Thursday, November 29, 2012

Now, police detain Palghar boy over Facebook post against Raj Thackeray

They say once bitten twice shy, but this adage clearly does not hold true for the Palghar police.

After facing much flak over the arrests of two girls, they have now detained a 19-year-old boy for posting an "abusive" Facebook status against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, based on a complaint by workers of MNS. Cops said they are questioning the boy to verify if he had indeed posted the status himself or if someone else hacked into his ID.

Police officers said that they are being cautious about their approach in the fresh complaint for status messages on a social networking site, as they do not want to go to the same extreme like in the case of Shaheen Dhada, the 21-year-old girl who was arrested along with her friend for questioning the shutdown of the city over the death of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

The 19-year-old was detained after a complaint was filed by Kundan Sankhe, president of Thane rural unit of the MNS, alleging that the boy had made "abusive" comments about Raj Thackeray. The boy was brought to the police station by a mob of MNS supporters.

Meanwhile, Palghar remained on tenterhooks throughout Wednesday over the bandh called by the Shiv Sena in support of the policemen suspended for arresting the two girls last week. People chose to stay indoors and schools and colleges remained closed.

The state had deployed 500 police officers and had the Rapid Action Force on standby to avert any crisis situation.

Source: http://indiatoday.feedsportal.com/c/33614/f/589699/s/260f61fc/l/0Lindiatoday0Bintoday0Bin0Cstory0Cnow0Epolice0Edetain0Eboy0Eover0Eobjectionable0Efacebook0Ecomment0Eagainst0Eraj0Ethackeray0C10C2351210Bhtml/story01.htm

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Microsoft Agency Bite Communications' Alleged Fraud - Business ...

A senior member of Bite Communications' finance team is suspected of embezzling nearly $3 million from the company, its corporate parent disclosed today in a delayed annual report.

San Francisco-based Bite's clients include Microsoft, Nokia, Sony and Mozilla

The executive was not named.

?I feel like we had a relative of Bernie Madoff working for us without us knowing,? CEO Tim Dyson told PRWeek. ?We expect the case will take many months to work its way through the legal systems due in part to its complexity.?

Next Fifteen, the British PR agency holding company, disclosed in its annual report that the fraud was "an act of personal embezzlement by a long-serving employee in a trusted position heading up the finance team in the Bite office in San Francisco. This entailed a cheque fraud over a number of years, involving forging signatures and producing forged documentation. The weaknesses of controls that allowed this to happen were a lack of segregation of duties, management override of controls and inadequate review."

The FBI and SFPD are investigating. The Guardian previously noted:

Next Fifteen said that it has informed the FBI and is working with BDO, its external auditors, as well as hiring investigations firm Kroll to carry out a full forensic investigation of all the activities within this part of the business.

There has been a recent management shuffle at the company, but none of the executives named publicly to new positions are believed to be involved, according to PRWeek. Bite also lost its HP account, according to O'Dwyer's.

Here are all the details known publicly about the fraud, condensed and compiled from Next Fifteen's annual report. (Readers: if you know something about what happened at Bite, we'd love to hear from you.)

On 31 October 2012 we informed shareholders that, in the latter stages of finalising the audit, a fraud was discovered in the San Francisco office of Bite Communications. This has now been thoroughly investigated with the conclusion that this was an act of personal embezzlement by a long-standing member of the finance team in a trusted position. The required accounting adjustment has been to write off as an exceptional item $2.8m (?1.8m) (see note 4) relating to unrecoverable assets and unrecorded liabilities, reflecting cash stolen from the business. The fraud continued into the early part of the current financial year, which will require a further write-off of $0.2m (?0.1m). This crime is now being investigated by the FBI and the SFPD. All steps will be taken to recoup lost assets but it is too soon to estimate the likely scale of any recovery.

The Board is undertaking a comprehensive review of the internal financial controls environment, the details of which you can find in the Financial Review. Meanwhile, as indicated in the statement of 31 October, this regrettable event will not impact the operational performance of the Group or affect its ability to make the investments it has planned for the coming year.

As described in the Chairman?s Statement, the Group has suffered from an act of personal embezzlement by a long-serving employee in a trusted position heading up the finance team in the Bite office in San Francisco. This entailed a cheque fraud over a number of years, involving forging signatures and producing forged documentation. The weaknesses of controls that allowed this to happen were a lack of segregation of duties, management override of controls and inadequate review. Prior to 1 August 2010 the amounts were small and were expensed through the income statement, amounting to an identified total of $300k (?190k). As the amounts increased they were accumulated in the balance sheet, spread over two statutory entities. The total amount of cash taken is around $3m (?1.9m). We have identified that $200k (?127k) was taken after 31 July 2012 and will therefore be expensed in the current year. For the remaining $2.8m (?1.8m), the ongoing investigation has so far identified that around $1.4m (?0.9m) cash was extracted in 2012, and $1.4m (?0.9m) prior to 2012 ($0.7m (?0.4m) in 2011 and $0.7m (?0.4m) prior to 2011).

As at 31 July 2012, a total of $2.5m (?1.6m) was held on the balance sheet and represented by fictitious assets. Of that $2.5m (?1.6m), an amount of $1.1m (?0.7m) had existed at 31 July 2011. The Board have concluded that allocating the impact of the write off across each respective prior year would not make a material difference to an understanding of the accounts.

A further $0.3m (?190k) was identified relating to unrecorded tax liabilities and associated penalties and interest which have now been accrued. The write off and recognition of liabilities has resulted in a total charge associated with the fraud of $2.8m (?1.8m) being recognised in the 2012 income statement (see note 4).

In response to this fraud, the Board is undertaking a comprehensive review of the internal financial controls environment, including cash management involving both payments and receipts. A decision has been taken to create a dedicated Internal Audit function, with resources to be recruited in the US and UK.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-agency-bite-communications-alleged-fraud-2012-11

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

philiptanes: seder shetland: cbc news: Eco-Innovation Observatory

The Eco-Innovation Observatory (EIO) would like to invite you to share your views on the role of eco-innovation in the shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon Europe. We would like to consult representatives from academia, business, civil society and public administration by taking part in our questionnaire. Your insights will be used in the upcoming reports of the Observatory, including our final flagship annual publication. The survey has only three questions and is entirely anonymous.

