Serbia, Bosnia struggle under record cold snap

In this photo made available Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, two persons look at some ice covered boats on the iced waterside promenade at the Lake Geneva in Port Choiseul, Switzerland, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. A cold spell has reached Europe with temperatures plummeting far below zero. (KEYSTONE/Martial Trezzini)

In this photo made available Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, two persons look at some ice covered boats on the iced waterside promenade at the Lake Geneva in Port Choiseul, Switzerland, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. A cold spell has reached Europe with temperatures plummeting far below zero. (KEYSTONE/Martial Trezzini)

Ice hangs off trees on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Versoix, near Geneva, Switzerland, early Monday, Feb. 6, 2012. A cold spell is affecting large parts of Europe, with temperatures plummeting far below zero. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

In this photo made available Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 a woman walks along an ice covered car on the iced waterside promenade at the Lake Geneva in Versoix, Switzerland, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. A cold spell has reached Europe with temperatures plummeting far below zero. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)

People walk in the snow-covered street in downtown Cetinje, Montenegro, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. Across Eastern Europe, thousands of people continued to dig out from heavy snow that has fallen during a cold snap that struck more than a week ago and has killed hundreds of people. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)

A Warsaw resident skates on the frozen River Vistula in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ? Overwhelmed by record snow and harsh temperatures, Serbia and Bosnia closed down schools and struggled to continue public transport and garbage pick-up Monday, as authorities focused on trying to help thousands trapped in the region's remote mountain villages.

Europeans across the continent were continuing to dig out from heavy snow after a week of bitter cold in which the death toll, mostly homeless people, continues to rise into the hundreds. Temperatures have fallen as low as minus 33 Fahrenheit (minus 36 Celsius) in Ukraine, the hardest-hit country.

The big freeze has caused traffic chaos throughout Europe, blocking roads, and shutting down airports from the U.K. to Russia.

But it has also offered opportunities for snowy fun: Ice skaters in the Netherlands were hopeful they could stage a race that hasn't happened in more than a decade; children in Rome and along the usually temperate Adriatic coast in Croatia frolicked in rare snow; and Bosnians in the capital, Sarajevo, spontaneously organized a winter "Olympics" in which they boarded down main streets and leapt out of windows into deep snow banks.

The Serbian government late on Sunday declared an emergency situation, saying the intense snowfall has jeopardized normal functioning. Emergency officials said that 70,000 people were cut off by the heavy snow.

"I hope the emergency measures will lead to better functioning of the rescue efforts," said emergency official Goran Nikolic.

They included shutting down all primary schools and high schools for a week to save power and keep children safe. Thrilled, hundreds of kids filled the parks in the capital, Belgrade, sliding and making snow angels.

In Bosnia, hundreds of villages are cut off behind snowed-in roads and avalanches and authorities were using helicopters to evacuate the sick and deliver food. Authorities said they have had no contact for 72 hours with about 120 people in the central village of Zijemlja, where residents have no electricity or phone lines.

"There are several small hamlets with children and elderly people ? and we are not able to help them," said Radovan Palavstra, mayor of the nearby city of East Mostar.

Emergency official Milimir Doder said his teams must clear 20 kilometers (12 miles) of road before they can get to the village.

In the capital, Sarajevo, thousands of people trudged to work on Monday, with only occasional buses braving the deep snow. Volunteers, meanwhile, cleared tram lines themselves.

Authorities told residents to keep their trash on their balconies because no one would be able to pick it up before the city streets are cleared, which could take a few days.

Young people in several neighborhoods boarded down snow-covered streets or cruised the main street towed behind cars on skis. Others competed with videos on YouTube to show the craziest jump into the snow from second floor apartments ? most of them wearing only bathing suits. In one neighborhood, residents mocked local politicians by trying to build the ugliest snowman in their likenesses.

In Poland, the Interior Ministry reported Monday that nine people died of hypothermia over the past 24 hours. Two elderly people were found frozen in Serbia and Bosnia, and Croatia reported 4 snow-related deaths.

Ukraine's government said on Sunday the country's death toll now stands at 131, including many homeless people. About 2,300 other Ukrainians have sought treatment for frostbite or hypothermia.

In the Netherlands, however, the deep freeze means the country's almost mythical "Eleven Cities Tour" ice skating marathon could be staged later this month for the first time in 15 years, organizers said Monday.

The race, held along a 125-mile (200-kilometer) network of canals connecting 11 towns and cities in Friesland province, would cause a national frenzy, drawing thousands of participants and more than a million spectators. It was last held in 1997.

The national weather service forecasts freezing temperatures at least through Friday, fueling hopes.

____

Aida Cerkez in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Mike Corder in Amsterdam contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-02-06-EU-Europe-Weather/id-97fb7fc25abc4092b4111e5e22d6fc4c

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Former White House intern Mimi Alford reveals details of Kennedy affair

By Jessica Hopper
Rock Center

Mimi Alford is speaking publicly for the first time about the secret she?s held for half a century. Alford claims that she had an 18 month long affair with President John F. Kennedy when she was a White House intern.?

?I think when you keep a secret and when you keep silent about something, you do it because you think it?s keeping you safe, but in fact, it?s deadly,? Alford told Meredith Vieira in an exclusive interview scheduled to air Wednesday on NBC?s Rock Center with Brian Williams.?

