Saturday, December 31, 2011

University of Oldenburg Wins EUR 3.8 Million for Offshore Wind Research Project (Germany)

University of Oldenburg Wins EUR 3.8 Million for Offshore Wind Research Project (Germany)

Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) will sponsor the new research project, GW Wakes, on offshore wind energy at the University of Oldenburg, with 3.8 million euros over the next three years.

The aim is to study the wind currents and wakes in large offshore wind farms with hundreds of plants.

The workgroup involved in the project comprises Oldenburg Physics, Member of ForWind, the Centre for Wind Energy Research of the University of Oldenburg, Bremen and Hannover and the Fraunhofer Project Group ?Computational Fluid and System Dynamics? in Oldenburg and the BARD Engineering GmbH, Emden.

?GW Wakes? addresses this problem and helps improve the efficiency of wind turbines and offshore wind farms and the predictability of wind power production.

This so-called MultiLIDAR scientists measure the wind flow, turbulence and shadowing effects of wind turbines and investigate the effect of the wake flow to wind farms in the area.

They work similar to a modern ultrasound examination of the blood flow in the heart that can color the moving images.

The research project is made possible through the cooperation with BARD Engineering GmbH, which currently projects six offshore wind farms in the German Bight. BARD supports the Oldenburg scientists with extensive operational data and access to the 100 kilometers northwest of Borkum located offshore wind farm ?BARD Offshore 1?. The 400-megawatt wind farm will be completed in late 2013. 80 wind turbines will provide electricity for more than 400,000 households.

?For BARD BARD Engineering and the entire group, the contents and results of the research project are essential building blocks for the design and optimization of large offshore wind farms and for the design of the next generation of future wind turbines. Therefore it is important to us to support this project active, ?explains Dr. Daniel Brickwell, sales manager of BARD Holding GmbH.

Offshore WIND staff, December 30, 2011; Image:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OffshoreWindNews/~3/NFqagBjsjBQ/

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Romney plans aggressive push before Iowa caucuses (AP)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa ? Feeling optimistic, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Thursday was positive on TV with an upbeat, new ad but in person went negative against President Barack Obama. He also announced an aggressive schedule of campaign events for the days leading up to next week's caucuses.

Romney, who is wrapping up a bus tour of eastern Iowa on Friday, planned to campaign in New Hampshire early Saturday before returning to Iowa that evening for a series of events on the economy. Those events are to be followed by six campaign rallies, mostly in eastern Iowa, from Sunday through Tuesday's caucuses, including an early morning one before voters start gathering to declare their candidate preferences.

Romney will then spend caucus night in Des Moines before flying to New Hampshire on Wednesday morning.

The newly planned events show a confident Romney campaign in the final five days of the campaign for Iowa. While Romney had spent months working to lower expectations that he would win here, the latest polls show him in strong position to win outright or finish in second place behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Romney's six rallies begin New Year's Day in Council Bluffs, in the western part of the state. In 2008, he did well in nearby counties where agribusiness drives the economy. He'll hold another set of rallies in eastern Iowa, where he also performed well.

The plans come as Romney began running a new, minute-long TV ad in Iowa. The spot shows clips from Romney's announcement speech in June. Romney also talks in the ad about the "spirit of enterprise" and focuses on the opportunities America has provided its people.

Romney repeated the pitch from the ad during an early-morning stop at a diner. He ignored his Republican rivals, who are also campaigning furiously in the state, and focused instead on the Democratic president.

"We have a choice in this coming election of what kind of America we're going to have," Romney told the crowd at J's Homestyle Cooking. "It's not just about replacing a president. It's about saving the soul of America. Are we going to change America into something we don't recognize?"

The former Massachusetts governor had two other events scheduled Thursday, including at Music Man Square in Mason City, the birthplace of playwright Meredith Willson. Willson set his play, "The Music Man," in a fictional Iowa town that he based on Mason City.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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Friday, December 30, 2011

'Real Housewives' Star Kim Richards Leaves Rehab

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards is back from rehab and back on the wagon.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/real-housewives-beverly-hills-star-kim-richards-leaves-rehab/1-a-414478?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Areal-housewives-beverly-hills-star-kim-richards-leaves-rehab-414478

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UFCs Chael Sonnen ranked among top 10 sports villains for 2011

LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 30:  Host and mixed martial artist Chael Sonnen arrives at the Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards 2011 at the Palms Casino Resort November 30, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Outspoken and outrageous Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight, Chael Sonnen, finds himself right smack in the middle of a not-so prestigious list that includes sports figures such as pro-tennis star Serena Williams and NBA Commissioner David Stern.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Sonnen is number five on its top 10 list of sports villains for 2011. Here is the description:

5. Chael Sonnen -- A one-man MMA goon squad who has ripped on Octagon girls, stormed out of interviews and makes WWE declarations to beaten opponents. The highly-ranked American middleweight had off-octagon problems as well. In January, he pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud and received two years' probation.

With his knack for getting a rise out of anybody on the promotion's roster with his verbal attacks and quick wit, the former NCAA All-American wrestler has never been one to shy away to speaking his mind.

