Sunday, March 31, 2013

PFT: Geno Smith will attend NFL Draft

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v New York GiantsGetty Images

The play of Ravens OLB Terrell Suggs and Bengals CB Leon Hall after Achilles injuries gives?Dolphins CB Brett Grimes hope.

Will the Jets?add another back?in the draft?

A look at what prospects are being linked to the Bills in various mock drafts.

There are some fine candidates now eligible for the Patriots? Hall of Fame.

The Ravens? Super Bowl win doesn?t figure to hurt their ability to build their brand.

The Bengals have brought back the majority?of their unrestricted free agents.

The Browns? uniform-changing process?is a 24-month project.

Former Steelers S Will Allen reportedly made some interesting comments about the difference between the approach of the offense and defense in Pittsburgh.

Texans DE J.J. Watt will throw out the first pitch?in Sunday?s Rangers-Astros game.

The Colts have had a solid offseason, but there?s work left to be done.

One take on how Jaguars QB Blaine Gabbert improved last season.

Two plays involving the Titans ? one good, one not-so-good ? are still alive in a vote for the greatest in history.

The official website of the Chiefs took a closer look at Florida State DE Bjoern Werner.

A take on the beginning and (seeming) end?of the Carson Palmer era in Oakland.

The Chargers are pledging $250,000 in nutritional- and athletic-related grants.

What secondary players would be good fit for the Broncos?

A look at where some of the Eagles? free agents have landed.

The Cowboys were adept at scoring points near the end of halves and games last season.

Redskins QB Robert Griffin III apparently met?President Barack Obama on Saturday.

A take on the risk Giants WR Victor Cruz?could be taking if he doesn?t strike a longer-term deal this offseason.

The University of Illinois football team?will play?at Soldier Field, home of the Bears, for the first time in 19 years.

Do the Packers and Brett Favre still need more time apart before mending fences?

The Lions have an intriguing?new safety tandem.

Former Vikings defensive lineman Alan Page has written a?rather unique children?s book.

Former Falcons player Antoine Harris has been impressed with Mike Smith from the start.

Add Saints head coach Sean Payton?to the list of those amazed?by LeBron James.

Can Derek Landri supply some interior pressure?for the Buccaneers?

A WR prospect is working out?for the Panthers.

A take on how the Rams are building their roster.

The expansion Seahawks found a gem in the 1976 allocation draft.

Former Cardinals assistant Deshea Townsend is now Mississippi State?s DBs coach.

How will the 49ers use all of those draft picks?

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/30/geno-smith-will-attend-the-draft/related

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Earning Extra Money Online From Home | Content for Reprint

Author: Mike Zupp | Total views: 115 Comments: 0
Word Count: 952 Date:

Are you on a quest to unravel the mystery of how to earn instant online profits? There are all sorts of ways to do this, however the most sure-fire way is most likely by getting involved in Affiliate Marketing.

A normal person can get into Affiliate Marketing using his or her own advertising efforts as an Affiliate to bring people to the Affiliate Vendor's internet site. The Affiliate gets paid a commission when that visitor purchases the Vendor's item. Often, commissions are earned just by the Affiliate entering their name and email address into a Vendors online form!

As soon as you select which item to advertise, you acquire what's called an "affiliate link". This stringy link contains your Affiliate ID so that, when clicked on during the purchase process, the Affiliate Vendor knows to pay you your commission. The most widely known Affiliate Marketing sites are Amazon, Clickbank, Ebay Partner Network and Commission Junction, to name a few. These business have a multitude of products in several niches for your choosing.

Nonetheless, in order to figure out how to earn instant online profits with Affiliate Marketing, you need to know where to take the initial step.

The first move is to choose a niche that you would like to sell in. Ideally, select a specific niche that you are passionate about; a subject that you might be able to discuss all day, since it's easier to advertise things that interest you. Some good examples of prevailing niches are Relationships, E-Business & Marketing and Health & Fitness, to name but a few.

You'll need to google the "Google Keyword Tool" and "Google Trends" to research your niche and product in a strategic, insightful manner. Google Trends will tell you if your niche is still in the mainstream and you can use the Google Keyword Tool to see if your chosen niche keywords are getting a decent amount of search traffic every month.

Next comes your affiliate product selection. Only pick high-grade products whose Vendors can demonstrate their successful sales record. You need that special something that's going to rid your buyer of their pain and solve a huge problem they've been faced with that has kept them up at night worrying!

So now that your niche and product selection process is done, it's time to discover how to earn instant online profits by putting the following handy tips into action:

You can start off by building a product review site. Basically, you summarize the pros and cons of the product in a short article that needs to appear unbiased. Thus, it would be a good idea to actually purchase the item so you can put forward your opinion in a thorough, honest manner. However, in these tough economic times you may have to opt instead for looking around forums and other testimonial sites of your particular product to gather enough information for your review. Always remember to sprinkle your affiliate link throughout your review post, of course!

You can also jump on the social media band wagon by setting up either a Facebook fan page or a tab on your current business page. This should distinctively display your sales item in a monetized fashion or at least bring your fans right to your affiliate sales form.

You've probably heard mention of "squeeze" or "landing" pages before, right? Well, their purpose is to "squeeze" information, like names and email addresses, out of prospects and they can be built right inside Facebook or take the form of a one page website. You then take that assembled information and put it all into an autoresponder system. "AWeber" is an excellent place to open one of these types of accounts. What happens next is that your prospective clients get a series of email messages in their inbox automatically over the course of a week or two. The first emails should be "warm and friendly" since you'll need to build a relationship with your readers to get them to know and like you. After a while, you'll hopefully build up enough trust that your audience will click on your cleverly inserted links in the later emails and end up as paying customers!
Of course, the option is always there to put your affiliate product in the limelight by posting a quick review on your personal blog that contains your affiliate link, of course.

You can also harness the power of YouTube by creating personal video reviews of your affiliate product and uploading them to your YouTube channel. Better still, you can embed the videos into your product review site! This could also increase your search engine ranking, as Google owns YouTube and loves it when videos are featured in blogs.

Another effective approach would be to join online forums that are relevant to your chosen niche. Don't just go in there and start selling your product right away: Instead, participate in conversations and answer questions to help people out, at first. Then, after some time, you can start mentioning your product, showing the forum members how it can solve their problems or meet their needs.

The above pointers are simply a few ideas to illustrate how to earn instant online profits. You can mix and match these different approaches to suit your particular product-and throw in any other new techniques you come across as well, of course!
I hope you obtained some useful insight into the Realm of Affiliate Marketing by reading this. There's nothing to stop you from immediately launching your affiliate product promotion now!

For more information about making money online check out the Instant Online Profits Review. I'm sure you'll be quite impressed with it!

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1: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

3: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/earning-extra-money-online-from-home.htm

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Mama bear? National Zoo artificially inseminates giant panda

Smithsonian's National Zoo / Reuters

Giant panda Mei Xiang looks over a stone wall in her enclosure at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in this handout provided by the Smithsonian National Zoo during a spring snow in Washington, D.C. March 25, 2013.

The National Zoo announced Saturday that a team of scientists and veterinarians had artificially inseminated the Zoo's female giant panda after natural breeding failed to occur.

