Gary Busey plays blame game on 'Apprentice'

Douglas Gorenstein / NBC

Gary Busey on "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice."

By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor

On Sunday night, Team Power nabbed another rare victory on "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" when they bested Plan B in a video ad battle. But the real battle of the night was between Plan B's project manager and the rest of the team.

Gary Busey headed the effort for the Bs -- which mainly consisted of an ad featuring Busey transforming into a mechanical dog -- and his teammates knew how it would end from the start.

"I think we're on Team Moby Dick, and Ahab is in charge," Penn Jillette said.

So no matter what Jillette or Lisa Rinna proposed, Busey wasn't going to budge. That is, until he found himself on the wrong side of the boardroom.

Once Busey learned his concepts didn't charm the client du jour, he suggested the real problem was with Jillette and Rinna all along -- they undermined him.

But boardroom boss Donald Trump just wasn't buying what Busey was selling. After much bickering, including Busey's claim that Rinna yelled and screamed at him and Jillette just didn't help, Trump settled it.

"Gary, you're fired!"

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17971873-gary-busey-throws-team-under-the-boardroom-bus-on-celebrity-apprentice?lite

storm chasers david blaine gotye divine mercy cabin in the woods the legend of korra three stooges

Gunmen surround Libya Foreign Ministry

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? A Libyan military official says about 200 armed men are surrounding the Foreign Ministry building in Tripoli, demanding the ministry to reform and hire former fighters who helped overthrow former dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Esam al-Naas said 38 trucks, some mounted with machineguns, had surrounded the ministry on Sunday. The men allege that many supporters of the old regime are still occupying senior positions in the ministry and its missions abroad.

He said negotiations with the protesters are underway and that no one has entered the ministry building.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-surround-libya-foreign-ministry-100632832.html

kawasaki disease resurrection masters tickets one direction tulsa news scalloped potatoes the ten commandments

Celebs With Big Shoes To Fill Literally: Celebrities With Huge Feet!

Celebs With Big Shoes To Fill Literally: Celebrities With Huge Feet!

Celebrities can improve upon their looks with great make-up artists, plastic surgery, etc. But one part of the body that can’t be “fixed” is large feet. Let’s check out the celebrities with the biggest feet in Hollywood! Kate Winslet Kate Winslet, known for her films “Titanic”, and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, wears a ...

Celebs With Big Shoes To Fill Literally: Celebrities With Huge Feet! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/celebs-with-big-shoes-to-fill-celebrities-with-huge-feet-photos/

google april fools office space shell houston open mega millions winners anthony davis toure patti smith

Oil above $94 on US data, hope of EU rate cut

The price of oil rose above $94 per barrel Monday as positive U.S. economic data added to optimism for a rate cut in Europe.

By midday in New York, benchmark crude for June delivery was up 90 cents to $93.90 a barrel, after earlier reaching $94.39.

The U.S. government said Americans spent more in March as their incomes went up. And pending home sales hit their highest level in three years. Traders also think the European Central Bank will cut its benchmark interest rate from the current record low of 0.75 percent to 0.50 percent, in a further attempt to turn around the economy there.

A weaker dollar also helped boost oil prices by making crude priced in dollars cheaper for traders using other currencies. On Monday, the euro was up to $1.3082 from $1.3065 late Friday in New York.

Drivers are still shelling out fewer dollars at the gas pump compared with a year ago. The national average for a gallon of regular is $3.50, compared with $3.82 on this date last year.

Brent crude, which is used to price oil from the North Sea used by many U.S. refiners, was up 24 cents to $103.40 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $2.82 a gallon.

? Heating oil was flat at $2.86 a gallon.

? Natural gas added 13 cents to $4.36.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-above-94-us-data-hope-eu-rate-163039674.html

media matters hana taylor momsen xbox live update joan rivers gary carter dies oolong tea

Sudan rebels attack city, push closer to capital

By Khalid Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebels from Sudan's Darfur region attacked a city in a neighboring state on Saturday, taking their fight closer to the capital, witnesses said.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - which launched an unprecedented assault on Khartoum in 2008 - said it and other fighters attacked Um Rawaba in North Kordofan state, around 500km (300 miles) south of the capital.

The group did not say whether it planned to push further.

Sudan's army told state media it was still fighting rebels inside the state's second largest city. It accused the insurgents of destroying a power plant, petrol stations and a telecommunications tower.

"Battles are still ongoing," army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told state news agency SUNA.

Armed men in 20 trucks drove into Um Rawaba and looted a market and several commercial banks, residents told Reuters.

"Our forces are controlling parts of eastern North Kordofan and Um Rawaba," JEM spokesman Gibril Adam said, adding that the fighting had blocked the road between Khartoum and El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state.

"The goal of this attack is to weaken the government to realize our strategic plan to topple the regime," said Adam, who denied the rebels had looted any property in the city.

JEM forces drove across hundreds of miles of desert to attack the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman in May 2008 and were stopped just short of the presidential palace and army headquarters.

The group was one of two main rebel forces that took up arms against Sudan's government in 2003, demanding better representation for the remote western region of Darfur and accusing Khartoum of neglecting its development.

Khartoum mobilized militias to crush the uprising, unleashing a campaign that Washington and activists described as genocide. Sudan's government denies the charge and accuses the Western media of exaggerating the conflict.

JEM, which has fought the government in neighboring states before, says it also wants fairer government across all of Sudan.

It is part of an alliance with insurgents in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states bordering South Sudan, and has vowed to overthrow President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-attack-city-central-sudan-residents-104705957.html

bridesmaids winning lottery numbers megamillions winner kansas jayhawks mega millions results susan powell lotto numbers

Zapruder Inc. | On Web Page Search Engine Optimization ...

Seo Copywriting Products And Services

The last component of your on-page <a href=http://www.jitesi.com>www.jitesi.com</a> optimization is your permalink construction. This is something that a whole lot of folks find can help them with page ranking with Google. For the permalink framework you want to use the tailor made framework and have it set like this ?postname? with no quotation marks. I did not talk on the area name as it is a incredibly controversial matter. Several really feel you must go with a search term loaded domain while some assume that a catchy domain identify is additional crucial.

It is a good idea to take a look at the sites very first and verify their name and recognition. Make sure to take into consideration this if you want to get fantastic excellent back one-way links. link building has become far more intricate now so the need for industry experts is very vital. It is advisable to take into account Search engine optimisation outsourcing solutions as an alternative of doing it on your own.

It is the internet marketing and marketing of merchandise or companies through world-wide-web. online marketing has pretty ample scope as the world-wide-web has come to be the hub of the advertising globally. On the internet marketing and advertising will involve technological and inventive characteristics of the World wide web like growth, style, advertising and sales. It is typically carried out Search engine optimisation, email messages, banner adverts, e-mail, and cellular messaging. Organizations of World wide web internet hosting Dubai play an incredibly considerable position in building and advertising and marketing a small business site with numerous suitable tactics.

