Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180610589?client_source=feed&format=rss
katy perry divorce brock lesnar vs alistair overeem insync old dominion wake forest wake forest blake griffin
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
UPDATE: Ilford police appeal after yobs smash up church?s Christ painting
Edwina Ellington
Thursday, December 29, 2011
12:19 PM
A police forensics team is due to visit the Ilford church hit by vandals later today.
They will be searching for clues after a painting of Christ and war memorial were left smashed, as well as Victorian silver plates and candlesticks were stolen from St Mary the Virgin Church in High Road, Ilford.
Police are appealing to anyone who has information in connection with the crime to call their burglary squad on 020 8345 2681.
It is believed the crime took place between Boxing Day evening and yesterday (December 28).
student loan forgiveness amy winehouse cause of death amy winehouse cause of death white witch white witch occupy san francisco occupy san francisco
Vt. reopens last highway destroyed by Irene (AP)
STOCKBRIDGE, Vt. ? After hundreds of thousands of tons of rock were hauled out and tens of thousands of man-hours were spent, Vermont celebrated the completion of the biggest single engineering challenge following the flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Irene.
Just in time for the new year, and four months after the storm hit, Route 107 between Bethel and Stockbridge was reopened Thursday. The state highway, a major east-west thoroughfare, is the last to reopen after being closed by flooding.
The road's reopening was marked with a ceremony at a Stockbridge school, where scores of local residents and state officials tossed fluorescent orange baseball caps into the air.
"It will cut our commute time down, it will lessen our trauma of looking at all the damage and the moonscape," said Stockbridge resident Melissa Thompson, who had to navigate a 70-minute detour to get her son to school and to get to work for the past few months. "We'll probably miss all the flaggers (who) we got to know on the way. It just means so much to us to not have to make that commute every day."
Much remains to be done on Route 107 and across the state, but Vermonters used the reopening as a moment to pause and celebrate. Many people are still struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives. The state is just totaling up the bill, and the Legislature is preparing to deal with a variety of Irene-induced, long-term challenges.
The repair of Route 107 posed one of the biggest tests following the storm that left a dozen towns cut off from the outside world for days, damaged or destroyed more than 500 miles of roads and 200 bridges, killed six and reshaped much of the low-lying countryside.
Irene ripped up Vermont on Aug. 28. The downtowns of communities from Whitingham in southern Vermont to Waterbury, just west of Montpelier, were flooded to levels not seen since the state's epic flood of 1927.
Neale Lunderville, the state's appointed chief recovery officer, said it would be years before many Vermont families are back to what he calls "a new normal."
"If we want to have a robust recovery and one that brings us back to a place where we are stronger, smarter and safer than before Irene, we have to continue to remember what Irene did and what we need to do to recover from that," Lunderville said. "It's going to take a concerted effort and ongoing attention at high levels in order for us to have a really strong recovery."
The stretch of highway between Bethel and Stockbridge is one of the state's major east-west arteries, and sections of the highway were part of the riverbank where the road and the White River pass through a narrow cut in the Green Mountains. Irene's run through Vermont funneled record volumes of water through that narrow pass, where it tore riverbanks to pieces.
"All of a sudden the road ended and then we were looking at river and mud and what used to be huge sheets of asphalt that had shifted into the river," said Maine Army National Guard Capt. Norman Stickney, of Gardiner, who arrived five days after the storm. "It was like something fell from the sky and completely crushed all of the asphalt and scooped it away and dumped it into the river."
In the three-mile section of road that was hardest hit, about 4,000 feet of Route 107 was completely gone, said Vermont Transportation Agency Engineer Eric Foster, who oversaw the rebuilding of the highway. A job that would normally take two years was done in 119 days after the first work crews ? the soldiers from the Maine National Guard and other states ? arrived.
In addition to the guard, it took two contractors, 250,000 tons of rock, at least 20,000 hours of heavy equipment time, 7,500 feet of guardrail, 38 culverts and 46 companies over 16 weeks to repair the highway, according to information provided by the Vermont Transportation Agency.
The biggest challenge was getting the rocks and other fill material to Bethel. A special "rock train" was used to bring fill from distant quarries before it was unloaded a couple of miles from the work site. The train saved an estimated 6,600 truck trips.
In other parts of the state, officials have said some of the repairs done on the fly to get traffic moving again might have to be redone. That's not the case for Route 107.
The roadway was built with layers of different sized rock and the banks sloped to withstand another Irene, said Glenn Cairns, of the Windham, N.H., contractor George Cairns and Sons, which brought its specialized equipment ? excavators and dump trucks that are up to twice the size of those usually found on Vermont highway projects.
It's designed to withstand another "Irene, plus two feet," said Foster.
Both Stickney and Cairn said they were amazed by how grateful Vermonters were despite the challenges they faced.
"Even though these people, their lives were turned upside down, they were friendly," Cairns said. "They really didn't mind sitting in traffic waiting for us ? the hardship that they went through and everybody was just thankful and waved and smiled.
"They went through a lot. I could understand how they could be bitter, `Why isn't my road back together?' But I've got to say the people were just extremely friendly and welcoming."
green bay packers tim tebow chiefs kc chiefs kc chiefs judy garland duggars
Thursday, December 29, 2011
TouchPad Go gets reviewed; or the 7-inch war that never was
Full review of HP’s never announced, never released, 7-inch TouchPad Go, the webOS-powered iPad competitor that could have been Derek Kessler of our newly renamed sibling site, webOS...
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/YZD_o1kN0sc/story01.htm
golden globe nominations los angeles clippers los angeles clippers charlize theron telenav telenav wade phillips
^WATCH Utah Jazz vs Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball game free live coverage online
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
light year michelle rounds michelle rounds cabin in the woods dan quayle brett favre packers stock
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Giants coach downplays injury, ready for Dallas
New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, right, shakes hands with New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin after an NFL football game Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won 29-14. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, right, shakes hands with New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin after an NFL football game Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won 29-14. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin reacts after a Giants' touchdown was reversed by officials during the second quarter of an NFL football game against New York Jets, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin reacts during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Redskins defeated the Giants 23-10. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) ? Walking into his news conference to kick off an NFC East showdown week with the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Coughlin couldn't hide the injury.
There was a noticeable limp in his left leg, one that seemingly will bother the 65-year-old New York Giants coach for weeks and might require medical intervention down the road.
Coughlin didn't care. He wasn't going to discuss the extent of the injury sustained in Saturday's game with the Jets when he was slammed into by D.J Ware after the Giants running back was hit out of bounds.
