Kenny Baillie announced as new CEO of London Scottish

Kenny Baillie, the former Chief Executive of Glasgow Warriors, has been appointed as the new CEO of London Scottish International Ltd.

The 37-year-old Scot will take up his position on the 1st March 2013 and is tasked with heading up the rugby club's plans to develop its position in the RFU Championship.

Speaking about his appointment, Baillie said, "Many great players have worn the London Scottish jersey with distinction and it is a privilege and an honour to take over as CEO at this important time in the Club's history."

"London Scottish is known throughout the world of rugby and I am looking forward to working with the Board, the management team, the coaches, the players and everyone who supports London Scottish to help the Club reach its potential."

"On a personal note, as a Scot living in London who is passionate about rugby, I believe London Scottish plays an important role within the wider rugby community and I am delighted to have the chance to play a major role in growing the Club. I firmly believe London Scottish can continue to provide Scottish-qualified players for all Scotland's representative teams while developing rugby in the local Richmond community and the south of England generally."

Baillie, a former Scotland Under 21 and senior Glasgow District player, was the youngest CEO in British and European rugby when he was appointed CEO of Glasgow Warriors. During his tenure he oversaw the professional team reaching the inaugural Magners League play-offs in 2010 and played a key role in the relocation of the club from Firhill Stadium to its new state-of-the art facilities at Scotstoun Stadium.

For the last 12 months, Baillie has been working in retail marketing and sponsorship where his clients have been major blue chip companies and he previously had a successful career in IT both in the UK and USA.

Sir David Reid, Chairman of London Scottish, said, "We are delighted to have Kenny on board to see us through the next phase in the club's development. He brings a wealth of relevant experience and great personal energy. We look forward to him delivering the same impact at London Scottish that he achieved in his very successful time at Glasgow."

Baillie succeeds Tony Copsey, who takes up the CEO role at London Welsh on 1st January 2013. London Scottish Club President Rod Lynch will take the reins as Interim CEO until Kenny takes over on 1st March.

Source: http://www.londonscottish.com/news/3091.php

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Love Bytes: 13 Things Couples Rush Into | YourTango

Let's get married. Let's get tattoos. Let's get a puppy!

Plus 13 sex trends for 2013.

A guy named Alexander Pope once wrote, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." We all know that couple who got matching tattoos on the second date. Here are 13 other things that happen a little too quickly in a relationship. (TheStir)

13 sexual trends predicted for 2013. Also, Jon Hamm's thunder. (TheFrisky)

More from YourTango: Weird News: When Facebook Stalking Exes Leads To Jail Time

What we can all learn from Love, Actually. (GoodMenProject)

Wow. How awesome (and awful) is the OkCupid Tumblr? (CollegeCandy)

Are you single because you're a lying liar? (TheGloss)

Maybe there's a thing or three the old dating rules can do to help us in 2013. (Essence)

Sometimes a penis will get glued to something or other. These are the weirdest (and least sexy) sex stories of 2012. (Huffington Post)

7 myths busted about a lady's, well, lady time. (ModernMan)

More from YourTango: Is A Bad Credit Score The New STD?

Sport up your love life in 2013 with these resolutions. (Betty Confidential)

You ain't gonna meet nobody hidin' b'hind that smart phone, youngin'. (eHarmony)

More juicy articles on YourTango:

Source: http://www.yourtango.com/2012169264/love-bytes-13-things-couples-rush

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Florida State Seminoles roll in second half to top Tulsa

At the outset, it didn?t seem likely that former Miami Columbus standout and Florida State walk-on Rafael Portuondo would see any action in front of his hometown crowd. But by the final whistle of Saturday?s game between Florida State and Tulsa, the 5-11 senior guard was on the floor helping the Seminoles close out the Golden Hurricane 82-63 in front of family and friends.

?It was fun ? I did have a couple turnovers there, but it was fun to get out there on the court,? Portuondo said. ?I had my whole family here. It was a good experience in front of the hometown.?

It took Florida State (8-4) the entire first half to settle down during the opening game of the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic at the BB&T Center. But midway through the second period there was little doubt as to which team was superior.

?I thought we were extremely impatient in the first part of the game,? FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. ?I thought we took our shots too quick, and we were not able to get any offensive rhythm the first ten or 12 minutes.?

Florida State began the game ice cold, missing its first five, including four from behind the arc. Shot selection continued to be an issue for the Seminoles throughout the first half. FSU ended the opening half shooting just 36.4 percent (12 of 33).

Early on for Tulsa (7-6), Pat Swilling Jr. kept the game tight. The junior guard was lethal from three-point range, making Florida State pay any time they gave him an inch.

?He?s been a good shooter over the years ? that wasn?t a fluke,? Hamilton said. ?That really challenged our perimeter defense, we had stretches in the second half where I thought we did a really good job, but every time we lost him they made us pay.?

Swilling went 5 of 7 from three-point range in the first half and contributed 17 of his 19 points to the Golden Hurricane offense during the opening 20 minutes.

Outside of Swilling, though, Florida State?s defense was overwhelming, smothering the Tulsa offense and forcing 10 turnovers in the first half. Despite shooting at an abysmal rate, the Seminoles never trailed by more than five and went into the half up three on a Devon Bookert buzzer-beater.

In the second half, the Florida State offense finally began to wake up. The Seminoles scored on five of their first six possessions and began working into their offense more efficiently than they had done in the first half.

FSU used a 7-0 run early in the second half to put some distance between themselves and the Golden Hurricane, and they never looked back.

Despite Tulsa continuing to hit from three (Tulsa was 11 of 24 from three and 11 of 32 from everywhere else), the Seminoles defense stifled the Golden Hurricane inside and with better shooting in the second half, Florida State had little trouble pulling away.

FSU also put together an 8-0 run and a 9-0 run, shooting a full 20 percent better in the second half. By the final minutes, the walk-ons were in and the game was no longer in question.

?They?re a good team; Coach Hamilton does a good job,? Tulsa coach Danny Manning said. ?Looking at the stat sheet they got their points in the paint and second-chance points, they really hurt us with that in the second half.?

