Source: http://dealnews.com/features/morning-jolt.html?iref=rss-dealnews-todays-edition
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday Morning Jolt: $99 1-Year Gym Fee, Tough iPad Case for $10, more
Molly Griffin is dealnews' business analyst manager in Dublin. She oversees the Irish team and is the writer and content editor of The Morning Jolt. Molly has also been featured in a number of Irish publications, including The Dubliner, PC Live!, and Shelflife, and has worked as a web specialist for college organizations.
Verizon users hit with third data outage in December (Digital Trends)
According to a report out of Reuters, Verizon is investigating yet another outage of the data network. Noted as the third network outage during the month of December, some customers have reported an inability to connect to the?4G LTE network in a smattering of major U.S. cities including Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and San?Francisco. ?Marquett Smith, vice president of?corporate communications for Verizon Wireless, released a statement that the company is currently working to resolve the new issue with the?4G LTE network. He stated ?The network continues to operate and all customers continue to be able to make calls, send text messages and utilize data services. 3G devices are operating normally.?
With the other problems causing issues for Verizon customers earlier this month, the cellular company has yet to release a statement on the cause of these outages. Verizon has been heavily promoting the?4G LTE network as a benefit over other cellular providers in national advertising campaigns on television, radio and the Web. According to Verizon, the?4G LTE network is supposed to offer speeds approximately ten times faster than the average speed of a 3G connection across various cellular providers. With approximately 3.7 million Android devices activated over the holiday weekend, the amount of new subscribers utilizing Verizon?s?4G LTE network may be too much of a burden on the data network in large?metropolitan?areas.?
While Verizon claims that all 3G devices are operating properly, customers have also been complaining of 3G outages as well. Customers have indicated that the 4G network is completely unavailable and their new device only connects to the 3G network?intermittently. These issues during December have gone against Verizon?s advertising slogan that claims the 4G LTE network is the??nation?s fastest, most?reliable?4G network.?
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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Morgan Stanley to cut 580 jobs in NY
PTI???? New York?? December 29, 2011????
Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley on Tuesday said it will slash over 500 jobs across four locations in New York under plans announced earlier this month to cut 1,600 jobs globally by next year, citing hard economic times .In a filing with the New York State Department of Labour, Morgan Stanley said 580 jobs would be cut at the firm's midtown Manhattan headquarters and three smaller Morgan Stanley offices in New York.
The firm said in the filing that "rolling layoffs" had begun on December 15, when it had announced that it would slash 1,600 jobs or 2.6 per cent of its workforce globally by the first quarter of 2012.
Morgan Stanley had 62,648 employees at the end of September. The layoffs would impact all divisions, including investment banking and trading.
The year 2011 has been one that Wall Street would want to forget, with major financial services firms announcing layoffs as continued economic woes force them to trim costs.
In all, financial firms have disclosed plans to eliminate more than 200,000 jobs globally this year.
Citigroup had announced earlier this month that it would cut 4,500 jobs, while Bank of America said it would cut 30,000 jobs over the next few years.
Swiss lender UBS is downsizing its investment bank to 16,000 people from the current 18,000.
In June, Goldman Sachs had told the New York Department of Labour that it would layoff 230 New York workers through March 2012.
The New York State comptroller had said in October that an estimated 10,000 Wall Street workers could lose their jobs by the end of next year.
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Bobcats: Down 75-62 entering 4th quarter #bobcats need to find a spark! Who will it be?#NBA
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Saudi Arabia Oil Aid To Help Yemen End Severe Crisis
Quoting industry sources, the news agency claimed that the amount Yemen will receive from Saudi Arabia in January will be around 500,000 tons.
?There is a government-to-government agreement between Yemen and Saudi Arabia where Aramco is buying the gasoline and gas-oil and paying for it,? said Reuters quoting one of the sources familiar with the deal.
Saudi government officials and Saudi Aramco spokespeople were unreachable on Thursday to confirm the deal.
Yemen relied on 3 million barrels of Saudi-donated crude oil to run its refinery in June, when its main pipeline was shut after anti-government blasts, unleashing a fuel shortage that saw people getting killed at dry petrol stations.
The pipeline, which was repaired during summer, is shut once again, after consecutive blasts on it in October. The lack of crude flow in the pipeline has also forced the Aden refinery, which mainly produces to meet the domestic fuel demand, to halt operations.
Intellpuke: You can read this article by Saudi Arabia-based Arab News journalist Siraj Wahab, reporting from Dammam, , in context here: arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article555804.ece
Source: http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Saudi-Arabia-Oil-Aid-To-Help-Yemen-End-Severe-Crisis-33288.html
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WGRZ: Via MSNBC Jong Un named N. Korea military commander: North Korea announced on Saturday it has appointed Kim Jong... http://t.co/VTpkIcNS
Via MSNBC Jong Un named N. Korea military commander: North Korea announced on Saturday it has appointed Kim Jong... Source: http://twitter.com/WGRZ/statuses/153041728469864448
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Rick Santorum is in third place in Iowa, new CNN poll says (The Ticket)
DUBUQUE, Iowa -- After spending a majority of the campaign season at the bottom of the polls, Rick Santorum is seeing a last-minute rise in Iowa just days before the Republican caucuses, according to a CNN survey released Wednesday.
The poll of registered Republicans in Iowa shows Mitt Romney leading with 25 percent, Ron Paul in second with 22 percent and Santorum in third with 16 percent, his largest showing yet. Newt Gingrich, who led in the state just a few weeks ago, was fourth with 14 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
When asked about the new poll numbers during a campaign stop at a furniture store here on Wednesday afternoon, Santorum said he had heard of them yet.
"I feel very, very good about how things are going and it's nice to see that reflected in some of the polls, but we have a lot of work to do. A lot of work," he said when a reporter informed him of his new standing in the state.
Keating Holland, the polling director for CNN, says most of Santorum's support comes from religious conservatives:
"Most of Santorum's gains have come among likely caucus participants who are born-again or evangelical, and he now tops the list among that crucial voting bloc, with support from 22 percent of born-agains compared to 18 percent for Paul, 16 percent for Romney, and 14 percent for Gingrich."
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Want more of our best political stories? Visit?The Ticket or connect with us?on Facebook and follow us?on Twitter.
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iPhone and iPad Live, tonight at 9pm ET, ZENandTECH 10pm. Be there!
We’re doing a special combined edition of iPhone and iPad Live tonight, and following it up with a special edition of ZENandTECH, so clear your schedule, pour a spicy...
