsolicited offers; exaggerated phrases such as ?special offer? and ?affordable health coverage;? and evasive answers. She says the insurance company and agent must be registered with the Illinois Department of Insurance.

Link:??www.insurance.illinois.gov

For more information:? (877) 527-9431

Copyright IRN/KMOX

Source: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/12/16/beware-health-insurance-scam-in-the-midwest/

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Man adjust to new life after 3 decades in prison

Barry Beach shares a long embrace with his mother, Bobbi Clincher, after being released on his own recognizance by Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips' after serving 29 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of Kim Nees in Poplar, Mont. Beach will live with a couple in Billings while awaiting a new trial. (AP Photo/The Great Falls Tribune, Rion Sanders) NO SALES

Barry Beach shares a long embrace with his mother, Bobbi Clincher, after being released on his own recognizance by Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips' after serving 29 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of Kim Nees in Poplar, Mont. Beach will live with a couple in Billings while awaiting a new trial. (AP Photo/The Great Falls Tribune, Rion Sanders) NO SALES

Barry Beach, seen here in front of Rapid Tire in Laurel, Mont., on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, was released from prison after almost three decades for a murder he says he didn't commit. He is awaiting retrial for the 1979 murder of a teenager near the town of Poplar. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Barry Beach cleans the side of a 1994 pickup he inherited from his uncle in Laurel, Mont., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Beach was released from prison last week after almost three decades and is awaiting retrial for the 1979 murder of a teenager near the town of Poplar. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Barry Beach is seen in Laurel, Mont., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Beach was released from prison after almost three decades for a murder he says he didn't commit. He is awaiting retrial for the 1979 killing of a teenager near the town of Poplar. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Barry Beach sheds tears as he listens to terms of his release by Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips' after serving 29 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of Kim Nees, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 in Lewistown, Mont. (AP Photo/The Great Falls Tribune, Rion Sanders) NO SALES

(AP) ? When Barry Beach was convicted of murder in 1984 for the killing of a female schoolmate, Miami Vice was a hit TV show. A car phone was a rich man's boxy appliance. Beach's mullet hairdo was in vogue.

Nearly 28 years later, Beach has returned to freedom and a new world. Not only is everything more expensive, technologically advanced and a whole lot faster, he has returned to his adopted hometown of Billings a cause celebre to many people who believe he is innocent.

Beach's status has seemingly grown each year as his case received more attention amid doubts about his guilt. He has the backing of a long list of influential supporters in Montana along with a New Jersey-based innocence group that helped publicize his case. Pro-Barry Beach placards began appearing in local businesses and national news reports prompted even more people to come forward with new information potentially incriminating others in the crime.

It all helped Beach walk free last week as a judge released him while he awaits a new trial in the 1979 murder of a teenager who was savagely beaten.

Prosecutors are contesting Beach's release and are adamant that the right man was convicted in the murder of 17-year-old Kim Nees, pointing to his confession as the ultimate proof. Beach says it was a coerced and false confession. Prosecutors are also flabbergasted by the positive reception for Beach and find it insensitive to the family of the victim.

Beach says he has been bolstered by the support he has found in Billings, with strangers coming up to hug him in the street as the 49-year-old builds a new life in this strange, new world.

He has a job making Christmas cookies at the bakery owned by the wife of the supporter he's living with. He's fixing up the Ford pickup that he inherited. He plans to help out a local jail ministry over the holidays, even though he knows his own reprieve from behind bars may be temporary.

"I'm just trying to get my wheels," said Barry Beach after replacing his truck's bald tires at a Laurel store. "It's part of the life out here is you've got to be mobile you know. I'm just trying to get caught up so I can start living life, start enjoying life."

Last week, the judge released Beach without bail since, in part, he will be living with a former county commissioner and well-known Billings business owner. An enthusiastic Beach said he has enjoyed each moment ever since ? even the mundane chore of buying auto insurance.

"I spent all my years in prison setting up and preparing for this moment," he added. "I truly feel like I am living the life I fought so hard to have."

Prosecutors aren't ceding the case.

The state attorney general's office will be asking the Montana Supreme Court to reverse District Judge E. Wayne Phillips's order for a new trial, hoping to restore Beach's original sentence and send him back to prison. Both sides say it could take the court up to a year to sort through the case.

