epitaxial ulrike: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg Announces All-Time Record Low in Traffic Fatalities in 2011

Mayor Bloomberg, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly today released preliminary statistics showing that New York City will record the fewest annual traffic fatalities since records were first kept in 1910. As of December 27th, there were 237 traffic fatalities in 2011, 40 percent fewer than in 2001. Included in the 2011 numbers were 134 pedestrian fatalities in crashes with vehicles, an all-time record-low and a 31 percent reduction since 2001; 47 senior pedestrian fatalities, a 27 percent reduction since 2001; and a record low of only three child pedestrian fatalities. Bicycle fatalities have held within the same range over the last decade, despite bike ridership quadrupling during that time period.

The new record lows come as the Department of Transportation has undertaken unprecedented safety engineering initiatives and public education efforts and the NYPD has implemented aggressive enforcement programs, all to reduce dangerous speeding, combat drunken driving and calm traffic citywide. The Mayor made the announcement at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, where a new safety redesign was installed in October. The latest improvements at Grand Army Plaza are expected to build on the nearly 40 percent reduction in crashes in the plaza over the last three years due to previous safety upgrades.

"This will be the city?s safest traffic year in the more than 100 years since records were kept," said Mayor Bloomberg. "We?ve made progress in every area of traffic safety due to our willingness to take new, creative approaches to longstanding challenges with safety redesigns and through aggressive traffic enforcement. We?ve focused on making our streets safer for all who use them ? no matter how they decide travel ? and it?s another reason New Yorkers are living longer and another reason our city is safer than ever before."

"The reduction in traffic deaths as a result of our safety engineering means nearly 300 New Yorkers are alive today who would not have been if we had simply sustained the fatality rate of five years ago," said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. "And even as we applaud this accomplishment, the men and women of NYC DOT are working throughout the five boroughs to make our streets even safer."

"NYPD traffic enforcement is aimed at saving lives, and that?s reflected in the million summonses we issue for moving violations annually," said Police Commissioner Kelly. "About a third of the summonses are related to seat belt enforcement and distracted driving, both life and death concerns. It?s also reflected in arrests for DWI. We?ve made 8,500 drunk driving arrests through December 18th, and seized 900 vehicles in the process. On New Year?s Eve, the NYPD will establish check points and have additional roving patrols to enforce laws against drunken driving. Those who drink and drive are at risk of losing their licenses and their cars. Worse, they risk losing their own lives or killing others by driving drunk."

"Nothing is more important than the safety of motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists as they travel on the city?s streets," said Mark Kulewicz, Director of Traffic Engineering and Safety Services at AAA New York. "We?re very pleased with the progress the City has made in reducing the number of travel deaths. It is a remarkable accomplishment given the growth in travel over the past 100 years."

New York City?s traffic fatality rate has dropped from 4.87 fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2001 to 2.8 fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2011.

Traffic calming projects, street redesigns, and safety upgrades installed by the Department of Transportation during the past decade have resulted in improved safety throughout the five boroughs. In the last four years alone, the department has implemented safety improvement projects along 78 corridors and at 72 intersections. In 2011, the department made safety upgrades to 60 miles of streets, including more than 20 miles of street redesigns and implemented the city?s first Neighborhood Slow Zone in the Bronx, creating the first 20 miles per hour speed limit. Additionally, the department introduced new electronic speed boards in all five boroughs that display the speed of passing motorists and expects to bring additional Neighborhood Slow Zones online.

The NYPD continues its aggressive enforcement campaigns with a focus on violations that directly relate to serious injuries and death ? speeding, distracted driving, drunk driving, seat belt use and other dangerous behavior. In 2011, more than one million summonses were issued for moving violations. The NYPD?s focus on drunken drivers resulted in more than 8,500 arrests and the seizure of 900 vehicles.

The Department of Transportation also has installed pedestrian countdown signals at nearly 1,100 intersections citywide this year, which has helped drive pedestrian fatalities down to an all-time low. Locations where countdown signals have been installed include: along Grand Concourse, the Bronx; Queens Boulevard; 4th Avenue, Brooklyn; Delancey Street, Manhattan; and on Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island. The department is on course to install pedestrian countdown signals at an additional 2,000 intersections.

The Department of Transportation continues safety campaigns to implement safety engineering changes around schools and in senior-dense neighborhoods with high numbers of serious traffic crashes. The department continues to pair engineering with education and outreach campaigns, examples include this year?s launch of the ?That?s Why it?s 30? ad campaign, which highlights the extreme safety impact of speeding, and the ?Don?t be a Jerk? campaign, which highlights proper cycling behavior.

