Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cody Simpson Is Kylie Jenner?s Boyfriend

Kylie Jenner is dating Australian pop star Cody Simpson. The two were spotted over the weekend at the mall, just like two normal teenagers! Kylie Jenner is not to be left out when it comes to making headlines. She first brought attention to herself when she and Cody reportedly flirted with each other at the LA premiere for Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part One on November 15. Now the two are thought to be a couple, but really at 14, how long can it last? I wonder, will it be longer than 72 days? A snitch confirmed that the two are dating, telling US Magazine, “Yes, they went on a date. I would say they are dating. They are a couple! They are so cute together.” Cody is a cutie pie, he is a big star in Australia, and is from Queensland. However he just relocated to LA last June in hopes of growing his career. He is signed to Atlantic records, and has had one of his singles reach the top 12 on the Billboard charts. Surely dating one of the famous booty sisters will help increase his popularity. Just sayin?. As for Kylie, she is just an average [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/3xgfcDjv1Cc/

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How To Get Affordable Car Insurance coverage ... - Networked Politics

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Source: http://www.networked-politics.info/?p=9123

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US, Europe risk another recession, report says

The United States and others must "be prepared to face the worst" as Europe slides toward another recession, according to a gloomy warning from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Failure by EU leaders to stem the debt crisis that has spread from Greece to much-bigger Italy "could massively escalate economic disruption" and end in "highly devastating outcomes," the Paris-based OECD said in its latest bi-annual economic forecast on Monday.

Improved global prospects would also depend on the enactment of a credible medium-term fiscal program in the United States, it said.

"The global economy is not out of the woods," the report said.

It added that even the U.S. was at risk of returning to recession if "no action [was] agreed to offset the large degree of fiscal tightening implied by current law."

"This could tip the economy into a recession that monetary policy could do little to counter," it said.

It predicted Britain will slip back into a modest recession early next year, threatening to derail deep austerity measures there.

Story: Timothy Geithner, Barack Obama ramp up pressure on Europe over economic crisis

It also recommended an urgent boost top the EU bailout fund and called on Europe's central bank to do more to stem the crisis.

Global gloom
The OECD report was the latest in a series of increasingly gloomy forecasts, and comes as China's economy is slowing and Japan's exports are tumbling.

Eastern European countries are wobbling as credit dries up from a pullback in lending by eurozone banks.

In the United States, the improving economic picture has clouded somewhat after a mixed batch of economic data and downward revision to third-quarter growth to 2.0 percent doused some of the optimism for a strong fourth quarter. Consumer spending slowed in October and business investment weakened, showing a recovery that remains weak and vulnerable to shocks.

Against this uncertain backdrop, financial markets are volatile as European leaders fail to deliver any credible solutions to the sovereign debt crisis and U.S. lawmakers hit gridlock on slashing the budget deficit, further eroding business and consumer confidence and damaging growth prospects.

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The U.S. labor market epitomizes these problems.

Two years into a recovery in which corporate profits are robust, hiring should be rebounding sharply. But U.S. employment numbers due on Friday are expected to show an economy treading water, with 120,000 new hires in November, up from 80,000 the prior month but way below the level needed to improve the outlook.

"The trend has been fairly stable over the last five months, stuck at a level just about strong enough to absorb new entrants into the labor force, but not to reduce the unemployment rate significantly," said Jeoff Hall, economist at IFR Markets, a Thomson Reuters company.

In fact, large U.S. companies are showing new caution.

Boeing Co announced plans last week to shutter a Kansas factory that employs 2,100 as it prepares for U.S. federal budget cuts that will hit defense spending hard. Bank of America began sending lay-off notices last week to technology staff as part of plans to cut 30,000 positions over the next few years, and Wells Fargo & Co also began job cuts.

Whirlpool Corp, the world's largest maker of household appliances, reports softening demand worldwide, including fast-growing emerging Asia and Latin America, and is cutting about 5,000 jobs in North America and Europe.

Srinivas Thiruvadanthai, director of research at the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, also is concerned that fiscal tightening in the United States ? from the roll-off of 2009 stimulus projects, cutbacks to city and state budgets and possible expiration of the payroll tax cut ? will further weaken the U.S. consumer, who accounts for the bulk of growth.

"Clearly Europe is in bad shape, and the global economic conditions are worsening too. If the U.S. consumer tires, the chances for recession are met," he said.

Since late September, the Levy Center has forecast that Europe's debt crisis will hit the United States through financial markets, its banks, weakened exports, lowered corporate profits and drag the United States into recession in 2012. Thiruvadanthai sees nothing to alter that picture.

European mess
European finance ministers meet again on Tuesday to review strengthening the region's bailout fund, seen only a month ago as the centerpiece for halting its debt crisis. But the sharp deterioration in eurozone debt prices, which sucked in Germany last week in a failed bund auction, has undercut how much the fund can be leveraged, leaving investors highly skeptical that politicians can use it to stem contagion.

Italy issues 8 billion euros in longer term debt on Tuesday. Two-year Italian paper already is priced a 8 percent, one full point above the yield considered affordable by a nation with a stalled economy. Belgium, downgraded from AA-plus to AA by S&P on Friday, raises cash a day earlier, with the cost of insuring its debt having hit a record level.

