Blog
Texas Farmers, Pecan Growers Blame Vegetation Death on Power Plant
29/12/2010 14:16Environmentalists, scientists, plant specialists, and farmers say that sulfur dioxide from a Texas coal-fired power plant is causing extensive swaths of vegetation death in the region.UGG Boots Ultra Tall Pecan growers have reported plant devastation near the Fayette Power Project, a 30-year-old facility in Ellinger, Texas. They say the power plant, which is operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority, emits sulfur dioxide that has caused thousands of trees to die and nut production to steadily plummet. UGG Boots Ultra Short “There was an environmental catastrophe,” local horticulturalist Jim Berry told MSNBC. “It wasn’t just the pecan groves,” he said. “It was the entire ecosystem that was under duress.” Sulfur dioxide has been known to kill plants in other parts of the country, AP reports. The Lower Colorado River Authority claims that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that the plant is responsible for the dying trees, blaming the damage on recent droughts instead. The Environmental Protection Agency toured some of the farms and is currently reviewing data, AP reports. Air Jordan 2010
How the Major Stock Indexes Fared Monday
28/12/2010 14:57Stocks ended a light trading day little changed as investors focused on strong holiday shopping results and looked past an interest rate hike in China. Many traders stayed home because of the snow, but the absence of selling points to growing confidence about the U.S. economy. UGG Boots Argyle Knit Data from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse survey estimates that U.S. retail sales between Nov. 5 and Dec. 24 rose 5.5 percent from last year. Wall Street is anticipating that Tuesday's consumer confidence index for December will reflect this optimism. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 18.46 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 11,555.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.8 of a point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,257.54. UGG Bailey Button Triplet The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.7 points, also less than 0.1 percent, to 2,667.27. o. Cleveland: Eric Mangini. If Mangini had won, Mike Holmgren could probably get by the lack of chemistry -- both personally and professionally. Holmgren, after all, was tolerant enough not to fire him when he took over. But at 5-10? Gruden, who apprenticed in Green Bay under Holmgren, might fit. So would Holmgren himself, who hasn't ruled out a return to coaching. On the other hand, Seattle only became a Super Bowl team when Holmgren dropped his GM duties and concentrated on coaching, something he's unlikely to do here. Cincinnati: Marvin Lewis. His contract is up and he's unlikely to re-sign -- he's been asked by Mike Brown to do everything from act as general manager and chief scout to dean of discipline. The problem is Brown, who won't hire a GM, scouts or anyone to do a lot of the little chores with which Lewis is stuck. Better for Lewis to take a year or two off, then finding another job. If he's someone's defensive coordinator, that's probably all right with him after the burden he's had, including that run of disciplinary troubles that Brown has brought in. And look what happened Sunday when T.O. and Ochocinco didn't play. Kids Classic Short
Teena Marie, 1980s R&B Hitmaker, Dies at 54
28/12/2010 14:55Teena Marie, a singer whose funky hits in the 1980s, like “Lovergirl” and “Square Biz,” made her one of the few white performers to consistently find success on the rhythm-and-blues charts, died Sunday at her home in Pasadena, Calif. She was 54. UGG Boots The cause was not immediately known, but The Associated Press reported that the authorities said she appeared to have died of natural causes. Air Yeezy Born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, Calif., on March 5, 1956, she grew up in a predominantly black area of nearby Venice, Calif., and began singing and acting while still a child. At age 8, she tap-danced for Jed Clampett on an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” under the name Tina Marie Brockert. After graduating from high school and briefly attending Santa Monica College, she signed with Motown Records and became of protégée of Rick James, then one of the label’s biggest new stars. Teena Marie’s first album, “Wild and Peaceful,” with James as a producer and the chief songwriter — and his Stone City Band backing her up — was released on Motown’s Gordy imprint in 1979. “I’m Just a Sucker for Your Love,” her duet with James from that album, went to No. 8 on the R&B singles chart, and the two began a tempestuous love affair. Another duet, “Fire and Desire,” appeared on James’s hit album from 1981, “Street Songs.” James died in 2004. Through the 1980s, Teena Marie developed a style that folded bits of rap (as on the 1981 hit “Square Biz”) and rock (“You So Heavy,” from 1986, has a scorching guitar solo by Stevie Ray Vaughan) into danceable, funk-driven pop. From the start, race was ambiguous in her music. She was not pictured on the cover of “Wild and Peaceful,” which was promoted to black radio stations. With an earthy voice that pierced with power in its high registers, she was highly credible as an R&B singer, and many listeners learned that she was white only when they saw her glamorous portrait on the cover of her second album, “Lady T,” in 1980. Nike Air Jordans “I still have people coming up to me 26 years later and looking at me and all of a sudden going, ‘I didn’t know you were white!’ ” she said in an interview on National Public Radio in 2006. But she was embraced by the R&B audience, and some of her songs have become ingrained in black musical culture. Her 1988 song “Ooo La La La” was sampled and reconfigured by the Fugees as “Fu-Gee-La” in 1996 on their debut album, “The Score.” For many of her fellow musicians, Teena Marie’s biggest accomplishment was made offstage. Her lawsuit against Motown in the early 1980s, for nonpayment of royalties, resulted in a clarification of California law — known in the music industry as the Brockert Initiative or the Teena Marie Law — that made it much more difficult for record companies to keep an act under an exclusive contract. After leaving Motown, she signed with Epic and reached her commercial peak. Her 1984 song “Lovergirl” — featuring her impassioned squeal in the chorus, “I just want to be your lover girl/I just want to rock your world” — went to No. 4 on Billboard’s pop chart and became her biggest seller. In the 1990s, Teena Marie’s career slowed as she raised a daughter, Alia Rose, who survives her. But she continued to release music. She was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for best female R&B vocal performance, for her song “I’m Still in Love” — she lost to Alicia Keys — and released her most recent album, “Congo Square,” on the revived Stax label in 2009. Although Teena Marie’s race was hidden from the public at the very beginning of her career, she has always been forthright about the black influences in her music. In an interview with Essence.com last year, she suggested that the content of the music mattered more than the singer’s color. “Over all my race hasn’t been a problem,” she said. “I’m a black artist with white skin. At the end of the day you have to sing what’s in your own soul.” Cheap Jordans
Apple Navigation Job Postings Point to Maps
21/12/2010 15:24Apple is looking for software engineers with experience in navigational systems, signalling that the company could be looking to develop its own mapping service to compete with Google Maps, at least for its iOS devices. air max 2011 Apple had four job listings for positions with identical job descriptions on Friday (1, 2, 3, 4), as per a report from AppleInsider. On Monday, three of those job descriptions are listed as, “This job is no longer posted!” The third in the series, however, is still on Apple’s job site. Apple started down the path that could lead to an Apple Maps service with the purchase of PlaceBase in July of 2009, a firm that had developed its own mapping technologies and Pushpin services for geotagging. In July of 2010, Apple also bought Quebec-based Poly9, a company that developed intermediary code for third party map-related services. This isn’t the first map-related job posting Apple has made, either. In November of 2009, the company advertised for a software engineer that could help take iPhone and iPod touch mapping “to the next level.” “We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things,” Apple wrote in the listing. “We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We’ve only just started.” Each time Apple has made a move in this field, there has been much speculation and pontification on what Apple plans. It’s likely that we’ve already seen some of PlaceBase’s technology come to market in Apple’s iLife suite with geotagging features in iPhoto, and Apple replaced Google Maps for iOS Location Services data starting with the release of the iPad. Still, many observers have wondered if Apple was looking to replace all of Google Maps in its zeal to compete with newfound arch-rival Google. A full-blown Apple Maps feature would allow the company to stop giving Google a prominent placement on the home screen of every iPhone sold, if it chose to go that route. Air Max shoes It’s been 18 months (that we know about), however, since Apple began buying map-related assets, and it’s been more than a year since it first posted (and filled, in that the posting was eventually pulled), a want ad for a mapping engineer. Do these new positions mean that Apple is getting serious? Or is this more about timing and the development of its data center in North Carolina? If Apple is going to enter this space, it has one opportunity to show the world that it can replace Google. Many people regard Google Maps as the best mapping service in the industry — the company’s Google Maps iPhone app was the first and only third party app Apple allowed on the original iPhone for a reason — and if “Apple Maps” (for lack