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Monday, October 31, 2011
Clemson, KSU tumble; top 5 stay same in AP ranking (AP)
NEW YORK ? Clemson and Kansas State tumbled in The Associated Press college football poll after losing for the first time this season, and the top five teams in the rankings held their ground heading into the showdown between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama.
Clemson slipped five spots after losing 31-17 at Georgia Tech and Kansas fell seven spots to No. 17 after getting thumped 58-17 by Oklahoma.
LSU received 47 first-place votes from the media panel, Alabama had 10 and No. 5 Boise State had one.
No. 3 Oklahoma State and No. 4 Stanford held on to their spots after victories, while the Broncos were idle.
Georgia Tech's upset pushed the Yellow Jackets back into the rankings at No. 22 and Auburn jumped back in at No. 25.
The losses by Clemson and Kansas State leave six undefeated teams in major college football ? the top five and No. 14 Houston.
The rest of the top had Oregon at No. 6, Oklahoma moving up four spots to No. 7, Arkansas at No. 8 and Nebraska and South Carolina right behind.
Clemson at 11th was followed by Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia Tech.
Michigan is No. 13, its best ranking since Nov. 4, 2007.
Michigan State is No. 15, followed By Penn State, Kansas State, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona State.
The final five were Southern California, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Auburn.
The defending national champion Tigers have fallen out of the rankings three times this season, only to work their way back in.
Falling out after losses were two Big 12 teams.
Texas A&M (5-3) was upset at home 38-31 in overtime by Missouri and is unranked for the first time this season.
Texas Tech moved into the rankings last week for the first time this season by beating Oklahoma. The Red Raiders followed that up with a 41-7 loss at home to Iowa State and are unranked again.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Roleplay Daycare
Well hello there all... I had this wonderful idea in my head when I was looking at all my characters one day. I started to wonder, what do my characters do when I'm not around to look after them? Do they sit there like good boys and girls or... monster things? No! They haft to be sent somewhere, so at first I just sent guards to throw them in cryo sleep and pulled them out when it was time to roleplay. As far as they know, they just live in the world I made them to be apart in. So far it was a good idea, but then some of the roleplays ended, and I didn't want to just throw them into the unknown. I did that once with my very first character named Lance Steelstrong and I regret sending that future super soldier into the unknown. It's not like he can handle himself or anything right? Anyways, so then something stuck with me when I looked at Ambrose, in cryo sleep. That mark on her arm, a zero, mean emptiness, yet unlimited... So much to live for yet she only had very little posts. So, I adopted her to be my daughter, and be my signature character for now on. So I want to give her another chance, same thing with the you guys. Do you have a character that was in a roleplay that you feel should had a better run? Well this is your chance! Sadly I'm a very bad GM and I hate to see Ambrose fail again because I can't keep a ropleplay going.
So the plot would be the rulers, the username, you guys, pick one of your old characters that had a so called bad end in there roleplay or never even got a chance kinda deal like my poor Ambrose and you send them to the daycare instead of the unknown for however long. There they meet other characters, share there stories, get along, have fun, all that stuff. But! If you dare send them here, then they know that there were made for your entertainment and nothing more, and will haft to incorporate that with how they feel with there life. See, I treat my creations as real people, some do, some don't but we make the world they live in, and we watch as they either grow as a person or die off. Why not give them a place where if they haft to die off in are memory... They can do it in peace? Who knows? I heard the owner of the daycare has plans for the characters, something evil? Maybe they will get there chance? Only one way to find out right?
So one main question: Would anyone bother in doing a roleplay like this? Yes or no?
Comments and suggestions are welcomed.
If you won't help me do it for cute frail Ambrose... Just don't read her bio all the way... She was a beast back then... Lolz... ^_^
Scarlet's update! (x4) ---Scarlet Bullets: Time to go to day care!
Ambrose Bullets: I don't want to daddy! All the other characters are mean to me. They make fun of my hair and eyes...
Scarlet Bullets: Don't care! Should of thought about that before failing in your role play~ ^.^
Ambrose Bullets: ...That hurt... *Crys in a corner* I want mommy...
Scarlet Bullets: You don't have one! Now get to the bloody day care before I send your butt to the unknown!
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/0bJKyaI9qho/viewtopic.php
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Attorney General Holder to face lawmakers on gun sting (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Attorney General Eric Holder will testify in December to a congressional panel about a botched operation to track guns smuggled from the United States to Mexican drug cartels, officials said on Friday.
Holder has agreed go before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on December 8 which could lead to a fierce volley of accusations by congressional Republicans who have harshly questioned what the attorney general knew and when.
The debacle stemmed from an attempt to crack down on guns being smuggled to the violent drug cartels in Mexico, but agents failed to track the guns after their initial purchase.
Some have since been found at crime scenes on both sides of the border and complicated ties between the two countries.
Two weapons from the operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious", were discovered at the scene of a shootout in which a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed.
It is not known whether those guns fired the fatal bullets, but that incident led to some agents from the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to blow the whistle on the operation.
The attorney general has said he was unaware of the operation or its tactical details until after the scandal erupted earlier this year. The bungled operation has become a headache for the Obama administration.
Holder's planned congressional testimony was confirmed by spokeswomen for Holder and the committee.
