Funny Video Forex Gadget Hi-tech

IDG News Service – An anonymous hacker has posted private e-mails, files and other documents belonging to a noted climate researcher, sparking an international debate between skeptics of global warming and those who see it as an urgent problem.

Read the original:
Global warming research exposed after hack (Computerworld)

Our illustrious (cough, cough) White House press corps showed it could get to the bottom of a story with impressively journalistic and probative skills this week. The story that so obviously required multiple questions to President Obama on his trip to Asia? Whether he’s eating enough, and whether he’s losing weight. Oh, and his gray hair. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. Somebody, obviously bored on the excruciatingly long plane ride, decided they’d float the rumor that Obama was skipping meals and getting dangerously thin. Because the reporters were all trapped in the same flying aluminum can, they all decided it was a big deal, patted themselves on the back for doing so, and then took lots of valuable interview time with the president to ask him about it. Over and over again (since they all wanted the “scoop”). Obama’s response was that he was eating just fine, thank you, and he wasn’t any skinnier than he’s always been. Whew! Good thing we have such an illustrious cadre of journalists, to reassure Americans that the president is not starving himself or anything! After all, it’s not like there are any other issues to talk about, or ask the president about. Such as Sarah Palin, for instance. Palin sure ate up a lot of “news” time last week, which must have overjoyed her publicist and publisher (oodles of free publicity, in other words). Seriously, there are a few things going on in the world that are actually more important than what the president had for lunch, and what Palin’s ghostwriter cobbled together in “her” book. Such as healthcare reform legislation, to name but one. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finally woke up from his weeks-long nap, and is moving a bill to the Senate floor for debate. It was reported this week that the bill would be introduced on Tuesday, then on Wednesday, then on Thursday, then on Friday, and (currently) on Saturday. Which pretty much sums up the last few months of waiting on Harry. But Harry will be discussed later in the program, so I’ll just move on here. I thought it was appropriate to review exactly what is left to do on the healthcare reform effort. There are a few hurdles left to clear, and it’s going to be a long and drawn-out process. The media will trumpet each one of these hurdles as it happens, but will (my guess) fail to lay out exactly what to expect next at each stage of the process. So I thought I’d fill this lack. Matt Osborne at Huffington Post also has a good overview of the 11-dimensional chess game we’re playing, if you’d like an alternate summation of where we are in the process. The first step is Saturday’s vote. Or, I should probably say, “the vote which is currently scheduled for Saturday.” This vote will be held in the Senate and is a vote to “end debate about the debate,” or to overcome a filibuster/closure attempt to block the bill before it gets to the floor for debate. The media will portray this as a “vote to move the bill to the floor,” but this is technically inaccurate, as it is a vote against killing the bill’s progress. It’s confusing, but this is the Senate we’re talking about. Democrats need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster attempt. Harry Reid thinks he’s got them, but then this is the reason why the vote keeps getting pushed back — because he’s obviously still scrambling for the final few votes before he moves ahead. But they can’t push it back much further without eating into their own valuable vacation time, because they’re all itching to fly back home for a leisurely week off for Thanksgiving. Once Democrats get the 60 votes they need (throughout this whole explanation, I am assuming Democrats will succeed at each stage, although I should point out that any of these hurdles could derail the entire process and kill healthcare reform for the year), the Senate will start debating the bill. Amendments will be offered. It’s a little unclear which amendments will require only a majority (50 votes plus the Vice President, or 51 votes), and which will require the supermajority of 60 votes. Look for lots of Republican amendments to fail during this stage, and lots and lots of grandstanding by senators who are hoping to see their face on the news. So, assuming some amendments pass and others fail, eventually Reid will move to close debate and actually vote on the bill as a whole. This is when the second major filibuster will be attempted. And getting 60 votes to overcome it will be even harder, since some of the senators who have publicly committed to killing the first filibuster attempt have pointedly not committed to moving the bill to a final vote. But, probably with some wheeling and dealing, Reid rounds up the 60 votes he needs and defeats the filibuster once again. Which brings us to the final vote. This vote only requires 50-plus-one, meaning Democrats who don’t like the bill can vote against its passage, after voting with the Democrats to kill filibusters. This sort of thing, I should add, is common. John Kerry got lambasted in his bid for the White House, for expecting Americans to know how the Senate actually works, when he said he “was for the bill before he was against the bill” (or was it the other way around?). This is called “having your cake and eating it too,” when it comes to explaining your votes to your constituents, and is common practice by both parties in Washington. But ignoring all of that, a bill passes the Senate! Woo hoo! We’re done, right? Well, no. This is the trickiest phase of the whole process — the dreaded conference committee. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid name a limited number of negotiators (which names are on this list will be crucial) to a committee of both House and Senate members, and they get a chance to totally rewrite the bill. Their goal is to come up with a bill that can pass both houses in exactly the same form. This will be challenging indeed, since the vote margins are going to be pretty thin for both houses. A handful of Democrats from the left or the “center” could play the “I’m taking my bat and ball and going home” tantrum game at this point. Many are the bills which die in conference committee, it needs emphasizing. It’s a tightrope wire to walk that sees many, many ideas fall off the wire to perish below (no safety net down there). This will be the toughest part of the whole process. Eventually, though (assuming success at every stage, as I said), a compromise bill emerges from conference committee. Then it goes to the House and the Senate, where individual senators and the Republican Party en masse will try to derail it by adding amendments willy-nilly. But sooner or later, the House and the Senate vote on the same bill. Over in the Senate, of course, this will mean more filibuster attempts to be dealt with, but in both houses the final vote requires just a simple majority to pass. The bill, after achieving passage in both houses, then goes to the Oval Office for President Obama to sign. If this all sounds like a very long and drawn-out process, well, it is. And the new “operative” deadline (as they say in D.C.) is now the State Of The Union address which President Obama will deliver to a joint session of Congress in late January. That is not a lot of time. With so many formidable hurdles left in place, the clock running out becomes more and more of a serious possibility. In any case, while the news media will portray Saturday’s vote (or Sunday’s, or Monday’s… sigh) as a gargantuan-sized Big Deal, please keep in mind that we’ve got a long way left to go. ? A Democrat this week hit a most impressive milestone, as Senator Robert Byrd became the longest-serving member of Congress in history. This benchmark adds service in both chambers, meaning Byrd’s six-year term as a member of the House is added to his impressive 50 years and ten-and-a-half months in the Senate. Byrd’s Senate record is already the longest in history, passing Strom Thurmond’s a few years ago. So now Robert Byrd is not only the longest-serving senator in American history, but also the longest-serving member of Congress in history as well. For this, he receives an Honorable Mention from us this week. Representative Alan Grayson also gets an Honorable Mention as well (with special “strange bedfellows” oak leaf cluster), for joining with Ron Paul to win passage of language in a bill to mandate an audit of the Federal Reserve. Other Democrats wanted to water this down, but Grayson and Paul prevailed. For now. Their opponents shut down a vote on the bill after this happened, though, which the White House is reportedly not happy about. Also annoying the White House is Representative John Conyers. Conyers, however, is on the right side of this issue. He’s pressuring President Obama and Rahm Emanuel with some very blunt language : “You know, holding hands out and beer on Friday nights in the White House and bowing down to every nutty right-wing proposal about health care, and saying on occasion that public options aren’t all that important is doing a disservice to the Barack Obama that I first met who was an ardent single-payer enthusiast himself.” For pressuring Obama to stand up for the ideals he campaigned on, Conyers is also awarded an Honorable Mention this week. But our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award goes to Attorney General Eric Holder. I have already written twice this week (in Tuesday’s column and Wednesday’s column , in case you missed them) about Holder’s decision to hold the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators in a civilian federal court mere blocks from where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Now, reasonable people can disagree about Holder’s decision, but we are awarding him the MIDOTW award for how he has handled himself this week. It’s a rare thing in Washington to see a government official make a strong decision, and then defend it as the right thing to do without either (a.) trying to blame everyone else for the idea’s shortcomings, or (b.) immediately apologizing for the decision, or (c.) “walking back” or even overturning the decision at the slightest sign of political stormclouds on the horizon. All in all, Holder admirably defended his decision and admirably faced his critics when dragged before a congressional committee. So, as I said, whether you agree with his decision or think it was wrong, Holder was still impressive in the way he strongly stood up for himself after announcing it — a rare thing in Washington. And for that, we award him the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week . [ Congratulate Attorney General Eric Holder on his Department of Justice contact page , to let him know you appreciate his efforts. ] ? So, here we are on the healthcare reform