The statement said that Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated with a combination of fresh and frozen semen taken from the zoo's male panda, Tian Tian. The fresh semen was taken earlier Saturday morning, while the frozen semen had been held since 2003.

Scientists determined that Mei Xiang was ready to breed earlier this week after observing a rise in her urinary estrogen levels.

"We are hopeful that our breeding efforts will be successful this year, and we?re encouraged by all the behaviors and hormonal data we?ve seen so far,? Dave Wildt, head of the Center for Species Survival at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute said. "We have an extremely small window of opportunity to perform the procedures, which is why we monitor behavior and hormones so closely.?

Panda pregnancies last between 95 and 160 days. Experts say that it is impossible to determine from behaviors and hormones whether a panda is actually pregnant or not because a fetus does not begin to develop until the final weeks of gestation.

Mei Xiang gave birth to a female cub on September 16 of last year, but the cub died one week later due to lung and liver damage. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have produced one surviving offspring, Tai Shan, who was born in 2005 and currently lives in China.

The panda habitat at the National Zoo has been closed since Tuesday, when Mei Xiang was deemed ready to breed. The Zoo plans to re-open the habitat to visitors Sunday.

NBCWashington.com

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a2bff9e/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C30A0C175298730Emama0Ebear0Enational0Ezoo0Eartificially0Einseminates0Egiant0Epanda0Dlite/story01.htm

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Celiac diagnoses rose during 2000s: study

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of Americans diagnosed with celiac disease continued to rise over the past decade but leveled off in 2004, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed data on a small but representative sample of people living in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and found that between the years 2000 and 2010, the number of new cases of celiac disease increased from about 11 people per 100,000 to about 17 people per 100,000.

"We're finding a lot more celiac disease," said Dr. Joseph Murray, the study's senior author from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

"Some of that is probably that we're better at detecting it, but the fact that we're finding it all the time shows that there are a number of new cases," he added.

In people with celiac disease - which includes about 1 percent of Americans, according to most estimates - the immune system reacts to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Eating foods with gluten damages the small intestine and keeps it from absorbing nutrients.

Classic symptoms of celiac are diarrhea and weight loss, according to Murray's report.

Previous studies have shown that the number of people living with the condition increased over time, but few studies looked at the number of new cases being diagnosed in recent years.

The researchers used medical records for people living in Olmsted County, which is home to the Mayo Clinic and two affiliated hospitals, and where the health of most of the population is tracked through research projects.

Over the entire decade starting in 2000, some 249 people were diagnosed with celiac disease in the county. People as young as one year old and as old as 85 received a diagnosis, and about 63 percent of the new cases were women.

Between 2000 and 2001, 26 people were diagnosed with celiac disease, which works out to about 11 per 100,000 people at the time. By 2002 to 2004, that number had climbed to 67 - or about 18 people per 100,000, and remained about the same from then on.

"This study shows not only did it go up, but it kind of plateaued in 2004 and it remained stable at that elevated level," Murray said.

He and his colleagues write in The American Journal of Gastroenterology that the increased incidence of celiac disease may be partly due to doctors knowing about the signs and symptoms of celiac disease and screening people at risk, but not entirely.

"Something has changed in our environment that's driving an increased incidence of celiac disease," Murray said.

In their report, Murray and his colleagues note that gastrointestinal infections have been linked to the development of celiac disease. So has high consumption of gluten-containing foods, like breads, bagels and pizza.

Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston, agreed that something in the environment seems to be triggering the various genetic and biological factors that drive celiac disease.

"If you lead the lifestyle of three or four generations ago, you don't see this epidemic. I do believe what we're witnessing with celiac disease is that we're changing the environment way too fast for our body to adapt to it," said Fasano, who was not involved with the study.

"When we're born we are like a marble block. What carves this into a wonderful sculpture is the environment," Fasano added.

Murray told Reuters Health that people should see their doctors if they have a family history of celiac disease, or are experiencing its most common symptoms - including iron deficiency, weakness, tiredness, diarrhea, passing gas and weight loss.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/YIl26a The American Journal of Gastroenterology, online March 19, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/celiac-diagnoses-rose-during-2000s-study-194112755.html

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What Amazon Really Paid For Goodreads - Business Insider

Bloomberg Businessweek just published a very strange article trying to guess how much Amazon paid for Goodreads, a social network where people share what books they're reading.

In essence, the writer, Kyle Stock, tried to find comparables in recent IPOs and private financings to arrive at a value per user for social websites, comparing Goodreads to Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. He came up with a figure of $880 million, which he rounded up to $1 billion.

Three problems with that:

  • Amazon did not disclose a price for the acquisition. Had it been as high as $880 million, let alone $1 billion, the company would likely have had to disclose it as a material transaction. (Stock acknowledges the materiality issue in an aside, but that observation should have prompted him to rethink the entire premise of his story.)
  • Investors value different companies in different ways. Instagram, for example, was valued so highly by Facebook not because of its revenues?it had none?but because it threatened Facebook's core photo-sharing franchise. LinkedIn, by contrast, is valued highly by investors not primarily based on its number of users but how well it monetizes them through diversified revenue streams.Technology consultant Anil Dash tore Stock apart in a comment on the piece:"This valuation is preposterous, because the methodology is preposterous. There is zero evidence that either the markets or investors use some arbitrary 'multiply users by a dollar amount' calculation to determine a valuation for these companies. Using such a formula to arrive at an absurd number is especially egregious here because people will now use the authority of this publication to say 'Businessweek reports that Goodreads sold for a billion dollars,' though that's almost certainly not the case."
  • Lastly, AllThingsD's Kara Swisher actually talked to some sources and asked them how much Amazon paid for Goodreads, which raised almost $3 million from angel investors and True Ventures. They told her the real number was $150 million.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-goodreads-purchase-price-2013-3

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'Harry Potter' actor Richard Griffiths dies at 65

LONDON (AP) ? Richard Griffiths was one of the great British stage actors of his generation, a heavy man with a light touch, whether in Shakespeare or Neil Simon. But for millions of movie fans, he will always be grumpy Uncle Vernon, the least magical of characters in the fantastical "Harry Potter" movies.

Griffiths died Thursday at University Hospital in Coventry, central England, from complications following heart surgery, his agent, Simon Beresford, said. He was 65.

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe paid tribute to the actor Friday, saying that "any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence."

"I am proud to say I knew him," Radcliffe said.

Griffiths won a Tony Award for "The History Boys" and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. But he will be most widely remembered as a pair of contrasting uncles ? Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon Dursley and Uncle Monty in cult film "Withnail and I."

Griffiths was among a huge roster of British acting talent to appear in the "Harry Potter" series of films released between 2001 and 2011.

His role, as the grudging, magic-fearing guardian of orphaned wizard Harry, was small but pivotal. Griffiths once said he liked playing Uncle Vernon "because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids."

But Radcliffe recalled Griffiths' kindness to the young star.

"Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career," said Radcliffe, who in 2007 starred with Griffiths in a London and Broadway production of "Equus."

"In August 2000, before official production had even begun on 'Potter,' we filmed a shot outside the Dursleys', which was my first ever shot as Harry. I was nervous, and he made me feel at ease.

"Seven years later, we embarked on 'Equus' together. It was my first time doing a play, but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humor made it a joy."