Please follow this link to the questionnaire.

For more information on the Eco-Innovation Observatory, see www.eco-innovation.eu

-->

Source: http://seri.at/resource-use/2012/11/15/eco-innovation-observatory-launches-online-questionnaire/

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Saturday, November 17, 2012

New Syrian ambassador to France is named

AAA??Nov. 17, 2012?6:24 AM ET
New Syrian ambassador to France is named
AP

French President Francois Hollande, second from left, head of the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib, second from right, Syrian opposition member Suheir Atassi, left, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, right, pose for photos, prior to a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. France has taken a leading role among Western countries in supporting Syria's rebels. On Tuesday, it became the first Western nation to formally recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President Francois Hollande, second from left, head of the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib, second from right, Syrian opposition member Suheir Atassi, left, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, right, pose for photos, prior to a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. France has taken a leading role among Western countries in supporting Syria's rebels. On Tuesday, it became the first Western nation to formally recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President Francois Hollande, left, gestures as he welcomes head of the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib, right, prior to a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. France has taken a leading role among Western countries in supporting Syria's rebels. On Tuesday, it became the first Western nation to formally recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President Francois Hollande, left, and head of the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib, right, pose for photos prior to a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. France has taken a leading role among Western countries in supporting Syria's rebels. On Tuesday, it became the first Western nation to formally recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President Francois Hollande, left, welcomes head of the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib, prior to a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. France has taken a leading role among Western countries in supporting Syria's rebels. On Tuesday, it became the first Western nation to formally recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President Francois Hollande, left, smiles as he welcomes head of the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib, right, prior to a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. France has taken a leading role among Western countries in supporting Syria's rebels. On Tuesday, it became the first Western nation to formally recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

(AP) ? French President Francois Hollande and the new Syrian opposition leader have announced plans to install a new ambassador to represent Syria in France.

The move came after talks Saturday at the presidential palace in Paris between Hollande and Moaz al-Khatib, head of the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition. France is the only Western country to have formally recognized the group as the representative of the Syrian people.

The new ambassador is Mounzir Makhous, an academic.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-17-France-Syria/id-f78349282e2243f3bceb84035a31150a

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Iran Nuclear Program: Tehran Poised To Expand Nuke Work, U.N. Nuclear Agency Says

  • <em>In this Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 photo, Iranian women and a man weave carpet in a workshop in Qom, 78 miles (125 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)</em><br><br> Initial sanctions were imposed after Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy and took diplomats hostage in 1979. Iranian products cannot be imported into the United States apart from small gifts, information material, food and some carpets.

  • <em>Former President Bill Clinton addresses the audience during the opening night dinner of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates at the Field Museum Monday, April 23, 2012, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)</em><br><br> In 1995, President Bill Clinton issued executive orders preventing U.S. companies from investing in Iranian oil and gas and trading with Iran. The same year, Congress passed a law imposing sanctions on foreign companies investing more than $20 million a year in Iran's energy sector.

  • <em>In this Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 file photo, an Iranian money changer holds currency with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's image in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, File)</em><br><br> In October 2007, Washington imposed sanctions on three Iranian banks and branded the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a proliferater of weapons of mass destruction. The Treasury has since added numerous other Iranian banks to its blacklist. The Treasury has identified about 20 petroleum and petrochemical companies as being under Iranian government control, an action that put them off-limits to U.S. businesses under the trade embargo.

  • <em>This photo shows a branch of Iranian Bank Tejarat in Tehran on January 24, 2012 upon which the US Treasury announced sanctions claiming all of the Islamic Republic's major state-owned banks have now been subjected to punitive measures. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> Congress approved tough new unilateral sanctions on June 24, 2010, aimed at squeezing Iran's energy and banking sectors. The new law imposed penalties on companies that supply Iran with refined petroleum products worth more than $5 million a year. It also effectively deprived foreign banks of access to the U.S. financial system if they did business with Iranian banks or the Revolutionary Guards.

  • <em>Oil workers gather by an oil well operated by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA in Morichal, Venezuela, on July 28, 2011. (RAMON SAHMKOW/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> In May 2011, the United States announced new sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, and six other smaller oil and shipping firms for trading with Iran in violation of the U.S. ban, prompting fury from Hugo Chavez's government.

  • June 2011

    <em>Members of Iran's paramilitary Basij militia parade in front of the former US embassy in Tehran on November 25, 2011 to mark the national Basij week. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> On June 11, it announced new sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij Resistance Force, and Iran's law enforcement forces. The sanctions froze any of the targets' assets under U.S. jurisdiction and barred U.S. persons and institutions from dealing with them.

  • <em>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (L) announce new sanctions against Iran at the State Department on November 21, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)</em><br><br> On Nov. 21 the United States named Iran as an area of "primary money-laundering concern", a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it. The United States also blacklisted 11 entities suspected of aiding its nuclear programmes and expanded sanctions to target companies that aid its oil and petrochemical industries.

  • <em>US President Barack Obama (C) greets guests after speaking on nuclear security, touching on subjects from terrorism to Iran and North Korea, during a visit to Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul on March 26, 2012. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> On Dec. 31, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law a defense funding bill that imposed sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, which is the main conduit for oil revenues. Sanctioned institutions would be frozen out of the U.S. financial markets.

  • <em>Hostesses stand in front of the construction site of the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) Technology Centre and Greater China Headquarters in Shanghai, China Friday, April 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</em><br><br> On Jan. 13, 2012 the United States extended sanctions to Chinese state-run energy trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, which it said was Iran's largest supplier of refined petroleum products. It also imposed sanctions on Singapore's Kuo Oil Pte Ltd and United Arab Emirates-based FAL Oil Company Ltd.

  • <em>Members of Iranian Revolutionary Guards attend a ceremony at the mausoleum of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, commemorating 33rd anniversary of his return from exile after 14 years, and the 1979 Islamic Revolution which toppled pro-US Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, just outside Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)</em><br><br> The United States exempted Japan and 10 European Union nations from financial sanctions on March 20 because they had significantly cut purchases of Iranian oil, but Iran's top customers China and India remain at risk of such steps. On March 28 the Treasury set additional sanctions against Iranian engineering firms with ties to the Revolutionary Guards, as well as individuals and shipping companies with ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).

