Ethiopia troops attack rebels in Somali town: residents (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) ? Ethiopian troops captured a rebel-held town in central Somalia on Saturday, Addis Ababa and residents said, in a new front against the al Qaeda-linked militants who are seen as a threat to the region's stability.

The al Shabaab rebels said on Saturday they had repelled three Ethiopian assaults north of the town and then carried out a "planned withdrawal" from the settlement.

Both Ethiopia and Kenya have sent troops into Somalia to fight Islamist al Shabaab militants, following a wave of cross-border attacks and kidnappings Nairobi blamed on the rebels.

The reports suggested the militants were now facing opposition on three fronts.

Al Shabaab is fighting Kenyan troops in the south. African Union peacekeepers and Somali government soldiers have pushed the militants out of most of the capital Mogadishu. The Ethiopian assault marked a new push in central Somalia.

"Ethiopian troops are now in Baladwayne town. Al Shabaab fighters have run away," resident Osman Farah told Reuters.

"We were woken up by the shells of Ethiopian troops early in the morning. They attacked al Shabaab on the outskirts of the town. We cannot leave our houses. We can see Ethiopian troops from the cracks of our windows," he said.

Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon said Ethiopian and Somali government forces had captured the town.

"Enemy troops were routed during the operation and have retreated. We only had minimal losses," Bereket said.

Baladwayne is a commercial and farming town that lies near a river in central Somalia, about 45 km away (28 miles) from the Ethiopian border and 335 km north of Mogadishu.

It is also the capital of the Hiiran region and was under the control of al Shabaab, which is fighting Somalia's Western-backed government. Residents fear the militants could retake the town if Ethiopian troops leave.

SHABAAB SAYS REPELS ATTACK

Somalia has been mired in anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Rebel spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters earlier on Saturday Ethiopian troops had attacked al Shabaab fighters 20 km north of Baladwayne. He said al Shabaab had repelled the soldiers three times.

On its Twitter account, al Shabaab quoted Abu Musab as saying the militants had declared a "planned withdrawal" from the town because of Ethiopia's "indiscriminate" shelling. The claim could not be independently verified.

Local elder Hassan Abdi said many residents had fled the town as the warring parties fought on the outskirts.

"We do not have details about casualties. No fighting took place in the town itself. The town is calm," he said.

KENYA KILLS SUSPECTED MILITANTS

The Somali government said on Saturday its forces had recaptured some al-Shabaab territory in Hiiran and other regions.

Ethiopian soldiers previously went into Somalia in 2006, and left in early 2009 after pushing the Islamist Islamic Courts Union out of the capital Mogadishu.

At the time, most Somalis opposed the intervention and analysts said it may have encouraged people to join the militants. This time, locals say public opinion has largely turned against the militants.

Kenya has witnessed a spate of low-level attacks against its security forces near the border with Somalia since the start of the military campaign.

On Saturday, Kenyan security forces killed three suspected militants as they tried to enter Kenyan waters through the Lamu archipelago on the northern coast, police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.

Kenya said it would host an anti-piracy conference in February as cooperation grows between al Shabaab and pirate gangs who have increased attacks off the Horn of Africa coast.

(Additional reporting by Omar Faruk in Mogadishu, Humphrey Malalo and Ben Makori in Nairobi and Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111231/wl_nm/us_kenya_somalia_ethiopia

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Specialist, Intranet Communications, Senior | Web Professional Jobs

MI-Ann Arbor, Coordinates communication projects, including intranet site design, implementation and maintenance. Assists in the creation and execution of employee communications leveraging existing technology. PRINCIPAL FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: ?Manage the ongoing development and maintenance of the employee intranet, built in SharePoint, by working with department subject matter experts and project leads.

View full post on Monster Job Search Results web designer

6?total views, 6?today

Tags: Communications, Intranet, Senior, Specialist

Source: http://webprofessionaljobs.com/specialist-intranet-communications-senior.htm

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Boxed scroll wedding gift Mother Father of Bride Groom

?

?

Personalised boxed poem scroll

gift from the bride or groom on their wedding day

to their Mum or Dad (Mother/Father of bride or groom)

also 2 more one to the bride from the matron of honour

& one from the bride to her new husband

This can be personalised with any message or name/s you wish

This personalised poem is printed on either an A4?parchment like mottled paper or a popset ivory paper

Rolled up into a scroll and decorated with Organza

and?satin ribbon and beautiful mulberry roses.

I have a wide choice of colours as pictured

Please let me know your colour scheme & I will try & help match it if possible.

These scrolls are going to have to be 20p more than my others to recoup some of the set up costs

with all the different colours of ribbon & roses & petals etc.

It comes in an ivory scroll box

(measuring approx 9 x 2.5 x 2 inches)

with?a gold? gift tag on gold elastic cord.

(I will soon be getting silver cord & different coloured tags

I will add a pic when I do :)

?

See my feedback on these!

I can also put a photo on the scroll if you wish.

All poems are written by me and are subject to copyright

hgillings?2008

Please do not reproduce

There are 6 poems to choose from,

they read as follows:

1/ Mother of the Bride from the bride

As I planned my wedding Mum
I couldn?t stop thinking of you
& all the support & love you?ve given me
the whole of my life through.

Through the years you?ve always been,
the one who?s always there;
Whenever I had a problem
you gave advice, guidance & care.

Without all the things you?ve done for me
I wouldn?t be who I am now
& all of this made me ponder
as I thought of the wedding vow.

You had & held me from day one
& looked after me in sickness & health too;
For richer, for poorer, until death us do part
I will always love & cherish you.

You have been a brilliant Mum
& it doesn?t end when I wed,
there will just be one more at the table
occasionally wanting to be fed.

You?ve shown a special kind of love,
so thoughtful, patient & true
& in case I don?t tell you often enough,
thank you & I love you.

2/ Father of the Bride from the groom
As I planned my wedding Dad
& thought of walking down the aisle,
I obviously thought of you
to walk me there in style.

I could only have my dear Dad
to give me away at my wedding;
With you there to support me
no stumbles I?d be dreading.

You?ve been a rock to me,
always there to lend a hand,
dependable & reliable
so I hope you?ll understand?.

Your little girl?s not deserting you,
she?s just adding a son-in-law to the family
& setting up a home from home
where you can come for tea.

To have & to hold from this day forward
my husband will look out for me too,
but for richer, for poorer, until death us do part
I?ll? always love & cherish you.

