Community Event - Anne-Marie and Dwight host Ontario Black History Society's 16th Annual Brunch

Join CBC News Toronto hosts Anne-Marie Mediwake and Dwight Drummond at the 16th Annual Ontario Black History Society Kick-Off Brunch marking the official recognition by the Province of Ontario designating the month of February as Black History Month.

The Ontario Black History Society is a non-profit registered Canadian charity, dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of Black History and heritage. The OBHS successfully initiated the formal celebration of February as Black History Month in our city, the province and across the country in cooperation with The Honourable Jean Augustine.

What: Ontario Black History Society's annual brunch
When: Sunday, January 29, 2012, 12 - 4 pm
Where: Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex, Governor's Room
Admission: This is a ticketed event.

For more information, visit blackhistorysociety.ca

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/community/mt/2012/01/anne-marie-and-dwight-host-ontario-black-history-societys-16th-annual-brunch.html

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Conflict minerals crackdown backfiring in Congo: U.N. (Reuters)

KINSHASA (Reuters) ? A U.S. crackdown on so-called "conflict minerals" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has backfired by pushing trade deeper into the hands of criminals and smugglers, including at least one former rebel leader, a U.N. report said on Friday.

The finding underscores the difficulty faced by both the United States and Congo governments in choking off funding to eastern Congo's roving armed bands, believed responsible for thousands of rapes and killings of villagers.

In an effort to pressure Congo's rebels, the United States adopted a law last year requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to write rules forcing companies to prove minerals they derived from Congo are "conflict free."

But the rules have not been finalized due to wide opposition from companies and industry groups, creating uncertainty that has led international trading firms to virtually stop all purchases from Congo.

"(This) has mainly led to a loss of production and increased criminality, which I think everyone would agree is not a great result," Gregory Salter, who worked as a consultant for the United Nations report, told Reuters.

Eight years after the official end of a war that killed more than five million people, Congo has struggled to tackle rebel groups and criminal elements within its own armed forces that haunt the densely forested east and enrich themselves on illegal mining.

Congo has some of the world's largest deposits of minerals including tin and coltan used in making cell phones and computers, but decades of conflict and corruption mean most of the population remains mired in poverty, a situation made worse by "conflict mineral" crackdown, the UN's Group of Experts report noted.

"This refusal (by international companies) to purchase untagged material left many exporters... bereft of their main, or only customers, and therefore incomes," the group stated. Congo exports dropped by around 90 percent following the decision by firms not to accept minerals from the region, mining officials told Reuters earlier this year

"(It) appears to have increased the need for fraudulent operators to seek or accept military assistance in their mineral smuggling operations," the report continued.

A former rebel, who is now a general in the Congolese army, is implicated in illegal mineral trafficking, the group said.

Bosco Ntaganda, who is subject to an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes, controls the supply of minerals from the Congolese city of Goma into neighboring Rwanda, which has seen a rise in smuggling in 2011, the report stated.

"The level of recorded domestic production of tin, tungsten and tantalum ores (in Rwanda) continues to be higher than industry analysts consider the real level of production to be... suggesting that material from the DRC is being smuggled into Rwanda, and then tagged as of Rwandan origin," the report said.

Mineral exports from Rwanda are expected to reach $150 million by the end of 2011, up from $118 million in the last financial year between July 2010 and July 2011.

Last month Rwanda returned more than 80 tonnes of minerals to Congo and Rwandan officials have told Reuters that the tagging system, which allows minerals to be traced back to their mine of origin, is working at "nearly 100 percent."

Congo's armed forces have faced repeated allegations of operating illegal mining rackets, and last year Congolese president Joseph Kabila suspended mining in the region for six months in an effort to demilitarize the industry.

Congolese Minister of Mines, Martin Kabwelulu, has dismissed accusations that the Congolese army were involved in illegal mining as "rumors" but said he backed the U.S. legislation to clean up the mining sector.

"For me the Dodd-Frank law is very good, because it stops the criminals from working," he told Reuters by text message.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/wl_nm/us_congo_democratic_un

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Haley names acting director of insurance agency | SCNOW

By: SEANNA ADCOX | Associated Press
Published: December 29, 2011
Updated: December 29, 2011 - 4:39 PM

COLUMBIA, S.C. --

Gov. Nikki Haley has named an acting chief of South Carolina's insurance agency following the director's abrupt resignation.

Haley made Gwen Fuller McGriff acting director. Haley informed legislative leaders of her choice in a letter Wednesday evening, soon after 54-year-old Director David Black resigned without explanation. He informed employees of his decision in an email Wednesday afternoon. His resignation was effective immediately.

The Greenville resident left 11 months after Haley chose him. The Senate confirmed his appointment in February. His salary was $112,407.

Black did not return messages Thursday from The Associated Press.

"Since I have enjoyed this work and your friendship, this was not an easy decision," Black wrote in the five-sentence email to staff. "I have been touched from the very beginning by your hospitality and inspired by your hard work and dedication to making improvements within the department for the public benefit."

Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said Black told the governor he quit, without submitting a resignation letter.

Fuller McGriff has been the agency's director of legal, legislative and external affairs, making $121,439. She's among four agency employees with salaries higher than Black's. She was not in the office Thursday and was unreachable.

In her letter, Haley wrote that she plans to name an interim director soon.

Black was president and CEO of Liberty Life Insurance from 2004 until March 2010. The Greenville-based company was part of the Royal Bank of Canada's insurance operations. Last year, the Royal Bank announced it was selling Liberty Life for $628 million to Athene Holding Ltd., and expected to show a loss of $405 million by U.S. accounting principles.

Black replaced Scott Richardson, a former GOP state senator that former Gov. Mark Sanford appointed to the job in February 2007.

Black's departure represents another change in Haley's administration.

?South Carolina's first inspector general, a position Haley created by executive order in March, quietly resigned in April amid frustrations about setting up the office and the operation's independence. The departure of George Schroeder, the former decades-long director of the Legislative Audit Council, wasn't known until he confirmed it to the AP six weeks later.

?In July, the director of the Budget and Control Board, which oversees much of state government operations, resigned to take a role in government in her home state of Texas. Haley had hand-picked Eleanor Kitzman in January to lead the agency.

Kitzman had previously led South Carolina's insurance agency from 2005 to 2007, when she resigned over a disagreement with Sanford on coastal insurance. The Houston native started her job as Texas' insurance commissioner in August.

?A member of Haley's inner circle resigned in September for a job as chief lobbyist at the University of South Carolina. Former deputy chief of staff Trey Walker was Haley's legislative liaison.

?In October, Haley named a veteran of the Florida Highway Patrol to lead the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, passing over her interim director amid allegations of two affairs. Col. Kenny Lancaster took the job on an interim basis in June when Haley put former Director Mark Keel in charge of a different Cabinet agency.

Maj. Leroy Smith took the helm of DPS on Nov. 15, days after the attorney general's office concluded its review of Lancaster, saying there was nothing to prosecute.

Source: http://www2.scnow.com/news/2011/dec/29/2/haley-names-acting-director-insurance-agency-ar-2951239/

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New clues as to why some older people may be losing their memory

Public release date: 28-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rachel Seroka
rseroka@aan.com
651-695-2738
American Academy of Neurology

ST. PAUL, Minn. New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly. The study is published in the January 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"The new aspect of this study of memory loss in the elderly is that it examines silent strokes and hippocampal shrinkage simultaneously," said study author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

For the study, a group of 658 people ages 65 and older and free of dementia were given MRI brain scans. Participants also underwent tests that measured their memory, language, speed at processing information and visual perception. A total of 174 of the participants had silent strokes.

The study found people with silent strokes scored somewhat worse on memory tests than those without silent strokes. This was true whether or not people had a small hippocampus, which is the memory center of the brain.

"Given that conditions like Alzheimer's disease are defined mainly by memory problems, our results may lead to further insight into what causes symptoms and the development of new interventions for prevention. Since silent strokes and the volume of the hippocampus appeared to be associated with memory loss separately in our study, our results also support stroke prevention as a means for staving off memory problems," said Brickman.

###

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of 24,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www.aan.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

---

[ | E-mail | 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.

Public release date: 28-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rachel Seroka
rseroka@aan.com
651-695-2738
American Academy of Neurology

ST. PAUL, Minn. New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly. The study is published in the January 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"The new aspect of this study of memory loss in the elderly is that it examines silent strokes and hippocampal shrinkage simultaneously," said study author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

For the study, a group of 658 people ages 65 and older and free of dementia were given MRI brain scans. Participants also underwent tests that measured their memory, language, speed at processing information and visual perception. A total of 174 of the participants had silent strokes.

The study found people with silent strokes scored somewhat worse on memory tests than those without silent strokes. This was true whether or not people had a small hippocampus, which is the memory center of the brain.

"Given that conditions like Alzheimer's disease are defined mainly by memory problems, our results may lead to further insight into what causes symptoms and the development of new interventions for prevention. Since silent strokes and the volume of the hippocampus appeared to be associated with memory loss separately in our study, our results also support stroke prevention as a means for staving off memory problems," said Brickman.

###

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of 24,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www.aan.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

---

[ | E-mail | 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/aaon-nca122711.php

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GabrielleNYC: I just bought 'Running With Kenyans-Heartfelt stories of an American Doctor in Africa' by @DrAndyBaldwin via @KindleUK http://t.co/oSGG1YoQ

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Source: http://twitter.com/GabrielleNYC/statuses/151471878865817600

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About that left-libertarian alliance thing (Unqualified Offerings)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/179809675?client_source=feed&format=rss

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LBUSD tallies millions saved as schools earn Energy Star rank

LONG BEACH - The Long Beach Unified School District can now add energy conservation to its list of things to be thankful for this year.