Earlier, Griffiths was the louche, lecherous Uncle Monty to Richard E. Grant's character Withnail in "Withnail and I," a low-budget British comedy about two out-of-work actors that has become a cult classic. Years after its 1987 release, Griffiths said people would regularly shout Monty's most famous lines at him in the street.

"My beloved 'Uncle Monty' Richard Griffiths died last night," Grant tweeted Friday. "Chin-Chin my dear friend."

A huge stage presence with a grace rendered all the more striking by his physical bulk, Griffiths created roles including the charismatic teacher Hector at the emotional heart of Alan Bennett's school drama "The History Boys." He won an Olivier Award for the part in London and a Tony for the Broadway run, and repeated his performance in the 2006 film adaptation.

National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner, who directed "The History Boys," called Griffiths' performance in that play "a masterpiece of wit, delicacy, mischief and desolation, often simultaneously."

Griffiths also played poet W.H. Auden in Bennett's "The Habit of Art," a hugely persuasive performance despite the lack of physical resemblance between the two men.

Griffiths was born in northeast England's Thornaby-on-Tees in 1947 to parents who were deaf and mute ? an experience he and his directors felt contributed to his exceptional ability to listen and to communicate physically.

"The first language he learned was sign. And therefore his ability to listen to people with his eyes as well as his ears is incredible," Thea Sharrock, who directed "Equus," told The Associated Press in 2008.

Griffiths left school at 15 but later studied drama and spent a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company, making a specialty of comic parts such as the buffoonish knight Falstaff.

On television, he played a crime-solving chef in 1990s' British TV series "Pie in the Sky," and he had parts in movies ranging from historical dramas "Chariots of Fire" and "Gandhi" to slapstick farce "The Naked Gun 2 ?."

Known for his sense of humor, large store of rambling theatrical anecdotes and occasional bursts of temper, Griffiths was renowned for shaming audience members whose cell phones rang during plays by stopping the performance and ordering the offender to leave.

Griffiths' last major stage role was in a West End production of Neil Simon's comedy "The Sunshine Boys" last year opposite Danny DeVito. The pair had been due to reprise their roles in Los Angeles later this year.

Theater director Trevor Nunn, who as head of the Royal Shakespeare Company was one of the first to spot Griffiths' talent, said he was "an actor of rare emotional and indeed tragic power."

"Richard inspired great love and spread much happiness, and as the Shakespeare he loved put it, 'There's a great spirit gone,'" Nunn said.

Griffiths is survived by his wife, Heather Gibson.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harry-potter-actor-richard-griffiths-dies-65-102210345.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Money is Gold | Credit Writedowns

In-depth analysis on Credit Writedowns Pro, now with big discounts for regular readers. Contact us for info.

Frederick J. Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession (McGraw-Hill, 2009) and ?The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market? (Aucontrarian.com, 2009)

I believe Dennis Gartman compiled this list through June 13, 2012.

?Spain is not Greece.? ? Elena Salgado, Spain?s Finance Minister, February 2010

?Portugal is not Greece.? ? The Economist, April 22nd, 2010

?Ireland is not in Greek Territory.? ? Brian Lenihan,Ireland?s Finance Minister

?Greece is not Ireland.? ? George Papandreou, Greek Finance Minister, November 22, 2010

?Spain is neither Ireland nor Portugal.? ? Elena Selgado, again? November 16, 2010

?Neither Spain nor Portugal is Ireland.? -Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, November 18, 2010

?Spain is not Uganda. ? Emeriano Rajoy, Spain?s Prime Minister, June 9, 2010

?Italy is not Spain.?- Ed Parker, Fitch Managing Director, June 12, 2012

?When it becomes serious, you have to lie.? ? Jean-Claude Juncker, the Europe Group President, April 2011

?The worst is now over? the situation is stabilizing.? ? ECB President Mario Draghi, March, 2012

?Uganda does not want to be Spain? - Asuman Kiyingi,Uganda?s foreign minister, June 13th 2012

?For a small, open economy like Cyprus, Euro adoption provides protection from international financial turmoil.? ? Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, January 2008

?Luxembourg is different from Cyprus? ? Business Insider, March 22, 2013

?Latvia is not Cyprus.?(Actual quote: ?[T]here is no truth in statements that Latvia could become Cyprus.? ? Kristaps Zakulis, head of the FKTK financial sector regulator, March 21, 2013)

?Slovenia is not Cyprus.? ? FXStreet.com (Actual quote: ?I am very sure that we (Slovenia) will not get into such a situation (as Cyprus),? Marko Kranjec, Bank of Slovenia governor.)

?Malta is not Cyprus.? ? Tony Zahra, Times of Malta, March 23, 2013

?Hungary is not Cyprus.? -Financial Times, March 21, 2013, See below

?The Czech Republic is not Cyprus.? -Financial Times, March 21, 2013, See below

?Poland is not Cyprus.? -Financial Times, March 21, 2013, See below

?Countries like Poland and the Czech Republic have very solid banking systems, completely unlike the situation in Cyprus ? and there is no sign of a banking run. The most exposed areHungary and Slovenia, but even they are a world away fromCyprus?s situation.? ? Jan Cienski, ?CEE: Contagion Risk from Cyprus?? ? Financial Times, March 21, 2013

?Credit is not money. Credit is trust. Trust can vanish in an instant.? ? Frederick J. Sheehan, March 25, 2013

TESTIMONY OF J.P. MORGAN ? THE MAN ? IN 1912 BEFORE THE ?PUJO COMMITTEE,? a subcommittee of the House Committee on Banking and Currency. Morgan was questioned by Samuel Untermyer. The source is Jeanne Strouse?s biography of Morgan:

?Untermyer: ?The basis of banking is credit, is it not??

Morgan: ?Not always. That is evidence of banking, but it is not the money itself. Money is gold, and nothing else.?

Untermyer asked Morgan whether credit was not based on money ? that is, did not the big New York banks issue loans to certain men and institutions ?because it is believed that they have the money back of them.?

Morgan: ?No sir. It is because people believe in the man.?

Untermyer: ?And he might not be worth anything??

Morgan, with less than perfect regard for grammar: ?He might not have anything. I have known a man to come into my office, and I have given him a check for a million dollars when I knew they had not a cent in the world.?

Untermyer: ?There are not many of them??

Morgan: ?Yes, a good many.?

Untermyer: ?That is not business??

Morgan: ?Yes, unfortunately it is. I do not think it is good business, though.?

Untermyer did not, apparently, think much of this answer, for he repeated his proposition. ?Is not commercial credit based primarily on money or property??

Morgan: ?No sir; the first thing is character.?

Untermyer: ?Before money or property??

Morgan: ?Before money or property or anything else. Money cannot buy it? ? and he elaborated after a few questions ? ?because a man I do not trust could not get money from me for all the money in Christendom.?

FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN S. BERNANKE, 2011:

?The reason people hold gold is protection against tail risk, really, really, bad outcomes. To the extent that the last few years have made people more worried about the potential of a major crisis, then they hold gold as a protection.? ? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, the greatest tail risk in the West since Genghis Khan, July 13, 2011.

