Quick Roleplay Idea

Just throwing this out there. How about an RP set in a previous civilization, that follows the full collapse of that society, and maybe even the aftermath of the calamity that caused it's destruction. I like the idea of playing off that whole theory that society starts, collapses, and then starts again. I'm not terribly interested at that moment. I could make it if enough people show interest, but I'm not really into it enough to start building it up without any prior assurances. It just seems like an interesting concept, curious to see if anyone thinks the same.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/fsAlVp22Af4/viewtopic.php

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Occupy LA stands out for camp-city cooperation

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2011 file photo, a Los Angeles police officer looks at tents set up outside Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles. Occupy LA, a 485-tent camp surrounding City Hall downtown, has marched to a different beat in its drum circle. Protesters, police and city officials early on established a relationship based on dialogue instead of dictate. As camps in other cities degenerated into unrest and led to mass arrests, Occupy LA has remained largely a bastion of peaceful pot smokers with city leaders determined that Los Angeles would emerge from the shadow of Rodney King once and for all. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2011 file photo, a Los Angeles police officer looks at tents set up outside Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles. Occupy LA, a 485-tent camp surrounding City Hall downtown, has marched to a different beat in its drum circle. Protesters, police and city officials early on established a relationship based on dialogue instead of dictate. As camps in other cities degenerated into unrest and led to mass arrests, Occupy LA has remained largely a bastion of peaceful pot smokers with city leaders determined that Los Angeles would emerge from the shadow of Rodney King once and for all. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? When Occupy LA demonstrators recently proclaimed a downtown intersection "our street," police watched as annoyed drivers honked horns and tried to maneuver around gyrating protesters. Officers only moved in after the third intersection takeover ? telling protesters they had to quit or face arrest. The activists turned around and marched back to camp chanting slogans.

That hasn't happened in some other cities and may not have been possible in Los Angeles that long ago.

Occupy LA, a 485-tent camp surrounding City Hall, has marched to a different beat in its drum circle after protesters, police and city officials established a relationship based on dialogues instead of dictates.

As camps in other cities degenerated into unrest that led to mass arrests, Occupy LA has remained largely a peaceful commune. Police arrive on site only when called in to investigate petty crimes. Marches have resulted in only about five spontaneous arrests ? the other 70 or so involved protesters who deliberately got arrested to make a political statement.

City leaders are now hoping that peace can withstand what could be its biggest test. The city has given campers a 12:01 a.m. Monday to clear out of the park, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a Friday afternoon news conference.

"We've decided to do things differently here in Los Angeles. We've not stared each other down across barricades and barbed wire," the mayor said at the City Hall news conference. "From the start we've talked to one another and we've listened to each other. I trust that we can manage the closure of City Hall Park in the same spirit of cooperation."

The announcement and the advance warning stand in stark contrast to middle-of-the-night police raids used in other cities.

"Los Angeles has had a real history of heavy-handed tactics with police," said Richard Weinblatt, a police procedures expert and former police chief. "They're taking a very good approach with this. It's a good political sign."

The hands-off strategy perhaps underscores the liberal leanings of a city that has often been known for counterculture movements. But it marks a departure for a police force still striving to emerge from the shadow of the 1991 beating of Rodney King, the Rampart corruption scandal of the late '90s, and more recently, the 2007 crackdown at an immigrants rights rally in which demonstrators and reporters were injured with batons and rubber bullets.

This time, even before the first tent was set up on the City Hall lawn, Jim Lafferty, a lawyer who has been representing Occupy LA, said Police Chief Charlie Beck assured him protesters would be left alone if they remained peaceful. Beck promised no surprise raids would be carried out, said Lafferty, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild's Los Angeles chapter.

Elected city leaders initially embraced the campers. Villaraigosa handed out plastic ponchos one rainy day. The City Council passed a resolution to support Occupy LA. Officials found an alternate site for a farmers market that the camp displaced.

Protesters have done their part to cooperate. They've readily complied with health inspectors' demands for more portable toilets, trash pickup and food sanitation. They've also worked to tamp down anarchist inciters in the camp who want to provoke authorities, as well as activists with hot tempers.

On one march, when two protesters started an argument that appeared ready to flame into fisticuffs, marchers started yelling at the instigator to "focus" and "keep to the mission."

Organizers have implored riled crowds to keep within the peaceful guidelines of the group and to return to camp when threatened with arrest.

Occupiers say they realize violence is not going to win any points in their struggle for greater economic equality and could alienate many supporters.

"What is most important is that we win the hearts and minds of the people of this city," said organizer Mario Brito. "We're all going to have to remain non-violent."

Police, meanwhile, have held off making arrests while giving protesters ample time to make their statement through civil disobedience, such as lying on the sidewalk in front of a Bank of America branch.

They've negotiated with organizers, sometimes for hours, to end actions without arrest, and assigned veteran detectives, clad in riot helmets, to man front lines against protesters instead of younger officers who may be more prone to act rashly when baited with name-calling.

Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said officers have set out to build trust.

"We really worked hard to establish a dialogue with people at the camp," he said. "We have a command-level officer assigned to it every day. I'm over there three, four times a day, sometimes just to address rumors."

While acknowledging that violence has been avoided in Los Angeles, some question the precedent set by official leniency.

"You have these people staying out weeks at a time, and police let them break the law. They're encouraged to go further," said John Hawkins, who has tracked the Occupy movement in his blog Right Wing News. "The government has to enforce the law."

Occupy LA has found a powerful ally that holds a lot of sway in City Hall: labor unions. The Service Employees International Union and others have turned out hundreds of people to several marches, giving the Occupy movement needed credibility and numbers. The unions even adopted tents as a protest symbol.

Union leaders have been instrumental in persuading Villaraigosa, a former labor organizer, to hold off on acting against the camp, said Peter Dreier, politics professor at Occidental College.

In conjunction with that, city leaders have had few vocal opponents against Occupy LA, which is located in an area of Los Angeles that comprises almost all government buildings, he noted. In some other cities, such as New York, complaining residents and businesses mounted pressure on officials to clear out the tents.

But as Occupy Los Angeles entered its seventh week with no end in sight, the dialogue started getting strained.

City Hall still made friendly overtures, trying to make a deal with the activists by offering them 10,000 square feet of office space and empty lots for a garden if they would pack up their tents. Fallout after the proposal was made public caused the deal to be rescinded.

On Wednesday, city leaders took a tougher stance: The camp must go the following week, but police said they would give protesters a 72-hour deadline to pack up or face arrest. Even then, remaining protesters will be given two opportunities to change their mind before they are placed in handcuffs.

