Twitter wastes time, Facebook makes you fat

Ever since the invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C., technological innovation has been improving our lives. Because new devices and processes help us produce more (output) with less (labor input), prices fall, real wages rise and we are all better off.

If there is a free lunch in this world, it's productivity growth.

There is even an economic school of thought, known as real business cycle theory, that views technology shocks as the main driver of the business cycle: not the central bank, not fiscal policy, not animal spirits or expectations.

Technology, in fact, is always equated with good: More is better.

I'm all for progress, but I keep wondering if some of our latest innovations are productivity-enhancing or just a pure waste of time.

Every time I'm in Manhattan, I marvel at the number of people crossing the street or sitting down to lunch with a friend without taking their eyes and fingers off their electronic devices. I can even predict the effect such interconnectivity will have on the individual psyche.

Twenty years from now, researchers will publish studies about how the teenagers of today, addicted as they are to texting abbreviated word forms, have trouble relating to one another. Educators will bemoan the inability of the youth of America to write.

I didn't have to wait 20 years. Sherry Turkle, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, described this phenomenon perfectly in an April 21 New York Times article titled, "The Flight from Conversation." She called it "alone together."

"We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating," Turkle, a psychologist, wrote. "And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection."

Social networking is just such an alone-together pursuit. Last year, Bloomberg journalists were encouraged to set up Twitter accounts. I reluctantly complied. I don't have a Facebook page, was never tempted to create one and didn't understand the value of letting friends know that I was eating a peach or walking the dog.

At first I restricted my tweets to my column and blog posts. I never looked at Twitter in between. Then I started interacting with people, and it became contagious, more like a game. Who was retweeting my posts? How many followers did each tweet produce? What was my tweet-to-follower ratio?

My most attention-grabbing tweet was something snarky I wrote on Nov. 14 during L'Affaire Petraeus: "Both Petraeus & Broadwell were married. Yet now she's his 'mistress.' Do we have an equivalent word in English for him?"

I got dozens of suggestions and 50 new followers. But what was the value? It seemed like a huge distraction from my work. If we as a nation are twittering our lives away, surely it must be manifesting itself in the statistics.

I decided to go to the source on labor productivity: the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I asked one of the economists there if he could help me determine how my personal productivity was being affected by tweeting. Once I became an expert, I was sure I could extrapolate the results to the universe at large.

You probably guessed: It's not that easy. In its monthly calculation of output per hour worked, or productivity, the BLS uses revenue as a proxy for output. Total hours worked is used as a proxy for labor input. Productivity is computed from the two numbers.

What about the effect on the quality of my work? If I'm spending more time tweeting and less researching and writing my column, surely the quality suffers.

Goods can be adjusted for quality changes. It's harder with services and is almost impossible for my output. (Readers, however, have no problem providing instantaneous qualitative assessment: It stinks.) The good news is, until my slacking off starts to affect Bloomberg LP's sales, my personal productivity isn't captured in the statistics. The bad news is, I may lose my job.

The difficulty of capturing the Twitter effect in the aggregate data notwithstanding, the productivity-sapping side of social networking doesn't stop there. A recent study by Keith Wilcox, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, found that Facebook was making people fat. Yes, fat. It seems that social networking improves self-esteem and, in so doing, reduces control over our choice of snacks.

The study said nothing about the effect on productivity. That's a leap I'm taking. To the extent that obesity and its secondary effects require treatment, it means less time devoted to work.

Does that make sense? I think I will share the idea with my Twitter followers and see what they think. Then I'll get back to work.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/185111461.html

2013 dodge dart shameless kwame brown martin luther king day blue ivy devil inside dash diet

NHL, union end info talks as sides mull next step

NEW YORK (AP) ? After two days of questions and answers, the NHL and the players' association now need to figure out if they are ready to bargain again in what could be a last chance to save the hockey season.

The sides had a series of informational discussions by conference call and in face-to-face meetings with staff members that lasted much of Saturday and concluded Sunday. Those talks were spurred by the nearly 300-page contract proposal the NHL presented to the union Thursday.

It isn't yet clear if this offer will swiftly lead to new bargaining, perhaps as early as Sunday or Monday. There have been no negotiations since the sides met with a federal mediator Dec. 13

All games through Jan. 14 have been canceled, claiming more than 50 percent of the schedule. The NHL wants to reach a deal by Jan. 11 and open the season Jan. 19, with a 48-game schedule.

Bargaining sessions with only the NHL and union haven't been held since Dec. 6, when talks abruptly ended after the players' association made a counterproposal to the league's previous offer. The league said that offer was contingent on the union accepting three elements unconditionally and without further bargaining.

The NHL then pulled all existing offers off the table. Two days of sessions with mediators the following week ended without progress.

A person familiar with key points of the offer told The Associated Press that the league proposed raising the limit of individual free-agent contracts to six years from five ? seven years if a team re-signs its own player; raising the salary variance from one year to another to 10 percent, up from 5 percent; and one compliance buyout for the 2013-14 season that wouldn't count toward a team's salary cap but would be included in the overall players' share of income.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the new offer weren't being discussed publicly.

The NHL maintained the deferred payment amount of $300 million it offered in its previous proposal, an increase from an earlier offer of $211 million. The initial $300 million offer was pulled after negotiations broke off this month.

The latest proposal is for 10 years, running through the 2021-22 season, with both sides having the right to opt out after eight years.

If this offer doesn't quickly lead to a new collective bargaining agreement, the next round of cuts could claim the entire schedule.

The NHL is the only North American professional sports league to cancel a season because of a labor dispute, losing the 2004-05 campaign to a lockout. A 48-game season was played in 1995 after a lockout stretched into January.

It is still possible this dispute could eventually be settled in the courts if the sides can't reach a deal on their own.

The NHL filed a class-action suit this month in U.S. District Court in New York in an effort to show its lockout is legal. In a separate move, the league filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, contending bad-faith bargaining by the union.

Those moves were made because the players' association took steps toward potentially filing a "disclaimer of interest," which would dissolve the union and make it a trade association. That would allow players to file antitrust lawsuits against the NHL.

Union members voted overwhelmingly to give their board the power to file the disclaimer by Wednesday. If that deadline passes, another authorization vote could be held to approve a later filing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-union-end-talks-sides-mull-next-step-184057279--nhl.html

minnesota vikings redskins NFL playoff schedule 2013 Happy new year kim kardashian pregnant tony romo hillary clinton

Chapter Two Restaurant (Blackheath, London, by Blackheathcoffeeshops)

I really want to hate Chapters All Day Dining. I want to hate it because of its mass self-publicisation in the local free glossies. I want to hate it because on a Saturday evening it is full of fake tans, big zirconas and bleached hair posies who manage to make champagne look tacky.

I nearly really did hate it, because of its really unjust bread policy. Everyone around us was offered warm baked bread except for us. And this is not the first time. We cannot work out why we consistently fail to meet the deserving to be given bread when we have ordered.

So the food has yet to come, but I am well on track to achieve hatred of Chapters (with the exception of a good glass of grapefruit juice), and all my plans collapse into failure after the first chip. ?The first chip was undercooked... glee! But the burger was brilliant, really really burgery, and so were the rest of the chips and rocket and parmesan salad.

Source: http://www.qype.co.uk/review/3491511

kohls target target walmart nfl nfl best buy

Eric's Online Diary: Solving some family history mysteries

His was a hard life and he died at the age of 49 from pneumonia. Already a widower, his six children who had been sent to a children?s home in Doncaster, were now orphaned.

My mother had told me many stories of life in the orphanage, of the cruel matron (Mrs Nurse). She had been 14 when her father died and she?d had the hope that soon, she would have been able to leave Stanley House (the children?s home) and become the carer at their house in Adwick Le Street, looking after the children, while her father worked.

As it happened, her father died and my mother was placed in service at a large house in Yorkshire where she worked until joining the WRNS during the Second World War and training as a cook.

I?d asked my mother quite a lot about her father, but I?m not sure how much she had known about his life (he died when she was 14) and she died when I was 11 so there?s only so much you?ll tell and 11-year-old. Later, I took the opportunity to ask my Uncle Dick (cousin Jennifer?s dad). He knew a few things, but was a couple of years younger than my mother and would have had even less opportunity to talk to his father about his past.