Goldman Sachs warned on Friday that the public sector funding problems, which are hurting bank profits, are restricting household and corporate credit in Europe. This "could turn the moderate recession we are forecasting into something more akin to the 2008/09 experience."

Ripples from the slowdown are felt as far away as Brazil. Its central bank is expected to lower interest rates on Wednesday for third time since August, by a hefty 50 basis points, to 11 percent.

For the United States, recession remains a minority view, though forecasts are being revised downward for 2012. The Institute of International Finance, for instance, noted near-term resilience in its latest forecast but storm clouds ahead.

As long as European leaders delay in delivering a fiscal union that can rescue the common currency, financial markets will remain in the driving seat and the growth picture shaky.

"The world is struggling along, with downside risks from a bust-up of the eurozone, or Greece, Italy and Spain leaving. It might be that Europe just runs out of time to fix its problems," said Paul Ashworth, economist at Capital Economics.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45459405/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

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UK tabloid reporter: Phone hacking a regular tool (AP)

LONDON ? A former reporter at Britain's News of the World made a rare, robust defense of phone hacking Tuesday, telling Britain's media ethics inquiry that eavesdropping on voicemails was a "perfectly acceptable tool" to help journalists uncover stories.

Paul McMullan said hacking was common at the now-defunct tabloid, describing how reporters traded the phone numbers of celebrities and accessed their messages by entering factory-set passcodes.

"I think I swapped Sylvester Stallone's mother for David Beckham," he said, going on to recount how he failed to hack into Beckham's voicemails on one occasion because the soccer star unexpectedly answered the phone.

McMullan, who now runs a pub in the English port of Dover, made headlines earlier this year when he was secretly taped by actor Hugh Grant claiming phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World and other U.K. newspapers.

He repeated that assertion Tuesday, adding that the bosses at the News of the World, including former top editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, knew of the practice ? a claim both former editors have denied.

Both resigned in the scandal ? Brooks from a senior role in Rupert Murdoch's media empire, and Coulson from his job as top communications aide to Prime Minister David Cameron.

"I don't think anyone realized that anyone was committing a crime at the start," McMullan said. "Phone hacking is a perfectly acceptable tool given the sacrifices we make, if all we are trying to do is get to the truth."

Cameron set up the media inquiry in response to the scandal that began with the exposure of illegal eavesdropping by the News of the World. Murdoch shut the tabloid in July after evidence emerged that it had accessed the mobile phone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in its search for exclusives.

The scandal has sparked soul-searching across the media ? but not from McMullan, who told the inquiry how he'd hacked phones, staked out homes, posed as a drug dealer, a millionaire and a male prostitute, and pursued celebrities through the streets in the years before the 1997 car-crash death of Princess Diana partially curbed the press pack's ways.

"Before Diana died, it was such good fun," McMullan said. "How many jobs can you actually have car chases in?"

He said the tabloids' tactics were vindicated by their large circulations. The News of the World was selling almost 3 million copies a week before it was shut down.

"Sometimes I wouldn't have bought the News of the World, even though I was working for it," McMullan said. "But the British public carried on."

McMullan was one of three journalists giving evidence to the inquiry Tuesday after a week in which both famous and non-famous individuals ? from actor Hugh Grant and "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling to the parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann ? described how their lives had been upended by media intrusion.

The other two journalists offered a diametrically opposed assessment to McMullan, describing stories driven by ideology and propaganda, and an industry scarred by bullying and the use of unethical "dark arts."

Ex-tabloid reporter Richard Peppiatt, who worked for the Daily Star but has become a critic of underhanded tabloid practices, said "much of tabloid journalism is not truth-seeking primarily. It's ideologically driven and it's impact-driven."

Nick Davies of The Guardian, who broke many of the stories about tabloid phone hacking in Britain, said there was "a culture of bullying in some Fleet Street newspapers." He described some of the "dark arts" he had been told of by tabloid reporters, including burglary, phone and email hacking and "blagging" ? obtaining information by deceit.

The trigger for the scandal was the revelation that the News of the World had hacked the voice mails of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler after she disappeared in 2002.

Her mother told the inquiry last week that she believed Milly was still alive when she found there was space in the girl's previously full voice mailbox. In fact, messages had been deleted by someone working for the News of the World.

Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the tabloid who was jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on the voice mails of royal aides, has denied deleting the messages.

Davies said the messages were probably deleted by reporters from the paper working under the tutelage of Mulcaire.

"Mulcaire facilitated the hacking by one or more News of the World journalists," Davies said. Mulcaire "does not actually, on the whole, do the listening to the messages himself. Most of that is done by the journalists themselves."

The phone hacking scandal continues to widen.

Davies advocated an independent "public interest advisory body" to judge whether intrusive newspaper stories were in the public interest.

More than a dozen current and former News of the World journalists and editors ? including Coulson and Brooks ? have been arrested, and two top London police officers and several senior Murdoch executives have resigned.

The inquiry, led by Judge Brian Leveson, plans to issue a report next year and could recommend major changes to Britain's system of media self-regulation.

McMullan rejected in strong terms calls for tougher laws to protect privacy.

"Privacy is evil," he said. "Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things in."