I have a heart that?s full of love
& there?s plenty there for my Dad too
& in case I don?t say it often enough
thank you & I love you.

3/ Mother of the Groom from the groom
It may not seem like long ago
that I was a little lad;
Climbing trees, grazing knees
& sometimes being bad.

You were always there for me
for advice & wisdom too;
I am the man I am today
thanks mainly to you.

As a Mum you?ve been great;
I?m your number one fan!
You taught me how to love & care
& to be the best I can.

I know I sometimes hide my heart
and show feelings not enough;
But I will admit today that
you taught me how to love.

My life has been full of
kindness, love & laughter,
& now I wed NAME
I hope for a ?happy ever after?.

You?ve been an inspiration Mum,
so thoughtful, patient & true;
& in case I don?t tell you often enough,
thank you & I love you.

4/ Father (or / & Mother) of the Groom from the bride

As I take your son?s hand today
& commit to him for life
I feel really very privileged
that he?s chosen me to be his wife.

He is such a special person,
so caring, kind & true
& I think I must say thank you
because that must be down to you.

You?ve taught him the right values
that is plain to see;
& coming from a caring, loving home
I know a great husband he will be.

I feel so very happy
to be your son?s bride
& thank you for welcoming me
with arms opened wide.

There really aren?t enough words
to say thank you fully,

for raising such a wonderful man
& then handing him to me.

I promise I will look after him,
& be the best wife that I can be,
& also the best daughter-in-law
as part of your family.

5/ To the Bride from the maid/matron of honour

?

?

Today you got married

& so honoured did I feel;?

To have stood there beside you,?

it all seemed so surreal.

?

When we became friends

over ?? years ago now,?

I never dreamt we?d be this close?

as you took your wedding vow.

To have been there as your Maid of Honour

as you took those vows today

was such an immense pleasure

that I truly can?t convey

?

We?re always there for each other

& marriage won?t change that!?

But you?re on your own on your wedding night?

because I?m a diplomat!?

?

But enough about us,?

today?s about the bride & groom?

I wish you both health wealth & happiness?

& hope with these your marriage will be strewn

??

Congratulations NAMEt & NAME?

I hope today is filled with joy & laughter?

I know that it will truly be

a happy ever after.

6 /To the groom / husband from the bride from the bride

Today I am so happy
I love being your bride;
We've taken vows & promised
to live life side by side.

I look forward to our life together
& all that it may bring
& I'm proud to wear this symbol
of our love, this wedding ring.

I feel really blessed today
to be marrying my man
& if ever I can help you Babe (or name of your choice)
I shall, I will, I can!

I know you'd do the same for me,
we'll be there for each other;
We'll be the very best of friends
as husband, wife & lover.

We'll share lots of laughter,
fun, smiles & maybe tears;
But I know our union will be blessed
& last throughout the years.

The reason why I know this
Is that we were made for each other!
This love is for eternity,
there will never be another.

My dearest darling husband
thank you for choosing me,
although I don't think you had much choice
I think it was fate & destiny!

This will be posted in a separate outer carton to

?ensure it reaches you in pristine condition.

**********Don't forget to let me know: *********

?

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 1 the number of your poem choice

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 2?your personal love from message for the end

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? 3 the recipients name & or relationship?to include

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? ?? 4 which border you would like (see photos)

?????????? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Rings, Doves, Heart lines, Ivy or Squiggles

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 5 The wedding date & venue if you wish it included

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 6 whether you'd like popset ivory paper or gold parchment like paper

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 7 whether you would prefer confetti or silk rose petals if I have them in your colour

?

Just e-mail me the details through contact member or directly

(you will receive my e-mail address on checkout)

?

I usually put at the top:

"To my Mum

Mother of the Bride"

(or Father/Groom etc as applicable)

?

& finish with your personal love from message

followed by the

"Married ?..date??

at ?venue?."

?

If you would like it set out differently please just let me know

?

PLEASE leave feedback to confirm safe receipt

or contact me if not received

within 5 working days of making payment.

?

******? See my other items? ******

for more gift ideas & other poems

for Birthdays, Christenings, Anniversaries,

Thanks, I love you gifts etc.

?

Source: http://us.ebid.net/for-sale/boxed-scroll-wedding-gift-mother-father-of-bride-groom-57922955.htm

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ce_s: @liaschulz Adorei minha x?cara! Tem smile! Tem base de madeira! Tem ?m? pra colher - e tem colher! Vai pra sala dos profes de filo da UFSM!

@ Adorei minha x?cara! Tem smile! Tem base de madeira! Tem ?m? pra colher - e tem colher! Vai pra sala dos profes de filo da UFSM! Il y a environ 6 heures via web

Source: http://twitter.com/ce_s/statuses/151712799272353792

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How IBM Built the Most Powerful Computer in the World

Chris Marroquin is waist-deep in a hole in the floor. He's a tall guy with a medium build, but he looks awfully short now, and his shirt is pumped up to Schwarzenegger size by a 60-degree breeze blustering all around him. Grappling with a 1-inch-diameter hose, he attempts to explain the liquid-cooling system of IBM's next-generation supercomputer to me, but I can barely hear him over the howling wind. We're in a development room of IBM's Rochester, Minn., facility, where engineers test and assemble the company's Blue Gene supercomputers. The air buffeting Marroquin cools a small, four-rack Blue Gene/P system capable of 13.9 teraflops per rack, but the hose he's holding is part of a far more advanced cooling system. Filled with deionized water, the anti-corrosive agent benzotriazole and a dose of biocide, the tube feeds into a prototype of the company's new Blue Gene/Q computer. The Blue Gene/Q rack sitting on the raised floor has its own circulatory system?850 feet of copper pipe, with check valves, quick-disconnect rubber hoses and an electronic monitor that measures flow rate, pressure and dew point?designed to shut down if anything goes awry. "You don't want any drips," Marroquin says.

As sophisticated as the cooling system is, what launches this machine into the realm of technological superlatives is its processing power: Each rack contains 1024 computer chips, and every one of those chips has 16 processor cores. That's a total of 16,384 processors, making it capable of 209 teraflops, 15 times more power per rack than the Blue Gene/P. Within the next year IBM will ship 96 Blue Gene/Q racks to Bruce Goodwin at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. Collectively, those racks will become the most powerful computer in the world. It should be able to predict the path of hurricanes, decode gene sequences and analyze the ocean floor to discover oil. But Goodwin primarily wants to use it to blow up a nuclear bomb.

