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PORTSMOUTH, N.H. ? Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman on Friday urged New Hampshire voters to stand up to the status quo and reject Mitt Romney, while a group of his supporters prepared a new television ad calling Romney a chameleon willing to do anything to get elected.
The $300,000 ad campaign is expected to begin running across New Hampshire this weekend, according to an adviser for the organization known as Our Destiny PAC. The adviser was not authorized to comment publicly.
"Two serious candidates remain," a voice says in the ad, which flashes images of Huntsman, the former Utah governor, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and front-runner in New Hampshire. "One willing to say anything, be anything. One who can actually do the job."
It continues: "One state can stop the chameleon. Vote Jon Huntsman."
Huntsman, who served as ambassador to China in the Obama administration, has not been anywhere near that pointed in his criticism of Romney. Speaking to employees at a Portsmouth software company Friday, he said Romney would be unlikely to change the "trust deficit" in Washington given that Romney has "half of Congress supporting him."
"Who's going to want to change anything when you've got the status quo supporting you?" Huntsman said. "You can have a candidate who's going to fight for change who is not going to be in the hip pocket of special interest groups, or you're going to have the status quo choice."
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also wouldn't do anything to restore trust in Washington, Huntsman said.
"Speaker Gingrich is not the kind of person who is going to be able to deal effectively with the trust issue because you can't deal effectively with the trust issue if you are a fixture of Washington, D.C., and have been for 40 years."
Huntsman, who is skipping Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, is betting his candidacy on a strong finish in New Hampshire's Jan. 10 Republican primary, which is open to independents as well as registered Republicans.
Huntsman entered the presidential contest with great expectations earlier in the year. But national polling suggests he's still largely unknown to many Republican voters. He's also struggled to raise enough money to pay for his own television advertising campaigns. On Wednesday, he told The Associated Press he's likely to leave the race unless he finishes in the top three in New Hampshire.
Pam Hicks, one of the software company workers, said she was 100 percent adamant before meeting Huntsman that she would not vote for him. After the event, Hicks said she was reconsidering although she doesn't like his anti-abortion views or his opposition to gay marriage, which is legal in New Hampshire.
"We believe nobody has the right to tell us how to live our lives," she said.
Still, Hicks said she planned to do more research on Huntsman.
"He needs a more serious look," she said.
Our Destiny PAC has now spent roughly $1.9 million on New Hampshire advertising to help Huntsman. That's more than any other outside group or other campaign has spent in the state, according to numbers obtained by The Associated Press.
BOULDER - More than 1,400 households have signed up to save energy through the Center for ReSource Conservation's ReNew Our Schools program.
The ReNew Our Schools program each year provides solar panels and energy-saving devices for schools and is now promoting school-based energy competitions.
This year, with additional funding from the Governor's Energy office, the Center for Resource Conservation expanded the program to include school-based competitions involving 13 schools across the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain school districts. Between now and January 2012 the schools and 1,400 participating households are taking efforts to reduce their energy consumption.
The Boulder-based nonprofit is collecting data from school utility accounts and home surveys to determine which school is making the most reductions.
This analysis involves data from United Power, Longmont Power and Xcel Energy.
Students and residents are encouraged to learn methods to reduce their energy consumption such as unplugging appliances, turning off unused computers and using blinds when appropriate.
"We redesigned our competition to get students more involved with tangible actions they can take to save energy," said Brad Queen, Center for Resource Conservation's energy director. "Focusing on both their schools and homes will hopefully keep them mindful that they can have a positive influence in both worlds."
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Love a good bio: RT @brainpicker: 11 best biographies and memoirs of 2011 ? Vonnegut, Hemingway, Gorey, Jobs j.mp/sf7Ol9Il y a environ 4 heuresvia TweetDeckRetweeted by 10 people
It's been murmured for some time now that the Georgia Bulldogs will both duck the Alabama Crimson Tide for the Missouri Tigers and get the South Carolina Gamecocks game budged to October, all of which should delight any Dawgs fan, trouble South Carolina fans and annoy just about everybody else. After winning the SEC East with one of the easiest schedules any SEC Championship Game participant has ever put together, UGA could have an even easier slate in 2012.