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Representative Darrell Issa, has repeatedly called on Holder to testify, seeking to sort out when he became aware of the operation and details on who approved it.
Issa, also a Judiciary Committee member, has been leading an inquiry by his own committee into the affair. He has accused Holder and other Justice Department officials of knowing earlier about the operation and its tactics, pointing to memos addressed to them that broadly referred to it.
No evidence has emerged that they knew specifically of the operation or its tactics before this year. The Justice Department's inspector general is also looking into it.
The scandal led to the resignation in August of the chief federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, whose office was running the operation in conjunction with the ATF.
The acting director of the ATF at the time, Kenneth Melson, also was removed from his job.
(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Doina Chiacu)
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2012 GOP Primary Debate Schedule: Speak Up About Too Many Debates (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | As a former political consultant, and as a political historian, I attempt to look throughout American political history to find situations to learn lessons from. Right now, we are on the cusp of a political mess that we should learn from, and act on, right now. The number of GOP Primary debates needs to be cut down before they drag our political system down.
From May 5, 2011 until March 19, 2012, there are 24 GOP Primary debates on the schedule. To say that the upcoming TV schedule is inundated with debates would be an understatement. This is up by three debates from the 2008 Election. I remember having discussions with my peers at that time and finding agreement that 21 debates were too many since the traditional primary schedule would hold around twelve debates.
First off, having too many debates is stressful for the candidates. With the amount of campaigning that they already have to do, too many debates can burn candidates out. At the same time, this burns out the viewers as there is another debate every time that they turn around. While the debates give extra information about the candidates, everything becomes rehash after a dozen debates.
By the time that political commentators are done arguing over who won a debate, it is time for the next one. Every week, the Internet is flooded with articles that pick apart every comment made by each candidate in the most recent debate. We end up having a few days of reprieve and then it starts anew.
Remember, the actual election is still a year off. Do we really need to wear ourselves out with the amount of information? Do we need to hear the candidates answer the same questions asked four different ways over a twelve month period? By the time the election comes, how many voters will be so bored with the political coverage that they are turned off to voting?
How do we send a message to the GOP and the network? Don't watch the debates on TV. Having a few debates in a row that are not making money through advertising will send a quick message. Don't worry about missing information due to the fact that there will be hundreds of articles to read about the debate the next day. Also, all of the same questions will be asked in a few months at another debate.
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Ohio woman set to reclaim exotic animals from zoo (AP)
COLUMBUS, Ohio ? An Ohio zoo says despite its opposition, a woman plans to reclaim three leopards, two primates and a young grizzly bear that have been cared for by the zoo since her husband freed dozens of exotic animals at their farm and killed himself.
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium says it was notified that Marian Thompson will pick up the animals Thursday afternoon.
The zoo says it took the six surviving animals last week from a farm in Zanesville with Thompson's permission but has no legal rights to them. A spokeswoman says the zoo has contacted state and federal agencies in search of a way to keep the animals in its care and isn't giving up yet.
Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner To Reveal 'Breaking Dawn' Clip On MTV!
'Twilight' stars will stick around for lengthy Q&A after clip, which premieres November 3 at 7:56 p.m. ET.
By Kara Warner
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in "Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 1"
Photo: Summit Entertainment
Calling all "Twilight" fans! MTV has got a triple-layer treat for you in the form of exclusive interviews with your favorite three stars during our "MTV First: Breaking Dawn - Part 1."
On Thursday, November 3, at 7:56 p.m. ET on MTV, we will premiere a never-before-seen clip from the hugely anticipated new film live on-air, to be introduced by megastars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Immediately following the introduction and premiere of the clip, Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner will be sticking around for a lengthy Q&A session with MTV News' Josh Horowitz — a chat that begins on air and continues on MTV.com. Who knows what will happen when the three stars actually get together in one room, because separately they've had some very intriguing things to say about one another. In recent conversations, RPattz has compared his sex scenes to "playing Twister," while KStew has revealed that Taylor began one of their fight scenes by confessing to his co-star, "You're so cute."
Fans can get in on the anything-might-happen conversation immediately by submitting video or text questions beginning Thursday (October 27) via MTV.com or via Twitter (using @MTVNews, plus the hashtags #AskTwilight and #MTVFirst).
Also launching today is our fan-voted poll of the Top Five Favorite "Twilight Saga" Moments thus far, including Edward and Bella's first kiss in "Twilight," the infamous Jacob abs-reveal in "New Moon," Edward and Jacob in the tent in "Eclipse," the fan-favorite "leg hitch" scene in "Eclipse" and Edward proposing to Bella in "Eclipse." Beginning on Monday, October 31, the clips will be revealed in order of popularity.
So mark your calendars and set your alarms to tune in to our "MTV First: Breaking Dawn - Part 1," which kicks off Thursday November 3 on MTV at 7:56 p.m.
Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1."
For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.
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Korean researchers create stretchy transistors made of graphene
Korean researchers create stretchy transistors made of graphene originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Chrome Now Syncs Search Engines and Open Tabs [Chrome]
Here's how to set it up:
1) Visit chrome://flags/
2) Enable syncing search engines and open tabs
3) Go to chrome://settings/personal, click Advanced
4) Make sure the new options are selected
5) Use the same search engine shortcuts everywhere!
