From George Clooney to Brad Pitt, check out photos of the swoon-worthy men who hit the Screen Actors Guild Awards this year.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
(Founder Stories) SoftTech VC?s Clavier: An Investor?s Role Isn?t To Give Orders
SoftTech VC's,?Jeff Clavier has edged his way from a true Silicon Valley outsider (born and raised in France) to the ultimate insider. Since moving to the valley a decade ago, Clavier has launched three funds?and?invested in more than 100 companies, the likes of which include Mint, FitBit, and Fab,. Not bad for a guy who claims to have jumped "into venture by accident." Having just raised?$55 million?for his third fund, which will invest on average "$400,000" per startup, Clavier sat down with?Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon to discuss how he built his business.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4y-5-ZwCxqk/
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Davos leaders look to China's investments abroad (AP)
DAVOS, Switzerland ? Chinese investors are trying to follow the rules when spending money abroad, the head of one of China's biggest private equity firms said Thursday, as global leaders increasingly look to the country to prop up the world economy.
Worries that Europe's slowdown would hurt stronger economies are overshadowing discussions at this week's World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Attention turned Thursday to how China can help, even as some remain wary about its growing dominance.
John Zhao, CEO of Hony Capital, said foreign prejudice about Chinese investments is unfair, but acknowledged that some companies are still learning a game that much of the world has been playing for decades.
Chinese companies and government funds have been using vast reserves of cash to buy up foreign companies and invest in foreign government bonds in recent years. But with billions of dollars in Chinese investments pouring into their countries, some governments have accused China of seeking to exploit the economic weakness of others to grab valuable natural and technological resources at rock bottom prices.
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has also repeatedly accused China of breaking global trade rules by giving unfair protection to its companies and domestic workers.
"The vast majority of Chinese companies are trying to follow the rules as they understand it," said Zhao, whose company controls PC maker Lenovo, which bought IBM's computer division in 2005. "But many Chinese companies are still trying to learn the rules."
The director general of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, said China will continue to face "public perception problems" from its investments abroad.
"We will see in the years to come, as China's investments grow and grow. ... We will have the same sort of political turbulences as we have had on trade for the last 10 years," he said.
One way for China to ease the rest of the world's fears about its extravagant corporate shopping sprees is be more open about its vast poverty problem at home, said Lamy.
"In order for this to result in a win-win game a number of public perception issues have to be addressed," he said.
Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld reminded listeners that China's companies aren't the only ones with a reputation problem.
"We in the Western world have had a long tradition of corporate misdeeds," he said, citing Enron in the United States and Parmalat of Italy ? both of which collapsed after years of hiding massive holes in their accounts.
Yale President Richard C. Levin suggested the rest of the world could be grateful for China's investment interest, as eventually the country of over 1 billion people will have to start spending more of its cash on problems at home, including the lack of proper social security for an aging population.
"Some fraction of these trillions could be used domestically," he said.
The head of the Asian Development Bank said Asia has already been affected by the ongoing European financial crisis in two ways ? through the withdrawal of credit in Asia by many European banks and financial institutions and a drop in trade, which will impact China because Europe is its largest export market.
"I really hope that the European financial crisis can be overcome," Haruhiko Kuroda said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The Davos forum, where business and political leaders gather every year in an invitation-only event, is under growing criticism by those who feel it's too removed from the real world.
Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and other leaders brought any sense of euphoria crashing back down to earth, appealing for the millions of people who do not have enough food to eat.
"The world can feed itself. Africa can feed itself. The problem is we have vulnerable populations who do not have access," Okonjo-Iweala said.
Malnourished people, particularly kids, are more susceptible to dying from malaria and other diseases in Africa, said Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose philanthropy has mainly focused on promoting health.
Gates also rode to the rescue of a beleaguered health fund by pledging $750 million to fight three of world's killer diseases. A donor backlash over losses at the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria forced it to cancel more than $1 billion in new spending last year. The fund's executive director said Tuesday he is resigning.
Leaders at the Davos forum are looking later Thursday at challenges to democratic institutions around the world, including protest movements such as Occupy Wall Street.
Activists from Occupy Davos are camping out in igloos and yurts to call attention to income inequality.
"With 50 million people going below the poverty line, and over 200 million becoming unemployed with the recent crisis, it's stopped being a question of hardship and starting to become an issue of human rights violations," said Salil Shetty, the secretary-general of Amnesty International.
"This is a man-made crisis and the people who have caused the crisis, many of whom are in Davos, should be held to account," he told The Associated Press.