front. A bill may make it to the floor of the Senate tomorrow. But you know what? We could have been here in July. Or September. Or October. This endless series of delays and time wasted can be laid at the feet of one man — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Because it is an inescapable fact that a stronger leader would have moved the legislation a lot further by now. Now, in Reid’s defense, the bill he came up with is a lot stronger than a lot of people thought it would be at this point. The number of times the public option has been declared dead by serious and important people inside the Beltway is staggeringly high. And yet, there it is in Reid’s bill. No trigger (at least not yet) is in the bill either — denying yet another piece of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom for the past five months. Given what he had to work with, it’s not a horrible effort by Reid. Fairness dictates we point this out here. But Reid has shown over and over again that he simply does not know how to negotiate in a timely fashion. He usually begins negotiating by publicly stating he will be throwing away all his best leverage in the negotiations — making it much easier for his opponents to defeat him. He has put up with so many delaying tactics on healthcare reform that we find ourselves only moving a bill to the floor right now — just before Thanksgiving. Because the Senate is going to go home for a full week next week, it won’t be until early December that the floor debate even begins. And after such debate, and after a vote on passage, there still remains the conference committee — which is going to take a few weeks, at the very least. With the end-of-year break in there, it is already an extremely tough schedule to meet if Congress really wants to pass this by the State Of The Union speech in late January. Meaning Reid has left everyone with very little elbow room. Which makes it all the easier for opponents to defeat the whole effort — because now they don’t need to absolutely shut it down, they just need to run out the clock for a few more weeks. While Max Baucus certainly deserves some of the scorn for this situation, the buck stops at Harry’s desk, as the leader of the Senate Democrats. As if all of this weren’t enough, Reid just announced that he’s no longer even considering reconciliation as a last resort. Once again, Reid takes the most powerful weapon at his disposal and, instead of wielding it forcefully, actually chucks it over the side of the boat instead. This seems to be Harry’s standard operating procedure — surrender before the fight begins. But there’s a way to change all of this. The Democratic caucus in the Senate traditionally chooses its leadership in December. Meaning that any Democrat could soon challenge Reid for his leadership role. If a movement started among Senate Democrats to rally behind a more forceful personality, this could put some serious pressure on Harry Reid to get things moving along. Democrats could let it be known privately that if healthcare reform isn’t at least in conference committee by the time they choose next year’s leadership, then they would be handing Harry his hat, and repainting his office for his successor. There are many, many Democratic senators who could fill the void of leadership Harry Reid carries around with him. Pretty much anyone who knows how to negotiate and knows not to throw away their best leverage before the fight begins would get my support, at this point. Oh, and while they’re at it, Democratic senators could also strip Joe Lieberman of his committee chairmanship on the Homeland Security committee if he votes with Republicans to kill healthcare reform. Just a suggestion. But for this week, Harry Reid wins his fourteenth Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award. That is twice as many as anyone else has won. Get a move on Harry, or else stand out of the way for someone who can. Please. [ Contact Senator Harry Reid on his Senate contact page , to let him know what you think of his actions. ] ? Volume 102 (11/20/09) I’m going to remain optimistic at the end, here, and write my talking points this week for Democratic politicians (to use on the Sunday morning chat fests) while assuming that the Senate has managed to vote to bring the healthcare reform bill to the floor. That’s right, I’m going to make a leap of faith and assume that Harry Reid manages to get his 60 votes tomorrow night. Because, really, if he doesn’t, there won’t be a whole lot for Democrats to talk about this Sunday morning. Anyway, remaining cheerfully (some would say “blissfully,” or perhaps “idiotically”) optimistic, here is what Democrats should say on Sunday to bring all the pressure they can bear to their fellow Democrats in the Senate who may waver in future votes. ? ???Rushing? Um, no. The standard cry of the obstructionists in this debate is that we are somehow “rushing” healthcare reform. Attack this with the disdain it deserves. “Excuse me, did you say rushing? You think we’re rushing into healthcare reform? The effort to bring quality affordable healthcare to every American started seventy years ago . This effort has been going on currently ever since the 1960s. We’ve taken months — sometimes years — to come up with portions of this bill. We’ve debated them non-stop for the past six months. We’ve spent weeks and weeks putting together final legislation. How, exactly, is any of this ‘rushing’?” ? ???The wrong side of history Republican Senator Olympia Snowe was actually the one to use this line the best so far in this debate. “History is calling, in the form of healthcare reform. History will judge us on what we do in Congress in the next few weeks. We Democrats must make a simple choice: do we want to stand on the right side, or the wrong side of history? Do we want this vote to be a proud achievement for our party, and for all of America, or do we want to be shamed later by voting against such wide-sweeping reform? I know which side of history I want to be remembered on, and that is why I will be voting for healthcare reform.” ? ???Party unity This is a phrase which got quite a bit of scorn in last year’s campaign (see: PUMAs, or “Party Unity, My Ass” soreheads). But it needs to be picked up, dusted off, and given the proud placement it once had. “The Democratic Party needs to show some unity, for once. Party unity means voting against Republican filibuster attempts in the Senate. I don’t care whether Democratic senators vote for or against the bill on the final vote, but I think it is shameful for any Democrat to join the ‘Party of Obstructionism’ or the ‘Party of No’ in a procedural vote. It is the coward’s way out. The courageous thing to do here is to keep party unity intact, and guarantee an up-or-down vote for the final bill on the Senate floor. Robbing the Senate of that vote, and robbing the people of seeing how you would have voted on the final bill is nothing short of shameful. Party unity used to mean something in Washington, and I hope it means something in the filibuster-killing votes in the Senate in the next few weeks.” ? ???Maybe we need new leadership This one only really works if you are a Democratic senator. Although other Democrats could use it, prefaced with something like “well, you know the scuttlebutt I’m hearing is…” or language to that effect. “The end of the year is traditionally the time we Democrats caucus to choose our leadership and committee chairmen for the upcoming year. If we can’t manage to get a healthcare bill through a floor vote in the Senate, I and many of my colleagues are going to have to think long and hard about who will be the most effective leaders for the Senate next year. I’m not going to name any names, but there are quite a few of our leaders who seem more interested in causing unconscionable delays to the process rather than exhibiting true leadership. And we will be looking at that quite closely in December.” ? ???Want to get re-elected? These last three are a direct appeal to those mugwumps sitting on a fence on the healthcare reform debate. Don’t appeal to their better interests, appeal to their fear of losing power. It’s the best leverage to use in Washington, when you get right down to it. “Any Democrat thinking of voting against healthcare reforms should take a good hard look at the opinion polls coming out of their state or district. The American people want healthcare reform, they expect us to deliver healthcare reform, and if we are instrumental in blocking healthcare reform, then they are going to let us know about it. For all the so-called ‘moderate’ Democrats that I’ve heard about, when you look at the polls from their own constituents, time after time they show that people want not just healthcare reform, but actually stronger healthcare reform than is currently in the bill. These Democrats need to think long and hard about their own political future if they vote against the needs and wishes of their own constituents. Because voting with the Republicans is going to make it a lot harder for you to get re-elected.” ? ???Democrats are toast in 2010 without healthcare reform In fact, expand this to the whole party. “Democrats are going to be toast in the midterm 2010 congressional elections if we don’t deliver on healthcare reform. With huge majorities in both houses of Congress, if we can’t follow through on the biggest agenda item that got a Democrat elected to the White House, then voters are going to be disgusted with the Democratic Party as a whole come next election day. They are either going to stay home and not vote, or they are going to vote for anyone who isn’t an incumbent. Our party’s future in Congress hinges in a big way on whether we can pass healthcare reform or not. If we don’t, President Obama is going to be a lot weaker next year, and Congress is going to be universally held in contempt by the voters. And a lot of Democrats who are now sitting in office are going to be looking for jobs this time next year.” ? ???Democrats deserve to be toast in 2010 without healthcare reform This is “part 2″ of the previous point. “And you know what? We Democrats are going to deserve to be toast in the 2010 elections if we can’t pass healthcare reform. We’ve got the biggest majorities in Congress we’ve had in a generation, and the voters sent us here for a reason — to get something done . If we prove that we are incapable of delivering this to the voters who sent us here, then we will absolutely deserve to be stripped of our majorities and our power come next year. I wouldn’t blame the voters in the least if they see us fighting amongst ourselves so much, and more worried about our own egos than in producing some legislation to improve people’s lives. The voters would be entirely justified in ‘throwing the bums out’ if we can’t manage to get something done . I say this as a warning to all my fellow Democrats, and I sincerely hope they will take it to heart.” ? Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com NEW! Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com All-time award winners leaderboard, by rank ? More on Joe Lieberman