In 1962, a 19-year-old Alford spent her summer in Washington, D.C., interning in the White House press office.? She had just finished her freshman year at Wheaton College.? Four days into her internship, Alford claims that JFK aide, David Powers, invited her to go swimming in the White House pool. Alford was surprised when the 45-year-old president joined her and two others in the pool. ?

?It really didn?t seem unnatural, just because everybody was friendly and I went back to work afterwards,? Alford said. ??No one said anything.?

Later that day, she says she received another call to visit the private floors of the White House.? The na?ve teenager didn?t question the president?s intentions when he asked to take her on a tour of the White House.

?The president came over to me and asked me if I?d like to take a tour of the second floor of the White House and see some of the rooms that had been redecorated. The last room that we went into was the bedroom and we walked into the bedroom and it was a beautiful room?I learned later that it was Mrs. Kennedy?s bedroom,? Alford said.

---

Alford says that she lost her virginity to the president in the first lady?s bedroom. In her soon to be released memoir, Once Upon a Secret My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath, Alford described her first sexual encounter with the president writing that, ?I wouldn?t describe what happened that night as making love, but I wouldn?t call it nonconsensual either.?

When asked if she felt overpowered by Kennedy, she told Vieira, ?I think overpowered in the sense that he was the president.? He was this unbelievably handsome man, 45 years old, overpowered in the fact that he had chosen me?and taken me on this tour.? That's what I mean by being overpowered by the whole situation. Not overpowered physically that someone had grabbed me and done this to me and made me do something that I wasn't really willing to do, because I really think I was willing to do it.?

Alford emphasized to Vieira that if she had told the president no, he would have stopped. The affair continued for 18 months even after Alford returned to college.

?I think I was under the aura of, I had just a little bit of second thoughts, not enough to keep me from going back,? said Alford of the affair?s beginnings.

While interning, Alford would sometimes travel with the president.? When she returned to college, he?d have arrangements made for her to come visit him.? Sometimes, a limo would pick her up and take her to the airport to fly to Washington, D.C.? Alford remembers doing homework in the limo as she headed to meet the president.?

?I should have felt guilty.? He was married to Mrs. Kennedy, but I didn?t at the time feel guilty,? Alford said.

Looking back now, Alford says that she realizes she was at Kennedy?s beck and call.

?I think that?s probably partly what makes me feel sad when I look back.? It made me feel very special,? Alford said.

Alford described Kennedy as ?boyish? and ?shy? around her.

?I?m not going to say he loved me, but I think he did like me a lot. He cared about me,? she said. ?Just the way he was, the way he smiled with me. I feel that he did.? I feel that he actually cared about me.?

When pressed by Vieira about whether she really believes that Kennedy had genuine feelings for her or if believing that is simply a way for her to comfort herself all these years later, Alford said, ?I think it?s a little bit of both.?

Now 68, Alford?s soon to be released memoir shares explicit details about the affair, including a claim that the president encouraged her to have sexual relations with at least one other person at the White House. Alford says that keeping the affair secret was more damaging than the affair itself. ?She said that it affected her relationships and contributed to the demise of her first marriage.?

Alford was first publicly outed in 2003 when historian Robert Dallek wrote 37 words about an unnamed intern who had an affair with Kennedy in his biography of Kennedy called An Unfinished Life.? The New York Daily News identified her and Alford issued a simple written statement confirming her secret relationship.? She faded into obscurity, but said that the secret eventually became too much to hold inside.

?It?s not so much that I feel that I?m exposing myself, it?s that I?m really unburdening myself, it was a very difficult thing for me to do,? Alford said. ??In fact, most mornings when I woke up I thought I don?t want to get up and write this book, I want to hide under the covers.?

Editor?s Note: Meredith Vieira?s exclusive interview with Mimi Alford airs Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 9pm/8c on NBC?s Rock Center with Brian Williams. Vieira talks to Alford at length in the author's first candid interview.

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Source: http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/06/10323677-former-white-house-intern-mimi-alford-reveals-details-of-kennedy-affair

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AP Vietnam correspondent George Esper dies at 79

FILE - In this Jan. 1, 1966 file photo, AP special correspondent George Esper poses with a Vietnamese boy in Quang Ngai Province, south of Da Nang. Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79. Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this Jan. 1, 1966 file photo, AP special correspondent George Esper poses with a Vietnamese boy in Quang Ngai Province, south of Da Nang. Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79. Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this undated file photo, Associated Press special correspondent George Esper poses is shown. Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79. Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/file)

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2000 file photo, Associated Press special correspondent George Esper poses in his Boston office. Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79. Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Julia Malakie, file)

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2000 file photo, Associated Press special correspondent George Esper poses in his Boston office. Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79. Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Julia Malakie, file)

FILE - In this undated file photo, Associated Press special correspondent George Esper poses is shown. Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79. Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/file)

George Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79.

Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night, his son, Thomas, told the AP on Friday. Esper suffered from a number of ailments, especially serious heart issues, and less than two weeks ago was released from a rehab center in Braintree, where he had been sent after his latest treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"George was most famous for his journalistic chops, his courage and tenacity, particularly in Vietnam. But those lucky enough to know him will celebrate his enormous generosity and boundless good cheer," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor and senior vice president.