of a better term) doesn’t perform at least as well (and preferably better), the company will be lampooned and panned far and wide for messing with a good thing. In other words, doing Apple Maps correctly is far more important than having, say, Ping be perfect out of the gate. Ping was a new competitor in the social networking scene, but it wasn’t seeking to supplant Facebook, or even MySpace, if you remember that old site. Ping can flounder along for some time while Apple works to make it something we care about without the company taking any serious egg on its corporate face, but Apple Maps has to be just right out of the gate. So it’s no wonder that the company has been slow to roll out a new platform based on its existing mapping purchases, though the latest round of job postings leave zero doubt that this is what the company plans to do. Eventually. The only real question is whether it will be limited to iOS devices, or available via a browser to really compete with Google Maps and Bing’s mapping service and Yahoo! and…you get the idea. Air Max
fraction of the roughly 5,000 per month that entered the
21/12/2010 15:20"Hundreds of hours of staff time and millions of dollars are spent on documenting each nut and bolt - as if we were supervising the transfer of highly specialized weapons, and despite the fact that steel, concrete and gravel enter Gaza quite freely via the tunnels," said Sari Bashi, Gisha's executive director. Coach outlet Kerem Shalom, the only full-time border crossing for goods, has increased its capacity and can accommodate 250 trucks daily, most of them carrying commercial products. But the problems with construction materials persist. A single conveyer belt at the Karni crossing is used for animal feed and concrete. It operates two days a week, creating shortages of both goods. Israel says it cannot operate the conveyer belt more often because of security problems. Overall, nearly 150 trucks carrying construction materials enter Gaza each month. Although that marks an increase from what was permitted before the May flotilla raid, it is a fraction of the roughly 5,000 per month that entered the territory when trade flowed freely. A deficit of schoolsCoach handbags In Rafah, at the dusty southern tip of the Gaza Strip, there are endless rows of what appear to be greenhouses. But behind the plastic sheeting of one, a steep dirt incline leads to an 800-meter tunnel to Egypt. Bags of aggregate - crushed rock used in the making of cement - are transported by a rudimentary pulley system, bagged and are waiting to be trucked to market. Hamas, with help from Islamic charities in the Persian Gulf, is using materials smuggled through these tunnels to build schools and houses. Yasser al Shanti, director of public works in the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said the cash-strapped group renovated 1,000 houses with the support of such charities. A school has been built in Rafah, and a major street in Gaza City has been repaired. Over the past two months, about half of the 925 trucks of supplies scheduled to enter Gaza for U.N. projects actually did, according to the U.N. relief agency, Gaza's largest outside donor. Since Israel's move in June to facilitate more international construction, the relief agency has completed two projects - a sewage pumping station and 151 housing units - which are just a fraction of the 10,000 units it seeks to build. Air Max 95 But Ging says his main concern is schools. Israel has approved six out of 100 the agency says it needs to build to accommodate 40,000 eligible children. "Overcrowded classrooms, tens of thousands of children failing academically, all of these things, they have long-term detrimental consequences," he said. "We don't have the luxury to deal with that after the peace process." Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, coordinator of Israel's activities in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, said Israel is examining the agency's requests as quickly as it can and supports its efforts to establish schools. As for when Israel might eliminate restrictions on construction materials for the private sector, officials say they are considering it. "After a period of quiet from all the shooting . . . maybe it will start happening," said Guy Inbar, a spokesman for Dangot. "But not yet." Air Max 90
Emergency unemployment benefits reauthorized
