Nope, It's Not Legal To Hunt Deer In The Walmart Parking Lot ...

The Pennsylvania Game Commission would like you to know that it is not legal to hunt deer in the Burrell Township Walmart parking lot, and, by extension, any other Walmart parking lot.

After a four month investigation, the authorities have concluded that, even if you see what they determine to be ?the nicest buck [they've] seen taken in Indiana County in a couple of years,? it is not appropriate or lawful behavior to leap from your car and chase it around the side of the building while firing multiple shots from your handgun.

The incident in question took place last November and was caught on store surveillance video. The ?hunter? faces a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and several hunting violations, including hunting without a license, shooting on or across highways and unlawful killing or taking of big game.

?

Hunter Shoots Deer In Wal-Mart Parking Lot [IBTimes]
Man Charged For Hunting In A Walmart Parking Lot [CBSLocal]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/03/29/nope-its-not-legal-to-hunt-deer-in-the-walmart-parking-lot/

ufc 145 results orrin hatch marlon byrd charles colson humber raffi torres michael mcdonald

AMD Radeon HD 7990 says hello, plays a bit of Battlefield 4 at GDC

Gamers were down-right spoiled at this year's GDC with a full 17 minutes of beautiful Battlefield 4 in-game footage. Minds blown, AMD took responsibility for the part it played in the mess, admitting the demo was running on its Radeon HD 7990 graphics card. It's the first time the company's confirmed the existence of the long-fabled card, and went as far as calling the case-busting monster "the world's fastest." All we know is the card combines two of the HD 7970's Tahiti GPUs -- AMD's not sharing the full specs -- but the eagle-eyed folks at AnandTech have plucked a few extra details from the limited pictures available. They note the open-air cooling, which would require a drafty case but mean the fans should run fairly quiet, and that power consumption is likely to be no more than 375 watts. Not much to go on, we know, but we'll be waiting eagerly for AMD's full reveal. Now, your BF4 video awaits. (Warning: the game dialogue contains a few naughty words).

[Image Credit: AnandTech]

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Peripherals, AMD

Comments

Via: AnandTech

Source: AMD Gaming (Facebook)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/dt0jr34rysI/

big sean sherri shepherd sherri shepherd arkansas razorbacks trisomy 18 ozzie guillen ozzie guillen

Dutch coffee company DEMB in buyout talks

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? D.E. Master Blenders 1753, the Dutch coffee company that was spun off by Sara Lee Corp. last year, said Thursday it is in talks to be acquired by a group led by private German investment company Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH for around 7.6 billion euros ($9.7 billion).

Benckiser, which has already accumulated 15 percent in Master Blenders, also owns stakes in Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc. and Caribou Coffee, among others.

Master Blenders said in a statement the potential buyers are looking at a price of 12.75 euros per share, which represents a 33 percent premium to Wednesday's closing price.

But a formal offer hasn't yet been made and Master Blenders underlined there is no guarantee one will be, describing the talks as being at an "early stage."

The company's shares soared 26 percent to 12.14 euros in Amsterdam trading Thursday.

The offer comes after what has been a poor start for Master Blenders as an independent company.

Shortly after being spun off from Sara Lee in June, Master Blenders restated earnings because of accounting irregularities at its Brazil operations. Since then it has reported worse than expected sales and in February it cut earnings estimates for 2013.

Chief Executive Michiel Herkemij departed in December, citing a difference of opinion with the board, leaving Chairman Jan Bennink to run the company.

Master Blenders may also face a lawsuit from investors who say they were misled in the company's initial public offering prospectus, though the company says its accounting problems only came to light after the listing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-coffee-company-demb-buyout-talks-105627556--finance.html

presidential debates Felix Baumgartner Little Nemo gawker Romney Bosses Day 2012 Arlen Specter

BOWLING SCORES - The Sports Desk

FROM STAFF REPORTS

AMF FREDERICKSBURG

Rappahannock men?s league

Tony Arnold 269, 299, 258, 826; John Oliver 267, 243, 300, 810; Dave Edwards 289, 247, 268, 804; Paul Rumbaugh 237, 289, 246, 772; Jim Einhorn 246, 257, 239, 742; Bryan Gallahan 247, 269, 741; John Zentner 279, 258, 736; Scott Sanders 266, 246, 736; Tomm Brady 248, 241, 243, 732; Rick Coulson 256, 255, 720; Ricky Wallace 247, 237, 233, 717; Jimmy Ruby 267, 241, 711; Jeff Leonard 248, 264, 711; Josh Jefferies 289, 710; Eric Schaarschmidt 257, 709; Frankie Weaver 255, 236, 705; Donnie Norton 243, 256, 703; Jim Wolfe 252, 258, 702; David Armstrong 234, 253, 696; Tom Marinari 236, 235, 693; Bruce White 259, 685; Aaron Lewis 264, 684; Jim Murray 249, 684; Mike Zemore 268, 683; Fuzzy Fox 255, 269, 681; Scott Smith 279, 679; Chris Burton 236 676; Doug Patterson 246, 675; Tony Rakes 245, 671; Robert Kline 233, 667; Jamie Dalton 261, 666; Gene Vest 256, 665; Pete Gunn 237, 665; Kevin Austin 268, 664; Troy Kelly 241, 248, 664; Brannon Hardin 235, 233, 659; Daryl Perdue 233, 658; Rino Biello 245, 657; Dave Wollstein 247, 656; Cory White 264, 651; Stan Cieslewitz 235, 648; Eric Brown 648; Justin Powers 265, 647; Sean Rhea 259, 646; Don Monroe 242, 636; D.J. Johnson 630; Jeff Smith 233, 629; Tony Krehbiel 628; Richard Bergey 626.

Bill Hagerman 255; Wayne Ferrell 246; Jerry Goodman 246; Bobby Phillips 235; Jeff Lavin Jr. 233.

?

?

Merchants mixed league

Richard Hailstalk 238, 267, 267, 772; Jeter Holloway III 289, 261, 737; Michael Paige 267, 257, 720; Larry Roath 238, 236, 234, 708; Richard Jaco 258, 244, 703; Les Williams 236, 235, 231, 702; Thomas Moore 249, 234, 674; Charles Smith 673; Michael Lamb 268, 658; Charles Hubbard 269, 656; Dennis Alwine 654; Cecil Franklin 237, 649; Larry Crawfod 646; Barry Robinson 235, 641; Dave Heatherly 242, 637; Eugene Mildling 248, 620; Breton Bridges 246; Steven Pittman 245; Mark Jones 244; Norfleet Bonds 241; Daniel Resio 236; Wiley Coon 233; Jimmy Durante 233; Robert Resio 230; Douglas Richey 230.

Kathryn White 240, 210, 644; Connie Gourdine 214, 200, 224, 638; LaTonia Livingston 221, 212, 627; Pong Cobb 221, 211, 593; Geri-Lynn Copeland 200, 204, 592; Denise Lanier 222, 202, 580; Kathy Shepherd 203, 580; Mary Hand 219, 210; Pamela Payne 217; Andrea Sharp 216; Nancy Crawford 200, 214; Brenda Chambers 207; Tina Sebak 207; Sharon Moore 204; Sherry Schaarschmidt 204; Brittany Hand 202; Hannah Jenkins 201; Judith Turlington 200.

