Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273772762?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Mom Seeks Police Help Finding Woman in Suspected Cancer Scam
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A mother says she will ask police to find the woman who she believes scammed her dying son.
Thomas Doty, 20, of Washington state, died on Dec. 19 after a three-year battle with bone cancer -- but not before a woman apparently scammed him and his family into believing a check for $250,000 was on the way.
Family friend Jonathan Hillstrand, star of the show "Deadliest Catch," made a video asking for support for Doty. A woman claiming to be a nurse in Indiana soon promised $250,000 to send him to San Diego, pay for experimental cancer treatments, and help the family save their house after the expense of caring for their son.
"This huge yellow bouquet of flowers showed up, [with a note] saying, 'No more worries,'" Tiffany Doty, Thomas's mother, told ABC News. "She sent me a text and an email, and it all started, saying, 'I saw your story, and my heart breaks, and I'm going to pay for all this treatment.'"
Tiffany Doty says the woman scammed her family for weeks -- always coming up with an excuse and phony proof that she had already sent the money, including snapshots of bank statements -- as they planned and eventually took Thomas to San Diego, planning to receive treatments.
"She was always out of town or out of the country, so it was always difficult for her to get things done, and then we sent the wire info, and that didn't happen because she got one number wrong, and it became obvious after a couple weeks that this is not happening," Tiffany Doty said. "That's when my sister just called the local news here ... and that's when we got a huge outpouring from the public and that was enough to get him down there."
Thomas Doty flew to San Diego hoping to receive experimental treatments not covered by the family's insurance, Tiffany Doty said. She blames the woman for lost time in addition to false hopes.
"When we started him down there he was just in a little bit of back pain," Tiffany Doty says of preparing to take her son to San Diego. "By the time we got him down there he was on 300 milliliter of morphine a day."
All the while, Tiffany Doty said she told the woman to let her know if the money wouldn't come, or if the woman had changed her mind about wanting to send it. Tiffany Doty said she received messages purportedly from the woman's mother -- messages she now believes were sent by the woman herself.
"She's never been a nurse anywhere in the United States that we can find. There's a lot of things that we've looked at, a lot of emails we've sent," Tiffany Doty told ABC News. "Nothing checks out at all, except that she's shut down her Twitter account, and things like that."
While Thomas and his family waited for the money, his condition worsened.
"Between the time of getting [to San Diego] and the time she wasted, there was another tumor growing that started out the size of a grape, and when the eight weeks went by it was the size of an orange," Tiffany Doty said.
Her son, she says, was crushed when they realized the money would never come.
Now, Tiffany Doty will go to police.
"The last thing he wanted is for her to be found and not to be able to hurt anyone else, and so that is my mission," Tiffyany Doty told ABC.
Her mother, Thomas's grandmother, has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tiffany Doty said.
"She just called to ask questions about the laws, and would they go after her, would they investigate," she said. "They indicated that there's something there to pursue."
Tiffany Doty says she plans to file a report with the local police. She believes the woman gave a fake name, she said, and that her family was scammed by someone who has been doing the same thing to other people for a long time.
"We are going to file charges," Tiffany Doty said. "I'm sure there are cyberstalking laws, fraud. I personally am just wiped out. I am beyond wiped out, but my son wanted her found, and he is not a vindictive person."
Aside from finding justice, the Doty family is facing immediate financial struggles and is asking the public for help. Through their website, HealThomas.com, they are asking for donations to help them save their home. Both Tiffany and her husband are out of work, she told ABC.
"We were a normal family," Tiffany Doty said. "We had great jobs, and two years worth of savings, everything that you need. Our house is going to be auctioned on Jan. 11."
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio
Source: http://www.fmnewschicago.com/news/national/ABC/story.aspx?ID=1851678
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NYC homicides, shootings at modern record lows
Seth Wenig / AP
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly speak to reporters after a Police Academy graduation ceremony Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in New York.
By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
Homicides and shootings in New York are at their lowest in a half-century, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.
Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly credited stepped-up policing for the 19.6 percent drop in homicides (from 515 last year to 414 through Friday) and the 15.9 percent decline in overall shootings (from 1,608 last year to 1,353).
That's the fewest homicides since the city started keeping such statistics in 1963, and it's dramatically lower than the record high of 2,245 set in 1990.
The most recent FBI figures show that homicides have been falling in most major cities in recent years, but the drop in New York far outpaces the national average decline of 4 percent from 2010 to 2011, the last full year for which federal figures are available.
Kelly said officers had taken 8,000 weapons "out of the hands of people we stop, 800 of them illegal handguns," while Bloomberg singled out the city's participation in Operation Impact, a 2003 state initiative that pairs new police recruits with veteran officers in specific high-crime areas, as a particular success.
"The fact that the safest big city in America is safer than ever is a testament to the hard work and determination of the men and women who put their lives on the line for us every day ? and it also reflects our commitment to doing everything possible to stop gun violence," Bloomberg said in a statement.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
Neither man specifically mentioned the city's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which allows officers to search someone as he or she leaves a private building if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that the person is likely to commit a crime.
The policy is under legal challenge from civil liberties groups, which contend that police use it as a pretext to stop and search anyone without cause and contend in court documents that three-quarters of all New Yorkers searched under it are African-American or Latino. A trial is set for March.