"I think the other important thing to keep in mind is that we have a victim here and family members of a victim," said Assistant Attorney General Tammy Plubell. "It gets increasingly difficult to explain all this to them."

The mother of the victim has long believed Beach was rightfully convicted. Diane Nees declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press.

Former Yellowstone County Commissioner James "Ziggy" Ziegler, in whose home Beach is now staying, said the attorney general's office would be wrong to pursue a retrial.

"I just think with the groundswell of all the support, my opinion is that the attorney general's office better give it a hard look if they want to take it to another trial," said Ziegler. "I think the court of public opinion is such that they just need to let it go away."

Cameras rolled and reporters blogged and tweeted Beach's every move the day of his release. They were there when he changed into a Washington Redskins jersey, gave his mother a prolonged hug and munched on olives at a party at Lewistown's Yogo Inn. His life outside jail has continued to be front-page news as Beach went about his first days of freedom, with the scrutiny even documenting Beach's renewed relationship with his favorite meal ? a McDonald's cheeseburger and strawberry shake.

The meal was the same one Louisiana detectives fed him during the long-ago interrogation that led to a confession that landed Beach in prison for Nees' killing.

Prosecutors argue Beach's detailed confession matches the crime scene, and that his new evidence relies on hearsay testimony built on years of rumors that a gang of girls were really responsible for the deadly attack on Nees at a popular riverside party spot for Poplar teenagers.

The state recently detailed its argument against Beach, building on the transcribed confession that would certainly be a big part of any new trial. The state argues that Beach was known to have a temper, and let it get out of control that night after Nees rebuffed his advances.

"At this point, Beach grabbed Kim by her arm and pulled her over next to him. Kim slapped him and Beach 'flew off the handle again,'" the state's recent court filing reads, quoting the confession. "Beach said he picked a 12-inch chrome crescent wrench off the floorboard and started hitting Kim with it inside the cab of the truck."

Beach's attorneys, however, convinced the judge to grant the new trial and release Beach in the meantime. They brought several witnesses to a hearing last summer who testified that a group of women have over the years let slip their involvement in the crime, or who saw events that summer evening that would indicate a gang of girls with relatives on the local police force committed the crime.

As for Beach, he believed all along that he would eventually be vindicated and he now intends to take full advantage of the opportunity.

"I am not going to waste the opportunity God has put in my life," Beach said. "I am going to do everything in my power to enjoy it."

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings contributed to this report.

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-17-Old%20Murder%20Case/id-42ff0d1098dc454a976021713a5cb27c

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Vinton Cerf, other Net gurus protest piracy bill

Kevin Wolf / AP file

By Suzanne Choney

Vinton Cerf, one of the Internet's pioneers, and 82 other Internet inventors and engineers have signed an open letter to Congress protesting both a controversial piracy bill known as SOPA and related Internet legislation that they say would "create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure."

The first bill, the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), scheduled to go? before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Thursday, makes the streaming of unauthorized content a felony. But, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns, the bill's "vague language would create devastating new tools for silencing legitimate speech all around the Web."

The Protect-IP Act, a bill in the Senate, would do much the same thing. The Business Software Alliance ? which includes Microsoft, Apple, Intel and Adobe, and focuses heavily on anti-piracy efforts?? is opposed to SOPA, as are major players in tech, including Google, Apple and Facebook.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBCUniversal.)

SOPA would require websites and telecom service providers to monitor content and traffic across their networks for piracy, and let law enforcement actually seize a website and shut it down.

The letter, shared by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, (the full list of names is here), says, in part:

Regardless of recent amendments to SOPA, both bills will risk fragmenting the Internet's global domain name system (DNS) and have other capricious technical consequences. In exchange for this, such legislation would engender censorship that will simultaneously be circumvented by deliberate infringers while hampering innocent parties' right and ability to communicate and express themselves online.

All censorship schemes impact speech beyond the category they were intended to restrict, but these bills are particularly egregious in that regard because they cause entire domains to vanish from the Web, not just infringing pages or files. Worse, an incredible range of useful, law-abiding sites can be blacklisted under these proposals.

