2011年12月30日星期五

H5N1 bird flu virus is extremely deadly

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns researchers about the risks involved in bird flu virus research, especially the moncler jackets pathogenic strain called H5N1. The H5N1 strain has been identified as easily transmissable, posing potentially negative consequences to humans, such as lethal human pandemics.

Currently, there are centers that conduct H5N1 strain research, including The Netherlands and the United States. H5N1 bird flu virus is extremely deadly. People who have direct contact with infected birds are at high risk for transmission.

In 1997, the virus was first detected, when about 600 people had contracted the virus, resulting in over half of the victims dying. Since then, researchers have been working to identify which mutation(s) enable the H5N1 virus to easily spread from person to person and to maintain its pathogenicity.

Since then, in 2003, the bird flu virus infected 573 people and killed 336 people. And most recently, a 39-year-old man in Hong Kong was suspected of contracting the virus in December.Moncler jackets, cheap moncler vest, moncler boots 2011 outlet. Since then, other countries have announced bird flu alerts.

H5N1 virus is a serious issue and the results from its research poses potential threats to global health, especially if a specific mutation is identified to increase pathogenicity. Thus, the U.S. security advisers are concerned about publishing the details of the research being performed in these research centers because the information could potentially be used to create bioterror weapons for other countries or groups. As a result, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has urged research journals to redact versions of experiments, spurring mixed opinions.Cheap moncler scarves caps, 2011 moncler accessories for sale.

Typically, developed countries conduct the scientific research for complex flu viruses, including H5N1 virus, which more commonly affect developing countries.

2011年12月29日星期四

Dawkins watched Thursday’s practice from the sideline

The New England Patriots quarterback had missed Wednesday’s session, but the team said his absence was not injury-related.

Brady was listed on Thursday’s moncler jackets report as having participated on a limited basis with the shoulder injury. He was one of 17 Patriots listed as participating on a limited basis, meaning a player took part in fewer than 100 percent of his normal repetitions.

He was injured during the fourth quarter of New England’s win over Miami last Saturday.

Against Buffalo on Sunday, Brady has a chance for the fourth 5,000-yard passing season, needing just 103. Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints set the NFL record of 5,087 Monday night, three more than the mark set by Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins in 1984.

The Patriots (12-3) have clinched a first-round bye and can lock up home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with a win or tie.

Steelers’ Roethlisberger intends to play in finale

PITTSBURGH — Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t want his sprained left ankle to keep him out of Pittsburgh’s regular-season finale Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.

Roethlisberger, who sat out the Steelers’ moncler outlet 2011 win last Sunday against the St. Louis Rams, fully participated in practice again Thursday. He said the ankle, sprained Dec. 8 in Pittsburgh’s last meeting with the Browns, was “a little sore.”

Neck again keeps Broncos‘ Dawkins out of practice

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Denver Broncos safety Brian Dawkins missed practice again because of a neck injury that has left him questionable for Denver’s pivotal regular-season finale against Kansas City.

Dawkins watched Thursday’s practice from the sideline. The 16-year veteran has been sidelined for all but one quarter in the past two weeks, when the Broncos gave up 40 and 41 points in losses to Buffalo and New England.

Around the league

• SAINTS: New Orleans running back Pierre Thomas has been fined $12,500 for a uniform violation and a touchdown celebration in which he placed a bow on a football and gave it to a fan. Cheap moncler women vest for sale, buy 2011 new style women moncler vest.The fine for the celebration is $7,500. Thomas also violated NFL policies by wearing Christmas-themed green and red tape on his black and gold Saints uniform, costing him $5,000 more.

2011年12月28日星期三

No return volley from Pilar's camp

The "Two and a Half Men" star, 33, spent the holidays in Italy with writer-director Lorene Scafaria, who bears a moncler jackets striking resemblance to Kutcher's soon-to-be-ex Moore.

"Roman holiday with homies," Kutcher tweeted along with a photo of him, Scafaria and Kutcher's business partner Matt Mazzant.

Kutcher and Moore officially split about a month ago.

Scafaria wrote "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" and is the writer-director of the upcoming comedy "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World," starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightly.

ANOTHER QUICK NEW ROMANCE: It didn't take Debra Messing long to find new love, either.

The actress, 43, split from producer husband Daniel Zelman earlier this year and now has fallen for co-star Will Chase, 41.

"Debra and Will have been together for about six weeks," a source tells Us Weekly. "She is completely smitten with him."

Messing and Chase star in the NBC musical drama "Smash." Chase reportedly has left his wife, stage actress Stephanie Gibson. But Us Weekly says Chase was not the reason behind Messing and Zelman's separation.

TYLER GETTING HITCHED, REPORT SAYS: Is Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler ready to take the plunge for the third time?

A photo of Tyler's girlfriend, Erin Brady, flashing a diamond ring on her left ring finger has Internet reports buzzing. The couple stopped
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for photos with fans while returning from a Christmas trip to Maui. A large diamond solitaire ring on Brady's finger was visible in the shot posted on www.splashnews.com.

TMZ was quick to pounce on the news, too, reporting that the engagement went over like boiled cabbage with several members of Tyler's family. It seems Brady, 38, hasn't played nice with some of her future relations, according to the report. It doesn't help that Tyler, 63, apparently popped the question without cluing in kin first.

Tyler and Brady have dated for five years. His previous marriages were to fashion designer Teresa Barrick and ex-Warhol model Cyrinda Foxe.

No official word yet from Tyler's public relations camp.

SURPRISE! KATY PERRY, HUBBY FIGHTING AGAIN: Could the end of 2011 also be the end for Katy Perry and Russell Brand?

An insider tells Us Weekly that the singer, 27, and her comedian husband, 36, had a "massive fight" that scuttled their Christmas plans and led to their spending the holiday apart.

Initially, Perry was said to be planning a family getaway in Brand's London hometown. Instead, she flew to Hawaii with friends. Brand, meanwhile, hit a Cornwall pub with friends.

The couple wed in October 2010 after a brief courtship. They dodged divorce rumors last month, but it's a sure bet now that the gossip won't die down anytime soon.

"The split may come soon," the source tells Us Weekly, "but they are both so dramatic and volatile, the relationship could become great again."

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SANDERS' DAUGHTER TORCHES SOON-TO-BE-EX STEPMOM: Deiondra Sanders apologized to her former football star father for her impending actions, then used her Twitter account to roast her soon-to-be-ex stepmom.

Deiondra, 19, called Pilar Sanders a liar and a "gold digging h*e" on Wednesday, a day after TMZ reported that Deion Sanders and his wife were divorcing. Deiondra also implied that Pilar cheated on her husband behind his back.

No return volley from Pilar's camp -- yet.

AFFAIR, MARRIAGE, BABY ... TIGER WOODS' EX MISTRESS HAS BEEN BUSY: The former mistress who helped bring down Tiger Woods' marriage is five months pregnant.

Rachel Uchitel posted pictures on Twitter of her and husband Matt Hahn "checking out my baby bump at 5 months." Uchitel and Hahn married in Las Vegas in October, shortly after the couple moved from New York to San Francisco.

It hasn't taken Uchitel long to try cashing in on her bundle of joy either. Her online baby registry includes everything from a $1,000-plus stroller and $500 highchair to a $200 baby lounger and $45 diaper pail. And considering most of the clothes and accessories are in pink, looks like the couple is expecting a bouncing baby girl.

Uchitel, 36, is better known for being the first mistress to expose Woods' infidelity in 2009, which led the golfer to take a break from competition and eventually ended his marriage to Elin Nordegren in August 2010. She appeared on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" in search of help for her "love addiction."

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2011. There are two days left in the year.

1170: Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was slain in Canterbury Cathedral by knights loyal to King Henry II.

1808: the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, was born in Raleigh, N.C.

1845: Texas was admitted as the 28th state.

1851: the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in the United States was founded in Boston.

1890: the Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as an estimated 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

1911: Sun Yat-sen was elected provisional president of the Republic of China, which officially came into existence three days later on Jan. 1, 1912.

1916: Grigory Rasputin, the so-called "Mad Monk" who'd wielded great influence with Czar Nicholas II, was killed by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg.

1934: Japan formally renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.

1940: during World War II, Germany dropped incendiary bombs on London, setting off what came to be known as "The Second Great Fire of London."

1975: a bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people.

1986: former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan died at his home south of London at age 92.

2001: A fire sparked by a fireworks explosion in downtown Lima, Peru, killed at least 290 people.Moncler jackets for women, cheap moncler women down jackets on sale.

2006: Word reached the United States of the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (because of the time difference, it was the morning of Dec. 30 in Iraq when the hanging took place). In a statement, President George W. Bush called Saddam's execution a milestone on Iraq's road to democracy. Gerald R. Ford's flag-draped casket was carried into a church in Palm Desert, Calif., for a public viewing that marked the start of six days of mourning for the former president. More than 400 people died when a crowded Indonesian ferry sank in the Java Sea.