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Saturday, December 29, 2012
Consulting Income Report: December 2012 - Start My Consulting ...
As many of you know,?I share my consulting income details?for a few reasons:
If you?re just starting out, building a business will take hard work, patience, and persistence. But the rewards can be far beyond what being an employee can provide.
Lastly, yes, this report is a bit late. Like most people, December tends to be a crazy month for me. Add to that, all the time I?ve been spending creating Breakthrough Consulting, and it?s been an incredibly busy month.
You?ll notice that my consulting income was significantly lower compared to prior months, primarily?due to the great deal of time I?ve spent building Breakthrough Consulting?including the video lessons, homework, 1-on-1 calls with students, etc. Creating Breakthrough Consulting has taken a significant amount of time, but has been well worth it, since gives participants a complete foundation to launch a profitable consulting business.
As some of you might remember, Breakthrough Consulting?started last month, and it?s been really exciting to see the students? incredible progress.
Anyway, here are the numbers:
- Total worked: $11,152.50
- Average hourly rate: $178.44
- Number of clients billed: 9
- Average days to bill (this is the average number of days between when I actually do the work and when I bill the client): 11
With the exception of the total worked amount, those numbers have been pretty similar over the past several months.
Currently, my hourly rate is $165 for existing clients and $175 for new clients. However, this month?s average hourly rate was $178.44.
Huh?
Well, a couple of interesting things happened this month:
- As I mentioned, I launched Breakthrough Consulting here on the blog?which took a heap of time.
- The time spent on?Breakthrough Consulting here on the blog meant I spent less time my hourly consulting.
- BUT, even though I spent LESS time consulting,?my average consulting rate INCREASED.
What?s up with that? I:
- worked less (well, technically, I BILLED fewer hours?I was still working, but working much more on blog-related stuff),
- earned roughly the same, and
- boosted my rate?
Here?s what happened. I have 2 products I created for clients a couple years ago that could be used by other clients. This past month, I ended up selling those pre-created products to a few clients, and that?s what boosted my rate for the month.
Pretty cool. Like I mentioned last month, it?s not quite passive income, but I?ll take it.
Like I mentioned in last month?s income report, some of you have asked what my expenses are, and to include them in the monthly income reports. I?m happy to do that. A couple things to keep in mind:
- Some of my expenses are only paid annually; I?ll report those as they come up. But in the meantime, you can get a sense of how much I pay in expenses each month.
- I pay myself a salary as an employee (and take distributions from my s-corp). For now, I?m omitting how much in taxes I pay (federal withholding, state withholding, Social Security, and Medicare), since depending on your situation, where you live, how many exemptions you claim, etc., your taxes are virtually guaranteed to vary wildly from mine. One thing I find helpful is claim 0 exemptions and also withhold extra federal and state income taxes; that way, I don?t have a huge tax bill come April when I file my personal income taxes. So far, I?ve been pretty accurate at estimating how much I?ll need to pay, and then pro-rate how much I need to withhold each month.
- Likewise, I haven?t included health insurance premiums in the total. I currently pay $1,207 each month in health insurance premiums (which covers myself plus my family). However, depending on your circumstances, what you pay for health insurance may vary wildly from what I pay.
Anywho, here?s the expense total for the prior month: $1,114.34. This was a few hundred dollars higher than last month, mainly due to some additional business books I purchased, a state tax payment, etc.
That expense total includes things like:
- rent
- internet
- cellphone
- accountant fees
- Skype service renewal
- subcontractor payments (for services which I billed and was paid by clients)
- business-related books, and
- business coaching.
Keep in mind though, when I first started my consulting business, my expenses were MUCH lower?probably in the range of under $100 per month.
Source: http://startmyconsultingbusiness.com/consulting-income-report-december-2012/
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Nook Media Takes $89.5M From Pearson, Says Holiday Sales Fell Below Expectations
Nook Media, the Barnes & Noble subsidiary that handles Nook e-readers and digital content, announced today that education publisher Pearson has invested $89.5 million, giving it a 5 percent stake in the company. Nook Media spun out from Barnes & Noble?earlier this.?B&N owns 78.2 percent , while Microsoft (which made a big investment aimed at ?bringing Nook content to Windows 8 devices) owns 16.8 percent, according to the press release. The deal gives the company a post-money valuation of $1.789 billion.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UVgzOCpG-4s/
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Family of toddler who died from self-inflicted gunshot speaks out ...
Read?more: Local, News, Two Year Old Child Died, 2 Year Old Shot on Christmas Night, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge, Conway, Christmas Night Shooting, Sincere Smith, Child Shot, Self Inflicted Gunshot Wound, Child Shot himself, Child Death, Family of Toddler who Died from Self Inflicted Gunshot Speaks out
A mother and father who lost their child must face the possibility of dealing with their loss without each other.
On Christmas day, police say?two-year-old Sincere Smith grabbed a gun?off of a table at a home on Daisy Lane in Horry County and the toddler shot himself.?
Sincere died on his way to the hospital, said Horry County Coroner Robert Edge.
Horry County police charged Sincere's father, Rondell Smith, with Involuntary Manslaughter.
