HBT: Young works out for Phillies

Dmitri Young?s comeback hasn?t found a home yet, but Jim Bowden of ESPN.com reports that the 38-year-old recently worked out for the Phillies.

Young hasn?t played in the majors since 2008, so it?s a long shot, but hitting was never the reason for his demise and he?s dropped 75 pounds.

According to Bowden the Phillies were impressed by Young?s workout, but there?s no word yet if they?re interested in actually signing him to what would presumably be a minor-league contract.

In the meantime he?ll continue to eat one piece of pecan pie and ?call it a day.?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/30/dmitri-young-worked-out-for-the-phillies/related/

a christmas story prime rib ny knicks sound of music ihop green bean casserole the temptations

New 'True Blood' trailer hints at royal return

"True Blood's" Russell Edgington could soon be ready to reclaim his throne.

By Ree Hines

"True Blood" fans still upset by the less-than-regal season-three sendoff of big bad Russell Edgington can take heart. A new trailer for the fifth season of the series hints that the former vampire king of Mississippi could soon rise again.

"In Bon Temps, nothing stays buried forever."

That's the sole message of the trailer, delivered one word at a time as the camera pans up through a deep pit of rubble.

Of course, a tease like that could mean almost anything for a drama filled with vamps and other creatures of the night, but given the fact that Edgington was last seen burned, chained in silver and being buried alive (well, undead) in cement -- courtesy of Bill Compton, Eric Northman and their unlikely accomplice Alcide Herveaux -- he's certainly due for a vengeful return.

After all, his last words were "You will regret this!"

Are you looking forward to the return of "True Blood" and the possible return of the king? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Related content:

Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10271162-new-true-blood-trailer-hints-at-royal-return

ruben studdard ruben studdard black friday sales 2011 black friday sales 2011 whitney duncan bradley cooper roger craig

Siri Eating Up All of U.S. Bandwidth?

The iPhone 4S, with its much-hyped Siri feature, is awesome.

Siri will get you directions, let you make hands-free mobile calls, fetch answers to trivia questions, you name it. You can even goof on Siri for fun, asking if she'll marry you, pretending you're going to kill yourself, argue with your wife (below), etc.

And she plays along!

There is a downside to this genius innovation, however: Requiring far more data than other smartphones, Siri is bandwidth guzzler, the digital equivalent of a Hummer, and could prose problems for the entire U.S. cellular network.

Siri Argument

A study by Arieso, an Atlanta firm that specializes in mobile networks, said the iPhone 4S “appears to unleash data consumption behaviors that have no precedent.”

Under most circumstances, this would be someone else’s problem - contracts are “tiered” so that those who use a network more than others pay more for that.

Except with data, it’s not that simple.

Cell networks are like any common resource; they have limits. Once they hit their limit, there’s no more to go around, meaning Siri could be everyone's problem.

As networks become congested, service deteriorates across the board. Private desire becomes a public issue as more calls are dropped and Internet access lags.

In short, expect interrupted service and higher bills to be standard in the next few years, unless cellular providers can innovate even faster than Apple.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/siri-eating-up-all-of-us-bandwidth/

ricky gervais golden globes epidermolysis bullosa miss wisconsin law abiding citizen packers safe house golden globes 2012

As Newt Gingrich Fades In Florida, February Once Again Looks Like Tough Sledding

TAMPA, Fla. -- The conventional wisdom for much of the fall was that February would be a very difficult month for any of Mitt Romney's challengers. That was until Newt Gingrich won South Carolina.

Gingrich's Palmetto State romp over Romney, followed by the initial polls in Florida showing the former House Speaker from Georgia surging ahead of the former Massachusetts governor here, recast the entire nomination fight.

Suddenly, an alternate universe presented itself as a real possibility. With its dearth of contests except for a few caucus states, February looked like it could be a turbulent month of pressure on Romney if the last big mark on the calendar was a big fat "L" in his column for the Sunshine state.

Sure, Romney would probably still do well in the first week of February even if Gingrich won Florida. Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) are far ahead of Gingrich and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) in organizing for the four caucuses in Maine, Nevada, Minnesota and Colorado. But Gingrich's momentum would likely be so strong that it would overshadow any meager wins for Romney in the caucus states, preserving the former speaker's status as the frontrunner.

And Romney would have had to fight the notion that he was incapable of winning over Republican voters for nearly three weeks until Michigan and Arizona held their primaries on Feb. 28.

Over the past week, however, as Romney has outperformed Gingrich at two debates and as he and outside groups have outspent Gingrich on the TV airwaves, he has moved back ahead of Gingrich in the polls, and now looks set to win Florida's 50 delegates on Tuesday. The conventional wisdom is back: February will be a winter of discontent for Gingrich, not Romney.

"If Newt had won Florida then he might have been able to become the frontrunner, but that's not what's happened," Charlie Black, a veteran Republican political consultant and a Washington lobbyist, told The Huffington Post. "Romney's going to win it and have great momentum going into a friendly calendar."

Gingrich has pointed to Gallup's national tracking poll, which on Friday showed him leading Romney 32 percent to 24 percent among Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters. But as quickly as polling numbers have moved up and down in the states where Romney and Gingrich are fighting hand to hand, the national polling numbers have been seen as a lagging indicator instead of a leading one.

"I think you will see Newt lose his national lead soon, and [he] has no place in the short term to recover momentum," said Matthew Dowd, a political strategist who worked for former President George W. Bush.

Four states will hold caucuses in early February: Nevada on Feb. 4, Colorado and Minnesota on Feb. 7, and Maine's Republicans for a week with results to announced on Feb. 11.

Dowd pointed out that there are no debates until Feb. 22, depriving Gingrich of his best opportunity to score big points.

"He has a tough few weeks ahead of him. He needed to win Florida to keep things going through this hard period," Dowd said.

Gingrich was defiant on Saturday, vowing to stay in the race until the summer and to campaign "state by state."

"I will go all the way to the convention," Gingrich said.