When your website is thoroughly optimized you want to commence looking to construct your web-sites level of popularity. Google gives just about every url that you get from one more website a ?weight? and the extra excess weight that you get to a provided webpage allows to increase your ranking in the look for engines.

Website positioning organization delivers Website positioning providers to huge and little organization. If you really don?t know how to rank your internet site for the qualified key word, you really should employ a Search engine optimization enterprise. The Search engine marketing organization has a team of skilled staff that can enable your website to increase targeted traffic and ranking on the search motor. The professional personnel that work in the Website positioning corporation involve Web optimization gurus, copywriter, listing submitter and etc.

Sherwood Thesing

Source: http://zapruder.nl/forums/viewthread/158512/

Eric Idle rory mcilroy Fatboy Slim Rio de Janeiro Shark Week London 2012 closing ceremony Shark Week 2012

Lawmakers: Syria chemical weapons could menace U.S..

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation's president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.

U.S. officials last week declared that the Syrian government probably had used chemical weapons twice in March, newly provocative acts in the 2-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The U.S. assessment followed similar conclusions from Britain, France, Israel and Qatar ? key allies eager for a more aggressive response to the Syrian conflict.

President Barack Obama has said Syria's likely action ? or the transfer of President Bashar Assad's stockpiles to terrorists ? would cross a "red line" that would compel the United States to act.

Lawmakers sought to remind viewers on Sunday news programs of Obama's declaration while discouraging a U.S. foothold on the ground there.

"The president has laid down the line, and it can't be a dotted line. It can't be anything other than a red line," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. "And more than just Syria, Iran is paying attention to this. North Korea is paying attention to this."

Added Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.: "For America to sit on the sidelines and do nothing is a huge mistake."

Obama has insisted that any use of chemical weapons would change his thinking about the United States' role in Syria but said he didn't have enough information to order aggressive action.

"For the Syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues," Obama said Friday.

But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said Sunday the United States needs to consider those weapons. She said that when Assad leaves power, his opponents could have access to those weapons or they could fall into the hands of U.S. enemies.

"The day after Assad is the day that these chemical weapons could be at risk ... (and) we could be in bigger, even bigger trouble," she said.

Both sides of the civil war already accuse each other of using the chemical weapons.

The deadliest such alleged attack was in the Khan al-Assal village in the Aleppo province in March. The Syrian government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels in the attack that killed 31 people.

Syria, however, has not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged "immediate and unfettered access" for an expanded investigation.

One of Obama's chief antagonists on Syria, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., said the United States should go to Syria as part of an international force to safeguard the chemical weapons. But McCain added that he is not advocating sending ground troops to the nation.

"The worst thing the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground on Syria. That would turn the people against us," McCain said.

His friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also said the United States could safeguard the weapons without a ground force. But he cautioned the weapons must be protected for fear that Americans could be targeted. Raising the specter of the lethal bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Graham said the next attack on U.S. soil could employ weapons that were once part of Assad's arsenal.

"Chemical weapons ? enough to kill millions of people ? are going to be compromised and fall into the wrong hands, and the next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass in it," he said.

Rogers and Schakowsky spoke to ABC's "This Week." Chambliss and Graham were interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation." McCain appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press."

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Philip_Elliott

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-syria-chemical-weapons-could-menace-us-154735931.html

Phelps NBC Olympics Live Olympic medal count Medal Count 2012 London 2012 Fencing olympics chariots of fire

Former Madagascar president Ratsiraka to contest July election

By Alain Iloniaina

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's former president Didier Ratsiraka will contest national elections in July in a bid to become the Indian Ocean island state's leader for the third time, his supporters said on Saturday.

Madagascar has been in crisis since Andry Rajoelina, now president, led an uprising that ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana from office in 2009, triggering turmoil that scared off investors and devastated the vital tourism sector.

Both Rajoelina, a former disc jockey, and Ravalomanana, a wealthy businessman now in exile in South Africa, have said they will not contest the July 24 presidential election.

Regional powers put pressure on Rajoelina to stand aside, fearing fresh turmoil after this year's vote, while Ravalomanana was sentenced in absentia to life in prison after he was accused of ordering elite troops to kill Rajoelina's supporters.

Ratsiraka returned to Madagascar earlier this month after an 11-year exile in France. He left Madagascar in 2002 after refusing to concede the previous year's poll defeat to Ravalomanana.

Before he was ousted, Ratsiraka, known locally as "Deba", or the Big Man, had ruled Madagascar for 23 of the previous 26 years.

The 76-year-old first became president in 1975 when he seized power as a young naval officer, governing Madagascar until 1993. His second stint as president lasted from 1996 to 2002.

"It is a joy for us to know that we have filed (papers for) the candidacy for President of Didier Ratsiraka," said Monfort Razafimahefa, a member of the Ratsiraka campaign.

Ratsiraka is due to hold a news conference later in the day to explain his motives for contesting the election.

A Madagascan court had sentenced Ratsiraka to 10 years hard labour for embezzlement in 2003, but the current president, Rajoelina, often said the former admiral was free to come home.

Earlier this week Ravalomanana's wife put herself forward to run in July's presidential election, a move analysts say could be aimed at preparing a comeback by the fallen leader.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-madagascar-president-ratsiraka-contest-july-election-082511803.html

casey anthony dennis rodman rand paul Iron Man 3 Lauren Silberman Sim City Manchester United

Web Giants Amazon And eBay Battle Over Internet Sales Tax - The ...

If you own a small online business, then you better look out because the Internet sales tax could soon be reality. There is an email circulating for all online business owners to write to Congress. The following is what is being requested of small business owners:

Congress is considering online sales tax legislation that is wrongheaded and unfair, and I am writing to ask for your help in telling Congress ?No!? to new sales taxes and burdens for small businesses.

Whether you?re a consumer who loves the incredible selection and value that small businesses provide online, or a small-business seller who relies on the Internet for your livelihood, this legislation has potential to affect you in a negative way. For consumers, it means more money out of your pocket when you shop online from your favorite seller or small business shop owner. For small business Internet sellers, you would be required to collect sales taxes nationwide from the more than 9,600 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. You also would face the prospect of being audited by out-of-state tax collectors. That?s just wrong, and an unnecessary burden on you.

Big national retailers are aggressively lobbying Congress to pass online sales tax legislation to ?level the playing field? with Amazon. And, as they compete with big retail, Amazon is advocating for this legislation too, while at the same time they are seeking local tax exemptions across the country to build warehouses. This is a ?big retail battle? in which small businesses and consumers have a lot to lose. But eBay is fighting, as we have for more than 15 years, to protect small online businesses and sellers and ensure healthy competition, value, and selection that benefit consumers online.

The solution is simple: if Congress passes online sales tax legislation, we believe small businesses with less than 50 employees or less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the burden of collecting sales taxes nationwide. To put that in perspective, Amazon does more than $10 million in sales every 90 minutes. So we believe this is a reasonable exemption to protect small online businesses. That?s what we?re fighting for, and what big companies such as Amazon are fighting against.

I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea. Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business. Click here to make your voice heard. Together, I believe our voices can make a difference.