The school district has saved $29million since 2003 as part of a major energy conservation effort, according to a recent LBUSD staff report.

All of the district's 84 schools have earned Energy Star Certification by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The certification is based on an international standard for energy efficiency.

With 84 sites certified, the state's third largest school district now boasts 30 percent of the Energy Star-certified schools in California, LBUSD officials said.

Buildings that earn the Energy Star use 35 percent less energy and generate 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than similar buildings across the nation.

LBUSD spokesman Chris Eftychiou said the district began its conservation efforts with the hiring of two full-time energy managers and the establishment of policies and guidelines aimed at reducing the usage of electricity, gas and water.

The effort has included tracking bills to spot anomalies and performing regular meter audits via a software program.

The school district also corrected billing errors, modified behaviors through reminder notes to employees, calibrated equipment and time of use for optimal efficiency and incorporated new technology including energy-efficient light bulbs and

Internet-controlled energy management systems.

"To have 84 schools recognized is absolutely amazing. Most school districts have a big celebration if one or two schools are recognized," LBUSD's Chief Business and Financial Officer James Novak told the school board.

In addition to saving millions of dollars, the conservation effort has prevented the emission of nearly 62,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of not driving 11,000 cars for one year, according to the staff report.

Each newly certified school will receive a certificate to display in the front office.

kelly.puente@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2181

Source: http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_19616943?source=rss_viewed

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Powerful Darfur rebel chief dead, Sudan says (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Sudan's armed forces have killed the leader of Darfur's most powerful rebel group, state media said on Sunday, dealing a severe blow to insurgents in the remote western region in their nearly decade-long war with Khartoum.

The Darfur conflict has rumbled on since mainly non-Arab insurgents took up arms in 2003, saying the central government had left them out of the political and economic power structure and was favoring local Arab tribes.

Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), emerged as one of the most powerful rebel commanders. In 2008, his fighters drove across the arid western terrain and launched a shock attack on Khartoum, killing over 200 people.

Sudan's authorities have long hunted Ibrahim, who had taken refuge in neighboring Libya under Muammar Gaddafi until the leader's overthrow deprived him of his safe haven, and had refused to sign a Qatar-brokered peace deal.

Al-Sawarmi Khalid, Sudan's armed forces spokesman, said government forces killed Ibrahim early on Sunday morning as he tried to cross into South Sudan, which seceded in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended a separate, decades-long civil war.

"The armed forces clashed in a direct confrontation with Khalil Ibrahim's rebel forces, and were able to eliminate Khalil Ibrahim, who died with a group of commanders," Khalid told state television.

JEM officials did not answer phone calls for comment on Sunday, but Al Jazeera television quoted Ibrahim's brother as confirming the death, saying he died in an air raid on his military convoy.

The death of Ibrahim, often described as commanding and charismatic, could be a major blow to JEM, although tightly restricted access to Sudan's conflict zones has made it hard to gauge the actual strength and internal unity of insurgents.

"Khalil's death is an important symbolic victory for the Government of Sudan - JEM has long been the most formidable military opposition in Darfur," Aly Verjee, a researcher at the Rift Valley Institute think tank , said.

"I don't think JEM will disappear with Khalil's death, but there's a risk that JEM fractures without his leadership, as has happened with the SLM (Sudan Liberation Movement) and other rebel movements in Darfur."

FIGHTING GOES ON

The United Nations has said as many as 300,000 people may have died in Darfur, where Khartoum mobilized troops and mostly Arab militias to crush the uprising. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

While violence has died down since the mass killings reported in the early days of the conflict, law and order have collapsed and the area has been hit by attacks by bandits, militias, soldiers and tribal groups in recent years.

Some 2 million people have fled the fighting, the United Nations says.

Various Darfur rebel groups, including two factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), have fought on despite a huge United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation set up in 2007.

Qatar brokered a peace deal which Sudan signed this year with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella association of smaller groups.

But JEM and the other major rebels groups have refused to sign the document, dampening hopes the region will soon see lasting peace.

In November, Darfur's main insurgent groups said they had formed an alliance to topple President Omar al-Bashir with other rebels in two border states, where fighting broke out around the time of South Sudan's independence.

Islamist in its outlook, Ibrahim's group has cooperated in the past with the more secular SLA rebels, although their different ideologies and histories have led to tensions.

JEM has claimed military advances as recently as last week, saying on Saturday its fighters clashed with government militias in parts of the North Kordofan state and were planning to advance on the capital Khartoum.

The report could not be independently verified.

Ibrahim died during a clash in North Kordofan's Wad Banda area, where authorities have accused JEM of attacking civilians and looting in the region, Sudan's state news agency SUNA said. The rebel group denies the charges.

The International Criminal Court has charged Bashir with masterminding genocide and other crimes in the region, accusations Khartoum dismisses as political.