Nothing's official yet, as conference schedules may be delayed yet another day, but Seth Emerson of the Macon Telegraph puts it all together, and comes up with a very plausible 2012 schedule:
Sept. 1: Buffalo
Sept. 8: at Missouri
Sept. 15: Florida Atlantic
Sept. 22: Vanderbilt
Sept. 29: Tennessee
Oct. 6: at South Carolina
Oct. 13: at Kentucky
Oct. 20: Open
Oct. 27: vs. Florida in Jacksonville
Nov. 3: Ole Miss
Nov. 10: at Auburn
Nov. 17: Georgia Southern
Nov. 24: Georgia Tech
Considering the Auburn Tigers' losses, count as Georgia's toughest opponents Mizzou, Vandy, South Carolina likely minus Alshon Jeffery, the Florida Gators with who-knows-who at offensive coordinator, and a Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets team that will be preceded by a nearly identical warmup team. Masterful.
For more on the Georgia Bulldogs be sure to check out Dawg Sports. For more on Alabama and Missouri, check out Roll Bama Roll and Rock M Nation.
WASHINGTON ? U.S. officials say the Obama administration is poised to announce the sale of nearly $30 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
Officials say the deal will send 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more, for a total of $29.4 billion.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the sale has not been made public.
About a year ago, the administration got the go-ahead from Congress for a 10-year, $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that included F-15s, helicopters and a broad array of missiles, bombs and delivery systems, as well as radar warning systems and night-vision goggles.
The plan raised concerns particularly from pro-Israeli lawmakers, but U.S. officials reassured Congress that Israel's military edge would not be undercut by the sale.
A compound produced from EPA -- Eicosapentaenoic Acid -- an Omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils may help cure chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML. In their study, Penn State researchers found the compound delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3 honed in on and killed CML stem cells in mice.
Targeting stem cells as a cure for chronic myelogenous leukemia, which is one of four main types of blood and bone marrow cancer, is important because stem cells can divide to create more stem cells that in turn spread cancer.
Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology in the Department of Veterinary and Medical Sciences at Penn State said, "Research in the past on fatty acids has shown the health benefits of fatty acids on cardiovascular system and brain development, particularly in infants, but we have shown that some metabolites of Omega-3 have the ability to selectively kill the leukemia-causing stem cells in mice. The important thing is that the mice were completely cured of leukemia with no relapse."
Robert Paulson, associate professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, who co-directed the research with professor Prabhu, explains drugs taken for leukemia don?t cure the disease, but instead suppress the number of leukemia cells. Eventually, patients develop resistance to the drugs, which must be taken continuously.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the only known cure to date for CML is a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
Symptoms of leukemia include easy bruising, petechial rash, enlarged spleen that manifests as pressure or a feeling of fullness under the left rib cage, low grade fever, weakness and fatigue and excessive sweating.
The disease has three stages ? chronic, accelerated and blast crisis. In the chronic phase, there are few symptoms. When leukemia accelerates, fever and other symptoms occur. During the blast crisis phase ? the most dangerous - that can occur if CML is left untreated, bleeding and infection can occur.
In the study, mice given approximately 600 nanograms of the fish oil compound D12-PGJ3 daily, for a week, were completely cured of the disease. They did not experience relapse and spleen size and blood counts returned to normal.
The researchers used the fish oil compound because it had few side effects. The next step is to see if the blast crisis stage of chronic myelogenous leukemia will respond to D12-PGJ3. The finding means there may be a cure for leukemia on the horizon, thanks to fish oil. The researchers are planning on testing the compound in humans.