This year, the City won a long-fought legislative victory with the passage of State legislation mandating improved truck safety mirrors. The City continues to seek traffic safety legislation in Albany to install speed cameras at locations throughout the city, increase the number of red light cameras and increase work zone safety regulations.

Source: http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=8B5736FE-C29C-7CA2-F0EA3E977334BC17

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Stanford archives offer window into Apple origins

In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood is shown looking at an old photograph of Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, a photo of an old keyboard is shown next to a letter written about Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood holds up an old Apple 1 operation manual at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

PALO ALTO, Calf. (AP) ? In the interview, Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs recall a seminal moment in Silicon Valley history ? how they named their upstart computer company some 35 years ago.

"I remember driving down Highway 85," Wozniak says. "We're on the freeway, and Steve mentions, 'I've got a name: Apple Computer.' We kept thinking of other alternatives to that name, and we couldn't think of anything better."

Adds Jobs: "And also remember that I worked at Atari, and it got us ahead of Atari in the phonebook."

The interview, recorded for an in-house video for company employees in the mid-1980s, was among a storehouse of materials Apple had been collecting for a company museum. But in 1997, soon after Jobs returned to the company, Apple officials contacted Stanford University and offered to donate the collection to the school's Silicon Valley Archives.

Within a few days, Stanford curators were at Apple headquarters in nearby Cupertino, packing two moving trucks full of documents, books, software, videotapes and marketing materials that now make up the core of Stanford's Apple Collection.

The collection, the largest assembly of Apple historical materials, can help historians, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand how a startup launched in a Silicon Valley garage became a global technology giant.

"Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer," said Stanford historian Leslie Berlin. "These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened."

The collection is stored in hundreds of boxes taking up more than 600 feet of shelf space at the Stanford's off-campus storage facility. The Associated Press visited the climate-controlled warehouse on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area, but agreed not to disclose its location.

Interest in Apple and its founder has grown dramatically since Jobs died in October at age 56, just weeks after he stepped down as CEO and handed the reins to Tim Cook. Jobs' death sparked an international outpouring and marked the end of an era for Apple and Silicon Valley.

"Apple as a company is in a very, very select group," said Stanford curator Henry Lowood. "It survived through multiple generations of technology. To the credit of Steve Jobs, it meant reinventing the company at several points."

Apple scrapped its own plans for a corporate museum after Jobs returned as CEO and began restructuring the financially struggling firm, Lowood said.

Job's return, more than a decade after he was forced out of the company he co-founded, marked the beginning of one of the great comebacks in business history. It led to a long string of blockbuster products ? including the iPod, iPhone and iPad ? that have made Apple one of the world's most profitable brands.

After Stanford received the Apple donation, former company executives, early employees, business partners and Mac enthusiasts have come forward and added their own items to the archives.

The collection includes early photos of young Jobs and Wozniak, blueprints for the first Apple computer, user manuals, magazine ads, TV commercials, company t-shirts and drafts of Jobs' speeches.

In one company video, Wozniak talks about how he had always wanted his own computer, but couldn't get his hands on one at a time when few computers were found outside corporations or government agencies.

"All of a sudden I realized, 'Hey microprocessors all of a sudden are affordable. I can actually build my own,'" Wozniak says. "And Steve went a little further. He saw it as a product you could actually deliver, sell and someone else could use."

The pair also talk about the company's first product, the Apple I computer, which went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66.

"Remember an Apple I was not particularly useable for too much, but it was so incredible to have your own computer," Jobs says. "It was kind of an embarkation point from the way computers had been going in these big steel boxes with switches and lights."

Among the other items in the Apple Collection:

? Thousands of photos by photographer Douglas Menuez, who documented Jobs' years at NeXT Computer, which he founded in 1985 after he was pushed out of Apple.

? A company video spoofing the 1984 movie "Ghost Busters," with Jobs and other executives playing "Blue Busters," a reference to rival IBM.

? Handwritten financial records showing early sales of Apple II, one of the first mass-market computers.

? An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.

? A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: "This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage."

The archive shows the Apple founders were far ahead of their time, Lowood said.

"What they were doing was spectacularly new," he said. "The idea of building computers out of your garage and marketing them and thereby creating a successful business ? it just didn't compute for a lot of people."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-12-29-US-Apple-Archives/id-73a280b640584ddd99aa14b37bdf4981

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Two Victoria?s Secret Angels Are Pregnant!