(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111225/wl_nm/us_sudan_darfur

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Mexican army: 'El Chapo' security head arrested (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? The Mexican army announced Sunday that it had captured the head of security for Sinaloa drug cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of the world's most wanted men.

The suspect, who was not identified by name, was captured in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan and will be presented to the media Monday morning, the army said.

Guzman, Mexico's top drug lord, is one of the world's richest men, and has eluded authorities by moving around and hiding since his 2001 escape from prison in a laundry truck.

The army said the man they had arrested also ran cartel activities in Durango and southern Chihuahua state, and was responsible for carrying out secret burials of cartel victims, kidnapping, extortion and arson. They did not say if the arrest moved the military closer to capturing Guzman, an arrest that would be seen as a major victory for the government of President Felipe Calderon.

Guzman is worth more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which has listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People." He has a $7 million bounty on his head, and thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries working on capturing him.

His cartel controls cocaine trafficking on the Mexican border with California and has moved eastward to the corridor between the Mexican state of Sonora, which borders Arizona.

Separately, Mexican soldiers discovered 13 bodies in an abandoned truck Sunday along with a message that they were killed in a war between rival drug cartels in the eastern state of Veracruz, officials said.

The bodies were found in Tamaulipas state, a few hundred yards (meters) from its border with Veracruz, according to the Tamaulipas attorney general's office. The office said that 10 of the bodies had been decapitated.

The area has been the scene of bloody battles between the Gulf and Zetas cartels, and a pair of banners alluding to a rivalry were found in the truck, the statement from the attorney-general's office said.

On Friday, the attorney general's office in Veracruz said it had found 10 bodies in a different area along the border with Tamaulipas after receiving a tip.

On Thursday, three U.S. citizens traveling to spend the holidays with their relatives in Mexico were among those killed in a spree of shooting attacks on buses. In the spree, a group of gunmen attacked three buses in Veracruz, killing a total of seven passengers.

The Americans killed were a mother and her two daughters who were returning to visit relatives in the region.

The five gunmen who allegedly carried out the attacks were later shot to death by soldiers.

Earlier, the gunmen also killed four people in the nearby town of El Higo, Veracruz.

Local police in Veracruz have become so corrupt that on Wednesday the government decided to dissolve the entire force in the state's largest city, also known as Veracruz, and sent the Navy in to patrol. Some 800 police officers and 300 administrative employees were laid off.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

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Europe's Debt Crisis Worsens by Richard Wolfe, Univ of Mass. Amherst, posted at Nation of Change

Over the weekend, Fitch -- the major rating company that, with its fellow majors, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, dominate the business of assessing the riskiness of debt instruments -- took a highly publi?cized step. It downgraded the credit-worthiness of the sovereign debts of many European countries. What a spectacle! These rating companies were dis?tinguished by their laughably inaccurate (to be ex?tremely polite) assessments of the risks associated with asset-backed securi?ties. Those assessments contributed to the economic crisis we are living through. Now the world is supposed to hang on -- rather than laugh at -- their credit reports.

Europe's debts -- and social tensions swirling around them -- are clearly problems. Governments collapsing in Greece, Italy, and Spain show that, among other signs of the obvious. The rating companies' downgrades of Eu?ropean debt are rather like downgrading the likelihood of good weather while the rest of us are already rushing to close the windows against pour?ing rain.

Still worse are the usual media reports and discussions of the Fitch action. They are once again full of eerie references to steps European governments must take "to satisfy the markets." This strange metaphorical abstraction -- "the markets" -- is portrayed as some sort of Frankenstein monster threaten?ing to eat Europe's children unless the parents support government austerity programs. Those austerity programs are, of course, already making those parents and their children suffer.

Let's take a momentary step back from what is an ideological -- or better said, propagandistic -- usage of the term. "The markets" is a conceptual de?vice that serves to hide and disguise those particular corporations that stand behind and work those markets to pursue their interests. The politicians' and mass media's language makes it seem as if self-interested pursuit by those corporations were the machine-like operations of some unalterable, fixed institution. We need to remember that markets, like all other institu?tions, are human inventions filled with a mix of positive and negative as?pects and open to change. After all, the mixed effects of markets have made them objects of deep suspicion and skepticism at least since Plato and Aristo?tle profoundly criticized markets as enemies of community thousands of years ago.

The chief creditors of European governments today are banks, insurance companies, large corporations, pension funds, some other (mostly non-Euro?pean) governments, and wealthy individuals. When politicians and media speak of the need for European governments to "satisfy the markets," what they mean is to satisfy those creditors. The chief influences among those creditors are the major banks that represent and/or advise all or most of the rest of them. The major European banks were and are the chief recipients of the costly bailouts by those European governments since 2008. Indeed, those bailouts sharply increased the indebtedness of European governments because the latter paid for those bailouts by borrowing.