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DIY Health Reform: Employers Solving Healthcare Crisis One Onsite Clinic At A Time
In several of my?past pieces, I have written about the importance of a disruptive model of care and payment called Direct Primary Care (DPC) such as?The Most Important Organization In Silicon Valley That No One Has Heard About. As the DPC models scale, they become a great option for individuals and small business. However, larger organizations have another option at their disposal that I'm as excited about as the DPC models. Employers fed up with the annual "get less for more" health story when they get annual health plan updates have taken matters into their own hands. This has created one of the hottest sectors of the economy -- onsite clinic providers. These are companies providing corporations with primary care onsite at employer workplaces. Each of the onsite clinic provider CEOs (e.g., Concentra, CareHere) I have spoken with have shared that their business is growing 100% annually. Reportedly 20% of employers with over 500 employees are implementing onsite clinic programs.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/a0qFCwGYoBo/
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Beat the salad bar: Build the ultimate food tower
Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV Not all buffets are unlimited. But with some knowledge of math and architecture, you could maximise a single trip to the salad bar by creating a tower of food. In this time-lapse, watch our attempt at packing the most fruit and vegetable pieces onto a single dish. Our strategy was inspired by software engineer Shen Hongrui who devised equations, diagrams and online instructions to help hungry cheapskates accomplish the feat.
The key to building a killer tower is in the foundations. Dry and dense toppings provide a stable base, while placing carrot sticks radially along the bowl's rim help stabilise top layers. Small ingredients like chickpeas are useful for filling the inside of the tower after building walls from cucumber slices or pineapple wedges, for example.
While our tower reached a reasonable height, a quick online search reveals the work of more Tetris-like food architects.
For more on buffet science, check out our festive feature, Salad-bar strategy: The battle of the buffet.
If you enjoyed this video, see a novel screen made of water designed for 3D Tetris or watch an octopus navigate a maze to get food.
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Symptoms of Esophageal Cancer
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Source: http://heartburn.about.com/od/acidrefluxcomplications/qt/ecancersymptoms.htm
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Dell Inspiron One 2320
PCs have been making their way into living rooms for some time now, but the Dell Inspiron One 2320 ($1,249.99 direct) is one of the few designed to replace your TV?and it's more than just a well-equipped all-in-one desktop. The included Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GPU provide potent horsepower and multimedia capabilities for any day-to-day task. And an impressive number of media-centric options, like a TV tuner, inputs for HDMI, VGA, and composite video, and a good-old-fashioned remote control, will make this system a part of your entertainment setup for years to come.
Design
The Dell Inspiron One 2320 has an adjustable easel back stand and two metal legs, providing a sturdy surface that will withstand taps and touches without a wobble. There's plenty of room between those two legs to slip the included wireless keyboard out of the way. The legs and easel back stand can be removed and replaced with an optional wall mount ($49.99). And thanks to a broad selection of media inputs (see "Features" below), the 23-inch, 1,920-by-1,080-resolution screen, which produced crystal-clear images whether streaming 1080p YouTube clips or watching Blu-ray video, can remain useful long after the internal components have aged.
As with Dell's past all-in-ones, the Inspiron One 2320's components are all located behind the screen; but the combined PC and monitor only measures 2.67 inches thick, only a little beefier than a regular 23-inch television. Only two things might cramp the system's style as a TV. The built-in speakers don't have the THX sound of the older Dell Inspiron One IO2305-4429MSL ($849.99 list, 4 stars), but the SRS Premium sound they offer is clear (if light on bass) at all but the highest volumes; to get the most out this as an entertainment system, you'll definitely want to add a decent subwoofer. The Inspiron One 2320 also uses a large power brick, which distinguishes it from other all-in-ones that require only a power cord.
The touchscreen lets you navigate through programs with a tap of the finger, and supports multitouch gestures for resizing and rotating as needed. Dell's proprietary Stage interface aims to make the Inspiron One 2320 even more finger-friendly, bringing a tile-based user interface to the desktop and Web browser. Unfortunately, it's weighted pretty heavily in favor of media, with icons for MusicStage, PhotoStage, VideoStage, and SyncUP powered by Nero; for other tasks, you might want to stick to regular Windows. The wireless keyboard and mouse share a single 2.4GHz wireless USB adapter that lets you type and click from up to 33 feet away. The compact keyboard is even spill resistant, so there's no reason not to use it while chilling on the couch. While you're there, the included TV-style remote has all of the standard media buttons, as well as controls for navigating between Web pages or TV channels when watching over-the-air programming through the integrated TV tuner.
Features
The Dell Inspiron One 2320 is decked out with all the features you could want in a desktop, plus a collection of entertainment inputs that will keep this all-in-one useful even when the components have been surpassed by newer models. On the right of the system, you'll find a tray-loading Blu-ray combo drive (BD-R, DVD?RW), the power button, and a button for toggling between the available video inputs. On the left, there is a multiformat card reader (SD, SDXC, SDHC, MMC, MS/Pro, xD), two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, and buttons for adjusting the audio volume and display brightness.
It's on the back of the system that things get interesting. There you'll find a large panel stretching across the length of the chassis that's covered with ports and connectors. On one side of it are four USB 2.0 ports, audio output, Gigabit Ethernet, a power connector, VGA output, and a coaxial connection for hooking up an antenna or cable box. On the other end of the rear panel you'll find the aforementioned HDMI-in, VGA, and composite video inputs, as well as an S/PDIF connection and a case lock slot. But if you're looking for faster USB 3.0 ports or an HDMI-out port for connecting to an HDTV or other external display, you're out of luck.
Internally, the Inspiron One 2320 has a built-in TV tuner, as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and Intel's Wireless Display (WiDi) 2.0, a wireless HDMI replacement that also requires a $99 Netgear Push2TV HD adapter. The 2TB hard drive is spacious?larger than the 1TB drive found in the Editors' Choice Sony VAIO VPC-L231FX/W ($999.99 list, 4.5 stars)?and spins at a respectable 7,200rpm. Dell has preinstalled on it the Windows 7 Touch Pack and Microsoft Office Starter 2010, which offers basic word processing and spreadsheet functions, but no PowerPoint or Outlook. A one-year trial of DataSafe 2.0 provides 2GB of online backup for a year, and even more generous is the 15-month trial of McAfee Security Center. Given how many manufacturers provide the same one- or two-month trials that can be found for free online, a trial this lengthy is a welcome addition. Dell also covers the Inspiron One 2320 with its basic one-year warranty, which includes parts and labor, 24/7 phone support, and in-home service for hardware.