Goodwin used explode nukes the old-fashioned way. From 1983 to 1991, he designed and oversaw five nuclear weapons tests at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site. He and other engineers would dig a 2000-foot-deep hole, toss a warhead and some highly specialized monitoring equipment into a 10-story-tall, 1-million-pound iron canister and lower it into the hole. Then everybody would move way the heck back, cross their fingers and detonate. "Sitting in the control room 10 miles away, it felt like a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake," Goodwin says.

All that changed in October 1992, when then President George H.W. Bush declared a moratorium on nuclear testing in anticipation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996. After that, if the United States wanted to test any of the warheads in its multithousand-weapon arsenal, it had to do a computer simulation. Thus, our interest in really powerful computers was nationalized.

Really powerful computers have been around as long as computers themselves, but the term supercomputer didn't arrive until 1976, when Seymour Cray built the Cray-1. It cost $8.8 million ($35 million in today's dollars) and cranked up to 160 megaflops. Yesterday's supercomputer, however, has less power than today's personal computer?a modern PC has more than 50 times the processing horsepower of the original Cray. In fact, the "super" prefix is so fuzzy that many computer scientists eschew the term supercomputer altogether and call such machines high-performance computers, or HPCs. In an attempt to bring some clarity to the genre, in 1993 a private group called the Top500 project started publishing a twice-yearly list of the 500 most powerful computers in the world. If your computer is on the list, it is by definition a supercomputer.

For 17 of the Top500 list's 18 years, the U.S. and Japan have swapped supremacy. But in October 2010, China claimed the top spot with the 2.6-petaflop Tianhe-1A. The computer scientists who design and build these systems tend to work for multinational companies and are cautious about characterizing what they do as a statement of national pride. Regardless, supercomputers have come to symbolize the technological prowess of the countries that build them?a silicon-age version of the space race. In a sign of the whipsaw speed of technological progress, Japan eclipsed China just eight months later, in June 2011, unveiling the 8-petaflop K Computer. The Chinese countered in August, outlining a road map to "exascale" computing, essentially promising a 125-fold increase in computing power within 10 years. If Tianhe-1A was China's Sputnik moment, exascale is its moonshot.

The supercomputer's role in maintaining America's nuclear weapons justifies its status as a national security interest. But China's challenge to the West's computing dominance has led many computer scientists and policy wonks to claim that supercomputing is essential to U.S. economic security as well. These machines are force multipliers for American scientists, engineers and businesses, the argument goes, and whoever builds the best ones gains an advantage. Supercomputers don't just reflect intellectual and technological power, they also reinforce it.

The folks at IBM Rochester betray little interest in China's goal of supercomputing dominance. Their job is to work out the engineering for Blue Gene/Q, and they deliberately focus on the technology, not the politics. They are classic pocket-protector engineers, and their titles are inelegant bureaucratic artifacts that offer little clue to their actual roles. "We're a very small, roll-up-your-sleeves team effort," says Pat Mulligan, development manager for Global Server Integration (who, for the record, had his sleeves rolled up when we spoke). "We're not overly nationalistic, we just want to make the best computer we can."

The building where Marroquin, Mulligan and the rest of the IBM team are creating the 21st century's most powerful computers is a monument to mid-20th-century corporate futurism. Designed by architect Eero Saarinen (who also designed the St. Louis Gateway Arch), the sprawling structure is clad in dark blue glass. Hallways a half-mile long stretch through the interior. At some point IBM?always pushing the technological envelope?concealed wires in the hallway floors to guide robots that delivered parts and machinery from one assembly room to another. The robots are long gone, a dream of mechanical efficiency undone by reality: They were slow and broke down so often that the facility switched to human-guided forklifts.

The Blue Gene/Q computers I'm getting a look at in midsummer are not part of Bruce Goodwin's supercomputer (named Sequoia). These are test models, used to work out the kinks in the hardware and software. The manufacturing of Sequoia's 96 racks was due to ramp up soon after my visit, but Goodwin and his team at Lawrence Livermore are already logging in to Blue Gene/Q and tinkering from afar; a sign on one of the racks in the Rochester assembly room says LLNL REMOTE ACCESS MACHINE.

Goodwin's Terascale Simulation Facility (TSF) at Livermore is one of two DOE centers that perform nuclear simulations as part of the Stockpile Stewardship Program (the other is at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico). To get a simulation that delivers an acceptable degree of accuracy, Goodwin's team models a 50-microsecond explosion in three dimensions down to a scale of 10 microns. "It gets very complicated," Goodwin says. "These things are imploding and exploding, and you have to track the fluid mechanics with the precision of a Swiss watch." Every time a component is changed or upgraded in a U.S. nuclear warhead, the TSF virtually tests the bomb to make sure it will still go boom. The computer simulations have revealed aspects of nuclear fission that testers hadn't anticipated, and, consequently, the number and complexity of algorithms have increased over time. Modern simulations model only parts of a full explosion, and even then, the most complex sims Goodwin runs use about a million lines of code. If you had 1600 years, the calculations could conceivably be done on a laptop; Livermore's current 500-teraflop Blue Gene/P system, named Dawn, gets a high-complexity sim done in a month. When the 20-petaflop Sequoia system goes live in 2012, the test time should drop to a week.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/how-ibm-built-the-most-powerful-computer-in-the-world?src=rss

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Study links quality of mother-toddler relationship to teen obesity

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The quality of the emotional relationship between a mother and her young child could affect the potential for that child to be obese during adolescence, a new study suggests.

Researchers analyzed national data detailing relationship characteristics between mothers and their children during their toddler years. The lower the quality of the relationship in terms of the child's emotional security and the mother's sensitivity, the higher the risk that a child would be obese at age 15 years, according to the analysis.

Among those toddlers who had the lowest-quality emotional relationships with their mothers, more than a quarter were obese as teens, compared to 13 percent of adolescents who had closer bonds with their mothers in their younger years.

The findings mirror previous research by these scientists that showed toddlers who did not have a secure emotional relationship with their parents were at increased risk for obesity by age 4 ?. This body of work suggests the areas of the brain that control emotions and stress responses, as well as appetite and energy balance, could be working together to influence the likelihood that a child will be obese.

Rather than blaming parents for childhood obesity, the researchers say these findings suggest that obesity prevention efforts should consider strategies to improve the mother-child bond and not focus exclusively on eating and exercise.

