Maradona fined over feud with rival coach

By MICHAEL CASEY

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:54 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -Diego Maradona was fined 9,000 dirham ($2,450, ?1,901) on Thursday by the United Arab Emirates Football Association for verbally abusing a rival coach.

Maradona, who coaches UAE club Al Wasl, has been feuding with Al Ain coach Cosmin Olaroiu since losing an ill-tempered match last month. The 1986 World Cup-winning Argentine complained that Olaroiu and his staff celebrated the winning goal in an unprofessional manner. He later called Olaroiu rude and impolite and suggested it was the club's players, not Olaroiu, who deserved credit for its early season success.

Olaroiu, a Romanian in his first year at Al Ain, told reporters that Maradona's criticisms came from someone "who doesn't have a clear mind," a reference to the Argentine's history of drug and alcohol abuse. Olaroiu was not sanctioned over the comments because Al Wasl hasn't filed a complaint.

In its verdict, the FA disciplinary committee also cautioned Maradona and took him to task for calling Olaroiu "impolite." The committee dismissed a separate complaint filed by Al Wasl, which accused Al Ain fans of pelting its supporters with stones after the match.

Al Wasl officials could not be reached for immediate comment.

Al Ain Chief Executive Carlo Nohra said Maradona's sanction was justified and sent a message that such conduct would not be tolerated in the league.

"We are happy a decision has been taken in this case," Nohra said. "This was never really about Maradona but curbing coaches behavior toward one another. We all felt this behavior should have been picked up by the league anyway."

Since arriving in Dubai, the brash and colorful Maradona has made his presence felt. He has repeatedly criticized referees he claims were biased against his club and at one point suggested they should focus more on the match than trying to become celebrities.

He also kicked a fan for intruding on a photo shoot he was trying to take with a banner of support from his grandson.

"As a surprise from my daughters in Argentina and Manchester, they put a sign up for me in the ground that read: 'Grandfather, I'm with you. I love you. Benja,"' Maradona said after the incident. "I'd like to apologize to one of the fans. I was trying to unfurl and see the whole banner and, by mistake, I perhaps injured him."

On Wednesday, the 50-year-old Maradona defended his criticism of referees, and said they could benefit from his vast experience.

"I only say what I feel," Maradona told a news conference. "In the future, they will realize what I said was right. I have 35 years in the industry and that has made me realize certain things."

Maradona retired as a player in 1997, but battled weight problems and an admitted cocaine habit even before he left the game. He turned to coaching in 2008, taking over at Argentina and leading his country to the World Cup quarterfinals in South Africa. He was fired after the World Cup and joined Al Wasl in May.

Throughout his career, Maradona has never been shy about courting controversy.

In 2009, he was handed a two-month ban by FIFA from all football activities for expletive-filled rants after his team qualified for the 2010 World Cup.

He also has had a running feud with Pele, recently saying the retired Brazilian star must have taken the "wrong medication" when he suggested Neymar was better than Lionel Messi.

---

Follow Michael Casey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcasey1

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

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Lebanon rallying around team

Ali al-Saadi gave Lebanon a 1-0 lead against South Korea and the sectarian chants echoing across Cite Sportive stadium suddenly gave way to a more hopeful cheer.

Off-field woes

Football in 2011 was dominated by events off the field rather than on it.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45814678/ns/sports-soccer/

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VUPEN: MS released an out-of-band security update MS11-100 for .NET Framework to fix the hash tables DoS & other flaws http://t.co/3YlGQMrV

MS released an out-of-band security update MS11-100 for .NET Framework to fix the hash tables DoS & other flaws Il y a environ 15 heures via web

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Tour offers visitors a special screening of New Orleans (omg!)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - It's been more than 50 years since Blanche DuBois of the New Orleans-set play "A Streetcar Named Desire" wistfully declared that she had "always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Now, a local tour service brings strangers close to settings where the lives of DuBois and later fictional characters, such as Benjamin Button (portrayed by Brad Pitt) and "GI Joe" Colton (Bruce Willis), played out in dramatic style.

New Orleans Movie Tours owner Jonathan Ray personally escorts visitors to film locations and other movie-related spots. Sites related to 30 movies are now on the tour, he said.

"I want to be able to answer every question about every movie ever filmed here," Ray told Reuters.

He and his wife Michelle began the tours seven months ago with the idea of giving visitors a cameraman's view of New Orleans by highlighting its history as a filming location.

Twice a day, Jonathan Ray drives as many as 10 passengers around the city in a van equipped with individual video monitors.

At each location along the two-hour route, Ray shows clips from a movie or TV episode filmed at the site and offers anecdotes related to the location.

They visit a spot near the foot of Canal Street as they watch video of Vivien Leigh, starring in the 1951 film version of "Streetcar," stepping off a train and asking directions to a street called Elysian Fields.

When a scene from the 1991 movie "JFK" pops onto the screen, showing Kevin Costner's character in the French Quarter bar called Napoleon House, tour guests get to see the bar up close.

"We'll show you that clip while parked right outside the Napoleon House, and then we'll tell you about the history of the building, too," Ray said.

Guests, who pay $39 for the tour, also get popcorn and bottled water.

Ray, who worked behind the scenes on several locally-shot feature films, spent much of the last two years researching local movie history and amassing details about more than 100 classic and contemporary New Orleans-related productions, from the 1958 Elvis Presley movie "King Creole" to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008).

PRODUCTION HOTBED

Keeping up with local movie trivia is a growing challenge in a city that's become a hotbed of movie production.