___
John Heilprin and Edith M. Lederer in Davos contributed to this story.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Google + Nicknames = Hilarity
Google's so desperate for the boys to come to its yard that it won't be long before it buys a milkshake factory. Until then, it's relaxing its ban on nicknames for Google+ users: now amusingly nicknamed composer W.G. "Snuffy" Walden can get back to being himself. Just remember that any name change will carry through Google's entire online service, so try to avoid anything too raunchy if you also use Gmail for work. If you use a pseudonym (say "Madonna") then you'll have to submit scanned copies of you getting papped in Hollywood before you'll be able to use your assumed name. The service will be quietly rolling out to users in the next week, to add your own hilarious nickname, just edit your profile's name and hit the More Options text to the right.
Google + Nicknames = Hilarity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Solar storm expected to fire up northern lights
This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. Physicist Doug Biesecker said the biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later. It will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. (AP Photo/NASA)
This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. Physicist Doug Biesecker said the biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later. It will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. (AP Photo/NASA)
This colorized NASA image, taken Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows a flare shooting out of the top of the sun. It was taken in a special teal wavelength to best see the flare. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. Physicist Doug Biesecker said the biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later. It will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. (AP Photo/NASA)
STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Stargazers were out in force in northern Europe on Tuesday, hoping to be awed by a spectacular showing of northern lights after the most powerful solar storm in six years.
Even before particles from that storm reached the Earth on Tuesday, the aurora borealis was dancing across the sky as far south as Ireland and England, where people rarely get a chance to catch the stunning light show.
"The lights appear as green and red mist. It's been mostly green the past few nights. I don't know if that's just special for Ireland," said Gerard O'Kane, a 41-year-old taxi driver and vice chairman of the Buncrana Camera Club in County Donegal in Ireland's northwest corner.
He and at least two dozen amateur photographers were meeting after dark at a local beach for an all-night stakeout. They've been shooting the horizon from dozens of locations since Friday night.
An aurora appears when a magnetic solar wind slams into the Earth's magnetic field, exciting electrons of oxygen and nitrogen.
The northern lights are sometimes seen from northern Scotland, but they were also visible Monday night from northeast England and Ireland, where such sightings are a rarity.
Those auroras were likely just variations in normal background solar wind, not the solar storm that erupted Sunday, said physicist Doug Biesecker at the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.
He said a geomagnetic storm Tuesday that came from that solar storm seemed to mostly miss Earth, going a bit north, so it was unlikely that auroras would extend too far south Tuesday night.
While the geomagnetic part of the solar eruption ? which happened around 11 p.m. EST Sunday ? was more of a fizzle, another earlier part of the sun's outburst was more powerful.
On Monday and Tuesday, the proton radiation from the eruption reached strong levels, the most powerful since October 2003. That mostly affects astronauts and satellites, but NASA said the crew on the International Space Station was not harmed and only a few minor problems with satellites were reported, Biesecker said.
On the northern edge of Europe, where auroras are common, the sky lit up after nightfall Tuesday. A webcam from Abisko, northernmost Sweden, showed bright bands of green sweeping across the starry sky.
Aboard the M/S Midnatsol, a cruise ship plying the fjord-fringed coast of Norway, British astronomer John Mason said the lights danced around in "fantastic structure" Tuesday evening.
"We had green arcs with rays going up in the sky. And because we were underneath them, they were making all kinds of shapes in the sky. One looked like a heart," he said. He was expecting an even stronger display later Tuesday or early Wednesday, as Sunday's solar flare kicks in with full force.
Geomagnetic storms cause awesome sights, but they can also bring trouble. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, problems can include current surges in power lines, and interference in the broadcast of radio, TV and telephone signals. No such problems were reported Tuesday.
Scientists have been expecting solar eruptions to become more intense as the sun enters a more active phase of its 11-year cycle, with an expected peak in 2013.
But in recent years the sun appeared quieter than normal, leading scientists to speculate that it was going into an unusually quiet cycle that seems to happen once a century or so.
Peter Richardson, a 49-year-old bar manager and part-time poet at the 17th-century Tan Hill Inn in northern England, said the pub ? normally dead on a Monday night in January ? was thronged until the wee hours of the morning with people who came to look at the lights.
"I just thought: 'Oh my God, this is just absolutely amazing,'" he said. "You do get a lot of spectacular skylines out here, but that was just something out of the ordinary. Very different."
Ken Kennedy, director of the Aurora section of the British Astronomical Association, said the northern lights may be visible for a few more days.
The Canadian Space Agency posted a geomagnetic storm warning Tuesday after residents were also treated to a spectacular show in the night sky.
___
AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington and AP writers Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Texas Instrument to close plants in Houston, Japan (AP)
DALLAS ? Texas Instruments will close two of its older computer-chip factories, one in Houston and one in Hiji, Japan, and lay off about 1,000 workers to cut costs.