So there were lots of untested stories about Richard Gibson Little, which Mike has summarised as:

1. ?His birth and death registrations show his name only as Richard Little, so why during his lifetime does he use the middle name of Gibson? His army records and medals from the First World War also show him as Richard Gibson Little.

2. ?Did the name Gibson come from the maiden name of his first wife? This was a story I?d heard from my mother and may have passed on to Mike. The story was that he?d fallen in love with and married the daughter of a family of wealthy shopkeepers from Carlisle. They had disapproved and when the woman died in childbirth, he?d left Cumberland and gone to fight in France, taking her maiden name as his middle name. A similar story, with variances was told by my uncle, Dick Little.

3. ?Who were Richard?s parents? Was his father called Joseph? Online research had not been helpful, creating more questions and no answers.

4. ?Did a maiden aunt bring him up after his mother was said to have died three or four years after his birth?

5. ?On Richard?s death, it was said there was a ?father? who declined through solicitors, to take responsibility of Richard?s children who remained in Stanley House, the orphanage?

6. ?Richard?s ?father? was said to have moved to Cheshire, remarried and had two sons with his second wife.

7. ?Richard'ssecond wife, my grandmother Nelly Beatrice Burrows, descended from a Scottish connection.

Mike has been interested in family history for some years and is quite experienced, so I was pleased that he took on the task of trying to find out the truth. His research started with Richard?s death, which is always a sobering event.

The Death Certificate shows he died of Broncho Pneumonia on 15 December 1937 at Springwell House, Doncaster Urban District, aged 49. ?At the time he was living at Village Street, Adwick-le-Street about five miles north-west of Doncaster. By researching the web site www.workhouses.org.uk/Doncaster/ it seems Springwell House built in 1897 in Balby, had been the local Workhouse and it doesn't sound a good place to be. ?A quote from this web site says:

?After the Local Government Act, 1929 abolished the Poor Law Guardians from 1 April 1930, responsibility for public assistance, and the former workhouse, fell upon Doncaster County Borough Council. The council renamed the premises Springwell House Public Assistance Institution. The buildings continued to function as a local authority hospital and provide accommodation for the destitute and for those who in the language of the period were classed as 'mentally deficient'. Initially, because of the 'poor quality of the accommodation' it was proposed not to adopt Springwell House as a hospital within the National Health Service. However, in the event the premises were taken over by the NHS and were designated as the Western Hospital in 1950. The hospital was used mostly for maternity and geriatric patients. It was demolished in 1974 and the site redeveloped for a primary school and private housing.?

Consequently, we can reasonably assume that Richard was a patient at Springwell House due to the medical condition from which he subsequently died.

The death certificate records his age as 49, suggesting a birth in 1888. ?As the family indicated that Richard was born in Cumberland, a search of the Birth Records enabled Mike to obtain a birth certificate in the name of Richard Little born 9 April 1888, a date that matches the family-quoted date.

This certificate records the birth at Ruckcroft, near Ainstable, a small hamlet to the north-east of Penrith, his mother being Margaret Little (nee Lowis), a charwoman, who appears to be illiterate as she had to make her ?mark? in completing the registration.

No father?s name is shown on the certificate with the space provided being struck out. ?At the end of the 19th century this action by the Registrar generally indicated that the father was unknown or that the mother was not prepared to declare it and, therefore, Richard seems to have been illegitimate.

Mike then began tracing Richard in the census records available within his lifetime, with the following results:

1891 ? shown as Richard G [suggesting he was already named Gibson] aged two; a nurse child; living at Cross House, Becks, Ainstable with Anthony and Mary Sander. ?

Initial research did not produce any firm connection between the Sanders and Margaret Little (nee Lowis) other than Anthony Sanders being the son of Joseph Sander, Registrar, who registered Margaret?s birth. Becks is within a mile of Richard?s place of birth and west and south of Ruckcroft.

1901 ? shown again as ?Richard G? aged 12, this time living as son with Joseph and Margaret Barnes at Ruckcroft. ?Joseph was an agricultural labourer but in later life became a corn miller. Joseph?s parents, and eventually Joseph, were millers at Dale Mill, Ainstable.

1911 ? Richard cannot be found with or without his G, but would have been 22 years old. He served in the Great War with the York and Lancaster regiment which mainly recruited from the south Yorkshire (Hallamshire) area, so he may have moved there for reasons of work. Easy for a single man to slip through the census.

Turning back to the 1901 census, Mike researched the Barnes family and found that Margaret, Joseph?s wife, was Margaret Little on their marriage certificate. She was shown as a widow and her father as Henry Lowis. Was Margaret Barnes, the same person as Margaret Little, nee Lowis, the mother of Richard? Had she not died as the family thought and had she taken him back into her care once she had a secure station in life?

Mike needed to establish the real connection between Margaret Little/Lowis and Joseph Barnes, so he searched Cumberland Records for marriages of a Margaret Lowis (and alternatives such as Lewis and Lowes) and found a marriage to a John Little in 1871. In the 1881 census, Margaret and John were living at Castle Dyke, Ainstable, with their sons Henry Lowes Little (b.1871) and John Richard Little (b.1879). The census entry immediately prior to this family was that of a Henry and Jane Lowis. Tracing Henry and Jane back through the census records confirms that Margaret was their daughter, as did a copy of her birth certificate giving her birth as 11 April 1851 to parents of Henry Lowis and Jane Lowis (nee Gibson).

To get closer to the Lowis/Little connection, in June 2012 Mike spent three days visiting the Carlisle Archives to examine specific Parish Records and found baptism records for Margaret (8 February 1858 at Ainstable ie seven years after her birth) and most of her nine siblings. In addition, he found Parish Records confirming her two marriages to John Little (11 Nov 1871) and Joseph Barnes (28 Oct 1891). ?Both men were shown as bachelors and Margaret Little as widow when she married Barnes. The 1911 census shows there were no children to this marriage.

So it looked as if Richard was the son of John and Margaret, explaining his surname and with the Gibson connection coming from Margaret?s mother?s maiden name. Margaret was clearly quite keen to keep her family surnames in memory because she?d used her own maiden name as the middle name for her first child. Her husband John had died, Richard was cared for by foster parents until Margaret got back on her feet and married again, then he was brought up by his mum and stepfather - all explained (or was it?).

Why was John Little not shown as Richard?s father on his birth certificate and what had happened to her other two sons? Mike subsequently traced John Little?s death to Sleetburn Colliery, Brandon and Byshottles just east of Durham on 8 January 1885 - Richard wasn?t born until April 1888, three years later. John Little could not have been his father. ?

Like a lot of family history trails, this one was throwing up as many questions as answers.

One thing that is an obvious change in social history in the second half of the 19th Century is that people were far more mobile. One of my great grandparents moved from rural Norfolk to the bustle of Liverpool, another moved from Norfolk to East Yorkshire; there was emigration to Canada and there was migration to London. People that had worked on the land for generations were being pushed off by mechanisation and they were also able to earn better wages by working in industry.

The fact that John and Margaret Little moved across the Pennines from near Penrith to Durham is not such a big leap. Durham was a thriving coal-mining area and would be hungry for workers. The connection with Durham seems to have come about because Margaret?s younger sister, Sarah, married John Healey and they moved to Co Durham where John Healey worked in the mines. I guess Margaret and John heard there was good money to be earned and followed them.

So, upon Richard?s birth in 1888, Margaret had been a widow for more than three years. We know she was working as a charwoman (cleaner) and Mike was able to confirm that her two sons Henry and John were living with their father?s family.

Mike has not been able to find a baptism record for Richard. He has also searched the official Bastardy Records for the period to see who may have taken financial responsibility for Richard until Margaret married Joseph Barnes, but these did not extend beyond 1874 and so proved fruitless. ?In the April 1891 census he was, of course, being cared for by Anthony and Mary Sander.

So who might Richard?s father have been and what would the Sanders? motive have been for looking after him?

Anthony Sander, who was caring for Richard as a two-year-old in 1891, was the son of Joseph Sander b.1802. In the 1851 census, this Joseph Sander shows as farmer of 65 acres and also a Registrar of Births and Deaths, living at The Vicarage, Ainstable with his wife Ann, a daughter and four sons, including Anthony (b.1831) and another called Joseph (b.1836) in Ainstable. Anthony married Mary and they also had a son called Joseph b.1867 in Ainstable.

