Sunday, December 23, 2012

Ravens run over Giants, clinch AFC North title

Baltimore wraps up division title while New York falls to brink of elimination

Image: Ray RiceAP

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice (27) attempts to rush past New York Giants defenders in the first half.

By DAVID GINSBURG

updated 7:33 p.m. ET Dec. 23, 2012

BALTIMORE - On their fourth try, the Baltimore Ravens finally got the victory they needed to win the AFC North.

Joe Flacco threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns, and the Ravens defeated the New York Giants 33-14 Sunday to capture their second straight division crown.

The Ravens (10-5) led 24-7 at halftime and cruised to the finish behind a short-handed defense that harassed quarterback Eli Manning and limited New York (8-7) to 186 yards.


Playing its second game with Jim Caldwell as offensive coordinator, Baltimore scored touchdowns on its first two possessions and amassed a season-high 533 yards - including 289 in the first half alone.

The victory ended a three-game skid for the Ravens and assured them of a home playoff game in the first weekend of January.

The defeat eliminated the defending Super Bowl champion Giants (8-7) from contention in the NFC East and severely damaged their chances of qualifying for a playoff berth.

New York has lost five of seven and was coming off a 34-0 defeat at Atlanta. In this one, Manning went 14 for 28 for 150 yards and was sacked three times.

Flacco, meanwhile, rebounded from a stretch in which he committed two turnovers in each of Baltimore's three straight defeats. He completed 25 of 36 passes, ran for a score and did not throw an interception or lose a fumble.

Flacco repeatedly picked on New York cornerback Corey Webster, who simply couldn't contain Torrey Smith or Anquan Boldin. Smith caught five passes for 88 yards and a touchdown, and Boldin finished with seven receptions for 93 yards.

Ray Rice ran for 107 yards and caught six passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Backup Bernard Pierce gained 123 yards rushing as part of a running attack that generated 224 yards.

Baltimore's defense was also impressive despite the absence of injured linebackers Ray Lewis and Jameel McClain, along with safety Bernard Pollard.

Now, after ending its longest losing streak since 2009, Baltimore is assured of hosting a first-round playoff game during the first weekend in January.

New York, on the other hand, fell out of a first-place tie in the NFC East and will need a win over Philadelphia next week - along with help from other teams - to squeeze into the postseason

Baltimore's first drive ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Smith. The play came after officials overturned a fumble by Jacoby Jones at the New York 5 following a replay review.

The 73-yard march featured a few new wrinkles from the Ravens' offense, most notably an option pitch from Flacco to Rice and third-string running back Anthony Allen's first catch of the season, a first-down grab at the New York 40.

After the Giants went three-and-out for a second straight time, Smith made an outstanding catch behind Webster for a 43-yard gain before Flacco scored from the 1.

Manning followed with a four-play, 77-yard drive highlighted by a 43-yard completion to Rueben Randle and a 14-yard touchdown run by David Wilson.

That, however, would be the extent of the New York offense until Domenik Hixon caught a 13-yard touchdown pass with 3:18 left. After scoring 52 against New Orleans on Dec. 9, the Giants have totaled only 14 points in the past two weeks.

The Ravens went up 17-7 midway through the second quarter. After Boldin burned Webster for 39-yard gain on a third-and-19, a replay erased a 9-yard touchdown catch by Jacoby Jones and forced Baltimore to settle for a field goal.

Late in the half, the Ravens moved 76 yards in seven plays for a 24-7 lead. Flacco went 5 for 5 for 68 yards, including a 27-yard touchdown pass to Rice.

Baltimore opted for ball control in the second half, and the Giants were powerless to stop them. After an exchange of punts at the start of the third quarter, the Ravens moved 82 yards in 16 plays, holding the ball for just short of eight minutes, before Justin Tucker kicked a 20-yard field goal.

The lead became 30-7 with 11:08 left when Tucker concluded a 13-play, 62-yard drive with a 30-yard field goal.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Ravens run over Giants, clinch AFC North title

The Baltimore Ravens shrugged off a slew of bad performances in dismantling the Giants on Sunday, notching a 33-14 win that locked up the AFC North crown and pushed New York to the brink of playoff elimination.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50286384/ns/sports-nfl/

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Saturday, December 22, 2012

NHL cancels all games through Jan. 14

NEW YORK (AP) ? The next round of NHL cuts could be the deepest yet.

With no deal in sight and no negotiations planned, the NHL chopped another two weeks off the schedule and moved closer to canceling the entire hockey season.

No drop-dead date has been announced, but it is clear the sides are running out of time to reach a deal. The NHL said Thursday that all games through Jan. 14 have been canceled. More than 50 percent of the schedule has been lost, and the rest is now in danger, too.

"I don't want to characterize what today's cancellations mean or don't mean," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email Thursday. "I will stand on the announcement that was made."

The players' association didn't have any comment about the latest cancellations.

So far, 625 regular-season games have been called off, including nearly 100 in the announcement made Thursday ? the 96th day of the NHL's lockout. The New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star game also have been lost.

The NHL had previously canceled games through Dec. 30.

Daly said in a radio interview Wednesday that mid-January is likely the latest the sides could go to make a deal to save some of the season. When pressed, however, he said he expects the season will be played.

The NHL is already the only North American professional sports league to cancel a season because of a labor dispute, losing the 2004-05 campaign to a lockout.

Daly said the sides weren't in contact Thursday. The groups have remained apart since two days of meetings with a federal mediator last week produced no progress. There haven't been negotiations since Dec. 6 in New York, when talks broke down after a few days of bargaining.

