Senate backs quick withdrawal from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has voted to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

The 62-33 vote on Thursday reflected the nation's war-weariness after more than a decade of fighting.

Although the vote was for a nonbinding amendment to the defense bill, it sent a strong signal about the ongoing conflict. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon sponsored the measure.

It also set the stage for a fight with the House, which passed a bill in May that calls for President Barack Obama to maintain a force of at least 68,000 troops through the end of 2014.

The House and Senate will have to reconcile their competing versions of the defense policy bill.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-backs-quick-withdrawal-afghanistan-200918737--finance.html

ufc McKayla Maroney gronkowski jeremy renner best buy black friday deals breaking dawn part 2 breaking dawn part 2

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony saw surges in game console sales ...

First off is Microsoft, which sold approximately 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles.? Recent console exclusive title releases such Halo 4 may have had something to do with the impressive sales figure?and evidently, 343i's take on Halo also helped the surge in Xbox LIVE subscriptions.? Impressive as it may be, that Microsoft sold 750K units of the Xbox 360, it is worth noting that last year?s Black Friday sale of Xboxes is actually higher?almost 250,000 more in 2011.

Sony had two consoles on the market that sold well during the Black Friday frenzy stretch.? According to Sony, 525,000 PlayStation 3 were sold from Nov. 18^th to Nov. 24^th.? The handheld Vita didn?t do too shabby either, as 160,000 units landed in the hands of gamers who wanted satisfy their habits on the go.? The Japanese-tech giant has been struggling recently?with a record $6.4bn in losses for the 2012 fiscal year?and is trying to restructure through projected cuts in operating costs, and pink slips to about 6% of its workforce (around 10,000 people).

Nintendo?s primary market is gaming, so Black Friday was generous to the Japanese console powerhouse.? The latest console from Nintendo sold 400,000 units?albeit, it is being sold at below manufacturing costs.? The Wii, if you want to consider it defunct, sold an impressive 300,000 units.? Its smaller counterpart, the Wii Mini, was only recently announced and will launch in Canada on December 7^th?Canada will serve as a ?test? market for the network-less miniaturized Wii.

Two of Nintendo?s handheld, the DS and 3DS raked in 525,000 sales combined (DS with 275,000 and 3DS with 250,000).? In this particular niche, Nintendo has been dominating the rivaling PS Vita handheld console.

This is just a total guess, but a lot of the consoles purchased on or around Black Friday probably won?t see the spark of an electrical outlet until Christmas morning.

Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/nintendo-microsoft-and-sony-saw-surges-in-game-console-sales-during-black-friday/18122.html

2012 white house correspondents dinner forrest gump bernard hopkins nfl draft grades devils dodgers rachel maddow

Mississippi's only abortion clinic fights to stay open

By NBC News and Reuters

Mississippi's only abortion clinic will have to close unless a federal judge halts a new state law requiring its physicians to obtain admitting privileges to local hospitals, according to a court motion filed on Wednesday.

In the motion, the Jackson Women?s Health Organization renewed its request for a federal judge to prevent state officials from enforcing a law which went into effect on July 1.

Under the new law, the clinic must hire a doctor who is a board-certified OB-GYN and who also has admitting privileges to a local hospital where patients may be referred if further treatment is needed.

---

The clinic's providers are board-certified OB-GYNs, but the only one with admitting privileges when the law passed provides limited service at the clinic. Currently on the clinic?s website is a statement seeking a doctor who could perform abortion care for patients up to 16 weeks in the pregnancy.

Mississippi, which had as many as 14 abortion providers in the early 1980s, has some of the country's strictest abortion laws and one of the lowest abortion rates. It also has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the United States - more than 60 percent above the national average in 2010.

In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, 2,297 abortions were performed in Mississippi with no deaths and one complication, according to the health department.

Any facility in Mississippi that performs 10 or more abortions a month or 100 or more in a year needs a license from the state. The Jackson Women?s Health Organization in Jackson has been the sole licensed abortion clinic in the state since 2002.

Supporters of the law have made it no secret they would like to end all abortions in Mississippi, although they have also said it was designed to protect women?s health.

"It is now clear that plaintiffs have no hope of being able to comply with the Admitting Privileges Requirement," said the filing by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the clinic in court.

The state Department of Health, tasked with enforcing the law, gave the clinic until January to comply.

But clinic owner Diane Derzis told Reuters she sent applications on behalf of all the physicians to every hospital within a 30-mile radius. All of the hospitals ultimately rejected the requests or refused to even consider them, she said.

Jackson Women's Health Organization, based in the city of Jackson, has operated in the state for 17 years and has been Mississippi's only clinic since 2002. Its closure would mean an end to elective abortion in the state and would force women to travel elsewhere for the procedure.?

More content from NBCNews.com:

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

?

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/28/15520726-mississippis-only-abortion-clinic-petitions-court-to-stay-open?lite

how to make moonshine joel osteen emmy rossum jay z and beyonce the big chill tony blankley charles barkley

Here Are Your Answers To Questions About Internet Promotion ...

Even those with little knowledge of personal computers have established successful businesses online, so you can do the same. The following article will give you the information you need to become a successful Internet marketer.

The formatting of your website?s text plays an important role in its attractiveness and success. Emphasize a word by bolding or italicizing it. Doing this clearly expresses a specific point to your customers.

TIP! Offer an online freebie that is related to your company and site. Brand it with your logo, and send it to other websites that offer freebies.

Try using the word ?guarantee? in an advertisement when deploying an website marketing campaign. Customers are more likely to buy a product if they don?t have to worry about losing money. There are many various guarantees that can be offered. Try giving a 90 day or lifetime guarantee where it will fit. Select which guarantee is best for the product that is being sold.

You should find out about advertising if you want to create business online. Advertising can greatly increase the profits of your business. Advertising can give you access to customers you might not find in any other manner.

TIP! If you offer a free course on your site, you can easily attract visitors interested in the topic. This is a great strategy, especially when it involves a course because you can package it with another related product.

Creating an effective user interface where customers can view your products is important for variety and overall success. Adding content while keeping an easy to navigate structure is key.

To encourage people to visit your site over others, work to offer something unique. Relevant articles will also improve your visibility to the major search engines. If you can make a truly exclusive offer to your website?s visitors, you already have the foundation on which you can build a really great Website marketing campaign.

TIP! Find unique methods to offer prizes. For example, weave a batch of keywords into an article, and turn it into a word search for your potential clients.

Take a good look at your site from the point of view of a new customer. Is it simple to use? Is your content fun and interesting? Can orders be placed with clarity and in a short amount of time? It?s pointless to get customers on your page via SEO only to lose their business because your page is boring or confusing.

Show proof that your product works on your website. If you can prove the effectiveness of your product through videos or testimonials, your customers will be more apt to believe in your products and services. This is a great illustration of why you should sell products you have actually used whenever possible.

