New to Newcastle? New to Rowing? No worries, read on ...

Welcome to Newcastle University: you?ve made the right choice of Uni ? now it?s time to make the right choice of sport!

Thanks for taking the time to visit our website; we?re guessing you?re here because you?ve been inspired by the record-breaking achievements of Team GB?s rowers at Eton Dorney ? and if so, you?re not the only one! Clubs around the nation have been inundated with interest since London 2012, prompted by the incredible stories of people like Helen Glover who had only just started rowing before the Beijing Olympics. You may be surprised to learn that a good percentage of Team GB rowers learnt to row at university. Now we can?t promise you that you?ll end up on the podium at Rio ? but as a place to learn and develop, few places are better than here. Recognised as a high-performance club within the University and as an elite rowing centre by the GB Rowing Team, Newcastle University Boat Club (NUBC) is by far the most successful sports club at Newcastle University and has been awarded ?Team of the Year? by the Athletic Union for the last two years. We are the only sports club at Newcastle University to have two full-time professional coaches and we enjoy significant investment from the University in our training facilities. The club has an excellent relationship with the Centre for Physical Recreation and Sport, which provides strength and conditioning support and physiotherapy/sports massage services to members of the club as well as access to training facilities for some of our land sessions.

This support is in recognition of the professional attitude we possess in training and the results we achieve on the water. Whether you?re a complete beginner or a budding international, the approach to training is the same ? and there is no denying we train hard, but we also throw in a good dollop of first-class socials to make up for the hard work. Although we socialise together, the club breaks down in to four squads for land and water training: senior men, senior women, novice men and novice women. The club does come together for weekly circuit training sessions, and later on in the year after the British University Championships the squads merge as we switch our attention to the two Henley regattas (Women?s and Royal). All four squads are overseen by our acclaimed head coach who sets our (in)famous training programme, designed to get the very best out of you. Perhaps the most common comment from our male and female novices (and their friends and family back home) is just how much of a positive impact rowing has on their body shape and posture in only a few months.

We think the 2012/13 season will be a exciting one for us as we look forward to recruiting two committed squads of novices ready to take on a new challenge and represent their University. Sadly, we can?t take everyone ? last year we have almost 500 people express and interest in rowing, and we clearly don?t have the capacity for that many! We therefore run a competitive selection process to bring these numbers down to a manageable amount, final numbers have not yet been decided but probably no more than 20 per squad. The way the early season works is that you register your interest with us through visiting us at the Athletic Union Fair on 24-25th September, held on the first floor of the Claremont Sports Centre,? sending an email to nubcfreshers@gmail.com or filling in our survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GF35P9K. Once we know you exist, you?ll be invited to attend one of a few welcome events designed to give you a feel for us as a club, and if you?re still interested then you?ll join in two weeks of land training where we run basic fitness sessions, circuits and technique sessions on the rowing machines. Then, if you?re still keen to row then you can put yourself through a few skill-neutral assessments we do to determine your strength, mental toughness and general cardiovascular fitness. During this time we also keep our eyes peeled for those who show potential, but who may fall short on the tests. We run our selection early on so that if you?re unsuccessful you?ll still have the opportunity to try one of the huge number of sports offered at Newcastle University.

Unfortunately, only those who pass selection will have the chance to get on the water.

If you?re keen to get rowing and get ahead?of your rivals then starting training now is ideal! However, we don?t want you to spend ANY time on the rowing machines. There is a specific way to use a rowing machine correctly, which translates to how you row a boat ? if you jump on a machine without the correct tuition it can be very hard to retrain you. Instead, dust off the trainers, slip on the Speedos or clip on your helmet and get outside and do some quality cardio sessions. We?d usually suggest about 60 minutes of running, or 120 minutes of swimming or cycling every other day. Make sure you finish each session with a good stretch as flexibility is essential in rowing,?particularly?your hamstrings. It?s also worth thinking about your core strength ? your core plays a vital role in rowing, and so finishing each session with some deep-core exercises would be ideal, some examples are given below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_1KGrBx2T4

http://concept2.co.uk/training/guide/core_stability

If you?ve got any questions or want to register your interest then please get in touch with us today, alternatively come and visit the club at the AU Fair and one of us will be happy to speak with you.

Email: nubcfreshers@gmail.com

Register: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GF35P9K

Visit: AU Fair, Main Hall, Claremont Sports Centre?24/25 September

Finally ? and importantly ? please keep in mind that whilst there is an imagined ideal of what a rower should look like, we?re on the search for committed individuals who will give 100% to the training. Please don?t discount yourself if you think you?re too short, fat, thin, unfit etc? you owe it to yourself to give it a go and at the very least you?ll end up going on some cracking nights out with the club, which is one of the best ways to experience this awesome city.

Thanks, and see you soon!

?NUBC Committee and Coaches 2012/13

Source: http://newcastlerowing.com/2012/08/new-to-newcastle-new-to-rowing-no-worries-read-on/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-to-newcastle-new-to-rowing-no-worries-read-on

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The Seoul National University Museum

The Seoul National University Museum is defined by its siting on the side of a small hill, close to the entrance of the university. The building's form was conceived as a basic rectangular box, sliced diagonally by the incline of the hill. This form is then raised up on a small central core - the only point of contact with the ground - so the building is nearly all cantilever, extending up and down the hill, following the topography precisely and appearing to hover above it. The museum both defines and defeats the hill, and, by keeping the ground beneath it largely free, becomes an attractive conduit between the university campus and the outside community. Both outside and inside, free-flowing circulation was key to the thinking behind the building. The central core is an atrium with a square-spiral staircase connecting the various program areas: exhibition, education, library, and operations.

Source: http://www.mimoa.eu/projects/South%20Korea/Seoul/The%20Seoul%20National%20University%20Museum

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JohnONolan: @ananyah now you?re just fishing for twitter pervs

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

Source: http://twitter.com/JohnONolan/statuses/236829666713939968

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Cash Investing 101 | FinanceCritics

Reviewed by on Aug 18, 2012 in Bonds | Comments Off

Income Investing 101

Article by Scott Oberholser

So you have managed your income wisely and have some income reserves at your disposable. Your desire is to ?expand? these reserves by investing. I commend you for the two! Nevertheless, you have never invested your money in the past and are not confident exactly where and how to get started. Nicely, unwind and take a deep breath, due to the fact it is not that challenging to quickly establish the ?exactly where? to commence. 401k?s and IRA?s are ideal investment accounts that provide the beginning investor a basic, minimal risk possibility to commence investing and consider benefit of a excellent cash mangement method. And one particular of the places you can begin instantly,might be offered to you at the spot you go every day, your workplace.