Since 2002, when Louisiana implemented a tax credit program that gives producers financial breaks in exchange for making movies in the state, New Orleans has become one of the largest film centers in the country outside of Los Angeles.

Some 90 feature films and television productions came to Louisiana during 2011, according to the state's Department of Economic Development. New Orleans hosted more than half of those projects.

The industry's growth here has increased the chances a visitor wandering along local streets might bump into a screen idol such as Brad Pitt or Sandra Bullock, who own homes in the city, or Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Sylvester Stallone and a host of other stars who have worked here.

Guests on Ray's tour last week caught sight of Will Ferrell and Dylan McDermott as the van visited a location for "Dog Fight," a comedy slated for release in 2012.

Cris Roman, a recent visitor from Sauk Centre, Minnesota, said New Orleans Movie Tours gave him an insider's view of one of his favorite TV shows, the HBO series "Treme."

Now in production on its third season, the series uses sets throughout the city, including the series' namesake neighborhood just north of the historic French Quarter.

"I loved seeing the Treme neighborhood," Roman said. "And the fact that Jonathan would screen clips in the bus while driving by the locations -- I haven't taken a tour like that before."

Local tourism officials welcome the movie tours as an extension of the local film business, which they count among the city's growing visitor assets.

"When a tourist comes to the city and sees Matthew McConaughey or Jessica Alba, it supports the idea that New Orleans is an exciting place to be," said Jennifer Day-Sully, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau.

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Jerry Norton)

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Dartmouth & Harvard @ RPI & Union (1/6, 1/7)

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Oil eases after Iran threat, Italy gets debt boost

By Mike Peacock and Ikuko Kurahone

LONDON (Reuters) - Crude prices broke a six-day rally on Wednesday after Iran's threat to stop the flow of oil from the Gulf was written off as no more than rhetoric, while a strong short-term Italian debt sale eased stress in European markets.

Tehran said on Tuesday it would stop oil transiting through the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions were imposed on its crude oil exports because of its nuclear ambitions. Washington said it saw "an element of bluster" in the threat.

Brent fell 0.9 percent to $108.28 a barrel by 1150 GMT after climbing more than a dollar in the previous session. Prices have surged over 5 percent since December 16.

European shares reversed early losses to add 0.5 percent <.fteu3>, while Asian stocks slipped, leaving the MSCI world equity index <.miwd00000pus> flat on the day. Futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street.<.n/>

"The threat by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz supported the oil market yesterday, but the effect is fading today as it will probably be empty threats as they cannot stop the flow for a longer period due to the amount of U.S. hardware in the area," said Thorbjoern bak Jensen, oil analyst with Global Risk Management.

It has been an ugly year for equities outside the United States.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.7 percent, keeping it on course for a 2011 loss of 18 percent, underperforming a 12 percent decline in European shares <.fteu3> and a 9 percent drop in world stocks.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> ended down 0.2 percent, on track for a 17.6 percent drop this year. <.t/>

Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory Co, said the chances of a violent confrontation with Iran were remote for now but added the tensions would be a major source of volatility in 2012 along with the unresolved euro zone debt crisis.

EURO CURBED

The euro held above an 11-month low against the dollar after Italian short-term debt costs halved at auction, helped by a new government austerity package and cheap liquidity from the European Central Bank.

The country faces the more difficult task of selling long-term debt on Thursday where there will be a greater reliance on international investors to buy 8.5 billion euros of debt with maturities of up to 10 years.

Analysts said market tensions could easily reignite. Italy faces almost 150 billion euros of debt refinancing in February-April alone.

"Tomorrow's auction is more important and will give more insight into general sentiment. Today was a warm-up," said Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

The euro was last marginally higher on the day at $1.3071.

Safe-haven German Bund futures were barely changed while yields on Italian 10-year bonds dropped to 6.8 percent, just below the 7 percent rate that is widely seen as unsustainable in the long term for the country's finances.

Banks deposited a record 452 billion euros ($538 billion) at the European Central Bank overnight, giving no sign that interbank lending is reviving, although the nearly half a trillion euros of 3-year liquidity handed out by the ECB last week pushed bank-to-bank lending rates lower.

In the United States, data suggested the economy was on track for a moderate recovery, with improving labor market conditions lifting U.S. consumer confidence to an eight-month high in December although U.S. single-family home prices fell more than expected in October.

Wall Street ended flat on Tuesday following a five percent rally last week which pushed the S&P 500 into positive territory for the year.

Gold edged lower, tracking falls in industrial metals and equities.

The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.crb> -- largely influenced by U.S. crude oil -- is set for a 7 percent drop in 2011, faring slightly better than equities.

U.S. crude oil has been among the best performers this year with a 10 percent increase, while gold has gained 12 percent as a loss of confidence in the euro zone accelerated investor flight to bullion.

(Additional reporting by Valentina Za in Milan, Nia Williams and William James in London, Chikako Mogi in Tokyo, editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/news.newsmain/article/0/5/1889372/Business/Oil.eases.after.Iran.threat..Italy.gets.debt.boost

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Golf, hikes and sea turtles fill Obama's Hawaii vacation time

Reporting from Honolulu?

It?s too early to say whether President Obama has the upper hand in campaign 2012, but the verdict is in on one point: Obama is having the more relaxing week.

As the Republican presidential field jockeys for advantage in the final days before the Iowa caucuses, the Obamas move from one really fun sun-splashed outing to the next.