So much so, in fact, that UFC President Dana White says he hasn't seen (or in this case heard) anyone have a way with words since the great Muhammad Ali. UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, as well as most fighters who hail from Brazil, have been the primary target of Sonnen's one-man good squad.

However, no one is seemingly safe from his sharp tongue, including other sports figures such as seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and even UFC Octagon girl Arianny Celeste, among others.

To see the rest of Yahoo's "Top 10 Sports Villains for 2011" click here.

Source: http://www.mmamania.com/2011/12/28/2667173/ufc-middleweight-chael-sonnen-among-top-10-sports-villains-for-2011

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Kahne takes flak after breastfeeding rant on Twitter

NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne hasn?t gotten this kind of attention on the Internet since his brief encounter with Paris Hilton at an L.A. night club in 2009.

That was when Hilton, the hotel/resort heiress/reality TV and so on star, reportedly ventured that Kahne, winner of 12 races at NASCAR?s top level, was ?cute.?

But the sentiments being expressed now aren?t quite as complimentary after Kahne ranted on Twitter about breastfeeding in public. The more recent encounter reportedly took place at a grocery store and has prompted hundreds of responses ? ranging from supportive to outrage.

In a series of Tweets, huffingtonpost.com reported, the 31-year-old driver said the sight caused him to lose his appetite and his desire to continue shopping.

According to mediate.com, Kahne removed at least two of the remarks by Wednesday morning, but not before posting something less than flattering about the upset mother, who had proposed that Kahne reconsider his remarks.

In the 2012 season, Kahne will drive for NASCAR's most successful team, Hendrick Motorsports.

More racing news, blogs, photos and more at www.ThatsRacin.com.

Source: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/12/28/80182/kahne-takes-flak-after-breastfeeding.html

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Hacked Powermat lets you touch-to-charge your iPhone in stop-and-go traffic

When you're cruising down the highway, you've got much better things to do than fiddling with iPhone cables -- like, you know, texting and playing Angry Birds. Thankfully, this handy little Powermat hack brings the fun of wireless charging to the comfort of your mobile office, to help free up your hands a bit -- at least until Siri learns how to steer. Video after the break and instructions in the source link -- but please, pull over to the side of the road before attempting to install.

Continue reading Hacked Powermat lets you touch-to-charge your iPhone in stop-and-go traffic

Hacked Powermat lets you touch-to-charge your iPhone in stop-and-go traffic originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 05:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGeeked  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/26/hacked-powermat-lets-you-touch-to-charge-your-iphone-in-stop-and/

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Fox's "Terra Nova" finale ties with CBS' repeats (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - First, the good news for Fox: Its two-hour season finale of the dinosaur drama "Terra Nova" gave the network a first-place ratings tie with CBS on Monday.

Now the bad news: CBS was airing repeats.

Though up only 5 percent from last week in the key adults 18-49 demographic, "Terra Nova" from 8 to 10 p.m. averaged a 2.2 rating/6 share in the demographic with 7.1 million total viewers.

That was enough to tie Fox with CBS in the demo for the night -- though CBS edged out Fox in average total viewership, earning most-watched status for the night with an average 7.4 million total viewers.

While running repeats throughout the night, CBS managed to snag the best-rated program with a "2 Broke Girls" repeat at 8:30, which posted a 2.7/7 in the demo, and was also the most-watched program of the night with 8.46 million total viewers. (It is likely, however, that CBS' numbers enjoyed inflation from 8-9:30 p.m. due to NFL pre-emption.)

Over at NBC, the premiere of NBC's trivia show "Who's Still Standing?" at 8 drew a 1.5/4 in the demo, with 5.5 million total viewers. But "Fear Factor" the following hour delivered grim news for the network, plunging 25 percent from last week's premiere with a 2.4/6 in the demo and 6.2 million total viewers.

That's likely disheartening, given the lack of competition from original programming at CBS. Despite the decrease, "Rock Center With Brian Williams" at 10 managed a 9 percent bump from last week, when it was boosted considerably from the "Fear Factor" premiere. Last night's episode of the news show posted a 1.2/3 in the demo, with 4.3 million total viewers.

ABC, whose Monday numbers are subject to inflation due to NFL pre-emption, began the night with "Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special" at 8, which received a 1.3/4 in the demo and 4.7 million total viewers, followed by "A Chipmunk Christmas" at 8:30, which posted a 1.4/4 in the demo and 4.9 million total viewers.

Following a new episode of the game show "You Deserve It!" at 9, which received a 1.1/3 in the demo and 4.1 million total viewers, the network closed the evening with a "Castle" repeat.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_foxs_terra_nova_finale_ties_cbs_repeats215240791/43966096/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/foxs-terra-nova-finale-ties-cbs-repeats-215240791.html

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

8 Occupy protesters arrested at Democratic HQ (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Eight Occupy Iowa protesters have been arrested at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters in Des Moines, where they protested measures being considered in Washington dealing with issues including defense spending, a planned oil pipeline and jobless benefits.