The greatest thing about syncing search engines? You can practice the fine art of keyword bookmarking and speed up and eliminate some of those repetitive keystrokes.
In testing, the search engine syncing worked like a charm. I didn't have any luck getting the open tab syncing to work across computers, though, so if you have better luck, let's hear how you got it to work in the comments. The feature isn't yet in the stable release of Chrome, so you need to be living on the bleeding edge of the dev channel to try it out for now. I stand corrected. Many commenters have pointed out that it's available in the stable build as well!
Thanks JoshSurber!
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EU banks to hike capital buffers by June (AP)
BRUSSELS ? European governments will force their largest banks to quickly and significantly increase their cushions of capital in order to ride out market turmoil brought on by the debt crisis, officials announced Wednesday.
By the end of June, the banks will need to have a 9 percent core tier 1 capital ratio ? which measures how much good capital a bank holds compared with its risky investments.
The bank recapitalization is an important first step in the grand plan Europe needs to pull the continent back from the brink and prevent another global recession.
With an agreement in place on insulating the banks from turmoil, the leaders can now move on to the sticky question of how big banks' losses on Greek bonds should be ? so the country has a fighting chance of digging out from under its debt burden ? and how to ensure that the crisis doesn't swallow any more countries.
The requirement announced Wednesday evening after a meeting of the leaders of the European Union's 27 countries represents a significant increase over this summer's stress tests, which passed banks that had a ratio of 5 percent.
The new rules will even require banks to fully account for all sovereign debt they hold. The banks' capital levels will be calculated only after banks mark down the government bonds they held as of Sept. 30 to a value closer to the market price. That presumably is to dissuade banks from suddenly dumping the bonds.
In the July tests, they had been allowed to assume that at least some government debt would be paid in full.
That will clearly not be the case, with leaders working on a plan to ask banks to lose as much as 60 percent of their investment in Greek bonds, much more than they had previously agreed to take.
Losses on Greek debt and the market turmoil caused by the crisis more generally prompted European leaders to ask banks to shore up their balance sheets.
The rules mean that large European banks will satisfy international banking guidelines known as Basel III years ahead of the 2019 schedule.
Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski, who announced the decision after a summit in Brussels, said banking regulators would later announce how much banks will have to raise to meet the new rules since it's still unclear how much their losses on Greek debt will be.
European officials had earlier said the new rules would force banks to raise just over euro100 billion ($140 billion).
Rostowski said the more stringent ratio would be temporary ? banks would only have to prove once that they met the standard. That's an indication that the leaders hope the rest of their package will make such safeguards unnecessary in the future.
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Prisoners revolt in Turkish quake city's jail (Reuters)
VAN, Turkey (Reuters) ? Prisoners set fire to a jail in Turkey's earthquake-hit city of Van on Tuesday and gunshots were heard as inmates fought their guards following a big aftershock.
A soldier said the prisoners had attacked the guards with scissors and knives, two days after 200 people are reported to have escaped in the chaos after the quake.
Reuters journalists saw flames at the building and white smoke billowing into the night sky, before half a dozen shots rang out. No more gunfire was heard in the following hours.
"The prisoners lit a fire when they weren't let out of their cells following the big aftershock," said a local government official, who declined to be named. "They were angry."
The 5.4 magnitude aftershock shook the region just before 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), spreading panic among survivors of Sunday's quake.
More than half a dozen mini-buses ferried soldiers into the prison compound, while ambulances waited outside. One soldier helped a bloodied comrade who was brought out of the prison to be treated for cuts.
"These shameless people. They threw scissors at him," he said while his friend was being treated. "They have everything inside, knives, daggers, everything. There's a whole gang of them."
Police threw teargas canisters to disperse an angry crowd that had congregated outside the jail. Earlier police scuffled with the people, as the crowd swelled to more than 200, including some relatives of the inmates.
One man gripped with hysteria, before being led away, screamed: "They're burning inside. They're burning alive."
While tensions mounted outside, a member of parliament for a pro-Kurdish party was allowed inside the jail to try to calm the situation.
Turkish media had reported that 200 prisoners escaped on Sunday after the quake brought down a perimeter wall, but 50 returned after visiting relatives to check on their safety.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, who is overseeing relief operations in Van, has said he was unsure how many inmates had escaped and how many had come back.
Officials played down the size of the jailbreak, saying the media reports were exaggerated.
"Some inmates went out of the prison yard after the wall collapsed to see their families, and they returned after seeing them," Prison and Correctional Facilities General Manager Sefa Mermerci told the state-run news agency Anatolian.
He also denied that any Kurdish militants were among the inmates. Van has largely escaped the worst of a long running Kurdish separatist insurgency that has afflicted the southeast of Turkey.
"There are no prisoners serving time for terrorism crimes in this prison. This is a prison for ordinary crimes and criminals," Mermerci said.
(Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by David Stamp)
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Study explains paradox of insulin resistance genetics
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Obesity and insulin resistance are almost inevitably associated with increases in lipid accumulation in the liver, a serious disease that can deteriorate to hepatitis and liver failure. A real paradox in understanding insulin resistance is figuring out why insulin-resistant livers make more fat. Insulin resistance occurs when the body does a poor job of lowering blood sugars.