Performance
Dell has equipped the Inspiron One 2320 with a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-2400S processor?a step up from the Core i3 found in the Sony VAIO VPC-L231FX/W and the same processor found in the Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,199 list, 4.5 stars)?and 8GB of RAM, which proves a good combination for everyday computer work. In our CineBench R11.5 rendering test, which serves as our processor speed benchmark, the Inspiron scored 3.35, ahead of the 2.69 of the Toshiba DX735-D3201, but behind the 4.47 of the HP TouchSmart 610-1150y ($1,199.99 list, 4.5 stars) and the 4.13 of the iMac. In our PCMark 7 general-use test the Inspiron scored a category-leading 2,718, compared with the 2,690 of the Toshiba DX735-D3201 ($899.99 list, 3.5 stars) and the 2,167 of the VAIO VPC-L231FX/W.
The Inspiron also performed well in multimedia tests. In Handbrake, the Inspiron encoded our test video in 1 minute 29 seconds, tying with the TouchSmart 610-1150y and beating out such competitors as the Sony VAIO VPC-L231FX/W, which took 2 minutes 22 seconds and Samsung Series 7 (DP700A38-01) ($999.99 list, 4 stars), which took 2 minutes 5 seconds. We saw similarly good results in Photoshop CS5, which the Inspiron ran through in 3:38, ahead of every competitor except the Apple iMac (3:29). Whether you dabble in digital photography or think yourself the indie director of tomorrow, the Inspiron One 2320 will be a powerful and useful multimedia tool.
Thanks to its discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 525M video card, the Inspiron One 2320 delivers some of the best graphics and gaming performance available in an all-in-one. In 3DMark 11, the Inspiron One 2320 scored 1,581 on the Entry preset and 293 points on Extreme. Competing systems utilizing integrated graphics were unable to run the test at all. Many comparable systems are unable to even run our DirectX 11 Lost Planet 2 gaming test, but the Inspiron One 2320 pumped out a respectable 23 frames per second (30fps is considered playable). The Inspiron One 2320 also produced playable frame rates of 42fps in Crysis when running at low resolution and detail settings, opening the door for plenty of midrange games. The only all-in-one better at gaming was the Apple iMac (70fps in Crysis, 32fps in Lost Planet 2), but it offers a smaller screen and no touch capabilities.
The Dell Inspiron One 2320 wins us over with its combination of category-leading performance right now and entertainment features that will keep the all-in-one in use for years. A few omissions, like the lack of HDMI output and USB 3.0, might be a deal breaker for some, but most will be able to overlook it. Even with these flaws the Inspiron Omni 2320 is a fine system that should satisfy most computer shoppers, and it surpasses our previous Editors' Choice Sony VAIO VPC-L231FX/W.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Dell Inspiron One 2320 with several other desktops side by side.
More desktop reviews:
??? Dell Inspiron One 2320
??? HP Omni 120-1024
??? Lenovo H330-77801HU
??? HP Omni 220-1080qd
??? HP TouchSmart 520-1070
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The week in iPhone and iPad: iPhone 5, iPad 3, and Apple Television rumors, untethered jailbreak, most-used apps
Missed a compelling piece of iPhone news, a great review, or a killer how-to? We?re not collecting absolutely everything in iPhone here ? you can hit up TiPb.com/iPhone and TiPb.com/iPad for that! ? but we?re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here for your review.
And hey! ? these double as show notes for our iPhone and iPad Live! podcast tonight at 6pm PT/9pm ET. So join us at TiPb.com/live and follow along!
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Banking in India
What about the foreign giants?
The foreign banks have identified this problem but there are certain systematic risks involved in operating in the Retail market for them. These include regulatory restrictions that prevent them from expanding their branch network. So these banks often take the Direct Selling Agent (DSA) route whereby low-end jobs like sourcing or transaction processing are outsourced to small regional layers. So now on, when you see a loan mela or a road show showcasing the retail bouquet of an elite MNC giant, you know that a significant commission earned out of any such booking gets ploughed back to our own economy. Perhaps, one of the biggest impediments in foreign players leveraging the Indian markets is the absence of positive credit bureaus. In the west the risk profile can be easily mapped to things like SSNs and this information can be publicly traded. PAN is a step in this direction but lot more work need to be done. What has been a positive step towards this is a negative file sharing started by a consortium of 11 banks. However, as a McKinsey study points out actual write-offs on NPAs show a strong negative correlation with sharing of positive information. On top of this, the spend-now-pay-later ?credit culture? in India is just not picking up. A swift legal procedure against consumers creating bad debt is virtually non-existent. Finally, the vast geographical and cultural diversity of the country makes credit policy formulation a tough job and it simply cannot be dictated from a Wall Street or a Singapore boardroom! All these add up to the unattractiveness of the Indian retail market to the foreign players.So over the past few years, in spite of the entry of MNCs in many industries, Retail Banking has seen a flurry of panicky exits. Fewer than 40 remain in India and their share of total bank assets currently 7.2% is falling. Those that remain might be thought to be likely buyers of Indian banks. Yet Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered?all in India for more than a century, and with relatively large retail networks?seem to have no pressing need to acquire a local bank. Established foreign banks have preferred to take over customers or businesses from other foreign banks that want to leave. Thus HSBC, in recent years, has acquired customers from France's BNP, Germany's Deutsche Bank and Japan's Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. ABN Amro took over Bank of America's retail business.
So all for the keeping then?
This will perhaps be the most wrongful inference that can be drawn from the above. We just cannot afford to look inwards and repeat the mistakes that were the side effects of the Nationalization of the Banking System. A growing market can never be an alibi for lack of innovation. Indian banks have shown little or no interest in innovative tailor-made products. They have often tried to copy process designs that have been tested, albeit successfully, in the West. Each economic culture has its own traits and one who successfully adapts those to the business is the eventual winner. A case in point is the successful implementation of micro-credit networks in Bangladesh. Positioning a bank as a tech-savvy financial vendor in a country where Internet penetration is an abysmal 1.65% can only add to the over-leveraging as pointed out earlier. The focus of the sector should remain in macroeconomic wealth creation and not increasing the per capita indebtedness that will do little but add to the NPA burden. Retail Banking in India has to be developed in the Indian way, notwithstanding the long queues in front of the teller counters in the Public sector banks!If you're interested in publishing an article on this site, please use the guest submission form.
Source: http://economics.about.com/cs/finance/a/india_banking_2.htm
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
escravoroger_rf: Esqueci o iPad ma casa dos meus pais. u_u
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Tom Cruise returns to box office form with "MI4" (omg!)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" easily beat its rivals in the race to No. 1 at box offices over the Christmas holiday weekend, returning action star Tom Cruise to winning form after several recent flops.
