Saturday, December 31, 2011

Stanford archives offer window into Apple origins

In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood is shown looking at an old photograph of Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, a photo of an old keyboard is shown next to a letter written about Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood holds up an old Apple 1 operation manual at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

(AP) ? In the interview, Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs recall a seminal moment in Silicon Valley history ? how they named their upstart computer company some 35 years ago.

"I remember driving down Highway 85," Wozniak says. "We're on the freeway, and Steve mentions, 'I've got a name: Apple Computer.' We kept thinking of other alternatives to that name, and we couldn't think of anything better."

Adds Jobs: "And also remember that I worked at Atari, and it got us ahead of Atari in the phonebook."

The interview, recorded for an in-house video for company employees in the mid-1980s, was among a storehouse of materials Apple had been collecting for a company museum. But in 1997, soon after Jobs returned to the company, Apple officials contacted Stanford University and offered to donate the collection to the school's Silicon Valley Archives.

Within a few days, Stanford curators were at Apple headquarters in nearby Cupertino, packing two moving trucks full of documents, books, software, videotapes and marketing materials that now make up the core of Stanford's Apple Collection.

The collection, the largest assembly of Apple historical materials, can help historians, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand how a startup launched in a Silicon Valley garage became a global technology giant.

"Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer," said Stanford historian Leslie Berlin. "These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened."

The collection is stored in hundreds of boxes taking up more than 600 feet of shelf space at the Stanford's off-campus storage facility. The Associated Press visited the climate-controlled warehouse on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area, but agreed not to disclose its location.

Interest in Apple and its founder has grown dramatically since Jobs died in October at age 56, just weeks after he stepped down as CEO and handed the reins to Tim Cook. Jobs' death sparked an international outpouring and marked the end of an era for Apple and Silicon Valley.

"Apple as a company is in a very, very select group," said Stanford curator Henry Lowood. "It survived through multiple generations of technology. To the credit of Steve Jobs, it meant reinventing the company at several points."

Apple scrapped its own plans for a corporate museum after Jobs returned as CEO and began restructuring the financially struggling firm, Lowood said.

Job's return, more than a decade after he was forced out of the company he co-founded, marked the beginning of one of the great comebacks in business history. It led to a long string of blockbuster products ? including the iPod, iPhone and iPad ? that have made Apple one of the world's most profitable brands.

After Stanford received the Apple donation, former company executives, early employees, business partners and Mac enthusiasts have come forward and added their own items to the archives.

The collection includes early photos of young Jobs and Wozniak, blueprints for the first Apple computer, user manuals, magazine ads, TV commercials, company t-shirts and drafts of Jobs' speeches.

In one company video, Wozniak talks about how he had always wanted his own computer, but couldn't get his hands on one at a time when few computers were found outside corporations or government agencies.

"All of a sudden I realized, 'Hey microprocessors all of a sudden are affordable. I can actually build my own,'" Wozniak says. "And Steve went a little further. He saw it as a product you could actually deliver, sell and someone else could use."

The pair also talk about the company's first product, the Apple I computer, which went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66.

"Remember an Apple I was not particularly useable for too much, but it was so incredible to have your own computer," Jobs says. "It was kind of an embarkation point from the way computers had been going in these big steel boxes with switches and lights."

Among the other items in the Apple Collection:

? Thousands of photos by photographer Douglas Menuez, who documented Jobs' years at NeXT Computer, which he founded in 1985 after he was pushed out of Apple.

? A company video spoofing the 1984 movie "Ghost Busters," with Jobs and other executives playing "Blue Busters," a reference to rival IBM.

? Handwritten financial records showing early sales of Apple II, one of the first mass-market computers.

? An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.

? A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: "This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage."

The archive shows the Apple founders were far ahead of their time, Lowood said.

"What they were doing was spectacularly new," he said. "The idea of building computers out of your garage and marketing them and thereby creating a successful business ? it just didn't compute for a lot of people."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-12-29-Apple%20Archives/id-643d7370f13f4ec2bdbfbc9af681c508

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The iVillage Woman of the Year... Revealed!

They've inspired us in 2011 but only one can be the Woman of the Year! Find out who gets top honors.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ivillage-woman-year/1-h-414372?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aivillage-woman-year-414372

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Russell Brand-Katy Perry 14-month marriage over (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? British comedian and actor Russell Brand called it quits on his 14-month marriage to "Teenage Dream" singer Katy Perry on Friday, filing for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

Brand, 36, star of the movie "Get Him to the Greek", and U.S. pop star Perry, 27, met in 2008 and married on October, 2010 in a lavish wedding in India.

The irreverent, former drug addict and the perky Christian-raised singer of international hits like "California Gurls" and "Firework" seemed an unlikely match, but they quickly became one of the most high-profile couples in the entertainment industry.

In recent weeks however, celebrity media reported that their marriage was in trouble.

They spent the Christmas holidays apart, with Brand being photographed in England, and Perry spotted in Hawaii -- both without their wedding rings.

"Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage. I'll always adore her and I know we'll remain friends," Brand said in a statement on Friday, after filing divorce papers in Los Angeles Superior Court. No separation date was given.

Perry's representatives did not return calls for comment on Friday.

Brand, who starred in the 2011 box-office flop "Arthur", dismissed rumors earlier this month that the couple were planning to split.

"I am married to Katy perpetually. Until death do us part was the pledge. I am still alive," the comedian told U.S. talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in a December 2 interview.

Perry, who first tried a career as a gospel music singer, transformed herself from what music critics thought might be a one hit wonder with the single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008 to become one of the world's biggest pop stars.

Her "California Dreams Tour 2011," played up her carefully cultivated bubblegum pop image with sex appeal. But she told Reuters in an interview earlier this year she was able to stay away from the wild, party life with the help of honest people around her, including Brand, himself a recovering drug addict who is now clean and sober.

Brand rose quickly through the ranks of Hollywood.

His antics include being forced to resign as a BBC radio host in 2008 after making lewd, prank phone calls before appearing in break-out role as a music pop star in the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and repeating the character for "Get Him to the Greek."

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Piya Sinha-Roy and Christine Kearney; Editing by Christine Kearney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/en_nm/us_russellbrand

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Guilty plea in muni bond indictments

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A politically connected financial firm and its founder pleaded guilty Friday to taking part in fraud and bid-rigging conspiracies related to the municipal bond business.

The Justice Department said CDR Financial Products Inc. of Beverly Hills, Calif., and owner David Rubin entered guilty pleas in federal court in Manhattan. The department said they acknowledged their roles in schemes designed to win contracts to invest the proceeds of municipal bonds issued by state, county and local governments.

Rubin faces up to 20 years in prison.

Two other CDR executives are scheduled to go on trial in New York next week.

CDR also was investigated for its ties to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and business the company won in that state. No charges grew out of that investigation.

Rubin is the tenth person to plead guilty to criminal charges in the ongoing federal investigation of the municipal bonds industry, the department said. Eight others have been charged, including the two CDR executives.

The government so far has recovered $743 million in restitution and penalties from five banks, Bank of America Corp., UBS AG, JPMorgan Chase and Co., GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc. and Wachovia Bank, since acquired by Wells Fargo and Co.

Municipal bonds are issued to build schools, hospitals and roads in a $2.8 trillion market. About $100 billion of the proceeds from the bond sales each year are temporarily invested before being used for the original purpose of the sales.

The government launched a widespread investigation into the business of reinvesting municipal bond proceeds after Bank of America came forward and disclosed to authorities that its investment division paid for information that helped the bank gain an advantage with local governments that were looking to invest their proceeds from municipal bond sales. Because nearly all the municipal bonds involved were tax-exempt, they are regulated by the Internal Revenue Service.

In the CDR case, Rubin admitted that over eight years beginning in 1998, he provided information to financial institutions and insurance companies that helped win bids, intentionally solicited losing bids and also paid kickbacks in what was supposed to be a competitive situation, Justice said.

Rubin's guilty plea follows his failed effort to delay his trial because of his wife's worsening medical condition. In court papers, Rubin said Gail Rubin is in the final stages of a long fight with pancreatic cancer and asked to put off his trial until 35 days after her death. The Rubins have been married 26 years and have seven children, according to court papers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero denied the request, a decision upheld by a panel of federal appellate judges in New York. Rubin and CDR, also known as Rubin/Chambers, Dunhill Insurance Services Inc., were first indicted in 2009.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-30-Muni%20Bonds%20Probe/id-da4e57493fb24ff2b2ac258092879272

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Beyoncé's Year Of Change Had Us Counting To <i>4</i>

Our #9 Newsmaker of 2011 touched fans with a VMA baby bump reveal and her most personal album yet.
By John Mitchell


Beyoncé
Photo: Getty Images

It was a year of change for the long-reigning queen of mainstream R&B, both personally and professionally. Having taken a year off following the 86-date I Am ... Sasha Fierce Tour, Beyoncé re-emerged on the music scene late this spring with the single "Run the World (Girls)." While "Girls" fell squarely in the Beyoncé canon, what she had coming with the rest of her album 4 represented a dynamic and risky change for the superstar.

"My life was award shows and tour buses and hotels, and it kind of goes by so fast. You're getting awards and people are saying how much they respect you and I couldn't even hear it anymore," she revealed in the documentary "Year of 4," which debuted on MTV in June. "I'm just thinking about the next shoot. I'm just thinking about the next video, the next single, the next tour."

She craved change and knew that meant the time had come for some shake-ups in her professional and personal life. The first major change came in March, when she parted ways with her longtime manager, father Matthew Knowles. There were rumors that the split was acrimonious, though both Beyoncé and Matthew insisted the decision was mutual and only "on a business level."

In command of her own career for the first time, Beyoncé began opening up in ways fans had never before seen. 4, which debuted at #1 this summer, turned out to be the most revelatory and personal album of her career, a ballad-heavy meditation on the bliss and impact of being with the one you love. When she did kick up the tempo, the results were joyous jams peppered with blasting horns ("Countdown") and heavy on '90s nostalgia ("Love on Top").