The signals to make lipid after a meal come from hormones - most notably insulin - and the direct effect of nutrients on the liver. In a recent issue of Cell Metabolism, Morris Birnbaum, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, describes the pathway that insulin uses to change the levels of gene expression that control lipid metabolism. Birnbaum is also associate director of the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at Penn.
Since insulin normally stimulates fat synthesis in the liver, the expectation is that an insulin-resistant liver would not be able to make lipid. Insulin normally shuts off glucose output and during insulin resistance output is too high. This contributes to the high blood sugar of diabetes. In order to treat the lipid accumulation as well as the glucose abnormalities in type 2 diabetes, it is important to understand the pathways that regulate lipid metabolism.
Researchers have suggested that two transcription factors, proteins called FoxA2 and FoxO1, act downstream of, and are negatively regulated by, an enzyme stimulated by insulin called kinase Akt/PKB. Birnbaum had previously shown that this kinase is required for lipid accumulation in the liver. This system is proposed by researchers as a key determinant of liver triglyceride content, one indicator of increased lipids.
In the current study, the team used a technique of introducing mutations into specific genes to show that having these transcriptions factors turned on all the time cannot account for the protection from lipid accumulation in the liver afforded by deleting Akt2 in the liver.
The researchers showed that the major downstream path that insulin uses to regulate these genes converges with the pathways that the body uses to metabolize nutrients. In addition, another arm of insulin signaling (which is probably independent of the nutrient pathway) is also required for the increase in lipid metabolism. Another downstream target turned on by Akt, the mTORC1 protein complex, is required for the body to make lipid. Having multiple pathways is probably a way that the liver makes sure that lipid synthesis is activated only when there is an increase in nutrients and there is a signal from insulin, surmise the researchers.
"Since a therapeutic goal is to prevent this lipid accumulation, any time we identify a novel pathway it raises the hope that there is a previously unknown target out there for a new type of drug," concludes Birnbaum.
###
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/
Thanks to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114613/Study_explains_paradox_of_insulin_resistance_genetics
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Are Gold & Silver Investing Safe-Havens Again? | Wall St. Cheat Sheet
Scottrade: $7 Online Trades. Real-Time Stock Quotes 
Over the past month, gold and silver have remained in a trading range.? Gold had difficulties breaking through $1,700, while silver lost momentum as it rose near $33.? However, recent developments such as Greece deadlocks and US debt worries have once again returned gold and silver to their rightful safe-haven status.
Gold and silver never really lost their safe-haven status per se, but traders were not treating the metals as such.? Gold and silver were caught in the tide with equities.? The WSJ recently reported that since July 1, 90% of S&P 500 stocks have moved in the same direction on the same day on 26 days.? For comparison, this only happened 38 days for all of 2010.? This week is a different story.? Gold futures for December delivery increased $48 on Monday, and another $16 on Tuesday.? Silver futures have climbed nearly $2 in the same period.? The move higher yesterday was very telling for both metals.
Despite the Dow falling more than 200 points, gold and silver both managed to climb higher on Tuesday.? More importantly, gold and silver edged past their trading ranges of $1,700 and $33, respectively.? The breakout can partly be attributed to the declining US dollar.? Since reaching above 79.50 at the beginning of October, the DXY index has declined more than 4%.? The European Union is doomed to fail because the divide between the northern and southern countries is just too great, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC in a recent interview.? If the US dollar was a true safe-haven, it would be rising against all currencies, sharply.? Instead, the US dollar is setting new record lows against the Japanese yen.
Investing Insights:?What?s Going On With Gold?
While many are focusing on the Eurozone debt crisis, concerns about the US continue to rise.? Last Friday, Bank of America?s Merrill Lynch unit warned that the US is in for another credit downgrade by the end of the year if Congress fails to agree on a long-term plan to deal with the nation?s staggering debt load.? ?The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan? to cut the deficit, Merrill?s North American economist, Ethan Harris, wrote in a report. ?Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the super committee crashes.?? On Friday, August 5, credit agency Standard and Poor?s issued the United States its first domestic credit downgrade in history.? After the downgrade, gold surged 13% to $1,880 in about two weeks.? Silver increased 10% to reach $43 in the same period.? If you apply these same percentages from where gold and silver were trading at during the time of Merrill Lynch?s warning, we could see gold trading at $1,850 in a couple weeks, while silver would reach $34.50.? Of course, the US has not received another credit downgrade yet, but if traders try to front run a possible downgrade, these appear to be quite reasonable price targets.
Although the US dollar continues to receive spurts of strength, mostly due to euro weakness, investors around the world are focusing on gold and silver as real safe-havens.? Earlier this month, the world?s first offshore yuan-denominated spot gold contracted started trading.? GoldCore explains that the move makes it ?more convenient for Chinese people and high net worth individuals holding yuan to invest in the precious metal and opens a new way to hedge.?? Furthermore, the move comes from a ?push by Chinese authorities for a more international role for its currency and as an alternate reserve currency to the embattled dollar and euro,? GoldCore said.? Meanwhile, the US is scrambling to find ways such as variable interest rates to make its debt look more appealing.? The Treasury is considering issuing $20 billion blocks of three-year floating notes, but has not released any further details.? Michael Pento, president of Pento Portfolio Strategies explains, ?America is just a very short time away from facing reality, and reality is going to be interest rates that rise due to overwhelming supply and inflation,? he says. ?People have forgotten about the debt debate in the US, but it?s coming back to the forefront very quickly.?