TIP! Video marketing is an increasingly important tool you can put into your business?s Internet marketing toolbox. Create videos of yourself demonstrating your products and share them on sites such as YouTube.

You can always put some products together in a bundle and sell them at a discount. Do not disguise any portion of the terms of redeeming such an offer. Customers truly appreciate full disclosure.

Write articles about your business and send them to magazines for publishing. Always include a link to your site along with a small blurb about your business and your expertise and experiences. A lot of editors and webmasters out there need some incentive, so offer them some things like links, affiliate commissions, or some other type of reward.

TIP! It is important to research how people feel about your product or brand, specifically if you are promoting an online event or sale. See how often your online events and other promotions are shared, either on social networks or in related blogs and forums.

Affiliate marketing takes a lot of skill, from an artistic and scientific perspective. Before you start Affiliate marketing, do your research about both aspects. Use your creativity to build effective Web marketing techniques for your particular type of business.

TIP! Come up with some kind of service to offer free to those who utilize your site. Visitors who come for the freebie might check out the rest of your site if you get their attention.

People are more apt to listen to those who have an air of authority. Let people know you are the top dog. A label such as President or CEO is a great way to let people know that you are the one in charge.

When you are using internal links, be sure that you don?t forget to use keywords. Provide your consumers with links to other relevant site content in order to keep them on your site for a longer period of time. By offering them links to your internal content, you not only retain your readers, but you can improve your search engine visibility.

TIP! Viral videos can bring large numbers of visitors your way. You can?t just make a random video and expect it to go viral, but if you are inspired and create a viral hit, it will spike your traffic like nothing else.

Squeeze pages can be used to creates lists of contacts. It encourages visitors to share their email address. The things you can offer here are endless. You could offer up a free eBook, some type of other informational product, a discount on a future purchase, etc. This is a win-win. They get a nice discount and you can increase the power of your list overall.

It will take practice to master your particular area, but with some effort and persistence you greatly improve your odds of success. Make the most out of the advice from this article, and get going on your path to success.

TIP! Even if your business is just a home office with an internet presence, take the time to create a logo and slogan. Customers will remember you and your brand if you use marketing tools like this.

To obtain some additional info, take a look at this total discussion MLM How To because what you may discover will certainly supercharge your business and give you new insights into Internet Marketing.

?

To Your Success,
?

?

?
Mike Donaldson | MLM Attraction Marketing System | Blogging All The Way To The Bank

?
?

P.S. ? <Who else wants to discover how to earn tens of thousands in affiliate commission immediately and get paid even when you sleep? It?s Impossible NOT To Make Money With This Business

Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/getfreedom/blog/here-are-your-answers-to-questions-about-internet-promotion/

september 11 2001 dr oz serena williams blake lively RG3 Espn Fantasy Football Grandparents Day 2012

Thirsty Thursday: Satisfy Holiday Cravings with a Gingerbread Cocktail

Nov 29

by Kelsey Vala posted at 3:30 pm

Let?s face it. Building a gingerbread house is a lot of work. But the holiday season without gingerbread is like Rudolf without a red nose. Before you get your rolling pin ready and your gumdrops assembled, try consuming your gingerbread in liquid form with Alie and Georgia?s gently spiced Gingerbread Housed cocktail.

With just a few simple ingredients and a cocktail shaker, you?ll have a gingerbread treat that came together in just minutes. Start by infusing your rum the day before with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh ginger. Then the cocktail gets a dose of almond liqueur, vanilla extract and molasses, an essential component to anything gingerbread. Tame the robust mixture with a splash of heavy cream, and don?t forget the best part: the frosting and decorations. Rim the glass with snowy white frosting, and decorate with hot red cinnamon candies and gumdrops. It?s everything we love about gingerbread in a festive, holiday drink.

Bottoms up, folks:

Gingerbread Housed
Recipe courtesy Alie and Georgia

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. spiced infused rum
• 1 oz amaretto
• 1 oz heavy cream
• 1 tsp. molasses
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

Garnish:

• Vanilla frosting
• Red hots
• Gumdrops

Directions:

Infuse rum overnight by adding 10 whole cloves, a small sliced and peeled ginger root (or substitute with a teaspoon of powdered ginger), plus two whole nutmegs and two cinnamon sticks. In a shaker filled with ice, add the spiced rum, amaretto, heavy cream, vanilla, and molasses and shake vigorously. Set shaker aside and rim a glass tumbler or mug with icing and decorate with red hots and gumdrops. Pour the drink into the decorated mugs, and enjoy your liquid gingerbread house! Then make an appointment with your dentist.

Tags: Alie and Georgia Alie and Georgia Drink Recipes gingerbread holiday drink recipes

Source: http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2012/11/29/gingerbread-cocktail-recipe-for-your-holiday-party-menu/

bruce arians the misfits hook troy miracle andy whitfield kennedy

'Santa' showers $100 bills on storm-hit NJ, NY

NEW YORK (AP) ? A wealthy Missouri man posing as "Secret Santa" stunned New Yorkers on Thursday, handing $100 bills to many in Staten Island who had lost everything to Superstorm Sandy.

The Kansas City businessman is giving away $100,000 this holiday season, and spent the day in New Jersey and New York giving away thousands. But he says money is not the issue.

"The money is not the point at all," said the anonymous benefactor as he walked up to surprised Staten Island residents and thrust crisp bills into their hands. "It's about the random acts of kindness. I'm just setting an example, and if 10 percent of the people who see me emulate what I'm doing, anybody can be a Secret Santa!"

A police motorcade with sirens took him across the borough, passing a church ripped from its foundations and homes surrounded by debris. At a nearby disaster center run by volunteers, a woman quietly collected free food and basic goods.

"Has anyone given you any money?" he asked her.

"No," replied Carol Hefty, a 72-year-old retiree living in a damaged home.

"Here," he said, slipping the money into her hand.

"But this isn't real money!" said Hefty, glancing at the red "Secret Santa" stamped onto the $100.

"It is, and it's for you," he tells her.

She breaks down weeping and hugs him.

And so it went, again and again.

Secret Santa started his daylong East Coast visit with stops in Elizabeth, N.J. Keeping close watch over the cash handouts was his security entourage ? police officers in uniform from New York and New Jersey, plus FBI agents and former agents from various states. Some have become supporters, wearing red berets marked with the word "elf" and assisting "Santa" to choose locations where people are most in need. He himself wears an "elf" cap and a red top, plus blue jeans.

The group must choose stops carefully, and refrain from simply appearing outdoors in a neighborhood, lest they be mobbed by people hearing that cash is being handed out.

At a stop at a Staten Island Salvation Army store, one woman is looking over a $4 handbag. "But you get $100!" he tells her, offering the bill.

"Are you serious?" said Prudence Onesto, her eyes widening. "Really?"

"Secret Santa," he deadpans, breaking into a broad grin.