Steve?s trios

Les Williams 237, 300, 255, 792; Brian Chew 258, 246, 708; Bobby Phillips 234, 246, 707; Jim Martin II 234, 247, 694; Rick Marvin 258, 234, 686; Art Prescott 268, 685; Jay Bowling 679; Rick Gilmore 248, 675; John Greer 231, 663; Robert Bradley Jr. 263, 657; Jeff Crouch 246, 656; Jim Meredith 256, 650; Wes Reynolds 232, 642; Justin Story 237, 639; Ryan Sirna 247, 633; Rob Lawrence 231, 628; Glenn Hogeland 621; Wade Cropp 242.

Michelle Livingston 212, 220, 222, 654; Sandy Badilo 201.

Goodtimers (seniors)

Bob Resio 198, 237, 258, 693; Bobby Philips 224, 265, 675; Chuck Husted 197, 231, 216, 645; Jimmy Durante 254, 202, 641; Paul Barnette 195, 215, 215, 625; Bob McGann 214, 200, 596; Dick Jaco 204, 200, 586; Bill Tinsley 225, 584; Joe Plummer 199, 194, 578; Glenn Hogeland 234, 577; Jay Bowling 202, 571; Robert Epp 199, 193, 567; Tom Weetman 212, 565; Rino Biello 194, 565; John Bailey 196, 200, 559; Walter Baker 220, 540; Rich Strickland 213; Howard Collins 210; Bill Blanchard 203; Kevin Lunsford 195; Bill Hitchings 196, 194; Lloyd Messner 190.

Ellen Pentland 194; Penny Young 181.

Doc?s angels (seniors)

Butch Mims 244, 226, 190, 660; Willey Coon 217, 235, 639; Bobby Phillips 201, 203, 202, 606; Morris Antwine 227, 204, 595; Bill Tinsley 213, 195, 590; Glenn Hogeland 211, 191, 586, Bill Hichings 224, 578; Harold Haggerty 224 578; Marc Hubbard 225, 562; John Bailey 203, 190, 558; Bob Resio 197, 204, 556; Albert Walker 198, 546; Rich Strickland 206; Richard Miller 204; John Rourke 194; Bob McCann 192; Joe Kusina 191; Ed Horn 190.

Billie Mitchem 196, 528; Jean Criss 191, 494.

Guys and dolls (seniors)

Dave Brady 286, 253, 688; Jason McDonald 298, 674; Anthony Brown 223, 212, 207, 642; Henry Wolfe 220, 214, 630; Mark Britton 235; Warren Cooper 226; Carl Gray 207.

Jenni Brady 193, 551; Robin Allison Jones 206.

Burnopp?s kids (seniors)

Paul Zornacki 205, 217, 581; Wade Haney 182, 537; Dick Coleman 188; Leroy Hicks 188.

Lucille Mestre 188, 501.

LIBERTY LANES

Wednesday night men?s league

Googie Thompson 257, 246, 732; Josh Tabony 267, 707; Gene Vest 232, 257, 695; Cory White 252, 692; Paul Rumbaugh II 247, 244, 683; Noah Green 237, 255, 682; Tony Rose 243, 237, 682; Bill Symonowski 243, 682; Jim Murray 269, 247, 681; Danny Sanders 237, 673; Matt Leonard 246, 237, 660; Richard Hailstalk 237, 654; Daniel Yeagley 233, 652; Jeff Smith 651; Jon Blanton 649; Bobby Phillips Jr. 235, 646; Mark Britton 234, 641; Jason Zitzelberger 247, 640; Kenny Merryman 238, 638; Jerry Branscome 635; Steve Allen 628; Brandon Blanton 625; Daniel Pittman 625; Robbie Jarrell Jr. 623; Mark Henderson 246; Ace Midling 243; Donnie Nave 232; Ed Mills 230.

Tuesday night mixed league

Jim Mayer 257, 249, 719; Don McElheny 258, 701; Wes Wiseman III 256, 698; Thomas Bellinger 278, 673; John Heard 244, 672; Larry Shoemaker Sr. 233, 669; Daniel Pittman 258, 649; Chuck Allen 256, 638; David Henningsen 232, 638; Bob Jones 631; Cary Bailey 264, 624; Daril Godinez 622; Murray Soland 245; Jacob Capra 235; Scott Russell 233; Paul Terebesi 23; Ken Greene 231.

Shauna Bailey 205, 218, 601; Diane Godinez 203, 201, 586; Kathie Dillon 204; Vivian Bellinger 202.

Liberty eagles

Bryan Gallahan 238, 279, 238, 755; Steve Brown 255, 254, 733; Donnie Nave 233, 255, 702; Allen Chambers 232, 244, 701; Edgar Yates 244; Mark Perryman 230.

Jet setters

William Michaud 257, 233, 700; Don McElheny 257, 685; Daniel Pittman 258, 676; Angelo Allen 244, 655; Todd Altermose Jr. 246, 637; Wallace Jarvis 231, 634; Kenneth Vestal 233.

Dolores Michaud 216.

Green pin

Chuck Allen 258, 690; T.J. Altermose 277, 665; Jacob Capra 240, 650.

Emily Watters 207; Gayle Bracy 202.

Ladies? night out

Brenda Chambers 209; Susan Barber 208.

Permalink: http://news.fredericksburg.com/sports/2013/03/28/bowling-scores-68/

Source: http://news.fredericksburg.com/sports/2013/03/28/bowling-scores-68/

kony kony 2012 jim irsay the new ipad apple announcement indianapolis colts joseph kony

Will Alabama Finally Let Its Citizens Brew Their Own Beer?

All around the country, homebrewers can proudly brag about their newest IPAs or chocolate porters. They can openly discuss their malts, their mash, and their wort. They can even pop into a local shop to pickup a bottling bucket or hydrometer. All around the country, that is, except in Alabama. But that may soon change.

Alabama is the last state in the country in which homebrewing is illegal. In fact, it?s illegal just to own the equipment to brew beer there. It?s a law that dates back to the end of prohibition, when states were given the right to issue their own laws governing the consumption and distribution of alcohol. But two bills?one in the state House of Representatives and the other in the state Senate? making it legal for individuals to make as much as 15 gallons of beer, wine, or hard cider every three months could pass as early as next week.

?Alabama is last again,? said Republican Bill Holtzclaw, the sponsor of the senate bill. ?When you try and think about reasons why the state doesn?t allow it, you just can?t come up with good answers.?

The popularity of craft beer and homebrewing has certainly been on the rise around the country. Just this past week, Mississippi became the 49th?state to legalize homebrewing, joining former holdout states like Utah and Oklahoma, which came on board within the last five years. Homebrewing became legal under federal law in 1978, and today The American Homebrewer?s Association estimates that there are now nearly one million people brewing beer or making wine in their homes at least once a year. Even the White House produced a Honey Ale last year.

But just because Bill?Holtzclaw?can?t think of points of opposition, that?doesn?t mean no one else can. Advocates who've been fighting for legalization since 2009 have been met?with sharp resistance from a religious group called the Alabama Citizen Action Program. Currently led by a Baptist pastor named Joe Godfrey, ALCAP has been fighting for temperance since it was founded in 1937.

Godfrey says there are a lot of issues at play here: children getting access to alcohol (?How will parents know if they take a swig from a gallon jug??); the policing of activities (?Nobody?s going to raid houses to make sure they aren?t making too much of it or selling it?); and the slippery slope argument (?Pretty soon you?re going to have a distiller say if you can make beer and wine, why not have a moonshine operation??).

