Monday, November 28, 2011

Online video series celebrates the Pittsburgh dad (AP)

PITTSBURGH ? A new online video series about a stereotypical Pittsburgh father is attracting tens of thousands of viewers.

"Pittsburgh Dad" celebrates and makes fun of the unique speech of the working-class city, where yinz means you all, nebby means nosy and redd up means clean up.

The series is available on YouTube. It's so successful that creator and director Chris Preksta plans more than a dozen new episodes, starring his actor friend Curt Wootton as the dad.

Preksta is known for the SyFy channel series "The Mercury Men." He's filming "Pittsburgh Dad" on an iPhone.

The dad character tells his children not to be wasteful by leaving out half-empty cans of soda pop and promises they'll be drinking "hose water" if the behavior continues.

Wootton say the character is modeled off his own father.

___

Online:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pittsburghdad

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_en_tv/us_pittsburgh_dad

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Occupy protests discourage Black Friday shopping (Providence Journal)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166602239?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

The true cost of homeowners insurance | Property Claim Tips, LLC

A recent article by J.D. Power and Associates reported that one in five homeowners don?t have enough homeowners insurance coverage to protect their property in the event of a total loss. One reason for this may be that homeowners are making updates to their home and not making the necessary adjustments to their homeowners policy. Another reason may be that homeowners are skimping on coverage in order to save some money. It makes many ask the question- what does home insurance really cost?

When taking into consideration the cost of having homeowner insurance, you really need to ?consider the cost of NOT having homeowner insurance as well. Here, we will weigh both.

The cost of a homeowners insurance policy: A lot of factors go into determining what a particular homeowner will pay for a home insurance policy these days. A few of these include:

  • The replacement cost of the home (square footage multiplied by local construction costs)
  • Average rates in that state as determined by the state department of insurance
  • The amount of additional coverage needed (liability, endorsements for jewelry, etc.)
  • The types of discounts that a particular policyholder may qualify for

These are just a few of the elements of a policy that will affect how much an individual homeowner will pay for home insurance. In a recent release of our monthly RateReport, we found that homeowners were paying $730/year on average ?in May 2011. While this may not be typical of all homeowner policies, it does give us a good benchmark.

And while some will be paying around $730/year for their home insurance, others will be paying considerably more or less. For example, in May 2011 in Idaho, HomeInsurance.com customers were paying an average of $369/year. On the other hand, homeowners in Louisiana were paying an average of $1543/year during the same time period. As you can see, the specific U.S. region that your home is located in can greatly affect what you pay for insurance.

In addition to geographic rate trends, additionally purchased coverage can also affect your premium. For example, flood insurance is required by most lenders on homes that are located within a high-risk ?flood zone. Flood coverage is not included in a standard homeowners insurance policy and an additional policy must be purchased to cover a home for flood damage. According to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) website FloodSmart.gov, the cost for a flood policy can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars a year depending on the flood zone and replacement cost of the house.

Homeowners may also add additional coverage to their standard home insurance policy which can increase their premium. For example, some homeowners schedule?endorsements?on an existing policy increasing their coverage limits on specific items like jewelry. In addition, some homeowners may purchase additional liability coverage (aka an umbrella policy) to protect them financially in the event of a lawsuit.

So is there an easy answer to how much home insurance costs? Not really, because it all depends on the property being insured, the needs of the policy holder, and the region where the property resides.

However, as a baseline figure, we can estimate that homeowners across the U.S. are paying roughly $730 on average for standard homeowners insurance coverage each year.

The cost of not having home insurance: As mentioned earlier in the article, it is only fair when weighing the cost of home insurance to also consider the cost of NOT having homeowners insurance. In the Insurance Information Institute?s report on homeowners insurance data for 2008, it is stated that in the six year period between 2005 and 2009 5.7 percent of insured homes experienced a claim. It also shows that the average claim cost ranged from $1,940 to $27,691 with the average claim being around $7,876.

Without homeowners insurance, you are responsible for paying for all damages to your home caused by fire, lightning, wind, hail and theft. Keep in mind that disasters can strike at any time and without any warning.

In order to be properly insured at all times, ask a licensed insurance agent to review your needs as a policyholder and be sure your policy best protects you. If you are looking to save money on your homeowners?insurance, don?t skimp on coverage. Instead,when shopping for home insurance quotes, ?talk to your insurance agent about qualifying for discounts such as home-auto packages and security system discounts which can save you up to 20% or more.

?

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Source: http://www.propertyclaimtips.com/the-true-cost-of-homeowners-insurance.html

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Friday Interview: The Polling Guru of the Iowa Caucuses (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166350334?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Egyptian court orders release of 3 US students (AP)

PHILADELPHIA ? A court in Egypt has ordered the release of three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo, a lawyer in Philadelphia confirmed Thursday.

Derrik Sweeney, Luke Gates and Gregory Porter, who attend the American University in Cairo, were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Attorney Ted Simon, who represents Porter, a 19-year-old student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said he is still waiting to find out if the students actually have been set free.

Sweeney's mother, Joy Sweeney, said she is "absolutely elated" at the news of her 19-year-old son's release.

"I can't wait to give him a huge hug and tell him how much I love him," she said, adding that the news of the court order was the best Thanksgiving gift.

The 21-year-old Gates is a student of Indiana University.

Earlier Thursday, Egypt officials said a court had ordered the students' release. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. They did not say when the students would be released.

Joy Sweeney said she wasn't sure when her son, a student at Georgetown University, would be returning to their home in Jefferson City, Mo.

"If he can find his passport (then he'll leave) tomorrow, if not, it won't be until Monday," she said.

Derrik Sweeney interned for U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., earlier this year. Luetkemeyer's spokesman Paul Sloca, said the congressman is "extremely pleased that he's safe and coming home, especially on Thanksgiving."

Sweeney said she had not prepared for a Thanksgiving celebration, although a friend had taken her some food. She said the idea of a Thanksgiving feast had seemed "absolutely irrelevant" before the news of her son's pending freedom.

Asked what she thought her son would take away from his arrest, Sweeney said she thought he would make something useful of it.

"I'm sure that he'll put a life-lesson learning experience into a positive story," Sweeney said. "He's a writer, he will write about this experience."