Cerf, who is also Google's chief evangelist, has been joined by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in opposing the legislation, which is supported by the Motion Picture Association of America, the Directors Guild of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which estimates the cost of online piracy at $135 million a year.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and is the lead sponsor of SOPA, said recently that claims that the law threatens Internet freedoms are "blatantly false."

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9472301-vinton-cerf-other-internet-gurus-protest-piracy-bill

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

IndyCar: 'Limitless' racing factor in Vegas wreck

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, left, and Indycar president Brian Barnhart talk about the report on the Oct. 16 fatal crash of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Wheldon was killed when his head hit a post in the fencing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, contact that created a "non-survivable injury" to the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. The cause of death was revealed Thursday when IndyCar presented its findings of the Oct. 16 accident during the Indycar season finale. (AP Photo/The Star, Greg Griffo)

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, left, and Indycar president Brian Barnhart talk about the report on the Oct. 16 fatal crash of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Wheldon was killed when his head hit a post in the fencing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, contact that created a "non-survivable injury" to the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. The cause of death was revealed Thursday when IndyCar presented its findings of the Oct. 16 accident during the Indycar season finale. (AP Photo/The Star, Greg Griffo)

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, left, listens to IndyCar president Brian Barnhart talk about the report on the Oct. 16 fatal crash of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Wheldon was killed when his head hit a post in the fencing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, contact that created a "non-survivable injury" to the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. The cause of death was revealed Thursday when IndyCar presented its findings of the Oct. 16 accident during the Indycar season finale. (AP Photo/The Star, Greg Griffo)

IndyCar president Brian Barnhart talks about the report on the Oct. 16 fatal crash of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Wheldon was killed when his head hit a post in the fencing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, contact that created a "non-survivable injury" to the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. The cause of death was revealed Thursday when IndyCar presented its findings of the Oct. 16 accident during the Indycar season finale. (AP Photo/The Star, Greg Griffo)

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard listens to IndyCar president Brian Barnhart talk about the report on the Oct. 16 fatal crash of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Wheldon was killed when his head hit a post in the fencing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, contact that created a "non-survivable injury" to the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. The cause of death was revealed Thursday when IndyCar presented its findings of the Oct. 16 accident during the Indycar season finale. (AP Photo/The Star, Greg Griffo)

Las Vegas Motor Speedway's "limitless" racing surface was singled out Thursday as a significant factor in a "perfect storm" of conditions that led to the death of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon was killed Oct. 16 during the series' season finale when his car sailed 325 feet through the air into a catchfence, and his head hit a post in the fence. The blow created a "non-survivable injury."

In the wake of the 15-car wreck, many criticized CEO Randy Bernard and IndyCar for creating a deadly mix of circumstances ? offering a jobless Wheldon the chance to earn a $5 million bonus if he could drive from the back of a 34-car field to Victory Lane on a high-banked oval, where a field of mixed experience levels had enough room to race three-wide at over 220 mph.

But IndyCar president Brian Barnhart dismissed those factors and focused instead on Vegas' multi-grooved wide racing surface that heightened the dangers of pack racing on a high-banked oval.

The IndyCar, with open wheels and an open cockpit, is not suited for the pack racing that develops on ovals. Unlike NASCAR, where cars bump and bang on every lap, any contact in an IndyCar results in either a crash or a slew of broken parts.

"Racing grooves not only restrict drivers' naturally aggressive racing behavior, but make the location of another competitor's car on the racetrack more predictable," the report said.

But when the race began at Vegas, the packed 34-car field was all over the track ? movement series officials did not expect despite drivers' warnings.

"The ability of the drivers to race from the bottom of the racetrack all the way up to the wall and run limitless is not a condition we've experienced before," Barnhart said. "I don't think we were expecting it to be any different from what we'd experienced in the last decade at places like Chicagoland, Kentucky, Fontana and Texas. ...

"We were never expecting to be able to run from the top to the bottom (at Las Vegas)."

Most ovals have one or two racing grooves.

Drivers, however, predicted as early as preseason testing that Las Vegas would be hairy and repeated those warnings during the buildup to the race.

"We knew that was the case before we even started the race, because it's been the case at (ovals) where you can run multi-grooves," driver Will Power, who broke his back in the accident, told The Associated Press.