Tuesday found the first family releasing four green sea turtles into Hanauma Bay. The turtles, each 18 months old, were born at Sea Life Park north of the bay.

The bay is closed on Tuesdays for routine maintenance, giving the Obamas privileged access to a tourist spot famous for its spectacular snorkeling.

Afterward, First Lady Michelle Obama peeled off, and the president and his two daughters stopped to visit Sea Life Park.

?From swimming with dolphins and sea lions to sitting in on a penguin trainer talk -- from feeding sea turtles to diving with rays --? no other park gets you this close,?? the park?s website boasts.

Obama, of course, paid his dues in Iowa four years ago, where he staked his long-shot campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton on a victory in the Democratic caucuses.

One advantage of running unopposed is he no longer has to trudge from Waterloo to Davenport in freezing temperatures. So, the president is filling his vacation days with rounds of golf, hikes, morning workouts and close encounters with green sea turtles.

It all ends Jan 2. Then it?s back to Washington and a resumption of payroll tax cut negotiations.

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Can foreign tourists help US economy?

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Agustina Ocampo is the kind of foreign traveler businesses salivate over.

The 22-year-old Argentine recently dropped more than $5,000 on food, hotels and clothes in Las Vegas during a trip that also took her to Seattle's Space Needle, Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo. But she doubts she will return soon.

"It is a little bit of a headache," said Ocampo, a student who waited months to find out whether her tourist visa application would be approved.

More than a decade after the federal government strengthened travel requirements after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, foreign visitors say getting a temporary visa remains a daunting and sometimes insurmountable hurdle.

The tourism industry hopes to change that with a campaign to persuade Congress to overhaul the State Department's tourist visa application process.

"After 9/11, we were all shaken and there was a real concern for security, and I still think that concern exists," said Jim Evans, a former hotel chain CEO heading a national effort to promote foreign travel to the U.S.

At the same time, he said, the U.S. needs "to be more cognizant of the importance of every single traveler."

Tourism leaders said the decline in foreign visitors over the past decade is costing American businesses and workers $859 billion in untapped revenue and at least half a million potential jobs at a time when the slowly recovering economy needs both.

While the State Department has beefed up tourist services in recent years, reducing wait times significantly for would-be visitors will likely be a challenge as officials try to balance terrorist threats and illegal immigration with tight budgets that limit hiring.

"Security is job one for us," said Edward Ramotowski, managing director of the department's visa services. "The reason we have a visa system is to enforce the immigration laws of the United States."

Anti-immigration proponents argue travel to the U.S. is already too accessible and that allowing more visitors would put the nation at greater risk.

"Everybody would like to find a way to admit as many people as possible to visit here providing that they visit and then go home," said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration group based in Washington, D.C.

"A lot of consular officers underestimate how much people want to come and live here," she said.

Nearly 7.6 million nonimmigrant visas were issued in 2001, compared with fewer than 6.5 million in 2010. The number of visa applicants also dropped sharply after 2001. Those combined forces pushed the U.S. share of global travelers down to 12 percent last year, from 17 percent before 2001.

The proposed immigration overhaul has largely been driven by the U.S. Travel Association, the tourism industry's lobbying giant, and has been endorsed by business titans such as the National Retail Federation, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are backing the proposed changes through six bills in the House and Senate.

Geoff Freeman, the travel association's chief operating officer, said the State Department should be required to keep visa interview wait times at a maximum of 10 days.

"Every day a person is waiting for that interview is a day a person cannot be here supporting the American economy," he said.

For most foreigners, taking a last-minute business or leisure trip to New York, Los Angeles, Miami or other U.S. travel hubs would be nearly impossible. The average wait time for a visa interview in Rio de Janeiro, for example, was 87 days, according to the State Department.

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency that audits federal programs, concluded that wait times are likely much longer than reported because some department employees artificially reduce the wait times by not scheduling interviews during high-demand periods.

The vast majority of visitors enter through the country's visa waiver program, which allows travelers from 36 nations with good relationships with the U.S. to temporarily visit without a visa. Travel proponents want to add nations whose residents are unlikely to illegally move to the U.S., including Argentina, Brazil, Poland and Taiwan.

Tourists from the rest of the world, including India, China, Mexico and other nations with affluent travelers looking to use their passports, must obtain a nonimmigrant visa. The process can be expensive and time-consuming.

People living far from a visa processing center must arrange travel to the interview location, not knowing whether they will be approved. Roughly 78 percent of all tourist visas were approved so far in 2011.

Tourism proponents want the department to embrace videoconferencing as a way to interview more people quickly. The department has no plans to implement videoconferencing interviews because of safety and technological concerns, Ramotowski said.

In-person interviews weren't the norm before 9/11, when consular officials had the authority to approve travelers based on an application alone. Since then, however, screenings have become more strenuous, with fingerprint checks and facial recognition screening of photographs.

The State Department has made moves to boost its tourist services in recent years, transferring employees from underworked offices to bustling embassies and consular posts. Many visa processing centers are also operating under extended hours.

Other proposed changes include granting more multi-entry visas and charging premium fees to tourists who want a visa right away, similar to the premium passport fee charged to Americans with last-minute passport requests. The tourism industry also wants more visa processing officers and to allow travelers to submit applications in their native language.

"We can't afford to treat them in a way that gives them an impression that maybe they aren't welcome," said Rolf Lundberg, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's top lobbyist.

To help make the U.S. appear more welcoming, Congress approved last year a $200 million annual marketing campaign.