___

Associated Press reporter Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report. Maggie Michael reported from Cairo.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_us/egypt_american_students

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Danger Abroad

Dear Prudence,
My husband and I are in our 30s, have been married for more than a decade, and have one child. My husband is smart and successful. He's fun-loving, outgoing, supportive of my career, incredibly helpful around the house, generous, enjoys taking me shopping, and is generally an all-out nice guy. However, he often bores me intellectually. While I love Fellini, he loves The Transporter movies. I read for pleasure, he watches TV shows or works out. It depresses me. I have discussed this issue with him, and he does try to talk to me about things he thinks will interest me, such as history, but it doesn?t work due to his shallow grasp of most subjects. His mother left when he was in kindergarten and he got a horrible stepmother, so he was wounded emotionally. I find brains and confidence wild turn-ons, but unfortunately I don't get that with him. My husband does have magnificent prowess in bed and a great sense of humor. I always had boyfriends who were well-read and my dad was a keen intellect, so I love to discuss physics or geopolitics over dinner. But with my husband all I get is mundane talk. I feel trapped. What should I do?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4073bb6f14077dc62729d879a207b8ed

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A Hard Turn: Big-Rig Drivers Focus on Getting Healthy

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Beset by insurance costs and desperate to make sure that drivers pass health tests, trucking companies and industry groups are working to persuade them to change their habits.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=8b440ef14c437253f8768f13f1c30e2b

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

French former first lady Mitterrand dies at 87

Well before the Occupy movement took on Wall Street, the former first lady of France, Danielle Mitterrand, was leading the charge against capitalist excess.

"Everybody knows that the foundation of the system today is money: Money is the guru, money decides everything ... That's why we are working to get out of this system," she told RTL radio last month, summing up a lifelong cause in one of her last interviews before her death Tuesday at 87.

Such resistance defined the life of Mitterrand, the widow of France's first Socialist president, Francois Mitterrand.

At age 19, with World War II raging, she went underground in the Burgundy hills with the French Resistance. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her work against the Nazi occupation of France and met her future husband, who had joined up under the code name "Francois Morland."

That union eventually gave her a bully pulpit ? during Francois' 14 years as president ? that she used to advocate for many left-leaning causes. She supported Marxist rebels in El Salvador, ethnic minorities such as Kurds and Tibetans and vociferously opposed capitalist excess.

They also had three sons together, one of whom, Pascal, died at a young age.

Danielle Mitterrand died before dawn after being hospitalized at Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris in recent days for fatigue, her foundation France Libertes said.

As first lady, Mitterrand shucked the tradition of her predecessors who largely kept to the background. In a 1986 interview with The Associated Press, her blue eyes flashed at the suggestion she resembled a high-profile American first lady.

"There is no traditional role" for a first lady, Mitterrand said. "Each woman has her own personality and ... acts according to her conscience and her sensibilities."

Yet in contrast to her outspoken approach to politics, she kept quiet for years about one aspect of her personal life: a secret relationship her husband had had with Anne Pingeot, a museum curator 28 years his junior and the mother of his long-secret daughter, Mazarine Pingeot.

He died of cancer less than a year after leaving office in 1995. In an especially poignant moment in French politics, the widowed Danielle stood before the late president's coffin alongside his mistress and daughter, whose out-of-wedlock birth and existence were long kept from the French public.

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Her foundation said Danielle Mitterrand found guidance in a phrase of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: "It's not right to want to heal the suffering of people without committing to fight the very causes of this suffering."

She created several charities and crisscrossed the world in defense of human rights. She once even kissed Cuba's revolutionary Fidel Castro at a residence for visiting dignitaries near the presidential Elysee Palace.

Mitterrand urged worldwide unity to "put an end to economic and financial dictatorship, the henchman of political dictators. Finally, they seem to be shaken by the anger of peoples."

"Of course, the world revolves around the Dow Jones, the Nikkei stock index or the CAC 40 (French stock index). ... But all around the world, little voices are being raised to say that man is unhappy even if the stock market is doing well," Mitterrand told Le Figaro newspaper in 1996.

Thirteen years ago, Mitterrand visited in prison Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who has spent nearly 30 years on death row over his 1982 conviction for killing a white police officer in Philadelphia.

And in 2008, Mitterrand denounced American support for foes of Bolivia's leftist president Evo Morales, and accused "fascist gangs" of intimidating native peoples in the South American country.

France Libertes, whose focus has been human rights and had recently made a top priority of getting drinking water to those without it around the world, said Mitterrand left behind "a message of hope."

Praise and appreciation for her poured in from across France's political spectrum Tuesday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said: "Neither the setback or the victory caused her to deviate from the road she had laid for herself: giving a hearing to the voice of those that no one wanted to hear."

Her nephew Frederic Mitterrand, who now serves as culture minister in Sarkozy's conservative government, told BFM TV that his aunt "did a lot to humanize the role of first ladies."

Danielle Emilienne Isabelle Gouze was born Oct. 29, 1924 in Verdun, a town in northeastern France known as one of World War I's biggest killing fields.

Under the Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II, her father, a Socialist-leaning school principal, lost his job after refusing a state order to list all Jewish students and teachers for authorities, according to Mitterrand's foundation.

In March 1944, she took her own stand and joined the Resistance.

She is survived by sons Gilbert and Jean-Christophe. A burial service is planned Saturday in the eastern town of Cluny, her foundation said.

____

Associated Press writer Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45398662/ns/world_news-europe/

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3 American students arrested in Egypt's Tahrir Square

Three American students were arrested Monday evening during protests in Tahrir Square, a spokeswoman for The American University in Cairo told NBC News.

Luke Gates, a student at Indiana University from Bloomington, Ind., Gregory Porter, a student at Drexel University from Glenside, Pa., and Derrik Sweeney, a student at Georgetown University from Jefferson City, Mo., are being held at the Abdeen police station in Cairo, reported NBC.?

The three are currently studying abroad at The American University in Cairo. University spokeswoman Morgan Roth said the university is in?"fact-finding mode" about the detentions at the moment.

Read more about the events in Egypt

"I don't have specifics on the charges they are facing or if they have been formally charged. I just know that they are being detained," Roth told NBC.?The American University is working with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to monitor the students' well-being, she said.

NBC's Richard Engel said Egyptian television was reporting three American citizens were arrested after being seen throwing fire bombs from the roof of a building belonging to the American University near Tahrir Square, and that the U.S. Embassy was investigating.

The State Department has not yet been able to gain consular access to the students.

The students' parents were notified Tuesday morning of the arrests. Drexel University, Gregory Porter's school, released a statement saying "administrators are in contact with Porter's parents and are working with authorities at the American University in Cairo and the U.S. Embassy to have Porter released and returned home safely."