___

Online: http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_phone_hacking

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RIM, Microsoft open up enterprise systems to Android and iOS (Digital Trends)

BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 front

Both Canada?s Research in Motion and Microsoft are taking steps to embrace Android and iOS devices, even as they back their respective BlackBerry and Windows Phone platforms: RIM has announced it will support iOS and Android devices in its mobile device management services, and Microsoft has agreed to license out key technologies to AgreeYa Mobility to develop mobile apps that can tie into Microsoft-specific services like SharePoint, Active Directory, Azure, and Remote Desktop.

First, Research in Motion has announced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, a new mobile device management service that extends BlackBerry Enterprise?s capability to remotely manage and configure BlackBerry devices (like smartphones and the PlayBook) to include iOS and Android device management. The capability could be a major win for RIM in the enterprise and government markets, where employees are increasingly bringing in their own iOS and Android devices for use in the workplace?and RIM is having quite a lot of trouble maintaining its marketshare. By expanding device management to non-BlackBerry platforms, RIM enables its largest customers to integrate iOS and Android devices into their existing mobile tech procedures and management?and helps ensure those customers stay with RIM. Services included in BlackBerry Mobile Fusion include the ability to remotely lock or wipe a phone, manage a phone?s secure connection, manage multiple users per device, control available apps and software, and control access to corporate domains data.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server remains one of RIM?s crown jewels?although the company has been taking hits over its smartphone and tablet offerings, corporations and large organizations still value BlackBerry Enterprise, in part for its security. RIM has repeatedly told governments looking to monitor mobile communications that there?s no back door to the encrypted communications used by BlackBerry Enterprise.

In the meantime, Microsoft is looking to open up its own proprietary services to non-Microsoft mobile platforms. Microsoft has announced a deal with AgreeYa Mobility under which Microsoft is licensing protocols to its enterprise services (things like SharePoint, Azure, Remote Desktop, and Active Directory) so AgreeYa can develop apps for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry that hook into Microsoft?s services. The idea is that Microsoft will still tout Windows and Windows Phone as the preferred ways to hook into its own enterprise and corporate services, but the AgreeYa deal also means solutions will exist for folks who bring their Android, iOS, and even BlackBerry devices into Microsoft-centric workplaces?like RIM?s move with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, it means solutions will exist for the non-Microsoft platforms being brought into enterprises?and, hence, those enterprise customers are more likely to stick with Microsoft technology.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

RIM debuts enterprise security system for iPhone, Android

Android hardware failure rate higher than iPhone and Blackberry

Over 30 percent of BlackBerry users in large companies plan to switch phones

Nearly 7 percent of U.S. traffic comes from handheld devices

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111129/tc_digitaltrends/rimmicrosoftopenupenterprisesystemstoandroidandios

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(AP)

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_re_eu/eu_apnewsalert

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Iraq signs gas deal with Shell, Mitsubishi

(AP) ? Iraq on Sunday signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. to tap natural gas in the south, one of the biggest agreements by the OPEC member to develop an energy sector battered by years of neglect and war.

The $17 billion deal forms a joint venture to gather, process and market gas from three oil fields in the oil-rich province of Basra. That gas, pumped in conjunction with crude oil, is currently burned off ? or flared ? due to lack of infrastructure.

The 25-year joint venture is called Basra Gas Company. Iraq will hold a 51 percent stake, to Royal Dutch Shell's 44 percent and Mitsubishi's 5 percent shares. The gas will be used mainly for domestic energy needs, but there is also an option for exports.

Iraq's Oil Minister, Abdul-Karim Elaibi hailed the signing as "historic turn in Iraq's oil industry."

Shell CEO Peter Voser told reporters that Iraq is now a "...substantial part of Royal Dutch Shell's portfolio in the Middle East."

For Iraq, the deal is a key part of its strategy to alleviate power generation woes. Despite billions of dollars spent since the 1990s to rebuild Iraq's dilapidated electrical grid, Iraqis still suffer through chronic power outages that have led to sometimes violent protests.

The deal is Shell's third in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and it will bolster the company's presence in a country which sits atop 143.1 billion barrels of crude oil and 126.7 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

A memorandum of understanding on the Shell gas deal was signed in September 2008, but the venture has been bogged down ever since. Some lawmakers argued that the deal should have been approved by parliament and officials in Basra wanted more benefits for their province.

Iraq burns off almost half of the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas that it produces. The deal will help the country capture more than 700 million cubic feet per day of gas from three fields.

They are the 17.8 billion-barrel Rumaila field being developed by a BP-CNPC consortium, the 4.1 billion barrel Zubair field, handled by an Eni-led consortium and partners Occidental Petroleum Corp. and KOGAS, as well as the 8.6 billion barrel West Qurna Stage 1, which is being developed by ExxonMobil-Shell consortium.

ExxonMobil has recently been embroiled in controversy after it became known that the company had signed a contract with the Kurdish regional government ? and not the Oil Ministry in Baghdad ? to develop oil fields in northern Iraq.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has clashed with Baghdad over who has the right to sign deals with international oil companies to develop Iraq's vast energy resources.

The Kurds, who control three provinces in northern Iraq, want to be able to sign contracts with international oil companies to develop their own fields, while Baghdad maintains it has final authority.