In Las Vegas, where travelers to the Strip have traditionally kept Nevada's economy afloat, tourism and government leaders are desperate to keep businesses open and create jobs in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the U.S.

"The industries affected by tourism are all behind it," said Republican Rep. Joe Heck of southern Nevada, who has sponsored a bill in the House that would require shorter visa interview delays, among other measures. "We need the jobs."

Ocampo, who spent her vacation shopping at upscale boutiques and visiting family in California, said she would be more eager to come back if she knew her business was wanted.

"Everyone wants to visit the Statue of Liberty and Disneyland," she said.

Associated Press

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Death-defying comet lights up huge desert telescope

Andrew Purcell, online producer

(Image: Guillaume Blanchard/ESO)

On 22 December, Guillaume Blanchard of the European Southern Observatory captured two impressive objects in one shot: the recently-discovered comet Lovejoy and ESO's Very Large Telescope, which lies in the arid Atacama desert in Chile.

The comet was first discovered on 27 November by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy. It has been classified as a Kreutz sungrazer due to the close proximity with which it passes by our sun.

The comet was expected to break up two weeks ago when it passed within a mere 140,000 kilometres of the sun's surface. However, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory reported on 15 December that the comet had survived the close shave.

With its bright tail - millions of kilometres long and composed of dust particles that originated in the solar wind - the comet is expected to be visible from the southern hemisphere for at least the next month. After that, it won't be back for 314 years - and that's assuming it survives its parlous journey around the nether regions of our solar system.

For more on Lovejoy, check out a time-lapse video of the comet passing over the Atacama desert or marvel at these images taken by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank from the International Space Station.

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World's first pop-up mall: London's Boxpark

Millions of us will head to the mall this week to return gifts or buy what we really wanted from the after-Christmas sales. Chain stores, fast food courts, and packed parking lots are what most of us associate with shopping malls, but a new retail concept in hip East London is looking to change that. Boxpark is the world's first pop-up mall, made out of 60+ shipping containers that house a mix of international labels like The North Face and Levi's, UK designers Luke and Boxfresh, plus cafes and eateries such as Pieminister. Boxpark will be open for five years, and stores may change after a year or two. Befitting the Shoreditch neighborhood, don't expect Claire's Accessories or the Gap, but rather street fashion, cool sneakers, and funky concept stores and art galleries Art Against Knives and Marimekko. Already a huge trend with restaurants, one-off shops, and hotels, the flexibility of the pop-up concept means an urban (or anywhere, since the containers can be moved!) location, up-and-coming designers, and more creative retail spaces.

Check out all the retailers at www.boxpark.co.uk plus info on sales and special offers.

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Deep-sea glow serves as bait

Marine bacteria light up to get a ride elsewhere

Web edition : 4:40 pm

Bioluminescent bacteria glow in the ocean for the same reason roadside eateries display neon signs: They want to attract hungry diners.

New laboratory experiments bolster the longstanding theory that marine bacteria light up to get themselves a free ride to other parts of the ocean in the digestive tracts of larger beasts, scientists from Israel and Germany report online December 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

?It?s terrific to see this experiment,? says J. Woodland Hastings, a bioluminescence expert at Harvard University who was not involved in the research. ?It?s nice to see these ideas confirmed.?

Many deep-sea creatures, from bacteria to fish to squid, are bioluminescent ? meaning they generate light inside their bodies through chemical reactions. Different organisms glow for different reasons; the anglerfish, for instance, can light up a lure to attract prey, while some plankton glow to signal possible danger when a boat or swimmer passes nearby.

Bioluminescent bacteria live throughout the ocean, and may have several reasons to explain their built-in glow. More than three decades ago, researchers suggested that one such reason could be to mark the presence of a floating food particle, so that a passing fish would see it and eat it. But no one had tracked this idea all the way to its logical conclusion ? until now.

Margarita Zarubin, a graduate student at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, Israel, started with a type of luminescent bacteria, Photobacterium leiognathi, found 600 meters deep in the Red Sea. She put one bag of glowing bacteria at one end of a seawater tank, and at the other end she put another bag of bacteria that had a genetic change that kept the microbes dark. Shrimp and other small animals clustered around only the glowing bacteria.

Next she let brine shrimp swim in water with the luminescent bacteria. After two and a half hours, the shrimp themselves began to glow from their microbial dinner. ?We could see the luminescence from inside their guts,? says Zarubin, who did the work while at the University of Oldenburg in Germany and is now with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Then she dropped both glowing and dark shrimp into a flume so they were swept past a hungry cardinalfish; the fish ate only the luminescent shrimp. Finally, the scientists tested the fish feces, and found that the bacteria had passed unscathed through the fish guts and came out intact. The whole process spreads the bacteria through the water faster than they could move otherwise, Zarubin says.?

For their part, the shrimp must balance the benefit of eating a food particle that happens to glow against the drawback of becoming luminescent themselves, thus making themselves more vulnerable to predators. But in deep dark waters where food is scarce, the advantage of getting a snack probably outweighs the disadvantage of potentially being eaten, Zarubin says.

Some animals have pigment in their guts that can block light emission as they digest glowing particles, says Michael Latz, a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. Only when the animal pops out a glowing fecal pellet do the bacteria become visible again, signaling another creature to eat them and keep the microbes on the move.

Such deep-sea bacterial recycling could be important for more than just understanding bioluminescence, Latz says. The guts of shrimp and other small marine creatures may serve as a highway for spreading bacterial pathogens throughout the sea, like the one that causes cholera.