POSTED: 8:32 am EST December 25, 2011 UPDATED: 5:49 pm EST December 25, 2011
(CNN) -- Food banks across the country kicked into high gear for the holiday season this week in an effort to feed America's hungry. But a few instead homed in on an often overlooked casualty of hard times -- the family pet."It's the forgotten pets that go by the wayside," said Ann King, founder of an Atlanta-based nonprofit group called Save Our Pets Food Bank.Appalled by tales of pet owners compelled to hand over their cats and dogs to shelters, King formed her organization in 2008 in an effort to provide cash-strapped owners a way to keep their canine and feline friends.Each year, between 3 million and 4 million cats and dogs in shelters are euthanized, according to The Humane Society of the United States, a Washington-based animal advocacy group."I've had people say to me, 'I'm down to my last half bag (of pet food) and I don't know what to do,'" King said. "People sometimes just cry because they need help."But King, also the pet food bank's executive director, said that unlike traditional food banks, her group doesn't typically benefit from a resource boost around the holidays."Most people don't think to give to us and funding is a big problem," she said."A lot of the homeless shelters also don't allow pets. So a lot people often just drive up to the local animal control centers and push their dogs out," unable to feed them, she added.Some people, out of work or under-employed, are forced to live in their cars but still refuse to say goodbye to their animal companions, she noted."They don't want to turn their pets over to shelters, because many of the shelters are full and (their pets) will be put to sleep," King said. "People don't realize that pets, they're family too."One such family member is a 12-year-old German shepherd named Giorgio -- a favorite of Nadine Turner's late husband, who died of prostate cancer more than a decade ago."He loved that dog," said Turner, 57, who became homeless earlier this year after moving to Atlanta in search of work. "He's the last link that I have to my husband."Whatever I do, I have to do my best to keep him alive."Turner, a former business owner and insurance broker from Oakland, California, said she lost her business in 2009.Bunking with friends, she was ultimately forced to camp out on a park bench with her dog near a Kroger food market in downtown Atlanta."No shelter would take me and that dog," she said. She eventually turned to King's organization, which paid a week's motel bills, plus Giorgio's food and medicine."I now have a job lined up with another Insurance company," as well a prospective apartment for rent, noted Turner. But she still must find a way to pay a $350 deposit."If I can't, me and Giorgio will be back in front of that Kroger's."Turner's story is not unusual, noted King, whose group currently works with about 500 other food banks nationwide.She also partners with corporations such Del Monte and Mars, as well as the Halo Pet Foundation, headed by comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres.Since 2008, King's organization has swelled to more than 30 volunteers. And through corporate and private donors, it's shelled out more than a million pounds of pet food, trucking and mailing the donations to thousands of down-on-their-luck families.Nationwide networks, such as Rescue Bank -- with which King is affiliated -- have helped to connect the efforts of like-minded organizations."Rescue Bank is doing for pets what the food bank network has successfully done for people in this country for more than 40 years," said Debra Fair, vice president at Mars Petcare US. "This partnership is the perfect way to give much-needed support to the shelter and rescue communities and change the lives of homeless pets everywhere."
Study links quality of mother-toddler relationship to teen obesityPublic release date: 26-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah Anderson sanderson@cph.osu.edu 614-688-3600 Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio The quality of the emotional relationship between a mother and her young child could affect the potential for that child to be obese during adolescence, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed national data detailing relationship characteristics between mothers and their children during their toddler years. The lower the quality of the relationship in terms of the child's emotional security and the mother's sensitivity, the higher the risk that a child would be obese at age 15 years, according to the analysis.
Among those toddlers who had the lowest-quality emotional relationships with their mothers, more than a quarter were obese as teens, compared to 13 percent of adolescents who had closer bonds with their mothers in their younger years.
The findings mirror previous research by these scientists that showed toddlers who did not have a secure emotional relationship with their parents were at increased risk for obesity by age 4 . This body of work suggests the areas of the brain that control emotions and stress responses, as well as appetite and energy balance, could be working together to influence the likelihood that a child will be obese.
Rather than blaming parents for childhood obesity, the researchers say these findings suggest that obesity prevention efforts should consider strategies to improve the mother-child bond and not focus exclusively on eating and exercise.
"It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children's food intake and activity," said Sarah Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.
"The sensitivity a mother displays in interacting with her child may be influenced by factors she can't necessarily control. Societally, we need to think about how we can support better-quality maternal-child relationships because that could have an impact on child health," she said.
The study appears online and is scheduled for publication in the January 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The researchers analyzed data from 977 participants in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a project of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The sample in this national study included diverse families living in nine U.S. states whose children were born in 1991.
As part of that national study, trained observers assessed child attachment security and maternal sensitivity by documenting interactions between mothers and their children at three time points: when the children were 15, 24 and 36 months old.
In the maternal sensitivity assessment, mothers were instructed to play with their child while investigators rated several aspects of each mother's behavior, including supportiveness and respect for autonomy as well as signs of intrusiveness or hostility. Investigators rated attachment security of the children at age 15 and 36 months by monitoring a child's separation from and reunion with the mother. At 24 months, researchers assessed children's attachment security by observing mothers and children in their home.
Maternal sensitivity refers to a mother's ability to recognize her child's emotional state and respond with comfort, consistency and warmth. Psychologists describe securely attached children as those who rely on their parents as a "safe haven," which allows them to explore their environments freely, adapt easily to new people and be comforted in stressful situations. Toddlers who are insecurely attached tend to have experienced negative or unpredictable parenting, and may respond to stress with extreme anger, fear or anxiety, or avoid or refuse interactions with others.
Using these assessments of maternal sensitivity and child attachment security, Anderson and colleagues developed a maternal-child relationship quality score for their own statistical analysis. With a range of zero to six, the score served as an aggregate measure of a child's early relationship experience: Each point reflected a child's display of insecure attachment or a mother's ranking in the lowest quartile of sensitivity at one of the three assessment time points. The researchers designated a score equal to or greater than three as indicating a poor-quality emotional relationship.