We invite you to receive more analysis on our support levels and ranges for gold and silver >>
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Source: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/gold/are-gold-silver-investing-safe-havens-again.html/
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Former U.S. sailor on trial, accused in marriage fraud scheme (Reuters)
NORFOLK, Va (Reuters) ? A former Navy sailor went on trial in federal court on Wednesday accused of arranging sham marriages between immigrants and fellow sailors aboard a Virginia-ported amphibious assault ship.
Jermar Jones is accused of arranging the marriages between active duty sailors on the USS Kearsarge and foreign nationals who may have sought to win green cards from about December 2006 until immigration officials intervened in early 2008.
The marriages allowed the sailors to claim a housing allowance reserved for certain personnel including those with dependents, and the immigrants paid Jones handsomely for his services, the criminal complaint said.
Jones was charged with one count each of conspiracy, witness tampering and making false statements, and two counts of marriage fraud. He faces a maximum of 40 years in prison if convicted.
The court heard on Wednesday from a former sailor who has entered a plea deal with the government, Justin Robbins, who testified that Jones, a Grenada-born naturalized U.S. citizen, had persuaded him to recruit sailors for the scheme,
Robbins, who took part in a fraudulent marriage himself, testified that he had recruited five sailors to do the same, tripling his monthly pay and amassing about an extra $55,000.
"I bought a house, had nice things: truck, car, motorcycles," Robbins said. "He (Jones) said he had family members ... who wanted to get married."
He added that Jones had told him: "If you can find sailors to marry them ... we can work out a little business."
The indictment against Jones said that active duty sailor Darius Alexander, former active duty sailor Chitara Bowers, and illegal immigrants Nasara Smith and Otis Jones -- both Grenada nationals -- were also involved.
The indictment said that Smith told Alexander she had paid Jones $6,000 to arrange her marriage to Alexander.
It added that Otis Jones -- Jermar Jones' cousin -- had entered the U.S. illegally in 1998, and Smith had been in the country illegally since her visa expired in 2002.
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Randy Stoker indicated that seven witnesses besides Robbins would testify, including one defendant's partner and other sailors set up with wives.
The participants "all have connections to New York", where it was claimed on immigration forms the couples were living together in holy matrimony, Stoker said.
"Another connection (is) all the fake marriages took place within a few miles of the defendants' homes, on the border of Newport News and Hampton," he said.
Jones' attorney sought to discredit Robbins' testimony in cross examination, tripping him up over exactly when his first dealings with Jones took place.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
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Chaz Bono returns to OWN, blasts "penguin" jibes (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Chaz Bono may have been booted off "Dancing With the Stars" this week, but he will be back on television next month in a second documentary on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) about his life as a transgender man.
Bono, the only child of actress and singer Cher, is the subject of a one-hour special called "Being Chaz", which looks at his life with girlfriend Jennifer Elia following his female-to-male sex change, OWN said on Wednesday.
The November 27 documentary, a follow-up to the 2011 film "Becoming Chaz", will also chronicle Bono's preparation for his controversial debut as the first transgender celebrity on the TV ballroom contest "Dancing with the Stars".
Viewers voted Bono off the TV show on Tuesday after six weeks following a bashing by judges of his "Phantom of the Opera" tango. Judge Bruno Tonioli called Bono "a cute penguin."
Bono, 42, whose inclusion on the dance show triggered a call for a boycott by a conservative Christian group, fired back on Wednesday.
"I got a lot of references from him (Tonioli) about things that would indicate the fact that I'm overweight, you know, a roundness. I was called a basketball, a penguin, an Ewok, and I just didn't appreciate it," Bono said on TV talk show "Good Morning America."
"If you want to critique my dancing and give me some constructive advice so I can try to improve the next time that I'm there, that would be great. But I don't really know how to be less penguinish, and so I kind of took offense to that," he said.
Gay and lesbian rights group GLAAD said in a statement that Bono "has helped countless people better understand what it means to be transgender. He should be commended for both his courage and determination."
When "Becoming Chaz" was first broadcast on OWN in May, it was watched by more than 705,000 viewers, giving the fledgling cable channel one of its biggest audiences since its January launch.
OWN said that it would also broadcast "I am Jazz: A Family in Transition" -- about an 11 year-old transgender girl and her family on November 27.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Report: Ex-Goldman director to face charges
Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta will surrender to the FBI on Wednesday to face criminal charges related to an ongoing insider trading investigation, sources close to the case told The New York Times and Reuters.
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Gupta was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam's trial earlier this year. He has denied wrongdoing.
The case against Gupta broadens the reach of the probe into the country's most powerful businesses, according to The New York Times.? Most of the people charged with insider trading in the last two years worked on Wall Street, the newspaper noted.
Aside from being a director at Goldman Sachs, Gupta also sat on the board of Procter & Gamble and led one of the world's most powerful consulting companies, McKinsey & Company, the Times reported.
Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11-years in prison this month.
Gupta's attorney, Gary Naftalis, called any charges against Gupta "totally baseless."