Since the sides split last week, there has been limited contact ? phone calls and a brief email exchange.

The NHL believes negotiations should resume only when there is something new to say.

"I don't think either party is refusing a meeting," Daly said Wednesday. "But unless there is an indication one side or the other is prepared to move or has a new idea to move the process forward ? and so far neither side has indicated ? I am not sure what we would do at the meeting.

"What is the agenda? Who is directing the conversation? We don't have anything new to say right now."

Union executive director Donald Fehr said Wednesday he was glad to hear Daly's belief that there would be a season, and added he hopes Daly is right.

"Hopefully, we'll get back together and negotiate out the remaining issues as soon as possible," Fehr said. "(We aren't talking) because the owners have not indicated a desire to resume.

"We've indicated any number of times that we're willing to resume when they are (and) we're willing to resume without preconditions. So we're waiting to hear back from them."

Last week, the NHL announced it filed a class action suit in the U.S. District Court in New York, seeking to establish that its lockout is legal. In a filing posted Thursday, the court said the union had three weeks after receiving the suit to file an answer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-cancels-games-jan-14-220723295--nhl.html

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Obama and family arrive in Hawaii for Christmas

AAA??Dec. 22, 2012?6:29 AM ET
Obama and family arrive in Hawaii for Christmas
By MATTHEW DALYBy MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press?THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

President Barack Obama arrives with first lady Michelle Obama, top, and daughters Malia, top left, and Sasha, bottom right, at Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, for the start of their holiday vacation, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Barack Obama arrives with first lady Michelle Obama, top, and daughters Malia, top left, and Sasha, bottom right, at Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, for the start of their holiday vacation, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha walk from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to a holiday vacation in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama leave Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, after arriving for the start of their holiday vacation, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Barack Obama arrives with first lady Michelle Obama, top, and daughters Malia, top left, and Sasha, bottom right, at Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, for the start of their holiday vacation, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

First lady Michelle Obama walks to the presidential limo after arriving with President Barack Obama and their daughters, not pictured, at Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, for the start of their holiday vacation, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama and his family have arrived in Honolulu to spend Christmas in Hawaii, where the president was born and raised.

Air Force One touched down in Honolulu minutes after midnight local time on Saturday. The first family departed the plane and traveled quickly to their vacation house in the beach town of Kailua, a scenic, sleepy beach town on the east side of Oahu.

Kailua is roughly 12 miles from downtown Honolulu. Obama's vacation house sits near a Marine base, on the north end of a five-mile stretch of beach popular among windsurfers and paddle surfers.

As the president and his family departed Air Force One, Obama had shed the jacket he was wearing when he left Washington and was in a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. The first family left Washington on Friday night.

White House officials say the president's vacation itinerary doesn't include any scheduled public events.

No return date has been given by the White House. Obama himself said earlier Friday that, since a deal hasn't been reached to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff," he would be returning to Washington after Christmas.

___

Associated Press writer Oskar Garcia contributed to this report.

___

Reach Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC and reach Oskar Garcia at https://twitter.com/oskargarcia .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-22-Obama-Hawaii/id-5c41c0454b1540eabd2c3d2ebaca5b6a

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Suicide bombers attack mobile phone firms in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India's Airtel and South Africa's MTN on Saturday in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.

Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously targeted phone firms, blowing up telephone masts and offices, saying the companies help the security forces catch its members.

"The one who hit the Airtel office was shot by military men before the bomb exploded ... at the MTN office the car rammed into the fence but no civilians were killed," Ibrahim Idris, the chief of police in Kano, told Reuters.

Airtel Nigeria's parent company Bharti Airtel, India's top cellphone operator, gave no immediate comment.

The national emergency agency confirmed the bombing and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties. The security forces have played down the death toll in previous bombings.

At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since the sect launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.

The sect wants to impose strict Islamic law on a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

The group has previously targeted churches on Christmas Day and security has been increased in all the major northern cities, although security experts say given the scale of Christian worship in Nigeria they cannot protect everyone.

Kano, Nigeria's second largest city after the southern commercial-hub Lagos, was the site of Boko Haram's most lethal attack which killed at least 186 people in January in coordinated bombings and shootings.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-bombers-attack-mobile-phone-firms-nigeria-105313538.html

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3 Keys to a Great SEO Campaign

One of the most rewarding things for your business is seeing the results when your search engine optimization campaign was successful. In order for it to be successful though you have to pick a Phoenix web design company that knows what they are doing because if they do not know what they are doing then they can end up hurting your website more than they help it. There are certain things that a great search engine optimization company will do that will show you that they are good.

  • Relevant Keywords ? Many bad companies will tell you that they can get you ranked on page 1 of the search engines in a short period of time. This is likely true but they select keywords that have no competition and brings in no searches per month. You will see your website on page 1 but you won?t notice any increase in traffic. A Phoenix web design company that knows what they are doing will provide you with a list of keywords and show you how many monthly local searches each month they receive. Don?t fall for the oldest trick in the book.
  • Integrity ? There are many search engine optimization companies that will use dirty tricks to get ranked on the search engines top page but when the search engines catch on your website will be banned and likely will never be able to be ranked again.
  • Time ? An elite Phoenix web design company knows that getting ranked takes time and it doesn?t happen over night. No matter what some search engine optimization it is not possible to rank a relevant keyword in a month. The good news is once you are ranked you will begin seeing the traffic and not have to pay for it per click.