A 401k is a organization/employer sponsored retirement strategy that will permit you to deduct a portion of your paycheck every month and put it in direction of your retirement. This cash earns interest and is tax free of charge. That is 1 of the ways that a 401k allows you to develop your income. Here is the other: a lot of companies will match or contribute a portion of the sum you place in your 401k. This is free money that you will also be earning interest on. How are you in a position to earn interest on this cash? Businesses like the 1 you function for, that particpate in 401k packages outsource the upkeep of your account to mutual fund organizations, monetary solutions corporatins, and banks. These companies will in turn invest your income in stocks, bonds, and other funds market place instruments.

After established, a 401k is your?s to hold until you retire at age 65. If you leave the firm the place you set up the 401k, you have a couple of alternatives. A single, you can withdraw the money and shut the account which would involve early withdrawal and tax penalties. Or two, you could transfer, or ?rollover?, the account to an IRA.

An IRA is an indivdual retirement account that you can set up seperate from the company you perform for. It can be started on it?s personal, seperate or concurrent with a company sponsored 401k. There are two types of IRA?s you can invest in-Classic or Roth. What is the difference? A standard IRA makes it possible for you to contribute pre-tax earnings. This means any income you contribute will not count as revenue on your tax return. You will have to pay out taxes on the money you withdraw as soon as retirement rolls all around. A Roth IRA performs in a straight opposite method. Money you contribute to this prepare will count as cash flow on your tax return but can be withdrawn and received tax-cost-free when you retire. To set up an IRA you just require to get in touch with a monetary advisor in the area of investments. He or she can help you set up both a Standard IRA or Roth IRA and additional clarify which strategy would be right for you.

Congratulations! If you start a 401k or IRA you have employed 1 of the finest funds management techniques obtainable to you. Pat your self on the back for not only conserving ample money to invest but for also taking free funds suggestions.

About the Author

Born in Pennsylvania, raised in New Mexico, and currently reside in Colorado Springs. Graduated with a bachelor?s degree in Company from the University of New Mexico.

Use and distribution of this report is subject to our Publisher Suggestions
whereby the authentic author?s info and copyright should be included.

Born in Pennsylvania, raised in New Mexico, and presently reside in Colorado Springs. Graduated with a bachelor?s degree in Company from the University of New Mexico.

Use and distribution of this report is subject to our Publisher Recommendations
whereby the original author?s information and copyright have to be integrated.

Source: http://www.financecritics.com/cash-investing-101/

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Metro Atlanta August foreclosures take big dip

August foreclosure notices in metro Atlanta are down to their lowest numbers since December 2008, but one expert warns it's just an illusion.

According to metro Atlanta-based Equity Depot, there were 6,426 foreclosures advertised in August for September, the lowest number since four years ago. Equity Depot's numbers also show that January through August, 2012's foreclosure numbers are down 13 percent from 2011, and down 21 percent from the peak of the crisis in 2010.

"It seems like great news. My opinion is that it's an illusion," said Foundations Realty Group owner Michael Brock.

Brock specializes in selling foreclosed homes for banks.? He said there is a two-year supply of foreclosures still in the pipeline, something he calls the "shadow inventory."

Brock said after a robo-signing scandal two years ago, new regulations are making it more difficult for banks to sell their foreclosures.? He also believes the banks will drop a new wave of foreclosures within the next several months, causing metro Atlanta's housing market to take a double dip.

"And once two years? worth of inventory hits the market all at the same time, you can imagine what that's going to do to home values," said Brock.

But Steve Palm of the real estate tracking firm Smart Numbers LLC isn't quite so pessimistic.? He agrees that there is a shadow inventory still lurking out there that could drop within the next year, but he doesn't believe the foreclosures will have that big an impact on housing prices.

"There's still more and more people wanting to buy foreclosures and rent them out," said Palm.? "It's easy to rent a home right now."

Palm predicted the housing market collapse more than a year before it happened, and said metro Atlanta's home prices have been going up steadily for about a year.? While he's not predicting skyrocketing prices, he thinks they will continue a slow but steady increase.

"There's such a low inventory," said Palm.? "At the end of July, we were at four-and-a-half months of supply, which is unheard of.? Our records go back 20 years, and we've never seen it that low."

At the peak of the foreclosure crisis, Palm said metro Atlanta had a 14-month supply of homes.

Michelle McCreary bought her Paulding County home 11 years ago.? She said they've wanted to sell, but the market is just too soft right now.? She hopes things improve.

"I feel there's not a whole lot we can do about it right now until things improve," said McCreary.? "I'm hopeful.? With prayer, man, anything can happen.? So I just hope that's where it goes."

Source: http://www.trulia.com/blog/rasmus/2012/08/metro_atlanta_august_foreclosures_take_big_dip

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A Website Teaches Online Business Owners With E-commerce ...

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The reality is that not everybody is techno-savvy and can quickly understand significant operations through a conventional readable guide. Lots of people are in fact immediately intimidated or uninterested with a study material that must be read. It?s a known notion that many folks require and want a visual as well as auditory instructing material as a way to fully understand just how things should be carried out correctly, as well as go through the benefits of following a detail by detail procedure. It?s due to this that leading suppliers of e-commerce solutions released the latest marketing video. The video, which is on YouTube, details the several services of the firm which are certain to profit online entrepreneurs within their business.

The video is quite engaging and makes use of cartoon animation to noticeably depict a situation that Web marketers typically experience or have trouble with and just how the services of leading providers of e-commerce solutions can assist them boost their production and profitability, and simplify their procedures. The cartoon animation is a smart approach to reaching different varieties of viewers and explaining specialized concepts in a properly comprehensive way.

At present, the problems that a lot of online entrepreneurs confront are not centered on the caliber of their goods; they?re usually depending on the interactive purchase method and the way to do it in the most time- and cost-efficient way. As reported by a representative of an online e-commerce solutions business, their business gives attention to how vital it is for internet businesses to choose the appropriate shopping cart software not only to boost the standard of their procedures but in order to save on costs also. Also, with all the provided remedies, internet based entrepreneurs can in fact choose the long haul as much as their businesses are involved, primarily because the improved system can usher in many chances that may completely strengthen or broaden the business. E-commerce solutions providers emphasize its e-commerce shopping cart, advertising system, retailer alternative, online monitoring, and other web marketing options in the video, talking about their advantages so audiences will get a better idea of why and how they function to the ideal advantage of their users.

The firm is recognized as the main head in e-commerce marketing software and a reliable provider of significant goods that enable Internet businesses be more profitable as well as prosperous. With its wide range of automated remedies, online entrepreneurs could easily deal with and cater to the escalating demands ? and number ? of their buyers.

an e-commerce software supplier brings attention to how significant it truly is for online businesses to select the correct shopping cart software not only to increase the standard of their procedures but in order to reduce expenses as well.

Source: http://article-search-engine.com/a-website-teaches-online-business-owners-with-e-commerce-solutions-videos/

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Phones squeezing out game gadgets 'doesn't make sense' says Nintendo pres.

10 hrs.

Winda Benedetti

As Nintendo prepares to launch its latest handheld gaming device -- the Nintendo 3DS XL -- the company's president is ready to take on those naysayers who are predicting that portable gadgets centered around gaming are going the way of the dinosaur.?