All that was important was that the Giants (8-7) are playing Dallas (8-7) Sunday night at MetLife Stadium for the NFC East title and a playoff berth. The loser goes home.
"Never better. I may not be able to run for a while," Coughlin said of his health, adding later that he doesn't discuss injuries.
Still, Coughlin had some fun. When asked about Ware, he joked Ware was no longer with the team.
He blamed himself for not paying attention and taking his eye off the play, even though he admitted the late push that resulted in a penalty came 10 yards out of bounds. He even noted he was in for treatment Sunday, just to check up on his players who were hurt in Saturday's 29-14 win that gave the Giants bragging right over Rex Ryan and the brash Jets, the team that co-owns the stadium where they play.
The man who also led the Giants to a Super Bowl title in 2008 and missed the playoffs the past two seasons added he has no intention of coaching from the press box Sunday night. He will be on the field with his players in this all-or-nothing game.
"This is a long and storied rivalry, no doubt about it," Coughlin said of the Giants-Cowboys series. "There have been some great, great games between the two franchises. The one a couple of weeks ago was an outstanding game and example of that. We prepare ourselves for just that type of high intensity, outstanding, high level of performance on both sides."
The Giants rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final 5:41 to beat the Cowboys in Dallas on Dec. 11. However, Coughlin reminded his team Monday that Dallas beat the Giants in the Meadowlands last season after losing in Texas.
Defensive end Dave Tollefson said Coughlin has been the one person the players can count on in what has been an inconsistent year.
The fourth-quarter injury on Saturday was yet another example.
Player after player was amazed at Coughlin's toughness after taking the hit, which looked nasty. Trainers forced him to go to the bench to be examined, but he fought them all the way and quickly limped back to his coaching position along the sideline.
"You know his actions, obviously, Saturday was a great example to the public," Tollefson said. "He would never ask us to do anything that he himself would (not) be willing to do, though he is twice the age of our youngest guy. Seriously, he means what he says and he says a lot of things that he does say, there is conviction in his voice. So you can really tell he means it."
And that he led to loyalty toward a coach who let his players know where they stand.
"You don't want to let him down because he is willing to do anything he can to not let us down," Tollefson said.
Coughlin's message to the team Monday was simple: Forget about the win over the Jets. If you want to get into the postseason, win on Sunday.
"We are all all-in," said defensive captain Justin Tuck, who seemingly shook off all his injuries and played his best game of the season against the Jets. "Coach Coughlin is the same as all of us. I know that leg is banged up a little bit, but he wasn't showing any ill effects today and came in excited about the opportunity that we have this week."
Outspoken safety Antrel Rolle went home to Miami for Christmas, and texted his coach to see how he was feeling Sunday.
"Some of our toughness definitely rubbed off on him," Rolle quipped before getting serious. "He is a tough guy. He kept it going. If our coach is strong enough to go out there and fight and keep it going and hang through a situation like that, we're younger. Why can't we do it?" That's the mentality I have."
Some of the players could not help but tease Coughlin a little bit. One of the things he always says to them is: no toughness, no championship."
The coach heard that a couple of times after being hurt.
His age also was a target.
"I don't think he has taken a hit like that since World War II," Tollefson said of Coughlin, who was born a year after the hostilities ended. "For him to bounce back is impressive."
He'll tape it up if he has to," added guard Chris Snee, the coach's son-in-law. "It didn't look very good but I guess it could have been a lot worse."
NOTES: Coughlin hopes to have WR Mario Manningham (knee) back for the regular-season finale. ...DE Osi Umenyiora (ankle) is a little more iffy. ... Rolle, CB Corey Webster and DE Jason Pierre-Paul all played over 100 plays against the Jets.
Associated Pressjohn tucker must die uk basketball iowa state faroe islands faroe islands corso james arthur ray
Sadr bloc calls for early elections in Iraq (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? The head of the political bloc of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Monday for new elections in Iraq after the biggest crisis in a year saw Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki move against two senior Sunni rivals.
Tensions are rising after Maliki, a Shi'ite, sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi - accused of running death squads. Maliki also asked parliament to fire Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq.
The head of Sadr's bloc, part of the ruling Shi'ite-led government, said parliament should be dissolved to try resolve the spat, which has raised concerns about a return to sectarian strife since U.S. troops withdrew a week ago.
Seven people were killed earlier on Monday when a suicide car bomber attacked Iraq's interior ministry in Baghdad. It followed a series of explosions on Thursday in the capital in which 72 people were killed.
"We are in a new phase and have found a lot of problems which give no stability to Iraq... so we will discuss this subject with the National Alliance because we are part of it," Bahaa al-Araji, the head of Sadr's bloc, said in a statement in which he also called for "new and early elections."
Support from Sadr's bloc helped Maliki to a second term following nine months of wrangling after an inconclusive election in March 2010. The National Alliance is the powerful bloc formed when Maliki's party linked with the Sadrists and other Shi'ite groups.
The latest turmoil threatens to scupper Iraq's fragile power-sharing deal that splits posts among the Shi'ite National Aliance, the mainly Sunni-backed Iraqiya party and a bloc representing Kurds.
Hashemi and Mutlaq are two of the most senior figures in Iraqiya, which announced a boycott of parliament ten days ago.
EARLY VOTE
Two senior Sadrist lawmakers said early elections were just one of the possible actions being considered in efforts to try resolve the crisis.
"It is one of the solutions that was presented in case the crisis continues and political blocs fail to reach a solution and Iraqiya insists on continuing to boycott parliament and cabinet sessions," said senior Sadrist lawmaker Amir al-Kinani.
Iraqiya will give an important signal about the future of the power sharing agreement on Tuesday when its members decide whether or not to attend a cabinet meeting.
The party, which is led by secularist Shi'ite former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi but is supported by many Sunnis, said in a statement on Sunday it was willing to participate in talks to resolve the crisis.
"We have received many positive signs from the Iraqiya leaders," said Mushriq Naji, a senior Sadrist lawmaker. "They said they are willing to end this crisis but asked for more time to talk to their top leaders. They asked for two more days."
Violence in Iraq has dropped since the sectarian civil war of 2006-07, when Shi'ite militia and Sunni insurgents often killed thousands of civilians a month.
Many Iraqis fear that the latest political dispute - on clear-cut sectarian lines - could reignite the slaughter, without the buffer of U.S. troops to separate the sides.