2011年12月27日星期二

Blatche basically told people to get over it

The Wizards blew a 21-point lead and lost 90-84 at home vs. the Nets, then got a rant from team captain Andray Blatche that moncler jackets he was displeased with the play-calling and he should be getting the ball down low more than out on the wings. He repeated the complain on Twitter.

Tuesday on Twitter, Blatche basically told people to get over it and and he wasn't calling out coach Flip Saunders.

"Every body need to shut up I didn't call out my coach or team mates I said I had a bad game need it n the post instead of jump shots," Blatche tweeted.

Perhaps Saunders didn't get that message. Tuesday, he said Blatche isn't a captain for the season, that he plans to rotate captains for the time being. Saunders also said he was disappointed in Blatche's comments and met with the 25-year-old.

"We talked about what he said about as far as wanting to be in the post," Saunders said. "And I told him, that's something to my ears. I love hearing that. … But then he also has to understand that just because you get it at 17 feet, you don't have to shoot it, either. I'm not twisting his arm to do that."

On the other side of the court Monday, Nets forward Kris Humphries was jeered when introduced and every time he touched the ball. The Nets open at home later Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks.

Humphries, coming off his best season as a pro with averages of 10.0 points and 10.4 rebounds, is going through a divorce from Kim Kardashian after a short-lived relationship and wedding that was chronicled on the Kardashian family's weekly reality show.

Humphries laughed off the jeers during the game and finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds to help the Nets erase a 21-point deficit.

"To me, it's motivation. People are yelling at you — you've got to perform, you've got to play hard. They might want to have a reason to say something. You want to try and give them that reason," Humphries said. "For me, it just makes it a little hostile environment — and it's kind of fun to play in that environment."

Nets coach Avery Johnson was puzzled.

"I'm trying to figure out: What did he do? I'm serious. It may be because I don't follow reality TV — I don't know all www.monclerjackets2011outlet.com the ins and outs of it. It's pretty hilarious to me," Johnson said. "I don't even know if THEY know why they're booing."

Gooden suspended: The NBA suspended Milwaukee Bucks forward Drew Gooden one game without pay for his Flagrant Foul Two against Charlotte Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson. Gooden was deemed to have made excessive contact to Henderson's head on a play with 27.3 seconds left in the third quarter of the Bucks' 96-95 loss Monday. Gooden will serve his suspension Tuesday night when the Bucks host the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Trivia: According to the Nets, they are the first in NBA history to have four players with the same last name on a regular-season roster — Guard Deron and forwards Shelden, Jordan and Shawne.

•Who has the youngest rosters in the league? Golden State Warriors (24.4), Sacramento Kings (24.5), Timberwolves (24.7), Houston Rockets (24.9) and Wizards (25.1).

•Through Monday, of the 15 teams that had opening night at home, there were 11 sellouts or near sellouts. The Wizards, Bobcats, Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers did not have sellouts.

Rookie updates: How did some of the prominent rookies do in their first outings?

•Guard Kyrie Irving went 2-of-12 and had six points, seven rebounds and three assists in the Cavaliers' 104-96 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

"It's just one game," Irving said. "It's a learning process. I didn't shoot the ball particularly well."

•Forward Derrick Williams shot 6-of-14 and had 13 points and six rebounds in the Timberwolves' 104-100 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

•Guard Ricky Rubio shot 2-of-3 and had six points, six assists and five rebounds and created a buzz for the Timberwolves.

"He's really good in the open court. Our guys have to get up and down the floor with him. They can't jog out there," coach Rick Adelman said.

•Guard Kemba Walker went 3-of-10 and had 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists in the Bobcats' 96-95 victory vs. the Bucks.

"Even in the preseason I've really been struggling with my shot," Walker said. "I'm getting the shot that I love — the midrange shot — and it's just not falling right now."

•Guard Jimmer Fredette went 3-of-8 and had six points and three assists in the Kings' 100-91 victory vs. the Los Angeles Lakers.Moncler shoes for men, cheap moncler men shoes 2011 sale, free shipping.

Fredette entered to a loud ovation midway through the first quarter, then committed a double dribble the first time he touched the ball.

2011年12月26日星期一

Teen smokers are receptive to messages about staining their teeth

The National Cancer Institute is rolling out a new quitting program aimed at teens. It now includes a website (teen.smokefree.gov) moncler jackets and texting support, and in January it will add a smartphone application, says Erik Auguston, a behavioral scientist at the institute.

The program joins others with the same aim: Helping teen smokers quit before they become chronic adult smokers. It comes on the heels of new data showing teen smoking rates are dropping again after stagnating for a while.

But it's hardly good news that 19% of teens smoke by 12th grade, says Lloyd Johnston, a researcher at the University of Michigan who leads an annual study tracking teen smoking, drinking and drug use. Previous research suggests most of those teens will keep smoking and some light smokers will become heavy smokers, he says.

"From a health viewpoint, (tobacco) is probably the most important of all the drugs," Johnston says. "There's no other product, legal or illegal, that kills as many people."

But teens are not very receptive to messages about diseases they won't develop for decades or to programs aimed at adults, Auguston says: "Traditionally, teens and young adults have not actively engaged in quitting smoking. Moncler bags outlet, buy cheap moncler 2011 new bags.They are more in the uptake process." And when they do try to quit, Auguston says, they often go it alone and fail.

The Smokefree Teen program relies upon:

•Messages that emphasize teens are in charge. One slogan on the site about teens and their health decisions: "We're NOT going to tell you what to do."

•Materials that focus on teen-specific triggers. Those include mood, social life, test anxiety and peer pressure.

•Technologies teens use. Teens who want to quit can text QUIT to iQUIT (47848) to start getting helpful messages or go to the website to connect with counselors via instant messaging or phone. They also can join support networks on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The program "is a gigantic step in the right direction," says Alexander Prokhorov, a behavioral scientist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who has develped anti-smoking programs for teens.

Teen smokers are receptive to messages about staining their teeth, smelling bad, wasting money, harming the environment — cheap moncler men vest medleys shiny puffy black and even the fact that their smoke can hurt their siblings and pets, he says. That kind of information, he says, is "eye-popping to many of them."

2011年12月25日星期日

Representatives for R.J. Reynolds declined to comment

The 24 attorneys general filed a friend of the court brief on Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington in support moncler jackets of the Food and Drug Administration's challenge of a lower court ruling in the case.

Last month, a U.S. District Court judge granted a request by some of the nation's largest tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., to block the labels while deciding whether the labels violate their free speech rights. The judge ruled it is likely the cigarette makers would succeed in a lawsuit to block the requirement that the labels be placed on cigarette packs next year.

Representatives for R.J. Reynolds declined to comment. Officials with Lorillard did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.

The tobacco companies have questioned the constitutionality of the labels, saying the warnings don't simply convey facts to inform people's decision whether to smoke but instead force the cigarette makers to display government anti-smoking advocacy more prominently than their own branding. They also say that changing cigarette packaging will cost millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the FDA has said that the public interest in conveying the dangers of smoking outweighs the companies' free speech rights.

In the filing Friday, the attorneys general said that the First Amendment does not prevent the government from requiring that "lethal and addictive products carry warning labels that effectively inform consumers of the risks those products entail."

"Over forty years' experience with small, obscurely placed text-only warning labels on cigarette packs has demonstrated that they simply do not work," they wrote. "The warning labels reflect the unique magnitude of the problem they address, the deadly and addictive nature of the product, and the unparalleled threat this product and its marketing pose to America's youth."

The brief was filed by attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Washington and West Virginia.

In June, the FDA approved nine new warning labels that companies are to print on the entire top half of cigarette packs, front and back.Moncler jackets for women, cheap moncler women down jackets on sale. The new warnings, each of which includes a number for a stop-smoking hotline, must constitute 20 percent of cigarette advertising, and marketers are to rotate use of the images.

One label depicts a corpse with its chest sewn up and the words "Smoking can kill you." Another shows a healthy pair of lungs beside a yellow and black pair with a warning that smoking causes fatal lung disease.

Joining North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard in the lawsuit are Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Inc.

Richmond-based Altria Group Inc., parent company of the nation's largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, which makes top-selling Marlboros, is not a part of the lawsuit.

The free speech lawsuit is separate from a lawsuit by several of the same companies over the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. That law, which took effect two years ago, cleared the way for the more graphic warning labels. But it also allowed the FDA to limit nicotine and banned tobacco companies from sponsoring athletic or social events or giving away free samples or branded merchandise.