20/12/2010 15:31Thousands of Washington’s jobless workers may continue to receive up to 99 weeks of benefits, now that Congress and the president have reauthorized a federal unemployment benefits program that expired last month. Air Max 95 “This is welcome news for unemployed workers who are having a hard time finding a job,” said Joel Sacks, Deputy Commissioner for the Employment Security Department. “We need to keep a safety net in place until the economy gathers more steam.” Air Max 90 For the past year, eligible jobless workers could receive up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, collected in this order: up to 26 weeks of regular benefits, up to 53 weeks of emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) and up to 20 weeks of extended benefits. Today’s action extends the EUC program, but does not expand the total weeks available. Therefore, people who have already collected all of their EUC benefits are not eligible for these additional benefits. Depending on where individuals are in their claims cycle, they will fall primarily into two categories – those who are eligible for more benefits and those who are not. Eligible for more benefits Air Max 24-7 When the EUC program lapsed at the end of November, individuals in tiers 1, 2 or 3 of the four-tiered EUC program could not advance to the next tier (e.g., could not move from tier 1 to tier 2), thereby losing access to the balance of their EUC benefits. Also, individuals who ran out of regular benefits after November could not enter the EUC program, thus limiting them to up to 46 weeks of benefits. Under the new EUC extension, unemployed workers approved for regular state benefits or EUC tiers 1, 2 or 3 may claim their full entitlement of EUC benefits. Currently, about 300,000 people in Washington fall into these categories. These people will automatically move to the next tier of benefits and do not need to call Employment Security. Claimants who believe they have EUC benefits remaining but stopped claiming must call the EUC triage unit at 877-558-8509 to reopen their claims. Not eligible for more benefits Under the new legislation, the EUC program remains at a maximum of 53 weeks. Therefore, people in tier 4 of the EUC program, as well as those collecting “extended benefits” and those who have used up all of their benefits, are not eligible for additional benefits. Air Max 2010
Unemployment extension 2010 for 99er's - is a champion emerging in Washington?
20/12/2010 15:27The unemployment extension 2010 has given millions of unemployed Americans some security, at least they know that they can feed their kids with the unemployment benefits promised for another 13 months. The 2010 unemployment extension was “a proud moment” for President Obama. He went to great pains for the unemployed, but what about the 99er’s? Where is their advocate who will take that unpopular stand and get these 5 to 6 million people help? longchamp outlets Some how, somewhere, someone picked the magic number of “99” as being the number of weeks that people no longer need help. President Obama is not taking an unpopular stand for this group of unemployed, in fact very few are.longchamp bags Congresswoman, Sheila Jackson-Lee really gave a gut wrenching shout out for the 99er’s on the floor of the Senate last week. But where does it go from there. Will the Congresswoman go home for the holidays, like the rest of the lawmakers, and enjoy all that money can buy for a good old fashion Christmas while the 99er’s are still without so much as a “maybe” that an unemployment extension will be created just for them? Probably. Did Jackson-Lee’s ambition for an unemployment extension for the 99er's stop as soon as her echoes through the great halls of the House diminished? It is not just about Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, it is about all the politicians that say the right things about getting the unemployed 99ers an unemployment extension, or a tier 5, and after the grand stand, that is it, nothing else is said until they are put on the spot again. Just one Senator or Representative from the House is needed to take the 99er’s unemployment extension on as a “pet project.” People will be surprised that once the dust settles from the anger around the latest “Obama deal,” about the number of the President’s traditional non-supports that applauded him for taking such an unpopular stand for the American people. It put him in a new light for many, according to Fox News. It is not such a bad thing to do, to go against the grain for the individual American. It could actually make a champion out of someone who would be willing to do this for the 99er's.longchamp handbags The Connecticut Democratic Congressman, Jim Himes, was the only Connecticut Democrat in the House that crossed over the line and supported the “Obama deal. ”He said he was “in a bit of a lonely situation” for doing so. There was no oil company waiting for Himes to donate money for his next election, or a trade off for a large museum for his state. The people he stood up for did not have a dime, and he had nothing tangible to benefit. His unpopular stand could work against him at election time, but he did what he came to Washington to do…SERVE THE PEOPLE, to the best of his ability. What makes Obama and Himes different from others who have crossed that party line in the past is that there was nothing in it for them. It was not to benefit a big business, and it went against something they might do to get re-elected. It was for the “American people.” This was a breath of fresh air in politics, for a change. The 99er’s need this same type of politician who will go the full and entire way to follow an unemployment extension from start to finish. The quick shout-outs, however nice, does not do what it takes to get things done. This group of unemployed need someone willing to take the unpopular position in Washington for the good of the individuals who are in a crisis, the 99er’s. Will that person be Sheila Jackson-Lee? She certainly had much conviction behind her speech. Gucci Bags