Read more from the original source:
Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [102] — Harry Reid’s Glacial Progress Grinds On

Every day my heart gets broken. The hurt starts before I step foot onto my campus. I live six blocks from my work site in a diverse, middle-class neighborhood called Mar Vista where two bedroom homes sell for $700,000 and the gentrified two-story jobs go for over a million. On my walk to work, I observe the morning rush to school. Kids, in uniforms, hurry toward waiting cars to be whisked away to private schools. The kids who attend our local elementary school walk south from the apartment complexes that line Washington Boulevard holding their mothers’ hands or riding skateboards or bikes alongside buddies. They are almost all Hispanic. I usually stop at the halfway point, Rainbow Acres, an organic grocery store, where I wait behind women in workout gear knocking back shots of wheat grass as I wait for my morning smoothie. I cross the boulevard and join a wave of teenagers disembarking from LA and Culver City buses and head toward the LAUSD high school where I teach English. As I pass the student parking lot I note that there are a handful of late model VWs and Hondas, but most of these rides have little or no resale value. And then I turn onto campus where every wall is newly painted typing paper white with royal blue trim. The vast lawn, almost the size of a football field, is a deep green and leaves have changed colors, giving us a mini-New England autumn. I take in one last breath of ocean air then enter a long, narrow corridor. That’s when the depression hits. The wall of bodies, the faded yellow walls, the natural light replaced by florescent bulbs. It seems as if the school’s dress code demand that students wear thrift shop t-shirts advertising bands that broke up years ago, alcoholic beverages and unpopular baseball teams. Most every male face lurks behind a black or gray hood. It’s as if color has been banned. Were it not for liberal helpings of green eye liner and pink lipstick, I might think I had stepped into a black and white movie. Then I read my students’ essays. All are seniors. Most are smart. All are street smart. Many are shy. Most read and write below grade level. Of the 42 students on my Period 1 Expository Composition roster only three are applying to universities. I read their personal essays which will be published this spring in an anthology of student writing thanks to a grant from PEN in the Classroom . These are the stories my 17- and 18-year-old students have shared with me under the tutelage of PEN mentor, Amy Friedman: A 3-year-old watches from his front porch as his uncle shoots himself in the head. A mother dumps her 15-year-old son at a police station and tells the cops they can have him. A father goes downstairs and is shot by a car thief. He leaves behind three daughters. A four-year-old girl is fondled by her uncle while her father is out on the town, cheating on the girl’s mother. The girl holds this secret inside for ten years. A boy visits his father in jail. A six-year-old receives a brutal, daily beating from his kindergarten teacher. A dad walks in on his daughter as she kisses her girlfriend. He beats his daughter and kicks her out of the house. Two of my students reveal that they were crack babies. Another, with an addicted mother, goes home every day and takes care of her autistic brother. An innocent teen is cuffed and interrogated by the LAPD because he looks like a gang banger though he is not one and has never been in trouble. A 17-year-old girl buries her boyfriend who is shot in the back after leaving an art class at a local recreation center. A brother gives mouth-to-mouth recessitation to his 16-year-old brother who overdosed and died. What I love about my students’ writing is its honesty. What I admire about most of my students is that despite the hurt they’ve felt, the fear that follows them, they keep showing up. They work hard in class. They know they’re behind, but they continue to push, to struggle on. Most of my students hold after school and weekend jobs. They help pay the rent. They hang in. They write. They re-write. They listen. They do whatever is necessary to earn their credits, so that they will graduate and make themselves and their parents proud. I keep hearing the politicians and the pundits talk about the problems in public education. About Race to the Top . If we only could fire the lousy teachers. If we could only institute merit pay. If we could only establish more charter schools. Or give vouchers. Or break the teacher unions. That would solve it all. And when I read these columns and hear their speeches, these people who have all the answers, I wonder what world they live in. They certainly don’t live in mine.

