Friday, November 30, 2012

A look at scandals involving UK media

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2012 file photo, actor Hugh Grant speaks during the news conference for the film "Cloud Atlas" during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. Lord Justice Brian Leveson will release his report, Thursday, Nov. 29 2012, on a year-long inquiry into the culture and practices of the British press and his recommendations for future regulation to prevent phone hacking, data theft, bribery and other abuses. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Aaron Vincent Elkaim, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2012 file photo, actor Hugh Grant speaks during the news conference for the film "Cloud Atlas" during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. Lord Justice Brian Leveson will release his report, Thursday, Nov. 29 2012, on a year-long inquiry into the culture and practices of the British press and his recommendations for future regulation to prevent phone hacking, data theft, bribery and other abuses. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Aaron Vincent Elkaim, File)

FILE - In this July 28, 2011 file photo, Lord Justice Brian Leveson speaks during the first formal session of his phone hacking inquiry in London. Leveson, who spent a year investigating the misdeeds of Britain's lively newspapers, is giving Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron an early look at his recommendations on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 for the regulation of the press. (AP Photo/Sean Dempsey, Pool-File)

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron walks back to number 10 through Downing Street in London, after arriving back from Prime Minister's Question at the Houses of Parliament, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. The judge who spent a year investigating the misdeeds of Britain's lively newspapers is giving Prime Minister David Cameron an early look at his recommendations for the regulation of the press. Officials say Cameron will get a copy of Lord Justice Brian Leveson's report Wednesday, a day before the public sees it, but Cameron is already being besieged with advice about how to respond to the still-secret recommendations. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron walks out the front door of 10 Downing Street in London, to greet the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah during his State Visit to the UK, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. The judge who spent a year investigating the misdeeds of Britain's lively newspapers is giving Prime Minister David Cameron an early look at his recommendations for the regulation of the press. Officials say Cameron will get a copy of Lord Justice Brian Leveson's report Wednesday, a day before the public sees it, but Cameron is already being besieged with advice about how to respond to the still-secret recommendations. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

(AP) ? After a yearlong inquiry full of sensational testimony, Britain's Lord Justice Brian Leveson released a report Thursday into the culture and practices of the British press and his recommendations for future regulation to prevent phone hacking, data theft, bribery and other abuses.

The long-simmering scandal has already led to scores of arrests and some criminal charges. Dozens of cases have been settled out of court after victims of press intrusion sued. Here are some of the cases the Leveson inquiry has investigated:

MILLY DOWLER

The 13-year-old girl was abducted and murdered in 2002. In July 2011, it was reported that employees of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid had hacked into her telephone while police were still searching for her, giving her parents false hope that she was alive. Her mother, Sally Dowler, told the inquiry that when she could again leave a message on her missing daughter's phone, she shouted: "She's picked up the voice mails! ... She's alive!" Outrage over this case prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to commission the Leveson inquiry.

KATE and GERRY McCANN

Their young daughter Madeleine had vanished during a vacation in Portugal. The parents said newspapers were sympathetic at first but coverage later turned hostile. One story said the couple had sold their daughter into slavery, another that they had killed her and hid her body in a freezer. The couple successfully sued several British newspapers over suggestions that they had caused their daughter's death and then covered it up. Kate McCann described her dismay when extracts from her private diary ? in which she wrote to her missing daughter ? appeared in the News of the World in 2008. "I felt totally violated," she said. "There was absolutely no respect shown to me as a grieving mother or as a human being, or to my daughter."

HUGH GRANT

The popular actor testified that since "Four Weddings and a Funeral" made him a movie star, details of his hospital visits had been leaked, his garbage was rifled through, his ex-girlfriend and his infant daughter harassed. He said an article earlier this year in The Sun and the Daily Express about his visit to a hospital emergency room was a gross intrusion of privacy. "I think no one would expect their medical records to be made public or to be appropriated by newspapers for commercial profit. That is fundamental to our British sense of decency," he said.

J.K. ROWLING

The best-selling author of the Harry Potter series said she was completely unprepared for the tsunami of media attention when the first of her books became a sensational success. "It feels threatening to have people watching you," she said. Rowling said she had tried to keep her three children out of the media glare and was outraged when her eldest daughter came home from primary school with a letter from a journalist in her backpack. "I felt such a sense of invasion," she said.

CHARLOTTE CHURCH

A singer who became a star as a teenager, Church said she had been asked to perform at Rupert Murdoch's wedding to Wendi Deng and was offered either a $100,000 fee or a promise of favorable treatment from his newspapers. She took the latter but was hounded anyway. "In fact, Mr. Murdoch's newspapers have since been some of the worst offenders," she said. Between the ages of 16 and 20, Church said photographers were frequently stationed around the clock outside her home. Church said that she was repeatedly chased in her car and suffered "the indignity of paparazzi trying to take photographs up my skirt and down my top."

CHARLOTTE HARRIS

A lawyer who represented several people who claimed to be hacking victims, Harris testified that she was a victim of "highly intrusive" surveillance by newspapers. The purpose, she said, "was to obtain information which could be made public in the hope of putting pressure on me, presumably to deter me and my clients from pursuing claims against the company."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-29-Britain-Phone%20Hacking-Glance/id-53216e6882c94428884a0de40cc51f68

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Uncrashable Rolling Robot Takes To the Skies To Avoid Obstacles

Researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology have developed a novel take on the rollcage-wrapped flying bot that does more than just protect the rotors during a crash. Its HyTAQ, or Hybrid Terrestrial and Aerial Quadrotor, uses a spinning cylindrical cage that also allows it to simply roll along the ground to get around. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/oci9JVBocA8/uncrashable-rolling-robot-takes-to-the-skies-to-avoid-obstacles

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A 3-D Optogenetics Chip Developed At The MIT Media Lab Promises Better Control Of The Brain

Technology Review:

Optogenetics, which pairs light-sensitive genes with a light source to selectively switch brain cells on or off, has shown promise as a research tool and a potential therapy. But the technology mostly delivers light to one spot, whereas brain activity usually involves complex sequences of activation in different locations. A new device takes optogenetics into three dimensions, with the ability to send patterns of light to neurons at various co?rdinates in the brain.

Read the whole story at Technology Review

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/a-3-d-optogenetics-chip-d_n_2211145.html

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Parting Schotts: Union hockey to have 'Coaches vs. Cancer' day Saturday against Princeton

The Union men's hockey team will have its Coaches vs. Cancer day on Saturday, when the eighth-ranked Dutchmen face Princeton at 4 p.m. at Messa Rink.