Remember there is no guarantees when it comes to search engine optimization. Even though you maybe running a great campaign another company maybe putting more money and resources behind their campaign and therefore out ranking you. If you would like a free SEO analysis contact HireAWiz today. We are an elite Phoenix web design company.

December 20, 2012

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Source: http://www.hireawiz.com/blog/seo/3-keys-great-seo-campaign?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3-keys-great-seo-campaign

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Friday, December 21, 2012

Ecommerce Website Design For Boosting Your Business

?

Clients these days are really risky about investing their hard earned cash. Numerous ecommerce sites are emerging providing individuals the ease of buying and attempting to sell products on the internet. Your website design has to offer an appealing and pleasurable experience to meet the customer?s high expectancy. With the right ecommerce web design, you are able to keep your potential clients glued to your website. Browse the internet and find the website design business having competence in ecommerce site design. The look of the site may be the highest aspect. First impression and look of your site determines if the client will remain or leave.

The number of sites is multiplying with each passing day. Today, each one is looking forward to possessing a site for showcasing their company or ability. Internet being truly a worldwide platform interests many enthusiasts over the world. It really is profitable for all with an effective business strategy. Ecommerce sites showcase a range of products readily available for the clients to purchase and sell. This portal site makes the shopping process easier and clients find various products under one roof. Online retailers are not limited to space and therefore offer a wide range of products. Ecommerce web design needs specific skills and knowledge to know the company and then design efficiently. If you have a website, make sure that your site is made by professionals. Expert ecommerce web-site designers make sure that the site attracts maximum visitors in least possible time.

An ecommerce web design ought to be eye-catchy enough to keep users? attention. It will impress the users at the first glance. A sensational web site design will leave a permanent impression on visitors. There are high chances of visitors turning out to be loyal customers when they find your site advantageous and appealing. Well formulated sites may be the very first thing that the user notices. Bad design is more likely to fail in impressing customers and enduring in this cut throat market competition. Ecommerce design is specialized web site design that permits clients to buy, pay on the web using simple payment modes and receiving your products within the stated time period. Ecommerce sites are filled with images of products and requires updating of images on a regular basis to attract clients with the most recent products. In this scenario, e-commerce site layout ought to be flexible enough. Professional web site design will come in high search engine positions; which means the better the design, the higher the visibility.

A specialist company by your side will leave off all the hassle for you and supply you with exclusive design at exclusive rates. It needs particular skill and imagination. On the list of variety of service providers available in the marketplace now, research and get hold of a reputed one providing adequate services without creating a hole in your pocket. These professionals are well trained and experienced for designing ecommerce sites. Therefore see the internet and find a dependable one now.


Source: http://ninjaseomethods.com/ecommerce-website-design-for-boosting-your-business/

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Allscripts names new CEO as strategic review ends

(Reuters) - Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc named board member Paul Black as its chief executive officer, replacing Glen Tullman, and said it ended a review of its strategic alternatives.

The healthcare IT company, which has been the subject of takeover interest, said Lee Shapiro will step down as president immediately and will serve as a consultant to Black for up to six months.

"The Board concluded that the best course at this time is to develop Allscripts' long-term potential under the direction of our new management team," Allscripts' Chairman of the Board Dennis Chookaszian said in a statement.

The company's shares had surged in November after it said it was considering strategic alternatives.

Later that month, Reuters reported that Allscripts was being eyed by private equity firms Carlyle Group LP, Blackstone Group LP and TPG Capital LP.

Allscripts' shares were down 16 percent at $9.01 in extended trade on Wednesday.

(Reporting By Ransdell Pierson and Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by Gary Hill and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/allscripts-names-ceo-strategic-review-ends-022356943--sector.html

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Engineers seek ways to convert methane into useful chemicals

Engineers seek ways to convert methane into useful chemicals [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Fariss Samarrai
fls4f@virginia.edu
434-924-3778
University of Virginia

Little more than a decade ago, the United States imported much of its natural gas. Today, the nation is tapping into its own natural gas reserves and producing enough to support most of its current needs for heating and power generation, and is beginning to export natural gas to other countries.

The trend is expected to continue, as new methods are developed to extract natural gas from vast unrecovered reserves embedded in shale. Natural gas can be used to generate electricity, and it burns cleaner than coal.

"With petroleum reserves in decline, natural gas production is destined to increase to help meet worldwide energy demands," said Matthew Neurock, a chemical engineering professor in the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. "But petroleum in addition to being used to make fuels is also used to make ethylene, propylene and other building blocks used in the production of a wide range of other chemicals. We need to develop innovative processes that can readily make these chemical intermediates from natural gas."

The problem is, there currently are no cost-effective ways to do this. Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is rather inert and requires high temperatures to activate its strong chemical bonds; therefore the practical and successful conversion of methane to useful chemical intermediates has thus far eluded chemists and engineers.

Neurock is working with colleagues at Northwestern University to invent novel ways and catalytic materials to activate methane to produce ethylene. This week the collaborators published a paper in the online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry detailing the use of sulfur as a possible "soft" oxidant for catalytically converting methane into ethylene, a key "intermediate" for making chemicals, polymers, fuels and, ultimately, products such as films, surfactants, detergents, antifreeze, textiles and others.

"We show, through both theory using quantum mechanical calculations and laboratory experiments, that sulfur can be used together with novel sulfide catalysts to convert methane to ethylene, an important intermediate in the production of a wide range of materials," Neurock said.