"It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children's food intake and activity," said Sarah Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.

"The sensitivity a mother displays in interacting with her child may be influenced by factors she can't necessarily control. Societally, we need to think about how we can support better-quality maternal-child relationships because that could have an impact on child health," she said.

The study appears online and is scheduled for publication in the January 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers analyzed data from 977 participants in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a project of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The sample in this national study included diverse families living in nine U.S. states whose children were born in 1991.

As part of that national study, trained observers assessed child attachment security and maternal sensitivity by documenting interactions between mothers and their children at three time points: when the children were 15, 24 and 36 months old.

In the maternal sensitivity assessment, mothers were instructed to play with their child while investigators rated several aspects of each mother's behavior, including supportiveness and respect for autonomy as well as signs of intrusiveness or hostility. Investigators rated attachment security of the children at age 15 and 36 months by monitoring a child's separation from and reunion with the mother. At 24 months, researchers assessed children's attachment security by observing mothers and children in their home.

Maternal sensitivity refers to a mother's ability to recognize her child's emotional state and respond with comfort, consistency and warmth. Psychologists describe securely attached children as those who rely on their parents as a "safe haven," which allows them to explore their environments freely, adapt easily to new people and be comforted in stressful situations. Toddlers who are insecurely attached tend to have experienced negative or unpredictable parenting, and may respond to stress with extreme anger, fear or anxiety, or avoid or refuse interactions with others.

Using these assessments of maternal sensitivity and child attachment security, Anderson and colleagues developed a maternal-child relationship quality score for their own statistical analysis. With a range of zero to six, the score served as an aggregate measure of a child's early relationship experience: Each point reflected a child's display of insecure attachment or a mother's ranking in the lowest quartile of sensitivity at one of the three assessment time points. The researchers designated a score equal to or greater than three as indicating a poor-quality emotional relationship.

The researchers calculated the body mass index (BMI) of the children using their heights and weights measured at or near age 15 years. BMIs were converted into percentiles for age and sex based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In accordance with current guidelines, children were considered obese if their BMI scores were at or above the 95th percentile on those charts.

A total of 241 children, or 24.7 percent, were classified as having a poor quality maternal-child relationship during early childhood based on a score of three or higher. The prevalence of obesity in adolescence was 26.1 percent among these children with the poorest early maternal-child relationships. The teen obesity prevalence was lower for children with better maternal relationships: 15.5 percent, 12.1 percent and 13 percent among those who had scores of two, one and zero, respectively.

Accounting for children's gender and birth weight ? two of several sociodemographic factors that also can influence the quality of the maternal-child relationship and risk for obesity ? children with the poorest quality early maternal-child relationship were almost 2 ? times as likely to be obese as adolescents than were children who had the best relationships with their mothers.

Anderson and colleagues suggest that this association between early childhood experiences and teen obesity has origins in the brain. The limbic system in the brain controls responses to stress as well as the sleep/wake cycle, hunger and thirst, and a variety of metabolic processes, mostly through the regulation of hormones.

"Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress," Anderson said. "A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress ? just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity."

Obesity may be one manifestation of dysregulation in the functioning of the stress response system. Parents help children develop a healthy response to stress by protecting children from extreme levels of stress, responding supportively and consistently to normal levels of stress, and modeling behavioral responses to stress.

"The evidence here is supportive of the association between a poor-quality maternal-child relationship and an increased chance for adolescent obesity," Anderson said. "Interventions are effective in increasing maternal sensitivity and enhancing young children's ability to regulate their emotions, but the effect of these interventions on children's obesity risk is not known, and we think it would be worth investigating."

###

Ohio State University: http://researchnews.osu.edu

Thanks to Ohio State University for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116322/Study_links_quality_of_mother_toddler_relationship_to_teen_obesity

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Dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy Y Duos, Y Pro Duos unveiled

Samsung has introduced two new dual-SIM supporting smartphones ? Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos. The Google Android operating system based Galaxy Y smartphones targeted at the young professionals who wish for a phone accommodating two SIMs at the same time. Loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, both Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos will be made available in January 2012 in Europe, CIS, Russia, India, Middle East, Africa, China and South East-West Asia.

The Galaxy Y Duos is a full touchscreen handset styled with polished metallic casing and features 3.14 inch touchscreen display. It also features the Samsung's own cross-platform ChatON chat app and Social Hub Premium.

While the Galaxy Y Pro Duos has a Qwerty keypad and sports 2.6 inch display. Targeted at the business class folks, this handset too has the dual-SIM support along with pre-loaded apps such as Polaris and Find My Mobile.

Both Galaxy Y series handsets feature Android 2.3 Gingerbread with layer of TouchWiz custom user interface on it. Under the hood, both smartphones will have a modest 832 MHz mobile processor to power the OS.

Samsung aims to offer the affordable dual-SIM Android smartphone options to the consumers and we believe these handset might be priced anywhere between Rs 9,000 to Rs 12,000.

Source: http://www.themobileindian.com/news/4439_Dual-SIM-Samsung-Galaxy-Y-Duos-Y-Pro-Duos-unveiled

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density of states, fermi energy

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data
Consider an electron gas with a density of states given by D(e) = ae2. Here a is a constant. The Fermi energy is e_F.
a) We first consider the system at zero temperature. Compute the total number of electrons N and the groundstate
energy E. Show that the average energy per electron in the groundstate is given by (3/4)e_F.

2. Relevant equations
many available expressions for the number of electrons but dont know which one to use.

i.e N(E)= V/3?²(2mE/hbar²)^3/2

lacking expressions for energy
3. The attempt at a solution

Source: http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=562719&goto=newpost

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Perry off VA primary ballot; GOP Clown Car wreck (Update: Newt’s off)

[Posted by Karl]

In the lexicon of Rick Perry, ?Oops!?

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, state GOP officials said Friday evening.

Perry?s campaign told state election officials it had submitted 11,911 signatures, but a Virginia Republican familiar with the situation said that the Texas governor did not submit the required 10,000.

***

They have not examined Gingrich?s signatures yet, but expected to do so by late Friday night.

Candidates had until 5 p.m. to collect 10,000 signatures from across the state, including 400 from each congressional district.