Terrance Shannon had a career-high 16 points and added 10 rebounds, and Michael Snaer poured in 19 and won MVP honors.

Florida State has three more road games before returning home Jan.?12 to play North Carolina.

?Overall, I see us making progress, but there?s still a long way to go,? Hamilton said. ?We?re not anywhere close to being as sound in all areas as I know we?re going to need to be if we?re going to compete as well as we have in the past in the ACC. But I do see some progress with this team.?

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/30/3160788/florida-state-seminoles-roll-in.html

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Critics: Myriad blocks cancer answers by impeding data sharing ...

Patents ? Utah company says it has aided, not hindered, research, care.

Tory Galloway thought her negative result on a widely-used test sold by Utah-based Myriad Genetics Inc. cleared her DNA as a cause for her fallopian tube cancer.

She happily advised her four sisters that the disease didn?t result from a family trait. The relief from the December 2010 test, though, was short lived. In October, after getting results from a broader scan at the University of Washington that included dozens of genes, she learned the truth: Her cancer was caused by a mutation that wasn?t included in the Myriad product.

"It makes me nuts to even think about it," said Galloway, a landscape designer in Indianola, Wash.

The broader test, created by University of Washington researchers, uses technology to identify as many cancer risks as possible. There?s one problem: Such a test can?t include the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that are the most common inherited causes for breast and ovarian cancer because Myriad owns the patents on them. This prevents other U.S. laboratories from using them in a commercial test.

In the mid-1990s, Myriad helped kick-start the gene-testing revolution by pinpointing the two BRCA genes. Now, the world?s biggest genetic testing company for breast cancer, with a market value of $2.2 billion, is under attack by researchers, genetic counselors, doctors, and their patients.

Besides stifling competitors from offering combination tests, including the BRCA genes, critics also said the company won?t share data from decades of testing that could aid research into how best to interpret screening. They said Myriad doesn?t adequately respond when other researchers find added BRCA mutations that address risks their current tests don?t cover.

"What is at stake is the way we want our health-care system to work," said Robert Cook-Deegan, a professor of public policy, biology, and medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who supports limits on gene patents. "The testing has been set up by Myriad to optimize this business model. It is not set up to optimize public health outcomes."

The dispute, which has grown in intensity as more and more cancer-causing mutations are found, has spilled out of the laboratories and clinics into the U.S. Supreme Court. A ruling next year in a case challenging Myriad?s hold on the BRCA patents could either support the company?s profit-driven motives or redefine a nascent industry in a way that affects millions of dollars in revenue.

Myriad officials reject the criticisms, saying they offer faster, more accurate testing for harmful mutations in breast cancer genes than any other laboratory in the world, and that its patents haven?t hindered research or patient care.

"Myriad has never done anything to harm patients," CEO Peter Meldrum said during an interview at his company?s headquarters in Salt Lake City. "We have the most accurate results, we give the fastest results." There has never been a reported case in which Myriad wrongly told that a woman she had a cancer-causing mutation, he said.

story continues below

Carol Mackoff, 70, a Chicago-based managing director for Rice Financial Products Co., says Myriad "saved my life."

Mackoff tested positive on a Myriad test for a BRCA1 mutation in 2002 after visiting an ovarian cancer prevention program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, she said in a telephone interview. Within weeks, she had her ovaries removed to prevent ovarian cancer, and later in 2009 had a prophylactic double mastectomy.

Without the Myriad test, "I would have had cancer," she said. "The fact that they developed these tests and gave me a tool to work with to allow me to prevent getting cancer, I owe them everything."

Faster, cheaper DNA testing is revolutionizing medical care. Nowhere has the impact been felt more strongly than in breast cancer. A woman who tests positive using Myriad?s tests carries as much as an 80 percent chance that she will get breast cancer in her lifetime. Testing helps women take charge of their medical future, providing options that can include preventative surgery and more extensive monitoring.

Widespread use of the tests has made Myriad an unabashed financial success. The company?s testing business, led by its flagship $3,340 BRCA product, carries an 87 percent gross profit margin that in fiscal 2012 generated $496 million in sales, according to Myriad.

That?s helped boost the company?s shares 30 percent this year.

Next Page >

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/55537762-79/myriad-cancer-test-brca.html.csp

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Gillmor Gang: Slow Poke To China

The Gillmor Gang ? Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor ? toast marshmallows around the social campfire as the PostApocalypse prepares to ring in a new year. It?s all tweetness and light as @scobleizer sketches out the differences between just plain friends, close friends, and notification friends in the latest Facebook interface.

For those of us who are too busy avoiding Downton Abbey spoilers unsuccessfully, the business of tweaking filters has gotten way too complicated for amateurs. Our best hope remains the blending of email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and the rest into one notification stream multiplexed across our various devices. And in the end, the filter you make is equal to the love you take.

@stevegillmor, @scobleizer, @kevinmarks, @kteare

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

Steve Gillmor is a technology commentator, editor, and producer in the enterprise technology space. He is Head of Technical Media Strategy at salesforce.com and a TechCrunch contributing editor. Gillmor previously worked with leading musical artists including Paul Butterfield, David Sanborn, and members of The Band after an early career as a record producer and filmmaker with Columbia Records? Firesign Theatre. As personal computers emerged in video and music production tools, Gillmor started contributing to various publications, most notably Byte Magazine,...

? Learn more

Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. He is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. Scoble joined Microsoft in 2003, and although he often promoted Microsoft products like Tablet PCs and Windows Vista, he also frequently criticized his own employer and praised its competitors like Apple and Google. Scoble is the author of Naked Conversations, a book on how blogs are changing...

? Learn more just.me, AboutUs.org, Archimedes Labs, Daylife, Speedi.ly, Novafora, The Easynet Group, Edgeio, RealNames, NetNames, Sniperoo, seriouslymedia, Real Time Matrix, fotopedia, TechCrunch

Keith Teare is the CEO and founder of just.me Inc and a Founder at the Palo Alto incubator, Archimedes Labs. Teare has a track record as a serial entrepreneur with big ideas and has achieved significant returns for investors. History (a) The EasyNet Group: Founded in 1994 as one of the first ISP?s in Europe, Teare was CTO and co-founder. It went public on the AIM exchange in London in 1996 and was trading at a valuation of more than $1...

