PFT: NFLPA accused of 'stall tactics' on HGH

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Predictably, reports have surfaced that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has contacted former Steelers coach Bill Cowher.? Even more predictably, Ross denies that he has contacted Cowher.

?Not true,? Ross said Friday, via David Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.? ?I?m not going to reach out to anyone while Tony [Sparano] is the coach.? I hope he wins and stays the coach.? Neither I nor anyone involved with me has contacted [Cowher], his agent or anyone around him.?

It?s hard to accept that one at face value, for several reasons.? First, it?s hard to accept pretty much anything anyone connected to an NFL team says at face value.? When it comes to on-field and off-field football tactics, the truth often is told only when it happens to mesh with the strategically prudent explanation.? Second, Ross already has shown a willingness not only to contact ?anyone? (cough ? Jim Harbaugh ? cough) while Sparano is the coach, but to fly across the country with the team?s General Manager to meet with said ?anyone.?? Third, in this bizarre separation dance between Ross and Sparano, where Ross possibly has decided to stay the course (at least for now) in the hopes of racking up enough losses to get Andrew Luck and where Sparano possibly sees that and wants to get fired, admitting to conduct that undermines Sparano could give Sparano enough ammunition to claim that he has been constructively discharged, which would allow him to quit ? and also to pursue a buyout of his contract.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, what else was Ross going to say?? ?Yep, I contacted Cowher.? And Gruden.? And I tried Vince Lombardi but they keep saying the number is disconnected or no longer in service.?

Despite these obvious reasons for Ross to deny, Hyde chooses to knock down the reports from guys like Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com (who reported that contact had occurred through intermediaries) and Albert Breer of NFL Network (a league employee with an impeccable reputation for accuracy who reported that Ross has contacted Cowher?s agent).? Hyde wonders why Ross would contact Cowher at this stage of the season, given that Ross isn?t competing with anyone for Cowher?s services ? and given that contacting Cowher now could offend him.? ?Make[s] no sense on a lot of levels,? Hyde writes.

Actually, it makes sense on every level.

It?s called gauging interest.? If Cowher, via his agent, says that he?s interested, Ross can put Cowher on the wish list and wait until Sparano is fired to make a move.? If Cowher, via his agent, says that he?d never be interested, Ross can remove Cowher?s name from the list.? If Cowher, via his agent, says that Cowher could be interested if X, Y, and/or Z were to happen, Ross can commence the process of deciding whether he can and will make X, Y, and/or Z happen.

Given the extremely clumsy manner in which the Dolphins pursued Harbaugh in January, it makes sense that the Dolphins would begin lining up potential candidates now, and that they would do so in a somewhat clumsy manner, allowing word of the courtship to make its way to the media.

Here?s what Ross should have done.? He should have limited the information regarding any contact with Cowher?s agent to only a handful of people ? ideally, only one person other than himself.? And the message to Cowher?s agent (or whomever has been contacted) should have been clear and direct:? If word of this gets out, we?ll deny it, and we?ll remove you from consideration.

But the Dolphins are both clumsy and desperate right now, so they won?t be doing things discreetly and they won?t be issuing the kinds of ultimatums that ensure complete discretion.? As Ross essentially admitted when the Harbaugh fiasco blew up in the Fins? faces, Ross isn?t schooled in these nuances of NFL teams.

And it shows.? On every level.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/28/reps-issa-cummings-accuse-nflpa-of-stall-tactics/related/

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Hunter Suggestion - Multiple Pets

while it sounds good and alot of fun

I think that may cause alot of balancing problems, unless they made it so 2 pet's together were just as powerful as a single pet,but then what would be the point of having 2? Unless you do mean only for solo play, but still I would see alot of problems balancing, and again a kinda waste of a talent space if it's got such narrow usage.

Unless you have some ideas how it could work?

Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1011430-Hunter-Suggestion-Multiple-Pets

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Online Hackers Threaten To Expose Cartel's Secrets

Houston Chronicle:

An international group of online hackers is warning a Mexican drug cartel to release one of its members, kidnapped from a street protest, or it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates, from corrupt police to taxi drivers, as well as reveal the syndicates' businesses.

Read the whole story: Houston Chronicle

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/29/anonymous-drug-cartel_n_1065243.html

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The Breast Cancer You May Not Know About (ContributorNetwork)

Inflammatory Breast Cancer is very rare, but very aggressive.

I am alive today because my doctors had an icon on their desktop to remind them to be alert to IBC. Unfortunately, the incidence of this aggressive breast cancer is increasing in the United States.

You don't have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

Most of what we are taught about breast cancer does not apply to Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It does not make a lump. It nests inside dense breast tissue and does not typically show up on a mammogram. We are taught that breast cancer doesn't hurt, but Inflammatory Breast Cancer usually does. A heavy, swollen breast that feels warm and sore could be IBC. Many Inflammatory Breast Cancer cases are missed because the symptoms are mistaken for mastitis. Know all the symptoms of IBC, and if you have even one, make sure your doctor screens for Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer strikes women and men of all ages, most often younger women.

The median age for an IBC diagnosis is between 45 and 55. It has been diagnosed in men and in pregnant and lactating women. The youngest woman on record to be diagnosed with the disease was 12. It is vitally important for parents to encourage our sons and daughters to be aware of their bodies, and to talk to us if anything seems amiss. It is never too early to teach our children to take care of themselves.

Inaccurate diagnosis results in lethal treatment delays.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer spreads quickly, because unlike other breast cancers is originates in the lymph tissue. Lactating women often assume that their symptoms are mastitis, and miss the opportunity to fight the disease before it spreads. Inflammatory Breast Cancer is always diagnosed at Stage III or Stage IV, because by the time it shows symptoms it has progressed. Timely diagnosis and treatment is key to survival.

You don't need to be frightened, just aware. Knowledge is power.

Know your body, know your breasts, and teach your children to do the same. If you go to the hospital with chest pain, a responsible doctor will screen for a cardiac event. If you notice anything unusual happening to your breast, make sure that Inflammatory Breast Cancer is ruled out.

Share this information with every woman you know. You may save a life. I personally know of more than one Inflammatory Breast Cancer survivor who is alive today because someone in her life was aware.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111027/us_ac/9150251_the_breast_cancer_you_may_not_know_about

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Study: Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated (AP)

NEW YORK ? A new report says the Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a dangerous radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl.

The new estimate for cesium-137 comes from a worldwide network of sensors. Study author Andreas Stohl of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research says the Japanese government estimates would have missed emissions blown out to sea.