The event will be held in honor of Kristen Shinebarger, the 10-year old daughter of Shelly, Union?s Director of Student Support Services. The game will raise funds to help support American Cancer efforts to help people in the Capital Region stay well, get well, find cures and fight back.

As part of the initiative, the Union coaching and support staff will wear sneakers as part of the Suits and Sneakers program, and the players will wear yellow sock tape. Fans will have the opportunity to fill out an official Coaches vs. Cancer pin up card at the front entrance of Messa Rink in honor of those affected by cancer. The cards will be placed on a "Wall of Hope" inside the rink and displayed at future games.

The team has rallied around the event in honor of Kristen Shinebarger, who is battling Ewing?s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

For Friday's game against Quinnipiac, it will be Toys for Tots night. The team will collect unwrapped toys for children in the lobby of Messa Rink.

There will also be a Teddy Bear Toss during the second intermission. Fans are encouraged to bring plush toys/teddy bears for the toss.

Source: http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2012/nov/28/union-hockey-to-have-coaches-vs-cancer-day-saturda/

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Balloon test shows space tourism on horizon

23 hrs.

Not all space tourism is rocket science. A newly successful test of a balloon could allow paying human customers to enjoy stunning Earth views and the weightless astronaut experience by 2014.?

The test balloon carried a humanoid robot up to an altitude of almost 20 miles (32 kilometers) on Nov. 12 ? just a few miles shy of where skydiver Felix Baumgartner leaped from during his "space dive" in October. Startup Zero 2 Infinity wants to eventually offer hours of flight time for space tourists to do whatever they want in a near-space environment.?

"Some people will want to tweet," said Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales, founder and CEO of Zero 2 Infinity. "Some will want to put down a carpet and pray to mecca. Some people will want to eat their favorite buffalo wings while they're up there."

Video: Near-space balloon soars in flight test

The Spanish company already has customers on its wait list?who paid an early deposit of almost $13,000 (10,000 euros) as the first installment out of a total ticket price of $143,000 (110,000 euros). It has also attracted funding from the world's second-largest balloon manufacturer, Spain's third-largest bank, and several angel investors by proving its concept step-by-step and by relying on proven helium balloon technologies.?

Flight testing took place at an Air Force base near Virgen del Camino in Spain. But Lopez-Urdiales envisions future flights launching from many other locations in the country.?

The balloon experience?
A typical predawn flight would take several hours to reach maximum altitude, so that passengers could enjoy seeing the sun rise against the blackness of space and see the curvature of the planet Earth. Luckily, the balloon would not need to get anywhere near the 62-mile (100 km) altitude that marks the official edge of space for its riders to enjoy stellar views.?

"You would spend two hours at the floating altitude of 36 kilometers (22 miles)," Lopez-Urdiales told TechNewsDaily. "We could do it higher, but it would not make any difference, because you already see the same visual cues at 39 kilometers or even 100 kilometers."?

Getting back down would mean cutting the cord between the balloon and the enclosed passenger capsule. Passengers could experience about 40 to 60 seconds of weightlessness during free fall, before parachutes and a parafoil carried them safely down to Earth.?

The recent test flight gave Zero 2 Infinity its first successful test of a balloon capsule large enough to carry humans, but only if the two people spent the entire trip lying down. An earlier flight test scheduled in May was canceled after?wind gusts damaged the test balloon.?

Robot test pilots?
Future versions of the balloons, called "bloons" by the company, would have donut- or bagel-shaped capsules with plenty of standing room for two pilots and four passengers. But the test capsule proved just right for the humanoid robot named Nao ? made by Aldebaran Robotics ? that stands at knee-height compared to adult humans.?

The robot rode as a passive passenger, but could someday become an active pilot that tests the controls and life-support technologies meant for humans.?

"Little by little, we're teaching it how to pilot, but that's at a very early stage," Lopez-Urdiales explained. "The idea in the future is to have?humanoid robots?testing future complex aerospace vehicles."?

The company has almost finished building a bigger test balloon that could comfortably carry two people standing up. That larger balloon could make an attempt at breaking the manned high-altitude balloon record set in the 1960s ? a record that requires the pilot to take off and land in the balloon. (Space diver Baumgartner intentionally disqualified himself by leaping out of his high-flying balloon.)?

The inner journey?
But Zero 2 Infinity doesn't just want to make money. Lopez-Urdiales envisions his balloons carrying scientific experiments or scientists high into Earth's atmosphere. His inspiration for creating the startup company came from his dad, an astrophysicist who worked on an experiment that went with the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn's moon Titan.?

"I was growing up around balloons, rockets and telescopes," Lopez-Urdiales said. "My dad tested a Huygens scientific instrument on a high-altitude balloon."?

The balloon space tourism's relatively more affordable price tag could also open the eyes of many more people through the "overview effect," Lopez-Urdiales said. Frank White, a communications director at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, coined the term to describe how astronauts gained a better appreciation of global and environmental issues after seeing the Earth surrounded by the darkness of space.?

"That's probably the biggest benefit?private spaceflight?will offer to civilians and members of the public," Lopez-Urdiales said. "The overview effect is personal experience, but then you share it. I think it goes a much longer way than bragging rights."?

You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter?, or on?Facebook.

More?stories from TechNewsDaily:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/itineraries/balloon-test-shows-space-tourism-horizon-1C7290082

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Local credit union begins planning for new headquarters

?

ALBANY COUNTY? CAP COM Federal Credit Union is planning to stay in the Wolf Road neighborhood. Following is more information on the new headquarters:

CAP COM recently entered into an agreement to purchase 11 acres of land for a new headquarters and Main Branch building at 4 Winners Circle, located off Wolf Road next to The Crossings Park. The new three-story building would be less than a mile from CAP COM?s Main Office location at 18 Computer Drive East.

The Credit Union will present building plans to the Town of Colonie Planning Board on Tuesday, Nov. 26.

?Our Main Office and Mortgage Division are nearly bursting at the seams. Right now, our primary goals are to plan for future growth and meet needs of our members. That?s part of the reason we are so excited to be staying in the neighborhood. Our members have used the Computer Drive East branch for almost 25 years and the new headquarters and Main Branch will be right down the street and easy to find,? said CAP COM President/CEO Paula A. Stopera.?