Twelve protesters entered the party headquarters Monday morning. A few hours later, eight were escorted away by police and placed into a van. Police say they will be cited with trespassing and released.

The arrests came two days after the protesters set up camp outside President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in Des Moines to demand he agree with them on the issues.

Protester Julie Brown says the goal wasn't to get arrested but to bring attention to defense spending, plans for an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas and other matters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_iowa_arrests

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Early rally fades; stock market down for the week (AP)

An early rally faded on the stock market Friday, leaving indexes down about 3 percent for the week as worries resurfaced about a breakup of the euro.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion plunged after slashing its forecast for holiday sales. The IPO of online game maker Zynga Inc. didn't live up to its lofty expectations. The stock lost 5 percent on its first day of trading

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 2 points. It was up as many as 99 points in the morning after the Italian government won a confidence vote on austerity measures. That gain evaporated around midday after Fitch warned that it might downgrade the debt of Italy, Spain and four other countries that use the euro. After markets closed, Moody's downgraded Belgium's debt two notches and said more cuts were possible.

Materials and industrial companies rose, signaling that traders expect the U.S. economic recovery to remain on track. Utilities, health care and consumer staples companies lagged the market as traders sold stocks that are considered to be safer when the economy is weak.

The Dow Jones industrial average broke a three-day slump Thursday on news that claims for unemployment benefits plunged last week and measures of manufacturing in the Northeast improved dramatically. The Dow lost 360 points over the first three days of the week as investors questioned whether Europe's agreement to closer coordinate fiscal policy would be enough to save the euro from a catastrophic breakup.

Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, said investors are holding back until they get a "firmer resolution" to Europe's debt morass and more progress in Washington on reforming entitlements, balancing the budget and getting the country growing again. "Right, now we don't have anything to offer them," he said.

Some analysts believe nervousness about Europe this fall and winter pushed stock prices too far. Investment adviser Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners, expects stocks to rise into next year because of the growing likelihood that economic news and European headlines will remain positive.

"The odds are, the news is going to be better than the market is discounting," Landesman said. He said the market is near the low end of its recent trading range, and a dose of positive news could set off a mini-rally. Any market moves next week could be sharp as trading volume thins out before the Christmas holiday, Landesman said.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 2.42 points at 11,866.93.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.91, or 0.3 percent, to 1,219.66. The Nasdaq composite index rose 14.32, or 0.6 percent, to 2,555.33 The Dow is down 2.6 percent for the week; the S&P 2.8 percent. The Nasdaq lost 3.5 percent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note plunged to 1.85 percent from 1.93 percent earlier Friday after the government said consumer prices were unchanged last month, suggesting that inflation remains low. Low inflation makes bonds more attractive because it doesn't diminish the buying power of the fixed return a bond provides over time.

Seven of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index rose, with the only declines showing up in health care, consumer staples, and utilities. The biggest gains were in energy, materials and industrial companies. U.S. factories in some regions have had higher shipments and orders month, according to two surveys released Thursday. Materials companies are benefiting from soaring commodity prices.

Research In Motion Ltd. plummeted 11 percent after the company said late Thursday that new phones seen as critical to its future will be delayed until late next year. RIM also is taking a big loss on unsold tablet computers and predicted that its BlackBerry sales will fall sharply during the holiday sales season.

Zynga, which makes "Farmville" and other popular games, fell 5 percent to $9.50 in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq. The initial public offering was priced late Thursday at $10 per share, raising $1 billion. That means the San Francisco company can boast the biggest Internet IPO since Google Inc. first offered shares in 2004.

Among the other companies making big moves:

? New York-area cable TV provider Cablevision Systems Corp. plunged 9 percent following the sudden departure of its chief operating officer, Tom Rutledge.

? Adobe Systems Inc. jumped 6.6 percent after the software maker reported earnings and revenues that were far better than what analysts had expected. Analyst Walter Pritchard at Citigroup said the quarter was a "blow-out when most expected weakness."

___

AP Business Writer Joshua Freed contributed to this story.

Follow Daniel Wagner at http://www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Comprehensive euro zone deal "beyond reach": Fitch (Reuters)

ROME/BERLIN (Reuters) ? A comprehensive solution to the euro zone debt crisis is beyond the region's reach, rating agency Fitch said, warning that six of its economies including Italy and Spain could be hit with credit downgrades in the near future.

The warning late Friday, the second time in two weeks that the bloc has been threatened with multiple ratings markdowns, heightened pressure on leaders to get to grips with the turmoil.

Fitch also said it might also cut AAA-rated France within two years and urged the European Central Bank to take a more active firefighting role.

One ECB policymaker said Saturday that time was running out to come up with solutions to a crisis that could spark a global slump. Another said the bank would not expand the bond buying program it launched to keep a lid on vulnerable states' debt costs.

Underscoring tensions within the bloc, a week after a key EU summit failed to reassure financial markets the crisis was being tackled, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti urged EU policymakers Friday to beware of dividing the continent.