Stohl says finding twice the amount of cesium isn't considered a major difference because such measurements are so imprecise. He said some previous estimates had been higher than his. The study didn't address health effects.

The journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics posted the report online for comment but has not been reviewed by experts in the field or accepted it for publication.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_sc/us_sci_japan_nuclear

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The Carnal Critic

Pauline Kael stood only 4 feet 9 inches tall, but a decade after her death (and two decades after she published her last New Yorker review), her shadow still towers over the landscape of film criticism. Like it or lump it, if you write about movies in America today (and in the age of the Internet, who doesn?t?), you define yourself at least in part in relation to Kael. In fact, you probably channel her from time to time without realizing it. Even the second-person ?you? in those sentences echoes Kael?s chummy yet bullying voice: To read her is to be grabbed by the lapels and yanked down into the theater seat next to her. ?She?d have liked you,? a colleague said to me, shortly after Kael?s death and my start as a critic. It was a curiously heady, almost hubristic thought to entertain. For the nearly quarter of a century that she reigned as the New Yorker?s doyenne of film criticism and one of the country?s most visible public intellectuals, there were few cultural dispensations that conferred as much power as being liked by Pauline Kael. Her approbation could make a director?s or writer?s career, and her antipathy could sink it.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4da2284bfcd4063dc63ef113dff42757

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AMC renews 'Walking Dead' for a third season

LOS ANGELES?? Surging to record high ratings in the first two episodes of its second season, AMC's "The Walking Dead" just earned itself a third campaign.

Through the first two suspense-packed episodes of season two, AMC noted in its renewal announcement that the zombie-apocalypse drama has broken cable ratings records in the 18-49 demo.

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   3. Kutcher and Cryer lock lips on 'Men'
   4. Lindsay Lohan to pose for Playboy?
   5. They don't make shows like 'Barney Miller' now

Despite the turmoil that came with Glen Mazzara replacing Frank Darabont as show runner, hordes of viewers have tuned in to see the fate of sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his band of survivors.

The Oct. 16 season premiere broke a basic cable record set nearly 10 years ago for a single drama telecast ("The Dead Zone"). The 90-minute episode scored a 4.8 household rating, and 7.3 million total viewers.

The 4.8 million viewers in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic represented a 36 percent uptick over last season's average. The 4.2 viewers in the 25-54 demo were up 38 percent.

Story: Did 'The Walking Dead' just kill 'Pan Am'?

Excited for more "Walking Dead"? What do you think of the season so far? Share your thoughts on the Facebook page for our TV blog, The Clicker.

Copyright 2011 by TheWrap.com

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45038228/ns/today-entertainment/

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Perry wants flat tax with some popular deductions (AP)

GRAY COURT, S.C. ? Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is rolling out an economic plan that includes a flat tax proposal, private retirement accounts for Social Security and a lower corporate tax rate.

The Texas governor on Tuesday was outlining a proposal he calls "Cut, Balance and Grow" that is aimed at creating jobs and fixing the struggling economy, voters' top concerns heading into the 2012 election. Perry's plan sets a flat 20 percent income tax rate, but also gives taxpayers the option of sticking with their current rate.

He would maintain popular deductions for families making less than $500,000 a year, and eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits.

His plan also drops the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, and eliminates taxes on qualified dividends and long-term capital gains.

Perry outlined the plan in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece early Tuesday and was set to speak about it later in the day. In an interview on CNBC, he dismissed suggestions that it would be a giveaway to the wealthy, saying, "I don't care about that."

Perry said he wants to give business people incentives to invest in their companies and start new ones. He said he rejects "this idea that we've got to have a tax system in this country where you take more away from those that have the ability to create jobs. ... What I'm interested in is getting America working."

The major policy rollout is a critical part of Perry's efforts to right a struggling campaign. It's an opportunity to demonstrate a heft and seriousness that wasn't on display during recent debates. And it sets Perry to the right of chief rival Mitt Romney, who wants to make less sweeping changes to the tax code.

The policy rollout comes as he prepares to start airing TV ads in Iowa and has hired a roster of experienced national campaign operatives to help him. Perry's chief adviser on the economic plan is former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, who proposed a 17 percent flat tax when he ran for president in 1996.

It's taken Perry about 2-1/2 months to put together an economic policy package, and he's had to attend the series of debates without his detailed proposal. Romney also has attacked him repeatedly for not having a plan. Romney released a 59-point jobs plan in early September, about three months after officially announcing his bid.

Perry's plan would make more dramatic changes than Romney's would. While Perry's plan includes the flat tax, Romney would lower rates on corporations and on savings and investment income for middle-class Americans.

Back in 1996, Romney criticized Forbes' flat tax plan as a "tax cut for fat cats." Perry said if Romney renews that criticism, "he ought to look in the mirror, I guess. I consider him to be a fat cat."

Perry chose South Carolina, where he announced he was running for president, to unveil the plan. The first-in-the-South primary state is critical to his path to the nomination, though he has fallen in the polls here just as he has dropped nationally.

He also planned a news conference in the state capital, Columbia, and a fundraiser at the home of former South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson, his top South Carolina adviser.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_el_pr/us_perry_economy

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Read the Revelations in Full: Book of Jobs Now Available [Steve Jobs]

Almost the entire book has leaked already, but now it's time to read the whole thing cover to cover. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography?is available starting today in hardback with ebooks available since?late yesterday. Kindle price is a steep $21.14, with the hardcover version at $17.88 [Amazon via TUAW via Gizmodo UK] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qJo2WmrTo7s/read-the-revelations-in-full-book-of-jobs-now-available

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Comments from European Union leaders' summit (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? European Union leaders met on Sunday to try to hammer out a comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone debt crisis, but a breakthrough is not expected until another summit on Wednesday.

Following are comments from Sunday's talks:

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

ON ITALY:

"We did meet with (Italian President Silvio Berlusconi) and we've been on the phone several times in recent days...

"I would say that we were preparing for Wednesday's meeting rather than today's.

"We asked for reassurances regarding the courageous measures that have been taken and we asked for them to be put into effect and also for reforms."

"Clearly we are calling for a major effort to be made by the Italian authorities and I believe that they are willing to do that."

ON BANK RECAPITALISATION:

"Everybody agrees we need a coordinated scheme to recapitalize the banks and improve funding."

ON EU TREATIES:

Measures include "exploring the possibility of limited treaty changes."

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

ON STEPS TO END THE CRISIS:

"We are fighting things that originated in part decades ago. It is not about a crisis of our currency. On Wednesday, it won't the last step that we will take. That's why, when we talk about the future, that we ... probably must strengthen our control mechanisms in the Eurogroup.

