Vine (for iPhone)

Microblogging, meet micro video sharing. Just as Twitter curtails anything of substance you'd like to say to a headline requiring a link to a blog or other webpage for any kind of depth, the free Vine app, recently acquired by Twitter, curtails your videos to a mere 6 seconds. That's not necessarily bad: Who wants to watch minute after minute of boring video? In a world where most people still think of Twitter as just short text snippets, can micro-videos make an impact?

Let's be clear: This isn't a case of "video finally comes to Twitter." You've already been able to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video in a Twitter post forever, so this isn't the first time anyone's been able two add video to tweets. Vine is more of an attempt to co-opt the craze for animated GIFs, most prominently evidenced on image-heavy mini-blogging site Tumblr. ?You could also think of it as the latest entry in the "Instagram for video" app genre.

Vine plays to today's brief attentions spans, which causes people at a play or a concert to reach for their smartphones the moment the curtain falls at intermission, rather than trying to digest the performance. Vine movies may be limited in length, but like animated GIFs, they loop infinitely, which actually does the opposite of increasing their impact. Let's see how it stacks up against other "Instagram but for video" apps, such as Lightt and Cinemagram.

Signup and Setup
As with so many new mobile apps, Apple's iPhone gets first dibs when it comes to Vine. I've contacted the company to ask when we might see apps for Android and Windows Phone, and will update this if and when I hear back. And as with so many hot new apps these days, Vine wants to interrupt you with notifications and wants access to your location, both requiring message box OKs at installation. I didn't need another source of notifications, but I though location might help for video posts.

As you'd expect with an app just acquired by Twitter, you can sign in with your Twitter account, or create a new Vine account using an email address. The typical social app would also let you sign up via Facebook, but that's not an option for obvious reasons. Conveniently, you don't need to actually provide your Twitter credentials, the app can take them from your iPhone's Settings. Despite Vine now being a part of Twitter, though, you're still prompted to agree to create a new Vine account, even if you sign up with your Twitter account.

Interface
After setup, my view was of an Instagram-like newsfeed of GIF-like videos from contacts I didn't know I had. Apparently, these were preselected Twitter employees. The well-designed and simple interface had but two buttons in the top corners above the feed?on the left Home, and on the right a movie camera. Pressing the home button offered three more options in addition to the home view I was already viewing: Explore, Activity, and Profile. These first two were encouraging, reminding me of the addictive similar pages of Flickr. More on these in a bit.

A banner ad across the top of the home screen encouraged me to get my own new Vine follows. I could find these by scanning my phone's local address book, Twitter (of course), or Facebook (surprise!). Though some reports claim that Facebook has blocked Vine from accessing it, and though I got to the Facebook permission button, an error appeared when I returned to the Vine app. Tit-for-tat for when Twitter blocked the Facebook-owned Instagram.

I could also simply search for Vine user names, or invite friends to the service using email or SMS. Each user, as with every self-respecting social network, has a profile page, and Vine's resembles Twitters, except it offers separate tabs for Posts and Likes. At top was the user's photo, a text area for inspirational self-description and a big Follow button.

The Explore page was a treat. Here I could view Editor's Picks, Popular Now, and All Posts (presumably by recency). Colorful Windows 8-like tiles in the bottom half of this page let me browse hashtags, such as #magic, #travel, and #sports. The first of these hints at the prominence of stop motion, and also feature a lot of disappearing toddlers. Even the Popular Now videos weren't especially compelling, but it's early days, and no doubt there'll be plenty awesome mini-vids in the offing.

There's no website where you can view all your own and contacts' Vine videolets, so you'll only be able to see them in the app or in your Twitter feed. The videos play on the Twitter website and in the Twitter iOS apps, and in each of those places you get a link to a bare-bones Vine-hosted Web page for the video at hand.

Shooting with Vine
When you hit that movie camera icon atop your home screen, you don't get the standard iPhone camera app in movie mode. Instead, you get a completely plain square image of what's in front of your iPhone's lens?that's right, there's no way to switch to the backward-facing camera to shoot your mug. Nor is there even a shutter button: You shoot video by holding your finger on the screen. You get a total of 6 seconds, and can lift and re-touch the screen to pause and restart shooting?which the service encourages. It's really well suited to stop motion shooting, or shooting those "magic" clips where something or someone disappears or suddenly appears.

Once you're through shooting, the Next button takes you to a page where you can add a caption for your tiny video compilation, choose a hash tag, and decide where to share it. Sharing target options are Vine, Twitter, and Facebook, and in this case, my test video did appear on my Facebook timeline, so there's no blocking in this direction.

You can also add a location at this point; the tool for this says "Powered by FourSquare" (of which I'm not a user), but it never worked for me in my testing. I'd think you'd be able to attach a location without having to be a member of yet another minor social network. And indeed a colleague was able to get location suggestions on her iPhone, though she wasn't a FourSquare member either.

The Final Products
My gut tells me that Vine is not going to unseat YouTube or Vimeo anytime soon, or even Facebook video sharing. The videos it produces are usually jerky and somewhat unpleasant to view, which effect is multiplied by their ceaseless repetition. Luckily, though, on Twitter the videos don't auto-repeat. The six-second limit doesn't really give them a chance to have anything but a superficial impact. A lot of times, the best viral YouTube videos are marked for having a visual punch line after a time of suspense. Not possible with Vine.

I actually found Vine less interesting than the innovative Lightt app, which also limits shooting time, though to 10 seconds. Lightt also combines all your short videos into an endless timeline that you can fast forward or reverse through. Nor does Vine offer the clever effects you can find in apps like Cinemagram or SocialCam. And unlike their verbal equivalent, the Tweet, there's no link to the full version.

Vine Needs Some Ripening
I'm all for innovative new ways to create and present video, and Twitter certainly needs to grow beyond being a place where you can get the occasional 140 characters from the oracle known as Justin Bieber. I'm just not convinced that Twitter's enforced verbal pithiness translates well to a video equivalent. Should you download the app and give it a shot? By all means, go for it! But as to paraphrase another tech writer, while a picture may be worth a thousand words, a Vine video somehow manages to fall short of that word count.

More iPhone App Reviews:
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ZgykgYYT3Vk/0,2817,2414732,00.asp

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Gay Scouts, leaders not ready to forgive just yet

One decade ago, the US Supreme Court ruled the Scouts had the legal right to exclude gays, but the organization's new policy would allow local troops would be able to decide the issue for themselves. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

Jennifer Tyrrell cried when she got the news Monday that the Boy Scouts of America may be changing its policy to admit gays and lesbians as Scouts and leaders.

The mother of four children was kicked out of the organization last year, as den leader of her son?s Tiger Cub pack in Ohio, because she is a lesbian. The longstanding policy has sometimes seen the quiet, or in Tyrrell?s case, public, exit of gays ? an exodus that has rocked the Boy Scouts and led to growing calls for the group to open its doors to all who want to join.

?I?m looking forward to the day when we can once again take part,? Tyrrell told NBC News by phone, reminiscing about all of the fun activities she so enjoyed with her son Cruz and the youth in her pack, such as the Pinewood Derby and campfires. ?This is a gigantic leap, especially on this ? decades-old policy that they have gone to the Supreme Court to defend. ? Of course it?s not the ultimate, but it?s definitely a great hurdle.?