  • <em>In this Sept. 27, 2000 file photo, an Iranian oil worker repairs a pipe at an oil refinery in Tehran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)</em><br><br> On May 21 the Senate approved the latest tightening of sanctions on Iran's oil trade.

  • <em>In this Jan. 19, 2012 file photo, fishing boats are seen in front of oil tankers on the Persian Gulf waters, south of the Strait of Hormuz, offshore the town of Ras Al Khaimah in United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)</em><br><br> On Aug. 12, 2010 the EU banned the creation of joint ventures with enterprises in Iran engaged in the oil and natural gas industries. Member states must prohibit the provision of insurance and re-insurance to the government of Iran. The import and export of arms and equipment that could contribute to uranium enrichment, or have a "dual use", is banned. The sanctions forbid the sale, supply or transfer of energy equipment and technology used by Iran for exploration and production or for refining or liquefying natural gas. The EU expects the effects of the sanctions to increase over time as existing parts wear out.

  • <em>EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton speaks during a media conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)</em><br><br> In May 2011, EU foreign ministers added 100 new entities to a list of companies and people affected, including those owned or controlled by IRISL. Last October, the EU imposed sanctions on 29 people, extending the list targeting individuals associated with human rights violations to 61. On Dec. 1, the EU added 180 Iranians and entities to a sanctions blacklist that imposes asset freezes and travel bans on those involved in the nuclear program.

  • <em>In this March 13, 2008 file photo, gold coins and bars are shown at California Numismatic Investments in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)</em><br><br> On Jan. 23, 2012 the EU placed an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. EU countries with existing contracts to buy oil and petroleum products were allowed to honor them until July 1. The EU also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.

  • <em>British Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant (C) speaks during a vote on broader military and financial sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program during a UN Security Council at the UN headquarters June 9, 2010 in New York. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> The Security Council has imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran, in December 2006, March 2007, March 2008 and June 2010. The first covered sensitive nuclear materials and froze the assets of Iranian individuals and companies linked with the nuclear program.

  • <em>A military truck carries a Sejil rocket as it is paraded during the annual Army Day military parade in Tehran on April 17, 2012. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> The second included new arms and financial sanctions. It extended an asset freeze to 28 more groups, companies and individuals engaged in or supporting sensitive nuclear work or the development of ballistic missiles.

  • <em>Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad adjusts his goggles as he tours an exhibition on laser technology in Tehran on February 7, 2010. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> The third, in 2008, increased travel and financial curbs on individuals and companies. It expanded a partial ban on trade in items with both civilian and military uses to cover sales of all such technology to Iran.

  • <em>A street money exchanger, puts US dollars in a plastic bag, in Ferdowsi St. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)</em><br><br> A Security Council resolution passed on June 9, 2010, called for measures against new Iranian banks abroad if a connection to the nuclear or missile programmes was suspected.

  • <em>Soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard walk past a satirical drawing of Statue of Liberty on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)</em><br><br> It expanded a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran and blacklisted three firms controlled by IRISL and 15 belonging to the Revolutionary Guards. The resolution called for the setting up of a cargo inspection regime.

  • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/iran-nuclear-program_n_2145252.html

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    Tiny katydid ears look a lot like ours

    Their ears may be on their legs, but katydids hear a lot like humans do, a new study finds.

    In fact, even though insect and mammal lineages diverged a staggeringly long time ago, even for the evolutionary scale, our ears have evolved to work in remarkably similar ways. The findings could be useful for engineering miniature sound sensors, said Daniel Robert, a bionanoscientist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

    "It's a bit of a breakthrough for us, because now we know that ears exist that can do such refined analysis (of sound) and yet be that small and that simple," Robert told LiveScience.

    Katydid ears
    Robert and his colleagues focused their study on the South American katydid Copiphora gorgonensis, an orange-faced insect that can hear sound whose frequency ranges from 5,000 to 50,000 hertz. Humans, in comparison, can hear between about 20 and 20,000 hertz. These katydids sing at about 23,000 hertz, in ultrasound, or above the human range of hearing.

    The ears of C. gorgonensis are less than a millimeter long. When study researchers opened them up, they found a set of eardrums, or tympanic membranes ? unlike us, the katydids have two per ear, Robert said. More to their surprise, they found a fluid-filled vesicle inside the ear, a previously undiscovered organ. The challenge, said study co-author Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, now a senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln, was that the vesicle resisted exploration. When they opened it, it burst.

    "The whole system explodes," Montealegre-Zapata told LiveScience.

    Clearly, the vesicle was under pressure. Using a series of techniques from sensitive microscopes to X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT, a similar technique as used in human medicine), the researchers were able to reconstruct the structure of the whole katydid ear without having to open up the pressurized vesicle. They found that it looks much like our own. [ 7 Ways Animals Act Like Humans ]

    Humans vs. katydids
    The human ear has three parts: the eardrum, which vibrates when sound waves hit it; the ossicles, tiny bones that transmit and amplify these vibrations so they can be transmitted to the third part; and the cochlea, a fluid-filled coil that houses thousands of hairlike cells that transmit the vibrations to the brain for processing. Without the ossicles, the vibrations would otherwise be muted when they moved from air to the watery cochlea.

    Katydids have a similar system. Their dual eardrums transmit vibrations to a plate that works like a lever, increasing the force so the vibrations can transmit to the fluid-filled vesicle, a simpler version of our own ossicle system. The vesicle itself is like a simplified cochlea. It's uncoiled, more like an "elongated balloon," Robert said, than a snail shell, and it has far fewer sensory hair cells than the human cochlea.

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    Katydids likely need a sensitive hearing system, because they sing in the same range as the echolocating calls of their major predators, bats. Thus, Robert said, katydids have to be able to discriminate between the sound of an incoming hunter and the sound of a singing mate.

    "If you're a male katydid and you sing your heart out on the leaf to attract the female and there is a bat flying around with echolocation in the same frequencies as you, there is some possibility for confusion there," Robert said. "If the bat finds you, the confusion stops, because you die."