"That's why there will be many steps to be taken. In the current discussion, we must on Wednesday take certain steps that belong together and that are complementary. A bank recapitalisation on its own does not make any sense. We must also see at the same time that the problems of Greece are put on a realistic basis and resolved."

ON BANK RECAPITALISATION:

"I am very pleased... that we have had progress. On recapitalising banks, the developments have shown that the finance ministers have reached agreement as far as possible. There is a big consensus."

ON NEED TO PURSUE ECONOMIC REFORMS:

"Trust will not be achieved alone through a high firewall. Trust will not happen from a new package for Greece. Trust will only happen when everyone does their homework."

FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY

"There have been hours and hours of discussions. Work is progressing well on the banks, on the fund and the possibilities of using this fund, the hypotheses are narrowing, and a rather broad agreement is in the process of being drawn up."

ON GREEK SITUATION:

"On the question of Greece, things are progressing. We haven't finished yet. We have until Wednesday."

ON ITALIAN SITUATION:

"With (German Chancellor Angela Merkel), we have met the Italian prime minister, we will also meet the Greek prime minister because a series of measures needs to be taken, but the countries concerned need to be conscious themselves of their responsibilities and the new decisions that they will have to take."

ON WEDNESDAY'S SUMMIT:

"Our wish is that on Wednesday, an accord will be found that will alleviate the financial crisis, which will allow us, together, to prepare, with Germany, the G20, where other decisions will have to be taken to regulate globalisation and to allow the world to rediscover the path of global growth."

ON ECB INDEPENDENCE:

"It is a point that we have evoked in detail with the Chancellor. And therefore, it is not up to heads of state or governments to give instructions of any kind. No solution is viable if it doesn't have the support of all the European institutions. It's a team effort."

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT JOSE MANUEL BARROSO

"We will still have a lot of work. I think we are in a good situation to make progress so that we can finalize our work on Wednesday -- namely, the agreements on Greece, on banks, on leveraging the EFSF (European Financial Stability facility) and governance."

Following are some comments from before the start of the discussions:

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

"Today we will agree on measures to stimulate growth and to create jobs and we will also deal with the crisis in the euro zone. Useless to say that the current economic challenges are deeply serious: slowing growth, rising unemployment, pressure on the banks and risks on the sovereign bonds.

"Our meetings of today and Wednesday are important steps, perhaps the most important ones in the series to overcome the financial crisis, even if further steps will be needed.

"Some of those steps were and are unpopular -- be it measures taken in your countries or our joint decisions taken here as a union. I thank you for your political courage, often underestimated.

"These steps forward also require simple and plain hard work, so let's start."

AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR WERNER FAYMANN

ON ROLE OF EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK:

"The ECB has legally only limited possibilities; we should not ask more of it than what is possible with regard to its independence."

ON THE WAY FORWARD:

"Even the next summit on Wednesday will not resolve all problems in the debt crisis."

IRISH PRIME MINISTER ENDA KENNY

"The world is watching the European leadership. I hope that we can have progress today toward a set of comprehensive and clear decisions and a joined up thinking process.

"The prevention of contagion and the construction of firewalls is of critical importance."

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON

"The crisis in the euro zone is affecting all our economies, Britain included. It's having a chilling effect. We have to deal with this issue."

SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER FREDRIK REINFELDT

"We need a solution, of course. I'm not sure we'll have it today. I hear we might have a new meeting in the middle of next week. We need a solution how to control the situation in Greece."

ON BANK RECAPITALISATION:

"We need a solution to understand that this will in fact have an impact on the banking systems in Europe. When we control that, when we recapitalize the banks, we need to take a clear standpoint that the losses should not be covered by taxpayers, but by the owners and that we control managements inside these financial institutions."

ON COUNTRIES CUTTING THEIR DEBTS:

"We also need again to ask for more measures to put countries on the right track when it comes to clearing their huge deficits and public finances and huge national debts.

"Look at Ireland -- they have now started a process where they are meeting the situation they had and they are getting positive market signals back once they have started to reform. That's the Swedish experience. That's the way we have to do this."

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

ON TREATY CHANGE:

"We want more Europe, stronger rights to intervene. Treaty changes for that should not be a taboo."

ON CHANGES TO THE EFSF (EUROPEAN FINANCIAL STABILITY

FACILITY):

"Today, we are preparing for decisions on Wednesday. This concerns technical details of complicated process such as how the EFSF works, for example.

"Therefore, we must consider all details.

"One should not expect decisions from the euro (leaders')group today but rather on Wednesday. I want to emphasize that so as to make clear what to expect."

GREEK PRIME MINISTER GEORGE PAPANDREOU

"Greece has proven again and again that we are making the necessary decisions to make our economy sustainable and make our economy more just. We are a proud people. We are a proud nation and we demand that respect of what we're doing.

"And we are doing what we need from our side, the responsibility that we are taking on, with great pain, to make Greece a different country.

"It's been proven now that the crisis is not a Greek crisis. The crisis is a European crisis. So now is the time that we as Europeans need to act decisively and effectively."

BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER YVES LETERME

ON SITUATION IN BELGIUM:

"We are in a very different situation from Italy (on our debt to GDP ratio). I am sure that before 2014 we will get it below 90 percent (of GDP).

"Belgium is a country with strong growth."

ON SUNDAY'S DISCUSSIONS ON THE EUROPEAN CRISIS:

"It is essential that by tomorrow morning, when markets open, we have made enough progress so that the credibility of the euro is not in danger."

(Reporting by Daniel Flynn, Julien Toyer, Ilona Wissenbach, John O'Donnell, David Brunnstrom, Robin Emmott, Barbara Lewis and Matt Falloon in Brussels and James Regan in Paris)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111023/bs_nm/us_eu_summit

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Giffords in North Carolina for intensive therapy (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/152301272?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Square makes a larger mark on the brick-and-mortar scene, available in more outlets

Best Buy, Target, Walmart, The Shack, Apple. All of the above are now proudly selling the Square credit card reader, according to a tweet sent out by CEO Jack Dorsey. It's great news for anyone willing to shell out a ten-spot in order to conduct business from their iOS device right away, rather than waiting between two and five days for a free one to show up in the mail. If you need one today, you'd best be calling up your local retail outlet to make sure they have some in stock.