It?s not the ultimate, according to Tyrrell and others, because the proposal would eliminate the ban at the national level, but would allow local sponsoring organizations to decide whether or not they would accept gays, NBC News? Pete Williams reported.

Courtesy Jennifer Tyrrell

Jennifer Tyrrell and her son Cruz. Tyrrell was ousted from her post as den leader of her son's Tiger Cub pack in April 2012 because she is gay.

?So essentially, instead of forcing people to discriminate they?re going to allow people to discriminate,? said Zach Wahls, who is the son of a lesbian couple and who has been leading a campaign fighting to include lesbians and gays in the Scouts. ?Even though one is less bad than the other, we still need to make sure that local units are understanding how a ban on gay members negatively affects their unit.?

Still, Wahls said, it was a step in the right direction though the Boy Scouts do have a ways to go.

?Compared to where we were seven months ago, with the BSA, you know, calling this the best policy for the organization right now and then seven months later understanding well actually ? that?s not quite true, it?s a big development,? he added.

Wahls was referring to the Boy Scouts announcement last July that it was sticking with the policy after revealing it had undertaken a confidential two-year review of the disputed membership guidelines. It also came a few months after Tyrrell was forced out and a day before she handed in a petition to national leaders with hundreds of thousands of signatures calling for her reinstatement.

That prompted a number of Eagle Scouts to turn in their hard-earned regalia, with more than 200 posting their letters and photos of their medals, pins or certificates to a tumblr page?started by Burke Stansbury, a 36-year-old communications specialist in Seattle, Wash., who decided to leave the Scouts for good over the issue.

Stansbury welcomed the news of the proposed change but said he wasn?t sure if he would ever go back.

One decade ago, the US Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts of America had the legal right to exclude gays, but the organization's new policy would allow local troops would be able to decide the issue for themselves. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

?I sort of said all along that I was really making a decision to do this, that they?ve held on too long and that, you know, I?ve lost faith in the organization regardless of what changes they might make in the future,? he said.

Stansbury said he would wait and see if the Boy Scouts ended up reversing the policy and if they ?actively worked to be an open and inclusive organization.?

The discussion of the potential change in policy is nearing its final stages, according to outside scouting supporters. If approved, the change could be announced as early as next week, after the BSA's national board holds a regularly scheduled meeting.

?Before I made any decision about rejoining or asking for my medal back, I?d really want to see that it was being implemented but yeah ? I am certainly open to seeing what happens and I mean, there is you know, much to love about the Boy Scouts as an organization,? he said. ?So if they were to change, it would take some time, I think, to rebuild the trust of people like me who lost faith. But I think it?s still possible.?

One of those most impacted recently by the Boy Scouts? policy was Ryan Andresen, 18, and his family. Andresen said he was denied submitting his application for the Eagle rank to the national organization by his Scoutmaster after finishing his final service project last fall because he is gay, and after coming out as gay to his troop last summer.

After much back and forth with the local council in Moraga, Calif., and hard feelings on both sides in a story that made national headlines for weeks, his application for the pinnacle Boy Scouts? achievement was forwarded to the national headquarters for approval, said his father Eric Andresen, 52.

John Makely / NBC News

Ryan Andresen holds an Eagle Scout pin that was given to him by a fellow Scout who is gay on Friday, Oct. 12, 2012, in New York, N.Y.

Ryan, a high school senior, was still hoping for the award, even though he already knows he has earned it, Eric Andresen said.

?Four months ago, if the ban hadn?t been in place, we wouldn?t even been going down this road. ? He?s been hurt a lot. There?s been a lot of damage done to Ryan emotionally,? he said Monday. ?If the board does elect to get rid of the policy, I don?t know why they wouldn?t then retroactively award Ryan his Eagle. They certainly should.?

Eric Andresen, who resigned as the committee chair of his son?s troop after the problems began, said he was done with the organization after 10 years as an adult leader, but he hadn?t yet broached the possibility with his son of being able to participate as a volunteer or leader one day if the policy is changed.

?I don?t think that?s a conversation that ? I?d even want to start it with him right now,? he said, noting that after Ryan spent a dozen years with the Boy Scouts, the group ?turned its back on him? and was ?responsible for all of the grief he?s gone through the last four months.?

One of the Andresen?s main objectives was to help others, such as boys who may still be hiding in the closet.

?If BSA does do the right thing ? we?re looking at, you know, what this is going to do for thousands of other Scouts so that nobody else has to go through what Ryan went through,? he said. ?It?s time to end this stuff. Gay kids have a right to be Scouts, too.?

Related:?
Gay teen denied Eagle Scout: 'Change is happening' over Boy Scouts anti-gay policy
Eagle Scouts return badges to protest policy banning gays
Boy Scouts: We're keeping policy banning gays

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on whether the membership policy should be changed, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age and Boy Scout affiliation.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16742886-after-years-of-heartache-gay-scouts-and-supporters-react-warily-over-proposal-to-lift-ban?lite

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Education & Reference 2020: The Best American Science and

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The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country?s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume?s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected ? and most popular ? of its kind.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2012 includes

JEROME GROOPMAN, SY MONTGOMERY, MICHAEL BEHAR, DEBORAH BLUM, THOMAS GOETZ, DAVID EAGLEMAN, RIVKA GALCHEN, DAVID KIRBY, and others

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Source: http://greateducationreference609.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-best-american-science-and-nature.html

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Updated Q & A: NY Real Estate Continuing Education & License