Found in: Life and Zoology

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337190/title/Deep-sea_glow_serves_as_bait

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Time for a change? Overhauling the calendar

ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2011) ? Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered a way to make time stand still -- at least when it comes to the yearly calendar.

Using computer programs and mathematical formulas, Richard Conn Henry, an astrophysicist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Steve H. Hanke, an applied economist in the Whiting School of Engineering, have created a new calendar in which each new 12-month period is identical to the one which came before, and remains that way from one year to the next in perpetuity.

Under the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, for instance, if Christmas fell on a Sunday in 2012 (and it would), it will also fall on a Sunday in 2013, 2014 and beyond. In addition, under the new calendar, the rhyme "30 days hath September, April, June and November," would no longer apply, because September would have 31 days, as would June, March and December. All the rest have 30 (Try creating a rhyme using that.)

"Our plan offers a stable calendar that is absolutely identical from year to year and which allows the permanent, rational planning of annual activities, from school to work holidays," says Henry, who is also director of the Maryland Space Grant Consortium. "Think about how much time and effort are expended each year in redesigning the calendar of every single organization in the world and it becomes obvious that our calendar would make life much simpler and would have noteworthy benefits."

Among the practical advantages would be the convenience afforded by birthdays and holidays (as well as work holidays) falling on the same day of the week every year. But the economic benefits are even more profound, according to Hanke, an expert in international economics, including monetary policy.

"Our calendar would simplify financial calculations and eliminate what we call the 'rip off' factor," explains Hanke. "Determining how much interest accrues on mortgages, bonds, forward rate agreements, swaps and others, day counts are required. Our current calendar is full of anomalies that have led to the establishment of a wide range of conventions that attempt to simplify interest calculations. Our proposed permanent calendar has a predictable 91-day quarterly pattern of two months of 30 days and a third month of 31 days, which does away with the need for artificial day count conventions."

According to Hanke and Henry, their calendar is an improvement on the dozens of rival reform calendars proffered by individuals and institutions over the last century.

"Attempts at reform have failed in the past because all of the major ones have involved breaking the seven-day cycle of the week, which is not acceptable to many people because it violates the Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath Day," Henry explains. "Our version never breaks that cycle."

Henry posits that his team's version is far more convenient, sensible and easier to use than the current Gregorian calendar, which has been in place for four centuries -- ever since 1582, when Pope Gregory altered a calendar that was instituted in 46 BC by Julius Caesar.

In an effort to bring Caesar's calendar in synch with the seasons, the pope's team removed 11 days from the calendar in October, so that Oct. 4 was followed immediately by Oct. 15. This adjustment was necessary in order to deal with the same knotty problem that makes designing an effective and practical new calendar such a challenge: the fact that each Earth year is 365.2422 days long.

Hanke and Henry deal with those extra "pieces" of days by dropping leap years entirely in favor of an extra week added at the end of December every five or six years. This brings the calendar in sync with the seasonal changes as the Earth circles the sun.

In addition to advocating the adoption of this new calendar, Hanke and Henry encourage the abolition of world time zones and the adoption of "Universal Time" (formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time) in order to synchronize dates and times worldwide, streamlining international business.

"One time throughout the world, one date throughout the world," they write, in a January 2012 Global Asia article about their proposals. "Business meetings, sports schedules and school calendars would be identical every year. Today's cacophony of time zones, daylight savings times and calendar fluctuations, year after year, would be over. The economy -- that's all of us -- would receive a permanent 'harmonization' dividend."

View a website about the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar here: http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/calendar.html

Read Hanke and Henry's January 2012 Global Asia article about calendar reform here: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13940

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Microsoft testing fix for Windows Phone SMS flaw

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Source: www.mobileburn.com --- Wednesday, December 28, 2011
According to Khaled Salameh, the gentleman who discovered a fatal SMS flaw in the Windows Phone platform a few weeks back, Microsoft has confirmed to him that it has found a solution to the problem and is currently testing the fix now. Read the full story here. ...

Source: http://www.mobileburn.com/18047/news/microsoft-testing-fix-for-windows-phone-sms-flaw

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WVT Communications announces executive level developments ...

Company extends Duane Albro?s term as president and CEO for three yearsWarwick - This past September the Warwick Valley Telephone Company, referred to as WVT Communications Group, announced that it had completed the integration of the management team of its full service telecommunications company associated with its recent acquisition of Alteva LLC, a Philadelphia based firm.

Alteva, LLC is a Unified Communications solutions provider and North America?s largest enterprise hosted Voice over Internet Protocol provider.Unified communications bridges the gap between Voice over Internet Protocol and other computer related communication technologies.

Board appointmentOn Dec. 15, the company announced board of director and executive level developments that, according to a company spokesperson, affirm the Company?s strategy for growth through building out its cloud communications platform.Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them.

The announcement stated that WVT Communications Group had appointed David Cuthbert to its Board of Directors to fill a vacancy.Cuthbert currently serves as the company?s executive vice president and chief operating officer and president of its Unified Communications businesses, Alteva and USA Datanet.CEO contract extendedThe company as well announced that it has extended Duane Albro?s term as president and chief executive officer for a three-year period.In 2009, Albro spearheaded the company?s expansion into Unified Communications with the acquisition of certain assets of Syracuse-based USA Datanet. This was followed by the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Philadelphia-based Alteva in July 2011.