It was during a blistering performance of the latter at the MTV Video Music Awards that Beyoncé revealed one of the biggest surprises of the year. With the final words of "Love on Top" still echoing through Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre, she dropped her mic and unbuttoned her sparkling jacket to reveal a small baby bump, which she rubbed joyously, wearing an ear-to-ear smile that said it all. The crowd went wild, of course, and when the camera cut to Jay-Z, the proud papa-to-be saluted his beautiful wife as pal and the Throne collaborator Kanye West practically jumped on his back with excitement.

Only a star of Queen B's magnitude could make an announcement that set Twitter records and helped the VMAs get their best ratings ever without actually saying a word.

When it comes to the real Beyoncé, the star has always played her cards close to the vest, but this year she brought us in closer. In "Year of 4," she showcased her tireless work ethic, inviting fans into the studio and dance rehearsals. Later, at her intimate dates this summer at New York's Roseland Ballroom, she revealed that record execs feared her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, had no top-10 hits when it went on to have four, including #1s "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy."

So many pop stars seem trapped in time, eternally chasing a hit to beat their last, but not B. For her, 2011 was a year of evolution, one of growth both personal and artistic. She's long been a force to be reckoned with, but now, managing herself and with a new family life in the offing, she is setting the stage for something new and exciting. That she's opened herself up so much to fans is heartening because now we know that no matter where life takes her, we'll be invited along for the ride.

MTV continues our Best of 2011 coverage by looking back at the biggest pop-culture stories of the year. As we count down the newsmakers that mattered to you most, also check out our Best Artists, Best Songs, Best MTV Live Performances and Best EDM Artists of 2011.

Related Videos

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676454/beyonce-pregnant-2011-news.jhtml

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tab Launcher Adds a Tabbed Dock to Your OS X Desktop [Mac Downloads]

Tab Launcher Adds a Tabbed Dock to Your OS X DesktopMac OS X: The dock is a handy tool for quickly accessing apps, folders, and files, but it isn't terribly organized. Tab Launcher offers a dock replacement that gives you multiple docks, categorized with labeled tabs.

Organizing your apps into various tabs is Tab Launcher's primary function, but it's also highly customizable. You can change an app's icon in just the tab, change the angle and intensity of its drop shadow, the label that shows when you hoever over it, the spacing of all the icons in any given tab, and a ton more. You can also add as many tabs as you want, and those tabs can consist of anything you choose or draw from dynamic information like running applications, recently modified files, or a real folder. If you want to get started with your current dock, Tab Launcher can import its contents to save you some time.

Overall, if the OS X dock is lacking a bit for you and you'd like a little more organization and functionality, Tab Launcher is worth a look.

Tab Launcher ($1) | Mac App Store

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/PSKb9cRyAho/tab-launcher-adds-a-tabbed-dock-to-your-os-x-desktop

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Venezuela's Chavez: did U.S. give Latin American leaders cancer? (Reuters)

CARACAS (Reuters) ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speculated on Wednesday that the United States might have developed a way to give Latin American leaders cancer, after Argentina's Cristina Fernandez joined the list of presidents diagnosed with the disease.

It was a typically controversial statement by Venezuela's socialist leader, who underwent surgery in June to remove a tumour from his pelvis. But he stressed that he was not making any accusations, just thinking aloud.

"It would not be strange if they had developed the technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it until now ... I don't know. I'm just reflecting," he said in a televised speech to troops at a military base.

"But this is very, very, very strange ... it's a bit difficult to explain this, to reason it, including using the law of probabilities."

Chavez, Fernandez, Paraguay's Fernando Lugo, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff and former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have all been diagnosed recently with cancer. All of them are leftists.

Doctors say Fernandez has a very good chance of recovery and will not need chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Her diagnosis was made public on Tuesday.

Chavez said other regional leaders should beware, including his close ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales.

"We'll have to take good care of Evo. Take care Evo!" he said.

The 57-year-old is Latin America's loudest critic of U.S. foreign policy along with Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, and he frequently lashes out at what he calls the "Yankee Empire".

CASTRO'S WARNING

"Fidel always told me, 'Chavez take care. These people have developed technology. You are very careless. Take care what you eat, what they give you to eat ... a little needle and they inject you with I don't know what,'" he said.

In his comments on Wednesday, Chavez also slammed Washington and its European allies for criticizing Russia's recent parliamentary elections - and said they were planning the same thing for Venezuela's presidential election in October, when he will seek re-election.

"They are crying fraud and saying the elections need to be re-run ... They're trying to destabilize no less than Russia, a nuclear power. That's the madness of the Empire," Chavez said.

"I say this because here in Venezuela, the Imperial Yankee, the local bourgeoisie, and a good part of what they call the opposition parties here, are preparing a similar plan," he said.

"I call on the armed forces to be alert, on the Venezuelan people to be alert. Because we are not going to let the Imperial Yankee destabilize Venezuela again like they did in the past."