Alessandra Ambrosio and now Lily Aldridge have both confirmed that they are pregnant! And if the children of all the other Victoria?s Secret Angels prove anything, it?s that these girls make gorgeous babies! Alessandra, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Anja Louise, with fianc? Jamie Mazur, is reportedly four months pregnant with their second child. The 30-year-old showed off her still banging model body in a cute mommy-daughter bikini beach picture with Anja that she posted on her Facebook page earlier this week, along with the post. "Anja, Jamie and I are overjoyed and extremely appreciative of all the wonderful wishes we've received!! 2011 has been a year filled with incredible gifts and this is the ultimate blessing!! Anja has filled our lives with love and we can't wait to welcome the new baby into the family this spring!!"

This will be the first child for Lily, who is married to Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill. The gorgeous couple just confirmed the pregnancy saying, ?We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting our first child together!? Caleb had alluded last May after their marriage that the pair was looking forward to having a baby, saying, ?I can?t wait to raise a family with her because she?s a great woman.?

Congratulations to both of the Angels and their families!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InTouchWeekly/~3/1wSuuCg-KF8/two_victorias_secret_angels_ar.php

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12 Days Till Iowa: Ron Paul Is Not a Politician (Time.com)

JEWEL SAMAD / AFP / Getty Images

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul at a town-hall meeting in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, on Dec. 21, 2011

Washington, Iowa

I watched Ron Paul deliver his stump speech ? to large and loving crowds?? twice on Wednesday, and he did a very strange thing for a political front runner. He emphasized the things traditional Republicans are least likely to approve of in his libertarian appeal. He began each speech with a long, discursive section on foreign policy?? citing George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower and George W. Bush, among others ? and spoke of the perils of entangling alliances, the military-industrial complex and nation building. He minced no words. He said the money we saved overseas could be used to bolster programs like Social Security and Medicare, until we transition away from them. Then he devoted another long section to civil liberties, to his opposition to the Patriot Act and the illegality?? he believes?? of assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda leader who was an American citizen, in Yemen. This was not political comfort food.

He didn?t spend much time at all on the stuff he favors that Republicans love ? cutting $1 trillion from the federal budget in a year, cutting five Cabinet departments, lowering taxes, restricting abortion and so forth. And yet the audiences seemed thrilled with him, gave him standing ovations, replete with cheers and whistles, before and after each speech. Afterward, when he took questions, they tended toward the worshipful:

?How do you stay so fit??

?Who?s going to be your Vice President??

?Do you think [Iowa Governor] Terry Branstad and the party establishment have it in for you??

Whatever you might say about Paul, this is not politics as usual. He?s not a great speaker; he rambles in a thin voice, garbling some of his best applause lines. He doesn?t give the same speech twice but wanders around through his favorite topics ? last time I saw him, in October, he gave an extended, abstruse lecture on currency policy. Now that he?s a front runner in Iowa, he hasn?t trimmed or changed his message at all, except, perhaps, to become more defiantly at odds with the Republican establishment.

He can sum up his philosophy in a paragraph: ?[The Washington establishment] believes that if you have the freedom to keep what you earn and take care of yourself, you won?t do it. They want to do it for you ? and they?ve been trying for the past 70 years, since the Great Depression. But we?ve learned that government can?t do it either.?

This is a bit too neat for my taste, but it has far more resonance now than it has had in the past. Part of it is Paul himself ? he is who he is, and given the Trump-Cain-Newt-Mitt disappointments, he is a man who can be trusted. That is enormously important this year. He is palpably different from every other candidate in the race: he doesn?t seem at all like a politician. I?m not sure he is one. Another part of his sudden appeal is the sense that nothing seems to work these days. ?I was a Democrat. I voted for Obama last time,? said a truck driver and, yes, stand-up comedian named Dave Johnson after Paul?s speech in the town of Washington. ?But look what he?s done. The bailouts, the spending. Right now, he wants to cut Social Security taxes even though the trust fund is in trouble. I voted for him because I thought he was going to be the opposite of Bush ? end the wars, reduce the deficit, improve the economy ? and we?ve only gotten more of the same.?

Paul seems more comfortable dealing with abstractions like the money supply rather than the day-to-day problems of actual people. When he gets a real question, he fumbles about and eventually seeks refuge in the free market. In Mount Pleasant, a man asked what Paul would do about retraining people who had lost their jobs. ?There are about 1,000 jobs available for trained welders here in Iowa,? the man said. ?What do we do to train them?? After some circumnavigation, Paul suggested we go back to the days of apprenticeships that paid less than skilled craft jobs. O.K. But there?s a more up-to-date free-market answer: be more like Germany, where companies advise vocational schools on their curriculum and develop programs that train young people for technical production and construction work. (I saw Jon Huntsman give a chapter-and-verse response to this question a few weeks ago.)