Square makes a larger mark on the brick-and-mortar scene, available in more outlets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/24/square-makes-a-larger-mark-on-the-brick-and-mortar-scene-availa/

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Colossal Waste Exposed in Afghan Electric Projects

These are tough times for science and technology journalists, who, if they still have jobs, rarely have the time and travel budgets required for in-depth reporting. But some journalists are still managing to produce tough, labor-intensive, on-the-ground investigations of vitally important topics. One standout is my long-time friend Glenn Zorpette of IEEE Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Six years ago Glenn traveled to Iraq and came back with a disturbing series, ?Re-engineering Iraq?, on how the U.S. and its allies were wasting billions on efforts to give Iraqis a steady supply of electricity. Zorpette has now followed up that report, a finalist for a National Magazine Award, with an even more alarming investigation of bungled attempts to electrify Afghanistan. Glenn spent three weeks in Afghanistan reporting ?Re-engineering Afghanistan?, published in the October issue of Spectrum. He shows that, at a time when millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, our government is squandering tens of billions of our tax dollars overseas.

Providing Iraq and Afghanistan with reliable electricity, Zorpette notes, has long been viewed as crucial to the reconstruction of these nations. The goal is to ?stimulate economic activity and create jobs; to make life more comfortable and secure; to give people a more attractive alternative to the typically medieval societies imposed by insurgents. And last, but certainly not least, to win the allegiance of citizens and build their confidence in fledgling government institutions and officials who are all too often bungling or corrupt. Or both.?

Far from learning from its mistakes in Iraq, Zorpette charges, the U.S. is repeating them in Afghanistan. The U.S. has spent an estimated $55 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan over the past decade, but ?as in Iraq, much of that money has been wasted or badly spent, particularly in the electrical sector.? Zorpette identifies several key problems that have thwarted Afghan electrification projects. The country suffers from a ?crippling deficiency of homegrown engineers,? and the Afghan national electric utility ?is unable to collect enough revenue to sustain its own operations and it has trouble simply keeping records consistently.?

Furthermore, the contracting methodology of U.S. development agencies ?does nothing to discourage overspending and inefficiency.? Zorpette reserves his harshest criticism for USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is ?the dominant development organization in Afghanistan.? Zorpette contends that USAID has ?made major missteps in every significant electrical construction project it has undertaken in the country.?

One such project is a diesel plant built in Tarakhil, a village near Kabul. According to Zorpette, the Bush administration decided to build the plant in 2006 to boost the re-election prospects of President Hamid Karzai. Construction of the plant, by the firm Black & Veatch, cost more than $300 million, and yet since its completion over a year ago the plant ?has hardly been used,? Zorpette notes. ?The main reason is that its diesel fuel must be imported by truck at great cost. This past April the electricity generated at the Tarakhil plant cost around 42 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to engineers and development specialists interviewed in Afghanistan.?

In comparison, electricity can be piped in from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Instead of being impressed by the Tarakhil plant, Afghans started mocking it as ?Karzai?s winter coat.? ?In a war zone,? Zorpette writes, ?the rules of logic sometimes seem suspended. Still, it is hard to understand why anyone thought it was a good idea to build, in a wretchedly poor country, a plant that would consume vast quantities of extraordinarily costly diesel fuel.?

The Tarakhil plant is just one of many boondoggles that Zorpette uncovers. He concludes: ?As a reporter, I have over the years dug up the occasional isolated and carefully concealed incident suggesting incompetence or wrongdoing. But I?ve never reported on anything quite like USAID in Afghanistan, where the examples of ineptitude, poor decisions, and apparent impropriety sometimes seemed to come swarming at me like targets in a video game.? What makes this editorial aside especially poignant is that Zorpette was in favor of the U.S. missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he thought would benefit those countries as well as U.S. security.

I don?t know any other journalist with the combination of technical know-how (Zorpette has an electrical engineering degree), writing chops, physical courage and dogged determination needed to produce work such as ?Re-engineering Iraq? and ?Re-engineering Afghanistan.? I hope Zorpette?s articles receive the attention they deserve from the public, government officials and other journalists.

Photo of Glenn Zorpette (second from right) in Iraq courtesy of IEEE Spectrum

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1afa9726d8028f9adf2b047613e4e1f0

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Toolbox Support Makita on Breast Cancer Research ?Pink? Promotion

(PRWEB UK) 22 October 2011

Is a normal coloured drill too boring? How about a pink drill to make DIY-ing that bit more colourful? Well here's a chance to get a hold of one. Online giant Toolbox are supporting tool giant Makita in the launch of their limited edition 10.8v drill driver.

Makita have chosen Breast Cancer Care as its first charity of the year after several staff members were affected and are hoping to raise ?50,000 to support people affected by breast cancer. For every limited edition drill that is sold Makita will be donating ?5 to the cause.

Lee Taylor, Online Manager of Toolbox said: ?It?s a fantastic promotion for such a great cause and as soon as I heard about it through our account manager we had to jump on board. The standard colour of the product is such a great seller, so I see no reason why the pink version won?t do the same if not better."

The drill is a pink version of the DF330D 10.8v drill driver - complete with one 1.3Ah Li-ion battery, fast charger, drill bit set and bag - which is popular with professional construction workers and, with its small and compact size, ideal for DIY?ers who want to get busy around the home.

Anthony Langston, Website Manager of Toolbox commented: ?We know just how popular the Makita range is and in these selfish times it?s nice to see a company that still cares about their staff and of course good causes. We try to get involved in charity work as much as possible and we will certainly be pushing for the sales on this one?.

Makita has a long history stretching back almost a century to 1915 when it all began in a small repair shop in Nagoya, Japan and since this time have expanded at a phenomenal rate with representation in over 150 countries around the world.????

Toolbox is the sister company of Plumbworld who were an early pioneer of online trading and started by James and Anita Hickman in 1999 and was sold to the Grafton Group PLC in December 2006, Plumbworld now employ more than 50 people in their purpose built warehouse and offices and currently boast an astonishing 49 websites selling everything from automotive tools and bathrooms to Hozelock fittings and woodburning stoves. The business has a turnover in excess of ?18 million and is growing at more than 20% year on year.

###

Source: http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8887319.htm

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Obama's foreign successes may help little in 2012 (AP)

WASHINGTON ? By declaring the Iraq war over, President Barack Obama scored what his allies see as a fourth big foreign policy success in six months, starting with Osama bin Laden's killing.

But in his re-election bid, these events might play a discouragingly small role even if they burnish his eventual place in history.

Voters tend to focus heavily on domestic issues, especially in times of high unemployment. That will limit Obama's campaign options.

His supporters are seeking ways to make the most of his foreign policy accomplishments. One approach is to contrast them with Congress' partisan-driven gridlock on taxes, the deficit and other domestic issues.