A federal judge upheld many parts of the law, but the case is now pending before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

While the tobacco industry's latest legal challenge may not hold up, it could delay the new warning moncler 2011 winter special offer for men big promotion labels for years. And that is likely to save cigarette makers millions of dollars in lost sales and increased packaging costs.

2011年12月23日星期五

Michael acknowledged the gravity of his illness

The 48-year-old star, who has returned to London following a month-long stay in a Vienna hospital, said he was "very weak" but added he feels "amazing".

In a press moncler jackets conference outside his home, an emotional Michael said he still has "plenty to live for".

He was forced to shelve the remaining 14 dates of his tour after falling ill.

Michael acknowledged the gravity of his illness, explaining that the General Hospital (AKH) in Vienna was "the best place in the world I could have been".

"They spent three weeks keeping me alive, basically... I'm incredibly fortunate to be here.

"Somebody here still thinks I've got some work to do," added the star.

The musician apologised to his fans for Men - moncler jackets not contacting them, saying "I was really not in a state to".

He added that the "plan is to play to every person who had a ticket" for his shelved gigs.

Michael also said he wanted to play another show for the Austrian medical staff who "saved my life".

Michael was advised by doctors to take a "full and complete rest" after contracting a severe form of pneumonia last month.

He had performed 45 dates in his concert schedule before being forced to cancel the performance in Vienna.

The shelved dates have yet to be rescheduled.

In October, the musician pulled out of a gig at London's Royal Albert Hall, suffering with a viral infection.

After he was admitted to hospital in Vienna, Michael's publicists said that he was "responding to treatment and slowly improving".

They added in a cheap moncler jackets statement: "George Michael is ill with pneumonia and any other speculation regarding his illness is unfounded and untrue."

2011年12月22日星期四

After the paved road turned into a dirt road

Authorities are still not clear about why 23-year-old Lauren Weinberg drove to the desolate mountain area of Arizona during moncler jackets finals week at Arizona State University before she was rescued Wednesday.

She was less than a mile from a ranch and in an area that had cell phone service. She told authorities her phone wasn't working, and her car could not be seen from the ranch, where workers plowed through 10 inches of snow to get her out.

Authorities and the U.S. Forest Service workers who found Weinberg said they had no reason to doubt her story of survival amid 2 feet of snow and temperatures that plunged to near zero. One of the people who rescued her said he could see floor mats draped over Weinberg's legs while she sat in her car, which still had gas.

"You can say survival skills or a miracle, either way," Phoenix police Officer James Holmes, whose agency was investigating her disappearance. "But the good thing is she's home and safe."

It was one of two snow rescues in the Southwest on Wednesday. A Texas family found themselves struggling to breathe after nearly two days in their SUV after it was buried under 4 feet of snow and ice on a rural New Mexico highway.

Two Forest Service employees on snowmobiles found Weinberg about 45 miles southeast of Winslow while checking gates on forest roads. One of them had checked the same gate the morning of Dec. 12 — the day Weinberg said she became stranded and a day after she was last seen at her mother's home in Phoenix — but didn't spot anything.

Weinberg had the two candy bars with her and later told a deputy that she put snow in a water bottle and placed it atop the sedan to melt it for drinking water.

She had been driving with no specific destination, traveling south from Winslow toward the Mogollon Rim — a prominent line of cliffs that divides the state's high country from the desert, Coconino County sheriff's spokesman Gerry Blair said. The area is frequented mostly by firewood gatherers, hunters and local ranchers.

After the paved road turned into a dirt road, Weinberg stopped at a fence line to move a gate and her vehicle got stuck in the snow, Blair said.

Forest Service worker Bob McDonald said he called out to see if anyone was around the vehicle, and Weinberg opened the back door, looking surprised and relieved.

Gary Strickland, who was trailing McDonald on a second snowmobile, gave Weinberg his fleece jacket and she consumed a packaged lunch, bag of chips and water they had given her. Weinberg used Strickland's cell phone to call family, picking up on a signal from the cell phone tower on the private ranch about a half-mile up the road.

"I could not even begin to predict how she could (survive), but I have no reason not to believe her story," said McDonald. "As a moncler vest for men parent myself, missing a child for nine days and not knowing where they are, it was extremely fortunate."

Other than being cold, hungry and thirsty, she was in good condition, lucid and speaking coherently, Blair said.

Holmes said the family wants to enjoy Weinberg's return and was not immediately interested in speaking with reporters. Police said Weinberg missed her final exams while she was stranded. After she was reported missing, they managed to track her through purchases at convenience stores before the trail went cold.

"I am so thankful to be alive and warm," Weinberg said in a statement late Wednesday. "Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, because they worked. There were times I was afraid but mostly I had faith I would be found."

One member of the Texas family found in New Mexico, Yvonne Higgins, remained hospitalized with pneumonia Thursday. Her husband, David Higgins, and his father were on their way to pick up the family's vehicle after it was pulled by rescuers from the snowdrift near Springer, N.M. The family plans to return to Texas when his wife is released from the hospital, though it was unclear when that might be.

Rescuers had to dig through snow and ice to free the Higgins family, who left their home near League City, Texas, on Sunday for a ski trip in northern New Mexico. The couple and their 5-year-old daughter, Hannah, were clinging to each other and were lethargic early Wednesday.

David Higgins was able to keep the car running for a couple of hours, but when he wanted to clear the exhaust pipe, his door was blocked. He tried to shove his arm through the top of the window, but it went about 16 inches and still was covered in snow.

The family had plenty of water, sandwiches, chips and snack mix. But as the hours passed, it seemed as if they were working harder to breathe inside the buried SUV.

"We weren't sure of it, but we think we were running out of air. That was spooky," the 48-year-old father told The Associated Press.

He eventually reached his brother in Texas moncler giacca donna 2011 pop star sub-gloss black by cellphone and the distress call was relayed to state police, who launched a search Tuesday evening.

Higgins had a simple message for travelers this winter: Throw a case of water and a sleeping bag in the car.

2011年12月21日星期三

The rule is sure to face legal challenges

The rule would require deep cuts in emissions of mercury, acid gases and soot from coal-fired power plants and is likely moncler jackets to help reshape the industry as companies turn off old plants and decide whether to clean up existing ones or switch to cleaner-burning fuels such as natural gas. It will cost about $9.6 billion annually to implement but will provide substantially more in health benefits each year, including 100,000 fewer heart and asthma attacks, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The rule is sure to face legal challenges and Republicans vowed to continue as-yet unsuccessful efforts to delay it with legislation. But Wednesday's announcement was a major victory for public-health advocates who have been fighting for years for the EPA to institute the long-overdue standards. Revisions to the Clean Air Act in 1990 required reductions of mercury and other pollutants. The first power-plant standards set out by President George W. Bush's administration were rejected by a federal court in 2008.

"These standards are 22 years in the making. They have not been a surprise," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "They are based on technology and science and, we believe, based firmly in the law."

President Barack Obama, in a video posted on the White House's website, said the standards were "common sense" and "cost-effective." "It's a good day in the fight for clean air," said Mr. Obama, whose campaign website already touts the new rule.

The administration held its ground on the air-toxins rule despite objections. Some power companies and electric-grid operators said the rules will go too far, too quickly, and could put the reliability of the grid at risk.

In a nod to the reliability concerns, the Obama administration encouraged the states that will enforce the pollution standards to allow four years "when justified" for companies to install retrofits to comply with the rules, instead of the statutory three. The EPA said the rule would allow additional wiggle room to address local reliability problems if they arise.

Those gestures didn't moncler eric light black jackets for men please the industry, which had wanted a more explicit guarantee that plants needed for reliability could be kept online.

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents power firms, said it was "the most expensive rule in the agency's history."

Chip Yost, vice president for energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, called the rule a "train wreck" and said it would burden companies also facing other pending EPA air-quality rules.

EPA projects the rule announced Wednesday will require power plants to cut emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin, by about 75% by 2016 and reduce emissions of hydrogen chloride, an acid gas that irritates the respiratory system, by 88%. Those requirements add to earlier rules calling for plants in some states to cut back on gases that form smog and soot. Other pending rules would require plants to take in less water for cooling and impose new rules for handling of coal waste.

"The EPA is being very, very aggressive in their rule-making. It takes time to engineer these changes. It takes time to switch from coal to gas," said Mr. Yost, who warned of higher costs for manufacturers and consumers.

The EPA said some 60% of the 1,400 affected coal- and oil-fired generating units already complied with the rule. Many power companies, including Exelon Corp. and Calpine Corp., support the rules because they rely less on coal-burning generation.

Others have already retrofitted plants to comply with state regulations. One of those firms— Constellation Energy Group Inc.—spent $885 million over three years to retrofit its Brandon Shores plant in Maryland, said Paul Allen, the company's chief environmental officer. "When you've invested a lot of money and when you're complying with strict rules as we have in Maryland, it doesn't come as a surprise that you believe other companies should shoulder their share," Mr. Allen said.