Turmoil in Iraq would have a larger impact on the region, where a crisis in Syria is taking on a more sectarian tone and Shi'ite Iran, Sunni Turkey and Sunni Arab Gulf states are looking to increase their influence.
Iraq's Sunni minority has felt marginalized since the rise of the Shi'ite majority after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia once fought U.S. and Iraqi troops, said in a statement on Sunday that the crisis may lead to one-party rule and hurt Maliki's reputation as a statesman.
Sadr ordered his militia to disarm when he joined mainstream politics in recent years, but splinter groups have continued attacks.
On Monday, an Iraqi official said Asaib al-Haq, the biggest Mehdi Army militant splinter group, had offered to lay down arms and form a political movement to take part in the next election.
"They are willing to lay down their weapons and join the political process after the bilateral security agreement was executed and U.S. troops completed their withdrawal," said Mohammed al-Hamed, spokesman for Maliki's National Reconciliation Advisor. The group could not be reached for comment.
(Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Peter Graff)
elf on a shelf carrier iq carrier iq linda perry world aids day amber rose kristin cavallari
Get the fire burning: Watch latest ?The Reem? video
No one does it better than Camp Overeem when it comes to video blogs. The latest "The Reem" takes us all over the world as Alistair Overeem fulfills his press duties, meets American fans, goes face-to-face with Brock Lesnar and returns to Holland to take care of his mother, who is dealing with another cancer scare.
Overeem meets Lesnar this Friday at UFC 141 in Las Vegas. The sheer enormity of the fighters is a ridiculous site. It's the first time ever Lesnar appears a little bit smaller than his opponent. If this video doesn't get you fired up for the heavyweight clash, nothing will.
The end of the video is must watch material as Overeem deals with the emotional situation his mother is experiencing. You also get to meet his father, who's been living in England and recently relocated to Holland.
Watch UFC 141 right here on Yahoo! Sports
syracuse university best buy black friday 2011 ads broncos jets jessie james clayton kershaw osu basketball dale sveum
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
ROBERT SHILLER: I'm Bullish On Finance And I'm Telling My ...
Robert Shiller, Yale economics professor and co-founder of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, was on Bloomberg TV this afternoon to talk about his thoughts on the economy. Overall, Shiller remained skeptical about an economic recovery despite Consumer Confidence shooting above expectations this morning. He cited a historical trend of ups and downs and economic indicator numbers that are still too low to be optimistic. It was reported this morning that Shiller's Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 3.4% year-over-year, coming in at lower than the expected 3.2% decrease.
Near the end, the interview segued from Shiller's thoughts on housing in the New York area to his thoughts on jobs in the New York area?in particular, Wall Street jobs. In a twist from the relatively negative outlook that has dominated discourse on the financial sphere, Shiller revealed that he had high expectations for Wall Street.? From Bloomberg:
"I'm bullish on finance for the long run... I think finance is a central technology. The U.S. is very good at this technology, just like it's good at information technology as well," he said.
"I recommend to my students that it's still a good time to go into finance?if not in the short run, in the longer run. New York has a lot of strength that will carry it forward for a long time."
Video of the interview:
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-shiller-bullish-on-finance-2011-12
chris carpenter the brothers grimm the brothers grimm penn state football weather boston grimm fairy tales grimm fairy tales
TechNet HOLO: Addressing Application Compatibility in Windows 7
Learn about tools and resources to reduce the time, cost, and complexity of addressing application compatibility.
Windows 7 Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5:
The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) enables IT professionals who work in a corporate environment to determine, before rolling out within the organization, whether their applications are compatible with a new version of Windows. ACT also enables you to determine how an update to the new version will impact applications.
Windows 7: Mitigating Application Issues Using Shims:
Use the built-in tools in Windows 7 to solve basic application compatibility issues to turn an incompatible application from not functioning to fully functioning. The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) creates a distributable fix so you can deploy the fixes in an enterprise-wide capacity.
_______
What is a HOLO event? It?s an online event where you listen to a live presentation and work on lab exercises. As you work on your labs, Microsoft experts can assist and provide guidance by chatting with you one-on-one or by virtually taking control of your lab.
Source: http://www.communitymegaphone.com/ShowEvent.aspx?EventID=4770
thanksgiving recipes thanksgiving recipes mashed potato recipe mashed potato recipe cranberry sauce oregon usc la auto show
Monday, December 26, 2011
Zimbabwe: 11 drown in holiday boating accident (AP)
HARARE, Zimbabwe ? Zimbabwean state radio says 11 people died, most of them children, in a Christmas Day boating accident on a lake outside the capital.
The radio said Monday a pleasure boat capsized at Lake Chivero on Sunday, drowning 11 of 19 people on board. The children were on a holiday outing at the lake 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Harare and were aged between five and 14, it said.
The radio identified seven of the children by name.
The radio report also said a wildlife ranger at the lake died Saturday when his canoe overturned in rough weather. The lake is also a conservancy, leisure resort and water-supply reservoir.
Boating accidents on the lake are largely blamed on poor enforcement of safety practices.
rod blagojevich rod blagojevich harry morgan john lennon death john lennon death c.j. wilson three stooges
Android 4 ICS ??? ??????????? ???????????
???? ???? ? ??? ?????????? ??? Android, ???????? ?? ??????????? ?? ??? ?????????????? ???. ??? ??? ???? ??? ?????????? ??? ??? ???, ????? ? ?????????? ??? ???????. ??????? ???? ????? ??? ????????? ??????????? ????? ???????????, ???? ?????? ???? ?????????? ??? Galaxy Nexus. ?????? ???? ?? ?????????????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ?? ???? ????????. ??? ?????????? ?????????? ???????? ?????? ????? ? ?????????? ??????????? ???????????.
???????? ???? ????? ??????????? ??? ???????? ??? ?? ???????? ????? ?? Photaf ??? ???? ?? Pano. ????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ???????, ???? ?? ??????????? ????? ??? ???????????? ????????. ??? ?? ???????????? ??? ????????, ?????? ?? ??????? ??????????? ???????????. ?? ?????????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ???? (?????? ??? ?? ????????? ?? ?????) ??? ?? ???????? ??? ??????????? ????? ??????, ? ?????? ????? ??????????? focus ?? ???? ??????????. ?? ?????????? ????? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ?????????? (?????????? ????? ???? ????) ?? ??????????????? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ????????? ?? ???????????? ?????, ??? ??????????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?????????? ??????.