?With the current policy, [European leaders] will need force to keep it going against the interests of the people. You do not need to be a eurosceptic to conclude that such a monetary union is also deeply immoral.? ? Wolfgang Manchau, Eurozone Break-Up Edges Even Closer, Financial Times, March 25, 2013

The People are growing angry. The People will become very, very angry.

avatar

About Frederick Sheehan

Frederick Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession. He is the co-author of Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve. Mr. Sheehan was Director of Asset Allocation Services at John Hancock Financial Services in Boston. For more than a decade, Mr. Sheehan wrote the monthly "Market Outlook" and quarterly "Market Review" for clients. He is a frequent contributor to Marc Faber's "Gloom, Boom & Doom Report." He also has written articles for "Whiskey & Gunpowder" and the Prudent Bear website, among others. He currently serves as an advisor to an investment firm and a non-profit foundation. A Chartered Financial Analyst, Mr. Sheehan is a graduate of Columbia Business School.

Source: http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2013/03/money-is-gold.html

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AAXA LED Showtime 3D


The AAXA LED Showtime 3D is a versatile and highly portable mini-projector, able to display a range of content. At heart it's a multimedia projector, though it does a decent job with data images as well. It is a DLP-based projector with an LED light source, rated at 450 lumens of brightness, and has native WXGA (1,280 by 800) resolution.

The Showtime is a small projector that can fit (barely) in an outstretched hand. It measures 1.4 by 5.9 by 5.4 inches. I weighed it on our postal scale at 1.1 pounds for the projector alone, and 1.7 pounds with the power adaptor. Behind the lens is a focus ring; I found it a bit tricky to bring it to a good focus. In back are the ports: VGA; HDMI; USB type A for running content from a USB thumb drive; composite audio/video in (for which a cord is included); and audio-out.

You control the projector with the small IR remote that's provided. From a main menu you can run music, video, images, and text from a USB thumb drive, switch between connections (VGA, composite video, HDMI, and 3D (HDMI), and change settings.

Although 3D is part of the projector's name, it isn't central to the projector. 3D-ready DLP projectors are commonplace, but they still require active-shutter 3D glasses (which aren't included with the Showtime) and a quad-buffered 3D graphics card. But it's a nice feature to have available, particularly in such a small and lower-brightness projector.

Performance
I tested the Showtime in our studio, doing the official tests in theater-dark conditions but also viewing images and video in varying conditions of ambient light. It does well for its low rated brightness; the image was able to stand up to a fair amount of ambient light without it looking degraded. The image filled our test screen (about 60 inches diagonal) from about 8 feet away.

I did our data image testing (using the DisplayMate suite of projector tests) over a VGA connection to a computer, and then repeated the tests over an HDMI connection. With VGA, the image was suitable for typical business presentations, at least in a small room with low or no lighting. Text was reasonably good, with text readable down to the smallest size (though a bit fuzzy at the two smallest sizes). Colors looked reasonably bright considering the projector's relatively low brightness. White areas showed a trace of a greenish tint. There was a trace of rainbow artifacts (little red-green-blue flashes) in images that tend to bring them out.

Even though I set my laptop to the projector's native resolution, I saw traces of what seemed to be scaling artifacts (indicating a resolution mismatch between projector and image source). We've noticed the same phenomenon in many lower-brightness LED-based WXGA projectors we've tested, including the Editors' Choice 3M Mobile Projector MP410 ($599 direct). If it has an effect on normal data images, it's usually in the form of blurred type, which doesn't seem to be a problem with the Showtime, at least over VGA.

When I switched the connection to HDMI, though, the artifacts were worse; This was true both at 720p, the resolution to which it automatically rescaled the images to when I switched the connection to HDMI, and when I went in and reset my computer to 1,280 by 800. Data image quality was somewhat degraded over HDMI, so I'd suggest you stick to VGA for data presentations.

Video Quality
Video image quality was suitable for short to mid-length clips as part of a presentation. The rainbow effect, which we frequently see in DLP projectors, was more apparent in video than in data images. It could be enough of a distraction to people who are sensitive to it that I'd hesitate to use this projector for full-length movies, though you could use it for such in a pinch.

Colors were bright and well-saturated, at times to the point of punchiness. Reds in particular seemed exaggerated. Some people prefer their colors on the garish side, but at times I found it a bit distracting. This effect persisted even when I adjusted the color setting from Normal to Cool.

The audio from the Showtime's pair of two-watt speakers is of decent quality and is reasonably loud.

The AAXA LED Showtime 3D is a versatile projector, able to display data presentations and play movies, games, audio files, and other content. It is 3D capable, though it requires a quad-buffered 3D graphics card and active-shutter 3D glasses. As an LED projector, it should have long (20,000 hour) lamp life.

It's brighter than the Editors' Choice 3M Mobile Projector MP410 a 300-lumen LED-based model. The MP410 is slightly lighter, can also display a range of multimedia content (though it's primarily a data projector), and has a bit better image quality for both data and video.

The BenQ Joybee GP2 is also dimmer than the Showtime at 200 rated lumens. But it has a wide range of connectivity options, adding a USB type B port for connecting to a computer via cable; an SD card slot; and a dock that fits an iPhone or iPod touch and lets you play content from these devices.

The AAXA LED Showtime 3D is fairly bright for its size and has usable image quality for both data and video. It can display a variety of content and is 3D capable. It's worth considering if you're looking for a multimedia projector with some data presentation chops.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/BZE2tO3O24c/0,2817,2417095,00.asp

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Cypriot banks reopen their doors to an angry, but orderly, clientele

Fears of bank runs proved unfounded Thursday, as Cyprus's banks ended their nearly two-week closure amid bailout negotiations with Europe. But Cypriots remain worried.

By Nick Squires,?Correspondent / March 28, 2013

Two security guards look on as a woman leaves a branch of Laiki Bank in Nicosia, Cyprus, today. Cypriots queued at banks as they reopened on Thursday under tight controls imposed on transactions, but there was no sign of a run on deposits that had been feared after the government was forced to accept a stringent EU rescue package.

Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

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Cypriots expressed fury and frustration ? but confounded predictions of chaos and even violence ? as they formed orderly queues on Thursday to enter the country?s banks, which reopened after being closed for nearly two weeks by a financial crisis that has shaken the foundations of the European Union and its common currency.

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There had been fears that branches would be besieged by angry customers in the wake of a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout deal agreed to with Brussels in which one Cypriot bank will fold, another will be restructured, and depositors will be hit with heavy losses.

The banks reopened only?after the Cypriot government rushed through draconian capital control measures on Wednesday night, limiting cash withdrawals to just 300 euros ($384) per person per day and imposing harsh restrictions on credit payments and the transfer of money abroad.

Overseas credit payments are limited to 5,000 ($6,400) euros, no checks can be cashed, and Cypriots traveling abroad can take only 1,000 euros ($1,300) with them.

The introduction of the restrictions was unprecedented in the 14-year history of the euro, with analysts saying that it was the sort of thing that usually happened in Africa or Latin America, rather than Europe.

Police were put on standby and 180 private security guards were assigned to bank branches around the country.

In the end, however, there was no unrest, with small queues of customers gathering outside banks and seeking shade from the intense spring sunshine in the shade of awnings and trees.