Details about Chavez's health remain a closely guarded secret, although he now appears to be recovering and is making longer and longer televised appearances.

Earlier this month he made his first official foreign trip after his surgery, to a regional summit in Uruguay.

Since his return he has often appeared sporting something of a younger, new look: a dark sports coat over an open-necked maroon shirt, and is hair is growing back after chemotherapy.

It is far cry from the green fatigues and red beret that he became famous for wearing for much of his 13 years in power.

(Editing by Kieran Murray)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111228/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_venezuela_usa_cancer

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Gaza PM in Egypt, 1st visit since Hamas takeover (AP)

CAIRO ? Gaza's Hamas premier was in Egypt Monday on his first trip outside the blockaded territory since the Islamists overran it in 2007, saying his meeting with his Islamic ideological mentors threatens Israel.

Ismail Haniyeh discussed Mideast politics with the leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which has emerged as the biggest winner in the first parliamentary elections in post-uprising Egypt, capturing nearly half of the seats so far.

Hamas is considered an offshoot of the Brotherhood.

Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie met Haniyeh at the group's newly inaugurated headquarters in a Cairo suburb.

"The Brotherhood center has always embraced issues of liberation, foremost the Palestinian issue," Badie said, according to Egypt's state Middle East News Agency.

The Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s, but it supports Hamas in its "resistance" against Israel.

Hamas is considered a terror group by Israel, the U.S. and EU, killing hundreds of Israelis in attacks, including suicide bombings. The West insists that before it deals with Hamas, the group must renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing peace accords. Hamas has refused.

Haniyeh described Hamas as the "jihadi movement of the Brotherhood with a Palestinian face." He said his visit to the Brotherhood center would confuse and frighten Israel.

"Our presence with the Brotherhood threatens the Israeli entity, " Haniyeh said according to MENA.

Israel has expressed concern that a new Egyptian government under Islamist influence might cancel Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Hamas took Gaza by force in a brief, bloody civil war in 2007, expelling forces of the rival Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel and Egypt responded by blockading Gaza. Badie criticized the blockade during his meeting with Haniyeh, according to MENA.

Egypt has been heading efforts to reconcile the two rivals. They came to some agreements last week in talks in Cairo. Hamas was represented by its supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, who is based in Damascus.

Haniyeh said during his visit to the Arab League that reconciliation with Fatah is a "strategic" matter that should not be hindered by American and Israeli objections. Israel has said the closer Fatah gets to Hamas, the further it moves from a peace deal.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_palestinians

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Hey Ron Paul: Israel did not create Hamas

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Source: http://marathonpundit.blogspot.com/2011/12/hey-ron-paul-israel-did-not-create.html

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

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Colleges and suicide threats: when to call home? (AP)

The email that arrived at Virginia Tech's health center in November 2007 was detailed and unmistakably ominous. It concerned a Tech senior named Daniel Kim and came from an acquaintance at another college.

"Daniel has been acting very suicidal recently, purchasing a $200 pistol, and claiming he'll go through with it," the email read, adding details of a reported previous suicide attempt with pills. "This is not a joke."

By the time Virginia Tech told Daniel's father, William Kim, about that email, it was too late.

A few weeks after it was sent to the school, he spoke with his son for the last time, Daniel indicating all was well and after final exams he'd be home for the holidays.

A few days after that, parked in his car outside a Target store near campus, Daniel fatally shot himself in the head.

"If I'd known, I could have taken him to doctors, get him on medication, make him normal again," William Kim, who owns a Washington, D.C., convenience store, said in a recent telephone interview, grief still echoing in his voice four years after the fact.

Virginia Tech's actions were all the more confounding coming just months after the murder-suicide rampage on the same campus by another student, Seung Hui Cho, which had supposedly prompted campuses nationwide to rethink their previous emphasis on confidentiality in treating troubled students.

"Who is going to take better care of him than his parents?" Kim said. "I never had the chance to do anything for him. That's a terrible feeling."

In an agreement finalized by a judge last month in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought by the family, the Kims settled with Virginia Tech for $250,000, plus an endowed scholarship in Daniel's name. But William Kim also insisted that the agreement include language requiring Virginia Tech to notify parents of a potentially suicidal student unless it documents a reason not to do so.

The university, which admits no fault, maintains the language reflects policies already in place there under a 2008 state law, and wouldn't have made a difference for Daniel Kim anyway. It continues to insist that, after sending local police to check on the student, and despite the detailed email, it had no reason to believe he was actively suicidal and thus didn't need to notify his family.

But the family's attorney, Gary Mims, insists the settlement goes further than the state law, which applies only to students treated by university mental health services. Now, he says, Virginia Tech must at least consider notifying parents if it receives an indication from any source a student may be suicidal. Several experts described it as among the strongest such policies in the country.

The issue of when colleges should notify parents their adult children may be suicidal remains fraught with legal, medical and ethical dilemmas. College policies, state laws and professional codes of conduct vary widely ? and occasionally conflict.