Besides covering stories, Esper mentored young reporters in the AP and aspiring journalists he taught as a college professor.

"Hundreds of journalists learned from him in the field or in the classroom at West Virginia University and his words and his spirit inspire them every day," Carroll said. "He was a gentleman journalist and we will miss him sorely."

Esper earned accolades for breaking important stories and logged 10 years in Vietnam, the last two as AP's bureau chief. He regularly wrote AP's daily war roundup, a comprehensive story that was a fixture in many American and foreign newspapers.

"He loved traveling the world and getting the story for The Associated Press," Thomas Esper said. "He was a selfless person who made friends wherever he went."

While he considered his coverage of the dramatic end of the 15-year Indochina conflict the high point in a 42-year career of deadline reporting, it was far from the only one. Esper was legendary for his dogged persistence in covering news in war and in peace.

"You don't want to be obnoxious and you don't want to stalk people, but I think persistence pays off," Esper said in an interview in 2000.

So when he was assigned to write a story for the 20th anniversary of the 1970 shootings of four students by National Guardsmen at Kent State University and could find no phone number for the mother of one of the victims, Esper drove an hour through a snowstorm to knock on her door.

"She just kind of waved me off, and she said, 'We're not giving any interviews.' Just like that," Esper recalled. "I didn't really push her. On the other hand, I didn't turn around and leave. I just kind of stood there, wet with snow, dripping wet and cold, and I think she kind of took pity on me."

Like so many others over the years, she opened up to Esper.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1932, the second youngest of eight children, Esper came from a family of Christian immigrants from Lebanon. The family operated a tavern by railroad tracks and, as a boy, George helped out by tending bar.

He was the first in his family to go to college ? West Virginia University in Morgantown.

He tried to become a sports announcer but was fired after two weeks for what his boss called "butchering the English language." After writing sports for the Uniontown Morning Herald and the Pittsburgh Press, AP hired him in 1958, first in Philadelphia and then in New York.

In 1965, as the U.S. military in Vietnam shifted from an advisory role to deploying full combat divisions, Esper joined AP's growing Saigon staff. Other than a return to New York for several months in 1966, he stayed to the end.

During that interlude, he covered a long-running public dispute between Jacqueline Kennedy and author William Manchester, whom she had hired to write "The Death of a President," an authorized account of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Manchester tried hard to avoid the press but complained about "that AP reporter" who seemed able to track him down no matter where he was. It was a foreshadowing of the relentless style that, along with his mastery of Vietnam's capricious phone systems, would make Esper a press corps legend in Saigon.

Once, hearing that a U.S. jungle firebase was under attack, he managed to punch through by military phone to an officer in the middle of combat. "I can't talk now. We're under attack," the officer yelled into the phone.

The U.S. Military Assistance Command regarded Esper with wariness, respect and even affection. He was relentless. He recalled "pounding them with questions: 'Why don't you know? You should know this. I know you know it.'" After the war, one retired public affairs chief included Esper's photo in a wall montage of "all the commanders I served under."

When President Lyndon B. Johnson made a hastily planned trip to Australia in 1967, it was widely assumed he would stop in Vietnam to visit U.S. troops.

Guessing that the coastal base at Cam Ranh Bay was the likely venue, Esper managed to phone the airport control tower, where an officer not only confirmed Johnson's visit but had tape-recorded his speech. Hours later, the secrecy-bound White House press corps arrived in Bangkok to find the story ? their story ? already on the AP wire.

Esper found his best stories through perseverance and guile. In December 1972, he landed an exclusive interview with a U.S. Air Force B-52 pilot facing court-martial for refusing to fly missions over North Vietnam. Tracked down in Thailand, the pilot gave Esper the full story. When he later told Esper he had been officially "muzzled" from further comment, Esper reported that, too.

Esper wrote his most memorable story on April 30, 1975, the day the war ended with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese. He and two other AP reporters declined to join the frantic evacuation of foreigners from Saigon as the North Vietnamese army drove toward the city.

Two North Vietnamese soldiers entered the bureau, accompanied by a longtime freelance photographer for the AP who on that day revealed that he had been a communist spy. He assured the reporters they were safe. Esper offered them Coca Cola and stale cake ? the only food on hand ? then interviewed the soldiers. Hours later, AP's communications were abruptly cut, but not before the story got out. The New York Times ran it on its front page.

Esper said afterward he was struck by how similar the young Hanoi soldiers were to the American GIs he had covered.

On his return to the United States, Esper became an AP special correspondent ? the news service's highest writing title ? based in Columbus, Ohio, and later in Boston. He covered major stories such as the Jonestown massacre in Guyana in 1978 and the 1991 Gulf War.

In 1993, two years after the United States restored diplomatic ties in Indochina, he was chosen to open AP's first postwar Vietnam bureau in Hanoi and was bureau chief for more than a year.

Esper retired from the AP in 2000 to become a professor of journalism at his alma mater, West Virginia University, where he was beloved by his students.

"He loved his students, who kept him young," Thomas Esper said.

Esper was a member of the university's P.I. Reed School of Journalism faculty for more than 10 years.