The rest is here:
Dennis Danziger: Every Day My Heart Gets Broken

CHICAGO — Sun-Times Media Group, which was recently sold out of bankruptcy to an investor group, said Friday it named John Barron to the newly created group publisher position and as senior vice president of news and editorial operations. The owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban publications said Friday that Barron also will remain publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and Pioneer Press newspapers. He will report to Sun-Times Media president and chief operating officer Rick Surkamer. The company named Fred Lebolt as senior vice president of news operations. He will be responsible for moving the company onto a single operating platform and focusing on integrating its print and Web operations. Lebolt will report to Barron. Lebolt had been the president and publisher of Sun-Times Media’s suburban news unit. His old post is being split between advertising vice presidents Jerry Alger and Robert Wall. Alger was named publisher of the SouthtownStar, while Wall was named publisher of Sun-Times Media’s west region. Both will keep their advertising posts as well. Alger and Wall will report to Barron and Post-Tribune publisher Lisa Tatina for their publishing roles and to senior vice president of advertising and marketing Barbara Swanson for their advertising duties. More on Newspapers

Read the original post:
John Barron Named Sun-Times Media Group Publisher

When you’re making an animated film, one of the big differences is that you can add scenes, change dialogue and re-write as you’re going along because you only shoot a little bit of the movie each day. Mr. and Mrs. Fox “on set” shooting a scene in the supermarket. So, with Fantastic Mr. Fox , about half-way through the shoot, I had this idea for a scene between the two characters played by Jason Schwartzman and my brother, Eric Anderson. I thought one place to start was with something I grew up with: bunk beds. My initial sketches for how the scene in Ash’s (Jason Schwartzman’s character) bedroom would be shot and acted In this case, Jason Schwartzman’s character does not allow the bunk beds to serve their usual purpose of sleeping two. So, his foreign cousin is forced to sleep underneath the train set. This train set is particularly miniature, because the puppets themselves are only probably about 7 inches high and the train set is very easily the smallest I have ever seen. Throughout the film we all traveled back and forth between France and England a lot. So, we thought it might be fitting that the electric train would actually be something in the vein of a Eurostar. It’s actually labeled ‘High Speed French Train’. One unusual fact is that the model train is actually the same train that we use for most of the full scale shots of the train. I don’t know, but this is probably an unusual alternative in the movies. The bunk beds themselves are based on the Gypsy Caravan after which Dahl named his house, and it’s still there in Great Missenden. Artist Turlo Griffin’s concept artwork for Ash’s bedroom, showing the use of the Gypsy Caravan motif And also on the set, we have the white cape comics which are drawn by our story board artist Christian De Vita, and which are Ash’s (Jason Schwartzman’s character) sole reading material and the inspiration for his wardrobe. Jason and Eric give two of my favorite performances in the film, and this scene more or less encapsulates their entire relationship. I hope you’ll enjoy watching it as much as I did making it.

See original here:
Wes Anderson: Behind The Filming Of One Of My Favorite Fantastic Mr. Fox Performances

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick plans to make a decision on the future of coach Charlie Weis within days of the season’s end. Swarbrick said Thursday that how he made his decision last fall, when he met with Weis three days after the season ended and told him he would be back, would be “fairly representative of the timing” of what he does this year. The Fighting Irish play at home against Connecticut (4-5) on Saturday then play at No. 14 Stanford (7-3) in the regular-season finale on Nov. 28. Notre Dame (6-4) is hoping for a good bowl bid. Swarbrick said the student-athletes are his primary concern because he knows the scrutiny of Weis is difficult for the team. “I understand with everything that’s swirling around it’s tough on them. My interest is being responsive to their needs,” he said. The evaluation of Weis is an ongoing process, he said. “But it gets more intense toward the last quarter of the season, the last third of the season. It’s always happening, but you get a little more organized about it as you approach the end of the season,” he said. Swarbrick said he will take into account more than Weis’ 35-25 record, which is the same winning percentage as his two predecessors. He pointed out that NCAA graduation numbers released Wednesday show Weis is doing a good job. He said Weis is doing well in other areas, saying the football team does well in the classroom, doesn’t have disciplinary issues and Weis does a good job of bringing in the types of student-athletes Notre Dame likes. “Many, many of those other things that are important to our analysis are quite positive,” Swarbrick said. Swarbrick added, though, that the won-loss record is a “very important” part of the equation. “Sports are about winning and losing and none of us shy away from that,” he said. Swarbrick said another factor he takes into consideration is how the student-athletes feel about a coach. A number of Irish players said this week they believe Weis should be allowed to come back for a sixth season. “Coach Weis is, I think, just a great fit for what Notre Dame stands for and what this university is looking for,” quarterback Jimmy Clausen said. “To be honest, a lot of people don’t know who coach Weis is, what he’s all about. He’s a loving, caring guy. He treats all the guys on the team exactly the same as he treats his son Charlie Jr.” Defensive end John Ryan said Weis sets the tone for the team in his work ethic. “He’s a true success story in the way he’s risen all the way up the ranks to what some would say is the pinnacle of the college profession,” he said. “It’s his work ethic. He’s tireless. He doesn’t stop working.” Weis said he won’t spend any time Saturday thinking it could be his last home game as Notre Dame coach. “Not one bit. That would be very selfish for me to do it, to start off with,” he said. “I’d have to be very, very, very selfish for me to be thinking about anyone other than those fourth- and fifth-year players. I promise as far as I could ever tell I don’t think those thoughts would ever enter my mind.” More on College Football

Read the original post:
Notre Dame Plans Charlie Weis Decision Within Days Of Season’s End

News organizations are reporting that Sherry Johnston, the mother of Bristol Palin’s ex-fiancee Levi Johnston, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison plus 3 years probation. Johnston was charged with the intent to sell the prescription painkiller, OxyContin. Johnston pleaded guilty to the drug charges in August. More details here .

Follow this link:
Levi Johnston’s Mom Sentenced To 3 Years In Jail On Drug Charges