The company announced the cutbacks Monday in its fourth-quarter earnings report. Its results topped analyst estimates, but the company offered tepid forecast for the first quarter of this year.
Texas Instruments shares gained $1.11, or more than 3 percent, to $34.30 after the earnings and layoff announcements.
The planned layoffs represent about 3 percent of the 34,800 workers that Texas Instruments Inc. employed as of Sept. 30. Texas Instruments picked up about 5,000 additional workers four months ago when it completed its $6.5 billion acquisition of another chip maker, National Semiconductor.
Closing the two factories will save Texas Instruments about $100 million annually. The Houston plant is 42 years old while the Japan factory opened 32 years ago. The closures are to occur in the next 18 months. Production will be shifted to other Texas Instruments plants.
Texas Instruments will absorb $215 million in charges to pay for the closures. About $112 million of that amount was recorded in the fourth quarter. The remainder will be scattered through 2013.
Despite the charges, Texas Instruments still fared better in October through December than analysts and its own management anticipated.
CEO Rich Templeton said the pleasant surprise stemmed from improving demand for most of the company's products, leading him to believe that the company is moving beyond a downturn that undercut its financial performance for most of last year.
The company, which is based in Dallas, earned $298 million, or 25 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. That was a 68 percent drop from net income of $942 million, or 70 cents per share, at the same time in 2010.
Wall Street had been bracing for a steeper decrease to 23 cents per share, according to FactSet.
The past quarter's earnings were lowered by a charge of 16 cents per share to account for the residue of National Semiconductor and the plant closure charge, which worked out to 7 cents per share for the period.
Fourth-quarter revenue dipped 3 percent from the previous year to $3.42 billion, but was about $160 million high than analysts forecast on average.
The company projected its earning per share for the three months ending in March will range from 16 cents to 24 cents. Analysts had been expecting 32 cents per share. Texas Instruments believes its first-quarter revenue will range from $3 billion to $3.28 billion. Analysts projected first-quarter revenue of $3.22 billion, according to FactSet.
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Video: What?s next for the GOP race?
>>> to presidential politics now and the stunning victory by newt gingrich in the south carolina primary . gingrich won by a whopping 12 points over mitt romney , blowing the race for the republican nomination wide open as the candidates head for florida . and that's where we find nbc's peter alexander tonight in orman beach. good evening to you.
>> reporter: lester, good evening to you. it is looking more and more like a two-man race here between mitt romney and newt gingrich . after his dramatic win in south carolina yesterday, today gingrich said he's already raised a million dollars in campaign donations and is aiming to raise a million more for what he describes as the knockout punch. after his triumphant come from behind win, newt gingrich delivered a populous message, insisting his victory was a vindication.
>> we proved here in south carolina that people of power with the right ideas beats big money and with your help, we'll prove it again in florida .
>> reporter: while the resounding defeat upended mitt romney 's position as the presumed front-runner, he said he's prepared for the long haul and without referring to gingrich by name, argued a washington insider can't beat president obama .
>> our party can't be led to victory by someone who also has never owned a business and never run a state.
>> reporter: despite his third place finish, rick santorum says he feels no pressure to drop out.
>> i think people realize that it is mitt romney is now no longer the inevitable.
>> reporter: after romney 's wavering answers about when hes would release his tax returns --
>> maybe. you know, i don't know how many years i'll release.
>> reporter: romney today committed to releasing both his 2010 returns and an estimate for his 2011 returns tuesday.
>> i think we just made a mistake in holding off as long as we did. it was a distraction. we want to get back to the real issues in the campaign.
>> reporter: gingrich says he'll behind to focus on romney 's record as a venture capitalist.
>> questions about the character, the judgment, the record of a presidential candidate is not an attack on business. that's silly.
>> reporter: today, gingrich was on the attack again, defending his role with the federal mortgage housing agency freddie mac .
>> wait a second, david. david, you know better than that. i was not a lobbyist. i was never a lobbyist. i never did any lobbying. don't try to mess these things up. the fact is i wasn't an adviser strategically.
>> reporter: and chris christie , a romney supporter, bluntly criticized gingrich 's career in politics.
>> i think he has embarrassed the party over time , whether he'll do it again in the future, i don't know. but governor romney never has.
>> reporter: and the battle here in florida is already well under way. nearly 200,000 people have already cast their ballots, lester, either by absentee or early voting in this state.
>> peter alexander in florida , thanks.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46093882/
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Minn. bear delivers at least 2 cubs on Internet
ELY, Minn. (AP) ? A 3-year-old bear in Minnesota has given birth to two cubs before an Internet audience.
Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute, affiliated with North American Bear Center, said in a news release that Jewel gave birth in a den near Ely to the first cub at 7:22 a.m. Sunday, and a second at 8:40.