But at some point, if Gingrich loses Florida, money will talk, and it will tell Gingrich he should drop out. Of course, he might not listen, just like he did not listen to those who said he was finished last summer when all of his top advisers quit his campaign.

It's also not clear how long Gingrich will continue receiving financial support, indirectly, from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Adelson and his wife have now contributed $10 million to a super PAC supporting Gingrich, which has allowed Gingrich to stay somewhat competitive on TV with Romney.

Before Adelson gave his initial $5 million to Winning Our Future, there were reports that he was preparing to give $20 million to Gingrich's cause. That did not materialize, but that number could represent the ultimate ceiling of his contributions. Yet at some point, Adelson may decide not to throw good money after bad. And he could also come under significant pressure from others in the Republican party to stop giving to Gingrich if it looks like his friend is just staying in the race to make life difficult for Romney.

On Saturday, Romney supporters authorized by the campaign to speak on behalf of the candidate -- known in the political world as "surrogates" -- began to frame the Gingrich campaign as running out of steam already.

"If you look here, there's almost nobody at this," said Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), a Romney endorser, who attended Gingrich's Hispanic Town Hall event in Orlando and gestured around at the lackluster attendance. "This is -- there's almost no one here."

Mack said an attempt by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond to engage him in a debate on Saturday morning at a Gingrich event in Port St. Lucie -- which was captured on video -- was a sign that the Gingrich campaign is "desperate."

"At first he tries to act like a reporter, like he's asking questions, with a recorder. Of course we all know who he is. So we know he's not a reporter. But then he just shouts over you, bullies you, those types of things. That's fine. I think it just shows the erratic nature of the campaign and how unhinged they are," Mack told HuffPost's Amanda Terkel. "You can just tell this is a campaign in decline."

Most observers expect Gingrich and Santorum to stay in the race at least through Super Tuesday on March 6.

But among the 11 contests on Super Tuesday, only Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee are contests that tilt in Gingrich's favor, Black said. Gingrich is not even on the ballot in Virginia, one of the biggest primaries that day.

The volatility of this GOP primary -- driven by the search among conservatives for an alternative to Romney -- means things could take another turn in Gingrich's favor, or Santorum's, at any moment.

But if the current trend continues and Romney wins Florida and then goes on to dominate February and Super Tuesday, the roots of Gingrich's demise will trace back to his failure to land a punch on Romney at the debates this past week on Monday and Thursday.

If that's the case, Gingrich's end will defy what many expected: instead of committing some outsized gaffe and exiting the race with a bang, he will have missed his moment and instead gone out with a whimper.

Amanda Terkel contributed reporting from Orlando.

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/29/newt-gingrich-mitt-romney-florida-primary-election-2012_n_1239227.html

occupy midnight madness midnight madness john henry john henry zack greinke zack greinke

Trade cheats beware: new U.S. team will come after you: Kirk (Reuters)

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? A new team of U.S. trade enforcers will make countries think twice about putting up unfair barriers to American exports, President Barack Obama's top trade official said.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Reuters that the team, announced by Obama last week, will include intelligence officials as well as representatives of other agencies in order to beef up U.S. resources and crack open markets.

"We want to make sure we aren't resource-constrained. Other countries know our budget and our resources ... and so they'll game the system because they know that we're very discriminating on which cases we make," Kirk said in an interview.

"We don't want them to make ... that bet that we don't have the resources to come after them if they're intentionally and unfairly discriminating against American exporters," Kirk said, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He did not identify countries that could attract the attention of the unit, but Obama is under pressure to show business and voters he is taking a tough stance against China.

Republican presidential candidates have slammed Obama's handling of Beijing ahead of November's elections.

The U.S. trade deficit with China is expected to have hit a record of about $300 billion in 2011. Obama has set a target of doubling total U.S. exports between 2010 and 2015.

Kirk's office negotiates and enforces trade deals. But it has only about 250 employees, which could tempt countries to think they can flout world trade rules, Kirk said.

"This (the new unit) will provide a much better tool basket and put more bodies in terms of being able to develop some of these cases and gather the intelligence that is necessary to take some of these complex matters before the World Trade Organization," he said.

"There will be additional people, some additional resources," Kirk said without providing details of any extra funding for the unit.

FOCUS ON COLLABORATION

Obama announced the team during his January 24 State of the Union speech in which he said the United States needs to do more to tackle unfair foreign trade practices and rebuild American manufacturing.

As well as officials with the Commerce Department, which Obama is proposing to close as part of a government streamlining, customs personnel will also work with the unit, Kirk said.

"Even some of the intelligence agencies will be working collaboratively together" on the project, Kirk said.

Obama said last week his administration was more forceful than that of his predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, in challenging other countries at the World Trade Organization.

Washington has filed six WTO cases since Obama took office in January 2009, five of them against China. Bush brought seven cases against China in his two terms although for most of his first year in office, China was not yet a member of the WTO.

U.S. trade officials say their main complaints against China are barriers to its agricultural and services markets, discriminatory industrial policies and weak intellectual property rights protection.

Kirk told Reuters in the interview, which was conducted on Thursday, that his office would lead the team.

Trade is likely to be high on the agenda when Obama hosts China's likely next leader, Vice President Xi Jinping, at the White House on February 14.

China has complained about anti-dumping duties applied to its exports to the United States and about restrictions on Chinese companies seeking to invest in U.S. firms.

(Writing By Doug Palmer; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/bs_nm/us_usa_trade_kirk

google tv cornel west marzieh vafamehr marzieh vafamehr lady liberty lady liberty the rum diary

International Development - Manager, Finance & Budgeting, Trees ...

Reports to:?????? Director, Finance & Budgeting ? Finance & Administration Division

Location:????????? New York, NY

?

The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.

?

The Rainforest Alliance?s TREES (TRaining, Extension, Enterprises and Sourcing) Program promotes sustainable livelihoods and protects biodiversity in forest-dependent communities. We work to enhance the competitiveness of community and indigenous forestry enterprises by building business skills, increasing efficiencies, and facilitating investment in value-added processing, expanding income opportunities from wood and non-wood forest products and environmental services, and increasing access to local and global markets through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

?