"The facts demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is an innocent man and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity," he said in a statement to NBC News.? "He did not trade in any securities, did not tip Mr. Rajaratnam so he could trade, and did not share in any profits as part of any quid pro quo."
"Mr. Gupta lost his entire investment in the fund at the time of the events in question, negating any motive to deviate from a lifetime of probity and distinguished service," his attorney said.
? 2011 msnbc.com
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45040483/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
[OOC] Vanquish the Vermin
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Vanquish the Vermin?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
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Why Auto Insurance Quotes Online Save You Money - Illinois State ...
by Illinois State Insurance ? October 25th, 2011
Auto insurance rates can fluctuate a lot during a certain time period or from carrier to carrier which is why it is important to get quotes every time your policy is up for renewal. Getting auto insurance quotes online is really easy. All you have to do is fill out your information one time and you can get quotes from several different places delivered to your email.
Once you get your quotes you can compare the benefits of each policy and any potential drawbacks to decide which may be a good fit for you. If you have questions about the quote you can call the individual auto insurance company to get more information. You should also pay attention to any expirations dates on quotes. Most companies only guarantee their quote for a short time since premiums are constantly fluctuating.
You may also be eligible for other discounts that you can check into. There may be discounts based on your driving record or having certain safety equipment on your car. So be sure to ask about that as well to make sure you get the lowest price from your auto insurance quotes online.
If you never check quotes and have just been renewing your current auto insurance policy each year you are very likely paying more than you have to. You should always be sure though that you are comparing apples to apples when looking at the coverage each policy gives you. The quotes you get will probably be based on similar coverage?s but pay attention to details to make sure you don?t miss anything.
Another way to shave a few dollars off your auto insurance quotes online is to go for a higher deductible. Having a higher deductible means if you are in an accident you cover a larger portion of the repair yourself. Deductibles can usually range from $500-$2,500 or sometimes more just make sure if you opt for a higher deductible to make your premium less you will have to come up with that money to get you car fixed if you get into an accident. So make sure it is something you could reasonably afford if you had to pay it.
Source: http://illinoisstateinsurance.com/why-auto-insurance-quotes-online-save-you-money/
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: Religion, Morality and the Financial Industry: An Interview With Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks
Few religious leaders have such a universal appeal and global authority as Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Rabbi Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since September 1991, was knighted by the Queen in 2005 and made a Life Peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords, in 2009. He has written 24 books, his most recent being "The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning," which was published this year.
Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks is beginning a speaking tour in the United States. (See below for locations and dates). I had a chance to speak to Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks about his understanding of the role of religion in developing a sense of morality in our globalized world.
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: What is the role of religion in developing a moral sense?
Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks: We have a natural moral sense. I do not want to suggest that you have to be religious to be moral. We have always had these two imperatives that take us in conflicting directions. There is the drive for survival and there is the drive for cooperation -- the altruistic element.
Charles Darwin understood this, and we are beginning to pick up on this in evolutionary psychology and also in neuroscience. We pass our genes on as individuals but we survive in groups, and groups only survive on the basis of altruism. So we are caught in the perennial tension between the drive to good, and instinct to self-preservation that sees everyone as a means to our ends.
So we all have a moral sense, the question is, what are the settings or environments that strengthen that sense and allow us to combat some of the more destructive human instincts. Religion is always focused on that question. It's not that we need to be religious to know what is good, but we need to be religious in order to be educated in the habits of the heart that lead people to be moral. And we know those habits have to be inculcated by constant practice, which we do in religion through prayer and ritual. They need to be cultivated in community, and today religions are the strongest, maybe the only really strong communities that we have left.
And so I think religions make people better able to act on the moral sense.
Where do you see the role science can play in understanding how religion develops a moral sense?
Well there has been a lot of neuroscience recently on talent, from Malcom Gladwell's Outliers to Matthew Syed's Bounce. And they tell us that talent is a matter of what they call "deep practice." Malcolmn Gladdwell says you've got to put in 10,000 hours. But what is religious ritual if not deep practice?
Take all the protests around the world about bankers and financiers. Let's imagine that you or I are working as head of a bank, or investment company, and we are faced with the possibility of a massive financial gain that may increase the risk for the people we serve or for the public at large. How do we weigh that up in our minds? At that crucial moment of decision, do I say it's 'me first', or, 'I have responsibilities to others who put their trust in me.'
It is at that critical moment of decision that all sorts of things come to play, the kind of people you are in community with, the kind of expectations they have of you, and you have of them, the kind of stories we tell one another and we learned from our parents and we teach our children, and those things make all the difference to the way we decide.
When I first became Chief Rabbi 20 years ago, one of the first things I did was to set up the Jewish Association of Business Ethics. It involved leading business people and financial journalists working through ethical dilemmas, and now we take this program to schools, Jewish and non-Jewish equally, the end result is building up a community of business people and financial experts who have ethical expectations of one another. And that can make all the difference when it comes to the crunch.
We have had such a crisis in the leadership of financial institutions. What do you think went wrong? I guess I'm wondering if what you're saying actually works?
Well, there is no counterpart in the United States to what I've done here, and it's very bad news that there is no counterpart.
You had less moral failure on the part of financial leaders in Great Britain?