This?week I had a chance to interview?Satoru Iwata -- the?president of Nintendo?and a man who?sits at the head of the Japanese gaming powerhouse during?challenging, changing?times.?

That is, in recent years, gamers and gadget?aficionados of all stripes?have marveled at the proliferation of smart devices and watched as gaming apps for these phones and tablets -- many of them costing less than a pack of gum -- have absolutely absorbed our free time.

We've also watched as the newest dedicated gaming handhelds -- Nintendo's 3DS and Sony's?PlayStation Vita -- have ?stumbled out of the starting gate?over the course of the last year,?failing to meet initial sales expectations and?hurting their creators' financial outlooks. Initial 3DS sales were so poor that?Nintendo had to cut the price of the gadget capable of playing eye-popping 3-D games from $250 to $170. And in April,?for the first time ever, Nintendo posted its first annual loss.

And so there are questions:?How can Nintendo -- maker the?Nintendo 3DS handheld game machine -- possibly?compete with the growing tide (tidal wave?) of smartphones and tablets not to mention?the cheap gaming experiences they provide? Will there ever be a return to the?boomtime days of the?Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable? Is there still?room for handheld?game machines in the market (and in our phone-filled?pockets) these days? If there is now, will there be in two years? In?five years?

I had a chance to talk to Iwata about the Nintendo 3DS and its new, bigger brother -- the 3DS XL (which arrives in stores Sunday) . And he seemed ready -- more than ready, really?-- to answer those questions and?counter naysayers?with some statistics and bold?statements?of his own.?

But let it be said,?it's not that Iwata thinks things haven'tchanged or that mistakes haven't been made.

"First of all I want to say that,?with the increase in smartphones and tablets in the market, the competitive environment in the gaming industry has changed," he told me through an interpreter.

But he's quick to point out: This is hardly the first time the gaming landscape has shifted.?"Five years ago we were asked how we were going to compete?with Microsoft and Sony and other publishers," he said. "And now, today, we are being asked how we're going to compete with smartphones and tablets."

But he insisted that the Nintendo 3DS -- despite its very rocky launch last year -- is now?faring considerably better than many seem to realize. In the United States, it has crossed the 5 million sales mark and, since it launched in March of 2011, it has sold better than its best-selling?predecessor?-- the Nintendo DS -- did during the same amount of time after it launched in November?2004.?

"If you look at the United States and?compare the sales of the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo DS over the same time period, the 3DS is actually selling more than the DS," he said. "Additionally, the Nintendo DS -- in that same time period --?covered two Christmases while the 3DS has only covered one Christmas season."

And then there's Japan. "As of last week, the 3DS reached the 7 million mark in terms of sales, and that took 77 weeks since its launch," he said. "And for the Nintendo DS, if we ?look at how long it took to reach the 7 million mark in Japan, it was 72 weeks. It may seem that the 3DS is lagging behind but,?as I just mentioned,? the DS had?the benefit of two holiday seasons whereas the 3DS only has had?one."?

And this is where Iwata pushes back against game analysts and pundits who predict dedicated gaming handhelds are being squeezed out.

"I think if you look at these numbers, you can say that the argument that the handheld market is diminishing with the increase in smart devices like phones and tablets,?that it really just doesn't make any sense," he told me. "You can see that there are holes in that argument based on these numbers."

It's worth noting that?Iwata did recently tell Nintendo?shareholders?that the 3DS's sales momentum is?weak in the U.S. and Europe when compared to Japan. But he pointed out that,?back when the Nintendo DS?first launched, it also took time to pick up momentum in the U.S .?

"The Nintendo DS gained momentum within a year in Japan; however, it took more than two years in the U.S. and in the end the total sales of the Nintendo DS exceeded the Wii there," he said.

How big have Nintendo DS sales been??From its launch in?2004 to just before the launch of the 3DS in 2011,? the Nintendo DS and its variants?(the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL) sold more than?144 million units worldwide.

Certainly Nintendo is hoping to see the 3DS gadget gain sales steam and?finally shake its reputation as a failure.?When Nintendo slashed the ?3DS' price from $250 to $170, it gave the floundering ?machine a big boost into gamers' hands. And another sales boost looks to be on the way?thanks to the launch of the revamped and super-sized 3DS XL?(which went on sale in Japan in July?and comes to the U.S.?Sunday).

The 3DS XL (which I've spent time with and given high marks) has been?given a sleek, smart redesign and comes with two?screens that are 90 percent larger than the original 3DS's screens.

Iwata said he doesn't see the 3DS XL as being skewed toward a different kind of gamer than the original 3DS. Instead, he sees it simply as a different option for all?gamers to choose from.?

"We'd like consumers to choose the one that suits them best," he said. "With the 3DS XL, the benefit for consumers is that a bigger screen will offer ease of play and more impactful visual presentation.?That being said, of course it's a little bigger, it takes up a little more space, and it's a little weightier than the original 3DS."

There's also a price difference: The 3DS will cost you $170 and the 3DS XL will cost you $200. (For an in-depth look at why I think the?3DS XL is the better choice,?check out my review here.)

So why is Nintendo launching the super-sized?3DS XL now rather than at the same time it launched the 3DS?

"Ideally offering them both at same time is best," Iwata said, but technological and price?constraints held them back.

"The biggest reason (we didn't launch the 3DS XL earlier)? is that we wanted to provide consumers with the larger?screen that we currently have with the 3DS XL at a reasonable cost, and?we could not do that a year-and-a-half ago," he said. "Another reason is that, with the larger screen, you have more area that you have to light up, which of course means using more battery power. We wanted to be able to provide this screen and have it?back-lit?the way that customers want and need without having to sacrifice the battery longevity. Really,?we just required ?a technological breakthrough for us to be able to do that."

But while Iwata clearly believes that gaming handhelds like the 3DS and 3DS XL have their place and will continue to have a place,?"That being said the (gaming) environment is different," he said. "There are lots of free games available for smart devices and we're seeing a lot more people carrying smartphones and tablets with them. And I think it is a fact that?we're seeing games on those devices fill that time-filler role."

In the face of this, Iwata says Nintendo's ?challenge is to create not just time fillers but?gaming?software that makes dropping $170 to $200 on the company's game machines "a worthwhile investment."

Enter "New Super Mario Bros. 2" -- a new game launching along side the 3DS XL on Sunday. This latest in Nintendo's long-running series of Mario games is already getting high marks for its deep, well-crafted design.?(Check out the review here.)

And if anyone can sell a Nintendo machine, it's Mario.?In fact,?Nintendo found out the hard way that you don't try to get a Nintendo game gadget off the ground without a Mario game.?

Games that feature the iconic?mustachioed?character are what Nintendo fans live for ... and buy Nintendo machines for. And yet, the original?3DS launched sans a single Mario game.

