'Voice' elimination shockers lead to final four

By Tierney Bricker, E! Online

"The Voice's" Dec. 4 results show kept with the four theme, revealing season three's top 4 contestants! And boy, was it a close one! All of the top 6 found themselves on top 10 iTunes lists and even the coaches couldn't predict which two contestants would be leaving the competition by night's end.

So which contestants made it to the semifinals? And which coaches are still in the competition?

Missed last night's episode? Catch up with our recap

Meet your final four, America: Terry McDermott (Team Blake Shelton), Trevin Hunte (Team Cee Lo Green), Cassadee Pope (Team Blake) and Nicholas David (Team Cee Lo)! "Holy s---! Holy s---!!!!!!!!!" Shelton tweeted of the good news. "This calls for a drink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love y'all so much it's disgusting!!!!!!!!" So yeah, he was a little excited that both of his contestants made it to the Top 4.

The two contestants sent home were Adam Levine's Amanda Brown, who tackled Aretha Franklin and Whitesnake during Monday's performance show and sang a duet with Ne-Yo earlier in the night, and Melanie Martinez, also on Team Adam, who was the youngest singer in the competition at 17 years old. Melanie took a risk Monday night choosing to perform Cee Lo's song "Crazy," following up that performance with her rendition of Lenka's "The Show."

Look at all these musical memories from The Voice

Of course, Melanie and Amanda were Adam's final two contestants in the competition, so he now joins fellow coach Christina Aguilera as a mere viewer/opinion-giver for the NBC reality hit's final two weeks of competition.

Do you think the right singers were eliminated? And who are you rooting for in the final four? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2012/12/05/15700033-the-voice-is-down-to-final-four-singers-after-shocking-eliminations?lite

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My Top 10 New Zealand Books for Kids & Teens in 2012 | My Best ...

December 6, 2012 ? 8:00 am

We have so many great authors and illustrators in New Zealand and I love shouting about them.? There have been a bumper crop of books from NZ authors and illustrators this year and there are strong contenders for the 2013 New Zealand Post Children?s Book Awards.? Some of these books have been included in my other Top 10 of 2012 lists but I wanted to do a separate list to highlight these spectacular NZ books.

Filed under children's fiction, young adult fiction, young adult, children, books, New Zealand, Illustrators

Tagged as New Zealand, Young Adult, picture books, best books, middle-grade fiction, best of 2012, junior fiction, Top 10, Top 10 New Zealand Books Kids & Teens in 2012

Source: http://bestfriendsrbooks.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/my-top-10-new-zealand-books-for-kids-teens-in-2012/

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PSY's riches from 'Gangnam Style' not made at home

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2012 file photo, South Korean rapper PSY, who sings the popular "Gangnam Style," greets Thai fans after a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand. As "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia. With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang ? better known as PSY ? is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2012 file photo, South Korean rapper PSY, who sings the popular "Gangnam Style," greets Thai fans after a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand. As "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia. With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang ? better known as PSY ? is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2012 file photo, South Korean rapper PSY, who sings the popular "Gangnam Style," performs during his concert in front of Seoul City Hall in Seoul, South Korea. As "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia. With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang ? better known as PSY ? is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

In this Sept. 25, 2012 photo, South Korean rapper PSY, who sings the popular "Gangnam Style" song, performs during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea. As "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia. With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang ? better known as PSY ? is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2012 file photo, South Korean rapper PSY, who sings the popular "Gangnam Style" song, smiles during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea. As "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia. With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang ? better known as PSY ? is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? As "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia.

With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang ? better known as PSY ? is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. An even bigger dollop of cash will come from TV commercials.

From just those sources, PSY and his camp will rake in at least $8.1 million this year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of publicly available information and industry estimates. But for online music sales in South Korea, he'll earn less than $60,000.

Here's how it works.

YOUTUBE

"Gangnam Style" with its catchy tune and much imitated horse-riding dance is the most-watched video on YouTube ever.

The viral video has clocked more than 880 million YouTube views since its July release, beating Justin Bieber's "Baby," which racked up more than 808 million views since February 2010. PSY's official channel on YouTube, which curates his songs and videos of his concerts, has nearly 1.3 billion views.

TubeMogul, a video ad buying platform, estimates that PSY and his agent YG Entertainment have raked in about $870,000 as their share of the revenue from ads that appear with YouTube videos. The Google Inc.-owned video service keeps approximately half.

PSY and YG Entertainment also earn money from views of videos that parody his songs.

Google detects videos that use copyrighted content. Artists can have the video removed or allow it to stay online and share ad revenue with YouTube. In the last week of September when "Gangnam Style" had around 300 million views, more than 33,000 videos were identified by the content identification system as using "Gangnam Style."

But since YouTube can be accessed from all over the world, wouldn't Asia be responsible for a significant chunk of the $870,000? The countries with the second- and third-highest views of the video are Thailand and South Korea.

"Ads rates vary depending on which country the video is played. Developed countries have higher ad rates and developing countries lower," said Brian Suh, head of YouTube Partnership in Seoul.

And the country with the most views of "Gangnam Style?" The United States.

LEGAL DOWNLOADS, CDs

"Gangnam Style" has been downloaded 2.9 million times in the U.S. and has been the No. 1 or No. 2 seller for most weeks since its debut, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The song sells for $1.29 on Apple's iTunes Store, the market leader in song downloads. Apple generally keeps about 30 percent of all sales, so the PSY camp could be due more than $2.6 million.

How much PSY keeps and how much goes to his managers, staff and record label is unclear. South Korean industry insiders said PSY likely gets 70 percent and YG Entertainment 30 percent for U.S. downloads.

But earnings from downloads in PSY's homeland are far from an embarrassment of riches.

South Koreans pay less than $10 a month for a subscription to a music service that allows them to download hundreds of songs or have unlimited access to a music streaming service. That makes the cost of a downloaded song about 10 cents on average. The average price for streaming a song is 0.2 cent.

PSY's cut for downloads is 14 percent. That falls to 7.5 percent for streamed songs. Yes, 7.5 percent of 0.2 cent. And that's before PSY's "Gangnam Style" co-composer take his share. The biggest cut goes to his agent and online retailers.