It is amazing how this will not only hurt the small business person, but also the consumer. Small businesses will have to hire an accountant just to take care of all the tax issues. You might be inclined to say that is not a bad idea, but it will raise the cost of the items being sold just to cover the cost of the accountant.

Consumers are already paying shipping charges for items being purchased. What will follow will be a surcharge for those items. Many stand alone business, or ?brick and mortar? store fronts, already pay for the items being taxed through the store. Some of the stores use outlets like eBay and Amazon to liquidate their stock in order to make room for more in case the foot traffic does not purchase the stock. Companies are already required to report sales tax twice a year to begin. The added taxes will further cripple the economy. It is another attempt to bring the United States economy to its knees.

Amazon is the main voice vying to be heard. Amazon now says it?s perfectly acceptable to levy sales tax on Internet companies. eBay has always and still says ? no way ? and it?s trying to drum up the kind of online support that squashed the major privacy bill SOPA last year. Amazon is hoping to get the leaders in the retail business to back them and give this a huge push. Once more the ?big dogs? are trying to chase the ?little dogs? away.

Another concern comes from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association they fear it could open the door to a state-level financial transaction tax because states have the authority to select which goods to tax.

Bill Hughes, the senior Vice President of government affairs for RILA, was quoted as saying the trade group went local to persuade on-the-fence senators to support the legislation. District-based retailers were brought to speak with their local representatives:

I would argue what really made the difference is that it?s not just the big guy coming in. We have a working coalition of thousands and thousands of small businesses who are mom-and-pop operations.

In other words, all of the small business owners need to ban to together and write to Congress. There is power in numbers from infinty and beyond.

Source: http://www.thebrennerbrief.com/2013/04/27/web-giants-amazon-and-ebay-battle-over-internet-sales-tax/

PlanetSide 2 sweet potato casserole turkey Pumpkin Pie Recipe wii u wii u American Music Awards

FBI arrests Mississippi man in ricin letters

Everett Dutschke was arrested early Saturday morning; he has connections to a judge who was targeted as well as to a former suspect in the case.

By Holbrook Mohr,?The Associated Press / April 27, 2013

Everett Dutschke, pictured here on April 23, was arrested Saturday morning in connection with the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and other federal officials.

Thomas Wells/AP

Enlarge

A Mississippi man whose home and business were searched as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others has been arrested in the case, according to the FBI.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested about 12:50 a.m. Saturday at his Tupelo home by FBI special agents in connection with the letters, FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said. The letters, which allegedly contained ricin, were sent last week to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.

Madden said FBI special agents arrested Dutschke (pronounced DUHS'-kee) without incident. She said additional questions should be directed to the U.S. attorney's office. The office in Oxford did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.

Dutschke's attorney, Lori Nail Basham, did not immediately respond to phone or text messages Saturday. Basham said earlier this week that Dutschke was "cooperating fully" with investigators. Dutschke has insisted he had nothing to do with the letters.

Ryan Taylor, a spokesman for Wicker, said Saturday that "because the investigation is still ongoing, we're not able to comment."

Charges in the case were initially filed against an Elvis impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator. Earlier in the week, as investigators searched his primary residence in Tupelo, Dutschke had remarked to reporters, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

Charges initially were filed last week against Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, the Elvis impersonator, but then dropped after authorities said they had discovered new information. Curtis' lawyers say he was framed.

Curtis' attorney, Christi McCoy, said Saturday: "We are relieved but also saddened. This crime is nothing short of diabolical. I have seen a lot of meanness in the past two decades, but this stops me in my tracks. "

Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on an alleged conspiracy to sell body parts on a black market. But he said they later had a feud.

Judge Holland is a common link between the two men who have been investigated, and both know Wicker.

Holland was the presiding judge in a case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney in 2004. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.

Holland's family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke.

Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said he thinks his mother's only other encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.

Steve Holland said he doesn't know if his mother remembers Curtis' assault case.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/R2RXHvSZVvI/FBI-arrests-Mississippi-man-in-ricin-letters

brock lesnar kentucky jayhawks wwe wrestlemania oakland shooting mega millions winning numbers autism speaks

Scientists discover ridiculously small insect

With a length about 2.5 times the width of a human hair, Tinkerbella nana was spotted in a Costa Rican forest.

By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / April 25, 2013

This microscope image shows a dried Tinkerbella nana, a species of fairyfly. The scale line is equal to 100 micrometers, the average width of a human hair.

John T. Huber

Enlarge

A pair of scientists have discovered a new species of tiny insect, a miniscule wasp that lives in the forests of Costa Rica.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Named?Tinkerbella nana, after the Peter Pan character, the species measures no more than 250 micrometers in length. By comparison, the average human hair is about 100 micrometers wide.?

According to a paper?published Thursday in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, the insects were collected by John S. Noyes, an entomologist at London's Natural History Museum, who swept a mesh net through vegetation at Costa Rica's La Selva Biological Station. Samples from the net were then examined under a microscope.?

The species is a fairyfly, a type of wasp found worldwide. Most fairyflies are parasites that lives on other insects' eggs, but the researchers know almost nothing about?Tinkerbella's?behavior.?

As small as Tinkerbella is, its not the smallest flying insect. That distinction goes to Kikiki huna, a fairlyfly native to the Hawaiian islands that measures just 150 micrometers. The Canadian Forestry Service's John T. Huber, the primary author on the Tinkerbella paper, was also the principal discoverer, in 2000, of Kikiki.

But even Kikiki is not the smallest insect. The males of a wingless, eyeless species of fairyfly called Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, have measured no more than 139 micrometers long.?

How small can a bug get? Huber and Noyes's paper examines the theoretical minimum for insect sizes. Smaller animals tend to have a higher strength-to-weight ratio than larger ones, but once you get below a certain size, the muscles in an appendage get so small that they cannot overcome the appendage's own inertia. The authors suggest that winged insects capable of flapping their wings cannot be less than 150 micrometers long. For flightless insects, the smallest you can get while still being able to lift your body off the ground is, they suggest, about 125 micrometers.

In their introduction Huber and Noyes' quote an unlikely source, Pliny the Elder's "Natural History":?

Almost 2000 years ago, Pliny the Elder (ca. 23?79 A.D.) stated ?Rerum natura nusquam magis quam in minimis tota est? loosely translated as ?nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest.? In the absence of any means of magnification he could not possibly have seen the intricate structure and beauty of fairyflies or other minute organisms. But his statement certainly holds true.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/NGfeNczmAu0/Scientists-discover-ridiculously-small-insect

tom hardy British Open leaderboard Jessica Ghawi People Water Fred Willard Emmy nominations 2012 Ramadan 2012

Pro-Kremlin youth hunt down 'spice' pushers

MOSCOW (AP) ? Two men in their early twenties lie face down in the snow, hands tied behind their backs, heads doused with dark red paint. A dozen young men, some wearing surgical masks, wreck a car with hammers and axes. One sets fire to a plastic bag filled with a greenish powder and a stack of cards that read: "Aroma. Smoking mixes."