The 55-year-old unemployed woman opened her arms and offered him a hug.

An aisle over, 41-year-old Janice Kennedy is overwhelmed: She received four $100 bills.

Unemployed with a 2-year-old daughter, she lost her home in the storm and lives with her boyfriend. The money will go toward Christmas presents and her toddler's next birthday.

"You're not alone. God bless you!" the Missouri stranger tells Phillip and Lisa Morris, a couple in their 30s whose home was badly damaged ? but now had an extra $300 in cash for rebuilding.

Secret Santa took up the holiday tradition from a close Kansas City friend, Larry Stewart, who for years handed out bills to unsuspecting strangers in thrift stores, food pantries and shelters. Stewart died in 2007 after giving away more than $1 million to strangers each December in mostly $100 bills.

The current Secret Santa will not divulge his name. Nor does he allow his face to be photographed. But he said he's been to cities across America, from San Diego to Chicago to Charlotte, N.C.

A reporter asked whether he might be a sort of Warren Buffett of Kansas City. He smiled mysteriously and said only that he admires Buffett for his philanthropy. "And I hope I give all my money away before I die."

Then, as suddenly as he arrived, the generous stranger left for the airport and home, riding in the volunteer motorcade he jokingly calls "my sleigh," zipping with ease through red lights and city traffic.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/santa-showers-100-bills-storm-hit-nj-ny-014621540.html

critics choice awards 2012 colbert president huntingtons disease rob the firm new york philharmonic marines urinating on taliban

UK student escapes US extradition in copyright case

LONDON (Reuters) - A British university student who launched a website linking to TV shows and films online for free has reached an agreement to avoid extradition to the US and possible jail over copyright infringement allegations, the High Court heard on Wednesday.

A deal struck on Wednesday means Richard O'Dwyer, the 24-year-old creator of website TVShack, which helped people watch free films but did not host content itself, will travel to the United States to pay a small fine and will not be extradited.

O'Dwyer faced becoming the first Briton to be extradited for such an offence and his lawyers argued he would effectively become a test case for copyright law in the United States.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launched a petition in June against the possible extradition and called O'Dwyer "the human face of the battle between the content industry and the interests of the general public."

The court heard O'Dwyer, from Sheffield in northern England, is set to go to the United States within two weeks and pledge not to break copyright law again, the Press Association said.

Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May agreed to O'Dwyer's surrender after a court ruled in January that his extradition would be lawful.

In October, May blocked the extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon on charges of damaging U.S. military systems in a case campaigners said highlighted the unbalanced nature of Britain's extradition treaty with the United States.

(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva; editing by Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-student-escapes-us-extradition-copyright-case-163020715.html

Frank Ocean Gay scarlett johansson bill clinton andy roddick Costa Rica Earthquake sandra fluke kellie pickler

Merkel's election schedule weighs on Greek bailout

BERLIN (AP) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel's upcoming re-election battle is shaping Europe's response to bailing out debt-ridden Greece.

Her strategy: Do just enough to keep Greece afloat but spare German voters ? for now ? the news that even more of their money will be required to get the Greeks back on their feet.

Merkel has led Europe's biggest economy since 2005. The greatest risk to her re-election bid, pollsters and analysts say, is a dramatic worsening of Europe's debt crisis ? such as Greece exiting the eurozone, or a Greek debt write-off costing billions in German taxpayer money.

A deal reached Tuesday by the 17 nations that use the euro is a patchwork of measures to plug new shortfalls in Greece's budget and trim its debt load over the coming years. But it stopped short of forgiving some of the country's debt ? having eurozone creditors like Germany take a so-called "haircut."

"Greece's debt is not sustainable, even with the new measures, so the problem will be back in 2014 at the latest," said Christoph Weil, an economist with Commerzbank.

But losing more money on rescuing the Greeks and other economically weak European Union nations could be politically toxic in Germany, where Merkel faces a national election in September. So far, Merkel's hard-nosed approach to Europe's debt crisis has bolstered her popularity at home.

"Ms. Merkel doesn't want to stand in front of her voters and tell them that the Greek rescue will cost taxpayers a couple of billions," Weil added.

Many economists say that Greece's debt burden ? forecast to reach some 190 percent of gross domestic product next year ? can only be managed by writing off more government loans. But Merkel and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble were the most outspoken opponents of such a step, instead insisting on austerity measures and structural reforms.

"A haircut is urgently necessary. This constant strategy of muddling through instead of tackling the problem won't work in the long run," Weil said.

Greece is currently heading into its sixth consecutive year of a deep recession with unemployment hovering around 25 percent.

Tuesday's deal forecasts that Greece's debt will shrink to 124 percent in 2020 and "sustainably less" than 110 percent only two years later. Many private economists call those projections wishful thinking, saying they are based on overly optimistic budget and growth assumptions ? especially with the overall eurozone now in recession.

Recent German public opinion surveys consistently show Merkel's conservative bloc as the country's strongest party, though her junior coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, are struggling, possibly jeopardizing her ability to form a new coalition government.

Neither Merkel's coalition nor the two main opposition parties are currently seen as winning a clear majority to form a government.

Analysts have estimated that a full-fledged haircut on Greek rescue loans could cost Germany, the main contributor to the bailouts, up to ?17 billion ($22 billion) ? more than 5 percent of Berlin's annual budget.

The mass-circulation daily Bild, never a fan of bailing out Athens, asked in a headline Wednesday: "Will this never stop? Yet more billions for Greece."

"I say that a haircut hasn't been avoided ? it has been delayed until a time after the parliamentary election," said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a leader of the main opposition Social Democrats.

He says Merkel's government was concealing the truth for fear of being punished at the polls. Other German lawmakers agreed.

"One must get the impression that the German voting schedule was more important here than the basics of math," said Priska Hinz of the opposition Greens party. "It remains unclear how Greece can return to financial markets and how that is to be financed."

In rejecting of a debt write-off, the government "shies away from telling its people the truth and clearly say that keeping Greece in the eurozone does not only make sense but will also have a cost," she added.

Still, Germany's opposition is expected to join the government in approving the Tuesday deal to make sure Greece doesn't go bankrupt and abandon the euro. Parliament is expected to vote on Friday.

For his part, Schaeuble rejected the claims that Germany's response to the Greek crisis was being driven by the election calendar. Instead, he defended the Tuesday deal, saying it leaves no doubt that Greece must first implement austerity measures and structural reforms for the bailout to work.

But Schaeuble acknowledged that the new measures for Greece not only consist of loans but might cost Germany up to ?730 million ($950 million) next year alone.

Ulrich Kater, the chief economist of Germany's DekaBank, said it was understandable that the German government didn't want to make far-reaching decisions ahead of an election.

"That shows how difficult it is to manage the eurozone, with its 17 nations where there's always an election looming somewhere," he said.