The researchers calculated the body mass index (BMI) of the children using their heights and weights measured at or near age 15 years. BMIs were converted into percentiles for age and sex based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In accordance with current guidelines, children were considered obese if their BMI scores were at or above the 95th percentile on those charts.
A total of 241 children, or 24.7 percent, were classified as having a poor quality maternal-child relationship during early childhood based on a score of three or higher. The prevalence of obesity in adolescence was 26.1 percent among these children with the poorest early maternal-child relationships. The teen obesity prevalence was lower for children with better maternal relationships: 15.5 percent, 12.1 percent and 13 percent among those who had scores of two, one and zero, respectively.
Accounting for children's gender and birth weight two of several sociodemographic factors that also can influence the quality of the maternal-child relationship and risk for obesity children with the poorest quality early maternal-child relationship were almost 2 times as likely to be obese as adolescents than were children who had the best relationships with their mothers.
Anderson and colleagues suggest that this association between early childhood experiences and teen obesity has origins in the brain. The limbic system in the brain controls responses to stress as well as the sleep/wake cycle, hunger and thirst, and a variety of metabolic processes, mostly through the regulation of hormones.
"Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress," Anderson said. "A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity."
Obesity may be one manifestation of dysregulation in the functioning of the stress response system. Parents help children develop a healthy response to stress by protecting children from extreme levels of stress, responding supportively and consistently to normal levels of stress, and modeling behavioral responses to stress.
"The evidence here is supportive of the association between a poor-quality maternal-child relationship and an increased chance for adolescent obesity," Anderson said. "Interventions are effective in increasing maternal sensitivity and enhancing young children's ability to regulate their emotions, but the effect of these interventions on children's obesity risk is not known, and we think it would be worth investigating."
###
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors included Ohio State College of Public Health Dean Stanley Lemeshow, and graduate student Rachel Gooze and Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics, both at Temple University.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study links quality of mother-toddler relationship to teen obesityPublic release date: 26-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah Anderson sanderson@cph.osu.edu 614-688-3600 Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio The quality of the emotional relationship between a mother and her young child could affect the potential for that child to be obese during adolescence, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed national data detailing relationship characteristics between mothers and their children during their toddler years. The lower the quality of the relationship in terms of the child's emotional security and the mother's sensitivity, the higher the risk that a child would be obese at age 15 years, according to the analysis.
Among those toddlers who had the lowest-quality emotional relationships with their mothers, more than a quarter were obese as teens, compared to 13 percent of adolescents who had closer bonds with their mothers in their younger years.
The findings mirror previous research by these scientists that showed toddlers who did not have a secure emotional relationship with their parents were at increased risk for obesity by age 4 . This body of work suggests the areas of the brain that control emotions and stress responses, as well as appetite and energy balance, could be working together to influence the likelihood that a child will be obese.
Rather than blaming parents for childhood obesity, the researchers say these findings suggest that obesity prevention efforts should consider strategies to improve the mother-child bond and not focus exclusively on eating and exercise.
"It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children's food intake and activity," said Sarah Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.
"The sensitivity a mother displays in interacting with her child may be influenced by factors she can't necessarily control. Societally, we need to think about how we can support better-quality maternal-child relationships because that could have an impact on child health," she said.
The study appears online and is scheduled for publication in the January 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The researchers analyzed data from 977 participants in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a project of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The sample in this national study included diverse families living in nine U.S. states whose children were born in 1991.
As part of that national study, trained observers assessed child attachment security and maternal sensitivity by documenting interactions between mothers and their children at three time points: when the children were 15, 24 and 36 months old.
In the maternal sensitivity assessment, mothers were instructed to play with their child while investigators rated several aspects of each mother's behavior, including supportiveness and respect for autonomy as well as signs of intrusiveness or hostility. Investigators rated attachment security of the children at age 15 and 36 months by monitoring a child's separation from and reunion with the mother. At 24 months, researchers assessed children's attachment security by observing mothers and children in their home.
Maternal sensitivity refers to a mother's ability to recognize her child's emotional state and respond with comfort, consistency and warmth. Psychologists describe securely attached children as those who rely on their parents as a "safe haven," which allows them to explore their environments freely, adapt easily to new people and be comforted in stressful situations. Toddlers who are insecurely attached tend to have experienced negative or unpredictable parenting, and may respond to stress with extreme anger, fear or anxiety, or avoid or refuse interactions with others.