? ?????????? ?????????? ??? ??????? ??? Android 4 ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ????????. ??? 100% ??? ??????????? ?? ???????? ????? ??????, ????? ??? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ????????????????? ???????? ?????? ???? ?? ???????? ??? ?????. ??? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ?? focus ??? ?????? ????????????, ? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?????. ?? ??????????? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????????? ??????? ?? ??? ?????????? ??????, ???? ?? ???? ?????? ????? ?????????????.
????? ?????? ????????????:
Source: http://osarena.net/android/aguides/android-4-ics-ke-panoramikes-fotografies.html
mark buehrle rick perry ad rick perry ad richard cordray dragnet dragnet immaculate conception
Last U.S. troops out of Iraq make it home for Christmas
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/Last+troops+Iraq+make+home+Christmas/5909182/story.html
walmart black friday walmart black friday raiders vincent jackson veterans day paterno oakland raiders
chuckbrady: RT @bsainsbury: NORAD Santa Tracker 2011: Google Maps Helps You Keep An Eye On Santa This Christmas Eve (VIDEOS) http://t.co/dXWUd6oH
- Passer la navigation
- Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
- Passer cette ?tape
- Connexion
NORAD Santa Tracker 2011: Google Maps Helps You Keep An Eye On Santa This Christmas Eve (VIDEOS) j.mp/s8bltf 
bsainsbury Bonnie Sainsbury
Pied de page
Source: http://twitter.com/chuckbrady/statuses/150794601245048832
barnaby barnaby giuliana rancic giuliana rancic the cabin in the woods the cabin in the woods trace adkins
Last combat troops out of Iraq back at Fort Hood
Fort Hood, Texas? 1st Sgt. Scott Dawson has spent several Christmases overseas during four deployments to Iraq, but he arrived home for this holiday Saturday ? and he and his family hope it's for good.
Dawson was among the very last U.S. combat soldiers to leave Iraq a week ago. Members of his brigade having been arriving Fort Hood in Texas over the past week, and he was in a group of nearly 200 that landed Saturday. Only about a dozen are still overseas, along with members of another brigade that was in the final convoy to cross the border into Kuwait.
The soldiers' families waited for two hours in drizzling rain and chilling wind on Christmas Eve morning, some wrapped in blankets and holding signs decorated with ornaments and candy canes. They screamed upon seeing the troops from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division arrive in buses and march onto a field at the Army post.
When the announcer yelled "Charge!" at the end of the brief welcome-home ceremony, wives, children and parents ran to the soldiers, hugging and kissing them.
Dawson's wife, Capt. Jessica Dawson, said his absence has been difficult even though she may have a better understanding than other spouses. She deployed with her husband in 2009.
"He's missed a lot of birthdays and holidays, but you don't dwell on what you missed, and they are little enough that they won't remember he wasn't here," Jessica Dawson said. "The biggest thing is that he made it (back). Like I told the kids, even if he doesn't get back in time, this will be the best Christmas ever because he's out of Iraq."
Dawson kissed his wife and scooped up his two young daughters as they ran into his arms. Like many soldiers, he said he just wanted to spend time with his family over the holidays and hadn't made elaborate plans.
"It's great ... but it's odd because usually I don't get to stay home for very long," said Dawson, who is staying in the Army and isn't sure if he will be deployed to Afghanistan or somewhere else.
The troops slipped out of Iraq a week ago in heavily armored personnel carriers that moved under cover of darkness and in strict secrecy to prevent any final attacks. Dawson said the significance of being among the last to leave hadn't yet sunk in.
"In the future I'm sure this will really hit me," he said.
Col. Douglas Crissman, the 3rd Brigade's commander, also just returned home and said it was a privilege that the brigade was the last to leave Iraq. Preparing for the final exit took a year, he said.
"Fort Hood has given a lot ? blood, treasure, time and sacrifice ? like many Army installations, so being part of the closing days in Iraq is fitting," he said Saturday as he watched soldiers hug their families. "It's great to be part of the end. There's closure. We were the last vehicles to roll out, and that was a privilege."
Fort Hood has about 46,500 active-duty soldiers. Since 2003, more than 565 have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to officials at the Army post.
Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111225/NATION/112250314/1020/rss09
google offers tim gunn tim gunn death clock death clock cerebral palsy lenny dykstra
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Komaneko's Christmas [Japan] [2009/DVDRIP/XViD] (Family)
Error: The page you tried to view can only be used when you're logged in.
If you are having problems logging in, try clearing your browser cookies.
If that doesnt work, click here and try one more time.
If that still doesn't work, seek help (on irc).
Don't have an account? Sign up
Forgotten your password? Password Recovery
Source: http://cinemageddon.net/details.php?id=116823
temple grandin texas rangers marie osmond st louis cardinals josh hamilton beavis and butthead cardinals
'Marilyn' actor Branagh parallels his character (AP)
New York ? Long before Kenneth Branagh stepped into the role of Sir Laurence Olivier in "My Week With Marilyn," there already were strong parallels between them.
Both are synonymous with film adaptations of William Shakespeare, delivering lines with implausible realism, and earning accolades for their troubles. Each starred and directed their own successful adaptations of "Hamlet," and "Henry V," that earned Oscar nods for their work on both sides of the camera. (Olivier received an honorary award that included directing the film).
With such similarities, it seems fitting that Branagh earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the legendary actor.
"He was a master of his craft, and at the same time very vulnerable," Branagh says of Olivier.
"My Week with Marilyn," is in theaters and stars two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. It's based on the writings of Colin Clark, who spent a week with the iconic actress in 1957 while she was filming "The Prince and the Showgirl" in the United Kingdom.
"When they were making this film, Olivier, saw it as means to reinvigorate his career, especially in the states," Branagh said. "But he found it a challenge to work with Marilyn (Monroe), whom he considered less than professional."
Olivier eventually lightened up to Monroe, admitting she was wonderful in the film.
But Branagh says his co-star, Michelle Williams, who plays the iconic Monroe, has been wonderful from the start.
"Before we ever started filming, she learned everything she could about Marilyn, and played her flawlessly."
"After some time you live the character, and stop playing it," he added.
Olivier was 50 when he starred and directed "The Prince and the Showgirl," and Branagh was 50 when he portrayed Olivier in the film.
"He had this attitude of, `It's not over, yet,' and I feel the same way," Branagh said.
The actor always has held Olivier in high regard and is humbled whenever critics draw comparisons. That comes as no surprise when you consider Olivier's body of work. Classic performances include Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights," the title characters in "Othello" and "Richard II," and Andrew Wyke from "Sleuth."