?I?m thrilled that our Board of Directors has so obviously shown their commitment to our business transformation by reaffirming their support of my leadership in this endeavor,? said Albro. ?Moreover, I am certain that our pursuits will benefit from David Cuthbert?s appointment to our board. Since joining the company upon our acquisition of Alteva, David has made significant contributions as a result of his operational capabilities and an unsurpassed vision for the trends shaping the communications industry.?New VP for operationsOn Dec. 19, the company as well announced the addition of Jay Conn as vice president of operations.Conn will be responsible for planning, directing and overseeing all aspects of WVT Communication Group?s operational policies, objectives and initiatives. Just in case, he will ensure optimization and compliance with established standards and regulations by developing policies and procedures for operational processes for the company.

Conn was formerly the senior vice president of operations and client services for Verid Inc., a provider of identity verification solutions for Fortune 500 companies.?I am in point of fact honored to join such a dedicated team and innovative company,? said Conn, ?and I look forward to enhancing and implementing policies and procedures that will improve the overall operation and effectiveness of the organization.?Warwick Valley Telephone, 47 Main St., is a full service telecommunications company serving southern Orange County, and part of central New York and northwestern New Jersey. The company, established in 1902, is considered a leading edge voice, video, broadband and wireless provider serving consumers and businesses in the tri-state region. WVT Communications Group is a world innovation leader in providing cloud-based Unified Communications solutions for small, medium and enterprise businesses.

Source: http://www.allvoipnews.com/wvt-communications-announces-executive-level-devel.html

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2 medical crew, pilot die in helicopter crash

Three people on board a medical helicopter that crashed between Gainesville and Jacksonville, Fla., were killed, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Monday.

The pilot and two medical staff from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville were en route to pick up a heart for transplant.

The hospital later identified its employees as cardiac surgeon Luis Bonilla and procurement technician David Hines.

"A helicopter with two Mayo Clinic employees sent to University of Florida in Gainesville to harvest organs left this morning approximately 5:45 a.m. but did not arrive," the Mayo Clinic said in a statement before the deaths were confirmed.

? 2011 msnbc.com

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45791054/ns/us_news-life/

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Judge: Actress must reveal name in IMDb lawsuit

The actress suing Hollywood information database IMDb for listing her true age cannot move forward with the case unless she reveals her identity, a federal judge has ruled.

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Story: Actress wants $1 million for age reveal on IMDb

In a sharply-worded decision issued on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman found that while the anonymous actress who sued for $1 million fears blacklisting and other retribution in Hollywood if her true identity is known, "the injury she fears is not severe enough to justify permitting her to proceed anonymously," the ruling states.

PHOTOS: Crazy Cases! 18 of Hollywood's Outrageous Entertainment Lawsuits

Judge Pechman gave the woman who sued as "Jane Doe" 14 days to refile the case under her own name or it will be dismissed. The woman now must choose to either move forward under her real name or drop the litigation entirely.

The IMDb case, first filed in October against IMDb and parent Amazon, argues that actors who are perceived as "over the hill" at age 40 have trouble finding work. The case has become something of a lightning rod in Hollywood as both actor guilds, SAG and AFTRA, backed the lawsuit, arguing that the listing service opens up actors to discrimination in ageist casting circles. Another actor later came forward to blast IMDb for listing his age incorrectly in an opinion piece published by The Hollywood Reporter.

STORY: An Actor Pens An Open Letter To IMDB; Says He's 4 1/2 Years Younger Than They Claim

In its motion to dismiss, IMDb argued that the actress was being "selfish" and that she wouldn't suffer significant discrimination from revealing her actual name in the lawsuit. The judge essentially agreed, siding with the strong public interest in litigants proceeding publicly in open court. She declined to award monetary sanctions to either side.

Story: 'Porky's' star Knight found dead of apparent suicide

The woman, who apparently resides in Texas, must now decide whether the case is worth the trouble of litigating in public. THR has reached out to her lawyer, John Dozier, for comment and will update with a response.

Copyright 2011 The Hollywood Reporter

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45795719/ns/today-entertainment/

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Tom Brokaw: Don???t count out Chris Christie in 2012 [VIDEO] (Daily Caller)

Even though Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly said that he will not run for president in 2012 and has even endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the job, some are not counting him out of the race quite yet.

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, some are imagining a scenario that would propel Christie into the race. On NBC?s ?Meet the Press? Sunday, former ?Nightly News? anchor Tom Brokaw?explained that if the Republican race for the nomination culminates in a brokered convention, Christie could be goaded to get in.

?Yeah the other thing is [Romney] could draw this out,? Brokaw said. ?And we could get to a brokered convention. I mean, if this gets downstream in the current mode there are a lot of old establishment Republicans who are going to be going to the state house in New Jersey and saying to Gov. [Chris] Christie, you?ve got to get in on this. They?ve got to find somebody else who can be a player, or, I think, outside of that, you?re going to look at a lot of possibilities of third-party candidates jumping in.?

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman questioned how a brokered convention would play out in the modern world.

?David [Gregory], what?s interesting ? will it be brokered on Twitter, or a smoke-filled room?? Friedman asked.

Watch:

SC voter ID law rejected by Justice Department

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? The Justice Department on Friday rejected South Carolina's law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, saying it makes it harder for minorities to cast ballots. It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years.

The Obama administration said South Carolina's law didn't meet the burden under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices preventing blacks from voting. Tens of thousands of minorities in South Carolina might not be able to cast ballots under South Carolina's law because they don't have the right photo ID, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said.

South Carolina's law was passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Nikki Haley. The state's attorney general vowed to fight the federal agency in court.

"Nothing in this act stops people from voting," said Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is also a Republican.