"No one else has seen fit to do it like this around the country," Lafferty said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-25-Occupy%20LA-The%20Camp/id-8304016975c043f88c1d36b84863a2c8

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Jury hears testimony Conn. killer's daughter, 9 (AP)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. ? Defense attorneys played a videotaped interview of a 9-year-old girl whose father is facing a possible death sentence for a home invasion that killed three people even though their client objected, saying he didn't want his daughter to feel compelled to help "one of the most hated people in America."

Joshua Komisarjevsky's daughter giggles a lot in the video as she talks to a child welfare expert about her dogs and other animals and her toys. At one point, she says she used to play with "this man's son Josh" and says he went to jail for something.

Komisarjevsky's attorneys played the video as they try to persuade the jury to spare him the death penalty. Komisarjevsky and his co-defendant, Steven Hayes, were convicted of murder in the killing of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, at their Cheshire home. Hayes is on death row.

Caroline Long Burry, a child welfare expert who interviewed the girl last weekend, said Komisarjevsky's daughter calls him "Daddy Josh" when she's with his family, but refers to him as the son of her grandfather when with her maternal relatives.

Burry described the girl as bright and engaging and expressed concerns that if Komisarjevsky is sentenced to death "she would have to live on a daily basis with being labeled and quite possibly stigmatized with the fact her father is on death row and there is an execution coming up." She also said the girl is known to withdraw and has a lot of anxiety.

Prosecutor Michael Dearington reminded jurors under cross-examination that Komisarjevsky was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a girl less than two years older than his daughter. Dearington also noted that those sentenced to death spend many years on death row and asked Burry about the last execution, which was in 2005 and was the only one since 1960 in Connecticut.

Komisarjevsky, speaking for the first time in his trial other than a taped confession, told the trial judge earlier Wednesday that his daughter was coached, an allegation denied by an attorney for the girl's guardian.

"I've carefully come to the overwhelming opinion that I am not at all comfortable putting my daughter in a position wherein she may feel that she has to explain or justify herself to anyone who perceives her statements to somehow help one of the most hated people in America," Komisarjevsky said.

"She's 9 years old. Had this interview been her decision to make and she was old enough to understand that decision that would be one thing. However, that is not the case in this situation. The decision has been made for her," he said.

Komisarjevsky noted his life is on the line. He said the negative consequences to his daughter outweigh the benefits of helping to save his life.

"I will not beg for my life," he said. "I will humbly request in earnest that your honor please uphold the thoughtfully weighed decision of defendant over the wish of the defense team."

Komisarjevsky's lawyers played the videotape of the girl in hopes of persuading jurors to spare him the death penalty. New Haven Superior Court Judge Jon Blue agreed with the attorneys that they have the final say.

The attorney for the girl's guardian said the interview with the girl was done carefully in a nonconfrontational way.

Komisarjevsky said his daughter has been told by her guardian not to talk about him.

"It should also be considered how her memorialized words will affect her emotionally and psychologically in the future if she believes she's party to assisting the effort to put me to death," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_re_us/us_home_invasion

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Groupon's shares fall below IPO price (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Groupon Inc.'s stock fell below its initial public offering price for the first time as investors reassess the challenges facing the still-unprofitable online deals company in a shaky economy.

The shares plunged $2.79, or 14 percent, to $17.28 in early afternoon trading Wednesday, below Groupon's IPO price of $20, which was set less than three weeks ago. The rapid fall from Wall Street's graces occurred almost entirely this week. Groupon has shed one-third of its market value since the end of last week to wipe out nearly $6 billion in shareholder wealth.

Congress' inability to reach an agreement on how to reduce the U.S. deficit has raised the specter of automatic cuts and tax increases, which would increase the risk of the economy falling into another recession. That reduces Wall Street's appetite for risky investments such as Groupon, which is facing increasing competition in the rapidly growing niche of online advertising that it pioneered.

The decline also has been deepened by a skeptical class of investors, known as short sellers, who bet that certain stocks are going to slide. They do this by borrowing shares that they immediately sell, hoping they can repay the stock by buying at a cheaper price later.

Groupon gets local merchants to offer steep discounts to large clusters of consumers, a concept that turned it into one of the world's fastest growing companies. Founded in 2008, Groupon is on pace to generate more than $1.5 billion in revenue this year, primarily from the commissions it gets from deals sold. Google Inc., which runs the Internet's largest advertising network, had annual revenue of just $86 million at the same stage of its existence.

Unlike Google, though, Groupon has been amassing huge losses as it tries to expand and ward off threats from hordes of copycats. The competition includes Google and another Internet powerhouse, Amazon.com Inc., which is backing a startup deals company called LivingSocial.

Through the first nine months of this year, Groupon lost $308 million, partly because its payroll swelled to more than 10,400 employees to help persuade local merchants to offer deals. Groupon's losses and massive work force provide another stark contrast to how Google went about its business as it was starting out. After three years, Google eked out a $7 million profit and had fewer than 300 employees.

As it prepared its initial public offering of stock, Groupon tried to sugarcoat the losses by emphasizing an accounting approach that securities regulators eventually required the company to abandon.

Meanwhile, some merchants have become increasingly skeptical that partnering with Groupon and similar services is really a deal for them. Groupon takes up to half the price of the coupon, so if an Italian restaurant is offering $50 worth of food for $25, the merchant gets just $12.50. Merchants can make the money back if the coupon draws a customer who keeps returning and brings friends, but some businesses complain that bargain hunters rarely come back after scoring a cheap meal or massage. Other businesses, though, see Groupon as good marketing ? a way to reach troves of new, social media-savvy customers who share good deals with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Despite the red flags hovering over the company, Groupon's rapid growth tantalized enough investors to turn its IPO into a success. After the IPO was priced at $20, the company's stock soared as high as $31.14 in its stock market debut on Nov. 4. All of those gains have evaporated in just 14 trading days.

What's happened to Groupon's stock serves as a cautionary tale to anyone thinking about investing in a hot company in its early stages on the market. The trading in stocks following an IPO is prone to wild swings that can upset portfolios ? and investors' stomachs.

Groupon isn't the only example of this volatility. For instance, Internet radio service Pandora Media Inc. went public in June at $16 per share and then saw its stock climb in its debut. The shares are now trading below $11. After online professional networking service LinkedIn Corp. priced its IPO at $45 in May, its shares soared above $100. The stock is now trading at about $65.

The phenomenon isn't limited to Internet companies. Automobile maker General Motors Co. emerged from bankruptcy protection with an IPO priced at $33 a year ago, and its stock price is now hovering at about $20.

Some IPOs maintain an upward trajectory. Google's stock has never come close to returning to its IPO price of $85 in 2004. A year after Google went public, its stock price stood at $280. On Wednesday, it was above $570.