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Kevin Marks is a software engineer. Kevin served as an evangelist for OpenSocial and as a software engineer at Google. In June 2009 he announced his resignation. From September 2003 to January 2007 he was Principal Engineer at Technorati responsible for the spiders that make sense of the web and track millions of blogs daily. He has been inventing and innovating for over 17 years in emerging technologies where people, media and computers meet. Before joining Technorati,...

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2ERXC-ku1-4/

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French panel overturns 75 percent tax on ultrarich

PARIS (AP) ? Embattled French President Francois Hollande suffered a fresh setback Saturday when France's highest court threw out a plan to tax the ultrawealthy at a 75 percent rate, saying it was unfair.

In a stinging rebuke to one of Socialist Hollande's flagship campaign promises, the constitutional council ruled Saturday that the way the highly contentious tax was designed was unconstitutional. It was intended to hit incomes over ?1 million ($1.32 million).

The largely symbolic measure would have only hit a tiny number of taxpayers and brought in an estimated ?100 million to ?300 million - an insignificant amount in the context of France's roughtly ?85 billion deficit.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was quick to respond, saying in a statement following the decision the government would resubmit the measure to take the court's concerns into account. The court's ruling took issue not with the size of the tax, but with the way it discriminated between households depending on how incomes were distributed among its members. A household with two earners each making under ?1 million would be exempt from the tax, while one with one earner making ?1.2 million would have to pay.

The French government approved the tax in its most recent budget, amid criticism by some that it would do little to stem the country's mounting fiscal problems and would drive away the wealthiest citizens. Hollande's popularity, meanwhile, has been tanking as the country's unemployment continued its rise for the 19th straight month.

In recent weeks, Gerard Depardieu ? France's most famous actor ? announced his intention to turn in his French passport and move to a village in a tax-friendly Belgium.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-panel-overturns-75-percent-tax-ultrarich-104117363--finance.html

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Senator McConnell says still time to avert "fiscal cliff"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A homeless woman was in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital after a man doused her with liquid accelerant and set her on fire as she slept on a bus bench, police said on Thursday. Officers arrested Dennis Petillo, 24, in connection with the early morning attack, and he has been booked in jail on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. The woman, whose name has not been released, was being treated at a local hospital with burns all over her body, said Los Angeles police Lieutenant Damian Gutierrez. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senator-mcconnell-says-still-time-avert-fiscal-cliff-211035219--business.html

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Newington Committee Chairman: Don't Build New Recreation ...

NEWINGTON ??

The chairman of the town hall renovation building committee said this week he would recommend eliminating Mill Pond Park for consideration as a site for a new standalone recreation center.

Chairman Scott McBride said he would ask the committee to reject the location after residents objected to constructing the facility in the park near residential areas.

"They saw some obvious problems with putting the building in those locations," McBride said. "I think a majority of the committee has a problem with putting the building in a park."

The Mortenson Recreation Center is currently located in town hall. The committee is considering whether to build a separate recreation center as part of a renovation of the building. Earlier this month, the committee narrowed possible sites for the center from nine to four:

?The clay tennis courts on the far side of Mill Pond Park.

?On Garfield Street near Willard Avenue.

?On Garfield Street close to the baseball diamond in Mill Pond Park.

?The youth soccer fields along Willard Avenue.

Residents speaking at the committee's Dec. 17 meeting strongly objected to building the recreation center in Mill Pond Park. They expressed concerns about traffic, loss of open space and the location of such a large building in a residential area.

"It will place stress on the neighborhood," said Sharon Johnson, according to minutes of the meeting. "It would be a loss of open space. It will add congestion and traffic on Audubon Avenue. How would the town hold the Extravaganza fireworks? Please take it off the table."

McBride said he later contacted people who spoke at the meeting. He said that the proposed sites were intended to provoke a discussion, and he was pleased that they did.

"I'm thrilled that the public came out," McBride said. "Their input is important to doing this right."

The town has no cost estimates yet for the town hall renovation project. The building is in poor condition and needs a major overhaul. Several studies have recommended building a separate recreation center. Cost will be major factor in determining whether to do so, McBride has said.

The committee, meanwhile, received 14 responses to its call for proposals for a construction manager to begin planning for the renovation. All but one meets the preliminary qualifications for the job, according to the meeting minutes.

Committee members are working to pare down the list to a smaller group that will then give presentations to the committee, McBride said. He said he is pleased with the quantity and quality of the responses.

"That's a positive thing when many people come back," McBride said. "We seem to have gotten the best of the best."

Taxpayers will have to approve bonding to pay for the work. The committee hopes to put a bond issue before voters in November and begin construction in 2014.

Source: http://www.courant.com/community/newington/hc-newington-recreation-0103-20121227,0,2297098.story

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Little time left to head off longshoremen's strike

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer by a container crane at the Port of Boston in Boston. The crane and a reach stacker, left, are operated by longshoremen at the port. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract, which expires Dec. 29, 2012. A walkout by dock workers represented by the International Longshoremen?s Association would bring commerce to a near halt at ports from Boston to Houston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer by a container crane at the Port of Boston in Boston. The crane and a reach stacker, left, are operated by longshoremen at the port. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract, which expires Dec. 29, 2012. A walkout by dock workers represented by the International Longshoremen?s Association would bring commerce to a near halt at ports from Boston to Houston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Shipments of products as varied as flat-screen TVs, sneakers and snow shovels could sit idle at sea or get rerouted, at great time and expense, if more than 14,000 longshoremen go on strike as threatened ? a wide-ranging work stoppage that would immediately close cargo ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to container ships.

Commerce could be brought to a near standstill at major ports from Boston to Houston if the strike takes place on Sunday, potentially delivering a big blow to retailers and manufacturers still struggling to find their footing in a weak economy.

"If the port shuts down, nothing moves in or out," said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. And when the workers do return, "it's going to take time to clear out that backlog, and we don't know how long that it's going to take."

The 15 ports involved in the labor dispute move more than 100 million tons of goods each year, or about 40 percent of the nation's containerized cargo traffic. Losing them to a shutdown, even for a few days, could cost the economy billions of dollars.