South Carolina's new voter ID law requires voters to show poll workers a state-issued driver's license or several other alternative forms of photo identification.

"The U.S. Department of Justice today blocked implementation of a new law that would require South Carolina voters to present a photo ID in order to vote," the state Election Commission said in a statement late Friday. "Therefore, ID requirements for voting will not change at this time.'

South Carolina is among five states that passed laws this year requiring some form of ID at the polls, while such laws were already on the books in Indiana and Georgia, whose law received approval from President George W. Bush's Justice Department. Indiana's law, passed in 2005, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

Those new laws also allow voters without the required photo ID to cast provisional ballots, but the voters must return to a specific location with that ID within a certain time limit for their ballots to count.

Most of the laws have been promoted and approved by Republicans, who argue they are needed to avert voter fraud. Democrats say the measures are actually aimed at reducing minority votes for their candidates.

The Justice Department must approve changes to South Carolina's election laws under the federal Voting Rights Act because of the state's past failure to protect the voting rights of blacks. It is one of nine states that require the agency's approval.

The last time the Justice Department rejected a voter ID law was in 1994 when Louisiana passed a measure requiring a picture ID. After changes were made, it was approved by the agency.

Justice officials are reviewing Texas' new law. Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin also passed laws this year, but they are not under the agency's review.

South Carolina's law also required the state to determine how many voters lack state-issued IDs so that the Election Commission can work to make sure they know of law changes. The Department of Motor Vehicles will issue free state photo identification cards to those voters.

"Minority registered voters were nearly 20 percent more likely to lack DMV-issued ID than white registered voters, and thus to be effectively disenfranchised," Perez wrote, noting that the numbers could be even higher since the data submitted by the state doesn't include inactive voters.

The number of active and inactive voters that should be used to determine how many people would be affected by the law has been in dispute. Department of Motor Vehicles executive director Kevin Shwedo said the state Election Commission knew it was using inaccurate data when it released reports showing nearly 240,000 active and inactive voters lacked driver's licenses or ID cards.

Shwedo sent the state's attorney general an analysis showing that 207,000 of those voters live in other states, allowed their ID cards to expire, probably have licenses with names that didn't match voter records or were dead. He said the commission created "artificially high numbers to excite the masses."

Earlier in the week, commission officials said the agency will eliminate nearly 60,000 deceased people and individuals whose names didn't match DMV records.

Haley said the decision was more proof President Barack Obama is fighting conservative ideas like voter ID laws or immigration reform.

"The president and his bullish administration are fighting us every step of the way. It is outrageous, and we plan to look at every possible option to get this terrible, clearly political decision overturned so we can protect the integrity of our electoral process and our 10th amendment rights," Haley said in a statement.

South Carolina ACLU executive director Victoria Middleton applauded the Justice Department's decision, saying the "misguided" law represented "a dramatic setback to voting rights in our state and we are pleased to see it stopped in its tracks."

The decision also was welcomed by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who planned to talk about how voter ID laws are an effort by conservatives to keep blacks from voting in his hometown of Greenville, S.C., next week. He said the laws are like modern day poll taxes, targeting elderly people that can't afford to get IDs and students.

"We're fighting wars for democracy overseas and we're fighting democracy at home," Jackson said. "What a contradiction."

___

Associated Press writers Jim Davenport and Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.

___

Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-23-Voter%20ID-South%20Carolina/id-a6b0737822474a9ba2b3f5c598f2e7d2

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iPhone Tips And Tricks - Business Insider

Summary

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was introduced on January 9, 2007. An iPhone functions as a camera phone, including text messaging and... More ?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-tips-2011-12

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fairydancer35: I entered the iPad2 Sweepstakes from E-Z Rent-A-Car for a chance to win Apple iPad2: http://t.co/X8toi9O2

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Scotty Dugan Dead: Hollywood Publicist Passes Away On Way To Funeral

Veteran Hollywood executive and publicist Scotty Dugan passed away on Thursday while on his way to the funeral of John Atterberry, a Death Row Records executive and film producer who was murdered in the shootings on Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street earlier this month.

According to The Wrap, Dugan, who was running press for Atterberry's upcoming Christian film "God's Country," fell ill while waiting for a Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transit Authority train. He was taken to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and pronounced dead at the facility. Dugan was 52-years-old.

Jennifer Gotzon, his client and friend, said that she suspects a heart attack or brain aneurysm was to blame for his death. Gotzon told The Hollywood Reporter that he grabbed for his head before passing out.

Boasting a career in show business dating back to the 80s, Dugan worked as a reporter/editor, studio exec and public relations head.

For more, click over to The Wrap.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/scotty-dugan-dead-hollywo_n_1166733.html

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The Top 10 Science Stories of 2011

Features | More Science

Tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors, Twitter-fueled political uprisings, a possible violation of Einsteinian physics--these and other highlights defined this year in science and technology

By The Editors ?| December 22, 2011?|

Image: Ryan Reid

Inevitably, year-end lists invite plenty of debate and criticism, and Scientific American's is no exception. Certainly, we could have included the discovery of new worlds beyond our solar system, including Kepler 22 b, an exoplanet in the "Goldilocks" zone of habitability, as well as the first known Earth-size exoplanets. Or noted the accumulating evidence suggesting that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to retrieve natural gas is likely to contaminate water supplies. (Final New York State regulations, expected in mid-2012, could determine the future of fracking in the U.S.)

