UC Davis Tied For 15th Following Day One Of NCAA Championship

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Source: http://www.bigwest.org//story.asp?SPORT_ID=&STORY_ID=17104

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Bee and wild flower biodiversity loss slows

May 22, 2013 ? Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study.

Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s.

But the picture brightened markedly after 1990, with a slowdown in local and national biodiversity losses among bees, hoverflies and wild plants.

Professor Bill Kunin, Professor of Ecology at the University of Leeds, said: "Most observers have been saying that the 1992 Rio Earth Summit targets to slow biodiversity loss by 2010 failed, but what we are seeing is a significant slowing or reversal of the declines for wild plants and their insect pollinators.

"These species are important to us. About a third of our food production, including most of our fruit and vegetables, depends on animal pollination and we know that most crop pollination is done by wild pollinators. Biodiversity is important to ensuring we don't lose that service. Relying on a few species could be risky in a changing environment," he added.

The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, found a 30 per cent fall in local bumblebee biodiversity in all three countries between the 1950s and the 1980s. However, that decline slowed to an estimated 10 per cent in Britain by 2010, while in Belgium and the Netherlands bumblebee diversity had stabilised.

The picture was better for other wild bees, with an 8 per cent reduction in diversity in the Netherlands and a stable picture in Great Britain turning into significant increases (7 per cent in the Netherlands and 10 per cent in Britain) over the past 20 years. While these solitary bees continued to decline in Belgium, hoverfly diversity improved there, shifting from stable diversity in the 1980s to significant (20 per cent) increases in recent decades. British wildflower diversity had declined about 20 per cent from the 1950s to the 1980s, but again the declines have ceased in the past 20 years.

Not all groups fared so well. Butterfly diversity continued to fall in all three countries at roughly the same rates as in the past.

Dr Luisa Carvalheiro, lead author on the paper, said: "It is possible that by 1990 the most sensitive species had already gone. However, that's probably not the whole story, as there are still plenty of rare and vulnerable species present in recent records.

"There is a much more encouraging possibility: the conservation work and agri-environment programs paying farmers to encourage biodiversity may be having an effect. We may also be seeing a slowdown of the drivers of decline. The postwar emphasis on getting land into production and on more intensive farming has given way to a more stable situation in which the rate of landscape change has slowed and in which agrichemical excesses are regulated.

Dr Carvalheiro said: "If what we take from the Rio targets is that the investment in conservation gave us no results, then that is a counsel of despair. This study brings a positive message for conservation. But some important groups are undoubtedly still declining, so continued and increased investment in conservation practices is essential for guaranteeing the persistence of a diverse assemblage of species."

Co-author Professor Koos Biesmeijer, who works both at the University of Leeds and Naturalis, said: "This paper builds on a widely-publicised study we published in 2006 that established that the diversity of bees and of wildflowers had declined. Our new work is based on a much bigger dataset and improved analytic methods, and it reveals much more detail about the scale and timing of biodiversity losses.

"However, while we can use biodiversity records to measure changes in the diversity of pollinators, we can't tell what's happening to their overall abundance or to the quality of the pollination services they provide to wildflowers or agricultural crops. To study these issues would require a long-term monitoring programme."

The research team, including scientists from 18 institutions in Europe and the United States, used historical and contemporary records of species' presence held by organizations including the European Invertebrate Survey, Butterfly Conservation, the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society, the INBO Research Institute for Nature and Forest in Belgium and the University of Mons, Belgium.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/VKYXGo4-0rY/130522085438.htm

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Dollar firms before Bernanke, inflation dip hits sterling

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar firmed, gold fell and shares slipped off five-year highs on Tuesday as investors postioned for an update on the future of the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus programme.

A slowdown in British inflation sent sterling to a 7-week low on the view it could give the Bank of England more leeway to support the UK economy, and the yen lost ground after a Japanese minister rowed back on remarks suggesting the currency had weakened enough.

The constant drip of global central bank stimulus during the financial crisis has pushed many financial markets to their highest levels in years, but in recent weeks Fed officials have started talking more openly about scaling back the bank's support.

That has made Wednesday's release of minutes from the central bank's last meeting and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony in Congress the main focus for markets waiting for the first signs of a clear shift change in attitude.

The usually dovish Chicago policymaker Charles Evans said on Monday that while the pickup in the U.S. jobs market continued he was "open-minded" about slowing the bank's bond-buying, and mentioned the idea of simply halting it.

The dollar <.dxy> was up 0.4 percent against a basket of major currencies at midday in Europe, comfortably below its recent three-year high. U.S. stock futures pointed to steady open on Wall Street.

Economists expect Bernanke to deliver a steady message on the bank's policy when he speaks to Congress. But any hint that it plans to scale back its support could unsettle markets.

Having hit a five-year high on Monday, top European shares <.fteu3> were 0.4 percent lower by 1130 GMT as traders took the uncertainty as a cue to lock in some of the recent sharp gains.

"With the economic numbers being pretty good in the States, there may be an easing back of QE (bond-buying stimulus) sooner rather than later," said Berkeley Futures associate director Richard Griffiths.

"The DAX and Euro STOXX 50 have moved ahead a lot more than the UK, so in the event of any profit-taking in the U.S., the European markets may drop just that little bit more."

GREECE LIGHTENING

If the Fed does tighten policy by slowing its bond-buying, benchmark bond yields would be pushed up, and in the debt market, safe-haven German Bund futures lost ground.

In Greece, 10-year yields fell below 30-year ones for the first time in three years - popping its bond curve back into a more normal shape in a sign that some are starting to believe the worst may be over for the euro zone's most troubled economy.