It's not the first time Rogers and his colleagues have monitored hibernating pregnant black bears.
In 2010, they recorded the birth of a bear named Hope in 2010. A Hunter killed Hope last year.
Jewel is the younger sister of Hope's mother, Lily.
Lily also gave birth last year to two cubs named Faith and Jason.
___
Online:
North American Bear Center: http://www.bear.org
___
Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com
America's most stressful cities in 2012
Carlos Osorio / AP
The General Motors headquarters in downtown Detroit.
By Colleen Kane, CNBC.com
With common factors such as traffic, crowds, noise, grime, and crime, cities are generally not perceived as oases of calm.
But what makes one city more stressful to live in than the next? To gauge the stress of residents in American cities, data cruncher Sperling?s Best Places considered the 50 largest metropolitan areas (which includes suburbs). The team considered the following factors: divorce rate, commute times, unemployment, violent crime, property crime, suicides, alcohol consumption, mental health, sleep troubles, and the annual amount of cloudy days.
There wasn?t much variance in several categories. For alcohol consumption per month, each of the top 10 cities ranged from 8.7 to 14 drinks per month; for days per month with poor mental health, the metro areas ranged from 2.9 to 4.3; and for days per month of poor sleep, the range was 6.9 to 8.2.
The data behind this list does not paint a cheery picture. The Sunshine State, in particular, seems much less sunny ? dismal, even. What follows are the five metropolitan areas that fared the worst using the above criteria.
5. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Michigan
Population: 1,918,288
Divorced: 11.4%
Commute time ? minutes: 27
Unemployment: 15.7%
Violent crime per 100,000 population: 1111.2
Property crime per 100,000 population: 4,152.4
Suicides per 100,000 population: 9.6
Cloudy days annually: 180
Standout factors: The Detroit metropolitan area is in the 100th percentile for violent crime and property crime. It also ranks in the 97th percentile for poor mental health days per month, though it is in the second percentile for alcohol consumption per month.
4. Jacksonville, Florida
Population: 1,374,303
Divorced: 12.3%
Commute time ? minutes: 28.0
Unemployment: 10.4%
Violent crime per 100,000 population: 557
Property crime per 100,000 population: 3,772.4
Suicides per 100,000 population: 13.9
Cloudy days annually: 139
Standout factor: Jacksonville is in the 95th percentile for divorces.
3. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Florida
Population: 2,472,015
Divorced: 11.5%
Commute time ? minutes: 33.2
Unemployment: 12.5%
Violent crime per 100,000 population: 733.3
Property crime per 100,000 population: 4,678.3
Suicides per 100,000 population: 9.3
Cloudy days annually: 117
Standout factors: Metropolitan Miami is in the 97th percentile for property crime, and 95th percentile for violent crime, but is in the fourth percentile for alcohol consumption.
2. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada
Population: 1,908,008
Divorced: 13.2%
Commute time ? minutes: 27
Unemployment: 14%
Violent crime per 100,000 population: 763.4
Property crime per 100,000 population: 2,921.9
Suicides per 100,000 population: 18
Cloudy days annually: 65
Standout factors: Las Vegas-Paradise is in the 100th percentile for divorces, but it had the least cloudy days of the 50 cities analyzed.
1. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida
Population: 2,780,818
Divorced: 12.3%
Commute time ? minutes: 28.3
Unemployment: 11.2%
Violent crime per 100,000 population: 500
Property crime per 100,000 population: 3,387.2
Suicides per 100,000 population: 15.5
Cloudy days annually: 127
Standout factor: Tampa is in the 97th percentile for suicides.
Click here to see all of America's most stressful cities on CNBC.com.
More from CNBC.com:
Homes of New Tech Titans
Urban Mansions
Up-and-Coming Retirement Cities
Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10200982-americas-most-stressful-cities-2012
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Gingrich, Romney Ham house standoff fizzles (AP)
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? So just where was the beef?
It turns out that the great ham house standoff had no sizzle, no matter how you sliced it.
GOP presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were expected to cross paths at a campaign stop in Greenville as they rallied voters on primary day. But the much-hyped Republican run-in failed to materialize after Romney showed up at Tommy's Ham House earlier than originally planned.
A sea of "Newt 2012" and "Romney" signs jostled in the packed restaurant.
Romney departed about 20 minutes before Gingrich arrived. When Gingrich walked in he said, "where's Mitt?"
Earlier, Gingrich urged voters to support him if they want to stop Romney from winning the nomination.
Gingrich stopped by The Grapevine restaurant in Boiling Springs not long after the polls opened g. He told diners who were enjoying plates of eggs and grits that he's the "the only practical conservative vote" if Republicans want to slow Romney, described by Gingrich as a Massachusetts moderate.