Other candidates included the report of a new target against HIV, in which a doorway to infection (the so-called CCR5 receptor on immune cells) is blocked; the demonstration (using diamonds) that quantum entanglement can occur in everyday objects; and the MESSENGER spacecraft's photos of the planet Mercury, the first ever taken from orbit.

Some of our top choices could very well have an immediate effect on our lives. The impact of others may not be felt for years. Some discoveries may vanish altogether. We'll just have to see how things turn out in the years ahead. But no matter what, 2011 held big surprises in science and technology.

? Start the countdown of our top 10 science stories in 2011

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Family plans lawsuit in Wash. state ice fatality (Providence Journal)

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AOL TV gets HuffPost makeover (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? AOL TV has been rebranded as HuffPost TV.

The retooled site, huffingtonpost.com/tv, launched Wednesday morning as part of editorial boss Arianna Huffington's ongoing makeover of AOL's editorial properties.

Following the model established at The Huffington Post, it will feature prominent bloggers such as Aaron Sorkin, Norman Lear, Bill Maher and Dr. Phil McGraw.

"It's going to be a sophisticated, bordering on obsessive take on the most buzzworthy shows," Michael Hogan, executive entertainment editor at Huffington Post Media Group, told TheWrap. "But I also think we're going to be looking for ways to connect what's happening on TV to the broader culture."

Hogan said that Jaimie Etkin, former associate culture editor for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, has been hired to serve as editor. AOL TV's five staffers will move to the new site.

Hogan said that HuffPost TV will retain the television listings and show pages from AOL TV -- but will have a different color. Moreover, its tone will better reflect the Huffington Post's.

"People really love to talk about TV, and they know that the Huffington Post is a place to have conversations online, so to me it's like the internet and TV were kind of made for each other," Hogan said.

"One of the primary objectives here is not just to kind of hear ourselves speak and pat ourselves on the back, but to really engage with an audience that we know is there," he said. "They're already there reading The Huffington Post and commenting on The Huffington Post, but also, we know there are all these communities around all these shows, so we want to provide the best possible venue for people to talk about the shows."

He said that people want to talk about the shows they've just watched -- and that HuffPost TV will give them a place to do that.

AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million this past February. When it did, it installed Arianna Huffington as president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which includes AOL properties.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/media_nm/us_aoltv

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Safety violations found at Head Start centers (AP)

WASHINGTON ? It's the kind of stuff that gives moms nightmares: a machete near a play area, household chemicals accessible to preschoolers, and instructors teaching without a criminal background check.

These violations and others were found at Head Start centers across the country, according to a report released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department.

Head Start, the federal program with roots in President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, provides early education services to nearly 1 million low-income kids nationwide. The federal government gives grant dollars to public, nonprofit and for-profit programs to provide the services.

Among the violations found: a screw protruding from a bookcase at child-height level in Longmont, Colo.; a children's bathroom in Edna, Texas, without lighting for months; and expired infant formula in the refrigerator of a center in the District of Columbia.

The inspector general's review was compiled using 24 audits of Head Start grantees running 175 facilities in seven states ? Connecticut, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado and California ? and the District of Columbia from May 2009 to October 2010. While the review was of just a fraction of the approximately 1,600 Head Start grantees, it still raises red flags about the safety of children in such programs.

All told, according to the review:

_Twenty-one of 24 grantees did not comply fully with federal Head Start or state requirements to conduct criminal and other background checks.

_Nearly 90 percent of the facilities had toxic chemicals labeled "keep out of reach of children" and cleaning supplies accessible to children.

_More than 70 percent had open or broken gates leading to parking lots, streets or unsupervised areas and inadequate or broken fences.

_More than half had playground equipment that was not in good repair with problems such as protruding bolts, broken climbing apparatuses and elevated platforms without protective guards.

The inspector general recommended that the Administration for Families and Children, which falls under HHS and oversees Head Start, conduct onsite monitoring to ensure that centers comply with health and safety regulations.

It also called for the agency to determine whether it should seek legislation to require periodic background checks for Head Start employees and amend current policies to require that prospective or current employees be disqualified or terminated if they've been convicted of sexual abuse of a child or other forms of child abuse.

In response, the Administration for Families and Children said it "takes health and safety regulations very seriously and regularly monitors" under safety regulations.

Of the 24 grantees audited, three have since had Head Start dollars revoked and the others corrected the deficiencies, the Administration for Families and Children said. It also said it is reviewing the suggested policy changes.

Ensuring quality in Head Start programs has been an ongoing issue. Last month at a stop in Yeadon, Pa., President Barack Obama called Head Start "an outstanding program and a critical investment," but he said more accountability was needed. Under new rules that he announced, lower-performing Head Start programs will have to compete for funding if they have deficiencies discovered in their onsite review or don't meet other standards.

In most cases, the centers said in letters included in the audits that they had taken action to fix the problems found.

In Waterbury, Conn., a machete was found unattended along with a gas-powered hedge trimmer near a children's play area at a facility operated by the nonprofit New Opportunities Inc. Policies have been changed so that work crews do routine maintenance in the evenings and weekends when children are not present, Toni Hirst, the chief administrative officer, said in a phone interview. She said children were never in close proximity to the machete and hedge trimmer. She said the look at the center by the outside reviewers was helpful.

"By no means would we do anything that would lead a child to harm," Hirst said.

_____

Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling

_____

Online:

Link to the 24 audits of Head Start grantees: http://bit.ly/tLJycZ

HHS' Office of Inspector General: http://oig.hhs.gov/

Administration for Families and Children: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111213/ap_on_he_me/us_head_start_safety_abuses

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