You will recall that family lore states that Richard?s father was called Joseph, which may have been Joseph Barnes (his stepfather) but there are now a few other Josephs who have stepped into the limelight. Could either the son or grandson of the original Joseph Sander, both also called Joseph, be Richard?s father?

The first Joseph (b.1836) can be discounted as he died in 1869.

Anthony?s son, Joseph (b.1867) left home between 1881 and 1891 moving to Benwell, north of Gateshead, to become a crane driver. He was living with Richard Pearson and his family who had all been born in Ainstable and this was probably the connection that took him there. By the 1901 census, he had moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, become a Bank Porter and married Jane Chalder in 1893. ?She came from Alston near to Ainstable. In the 1911 census the family were still in Newcastle and Joseph was now a Bank Messenger.

The question is whether this Joseph was Richard?s natural father. This can only be answered if the Sander family can be traced and they have the knowledge.?He was certainly of an age to have been the father and the connection of Ainstable between Joseph and Margaret is clear. ?Further, it could be possible that Joseph?s parents, Anthony and Mary, cared for Richard as a ?family? son as Margaret was unable to provide financially for Richard.

This seems a good explanation of why Anthony and Mary Sander were looking after Richard. Perhaps Margaret returned to Ainstable from Durham a widow with two sons. The Little family took in the sons and Sanders offered her some cleaning work where she caught the eye of young Joseph ...

Perhaps a deal was struck by the grandparents to help Margaret out in return for keeping their son?s name ?guilt free??

Joseph Sander, who may have been my great grandfather (there?s no proof, but some circumstantial evidence) died in 1932 aged 65.

After the 1901 census, there?s no trace of Richard Gibson Little (my grandfather) until he pops up as a soldier in the Great War. The regiment he joins is a small one which recruited from a distinct area and so it?s quite likely that he?d gone to South Yorkshire seeking work and had joined up soon after the outbreak of war. He?d been wounded and sent home for a spell. He seems to have gone ?home? to Cumberland, met Annie Elizabeth Braithwaite and married her on 20 September 1917 at Ousby ? a village south-east of Ruckcroft and Ainstable. ?

There is no father?s name shown on this marriage certificate, suggesting that Richard was illegitimate. Clearly, Richard did not take the name Gibson from Annie but certainly from his grandmother, Jane Lowis, whose maiden name was Gibson. ?Sadly, the story about his first love dying was true as Annie died on 9 November 1919 during childbirth and there is no reference of the child surviving ? it was not made compulsory to register a stillbirth until 1927. ?My Aunt Margaret (Margaret Smith) has the prayer book given to Annie on her confirmation on 12 May 1910 by the Rector at Ousby.

Richard also shows himself as Gibson on his second marriage, to my grandmother Nelly Beatrice Burrows. ?Nelly?s birth certificate shows she was born on 6 Apr 1894 at Low Catton, Pocklington, east of York. ?Her father and his family come from Burston, Norfolk and her mother?s family are East Yorkshire based (both well documented), so no Scottish connection here.

Richard?s marriage certificate to Nelly records his father as Joseph Little. This is most likely to be his late stepfather Joseph Barnes. Mike thinks that Richard gave the name Joseph and occupation miller to the Rector and he had incorrectly written his name as Joseph Little instead of Joseph Barnes. Joseph had, of course, taken responsibility for and acted as Richard?s father following his marriage to Margaret, so he deserved some credit. Probably, no attempt was made to correct the mistake as Richard had other things on his mind (it was his wedding day) and both Joseph Barnes and his mother Margaret had died a few years earlier.

The question of Joseph Barnes being quoted as ?father? in official documents such as the census, is common during the 19th and early 20th centuries when viewed in the light of second marriages by one partner; i.e. Margaret ? Joseph was a bachelor on marriage to Margaret.?Margaret died of Stomach Cancer on the 30 May 1916 at Ousby Mill, Ousby, as the widow of Joseph Barnes, corn miller ? Joseph had died in early 1915 in Ousby. ?Mike visited St Luke?s Church, Ousby and with the help of a graveyard plan in the church, found and photographed the adjacent sites of Margaret and Joseph?s graves although no headstones are erected.

Sadly, after Nelly?s death in 1933 (at the age of 39), all of their children, except John, were taken into Stanley House Children?s Home run by Doncaster Council. ?Upon Richard?s death in 1937 family lore states that a ?father? (grandfather) had declined to take responsibility for the children. Who might have turned their back on the family?

The only father figure still living at Richard?s death was John Burrows, Nelly?s father and the children?s grandfather. At this time he was 76 years old, a widower, and understandably unlikely to be willing (or able) to take in the children. He died in Doncaster in 1940.

So where has this research left those family mysteries?

Mike has established:

? ?Richard was illegitimate, with no natural father established. He clearly was given the name Gibson from his grandmother, Jane Lowis (nee Gibson).

? ?His mother was Margaret Lowis born 1851; died 1916 who married John Little (died 1885) and later married Joseph Barnes with whom she brought up her son.

? ?Richard?s natural father cannot be determined and, whilst I am happy to point the finger at Joseph Sander, Mike thinks it is unlikely. He thinks that if this was the case Margaret and Joseph would have married before or shortly after Richard?s birth as, being single, neither had any reason not to do so. Bearing in mind that Joseph?s grandfather was the local Registrar, a man of standing in the community, to legitimise the birth would have been a priority. Of course, this doesn?t explain why the Sanders looked after Richard as a young child.

? ?If Joseph Barnes was the natural father the same argument (no restrictions on marrying) hold good, so why wait three years. Based on Richard and Nelly?s marriage certificate it was Joseph Barnes who family lore believe to be Joseph Little, father of Richard. This is supported by the father?s occupation being shown as miller on the certificate.

? ?Nelly Burrows was certainly not Scottish - her family roots are in Norfolk and Staffordshire.

? ?The question of a father moving to Cheshire can be discounted.

? ?There was no maiden aunt and Richard?s mother did not die until much later when he was an adult. Perhaps the Sanders were the maiden aunt?

There are links here to previous blog postings concerning Richard Gibson Little:

Family History Mysteries

Family History Medals

If you?ve stuck with this posting to the bitter end, well done. Some family history research provides rollicking good stories like the frontiersman Zachariah Burrows, other stories are rather more forensic. Thanks again to Mike Towers for his diligence - this was a complicated one to unravel and there remains just enough uncertainty to keep that murky air of mystery that has made Richard Gibson Little so intriguing to us all.

If anyone wants access to the family tree just mail me and if anyone knows who my great grandfather really was then I?d love to know!

Source: http://ericsdailydiary.blogspot.com/2012/12/solving-some-family-history-mysteries.html

cleveland browns minnesota twins bobby abreu 2012 draft colt mccoy arbor day mike adams

Retire Here, Not There: South Carolina - MarketWatch

By Catey Hill

Spend a day or two in the Palmetto State, and you may quickly understand the state slogan??smiling faces and beautiful places.? The state?s Lowcountry region, which extends 150 miles along the state?s coast, is renowned for its miles of sugary white-sand beaches, historic architecture and abundant golf courses.

And as for those smiles, if the retired folks in South Carolina seem relaxed, it may be because they?re enjoying a more low-key lifestyle, and less congestion, than they would a little further south among their brethren in Florida. While a growing number of people have been flocking to the state for its mild winters and slower pace, the state remains a bit of an ?undiscovered gem,? says Laura Scharr-Bykowsky, a principal at Ascend Financial Planning in Columbia, S.C. What?s more, the state boasts low property taxes and no state estate tax.

Of course, the state has its drawbacks, too. Summers are often hot and humid, and Palmetto State summers can be dominated by the palmetto bug?the state?s version of an extra-large cockroach. While many of the state?s smaller cities and towns offer a good mix of cultural offerings, residents say much of the area offers relatively little in the way of shopping or night life.

There are exceptions to the ?undiscovered? rule, too, and some of the state?s more popular destinations have gotten pricey. Take Hilton Head Island, a Lowcountry resort about a 45-minute drive from Savannah, Ga., famously frequented by former President Bill Clinton and his family for vacations. All the extra attention has helped to lift prices: The cost of living is 33% higher than the national average and the median home price is $305,700, according to Sperling?s Best Places.