Things may not be looking much better for Newt, who submitted only 11,050?signatures.? Bachmann, Huntsman, and Santorum failed to submit any signatures, potentially leaving this as a Mitt Romney vs Ron Paul matchup.? Do we all get to point and laugh at those who claim organization doesn?t matter any more?? The practical effect, as GOP fundraiser/consultant Nathan Wurtzel notes, is that the Virginia primary will drop in relevance relative to other contests that day, which will not help GOP efforts to win this swing?state in the general election.

Update: The issues in qualifying for the Virginia ballot are well-known.? Via Philip Klein?s Twitter feed, Stacy Cline notes that in 2007, ?the Giuliani campaign had a full-time lawyer devoted almost entirely to qualifying for the VA ballot? and Team Rudy spent an entire weekend checking to make sute they had enough signatures from each district.? Virginia GOP officials tell John McCormack there is not a write-in line on the ballot.? Klein will be shocked if Newt qualifies.

Update 2: Looks like Newt?s in, making Perry look even worse.

Update 3: Patterico commenter SarahW tweets that she got a robocall to come down and sign a petition? on the day before the robocall. Oops.

Update 4:? Newt Gingrich has also been DQed from the VA primary.? He promises an aggressive write-in campaign.? It may also be futile, if John McCormack?s source was correct ? and, given the circumstances, we might credit some anonymous state party official over Gingrich until definitively proven otherwise.

Update 5: Yep, looks like there?s no write-in for Virginia primaries.?IIRC, the GOP has minimal control over the state legislature? could they amend the law to allow write-ins?? I do not even know if the legislature is in session, but I would think there could be discussion, as?it would benefit the state and?national party to have a more competitive primary. (I presume the fear is that in a year like this, Dems could flood the GOP primary for Obama.)

?Karl

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5661873134&f=378

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Chinese Laundry Kids

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Source: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2011/12/26/chinese-laundry-kids-2/

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Maharaja of Patiala, wearing a diamond and platinum parade necklace created by Cartier in 1928

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Source: http://theedwardians.blogspot.com/2011/12/maharaja-of-patiala-wearing-diamond-and.html

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A rare white Christmas in the Texas panhandle

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A light dusting of snow in north Texas will bring a rare white Christmas to this drought-stricken state, but the majority of the nation was seeing mild weather on Sunday.

A few snow showers were expected in parts of the Northeast as well, but weather forecasters said 99 percent of Americans would see more green and brown for their Yuletide celebrations - along with plenty of rain, according to Accuweather.com.

The wet Christmas in the Texas Panhandle and Permian Basin brought cheer for drought-weary Texans, who were seeing snow in Lubbock and Amarillo on Christmas morning and rain in the eastern part of the state.
The worst one-year drought in the state's history this year sparked devastating wildfires, killed as many as half a billion trees, and prompted the most serious urban water use restrictions ever.

Meanwhile, in points north, the lack of snow was welcome news in Minneapolis, where last year's winter storm 12 days before Christmas dumped 17 inches of snow on the city, causing the roof of the Metrodome, the Minnesota Viking's football stadium, to collapse.

This year, Minneapolis has no snow and will have temperatures in the high 30s over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Very little new snow is expected to accumulate anywhere throughout the day on Sunday, according to Accuweather.com. But a snowstorm in southern Ontario is forecast to move into Quebec on Sunday night and drop snow near the Great Lakes, with some accumulation happening overnight.

Residents from Watertown, N.Y. to Bangor, Maine - many of whom are off work on Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday - could wake up to an inch of snow on the ground Monday as the storm moves East.

Most of the Pacific Northwest were seeing mild weather on Christmas Day, while states like Colorado and New Mexico had lingering snow leftover from a pre-Christmas storm. Still, very few areas across the nation were seeing fresh snow on Sunday.

Even the Texas Panhandle, which was under a winter weather advisory, was not expecting the snow to accumulate - though transportation officials were warning of ice on the roads and cautioning drivers to be careful.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor)

Source: http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-weather-christmastre7bn0ba-20111224,0,4242515.story?track=rss

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Southwest, JetBlue and United in top 10 most followed airlines on Facebook

Image via edreams.es

Dec 22, 2011

BARCELONA, Spain - Online travel agency eDreams launched a new page on their travel blog today, a list of the world's 50 most popular airlines on Facebook: http://blog.edreams.es/facebook-airlines

The daily self-updating chart [http://blog.edreams.com/facebook-airlines ] counts the total number of likes on the airlines' Facebook Pages and displays them in decreasing order on the page. The chart links each Airline to their corresponding Facebook Page. By liking or unliking, users can visualise their impact on the ranking of their favourite airlines.

At the time of writing this press release, the top five most "liked" airlines on Facebook were: Southwest Airlines (LUV), with 1.740.155 likes, followed by Air Asia (AIABF) with 1.318.339 likes and KLM (AFRAF) with 631.795 likes. The third and fourth ranking airlines are Air France (AFLYY) and Lufthansa (DLAKF).

See the ranking at: http://blog.edreams.com/facebook-airlines

The country with the most representatives in the chart is USA, with three airlines in the top 10 most popular airlines on Facebook (Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways and United) and nine representatives in the top 50.

38% of the airlines that are listed in the above mentioned top 50 are European, followed by Asian (24%) and North American (20%) companies.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Eturbonews-TravelAndTourismIndustryNews/~3/l9uYezvDi-I/southwest-jetblue-and-united-top-10-most-followed-airlines-faceb

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Report: Government deeper in red (Politico)

The Treasury Department quietly released the balance of the U.S. government?s checkbook the Friday before Christmas, in a year-end report that showed the country diving deeper into the red with net liabilities of $14.8 trillion.

The government?s biggest liabilities for 2011 included $10.2 trillion in federal debt securities held by the public and $5.8 trillion owed to federal employees and veterans.

Continue Reading

The government?s overall net liability is calculated by subtracting net assets from liabilities. In 2010, the figure was $13.5 trillion.

The Government Accountability Office?s auditor?s report stated that it could not express an opinion on the government?s annual financial statements, citing serious financial management problems at the Defense Department that made the department?s statements impossible to audit, the government?s ?inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernemtntal activity,? as well as its ?ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements.?

?Restoring fiscal sustainability will require substantial additional changes, including tax reforms to increase revenue and changes to make our entitlement programs sustainable over time,? Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a messaging accompanying the report.

He added, ?But these reforms, if done in a broad-based and balanced way and phased in over time to give Americans a chance to plan and adjust, will not impose an unfair or excessive burden on the citizens of this country.?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1211_70822_html/43995321/SIG=11m1r67js/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70822.html

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Company sues credit union manager for embezzling funds by opening fake loan

A former credit union employee is being sued after he embezzled more than $200,000 by opening fake auto loans in the names of credit union members.