The effort to impose new restrictions on the financial system falls short of true reform if there’s a gigantic loophole for foreign exchange derivatives, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said Thursday. “Most people who write about the ‘comprehensive reform’ — they’re missing the point, which is, you’ve got to have derivatives regulation,” she said in an interview with the Huffington Post. And indeed, bills being considered in Congress would bring transparency and accountability to the complex and opaque derivatives contracts that nearly brought down the financial markets last year — by forcing them to be traded through clearing houses or on exchanges. But the bills, based on a proposal put forth by the Obama administration, would exempt foreign exchange derivatives from disclosure requirements. That loophole is now facing opposition in both houses of Congress. As Cantwell explains it: “The whole foreign issue is a scapegoat. The real issue is that if you have a loophole that people can drive their tractor through, drive their volume through, you create a dark market.” This one loophole could be widely exploited, Cantwell argued, and “You can’t have exemptions that are 50-80 percent of the market or it won’t be reform.” Foreign exchange derivatives — private contracts to buy or sell currencies in the future -currently make up about eight percent of the largely opaque derivatives market. U.S. firms with extensive operations overseas like Nike and Apple use them as insurance against currency fluctuations. Virtually the entire market is traded in the shadows by the biggest banks. Wall Street wants to keep it that way. Banks made more than $18 billion off foreign exchange derivatives in 2007 and 2008, according to a report by national bank regulator the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency . By comparison, these same banks lost about $13.7 billion during the same period from all other types of derivatives trades. Supporters of the exemption argue that the system is working fine, and that any attempts to regulate it will simply drive the market overseas into much more opaque places, beyond the reach of meaningful regulation. Cantwell’s response to that concern: “The international community is waiting for the United States to stand up and have transparent markets before they themselves have transparent markets. Se we ought to be the beacon for how it’s done, not sit around and blame foreign countries that might have dark markets.” The two leaders responsible for shepherding derivatives reform legislation through the chamber — Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) — have committed to closing the foreign exchange loophole, the Huffington Post reported earlier this week . In the Senate, the bill introduced by Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) includes the loophole. However, since the Senate Agriculture Committee also has jurisdiction over how derivatives will be regulated (American farmers have been using derivatives for more than 100 years) it’s unclear what will ultimately emerge from the Senate. “This is a long battle,” Cantwell said. “It’s like a porous border. We’ve got to make sure we really are closing those loopholes.” More on Financial Crisis

Continued here:
Senator Says Loophole In Derivatives Regulation Undermines Reform

Follow the latest in Chicago LIVE through our curated Twitter lists: local news, local sports, and local people via tweets. Do you know a tweeter who’s perfect for one of these lists? Email us at twitterlists@huffingtonpost.com !

Excerpt from:
Chicago LIVE on Twitter: Local News, Sports, People

As Obama’s Department of Education touts its charter-school-propelling “Race to the Top,” whose regulations were issued last week, let’s heed the moral of the fable that we all learned in grade school: In the end, the Tortoise beats out the Hare. Alan Gottlieb recently wrote about a plan by the Denver Public Schools to effectively morph charters into standard neighborhood schools, whereby kids in a particular catchment area would be steered to them by default. This is a terribly important move whose outcomes we should carefully observe. Charters typically require students’ parents to enter them into lotteries, from which they might be selected to attend the given school. This creates a huge self-selection bias problem, whereby the students who wind up in charters will be the children of engaged parents, and who will therefore tend to do better than their peers, no matter the school they attend. I wrote about this in the Boston Globe a few months back: Critics of charter schools have long expressed concern that charters tilt toward students with certain advantages over their peers in traditional public schools. To matriculate at a charter school, a child typically needs to be entered into a lottery of all those students seeking admission. This requires having a parent or guardian who is highly involved in a child’s education — enough to know about the possibility of his or her child attending a charter, to conclude that to do so would benefit the child, to apply to enter the lottery and follow its proceedings. Charter parents must also frequently agree to substantial participation in the child’s schooling. Children of parents who play this active role in their education will tend to perform better in school than children of less-involved parents. The effect of such parental involvement has been measured: Controlling for race, gender, and socio-economics, students with involved parents will tend to achieve at about the 75th percentile — well above average. Surely, most parents want their children to excel in school, and beyond, and will work as well as they can toward those ends. But for any of a variety of reasons — health, language barriers, constraints from employment, or, sometimes, lack of concern — some children simply do not have stable adult guidance in their schooling. Parental engagement in education should be strongly encouraged, but having involved parents should never be a prerequisite for a child to gain access to the best opportunities. That would mean many kids – those who are already somewhat disadvantaged — would unfairly miss out. Different jurisdictions have studied this phenomenon to varying degrees, but in Boston, for instance, it’s well-documented: A 2009 study by the pro-charter Boston Foundation made it clear that students entering charter schools entered with higher test scores than their peers. Despite these inherent advantages, and even more disturbing because of them, charters vary wildly in the quality of education that they provide: The pro-charter hype can make it hard to believe, but studies have repeatedly demonstrated that, on average, charter students tend to perform at or below the level of their peers in traditional public schools. (Here’s a recent study out of New York . And there are multiple federal studies , undertaken by the charter-friendly Bush administration, with similar findings.) Cash-strapped states need to be wary of the pro-charter hype, especially as the federal government urges them to reorient their budgets and education policies in order to vie for a paltry one-off shot of $4 billion in stimulus funds — which amounts to less than one percent of annual total public school spending across our nation. (Rhode Island is the only state with no school funding formula, and has the worst reliance on property taxes to fund education. Yet creating a single new 75-student charter became the focus of local education “reformers’” efforts this year, as they scrambled for a piece of that pie.) To improve the quality of public education is an unambiguously laudable goal, and so too are many of the more specific undertakings that Obama is encouraging: “reinvigorating math and science education,” promoting stakeholder collaborations, implementing “statewide longitudinal data systems,” “improving teacher preparation,” and so on. But there’s no quick fix to our education system: While many are indeed of high quality, the current crop of charters has proved no panacea. Where charters outperform traditional public schools, we need to make sure that placements are fairly distributed. Where they perform worse, states must stop turning a blind eye, and reign them in. Pedagogy is quite important, but genuine equity in education will occur only in a generally equitable society: No education reform is comprehensive that does not entail progressive taxation, a stronger labor movement, and environmental and social justice more broadly. More on Parenting

Read the original post:
David Segal: Slow And Steady As We "Race To The Top"

No arts nonprofit is apt to show a rosy balance sheet for the year of the great economic meltdown, unless by rosy one means red ink. LACMA In the case of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which recently posted on its website the audited financial statement for the 2008-09 fiscal year ending June 30, the bad news includes a 23% decline in the value of its cash and investment portfolio, from $254.7 million to $196 million.

Read more:
LACMA Loses 23% Of Its Investments In Meltdown Year

Stem cells could create new skin to help burn victims, BBC News reported. It said that French researchers have duplicated the biological steps that occur during skin formation in embryos. This could potentially provide an unlimited …

Read this article:
Skin grafts from stem cells

Wind power is an excellent weapon for fighting climate change because wind generation produces no carbon emissions at all. When you consider that every unit of energy generated by wind, is a unit of energy free of carbon pollution, wind makes sense. Producing just 10 per cent of electricity from renewables could cut carbon emissions by 2.5 million tonnes a year.

Small wind-electric systems can provide electricity to remote sites, or to houses that are also connected to the utility grid. But the prices! A small turbine can cost $US 2,000! A medium turbine $3,000! A large one can cost $8,500 – and that’s without the rest of the equipment you will need, and installation costs! Although wind systems require some attention, if you build a strong system, following a proven design, wind-electric systems make great economic and environmental sense.

How much FREE electricity will I get? There seems to be a myth that wind power produces little power. Strange, when a 1.8-megawatt turbine produces enough power for 1,000 homes.

More realistically for the DIY wind turbine maker, a small wind turbine, with a rotor diameter of 7 feet (2.1 m), and a swept area of 38.5 square feet (3.6 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 80 KWH! This is enough power for a low-energy home, yacht, or business. A medium sized wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 10 feet (3 m) and a swept area of 79 square feet (7.3 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 130 KWH! This would be suitable for a medium-energy home, business, or school. A large wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 12.5 feet (3.8 m), and a swept area of 120 square feet (11.2 m2), will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 230 KWH! This is for big energy consumers. A huge wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 56 feet (17 m), and a swept area of 2,462 square feet (229 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 5,060 KWH! These power large farms, very high-energy businesses, villages, islands, and massive heating projects.