"Ghost Protocol," the fourth movie in Cruise's "Mission: Impossible" series, earned an estimated $46 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters in the four days ending on Monday, according to its distributor Paramount Pictures. Its total estimated ticket sales have reached $78.6 million after debuting in Imax and other large-screen theaters last weekend.
At international theaters, the movie dubbed "MI4", which cost around $145 million to make, sold an additional $140 million worth of tickets through Sunday. Paramount noted its audience rating from researcher CinemaScore was an "A-" and Rottentomatoes.com, a website that combines critics' reviews, gave the movie a 94 percent positive rating overall.
"We're pleased with the way we went with the movie, starting with premium pricing on large screens and letting the reviews and word-of-mouth (publicity) get out ahead of the movie," said Don Harris, president of distribution for Paramount.
Important for leading man Cruise, 49, is that after several box office flops in recent years, including dramas "Valkyrie" and "Lions for Lambs," and action-packed "Knight and Day," the success of "Ghost Protocol" has meant a return to the top of box office charts.
Elsewhere, Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" took the No. 2 spot with an estimated $31.8 million over the four days, followed by 20th Century Fox family comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" with a $20 million total that barely put it ahead of No. 4, adult thriller "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," at $19.4 million.
Since its midweek debut last week, "Dragon Tattoo" has earned $27.7 million. A Sony spokesman called it "a good start" that should build this coming week and into the new year.
HO HUM 2011, DOWN 4.45 PCT
Indeed, many new movies hit theaters ahead of, and during, the Christmas holiday weekend -- including "Dragon Tattoo," two movies from Steven Spielberg, "War Horse" and "The Adventures of Tintin," and the Cameron Crowe comedy, "We Bought A Zoo."
The studios expect strong demand in the days ahead while many families take time from work and school, but it is unlikely a surge can lead the domestic box office to topple last year's nearly $10.6 billion in annual ticket sales.
In fact, the top 12 movies this past weekend generated $114 million at box offices, down about 15 percent from last year, according to box office watcher Hollywood.com.
Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com now estimates total 2011 annual domestic (U.S. and Canada) box office at $10.1 billion by year's end, down 4.45 percent from 2010. Attendance so far in 2011 is off about 5 percent, while the average ticket price increased to $7.96 from $7.89.
Still, movie demand did pick up for some new titles over the weekend, and among those making a surge was Fox comedy "We Bought a Zoo," starring Matt Damon. It saw ticket sales jump 139 percent from Saturday to Sunday, its distributor 20th Century Fox said, landing it at No. 6 with $15.6 million, just behind family film "Tintin" at No. 5 with $16.1 million.
"I think playability and word-of-mouth is finally getting out" about "Zoo," said Chris Aronson, who heads domestic distribution for Fox. He noted the movie generated an "A" overall from moviegoers polled by CinemaScore.
Spielberg's "War Horse" landed in the No. 7 spot with $15 million, and another newcomer, thriller "The Darkest Hour," opened eighth with $5.5 million over the four days.
Rounding out the top 10 were holdovers "New Year's Eve" at No. 9 with slightly under $5 million and George Clooney drama "The Descendants" in the 10th position with $3.4 million.
Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. Warner Bros. is part of Time Warner Inc.. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was released by the movie studio division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp. "Chipwrecked" and "Zoo" were both released by film divisions of 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp..
(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Eric Beech)
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Gospel Theatre Talk w/Cast of Once A Church Boy... - Dec 26,2011
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Community reacts to death of Zippy Leonard; counseling sessions set up for classmates of beloved 9-year-old | UPDATE
Community reacts to death of Zippy Leonard; counseling sessions set up for classmates of beloved 9-year-old | UPDATE ??
?????Monday 26th December, 2011??Source: King County Journal ??
| Letter/Editor CLINTON -- South Whidbey is beset with unmeasurable shock and sadness over the tragic Christmas Day death of a precious 9-year-old girl in a freak accident Sunday. Tobiah Zippy Leonard, a fourth-grader at South Whidbey Elementary School, died Sunday afternoon when a tree fell on her family's Ford Explorer as the Langley family was o... | Breaking News |
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PFT: Belichick's profane speech fired up Pats
ReutersAll I wanted for Christmas was 14 NFL contests on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
And I got it, primarily since there was little or no danger of shooting my eye out.
The best part about it?? The ability to write 10 things about what I saw while enjoying the 14 games-a-playing.
1.? ?Playoff turnover trend continues.
While the final postseason field isn?t quite yet settled, it?s already obvious from the teams that made it ? and the teams that won?t ? that the trend of 50-percent playoff turnover most likely will once again hold true.
In the AFC, the Patriots, Steelers, and Ravens have made it back again to the playoffs.? But the Colts, Chargers, and (most likely) the Jets will be left behind.
Replacing them will be the Texans and some combination of the Broncos, Raiders, Bengals, and Titans, with the Jets having a far-slimmer-than-Rex chance of dropping the turnover rate to 33 percent.
In the NFC, the Packers, Saints, and Falcons will be back.? Dumped from contention are the Eagles, Seahawks, and Bears.? Taking their places will be the Cowboys or the Giants, along with the Lions and 49ers.
Maybe we should quit calling this a trend.? Maybe it?s now the rule, and any situations in which more than half of the playoff field makes it back the next year should be regarded as the exception.
For the NFL, it?s a great development, because it creates annual hope for the 20 teams that end up on the outside looking in.? Every year, the fans of those franchises can take some solace in the notion that nearly a third of them will be playing for a Super Bowl title the following year.
Even the Bills and the Browns.
2.? Steelers face tough decision on Ben.
It?s hard to gauge the overall impressiveness of the Steelers? 27-0 win over the Rams, due to the quality of the competition.? But the decision to sit Ben Roethlisberger and start veteran Charlie Batch at quarterback couldn?t have gone much better.
So why not do it again?
The Steelers, after all, are playing the lowly Browns.? And while Pittsburgh?s arch-rivals from Cleveland would love nothing more than to keep the Steelers from winning the AFC North and clinching the No. 2 seed (even if it means seeing the even-more-hated Ravens pocket those prizes), the Steelers have the weaponry to handle the Browns with Batch or Dennis Dixon or even Terry Hanratty at quarterback.