"The perception of investors has changed," said ING strategist Alessandro Giansanti in Amsterdam. "There has been a change in trend in public finance policies. If the trend of reduction in the deficit continues we cannot rule out that even next year (Greece) can come back to the market."

YEN, METALS YO-YO

Earlier in the day, Japan's Nikkei share index crept to a 5-1/2 year high. The yen shed some of Monday's gains after Japan's economy minister said his comments the previous day that the government was satisfied with the level of the currency had been misinterpreted.

A recent downward slide in precious metals also resumed. Gold was down 1 percent at $1,376 an ounce as the stronger dollar left it facing its eighth fall in nine sessions.

Silver dropped as much as 2.2 percent to trade near the 2-1/2-year lows hit during a 6 percent slide on Monday, when an unidentified investor sold off a large holding.

While low inflation prospects has dulled demand for traditional hedge gold, silver has fallen out of favour with investors recently as demand from the solar energy sector has also sagged and mining of the metal has increased.

"The market was caught horribly short yesterday, so there was some buying this morning. But the dollar started to get stronger and gold didn't manage to break above $1,400, so sales started again," Marex Spectron head trader David Govett said.

(Editing by Hugh Lawson, John Stonestreet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dollar-index-off-three-high-asian-shares-ease-011721149.html

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Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity

May 21, 2013 ? Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

The research is detailed in a study being published Tuesday, May 21, in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The research was conducted by faculty members from the UC College of Medicine's Department of Environmental Health in collaboration with Cincinnati Children's. Nicholas Newman, DO, director of the Pediatric Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children's, was the study's first author.

"There is increasing concern about the potential effects of traffic-related air pollution on the developing brain," Newman says. "This impact is not fully understood due to limited epidemiological studies.

"To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective cohort with the longest follow-up investigating early life exposure to traffic-related air pollution and neurobehavioral outcomes at school age." Scientists believe that early life exposures to a variety of toxic substances are important in the development of problems later in life.

Newman and his colleagues collected data on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) from the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS), a long-term epidemiological study examining the effects of traffic particulates on childhood respiratory health and allergy development. Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, CCAAPS is led by Grace LeMasters, PhD, of the environmental health department. Study participants -- newborns in the Cincinnati metropolitan area from 2001 through 2003 -- were chosen based on family history and their residence being either near or far from a major highway or bus route.

Children were followed from infancy to age 7, when parents completed the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition (BASC-2), assessing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related symptoms including attention problems, aggression, conduct problems and atypical behavior. Of the 762 children initially enrolled in the study, 576 were included in the final analysis at 7 years of age.

Results showed that children who were exposed to the highest third amount of TRAP during the first year of life were more likely to have hyperactivity scores in the "at risk" range when they were 7 years old. The "at risk" range for hyperactivity in children means that they need to be monitored carefully because they are at risk for developing clinically important symptoms.

"Several biological mechanisms could explain the association between hyperactive behaviors and traffic-related air pollution," Newman says, including narrowed blood vessels in the body and toxicity in the brain's frontal cortex.

Newman notes that the higher air pollution exposure was associated with a significant increase in hyperactivity only among those children whose mothers had greater than a high school education. Mothers with higher education may expect higher achievement, he says, affecting the parental report of behavioral concerns.

"The observed association between traffic-related air pollution and hyperactivity may have far-reaching implications for public health," Newman says, noting that studies have shown that approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population lives within 100 meters of a four-lane highway and that 40 percent of children attend school within 400 meters of a major highway.

"Traffic-related air pollution is one of many factors associated with changes in neurodevelopment, but it is one that is potentially preventable."

LeMasters, Patrick Ryan, PhD, Linda Levin, PhD, David Bernstein, MD, Gurjit Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD, James Lockey, PhD, Manuel Villareal, MD, Tiina Reponen, PhD, Sergey Grinshpun, PhD, Heidi Sucharew, PhD, and Kim Dietrich, PhD, were co-authors of the study.

Funding was provided by NIEHS and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/puxdw3mCYNE/130521011234.htm

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Justin Bieber To "Take Some Time"

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/justin-bieber-to-take-some-time/

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JPMorgan shareholders urged to reject three directors

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co shareholders should vote against the re-election of three board members because they failed to properly oversee risk-taking that led to $6.2 billion of losses on the so-called "London Whale" trades, an influential proxy advisory firm said.

ISS Proxy Advisory Services said in a report released late Friday that directors David Cote, James Crown and Ellen Flutter should not be re-elected at the company's annual meeting this month because of "material failures of stewardship and risk oversight."

The report by ISS ratchets up pressure on directors to reduce Dimon's power at JPMorgan, the biggest bank based in the United States, as some stockholders push for more supervision of the outspoken executive.

A statement from JPMorgan spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau on Saturday said: "The company strongly endorses the re-election of its current directors and disagrees with ISS's position."

ISS also renewed its recommendation from a year ago that CEO and Chairman of the Board Jamie Dimon give up one of those two titles. ISS said investigations of the derivatives loss, which surfaced right before last year's shareholder meeting, showed that JPMorgan executives need more independent oversight and that the company is too big and too complex for one person to be able to do both jobs.

Shareholders will meet on May 21 in Tampa, Florida. They will vote on the re-election of the company's 11 directors and on a non-binding proposal from four institutional shareholders calling on the board to have a chairman who is independent from management. A similar advisory proposal failed to pass last year, receiving only 40 percent of the vote. That vote was five percentage points more than similar proposals at other companies that year.