In addition to transporting goods, U.S. factories also rely on container ships for parts and raw materials, meaning supply lines for all sorts of products could be squeezed.

"The global economy moves by water, and shutting down container ports along the East and Gulf coasts while the national economy remains fragile benefits no one," Deborah Hadden, acting port director at Massport, the public agency that oversees shipping terminals in Boston. It is not a part of the contract dispute.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said "the livelihood of thousands of Florida families lies in the balance."

The master contract between the International Longshoremen's Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, a group representing shipping lines, terminal operators and port associations, expired in September. The two sides agreed to extend it once already, for 90 days, but they have so far balked at extending it again when it expires at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

The union said its members would agree to an extension only if the Maritime Alliance dropped a proposal to freeze the royalties workers get for every container they unload. The Alliance has argued that the longshoremen, who it said earn an average $124,138 per year in wages and benefits, are compensated well enough already.

Federal mediators have been trying to push negotiations along, but there has been no word from either side on the progress of the talks since Dec. 24. As recently as Dec. 19, the president of the longshoremen, Harold Daggett, said the talks weren't going well and that a strike was expected.

The work stoppage would not be absolute. Longshoremen would continue to handle military cargo, mail, passenger ships, non-containerized items like automobiles, and perishable commodities, like fresh food.

Joseph Ahlstrom, a professor at the State University of New York's Maritime College and a former cargo ship captain, called container ships the "lifeblood of the country."

"We don't fly in a lot of products. It's just too expensive," Ahlstrom said. "The bulk of the products we import come in inside containers."

The White House has weighed in on the issue, urging dockworkers and shipping companies Thursday to reach agreement "as quickly as possible" on a contract extension. Obama spokesman Matt Lehrich said the administration is monitoring the situation closely.

If it happens, the walkout could be the biggest national port disruption since 2002, when unionized dockworkers were locked out of 29 West Coast ports for 10 days because of a contract dispute.

The ports only reopened after President George W. Bush, invoking powers given to him by the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, ordered an 80-day cooling-off period. Some economists estimated that each day of that lockout cost the U.S. economy $1 billion. It took months for the retail supply chain to fully recover.

An East Coast port freeze would have its biggest impact at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where 3,250 longshoremen handled 32.3 million tons of cargo in 2010. The authority is not a party to the contract dispute.

Other major ports affected would include Savannah, Ga., which handled 18 million tons, and Houston and Hampton Roads, Va., which each handled more than 12.5 million tons.

Thousands of other jobs would be directly affected by the shutdown. Truck drivers might not have any cargo to transport, tug boat captains no ships to guide and freight train operators nothing to haul.

Simultaneously, another labor dispute involving dock workers was playing out on the West Coast.

Longshoremen at several Pacific Northwest grain terminals worked Thursday under contract terms they soundly rejected last weekend. The owners implemented the terms after declaring talks at an impasse. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has yet to announce its next move.

Workplace rules, not salary and benefits, have been the obstacle to a new deal.

The dispute involves terminals in Portland, Ore., Vancouver, Wash., and Seattle, where longshoremen have been working without an agreement since the last contract expired Sept. 30.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in Washington and Tamara Lush in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-28-Longshoremen-Contract/id-b6246deca1ff47aba4e3b4589565aff3

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5 Big Discoveries About Personal Effectiveness in 2012 ...

The science of self-improvement never ceases. Every year brings dozens of new quirky findings about how to be more effective, whether in managing our time, being more creative or just getting things done. Here are some of the highlights for me from 2012.

1. You don?t know yourself as well as you think

We think we know ourselves best, but more and more evidence is surfacing to the contrary. This raises an interesting challenge for employers who solely base their hiring decisions on self-reported questionnaires. Psychologist Timothy Wilson proposes that to really know someone, you have to ask others to evaluate you. It turns out that how you see yourself and how other people see you are only very modestly correlated.

In his book, Strangers to Ourselves, Wilson talks a lot about the adaptive unconscious. He tells us that much of what we do lives in the unconscious and therefore we cannot detect it ourselves. Things like what we think, feel, and want become unnoticeable. Now of course, if you?ve ever practiced mindfulness, or have ever self-reflected, some of the unnoticed start to surface and we gain insights, but more often than not, a lot of information goes unnoticed.

This is why one might have a hard time understanding why things go wrong. Given that we aren?t completely conscious of what we were doing, we tend to blame others for our mistakes. In order to gain better insight into ourselves, we need help getting the right answers. It turns out that other people's assessment of your personality predicts your behavior better than your own assessment would. So instead of thinking you already know everything about yourself, stop for a minute, and ask someone else.

2. Have a problem? Distract yourself from it

It?s already known that in order to gain an insight, your brain has to be in a quiet state, but new research by Neuroscientist?David Creswell?from Carnegie Mellon sheds light on the phenomenon of how and why it can be valuable to come back to a problem, after a brief moment of distraction.

Creswell explored what happens in the brain when people tackle problems that are too big for their conscious mind to solve. He made three groups of people think about purchasing an imaginary car based on multiple wants and needs. One group had to choose immediately?this group didn?t do so well at optimizing their decision. The second group had time to try to consciously pick the best car? yet their choices weren?t much better. The last group was given the task, then given a distracter task?something that didn?t require lots of mental energy, but still held their conscious attention, allowing for their non-conscious to keep working on the problem. Results showed this group did significantly better than the others at optimizing their decision.

FMRI scans also showed something interesting happening with the third group. According to Creswell, the brain regions that were active during the initial learning of the problem, continued to be active (we call this?unconscious neural reactivation) even while the brain was distracted with another task.?

In short, when trying to solve a complex task, people who were distracted after first tackling the problem did better than people who put in conscious effort.?(More information can be found in my previous blog.)

3. We?re more creativity when thinking about others

Creativity in the business world is increasingly important. Creativity often involves viewing things from different perspectives. New findings show that we are more creative when we think of others solving problems instead of ourselves.