"By the time I turned around, he killed both of us," said Smith on Thursday afternoon. He posted bond on Wednesday.
"I'm sorry to my wife's family. I'm sorry to my family. I'm sorry to anyone who ever knew him," said Smith. "He was that special."
Police found Smith responsible for Sincere's death because he was in the home when the incident happened and the gun was his.
"My baby was always with us," said Sincere's mother Lakisha Brown-Smith.
"He is a good father," said Brown-Smith. "My husband changed every diaper and ever bottle. I went to work at one, and he took care of them all day."
"Going to jail, it ain't even enough of what I'm going through," said Smith.
He bought the gun to protect his family, he said.
"Someone tried to break into our house like two weeks ago," said Smith. "It made me feel like I was nothing. I couldn't protect my kids if they came in. I couldn't protect my wife...I got something to protect me and my family."
The family's reverend, Monford Hamilton, called Rondell Smith a young leader in his church and he was shock when he heard the news of Sincere's passing.
"I'm really surprised for this particular young man," said Hamilton. "I just believe these momentary lapses happen in all our lives. Whether they're driving an automobile or attended to our children. But we don't always get such a disastrous result."
"I just them to know who I am," said Smith. "I'm a good guy."
The family is making arrangements for Sincere's funeral with Lattimore Funeral Home.
The service is expected to be held Monday.
Source: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=841533
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DIY Holiday Highlights #7 - DIY Show Off
How was your Christmas? Are you glad it?s over? Does it stretch out with more celebrations and get-togethers this weekend? We?re hosting a small party on Friday and then the weekend plans include packing up holiday decorations. I don?t know about you but I love putting it all away just as much as decorating it all up. It feels so de-cluttered and clean, doesn?t it?
Just a quick post today?I wanted to open the DIY Holiday Highlights party for this week, for those who have some holiday related posts to share because the days after Christmas will be quiet in the DIY Show Off house {Mr. DIY is back to work, girls are gone and I?m snowed in} and I?d love to see the holiday posts you?ve been sharing on your blog.
Yesterday, I posted our Christmas home tour. You?re invited to stop by. I?d love your company. 
Make sure to visit a few of the links to make some new friends for the holidays.Comments, pinning and sharing links this time of year are one of the best blog gifts!
{grab button html on the left side bar}
- Link?YOUR?NEW Holiday DIY projects only?please! If linking an old project, please reintroduce in a 2012 post to share.
- Please link back to this party in some way {permalink or the grab the button html from the side bar}.
- By linking up you give permission to be a favorite holiday feature {with a link back your site}.
- I will share links to your post on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Pinterest. Feel free to do the same! Thanks!
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Two new species of orchid found in Cuba
Dec. 27, 2012 ? Researchers from the University of Vigo, in collaboration with the Environmental Services Unit at the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park (Cuba), have discovered two new species of Caribbean orchid.
The Caribbean islands have been natural laboratories and a source of inspiration for biologists for over two centuries now. Suffice to say that the studies by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the tropical archipelagos contributed to the emergence of the theory of evolution.
In this case, a Spanish research team from the University of Vigo has discovered two new species belonging to the orchid family (Orchidaceae: Laeliinae) in Cuba. They have been called Tetramicra riparia and Encyclia navarroi. The two plants were found in the eastern and western zones of the island respectively.
"The first species described, Encyclia navarroi, is an orchid with considerably large flowers. A year later we discovered the Tetramicra riparia species, with very small flowers. The latter is so named because it grows on the banks of stony streams in the mountains of Baracoa, one of the rainiest and least explored areas in Cuba," as ?ngel Vale explained. Vale is a researcher at the University of Vigo and co-author of the studies published by the journals Systematic Botany and Annales Botanici Fennici.
Darwin was very much drawn to the orchid family, and used it to propose certain hypotheses about the importance of the relations between flowers and pollinators for biodiversity. Between 25,000 and 30,000 species of these plants are estimated to exist. However, the mechanisms that explain this amazing variety are only now being discovered.
"We could highlight their extraordinary capacity to interact with different types of pollinators. Contrary to most plants, many orchids do not produce nectar or other substances to compensate insects and birds that visit them," explained the researcher.
Orchids' deceit pollination
Despite this, floral visitors are attracted by orchids' colours and shapes, which enables the plants' sexual reproduction. This is known as deceit pollination.
The University of Vigo Plant Ecology and Evolution research team, which Vale belongs to, is studying the ecological and evolutionary consequences of deceit pollination in orchids that are endemic to the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. One of the mysteries they aim to solve is if the deceit orchids have a greater taxonomic and genetic diversity than other nectar-producing species.
Vale and his team are drawing up studies in the Antilles not only to reconstruct the evolutionary history of orchids but also to analyse the effect of pollinators in the reproduction of plants, and how this interaction has modelled the colourful aspect of these Caribbean flowers.
"Despite the fact that T. riparia's flowers have a complete central petal, just like other species that make up a subgenre endemic to Cuba; the way they grow is very similar to a more widespread group that seems to have diverged on the neighbouring island of Hispaniola. Our work provides molecular evidence of the greater relationship of T. riparia with these species on the neighbouring island. This is in consonance with the geological history of the Caribbean islands, according to which the eastern end of Cuba was in close contact with that land," pointed out Vale.