"Look at the progress the president can make when he doesn't have Republicans obstructing him," said Karen Finney, a former Democratic spokeswoman who often defends the party on TV and radio.

Democratic strategist Rebecca Kirszner Katz distributed a similar remark on Twitter this past week: "Terrorists and dictators, lacking the filibuster, have no effective defense against Barack Obama." It referred to the stalling tactic that Senate Republicans frequently use to kill Democratic bills even though they hold only 47 of the chamber's 100 seats.

These Democrats hope people will see a bold and capable president who keeps his promises when Republicans don't create roadblocks. They note that he approved the raid to kill bin Laden in Pakistan on May 1 and policies that led to last month's drone-missile killing of American-born al-Qaida figure Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen; backed allied actions that led to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's ouster and death; and ended U.S. involvement in Iraq on schedule.

"It is very important for any incumbent to be able to talk about promises made and promises kept," Finney said. The list of achievements, contrasted with President George W. Bush's erroneous claims about Iraq's weaponry in the first place, should help Democrats shake their image of being the weaker party on national security, she said.

"That baggage is finally lifted," Finney said.

Translating that claim into votes for Obama 13 months from now may be difficult, however. The latest Associated Press-GfK poll confirmed that Americans place far greater emphasis on domestic issues, especially the economy, than on foreign matters, including the fight against terrorism.

The poll found Obama's overall approval rating at a new low, 46 percent, for the second straight month, even though 64 percent of adults approved of his handling of terrorism. Only 40 percent approved of his handling of the economy.

Ninety-three percent of those questioned said the economy was an extremely or very important issue. By comparison, 73 percent put the same emphasis on terrorism.

Democratic officials believe Obama's foreign policy record will look even better when the Republican presidential candidates hold a debate on that topic Nov. 15. Leading contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are current or former governors, and businessman Herman Cain has never held public office. None has extensive foreign policy experience.

But voters routinely accept that. In recent presidential elections they have chosen governors from Georgia, California, Arkansas and Texas, plus a first-term senator, Obama.

On Friday, Romney and Perry criticized Obama's handling of Iraq. Some Democrats found Romney's remarks exceptionally harsh.

"President Obama's astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women," Romney said. "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."

Obama's defenders fired back. "Is there anything more hollow than Mitt Romney decrying `political considerations' in decision-making?" said former White House spokesman Bill Burton.

Perry said in a statement: "I'm deeply concerned that President Obama is putting political expediency ahead of sound military and security judgment by announcing an end to troop level negotiations and a withdrawal from Iraq by year's end." He said Obama "was slow to engage the Iraqis and there's little evidence today's decision is based on advice from military commanders."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was more generous. "American forces not only freed Iraq from a vicious tyrant, but ? under the strategy developed and implemented by our generals, and the leadership of both President Bush and President Obama ? ended a violent terrorist insurgency," he said.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Obama "kept his pledge to the nation to end the war in Iraq in a responsible way, he has promoted our security in Afghanistan, and eliminated key al-Qaida leaders." He said Romney "didn't lay out a plan to end the war in Iraq."

Republican strategist Rich Galen said the economy clearly will dominate the 2012 election, and it might undo Obama. As for Obama's foreign record, however, Galen said, "they're doing exactly the right thing" by highlighting every success they can.

Galen said Obama clearly deserves credit for the raid on bin Laden's compound.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111022/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_politics_promises

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Michael Carmichael: Battleground North Carolina: Democratic Women Fired Up!

Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Recognizing that women's rights will take a devastating hit if Republicans return to power in 2012, Democratic women are rising to face the challenge.

Meeting in the capital of the progressive heartland of the South, the Orange County Democratic Women heard a rising crescendo of vibrant voices calling for political action against the surge of repression now coursing through the arteries of the nation's most embattled battleground state -- North Carolina.

Their annual Legislative Brunch in Chapel Hill sold out in record time. The lucky one hundred and fifty ticket-holders passed by the Occupy Chapel Hill demonstration now in its second week on their way to a bruncheon that none of them will never forget. Organizers said they could have sold two or three times the number of tickets in the supercharged political climate amid vast political preparations for an epic 'Battle of the South' next year.

President of Orange County Democratic Women, Renee Price, called the meeting to order and exhorted her audience of progressive women to stand up and fight for public offices once held exclusively by men.

To prepare the audience for the forthcoming keynote address by the liberal firebrand Professor Gene Nichol, Congressman David Price called attention to the class warfare waged by the richest one percent against the poorest: "America's richest four-hundred own more than the bottom one-hundred and fifty million Americans. The top one percent own sixty percent of our national wealth."

Describing North Carolina as a "swing state," Congressman Price declared that North Carolina was definitely in play for 2012 where Democrats are staging an aggressive campaign in the state that delivered their most tenuous of victories in the last presidential cycle. Obama became the first Democrat to carry North Carolina since 1976 when Jimmy Carter won the presidency. Obama won North Carolina with a razor thin margin of only 14,177 votes out of more than four million cast. "Just look at Wake County!" Price exclaimed, where Democrats turned out en masse less than two weeks ago and soundly defeated the Republican slate backed by Art Pope, North Carolina's billionaire henchman for the right-wing ideology of Charles and David Koch.

Brandishing a handmade sign proclaiming, "99%," the next speaker, popular State Senator Ellie Kinnaird, arrived at the bruncheon shortly after making her appearance before Occupy Chapel Hill at the Franklin Street Post Office. Articulating demands for economic justice and bank reform, Kinnaird raised the specter of Bush's wars and the explosive growth of America's national debt to define the current financial crisis as, "Trillions wasted on war!"

State Representative Alice Bordsen called for the syncopation of national and local messaging, while Democratic Women of North Carolina's Vice President, Joan Dressler, announced active organizations in sixty-one counties plus a strong alliance with Lillian's List, North Carolina's powerful and impressive stand-alone pro-choice committee dedicated to electing progressive pro-choice women to the General Assembly. In recent days, Lillian's List rallied five-hundred strong in Raleigh to hear a powerful message from Donna Brazile.

But, the day would belong to Gene Nichol, the outspoken professor of law at UNC, who delivered a riveting Jeremiad rippling with penetrating punchlines orchestrated against a leitmotif of bitterly incisive invective skewering the Republican radicalism now infecting the American electorate.

Gauging his audience like a shrewd football coach in a pre-game locker room, Nichol broke the emotional ice with a joke, "I saw Mary Chapin Carpenter at Memorial Hall the other night. She reported her favorite bumper-sticker: 'Palin-Bachmann 2012 - It's a No-Brainer!'" The crowd burst into peals of laughter.