ECB ratesetter Erkki Liikanen said that, to prevent a flurry of ratings downgrades and a credit freeze, the continent's leaders needed to act fast to beef up the rescue funds designed to provide a safety net for debt-laden member countries.

"The worse scenario is that the negative cycle continues, uncertainty grows, which would lead to a global recession," Liikanen - a member of the bank's governing council -told Finnish public broadcaster YLE in an interview Saturday.

International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde had said no country was immune from the crisis and each needed to act to head off the risk of a global depression.

In a swipe against Germany, Italy's Monti said Europe's response "should be wrapped in a long-term sustainable approach, not just to feed short-term hunger for rigor in some countries."

Pushing for governments to eliminate their bloated budget deficits, Germany has led resistance to allowing the ECB to ramp up its bond purchases to a big enough scale to douse the crisis.

But Fitch added to the pressure for just such a move.

The agency said that, following the EU summit, it had concluded that "a 'comprehensive solution' to the eurozone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach."

"Of particular concern is the absence of a credible financial backstop," it said. "In Fitch's opinion this requires more active and explicit commitment from the ECB to mitigate the risk of self-fulfilling liquidity crises."

A second ECB policymaker, Juergen Stark, said expanding bond buys would not end the crisis, while swift implementation of the plan on closer fiscal union agreed at the summit was crucial.

"Don't ask too much of the central bank," Stark - who steps down from the executive board at year-end - was quoted as saying Saturday in pre-released extracts from a German magazine interview.

Graphics on euro zone crisis http://r.reuters.com/hyb65p

Interactive timeline http://link.reuters.com/rev89r

MULTIPLE DOWNGRADE THREAT

Fitch put Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Ireland, and Cyprus on negative watch, which could mean a downgrade within three months.

"The systemic nature of the euro zone crisis is having a profoundly adverse effect on economic and financial stability across the region," it said.

Less than two weeks earlier, citing continuing disagreements among policymakers over how to tackle the crisis, rival agency Standard & Poor's put the ratings of 15 euro zone states, including Germany and France, on review for one- to two-notch downgrades.

The third main agency, Moody's, Friday cut Belgium's credit rating by two notches, saying the crisis raised funding risks for countries with high public debt burdens, and said a further downgrade was possible within two years.

Belgium's Finance Minister Steven Vanackere told Reuters on Saturday the cut was not a big surprise but had added pressure on the country to hit next year's budget deficit target of 2.

A first draft of a planned new 'fiscal compact' among euro zone countries and aspiring members, published Friday, showed that countries could be taken to the European Court of Justice if they did not meet agreed budget goals.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel - under pressure from the Bundesbank to force debt-saddled euro zone countries to reform and save their way out of crisis with austerity measures - has led a push for automatic sanctions for deficit "sinners."

This has fed concerns that excessive belt-tightening in southern countries could send their economies into a negative spiral with no prospect of growing out of crisis, while feeding resentment in the prosperous north.

In France, officials have sought to prepare the public for the likelihood that Paris will lose its top-notch rating for the first time since 1975, playing down the potential setback and focusing attention instead on questioning neighboring Britain's AAA rating. President Nicolas Sarkozy had vowed to keep the top rating, and it could become an issue in next year's election campaign.

EFSF FIREPOWER

Euro zone officials said potential downgrades, particularly from S&P, could raise the cost of borrowing for the region's existing EFSF bailout fund, but would not make a big difference to its operations.

EFSF chief Klaus Regling said Friday about 600 billion euros was available to fight the crisis.

"If Italy and Spain were to ask for support, their gross financing needs for 2012 are less than that and I don't think they would need to be taken off the market," he said.

Euro zone countries will hold talks next Monday on the draft text of the euro zone fiscal compact and on bilateral loans to the International Monetary Fund, officials in Brussels said. Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos told Reuters they would commit 150 billion euros to boost the IMF's lending capacity.

The United States has refused to offer additional funding and it remains to be seen how much countries such as China, Russia, Brazil and India are willing to commit.

Commercial banks appear to be resisting pressure from governments to help debt-choked euro zone countries by using cheap money lent by the ECB to buy more sovereign bonds.

The chief executive of UniCredit, one of Italy's two biggest banks, said this week that using ECB money to buy government debt "wouldn't be logical."

Euro zone governments need to sell almost 80 billion euros of fresh debt in January alone, and the stand-off between policymakers and banks could turn the slow-burning debt crisis into a conflagration in the New Year.

(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin, Gareth Gore, Natsuko Waki, Kirsten Donovan and Ana Nicolaci da Costa in London, Martin Santa in Bratislava, Ingrid Melander in Athens; Writing by John Stonestreet, Paul Carrel and Paul Taylor; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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PFT: Texans' Phillips has kidney, gallbladder surgery

Jacksonville Jaguars v Atlanta FalconsGetty Images

Blaine Gabbert is playing so badly right now that the Jaguars may consider something practically unheard of in the NFL: Taking Top 10 quarterbacks in back-to-back drafts.