The bailouts worked in Europe much as they did in the US. Banks had speculated badly in asset-backed securities and their associated derivatives leading up to late 2008. When borrowers (e.g., mortgagors in the US) in?creasingly defaulted on the loans comprising those asset-backed securities, the values of the latter collapsed. Banks stopped trusting one another to repay loans between them -- central to the global credit system -- because all banks knew that they all held huge amounts of asset-backed securities whose values had collapsed. Each major bank feared that others -- like it?self - might have to default on its debts.

Bank transactions with one another stopped and thereby produced a credit "freeze" or "crunch." In modern capitalist economies, businesses, govern?ments, and consumers have all become more credit-dependent than ever. Such a freeze or crunch therefore threatened wholesale economic non-func?tioning (collapse).

The solution was for governments to intervene massively to unfreeze the credit system. They did this on multiple fronts simultaneously, so serious was the crisis. First, governments lent freely to the major banks that could not borrow from each other. Second, governments guaranteed various sorts of loans and debts so banks that had feared to lend would resume lending. Thirdly, governments borrowed massively so private lenders -- especially banks -- would have a safe and profitable outlet for their loanable funds. In these ways, as agent of the people, European governments unfroze and re?booted a collapsed private credit system at enormous public expense. They thereby enabled the survival and continued profitability of the banks and their major clients.

Over the last year or so, those banks and their clients -- freed by government bailouts from worrying about loans to one another -- have begun to worry about their loans to European governments. They fear one thing: aroused and angry publics. People in the streets may not permit their governments to impose "austerity." The people may not accept government cuts in basic public employment and services to save money and to pay off creditors that were bailed out at public expense just a short while ago.

So the creditors are now pressing governments to ensure the safety of the na?tional debt (to themselves). The Fitch downgrade is part of that pressure. The references to "satisfying the markets" simply disguise the whole outra?geous process. The crisis drama deepens: creditors' pressure on govern?ments increases austerity policies that increase mass opposition that frightens creditors who increase their pressure on governments. . . .

The contradictions driving this vicious cycle agitate all of European society and the global economy interlinked with Europe. European governments fear the creditors and fear their rising domestic oppositions to austerity. They express irritation against Fitch and the other rating companies for mak?ing their dilemma worse. They have no solution, bend toward "satisfying the markets," and thus pursue austerity in fits, starts, and retreats. Like ani?mals frozen in the headlights of oncoming disaster, the players in this absurd European drama issue redundant credit reports (Fitch), hold endless and fruitless conferences and summits (Sarkozy, Merkel, et al.), and twitch with anxiety as general strikes proliferate and governments teeter and fall. Mean?while, phantoms like "the markets" haunt the media analyses and politicians' statements, serving mostly to fragment and obscure what is happening.

http://www.nationofchange.org/europe-s-debt-crisis-deepens-1324736124

Source: http://economics.arawakcity.org/node/980

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Will the surge in legal blogs be noise drowning out the signal ...

With the recent LexisNexis survey signaling a coming surge in the number of law blogs, there's been much discussion this week as to what will become of the valuable online legal commentary and dialogue we experience from law blogs.

Media consultant and attorney, Bob Ambrogi, expects law blogs offering little value to come and go as they have in the past. Lawyers publishing such blogs will quickly lose their excitement to do so.

New York City criminal lawyer, Scott Greenfield, offered his take again this morning.

If the blawgosphere is turned into a massive and fruitless marketing initiative by over-moneyed and under-mindful law firms, big, small or solo, it's conceivable that the noise will drown out the signal, turning off those who might otherwise be inclined to spend some time here. Nobody wants a channel showing only commercials.

There is room for new blawgs. There will always be room for great blawgs, assuming the blawgosphere isn't crushed under a pile of crap.

To which New York plaintiff's trial lawyer, Eric Turkewitz, replied in a comment to Greenfield:

Nah. You will never see them, as they will be islands unto themselves. Those that fail to engage others will be lost, and since engagement is counterintuitive to marketing (You want me to send my readers away?!), the vast majority will simply be pixels known only to their "writers."

The discussion reminded me of a post earlier this summer from Gideon Gartner, founder of Gartner, Inc., the information technology research and advisory company, as to whether social networking may be bad for your health.

What might have once been called 'intellectual networking' seems to have been displaced by today's 'social networking.' During my years living on our planet, ideas often led to deep thinking, discussions, and of course, arguments. I would often analyze these later, attempting to reach useful conclusions. But these days, a flood of brief spoken or published ideas, stated with little or no supporting evidence and followed by inane 'comments' from seemingly random observers with little or no stature, threaten my productivity.

If this is what we call 'social networking' (SN), the rapidly growing popular trend, I fear for our future. With the entire world seemingly jumping on the SN bandwagon, this may soon overwhelm us, impacting productivity to the point where society is threatened. Neal Gabler, the author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, has recently said that social networking is drowning us in information, as we have little time (or desire) to process it! Many other intellectuals, while still a minority, have reached similar conclusions, that social networking is drowning us in information, as we have little time (or desire) to process it.