Between ALCAP's opposition and the task of trying to pass alcohol legislation in a state with 26 counties that are at least partially dry, it?s been an uphill slog for homebrewers. In 2011, a House version of the bill failed so miserably it won the award for? ?deadest bill of the year.? There is an actual award for this. It comes in the shape of a coffin.

State Rep. Richard Laird told National Journal that he would not be supporting the bill this year because he is afraid that without enough oversight, underground connections between homebrewers and moonshiners could arise.

?If people start making and stockpiling beer, who?s to say the moonshiners wouldn?t come up and buy their supply and resell it,? he said.

Gary Glass, the Director of the American Homebrewers Association which has helped out on the bill, says it?s been the most difficult attempt at legalization he?s dealt with, including getting a bill through a mostly Mormon legislature in Utah. But this year, he believes the efforts will pay off.

?There used to be a perception that homebrewing and moonshining were the same thing,? Glass said. ?The perception has changed in the past years.?

While Laird, who is an independent in the state legislature, might not agree, it sounds as if Glass is right. Even Godfrey at ALCAP says he expects the bill to pass (?But not without me making them work for it?), and the governor has said he will sign it into law if it gets to his desk.

All this is music to Glass?s ears.

?Homebrewers should be able to operate in the open,? he said. ?And it?s not just about the hobby. This country has a unique beer culture, and many of these craft beers and new beer styles all start with someone making it in their home.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-finally-let-citizens-brew-own-beer-152217627--politics.html

nfl standings Vicki Soto Adam Lanza fox news obama cnbc dexter

Australia to end interbank rate-setting panel after Libor scandal

By Lincoln Feast

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia is scrapping the panel that sets its interbank lending rates after an exodus of banks from the panel, the first major market to dismantle the tarnished structure in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Australia instead plans to base its reference rates on actual market transactions, in line with recommendations earlier this month by a group of global central bankers, and could set the pace for moves in other markets.

Regulators are seeking to reform rate-setting practices after Barclays Plc , UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc were hit with fines totaling billions of dollars for rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor.

The Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), which administers Australia's bank bill swap (BBSW) reference rate, said it planned to bypass the panel and derive the rates directly from brokers and electronic markets.

"An advantage of this enhancement is that it will remove the need for a BBSW Panel, which will eliminate the associated compliance and ancillary costs which otherwise exist for panelist banks," the association said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

"This change is subject to technical requirements being satisfied, but it is hoped that this solution will be achievable within a period of months."

Banks around the world are reviewing their involvement in interest rate-setting panels in the aftermath of the Libor scandal, which was sparked by findings on manipulation of rates used to price home loans, credit cards and other financial products worth trillions of dollars.

While British regulators have stopped rate fixings on some less-used currencies and tenors, this would mark the first time the panel for a market's main interbank lending benchmark has been disbanded.

MORE TRANSPARENT?

AFMA said HSBC and Citibank were pulling out of the BBSW panel, joining the departures of JP Morgan Chase & Co and UBS announced earlier this year.

JP Morgan, Citi and HSBC are also withdrawing from the panel on the New Zealand equivalent, the head of the New Zealand Financial Markets Association, Paul Atmore, said.

Atmore told Reuters that the association was reviewing its rate setting process, which uses bank contributions based on trades made in a daily two-minute trading window and would look at pricing rates directly from the market.

Australia's BBSW rates had been viewed as a more transparent model than the widely used Libor for setting interbank rates.

While banks submit self-determined estimates of their borrowing and lending costs to calculate Libor, the BBSW rates, with tenors ranging from one to six months, are based on where the paper is actually trading in the market.

Submissions to the BBSW process report the prevailing prices for a single type of clearly defined and homogeneously traded paper from Australia's four "prime banks" - Australia and New Zealand Banking Group , Westpac Banking Corp , National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia .

The Bank for International Settlements this month called for greater use of actual transaction data to produce a range of reference interest rates for different purposes.

While scrapping the Australia panel will link reference rates more directly to actual market rates, some market participants voiced concern that they could still be manipulated by banks entering the cash market with big orders before the fix.

UBS's withdrawal from the BBSW panel follows the publication of a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission report into its manipulation of Libor and the Japanese yen equivalent.

The CFTC findings also noted evidence of attempted manipulation by UBS traders in the BBSW, among other rates.

UBS has declined to comment on its findings.

(Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australia-end-interbank-rate-setting-panel-libor-scandal-053020624--sector.html

pnc Charlie Strong Calendar 2013 john boehner HGTV Dream Home 2013 eric cantor eric cantor

Samsung Reportedly Debuting Stores-Within-A-Store At Best Buy Locations For Galaxy S4 Launch

Samsung will reportedly be launching Samsung Stores in select Best Buy locations ahead of the Galaxy S4's U.S. launch, a new report from Geek.com claims. The new sections, which will occupy spots close to the mobile department, will feature Samsung branding throughout and highlight a number of Samsung products, not just the upcoming Galaxy S4, though that flagship device will be the core focus.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Jcm4HeD1ROQ/

PECO Hurricane Sandy update ellen degeneres tomb of the unknown soldier tomb of the unknown soldier HMS Bounty dominion power

BlackBerry?s best hope said to be as a ?niche player? going forward

By Simon Evans MEXICO CITY, March 27 (Reuters) - United States central defenders Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler went into Tuesday's game against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium with just two World Cup qualifying starts between them, but looked like they had been alongside each other for years in a spirited 0-0 draw. Gonzalez, making his third start in a qualifier and Besler making his first, held Mexico at bay in front of more than 95,000 fans as the U.S earned just their second point ever at the home of their arch-rivals. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-best-hope-said-niche-player-going-forward-141730527.html

Nadia Comaneci Rebecca Soni Snoop Lion London 2012 Table Tennis badminton Dominique Dawes Gabby Olympic Gymnast

Superhero supercomputer helps battle autism

Mar. 26, 2013 ? When it officially came online at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) in early January 2012, Gordon was instantly impressive. In one demonstration, it sustained more than 35 million input/output operations per second--then, a world record.

Input/output operations are an important measure for data intensive computing, indicating the ability of a storage system to quickly communicate between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world. Input/output operations specify how fast a system can retrieve randomly organized data common in large datasets and process it through data mining applications.

The supercomputer's record-breaking feat wasn't a surprise; after all, Gordon is named after a comic strip superhero, Flash Gordon.

Gordon's new and unique architecture employs massive amounts of the type of flash memory common in cell phones and laptops--hence its name. The system is used by scientists whose research requires the mining, searching and/or creating of large databases for immediate or later use, including mapping genomes for applications in personalized medicine and examining computer automation of stock trading by investment firms on Wall Street.

Commissioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2009 for $20 million, Gordon is part of NSF's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, or XSEDE program, a nationwide partnership comprising 16 high-performance computers and high-end visualization and data analysis resources.

"Gordon is a unique machine in NSF's Advanced Cyberinfrastructure/XSEDE portfolio," said Barry Schneider, NSF program director for advanced cyberinfrastructure. "It was designed to handle scientific problems involving the manipulation of very large data. It is differentiated from most other resources we support in having a large solid-state memory, 4 GB per core, and the capability of simulating a very large shared memory system with software."

Last month, a team of researchers from SDSC, the United States and the Institute Pasteur in France reported in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior that they used Gordon to devise a novel way to describe a time-dependent gene-expression process in the brain that can be used to guide the development of treatments for mental disorders such as autism-spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.