___

Juergen Baetz can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/merkels-election-schedule-weighs-greek-bailout-174002807--finance.html

james harrison falcons giants game norman borlaug santorum new hampshire debate rupaul

With Some Geeky Tweaking, China&#39;s Web Users Can Easily Leap ...

While it?s worth remembering that most Chinese web users don?t bother to circumvent the Great Firewall internet restrictions (as folks have ample homegrown social and entertainment services), the WSJ reckons that more people than ever are actually leaping the wall to check out YouTube or Twitter thanks to some fairly simple geeky tweaking.

All it takes is for the ?hosts? file inside a Windows or Mac computer ? or an Android phone ? to be modified with a list of alternative IP addresses for a blocked site you might want to access. This can be done for free. Increasingly, more and more tech-savvy Chinese web users are helping out by maintaining updated lists of which hosts tweaks still work, and then making these lists available online. Right now, these can be found all over the web in Chinese, even on Baidu?s Wenku e-books platform, as pictured here:

Crowdsourced lists of ?host? file tweaks help Chinese web users access blocked sites such as YouTube. Click to enlarge.

One such individual helping his fellow netizens leap the Great Firewall is Felix Hsu, whom the WSJ talked to. He says, ?Lots of netizens are eager to get to know what?s happening behind the wall, but it?s not easy for them.? Felix helps run a site (sadly, no link is given) that collates these workarounds. He explains that the free service they?re providing (which was started in October 2011) saw a massive spike in traffic recently as China?s leadership changeover was met with deliberate throttling and slowing of many Chinese internet services. For one 24-hour period at the start of this month, every single Google service was blocked in China ? before some of them (obviously not the long-blocked ones like G+ or YouTube) became accessible again.

I get the feeling that most Chinese people who do this are only interested in finding fun things that most of do to pass the time on the web, such as watching kitten videos on YouTube. Nonetheless, Chinese authorities keep a close eye on overseas sites and often block those that are deemed to be carrying news that?s too controversial. That?s why the New York Times is the latest high-profile site to be blocked in the country.

[Source: WSJ China Real Time blog]

Report an error

About Steven Millward

Steven follows the shininess and brilliance of gadgets, social media and other cultural phenomena across Asia. Specialist areas of research include e-commerce, Android, smartphone adoption, and apps in general. He's currently based near Shanghai. If you have any tips or feedback, contact him via email, or on his Weibo or Twitter.

Source: http://www.techinasia.com/china-leap-great-firewall-host-file/

lamar d antoni fashion star andrew bird lizzie borden lizzie borden iona

Afghanistan Arrests Five University Students For Links To Taliban

Afghan intelligence officials have arrested five students at Nangarhar University for alleged links to the Taliban in Asadabad, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, according to an Afghan website.

To read the full report, click here.

YOU MUST BE A JTTM SUBSCRIBER TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT. TO SUBSCRIBE, CLICK HERE.

Source: http://thememriblog.org/urdupashtu/blog_personal/en/42088.htm

daytona 500 winner cleveland plain dealer barry sanders barry sanders john scott jimmie johnson juan pablo montoya crash

Risk of childhood obesity can be predicted at birth

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? A simple formula can predict at birth a baby's likelihood of becoming obese in childhood, according to a study published today in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

The formula, which is available as an online calculator, estimates the child's obesity risk based on its birth weight, the body mass index of the parents, the number of people in the household, the mother's professional status and whether she smoked during pregnancy.

The researchers behind the study hope their prediction method will be used to identify infants at high risk and help families take steps to prevent their children from putting on too much weight.

Childhood obesity is a leading cause of early type 2 diabetes and heart and circulatory disease, and is becoming more common in developed countries. According to NHS figures, 17 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls aged two to 15 in England are classified as obese.

The researchers developed the formula using data from a study set up in 1986 following 4000 children born in Finland. They initially investigated whether obesity risk could be assessed using genetic profiles, but the test they developed based on common genetic variations failed to make accurate predictions. Instead, they discovered that non-genetic information readily available at the time of birth was enough to predict which children would become obese. The formula proved accurate not just in the Finnish cohort, but in further tests using data from studies in Italy and the US.

"This test takes very little time, it doesn't require any lab tests and it doesn't cost anything," said Professor Philippe Froguel, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, who led the study.

"All the data we use are well-known risk factors for childhood obesity, but this is the first time they have been used together to predict from the time of birth the likelihood of a child becoming obese."

The 20 per cent of children predicted to have the highest risk at birth make up 80 per cent of obese children. The researchers suggest that services such as dieticians and psychologists could be offered to families with high-risk infants to help them prevent excessive weight gain.

"Once a young child becomes obese, it's difficult for them to lose weight, so prevention is the best strategy, and it has to begin as early as possible," said Professor Froguel. "Unfortunately, public prevention campaigns have been rather ineffective at preventing obesity in school-age children. Teaching parents about the dangers of over-feeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective."

Although common genetic variants did not prove to be helpful for predicting childhood obesity, the researchers say about one in 10 cases of obesity are caused by rare mutations that seriously affect appetite regulation. Tests for these mutations could become available to doctors in the next few years as the cost of DNA sequencing technology falls.

The Imperial researchers conducted the study in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Oulu, Finland; Harvard University in the US and the University of Verona, Italy. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council, Imperial College London, the University of Oulu and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

The obesity risk calculator is available online at http://files-good.ibl.fr/childhood-obesity/

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Imperial College London.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Anita Morandi, David Meyre, St?phane Lobbens, Ken Kleinman, Marika Kaakinen, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Vincent Vatin, Stefan Gaget, Anneli Pouta, Anna-Liisa Hartikainen, Jaana Laitinen, Aimo Ruokonen, Shikta Das, Anokhi Ali Khan, Paul Elliott, Claudio Maffeis, Matthew W. Gillman, Marjo-Riitta J?rvelin, Philippe Froguel. Estimation of Newborn Risk for Child or Adolescent Obesity: Lessons from Longitudinal Birth Cohorts. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (11): e49919 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049919

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/~3/3L_guxH0ow4/121128182739.htm

moonrise kingdom coachella lineup coachella 2012 lineup school delays joran van der sloot honey badger critics choice awards 2012

The Jim Olson-designed Gethsemane Lutheran Church celebrated its dedication this past Sunday. The event was featured in the Seattle Times

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Recognition/2540

armenian genocide asteroid mining memorial day ivan rodriguez planetary resources mothers day gift ideas natalee holloway

Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) ? Preventing infections from surgery is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million.

The measures included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Practices were standardized at the seven hospitals.

The Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons directed the project. They announced results on Wednesday.