Still, for those looking for a warm and friendly retirement retreat, there are plenty of cheaper alternatives. Here are four.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retire-here-not-there-south-carolina-2012-12-27

gabrielle giffords juliette lewis chelsea handler mitch daniels shirataki noodles prince fielder state of the union address 2012

Hillary Clinton to return to work following illness

Clinton (Gary Cameron/Reuters)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to work next week, her spokesman said, following a stomach virus that caused her to faint and suffer a concussion, which kept her from her official duties for three weeks.

"The Secretary continues to recuperate at home," spokesman Philippe Reines emailed reporters. "She had long planned to?take this holiday week off, so she had no work schedule. She looks?forward to getting back to the office next week and resuming her?schedule."

The virus and subsequent concussion led Clinton to cancel her highly anticipated congressional testimony Dec. 20 on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 other diplomats. The administration has been roundly criticized by Republicans and others for how the attack was reported to the public and whether consulate security prior to the attack was adequate.

The politically charged subject matter of Clinton's testimony led some critics to accuse her of faking her illness.

"I?m not a doctor, but it seems as though that the secretary of state has come down with a case of Benghazi flu,? blunt-talking outgoing Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said on Fox News last week. Other conservative media outlets and figures issued similar criticisms.

Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton referred to her illness as a "diplomatic illness" during a television interview, and the New York Post blasted her decision in an editorial.

Clinton is expected to testify in January. No details have been publicly released regarding scheduling.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/hillary-clinton-return-following-illness-162025228--politics.html

dark knight trailer delmon young dallas mavericks washington capitals amare stoudemire tallest building in the world the pitch

Low-Calorie Drinks for Dieters

What You Want: A Dirty Martini (220 To 330 Calories*)

<strong>A better choice: Hot-pepper-infused vodka over ice with an olive (105 calories)</strong> Like the suave gentleman who bought this for you at the bar, martinis can be sneaky. A 4-ounce drink has around 220 calories, and many generous bartenders serve martinis in larger glasses. "The bigger a drink, the more alcohol it has and, therefore, the more calories it has," says Stephanie Clarke, MS, RD, a <a href="http://www.thebestlife.com/">Best Life nutritionist</a> and co-owner of C&J Nutrition in Manhattan. The addition of olive brine in a dirty martini only adds about 20 extra calories, which isn't a big deal -- but the sodium is, says Clarke. "It can increase your thirst, which you may try to quench with more alcohol, and can also make you feel bloated the next day." The pepper in this drink is subtle; it's not like drinking a bottle of hot sauce. At home, <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/spicy-pepper-vodka-martini-recipe/index.html">try infusing vodka using this recipe from Emeril Lagasse. </a> *Calorie sources: <a href="http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/">NIH Alcohol Calorie Counter, USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference</a>

What You Want: A Cosmopolitan (212 Calories Per 4-Ounce Serving)

<strong>A better choice: Raspberry-infused vodka with club soda, a splash of cranberry and a lime (115 calories)</strong> A little vodka, a little Cointreau, some cranberry juice -- you may as well be sipping a pack of liquefied fruit chews. And the more splashes of juice and shots of alcohol you add, the higher the calories climb. This still doesn't mean that you need to give up your favorite cocktail. "We tell clients who are trying to lose weight to have that drink but to treat it like a treat or a piece of cake," says Willow Jarosh, MS, RD, a <a href="http://www.thebestlife.com/">Best Life nutritionist</a> and Clarke's partner at C&J Nutrition. If you opt for this lower-calorie version of your signature drink, you could even have two of them. Jarosh also suggests acting like a mixologist and experimenting with different fruit-infused vodkas and amounts of lime or lemon juice (both very low in calories).

What You Want: A Gin And Tonic (120 To 166 Calories)

<strong>A better choice: Equal parts gin and soda water and a splash of tonic (100 to 140 calories)</strong> Tonic water -- that bitter-tasting bubbly mixer whose key ingredient, quinine, was once used as an antimalarial medicine -- has almost as many calories and sugar as soda. "Most people think they're making a better choice by ordering a gin and tonic over a rum and Coke or a vodka and Sprite," says Jarosh, "but it's not true." She recommends cutting the quinine beverage with soda water rather than ordering diet tonic (or diet anything), because research suggests that zero-calorie artificial sweeteners can throw off the body's natural response to intense sweetness, <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm">which can lead to weight gain</a>.

What You Want: A Mojito (Starts At 160 Calories)

<strong>A better choice: A Revitalize cocktail (134 calories)</strong> Clarke and Jarosh say that almost all mojito recipes involve sugar (be it confectioner's or agave), and some bartenders use more than the usual tablespoon. They suggest asking for your drink with "just a touch" of simple syrup (or none at all) and extra lime juice. They also came up with their own refreshing alternative, the Revitalize, which sounds like something you'd receive in an expensive spa (without the alcohol). Combine the following into a shaker: 1 ounce vodka muddled with 2 chunks cucumber, 1/2 ounce honey, 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice and 2 ounces cold green tea. Shake, pour over ice and garnish with a lime twist.

What You Want: Spiked Eggnog (Starts At 246 Calories, 9 Grams Fat, 6 Grams Saturated Fat)

<strong>A better choice: <a href="http://sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/coconut-milk-beverages/nog">Coconut milk nog</a> (per half-cup serving: 90 calories, 3 grams saturated fat)</strong> Compared to the traditional recipe made with milk, cream and eggs, dairy-free nog made from coconut milk has about half the calories and a fraction of the fat. It's surprisingly creamy, and the coconut flavor may trick you into thinking you've already added a shot of rum (saving you about 100 calories). For traditionalists, Clarke suggests making your own recipe at home using 1 percent milk instead of whole and trying evaporated skim milk instead of cream.

What You Want: A Kir Royale (219 Calories Per 6.5-Ounce Glass)

<strong>A better choice: Sparkling ros? (115 calories per 6-ounce glass)</strong> Because of its blush hue, sparkling ros? looks just as festive as a Kir Royale, but holding the cr?me de cassis saves about 90 calories. At your next party, pop open a bottle of <a href="http://www.oprah.com/food/Wine-and-Chocolate-Pairings/4">Piper-Heidsieck Brut Ros? Sauvage or Gruet Grand Ros?.</a>

What You Want: Hot Cocoa With Bailey's (Minimum 180 Calories, 9 Grams Fat)

<strong>A better choice: A hot toddy (113 calories, 0 grams fat)</strong> It's nice to have something warm and sweet that you can wrap your hands around at those post-caroling get-togethers and tree-trimming parties. To save calories and fat, pour boiling hot water (or black tea) into a mug and add a half-shot of brandy, bourbon or whiskey, a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

What You Want: A Margarita (168 To 504 Calories)

<strong>A better choice: Tequila over ice with two limes (100 calories)</strong> The biggest threat posed by a margarita, says Jarosh, is the nonstandardized size. "Some places serve them as 8-ounce drinks, others as 12 ounces, and that can make a huge difference," she says. You'll always know how much alcohol you're getting if you order a shot of high-end tequila on the rocks with maybe a splash of soda and an extra lime, and this makes for a good sipping drink.

What You Want: A Beer**

<strong>A better choice: A shandy or Michelada</strong> Both of these beverages are easy, flavorful ways to extend your beer and, therefore, drink less over the course of a night. To make a low-calorie shandy, add one part lemon-flavored seltzer and a squeeze of lemon to two parts beer. For Micheladas, which originated in Mexico, add dashes of hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and black pepper as well as the juice of a lime into a pint glass. Add ice and pour the lager (preferably Mexican) over the top. As you sip, you can continue to top off the drink with lager from the bottle. Jarosh says this south-of-the-border beer cocktail has other benefits as well. Recent research suggests that hot, spicy flavors may help make you feel more full and can even create a tiny (although temporary) spike in metabolism -- just what you need on a chilly winter night. **The calories range widely depending on the type and the ABV, or alcohol by volume.