"He shared his vast professional experience with our students, but more importantly, he was their coach and mentor," said Maryanne Reed, dean of the journalism school. "Beyond being a dedicated faculty member, George also was a wonderful person who took a personal interest in the lives of his students, colleagues and friends. ... They broke the mold when they made George."

Chris Martin, the vice president of university relations who as dean of the journalism school arranged for Esper to become a professor at his alma mater, said: "I would paraphrase a good friend's assessment: George Esper was a celebrity who made everyone he met feel like a star. It made him a great reporter but an even greater human being."

Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Esper's body was being brought to his hometown in Pennsylvania for burial.

Esper is survived by his ex-wife, Nancy Ha, of Fountain Valley, Calif.; and three sons: Thomas of Wakefield, Mass.; Michael of Brighton, Mass.; and George of Sacramento, Calif.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-03-Obit-George%20Esper/id-be98e2d9b0cf444eb7e3e03ab26514d8

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Florida Real Estate | Real Estate Investing Facts

04 Feb

Author: Hans Anderson ?// ?Category: Hans Anderson

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?Florida is where the sun shines?- you must have heard this several times. Moderate/warm climate, famous beaches and entertainment venues really make Florida real estate very attractive. So that means Florida real estate or buying a house in Florida is really good for someone who wants to escape the vagaries of weather elsewhere in America and also add to his/her enjoyment through the Miami beach and Orlando theme parks.

Freedomsoft Software , Real Estate Property locating software.

However, Florida real estate is also attractive for real estate investors i.e. people who would like to treat Florida real estate as an investment avenue for making profits. With the property prices rising as much as 25%, Florida real estate makes investment sense too. That is one reason why Florida real estate is so sought after. If you wanted to look for a really good deal in Florida real estate, you should start with looking for places that are still in their development phase i.e. places where the real estate prices are not so high but are expected to go up in the years to come. This is generally a good option for people who are looking to pick up Florida real estate as an investment option. This is also good for people who are looking for Florida real estate or a house in Florida to live in by themselves but don?t mind a bit of inconvenience that is generally associated with a newly developed (rather developing) area. As far as looking for

Florida real estate listings is concerned, you first need to decide on what location in Florida is suitable for you. Again, this will depend on your reason behind going for Florida real estate. If you are going for Florida real estate purely for investment purposes (i.e. you don?t actually want to live in there), then you should really be looking for places where the prices are significantly low but are rising or expected to rise in near future. One indication for expected price rise is the influx of a lot of businesses in the area. Industry/business generally propels development in the area and hence causes the real estate prices to go up (and that would be true for Florida real estate too). Of course, distress sales, public auctions, bank foreclosures are like evergreen opportunities that are available in any place at any time and you should always explore them.

If you are going for Florida real estate for personal use, then you would be looking at a number of different factors which would basically be related to your convenience and quality of life.
So Florida is where the sun shines and that is also making Florida real estate shine.

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Tags: buying a house, buying a house in florida, florida real estate, investment purposes, real estate florida, real estate investors

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Source: http://realestateinvestingfacts.com/blog/5091/florida-real-estate/

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$149900 2BR/2BA ? Green Valley, AZ ? 935 S Camino Del Monte

Green Valley Homes for Sale and Real Estate Open House 02-10-2012 from: 9AM to: 11AM 9900 2 bedrooms, 2 baths 935 S Camino Del Monte Green Valley, AZ 85614 MLS #: 46650 More details on this listing: ChaCha.LongRealty.com For more information, contact: Cha Cha Donau ChaCha@LongRealty.com (520) 591-4982 It?s all about the view and natural desert. Townhouse 6 a very sought after area of Green Valley, Central location, single loaded streets and lots of natural desert. This home is ready for you to move into. Enjoy the East backyard, large open interior spaces, entry courtyard and even an oversized two car garage. All tile floors except the two bedrooms. Fresh paint and a blank slate to truly make into a wonderful desert get-a-way. A jewel! Let us show you this inviting townhome at 935 S Camino Del Monte in Green Valley. This home is all about the views! You?ll love the neutral colors, and the tile flooring in this home. Think of the various ways you?ll make this house your home. Cooking will be easy in the efficient and well-designed kitchen. The natural glow of wood cabinets creates an inviting space for cooking and baking. You?ll find 2 bedrooms and 2 baths in this home. To arrange for your personal showing, contact us today. Property Type: Residential Subdivision: Townhouse 6 MLS Area:GREEN VALLEY County: Pima Builder: Fairfield
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Source: http://whatismortgagerefinancing.com/149900-2br2ba-green-valley-az-935-s-camino-del-monte/

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Experience Eating Out in Birmingham This Valentine's Day | Bsst ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Whilst the flavours created through the delicate cooking treat your senses, the price of the food and drink will be treating your wallet, with a three-course inclusive meal costing under ?25 per head. Similarly, a main course from ...

Source: http://aselsanbaku.com/experience-eating-out-in-birmingham-this-valentines-day-2/

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Jonathan D. Moreno: Tackling 21st Century Tech Risks

I was privileged to have the philosopher and critic Richard Rorty as a colleague for a short time at the University of Virginia. Rorty, who died in 2007, was about as sophisticated a cultural observer as there can be among us American provincials. When I visited him in his office one day, he handed me a book he said someone commended to him but confessed he hadn't gotten to read. "It looks interesting," he said with a characteristic shrug. "Maybe you'll find it useful." I'm not sure why he thought so, but any book given by Dick Rorty needed to be read.

