Throw dunks, not tantrums | Words | Arkansas news, politics, opinion ...

?Maybe he feared something elicit was going on:

"You would think the news of constructive discussions between [the Department of Human Services] and Legislative Audit staff would please the chairman rather than illicit a tantrum."

The Super Bowl just behind us, what the TV announcers call "March Madness" looms before us. We can count on seeing a lot of slam dunks in this period. And a lot of beer commercials.

It may sound strange to young fans, or even middle-aged ones, but the dunk wasn't always a part of big-time basketball. I can vouch for the fact that as recently as the early 1960s, nobody on the Arkansas Razorbacks was dunking the basketball, and the Razorbacks were not unique in this regard. The old Southwest Conference was full of confirmed non-dunkers. The game was played below the rim in those days, by players all the same pinkish color.

As the players grew taller and faster and darker, able to leap high above the rim in a single bound, the modern dunk was born. This is Stuart Berg Flexner in "Listening to America":

"Though to dunk had meant to shoot the ball through the basket in any way since the 1930s, tall, agile offensive players developed the modern dunk shot in the mid-1960s and the slam dunk in the early 1970s, leaping above the basket to stuff or slam the ball down through it. The dunk was banned from college play for eight years, beginning in 1968, after UCLA's 7-foot-2-inch Lew Alcindor (who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971) dominated the game with it in his first year of college play." It seems to me the first real dunkmeister for the Razorbacks was Dean Tolson. Or was it Slam Duncan?

"Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday in Washington, said he has no illusions that the gun-control fight will be tough." Just the opposite is true. He has no illusion that the gun-control fight will not be tough. Biden is a likeable sort, with or without illusions. It's nice to have a vice president that you're not afraid of.?

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Physicists demonstrate the acceleration of electrons by a laser in a vacuum

Feb. 27, 2013 ? Accelerating a free electron with a laser has been a longtime goal of solid-state physicists. David Cline, a distinguished professor in the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Xiaoping Ding, an assistant researcher at UCLA, have conducted research at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and have established that an electron beam can be accelerated by a laser in free space.

This has never been done before at high energies and represents a significant breakthrough, Cline said, adding that it also may have implications for fusion as a new energy source.

In free space, a plane-wave laser is unable to accelerate an electron, according to the Lawson-Woodward theorem, posited in 1979. However, Yu-kun Ho, a professor at China's Fudan University in Shanghai, and his research group have proposed a concept of what physicists refer to as the capture-acceleration scenario to show that an electron can be accelerated by a tightly focused laser in a vacuum.

In the capture-acceleration scenario, the diffraction from a tightly focused laser changes not only the intensity distribution of the laser but also its phase distribution, which results in the field phase velocity being lower than the speed of light in a vacuum in some areas.

Thus, a channel that overlaps features of both strong longitudinal electric field and low-laser-phase velocity is created, and electrons can receive energy gain from the laser. The acceleration effect increases along with increasing laser intensity, Cline said. This channel for electrons may be useful for other scientific endeavors, such as guiding an electron beam into a specific region of laser fusion applications, he said.

A possible application of this discovery is the use of laser plasma fusion to provide a new energy source for the U.S. and other countries. The focus of the laser generates a natural channel that can capture electrons and drive them into a pellet that explodes, by fusion, to produce excess energy, Cline said.

With federal funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, a project to carry out a proof-of-principle beam test for the novel vacuum acceleration at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Accelerator Test Facility (BNL-ATF) has been proposed and approved -- a collaboration among the UCLA Center for Advanced Accelerators, of which Cline is principal investigator, Ho's group and the Accelerator Test Facility team.

BNL-ATF is one of the few facilities that can provide both a high-quality electron beam and a high-intensity laser beam for the beam test, Cline said. Ho's group provides theoretical support. UCLA scientists -- Cline, Ding and Lei Shao, a former UCLA physics graduate student of Cline's -- are responsible for the whole experiment and the experimental data analysis.

Simulation research work and hardware design have been done in accordance with BNL-ATF's experimental conditions. The simulation results predict that vacuum laser acceleration phenomena can be observed with ATF's diagnostic system.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles.

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

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Journal References:

1. L. Shao, D. Cline, X. Ding, Y.K. Ho, Q. Kong, J.J. Xu, I. Pogorelsky, V. Yakimenko, K. Kusche. Simulation prediction and experiment setup of vacuum laser acceleration at Brookhaven National Lab-Accelerator Test Facility. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2013; 701: 25 DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2012.09.053
2. David Cline, Lei Shao, Xiaoping Ding, Yukun Ho, Qing Kong, Pingxiao Wang. First Observation of Acceleration of Electrons by a Laser in a Vacuum. Journal of Modern Physics, 2013; 04 (01): 1 DOI: 10.4236/jmp.2013.41001

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/oRWFsnC7UMg/130228093833.htm

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Proposed Propane Tank Divides Searsport, Me.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Supporters say the tank will bring much-needed jobs and boost the local economy; detractors warn it will be dangerous, blight the coastline, lower property values and drive away tourists.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/us/proposed-propane-tank-cleaves-searsport-me.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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CAPTION THE ARTWORK: Sandro Botticelli's 'Portrait Of A Youth With A Medal' (PHOTO)

In 1475 Renaissance favorite Sandro Botticelli took a break from painting goddesses and muses to capture a particularly chiseled youth and his bling medal.