The two other students' universities have been notified of the arrests as well.

Meanwhile, Egyptians converged on Tahrir Square on Tuesday in response to a call for a so-called "million-man march" as protests against the country's military rulers entered a fourth day. Read full coverage here.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8954375-three-american-students-arrested-in-egypts-tahrir-square

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Ohio group proposes ban on owning exotic animals (AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio ? A study group on Monday proposed that Ohio ban new ownership of venomous snakes, monkeys, tigers and other dangerous animals with only limited exceptions and give state officials' the authority to take from private property any wildlife that's being kept illegally.

The group has held expedited meetings in private since last month, when police were forced to kill 48 wild animals ? including endangered Bengal tigers ? after their owner freed them from his Zanesville farm and then committed suicide.

A summary of the group's input and state agencies' recommendations for new regulations was obtained Monday by The Associated Press after the panel's final meeting.

The working group's recommendations for updating Ohio's laws are due to the governor by Nov. 30. Its finalized report will be sent next week.

The group's framework for legislation suggests the ban start on Jan. 1, 2014. Owners would have to meet new temporary safety standards before then and also register their animals with the state within 60 days of the law's effective date. Zoo, circuses and research facilities would be exempt. Animal sanctuaries with restricted animals would have to be licensed and regulated by the state.

The panel's recommendations are only suggestions to state lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich, a first-term Republican who convened the group in April to get their input. The members' ideas and the recommendations from the Ohio Department of National Resources and state Department of Agriculture would have to be drafted into legislation, heard before committees and passed by the legislature before becoming law.

The office of state Sen. Troy Balderson, a Zanesville native, has said he would pursue legislation as soon as the working group made its recommendations.

Under the group's recommendations, owners would face new criminal and civil penalties for keeping dangerous wildlife against state rules. And those who improperly release dangerous animals would also be punished. Details of any fines or jail time weren't included in Monday's report.

The group recommended that officials be given new authority to inspect and enforce the law on private property where dangerous animals are housed. In addition, the state would also set up a way for owners to voluntarily surrender the creatures.

Selling wild animals wouldn't be restricted prior to the date of the ban, though the summary hints that a tougher crackdown on the sale could soon follow.

"The hope is that by reducing impediments to sale, we will reduce the number of animals that are still in Ohio on the date of the possession ban, which will require confiscation and forfeiture," according to the summary of the group's framework.

Ultimately, the ability to buy, sell, and trade these animals will no longer be permitted in Ohio, said Laura Jones, a spokeswoman for the state's natural resources department. A final decision on how to move forward is still being worked out, she said.

The working group includes 10 organizations with a stake in the issue, among them the state's Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio Association of Animal Owners, the Ohio Farm Bureau and the Zoological Association of America.

The head of the Humane Society of the United States said his organization was encouraged by the group's recommendations and urged state lawmakers to advance the plan before the end of the year.

"It's now time for the legislature to act, and to do something that is proportional to the nature of this severe problem in Ohio," said Wayne Pacelle, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement.

Polly Britton, a lobbyist for the Ohio Association of Animal Owners, said she was disappointed facilities licensed and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture wouldn't be exempt from the regulations. These licensees include exhibitors, breeders and dealers, she said.

"I'd be surprised if he (Kasich) wants to shut down small businesses, but that's what's going to happen," Britton said.

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets. Efforts to strengthen the regulations took on new urgency after farm owner Terry Thompson opened his cages and let his animals out on Oct. 18.

Police officers killed dozens of the animals, but three leopards, two monkeys and a young grizzly bear survived. They have been quarantined at the Columbus zoo, where they continue to be under observation, said Erica Pitchford, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture.

Zoo and state officials are trying to develop the animals' medical history and determine whether they are healthy enough to be tested for diseases, Pitchford said.

The animals must be anesthetized to have blood drawn. And there's a concern that if they put them to sleep before they're strong enough, they might not survive.

The state's Department of Agriculture ordered the animals be kept under quarantine at a zoo after Thompson's widow had sought to reclaim them. There's no expiration date on the quarantine, and there's not a timeline for the testing to occur, Pitchford said.

"Until everyone feels confident about how to go about putting those animals to sleep, we are going to continue to observe them and try to get them as healthy as possible," Pitchford said.

___

Online:

Ohio Department of Natural Resources: http://bit.ly/tH1nwH

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/pets/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_us/us_exotic_animals_crackdown

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Three U.S. students held in Egypt over protests (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Three U.S. students were paraded on Egyptian television on Tuesday after being accused of throwing petrol bombs at police during protests near Cairo's Tahrir Square where demonstrators have been demanding an end to military rule.

State television did not give their identities, describing them as "foreigners." But the U.S. embassy confirmed that three U.S. citizens were being detained and the American University in Cairo said three U.S. students studying there had been held.

Egypt's state television cited an Interior Ministry official as saying that the three had been detained after they threw petrol bombs at police protecting the Interior Ministry. It said the identities of the three were being established.

It showed pictures of three with their backs against a wall and looking at the camera. One person out of shot raised the head of one of the Americans with his hand to ensure he looked straight ahead.

It showed videos, taken by phone cameras, that it said showed the three taking part in the protest at night. One of the people in the picture wore a medical face mask that many protesters have been using to protect against teargas. Another had a headscarf around his mouth.

"Three of our American study-abroad students, Gregory Porter, Luke Gates and Derrik Sweeney, were arrested last night. We are in touch with their families and are working with the U.S. embassy and the Egyptian authorities to ensure that they are safe," the American University in Cairo said.

"We have been able to determine that they are being held at Abdeen's public prosecutor's office," it said in a statement that was e-mailed to alumni of the university.

The U.S. embassy also confirmed the detention.

"We have been in contact with the Egyptian authorities and can confirm that there are three U.S. citizens in detention in connection with the protest. We have requested consular access," a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said.

She said the embassy expected to be granted access on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed; Writing by Edmund Blair)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/us_nm/us_egypt_protests_americans

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The super committee's 'epic' failure: What now? (The Week)

New York ? Despite pressure to strike a deficit-reduction deal, Democrats and Republicans stay true to their partisan ways. Here, five predictions on what happens next

It's official: The congressional super committee has failed. The panel, charged with devising a plan to slash future deficits by $1.2 trillion, confirmed Monday what everyone in Washington already knew: Sorry, no deal. When the 12 members of the bipartisan panel officially threw up their hands, they essentially triggered automatic budget cuts starting in 2013, which will be split between domestic and defense spending. What else happens after this "epic fail"? Here, five possible next steps in the battle over the federal budget deficit:??