The researchers identified the hierarchical tree of coherent gene groups and transcription-factor networks that determine the patterns of genes expressed during brain development. They found that some "master transcription factors" at the top level of the hierarchy regulated the expression of a significant number of gene groups.

The scientists' findings can be used for selection of transcription factors that could be targeted in the treatment of specific mental disorders.

"We live in the unique time when huge amounts of data related to genes, DNA, RNA, proteins, and other biological objects have been extracted and stored," said lead author Igor Tsigelny, a research scientist with SDSC as well as with UC San Diego's Moores Cancer Center and its Department of Neurosciences.

"I can compare this time to a situation when the iron ore would be extracted from the soil and stored as piles on the ground. All we need is to transform the data to knowledge, as ore to steel. Only the supercomputers and people who know what to do with them will make such a transformation possible," he said.

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 National Science Foundation.

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

---

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/most_popular/~3/VbpIo_prCLE/130326162343.htm

2012 grammys foo fighters nikki minaj album of the year grammy red carpet grammy award winners the band perry

Court could sidestep gay marriage question

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) talks with Edith Windsor (R) in the hallway before a news conference on gay marriage.??

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court justices will hear arguments in the second gay marriage case ever in the court's history, again raising hopes from both sides that the court will weigh in decisively on the issue after justices suggested on Tuesday that they may dodge a decision in California's gay marriage case.

The case is Windsor v. United States, a challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages even in the nine states and District of Columbia that allow them. Eighty-three-year-old New Yorker Edith Windsor brought the suit after she was made to pay more than $363,000 in estate taxes when her same-sex spouse died, because the federal government did not recognize their marriage.

Windsor married her partner of more than four decades, Thea Spyer, in 2007 in Canada. Four years later, New York state legalized gay marriage.

Windsor argues that the law, commonly referred to as DOMA, unfairly excluded her marriage in more than 1,000 federal statutes in which marriage is relevant, including key parts of the tax code. She says the government has no legitimate reason to exclude same-sex married couples from benefits received by opposite-sex couples, and that she and other gay couples are being denied equal protection under the law.

The Obama administration has declined to defend DOMA, so the House of Representatives appointed seasoned attorney Paul Clement, who has argued before the Supreme Court many times, to take up the case. Clement will most likely argue that the federal government is not intruding on states' definition of marriage, but simply using its own definition in regard to federal benefits. He also has argued in legal briefs that the federal government has an interest in defining marriage as only between opposite sex couples because it encourages them to form stable family relationships when they procreate.

On Tuesday, some justices?including key swing vote Anthony Kennedy?expressed skepticism that the supporters of California's Proposition 8 have the legal authority to defend the law after the state's attorney general decided to drop the case. The DOMA case also is dogged by procedural issues, and it's possible the justices may throw it out without issuing a decision, letting the lower court's opinion stand. The Supreme Court has appointed a private lawyer to argue on Wednesday that the House of Representatives does not have standing in the case, signaling that the justices have real concerns about the standing issue.

It's possible that justices could dodge decisions in both Proposition 8 and DOMA, which would most likely be disappointing for proponents of both sides. If the DOMA case is thrown out, the federal government would most likely have to pay Windsor back her taxes, but the federal law would still remain in place. If the justices decide to dismiss Proposition 8, gay marriage will most likely become legal in California but not in other states.

But if the justices decide the House does have standing to appeal on behalf of DOMA, some legal experts have argued that the liberal justices may attract support from conservative justices to strike down the law by appealing to a states' rights argument. Marriage traditionally has been regulated by the states, the argument goes, and DOMA is unfairly interfering with New York and the eight other states that allow gay marriage.

Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding dean of University of California at Irvine Law School, said that based on the Proposition 8 oral argument, he was skeptical of that. "I think Justices Scalia and Alito clearly indicated the they're hostile to the marriage equality opinion," Chemerinsky said. "Thomas is likely to be with them."

If the conservative justices attract Kennedy, who has written two major opinions upholding gay rights, then DOMA would be affirmed as law. That would deal a blow to the gay rights movement strategy of getting gay marriage passed state-by-state, since the federal government would not be required to recognize those marriages. It's also possible that the court could use DOMA as a vehicle to declare that gay people have a right to marriage, though most legal experts say that's unlikely. The Proposition 8 case was seen as the better bet for gay marriage supporters to get a broad decision out of the justices, since the DOMA case is more narrowly focused on one aspect of a federal law.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/justices-could-dodge-gay-marriage-decision-doma-case-090419542--politics.html

national margarita day Ronda Rousey PS4 Google Glass Cecil Hotel Cressida Bonas Kenny Clutch

Scientists use DNA to quickly unravel relationship between plants and insects

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Studying the relationship between plants and the insects that feed on them is an arduous task, as it must be done through direct observation. It can take years for a researcher to fully understand the diets of a community of herbivorous insects in a tropical rain forest. Now, five Smithsonian scientists are paving a fast track using the DNA found inside the insects' stomachs, potentially turning years of research into months. This method will help scientists understand the ecology and evolution of plant-herbivore interactions more efficiently.

Their findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Plants and insects comprise about 50 percent of all known species on Earth, forming the critical foundation of biodiversity in most terrestrial ecosystems. This study focused on 20 species of rolled leaf beetles in Costa Rica and 33 species of flowering plants in the order Zingiberales that the beetles eat and lay eggs on almost exclusively.

Using specialized DNA extraction methods the scientists obtained a mix of DNA both from the actual insect and from the insect's stomach contents. They used DNA markers specific to animals to obtain DNA barcodes for each insect species and markers specific to plants to identify the plant species in each insect's diet.

"What makes this study unique is that we developed DNA extraction techniques and full DNA barcode libraries that allowed us to identify host plants to the species level," said Carlos Garc?a-Robledo, a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian and lead author of the study. "Another unique feature of this study is that we invested several years in the field identifying the diets of insect herbivores using direct observations. This baseline data allowed us for the first time to test the accuracy of DNA barcodes to identify insect diets."

Matched against the data gathered from prior direct observation, the information derived from this DNA stomach-content study was nearly identical, yet had taken only fraction of the time and effort.

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 Smithsonian.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Carlos Garc?a-Robledo, David L. Erickson, Charles L. Staines, Terry L. Erwin, W. John Kress. Tropical Plant?Herbivore Networks: Reconstructing Species Interactions Using DNA Barcodes. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e52967 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052967

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/0myMhE1ClYY/130325160524.htm

minnesota vikings looper New Years Eve new years washington redskins New Year Outback Bowl

Spotify may be taking a cue from Netflix | SiliconBeat

Mar 25, 2013 - 23 hours ago Mike Murphy (197 Posts)

Mike Murphy is a web producer at the Mercury News, and also writes for Good Morning Silicon Valley and 60-Second Business Break.

Spotify is reportedly gearing up to challenge Netflix as a streaming-video provider.

According to a report by Business Insider?s Nicholas Carlson, the Sweden-based streaming music giant is seeking partners to help fund original ? and exclusive ? video content.

Entering the streaming video field already dominated by Netflix, Amazon and Hulu appears to be a daunting task at first glance, but it may be a profitable option for Spotify. According to the report, the high cost of licensing rights for streaming music makes Spotify?s profit margins razor thin, and the music labels can dictate their terms ? much like the problems Netflix has faced with streaming video. So instead of competing with rival services for studio-produced movies and TV shows, Spotify would create a new revenue stream by producing original content.