On Sunday the oil minister said the ministry sent letters to ExxonMobil asking for an explanation of the reports that they signed these deals, but has not yet heard a response. He declined to comment on what penalties the Texas-based company might face.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-27-ML-Iraq-Gas-Deal/id-3b1da84a986f4892901e8597b7f4434b

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Ask and Answer Questions About Personal Finance Tools

Ask and Answer Questions About Personal Finance ToolsEvery day we're on the lookout for ways to make your work easier and your life better, but Lifehacker readers are smart, insightful folks with all kinds of expertise to share, and we want to give everyone regular access to that exceptional hive mind. Help Yourself is a daily thread where readers can ask and answer questions about tech, productivity, life hacks, and whatever else you need help with.

Sticking to your budget during the holidays can be tough, but there are a lot of tools out there to help you. Whether you take advantage of your bank's online tools, or you use something like Mint.com to get a complete picture of your finances, ask and answer questions about personal finance tools in the comments.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5863080/ask-and-answer-questions-about-personal-finance-tools

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Toyota taking orders in Japan for Prius Plug-in

Tokyo Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid plug-in, the Prius PHV, is displayed at a press event in Tokyo Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011. Toyota will begin taking orders Tuesday for the plug-in version of its hit Prius hybrid, announcing efficient mileage and a relatively affordable starting price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000), which comes down with green vehicle subsidies. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Tokyo Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid plug-in, the Prius PHV, is displayed at a press event in Tokyo Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011. Toyota will begin taking orders Tuesday for the plug-in version of its hit Prius hybrid, announcing efficient mileage and a relatively affordable starting price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000), which comes down with green vehicle subsidies. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Tokyo Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid plug-in, the Prius PHV, is displayed at a press event in Tokyo Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011. Toyota will begin taking orders Tuesday for the plug-in version of its hit Prius hybrid, announcing efficient mileage and a relatively affordable starting price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000), which comes down with green vehicle subsidies. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

(AP) ? Toyota began taking orders Tuesday for the plug-in version of its hit Prius hybrid, announcing efficient mileage and a relatively affordable starting price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000), which comes down with green vehicle subsidies.

Toyota is targeting Prius Plug-in sales of 35,000 to 40,000 a year in Japan, and 60,000 globally. The car is set for delivery in Japan in January. With subsidies the cost comes down to 2.75 million yen ($35,200). It starts at $32,000 in the U.S. and 37,000 euros in Europe, according to Toyota.

Japan's top automaker says the plug-in, which it calls the Prius PHV, is for those who want something more innovative than a regular gasoline-electric hybrid, but are worried about running out of power on the road, as can happen with pure electric vehicles.

When a plug-in runs out of power to keep the electric vehicle going, it becomes a hybrid.

"The plug-in is the premier next-generation ecological car that will follow the hybrid," said Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, the Toyota Motor Corp. engineer known as the "father of the Prius."

The Prius Plug-in has an estimated electric vehicle cruise range per charge of 26.4 kilometers (16 miles), according to Toyota.

Its mileage is estimated at 61 kilometers per liter for Japanese test conditions, which converts to a whopping 143 miles per gallon. Such numbers vary depending on road conditions. Toyota is promising 87 mpg for the U.S. Prius Plug-in, which will be delivered starting in March. Orders are already being taken online in the U.S.

Green cars such as the Prius Plug-in are expected to take centerstage at the Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public this weekend.

Japanese consumers have taken to the Prius, despite a languishing auto market overall, thanks to government-backed subsidies. Nations around the world are offering similar perks, boosting its chance for success.

The Prius Plug-in, which seats five people, comes with a new lithium-ion battery that can be charged from a household outlet, much like an electric car. It also recharges itself while driving like a gasoline-electric hybrid. The battery is more powerful and compact so the back trunk fits three golf bags.

Uchiyamada told reporters that the plug-in was the best solution for green cars as most Japanese don't drive more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day and Toyota studies showed that most people don't want to use EVs for drives longer than 100 kilometers (60 miles).

How the plug-in fares in coming months will help show whether Toyota can keep riding on its success of the Prius as a global leader in green technology. Toyota said it had collected data from 600 people around the world who had leased the plug-in on a trial basis.

Toyota has sold more than 3.4 million hybrids worldwide so far, including models other than the Prius.

Selling in big numbers is important because it helps cut costs and allows the automaker to offer products at affordable prices.

Honda Motor Co., which has also been aggressive with hybrid technology, has sold 770,000 hybrids worldwide.

Nissan Motor Co., which hasn't released a global hybrid sales number, is banking more on pure electric, selling 17,500 Leaf cars around the world so far.

In Japan, Toyota will work on services with its housing unit to support plug-in owners' charging stations, it said.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-11-29-AS-Japan-Toyota/id-3f8834f6ec6743c7a97ec177e05dfffd

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The Droid 4 Looks Like a Big RAZR and Will Be Here Soon [Droid 4]

We've been expecting Motorola's Droid 4 for a while, but now official images and specs have leaked into the wild. And it looks a lot like a bigger version of the recent RAZR. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hu2ZCJpx8cI/the-droid-4-looks-like-a-big-razr-and-will-be-here-soon

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Video: The seedy side of celebrity scandal

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45444309#45444309

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Target: Two 18? Pillow Pets for $19.99 | Saving with Amy

As part of Target?s 2-day sale, they are offering a FREE 18? Pillow Pet with purchase of another for $19.99! These are the official Pillow Pets!

Just make sure to have 2 18? Pillow Pets in your cart to receive the discount. It will be applied at checkout. Shipping is free with orders over $50.