In Washington, Paul took a question from a young woman who had survived cancer. ?We have good insurance,? she said. ?But what happens if my husband gets laid off? I now have a pre-existing condition. Where do we get insurance?? Paul acknowledged that it was a tough question. In the old days, before the government mucked things up, the churches ran a lot of hospitals and would take all comers. ?The insurance companies and drug companies control Obamacare,? he said, which is not inaccurate, but is also not very comforting either.

And that is where Paul?s libertarianism falls down. This is a complicated society, undergoing an ever more rapid transformation in the midst of a potentially long economic slump. There are a lot of people who have lost jobs and need help getting new skills (admittedly, the current government training programs are, as Romney points out, a complete, ineffective mess). There are a lot of people who can?t get insurance ? certainly not at a reasonable price.

On an even more basic level, it would be nice to believe that people could take care of themselves without government help, but it just hasn?t proved true: programs like Social Security and Medicare ? which run directly against the Jeffersonian-libertarian tradition ? were necessary because people couldn?t take care of themselves. The elderly, especially, had trouble paying medical bills after their working days ended. The American people, through their government, decided to make a rudimentary deal, to make sure their parents didn?t starve or sleep in the streets and were able to get medical care. There was nothing unconstitutional about that ? just as there?s nothing unconstitutional about requiring people to have medical insurance now. The deal was made with the consent of the governed. In the real world, these are the most popular programs the government offers ? about 80% of the American people are happy with them.

There is vast frustration with ? with ? everything right now. And so it?s not a bad moment to review the most basic assumptions of our public life, to question the most basic functions of government. It may well turn out that we?ve tried to do too much. It will certainly turn out that we didn?t have the Keynesian discipline to run budget surpluses when times were good to pay for the deficits when times were bad. (Paul?s hero Friedrich Hayek had a meeting of the minds with Keynes on that point after World War II.) It may be that we need a different sort of safety net for a more competitive global economy. It may be that we?re going to have to do with less.

It?s these sorts of times that raise up people with simple answers: ideologues and demagogues. Paul is an ideologue and ? we?re lucky ? an entirely honorable one. His is an important voice. It helps frame the debate; it helps keep his opponents honest. The big surprise is that the harsh measures he advocates seem almost a comfort in the sea of ?blather that is inundating Iowans this week. But, I suppose, the real story here is, finally, the total discomfort with the sort of no-risk, no-sacrifice nonsense that politicians have been selling for the past 40 years.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/time_rss/rss_time_us/httpswamplandtimecom2011122212daystilliowaronpaulisnotapoliticianxidrssnationyahoo/43993320/SIG=13b15ocvq/*http%3A//swampland.time.com/2011/12/22/12-days-till-iowa-ron-paul-is-not-a-politician/?xid=rss-nation-yahoo

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Romney compares Gingrich campaign to 'Lucy' sitcom (AP)

DAVENPORT, Iowa ? As far as Mitt Romney's concerned, Newt Gingrich's campaign might as well be a 1950s sitcom.

"I Love Lucy," specifically.

Romney spent most of Tuesday ignoring his Republican rival, attacking President Barack Obama and making his final pitch to Iowa voters ahead of a three-day bus tour in the last days before the Jan. 3 caucuses. But he jabbed at Gingrich during a stop in New Hampshire, knocking the former House speaker for likening his trouble getting onto Virginia's primary ballot to attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

"I think he compared that to ... what was it, Pearl Harbor? I think it's more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory," Romney said, referring to the episode where the homemaker Lucy switches places with her husband for a day and is humorously overwhelmed as chocolates fly past her on an assembly line. "You've got to get it organized."

Republican Party officials in Virginia announced over the weekend that Gingrich had failed to submit enough signatures to get on the ballot for the state's March 6 primary. In a post on Facebook, campaign manager Michael Krull compared the situation to the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

The joke was the only time all day that Romney directly acknowledged his GOP rivals. Instead, he delivered a version of his closing argument speech railing against Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Biden criticized Romney in an opinion piece in the Des Moines Register on Friday.

Romney's schedule shows a campaign bent on executing a strategy to do well in Iowa's GOP caucuses. In 2008, a second-place finish here dealt a serious blow to his candidacy. He lost a series of other key early states and dropped out of that race in early February.