It?s a strategy that seems to be working for Los Gatos-based Netflix. After years of costly negotiations with studios and competing with cable channels for streaming rights, Netflix last year launched an effort to develop its own original content, and with it add more subscribers. Its first venture into original content, the David Fincher-Kevin Spacey drama ?House of Cards,? has proven to be a hit, and Netflix is betting on repeating that success with a new season of the cult-favorite sitcom ?Arrested Development? later this year.

Spotify is not the only one taking notice. YouTube, the home to billions of free online videos, is also considering adding subscription channels to create new revenue streams, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal. While still in the planning stages, subscription channels could be a boon for video makers with ?passionate but very narrow audience segments,? Lucas Watson, head of YouTube?s global sales, told the Journal.

Launched in the U.S. in 2011, Spotify already has more than 6 million subscribers and is launching an aggressive effort to land more with? its first major advertising campaign, according to a report by The Verge. By first solidifying its place as a leader in streaming music, the company could be in good position to branch out into new video ventures as home entertainment moves from the living room to the smartphone.

?

?

?

?

?

Mike Murphy (197 Posts)

Mike Murphy is a web producer at the Mercury News, and also writes for Good Morning Silicon Valley and 60-Second Business Break.

Source: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/03/25/spotify-may-be-taking-a-cue-from-netflix/

summer solstice Summer Solstice 2012 Waldo Canyon fire nba finals K Michelle roger clemens multiple sclerosis

Dell board will deal with Icahn, Blackstone

FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2009 file photo, Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., reacts to a question during a news conference in Beijing. Dell said Monday, March 25, 2013, that a special board committee plans to negotiate with Blackstone Group and activist investor Carl Icahn over new acquisition bids for the computer maker that rival an offer of more than $24 billion from an investor group that includes founder Michael Dell. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2009 file photo, Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., reacts to a question during a news conference in Beijing. Dell said Monday, March 25, 2013, that a special board committee plans to negotiate with Blackstone Group and activist investor Carl Icahn over new acquisition bids for the computer maker that rival an offer of more than $24 billion from an investor group that includes founder Michael Dell. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

Michael Dell may have to hike the price he's willing to pay if he wants to take the computer company he founded private, thanks to competition from two new acquisition offers.

A special committee of independent Dell Inc. directors said Monday that it will negotiate with buyout specialist Blackstone Group and activist investor Carl Icahn over bids that rival an offer of more than $24 billion from CEO and Chairman Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners.

The committee has determined that the bids could be superior to the proposal from Dell and Silver Lake, which amounts to $13.65 per share.

Blackstone proposed buying the Round Rock, Texas, company in a deal that would equate to more than $14.25 per share. Icahn wants to buy up to 58 percent of Dell's shares for $15 each.

Icahn Enterprises said in a statement its offer would allow shareholders "that believe, like us, that the future for Dell is bright," to continue with the company.

The special committee said Michael Dell is willing to work with third parties on alternate acquisition proposals.

"We intend to work diligently with all three potential acquirers to ensure the best possible outcome for Dell shareholders, whichever transaction that may be," said Alex Mandl, special committee chairman, in a statement.

That's good news for shareholders hoping for a higher price, and Dell Inc. shares climbed 3.3 percent, or 46 cents, to $14.60 in morning trading.

Dell and other PC makers are struggling as technology spending shifts to smartphones and tablet computers. Dell and HP, the top PC maker, are trying to adapt by making more tablets and diversifying into more profitable areas of technology, such as business software, data analytics and storage.

Michael Dell believes he will be in a better position to overhaul the company if he no longer has to worry about Wall Street's focus on profit fluctuations from one quarter to the next.

The special committee, which is made of four independent directors, spent more than five months evaluating options for Dell before deciding on the offer from Dell and Silver Lake. It considered changes to the company's business plan, a change in dividend policy and sales of all or parts of the business.

Silver Lake raised its bid six times by about $4 billion over the course of negotiations, and the committee said in a statement that it still recommends that bid while it evaluates the other offers.

Icahn, who has a $1 billion stock position in Dell, and other investors have criticized that bid as too low. Southeastern Asset Management, Dell's second-largest shareholder after Michael Dell, has asserted the company is worth closer to $24 per share.

The offer from Michael Dell and Silver Lake was announced in early February. Dell's board then set a 45-day period to allow for offers that might top that bid. That period expired Friday.

Many investors expected that a higher bid was in the works for the world's third-largest PC maker. Several buyout scenarios tying Blackstone to Dell were leaked to the media last week.

Shares of Dell had climbed nearly 40 percent so far in 2013, as of Friday's market close. That includes a rise of nearly 7 percent since the shares closed at $13.27 on Feb. 4, the day before the Dell-Silver Lake bid was announced.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-25-Dell-Acquisition/id-3e33844df8164791ab69f6905db244f1

lsu football lsu football Jessie Andrews bloomberg bloomberg Daily Caller Staten Island

Transform Your Offline Business To Online | Sharanyan Sharma

Review Overview

Sharanyan SharmaMarch 24, 2013The exciting news for the small businesses is that the recent E-Commerce revolution has introduced a whole new level playing field offering everyone a fair chance to become an internet business giant very easily enabling everyone to enjoy the big profits.The internet carries the free information flow and everyone?s looking for their necessaries. 8.5110

• Online Marketing7

• Offline Marketing10

Total Score8.5

The exciting news for the small businesses is that the recent E-Commerce revolution has introduced a whole new level playing field offering everyone a fair chance to become an internet business giant very easily enabling everyone to enjoy the big profits.The internet carries the free information flow and everyone?s looking for their necessaries.

Hey Guys!

Shopping at the city?center?or running errands around your local town lately? While doing these regular chores, if you look closely, you will find huge changes taken place over the recent years.I?m living in Northern Province Vavuniya City, but No matter where you live, I think the little guys- the small stores, independent business owners are all disappearing. At least in my local town, majority of them can?t be found anymore. Most of the local small families running stores offering the homely personal touch are now being all swallowed up by the latest market dominants, the supermarkets and the chain stores which sell almost anything and everything you may need for the day to day life.

It is a really depressing and pathetic scene where numerous out of town retail parks and supermarkets are uprooting the locals and taking their places. Virtually, each major town or city is basically a carbon copy of one other. Anywhere you travel; there is not much diversity or change you can find anymore. In every city or town, it?s the usual brand of coffee shops, all the same cloth stores, the usual chains of garden care companies, DIY or the same restaurants or electrical outlets.These small businesses owners are struggling to survive a losing battle and are loosing their lifeblood as it is being sucked out.

The exciting news for the small businesses is that the recent E-Commerce revolution has introduced a whole new level playing field offering everyone a fair chance to become an internet business giant very easily enabling everyone to enjoy the big profits.The internet carries the free information flow and everyone?s looking for their necessaries.? These are the local folks ? People living in your own area, Your customers with the biggest potentials.

Check out the recent statistics and you?ll get your proof. The trend of researching products and services online is increasing every year as more and more people are getting easy access to high speed internet facilities. Also the smart phone revolution and tablet devices have been a big help. But still, they buy OFFLINE! Grab full advantage of the E-Commerce concept, put your innovative ideas into effect and watch your business flourish. Make this approach, your competitors did and they are doing well.Keep reading and find out how you too can bring out your ?A Game? and someday become an online business giant.