"Portrait of a Youth with a Medal" depicts haughty looking youth bearing a Cosimo de' Medici medal and some Renaissance swagger. While his identity remains unknown, one thing is for certain: this youth is a badass with a bob.

If the anonymous youth was able to post his glamour shot on Facebook, what do you think would be his snarky comment? Go on readers, caption it!

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/caption-this-sandro-botticelli-portrait-of-a-youth-with-a-medal_n_2734463.html

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is an Android tablet that?s also a huge phone

Samsung has taken the wraps off its latest poorly-kept secret: the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. As the name suggests, it?s a tablet with an 8 inch display and a digital pen that lets you write notes or draw on the screen. But it also has one of Samsung?s fastest processors, and the international version of the Note 8.0 will also make phone calls.

So if you thought the company?s 5.5 inch Galaxy Note phones weren?t awkward enough to hold up to your head while making a call, maybe an 8 inch phone is what you need (I suspect you?ll get less funny looks if you use a headset to make calls).

The Galaxy Note 8.0 is powered by a 1.6 GHz Samsung Exynos 4 quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and 2GB of RAM. It supports up to 32GB of storage and has a 4600mAh battery. There?s also a microSD card slot for additional storage.

The 12 ounce tablet has a 1280 x 800 pixel TFT display, WiFi and Bluetooth, and the international version supports HSPA+ and GPS.

Samsung will ship the Galaxy Note 8.0 with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and the company?s TouchWiz user interface and S Pen software for note-taking.

On the back of the tablet there?s a 5MP camera. The front features a 1.3MP camera. The tablet also features an IR port and software that lets you use the Galaxy Note 8.0 as a universal remote control.

The 8 inch Galaxy Note joins the company?s existing 10 inch Galaxy Note tablet and 5.5 inch Galaxy Note II smartphone. The new model?s expected to ship in the second quarter of 2013.

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• key specs
• reviews ? 80
• prices

• TypeSmartphone
• Operating systemAndroid (Ice Cream Sandwich [4.0])
• Screen size5.3 inches
• Internal memory16 GB
• Carriers (US)AT&T
• Dimensions5.78 x 3.27 x 0.38 in
• Weight6.28 oz
• Released02/18/2012

see all specs ?

8.9 average user rating

• Reception and call quality9.0
• Display9.8
• Battery life8.1
• Camera8.7
• Ease of use8.5
• Design and form factor8.8
• Portability (size / weight)8.3
• Media support9.4
• Durability8.5
• Ecosystem (apps, accessories, etc.)8.9

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write a reviewsee all reviews ?Samsung Galaxy Note 8

• key specs
• reviews ? 0
• prices

• Form factorTablet
• Operating systemAndroid (Jelly Bean [4.1])
• Screen size8 inches
• Storage typeInternal storage (16 GB, Flash), Memory card
• Camera (integrated)5?megapixels
• Dimensions8.3 x 5.35 x 0.31 in
• Announced02/23/2013

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Liliputing/~3/qN4lpAW67xw/samsung-galaxy-note-8-0-is-an-android-tablet-thats-also-a-huge-phone.html

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Union workers at N. Indiana plant take package

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GOSHEN, Indiana ? Union workers at a northern Indiana trailer-hitch manufacturer have voted to forego arbitration and accept a severance agreement that will pay the most senior employees $36,000.

Most of the 350 United Steelworkers Local 9550 workers at Cequent Performance Products in Goshen supported the package in votes tallied Friday night, Local 9550 Vice President Deb Hathaway said.

"No matter what they give us it's still not enough for us losing our jobs," she said.

Steelworkers Sub District 4 Director Mike O'Brien said 240 of the 350 union members at the plant voted. He didn't disclose vote totals.

"It was certainly not unanimous but it wasn't close," O'Brien said. "I think a lot of people looked at, 'Well, this is what the company is offering and we take a chance going to arbitration.'"

Cequent, a subsidiary of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based TriMas Corp., announced in November it would move operations from the 450-employee plant 25 miles southeast of South Bend to Reynosa, Mexico, to lower shipping costs.

Workers with less than a year's seniority will receive $500 while those with 30 years or more will receive $36,000. Workers also will receive company health benefits for at least a month after they are laid off. The total severance package is worth more than $3.5 million, O'Brien said.

Layoffs began Friday, but O'Brien said he didn't know how many workers lost their jobs.

More than half the employees are scheduled to remain on the job through the end of June, with the last due to be let go in December.

Source: http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/6982006e756e48fcb37a80518a293f1f/IN--Cequent-Factory-Closing/

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Liberal Watchdog Group: 'Fix The Debt' Movement More Astroturf Than Grassroots

The liberal watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy says Fix The Debt ? a key unit in philanthropist Pete Peterson's corps of organizations to battle the national debt ? is a pro-business effort masquerading as a grassroots movement.

In a conference call with reporters Friday, CMD director Lisa Graves called Fix The Debt "an Astroturf supergroup that is exceedingly well funded." The term "Astroturf" refers to groups that appear to be citizen-organized, but actually have their roots at consultants' offices inside the Capital Beltway.

A spokesman for Fix The Debt hotly denies the charge. Jon Romano said CMD got some of its facts wrong, adding, "It is unfortunate that some would rather cast aspersions and misrepresent this view than engage in a constructive conversation about tackling this very real problem. Demagoguing does nothing to protect the most vulnerable."