___

Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-11-28-Hospital-Linked%20Infections/id-cbc939d14ab34ab09466524ecf451686

la dodgers lawrence o donnell magic johnson jetblue pilot solicitor general neighborhood watch dennis rodman

Stephanie Miller: ?I apologize? I?m a bad gay? (Americablog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/266975342?client_source=feed&format=rss

all star weekend lent undercover boss barbara walters tupelo honey limp bizkit stations of the cross

Engadget's holiday gift guide 2012: mainstream laptops

Welcome to the Engadget holiday gift guide! Picking presents for friends and loved ones is never a simple task, and with thousands of options for each category, buying technology can be an especially frustrating experience. We're here to help. Below you'll find today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to our hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. And don't forget to enter our giveaway -- leave a comment for a chance to nab AT&T's Samsung Exhilarate.

Ah, mainstream laptops. They may not have the same lightweight luster as their Ultrabook brethren, but they pack the beefy hardware to get you and the ones you love through several seasons of work and play. Our top choices below offer Windows 8 (and Mountain Lion) in pretty packages -- and at all spots on the pricing spectrum. Hop past the break for a closer look.

Continue reading Engadget's holiday gift guide 2012: mainstream laptops

Filed under: Apple, Sony, Dell

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/28/holiday-gift-guide-mainstream-laptops/

deep impact usssa baseball alex o loughlin the godfather cape breton bowling green marysville

Grapefruit makes drugs pack a stronger punch

A healthy breakfast of half a grapefruit? Not advisable if you are taking certain prescription drugs ? the interaction with the fruit could result in an inadvertent overdose.

To find out the extent of the effect, David Bailey of the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, reviewed the literature and prescribing information of various drugs for any mention of a reaction. He found that of the 85 drugs known to interact with grapefruit, 43 can result in severe adverse effects. The number has increased by 24 per cent since 2008 because new drugs have come onto the market.

Chemicals in the fruit destroy an enzyme in the body that normally breaks down substances such as drugs. That means the drug keeps circulating in the body, which can lead to overdose. A glass of the juice is enough, even if drunk hours before taking a drug, says Bailey.

The most serious adverse effect is a condition known as torsade de pointes, which can cause cardiac arrest and death. It can occur if you mix grapefruit and anticancer drugs.

"Care should definitely be taken with certain drugs," says Bill Widmer of the US Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Piece, Florida, but he adds that there are people who "believe the problem is overstated".

Journal reference: Canadian Medical Association Journal, DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.120951

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/26041aa0/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn225390Egrapefruit0Emakes0Edrugs0Epack0Ea0Estronger0Epunch0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

Paul Ryan Speech chris cooley chris cooley condoleezza rice Perry Hall High School bill cosby us open

The Unmitigated Inanity of Cyber Monday

Target is fully embracing the obnoxious Cyber Monday

Screen shot from Target.com.

Cyber Monday is a sham and an anachronism. It's the only fake holiday that's even stupider than Black Friday, and we should all boycott this insult to our intelligence.?

Four days ago, we gave thanks for what we had. The next day?nay, that very same night?we were implored to figuratively bust the doors of Best Buy and Wal-Mart in pursuit of sales, presumably so we?ll have something new to be thankful for next year. ("I'm thankful for my wonderful wife, this delicious turkey, and that incredible extra 30 percent off I took on a not-quite-flat screen around this time a year ago.?) Then came Small Business Saturday, a well-meaning yet fundamentally annoying effort to get people to patronize all the merchants they managed to avoid on Black Friday.

Now, on our first day back at work after stuffing our faces and unstuffing our wallets, we're supposed to "log on" for yet more unbelievable, never-to-be-seen-again markdowns on the hottest remaining items of the holiday season. Humbug.

Black Friday at least has the virtue of an appropriately apocalyptic-sounding appellation. Cyber Monday's inanity is unmitigated by the slightest hint of self-awareness. The mumbo jumbo begins with the name, evidently popularized in a 2005 press release from the online retailers? group Shop.org. Cyber, as a prefix or adjective evoking virtual reality, was nearing obsolescence even then. By now, Cyber Monday may be the only thing keeping the word from its rightful place in the dustbin of retrofuturism. Indeed, that?s where it had rested for decades until William Gibson brushed it off for his 1984 novel Neuromancer to coin the term cyberspace.* (He once explained that he settled on that buzzword because it felt both ?evocative and essentially meaningless.?)

The concept of Cyber Monday is as out of date as the moniker itself. In that seminal press release, the marketers noted that online sales had been spiking on the Mondays after Thanksgiving in recent years. The explanation: people taking advantage of their offices? fast broadband Internet connections to buy up whatever stuff they had failed to purchase in stores that weekend. In other words, Cyber Monday was originally a response to the problem of slow home dial-up Internet. The problem is mostly history?nearly two-thirds of U.S. households have access to broadband today, about twice the 2005 rate?yet the zombie solution lives on. And it?s getting bigger every year.

Why? Because retailers love nothing more than making consumers feel like they?ll be missing out if they don?t buy all the right stuff at the appointed time. Never mind that the whole point of online shopping is that you can do it at your own leisure, without having to miss work or school or Thanksgiving freaking dinner in the process. Somehow, the advertising industry has hoodwinked us into thinking that we have to drop everything today and make purchases or ? or what? Let?s not forget that sales are retailers? way of getting rid of stuff that they have to get rid of. If we don?t buy it today, they?ll find a new way to palm it off on us tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after Christmas.

This Cyber Monday, it?s worth remembering the true origin of the term ?cyber? ?the one that predates even Gibson. It?s from the 1940s neologism cybernetics, derived from the Greek kybernetes, or ?steersman.? Its English meaning, loosely: the science of control.

It?s time for the public to retake the helm and steer this marketing monstrosity back where it came from. And may the Fates spare us all from Mobile Tuesday.

Correction, Nov. 26, 2012: This article originally misspelled the title of William Gibson?s novel Neuromancer. (Return to the corrected sentence.)

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=02fee4f67aee6caed4ded485622a4e17

ambien wwdc heart attack grill madden 13 cover dalai lama tamera mowry slow jam the news

Joseph E. Murray, Transplant Doctor and Nobel Winner, Dies at 93

Dr. Joseph E. Murray, who opened a new era of medicine with the first successful human organ transplant, died on Monday. He was 93 and lived in Wellesley and Edgartown, Mass.

He died in Boston at Brigham and Women?s Hospital, where he performed his first transplant, said Tom Langford, a hospital spokesman. The cause was complications from a stroke he suffered on Thursday, Mr. Langford said. Dr. Murray?s groundbreaking surgical feat came in 1954, when he removed a healthy kidney from a 23-year-old man and implanted it in his ailing identical twin. Dr. Murray went on to pioneer techniques that over the years changed the lives of tens of thousands of patients who received new kidneys, hearts, lungs, livers or other organs after their own had failed.

In 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

As director of the Surgical Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, which became Brigham and Women?s, Dr. Murray was a leader in the study of transplant techniques, the mechanisms of organ rejection and the use of drugs to thwart it.

Among other procedures, he performed kidney transplants involving more than two dozen pairs of identical twins. He recorded the first successful transplant to a nonidentical recipient, in 1959, and the first using a cadaver kidney, in 1962. And he trained doctors who became leaders in transplantation around the world.