Chemists and engineers have attempted to develop catalysts and catalytic processes that use oxygen to make ethylene, methanol and other intermediates, but have had little success as oxygen is too reactive and tends to over-oxidize methane to common carbon dioxide.

Neurock said that sulfur or other "softer" oxidants that have weaker affinities for hydrogen may be the answer, in that they can help to limit the over-reaction of methane to carbon disulfide. In the team's process, methane is reacted with sulfur over sulfide catalysts used in petroleum processes. Sulfur is used to remove hydrogen from the methane to form hydrocarbon fragments, which subsequently react together on the catalyst to form ethylene.

Theoretical and experimental results indicate that the conversion of methane and the selectivity to produce ethylene are controlled by how strong the sulfur bonds to the catalyst. Using these concepts, the team explored different metal sulfide catalysts to ultimately tune the metal-sulfur bond strength in order to control the conversion of methane to ethylene.

Chemical companies consider methane a particularly attractive raw material because of the large reserves of natural gas in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

In 2007, Dow issued a "Methane Challenge," seeking revolutionary chemical processes to facilitate the conversion of methane to ethylene and other useful chemicals.

The company received about 100 proposals from universities, institutes and companies around the world.

In 2008, the company awarded major research grants to Cardiff University and Northwestern University to advance the quest. Neurock is a member of the Northwestern University team. He is using theoretical methods and high-performance computing to understand the processes that control catalysis and to guide the experimental research at Northwestern.

"The abundance of natural gas, along with the development of new methods to extract it from hidden reserves, offers unique opportunities for the development of catalytic processes that can convert methane to chemicals," Neurock said. "Our finding of using sulfur to catalyze the conversion of methane to ethylene shows initial promise for the development of new catalytic processes that can potentially take full advantage of these reserves. The research, however, is really just in its infancy"

###

Neurock's co-investigators on the Nature Chemistry paper are Qingjun Zhu, Staci Wegener, Chao Xie and Tobin Marks of Northwestern University, and U.Va. colleague Obioma Uche.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Engineers seek ways to convert methane into useful chemicals [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Fariss Samarrai
fls4f@virginia.edu
434-924-3778
University of Virginia

Little more than a decade ago, the United States imported much of its natural gas. Today, the nation is tapping into its own natural gas reserves and producing enough to support most of its current needs for heating and power generation, and is beginning to export natural gas to other countries.

The trend is expected to continue, as new methods are developed to extract natural gas from vast unrecovered reserves embedded in shale. Natural gas can be used to generate electricity, and it burns cleaner than coal.

"With petroleum reserves in decline, natural gas production is destined to increase to help meet worldwide energy demands," said Matthew Neurock, a chemical engineering professor in the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. "But petroleum in addition to being used to make fuels is also used to make ethylene, propylene and other building blocks used in the production of a wide range of other chemicals. We need to develop innovative processes that can readily make these chemical intermediates from natural gas."

The problem is, there currently are no cost-effective ways to do this. Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is rather inert and requires high temperatures to activate its strong chemical bonds; therefore the practical and successful conversion of methane to useful chemical intermediates has thus far eluded chemists and engineers.

Neurock is working with colleagues at Northwestern University to invent novel ways and catalytic materials to activate methane to produce ethylene. This week the collaborators published a paper in the online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry detailing the use of sulfur as a possible "soft" oxidant for catalytically converting methane into ethylene, a key "intermediate" for making chemicals, polymers, fuels and, ultimately, products such as films, surfactants, detergents, antifreeze, textiles and others.

"We show, through both theory using quantum mechanical calculations and laboratory experiments, that sulfur can be used together with novel sulfide catalysts to convert methane to ethylene, an important intermediate in the production of a wide range of materials," Neurock said.

Chemists and engineers have attempted to develop catalysts and catalytic processes that use oxygen to make ethylene, methanol and other intermediates, but have had little success as oxygen is too reactive and tends to over-oxidize methane to common carbon dioxide.

Neurock said that sulfur or other "softer" oxidants that have weaker affinities for hydrogen may be the answer, in that they can help to limit the over-reaction of methane to carbon disulfide. In the team's process, methane is reacted with sulfur over sulfide catalysts used in petroleum processes. Sulfur is used to remove hydrogen from the methane to form hydrocarbon fragments, which subsequently react together on the catalyst to form ethylene.

Theoretical and experimental results indicate that the conversion of methane and the selectivity to produce ethylene are controlled by how strong the sulfur bonds to the catalyst. Using these concepts, the team explored different metal sulfide catalysts to ultimately tune the metal-sulfur bond strength in order to control the conversion of methane to ethylene.

Chemical companies consider methane a particularly attractive raw material because of the large reserves of natural gas in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

In 2007, Dow issued a "Methane Challenge," seeking revolutionary chemical processes to facilitate the conversion of methane to ethylene and other useful chemicals.

The company received about 100 proposals from universities, institutes and companies around the world.

In 2008, the company awarded major research grants to Cardiff University and Northwestern University to advance the quest. Neurock is a member of the Northwestern University team. He is using theoretical methods and high-performance computing to understand the processes that control catalysis and to guide the experimental research at Northwestern.

"The abundance of natural gas, along with the development of new methods to extract it from hidden reserves, offers unique opportunities for the development of catalytic processes that can convert methane to chemicals," Neurock said. "Our finding of using sulfur to catalyze the conversion of methane to ethylene shows initial promise for the development of new catalytic processes that can potentially take full advantage of these reserves. The research, however, is really just in its infancy"

###

Neurock's co-investigators on the Nature Chemistry paper are Qingjun Zhu, Staci Wegener, Chao Xie and Tobin Marks of Northwestern University, and U.Va. colleague Obioma Uche.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uov-esw122012.php

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

State Dept security chief resigns after Benghazi

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Three State Department officials resigned under pressure Wednesday, less than a day after a damning report blamed management failures for a lack of security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, where militants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans on Sept. 11.