Smaller turbines can be built for boats, caravans, cabins, or where only a small amount of electricity is needed. But for significant amounts of energy, you need a large enough rotor, as this is the wind turbine?s ‘energy collector’. When sizing a wind-electric system, you don’t add windmills in as you need them, as you can with solar panels. Because wind is more cost effective as you increase in system size, most people put up only one wind turbine, big enough to significantly slash their electric bills, or to fulfill all of their energy requirements for the foreseeable future.

System Components: The turbine is only one component of a wind-electric system, and very often is not even the most expensive component. You need all of the necessary components to have a functional system. Plan ahead to buy quality components properly matched to each other and to your energy use.

A complete wind-electric system includes: ? Turbine?blades + hub = ?rotor,? which is the ?collector? of the system. ? Tower?supports the turbine, getting it up out of the turbulent zone created by trees and buildings, and exposes the turbine to more wind ? Wiring and conduit?carries the electricity down the tower and to power-conditioning equipment ? Controller/Electronics?controls charging of battery or input to inverter ? Batteries?used for storage in off-grid systems or grid-tied systems with battery backup ? Inverter?converts direct current (DC) electricity from batteries or rectifier to alternating current (AC) for home use or ?storage? on the utility grid ? Metering?allows user to understand and manage system operation.Small wind turbine: needs a controller or inverter, and is suitable for battery less grid-tie or 12, 24, 48 VDC battery charging Medium sized: needs a controller or inverter, and is used for charging 12, 24, 48 VDC batteries Large: needs controller, dump load, and inverter. Suitable for battery less grid-tie or charging 48 VDC battery. Huge: suitable for battery less grid-tie

How does a wind turbine actually produce electricity? The rotating blades convert the wind?s kinetic energy into rotation in a shaft. The rotating shaft turns an alternator, which makes electricity. The electricity is transmitted through wiring, down the tower, to batteries, or an inverter. The blades are designed to intercept wind and capture its energy. Most modern wind generators have three blades, to compromise between the highest efficiency possible (one blade) and balance (multiple blades). The blades must turn to face the wind, so a yaw bearing allows the wind turbine to track the winds as they shift direction. A tail directs the rotor into the wind. In small-scale designs, the rotor is connected directly to the shaft of a permanent magnet alternator, which creates Alternating Current. This wild, three-phase electricity means that the voltage and frequency vary continuously with the wind speed. The AC output is used to either charge batteries or feed a grid-synchronous inverter, which turns it to steady, usable Direct Current. In small designs, the rotor is connected to the alternator, eliminating the need for gears. In larger systems, a gearbox is used to increase alternator speed from a slower turning rotor. A governing system limits the rotor rpm and generator output to protect the turbine from high winds. A shutdown mechanism is also useful to stop the machine during an extreme storm, or when you want to service the system. Understanding the Ratings Wind turbine rating is difficult because rated output is pegged to a particular wind speed, and different manufacturers compare different wind speeds to better promote their particular model. To understand the real power of wind, cube its speed. For example, 10 kph of wind, gives 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 watts. Or, a 10% increase in speed gives a 33% increase in power. This means that very small increases in wind speed create huge increases in power. This also means that a turbine that produces 1,000 watts at a wind speed of 28 mph, might produce only 125 watts at a wind speed of 14 mph – so half the wind produces 1/8 of the power. So ignore the rated peak output of a turbine, and look for the monthly (or annual) energy production you require (from your energy audit), estimated for the average wind speed at your site. After all, long-term energy is what you?re after, not peak output! If, for example, you know your home has 10 mph winds, and you need 400 KWH per month, you know what turbine to build. Knowing a turbine?s swept area may also help you calculate the annual energy output for the wind turbine. Jim Green at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) developed a formula: annual energy output (AEO) in KWH = 0.01328 x rotor diameter (ft.) squared x average wind speed (mph) cubed. Easy!

Getting Started: Consider: Is it your aim to slash your bills, or to be completely independent? Are you going to be stand-alone, or will you still be connected to (and adding into/taking from) the grid? If you’re staying connected to the grid, will your local power company pay you for the electricity you generate?

First you need an energy audit of your home. Go to www.njcleanenergy.com for an accurate home energy audit, and great ideas on saving electricity and money. Sit down with your family, work out how many kilowatt-hours you all use, and find out where the waste is. But be realistic, reasonable, and think laterally. Just because you are now horrified at how much electricity your plasma TV uses, doesn’t mean the kids are never allowed to watch it. You may consider a smaller, more efficient TV for weekly use, and save the plasma for the weekend family movie.

Next, work out your location’s average wind speed, at a website like www.awea.org for the USA. When you know how much energy you need, and how much your wind will provide, you will be able to see the size of turbine you will need.

Now that you have a good idea of what you’re after, check out the DIY Wind Power Kits at EarthEnergyPlus.Com These kits have been selected with the DIY novice in mind, and include all the information you will need to build your own electricity-producing windmill! Detailed lists of the tools, parts, and where to get them. Video instructions you can play over and over. Great back-up from dedicated designers! Build your own wind power system this weekend, then sit back and watch your home-built wind generator turn a summer breeze into FREE electricity!

If you haven’t heard; Cell Phone Cash by Mack Michaels is the original and trailblazing affiliate program for making money online with cell phones.FACE ONE: Have you tried multiple systems for making money? If so you may have found that most programs all trail back to the same concept. You know, join clickbank or some other affiliate network, and start shelling out money for PPC until your bank account dies of exhaustion.Cell Phone Cash offers you a whole new concept. Instead of fighting with thousands and thousands of affiliate marketers for rank and keywords, you can tap into a wide open playing field using cell phones.Grab a hold of the 4.3 Billion people cell phone market and reap monster benefits by being one of the first to do so.Mack Michaels takes you step-by-step through a proven process for monetizing the most common piece of technology used today… the cell phone.The Cell Phone Cash video coaching course teaches how to pinpoint your target market, find the best product, present the product persuasively, and repeat the process until you shatter your wallet with cash.FACE TWO: The lesson that cell phone cash teaches is in and of itself priceless, but there is another story.Once you’ve signed up with Cell Phone Cash to learn the complete concept you also have the opportunity to sell the product and earn money.I’m excited about that because within the first 12hrs of membership I sold 3 copies of the product itself. This basically shows me that the demand for something new and fresh in the affiliate marketing arena is astronomical.When I first heard of Cell Phone Cash I did a search on Google and found not one site talking about the product. After waiting just 1 day and performing the same search, I found hundreds, if not, thousands of posts about this amazing product. And this is still just the tip of the iceberg. As more people learn about cellphonecash their curiousity will create more and more sales.Don’t you want to be apart of that? Of course you do. But before you can sell others on the benefits of Cell Phone Cash you must first get your copy.