    The researchers are now investigating the ears of other insects, including a closely related katydid that sings at an amazingly high 150 kilohertz (150,000 hertz), the most ultrasonic singer of any known organism. The wavelength of such sounds is so short that the katydids must have ultrasensitive ear structures to catch it over distances, Montealegre-Zapata said. Ultimately, the researchers plan to engineer extremely tiny, extremely sensitive microphones and sound sensors.?

    "The next stage is to use the tools of nanotechnology to make a sensor, which is a half-millimeter across and does the same job," Robert said.

    Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on? Facebook ? and Google+.

    ? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

    Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49845669/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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    Friday, November 16, 2012

    EPA report troubles Ohio cancer cluster families | WSLS 10

    CLYDE, Ohio (AP) Soil samples showing high levels of a chemical believed to increase the risk of certain cancers were found at a former park in an area of northern Ohio where cancer has sickened dozens of children for more than a decade, according to environmental regulators.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on the findings, though, doesn't link the contaminants with the cancer cluster that has been under investigation by state and federal agencies for more than six years. Nearly 40 young people have been diagnosed with cancer since the mid-1990s in the area.

    The odds are against coming up with an answer, even with this recent finding, because pinpointing the cause of a cancer cluster rarely happens.

    Environmental regulators began testing for contamination in the Clyde area between Cleveland and Toledo earlier this year. State agencies already had conducted a variety of tests, including air and groundwater sampling and radiation checks at homes and schools.

    The EPA found that soil samples taken in June near a basketball court showed metals and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in amounts exceeding what the EPA considers safe levels.

    The park in the village of Green Springs was built in the 1950s by Whirlpool Corp., which has a washing machine factory in Clyde. The park closed about five years ago.

    A tip left on a hotline indicated the company used a black sludge-like material to fill in the area near the basketball court, the EPA report said.

    Whirlpool said in a statement that the current property owner has turned down requests for additional testing. "We are prepared to move forward immediately with the first steps of the evaluation once granted access to the property," the company said.

    Families whose children were among those diagnosed with brain tumors, leukemia, lymphoma and other forms of cancer said they were troubled by the report.

    "Obviously it is upsetting to learn that such significant amounts of poison sludge are dumped anywhere, but to either dump it in proximity or cover it over with a children's park and a swimming pool filled with water coming from the very spot where the dumping occurred, is an outrage," said Alan Mortensen, an attorney working with some of the families.

    Investigators over the past years have been focusing on a 12-mile-wide circle of mostly farmland just south of Lake Erie.

    Many of the diagnoses came between 2002 and 2006, leading state health authorities to declare it a cancer cluster because the number and type of diagnoses exceeded what would be expected.

    Source: http://www2.wsls.com/lifestyles/2012/nov/14/epa-report-troubles-ohio-cancer-cluster-families-ar-2360483/

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    Bathwater ? This Man&#39;s World

    When I was growing up, we had one full bathroom in our house and one half bathroom. The full bathroom that we had was upstairs and had only a bathtub, so consequently, we all grew up with baths as our primary body cleansing option. We did have a shower in the house, but it was down in the unfinished basement one room over from where my dad kept the Playboys he confiscated from students in his high school science class. The shower was scary. The Playboys were not (not that my brother and I ever sneaked downstairs to look at them when mom and dad were gone.) My parents have since remodeled that bathroom to include a shower ? part of their room-by-room redo of the entire house. What we would have given for a shower in an actual bathroom when we were growing up.

    The first house I bought had one bathroom. Again, it had only a tub ? not even a scary shower in the basement. Having grown up with baths, it didn?t bother me any. It is in that tub that Anna took her first baths. I would frequently take her into the tub with me when she was a newborn. We have photographic evidence of this, but that photo, while only PG-13 rated, will never be seen anywhere on the Internet if I have my way about it. By the time we?d been in the house a few years, we borrowed against the equity in the house to redo the bathroom. We took the neighbors old pedestal tub that they were going to throw away and replaced everything down to the subflooring. It was probably one of the last home improvement jobs that Heidi?s dad helped us with, before years of chronic pain and other health issues made it impossible for him to do that kind of physical labor. When we got done, we had a gorgeous bathroom with a shower and the whole nine yards. Six months after we renovated the bathroom, we moved and despite the improvements, we ended up selling the house for significantly less than we bought it for, something I?m still paying for today. You win some you lose some. Moving from a rural Iowa town is a losing proposition when it comes to selling real estate.

    We have plenty of showers in the house we live in now and only one bathtub. I usually take showers, mostly for the sake of expediency. I?m kind if the ?fastest shower in the West? ? figuring that any shower that lasts for more than 1.5 songs (or five-ish minutes) is overkill. This kind of showering allows me to start getting ready at 6:10AM and be out the door at 6:30AM. But I have to admit, I really do still enjoy baths every now and then. The bathtub is in the upstairs bathroom, which is the domain of my wife and daughter, so taking a bath feels like infringing on their turf. I know that baths are most likely considered ?girlie? by many, but I have to admit that I do like sitting in the water sometimes. The bathtub is actually in the upstairs bathroom, which is the domain of my wife and daughter, so taking a bath feels like infringing on their turf.

    The very thought of taking a bath grosses some people out. The idea that someone would basically soak in their own filth anathema to them. When he was in college, a friend of mine lived in a small dorm that had a single unit bathroom with a bathtub that also had a shower ? similar to what you would find in most homes and apartments. A guy who lived down the hall admitted to taking a bath in the tub and my friend was appalled. He couldn?t imagine someone sitting down in the same tub that he wore flip-flops into to take a shower.

    Given my long history with baths, it?s not surprising that they don?t gross me out. I would take a bath every day of the week over showering in the shower from my freshman year of college dorm floor. It was basically nothing more than nozzles sticking out of the walls. No curtains, no stalls, no nothing. It was impossible not to be in someone?s personal space when you were in the shower, which, when you?re naked, is pretty damn uncomfortable. I showered at the oddest hours of the day just to avoid having someone in the shower with me.

    So baths? Yay or nay? I?m curious what the peanut gallery has to say.

    Like this:

    Be the first to like this.