The powder is a synthetic drug known as "spice" that is Russia's latest scourge. The pair on the ground are alleged pushers. And the hammer-wielding men? Vigilantes fighting the drug's spread with widespread public approval, admiring television coverage ? and, according to critics, the Kremlin's tacit blessing.

The anti-drug gangs roaming streets in Moscow and other urban centers are an offshoot of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Young Russia. The vigilantes, who call themselves the Young Anti-Drugs Special Forces, have tapped into rising public outrage over the spread of drug use in Russia, and the impotence of law enforcement to stop it. They are also stirring concerns about President Vladimir Putin's perceived tolerance for extralegal actions against forces considered harmful to the regime or to public order.

Young Russia and a half dozen other pro-Kremlin youth groups were formed in the mid-2000s, analysts and opposition figures say, to prevent street protests similar to those that ushered pro-Western opposition forces into power in three ex-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Russian authorities are accused of encouraging violence, or the threat of violence, by youth gangs when dealing with what they see as threats to stability. The vigilantes' free hand indicates that the spice epidemic is seen as one of such threats.

The Interior Ministry, which controls Russia's police, declined comment to The Associated Press on the gangs, which suspended their activities this month without explanation. The head of Russia's anti-drugs agency, Viktor Ivanov, criticized the group's actions as illegal and "nothing but noise."

Spice consists of herbs coated in chemicals that mimic the effects of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. In recent years, millions here, mostly teenagers, have smoked various kinds of spice, attracted by its cheapness, availability and reputation for being harmless, officials and anti-drug campaigners say. Reliable figures on usage are not available because of the variety of kinds of spice on offer and the lack of official studies on the phenomenon.

Pushers sell bags of spice for less than $15, in schools or online, from bulletproof cars and shops with barred windows and metal doors. Their phone numbers are often scrawled on walls or sidewalks, or printed on business cards that carry messages such as "100 percent harmless smoking mix" and "Smoke and go to paradise." Some pushers never see their customers and text message the whereabouts of a spice stash after getting a money transfer.

Spice is mass produced in China and Southeast Asia and exported to Russia as bath salts, incense and slimming additives, often in mail packages.

Ivanov, who heads Russia's Federal Drug Control Agency, said fighting spice is nearly impossible, because banning one or more ingredients means manufacturers simply change the molecular structure of the chemicals or replace the herbs to skirt the law.

"There are 900 versions of it, and every week they come up with a new one," Ivanov told The Associated Press.

And that's where the masked men with hammers come in. The Anti-Drugs Special Forces, widely known by their Russian acronym, MAS, was formed last year and includes dozens of activists in Moscow, many of them with a background in martial arts. Leaders say the group gets funding from donors and small city-run construction projects that its volunteers work on.

And the group has its own formula for hunting down spice traders. They track down a pusher. One of them uses a hidden camera to videotape a "control purchase." And then a dozen or more attack, while one or two of them shoot video.

They sometimes face no resistance from lone pushers who beg to be released and swear never to sell spice anymore. Other times, they fail to break into their fortified shops, leaving after painting the doors and bullet-proof windows with graffiti saying: "Drugs are sold here" or "They kill your children with impunity." On rare occasions, pushers fight back or call their bosses ? burly men with guns and knives.

An Associated Press reporter observed the Moscow attacks on the two pushers who were doused with red paint in the snow.

Screaming obscenities and threats, more than a dozen vigilantes wearing masks and holding hammers surrounded a man with a baseball bat who had just jumped out of a parked car. The man moved backward, swinging his bat as several masked vigilantes closed in. The driver sat in the car, face convulsed with fear.

The attackers broke a window of the car and threw in a smoke candle, forcing the driver out. They punched and kicked him, tied his arms and legs with duct-tape and threw him to the snow, dousing his head with paint. From the car's front seat, they took a plastic bag with spice and set it afire. Seconds later, the first man was tied up and also soaked in paint. The assailants smashed the car with metal bars and hammers and turned it on its side.

The group admits that its methods are illegal.

"We're walking on the edge, but you have to understand that fighting drugs is a serious thing," said group leader Alexei Grunichev, fair-haired and gaunt, while showing raid videos on his laptop at the group's headquarters in several decrepit rooms. "We also understand our guilt for what we do, but I think that what we do is right and we will fight, keep fighting using these methods until law enforcement agencies, authorities can put everything under control."

The group claims to have conducted more than 300 raids over the past year in Moscow alone, and posts many raid videos online. These short clips are the backbone of the group's reputation and popular support ? despite the violence, obscenities and property damage they contain. They are available on YouTube, the website of their mother group, Young Russia, and on the group's page on vk.com, Russia's most popular social networking site.

MAF issued a low-key statement on vk.com this month saying that it had halted drug raids on April 12. However, the group's main website does not mention the suspension and still advertises its hardcore solutions to the spice use problem.

Hundreds of Russians leave encouraging messages on the group's webpages, young rappers praise them in songs and Russian television networks run reports on the group's raids.

"People often say, 'You should just kill those pushers,' although that's not the way we work," says Arkady Grichishkin, an agitated 21-year-old martial arts student often seen on the group's videos as a leader of raids.

The Federal Drugs Control Agency said it does not condone the group's raids.

"We cannot welcome it," said Ivanov. "It lies beyond law ? first of all. And secondly, it makes nothing but noise." The vigilantes, however, appear to see Ivanov as an ally, posting his portrait on the walls of their headquarters.

Users say that the high they get is extremely intense and hallucinogenic. After several weeks of using spice, the drug causes sleep and weight loss, hypertension, seizures and can even lead to schizophrenia, according to officials, health experts and studies in Russia, EU and the U.S.

Users' parents also appear to be worried.

"Eighty per cent of phone calls our hot line gets are about spice," says Alexander Bysov of the Moscow-based Sodeistvie ? or Assistance ? anti-drugs fund that has a hotline for drug addicts and their parents and runs a rehab. "Parents are already crying SOS."

___

Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr. contributed to this report

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pro-kremlin-youth-hunt-down-spice-pushers-064422126.html

The Pope bruno mars the Grammys 2013 State of the Union 2013 katy perry Rihanna Katy Perry Grammys 2013

Movement of pyrrole molecules defy 'classical' physics

Apr. 26, 2013 ? New research shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the centuries-old laws of 'classical' physics that govern our everyday world.

Using uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics -- believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels -- can actually impact on a molecular level.

Researchers at Cambridge's Chemistry Department and Cavendish Laboratory say they have evidence that, in the case of pyrrole, quantum laws affecting the internal motions of the molecule change the "very nature of the energy landscape" -- making this 'quantum motion' essential to understanding the distribution of the whole molecule.

The study, a collaboration between scientists from Cambridge and Rutgers universities, appeared in the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie earlier this month.

A pyrrole molecule's centre consists of a "flat pentagram" of five atoms, four carbon and one nitrogen. Each of these atoms has an additional hydrogen atom attached, sticking out like spokes.