Some mental health professionals call the Virginia Tech settlement the latest step in a trend they welcome: Threats to safety increasingly take precedence over preserving confidentiality. They emphasize that in many cases, involving parents is not only right, but helpful.

"There's some good evidence if someone is really sick, that involving family in their treatment planning, the medication, helping them stay on track, are really good things to do," said Greg Eells, director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University in New York, which has changed several policies to make notifying parents more common. "I think the (Virginia Tech settlement) is kind of affirming that."

But many remain wary of top-down pressure on counselors to notify parents as the default option, even if such policies are well-intentioned and allow exceptions. Many students have just passing thoughts of suicide. Also, relationships with parents may be part of the problem. Involving them too readily might discourage some people from getting help, or complicate treatment once they do.

"The less flexibility we have, it actually compromises care," said Mary-Jeanne Raleigh, director of counseling services at St. Mary's College in Maryland and president of ACCA, the American College Counseling Association. Overly rigid policies mean, she said, "I can't review what is best for the individual standing in front of me because the law is saying you have to x, y and z."

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students, behind automobile accidents. A 2010 survey of counseling center directors found at least 133 college students had taken their lives in the previous year. The better indicator is probably the rate, estimated at about 6 to 7.5 per 100,000 ? though that's only about half the suicide rate for similarly aged people not in college.

But while the research highlights the danger, it also sheds light on why these are tough calls for colleges. Warning signs aren't always as black and white as they were at Virginia Tech. A milder form of suicidal ideation ? fleeting hopelessness or thoughts about death _is common among college-age students.

A 2009 survey of 26,000 students at 70 colleges found that roughly half reported having had at least occasional suicidal thoughts. But more than half of those said such thoughts lasted a day or less. Roughly 6 percent of undergraduates reported they had "seriously considered attempting suicide" in the last 12 months. Colleges must determine who's most at risk ? typically those who have made detailed plans and acquired means such as a weapon or pills.

"Someone who's seeking help but says, `I have to admit I have these thoughts five or six times a day and they're kind of scary' ? that's someone I wouldn't necessarily feel compelled to call the parents right away," Raleigh said. "That's very different from the person I get a call from at 3 o'clock on a Saturday morning who's been drinking and has immediate plans to kill themselves."

The 2010 survey of counseling directors found that when a client was considered a "suicidal risk" but didn't meet the state-law criteria for involuntary hospitalization, 41 percent wouldn't notify anyone else without a signed release from the student. Only 13 percent said they would notify family; 22 percent said they would notify a superior, and 19 percent said it would depend on the situation.

Why the hesitation to involve family? The data also show why colleges worry so much about any action that might discourage troubled students from seeking help: 80 percent of students who commit suicide, like Kim, never participated in campus counseling services.

"I'm in favor of notifying parents," said Carolyn Wolf, a mental health lawyer who advises college officials. "These are kids who are 18, 19, 20 years old, they're legally adults, but I don't think they're developmentally adults at that point. Parents are much more involved in kids' lives these days for a longer period of time." Still, she said, "you need to give some amount of flexibility to those people who are in the trenches."

Wolf advises parents to remember that FERPA, the federal education privacy law, has clear exceptions for risks to health and safety, as do state laws. HIPPA, the federal medical privacy law, generally doesn't apply to colleges. And while counselors and psychiatrists may be unable to discuss a student they are treating, those rules don't apply to anyone else on campus; faculty and administrators can call home about behavioral issues.

And, Wolf points out, nothing forbids counselors from listening.

Parents "can call a counseling center and say, `I think this meets one of the (confidentiality) exceptions, but even if you can't tell me things, you need to listen to me give you history, give you information,'" Wolf said.

William Kim's lawsuit against Virginia Tech contends the school broke its own protocol, which called for any student who had made even a gesture about suicide to see a psychologist on call immediately. Instead, officials discussed the email the morning they received it, and dispatched a local police officer to Kim's off-campus residence.

The officer reported Kim "appeared to be OK" and that Kim said he didn't know the student who had sent the email. That student appeared to know Kim through online gaming. The university also checked to see if Kim had purchased a gun. Apparently he had not, but did so a few weeks later.

Confidentiality laws would not have prevented Virginia Tech from contacting Kim's parents because he was not a patient of the university counseling center. But university officials decided not to reach out. Having received no other unsolicited indications from family, acquaintances or teachers that Kim might be suicidal, they concluded he was not a danger.

Ed Spencer, Virginia Tech's vice president for student affairs, acknowledged that the university has wide latitude to contact family if a student is suicidal, and said it would do so if it made that determination.

But, he said in a telephone interview, Daniel Kim "was never found to be suicidal by anyone here at Virginia Tech or by the Blacksburg police."

Regardless of the detailed plans reported in the email, altogether "there was nothing that added up that he was at all suicidal," Spencer said. He added experts the university consulted backed up that view and "were surprised we went the extra mile" of checking on the gun.

But Mark Mills, a Columbia University psychiatrist retained by Kim's attorneys, found the email alone represented clear evidence of a "psychiatric emergency" and that it was "irresponsible and reckless" that Virginia Tech failed to take further action to see if Daniel needed help.