Cumis Insurance Society on Friday filed a lawsuit against Javier Herrera, who worked as the West Valley City branch manager for Utah Central Credit Union from May 2008 until May 2010. Beginning in August 2008, the lawsuit alleges, he opened loans under members? names without their consent and then pocketed the money. When the scheme was discovered, and about $235,000 was missing, the man was terminated and the credit union made a claim on its insurance for protecting money lost due to employee dishonesty.

Cumis paid the credit union about $220,000 ? the total sum minus the deductible and interest potentially earned on the loans ? and then sued Herrera for the money.

The insurance company is asking for the money, and "punitive and exemplary" damages to be determined at trial and attorneys fees. The company is also asking that Herrera not be able to get rid of or sell any assets, and that a trust be created for all of Herrera?s single and joint accounts and property.

smcfarland@sltrib.com

Twitter: @sheena5427

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53178258-78/credit-union-herrera-money.html.csp

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NFL makes 2 changes in concussion protocols (AP)

NEW YORK ? The NFL is changing how it handles concussion examinations after Browns quarterback Colt McCoy went back into a Dec. 8 game without being tested for one.

A certified athletic trainer, paid by the league, will be at each game to monitor play and provide medical staffs with "any relevant information that may assist them in determining the most appropriate evaluation and treatment," the NFL said in a statement Wednesday. The trainers will not diagnose nor prescribe treatment and can't order that players be removed from a game.

Their presence is intended to assist team medical staffs in addressing a variety of injuries.

The trainer's "role will be to provide information to team medical staffs that might have been missed due to a lack of a clear view of the play or because they were attending to other players or duties," the statement said.

The trainer will be in a booth upstairs with access to video replay and direct communication to the medical staffs of both teams.

"In most cases, the athletic trainer will be affiliated with a major college program in the area or will have previously been affiliated with an NFL club," the league said.

The league and each team are in the process of selecting the trainers.

Also, team medical staffs will be permitted to use cell phones during games to gather information relating to the care of an injured player. This is not limited to concussions.

McCoy was hurt on a helmet-to-helmet hit by Steelers linebacker James Harrison late in Pittsburgh's win. He returned to the game after missing just two plays without being examined for a concussion.

The quarterback wasn't tested until after the game, when he was diagnosed with a concussion. McCoy is still experiencing symptoms and hasn't played since.

The Browns said McCoy wasn't showing symptoms of a concussion during the game, so they didn't test him. Team doctors were treating other players and didn't see the impact from Harrison's vicious hit. Harrison later was suspended for one game for being a repeat offender and returned to practice Wednesday after missing a loss at San Francisco.

The NFL said the Browns would not be disciplined for their handling of the situation.

"Clubs also were reminded of the importance of team coaching and medical staffs continuing to work together to ensure that full information is available at all times to medical staffs," the NFL's statement said, "that players do not take steps to avoid evaluations, and that concussions continue to be managed in a conservative and medically appropriate way."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_concussions

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Smashburger named most?promising of '11

What if someone told you the most promising company in America aimed to compete with multiple multibillion-dollar giants in a traditional industry with un-software-like profit margins? Then what if they told you that the same company had clocked explosive growth through the deepest recession in recent memory ? and it was just getting started?

Meet Smashburger, tops on our new list of America?s 100 Most Promising Companies ? privately held up-and-comers with compelling business models, strong management teams, notable customers, strategic partners and precious investment capital. Since 2007, the Denver-headquartered patty chain will have grown to 143 locations (half company-owned, half franchised) and $54 million in annual revenue by the end of 2011. Another 450 franchise agreements are already on the books.

Forbes.com slideshow: See which companies made the ranking

The companies on our AMPC list hail from 22 industries, with software-and-services taking the biggest slice (35 percent). Some fast facts: 90 have raised outside capital; 70 have a CEO who is also one of the founders; 12 have one younger than 35 years old; 7 have yet to generate revenue; and one sells a burger topped with pastrami. None of these outfits may blossom into the next Google or Apple, but all, it appears, have bright futures.

Take BOKU, at No. 2. Founded in 2008, the company (fiscal 2010 sales: $55 million) creates software that helps online merchants process payments using a customer?s cell phone number in place of a credit card; it then takes a small cut of each transaction. Big customers include Facebook and Electronic Arts. BOKU has raised $42 million in venture capital from stalwarts Andreesen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and others. Founders Mark Britto, Ron Hirson and Erich Ringewald have each sold companies they founded or lead.

Digital Broadcasting Group, at No. 3, launched in 2006. It produces online videos ? marketing disguised as entertainment ? for corporations and places them (as well as traditional video ads) among a network of 2,600 websites. Customers include Wal-Mart Stores, American Express, Coca-Cola and Ford. CEO Chris Young sold KlipMart, an online video ad company, to Doubleclick in 2006.

Those are the kind of ingredients promising companies are made of ? which leads us to the point of this whole exercise.

You?d have to be living under the dirt that?s under the rock not to have noticed that the business press loves rankings. Readers devour, dissect and debate them. More to the point, rankings sell advertising ? and that leads to more rankings.

Company rankings are a popular confection, if often an ultimately unsatisfying one. That?s because most are based on a single metric (such as revenue, assets or market capitalization) and don?t take a comprehensive approach to evaluating a business? health ? or more importantly, its potential.

Sizing up younger, privately held firms is even harder. Their fortunes can change very quickly, and they aren?t obliged to share their plans and finances with the public. The default: Cajole as many companies as possible into revealing their annual sales figures and stack them accordingly.

These short cuts are understandable given the effort, resources and skill deeper due diligence requires ? not to mention the abiding fascination with rankings, however unenlightening they might be.

How, then, to find hidden gems with scintillating prospects?

To sharpen our search, FORBES teamed up with CB Insights, a New York City-based data firm that tracks investment in high-growth private companies. With $650,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation, CB Insights has developed complex software called Mosaic to help lenders and investors dole out capital more efficiently. We married Mosaic?s data-crunching with old-fashioned reporting to assemble a list of up-and-comers with big growth potential.