According to South Korea's national Gaon Chart, "Gangnam Style" was downloaded more than 3.6 million times and streamed around 40 million times as of November. That adds up to a little more than $61,000.

It's likely the fast-fading music CD industry generated even smaller revenue. PSY's 9 percent cut from sales of 102,000 CDs in South Korea would earn him $50,000 or more, according to an estimate by Kim Dong-hyun, a senior manager at Korea Music Copyright Association.

As for many other parts of Asia, illegal downloads and pirated CDS are so pervasive that only a small minority are willing to pay up for the legal versions.

TV COMMERCIALS

PSY has been jetting around the world, performing on shows such as "The X-Factor Australia" and NBC's "Today Show," but such programs usually cover travel costs and not much else, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of concert trade magazine Pollstar.

It is television commercials that are the big money spinner for the most successful of South Korea's K-pop stars. PSY has been popping up in TV commercials in South Korea for top brands such as Samsung Electronics and mobile carrier LG Uplus.

Chung Yu-seok, an analyst at Kyobo Securities, estimates PSY's commercial deals would amount to 5 billion won ($4.6 million) this year.

The money is cool. The products not so much. PSY is now the face of a new Samsung refrigerator and a major noodle company.

THE FAMILY

A fact little known outside South Korea is that PSY's father, uncle and grandmother own a combined 30 percent of DI Corp., a company which makes equipment that semiconductor companies use to make computer chips.

It's a stretch to plausibly explain how the success of "Gangnam Style" will boost DI's profits but that doesn't matter to the South Korean stock market. Perhaps inspired by the pure power of pop, DI shares surged eightfold from July after PSY's hit reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart.

It was time to cash in for PSY's grandmother, who sold 5,378 shares for about $65,000.

The share price has fallen since then but is still about double what it was before the release of "Gangnam Style."

PSY's agent YG Entertainment has also done well. Its share price is up about 30 percent since mid-July. The value of CEO Yang Hyun-suk's stake has swelled to about $200 million, making him among the richest in South Korea's entertainment industry.

THE FUTURE

The question now hanging over PSY is whether he will replicate the blockbuster success of "Gangnam Style" or end up remembered as a one-hit wonder.

"When this slows down, what comes next for PSY?" said Nielsen analytics vice president David Bakula. "Is it the evolution of a new musical style, something audiences are going to be craving en masse, or is it something that's just a passing fancy?"

Analysts say "Gangnam Style" alone will not be enough to propel PSY into the ranks of musicians such as Adele and may not even be enough to make him the top-grossing K-pop star. That will depend largely on his upcoming album, which PSY said will be released in March.

___

Associated Press Business Writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

Youkyung Lee can be reached via Twitter: www.twitter.com/YKLeeAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-05-SKorea-Gangnam%20Style-Business/id-41d7f6bb14b341c3866f65e969ec5e44

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How You Can Market Your Business Online | Search Engine ...

By GuestBlogger|Internet Marketing Articles

TIP! Planning you website may seem very time consuming, but it is very important for your business. Think about your interests, and narrow the list until you can see a clear winner.

Some business ventures will go on to become gigantic like Wal-Mart, while others remain little mom-n-pop shops. However, some of these business fail. Many online businesses have been known to fail. Avoid failure by using these great marketing tips.

TIP! Use the word, ?fast? in ads and product text. Since many people place more value on time than money, be clear about what you do in a quick manner.

Video marketing is an excellent way to promote your products. If you add videos on your pages it will get the attention of your customer and keep them around. Sharing these videos should be easy thanks to social networks and blogs.

TIP! If you want people to affiliate themsevles with you, make a button they can put on their site that is very appealing. That makes it easy for those who are so inclined to click and link back to your site, thus allowing their visitors to easily find you as well.

A CMR (customer relationship management) list is a great Website marketing tool. It can help you see past successes and guide you in the ways that your business and marketing strategies should be going. With this database, you will be able to have communications that are designed for the specific products that complement your customers previous purchases.

TIP! Make sure that your site is filled with descriptive words. Adjectives are sexy, so use them often to pad your item descriptions.

Getting your site listed by Google should be a key part of your Internet promotion strategy. Focus on the most popular search engines, and optimize your site with keywords your target audience will look up. Having your company listed on Google can really take your business far.

TIP! Don?t overlook emails as an important way to reach valued customers and ptential customers. It is important to protect the confidential information entrusted to you by your customers.

No internet promotion venture will succeed through luck alone, so remember that it always takes hard work and dedication. There is no such story about a business that just got lucky in their success. Was Coke lucky with the drink they invented? No, they didn?t. It takes hard work to market a product or a brand.

TIP! One critical factor is gaining and maintaining your customers? trust. When you are coming up with your marketing ideas, make sure all of the information that you plan on using can be supported with facts.

This business may be one of the exceptions to the commonly held belief that you should not mix business and pleasure. The reason being, that this can be viewed as more of a lucrative hobby rather than a high-pressure situation. Working alongside your spouse makes this even more fun.

Make sure you know what tools your competitors are using to drive business. No matter what niche you are working in, you will always have competition.

TIP! Internet marketing comes in many different shapes and sizes; however, one of the easiest to utilize is strategically placing ads on the Internet. You can achieve this by using Google?s AdSense.

The Internet can be a difficult place for small businessmen to compete. Look at your competitors prices. If you can still pull a profit, consider underselling them to drive sales. Consider setting up your own Internet store as a means to allow customers to find all your products in one place.

TIP! A squeeze page is a great way to build a contact list. It encourages visitors to share their email address.

Be certain that the information you provide to customers when you promote your business is appropriate. You need to make your articles high quality and different. It is important to keep your site updated so that users will always have the newest information about your business.

TIP! Add a chat function to your website so your customers can interact to exchange information and ideas. They need to feel like your site is a place to hang and chat with other members of the club rather then just a place to visit when they are ready to buy something.

Advertise limited-edition products. Shopping online has become popular due to the fact it gives people more variety options; it?s also just more convenient. Your customers are looking for something meaningful and different from the regular old products that are easy to find and commonly bought. Try selling something that is only out for a short period of time. People will think that it is special and buy it quickly.