Source: http://colonie.wnyt.com/news/business/170690-local-credit-union-begins-planning-new-headquarters

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Mayor of Dawson Creek Running for Liberals

Mayor of Dawson Creek Running for Liberals

By 250 News

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 08:57 AM

Dawson Creek, B.C.- The Mayor of Dawson Creek, Mike Bernier,?is hopig to make the move to? provincial? politics.? He?will be acclaimed as the BC Liberal candidate in Peace River South.

This is the riding that? has been held by? Liberal?Blair Lekstrom? since 2001.? Lekstrom?has? decided not to run in the next race.?

Bernier says he is excited about? the? opportunity,? and? lo9oks forward to working with? Premier Christy Clark? in supporting job growth and the? economy? in the Peace region.

?


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Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 08:57 AM in News by 250 News
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Source: http://www.250news.com/blog/view/26626/1/mayor+of+dawson+creek++running+for+liberals

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Video: Will re-election momentum help Obama in second term?

Grapefruit may turn more drugs deadly

If you kick-start your day with a glass of grapefruit juice, be careful. Canadian scientists say the number of common prescription drugs that can interact badly with the tart citrus is climbing, with the potential for dangerous, even deadly, results.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/49971575#49971575

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Bob Marshall: Virginia GOP Pressures Me '7 Days A Week' To Drop Anti-Abortion Agenda

Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William), the author of the state's fetal personhood bill, says he has always been a bit of a thorn in the side of the mainstream Republican Party. But since the 2012 election, he said, the party is "more overtly gun-shy" about dealing with abortion, and the pressure from GOP leadership to back off of his socially conservative agenda is constant.

"It doesn't happen more than seven days a week, 52 weeks a year," he told The Huffington Post sarcastically in an interview. "Through committee assignments, being shoved aside ... I've had to deal with things the hard way."

He added, "The Republican consultants have advised ducking these social issues for years. The social conservatives don't get any credit when they help Republicans win, but they get blamed by the consultant class when they lose."

Marshall was dealt a blow this weekend when state Sen. Steve Martin (R), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, told The Washington Examiner that he was letting Marshall's controversial personhood bill die without a full vote. The bill passed the House earlier this year with the backing of Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and passed out of the Senate Health Committee.

The full Senate voted to continue the bill into the next legislative session, but state Sen. Harry Blevins (R-Chesapeake), the swing vote on personhood in the Health Committee, has since revoked his support for the measure. Martin told the Washington Examiner that if he had the eight votes he needed to pass the personhood bill out of committee, he would be happy to do it, but he doesn't want to waste taxpayer money by working on a bill that has no chance of passing. "There might be less of an appetite [for social bills], and I want to take up the bills that we can get passed," he said.

Marshall said he believes GOP leadership is deliberately using committee assignments to "set this pro-life legislation up for failure."

"When I saw that Harry Blevins was the swing vote, I said, 'That's the kiss of death right there,'" he said. "It's very clear, when you put someone who's a known switch-hitter on a committee, you know what you're doing."

Although a majority of Virginians voted for President Barack Obama this time around, Marshall said he does not believe his constituents were rejecting his social agenda. He thinks Mitt Romney was not principled enough on social issues to inspire the conservative base. "I'm not saying I could have found a better candidate, but this is the second time the Republican establishment has had their way and the second time their candidate has lost," he said. "We had to whisper, '[Romney] will be for us in these instances.' There is no champion who says, 'This is what I believe and why I believe it.' We have to do it in the closet, and that is not gonna cut it."

Marshall strongly opposes abortion (in all circumstances), same-sex marriage, funding for Planned Parenthood and the insurance coverage of contraception. If the Republican establishment continues to reject the bills he writes, he said, he will use backdoor methods to advance his legislation. He said he is "always looking for bills to amend" with abortion-related stipulations in order to force members to go on record in support or opposition.

"For example, I might amend a bill that deals with life insurance to say the child killed in utero should be recognized as a legal person," he said. "Just put that in there and stipulate it. I've seen massive shifts on lobbying and delegates pulling their bills because they know I'll amend them and that I know how to do it in a germane way."

Members of Congress have frequently used this legislative tactic to pass controversial measures. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tried to attach a fetal personhood amendment to a federal flood insurance bill earlier this year, and Sen. Roy Blount (R-Mo.) attached an amendment relating to contraception to a Senate transportation bill in February.

Marshall said it doesn't bother him that his anti-abortion amendments might kill or stall an important bill that would otherwise pass, because in his opinion, no matter could be more important than ending abortion. "You're talking about human beings being killed," he said. "What higher considerations do I put out there?"

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/bob-marshall-virginia-abortion_n_2192979.html

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What is the Point of Marriage? | datingish

What is the Point of Marriage?


This post was submitted by Stella.

So, it?s the weekend and I've been doing my own bit to contribute to the society by heaping my electricity bill while putting in my time on the couch. I am a TV troll. I watch pretty much every TV show you can imagine. Sometimes I wonder how I have time for anything else. Anyway, I digress; back to the point of this post.

Amongst the multitude of reality shows I watch, I noticed a common trend among a majority of the characters that were in relationships: They were living together (a few with kids or planning on having kids). Basically, living like a ?married couple? and for some reason a few of the women were unhappy because "he hadn't put a ring on it."

I look at the couples around me as well and it?s the same situation. One lady in particular stands out to me. She finally got her proposal and is in the thick of planning her wedding. As part of her planning, she has come up with a list of things that must change after marriage. The list includes things like no more late nights with the boys, no friends crashing at their place, and it goes on. They?ve been living together for years and they have two kids (6 & 2). In my eyes, their situation isn?t changing; all they are doing is adding the title of husband/wife and Mrs for the lady.

They already have the companionship, they are sharing responsibilities, supporting each other's dreams and all that good stuff that marriage is supposed to be about. What motivation does the guy have to change his ways? With the current divorce rates I ask, are people getting married just to have the ceremony to splash cash and show off just how much money they are making? Or is it that people believe that the piece of paper they sign will guarantee that they will be together forever? Is getting married just another trend??

I personally feel that if you?ve got a good thing going adding the titles ?Husband? or ?Wife? can only add undue pressure to the relationship. I don?t know if I have been living in my own little bubble for so long that I'm late at noticing this trend, but if so, please forgive me but I still want to hear your thoughts.

In the world we live in today and the way ?dating? is handled, what is the point of marriage??