Groupon, which is based in Chicago, declined to comment on the stock price drop. It is still in a federally mandated "quiet" period that surrounds IPOs.

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_hi_te/us_groupon_stock

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MIT Researchers Make Advance Toward Photonic Circuits

MrSeb writes with this excerpt from an article in Extreme Tech: "Light-emitting diodes are a cornerstone of consumer tech. They make thin-and-light TVs and smartphones possible, provide efficient household, handheld, and automobile illumination, and, of course, without LEDs your router would not have blinkenlights. Thanks to some engineers from MIT, though, a new diode looks set to steal the humble LED's thunder. Dubbed a diode for light, and crafted using standard silicon chip fabrication techniques, this is a key discovery that will pave the path to photonic (as opposed to electronic) pathways on computer chips and circuit boards. The diode for light ? which is made from a thin layer of garnet ? is transparent in one direction, but opaque in the other. Garnet is usually hard to deposit on a silicon wafer, but the MIT researchers found a way to do it."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/AKMIGCXO9OQ/mit-researchers-make-advance-toward-photonic-circuits

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New House speaker strengthens Australian gov't (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia ? Australia's Parliament elected an opposition lawmaker as its new House of Representatives speaker Thursday, an unprecedented move that actually strengthens Prime Minister Julia Gillard's tenuous grip on power.

The election of Peter Slipper quickly followed the surprise resignation of speaker Harry Jenkins, a member of Gillard's Labor Party, on Parliament's last sitting day of the year and the fourth anniversary of Labor's first election to power. The speaker can only vote to break a tie.

The change effectively gives the center-left government, which nearly lost power in last year's elections, an additional vote in the chamber on most legislation.

Slipper defied his own opposition Liberal Party by accepting the speaker's job, and says he will quit the party to become independent. Gillard denied that the change was planned in advance by her party.

Gillard commands 76 seats in the 150-seat chamber with the support of three independent lawmakers plus a legislator from the minor Greens party.

But with Jenkins in the speaker's chair, she had only been able to rely on the support of 75 lawmakers on most votes. Speakers can rarely use their votes and have done so on only 23 occasions in almost a century.

The conservative opposition had been able to muster up to 74 votes, but now can only hope for 73. Slipper has been a divisive figure in the Liberal Party, which had already been considering dumping him in elections due in 2013.

Slipper told Parliament he had been "encouraged" to accept the speaker's job by the actions of his opponents within his own party.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott had warned that any Liberal who accepted the nomination would be expected to resign from the party, and Slipper said he would do just that.

"I do intend to be an independent speaker," Slipper said.

Slipper was elected speaker uncontested. Opposition lawmaker Chris Pyne had nominated nine government lawmakers as alternatives, but each declined the nomination.

"It would be the first time in this country's history that the government did not support one of their own to be speaker of this Parliament," Pyne said as he opposed Slipper's nomination.

Slipper later ordered four opposition lawmakers to leave the chamber for an hour for misbehavior during a rowdy debate. No government lawmaker was ejected.

Abbott told reporters before the speaker vote that Jenkins resigned "so that the government can shore up its numbers on the Parliament."

"This is clearly a government in crisis," he said.

Gillard denied opposition claims that she had orchestrated the power shift. She told Parliament that Jenkins had given her only 90 minutes' notice of his resignation. She said she had had no private discussions with Slipper.

Jenkins had been speaker since Labor won control of the government in 2007. But when Labor formed a minority government with the support of independent lawmakers following elections last year, he agreed to bring more independence to the role by dropping out of Labor policy development.

"In this era of minority government, I have progressively become frustrated at this stricture," Jenkins said.

"My desire is to be able to participate in policy and parliamentary debate, and this would be incompatible with continuing in the role of speaker," he added.

By quitting, Jenkins cuts his salary by 106,000 Australian dollars ($103,000) a year to the base lawmaker's pay of AU$141,000 ($137,000).

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oceania/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_speaker_resigns

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Holy Samoa! A soccer win after 30 straight losses

updated 5:54 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2011

APIA, Samoa - American Samoa's players raised their arms and fell to the ground, as if they had won a major championship.

It was only a 2-1 victory over Tonga in the start of Oceania World Cup qualifying Tuesday night, but for soccer's worst national team it was a triumph like no other.

Led by former U.S. Under-20 coach Thomas Rongen, American Samoa won its first international soccer match after 30 consecutive losses over 17 years. American Samoa is a U.S. protectorate in the South Pacific with a population of about 55,000.

"This is going to be part of soccer history, like the 31-0 against Australia was part of history," Rongen said.

American Samoa, tied for 204th and last in the FIFA world rankings, had been outscored 229-12 since starting international play in 1994, including a world record 31-0 defeat to Australia in a World Cup qualifier in 2001. Twelve of the losses had been in World Cup qualifying in which they had been outscored 129-2.

Goalkeeper Nicky Salapu was the only holdover in the starting lineup from that game against Australia.

Ramin Ott scored on a 40-yard shot in the 44th minute. The ball bounced off the hands of goalkeeper Shalom Luanio and into the goal. Kaneti Falela lobbed the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper from just inside the penalty area to make it 2-0 in the 74th. Unaloto Faeo scored on a header in the 87th minute for Tonga, 202nd in the rankings.

"I can't explain it right now," Ott said. "I'm elated. I'm above everything right now."

Rongen, born in the Netherlands, was fired as coach of the U.S. Under-20 team in May, and he was hired by American Samoa in October. He is a former coach of Major League Soccer teams Tampa Bay, New England, D.C. United and Chivas USA.

"Maybe we have a chance to do something special here beyond this one game, but let's enjoy this one right now," he said.

The group winner advances to the eight-nation second round, which includes 2010 World Cup qualifier New Zealand.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Arsenal advances, Chelsea slumps

Arsenal clinched a place in the second round of the Champions League on Wednesday night with a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund, but the Gunners could find themselves the only English club in the knockout stage.

War, then soccer

For the first time in decades, football in Libya is just about, well, football.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45412998/ns/sports-soccer/

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In NH, Obama pushes for payroll tax cut extension (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. ? Confronting Republicans, President Barack Obama on Tuesday dashed into the home of the nation's first presidential primary, urging GOP lawmakers to support a payroll tax cut next week and stand by their own pledges not to increase taxes.

Obama sought to steal the spotlight from Republican presidential contenders who have blanketed the political battleground with anti-Obama messages while tending to a state expected to be heavily contested in the next year's general election.

"The next time you hear one of these folks from the other side ... talking about raising your taxes, you just remind them that ever since I've got into office, I've lowered your taxes, haven't raised them," Obama said at a high school gymnasium. "That's worth reminding them."