Gingrich said he would put a stop to federal actions against South Carolina's voter ID and immigration laws.
The former House speaker, who has seen his support rise in the days before the primary, said "polls are good, votes are better."
After disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former House speaker hit his stride as the nation's first Southern primary neared, rallying conservatives behind him as the most viable alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
Fueled by fiery debate performances and assisted in part by his Southern roots, Gingrich counted on a strong performance Saturday in South Carolina's GOP primary to catapult him back into the top tier of White House hopefuls.
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Wounded UK veteran fighting for gold at Paralympics (Reuters)
NEWPORT, Wales (Reuters) ? Jon-Allan Butterworth served with the British armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he lost an arm, but says getting on a bicycle makes him most nervous.
The 25-year-old former Royal Air Force (RAF) weapons technician suffered his life-changing injury in a rocket attack on a British base in Basra in August 2007.
After watching the Beijing Olympics on TV he took up cycling as part of his rehabilitation and now has a good chance of making the British Paralympic cycling team for this summer's London Games.
In 1948, when London last staged the Olympics, the first international disabled sports event was held for Second World War veterans at Stoke Mandeville hospital north of the capital.
Butterworth is one of a number of injured servicemen and veterans to go through the Ministry of Defence's Battle Back rehabilitation program, 14 of whom have gone on to represent their country, but he is probably the best placed to make the team where only a podium place, preferably gold, is good enough.
His analytical skills, which he used in his job in the RAF, have also helped propel him to the top of his sport, along with a great physical and mental strength.
When shrapnel tore his left arm to pieces he had to apply his own tourniquet or face the prospect of bleeding to death.
"The blood was pouring out," he told Reuters in a matter-of-fact way, the shiny black prosthetic arm resting on his blue tracksuit trouser leg.
"My desert camouflages were non-recognizable they were that red. All the sand around me was red."
"EASIER IN BASRA THAN IN THE SADDLE"
At first, Butterworth was a reluctant cyclist, not knowing what a velodrome was, but the sport has helped smooth his transition into civilian life, giving him focus and structure.
"Mentally, cycling is a lot tougher than the RAF," he said, sitting in a hotel room in Newport, South Wales, with the frost still on the ground outside.
"I often joke that it was a lot easier to be out in Basra getting attacked than it is being on the start line. I was a lot more nervous in the starting gate on a bike.
"It's all on your own merit really because in the RAF you are told what to do.
"In cycling, it is up to you to control how well you do. It means a lot to get a good result. That's why I think I get nervous. Then you've got a secondary factor - you don't want to let people down, anyone who has supported you."
Battle Back, launched in 2008, encourages the injured to take up sport and outdoor activities, and also works with Parlaympics GB to identify talent.
"With the advent of Iraq and Afghanistan what we have done is bring sports back into the recovery process," said Martin Colclough, head of the Battle Back Phoenix Programme.
Britain has supported NATO-led military operations in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the U.S., and has about 9,500 military personnel still serving there.
It also took part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 which toppled former President Saddam Hussein. All British combat forces withdrew from Iraq in July 2009.
Colclough said coaches enjoy working with servicemen because they have the attributes that allow rapid progress.
"Our servicemen are combat athletes," he said.
"We have occasionally found athletes that aren't super talented but their work ethic, and their reliability, commitment, ability to follow orders from coaches has actually made them progress a lot quicker."
GOLD IS THE COLOUR
Britain's Paralympic cycling team won 17 golds in Beijing, but lead coach Chris Furber expects Battle Back's results to be strongest at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
"We had a clear and targeted idea of what kind of athletes we were looking for," Furber said.
"Ostensibly, I came up with a wish list and said I needed a one-legged person, (and) a one-armed person. As cruel as that sounds that is the kind of game you are in."
Butterworth, who is a world champion and holds two world records, will shortly head off with the rest of the Paracycling team to the world championships in Los Angeles.
"There is no shame in getting silver or bronze in Games time, but I don't feel there is any point in aspiring for silver," Butterworth said.
"I have to think about being the best in the world ... if you are not working towards that, I don't know what's the point."
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby)
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Report: IMF says no conditions on $3.2B Egypt loan (AP)
CAIRO ? Egyptian newspapers quote the regional head of the International Monetary Fund as saying that the body will not impose conditions on Egypt as the country seeks a $3.2 billion support package to shore up a burgeoning budget deficit.
IMF Mideast and Asia head Massoud Ahmed was quoted by the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper and the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm on Wednesday as saying that Egypt should draft its own economic program, and that the IMF should not impose conditions.
He said issues like energy subsidies and tax irregularities could not be resolved immediately.