When William Kim asked university officials why they hadn't told him about the email, he says they told him it was "unnecessary."

Kim responded: "It was unnecessary? My son's life was in danger, and you didn't think it was necessary?"

"They didn't call his teachers, other students, they didn't call me," said Kim, who emphasized he was not angry at Virginia Tech as a whole. "Nothing was done whatsoever to save him."

Daniel Kim was a happy kid, said his father, who only later learned his son had agonized about his perceived resemblance to Cho and experienced anti-Korean slurs after the shootings on campus the April before he took his own life.

Only later did William Kim learn his son had secluded himself for two weeks in his dorm ? the same building where Cho killed his first two victims.

"When somebody's life is in danger, all the privacy, that should go out the window," he said. "No matter how bad your relationship with your parents, when something like that happens you want to know."

He added: "He was suffering at that school. We had no idea.""

____

Justin Pope covers higher education for The Associated Press. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JustinPopeAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_re_us/us_colleges_stopping_suicide

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Turkey, Azerbaijan sign pipeline deal

(AP) ? Turkey and Azerbaijan on Monday signed an agreement to establish a consortium that would build a pipeline to transport 16 billion cubic meters (565 billion cubic feet) per year of Azeri gas to Turkey and Europe.

The two countries' energy ministers signed a memorandum of understanding for a consortium between Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, Turkey's state-run pipeline company BOTAS, and the Turkish petroleum company TPAO. The deal allows other oil and gas companies to join the consortium.

The projected pipeline, the Trans Anadolu, would carry gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II field, across Turkey.

The deal comes at a time when officials are dithering over plans for the construction of the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline project aimed at reducing the bloc's deliveries from Russia. The project is slated to ship gas from the Caspian region through southern Europe to Austria, but its viability has been called into question amid doubts that enough suppliers can be found to fill the pipeline.

Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the Trans Anadolu could eventually be connected to Nabucco.

Azerbaijan's Industry and Energy Minister Natiq Aliev said the Trans Anadolu pipeline would initially carry 16 billion cubic meters (565 billion cubic feet) per year of gas but the capacity could, in time, increase to 24 billion cubic meters (847 billion cubic feet) per year.

Six billion cubic meters (212 billion cubic feet) of the gas would be sold to Turkey while some 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet) would go to European markets, Aliev said.

SOCAR has an 80 percent stake in the Trans Anadolu consortium, while the Turkish companies share 20 percent, Yildiz said.

Officials said construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 and end in 2017.

The pipeline's route and cost would be announced after a feasibility study by SOCAR, Yildiz told reporters.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-26-EU-Turkey-Azerbaijan-Gas/id-4b3452e4f134406ebfa90f35741673b3

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Can't Carry a Tune? Work Out Your Vocal Muscles

Head Lines | Mind & Brain Cover Image: January 2012 Scientific American MagazineSee Inside

Poor muscle control, not aural perception, underlies most cases of bad singing

Image: Morgan David de Lossy/Corbis

A cringe-worthy chorus of ?Happy Birthday? is usually all it takes to earn the label of ?tone-deaf.? Yet fewer than 1 percent of the population is truly amusical, that is, lacking the ability to distinguish different pitches. Many more of us simply can?t carry a tune. A study published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General reinforces scientists? growing belief that the culprit is not the ear but the throat. In a series of pitch-matching experiments, nonmusicians were pretty good at adjusting an instrument to match a specific note, suggesting that they could hear it just fine. They had much more trouble, however, imitating the same note with their own voice. The authors suspect that poor motor control of vocal muscles is partly to blame?findings that reinforce the idea that almost anyone can learn to sing.


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=ea3b3bf6fd1eac29242f37087dc3bf1f

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba pushes umpire

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Source: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/outbursts/2011/dec/24/texas-rangers-catcher-yorvit-torrealba-umpire/

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Fan Catches Baseball In Beer Cup, Then Drinks It

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This video is from 2010, but had a viral surge after being featured on Reddit. A Cubs fan at spring training caught a ball tossed into the crowd by an outfielder in his beer cup. Being the all American fan, he raised his glass to his lips and chugged it down, leaving just the glorious baseball.?

?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ViralViralVideos/~3/Vz9o8P1H07Y/

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Obituary: Eva Ekvall, Former beauty queen and breast cancer campaigner, 1983 - 2011

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Eva Ekvall, Former beauty queen and breast cancer campaigner, 1983 - 2011

Saturday December 24,2011

By Daily Express Reporter

THE former Miss Venezuela Eva Ekvall, who devoted the last years of her life to breast cancer awareness, has died of the disease in Houston, Texas.

Discovered by a model scout while working in a clothes shop in Caracas, Ekvall enjoyed a career of pageantry culminating in her being crowned Miss Venezuela in 2000, aged 17. She also came third in the Miss Universe competition of 2001 and went on to become a television news anchor. Good times continued when she met radio producer John Fabio Berm?dez, whom she married in September 2007.