Though Dr. Murray devoted most of his career to reconstructive plastic surgery, he was most famous as a transplant surgeon, especially after receiving the Nobel. He shared the $703,000 prize with Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, a pioneer in bone marrow transplantation. The award was unusual in that the Nobel Committee typically honors researchers rather than clinical practitioners.

Joseph Edward Murray was born April 1, 1919, in Milford, Mass., the son of William Murray, a judge, and Mary DePasquale Murray, a schoolteacher. He attended the College of the Holy Cross and Harvard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1943. After an abbreviated internship at Brigham, he entered the Army Medical Corps in 1944.

It was his experience as an Army doctor, especially using cadaver skin to treat burned soldiers, that led him to both transplantation and facial reconstruction, Dr. Murray said in an interview in 2001. Though the transplanted skin would survive for only 8 or 10 days before it would ?begin to melt around the edges,? Dr. Murray recalled, the experience taught him that tissue from one person might survive for a time in another and that it might be possible to use ?tissue from a dead person to save a human life.?

So when he returned to civilian life and began practicing as a plastic and general surgeon at Brigham, he joined colleagues in investigating the possibilities of organ transplants. At the time, he recalled, organ transplantation was considered such a wild dream that a medical school mentor advised him to abandon the idea as a clinical dead end. At Brigham, the work ?was considered a fringe project,? he wrote in his autobiography, ?Surgery of the Soul,? published in 2001 by History Publications/USA.

But he and his colleagues began testing surgical techniques with dogs, removing and reimplanting kidneys. Then, in October 1954, Richard Herrick, a Massachusetts man dying of chronic nephritis, a kidney disease, was admitted to the hospital, and his doctors referred him to Dr. Murray as a possible transplant recipient. The man?s identical twin, Ronald, was willing to give him a kidney. Would Dr. Murray perform the surgery?

It was a daunting prospect. Dr. Murray worried about ?taking a normal person and doing a major operation not for his benefit but for another person?s,? he said in the 2001 interview.

?We were criticized for playing God,? he said.

After consulting with clergy members from a range of denominations, and comparing the Herricks? fingerprints to be sure they were identical and not merely fraternal twins, Dr. Murray and his colleagues decided to go ahead. They first practiced their surgical techniques on a cadaver. The donor kidney ?was the only kidney in the universe that was compatible,? Dr. Murray said, ?and I did not want to goof it up for technical reasons.?

The surgery took place on Dec. 23, 1954. As Dr. Murray wrote later, ?There was a collective hush in the operating room? as blood began to flow into the implanted kidney and urine began to flow out of it.

Richard Herrick, who later married one of his nurses, survived until 1962, when he died of a recurrence of his original disease.

Two other patients were important to Dr. Murray?s medical career, both professionally and personally.

Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/health/dr-joseph-e-murray-transplant-doctor-and-nobel-winner-dies-at-93.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

elizabeth smart nick young south dakota state long beach state beasley trailblazers michael beasley

Gift Guide: Mophie Outride Action Camera Case For iPhone 4/4S

Mophie is best known for doubling your iPhone's battery life with the Mophie juice pack, but the company actually offers a wide range of iPhone accessories including the Outride Wide-Angle Lens iPhone case and mount kit. Anyone who's been interested in action cameras like the GoPro and Looxcie should be especially interested to get almost the exact same functionality out of their phone with this simple accessory pack.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/y0XWz_C9D5U/

foo fighters nikki minaj grammys album of the year grammy red carpet grammy award winners the band perry

Fire at German workshop for disabled kills 14

Firefightser stand in front of a workshop for disabled people in Titisee-Neustadt, southwestern Germany, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 where a fire broke out killing 14 people and injuring at least six others, authorities said. The center employs some 120 people with either mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs including metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation, according to the facility's website. (AP Photo/dapd, Winfried Rothermel)

Firefightser stand in front of a workshop for disabled people in Titisee-Neustadt, southwestern Germany, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 where a fire broke out killing 14 people and injuring at least six others, authorities said. The center employs some 120 people with either mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs including metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation, according to the facility's website. (AP Photo/dapd, Winfried Rothermel)

A hearse leaves the compound of a workshop for disabled people in Titisee-Neustadt, southwestern Germany, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 where a fire broke out killing 14 people and injuring at least six others, authorities said. The center employs some 120 people with either mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs including metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation, according to the facility's website. (AP Photo/dapd, Winfried Rothermel)

Firefighters try to extinguish flames in a workshop for disabled people in Titisee-Neustadt, southwestern Germany, Monday, Nov 26, 2012. Firefighters said the fire has killed 14 and injured at least six others. There was no immediate information on why the building in Titisee-Neustadt, near the city of Freiburg, caught fire Monday. (AP Photo/dapd, Kamera24.TV)

BERLIN (AP) ? Fourteen people were killed and eight injured Monday when a fire broke out at a workshop for disabled people in Germany's Black Forest region, authorities said. Scores had to be rescued from the building as it quickly filled with smoke.

More than 100 firefighters were deployed to battle the blaze, which began at the complex in Titisee-Neustadt early in the afternoon, said Markus Straub, a spokesman for local firefighters.

Ambulances races to the scene as smoke poured from the windows of the modern, three-story center in one of the country's deadliest blazes in recent memory. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "shocked" about the loss of so many lives, her spokesman said on Twitter.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, police and firefighters said.

The center usually has around 120 people at any one time, said Mirko Steffl, a police spokesman in the nearby city of Freiburg.

It was not immediately clear how many people had to be rescued, but by late afternoon workers had determined that no one else remained trapped in the building, he said.

The center employs people with mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs, including metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation, and it is run by the Catholic Church's Caritas organization.

"The biggest problem this afternoon was the smoke situation," said Alfred Oschwald, another Freiburg police spokesman. Smoke inhalation is believed to be the likely cause of the deaths of the 13 disabled people and one of the facility's social workers, he told broadcaster n-tv. Eight people were hurt, but none of them had life-threatening injuries, he said.

Some 25 psychological counselors were assisting those rescued from the building and the victims' relatives in a nearby warehouse, Steffl said.

"It will take days to investigate what caused the fire," police spokesman Karl-Heinz Schmid said.

"The fire spread unusually fast," Baden-Wuerttemberg state's fire chief Hermann Schroeder told public broadcaster ARD. Only about two minutes after the automatic fire alert was triggered, neighbors started calling and reported strong smoke coming from the building, he said.

Armin Hinterseh, the mayor of Titisee-Neustadt, a popular lakeside tourist destination amid the rolling hills of the Black Forest in southwestern German Baden-Wuerttemberg state, said the center's buildings are quite new. "It is devastating. We now have to find out how it happened," Hinterseh was quoted as saying by the local daily Badische Zeitung.