1. Everyone will point fingers
"The rush is on to pin the blame on the donkey ? or the elephant ? or anything other than the exercise itself," says Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. Republicans will blame Democrats, saying they refused to consider major cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and used the panel as a soapbox to sell President Obama's new stimulus plan. Of course, Democrats will respond in kind, blaming the mess on Republicans and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist for saying no to increasing tax revenue. And if you're a Republican presidential candidate, like Mitt Romney, says Peter Grier in The Christian Science Monitor, you point fingers at President Obama, and say this was "another example of failed leadership" on his part.
SEE MORE: The Senate's 'painfully public' rejection of Obama's jobs bill: 4 lessons

2. Congress will try to block the defense cuts
This fight is far from over, says FoxNews.com. Powerful Republicans, including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), are working on bills that would "prevent what they say would be devastating cuts to the military." But any effort to unravel any of the automatic cuts, agreed to in the August deal to raise the debt ceiling, is likely to ignite another high-profile showdown. President Obama is threatening to veto "any measure that attempts to turn off the automatic cut trigger," according to spokesman Jay Carney.

3. Ratings agencies may consider downgrading U.S. debt
"Economists are warning of dire consequences" stemming from this debacle, says Dominic Rushe at Britain's Guardian. The ratings agency Standard & Poor's "cited the 'extremely difficult' political conditions in Washington when it made the controversial decision to downgrade its rating on U.S. debt in August." The super committee was created to prove that members of Congress can make "hard choices" when they have to. Now, with fresh evidence that U.S. politicians aren't up to the job of managing the nation's finances, the ratings agencies might react with another downgrade.
SEE MORE: The super committee's inevitable failure: Why it's a good thing

4. We won't tackle the debt until at least 2013
Now that the super committee has folded, says Richard Cowan at Reuters, "the tough work of putting the United States' finances on a stable path will likely have to wait until 2013 at the earliest." Washington's "already bitter partisanship" will only get worse as tensions rise during the 2012 campaign, and our leaders will never strike a Grand Bargain during a tough election year.

5. Another recession will get a bit more likely
"The economy is weak," says Ezra Klein at The Washington Post, but we've been "picking up steam" lately. The super committee might have helped, if it had agreed to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, and maybe even offered some new infrastructure spending to give the economy a lift. At the very least, "the simple sight of Congress coming to an agreement" would have shown the markets that our political system isn't beyond hope. "The super committee's failure throws all of that into doubt."
SEE MORE: Would Reagan have supported Obama's tax hike?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111121/cm_theweek/221684

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Review: Nook Tablet is Kindle Fire's worthy foe (AP)

NEW YORK ? Listen, and I'll tell you the story of the bookstore chain that stormed into the hottest category in consumer electronics and conquered.

It's a nice underdog story, right? A bit like the tale of plucky rebels who attacked Lord Vader's Death Star.

But that was fiction. Barnes & Noble Inc.'s new Nook Tablet ($249) is a solid product, worthy of duking it out with Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire. Considering that the Nook comes from a desert planet where the only entertainment was shooting womp rats (Sorry, I mean "from a bookstore chain."), it's really impressive.

But the Nook doesn't quite muster enough force to blow up a Death Star. Barnes & Noble's earlier Nooks were dedicated book-reading devices, and the Tablet is at most a half-way step into the world of general-purpose tablet computing.

Like the new Kindle Fire, the Tablet has a 7-inch, touch-sensitive color screen, about half the size of the iPad's. It's the same screen as on the Nook Color, the e-reader Barnes & Noble launched a year ago. I thought it was the best e-reader yet when it launched.

The Tablet improves on the Nook Color mainly by beefing up the processor and the memory and extending the battery life to 11.5 hours of reading, or 9 hours of video.

The Tablet also has improved software, but the Color will be getting the same software through a downloadable update.

The Tablet is debuting with Netflix and Hulu applications. Coupled with the nice, sharp screen, that makes for a good device for that TV and movie fix _as long as you're connected to Wi-Fi. The apps actually highlight one of the shortcomings of the Tablet: there's no way (short of hacking the software) to use it for offline viewing of movies you buy or rent.

Barnes & Noble promises to provide access to some sort of movie store next year. Amazon, meanwhile, launched the Kindle Fire with access not just to Netflix and Hulu, but to its own store with downloadable video, plus free streaming content for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Barnes & Noble is also well behind when it comes to the selection of third-party applications: it has about 1,000 available today. That compares to just under 10,000 at Amazon, and 500,000 on the iPad.

However, the Nook has these features over the Fire:

? Faster processor and more memory for software operations, which means faster Web browsing and magazine page-flipping.

? Longer battery life.

? Twice as much storage space: 16 gigabytes compared to eight. Don't get too excited about this, though. What Barnes & Noble has left out of its marketing material is that only 1 gigabyte is available for content that isn't bought from Barnes & Noble. Since books don't take up much space and Barnes & Noble doesn't sell movies, much of the 16 gigabytes is likely to be wasted.

? A slot for memory cards. This is the cure for the lack of memory for non-Barnes & Noble content. You can add another 16 gigabytes of memory by buying a $20 card.

? The ability to load books from third-party stores like Google Books. On the Kindle, you can only read books from Amazon.

? Netflix streams are sharper. Barnes & Noble initially claimed they were in high definition, but that X-wing doesn't fly: the Tablet's screen isn't high-definition.

? Children's books with built-in narration (some Kindle apps have this).

? A microphone. This doesn't have a lot of uses at the moment, but it does allow you to record your own narration.

Apart from the ones mentioned above, the Kindle Fire has these features over the Nook:

? A lower price: $199.

? The Comixology app, the most popular one for comic books. On the Nook, you're pretty much limited to buying electronic comics from Barnes & Noble.

For the most part, the Nook Tablet justifies the higher price tag compared to the Kindle. Of course, anyone with money to spend should also be looking at the iPad 2, which starts at $499 and does all of what these smaller tablets do ? plus a whole lot more. That's one Death Star that won't be exploding in a hurry.

___

Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_digital_life_tech_test_nook_tablet

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Exclusive: Taliban, Pakistan said to have started peace talks (Reuters)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? Pakistan's Taliban movement, a major security threat to the country, is holding exploratory peace talks with the government, a senior Taliban commander and mediators told Reuters on Monday.