Scientists are currently trying to estimate how many millions of years ago this and other Caribbean species saw the light of day. This will enable them to test whether the ancestor of this species was already in Cuba, or if on the contrary, it evolved from an ancestor that colonised the island from neighbouring archipelagos.
"Just as with most orchids, which offer no compensation to their pollinators, Encyclia navarroi and Tetramicra riparia receive very few visits from bees. This is one of the basic reasons that guarantee the survival of these plants, and also help protect the populations of their pollinators," explained the scientist.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
- ?ngel Vale, Danny Rojas, Yosvanis Acanda, Natividad L. S?nchez-Abad, Luis Navarro. A New Species of Tetramicra (Orchidaceae: Laeliinae) from Baracoa, Eastern Cuba. Systematic Botany, 2012; 37 (4): 883 DOI: 10.1600/036364412X656491
- ?ngel Vale, Danny Rojas. Encyclia navarroi (Orchidaceae), a new species from Cuba. Annales Botanici Fennici, 49: 83 - 86, 26; 2012
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/UIue5KsHzb4/121227080048.htm
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Voice from the Desert ? Blog Archive ? Why, God?
?http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/dowd-why-god.html?src=me&ref=general
* * *
OP-ED COLUMNIST
By?MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 25, 2012?699 Comments
WASHINGTON
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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
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When my friend Robin was dying, she asked me if I knew a priest she could talk to who would not be, as she put it, ?too judgmental.? I knew the perfect man, a friend of our family, a priest conjured up out of an old black-and-white movie, the type who seemed not to exist anymore in a Catholic Church roiled by scandal. Like Father Chuck O?Malley, the New York inner-city priest played by Bing Crosby, Father Kevin O?Neil sings like an angel and plays the piano; he?s handsome, kind and funny. Most important, he has a gift. He can lighten the darkness around the dying and those close to them. When he held my unconscious brother?s hand in the hospital, the doctors were amazed that Michael?s blood pressure would noticeably drop. The only problem was Father Kevin?s reluctance to minister to the dying. It tears at him too much. He did it, though, and he and Robin became quite close. Years later, he still keeps a picture of her in his office. As we?ve seen during this tear-soaked Christmas, death takes no holiday. I asked Father Kevin, who feels the subject so deeply, if he could offer a meditation. This is what he wrote:
How does one celebrate Christmas with the fresh memory of 20 children and 7 adults ruthlessly murdered in Newtown; with the searing image from Webster of firemen rushing to save lives ensnared in a burning house by a maniac who wrote that his favorite activity was ?killing people?? How can we celebrate the love of a God become flesh when God doesn?t seem to do the loving thing? If we believe, as we do, that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, why doesn?t He use this knowledge and power for good in the face of the evils that touch our lives?
The killings on the cusp of Christmas in quiet, little East Coast towns stirred a 30-year-old memory from my first months as a priest in parish ministry in Boston. I was awakened during the night and called to Brigham and Women?s Hospital because a girl of 3 had died. The family was from Peru. My Spanish was passable at best. When I arrived, the little girl?s mother was holding her lifeless body and family members encircled her.
They looked to me as I entered. Truth be told, it was the last place I wanted to be. To parents who had just lost their child, I didn?t have any words, in English or Spanish, that wouldn?t seem cheap, empty. But I stayed. I prayed. I sat with them until after sunrise, sometimes in silence, sometimes speaking, to let them know that they were not alone in their suffering and grief. The question in their hearts then, as it is in so many hearts these days, is ?Why??
The truest answer is: I don?t know. I have theological training to help me to offer some way to account for the unexplainable. But the questions linger. I remember visiting a dear friend hours before her death and reminding her that death is not the end, that we believe in the Resurrection. I asked her, ?Are you there yet?? She replied, ?I go back and forth.? There was nothing I wanted more than to bring out a bag of proof and say, ?See? You can be absolutely confident now.? But there is no absolute bag of proof. I just stayed with her. A life of faith is often lived ?back and forth? by believers and those who minister to them.
Implicit here is the question of how we look to God to act and to enter our lives. For whatever reason, certainly foreign to most of us, God has chosen to enter the world today through others, through us. We have stories of miraculous interventions, lightning-bolt moments, but far more often the God of unconditional love comes to us in human form, just as God did over 2,000 years ago.
I believe differently now than 30 years ago. First, I do not expect to have all the answers, nor do I believe that people are really looking for them. Second, I don?t look for the hand of God to stop evil. I don?t expect comfort to come from afar. I really do believe that God enters the world through us. And even though I still have the ?Why?? questions, they are not so much ?Why, God?? questions. We are human and mortal. We will suffer and die. But how we are with one another in that suffering and dying makes all the difference as to whether God?s presence is felt or not and whether we are comforted or not.
One true thing is this: Faith is lived in family and community, and God is experienced in family and community. We need one another to be God?s presence. When my younger brother, Brian, died suddenly at 44 years old, I was asking ?Why?? and I experienced family and friends as unconditional love in the flesh. They couldn?t explain why he died. Even if they could, it wouldn?t have brought him back. Yet the many ways that people reached out to me let me know that I was not alone. They really were the presence of God to me. They held me up to preach at Brian?s funeral. They consoled me as I tried to comfort others. Suffering isolates us. Loving presence brings us back, makes us belong.