Ripping right into the heart of the matter of Republican radicalism, Nichol sallied forth into oratorical battle:

And when they come together, for their version of debate and discourse; the crowd boos a soldier returning from Iraq because he's gay; they applaud the idea of letting Americans die unattended in hospital emergency rooms; and they cheer the efficiency of Texas' express lane for executions - a lane open only to the poor and marginalized.

Nichol's audience broke into applause; then he darkened his oratorical tone to lament the moral corruption of Wall Street and the current Republican front-runner, Herman Cain:

And despite clear proof that thievery, criminality and unyielding greed on Wall Street have directly caused the loss of at least eight million jobs in the last three years - for which we've bailed them out, and they've used the money to pay themselves obscene bonuses - a debate crowd this week cheered the declaration that fourteen million unemployed Americans 'should blame themselves, not Wall Street.' I'm not making this up!

Striking a chord with the audience of progressive Democratic women, Nichol zeroed in on the specter of Republican prejudice:

In the Congress, Republicans are so completely and unalterably focused on assuring that a brilliant young black man NOT be re-elected president, that they would say, over and over again, to millions and millions of uninsured, unemployed, uncompensated, unfed, un-housed, uneducated, unsafe, and now unbelieving Americans: 'Too bad,' your desperation is not as important as our intransigence, our pretend ideology; our belief that the only thing wrong with America is those at the bottom have too much and those at the top don't have enough. We've planted our flag. There we'll stand.

Nichol launched into a passionate excoriation of the Republican social agenda that targets: gays; women; students; middle class families; teachers; professors and Medicaid recipients while, "denying thousands of others the right to vote."

Nichol ridiculed the Republican domination of the North Carolina General Assembly as a confederacy of dunces:

Dominated by twin beacons - the Evangelical Right and the Tea Party. A Christian Right whose political agenda cannot be squared with - and is a formal rejection of - the Sermon on the Mount, and a Tea Party calling itself 'constitutionalist' - whose agenda cannot be squared, no matter how many tri-cornered hats they wear - with the Constitution of the United States."

Baring his oratorical knuckles, Nichol went after North Carolina's Speaker of the House, Tom Tillis, who recently enflamed every sector of the state when he attempted to foment strife between the sick and the impoverished. Nichol defined Tillis in chilling chiaroscuro:

But it should come as no great surprise from a gang led by a Speaker of the House who would say, and I want to be fair, get the words exactly right, Speaker Tillis, would say this: 'What we have to do is find a way to divide and conquer the people who are on assistance. We have to show respect for that woman who has cerebral palsy and had no choice in her condition. And we need to get those folks to look down on these people who choose to get into a condition that makes them dependent on the government.' I always have to stop for a minute and let that sink in. 'We have to get cerebral palsy victims to look down on the unemployed and destitute of North Carolina to treat them with appropriate disdain.'"

Then, Nichol took aim at the arch-villain of North Carolina politics, Senator Richard Burr:

Like Richard Burr's claim, on the floor of the United States Senate, a couple of years ago, that poor parents trying to secure Medicaid coverage for their children were 'pigs at the trough.' Pigs at the trough! On the floor of the Senate. Standing where Frank Porter Graham represented North Carolina! He should have been forced to resign!

The Democratic women burst into spontaneous applause. Now turning to his broader theme of the malignant Republican menace, Nichol stalked Republican prejudice against gays and schoolchildren.

Will we allow, for example, our government to say to our gay and lesbian sisters and brothers that we're so dead set committed to treating you with derision and disdain that we'll write into our constitution 'Thou shalt never have full dignity, full membership, full equality?'

And for Republican attacks on children:

Nor can we permit North Carolina to say to her children: 'We're too selfish, too greedy, too self-absorbed, too attached to our own tax breaks, to educate you to the best of our ability and your own! So we're going to descend to 50th place in funding for K-12, and demolish early childhood programs like Smart Start and More at Four. See kids, you came along at the wrong time. We're not like our parents. We won't do whatever it takes to give you the best chance in life. Our folks sacrificed to give us the richest opportunity they could muster. But we're not like them. It's more important to save a penny in sales tax. We have our priorities.

At this point, Nichol addressed the key issue in the minds of progressive American women - abortion rights:

Nor can we sit back and say we'll abide an abortion law that says to women, in their most vulnerable and intimate moment, 'We're going to make you undergo a sonogram procedure that has nothing to do with medicine. But that conscripts you, and your body, and your doctor into a state-mandated propaganda regimen to coerce and intimidate you out of exercising your constitutional rights. No step, no matter how intrusive, no matter how totalitarian, is beyond us. So certain are we of our religion and our politics. We demand them for you, too. We force them on you no matter how you might protest. God is on our side.

Turning to the most insidious threat to American democracy concealed in the Republican agenda, voter suppression, Nichol invoked the specter of the Jim Crow Era.

Our legislature has shown, we'll even go after people's right to vote. I would have thought given our history, given our premises of government, given the wars we've fought, given the civil rights struggles we've endured, and given the things we repeatedly pledge allegiance to, the one thing that would be agreed upon by all - the uncontestable in America - was the sanctity of the right to vote. . . . But our adversaries have pressed disenfranchisement into their agenda as well. Even racial disenfranchisement. Moving purposefully, knowingly, intentionally, strategically, cynically, to make it harder for persons of color to vote. Forgetting our past. Or maybe, in this case, embracing it. There are some sins against American democracy not meant to be forgiven.

Now modulating the tempo and impact of his delivery, Nichol attacked the power elite and broadened the vision of the economic justice movement to extend the limited focus on Wall Street to the entire corporate, legal, business and commercial network of American financial power.

But most of all, most profoundly, our challengers ask whether we'll continue to accept instead of vibrant democracy a government of wealth, by wealth, for wealth, through wealth. Whether we're untroubled, in the richest nation on earth, the richest nation in human history, with the highest levels of poverty, especially child poverty, in the advanced industrial world. The greatest gaps between rich and poor, by far, among the major nations, not only peers like Europe and the Commonwealth, but worse than China, India, Uganda and Bosnia. The greatest concentration of wealth in the top five per cent in a hundred years! A feudal regime of unemployment and stagnation for the rest! Cash register government! A politics of the Koch brothers, and Art Pope, and Wall Street, and John Roberts, and Nino Scalia, and Citizens United, and the Chamber of Commerce, and Bank of America - the malefactors of great wealth. Say, we're not going to have it - whether we'll occupy not only Wall Street, but - America. We are heirs to the greatest democracy on earth. We won't have it bought or stolen out from under us!