Head over to Target and enter the words ?Pillow Pets 18? into the search bar to pull them up.

Source: http://www.savingwithamy.com/2011/11/25/target-two-18-pillow-pets-for-19-99/

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Nominee to head Medicare viewed as a pragmatist (Washington Post)

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, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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PGA_com: Lefty Greg Chalmers wins Australian PGA, 2 weeks after winning Australian Open. http://t.co/6rIe0Duy #pga #golf

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Lefty Greg Chalmers wins Australian PGA, 2 weeks after winning Australian Open. tinyurl.com/6pblnqw #pga #golf PGA_com

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Tennessee-Martin falls 76-50 to No. 24 Miss. St. (AP)

STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Dane Smith knew Tennessee-Martin would be underdogs against the No. 24 Mississippi State. He's just disappointed the Skyhawks made things so easy for the Bulldogs during the second half.

Tennessee-Martin kept the game close early, but Mississippi State used torrid shooting after halftime to pull away for a 76-50 victory on Friday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

Smith led Tennessee-Martin (1-5) with 17 points and Myles Taylor added 12. The Skyhawks had 16 turnovers.

Mississippi State led just 35-24 at halftime, but shot 68 percent after the break to push its lead to as many as 30 during the second half.

"It wasn't anything they did ? it was us," Smith said. "We didn't contain the ball and guys were able to get in the lane. They were kicking out to open shooters and that was the ballgame."

Mississippi State never trailed, receiving contributions from all over its roster. Dee Bost and Rodney Hood led the team with 17 points each, but DeVille Smith scored a career-high 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, while Wendell Lewis had his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said both Lewis and Smith would be important to any future success this season ? singling out Lewis' play as particularly vital.

"It doesn't matter if he starts or not, he's going to play a lot of minutes," Stansbury said. "And his productivity in those minutes is going to be the difference in us winning or losing a lot of basketball games."

Mississippi State (6-1) played without starting forwards Renardo Sidney and Arnett Moultrie for the second straight game. A team spokesman says Sidney has a sprained left hand, while Moultrie is battling tendinitis in both knees.

The Bulldogs shot 59.3 percent (32 of 54) from the field for the game and outrebounded Tennessee-Martin 37-31.

"We've had to play a lot of different lineups the past few games and I think that's really going to help us down the line," Stansbury said. "We were really efficient offensively in the second half, shooting 68, 69 percent, and we didn't turn it over. For the most part, we played hard."

Bost and Hood have been productive all season, but the contribution from Smith and Lewis bodes well as conference play gets closer.

Sidney and Moultrie combine to average about 23 points and 15 rebounds, and Lewis helped make up for their absence. The 6-foot-9 junior from Selma, Ala., came into the game averaging 4.5 points and 5 rebounds per game.

Stansbury has been impressed with Lewis' ability since he arrived on campus over two years ago, but occasionally exasperated by his laid-back demeanor. Though he's still not exactly an enforcer, Lewis has grown more assertive in the paint, and is one of the team's most important backups when the roster is at full strength.

"I try not to put too much pressure on myself," Lewis said. "I try to have fun and do whatever the team needs for us to win. ... I've had a mindset when I get into games that I'm trying to score. Going hard."

Smith missed the first game of the season because of unexplained headaches and dizziness, but after his health was cleared, he's slowly become a more important part of the Bulldogs' roster. The 5-foot-11 point guard also added three assists and two steals in 26 minutes.

Smith's best quality is a devastating first step off the dribble, but Stansbury said it can get him in trouble.

"He's pretty hard to guard on that first ball screen sometimes," Stansbury said. "That's good and bad because he thinks he can do it every time. But he's getting better. He's not forcing things as much."

Mississippi State has been rolling since a surprising 68-58 home loss to Akron in the second game of the season. Wins over Arizona and Texas A&M in the 2K Classic last week propelled the Bulldogs into the national rankings, and the team still has four games remaining in a six-game homestand that continues Sunday against North Texas.

_____

Follow David Brandt on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidbrandtAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkc_t25_tennessee_martin

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Here lies "Awesome Truth"

R-Truth and The Miz had a great thing going. Their unlikely partnership was working so well, gaining them more screen time, more high-profile matches, more everything (except fans).

Then Sunday night, at Survivor Series, they battled legendary Superstars The Rock and John Cena. Twenty-four hours later, they had been defeated, divided and R-Truth was unconscious on a steel entrance ramp following a vicious Skull-Crushing Finale from his ?partner? on Monday?s Raw SuperShow. (PHOTOS)

So, what exactly went wrong with The ?Awesome Truth??

1288620148001|06:32It could simply be that the conspiratorial duo ran into a buzzsaw of two WWE icons with superior skills. Whether Rock and Cena were on good or bad terms, the pair would have been a tall order for ?Awesome Truth.? The Great One and the Cenation leader are just better and their overmatched competition would have needed a miracle to pull out the victory.

The Miz and Truth relied on The Rock having substantial ring rust, being seven years removed from his last official match. But The People?s Champion showed up in incredible shape, as evidenced by his electrifying start to the contest, which incited a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd to chant: ?You still got it!? Clearly, the crooked twosome wasn?t expecting The Brahma Bull?s horns to still be razor-sharp. (PHOTOS)

Perhaps the jeers and heckles of the WWE Universe were too much and ?Awesome Truth? collapsed under the unyielding scrutiny. It?s not easy being the hated opponents of ?the most charismatic tag team of all time.? Maybe tough-talking Miz and Truth?s relentless bravado was really cries for help from two lonely and unhappy Superstars.