Now, Romney's team is focusing on making sure the 25 percent of Iowa caucus-goers who backed him last time will support him again in a week's time. He's spending the next three days on a bus tour of the eastern part of the state, largely in counties where he won in 2008. He'll start in Muscatine and visit Clinton, Iowa City, Cedar Falls, Mason City and Ames before ending the tour Friday in Des Moines.

Ahead of the final push, though, he's starting to sound like he's already won the presidential nomination ? and even the Iowa caucuses.

"Mr. Biden, we do care that under your policies more Americans have lost their jobs, more Americans are on food stamps, and more Americans have lost their homes. Blaming others is not a plan to get America working," Romney said in his Tuesday speech. "On Jan. 3, Iowa will start our plan to get America working."

In New Hampshire earlier in the day, it was similar. "I'm not exactly sure how all this is going to work, but I think I'm going to get the nomination if we do our job right," Romney said inside the packed dining room of the Coach Stop restaurant, hours before he arrived in Iowa.

And when his wife, Ann Romney, stood to introduce him here, she was completely certain.

"Hope is on the way," she said, gesturing to her husband beside her. "He's going to win the nomination and he's going to beat Barack Obama."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

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In swing Ohio, Gingrich gaining the "not-Romneys" (The Arizona Republic)

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

BrandonMiniman: Awesome awesome free song on Google Music if you like hiphop: "Why Stop Now (Ft. Chris Brown)" check it out

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Iran rejects U.S. allegation on al Qaeda operative (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran rejected as "completely baseless" U.S. allegations that it was harboring an al Qaeda member who is accused of operating as a facilitator and financier for the group from the Islamic Republic, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Sunday.

The United States announced Thursday that it was establishing a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Syrian-born Yasin al-Suri, who is also known as Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil.

"The American government's recent unwise scenario regarding Iran's involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks and the presence of an al Qaeda member in Iran is completely baseless," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Sunday, according to Fars.

Al-Suri has been accused of helping move money and recruits through Iran to al Qaeda leaders in neighboring countries under an agreement between the group and the Iranian government, Senior State Department official Robert Hartung has said.

The $10 million bounty was the first offered for an al Qaeda financier and is aimed at disrupting a financial network that has operated from within Iran's borders since 2005, the Treasury Department said.

Friday a federal district court in Manhattan ruled that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case.

"The world should consider the consequences of such irresponsible behavior by American officials ... It is also necessary that the international community shows its deep concerns to the American government," Mehmanparast said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the September 11 attacks on the United States a "big fabrication" by Washington that was used to justify the U.S. war on terrorism.

The United States and its Western allies have been locked in a standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, which Washington believes is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but which Tehran says is solely for peaceful purposes.

(Writing by Mitra Amiri; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111225/wl_nm/us_iran_usa_qaeda

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Military Wives take out Xmas No.1

Last updated 14:04 26/12/2011

A choir of wives of soldiers serving in Afghanistan topped the British singles charts this week, beating X Factor winners Little Mix to the Christmas No. 1 spot and outselling the rest of the top 12 put together.

Wherever You Are by Military Wives, a song written using excerpts from letters sent between military couples, sold 556,000 copies, the Official Charts Company said.

All proceeds from the single go to The Royal British Legion and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen Families Association.

"It's a testament to the Military Wives' hard work and the nation's support of them as well as the power of choral singing," said Gareth Malone, the choirmaster who put the group together for a BBC television series, The Choir.

"I'm delighted they have found their voice."

The 100-strong Military Wives choir dislodged from the top spot a cover of Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice's Cannonball by Little Mix, a group of four girls that won this year's X Factor television singing contest.

- Reuters

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/6190497/Military-Wives-take-out-Xmas-No-1

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Brady leads comeback, Patriots top Dolphins 27-24

New England Patriots wide receiver Deion Branch (84) celebrates in the end zone after his touchdown against the Miami Dolphins during the third quarter of an NFL football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Miami Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore (8) is sacked by New England Patriots defensive end Brandon Deaderick (71) during the third quarter of an NFL football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall (19) hauls in a pass as New England Patriots cornerback Devin McCourty (32) defends during the first quarter of an NFL football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sits on the turf after being knocked down on an incomplete pass play late in the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins, in Foxborough, Mass., Saturday afternoon, Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall (19) hauls in a touchdown pass against the defense of New England Patriots defensive back Kyle Arrington, behind, during the second quarter of an NFL football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) ? The New England Patriots emphasize playing well for 60 minutes every game. On Saturday, 30 was enough ? barely.