The independent chair vote is developing into a major test for Dimon, 57. It comes as criticism, and sanctions from regulators, over poor risk management have piled up since the "London Whale" losses surfaced at the bank, which has $2.39 trillion in assets, the most of any U.S. bank.

The trading debacle has picked up the same "London Whale" nickname that hedge funds gave to a JPMorgan trader for the outsized derivatives bets he placed for the company.

The ISS recommendations on the re-election of directors shows the shareholder debate over governance of the company is broadening beyond Dimon.

The three directors who ISS singled out for replacement were members of the board's risk policy committee in December 2010 when the committee was shown a presentation by management that highlighted large profits from trading strategies in the firm's Chief Investment Office, where the derivative losses later occurred.

The presentation said the CIO strategies had contributed $2.8 billion of "economic value" since inception, with an average annualized return of 100 percent, according to a report released earlier this year by the board on its review of the matter.

ISS said the large profits showed that the CIO had changed from a unit that hedged risks to "what was essentially a proprietary trading desk" and should have prompted the committee to act against the practice.

The company statement added: "While the company has acknowledged a number of mistakes relating to its losses in CIO, an independent review committee of the board determined that those mistakes were not attributable to the risk committee."

In its proxy statement for the coming meeting, the board said that the actions taken by the company after the "London Whale" debacle show it to be strong and independent.

After the loss, the board added a member to the risk policy committee - new director Timothy Flynn, a retired chairman of auditor KPMG International.

ISS, which researches proxy issues and makes voting recommendations to institutional investors, praised the company for putting Flynn on the panel and recommended that shareholders re-elect him as well as seven other directors.

Last year, ISS recommended that all director candidates nominated by the board be elected.

The advisory firm said the JPMorgan board needs "refreshment" and the panel should search "for seasoned directors with financial and risk expertise" to replace Cote, Crown and Futter.

Cote is chief executive and board chairman of technology and aerospace company Honeywell International Inc ; Crown is president of investment firm Henry Crown and Co, and Futter is president of the American Museum of Natural History.

The company's statement on Saturday also said: "The members of the board's risk committee have a diversity and breadth of experiences that have served the company well."

ISS said it had discussed the board's independence and the qualifications of the risk policy committee members with the board's presiding director, Lee Raymond, on April 26 before reaching its conclusions. Raymond is a former CEO and chairman of the board of Exxon Mobil Corp.

ISS criticized the board for deferring to management and said the panel "appears to have been largely reactive, making changes only when it was clear that it could no longer maintain the status quo."

(Reporting by David Henry in New York; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-shareholders-urged-reject-three-directors-155157228.html

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Urville: The Booming Metropolis Inside an Autistic Artist's Mind

Spending a decade (or two) on a project isn't uncommon amongst urban planners. Gilles Trehin is one of them. Except in Trehin's case, the project is entirely fictional, and the scale is monumental.

Trehin has devoted the past twenty years to designing Urville, a city of twelve million on an imaginary European island. He started drawing when he was five and began working on Urville when he was fifteen. Since then, he's produced hundreds of architectural drawings of the city, many of which are collected in a book of the same name; we've included a handful below to give you a sense of the scale of the undertaking. Remarkably, Trehin has also imagined the city's cultural and economic history, which begins almost three thousand years ago:

Urville was founded under the name 'Qart-Sous-Yam' in the twelfth century BC by the Phoenicians. It became Urbis (Urville) under the Romans in the first century BC [...] In 1789, at the time of the French Revolution, Urville had 2.8 million inhabitants, but the housing was too limited to cope with the sharp increase in population resulting from the Industrial revolution. Faced with this problem, the Prefect of Urville called on the architect and town planner Oscar Laballiere (1803-1883) to undertake extensive work which continues to shape Urville to this day.

Trehin's story is similar to that of Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic British artist who can draw incredibly accurate cityscapes based on memory alone. In a foreword to Trehin's Urville book, the autism specialist Uta Frith wonders at Trehin's talents, writing:

What is similar about Gilles' talent to that of other autistic artists? It is an obsession with the physical world... It seems as if the spotlight of attention sweeps indiscriminately and equally intensely over the important as well as the unimportant, the interesting as well as the tedious.

The unique talents of autistic artists lend themselves to incredible scale and scope. In a matter of decades, Trehin's created one of the most interesting, complex cities in the world?and it exists entirely on paper. [Urville via Brainpickings]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/urville-the-metropolis-that-lives-inside-an-artistic-a-489134753

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As South Korea and US end military drills, how will North Korea react?

Many Korea watchers speculated that once joint military drills ended, so would increased tensions with North Korea. But at least one analyst says this might be the moment the North lashes out again.?

By Steven Borowiec,?Correspondent / April 30, 2013

US military vehicles cross Unification bridge, which leads to the demilitarized zone separating North Korea from South Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday. The US-South Korean annual military drills ended Tuesday without incident.

Ahn Young-joon/AP

Enlarge

The US-South Korea annual military exercises ended without incident on Tuesday, perhaps allowing a chance for weeks of tensions on the Korean peninsula to enter an indefinite period of calm.

Skip to next paragraph Steven Borowiec

Korea Correspondent

Since 2009, Steven Borowiec has reported from Seoul, South Korea on politics, socio-economics, and culture. He is a deputy editor at South Korea?s Hankyoreh newspaper.

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The annual military defensive exercises are intended to act as a deterrent to North Korea through shows of military prowess.?North Korea, however, called the two month-long exercises an aggressive invasion threat and promised military retaliation if provoked directly.

But now that the exercises are over, the North could tell its people that its own military successfully warded off the threat, conceivably allowing it enter dialogue with the South without appearing to lose face.?But some analysts argue that as the general atmosphere has cooled, action by North Korea could actually be more likely.