Health Buzz: Avastin Shouldn't Be Used for Breast Cancer, FDA Says
18/12/2010 11:00FDA: Risks Outweigh Potential Benefits of Drug Cheap Jordans The drug Avastin should no longer be approved to fight breast cancer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded Thursday. The agency cited studies that have shown the drug doesn't prolong survival or slow the disease's progression and that it carries substantial risks, including severe high blood pressure, bleeding and hemorrhaging, and heart attack or heart failure. The agency's announcement does not mean it will remove Avastin from the market. For now, the drug continues to hold its approved status for breast cancer, pending an appeal process. Moreover, the FDA has not proposed revoking the drug's approvals for cancers of the colon, kidneys, brain, and lungs. Oncologists treating breast-cancer patients with Avastin should use their judgment in deciding whether to continue treatment or use other options, according to the FDA. Avastin's maker, Genentech, which received approval to market the treatment for breast cancer in 2008, indicated on Thursday that it would exercise the right to a hearing to contest the FDA's proposed revocation. The FDA's announcement follows the advice of an independent committee, which, in a 12-1 vote last July, recommended the FDA revoke the approval. While it's difficult to know whether a certain medication will help a breast-cancer patient, aspirin may be an effective therapy for survivors to cut risk of the disease's recurrence, U.S. News's Bernadine Healy reported in February. From: Aspirin: A Blockbuster Therapy for Breast Cancer Survivors? Air Max 2011 "Has it spread?" "Am I going to die?" These are the heart-sinking questions that invariably run through the minds of women who have been told that they have breast cancer. They courageously take on surgery, long and arduous chemotherapy, and radiation treatments, hoping to fend off the fate of the 40,000 women whose breast cancer will take a deadly turn this year, reappearing and relentlessly spreading throughout their body. The report released in February from the Nurses' Health Study, in a rather understated way, offers 2 million American women who have had breast cancer some vital and actionable information. Taking a single aspirin tablet—a baby aspirin or one adult pill—every other day can be lifesaving. (In fact, were these aspirin tablets a hot new biotech drug, we would be popping champagne right now.) The long-term, low-dose aspirin program was initiated a year or more after the cancer diagnosis as an add-on to treatment, not as a substitute for it, to control the fate of tumor cells silently left behind. For some women, this post-treatment phase is one in which the cancer has gone underground and not entirely disappeared. It can lead to unexpected recurrence with the cancer spreading sometimes 10 to 20 years after diagnosis. Scientists seem to have stumbled upon an easy way to cut that risk. Air Max 24-7 The study followed 4,164 breast cancer survivors over a period from 1976 to 2006, assessing in detail their use of aspirin. The women studied initially presented with tumors ranging from small early invasive cancers confined to the breast to more advanced ones that had spread into surrounding lymph nodes. Over more than three decades of follow-up, 400 women had a cancer recurrence with distant tumor spread, which had killed 341 of them by the time the study ended. The power to spread is the power to kill, and what aspirin seems to be doing is interfering with that process. It was by coincidence, not by design, that almost half of the medically smart women in the NHS were diligently taking aspirin. The surprise finding: Those who made aspirin a regular habit, consuming low doses two to five times a week (mostly to help their hearts), were 71 percent less likely to have a deadly recurrence of their breast cancer compared to those who were taking little or no aspirin.Air Max 95
Fearless woman's brain reveals key to phobias