Rallying from their worst half of the season, the Patriots scored on their next five possessions and clinched a playoff bye with a 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday.

"You don't want to, certainly, make a habit of this," said Tom Brady, who scored on two 1-yard sneaks and threw for a 1-yard touchdown. "We showed some resiliency."

New England (12-3) won its seventh straight game. After the Houston Texans lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night, the Patriots needed a win or a tie to lock up one of the top two spots in the AFC.

"It's good to clinch," said Deion Branch, who caught the touchdown pass from Brady, "but not by the way we played. It's not the way you want to do it."

Miami (5-10) lost for the third time in eight games after opening at 0-7 and is 1-1 under Todd Bowles, who took over when Tony Sparano was fired.

"First half we came out and played our tempo and our ballgame," Bowles said. "The second half they made us play theirs."

The AFC East champions trailed 17-0 at halftime but made the necessary adjustments and went to their no-huddle offense more, keeping the Dolphins from making defensive substitutions. And Brady was on target after a first half in which heavy defensive pressure against a makeshift offensive line affected his accuracy. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three times in the half.

But in the second half, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards, finishing at 27 for 46 for 304 yards and leading one scoring drive after another ? a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, the scoring pass to Branch, his own sneak that tied the game, Gostkowski's 42-yard go-ahead kick after Devin McCourty's first interception of the year, and the other sneak with 2:56 to go, making it 27-17.

The Dolphins made it closer on Matt Moore's 15-yard scoring pass to Davone Bess with 1:48 to play. They had three timeouts left, but their hopes faded when Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard gain and a first down.

"We had (Brady's) number in the first half, but in the second half he came out and made a lot of plays," Miami linebacker Karlos Dansby said. "He is a coach on the field."

The Dolphins seemed headed for a victory and got a break even before the game started when Patriots left tackle Matt Light hurt his ankle in warmups and didn't play. Left guard Logan Mankins took his spot, but he left with a knee injury suffered on New England's second series.

"There's always things that are going to go wrong in a football game and things aren't going to work out the way you want them to all the time," said Welker, who finished with 12 catches for 138 yards after managing just two for 20 in the first half. "The main thing is just playing a full 60 minutes and never giving in and understanding that one drive and one score (can) get things going."

The Patriots punted on their first six series of the first half then missed a field goal on the other. The Dolphins struggled in the second half when Moore fumbled the snap at his 38-yard line and Vince Wilfork recovered, starting the drive capped by Branch's touchdown.

"They committed penalties in the first half," Dolphins guard Richie Incognito said. "We turned the ball over and committed penalties in the second half. That is never a good recipe."

Reggie Bush had another outstanding game for Miami with his fourth straight rushing day of at least 100 yards. He finished with 113 on 22 carries one week after gaining a career-high 203 yards.

His latest performance gave him 1,086 yards rushing for the season, the first time in his six years, the first five with the New Orleans Saints, that he passed 1,000.

"It really doesn't mean anything right now," he said. "This one's pretty tough."

The Dolphins had taken a 3-0 lead on Dan Carpenter's 47-yard field goal 4:01 into the game and made it 10-0 with 1:15 gone in the second quarter on Moore's 19-yard pass to Brandon Marshall.

They stretched that to 17-0, the Patriots biggest deficit of the season, on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Charles Clay. The 89-yard drive was helped by two defensive pass interference penalties on third down.

But the Patriots remained calm in the locker room at intermission.

"There wasn't a bunch of yelling," Wilfork said. "We just came in and said we've got to play better, we've got to make more plays."

They did. The Dolphins didn't.

"Our guys fought," Bowles said, "but we didn't finish."

Notes: Welker set a franchise record for one season with 1,518 yards receiving. He broke the mark of 1,493 set by Randy Moss in 2007. ... Bush was checked my medical personnel on the sideline late in the game "Something in my leg just didn't feel right," he said. "I'm walking. If it was serious, I wouldn't be walking." ... Moore completed 17 of 33 passes for 294 yards, his highest total as a Dolphin. He threw for more than that with the Carolina Panthers once in 2009 and once in 2010. ... The victory was the largest comeback by the Patriots from a second-half deficit since Nov. 10, 2002 when they beat the Chicago Bears 33-30 after trailing 27-6 in the third quarter.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-24-FBN-Dolphins-Patriots/id-2bc948b644364882a1bcbf2180dda55f