An IMF delegation arrived on Monday to discuss the proposed loan.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Baby No. 5 On the Way for Kelsey Grammer
It'll be a baby bump debut at Sunday's Golden Globes for Kelsey Grammer and wife Kayte -- she is in her second trimester with their first child together, his rep confirms to PEOPLE.
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/-168Ip1-3Rs/
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Steve Ford: Every month, literally, is a good month for fishing for Everett Turley and friends
Retirement takes on many forms.
Some folks walk away from work, go home and vow never to hit another lick at anything. Unfortunately, they don't tend to last too long.
Others never quit working at something and they tend to last, which brings me to one of my favorite people, Everett Turley.
When I stopped by the family business, Turley Jewelers, on Friday , Everett was there working away at his craft, which is watch repair. He's 93.
But we don't talk about watches. We talk about fishing when he looks up long enough to notice I'm there.
"Have you caught your January fish yet, Turley?" I ask him.
"Yes," he said with a sly smile. "I got that out of the way on January 1st. Caught a 12-inch bass on a black worm."
"So how many years is that now, Turley?"
"Four or five," he ansered. "I kind of lost track. I just know it's still going."
Then his son, Bryan, interjected: "It's five, pop. I know it's five."
Satisfied with the answer and himself, the old watchmaker turned back to his meticulous work while I pondered his simple, continuing quest.
His goal is to catch a fish every month of every year, which he has done now for more than five years. But it wasn't Turley's idea.
That came from a customer, Bernie Fehribach, who retired from teaching at North Posey High School in 2002 and still lives in Poseyville.
"I retired in May of '0-2 and as far as I know I kept the string intact every month since then," said Fehribach, 69. "It's nothing special, just something for an old retired guy to do."
Fehribach takes his membership in the Fish Every Month Club seriously. Then when he brought it up while talking about fishing one day more than five years ago in Turley's store, the semi-retired jeweler decided he would, too.
"Did Everett get his December fish?" asked Fehribach. "I know that can be a rough month for him since he works almost every day, which is pretty amazing since he's 93."
After telling Fehribach that both Turley's December 2011 and January 2012 were secure, I shared this story from 2009. But Bryan tells it best.
"We were at Pop's house on Christmas opening up presents," said Bryan. "It was cold. Then I looked out and there was a bobber frozen in the the ice in the middle of the lake.
"I told him it didn't look too good, but if he did catch a fish it would probably take a state record to pull that bobber down through the ice.
"But two days later we had a little thaw and there was some open water at the shallow end of the lake. Dad went out there on the 27th and caught what he called the prettiest little rock bass he'd ever seen in his life."
Fehribach let out a laugh that only a man in the Fish Every Month Club could appreciate and let me know his 117-month long angling streak was sailing along, too.
"I got out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week," said Fehribach. "Wednesday I caught three bass, all females, that were about 14 inches long. Thursday I caught one bass, another female.
"They all had eggs that looked like they were about one-third developed. They were in shallow water, too. Then Friday I caught just one fish, but it was one of the best crappie I've ever caught, probably 13/4 pounds."
So the quest continues with no end in sight. It is neither noble nor remarkable, but it is something signifcant that all fishermen could use.
It's another fine excuse to go.
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5719585631
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No doubt about it: Bama is the best after BCS rout (AP)
NEW ORLEANS ? As required, Alabama's players whooped it up amid the confetti and fireworks, yet there was something muted about this championship celebration.
Turns out, these guys knew the ending to the sequel before they even got to the Big Easy.
For two months, the Crimson Tide stewed over its first meeting with top-ranked LSU. By the time the team touched down in New Orleans, there was little doubt in anyone's mind about the outcome. Not just win, but dominate.
Boy, did they ever.
With a smothering display of old-school football, No. 2 Alabama blew out the Tigers 21-0 in the BCS championship game Monday night, celebrated a bit and headed back to Tuscaloosa with its second national title in three years.
The Crimson Tide also claimed the top spot in the final Associated Press poll for the eighth time, tying Notre Dame for the most of any team in college football. Coach Nick Saban's team was an overwhelming choice with 55 of 60 first-place votes.
"We knew what we were capable of," offensive lineman Barrett Jones said. "I guess that's kind of arrogant, but it's the way we felt. We felt like we were capable of dominating, and we did that."
Credit one of the greatest defenses in college football history, a bunch of NFL-ready players such as Courtney Upshaw and Dont'a Hightower who made sure LSU (13-1) never had a chance.
When Jordan Jefferson dropped back to pass, he was swept under by a tide of crimson. When the LSU quarterback took off running, he must've felt like Alabama had a few extra players on the field. It sure seemed that way.
"It feels like a nightmare," Jefferson said. "We just didn't get it done on offense. Some defenses have your number, and Alabama had our number."