?Now that the exercises are over, this is an opportune time for a missile launch,? says Sung-yoon Lee, professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. ?Now that their adversaries have their guard down, they could go ahead with a launch now, ahead of the upcoming summit between Obama and Park Geun-hye, to put pressure on Park.?

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was inaugurated on Feb. 25, is scheduled to meet with US President Obama in Washington on May 7. North Korea has been known to purposely raise tensions in an effort to rattle new administrations in Seoul or Washington.?

"The drill is over, but the South Korean and US militaries will continue to watch out for potential provocations by the North, including a missile launch," said Kim Min-seok, a spokesperson for South Korea?s Ministry of National Defense.

The two-month long exercises started up shortly after the North's third nuclear test in February and involved around 10,000 US troops and 200,000 South Korean forces. Throughout the exercises, some impressive weaponry was shown off, including B-52 bombers and a nuclear-armed submarine. After the exercises began, the North announced it was scrapping an armistice agreement that effectively put the Korean War on hold, and said it was?entering a "state of war." The North also cut two hotlines to South Korea, symbols of North-South cooperation, but left a joint economic region alone until April.?

The jointly-operated Kaesong industrial park, the last major symbol of cooperation between South and North?was designed to economically benefit both sides, providing South Korean companies with cheap labor, and North Koreans with much needed income. Since it was started in 2004, it has survived years of chilly inter-Korean relations.?

But North Korea unexpectedly barred South Koreans from entering the area early in April and then withdrew all its workers shortly thereafter. Though some South Korean workers stayed at the complex, many went back to South Korea.

The situation at Kaesong is one aspect of the crisis that appears set to continue.

Yesterday, 43 of the final 50 South Korean workers in Kaesong returned home. Seven stayed behind to deal with some unpaid wages, as North Korea has not approved their departure yet, according to Chosun. There is not yet any indication that Seoul and Pyongyang will cooperate in finding a way to get operations at the complex back underway. The complex brought in about $80 million in revenue for North Korea in 2012, so there is a large financial incentive for the North to restart business there.?

Today South Korean Minister of Unification Ryoo Kihl-jae said that while the South is interested in restarting operations at Kaesong, Seoul wouldn?t accept just any conditions demanded by North Korea.

"It is pointless to normalize operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex if it entails accepting unreasonable claims and preconditions," Minister Ryoo said.

All throughout the war games, many analysts speculated that North Korea?s intention was to stir tensions and pull back at the last minute from any kind of engagement in an effort to strengthen its bargaining position when it returns to the table at some later date.?

?The general principle is to escalate tensions in order to later be able to negotiate from a position of strength,? Leonid Petrov, a researcher in Korean studies at Australian National University, told the Monitor on Apr. 10.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/mCw340oEnTc/As-South-Korea-and-US-end-military-drills-how-will-North-Korea-react

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Cheick Kongo, Chael Sonen and eyes: Where do they fall on Cagewriter?s Hot or Not list?

A slow week in MMA? So what. Let's decide what's hot, what's not, what is just a big ball of confusion.

Not -- Costa Philippou: Remember how his fight with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza was listed as one of the best of the month? Too bad it's off. A cut forced Phillippou off in training, and Chris Camozzi is stepping in to fight Souza at UFC on FX 8. Rafael Natal will now fight Joao Zeferino.

Hot -- Jon Jones: He defended his title for the fifth time, tying the record set by Tito Ortiz in 2002. Sure, he jacked up his toe, but he didn't seem to mind.

Not -- Eyes: It's been a tough week for eyes. Eye pokes were the reason behind two of the stoppages at UFC 159. But things are looking up as the UFC will try to change the rules behind eye pokes in the coming months.

Hot -- Chael Sonnen: "But Maggie!" you say. "He lost his fight to Jon Jones. How can he be on the hot list?" Because the loss was completely expected, and the man didn't miss a beat. He stayed in the spotlight by bringing out an old feud with Wanderlei Silva, and ripping him on Twitter.

Not, or maybe hot, or who knows -- Cheick Kongo: After getting knocked out by Roy Nelson, Kongo's profile disappeared from the UFC site. Then, two reputable MMA news outlets reported Kongo's contract has run out, and that the UFC had no plans to re-sign the French fighter. But Kongo keeps insisting on his Twitter page that he has no plans to leave the UFC.

Thanks for sticking with Cagewriter this week. Follow CW on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/cheick-kongo-chael-sonen-eyes-where-fall-cagewriter-211742960.html

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Texas judge issues double-entendre filled ruling in strip club case

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/texas-judge-issues-double-entendre-filled-ruling-strip-151235719.html

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Off-duty cop kills baby son, boyfriend before shooting self

By Shimon Prokupecz and Lori Bordonaro, NBCNewYork.com

An off-duty New York City police officer shot to death her 1-year-old son and her boyfriend, who is believed to be the child's father, before taking her own life in a Brooklyn home early Monday, authorities said.

The officer's 19-year-old son managed to escape out a back window and find police; he was not injured.

Police responded to the home on East 56th Street in the Flatbush section after receiving reports of shots fired shortly before 8:30 a.m.?

When authorities entered the first-floor apartment, they found the officer's 33-year-old boyfriend dead in the doorway. The bodies of the 43-year-old officer, a 13-year cop with the 108th precinct, and the child were found in the bedroom.

All three victims died of gunshot wounds, authorities said.?