Updated Q & A: NY Real Estate Continuing Education & License Requirements

Does?Lieb School?report my completed credits to the?Department of State (DOS)? Am I responsible for sending my course certificates to the DOS???Credits?received from Lieb School count towards the 22.5 required from the?DOS?for license renewal. Certificates provided at each class serve as proof of credit hours (think of them as a receipt). After each class, Lieb School submits to the Department of State, Bureau of Educational Standards, all licensee information for successful completion of each course. ?Upon?license?renewal, the DOS will require the original signed certificates if you are selected for an audit. Make sure that you keep your certificates in a safe place.?In the event of an audit, the?DOS?will cross reference the certificates with the student completion records received by each school.? ?You are responsible for completing all 22.5 credits by your?license?renewal?deadline date.? How do I renew my New York State Real Estate License??License renewals must be completed online through the Department of State?eACCESSny?website.? ?Please note that the renewal process requires licensees to validate education completion by answering ?Yes? to the Continuing Education question that confirms all CE requirements have been satisfied. ?If you mistakenly answer ?No?, the DOS will not renew your license until they see all original course completion certificates.? You also have to hold onto the original course completion certificates in the event of a license audit by the DOS. ? If I did not complete my continuing education requirements before my license expiration date can I get an extension? ?Please refer to ?177.6 in the?Real Estate?License?Law. The Department of State will only grant extensions in bona fide hardship cases. ?Prior to your?license?expiration: you must?submit?to the Department of State, a written request for the extension, completed?renewal?form, fee, and original documentation demonstrating your hardship;?i.e., medical documentation. ?? more questions answered... Who regulates my New York State Real Estate License???Your license is regulated by the Department of State, New York?(DOS)?and NOT by any real estate school or trade organization.
What are the Continuing Education requirements for real estate agents in NY??Every 2 years, licensed real estate brokers and salespersons in the State of New York are required to take 22.5 continuing education credits. The ONLY mandatory class requirement is at least 3 hours of instruction pertaining to?fair housing?and/or?discrimination?in the sale or rental of real property or an interest of real property, within the 2 - year period immediately preceding a renewal. Are there any exemptions for Continuing Education requirements for real estate agents in New York?? Licensed real estate brokers who are engaged full time in the real estate business and who have been licensed for at least 15 consecutive years immediately preceding license renewal. This exemption must have been met prior to July 1, 2008.? An attorney admitted to the New York State bar is also exempt from the Continuing Education Requirement. Am I required to take a course in Fair Housing if my real estate license is grandfathered??A NYS real estate agent does not need to take a course in Fair Housing if they are generally exempt by way of the "grandfather" factor.? Please refer the agent to Real Property Law section 441(3)(a) where it expresses the requirement for real estate agents to take 3 hours in a fair housing and/or discrimination course within a license renewal cycle. The link for the license law where this is discussed is as follows:?http://www.dos.ny.gov/licensing/lawbooks/RE-Law.pdf.? While reviewing the license law, please refer your attention to the last sentence of this requirement wherein it states: "The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to any licensed real estate broker who is engaged full time in the real estate business and who has been licensed under this article prior to July 1, 2008 for at least 15 consecutive years immediately proceeding such renewal". This is the "grandfather" factor.? In general, the only exception to the "grandfather" factor exemption is for NAR's mandatory quadrennial ethics requirement for members of the?National Association of REALTORS?. This has nothing to do with licensing or the Department of State, New York.? If I already completed a?continuing education class, can I take the same topic again for credit with a different school in NY within the same license renewal cycle??Real estate continuing education courses are assigned independent approval codes by the Bureau of Educational Standards, Department of State, State of New York.? Licensed real estate agents may take multiple courses in the same topic within each "two year cycle of renewal" as long as each course has an independent approval code. Approval codes are assigned for each approved course,?not school and not course topic.??It is advised that you always check your records of previously completed approval codes prior to registration for new courses within your cycle of renewal.? If I already received credit for taking a?continuing education course, can I get credit for taking the same exact course in a different license renewal cycle? ?Yes. While New York State Real Estate License Law, 19 NYCRR 177.18(c), states: "No continuing education course will be considered for continuing education credit more than once within the two year cycle of renewal", there is no specific regulation precluding taking the same continuing education course anew in a subsequent and different license renewal cycle. Do I have to take an Ethics course to renew my license???Ethics training is not a required course for a Real Estate Broker or Salesperson to maintain their license in full force and effect with the Department of State, New York. Ethics courses may be required by your local Board (trade organization), but are not required to maintain your license with the Department of State of New York.

Source: http://blog.liebatlaw.com/2013/01/updated-q-ny-real-estate-continuing.html

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Source: http://marinade-seated.blogspot.com/2013/01/updated-q-ny-real-estate-continuing.html

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Primates, too, can move in unison

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Japanese researchers show for the first time that primates modify their body movements to be in tune with others, just like humans do. Humans unconsciously modify their movements to be in synchrony with their peers. For example, we adapt our pace to walk in step or clap in unison at the end of a concert. This phenomenon is thought to reflect bonding and facilitate human interaction. Researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute report that pairs of macaque monkeys also spontaneously coordinate their movements to reach synchrony.

This research opens the door to much-needed neurophysiological studies of spontaneous synchronization in monkeys, which could shed light into human behavioral dysfunctions such as those observed in patients with autism spectrum disorders, echopraxia and echolalia -- where patients uncontrollably imitate others.

In the research, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team led by Naotaka Fujii developed an experimental set-up to test whether pairs of Japanese macaque monkeys synchronize a simple push-button movement.

Before the experiment, the monkeys were trained to push a button with one hand. In a first experiment the monkeys were paired and placed facing each other and the timing of their push-button movements was recorded. The same experiment was repeated but this time each monkey was shown videos of another monkey pushing a button at varying speeds. And in a last experiment the macaques were not allowed to either see or hear their video-partner.

The results show that the monkeys modified their movements -- increased or decreased the speed of their push-button movement -- to be in synchrony with their partner, both when the partner was real and on video. The speed of the button pressing movement changed to be in harmonic or sub-harmonic synchrony with the partners' speed. However, different pairs of monkeys synchronized differently and reached different speeds, and the monkeys synchronized their movements the most when they could both see and hear their partner.

The researchers note that this behavior cannot have been learnt by the monkeys during the experiment, as previous research has shown that it is extremely difficult for monkeys to learn intentional synchronization.

They add: "The reasons why the monkeys showed behavioral synchronization are not clear. It may be a vital aspect of other socially adaptive behavior, important for survival in the wild."

The study was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas 'Neural creativity for communication' (22120522 and 24120720) of MEXT, Japan.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RIKEN.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Yasuo Nagasaka, Zenas C. Chao, Naomi Hasegawa, Tomonori Notoya, Naotaka Fujii. Spontaneous synchronization of arm motion between Japanese macaques. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01151

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/AMbAPs6-r80/130128081952.htm

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Quantum communication: Each photon counts

Jan. 25, 2013 ? Ultrafast, efficient, and reliable single-photon detectors are among the most sought-after components in photonics and quantum communication, which have not yet reached maturity for practical application. Physicist Dr. Wolfram Pernice of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in cooperation with colleagues at Yale University, Boston University, and Moscow State Pedagogical University, achieved the decisive breakthrough by integrating single-photon detectors with nanophotonic chips. The detector combines near-unity detection efficiency with high timing resolution and has a very low error rate.

The results have been published by Nature Communications.

Without reliable detection of single photons, it is impossible to make real use of the latest advances in optical data transmission or quantum computation; it is like having no analog-digital converter in a conventional computer to determine whether the applied voltage stands for 0 or 1. Although a number of different single-photon detector models have been developed over the past few years, thus far, none have provided satisfactory performance.

Several new ideas and advanced developments went into the prototype developed within the "Integrated Quantum Photonics" project at the DFG Center of Functional Nanostructures (CFN). The new single-photon detector, tested in the telecommunications wavelength range, achieves a previously unattained detection efficiency of 91%.

The detector was realized by fabricating superconducting nanowires directly on top of a nanophotonic waveguide. This geometry can be compared to a tube that conducts light, around which a wire in a superconducting state is wound and, as such, has no electric resistivity. The nanometer-sized wire made of niobium nitride absorbs photons that propagate along the waveguide. When a photon is absorbed, superconductivity is lost, which is detected as an electric signal. The longer the tube, the higher is the detection probability. The lengths involved are in the micrometer range.

A special feature of the detector is its direct installation on the chip, which allows for it to be replicated at random. The single-photon detectors built thus far were stand-alone units, which were connected to chips with optical fibers. Arrangements of that type suffer from photons being lost in the fiber connection or being absorbed in other ways. These loss channels do not exist in the detector that is now fully embedded in a silicon photonic circuit. In addition to high detection efficiency, this gives rise to a remarkably low dark count rate. Dark counts arise when a photon is detected erroneously: for instance, because of a spontaneous emission, an alpha particle, or a spurious field. The new design also provides ultrashort timing jitter of 18 picoseconds, which is 18 times 10-12 seconds.