TIP! Do not put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, when involved in Internet marketing. This is important for this type of business because regular income is slow at first and may never be steady until you are well established.

Do your homework before jumping into a new Web marketing campaign. Find an adviser who you trust and seek their assistance. Many people who are well versed in internet promotion provide free services or services for a small fee. Find a previously proven system that works for you. Although results may come slowly at first, the marketing will soon be well worth what you put into it.

TIP! In order to get into eCommerce, you will have to first build a website. Building a great website should be your very first step in starting a web business.

Offering your customers who spend a lot of money on your website additional discounts. This can be a highly effective internet marketing strategy. For example, you can offer your customers a 10 percent discount on all orders over $200. This is a motivator so people purchase more products.

TIP! Make occasional changes and improvements to the links that you include in your ongoing e-mail campaigns for your Internet marketing business. If you information is redundant you will likely bore your customers instead of encouraging them to purchase products.

Do you offer a reward system for people who regularly buy your products? Building customer loyalty and interest is helped by showing customers that you appreciate them. By doing these sorts of things, you create a positive atmosphere around your company and soon it spreads to other people.

TIP! Create a website adapted to your target audience. If you give them what they?re seeking, you should see your own marketing efforts create more sales.

It is important to keep track of online sentiment whenever you have an event or promotion running. This allows you to tailor your future strategies more effectively. Watch responses on social networking sites and forums following your releases of events and promotions. These people will feel like they are valued if you follow their advice.

TIP! Comments are an excellent resource, even from non-buyers. Adding a form to fill at the bottom of ad copy will allow these visitors to explain why a purchase was not made.

When you are writing your marketing copy, make use of HTML tags that emphasize certain words or phrases. You can increase a word?s strength by bolding it or italicizing it. This can help to distinguish how you want your customer to receive a certain message, which can help with the clarity of what you are trying to say.

Failure in other businesses can be a catalyst to your success, so look for those open doors. Use the tips here to make yourself a winner.

Source: http://dynamicmarketingpartners.com/2012/12/how-you-can-market-your-business-online/

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Church leaders call for more comprehensive immigration reforms

By Catholic News Service

ATLANTA ? Some 200 national immigration leaders surveyed the landscape of immigration reform at the federal and state level during a three-day Catholic conference in Atlanta Dec. 3-5.

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta told the leaders that while the federal government recently acted to offer young people brought into the country as children some relief by postponing deportation and granting them work permits if they qualify, the U.S. Catholic bishops will continue to advocate for comprehensive reform with more opportunities, particularly for families and those already living and working in the United States.

Elena Segura, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago???s Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education, listens to Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory?s keynote address at dinner Dec. 3 during a Migration Policy and Advocacy program in Atlanta. The three-day conference, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Legal Immigration Network, examined migration from federal, state and local perspectives as well as methods for advancing the church?s migration policy agenda in 2013 and beyond. (CNS photo/ Michael Alexander, Georgia Bulletin)

The bishops ?will resist? any proposal that offers undocumented individuals legal status without a path to become citizens, he said in a Dec. 3 keynote address.

?We will argue against the creation of a permanent underclass in this country, where certain parts of our population do not have the rights that others do,? Archbishop Gregory said to applause.

The conference was organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC. It was titled ?Migration Policy and Advocacy in 2013 and Beyond: New Challenges and New Opportunities.?

In his keynote, Archbishop Gregory drew a connection to Atlanta?s native son, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil rights movement, saying that has shown the ?disastrous results? when people are denied their full rights.

?Our nation has been down this road before, with disastrous results. As we know from our nation?s history, many persons, including Dr. King, have fought and died so that all persons can enjoy the full rights of citizenship. We cannot forsake this principle for the purpose of political expediency,? the archbishop said.

A second priority of the U.S. bishops, he said, is to ensure that ?family reunification remains the cornerstone of our nation?s immigration policy.?

Many families with some members who are U.S. citizens are divided by the current policies and others applying for family reunification wait for years, he said. The system needs to ensure families remain together and the immigration process moves quicker, he said. And reform should not replace a family-based system with a system that ?places value on a person?s resume over a person?s family ties.?

Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure to increase visas for foreigners who earned advanced graduate degrees in the U.S. for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It did away with the diversity visa system.

The archbishop said the bishops ?accept and support reasonable enforcement measures? for the integrity of the nation?s borders and to protect the common good of citizens. However, ?such measures must respect basic human rights and dignity? and include due process protections for immigrants and their families, he said.

Too often over the past 25 years, the government has ?pursued an enforcement-only immigration policy,? he said. ?We have witnessed the results of this policy in the inhumane detention conditions in which many immigrants are held in this country; the separation of parents from their children due to deportation; and the deaths of thousands of our brothers and sisters in the American desert,? he said.

Archbishop Gregory also linked the need for immigration reform and religious freedom.

He said a number of states, including Georgia, enacted laws that criminalized actions of ?all citizens who, in the exercise of their religious teachings, want to assist those in need.?

Federal courts intervened to prevent enforcement of these laws, but ?we must continue our vigilance and our advocacy against legislation which demeans human beings and interferes with religious freedom.?

The Catholic perspective on immigrants is rooted in the theological truth that all human beings are made in the image of God and retain that dignity, regardless of their circumstances.

In the Old Testament, God commanded his people to welcome the alien and stranger, and in the New Testament, Christians are told they encounter Jesus himself in the face of the stranger, Archbishop Gregory said.

?As bishops and as a church, we do not seek immigration reform based on some political calculus of how many votes can be garnered by one political party or the other,? he said. ?We seek justice for all migrating peoples because they are our brothers and sisters and are made in God?s image.?

Conference workshops covered a variety of topics, from recent federal court rulings and the future of immigration reform to reaction from state leaders to the two-year reprieve from deportation with President Barack Obama?s federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Conference attendees talked about glimmers of hope to rewrite immigration laws following the election, but also said vigilance was needed.

Pat Chivers, director of communications for the Atlanta Archdiocese, said she hopes immigration reform becomes one of priorities of the incoming Congress and the Obama administration.

Chivers said the political parties learned how ?powerful the Hispanic community is in voting and contributing to the political process.? That awareness ?has definitely brought immigration reform to the forefront of issues to be addressed this year,? she told The Georgia Bulletin, Atlanta?s archdiocesan newspaper.

