strength clare: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Canadian teens send Legonaut into 'space' (+video)

Two Canadian boys sent a Lego Man 80,000 feet above the Earth and captured the voyage on video.

OK, technically, Lego Man didn't get into space.

Skip to next paragraph

But that doesn't make this $400 science project by two Canadian teens any less cool.

Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, a couple of 17-year olds, sent their Canadian flag-toting Lego figure aloft beneath a weather balloon they bought online for $85.

The packed a?Styrofoam?box with some gel hand warmers to keep three point-and-shoot cameras and a video camera (bought used on Craigslist) functioning at the below -4 F (-20 C) temperatures.? They also put a cellphone with GPS aboard to track it. And they stiched together a parachute (on Muhammad's mom's sewing machine) to bring their Legonaut and their camera's safely back to Earth.

The boys filled their weather ballon with $165 worth of helium, bringing it close to the bursting point. Why so much?

?If you fill your balloon, say, halfway, it will reach a higher max altitude but then obviously it?s got a lot more time in the air so it has a lot more time that it could be affected by wind,?? Ho explained to The Toronto Star.

?A perfect flight plan would be just up and down, on the same spot. The less we had to drive (to retrieve Lego Man) that was our goal, especially since we?re surrounded by so many lakes. There were so many problems that could go wrong," said Ho.

Watch their video and you can see when the balloon bursts ? at 24 kilometers above the earth (almost 80,000 feet). NASA says that an object isn't in "space" unless it reaches about 50 kilometers above the Earth.

After the balloon reached its bursting point, the parachute brought the package of cameras, cellphone, and, of course Lego Man, safely back to the ground - about 122 kilometers (and 97 minutes) from it's launch at a soccer filed in Newmarket, Ontario. Prior to the launch, the boys used a Univeristy of Wyoming site that calculates weather balloon trajectories. And with the help of the GPS, they recovered the package after a hunt in the woods near Rice Lake.?

Certainly, these aren't the first to launch a video camera into the stratosphere.? In fact, Ho said that they were inspired by Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who'd sent a video camera aloft on a weather balloon a couple of years ago.

Still, the MIT students didn't send Lego Man up, up, and away.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/0X9CmTfMpXU/Canadian-teens-send-Legonaut-into-space-video

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Drama Mamas: How to find gaming buddies

Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.

We've talked before about how to leave your guild, but what happens after that?

Hey Drama Mamas!
Today i write to you lovely ladies with a problem that I have been wrestling with for almost 4 years: finding someone to play World of Warcraft with. Here is the high and low of it, or rather the long and short:
Four or so years ago my brother starts playing a game that I considered to be a money sand trap: World of Warcraft, I cannot honestly say I was friendly to the franchise as at the time I was Neverwinter Night's personal slave (still am sometimes) but to make a long story short (too late) I was persuaded to take a vacation to Azeroth and I have never left. I fell in love with the planet and its people and while my hearth stone will always be set to Neverwinter, I am really enjoying my time in Azeroth.

But here is my dilemma; I'm lonely. Not long after I started playing my brother quit, after that I soloed until I convinced my two best friends to play (who were a couple, mistake number one) but when they broke up they started getting on at different times and then more and more infrequently and now not at all, then (having run out of RL friends who play) I spent the next year jumping from guild to guild, trying to find the right family. Eventually I found one, in my eyes the perfect guild; we raided, we did group quests, leveled alts together, helped each other with achievements, and protected each other from gankers (this was on my old pvp server), we even held in game parties with contests and prizes and guild meet ups twice a year but we were a progression guild and after 2 years of running together we hit a rock, all progression stopped and people got frustrated, and then it didn't take long for the frustration to turn into arguments and then the five words you never want to see when logging in, "your guild has been disbanded"
These days I just play by myself, I have joined a new guild but it doesn't have the same atmosphere as my old one and I find that I am just keeping to myself when I log in and because we are so big (we had to split in two) often requests for this or that quest/group go unnoticed or unanswered. Of all the RL friends who I used to play with only one still plays but she lives in a different country and with the time difference and my work schedule, play time is sparse. I have a boyfriend who I would love to get playing but he doesn't express any desire to play (and if he thinks that makes me sad/offended every time i ask and he refuses he buys me play time and in game pets ^_^)
So now I ask, any advice? Do I look for the "right" guild? Do i put an ad on the forums "help wanted, friendly players who like playing and doing anything and everything in game and not take anything seriously and have fun?" or maybe a real life ad? I don't know, I'm not very social I just like being with other people.
Sincerely with the greatest respect and appreciation,
LFG

Drama Mama Robin: LFG, your situation is quite common in the physical world as well. If someone wants to play darts, pool, softball or whatever competitively and no friends want to join, how does one find people to do this with?

Let's say I want to shoot pool competitively again but have been out of the league for some time and have moved. What can I do?

Contact my old team members and ask if they know of anyone or any place near me that they can recommend.
Hang around in bars with pool tables and try to make friends while playing with strangers.
Go to tournaments, socialize, and see if I hit it off with any one team.
List myself officially as looking for a team in the area.
Enter myself into solo events and see if anyone approaches me. (This idea is the scariest for me.)
Look online for local leagues that may be looking for members and take the plunge blindly.
Ask another group I belong to (knitting, parents at my child's school, the local YMCA) if they play or can recommend people for me to play with.