"The biggest problem we face is it's almost like driving on the highway at full speed and you can't get away from anyone," he said. "It's the same thing NASCAR has with Daytona and Talladega, and when they have the big one, the consequences aren't nearly as bad as in IndyCar.

"We can't race in a pack. You just can't in open-wheelers. There's no room for error."

Bernard said the report was shared with Wheldon's widow, Susie, on Wednesday evening, and she spoke with both Barnhart and Bernard afterward.

"She talked to Brian Barnhart primarily about the investigation because I felt it was important for Brian to educate her," Bernard said. "My conversation with her was about some other questions and family matters that she wanted to discuss."

Just a day shy of the two-month anniversary of Wheldon's death, IndyCar is struggling to move forward.

The 2012 schedule has yet to be released, although Bernard hoped to have it out by Friday. At issue was whether the IndyCar is suited for any high-banked ovals. Bernard already has bought his way out of Year 2 of the Las Vegas contract. The third and final year of the lease agreement is up for review.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway president Chris Powell said track officials will work with IndyCar in hopes "the series might return to LVMS in the future."

"I think Las Vegas is a great city, a resort destination, and our fans and sponsors ? everyone loves the city," Bernard said. "But I don't want to go back there if the conditions aren't right, if it isn't safe, for our race cars."

So attention now turns to Texas Motor Speedway, a popular venue that has hosted IndyCar since 1997. After Wheldon's death, there were calls for Texas to be dropped from the schedule.

The investigation, though, determined every track should be judged individually and a ban on all banked ovals wasn't practical. Bernard said he hoped to have an agreement with Texas completed when he announces the schedule.

But Power wants to see changes first.

"If we go back there racing in a pack, I will be very disappointed," Power said. "What IndyCar has to do is find a formula that spreads it out, makes it difficult to drive and not reliant on an engineering program."

That's the direction Barnhart wants to go with IndyCar, too, both with the 2012 car that Wheldon helped develop and drivers' attitudes.

"You get to a point where you don't want to get to the limitless racing capabilities that we had at Vegas," Barnhart said. "What we're going to try to do is identify an aerodynamic package that makes it more challenging for the drivers.

"It wasn't a challenge to these highly talented drivers. I think what we have to create through this extensive testing is a limit. They have to know that there's a line that they can't cross."

Wheldon didn't appear to have any qualms about driving at Vegas, which was spurred by a $5 million incentive.

Wheldon was making just his third start of the season and chasing the incentive offered by Bernard to any non-IndyCar regular. Wheldon would have split the money with a fan selected in a random drawing.

Allowing Wheldon to take the challenge was a stretch ? he won 14 races on ovals, including the Indy 500 earlier in the season ? but because he sat out the season, he technically qualified for the bonus.

But Wheldon felt he was up for the challenge.

He was the in-race reporter for ABC during the event and spoke with the announcers during the warm-up laps. In a brief interview, Wheldon defended his participation and the entire IndyCar Series.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think that I could win," he said from his car. "Certainly I am not underestimating the talent of the other drivers in the field. I think IndyCar has got a phenomenal field right now."

Wheldon was killed minutes later when the crash began ahead of him at the start of the 12th lap. He had picked his way through the field and gained at least 10 spots when he came upon the accident and had nowhere to go to avoid the spinning cars and flying debris.

The report found that although Wheldon stayed low on the track in an attempt to avoid the cluster of cars spinning toward the top ? he had slowed from 224 mph to 165 ? his path was blocked by other cars. His first contact with another car sent him airborne and into the catchfence.

Las Vegas is owned by Speedway Motor Sports Inc., and the organization has spent considerable money on research into fencing. SMI owner Bruton Smith is adamant his fences are the strongest and safest in the business, and he makes no apologies for constructing them with the posts inside the wiring.

Barnhart said there is no indication Wheldon would have survived had the post been on the outside of the mesh wiring.