    Source: http://dancpharmd.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/bathwater/

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    Wednesday, November 7, 2012

    Living abroad can bring success, if you do it right

    ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2012) ? "Travel broadens the mind" goes the old adage, and potential employers often agree, valuing the open-mindedness and creativity fostered by such worldliness. But according to new Tel Aviv University research, not all international experiences are created equal.

    "Although living abroad does help to hone creative abilities, not all individuals who have lived abroad derive an equal benefit from such experiences," explains Dr. Carmit Tadmor of TAU's Recanati School of Business, who conducted the study with Dr. Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Dr. William Maddux of the international graduate business school and research institution INSEAD.

    The researchers discovered that the simple act of living abroad was not enough to bolster creative and professional success. The potential benefits of extended international travel depend on the ability to simultaneously identify with both home and host cultures, which the researchers call "biculturalism." Identifying with two cultures simultaneously fosters a more complex thinking style that views things from multiple perspectives and forges conceptual links among them.

    "Unlike patterns of cultural identification in which individuals endorse only one of the two cultures, bicultural identification requires individuals to take into account and combine the perspectives of both old and new cultures," explains Dr. Tadmor. "Over time, this information processing capability, or 'integrative complexity,' becomes a tool for making sense of the world and will help individuals perform better in both creative and professional domains."

    This study was recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

    Measuring creative and professional success

    The researchers conducted three experiments to determine the impact of biculturalism when living abroad. In the first, 78 MBA students comprising 26 different nationalities at a European business school were asked to complete a series of tasks, including a standard creativity task that asked for as many uses for a brick as possible within a two-minute time limit. In the second experiment, a group of 54 MBA students comprising 18 nationalities at an American business school were asked to describe the new businesses, products, and processes they had invented during their careers. All of the study participants had lived abroad for a period of time.

    The studies found that those who identified with both their host culture and their home culture consistently demonstrated more fluency, flexibility, novelty and innovation.

    Finally, the third experiment extended the idea, exploring whether the biculturals' advantages also gave them an advantage in the workplace. In this study, 100 Israelis living and working mainly in California's Silicon Valley were interviewed. The researchers found that Israelis who identified with both their home and host cultures enjoyed higher promotion rates and more positive reputations among their colleagues. Across all three studies, the researchers found that bicultural individuals ranked higher on integrative complexity tests than the other participants, and this drove their success.

    Taking the hard road to success

    The road to biculturalism is fraught with internal conflicts, notes Dr. Tadmor, in which two cultural identities struggle to coexist. It's much easier to surround yourself with your expat community than to straddle two separate worlds. But bypassing the conflicts means giving up the best benefits. Integrative complexity, which is responsible for creative and professional success, evolves through the repetitive resolution of these internal conflicts.

    Ultimately, "it is clear that becoming a true bicultural is not easy, but it holds the key to translating foreign experiences abroad into a tangible toolbox that bolsters one's creative ability and professional skill to the highest level," say the researchers.

    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 American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

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


    Journal Reference:

    1. Carmit T. Tadmor, Adam D. Galinsky, William W. Maddux. Getting the most out of living abroad: Biculturalism and integrative complexity as key drivers of creative and professional success.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2012; 103 (3): 520 DOI: 10.1037/a0029360

    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/~3/m3vSssOLDqY/121106125610.htm

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    Online Learning: Udacity and Coursera Comparison | UnCollege

    B ecause of the diminishing return on investment and rising costs of going to college, new online learning platforms have emerged recently, enabling people all over the world to take college-level classes in a wide range of subjects. These online classes differ from traditional online classes in many ways:

    • there is no cost to take them
    • the only requirement to enroll is an email address
    • while taught by professors, they are not affiliated with any existing institution
    • enrollment goes into the many thousands of students

    In many ways, these classes are better than traditional college classes. Because they are online, you have much more control of their education. For instance, you have the ability to spend as much time as you need in order to gain mastery of the material. In addition, because of the large numbers of students taking these classes, it is very easy to ask and answer questions about the material in the class forums. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the professor won?t remind you when to turn in assignments or watch the lecture videos, so you have to be motivated enough to do the work by yourself.

    The two largest platforms providing these types of online classes are Udacity and Coursera. Below is a comparison of the two:

    Udacity Coursera
    Founder(s) Sebastian Thrun (left his teaching position at Stanford) Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng (both on a leave of absence from Stanford)
    Platform Description ?Down the road ? we aspire to be a complete university, offer classes in every discipline and then degrees? ? David Stavens, Udacity Co-Founder, President, COO?1 ?Our goal is to broaden access to higher education for anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, not to displace existing universities? ? Koller and Ng?3
    Platform Info
    • Serves as a job placement service working with over 400 companies?2
    • Not affiliated with any existing institution
    • Classes taught by professors and industry experts
    • Business model:
      • Charging employers for access to high-performing students
      • Charging for in-person certification
    • Partners with existing institutions to provide classes taught by professors in an online format
    • Each student has a profile page with that connects to their other online profiles and includes a list of their Coursera classes
    • No business model yet
    Certification
    • 4 levels of certification
    • Minimum requirements varies from class to class
    • $89 for proctored exam
    • Minimum 70% in class required
    • Only one level of certification
    Use within existing institutions
    • Various schools are accepting Udacity classes for credit or working with Udacity to develop classes
    • University of Washington, for a fee, will provide supplemental direct instruction and UW credit
    Subjects covered (not an exclusive list)
    • CS: Python, Web Apps, HTML5, AI
    • Math: Cryptography, Statistics
    • Physical Science: Physics
    • Math, CS
    • Physical Sciences
    • Social Sciences, Business
    • Humanities
    Forums
    • Public ? no login required to view
    • Reputation system lets students gain points and badges for asking and answering questions
    • Professors/TAs monitor forums
    • One central forum; no sub-forums
    • Threads appear in chronological order ? no voting posts up or down
    • Each student had a forum page with all their questions, answers, points, and badges
    • Private ? only viewable when logged in

    ?

    • Voting system lets most popular/important questions float to the top
    • Professors/TAs monitor forums
    • Average response time: 22 min
    • Forum divided up into sub-forums (ex. Lectures, Quizzes, Technical Issues, etc)
    • Excellent forum search engine
    Class Wiki All classes have an editable wiki. Some classes have an editable wiki.
    Office Hours Some classes have ?office hours? videos where the professor answers popular questions. Some classes have ?office hours? videos where the professor answers popular questions.