Getting Started Online

Promoting business on the web can be quite overwhelming. This is one of the many reasons why small business owners postpone their advertisement plans over the internet. On the web, there are numerous advertisement techniques available and not having a clear idea might cause trouble deciding where to start from.

Many local businesses dip into the online marketing world and after sometime they give up as the expected results don?t show up.

The internet marketing is efficient and fruitful but it?s not a magic wand which will help you get rich overnight. You know your business by heart, so, now find an easy and simple approach to let the others know.

Not all marketing methods work well for all type of business ventures, but below are some basic things which literally almost any business venture, no matter which sector the venture is related to, can certainly help you to mark your presence on a large scale over the internet without draining your account dry.

Your Online Income Generation Machine ? ?Your Website

You don?t have to create an expensive website with all singing and dancing works of art. The site should be updated regularly and be search engine friendly.Designing a fully functional and yet profitable website is an extremely daunting task. So, small businesses owners usually leave all the designing and technical works to the hired contractors.This sometimes turns out to be an expensive mistake. Website designers are capable of making stunning looking website designs complete using every bell and whistle.

For example, if you were running a car dealership, you would not trust the car mechanics to run your marketing campaigns. He ?may be a damn good car mechanic, but it is almost unlikely that the mechanic would also be an expert authority on marketing. Hand the control of the marketing campaigns over to him and pretty soon you?ll be out of business.Allowing your website designer to run the website for you would put you into similar situations as mentioned above.

Of course, they come with excellent design skills, but they are not experts on marketing in most cases. Only a few website designers completely understand the effective search engine optimization techniques, or how to present compelling sales information or advertisements which effectively pre-sells the products and services you intend to put on the shelves.Believe me; nobody wants a website designer who only focuses on eye catching designs with pretty looking but absolutely pointless gimmicks providing Zero efficiency.Below some tips are presented that will help you run your website with total control and eventually you?ll be running a website providing a healthy profit.

1.? Think straight and be sure about what it is that you really want. You want and need a website working 24/7 with regular earnings. Be clear about exactly what task each web page is expected to accomplish and design them accordingly. Also, in advance, decide what kind of customers your website is trying to attract.

1. For example, are you interested in showing off your products via an online brochure or do you want to sell those on the website?
2. ?Do you want the webpage to collect the visitor?s contact details or just want the site to let the consumers know your contact details?To keep the customers updated you can go for a blog or newsletter delivery.

2.? Place your offers and make the Buy and contact details clearly visible on the website.? People buy online to save time. So, if you want more online buyers, make the Buy button clearly seen. Make sure that your contact details are visible bright and clearly on each web page, so, the customers can call you if needed.

?Download Your Free Ebook ?

Social media allow you connect with your target audience and have a two-way effective conversation. But it can be easy to forget that not everyone who finds your social media profiles will speak your language, or be able to relate to your region?s latest trends.Social Media Marketing is Secret Weapon for any offline; online business and Brands. Big MNC?s and Small Business owners use social media platform to capture the attention of their target audiences . That?s why?I?ve?created ?special short report about ?Basic E-Commerce Strategies and transform your Business Online using Social media and search Engines. Don?t worry I?m not going to ask you to subscribe my mailing list, but if you like my short report then you can?subscribe my blog to receive Regular updates via email notification.

I hope my short report will help you create some amazing ideas about your business and Brand. Just hit reply to this post and let me know what you thought please.

Talk Soon,

Sharanyan Sharma

Google+

Source: http://www.sharanyan.com/local-business-online-giant/internet-marketing/

mets shades of grey pittsburgh penguins record store day jennie garth space needle nashville predators

To Grow Or Die In The Cloud

Editor's note:?Byron Deeter is the lead cloud specialist at Bessemer Venture Partners. A few years ago, most people couldn?t tell you what the cloud was, let alone anticipate a market in which the sexy, highly anticipated consumer Internet IPOs?were flops while the seemingly nerdy sectors of?cloud?and?enterprise?computing ended up driving the technology market returns.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UFwZTvpiXP4/

moratorium dwts season 14 cast leap day michigan primary results olympia snowe davey jones dead monsanto

SUPREME COURT: Same-Sex Marriage Case | WHOTV.com

(CNN) ? After years of struggle on both sides of the issue, the question of same-sex marriage goes before the U.S. Supreme Court this week. People were already lining up outside the court Friday morning for the limited number of seats available Tuesday and Wednesday, when the justices will hear oral arguments on two cases.

For those of you who won?t be in the courtroom, here?s a look at what to expect.

As Joe Biden might say, it?s a big family deal

These are no ordinary laws before the Supreme Court: They represent battles over a generations-old concept of marriage and the rights of an increasing number of families in legally recognized gay and lesbian relationships.

There are an estimated 120,000 legally married same-sex couples in the United States. Nine states and the District of Columbia now allow same-sex couples to marry, and a dozen others recognize ?civil unions? or ?domestic partnerships? that grant some of the same benefits without full marriage rights.

But 29 states have added bans on same-sex marriage to their constitutions, including California, the most populous state. Supporters of the same-sex marriage ban in California argue that it?s not just tradition but also biology: ?The two sexes are different to the core, and each is necessary ? culturally and biologically ? for the optimal development of a human being,? Rutgers University sociologist David Popenoe has written.

How we got here

It starts back in 1993, when Hawaii?s Supreme Court found that the state couldn?t deny same-sex couples the right to marry without a ?compelling reason? and sent the issue back to the state legislature. Hawaii lawmakers quickly passed a law banning gay marriage, and advocates of traditional marriage began mobilizing to fight the prospect of gays and lesbians being able to marry.

That led to the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 legislation that forbids the recognition of same-sex marriages nationwide and bars married gay and lesbian couples from receiving federal benefits.

But DOMA is becoming an orphan. Two federal appeals courts have already struck down its benefits provision; the Obama administration has refused to defend it; and former President Bill Clinton, who signed it, now calls it ?incompatible with our Constitution.? With the Justice Department now arguing against it, Republicans in the House of Representatives hired their own lawyers to defend the act.

The California ban, known as Proposition 8, passed by a 52-48% margin in 2008. It eliminated the right to marry that had been recognized by California courts earlier that year. Opponents of the measure challenged it in court and have succeeded in convincing federal judges at the district and appellate levels to find the ban unconstitutional.

The justices will hear oral arguments on Proposition 8 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they will take up DOMA.

A civil right, or a political question

One the biggest issues facing the justices is whether they can ? or should ? issue a ruling that will effectively broaden the legal definition of marriage, long restricted to heterosexual couples. Backers of DOMA and Proposition 8 say it should be up to the public to make that decision, not the courts.

?Our most fundamental right in this country is the right to vote and the right to participate in the political process, ? said Austin Nimocks of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian advocacy group.

?We don?t need the Supreme Court to take that right away from Americans of good faith on both sides of this issue and impose its judicial solution,? Nimocks told CNN?s State of the Union. ?We need to leave this debate to the democratic process, which is working.?

But California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is arguing against Proposition 8, said voter-approved marriage bans ?are simply unconstitutional.? The Supreme Court has ruled more than a dozen times that marriage is a fundamental right, ?and as it relates to a fundamental right, the court will hold that under the highest level of scrutiny.?

?It is one thing to read the polls, which we have discussed, which show again that a majority of Americans are in favor of same-sex marriage,? Harris said. ?But it is more important to read the Constitution.?