The novel solution also makes it possible to integrate several hundreds of these detectors on a single chip. This is a basic precondition for future use in optical quantum computers.

The detector demonstrated in this study was designed to work at wavelengths in the Telekom bandwidth. The same detector architecture can also be used for wavelengths in the range of visible light. This would allow the principle to be employed in analyses of all structures that emit little light, i.e., photons, such as single molecules or bacteria. ?

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

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Journal Reference:

1. W.H.P. Pernice, C. Schuck, O. Minaeva, M. Li, G.N. Goltsman, A.V. Sergienko, H.X. Tang. High-speed and high-efficiency travelling wave single-photon detectors embedded in nanophotonic circuits. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1325 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2307

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/ow-KbzYPjFA/130125104056.htm

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Senate leaders reach deal modifying filibuster rules, keep 60-vote hurdle (Washington Post)

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US officials defend handling of Boeing 787 mishaps

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Obama administration officials struggled Wednesday to defend their initial statements that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is safe while promising a transparent probe of mishaps involving the aircraft's batteries.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stood by his Jan. 11 assertion that the 787, Boeing's newest and most technologically advanced airliner, was safe. At that time, LaHood and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Huerta, declared the plane fit to fly despite a battery fire in one plane.

Five days later, following another battery mishap that led to an emergency landing of a 787 in Japan, LaHood and Huerta ordered United, the lone U.S. carrier with 787s, to ground the planes. Authorities in Europe and elsewhere ? including Chile, Poland, Ethiopia, Qatar and India ? swiftly followed suit. Two Japanese airlines voluntarily grounded their planes before FAA's order.

Overall, 50 Dreamliners have been grounded worldwide. FAA's order applies only to United's the six 787s.

"On the day we announced the planes were safe they were," LaHood told reporters at an aviation industry luncheon. He became testy when a reporter pressed him on whether his initial pronouncements had been too hasty.

"I'm not doing these hypothetical look-backs," he said. "We did what we did."

What changed between Jan. 11 and FAA's issuance of a grounding order on Jan. 16 was that a second battery failure occurred on an All Nippon Airways 787 while the airliner was in flight, said Huerta, who joined LaHood at the luncheon. In the first incident, the battery fire occurred in a Japan Airlines 787 that had already landed at Boston's Logan International Airport and was empty of passengers.

"We took the action we took (to ground the planes) because we saw a hazard," Huerta said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the battery fire in Boston and has sent a representative to Japan to assist authorities there with their investigation of the second. The board has not so far said the battery problem would endanger the safety of the plane in flight nor recommended that the planes be grounded.

The board's technical experts are in possession of the battery that caught fire and are effectively performing an autopsy on its charred insides in a search for clues to what caused the conflagration. It took firefighters about 40 minutes to put out the fire.

The NTSB is the nation's independent accident investigation board, while FAA regulates aviation safety.

FAA is working as quickly as possible to find the cause of the problems, assembling a team of technical experts that includes experts from industry as well as the agency's staff, Huerta said. The review includes not just the 787's ground-breaking lithium-ion battery system, but how that system works with the aircraft's electronic systems, their certification, manufacture and assembly, he said.

Huerta declined to say when FAA might lift the grounding order.

"We don't know yet what caused these incidents yet. When we know the cause we will take appropriate action," he said.

The officials emphasized that the investigation would be completely transparent so that the public will have confidence in the outcome.

LaHood denied that Boeing had asked the government to lift the grounding order.

"Absolutely not," he said. "Boeing is cooperating 100 percent with the review."

The groundings have been a nightmare for Boeing, which competes with Airbus for the position as the world's largest commercial aircraft maker. At the time of the groundings, Boeing had orders for more than 800 of the planes from airlines around the world attracted by the 787's increased fuel efficiency. The aircraft maker has said it has stopped delivering new planes to customers, although it is continuing to manufacture them.

The 787 is the world's first airliner whose structure is made mostly from lightweight composite materials. It also uses electronic systems for most of its functions instead of hydraulic or mechanical systems. And it is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion batteries, which are lighter, can hold more energy and are easier to fit into odd-sized spaces in airplanes than other types of batteries.

The FAA certified the 787 battery system even though lithium ion batteries are more susceptible to catching fire when they overheat or short-circuit than other types of batteries. Boeing built several safeguards into the design of the battery system.

___

Follow Joan Lowy at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-23-Boeing%20787-Investigation/id-4d71397356804b41af4e62dc6e440a7e

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Children's complex thinking skills begin before going to school

Jan. 23, 2013 ? New research at the University of Chicago and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that children begin to show signs of higher-level thinking skills as young as age 4 ?. Researchers have previously attributed higher-order thinking development to knowledge acquisition and better schooling, but the new longitudinal study shows that other skills, not always connected with knowledge, play a role in the ability of children to reason analytically.

The findings, reported in January in the journal Psychological Science, show for the first time that children's executive function has a role in the development of complicated analytical thinking. Executive function includes such complex skills as planning, monitoring, task switching, and controlling attention. High, early executive function skills at school entry are related to higher than average reasoning skills in adolescence.

Growing research suggests that executive function may be trainable through pathways, including preschool curriculum, exercise and impulse control training. Parents and teachers may be able to help encourage development of executive function by having youngsters help plan activities, learn to stop, think, and then take action, or engage in pretend play, said lead author of the study, Lindsey Richland, assistant professor in comparative human development at the University of Chicago.

Although important to a child's education, "little is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying children's development of the capacity to engage in complex forms of reasoning," Richland said.

The new research is reported in the paper "Early Executive Function Predicts Reasoning Development" and follows the development of complex reasoning in children from before the time they go to school until they are 15. Richland's co-author is Margaret Burchinal, senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The two studied the acquisition of analogical thinking, one form of complex reasoning. "The ability to see relationships and similarities between disparate phenomena is fundamental to analytical and inductive reasoning, and is closely related to measurements of general fluid intelligence," said Richland. Developing complex reasoning ability is particularly fundamental to the innovation and adaptive thinking skills necessary for a modern workforce, she pointed out.

Richland and Burchinal studied a database of 1,364 children who were part of the Early Child Care and Youth Development study from birth through age 15. The group was fairly evenly divided between boys and girls and included families from a diverse cross-section of ethnic and income backgrounds.

The current study examined tests children took when they were 4 ?, when they were in first grade, third grade, and when they were 15. Because the study was longitudinal, the same children were tested at each interval. Among the tests they took were ones to measure analytical reasoning, executive function, vocabulary knowledge, short-term memory and sustained attention.

Children were tested at 4 ? on their ability to monitor and control their automatic responses to stimuli. In first grade they worked on a test that judged their ability to move objects in a "Tower of Hanoi" game, in which they had to move disks between pegs in a specific order.

In third grade and at 15 year olds, they were tested on their ability to understand analogies, asked in third grade for instance to complete the question "dog is to puppy as cat is to__?" At 15 year olds, they were asked to complete written tests of analogies.

The study found a strong relationship between high scores among children who, as preschoolers, had strong vocabularies and were good at monitoring and controlling their responses to later ability on tests of understanding analogies.