Preparing the Democratic women for momentous battle, Nichol reminded them of the origins of the United States.

This Party started over two-hundred years ago. And it STARTED in a fight. A fight between Jefferson and Hamilton. Jefferson stood strong for the future. Committed to democratic decision-making, citizen participation and humane ideals. Hamilton represented a gaggle of moneyed interests, happy enough to leave the rest of us out.

Bracing the audience for the titanic struggle of 2012, Nichol argued against defeatism, skepticism and cynicism.

And I know that some have grown cynical, and given up hope and they don't believe we can win these daunting battles. But imagine saying that to Harry Truman or Robert Kennedy or Cesar Chavez or Barbara Jordan or Paul Wellstone or Molly Ivins. Or think of saying it to John Lewis. Cynicism has no more place in the Democratic Party than privilege does.

In a thunderous voice Nichol released a cascade of riveting images and extolled his audience to action with a stirring litany that reverberated in the inner ears of every American heart.

So we ask you, again, ever more powerfully, to enroll your spirits, to enlist your hearts. To make this defining cause your own. To enlist your all! To enlist because . . .

Somewhere we read, and we believed it that, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all are created equal.'

And somewhere we read, that we are, 'One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'

And somewhere we read that, 'History will judge us on the extent to which we have used our gifts to lighten and enrich the lives of our fellows.'

And somewhere we read that, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'

And somewhere we read, 'We have to believe the things we teach our children.' Believe them and make them real.

And somewhere we read that ,'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.'

And somewhere we read that, 'Whenever you did these things for the least of these, you did them for me.'

And somewhere we read, 'You reap what you sow.'

And somewhere we read that the pursuit of justice and the pursuit of happiness can be as one. They march not in opposite directions, but hand in hand.

And somewhere we read, 'No, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.'

Harkening to his clarion call, every person in the audience rose to their feet applauding and cheering and calling for Nichol to address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte next year.

Urging her forces forward into the battle for the future, Renee Price adjourned the meeting, and the most progressive Democrats in the South poured out into the autumn sunlight.

Some made their way to Occupy Chapel Hill, while others went to their homes and neighborhoods to spread the word.

The Battle of North Carolina is now rising into a solid wall of surging political frenzy in the elections for Mayor and Town Council in Chapel Hill, as well as for crucial School Boards all across the state with key contests in Wake and Mecklenburg counties.

Democratic women are now leading the battle for their rights and the rights of others to live in the America they inherited, the America that is now threatened with imminent dissolution by Wall Street and its insidious Reaganite creed: 'Greed is Good.'

?

Follow Michael Carmichael on Twitter: www.twitter.com/alchemistoxford

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-carmichael/north-carolina-congress_b_1027161.html

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Gaddafi's death - who pulled the trigger? (Reuters)

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) ? Disturbing images of a blood-stained and shaken Muammar Gaddafi being jostled by angry fighters quickly circulated around the world after the Libyan dictator's dramatic death near his home town of Sirte.

The exact circumstances of his demise are still unclear with conflicting accounts of his death circulating. But the footage, possibly of the last chaotic moments of Gaddafi's life, offered some clues into what happened.

Gaddafi was still alive when he was captured near Sirte. In the video, filmed by a bystander in the crowd and later aired on television around the world, Gaddafi is shown being dragged off a vehicle's bonnet and pulled to the ground by his hair.

"Keep him alive, keep him alive!" someone shouts. Gunshots then ring out. The camera veers off.

"They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," one senior source in the NTC told Reuters. "He might have been resisting."

In what appeared to contradict the events depicted in the video, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said Gaddafi was killed when a gunfight broke out after his capture between his supporters and government fighters. He died from a bullet wound to the head.

It said no order had been given to kill him.

Gaddafi called the rebels who rose up against his 42-years of one-man rule "rats," but in the end it was he who was captured cowering in a drainage pipe full of rubbish and filth.

"He called us rats, but look where we found him," said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway near Sirte.

On the ground, government fighters and the scenes of sheer carnage nearby told the story of the dictator's final hours.

Shortly before dawn prayers on Thursday, Gaddafi, surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.

But they did not get far.

France said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to Gaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Thursday, but said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Gaddafi.

Some two miles west of Sirte, 15 pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 meters from the main road.

They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels has assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.

But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or that it had been strafed by a fighter jet.

"MY MASTER IS HERE"

Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn across the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.

Gaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have run through a stand of trees toward the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.

But a group of government fighters were on their tail.

"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.

"One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.

"Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.

"We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.

At the time of capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.

Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.

"One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.

Another of the fighters who said he took part in the capture toted a heavily engraved a golden pistol he said he took from Gaddafi as he was hoisted on the shoulders of his comrades.

Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.

Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.

Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.

Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway.

"Gaddafi was captured here," said one simply.

"THEY BEAT HIM, THEN THEY KILLED HIM"

From there Gaddafi was taken to Sirte where he and his dwindling band of die-hard supporters had made a last stand under a rain of missile and artillery fire in a desperate two-month siege.

Video footage showed Gaddafi, dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and as he was dragged from the front of a pick-up truck by a crowd of angry jostling government soldiers who hit him and pulled his hair to drag him to the ground.

He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd. NTC officials later announced Gaddafi had died of his wounds after capture.

Someone in the crowd shouted "keep him alive, keep him alive," but another fighter cried out in a high pitched crazed scream. Gaddafi then goes out of view and gunshots are heard.

Further television footage showed what appeared to be Gaddafi's lifeless body being loaded into an ambulance in Sirte.

An NTC spokesman in Benghazi, Jalal al-Galal, said a doctor who examined Gaddafi when he arrived in Misrata found he had been shot in the head and abdomen.

(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Sirte and Samia Nakhoul in Amman; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111020/wl_nm/us_libya_gaddafi_finalhours

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High income workers' share of total wages grows

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Fifty percent of U.S. workers earned less than $26,364 last year, reflecting a growing income gap between the nation's rich and poor, the government reported Thursday.

There were fewer jobs, and overall pay was trending down ? except for the nation's wealthiest. The number of people making $1 million or more soared by over 18 percent from 2009, the Social Security Administration said, citing payroll data based on W-2 forms submitted by employers to the Internal Revenue Service.

Despite population growth, the number of Americans with jobs fell again last year, with total employment of just under 150.4 million ? down from 150.9 million in 2009 and 155.4 million in 2008. In all, there were 5.2 million fewer jobs than in 2007, when the deep recession began, according to the IRS data.