Anger at Europe

In a statement, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades thanked people for their forbearance, expressing his ?warm gratitude and deep appreciation towards the Cypriot people for the maturity and spirit of responsibility they have shown at a critical time for the stability of the Cypriot economy.?

But while Cypriots appeared outwardly restrained, deep down they were seething about the failure of the banks, the loss of hard-earned savings, and the grim future facing the Mediterranean country of 850,000 people.

Many people were furious with the harsh terms of the bailout laid out in Brussels earlier this week and felt that it had been driven by Germany?s determination to impose its own brand of fiscal austerity on the economically weaker nations of southern Europe.

Particular resentment was directed towards Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

?Merkel says every single Cypriot is guilty of dirty banking. That is shameful,? says Cleri Machlouzarides, a chartered architect, angrily gesticulating outside a bank in a small square in Nicosia, the capital of the divided island.

?We are small in size, it?s true, but Germany should go and find someone their own size to pick on instead of trying to strangle us. Europeans should know it?s not going to stop here," she says. ?Everyone is vulnerable in this banking crisis.?

The capital control measures were drawn up in order to prevent a run on the banks, after a tumultuous two weeks in which Cypriots learned they would lose billions of euros from their accounts in the accord drawn up in Brussels with European policy chiefs.

The two worst-hit lenders are Laiki Bank, which is to be dissolved, and Bank of Cyprus, which will have to absorb Laiki?s assets. Laiki depositors face losses of up to 80 percent on accounts above 100,000 euros, while Bank of Cyprus savers have been warned they may lose 40 percent of their savings above the 100,000 euro mark.

Hampered businesses

The closure of the banks for 10 days has caused huge problems for Cypriot businesses, which have been unable to pay their staff and creditors.

?I have so many customers overseas waiting for payment,? says Miltos, a businessman who runs a telecom company and asked that his full name not be used.??It?s a really big problem. They see the news from Cyprus and they think they might not get their money. My fear is that they will drop me and take on a different company. I built the business up over six or seven years but it now it could be destroyed and I would have to start again from scratch.?

The banks were closed on March 16 as the government tried to stitch together a plan to raise 5.8 billion euros from a ?haircut? of depositors? accounts, in order to qualify for the 10 billion euro bailout.

The closure paralyzed business activity and brought the country?s system of credit to a crashing halt.

Queuing outside the Bank of Cyprus, Petros Stylianides, an insurance broker with a small company employing three people, says: ?I have to make a deposit so that I can make payments to my creditors. I hope the bank will be safe. But then we thought everything was safe. It never crossed our minds that something like this would happen."

?People are cutting salaries, they are laying off a third of their staff. We are going to get into a downward spiral,? he says, adding that he is now thinking of taking his daughter out of private education and putting her in the state education system to save money.

A misleading calm?

Cypriots face great uncertainty. The government has said the credit controls will only remain in place for a week, but many people suspect they could last for months, even years.

While it appears there will be significant job losses at Laiki Bank, it is not clear what the impact will be on Bank of Cyprus.

?I have three or four friends working for the Bank of Cyprus and even they don?t know what will happen. They don?t know if they will lose their jobs,? says Koola Sophocleous, who runs a corner shop selling candy, soda, and newspapers.

Open Europe, a think tank based in London and Brussels, said the level of calm could be misleading. Cypriots did not besiege the banks to try to withdraw their life savings, it notes, because they knew that the capital controls prevented it.

?There are limits on what people can withdraw and/or transfer electronically. People may not be too bothered about waiting at banks if they are subject to strict limits,? the think tank said in an online analysis. ?In this day and age, much banking is done electronically so the number of people at the actual bank branches may not reveal the true level of transactions taking place behind the scenes.?

It could be a very different story once the capital controls are lifted, with the prospect of tens of thousands of Cypriots racing to get their money into safer banks abroad.

As Cypriots tried to come to terms with a deeply uncertain future, their leaders came up with a show of solidarity.

President Anastasiades announced that he had cut his salary by a quarter, while his cabinet ministers reduced their stipends by 20 percent.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/KhavSVo3kkM/Cypriot-banks-reopen-their-doors-to-an-angry-but-orderly-clientele

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Cancer biologists find DNA-damaging toxins in common plant-based foods

Mar. 27, 2013 ? In a laboratory study pairing food chemistry and cancer biology, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center tested the potentially harmful effect of foods and flavorings on the DNA of cells. They found that liquid smoke flavoring, black and green teas and coffee activated the highest levels of a well-known, cancer-linked gene called p53.

The p53 gene becomes activated when DNA is damaged. Its gene product makes repair proteins that mend DNA. The higher the level of DNA damage, the more p53 becomes activated.

"We don't know much about the foods we eat and how they affect cells in our bodies," says Scott Kern, M.D., the Kovler Professor of Oncology and Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "But it's clear that plants contain many compounds that are meant to deter humans and animals from eating them, like cellulose in stems and bitter-tasting tannins in leaves and beans we use to make teas and coffees, and their impact needs to be assessed."

Kern cautioned that his studies do not suggest people should stop using tea, coffee or flavorings, but do suggest the need for further research.

The Johns Hopkins study began a year ago when graduate student Samuel Gilbert, working in Kern's laboratory, noted that a test Kern had developed to detect p53 activity had never been used to identify DNA-damaging substances in food.

For the study, published online February 8 in Food and Chemical Toxicology, Kern and his team sought advice from scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture about food products and flavorings. "To do this study well, we had to think like food chemists to extract chemicals from food and dilute food products to levels that occur in a normal diet," he says.

Using Kern's test for p53 activity, which makes a fluorescent compound that "glows" when p53 is activated, the scientists mixed dilutions of the food products and flavorings with human cells and grew them in laboratory dishes for 18 hours.

Measuring and comparing p53 activity with baseline levels, the scientists found that liquid smoke flavoring, black and green teas and coffee showed up to nearly 30-fold increases in p53 activity, which was on par with their tests of p53 activity caused by a chemotherapy drug called etoposide.

Previous studies have shown that liquid smoke flavoring damages DNA in animal models, so Kern's team analyzed p53 activity triggered by the chemicals found in liquid smoke. Postdoctoral fellow Zulfiquer Hossain tracked down the chemicals responsible for the p53 activity. The strongest p53 activity was found in two chemicals: pyrogallol and gallic acid. Pyrogallol, commonly found in smoked foods, is also found in cigarette smoke, hair dye, tea, coffee, bread crust, roasted malt and cocoa powder, according to Kern. Gallic acid, a variant of pyrogallol, is found in teas and coffees.

Kern says that more studies are needed to examine the type of DNA damage caused by pyrogallol and gallic acid, but there could be ways to remove the two chemicals from foods and flavorings.

"We found that Scotch whiskey, which has a smoky flavor and could be a substitute for liquid smoke, had minimal effect on p53 activity in our tests," says Kern.

Liquid smoke, produced from the distilled condensation of natural smoke, is often used to add smoky flavor to sausages, other meats and vegan meat substitutes. It gained popularity when sausage manufacturers switched from natural casings to smoke-blocking artificial casings.

Other flavorings like fish and oyster sauces, tabasco and soy sauces, and black bean sauces showed minimal p53 effects in Kern's tests, as did soybean paste, kim chee, wasabi powder, hickory smoke powders and smoked paprika.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute (CA62924) and the Everett and Marjorie Kovler Professorship in Pancreas Cancer Research.