"How could you not be an Olivier fan? Just think of that scene in Marathon Man, where he's torturing Dustin Hoffman with a dentist's drill. That scene alone could be responsible for a generation of British not going to the dentist," Branagh said before breaking into laughter.
So while he's a serious actor, Branagh also has a good sense of humor. And he's going to need it at the Golden Globes, where Ricky Gervais returns as host.
Branagh and Gervais grew up in the same English town of Reading; Branagh moved there as a child from Belfast. Branagh is a year older than Gervais and says their schools often played football games against one another. Branagh was an avid footballer through school.
"I'm not sure if he ever played," the actor said of Gervais. "But if he did, we certainly played against one another."
Because of the hometown connection, Branagh expects Gervais to focus some the jokes about growing up in Reading. And the actor says he has no problem with that.
chili recipe chili recipe grimm jello shots tashard choice tashard choice amityville horror
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Androidheadline: McAfee: World Class Protection for Your Mobile http://t.co/5f1vXQ2G #android
- Passer la navigation
- Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
- Passer cette ?tape
- Connexion
McAfee: World Class Protection for Your Mobile is.gd/20Z6Op #android 
Androidheadline Android Headlines
Pied de page
Source: http://twitter.com/Androidheadline/statuses/150125057467879424
matt jones snow white and the huntsman trailer snow white and the huntsman trailer sexiest man alive kentucky basketball heather locklear bob costas
Robert Scheer: On to the Next 'Bubble Fantasy'
Few journalists have greater influence on U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East, than New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. But his tortured obit of a column this week on the official end of the neocolonialist disaster that has been the Iraq occupation reminds one that the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner often gets it wrong.
Was the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which he did so much to encourage, a "wise choice"? Friedman hides behind one of his trademark ambiguities: "My answer is twofold: 'No' and 'Maybe, sort of, we'll see.' I say 'no' because whatever happens in Iraq, even if it becomes Switzerland, we overpaid for it."
Aside from the stunning amorality of assessing the cost of war from the standpoint of the royal "we," Friedman seems wildly optimistic about what the invasion has wrought. On a day when Iraq's prime minister, a Shiite, demanded that the leader of the Kurds arrest the Sunni vice president, Friedman celebrated the unity of the three groups as "the most important product of the Iraq war." He blamed the failure of the U.S. occupation to accomplish more, in roughly equal measure, on "the incompetence of George W. Bush's team in prosecuting the war," "Iran, the Arab dictators and, most of all, Al Qaeda," which he seems surprised to report "did not want a democracy in the heart of the Arab world."
President Bush's argument for the invasion was not based on democratic nation-building but rather on two specific lies that Friedman has long danced around: that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that threatened U.S. security and that it was somehow linked to the 9/11 attacks. Friedman now insists "Iraq was always a war of choice. As I never bought the argument that Saddam had nukes that had to be taken out, the decision to go to war stemmed for me from a different choice: Could we ... tilt it and the region onto a democratizing track?"
That is not quite true, for Friedman had been pushing the notion of an Iraqi nuclear threat as far back as July 7, 1991, when he severely criticized the first President Bush for leaving Saddam in power in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, arguing that "Mr. Hussein has a unique personal incentive to continue trying to obtain a nuclear weapon quickly." Friedman wrote critically of what he considered President Bill Clinton's tepid response to Iraq's supposed WMD threat, with the columnist warning in December of 2002 that "Saddam Hussein was an expert at hiding his war toys and, having four years without inspections, had probably buried everything good under mosques or cemeteries."
Friedman was a particularly harsh critic of the French, who wanted to triple the number of U.N. weapons inspectors and let them finish their work before rushing to war. Friedman in February of 2003 argued that "the inspections have failed not because of a shortage of inspectors. They have failed because of a shortage of compliance on Saddam's part, as the French know. The way you get compliance out of a thug like Saddam is not by tripling the inspectors, but by tripling the threat that if he does not comply he will be faced with a UN-approved war."
Within weeks, the U.S.-directed invasion showed that the French had been right and there were no weapons of mass destruction, just as the dictator had asserted. Nor was any plausible evidence ever produced for the second pillar of Bush's justification for the invasion, which Friedman endorsed, that overthrowing Saddam was a valid response to the 9/11 attacks. Friedman said on the Charlie Rose television program in 2003 that what terrorists worldwide needed to see "was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um, and basically saying, 'Which part of the sentence don't you understand?' You don't think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we're just going to let it grow? Well, suck on this. We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That's the real truth. ..."
Such was the cynical melding of the al-Qaida threat with the justification for the invasion that Friedman again evoked this week in The New York Times: "So, no matter the original reasons for the war, in the end, it came down to this: Were America and its Iraqi allies going to defeat Al Qaeda and its allies in the heart of the Arab world or were Al Qaeda and its allies going to defeat them?" But al-Qaida was not present in the heart of the Arab world until the United States deposed Saddam, the sworn enemy of those religious fanatics.
At the core of Friedman's worldview is the assumption that the most brutal and contradictory applications of U.S.-supplied military power are by definition civilizing because this nation owns the brand defining freedom and democracy. The preservation of that brand, no matter the lengths of deceit required, is for Friedman the inevitably noble end that justifies the most despicable of means.
That Friedman is a skilled obfuscator should no longer come as a revelation. But that his self-serving feints at the truth can still earn him a place of high regard in the world of journalism is a sad commentary on the profession that has rewarded him so lucratively.
?
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/on-to-the-next-bubble-fan_b_1164667.html
osu osu reno news syracuse shonn greene oklahoma state plane crash syracuse university
Friday, December 23, 2011
Long intervening non-coding RNAs play pivotal roles in brain development
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uHR17szA8DegvGgsxXNFnO7KAytBy3uff6zitra08ReUMqWalM9R36yAQM8DvfoJnGoSr6qJDJbpJJOFY81Bz0R4fgzhPXYqNliv2r-S8=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Nicole Giese Rura
rura@wi.mit.edu
617-258-6851
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
FINDINGS: Whitehead Institute scientists have identified conserved, long intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) that play key roles during brain development in zebrafish, and went on to show that the human versions of these RNAs can substitute for the zebrafish lincRNAs.
RELEVANCE: Despite their prevalence in the cell, lincRNAs have been referred to as the "dark matter" of all the transcribed RNAs because little is known of their functions or mechanisms. Until now, lincRNAs have been studied primarily in cell lines rather than at the organismal level, which has precluded research into how lincRNAs affect growth and development.