"It does not look like the position of the mesh fabric would have changed the consequences of this accident at all," Barnhart said. "Sometimes the forces are too great. The small fabric is not there to retain a car. That's the object of the post and the cables. The location of the fabric would not have changed the outcome at all, but as we've said, our preference is for it to be on the inside."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-15-IndyCar-Wheldon%20Investigation/id-c0333389861e4b1c94d72a67d169118b

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Fed has no plans to help Europe, Dudley says (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Europe's financial crisis poses a threat to U.S. banks and the economy but it is up to the continent's leaders -- not the Federal Reserve -- to find a resolution, a top official at the central bank said on Friday.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley defended the Fed's decision to lower the cost of dollar funds for overseas banks stressed by Europe's debt crisis as an important step to safeguard the U.S. economy, but he told lawmakers no further intervention was planned.

"I don't anticipate, even if the crisis in Europe were to worsen, further steps on the part of the Federal Reserve at this time," Dudley, a former Goldman Sachs partner, told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee.

Both Dudley and senior U.S. Treasury official Mark Sobel told the panel the euro zone's festering debt crisis posed a big risk to the U.S. economy, and that the United States had an interest in seeing it put to rest.

Financial markets remain on edge about Europe's ability to put a floor under a bond market selloff that is pushing borrowing costs for countries such as Italy and Spain toward unsustainable levels.

Dudley said U.S. financial institutions were in good shape to withstand any blows from Europe and had little direct exposure to the European countries hardest-hit by the crisis.

However, he warned that their vulnerability was greater when countries such as France and Germany, as well as the European banking system, were taken into account.

"This means that if the crisis were to broaden further and intensify, this could put greater pressure on U.S. banks' capital and liquidity buffers," potentially choking off credit for U.S. households and businesses, Dudley said.

When pressed, Dudley said he could not rule out the possibility that the U.S. central bank might be willing to accept European debt as collateral for emergency loans to U.S. banks.

"I wouldn't necessarily rule it out, if the collateral is good collateral and is appropriately haircutted," he said, referring to the discount that borrowers must accept on collateral for emergency loans.

NO MORE MONEY FOR IMF

Sobel, the U.S. Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for international affairs, said Europe's debt crisis had deepened as he made a pitch for continued U.S. involvement through the International Monetary Fund.

Some Republican lawmakers have pushed to rescind a $100 billion U.S. credit line for the IMF approved in 2009, warning that U.S. taxpayer money could be put at risk. Democrats, however, have been successful in beating back that proposal.

While the IMF can play a role in easing the crisis, it "cannot substitute for a strong and credible European firewall and response," Sobel said.

He told lawmakers that President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were "actively engaged" with European counterparts to help them deal with the crisis, but made clear Washington had no intention of pumping more money into the IMF.

In late November, the Fed collaborated with other central banks to prevent a global credit crunch stemming from the turmoil in Europe by lowering the cost of existing dollar swap lines. The arrangements permit the Fed to provide dollars to the European Central Bank and four other central banks in exchange for local currencies.

Like the funds for the IMF, the swap facilities have drawn criticism from U.S. lawmakers who say they could hand U.S. taxpayers the bill for a European financial bailout.

Steven Kamin, the head of the Fed's international finance division, tried to address those concerns in his testimony to the panel, arguing the swaps were safe for the Fed and U.S. taxpayers, and had already had a beneficial effect on dollar funding markets.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Glenn Somerville, David Clarke and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Tim Ahmann and James Dalgleish)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/bs_nm/us_eurozone_usa

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Higgs boson: What scientists are saying about the 'God particle'

Scientists at CERN say that they are closing in on the Higgs boson, the elusive subatomic particle that, if discovered, could help explain why particles have mass. Here's what some of the world's leading physicists have to say about the announcement.

Scientists at the world's largest particle accelerator announced today (Dec. 13) that they'd narrowed down the possibilities for the existence of the elusive Higgs boson particle. This particle, long theorized but not yet detected, is thought to explain why particles have mass.

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The data so far from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) indicate that if it exists at all,?the Higgs must weigh between 115 and 130?times the mass of a proton (a unit denoted by gigaelectronvolts, or GeV). Two experiments at LHC, called ATLAS and CMS, also show hints that they've seen a particle weighing about 124 or 125 GeV that could be?the Higgs boson.

