Saturday, December 31, 2011

Cancer Con Artist Sentenced To 6 Years Probation ? CBS Denver

Julie Jane Martin (credit: KOIN-TV CBS)

Julie Jane Martin (credit: KOIN-TV CBS)

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4)- The woman who pretended to have cancer to get money from a Colorado police charity has been sentenced to 6 years probation.

Julie Jane Martin was sentenced to probation, 90 days in jail and ordered to pay $10,425 in restitution on Friday. Martin, 38, pleaded guilty in October for conning the Cops Fighting Cancer Society out of more than $10,000.

Martin began conning the organization in 2009 and continued over the course of a 15-month period.

Martin claimed to have cancer, Leukemia, cervical cancer, spinal tumors, chest tumors and kidney tumors. She told foundation members that she was under going treatment in Colorado at one of the local hospitals.

The Cops Fighting Cancer foundation assisted Martin by paying for her lodging and airline tickets to go back and forth from her home in Portland, Ore. The foundation also paid for other health-related expenses.

Martin also participated in a foundation video showing real life cancer victims telling their stories about how they have been helped by the Cops Fighting Cancer foundation.

Source: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2011/12/30/cancer-con-artist-sentenced-to-6-years-probation/

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Friday, December 30, 2011

ComScore: Android up, RIM down, water wet

Stop us (oh, oh, oh stop us) if you've heard this one before, but in the world of cellphone market share: nothing's changed -- or at least almost nothing. The quarterly data from ComScore say you all still love Android and iOS only slightly more than you used to. Of the 91.4 million smartphones in the US, Google gained the 3.1 percent of the market that RIM lost, and is now inching toward controlling half the nation's phones with 46.9 percent, whilst Apple swallowed the modest gains that Microsoft and Symbian lost. Samsung remains top manufacturer in a report where the only surprise is that 72.6 percent of users send text messages, so what do the other 27.4 percent do when they've been delayed or way-laid?

[Thanks, Wilson]

Continue reading ComScore: Android up, RIM down, water wet

ComScore: Android up, RIM down, water wet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/30/comscore-android-up-rim-down-water-wet/

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Katy Perry, Russell Brand Breakup Rumors Swirl Online

Both celebs were photographed without their wedding bands this week.
By Kara Warner


Katy Perry and Russell Brand in Los Angeles on December 3
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Katy Perry and Russell Brand have both been spotted in public sans wedding bands recently, and while there has been no official word regarding a separation of any sort, nothing sets the Internet rumor mill spinning like a high-profile married couple stepping out with naked ring fingers.

Perry was first spotted without her ring around Christmas, but she was splashing around in the ocean and could have chosen not to wear the ring for fear of losing it, not to make a statement about her relationship status.

A wedding-ring-free Brand was snapped by photographers walking around London on Thursday (December 29), further fueling rumors of marital trouble that have been swirling, which both Brand and Perry addressed recently.

"There are always rumors, aren't there? In the end, you have to just not engage with Internet technology, which is difficult because a lot of the nude women websites I quite enjoy," Brand joked to Ellen DeGeneres about breakup rumors during his visit to her talk show. "I've treated the whole Internet now like it's a wicked little liar. Yeah. I am really happily married," he added. "I'm married to Katy. Perpetually, until death do us part was the pledge."

Perry took to Twitter in November to brush off earlier rumblings. "First I'm pregnant & then I'm divorced. What am I 'All My Children'?! #ericakane #pshhh #ifihadadollarforeverytime ...," she tweeted. The pop princess and cheeky British comedian have been married since October 2010.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676624/katy-perry-russell-brand-wedding-rings.jhtml

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Stanford archives offer window into Apple origins

In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 18, 2011, processor Dennis Sparhawk checks items on shelves at a Stanford University Silicon Valley Archives storage facility in an undisclosed location in California. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood is shown looking at an old photograph of Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, a photo of an old keyboard is shown next to a letter written about Steve Jobs at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Oct. 25, 2011, curator Henry Lowood holds up an old Apple 1 operation manual at Stanford's Green Library in Stanford, Calif. Historians and entrepreneurs who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc. and its founder Steve Jobs will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University's Silicon Valley Archives. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

PALO ALTO, Calfornia (AP) ? In the interview, Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs recall a seminal moment in Silicon Valley history ? how they named their upstart computer company some 35 years ago.

"I remember driving down Highway 85," Wozniak says. "We're on the freeway, and Steve mentions, 'I've got a name: Apple Computer.' We kept thinking of other alternatives to that name, and we couldn't think of anything better."

Adds Jobs: "And also remember that I worked at Atari, and it got us ahead of Atari in the phonebook."

The interview, recorded for an in-house video for company employees in the mid-1980s, was among a storehouse of materials Apple had been collecting for a company museum. But in 1997, soon after Jobs returned to the company, Apple officials contacted Stanford University and offered to donate the collection to the school's Silicon Valley Archives.

Within a few days, Stanford curators were at Apple headquarters in nearby Cupertino, packing two moving trucks full of documents, books, software, videotapes and marketing materials that now make up the core of Stanford's Apple Collection.

The collection, the largest assembly of Apple historical materials, can help historians, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand how a startup launched in a Silicon Valley garage became a global technology giant.

"Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer," said Stanford historian Leslie Berlin. "These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened."

The collection is stored in hundreds of boxes taking up more than 600 feet of shelf space at the Stanford's off-campus storage facility. The Associated Press visited the climate-controlled warehouse on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area, but agreed not to disclose its location.