Gabbert?s horrible game in Thursday night?s loss to the Falcons has continued a horrible rookie season for the quarterback the Jaguars chose with the 10th overall pick in this year?s NFL draft. Gabbert is last in the league with a passer rating of 65.6, and he looks lost out there. It?s tough to see why the Jaguars? next coach, whoever he is, would want Gabbert as his starting quarterback.

So would the Jaguars, who will likely draft somewhere between the fourth and 10th overall picks, take a quarterback? It?s impossible to say right now, as we have no idea who the new coach will be or what kind of offense he?ll run. We also don?t know where new owner Shahid Khan stands on the matter, and whether he?ll take a hands-on or hands-off approach to the draft. But if Baylor?s Robert Griffin III or USC?s Matt Barkley is available to the Jaguars, they?d have to think long and hard about drafting one of them in the Top 10.

That almost never happens. The Cowboys used their first-round picks in 1989 and 1990 on quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Walsh, but the 1990 pick was used in the supplemental draft. (The Cowboys traded Walsh to the Saints in 1990.) The last time a team used consecutive first-round picks in the regular draft on quarterbacks was in 1982-83, when the Baltimore Colts drafted Art Schlichter and John Elway. But that was a highly unusual circumstance in which neither one of those quarterbacks played for the team in 1983: Schlichter was suspended for the entire 1983 season, and the Colts traded Elway to the Broncos before he ever played a down for Baltimore.

Before the Colts, you have to go all the way back to the early 1960s Los Angeles Rams to find a team that used first-round draft picks on quarterbacks in back-to-back years. The Rams actually drafted quarterbacks in the first round three years in a row: Roman Gabriel in 1962, Terry Baker in 1963 and Bill Munson in 1964. But Baker was a college quarterback who played halfback in the NFL, so that?s not quite the same thing, either. Prior to those Rams, the last team to draft quarterbacks in back-to-back first rounds was the 49ers, who took Earl Morrall in 1956 and John Brodie in 1957. The 49ers traded Morrall to the Steelers before the 1957 season.

What does this history lesson tell us? NFL teams only take quarterbacks in back-to-back first rounds under the most extraordinary of circumstances. If Jaguars G.M. Gene Smith takes a quarterback in the first round a year after he took Gabbert 10th overall, he?ll be doing something NFL general managers just don?t do. But Gabbert might be bad enough to make the Jaguars do it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/15/wade-phillips-undergoes-surgery-on-his-kidney-gallbladder/related/

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

ABC nixes 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'

What's going to make us sob like little babies now?!

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ABC has canceled "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" after nine heartwarming seasons of tear-jerking tales of sorrow and hardship bookended by even more tear-jerking scenes of joy and excitement when a family gets the keys to their brand-new house.

MORE: Michelle Obama Visits Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

"For nine seasons, I was blessed to have been given the opportunity to change lives across the globe with the help of loving communities, generous sponsors, and a cast that has become my second family," interior designer Michael Moloney said in a statement. "I was lucky to have this show as a perpetual reminder of my own blessings, but my work won't stop with the end of the series. It is with a somber heart I close this chapter, but with such excitement I begin the next one."

ABC says that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" ? which back in 2005 was pulling in an average 16 million viewers a week but dipped to less than 9 million last season ? will continue in the form of periodic TV specials.

The Emmy-winning series will sign off in true "Extreme Makeover" fashion on Jan. 13 with its 200th episode, shot in the tornado-ravaged town of Joplin, Mo.

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Ty Pennington and crew headed over there in October to help not one, not two, but seven families who lost their homes.

That's seven-times the tears, people!

GALLERY: DVR DOA: The Shows You're Deleting

Which episode in the show's history was the most memorable for you? Share your thoughts on the Facebook page for our TV blog, The Clicker.

? 2011 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45689473/ns/today-entertainment/

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Researchers assess effects of a world awash in nitrogen

ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) ? Humans are having an effect on Earth's ecosystems but it's not just the depletion of resources and the warming of the planet we are causing. Now you can add an over-abundance of nitrogen as another "footprint" humans are leaving behind. The only question is how large of an impact will be felt.

In a Perspectives piece in the current issue of Science (Dec. 16, 2011), Arizona State University researcher James Elser outlines some recent findings on the increasing abundance of available nitrogen on Earth. In "A World Awash in Nitrogen," Elser, a limnologist, comments on a new study showing that disruption to Earth's nitrogen balance began at the dawn of the industrial era and was further amplified by the development of the Haber-Bosch process to produce nitrogen rich fertilizers.

Until that time nitrogen, an essential building block to life on Earth and a major but inert component of its atmosphere, had cycled at low but balanced levels over millennia. That balance ended around 1895.

"Humans have more than doubled the rate of nitrogen inputs into global ecosystems, relative to pre-industrial periods, and have changed the amounts of circulating phosphorus (like nitrogen, a key limiting ingredient for crops and other plants) by about 400 percent due to mining to produce fertilizers," Elser said.

The result has been immediate and widespread, he added.