18/12/2010 10:58The case of a literally fearless woman — rendered so after brain damage — has helped scientists confirm that a part of the brain structure regulating emotions is the key to human and animal phobia. The 44-year-old mother of three, referred to in the journal Current Biology as SM, has a rare psychological impairment due to a genetic disease called lipoid proteinosis that left holes where her amygdala — the brain’s danger detector — would normally reside.Basketball Shoes The patient felt excitement, but never fear in a series of threatening scenarios monitored by researchers with the University of Iowa, led by Justin Feinstein, a clinical neuropsychologist. The American woman was taken to a pet store to interact with snakes and spiders, where she was reported to have exclaimed, “This is so cool!” while rubbing a snake’s scales and touching its tongue. Pet store employees had warned her about the danger of the exotic pets. Previously, the patient also admitted she hated snakes and spiders. During the tests, however, she had to be coaxed away from reaching towards a tarantula. Air Force Ones Asked by researchers to rate her fear from zero to 10, she never exceeded two. Led by scientists into a “haunted house,” SM eagerly approached staff dressed as monsters, even startling one masked performer by poking at the head, reasoning that she was “curious” about how the mask would feel. While she considered the experience to be “highly exciting and entertaining,” comparing it to the feeling of a roller-coaster ride, her fear rating was zero. Horror films such as The Blair Witch Project and The Shining also registered minimal fear readings from her. Spoke calmly to knife-wielding stranger Scientists have studied SM for more than two decades, with multiple papers published about her fear-related anomaly. While she recalled experiencing fear as a child, after a scary encounter with a snarling Doberman pinscher that cornered her, she could not remember fearing anything as an adult. One night in 1995, a strange man leapt from a park bench and pressed a knife to her throat, threatening to cut her. “If you’re going to kill me, you’re going to have to go through my God’s angels first,” she replied, looking at him coolly. She then walked away and returned to the park the next day. The scientists are trying to coach SM’s behaviour to react differently in such dangerous situations. “It is quite remarkable that she is still alive,” said Feinstein, noting that she has submitted herself needlessly into risky scenarios due to her inability to process fear. Researchers believe that understanding how SM’s mind works may help with the discovery of treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. basketball shoes
WikiLeaks cables: BP suffered blowout on Azerbaijan gas platform
16/12/2010 10:58Striking resemblances between BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak in Azerbaijan experienced by the UK firm 18 months beforehand have emerged from leaked US embassy cables. Air Max 95 The cables reveal that some of BP's partners in the gas field were upset that the company was so secretive about the incident that it even allegedly withheld information from them. They also say that BP was lucky that it was able to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which resulted in two fields being shut and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day with production disrupted for months.Air Max 90 Other cables leaked tonight claim that the president of Azerbaijan accused BP of stealing $10bn of oil from his country and using "mild blackmail" to secure the rights to develop vast gas reserves in the Caspian Sea region. WikiLeaks also released cables claiming that: ? Senior figures in Thailand are concerned about the suitability of the crown prince to become king, citing rumours that he has lovers in several European capitals in addition to his wife and son in Thailand. ? American energy firm Chevron was in discussions with Tehran about developing an Iraq-Iran cross-border oilfield, despite US sanctions against Iran.Kids Jordan The leaks came as the whistleblower site's founder Julian Assange prepared for another night in jail ahead of tomorrow's high court challenge to the decision to grant him £200,000 bail. Swedish authorities, who want to question Assange on allegations of sexual assault, believe he should remain in custody as he is a flight risk. On the Azerbaijan gas leak, acable reports for the first time that BP suffered a blowout in September 2008, as it did in the Gulf with devastating consequences in April, as well as the gas leak that the firm acknowledged at the time. "Due to the blowout of a gas-injection well there was 'a lot of mud' on the platform, which BP would analyze to help find the cause of the blowout and gas leak," the cable said. Written a few weeks after the incident, the cable said Bill Schrader, BP's then head of Azerbaijan, admitted it was possible the company "would never know" the cause although it "is continuing to methodically investigate possible theories". According to another cable, in January 2009 BP thought that a "bad cement job" was to blame for the gas leak in Azerbaijan. More recently, BP's former chief executive Tony Hayward also partly blamed a "bad cement job" by contractor Halliburton for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The blowout in the Gulf led to the deaths of 11 workers and the biggest accidental offshore oil spill in history. BP was also criticised for not initially sharing all its information with the US authorities about the scale of the Gulf spill. The gas field in the Caspian Sea was in production when the leak and blow out occured, unlike the well in the Gulf which was being drilled to explore for oil. Cheap Jordans