Long intervening non-coding RNAs play pivotal roles in brain development
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (December 22, 2011) Whitehead Institute scientists have identified conserved, long intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) that play key roles during embryonic brain development in zebrafish. They also show that the human versions of the lincRNAs can substitute for the zebrafish versions, which implies that the functions of these non-coding RNAs have been retained in humans as well as fish.
Until now, lincRNAs have been studied primarily in cell lines rather than at the organismal level, which has precluded research into how lincRNAs affect growth and development.
"These studies show that zebrafish, an animal that is frequently used to study the genetics of animal development, can also serve as a tool to uncover in systematic fashion the functions of lincRNAs," says Whitehead Member David Bartel, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of biology at MIT. "This is another case in which a phenomenon in zebrafish provides insight into what's probably happening in humans, as has been established in many studies of protein-coding genes."
Only a minority of RNAs transcribed in a human cell goes on to template protein production, according to a 2007 assessment of the human genome by the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project Consortium, which was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute. The rest of the RNAs are dubbed non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), with those located between protein-coding genes and with lengths of 200 base pairs or longer referred to as lincRNAs.
Despite their prevalence in the cell, lincRNAs have been referred to as the "dark matter" of all the transcribed RNAs because little is known of their functions or mechanisms. One limitation to studying this class of RNAs is their low sequence similarity between species. Unlike protein-coding genes, which are frequently well-conserved between species, lincRNA genes typically have a very small bit of conserved DNA between species, if any. This lack of conservation makes identification of related lincRNAs difficult in closely related species and nearly impossible in distantly related species.
For example, Bartel lab scientists Igor Ulitsky and Alena Shkumatava identified more than 500 lincRNAs in zebrafish but found that only 29 of these have homologs in both humans and mice.
Ulitsky and Shkumatava, who report their findings in this week's issue of the journal Cell, tested the function of two of the 29 lincRNAs by knocking them down in zebrafish embryos. Both knockdowns had striking effects on the zebrafish's brain development. Reduction of one of the lincRNAs, which they called cyrano, caused the zebrafish to have enlarged snouts, small heads and eyes, and short, curly tails, while the zebrafish lacking the lincRNA they called megamind had abnormally shaped heads and enlarged brain ventricles.
To test if the human homologs of the cyrano and megamind lincRNAs are functionally equivalent, Shkumatava injected the human versions into the knocked-down zebrafish. Remarkably, the human lincRNAs rescued the zebrafish and restored brain development and head size for both lincRNAs, indicating that the human lincRNAs may have the same role in embryonic development as their zebrafish analogs.
"This work represents a major advance because it provides a framework for studying lincRNAs, a poorly understood, but abundant class of molecules," says Michael Bender, who oversees RNA processing and function grants at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which partially funded the work. "The discovery that human lincRNAs appear to function much like their zebrafish counterparts in embryonic development suggests that the framework will prove valuable in bringing new insights on the roles played by lincRNAs in mammalian organisms."
The zebrafish is already a powerful tool for studying genetics. Whitehead Member Hazel Sive, who collaborated with Bartel and his lab members on the Cell paper, uses zebrafish to study brain development and genetic mutations linked to autism.
Says Sive, "The zebrafish is a fantastic, facile system for discovering the mechanisms by which genes work."
"We humans share with zebrafish this subset of ancient, peculiar genes, and the functionality has been retained in them," says Ulitsky. "We can perturb them in zebrafish and then replace them with the human ones and, at least in the lincRNAs we look at, the human ones function to restore proper development."
"Because of this functional conservation of lincRNAs between zebrafish and humans, we're introducing the zebrafish as a new vertebrate tool that could be used basically to uncover the functions of other lincRNAs," says Shkumatava.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), Human Frontiers Science Program, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
###
Written by Nicole Giese Rura
David Bartel is a Member at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his laboratory is located and all his research is conducted. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Full Citation:
"Conserved function of lincRNAs in vertebrate embryonic development despite rapid sequence evolution"
Cell, December 23, 2011
Igor Ulitsky (1,2,3,5), Alena Shkumatava (1,2,3,5), Calvin H. Jan (1,2,3,4), Hazel Sive (1,3), David P. Bartel (1,2,3).
1. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
3. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
4. Present address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF, Genentech Hall S472C, 600 16th St, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
5. These authors contributed equally to this work.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 22-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Nicole Giese Rura
rura@wi.mit.edu
617-258-6851
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
FINDINGS: Whitehead Institute scientists have identified conserved, long intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) that play key roles during brain development in zebrafish, and went on to show that the human versions of these RNAs can substitute for the zebrafish lincRNAs.
RELEVANCE: Despite their prevalence in the cell, lincRNAs have been referred to as the "dark matter" of all the transcribed RNAs because little is known of their functions or mechanisms. Until now, lincRNAs have been studied primarily in cell lines rather than at the organismal level, which has precluded research into how lincRNAs affect growth and development.
Long intervening non-coding RNAs play pivotal roles in brain development
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (December 22, 2011) Whitehead Institute scientists have identified conserved, long intervening non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) that play key roles during embryonic brain development in zebrafish. They also show that the human versions of the lincRNAs can substitute for the zebrafish versions, which implies that the functions of these non-coding RNAs have been retained in humans as well as fish.
Until now, lincRNAs have been studied primarily in cell lines rather than at the organismal level, which has precluded research into how lincRNAs affect growth and development.
"These studies show that zebrafish, an animal that is frequently used to study the genetics of animal development, can also serve as a tool to uncover in systematic fashion the functions of lincRNAs," says Whitehead Member David Bartel, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of biology at MIT. "This is another case in which a phenomenon in zebrafish provides insight into what's probably happening in humans, as has been established in many studies of protein-coding genes."
Only a minority of RNAs transcribed in a human cell goes on to template protein production, according to a 2007 assessment of the human genome by the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project Consortium, which was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute. The rest of the RNAs are dubbed non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), with those located between protein-coding genes and with lengths of 200 base pairs or longer referred to as lincRNAs.
Despite their prevalence in the cell, lincRNAs have been referred to as the "dark matter" of all the transcribed RNAs because little is known of their functions or mechanisms. One limitation to studying this class of RNAs is their low sequence similarity between species. Unlike protein-coding genes, which are frequently well-conserved between species, lincRNA genes typically have a very small bit of conserved DNA between species, if any. This lack of conservation makes identification of related lincRNAs difficult in closely related species and nearly impossible in distantly related species.