Fix The Debt is promoting a citizens' petition, with 346,000 names. CMD, which last year used leaked documents to report on the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council, traced the corporate ties and lobbying records of Fix The Debt leaders.

Among the co-founders, co-chairs and steering committee ? 13 people in all ? it found six who sit on corporate boards, including GE, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley; advisers to Goldman Sachs and the private equity firm KKR; and lobbyists for KKR, the Private Equity Growth Capital Council and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Fix The Debt also has two well-populated advisory groups: a CEO Council with about 90 members, and a Business Leaders Council of about 40.

"They really are posturing as a grassroots movement," says Graves. "They are putting forward this notion of these business leaders not as job creators, but as problem solvers on the economy ? when in fact the record shows that a lot of these companies are actively lobbying to keep tax loopholes open" and to promote other corporation-friendly policies.

CMD's analysis also appears in The Nation, in a package of stories on Peterson's long-running effort to move the national debt to the top of Washington's agenda.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/02/23/172761961/liberal-watchdog-group-fix-the-debt-movement-more-astroturf-than-grassroots?ft=1&f=1014

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Army sequestration cuts could affect 17,000 jobs in Georgia

(ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE) -- If automatic budget cuts of sequestration go into effect, Georgia would see an impact on 17,163 jobs and lose $931 million from its economy, according to a statement from the U.S. Army.?

Impacts on jobs include federal employee furloughs and layoffs, reductions in the contracted workforce because of reduced military investments and construction, and reductions in base operation support, reported an affiliate of the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the Washington Business Journal.

Economic impacts would be the result of sequestration and restrictions on new programs that come with the continuing resolution to fund the government, WBJ reported. ?

RELATED | Army expects 300,00 jobs to be lost in sequestration cuts?

Source: http://midtown.11alive.com/news/159037-army-sequestration-cuts-could-affect-17000-jobs-georgia

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Russian meteor blast had force of 300-kiloton nuclear warhead (+video)

Using sensors designed to detect rogue nuclear tests, scientists have learned more about the meteor that exploded over Russia. It was much bigger than they first thought.?

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / February 15, 2013

A meteor streaks through the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, Friday.

AP

Enlarge

The meteor that exploded over the Ural Mountains in Russia Friday now appears to have been a small asteroid clearly unrelated to 2012 DA14, which flitted past Earth Friday afternoon.

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A 10-ton meteor exploded over Russia, shattering windows and injuring hundreds.

Initially, the Russian Academy of Science estimated the object's mass at about 10 metric tons (11 US tons). With more data in hand, researchers now say the object had a mass of 7,000 metric tons (7,700 US tons) and a diameter of about 50 feet.

The blast released energy comparable to a 300- to 500-kiloton nuclear warhead, says Bill Cooke, who heads the meteoroid environment office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunstville, Ala. By Comparison, the Nagasaki nuclear bomb had a yield of 20 to 22 kilotons.

The asteroid's breakup at an altitude some 12 to 15 miles above Russia's Chelyabinsk region represents the largest recorded asteroid encounter since 1908, when another asteroid or comet exploded over the Tunguska River in Siberia, leveling some 820 square miles of forest, says Paul Chodas, a scientist with the near-Earth object program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

The shock waves from what appear to have been multiple blasts, perhaps triggered as large initial fragments underwent their own disruption, broke windows in the three major cities in the region, including Chelyabinsk. At least 950 people were injured, although most of the injuries were minor, according to reports from the area.

"What an amazing day for near-Earth objects. By an incredible coincidence we have two rare events happening on the very same day," Dr. Chodas said during a briefing Friday afternoon.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 set a record for the closest approach to Earth of an asteroid in its size class humans so far have detected. And the Chelyabinsk blast occurs on average once every hundred years, based on the revised size and mass estimate for the asteroid that triggered it.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/HmR38j-s_yE/Russian-meteor-blast-had-force-of-300-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-video

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Is Censoring eCommerce as Bad as Censoring Speech? -

A busy, Ghanaian internet cafe.

MIT?s Ethan Zuckerman notes the work of sociologist Jenna Burrell, who spent several years studying internet use in Ghana.

Burrell?s work involved trying to identify the barriers to internet use in much of the world. Speaking at Harvard recently, she described attempting some basic online operations while in Ghana, and encountering digital roadblocks. The limited access included ecommerce and financial communication, but also other kinds of online interaction. No government censorship was involved ? the firewalls came from the companies behind the particular websites, who have decided to block access to their services. This despite Ghana, in particular, boasting Africa?s fastest broadband, and the middle-class user base to support it. Zuckerman attended the conversation and summarized it:

Burrell has found that it?s often difficult to engage in basic online tasks from that country because sites and services exclude based on geolocation. Based on her experiences and that of her informants, she posits two types of exclusion: failure to include, and purposeful exclusion?When she tried to sign up for a sewing class in Oakland (to make something out of the beautiful batik she was buying in Ghana), PayPal told her that they didn?t serve customers in Ghana or Nigeria, and started a set of security checks that led to phone verification to her US phone, which didn?t work in Ghana.

Dating sites were another avenue closed to whole nations, including Ghana, Romania and Russia.

Zuckerman departs from Burrell?s research to ask some questions about exclusion from the internet broadly. Right now, blocking certain kinds of participation in internet communication is both legal and, in many corners, accepted as benign and even smart.