Position Summary:

The Finance & Budgeting Manager will be a key member of both Rainforest Alliance-HQ Finance & Administration Division and the TREES Program management team. S/he will provide critical support to the TREES Program management in monitoring, analyzing and reporting the financial performance of the TREES Program.? S/he will work closely with the Director to develop and manage the TREES Program budget and proactively ensure it meets its revenue and expense targets. S/he will assure the TREES Program complies with finance, budget and contracts requirements in accordance with Rainforest Alliance policies and procedures.? S/he will also be a member of the Finance & Administration Division, which includes HQ-Finance management and the other Rainforest Alliance Finance & Budgeting Managers, and as such participates in the overall budgeting and financial analysis process and supports HQ-Finance as needed.?

?

Responsibilities:

Planning and Budgeting

• Responsible for accurate and timely reporting and analysis of the division?s performance, based on board approved budgets, for both TREES Program management and HQ-Finance;
• Manage the annual budgeting and financial planning process (including mid-year forecast) for the TREES program in collaboration with the Director, Regional and Project Managers, Supervisors, and other Division staff; determine how TREES Program staff participate in drafting portions of the budget;
• Monitor all financial activities, and keep TREES Program management and HQ-Finance advised of situations which have potential negative impact on financial performance; and
• Coordinate proposal budget development with TREES Program staff, Development and HQ-Finance.

Expense Control/Accounts Receivable

• Monitor expenses and revenues to ensure that the TREES Program spend according to the available revenue and that restricted funds are used according to donor requirements;
• Coordinate with HQ-Finance and TREES Program staff to manage receivables on an ongoing basis;
• Create and maintain financial report templates and reporting tools; and
• Establish additional TREES Program procedures, where needed, to ensure adequate control and timely and accurate recording of expenses; including pre-approvals, expense approval limits, and activity planning tools.?

Contracts and Agreements

• Ensure that contractual agreements are created with approved templates and according to Rainforest Alliance policies and funder requirements; and coordinates negotiation of? agreements with TREES Program staff, Finance, Legal and/or other Rainforest Alliance departments as required and necessary;
• Ensure that Rainforest Alliance-issued agreements and related payments are processed and administered according to Rainforest Alliance policies and in compliance with established terms; and
• Ensure that implementation of funded activities is in conformity and on schedule with the provisions and requirements of the funding sources.

Reporting

• Produce and/or review financial reports submitted to funders on behalf of the TREES Program; ensure that submitted reports and invoices are reviewed for accuracy and include proper support documentation; and
• Assist with monitoring, tracking and reporting of contract and agreement deliverables.

Human Resources

• Coordinate with Human Resources in submission of job descriptions/position announcements and new hire requests in accordance with HR processes, and monitor these for conformance with approved program budget; and
• Coordinate with Human Resources regarding current and future recruitments.

Communication, Training and Guidance

• Serve as a key communication conduit to and from HQ-Finance and TREES Program management and other staff.? Ensures the timely and accurate dissemination of information;
• Provide training and guidance to TREES Program staff on the use of financial tools, budget formulation, tracking and adjustments, expense accounting, financial analysis and reporting, and contract management;?
• Identify training needs and facilitates contracts orientation and training for newly hired TREES Program staff, in coordination with other Rainforest Alliance staff;
• Provide guidance, coaching and oversight of other TREES Program staff serving in finance and contracts management roles for large government and multi-lateral funded projects; and
• Other duties as assigned.

?

Qualifications:

• Bachelors ?degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting or Finance;
• 7-10 years experience in financial analysis, reporting and budgeting; with minimum 2 years experience directly supervising staff;
• Demonstrated work experience with both Excel and computerized accounting systems (knowledge of Solomon a plus) and with reporting software, (FrX and Crystal highly preferred);
• Familiarity with a multi-office, multi-national organizational environment;
• Non-profit and U.S. government funding experience preferred;
• Experience in training staff in budgeting, financial reporting and use of financial tools;
• Strong math, analytical and technical skills; highly organized with an attention to details; take initiative; customer service oriented;
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills;
• Ability to interact professionally with culturally and linguistically diverse staff and clients;
• Fluency in English and proficiency in Spanish required; working knowledge of French a plus; and
• Willingness and ability to travel to 30% of the time internationally and domestically.

?

Salary:?

Commensurate with experience. Competitive benefits package provided.

?

To apply:

Send resume, cover letter and salary history to Human Resources, Rainforest Alliance,? 665 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, NY 10012; Fax: 212-677-2187; E-mail: gro.ar@lennosreP. If emailing, use the following format in the subject line: first name and last name, job title of position you are applying for.

?

The Rainforest Alliance is an equal opportunity employer.

?

Source: http://www.devex.com/en/jobs/manager-finance-budgeting-trees-program-sustainable-forestry-division-20423-2

kathy griffin weather channel road conditions newt gingrich wives weather gina carano at last

Microcartography

Feet smell like feet and armpits smell like armpits because they each harbor unique species of bacteria with unique metabolisms that produce unique volatiles. Human skin is covered in a patchwork of many different microbes and microbial communities, collectively known as the microbiome, a layer of our bodies that is still very poorly understood. Research initiatives like the Human Microbiome Project aim to catalog and characterize the species of microbes living on different body parts or in our gut, to better understand the role they play in health and disease. Maps showing the composition of the communities on different body parts begin to show the complexity of this microbial organ.

Artist Sonja B?umel explores the skin microbiome in her project Cartography of the Human Body. Bacteria isolated from B?umel?s skin were characterized and grown individually, then used to reconstruct an artificial microbiome with many layers of differently-colored species. Giant petri dishes grew imprints of the new microbial layer, creating a living snapshot of the normally invisible bacteria.