The president said "in the spirit of Thanksgiving," Democrats in Congress would offer Republicans another chance next week to consider a plan to extend and expand the cut in payroll taxes that fund Social Security. Obama said it would save the typical middle class family about $1,000 in taxes.

"Don't be a Grinch. Don't vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays," Obama said.

Even as he sought to draw a bright line with Republicans over taxes, Obama was reminded about the unhappiness among some in the Occupy Wall Street movement. As he began to speak, Obama was briefly interrupted by protesters who screamed, "Mic check!" and then chanted, "Mr. President ? over 4,000 protesters, over 4,000 protesters, have been arrested."

Obama paused to let the demonstrators speak. "No, no, no. That's OK," Obama said. The crowd then sought to drown out the protesters with chants of "Obama!"

Working the crowd after the speech, Obama was handed a note from the protesters that amounted to a script of their chant. Captured in photographs, the note said peaceful demonstrators had been arrested while "banksters" destroy the economy "with impunity."

The note urges Obama to stop the assault on protesters' First Amendment rights and says his "silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable."

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, meanwhile, was airing his first TV ads in the Granite State, a spot sharply critical of Obama's economic record. The former Massachusetts governor also ran ads in New Hampshire newspapers that say to Obama, "I will be blunt. Your policies have failed."

Traveling to New Hampshire, White House spokesman Jay Carney swiped at the ad, which plays audio of Obama from the 2008 presidential campaign declaring "if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."

Obama, however, was quoting the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a distinction the ad doesn't make and that alters its meaning. In fact, the Romney campaign statement announcing the ad includes Obama's full quote: "Sen. McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."

"Seriously? I mean, an ad in which they deliberately distort what the president said?" Carney said. "It's a rather remarkable way to start. And an unfortunate way to start."

New Hampshire, with only 4 electoral votes, has been a key target in recent presidential elections. Republican George W. Bush carried the state in 2000, but Democrats took it back in 2004. Obama lost the 2008 New Hampshire primary in a surprise to Hillary Rodham Clinton but bounced back to win the state in the general election.

Billy Shaheen, a longtime Democratic operative in New Hampshire and the husband of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said Republicans' huge gains in the state during the 2010 midterm elections served as a wake-up call for the state's Democrats.

"After the 2010 election, New Hampshire got a taste of what the tea party can do, and it's not happy. I think an undercurrent exists that's ready to be tapped for the 2012 election," he said. "We're not proud of what has been going on in the state capitol, and we're getting ready. We let our guard down in 2010, but we've come too far to go back."

The president's trip followed the collapse of a special congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee, which failed to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion in cuts. Democrats had hoped to tuck the payroll tax extension, as well as a renewal of unemployment benefits, into the supercommittee agreement.

With that option seemingly off the table, the White House plans to make a full-court press for a separate measure to extend the payroll tax cut before it expires at the end of the year ? and set up Republicans to be the scapegoat if the measure doesn't pass.

The White House says a middle-class family making $50,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $1,000 if the payroll tax cuts are not extended.

Republicans aren't wholly opposed to the extension. In fact, party members sent the White House a letter in September stating that extension of the payroll tax cut is one element of Obama's $447 billion jobs bill where the two sides may be able to find common ground.

Some Republicans worry that the extension would undermine the solvency of Social Security. Others oppose any effort to pay for the renewal by taxing the wealthy.

The issue could appeal to independent voters in low-tax New Hampshire. With Republican candidates led by Romney assailing Obama's record at every turn, the president and his surrogates, including Vice President Joe Biden, are trying to rebut their economic message.

Recent polls have indicated that, if an election between Obama and Romney were held today, Obama would lose by roughly 10 percentage points.

It was Obama's first visit to New Hampshire in nearly two years and the president harkened back to a campaign event at Manchester High School nearly four years to the day, when an early snow storm forced him to leave early.

"I wanted to point out," Obama said, "we are keeping our promise. We are back."

___

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples and Holly Ramer contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Mother of bomb plot suspect apologizes to NYers

Jose Pimentel, 27, right, represented by attorney Joseph Zablocki, left, is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. Pimentel, an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home, was charged with criminal possession of explosive devices with the intent to use in a terrorist manner. (AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel, Pool)

Jose Pimentel, 27, right, represented by attorney Joseph Zablocki, left, is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. Pimentel, an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home, was charged with criminal possession of explosive devices with the intent to use in a terrorist manner. (AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel, Pool)

Jose Pimentel is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. Pimentel, an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home, was charged with criminal possession of explosive devices with the intent to use in a terrorist manner. (AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel, Pool)

Jose Pimentel, 27, right, represented by attorney Joseph Zablocki, left, is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. Pimentel, 27, an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home, was charged with criminal possession of explosive devices with the intent to use in a terrorist manner. (AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel, Pool)

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly holds a component of a mocked up pipe bomb, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. 27-year-old Jose Pimentel of Manhattan, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, was arrested Saturday for allegedly plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly holds a component of a mocked up pipe bomb, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. 27-year-old Jose Pimentel of Manhattan, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, was arrested Saturday for allegedly plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The mother of a "lone wolf" accused of plotting to attack police stations and post offices with homemade bombs apologized to New Yorkers on Monday, even as questions arose about why federal authorities ? who typically handle terrorism cases ? declined to get involved in what city officials called a serious threat.

The mother of Jose Pimentel spoke to reporters outside her upper Manhattan home the day after her son was arraigned in state court on terrorism-related charges.

"I didn't raise my son in that way," Carmen Sosa said. "I feel bad about this situation."

She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, "I think they handled it well."

Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.

Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD's Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own, they said.

The FBI thought Pimentel "didn't have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own," one of the officials said.

The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI's New York office and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.

Pimentel's lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.

"If the goal here is to be stopping terror ... I'm not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources," he said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the handling of the case Monday, saying the NYPD kept federal authorities in the loop "all along" before circumstances forced investigators to take swift measures using state charges.

"No question in my mind that we had to take this case down," Kelly said. "There was an imminent threat."

Added Kelly: "This is a classic case of what we've been talking about ? the lone wolf, an individual, self-radicalized. This is the needle in the haystack problem we face as a country and as a city."

Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and "al-Qaida sympathizer" who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady, where authorities say he had an arrested for credit card fraud.

His mother said he was raised Roman Catholic. But he converted to Islam in 2004 and went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, authorities said.

Using a tip from police in Albany, the NYPD had been watching Pimentel using a confidential informant for the past year. Investigators learned that he was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, police said.

Pimentel was under constant surveillance as he shopped for the pipe bomb materials. He also was overheard talking about attacking police patrol cars and postal facilities, killing soldiers returning home from abroad and bombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., authorizes said.