The resignations came as lawmakers expressed anger and frustration over the findings of an independent review panel, and the State Department struggled to find a balance between protecting its diplomats while allowing them to do their jobs connecting with people in high-risk posts.

Obama administration officials said those who had stepped down were Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and Raymond Maxwell, the deputy assistant secretary of state who oversees the Maghreb nations of Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly.

Some of the three may have the option of being reassigned to other duties, the officials said.

The department declined immediate comment on the resignation of the officials whose decisions had been criticized in the unclassified version of the Accountability Review Board's report that was released late Tuesday.

The board's co-chairman, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, told reporters that the board had not determined that any officials had "engaged in willful misconduct or knowingly ignored his or her responsibilities,"

But Mullen, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, added, "We did conclude that certain State Department bureau level senior officials in critical levels of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of leadership and management ability appropriate for senior ranks in their responses to security concerns posed by the special mission."

Mullen said the mission's security fell through bureaucratic cracks caused in part because buildings were categorized as temporary. The report said that budget constraints had caused some officials to be more concerned with saving scarce money than in security.

Co-chairman Thomas Pickering, a retired ambassador, said the personnel on the ground in Benghazi had reacted to the attack with bravery and professionalism. But, he said, the security precautions were "grossly inadequate" and the contingent was overwhelmed by the heavily armed militants.

"They did the best they possibly could with what they had but what they had wasn't enough," Pickering said.

Pickering and Mullen spoke shortly after briefing members of Congress in private. Lawmakers from both parties emerged from the sessions with harsh words for the State Department.

"My impression is the State Department clearly failed the Boy Scout motto of be prepared," said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.

"They failed to anticipate what was coming because of how bad the security risk already was there. ... They failed to connect the dots," he said. "They didn't have adequate security leading up to the attack and once the attack occurred, the security was woefully inadequate."

Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House intelligence committee, said security was "plainly inadequate, intelligence collection needs to be improved, and our reliance on local militias was sorely misplaced.

"These are not mistakes we can afford to make again," he said.

The House intelligence committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said the report laid bare "the massive failure of the State Department at all levels, including senior leadership, to take action to protect our government employees abroad," and complained that no one was being held accountable.

Rogers also said he was dissatisfied with the lack of progress in finding the attackers.

Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security who was in charge of embassy protection, testified in October before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and defended the security measures.

"I made the best decisions I could with the information I had," Lamb said at the time. "We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi at the time of 9/11."

She also told Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., that she rejected requests for more security in Benghazi, instead training "local Libyans and army men" to provide security, a policy in force at U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world.

Pickering and Mullen set the stage for public hearings set for Thursday on Capitol Hill., Scheduled to testify were Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who is in charge of policy, and Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides, who is in charge of management.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to have appeared at Thursday's hearings, but canceled after fainting and sustaining a concussion last week while recovering from a stomach virus. Clinton is under doctors' orders to rest.

Senate Republicans and Democrats said they hoped Clinton would testify on the Hill even though she is planning to step down from her Cabinet post.

In a letter that accompanied the transmission of the report to Capitol Hill, Clinton thanked the board for its "clear-eyed, serious look at serious systemic challenges" and said she accepted its 29 recommendations to improve security at high-threat embassies and consulates.

She said the department had begun to put in place some of the recommendations. They include increasing by several hundred the number of Marine guards stationed at diplomatic missions throughout the world; relying less on local security forces for protection at embassies, consulates and other offices; and increasing hiring and deployment of highly trained Diplomatic Security agents at at-risk posts.

Clinton agreed with the panel's finding that Congress must fully fund the State Department's security initiatives. The panel found that budget constraints in the past had led some management officials to emphasize savings over security, including rejecting numerous requests from the Benghazi mission and the embassy in Tripoli for enhanced protection.

House and Senate negotiators working on a defense bill agreed on Tuesday to fund 1,000 more Marines at embassy security worldwide.

The report singled out the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Near East Affairs for criticism. It said there was a lack of cooperation and confusion over protection at the mission in Benghazi, a city in eastern Libya that was relatively lawless after the revolution that toppled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

But it broke little new ground about the timeline of the Benghazi attack. Killed were U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, information specialist Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods ? who were contractors working for the CIA. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador killed since 1988.

The board determined that there had been no immediate, specific tactical warning of a potential attack on the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. But the report said there had been several worrisome incidents before to the attack that should have set off warning bells.

It did confirm, though, that contrary to initial accounts, there was no protest outside the facility.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, administration officials linked the attack to the spreading protests that had begun in Cairo earlier that day over an American-made, anti-Islamic film. Those comments came after evidence already pointed to a distinct militant attack in Benghazi.

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on numerous TV talk shows the Sunday after the attack and used the administration talking points linking it to the film. An ensuing brouhaha in the heat of the presidential campaign eventually led her to withdraw her name from consideration to replace Clinton as secretary of state in President Barack Obama's second term.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., emerging from the Senate briefing on the report, kept up the congressional criticism of Rice.

"Now we all know she had knowledge. She knew what the truth was. It was a cover-up," he said.