That was 1999, and the book was a translation of a 1992 work by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck, called Risk Society. One of Beck's key premises is that the modern world is typified by the exportation of risk. His examples include the industrial disaster in Bhopal, India, in which thousands of people died from a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. Doing a little background work on Beck, I came to understand that his ideas were hugely influential in Europe, especially among advocates of the "precautionary principle" who would put the burden of proof on claims that no harm will be caused by an action or policy.

With some exceptions, the idea of managing risks proactively and proportionately, let alone embracing the precautionary principle, hasn't caught on here as it has in Europe. In the U.S., technological risk management has been seen as too much government intrusion that threatens innovation. Instead, as Harvard's Sheila Jasanoff has observed, the American approach has been to "normalize" new technologies like certain genetic manipulations as merely extensions of what already happens in nature.

But that approach can put a lot of weight on distinguishing between genuinely new wrinkles and what's been done before, and it doesn't help sort out high- and low-risk products. So for genuinely innovative technologies that cannot plausibly be lumped as minor variants of existing and proven technologies, there is little choice but to bear the brunt of the full force of the U.S. regulatory hammer. Instead of restraining government oversight, the result is often sweeping and unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to innovation that aren't well-matched to actual threats. The case I know best is that of human experiments, which are overseen by the same process, whether they are pen-and-pencil surveys or phase-one cancer trials.

Happily, albeit with little notice, the way the federal government regulates the risks of innovative science and technology is undergoing substantial change, one that started in the George W. Bush years and is gaining momentum under Barack Obama. The challenge is to reshape the regulatory philosophy of the 20th century to fit 21st-century research and development. Rather than the one-size-fits-all approach of the post-World-War-II era, government is trying to fit the oversight of emerging technologies -- such as nanotechnology, synthetic biology and genetic engineering -- to their risks.

What's intriguing about this shift is that the idea of managing technological risk has not only been quietly embraced by both parties and across ideological lines, but it crosses over many and diverse scientific and technological fields. Last March the White House told federal agency heads that "[r]egulation and oversight should avoid unjustifiably inhibiting innovation, stigmatizing new technologies, or creating trade barriers." The statement by several presidential office heads emphasized principles like scientific integrity, public participation, benefits and costs of federal oversight, communication, flexibility, risk assessment, and risk management.

Take the case of nanotech. The last three presidential administrations have supported a National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) that has invested $14 billion in research since 2001 to speed the development of materials and devices with novel and valuable electronic, chemical, mechanical, and optical properties. At the same time, however -- recognizing that public and business confidence in nano products could be threatened without good evidence of safety--the federal government, at the urging of the president's science advisors, significantly increased research on the health and environmental implications of nanotechnology. The idea is to gain information while an industry is still young to avoid unnecessary, knee-jerk, and obstructive regulation later on. Along the same lines, in December the administration announced that it will develop a National Bioeconomy Blueprint, including "regulatory reforms that will reduce unnecessary burdens and impediments while protecting health and safety." In another example, the human research oversight system is now being revised to concentrate oversight resources on the riskiest studies.

All this is a good start toward replacing a one-size-fits-all regulatory philosophy with one that focuses on evidence-based risk. So far, though, an important potential problem has been underappreciated by planners as they've sought to predict on the basis of solid science the actual risk posed by various new technologies: the threat that emerging technologies like nano or synthetic biology could have illicit "dual use" by terrorist groups. A single documented biological attack using new technology could result in a huge blowback that would undermine investment and public trust for years, a consequence that the then-nascent field of gene therapy research suffered after the death of a clinical trial subject in 1999.

The dual use problem came up just a few weeks ago at the end of 2011, when bird flu experiments aimed at bolstering public health efforts raised concerns for the virus' potential misuse by bioterrorists. Of course, not all risks can be anticipated, but we can surely learn from our mistakes. As the president's bioethics commission concluded in its synthetic biology report in 2010, "[r]isk assessment activities across the government need to be coordinated and field release permitted only after reasonable risk assessment." Coordinated risk regulation in advance of product development would encourage America's innovators to more aggressively explore low-risk/high-potential-value terrain while freeing up resources to move dual use oversight into the 21st century.

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Follow Jonathan D. Moreno on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pennprof

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-d-moreno/tackling-21st-century-tec_b_1251350.html

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Chairlift Something - PopMatters

Chairlift?s 2008 debut Does You Inspire You was a proper contrary. On one hand it delivered some of the most luxurious, artful pop of the age and on the other some baffling ?Is that the time? Must dash, I?ve left a knife in the fork drawer? calamity. Poor listeners didn?t know which way to turn. It was a confusing time for pop and for humanity. ?Bruises? was one of the prettiest, doe-eyed duets in eons and painted the whole world with a rainbow, whereas ?Territory? was the ultimate realisation of Dolores O?Riordan as an actual ?Zombie-ee-ee-EE? lustful for nefarious revenge. Similarly, ?Planet Health? was capable of overheating the Whoopee Machine with its ?Ooh Matron!? sultriness, but then ?Evident Utensil? was the malevolent ?Barbie Girl? sporting a novelty fake moustache and Parisian beret. Any return to ?Chez Chairlift? in 2012 would be ... well, complicated.?