A contemporary theologian has described mercy as ?entering into the chaos of another.? Christmas is really a celebration of the mercy of God who entered the chaos of our world in the person of Jesus, mercy incarnate. I have never found it easy to be with people who suffer, to enter into the chaos of others. Yet, every time I have done so, it has been a gift to me, better than the wrapped and ribboned packages. I am pulled out of myself to be love?s presence to someone else, even as they are love?s presence to me.
I will never satisfactorily answer the question ?Why?? because no matter what response I give, it will always fall short. What I do know is that an unconditionally loving presence soothes broken hearts, binds up wounds, and renews us in life. This is a gift that we can all give, particularly to the suffering. When this gift is given, God?s love is present and Christmas happens daily.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on December 26, 2012, on page?A25?of the?New York edition?with the headline: Why, God?.
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Source: http://reform-network.net/?p=18898
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96% Sister
All Critics (51) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (2)
"Sister" avoids sentimental indulgence. There's no room for wallowing in this spare, almost ascetic exercise ...
French-born director and co-screenwriter Ursula Meier balances the scenario's bleak, wrenching aspects with a stirring confidence in the redemptive power of love.
Seydoux perfectly captures the anger and self-defeat of ill-educated, hedonistic, man-chasing young women who live on the fringes.
L?a Seydoux fulfills Louise, and Kacey Mottet Klein, as Simon, is one more to join the pantheon of film's excellent child actors.
Haunting and sad. And absolutely worth seeing.
The chemistry between the two leads is a razor's-edge dance: feral, childish, tender and always complex.
We come away relieved and somehow chastened, the same way we might feel after having our pocket picked by a true artist.
The storytelling is exciting and the characters well-observed.
For the most part a distant film, Sister supplies a full behavioral experience that's riveting at times, with lead performances by Lea Seydoux and Kacey Mottet Klein communicating isolation in bravely vulnerable ways.
Emotionally engaging and impeccably crafted
Klein and Seydoux give such naturalistic performances that they're never overwhelmed by the spectacle.
"Sister" is loose and episodic, but held together with nicely sketched characters.
[A]voids bathos. . .reveals unexpected depth in a heartbreaking bond. . . Different classes conflict [in] adjacent spaces . . .in spare, realistic Dardennes' style.
Meier draws out wonderfully naturalistic performances from her young stars, with Mottet Klein particularly good as the young roustabout Simon ...
It comes over like a subtle short story and is well acted.
Meier's portrait of Simon ... is richly atmospheric and never sentimental.
An enigmatic, heartfelt account of a vulnerable young boy's yearning for a better life.
Most intriguing is how the writers and director have transformed what's essentially a rather dark, bleak story into something involving and emotionally resonant, all without ever turning sentimental.
It is an interesting and well-made movie, though with an uncertain ending.
Sister gradually reveals pattern in its tapestry of everyday life.
An expert piece of storytelling with a host of strong character turns and thematic depth to burn.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lenfant_den_haut/
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Residents return home after NY fatal shooting
WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) ? Residents of a suburban Rochester, N.Y., neighborhood gutted by a fire set by a man who gunned down four volunteer firefighters have been allowed to return to their homes.
Local media outlets report that authorities began letting homeowners return to their properties in Webster on Tuesday, a day after 62-year-old William Spengler shot four firefighters, killing two, after setting the pre-dawn blaze that destroyed seven homes along Lake Ontario and damaged two others.
Some of Spengler's neighbors described how they were awoken early Monday morning by gunfire nearby, followed by the arrival of police SWAT team members who used an armored vehicle to evacuate more than 30 residents.
Police say Spengler's body later was found near his home. Authorities say the ex-convict died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/residents-return-home-ny-fatal-shooting-114832484.html
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Don't forget: enter to win one of 14 AT&T smartphones in our year-end giveaway!
We're guessing the wrapping paper is already back in your closet where it will stay till next year's festivities, but that doesn't mean more tech goodies are out of the question. Our holiday gift guide giveaway runs through December 31st at 11:59 PM ET, so be sure to leave a comment on each of our 14 guides. Depending which contest you enter -- and you should probably just enter them all -- you could ring in the new year with an AT&T smartphone such as the HTC Windows Phone 8X, LG Optimus G or Samsung Galaxy Express. In any case, here's hoping your holidays are happy and bright!
Filed under: Announcements, AT&T
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/X2lbS0PH5w8/
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chometssylvain: ekbaresuja: kudals: Arts And Entertainment: Humor ...
Whether you?re feeding yourself or feeding your family, it?s important to know that the food you?re eating is safe and nutritious. But perceptions about finding a balance between those two essential factors have become muddled in recent years. While there is an increased effort to promote the consumption of healthy foods, particularly fruits and vegetables, [...]
>>> mitt romney is highlighting the positives that he said came from his days at bain capital putting the messages on air waves in southern state . >> this is a business mitt romney helped start and this one, and this steel mill [...]