To test this, professors Evan Polman and Kyle Emich presented 137 undergraduates with this riddle: ??A prisoner was attempting to escape from a tower. He found a rope in his cell that was half as long enough to permit him to reach the ground safely. He divided the rope in half, tied the two parts together, and escaped. How could he have done this??

Half the participants were asked to imagine themselves as the prisoner locked inside the tower (we?ll call them the ?prisoner group?) and the other half were asked to imagine someone else trapped in the prison (?imaginary group?). In the prisoner group, 48% of participants solved the riddle, but in the imaginary group, 66% were able to solve the riddle. In a second experiment, the same professors asked participants to draw an alien that someone else might use to write about in a short story. In a third, participants had to come up with gift ideas for themselves, someone close to them, and someone they barely knew.

In the results across all three experiments, Polman and Emich found that participants were more creative or had better solutions when thinking for someone else. This is an intriguing finding with many implications and applications for creative problem solving. Just try to imagine someone else coming up with good ideas for using this finding?

4. It?s not napping, it?s constructive rest

We live in a time when where more people are staying connected on vacations. People have forgotten how important it is for your mind to rejuvenate. Research shows that naps improve productivity?a growing body of evidence shows that?taking regular breaks?from mental tasks improves productivity and creativity ? and that skipping breaks can lead to stress and exhaustion.

(I?ll be right back?zZz)

John P. Trougakos, an assistant management professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management, compares the brain to any other muscle in the body. Similarly to how muscles become fatigued after repeated and sustained use, so does the brain after sustained mental exertion.? The brain needs a rest period before it can recover he explains.

There is no need to take a break if you?re on a roll though, Trougakos advises. For some people, working over an extended period can be revitalizing?you get into a zone. It is only when you?re forcing yourself to go on that you should stop.

Research from the University of Notre Dame even shows that sleeping shortly after learning new information is the most beneficial for recall.

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/201212/5-big-discoveries-about-personal-effectiveness-in-2012

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What do you want to know about exercise?

It's the strange, limbo-like time between Christmas and New Year's, which means one thing: If you're at work, you're totally pretending to be productive.

If you need something to do, take some time today to answer one very important question: What do you want to know about exercise?

I ask because I've written about so many topics - motivation, weight loss, the basics of cardio and weight training, how to get started, how to work harder and I've even created a variety of programs and workouts for your exercise pleasure. I have information for seniors, for people who are overweight or obese, people with knee problems and people who want to blow it out the old bloomer leg with killer high intensity workouts.

Now, I posted this question a couple of years ago, which is why you'll see comments from the previous posting - comments, by the way, that helped me shape my content in the last couple of years. Now, I'd like to do it again: What do you want to know about exercise?

Do you want new workouts? Articles about specific topics? Do you have questions you never seem to find a good answer for? Leave a comment and tell me what you want to know about exercise. Maybe you'll inspire new and interesting topics for the coming year.

Source: http://exercise.about.com/b/2012/12/27/what-do-you-want-to-know-about-exercise.htm

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MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice | The Best Bottles of ...

Ringing in the New Year in style doesn?t have to mean breaking your newly minted resolution for a frugal 2013.

Bargain bottles of bubbly abound. It?s easy to get a decent one for less than $20.

(If you somehow still end up with a so-so bottle, see our experts? recipes and tricks below to turn it into something more celebration-worthy.)

A few options to consider:

Cava

When you?re looking at bargain bottles, this Spanish sparkler is likely to be among the more plentiful options.

Earlier this fall, we pointed to the $12 Castillo Perelada Brut Cava as one good option; Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit in New York also stocks a $9 Jaume Serra Cristalino Brut Cava.

French sparklers

Champagne isn?t the only French sparkling wine.

?Keep an eye out for ?Cremant de Bourgogne? and ?Cremant d?Alsace,?? says sommelier Matthew Carroll of BRABO restaurant and its shop, the Butcher?s Block, in Alexandria, Va.

?These sparklers will be made in the exact same method as Champagne, and often with the same grapes, at a fraction of the cost,? he says.

Wine.com has an $18 Simmonet-Febvre Cremant de Bourgogne Rose, as well as a $19 JCB N?69 Brut Rose Cremant de Bourgogne.

Prosecco

?A great alternative for champagne is prosecco,? says Limor Elkayem of Dealery.com and Buyery.com. ?It?s a bubbly white?wine and I think its actually better than champagne.?

Elkayem?s pick: an $11 bottle of Mionetto Prosecco Brut. WineLibrary.com also has a $14 Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco and a $15 Adami Bosca Di Gica Prosecco.

Salvaging a So-So Bottle

Try these 5 recipes to use up the rest of the bottle:

New Year?s Resolution. Jesse Card, Cruzan Master Mixologist, created this cocktail.

To make, pour one part Cruzan Black Cherry rum into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine.?Add a dash of bitters to ?finish.

Garnish with a cherry wrapped in a lemon twist.

Granita. Turn sparkling wine into a dessert. ?Mix together three to four cups of simple syrup with a bottle of bubbly and pour out onto a sheet pan,? says Carroll.

Then place the pan into the freezer and use a fork to scrape up the icy parts every 20 minutes or so. It?s ready to eat when the tray is the texture of shaved ice.

Sgroppino. It?s a similar recipe to granita, but Pamela Braun of ?My Man?s Belly? also uses vodka and lemon sorbet in this dessert.

Bellinis. Drop a tablespoon of your choice of jam at the bottom of a cocktail glass. Top with sparkling wine.

Gingersnap Fizz. Celebrity chef ?Candice Kumai?s recipe starts with a ginger-infused simple syrup.

To make, heat a half-cup sugar, ?a half-cup water, two tablespoons ginger root and two tablespoons lemon zest. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low, ?simmering until slightly thickened.

Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and ?cool.?Pour about a quarter cup Robert Mondavi Brut sparkling wine into a champagne flute. Add about ?a tablespoon syrup.

Garnish with a lemon zest or a piece of candied ginger.

Frugal Foodie is a journalist based in New York City who spends her days writing about personal finance and obsessing about what she?ll have for dinner. Chat with her on Twitter through @MintFoodie.