Source: http://www.datingish.com/769972261/what-is-the-point-of-marriage/

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US Small Business Never Recovered From the Great Recession

By Walter Kurtz, Sober Look

US small business optimism continues to improve gradually, but still remains at recessionary levels. One of the big problems for small businesses remains the uncertainty in future economic conditions. 23% of survey respondents say they have no clue what to expect from the economy going forward. That?s the highest level of uncertainty since the Jimmy Carter administration.

And as discussed earlier (see post), uncertainty can materially inhibit economic growth.

Credit conditions don?t seem to be a problem in part due to the lack of demand. With uncertainty at such high levels, the last thing a number of small businesses want to do is increase debt levels.

Weak sales are the number one single issue cited in the survey, but regulation and taxes are still a major concern for US small business ? which of course contributes to more uncertainty.

DB: -?Together, government requirements and taxes are cited by 39% of small businesses as their biggest problem among the eight remaining components.?While this is down from 42% in September, it is clearly an elevated reading that likely needs to fall substantially further for small business confidence to ultimately trend higher.

Just to put things in perspective, small businesses represent half the private GDP and half the private workforce in the US. That explains in part the anemic economic growth in the US over the last several years.

Sober Look

Sober Look was founded by Walter Kurtz, a New York based hedge fund manager and credit markets specialist.

More Posts - Website

Source: http://pragcap.com/us-small-business-never-recovered-from-the-great-recession

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Monday, November 26, 2012

Brash boxer 'Macho' Camacho dies in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? Hector "Macho" Camacho was a brash fighter with a mean jab and an aggressive style, launching himself furiously against some of the biggest names in boxing. And his bad-boy persona was not entirely an act, with a history of legal scrapes that began in his teens and continued throughout his life.

The man who once starred at the pinnacle of boxing, winning several world titles, died Saturday after being ambushed in a parking lot back in the Puerto Rican town of Bayamon where he was born. Packets of cocaine were found were found in the car in which he was shot.

Camacho, 50, left behind a reputation for flamboyance ? leading fans in cheers of "It's Macho time!" before fights ? and for fearsome skills as one of the top fighters of his generation.

"He excited boxing fans around the world with his inimitable style," promoter Don King told The Associated Press.

Camacho fought professionally for three decades, from his humble debut against David Brown at New York's Felt Forum in 1980 to an equally forgettable swansong against Saul Duran in Kissimmee, Florida, in 2010.

In between, he fought some of the biggest stars spanning two eras, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Roberto Duran.

"Hector was a fighter who brought a lot of excitement to boxing," said Ed Brophy, executive director of International the Boxing Hall of Fame. "He was a good champion. Roberto Duran is kind of in a class of his own, but Hector surely was an exciting fighter that gave his all to the sport."

Camacho's family moved to New York when he was young and he grew up in Spanish Harlem, which at the time was rife with crime. Camacho landed in jail as a teenager before turning to boxing, which for many kids in his neighborhood provided an outlet for their aggression.

"This is something I've done all my life, you know?" Camacho told The Associated Press after a workout in 2010. "A couple years back, when I was doing it, I was still enjoying it. The competition, to see myself perform. I know I'm at the age that some people can't do this no more."

Former featherweight champion Juan Laporte, a friend since childhood, described Camacho as "like a little brother who was always getting into trouble," but otherwise combined a friendly nature with a powerful jab.

"He's a good human being, a good hearted person," Laporte said as he waited with other friends and members of the boxer's family outside the hospital in San Juan after the shooting. "A lot of people think of him as a cocky person but that was his motto ... Inside he was just a kid looking for something."

Laporte lamented that Camacho never found a mentor to guide him outside the boxing ring.

"The people around him didn't have the guts or strength to lead him in the right direction," Laporte said. "There was no one strong enough to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him how to do it."

George Lozada, a longtime friend from New York who flew to Puerto Rico on Saturday, recalled that just hours after he was released from prison after serving a murder sentence, he received a call from Camacho, who was waiting outside his apartment in a black Porsche.

"He said, 'Come down, I'm taking you shopping,'" Lozada said, wiping away tears.

"Because of him, man, I got what I got today," he said, pointing to pictures on his smartphone of his 6-year-old daughter. "Because of Hector, I stopped the drug scene ... He's helped so many people."

Drug, alcohol and other problems trailed Camacho himself after the prime of his boxing career. He was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison for the burglary of a computer store in Mississippi. While arresting him on the burglary charge in January 2005, police also found the drug ecstasy.

A judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation. He wound up serving two weeks in jail, though, after violating that probation.

Camacho's former wife, Amy, obtained a restraining order against him in 1998, alleging he threatened her and one of their children. The couple, who had two children at the time, later divorced.

He divided his time between Puerto Rico and Florida in recent years, appearing on Spanish-language television as well as on a reality show called "Es Macho Time!" on YouTube.

Inside the boxing ring, Camacho flourished. He won three Golden Gloves titles as an amateur, and after turning pro, he quickly became a contender with an all-action style reminiscent of other Puerto Rican fighters.

Long promoted by Don King, Camacho won his first world title by beating Rafael Limon in a super-featherweight bout in Puerto Rico on Aug. 7, 1983. He moved up in weight two years later to capture a lightweight title by defeating Jose Luis Ramirez, and successfully defended the belt against fellow countryman Edwin Rosario.

The Rosario fight, in which the victorious Camacho still took a savage beating, persuaded him to scale back his ultra-aggressive style in favor of a more cerebral, defensive approach.

The change in style was a big reason that Camacho, at the time 38-0, lost a close split decision to Greg Haugen at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in 1991.

Camacho won the rematch to set up his signature fight against Mexico's Julio Cesar Chavez, this time at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Camacho was roundly criticized for his lack of action, and the Mexican champion won a lopsided unanimous decision to retain the lightweight title.

"Even though people say I beat him easily, it wasn't that way," Chavez told Mexico's ESPN-Radio Formula this week. "He was a very fast fighter, he faced everything and it was very hard for me."

"He revolutionized boxing, Chavez said. "It's a shame he got mixed up in so many problems."

After that loss, Camacho became the name opponent for other rising contenders, rather than the headliner fighting for his own glory.

He lost a unanimous decision to another young Puerto Rican fighter, Trinidad, and was soundly defeated by De La Hoya. In 1997, Camacho ended Leonard's final comeback with a fifth-round knockout. It was Camacho's last big victory even though he boxed for another decade.

The fighter's last title bout came in 1997 against welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya, who won by unanimous decision. Camacho's last fight was his defeat by Saul Duran in May 2010. He had a career record of 79-6-3.