Sister Marie Lucey, director of advocacy at the Franciscan Action Network in Washington, said she hoped the president ?holds true to his word? to make immigration reform a priority.

?There is a lot of hope in the immigrant community that something is going to happen. We have to be very vigilant about what form immigration reform will take,? said Sister Lucey, who is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia.

Paulette Croteau, from Tennessee, attended to learn more so she could share the issues with her parish. She?s the director of religious education at her small church, with a sizable majority of Hispanics.

?I see fear. I see hostility. My heart cries because my Hispanic brothers and sisters are getting a raw deal,? she said.

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Tags: Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, conference in Atlanta, immigration reform, legal status, path to citizenship, undocumented, USCCB

Source: http://thedialog.org/?p=8856

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Observatory: Pygmy Mole Crickets Can Jump From Water?s Surface

Current Biology

Pygmy mole crickets use a series of spring-loaded, oarlike paddles on their back legs to jump off water.

Pygmy mole crickets are tiny insects that live in burrows near fresh water in warm places like Florida and South Africa. (They are not actually crickets but more closely related to grasshoppers.) On land they are expert jumpers, using the skill to escape the clutches of tiger beetles and other predators.

Now, researchers report that the insects are also skilled at jumping from the surface of water. They do this using a series of spring-loaded, oarlike paddles on their back legs, according to a paper in the journal Current Biology.

While animals like pond skater insects and fisher spiders balance on the water?s surface, pygmy mole crickets exploit the water?s viscosity.

?They whack their legs onto the surface of water and actually penetrate the water,? said an author of the study, Malcolm Burrows, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge. ?They sort of grab the water, and as their legs enter, these little paddles flare out.?

The action pushes down water, setting off a reaction that pushes the insect upward and out of the water, Dr. Burrows said. The jump helps them escape from fish and predatory insects.

Dr. Burrows first noticed pygmy mole crickets while he was eating his lunch by the side of a pond in South Africa.

He collected a few specimens and studied them in a laboratory, along with his colleague, Gregory Sutton, a researcher at the University of Bristol in England.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/pygmy-mole-crickets-can-jump-from-waters-surface.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Despite Tantalizing Hints, Voyager 1 Has Not Crossed into the Interstellar Medium

Diagram of the solar (white arrows) and interstellar (black arrows) magnetic fields in relation to the Voyager 1 (top) and Voyager 2 (bottom) spacecraft on the edge of the heliosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Voyager 1 is going, going ? not quite gone.

The well-traveled NASA spacecraft, launched in 1977, is headed out of the heliosphere, the fluctuating bubble in space inflated by plasma streaming outward from the sun. For years Voyager 1 has been closing in on the heliopause?the outer edge of the heliosphere?where the solar wind meets the interstellar medium. But despite intriguing hints to the contrary, the probe remains within the heliosphere, mission scientists have announced. Rather than making an unprecedented crossing into the interstellar medium, it appears that Voyager 1 has discovered yet another wrinkle in the structure of our local space environment, a sort of magnetic highway linking the heliosphere to what lies beyond.

?Voyager has discovered a new region of the heliosphere that we had not realized was there,? Voyager project scientist Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology said in a December 3 teleconference. ?We?re still inside, apparently. But the magnetic field now is connected to the outside. So it?s like a highway letting particles in and out.?

Voyager 1 crossed into the new region in August, suddenly registering a huge drop in the number of low-speed solar particles in its environment and a corresponding jump in the number of higher-energy cosmic-ray particles arriving from outside the solar system. ?It is as if someone opened the floodgates and the water all moved down the river,? said Tom Krimigis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. ?Also some boaters traveling upstream at close to the speed of light have been able to get in at last.?

Data from Voyager 1 show an abrupt drop in solar ions (top) at the same time that the spacecraft detected an increased number of cosmic rays (bottom) from interstellar space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC

Despite the sudden influx of cosmic-ray particles, the team concluded that Voyager 1 is still inside the heliosphere because the probe?s magnetometer has not yet registered a change in magnetic field direction, as would be expected when crossing the boundary from the sun?s plasma to the interstellar medium. ?If we had only looked at particle data alone, we would have said, ?Well, we are out. Goodbye to the solar system,?? Krimigis said. ?But nature is very imaginative, and Lucy pulled up the football again.?

Voyager 1 is now 18.3 billion kilometers from the sun, farther out than any man-made object has ever traveled. It is so distant that it takes radio signals 34 hours to make the round-trip (to send a command, for instance, and then receive confirmation that the command was accepted) from Earth to Voyager and back again. Still, no one knows how much farther Voyager 1 may have to travel before it breaches the heliopause and enters the interstellar medium. ?It may take several more months, it may take several more years,? Stone said.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=49e641427a32bc21e928fa9294525077

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The benefits of Microsoft Outlook 2013 | Business Productivity

Home > Blog > Technology made easy > The benefits of Microsoft Outlook 2013

For many people Outlook is the most frequent used Office application. This is where we manage our email, our calendar our contacts and our to-do?s ? basically our life! Every single improvement to the application that can save us a minute or two add up to valuable time saved during a year. Similar to the other Office 2013 applications there aren?t any revolutionary changes to Outlook 2013. Even though there have been quite a lot of changes to the user interface to support touch screen devices, the functionality hasn?t changed much so you will be able to get going with Outlook 2013 in an instant. In this article I wanted to share with you what I believe to be the top 5 benefits of Microsoft Outlook 2013.

1. Reduced frustration with a quicker and more stable Outlook

Since most of us depend on Microsoft Outlook to manage what we do day to day any improvement to the speed and stability of Outlook is welcome. Microsoft is definitely putting their efforts in the right place if they can eliminate the frustration most of us experience when Outlook doesn?t start. In addition to improving the overall speed of Outlook 2013 they have also introduced an ?automatic add-in disabler?. Many times there is some add-in; a business card scanner plug-in, a contact management software, or some other add-in, that you?ve installed that cripples Outlook. In Outlook 2013 add-ins that take too long to boot will automatically be disabled. You will be notified that the add-in has been disabled and then you can choose whether or not you want this add-in to be activated.