In addition to Kern, Gilbert and Hossain, other scientists involved in the research include Kalpesh Patel, Soma Ghosh, and Anil Bhunia from Johns Hopkins.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. M. Zulfiquer Hossain, Samuel F. Gilbert, Kalpesh Patel, Soma Ghosh, Anil K. Bhunia, Scott E. Kern. Biological clues to potent DNA-damaging activities in food and flavoring. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2013; 55: 557 DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2013.01.058

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/rIaA_10aDzM/130327163302.htm

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Mercedes-Benz introduces B-Class Electric Drive, we go eyes-on

MercedesBenz introduces BClass Electric Drive, we go eyeson

Electric Vehicle choices keep getting more compelling, and Mercedes-Benz is doing its part by unveiling the upcoming B-Class Electric Drive. The B-Class is among the smaller of MB's cars (one step up from the A-Class), fitting squarely in the MPV category. It's basically a mini-minivan. MPVs are small but big enough to be practical, and they tend to be economical. The fully electric powertrain in this 2014 model that just rolled onto the stage here at the New York International Auto Show should go a long way in that regard. Follow us after the break for more details and some photos.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/mercedes-benz-b-class-electric-drive/

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Uncovering Africa's oldest known penguins

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Africa isn't the kind of place you might expect to find penguins. But one species lives along Africa's southern coast today, and newly found fossils confirm that as many as four penguin species coexisted on the continent in the past. Exactly why African penguin diversity plummeted to the one species that lives there today is still a mystery, but changing sea levels may be to blame, the researchers say.

The fossil findings, described in the March 26 issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, represent the oldest evidence of these iconic tuxedo-clad seabirds in Africa, predating previously described fossils by 5 to 7 million years.

Co-authors Daniel Thomas of the National Museum of Natural History and Dan Ksepka of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center happened upon the 10-12 million year old specimens in late 2010, while sifting through rock and sediment excavated from an industrial steel plant near Cape Town, South Africa.

Jumbled together with shark teeth and other fossils were 17 bone fragments that the researchers recognized as pieces of backbones, breastbones, wings and legs from several extinct species of penguins.

Based on their bones, these species spanned nearly the full size spectrum for penguins living today, ranging from a runty pint-sized penguin that stood just about a foot tall (0.3 m), to a towering species closer to three feet (0.9 m).

Only one penguin species lives in Africa today ? the black-footed penguin, or Spheniscus demersus, also known as the jackass penguin for its loud donkey-like braying call. Exactly when penguin diversity in Africa started to plummet, and why, is still unclear.

Gaps in the fossil record make it difficult to determine whether the extinctions were sudden or gradual. "[Because we have fossils from only two time periods,] it's like seeing two frames of a movie," said co-author Daniel Ksepka. "We have a frame at five million years ago, and a frame at 10-12 million years ago, but there's missing footage in between."

Humans probably aren't to blame, the researchers say, because by the time early modern humans arrived in South Africa, all but one of the continent's penguins had already died out.

A more likely possibility is that rising and falling sea levels did them in by wiping out safe nesting sites.

Although penguins spend most of their lives swimming in the ocean, they rely on offshore islands near the coast to build their nests and raise their young. Land surface reconstructions suggest that five million years ago ? when at least four penguin species still called Africa home ? sea level on the South African coast was as much as 90 meters higher than it is today, swamping low-lying areas and turning the region into a network of islands. More islands meant more beaches where penguins could breed while staying safe from mainland predators.

But sea levels in the region are lower today. Once-isolated islands have been reconnected to the continent by newly exposed land bridges, which may have wiped out beach nesting sites and provided access to predators.

Although humans didn't do previous penguins in Africa in, we'll play a key role in shaping the fate of the one species that remains, the researchers add.

Numbers of black-footed penguins have declined by 80% in the last 50 years, and in 2010 the species was classified as endangered. The drop is largely due to oil spills and overfishing of sardines and anchovies ? the black-footed penguin's favorite food.

"There's only one species left today, and it's up to us to keep it safe," Thomas said.

###

National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent): http://www.nescent.org

Thanks to National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) 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/127480/Uncovering_Africa_s_oldest_known_penguins

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Supreme Court DOMA Case: Justices Question Whether They Can Even Decide Dispute

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Supreme Court justices on Wednesday morning appeared skeptical of the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as between a man and a woman. Whether the justices believe they have the power to make any decision in this case, however, remained murky.

It was the second day in a row that the high court heard arguments dealing with same-sex marriage. At issue Wednesday in United States v. Windsor was whether it was constitutional for the U.S. government to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages that had been recognized by the states.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who said Tuesday that the children of same-sex couples ?want their parents to have full recognition and legal status,? seemed troubled by the fact that DOMA refuses to recognize even those same-sex unions that are already recognized by states.

"When the federal government has 1,100 laws, which means in our society the federal government is intertwined with citizens' day-to-day lives," Kennedy said, then Congress is doing more than simply ensuring a uniform definition of marriage.

DOMA was only helping states, Kennedy said, ?if they do what we want them to do.? He pointed out to Paul Clement, the lawyer defending DOMA, that the law applied to states ?where voters have decided? to legalize same-sex marriage and stated that he believed there was injury to same-sex couples whose marriages were not recognized by the federal government.

Section 3 of DOMA, at issue in Wednesday morning's case, says "the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife" for purposes of "any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States."

Plaintiff Edie Windsor, 83, brought suit against the federal government after the Internal Revenue Service cited DOMA in denying her a refund for the $363,000 in federal estate taxes she paid following the 2009 death of Thea Spyer, her partner for over 40 years. Windsor and Spyer had married in Canada in 2007, but resided in New York. Because Windsor would have been eligible for an estate tax exemption had Spyer been a man, she argues that DOMA's Section 3 violates her equal protection rights under the Fifth Amendment.

On this point, Windsor had a friend in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said that DOMA created "two types of marriage," likening same-sex marriage in the states to the "skim milk" version of straight unions.

Justice Kennedy also showed hostility to DOMA. But like his position in the Proposition 8 oral arguments Tuesday, he appeared reluctant to rule on equal protection grounds. Instead, the question for him was "whether or not the federal government under our federalism scheme has the authority to regulate marriage."

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, representing the Obama administration on the merits of the case, avoided Kennedy's question, choosing instead to emphasize Congress' discriminatory purpose in enacting DOMA in 1996.

The law "is not called Federal Uniform Definition of Marriage Act," he said. "It's called the Defense of Marriage Act."

Justice Elena Kagan pushed a similar point. She told Clement, who was defending DOMA on behalf of the House of Representatives' Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, "that maybe Congress had something different in mind than uniformity" in the definition of marriage. Suggesting the law was "infected with prejudice, fear, spite, and animus," Kagan read a portion of the House Report, which said DOMA was meant to reflect Congress' "collective moral judgment and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality."

Perhaps key to the justices' analysis of the case is whether to regard laws that single out gays and lesbians with what's called "heightened scrutiny" -- a level of review now used to strike down measures that single out politically disfavored and less powerful groups.