Doctors pronounced Camacho dead on Saturday after he was removed from life support at his family's direction. He never regained consciousness after at least one gunman crept up to the car in a darkened parking lot and opened fire.

No arrests and have been made, and authorities have not revealed many details beyond the facts that police found cocaine in the car and that the boxer and his friend, who was killed at the scene, had no idea the attack was coming. "Apparently, this was a surprise," said Alex Diaz, a police spokesman.

Survivors include his mother; three sisters, Raquel, Estrella and Ester; a brother, Felix; and four sons, Hector Jr., Taylor, Christian and Justin.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brash-boxer-macho-camacho-dies-puerto-rico-165739879--spt.html

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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Bank Owned Penthouse Vale Condos Tempe - Tempe Real Estate ...

Bank Owned Penthouse Vale Condos Tempe | Just Listed Tempe Realty Co. 1111 W UNIVERSITY DR 3016 Tempe, AZ?85281

Price Tag: $244,900

Beds: 3

Baths: 3

Size: 2,257 sq. ft

HOA Mo. $210

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This property is a steal at $108 sq. ft. ?Similar units in the complex are selling at 125-150 sq. ft. ?Similar condo units in the area are selling at over 300 sq. ft. ?This is Penthouse Living within a budget. ?You can also use this as a seasonal rental or great rental income cash flow.

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Source: http://temperealestateblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/bank-owned-penthouse-vale-condos-tempe-just-listed-tempe-realty-co-1111-w-university-dr-3016-tempe-az-85281/

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Saturday, November 24, 2012

British government reaches compromise on renewable subsidies

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will triple subsidies for low-carbon power generation by 2020 after its coalition government this week forged a compromise over how to fund wind farms without harming the future of gas-fired power.

The compromise became possible after the government agreed to postpone until 2016 setting a target for decarbonisation, which was opposed by many members of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party. The target is the extent to which carbon emissions are to be reduced by 2030.

The deal is expected to boost the share of renewables in Britain's energy mix to 30 percent by 2020, outpacing European Union targets of 20 percent, and create thousands of new jobs.

"Today we've reached a landmark agreement on energy policy that's going to deliver a clear, durable signal to investors," Cameron's spokeswoman said.

Under the agreed Levy Control Framework, spending on renewable power generation will increase to 7.6 billion pounds a year in real terms by 2020, from the current 2.35 billion pounds, to reduce dependence on gas.

The renewable spending plans will be funded through further rises in household energy bills, which are increasingly unaffordable for many consumers.

Responding to criticism from the British media, Cameron's spokeswoman said the shift toward renewable energy was not the main contributor to higher energy bills, which she said was due to high gas prices and infrastructure investment.

"While the proportion of people's bills will slightly increase in terms of the green aspects, actually when it comes to 2020, the net impact will be that people's bills will fall," she added.

Others were less convinced.

"The proposals are very negative for consumers," Liberium Capital, a London-based investment bank said.

"At face value a 7.5 billion pounds nominal rise in low carbon support could equate to an 80 pounds (20 percent) per household bill increase," it said.

Renewable spending will be focused on rewarding low-carbon power producers like renewables, nuclear and fossil fuel plants fitted with carbon capture and storage technology, a Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said.

Divisions over spending plans between energy minister Ed Davey and Chancellor George Osborne have delayed key agreements over energy policy at a time of painful austerity measures introduced by the government.

NEW JOBS, INVESTMENT

The new agreement paves the way for the introduction of the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) Bill next week.

Industry group RenewableUK said the plans would create tens of thousands of jobs, bring forward at least 40 billion pounds of private sector investment and allow for a massive expansion of the UK's renewable energy sector.

"The government needs to maintain this momentum in the forthcoming Energy Bill (or EMR)," Renewable UK's Chief Executive Maria McCaffrey said.

"Those investors put 2.5 billion pounds into the industry this year - this will now increase exponentially," she added.

The extra investment announced on Friday will see renewables' share of the energy mix rise from 11 percent now, driven primarily by the 31 gigawatts of wind energy to be installed by 2020.

The spending increase will also help to support new nuclear power and the commercial use of untested carbon capture and storage technologies, the government said.

"This is a durable agreement across the coalition (government), against which companies can invest and support jobs and our economic recovery," Davey said in a statement.

However, environmental group WWF said the postponement in setting a decarbonisation target represented a failure of leadership.

"Having a 2030 decarbonisation target is nothing that Mr Cameron's government should be afraid of, given that it is a key requirement to deliver the legally binding Climate Change Act commitments, which Mr Cameron played such a key part in delivering," WWF's David Nussbaum said.

Nussbaum added that engineering companies such as Spain's Gamesa and Germany's Siemens, who want to invest in the UK's renewable supply chain, need clear long-term government commitments before entering the market.

GAS OPPORTUNITIES

Reforms are required to attract the 110 billion pounds of low-carbon energy investment that the government says is needed to replace ageing electricity plants fuelled by gas, coal and nuclear, up to a fifth of which face retirement this decade.

However, the EMR bill could be a boon for the gas industry.

"EMR is obviously focused on low carbon, but today's announcements give as much to gas-fired generation as to renewables and nuclear," said Ben Stansfield, senior associate specialising in energy at law firm Clifford Chance.

The government on Friday committed to establishing a system whereby backup power plants, mainly gas-fired, are paid to be ready to fill supply gaps created when the wind does not blow or demand rises during peak time.

Auctions for backup power plant operators will start in 2014 to provide backup capacity in 2018/19, the government said.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas; editing by David Goodman and Anthony Barker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/energy-deal-triples-renewables-subsidy-2020-082641283--finance.html

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Study questions value of mammography screening

Roughly a third of all tumors discovered in routine mammography screenings are unlikely to result in illness, according to a new study that says 30 years of the breast cancer exams have resulted in the overdiagnosis of 1.3 million American women.

The report, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, argues that the increase in breast cancer survival rates over the last few decades is due mostly to improved therapies and not screenings, which are intended to flag tumors when they are small and most susceptible to treatment. Instead, the widespread use of mammograms now results in the overdiagnosis of breast cancer in roughly 70,000 patients each year, needlessly exposing those women to the cost and trauma of treatment, the authors wrote.

"Our study raises serious questions about the value of screening mammography," wrote Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, an epidemiology and biostatistics professor at Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine. "It clarifies that the benefit of mortality reduction is probably smaller, and the harm of overdiagnosis probably larger, than has been previously recognized."