So hallelujah and ring-a-ding-ding if Something doesn?t wipe away tears, wipe away doubt. It not only trumps their ?Hell, Yes! / Hell, No!? debut at every turn but almost makes me forgive ?n? forget ?The Aqua Incident?. With original crewmate Aaron Pfenning having jumped ship ? I don?t want to point the finger of blame, but nothing here sounds like Aqua - leaving Patrick Wimberly and Caroline Polachek at the rudder, Something is one smooooth ride on a luxury liner which rarely has you reaching for your lifejacket or sickbag.

If, as many say, genuine joy is the hardest note to master in the ?Lexicon du Pop?, no one thought to inform Chairlift. At the heart of this album beats a bevy of bright-eyed, joyful and triumphant poptastic beauties. The glossy ?Wrong Opinion? hugs with the hot embrace of summer sun under a perfect blue sky. ?I lay my guts out on the table ... If you don?t get it / It?s fine by me?. Scoop ?em up sister, you?re a winner! Imagine a sun-soaked ?Heaven? by the Psychedelic Furs, blissed out and hazy-in-a-hammock and you?re halfway there. Ditto the spine-tingling rush of ?I Belong in Your Arms?. It?s impossible not to keel over, crazy in love with wobbly knees, and surrender to its sense of romantic euphoria. Oh and the feral, orgasmic ?WAH!? at 2:02 is officially ?a thing of sublime musical divinity?. Elsewhere, single ?Met Before? packs such a headrushin? buzz of ecstasy, the ?Lift should expect an early morning call from the Vice squad. Like a possessed Grace Slick bellowing ?Somebody to LOOOVE?, it?s that ?racing around a field in a poncho, hands-aloft, outta my mind on love, life, love ... and mushrooms? feeling. Throw in some tribal drums and rose-tinted, kaleidoscopic carousels of ?BABA, BABA? and the effect is ?admittedly intoxicating?, Officer.

There are softer moments where you get to rest your now-smokin? ballet slippers. The centrepiece ballad ?Cool As a Fire? is bruised, majestic. ?With or without you / I don?t have a choice ... I?m alive, I?m alive I know?. The dying fade of midnight embers under a blanket sky of teary stars. A proper, ?That?s it, cancel everything!? sobfest ? la Madonna?s ?Live to Tell?. Talking of her Madgesty, the dreamy, sparkly ?Take It Out On Me? is the lovechild of a Venn diagram coupling between her moody blue ?Borderline? and Pet Shop Boys? reflective ?It Couldn?t Happen Here?. It also shelters what is commonly known ?round these parts as ?a killer chorus?.?

Even though Something is poptasmagoric, Chairlift still heed the call of the weird and there?s mucho quirky oddness to appease the never-happy Hipster Illuminati. ?Sidewalk Safari? recalls MGMT wrestling their way out of a straitjacket using only Castanets whilst the tongue-twisting, Scrabble-tastic ?Amanaemonesia? proves equally slippery, funky and yes, loopy. It?s painted with the surreal wackiness of vintage Sesame Street. You can imagine a fuzzy, furry puppet in a trashcan holding court before a captivated audience of hyperactive rugrats. ?Is it Amanaemonesia? Mistaken for magic!? coos Polachek whose extraordinary, voodoo vocals flutter from angelic ?n? poetic to androgynous ?n? possessed often in the same sentence. Nowhere does Polachek?s vocals get a full run of the yard than on the slinky ?Ghost Tonight?, less catwalk strut, more hungry lioness spotting Bambi. Let it loose!

Something occasionally staggers, ?tis true. After setting the bar Olympian high, anything other than ?Immortal Pop Banger? seems ordinary. Sometimes you will, like a sugar-rush brat high on nougat and sodium benzoate, bang the dinner table and bellow ?MORE UNICORNS! MORE RAINBOWS!?. The new Bohemia of ?Frigid Spring? has ?Sinead O?Connor but heavily-Prozac?d? delirium, dandelions and lens flare but feels ?fluffy? betwixt such towering oaks. ?Turning? meanwhile sails perilously close to the shores of Enya?s sonic cathedrals and inadvertently calls a timeout for writing your shopping list or making a brew. Luckily though, Something leaves a memorable parting gift. ?Guilty As Charged? ? all car engine growls and almighty, bed shakin? rumbles - is sensual, confident and purrs like a panther. ?I?m guilty as charged / Go on and punish me?. Nurse! My pills!

Something contains pop par excellence. Lush, fragrant, bright, elegant. It?s the special stuff kept locked behind the counter especially for the more discerning pop tart. It recalls that golden age in the late ?70s / early ?80s when fully-grown, educated adults in good shoes could still dabble in this pop malarkey and not be openly ridiculed in the street. Post-Eno Roxy Music, Bowie, Blondie, Talking Heads, Kate Bush, Carly Simon. Equally at home poolside in the sun or at a swanky, snooty ?Art Happening?. A bounty of dizzy riches, emblazoned with ravishing colours, unexpected twists ?n? turns, blossoms of quirky melody and flourishes of wonder. But perhaps of equal importance, at no point do you suspect a bald loon may demand in a ridiculously deep baritone ?Come on Barbie! Let?s go party?. Ooh-hoo-hoo.