Using these assessments of maternal sensitivity and child attachment security, Anderson and colleagues developed a maternal-child relationship quality score for their own statistical analysis. With a range of zero to six, the score served as an aggregate measure of a child's early relationship experience: Each point reflected a child's display of insecure attachment or a mother's ranking in the lowest quartile of sensitivity at one of the three assessment time points. The researchers designated a score equal to or greater than three as indicating a poor-quality emotional relationship.
The researchers calculated the body mass index (BMI) of the children using their heights and weights measured at or near age 15 years. BMIs were converted into percentiles for age and sex based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In accordance with current guidelines, children were considered obese if their BMI scores were at or above the 95th percentile on those charts.
A total of 241 children, or 24.7 percent, were classified as having a poor quality maternal-child relationship during early childhood based on a score of three or higher. The prevalence of obesity in adolescence was 26.1 percent among these children with the poorest early maternal-child relationships. The teen obesity prevalence was lower for children with better maternal relationships: 15.5 percent, 12.1 percent and 13 percent among those who had scores of two, one and zero, respectively.
Accounting for children's gender and birth weight two of several sociodemographic factors that also can influence the quality of the maternal-child relationship and risk for obesity children with the poorest quality early maternal-child relationship were almost 2 times as likely to be obese as adolescents than were children who had the best relationships with their mothers.
Anderson and colleagues suggest that this association between early childhood experiences and teen obesity has origins in the brain. The limbic system in the brain controls responses to stress as well as the sleep/wake cycle, hunger and thirst, and a variety of metabolic processes, mostly through the regulation of hormones.
"Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress," Anderson said. "A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity."
Obesity may be one manifestation of dysregulation in the functioning of the stress response system. Parents help children develop a healthy response to stress by protecting children from extreme levels of stress, responding supportively and consistently to normal levels of stress, and modeling behavioral responses to stress.
"The evidence here is supportive of the association between a poor-quality maternal-child relationship and an increased chance for adolescent obesity," Anderson said. "Interventions are effective in increasing maternal sensitivity and enhancing young children's ability to regulate their emotions, but the effect of these interventions on children's obesity risk is not known, and we think it would be worth investigating."
###
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors included Ohio State College of Public Health Dean Stanley Lemeshow, and graduate student Rachel Gooze and Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics, both at Temple University.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
DALLAS (AP) - NBA Commissioner David Stern opened his lockout-delayed season by hearing boos from Mavericks fans.
Stern was in Dallas for the NBA finals rematch between the Mavericks and Heat, and he was on the court for the start of the Mavs? banner-raising ceremony honoring their first championship. The jeers came as soon as he started speaking, but he quickly turned them into cheers by offering his congratulations to team owner Mark Cuban.
Cuban?s often contentious relationship with Stern could?ve been as much of a reason for the boos as the lockout, which pushed the opener from Nov. 1 to Christmas and cut the season by 16 games.
Cuban and Miami?s Micky Arison were among five owners who voted against the labor deal. Stern said ?it doesn?t send any signal whatsoever? that the two owners in the most recent finals were against the agreement.
Stern said Arison only objected to the revenue sharing. He also pointed out that Cuban was part of the labor relations committee and the planning committee.
?(Cuban) might not have been enamored with the final outcome because it takes away the advantage that overspending can give you,? Stern said.
Stern also said he could have done a better job of explaining his reasons for blocking a proposed trade of Chris Paul from the league-owned Hornets to the Lakers, only to later agree to a deal that sent Paul to the Clippers. He said that ?lost in the frenzy? over his action was the fact he quashed the deal in his role as the owners? representative looking out for the best interests of the Hornets ? not as the commissioner looking out for the best interests of the league as a whole.
?Our view was that the best thing was for New Orleans to be a young team,? he said.
Stern blamed himself for not clarifying that sooner.
?I don?t think it affected the integrity of the league,? he said. ?I do think I could have done a better communications job. ? It?s a job that, as the owners? representative, I was stuck with. But I think that it was better to have me do it than a group of owners do it because I have the singular focus of doing what?s best.?
The booing Mavs fans may not have realized they had Stern to thank for getting Lamar Odom to Dallas. Odom was supposed to have been in the Lakers-Hornets deal; when he wasn?t, he was so upset that the club didn?t want him that he asked to be traded.
After the Dallas-Miami game, Stern went to Oklahoma City for the opener between the Thunder and Orlando. Magic star Dwight Howard is trying to force his way to the team of his preference, just like Paul did. Asked if that was bad for the league, Stern said it?s always happened, using Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain as examples.