Born to an American father of Swiss-Hungarian heritage and a Jamaican mother, Ekvall grew up in Caracas and graduated with a degree in journalism. It was fitting then, that? after being diagnosed with cancer in February 2010, six months after the birth of her only child Miranda, she decided to document her experiences in a book.

It was called Fuera de Foco (Out Of Focus), with portraits taken by the well-known Venezuelan photographer Roberto Mata. She said of the images, some of which displayed her undergoing chemotherapy: ?I don?t like to look ugly? but you know what? Cancer is not pretty.?

Eva Ekvall, Former beauty queen and breast cancer campaigner, March 15 1983 - December 17, 2011, aged 28


Ekvall felt strongly that women needed to be more aware of the disease, acting as a spokeswoman for the Venezuelan breast cancer charity SenosAyuda.

In her last interview she said that Venezuelans have ?a bad memory? and if she were to fully recover in a year they would forget that she had ever been ill. In a way then, her death serves as a reminder but a deeply tainted one at that. On the possibility that the disease might return, Ekvall said: ?That?s the fear you live with for the rest of your life.? Sadly, in Ekvall?s case, that was not long at all.

She is survived by her husband, daughter, parents and brother.


Source: http://uk.express.feedsportal.com/c/33338/f/565882/s/1b39d482/l/0L0Sdailyexpress0O0Cposts0Cview0C2916930CObituary0EEva0EEkvall0EFormer0Ebeauty0Equeen0Eand0Ebreast0Ecancer0Ecampaigner0E19830E20A110C/story01.htm

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Crazy Coin Christmas- popular iPhone Game

Christmas is coming!Merry Christmas !It is a nice Christmas present for everyone.
Seasons greetings to you!
The cool game Crazy Coin Christmas!

Crazy Coin gives season?s greetings!

Collect gold coins under the shining Christmas tree! 30 new levels specifically designed for the holiday season! Santa Claus, reindeer, Christmas trees, gifts, shiny lights, the snow man, and many many more!

Perfects for kids to play while counting down Christmas and the new years eve!
APP LINK:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crazy-coin-christmas/id407704668?mt=8

Source: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=117973&goto=newpost

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happyhourvalley: MS-DOS and "Turbo" buttons. #memories RT @hanelly: 10 old-school technologies that make me nostalgic http://t.co/N3jQWMkd #retro #tech

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MS-DOS and "Turbo" buttons. #memories RT @hanelly: 10 old-school technologies that make me nostalgic ow.ly/86tuz #retro #tech happyhourvalley

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Source: http://twitter.com/happyhourvalley/statuses/149510245721444352

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Microsoft to not have CES booth after 2012

LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- Microsoft is taking some of the energy out of next month's consumer electronics show here in Las Vegas. The tech giant says next month's CES show will be last time the company has a participating booth.

Microsoft has been one of the biggest U.S. participants in the event. Company leaders say they will continue to use CES as a place to connect with customers, but it won't have a booth because its product milestones don't work with the shows timing in January.

CES runs January 9-12.

Source: http://www.mynews3.com:80/content/news/local/story/Microsoft-to-not-have-CES-booth-after-2012/z_VYAam0s0OvgP-TWUlB4Q.cspx?rss=3269

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Video: Stocks Soar on Good News

A slew of encouraging economic data sent stock climbing on Thursday. Have the bulls returned to Wall Street? Jeffrey Kleintop, LPL Financial; Jim Iuorio, TJM Institutional Services; and Jeffrey Frankel, Harvard University professor, discuss.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45771276/

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Thousands rally in Russia over fraud-tainted vote (AP)

MOSCOW ? Thousands took to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sunday, braving strong winds and torrential rains for a second week of protests over Russia's fraud-tainted parliamentary vote.

About 4,000 supporters of the Communist Party rallied just outside the walls of the Kremlin on a snowy afternoon, demanding a re-count and the government's resignation. Wind and rain later turned into a blizzard.

Frustration has grown with the ruling United Russia party and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for over a decade.

"I think it's a crime to keep silent," said Vyacheslav Frolov, who was at the Moscow protest.

In St. Petersburg, a rally in a central square drew about 4,000 people from various political parties. Protesters chanted: "Russia without Putin!" and held posters saying "We want to live in an honest country!"

Natalya Sheikina, a 31-year-old teacher, said she went to the protest to show her discontent with the election results.

"The vote has been rigged," she said. "Exit polls and officials results differ dramatically."

The protests follow the Dec. 4 national parliamentary elections, in which United Russia lost a significant share of its seats in the State Duma, though it retained a narrow majority.

Opposition forces claim even that was unearned, supported by reports from local and international observers of widespread vote-count irregularities and outright fraud.

Sunday's demonstrations were small compared to nationwide rallies held in at least 60 Russian cities last weekend, including an unprecedented gathering of tens of thousands in Moscow.