Interest in Apple and its founder has grown dramatically since Jobs died in October at age 56, just weeks after he stepped down as CEO and handed the reins to Tim Cook. Jobs' death sparked an international outpouring and marked the end of an era for Apple and Silicon Valley.

"Apple as a company is in a very, very select group," said Stanford curator Henry Lowood. "It survived through multiple generations of technology. To the credit of Steve Jobs, it meant reinventing the company at several points."

Apple scrapped its own plans for a corporate museum after Jobs returned as CEO and began restructuring the financially struggling firm, Lowood said.

Job's return, more than a decade after he was forced out of the company he co-founded, marked the beginning of one of the great comebacks in business history. It led to a long string of blockbuster products ? including the iPod, iPhone and iPad ? that have made Apple one of the world's most profitable brands.

After Stanford received the Apple donation, former company executives, early employees, business partners and Mac enthusiasts have come forward and added their own items to the archives.

The collection includes early photos of young Jobs and Wozniak, blueprints for the first Apple computer, user manuals, magazine ads, TV commercials, company t-shirts and drafts of Jobs' speeches.

In one company video, Wozniak talks about how he had always wanted his own computer, but couldn't get his hands on one at a time when few computers were found outside corporations or government agencies.

"All of a sudden I realized, 'Hey microprocessors all of a sudden are affordable. I can actually build my own,'" Wozniak says. "And Steve went a little further. He saw it as a product you could actually deliver, sell and someone else could use."

The pair also talk about the company's first product, the Apple I computer, which went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66.

"Remember an Apple I was not particularly useable for too much, but it was so incredible to have your own computer," Jobs says. "It was kind of an embarkation point from the way computers had been going in these big steel boxes with switches and lights."

Among the other items in the Apple Collection:

? Thousands of photos by photographer Douglas Menuez, who documented Jobs' years at NeXT Computer, which he founded in 1985 after he was pushed out of Apple.

? A company video spoofing the 1984 movie "Ghost Busters," with Jobs and other executives playing "Blue Busters," a reference to rival IBM.

? Handwritten financial records showing early sales of Apple II, one of the first mass-market computers.

? An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.

? A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: "This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage."

The archive shows the Apple founders were far ahead of their time, Lowood said.

"What they were doing was spectacularly new," he said. "The idea of building computers out of your garage and marketing them and thereby creating a successful business ? it just didn't compute for a lot of people."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-29-Apple%20Archives/id-fbbc6ab9247341c29920707ebfa8e2f4

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

LudovicSpeaks: Ah shit ?@TheAtlanticWire: President Obama wants to raise the debt ceiling again http://t.co/0c6W7XKy?

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'This Week' Transcript: 2011 Year in Review (ABC News)

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Tanier: Brees already among the greats

Saints QB under the radar, but he's Hall of Famer even if he quits today

Image: BreesGetty Images

Everyone seems to overlook Drew Brees as being a product of today's pass-happy game, but he's a legitimate Hall of Famer, NBCSports.com contributor Mike Tanier writes.

ANALYSIS

updated 11:58 p.m. ET Dec. 26, 2011

Mike Tanier

If you have felt underappreciated during the holiday season, remember that it could be worse. You could be Drew Brees.

Brees broke Dan Marino?s single-season passing record of 5,084 yards with his final pass on Monday night's win against the Falcons. Ho-hum, you say: Passing records fall every season. Except that Marino?s standard has held for 27 years, and only one other quarterback has ever surpassed 5,000 yards: None other than Brees, who threw for 5,069 yards in 2008.

Brees? pursuit of Marino?s milestone has gotten the ?oh, by the way? treatment from some outlets, while a few analysts cared just enough to give Bress the Roger Maris brush-off. ?Brees' record will be severely watered down. So much so, that it almost deserves an asterisk," wrote Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com, alluding to today?s liberal passing rules and strategies.

Last week, Brees became the 13th quarterback in NFL history to surpass 40,000 career passing yards. You might have missed the fanfare and the parade: The story got buried in the stats ?n? notes section of most sports sections outside of Louisiana. Brees will pass Johnny Unitas on the all-time yardage list before breaking Marino?s record, and he could also pass Joe Montana by season?s end. It?s not clear what punctuation marks he must use as apologies for passing those legends: Maybe an ampersand and a pound sign, harsh symbols for our ?severely watered down? times.

When not cruising past Marino, Unitas, and Montana, Brees is being a solid citizen about his contract situation. He becomes a free agent in March, but negotiations on a new deal have been tabled until the offseason. Saints president Mickey Loomis has praised Brees for not letting the slow/nonexistent negotiations become a distraction, but Loomis has not exactly sped things along, either. Apparently, things have become so severely watered down 32-year-old all-time record holders just grow on trees.

Granted, Brees is getting some props: He is often mentioned as this year?s ?runner-up MVP,? and the Saints are quietly 12-3, in the playoffs, and in good position to wrap up the second seed in the NFC. But Brees deserves to be seen as more than a runner-up. He deserves a heck of a lot better than the asterisk treatment. Brees is a future Hall of Famer, and he should be acknowledged as one of the best quarterbacks, not just of this generation, but of any generation.

In good company
Yes, Brees is a Hall of Famer. He?s not a Hall of Famer if he wins another Super Bowl, or if he has three more good years, or if he breaks the right combination of records. He is a Hall of Famer even if he announces before kickoff Monday that he is giving up football for tiddlywinks. Brees is not ?on his way.? He is there.