The United States, the source of billions of dollars of aid vital for Pakistan's military and feeble economy, is unlikely to look kindly on peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it has labeled a terrorist group.

Past peace pacts with the TTP have failed to bring stability, and merely gave the umbrella group time and space to consolidate, launch fresh attacks and impose their austere version of Islam on segments of the population.

The discussions are focused on the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border and could be expanded to try to reach a comprehensive deal if progress is made.

The Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, made several demands, including the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from South Waziristan, said the commander.

An ethnic Pashtun tribal mediator described the talks as "very difficult." Pakistani military and government officials were not immediately available for comment.

"Yes, we have been holding talks, but this is just an initial phase. We will see if there is a breakthrough," said the senior Taliban commander, who asked not to be identified.

"Right now, this is at the South Waziristan level. If successful, we can talk about a deal for all the tribal areas," he said, referring to Pashtun lands along the Afghan border.

The TTP, allied with the Afghan Taliban movement fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, is entrenched in the unruly areas along the porous frontier.

Pakistan has come under pressure to eradicate militancy since U.S. special forces in May killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town, where he had apparently been living for years.

Pakistan's government and military have said they had no idea bin Laden was in Pakistan and have yet to explain the intelligence gap.

The operation enraged Pakistan's military, which branded it a violation of sovereignty and then reduced cooperation on intelligence critical for U.S. efforts to stabilize the region as it winds down combat operations in Afghanistan.

"The U.S. won't be happy," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban. "If there is less pressure from Pakistan on the militants then they (the Pakistani Taliban) will turn their attention to Afghanistan."

Speculation on peace talks has been rife since the government said in a September all-party conference on a crisis in relations with the United States that it would attempt negotiations with militants to bring peace.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Islamabad last month that Washington and Pakistan should focus on getting all militants to pursue peace in Afghanistan.

Because Pakistan has a long history of ties to militants in Afghanistan, it is seen as critical to the U.S. bid to pacify the nation after ten years of war.

"The timing is linked to the change in approach in Afghanistan, where there is now a willingness to negotiate," Mansur Khan Mehsud, of Pakistan's FATA Research Center think tank, said of the preliminary talks in Pakistan.

"The thinking here is, if it can happen in Afghanistan, why can't we talk peace with the Taliban here in Pakistan?"

Since bin Laden's death, the TTP has vowed to attack Western targets abroad.

"We never wanted to fight to begin with," said the senior Taliban commander. "Our aim was to rid Afghanistan of foreign forces. But the Pakistani government, by supporting America, left us no choice but to fight."

One of the tribal elders involved in the talks said they were at a "very difficult" stage.

"We have had three rounds in the last two months, but there seems to be no result," he said. "It is too difficult to say if there will be a breakthrough, but we are moving in the right direction."

OVERSEAS AMBITIONS

The TTP was formed in 2007 and is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across nuclear-armed Pakistan, one of the world's most unstable but strategically important countries.

Its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a U.S. drone aircraft missile strike in northwest Pakistan in 2009.

The group has staged audacious attacks on government installations, even army headquarters near the capital, and the violence has also killed many civilians.

While its activities have been almost entirely confined to Pakistan, the TTP has shown an interest in expanding its range under the banner of al Qaeda.

A suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost province in 2009 killed seven Central Intelligence Agency employees. In video footage released after the attack, the bomber was shown sitting with TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

A Pakistani-born American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square last year told a U.S. court he got bomb-making training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan's government reached a widely criticised peace deal with the Taliban in Swat Valley in 2009 which Washington called an abdication to the group.

(Additional reporting by Rebecca Conway; Writing by Michael Georgy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111121/wl_nm/us_pakistan_taliban_talks

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Urijah Faber had one lucky locker room at UFC 139

If luck is a lady, she was holding Muay Thai pads in Urijah Faber's locker room at UFC 139 in San Jose on Saturday night. He tweeted a picture showing that every fighter in his locker room at the Shark Tank came out a big winner.

Urijah Faber had one lucky locker room at UFC 139

From left: Wanderlei Silva had a second-round TKO, Urijah Faber won with a second-round submission, Danny Castillo got a first-round TKO and Martin Kampmann took a split decision. Silva and Faber's nights improved as they both walked away with $70,000 bonus checks. Silva (along with his opponent Cung Le, and main eventers Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua) won Fight of the Night, while Faber won Submission of the Night.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Urijah-Faber-had-one-lucky-locker-room-at-UFC-13?urn=mma-wp9760

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Monday, November 21, 2011

Mother of bomb plot suspect apologizes to NYers (AP)

NEW YORK ? The mother of a "lone wolf" accused of plotting to attack police stations and post offices with homemade bombs apologized to New Yorkers on Monday, even as questions arose about why federal authorities ? who typically handle terrorism cases ? declined to get involved in what city officials called a serious threat.

The mother of Jose Pimentel spoke to reporters outside her upper Manhattan home the day after her son was arraigned in state court on terrorism-related charges.

"I didn't raise my son in that way," Carmen Sosa said. "I feel bad about this situation."

She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, "I think they handled it well."

Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.

Federal authorities were aware of the probe, but under the circumstances, "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges," District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in announcing the arrest late Sunday.

Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD's Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that he wasn't a serious threat, they said.

The FBI thought Pimentel "didn't have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own," one of the officials said.

The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI's New York office and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.

Pimentel's lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.

"If the goal here is to be stopping terror ... I'm not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources," he said.

The arrest marked the second time this year that the police department took the unusual step of working with a state prosecutor to bring a terrorism case. In May, two men were indicted on charges they told an NYPD undercover detective about their desire to attack synagogues.

A grand jury declined to indict Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh on the most serious charge initially brought against them ? a high-level terror conspiracy count that carried the potential for life in prison without parole. They were, however, indicted on lesser state terrorism and hate crime charges, including one punishable by up to 32 years behind bars.

Attorneys for Ferhani said hate crime charges and a rarely used state terrorism law were misapplied to what they have called a case of police entrapment.

State prosecutors insist that there's ample evidence that Pimentel went well beyond merely talking about terrorism ? and that he was acting on his own initiative.

"The people whom we're prosecuting have well crossed that line," Adam Kaufmann, head of the district attorney's investigative division, said Monday. "They've gone from sort of espousing an idea to creating a plan to act upon it."