What You Want: Red Wine (115 Calories Per 6 Ounces)

<strong>A better choice: Mulled red wine (115 calories per 6 ounces)</strong> This isn't about the calories; it's about the tendency to enjoy red wine a little too much. If you're worried about overdoing it, Clarke and Jarosh came up with the idea to simmer a bottle of red wine with mulling spices (but no sugar) in a saucepan on the stove. We're less likely to chug hot beverages, says Clarke, so we tend to finish them more slowly and drink fewer of them.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/low-calorie-drinks-dieters-diet_n_2296424.html

full moon aubrey o day masters live johan santana viktor bout ncaa hockey role models

Top 10 insurance stories of 2012 ? Bankrate, Inc.

• 

• 

Insurance news touched the lives of every American in 2012. Dim the lights, cue the music and ready the ball to drop (no worries, it's insured),? because here's my countdown of the top 10 insurance stories of the year.

10. Bundling: Allstate continued to wash its hands of "unprofitable" business by shedding 10,000 South Carolina homeowners insurance customers who refused to bundle in their auto insurance and have their cars covered by the "good hands" people, too. The company previously purged 45,000 nonbundling North Carolina customers in November 2011, sparking protests from Bankrate readers.

9. Curbing bad habits: Insurance companies are sick of paying for our bad habits. A Cornell University study found that obesity directly contributes to $190 billion in health care costs each year, a staggering 20 percent of our national health care expenditures. Employers are choking on the cost to insure workers who smoke, a breathtaking $193 billion each year, or an additional $11,000 per smoker annually. As for intoxicants, health insurers have convinced legislatures in 25 states to pass "alcohol exclusion" laws that allow insurers the option to not cover you if you injure yourself while buzzed on alcohol or drugs.

8. Texting, driving and dodging: Federal officials say the use of mobile devices while driving causes 3,000 fatalities each year. The question is, how will the auto insurance industry respond? So far, it has largely avoided the subject.

7. Flood reform at last: The bad news? The National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, remains about $18 billion in the red, largely due to Hurricane Katrina. The good news? Last July, President Barack Obama signed the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which extends NFIP for five whole years and ushers in long-overdue reforms designed to make the program self-sustaining for the first time in its history.

6. Auto under siege: The Consumer Federation of America took auto insurers to task in 2012, accusing the industry of charging the poor more for auto coverage; bilking consumers out of "tens of millions of dollars" by manipulating computerized claims data; using personal?information such as gender, employment and education to set policy rates; and quoting excessively high rates on online shopping sites. An insurance trade group responded that car insurance rates are seeing increases in line with overall inflation.

5. New homeowners pay more: New homeowners felt the sting of weather-driven home insurance rate increases, paying on average 19 percent more in 2011, a jump from $682 a year to $810 nationally.

4. Preventive care included: For the first time in history, the federal government now requires health insurers to provide dozens of preventive screenings and services to all insured Americans without additional cost. The requirement, part of health care reform, is especially beneficial to women, as it includes free mammograms and human papillomavirus, or HPV, testing.

3. Feds to run most state exchanges: Because more than half the states chose to work against rather than with health care reform these past three years, the federal government will set up and operate the mandated health insurance exchanges in two-thirds of the states beginning in 2014.

2. Isaac and Sandy: Hurricane Isaac and Superstorm Sandy, coming just a year after lumbering Hurricane Irene, proved yet again that slow-moving, widespread drenchers can cause just as much destruction as?megastorms like Andrew and Katrina. The question lingers: Is this the new normal?

1. Obamacare survives two scares: The Affordable Care Act of 2010, Obama's landmark course adjustment for America's health care system, emerged largely unscathed from a contentious three-month U.S. Supreme Court battle, then cleared its final hurdle with the president's re-election.

A happy and prosperous new year to you all!

Follow me on Twitter: @omnisaurus

Subscribe to Bankrate newsletters today!

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/insurance/top-10-insurance-stories-of-2012/

the temptations rush limbaugh sandra fluke green book some like it hot whale shark whale shark duke university

Stomach bug knocks Nadal from Australian Open

FILE - In this June 26, 2012 file photo, Rafael Nadal of Spain returning a shot to Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil during a first round men's singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)

FILE - In this June 26, 2012 file photo, Rafael Nadal of Spain returning a shot to Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil during a first round men's singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)

MADRID (AP) ? Rafael Nadal will miss the Australian Open because of a stomach virus, further delaying his comeback after being sidelined since June.

The Australian Open, the year's first Grand Slam tournament, begins Jan. 14. The virus kept Nadal from making his return at Abu Dhabi this week.

The Spaniard said Friday his withdrawals had nothing to do with the tendinitis in his left knee, which forced him to take a break last summer following his second-round loss at Wimbledon to then 100th-ranked Lukas Rosol. Nadal also missed the London Olympics.

"My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors," Nadal said in a statement. "But this virus didn't allow me to practice this past week, and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open."

The former No. 1 player hopes to return at Acapulco, Mexico, starting Feb. 27. However, he did not rule out playing an earlier tournament if his recovery went well enough.

"I always said that my return to competition will be when I am in the right conditions to play," he said. "And after all this time away from the courts, I'd rather not accelerate the comeback and prefer to do things well."

Nadal, ranked No. 4, won the Australian Open in 2009. Last year, he lost to top-ranked Novak Djokovic in a title match that lasted 5 hours, 53 minutes, the longest recorded Grand Slam final.

Nadal's doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, said in the statement that Nadal needed at least a week to recover from the virus, ruling him out for the Qatar Open set to start on Jan. 2.

And Nadal's coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, explained that Nadal had opted against making his return at Melbourne since he wouldn't be physically fit to take on its five-set format.

"We consider not appropriate to play the Australian Open since we will not have enough preparation for a greater competition which is a Grand Slam tournament," said Toni Nadal in the statement. "It is simply not conceivable that his first event is a best of five sets event, he wouldn't be ready for that."

Nadal's knee injury prevented the 11-time Grand Slam winner from defending his Olympic singles gold at last summer's London Games, where he was supposed to be Spain's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.

He also had to pull out of the U.S. Open and Spain's Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic, and his teammates lost without him.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-28-Nadal%20Out/id-ed79cd54872746559c6de004bb66e562

chardon sean young juan pablo montoya free pancakes at ihop martina navratilova high school shooting daytona 500

Associated With Seo For Online Companies | valttiblogi.com

Posted by mikaza on December 27, 2012 in Lifestyle | Short Link

Our favorite goal here is not that would endorse any seo service, but of expand your understanding a little of what SEO marketing suppliers have to offer. Where you pay them a portion of sales or a premium per lead.

Considering the fast paced and considerable stressed deadlines facing users, some time will come when one has saved the wrong follow (or worse, deleted the best suited copy) of a file. The link building expertise like directory submission, article distribution services, contextual links, and Advertisement management service are provided worries a very affordable rate. The Guru 42 Blog, @Gu42 on Twitter , Guru42 inside Google+ or Guru42 on Myspace.

Over there are many SEO companies that the majority of offer affordable seo services fort lauderdales to equal with the needs of defined business types. The service package for the reason that comprises of things such to be article submission services, directory publishing services, ppc services, SEM servicing and article directory services. The SEO experts apply you see, the best analytics service to contribute a positive impact to those website under promotion.

At the moment firms are selecting Web Search engine marketing or PPC as the most important business determinations. Observation and data on an impressive seo services chandigarh is important to categorise the site from the upper. This demands the outsourcing connected with the SEO services to plumbing companies that offer low-budget services.

Supply the steady link to ?SEO Profile? per click an you will be utilized to a page that can give you an SEO analysis of one?s site. See whether they offer many in hold products or specialize in just a few. Angie?s List is form a useful and reliable reservoir lets you find out advisors or contractors for any variations of need you might own.

In the past links are one of a person?s best ways to increase the most important genuine traffic to your web pages. Merchandise in your articles have major problems in the way your site is being indexed, seek it . not be finishing in helpful ideas of many searches. Internet offering companies can charge anywhere of $50-$500 an hour, a small monthly fee of $2,500 a great deal 100s of thousands of euro and more.

Tags: seo services affiliate program

Source: http://valttiblogi.com/associated-with-seo-for-online-companies/

beyonce troy polamalu james harrison james harrison falcons giants game norman borlaug

Kids: Afghan policewoman who killed was mentally ill

Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

Fatima, 13, holds a picture of her mother, Narges Rezaeimomenabad, at her home in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. Her mother is suspected of killing a U.S. contractor at a police headquarters in Kabul.