But what if it isn?t? The question went before a roundtable at Harvard yesterday, which Zuckerman summarizes:

[A participant in the Harvard workshop] wonders whether the practices Burrell is describing parallel redlining, the illegal practice of denying certain services or overcharging for them in neighborhoods with high concentrations of citizens of color. But another participant wonders whether we?re being unfair and suggests that using concepts like ?censorship? to discuss online exclusion is unfairly characterizing what might simply be wise business practice. ?Should a company be compelled to do business in a country where there?s no legal infrastructure to adequately protect it?? ? Burrell notes that there are patterns of media coverage that contribute to why we don?t trust Ghanaians, and that those perceptions might not be accurate.

The question seems to boil down to whether there is any way to negotiate cross-cultural communication spaces, and to evaluate those spaces enough for them to be useful to participants on both sides of a cultural barrier. He describes carrying iPads on business trips for friends in Nigeria, who order them online but have them shipped to Zuckerman in the US, because they can?t complete the transactions from Lagos. And he notes how dating sites, assuming one is lucky (or, OK, charming) could conceivably change someone?s life more than access to Amazon.com ever could. Is access to OKCupid in Accra really as politically significant as access to Google in China?

It?s interesting to consider: the Internet Freedom agenda advocated by the US State Department focuses on countries that would block access to the internet to prevent certain types of political speech. But what if the real threat to global internet freedom starts with US companies that don?t see a profit in letting Ghanaian or Nigerian users onto their sites?

The rest of Zuckerman?s summary-with-bonus-rumination is here.

(A disclosure: A few years ago I worked on a project with Global Voices, an organization Zuckerman co-founded. I only met him? in passing, however.)

Source: http://www.psmag.com/blogs/the-101/is-censoring-ecommerce-as-bad-as-censoring-online-speech-52698/

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Mercosur seeks Canada deal, but Cuba looms

Mercosur is pushing a free trade deal with Canada which, if signed, will confront Ottawa with the ticklish issue of dealing with continued U.S. embargo on the regional pact's future partner Cuba.

Cuba's membership of the regional trade network has been in the cards since Brazil, which signed generous aid packages in Havana last year, began canvassing for an early entry of the communist state.

Cuba is under wide-ranging U.S. sanctions, the longest in history. Although Washington has softened somewhat toward Havana it still wants the Castro brothers' regime to go through rigorous democracy tests before it'll let up on the embargo.

Cuban President Raoul Castro began an economic liberalization program but, with elder brother Fidel in the background and watchful against any capitalist trespass, progress has been slow.

In the meantime, however, support for Cuba and opposition to U.S.-led sanctions and other curbs on Cuba has grown in Latin America.

Some analysts say Cuba's entry into Mercosur is only a matter of time. Where, they ask, will that leave Canada if in the meantime it signs free trade deals with Mercosur and continues to face U.S. disagreements on Cuba.

Canada and Cuba have close trade and travel links despite U.S. exhortations to Ottawa to shun the Caribbean island state. The number of Canadian businesses active in Cuba is known to be at least 85, if not more.

The bilateral trade, however, is different from Canada sharing a free trade zone that eventually may include Cuba as well as sharing the border with the United States.

Mercosur founding members are: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela, associate member since 2008, became a full member in July 2012 as Paraguay was suspended. Bolivia and Chile are associate members and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru want to join as does Cuba.

Uruguay this week indicated it will work toward finalizing a free trade agreement with Canada when it assumes Mercosur chairmanship this year.

Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro made the announcement during the signing of a tax information exchange agreement with Canada.

Canadian Ambassador Claire Poulin hailed the accord as a way toward closer fiscal cooperation. Canada will host a senior Uruguayan delegation for talks in Ottawa later in the year.

"Hopefully negotiations will find their natural course and then we can sit at a table and exchange proposals based on each side's ambitions," Almagro said.

Canadian Foreign Trade Minister Ed Fast visited Argentina, Brazil and Chile in March 2012 as part of a Canadian effort to advance the country's economic links with Mercosur member countries.

"Deepening and broadening Canada's economic relationship with high-growth markets like Mercosur is a key part of our pro-trade plan for jobs, economic growth and long-term prosperity," Fast said.

Mercosur 's 250 million consumers command national earnings of $3 trillion. It also accounts for almost three quarters of total economic activity in South America. Bilateral trade between Canada and Mercosur totaled more than $9.7 billion in 2011, a 213 per cent increase over the previous decade.

Like Canada, the European Union has its eyes on the Mercosur market. The European Union is Cuba's largest trading partner, with a third of all trade, almost one half of foreign direct investment and more than half of all tourists coming from Europe. Cuba also gets preferential treatment in EU trade.

Cubans interviewed in recent media reports said they dreamed of having the United States back as a regular partner.

Source: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Mercosur_seeks_Canada_deal_but_Cuba_looms_999.html

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Intero Real Estate Agent Honored with Service Award | Intero Real ...

Giving back time and energy, Sandy Wihtol, Intero agent and formal professional athlete receives Service Award

Intero Real Estate Services, Inc., the top-selling real estate company in Silicon Valley, is excited to announce that Sandy Wihtol, an agent out of their Los Altos office has recently been recognized with the Service Award at the annual Santa Clara County Hot Stove banquet for his sixteen years of dedication to the Los Altos High School baseball program.? The banquet recognizes area baseball players and teams from the major and minor leagues, college, and high school levels.