"At launch we did not have a Mario title available and I think it's OK for us to say that?we should have had a Mario title available at launch," Iwata admitted. "Mario titles are games that if we don't have one at launch people ar clamboring for it: 'Where is our Mario title? Where's our new Mario game?'"

Where your new?Mario game?will?not be found: On your smartphone.

Winda Benedetti?writes?about video?games for NBC?News. You can follow her tweets about games and other things?on Twitter?here?@WindaBenedetti?and you can?follow her?on?Google+.?Meanwhile, be sure to check?out the?IN-GAME?FACEBOOK PAGE?to discuss the day's?gaming news and reviews.

Source: http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn.com/technology/ingame/phones-squeezing-out-game-gadgets-doesnt-make-sense-says-nintendo-948235

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In Medias Res ? Blog Archive ? On top of the weather

PHILIPPINE BROADCAST media does its best during natural calamities. It may be because our fragile ecosystem gives them so much practice.

Media workers do not get the work holiday that eases the trial of storms, and like everyone else assigned to emergency services, they have to be on duty when disaster strikes. They are ready at their post, searching out and delivering real-time news in a time of need.

On such days, the need for news is urgent, not your day-to-day ?balita? which is suspended for the time being, but information that helps the affected community deal with crisis?advisories about the weather, rescue operations, and the state of peril in places near or far.

News also serves to connect people, giving them a sense of not being alone, making one feel the presence of a larger community, and the links that media provide are a source of real comfort. When that monsoon without a name dumped 1,007 millimeters of rain on Metro Manila and surrounding provinces (August 6 to 8, Project Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards [NOAH]), Philippine broadcast media did not disappoint as ?first informer? ?a term used by a report of the Communications and Society Program of Aspen Institute on ?the lessons of Katrina.?

Tracking media?s performance last week was exhilarating, noting the vast improvements in disaster coverage since the Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility (CMFR) first issued guidelines for disaster coverage in August 1990. I daresay that few national broadcast communities in the region can match the level of public service reporting that the Philippine broadcasters provide in such periods of devastation. One factor is relevant: PH broadcast media compared to others in Southeast Asia remain most free of government regulation and the limits that officials impose on coverage.

The 2005 Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) report on the coverage of disasters in Asia focused not just on how media covered the tsunami that savaged numerous communities in several countries in the region but also other cataclysmic events, including the less dramatic drought.

In varying degrees, the discussions among media practitioners in a conference organized by SEAPA and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung found they were not only reporting stories?the media also help ?to heal communities, rebuild lives, keep families intact, raise funds.? The report also points to the role of the press to check on government response and the use of money allocated for this purpose.

With heavy rains falling all through the night of August 4, people recalling still the nightmare of Ondoy, were comforted by their still working sets and cable services, to hear the likes of a Ted Failon on the air. He could move from one story to the next weaving the fragments into a seamless whole, connecting people who needed help to those who could help. The veteran anchors have the edge on this as nothing beats experience. They look and exude competence and credibility, which have a way of assuring the already afflicted as well as those simply anxious and uncertain.

At a later stage, Jessica Soho went into the structural issues of disaster to focus on mitigation, calling attention to some long-term solutions offered by urban planner Felino ?Jun? Palafox following Ondoy; and in the spirit of fairness, also asked a government official to respond. All too brief at that point, but it was an important inclusion in the conversation at the height of disaster. I can only hope that the media will not let go of disaster mitigation when the sun begins to shine again.

Weather updates competed with one another in the use of the latest technology and the improved systems of Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Services Administration (PAGASA) and other disaster-related agencies incorporated under Project NOAH. Most sidelined the pretty mouthing of PAGASA reports, delivering explanations of the weather phenomenon and the scientific terms used by the experts, for layman?s use and understanding. For example, News5 Weather Center?s Seph Ubalde , using technological innovation, explained how the monsoon works and the effects of extreme weather on natural dams and flood-prone areas.

Meanwhile, the teams of reporters fielded by the three networks proved themselves with spirited on-cam, in or out of water stand-uppers. Without encouraging the daring that can place their lives in danger, I do admire how media teams provided a great mix of stories, both the big picture of devastation, the small stories of human interest, along with the instructive communication from officials high and low, the personal and private voices, a community struggling and rising to the challenge of crisis. Their empathetic approach seemed to be more careful about not adding to the misery of evacuees nor intruding into the privacy of the bereaved.

When our area lost our cable service, I felt deprived.

Catastrophe raises all kinds of questions. Interactive radio and TV helps everyone deal with the dire effects of rain and floods. In this area, mainstream media has done well picking up from the new media activity, building on what it does, further enhancing the coordinated lines of rescue and relief.

I do not think the media coverage would have been so comforting if government response had not also gained the capacity it showed during those days. The failure of United States government agencies to respond to Katrina caused further damage when they also failed to provide ?critical information out to the popul(ace) at large.? At home, various government agencies have learned from past lessons, making it easier for media to do its job of getting information about these services.

One week after the rains, but with more rains still predicted, I can only be glad and be inspired by the performance on all sides. There is much still to be done, and there is always room for improvement, but for now, those observations can wait.

Melinda Quintos de Jesus is the executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. She worked as a freelance journalist in the 1970s, starting out in the field of television documentary film. Her experience in journalism has since included print, radio, and television. She also wrote columns for leading newspapers in the Philippines such as the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, and The Manila Times.

Source: http://www.cmfr-phil.org/inmediasres/on-top-of-the-weather/

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Union Superintendent Cathy Burden retires at school year's end

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Related story: Union fetes Collegiate Academy.

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"This has been the highlight of my career. I am Union through and through," she told the Tulsa World. "No doubt I love this job. It's been a joy." Burden said she wants to spend more time with her grandchildren after 41 years in education.

She announced her retirement during the yearly kickoff program for teachers and staff Thursday. More than 1,700 employees packed the Union Performing Arts Center.

The district's school board has already selected Associate Superintendent Kirt Hartzler as her successor. He started his Union career as a teacher and coach 26 years ago.

Hartzler's succession will allow the district to avoid disruptions that can accompany national searches, she said.

Burden began her career by creating a learning disabilities program in Norman as she attended graduate school.

She was then a school psychologist at Tulsa Public Schools for 12 years. She worked at Jenks for eight years, six of those as an assistant superintendent. In 1994, Burden was hired as Union superintendent.

Her last day will be June 30, she said.

The ability to fight for public education in the face of criticisms "makes my job even sweeter," Burden said.

"It's been a good fit. People don't fully appreciate the function of public education. Public education is a bedrock of democracy. Without it, we would lose something very important," she said.

In her last year, Burden said she will continue to speak out when some try to chip away at public education.

"I am not backing down," she said. "This is a difficult time for public education. Poverty is expanding the gulf between society's haves and have-nots. The world economies are shifting, and America is desperate to maintain our superiority in all areas. People are looking for scapegoats to blame for a myriad of social problems, and public schools have become an easy target."

Hartzler said he plans to continue Burden's fight when he steps into the superintendent role.