I'm sure there are other ways to connect, too, but the point is that there are methods both in game and out to join a team of like-minded people that you actually enjoy. To translate into WoW terminology, you could:

Contact any of the members of the guild you really liked to see if they have calmed down, are still enjoying the game, and belong to a guild you might like.
Hang around in bars. OK, that won't really help here, but it's fun.
Join any local server events or raids and see if you hit it off with anyone participating people who can recommend their guild.
Scan the forums looking for guilds that want new members and seem to have a similar mindset.
Ask another group you belong to in the physical world if any of them play WoW. You may be surprised that the acquaintance you have at the gym also plays or someone in your book club is hiding a secret World of Warcraft habit.
Look at online forums for your other interests and see if there is anyone who hangs out in Azeroth too.
You could use the Guild Finder tool, but ... well ... that's not really that helpful, unfortunately.

I can't recommend listing yourself as looking for a guild on the forums because you're just going to get trolls, unfortunately. Nobody wants that. I think that your best bets are numbers 1, 4 and 6.

I know there are many others like you who want the same things, LFG. Good luck in finding each other.

Drama Mama Lisa: Drama Mama Lisa is random today. Maybe not as random as Drama Mama "Go to a Bar" Robin ... but random enough.

Randomly:

Try something entirely new. Like ... ever roleplayed? Go check out the scene. (I don't recommend showing up at a random location on a random RP realm; I do recommend poking through RP realm forums first.) Not your cup of tea? Our 15 Minutes of Fame column is packed with players who take all sorts of unusual angles to the game -- you could find something that sparks an interest.
Stop pestering your boyfriend about playing. Love him for who he is, rather than pushing him away over what he's not.
Sort out what you actually want. You say you're "not very social and just like being with other people," yet you're unhappy that your new guild feels relatively unresponsive and you find yourself keeping to yourself. Frankly, if you're not very social and just like being around others, this guild sounds like a pretty good match -- so perhaps you should pause to reevaluate what it is that you're really after.
Hint: It sounds like you're still looking for a gaming buddy.
If it's people you want, make an alt and try Spectacular Death or It came from the Blog. These two guilds (the former, long-time friends of WoW Insider; the latter, actual WoW Insider readers) have become my default solution for players in search of a laid-back place to have fun with maturity, stability and no drama.

Keep at it, and there will almost assuredly be fun and gaming buddies in your future!

Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with a little help and insight from the Drama Mamas. Play nice ... and when in doubt, ask the Drama Mamas at robin@wowinsider.com. Read Robin's section of this post on how to get your letter answered and please remember that we cannot answer privately.

Tags: advice, drama, facebookfeed, featured, guild-advice, guild-drama, looking-for-guild, playing-wow, warcraft-advice, wow-advice, wow-drama, wow-drama-guide, wow-player-guide, wow-q-and-a

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Drama Mamas

Source: http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/30/drama-mamas-how-to-find-gaming-buddies/

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Zbigniew Brzezinski: Strategic Vision

Excerpted from the introduction to Strategic Vision: American and Crisis of Global Power (Basic Books)

The world is now interactive and interdependent. It is also, for the first time, a world in which the problems of human survival have begun to overshadow more traditional international conflicts. Unfortunately, the major powers have yet to undertake globally cooperative responses to the new and increasingly grave challenges to human wellbeing--environmental, climatic, socioeconomic, nutritional, or demographic.

And without basic geopolitical stability, any effort to achieve the necessary global cooperation will falter. Indeed, the changing distribution of global power and the new phenomenon of massive political awakening intensify, each in its own way, the volatility of contemporary international relations. As China's influence grows and as other emerging powers--Russia or India or Brazil for example--compete with each other for resources, security, and economic advantage, the potential for miscalculation and conflict increases.

Accordingly, the United States must seek to shape a broader geopolitical foundation for constructive cooperation in the global arena, while accommodating the rising aspirations of an increasingly restless global population.

With the foregoing in mind, this book seeks to respond to four major questions:

1. What are the implications of the changing distribution of global power from the West to the East, and how is it being affected by the new reality of a politically awakened humanity?

2. Why is America's global appeal waning, what are the symptoms of America's domestic and international decline, and how did America waste the unique global opportunity offered by the peaceful end of the Cold War? Conversely, what are America's recuperative strengths and what geopolitical reorientation is necessary to revitalize America's world role?

3. What would be the likely geopolitical consequences if America declined from its globally preeminent position, who would be the almost-immediate geopolitical victims of such a decline, what effects would it have on the global-scale problems of the twentyfirst century, and could China assume America's central role in world affairs by 2025?

4. Looking beyond 2025, how should a resurgent America define its long-term geopolitical goals, and how could America, with its traditional European allies, seek to engage Turkey and Russia in order to construct an even larger and more vigorous West? Simultaneously, how could America achieve balance in the East between the need for close cooperation with China and the fact that a constructive American role in Asia should be neither exclusively China-centric nor involve dangerous entanglements in Asian conflicts?