The officer's teenage son told police he spoke with his mother when he first woke up Monday morning and everything seemed fine. Then, around 8 a.m., he told police he heard a gunshot -- then more gunshots -- and he saw his mother standing in the apartment with a gun in her hand.

The teenager told police he asked his mother what was happening and she apologized, according to law enforcement sources. Then the officer went into her bedroom and placed the baby on the bed. The 19-year-old son heard another gunshot and jumped out the window to find police.?

An NYPD spokesman said the officer had never had any issues with the department.?

A neighbor, who identified herself as an aunt, said she could find no reason for the deaths. She said the officer was always smiling and waving to her, and seemed like a happy person.

"It's terrible," Agnes Samuel, 83, said as she choked up. "For people to take a life like that. Oh, Lord!"

The investigation is ongoing.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2ac1a423/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C150C170A766920Eoff0Eduty0Ecop0Ekills0Ebaby0Eson0Eboyfriend0Ebefore0Eshooting0Eself0Dlite/story01.htm

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Analysis: Israeli government hints at new peace talks

Ronen Zvulun / Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed his first coalition partner in centrist Tzipi Livni, a move that could get a nod of approval from peace activists and U.S. President Barack Obama. But how cohesive any message of peace will be depends largely on the makeup of the rest of the coalition.

By Martin Fletcher, Correspondent, NBC News

News analysis

TEL AVIV -- In the Middle Eastern bazaar, the first sale of the day is prized beyond any other. It is called the ?siftach,? and to clinch the deal the seller gives a discount to the buyer, to launch a good day?s business.

In the case of the agreement announced Wednesday between Likud Beitenu leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni, leader of? ?Hatnua? (Movement) to join a coalition government, Netanyahu was desperate to get one of the several political parties he is negotiating with to be the first to reach agreement.

So to entice Livni to sign, he sweetened his offer to include what Livni dearly wanted: the role of chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians, in addition to the guarantee of the post of justice minister for her and the post of minister of the environment for another member of her party.

Her brief in a new Netanyahu government, then, would be to launch a new peace process with the Palestinians, according to the published agreement, ?with the aim of reaching a settlement with them that will put an end to the conflict.?

The significance of this is that the responsibility passes from the foreign minister, who loudly proclaimed that he did not believe in peace with the Palestinians, to Livni, who does.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in charge, but he may no longer be Israel's most consequential politician. The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd takes a "deep dive" into the new face of Israeli politics, Yair Lapid.

In addition to being the first step toward forming Netanyahu?s third government, it allows him to send a signal to U.S. President Barack Obama, expected in Israel on his first state visit next month, that he is serious about moving toward peace and that Obama should support him; Netanyahu?s relationship with Obama is famously fraught.

What this means in practice, however, is far from clear. It depends on who else joins Netanyahu and Livni in building a coalition government. Pundits expect Netanyahu to focus his attention next on the Labor party, as well as a couple of the religious Jewish parties, and only then to go for broke -- to offer a role to the two young newcomers, one on the left and one on the right, who have surprisingly found common cause.

The question: Can Netanyau pull off a brilliant ploy and form a government without the second- and third-largest parties, Yair Lapid?s ?Yesh Atid? (There is a Future) and Naftali Bennett?s Bait Hayehudi (Jewish Home)?

Or is it so brilliant? When the voters speak clearly and give the second- and third-largest number of votes to two new parties with new leaders and a large majority of new members of parliament, shouldn?t this call for change be reflected in any new government?

The problem is, and this brings us back to Livni?s role as peace negotiator, Bennett and Lapid, who agree on many social and economic issues, could not be further apart on the central question: What about the Palestinians? Bennett is absolutely clear: No Palestinian state. Lapid is with Livni.

So is there a real change in the Israeli government?s position vis a vis peace talks? As always, Netanyahu is hard to read. Does he really want Livni to take Israel down the road to compromise and peace? Or does he just want to form a new government so badly that he will offer any enticement to make it happen?

Cynics argue the latter. Some others believe that maybe a miracle is at hand.

And as Israel?s first president, David Ben Gurion, once said: To be a pragmatist in Israel, you have to believe in miracles.

Martin Fletcher is the author of "The List," "Breaking News" and "Walking Israel."

Related:

Fatah, Hamas hold talks ahead of possible negotiations with Israel

UN panel: Israel must withdraw all settlers from the West Bank

Surprisingly centrist vote has Netanyahu reaching to the left

This story was originally published on Thu Feb 21, 2013 4:42 AM EST

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/21/17031818-what-about-palestinians-israeli-coalition-may-be-hard-pressed-to-answer?lite

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Philip Goldberg: Beatles in India: The Retreat That Reverberates Across the Universe

Forty five years ago, the Beatles were settling into the ashram of their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in Rishikesh, India. The news coverage was nonstop and global, as it had been six months earlier when the lads first met Maharishi and became public advocates for his Transcendental Meditation technique.

It would have been easy at the time to dismiss the media frenzy as just another pop culture craze. But reporters knew this was different. Why would four young, bright, fun-loving youngsters, wealthy beyond imagining, able to go anywhere and do anything, choose to hunker down in an austere, vegetarian, non-air-conditioned compound in the Himalayan foothills and spend large chunks of time each day with their eyes closed? What is this meditation thing? What could a backward, impoverished country, only two decades removed from imperial rule, have to offer people who seemed to have everything a human being could want?

Questions like those turned what might have been a brief media burst into a watershed moment in cultural history. I opened American Veda, my book about the impact of Indian spirituality on the U.S., by calling the Beatles' expedition "the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness." Since publication, not one person has argued with that assertion. It was as though the earth tilted on its axis in February, 1968, making ancient Eastern teachings flow more easily and quickly to the West. The result would impact healthcare, psychology, neuroscience, and especially the way we understand and engage our spirituality.