The study adds to a long-running controversy over screening mammography. Its conclusions are based upon an increasing recognition that that sophisticated screening can detect ever-smaller groups of cancer-like cells that would never become dangerous if left alone.

Some radiologists and other proponents of routine annual screenings denounced the study as harmful to women and said it was part of a coordinated campaign to cut back on the tests to reduce healthcare expenses.

"This is simply malicious nonsense," said Dr. Daniel B. Kopans, a senior breast imager at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "It is time to stop blaming mammography screening for 'overdiagnosis' and 'overtreatment' in an effort to deny women access to screening."

Welch and Dr. Archie Bleyer, an oncologist in Bend, Ore., analyzed screening data collected by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They found that between 1976 and 2008, diagnosis of early-stage cancers had more than doubled from 112 to 234 cases per 100,000 women. Meanwhile, the number of late-stage cancers fell 8%, from 102 cases to 94 cases per 100,000 women.

The authors reasoned that if screening were to help patients, it must not only find more early-stage cancers ? which it has ? it must also reduce the incidence of late-stage cancers, because the tumors would have been eliminated when they were small.

But the data found that this was not the case. For every 122 additional breast cancers detected early, the number of late-stage cancers fell by only eight. To the authors, this suggested something other than screening was largely responsible for the drop in breast cancer deaths.

Welch said the gap was even more apparent when they factored in data for women under the age of 40, who are generally too young to get regular mammograms and therefore served as a control group of sorts. The rate of breast cancer deaths for women 40 and over declined by 28% over the 32 years, while deaths for younger women fell by 42%.

"There was a larger relative reduction in mortality among women who were not exposed to screening mammography than among those who were exposed," the authors wrote. "We are left to conclude, as others have, that the good news in breast cancer ? decreasing mortality ? must largely be the result of improved treatment, not screening."

Welch, an expert on screening and overdiagnosis for many forms of cancer, said the disparity between early- and late-stage diagnosis trends was probably the result of tumors being detected that were too small to ever cause clinical symptoms. He said it was likely that many of the suspicious cells revealed by screening mammography would have regressed, or never progressed to malignancy.

The idea that breast tumors may resolve on their own has been advanced by European doctors for several years. Welch and others suspect that screening technology has allowed doctors to find cells that may resemble cancer, but whose true nature is only beginning to be understood.

"We hear the word 'cancer' and we all assume the definition that's in my medical dictionary ? it's a tumor that, left untreated, will inexorably grow and cause death," Welch said. "But now, as we look for really early forms of the disease, we realize the pathologic definition of cancer includes abnormalities that may come and go."

Such growths are so small that in the past they would never have been detected by a doctor or reported by a patient. That is no longer the case, Welch said.

"Our ability to detect things is far ahead of our wisdom of knowing what they really mean," he said.

What's more, cancers can now be treated successfully even after they grow large enough to cause symptoms, thereby reducing the benefit of catching them at the earliest stages. He compared screening for breast cancer to screening for pneumonia: "Since pneumonia can be treated successfully, no one would suggest that we screen for it."

The study was roundly criticized by radiologists who specialize in breast imaging, who questioned its methodology and the suggestion that some cancer-like growths should be ignored.

"It's kind of unbelievable that they're telling us we're finding too many early-stage cancers," said Dr. Stamatia Destounis, a breast imager in Rochester, N.Y. "Isn't that the point?"

She acknowledged that screening mammography was not perfect and that some growths would be discovered that were benign. However, the notion that cancer-like masses should not be treated was difficult to accept.

"There is no way for us to know which early-stage breast cancer would not progress and which one would progress to an invasive, aggressive breast cancer," Destounis said. "How would we tell a patient, 'Chances are this is early and it's probably not going to progress for a long time, if ever, so I don't think you need to do much here'? There's just no way for us to say that."

Dr. Stephen Feig, a radiologist at UC Irvine and president of the American Society of Breast Disease, called the study scientifically weak and worried that it would dissuade women from undergoing screening. "This is actually harming women," he said.

Most medical organizations, including the American Cancer Society, advise healthy women to get screened every one or two years beginning at age 40.

In 2009, however, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force came to the controversial conclusion that this level of testing exacted an unnecessary toll on patients in the form of financial cost, anxiety, radiation exposure, false positives and overtreatment. The government advisory panel now recommends that women between the ages of 50 and 74 with no risk factors for breast cancer be screened every other year. Women who are at increased risk ? because of family history or certain genetic characteristics ? may begin screening at age 40 and have mammograms more often, the panel says.

Welch said he was not advising women to stop being screened, only that they should be aware of mammography's shortcomings. Instead of conducting annual screenings on the basis of age, he said, the test should be based on risk: "It's women at the highest risk of dying from breast cancer that stand to benefit the most from screening, and they're the least likely to be overdiagnosed."

He also emphasized that women who develop symptoms, such as a lump in the breast, should not hesitate to get a mammogram.

"No one argues about the value of diagnostic mammography," he said. "The question is whether we should invite women, coerce them, threaten them, scare them to come get checked when nothing's wrong."

monte.morin@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/u64SpWNidGs/la-sci-breast-cancer-screening-20121122,0,1945484.story

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Reverse Culture Shock: Food, Fat & Physical Activity

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

One thing our journey has taught us is to pay attention ? mostly because everything is new all the time when you travel for a living. We have to make decisions every single day on lodging, transportation, food, and activities. In cultivating this habit of paying attention, we?ve had a side benefit of losing a combined total of 70 pounds (32 kg).

How is that, you ask? We?re paying attention to what we?re eating, when we actually get hungry, and how we move every day. It?s become second nature because for the most part it?s how people around us act. This is why landing on the shores of the US after 2 years away was such a shock.

Today I?m going to share our observations on how paying attention helped us lose weight, gain energy, and achieve healthier blood counts. And I?m also going to scare the shit out of you over the increasingly unhealthy lifestyle of many Americans and how this will greatly affect our chances of living the lifestyles of our dreams. (I?m guessing your dream doesn?t include daily medications or preventable physical limitations.) You?ll also learn how people in other countries consume food and stay healthy (or not).

Ready for a little tough love? Keep reading.

Do I look fat in these facts?

People are big in the US. Bigger than people in any other country we?ve visited (and that includes the cheese-eating French, the sausage-consuming Germans, the potato-eating-and-drinking Russians, the steak-munching Argentinians, and the fish-n-chips-scarfing Brits).