By contrast, American Electric moncler giacca donna 2011 pop star sub-gloss black Power Co., the nation's largest consumer of coal, has said that complying with a series of EPA regulations could cost the company between $6 billion and $8 billion through 2020. Spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said the EPA made some "improvements" but was still underestimating the cost of putting the rule in place on the agency's timeline.

2011年12月20日星期二

The Philippines is struck by several typhoons

Mass burials have been carried out in some areas, while there is anger than some bodies have been stored at dumps.

There are concerns that disease could moncler jackets begin spreading in the shelters where thousands of survivors are now living.

President Benigno Aquino, who visited the affected area on Mindanao island on Tuesday, said officials have an obligation to find out why so many people died and why no proper disaster plans were in place.

"If we want this tragedy to be the last of its kind, we need to learn from our mistakes," he said at a meeting in the badly hit coastal town of Cagayan de Oro.

He has declared a national calamity to free up funds for the recovery, but asked survivors to help by not moving back to live in "places that put your lives at constant risk".

The official death toll now stands at 957, with another 49 people missing.The BBC's Kate McGeown, in Cagayan de Oro, says funeral parlours there are full and refusing to take in more bodies.

Mayor Vicente Emano said the bodies had to be removed from residential areas so had been taken to a landfill site until appropriate graves could be prepared.

But one villager searching for a lost relative said he was "horrified": "They treated the bodies like animals and left them there under the sun and without any covering."

In Iligan, another devastated town, the authorities have begun burying unclaimed bodies.

"It is not really a burial per se, but we are just depositing the bodies in a place where it is safe from the people so as not to threaten public health," the city's mayor, Lawrence Cruz, told Reuters news agency.

He told AFP that fingerprints and DNA samples were being taken from the corpses and stressed that they were being placed in individual graves.

"It is not like digging http://www.cheapmonclerjacketsfinder.com a hole and sticking them in there," he said.

The BBC's Kate McGeown says bodies are "piling up all over the place"

The Philippines is struck by several typhoons and tropical storms every year, but the south of the country usually escapes the worst damage.

Many of those who died were sleeping as Typhoon Washi caused rivers to burst their banks, leading to landslides.

Our correspondent says although there are detailed disaster-preparedness plans in other parts of the Philippines, there is a sense that this was lacking in the region where the storms hit.
Logging blame

Officials say the final death toll is likely to pass 1,000, with bodies still being recovered at sea. Some 338,000 were affected and more than 10,000 homes damaged.

About 40,000 people on Mindanao, many of whom were already desperately poor, are now living in evacuation centres after losing their homes and possessions.

John Salva, a spokesman for British aid charity World Vision, said the centres had become severely overcrowded, with signs of disease beginning to appear.

"It's really a struggle to manage those evacuation centres, there's a shortage of water and a shortage of food," he said.

Questions are also being asked about whether illegal logging on the coastal hillsides worsened the scale of the disaster.

The UN Special Representative moncler winter boots 2011 on Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlstrom, said the disaster showed that more must be done "to ensure early warning systems are effective in an age when climate change is intensifying the impact of typhoons".

2011年12月19日星期一

After days spent hinting at the allegations against

The sensational charges drew a worried response from Washington and brought Iraq’s tenuous partnership government to the edge of collapse. A major Sunni-backed political coalition said its ministers would moncler jackets walk off their jobs, leaving adrift agencies that handle Iraq’s finances, schools and agriculture.

The accusations against Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi also underlined fears that Iraq’s leaders may now be using the very institutions America has spent millions trying to strengthen — the police, the courts, the media — as a cudgel to batter their political enemies and consolidate power.

On Monday night, Mr. Hashimi was in the northern semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, beyond the reach of security forces controlled by Baghdad. It was unclear when — or if — he would return to Baghdad.

In Washington, where officials have been quietly celebrating the end of the war, Obama administration officials sounded alarmed about the arrest order for Mr. Hashimi. “We are talking to all of the parties and expressed our concern regarding these developments,” said Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman. “We are urging all sides to work to resolve differences peacefully and through dialogue, in a manner consistent with the rule of law and the democratic political process.”

The breakdown in relations between Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and Mr. Hashimi and his Iraqiya Party arrived at an inopportune moment for the administration, coming so close to the troop withdrawal. American officials have spent years trying to urge Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government to work with the country’s Sunni minority, and are wary of having things fall apart now.

Mr. Obama said last week, in remarks welcoming troops back to Fort Bragg, N.C., that Iraq’s future would now be “in the hands of the Iraqi people.” But having removed its combat troops, it was unclear whether the United States retained enough influence to limit sectarian tensions that some analysts say could drag the country back into the chaos and violence of past years and even split it along geographical lines.

The government made its case against Mr. Hashimi in a half-hour television broadcast that was as aggressively promoted as a prime-time special. In grainy video confessions, three men said they had committed murders on Mr. Hashimi’s behalf. They said they had blown up cars, attacked convoys with silenced pistols and were rewarded with envelopes containing $3,000 in American bills.

To government critics, the charges seemed to be part of a wide-reaching consolidation of power by Mr. Maliki. Amid the anxiety stirred by the American departure and unrest in neighboring Syria, Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, has tightened his grip on this violent and divided nation by marginalizing, intimidating or arresting his political rivals, many of whom are part of Iraq’s Sunni minority.

Hundreds of people have been swept up over the last two months in arrests aimed at former members of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath Party. In recent weeks, security forces also arrested at least 30 people connected to a former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite and caustic critic of Mr. Maliki, according to Mr. Allawi’s office. And on Sunday, Mr. Maliki asked Parliament to issue a vote of no confidence in his own deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq, a sometimes hyperbolic Sunni who had compared Mr. Maliki to a dictator in an interview.

“Any leading Sunni politician seems now to be a target of this campaign by Maliki,” said Reidar Visser, an expert on Iraqi politics. “It seems that every Sunni Muslim or secularist is in danger of being labeled moncler jackets either a Baathist or a terrorist.”

Mr. Hashimi has not often been described as either. Sometimes abrasive and always self-interested, he was one of the first Sunni leaders to embrace the political process after the American invasion, and lost three siblings to terrorist attacks during the bloody height of the sectarian war.

“He was someone who tried to be conciliatory with the Shiite Islamists at a time when others did not do so,” Mr. Visser said. “Now, Maliki is going after him.”

Mr. Hashimi has not often been described as either. Sometimes abrasive and always self-interested, he was one of the first Sunni leaders to embrace the political process after the American invasion, and lost three siblings to terrorist attacks during the height of the sectarian war.

“He was someone who tried to be conciliatory with the Shiite Islamists at a time when others did not do so,” Mr. Visser said. “Now, Maliki is going after him.”

An aide to Mr. Hashimi denounced the charges as a witch hunt. “This is a coup over all partners, on political process, on the Constitution,” said the aide, who identified himself only as Abu Aya. “This is the new dictatorship.”

Any resolution seems a distant hope. The Iraqiya coalition, a large political bloc led by Mr. Allawi that includes Mr. Hashimi, Mr. Mutlaq and many other prominent Sunnis, stopped attending sessions of Parliament on Saturday. On Monday, there were not enough lawmakers to reach a quorum, so Parliament was adjourned until Jan. 3.

On Monday night, Iraqiya members called for the president of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, to intervene and reprise a role the Kurds played in bringing together discordant factions and helping to resolve the long stalemate that collapsed after last year’s national elections.

The recent tumult has put Baghdad’s political elite on edge.

Inside the concrete-ringed Green Zone, the heart of Iraq’s government and home to the American Embassy, Iraqi Army tanks and Humvees have proliferated. Freshly reinforced platoons of soldiers are standing guard over intersections, and security forces have pushed to the edge of the compounds of Mr. Hashimi and other Sunni leaders.

“It’s crisis after crisis,” Mr. Mutlaq, the deputy prime minister, said in an interview. “None of the political parties want Maliki to be in this position anymore, but Maliki is controlling everything. Through his police, his army, his security measures. Everyone is afraid.”

After days spent hinting at the allegations against Mr. Hashimi, the Iraqi government chose a familiar platform to formally make its case: the televised confession. It played three confessions from Mr. Hashimi’s guards, and promised more in the days to come.

Their statements were rich with dates and names, but it was impossible to verify any of the details or to know whether security forces had used threats or force to extract information. In June, Amnesty International said Iraq’s use of televised confessions “seriously undermines the right to a fair trial.”

In the first, a man who identifies himself as Abdul Karim Mohammed al-Jabouri said that he had been working as a bodyguard for Mr. Hashimi for a few years when the vice president approached him about some dangerous but important new work. Mr. Jabouri said he signed on.