1288620149001|00:20More likely though, they are just jerks who can?t get along with anyone, including each other. They always seemed like an unusual pairing, but it was hard to argue with the success of the underhanded schemers. However, there appeared to be looming personality conflicts between the two intense and self-seeking Superstars.

That mistrust was there well before Cena played mind games with them on Monday?s Raw SuperShow. Both members of The ?Awesome Truth? were primed to turn on the other at the first signs of trouble, and they did, as they came to blows almost immediately after Cena planted the seeds of conflict. The Awesome One even snarled after his attack on Truth, ?You want to know why I did what I did? ?Cause I?m sick of people slowing me down!?

Now, Miz won?t have a partner to ?slow him down.? The ?Awesome Truth? is no more and R-Truth and The Miz are again dangerous loners on the WWE landscape. Going solo, they each must find a way to right their career before they become yesterday?s news.

And that?s the truth.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2011-11-21/awesome-truth-finished

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Parliament guarantees right to protest in Myanmar (AP)

YANGON, Myanmar ? A Myanmar opposition lawmaker is welcoming Parliament's approval of a bill guaranteeing the right to stage a protest.

Thein Nyunt of the New National Democracy Party said Thursday the law was significant because the right to protest had not previously existed.

The law's passage Tuesday came as elected President Thein Sein pushes forward reforms after decades of repression under military regimes. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to visit next month to encourage the process.

The law says protesters must seek permission five days beforehand and provide details about slogans and speakers. Protests are prohibited at factories, hospitals and government offices. Staging a protest without permission carries a penalty of one year in prison.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_as/as_myanmar_protest_law

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iPhone Live 181: Apparently we?re barristas

Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video Subscribe via RSS: Audio | Video Download directly: Audio | Video Show notes Rene, Georgia, and Seth talk about the future of consumer electronics and the mythical Apple Television, Samsung vs. Sprint ads, top 10 apps...


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/msOMwSQkBbc/story01.htm

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New Zealand votes as PM seeks outright majority (AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? New Zealanders voted in national elections Saturday, with popular Prime Minister John Key seeking to propel his center-right party to the country's first outright parliamentary majority in years.

Polling stations closed at 7 p.m. local time (0600 GMT; 1 a.m. EST), with a winner expected to emerge by 10 p.m. (0900 GMT; 4 a.m. EST).

Both Key and his main opponent, Labour Party leader Phil Goff, cast their ballots early in Auckland polling stations. If either man had anything political to say, local media weren't reporting it ? thanks to a ban in New Zealand on election day coverage that might influence voters.

The coverage ban extends to signs and placards, which were all taken down overnight.

If opinion polls hold, Key's National Party would be the first party to secure a majority on its own since the country abolished a winner-take-all voting system and replaced it in 1996 with a proportional one that generally results in a more fractured parliament.

Anything short of a majority, however, and Key will need to find political partners to form a stable government.

What's not in doubt is Key's personal popularity ? despite a scandal in recent days over a recorded conversation. After three years in power, polls show the former currency trader is far more popular than Goff. Key has earned the nickname "Teflon John" for the way that nothing politically damaging seems to stick to him.

"He's a clever strategist and a good manager," said Jennifer Lees-Marshment, a political studies lecturer at the University of Auckland.

She said Key has been adept at knowing when to forge ahead with policies and when to pull back. His common touch was reassuring to people when a deadly earthquake struck Christchurch in February, she said, and enabled him to share in their excitement in October when the country's national All Blacks team won the Rugby World Cup.

Key's campaign has focused primarily on the economy. He's promising to bring the country back into surplus and begin paying down the national debt within three years. Part of his plan to achieve that is to sell minority stakes in four government-owned energy companies and in Air New Zealand.

That's where the center-left Labour party has found its biggest point of difference. Goff is promising not to sell anything and to raise money by other means, including by introducing a capital gains tax and by raising the age at which people get government pensions by two years to 67.

On the campaign trail, however, those issues got crowded out by a mini-scandal known as the teapot tape saga. While he met at tea shop with a political ally, Key reportedly made rude and embarrassing political comments that were captured on a recording device left by a cameraman.

The tape has never been publicly aired, although opponents, who may have been leaked transcripts, claim the prime minister said that elderly supporters of one opposition party were dying out and also disparaged the leadership of another party. Three days before the election, police began serving search warrants on four media outlets, seeking the tape and related material on the grounds that it is illegal to tape a private conversation.

The cameraman says he left the device inadvertently, and besides, the conversation could hardly be considered private given that media were invited there by Key for an earlier photo opportunity.

Lees-Marshment said she thinks voters grew tired of the attention given to the story and may have begun feeling more sympathetic toward Key.

"It became a story about the story," she said. "The voters got put off by it."

The saga certainly didn't seem to do much to boost the campaign of Goff, who was effectively shut out of any coverage for a few days. Labour's lackluster polling, about 28 percent, has pundits speculating Goff will be replaced as leader of the party within days of the election.

But the saga did seem to boost the fortunes of Winston Peters, who leads the small New Zealand First party. Peters grabbed the headlines with pointed criticism of Key over the affair and his poll numbers shot up.