On the other hand, getting a bye and securing home field advantage for at least the division round and possibly, if the Pats lose to the Bills in Week 17 or at home in the conference semifinals, the AFC title game carries with it tremendous value.? If, in the end, the Steelers indeed are on a collision course to play the Ravens again, it?s important for that game to be played in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers have beaten the Ravens twice in the last three postseasons.
The fact that the Bengals can get in with a win, which gives them even more motivation to beat the Ravens, should make the Steelers more willing to load up the cannon in order to beat the Browns.? Thus, while it was reckless for the Steelers to go with Roethlisberger only 11 days after he suffered the sprained ankle, Sunday?s game invites a calculated risk that, if it works out, could generate a great reward.
If it doesn?t pay off, the Steelers will be in no worse shape, since they?re locked in as the fifth seed.
Unless, of course, Roethlisberger aggravates the ankle with as little as six days to get ready for a game in Denver or Oakland.
In the end, it won?t be an easy call.? Maybe the answer will be to use Roethlisberger until the game against the Browns seems to be decided ? or until the scoreboard shows that the Ravens are handling the Bengals.
3.? AFC playoff field is flawed.
Not that long ago, all the best teams resided in the AFC.? Now, the once top-heavy conference has teams at the top that are littered with warts.
The Patriots, currently the top seed, possess a porous defense and not much of a running game.? Last time I checked, those were two key components of any serious playoff run.
The Ravens seem to be the most dangerous team of the bunch, as long as they can put it all together.? But they seem only to put it all together when playing good teams.? Saturday?s dilly-dallying with the Browns shows that the Ravens could be ripe for an upset if/when a lesser franchise comes to town.
Not long ago, the Texans were the ?it? team.? Now, many of their fans want to add an ?s? and an ?h? to that description.? With scant playoff experience on the roster, the Texans will need to make a quick adjustment when it?s time to play the big boys in the conference.
The Steelers have the tools to beat anyone, but they?re in danger of having to do it the hard way, with three hurdles to clear ? all of which most likely will come on the road ? before a earning a return trip to the Super Bowl.
The Broncos can beat anyone on any given day.? As we saw in fairly dramatic fashion on Saturday, they can lose to anyone, too.? Including a team that was riding a seven-game winning streak.? Even if the clock is striking twelve on Tebow Time, it?s hard to see this team winning in Pittsburgh/Baltimore, New England, or even Houston.
Ditto for the Raiders, who have at times looked good enough to barely win and at other times bad enough to be blown off the field.
That means the team poised to pocket the last ticket to the party ? the Bengals ? could be the most dangerous.? With a capable defense, a better-than-expected rookie quarterback, and a better-than-most rookie receiver, the team with the least to lose and the lowest expectations could string together one win after another, thanks to the deeply flawed field of candidates.
Of course, this could mean that the winner of the conference will end up being the sacrificial lambs for the Packers, Saints, or 49ers.? Unless, of course, the Ravens avoid playing down to the competition in their own conference long enough to earn a crack at the best teams in the league.
4.? Tough year for top two tailbacks.
Entering the 2011 football season, running backs in the NFL fell into two categories:? (1) Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson; and (2) everyone else.
And the season started very well for both men, who took two very different paths to getting paid a lot of money.? Johnson held out of training camp and the preseason, getting his big-money deal only days before the start of the season.? Peterson happily entered the final season of his rookie contract without creating any overt drama, even though it privately was known he wouldn?t react well to being subjected to the franchise tag in 2012.
Once the games started, it became clear that the holdout hampered Johnson.? Peterson performed well as usual, but he was underutilized at times by a Vikings team that kept blowing second-half leads.
Now that Peterson has suffered a serious knee injury, which seemed inevitable given his hard-charging running style, both men have a long way to go to prove that they remain the best tailbacks in the game.? Johnson needs to rediscover the explosiveness that allowed him to slide through a crease and hit the nitrous button; Peterson needs to get healthy.
Their experiences demonstrate that, unlike the quarterback position, which produces a tight nucleus of elite players who remain at that level for years, the best running backs have become a revolving door, with each year producing new guys who?ll enter the next season at the top of the league ? and who?ll have only a limited window to remain there.
5.? Cruz control in New York.
In his team?s first game of the 2010 preseason, undrafted rookie receiver Victor Cruz created a major stir for the Giants, with a performance that featured 145 yards and three touchdowns against the Jets in their annual exhibition.? But then the regular season started, and Cruz disappeared from view, making zero receptions before suffering a season-ending injury.
The 2011 campaign began far more inconspicuously for Cruz, with no touchdowns in the preseason and no receptions in the regular-season opener.? In Week Two, Cruz had only two catches for 17 yards.
Then came the explosion.? In the past 13 games, Cruz has generated 1,341 receiving yards.? Combined with the paltry 51 feet from the first eighth of the season, Cruz now has become the single-season receiving yardage leader in the storied history of the Giants franchise.
And the breaking of Amani Toomers? record came in perhaps the biggest regular-season game the Giants have had in years ? a cross-town/cross-stadium rivalry with the loud-mouthed Jets, in which Cruz?s nine-yard catch and 90-yard run turned the tide of a game in which the ?home? team in Green seemed to be overpowering the team that had won only one of six games.
As a result, Cruz needs to be taken seriously as one of the best young receivers in the game.? It?s a great story for a New Jersey kid who simply wanted to play in the NFL.? Cruz, through two NFL seasons, is on track not just to play but to dominate.
6.? Heaping helping of humble pie for the Ryans.
It?ll be interesting to see the relationship between the outcome of the 2011 regular season and the extent to which the Ryan twins keep talking.? For Rex, the Jets head coach, he had a chance to put up or shut up against the Giants.? Rex didn?t put up; now we?ll see whether he shuts up.
For Rob, the Cowboys defensive coordinator, another ugly loss to the Eagles and a looming winner-take-all game against the team that just beat Rex should induce caution and, relatively speaking, silence.
But guys who like to talk tend to find ways to keep talking.? Even after a season in which the Eagles scored a total of 99 points against the Ryans in three games, and with both the Jets and Cowboys facing a strong possibility of no postseason appearance for either team, it?s unlikely that they?ll change.
They can?t change; they are who they are, which is the source of their appeal to the men who play for them.? And as long as their players respond well to Rex and Rob, they?ll have a place in the league.
Besides, there?s still a chance ? slim as it may be ? that both men will extend their seasons past January 1.? For Rob, it?s a simple win-and-in proposition.? For Rex, the odds are longer, but it?s no huge stretch to think that the Jets will beat the Dolphins, the Ravens will beat the Bengals, the Texans will beat the Titans, and the Raiders or the Broncos will lose to the Chargers or the Chiefs, respectively.