"Overall, these results show that knowledge is necessary for using thinking skills, as shown by the importance of early vocabulary, but also inhibitory control and executive function skills are important contributors to children's analytical reasoning development," Richland said.

The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation supported the research.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. L. E. Richland, M. R. Burchinal. Early Executive Function Predicts Reasoning Development. Psychological Science, 2012; 24 (1): 87 DOI: 10.1177/0956797612450883

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/j35nWXEyJJg/130123164858.htm

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Don't Get Hacked ? WordPress Security Tips to Keep Your Blog Safe ...

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine tried accessing her WordPress blog via her smartphone only to find that it mysteriously redirected her to a Russian website. When she tried accessing the site through her desktop web browser, however, it came up just fine. She called me to help figure out what was going on, so I dug into the code for the template she was using and discovered someone had exploited a WordPress security vulnerability. They added code that redirected mobile visitors to the foreign site.

It was a reasonably quick and easy hack to fix, and I immediately changed the passwords used to access both the WordPress site, as well as the server credentials used to upload code, but it left me feeling uneasy about the security of that WordPress install for a while.

So, when I saw that Dre Armeda from online security firm, Sucuri, was delivering a talk about WordPress security at the recent New Media Expo, I made sure I was in the front row, notebook in hand.

It turns out that keeping your WordPress installation secure ? whether your site is hosted on WordPress.com or installed locally through WordPress.org ? is not difficult, but you need to stay on top of it. There?s nothing inherently insecure about WordPress ? certainly no more than any other web application ? but following these tips, culled both from Armeda?s talk, as well as my own experience managing WordPress sites and other online systems, can reduce the chances that you?ll be unpleasantly surprised by a hack.

• Change passwords frequently ? Armeda likens passwords to toothbrushes ? you should choose a good one, change it often and not share it with anyone. Changing your password monthly or quarterly is good practice for anything that requires a password. Select something that can?t be found in the dictionary and liberally pepper it with numbers and non-alphabetic symbols like #@$ or %. Armeda also recommends taking advantage of a password manger like LastPass, which can handle much of the heavy lifting of changing and maintaining multiple secure passwords for you.
• Keep both WordPress and its plugins updated ? It seems that every time I log in to the admin console for WordPress, there?s another prompt to either update WordPress itself, or one of the plugins I?ve installed. It only takes a few minutes, but I?ve been tempted to put it off. Like me, you?ll need to fight this temptation. Try to log in as the admin user at least once a week to make sure everything is up-to-date. Often, these updates fix security vulnerabilities that could leave your site open to hackers. Since the code that runs WordPress and its plugins is open for the world to see, it often doesn?t take long for some nefarious coder to find and exploit a security hole. Keeping everything up-to-date helps keep your site safe.
• Delete unused plugins - I often install two or three plugins for a specific feature ? such as SEO, social sharing or contact forms ? before I settle on one I plan to use. Simply deactivating the plugins you?re not using isn?t enough ? the code is still on your server and, if it has some weakness in it, can be exploited. Make sure you hit the ?Delete? link on these plugins to remove them from your server completely.
• Never use the ?admin? account to create content ? WordPress and its plugins are only one point of possible infection. The computer and browser you use to access them can also be a weakness. Some pieces of malware sniff for passwords and then share them with other bad guys in the Internet. Since the ?admin? account on WordPress has access to the entire install, having that password get out could be disastrous. To limit the risk, set up a separate user with the ?Editor? or ?Author? role in your WordPress installation and only use that account when you?re creating new blog posts or commenting. You should only use the ?admin? account when you?re performing administrative functions.
• Keep your antivirus software up-to-date and scan your computer frequently - If you don?t currently have antivirus software installed on your computer (i.e., Norton, Avast, Trend Micros, etc.), stop what you?re doing (ok, finish reading this post then do it) and get it installed immediately. And when your antivirus needs an update, allow it. Do a thorough scan of your machine at least once a month to keep it clean of the kind of malware that can open you to a whole variety of security issues.

It?s important to understand that nothing can guarantee 100% WordPress security. But, staying on top of software updates, changing your passwords frequently and limiting your risk to exposure for a security breach can get you more than 98% of the way there.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/blogging/dont-get-hacked-wordpress-security-tips-to-keep-your-blog-safe-0384504

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Colin Powell Slams 'Idiot' GOP Partisanship

In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos during ABC's special inauguration day coverage this morning, former Secretary of State Colin Powell lashed out at people in the Republican Party who spent the last four years spreading "birther nonsense" and other "things that demonize the president," calling on GOP leaders to denounce such talk - publicly.

"Republicans have to stop buying into things that demonize the president. I mean, why aren't Republican leaders shouting out about all this birther nonsense and all these other things? They should speak out. This is the kind of intolerance that I've been talking about where these idiot presentations continue to be made and you don't see the senior leadership of the party say, 'No, that's wrong.' In fact, sometimes by not speaking out, they're encouraging it. And the base keeps buying the stuff.

"And it's killing the base of the party. I mean, 26 percent favorability rating for the party right now. It ought to be telling them something. So, instead of attacking me or whoever speaks like I do, look in the mirror and realize, 'How are we going to win the next election?"

But Powell, who served as National Security Adviser under President Ronald Reagan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush and as the nation's top diplomat under President George W. Bush, didn't stop there.

Tune in to the ABC News.com Live page on Monday morning starting at 9:30 a.m. EST for all-day live streaming video coverage of Inauguration 2013: Barack Obama. Live coverage will also be available on the ABC News iPad App and mobile devices.

"The Republican Party ought to be out there not restricting voting by voter ID, but saying we want everybody to vote," he told Sawyer and Stephanopoulos. "It's a party that has to stop saying, 'We are going to appeal to you with new messages.' You need policies - the country is becoming more minority."

Powell, who endorsed President Obama's reelection bid in October, said that his critiques of the GOP have left some wondering, "Why are you still a Republican?"

Because, Powell said, "I grew up under Ronald Reagan and Cap Weinberger and George Schultz and George Herbert Walker Bush - that's the Republican party I know - the Howard Bakers of the world, and I think we've drifted from that. And I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to drift a little bit back. Not because it's just good to be moderate, but because that's where the American people are. They lost an election - two."

But Powell also said President Obama needed to do a better job, during his second, term of reaching out to members of Congress. And as for the president's second inaugural address, Powell said, "I hope he can, through his own example, restore a sense of civility in the country."

He said that today was a day for members of both parties, "not to scream and argue with each other, but to come together."

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colin-powell-slams-idiot-presentations-republicans-urges-gop-155831808--abc-news-politics.html

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Locate a College ? Kapiolani Community College ? Bnr.Co

Kapi?olani College

Kapi?olani is a single of the ten branches that make up the University of Hawaii Program. It is a commuter school providing 45 programs and currently enrolls some 9,100 students. The institution?s student diversity is a virtual melting pot of ethnicities, the biggest comprising of the ?all other? category. The school has a near ideal ratio of males (42%) to women (57%). The college receives high praises for its liberal arts programs and powerful technical, expert and occupational programs.

Majors

Kapi?olani offers 5 main programs of study: Liberal Education, Business Education, Culinary Education, Hospitality, Tourism Education, Legal Education and Well being Education. Health Education subdivides into 3 categories: Emergency Healthcare Services, Well being Sciences, Nursing, and Kupuna Education.