The arrest marked the second time this year that the police department took the unusual step of working with a state prosecutor to bring a terrorism case. In May, two men were indicted on charges they told an NYPD undercover detective about their desire to attack synagogues.

A grand jury declined to indict Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh on the most serious charge initially brought against them ? a high-level terror conspiracy count that carried the potential for life in prison without parole. They were, however, indicted on lesser state terrorism and hate crime charges, including one punishable by up to 32 years behind bars.

Attorneys for Ferhani said hate crime charges and a rarely used state terrorism law were misapplied to what they have called a case of police entrapment.

State prosecutors insist that there's ample evidence that Pimentel went well beyond merely talking about terrorism ? and that he was acting on his own initiative.

"The people whom we're prosecuting have well crossed that line," Adam Kaufmann, head of the district attorney's investigative division, said Monday. "They've gone from sort of espousing an idea to creating a plan to act upon it."

At an arraignment where Pimentel was ordered held without bail, prosecutors said investigators have "countless hours" of audio and video in this case. And in a criminal complaint, an intelligence division detective alleges Pimentel told him after the arrest that he was about an hour away from finishing the bomb and felt Islamic law obligates all Muslims to wage war against Americans to avenge U.S. military action in their homelands.

A former federal prosecutor praised the police and state prosecutors for going through with the investigation and charges.

"A person who puts out conspiratorial information and then takes steps to build a bomb should not be walking the streets of New York," whatever his mental state or his interactions with an informant, said Michael Wildes, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who worked on terrorism-related cases. "Considering the facts that have been revealed to the public, the decision was done well, in this instance, to go ahead with this case and for the FBI not to be the lead agency."

Publicly, NYPD and federal officials claim they have a strong working relationship. But behind the scenes, there has been tension ever since the department mounted its own aggressive anti-terrorism effort, including undercover investigations targeting potential homegrown threats.

The effort is needed, NYPD officials say, because the city remains a prime terrorist target a decade after the Sept. 11 attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there have been at least 14 foiled plots against the city, including the latest suspected scheme.

The most serious threats came from Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad, who tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010 and is now serving a life sentence, and Najibullah Zazi, who targeted the subway system a year earlier. Zazi pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges and is awaiting sentencing.

___

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Jim Fitzgerald contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-21-US-NYC-Bomb-Plot/id-bd93e7ab87cd4063b35be18ae225708d

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The Supercommittee Failed. Hooray!

For starters, the whole premise of the Supercommittee was that if it didn?t agree on something, then $1.2 trillion of spending cuts would be quasi-automatically implemented through a mechanism known as ?sequestration.? The cuts are balanced 50-50 between the security and nonsecurity sides of the budget. And while they?re hardly irreversible, neither is anything else in American law. It?s not possible for Congress to metaphysically commit future Congresses to future courses of action. But what Congress did to resolve the debt-ceiling standoff was to change the default rule. The $1.2 trillion in cuts will happen unless Congress and the president act affirmatively to stop them from happening. In an American political system bogged down by bicameralism, the filibuster, and the presidential veto, the default rules matter a great deal. So if it?s $1.2 trillion in spending cuts you want, then $1.2 trillion in cuts were already put on the schedule by the debt-ceiling deal. That the supercommittee didn?t agree on an alternative to the cuts doesn?t make it any more (or less) likely that the full Congress will somehow repeal them.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=cc9209c065b30e8f83b1739d71b3c4b7

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Rodgers' late TD helps Packers beat Bucs 35-26 (AP)

GREEN BAY, Wis. ? Aaron Rodgers was having an off day by his own lofty standards, and the Green Bay Packers were getting all they could handle from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

With Green Bay leading by two points and trying to fend off a Tampa Bay rally in the fourth quarter, Rodgers found Jordy Nelson for a clinching 40-yard touchdown with 2:55 remaining to hold on for a 35-26 victory Sunday.

Despite the late-game drama, the Packers ran their record to 10-0, leaving them as the NFL's lone undefeated team going into a Thanksgiving Day matchup at Detroit.

Josh Freeman threw for 342 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for the Buccaneers (4-6), who have lost four straight but didn't back down against one of the NFL's elite teams.

LeGarrette Blount had 107 yards rushing for Tampa Bay, including a 54-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

The Buccaneers trailed by only four points and seemed to have some momentum when they tried a surprise onside kick before halftime. After a replay review gave the ball to Green Bay at the Tampa Bay 38-yard line, Rodgers drove for a 5-yard touchdown to Nelson that gave the Packers a 21-10 lead going into the half.

Tampa Bay then had a touchdown taken off the board in the third quarter when Kellen Winslow was called for offensive pass interference. The Buccaneers settled for a 32-yard field goal by Connor Barth, cutting Green Bay's lead to 21-13.

The Buccaneers' defense got a stop, and Freeman directed an eight-play, 91-yard scoring drive that ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams.

Tampa Bay tried to tie it with a 2-point conversion, but Winslow ? who had a pair of big gains on the drive ? dropped a catchable ball in the end zone.

Packers running back James Starks did the majority of the work in an eight-play, 85-yard scoring drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by John Kuhn.

But the Buccaneers got another chance when Rodgers threw an interception to Elbert Mack ? only Rodgers' fourth pick this season ? and Freeman threw a 37-yard pass to Arrelious Benn to set up first-and-goal at the 4.

Freeman then threw a touchdown to Dezmon Briscoe and the Buccaneers kicked the extra point to cut the Packers' lead to 28-26 with 4:25 left.

Tampa Bay tried another onside kick, but the Packers recovered and Rodgers found Nelson to put the game away.

A late interception gave the Packers' Mason Crosby a shot at a late 29-yard field goal ? but he missed.

The Buccaneers gave the Packers one of their toughest games of the year despite a rough start.

Tampa Bay's defense started off by backing the Packers up near their own end zone where Green Bay faced third-and-16 on its own 6. Two Tampa Bay players were penalized for neutral zone infractions, but the Bucs still stopped the Packers short on third down.

Then the Buccaneers got a big rush up the middle on punter Tim Masthay, who fumbled the ball, picked it back up and ran for a first down ? then coughed the ball up again, but got lucky when it bounced out of bounds.

Rodgers made the most of the Packers' big break, driving Green Bay to the Tampa Bay 12-yard line, where he scrambled to convert a third down. Rodgers kept the ball again on the next play and took a big hit on the shoulder from Ronde Barber, stopping him short of the goal line.

Rodgers then handed the ball to big defensive lineman B.J. Raji, who plunged one yard for a touchdown.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111120/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_buccaneers_packers

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Clearwire slammed as CEO reportedly mulls default (AP)

NEW YORK ? The stock of wireless broadband network operator Clearwire is plunging after a report quoted its chief executive as saying that the company is weighing whether to make a large debt payment on Dec. 1.