If that all happens, Rex will find a way to quickly and completely digest his Christmas Eve portion of humble pie.? And now that the Jets have bottomed out for the third time this year, the boomerang effect could carry them deep into that deeply flawed AFC playoff field.
7.? It?ll be hard to keep Raheem.
The Buccaneers nearly made it to the postseason in 2010.? But for a surprising (at the time) home loss to the Lions, the 10-6 Bucs would have claimed the last seat at the NFC table, bouncing to the curb the eventual Super Bowl champions.
This year, expectations were higher, even though they were tempered by the reality that the Bucs compete with the Falcons and Saints in the NFC South.? A 4-2 start to the season, including wins over said Falcons and Saints, created a sense that the ?yungry? team from Tampa could take over the division.
And then the bottom dropped out.
Nine straight losses later, including two to a Carolina team that won only two total games a year ago, the Bucs have clinched the basement.? With coach Raheem Morris having only one year left on his contract and receiving no public or (by all appearances) private assurances that he?ll be back in 2012, it?s safe to assume that ownership will move on.
With the Jon Gruden buyout completed and Morris being paid nowhere near the top of the coaching food chain, it?ll be no problem to pay him not to coach the team in 2011.? And with the Bucs on track to finish the year with as many consecutive losses as total victories a year ago, it?ll be virtually impossible for a team that struggles to sell tickets to bring Raheem back.
But then who will they hire to run the team?? The up-and-coming coordinator who happens to be the younger brother of the guy the Bucs fired three years ago?? Another young assistant coach with low recognition, low salary demands, and, in turn, a limited ability to put butts in seats?
Or will the Glazer family decide to spend some of the money that hasn?t been devoted to player costs over the past several years on a big-name coach whose mere presence will help market the team?
We?ll all find out the answer soon.? The end result could result in even more empty seats next year at Raymond James Stadium.
8.? Lions peaking at the right time, but will it matter?
After the Lions slumped from 5-0 to 7-5, serious questions hovered regarding the team?s true ability to compete.? The loss of running back Jahvid Best to a season-ending concussion and the decision of opposing defenses to blanket receiver Calvin Johnson took the sting out of the offense.? The Ndamukong Suh imbroglio created a torrent of negative publicity, and a sense that the Lions simply weren?t ready to compete at the highest levels of the league.
Three straight wins in a row later, the Lions have made it to the postseason for the first time since 1999, and they?re being regarded as a serious threat to make some major noise when the playoffs start.
But will they?? Though Saturday?s thumping of the Chargers arguably was the most impressive victory of the season, the Lions barely held on to beat a bad Vikings team and found a way to steal a road win over the up-and-down Raiders.
It?s entirely possible that the bolt of momentum coming from the knockout blow that the Lions administered to the Chargers will help the Lions win a game or two, or maybe more, when it counts the most.? Ultimately, the Lions? fate could be influenced heavily by whether they enter the playoffs as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.
If they can hold off the Falcons for the primary wild-card spot in the NFC, the Lions will play at Dallas (where the Lions won during the season) or New York (where the Giants have a hard time holding serve, at least when they?re not the visiting team).? But if the Lions slide into the sixth spot, Detroit will have to return to New Orleans, where they lost badly in early December.
The Saints seem to be unbeatable in the Superdome.? Perhaps the Lions could find a way to beat them there, but the Lions would surely prefer not to be forced to try.
And that creates an interesting dilemma for the Packers next week.? With the top seed clinched, should Green Bay rest their starters for the postseason, or should they do everything they can to force the Lions? postseason tour to commence with the possibility of inevitable failure in New Orleans?
9.? Eventual Super Bowl teams dodged a bullet.
In less than a month, we?ll know the identities of the teams who?ll qualify for the biggest event in all of sport.? Whoever makes it should look back to Week 16, and breathe a deep sigh of relief.? (Not to be confused with the many other types of sighs.)
On Christmas Eve, two of the most potentially disruptive teams summarily were erased from postseason contention, when the Chargers saw their three-game winning streak end in Detroit and when the Eagles saw their own three-game run rendered irrelevant by the Giants? win over the Jets.
Either team could have wreaked major havoc in January.? Just as the Packers barely made it to the playoffs as the NFC?s sixth seed in 2010 and then won the whole thing, the Eagles and Chargers could have parlayed late-season surges into postseason pillaging.
Now, none of the other playoff teams have to worry about the two teams who were the hottest in the league entering Week 16.? The Eagles have gotten even hotter, and the Packers, 49ers, and Saints should be thrilled that the Eagles won?t get a chance to extend that vibe beyond Sunday.
10.? The bloom is off the Tebow.
Eight days ago, Tim Tebow had reached the pinnacle of pro football popularity and/or notoriety.? The Broncos quarterback had become the biggest name in football, joining only a small handful of football players who can cross over into major mainstream consciousness.
Today, with a pair of ugly losses in which Tebow and the Broncos offense started strong but ultimately collapsed, the national buzz has diminished, significantly.? Though Tebow can get it back by leading the Broncos to a win over the Chiefs and former Denver starter Kyle Orton, the past two weekends prove that the flavor of the month sometimes is only the flavor of the week.
At some point, Tebowmania likely will return to the top of the non-sports news cycle.? Also, he remains the hottest thing going in Denver.
Still, his inability to deliver further heroics at home against the Patriots or to stay within 20 points of a bad Buffalo team on Christmas Eve has served as a stark reminder that the latest big name in sports is at any given time only a couple of bad games away from again becoming just another face in the crowd.
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas with Faraday: The Chemical History of a Candle
?There is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed which does not come into play and is touched upon in these phenomena. There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.?
? Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a Candle
Who would you cite as your favorite physicist? The field has a long, rich history filled with colorful characters and undisputed genius, so it would be a most difficult choice. But Michael Faraday would certainly be near the top of my list of serious contenders for the title. [NOTE: See a related post on Faraday's lecture The Forces of Matter over at Skulls in the Stars.]
Faraday was a 19th century British scientist, the son of a blacksmith, who started out as a? bookbinder?s apprentice and took advantage of that position to read voraciously. His favorite subjects were the natural sciences.
Serendipitously, as his apprenticeship was ending, a friend gave him a ticket to a lecture on electrochemistry by the eminent scientist Humphrey Davey, at the Royal Institution ? not a venue where the young humble-born Faraday would normally be welcomed.
Faraday was entranced, and after the lecture he asked Davy for a job. There wasn?t a position available, Davy gently told the young man, but shortly thereafter he sacked his assistant for brawling and hired Faraday in his stead.