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-26-Germany-Deadly%20Fire/id-6b15166c90564d48b205fc89f22c80d8

lindzi cox bachelor finale courtney robertson ben flajnik randy moss randy moss hunger games premiere

Technical Writers @ Lionbridge Technologies Inc. in Mumbai ...

Company Name: Lionbridge Technologies Inc.

Location: Mumbai

Education: (UG - Any Graduate - Any Specialization) AND (PG - Any PG Course - Any Specialization, Post Graduation Not Required)

Experience: 0 yrs.

No.of Posts: 5

Job Description:

Lionbridge India is conducting walk-in interviews for fresh technical writers at Mumbai office on Saturday, 24th November, 2012 between 11am to 3pm.

Graduates in any engineering discipline may apply. Candidates with good software knowledge from non-engineering background can also apply.

Salary: INR 2,25,000 - 3,00,000 P.A
Role: Technical Writer
Keyskills: technical writer, fresher, content writing, trainee, documentation, information developer, content developer, techwriter

Desired Candidate Profile:
Education: (UG - Any Graduate - Any Specialization) AND (PG - Any PG Course - Any Specialization, Post Graduation Not Required)

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES/DUTIES

- Ability to understand software programming basics
- Good English speaking and writing skills
- Ability to work in teams.

Company Profile:
Lionbridge Technologies (NASDAQ: LIOX)

Established in 1996 and headquartered in Waltham, Mass., with a 4,600 workforce spread across 50+ locations across 26 countries worldwide with a revenue of $400 million (est.).

Website: Localization for Global Growth | Lionbridge

Contact Details

Recruiter Name: Sunilkumar Menon

Contact Company: Lionbridge Technologies Inc

Address: 6th Floor, Spectra Building, Hiranandani Business Park,
Powai MUMBAI,Maharashtra,India 400076

Telephone: 91-22-40007000

Reference Id: FTW1112

NOTE: Applicants need to go to the venue mentioned or call on the number provided below

Source: http://forums.sureshkumar.net/fresher-jobs/123516-technical-writers-lionbridge-technologies-inc-mumbai.html

hope solo Nexus 4 dancing with the stars tesla model s tesla model s act Black Ops 2

Source: http://cchinni30.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/technical-writers-lionbridge-technologies-inc-in-mumbai.html

kasey kahne angelina jolie right leg saving face academy award winners best picture 2012 oscar winners channel 3 news

Source: http://martoranaqemmy0.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/technical-writers-lionbridge-technologies-inc-in-mumbai.html

nene dark shadows trailer nate mcmillan clooney arrested southern miss rod blagojevich rod blagojevich

Source: http://usigeny.posterous.com/technical-writers-lionbridge-technologies-inc

zimmerman derek fisher lyrid meteor shower hippocrates andrew breitbart red wings penguins

Engineering plants for biofuels

ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? With increasing demands for sustainable energy, being able to cost-efficiently produce biofuels from plant biomass is more important than ever. However, lignin and hemicelluloses present in certain plants mean that they cannot be easily converted into biofuels. A study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biotechnology for Biofuels appears to have solved this problem, using gene manipulation techniques to engineer plants that can be more easily broken down into biofuels.

Plants high in lignin and hemicelluloses -- lignocellulosic biomass -- have a high content of pentose sugars that are more difficult to ferment into fuels than plants with hexose sugars. In order to be useful for biofuel production, scientists need to be able to engineer plants with smaller amounts of xylan -- the major non-cellulosic polysaccharide -- present in secondary cell walls.

With this in mind, a research group from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, used 3 mutant strains of Arabidopsis deficient in xylan -- irregular xylem (irx) mutants irx7, irx8 and irx9 -- in order to engineer plants with low xylan content and improved properties for easier breakdown of carbohydrate into simple sugars (saccharification). The irx mutants normally exhibit severe dwarf phenotypes that result from xylem vessel collapse and consequent impaired transport of water and nutrients. The team hypothesized that restoring xylan biosynthesis in the plants would complement the mutations.

To reintroduce xylan biosynthesis into the xylem of irx7, 8 and 9, Henrik Scheller and colleagues manipulated the promoter regions of vessel-specific VND6 and VND7 transcription factor genes. Significantly, they found that the ensuing phenotypes completely restored wild-type growth patterns in some cases, resulting in stronger plants with restored mechanical properties, whilst at the same time maintaining a low overall xylan content and improved saccharification properties that allowed for better breakdown into biofuels.

Plants with up to 23% reduction in xylose levels and 18% reduction in lignin content were obtained, whilst normal xylem function was restored. The plants also showed a 42% increase in saccharification yield after pretreatment.

Lead author Scheller said, "These results show that it is possible to obtain plants that have reduced amounts of xylan in their walls while still preserving the structural integrity of the xylem vessels. The xylan engineering system we present here is a great step towards tailored bioenergy crops that can be easily converted into biofuels. He continued, "This approach in Arabidopsis has the potential to be transferred to other biofuel crop species in the near future, in particular, the poplar species."

These results from this study provide hope that a viable alternative to fossil fuels may soon be available.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Pia D Petersen, Jane Lau, Berit Ebert, Fan Yang, Yves Verhertbruggen, Jin S Kim, Patanjali Varanasi, Anongpat Suttangkakul, Manfred Auer, Dominique Loque and Henrik V Scheller. Engineering of plants with improved properties as biofuels feedstocks by vessel-specific complementation of xylan biosynthesis mutants. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2012 [link]

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/~3/vip3jgu4vpE/121125192840.htm

frances bean cobain north korea missile launch modesto st louis weather guinea bissau google stock google stock

Wal-Mart distances itself from Bangladesh factory fire

112 people died when a garment factory caught fire in Bangladesh on Saturday. The workers had been making clothes for Wal-Mart, though the retail giant said it was unaware of the contract.

By Farid Hossain and Julhas Alam,?Associated Press / November 26, 2012

Bangladeshi firefighters and workers try to douse a garment-factory fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, two days after a similar incident killed more than 110 people. No casualty was reported in Monday's fire. On Monday Bangladeshis blocked the streets near Dhaka, throwing stones at factories and smashing vehicles, demanding justice for those killed in Saturday's fire.

AP Photo

Enlarge

The garment factory in Bangladesh where a weekend fire killed at least 112 people had been making clothes for Wal-Mart without the giant US retailer's knowledge, Wal-Mart said.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Wal-Mart said the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory was no longer authorized to produce merchandise for Wal-Mart but that a supplier subcontracted work to it "in direct violation of our policies."

"Today, we have terminated the relationship with that supplier," America's biggest retailer said in its statement Monday. "The fact that this occurred is extremely troubling to us, and we will continue to work across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh."

The blaze on Saturday was one of the deadliest fires at a garment factory in Bangladesh and highlighted how its garment factories often ignore safety in the rush to supply major retailers in the US and Europe. More than 300 people have died over the past six years in garment factory fires in the South Asian country.