In retrospect, the meeting of the Fab Four and the teacher who will probably always be known as "The Beatles' Guru" seems as karmically destined as that of Bill and Hillary or Lewis and Clark. ike many in the counterculture of which they had become de facto leaders, the band members had come to see that psychedelic drugs like LSD could open the door to higher consciousness but they did not let you stay there, and, in the bargain, came with serious risks. The search was on for safe, natural ways to expand the mind and attain inner peace and unified awareness. The East seemed to have answers, and all signs pointed to something called meditation. George Harrison, having spent time in India studying sitar with Ravi Shankar and reading spiritual literature, was among the ripest candidates.

For his part, Maharishi had been circling the globe for nearly a decade, slowly attracting students, mostly among respectable middle-aged people with a metaphysical bent. His laser-like focus on meditation, and his skill in presenting a systematic, universal practice that was suitable for both secular self-improvement and spiritual enlightenment, were ideally suited for the rational, pragmatic West. When, in 1965, college students began to take up TM, word spread quickly and meditation clubs popped up on campuses. By August of 1967, when Maharishi lectured at the London Hilton, it was only natural that Pattie Boyd Harrison would hear about it and lead her husband and his mates to the jam-packed hotel ballroom.

The Beatles took to meditation like they had taken to Chuck Berry and Little Richard. John and George were especially enthusiastic (hear David Frost's interview with them). Young people everywhere, always eager to emulate their musical heroes, flooded TM centers. The press coverage was remarkable for its shortage of cynicism. It featured parents and respected cultural leaders who were impressed by the life changes they observed in the meditating youth. As a result, scientists, prodded by Maharishi, who had majored in physics, started doing rigorous research on the effects of the practice.

Before long, physicians and therapists were recommending meditation to stressed-out grownups. To meet the burgeoning demand, Maharishi trained a cadre of teachers, essentially democratizing what had long been an esoteric practice available only to an elite few, much as Henry Ford had democratized automobiles. Now, hundreds of studies later, meditation and yoga are as mainstream as aerobics and vitamins.

Would this have happened if the Beatles had never gone to India? Maybe, maybe not, but certainly not as quickly. That's not just my assessment. Life magazine at the time dubbed 1968 "The Year of the Guru," and when Newsweek commemorated that seminal year four decades later, one article was titled "What the Beatles Gave Science." The author, Sharon Begley, chose the topic because the lads' trip to India "popularized the notion that the spiritual East has something to teach the rational West."

That's reason enough to remember that eventful journey. If you need another one, go listen to The White Album. Almost all the songs on that double record were written or conceived in the ashram on the Ganges.

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Follow Philip Goldberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/phil_amveda

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/beatles-in-india-the-retr_b_2696654.html

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Orange to launch telecom manager game on Facebook - report

Orange will launch a game called Hellopolys on Facebook on 18 March, which allows users to build, maintain and develop fixed and mobile networks in a virtual city, writes La Tribune. The telecom management game, based on games like SimCity, will introduce players to technologies such as ADSL, fibre, 2G, 3G and 4G. Scores will depend on various parameters, such as meeting optimal population coverage and quality of service based on the operator's available resources. Unforseen events suck as the entry of a rival operator, pricing pressure and software faults will also come up. The game is intended to be an entertaining way to explain to customers the challenges that operators face.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TelecompaperMobileWireless/~3/OxlDeFgirLY/orange-to-launch-telecom-manager-game-on-facebook-report--924123

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The ecological badminton robot: Optimizing energy efficiency in machine design

Jan. 30, 2013 ? A robot to play with! A childhood?s dream has now come true for researchers at the Flanders? Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) in Belgium. Wim Symens and his team pioneered the development of the first robot ever to play badminton. But this robot is only a guinea pig to test a software application designed to optimise energy efficiency in machine design.

Thanks to the EU funded research project?ESTOMAD, a new computer program is now?capable of detecting the energy guzzlers in so-called mechatronic systems, that are controlled by both software and electronics. The results are impressive. Following an energy efficiency analysis of the badminton robot with the new software, the team made some small changes where most of the energy was identified as being wasted in the robotic system. ?We were able to cut down the energy consumption of the badminton robot by 50%!? claims Wim Symens.

Industry has already expressed interest in performing this type of energy efficiency analysis. For example,?PICANOL, a key actor in the production of weaving machines, was thus able to cut the energy consumption of their existing machines by 10-15% by adapting the software to its production line.

In the future,?engineers could use this software for machines even before they are built. Performing a virtual analysis at such an early stage, could provide a very important competitive advantage to industry. ?A virtual approach is always a preferred one. You can even simulate strange conditions; very fast or very high temperatures. In real life those tests are very expensive!? explains Tom Boermans of engineering solution consultancy?LMS International, who is based in Leuven, Belgium and one of the partners in the project.

Ultimately,?the badminton robot and the innovative software will help engineers of many different industries cut down the energy consumption?of their production line ?making it more sustainable?while reducing the costs of their end products. It is eco-innovation at its best.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/VT3ySrihZTA/130130082730.htm

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Try Commercial Real Estate Investing With These Simple Tips ...

TIP! Consider using the principals of feng shui in the interior design of your commercial investment properties. Opening spaces and clearing clutter are both two major attractions from those presets that appeal to buyers.

Select pieces of real estate can have tremendous commercial potential. This real estate can line your pockets with profit and might even make you rich! It can be risky, though, since it requires a significant investment.