In answering these questions this book will argue that America's role in the world will continue to be essential in the years to come. Indeed, the ongoing changes in the distribution of global power and mounting global strife make it all the more imperative that America not retreat into an ignorant garrison-state mentality or wallow in self-righteous cultural hedonism. Such an America could cause the geopolitical prospects of an evolving world--in which the center of gravity is shifting from West to East--to become increasingly grave. The world needs an America that is economically vital, socially appealing, responsibly powerful, strategically deliberate, internationally respected, and historically enlightened in its global engagement with the new East.

How likely is such a globally purposeful America? Today, America's historical mood is uneasy, and notions of America's decline as historically inevitable are intellectually fashionable. However, this kind of periodic pessimism is neither novel nor self-fulfilling. Even the belief that the twentieth century was "America's century," which became widespread in the wake of World War II, did not preclude phases of anxiety regarding America's long-range future.

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, its first orbital satellite, during the Eisenhower administration, Americans became concerned about their prospects in both peaceful competition and strategic warfare.

And again, when the United States failed to achieve a meaningful victory in Vietnam during the Nixon years, Soviet leaders confidently predicted America's demise while historically pessimistic American policy makers sought d?tente in exchange for the status quo in the divided Europe. But America proved to be more resilient and the Soviet system eventually imploded.

By 1991, following the disintegration both of the Soviet bloc and then the Soviet Union itself, the United States was left standing as the only global superpower. Not only the twentieth but even the twenty-first century then seemed destined to be the American centuries. Both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush confidently asserted as much. And academic circles echoed them with bold prognoses that the end of the Cold War meant in effect "the end of history" insofar as doctrinal debates regarding the relative superiority of competing social systems was concerned.

The victory of liberal democracy was proclaimed not only as decisive but also as final. Given that liberal democracy had flowered first in the West, the implied assumption was that henceforth the West would be the defining standard for the world.

However, such super-optimism did not last long. The culture of self gratification and deregulation that began during the Clinton years and continued under President George W. Bush led to the bursting of one stock market bubble at the turn of the century and a full-scale financial crash less than a decade later. The costly unilateralism of the younger Bush presidency led to a decade of war in the Middle East and the derailment of American foreign policy at large. The financial catastrophe of 2008 nearly precipitated a calamitous economic depression, jolting America and much of the West into a sudden recognition of their systemic vulnerability to unregulated greed.

Moreover, in China and other Asian states a perplexing amalgam of economic liberalism and state capitalism demonstrated a surprising capacity for economic growth and technological innovation. This in turn prompted new anxiety about the future of America's status as the leading world power.

Indeed, there are several alarming similarities between the Soviet Union in the years just prior to its fall and the America of the early twenty-first century. The Soviet Union, with an increasingly gridlocked governmental system incapable of enacting serious policy revisions, in effect bankrupted itself by committing an inordinate percentage of its GNP to a decades-long military rivalry with the United States and exacerbated this problem by taking on the additional costs of a decadelong attempt to conquer Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, it could not afford to sustain its competition with America in cutting-edge technological sectors and thus fell further behind; its economy stumbled and the society's quality of life further deteriorated in comparison to the West; its ruling Communist class became cynically insensitive to widening social disparities while hypocritically masking its own privileged life-style; and finally, in foreign affairs it became increasingly selfisolated, while precipitating a geopolitically damaging hostility with its once-prime Eurasian ally, Communist China.

These parallels, even if overdrawn, fortify the case that America must renew itself and pursue a comprehensive and long-term geopolitical vision, one that is responsive to the challenges of the changing historical context. Only a dynamic and strategically minded America, together with a unifying Europe, can jointly promote a larger and more vital West, one capable of acting as a responsible partner to the rising and increasingly assertive East. Otherwise, a geopolitically divided and selfcentered West could slide into a historical decline reminiscent of the humiliating impotence of nineteenth-century China, while the East might be tempted to replicate the self-destructive power rivalries of twentieth-century Europe.

In brief, the crisis of global power is the cumulative consequence of the dynamic shift in the world's center of gravity from the West to the East, of the accelerated surfacing of the restless phenomenon of global political awakening, and of America's deficient domestic and international performance since its emergence by 1990 as the world's only superpower.

The foregoing poses serious longer-term risks to the survival of some endangered states, to the security of the global commons, and to global stability at large. This book seeks to outline the needed strategic vision, looking beyond 2025.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/strategic-vision_b_1242976.html

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Super Bowl week begins, ice and snow no-shows (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS ? Patriots coach Bill Belichick could leave his familiar hoodies in the hotel drawer. There was no need to bundle up for the start of only the fourth Super Bowl week in a northern city.

Ice and snow? Notable no-shows.

Fans threw open their jackets as they walked around downtown streets near Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday, hoping to get a glimpse of a celebrity in town for the game between New England and the New York Giants. Temperatures in the mid-to-upper 50s were forecast for the start of the week, well above normal.

The sunshine felt so good that it made for a joke or two.

"I know the way we're preparing and the way we've controlled the weather, which is hard to do," Colts owner Jim Irsay said, smiling. "But we've had certain techniques that were going to keep hidden, and I hope they hold."