The figures are just one more indication of the toll that the worst downturn since the Great Depression has taken on the U.S. economy. They were published as demonstrations rage on Wall Street and in cities across the nation protesting a widening income gulf between average wage earners and the nation's wealthiest.

The unemployment rate remains stuck at 9.1 percent, with more than 14 million out of work and 11 million other discouraged people who have stopped looking for work or are stuck in part-time jobs. Since 1980, roughly 5 percent of annual national income has shifted from the middle class to the nation's richest households, according to the Census Bureau.

While the average U.S income last year was $39,959, the mean income ? the figure where half earn more and half earn less ? was much lower, $26,364. This disparity reflects the fact that "the distribution of workers by wage level is highly skewed," according to Social Security.

Median compensation last year was just 66 percent of the average income, compared with nearly 72 percent in 1980.

___

Online:

Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2010

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-21-Income%20Gap/id-a2c5ad9a997b47619c08ef0b544e38ff

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Video: Prosecution set to rest in Conrad Murray trial

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44971892#44971892

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Superconducting disc locked in upside-down levitation

MacGregor Campbell, consultant

Surely if flying saucers existed, they would float around like the disc in this video. The demonstration by physicist Boaz Almog from Tel Aviv University, Israel, at the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, earlier this week illustrates how a superconducting plate can be fixed in 3D space while levitating above a track of permanent magnets. But this isn't simply magnetic repulsion: the disc can also stay suspended upside down when the magnets are flipped over.

The clip has caused a stir online over the last few days, but the effect is perfectly explainable using the laws of physics.

The make-up of the disc is key: it's composed of sapphire crystals, which are poor conductors, coated with a thin layer of yttrium barium copper oxide, which is a superconductor. Superconductors hate magnetic fields due to a phenomenon called the Meissner effect. Since electrical current and magnetic fields are related to one another, and electrical current flows very easily in a superconductor, subjecting it to a magnetic field will create currents that expel the field inside it. The device will then resist any changes, like falling down, that might change the magnetic fields it contains. ?

Almog's disc can be locked in place thanks to tiny gaps in the ultra-thin superconducting coating that allow some of the magnetic fields to seep in. Since the superconductor hates magnetic fields, it traps them in weak areas. So the tiny spaces act as pins, holding up the disc in space.

"We have achieved what was thought to be impossible up until today: growing high quality superconducting layers on sapphire wafers," says Almog. "Since the superconductor is of the highest quality, it allows a micron thick layer to be locked in space with enough power."

But if you think this could lead to a hoverboard or flying car, don't get your hopes up. Magnets would have to be embedded on a vehicle's entire surface and it would need to be permanently chilled with liquid nitrogen. A superconductor that works at room temperature would solve part of the challenge, but such a material hasn't yet been discovered.

If you enjoyed this video, watch a vehicle levitate without magnets or check out this tiny hovering robot.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/196ea307/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A110C10A0Clevitating0Edisc0Estays0Elocked0Ein0E3d0Espace0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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The Culture Gabfest, ?Beyoncé?s Cafeteria? Edition

To vote for us in the Podcast Awards (daily, if you?d like!) click here.
Everything you need to know about Occupy Wall Street, at Slate.
Slate?s Forrest Wickman on where to protest when your city doesn?t have a Wall Street.
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Occupy Wall Street, in Slate.
Keith Olbermann reads the official Occupy Wall Street statement of grievances.
Philosopher and leftist cultural critic Slavoj Zizek speaks at Zuccotti Park.
NPR?s Planet Money asks the question: What is Occupy Wall Street?
Television commentator Dylan Ratigan doesn?t mince words.
Slate?s ?Explainer? column asks whether Beyonc? can get in trouble for stealing dance moves.
Slate?s BrowBeat Blog with a side-by-side slide show of Beyonc? and her ?inspirations.?
The New York Times? Arts Beat Blog on the Beyonc? plagiarism controversy.
Of course, this isn?t the first time Beyonc? has cribbed her dance moves.
Dana?s review of Pedro Almod?var?s new film The Skin I Live In, in Slate.
Slate?s June Thomas watched every Almod?var film; here?s what she learned.
Manohla Dargis? review of The Skin I Live In, in the New York Times.
Harper?s Bazaar recreates some of Almod?var?s legendary scenes with fashion?s most famous faces.

The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:

Dana?s pick: The Bad ?Lip Reading YouTube Channel.
Julia?s pick: ?Rewrite? on Paul Simon?s new album So Beautiful or So What.
June?s pick: Homeland on Showtime.
Steve?s pick: The jazz classic Clifford Brown With Strings.

Outro: ?Countdown,? Beyonc?

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'Hunger Games' Star Jennifer Lawrence A 'Powerful Person'

'Like Crazy' co-star Anton Yelchin saw Lawrence 'transform' into Katniss Everdeen at the gym.
By Eric Ditzian

Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games"
Photo: Lionsgate

We'd heard "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence talk about the intensity of her workouts to prepare for the role of the arrow-slinging reluctant warrior Katniss Everdeen. And we'd heard director Gary Ross brag on his star's behalf, using phrases like "intensely physical," "physically demanding" and "very rigorous" to describe Lawrence's training program.

But the Oscar-nominated actress' physical transformation into the District 12 tribute didn't really hit home until we checked out the "Hunger Games" teaser footage we debuted in August at the MTV Video Music Awards. We just didn't know what to expect. Her "Like Crazy" co-star Anton Yelchin, however, knew exactly what was coming. Months after their romantic drama premiered at Sundance (and walked away with the Grand Jury Prize), the duo ended up at the same gym, prepping for the next steps in their cinematic careers.

"I was training for a film called 'Odd Thomas' that I was doing at the same gym Jen was training [at for] the bow stuff and all the running," Yelchin told MTV News recently. "I got to see her and talk to her. I think she's amazing, and she's a good friend of mine."

And after checking out the "Hunger Games" teaser, Yelchin had firsthand knowledge of what it took for Lawrence to become Katniss. He was impressed, but not surprised.

"When I saw Jen, it was different kinds of physical training she was going through, like running training," he said. "She's such a powerful person. She can do anything she puts her mind to. If she needs to transform for something, she'll transform. If she needs to learn how to kill you with the bow, she'll do that. She'll do anything she needs to do."

Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games."

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

Related Videos

• MTV Rough Cut: Jennifer Lawrence

Related Photos

• The Hunger Games
• 'Hunger Games' District Seals

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672810/hunger-games-jennifer-lawrence.jhtml

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