_____

Irina Titova in St. Petersburg and Andrey Bulay in Moscow contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_protests

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

[OOC] so we thought

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Philippines searches for missing after typhoon kills hundreds (Reuters)

The cities of Cagayan de Oro and nearby Iligan on Mindanao island were worst hit when Typhoon Wasi slammed ashore while people slept late Friday and early Saturday, sending torrents of water and mud through villages and stripping mountainsides bare.

"This is the first time this has happened in our city," Vicente Emano, mayor of Cagayan de Oro, said in a radio interview. He said officials in the area did not receive adequate warning before the typhoon struck.

The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) estimated 497 were killed in eight provinces in the southern Mindanao region, with more than 100 still missing.

"It's difficult to be certain on those missing," Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the PNRC, told Reuters. "The floods washed out whole houses and families inside. It's possible entire families are dead and no one is reporting them missing."

The latest report by the state disaster agency said 327 people had been killed and 274 were missing.

Disaster and health officials were struggling to deal with the scores of bodies that have been recovered. Some have been stacked one on top of another in local mortuaries.

Mindanao island, the southernmost in the Philippines, is a mineral-rich region that also produces rice and corn but is not normally on the path of an average 20 typhoons that hit the Southeast Asian country each year.

"This pose challenges to us ... We need to educate people with this kind of change in climate," Pang said. "The volume of rainfall for one month fell for just one day."

RESCUED BY CARGO SHIP

Typhoons normally strike the central Visayas region and the southern tip or the eastern part of Luzon, the main island in the north.

Carmelita Pulosan, 42, said she and eight family members and neighbors survived by sitting on top of the tin roof of their house as it drifted miles into the open sea after floodwaters swept through their village.

They were rescued by a passing cargo ship.

"There was a deafening sound followed by a rush of water. We found ourselves in the river and the current took us out to the sea," Pulosan, from Cagayan de Oro, told Reuters.

"The current was very strong. God is really good to us. He saved my family," she said. Only one 3-storey building was left standing in their village, Pulosan said.

Pang said many residents returned to their villages after floodwaters receded, but many found their homes destroyed.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States, a major ally of the Philippines, was ready to assist Philippine authorities.

Wasi, downgraded to a tropical storm with gusts of up to 80 km per hour (50 miles per hour), is now hovering 60 km (40 miles) west of the southwestern city of Puerto Princesa and is expected to move out of Philippine waters later Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco and Manny Mogato in MANILA; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111218/wl_nm/us_philippines_weather

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Comet Lovejoy's death-defying plunge into the sun [Video]

Comet Lovejoy hurtled through the sun's corona Thursday, and astounded skywatchers by coming out the other side. Here's how Comet Lovejoy survived.

A newfound comet defied long odds today (Dec. 15), surviving a suicidal dive through the sun's hellishly hot atmosphere, according to NASA scientists.

Skip to next paragraph Comet Lovejoy traveled behind the Sun and reemerged as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Comet Lovejoy?plunged through the sun's corona at about 7 p.m. EST today (midnight GMT on Dec. 16), coming within 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) of our star's surface. Temperatures in the corona can reach 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius), so most researchers expected the icy wanderer to be completely destroyed.

But Lovejoy proved to be made of tough stuff. A video taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft showed the icy object emerging from behind the sun and zipping back off into space.

"Breaking News! Lovejoy lives! The comet Lovejoy has survived its journey around the sun to reemerge on the other side," SDO researchers tweeted today.

SDO is one of many instruments that scientists ? eager to record and study the comet's presumed demise ? trained on Lovejoy as it streaked toward the sun.

"We have here an exceptionally rare opportunity to observe the complete vaporization of a relatively large comet, and we have approximately 18 instruments on five different satellites that are trying to do just that," Karl Battams, a scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., wrote on the?Sungrazing Comets website?today, before Lovejoy's closest solar approach.

Battams runs the website, which is devoted to comets discovered by two different spacecraft: NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which is operated jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Battams greeted news of Lovejoy's improbable escape with surprise and delight. [Photos of Death-Defying Comet Lovejoy]

"I expected a diffuse dust tail to survive (for several hours) before fading away but NOT any kind of nucleus!" he tweeted today. "I've worked with sungrazers for 8yrs; today was the most amazing day I've ever had with them!"

Lovejoy has a core about 660 feet (200 meters) wide. It belongs to a class of comets known as Kreutz sungrazers, whose orbits bring them very close to the sun.

All?Kreutz sungrazers?are thought to be the remnants of a single giant comet that broke apart several centuries ago. They're named after the 19th-century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who first showed that such comets are related.

Comets plunge into the sun on a regular basis, but they rarely give much advance notice of their suicidal intentions. That's why scientists were so excited about Lovejoy. Australian amateur?astronomer Terry Lovejoy?discovered the icy wanderer on Nov. 27, giving researchers plenty of time to map out their observation campaign.

And that campaign has been intense, involving five different spacecraft. In addition to SDO, SOHO and STEREO, scientists planned to use Japan's Hinode satellite and ESA's Proba spacecraft to track Lovejoy's movements, Battams wrote.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/cpoym3GT3CQ/Comet-Lovejoy-s-death-defying-plunge-into-the-sun-Video

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