Who to watch

Same-sex marriage advocates will be watching Justice Anthony Kennedy during this week?s arguments. The generally conservative Reagan appointee has authored two opinions that advanced gay rights during his tenure, striking down state laws criminalizing homosexual sodomy and striking down a Colorado constitutional amendment that forbade local gay-rights ordinances. In that 1996 case, Kennedy wrote for the court, a state can?t decide that a class of people are ?a stranger to its laws.?

Conservative supporters of the bans have turned their eyes toward Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The justice, a Clinton appointee, told a Columbia University forum in 2012 that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that struck down state bans on abortion short-circuited a political consensus on abortion rights.

Karl Rove, the onetime strategist for former President George W. Bush, told ABC?s ?This Week? on Sunday that Ginsburg may oppose a sweeping decision in support of same-sex marriage.

?What we may see is a decision here that in essence is not a 5-4 decision, but a 6-3, 7-2 that says ?leave it up to the states,? ? said Rove, whose old boss once endorsed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. ?In fact, we could see an 8-1.?

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the author of a lengthy Ginsburg profile for The New Yorker, said Ginsburg is likely to find the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional but isn?t likely to knock down bans on same-sex marriage nationwide.

?She does not believe in grand pronouncements, even liberal grand pronouncements, from the Supreme Court,? Toobin said.

A shifting landscape

The court is hearing arguments as a public shift toward same-sex marriage appears to be gathering speed. The proportion of Americans who support same-sex marriage has grown from around 40% in 2007 to 53% in a CNN/ORC International poll conducted last week; 44% remain opposed.

Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 as a supporter of civil unions but not same-sex marriage. In 2012, months before facing voters again, he said his thinking had shifted and that he supported marriage rights for gays and lesbians.

?I had hesitated on gay marriage, in part, because I thought civil unions would be sufficient,? he said. ?I was sensitive to the fact that ? for a lot of people ? that the word marriage is something that provokes very powerful traditions and religious beliefs.?

Obama?s Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, ran as a defender of traditional marriage, and the party?s platform opposed same-sex marriages. But since November, numerous GOP figures have emerged as supporters of same-sex unions.

Dozens of high-profile Republicans ? including former party Chairman Ken Mehlman, ex-presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman and actor Clint Eastwood ? filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that Proposition 8 should be struck down. And earlier this month, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio announced he is now a supporter of the freedom to marry after finding out that his son ? a Yale sophomore ? is gay.

?Eventually, as time marches on, this is a country that believes pretty squarely in marriage equality,? former Bush spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace told ?Fox News Sunday.?

Source: http://whotv.com/2013/03/24/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-case/

charles colson humber raffi torres michael mcdonald jon jones vs rashad evans earth day 2012 jon jones rashad evans

Holder averts furloughs of prison staffers (The Arizona Republic)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294120702?client_source=feed&format=rss

hangout todd haley kareem abdul jabbar miramonte elementary school mark jenkins super bowl commercials 2012 mia

Jason Cole / NFL draft prospect Zach Ertz spices up tight end competition with rival Tyler Eifert

- After a questionable query during the NFL scouting combine, employees are reminded to be careful.

- The Ravens are not in panic mode after losing another group of important players.

- The helmet rule was the subject of lengthy and healthy debate and even featured hysterical reaction by some who think this is the latest sign that the NFL is going softer than the lingerie league. Regardless, the league is pressing forward.

Source: http://www.fantasysp.com/columns/nfl/210505/nfl-draft-prospect-zach-ertz-spices-up-tight-end-competition-with-rival-tyler-eifert

woody guthrie benson henderson 2012 dunk contest edgar vs henderson berkshire hathaway ufc 144 james jones

Kurd rebel leader orders fighters to halt hostilities

By Ayla Jean Yackley and Seyhmus Cakan

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered his fighters on Thursday to cease fire and withdraw from Turkish soil as a step to ending a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, riven the country and battered its economy.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, gathered in the regional center of Diyarbakir, cheered and waved banners bearing Ocalan's mustachioed image when a letter from the rebel leader, held since 1999 on a prison island in the Marmara Sea, was read out by a pro-Kurdish politician.

"Let guns be silenced and politics dominate," he said to a sea of red-yellow-green Kurdish flags. "The stage has been reached where our armed forces should withdraw beyond the borders ... It's not the end. It's the start of a new era."

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has taken considerable risks since he was elected in 2002, breaking taboos deeply rooted in a conservative establishment, not least in the military, by extending cultural and language rights to Kurds.

He must now carry a skeptical conservative establishment with him, just as Ocalan from his prison island must marshal and keep the obedience of fighters in the hills of northern Iraq. The road must be a rough one with suspicions on both sides.

"The language is the language of peace, we need to see it implemented," Interior Minister Muammer Guler said, condemning the absence of red Turkish flags at the celebrations.

Rebel fighters would withdraw to their bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, which they have used as a springboard for attacks on Turkish soil. The Turkish air force has frequently attacked the strongholds.

Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), regarded by the United States, European Union and Turkey as a terrorist group, launched its campaign in 1984, demanding an independent Kurdish state in the southeast of Turkey. It has since moderated its demands to political autonomy and broader cultural rights in an area where the Kurdish language was long formally banned.

"There is a strategic shift happening," said Ertugrul Kurkcu, a parliamentarian from the pro-Kurdish BDP party. "The Kurdish liberation movement is moving from an armed campaign to a cultural one. And the PKK accepts this."

Ocalan, isolated from his fighters for over a decade, has won public backing for a truce from field commanders over the last week; but there have been signs of skepticism in their ranks. Last month, at a meeting with Kurdish politicians he accused them of unwarranted pessimism over peace talks.

"I'm angry with them," Ocalan said, voicing opposition to their "war system", or strategy.

There are still dangers of division over the terms of any deal or between the PKK figures negotiating it.

The live broadcast on national television of the scenes in Diyarbakir would have been unthinkable even a few months ago. Throughout the conflict, insignia of the outlawed PKK has been strictly banned. A huge bonfire was lit as Kurdish "Newroz" new year celebrations began, a soundtrack of Ocalan's past speeches playing over loudspeakers.

"War happens, but at some point you have to dress your wounds. This is our chance now," said Bedri Alat, 73. "I remember peace. My grandson does not. He does not remember when Kurds and Turks lived as brothers. This is a last chance."

DANGERS OF DIVISION

A settlement would lift a huge burden off Turkey, though it would be viewed with deep suspicion by hardline nationalists who fear Kurds would resume a drive for independence.

"The PKK is challenging the state and this is a display of power by them," said Ozcan Yeniceri, a parliamentarian from the MHP, Turkey's main nationalist opposition party.

"In place of a Turkish Republic, the road is being paved for formation of a federal independent Kurdish state."

The war has drained state coffers, stunted development of the mainly Kurdish southeast and scarred the country's human rights record. A peace would bolster the NATO member's credibility as it seeks to extend influence across the Middle East, and remove a stumbling block from its path to join the EU.

Two years ago, to the anger of hardliners, Turkish intelligence officers held secret talks with the PKK in Oslo and have been talking with Ocalan in recent months.

Truces have been declared and secret talks held with the PKK in the past, but expectations this time have been fuelled by the openness with which the talks have been conducted.

Leftist militants launched bomb and missile strikes on Turkish government and ruling party offices on Tuesday night in attacks which Erdogan said were aimed at derailing the peace process.

"Peace won't come just because the prime minister says so. A ceasefire isn't enough to guarantee my rights and freedoms," said Mustafa Guner, 22, a literature student in Diyarbakir, sipping tea at a nearby cafe in a restored caravanserai.