Source: http://www.mint.com/blog/consumer-iq/the-best-bottles-of-bubbly-for-under-20-1212/

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93% Zero Dark Thirty

All Critics (85) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (79) | Rotten (6)

What it does in the course of telling a seminal story of our time is what contemporary films so rarely do, serve as brilliant provocation.

The genius of "Zero Dark Thirty" is that we feel exactly what those involved must have felt at the end. Not elation. Not the thrill of victory. Just relief.

A powerful, morally complicated work on an urgent subject. It is a film that deserves-that almost demands-to be seen and argued over.

Movies must move, and this one just lies there like a stack of paper from a classified government filing cabinet.

[Chastain's performance has] a lot of colors, and angles, and is guaranteed to be remembered come awards time. Maya's a real character, all right.

Kathryn Bigelow proves herself once again to be a master of heightened realism and narrative drive in this retelling of the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden.

It's like "All the President's Men" with torture and explosions, but no mention of presidents...

The decision one has to make is whether it's worth sitting through the first two hours, that provide a fine antidote for insomnia, to see the final 37 minutes.

A masterful piece of action filmmaking that succeeds in generating enormous tension by dramatizing a recent historical event in spite of the fact that everyone knows how it will end.

What makes the movie so effective is its protagonist, a doggedly determined CIA agent played by Jessica Chastain, who never loses sight of her goal in spite of repeated setbacks and bouts of political in-fighting.

The problem at the center of Zero Dark Thirty is that knowing and not knowing constitute a process, a process in which people tell lies and get hurt, in which costs can be overwhelming.

With a protagonist you lack the desire to root for and subject matter that's been shoved down our throats in the 11 years since 9/11, This is one of the only films this year where battling heavy eyelids is more exciting than the film itself.

The result is a remarkably thorough, unexpectedly cinematic, two-and-half-hour chronicle of American persistence.

There is something definitive about Zero Dark Thirty as a piece of filmmaking, as though Bigelow is concluding the entire ordeal for us on the big screen, as a film that could well earn her yet another Oscar.

While the film may not be the best of the year, its true winner is Jessica Chastain's knock-out, Oscar-worthy performance.

Zero Dark Thirty is a skillful -- and somewhat cautious -- look at military bureaucracy. It's both hampered and elevated by its dependence on authenticity.

Don't mess with the chicks. Osama bin Laden did, and look what happened to him.

Kathryn Bigelow's painstaking account of the events that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden favors dramatization over character and suspense.

There's no more perfect title for a film this year, because it manages to suggest a witching hour, a veil of deadly secrecy, and a pinpoint-honed logistical operation all at once.

A feverishly thrilling, decade-spanning CIA procedural.

This is next-level filmmaking -- smart, brave and intense.

Zero Dark Thirty has nary a wasted scene and very little in the way of respite from the intensity and power of its story and execution.

Achieves something rare, presenting a hot-button subject-torture-without the usual moral nudging.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero_dark_thirty/

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Syria minister leaves Beirut for fear of arrest

In this image made from video broadcast on Al Arabiya TV late Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Syrian Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal makes remarks saying he is joining "the people's revolution." The general who heads Syria's military police has defected and joined the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime, one of the highest walkouts by a serving security chief during the country's 21-month uprising, a pan Arab TV station has reported.(AP Photo/Al Arabiya via AP video)TV OUT NO SALES

In this image made from video broadcast on Al Arabiya TV late Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Syrian Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal makes remarks saying he is joining "the people's revolution." The general who heads Syria's military police has defected and joined the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime, one of the highest walkouts by a serving security chief during the country's 21-month uprising, a pan Arab TV station has reported.(AP Photo/Al Arabiya via AP video)TV OUT NO SALES

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's wounded interior minister rushed home from a Beirut hospital on Wednesday for fear he would be arrested after some Lebanese called to put him on trial for his role in a 1986 crackdown by Syrian troops in Lebanon.

In another blow to President Bashar Assad, his commander of military police defected.

The defector, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, is one of the most senior members of Assad's inner circle to join the opposition during the 21-month-old uprising against authoritarian rule. He appeared in a video aired on Al-Arabiya TV late Tuesday saying the army has been turned into a gang to kill and destroy.

Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, wounded in a bombing of his ministry in Damascus, left a Beirut hospital before his treatment was finished and flew home to Damascus on a private jet, officials at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport said.

Al-Shaar was wounded on Dec. 12 when a suicide bomber exploded his vehicle outside the Interior Ministry, killing five and wounding many. He was brought to the hospital in neighboring Lebanon a week ago.

A top Lebanese security official told The Associated Press that al-Shaar was rushed out of Lebanon after authorities there received information that international arrest warrants could be issued against him because of his role in the crackdown against protesters in Syria.

Over the past week, some Lebanese officials and individuals have called for al-Shaar's arrest for his role in a 1986 crackdown in the northern city of Tripoli.

In the 1980s, al-Shaar was a top intelligence official in northern Lebanon when Syrian troops stormed Tripoli and crushed the Islamic Unification Movement ? a Sunni Muslim group that then supported former Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat. Hundreds of people were killed in the battles and since then, many in northern Lebanon have referred to al-Shaar as "the butcher of Tripoli."

The Lebanese security official said Lebanese citizens had also begun taking steps to sue al-Shaar for his role during Syria's military domination of Lebanon for decades. Lebanese are deeply divided over the Syria crisis.

Al-Shaar and other Syrian officials are also on a list of people subjected to European Union sanctions for violence against anti-regime protesters in Syria.

"Lebanese officials contacted Syrian authorities and that sped up his departure," said the security official, adding that a Lebanese medical team is expected to go to Damascus to continue al-Shaar's treatment there. "If such arrest warrants are issued, Lebanese judicial authorities will have to arrest him and this could be an embarrassment for the country," he said.

The airport and security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Syrian government denied at first that al-Shaar was wounded. Then it emerged that he was brought to the Beirut hospital last week for treatment. It was the second time the minister was wounded in the civil war. He was also injured when a bomb went off on July 18 during a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus, killing four top security officials.

Lebanon and Syria have a long and bitter history.

Syrian forces moved into Lebanon in 1976 as peacekeepers after the country was swept into a civil war between Christian and Muslim militias. For nearly 30 years that followed, Lebanon lived under Syrian military and political domination.