Commenting on a major new finding in Science by G.W. Holtgrieve and colleagues, Elser said that signs of the "new N" appeared in all regions of the Northern Hemisphere in a remarkably coherent manner beginning around 1895, in concert with when fossil fuel combustion and large scale biomass burning accelerated across the globe. Another significant increase came around 1970 coincident with massive increases in industrial nitrogen fixation for fertilizer production, just as the "Green Revolution" got started.

The effects of the high nitrogen inputs "were immediate, and no place in the Northern Hemisphere -- not even the highest reaches of the Arctic -- was safe," Elser stated.

One effect from the increased nitrogen inputs can be seen in our inland water features like lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

"Nitrogen deposition to lakes leads to phytoplankton (at the base of food chain) with low content of the important nutrient phosphorus," Elser said. "This is kind of like 'junk food,' for animals that eat the phytoplankton. Such effects are likely to ripple upward in the food chain."

"Overall, changes in nutrient regimes (due to human acceleration of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles) cause various problems, but especially reduction in water quality, in water supplies and deterioration of coastal marine fisheries ('dead zones')," Elser added. "In the U.S., conservative estimates indicate that nutrient over-enrichment of inland waters results in about $2.7 billion of annual economic costs annually, due to negative impacts on recreational water usage, waterfront real estate values, the cost of recovery of threatened and endangered species and drinking water provisions."

On a grander timeline the effects could be more telling of humans themselves, Elser said.

"Whether such signals are an ephemeral blip in the stratigraphic record or a sustained shift lasting millennia may, in due time, be seen as an indicator of humanity's success, or failure, in achieving planetary sustainability," he added.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Arizona State University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. J. J. Elser. A World Awash with Nitrogen. Science, 2011; 334 (6062): 1504 DOI: 10.1126/science.1215567

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/W6SqMt6VGi4/111215232720.htm

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Friday, December 16, 2011

An iPhone Lover?s Take On The Galaxy Nexus

1You have to hand it to Google. They know that I prefer Apple products and have been generally critical of many Google moves in the past couple of years. And yet, they're unafraid to give me their newest products to test out. To be honest, I'm not sure Apple would do the same. But I think this is a smart move on Google's part. On one hand, they may get a negative review but they know that many will discount the negativity coming from me. On the flip side, if it's positive: gravy train time. Thus: my thoughts on the Galaxy Nexus. But before I begin... Rather than do a full-on review ? you've probably already seen plenty of those ? and given that I now write an Apple-centric column for TechCrunch, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to continue my "An iPhone Lover's Take..." series. For some background, here are my previous stories from the same angle on the Nexus One, the?HTC EVO 4G, the Nexus S, a Windows Phone, and even the iPhone 4.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yAdZzU58Rqc/

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IDC: iPad maintains tablet dominance, HP's TouchPad fire sale burned brightly

While the Android tablets continue to roll in, Apple can still lay claim to the lion's share of the tablet market according to IDC's latest report. Its research suggests that the iPad holds onto 61.5 percent of the worldwide market share, down from 63.3 percent last quarter. Android devices in total also saw a slight contraction, down from 33.2 percent to 32.4 percent. This is partly explained by the HP TouchPad's final hurrah, which rocketed the ill-fated webOS tablet up to third place with a 5 percent of share of tablet sales and an estimated 903,354 devices sold. Samsung maintained its Honeycomb tablet crown, nabbing 5.6 percent of all tablet sales. The Korean manufacturer was closely tailed by Barnes and Noble's Nook Color with 4.5 percent and Asus, arriving at fifth place with a four percent share. Tablets in total sold less than the analysts had predicted, although E-readers outperformed estimates, with 6.5 million E-readers sold in the third quarter, up 165.9 percent from last year. IDC expects some disruptive new tablets will spice up the fourth quarter results and you can take a look at its findings and predictions at the full press release below.

Continue reading IDC: iPad maintains tablet dominance, HP's TouchPad fire sale burned brightly

IDC: iPad maintains tablet dominance, HP's TouchPad fire sale burned brightly originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink DigiTimes  |  sourceIDC  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/b8Hn3h9dius/

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[OOC] A Haunting in the South Dakota

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

ICS-based CyanogenMod 9: it's on track, but not for everybody

The CM9 customization for Android 4.0 has only been in the works since mid-November and already its canny creators claim to have it running on a number of devices. They say they're making the quickest progress with OMAP4, MSM8660/7x30 and Exynos-based handsets, so if you own of those you should find yourself at the top of the queue. Despite difficulties with totally new camera and graphics drivers in ICS, there should eventually be support for all CM7-compatible models going back to phones like the Nexus One, as well as the Tegra 2-powered Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Asus Transformer. There's no mention of Tegra 3, though, and bad news for owners of the original Droid: if you want a taste of ICS you'll have to leave your muddy perch and head out for an upgrade.