In Outlook 2013 you as a user have control over how much data you want to synchronize from the mail server to your local machine. The less data you synchronize, the quicker it is to get started using Outlook. The default setting copies everything from the last 12 months to your computer and leaves the rest on the server. If you want to see an item older than 12 months you can just click on the link ?Click here to view more on Microsoft Exchange,? alternatively you can change the setting to allow more data to be synchronized to your local machine. If you only use one computer and you often work without an Internet connection you might want to choose to download all data.

2. A better overview of your inbox

The inbox view has changed quite a bit in Outlook 2013. Based on research on how to best read and find email the interface has been changed so that you now see less email messages on one screen. The space has been increased between email messages and the name of the email sender is in a larger font (apparently this is the way we most commonly look for email ? by originator). You also get a better glance of your unread email. In addition to showing the text in bold for unread email you now also have a blue line next to the email highlighting that it is unread. You can also view all unread email directly in your inbox by clicking the ?Unread? filter.

?3. Faster processing of email

According to the Outlook team the most common email action by far is to delete the email ? that is what we do 75% of the time. To make this easier, a delete button has been added next to each email.

Another improvement that really should save a lot of time and minimize the message window clutter on your screen is the ?Quick Response?. Instead of opening up a new window when you hit ?Reply? you compose your message in the original message itself. The most common actions you need when you respond to an email are visible in the ribbon tool bar and if you need the full editing environment you can just choose to open the email up in a new window by clicking ?Pop Out?. If you don?t finish the email you can quickly get back to it from your inbox since the draft is highlighted in the original email.

A personal favorite in Outlook 2013 is the ?Attachment Reminder?. How many times have you sent an email and forgotten to attach the files? You then need to send an additional email where you apologize and attach the files ? time consuming and unprofessional. If you send an email in Outlook 2013 where you mention attachments you will get a notification before the email is sent asking you if you intended to attach something to the email if you have forgotten to add the attachment. Very clever!

4. More focus on people

One of the primary functions of Outlook is to communicate with people. That?s why the new focus on people in Outlook 2013 makes a lot of sense. Being able to connect Outlook to social networks is not new, that was available through a plug-in for Outlook 2010 as well, but the integration is much better in Outlook 2013. When you open up your contacts (now called ?People?) you will get a summarized view of information from various social networks. ?If you have other records with additional contact details to the person you can choose to link those contacts. This way you will see all the contact information in one single view.

Editing contact information is much quicker and can be done without opening up the actual contact card. Just click on the person?s name anywhere in Outlook 2013 and click ?Edit?.

5. Easier to stay on top of things

To easier stay on top of things, Outlook 2013 provides a small pop-up window with your upcoming appointments and tasks when you hover over the calendar or task folder. This way you can quickly see what you need to do next without having to change views. You can even mark tasks as complete or look at appointments another date directly in the pop-up window.

In the calendar view a new blue line has been introduced which helps you see where you are in the day and what things you have scheduled the same time the other days of the week. You also have a weather indicator showing you the weather for the next 3 coming days. You can easily change the location of the weather if you need to travel during the week and need to know what type of clothing to pack.

It takes some getting used to

I use Outlook many hours each day, so I?ve naturally become very used to the prior version Outlook 2010 since I have used it for years. Just like any other change, upgrading to Outlook 2013 and getting used to the new interface takes some time getting used to. Initially I found Outlook 2013 too white, and even though I changed the theme to a light gray I wasn?t a large fan of the new design. But now after having used it for a while I?ve grown to like it. I also love the quick response and the quick delete button which really speeds up processing email. So don?t be too quick to judge, give it a chance and I?m sure you?ll soon be a fan too!

(If you have difficulties reading this article, you can access the full article in pdf here).

Source: http://www.businessproductivity.com/the-benefits-of-microsoft-outlook-2013/

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Nokia sells its Espoo, Finland HQ for $222 million, will stay on as tenant

As promised, Nokia has sold its Espoo, Finland headquarters to another Finnish company, Exilion, and signed a long-term lease to stay on as principal tenant. The handset maker reported that the property, dubbed Nokia House, went for 170 million euros ($222 million) and that the sale of the 48,000 square meter (517,000 square feet) property would be completed by the end of the year. Nokia reportedly made the deal to help stem the flow from its recent poor financial performance, but will at least get to stay on in the building it's occupied since 1997. Check the PR after the break for more info.

Continue reading Nokia sells its Espoo, Finland HQ for $222 million, will stay on as tenant

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Nokia

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/04/nokia-completes-sales-and-lease-back-of-its-espoo-finland-hq/

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Rams edge 49ers 16-13 in overtime

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Jeff Fisher apologized for predicting an entirely different game after the St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers went to overtime for the second time in three weeks.

No apology necessary after the Rams bounded off the field in a mood to celebrate instead of tying again.

"Wow," Fisher said after rookie Greg Zuerlein kicked a 54-yard field goal with 26 seconds to go in overtime for a 16-13 victory on Sunday. "That's the case of guys just hanging in there. Guys making plays."

Zuerlien's 53-yarder at the end of regulation forced another extra period for teams that tied 24-24 in San Francisco on Nov. 11. In overtime, the Rams let the play clock run down instead of trying to get closer on fourth-and-inches from the 36, making sure the 49ers wouldn't have much time if Zuerlein missed. They needn't have worried. He split the uprights.

The last time the same teams tied twice in a season was in 1963, in games between the Eagles and Steelers. The last time teams had two ties in a season was in 1973 when it happened to four teams.

Zuerlein is 7 for 11 from midfield and beyond, but this was his first game-winner. Before the field goal that forced overtime, he had been in a 3-for-7 slump.

"I was visualizing the hold and the kick, not much else," Zuerlein said. "Just run that through your head a few times and picture yourself winning the game."

The Rams (5-6-1) scored twice in the final 3:04 of regulation to climb back into it after the 49ers (8-3-1) dominated most of the game. The breakthrough play was rookie Janoris Jenkins' 2-yard fumble return for touchdown after an ill-advised pitch from Colin Kaepernick in the general direction of Ted Ginn Jr., which combined with a 2-point conversion pass from Sam Bradford to Lance Kendricks tied it at 10.