SN has contributed to books being read less and less. We are too busy linking to Facebook and Twitter; LinkedIn may have marginally greater merit; Google+ is still untested and blogging continues to crowd out responsible journalists. Authors themselves may be trending towards posting rather than going through the agonizing process of book-writing, especially when publishing volume is contracting. All in all, books and magazines which are addressing the world's social networking issues are mostly supportive as they capitalize on the rapidly growing base of social networking addicts and fans.

I am not as pessimistic as Gartner, at least as it pertains to law blogs. Law blogs are advancing legal dialogue.

Rather than limiting legal publishing to academics writing for law school law reviews and the handful of lawyers who clear the gates to write for the major legal publishers, blogs have opened the door for practicing lawyers with niche expertise to share their practical insight and commentary.

Other social media, whether it be Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, enables amplification of the deeper blogged commentary. These social media also allow greater engagement between legal bloggers so to build and nurture relationships among legal bloggers.

Legal blogging benefits the legal profession as well as the public at large. Both have greater access to the law through insight and commentary they could never have experienced before.

With the good number of law blogs we have and the surge in the number of law blogs coming we're of course going to see a significant number of law blogs that contribute little, if anything, to legal dialogue. They'll amount to little more than noise.

But the body of valuable legal information, insight, and commentary is unquestionably going to grow. Not only will we benefit as we do today from reading and writing blogs, but we'll benefit in years to come from tapping into this knowledge via technology that is still evolving.

Source: http://kevin.lexblog.com/2011/12/articles/blog-basics/will-the-surge-in-legal-blogs-be-noise-drowning-out-the-signal/

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Toronto mayor seeks new hearing for election expenses

Home : Toronto mayor seeks new hearing for election expenses

Toronto mayor seeks new hearing for election expenses

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Date: Friday Dec. 23, 2011 9:43 PM ET

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is asking an Ontario court to throw out a request for a forensic review of his campaign expenses and instead hold a fresh hearing allowing him to present new evidence.

In a motion filed late Friday afternoon, Ford's lawyers argued that the mayor's election team had not finalized its expense report from the October 2010 election, and therefore, was not able to file complete records when the city's audit committee ordered its investigation in May.

The motion said a so-called "de novo" hearing would allow the newly appointed mayor to fully present evidence.

"A de novo hearing will facilitate a more complete appreciation of the evidence, placing the court in the best position to interpret the provisions of the MEA (Municipal Elections Act). Accordingly, it is in the interests of justice that this appeal proceed as a de novo hearing," the lawyers wrote in the motion.

The call for an audit came after Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler and Max Reed alleged that Ford relied on a family-run company to pay some election expenses. The pair also claimed the then mayoral candidate received other corporate contributions not allowed under election rules.

The Mayor's Office has previously said that Ford's campaign finances were reviewed by an outside auditor before being submitted to Elections Toronto and that the auditor did not raise any concerns.

Chaleff-Freudenthaler said Friday there was no need for new proceedings.

"In May, the Compliance Audit Committee made a lawful decision based on the overwhelming evidence that was presented to it showing reasonable grounds for an audit of Rob Ford's election campaign," Chaleff-Freudenthaler said in a statement.

"At that time, Ford had a chance to present all the evidence he desired to rebut our allegations but chose not to. In our view, there is no reason for a court to undermine the Compliance Audit Committee."

The motion is expected to be heard in January.

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Source: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111223/ford-audit-expenses-motion-111223/20111223?hub=TorontoNewHome

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America's 10 highest-paid CEOs (and are they worth it?)

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Ralph Lauren was good for his company's investors, but it's arguable he's worth $66.7 million a year.

By Douglas A. McIntyre, 24/7 Wall St.

Several lists of the highest paid CEOs in America are published each year mostly by the business media and shareholder groups. All are based on proxy statements. Long before the lists are published, the boards of directors of these companies try to justify the compensation packages for shareholders. Investors often are skeptical of these defenses, and they should be. It is rare, but not impossible, to show that a chief executive deserves $50 million, or even $100 million a year.

Based on the annual?CEO Pay Survey 2011?by GMI, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 highest paid CEOs. We then analyzed company performance of the highest paid CEOs to determine which pay packages were worth the investment.

24/7 Wall St.: Best- and worst-run companies in America

Such a review about management compensation is by its nature subjective and different from a board?s reasoning. A board may take into account the long-term record of a CEO who has held his or her job for several years. The board might set a pay package based on an extraordinary year. The directors also may pay a CEO well just before he or she retires. 24/7 Wall St. has downplayed each of these factors, but has not eliminated them. Our judgment of ?fairness? is based on what shareholders received in the year as the CEO?s compensation year. Our primary measurements are revenue growth, earnings growth and stock price change.

This is the 24/7 Wall St. list of the 10 highest paid CEOs for 2010 and an analysis of whether their compensations were worth the payments in terms of shareholder returns. All compensation considerations used to set pay, which include board of director criteria from each company, come from SEC-filed proxies.