Brees is about to be named to his sixth Pro Bowl and has led his team to a Super Bowl victory. Every eligible quarterback in history with six Pro Bowls and a ring has made the Hall of Fame. In fact, the only quarterback in history with six Pro Bowl selections who is not in the Hall of Fame is John Hadl, the Chargers legend who earned much of his all-star notice in the wild-and-woolly days of the early AFL. Brees? record blows away top Hall of Fame argument starters such as Ken Stabler (four Pro Bowls, one ring) and Ken Anderson (four Pro Bowls, zero rings). Brees fits much more comfortably among second-tier Hall members such as Dan Fouts (six Pro Bowls, zero rings) and Bobby Layne (five Pro Bowls, two rings), well above the Joe Namath-George Blanda class of quarterbacks who made the cut for other contributions. You can argue that multiple Pro Bowl appearances were harder for old-time quarterbacks to achieve, because careers were shorter, but Brees is only 32, and we are giving him zero credit for what he might accomplish in the next decade.

Counting Super Bowls and all-star appearances is a rather simple-minded way of ranking quarterbacks. But we cannot use statistics, because Brees blows the field away. He has the highest career completion percentage in history of any quarterback with over 3,000 pass attempts. He just passed Montana for 10th on the all-time touchdown list. Brees, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are carving the record book up in unequal thirds, or at least all the parts of the record book that Favre didn?t shred by trying to play until the sun went nova. Give Brees five more modest seasons in the 3,000-yard, 20-touchdown range (and account for Brady's having similar production), and Brees will retire among the top five quarterbacks in every meaningful category.

And despite our ?watered-down? times, Brees? totals will stick -- other than Brady, other quarterbacks in Brees? age group (Tony Romo, Eli Manning, and the like) are thousands of yards and many touchdowns behind.

Brees lacks an MVP award, but he has a shelf full of everything else: the Bert Bell Award, Offensive Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Super Bowl MVP and the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which acknowledges community service as well as on-field success. This is not the r?sum? of a borderline Hall of Fame candidate; it is overwhelming evidence of greatness, a slam dunk that is only going to rattle backboards even harder after a few more seasons like the past five.


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Brees surpasses Marino

Drew Brees set the NFL record for yards passing in a season, breaking a mark that Dan Marino had held since 1984, and the New Orleans Saints clinched the NFC South title with a 45-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45768359/ns/sports-nfl/

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Become a master of Infinity Blade II with these developer tips

If you want to become a master of Infinity Blade II, its developers have shared a number of great tips to get you on your way. Infinity Blade II is the sequel to the hugely successful original infinity Blade and it makes full use of the...


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Monday, December 26, 2011

ESTOS and Comdasys Bring Communications-Enabled Business ...

Listing No.: 113331
Listing added: December 25, 2011 9:12 am

Cooperation between Comdasys and ESTOS benefits SME in deploying UC solutions

Starnberg and Munich, Germany, 23rd of December 2011 ? Comdasys, a leading provider of mobile Unified Communications solutions, and ESTOS, a leading and independent software vendor of Unified Communications (UC), today announced a cooperation which enables customers of ProCall Enterprise to use the ESTOS UC solution also on mobile handsets. The integration of Comdasys? and ESTOS? technology will benefit especially the SME market where the integration of business processes provides the companies with significant economic and competitive advantages.

?With our cooperation Comdasys enterprise customers will be able to fully leverage ProCall Enterprise UC features for fully mobile extensions and using business processes also when travelling?, said Florian Bock, Managing Director of ESTOS. ?Our user centric UC application allows ProCall Enterprise customers to seamlessly use their smart phones, or tablets with our ProCall suite of products making it the tool of choice for integrating business processes.?

?Users of our mobile solution will be able to see ESTOS ProCall Enterprise Server as a fully featured UC server that consolidates both user as well as line presence?, said Martin Bitzinger, CTO of Comdasys. ?By using ESTOS ProCall in conjunction with the Comdasys Mobile Client, SME will be able to experience true Unified Communications with a level of integration and federation usually reserved to much higher-end market segments.?

The combined solution can be deployed with a variety of different PBXs ranging from Aastra, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Seltatel and Siemens. It can also be deployed with other IP-PBX and even Open Source based installations in conjunction with snom and Samsung SIP Phones.

ESTOS is the leading independent software vendor for Unified Communications components. The company has been developing and selling innovative standard software since 1997 and today it has become the leading supplier of Unified Communications products. CTI and SIP-based solutions are used for the optimization of the workflow in communication intensive departments and for communications-enabled business process integration. Further information about ESTOS Unified Communications solutions visit www.estos.com.
ESTOS GmbH
Hille Vogel
Petersbrunner Strasse 3a
82319 Starnberg, Germany
hille.vogel@estos.de
+49 8151 368 56 132

http://www.estos.com

Related posts:

  1. Unified Communications: ESTOS to Showcase Groundbreaking Cloud-based CTI at BroadSoft Connections 2011 A leading professional TAPI driver for the BroadWorks application platform enables service providers to expand their range of solutions with innovative CTI functionality Starnberg, Germany and Phoenix, Arizona, BroadSoft Connections 2011, October 17, 2011 ? ESTOS (http://www.estos.com), an independent software vendor of Unified Communications (UC) solutions, announced today the demonstration of its groundbreaking cloud-based computer [...]...
  2. Unified Communications: CTI and CSTA with Mitel Telephone Systems ESTOS introduces unique professional TAPI Driver and CSTA Server for Mitel Communications Director Systems Starnberg, 15th of September 2011 ? ESTOS, an independent Unified Communications and CTI software vendor, announces the product launch of its ECSTA for Mitel (http://http://www.estos.com/products/drivers-middleware/ecsta-series.html). This middleware is designed for use with PBX systems of the Mitel Communications Director (MCD) series. [...]...
  3. UnifiedCommunications.com UnifiedCommunications.com is a division of Tele-Communication, Inc., a value-added distributor and integrator of quality communications equipment since 1982. As a multi-faceted company within the telecommunications space, we specialize in unified communications, telephony, phone systems, phones, headsets, video conferencing, broadband services, and endpoints. Our extensive knowledge of the product lines we carry make us a valued [...]...
  4. KLM Flies High with e-Spirit: Integrating FirstSpirit CMS in SAP NetWeaver for More Efficient Processes KLM Royal Dutch Airlines plans to implement e-business portal on the intranet Dortmund, January 24, 2011. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines decided to implement FirstSpirit as a content integration solution. The content management system (CMS) of manufacturer e-Spirit will be used within the KLM intranet. The airline wants to establish a new human resources e-business portal, [...]...
  5. Gilbane Conference Boston: e-Spirit to showcase User Experience Solution for efficient content management processes Managing global multimedia content with FirstSpirit CMS and integration platform / Gilbane Research Whitepaper and Webinar: ?Content and the Next Generation Portal Experience? Boston / Dortmund, November 30, 2010 ? e-Spirit presents the latest release of its FirstSpirit Content Management System at the Gilbane Conference in Boston, November 30 ? December 2, 2010. The CMS [...]...

Business related tags: CEBP, Comdasys, Communications Enabled Business Processes, ESTOS, unified communications

Source: http://www.volta.net/companies/estos-and-comdasys-bring-communications-enabled-business-processes-to-mobile-users-113331/

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Queen Elizabeth Visits Prince Phillip After Emergency Surgery (omg!)

Queen Elizabeth Visits Prince Phillip After Emergency Surgery

Queen Elizabeth visited her husband Prince Philip at Papworth Hospital Saturday morning following his emergency heart surgery to treat a blocked coronary artery.

NEWS: How Queen Elizabeth helped William plan his wedding

She was joined by her children Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and Prince Edward in Cambridge, England, where the 90-year-old Duke was airlifted by helicopter late Friday. He had been suffering from chest pains, which was treated by coronary stenting.

PHOTOS: Look back at Will and Kate's big day

Early Saturday, Buckingham Palace officials issued an update, saying he had had a "good night" following his procedure and that he was in "good spirits."

PHOTOS: The year in royals!

The royal family, including Prince William and Duchess Kate, are planning to spend Christmas at the 85-year-old Queen's Sandringham estate.

Pippa, 28, is expected to join them on Boxing Day (Dec. 26), before the trio travels to the Middleton family's home in Bucklebury.

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

A future gaming world of 100% digital games? | N4G

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Pravkebab: I love collecting games and not just playing them and I think that one day we will see a world of pure digital content. ... 8m ago - While most websites are getting together their top [enter random number here] gaming lists of 201. ...

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China plans further cut to railway spending (AP)

BEIJING ? China's government announced another cut in railway construction spending Friday amid concern about the debts of the world's biggest rail network and the safety of its showcase bullet trains.

Beijing will spend about 400 billion yuan ($65 billion) next year on railway construction, Railways Minister Sheng Guangzu said at an industry conference, the state Xinhua News Agency reported. That is down from what Xinhua said is expected spending of 469 billion yuan ($75 billion) this year and a sharp drop from 2010's 700 billion yuan ($112 billion).

Beijing is rapidly expanding China's 56,000-mile (91,000-kilometer) rail network, which is overloaded with passengers and cargo. But it has scaled back plans amid concern about whether Sheng's ministry can repay its mounting debts.

Critics complain authorities have spent too much on high-speed lines, a prestige project for the ruling Communist Party, while failing to invest enough in expanding cheaper, slower routes to serve China's poor majority.

A failure to expand rail capacity could choke economic growth because exporters away from China's coast rely on rail to get goods to ports.

The Xinhua report Friday gave no details of spending plans or where the government intends to expand service.

The rail ministry's mounting debts have prompted concern about whether it will have to be bailed out by Chinese taxpayers. Private sector analysts say revenues from ticket sales and freight charges probably are insufficient to pay its publicly reported 2 trillion yuan ($300 billion) in debt.

Beijing reined in the rapid expansion of its bullet train network after a July 23 crash that killed 40 people triggered a public outcry about a system that critics say is dangerous and too costly for a poor country. The speed of the fastest lines also was reduced.

Xinhua described Friday's announcement as the first time the communist government has announced a "clear goal for future railway development." It said construction "has been almost halted" since the bullet train crash.

Sheng, the railway minister, announced a moratorium in August on new rail projects while the government carried out a nationwide safety inspection.

Government plans announced earlier call for expanding the rail network to 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometers) by 2020.

In a report this week, the World Bank called China's system "by far the most densely trafficked railway network in the world." It recommended that Beijing overhaul its system of state-set prices and allow rail managers more flexibility in setting ticket and cargo prices to make trains more efficient and affordable.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_troubled_railways

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Vietnam store makes Christmas tree from cellphones (AP)

HANOI, Vietnam ? Southeast Asia is closer to the equator than the North Pole, but an electronics store in Vietnam is ringing in the holidays with a 15-foot Christmas tree made from more than 2500 unusable cellular phones.

Nguyen Trai, a store manager at Westcom Electronics in the southern city of My Tho, says 10 workers spent two weeks building the cellular Christmas tree that he hopes will raise awareness about hazardous waste and promote environmental responsibility.

The glittering, cone-shaped creation has been on display for about two weeks outside the store in southern Tien Giang Province.