"I thought it was an opportunity for us to make a play," Kaepernick said. "I saw their defense coming, I saw the blitz. I thought if I got it to Ted he'd be around the corner for a big play, but at that point in the game you have to play it safe and protect the ball."

Kaepernick also gave up a safety in the third quarter that cut the 49ers' lead to 10-2 when he was penalized for intentional grounding passing out of the end zone while under pressure from middle linebacker James Laurinaitis. Referee Carl Cheffers threw the flag after consulting with other officials and said after the game the penalty was warranted because the pass did not cross the line of scrimmage.

49ers coach Jim Harbaugh blamed the coaching staff for calling the pitchout and indicated strongly that Kaepernick would grow from adversity and get his fourth straight start next week at home against Miami.

"I'll let you know if there's a change, but right now I think it'll be the same as it was this week," Harbaugh said. "I'm proud of Kap, proud of the way he played."

The 49ers couldn't capitalize on a 14-yard punt by rookie Johnny Hekker to midfield when David Akers was barely wide right on a 51-yard attempt with 4:11 to go in overtime. Akers is just 7 for 15 from 40 yards and beyond and refused to use a nagging pelvis injury as an excuse.

"I don't put anything on injuries," Akers said. "I should have made it."

The first 49ers-Rams meeting was the NFL's first tie in four seasons, and was more wide open with both teams missing chances to end it in overtime. Fisher bristled during the practice week that the tie was a wakeup call for the 49ers.

Most of the rematch was a defensive struggle, with the Rams totaling 293 yards even with the extra period and the 49ers at 339 yards.

Neither team had any success running the ball. The 49ers' Frank Gore was held to 58 yards on 23 carries for a 2.5-yard average with a 1-yard scoring run in the first quarter and the Rams' Steven Jackson had 48 yards on 21 carries for a 2.3-yard average against the No. 2 rush defense.

Akers' 33-yard field goal put the 49ers ahead with 1:38 remaining, a score set up by Kaepernick's 50-yard carry on a rollout. It left just enough time for Sam Bradford to guide the Rams 45 yards in seven plays.

The 49ers led 7-0 at halftime after cashing in on their only nice drive with Gore's 1-yard run late in the first quarter. Zuerlein had the distance on a 58-yard attempt with 25 seconds to go in the first half, but was well wide to the right.

The Rams wore retro jerseys from their 1999 championship season, featuring yellow numbers and striping, and marked the franchise's 75th anniversary. Several former players were introduced at halftime with fan favorites who played in St. Louis such as Isaac Bruce and Todd Lyght getting the strongest ovations.

NOTES: 49ers wide receiver Mario Manningham (shoulder) did not return after getting hurt in the fourth quarter. Harbaugh said the team "won't know right away" about the severity of the injury. ... Aldon Smith's sack late in the first half gave him an NFL-best 31? in his first two seasons, a half-sack better than Reggie White in 1985-96. ... Hekker had a season-high nine punts for a 43.1-yard average and 42.4-yard net, often getting a favorable roll on directional efforts that looked ugly.

____

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rams-edge-49ers-16-13-overtime-215602609--spt.html

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Clinton pushes US bid for Czech nuclear project

PRAGUE (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lobbied the Czech government Monday to approve an American bid for a $10 billion expansion of a nuclear power plant, even as a rival Russian offer seems to be the favorite.

Clinton made her pitch for the American energy giant Westinghouse Electric Co. in meetings with President Vaclav Klaus, Prime Minister Petr Necas and other senior Czech officials in Prague. Speaking to reporters, she stressed the need for the Czech Republic to wean itself off of a dependency on Russia for fuel.

"We are encouraging the Czech Republic to diversify its energy sources and suppliers," Clinton said. "Given how long-term and strategic this investment is, the Czech people deserve the best value, the most tested and trustworthy technology, an outstanding safety record, responsible and accountable management."

The Czechs get 60 percent of their oil, 70 percent of their natural gas and all of their nuclear reactor fuel from Russia. That leaves the NATO member highly susceptible to economic and political pressure from Moscow, which dominated the Central European country from the end of World War II to the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Revitalizing the Temelin nuclear power plant is a big part of the Czech agenda to radically boost its nuclear power production, defying global skepticism about the use of atomic energy in the aftermath of last year's meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant. And the Obama administration is hoping to secure some of the windfall by securing Westinghouse's bid. The project could generate 9,000 American jobs, U.S. officials said.

For the United States, the battle for the Temelin contract is an example of an increasingly prominent element of foreign policy: Going to bat for American companies. If this was once a less-promoted if widely understood element of private diplomatic relations, what Clinton calls "economic statecraft" has now become an endeavor U.S. officials proudly promote as part of their jobs-building effort for the United States.

"We are not shy about pressing the case for Westinghouse," Clinton said. "We believe that company offers the best option for the project in terms of technology and safety. It would clearly enhance Czech energy security and further the nuclear cooperation between our countries, and it would create jobs and economic opportunity for Czechs and Americans."

To make the case, Clinton and other officials are cautioning the Czechs about the dangers of again putting their energy future in the hands of Russia. They need only point to 2008, when Russia sharply reduced oil supplies to the Czech Republic immediately after a U.S.-Czech agreement on a missile defense installation. The Russians blamed the decline on technical problems.

Still, a consortium led by Russia's Atomstroyexport is believed to be leading the chase to build two new reactors at the Temelin plant, amid American grumbling over alleged bribes. The Czech government is expected to evaluate the final bids in December and make a decision in 2013. The reactors won't be operational until around 2025.

Clinton is in Prague on the first leg of a five-day trip to Europe. From the Czech capital, she'll travel later Monday to Belgium. Further stops are scheduled for Ireland and Northern Ireland. Focuses include promoting human rights and democracy across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and NATO support for Turkish efforts to beef up defense of its volatile border with Syria.

In Brussels on Tuesday, the alliance's members are likely to give formal endorsement to Turkey's request for Patriot missiles to help it respond to a series of Syrian rockets that have violated Turkish airspace. Five Turks have been killed. Decisions on how many batteries and where to deploy them will then be referred to national governments, said U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about NATO deliberations.

The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands are the probable providers. Each has experts investigating possible deployment sites near the border. But it will be weeks before any anti-missile batteries reach Turkey, the officials said.