By Michael Georgy and Mirwais Harooni, Reuters

KABUL ? The Afghan policewoman suspected of killing a U.S. contractor at police headquarters in Kabul suffered from mental illness and was driven to suicidal despair by poverty, her children told Reuters on Wednesday.

The woman was identified by authorities as Narges Rezaeimomenabad, a 40-year-old grandmother and mother of three who moved here from Iran 10 years ago and married an Afghan man.

On Monday morning, she loaded a pistol in a bathroom at the police compound, hid it in her long scarf and shot an American police trainer, apparently becoming the first Afghan woman to carry out such an attack.

---

?Narges also tried to shoot police officials after killing the American. Luckily for them, her pistol jammed. Her husband is also under investigation.

Her son Sayed, 16, and daughter Fatima, 13, described how they tried to call their parents after news broke of the shooting, then waited in vain for them to come home.

They recalled Narges's severe mood swings, and how at times she beat them and even pulled out a knife. But the children said she was consistent in bemoaning poverty.

"She was usually complaining about poverty. She was complaining to my father about our conditions. She was saying that my father was poor," Sayid said in an interview in their damp, cold two-room cement house.

On the floor beside him were his mother's prescriptions and a thick plastic bag filled with pills she tried to swallow to end the misery about a month ago. On another occasion, she cut her wrist with a razor, Sayed said.

US civilian killed by Afghan policewoman in Kabul

"My father was usually calm and sometimes would say that she was guilty too because it wasn't a forced marriage. They fell in love and got married."

There was no sign in their neighbourhood of the billions of dollars of Western aid that have poured into Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, or of government investment.

Raw sewage, dirt roads
The lane outside their home stank of raw sewage.

Dirty, stagnant water filled holes in dirt roads nearby, where children in tattered clothes played and butchers stood by cow's hooves in shops choked by dust.

Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest nations, with a third of its 30 million residents living under the poverty line.

The sole distractions from the daily grind appeared to be a deck of playing cards and a compact disc with songs from Iranian pop singers, scattered on the floor of a room where Narges would lock herself in and weep, or sit in silence.

At times, Narges would try to focus on building her children's confidence, telling them to be guided by the Muslim holy book, the Koran, to tackle life's problems.

Taliban says US base targeted in Afghan blast

Sayed and Fatima said she never spoke badly of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan or of President Hamid Karzai's government.

Neighbour Mohammad Ismail Kohistani was dumbfounded to hear on the radio that Afghan officials were combing Narges' phone records to try to determine whether al Qaeda or the Taliban could have brainwashed her into carrying out a mission.

But he was acutely aware of her mental problems and often heard her scream at her husband, whose low-level job in the crime investigation unit of the police brought home little cash.

Kohistani, who operates a small sewing shop with battered machines, never imagined his neighbour could be accused of a high-profile attack that raised new questions about the direction of an unpopular war.

"I became very depressed and sad," said Kohistani, sitting on the floor few feet from a tiny wood-burning stove in Narges'shome, alongside family photographs and a police training manual.

Fatima would often seek refuge in Kohistani's house when her mother's behaviour became unbearable. "She did not hate us, but usually she was angry and would not talk to us," said Fatima, her eyes moist with tears.

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

Nevertheless, she missed her mother. The children were staying with a cousin.

"I ask the government to free my mother, otherwise our future will be destroyed," said Fatima.

Officials described it as another "insider shooting", in which Afghan forces turn on Westerners they are meant to be working with to stabilize the country. There have been over 52 such attacks so far this year.

The shooting at the police headquarters may have alarmed Afghanistan's Western allies. But some Afghans have grown numb to the violence.

Kohistani's 70-year-old father, Omara Khan, who sports a white beard, sat twirling prayer beads beneath a photograph of Narges in a black veil beside one of her husband.

Asked what he thought of the attack, he laughed.

"This is common in Afghanistan," said Khan, who lived through decades of upheaval, including the 10-year Soviet occupation and a civil war that destroyed half of Kabul and killed some 50,000 civilians.

"People are killed every day."?

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16173931-mental-illness-poverty-drove-afghan-policewoman-to-kill-us-contractor-her-children-say?lite

taco bell taco bell Breezy Point Seaside Heights nj transit PSEG hocus pocus

But You Wanted That SUV, Didn&#39;t You?

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

Source: http://worldofsuck.net/index.php/but-you-wanted-that-suv?blog=2

pulitzer prize winners nfl 2012 schedule gmail down ryan oneal file taxes online tupac shakur sledge hammer

2012 Climate Change News That Made Headlines This Year

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Contributor:

Global warming was hot news this year, literally.

Perhaps the most unavoidable climate story of 2012 was the warmth that gripped much of the United States, and to a lesser degree, the planet, throughout the entire year. Heat waves brought "spring in March" to parts of the country, and broke all-time high-temperature records in a number of places. This, inevitably, led to a discussion of global warming and the degree to which it contributes to some types of extreme weather, in this case heat waves.

In fact, prominent climate scientist James Hansen, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and colleagues published research saying recent heat waves "were a consequence of global warming, because their likelihood in the absence of global warming was exceedingly small." Some other climate scientists, however, disagreed about the degree to which heat waves can be attributed to climate change.

Meanwhile, many of the top climate stories this year have become something like annual rites recently, as people around the world grapple with human-caused climate change, and attempt to address it and its effects. [7 Hottest Climate Change Stories of 2012]

Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy (actually a hybrid storm) this year like others last year, have sparked discussion of the connection between climate change and increased risk for some extreme weather events. A majority of Americans also seem to be making the connection between extreme weather and climate change, according to surveys by the?Yale Project on Climate Change Communication?and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

In reality, attributing any single weather event to global warming is tricky, though some scientists said the planet's increasing temperatures may have worsened Sandy. "The climate influences on this are what we might call the 'new normal,' the changed environment this storm is operating in," Kevin Trenberth, who heads the climate analysis section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told LiveScience at the end of October. For instance, the warmer ocean surfaces ? which fuel hurricanes ? may increase the risk that a storm will become more intense, Trenberth said. In addition, rising sea levels worsen the risk of flooding, the cause of much of the devastation Sandy wrought.

Likewise, global climate talks moved forward slowly, as they have in the last few years, against warnings that nations must curb the planet's rising greenhouse gas emissions or face dramatic consequences.

This year also brought some milestones. Arctic sea-ice cover retreated to a record low in September. As with unusually warming temperatures, the record sea-ice retreat did not come out of the blue. In recent years, the sea-ice cover has fallen below the average extent for 1979 to 2000, and, likewise, the first decade of this century was the warmest decade ever recorded in all continents of the globe, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Scientists who study sea ice have blamed a combination of natural fluctuations and human-caused warming for the increased loss of ice, although some differ as to how much humans have contributed, Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist who studies climate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in September.

Early in the year, the United States, once the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, saw its carbon-dioxide emissions from energy use drop to the lowest level since 1992, a decline the Department of Energy attributed to a mild winter, a shift from coal to natural gas and a slow economy. In 2011, the United States contributed 16 percent to the world's emissions from fossil fuel use, behind the 28 percent contribution from the top emitter, now China, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project.?

Follow LiveScienceon Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/25/2012-climate-change-news-_n_2363220.html

national archives brock lesnar kentucky jayhawks wwe wrestlemania oakland shooting mega millions winning numbers

Why Are Some Real Estate Investors More Successful Than Others?

Seth,

I think your question is GREAT.

I'll chime in after 36 years of real estate investing, and feeling successful at it over the last 18, but having had many not-successful years. (And man, some REALLY bad real estate stuff - I mean B. A. D.)

Most important thing I ever learned investing in real estate is how much I don't know. I'm forever humbled by the many new things I continue to learn.

Big turning point for me in real estate investing was when I really sat down and defined a long term plan and then focused everything I did from that day on (in real estate investing) on working that plan.

(OH - I'm personally not smart enough to have figured that out - another guy was doing that and I copied him.)

Before that, I went helter-skelter from deal to deal, a real gunslinger, buying this, selling that, "oh - there's another deal ! Wait a minute, maybe we could exchange!" No plan, no clue - I'd change directions before and after lunch! It was madness.

Things got way better after the change, though. The most telling sign was through the last downturn. Sure, I lost some equity, but overall, I didn't "miss a meal," and am now better off than I was going into the downturn.