"Public education is definitely what has made this country great, and it's what is going to continue to keep it," he said.

As for Union, Hartzler said there is still more to do.

"We have a belief about us. Our belief is that when we say 100 percent graduation is our goal, we mean it," he said. "We believe in the potential of all our students regardless of demographics."

Earlier this year, Tulsa Superintendent Keith Ballard and Jenks Superintendent Kirby Lehman also announced they would retire June 30, 2013. Sapulpa Superintendent Mary Webb retired in June.

Original Print Headline: Burden to retire next June

---

Kim Archer 918-581-8315
kim.archer@tulsaworld.com

Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20120817_19_A1_CUTLIN249270&rss_lnk=19

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The Importance Of Communication | Welcome to ArifHidayatulloh.Com

In a relationship there are a number of incredibly important things that must happen. Communication is by far the most important aspect of any relationship
and unfortunately for many people it is also what causes the most breakups. Without the proper communication any and every relationship will end in a breakup so if you want to make sure things last, communication is something you should work on.
Communication is key for a number of reasons, the most important of which is resolving conflict. It is a fact that all relationships have fights and angry moments but without the right means of communication there is almost no chance that a couple can survive. Fortunately on the contrary a couple that communicates openly and often will have almost no problem moving past arguments and fights.
Communication is also incredibly important because it helps keep everyone involved happy and willing to compromise. Communication is absolutely the key to a happy relationship and unless you and your partner fin d away to achieve open and free communication there is almost no chance of things ever working out. Of course because of this there are hundreds of guides and even lots of counselors available to coach you on just how to improve your communication with your partner. Even the slightest bit of improvement can make a huge difference in the long run so it is most definitely worth the effort to work on improving or establishing quality communication.
Good communication does not necessarily mean that absolutely everything must be shared in a relationship. Communication is necessary in most situations, but there are obviously a number of instances that warrant a tiny bit of secrecy or privacy for either person in a relationship and that is just fine. An important part of communication is establishing exactly when privacy or alone time is necessary. If you and your partner manage to create quality open communication then your relationship will surely continue to blossom and grow for years to come. If communication is simply something that you cannot work out then do not be surprised when things end, if you are serious about making things work the now is the time to make communication happen.
Probably the best starting point for open communication is just talking, you and your partner should sit down and just talk through your feelings and see where it takes you. Many times this is just enough to get almost anyone to a more stable point of communication. From there you just need to try out what works for you, many relationships thrive simply on talking through feelings, anger, and frustration and if you can do it then you are sure to have a happy and healthy relationship.

Source: http://arifhidayatulloh.com/archives/757

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California arson suspect's lawyer says email threat was grief therapy

NEWPORT BEACH, California (Reuters) - A California professor accused of setting a string of fires following his son's suicide pleaded not guilty to arson on Wednesday, and his lawyer said a rambling, violent email threat to carry out a shooting rampage was a form of self-therapy.

Defense attorney Ron Cordova entered a not-guilty plea on Reinscheid's behalf to all 10 charges against him -- eight counts of arson, one of attempted arson and one of resisting arrest. He has not been charged in relation to the emails.

Reinscheid was arrested last month by police who said they found him trying to set a fire in the Irvine park where his 14-year-old son, Claas Stubbe, had hanged himself in March after an administrator at his school disciplined the boy for stealing.

The April 28 email in question, discovered after his arrest, described in graphic, lurid terms a plan to burn down his son's high school, kill administrators there, commit various sexual assaults and then take his own life. He wrote about obtaining a "dozen machine guns" to "shoot at least 200 students."

Prosecutors cited the email, which Rainer Klaus Reinscheid composed and sent himself under the subject line "a good plan" as evidence that he posed a danger to the community, and a judge agreed, denying a request for bail.

The case came amid jitters over U.S. gun violence in the aftermath of a movie house shooting rampage near Denver in which a former University of Colorado graduate student from California is charged with killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others.

Prosecutors have said they did not charge Reinscheid, who taught pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California at Irvine, in connection with the email threat because he did not send it to would-be victims named in his electronic message.

The professor's lawyer argued in court that the email was merely Reinscheid's way of venting his deep grief and anger over his son's death.

"He was engaging in a therapeutic exercise, purging himself of these thoughts, a means by which we cleanse ourselves of these thoughts," Cordova said. "Such homicidal ideation is very common, even in normal people. He was a man in pain."

Reinscheid sat silently behind a caged partition for most of the hearing, which lasted about 10 minutes, but stood when Judge Karen Robinson addressed him. He appeared calm and showed no visible emotion.

Cordova also noted that Reinscheid said in the email that he was writing the message while drunk and under the influence of a drug prescribed for sleep disorders.

Orange County District Attorney Andrew Katz countered that the email demonstrated violent intent and said a search of Reinscheid's computer showed he had conducted dozens of Internet searches for information about guns, gun laws and explosives.

"We don't believe these are just the rantings and musings of a grieving father," Katz told reporters after the hearing. "These threats need to be taken seriously."

Reinscheid was recently granted a leave of absence from the school, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, Katz said. He described the professor in court as a German national but later said he knew nothing further of his immigration status except that Reinscheid had lived in the United States for 13 years.

The next hearing in the case was set for September 6, and Cordova said after the proceedings that he believed his client to be of sound mind.

"If I didn't, we'd have entered a different plea or requested the intervention of a court-appointed mental health professional," he told Reuters. "I have no doubts of his mental health."

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and M.D. Golan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-arson-suspects-lawyer-says-email-threat-grief-231256815.html

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Twitter Wants to Stop You from Using Twitter Apps Not Made By Twitter [Twitter]

Twitter just posted details about the upcoming updates to its API and the big news is this: Twitter will be limiting the amount of users that can use third-party Twitter apps. Basically client apps like Tweetbot and Twitterific now have a Twitter-enforced ceiling on how many users it can have. It's Twitter walling in and limiting every other Twitter app not made by Twitter. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/GfblwduFRew/twitter-wants-to-stop-people-from-using-apps-not-made-by-twitter

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Robert Pattinson Not 'Trying To Sell My Personal Life'

'The reason why you go on TV is to promote movies,' the 'Cosmopolis' star says on 'Good Morning America.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Robert Pattinson on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday
Photo: ABC

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1691791/robert-pattinson-good-morning-america-personal-life.jhtml

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Asian-American rift over Supreme Court affirmative action case

(Reuters) - On Monday, dozens of Asian-American organizations filed amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that universities should be allowed to consider race in admissions decisions. Five Asian-American groups were not among them.

That's because those groups already filed their briefs in the closely watched University of Texas case -- on the other side. They argued in May that the school's race-conscious admissions policies hurt Asian-Americans by giving less qualified candidates a leg up on admissions.

The dueling briefs provide stark evidence of a growing rift within the Asian-American community over the role race should play in college admissions. This split could have implications for how the court resolves one of the hottest cases on its docket this term, which begins in October.