Erik Prusch told The Wall Street Journal that if the company misses the $237 million payment, it has a 30-day grace period to make it.

Fears that the company will default and perhaps try to reorganize through bankruptcy proceedings sent the shares spiraling. Clearwire Corp.'s stock dropped 45 cents, or 24 percent, to $1.41 in late Friday trading.

Clearwire spokeswoman Susan Johnston says the company "does not comment on speculation" and "remains focused on growing its wholesale and retail business, and raising additional funds."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_hi_te/us_clearwire_stock

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Cain receives Secret Service protection (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Herman Cain on Thursday became the first Republican presidential candidate to receive Secret Service protection. Cain asked for the security and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and congressional leaders approved his request Thursday, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan confirmed.

Elite agents were expected to begin protecting the former pizza company executive sometime Thursday.

There have been threats against Cain, who had been experiencing a bounce in the polls, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the situation. The nature of the threats was unclear.

Donovan would not say whether there had been any threats or discuss why protection was being provided.

Cain's campaign had no immediate comment.

Secret Service protection is given to each major party's presidential nominee, but can be provided earlier if the Department of Homeland Security approves a campaign's request.

When then-Sen. Barack Obama was placed under Secret Service protection in May 2007, it was the earliest ever for a presidential candidate. One of his rivals, Hillary Rodham Clinton, already had a protective detail because she was a former first lady.

In the 2004 campaign, Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards received their protection in February of that year as they competed for the party's nomination.

Federal law allows candidates to seek protection if they meet a series of standards, including public prominence as measured by polls and fundraising.

Napolitano consulted Thursday with a congressional advisory committee made up of the House speaker, the House and Senate majority and minority leaders and the House sergeant at arms, the chief law enforcement officer in the House.

Cain has been dogged in recent weeks by allegations of sexual harassment by women who worked for him when he headed the National Restaurant Association, an industry trade group, in the 1990s. He has denied the charges.

Cain's poll numbers have sunk as he has struggled to explain the allegations and overcome stumbles when discussing campaign issues, such as U.S. policy in Libya.

Even so, Cain continues to run strong among Republican voters.

"The people that are on the Cain train, they don't get off because of that crap," Cain said Thursday in New Hampshire, hours before his request for protection was approved.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain_secret_service

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Does Rachel McAdams 'Sherlock Holmes 2' Poster Mean A Bigger Role?

In the new Sherlock Holmes film, "A Game of Shadows," the world's most famous detective meets up with his arch-nemesis from the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Professor Moriarty. But what will become of the only person to have ever out-witted Holmes, the infamous Irene Adler?
Rachel McAdams portrayed the iconic character in the first film, [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/11/17/rachel-mcadams-sherlock-holmes/

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Scarring a necessary evil to prevent further damage after heart attack

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

After a heart attack, the portions of the heart damaged by a lack of oxygen become scar tissue. Researchers have long sought ways to avoid this scarring, which can harden the walls of the heart, lessen its ability to pump blood throughout the body and eventually lead to heart failure. But new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine shows that interrupting this process can weaken heart function even further.

In a study appearing online November 15, 2011, in the EMBO Journal, the investigators observed that cells in the outer layer of the heart generated scar tissue. But when they blocked these cells from doing so, they essentially demonstrated that when fixing a broken heart, timing may be everything.

"We now know that scarring is a good thing, because it prevents a precipitous decline in heart function immediately after heart injury," said Arjun Deb, MD, senior study author and assistant professor of medicine and cell and molecular physiology at the UNC School of Medicine. "The question is not whether, but when it makes the most sense to manipulate the cells of the heart to decrease scarring and enhance regeneration." Deb is also a member of UNC's McAllister Heart Institute and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Regeneration happens naturally in lower organisms like zebrafish ? the striped, thumb-sized inhabitants of household aquariums ? but for some reason not in higher organisms like humans. Years ago researchers noticed that a thin outer layer of cells on the surface of the heart muscle ? known as the epicardium ? was playing an important role in regenerating the zebrafish heart after injury. But what role the epicardium might have in an injured mammalian heart was an open question.

By studying a mouse model of cardiac injury, Deb and his colleagues found that the epicardium of the mammalian heart was also activated after a heart attack. But unlike in zebrafish where the epicardium contributed to generation of heart muscle cells, in the mouse the epicardium generated fibroblasts, the fibrous cells that underlie scar tissue.

The researchers then found that a protein called Wnt1, which they had formerly shown to enhance function of human vascular stem cells, was driving stem cells within the epicardium to become fibroblasts. They wondered if interrupting this molecular pathway could ameliorate scarring and improve heart function. Surprisingly, when they interrupted Wnt1 signaling in genetically engineered mice, the mutants developed heart failure within 2 weeks after cardiac injury.

"There are clearly evolutionary parallels between the zebrafish and the mouse, but there must be some sort of a selection pressure in mammals to respond to heart injury by scarring, because if we interrupt this process then the heart quickly fails following injury," said Deb. "In organisms where there is a high pressure of blood flow, these cells may need to turn into scar tissue to maintain the tensile strength of the heart wall and prevent catastrophic rupture," speculates Deb.

Now Deb and his colleagues are genetically manipulating the stem cells residing in the epicardium at later time points to see if they can coax them to stop turning into fibroblasts and start forming heart-regenerating myocytes. If so, the approach could prove to be an invaluable way to help patients recover from a heart attack.

###

University of North Carolina School of Medicine: http://www.med.unc.edu

Thanks to University of North Carolina School of Medicine for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115243/Scarring_a_necessary_evil_to_prevent_further_damage_after_heart_attack

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My self-destructing syringe could save millions of lives

Unsafe injections kill 1.3 million people a year, says former "spoilt brat" Marc Koska, who is on a mission to stop syringe reuse

You are on a mission to stop the reuse of syringes. How big is the problem?
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 1.3 million people die every year because of the reuse of syringes. The burden of disease cost is over $100 billion a year from syringe reuse, which is just mind-blowingly horrific. Twenty-two million cases of hepatitis B are spread every year because of the reuse of syringes. The WHO says one in two injections given is unsafe.

You invented a simple non-reusable syringe, the K1. Where did it all begin?
I read a newspaper article in May 1984 which predicted that syringes would one day be a major cause of the transmission of HIV. It was what I had been waiting for, a project that had a lot of the things that I liked: problem-solving, product design, campaigning, and being a bit of a big mouth pain-in-the-bum.