LSU beat the Crimson Tide (12-1) in overtime on Nov. 5, a so-called Game of the Century that was roundly criticized as a dud because neither team scored a touchdown.
The Rematch of the Century was next, after Alabama worked its way back up to second in the rankings to claim a spot in the BCS title game. Turns out, it was even less of a classic than the first meeting, much closer to "Speed 2" than the "Godfather II."
But the Alabama defense was a thing of beauty, putting its own spin on this postseason of high-scoring shootouts.
"They are unbelievable," said Jones, relieved that he only has to go against them in practice. "That defense is as good as any defense I've ever seen. They rush the passer, they have awesome linebackers and they're great in coverage. They really don't have any weaknesses. They have to be as good as any defense ever."
LSU didn't cross midfield until there were less than 8 minutes remaining in the game. The Tigers finished with just 92 yards and five first downs, on the wrong end of the first shutout in the BCS' 14-year history.
"This defense is built on stopping them, and that's what we did," said Upshaw, the game's defensive MVP. "We wanted to come out and show the world we beat ourselves the first game. We wanted to come out and dominate from start to finish, and that's what we did."
The Crimson Tide, piling up 384 yards and 21 first downs, spent much of the night in LSU's end of the field, setting up Jeremy Shelley to attempt a bowl-record seven field goals. He made five of them, matching a bowl record. Then, as if responding to all the critics who complained that an offensive powerhouse such as Oklahoma State or Stanford should've gotten a shot in the title game, Alabama finally made a long-overdue trip to the end zone.
With 4:36 remaining, Heisman finalist Trent Richardson broke off a 34-yard touchdown run.
It was the lone TD that either of the Southeastern Conference powerhouses managed over two games, plus that overtime period back in November.
"It felt so good to get that touchdown against LSU," lineman D.J. Fluker said. "That's all we talked about. We said we were going to get (Richardson) a touchdown, and we did it."
On LSU's one and only trip into Alabama territory, the Tigers quickly went back, back, back ? the last gasp ending appropriately with the beleaguered Jefferson getting the ball jarred from his hand before he could even get off a fourth-and-forever pass.
"We didn't do a lot different," Saban said. "We did some things on offense formationally. Our offensive team did a great job. Defensively, we just played well, played the box. Our special teams did a great job."
The coach has now won a pair of BCS titles at Alabama, plus another at LSU in 2003. He's the first coach to win three BCS titles, denying LSU's Les Miles his second championship. The Tigers will have to settle for the SEC title, but that's not likely to ease the sting of this ugly performance.
"I told my team that it should hurt," Miles said. "We finished second. It's supposed to hurt."
LSU simply couldn't do anything ? running or passing. Kenny Hilliard led the Tigers with 16 yards rushing, while Jefferson was 11 of 17 passing for 53 yards, usually hurrying away passes before he was sent tumbling to the Superdome turf. He was sacked four times and threw a mystifying interception when he attempted to flip away a desperation pass, only to have it picked off because his intended receiver had already turned upfield looking to block.
A.J. McCarron was the offensive MVP, completing 23 of 34 passes for 234 yards. Richardson added 96 yards on 20 carries. But an even bigger cheer went up when the defensive award was presented to Upshaw, who had seven tackles, including a sack, and spent a good part of his night in the LSU backfield.
"The whole defense is the MVP," Upshaw said. "The whole defense. Roll Tide, baby. Roll Tide!"
With the way his defense was playing, McCarron simply had to avoid mistakes and guide the offense into field-goal range. He did that to perfection.
"When you have a great offensive line like I have, and great players around you, it makes your job easy as quarterback," McCarron said. "I've got to give all the credit to them. I wish I could have the whole team up here."
While LSU was used to getting big plays from its Honey Badger, cornerback and return specialist Tyrann Mathieu, Marquis Maze dealt the first big blow for the Crimson Tide with a 49-yard punt return midway through the opening quarter. He might've gone all the way to the end zone if not for a leg injury that forced him to pull up. Punter Brad Wing was the only defender left to beat, but Maze had to hobble out of bounds.
McCarron completed a 16-yard pass to Darius Hanks at the LSU 10, setting up Shelley for a 23-yard chip shot field goal. If nothing else, Alabama had accomplished one of its goals coming into the game: to at least get close enough to the end zone for its embattled kickers to have a better chance of converting.
In the first meeting, Shelley and Cade Foster combined to miss four field goals ? all of them from at least 44 yards. In the do-over, Foster handled kickoffs while Shelley also connected from 34, 41, 35 and 44 yards. Not that it was a flawless kicking performance. Shelley had another kick blocked and pushed another wide right. In addition, he clanged the extra point off the upright after Richardson's touchdown.