I think our people in Britain have a normative expectation of ethical conduct. I was in Goldman Sachs (in London) just a few weeks ago as part of their regular ethical seminars for their top leadership. They have an informal arrangement that every one of their senior leadership team give 10 percent of their income in charity.
And there is no parallel effort in the United States?
I don't know, but everyone is saying to me: "We don't have what you have in Britain. Could you bring it over here?" I think it made a difference. And the crucial issue is: Where is the moral constraint? Is it external or is it internal? What went wrong in both Britain and America is that the external constraints, the financial regulation authorities, are not enough and we know that they are not enough.
Because then the game becomes how to circumvent them?
Of course, the guys who are making the money are making more than they guys who are regulating. So I would predict that the cleverer guys are the ones who work out the ways of avoiding the regulations rather than the ones who are implementing them. And that's actually what happened and why external constraints never work. You need the voice of God within the human heart. Because unless you're going to stop yourself, nobody is going to stop you -- until it's too late.
You said earlier this is not necessarily a religious thing. How do you talk about a moral sense if it is not the "voice of God"?
I'm saying that we in the religious community have taken the lead in creating a normative community of business people and financiers who have ethical expectations of one another. It's done by creating the standards that people expect of one another if they are part of the community.
And this leads to a discovery in a different area that Robert Putnam made in his book "American Grace." He points out that it's not so much what you believe that makes the difference; it's being part of a community. Science Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr had a horseshoe over his door, and he was visited by a fellow scientist, who was amazed and said: "Niels, surely you can't believe in that superstitious nonsense." And Niels responded: "Of course I don't believe in it, but the thing is, it works whether you believe in it or not."
That is what Robert Putnam was saying about community, and it is what I am saying about community: It works whether you believe in it or not. In the end, our business ethics association works because the leading business people had an influence over their peers and said: We have power, therefore we have responsibility.
Where is the prophetic voice within this? How do we understand the moral sense of outrage that a lot of people are feeling right now mostly around inequity?
A couple of weeks ago we had our holiest day, Yom Kippur. It is a day on which almost every Jew is in synagogue, whether they are believers or non-believers. It's a heavy day. Who ever heard of a Jewish holy day without food? And yet Yom Kippur is a 25-hour fast, and it comes to the middle of the day and you are feeling extremely hungry and self-righteous and then we do our prophetic reading which is always Isaiah 58, in which Isaiah says:
"Is this the kind of fast I've chosen? Only to bow your head and lying on sack cloth and ashes. Is that what you call a fast? Is not this is the kind of fast I have chosen: To lose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke; to set the oppressed free and break every yoke, is it not to share your food with the hungry, and to provide the poor with shelter -- then your light will break forth like dawn."
You can't walk into synagogue without that hitting you between the eyes. With wealth comes responsibility. We believe that what we possess we don't ultimately own. God is merely entrusting it to us. And one of the conditions of that trust is that we share what we have with those who have less So, if you don't give to people in need, you can hardly call yourself a Jew. Even the most unbelieving Jew knows that.
It seems like you have an interesting ability to speak to the strengths of the different political points of views.
Well, I like to say that it is pre-political.
The Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is currently in America and Canada as part of a speaking tour. He will be speaking in the following cities: Chicago (Oct. 26), Boston (Oct. 27), New York (Oct. 28-31), Washington D.C. (Nov. 1-2), Toronto (Nov. 2-6). For more details, or to subscribe to the Chief Rabbi's mailing list, please email info@chiefrabbi.org.
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Follow Paul Brandeis Raushenbush on Twitter: www.twitter.com/raushenbush
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Shark kills American diver off western Australia (AP)
CANBERRA, Australia ? A great white shark killed an American recreational diver on Saturday in a third fatality in recent weeks off southwest Australia that has shaken beach-loving residents and sparked fears of a rogue predator targeting humans.
Australia averages fewer than two fatal shark attacks a year nationwide.
The state government has promised to hunt the killer and is considering more aircraft surveillance off west coast beaches as whales migrating in larger numbers attract more sharks.
The first sign that the 32-year-old American man, whose name and hometown have not been released, was in trouble as he dived alone was when a stream of bubbles erupted on the ocean surface beside his 25-foot (8-meter) dive boat, police said.
His two horrified companions on the boat saw his lifeless body surface and a 10-foot (3-meter) great white swim away, Western Australia Police Sgt. Gerry Cassidy said.
The shark struck 500 yards (meters) north of the picturesque tourist haven of Rottnest Island, which is 11 miles (18 kilometers) west of a popular Perth city beach where a 64-year-old Australian swimmer is believed to have been taken by a great white on Oct. 10.
Authorities cannot say whether the American was killed by the same shark that is believed to have taken Bryn Martin as he made his regular morning swim from Perth's Cottesloe Beach toward a buoy about 380 yards (350 meters) offshore.
But an analysis of Martin's torn swimming trunks recovered from the seabed near the buoy pointed to a great white shark being the culprit. No other trace of Martin has been found.
"It's a cloudy old day today which is the same as we had the other day with Cottesloe, and they're the conditions that sharks love," Cassidy said.
The American had a work visa and had been living in a Perth beachside suburb north of Cottesloe for several months.