One of the benefits of the Cell Phone Cash affiliate marketing program is it teaches you how to make money marketing affiliate programs with cell phones.Mack Michaels shares with you sources where you can find products to sell to cell phone users. One of these sources is Clickbank, one of the largest affiliate networks available online. Clickbank is a great source to find unique and proven products. And I’m sure with good testing you can be very successful at converting the products to sales and make a killing with cell phones.However, another type of product that you might be interested in trying with the Cell Phone Cash System is called a CPA (Cost Per Action) product.A Cost Per Action product is an offer by an advertiser that allows the publisher to earn money based on a specific action performed by the customer. For instance; some CPA offers will pay you the publisher for sending someone to their website and submitting their name and email. Or they might pay you for sending a visitor to their website who watches a short ad. And better yet some advertisers offer cell phone submit affiliate programs. Programs were the visitor needs only to submit their cell number for you to get paid.The pay for a CPA offer can be anywhere from $.25 to $25+ all based on the advertiser offering the product.I’m sure by now you can see the benefits of offering a CPA Product with Cell Phone Cash compared to offering a Clickbank product. CPA offers will pay you even if the visitor you sent doesn’t actually buy a product. You get paid for supplying a qualified lead and not a buyer.Cell phone submit affiliate programs seem to me to be the most compatible product for cell phones because it requires little activity and commitment for the cell phone user. I mean how easy is it to just enter your cell phone number instead of having to suffer through an entire order process of supplying a name, address, phone number, payment method, etc…Currently not many affiliate networks Cell phone submit affiliate programs, but I have found two great, reputable networks that do. They are absolutely free to join and you can use them with the Cell Phone Cash System to start making money. Feel free to visit my blog on Cell Phone Cash for more information.

HOUSE ENERGY CORRECTION, HOROSCOPES, KARMA & CRYSTAL ENERGY FIELDS : PART I

House Energy Correction is the concept of controlling the 8 Directional Energies; 7 Chakras and 7 Energy Bodies of the People; Boosting and Balancing the 5 Elements of the Lands & Buildings. Simply stated, it is the Total Energy Rectification of Horoscopes of the Family Members and Business Partners; Vaastu and Fengshui Energy Correction for their Lands & Buildings. Read the revealing FAQs about unique Crystal Energy Fields based on the Ancient Siddha Programming Techniques for Karma Correction. This is the first of a series of 3 parts of FAQs.

Question 1 : What exactly is “Energy Correction” ?

Human beings, like all objects, receive different levels of energies from the 8 different directions. When all the 8 directional energies are positive enough, they get positive results. When the energy levels dip below a limit, they suffer. For example, if a person receives high positive energy from his North, he will be financially well off. But if he also receives negative energy from his South East, he will never be able to enjoy it. The blue print of the energy levels of a person at his birth time is what you could call as his Birth Horoscope.

These 8 energy streams control the 7 Chakras and 7 Energy Bodies of the person, which in turn control every thing else in his life. The quality (positive or negative) of the energy and the quantum (percentage) of the energy that a person receives is his Karma or Destiny. The concept of correcting the 8 Directional Energies and tuning the 7 Chakras & Energy Bodies of a person so that he stays within a 100% positive energy belt all his life-time is called Personal Energy Correction.

Question 2 : Can you explain more about these Energy Beams from the 8 Directions ?

Energy (or Prana or Chi) is pure and on it’s own, is always balanced positive. It is the basic power brick on which the Cosmos is built upon. However, depending upon the Karma of the Person, Land and Building, it/he receives energy either as positive or negative. Then the percentage of the positive or negative energy that it/he receives culminates in positive or negative events of it’s/his life. Unlike Land and Building, the Person moves. Where the Person moves, his Karma follows. So do the Energy Beams that he receives from the 8 Directions. It does not matter what direction he is moving or facing, it does not matter whether he is in India or America, he keeps receiving the same Energy Beams with the same Quality (Positive or Negative) and Quantity (Percentage), until the change is destined or brought about.

Question 3 : You spoke of Horoscope & Karma. Are you saying that both can be rectified ?

Yes ofcourse. All the Planetary Energies are received by a person through the 8 Directional Energies only. By filtering or/and transforming them, you pacify the planets, remove the effects of problems like female curses, planetary & pithru doshas, etc. In other words, you rectify the Birth Horoscope itself. In fact, there is a more sophisticated process with which I undertake Karma Correction itself. This process minimises the bad karma to such an extent that one simply doesn’t feel it’s impact at all.

Question 4 : So then what is “House Energy Correction” ?

House Energy Correction is a two fold process. In the first fold, Personal Energy Correction (including Horoscope Rectification) for all the residing family members is done. In the second fold, the Five Elements of the Land and the House are fully balanced. In other words, the Karma of the Lands, Home and the People living there are integrated, cleansed, tuned and balanced. That is called House Energy Correction.

Sub-Question : What are the controlling Five Elements of Nature ?

The controlling Five Elements of Nature are also known as the Pancha Pranas or the Pancha Bhoodhas : Earth (Bhoomi), Water (Jala), Fire (Agni), Air (Metal, Vaayu), and Ether (Wood, Sky, Spirit, Space, Aakash).

Question 5 : Once corrected, how long do these positive effects last ?

In my process, once corrected, the energies stay corrected. That is because I use Crystals as my Energy Tools. Unlike any other remedies, Crystals last for hundreds of years. Plus the Crystal Programming Techniques that I use are extremely powerful, time-tested and bestowed by the Ancient Ones or the Sacred Siddhas. That is why I say the positive effects will atleast last for 3 generations. The Energy Corrections that I undertake are done through custom built Crystal Energy Fields. To know more information about these, visit : http://www.crystal-vaastu.com/home.htm

Question 6 : Can you eloborate more on these Crystal Energy Fields ?

The Crystal Energy Fields are created by numerous Crystals arranged in a special formation, after being programmed and energised for executing specific tasks for specified people. The quality, colour, nature and shape of the Crystals needed for House Energy Correction depends on the Karma of the Family. Some of the crystal energy shapes that I use for Energy Correction are Maha Meru, Stupa, Vajra, Viswa Vajra, Rahu or Vajra Phurba, etc. I also use exclusive crystal shapes like Maha Meru with Viswa Vajra, Ashta Vajra Stupa and Ashta Vajra Maha Sakthi Chakra.

Question 7 : How do you determine the type and number of Crystals that are needed for a particular family or business ?

By Clairvoyance or Sookshma Drishti, I scan the energy levels of the People, Lands & the Buildings. Without it you cannot practice Energy Correction. I also use certain Divining Tools like Tarot Decks, Runes & I-Ching Coins, if and when needed.

Question 8 : Are there many models of Crystal Energy Fields ?