ICS-based CyanogenMod 9: it's on track, but not for everybody originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Police  |  sourceCyanogenMod  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/1tS0h6zBLHI/

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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Small group int. checks

I should really be doing more important things right now, but Christmas break is coming up and if my memory is to be trusted, it'll be school again before I can get a role play up and running if I wait until then. So. I'm looking for one or two people to RP with, no more than two. I once let a bunch of people into a role play that was supposed to only have three players total and things quickly got way out of hand, so I'm putting my foot down this time. I'll not have any more than two other people in this RP. I've got a few ideas myself, but I'm open to any of yours. Keep in mind that I'm pretty uptight about grammar, so please at least know the difference between "you're" and "your." If you don't, though, check this out-- http://www.roleplaygateway.com/perfect-your-grammar-editing-services-t65363.html . I won't hassle you about slang or chatspeak if you know when and where to use it. I don't care too much about post length, but detail's nice. Shoot for maybe a paragraph per post. If you like longer posts, I'll try to match mine to yours.

The stuff I'll RP with:
Any kind of fantasy, including its sub-genres--dark, modern, medieval, etc.
Sci-fi--I really like playing with dystopian societies, steampunk, and fantasy/sci-fi blends.
Pre-made story worlds--if you're writing a story and want to RP with the world you've made, I'm more than happy to join.

Stuff I'm not comfortable/skilled with, but willing to try out:
Realistic/modern-day things
Romance (I'm okay to try some romance, but I'd like to keep it controlled and realistic and not gushy.)
Zombies

Stuff I won't do:
Fanfiction (You'd be hard-pressed to find any fandom I'd know anything about, anyway)
Anything R-rated
Boarding schools or vampires, unless you can convince me that your idea is really original
Band RPs

Ideas:

1.) Trapped in the Witch's Mansion: Our characters wake up to find themselves locked in a labyrinthine castle in the hands of a bored witch looking for some sadistic entertainment. They must search for the key to freedom, all the while avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and keeping each other alive. Death and injury are very possible in this RP.

2.) Choose your own adventure: Remember those old books where you spent half your time reading and the other half flipping through the book, looking for the right page? This will be kind of like that, except I'll make it up as we go. I'll do all the writing and you can have your character decide which path to take. A detailed character profile is encouraged so I can write them well.

3.) DINOSAURS!: A civilization has risen and fallen. All humanity has now are solar-powered laser guns and the dinosaurs they cloned from fossilized blood. Tribes of people with tamed dinosaurs, among them utahraptors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utahraptor), triceratops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceratops), and parkosaurus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parksosaurus) live nomadic lives in what used to be North America, having epic dinosaur races, epic laser gun battles, and epic laser gun battles while riding racing dinosaurs. The Rule of Cool and the Rule of Funny drive this RP.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/BkxdWjN1UJE/viewtopic.php

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Monday, December 5, 2011

Flood threat for Ark., Tenn., Ky., Ohio, even Texas

By The Weather Channel and msnbc.com staff

Heavy rain could bring flooding to parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and even drought-stricken Texas Sunday and Monday, The Weather Channel warned.

In a posting on its website, Chris Dolce, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel, said some 1 to 3 inches of rain was expected across a swath of the central U.S., from Texas to Ohio, where the ground was already saturated with water.


However, up to 6 or more inches are possible in some parts, he warned.

"Excessive rains over saturated soils are not a good combination. As a result, we are looking at a flood threat Sunday into Monday," in the affected areas, Dolce said.

"Flood watches have been issued for portions of the region, including the Little Rock, Ark., Memphis, Tenn., and Paducah, Ky. metro areas," he added. In an update to the posting, Dolce said there was also a flood watch for Cincinnati, Ohio.

Some 83 percent of Texas is still affected by an extreme drought, the second worst category.

However, Dolce said the weather front "has the potential to dump an inch or more of much needed rain in portions of the eastern and central Texas."

"The swath of heavy rain also covers adjacent areas of northwest Louisiana, which could also use significant rains due to the prolonged drought. That said, too much rain too quickly could cause some flooding even in drought areas," he cautioned. "This is a case of potentially receiving too much rain to fast."

A band of snow affecting the Midwest was lingering in parts of Wisconsin and Michigan early Sunday, but it was expected to diminish during the morning, The Weather Channel also reported.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/04/9201608-flood-threat-for-ark-tenn-ky-ohio-even-texas

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On Baseball: In Free-Agent Shopping, Temptation and Remorse

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Source: www.nytimes.com --- Saturday, December 03, 2011
Some free agents pile up awards and titles throughout their contracts, like Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. But typically, the quick-fix free agent becomes a bloated reminder of a broken dream. ...

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=12cd813e777f9742fe40ea4ba272c084

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Carrier IQ, in a new press release, reminds us it works for the carriers

Carrier IQ

Carrier IQ has issued a new press release defending its business and reminding us all that it works not unilaterally, but for the operator -- the carrier. The nut:

Carrier IQ acts as an agent for the Operators. Each implementation is different and the diagnostic information actually gathered is determined by our customers – the mobile Operators. Carrier IQ does not gather any other data from devices.

We've got a massive discussion coming up on the podcast, folks.

Check out the whole press relase for yourself after the break.

read more



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/vM3YkBcbWsM/story01.htm

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Looking for 1x1 roleplay partner

Looking for:
- Literate
- Posts up to 3 sentences to 2 Paragraphs or more
-Willing to help with plot
-Willing to do as a PM

Will do:
-Yuri
- Yaoi
- Hetero
- Any genre
- etc.