Britney Spears walked off the set of The X Factor on Monday after a drag queen showed up doing an apparently awful rendition of Spears? ?(You Drive Me) Crazy.? How come? Spears explained today that she was just following the instructions of Demi Lovato.. who is incidentally 11 years her junior. Lovato ? who herself [...]
The latest statistics on childhood obesity point out to the alarming rate with which it has increased in the last few decades.?? In 1982 4% of children fell into the obese category.? The number has increased to around 20% as of 2012.? Today over 30% of American kids are just plain fat.? Looking at the [...]
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? With two weeks left in the trading year, the euro-zone debt crisis will remain the primary impediment to pushing the S&P 500 index into positive territory for 2011. Uncertainty over progress in the region, along with the potential for credit rating downgrades on euro-zone countries, have kept investors on edge and [...]
Source: http://mexicovacations.newpatriotmedia.com/2158/chometssylvain-ekbaresuja-kudals-arts-and-entertainment-humor/
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Source: http://franklinvick.posterous.com/chometssylvain-ekbaresuja-kudals-arts-and-ent
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Source: http://ygamyira.posterous.com/chometssylvain-ekbaresuja-kudals-arts-and-ent
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Source: http://elulyumv.posterous.com/chometssylvain-ekbaresuja-kudals-arts-and-ent
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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
U-he synths problem in renoise 2.81 - Renoise Forums
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Example#{example}"); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['togglesource'] = new Template(""); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['toolbar'] = new Template(""); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['button'] = new Template("Emoticons
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?
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Posted Today, 12:32 AM
I downloaded new free synth Podolski and new Bazzile beta from u-he and have a problem: when I trying render selection to sample, renoise render only few miliseconds of sound, rest is a silence. When rendering few notes, second note rendering normal. Older renoise 2.1 does not have this problem, all works fine.
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#2 ?
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Posted Today, 12:38 AM
Perhaps try to disable the "Auto-suspend" option in the plugin options [?] Or change the static buffering checkbox there.
cpu Intel Core2 Quad CPUQ6600 @2.40GHz
chipset nVidia nForce 4 SLI x16 -> Driver rev:5.1.2600.445 (management 4.4.5.0)
mem 8 Gb 800Mhz
os Win 7 64-bit SP1, DirectX 11
audio ESI ESP1010e - > Driver rev:2.0.1.0
video nVidia Geforce GTX580 - > Driver rev:306.23
Renoise Official Manual
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In passport kerfuffle, Taiwan is stickin' it to China
Taiwan is fighting back with stickers after China issued passports showing ownership over the entire South China Sea.
A page from a Chinese passport displays a Chinese map which includes an area in the South China Sea inside a line of dashes representing maritime territory claimed by China, in Kunming, Yunnan province, in this November file photo.
Reuters/File
EnlargeChina hasn?t started a military war with Taiwan ? as has been feared since the 1940s ? but a battle that began on paper last month has met with a fiery pulp-and-ink response that could burn a hole in goodwill between the two once-hostile governments.
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Pictures on Beijing?s latest passports show a map of China that includes two parts of Taiwan, including its scenic showpiece Sun Moon Lake. The travel documents also depict islets in the South China Sea as China's, despite competing claims by Taiwan and several Southeast Asian countries.
China, already a regional heavyweight, is believed to have issued 5 million of the passports between April and November when they inflamed a regional dispute with neighbors. Now Taiwan is joining the chorus of protest, not by refusing to stamp them as Vietnam has announced it is doing, and not by issuing their own maps as India has done, but with some provocative stickers with a message to China. ?
China has claimed Taiwan as part of its turf since the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek?s Nationalists set up a government to rival mainland China's about 100 miles offshore after losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong?s Communists. The relationship between China and Taiwan has been up and down for the past few decades: Both?formal reunification with the mainland and full Taiwanese independence have been suggested,?but a tempering of relations has kept many content with the middle ground status quo, with Taiwan considering itself an effectively independent territory.?
Still, the maps in China?s passports were taken as a bold affront to that. In response, Taiwan?s main opposition Democratic Progressive Party gave away 10,000 pink stickers at the foreign ministry consular office in Taipei. The stickers that read ?Taiwan is my Country? can be slapped onto the back cover of a Taiwan passport or onto a plastic passport protector.?
The stickers went fast two weeks ago, so the party copied off another 20,000. ?People just love them,? says its policy coordination executive director Joseph Wu. ?It?s quite clear that what China is doing trespasses into our sovereignty. Taiwan is not under any country?s jurisdiction.?
Across town, the smaller Taiwan Solidarity Union Party printed out oversized paper effigies of the Chinese passports and marred or burned them at a rally, according to local media.
Taiwan and China have set aside differences over sovereignty since 2008, when the island?s conciliatory President Ma Ying-jeou took office. Mr. Ma?s government has signed 18 deals with China, drawing Taiwan closer to the world economic powerhouse. Talks on those agreements built mutual trust that didn?t exist before.
The island?s foreign ministry says?that trust is now being questioned. The ministry?s news release calls China?s passport issue ?a provocative act that will ? damage the mutual trust laboriously built by the two sides in recent years.?