While criticizing State Department management in Washington along with the local militia force and contract guards that the mission depended on for protection, the report said U.S. personnel on the ground in Benghazi "performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues in a near-impossible situation."

It said the response by Diplomatic Security agents on the scene and CIA operatives at a nearby compound that later came under attack itself had been "timely and appropriate" and absolved the military from any blame. "There was simply not enough time for armed U.S. military assets to have made a difference," it said.

The report also discounted speculation that officials in Washington had refused appeals for additional help after the attack had begun.

The report said the evacuation of the dead and wounded 12 hours after the initial attack was due to "exceptional U.S. government coordination and military response" that helped save the lives of two seriously wounded Americans.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata and Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/state-dept-security-chief-resigns-benghazi-170144122--politics.html

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Pocket test measures fifty things in a drop of blood

Dec. 19, 2012 ? A new device about the size of a business card could allow health care providers to test for insulin and other blood proteins, cholesterol, and even signs of viral or bacterial infection all at the same time -- with one drop of blood. Preliminary tests of the V-chip, created by scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and MD Anderson Cancer Center, were just published by Nature Communications.

"The V-Chip could make it possible to bring tests to the bedside, remote areas, and other types of point-of-care needs," said Nanomedicine faculty member Lidong Qin, Ph.D., the project's principal investigator. "V-Chip is accurate, cheap, and portable. It requires only a drop of a sample, not a vial of blood, and can do 50 different tests in one go."

Similar assays are typically done using heavy, large, complex equipment such as mass spectrometers, or require fluoroscopy analysis, which must also be done in a lab.

The V-chip, short for "volumetric bar-chart chip," on the other hand, can be carried around in a pocket. It is composed of two thin pieces of glass, about 3 in. by 2 in. In between are wells for four things: (1) hydrogen peroxide, (2) up to 50 different antibodies to specific proteins, DNA or RNA fragments, or lipids of interest, and the enzyme catalase, (3) serum or other sample, and (4) a dye -- any dye will do. Initially, the wells are kept separate from each other. A shift in the glass plates brings the wells into contact, creating a contiguous, zig-zagged space from one end of the V-chip to the other.

As the substance of interest -- say, insulin -- binds to antibodies bound to the glass slide, catalase is made active and splits nearby hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen gas. This approach is called ELISA, or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The oxygen pushes the dye up the column. The more present insulin is, the more oxygen is created, and the farther dye is pushed up the slide. Tests show that distance is more or less proportional to the amount of substrate present, in this example, insulin. The end result is a visual bar chart. Easy to read and accurate, Qin says, though development continues.

"The sensitivity of the V-chip can be improved if narrower and longer bar channels are used," Qin said. "Our next steps are to make the device more user friendly and be so simple to use, it barely needs instructions."

Qin is also a Weill Cornell Medical College assistant professor of cell and developmental biology.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Methodist Hospital, Houston, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Yujun Song, Yuanqing Zhang, Paul E. Bernard, James M. Reuben, Naoto T. Ueno, Ralph B. Arlinghaus, Youli Zu, Lidong Qin. Multiplexed volumetric bar-chart chip for point-of-care diagnostics. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1283 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2292

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/beKv54NZu-g/121219152621.htm

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Blast From the Past (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Special Section: Focus on Commercial Real Estate ? Health Care ...

Posted: 8:15 am Tue, December 18, 2012
By admin?Johnson Finance and Commerce 8:15 am Tue, December 18, 2012

Below you can read the December 2012 edition of our Focus on Commercial Real Estate Sector special section.

You can also read the individual articles?here.

To view the section in Full Screen mode, click on the box icon on the upper left corner of the viewer screen below.

Source: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/special-section-focus-on-commercial-real-estate-health-care/

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Newtown Shooting & Entertainment: Film & TV Industries Cancel Premieres & Screenings In Tragedy's Wake

  • Twenty-seven small U.S. flags adorn a large flag on a makeshift memorial on the side of Highway 84 near the Newtown, Conn., town line as residents mourn victims killed by gunman Adam Lanza, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012. On Friday, authorities say Lanza killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, a message honoring the victims that died a day earlier when a gunman opened fire at an elementary hang from a bridge near Hawley Pond, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Mourners carry ornaments to decorate the Christmas trees at one of the makeshift memorials for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, Monday,Dec. 17, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. Authorities say gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home on Friday and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

  • Crayons sit on a table outside of a barbershop a day after a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Crayons sit on a table outside of a barbershop a day after a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Tamara Doherty

    Shop owner Tamara Doherty, paces outside her store just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Tamara Doherty, Jackie Gaudet

    Shop owners Tamara Doherty, left, and Jackie Gaudet, right, meet outside their stores for the first time since being neighbors, just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Kristin Hoyt

    Kristin Hoyt, 18, of Danbury, Conn., ties a balloon to an overpass up the road from the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • A Newtown, Conn., resident, who declined to give her name, sits at an intersection holding a sign for passing motorists up the road from the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • A snowflake ornament with the name of 6-year-old Noah Pozner hangs on a Christmas tree at a makeshift memorial in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, as the town mourns victims killed in Friday's school shooting. Pozner, who was killed Friday when gunman Adam Lanza opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School, will be buried Monday. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Twenty-seven small U.S. flags adorn a large flag on a makeshift memorial on the side of Highway 84 near the Newtown, Conn., town line as residents mourn victims killed by gunman Adam Lanza, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012. Authorities say Lanza killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life, on Friday. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Jamie Duncan, 16, of Newtown, Conn., lights a candle at one of the makeshift memorials for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, Monday,Dec. 17, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. Authorities say gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home on Friday and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