    ?

    This table outlines the specifics of how Udacity and Coursera conduct their classes:

    Udacity Coursera
    Class Format
    • All work done in-browser
    • All materials released at once
    • Each unit includes:
      • Video-quiz-video-quiz sequence
      • Problem set
    • Self-paced, no deadlines:
      • Completing the final exam is the only requirement for getting a certificate
    • Class material sometimes changes/gets additions
    • Some work done in-browser, some on your local machine
    • New unit released each week
    • Each unit includes:
      • Set of video lectures
      • Problem set and/or written assignments due the following week
    • A few classes are self-paced with no certification option
    • Length of classes: 3 to 15 weeks
    • Offered at scheduled times
    • Static class material
    Lesson Format
    • Video-quiz-video-quiz sequence:
      • ~15-20 quizzes
      • ~30 videos, each ~1-5 min in length
    • Translucent hand and electronic pen uses drawing and writing to explain concepts during videos
    • No lecture slides or video of professor lecturing
    • Each quiz and quiz solution is explained in a video
    • Each quiz and problem set can be submitted infinitely many times
    • No peer grading
    Videos:
    • Involve lecture slides, electronic pen on a tablet, and/or video of professor lecturing
    • Each video is ~ 5 min ? 1 hour in length
    • Embedded quizzes in videos

    Problem sets:

    • Auto-graded
    • Each class specifies the number of times problem sets and assignments can be taken

    Peer-grading:

    • Used in humanities classes to grade essays

    In the coming weeks I?ll review Udacity and Coursera in more detail, as well as other online learning platforms. In the meantime, feel free to comment below on what you think of these platforms.

    This is the first in a series of guest posts by Catherine Stevens covering online education. You can check out her personal site here:?about.me/csrs?

    References:
    1?http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story_print.php?story_id=17832
    2?http://blog.udacity.com/p/career-team.html
    3?http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story_print.php?story_id=17832

    Source: http://www.uncollege.org/online-learning-udacity-and-coursera-comparison/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=online-learning-udacity-and-coursera-comparison

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    Tuesday, November 6, 2012

    Detroit Voter Guide to 2012 Ballot Proposals

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    2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid: First Drive

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    2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct 2012

    The 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid gives VW something it hasn?t had before: a way to appeal to hybrid buyers who won?t consider its TDI diesels?no matter how fuel-efficient they may be.

    The result is a relatively sporty, conventional looking compact sedan that?s fun to drive, comfortable to ride in, and appears to return 40 mpg or more in mixed usage.

    40 mpg or more

    On two different legs of our road test around Santa Fe, New Mexico, our Jetta Hybrid test cars returned 45.2 mpg and 41.7 mpg over hilly routes of 71 and 150 miles.

    One note on those gas mileage numbers: We?re reserving some judgment until we have a chance to test the car on our usual test cycle.

    Volkswagen projects that the 2013 Jetta Hybrid will be EPA-rated at about 45 mpg in combined city-highway use.

    The Santa Fe test routes had several sharp climbs to higher altitudes, followed by a large number of gradual downhill roads. On those roads, the Jetta Hybrid could glide solely on electric power with the engine switched off?as high as 60 mph?which used no fuel over those stretches.

    Small engine, single motor

    To launch its first mass-market hybrid model, Volkswagen put a new powertrain into its three-year-old Jetta sedan.

    The hybrid Jetta uses a 150-horsepower turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder, one that hasn't been offered in any VW sold here until now.

    It?s paired to a single 20-kilowatt (27-hp) electric motor, with a clutch on either end, and Volkswagen?s 7-speed direct-shift gearbox automated manual transmission. Output of the combined gasoline-electric powertrain is 170 hp.

    2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct 2012

    2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct 2012

    Enlarge Photo

    While the 20-kW electric motor is smaller than the 33-kW traction motor in the Toyota Prius hybrid, it nonetheless puts out 114 lb-ft of torque by itself.

    That?s enough to accelerate the car away from a stop with a light foot on the accelerator, up to speeds as high as 37 mph.

    Easy all-electric range

    But Volkswagen has done its homework in figuring out what many hybrid buyers actually want: all-electric range.

    The car?s stated electric range is up to 1.2 miles under ideal circumstances, but VW lets drivers opt for all-electric power by pushing the ?E-Mode? button on the console.

    That locks the gasoline engine out altogether, though it compromises acceleration, and raises the all-electric top speed of the hybrid Jetta.

    As long as the car stays below 44 mph, driving in E-Mode keeps the car running only electrically until the 1.1-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack is depleted.

    VW engineers stressed that E-Mode is not the most energy-efficient way to cover miles, overall. At times, using the engine to move the car and recharge the battery conserves more energy.

    But most hybrid drivers like all-electric travel, and VW has given them the ability to call it up as often as they want below 44 mph, within the limits of the battery.

    Sporty roadholding

    On-the-road performance is sporty, with acceleration that's both quicker and more linear than a Toyota Prius. Volkswagen quotes a 0-to-60-mph time of 8.6 seconds.

    But it's the roadholding and handling that set the Jetta Hybrid apart from the rest of the hybrid pack.

    VW has managed to imbue the electric power steering with enough feedback and feel that most drivers won't be aware the wheel isn't responding directly to the road surface.

    And the hybrid Jetta doesn't feel notably heavier than the gasoline model, with a weight difference of just 229 lbs from the 2.5-liter automatic version of the gasoline car.

    And with the standard 15-inch wheels and tires, the car both holds the road and rides comfortably.

    The optional 17-inch alloy wheels and lower-profile tires, sadly, exact a significant penalty on ride comfort. They transit surface imperfections into the cabin, not to mention considerably more road noise.

    We'd ignore the larger wheels, as great as they look, if we were ordering a Jetta Hybrid ourselves.

    No hybrid feel

    Best of all, the Jetta Hybrid doesn't "drive like a hybrid," which is to say with sluggish performance and an engine that howls under protest when pushed.

    The use of a conventional 7-speed DSG transmission gives it a more conventional engine note, with shifts occurring even in E-Mode--an unusual thing for a car being driven on electricity.