Another winner in the election is likely to be the Green party, which is polling about 12 percent, putting it on target for its best ever showing.

Voters will also decide whether to keep their electoral system, in which parties get a proportion of parliamentary seats based on the proportion of the votes they receive. Some want to return to a winner-takes-all format, although polls indicate most favor sticking with their current system.

(This version corrects EST times of poll closings in paragraph 2. Recorrects GMT times.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_re_as/as_new_zealand_election

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Wildfire hits more than 20 homes in SW Australia (AP)

PERTH, Australia ? More than 20 homes have been destroyed or damaged by wildfire in Australia's southwest after authorities lost control of a planned forest-burning operation.

Emergency services officials say hundreds of people have been evacuated from townships in the Margaret River region of Western Australia state as more than 100 firefighters battle the blaze on Thursday, assisted by aerial water bombers.

The state government has confirmed that the blaze began Wednesday morning when a controlled burning operation in a nearby national park got out of control.

Authorities try to reduce wildfire risk by burning off dead wood and grass in controlled operations aimed at preventing the flames from spreading beyond a contained area.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oceania/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_wildfire

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Correction: Barefoot Bandit story (Providence Journal)

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, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Be thankful for messy politics and noisy protesters (The Week)

New York ? Many Americans are fed up with our gridlocked politics and sputtering economy. But there's still plenty to be grateful for

Some Americans might not see much to be thankful for this year. After all, 48 million of our fellow citizens are on food stamps. Unemployment grinds along at 9 percent. Housing prices???the source of most people's wealth???have fallen to 2002 levels. Economic uncertainty, even fear, is spreading. And, in a most un-American thought, there is a gnawing suspicion that the next generation won't live as well as the preceding one.?

Fair points all???and a humble reminder to those who are blessed that millions of our fellow Americans, tens of millions, are truly struggling this Thanksgiving. Here's to hoping for better times for them.?

SEE MORE: The GOP's new voting laws: Disenfranchising 5 million Americans?

?

Call me crazy, but I think it's great that our elections take months and years to play out.

Still, there are plenty of things to be thankful for. And a few may surprise you:?

SEE MORE: Will Scott Brown pay for insinuating that Elizabeth Warren is ugly?

?

We can be thankful for our messy political system. Call me crazy, but I think it's great that our elections take months and years to play out. It gives us time to thoroughly vet our candidates. In parliamentary democracies like Britain and Canada, elections are held in a matter of weeks. It seems to work for them, but think about this: In the last few months alone, Republicans pined for Sarah Palin; Michele Bachmann had her 15 minutes; Rick Perry rose and fell; Herman Cain burned bright before burning out; and now Newt Gingrich is moving up. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney chugs along, never getting more than 25 percent or so of Republican support. That the GOP goes through candidates quicker than the Kardashians do marriages is a healthy thing (for the Republicans, not the Kardashians). Each candidate is thoroughly scrutinized, put to the test in a series of debates, and made to answer difficult questions from pesky reporters. By enduring this, sometimes for years, the true measure of a candidate???his or her intelligence, character (or lack thereof), experience, strengths, and weaknesses???usually emerges. When we go to the polls next year, we'll know what we're getting. And Democrats basking in the GOP squabble this cycle had better buckle up, because they're looking at a similar free for all in 2016???and that's great.?

We can be thankful that we have the right to gather in city squares and protest and yell at the top of our lungs. The Tea Party and its left-wing lookalike, the Occupy movement, are perhaps the purest form of American democracy. It's no coincidence that the framers chose this right???to assemble (peaceably) and be heard???as the First Amendment. The hue and cry of the citizenry is not only a temperature check on the body politic, it is an essential cog in the self-correcting mechanism that has always helped the American ship of state find the best course.?

SEE MORE: Elizabeth Warren takes credit for Occupy Wall Street: Smart move?

?

Let's be thankful that our media is a patchwork quilt of loud, disagreeable people with wildly differing ideas. What's your pleasure: Fox News or MSNBC? NPR or Rush Limbaugh? The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times? There is something for every point of view. Don't trust the mainstream media or feel like you're not being heard? Fine. Start your own blog or podcast. Email your congressman. Send a tweet to the president. It has never been easier to let our opinions be known than today.?

Think politics is all about big money and big corporations? That's often the perception, and in some respects, it is undeniably true. But it's also true, albeit underreported, that the little guy plays a big role as well. For example, through September 30, more than half of all donations to President Obama's re-election campaign have been for $200 or less. We can be thankful that citizens, particularly of modest means, care about their country so much that they'll part with a few of their hard-earned dollars so that they, too, can make a difference. (By contrast, only 10 percent of Mitt Romney's donations fall into this category).?

We can be thankful that even in these tough times, Americans continue to have big hearts. We gave $291 billion to charity last year, 3.8 percent more than in 2009, reports CharityNavigator.org. And the vast majority of that, 73 percent, came from individuals. Americans know that no matter how difficult their personal struggles, there's always someone who has it worse.?

Let's also be thankful that young Americans???our next generation of leaders???recognize the importance of pubic service and giving back. Applications for positions at AmeriCorps nearly tripled between 2008 and 2010, reports The New York Times; Teach for America, which puts college graduates into some of the toughest classrooms in the land, received 32 percent more applicants last year than the year before. Some of this surge can surely be attributed to America's lack of jobs. But also, "the millennial generation is a generation that is just more interested in making a difference than making a dollar," Max Stier, the president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that advises government recruiting efforts, tells the Times.