He said he would then receive orders from one of Mr. Hashimi’s subordinates. He and other guards would get a call telling them to pick up an improvised bomb from Mr. Hashimi’s offices and plant it in a busy traffic circle. Other times, they were told to assassinate an official in the Foreign Ministry using silenced pistols.

After one bombing, Mr. Jabouri said, he returned to Mr. Hashimi’s offices.

“The vice president moncler winter boots 2011 called us and he thanked us,” Mr. Jabouri said. “He gave us an envelope with money, and I thanked him.”

Abu Aya, the Hashimi aide, said on Monday night that the men in the video confessions appeared to be guards who worked in the vice president’s office. Some 10 guards for Mr. Hashimi have been arrested in the last week, according to officials with Mr. Hashimi, the government and security forces, and on Monday morning, Iraq’s high court barred Mr. Hashimi from leaving the country as the terrorism allegations were investigated.

2011年12月18日星期日

The highly anticipated IPO stumbled out of the gate

Everyone, that is, but Mark Pincus. He didn't become the founder and CEO of the Internet's latest monster IPO by being timid or lacking verve.

"Zynga is the crowning achievement for my career," moncler jackets Pincus said in a phone interview here from Zynga's headquarters shortly before the company's Nasdaq debut. "I wanted to build a company, products and culture that mattered. It is an extension of all of us."

The highly anticipated IPO stumbled out of the gate. Zynga lost 5% in its market open. But it raised $1 billion, creating a $9 billion market value for the company, in the Internet's biggest stock offering since Google in 2004.

"This is a (seminal) event for an Internet boom," says John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the largest venture investor in Zynga, who spoke before Zynga started trading. "Zynga's IPO is a commencement of a new phase (for Internet companies), and a springboard for the company."

The lackluster IPO will likely draw questions whether the opposite is true, raising the specter of another Internet crash. Zynga could at the very least be a harbinger for the IPO prospects of Facebook, a key business partner of Zynga that is expected to go public in the first half of 2012. Both sky-high valuations — Facebook is at around $80 billion now — raise typical questions about financial hype.

But despite nearly two decades of success in Silicon Valley, Pincus is not your typical tech CEO. In a field full of twentysomething leaders, Pincus, 45, could be Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's father. (Zuckerberg is 27.) Further, Pincus' moment isn't in games just by happenstance.

"Mark has been through every step of the process, and drawn every single lesson," says Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and co-founder of Netscape who has invested in Zynga. "Zynga is the culmination of the work he has done the last 20 years."

Pincus didn't just make popular games. He relentlessly monitored data on traffic, user behavior and employees, drawing on investment-banking chops. Zynga's sales more than doubled through September, to $829 million, and it has earned $121 million since the start of 2010, according to its SEC filing. What's more, the top five games on Facebook are Zynga titles: CityVille, CastleVille, FarmVille, Zynga Poker and Words With Friends.

About 3% of Zynga's estimated 240 million players pay for virtual goods, such as a cow in FarmVille or a machine gun in Mafia Wars, according to Zynga.

"Companies like ours show that consumer Internet services can be profitable," Pincus said.

The boyish-looking Pincus, nicknamed "Pinky" by his wife, Ali, on her Facebook page, has Zynga squarely under his thumb. He owns 38.5% of Zynga's voting power and exerts as much control over the business. Zynga's stock structure gives Pincus his own class of C shares that carry 70 times more voting power than regular A shares.

No matter how Zynga stock fares — and many may openly wonder after its underwhelming first day of trading — Pincus will make out handsomely. His stake? More than $1 billion, by some accounts.

Risk taker

The fortunes of Zynga's offering are as much a referendum on Pincus, its flashy leader, as the culmination of his rip-roaring narrative in the tech world.

The hard-charging Pincus is nothing if not a risk taker. He's started five companies and invested in many others, including Napster, Facebook, Twitter and Friendster, all of which appeared to be iffy bets initially.

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In April 2007, he founded online games start-up Presidio Media, which produced Texas Hold 'Em Poker. When Presidio quickly secured $10 million in funding, Pincus renamed the company Zynga, after his dog.

Pincus got the idea for Zynga, he said, from playing against kids who routinely thrashed him in the game Rise of Nations. The ultra-competitive Pincus yearned for tools that would give him an edge. At about the same time, he became aware of companies in South Korea that sold virtual goods.

"Mark is no softie," says Eric Tilenius, former general manager of Zynga's hit game Mafia Wars. "He demands the best out of people, which leads to incredible results for the company. He's tremendously empowering and rewards success handsomely."

Pincus' hands-on approach as CEO infuses Zynga, drawing comparisons to how Steve Jobs ruled Apple. The difference, eMarketer analyst Paul Verna says, is that Pincus is "about building hit games that people are willing to spend money on."

"Jobs," Verna adds, "was about more about innovation, design and the aesthetic."

Venture capital veteran Roger McNamee cautions that an overbearing management style could drive away valuable employees, who could eventually cash out now that Zynga is public.

"His style resonates best with short-term investors … but potentially leaves body bags of overworked employees and questionable long-term valuations," says Patrick Moorhead, head of market researcher Moor Insights & Strategy. "Longer-term investors need to ask a lot of questions about long-term employee commitments and processes."

But it is exactly Pincus' approach that fuels a start-up such as Zynga, says one gaming expert. "It's in an entrepreneur's blood to naturally want to expect a certain level of personal emotional investment and commitment from colleagues," says Scott Steinberg, head of video game business consulting firm TechSavvy.

Crowning achievement

Zynga's IPO culminates a long journey for Pincus. The Chicago native studied economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and he started in banking. After earning an MBA at Harvard University, Pincus moved to San Francisco in 1995 to be part of the dot-com boom.

He persuaded venture capital mover-and-shaker Fred Wilson to sink $250,000 in FreeLoader, a personalized news site that Pincus co-founded. Within a year, FreeLoader was sold for $38 million to online news company Individual.

Then there was a blur of activity. Start-up Support.com, which helps businesses diagnose and fix PCs from remote locations, was founded in 1997 and went public in 2000. Pincus invested in several companies, including Napster and Friendster. In 2003, he started social-networking firm Tribe Networks. The company was sold to Cisco Systems in 2007.

Zynga, meanwhile, is making moves to wean itself from Facebook as a platform where most of its customers play its games. In October, Zynga discussed plans for its own platform, code-named Project Z. Zynga has a deal with Facebook that runs through 2015. Pincus has also negotiated a deal that led Google to buy a 3% stake in Zynga.

In five years, during the bite of a financial crisis, Andreessen says Pincus "built the most important video-gaming company in the world. He trained a new generation of consumers on new games. And he created a new business model" with the sale of virtual goods.

"He is committed to growing Zynga into a leader in casual gaming," says Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, which has done marketing deals with Zynga. "This is a world that is in its infancy. These are its earliest days, and we have yet to see its full potential."

Pincus has proven critics wrong,moncler jackets for women says Andreessen, who expects him to aggressively expand Zynga worldwide in the next decade.

2011年12月16日星期五

Eventually all profiles will switch to the new look

The feature offers users a visual personal history that is similar to a digital scrapbook or vanity licence plate. moncler jackets Some have even compared its look to Myspace.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Facebook's 800 million members can either wait for a notification to pop up on their screen or go to Facebook.com/about/Timeline to get Timeline.

Eventually all profiles will switch to the new look. Timeline is also available on touch devices using m.Facebook.com and Facebook for Android.

If you've put embarrassing photos or posts on Facebook, you'll have seven days after switching to Timeline to prune them from your profile before Timeline becomes the default look on your profile page.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg moncler boots has called Timeline a way to share life experiences, but it could also become a carrot for marketers and advertisers to target consumers based on their "likes" and devotion to certain brands as Facebook duels with Google+ and other social networks for advertising dollars, analysts say.

R. "Ray" Wang, CEO at Constellation Research, says Timeline should improve the user experience by adding detail and context to one's profile.

At the same time, Mr Wang cautions: "There's a growing concern among individuals that Facebook is driving individuals to trade their privacy for convenience without understanding the risks. Can individuals turn it off forever if Facebook still owns the data? What do you do to take yourself out of a Timeline? Is this the beginning of digital extortion?"

Facebook users, who have been historically quick to blanch at new features, seem to be divided into two camps: moncler those who love it and those who loathe it. And, as with previous Facebook features, many users are fretting over the security of their personal data.

2011年12月15日星期四

As part of a tax deal reached late last year

The logjam appeared to have broken on Thursday, one day before the government would have been forced to close its doors because of a lack of money, the result of a tangled dispute over taxes and spending.moncler jackets The issues have become a kind of holy grail among politicians facing elections in less than 11 months.