Between 700 and 800 people visit daily, Trai told the Associated Press.

"Many of them have taken pictures with the tree," he said.

Cellphones are ubiquitous in Vietnam, where more than 60 percent of the population is under 30 and hordes of young people flaunt flashy electronics to mark their rising wealth even as the country struggles to contain one of Asia's highest inflation rates.

Although the majority of communist Vietnam's 87 million people are Buddhist, there is a sizable Catholic minority and an enthusiastic general embrace of all things Christmas. The country's two largest cities ? Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City ? are studded with holiday lights all winter long, with bright-eyed teens promenading in Santa hats and yuletide-themed electronic music blaring in sidewalk cafes.

Westcom Electronics plans to auction its cellphone tree next year and donate the proceeds to charity, said store manager Nguyen Trai, adding that staff members are already collecting unusable phones in hopes of erecting an even bigger Christmas "pine tree" next year.

There are tens of millions of cellphones in circulation in Vietnam, but it's impossible to know how many used phones are dumped each year because the government doesn't collect such data, said Nguyen Thanh Yen of Vietnam's Environment Administration.

Yen said he welcomed the idea of raising awareness about hazardous waste, but Westcom Electronics has violated Vietnamese law, which requires businesses to seek official permission before using hazardous waste for new purposes.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, people working in the informal sector collect the majority of "recyclable and reusable waste" in urban areas of Vietnam.

Solid waste management is among the "major environmental burdens" in developed and developing countries across Asia, especially in megacities, the U.N. says.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_hi_te/as_vietnam_cellular_christmas

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Judges: UK has 4 weeks to free US-held Pakistani (AP)

LONDON ? British judges on Wednesday gave the government four weeks to obtain the release of a Pakistani man held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan ? a ruling that could make for prickly discussions between British officials and their American counterparts.

The ruling comes nearly a week after the U.K.-legal charity Reprieve won its habeas corpus petition claiming that Yunus Rahmatullah's detention lacked sufficient cause or evidence, and that British forces violated international law when they handed him over to American troops nearly eight years ago.

It is one of the few cases where lawyers have been successful in their appeals to free a detainee from the detention center at the sprawling U.S. air base in Bagram, where, unlike the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, terror suspects and detainees lack access to lawyers.

British Appeals Court justices said the British government has until Jan. 18 to obtain freedom for Rahmatullah, who was originally accused of being a member of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The appeals court order is final ? meaning that Rahmatullah must be released. But the British government can appeal to the Supreme Court to debate the issue of habeas corpus. The appeal, however, would be largely academic and the government would have to bear the legal costs.

"The only question left is: Does the US keep the bargains it makes with its closest ally?" Reprieve legal director Cori Crider said. "The Obama administration has said it wishes to restore U.S. standing abroad and to bring the U.S. back into line with the Geneva Conventions. Well, there is no time like the present."

Britain's Foreign Office said it was in discussions with the U.S. but declined to say if it had specifically Rahmatullah be released. The U.S. Department of Defense said it was reviewing the decision and may comment further later Wednesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_bagram_lawsuit

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Report: Girl swept away by 2004 tsunami found alive

By msnbc.com

A girl who was believed to have been swept away by a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in Asia has reportedly shown up alive, nearly seven years to the day after she vanished.

Indonesian state news agency Antara reported the girl, named only?as Wati, was?aged eight when she was ripped from her mother's arms by the rushing waters near her home in West Aceh, Indonesia, in December 2004. Her mother, Yusniar, was trying to get her and two other children to safety at the time.


Antara?reported Wednesday that the girl's grandfather, Ibrahim, met a teenager who had traveled from another region, Banda Aceh, saying she was trying to find her way home.

The girl?said she could not remember any of her relatives' names apart from one -- Ibrahim, Antara said.

He became convinced the girl was Wati, and her parents also later identified the girl as their daughter by a small mole and a scar over her eyebrow, Antara said.

It added that reporters were not immediately told what had happened to the girl?during the time she was away.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/22/9629904-report-girl-swept-away-by-2004-tsunami-found-alive

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Toddlers don't listen to their own voice like adults do

Toddlers don't listen to their own voice like adults do [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lisa Lyons
elyons@cell.com
617-386-2121
Cell Press

When grown-ups and kids speak, they listen to the sound of their voice and make corrections based on that auditory feedback. But new evidence shows that toddlers don't respond to their own voice in quite the same way, according to a report published online on December 22 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

The findings suggest that very young children must have some other strategy to control their speech production, the researchers say.

"As they play music, violinists will listen to the notes they produce to ensure they are in tune," explained Ewen MacDonald of the Technical University of Denmark. "If they aren't, they will adjust the position of their fingers to bring the notes back in tune. When we speak, we do something very similar. We subconsciously listen to vowel and consonant sounds in our speech to ensure we are producing them correctly. If the acoustics of our speech are slightly different from what we intended, then, like the violinists, we will adjust the way we speak to correct for these slight errors. In our study, we found that four-year-olds monitor their own speech in the same way as adults. Surprisingly, two-year-olds do not."

That's despite the fact that infants readily detect small deviations in the pronunciation of familiar words and babble in a manner consistent with their native language. By the time they turn two, American children have an average vocabulary of about 300 words and appear well on their way to acquiring the sound structure of their native language.

In the experiment, adults, four-year-olds, and two-year-olds said the word "bed" repeatedly while simultaneously hearing themselves say the word "bad." (To elicit those utterances from the young children and toddlers, the researchers developed a video game in which players help a robot cross a virtual playground by saying the robot's 'magic' word "bed.")