Taiwanese opposition forces are protesting the Chinese passports because they worry that the government is courting China rather than standing up to it, but analysts say officials in Taipei are just as irked as their skeptics.
?Our government thinks that China betrayed common ground, which is that there?s one China but subject to different interpretations,? says Nathan Liu, an associate international affairs professor at Ming Chuan University in Taiwan, citing the basis for talks and deals since 2008.
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New storm could disrupt holiday travel
The storm out of California could bring snow on Christmas to parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma, places that haven't seen that happen in more than 80 years. The Weather Channel's Julie Martin reports.
A major winter storm that on Sunday was dumping steady rain and snow on Northern California could strengthen as it makes its way east, promising a White Christmas ? and travel headaches ? for a wide swath of the country.
The storm will deposit snow from California?s Sierra mountains to New England through Friday morning, forecasters said. ?Unfortunately, this occurs not only during the Christmas holiday, but also in the peak travel period after Christmas Day in the South, Midwest and East,? weather.com said.
Forecasters warned that roads would become treacherous Christmas Day and Christmas night from the High Plains of western Kansas and the Texas Panhandle eastward into Oklahoma, extreme north Texas, Arkansas and into the mid-Mississippi Valley.
There was also the potential for severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, hail and tornadoes in parts of the South on Christmas Day, said Greg Forbes, The Weather Channel?s severe weather expert.
The storm was expected to reach the Northeast Wednesday, bringing gusty winds and widespread precipitation. Whether that precipitation will be snow or rain remains to be seen.
Millions are on the move the Sunday before Christmas, and while the holiday outlook has improved from recent days, weather might continue to disrupt travel plans in some parts of the country. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
?For now, snow seems most likely in the interior Northeast, with the potential for rain or perhaps a wintry mix to start in the major metros,? weather.com said.
The new storm comes on the heels of another storm that buried parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin in more than a foot of snow last week and led to thousands of flight delays or cancellations.
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Monday, December 24, 2012
Christmas brings fear of church bombs in Nigeria
MADALLA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Kneeling over a dusty grave on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital, 16-year old Hope Ehiawaguan says a prayer, lays down flowers and tearfully tells her brother she loves him.
He was one of 44 killed on Christmas Day last year when a member of Islamist sect Boko Haram rammed a car packed with explosives into the gates of St Theresa's Church in Madalla, a satellite town 25 miles from the center of Abuja.
Boko Haram has killed hundreds in its campaign to impose sharia law in northern Nigeria and is the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil exporter.
Two other churches were bombed that day and on Christmas Eve 2010 over 40 people were killed in similar attacks.
This Christmas, the police and military are expecting more trouble in the north. They've ordered security to be tightened, people's movement restricted and churches to be guarded.
But such is the commitment to religion in a country with Africa's largest Christian population that millions of people will pack out thousands of churches in the coming days. It is impossible to protect everyone, security experts say.
"I feel safe," Ehiawaguan says with uncertainty, when asked if she will come to church on December 25 this year.
"Not because of security here ... because we have a greater security in heaven," she says, wiping away her tears.
The blast in Madalla killed several people on the street and pulled down the church roof, condemning many of those trapped inside the burning building, including a 7-month old boy.
A plaque listing the names of the members of the church who were killed has been placed above their graves. The twisted metal of the cars destroyed in the blast is still there.
"I only pray to God to give them a heart," Ehiawaguan says, when asked about her brother's killers.
Security experts believe Boko Haram is targeting worshippers to spark a religious conflict in a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.
SECTARIAN THREAT
The sect has also targeted Mosques in the past and assassinated Imams who have questioned its insurgency. In the group's stronghold in the northeast, where most of its attacks occur, Muslims are equally at threat as Christians.
The fear for many is that more Christmas Day attacks could spark the sort of tit-for-tat sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.
"We have always insisted that Christians should not retaliate," said Sam Kraakevik Kujiyat, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State, one of the areas worst hit by inter-religious violence in recent years.
"But there is fear ... we know not everyone who says he is a Christian acts like one."
Churches were emptier than usual on Sunday in northern cities of Kano and Kaduna, local residents said.
Despite bolstered security in cities across the north, dual suicide bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India's Airtel and South Africa's MTN in Nigeria's second-largest city Kano on Saturday.
The bombers died but no civilians were killed.
No one took responsibility for the attacks but Boko Haram has targeted phone firms before because they say the companies help the security forces catch their members.
At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since Boko Haram launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.
Boko Haram has showed since its insurgency intensified more than two years ago that it can find weaknesses in defenses.
"One faction of Boko Haram has made several attempts to provoke violence between Christians and Muslims," said Peter Sharwood Smith, Nigeria head of security firm Drum Cussac.
"Unfortunately, I think it is very possible we may see attacks of this type (Church bombings) again."
Boko Haram is not the only threat in northern Nigeria.
Islamist Group called Ansaru, known to have ties with Boko Haram, has risen in prominence in recent weeks. It claimed an attack on a major police barracks in Abuja last month, where it said hundreds of prisoners were released.
The group said on Saturday that it was behind the kidnapping of a French national last week and it has been labeled a "terrorist group" by Britain.