At issue are the extension of a reduced tax Americans automatically pay into the Social Security pension plan, extended federal government payments to the unemployed and funding to keep the government working.

President Obama and the Democrats had wanted to pay for the extended Social Security tax break, a reduction in the so-called payroll tax, by imposing a 1.9 percent surtax on incomes of the richest Americans, those taking home more than $1 million a year. They apparently have dropped that demand and will find the money to finance continued cuts through higher fees charged by the mixed public-private organization that guarantees home mortgages.

Congressional Republicans had steadfastly refused to accept any increase on taxes, a bedrock issue for the party.

A new poll shows Americans hold members of Congress from both parties in record low regard, but see Republicans as more to blame for the legislature's poor record of lawmaking this year.

That combined with a new Associated Press-GfK poll that shows Americans broadly in favor of an extension of the Social Security tax cut and a lengthened period of unemployment compensation payments may have helped engender the new mood for compromise.

A poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found public discontent with Congress at record levels, with two-thirds of those surveyed saying current members of Congress should be voted out of office next year. By a margin of nearly two-to-one (40 percent to 23 percent ), more of those questioned by Pew blamed Republican leaders than Democratic leaders for Congress' "do-nothing" record.

The new AP-GfK poll found that most Americans, six in 10, want Congress to approve an extension of the payroll tax reduction. What's more, the dragged-out debate over the extension is just one of many issues that have kept voters furious with their leaders all year. Sixty percent said they are angry about the political situation.

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With that as a background, congressional leaders began speaking about compromise.

"We can extend payroll tax relief for American workers and create new jobs and keep the government running and, frankly, we can do it in a bipartisan way," Rep. John Boehner, Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters in a turnabout from weeks of partisan sniping from both sides.

"No more show votes," Boehner said after praising earlier remarks by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, who said that lingering disagreements on a mammoth spending bill could be resolved easily: "It's just time to legislate."

Reid opened the Senate's morning session by saying he and the chamber's top Republican had held talks to resolve remaining disputes. With lawmakers itching to return home before the holidays, Reid said he and the leader of the Senate's Republican minority, Sen. Mitch McConnell, hope they can reach a deal "that would get us out of here in a reasonable time, in the next few days."

Standing just across the aisle, McConnell agreed with Reid — a stark contrast to recent days, when the two have fired sharp partisan volleys at each other.

"We're confident, optimistic we'll be able to resolve both on a bipartisan basis," said McConnell, referring to one bill that would renew the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits, and a separate spending measure that would keep federal agencies open.

Obama applied pressure of his own, saying Congress "should not and cannot" go home until it had resolved the issues.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to extend these items, the payroll tax cut, u.i. before holidays," he said, using the abbreviation for unemployment insurance. "There's no reason the government should shut down over this, and I expect all of us to do what's necessary in order to do the people's business and make sure that it's done before the end of the year."

After weeks of partisan battle, a clear sign of movement came late Wednesday, when aides said Democrats were abandoning their demand for a surtax on millionaires to help finance payroll tax cuts.

Like congressional leaders, White House press secretary Jay Carney also expressed optimism Thursday about bipartisan compromise. "We believe a deal can get done," he said.

Though Obama has said repeatedly the wealthy need to "pay their fair share," Carney said the White House was open to other ways to pay for unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut, and he downplayed what had been a major Obama argument.

"The president's priority has not been how it's paid for or raising taxes. It's been lowering taxes for the vast majority of Americans," Carney said.

As part of a tax deal reached late last year, after Republicans swept back into control in the House, the payroll tax that funds Social Security, was cut from 6.2 percent of gross income to 4.2 percent.moncler vest for men cheap. Employers were still left paying their full 6.2 percent share. Obama had proposed making the cut even deeper next year and including employers in the reduction. That quickly evaporated when the battles broke out in Congress.

On the separate spending dispute that threatened a government shutdown, House Republicans had said Wednesday night that they would try pushing a massive $1 trillion spending bill through the House on Friday to prevent a federal shutdown. Reid said Thursday that he believed remaining partisan disputes on that bill could be settled quickly.

2011年12月14日星期三

Minutes after the actress left the Airport Courthouse

This isn't the first time Microsoft has used free phones to win people over to its mobile platform. In August, the software giant offered free Windows Phones to webOS developers after Hewlett-Packard moncler jackets announced it was discontinuing its webOS device lineup. HP recently announced it would make webOS an open source project and may release a new webOS tablet in 2013.
RuFraud

Google recently removed 22 malicious apps purporting to be legitimate versions of popular programs such as Cut The Rope and Angry Birds. The apps were packaged with malware that would send fake text messages to premium-rate SMS numbers, costing the user around $5 per SMS.

The so-called RuFraud scam targeted European users and did not affect Android phones in North America. Lookout Security, the firm that first brought the scam to Google's attention, says it has since discovered another five RuFraud apps in the Android Market, bringing the total app count to 27.
Droid Rage in 140 characters or less

Microsoft's droidrage campaign is eliciting a number of tweets from disaffected Android users. "Had 100.00 worth of charges on my phone bill, called to see what the deal was, an app.has been sending charge to acct texts," said Twitter user Zac Leingang.

"Gave my mom a Droid phone as her first smartphone. Malware is constantly making her phone crash, making her wish she never got one," said Sergio Rivera. Other users are telling similar stories in hopes of getting a free phone.
Android malware

Microsoft may be capitalizing on Android's misfortunes at a particularly low point for Google's mobile OS, as concerns about malware on Android are on the rise. Lookout Mobile Security recently said that an Android user in the United States has a 40 percent chance of clicking on a malicious link from their handsets. The global likelihood is 36 percent, according to Lookout.

Microsoft Uses Android Malware Hysteria to Offer Free Windows PhonesSecurity firm McAfee in November said that Android malware increased cheap moncler jackets by 37 percent in the third quarter of 2011 compared to the preceding three-month period. Also in November, a particularly sensationalistic report from Juniper Networks said Android Malware had increased 472 percent since July.

Chris DiBona, Google's open source programs manager, recently shot back at the security industry, blaming Android malware hysteria on charlatans trying to sell security software.

While Google dukes it out with the security industry over Android malware, Microsoft appears to be reveling in its rival's misfortunes. But not everyone is impressed with Microsoft's offer.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge made a joke about Lindsay Lohan's appearance in Playboy during a hearing Wednesday in which she praised the actress for her progress on her community service.

"Miss Lohan, you have actually done your work,” Judge Stephanie Sautner told a beaming Lohan.

In the last month, the actress served her required 12 days of community service at the Los Angeles County coroner's office and one more than her four required therapy sessions -- requirements that the judge imposed on Lohan for violating her probation on a jewelry theft conviction and a 2007 conviction for driving under the influence.

Minutes after the actress left the Airport Courthouse, Lohan's attorney, Shawn Holley, reemerged with a black package wrapped in a white bow,giubbotti moncler outlet a gift from one of her most high-profile clients.

“I hope it’s not a signed copy of the Playboy,” Sautner quipped, referring to Lohan’s recent nude spread in the magazine.

2011年12月13日星期二

How 5 border nations are reacting to Assad's crackdown

But with Russia dismissing any attempt at international action against the Assad regime as hypocritical and “immoral,”moncler jackets the likelihood of anything being done soon appears slight.

This has prompted the United States and other parties frustrated by the dim prospects of meaningful international action against Mr. Assad to draw stark contrasts between the Security Council’s muted response to the crisis and recent steps taken by other countries and institutions.

RELATED: How 5 border nations are reacting to Assad's crackdown

“Through condemnations issued by the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council and bold steps taken by the Arab League and the government of Turkey, international bodies are starting to match their severe disapproval of Syria’s bloody crackdown with concrete steps to bring it to an end,” Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said following a Security Council session on Syria Monday. “It is past time for the UN Security Council to do the same.”

The US statement followed an urgent plea by Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, for the Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for investigation of alleged crimes against humanity.

The death toll from nine months of violence in Syria has surpassed 5,000, while thousands more Syrians have been detained or are unaccounted for, Ms. Pillay told the Security Council. As she did at a briefing for cheap moncler jackets the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva earlier this month, Pillay underscored in particular the high price that Syrian children are paying in the violence.

The Arab League and Turkey have imposed sanctions on Syria, but the Security Council has been unable to overcome a Russian “nyet” to any action against Syria, with which Russia maintains strong ties.

Even Monday’s merely informational Security Council session only took place because France threatened to call for a vote on Syria, potentially embarrassing Russia by forcing its veto, if the Syria briefing did not proceed, UN analysts said.

The wrangling at the UN took place as thousands of Syrians closed businesses and boycotted schools in protest against the government crackdown.