The tragedies follow the death on Sept. 4 of 21-year-old bodyboarder Kyle Burden, whose legs were bitten off by a shark described as 15 feet (4.5 meters) long at a beach south of Perth. Witnesses were unsure of the type of shark.
Perth, the capital of Western Australia state and one of Australia's largest cities, is renowned for its white sand beaches, but the best surfing locations are further south in the wine region of Margaret River.
While great whites trail the migration of whales between Antarctic and northwest Australian waters, the west coast has not been widely regarded as a shark danger zone for humans.
Premier Colin Barnett, the leader of the state government, took charge of the official response on Saturday, telling reporters that the shark will be hunted and killed if possible.
He said fisheries officers will spread bait in the area of the attack to try to catch the shark.
While great whites are protected under Australian law, Barnett said his government would consider increasing the numbers of other sharks that commercial fishermen can catch, following reports that shark numbers have increased.
He said his government was also looking at increasing aerial shark patrols over popular beaches.
"I think all West Australians need to take special care in going to the beach and swimming, particularly if they go diving," he said.
Barnett said he did not expect the fatalities would damage the state's tourism reputation or diminish people's enjoyment of the beaches.
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Turkish military reports 49 Kurdish fighters dead in two days
The operation against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers\' Party) began Wednesday after a bombing attack left 24 security personnel dead. Since then, the Turkish military has mobilized 10,000 troops, some of whom are striking at PKK facilities in Iraq.
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Panetta: US at 'turning point' to refocus on Asia
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
TOKYO (AP) ? The winding down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan marks a pivot point for the U.S. military, which must now focus on looming threats such as the rising military might of China, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
Panetta used his first visit to Japan as Pentagon chief to sound an emerging theme of the Obama administration: America will remain a global economic and military power despite coming budget reductions, and the Asia-Pacific region will be central to U.S. national security strategy.
In a question-and-answer session with U.S. and Japanese troops at Yokota Air Base, Panetta ticked off a list of threats that he said demand more U.S. attention as it completes its departure from Iraq this year and targets 2014 for the withdrawal of combat forces from Afghanistan. He mentioned cyberattacks, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, Mideast turmoil and "rising powers" ? an allusion to China.
"Today we are at a turning point after a decade of war," Panetta said. Al-Qaida is among a range of concerns that will keep the military busy, but as a traditional Pacific power the United States needs to invest more effort in building a wider and deeper network of alliances and partnerships.in this region, he said.
"Most importantly, we have the opportunity to strengthen our presence in the Pacific ? and we will," he said.
He did not elaborate on whether that would mean adding ships or other forces, but he emphatically said budget cuts would not be a factor.
"We are not anticipating any cutbacks in this region," he said.
In an opinion piece published Monday in a Japanese newspaper, Panetta accused North Korea of "reckless and provocative" acts and criticized China for a secretive expansion of its military power.
He wrote that Washington and Japan share common challenges in Asia and the Pacific.
"China is rapidly modernizing its military," he wrote, "but with a troubling lack of transparency, coupled with increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China Seas."
China's military budget of $95 billion this year is the world's second-highest after Washington's planned $650 billion. Beijing is developing weapons such as the "carrier killer" DF 21D missile that analysts say might threaten U.S. warships and alter the regional balance of power.
Panetta wrote that Japan and the U.S. would work together to "encourage China to play a responsible role in the international community."
A day earlier, in Bali, Indonesia, Panetta offered more positive remarks about China. He told reporters that Beijing deserved praise for a relatively mild response to a $5.8 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan announced in September.
Panetta is not visiting China on this trip, but the Obama administration has worked to improve historically weak military ties with China. Panetta's predecessor, Robert Gates, argued that both sides needed to better understand one another's capabilities and motives, the better to prevent miscalculations or misunderstandings. U.S. Navy ships have had run-ins with Chinese ships in disputed waters, for example, but China insists its military rise is peaceful and poses no threat to the U.S.
Panetta is focusing more directly during this trip on the threat posed by North Korea, which he said in his opinion piece "continues to engage in reckless and provocative behavior and is developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, which pose a threat not just to Japan but to the entire region."
The problem of North Korea involves not only the historical weight of Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 to the end of World War II, but also China's support for communist North Korea. China fought U.S. forces as a North Korean ally during the 1950-53 Korean War, which remains an unsettled issue.
Panetta's strong language coincided with the start of talks in Geneva between U.S. and North Korean officials in what Washington calls at effort to determine whether Pyongyang is serious about returning to nuclear disarmament talks. Japan also worries about North Korea and is one of five countries that have jointly tried to persuade the North Koreans to cap and reverse their nuclear arms program. The other four are the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea.
The U.S. has about 47,000 troops in Japan and about 28,000 in South Korea, and it is studying near-term possibilities for bolstering the U.S. position in Asia ? not necessarily by adding more troops but by increasing U.S. Navy port calls and doing more regular exercises with Asian and Pacific nations.
President Barack Obama plans to visit Indonesia in November to attend an East Asia summit meeting, following a visit to Australia. He also will host a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii in November.
Panetta arrived in Japan from Bali, where he met with defense ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On Tuesday, Panetta is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as well as Japan's defense and foreign ministers. On Wednesday he is to meet with U.S. sailors aboard a ship at nearby Yokosuka Naval Base and then travel to South Korea for annual security consultations.
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Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
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