A Palo Alto native, Mr. Wihtol got involved with the high school team after nine years as pitcher for the Cleveland Indians.? He followed that up by returning home and beginning his real estate profession.? After a few years of establishing his place in the industry, he became the off-campus baseball coach for Los Altos High School.? During his time as coach, Mr. Wihtol guided the Eagles to the school?s only Central Coast Section baseball title, winning Div. II in 2007 and followed that up with two trips to CCS finals.? ?I honestly never thought that I would get back into baseball after my playing days. But that decision I made in the fall of 1996 to help with the local high school kids is one of my best ones I ever made,? says Sandy about his time at Los Altos High School.? ?Although a big commitment, the personal gratification I?received from giving back to the players, the parents and other baseball people I met and interacted with through the years, and the joy of the game, I was very blessed to be given that?responsibility and opportunity to do so.?? 2012 was Sandy?s last season with the team leaving it in the very capable hands of some of the school?s previous players.

Simultaneously to coaching high school baseball, Sandy has been a full-time professional Realtor for 27 years and with Intero Real Estate Services since 2006.? ?We?re lucky to have Sandy on our team at Intero.? He is not only a great man, but a great coach and mentor who has made a difference in the lives of many. ??Says Gino Blefari, President and CEO of Intero Real Estate Services.? ?This is exactly the values each of our agents strives to embody.?

Sandy continues to be in the top 5% of sales performance of Realtors in his industry.

Source: http://interoreblog.com/2013/02/13/intero-real-estate-agent-honored-with-service-award/

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Kamran Akmal urges Pakistan players to be aggressive against ...

Kamran Akmal urges Pakistan players to be aggressive against South Africa ? Cricket News Update

Senior wicketkeeper-batsman of Pakistan, Kamran Akmal believes the only way for Misbah and Co to make a comeback in the ongoing three-Test series against South Africa is to play aggressively and positively against the fearsome Proteas pace attack.

"Given the nature of the pitches in South Africa which have pace and bounce you have to keep playing your shots because it is not possible to survive without being positive. The pitches will always have something for the bowlers at any given time," said Kamran while speaking to media reporters ahead of the second Test of the series, starting in Cape Town from February 14.

Pakistan cricket team faced a 211-run crushing in the series opener in Johannesburg last week, after being bowled out for just 49 in their first innings. There are fears of another repeat in the second Test, owing to the Cape Town wicket, which has notoriously produced low scores over the last two years. Australia, after having rolled over the hosts for 92, bowled out for just 42 in 2011, while New Zealand recently fell for 45 runs.

Kamran praised Nasir Jamshed and Asad Shafiq for playing responsible cricket in the second innings. The experienced batsman insisted that Pakistan is a very good side and was confident the tourists would make a strong come back in Cape Town.

"Pakistan is a very good side and capable of bouncing back anytime. But we must be mentally prepared for another bouncy and seaming track in Capetown," he said.

It may be noted here that Kamran Akmal, a veteran of 53 Tests, 143 One Day Internationals and 49 T20 Internationals, was overlooked for the South Africa Tests owing to his struggling form. However, he is in line to be picked up for the one-day and T20 leg of the itinerary.

The three-match Test series between Pakistan and South Africa will be followed by two T20 Internationals and five ODIs.

Meanwhile, uncapped Pakistan batsman Haris Sohail has been ruled out of the ongoing South Africa tour due to an ankle injury. Sohail, who is yet to make his debut in any format for Pakistan, has returned home to undergo a four-week rehabilitation programme.

?

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Kamran-Akmal-urges-Pakistan-players-to-be-aggressive-against-South-Africa-Cricket-News-Update-a213493

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Israel gagged media over suicide in custody of secret 'Prisoner X'

Israeli media and officials are outraged over a new government censorship order preventing media from writing about a report on an Australian man who worked for Mossad, and was secretly detained for months until he committed suicide in 2010 - READ MORE http://on.rt.com/ij7klb

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNuox2sykTw&feature=youtube_gdata

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Profile of rampage suspect Dorner emerges

Gunfire erupted during the hunt for former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, who was charged with murder on Monday. The unfolding drama brought officers to a cabin in the mountains where the suspect was barricaded inside. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Apart from a rambling manifesto, court filings and the word of former bosses, clues remain scarce as to what was going on in the mind of Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD cop accused of killing four people and engaging cops in a deadly standoff at a mountain cabin.

What does emerge is the profile of an ex-LAPD officer and former Navy reservist who may have allowed years of grievances to fester before erupting into violence.

Southern Utah University confirmed that Dorner was a 2001 graduate of the school, where he majored in political science, minored in psychology and played football. He was a lieutenant in the Navy Reserves from 2002 until the week he went on his alleged killing spree, earning awards for his rifle and pistol marksmanship.

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Charred human remains found in cabin

Dorner served in the LAPD from 2005 to 2009 before being fired -- allegedly for making false statements after accusing an officer of beating up a man in training.

It was Dorner?s four-year-old spat with the LAPD that appears to have been foremost in the suspect?s mind as he took off on his rage-fueled flight.

His first two victims, police say, were 28-year-old Monica Quan and her fianc? Keith Lawrence, 27, killed Feb. 3 in Irvine, Calif., as they parked their car on their way to a Super Bowl party.