TIP! Interview your prospective real estate broker to determine what they view as failures and successes, to see if their standards match yours. Also be sure to ask their method of measuring results.

Interest rates fluctuating is a major threat to commercial property investors. The current economic conditions will make interest rates go up and down without being predictable; this can be a disaster for a investor. Keep this in mind when shopping for property, and consider the long-term options.

TIP! Get your commercial property inspected before you try to sell it. You can fix any problems right away so you have the best available property.

Before you present a lender with an application so you can buy a commercial property, get your own financial information well-organized. If you don?t have these, banks won?t know how you manage your money, which might cause them not to lend the amount of money that you need.

TIP! Take into consideration the local unemployment levels, average income, and job market before investing in real estate. Homes that are located near schools, hospitals and other major employers are assigned a higher resale value.

Whether you want to get into real estate or you?ve been into it for a while, visit some websites that will help you find out how to invest in commercial real estate. You can never know too much when it comes to commercial real estate, so never stop looking for ways to obtain more information!

TIP! Commercial real estate agents come in different types. There are agents who only represent tenants and there are full-service brokers who work with both tenants and landlords.

Before settling on a broker, determine if they negotiate aggressively or rationally. Ask them about their background, such as what training they?ve completed or experience they have. When choosing a real estate broker, make sure that they are ethical when doing business. Ask for examples of successful and unsuccessful past negotiations.

TIP! One of the biggest considerations in the process of attaining commercial property is to know the neighborhood of each and every prospective location. Expensive, luxury-oriented businesses will thrive in more affluent neighborhoods.

Once you have narrowed your choices down to two major contenders, you should expand your decision to include the big picture. The difficulty in securing financing doesn?t increase linearly with the size of the building you are buying. Generally, it?s like buying in bulk. As the number of units purchased goes up, the cost per until will go down.

TIP! Before formally making an offer, you must first locate a suitable lender. Local investors and small business owners are often willing to point you in the right direction for reputable lenders.

There is a considerable amount of money to be made in commercial real estate. Approach this activity as an investment of your money, but also of your time and hard work. To achieve this, you should look for opportunities to try out everything that you have just read.

Source: http://nhlmicke.com/try-commercial-real-estate-investing-with-these-simple-tips/

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Pending home sales take a breather in December

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contracts to buy previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in December after three months of gains, an industry group said on Monday, but the housing market recovery remains intact.

The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed last month, dropped 4.3 percent to 101.7.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected signed contracts, which become sales after a month or two, to rise 0.3 percent after a previously reported 1.7 percent increase in November.

The drop in contracts, which the Realtors group blamed on the tightening stock of homes, suggested resales could fall again in January after slipping in December.

"The supply limitation appears to be the main factor holding back contract signings in the past month," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. "Supplies of homes costing less than $100,000 are tight in much of the country, so first-time buyers have fewer options."

Still, the housing market remains the economy's bright spot, and is expected to support growth this year. Pending home sales were up 6.9 percent in the 12 months through December.

The NAR expects sales of previously owned homes to increase 9 percent this year after a similar gain in 2012.

Home resale contracts were down in three of the country's four regions last month. They increased in the Midwest.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pending-home-sales-breather-december-150057232--business.html

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Samsung goes red with the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is available in garnet red this week at participating retailers. It runs $219.99 and comes with a free matching garnet red case. Samsung's 7-incher is running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, sports a dual-core processor and has an IR port tucked away in there, too. The limited edition red version is available from Walmart, Amazon.com, Office Depot, Fry's, Tiger Direct and Toys R Us, among other retailers. 

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/yu9hKFTJpN4/story01.htm

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Vine, Hardcore Porn Should Not Be An Editor?s Pick Video

Video sharing app Vine came under fire this past weekend for having a bit of a porn problem. That it has adult content on the network shouldn't surprise anyone, and as long as it's something you have to look for, I think criticizing them for it is as sensible as criticizing Google. But today (right now, as of this writing) the top featured pick on my home feed, and on the feed of many users judging by Twitter, is a porn video. Labelled "Editor's Pick."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/NKhcV0pq8Uo/

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Legal Events to Watch This Week - Law Blog - WSJ

By Joe Palazzolo

This week: BP?s plea deal over the Deepwater Horizon spill goes before a federal district judge in New Orleans. The?military?tribunal for the alleged 9/11?conspirators?cranks up again at?Guantanamo Bay.

Monday, Jan. 28

? The?Guantanamo Bay military tribunal?resumes for the alleged conspirators?of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The defendants are facing the death penalty. . . . . .

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/01/28/legal-events-to-watch-this-week-38/

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Home prices keep coming back

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Single-family home prices rose in November, building on a string of gains that point to a housing market that is on the mend, data from a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.6 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' forecasts.

Prices in the 20 cities rose 5.5 percent year over year. It was the strongest year-over-year price increase since August 2006.

It was the 10th month in a row that prices have increased, the longest string of gains since before the market started to turn down in 2006. Last year's rise in prices beat a nine-month consecutive run in 2009 and 2010, when the market was boosted by the homeowner tax credit.

"Housing is clearly recovering," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indexes, said in a statement.

Prices on a non-adjusted basis slipped 0.1 percent. The non-adjusted numbers showed prices fell in about half of the cities covered by the survey, with the winter months typically a weak period for housing, the survey said.

"This is continuing a trend in place for the better part of a year," said Omair Sharif, U.S. economist at RBS Securities in New York. "This is another indication that the housing rebound is fairly entrenched at this point."

Phoenix, which saw its housing market rebound sharply last year, led with the biggest yearly gain at 22.8 percent. New York was the only city to fall, down 1.2 percent from the previous year.