Following experiments performed by Barbara Lechner at the Cavendish Laboratory to determine the energy required for movement of pyrrole across a copper surface, the team discovered a discrepancy that led them down a 'quantum' road to an unusual discovery.

In previous work on simpler molecules, the scientists were able to accurately calculate the 'activation barrier' -- the energy required to loosen a molecule's bond to a surface, allowing movement -- using 'density functional theory', a method that treats the electrons which bind the atoms according to quantum mechanics but, crucially, deals with atomic nuclei using a 'classical' physics approach.

Surprisingly, with pyrrole the predicted 'activation barriers' were way out, with calculations "less than a third of the measured value." After much head scratching, puzzled scientists turned to a purely quantum phenomenon called 'zero-point energy'.

In classical physics, an object losing energy can continue to do so until it can be thought of as sitting perfectly still. In the quantum world, this is never the case: everything always retains some form of residual -- even undetectable -- energy, known as 'zero-point energy'.

While 'zero-point energy' is well known to be associated with motion of the atoms contained in molecules, it was previously believed that such tiny amounts of energy simply don't affect the molecule as a whole to any measurable extent, unless the molecule broke apart.

But now, the researchers have discovered that the "quantum nature" of the molecule's internal motion actually does affect the molecule as a whole as it moves across the surface, defying the 'classical' laws that it's simply too big to feel quantum effects.

'Zero-point energy' moving within a pyrrole molecule is unexpectedly sensitive to the exact site occupied by the molecule on the surface. In moving from one site to another, the 'activation energy' must include a sizeable contribution due to the change in the quantum 'zero-point energy'.

Scientists believe the effect is particularly noticeable in the case of pyrrole because the 'activation energy' needed for diffusion is particularly small, but that many other similar molecules ought to show the same kind of behavior.

"Understanding the nature of molecular diffusion on metal surfaces is of great current interest, due to efforts to manufacture two-dimensional networks of ring-like molecules for use in optical, electronic or spintronic devices," said Dr Stephen Jenkins, who heads up the Surface Science Group in Cambridge's Department of Chemistry.

"The balance between the activation energy and the energy barrier that sticks the molecules to the surface is critical in determining which networks are able to form under different conditions."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original article is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Barbara A. J. Lechner, Holly Hedgeland, John Ellis, William Allison, Marco Sacchi, Stephen J. Jenkins, B. J. Hinch. Quantum Influences in the Diffusive Motion of Pyrrole on Cu(111). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201302289

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/RDFpcgJ5_Os/130426115449.htm

yahoo news regions Google News Pray For Boston Anne Frank What Happened In Boston gold price

Types Of Mobile Computing Computer Science Essay - UK Essays

The object of mobile computing is to develop system, add more features to mobiles and hand hold things which make life easier and application level software, which is working with battery or battery powered terminals equipped with the wireless network connection. Companies are spending billions of money on these things to developing new technology and buying spectrum in the recent PCS auctions cause of their rapidly growing interest in this field. In present time mobile computing becomes a very important paradigm. Ranging of mobile computing, laptops, PDAs and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth have become ubiquitous in its impact on our daily lives. We will investigate standard protocols and platforms, the capabilities of today's commercial devices, and proposed next-generation solutions.? In the process, we will seek to gain an improved understanding about where the field is headed, and what are the important remaining unanswered technical questions and challenges.

INTRODUCTION

Mobile Computing is a technology that allows to user for transmission of data via a computer and it has not need to connect to a fixed physical link. Portable and small computing devices in wireless enabled networks that are provide wireless connections to a central main server. These devices include laptops, notebook PC?s palmtops, personal digital assistant (PDAs) and other hand held devise. A radio-signalling deviceis installed inside these devices. Mobile computing is the discipline for creating an information management platform. It is free from spatial and temporal constraints. The freedom from these constraints allow its users to access and process desired from anywhere in the space. A user can continue to access and manipulate desired data while traveling on plane, in car, on ship etc. Mobile computing devices generally use wireless technologies such as LAN, Wi-Fi, GPRS and the more recently introduced MAN.

The discipline of mobile communication has its origin in personal Communications Services(PCs).These PCS refers to a wide variety of wireless access and personal mobility services, which is provided through a small terminal like call phone and the main goal of it has o enabling communications at any time , at any place and in any form.

Mobile voice communication is widely established throughout the world and has had a very rapid increase in the number of subscribers to the various cellular networks over the last few years. An extension of this technology is the ability to send data and receive data across these cellular networks. This is the main principle of mobile computing.

Mobile data communication has become a very important and rapidly evolving technology, because it allows users to transmit the data from one place to another or remote locations to other remote or fixed locations. This proves to be the solution to the biggest problem of business people on the move - mobility.

Finding

Mobile computing has different categories but it i broadly classified into two categories which are portable computing and mobility computing.

Portable computing: - It is refers to wired communication. We can move the portable devices themselves any ware, but in order to access them one needs to connect them to a network port. It means we can move these devices any ware ant time but have to need a connection to connect them with a network port or where the network portable available.

Mobility computing: - It is also called simply mobile computing, this is true wireless communication. In these devices people not can move the devices they also can use it without any portable connection. In other word they can use it anywhere any time and at anyplace without any limited area or coverage. Mobile computing has made its foray into almost every aspect of human life. In normal present life, mobile computing is a boon to people on the move; whether top check their emails or using other services such as SMS and MMS and these are famous in new younger generation. Mobile computing has become an indispensable extension of technology in these days.

Types of Mobile Computing Devices

The mobile devices which are able to connect to internet all are the parts of mobile devices, but some people classify that the standard MP3 payers and digital cameras are also the pats of mobile computing. The term mobile devise covers a very large area or wide range of consumer electronics. The category of mobile devices includes the following devices, as well as others:

1. Personal Digital Assistant: It also knows as pocket computers, a device which have all the features like computing,computing, telephone/fax, Internet and networking is called personal digital assistant. A typical PDA can function as a cellular phone, fax sender, Web browser and personal organizer. In these days mostly personal digital assistant began as pen-based and these are using a stylus rather than a keyboard for input. This means that they also incorporated handwriting recognition features.\Some of these are controlled by the voice and these are voice controlled which are based on voice recognition technologies. At present time personal digital assistant are available in either a stylus or keyboard version which is called a data pad.

It supposed to be have some features which are following as:

Short Messaging Service (SMS). A technology, in existence since 1991, that allows for the sending of short text messages (up to 160 characters in2005) on certain cell phones. Data are borne by the radio resources reserved in cellular networks for locating mobile devices and connecting calls. SMS messages can be sent or received concurrently, even during a voice or data call. Used by hundreds of millions of users, SMS is known as the e-mail ofm-commerce.

Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS). An extension of SMS that is capable of simple animation, tiny pictures, and short melodies.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). The next generation of wireless messaging, this technology will be able to deliver rich media.

Bluetooth. A chip technology wireless standard designed for temporary, short-range connection (data and voice) among mobile devices and/or other devices (see bluetooth.org).

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). A technology that offers Internet browsing from wireless devices.