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Watch Out Yammer And Jive, Google Is About To Enter The Social Enterprise Space

The social enterprise has been growing as more and more companies look to incorporate Facebook-like communications among workers. Jive (which just debuted on the Nasdaq), Yammer, and Salesforce are all betting on the social as an integral part of productivity and business processes in the future. And it looks like Google will be entering the space soon. Google's Vice President of Enterprise Amit Singh tells us that Google will soon bring a more in-depth Google+ social experience to businesses and institutions using Google Apps. In October, Google announced that Google Apps users could sign up for Google+, allowing businesses and educational institutions to share posts directly to other users within their workgroups and/or universities.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/01sv1-OE0Ac/

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'Person of interest' in custody in Washington Park killing

WASHINGTON PARK -- A "person of interest" remains in custody in connection with the shooting death of a 35-year-old Washington Park man early Saturday.

Meanwhile, Illinois State Police continue to seek a suspect in the homicide of Edward Austin, whose body was discovered at his residence at 2124 N. 49th St.

Washington Park Police Chief Dave Clark said police received a call early Saturday about a burglary in the 2100 block of North 49th Street. Officers arrived at a home at 2125 N. 49th St. and found a great deal of blood on the premises, but no body.

A neighbor informed the officers of a broken window at the victim's residence across the street at 2124 N. 49th St., where they found Austin's body.

A suspect was seen fleeing from the crime scene, but a detailed description was not available, according to police.

Illinois State Police have taken over the investigation.

Anyone with information about Austin's death is urged to call Illinois State Police Special Agent Jamie Brunnworth at 346-3759 or the CrimeStoppers tip line at 866-371-8477. This is an anonymous tip line that pays up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Source: http://www.bnd.com/2011/12/25/1992206/washington-park-man-found-slain.html

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

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#LesserKnownReindeer: Twitter Meme Names Santa's Other Helpers

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Lesserknownreindeer

Maybe this guy will be pulling Santa's sleigh.

T'was the night before Christmas and all over the internet, Twitter users were stirring. This time it's users tweeting new names for some of Santa's unsung reindeer with the trending hashtag #LesserKnownReindeer.

Yes, everyone loves Rudolph and that shiny nose of his. And it's easy to remember Dasher and Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, but what happens if Dasher pulls a hamstring? Or Blitzen has a bad hangover? Maybe one of these reindeer will step in?

See our roundup of #LesserKnownReindeer tweets.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Koch scandal alters gambling odds (Star Tribune)

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Myth Busting: The Truth About Animals And Tools

Ben Cranke/Getty Images

A tufted capuchin uses a stone hammer to crack open a nut in Brazil's Parnaiba Headwaters National Park.

A wasp uses a pebble as a hammer. An octopus carries around a coconut shell to hide in. A shrike impales its prey on a sharp thorn.

Those are just a few examples of animal tool use that appear in the new book Animal Tool Behavior by Robert W. Shumaker, Kristina R. Walkup and Benjamin B. Beck. The book updates an edition published in 1980 by Beck. And in the new version, the authors try to dispel a number of persistent myths about animals and tools.

Shumaker tells me about some of those myths during a walk around The Indianapolis Zoo, where he is vice president of life sciences. (He is also a member of the adjunct faculty at Indiana University.)

As we approach a female polar bear named Tundra, Shumaker says one myth he hopes to deflate is that tool use is limited to monkeys and apes. Polar bears offer a powerful rebuttal of that idea, he says. In zoos, they often throw objects with great force and accuracy. It's less clear whether this sort of tool use occurs in the wild. But there are anecdotal reports from early Arctic explorers of polar bears using projectiles to hunt.

"One of the stories we have is polar bears getting up on a cliff and hurling great chunks of ice down on something like a walrus to kill it," Shumaker says.

Another common misconception: Tool use requires fingers, or at least hands, Shumaker says. Apparently, no one bothered to tell dolphins. "They have nothing to hold tools with except their mouth," he says, "and yet they are still innovative and creative."

Dolphins play with just about any object they find, Shumaker says. In some cases, the objects are merely toys ? but they become tools when used to manipulate another object or creature for a specific purpose. And dolphins do that kind of manipulating a lot, says Jodie Baker, who is in charge of marine mammals at the zoo. As we speak over the din of dolphin splashes and chatter, Baker sees a dolphin named Kimo preparing to manipulate us with a tool ? in this case, a buoy.

"If you walk by the pool and there's a dolphin playing with a toy, they'll typically throw it in your direction to get your attention," she says.