Financial markets saw little reaction to the data with Wall Street focused on the latest corporate earnings.

The housing market became a bright spot for the economy last year as prices rose and inventory tightened. The sector is expected to contribute to economic growth in 2013.

(Additional reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-prices-continue-climb-november-140149324.html

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Feinstein has assurance assault weapon ban will get a vote (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/279869567?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Robin Roberts says she's heading back to 'GMA'

NEW YORK (AP) ? Robin Roberts says her road to recovery will bring her back to the "Good Morning America" anchor desk soon.

Appearing from her home on "Good Morning America" on Monday, Roberts wore a broad smile as she announced that her most recent bone marrow test showed no sign of the life-threatening ailment that has kept her off the air for months.

This means she can begin the process of returning to the anchor chair.

She calls it "coming home" and says she hopes to be back on the air "in weeks, not months."

Roberts got a bone marrow transplant in September.

In June, she disclosed to viewers that she had MDS, a blood and bone marrow disease.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-14-TV-Robin%20Roberts/id-235cdc19053e4d468bcce617f8ab5e8d

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Cleric fires up Pakistanis, demands gov't resign

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? A cleric who has fired up Pakistanis angry at perceived government corruption and indifference demanded the country's political leaders resign in a speech to thousands of his supporters who amassed in the capital early Tuesday and clashed briefly with security forces.

The dramatic entry into Pakistani politics of Tahir-ul-Qadri, a preacher who until recently lived in Canada, has sparked concern from some that he is seeking to derail elections at the behest of the powerful army. Polls are expected this spring.

Qadri has denied that and insisted his vague demands for election reform are simply meant to root out corruption in the political system. He pledged several weeks ago to lead a "million-man march" on Islamabad to press his demands.

During a 40-minute speech delivered behind bullet-proof glass in the early morning, Qadri told his supporters that the government's mandate was finished.

"I give you time until tomorrow to dissolve national and all four provincial assemblies otherwise the nation will dissolve them on their own," he said. He vowed to address his followers later in the morning in front of the parliament building.

Qadri called on the demonstrators to break through the containers blocking them from the government offices and peacefully march toward the protected enclave that is often called the "red zone" in Islamabad.

Following his cry, some of the marchers pushed aside the shipping containers that had been placed on the street to block them and walked toward the enclave. There another row of shipping containers and a heavy police presence blocked them from going any further and the protesters appeared to stop.

The rally was widely peaceful until police and protesters clashed briefly in the early morning.

Television footage showed police shooting into the air to push back protesters and a man on the ground being beaten by what appeared to be protesters. Demonstrators threw rocks at a vehicle, while others held up shells and an empty tear gas canister.

Helicopters could be heard circling overhead.

Minister of Interior Rehman Malik, speaking on Pakistani television, said some of the demonstrators had weapons and attacked police with stones.

"Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that the marchers would remain peaceful but police have been stoned and shots were also fired," he said.

In an email to The Associated Press, a spokesman for Qadri, Shahid Mursaleen, blamed the entire incident on the security officials and said police had opened fire unprovoked.

Thousands of people remained on the streets after the clashes stopped. Qadri put the crowd assembled on the main avenue leading to the government center at 4 million but far fewer were actually in attendance. One city official put the number of protesters at roughly 30,000. He did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Many in the crowd waved green and white Pakistani flags and wore buttons emblazoned with the cleric's picture.

Qadri has called for vaguely-worded reforms to the electoral system such as making sure candidates for office are free of corruption. His words have inspired many Pakistanis who are frustrated with a government that they say has given them nothing but unemployment, electricity blackouts, and terror attacks as its five-year term comes to an end.

"There is no electricity and no gas, and the government has done nothing," said Faizan Baig, a 23-year-old pharmaceutical company worker who traveled to Islamabad from the northwest town of Abbottabad. "Qadri feels pain for the people, while the government feels no pain for the people."

Security was heavy throughout the city, although the rally appeared to be largely peaceful. Thousands of police in riot gear protected the streets, and cell phones were jammed after the government warned that militants were planning to attack the protesters.

Qadri returned to Pakistan in December after years in Canada, where he's also a citizen. He heads a religious network in Lahore and gained some international prominence by writing a 2010 fatwa, or religious opinion, condemning terrorism.

But he was never a national political figure until this winter, when his calls for reforms ahead of elections galvanized many Pakistanis disenchanted by the existing parties.

His arrival in Islamabad was met with raucous cheers, and supporters showered his black SUV with rose petals.

Qadri also asked his supporters to take the security of the capital in their hands and guard and protect each of the buildings of Islamabad. The cleric took an oath in front of the crowd that they all will remain peaceful but stay in Islamabad until the revolution is completed.

"They are no more rulers but former rulers. Don't follow their orders! I have come here to get you out of their slavery," he said.

Many of the protesters had blankets and appeared ready to camp.

Some of Qadri's comments have sparked concern that the cleric is being uses as a front for the Pakistani military to disrupt the democratic process just as the country prepares for a historic transfer of power from one civilian government to another.

He has called for a military role in picking the caretaker government that will take over temporarily ahead of elections and has said it could stay in place longer than normal to enact necessary reforms.

Those comments, as well as questions about the origins of his funding, have sparked fears Qadri is really trying to derail the upcoming vote on behalf of the military, which is believed to dislike both the main political parties vying for power, and pave the way for a military-backed caretaker to hold power indefinitely. Qadri has denied any such involvement.

____

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Sebastian Abbot in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cleric-fires-pakistanis-demands-govt-resign-020630936.html

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