Chairlift - Amanaemonesia

Source: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/153867-chairlift-something/

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ANC Study Said to Propose South African Mining Resource-Rent Tax

February 02, 2012, 3:53 PM EST

By Franz Wild

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) ? A study into mine nationalization commissioned by South Africa?s ruling African National Congress proposes introducing measures including a 50 percent resource- rent tax rather than taking over operations, a party official who has seen the document said.

Previous ANC discussion documents have defined resource rent taxes as a levy that would be triggered once the expected rate of return had been attained on an asset. Nationalizing the country?s mine assets would be too expensive for the government as it would cost more than 1 trillion rand ($131 billion), according to the study, the official, who declined to be identified because the document hasn?t been made public, said.

The study also proposes a 50 percent capital gains tax on the sale of mineral rights before mining has begun to discourage speculators and suggested moving mine assets held by the government?s Industrial Development Corp. into a state mining company, the official said.

The party instituted the study after its youth wing leader, Julius Malema, proposed that the government take over the country?s mines and banks because the black majority isn?t deriving enough benefit from them.

South Africa is the world?s biggest producer of platinum, chrome and manganese and supplies coal to power plants in Europe and India. In April 2010 Citigroup Inc. valued the country?s mineral resources at $2.5 trillion, the most of any nation.

If adopted by ANC leaders the study will influence policy documents to be discussed at a policy conference in June. Final decisions on economic policy will be made at its national conference in December.

Keith Khoza, a party spokesman, didn?t immediately respond to a message left on his his mobile phone by Bloomberg. Earlier today he confirmed that the ANC has received the report and said its decision-making body could discuss it at a 5-day meeting that began today.

?Editors: Antony Sguazzin, Vernon Wessels

To contact the reporter on this story: Franz Wild in Johannesburg at fwild@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net; Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Source: http://g7finance.com/global-news/anc-study-said-to-propose-south-african-mining-resource-rent-tax/

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Precedent warning as Assange extradition case ends (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain's Supreme Court risks jeopardizing extraditions to many neighboring countries if it stops WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being sent to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes, a lawyer for Swedish prosecutors argued Thursday.

On the final day of hearings to determine whether the Australian is freed from house arrest in Britain or flown out to face Swedish investigators, Clare Montgomery told the justices they could set a legal precedent making it "extremely difficult" for France and many other EU states to secure extraditions from Britain if the court ruled the warrant for Assange invalid.

Assange, 40, faces an difficult battle after two lower court rulings against him. Montgomery argued that the success of his case - which raises the point that the warrant was issued by a Swedish prosecutor rather than a judge - could affect the future of extradition to countries that have similar legal systems.

The seven Supreme Court judges, who have heard two days of legal argument, are expected to give a ruling in several weeks.

For Assange, lawyer Dinah Rose told them Wednesday that the arrest warrant issued against him in 2010 was invalid under English law on the grounds it was not issued by an impartial "judicial authority" but by a public prosecutor in Stockholm.

Montgomery, acting for the Swedish prosecution service, responded that it was an appropriate authority to issue such demands under the European Arrest Warrant system.

She said the European system allowed for differences between the roles of prosecutors in different legal systems and cited France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy among several states where arrest warrants were issued in similar fashion to Sweden.

The Swedish warrant stems from Assange's encounters in August 2010 with two women who were then WikiLeaks volunteers. They accuse him of sexual assault. He says they consented.

Swedish officials want to question Assange in order to decide whether there are sufficient grounds to charge him.

WIKILEAKS FUTURE

At stake for the campaigner who accuses world governments of trying to destroy his efforts to expose their secrets is a chance to refocus his attention on the beleaguered WikiLeaks website after more than a year under house arrest.

The Supreme Court is not considering the substance of the allegations, only the validity of the arrest warrant. If Assange loses, he would have no further recourse in the British courts, though he could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

In that case, his strict bail conditions would remain in place pending the outcome of his appeal.

Once a hero to peace activists and Internet freedom campaigners around the world, the mercurial Australian has seen his popularity decline as the sex case has gone through the courts and he has fallen out with many of his former supporters.

Thursday, about a dozen admirers stood outside the building with banners, in sharp contrast to lower court hearings a year ago when huge crowds thronged the courthouse.

WikiLeaks burst onto the global news agenda in 2010 when it released secret footage and classified U.S. military files and diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, drawing a furious response from the U.S. government.

The suspected source of much of the WikiLeaks material, U.S. army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, is in detention in the United States awaiting court-martial on 22 charges, including aiding the enemy.

Since its heyday in 2010, there have been few major scoops from WikiLeaks, which has been starved of cash by credit card companies that are refusing to process online donations to it.

With potential sources perhaps deterred by Manning's troubles and Assange, the undisputed face of WikiLeaks, fighting the sexual assault allegations, the website faces an uphill battle to recapture the limelight.