Tuition

For residents the total cost of living off-campus is about $14,700 compared to living with parents about $7,800 (tuition is $1,896 in each circumstances complete time 12 credits). Nonresidents rates improve with living off campus $19,345 and if living with parents the cost is $12,431 (tuition is $6,528 in both instances full time 12 credits).

Surrounding Area

Kapi?olani Community College delivers a single of the very best locations for your education. Areas such as New York, California, Texas and Florida offer close to-ideal climates, nightlife, and/or residences. Nevertheless, Kapi?olani is located in the creme de la creme city of Honolulu, O?ahu. Even when its raining the climate is inviting, that is difficult to say for cities like New York. Simply stated, if you are looking for the ideal location to attend a community college and study after-school you have found the place.

Source: http://www.bnr.co/reference-and-education/college-university/locate-a-college-kapiolani-community-college/

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Ron Howard Weighs The Graveyard Book

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Ron Howard

The Graveyard Book is coming back to life.

Disney?s adaptation of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed 2008 kids novel was being developed as a stop-motion project to be directed by Henry Selick. It even had an October 2013 release date. But the project was put six feet under last summer when the studio and Selick parted ways over scheduling and development.

In a new twist, Graveyard now has been reconfigured as a live-action movie, and sources say Ron Howard is in negotiations to direct.

PHOTOS: 11 Biggest Book-to-Big Screen Adaptations of the Past 25 Years

Gil Netter, a veteran producer with adaptations including Marley & Me and Life of Pi?among his credits, is producing with Ben Browning.

The book tells of a boy named Nobody Owens who is raised by ghosts in a cemetery after his family is murdered. When he is a teen, he is pursued again by his family?s killer, a being called ?the Man Jack.? Graveyard won the Carnegie and Newbery medals for best children?s book -- the only time one work won both awards.

Howard?s boarding signals a new round of development for Graveyard. The director will oversee the writing of a new script, and Howard and Brian Grazer?s Imagine Entertainment also might end up in a producer role.

Howard, repped by CAA and Bloom Hergott, is putting the finishing touches on Rush, a racing biopic that stars Chris Hemsworth and will be released Sept. 20 by Universal.

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com; Tatiana.Siegel@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit; @TatianaSiegel27

?

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926704/news/1926704/

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Sony (Finally) Moves Past Kooky Tablet Designs, Introduces The Svelte New Xperia Tablet Z

This latest Xperia tablet has been the stuff of rumors for a few days now -- a release from Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo first hinted that the so-called Tablet Z was in fact a real thing earlier this week -- but the time for rumors has passed. Now Sony Mobile Japan has officially lifted the veil, and (to my utter surprise) the Tablet Z is both real and rather striking.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8iseXuz7jZk/

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Tumors evolve rapidly in a childhood cancer, leaving fewer obvious treatment targets

Jan. 20, 2013 ? An extensive genomic study of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma reinforces the challenges in treating the most aggressive forms of this disease. Contrary to expectations, the scientists found relatively few recurrent gene mutations -- mutations that would suggest new targets for neuroblastoma treatment. Instead, say the researchers, they have now refocused on how neuroblastoma tumors evolve in response to medicine and other factors.

"This research underscores the fact that tumor cells often change rapidly over time, so more effective treatments for this aggressive cancer will need to account for the dynamic nature of neuroblastoma," said study leader John M. Maris, M.D., director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Striking the peripheral nervous system, neuroblastoma usually appears as a solid tumor in a young child's chest or abdomen. It comprises 7 percent of all childhood cancers, but causes 10 to 15 percent of all childhood cancer-related deaths. Neuroblastoma is notoriously complex, with a broad number of gene changes that can give rise to the disease.

Maris headed the multicenter research collaborative, the TARGET (Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments) initiative, which released its findings January 20 in Nature Genetics. This largest-ever study genomic study of a childhood cancer analyzed DNA from 240 children with high-risk neuroblastomas. Using a combination of whole-exome, whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing, the study compared DNA from tumors with DNA in normal cells from the same patients.

Researchers at CHOP and other centers previously discovered neuroblastoma-causing mutations, such as those in the ALK gene. In the subset of patients carrying this mutation, oncologists can provide effective treatments tailored to their genetic profile.

"A few years ago, we thought we would be able to sequence the genomes of individual patients with neuroblastoma, detect their specific cancer-causing mutations, and then select from a menu of treatments," said Maris. The oncology researchers designed the TARGET study to perform genomic analyses of a large cohort of high-risk neuroblastoma patients, with the goal of mapping out a limited number of treatment strategies. This approach would represent a significant step forward in personalizing neuroblastoma therapy.

However, while the researchers confirmed that roughly 10 percent of the study's neuroblastoma patients had ALK mutations, and found that a handful of other gene mutations each accounted for percentages in the single digits, there were relatively few recurrent mutations in somatic (non-germline) cells. "The relative paucity of recurrent mutations challenges the concept that druggable targets can be defined in each patient by DNA sequencing alone," wrote the authors.

In the absence of frequently altered oncogenes that drive high-risk neuroblastomas, the authors concluded that most such cases may result from other changes: rare germline mutations, copy number variations and epigenetic modifications during tumor evolution.

"Personalized medicine is more complex than we had hoped," said Maris. "While there are successes such as those in treating patients whose tumors harbor ALK mutations, this study implies that we must think very differently about how we'll use genomics to define treatment." Maris added that neuroblastoma researchers may need to turn to functional genomics, learning which tumors will or won't respond to treatments, as well as going beyond a static picture of a cancer cell with fixed genetic contents, to devising interventions to deal with dynamic tumor cells that evolve during nervous system development.

Co-corresponding authors with Maris are Matthew Meyerson, M.D., Ph.D., of the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Marco A. Marra, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia. In addition to his position at Children's Hospital, Maris also is on the faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Support for this study came from the National Institutes of Health (grants CA98543, CA98413, MD004418, CA124709, CA060104, and HG003067), the Canada Research Chair in Genome Science, the Giulio D'Angio Endowed Chair, the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, the Arms Open Wide Foundation, and the Cookies for Kids Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, via Newswise.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Trevor J Pugh, Olena Morozova, Edward F Attiyeh, Shahab Asgharzadeh, Jun S Wei, Daniel Auclair, Scott L Carter, Kristian Cibulskis, Megan Hanna, Adam Kiezun, Jaegil Kim, Michael S Lawrence, Lee Lichenstein, Aaron McKenna, Chandra Sekhar Pedamallu, Alex H Ramos, Erica Shefler, Andrey Sivachenko, Carrie Sougnez, Chip Stewart, Adrian Ally, Inanc Birol, Readman Chiu, Richard D Corbett, Martin Hirst, Shaun D Jackman, Baljit Kamoh, Alireza Hadj Khodabakshi, Martin Krzywinski, Allan Lo, Richard A Moore, Karen L Mungall, Jenny Qian, Angela Tam, Nina Thiessen, Yongjun Zhao, Kristina A Cole, Maura Diamond, Sharon J Diskin, Yael P Mosse, Andrew C Wood, Lingyun Ji, Richard Sposto, Thomas Badgett, Wendy B London, Yvonne Moyer, Julie M Gastier-Foster, Malcolm A Smith, Jaime M Guidry Auvil, Daniela S Gerhard, Michael D Hogarty, Steven J M Jones, Eric S Lander, Stacey B Gabriel, Gad Getz, Robert C Seeger, Javed Khan, Marco A Marra, Matthew Meyerson, John M Maris. The genetic landscape of high-risk neuroblastoma. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2529

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/t8epTQjMv8g/130120145816.htm

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Clint Dempsey Goal: Manchester United Drops Points After Tottenham Score Forces Draw (VIDEO)

By Greg Stobart, Goal.com

LONDON -- Clint Dempsey scored a dramatic equalizer in added time as Tottenham denied?Manchester United a battling victory at White Hart Lane.