    But VW has done a stellar job at blending the two power sources together seamlessly. We experienced almost none of the lurching and nonlinearity of some other hybrids, despite a high rate of switching the electric motor in and out.?

    In particular, the Jetta Hybrid is significantly smoother and less obviously a meshing of two power sources than the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, also a single-motor, twin-clutch design.

    While power delivery is smooth and seamless, we weren't as thrilled with the brakes, which weren't very progressive and tended to slow the car aggressively with just a little pedal application. VW could do with another round of refinement to the pedal feel.

    From tach to power meter

    You'll have to look closely to distinguish the 2013 Jetta Hybrid from any other Jetta sedan model.

    Exterior modifications are limited to a blanked-off grille, slightly different front and rear bumper shields, a tiny lip spoiler on the trunk lid, and some lower-body aero panels.

    Inside, the cabin is pretty much standard VW Jetta. The front seats are comfortable, with bolstering in the right places.

    On the models we drove, the seats were upholstered in a tasteful grey-and-black two-tone that lightened the cabin and extended to the door panels as well.

    The instrument panel, befitting a car for which the phrase "German engineering" gets used half a dozen times, is sensible, straightforward, and no-nonsense.

    The tachometer has been replaced by a power meter, with simple graphics that show when the car is operating up to the limits of its electric power, when it's recharging, and when it's coasting.


    Source: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1080250_2013-volkswagen-jetta-hybrid-first-drive

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    TV report: Israel security heads nixed Iran attack

    FILE - In this Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Netanyahu ordered the military in 2010 to go on high alert for a looming attack on Iran's nuclear program, but backed off following strong objections from senior security officials, according to an Israeli news program. The show suggests Israel came close to carrying out the strike, and exposes a deep rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top security men over the wisdom of attacking Iran. (AP Photo/Gali Tibbon, Poo, File)

    FILE - In this Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Netanyahu ordered the military in 2010 to go on high alert for a looming attack on Iran's nuclear program, but backed off following strong objections from senior security officials, according to an Israeli news program. The show suggests Israel came close to carrying out the strike, and exposes a deep rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top security men over the wisdom of attacking Iran. (AP Photo/Gali Tibbon, Poo, File)

    JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's prime minister ordered the military to go on high alert for a looming attack on Iran's nuclear program two years ago, but backed off following strong objections from senior security officials, a respected Israeli news program reported Monday.

    The report exposed a deep rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top security officials over the wisdom of attacking Iran but also indicated that Israel was much closer to carrying out a strike at that time than was previously known.

    Channel 2 TV's flagship investigative program "Uvda," or "Fact," reported that toward the end of a meeting in 2010 Netanyahu and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, ordered Israel's military chief and director of the Mossad espionage agency to put the country on "P Plus" status ? code for pre-attack mode on Iran.

    The report said the officials were shocked. Then-military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi warned that Israel's enemies would notice the measure, which might touch off a war. "This is not something you do if you are not sure you will ultimately want to carry it out," he was quoted by unidentified close associates as saying. "This accordion produces music when you play with it."

    Meir Dagan, the Mossad chief at the time, was even blunter, telling the leaders that without seeking formal approval from Netanyahu's Security Cabinet, a decision-making body of government ministers, they were "taking an illegal decision."

    "The prime minister and defense minister simply tried to steal a decision to go to war," he was quoted by Uvda as saying. Dagan did not appear on camera, and Uvda attributed his remarks to his "associates."

    Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing Iranian denials of the Holocaust, its calls for Israel's destruction, its development of missiles capable of striking the Jewish state and its support for hostile Arab militant groups. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to produce energy and medical isotopes, a claim that Israel and many Western countries reject.

    Dagan, who stepped down as Mossad chief in 2010, is believed to be the mastermind of Israeli efforts to sabotage the Iranian project. The Mossad is suspected of infiltrating deep into Iran, spreading viruses and assassinating nuclear scientists.

    But Dagan has also opposed a full-fledged attack and since his retirement has lashed out openly at the leaders, describing them as warmongers bent on striking Iran at all costs.

    Netanyahu has repeatedly said the threat of force must be seriously considered should economic sanctions fail. He recently warned that the world has until next summer at the latest to keep Iran from building a bomb. But analysts have debated whether the Israeli leader would really be willing to order the strike.

    Monday's report provided the strongest evidence to date that Netanyahu is prepared to attack, a move that could have dire, far-reaching consequences for the region.

    Speaking to the program, Netanyahu did not address the alleged 2010 incident but dismissed any questioning of his resolve.

    When asked if he was ready to push the button, he said: "Of course I am, if I have to, I just hope I don't have to."

    In stronger language that he typically uses, Netanyahu said Iran was progressing in its quest for a nuclear bomb in order to destroy Israel. He pledged that as long as he is prime minister, he will not allow that to happen.

    "We are serious, this is not a show," he said. "If there is no other way to stop Iran, Israel is ready to act."

    The program aired almost two months after Netanyahu laid out before the U.N. General Assembly his most detailed plea for global action against Iran.

    In his speech, the Israeli leader demonstratively flashed a diagram of a cartoon-like bomb showing the progress Iran has made, pulled out a red marker and drew a line across what he said was a threshold Iran was approaching and which Israel could not tolerate ? 90 percent of the way to the uranium enrichment needed to make an atomic bomb.

    Israel has systematically built up its military specifically for a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. It has sent its air force on long-distance training missions, procured American-made "bunker-busting" bombs and bolstered its missile defenses.

    Still, an attack on Iran would not be easy. Probable targets, including the Natanz and Fordo enrichment facilities south of Tehran, lie some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from Israel.

    Experts believe some of the Israeli warplanes could not make the round trip without refueling in flight. Israel, which has eight tanker planes, can refuel an airplane in flight in a matter of minutes, though it's unclear where the task would take place since much of the airspace in the region is hostile. They would also have to contend with Iranian air defense systems.

    A pre-emptive Israeli strike would almost certainly draw a fierce Iranian retaliation toward Israeli population centers. Iranian leaders have even suggested they may strike Israel if they felt threatened by the possibility of an Israeli strike.