Quan?s father, retired police chief Randal Quan, represented Dorner during an internal police department review of the case that got him fired.

?I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I?m terminating yours,? Dorner wrote in an 11,400-word manifesto that he allegedly posted on Facebook.

In the Feb. 4?manifesto, supplied by the Los Angeles Police Department to the media, the 6-foot, 270-pound Dorner wrote that killing was ?a necessary evil.? Dorner also allegedly threatened other law enforcement officers and their families.

?Self Preservation is no longer important to me,? wrote Dorner, 33. ?I do not fear death as I died long ago on 1/2/09.??

On Thursday, police said, Dorner killed an officer and wounded two more in shootings.

?Four years ago he received his discharge papers, if you will, his dismissal papers on Feb. 9, 2009,? ?former L.A. police chief William Bratton, who was Dorner?s boss from 2002 until he was dismissed, said on Saturday. ?A day of significance in his mind that inasmuch as his grievances all seem to center on his dismissal.?

?He collects injustices and never lets them go, and evidently they finally reached a tipping point that led to the series of violent acts the last several days,? Bratton said. ?The last thing that he would want would be to be arrested by the LAPD and do a perp walk. That would be the last injustice, the most significant one.?

"The attacks will stop when the department states the truth about my innocence, PUBLICLY!!!" Dorner wrote in his manifesto.

On Saturday, LAPD officials said that the department would take another look at how Dorner's case was handled.

The details that emerged about Dorner only became stranger as the hunt intensified. The LAPD said Tuesday that they were going through as many as a thousand tips on where the suspect may have been.

Police search mountains for Christopher Dorner, release new image

The Associated Press reported that 2006 court papers showed that, after dating a woman for six weeks, he had requested a restraining order against her. Dorner said the girlfriend had posted his LAPD badge number on a website called dontdatehimgirl.com, according to the AP.

A video posted on the celebrity gossip website TMZ appeared to show Dorner purchasing scuba gear on Feb. 1 at Sport Chalet in Torrance, Calif. Police said Tuesday that they were not certain whether or not that man was Dorner.

The possibility that Dorner might have fled to Mexico arose in a criminal complaint filed in Feb. 7 in California?s Central District Court. Early that morning, a San Diego boat captain said, Dorner had tried to steal his boat to flee south across the border, according to the complaint.

Dorner?s wallet and identification cards were found near the border with Mexico, according to the complaint.

Then came the dramatic scene in the mountains near Big Bear Lake on Tuesday afternoon.?

Sheriff?s deputies responding to a report that someone matching Dorner?s description had stolen a car exchanged gunfire with the man, according to police. Two deputies were shot, and one later died.?

The suspect then was trapped in a cabin, which later erupted in flames and burned to the ground. Officials on Tuesday night were waiting to enter the charred cabin to search for any signs of a body.

NBC News' Tracy Connor, Daniel Arkin, Kari Huus and Andrew Mach, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:40 PM EST

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/12/16941158-profile-of-ex-lapd-cop-dorner-sought-in-killing-rampage-emerges?lite

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Vortex pinning could lead to superconducting breakthroughs

Feb. 13, 2013 ? A team of researchers from Russia, Spain, Belgium, the U.K. and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory announced findings last week that may represent a breakthrough in applications of superconductivity.

The team discovered a way to efficiently stabilize tiny magnetic vortices that interfere with superconductivity -- a problem that has plagued scientists trying to engineer real-world applications for decades. The discovery could remove one of the most significant roadblocks to advances in superconductor technology.

Superconductors are extremely useful materials, given that modern society involves moving a lot of electricity around. Each time we do it, whether it be along the cord from the outlet to your lamp or in the millions of miles of power lines strung across the country, we lose a little bit of electricity. That effect is due to resistance in the wires we currently use to transport electricity. Even a pretty good conductor, like copper wire, loses some electricity due to resistance.

But in an ideal superconductor, no electricity is ever lost. If you set up a loop of perfect superconducting wire and added some current, it would circle that loop forever. Superconductors are the secret behind MRI machines, Maglev trains and improved cell phone reception.

The problem is that superconductors have to be cooled to do their thing. Even the "high-temperature" superconductors already discovered have to be chilled to -280? Fahrenheit. That creates a lot of engineering and logistical problems.

In the long run, scientists are hoping to develop superconducting materials that would operate closer to room temperature. That would be a major achievement -- though it is generally still thought to be a long way off.

In the meantime, there remain key problems of superconductivity that need to be solved even in the low-temperature environment.

One such major problem is posed by magnetic fields. When magnetic fields reach a certain strength, they cause a superconductor to lose its superconductivity. But there is a type of superconductor -- known as "Type II" -- which is better at surviving in relatively high magnetic fields. In these superconductors, magnetic fields create tiny whirlpools or "vortices." Superconducting current continues to travel around these vortices to a point, but eventually, as the magnetic field strengthens, the vortices begin to move about and interfere with the material's superconductivity, introducing resistance.

"These vortices dissipate the energy when moving under applied currents and bury all hopes for a technological revolution -- unless we find ways to efficiently pin them," said Argonne Distinguished Fellow Valerii Vinokur, who co-authored the study.

Scientists have spent a lot of time and effort over the past few decades trying to immobilize these vortices, but until now, the results have been mixed. They found ways to pin down the vortices, but these only worked in a restricted range of low temperatures and magnetic fields.