Clinton also is holding private talks Monday evening with Pakistan's foreign minister and military chief to coordinate security and peace strategies in Afghanistan as the U.S. and its partners plan to withdraw most foreign troops through the end of 2014.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-pushes-us-bid-czech-nuclear-project-093933314.html

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Fatherhood on Tarantino's mind? | Pakistan Showbiz

Acclaimed filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is going to be 50 next year, but he does not rule out becoming a father. However, he is not desperate for fatherhood either.

The ?Pulp Fiction? director, who briefly dated Oscar winning actress Mira Sorvino, admits he did have a ?little baby fever? for a while but ?got over it?, reports dailystar.co.uk.

In an interview to Playboy magazine, Tarantino has said that he isn?t against the idea of giving up life as an eligible bachelor and starting a family.

?I?ve had things that have ilmost wrked oup but haen?t, were I tought Id get m?rried and have kids. I?m not necessarily against it anymore,? said the 49-year-old.

?The movie I?m working on (?Django Unchained?) is my baby, but I?m in an open time in my life right now, and I?m kind of interested to see what?s going to happen next,? he added.

Source: http://entertainment.onepakistan.com.pk/news/hollywood/35876-fatherhood-on-tarantinos-mind.html

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DIA sending hundreds more spies overseas (Washington Post)

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Crystal Sugar workers reject contract 4th time

FARGO, N.D. (AP) ? Their ranks thinned by a 16-month lockout, American Crystal Sugar Co. workers on Saturday rejected a contract for the fourth time.

Contract opponents say the sugar beet processor's five-year contract offer would cut health care benefits and weaken job security and seniority protections. The company says the offer would raise worker pay by 17 percent over five years when a $2,000 signing bonus is taken into account.

Leaders of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union said in a news release that the workers voted 55 percent to reject management's contract offer.

"By now it should be clear that (company CEO) Dave Berg and Crystal Sugar's management team has no interest in ending a fiscally irresponsible lockout that has been disastrous to farm shareholders, put the federal sugar program in jeopardy, and hurt countless families in the Red River Valley," said John Riskey, the head of a union local that represents employees at three American Crystal factories.

"It's time for shareholders to reclaim their company and send management back to the table for real give-and-take negotiations," he said in the release.

He told The Associated Press later on the phone Saturday that union leaders will be following up with workers on how to deal with the contract issues from this point. He said no plans have been made for another meeting.

Company officials said in a statement Saturday after learning about the workers' vote that the package is "solid and generous" and "similar to what we are offering our current employees."

"We're finding the pay and benefits included in it are attracting high quality area workers who are now creating a productive and successful new workforce for our Company," the statement said. "The Company continues to move forward and focus on running our business, processing beets and delivering sugar to our customers."

The lockout began in Aug. 1, 2011, and affected about 1,300 workers at plants in Drayton and Hillsboro, N.D., and Minnesota factories in Moorhead, Crookston and East Grand Forks. More than 500 of those workers have since left, said Brian Ingulsrud, an American Crystal vice president.

The company has used replacement workers to continue operating the plants.

Moorhead, Minn.-based American Crystal is a cooperative owned by about 2,800 sugar beet growers. It is the nation's largest sugar beet processor, selling 90 percent of its production to industrial customers, including candy makers, bakeries and breakfast cereal makers.

The lockout began after 96 percent of the workers voting on the company's contract proposal rejected the offer on July 31, 2011. In subsequent ballots, 90 percent of the voting workers turned down the proposal in November 2011, and 63 percent rejected it in June.

In October, the AFL-CIO called for a boycott of Crystal's products. Some of the company's sugar is sold in grocery stores under Crystal's own label. It is sold as "Market Pantry" sugar in Target Corp. stores in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-01-Crystal%20Sugar%20Lockout/id-d1056a342e0f4968b5e28469d3b7f5c0

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Syria restores Internet service after blackout

15 hrs.

Bassem Mroue , Associated Press

BEIRUT???Internet and telephone service were restored across much of Syria on Saturday following a two-day, nationwide communications blackout that came during some of the worst fighting to hit the capital since July.

Experts say the shutdown was likely caused by President Bashar Assad's regime, raising fears that the government is taking increasingly bold measures to cut off the country from the outside world as it tries to crush a relentless rebellion.

Renesys, a U.S.-based network monitoring firm that studies Internet disruptions, said in a statement Saturday that service went back up around 4:32 p.m. local time in Syria, describing it as a "largely complete restoration of the Syrian Internet."

Mobile telephone networks also appeared to be mostly back up Saturday. A Britain-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it was receiving dispatches from many parts of the country. Many land lines had remained in working order.

The SANA state news agency said technical teams brought both Internet and telephone services back online Saturday in Damascus and its suburbs ? the flashpoints of recent fighting between government soldiers and rebels.

Fears of fighting outside public eye
The communications blackout began Thursday, raising fears of a burst of fighting outside the public eye. The government and rebels have blamed each other for cutting the lines.

Syrian rebels are fighting a 20-month-old revolt against the Assad regime. Activists say 40,000 people have been killed in the crisis, which began with pro-democracy protests but has morphed into a civil war.?

On Saturday, Syrian troops backed by helicopter gunships clashed with rebels as government forces pushed a major offensive on villages and towns near the capital's international airport, activists said.?SANA reported a car bomb exploded in the Damascus neighborhood of Ish Alwarwar. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Most serious fighting in months
The fighting over the past few weeks in Damascus is the most serious the capital has seen since July, when rebels captured several neighborhoods before a swift government counteroffensive swept out the opposition fighters.

Activists said forces loyal to Assad were battling rebels in towns just south of the capital, including Aqraba, Beit Saham and Yalda near the airport. The Observatory said many were feared killed in government shelling of Beit Saham.

Syrian state TV said that?troops were battling fighters from the al-Qaida-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra group in areas around the airport and that many of the rebels were killed, including two Iraqi citizens.

Syria's Information Ministry said the airport was operating as usual and that the road leading to the facility is "totally secure." The road was closed Thursday because of heavy fighting, but authorities reopened it Friday after troops secured the area, activists said.

The Observatory reported clashes in the southern Damascus neighborhoods of Tadamon and Hajar Aswad, which have been hit by heavy fighting for weeks as the rebels try to push back into the city.