The American turned the ball in from two minutes into injury time to wild scenes in the snow in north London to snatch Andre Villas-Boas? side a point it fully deserved but had appeared unlikely to manage.

Robin van Persie had headed United ahead in the 25th minute before the visitors produced a resilient backs-to-the-wall display under a barrage of Tottenham pressure, with visiting goalkeeper David De Gea making a number of crucial saves.

The result means United?s advantage at the top of the Premier League has been cut to five points this week following Manchester City?s victory over Fulham on Saturday, while Spurs remain fourth as they chase a Champions League spot.

The build-up to the game was dominated by concerns over the snowy conditions as referee Chris Foy declared the pitch playable following an inspection just over an hour before kickoff.

Spurs made three changes to the side that drew with QPR, with Scott Parker making his first league start of the season to replace the injured Sandro, while Steven Caulker and Clint Dempsey also came into the team as Jan Vertonghen dropped to the bench due to illness.

United made just one change to the starting lineup that beat Liverpool as Phil Jones replaced Ashley Young, with van Persie and Danny Welbeck again paired in attack.

Both sides started in cagey fashion, with Spurs winger Aaron Lennon injecting some impetus into the home side's attacks as he looked to run at Patrice Evra.

Lennon nearly put Tottenham in front in the 14th minute when he burst in from the right and drilled a low, left-footed shot that De Gea saved to his left before snuffing out Jermain Defoe?s rebound.

In the 25th minute, United took the lead as van Persie headed home his 18th league goal of the season to put the finishing touch on a swift move from Sir Alex Ferguson?s side.

After some neat build-up play, Welbeck played the ball out to Tom Cleverley on the right, and the midfielder clipped in his cross to the far post, where van Persie was completely unmarked to power in with his head.

Back in north London, the former Arsenal man made sure to enjoy his celebration in front of the Spurs fans as he wheeled away to be mobbed by his teammates.

From then on, Tottenham controlled most of the game but struggled to find a way past De Gea, with the Spaniard in inspired form in the United goal.

De Gea made two sharp stops before the break, denying Defoe at the near post before brilliantly keeping out Gareth Bale?s deflected effort with his legs.

The pattern continued after the re-start as De Gea denied Clint Dempsey from point-blank range after the American went through following a silky shimmy and shuffle from Mousa Dembele on the edge of United?s area.

Yet Tottenham began to run out of ideas and was unable to find a way past United?s defense as the visitors looked to sit deep and play on the counterattack, putting bodies behind the ball and always managing to find a last ditch block or saving header.

Then, two minutes into added time, De Gea produced a weak punch that fell to Lennon. The winger kept his head to pick out Dempsey in a crowded penalty box, and the American made no mistake in slotting the ball into the bottom corner from 10 yards.

Follow @GoalUSA ont Twitter.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/21/clint-dempsey-goal-manchester-united_n_2519232.html

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Philippines says 6 workers among dead in Algeria

In this image taken from Algerian TV broadcast on Sunday Jan. 20 2013, showing what it said was the aftermath of the hostage crisis at the remote Ain Amenas gas facility in Algeria. Algerian special forces stormed the plant on Saturday to end the four-day siege, moving in to thwart what government officials said was a plot by the Islamic extremists to blow up the complex and kill all their captives with mines sown throughout the site. (AP Photo/Algerie TV via Assiaciated Press TV)

In this image taken from Algerian TV broadcast on Sunday Jan. 20 2013, showing what it said was the aftermath of the hostage crisis at the remote Ain Amenas gas facility in Algeria. Algerian special forces stormed the plant on Saturday to end the four-day siege, moving in to thwart what government officials said was a plot by the Islamic extremists to blow up the complex and kill all their captives with mines sown throughout the site. (AP Photo/Algerie TV via Assiaciated Press TV)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Six Filipinos were among the hostages killed by militants who laid siege to an Algerian gas field for four days, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

Sixteen Filipinos have been accounted for and four others are still missing since Algerian special forces stormed the plant on Saturday to end the siege, Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters.

He said the information came from Algerian authorities, which expressed their condolences to the Philippine government and the victims' families.

"The deaths of the six Filipinos were a direct result of the hostage-taking incident in the area and mostly by gunshot wounds and the effects of the explosions," Hernandez said.

He said his office was notifying the families and arranging for the repatriation of the victims' remains, while the government was focused on finding the missing four Filipinos. A team from the Philippine Embassy in neighboring Libya, which covers Algeria, was on the ground in that country.

Four Filipino survivors were treated in a hospital in Algiers, Hernandez said.

Most of the workers were employed by Japanese companies, he said.

A total of 1,780 Filipinos work in Algeria. They are part of 10 million overseas workers, or 10 percent of the population employed abroad.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-21-AS-Philippines-Algeria/id-8082fada608840309fe540c099fbfc61

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Obama?s second term: Can he work with Congress?

Approval ratings for Congress may have plummeted, but President Obama will find he?s going to need to work with the lawmakers he spent much of his reelection campaign railing against.

By David Grant,?Staff writer / January 20, 2013

When President Obama stands on the west steps of the Capitol to deliver his second inaugural address on Monday morning, his back will be turned to Congress, a legislative body whose public approval has crashed to near single digits.

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While Mr. Obama came to Washington promising to change it, he spent much of the latter half of his first term as president in a running series of bitter battles with congressional Republicans. That inability to find common cause ? whoever is more to blame ? led to the least productive Congress in modern American history.

But if the president is going to pass legislative fixes for weighty issues like immigration reform, changes to the nation?s gun laws, and the nation?s troubled fiscal situation, he?s going to need to work with the body he spent much of his reelection campaign railing against.

Americans are feeling like a bit differently about their country this year than they were four years ago, Democratic pollster Peter Hart said recently, with lower expectations and a somber outlook for the next presidential term replacing the soaring ambitions of Inauguration Day 2009.

"If 2009 was all about hope,? Mr. Hart said, ?2013 is about the ability to cope."

Hart may very well be speaking about the president, too.

Coping for Obama could mean dealing with the reality of divided government by focusing on issues of common ground between the president and Republicans, such as immigration reform and energy policy. And when Republicans balk, the president can use the Senate and his immense political operation to deliver public pressure on House Republicans.

Coping with divided government likely won?t be aided, as many pundits suggest, by a president who slaps more GOP backs or has more Republicans over to the White House for movies and cards. The president isn?t likely to win fans for his legislative agenda by trying to pal around with rock-ribbed Republicans with fundamentally different views about the role of government in American life.