Cartography of the Human Body, by Sonja B?umel

The Textured Self, by Sonja B?umel

B?umel?s background is in fashion design, and some of her other works translate the invisible microbiome into a tangible layer through incredible hand-crocheted and knitted pieces. The Textured Self represents the amount, color, and shape of microbial colonies isolated from different parts of her skin, knitted onto a life-size silhouette. Her master?s thesis project, (In)visible Membrane, imagines if the invisible layer of our microbiome could become visible, responding to our body temperature and producing materials in the cold places where we need them most. Her project is made up of several parts that ?mediate between science and fashion, science and art, between facts and imagination, between body and clothes.?

Invisible Membrane, by Sonja B?umel

Science and art can help us better understand our microbes, making them visible and tangible, exploring their smells and their chemistry, how they work with each other and with us.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=0fe78ae6fca0177314909627455f713e

frys ad a very gaga thanksgiving black friday walmart 2011 sams club dancing with the stars winner too short thanksgiving

Student receives free cocaine with Amazon textbook order

By Rosa Golijan

Fernando Ochoa / KSHB

Any university student who has ever purchased a used textbook knows that there are sometimes strange surprises hiding between those pages. Usually they come in the form of messy scribbles or perhaps even a forgotten piece of gum, but in one student's case the unexpected (and unwanted) gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine.

WPTV reports that?Sophia Stockton ??a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas?? recently ordered a textbook?from an independent retailer through the Amazon online storefront. The book was intended for a spring course on terrorism and is called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues."

When Stockton flipped through the textbook, she "discovered a bag of white powder had fallen to the ground."?According to WPTV, Stockton feared that the bag contained anthrax and took it to the local police department the next day:

"I told them white powder was in my terrorism textbook and so I put it on the table and they?re like, 'oh, okay,' And so he went back and tested it,? Stockton recalls. ? He comes back and says, ?you didn?t happen to order some cocaine with your textbook, did you?? And I was like, no!?

Gardner law enforcement officials speculate that there may have been up to $400 worth of cocaine in the bag.?

According to GardnerEdge, a Kansas area news site,?the Gardner Police Department?will destroy the cocaine at a later date, but?the officials have?not reported the incident to Amazon or any other agency.

We reached out to Amazon for more information about how such an incident could have occurred. While Stockton's textbook was purchased through the online retailer, it comes from Warehouse Deals. This Amazon storefront offers "deep discounts on open-box, like-new, refurbished, or used products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.com's rigorous standards as 'new.'"?

According to the Warehouse Deals' page?on Amazon, all items are inspected prior to being offered for sale:

Prior to offering an item for sale on Warehouse Deals, we verify its physical and functional condition.

Items purchased through independent sellers on the Amazon website are covered by the company's "A-to-z Guarantee," so Stockton could theoretically file?a claim on the grounds that the item she purchased was "not the item depicted in the seller's description." (We sincerely doubt that cocaine was mentioned in the product description, after all.)

At this time it remains a mystery how $400 worth of cocaine wound up in a used textbook.

But if anyone else finds a bag containing a questionable white powder in a mail-order, I would strongly suggest that he or she should not wait an entire day to alert authorities. After all, if the bag in Stockton's textbook did contain anthrax?? as she initially feared?? immediate and appropriate medical evaluation and treatment would've been essential. (For more information about anthrax, you can?consult the World Health Organization website.)

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10251568-student-receives-free-cocaine-with-amazon-textbook-order

david ortiz matthew shepard matthew shepard aaron curry aaron curry ios 5 features ios 5 features

What is NFC? [Android A to Z]

What is NFC?  NFC stands for Near-Field Communication and is a set of standards (established in 2004) for small, portable devices to establish radio communications with each other. Devices need to be close, usually no more than a few centimeters apart (and often they need to touch), which is why it's a Near-Field way to communicate. The standards cover data exchange formats defined by the NFC Forum (no, not that kind of forum) and are based on the original radio frequency identification (RFID) standards.  The forum also certifies devices like tags, cards, and smartphones.  

The coolest part of all this is that only one of the devices needs to be "smart."  Most of us has a credit card of some sort that we can tap against a payment machine, either at the gas pump or a cash register.  Both the payment machine and the credit card are NFC devices, but the card only has a string of information electronically written to a tiny chip embedded inside it.  And this is useful for other things, like starting and handling more robust communications like Wifi or Bluetooth, but most often it's used with one of these "dumb" chips.  These dumb chips can be written with any information, and the smart device determines what happens when communication is established.  

Of course, what most of us here think of when we hear NFC is Google Wallet.  Google Wallet takes things a step further by using your Android phone as both a smart device and a dumb device.  When you tap your phone at McDonald's to pay for those McNuggets, it's simply sharing your credit card credentials like any card would.  But there's functionality and hardware there to accept payments, track balances, provide security and more.  Right now it's only officially available as a test on the Nexus S 4G, but it's been hacked onto other phones with NFC hardware.  Soon, we'll see it (and other apps for things like ISIS) as a standard on Android phones.  Until then, we'll just have to play with tags and Android Beam.

Previously on Android A to Z: What is MWC?; Find more in the Android Dictionary

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/OL_7h-ScWcI/story01.htm

lana turner donald glover julio cesar chavez jr jason segel turducken power rangers jungle fury power rangers jungle fury

New map for what to plant reflects global warming (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation's 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.

The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.

It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees that once seemed too vulnerable to cold can now survive farther north.

"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."

He uses the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now."

The new guide also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For example, gardeners using the online version can enter their ZIP code and get the exact average coldest temperature.

Also, for the first time, calculations include more detailed factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of nearby bodies of water, the slope of the land, and the way cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas.

The map carves up the U.S. into 26 zones based on five-degree temperature increments. The old 1990 map mentions 34 U.S. cities in its key. On the 2012 map, 18 of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., and even Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones.

For example, Des Moines used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. Now it's 5b, which has a coldest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero.

Those differences matter in deciding what to plant. Griffin, Ga., used to be in zone 7b, where the coldest day would average between 5 and 10 degrees. But the city is now in zone 8a, averaging a coldest day of 10 to 15 degrees. So growing bay laurel becomes possible. It wasn't recommended on the old map.

Mark Kaplan, a New York meteorologist who helped create the 1990 map, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.

The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones on the map from global warming. She said that while much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.