Wi-Fi (short for Wireless Fidelity). Refers to a standard 802.11b on whichmost of the wireless local area networks (WLANs) run.

WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). A broad term for all 802.11 standards. Basically, it is a wireless version of the Ethernet networking standard.

2. Smartphone: Those devise which have both features mobile phone features and it can also use as computer are called smartphone in other words a mobile phone with brain. These devices give you authority to install programs, store information etc. along with using only a mobile phone in single devise.

A Smartphone could be a mobile phone with some PDA functions integrated into the device or vice versa. 3G and latest 4G mobiles are a good example of smartphones.

3. Tablet PC:Those notebook computers which are not movable and also use a stylus to write in it,the handwriting is digitized and can be converted to standard text through handwriting recognition or it is written in text form. The stylus also can be used to type on a pen-based key layout where the lettered keys are arranged differently than a standard QWERTY keyboard. For input these computer also have a keyboard and a mouse.

Mobile Operating Systems (Mobile OS)

A software platform in a mobile operating system that determines all the features and functions in your device it is same like a computer operating system such as keyboards, wireless, security, thumbwheel, and synchronization with applications, e-mail, text messaging and many more things.

Some of the well-known andmore common Mobile operating systems include the following:

1. Symbian OS:- It stand for Symbian operating system Symbian OS has become a standard operating system for smartphones, and is licensed by more than 85 per cents of the world's handset manufacturers. The Symbian OS is designed for the specific requirements of 2.5G and 3G mobile phones.

2. Windows Mobile: - The Windows Mobile platform is available on a variety of devices from a variety of wireless operators. You will find Windows Mobile software on Dell, HP, Motorola, Palm and i-mate products. Windows Mobile powered devices are available on GSM or CDMA networks.

3. Palm OS - Since the introduction of the first Palm Pilot in 1996, the Palm OS platform has provided mobile devices with essential business tools, as well as capability to access the Internet or a central corporate database via a wireless connection.

History

Year 1928: - The first mobile radio system went into operation in Detroit. It was used by the Detroit Police Department.

Year 1935: - Frequency modulation has been developed and tested.

Year 1943:- AT&T developed and introduced the Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS). It consisted of a broadcast system with a higher-power transmitter. This system was followed shortly with limited cellular networks and the implementation of the first mobile radio system to connect with a fixed telephone number.

Year 1950: - Paging systems began to appear. During this period, Bell Labs continued to test the cellular techniques.

Year 1970: - Federal Communication Commission (FCC) allocated spectrum space for cellular systems. At this time, AT&T proposed the cellular system that is now known as the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS).

Year 1983: - The cellular service was commercially implemented in Chicago and Baltimore.

Limitations of mobile computing

In addition to these technical challenges, mobile computing also faces business challenges. This is due to the lack of trained professionals to bring the mobile technology to the general people and development of pilot projects for testing its capabilities.There are few limitations of mobile computing which are followings: -

Revising the technical architecture: Mobile users want more features in mobile according to their increases of need, so they are demanding, they are very important for the business world. Additional data architecture and application must also be revised to provide coml.-plate connectivity for users with present up to date communication technology, by mobile connectivity

Reliability cost, capacity, and coverage: -In these days wireless network has only limited geographic coverage and its cost is more than the wired network services. But is very slow and less reliable with reduced bandwidth. So it is really important to find a new way to use this resource more efficiently by designing innovative applications.

3. Integration with legacy mainframe and emerging client/server applications: Application development paradigms are changing. As a result of the IT industry's original focus on mainframes, a huge inventory of applications using communications interfaces that are basically incompatible with mobile connectivity have been accumulated..

4. End-to-end design and performance: Since mobile computing involves multiple networks (including wired) and multiple application server platforms, end-to-end technical compatibility, server capacity design, and network response time estimates are difficult to achieve.

5. Security: Wireless networks have relatively more security requirements than wired network. A number of approaches have been suggested and also the use of encryption is has been proposed.

Summary

Mobile computing can be broadly classified into categories.

Portable computing:- A portable device which we can move themselves anywhere but has to need a network port to connect them or where network portable is available and it is wired communication method.

Mobile computing: - A device which we can move anywhere without any portable connection it is work on large coverage area and easy to move anywhere , any time and it is also called wireless communication.

All the devise which are able to connect with the internet are includes in mobile computing.

And these have few categories which are followings: -

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA): - A devise which has features like computing, telephone/fax, internet and networking know as Personal Digital Assistant. A Normal PDA example is a cellular phone which has features is fax sender, web browser and it is personal organiser. It is also known as pocket computers. Now days all PDA assistant are available in either a stylus or keyboard version which is called a data pad. It is also have some more important features like short messaging Service (SMS), Enhanced messaging Service (EMS),Multimedia messaging Service (MMS), Bluetooth, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP),wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi) and Wireless local area network (WLAN).

Smartphone: - A devise which has both features mobile phone and it can be used as computer, or computer application can be used in it and these kinds of phones have called ?mobile with brain?. In market lots of smartphone are available, new i-phone 4g is a big example of smartphone in mobile computing. It is kind of little computer and you can run all the computer programs in it.

Table PC: - Those devices which are not moveable and connected with a wired or is working with a limited connection area is called table PC. These devices are knows as desktop computer and a keyboard and a mouse is used t for input in this devise.

Mobile operating system (mobile OS): - A software platform in a mobile operating system which has all the features and functions , it is working same like a computer and it is also have keyboard, wireless connection ,security, thumbwheel and synchronization ,e-mail ,text messaging and some more functions as following: -

Symbian OS:

Windows Mobile?

Palm OS

Limitations of mobile computing: - There are few limitations of mobile computing which are followings: -

Revising the technical architecture

Reliability cost, capacity, and coverage

Integration with legacy mainframe and emerging client/server applications: -

End-to-end design and performance

Security.

Referencing

Prathik. (2006).Mobile entertainment. Retrieved from http://mobiletip.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

Mascolo, C. M. (2010). IEEE Internet Computing. The Power of Mobile Computing, 14 (6), 76.

Jain, S. (2008). Introduction to Mobile Computing. Retrieved November 1, 2010 from Whitireia community Polytechnic, The ACM Digital Library Web site: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/360000/355147/intro72.html?key1=355147&key2=2251558821&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=69279358&CFTOKEN=42292848

Bibliography Reference

Deshwal, R., & (2009, March). Operating System for Mobile Devices. Cipher-A Trinity Newsletter, p.1.

Kondounas, V. & Iqbal, O. (1996). MOBILE COMPUTING: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. Retrieved November 1, 2010 from http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_96/journal/vol4/vk5/report.html

Need an essay? You can buy essay help from us today!

Please rate the quality of this essay:

Thanks for your rating :)

Struggling with your essay?

You can get your essay custom written by an expert in your subject area. Fully researched and referenced, the perfect model answer...

Get a quote here

Request the removal of this essay.