The views of Asian-Americans, as expressed in amicus or "friend-of-the-court" briefs, could take on added significance in the court of public opinion and perhaps with the justices themselves, said UCLA School of Law professor Eugene Volokh.

The traditional justification for affirmative action has been to prevent schools from becoming all white, Volokh said. "That rhetoric becomes more complicated once you recognize that race-based systems discriminate against Asians as much as whites."

There have been pockets of resistance to affirmative action among Asian-Americans for years. But the rift has gotten more pronounced in the Texas case, which prominently features the impact of race-based admissions on Asian-Americans themselves.

The plaintiff's main brief challenging the University of Texas's affirmative action plan mentions Asian-Americans 22 times and argues that they are victims of a race-based system that favors blacks and Hispanics.

"We've come up a lot more in the briefs than we normally do," said Khin Mai Aung, an attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which supports the University of Texas program. "Normally we're just invisible."

At the University of Texas, students in the top 10 percent of the state's high schools are automatically admitted into the public university system. For the remaining spots, public universities can consider race to create a critical mass of underrepresented minorities on campus, including blacks and Latinos.

The challenge to the Texas system was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white student who says the University of Texas at Austin denied her admission in 2008 because of her race, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. By trying to mirror the racial composition of the state of Texas, Fisher argues, the school has essentially imposed a racial quota system, which is illegal under the Supreme Court's 1978 Bakke decision.

Fisher is asking the court not to just bar outright racial quotas, but to ban public universities from considering race at all in admissions. Many legal observers say the conservative-dominated high court may be sympathetic to Fisher's position.

Edward Blum, the director of the Washington-based Project on Fair Representation, is the principal architect behind the University of Texas lawsuit. He said Asian-Americans will likely remain front and center in the case.

"An empirical case can be made that the group that has suffered the most from racial preferences (in the affirmative action era) has been Asians," Blum said.

BEST-EDUCATED, FASTEST-GROWING

Asian-Americans, numbering more than 17 million, account for around 6 percent of the U.S. population, according to the 2010 Census. With diverse roots tracing back to places as varied as China, the Philippines and India, Asian-Americans comprise the nation's highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial minority group, the Pew Research Center reported in June.

Advocates caution against viewing Asian-Americans as a monolithic group of overachievers and say they are a population with broad cultural and economic diversity. The more disadvantaged subgroups, including Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders, directly benefit from affirmative action, some advocates argue.

At the same time, upwardly mobile Asian-Americans are facing more competition in college admissions as the minority population grows and elite colleges become even more selective. Harvard, for example, accepted a record-low 5.9 percent of applicants into its incoming class for 2012. Asian-Americans comprise 21 percent of the class, a number that has remained relatively steady for the past five years. Critics say the percentage would be higher if admissions were based on merit alone. At the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, a public high school in New York City where admission is based solely on an entrance exam, the student body is 72 percent Asian.

The Asian-American community is served by numerous civil rights and legal aid organizations that started to form in the 1970s. This legal apparatus has historically lined up to defend affirmative action.

The last time the Supreme Court took up the issue, in 2003, at least 28 different Asian-American advocacy groups signed onto briefs in defense of the University of Michigan Law School's use of race in admissions. Only the San Francisco-based Asian American Legal Foundation, a group formed specifically to fight racial preferences, opposed the Michigan policy.

The Supreme Court in that case ruled that universities could consider a candidate's race as part of a "holistic" evaluation to ensure academic diversity. That means schools can consider race alongside a host of other factors, such as extracurricular activities, family responsibilities and economic status, the court ruled in a 5-4 decision.

This time around, the Asian-American community appears less united. When the Supreme Court announced in February that it would hear the University of Texas case, a nonprofit called the 80-20 National Education Foundation, which promotes equal opportunities for Asian-Americans, decided for the first time to oppose race-conscious admissions. (The foundation, named after an aspiration to unite 80 percent of Asian-American voters around issues affecting them, continues to support race-conscious hiring in the workplace and in government contracts.)

The group's founder, Shien Biau Woo, a former Democratic lieutenant governor of Delaware, said his group decided to take its new stance after its online survey of 47,000 Asian-Americans found overwhelming support for race-neutral admissions based on merit alone.

ASIANS 'THE NEW JEWS'

Woo's organization enlisted the National Federation of Indian American Associations, the Indian American Forum for Political Education and the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, as well as a Jewish group, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, to sign onto an amicus brief. The Asian American Legal Foundation filed its brief on the same side.

"Asian Americans are the new Jews, inheriting the mantle of the most disenfranchised group in college admissions," the 80-20 brief argued, drawing parallels with methods Ivy League colleges used to limit Jewish enrollment in the 1920s.

Indeed, the shift in the Asian-American community recalls a rift that developed in the 1970s between Jewish groups and their traditional allies in the civil rights community over affirmative action.

"Many in the Jewish community were still nursing their wounds from having caps on Jews in Ivy League schools," said Marc Stern, general counsel at the American Jewish Committee.

The 80-20 Foundation brief noted that after California voted to ban affirmative action in public universities in 1996, Asian-American freshmen enrollment at the University of California at Berkeley shot up almost 10 percent over 10 years.

The brief also cited a 2009 study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade that found that Asian-American applicants have to score an average of 140 points higher than white students on the SAT for the same chances of admission at private universities. Whites, in turn, must score 310 points higher than blacks and 130 points higher than Latinos.

The impression that Asian-Americans are increasingly anti-affirmative-action is not one that other advocates for the community want to let stand: The briefs filed by the 80-20 Foundation and the others in May sparked a furor.

Two groups, Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education and the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education, released policy papers in June that attacked the 80-20 Foundation's survey methodology. They argued that the survey targeted the foundation's members and attracted participants with similar views.

A majority of Asian-Americans voted against California's ban on affirmative action in public universities in 1996, the pro-affirmative-action groups noted. They also cited the Pew Research Center report from June, which found that 60 percent of Asian-Americans said their ethnicity makes no difference when it comes to getting into college.

In their briefs filed on Monday, the groups disputed claims made by Fisher, the plaintiff in the case, that the Texas policy pits racial groups against each other. The University of Texas does not set target numbers for any particular racial group or even track the number of admitted students by race, one of the briefs argued.

The Asian-American supporters of affirmative action were joined by several Jewish groups that submitted their own briefs, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

Khin Mai Aung of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund argued in her brief that under its program, the University of Texas has the flexibility to consider the ethnic background and immigrant history of any applicant, including Asians and whites.

The significant Vietnamese population in Texas, which includes refugees who came to the Gulf Coast for shrimping work, especially stands to gain, her brief said.

In an interview, Aung acknowledged that the argument against affirmative action may have more resonance when it is being advanced by Asian-Americans and other minorities. Groups like the 80-20 Foundation, she said, are being used by Fisher's legal team as "racial mascots."

The 80-20 Foundation's Woo took issue with that characterization and said his group made an independent decision to get involved in the case, based on the best interests of Asian-Americans.