Wont do:
- Anime, manga book I don't know
- Can't remember right now but will be discussed if it comes up...Sorry.

The rp I am wanting to do right now involves an Asylum. But if you would rather do some else I'm down with it.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/vixZQUL7bn4/viewtopic.php

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Friday, December 2, 2011

1 killed in explosion outside central China bank (AP)

BEIJING ? One person has died and several others have been injured in an explosion at a bank in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

A city fire and rescue official says the explosion occurred early Thursday evening outside a branch of state-owned China Construction Bank.

The official says that there was no resulting fire and that the cause of the explosion is unknown. Like many Chinese bureaucrats, the official would give only his surname, Zhou, because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said he was not clear about how many people were injured.

Accidental gas explosions occur with some frequency in Chinese cities, while homemade bombs are often used in committing crimes or in revenge attacks because of tight controls on gun ownership.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_re_as/as_china_bank_explosion

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Did Best Buy pull the PlayBook or did it sell out? (Digital Trends)

Things are not looking up for the PlayBook. Research in Motion (RIM) has been struggling to sell its debut tablet since the device hit shelves in April. Lately, RIM seems to have gotten desperate, slashing the tablet?s price from $500 to $200, and offering it for free to those who buy its BlackBerry Enterprise Server software. The sales cuts may not have been enough. Electronista ?has cited multiple reports that Best Buy dropped orders for the BlackBerry PlayBook over Thanksgiving weekend and pulled the unit from its listings.

Upon our updated check, the PlayBook does now appear on the Best Buy site, but all models of it are labeled as ?Sold Out Online? and are not available for shipping or in-store pickup, even the refurbished models. This could be due to a sales surge after the price cut, or perhaps the price cut was meant to eliminate the remaining inventory RIM had built up. Reports of canceled orders may have been due to retailers overselling the tablet and RIM deciding not to manufacture additional tablets to satiate demand.?

If you attempted to purchase the PlayBook or experienced any odd behavior from Best Buy or its site in relation to the tablet, let us know below.?

Is this the end of the PlayBook (as in RIM has sold all it will manufacture), or will it return?

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

BlackBerry PlayBook gets $150 discount at Best Buy

BlackBerry Playbook priced at $500 and up, pre-orders now open for April 19 release

RIM now offering PlayBook as a freebie, whatever next?

RIM?s PlayBook cut to $199 for holiday season ? now will it sell?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111128/tc_digitaltrends/didbestbuypulltheplaybookordiditsellout

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Congo opposition to defy meeting ban ahead of vote (AP)

KINSHASA, Congo ? Four bodies were recovered Sunday after clashes in Congo's capital ahead of a critical national poll, a police official said Sunday, as the top opposition leader vowed to hold a public meeting in defiance of a ban imposed after the violence.

The European Union's election observation mission on Sunday criticized police for their actions during Saturday's clashes. Violence erupted at and near Kinshasa's main airport as rival political supporters gathered there to see their candidate before Monday's vote. Main opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi later arrived; the president did not pass through as expected.

At the airport, security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition into the burgeoning crowd.

Scuffles erupted on the road to the airport, and two dead bodies were seen on that road. Police inspector general Charles Bisengimana said four bodies were taken to a Kinshasa morgue on Sunday. It was not known if the two men seen on the road were among the four at the morgue.

The EU mission said it "considers the police operation that took place last night at (Kinshasa's) airport against the convoy of a presidential candidate and the arrests that were made as a serious breach of the right to campaign and the principle of equality that should prevail."

Saturday's violence prompted officials to ban political rallies and gatherings before the election.

A defiant Tshisekedi said Sunday that he planned to hold an afternoon public meeting at Kinshasa's Martyrs' Stadium.

"No one can stop me from holding my meeting," he said.

He also said more than 10 people were killed in Saturday's violence and 68 were wounded. He said three of the dead were members of his office and were killed by police, but he did not give details on the other dead or wounded.

Bisengimana, the police inspector, said opposition supporters attacked supporters of the president during Saturday's clashes. He also blamed Tshisekedi for refusing to leave the airport where his supporters had gathered to greet him. Riot police manned the airport late Saturday to prevent Tshisekedi and his convoy from leaving the scene.

The EU mission also said it "regrets that the last days of the electoral campaign were spoiled by many serious incidents and violent clashes which unfortunately cost human lives, especially in Kinshasa. The mission deplores the chaotic and improvised management of the last political meetings by many presidential candidates, by the Kinshasa authorities which restrained freedom of opinion, meetings and demonstrations."

On Sunday, African Union chairman Jean Ping also expressed concerns about the poll.

In a press release issued Sunday, he said he "deplores the violence that took place in Kinshasa (Saturday), which resulted in loss of life, as well as the various other incidents that marred the election campaign."

Human rights groups had expressed fears about an atmosphere of spiraling violence and hate speech ahead of the vote. The outcome of the vote is almost certain to keep President Joseph Kabila in power.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_af/af_congo_election

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