(Additional reporting by Afolabi Sotunde and Abraham Achirga in Madalla and Isaac Abrak in Kaduna; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Anna Willard)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/christmas-brings-fear-church-bombs-nigeria-124227878.html
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Sunday, December 23, 2012
From 2013 through 2030, 75 million baby boomers will do this ...
They will retire! At the rate of a staggering 12,000 per day (that's 368,000 per month) for 17 straight years they will be retiring to enjoy reaping the benefits of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Me included, God willing.
With new jobs (most of them at the wage level of a burger flipper, or worse yet, well paying government jobs) happening at about 144,000 per month, just how is this going to work out? How long will the upstarts tolerate being taxed into oblivion for the benefit of us old folks? Of, I forgot, those making less than $50,000 in combined family income pay (on average) a net zero in Federal income taxes. That leaves the rich. Or the printing press....
And what is left once the Dollar has no real value and the rich have been destroyed as a class (or up and left the country, taking their jobs with them)?
PS: Guess what happens when 368,000 people per month retire and 144,000 upstarts find jobs? The percentage of unemployed figure consistently drops monthly, making everything look rosy as all get-out.
Source: http://nepacrossroads.com/about27122.html
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Pope pardons Vatican butler
Paolo Gabriele, the pope's former major-domo, was convicted of leaking confidential documents. ?The Pope pardoned him after a meeting at the Vatican jail.
Pope Benedict XVI meets with Paolo Gabriele, his former butler, on Saturday at the Vatican.
Courtesy L'Osservatore Romano
EnlargePope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.
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After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The Vatican said he couldn't continue living or working in the Vatican, but said it would find him housing and a job elsewhere soon.
"This is a paternal gesture toward someone with whom the pope for many years shared daily life," according to a statement from the Vatican secretariat of state.
The pardon closes a painful and embarrassing chapter for the Vatican, capping a sensational, Hollywood-like scandal that exposed power struggles, intrigue and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons in the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
Gabriele, 46, was arrested May 23 after Vatican police found what they called an "enormous" stash of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal on Oct. 6 and has been serving his 18-month sentence in the Vatican police barracks.
He told Vatican investigators he gave the documents to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi because he thought the 85-year-old pope wasn't being informed of the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican and thought that exposing it publicly would put the church back on the right track.
During the trial, Gabriele testified that he loved the pope "as a son loves his father" and said he never meant to hurt the pontiff or the church. A photograph taken during the meeting Saturday ? the first between Benedict and his once trusted butler since his arrest ? showed Gabriele dressed in his typical dark gray suit, smiling.
The publication of the leaked documents, first on Italian television then in Nuzzi's book "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's Secret Papers" convulsed the Vatican all year, a devastating betrayal of the pope from within his papal family that exposed the unseemly side of the Catholic Church's governance.
The papal pardon had been widely expected before Christmas, and the jailhouse meeting Benedict used to personally deliver it recalled the image of Pope John Paul II visiting Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot him in 1981, while he served his sentence in an Italian prison.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the meeting was "intense" and "personal" and said that during it Benedict "communicated to him in person that he had accepted his request for pardon, commuting his sentence."
Lombardi said the Vatican hoped the Benedict's pardon and Gabriele's freedom would allow the Holy See to return to work "in an atmosphere of serenity."
None of the leaked documents threatened the papacy. Most were of interest only to Italians, as they concerned relations between Italy and the Vatican and a few local scandals and personalities. Their main aim appeared to be to discredit Benedict's trusted No. 2, the secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Vatican officials have said the theft, though, shattered the confidentiality that typically governs correspondence with the pope. Cardinals, bishops and everyday laymen write to him about spiritual and practical matters assuming that their words will be treated with the discretion for which the Holy See is known.
As a result, the leaks prompted a remarkable reaction, with the pope naming a commission of three cardinals to investigate alongside Vatican prosecutors. Italian news reports have said new security measures and personnel checks have been put in place to prevent a repeat offense.
Gabriele insisted he acted alone, with no accomplices, but it remains an open question whether any other heads will roll. Technically the criminal investigation remains open, and few in the Vatican believe Gabriele could have construed such a plot without at least the endorsement if not the outright help of others. But Lombardi said he had no new information to release about any new investigative leads, saying the pardon "closed a sad and painful chapter" for the Holy See.
Nuzzi, who has supported Gabriele as a hero for having exposed corruption in the Vatican, tweeted Saturday that it appeared the butler was thrilled to speak with the pope and go home. "Unending joy for him, but the problems of the curia and power remain," he wrote, referring to the Vatican bureaucracy.
A Vatican computer expert, Claudio Sciarpelletti, was convicted Nov. 10 of aiding and abetting Gabriele by changing his testimony to Vatican investigators about the origins of an envelope with Gabriele's name on it that was found in his desk. His two-month sentence was suspended. Lombardi said a pardon was expected for him as well. He recently returned to work in the Vatican.
Benedict met this past week with the cardinals who investigated the origins of the leaks, but it wasn't known if they provided him with any further updates or were merely meeting ahead of the expected pardon for Gabriele.
As supreme executive, legislator and judge in Vatican City, the pope had the power to pardon Gabriele at any time. The only question was when.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gPJ0Ot8oC4Q/Pope-pardons-Vatican-butler
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