It didn't matter.
LSU's best weapon was Wing, who averaged nearly 46 yards on nine punts. That was about the only highlight for the purple and gold, which failed to match its BCS title game victories in 2003 and 2007, the last two times the game was played in New Orleans, about 80 miles from its Baton Rouge campus.
"We couldn't sustain any consistency," Miles said.
Miles never considered switching to backup quarterback Jarrett Lee, who started the first eight games for the Tigers ? four of those while Jefferson was serving a suspension for his involvement in a bar fight.
In all likelihood, it wouldn't have mattered.
Not against an Alabama team that was determined to write a different ending.
"We fell short the first time and we didn't play well," safety Mark Barron said, "but we showed that we were the better team tonight. We shut them out."
___
Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Benjamin R. Barber: Turning Off the Lights: Democracy in the Dark
The front-runners in the Iowa caucuses and now in the New Hampshire primary, seem to detest one another, but they agree on one thing: that the Democrats want unlimited government pushing unearned "entitlements" and Obama style "socialism," while Republicans seek an "opportunity society" which means, well, no government at all. The Republican Party is effectively at war with the public sphere.
What this means in practice is evident in Highland Park, Michigan and other cities that have been pulling the plug on street lamps. There is no more dismal metaphor for America's abandonment of the public sphere than the decision by Highland Park to rip up a swath of its street lights in the name of public parsimony. Whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America, the first thing any township aspiring to civility and modernity does is put up street lights. Why? Because doing so keeps the emerging public square illuminated 24 hours a day, because it pushes private violence out of town into the shadows beyond, because it symbolizes the coming of civilized daily life where the right to safe public spaces is an essential priority of what it means to live in civility -- and in time, under democracy.
When I was barely a teenager in the early 50's, I remember attending my first "town meeting" in Stockbridge, Massachusetts before its glory days as a tourist mecca, where a debate was raging over whether this quaint New England town could afford to put up a new light on a side street. Nathan Horowitt, a Berkshire Country sage (and a contributor to the founding of modern Israel as well as the designer of the famous no-numerals Movado watch) spoke at the meeting. His words were simple and compelling -- idealism as an argument for public policy: "Do we want Stockbridge to become part of our growing cosmopolitan civilization? To offer illumination to our neighbors currently on the dark edge of town and locked in the 19th century?" When budget cutting predecessors of the Santorum/ Romney/ Ron Paul gang said the town couldn't afford it, Horowitt insisted that the street light was a token of our modernity, our egalitarianism, our public life. If we couldn't afford a street light, we couldn't afford our democracy. His inspiration carried the day and the meeting voted the funds and put in the street light.
Here we are now sixty years later, and in a new Millennium, living in what we now boast is "the greatest country in the world" -- being pushed enthusiastically in the wrong direction by politicians who hate politics and disdain the public sphere. Not turning on but turning off the lights. Leaving citizens to live half their lives in darkened outdoor spaces that, as a consequence, no longer really can qualify as public. "Light your own streets!" the penny pinchers say, rehearsing the mantra of the "dismantle government" crowd who think the inegalitarian private sector can do all the public sector once did -- but on the basis of who can afford to pay rather than on the basis of its obligation to nurture the public good. The opportunity society is really the "opportunity for those who can afford it" society, while the Democratic alternative they deride as the "Entitlement Society" is really the "Equal Opportunity for All Society." Entitlements are grounded in rights: street lights are not a privilege of the rich but the of right of town-dwellers to safe public space.
What Highland Park is doing is extending the gated community concept with its own security and garbage collection facilities to a "gated illumination" zone in which lighted thoroughfares are the privilege of the wealthy. To those who can afford it, light! And to those who can't afford it, darkness after dusk with enforced house arrest night after night for the rest of their lives. Let civility and public space fend for themselves.
When TVA and the great projects of the New Deal brought electricity to America's public streets and private homes in less privileged parts of the country, it was properly greeted as a victory not just for progress but for civilization, for equality, and thus for democracy. In America, everyone had the right to -- yes, was entitled to! -- a lit public square. A streetlight was not just a street light, but a token of civility and civilization, a proof of democratic government's commitment to equal public access for all, to public space that was truly public.
When Highland Park, Michigan turns off its street lights, America turns around and heads back into a Dark Age in which our finest ideals are once again shrouded in the obscurity of night. America's celebrated beacon of liberty about which Republicans talk incessantly is not an abstraction. It comprises all those tiny beams of freedom that liberate us from shadows and the night. Santorum and Gingrich and Paul and Romney take note: turn off the street lights and the beacon goes out.
?
Follow Benjamin R. Barber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BenjaminRBarber
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-r-barber/turning-off-the-lights-de_b_1196967.html
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