Source: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/computer-science/types-of-mobile-computing-computer-science-essay.php

Outside Lands washington post Family Guy Boston Marathon revolution huffington post What is ricin Boston Marathon Explosion

Court upholds EU ban on importing seal products

LUXEMBOURG (AP) ? A court says the European Union's ban on importing products from seal hunts can stand, despite a challenge by manufacturers and traders.

EU law authorizes the marketing of seal products resulting only from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit communities for subsistence.

The General Court of the European Union ruled Thursday that, as different member countries were enacting their own regulations, EU-wide action was needed to preserve the single market.

Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International/Canada, said animal rights activists are "thrilled that the European General Court has rejected this shameful attempt by the commercial sealing industry to overturn the EU ban on seal product trade."

The ruling can be appealed to a higher court.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-upholds-eu-ban-importing-seal-products-150729766.html

tcu dr. oz heart attack grill las vegas the heart attack grill joe kennedy iii joseph kennedy iii ghost hunters

Justice says Armstrong was 'unjustly enriched'

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? The Justice Department laid out its case in a lawsuit against Lance Armstrong on Tuesday, saying the cyclist violated his contract with the U.S. Postal Service and was "unjustly enriched" while cheating to win the Tour de France.

The government had previously announced it would join the whistle-blower lawsuit brought by former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis under the federal False Claims Act. Tuesday was the deadline for the Justice Department to file its formal complaint.

The Postal Service paid about $40 million to be the title sponsor of Armstrong's teams for six of his seven Tour de France victories. The filing in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., says the USPS paid Armstrong $17 million form 1998-2004.

The lawsuit also names former team Armstrong team director Johan Bruyneel and team management company Tailwind Sports as defendants.

The financial costs for Armstrong and Bruyneel could be high. The government said it would seek triple damages assessed by the jury.

"Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly or indirectly," the complaint said.

Armstrong, who in January admitted using performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials, has argued that the Postal Service's endorsement of his team earned the government agency far more than it paid him.

Armstrong attorney Elliot Peters called the government's complaint "opportunistic" and "insincere."

"The U.S. Postal Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship of the cycling team. Its own studies repeatedly and conclusively prove this," Peters said. "The USPS was never the victim of fraud. Lance Armstrong rode his heart out for the USPS team, and gave the brand tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years."

The government must prove not only that the Postal Service was defrauded, but that it was damaged somehow.

Previous studies done for the Postal Service concluded the agency reaped at least $139 million in worldwide brand exposure in four years ? $35 million to $40 million for sponsoring the Armstrong team in 2001; $38 million to $42 million in 2002; $31 million in 2003; and $34.6 million in 2004.

Landis attorney Paul Scott dismissed the idea that profits to the Postal Service negate the claims of fraud because the agency is forever tainted.

"Even if the USPS received some ephemeral media exposure in connection with Mr. Armstrong's false victories, any illusory benefit from those times will be swamped over time immemorial by the USPS forever being tied to the largest doping scandal in the history of sports," Scott said.

The formal complaint against Armstrong appears to rely heavily on evidence and statements supplied by Landis and gathered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for its 2012 investigation that exposed a doping program on the USPS team. Armstrong has been banned from sports for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France victories.

Bruyneel, who lives in London, also has been charged by USADA with doping violations but is fighting that case in arbitration.

The government notes the contract with the Postal Service required riders to follow the rules of cycling, which included bans on performance-enhancing drugs and methods. Armstrong now admits using steroids, blood boosters and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs and measures to win.

By breaking the rules and covering it up, Armstrong and Bruyneel committed fraud against the U.S. government, the complaint said.

The complaint said that for years, team officials assured the Postal Service that the team wasn't doping.

Armstrong had been the target of a federal criminal grand jury, but that case was closed without charges in February 2012. Armstrong has previously tried to settle the Landis whistleblower lawsuit, but those talks broke down before the government announced its intention to join the case.

Armstrong also is fighting a lawsuit from Dallas-based promotions company SCA to recover about $12 million it paid him in bonuses, and a lawsuit from the London-based Sunday Times, which wants to get back $500,000 it paid him to settle a libel case.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/justice-says-armstrong-unjustly-enriched-223928621--spt.html

dez bryant Kitty Wells Marissa Mayer Jon Lord Colorado shootings dark knight rises Aurora shooting

House GOP preparing for debt showdown this summer (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301298400?client_source=feed&format=rss

rail gun harrisburg top chef texas great pacific garbage patch ben affleck and jennifer garner google privacy changes windows 8 preview

Blast zone slowly comes back to life

Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

People are escorted across Boylston Street on April 23 as residents and business owners are allowed to return to the street for the first time since the Boston Marathon bombings.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

BOSTON ? A week and a day after the Boston Marathon bombings, business owners and residents began to return Tuesday to the six-block, cordoned-off area of the attack that investigators painstakingly scoured for evidence.

It has been a long wait for Joy Lee and her employees at Samurai Boston, a store near the race?s finish line on Boylston Street. ?Lee said she has been unable to get to tax and payroll documents since the bombings and she missed a deadline to file meal taxes. Even her car has been blocked off behind the police barriers still decorated with flowers and messages of support.

"We have all the employees text messaging me every single day," Lee said as she waited to return to her business in a steady drizzle Tuesday. "They?re all looking for jobs. They have to pay the rent."

Lee said she would take two employees with her back into the restaurant Tuesday to clean up and clear food gone bad from the refrigerators. She was one of many Boylston business owners expected to show up at the Hynes Convention Center to re-enter their shops under a staggered schedule laid out by the city.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino?s office released a plan Monday night to bring Boylston back to life after investigators handed the site back to the city in a brief ceremony. The plan allowed residents and business owners with essential staff to return to return block-by-block from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The city has not yet announced when the street will be reopened to the public.

At the barricades on Clarendon and Boylston streets, where police allowed pedestrians and vehicles to pass Tuesday, a man and woman in running gear shared a long embrace before jogging away.

Makeshift memorials remain, many of them bearing the names of the victims killed in the attack ? Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard, and Lu Lingzi ? as well as that of Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer believed to have been slain Thursday by the alleged bombers.

The prolonged closure may have untold long-term effects for some businesses in the area, but some Bostonians said Tuesday they?ll dig into their own pockets to ensure the shops and restaurants that line the area around the marathon?s finish line make a strong comeback.

"I already made a reservation at Atlantic Fish Company," said Dan Gross, 30, an account executive at an advertising agency near Boylston. He is booked for 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday, and says if they?re serving, he?ll be there.

The restaurant said that it remained closed "until further notice" in a statement on its website Tuesday.

"I think everyone should just get back there and support the businesses," Gross said. "They lost a lot."

John Berosh, 46, heard the first explosion from his office on the 22nd floor of an office building overlooking the race.

"I knew something wasn?t right," said the software engineer, an 18-year resident of the city. "I went to the window and saw a huge, hideous cloud of smoke coming up from the street." Then he saw the second bomb go off.

Berosh, who said he watches the marathon from his office most years, said he?s ready for Boylston to get back to its usual bustle.

"I am very excited," he said. "I am very proud to tell you that I was here at work last Thursday and Friday, just to hold the door for someone, smile at someone.?