?That?s the beauty of the soap opera,? Stern said. ?It will play out like it plays out.?
Stern had compliments for another superstar he was about to watch, LeBron James.
?I see a level of acceptance and maturity,? Stern said. ?He?s clearly saying he might?ve said a few things differently, etcetera, and he?s going to let his talent do the talking. I think that?s pretty exciting because he?s got some pretty exciting talent. So we?re happy for him and we?re looking forward to how the season winds up.?
So, how does he expect the season to wind up?
?I said to Mark, `It?s ironic, the most underrated team in the league is the NBA champion,?? Stern said. ?I think Dallas has a pretty good roster. ? I said before last season, `I think we?re going to have to play the season. We?re not mailing the trophy to Miami.? It turns out, we mailed it to Dallas. We?ll see what happens this year ? but Miami really seems formidable with those three superstars.?
(? Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Some people getting the gift of a free meal on Christmas day. Union Mission held their annual Christmas dinner on Sunday, but this year it was made a little more special, because Gulfstream Aerospace added 300 meals to the table. The meal was a traditional Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings. Organizers said they gre...
Breaking News Monday 26th December, 2011
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What became of the Soviet Union's child stars?: As we turned the pages of many family albums in Moscow, stories ... bit.ly/udSeeZIl y a environ 4 heuresvia twitterfeed
Country's capital is one of only a few places with light at night
If the?inhabitants of another world were to look at North Korea at night, they'd assume it was deserted. That's because the country is virtually without electricity, as evident in this?nighttime satellite photo showing only its capital of Pyongyang and a few tiny spots within its borders illuminated.
The photo is a testament to the severe poverty of the nation, which was ruled by?Kim Jong-il from 1980 until his death on December 17 from an apparent heart attack. Jong-il had been widely accused of pouring his country's resources into its military and nuclear programs, leaving a majority of its citizens without food and other basic necessities.
In this stunning photo, you can see the bright lights of China to the north and South Korea below. The bright white line of lights denote the border between the North and South that was established as part of the cease-fire agreement during the Korean War in 1953.
Fortune is reporting that Walter Isaacson, author of the official biography of Steve Jobs, may be planning an expansion of 630-page book in the future.
At an event in San Francisco hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California, Isaacson shared a number of gems about the two years he spent with Jobs writing the book and talked about the possibility of expanding the title in the future. Fortune senior editor at large Adam Lashinsky moderated the talk.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) ? Physicists have announced that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has produced yet more tantalizing hints for the existence of the Higgs boson. The European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, the international team of thousands of scientists -- including many from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) -- unveiled for the first time all the data taken over the last year from the two main detectors at the LHC: the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS). The results represent the largest amount of data ever presented for the Higgs search.
The Higgs boson is a hypothesized particle that endows every other particle with mass, and is the presumed last piece of the so-called Standard Model, the theory that describes how every particle interacts. According to physicists, the discovery of the Higgs boson, in whatever form it may take, is crucial for understanding the fundamental laws of physics.
The team says they have seen what they call "excess events" -- a slight surplus of particle-collision events over what would be expected if the Higgs didn't exist. This suggests that the particle might have a mass between 115 and 127 gigaelectron volts (GeV, a unit of mass; in comparison, the mass of a proton is about 1 GeV). While the physicists can't yet claim discovery of the elusive particle, they are closer than ever, having ruled out a very large range of the Higgs's possible masses with great certainty.
But if physicists do not find the Higgs in the remaining mass range between 115 and 127 GeV, then it means the particle -- if it exists at all -- is of a more exotic form, requiring new theories of physics. Although remarkably successful, the Standard Model is incomplete, and an exotic form of the Higgs could help point the way toward a more complete theory -- which physicists say is an exciting challenge.
"This is the beginning of a game-changing time for particle physics," says Harvey Newman, professor of physics. Along with professor of physics Maria Spiropulu, Newman leads Caltech's group that works on the CMS detector.
The LHC searches for the Higgs boson by slamming together protons at near-light speeds, producing new particles like the Higgs in the process. The problem is that the particle is exceptionally short-lived, decaying into other smaller particles within a tiny fraction of a second of its birth. To find the Higgs, physicists have to pick through the remains of each proton collision and reconstruct what happened.
If the collisions successfully produce a Higgs, then the particle can decay in several ways, depending on its mass. The Caltech team helped analyze three of these decays, called channels, in which the Higgs either decays into two photons, a pair of particles called W bosons, or another pair called Z bosons.