Already, it's way better than Dallas.

Weather is a major concern when the title game goes north, but some of the biggest problems came down south last year. Snow and 100 hours of sub-freezing temperatures snarled traffic and led to injuries when an icy patch fell off the stadium roof and hit six workers.

Indianapolis watched and prepared.

"You can have anything in Indiana," Super Bowl Host Committee spokeswoman Mel Raines said. "Our plan is intended for everything."

In its first three times at a northern exposure, the NFL's title game has experienced a little of everything.

The ground-breaking game came after the 1981 season in Detroit, a test of whether it would work outside the sunny climes of Florida, New Orleans, Texas and California. The week leading up to the game between the Bengals and 49ers included bursts of snow culminating in nasty conditions for game day.

Bored players passed the time that week by spinning their tires on the ice-covered hotel parking lot for fun.

"I think the biggest challenge was for guys not to get bored to tears," former Bengals offensive lineman Dave Lapham said. "We kind of felt cooped up, really. Guys talked about: What are we going to do? Ski? Ice skate? You could strap on skates and skate on the streets. There was nothing do to."

Traffic heading to the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., on game day got clogged by another burst of snow. Fans braved temperatures of 13 degrees and a wind chill of 21 below.

After that experience, there was talk that the league would never venture north again for a Super Bowl.

"I thought they'd stick to it, honestly," said Lapham, now a broadcaster for the Bengals. "But with the dynamic of people putting up more money for stadiums, they're going to reward communities."

Ten years later, the Bills and Redskins played for the title in Minneapolis, where the ground was covered with snow but the region handled it much more smoothly.

Then, the cold became a selling point for some Redskins players. Earnest Byner, Art Monk, Monte Coleman and Chip Lohmiller went ice fishing on Cedar Lake in 30-below wind chills. Byner caught a 4-inch perch using a wax worm.

The game returned to Detroit after the 2005 season and things went much more smoothly despite a little snow on game day, when the Steelers beat the Seahawks.

Last year's game in Dallas became an unexpected reminder of what can go wrong in winter, no matter where the location.

A snowstorm and 100 consecutive hours of subfreezing temperatures turned the Dallas area into an ice rink. Snow and ice fell from the roof of Cowboys Stadium, injuring six workers on the plaza below. Organizers had spread events around a 30-mile area to emphasize the regional support for the game, creating major travel problems when the weather went bad.

Indianapolis has done it differently.

Most of the Super Bowl events are clustered downtown, minimizing travel. Temporary structures for the Super Bowl festivities were fitted with wind gauges for safety. On Sunday, two tents at an NFL fan exhibit were closed for about an hour because of high winds.

The city removed parking meters from high-traffic streets downtown so snow could be easily pushed away. Twenty-four snow removal trucks were on call for the game, four times the normal amount. The host committee recruited "Super Shoveler" volunteers to help clear sidewalks if it snowed.

In some ways, it's a warm-up act for the first true cold-weather title game. The 2014 Super Bowl will be co-hosted by New York and New Jersey, played outdoors instead of in a dome during the middle of winter.

The logo for that game? A blue-and-white snowflake.

___

Associated Press sports writer Michael Marot and AP writer Carrie Schedler in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_super_bowl_weather

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Steve Jones & Nicole Scherzinger Leaving ?X Factor?

Steve Jones & Nicole Scherzinger Leaving “X Factor”

There have been rumors at the end of the first season of the “X Factor” as to whether host, Steve Jones, would be returning. There [...]

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[OOC] Shounen Academy.

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Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Shounen Academy.?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Shounen Academy."

You may edit this first post as you see fit.

Emily3456: Member for 2 years

Could I reserve a spot? I'll try to get Girl 3 up as fast as I can.

AlyxtheStubborn: Member for 1 years

Could i possibly have girl 2 but i cant do the character until later thats why im hoping to reserve XD

inara1917: Member for 1 years

Ooo, can I go for the gay teacher? :)

PrincessBoy: Member for 2 years

Heyy can I have the friend that got them into the mess?

~Stop, stop breaking my heart. I love you boy. Stop, stop breaking my heart. I need you boy~
- Teen Top
The passion is CRAZY, but the drive is pure <3

theMoonlightTheory: Member for 1 years

Dibs on the worst bad boy, ladies, you're in for some trouble hehehehe~

"It is in the east, and Juliet is the sun!"

black-as-night_oni: Member for 1 years

Wasn't there a roleplay like this before? Either way, I would like to reserve a boy.

Tetsuya Shimazu: Member for 0 years

Would it be cool if I reserved the normalish teacher?

Shadetree76: Member for 0 years

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Tilera sees sense in the server wars, puts just 36 cores in its newest processor

While Tilera's forthcoming 100-core processors threaten to set off fire alarms around the world, the company has finally brought out its more sensible 36-core variant. The 1.2GHz Tile-GX36 sips just 24 watts and is designed to be especially handy with short and sharp jobs like processing internet transactions. It's a reduced instruction set (RISC) chip, so it's less power hungry and cheaper than Intel's x86 silicon. It also sports 64-bit architecture, whereas rival ARM is set to remain 32-bit until 2014. Then again, with Tilera lagging behind in terms of brand recognition and software support, a two-year head start might not be long enough.