David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University, said that the USDA is being too cautious and that the map plainly reflects warming.

The revised map "gives us a clear picture of the `new normal' and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change," Wolfe said in an email.

The Arbor Day Foundation issued its own hardiness guide six years ago, and the new government map is very similar, said Woodrow Nelson, a vice president at the plant-loving organization.

"We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn't accurate anymore," Nelson said. "I look forward to (the new map). It's been a long time coming."

Nelson lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to be in a "solid 4," but now he has Japanese maples and Fraser firs in his yard ? trees that shouldn't survive in a zone 4.

Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years.

"They always said redbuds don't go beyond U.S. Highway 30, but I'm seeing them near Roland," 10 miles to the north, he said.

___

AP Writer Michael J. Crumb contributed to this report from Des Moines.

___

Online:

Plant map: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_sc/us_sci_planting_zone_map

virginia tech mike martz hokies quadrantid norv turner work it jerry angelo

Column: A wise guy looks at the Super Bowl (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? Ask Lem Banker about the New York Giants and he tells the story of how he won a bet against them in the 1958 NFL championship game, when Alan Ameche bowled into the end zone from a yard out in overtime to win it for the Baltimore Colts.

The game, at Yankee Stadium, was a television classic that captivated the country and sparked its love affair with the NFL. If it wasn't the greatest title game ever, it was surely the most significant.

For the gambler, though, it was just a win.

"I've had plenty of good losers, too," Banker said. "You're never going to get them all right."

Maybe not, though Banker once had a streak of 13 straight Super Bowl winners picking against the spread. Good thing, because he's never had a real job and winners pay the bills.

They have over the years, starting when he began booking bets in the family candy store in Union City, N.J., where his father would take the neighborhood action in between dispensing sweets. The son was a good enough basketball player to get scholarship offers, but he became even better at betting sports.

He'll be 85 this year, and he can still recall the big bets and bad beats of a career spent betting on the fortune of sports. The phone still rings in his sprawling home with people asking him "Lem, who do ya like?"

If he's not the greatest sports bettor ? and many think he is ? he's certainly the one of the few who have been around this long. He was especially good at picking winners of big fights, not surprising since he was Sonny Liston's best friend when the fearsome slugger ruled the heavyweight ranks.

Right now it's all about football. Always is at this time of year, something Banker was reminded of this week when his manicurist gave him her pick for the Super Bowl while filing his nails.

"Everybody has an opinion on the Super Bowl," Banker said.

That's good news for this city's bookmakers, who could do record business in the matchup between the Giants and the New England Patriots. The wise guys will push their usual six-figure bets across the counter, but it's the massive flood of money from the squares betting $20 bills that will determine who is favored and by how much next week in Indianapolis.

Some will risk their money because they believe the Giants have a stifling defense or are a team of destiny. Others will wager because they like the way Tom Brady does his hair.

The smart ones, though, may look to a man who made his first Super Bowl bet on the first Super Bowl and ask:

So, Lem, who do ya like?

"I'm laying the points and taking New England," Banker said. "It's really very simple. To me, Tom Brady is the best quarterback I've ever seen ? and I've seen a lot of them back from when I was a kid and Sid Luckman was playing."

Some bookies in this gambling city are hoping Banker is right. They're the unlucky ones who were hit with sizeable wagers late in the regular season when the Giants were struggling and the odds were as high as 100-1 that they would win the Super Bowl.

They won't be run out of business, of course. Bookies always recover, because there are always more squares with money in their pockets who think they know more than the guys across the counter who have the point spread thing down to a science. Casinos have lost money only once on the Super Bowl in the last 10 years, taking a beating in 2008 when the Giants ? who were 13-point underdogs ? beat New England, 17-14.

And this could be one of the highest bet Super Bowls ever, rivaling the $94.5 million wagered in Nevada ? and untold millions elsewhere ? on the Steelers-Seahawks game in 2006.

"It's probably the best matchup there could be," said Jimmy Vaccaro, a longtime bookmaker who helps run sports books in several casinos for Lucky's Race & Sports Book. "The general public rules these events and they like these teams."

Banker won't be wagering that much himself. He never did make huge bets, preferring to make his money on volume instead.

And it's not like the old days when he had runners in different cities finding the best lines from bookmakers to lay his action on. Certainly not like the time he took a Minneapolis bookmaker for $30,000, only to be told he wasn't going to get paid. He got the money the next day, after asking a friend with, shall we say, connections, to look into the matter.

"There wasn't a bookmaker dead or alive that I didn't beat," Banker said. "I had runners everywhere, in New York, Miami, Chicago, all seeing different numbers. But now it's all the same numbers everywhere."

Computers and corporations have replaced pencils and candy store bookmakers. Online betting will dwarf anything even Las Vegas takes in on the game.

It's enough to make an aging gambler yearn for the days he once knew.

"It's very, very tough now," Banker said. "If I had to do it all again, I couldn't do it. I'd be driving a taxi."

____

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or follow at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_tim_dahlberg012512

ou football ryan torain ryan torain world series game 3 sign language alphabet texas tech texas tech

Kris Humphries Splits from PR Team

Kris Humphries is getting really good at this break up thing.

The New Jersey Nets power forward/E! star has called it quits with Anderson Public Relations, TMZ confirms, following disagreements between the company and the Humphries over how to best promote the latter off the court.

The PR team was especially upset with how Humphries handled an appearance on Good Morning America in December, where he brushed off questions about Kim Kardashian and looked confused about why they were even being asked. He instead talked about baking with his mom.

Kris' relationship with Anderson lasted 73 days, so, hey, that's an improvement of 24 hours for the guy!

Sources say he now wants to focus solely on basketball, which ought to be welcome news for the woeful Nets. Humphries scored 12 points and pulled down 16 rebounds in their 84-74 loss last night to the Thunder.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/kris-humphries-splits-from-pr-team/

college board pasco county rooney mara solstice x factor results x factor results the hobbit movie trailer

Academy Awards Launches Digital 'Celebrate the Movies' Campaign (Mashable)

Just in time for the 84th Academy Award nominations, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is rolling out a digital campaign, entitled "Celebrate the Movies." Starting Monday, iconic moments from 84 films in Oscar history will be showcased online and on digital billboards in New York and Los Angeles. Fans can view digital images at Oscar.com and at YouTube.com/Oscars. Film fanatics can also share their favorite movie-going experiences using social media.