Americans are generally the richest yet most unhealthy people we?ve seen on our travels.?Americans are not just tall or big-boned ? we are mostly overweight and tending toward obese.

I always knew Americans had a weight problem but the enormity of it didn?t register until we came back after a 2-year absence. And it?s not just me making the observation.

  • Just this summer the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine rated the fattest nations in the world and the US came in at #3, right behind the island nations of Tonga and Micronesia. (Click here?to find out how your weight compares to adults in other countries.)
  • When you add up all the world?s weight and divide it by country, the US accounts for 1/3 of the weight total even though we make up only 5% of the population. In contrast, Asia makes up 61% of the world population and takes up only 13% of the total in weight.
  • Even more alarming, the US incidence of diabetes has almost doubled since 1995 (you can really freak yourself out by clicking through?this map?from 1995 to present to see how it has changed).

During our visit to New Mexico I went to the cardiologist with?my brother?for his annual checkup. The waiting room had 30 people in it, 2 of whom were normal weight (and they were home caregivers, not patients). It makes sense that unhealthy people would be at the cardiologist, so I did the same count at several other places ? restaurants, bars, the movie theater, and stores. It always came out to at least 50% overweight people.

Despite these facts and observations, I?m not here to harp on why we individually get obese and unhealthy ? our issues from childhood, the dollar menu at McDonald?s, or the buckets of popcorn at the movies.

As usual for our site, I want to focus on the actions you can take right now to improve your life based on what we?ve learned from our travels. (And we?d better do it fast, because US ways are creeping into their societies and it won?t be long until they?re obese, too, and all the lessons are lost.)

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

What People in Other Countries Eat

People in other countries don?t typically have as easy access to ?convenience? foods as we do. Their meals are prepared in a kitchen from recognizable ingredients and are served on a plate. It doesn?t look drastically different than what their grandparents would have eaten: variations on soups, casseroles, stir-fries, salads, pasta, veggies, and sandwiches. Fruits are eaten as snacks as well as the main ingredient in many desserts.

They generally eat what is in season because that is what is most readily available. (Not so in the US, where you can have anything anytime with very little effort.) They also have an incredible amount of pride over their local and national specialties and offer them as insights into their culture. Their identity is partially explained by their food.

At dinner one night in South America a German man said to me:

The reason there is no equivalent to ?bon appetit? or ?buen provecho? in English is that your food is nothing to get excited about.?

He was a jerk, but he had a point, at least about our general appreciation and enjoyment of the act of eating.

?

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

Our own diet changed as we traveled. We began eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Meat became a side dish. We stopped eating processed food because it simply wasn?t as easily available. No more Twizzlers, microwave popcorn or boxes of salty or sugary snacks. We had to buy new clothes because the ones we brought with us were getting too big.

When we arrived in Ecuador, we were genuinely surprised at the flavor of eggs (such bright yolks!) and the juiciness of a chicken not hopped up on hormones. In fact, the chickens we ate usually came from the front yard of the restaurant or a nearby farmer.

The fruits were delicious, and we began drinking real fruit juice?for the first time in our lives. (Just last week I ate lunch with my dad, where he chose a lemonade drink labeled as 0% real fruit juice ? I?m not kidding!)

Despite this, we recognized all food is not healthy around the world.

  • YUM! Brands, the company that owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, does?40% of it?s fast food business in China.
  • In South America, children are getting fatter because increased individual income means sugary drinks like Inca Cola and bags of chips are easy for parents to buy. You can see rotted front teeth of small children in Ecuador and Peru who regularly suck on sugar cane as a snack.
  • You can find McDonald?s in almost every country in the world. (Ronald McDonald stands with his hands together for a bow to patrons entering McDonald?s in Thailand.)

Even with these unhealthy examples, overall people are still closer to a normal weight than in the US. So what else could be at play?

How People in Other Countries Eat?

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

The best part about house sitting is being able to live like a local. While house sitting in La Garriga, Spain this summer we shopped at the butcher, the baker and the vegetable market every day and the outdoor Saturday market each week. We practiced our Spanish with the shop owners, learned their tips in preparing certain foods, and got a little sunshine while we did our daily errands. We normally stopped for a coffee afterward, which was served in a ceramic mug with a small cookie by a smiling woman. Food was a social experience from the shopping to the cooking to the eating.

When drinking coffee in the morning, there is no drive-thru at the Starbucks. People actually go in to order their coffee and drink it there, standing at the bar as they down an espresso or paying a bit more to sip a cappuccino at a table. (And you only have a cappuccino in the morning, never in the afternoon or evening.) Coffee is served in ceramic cups, not paper or styrofoam, and you never get free refills, even at a diner.

The drive-thru is a US invention, and we are the only culture we?ve seen who regularly consumes meals inside a car (or even thinks of eating inside a car, actually). Meals are generally eaten at a table, on ceramic or hard plastic plates, and with metal flatware. Even at outdoor markets, we?ve more often than not gotten proper plates and flatware to eat our meals (though Asians do frequently serve ?to go? market food and drinks in plastic bags).

Meals are taken at the table, not while walking down the street, in the car or on the subway. In fact, we rarely see anyone eating outside unless they are at an outdoor cafe.

Portions are much smaller than in the US. Warren and I have been sharing restaurant portions during our visit, but we?re still eating much more than we did outside the US. It is really a mountain of food at every meal, and because we eat so fast in the US we don?t give ourselves time to note we are full. When our brains finally catch up, we?re miserable from overeating.

Eating in other countries is generally not done as a secondary activity to something else, like reading a book, watching TV or surfing online. It is almost always social. People dine with other people, and they don?t finish in 30 minutes. We?ve had countless dinners with new friends and with just each other when we truly enjoy the experience from start to finish, enjoying the meal and the conversation and not rushing through. What could be more interesting than a conversation with your mate or friends?

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

Waiters bring your check when you ask for it, long after you enjoy your coffee, not when they are ready to move you out for the next group of diners.

But even when people in other countries eat together and savor their meals, they consume some fattening foods like ice cream (helado is sold everywhere in South America), pat?, chocolate, and meals soaked in butter and cream (I?m looking at you, France). There must be something else keeping them healthy.

How People in Other Countries Move

The US is a car culture. A right of passage for most high school kids is to get a driver?s license and car, and they long for the day they can finally be ?independent? of mom and dad to go out to see friends. In other countries, public transportation, bicycles and walking are the main ways of getting around, and kids are independent from their early teens to go to school, visit friends, and explore their environments.