Tilera sees sense in the server wars, puts just 36 cores in its newest processor originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[OOC] Good ending?

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Good ending? Any thing we need to work on for next time, and KKpigs, I know I need to work on my gramer.

austyn101: Member for 1 years

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DARPA Targets Computing's Achilles Heel: Power

The amount of computation done per unit energy, isn't really the issue. Instead the problem is the amount of _USEFUL_ computation done per unit energy.

The majority of power in a modern system goes into moving data around, and other tasks which are not the actual desired computation. Examples of this are incrementing the program counter, figuring out instruction dependancies, and moving data between levels of caches. The actual computation of the data is tiny in comparison.

Why do we do this then? Most of the power goes to what is informally called the "Turing Tax" - the extra things required to allow a given processor to be general purpose - ie. to compute anything. A single purpose piece of hardware can only do one thing, but is vastly more efficient, because all the power used figuring out which bits of data need to go where can all be left out. Consider it like the difference between a road network that lets you go anywhere and a road with no junctions in a straight line between your house and your work. One is general purpose (you can go anywhere), the other is only good for one thing, but much quicker and more efficient.

To get nearer our goal, computers are getting components that are less flexible. Less flexibility means less Turing Tax. For example video encoder cores can do massive amounts of computation, yet they can only encode video - nothing else. For comparison, an HD video camera can record 1080p video in real time with only a couple of Watts. A PC (without hardware encoder) would take 15 mins or so to encode each minute of HD video, using far more power along the way.

The future of low power computing is to find clever ways of making special purpose hardware to do the most computationally heavy stuff such that the power hungry general purpose processors have less stuff left to do.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/bz0na0Ju7Ok/darpa-targets-computings-achilles-heel-power

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Religious slights are the buzz as India marks Republic Day

Followers of India's three main religions - Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism - have balked loudly at cultural slights this week. There's a reason for it, and it's not all politics.

No one likes to have their religion slighted. This is especially true in India, where there are thousands of gods, and tensions are close to the surface when it comes to ill-considered comments about religion.

Skip to next paragraph

Last week, author Salman Rushdie canceled his much anticipated visit to India?s biggest literary festival because of reported threats of assassination. Many Muslims regard his 1988 novel, "Satanic Verses," to be blasphemous, and some Muslim clerics threatened massive protests if Mr. Rushdie showed up at the festival in Jaipur. A handful of authors attempted to read the book ? which is banned in India ? on Rushdie?s behalf in a form of protest, but organizers stopped them.

Just the day before, American late night talk show host Jay Leno managed to offend India?s Sikh community with a satirical sketch, involving the Sikh faith?s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple. In a video showing the homes of the GOP presidential candidates, Leno showed a photo of the Golden Temple, calling it ?Mitt Romney?s summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee.??

But that wasn?t all.

On Jan. 25, a Chicago-based sports commentator offended Hindus in his post-game description of a hockey match between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators. Sportscasters are famous for stretching metaphors to the breaking point, but the Chicago commentator was quoted by Indian websites as saying the Predators were ?swallowing up space like some weird Hindu god."

The objection is to the word ?weird,? which a Nevada-based Hindu community leader Rajan Zed ? president of the Universal Society of Hindus ? said was hurtful to the feelings of the world?s 1 billion Hindu people.

Offending all three of the main faiths of the world?s second largest country is quite a feat. In hockey games this is called a hat trick.

What outsiders generally don't quite grasp about India is that sacredness is woven into almost every act of every day. Unlike post-religious societies, where Westerners may attend church once a week (or once a year), many Indians are constantly aware of their religious duties at work, at play, at meal times. I can't tell you how many times I've sat in the back of a taxi cab, in fear, as a Delhi taxi driver takes his hands off the wheel and puts them together in a sign of respect as he passes a holy shrine.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/srm12iWmM0k/Religious-slights-are-the-buzz-as-India-marks-Republic-Day

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Germans float direct EU control over Greek budget (AP)

BERLIN ? Germany is proposing that debt-ridden Greece temporarily cede sovereignty over tax and spending decisions to a powerful eurozone budget commissioner before it can secure further bailouts, an official in Berlin said Saturday.

The idea was quickly rejected by the European Union's executive body and the government in Athens, with the EU Commission in Brussels insisting that "executive tasks must remain the full responsibility of the Greek government, which is accountable before its citizens and its institutions."

But the German official said the initiative is being discussed among the 17-nation currency bloc's finance ministers because Greece has repeatedly failed to fulfill its commitments under its current euro110 billion ($145 billion) lifeline.

The proposal foresees a commissioner holding a veto right against any budgetary measures and having broad surveillance ability to ensure that Greece will take proper steps to repay its debt as scheduled, the official said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.

Greece's international creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? already have unprecedented powers over Greek spending after negotiating with Athens stringent austerity measures and economic reforms in return for the first bailout.

The so-called troika of creditors is currently negotiating another euro130 billion rescue package for the heavily indebted country. German news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday cited an unnamed troika official as saying Greece might actually need a euro145 billion package because of its prolonged recession.