[More from Mashable: Eddie Murphy Out as Oscar Host, Twitterverse Explodes]

The images for the promotion will debut in groups of 20. The first group of images include scenes from The Godfather, Forrest Gump and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[More from Mashable: How to Get a Refund for ABC?s ?Oscar All Access? Service]

The Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday at 8:30a.m EST/5:30a.m. PST online at Oscar.com. After the nominations are announced, Shira Lazar of What's Trending will host a live show discussing the nominations and the social buzz following Oscar. I'll be joining Shira for the show, which will stream live at Oscar.com at 3:00p.m. EST/12:00p.m. PST.

Like the Grammy Awards and the Emmy's, Oscar is slowly but surely becoming more digital and more social. We'll be taking a closer look at Oscar's digital campaign and social media outreach as we get closer to the awards.

The 84th Academy Awards will air on ABC on Feb. 26, 2012.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20120123/tc_mashable/academy_awards_launches_digital_celebrate_the_movies_campaign

bengals vs texans nfl playoffs cincinnati bengals bengals the stand josh mcdaniels cotton bowl

Waiting for Death Valley's big bang: Volcanic explosion crater may have future potential

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? In California's Death Valley, death is looking just a bit closer. Geologists have determined that the half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater, formed by a prehistoric volcanic explosion, was created far more recently than previously thought -- and that conditions for a sequel may exist today.

Up to now, geologists were vague on the age of the 600-foot deep crater, which formed when a rising plume of magma hit a pocket of underground water, creating an explosion. The most common estimate was about 6,000 years, based partly on Native American artifacts found under debris. Now, a team based at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has used isotopes in rocks blown out of the crater to show that it formed just 800 years ago, around the year 1200. That geologic youth means it probably still has some vigor; moreover, the scientists think there is still enough groundwater and magma around for another eventual reaction. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Ubehebe (YOU-bee-HEE-bee) is the largest of a dozen such craters, or maars, clustered over about 3 square kilometers of Death Valley National Park. The violent mixing of magma and water, resulting in a so-called phreatomagmatic explosion, blew a hole in the overlying sedimentary rock, sending out superheated steam, volcanic ash and deadly gases such as sulfur dioxide. Study coauthor Brent Goehring, (now at Purdue University) says this would have created an atom-bomb-like mushroom cloud that collapsed on itself in a donut shape, then rushed outward along the ground at some 200 miles an hour, while rocks hailed down. Any creature within two miles or more would be fatally thrown, suffocated, burned and bombarded, though not necessarily in that order. "It would be fun to witness -- but I'd want to be 10 miles away," said Goehring of the explosion.

The team began its work after Goehring and Lamont-Doherty professor Nicholas Christie-Blick led students on a field trip to Death Valley. Noting that Ubehebe remained poorly studied, they got permission from the park to gather some 3- to 6-inch fragments of sandstone and quartzite, part of the sedimentary conglomerate rock that the explosion had torn out. In the lab, Goehring and Lamont-Doherty geochemist Joerg Schaefer applied recent advances in the analysis of beryllium isotopes, which change their weight when exposed to cosmic rays. The isotopes change at a predictable rate when exposed to the rays, so they could pinpoint when the stones were unearthed. An intern at Lamont-Doherty, Columbia College undergraduate Peri Sasnett, took a leading role in the analysis, and ended up as first author on the paper.

The dates clustered from 2,100 to 800 years ago; the scientists interpreted this as signaling a series of smaller explosions, culminating in the big one that created the main crater around 1200. A few other dates went back 3,000 to 5,000 years; these are thought to have come from earlier explosions at smaller nearby maars. Christie-Blick said the dates make it likely that magma is still lurking somewhere below. He pointed out that recent geophysical studies by other researchers have spotted what look like magma bodies under other parts of Death Valley. "Additional small bodies may exist in the region, even if they are sufficiently small not to show up geophysically," he said. He added that the dates give a rough idea of eruption frequency: about every thousand years or less, which puts the current day within the realm of possibility. "There is no basis for thinking that Ubehebe is done," he said.

Hydrological data points the same way. Phreatomagmatic explosions are thought to take place mainly in wet places, which would seem to exclude Death Valley--the hottest, driest place on the continent. Yet, as the researchers point out, Lamont-Doherty tree-ring researchers have already shown that the region was even hotter and drier during Medieval times, when the blowup took place. If there was sufficient water then, there is certainly enough now, they say. Observations of springs and modeling of groundwater levels suggests the modern water table starts about 500 feet below the crater floor. The researchers' calculations suggest that it would take a spherical magma chamber as small as 300 feet across and an even smaller pocket of water to produce a Ubehebe-size incident.

Park officials are taking the study in stride. "We've typically viewed Ubehebe as a static feature, but of course we're aware it could come back," said geologist Stephanie Kyriazis, a park education specialist. "This certainly adds another dimension to what we tell the public." (About a million people visit the park each year.) The scientists note that any reactivation of the crater would almost certainly be presaged by warning signs such as shallow earthquakes and opening of steam vents; this could go on for years before anything bigger happened.