That grip began to slip in 2005, when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut. Syria was widely accused of involvement ? something it has always denied ? and Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops. Even so, Damascus has since maintained considerable power and influence in Lebanon.

Shortly after he arrived in Beirut for treatment last week, anti-Syrian politicians, including legislators Jamal Jarrah and Mohammed Kabbara, called for al-Shaar's arrest. Another call came this week, when Lebanese lawyer Tarek Shandab filed a complaint to the country's prosecution accusing al-Shaar of "genocide and ethnic cleansing" in Tripoli.

In another setback for the regime, the defection of the military police chief came as military pressure builds on the regime, with government bases falling to rebel assault near the capital Damascus and elsewhere across the country.

The defector al-Shallal appeared in a video aired on Al-Arabiya TV late Tuesday saying he is joining "the people's revolution."

Dozens of generals have defected since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. In July, Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass was the first member of Assad's inner circle to break ranks and join the opposition.

Al-Shallal is one of the most senior and held a top post at the time that he left. He said in the video that the "army has derailed from its basic mission of protecting the people and it has become a gang for killing and destruction." He accused the military of "destroying cities and villages and committing massacres against our innocent people who came out to demand freedom."

Thousands of Syrian soldiers have defected over the past 21 months and many of them are now fighting against government forces. Many have cited attacks on civilians as the reason they switched sides. Anti-regime activists estimate more than 40,000 have died in the past 21 months.

In violence on Wednesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government shelling in the northeastern province of Raqqa killed at least 20 people, including eight children, three women and nine others. An agricultural area near the village of Qahtaniyeh was hit by the shelling.

An amateur video showed the bodies of a dozen people including children lying in a row inside a room. Some of them had blood on their clothes, while weeping could be heard in the background.

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

Also Wednesday, activists said rebels were attacking the Wadi Deif military base in the northern province of Idlib. The base, which is near the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, has been under siege for weeks.

In October, rebels captured Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway that links the capital Damascus with Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a major battleground in the civil war since July.

The attack on Wadi Deif comes a day after rebels captured the town of Harem near the Turkish border. The rebels have captured wide areas and military posts in northern Syria over the past weeks.

In Lebanon, airport officials in Beirut said Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Assistant Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous flew early Wednesday to Moscow.

Their visit to Moscow comes two days after Assad met in Damascus with Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy to Syria. Brahimi, who is scheduled to go to Moscow as well, gave no indication of progress toward a negotiated solution for the civil war.

Brahimi is still in Syria and met Tuesday with representatives of the opposition National Coordination Body, state-run news agency SANA said. The head of the group, Hassan Abdul-Azim, said Brahimi briefed them on his efforts to reach an "international consensus, especially between Russia and the United Stated to reach a solution."

NCB spokesman Rajaa al-Naser said his group said there must be an end to violence and formation of a "transitional government with full prerogatives."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-26-Syria/id-84c478a8332d49b18c24614a0958004f

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Pilgrims mark Christmas in Bethlehem

At midnight mass in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the message was of peace, love and goodwill to all mankind. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

By The Associated Press

Pilgrims and locals celebrated Christmas Day on Tuesday in the ancient Bethlehem church where tradition holds Jesus was born, candles illuminating the sacred site and the joyous sound of prayer filling its overflowing halls.

Overcast skies and a cold wind didn't dampen the spirits of worshippers who came dressed in holiday finery and the traditional attire of foreign lands to mark the holy day in this biblical West Bank town. Bells pealed and long lines formed inside the fourth-century Church of the Nativity complex as Christian faithful waited eagerly to see the grotto that is Jesus' traditional birthplace.

Duncan Hardock, 24, a writer from MacLean, Va., traveled to Bethlehem from the republic of Georgia, where he had been teaching English. After passing through the separation barrier Israel built to ward off West Bank attackers, he walked to Bethlehem's Manger Square where the church stands.

"I feel we got to see both sides of Bethlehem in a really short period of time," Hardock said. "On our walk from the wall, we got to see the lonesome, closed side of Bethlehem ... But the moment we got into town, we're suddenly in the middle of the party."

Bethlehem lies 6 miles south of Jerusalem. Entry to the city is controlled by Israel, which occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Hardock's girlfriend, 22-year-old Jennifer Gemmell of Longmont, Colorado, compared the festive spirit in Manger Square on Christmas Eve, saying "it's like being at Times Square at New Year's."

Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

The cavernous church was unable to hold all the worshippers who had hoped to celebrate Christmas Day Mass inside. A loudspeaker outside the church broadcast the service to the hundreds in the square who could not pack inside.

Paul J. Richards / AFP - Getty Images

In churches and bus stations, on water skis and bicycles, people from the Middle East to middle America celebrate Christmas.

Pope's prayer for peace
Tourists in the square posed for pictures as vendors hawked olive wood rosaries, nativity scenes, corn on the cob, roasted nuts, tea and coffee.

An official from the Palestinian tourism ministry predicted 10,000 foreigners would visit Bethlehem on Christmas Day and said 15,000 visited on Christmas Eve ? up 20 percent from a year earlier. The official, Rula Maia'a, attributed the rise in part to the Church of the Nativity's classification earlier this year as a U.N. World Heritage Site.

Christians from Israel ? Arab citizens and others ? also boosted the number of visitors.

Germany's latest big export: Christmas markets

On Christmas Eve, thousands of Christians from all over the world packed the square, which was awash in light, resplendent with decorations and adorned by a lavishly decorated, 55-foot fir tree. Their Palestinian hosts, who welcome this holiday as the high point of their city's year, were especially joyous this season, proud of the United Nations' recognition of an independent state of Palestine just last month.

On Monday evening, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and freedom, and asked the faithful to pray for strife-torn Syria as well as Lebanon and Iraq.

He urged people to reflect upon what they find time for in their busy, technology-driven lives.

A family's Christmas wish: Healthy heart for girl

"The great moral question of our attitude toward the homeless, toward refugees and migrants takes on a deeper dimension: Do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him?" the pope said.

"The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent," Benedict lamented.