10. Mario J. Gabelli

• ?Company: GAMCO Investors
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $56.6 Million

GAMCO did not do very well for investors in 2010. The price of the company?s shares was flat, considerably underperforming the S&P 500 increase of 14 percent that year. The company manages mutual funds and other investments for private individuals and public enterprises. GAMCO had a relatively good year in terms of revenue and earnings growth. Revenue rose from $218 million in 2009 to $280 million in 2010. EPS was up from $2.03 to $2.55. Based on the relatively small size of the company and GAMCO?s performance, however, Gabelli is overpaid.

9. Ronald A. Williams

• ?Company: Aetna
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $57.8 million

Shares of Aetna, a major health insurer, were down 7 percent in 2010, underperforming the S&P 500 by a large margin. Williams? pay was based on several factors, none of which was stock price. EPS, pre-tax operating margins and an increase in the dividend were the major measures of his performance, according to the board. The board can make the case, persuasively, that the insurance firm had a good year financially in 2010. The company?s EPS rose from $2.84 in 2009 to $4.18 last year, even though revenue fell slightly from $28.3 billion to $27.6 billion. Williams retired in 2011. The board gave Williams a relatively reasonable gift as he left, at least based on 2010 performance.

24/7 Wall St.: The biggest corporate layoffs of all time

8. Michael D. Fascitelli

• ?Company: Vornado Realty Trust
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $64.4 million

Vornado?s shares significantly outperformed the S&P 500 in 2010, up over 17 percent for the year. The board relies on EBITDA and total return to shareholders to set pay. Both improved in 2010 compared to 2009 as EBITDA rose from $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion. Vornado produced strong financials on a GAAP basis as well. Net income per share rose to $3.24 in 2010 from $0.28 the year before. Revenue rose from $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion. Fascitelli is a CEO who earned what he made.

7. Ralph Lauren

• ?Company: Polo Ralph Lauren
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $66.7 million

The clothing designer and manufacturer gave investors an extremely good return on their holdings in 2010, as share price jumped 35 percent. In the fiscal year that ended last April 2, EPS rose from $4.85 to $5.91. Revenue grew by 13 percent to $5.7 billion. The one question investors might ask is whether Lauren?s compensation is based on fair deliberations by his board. The CEO owns shares that hold 75.6 percent of the corporation?s voting rights.

24/7 Wall St.: Cars so hot they are out of stock

6. Adam Metz

• ?Company: General Growth Properties
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $66.7 million

For shopping mall owner General Growth, timing of was a major factor, and it highly matters to investors who put money into the company before it emerged from Chapter 11. The company entered bankruptcy in April 2009, and it became clear as early as April 2010 that it would exit Chapter 11 later in the year. The company began regular operations when the final reorganization was approved last November. The gain in the company?s shares from early 2010 to the end of the year was 14 fold. While the bankruptcy process makes it impossible to make reasonable P&L comparisons from 2009 to 2010, revenue has remained steady. Metz earned his money for those who took a chance on the company?s stock early last year.

5. Thomas M. Ryan

• ?Company: CVS Caremark
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $68.1 million

CVS Caremark shares underperformed the market last year and were only up 8 percent. That alone makes it hard to justify Ryan?s compensation. CVS?s financial results were also poor. Revenue fell from $98.7 billion in 2009 to $96.4 billion in 2010. EPS fell from $2.55 to $2.49.

4. Frank Coyne

• ?Company: Verisk Analytics
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $68.4 million

Financial services firm Verisk slightly underperformed the market with its shares up 14 percent for the 2010 calendar year. A pay package of over $68 million is extravagant for that return. Coyne should get credit for a relatively strong year financially. EPS rose from $0.72 in 2009 to $1.36 in 2010. Revenue rose from $1 billion to $1.1 billion year-over-year.

3. John C. Plant

• ?Company: TRW Automotive
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $76.8 million

TRW shares soared during 2010, ending the year almost 105 percent higher. The extraordinary performance was driven by EPS, which rose from $0.51 to $6.49, as revenue moved from $11.6 billion to $14.4 billion. TRW, which supplies car parts, benefited from the rebound in the car industry, but Plant?s compensation is reasonable based on the results he delivered to shareholders.

2. Joel F. Gemunder

• ?Company: Omnicare
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $98.3 million

Gemunder?s 2010 pay package cannot be justified based on shareholder returns. The firm?s stock was up only 2 percent for the period. It is not any wonder. The pharmaceutical provider's EPS fell from $1.81 in 2009 to a loss of $0.91 in 2010. Revenue fell from $6.2 billion to $6.1 billion.