For example, Bartel lab scientists Igor Ulitsky and Alena Shkumatava identified more than 500 lincRNAs in zebrafish but found that only 29 of these have homologs in both humans and mice.
Ulitsky and Shkumatava, who report their findings in this week's issue of the journal Cell, tested the function of two of the 29 lincRNAs by knocking them down in zebrafish embryos. Both knockdowns had striking effects on the zebrafish's brain development. Reduction of one of the lincRNAs, which they called cyrano, caused the zebrafish to have enlarged snouts, small heads and eyes, and short, curly tails, while the zebrafish lacking the lincRNA they called megamind had abnormally shaped heads and enlarged brain ventricles.
To test if the human homologs of the cyrano and megamind lincRNAs are functionally equivalent, Shkumatava injected the human versions into the knocked-down zebrafish. Remarkably, the human lincRNAs rescued the zebrafish and restored brain development and head size for both lincRNAs, indicating that the human lincRNAs may have the same role in embryonic development as their zebrafish analogs.
"This work represents a major advance because it provides a framework for studying lincRNAs, a poorly understood, but abundant class of molecules," says Michael Bender, who oversees RNA processing and function grants at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which partially funded the work. "The discovery that human lincRNAs appear to function much like their zebrafish counterparts in embryonic development suggests that the framework will prove valuable in bringing new insights on the roles played by lincRNAs in mammalian organisms."
The zebrafish is already a powerful tool for studying genetics. Whitehead Member Hazel Sive, who collaborated with Bartel and his lab members on the Cell paper, uses zebrafish to study brain development and genetic mutations linked to autism.
Says Sive, "The zebrafish is a fantastic, facile system for discovering the mechanisms by which genes work."
"We humans share with zebrafish this subset of ancient, peculiar genes, and the functionality has been retained in them," says Ulitsky. "We can perturb them in zebrafish and then replace them with the human ones and, at least in the lincRNAs we look at, the human ones function to restore proper development."
"Because of this functional conservation of lincRNAs between zebrafish and humans, we're introducing the zebrafish as a new vertebrate tool that could be used basically to uncover the functions of other lincRNAs," says Shkumatava.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), Human Frontiers Science Program, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
###
Written by Nicole Giese Rura
David Bartel is a Member at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his laboratory is located and all his research is conducted. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Full Citation:
"Conserved function of lincRNAs in vertebrate embryonic development despite rapid sequence evolution"
Cell, December 23, 2011
Igor Ulitsky (1,2,3,5), Alena Shkumatava (1,2,3,5), Calvin H. Jan (1,2,3,4), Hazel Sive (1,3), David P. Bartel (1,2,3).
1. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
3. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
4. Present address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF, Genentech Hall S472C, 600 16th St, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
5. These authors contributed equally to this work.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/wifb-lin122011.php
st nicholas chargers mindy mccready mindy mccready cliff harris cliff harris josh turner
Codecademy Builds ?Labs,? A Web-Based Code Editor
Smoking hot startup?Codecademy, a service which teaches you how to program online has launched its?Labs feature today, as a sign of things to come. Codecademy founder Zach Sims tells me that?Codecademy, and specifically new hire Amjad Masad, built the feature because it wanted people to be able to play with what they've learned on Codecademy?without having to download a desktop-based code editor or integrated development environment (IDE). ?He says that most other online code-learning environments (like Treehouse) don't yet offer a way for students freeform write and run the code they teach in-browser.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xjpNWhn-_zA/
joyful noise orcl 2012 nfl mock draft hanukkah gpa calculator menorah derrick rose
Venezuela prosecutor opposes extradition of rebel
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuela's top prosecutor said Thursday that she doesn't think Colombia has provided a proper request for the extradition of a Colombian rebel commander who was captured in Venezuela.
Attorney General Luisa Ortega said she has provided her opinion to the Supreme Court, which will decide on Colombia's extradition request.
Guillermo Torres Cueter, better known by the alias "Julian Conrado," was captured in southwestern Venezuela in May, and the authorities say he is a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Ortega told state television that the accusations Colombia cited in its extradition request were "different from the crimes on which he is wanted."
Colombian officials did not immediately react to Ortega's announcement.
The authorities have described Torres as the most senior FARC commander captured since 2004 in Venezuela.
He is wanted by Colombian authorities on charges of homicide, kidnapping and rebellion.
The U.S. government had also offered a $2.5 million reward for information leading to Torres' capture. The U.S. State Department said he participated in directing the FARC's production and distribution of cocaine bound for the United States and other countries.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in June that Torres' capture indicated that cooperation between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia was producing positive results. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also praised Torres' capture, which was carried out by Venezuelan authorities with help from Colombian officials.
Chavez has not recently expressed an opinion on Torres' fate.
Venezuela's Communist Party, which is allied with Chavez's government, presented a request for political asylum on Torres' behalf in August. The party called his capture illegal, saying he had been working as a farmer in Venezuela and wasn't armed.
Communist Party leader Pedro Eusse said at the time that Torres expressed fears he could be tortured or killed if sent back to Colombia. Eusse also said Torres' had a problem with his prostate and that his health troubles should weigh in favor of the asylum request.
Ortega said officials were checking on Torres' health.
Yul Jabour, another leading member of the Communist Party, praised the attorney general's decision on Thursday and said the party now hopes the authorities will rule on the asylum request.
Associated Pressbeyonce dance for you beyonce dance for you nba lockout over gone with the wind nba lockout news nba lockout news gifts for mom
APNewsBreak: Medicare cuts could hit Jan. 18 (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Nearly 650,000 doctors caring for millions of seniors will get a steep cut in Medicare payments Jan. 18 unless a gridlocked Congress issues a reprieve, program officials said Tuesday.
A provision waiving a scheduled 27.4 percent cut in physician reimbursement was included in the payroll tax legislation now ensnared in partisan political wrangling between the House and Senate.
Medicare deputy administrator Jonathan Blum told The Associated Press the cut will go through unless Congress acts, because the backlog from more than a couple of weeks of waiting for lawmakers could cause the program's computers to crash.
Tax legislation passed by the Senate last week included a two-month Medicare reprieve, but House Republicans rejected that Tuesday.
"Today's vote calls into question whether millions of seniors in Medicare will continue to get the care that they need," said Joyce Rogers, vice president of AARP, the lobby for older people. "More physicians may choose to no longer take Medicare patients due to this dramatic cut."