For whatever it's worth, that was my big lesson. I do observe many people in real estate investing with great questions, like, "What do you think of duplexes?" or "Hey, what about Riverside - do you think Riverside is a good investment?"

And the answer can only be a number of questions, about their plans, their overall belief about the market, their goals, their investable dollars, their tolerance for risk, and most important, their big, long term plan - and unfortunately many of them are like I was - they have no master plan.

Does this help at all? I guess I really feel that I've been both people you asked about, the unsuccessful r.e. investor and the successful r.e. investor.

Great question, Seth.

Joffrey

Source: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/80550-why-are-some-real-estate-investors-more-successful-than-others

egoraptor gisele bundchen turbotax the bourne legacy roland martin suspended lake vostok montgomery county public schools

'End to the bloodshed': Pope's Christmas message

Franco Origlia / Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his Christmas Day message from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas day in Vatican City.

By Reuters

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict used his Christmas message to the world on Tuesday to say people should never lose hope for peace, even in conflict-riven Syria and in Nigeria where he spoke of "terrorism" against Christians.

Marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, the 85-year-old read his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message to tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square and to millions of others watching around the world.

Paul J. Richards / AFP - Getty Images

In churches and bus stations, on water skis and bicycles, people from the Middle East to middle America celebrate Christmas.

Delivering Christmas greetings in 65 languages, Benedict underscored his view that the hope represented by Christmas should never die, even in the most dire of situations.

Pilgrims, locals mark Christmas in Bethlehem

In his virtual tour of the some of the world's trouble spots, he reserved his toughest words for Syria, Nigeria and Mali.

"Yes, may peace spring up for the people of Syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenseless and reaps innocent victims," he said.

"Once again I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict."

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics also condemned conflicts in Mali and Nigeria, two countries where Islamist groups have waged violent campaigns.

Reverends Gabriel and Jeanette Salguero of the Multicultural Lambs Church in New York City, talk about how to find the true spirit of Christmas and how to incorporate that into your daily life year round.

Bombings, amputations
"May the birth of Christ favor the return of peace in Mali and that of concord in Nigeria, where savage acts of terrorism continue to reap victims, particularly among Christians," he said.

In Nigeria, the Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed hundreds in its campaign to impose sharia law in the north of the country, targeting a number of churches.

In Mali, a mix of Islamists with links to al Qaeda have occupied the country's north since April, destroying much of the region's religious heritage. They have also carried out amputations to help impose strict Islamic law on a population that has practiced a more moderate form of Islam for centuries.

At midnight mass in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the message was of peace, love and goodwill to all mankind. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

Benedict also held out a Christmas olive branch to the new government in China, asking is members to "esteem the contributions of religions". China does not allow its Catholics to recognize the pope's authority, forcing them to be members of a parallel state-backed Church.

Late on Monday night, Benedict presided over a Christmas Eve Mass in St Peter's Basilica, where he urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets.

"Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him," he said.

Scientists unravel secret of Rudolph's red nose

Archbishop: Christianity still relevant
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who leads the global 80-million-strong Anglican Communion, said in his Christmas day sermon that the answer to the question of whether Christianity had "had its day" was a "resounding no".

"Silent Night" is a favorite carol that has been translated into hundreds of dialects, but it had a most humble birth not far from Salzburg, Austria. NBC's Michelle Kosinski takes a visit to Salzburg to explore the history of the carol from its very beginnings, through its most remarkable performance on Christmas Eve, 1914.

Last month, the Church of England narrowly voted against allowing women bishops - to the dismay of Williams and Prime Minister David Cameron - in a move its leaders said risked undermining its role as the established church in society with clerics in parliament's upper chamber.

The media, many politicians and some members of the public have criticized the Church of England for failing to allow women bishops and for failing to back government plans for gay marriage at a time when it is under pressure to modernize.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/25/16143940-popes-christmas-message-pushes-for-peace-in-syria-nigeria?lite

rick santorum daughter gainesville 2012 royal rumble the grey machine gun kelly saul alinsky annapolis

Same Sex Parenting Becoming &#39;Normal&#39; in an Evolving Society

Newly Elected SD County Supervisor Dave Roberts, Wally Oliver, and their family

As same sex marriage becomes more accepted by mainstream America, so too does the idea of same sex couples raising families of their own.

by Kit-Bacon Gressitt/Excuse Me, I?m Writing

On Family Day in 2009, President Obama proclaimed that, ?Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things [emphasis added].?

The proclamation represented a culmination, of sorts, the definitive result of nearly four decades of advocacy for same-sex parenting, endorsed for the first time by a U.S. president.

Today, same-sex parenting as a social institution has come of age in popular media and across the country. ?Network television offers two regular series that feature gay couples approaching, or in the throes of, parenthood: ?The New Normal and Modern Family. ?The 2010 Census revealed that the number of reported same-sex couples raising children increased from 63,000 in 2000 to more than 110,000 in 2010.* ?Parenting classes and support groups, progressive adoption laws and fertility clinics, all encourage couples who, until less than two decades ago, thought that acknowledging their sexuality meant forsaking parenthood forever.

?When we grew up, we were never expected to have a family,? said Dietmar Weiss. ??When we came out as gay, it?s the same as saying that we won?t have a family, especially if you?re men.?

Russ Noe was once close to being engaged to a woman. ??It would have been a marriage with a white picket fence house and 2.3 children. ?I figured I?d be a dad. ?And as I got older that image slipped away, and when I came out, it was gone.?

Scott Zucker long envisioned himself with kids. ??When I was really young, I saw myself growing up and having a family like the family I had, and when I realized I was gay, that was one of the sticking points, because I thought I wouldn?t be able to have a family. I took that whole idea of being a parent and shoved it under the carpet.?

Similarly, Wally Oliver had the will, but questioned the way. ??It?s always been a desire to be a parent, to share the good experiences and give a child a chance to do the things that I didn?t get to do. ?I didn?t think that that was ever going to be possible.?

But social, political and medical advances in recent years have made parenting eminently possible for same-sex couples. ?And, unlike nearly half of the prospective parents in the United States whose pregnancies are unintended, these four gay men and their partners became parents with explicit intent and thoughtful consideration, often at great expense, and driven by a common and compelling desire to create families.

Dietmar Weiss, 45, born in Germany, and Richard Doust, 56, live in New Jersey, where they manage their business and raise three children: ?Eleanor, who is 4, and twins Philip and Tara, 2. ?For Dietmar and Richard, parenting was a given from the start of their relationship.

Richard Doust, Dietmar Weiss and children

?I have always loved children, and I felt that having a child of my own might bring some meaning to my mundane day-to-day existence,? Richard explained. ??It was actually one of the first things we talked about when we met. ?We shared a desire to have kids at some point. ? We read up on what the options were, and they seemed to be adoption and surrogacy. ?We ruled out adoption rather quickly, mostly due to health and age issues. ?We read up on surrogacy and learned all the pitfalls, of which there are many. ?We found what seemed to be the ideal candidate, in Oregon. ? We had certainly read our share of the nightmares, so we were aware of the potential problems and that informed our decision to use embryo from an egg donor, rather than actual surrogacy.

?It?s terribly expensive,? Richard continued. ??Each of the kids cost us at least $70,000. ?The twins were a little cheaper ? because we got two for one,? he concluded with a laugh.

Dietmar?s first child, Max, now 24 and living in Germany, was born of a different-sex relationship that ended when Dietmar came out as a young man. ??I had a relationship with my son,? he said, ?but I was basically a weekend dad. ?I felt like there was something missing, and I liked being a father and I had good times with him, but I felt like I wanted to do it right.?

Today, Daddy and Papa (Richard and Dietmar respectively) deal with the unique challenges of same-sex parenting. ?How do you respond to the older woman at the nearby table who comments on their beautiful children, saying ?My hat?s off the women who raised them?? ?Their response? ??There are no women. ?We are a couple, and these are our children.?

Eleanor recognizes that she is different from the other kids who are dropped off at pre-school by their mothers. ??You know,? she said one day to her teacher, ?I have a mommy. ?She lives in Oregon.? ?Richard and Dietmar understand that this is something Eleanor will live with her entire life, and they don?t necessarily think it?s bad, just different. ?But, as Dietmar said, ?It?s always in the back of your mind: ?Is there something we?re not doing that a mother would do??