At an arraignment where Pimentel was ordered held without bail, prosecutors said investigators have "countless hours" of audio and video in this case. And in a criminal complaint, an intelligence division detective alleges Pimentel told him after the arrest that he was about an hour away from finishing the bomb and felt Islamic law obligates all Muslims to wage war against Americans to avenge U.S. military action in their homelands.

A former federal prosecutor praised the police and state prosecutors for going through with the investigation and charges.

"A person who puts out conspiratorial information and then takes steps to build a bomb should not be walking the streets of New York," whatever his mental state or his interactions with an informant, said Michael Wildes, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who worked on terrorism-related cases. "Considering the facts that have been revealed to the public, the decision was done well, in this instance, to go ahead with this case and for the FBI not to be the lead agency."

Publicly, NYPD and federal officials claim they have a strong working relationship. But behind the scenes, there has been tension ever since the department mounted its own aggressive anti-terrorism effort, including undercover investigations targeting potential homegrown threats.

The effort is needed, NYPD officials say, because the city remains a prime terrorist target a decade after the Sept. 11 attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there have been at least 14 foiled plots against the city, including the latest suspected scheme.

The most serious threats came from Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad, who tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010 and is now serving a life sentence, and Najibullah Zazi, who targeted the subway system a year earlier. Zazi pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges and is awaiting sentencing.

Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and "al-Qaida sympathizer" who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady.

His mother said he was raised Roman Catholic. But he converted to Islam in 2004 and went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, authorities said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

Based on tip from police in Albany, the NYPD had watching Pimentel using a confidential informant for the past year. Investigators learned that he was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, police said.

Pimentel was under constant surveillance as he shopped for the pipe bomb materials. He also was overheard talking about attacking police patrol cars and postal facilities, killing soldiers returning home from abroad and bombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., authorizes said.

___

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Jim Fitzgerald contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_bomb_plot

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Fighters who captured Gadhafi son want to hold him

In this image from Libyan Television, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, left, is guarded by a Libyan fighter as he is transported to Zintan, Libya, by a transport aircraft following his capture near the Niger border early Saturday Nov 19 2011. Moammar Gadhafi's son, the only wanted member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large _ was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert. (AP Photo/ Libyan Television via APTN)

In this image from Libyan Television, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, left, is guarded by a Libyan fighter as he is transported to Zintan, Libya, by a transport aircraft following his capture near the Niger border early Saturday Nov 19 2011. Moammar Gadhafi's son, the only wanted member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large _ was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert. (AP Photo/ Libyan Television via APTN)

This image from Libyan television and made available by the Libyan Outreach group via Facebook, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, purportedly shows Seif al-Islam Gadhafi in custody in an undisclosed location. Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, the only member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large, was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert, Libyan officials said Saturday. (AP Photo/Libyan TV via Libyan Outreach)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 file photo, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, top left, gestures to troops loyal to his father in Tripoli, Libya. A Libyan militia commander has told reporters at a news conference Saturday Nov. 19, 2011 that Moamar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has been captured in southern Libya. (AP Photo/Imed Lamloum, Pool, File)

FILE - The Aug. 16, 2007 file photo shows Governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia Joerg Haider, left, walks with Seif al-Islam Gadhafi at Lake Woerthersee in Velden, Carinthia. A Libyan militia commander has told reporters at a news conference Saturday Nov. 19, 2011 that Moamar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has been captured in southern Libya. (AP Photo/Gert Eggenberger)

FILE - In this photo released Feb. 23, 2011 by China's Xinhua News Agency, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi waits before a news conference in Tripoli, Libya, A Libyan militia commander has told reporters at a news conference Saturday Nov. 19, 2011 that Moamar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has been captured in southern Libya. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Hamza Turkia) NO SALES

(AP) ? The revolutionary fighters who captured Moammar Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent said Sunday they want to hold him in their town until a court system is established in Libya, and they demanded he be tried inside the country.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi was seized in Libya's southern desert by fighters from the western mountain town of Zintan, the base of former rebels who played a key role in seizing the capital Tripoli in August and toppling Gadhafi's regime. He was put into a plane and flown back to Zintan, 85 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli, where he remains in a secret location.

The head of Zintan's military council, Col. Mohammed al-Khabash, said his fighters have no intention of turning Seif al-Islam over to the National Transitional Council in Tripoli, the interim government that took power after Gadhafi's ouster.

"Seif al-Islam is like any other local prisoner and we will keep him in Zintan until a court system is established and he must be tried in Libya," al-Khabash told the Associated Press.

Gadhafi's son, once being groomed to take over from his father who ruled Libya for 42 years, is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands on charges of crimes against humanity for his role in violently suppressing the uprising against the regime that began in February.

NTC Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi claimed Saturday after Seif al-Islam was captured that he would be transported to Tripoli soon ? an indication that he was expected to be handed over to NTC custody.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told the AP Saturday that he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the NTC on where the trial will take place. Ocampo said that while national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, his primary goal was to ensure Seif al-Islam has a fair trial.

The statement by the Zintan fighters raises new questions about how firm the NTC's authority is over the entire country and whether powerful regional factions with bands of armed fighters are able to act autonomously, even on issues of the highest national interest.

Gadhafi himself and another one of his sons, Muatassim, were captured alive last month by another strong regional group, the Misrata fighters, who also took part in the march on Tripoli that toppled the regime. By the end of the day they were seized on, they both ended up dead while still in the hands of Misrata fighters in circumstances that have yet to be explained. The Misrata fighters held onto their corpses and displayed them as trophies for days in a commercial refrigerator in their city, where people lined up to view the decomposing bodies.

Human Rights Watch has called for Seif al-Islam to be promptly turned over to the International Criminal Court in a statement, citing the apparent killings in custody of his father and brother, Muatassim, on Oct. 20 as "particular cause for concern."

Seif al-Islam's capture leaves only former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi wanted by the ICC, which indicted the two men along with Gadhafi in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising against the Gadhafi regime that broke out in mid-February. Protests inspired by the so-called Arab Spring sweeping the region soon escalated into a civil war, with NATO launching airstrikes under a U.N.-mandate to protect civilians.

Photos and video clips showed Seif al-Islam wearing glasses and a beard, clothed in brown robes and a turban in the style of ethnic Tuaregs, a nomadic community that spans the desert border area of Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and Chad and long fought for his father's regime. In some, he was bundled onto an airplane that apparently carried him to Zintan.