Graduate students Yong Yang, Yousi Ma, Jan Veverka, and Vladlen Timciuc are all studying the photon-photon channel, searching for the Higgs as well as possible signs of new physics phenomena. Caltech Tolman Postdoctoral Scholar Emanuele Di Marco, helped lead the analysis of the W-boson channel for the CMS team. Spiropulu, graduate student Chris Rogan, and other colleagues have also done preparatory studies for the Z-boson channel, which they published in the Physical Review in 2010.
"The impressive data produced by the CMS is the result of the experiment's ability to cleanly identify and precisely measure the energies of photons, electrons, and positrons," says Adi Bornheim, a Caltech staff scientist who heads the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) detector group at CMS. Composed of 76,000 crystal detectors and weighing in at more than 90 tons, the calorimeter measures the energy of the electrons and protons produced by LHC collisions with high resolution.
"For the last 17 years, our group has led the way in constructing and calibrating the calorimeter, which has to be extremely precise for these demanding studies," adds Marat Gataullin, an assistant scientist at Caltech.
The collision experiments in 2010 and 2011 at the LHC operated only at half their designed energy levels, the researchers say. Still, the experiments exceeded design specifications for the proton beam's focus and intensity, producing about one quadrillion (a million billion) proton collisions and resulting in millions of gigabytes of data. Even though the latest experiments were more complicated than ever, the scientists in the ATLAS and CMS teams say they were able to analyze the data in record time, using new technology pioneered and developed by Newman's group at Caltech.
In order to confirm once and for all whether the Higgs exists as physicists understand it -- or if they'll need to come up with new theories -- the LHC will need be cranked up to collide protons with more energy. "We now need more data-three or four times the data that we expect the LHC to deliver in 2012," Newman says. The LHC is currently operating at around seven teraelectron volts (a TeV is a thousand times larger than a GeV), and scientists are considering boosting up the energy in the next year, which will help in the search. The LHC is designed to smash protons using energies as high as 14 TeV. "We foresee reaching 14 TeV by 2015, boosting the intensity by ten times starting in around 2022, and cranking up the energy to 33 TeV starting about 20 years from now," he adds. "This will open a vast new realm for exploration, and will surely revolutionize our understanding of the nature of matter and forces at the most basic level."
The Caltech CMS group, which includes eight graduate students and several postdocs, engineers, and technical staff, is working on many other projects in addition to the Higgs search, such as exploring supersymmetry (a theory that says every particle has a "supersymmetric" partner), searching for other exotic, theoretical particles, and developing new kinds of particle detectors.
"We're grateful for the achievements of the LHC team and our colleagues with CMS," Spiropulu says. "We are working hard on the final stage of improving the experiments and on publishing the results-both about the Higgs and possible new, exciting theories of physics-in the coming weeks and months."
For more information, go to the Caltech CMS website (http://hep.caltech.edu/cms), the CMS public site (http://cms.web.cern.ch/), and the American CMS site (http://uscms.org).
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Twitter / Jason Isbell: #YouKnowYouInTheGhetto Whe ... When you're Jewish, and you live in Rome in the late1500's! Am I right, or what?Il y a 39 minutesvia web
(Reuters) ? Children whose fathers smoked around the time of their conception have at least a 15 percent higher risk of developing the most common form of childhood cancer, a type of leukemia, according to an Australian study.
Although the findings, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, credit multiple factors in children developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the study follows others that have also found an increased risk.
"Study results suggest that heavier paternal smoking around the time of conception is a risk factor for childhood ALL," wrote researchers led by Elizabeth Milne at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Australia.
Although ALL is the most common childhood cancer, it is still rare, affecting about three to five children out of every 100,000.
The researchers surveyed the families of nearly 300 children with ALL, asking about the smoking habits of both parents. They also compared these families to those of more than 800 children of similar ages who did not have leukemia.
The mothers' smoking behavior had no impact on the children's risk of developing the cancer, but children whose fathers smoked at all around the time of their conception were 15 percent more likely to develop leukemia.
Those whose fathers smoked at least 20 cigarettes per day around that same time were 44 percent more likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
Of nine earlier reports the researchers used in their comparison with the current study, six also found an increased risk.
"The importance of tobacco exposure and children's cancers has been overlooked until recently," said Patricia Buffler, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study.
She added that since tobacco is full of toxins, including carcinogens, it was not unlikely that there could be damage in the cells that produce sperm.