"I am hopeful, but I am also wary and I am anxious."

HARD ROAD AHEAD

If a ceasefire holds, the path to disarmament and the reintegration of militants will still be long and vulnerable to sabotage. The fate of Ocalan, "Apo" to his allies, also remains uncertain, but any move to release him could be strongly opposed by critics who see any settlement as threatening Turkish unity.

The prospect of talks with the PKK would long have outraged many Turks who revile Ocalan and hold him personally responsible for the bloodshed.

An upsurge in violence last summer appeared to lend momentum to the nascent peace process. Turkish intelligence officers began meeting Ocalan in October on his prison island in the Marmara Sea. In November, he proved his continued authority by ordering the end of a hunger strike by hundreds of jailed Kurds.

Growing Kurdish assertiveness in neighboring northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and in war-torn Syria have only added to the sense of urgency.

"We are ready for both peace and war," a group of PKK youths in militant fatigues, their faces wrapped in headscarves, said from the stage, their statement a reminder of a widely-held view that the conflict could flare up again if this peace bid fails.

At the cafe in Diyarbakir, student Resan Erdogan, 25, a Kurd who shares the prime minister's surname, said a PKK withdrawal too early in the peace process would be disastrous for Kurds.

"The PKK is our insurance. Any rights we have gained are because they fought for them," he said as the sound of fighter jets from the city's air base thundered above, a reminder of the heavy military presence Turkey maintains in the region.

Abdullah Demirbas, a Diyarbakir district mayor, said there were likely to be more attempts to sabotage the process ahead.

"There are deep forces who want war and they are pervasive. They feed off blood," he told Reuters.

"The PKK, Ocalan and the government must be brave... There is massive social support for this process. There is hope, albeit restrained. That stems from disappointments in the past."

Ocalan was first sentenced to hang after his capture in Kenya but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Turkey abolished the death penalty in pursuit of EU membership.

Demirbas said this was a last chance for peace.

"The next generation is like a storm. It is more radical. It has never known peace between Kurds and Turks. Now you can still convince many of them, we can still win them over. But if we lose them this time, they will never listen to us again."

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/joy-kurd-rebel-leader-due-call-turkey-truce-091105285.html

nate mcmillan clooney arrested southern miss rod blagojevich

Tourist-fed stingrays change their ways

Mar. 18, 2013 ? Stingrays living in one of the world's most famous and heavily visited ecotourism sites -- Stingray City/Sandbar in the Cayman Islands -- have profoundly changed their ways, raising questions about the impact of so-called "interactive ecotourism" on marine wildlife, reports a new study published March 18 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers from Nova Southeastern University's Guy Harvey Research Institute in Hollywood, Fla. and the University of Rhode Island studied the southern stingray population of Stingray City -- a sandbar in the Cayman Islands that draws nearly a million visitors each year to feed, pet and swim with its stingrays -- to assess how the intensive ecotourism has affected the animals' behavior.

"Measuring that impact is important because there's a lot of interest in creating more of these interactive ecotourism operations, but we know little about the life histories of the animals involved or how they might change," said study co-author Guy Harvey, who initiated the project.

The researchers found that Stingray City's stingrays show distinctly different patterns of activity than their wild counterparts, who don't enjoy daily feedings or close human contact.

"We saw some very clear and very prominent behavioral changes, and were surprised by how these large animals had essentially become homebodies in a tiny area," said study co-author Mahmood Shivji, director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute and NSU Oceanographic Center professor, who led the study.

Wild stingrays are active at night and solitary -- they forage through the night over large distances to find food, and rarely cross paths with other stingrays. To see if Stingray City's fed stingrays stray from this behavior, Mark Corcoran, lead author of the study who did the research as part of his graduate work at NSU, and the research team tagged and monitored both wild and fed stingrays over the course of two years and compared their patterns of movement.

They found that fed stingrays swapped their normal nighttime foraging for daytime feeding, and in contrast to their wild counterparts, began to rest at night. They also didn't mind rubbing shoulders with their neighbors: At least 164 stingrays abandoned the species' normal solitary behavior, crowding together in less than a quarter square mile of space at Stingray City. They even formed schools and fed together. The fed stingrays mated and became pregnant year-round, instead of during a specific mating season, and also showed signs of unusual aggression, biting each other more frequently than their wild counterparts.

These results suggest that human-provided food can dramatically change how even large, highly mobile ocean animals behave -- with potentially serious consequences, the researchers conclude.

"There are likely to be some health costs that come with these behavior changes, and they could be detrimental to the animals' well-being in the long term," Shivji said. Stingray City means big business in the Cayman Islands, where each stingray generates as much as $500,000 annually in tourism income, Harvey said. The team plans to continue to monitor Stingray City's population to track its health -- and the industry's impact -- over time.

"Right now, these animals have no protection at all," Harvey said. "Without more studies like these, we won't know what that means for the wildlife or if we need to take action. It's unclear how much of the stingray's daily diet comes from tourism provided food, but the good news is we have seen the animals forage when tourists are absent suggesting that these animal are not completely dependent on these handouts."

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 Nova Southeastern University, via Newswise.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Mark J. Corcoran, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Mahmood S. Shivji, Matthew D. Potenski, Demian D. Chapman, Guy M. Harvey. Supplemental Feeding for Ecotourism Reverses Diel Activity and Alters Movement Patterns and Spatial Distribution of the Southern Stingray, Dasyatis americana. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e59235 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059235

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/YW0B8idmRkk/130318202914.htm

paul babeu kevin costner budweiser shootout animal house invincible jesse jackson whitney houston funeral video

Unibody aluminium iPhone competitor HTC One gets reviewed

Android Central's Alex Dobie has posted his definitive HTC One review. While he bewilderingly managed to misspell aluminium, Dobie otherwise did a fantastic job looking at the almost Apple-class unibody hardware, stunning 1080p LCD display, and the interesting if more divisive HTC Sense 5 interface. His conclusion:

he HTC One is an exquisite piece of design and engineering. From the hardware to the software, HTC?s new handset incorporates some of the very best design work in the industry. If there?s something to be disappointed about, it might be the much-vaunted ?UltraPixel? camera. Which is not to say it?s bad per se -- in fact, it?s pretty good. But it?s a long way off being the silver bullet to cure all your mobile photography woes, and though its low-light performance is fantastic, it still lags behind the competition in some other areas.

In spite of this, is it HTC?s best phone yet? Without question. And on balance, is it the best Android phone you can buy? For the moment, absolutely.

I had an HTC G1 and an HTC Nexus One, and to date they've made my favorite Android hardware by a long stretch. The HTC One looks far better built than either the Nexus 4 I currently own, or Samsung's just-announced Galaxy S4. I use my phone all day, every day, so how it feels is incredibly important.

But then again, so is software, and that sounds like it's still a challenge for HTC. At least the interface sounds smooth, though, which would be fantastic if it holds true day in day out, app in, app out.

If you're interested in seeing aluminium and glass at 4.7-inch scale, along with some great speakers, audacious camera technology, and... curious button and Home screen choices, check the Dobie's full review. Then come back here and let me know if there's anything about the HTC One you'd like to see Apple incorporate into future versions of the iPhone.

Source: Android Central

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/3I-AE_DXlP4/story01.htm

buffalo chicken dip super bowl 2012 soul train nevada caucus ufc 143 what time does the super bowl start ben gazzara