(Editing by Eric Effron, Ted Botha and Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-american-rift-over-supreme-court-affirmative-action-212010652.html

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Sharing Spaces & Ideas | Small Business Consulting Services ...

Co-working in Clearwater, Lakeland, Largo, Sarasota & Tampa ?

Co-working is great for those in need office space to meet clients, conduct interviews, or be surrounded with creative professionals. They are frequented by designers and developers, writers, start-ups, freelancers and other business professionals who want to work in an upbeat and collaborative environment. The mix of amenities and executive and/or mixed space will differ by location. Here?s the list of co-working spaces in the area and what they say they have to offer. If you know of any noteworthy spaces, ?add them below.

Clearwater

CoWork Lab: Co-working is redefining the way we do work. The idea is simple: that independent professionals and those with workplace flexibility work better together than they do alone. The CoWork Lab is a cozy, collaborative and professional coworking atmosphere with a social twist.
408 South Aurora Avenue Clearwater, FL 33765
http://thecoworklab.com/services/

Lakeland

The coexchange: The coexchange is a fresh community-based concept in which shared workspace sparks innovation. They are rooted in the idea that a great community can inspire creativity and a synergistic work experience. All the modern amenities are at your disposal in this vibrant, comfortable workspace.
5143 S. Lakeland Dr Suite 4, Lakeland, FL 33813
http://thecoexchange.com/

Largo

Tampa Bay Innovation Center: Co-working opportunities are offered through the Launch Lab at affordable rates, and includes access to the Innovation Center?s business resource materials as well as the more standard co-working benefits.
7887 Bryan Dairy Road, Building 100 Largo, FL 3377
http://www.tbinnovates.com/think-it.cfm

Sarasota

Venture X: We offer more than just office space. We are a community of creative and inspiring people who enjoy sharing, networking and succeeding together. We engineered the center for the collaborative entrepreneur. All designed to be highly functional and aesthetic using sustainable and recyclable products.
9128 Strada Place Naples, Florida 34108
http://www.venturex.co

Tampa:

• Tampa Bay Wave: Having a dedicated office space is more than a luxury. As we have seen in other cities throughout the world, it is vitally important that there be a critical mass of entrepreneurial activity and collaboration ? not just sporadically at coffee shops, monthly events or annual conferences, but day to day as founders work on developing ideas into bold new ventures.
  http://tampabaywave.org/coworking

• CoCreative: CoCreative is a community of like-minded, mobile professionals who work where, when and how they choose.? They are entrepreneurs, small business owners, freelancers, remote workers, designers, bloggers, students who share a few things in common: Fast-paced / on-the-go / mobile / Design and ?experience? oriented / Trendspotters / always-learning / relevant / Idealistic / non-traditional / disruptive / Progressive / forward-thinking / optimistic / Technology savvy / driven to succeed!
  http://www.cocreativ.com/

• Cowork Tampa: You can stop by for the day or stay for the entire month. Or, if you?re really dedicated, ask us about renting a private office.
  3104 North Armenia Ave Suite 2 Tampa, Florida 33607 http://coworktampa.com/cowork/
  

• New Urban Suites & Business Club: Part Office. Part Lounge. Complete Workspace.?????? From? full-time executive suites to virtual offices and meeting rooms, this location provides a modern feel and a creative work space for a great first and lasting impression.
  1228 E Seventh Ave. www.newurbansuites.com.

This entry was posted in Office Management, Operations. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.sbdctampabay.com/sharing-spaces-ideas/

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Global activists gear up for Pussy Riot rallies

MOSCOW (AP) ? The global campaign to free Pussy Riot is gaining speed: Supporters of the punk provocateur band mobilize this week in at least a dozen cities worldwide to hold simultaneous demonstrations an hour before a Russian court rules on whether its members will be sent to prison.

Friday's rallies will ride a wave of support for the three women who have been in jail for more than five months because of an anti-Putin prank in Moscow's main cathedral. Calls for them to be freed have come from a long list of celebrities such as Madonna and Bjork. Protests have been held in a number of Western capitals, including Berlin, where last week about 400 people joined Canadian electro-pop performance artist Peaches to support the band.

In one of the most extravagant displays, Reykjavik Mayor Jon Gnarr rode through the streets of the Icelandic capital in a Gay Pride parade this weekend dressed like a band member ? wearing a bright pink dress and matching balaclava ? while lip-synching to one of Pussy Riot's songs.

Amnesty International has called the women prisoners of conscience and begun collecting signatures by text message for a petition to be sent to the Russian government, while the U.S. State Department has repeatedly expressed its concern.

Although the band members and their lawyers are convinced that the verdict depends entirely on the will of President Vladimir Putin, and prosecutors have asked for a three-year sentence, activists hope their pressure will ease punishment or even free the women.

Putin has said the women should not be judged too harshly, but he risks appearing weak if they walk free.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were little known before their brief impromptu performance in Christ the Savior Cathedral in February. Dancing and high-kicking, they shouted the words of a "punk prayer" asking the Virgin Mary to deliver Russia from Putin, who was set to win a third term in a March presidential election.

They were arrested on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years. Since then, they have been vilified by the state media ? while winning over hearts abroad.

Madonna donned a balaclava during a concert in Moscow last week and had "Pussy Riot" written on her bare back. Yoko Ono sent a personal message to Samutsevich, saying that "the power of your every word is now growing in us."

A group of leading British musicians, including Pete Townshend of the Who and members of the Pet Shop Boys, published a letter in the Times of London ahead of Putin's visit during the Olympics to urge him to give the Pussy Riot members a fair hearing.

On Friday, activists in more than a dozen cities, from Moscow to Toronto, are expected to take to the streets at 2 p.m. Moscow time (1000 GMT), an hour before the judge is to issue the verdict. The protests are being coordinated by the defense lawyers.

Venues vary from the square outside the ornate Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona to the yard outside the Russian Embassy in London.

In Paris, the protest will be held on Stravinsky Square and led by 29-year-old Alexey Prokopyev from Russie-Libert?s, a Paris-based organization formed in December to bring together Russians studying or working in France.

"Most people go to these rallies in Paris because we cannot be in Russia at the moment for various reasons ? because of jobs, classes," said Prokopyev, who was born in the Soviet Union and has spent most of the past 17 years in France. "We all wish we were in Moscow now, but since we can't we do it in Paris."

Russie-Libert?s also is helping to organize rallies in Marseille, Nice, Lyons and Montpellier.

Wearing balaclavas, activists protested earlier this month on the iconic Alexander III bridge, named after the Russian czar who was France's ally in the 1890s.

Prokopyev said that he and his peers "want Russia to be a normal country" and be able to elect a president "who doesn't make the country where we were born a laughingstock."

In New York, Friday's protest will take place outside the Russian Consulate and later on Times Square.

"It's absurd that this case is being treated as criminal, while in any other civilized country that would be merely an administrative offense," said Xenia Grubstein, a 31-year-old journalist helping to organize the New York protest.