It has famously been said that Michael Faraday was Davy?s greatest discovery; considering that Davy discovered the elements barium, strontium, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, that is no mean compliment. Faraday went on to make conduct a series of seminal experiments in electromagnetism, among other contributions.
He also quickly gained recognition as an excellent public speaker. People in early Victorian England were highly interested in the latest scientific discoveries of the day. (They were also just as prone to superstition, though, and Faraday was a staunch opponent to things like table-turning, seances, and mesmerism.) Fellow naturalist William Crookes described Faraday?s lectures thusly: ?All is a sparking stream of eloquence and experimental illustration.?
One of his favorite demonstrations is now a simple experiment repeated by schoolchildren everywhere. You can see magnetic field lines ? what Faraday called lines of force ? by sprinkling iron filings onto a sheet of paper held over a bar magnet. The filings align themselves within the magnetic field, so we can ?see? the patten normally invisible to us.
In particular, Faraday gave a series of famous Christmas lectures each year at the Royal Institution ? a tradition that continues today. One of the earliest, on the chemistry and physics of flames, became a popular book: The Chemical History of a Candle.
These lectures were a gift that Faraday gave year after year to those who showed up to receive it: the gift of wonder at the natural world that continues to surprise us, even today, with its mysterious workings.
Faraday opened with a discussion of how candles were made, from naturally occurring candles like the paraffin and bits of candlewood found in Irish bogs ? ?a hard, strong, excellent wood? ?to manmade dipped tallow candles, beeswax candles, and something called a? sperm candle, ?which comes from the purified oil of the spermaceti whale.? He even displayed a candle salvaged from the wreck of the Royal George, which sunk at Spithead on the 29th of August, 1782; yet the candle still burned brightly when lit.
As Faraday described the process:
?The fat or tallow is first boiled with quick-lime, and made into a soap, and then the soap is decomposed by sulphuric acid, which takes away the lime, and leaves the fat rearranged as stearic acid, while a quantity of glycerin is produced at the same time. Glycerin?absolutely a sugar, or a substance similar to sugar?comes out of the tallow in this chemical change. The oil is then pressed out of it; and you see here this series of pressed cakes, showing how beautifully the impurities are carried out by the oily part as the pressure goes on increasing, and at last you have left that substance, which is melted, and cast into candles as here represented.?
But the bulk of Faraday?s lecture focused on the science relating to the actual flame of a burning candle. First, Faraday demonstrated a simple experiment, placing a candle inside a lampglass to block out any breezes and achieve ?a quiet flame.? He showed how important a well-made candle could be, demonstrating that ?a beautiful cup is formed? as a result of a ?regular ascending current of air playing upon all sides, which keeps the exterior of the candle cool?:
As the air comes to the candle, it moves upward by the force of the current which the heat of the candle produces, and it so cools all the sides of the wax, tallow, or fuel as to keep the edge much cooler than the part within; the part within melts by the flame that runs down the wick as far as it can go before it is extinguished, but the part on the outside does not melt. If I made a current in one direction, my cup would be lop-sided, and the fluid would consequently run over; for the same force of gravity which holds worlds together holds this fluid in a horizontal position, and if the cup be not horizontal, of course the fluid will run away in guttering. You see, therefore, that the cup is formed by this beautifully.
Next, Faraday asked (rhetorically), how is it that a candle burns so steadily, when the it is impossible for a solid fuel to ?flow? up to the wick to feed the flame at the top, as in an oil lamp? The oil in the lamp flows upward thanks to something called capillary action: ?the ability of a substance to draw another substance into it.? (It?s also behind the so-called ?wick effect? explanation for cases of suspected spontaneous human combustion.) Basically, it?s the same thing that causes a sponge (a porous material) to soak up liquids from a surface.
You can witness capillary action for yourself with a simple vertical glass tube open at either end. Place the lower end in a glass of water, you?ll notice that the water rises up to a certain point and then stops. Surface tension basically pulls the liquid column up until the mass of the liquid is large enough so that gravity can overcome the intramolecular forces. You know when a drop of water forms on the spigot of your tap and suspends there until you touch it? Capillary forces hold it there.
And the same is true of candles. To demonstrate this, Faraday showed a ?vessel made of wire gauze filled with water.? It was porous, since water poured into the top would run out at the bottom, and yet the vessel remained filled with water. Faraday compared the wire gauze to a candle?s wick, and explained:
?the wire, being once wetted, remains wet; the meshes are so small that the fluid is attracted so strongly from the one side to the other, as to remain in the vessel, although it is porous. In like manner, the particles of melted tallow ascend the cotton and get to the top: other particles then follow by their mutual attraction for each other, and as they reach the flame they are gradually burned.?
Faraday went on to muse upon the connection between the burning candle and the formation of soot and smoke, as well as air currents and how they influence the shapes of flames. He illustrated this last point with an impromptu version of ?snapdragon?: he took a warmed dish, poured in some brandy (the fuel), then lit it. Then he dropped in some plums (which served as a wick) and pointed out how ?beautiful tongues of flame? were formed.
?You have the air creeping in over the edge of the dish forming these tongues. Why? Because, through the force of the current and the irregularity of the action of the flame, it can not flow in one uniform stream. The air flows in so irregularly that you have what would otherwise be a single image broken up into a variety of forms, and each of these little tongues has an independent existence of its own.
?Indeed, I might say, you have here a multitude of independent candles. You must not imagine, because you see these tongues all at once, that the flame is of this particular shape. A flame of that shape is never so at any one time. Never is a body of flame, like that which you just saw rising from the ball, of the shape it appears to you. It consists of a multitude of different shapes, succeeding each other so fast that the eye is only able to take cognizance of them all at once.?
It?s a wonderful lecture, and worth reading in its entirety. For all our technological advancement, I find it charming that, even today, scientists still find much to puzzle about when it comes to burning candles. ?There are literally thousands of reactions that go on from the moment the fuel vapor is produced and leaves the wick to the time it actually burns and produces Co2 and water,? NASA researcher Howard Ross told Discover in 2001.
This is why I love Faraday so much. No matter how accomplished he became in the world of science, no matter how much he learned through his experiments (which gave us the dynamo, among other things), he never lost the ability to keenly observe even the simplest things around him, noting tiny details and reveling in the intricacy of Nature. He closed his candle lecture by telling his audience,
?Indeed, all I can say to you at the end of these lectures (for we must come to an end at one time or other) is to express a wish that you may, in your generation, be fit to compare to a candle; that, in all your actions, you may justify the beauty of the taper by making your deeds honourable and effectual in the discharge of your duty to your fellow-men.?