But neither internal events in Syria nor actions by regional actors like the Arab League appear to be swaying Russia. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that international condemnation of Assad would be “immoral” when the regime is facing the violence of “armed extremist groups.”

Mr. Lavrov said last month that Syria was in a civil war, and that it was not the international community’s place to side against the government. But that has not stopped Russia from showing support for Assad, for example by recently sending warships to fly the Russian flag in Syrian ports.

The US, on the other hand, has declared that Assad is no longer legitimate and must step down. Ambassador Rice repeated that position Monday, saying, giubbotti moncler outlet“Let there be no doubt: Assad’s days in power are numbered.” The days that pass before that occurs, she added, will determine how many more Syrian children die in the country’s violence.

2011年12月12日星期一

The court is likely to hear the case by April and issue a decision before July

The 2010 Arizona measure requires police to arrest people they stop whom they suspect lack authorization to be in the U.S., and includes other provisions intended to drive illegal immigrants from the state. U.S. courts have blocked much of the Arizona law from taking effect, moncler jackets agreeing with the Justice Department that it undermines federal authority over immigration.

The court is likely to hear the case by April and issue a decision before July, the same time frame for its review of President Barack Obama's 2010 health-care overhaul. Conservative activists and Republican officials from 26 state governments contend the health law exceeds federal authority.

The scheduling could give both cases a significant role in next year's presidential and congressional elections—and could make the Supreme Court, certain to be criticized by the losers in each case, itself an issue. Four of the nine justices are in their 70s, suggesting that the next president could have at least one vacancy to fill on the closely divided court.

While the court's eventual ruling can't be predicted, a decision in the heat of the campaign will increase attention on the immigration issue. The White House sees the development as a plus with Hispanic voters, who strongly oppose these state laws and are likely to be energized regardless of the outcome, according to a person familiar with White House officials' thinking. Mr. Obama is counting on strong turnout and support from Hispanics to offset expected losses among white voters.

But action in the Supreme Court could cut against the White House with voters who favor these statutes and may resent the fact that the Obama administration has worked to overturn them.

Some analysts say the Supreme Court often appears too abstract cheap moncler jackets an issue for most voters.

"The actual presidential election will be four or five months" after the decisions are issued, said David Yalof, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut. By then, "the public generally turns its attention to the economy or national security, and those issues generally trump the court" for independent voters likely to be the focus for both Mr. Obama and his Republican challenger.

Arizona's illegal-immigration measure, officially titled the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act and known as SB 1070, reflected outrage among tea-party conservatives over what they considered lax enforcement by federal immigration authorities. Similar laws were introduced in other states, including Alabama, where officials were recently embarrassed after executives from German and Japanese car makers that the state had pushed to bring there were arrested for failing to produce immigration papers.

Those incidents and a backlash against the Arizona law have prompted second thoughts among some backers of state crackdowns. Last month, voters in Mesa, Ariz., recalled state Sen. Russell Pearce, the Republican firebrand behind SB 1070.

His recall indicates he alienated voters who saw their state suffer economically from the controversial law and who came to see the focus on illegal immigration as a diversion from more pressing issues.

In May, over the objection of the Obama administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Supreme Court upheld another measure sponsored by Mr. Pearce that forced employers that repeatedly hired illegal immigrants to go out of business. The justices voted 5-4 along ideological lines to give expansive effect to a federal provision authorizing states to consider compliance with immigration rules when issuing business licenses.

Although that opinion, by Chief Justice John Roberts, sympathized with states seeking to control their borders,moncler 2012 it is unclear how the justices will read separate provisions of federal immigration law at issue in the SB 1070 case.

2011年12月11日星期日

Frustration was also evident at Medvedev’s talk of an investigation

The posting quickly went viral, and drew more than 8,000 mostly offended and even offensive comments in a little over six hours,moncler jackets revealing the depth of the disillusionment with Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and their government. Tens of thousands of Russians spoke up in demonstrations across the country Saturday, protesting the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, and they apparently had no intention of returning to their former silence.

“Shame!” was a frequent comment, along with “You’re pathetic.”

The commenters’ posts Sunday revealed astonishing candor and courage. It’s one thing to stand in a Moscow crowd of up to 40,000, according to estimates, and call for new elections. It’s another matter to advertise your anger and disgust on the president’s Facebook page, where it doesn’t take a KGB agent to make a quick identification.

In posting on Facebook, Medvedev was attempting to respond to Russians who organized Saturday’s protest online, who are angry because they suspect the election was rigged in favor of the United Russia Party.

“I agree neither with the slogans, nor the statements voiced at the protests,” Medvedev wrote. “Nevertheless, I have ordered checks into all the reports from polling stations, regarding the compliance with the election laws.”

One reason for the skepticism that greeted his remarks: Medvedev is the head of United Russia and was the top candidate on its party list in the election. He nominates the chief prosecutor and judges, who might not be eager to pursue those working on behalf of the ruling party.

Medvedev, famous for tweeting and carrying an iPad, routinely orders investigations into all sorts of matters: the beating a year ago of the journalist Oleg Kashin, the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the forest fires that burned out of control in 2010, a blaze at a retirement home in 2009. Nothing has come of those.

When he blandly announced Sept. 24 that he would relinquish the presidency after one term so that Putin could run in March and take it back, he finally lost his credibility among Russians who had been counting on him as a progressive counterpoint to Putin.

“I haven’t noticed anything good coming from your presidency,” one commenter wrote Sunday. “And on my meager doctor’s salary it has become even worse. Leave now, cheap moncler jackets and don’t wait for the Tahrir Spring. It is going to happen, I promise you.”

Frustration was also evident at Medvedev’s talk of an investigation, when protesters were demanding new elections. “Have you lost your mind? How many do you need? 100,000 at the Kremlin?”

On Thursday, Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Election Commission and a longtime Putin ally, said he asked prosecutors to look into the videos posted on the Internet that showed purported . He promised that infractions would be pursued but suggested that many may have been faked, filmed in someone’s apartment. “Those who created, commissioned or sponsored them will be held to account,” he said.

That reminded one commenter of Putin’s accusations that same day against Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying that she criticized the election before the vote was counted and signaled the protests to begin. Earlier, Putin attacked Golos, Russia’s only independent monitor, because it receives European and U.S. grants.

The commenter said the United States had probably arranged for the huge demonstrations to be filmed in someone’s apartment.

A sentiment heard from many at Saturday’s protest in Moscow was echoed in a comment on Facebook: “I don’t know anyone among my colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances and friends who voted for United Russia. We all have a sense of the real total.”

One comment in particular reflected the tone of the protest, which was dominated by the middle-class and the well educated.

“Obviously, he doesn’t agree with Gauss,” one commenter wrote disdainfully, referring to pioneering mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who lived 200 years ago. Disenchanted Russians argue that United Russia’s reported election results are so improbable as to violate Gauss’ groundbreaking work on statistics.

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At Saturday’s rally, Artyom Zhilin, a 36-year-old psychotherapist, and his wife, Alla, a 27-year-old craft-maker, were holding a large sign that depicted Gauss with goat horns coming out of his head. The message: Putin’s supporters like to insult the opposition by calling them goats, and since Gauss’ work doesn’t square with the vote tallies, he must also be against Putin — and thus a goat.

2011年12月9日星期五

I'm just telling you my perspective

Cuban, who has never been shy about publicly disagreeing with Stern during his 11-year tenure as the Dallas Mavericks' owner,moncler jackets said allowing the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets to trade their superstar hours after the league's new labor agreement was ratified would have been hypocritical.
"The message is we went through this lockout for a reason," Cuban said Friday on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ben and Skin Show. "Again, I'm not speaking for Stern. He's not telling me his thought process. I'm just telling you my perspective, having gone through all this. There's a reason that we went through this lockout, and one of the reasons is to give small-market teams the ability to keep their stars and the ability to compete."

Stern cited "basketball reasons" for denying the proposed trade that would have sent Paul to the Lakers, Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets and given the Hornets three accomplished, starter-caliber players in Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Lamar Odom as well as point guard Goran Dragic and a 2012 first-round pick that Houston had acquired from the New York Knicks.

However, Cuban's rationale for blocking the trade is all about business.

"We just had a lockout, and one of the goals of the lockout was to say that small-market teams now have a chance to keep their players, and the rules were designed to give them that opportunity," Cuban said. "So to all of a sudden have a league-owned team trade their best player, particularly after having gone out and sold a ton of tickets in that market, that's not the kind of signal you want to send.

"Then, part two of that is all the rules of what you can and can't do under the new CBA weren't finalized until yesterday, so how do you really make a strategic decision until you know all the rules?"

Cuban has been trying for years to trade for Paul, Men - moncler jackets the four-time All-Star point guard who dominated the Mavericks during the first round of the 2008 playoffs. However, he said he would have understood the league's decision to deny the trade even if the Mavericks would have agreed to a deal to get Paul.