"If they repeat this several times, adults spontaneously compensate, changing the way they say the vowel," MacDonald said. "Instead of saying the word 'bed,' they say something more like the word 'bid.'"

Four-year-olds adjusted their speech, too, the researchers show. The two-year-olds, on the other hand, kept right on saying "bed."

MacDonald says the results suggest a need to reconsider assumptions about how children make use of auditory feedback. It may be that two-year-olds depend on their parents or other people to monitor their speech instead of relying on their own voice. MacDonald notes that caregivers often do repeat or reflect back to young children what they've heard them say.

While this study involved children with normal speech development, MacDonald says they'll be exploring potential applications for understanding or addressing delayed and abnormal early speech development.

###


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?


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


Toddlers don't listen to their own voice like adults do [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lisa Lyons
elyons@cell.com
617-386-2121
Cell Press

When grown-ups and kids speak, they listen to the sound of their voice and make corrections based on that auditory feedback. But new evidence shows that toddlers don't respond to their own voice in quite the same way, according to a report published online on December 22 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

The findings suggest that very young children must have some other strategy to control their speech production, the researchers say.

"As they play music, violinists will listen to the notes they produce to ensure they are in tune," explained Ewen MacDonald of the Technical University of Denmark. "If they aren't, they will adjust the position of their fingers to bring the notes back in tune. When we speak, we do something very similar. We subconsciously listen to vowel and consonant sounds in our speech to ensure we are producing them correctly. If the acoustics of our speech are slightly different from what we intended, then, like the violinists, we will adjust the way we speak to correct for these slight errors. In our study, we found that four-year-olds monitor their own speech in the same way as adults. Surprisingly, two-year-olds do not."

That's despite the fact that infants readily detect small deviations in the pronunciation of familiar words and babble in a manner consistent with their native language. By the time they turn two, American children have an average vocabulary of about 300 words and appear well on their way to acquiring the sound structure of their native language.

In the experiment, adults, four-year-olds, and two-year-olds said the word "bed" repeatedly while simultaneously hearing themselves say the word "bad." (To elicit those utterances from the young children and toddlers, the researchers developed a video game in which players help a robot cross a virtual playground by saying the robot's 'magic' word "bed.")

"If they repeat this several times, adults spontaneously compensate, changing the way they say the vowel," MacDonald said. "Instead of saying the word 'bed,' they say something more like the word 'bid.'"

Four-year-olds adjusted their speech, too, the researchers show. The two-year-olds, on the other hand, kept right on saying "bed."

MacDonald says the results suggest a need to reconsider assumptions about how children make use of auditory feedback. It may be that two-year-olds depend on their parents or other people to monitor their speech instead of relying on their own voice. MacDonald notes that caregivers often do repeat or reflect back to young children what they've heard them say.

While this study involved children with normal speech development, MacDonald says they'll be exploring potential applications for understanding or addressing delayed and abnormal early speech development.

###


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

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/cp-tdl121611.php

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Was the Iraqi War Worth the Cost? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama has declared the Iraqi War over. He has gone to Fort Bragg to salute and thank the troops for their service. American troops have "turned out the lights" and closed the door. This country's over eight-year involvement is finished. Now the questions begin; was the war worth it and what have we accomplished? Such a question involves examining the rationale for the war, the cost in lives and money and the ultimate result.

RATIONALE

The Bush Administration justified the war based upon Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs, that were a threat to the world. The only way to prevent him from using WMDs was to invade Iraqi and overthrow his government. Sadaam did not help his cause by refusing international inspections. Of course it turned out there were no WMDs; at least, none were found. Sadaam was overthrown and his dictatorship was replaced with a democratic government. In the end the rationale became the certainty of no WMDs and the overthrow of a dictator.

COSTS

The estimated cost in money prior to the beginning of the war was 50 to 60 billion dollars; the true costs exceeded one trillion dollars, of which every penny was borrowed and added to the federal deficit. The real cost, however, cannot be measured in dollars. Approximately 4,500 Americans gave their lives and over 32,000 were wounded. The costs of treating and caring for the wounded will be paid for decades to come. The loss to society of those soldiers cannot be underestimated. When the final cost is tallied in 30 or 40 years by adding in veteran benefits and interest paid on the debt three trillion dollars is not out of the realm of possibility.

BENEFITS

The benefits of the war were threefold: elimination of the threat of WMDs, the removal of a dictator and the installation of a democratic government. The first benefit gave the world peace of mind. The second freed the Iraqi people. The third gave the Iraqis the best form of government yet devised. As a side benefit it also planted the idea in the minds of other people enslaved by a dictator that liberation is a real option.

So in the final analysis was the Iraqi War worth it? As a retired military officer I know the incredible quality of American troops and their great sacrifice. Americans should have nothing but pride and gratitude for the service in Iraq. The troops believed in the mission and feel they made a difference in the world. The lasting legacy of the war may be the series of events known as the Arab Spring. Freedom is never cheap; its cost has always been high and will remain so. If the final review and analysis of the Iraqi War is its effect on Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria and other countries, then the war was worthwhile. There is no price tag on freedom.