Yes, there are very many models. Some are very sophisticated and more powerful than others. Some are for specific tasks like bringing together estranged couple, concieving a child or solving psychic problems or breaking black magic. Some of them are dedicated for Business Energy Correction. There are certain models for only handling factory related problems like production and labour problems, litigations, etc. I also build exclusive CEFs for the NewAge Kabbalah Numerology which I practice. The kabbalistic numeric vibrations of the tuned name are transmitted 24/7 through CEF, to achieve and retain results. To read more about these Advanced Concepts of NewAge Kabbalah Numerology, browse : http://www.newage-kabbalah-numerology.com.

The FAQs will be continued in Part II.

This is copyrighted work. Permission is granted to republish (both in electronic media as well as print media) the article in it’s entirety only, including the full bio of the author and his links. All links should be “clickable” hyperlinks. An acknowledgement mail from Republishers will be appreciated.

Hot Niche For The Holidays! Play Home-Brew And Backup Wii Games. Works With All Wii Operating Systems (including 4.2) We Keep Our Files Updated With Every System Update, For Less Refunds. Plus Much More Fun Than Forex, Or Reverse Phone Detective!

BreWii – Wii Home Brew Made Easy! Play HomeBrew And Backup Wii Games!

Tonight, Xobni is selectively allowing users to download a new version of its client with a number of UI enhancements. This launch coincides with Xobni’s new Salesforce extension. This is notable because it marks the launch of premium extensions for the first time, that give the company a new potential revenue stream. Here are a few of the bigger UI changes: As you can see in the screenshot, there’s a new set of horizontal tabs to better filter content. Xobni is also now surfacing links exchanged between contacts for the first time previously, there was just a way to do this for files exchanged. Also new, the Twitter extension element now includes a direct message (DM) option. LinkedIn support has been improved, as has some of the analytics. There are a half dozen or so other enhancements to the client such as extensions now being resizable, and better drag and drop support. There’s also finally a way for users to easily open a folder that emails reside in. Basically, if you’re addicted to Xobni, there’s a lot of little tweaks (and some bigger ones) to try out. But again, the big news is that Xobni is opening premium extensions to users and not just business users, all Xobni users. If Xobni is able to effectively convince users to buy these (as well as get more beyond just Salesforce), it could be a decent new revenue stream for the company. Back in July, the company introduced ‘Xobni Plus’ , the premium version of their product. Revenue streams can be addicting when turned on, it seems. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

The rest is here:
Xobni Updates Its UI, Gains Monetizable Extensions

BEIJING — President Barack Obama says that China’s partnership has helped the United States pull out of the worst recession in a generation. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao appeared together and spoke to reporters after a pair of meetings on Tuesday. Obama says a revised economic approach will help increase U.S. exports and create jobs while helping bring about higher living standards in China. Obama says his government is committed to a strategy of spending less and saving more. The United States’ budget deficit is soaring to a yearly record of $1.42 trillion and China is the No. 1 lender to Washington. Beijing has expressed concern that the falling price of the dollar threatens the value of its U.S. holdings. More statements from President Obama: Iran, North Korea, And Nuclear proliferation: President Barack Obama says there will be consequences if Tehran does not demonstrate Iran’s nuclear program is “peaceful and transparent.” Obama says he and Hu also discussed their shared goal to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and the verifiable elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He says Pyongyang has a choice between engagement and isolation. Obama says North Korea’s people would benefit from Pyongyang complying with international demands over its nuclear program. WATCH: < More on China

See the article here:
Obama, Hu Jintao Press Conference Held In China (VIDEO): Leaders Talk Economy, Iran, North Korea, Tibet, And Taiwan

It’s almost impossible to translate Lil Wayne’s lyrics into the written word. With nearly every syllable on every one of his nearly 1000 songs of this past decade, Weezy is surly and snarly, croaking and crawling, urgent and erstwhile. But there are no accent marks for ” Someone should’ve warned you/R-E-L-A-X like fuckin’ California/Or get cornered, or get tortured, or get slaughtered/In that order .” The words out of Wayne’s mouth somehow sound like an artist beyond his time, even if the words on a page are about as non-sensical as they come. In the thrillingly intimate documentary, “Tha Carter” (DVD in stores today), director Adam Bhala Lough however finds a way to make Lil Wayne’s lyrics translate into actual words. By subtitling entire mixtape verses–DJ drops sometimes included–the New Orleans lyricist is put on a pedestal that was once reserved only for Bob Dylan and John Lennon. And why not? Lil Wayne was one of the three most important rappers of the ’00s, a decade where hip-hop inherited and then maintained its place atop the music world. It’s a lofty declaration, but the Quincy “QD3″ Jones III-produced film has the artistic and integrity-filled chops to make the premise a compelling one. Whether Wayne’s lyricism is spelled out over grainy black and white photographs from live performances or in a quiet hotel room like the video below, “The Carter” keeps the focus on the music and away from the scandals and constantly retold…kind of. The “kind of” comes about because of the honest way in which Wayne’s surreally serious addictions–drugs, recording and himself–are shown in the film, and in turn will be the easiest to sensationalize. (No doubt, the very reason why Lil Wayne pulled his support from the project at the last minute.) Lough’s camera is given an unparalleled pass into Wayne’s guarded world, one that the many journalists shown interviewing him can only hope to glimpse in 15 minutes slots. But Lough, and certainly with the aid of DVD-Mixtape luminary QD3’s co-sign, gets weeks with Wayne in at least a dozen locations. The camera gets a guided tour through backstage worlds, tour bus sleeping quarters, endless press junkets, and sleepy-eyed viewings of “Sports Center.” Even more impressive, is the tour through Wayne’s omnipresent Louis Vuitton bag, whose contents include a six inch stack of cash, a container of liquid codeine cleverly camouflaged in a grape Vitamin Water bottle, and a coffee-table book praising the form of the naked female body. It’s the most physical example of the trust Lil Wayne bestowed upon the process, but perhaps not the most telling. That example isn’t even allowing his daughter to be interviewed–and her rap about “stuntin like her daddy” may be one of the film’s most precious moments–but it’s the access to the New Orleans rapper’s recording process. While it’s not discussed at any length in “The Carter,” it’s hard not to think about Wayne’s impending prison sentence when watching the film. The only time that Lil Wayne doesn’t seem to be recording in his travel studio–which literally goes everywhere he goes–is when he’s in a proper studio. He sets it up in hotel rooms and on the tour bus and puts in hours and hours every single night. It’s what the man does. And while he has an affinity for the liquid codeine charmingly known as “syrup,” it’s easy to imagine that he’ll be okay without it when he serves his time. And a little infliction of the real world might help tame his ghastly addiction to self…but this man is going to go insane without a studio. His passion for the process borders on a physical addiction and he says in the film that he has to record so often just to release the pressure in his head from all the rhymes building up throughout the day. While the quotables and memorable scenes in “The Carter” are endless–from grouchily ending an interview after only 90 seconds to Cortez Bryant’s tears recounting the story that got the embittered manager kicked off the tour bus–it’s Lil Wayne’s commitment to his art that truly resonates. And that “The Carter” found a way to translate that beyond the headphones makes it one of the top-five greatest hip-hop documentaries of all-time.

Originally posted here:
Brandon Perkins: New Lil Wayne Documentary: One of Hip-Hop’s Best