Survivors of the weekend fire said an exit door was locked, fire extinguishers didn't work and apparently were there just to impress inspectors, and that when the fire alarm went off, bosses told workers to return to their sewing machines. Victims were trapped or jumped to their deaths from the eight-story building, which had no emergency exits.

On Monday, about 15,000 Bangladeshi workers protested blocks from the gutted building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, demanding justice for the victims and improved safety. Some 200 factories were closed for the day after the protest erupted. Demonstrators blocked a major highway, threw stones at factories and smashed vehicles.

Labor leaders hope outrage over the latest disaster will prompt change. Tahmina Rahman, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Federation, said government needs to do more to punish factories for safety lapses.

"The owners go unpunished and so they don't care about installing enough security facilities," she said. "The owners should be held responsible and sent to jail."

Wal-Mart did not say why it dropped the Tazreen factory. But in its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said it stopped working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues. And online records appear to indicate the Tazreen factory was given a "high risk" safety rating after an inspection in May 2011 and a "medium risk" rating in August 2011.

For more than a day after the fire, Wal-Mart said it could not confirm whether it was still doing business with Tazreen, which was making T-shirts and polo shirts. The uncertainty illustrated how major retailers in the US and Europe rely on a highly complex chain of foreign manufacturers and middlemen to keep their shelves stocked.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9XHoiZCkTgY/Wal-Mart-distances-itself-from-Bangladesh-factory-fire

maryland lottery grand jury ozzie guillen fidel castro darvish george zimmerman website edmund fitzgerald uss enterprise

Don&#39;t Be Bashful When You Talk To Credit ... - Doable Finance

Mon Nov 26, 2012, 2:00 am |

At the dawn of the so-called Great Recession, the country?s unemployment rate reached the highest level since the infamous Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, many Americans were forced to take on crippling amounts of debt.

On top of that, when they tried to seek out help, they were bitten by snakes and squeezed by anacondas in the great swamp of financial miseries ? the quagmire of debt ? that they were thrown in.

They were unable to get out the sinking sand without the help of someone who could drag them out, wash them and start a new financial life.

They were seeking help from debt-settlement firms. Many folks have known for years that this industry has more bad apples than good ones. They are rife with scams.

Many such firms were created for the sole purpose of conning innocent consumers. The face of the bad was very similar to that of the good helper.

It?s hard to differentiate between the two kinds. Consequently, many folks were bitten by the bad kind and lost more to them than they owed to their creditors.

According to the Federal Reserve, as a nation, Americans owe $721 billion on outstanding credit cards. CreditCards.com did their calculations and came up with the staggering amount of $15,950 in credit card debt per household carrying only one card.

Just these numbers tell us that people want help ? any kind of help to get them out of the debt shit they have stepped in. However, only a fraction of people seek aid from a credit counselor.

Difference between Credit Counselor and Debt-Settlement Firms

We must understand the difference between a credit counselor and debt-settlement firms. Credit-counseling agencies have been getting bad raps unfairly because most folks confuse them with debt-settlement companies.

Credit counselors advise folks on how to make better budget and lifestyle decisions so that they can pay off their debt expeditiously. These counselors help debtors to develop a debt-management plan to pay back their creditors.

The best part is that you can attend many counseling sessions for free. Some counselors charge nominal fee, typically $20 per session.

On the other hand, debt-settlement firms offer to negotiate with a person?s creditors to slash the amount of debt they own. Many firms charge clients a large fee for their services.

Debt-settlement firms are rife with scam artists and the primary reason is that historically they charge huge fees. There is a lot more money to be made if you own or work for a debt-settlement firm.

Fortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), formed in 2010, has started to address some of those problems, but for many years deceptive debt-settlement agencies operated without a watchdog.

Even today under the watchful eyes of CFPB, some individuals and firms have been alleged to have deceived the American public, especially the senior citizens among us.

Be open to Credit Counselor?

There are misconceptions about consulting credit counselors:

• Many folks are afraid that consulting a credit counselor will hurt their credit score. Nothing can be further than the truth. Talking to one has no impact on a person?s credit or credit report.

• Walking into a physical location of a credit counselor can be intimidating and detrimental to their ego, especially if the person doesn?t want to admit face-to-face how much deep they have stepped in the quagmire of debt.

• The sense of shame that can accompany having to admit to a credit counselor they owe a heap of debt. This does not make sense in the case of folks who don?t feel ashamed when they keep on buying even when they don?t need to.

Red flags why you must talk to credit counselor?

You ought to consult a reliable and reputable credit counselor when these red flags are raised.

• Debt collectors are at your doorstep. They keep calling you day and night. You are unable to sleep because of your debt. In this case, the sooner you can get to a credit counselor, the better.

• You cannot repay a single dime towards your debt. You live paycheck to paycheck. Wake up and seek help.

• Debt is creating tension and uneasiness in your family. Media report many cases of divorces due to not being able to pay off debt.

• When you receive bills, you hide it from the family. You are ashamed to even show them the bill let alone talk about them.

• You are using cash advances on your credit card or you may be using the services of payday loans. In both cases, you are stepping deeper and deeper in the sinking sand.

• A time comes when you don?t even care how much you are in debt. That means there is no way you alone can manage ? to say the least ? or clean your debt shit.

• Your credit card has a maximum in a given month. You keep maxing out your card every month. Wake up and smell the credit counselor.

• If you have retirement account, you start and keep withdrawing from it.

In a Nutshell
Credit counselors, because they are a lot less expensive ? can I use the word cheap? ? can be a great help to come up with a budget for your household finances.

The important thing to remember is ?Don?t Be Bashful When You Talk To Credit Counselor.? Open up your little gray cells (Agatha Christie) and start talking about your debt to the credit counselor.

The Credit Card Song by Old Man Pie

Ahead of its time this is a cartoon animation that?s been up on the web since 2006 and is all about the credit crunch crisis.

Credit card spending and loans from banks are in their trillions of dollars and something has to give. We no longer spend what we have earned, we spend what we haven?t earned on the back of house price rises and yet more loans.

The banks are prospering and fat cats are awarding themselves massive bonuses, but it cannot continue.

Beware the debt time bomb may bring the walls of the western world clattering to the ground.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
So click on "Tweet This Post" above and send it to your followers on Twitter.

Related Posts On Doable Finance dot Com

1. Tips To See If Your Credit Counselor Is Honest
2. Find A Good Credit Counselor
3. Test Yourself If You Need Credit Counseling
4. 5 Steps How To Deal With Debt
5. Debt Collectors Are Allowed To Talk Down To You

Source: http://doablefinance.com/dont-be-bashful-when-you-talk-to-credit-counselor/

zooey deschanel and joseph gordon levitt debra messing ayaan hirsi ali rachel uchitel strait of hormuz new years eve party ideas mars needs moms