Government troops were also heavily shelling the Damascus suburb of Douma, local activist Mohammed Saeed said via Skype.

Saeed and other activists bypassed the communications blackout by using satellite telephones to connect to the Internet.?In the past, the regime has cut telephone lines and cellular networks in areas where military operations are under way, but the latest blackout was the first to cover the whole country since Syrian uprising began in March 2011.

Tensions in Lebanon
In neighboring Lebanon, tensions were running high Saturday in the northern city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of Assad's regime, which is dominated by the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Lebanese troops deployed to potential flashpoints in the city ? home to significant Sunni and Alawite populations and the site of deadly violence in recent months between the two communities ? to prevent possible clashes.

The army dispatched troops to Tripoli as a precautionary measure after an announcement Friday that 20 Lebanese Sunnis had been killed inside Syria while fighting alongside rebels, who are predominantly Sunnis as well.?It was not clear when the funerals would be held because the bodies of the dead are still in Syria, Lebanese security officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.?Tripoli was calm Saturday.

Lebanon is particularly vulnerable to getting sucked into the conflict in Syria. The countries share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries that are easily inflamed. Lebanon, a country plagued by decades of strife, has been on edge since the uprising in Syria began, and deadly clashes between pro- and anti-Assad Lebanese groups have erupted on several occasions.

In Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Syrian regime has degenerated into an "armed militia" that resorts to brutality in an attempt to stay in power. Davutoglu spoke Saturday at an Istanbul meeting attended by Arab foreign ministers who expressed opposition to the Syrian government.

Davutoglu and other delegates at the one-day conference say the Syrian regime is a threat not only to its people but also to peace and security in the region.

Turkey was an ally of Syria before the crisis began, but has turned into one of its harshest critics because of Assad's crackdown.

AP writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut and Peter Svensson in New York contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/internet-phone-service-largely-restored-syria-after-blackout-1C7362915

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Helicopter parenting? Dad's homemade drone follows kid to bus stop

13 hrs.

John Roach , NBC News

Paul Wallich, like any loving dad, dutifully walks his grade-schooler son to the bus stop each morning. He does?find the quarter-mile hike to be a drag,?occasionally. His solution??He built a camera-equipped drone that helps him fulfill his parental obligation.

It's those Vermont winters that provided motivation for the?project.?"If I am walking my kid to the bus stop in December and January, I would really rather not be doing that," Wallich told NBC News.

The drone is a quadcopter that he built from store-bought parts. He strapped on a smartphone with a video-chat app so that he could watch his son from the comfort of his warm home.?

The trick was to get the drone to follow his son. After exploring a few possibilities, Wallich put a GPS beacon in his son?s backpack, and employed navigation software that tells the drone to stay an arbitrary distance from the beacon.

It worked ... up?to a point.

"Vermont, as it turns out, is a really bad place for doing this kind of thing because you have hills and you have trees,"?Wallich said. "Hills mean that the altitude control gets a lot more complicated and trees mean you have to do obstacle avoidance.

"If my kid is walking along the road and there is a branch overhanging the road, the quadcopter will gleefully run smack into it."

There are potential fixes, such as sonar for collision control.?By flying the quadcopter closer to his son ? about 15 feet off the ground ? he could program it to maintain altitude with respect to the ground instead of following GPS coordinates.

"But with the current state of the technology, unless I really changed the design a lot, I would not want it within 15 feet of my kid," he told NBC News. Some?people refer to this kind of unmanned craft as a "flying lawnmower," and with good reason.

Another glitch is battery life. Today?s lithium ion batteries are good for about one round-trip to the bus stop. But within a few years, drones should be lighter with longer-lasting batteries, making the use of drones to follow our kids to the bus or school a real possibility.

That is, if the kids will let us.

Wallich said his son thinks the robot is cool and loves the fact that nobody else?s dad at school?builds robot drones. "But the actual idea that this thing would be following him around for real, rather than for fun? I don?t think would actually go over terribly well," he noted. Good call, Paul.

To learn more about the technical side of Wallich's babysitting quadcopter, check out Wallich?s article in the?engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum, where he is a contributing editor.

? via Gizmodo?

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/helicopter-parenting-dads-homemade-drone-follows-kid-bus-stop-1C7356195

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Mountjoy Orion looking for a surprise victory in The Coral Essex ...

Mountjoy Orion looking for a surprise victory in The Coral Essex Vase - Heat 3

Mountjoy Orion will be looking for a surprise victory in The Coral Essex Vase - Heat 3 at Romford in England on Friday, November 30, 2012. She is an experienced campaigner and has got a pretty decent chance of causing an upset in the Grade OR competition, scheduled to kick off at 20:34 GMT.

Although, she will be up against some quality hounds, yet she can end up on top of the table at the end of the day. Most of her rivals have struggled in recent times, which will out them under immense pressure to perform.

This will definitely give an outside chance to someone like Mountjoy Orion to claim a cash prize of ?175. She will have to display a solid stamina though, as the overall distance to cover will be 575 metres.

The starting positions do not make a big difference in longer distance events, but it can be crucial to gain some early momentum at times.

Due to this, Mountjoy Orion will be confident of shining today, as she will enter the contest from trap number one. If she manages to start well, she can put her opponent under immense pressure. Her stamina is not too bad either, which will allow her to gain advantage of the early momentum.

The M. Wallis? trained bitch gave a spirited performance last time around in this class, but failed to finish on top of the table in the end. She entered that event from trap number four, but still managed to start well.

Despite that, the seasoned bitch was unable to capitalise and had to settle for third place overall. She will have to come up with a stronger effort this time around in order to make her team proud. She has been given a general starting price of 6 to 1 and the bettors have a chance of winning some bets over her.

On the other hand, Blonde Fletch has been rated as the outright favourite to succeed in the race and he will definitely get the attention of the bettors.

However, there will be a lot of pressure on the black dog, as he failed to meet the expectations of his team last time around in this class over 687 metres.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer?s and do not reflect bettor.com?s official editorial policy.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Mountjoy-Orion-looking-for-a-surprise-victory-in-The-Coral-Essex-Vase-Heat-3-a204842

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