Mosaic mines data from 30,000 sources (from press releases and social networks to job boards and court filings) to come up with one score that measures a company?s potential. Think of it as the SAT score for private companies ? something that lenders, investors and vendors can use to quickly gauge whom they want to do business with. ?Five years from now we expect Mosaic will help the best private companies access capital at more favorable terms and win more customers,? says CB Insights cofounder Anand Sanwal, 38.

Mosaic?s algorithms look at a host of signals that collectively paint a picture of a company?s health. Example: If turnover in the management ranks is ticking up, that?s a negative signal. A new distribution deal with a large strategic partner is a favorable signal. The hard part: extracting all those ?digital footprints? (job postings, product reviews, press reports, debt filings ? all in different digital formats) and assembling them in a meaningful way.

There are two powerful advantages to this approach. First, aggregating data from thousands of sources would take far too long to do by hand. Second: ?Mosaic assesses these dimensions not just on an absolute basis but relative to competitors,? adds Sanwal. ?It implicitly considers relative performance.?

Our hunt began with a free online survey. Entrepreneurs could nominate their own companies or be nominated by those familiar with their businesses (lawyers, accountants, p.r. types). Contenders had to be privately held, for-profit, stand-alone businesses (as opposed to divisions of bigger firms). Companies that hadn?t yet generated revenue but had compelling business models were given a look, too.

(To encourage participation, we offered contenders the chance to be selected to attend a two-and-a-half day small business boot camp at Aileron, in Dayton, Ohio, established by billionaire pet food titan Clay Mathile. Scroll down to the Video section of the America?s Most Promising Companies lander page to see Mathile conduct one-on-one mentoring sessions with four AMPC list members. Click here for highlights from our own 90-minute chat with Mathile.)

Using the Mosaic score as a preliminary ranking, we honed the list by gathering additional data via a second, more detailed survey (also free) to get a better sense of each company?s growth potential. We asked for annual revenue and the number of employees for 2008 and 2010, and estimates for 2011. (Companies had to verify existing revenue via a corporate tax return or an accounting opinion letter from an independent accounting firm.) We also took into account the size of the addressable market, the strength of major competitors, the experience of the management team, any significant customers and strategic partnerships, the amount of outside capital raised and how much of the founders? own stash was on the line (the more the better). Then we spoke with representatives of each company to confirm the information and get additional color on their operations.

Our ranking of 100 promising companies is chocked with interesting outfits poised to take off. Here are a few more names and nuggets from the Top 20:

No. 7 ? Allonhill
Annual revenue (latest fiscal year): $19.3 million

Founded in 2008, the company audits individual residential mortgage loan files for institutions that buy or sell mortgage-backed securities. Everything from the borrower?s income and property value to the authenticity of signatures gets a look from one of Allonhill?s 530 employees. Founder and CEO Sue Allon funded the company with proceeds from the sale of her last company, Murrayhill, which also managed risk for mortgage securities, in 2004.

No. 11 ? uSamp
Annual revenue (latest fiscal year): $22.7 million

Founded in 2008, the company makes online-survey software and has a network of 6.5 million respondents globally in its stable. The company charges according to the number and demographics of the respondents. J.D. Power & Associates is a marquee customer. Co-founders Gregg Lavin and Matt Dusig are childhood friends who together launched and sold two previous companies. They raised $10 million in venture capital from Openview Partners in 2010.

No. 14 ? Contour
Annual revenue (latest fiscal year): $15.1 million

Makes small, rugged cameras that athletes attach to their helmets or bodies for hands-free recording. Each camera comes with free video editing software; other features include a Bluetooth connection that turns a user?s mobile phone into a viewfinder. Sells through Best Buy and Dick?s Sporting Goods. Marc Barros and Jason Green started the company in 2003 after winning $20,000 at an undergraduate business plan competition. They raised $5 million from Montlake Capital and Black Oak Capital in November 2010.

No. 19 ? IntegriChain
Annual revenue (latest fiscal year): $5.7 million

Founded in 2007, the company makes software for pharmaceutical companies looking for a better window into their ?forward supply chains? ? that is, sales and inventory data from distributors and local pharmacies. (Say you wanted to tally the inventory at a single pharmacy, or even see the number of units that pharmacy sold on any given day.) Clients ? including Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, and GlaxoSmithKline ? sign three- to five-year contracts for access to IntegriChain?s dashboard which can display data myriad ways to make sales teams more efficient. The company raised $3.25 million in venture capital in early 2011.

More from Forbes.com

? 2011 Forbes.com

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45618537/ns/business-forbes_com/

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Perry double dips state salary and pension

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Copper Cup Coffee Shop in Cherokee, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Copper Cup Coffee Shop in Cherokee, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signs a autograph after a campaign stop at the Copper Cup Coffee Shop in Cherokee, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry greets a supporter after a campaign stop at the Copper Cup Coffee Shop in Cherokee, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a double-dipper, collecting a salary and retirement benefits simultaneously, according to a personal financial disclosure form made public Friday.

The report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows that Perry is collecting his $7,700 monthly state pension in addition to his nearly $133,000 annual salary as governor. State law allows any employee to begin collecting retirement benefits if their years of military and state service plus their age adds up to more than 80.

To qualify, the 61-year-old Perry counted his five years in the Air Force and 24 years in public service in Texas, including as a part-time legislator, agriculture commissioner, lieutenant governor and governor.

Perry was required to file the disclosure form because he is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

His decision to begin collecting retirement pay while on the public payroll will likely expose him to criticism from conservatives who complain that public sector employees are too generously compensated. The Republican comptroller of Texas said just this week that lawmakers need to review the pension system because it was burdening state finances.

The Texas Democratic Party condemned Perry's decision.

"When you start getting more money from your employer while also continuing to receive your salary, that's called a raise," spokesman Anthony Gutierrez said. "If Perry wants retirement benefits he should do us all a favor and actually retire. Giving himself a raise while thousands of teachers are losing their jobs is unconscionable."

Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for Perry's presidential campaign, issued a terse statement citing the state code that permitted the governor to begin collecting his retirement pay in January of this year.

Sullivan said Perry continues to pay into the state employees' retirement system with a 6.5 percent withholding from his salary.

On the disclosure form, Perry also reported a net worth of at least $1.3 million. The forms only require candidates to report the value of their personal assets in broad ranges, making it difficult to calculate an exact figure.

He reported a total annual income of $290,000. Perry listed his wife's salary of $65,000. Anita Perry is a consultant for a nonprofit organization.