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---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Argonne National Laboratory. The original article was written by Louise Lerner.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. R. C?rdoba, T. I. Baturina, J. Ses?, A. Yu Mironov, J. M. De Teresa, M. R. Ibarra, D. A. Nasimov, A. K. Gutakovskii, A. V. Latyshev, I. Guillam?n, H. Suderow, S. Vieira, M. R. Baklanov, J. J. Palacios, V. M. Vinokur. Magnetic field-induced dissipation-free state in superconducting nanostructures. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1437 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2437

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/TWLfxzpbyRM/130213114715.htm

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Controversial finance secretary removed ? The Express Tribune

Wajid Rana, howeve?r, gets a secure postin?g as member of FPSC.

Originally, Rana?s appointment as finance secretary was meant to be a one-year contract. PHOTO: ONLINE/ FILE

ISLAMABAD:?

The federal government has appointed retired bureaucrat Abdul Wajid Rana as a member of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) after removing him from the position of finance secretary, unable to sustain the pressure over his ?illegal appointment.?

The government took the step after Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana termed his appointment ?illegal? and, subsequently, the accountant general (Revenues) blocked his salary for the month of January.

The decision comes at a time when the country?s economy is in a fragile shape and requires the installation of an able team in the Q Block ? the seat of the finance ministry.

Abdul Khaliq has now been given the charge of acting finance secretary. A meeting of the Central Selection Board, scheduled for this week, will likely promote Khaliq to grade 22.

Originally, Rana?s appointment as finance secretary was meant to be a one-year contract. Rana ? an officer of the influential District Management Group who attained the age of superannuation in November last year ? held this position for ten months. The government hired him as the principal officer of the finance division for a year and appointed him as federal finance secretary.

It was during a Public Accounts Committee meeting that the AGP declared Rana?s appointment illegal.

Furthermore, the AGP stated that the post of principal officer did not exist at all. The appointment was also in violation of a Supreme Court decision that barred the federal government from hiring people on contract against the regular posts.

At the time of Rana?s appointment as finance secretary, many viewed the government?s move as a reward for him for writing off billions of rupees for the rulers, allegedly by compromising principles of prudent economic management.

According to the officials, the government has now appointed Rana as member FPSC for a fixed period of three years. Apparently, President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Rana on the advice of the prime minister.

A member of the commission cannot be removed from his office without the advice of the Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan.

Furthermore, in January, President Zardari appointed Malik Asif Hayat, who served as principal secretary to the president, as FPSC chairman.

Rana was the seventh finance secretary during the tenure of the PPP government.

Khaliq was looking after the most important section, the budget wing, and the budget preparations have already gotten a kick-start.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.

Source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/506594/controversial-finance-secretary-removed/

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No-Nonsense Look at the Lake Of the Pines Real Estate Market ...

said on February 12th, 2013 filed under: Lake of the Pines, Localism, Market Trends, Real Estate Nuts and Bolts

?

Let?s dispense with anecdotal examples. Let?s?swerve around?wishful thinking.? Let?s take an honest look at the hard evidence?actual sales of homes at Lake of the Pines, California.

For this analysis, we?ll?compare sales data from the Nevada County Association of Realtors for two six-month periods:

(1) August 12, 2011 through February 12, 2012

(2) August 12, 2012 through February 12, 2013

This will give us a year-on-year comparison.

Lake of the Pines is divided into two real estate sub-markets.? Lakefront homes and everything else.? Lumping lakefronts in with?everything else?drastically skews the results.? For the purpose of this article, I will exclude 10 lakefront homes sold, 8 in the first six-month period, and 2 in the second six-month period.

?

?

Aug 12, 2011?Feb 12, 2012????????? Aug 12, 2012?Feb 12, 2013

Number of non-lakefront homes sold???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 36????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 44

Average Days on the Market (DOM)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 88????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 90

Asking Price at time of sale??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? $255,478???????????????????????????????????????????$256,277

Asking Price per square foot????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? $135/sq ft???????????????????????????????????????? $135/sq ft

Actual Sold Price?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? $244,420????????????????????????????????????????? $246,425

Sold price per square foot????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? $129/sq ft???????????????????????????????????????? $130,000

Percent sold price to asking price??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 95.6%???????????????????????????????????????????????? 96.1%

?

Conclusion.? The real estate market at Lake of the Pines, excluding sales of lakefront homes, is statistically unchanged from 201/2012 to 2012/2013.? The six-month periods examined are traditionally the ?slow season? sales periods (fall and winter).? It will be interesting to compare the ?fast season? periods (sping and summer) later on in 2013.? Based on last year?s flurry of investor purchases of lower-end homes, I predict that the ?fast season? data will show a modest year-on-year improvement.

If you enjoyed reading this article, why not subscribe to be notified of the next one?

To find out more about real estate in the Golden Hills of the Sierras, just call Bob at (530-906-1023) or CJ at (530-9064715) or email us at [email?protected] or [email?protected]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 at 10:27 am and is filed under Lake of the Pines, Localism, Market Trends, Real Estate Nuts and Bolts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Source: http://goldenhillsrealestate.com/2013/02/12/no-nonsense-look-at-the-lake-of-the-pines-real-estate-market/

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Kate Upton to appear again on Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue

By CARL LISCIANDRELLO | TBO.com
Published: February 11, 2013
Updated: February 11, 2013 - 4:19 PM

In just one year, 20-year-old Kate Upton has graced the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, made several television appearances, had a role in "The Three Stooges" movie, and represented Mercedes-Benz in one of the more memorable Super Bowl commercials of 2013.