The list of things to be thankful for is long. What about all the tremendous problems we face? Obviously, that's a long list, too. But for one day, at least, let's focus on what we have. Pass the pumpkin pie???and Happy Thanksgiving.?

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Drew Carey: From 'The Price is Right' to the Senate?

  • Opinion Brief: Tommy Lee Jones for Senate?
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    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111123/cm_theweek/221726

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    Thursday, November 24, 2011

    'Mahna Mahna': The Muppets & Celebs Sing Along (VIDEO)

    Without question, Kermit and his felt friends are the true stars of "The Muppets," and the world is super geared up to see all their singing, dancing and laugh-a-minute antics when the film hits theaters this week. But human celebrities have always been an important part of the Muppets' performances, from the first episode of "The Muppet Show" up through all of their previous films, and this new flick is no different.

    This time around, Jason Segel, who co-wrote the film, and Amy Adams will be the featured human stars, but there are plenty of more big Hollywood names that will grace the screen in smaller roles. Rashida Jones plays a begrudging TV network executive, while Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman and many others have cameos.

    Just like all of us, they couldn't help but get swept up in the Muppet madness, and this musical montage is great, fun proof.

    Mahna mahna!

    WATCH:

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    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/mahna-mahna-the-muppets-celebs_n_1108782.html

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    Even Your Mom Knows What A Meme Is Thanks To ?Casually Pepper Spraying Cop?

    Screen Shot 2011-11-23 at 1.40.43 AMA testament to how fast we are consuming culture these days, it only took ~72 hours for the UC Davis ?Casually Pepper Spraying Cop? Photoshop meme to go from Reddit thread to CNN, with officer John Pike is in all his pepper spraying glory spraying?everyone from Santa to Jesus" on a segment for the international news channel. Reports CNN?s Jeanne Moos, ?He?s become what?s called a meme, an idea reproducing across the web, even spraying another Internet meme (!), The Keyboard Cat.?

    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GVNFY6OWMQo/

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    Syria blasts Israel; most other Arabs moderate (AP)

    VIENNA ? Syria accused Israel of posing a "grave and serious threat" through its undeclared atomic arsenal Monday, at a session between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors meant to narrow differences on creating a Mideast nuclear weapon-free zone, officials said.

    Aside from Iran, which is boycotting the meeting, Syria is Israel's bitterest Mideast rival, and Syrian delegate Bassam al-Sabbagh voiced rhetoric similar to standard Arab criticism of Israel. But officials reporting on the closed meeting said that except for Syria and Lebanon, its lockstep ally, other Arab nations speaking at the meeting were lower-key than usual in chastising the Jewish state for refusing to open its nuclear program to U.N. perusal.

    Israel did not speak at the morning session. But one of the officials ? who asked for anonymity to report on the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting ? said the atmosphere was "much less confrontational, much less hostile" than at other IAEA gatherings focused on the Middle East, which traditionally see Muslim nations speaking with one strongly critical voice about Israel's nuclear capabilities.

    Wide chasms separate the two sides. Israel says peace must be established in the Mideast before talks on a nuclear weapons-free zone can be concretely discussed. The Arabs say the two topics are independent.

    In toning down their comments, most Mideast participants at the 97-nation meeting appeared to be heeding an appeal by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano. In opening remarks made available to reporters, Amano urged Mideast nations to focus on "fresh thinking," adding he hoped they would be able to move "beyond simply restating long-established positions."

    Officials and participants warned against high expectations at the gathering, which is hearing presentations on already established nuclear-free zones elsewhere as a way of stimulating discussion on the Middle East and is not meant to reach any decisions.

    A decision last year by the 189 members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty to convene a U.N.-sponsored conference on establishing a Middle East nuclear-free zone in 2012 was an incentive for most of the region's Muslim nations to meet this year with Israel for the exploratory Vienna talks.

    Arab countries and Iran are aware of the potential of using the 2012 U.N. conference as a platform to pressure Israel to fulfill their long-standing demands: joining the Nonproliferation Treaty, acknowledging that it has nuclear weapons and allowing IAEA inspectors to probe their atomic activities.

    Israel is unlikely to do any of that. It remains unclear whether it will even attend the 2012 talks and is at the Vienna meeting only under the stipulation that it remain a nonbinding give-and-take on the issue of nuclear free zones in general.

    The official said that early discussions Monday touched on a main point of division between Israel and the Arabs ? whether the Jewish state needs to join the treaty as a prerequisite to creation of such a zone.

    He said that presenters for Argentina and South Africa, talking about their own regional zones, suggested that based on the experience of their own regions treaty membership was not needed to begin talks.

    Israel is commonly considered to be the only Middle East nation with atomic weapons ? and its secretive nuclear program has long been a heated subject with Arab neighbors.

    The Arabs have urged Israel to open up to international inspection. Israel in turn says that Iran is the greatest threat to the region through its refusal to heed U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding it stop activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons and suspected research and development of such capabilities. Tehran denies any interest in such arms.

    ____

    George Jahn can be reached at: http//twitter.com/georgejahn

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_eu/un_nuclear_agency_mideast

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