Milne agreed, noting: "Sperm containing DNA (damage) can still reach and fertilize an ovum, which may lead to disease in the offspring."
But she added that the study did not prove that DNA damage in the sperm caused ALL in the children, since the disease was likely to be caused by a number of factors.
Other environmental factors tied to a greater chance of developing childhood leukemia are ionizing radiation such as x-rays, and the mother's exposure to paint or pesticides while pregnant. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/snq3sL
(Reporting from New York by Kerry Grens at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)
Vanessa Hudgens’ a birthday girl today, turning 23 years old! Can you believe it was five years ago that we first caught glimpse of the beautiful Filipina American, when she starred as Gabriella Montez in the Disney Channel’s High School Musical. Her popularity soared and two more HSM films were made, and she enjoyed a high profile relationship with her co-star Zac Efron. Her career was marred by a scandal involving some photos that were naughty in nature and swept through the internet like wildfire. She apologized for the pics and regretted taking them. Luckily for her, Disney did not drop the actress, as many had suspected. The scandal did not break up the relationship she with her HSM co-star, Zac Efron. They first met while making High School Musical in 2005, but it wasn’t until 2007 that they officially started dating. They were dubbed “America’s sweethearts” and we would regularly see the pair photographed while on vacay in Hawaii, grabbing a cup of joe, blah blah blah. They seemed inseparable and so in love. Like the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end”, and end it did. The two went their separate ways in December of [...]
home > Management > Our Country Local Authority Finance Investment Infrastructural Facilities Project Achievements Evaluation Study
?Abstract? This article in the analysis selected topic background, the selected topic significance, in the commentary domestic and foreign government finance investment plan achievements evaluation study achievement?s foundation, analyzes the Local authority finance investment plan anagement present situation, the existence question, the finance investment plan achievementsappraisal present situation, then elaborated the construction finance investment items of basic construction achievements appraisal general indicator system?s importance and the necessity, then introduced its should follow the basic principle, elaborated with emphasis finally crosswise divides into four dimensions, longitudinal to divide into three levels multi-level, the three-dimensional general indicator system. This system?s construction has laid the foundation for the financial investment items of basic construction achievements appraisal?s fundamental research and the practice application. Proposed that the achievements appraisal?s mentality and the overall frame, summarize the finance investment plan achievements appraisal the rationale.This article follows from the foundation arrives again to the theory applies this overall mentality, proposes and analyzes the achievements appraisal the correlation theories, then the discussion indicator system?s design and the model construction, embarks finally by the actual project?s characteristic, the use target and the evaluation model, carry on to the example project study and draw the related conclusion. The paper take Our country government investment?s infrastructural facilities project as the main object of study, carries out the condition take the public works as a breakthrough point, designs the indicator system public works from many angles to carry out the achievements to carry on the synthesis evaluation the research. The research content mainly includes the basic theory, the target design and the case analysis applied research three major parts, is divided five chapter of compositions. The first chapter the analysis selected topic background, the significance, introduced that the domestic and foreign project achievements evaluation study and in the application achievement?s foundation, proposes this article research mentality, the method and the content and the possible innovation spot. The second chapter in the limits government investment project achievements and in the government investment project achievements appraisal?s foundation, the selective analysis our country Local authority finance investment plan achievements appraisal present situation and the existence question as well as had these question reason, found the improvement by it the method. The third chapter embarks from the finance investment plan achievements appraisal system construction. Embarked from this foundation elaborated the finance investment plan achievements appraisal system and the construction finance investment plan achievements appraisal method and the classification. The fourth chapter this chapter first carries on the outline to the project, then draws the appraisal conclusion through the description appraisal process. Last chapter through the preamble narration, draws our country final conclusion, and has further developed to my government finance investment plan?s achievements appraisal system carries on the forecast.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is taking his buyout offer that values Commercial Metals Co. at $1.73 billion directly to the company's stockholders, a day after the scrap-metal processor rejected the bid.
Icahn Enterprises Holdings LP said Tuesday that it plans to start a tender offer for all of Commercial Metals' outstanding stock at $15 per share, which was a 7 percent premium to the Irving, Texas, company's closing stock price of $14.09 on Monday.
Commercial Metals says Icahn's offer undervalues the company and its future prospects.
Icahn, known for buying and shaking up struggling companies with mixed success, already owns almost 10 percent of Commercial Metals.
One obstacle the tender faces is that Commercial Metals' board would need to lift a "poison pill" that's in place. Poison pills are typically implemented to try to prevent hostile takeovers.
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Public release date: 26-Dec-2011
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