The children are sometimes confronted with criticism of their gay parents. ??I think they learn to defend their parents,? Dietmar mused. ??They learn who are real friends, whether somebody is open-minded or not. ?They can always get into situations where it is not accepted, and they learn how to keep a secret, and that situation would not be good, because we want everything open. ?So, we limit our friends to people who are open.?

People who are open seem to be on the rise. ?Russ noted an indicator of that in the November election results, ?This last election was such a big deal, and not just about marriage equality. ?I think this last election was incredibly telling about the way our culture is going ? more progressive.?

Russ Noe, 52 and a commercial artist, and his partner, Kergan Edwards-Stout, 47 and a writer, live in Orange, Calif., with their two adopted boys, Mason, 12, and Marcus, 10.

Kergan explained that Mason was a private adoption, and Marcus was a ?foster adopt,? meaning that he was adopted through the foster care system. ??With Mason, it was a great experience. ?We were actually in the delivery room when he was born in Tennessee. ?Cut the cord, it was a very intimate process, where we bonded with the birth mother. ?She and I are friends to this day.? ?The family does not maintain contact with Marcus? birth parents.

Russ Noe and Kergan Edwards-Stout with their sons

A 2011 report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law indicated that the number of same-sex couples adopting children tripled between 2000 and 2009, rising from 6,477 to about 21,740. ?The cost of adoption varies wildly, from less than $5,000 for foster adoption to more than $50,000 for a domestic agency newborn adoption. ?However, other factors can be more compelling than cost.

?Surrogacy is a valid path for others,? Kergan said, ?but I just see so many kids in need, and I can?t fathom bringing another one into the world without taking care of those already here.?

And the care Mason and Marcus receive is evident in the fondness they share with their fathers and the child-centered structure of their household.

?Being a dad and being a partner and being a part of this family is one of the most gratifying things I?ve experienced,? Russ said. ??I didn?t have this growing up, though they loved me deeply. ?We have such a traditional family structure ironically, for a nontraditional family. ?Kergan fixes them breakfast before they go to school. ?We have dinner together. ?We correct homework. ?It?s almost 1950s style, except it just happens to be two Caucasian men and two African-American children.?

Adoption has worked well for this family, but foster adopt can sometimes be a rocky path, particularly if a birth parent contests it.

Wally Oliver and Dave Roberts are committed to the foster-adopt process, despite the risks ? and they have experienced them.

Dave, former deputy mayor of Solana Beach and newly elected member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, will leave his job with an international nonprofit to take office in January. ?His commitment to service is visibly passionate. ?Even though we?re not Jewish,? Dave said, ?we believe in the Jewish proverb, ?If you can save one soul, you can save the world.? ?We wanted to foster and adopt children locally. ?We were astounded how many children had been abused and neglected right here in our county.?

Dave and Wally talked about adopting children on their first date, but they didn?t know how to go about it ? until they saw the San Diego County?s foster and adoption program booth at the county fair.

?We came across that booth, and that gave us the means to do it,? Dave explained. ??I walked up and asked the woman, I whispered, ?Do they allow gay couples?? and she said, ?Honey, this is Southern California; you don?t have to whisper!??

They now have five foster-adopt children:? Robert, 17 years of age; Alex, 12; Julian, 8; Joe 5; and Natalee, 4. ?The couple adopted Robert when he was 5, and he?s about to launch into adulthood.

?Robert?s a great, well-adjusted kid,? Dave said. ??He works at the visitor center, for the Chamber of Commerce. ?He wants to join the Air Force.?

Wally, who serves as the family?s stay-at-home dad, is a retired Air Force master sergeant, and he was both surprised and proud of Robert?s goal. ?Daddy Wally, as the kids call him, makes sure they are all involved in sports, have access to music, and experience an ?even balance of discipline and fun.? ?And, like many parents, he recognizes that, ?Someone is the disciplinarian, and that?s me most of the time, even though Dave steps in sometimes. ?And I get, ?I want to go with Daddy Dave? ? he?s the fun dad.? ?Although Wally has to be the ?bad guy? sometimes, he exudes the joys of parenting. ?I think we?ve got a great family, a harmonic family.?

While Dave and Wally?s children have come from challenging backgrounds, the family is clearly a success, yet their success is not unique. ?A recent UCLA multi-year study found that ?high-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents.? ?This provides a powerful argument for those who can?t get their heads and hearts around same-sex parenting.

When Dave and Wally first moved to the neighborhood, they met some resistance.

?My neighbor said, ?Oh, the gays are moving in.?? ?Dave recounted. ??He has to admit we really changed his mind about same-sex couples raising kids, because now he says we?re the best parents.?

Scott Zucker and David Lopez

David Lopez, Scott Zucker?s husband, received similarly dismaying responses to their plans to become parents through surrogacy, including, ?They?d say we only wanted a boy child to play with him. Are you kidding?!?

But, like Dave and Wally, Scott, and David, are changing minds, as they raise their three sons, born through surrogacy: ?Aiden, 10; and twins Cade and Bram, 7.

Scott described the reception they received when they moved to Mission Viejo, Calif. ??The neighbors across the street, our landlord said hi to them ? they?re devout Christians ? and she reprimanded him for renting to a homosexual couple. ?But at Christmas time last year, she brought over a box of baked goods for us, so it is changing.? ?And the celebrity status of gay parenting on TV doesn?t hurt. ?Another neighbor, walking her dog, said, ?Oh, my god, I love Modern Family! ?I can?t wait to tell my girl friends I have my own Modern Family in the neighborhood!??

A sense of humor helps, but David is quite serious about preparing the boys for the possibility of people responding to their parentage with hostility. ??That?s one of the reasons we have them in Taekwondo. ?With our kind of family, they are going to encounter people like that in high school, and all I want to know is that they?re going to be able to protect themselves.?

Scott, a landscape architect, has facilitated groups for lesbians and gays contemplating parenthood. ?He shares David?s concern, and tries to instill in their children a sense that their ?difference? is a positive thing.

?I want them to understand that we are a different kind of family, but I want them to be proud about that. ?I?ve always been proud of being different. ?It?s fun, and there?s a lot of pride in being at the forefront of changing society for the better. ?I was proud that Aiden was out there with [No on Prop. 8] signs on the street corner with us.?

Although such moments are memorable, the daily grind of parenthood, straight or gay, is the hardest job available: ??It feels overwhelming,? Scott said, ?because we?ve got some challenges in our family, and at the same time I have to acknowledge how lucky I am to have a partner like Dave. ?There are a lot of things we don?t do well in our relationship, but we partner well. ?Together, we make sure the kids are taken care of. ?I?m very, very proud of that.?

These four families are special in each its own way, yet they ring a lot of familiar bells. ?The parents juggle workplace demands with childrearing with housework with the PTA with homework with tantrums with cuddling with trying to find a little time just for the adults. ?They are frustrated with differing parenting styles. ?They mourn and love their children?s challenges. ?They struggle to be present at conflicting school and sports events on opposite sides of town. ?They demonstrate adoration for each child?s achievements, in the way that each child needs it. ?They do their best to enable their children to accomplish great things ? as all good parents do, as their president acknowledged.

Of course, just because you can be a parent, doesn?t mean you should be, but enthusiasm can be contagious.

?I think family is a great institution and one that more gay couples should feel that it?s their right to participate in, beyond the context of extended family,? Richard said. ??As more and more younger gay couples come of age, it will become more and more accepted as a possibility. ? It has its challenges, it has its rewards, and it?s only just begun. ?We have a lifetime to see how it all turns out. ?We?re only four years into this experiment. ?I look forward to the rest of it, I?m sure as much as any other dad. ?It?s the best thing since apple pie ? I love being a dad.?

?

Love,

K-B

Kit-Bacon Gressitt?s commentary and political fiction can be read on her blog?Excuse Me, I?m Writing?and they are republished by San Diego Gay & Lesbian News and San Diego Free Press. She is host of Fallbrook?s monthly Writers Read open mic and can be reached at kbgressitt@gmail.com.

Source: http://sandiegofreepress.org/2012/12/same-sex-parenting-becoming-normal-in-an-evolving-society/

taylor swift safe and sound delilah nevis 2012 sports illustrated swimsuit same day flower delivery valentines day westminster dog show