For perspective, Yellowstone National Park, further east, is loaded with explosion craters made by related processes, plus the world's largest concentration of volcanically driven hot springs, geysers and fumaroles. The U.S. Geological Survey expects an explosion big enough to create a 300-foot-wide crater in Yellowstone about every 200 years; there have already been at least 20 smaller blowouts in the past 130 years. Visitors sometimes are boiled alive in springs, but no one has yet been blown up. Death Valley's own fatal dangers are mainly non-geological: single-vehicle car accidents, heat exhaustion and flash floods. Rock falls, rattlesnakes and scorpions provide extra hazards, said Kyriazis. The crater is not currently on the list. "Right now, we're not planning to issue an orange alert or anything like that," she said.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Peri Sasnett, Brent M. Goehring, Nicholas Christie-Blick, Joerg M. Schaefer. Do phreatomagmatic eruptions at Ubehebe Crater (Death Valley, California) relate to a wetter than present hydro-climate? Geophysical Research Letters, 2012; 39 (2) DOI: 10.1029/2011GL050130

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/lopJTxm3ZwA/120123152516.htm

andy irons ethan zohn jeremy mayfield occupy oakland general strike occupy oakland general strike mike quade mike quade

Does Newt Own a Beet Farm? (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190196348?client_source=feed&format=rss

drosselmeyer drosselmeyer pacific standard time local time when is daylight savings 2011 what time is it cain gingrich debate

Arnie visits Austrian town run on green energy (omg!)

GUESSING, Austria (AP) ? It was another chance to tuck into a schnitzel. But Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit to a small eastern Austrian town had a more compelling purpose.

Austria's most famous living son is proud of his record of greening California while governor. So his visit to Guessing, which meets its energy needs through renewables, was fitting.

In both Guessing and California, "the world has already become a better one," he told fans and dignitaries gathered in his honor Sunday.

After a lunch of Wiener schnitzel and Kaiserscharrn ? chopped up pancakes with jam ? Arnie toured the village's energy plants, describing his push for green energy as "my crusade."

And yes, the "Terminator" star did say, "I'll be back."

___

Philipp Jenne contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_arnie_visits_austrian_town_run_green_energy183907326/44264919/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/arnie-visits-austrian-town-run-green-energy-183907326.html

aliens michael j fox lvs oxycodone copd hon equifax

Remorseful man admits he caused big Reno blaze

The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area Thursday. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)

The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area Thursday. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)

The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)

Firefighters battle a wind-driven brush fire burning through Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez says crews were able to stop the wall of flames before it reached Galena High School. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)

Firefighters wait for water before attacking an outbuilding adjacent to a home Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in Pleasant Valley, Nev. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/The Reno Gazette-Journal, Tim Dunn) NEVADA APPEAL OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES

The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev. smolders as firefighters battle a wind-driven brush fire on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)

RENO, Nev. (AP) ? An "extremely remorseful" elderly man admitted Friday that he accidentally started a brush fire that destroyed 29 homes near Reno when he improperly discarded fireplace ashes at his home south of town, authorities said.

"He came forward on his own accord," Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said about the man. The resulting blaze, fueled by 82 mph wind gusts, burned nearly 3,200 acres and forced the evacuation of up to 10,000 people Thursday.

"He has given statements to our investigators as well as law enforcement officers. He is extremely remorseful," the chief said.

Investigators already had tracked the origin of the fire to a location in East Lake on the north end of the Washoe Valley, where the man lives about 20 miles south of downtown Reno.

Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley said a formal case file will be forwarded to the district attorney next week for consideration of charges.

"The DA will have to give this case a lot of deliberation," Haley said.

"The fact he came forward and admitted it plays a role. But so does the massive damage and loss of life," he said. "It's a balancing act."

In addition to the potential for facing jail time on arson charges, the man could also be ordered to pay the cost of fighting the fire, which already totals $690,000.

Washoe County Manager Katy Simon said she expects the final bill to run into the millions of dollars.

Gov. Sandoval toured the fire damaged area Friday, describing it as "horrendous, devastating."

"There is nothing left in some of those places except for the chimneys and fireplaces," he said.

The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by the wind, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno.

The strong, erratic winds caused major challenges for crews evacuating residents, Sierra Front spokesman Mark Regan said. "In a matter of seconds, the wind would shift," he said.

Haley confirmed that the body of June Hargis, 93, was found in the fire's aftermath, but her cause of death has not been established, so it's not known if it was fire related.

Jeannie Watts, the woman's 70-year-old daughter, told KRNV-TV that Hargis' grandson telephoned her to tell her to evacuate but she didn't get out in time.

A break in the weather and calmer winds allowed firefighters to get the upper hand on the blaze Friday.

Hernandez estimated it to be 65 percent contained Friday night. He said 300 firefighters would remain on the scene through the night checking for hot spots along with another 125 support people, including law enforcement officers and the Nevada National Guard.

About 2,000 people remained subject to evacuation, and about 100 households still were without power.

State transportation officials said they expected to reopen all of U.S. Highway 395 between Reno and Carson City by Saturday morning.

The next challenge may be the forecast for rain and snow in the mountains on Saturday, which could cause flooding in burned areas, he said.

Marred in Reno's driest winter in more than 120 years, residents had welcomed the forecast that a storm was due to blow across the Sierra Nevada this week.

Instead, thousands found themselves fleeing their homes Thursday afternoon.

Connie Cryer went to the fire response command post Friday with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Maddie Miramon, to find out if her house had survived the flames.

"We had to know so we could get some sleep," Cryer said, adding her house was spared but a neighbor's wasn't. She had seen wildfires before, but nothing on this scale.

"There was fire in front of me, fire beside me, fire behind me. It was everywhere," she said. "I don't know how more didn't burn up. It was terrible, all the wind and the smoke."

Fire officials said Thursday's fire was "almost a carbon copy" of a blaze that destroyed 30 homes in Reno during similar summer-like conditions in mid-November.

State Forester Pete Anderson said he has not seen such hazardous fire conditions in winter in his 43 years in Nevada. Reno had no precipitation in December. The last time that happened was 1883.

An inch of snow Monday ended the longest recorded dry spell in Reno history, a 56-day stretch that prompted Anderson to issue an unusual warning about wildfire threats.

"We're usually pretty much done with the fire season by the first of November, but this year it's been nonstop," Anderson said.

Kit Bailey, U.S. Forest Service fire chief at nearby Lake Tahoe, said conditions are so dry that even a forecast calling for rain and snow might not take the Reno-Tahoe area out of fire danger.