David Nakamura "At Fort Bragg, Obama Hails End of Iraqi War" http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/14/3595669/at-fort-bragg-obama-hails-end.html

Drew Brooks "Fort Bragg Soldiers Attend Ceremony Marking End of Iraq War" http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/12/15/1144091?sac=Local

CNNWorld "Report: No WMD Stockpiles in Iraq http://articles.cnn.com/2004-10-06/world/iraq.wmd.report_1_nuclear-weapons-charles-duelfer-iraq-s-wmd?_s=PM:WORLD

David M. Herszenhorn "Estimates of Iraq War Were Not Close to Ballpark" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/washington/19cost.html

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111220/us_ac/10686167_was_the_iraqi_war_worth_the_cost

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

No brakes on breast cancer cells

Friday, December 16, 2011

MicroRNAs or miRNAs are tiny RNA molecules that have only about 20 nucleotides and do not code for proteins. They regulate many important processes in cells by binding to target messenger RNAs ? the instructions for protein production ?, thus blocking production of the respective protein. In cancer, the production of some miRNAs is often reduced or amplified. This particularly affects miRNAs that regulate the activity of cancer-promoting genes.

A key molecule in the development of cancer is a transcription factor called NFkappaB, which is an important switch for many genes with inflammation-promoting effects. At DKFZ, Professor Dr. Stefan Wiemann and collaborators have now investigated whether microRNAs that affect NFkappaB production are deregulated in breast cancer. Jointly with colleagues at Heidelberg and Tuebingen University Hospitals, the DKFZ team studied over 800 miRNAs and discovered a family of RNA molecules known as miR-520, which particularly strongly reduce the production of NFkappaB. "If the cells produce less NFkappaB, the production of inflammation-promoting signaling molecules is reduced. This puts a brake on cancer growth, because these signaling molecules promote invasive capacity, formation of new vessels and metastasis," says Ioanna Keklikoglou, a doctoral student Wiemann's department, explaining this mechanism.

However, miR-520 does not only act like a cancer brake by suppressing NFkappaB. In addition, Wiemann's team discovered that this microRNA also blocks another cancer-promoting signaling pathway that is triggered by growth factor TGF-beta. TGF-beta signals cause malignant cells to be less firmly anchored in the tissue and, thus, better able to invade surrounding organs ? a characteristic feature of cancer cells.

Subsequently, the DKFZ researchers studied the question of whether the findings obtained in cancer cells in the culture dish are also involved in breast cancer. Studying tumor tissue samples of 76 patients, the team discovered that tumors which have already spread to the lymph nodes produce less miR-520 than those which have not yet spread. However, this connection was only found in tumors that do not produce receptors for the female sexual hormone, estrogen (ER-negative tumors).

"Our findings clearly demonstrate that miR-520 is a genuine cancer brake that suppresses the malignant behavior of tumor cells in two different ways at once," said Stefan Wiemann, commenting on the findings reported in his now published work. "This cancer brake appears to fail in many ER-negative breast tumors ? and also in cells of other types of cancer, as colleagues have now demonstrated." ER-negative breast cancer is particularly difficult to treat in many cases. Developing a microRNA therapy that blocks several cancer-promoting signaling pathways at once may therefore be an interesting option.

###

I Keklikoglou, C Koerner, C Schmidt, JD Zhang, D Heckmann, A Shavinskaya, H Allgayer, B G?ckel, T Fehm, A Schneeweiss, ? Sahin, S Wiemann and U Tschulena: MicroRNA-520/373 family functions as a tumor suppressor in estrogen receptor negative breast cancer by targeting NF-kappaB and TGF-b signaling pathways. Oncogene 2011, DOI: 10.1038/onc.2011.571

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: http://www.helmholtz.de/en/index.html

Thanks to Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116107/No_brakes_on_breast_cancer_cells

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Sun Rips Tail From Comet During Solar Close Encounter (SPACE.com)

A newfound comet that plunged through the sun's atmosphere Thursday (Dec. 15) ? and amazingly survived ? was visibly maimed by the encounter, which left the icy wanderer without its long, bright tail, a scientist says.

According to Karl Battams, a solar researcher at the U.S. Naval Research Center in Washington, the death-defying comet Lovejoy slipped through the sun's outer atmosphere (called the corona) with a bright tail in tow, only to reappear tailless on the other side.

The comet zoomed within 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) of the sun's surface, making its closest approach at about 7 p.m. EST Thursday (midnight GMT on Dec. 16). Instruments called coronographs aboard several sun-watching space observatories caught the unexpected solar sight.

"Somehow it survived being immersed in the several million-degree solar corona for almost an hour and has now re-emerged back into the views of the LASCO and SECCHI coronagraphs, almost as bright as before!" Battams wrote on his website Sungrazing Comets. "The only notable exception is that it appears to have lost its tail ? In fact its tail is still gently floating out in space where it was before perihelion!" [Photos of Death-Defying Comet Lovejoy]

A?labeled photo of comet Lovejoy ??and the sun after their encounter posted by Battams clearly shows a tail-like feature on one side of the sun and the head of the comet on the other. The tail may be older dust and gas ejected by comet Lovejoy before it entered the sun's corona that is still traveling on the same trajectory, Battams wrote.

But while comet Lovejoy may be mutilated by its sun encounter, comet fans shouldn't worry too much. "I'm pretty confident that we will see Comet Lovejoy grow a new one," Battams wrote.

Comet tails are created when their icy surfaces warm up, creating a gas that gets blown outward by the sun's solar wind. Charged particles from the sun can also turn some of a comet's gases into charged ions to form an ion tail. Comet tails always point away from the sun.

The unexpected survival of comet Lovejoy has amazed Battams and other astronomers because most comets that have close encounters with the sun are destroyed. In fact, many researchers predicted the comet would likely fizzle out, as the chances of its survival were so low.

"What an extraordinary 24hrs!" Battams wrote. "I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And I have never been so happy to be wrong!"

Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy, who discovered the comet on Nov. 27, told SPACE.com that the attention his find has received has been amazing, and that he was happy to make a contribution to astronomy.

"It's been tremendous," Lovejoy told SPACE.com just hours before the comet's swing through the sun. "Apparently it's all over Facebook, and I don't use Facebook. But there's a lot of interest. I think a lot of people like the name ? the Lovejoy name seems to strike a chord with people."

SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz (@ClaraMoskowitz) contributed to this story. You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111217/sc_space/sunripstailfromcometduringsolarcloseencounter

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"Sherlock," "MI4," "Chipmunks" to warm up box office (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? After two wretched weekends at the box office, sequels to "Sherlock Holmes," "Alvin and the Chipmunks" "Mission: Impossible" are riding in to rescue the domestic movie business.

The three films will kick off a tentpole onslaught that will see eight movies released wide over nine days. The studios hope that they'll also kickstart the box office.

Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" opens Friday at 3,703 locations in the U.S. and Canada and is expected to take in as much as $60 million in its opening weekend.

Fox's G-rated "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," meanwhile, is starting out in 3,723 theaters and is looking at up to $30 million over its first three days -- though the studio's more conservative estimate is in the mid-to-high $20 million range.

And Paramount is opening "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" in 425 locations, 300 of them IMAX. The fourth installment in the Tom Cruise action franchise goes wide December 21.

Among adult dramas, Paramount's R-rated comedy "Young Adult" is expanding from eight theaters to 986. And Roman Polanski's "Carnage," starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz will play at five locations. Sony Classics is releasing the R-rated drama.

With the domestic box office coming off its worst weekend since September 2008, the movie business could use a hero -- or at least, a holiday season like the one it had in 2009.

Two years ago, the original "Sherlock Holmes" opened to $62.3 million over Christmas weekend, while "Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel" premiered to $48.9 million. (Neither film opened in first place, however -- that position belonged to "Avatar," then in its second week of release.)

"Sherlock Holmes" reunites Robert Downey Jr., as the private detective Holmes, with Jude Law playing his sidekick, Dr. Watson. In "A Game of Shadows," Holmes and Watson go after their nemesis, the evil Professor Moriarty.

Guy Ritchie, who directed the 2009 film, which grossed nearly $525 million worldwide, returned to the director's chair for the sequel.

"Game of Shadows" cost about $125 million to produce.

The movie has a good 69 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

According to research firm NRG, 93 percent of males from both age quadrants report awareness of the "Sherlock Holmes" sequel.

About 65 percent of males older than 25 -- and 64 percent of those 25 and younger -- say they have "definite interest" in seeing the film, while 29 percent of both groups call the movie their "first choice" to see next time they're in the theater.

Meanwhile, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" cost an estimated $80 million to make and arrives with weak Rotten Tomatoes score of 15 percent.

Jason Lee returns in the lead live-action role, playing paternal figure to the high-pitched, CG-rendered singing and talking chipmunks, who get stuck on an island in this one.

Tracking is solid among women 25 and older, with 92 percent telling NRG that their kids have made them very aware the movie is coming out, and 38 percent from that group saying they have definite interest in seeing the film. Also from that group, 7 percent call it their first choice to see next time they're in a theater.

With a crush of movies opening Christmas weekend, the limited release of "Mission: Impossible" is designed to generate strong word-of-mouth for director Brad Bird's $140 million action film, exhibitor IMAX said.

"Our IMAX DNA is all over 'MI4,'" Greg Foster, chairman, filmed entertainment at IMAX, told TheWrap. "The picture was shot with our cameras, several of the big set pieces feature IMAX photography and our focus is on putting the movie's best foot forward."

The fourth "Mission Impossible" movie is getting raves from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking the film at 92 percent fresh.

Finally, Paramount is expanding "Young Adult," the Charlize Theron comedy directed by Jason Reitman, to 1,000 locations.

"Young Adult" is about a successful writer who, soon after her divorce, returns to the small town in Minnesota where she grew up and tries to rekindle a romance with her now-married ex-boyfriend.

It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 80 percent and has grossed $408,814 since it opened last weekend.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/film_nm/us_boxoffice

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Whitecaps acquire Nguyen in MLS weighted lottery

Associated Press Sports

updated 4:37 p.m. ET Dec. 15, 2011

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - The Vancouver Whitecaps have acquired attacking midfielder Lee Nguyen through Major League Soccer's weighted lottery.

The 25-year-old from McKinney, Texas, signed a multi-year contract with MLS on Dec. 6. Nguyen was entered into the weighted lottery after he had turned down a MLS contract when he was drafted in college. He played a season of college soccer at Indiana before joining the Netherlands' PSV Eindhoven for the 2005-06 season.

The Whitecaps were one of six MLS clubs to participate in Thursday's draw for Nguyen. Vancouver was selected ahead of FC Dallas, the Houston Dynamo, the Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC. Each team's record dictates its probability of winning the draw.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Man U eyes top spot

LONDON (AP) -Manchester United could briefly forget about injury problems, Champions League elimination and its resurgent neighbor on Sunday.

Getty Images

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45689509/ns/sports-soccer/

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T-Mobile?s White Samsung Galaxy S II Is Going For $99 This Weekend Only

White SGSIIThe Samsung Galaxy S II is a very special phone. Even though it's been on the market for quite some time now, it's still one of the more beastly competitors on Android-flavored shelves. Of course, it's always had the price tag to prove it, going for between $230 and $250 just about everywhere. But T-Mobile has a pretty sweet deal going on a white Samsung Galaxy S II for this weekend only, and it could save you up to $130.

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

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