I grew up in England, went to a nice public school, then didn't want to go to university so I thought I would wander around. I did a season skiing, a bit of sailing, typical spoilt brat stuff. I ended up in the Caribbean. I was having a blast. I was really waiting for this bit of inspiration if you like, and it came in the form of syringes.

How did you go about designing a self-destructing syringe?
Syringes are made in their billions every month around the world, and I realised that until I could go to a manufacturer and say "this is going to add nothing to your manufacturing costs" then I didn't have a hope. That dictated the design. There is a part of the existing moulding process that is easy to change. I designed a mechanical valve into the plunger. After one use the plunger passes a ring inside the barrel. If you try to retract the plunger past that ring it locks. If you use excessive force, the plunger snaps and it can't be used.

Tanzania has just agreed to use only this kind of syringe. Tell me about that.
The Tanzanian government recognised there is a problem: that they don't have enough sterile syringes, that they are being reused probably four or five times each, and that this reuse is a massive contributor to their burden of healthcare.

How did you persuade the Tanzanian officials to switch to non-reusable syringes?
I was anonymously sent a video of a healthcare worker reusing a syringe on three people: a 4-year-old, an adult with HIV and then a 1-year-old baby. I edited that into a short version and was able to show it to the minister, who was appalled.

What's next for your safe syringe campaign?
In 2012 I want to concentrate on east Africa. I want to see Tanzania through, then I want to move on to Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi. A country like Tanzania is going to go from using 40 million syringes to 200 million. That's going to require them spending about $7 million extra, but is likely to save them $70 million in healthcare costs. But where do they get the $7 million in the first place? My role is also trying to help them find the money.

When this article was first posted, it incorrectly stated that Tanzania had agreed to use only the K1 syringe.

Profile

Marc Koska has worked for 27 years to stop the reuse of syringes. He designed the self-destructing K1 syringe, set up Star Syringe to manufacture it and runs the charity SafePoint, which campaigns against unsafe injections

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Panic as strong earthquake hits Indonesia's Papua (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia ? A strong earthquake hit Indonesia's eastern province of Papua on Wednesday, causing panic among residents, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, struck at 8:42 a.m. local time Wednesday (11:42 p.m. GMT Tuesday), said Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

The agency said the quake was centered about 34 kilometers (21 miles) southwest of the mountainous town of Oksibil at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles).

It shocked residents in Oksibil, which is located south of Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura.

"We all ran out from homes," said a housewife who identified herself only as Desy. "This is the strongest quake I ever felt."

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111116/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_earthquake

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Lowe's 3Q profit sinks 44 percent on charges (AP)

MOORESVILLE, N.C. ? Lowe's Cos.' third-quarter net income sank 44 percent, weighed down by charges tied to store closings and discontinued projects.

Shares of Lowe's fell 51 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $22.60 in premarket trading.

The nation's second-largest home improvement retailer earned $225 million, or 18 cents per share, in the three months that ended Oct. 28. That compares with net income of $404 million, or 29 cents per share, in last year's quarter.

Revenue climbed 2 percent to $11.9 billion.

The Mooresville, N.C., company said it recorded charges that reduced pre-tax earnings by $336 million, or 17 cents per share. Lowe's said last month it would close 20 underperforming stores in 15 states and cut nearly 2,000 jobs to focus on its more profitable locations.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected, on average, earnings of 33 cents per share on revenue of $11.7 billion.

Lowe's operates more than 1,700 stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Sales at stores open at least a year climbed less than 1 percent. This is an important metric of a retailer's health because it measures results at established stores rather than newly opened ones.

Company Chairman and CEO Robert A. Niblock said in a statement the company's performance was "not at the level we expect relative to the market."

Lowe's expects earnings per share of 20 cents to 23 cents in the fourth quarter, with revenue at stores open at least a year coming in flat or rising only 1 percent. Analysts expect, on average, earnings of 23 cents per share.

For the company's full fiscal year, which ends in early February, it expects earnings of $1.37 to $1.40 per share, including charges of about 20 cents per share tied to store closings and discontinued projects.

Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, and they expect full-year earnings of $1.59 per share from Lowe's.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_lowe_s

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Economy shows signs of momentum in 4th quarter (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The U.S. economy showed signs it maintained speed into the fourth quarter as retail sales rose in October and a gauge of manufacturing in New York state showed growth this month for the first time since May.

Other data on Tuesday showed muted price pressures at the factory level. That should provide the Federal Reserve with ammunition to give more aid to the economy in the face of increased threat to the recovery from Europe's debt crisis.

"The economy seems to be in solid shape," said Alex Hoder, an economist at FTN Financial in New York.

"Growth is not strong, but it is not too bad either, and much better than the fourth-quarter recession many were expecting just a few months ago."

Retail sales increased 0.5 percent in October, the Commerce Department said, after rising 1.1 percent the prior month.

The fifth straight month of gains beat economists' expectations for a 0.3 percent increase.

The stronger tone of the economy was further enhanced by a report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank showing factory activity in New York state grew in November for the first since May as shipments improved even though new orders fell.

The survey of manufacturing plants in the state is one of the earliest monthly guideposts to U.S. factory conditions, but accounts for only a small slice of the overall manufacturing sector, which has been a key pillar of the recovery.

The data supported recent reports suggesting the economy was gaining traction after stumbling in the first half of 2011, hurt by higher gasoline prices and disruptions to production after the March devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Economists at JPMorgan said growth in the current quarter was tracking close to a 3 percent annual pace after expanding at a 2.5 percent rate in the third quarter.

A third report showed the U.S. Producer Price Index fell 0.3 percent on weak gasoline and motor vehicle prices. That was the first drop in four months and followed a 0.8 percent rise in September.

Excluding volatile food and energy, core wholesale prices were flat last month after climbing 0.2 percent in September.

FED SEEN EASING

Stocks on Wall Street were higher, but investors remained worried about Europe's debt crisis. U.S. Treasury debt prices were slightly lower, while the dollar firmed broadly.

Despite the improving economic picture, most economists expect the Fed to ease monetary policy further early next year through bond purchases to stimulate demand and hiring.

"The odds favor the Fed doing a third round of quantitative easing in early 2012. The economy is improving but remains very vulnerable," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester Pennsylvania.

With the outlook for Europe darkening, analysts believe the U.S. central bank will want to safeguard the economy against any external shocks, which previously frustrated growth.

Many think the Fed will want to err on the side of providing too much stimulus. U.S. central bank officials said on Tuesday the economy still needed more support but continued to differ over the threshold for further action.

October's broad rise in retail sales suggested consumer spending would support growth in the fourth quarter, though economists worry that much of the spending is being funded from savings.

Consumer spending -- which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity -- rose at its fastest pace in nearly a year in the third quarter.