But like Lee, who?s worried about helping her employees make their rents, Berosh said it?s not just the business owners who have been set back by the closure.

"Tip your waiters," Berosh said.

An electronics repair store called iFixYouri on adjacent Newbury Street was shut for several days after the bombings.

"We?re a small, family-run company, and the impact of what happened last week has been significant," said Michelle Zausnig, vice president of marketing for the Florida-based company. ?Being shut down, it impacted us as a small business because we don?t have unlimited resources."

The store saw a return to regular business when it re-opened last Friday.

"We?re expecting to rise again, just like the city," Zausnig said.

Related:

?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b13db4a/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C230C17880A5690Eblast0Ezone0Eslowly0Ecomes0Eback0Eto0Elife0Dlite/story01.htm

green party day 26 new hunger games trailer sasquatch david choe national wear red day gunner kiel

Bobcats fire coach Mike Dunlap after 1 season

Charlotte Bobcats head coach Mike Dunlap reacts to a call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. The Bobcats won 105-98. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Charlotte Bobcats head coach Mike Dunlap reacts to a call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. The Bobcats won 105-98. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Charlotte Bobcats head coach Mike Dunlap, left, talks with referee Dick Bavetta, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Mike Dunlap is one and done with the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Bobcats fired Dunlap as coach Tuesday after a single season.

The Bobcats went 21-61 under Dunlap, finishing with the second-worst record in the NBA ahead of only the Orlando Magic. Charlotte won just seven games in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, but tripling last year's victory total and a three-game winning streak to close the season weren't enough to save Dunlap's job.

Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said he and general manager Rich Cho met with players and Dunlap before approaching owner Michael Jordan and asking him to make a coaching change.

"The change was allowed," Higgins said.

Dunlap struggled at times with game management, transitioning from the college game to the NBA and handling professional athletes, often benching veteran players for weeks at a time after they'd irritated him in some way.

Higgins said player input was "a part of the process, but not the only indicator."

During one point in the season Dunlap feuded with veteran guard Ben Gordon during a practice, and his micromanaging approach didn't always sit well with some of the more experienced players on the roster.

"I just don't think he was a great fit," general manager Rich Cho said. "Probably best that we go in a different direction."

Dunlap was unavailable for comment.

The move means the Bobcats will have a third head coach in as many seasons.

The Bobcats hired Dunlap last June after he had been working as an assistant at St. John's, the first person to make a direct move from an assistant coach at the college level to a head coaching position in the NBA.

Dunlap replaced Paul Silas, who was fired after the Bobcats went 7-59 in 2011-12, the worst winning percentage in NBA history (.106).

The Bobcats got off to a surprising 7-5 start, but even Dunlap said at the time he "didn't trust" the record. The Bobcats would go on to lose 18 straight games and quickly regain their spot at the bottom of the NBA standings, where they would remain until closing with three wins and moving ahead of the Magic.

Higgins cited the team's inconsistent play as one of the reasons Dunlap was released.

"You can characterize the season in different buckets," Higgins said. "We started pretty strong and we finished pretty strong. But through the middle part of those two buckets we had some inconsistencies. So when Rich and I reviewed the season we came to the conclusion we needed a change."

Dunlap entered training camp with a desire to push his young players physically, and three- and four-hour practices became the norm. Dunlap talked early in the season about disrupting teams with three-quarter presses, but those plans were quickly abandoned.

The Bobcats were outscored by 757 points this season, more than any team in the NBA.

Defensively, the Bobcats allowed 102.6 points per game, the second-most in the league, and they were the NBA's worst shooting team at 42.5 percent.

After the season, Dunlap sounded like a man politicking to keep his job.

"I never thought that we were going to blink our eyes and have 35 wins," Dunlap said last week. "I thought it was always going to be a slog. We're slowly moving this thing around and again, what's perspective? The worst team in the history of the NBA (last season), all right, so how do you go from seven wins to, say, 40 wins? That's pretty tough to do."

The Bobcats interviewed 10 candidates last summer for the job.

Now that process will start all over.

"In the NBA, you're not surprised by a lot because so many different things happen," Higgins said of the decision. "It's the business."

With the Bobcats getting another top-five draft pick this year and having up to $21 million to spend under the salary cap, Higgins and Cho don't believe there will be a lack of interested candidates in the position.

"Since the release our cellphones have been blowing up," Higgins said. "It lets you know that there is interest in this job, a high level of interest."

Higgins said it's too early for a list of candidates but indicated he wants a coach who's a great leader, able to develop players and great with Xs and Os.

When asked if the team is looking for a candidate with more NBA experience this time around, Cho was non-committal.

"I don't want to pigeonhole ourselves," Cho said. "We want to find out the best fit."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-23-Bobcats-Dunlap%20Fired/id-827faea598e54dbbb7240e18a4dff9be

jewel san francisco earthquake san francisco earthquake terminator salvation terminator salvation jarhead montrose

Can the law go easy on pickpocket pensioners? - The Local

Should criminal pensioners be given lighter sentences just because they are old? A German police association wants to introduce a senior version of juvenile law for the elderly, but critics say it would be ageist.

A move to make sure older criminals can get off with lighter sentences has come up against criticism from politicians who believe it would be unfair, wrote the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday.

The initiative by the Federation of German Criminal Police Officers (BDK) wants to ensure judges take elderly criminals' age and personal circumstances - such as growing age-related poverty - into account when handing out prison sentences or fines.

According to BDK figures, six percent of all criminals are currently over 60 and 70 percent of them are first-time offenders - many of them discovering the possibilities of online fraud.

Andr? Schulz, head of the BDK, told the Hamburger Morgenpost back in February that pensioners are driven to crime because they cannot pay their rent or buy their food. And, said Schulz, Germany's rapidly aging population will mean the proportion of criminals over the age of 60 will only rise in the coming years, wrote the paper.

But critics of the scheme - such as North Rhine-Westphalian Justice Minister Thomas Kutschaty - say giving pensioners breaks in the same way as juveniles is both superfluous and potentially ageist.

"The regional government does not see a need to introduce a separate criminal law for senior citizens," wrote Kutschaty on Monday in a reply to a parliamentary inquiry by the regional opposition Conservative (CDU) fraction.

Under existing law, wrote the minister, judges can already take into account personal circumstances - including age - as well as the effect of the punishment.
Also, he said, the demographic shift has not yet seen rocketing numbers of pick-pocketing pensioners.

Between 2007 and 2011, the number of convicted criminals over the age of 60 in North Rhine-Westphalia - Germany's most populous state - has only risen by 59 to 7,540, representing a rise of from four to 4.2 percent of all convicts, said Kutschaty.

Meanwhile, it was wrong to compare senior citizens to juveniles, he said. Young people could be let off lighter because they were not yet mature enough to see consequences of their actions - not something which could be said of pensioners.

The Local/jlb

Source: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130423-49307.html

4th Of July 2012 Zach Parise Spain Vs Italy Euro 2012 Pepco erin andrews erin andrews tour de france