?The president has been criticized by many people for his inability or unwillingness to spend a lot of time stroking members of Congress,? says Ross Baker, a congressional historian at Rutgers University who is writing a book on bipartisanship in the US Senate. ?I think a lot of this is based upon the widely-accepted theory [that the] power of a presidency is the power to persuade ? which is perfectly plausible, and it was certainly plausible in the 1950s.... The problem is, there are no persuadables" today.

But by focusing on issues of common ground with the GOP, Washington could generate some bipartisan successes in the next four years.

Immigration and Energy

For one, the president could team up with Republican moderates and much of the party?s leadership on immigration reform.

?We believe that immigration reform is different in that it has a past, present, and future of bipartisan support,? said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. ?What we?ve seen over the last two years is conservatives, moderates, and liberals want this president and this Congress to act, and that?s different from any other issue.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/0xYDs1myJuU/Obama-s-second-term-Can-he-work-with-Congress

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'Dangerous situation': Fate of missing Algeria hostages unclear

ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - More than 20 foreigners were still either being held hostage or missing inside a gas plant on Friday after Algerian forces stormed the desert complex to free hundreds of captives taken by Islamist militants.

More than a day after the Algerian army launched an assault to seize the remote desert compound, much was still unclear about the number and fate of the victims, leaving countries with citizens in harm's way struggling to find hard information.

Reports on the number of hostages killed ranged from 12 to 30, with anywhere from dozens to scores of foreigners still unaccounted for.

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, eight of whose countrymen were missing, said fighters still controlled the gas treatment plant itself, while Algerian forces now held the nearby residential compound that housed hundreds of workers.

Leaders of Britain, Japan and other countries expressed frustration that the assault had been ordered without consultation. Many countries were also withholding information about their citizens to avoid helping the captors.

Night fell quietly on the village of In Amenas, the nearest settlement, some 50 km (30 miles) from the vast and remote desert plant. A military helicopter could be seen in the sky.

An Algerian security source said 30 hostages, including at least seven Westerners, had been killed during Thursday's assault, along with at least 18 of their captors. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian, with the nationalities of the rest of the dead still unclear, he said.

Algeria's state news agency APS put the total number of dead hostages at 12, including both foreigners and locals.

Norway's Stoltenberg said some of those killed in vehicles blasted by the army could not be identified. "We must be prepared for bad news this weekend but we still have hope."

Northern Irish engineer Stephen McFaul, who survived, said he saw four trucks full of hostages blown up by Algerian troops.

The attack has plunged international capitals into crisis mode and is a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces have been in Mali since last week fighting an Islamist takeover of Timbuktu and other towns.

"We are still dealing with a fluid and dangerous situation where a part of the terrorist threat has been eliminated in one part of the site, but there still remains a threat in another part," British Prime Minister David Cameron told his parliament.

A local Algerian source said 100 of 132 foreign hostages had been freed from the facility. However, other estimates of the number of unaccounted-for foreigners were higher. Earlier the same source said 60 were still missing. Some may be held hostage; others may still be hiding in the sprawling compound.

Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among the seven foreigners confirmed dead in the army's storming, the Algerian security source told Reuters. One British citizen was killed when the gunmen seized the hostages on Wednesday.

Those still unaccounted for on Friday included 10 from Japan and eight Norwegians, according to their employers, and a number of Britons which Cameron put at "significantly" less than 30

France said it had no information on two Frenchmen who may have been at the site and Washington has said a number of Americans were among the hostages, without giving details. The local source said a U.S. aircraft landed nearby on Friday.

The attackers had initially claimed to be holding 41 Western hostages. Some Westerners were able to evade capture by hiding.

They lived among hundreds of Algerian employees on the compound. The state news agency said the army had rescued 650 hostages in total, 573 of whom were Algerians.

"(The army) is still trying to achieve a ?peaceful outcome' before neutralizing the terrorist group that is holed up in the (facility) and freeing a group of hostages that is still being held," it said, quoting a security source.

MULTINATIONAL INSURGENCY

Algerian commanders said they moved in on Thursday about 30 hours after the siege began, because the gunmen had demanded to be allowed to take their captives abroad.

A French hostage employed by a French catering company said he had hidden in his room for 40 hours under the bed, relying on Algerian employees to smuggle him food with a password.

"I put boards up pretty much all round," Alexandre Berceaux told Europe 1 radio. "I didn't know how long I was going to stay there ... I was afraid. I could see myself already ending up in a pine box."

The captors said their attack was a response to a French military offensive in neighboring Mali. However, some U.S. and European officials say the elaborate raid probably required too much planning to have been organized from scratch in the single week since France first launched its strikes.

Paris says the incident proves that its decision to fight Islamists in neighboring Mali was necessary.

Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara desert has long been a pre-occupation of the West. Smugglers and militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.

The most powerful Islamist groups in the Sahara were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in a civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional wing of Al Qaeda gained fighters and arms as a result of the civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar Gaddafi's army.

Al Qaeda-linked fighters, many with roots in Algeria and Libya, took control of northern Mali last year, prompting the French intervention in that poor African former colony.

The Algerian security source said only two of 11 militants whose bodies were found on Thursday were Algerian, including the squad's leader. The others comprised three Egyptians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, a Malian and a Frenchman, he said.

The plant was heavily fortified, with security, controlled access and an army camp with hundreds of armed personnel between the accommodation and processing plant, Andy Coward Honeywell, who worked there in 2009, told the BBC.

The apparent ease with which the fighters swooped in from the dunes to take control of an important energy facility, which produces some 10 percent of the natural gas on which Algeria depends for its export income, has raised questions over the value of outwardly tough security measures.

Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site. The attackers benefitted from bases and staging grounds across the nearby border in Libya's desert, Algerian officials said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be hunted down: "Terrorists should be on notice that they will find no sanctuary, no refuge, not in Algeria, not in North Africa, not anywhere.... Those who would wantonly attack our country and our people will have no place to hide."

WARNING OF MORE ATTACKS

The kidnappers threatened more attacks and warned Algerians to stay away from foreign companies' installations, according to Mauritania's news agency ANI, which maintained contact with the group during the siege.

Hundreds of workers from international oil companies were evacuated from Algeria on Thursday and many more will follow, said BP, which jointly ran the gas plant with Norway's Statoil and the Algerian state oil firm.

The overall commander of the kidnappers, Algerian officials said, was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan in the 1980s and Algeria's bloody civil war of the 1990s. He appears not to have been present.

Algerian security specialist Anis Rahmani, author of several books on terrorism and editor of Ennahar daily, told Reuters about 70 militants were involved from two groups, Belmokhtar's "Those who sign in blood", who traveled from Libya, and the lesser known "Movement of the Islamic Youth in the South".

Britain's Cameron, who warned people to prepare for bad news and who canceled a major policy speech on Friday to deal with the situation, said he would have liked Algeria to have consulted before the raid. Japan made similar complaints.

U.S. officials had no clear information on the fate of Americans. Washington, like its European allies, has endorsed France's military intervention in Mali.

(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo, Eamonn Mallie in Belfast, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Mohammed Abbas in London and Padraic Halpin and Conor Humprhies in Dublin; Writing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algeria-ends-desert-siege-dozens-killed-001824500--finance.html

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