On this point, Chief Justice John Roberts focused in on the ?sea change? in public opinion on the question of same-sex marriage. How did that ?sea change? come about, he asked, unless gay and lesbian Americans had amassed significant political power. Roberts said it seemed to him that politicians were ?falling over themselves? to endorse gay marriage.

Roberts also wondered why, if President Barack Obama believes DOMA is unconstitutional, he continues to enforce it. ?I don?t see why he doesn?t have the courage of his convictions,? the chief said. Kennedy chimed in later, saying he didn?t ?understand why they continue to enforce? DOMA.

Clement said that if 10 years from now, there were only nine states left that didn?t have gay marriage, the federal government might be fully entitled to force the remaining states to recognize such unions.

Judging from Wednesday's first 50 minutes of oral arguments, however, the case may instead be decided on whether the justices have the power to hear the case at all.

In United States v. Windsor, the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit both declared DOMA unconstitutional. The Obama administration agrees with them.

Chief Justice Roberts asked Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan, arguing on behalf of the Obama administration, whether there was "any case where all parties agreed with the decision below," but a court "nonetheless upheld" its ability to hear the case.

The chief's question about legal standing reflects DOMA's long, strange trip to this point. A bipartisan piece of legislation, it was signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, who now believes it should be overturned.

In 2010, a Department of Justice official told reporters that defending DOMA was ?difficult? for the Obama administration, while Attorney General Eric Holder told D.C. law students that the DOJ ?has a responsibility to defend those statues that the Congress has passed if there is an argument that can be made to defend those statutes."

But things changed in 2011, when Holder announced that the DOJ would no longer defend DOMA. Holder was not in the courtroom on Wednesday, but Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole and Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery, who runs the DOJ's Civil Division, were in attendance on behalf of the department.

After the DOJ backed off from defending the law, House Republicans stepped in. The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group hired Clement, George W. Bush?s former solicitor general, to defend the law on behalf of the federal government.

Clement faced difficult questioning Wednesday from the Supreme Court's liberal wing on why the House had any legally recognizable interest in representing a position the executive has abandoned.

"How is this case any different from enforcing general powers of the United States," Justice Stephen Breyer asked.

See photos from the Supreme Court below, and scroll down for live blog updates:

HuffPost's Lila Shapiro reports:

Bonnie Quesenberry and Fay Jacobs celebrated their 31st anniversary in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It would have been their 31st wedding anniversary had marriage been legal for same-sex couples back when they got together, in 1982, after meeting at a conference at John Hopkins University.

Quesenberry, a retired dental lab technician, wore small purple sunglasses, and Jacobs, a writer, wore black fleece. As the two women waited on the steps to hear how the arguments in the case against the federal Defense of Marriage Act inside the court were going, they bumped into another lesbian couple, also together for 31 years.

"We're the 31 club!" Jacobs exclaimed, holding out her home-made banner, which read, "If Gay Marriage were LEGAL Today would be our 31st Anniversary," and laughing.

"We've had congratulations said 1,000 times," Quesenberry said, as the four women all embraced. "This just couldn't be better."

Read more here.

As protesters rally in support of nixing DOMA outside of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, across the street in the U.S. Capitol, only a handful of House Republicans agree with their stance. Three, to be exact.

Jimmy LaSalvia, the executive director of the gay conservative group GOProud, said he couldn't understand why House Republicans aren't talking about the need to repeal DOMA. After all, he said, even conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage agree that the law is unconstitutional.

"At this point, I'm absolutely baffled," LaSalvia told The Huffington Post. "I don't think they're done losing yet. What do you think? I think it's because they're not done losing yet."

LaSalvia said true conservatives know the Constitution leaves issues relating to marriage and family law up to the states. In the case of DOMA, that fact is "particularly important" from a constitutionally conservative point of view, he said.

House Republicans "appear to be the only ones in America who think that DOMA is constitutional," he said. "The establishment leaders in Washington in the Republican Party are continuing to demonstrate how out of touch they are with Americans."

One shift has occurred among Republican lawmakers in recent years, from openly trashing gay marriage during speeches on the House floor to mostly just staying silent on the issue. But LaSalvia said that doesn't count as progress for his party.

"So now they've become the 'don't say gay' group," he said. "But that still makes them look out of touch because everyone else in the country is talking about it!"

--Jennifer Bendery

The 83-year-old plaintiff in the Defense of Marriage Act case spoke to media after being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, but her remarks emphasized the human angle of her "overwhelming" fight rather than strictly economics.

Read more here.

WASHINGTON -- Michelle McFadden, 33, came out to the Supreme Court to advocate for marriage equality on Tuesday, but on Wednesday she decided to return with a special guest: her five-year-old daughter, Bailey.

"This is history. I came out a second day in a row to bring my 5-year-old daughter, because the issue affects her as much as it affects me and my wife," McFadden said.

Bailey held a sign reading, "Let my parents be married because they love each other and because I love them too!" while McFadden's sign read, "Kids need unconditional love, not your hate. Shame on you."

McFadden said she and her wife, who live in Maryland, married last year after 15 years together.

When asked what repealing DOMA would mean for her and her wife, McFadden replied, "Benefits."

"I'm a stay-at-home mom to our two kids, and my wife works for the federal government," she said. "I don't get her benefits because of DOMA. So the repeal of DOMA would mean I get health insurance for the first time in three years."

Bailey, when asked what she thought of being at the Supreme Court for the historic case, simply replied, "I think it's cool."

Watch an interview with McFadden and her daughter:

-- Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON -- Jo Deutsch, 53, and Teresa Williams, 56, have been together for nearly 30 years. And on May 18, they're finally getting married.

"We have three kids, and we want them to have the same rights as all of their friends by having us have the opportunity to get married," Williams said.

The two joined hundreds of people at the Supreme Court on Wednesday to advocate for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Both were wearing pink ribbons reading, "Bride To Be."

When asked whether they ever expected to be seeing so much progress on LGBT rights, Deutsch -- who works for the group Freedom to Marry -- replied, "We never thought we'd be buying wedding dresses in our lifetime, but we've done that, too!"

Watch an interview with Deutsch and Williams:

-- Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON -- For Anna Olsson, 41, and her partner, Michelle Bailey, 46, a Supreme Court decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act has potentially huge consequences in their lives: It means they would get to stay in the United States.

Olsson, who is from Sweden, is in America on a work visa -- meaning she doesn't have a green card or U.S. citizenship.

"I basically have no guarantee for staying here, whereas if I were marrying a man, I would instantly be granted a green card and potentially citizenship," Olsson told The Huffington Post.

The couple came out to the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, with hundreds of other marriage equality supporters, to show their support for the end of DOMA. Federal law defines marriage as being between one man and one woman, meaning that even couples who are legally married in their states are denied federal benefits -- such as on immigration matters.

Olsson and Bailey are currently living in Takoma Park, Md. When asked how she felt about the prospect of moving to Sweden, Bailey replied, "I think Sweden would be fantastic, but I would rather do it because I want to move, not because I'm forced out of my own country just because I want to have the same equal rights as anybody does to protect their family and their loved ones. This is what this is about. ... I would love Sweden, but I love this country and I want to stay here."

Watch an interview with Olsson and Bailey:

@ jbendery : Pelosi on Paul Clement defending DOMA in court: "What a stale role to play in life."