Perry also reported interest and dividend income from his family ranch, a share in an oil and gas company and a money market account.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-16-US-Perry-Personal%20Finance/id-a823c6e6fe8e4e6d9c75a9b0aaaa56c1

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Jailed Hezbollah commander turned over to Iraqis (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The last American prisoner in Iraq, a Hezbollah commander linked to the kidnapping deaths of four U.S. soldiers, was turned over to the Iraqi government Friday, the White House said.

U.S. officials have long feared that such a transfer would lead to Ali Mussa Daqduq's release from prison. But his case became enmeshed in both international diplomacy and the Washington political debate over how best to prosecute suspected terrorists.

Under President George W. Bush, prosecutors had planned to someday charge Daqduq in a U.S. criminal court. But those plans were scrapped after Obama took office and lawmakers began restricting the president's ability to bring terrorist suspects into the United States for trial.

Many Republicans had wanted Daqduq prosecuted before a military tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. The Obama administration had hoped a compromise would be to prosecute Daqduq in a first-of-its-kind military commission on U.S. soil.

But the Iraqi government would not let the United States take Daqduq out of the country for trial, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

"We have sought and received assurances that he will be tried for his crimes," Vietor said Friday.

It was not immediately clear what charges he could face. The U.S. has said he was part of a brazen raid in which four American soldiers were abducted and killed in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala in 2007.

Iraq has had a shoddy record on detainee security. Last year, just a week after the U.S. turned more than 1,000 detainees at its Camp Cropper prison over to Iraqi control, four al-Qaida-linked detainees escaped. An investigation showed that the detainees had inside help.

That had lawmakers worried that Daqduq would return to Hezbollah soon after his transfer. Shortly before the White House announcement, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was gathering signatures on a letter to Obama.

"Daqduq's Iranian paymasters would like nothing more than to see him transferred to Iraqi custody, where they could effectively pressure for his escape or release," Kirk wrote. "We truly hope you will not let that happen."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, fumed over the release of Daqduq.

"Rather than ensure justice for five American soldiers killed by Hezbollah terrorist Ali Musa Daqduq, the administration turned him over to Iraq, once again completely abdicating its responsibility to hold on to deadly terrorists. Given Iraq's history of releasing detainees, I expect it is only a matter of time before this terrorist will be back on the battlefield."

Vietor said a trial at Guantanamo Bay was never an option, either for the Iraqis or for the administration.

"The policy of this administration, because we believe it's in our national security interest, is to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, not add to the population," he said.

Two Iraqi officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said Daqduq was in the custody of Iraqi judiciary authorities in Baghdad. Daqduq will stand before an Iraq investigative judge, one official said. Investigative judges decide whether there is enough evidence for a trial and recommend specific charges, somewhat like a grand jury does in the U.S. system.

___

Associated Press writers Adam Goldman and Donna Cassata in Washington and Qassim Abdul Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_go_ot/us_hezbollah_prisoner

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Snowmageddon: What's behind extreme winter weather

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T.J. Ford - Training Camp

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BP Oil Spill: Engineering Experts Attack Industry Safety Culture

WASHINGTON -- BP and the oil industry drilling in the Gulf of Mexico lacked the proper safety attitude to handle the large risks of deep-water drilling, leading to the many bad decisions behind the nation's worst offshore spill, a panel of expert engineers said Wednesday.

Despite better safety practices, the experts worried that the improvements could fade without new steps. They pointed to NASA and how lessons the agency learned after the 1986 Challenger disaster eventually dimmed, leading to the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The National Academy of Engineering, which advises the federal government, cited errors that combined to make the well platform explode and oil spill, but noted a problem with the safety culture underlying last year's 172 million gallon spill at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The industrial management involved with drilling the Macondo well had not adequately understood and coped with the system safety challenges presented by offshore drilling operations," the 136-page report said. "This raises questions about the industry's overall safety preparedness, the ability to handle the complexities of the deep-water operations, and industry oversight to approve and monitor well plans and operational practices and personnel competency and training."

That's a problem because the report called drilling in the Gulf's deep waters "some of the most complex and most risky ventures conducted by commercial enterprises."

Experts said a deficient safety culture led BP to rely on blowout preventers ? a 57-foot-tall, 400-ton system of well control devices ? as equipment that just couldn't fail.

The trouble is that even before the April 2010 well blowout, "there were numerous warnings to both industry and regulators about potential failures of existing" blowout preventers, the report said. The report pointed to studies in 2001, 2002, 2004, and a 1999 well blowout and fire off the Louisiana coast.

"One needs to understand that they do not work all the time," said panel chairman Donald Winter, a former Navy secretary and engineering professor at the University of Michigan. BP and all the industry had "a misplaced confidence that the blowout preventer could provide a guarantee if you will, an insurance policy, against a blowout."

Panel member Roger McCarthy, a private engineering consultant who has investigated past oil spills, said blowout preventers are treated like drilling's circuit-breakers, but there's no safety group certifying them in the same that Underwriters Laboratories approves key electrical safety devices in homes.

Winter said the safety culture issue was apparent in the industry's attitude toward risks involved in drilling: Instead of acknowledging that there are risks and that industry officials need to make intelligent decisions comparing risk and business decisions, they had an unrealistic attitude that their actions never added risks.

Like other studies of the BP spill, the report highlighted several technical failures behind the disaster, with no lone cause. But Winter said the bad decision that was uppermost to him was the decision to abandon the well temporarily, which is normal, even though the cement poured in the well failed important pressure tests.

"Once they made the decision to basically disregard the tests," it set the chain-of-events for all that followed, Winter said.

In a statement, BP said it "has acknowledged its role in the accident and has taken concrete steps to further enhance safety and risk management throughout its global operations."

The experts do say drilling safety has improved in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We think it is indeed in fact a reasonable process to continue drilling at this point in time," Winter said at news conference. "But further improvements in safety can in fact be made and should be made."

The independence of the National Academy of Engineering means the report is likely to carry more weight in Congress than some of other investigations. Republican lawmakers have criticized prior reports by a presidential commission saying that the panel was biased.

A joint federal investigation also has inherent conflicts of interest because the committee was comprised of those who regulate the offshore drilling industry.

Since the disaster, the Obama administration has reorganized the offshore drilling agency and boosted safety regulations. But Congress has yet to pass a single piece of legislation to address safety gaps highlighted by the disaster. House Republicans, meanwhile, have passed bills to jump start offshore drilling.

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Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/14/bp-oil-spill-safety-culture_n_1148412.html

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