On August 25, 1867, the flame of Faraday?s life was snuffed out; his (physical and mental) health had been deteriorating for a good 20 years by then. But his gifts keep on giving, all these years later. And Christmas seems a particularly apt time to honor the man.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=815f28817721d7527decbf55a2b18fb0
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Biden: Romney content with limited success stories (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Vice President Joe Biden says GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney favors economic policies that would help some succeed but leave most Americans behind.
Biden made the claims in an op-ed published in Friday's editions of The Des Moines Register. Biden singled out Romney in the state where the first votes will be cast in the GOP caucuses in less than two weeks.
For his part, President Barack Obama has largely refrained from counterattacking Republicans, saying he will wait until voters have settled on a nominee. But Obama's campaign has not, and Biden's column is the latest sign the Obama team believes Romney will emerge from the field.
Biden said Romney's proposals for the economy "would actually double down on the policies that caused the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression and accelerated a decades-long assault on the middle class."
"Romney also misleadingly suggests that the president and I are creating an `Entitlement Society,' whereby government provides everything for its people without regard to merit, as opposed to what he calls an "Opportunity Society," where everything is merit-based and every man is left to fend for himself," Biden wrote.
Biden's message underscored the major theme of Obama's re-election bid, as spelled out in a speech Obama made in Kansas earlier this month: The middle class is at a make-or-break moment. The president, saddled with high unemployment, has to make the case that his is the better vision for an ongoing economic recovery for all.
Earlier this week, Romney accused Obama of deepening the economic crisis and backing policies that would redistribute wealth instead of creating equal opportunity for people to do well. Romney said his policies would turn the U.S. into an "opportunity society" while Obama's vision for an "entitlement society" would make more people dependent on government welfare.
In his op-ed, Biden responded: "The only entitlement we believe in is an America where if you work hard, you can get ahead."
___
AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report.
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Kim Jong-un's ascension offers window to ease North-South tensions (The Christian Science Monitor)
Seoul, South Korea ? South Korea wants to get along with North Korea, and North Korea wants to improve relations with foreigners.
Those desires, as expressed by South Korea?s President Lee Myung-bak, the North Korean press, and by some South Korean lawmakers, gave the impression Thursday that South and North Korea might again begin to reconcile once Kim Jong-un gets used to his role as heir to the dynasty that his father Kim Jong-il led for 17 years.
?We are not hostile to the North, ? said President Lee, as quoted by his senior secretary. Indeed, he added, ?front-line troops are maintaining low levels of vigilance? ? down from the emergency alert called after North Korea announced Kim Jong-il?s death Monday ? and ?an early stabilization of North Korea?s system is in the interests of neighboring countries.?
RELATED: Four questions about "dear successor" Kim Jong-un
In Pyongyang, the official newspaper Rodong Sinmun promised ?to strengthen friendships with people of foreign countries? while calling on everyone to unite around ?great comrade Kim Jong-un and faithfully follow his leadership.?
Such expressions from Seoul and Pyongyang in theory suggest at least a desire to patch up their differences. Yet reconciliation will be a long and difficult process and reunification is out of the question in view of the depth of hostilities, fear of instability on the peninsula, and the North's rigid dictatorial structure.
For now, in the view of observers here, the crisis atmosphere that often surrounds relations between the two countries may well ease while Kim Jong-un gets used to exercising power at the behest, perhaps, of an inner circle carefully selected and nurtured by his father.
?We will do our best,? says Chung Ok-min, a National Assembly member from South Korea's ruling conservative party and a former college professor. ?I support humanitarian assistance,? she says, alluding to food and other aid that Mr. Lee has denied while calling on the North to give up its nuclear program.
After his inauguration as president in early 2008, Lee reversed the Sunshine Policy of reconciliation initiated by former president Kim Dae-jung after he defeated a conservative for the presidency in December 1997. Both Kim Dae-jung and his successor, Roh Moo-hyun, also dedicated to North-South reconciliation, flew to Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong-il. The North Korean leader hosted Kim Dae-jung for the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000 and Mr. Roh at the second summit in October 2007.
President Lee strongly opposes talks and deals that fail to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program, but he is likely to mute his feelings in a time of grief and transition in the North. One reason is that South Koreans vote on new assembly members next April and in December vote for a president to replace Lee, who under Korea?s constitution cannot run for a second five-year term.
?Lee will not take a strong stance against North Korea,? predicts Hwang Sung June, a computer analyst. ?The Korean people want stability? and calm rather than intermittent crises such as those inflicted last year by the sinking of the navy corvette the Cheonan and the shelling of an island in the Yellow Sea in which a total of 50 people died.
The yearning for stability may equate with a desire for reconciliation, say analysts, but does not necessarily translate into a desire to reunite the two Koreas, divided at the 38th parallel by the US and the Soviet Union after the Japanese surrender in 1945.
?A lot of Korean people do not want reunification,? says Mr. Hwang. The danger of political and social upheaval surrounding reunification ? and jeopardizing stability ? is simply too high, he believes.
North Koreans are widely assumed to feel much the same way considering that long entrenched military officers and bureaucrats would suddenly lose their jobs in any moves to bring the two Koreas together. Given that reality, many believe that reunification can only occur after upheaval, an implosion, in North Korea.
?Some kind of internal conflict will take place within North Korea,? says Chung Ok-min, the assembly member, expressing doubt that Kim Jong-un will emerge as a conciliatory figure among his own people. "He will be as much a dictator as his father,? she says. ?He will need to be aggressive to show his power.?
In the end, she believes, North Korea will fall apart in civil conflict, which the regime will blame on South Korea before finally falling.
?A regime like that cannot last forever,? says David Straub, a former US diplomat in Seoul, now at Stanford University. ?It?s going to be a tectonic change? ? the condition many believe is needed for the two Koreas to reunify at last.
In the meantime, South Korea clearly does not want to antagonize North Korea unnecessarily. In that spirit, the government ordered Christian activists to give up plans to light up three huge steel towers overlooking the demilitarized between the two Koreas like giant Christmas trees clearly visible for miles inside North Korea.
North Korea had threatened, well before Kim Jong-il?s death, to open fire against any such displays. The Rodong Sinmun editorial repeated the familiar rhetoric of a regime in which the armed forces are dominant, vowing ?to sternly and mercilessly crush any provocations by enemies.?
RELATED: Four questions about "dear successor" Kim Jong-un
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111222/wl_csm/441086
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