The German proposal, first reported by the Financial Times, is likely to spark controversy in Greece.

Despite the quick rejection from the EU Commission, Germany's demand underlines the frustration of the eurozone with Greece's slack implementation of the promised reforms, spending cuts and privatizations. During every verification mission last year, the troika found huge implementation shortfalls, which in turn increased gaps in Athens' budget and intensified the need for a second bailout.

A powerful budget commissioner would further diminish the political leeway of Greece's government, just as politicians there are gearing up for an election set to take place this spring.

A government official in Athens said a similar proposal had been floated last year but got nowhere. Greece would not accept such a measure, he added. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no formal proposal has been made by the EU or Germany yet.

The unprecedented and sweeping powers for creditors would indeed deal a huge blow to Greece's sovereignty, but they could help mobilize more support for the government in Athens from its European partners.

Several German lawmakers have repeatedly said that giving more money to Greece is unthinkable without stricter enforcement and control of the conditions attached to the rescue packages.

Greece is currently locked in a twin effort, seeking to secure a crucial debt relief deal with private investors while also tackling the pressing demands from its European partners and the IMF for more austerity measures and deeper reforms.

Failure on either front would force the country to default on its debt in less than two months, pouring new fuel on the fires of Europe's debt crisis.

In that case, Greece would likely leave the eurozone, which would bring disaster to the country, destabilize the currency bloc, fuel panic on financial markets and ultimately threaten the fragile world economy.

Despite two weeks of intensive talks, a debt relief agreement with private investors worth some euro100 billion has yet to be reached.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos met anew with representatives of international banks and other private institutions Saturday, but the talks ended without a final deal and were expected to resume Sunday, officials in Athens said.

With the current troika mission still ongoing and no final deal with the private sector creditors, Greece is unlikely to feature prominently at a summit of the EU's 27 leaders Monday, according to officials in Brussels.

___

Demetris Nellas in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Peru: 27 killed in fire at rehabilitation center (AP)

LIMA, Peru ? A fire swept through a two-story private rehabilitation center for addicts in a poor part of Peru's capital Saturday, killing 27 people and critically injuring five as firefighters punched holes through walls to rescue residents locked inside.

The "Christ is Love" center for drug and alcohol addicts was unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept inside "like prisoners," Health Minister Alberto Tejada told The Associated Press.

Authorities said 26 people died at the scene, and prosecutors spokesman Raul Sanchez said Saturday night that one of six men hospitalized in critical condition died later.

Peru's fire chief, Antonio Zavala, said most of the victims died of asphyxiation. All the victims appeared to be male.

The local police chief, Clever Zegarra, said the cause of the 9 a.m. fire was under investigation.

"There has been talk of the burning of an object, of a mattress, but also of a fight that resulted in a fire. All of this is speculation," he told the AP. "I've been here at the scene from morning to evening but for the moment the exact cause of the fire is not known."

One resident of the center on a narrow dead-end street in Lima's teeming San Juan de Lurigancho district said he was eating breakfast on the second floor of the center when he saw flames coming from the first floor, where the blaze apparently began.

Gianfranco Huerta told local RPP news radio station that he leaped from a window to safety.

"The doors were locked; there was no way to get out," he told the station.

AP journalists at scene said all the windows of the building they were able to see were barred. Journalists were not allowed inside as police cordoned off the block. By early afternoon, all the dead had been removed from the center.

Most of the bodies seen by reporters were shirtless, their faces blackened. Many were also shoeless.

"This rehabilitation center wasn't authorized. It was a house that they had taken over ... for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada, the health minister, said.

Authorities said they did not know how many people were inside the center at the time of the fire. They said they were looking for the center's owners and staff, some of whom apparently fled the scene.

The local police chief, Zegarra, identified the owner as Raul Garcia.

Zoila Chea, an aunt of one victim, said families paid Garcia $37 to treat an addicted relative and $15 a week thereafter.

She said that neighbors had constantly complained about the center and that it had been closed twice by authorities.

Chea, 45, said relatives were prohibited from seeing interned patients during the first three months of treatment, which she added consisted mainly of reading the Bible.

Her nephew, Luis Chea, was at the center for a month, she said.

Zavala, the national fire chief, said the blaze was of "Dantesque proportions." Firefighters had to punch a hole through a wall with an adjoining building to help people trapped inside the rehabilitation center.

"We've had to use electric saws to cut through the metal bars of the doors to be able to work," Zavala said.

Relatives of residents of the center gathered near the building weeping and seeking word of their loved ones. As the day wore on, nearby sidewalks filled with relatives mourning and trying to console one another.

One of them was Maria Benitez, aunt of 18-year-old Carlos Benitez, who she said was being treated at the center.

"I want to know if he is OK or not," she told ATV television.

___

Associated Press journalists Mauricio Munoz, Cesar Barreto and Frank Bajak contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_peru_fire

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Arab League confirms will freeze Syria mission (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? The Arab League's monitoring mission to Syria has been frozen given the escalation of violence in the country, the Arab League said in a statement on Saturday.

"It has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League's mission to Syria pending presentation of the issue to the league's council," the Secretary-General of the Arab League said in a statement.