That's a form of tool use known as baiting or enticing. But scientists have collected lots of examples of dolphins doing other things with tools, Shumaker says.

"One is a dolphin that found a piece of tile and took it down to the bottom of their pool and used it to scrape algae off the bottom of their pool and then they ate the algae," he says.

And wild dolphins in Australia sometimes flush out their prey with a sponge, he says. "They hold the sponge on their rostrum, and then they use that as they disturb the sandy bottom to get fish like flounder that are down in the sand."

Genetics Or Intelligence?

One of the most widespread myths about tool use is that it is a sign of intelligence. Of course, some really smart animals do use tools. But so do creatures like the bolas spider, which is named after the throwing weapon used by South American gauchos. The spider's version of the bolas is a ball made from the same silk it uses to spin a web, Shumaker says.

"When an insect flies by, they throw it and it attaches to the insect because it's sticky and they reel them in," he says. "It's very complex. Very impressive. Very dramatic. But all available information tells us that it's completely controlled from this animal's genetic history." In other words, it's programmed behavior, not something the spider figured out. Genetic programming is also the reason hermit crabs carry around another creature's shell and ant-lions throw sand at their prey.

When intelligent animals do use tools, though, they often do so in very creative ways, Shumaker says.

At the zoo's spacious elephant enclosure, Tim Littig, a senior animal trainer, points toward a baby elephant named Kalina, who is standing next to her mother, Kubwa. Kalina has been able to nurse without any help, Littig says. But things were trickier with Kubwa's previous baby, he says.

"Her last calf was a little smaller than this one and required a step stool to be able to reach her mammary glands to nurse," Littig explains. "Kubwa would move the stool around so the calf could stand up on the stool to nurse."

Technically, that made her baby the tool user. But it was Kubwa who figured out how to use the tool. And that sort of problem-solving is a sign of intelligence, Shumaker says.

So is figuring out how to make a tool ? a skill many scientists once thought of as uniquely human. Shumaker says those scientists must not have spent much time around orangutans. Then he takes me to the orangutan enclosure for a demonstration.

I'm holding a large microphone, which Shumaker reminds me not to point at the orangutans, lest they think it's a weapon. But the animals aren't frightened. Several orangutans reach through the steel mesh and make it clear to Shumaker that they want to have the microphone. Shumaker tells a female named Knobi that she can touch it, which she does several times. When I move it out of reach, though, Knobi walks off and comes back with a small tree branch.

"She's making a reaching tool to try and get your microphone," Shumaker explains as Knobi breaks off one forking branch so the limb will fit through the steel mesh.

But this reaching tool isn't long enough, so Knobi fetches a branch that's 5 or 6 feet long. I stay where I am as Knobi prods at the microphone with the tool.

"She's doing her best to draw the mic in," Shumaker says to me. Then to Knobi he says: "I'm sorry; you cannot have it. Good job with your tool."

As we walk away, we can see Knobi grabbing an even larger branch.

Using Symbols As Tools

Just 10 or 15 years ago, scientists were still debating whether orangutans in the wild also made tools, Shumaker says. Now it's clear they do, and there are several examples in Animal Tool Behavior. The book also offers scientific documentation of other species making tools in the wild. New Caledonian crows make hooks out of twigs to catch prey. Wild chimpanzees make wooden spears for hunting.

Perhaps the most surprising and controversial findings in the new book involve what scientists refer to as symbolic tool use. "These are examples where we see tools being used to represent something else or to provide a change in psychological state," Shumaker says

Symbolic tool use is something people do every time they pay for an item with paper bills or coins. And some monkeys and apes in captivity have learned to use tokens that they trade for various foods.

But Shumaker is more intrigued by the sort of symbolic tools that can affect emotions. There are lots of examples of this in people. Children often have a special stuffed animal or blanket that is much more than a toy. The object represents comfort or security to them, and they use it to feel better.

It's one more behavior that scientists once considered uniquely human. But Shumaker says there is more and more evidence that some animals use symbolic tools in much the same way.

"We would see great apes in times of great stress or sadness, like a female who had an infant that died," Shumaker says. "That female would create something that researchers called a doll and then [she] treated it exactly as she had treated her infant that had recently died."

Shumaker says scientists are still debating the significance of examples like this. But he says the fact that such a debate is even taking place shows how much things have changed since the 1960s, when scientists first realized that humans weren't the only ones using tools.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/143833929/myth-busting-the-truth-about-animals-and-tools?ft=1&f=1007

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