People in other countries walk far more than we do, even if it is just to walk to the subway or bus stop, and this habit continues throughout their lives. Walking is a normal activity every day, and many people walk or bike to do their errands. They think nothing of walking several blocks to the store or to visit a friend, even very elderly people.

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

In Lucca, Italy we watched the locals walk and jog around the top of the ancient city walls for their morning exercise, chatting with friends and neighbors along the way. In Chachapoyas, Peru, the main square is a meeting spot for locals and you can find families and couples strolling together after dinner every evening. In Amsterdam, bicycles are the main form of transportation for all residents ? moms have little wooden carts on their bikes to transport the kids to school ? so it is not a surprise most residents are very thin. In Mongolia, people walk to herd their animals and ride horses every day, which is a good thing since they mainly just eat meat and cheese. Babushkas in Russia still walk to get their daily foods and work their summer gardens in Siberia.

Even people who have cars only use them when they plan to go a significant distance, relying on their feet for local errands and transportation. It is unheard of to drive just 3 blocks, something people in the US do every day.

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

When you make movement part of your daily life, you don?t have to count calories. Warren and I have been walking as our main form of exercise for over 2 years now, and we?re stronger and healthier than we?ve ever been. We walk to shop, sightsee, and sometimes specifically for exercise. We regularly walk 5+ miles per day without even thinking about it. Here in the US, we?ve had to plan out our walks ? even driving to them occasionally! ? because most cities are not set up for foot traffic.

How This Applies to You

The US does a lot of things right. We are a prosperous country. We enjoy an abundance of food, and we are fortunate to have many choices in the way we eat and live. But this choice does not come without risk.

  • When we choose the fastest solution to fuel our bodies, we usually make bad decisions.
  • When we eat in our cars or at our desks, we are denying ourselves the pleasure of enjoying our dining experience and bonding with others.
  • When we snack in front of the television at night, we become zombies, mindlessly staring ahead and biting into any food product in our way. The Zombie Apocalypse is already here.
  • When we use the car to go everywhere, we decrease our physical independence a little bit every day as our muscles shrink and our heart works harder to carry our additional weight.

I?m not here to tell you to eat better, exercise every day or stop eating so fast (okay, maybe I am a little bit). What I really want to impart with this article is the idea of simply paying attention, the one thing we?ve implemented in our travels to lose a combined 70 (32 kg) pounds in 2 years.

Losing weight | Healthy eating | Travel and Weight Loss

You don?t have to subscribe to a new diet plan, buy a book, avoid certain foods, get a membership, or write anything down. You simply have to pay attention:

Pay attention to what you?re eating and how you?re eating it. How can you make it better so you feel good and live longer?

Pay attention to how you?re enjoying the everyday. When you make your healthy meals and exercise enjoyable, you?re apt to continue doing them.

Pay attention to what your body tells you. Are you hungry, sleepy, restless? Give your body what it needs when it needs it.

Pay attention to how much exercise you get through the course of your day. Are you maintaining your strength and vitality or letting it slowly seep out as you sit through life?

Pay attention to how you use the fortune at your disposal. Are you buying processed, junky food as your main source of nutrition, or are you investing in your body by maintaining it with health foods the majority of the time?

Food and exercise are no different than any of the other lifestyle subjects we discuss on this site. When you pay attention to something in your life, you are in a better position to understand it, learn from it, and improve it.

Pay attention to how you eat and move and you?ll be better equipped to live the life of your dreams, whether that?s in your own backyard or halfway around the world.

And isn?t that what it?s all about?

Find out how learning to gracefully handle change and growth helped me become more comfortable with my body and my life in Strip Off Your Fear: Slip Into Something More Confident. Available in paperback, Kindle, or ebook.

Source: http://www.marriedwithluggage.com/2012/11/18/reverse-culture-shock-food-fat-physical/

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Watch a Nexus 7 Die a Painful Death In This Brutal Overkill Drop Test

The worst drop any of your gadgets are likely to suffer is a couple of feet. Maybe a little more if you're dangling one over the edge of a balcony or drop it down the stairs or something. But gadgets, no matter how robust, aren't build to handle more than that. That's why this 65-foot drop test is insane and frankly unfair (if you take it seriously, anyway). It's also kind of awesome. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tKh4G5THNP4/watch-a-nexus-7-die-a-painful-death-in-this-brutal-overkill-drop-test

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U.S. lawmakers say they're confident they can avoid "fiscal cliff"

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-lawmakers-theyre-confident-avoid-fiscal-cliff-173758790--business.html

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Gumdrop Drop Tech Designer series protects your Apple iPhone 5

Last year I took a look at a few rugged iPad cases and one of them was from Gumdrop. They recently sent along one of their Drop Tech Series for iPhone 5 cases and I wanted to share some of my experiences with it. These types of cases are good for those who spend time outside working with their iPhone or have active lifestyles where their iPhone is exposed to the elements.

Check out my image gallery showing the Gumdrop Drop Tech Designer case with my iPhone 5.

I am not a huge fan of rugged cases that require me to install a separate screen protector so I was pleased to see the Gumdrop Drop Tech come with the screen protector attached to the front piece of the case. The case comes in two pieces, the front with the screen protector has a hard plastic shell. The review unit came in light blue. Unlike other rugged cases I have tried there are not two hard pieces that fit together. The front piece covers all around the front and the sides.

To hold the back in place and secure, the yellow (in this case) thick rubber piece fits over the back, around the sides, and into a groove around the front to securely hold it into place. The rubber material is not sticky like some cases I have tried so it easily fits into and out of my pocket without collecting lots of lint and dust. The back has ridges on the back and the material helps you grip the iPhone too.

There is a hard plastic black ring that fits around the camera opening to help protect the camera and add some rigidity in this area. There are covers on the bottom for the 3.5mm headset jack and Lightning port and one on the side for the ringer switch. Distinct pieces cover the power button and volume buttons so you can easily control these functions with the case on your iPhone.

The Gumdrip Drop Tech case adds very little weight to the iPhone, but it does add some bulk. This bulk is good for protecting your iPhone, especially in the corners where drops tend to have more severe consequences. The integrated screen protector doesn't seem to have much impact on the sensitivity of the display and so far has remained scratch free. You can pick up a Gumdrop Drop Tech Designer series case for $44.95. They are available in blue & pink, yellow & blue, orange & blue, and purple & pink. They also have the standard Drop Tech Series in black, red and black, and Army green for the same price.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zdnetaustralia/~3/Y4UroM4j5Q8/

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