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120202/wl_nm/us_britain_assange

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Hackers attack large Brazilian bank

SAO PAULO (AP) ? A group of Internet hackers said Tuesday it took down the website of Brazil's second largest private sector bank, one day after it did the same with the country's largest private bank.

The group that calls itself "Anonymous Brasil" said on Twitter: "Attention sailors: Target hit! The http://bradesco.com.br is sinking. TANGO DOWN."

Banco Bradesco SA said in a statement that its site suffered "momentary interruptions," due to a denial of service attack, but that it was never forced offline. However, attempts by The Associated Press to access the site were unsuccessful for several hours.

Denial of service attacks are operations that block websites by flooding them with traffic.

The group said on Twitter that its attacks were a protest against corruption and would continue for at least a week.

On Monday, the group attacked the website of Itau Unibanco Banco Multiplo SA, Brazil's largest private sector bank, saying it was the first of several such attacks.

That bank said in a statement that its site was offline for part of the day, but that it was re-established after the problem was detected.

The Brazilian Federation of Banks said in a statement posted on its website that it has been calling for approval of a law that criminalizes electronic attacks and fraud.

One week ago, the websites of the Sao Paulo state government and state court were taken down for a few hours by the same group of hackers.

Anonymous Brasil said the attacks were to protest the evictions of some 5,000 people from a sprawling slum.

In June last year, hackers struck the website of Brazil's statistics agency and temporarily blocked traffic to the websites of the Brazilian presidency, the nation's internal revenue service, oil company Petrobras, the Senate and the Sports Ministry

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-31-LT-Brazil-Hacker-Attack/id-a6a459142c8740f58422ef3d69e19f47

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A Cabinet Meeting Focused on Small Business | The White House

President Barack Obama holds a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Jan. 31, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Today, President Obama convened a meeting of his Cabinet to discuss the ideas he laid out in the State of the Union. Joining the meeting was a new member of that Cabinet -- Karen Mills, the head of the Small Business Administration.

The President elevated Mills to ensure that entrepreneurs always have a direct line to the Oval Office. He said:

I mentioned at the State of the Union that there have been discussions, bipartisan discussions between Republicans and Democrats, about a whole set of measures that can accelerate financing to startup companies; can provide tax breaks to startups and small businesses that are interested in either hiring more workers or increasing their wages; that looks at innovative ways for them to raise capital.?

And my expectation and hope is, is that they will get a bill together quickly, that they will pass it and get it on my desk. I will sign it right away, and I would like to see that bill signed this year.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks during the Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Jan. 31, 2012. At right is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The President also ran through what agencies like the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Education are doing to help American businesses as well. He said:

[What] we want to do is to make sure that every single agency, even as they?re tending to their energy initiatives or providing homeland security or transportation or defense, that we?re also thinking about how are we advancing the cause of giving small businesses and entrepreneurs opportunities to start creating the next Google or the next Apple or the next innovative company that?s going to create jobs and improve our economy.

Read the full remarks.

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Learn more

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/31/cabinet-meeting-focused-small-business

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Ancient DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change.

The bones play a key role in a world-first study, led by University of Adelaide researchers, which analyses special genetic modifications that turn genes on and off, without altering the DNA sequence itself. These 'epigenetic' changes can occur rapidly between generations ? without requiring the time for standard evolutionary processes.

Such epigenetic modifications could explain how animal species are able to respond to rapid climate change.

In a collaboration between the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) and Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, researchers have shown that it is possible to accurately measure epigenetic modifications in extinct animals and populations.

The team of researchers measured epigenetic modifications in 30,000-year-old permafrost bones from the Yukon region in Canada, and compared them to those in modern-day cattle, and a 30-year-old mummified cow from New Zealand.

Project leader Professor Alan Cooper, Director of ACAD, says: "Epigenetics is challenging some of our standard views of evolutionary adaptation, and the way we think about how animals use and inherit their DNA. In theory, such systems would be invaluable for a wide range of rapid evolutionary adaptation but it has not been possible to measure how or whether they are used in nature, or over evolutionary timescales."

Epigenetics specialist and co-investigator Dr Catherine Suter, from the Victor Chang Institute, has been studying the role of epigenetics in adaptation in laboratory animals. She jumped at the chance to test epigenetic methods in ancient DNA, which had never previously been attempted.

"This is the first step towards testing the idea that epigenetics has driven evolution in natural populations," Dr Suter says.

Professor Cooper says: "The climate record shows that very rapid change has been a persistent feature of the recent past, and organisms would need to adapt to these changes in their environment equally quickly. Standard mutation and selection processes are likely to be too slow in many of these situations."

"Standard genetic tests do not detect epigenetic changes, because the actual DNA sequence is the same," says lead author, ACAD senior researcher Bastien Llamas, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Fellow. "However, we were able to use special methods to show that epigenetic sites in this extinct species were comparable to modern cattle.

"There is growing interest in the potential evolutionary role of epigenetic changes, but to truly demonstrate this will require studies of past populations as they experience major environmental changes," he says.

###

This work has been published in the online peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.

University of Adelaide: http://www.adelaide.edu.au

Thanks to University of Adelaide 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/117209/Ancient_DNA_holds_clues_to_climate_change_adaptation

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