It was a dramatic turnabout for Seif al-Islam, who is the oldest of seven children of Moammar and Safiya Gadhafi. He had one older half brother, Mohammed.

He went underground after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces in late August and was widely reported to have long been hiding in the besieged town of Bani Walid, issuing audio recordings to try to rally support for his father, but he escaped before it fell to revolutionary forces.

___

Al-Shalchi reported from Cairo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-20-ML-Libya/id-6569c7a7ec6747d8a98190d02b6e42be

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How To Offer With Your Little Organization Finance Needs | Estate ...

A single of the most demanding and time-consuming duties for any business proprietor is to finance even a little company. Although it is regarded as an important portion of jogging and expanding a company, it should be carried out properly and carefully so that it wont hinder the establishment of the company as a total. Tiny enterprise finance is generally the link in between money, appeal, and threat. Preserving the balance of these a few elements will ensure the great fiscal health of your business.

The very first phase that a enterprise operator requirements to take is to come up with a company program as nicely as a loan method which comes with a effectively structured strategic plan. Undertaking this will certainly outcome to concrete and audio finances. It is of necessity that prior to your financing a organization, you determine out what precisely your wants are in terms of small business finance.

In making an attempt to establish your business financing needs, maintain in head that you have to have a constructive mindset. As the operator of the enterprise, you must be confident ample in your very own enterprise that you will be willing to spend as a lot as ten% of your small enterprise finance needs from your own pocket. The other thirty% of the financing can be from venture capital or other private traders.

In conditions of the personal equity facet of your organization, you would want it to be about 30 to 40 % equity share in your organization for a interval of at minimum three many years and a optimum of 5 several years. But of program, this will still be dependent on the worth of your small company alongside with the threat involved. Maintaining this equity part in your organization will assure you majority possession of the enterprise. As a consequence, you will be ready to leverage the other sixty percent of your little business finance wants.

It will also be less complicated to fulfill the remaining funding wants of your growing organization. You could choose to get the relaxation from a prolonged-expression credit card debt, inventory finance, quick-phrase functioning richesse, and equipment finance. Bear in mind also that as extended as you have a constant income situation in the organization, several financial institutions will be far more than prepared to lend you funds. In this respect also, it is advised that you get an professional industrial mortgage broker who will do the selection of your funding alternatives. This is also a critical stage as you would want to discover the most proper financing offer to meet all your tiny business finance needs.

These are just some of the essential considerations that need to have to be taken when financing a small business. There are, nevertheless, so numerous organization proprietors who do not pay enough attention to these things unless their enterprise is in crisis. As a business proprietor, what you really should maintain in thoughts usually is how you can expand and broaden. Therefore, have a little enterprise finance plan as early as feasible so that you can make confident that each monetary factor of your company is in good problem.

Small Business Financing

Source: http://estateof.com/2011/11/19/how-to-offer-with-your-little-organization-finance-needs/

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

NASA's Chandra helps describe the birth of a black hole

Friday, November 18, 2011

New details about the birth of a famous black hole that took place millions of years ago have been uncovered, thanks to a team of scientists who used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as from radio, optical and other X-ray telescopes.

Over three decades ago, Stephen Hawking placed -- and eventually lost ? a bet against the existence of a black hole in Cygnus X-1. Today, astronomers are confident the Cygnus X-1 system contains a black hole, and with these latest studies they have remarkably precise values of its mass, spin, and distance from Earth. With these key pieces of information, the history of the black hole has been reconstructed.

"This new information gives us strong clues about how the black hole was born, what it weighed and how fast it was spinning," said author Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass. "This is exciting because not much is known about the birth of black holes."

Reid led one of three papers -- all appearing in the November 10th issue of The Astrophysical Journal -- describing these new results on Cygnus X-1. The other papers were led by Jerome Orosz from San Diego State University and Lijun Gou, also from CfA.

Cygnus X-1 is a so-called stellar-mass black hole, a class of black holes that comes from the collapse of a massive star. The black hole is in close orbit with a massive, blue companion star.

Using X-ray data from Chandra, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, and the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics, a team of scientists was able to determine the spin of Cygnus X-1 with unprecedented accuracy, showing that the black hole is spinning at very close to its maximum rate. Its event horizon -- the point of no return for material falling towards a black hole -- is spinning around more than 800 times a second.

An independent study that compared the evolutionary history of the companion star with theoretical models indicates that the black hole was born some 6 million years ago. In this relatively short time (in astronomical terms), the black hole could not have pulled in enough gas to ramp up its spin very much. The implication is that Cygnus X-1 was likely born spinning very quickly.

Using optical observations of the companion star and its motion around its unseen companion, the team made the most precise determination ever for the mass of Cygnus X-1, of 14.8 times the mass of the Sun. It was likely to have been almost this massive at birth, because of lack of time for it to grow appreciably.

"We now know that Cygnus X-1 is one of the most massive stellar black holes in the Galaxy," said Orosz. "And, it's spinning as fast as any black hole we've ever seen."

Knowledge of the mass, spin and charge gives a complete description of a black hole, according to the so-called "No Hair" theorem. This theory postulates that all other information aside from these parameters is lost for eternity behind the event horizon. The charge for an astronomical black hole is expected to be almost zero, so only the mass and spin are needed.

"It is amazing to me that we have a complete description of this asteroid-sized object that is thousands of light years away," said Gou. "This means astronomers have a more complete understanding of this black hole than any other in our Galaxy."

The team also announced that they have made the most accurate distance estimate yet of Cygnus X-1 using the National Radio Observatory's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The new distance is about 6,070 light years from Earth. This accurate distance was a crucial ingredient for making the precise mass and spin determinations.

The radio observations also measured the motion of Cygnus X-1 through space, and this was combined with its measured velocity to give the three-dimensional velocity and position of the black hole.

This work showed that Cygnus X-1 is moving very slowly with respect to the Milky Way, implying it did not receive a large "kick" at birth. This supports an earlier conjecture that Cygnus X-1 was not born in a supernova, but instead may have resulted from the dark collapse of a progenitor star without an explosion. The progenitor of Cygnus X-1 was likely an extremely massive star, which initially had a mass greater than about 100 times the sun before losing it in a vigorous stellar wind.

In 1974, soon after Cygnus X-1 became a good candidate for a black hole, Stephen Hawking placed a bet with fellow astrophysicist Kip Thorne, a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology, that Cygnus X-1 did not contain a black hole. This was treated as an insurance policy by Hawking, who had done a lot of work on black holes and general relativity.