    Iranian officials did not immediately comment on the Israeli report. But in a newspaper interview on Sunday, Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, dismissed Israel's capabilities.

    "Let them try it if they can - if Israel was ready to strike Iran it would have happened by now," he told the Qatari newspaper Al-Waten on Sunday. "We may suffer from this attack, but the Israelis are afraid of the results of such an attack. We won't sit idly by if it happens."

    The revelations come ahead of a charged Israeli election season and highlight a broad range of rifts among Israeli leaders and officials.

    At the meeting in 2010, Barak said Ashkenazi told him the military wasn't able to carry out the attack. "Ultimately, at the moment of truth, the answer given was that the ability didn't exist," Barak told Uvda.

    But Ashkenazi denies that. He was quoted by the close associates as saying he instead told Barak that the military had prepared a viable option and was ready to carry it out but that such a mission would be a strategic mistake.

    Barak countered that offering such an assessment was not Ashkenazi's job.

    "A chief of staff needs to build the operational capacity. He should tell us professionally if we can operate or not and he can and should give his recommendation, but an operation can go through even if he opposes it," Barak said.

    Barak said the alert was part of Israeli preparations and that a final decision to attack was never made.

    It was unclear to what extent the opposition of the security officials contributed to the decision to hold back. The positions of their successors are less clear, though they too are believed to be wary of a military option. Nevertheless, Israeli security officials say that over the past two years the Israeli military's capabilities have improved to overcome some obstacles that were previously in place.

    Netanyahu told the program that that the ultimate responsibility for protecting Israel was on his shoulders.

    "Any prime minister of Israel who cannot act on things that are cardinal to the existence of the state, to ensuring its future and safety and is dependent on the agreement of others, is not worthy of leading," he said, adding that before Israel was a state it had to beg for help from others when threatened with destruction.

    "Well today we do not beg, we prepare," he said.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-05-Israel-Iran/id-512254a0b8474a71aeecca020c408509

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    Monday, November 5, 2012

    tyrabanksofficial: friendly reminder that waka flocka is running for president in 2016

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    Source: http://soulsnatcha.tumblr.com/post/35004634723

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    Seeking Players for The Feeding Frenzy

    The Feeding Frenzy

    Image

    Every Halloween, a town somewhere in the world gets chosen to become the buffet for a group of demons and vampires. On this night, they separate their differences and come together to feast on flesh and blood of mortals as the moon stays in the sky for three long nights. No one understands why, and no one can figure out exactly what happened; because no one is left alive to tell the tale, and the ones who do survive are now apart of these terrifying murderers.

    Redwood, Maine. A large town hidden in the deep forests of Maine, away from other large cities and near the coast where the dark ocean beats against rocky coastlines. This town has been chosen as the next banquet for these vicious creatures of the night. As the clock strikes 12, the feeding frenzy will begin. The survivors are younger women and men that will be lined up, and only four will be chosen to remain alive and join the group when the feeding frenzy ends, a fate some consider worse then death. As demons feed off flesh and bone, and vampires suck the rest of the blood from lifeless bodies, the town's hope for any survivors making it out alive grows slimmer. But these four kids are determined to save themselves, and any others left alive.

    But can they outsmart the leaders of these groups, and escape in time to get help and warn the world? Or will they fail and become creatures of the nights themselves?

    Will they survive the Feeding Frenzy?

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Should be pretty clear, lovelies. Four kids have survived the attack of a demonic and vampire group that is mixed, but do have different leaders. They have been chosen to become part of the group when the frenzy has come to an end, which gives them limited time to come up with an escape plan. It will be an adult roleplay; since it has quite a bit of blood and horrific description in it. It might have hidden sexual scenes that aren't showed in detail, but hinted at for the story's sake. But it will not be presented unless you want to do that in pm.

    Characters;

    Must be at least one male for each side. So, there must be at least one male leader for the vampire and the demon.

    Vampire Leader; Reserved
    Vampire Leader 2; Reserved

    Demon Leader; Ragnar Odovacar played by TraitorsHand
    Demon Leader 2; Open

    Human Kids;

    Female # 1: Regina Merzone played by DarlingRapture
    Female # 2: Carsin Delahou played by Echo_Rose

    Male # 1: Open
    Male # 2: Open

    Roles that can be added;

    Vampire # 1: Open
    Vampire # 2: Open

    Demon # 1: Open
    Demon # 2: Open

    Character Sheets;

    Code: Select all
    [b]Basic Information;[/b]

    [size=150]"Your character's favorite or personal quote here."[/size]
    [size=85]
    [b]Name:[/b] First and last
    [b]Age:[/b] Teenagers must be between 16-19.
    [b]Race:[/b] Human
    [b]Ethnicity:[/b] Caucasian, Asian, ect.
    [b]Role:[/b] Are you a human? A demon? A vampire?
    [b]Orientation:[/b] Bisexual? Gay?
    [b]Status:[/b] Who is your companion
    [b]Best Feature:[/b] What makes them so special?

    [b]Appearance;[/b]

    A picture here. Anime or real, though I prefer good drawings or real life. Need help finding one? Come to me.

    A paragraph describing your character. Include hair color, skin color, eye color, height, weight, body build, fashion sense, makeup use, ect. Must be at LEAST 5 sentences long. I am more likely to accept your character sheet if it has quite a bit of detail.

    [b]Personality; [/b]

    Describe your character's personality here. Include how they usually are, what they act like when they are sad or angry, include things they enjoy doing and things that irritate them, all that stuff. Everything about them is important. This paragraph must be at least 6 lines in order to be accepted.

    [b]Likes;[/b] At least 5

    [b]Dislikes;[/b] At least 5

    [b]Hobbies;[/b] At least 5

    [b]History[/b]

    Here, type a summary of your character's past. A childhood event, some events that make them who they are, anything that stands out and gives more insight on their back story. This must be at least 6 lines.

    [b]Extra[/b]

    If you have anything you want to add, here would be where to put it. Theme song, ect. You can put a few other pictures and gifs in the profile. Just don't over do it.
    [/size]

    That's basically the entire introduction for anyone who is interested. Right now, we need another demonic leader and two human males. <3 If you are interested, please post Here or contact me.

    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/MELkGYZR_Zo/viewtopic.php

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