24/7 Wall St.: Online retailers stealing brick-and-mortar business

1. John H. Hammergren

• ?Company: McKesson
• ?Total 2010 compensation: $145.3 million

Health care giants McKesson?s shares were up 13 percent in 2010, underperforming the S&P 500. In that light, it is hard to imagine how the board of McKesson?s could have given Hammergen such an extraordinary award. McKesson?s revenue was $112 billion in 2010, up from $108.7 billion in 2009. EPS, however, fell to $4.62 to $4.29.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/22/9610987-americas-10-highest-paid-ceos-and-are-they-worth-it

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11.12.31 17:30 First Night McCook 2012 - Saturday December 31, 2011 from 5:30 pm to 1:00 am @ Keystone, Methodist Church, Fox Theater, Museum, Brown's Shoe Fit, Longnecker Jewelry, Art Guild, Model Railroad Club

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Add a Keyboard to Your iPad or iPad 2 ? Directly on the Screen

I don’t like using the on-screen keyboard on my iPad.? There’s no tactile feedback, so I can’t tell if my hands are in the correct position nor if I actually struck a key.? The TouchFire Screen-Top Keyboard for iPad looks like a very promising way to add a tactile keyboard to your iPad without having [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/22/add-a-keyboard-to-your-ipad-or-ipad-2-directly-on-the-screen/

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[OOC] The Dark Side CLOSED

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Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Dark Side CLOSED?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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You might want to change Closed to Private. Closed is when an RP dies and the Author wants it deleted.

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Movie review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo shines, thanks to unrelenting darkness (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

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Verizon Galaxy Nexus extended battery -- curvy in all the right places

On the left, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. On the right, also the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Only, one of these phones has Verizon's 2100 mAh extended battery in it, and the other has the standard 1850 mAh battery that comes with the phone. A few quick thoughts on it:

• The extended battery comes with a new battery door, which looks nearly identical to the stock door. Same logos and all.
• You gain just a tad of thickness with the extended battery. It's not quite one of those stock-size extended batteries, but neither does it have a huge humpback.
• In fact, we rather like the feel of the phone with the extended battery in place. Gives it more of a rounded feel, kind of like the Samsung Galaxy S II Sprint Epic 4G Touch, but a tad bigger.
• You can not use the Verizon extended battery in the GSM Galaxy Nexus.
• The phone fits in that Navigation Dock just fine with the extended battery.
• Cases may vary by manufacturer.

Check past the break for some hands-on pics and video. And we'll reveal which phone in the picture above has the extended battery.

More: Verizon Galaxy Nexus forums

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/wxLebH0oufw/story01.htm

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United Kingdom: Isolated within Europe (The Week)

New York ? The British Prime Minister will not go along with changes to the European Union treaty that require member countries to submit their national budgets to bureaucratic oversight.

Prime Minister David Cameron has ?proved he is no pushover,? said the London Times in an editorial. He has ?out-Thatchered Margaret Thatcher? by becoming the first British leader to veto a European Union treaty. The French and the Germans last week came up with a plan to save the imperiled euro by changing the EU treaty to provide for oversight of national budgets for all members, including those, like Britain, that do not use the euro currency. Cameron threatened to veto the change unless it included a clause exempting Britain?s financial sector from EU regulations. So now the rest of the EU is pressing ahead with a new pact. The French and the Germans?as well as the pro-Europe camp here at home?view Britain?s decision to opt out as a betrayal. But in fact the prime minister has delighted most of his countrymen by preserving British sovereignty.

Don?t think for a moment that Cameron?s position comes from strength, said Peter Mandelson in The Guardian. Even Thatcher operated under the principle that we ?should never vacate a table at which a decision was being taken that affected British interests.? Cameron has done just that, not because he chose to, but because he lacks the authority to stand up to the anti-Europe camp in his party. Now Britain will be left out of whatever new body arises to govern Europe?s fiscal health. We have lost influence and gained nothing?not even the exemption from regulation that Cameron was insisting on. And that exemption was not even worth fighting for, said John Lichfield in The Independent. Cameron wanted Britain ?to become a kind of Cayman Islands within the EU: enjoying the benefits of being part of a European single market for financial services but not subject to EU oversight or regulation.? No wonder the other leaders couldn?t accept that.

The rest of Europe may be saddened at Britain?s behavior, but it shouldn?t be surprised, said the Paris Le Monde. The British ?do not believe in the idea of Europe.? They never have. They have always been interested ?in just one thing: the single market.? The rest of the European project of closer integration has always drawn British ?indifference, if not outright hostility.? There should be no lamenting what happened last week in Brussels. The British have always been an island, separate from Europe. Now they are ?more insular than ever.?

Those poor Continentals, said Boris Johnson in the London Telegraph. They?re understandably put out at being proved so very wrong about the euro. For years, Britain wisely resisted the lure of the common currency, warning that monetary union wouldn?t work without an anti-democratic political union. Now here we are in a euro crisis, and the Europeans are scrambling to create a sort of ?Supra National And Fiscal Union??let?s call it SNAFU?whose leaders are unaccountable to any electorate and whose rules aren?t likely to be heeded any more than the old EU treaty?s were. Britain is much better off keeping its distance from a project so ?intellectually, morally, and democratically bankrupt.?

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