"Consumer spending is holding up better than many people had anticipated, given a 9 percent unemployment rate and modest wage gains," said Sweet.

"Consumers are having to dip into their savings, but I don't think that they're cutting into them as much as the data would suggest. Going forward, this pace of consumer spending is only sustainable if the labor market continues to heal."

Saving in the third quarter was the weakest since 2007 and inflation-adjusted disposable income fell for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2009.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke said the retail giant's U.S. customers were still worried about jobs and only one in 10 mothers taking part in its surveys view the economy as "good."

With food prices rising faster than most wages, some shoppers were concerned about holiday meals, the company said.

Retail sales last month were supported by pent-up demand for motor vehicles. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.6 percent, the largest increase in seven months, after advancing 0.5 percent in September.

There were also gains in sales of sporting goods, electronics and appliances, and building materials.

But clothing store sales posted their largest decline since December 2010. Receipts at service stations fell, reflecting weak gasoline prices.

Core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline and building materials, rose 0.7 percent in October after advancing 0.5 percent the prior month.

Core sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of the government's gross domestic product report.

(Additional reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Chris Reese in New York; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111115/bs_nm/us_economy_retail

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Cain campaign defends his stumble on Libya question (tbo)

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Mich. Arab-American center head mistakenly jailed (AP)

DETROIT ? Police in suburban Detroit mistakenly arrested the head of a popular Arab-American cultural center and held him overnight in jail, believing he was a man charged in a conspiracy to funnel money to Hezbollah from the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods.

Dearborn police claiming to be investigating a break-in asked Ali Hammoud for identification and arrested him outside his home Friday night, attorney Majed Moughni said.

"They said they had a warrant for his arrest. He was coming back from a dinner, a family gathering," Moughni said.

But police had the wrong Hammoud.

A man with the same name was indicted with 18 people in Detroit in 2003 in a conspiracy involving the sale of illegal cigarettes, counterfeit Viagra and stolen goods to support Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group. That man has not been found.

An FBI agent went to the Dearborn police station Saturday and told Hammoud he was not the man wanted by authorities, Moughni said.

Hammoud is president of Bint Jebail Cultural Center in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb that is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the country. The center has hosted ceremonies for new U.S. citizens and speeches by prominent government officials, including CIA Director Leon Panetta, in 2009.

Dearborn police had no immediate comment. FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said police arrested a man who fit a description on a federal warrant, but the FBI was not directly involved in the arrest.

Moughni said Hammoud did not want to comment about the incident.

"He's very well respected and liked. People are angry," the lawyer said. "If this can happen to a pillar of the community, it can happen to anyone."

Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News in Dearborn, said he called the Dearborn police chief and the FBI to let them know Hammoud was the wrong man.

"This is not the end of the world but it's no small thing," Siblani said. "The charges are unbelievable. He has raised three doctors, a very down-to-earth guy. For me to even imagine he would do something like this is beyond my imagination."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111112/ap_on_re_us/us_arab_american_mistaken_id

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DIY Flamethrower Pistol. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

What better way to spend a cold Fall weekend than to build yourself a handheld flamethrower? And not just any old flamethrower, but a “Moose/Bear Repellent” flamethrower?
It might look simple, but maker PDRWLSN put a lot of work and skill into building this pistol-shaped fire gun. At its heart, though, it’s little more than a [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/mG_c3X9o9To/

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People on the Move in the Social Business Industry, Nov 12, 2011 ...

For the first time, I received an email from a recruiter seeking a social strategist with 10 years business experience (not just social) an MBA and ability to manage a team of 10 for a total comp of $350-400k. That?s a far stretch above the normal, which I hear is at director level. Let?s see what happens as this space continues to heat up when you see a shortage of talent, frequent poaching, and potential job hopping.

The hires in the social business space continue to heat up, in fact the?market research data (read the report) shows that hiring is the top spend in 2011. Expect there to be more hires over coming quarters.Both the submissions on this job announcement board, as well as?available social media positions at corporations continue to pour in. In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media,?see the archives, which I?ve been tracking since Q4, 2007.

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People on the Move in the Social Business Industry:

• Simon Kemp joins We Are Social as Managing Director, We Are Social Singapore Simon will be responsible for We Are Social?s operations in Asia, heading up an inital team of 3. ?I just met with Stefano a year ago, and now this growing agency has over 120 employees across the globe.
• Dale Reeves joins TE Connectivity (Tyco Electronics); Middletown, PA as Manager, Global eBusiness and Marketing Responsible for all eBusiness marketing, Web platform, eCommerce, analytics reporting, Social Media practice, integration to PR & off-line.
• Steve Johnson joins HootSuite as Chief Revenue Officer Bringing experience as VP of Channel Partners from Constant Contact and Blackbaud, Steve is heading up HootSuite?s go to market channels.
• Darren Suomi joins HootSuite as Vice President of Sales With experience as Global VP, Enterprise Sales at SAP AG and Sales Director as Business Objects, Darren will oversee the HootSuite Enterprise Sales team.
• Greg Gunn joins HootSuite as Vice President, Business Development Already working with HootSuite, Greg is now responsible for building relationships as he did at Terapeak, Research Advanced, TeamPages.com and Idea Builders.
• Matt Switzer joins HootSuite as VP Corporate Development Matt will help grow companies and is currently VP of Corporate Development at HootSuite. Previously an Investment Banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Matt advised on mergers and acquisitions after which he joined a venture capital firm focusing on mobile, social and telecommunications.
• Adarsh Pallian joins HootSuite as Director of Apps and Integrations Adarsh oversees HootSuite?s App Directory program. He is also responsible for the integration of HootSuite?s acquisitions, including Geotoko, Twapper Keeper and What The Trend.
• Brian Komar joins Salesforce.com as Industry Solutions Director for Public Sector and Campaigns plans, develops and executes all marketing programs for the U.S. Public Sector and campaigns
• Cassandra Jeyaram joins Liquid Media Consulting as CEO Social marketing, communication and marketing strategies and campaigns. ?I?ve spoken Cassandra a few times and have seen her work at IHG, she?s class A! congrats.

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Submit a new hire:

Seeking a job?

1. See the Web Strategy Job Board, which includes paid submissions from the top brands in the world.
2. Community Manager jobs by Jake McKee
3. Social Media Jobs by Chris Heuer
4. Social Media jobs, filtered by SimplyHired
5. Social Media Job Network by James Durbin
6. 25 places to find social media jobs by Deb Ng

Additional Resources:

Please congratulate the new hires by leaving a comment below.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 12th, 2011 at 5:26 am and is filed under Career, On the move. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/11/12/people-on-the-move-in-the-social-business-industry-nov-12-2011/

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