"The scary thing is a few days of drying after this storm cycle and we could be back into fire season again," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-21-Reno%20Brush%20Fire/id-9398aec7618a4e9f95aa53f14409992c

mark driscoll brandi glanville unemployment rate unemployment rate stephen hawking jesse ventura keri russell

New Zealand reveals high-octane arrest in Internet fraud case (Reuters)

WELLINGTON (Reuters) ? New Zealand police on Saturday revealed bizarre details of the arrest of the suspected kingpin of an Internet copyright theft case against the James Bond-like backdrop of a country mansion hideaway with electronic locks, a safe room and a pink Cadillac.

German national Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, was one of four men arrested on Friday, a day before his 38th birthday, in an investigation of the Megaupload.com website led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The group was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising.

A police official said dozens of officers, backed by helicopters, forced their way into the mansion, nestled in lush, rolling farmland, after Dotcom refused them entry, a scene more reminiscent of a high-octane spy drama than the usual policeman's lot in rural New Zealand.

"Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic-locking mechanisms," said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand.

Officers broke the locks and Dotcom barricaded himself into a safe room which officers had to cut their way through to gain access.

"Once they gained entry into this room, they found Mr Dotcom near a firearm which had the appearance of a shortened shotgun," he said. "It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door."

ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM

Two firearms were seized and a 55-year-old New Zealand man has since been charged with illegal possession of a pistol. Computers and documents were also retrieved and more than NZ$10 million ($8 million) was seized from financial institutions.

Television footage showed vehicles, including a pink Cadillac and a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, being removed from the property.

The house where Dotcom was arrested was one of the largest and most expensive in the country, worth around NZ$30 million.

Located in hills northwest of New Zealand's largest city, the mansion is surrounded -- at suitably discreet distances -- by other substantial country homes and luxury lifestyle blocks complete with stables, swimming pools and tennis courts.

Dotcom leased the property after being blocked from buying it last year by the government after failing to meet a "good character" test for migrants, although he was granted residency in 2010.

Dotcom has previous convictions for insider trading and embezzlement from his time in Germany and Thailand, according immigration authorities, leading some opposition politicians to question why he was allowed to settle in the first place.

"New Zealand is under the radar, away from Interpol and a better lifestyle than Eastern Europe," Jeffrey Carr, an Internet security expert founder of Taia Global Inc, said of Dotcom's decision to settle in New Zealand.

"They obviously weren't aware how closely the FBI has been building its international relationships over the past few years."

The FBI said Dotcom personally made $42 million from Megaupload in 2010 alone.

Standing some 6'7" tall and reportedly weighing around 300 pounds (136 kg), Dotcom appeared to revel in his outlaw reputation.

Personalized number plates on some 20 vehicles seized from the site included KIMCOM, HACKER, STONED, GUILTY, MAFIA, GOD and POLICE, according to the indictment.

One video on YouTube shows him racing a Mercedes in the Gumball 3000 road rally and talking about bribing a Moroccan official.

Another clip shows a 2011 New Year's Eve fireworks display over Auckland organized and paid for by Dotcom to celebrate his family being granted residency. The display was reported to have cost $500,000.

PIRACY DEBATE

The arrests were made as the debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where Congress is trying to craft tougher legislation.

Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation on Friday, postponing a critical vote in a victory for Internet companies that staged a mass online protest against the fast-moving bills.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

Dotcom and the other men made a brief court appearance on Friday will appear again on Monday. They face extradition and a trial in the United States.

On Friday, in a show of support, hackers attacked and temporarily disabled a number of government and entertainment company websites, including the U.S. Justice Department's website.

U.S. Justice Department officials have said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders cited in a U.S. indictment was at the low end.

The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. Two of the offences carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.

The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom.

Some 100 officers raided four premises in Hong Kong on Friday including luxury hotel rooms, seizing computer equipment and freezing HK$330 million ($42.5 million) in financial assets, according to Hong Kong Customs.

Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet.

Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the U.S. indictment said.

Megaupload's U.S. lawyer said the company would "vigorously defend itself" and was trying to recover its servers and get back online.

The Megaupload group used more than 1,500 computer servers in Virginia, Washington D.C., France and the Netherlands to host its sites, according to the FBI.

(Additional reporting by Chris McCall, Michael Perry and James Pomfret; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/wr_nm/us_internet_piracy_megaupload

olin kreutz olin kreutz au pair au pair trinidad trinidad jeff bezos

First Look: Verizon Galaxy Nexus Seidio Innocell 3800mAh Super Extended Battery

For all you heavy Verizon Galaxy Nexus users out there, your days of rapidly depleting battery life thanks to that power-hungry 4G LTE radio are finally over thanks to the new Seidio Innocell 3800mAh Super Extended Battery -- and, yeah -- this thing's a beast.  Check past the break for a brief look at the battery and its features.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/4ccS9DvqhjU/story01.htm

shayne lamas cain velasquez dos santos waterboarding boxing news boxing andy dalton

Erick Silva ?s DQ will stand, but UFC implementing replay

Remember Erick Silva's bizarre disqualification at UFC 142? The one that caused the Brazilian prospect to go from jubilant to despondent in about .15 seconds? The one that made UFC commentator Joe Rogan call out referee Mario Yamasaki's judgment while in the Octagon? The one that made us all wonder why there's no instant replay in MMA?

Yeah, that one? It won't be overturned. Since the fight was in Brazil, with no regulatory commission, the UFC served as the regulator of the fight. They announced that they have no plans to change the fight to a no-contest.

From Marc Ratner, the UFC's vice president of government and regulatory affairs:

"Based on the referee's verbal warnings and his determination that the blows were intentional and a disqualifying foul, this is not the type of decision that can be reviewed," Ratner stated. "Therefore, the decision stands."

However, Ratner did share some good news. The UFC will start using instant replay at their self-regulated, international events, and will encourage state commissions to come into the 90s and use replay.

While it may not be the exact outcome that MMA fans -- or Erick Silva -- wants, it's still a good sign that the UFC is willing to make a change to improve the sport overall.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/erick-silva-dq-stand-ufc-implementing-replay-154335851.html

spongebob bot foot locker cats funny pics funny pics contagion