By 1990, however, much more work on Cygnus X-1 had strengthened the evidence for it being a black hole. With the help of family, nurses, and friends, Hawking broke into Thorne's office, found the framed bet, and conceded.

"For forty years, Cygnus X-1 has been the iconic example of a black hole. However, despite Hawking's concession, I have never been completely convinced that it really does contain a black hole -- until now," said Thorne. "The data and modeling described in these three papers at last provide a completely definitive description of this binary system."

###

Chandra X-ray Center: http://chandra.harvard.edu

Thanks to Chandra X-ray Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115333/NASA_s_Chandra_helps_describe_the_birth_of_a_black_hole

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New Zealand police plan to search media outlets (AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? New Zealand police plan to execute search warrants on media outlets as they investigate a claim from Prime Minister John Key that he was illegally recorded.

The action comes nine days before the country's general election.

Freelance cameraman Brad Ambrose claims he inadvertently recorded Key with a political ally. Key claims the recording was deliberate.

The recording has not been made public, and it's unclear how many outlets have it. Key's opponents say it should be released.

Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand reported Thursday they have been approached by police seeking unpublished material. Radio New Zealand says it won't hand it over.

Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said search warrants will be issued at outlets that don't comply.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_re_as/as_new_zealand_election

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Queen Latfiah Reveals Plans To Adopt

Queen Latfiah Reveals Plans To Adopt

  Queen Latifah, 41, has opened up about wanting to adopt or have a child in the future. The singer/actress, who is very protective of [...]

Queen Latfiah Reveals Plans To Adopt Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/zBR694RlgSU/

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Brazil: Up to 2,600 barrels of oil leaked (AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO ? Nearly 110,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into the Atlantic Ocean because of a leak at an offshore Chevron drilling site, Brazil's environmental protection agency said Friday.

Officials think between 8,400 to 13,800 gallons of oil leaked each day from Nov. 8 through Tuesday, Ibama said in a statement on its website. Chevron had said that only 16,800 to 27,300 gallons in total leaked into the ocean.

Officials are still investigating the cause of the leak, which has been almost entirely contained, but the Ibama statement said it was a result of drilling.

An official at Brazil's Federal Police, which has opened an investigation into the spill, said Chevron "drilled about 500 meters (1,640 feet) farther than they were licensed to do." The official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name, said that information came from a person with knowledge of the drilling.

The leak occurred at a drilling site about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

Rio state Environment Minister Carlos Minc said earlier he was sure the leak was larger than Chevron estimated and he called for more transparency from the company.

"We can't trivialize this," he told the Globo TV network. "It's really serious and we don't yet know all the consequences."

Marine life in the area of the spill will be affected by the leak, Minc said, adding that whales are migrating from north to south through the spill area.

The oil slick, which was moving away from the coast, grew to 11 miles (18 kilometers), Ibama said. Most of the oil was concentrated around the drilling rig in a layer about 3 feet (1 meter) thick.

Chevron said "current estimates place the volume of the oil sheen on the ocean surface to be less than 65 barrels."

The company said it has 18 ships working on a rotating basis to collect oil off the surface and monitor the slick.

The drilling contractor for the well is Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that oil company BP PLC was leasing at the time of last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest in U.S. history and one that dwarfs the Brazilian leak. At its peak, BP's Macondo well was spewing more 2 million gallons a day.

Chevron said cementing operations were taking place so the well off Brazil is plugged. ANP, Brazil's national petroleum agency, said in a note on its website that "the first stage of cementing, to permanently abandon the well, was successfully completed." The regulator said the success of permanently plugging the well would be known "in the coming days."

ANP also said underwater footage showed that a "residual leakage flow" was continuing, but that "the oil slick continues moving away from the coast and is being dispersed, as desired."

Fabio Scliar, head of the Federal Police's environmental affairs division, which is investigating the case, said those responsible would be held accountable.

"There is no doubt that a crime occurred. The spill comes from the drilling activity. What interests me now is to find who is responsible," Scliar was quoted as saying by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

The oil is believed to be coming from seep lines in the seafloor near the well and not from the well itself. Natural seeps are common around the world ? perhaps the most well known in the U.S. is the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of Los Angeles ? and are often used by oil companies during undersea exploration to determine where a good prospect for oil drilling may be.

Natural seeps are usually so small in volume they don't cause a nuisance beyond producing the periodic tar ball that washes up on a beach.

But problems with drilling a well nearby can exacerbate the seeps and cause greater flow of oil, which can be hard to control, said George Hirasaki, a Rice University engineering professor who was involved in the Bay Marchand oil containment effort for Shell off Louisiana in the 1970s.

"Anytime there is movement of fluids, even if it didn't go to the surface of the well, the internal flow could result in the fluid going somewhere else," Hirasaki said. "It could move laterally at the same depth or increase the flow rate of natural seeps that are connecting to the surface."

Investigators will want to look at whether the weight of the mud being used during the drilling and abandonment operations was sufficient to contain the pressure inside the well, and they will also want to see whether drilling too deep caused problems in a geopressure zone beneath the seafloor, experts said.

Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor, said that to truly control the leak could be difficult.

"If you have this stuff oozing up through the ground you don't have a mechanism for control," Overton said. "If something started that to leak, that would worry me a lot more than a leak around the well. You'd have to drill a relief well and intercept that ooze."

People familiar with last year's BP oil spill off Louisiana know about relief wells.

BP spent four months drilling a relief well that it used to pump cement under the area that was spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and sealed the leak permanently.

Experts said that while there are many physical differences between the BP spill and the Chevron spill, the main common thread is the slow flow of information and different explanations for what happened and the severity of what happened.

"There's a pretty long track record of all the people involved in spills underestimating at least initially the size of the spills," Overton said. "I would suspect they literally don't know, so they are trying to figure out."

The Chevron leak is smaller than those Brazil has seen in the past.

In 2000, crude spewed from a broken pipeline at the Reduc refinery in Rio de Janeiro's scenic Guanabara Bay, spewing at least 344,400 gallons into the water. Just a few months later, more than 1 million gallons of crude burst from a pipeline state-controlled oil company Petrobras into a river in southern Brazil.

Brazil's worst oil disaster was in 1975, when an oil tanker from Iraq dumped more than 8 million gallons of crude into the bay and caused Rio's famous beaches to be closed for nearly three weeks.

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Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks reported this story in Rio de Janeiro and Harry Weber reported from Atlanta, Georgia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_brazil_oil_spill

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