Though it's too soon for physicists to declare a definite?discovery of the Higgs, experts said the findings so far represent an important step forward. Here's what some leading physicists have to say about today's announcement:

"This is not the end,?but the beginning. The Higgs was just the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particles. But that theory is ugly; it is a theory only a mother can love. The real breakthrough is when the LHC discovers dark matter or strings. That would be spectacular. So there is a whole new universe beyond the Higgs." [Gallery: Search for the Higgs Boson]

?Michio Kaku, City College of New York theoretical physicist, told LiveScience

"Both experiments showed a very impressive turnaround in processing the data and very good understanding of their detectors. It is unprecedented to have full data samples from such complex experiments to be analyzed in a fairly sophisticated way in just one month since the?end of the proton-proton run.

?Greg Landsberg, Brown University physicist, CMS physics coordinator at the LHC, told LiveScience

"ATLAS data, just like CMS ones contain interesting excesses. Whether what we both see is a real signal or just a funny game [that] statistics often play with us, remains to be seen.

"This looks to me like a lot more than 'intriguing hints': it's about what you would expect if a Higgs was there at 125 GeV, highly unlikely to see if there is no Higgs there."

? Peter Woit, Columbia University mathematician, from his blog "Not Even Wrong"

"Essentials: what we're seeing is pretty consistent with the existence of a Higgs boson around 123-126 GeV. The data aren't nearly conclusive enough to say that it's definitely there. But the LHC is purring along, and a year from now we'll know a lot more.

"It's like rushing to the tree on Christmas morning, ripping open a giant box, and finding a small note that says 'Santa is on his way! Hang in there!' The LHC is real and Santa is not, but you know what I mean."

?Sean Carroll, California Institute of Technology physicist, from his blog "Cosmic Variance," hosted by Discover Magazine

"All in all, it's a definite maybe. Putting the results together in the way only a frequentist can the result is a 2.4 sigma detection. In other words, nothing any serious scientist would call convincing."

?Pete Coles, Cardiff University theoretical astrophysicist, from his blog "In The Dark"

"Two independent (and highly competitive) research teams, involving thousands of scientists, using each of these detectors have seen moderately convincing evidence that the elusive Higgs particle has been created in some of the proton?proton collisions.

"This is a challenging experiment as the detectors can't see the Higgs particle directly ? it is a short-lived particle that quickly falls apart (decays) ? but, rather, they infer its presence by seeing its decay products."

?Brian Greene, Columbia University physicist, on the "World Science Festival" blog

"The proof will come in the next year. The spectacularly successful LHC accelerator (which the Europeans built when the U.S. killed the superconducting super collider in Texas) will produce 4 times more Higgs particles in the next year. The significance of the hints reported today could turn into proof beyond a doubt come next October.

"What does this mean? The biggest mystery physicists have been trying to understand for the last half century is the 'mystery of mass.' The hydrogen atom is the paradigm of nature, with a + proton surrounded by a quantum cloud of a -electron. Yet the proton is 2,000 times heavier than the electron. No one has the slightest idea why. Peter Higgs hypothesizes that the vacuum is filled with an as yet undiscovered particle, the Higgs particle, which acts as molasses in slowing down whatever passes through it. A heavier particle is nothing more than one that has more interactions with the Higgs particle as it passes through the vacuum.

?Lawrence Sulak, Boston University physicist, member of CMS collaboration, told LiveScience

"Will we ever conclusively find the Higgs?

"It seems that the year 2012 will reveal it to us. In April 2012, the collider will start up again, apparently at a higher energy and greater collision frequency.

"We can expect that the summer of 2012 will be a summer of tidings."

??Eilam Gross, Weizmann Institute physicist, ATLAS Higgs physics group convener, on the "Weizmann Wave" blog at ScienceBlogs.

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter?@livescience?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/qIImrP4sa4U/Higgs-boson-What-scientists-are-saying-about-the-God-particle

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Obama a fan of "Boardwalk Empire," "Homeland"

(AP) ? President Barack Obama says he's a fan of two popular cable TV shows: HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and Showtime's "Homeland."

First lady Michelle Obama and their daughters, 13-year-old Malia and 10-year-old Sasha, enjoy ABC's "Modern Family."

The president and first lady talked about life in the White House in an interview with People Magazine.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-14-Obama-TV%20Shows/id-6ed459ebdb514147b532c828d31f174c

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