  • A mourner carries a giant Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal to place at one of the makeshift memorials for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, Monday,Dec. 17, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. Authorities say gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home on Friday and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

  • A hearse arrives at B'nai Israel Cemetery with the body of Noah Pozner, a six-year-old killed in an elementary school shooting, during funeral services, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, in Monroe, Conn. Authorities say gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home on Friday and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • People arrive at B'nai Israel Cemetery during burial services for Noah Pozner, a six-year-old killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, in Monroe, Conn. Authorities say gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home on Friday and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Veronika Pozner

    Veronique Pozner waves to the assembled media as she leaves after a funeral service for her 6-year-old son Noah Pozner, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, in Fairfield, Conn. Noah Pozner was killed when Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Twenty seven wooden stand in a yard down the street from the Sandy Hook School December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot dead, including twenty children, after a gunman identified as Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanza also reportedly had committed suicide at the scene. A 28th person, believed to be Nancy Lanza, found dead in a house in town, was also believed to have been shot by Adam Lanza. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Newtown residents Claire Swanson, Kate Suba, Jaden Albrecht, Simran Chand and New London, Connecticut residents Rachel Pullen and her son Landon DeCecco, hold candles at a memorial for victims on the first Sunday following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    U.S. President Barack Obama waits to speak at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Eknoor Kaur, 3, stands with her father Guramril Singh during a candlelight vigil outside Newtown High School before an interfaith vigil with President Barack Obama, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    New London, Connecticut resident Rachel Pullen (C) kisses her son Landon DeCecco at a memorial for victims near the school on the first Sunday following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    US President Barack Obama speaks during a memorial service for the victims and relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were killed when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary and began a shooting spree. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    A woman covers her face as US President Barack Obama reads out the names of children killed during Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting at a interfaith memorial for victims and relatives at the Newtown High School on December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were killed when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary and began a shooting spree. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    A woman pays respects at a memorial outside of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. On Friday, a gunman allegedly killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Residents wait for the start of an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Cheryl Girardi, of Middletown, Conn., kneels beside 26 teddy bears, each representing a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, at a sidewalk memorial, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Connecticut State Police officers respond to a bomb threat outside of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. Worshippers hurriedly left the church Sunday, not far from where a gunman opened fire Friday inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Ava Staiti, 7, of New Milford, Conn., looks up at her mother Emily Staiti, not pictured, while visiting a sidewalk memorial with 26 teddy bears, each representing a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    This photo provided by the family shows Jessica Rekos. Rekos, 6, was killed Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 children and adults at the school, before killing himself. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Rekos Family)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    A U.S. flag flies at half staff outside the Newtown High School before President Barack Obama is scheduled to attend a memorial for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    David Freedman, right, kneels with his son Zachary, 9, both of Newtown, Conn., as they visit a sidewalk memorial for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    A man reacts at the site of a makeshift memorial for school shooting victims in Newtown, Conn., Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. A gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the town, killing 26 people, including 20 children before killing himself on Friday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    People wait in line to attend an interfaith vigil with President Barack Obama, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Residents greet each other before the start of an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Residents greet each other before the start of an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into the school Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. President Barack Obama is to scheduled to speak at the event. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Residents greet each other before the start of an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into the elementary school Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak during the vigil. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    This image provided by the family shows Grace McDonnell posing for a portrait in this family photo taken Aug. 18, 2012. Grace McDonnell was killed Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 children and adults at the school. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the McDonnell Family)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    This Nov. 18, 2012 photo provided by John Engel shows Olivia Engel, 6, in Danbury, Conn. Olivia Engel, was killed Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 children and adults at the school. (AP Photo/Engel Family, Tim Nosezo)

  • Emilie Alice Parker

    This 2012 photo provided by the family shows Emilie Alice Parker. Parker was killed Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 children and adults at the school. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Parker Family)

  • Noah Pozner

    This Nov. 13, 2012 photo provided by the family via The Washington Post shows Noah Pozner. The six-year-old was one of the victims in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Family Photo)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    This handout image provided by ABC News, shows Nancy J. Lanza mother of suspected mass shooter Adam Lanza at an unspecified time and place. Twenty six people were shot dead, including twenty children, after a gunman identified as Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanza also reportedly had committed suicide at the scene. A 28th person, believed to be Nancy Lanza was found dead in a house in town, was also believed to have been shot by Adam Lanza. (Family of Nancy Lanza / ABC News / Getty Images)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121215/us-school-shooting-victims/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage">Lauren Rousseau, 30,</a> had started a job as a full-time teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School this fall. She was killed in the Dec. 14 shooting at the school.

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    School psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, was killed during an attempt to stop gunman Adam Lanza during the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121215/us-school-shooting-victims/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage">Sherlach and school principal Dawn Hochsprung</a> reportedly both lunged at Lanza in an attempt to protect the school's students and teachers. Both Sherlach and Hochsprung were killed.

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher, was killed in the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Her cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC that Soto, a teacher, died while shielding her young students from the gunman, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121215/us-school-shooting-victims/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage">according to the AP.</a>

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/sandy-hook-principal-dawn-hochsprung_n_2303944.html">Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung</a>, 47, was killed as she, along with school psychologist Mary Sherlach, attempted to overtake gunman Adam Lanza during the Dec. 14 mass shooting at the school. Hochsprung and Sherlach reportedly both lunged at Lanza in an effort to defend the students and teachers at the school. Both women were killed.