Stateline, a daily news service of Pew Charitable Trusts, created an interactive graphic showing the Justices' remarks on DOMA in their own words.

Click here for more from Pew's Stateline.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/supreme-court-doma_n_2952611.html

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Havok Announces Project Anarchy, A Totally Free Engine For 3D Mobile Games

havokEven if you've got no idea what the Havok engine is, you've probably seen it before. Name a best-selling video game, and the odds that it's using Havok in one way or another are pretty huge. This morning, Havok announced Project Anarchy, a 3D engine for mobile games that they plan to release this Spring. The twist? They don't want your money.

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Wastewater injection spurred biggest earthquake yet, says study

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A new study in the journal Geology is the latest to tie a string of unusual earthquakes, in this case, in central Oklahoma, to the injection of wastewater deep underground. Researchers now say that the magnitude 5.7 earthquake near Prague, Okla., on Nov. 6, 2011, may also be the largest ever linked to wastewater injection. Felt as far off as Milwaukee, more than 800 miles away, the quake?the biggest ever recorded in Oklahoma--destroyed 14 homes, buckled a federal highway and left two people injured. Small earthquakes continue to be recorded in the area. The study appeared today in the journal's early online edition.

The recent boom in U.S. energy production has produced massive amounts of wastewater. The water is used both in hydrofracking, which cracks open rocks to release natural gas, and in coaxing petroleum out of conventional oil wells. In both cases, the brine and chemical-laced water has to be disposed of, often by injecting it back underground elsewhere, where it has the potential to trigger earthquakes. The water linked to the Prague quakes was a byproduct of oil extraction at one set of oil wells, and was pumped into another set of depleted oil wells targeted for waste storage.

Scientists have linked a rising number of quakes in normally calm parts of Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Colorado to below-ground injection. In the last four years, the number of quakes in the middle of the United States jumped 11-fold from the three decades prior, the authors of the Geology study estimate. Last year, a group at the U.S. Geological Survey also attributed a remarkable rise in small- to mid-size quakes in the region to humans. The risk is serious enough that the National Academy of Sciences, in a report last year called for further research to "understand, limit and respond" to induced seismic events. Despite these studies, wastewater injection continues near the Oklahoma earthquakes.

The magnitude 5.7 quake near Prague was preceded by a 5.0 shock and followed by thousands of aftershocks. What made the swarm unusual is that wastewater had been pumped into abandoned oil wells nearby for 17 years without incident. In the study, researchers hypothesize that as wastewater replenished compartments once filled with oil, the pressure to keep the fluid going down had to be ratcheted up. As pressure built up, a known fault?known to geologists as the Wilzetta fault--jumped. "When you overpressure the fault, you reduce the stress that's pinning the fault into place and that's when earthquakes happen," said study coauthor Heather Savage, a geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The amount of wastewater injected into the well was relatively small, yet it triggered a cascading series of tremors that led to the main shock, said study co-author Geoffrey Abers, also a seismologist at Lamont-Doherty. "There's something important about getting unexpectedly large earthquakes out of small systems that we have discovered here," he said. The observations mean that "the risk of humans inducing large earthquakes from even small injection activities is probably higher" than previously thought, he said.

Hours after the first magnitude 5.0 quake on Nov. 5, 2011, University of Oklahoma seismologist Katie Keranen rushed to install the first three of several dozen seismographs to record aftershocks. That night, on Nov. 6, the magnitude 5.7 main shock hit and Keranen watched as her house began to shake for what she said felt like 20 seconds. "It was clearly a significant event," said Keranen, the Geology study's lead author. "I gathered more equipment, more students, and headed to the field the next morning to deploy more stations."

Keranen's recordings of the magnitude 5.7 quake, and the aftershocks that followed, showed that the first Wilzetta fault rupture was no more than 650 feet from active injection wells and perhaps much closer, in the same sedimentary rocks, the study says. Further, wellhead records showed that after 13 years of pumping at zero to low pressure, injection pressure rose more than 10-fold from 2001 to 2006, the study says.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey has yet to issue an official account of the sequence, and wastewater injection at the site continues. In a statement responding to the paper, Survey seismologist Austin Holland said the study showed the earthquake sequence could have been triggered by the injections. But, he said, "it is still the opinion of those at the Oklahoma Geological Survey that these earthquakes could be naturally occurring. There remain many open questions, and more scientific investigations are underway on this sequence of earthquakes and many others within the state of Oklahoma."

The risk of setting off earthquakes by injecting fluid underground has been known since at least the 1960s, when injection at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver was suspended after a quake estimated at magnitude 4.8 or greater struck nearby?the largest tied to wastewater disposal until the one near Prague, Okla. A series of similar incidents have emerged recently. University of Memphis seismologist Stephen Horton in a study last year linked a rise in earthquakes in north-central Arkansas to nearby injection wells. University of Texas, Austin, seismologist Cliff Frohlich in a 2011 study tied earthquake swarms at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to a brine disposal well a third of a mile away. In Ohio, Lamont-Doherty seismologists Won-Young Kim and John Armbruster traced a series of 2011 earthquakes near Youngstown to a nearby disposal well. That well has since been shut down, and Ohio has tightened its waste-injection rules.

Wastewater injection is not the only way that people can touch off quakes. Evidence suggests that geothermal drilling, impoundment of water behind dams, enhanced oil recovery, solution salt mining and rock quarrying also can trigger seismic events. (Hydrofracking itself is not implicated in significant earthquakes; the amount of water used is usually not enough to produce substantial shaking.) The largest known earthquakes attributed to humans may be the two magnitude 7.0 events that shook the Gazli gas fields of Soviet Uzbekistan in 1976, followed by a third magnitude 7.0 quake eight years later. In a 1985 study in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Lamont-Doherty researchers David Simpson and William Leith hypothesized that the quakes were human-induced but noted that a lack of information prevented them from linking the events to gas production or other triggers. In 2009, a geothermal energy project in Basel, Switzerland, was canceled after development activities apparently led to a series of quakes of up to magnitude 3.4 that caused some $8 million in damage to surrounding properties.

In many of the wastewater injection cases documented so far, earthquakes followed within days or months of fluid injection starting. In contrast, the Oklahoma swarm happened years after injection began, similar to swarms at the Cogdell oil field in West Texas and the Fort St. John area of British Columbia.

The Wilzetta fault system remains under stress, the study's authors say, yet regulators continue to allow injection into nearby wells. Ideally, injection should be kept away from known faults and companies should be required to provide detailed records of how much fluid they are pumping underground and at what pressure, said Keranen. The study authors also recommend sub-surface monitoring of fluid pressure for earthquake warning signs. Further research is needed but at a minimum, "there should be careful monitoring in regions where you have injection wells and protocols for stopping pumping even when small earthquakes are detected," said Abers. In a recent op-ed in the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, Abers argued that New York should consider the risk of induced earthquakes from fluid injection in weighing whether to allow hydraulic fracturing to extract the state's shale gas reserves.

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The Earth Institute at Columbia University: http://www.earth.columbia.edu

Thanks to The Earth Institute at Columbia University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127474/Wastewater_injection_spurred_biggest_earthquake_yet__says_study

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