The mission would remain in Syria, a source at the league had earlier told Reuters, but would temporarily freeze its work.

The head of the monitoring mission, Ambassador Adnan al-Khodeir, had earlier said that the General Secretariat of the league would take all the necessary procedures to protect the safety of its monitors in Syria.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_syria

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Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years.

In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks.

"Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status," it said.

Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status.

Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.

All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.

Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts.

"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures," Fitch said.

Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory.

With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact.

The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13.

Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with "detached serenity."

"They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too," he said during a live interview on Italian television.

"They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament," he said.

Fitch said of Italy: "A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation."

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_eurozone_fitch

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HTC Sense 4.0 will bring Beats Audio to third-party apps (Digital Trends)

htc sense 3.5 browser Following the leak of the HTC Primo earlier this week, our very own Jeffrey Van Camp commented on the presence of Beats Audio on the phone, saying he was disappointed with the feature on the HTC Rezound, as it was only compatible with the standard HTC music player.

He?s surely not alone in his frustration, as the Android Market is filled with third-party music apps, all begging to have some bassy Beats technology applied to them.

It appears this is all about to change though, as PocketNow has had a sneak peak at HTC Sense 4.0, and noted that Beats will become universal in the new version of the company?s Android UI.

Other new features include improved support for landscape orientation, including on the homescreen, an updated email client, an iOS 5-like ?reader? feature in the browser and a ?guest mode? that restricts access to certain apps and private data. Sense 4.0 will also see a revised task switching interface, which uses 3D cards instead of icons to move between open apps.

The last update to Sense, taking it to version 3.5, came with the release of devices including the HTC Rhyme and aforementioned Rezound, and provided some visual polish along with a refreshed browser and some performance tweaks. We must go back to April 2011 for the announcement of 3.0, the last major Sense revision.

With nearly a full year since the last major update, and several new and potentially stunning phones on the horizon, Sense 4.0?s release can?t be far away. Although no date is mentioned, PocketNow says 4.0 will first appear on the HTC Ville and the HTC Edge, devices which could make their debut at the end of next month.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

Prejudices? Quite normal!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Girls are not as good at playing football as boys, and they do not have a clue about cars. Instead they know better how to dance and do not get into mischief as often as boys. Prejudices like these are cultivated from early childhood onwards by everyone. "Approximately at the age of three to four years children start to prefer children of the same sex, and later the same ethnic group or nationality," Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) states. This is part of an entirely normal personality development, the director of the Institute for Psychology explains. "It only gets problematic when the more positive evaluation of the own social group, which is adopted automatically in the course of identity formation, at some point reverts into bias and discrimination against others," Beelmann continues.

To prevent this, the Jena psychologist and his team have been working on a prevention programme for children. It is designed to reduce prejudice and to encourage tolerance for others. But when is the right time to start? Jena psychologists Dr. Tobias Raabe and Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann systematically summarise scientific studies on that topic and published the results of their research in the science journal Child Development (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.).

According to this, the development of prejudice increases steadily at pre-school age and reaches its highest level between five and seven years of age. With increasing age this development is reversed and the prejudices decline. "This reflects normal cognitive development of children," Prof. Beelmann explains. "At first they adopt the social categories from their social environment, mainly the parents. Then they start to build up their own social identity according to social groups, before they finally learn to differentiate and individual evaluations of others will prevail over stereotypes." Therefore the psychologists reckon this age is the ideal time to start well-designed prevention programmes against prejudice. "Prevention starting at that age supports the normal course of development," Beelmann says. As the new study and the experience of the Jena psychologists with their prevention programme so far show, the prejudices are strongly diminished at primary school age, when children get in touch with members of so-called social out groups like, for instance children of a different nationality or skin colour. "This also works when they don't even get in touch with real people but learn it instead via books or told stories."

But at the same time the primary school age is a critical time for prejudices to consolidate. "If there is no or only a few contact to members of social out groups, there is no personal experience to be made and generalising negative evaluations stick longer." In this, scientists see an explanation for the particularly strong xenophobia in regions with a very low percentage of foreigners or migrants.

Moreover the Jena psychologists noticed that social ideas and prejudices are formed differently in children of social minorities. They do not have a negative attitude towards the majority to start with, more often it is even a positive one. The reason is the higher social status of the majority, which is being regarded as a role model. Only later, after having experienced discrimination, they develop prejudices, that then sticks with them much more persistently than with other children. "In this case prevention has to start earlier so it doesn't even get that far," Beelmann is convinced.

Generally, the psychologist of the Jena University stresses, the results of the new study don't imply that the children's and youths attitudes towards different social groups can't be changed at a later age. But this would then less depend on the individual development and very much more on the social environment like for instance changing social norms in our society. Tolerance on the other hand could be encouraged at any age. The psychologists' "prescription": As many diverse contacts to individuals belonging to different social groups as possible. "People who can identify with many groups will be less inclined to make sweeping generalisations in the evaluation of individuals belonging to different social groups or even to discriminate against them," Prof. Beelmann says.

###

Raabe T, Beelmann A.: Development of ethnic, racial, and national prejudice in childhood and adolescence: A multinational meta-analysis of age differences. Child Development. 2011; 82(6):1715-37. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.

Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena: http://www.uni-jena.de

Thanks to Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117152/Prejudices__Quite_normal_

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

TEEN FICTION: 'Talent In New York'

This is a regular column featuring original fiction by and for high school students, provided by Figment.com, an online community writing site for young people.

Lindsey Grant.

I barely recognized her, but she wasn't washed up; not quite, not completely. The scuffs on her shoes were telling, but she wasn't nearly as far gone as the rest of the girls that came to see Roger.

?Obsessive compulsive,? he said with a flourish. ?You can be obsessive compulsive. It's hot right now.?

She stared at him, fish eyed.

?Go. Wash your hands. Count the ceiling tiles. Blink twice every time I say the letter 't.'?

She looked as limp as her hair.

?Look, Roger, there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just--?

?Out of work and out of vogue. So we'll give you a panic attack?an OCD, a something. Something hot. Something people want right now.? Roger snapped his fingers like he was trying to cast a spell. Maybe he was. Word through the grape vine was that he had a magic touch. The magic touch, he would say, the only one in the industry.

Lindsey rolled her eyes.

?I didn't come to New York to get a psychological disorder.?

?Did you come to New York to be out of work? Did you honey, did you really??

She brushed imaginary lint off of sweater, watching it fall to the floor.

?Whatever you say. Ceiling tiles it is.?

?No, no?let's do something more...obvious. Marketable. Chap stick.?

?You're not making any sense.?

?Chap stick?it'll sell. We'll get someone lined up for you, some business, some new product?we'll get you back on the market, back in the books--?

Roger babbled like a brook.

?Walk with me, darling, walk with me. All it will take is a call here, a memo there--?

Which is my cue, because I did the calls and the memos and the dry cleaning pick up. He hadn't mentioned it yet, but I knew--

?And Chris can pick up my dry cleaning on the way--?

I knew it.

There was something romantic about the first time that someone told me to go to New York. I think it was Laurie.

?Go to New York,? she said, dewy eyed over a skinny latte. ?It's the new West, and everyone went West. Kerouac went West. Go West.?

The Beats were kind of her thing at the time.

?If that's what you really want to do,? she said, ?go to New York.?

After his OCD lecture, Roger had locked himself into his office.

?I need to think.? He had said. ?That idea really drained me.?

I stood with Lindsey in the hall. I couldn't tell if she looked mad or sad or simply broken. Finally, she spoke.

?Let's go pick up the dry cleaning.?

?No, it's fine, you stay. Roger told me to--?

?I need a coffee. I'll come with.?

?No, really, Roger--?

?Can kiss my ass. Or count ceiling tiles, you know, something hot. Something marketable.?

I couldn't help it. I gaped.

?Come on. Let's go.?

I wondered if Laurie would like this New York story. The one where I'm sitting with the ex-soap actress. It's like home but famous. Lindsey has a skinny latte and a look.

?What brought you here??

?Me? Here? Well--?

She sighed.

?You need a reason to come here. A good one.?

?This is what I wanted to do.?

?Pick up dry cleaning??

She gestured at the stack of shirts sitting on the chair next to us.

?You know that just one of those shirts costs more than you make a week??

I wasn't sure if she was being conversational or passive aggressive. I ignored her.

?I wanted to manage talent. I wanted--?

She barked, laughing.

?You wanted to wear one of these shirts? You wanted to open an office and buy Italian and--?

?No.?

She pushed her coffee away.

?How do you mean??

I was flustered, but she didn't go back to dead eyed or fish faced. She was alive now; wired.

?I don't know. I wanted....I wanted to see things before they happened.?

The pause was killing me. I kept talking. My words felt limp even before they left my mouth.

?Like, pieces. People. Things.?

Lindsey pulled her coffee back, biting her lower lip. The red lipstick came off on her teeth. It made her look shark like.

?I can respect that.?

?You can??

?Hell, I didn't come here for Louboutins or Lamborghinis or even lattes. I came here to act, dammit.?

?You're still acting,? I said.

?How so? I'm out of work, I'm out of press, I'm out of luck?I'm acting? Tell me.?

?Well, I don't believe you really have a psychiatric disorder.?

She smiled wanly, and wiped the lipstick off with her thumb.

?That's the sweetest thing anyone's said to me all day.?

Two months later and I had nearly forgot about her.

Nearly, but not quite. Still, when she showed up outside my apartment at three am, hammered and haunted, I had trouble recognizing the face.

?You know what? You know what they never tell you? Here isn't really even here anymore. Go to New York they say; go on the big screen, get into the big picture. Go to New York. I don't know what here was yesterday, but it isn't the same. It's all the same now. Go to New York. Fuck! Go to Minneapolis, one half the price with one third the rape. Go to Atlanta. Go to Miami. At least those places are warm. Go to LA. Go to Singapore. At least if they fuck you there you get paid for it.?

She was crying, drizzling tears and mascara. She looked older than I thought she was.

?Fuck Roger. Fuck talent and agents. Go home, kid. Go be Chris. Get out of New York. Go west.?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/teen-fiction-talent-in-ne_n_1238556.html

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