The recurring threat of cuts to doctors is perhaps the most visible symbol of Medicare's financial problems. Reductions are required by a 1990s budget law that failed to control spending but never got repealed. Instead, Congress passes a temporary fix each time, only to grow the size of cuts required next time around.
Medicare sent an alert to doctors on Monday telling them it will hold claims for the first 10 business days of 2012 unless Congress acts to waive the cuts.
On Tuesday, Blum said holding claims any longer than that could cause problems for Medicare's computers, designed to expedite payment. That disclosure may come as a shock to lawmakers, since Medicare was able to hold claims for more than 20 days during a similar standoff last year during the summer.
"We feel that (Medicare) came very close operationally to crashing our system back in 2010," Blum said in an interview. "From a stewardship perspective, that is something we feel we can never repeat again."
Blum said Medicare has told the contractors handling its billing to start paying claims for 2012 at the lower rate on Jan. 18.
One factor that worries officials is that claims volume is expected to be high in winter months.
After the previous prolonged standoff over cuts, Medicare also heard from many doctors who said delaying payments to wait for Congress doesn't necessarily help them. Most medical practices are small businesses with payroll and other obligations and limited ability to quickly raise cash.
"What doctors told us afterwards is that it was better to provide some cash flow than no cash flow," said Blum. Congress can restore the funds later.
If allowed to go through, such steep cuts could undermine care for millions of elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries, as well as military retirees. Payment rates in the Pentagon's program are pegged to Medicare.
And doctors are not the only medical providers affected. Therapists, nurse practitioners and other professionals are also covered by the same payment system. Some doctors have said they will stop taking new Medicare patients.
The American Medical Association was hoping for a permanent fix to the payment problem this year. That was thwarted by the failure of the congressional supercommittee to come up with a bipartisan plan to reduce government debt.
The payroll tax bill approved by the House included a two-year reprieve for doctors. But that was whittled down to two months in the compromise tax legislation overwhelmingly passed by the Senate passed last week, and intended as a place-holder to buy a little more time for lawmakers to negotiate. House Republicans rejected that deal.
The AMA says the annual spectacle is eroding the confidence of doctors and patients.
"Congress has again failed to fulfill its responsibilities," said Dr. Peter Carmel, the group's president. "It is shameful that patients and physicians are the collateral damage."
college basketball gunsmoke papelbon papelbon anita hill penn state football schedule carrier classic
Thursday, December 22, 2011
College basketball roundup
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WACO ? Brittney Griner had 15 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks in just 24 minutes to help top-ranked Baylor beat McNeese State 90-50 on Wednesday night.
Freshman Sune Agbuke also had a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds for Baylor (12-0), which had six players score in double figures.
Odyssey Sims had 16, Kimetria Hayden 15, Destiny Williams 13 points and Ashley Field scored 10.
Caitlyn Baggett scored 18 for McNeese (9-3), which was picked to repeat as Southland Conference champions in a preseason media poll.
Nine blocks in Baylor's 66-61 win over Connecticut on Sunday gave Griner 455 blocked shots, a Big 12 record.
She was presented with a ceremonial game ball before tipoff marking the accomplishment.
Connecticut 72, Charleston 24: Bria Hartley scored 15 points and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis added 13 as the No. 2 Huskies (10-1) blasted the Cougars (2-8).
The Cougars made just seven of their 49 shots (14 percent) and turned the ball over 24 times. Charleston's 24 points were just four away from the best defensive effort ever by the Huskies (10-1).
But Connecticut's offense didn't look crisp. The Huskies shot just 44 percent, committed 14 turnovers and had their lowest scoring first half of the season with just 27 points.
Georgetown 71, Miami 46:Sugar Rodgers scored 24 points and the Hoyas limited the nation's highest-scoring team to 21 percent shooting and its fewest points this season as the No. 17 Hoyas (10-2) beat the No. 7 Hurricanes (9-2).
Georgetown stifled the Hurricanes from the start, going ahead 34-21 at halftime while holding Miami to just one field goal in the last six minutes. The Hoyas maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way in snapping a seven-game losing streak to Miami that dated to 2000.
Shenise Johnson led Miami with 10 points.
Kentucky 90, Samford 61:Samantha Drake scored 18 points and the No. 8 Wildcats (11-1) rebounded from their first loss of the season with their 31st straight nonconference home victory.
Kentucky never trailed against Samford (6-5) after falling at No. 3 Notre Dame on Sunday.
Paige Anderson led Samford with 24 points.
Texas Tech 75, Western Kentucky 38: Casey Morris scored 11 points to lead the No. 15 Lady Raiders (10-0), who are off to their best start since beginning the 2003-04 season 15-0.
Texas Tech never trailed after scoring the first 11 points of the game. Western Kentucky (3-9) missed its first nine shots and finished the game just 22 percent from the field.
LaTeira Owens scored seven points to lead Western Kentucky.
The win also gave Kristy Curry her first 10-0 start in 13 seasons as head coach at Texas Tech and Purdue.
Penn State 78, Bucknell 54:Maggie Lucas scored 22 points to help the No. 16 Nittany Lions (10-2) win their final non-league contest before Big Ten play starts next week.
It was Lucas' fourth straight game topping 20 points for Penn State, which is off until it opens conference play against Nebraska on Dec. 30.
Nikki Greene and Alex Bentley had 11 points apiece for Penn State. Felicia Mgbada led Bucknell (2-10) with 12 points.
Nebraska 80. S. Dakota St. 71: Jordan Hooper had her second straight double-double with 30 points and 11 rebounds, and Lindsey Moore scored 27 points in the Cornhuskers' final nonconference game.
Nebraska (11-1) is off to its second-best start in program history, ranking behind the 2009-10 team that won its first 30 games.
Hooper followed her 21-point, 14-rebound performance against Vermont with another dominating performance. She had her fifth double-double of the season.
Ashley Eide had 21 points and Jennie Sunnarborg 20 for the Jackrabbits (7-6).
Men
Murray St. 78, Tenn.-Martin 54: Donte Poole scored 15 points and Murray State remained unbeaten in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams. Ivan Aska added 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists to help the Racers (13-0) to their best start in 75 years.
Source: http://www.statesman.com/sports/college-basketball-roundup-2046719.html?cxtype=rss_sports
dallas cowboys cheerleaders leftover turkey recipes leftover turkey recipes hugo hugo the muppets percy harvin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)