Score another highlight in the young model's career.

Upton has become the first model since Tyra Banks in the mid-1990s to appear on back-to-back covers of SI's iconic swimsuit issue, the company announced on its website today.

The magazine hits newsstands Tuesday.

Few would think about swimming in Antarctica, but Sports Illustrated took its models there for its annual swimsuit issue ? shooting on all seven continents for the first time.

The around-the-globe effort will be chronicled by the Travel Channel in a special on Feb. 17. Sports Illustrated said Tuesday it's the first to do a fashion shoot in Antarctica, where temperatures were subfreezing.

Upton's revealing cover shot features her in an unzipped parka, wearing a hood and bathing suit bottoms with the headline: Kate Upton goes Polar.

Among the locations featured are Namibia, China, Australia and Easter Island, one of the most remote places on Earth.

Swimsuit magazine editor MJ Day says it took seven months to complete.

Source: http://www2.tbo.com/entertainment/books/2013/feb/11/4/kate-upton-to-appear-again-on-sports-illustrated-s-ar-631264/

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Gives Windows Phone users a tool to clean up their phone [updated]

There must be a way when a app is not running to free this space up. I understand apps need temp space but, If I remove an app, it only frees up less than 1/4 of the space it took (other folder) if even that sometimes.

Microsoft is good at compression, USE IT. This should not take up almost 4gb on a 16gb phone. If apps are creating space when they are installed, they should release this space till they need it. I will never be running these apps all at one time, so there is no reason to use that much space.

This is unacceptable, I already lose almost 3gb of my 16gb to the OS and now another 4gb for "other". So this is NOT a 16gb phone, it's a 9gb phone and in that case, I would not of gotten it.

At least expand the detail on exactly what is in Other (what apps are using what) and allow a "clean cashe" type of thing to reset it to only take what it really needs.

If it is taking up too much space, we need to AT LEAST know why and what is doing it. If it's just 2 apps taking up 1/2 that space, I can remove them, clean the cashe and recover that very valuable space...

Something NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH THIS.

Source: http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/3494721-gives-windows-phone-users-a-tool-to-clean-up-their

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Rebels fight regime troops for Syria's largest dam

BEIRUT (AP) ? Activists say Syrian opposition fighters are battling troops loyal to President Bashar Assad for control of the country's largest dam.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, a Britain-based anti-regime activist, says there are sporadic clashes taking place around the al-Furat dam on the Euphrates River in the northeastern province of Raqqa.

He says a group of Assad's loyalists is held up Monday in the dam's control room but that most of the regime troops stopped fighting the day before after the rebels overran the nearby town of al-Thawra.

The fall of al-Furat dam into the opposition hands would be a significant blow to the regime because it supplies water to much of Syria.

Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says the rebels already control two other dams on the Euphrates.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-fight-regime-troops-syrias-largest-dam-100421495.html

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Ex-Pentagon chief Gates OK with drone oversight

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he finds merit in "some check" on a president's ability to order drone strikes against American al-Qaida suspects overseas, lending support to creating a special court that would review such requests.

"I think that the rules and the practices that the Obama administration has followed are quite stringent and are not being abused. But who is to say about a future president?" said Gates, Pentagon chief for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The potential model that some lawmakers are considering for overseeing such drone attacks is a secret court of federal judges who now review requests for government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases.

"Something that would give the American people confidence that there was, in fact, a compelling case ... to launch an attack against an American citizen, I think just as an independent confirmation or affirmation, if you will, is something worth giving serious consideration to," Gates told CNN's "State of the Union" in an interview broadcast Sunday.

The issue gained momentum in the run-up to the confirmation hearing last week for John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser who helped managed the drone program, to be CIA director. Before the hearing, Obama directed the Justice Department to give the congressional intelligence committees access to classified legal advice providing the government's rationale for drone strikes against American citizens working with al-Qaida abroad.

Demands for such information grew after the leak early last week of an unclassified memo on how decisions are made to target U.S. citizens abroad. The memo says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al-Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans, even if there is no evidence of a specific imminent attack.

The leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said she intended to review proposals for "legislation to ensure that drone strikes are carried out in a manner consistent with our values" and she suggested something similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That special court reviews requests on government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases.

Gates said that "this idea of being able to execute, in effect, an American citizen, no matter how awful, having some third party having a say in it or perhaps ... informing the Congress or the intelligence committees or something like that, I just think some check on the ability of the president to do this has merit, as we look to the longer term future."

A September 2011 drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. A drone strike two weeks later killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, a Denver native.

The strikes came after U.S. intelligence concluded that the elder al-Awlaki was senior operational leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula plotting attacks on the U.S., including the abortive Christmas Day bombing of an airplane landing in Detroit in 2009.

In Thursday's hearing, Brennan defended drone strikes as necessary, saying they are taken only as a "last resort," but he said he had no qualms about going after Anwar al-Awlaki.

He said the White House had considered the concept of the special courts, and he said he would be open to discussing it because "American citizens by definition are due much greater due process than anybody else by dint of their citizenship."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-pentagon-chief-gates-ok-drone-oversight-140205799--politics.html

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