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    This photo posted to the Emilie Parker Fund Facebook page shows Emilie Parker. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, Robbie Parker the father of 6-year-old Emile Parker who was gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman. (AP Photo/Emilie Parker Fund)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Shop owner Tamara Doherty paces outside her store just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at the school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    This photo posted to the Emilie Parker Fund Facebook page shows Emilie Parker and her father Robbie Parker. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, Robbie Parker the father of 6-year-old Emile Parker who was gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman. (AP Photo/Emilie Parker Fund)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Robbie Parker, the father of six-year-old Emilie who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, fights back tears as he speaks during a news conference, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Isabella Jimenez, 12, reacts while talking to reporters about the shooting rampage from a day earlier when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. Jimenez said she might know the victims because she has done volunteer work with small children. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

    Newtown, Connecticut mass shooter Adam Lanza is third from right in this 2008 yearbook photo. <a href="http://abcn.ws/UlqIyn">(ABC News)</a>

  • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/newtown-shooting-entertainment-film-tv-cancel_n_2321389.html

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    The First 10 Minutes of the New Star Trek Into Darkness Leaked Online

    You've got to watch this: a Russian site has obtained the first ten minutes of the new Star Trek Into Darkness movie. It's quite blurry but holy mother of Spock!—what a ride. More »


    Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/aNZlM3zUtqI/

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    Oracle 2Q earnings rise 18 pct to top Street view

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Snapping out of a summertime lull, Oracle's latest quarter demonstrated that companies have been splurging on software and other technology as the year comes to a close, despite uncertainty about the economy's prospects.

    The results announced Tuesday are an improvement from Oracle's previous quarter, when the business-software maker's revenue dipped slightly from a year earlier.

    The most recent quarter spanned September through November. That makes Oracle the first technology bellwether to provide insights into corporate spending since the Nov. 6 re-election of President Barack Obama. It's also the first to report since negotiations to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff began to heat up in Washington.

    The solid performance by one of the world's biggest technology suppliers suggests corporate decision makers aren't fretting too much about the economy falling off the cliff. The fiscal cliff refers to the combination of wide-ranging increases in taxes and cuts in government spending that will be automatically triggered Jan. 1 unless the White House and Congress can reach an agreement on how to soften the impact.

    "As can see in our numbers, folks wanted to spend their budgets, continue to want to spend their budgets," Safra Catz, Oracle's chief financial officer, said in a conference call with analysts. "We are having an absolutely wonderful December so far."

    Forrester Research analyst Andrew Bartels described Oracle's performance as encouraging, but said it's still too early to conclude other major technology vendors catering to big companies have been recording similar late-year gains. "This is good news, but it's not definitive," he said.

    Oracle Corp. earned $2.6 billion, or 53 cents per share, in its fiscal second quarter. That's an 18 percent increase from net income of $2.2 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year ago.

    If not for charges for past acquisitions and certain other costs, Oracle said it would have earned 64 cents per share. On that basis, Oracle topped the average earnings estimate of 61 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

    Revenue increased 3 percent from last year to $9.1 billion ? about $900 million more than analysts had projected.

    In a particularly heartening sign, Oracle said sales of new software licenses and subscriptions to its online services climbed 17 percent from last year to outstrip the most optimistic predictions issued by management three months ago. Bartels said the increase isn't quite as good as it looks because it includes contributions from two online subscription services, RightNow Technologies and Taleo, that Oracle didn't own at the same time last year. Oracle bought RightNow for $1.5 billion in January and acquired Taleo for about $2 billion in April.

    The flow of new licenses and subscriptions, which represent about a quarter of Oracle's revenue, is closely tracked by investors because they spawn more revenue in the future from upgrades.

    In the current quarter, which ends in February, Oracle expects software licenses and subscriptions to increase in the range of 3 percent to 13 percent from the previous year. The company, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., predicted its adjusted earnings in the current quarter will range from 64 cents to 68 cents per share on revenue ranging from $9.1 billion to $9.5 billion. That would be a 1 percent to 5 percent increase from the prior year.

    Analysts are forecasting adjusted net income of 66 cents a share on revenue of $9.44 billion.

    Oracle's stock added 52 cents to $33.40 in extended trading after the numbers came out. If that gain holds in Wednesday's regular trading session, it will mark a new 52-week high for the stock.

    The specter of higher taxes prompted Oracle to make the unusual decision to bunch the next three quarters of stock dividends into a single payment that will be made before the end of the year. The move, announced earlier this month, is designed to ensure that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who owns a 23.5 percent stake in the company, and his fellow shareholders don't get hit with a higher tax bill on dividend income next year. The accelerated payment schedule will distribute about $206 million to Ellison, already one of the world's richest people, and will lower his tax bill by tens of millions, if the rates on dividend income rise next year.

    Oracle would have fared even better if it could find a way to sell more computer servers and other hardware, something it has been unsuccessfully trying to do since completing its $7.3 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. in 2010. The company's hardware revenue plunged 16 percent from last year.

    In Tuesday's conference call, Ellison said some of the erosion in the hardware division has been by design as Oracle weeds out some of the less-profitable equipment. He assured analysts that hardware revenue will start increasing in the final quarter of Oracle's fiscal year ? the period spanning from March through May. Sun's Java programming language already has been paying off for the software side of Oracle's business, according to Ellison.

    "Sun has already proven to be the most strategic and profitable acquisition Oracle has ever made," he said.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oracle-2q-earnings-rise-18-pct-top-street-215903016--finance.html

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