She said the hope was that the louder people speak out against the Pussy Riot case, the greater the chance that the verdict will be fair.

A protest is also planned in Washington, where last month punk rockers and arts activists rallied outside the Russian Embassy.

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern about what it called the "politically motivated prosecution of the Russian opposition and pressure on those who express dissenting views."

In France, Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti last week issued a statement expressing concern that artistic freedom was on trial.

A German cross-party group of lawmakers sent a letter to the Russian ambassador calling the five months the band members have spent in custody and the possible prison terms "draconian and disproportionate" punishment.

"In a secular and pluralistic state, peaceful artistic activities ? even if they may be seen as a provocation ? should not lead to accusations of a serious crime and long prison sentences," the lawmakers said in the letter, which more than 100 members of parliament signed.

The international press has been full of critical reports from the trial. One of Germany's most influential magazines, Der Spiegel, featured the band on its cover: a picture of Tolokonnikova behind bars and the headline "Putin's Russia."

___

Greg Keller in Paris and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-08-15-Russia-Pussy%20Riot%20Goes%20Global/id-772d3f43d29c4a11b0947a9f87435d50

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Paul Ryan's record: huge role in debt debate but few legislative wins

Rep. Paul Ryan's grasp of federal spending has given him an outsized role in defining the GOP position on deficits and debt, but he has a lower profile in driving the bipartisan compromises needed to pass laws.

By David Grant,?Staff writer / August 14, 2012

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin, speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Monday, accompanied by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (l.).

Conrad Schmidt/AP

Enlarge

Paul Ryan is a creature of Congress. Elected to the House in 1998 at the age of 28, the Wisconsin Republican had even spent much of the prior six years on or around Capitol Hill working as a staffer and at a conservative think tank.

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Over that span, the man Mitt Romney tapped as his vice presidential running mate came to define his party's position on debt and deficits, after a rapid rise to lead the Budget Committee by virtue of his grasp on federal spending.

In a toxic political environment, he has built personal friendships and worked on policy proposals with Democrats, but he has yet to put his shoulders behind any bipartisan political initiative to rein in the national debt. Although Democrats dub his budgets extremist, Representative Ryan's voting record ranks in the center of his caucus.

Among Republicans, Ryan is seen as a leader and tutor on budget issues, a convivial mentor with deep knowledge of federal spending. And it is without question that he has done more to shape how Republican lawmakers talk about the budget than any other member of Congress.?

?Nobody understands the federal budget better than Paul, or has worked harder to develop and offer real solutions to the fiscal challenges facing America,? said Sen. Ron Johnson (R) of Wisconsin in a statement.

Ryan?s budgets, passed by the House in both 2011 and 2012, came to define the House GOP position on spending, entitlement reform, and deficit reduction.??

In addition, they've given Republicans license to rip the Democratic-controlled Senate for failing to pass a budget in three years. That, in turn, has allowed Republicans to counter Democratic attacks of an obstructionist, tea-party-controlled Congress with the simple rejoinder: What?s your solution?

That?s a theme picked up by the Romney-Ryan presidential campaign.

?I believe my record of getting things done in Congress will be a very helpful complement to Governor Romney?s executive and private-sector success outside Washington,? Ryan said in Norfolk, Va., on Saturday. ?I have worked closely with Republicans as well as Democrats to advance an agenda of economic growth, fiscal discipline, and job creation.?

In fact, the actual record of accomplishment is less robust than the debate it has inspired.?

In a few instances, Ryan has crossed the aisle to work with Democrats. Among his bipartisan moves is an as-yet-unsuccessful effort with the Budget Committee?s top Democrat, Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, to give the president a line-item veto.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/NTqbXDENlU8/Paul-Ryan-s-record-huge-role-in-debt-debate-but-few-legislative-wins

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Do You Sext? [Chatroom]

Maybe you compose dirty prose. Maybe you snap nude shots to send to your crush. Maybe you have a few faves you keep on hand in the event that a dirty pic is needed ASAP. Maybe you do all of the above—or maybe you do none of it. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/G6tfiHUOxnQ/do-you-sext

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Speedy ions could add zip to quantum computers

ScienceDaily (Aug. 13, 2012) ? Take that, sports cars! Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can accelerate their beryllium ions from zero to 100 miles per hour and stop them in just a few microseconds. What's more, the ions come to a complete stop and hardly feel the effects of the ride. And they're not just good for submicroscopic racing -- NIST physicists think their zippy ions may be useful in future quantum computers.

The ions (electrically charged atoms) travel 100 times faster than was possible before across a few hundred micrometers in an ion trap -- a single ion can go 370 micrometers in 8 microseconds, to be exact (about 100 miles per hour.)

Although ions can go much faster in accelerators, the NIST ions demonstrate precision control of fast acceleration and sudden stops in an ion trap. A close analogy is a marble resting at the bottom of a bowl, and the bowl suddenly accelerating (see animation). During the transport, the marble will oscillate back and forth relative to the center of the bowl. If the bowl is suddenly stopped at the right time, the marble will come to rest together with the bowl. Furthermore, the NIST researchers assured that their atomic marble's electron energy levels are not affected, which is important for a quantum computer, where information stored in these energy levels would need to be moved around without compromising the information content.

For a quantum computer to solve important problems that are intractable today, the information carried by many quantum bits, or qubits, needs to be moved around in the processor. With ion qubits, this can be accomplished by physically moving the ions. In the past, moving ions took much longer than the duration of logic operations on the ions. Now these timescales are nearly equivalent. This reduces processing overhead, making it possible to move ions and prepare them for reuse much faster than before.

As described in Physical Review Letters, NIST researchers cooled trapped ions to their lowest quantum energy state of motion and, in separate experiments, transported one and two ions across hundreds of micrometers in a multi-zone trap. Rapid acceleration excites the ions' oscillatory motion, which is undesirable, but researchers controlled the deceleration well enough to return the ions to their original quantum state when they came to a stop. A research group from Mainz, Germany, reports similar results.

The secret to the speed and control is custom electronics. NIST researcher Ryan Bowler used fast FPGA (field programmable gate array) technology to program the voltage levels and durations applied to various electrodes in the ion trap. The smooth voltage supply can move the ions very fast while also keeping them from getting too excited.

With advances in precision control, researchers think ions could be transported even more quickly and yet still return to their original quantum states when they stop. Researchers must also continue to work on the many practical challenges, such as suppressing unwanted heating of the ion motion from noisy electric fields in the environment. The research is supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, National Security Agency, Office of Naval Research, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

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

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Journal Reference:

1. R. Bowler, J. Gaebler, Y. Lin, T.R. Tan, D. Hanneke, J.D. Jost, J.P. Home, D. Leibfried and D.J. Wineland. Coherent diabatic ion transport and separation in a multi-zone trap array. Physical Review Letters, 2012; (forthcoming)

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

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/KzBKElYBN8E/120813173303.htm

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