"I mean, obviously, I wouldn't have been happy, but I would have understood because it was a conversation a lot of owners had long before the Laker deal was consummated," Cuban said. "It was like, 'Look, sure, I'd love him. Give him to me in a heartbeat.' But the whole idea of the lockout was to prevent stuff like that.

"Players will always have the right to choose what they want to do as a free agent, but the players agreed to rules that said, 'You know what? Let's give the home team, the incumbent team an extra advantage.' And that's how the rules were designed. I think they're going to work."

Nevertheless, Cuban admitted voting against the collective bargaining agreement. He hoped for a system that would allow the Mavericks to keep their championship team largely intact while maintaining some flexibility to make roster upgrades, as they'd done in the past.

Instead, the Mavs will lose Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, Caron Butler and probably DeShawn Stevenson after those players declined short-term contract offers from the team. As a result, the Mavs will be under the salary cap next summer for the first time in years, putting www.giubbottimoncleroutlet2012.com them in position to pursue a free-agent superstar such as Paul, Dwight Howard or Deron Williams.

But Cuban said that isn't the Mavs' sole goal as they prepare to remodel their roster around All-NBA fixture and Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki.

2011年12月8日星期四

The amnesty clause can be used on only one player

To meet Chandler’s contract demands — about $58 million over four years — the Knicks must create salary-cap room, by unloading the veterans Chauncey Billups and Ronny Turiaf. The Knicks are looking for teams with cap space to absorb their contracts.

If the Knicks cannot trade Billups,moncler jackets they will use the N.B.A.’s new amnesty provision to remove his $14.2 million salary from the payroll. Billups would still earn the full amount and would be placed on waivers.

The amnesty clause can be used on only one player. The Knicks still need to find a trade partner for Turiaf, who is owed $4.36 million this season, the final year of his deal. Potential targets include the Sacramento Kings, the Washington Wizards and the Denver Nuggets.

Yahoo Sports reported that the deal would be for $58 million over four years. One person involved in the discussions said that figure was “in the ballpark,” but cautioned that the final terms cannot be set until the Knicks get their payroll in order.

The Knicks have about $62 million in committed salaries — about $4 million over the projected cap — and must still sign their rookies, Iman Shumpert and Josh Harrelson. They can cut about $19.6 million by unloading Billups and Turiaf and withdrawing Derrick Brown’s qualifying offer ($1.1 million).

The Knicks would need about $13 million in cap room to give Chandler a four-year, $55.5 million deal.

Another option would be to send Billups to Dallas in a sign-and-trade deal for Chandler. But the Mavericks have no interest in such a deal, according to ESPN.com. Billups will almost certainly have to be unloaded through the amnesty provision.

The Knicks are also a contender to sign Phoenix’s Grant Hill, who is weighing offers from the Suns and the San Antonio Spurs.

No signings, trades or cuts can be made official until 2 p.m. Friday, when the N.B.A. officially reopens for business, following a 149-day lockout. Under league edict, no deals were supposed to be consummated until then.

A number of handshake deals were reached Thursday, however, even as owners and players were voting to ratify a new labor deal.

Caron Butler, Chandler’s teammate in Dallas, Moncler jackets for women, cheap moncler women down jackets on sale,agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Clippers, according to multiple reports. Shane Battier, the former Houston and Memphis forward, announced on Twitter that he would sign with the Miami Heat. Mike Dunleavy Jr. reached an agreement with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Tayshaun Prince, one of the last remaining pieces of Detroit’s 2004 championship team, agreed to re-sign with the Pistons. Greg Oden, the injury-plagued Portland center, elected to accept a one-year qualifying offer to stay with the Trail Blazers.

With Chandler and Butler nearly gone, the Mavericks will have lost two key free agents, while a third, J.J. Barea, continues to play the market. Dallas is believed to be protecting salary-cap space for next summer, when Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard could be available.

Hill's Noah Griffith initially seems like an almost-grown-up Eric Cartman, oblivious to how much other people hate him, and overly mothered by his single mom, whom he forces to do things like pick up the phone even when it would be easier for him. But he's not without conscience: In order to facilitate mom's hot date, he agrees to babysit her friend's kids.

Naturally, they turn out to be a handful, albeit due to one-note dilemmas that will rather obviously be remedied by movie's end. Slater (Where the Wild Things Are's Max Records) is under-confident and over-medicated, while younger sister Blithe (Landry Bender) is a tot who dreams of being the next Kardashian. And then there's a foster-sibling, Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), an ill-conceived character who embodies every negative Latino stereotype short of wearing a sombrero. With slicked-back hair, full knowledge of all things criminal and a penchant for tossing bombs, he's offensive primarily because he's so unrealistic and impossible to relate to.

Then, to thicken the plot, Noah gets a call from his transparently hateful "girlfriend"(Ari Graynor), who insists she'll put out if he drives across town immediately and gets her some cocaine. Here is another place where Green majorly misses the mark.www.giubbottimoncleroutlet2012.com, Most comedies that strand suburbanites in a scary city after dark are effective because the protagonists are generally innocent, hapless victims of circumstance. Noah is a dick who blatantly endangers kids so he can buy drugs and trade them for sex. Do we really care if karma kicks his ass in return? (Recall that Elisabeth Shue only brought her supervised children into danger to try to help a stranded friend in need.)

2011年12月7日星期三

For a legally binding agreement to take hold

China’s lead negotiator at the United Nations climate change talks here, Xie Zhenhua, said that China was prepared to enter into a legally binding agreement after current voluntary programs expire at the end of the decade, seemingly a major step.moncler jackets China has always contended that because of its rapid economic growth and the persistent poverty of millions of its citizens, it cannot be bound by the same emissions standards as advanced industrialized nations.

Mr. Xie outlined five conditions under which China would consider joining such a treaty as a full partner, the major one being that China and other rapidly growing economies must be treated differently from the so-called rich countries. But that has been a deal-breaker for the United States for years and is the central reason that the Senate refused to even consider ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 agreement whose goal, still unmet, is to limit global greenhouse gas emissions.

“These conditions are not new,” Mr. Xie acknowledged at a briefing here where more than 190 nations are gathered for the 17th annual conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “These have been negotiated for the past 20 years.

“What is most important so far is to implement existing commitments and review efforts undertaken by the parties, and after that we can think about what should be done after 2020 and beyond.”

Todd D. Stern, the American climate change envoy, said that the United States would be happy to discuss a formal treaty and then spelled out his conditions, which also were not new and appeared to rule out any sort of deal like that envisioned by Mr. Xie.

For a legally binding agreement to take hold, “it’s going to be absolutely critical that it applies to all the major players, and China obviously is one of them,” Mr. Stern said at a briefing.

“All the major players are going to have to be in with obligations, with commitments that have the same legal force,” he added. “And that means there’s no conditionality, they’re not conditional on receiving technology or financing, there’s no trap doors,Moncler vest for men, buy cheap moncler mens vests online, there’s no Swiss cheese in that kind of an agreement.”

The dispute between the United States and China, the two largest sources of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, has come to be an enduring feature of these negotiations and a source of deep frustration for the other players.

Jo Leinen, the German Social Democrat who leads the delegation from the European Parliament, lashed out at both superpowers on Wednesday afternoon.

“What is really frustrating to see is this conference is again hijacked by the Ping-Pong game between the U.S. and China,” he said. “It is unacceptable and no more tolerable that this game is blocking the overall process. Now that China has done some moves, let’s test their seriousness. I don’t see the same commitment, the same signals from the U.S. The one is not yet ready; the other is not willing. We really have a problem.”

The standoff has threatened to derail the process in each of the past several years, but at the end of the two-week session the parties usually pull back from the brink and announce an incremental, face-saving deal. This year’s talks appear headed for the same sort of conclusion.

Negotiators appear close to agreeing on how to structure a fund that is supposed to generate $100 billion a year in public and private financing for climate change programs by 2020. They have also made progress on programs to save tropical forests from clear-cutting, transfer clean-energy technology to emerging nations and refine systems for verifying that countries are taking steps to cut emissions.

The holy grail of these talks, a global treaty encompassing all nations and limiting temperature rise to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels, appears as elusive as ever.

Weary of the inconclusive jousting on a treaty with teeth, many delegates and observers say that small progress may not be a bad thing.

Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, a private research and advocacy group in Washington, said that while a legal treaty remained an important prod to action, it should not get in the way of more immediate steps.

“This preoccupation with ‘binding’Women - moncler jackets has become more an obstacle than a means of progress,” he said in an e-mail. “The reality is that key players including the United States and China are not prepared at this stage to take on binding commitments to reduce their emissions.