Later Tuesday, the world's Christmas focus will shift to Vatican City, where the pope will deliver his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" speech ? Latin for "to the city and the world" ? from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered in the piazza below.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

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? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/25/16141352-like-times-square-at-new-years-pilgrims-mark-christmas-in-bethlehem?lite

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Before you invest in penny stocks look past the hype | TSI Network

Some investors think the best way to profit in stocks is to buy them when they are just barely starting out on a growth phase they hope will last for years if not decades. Ideally, they want to buy the future top performers when they are still near or close to the penny stock range and have yet to be discovered by the broad mass of investors.

And it?s true that when you buy penny stocks you could have a big payday if you make the right choice. But the odds against success are high. Penny stocks are almost always involved in riskier ventures, such as finding mineral deposits that can be mined at a profit, commercializing unproven technologies or launching new software.

What?s more, it?s much easier to launch and promote a stock than it is to start a successful business. So penny stocks attract more than their share of unscrupulous operators and stock promoters.

Look out for over-publicized deals

Penny stock promoters love to make deals with major, household-name companies. They?re sure the public is far more likely to buy penny stocks that have agreements with Teck Resources, BHP Billiton or another major mining company to finance exploration of their mining claims.

1. Major company involvement is frequently exaggerated: When promoters manage to make a deal with a major firm, they often go to great lengths to make it seem bigger than it is. Instead of announcing that the big company has invested, say, $50,000, a stock promoter may issue a press release saying the two companies have entered into a ?multi-stage development plan.? The release may say the major company has agreed to spend ?up to $10 million? or some other exalted figure. It will usually provide a toll-free number or web address for investors to order or download the glossy brochures.

Do you have part of your portfolio that you play with? The part you're willing to be a little more aggressive with? Then let me recommend my Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. You get the stocks my proven Quick Profit/Value System ? has identified as having the potential to give you 50% gains ? or more ? in 6 months or less. Click here to learn how you can get started right away.

1. Big companies have far more bargaining power than individual investors: It pays to remember that a big company doesn?t go into a situation like this the same way you do. If the big company agrees to spend $50,000 to study the mining property, new technology or pioneering program, it will also insist on a series of options that let it invest ever-larger sums on favourable terms. But the big company will always reserve the right to drop out and cut its losses. In most cases, it will exercise that right.

   A major mining company will gladly spend $50,000 one hundred times, and lose every penny of it?a total outlay of $5 million?if this means it will get a chance to develop the one rare project that?s ultimately worth an investment of, say, $500 million. If it waits till the property, technology or program has proven itself, development rights will be far more costly. So it gets in early by investing what are really just token amounts of money for a major firm. That?s why big-company involvement by itself is never a good reason to buy penny stocks.

Watch for these 4 factors when choosing penny stocks

In addition to avoiding Canadian penny stocks that promote themselves too aggressively (or do so misleadingly) here are 4 more things we look for when we analyze penny stocks for Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing.

1. We want to see experienced management with a proven ability to develop and finance a mine.
2. We look at environmental constraints in places where junior mines are exploring for minerals. In Europe and certain parts of the U.S., junior mines need a particularly rich find to justify the costs of overcoming environmentalists? objections.
3. When we recommend junior mines that only explore for minerals, we prefer those that operate in an area whose geology is similar to that of nearby producing mines.
4. We think you should avoid stocks that trade over the counter, where such things as regulatory reporting are lax.

Investors in penny stocks also face one overriding, continual risk: it?s easier to launch a promising company than to create a successful business. That?s why only a minority of junior companies ever go on to significant success.

COMMENTS PLEASE?Share your investment experience and opinions with fellow TSINetwork.ca members

If you invest in penny stocks, it is an occasional fling, or do you try it fairly often? What is the most important thing you feel you need to know about a penny stock before you invest? Let us know what you think.

Be the first to comment

.

Source: http://www.tsinetwork.ca/daily/penny-stocks/invest-penny-stocks-hype/

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Snowstorm heads east after South twisters; 3 dead

A house in the Midtown section of Mobile, Ala. is damaged after a tornado touched down Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. A Christmas Day twister outbreak left damage across the Deep South while holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions. (AP Photo/AL.com, Mike Kittrell) MAGS OUT

A house in the Midtown section of Mobile, Ala. is damaged after a tornado touched down Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. A Christmas Day twister outbreak left damage across the Deep South while holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions. (AP Photo/AL.com, Mike Kittrell) MAGS OUT

In this image from video provided by WALA-TV in Mobile, Ala. a tornado touches down in Mobile on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. The tornado hit some areas of downtown Mobile Tuesday, causing severe damage in the area before moving north, officials said. (AP Photo/WALA-TV) MANDATORY CREDIT: WALA-TV

A house in Tioga, La., is severely damaged after an apparent tornado tore through the area Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/The Daily Town Talk, Melinda Martinez) NO SALES

A home is damaged and its lawn is covered with debris after a tornado touched down Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 in Mobile, Ala. A Christmas Day twister outbreak left damage across the Deep South while holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions. (AP Photo/G.M. Andrews)

A home in the Midtown section of Mobile, Ala. is damaged after a tornado touched down Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. A Christmas Day twister outbreak left damage across the Deep South while holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions. (AP Photo/AL.com, Mike Kittrell) MAGS OUT

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) ? An enormous storm system that dumped snow and sleet on the nation's midsection and unleashed damaging tornadoes around the Deep South has begun punching its way toward the Northeast, slowing holiday travel.

Post-Christmas travelers braced for a second day of flight delays and cancellations, a day after rare winter twisters damaged numerous homes in Louisiana and Alabama. The vast storm system stretching across numerous states has been blamed for three deaths and several injuries though no one was killed outright in the tornadoes. The storms also left more than 100,000 without power for a time, darkening Christmas celebrations.

Drenching rains and blustery winds moved early Wednesday across Georgia, a slew of tornado watches still in effect. The severe weather system was set to lash the Carolinas later in the day before taking aim next at the heavily populated Northeast corridor.

Farther north on a line from Little Rock, Ark., to Cleveland, blizzard conditions were predicted before the snow ? up to a foot in some places ? made its way into the Northeast.

Rick Cauley's family was hosting relatives for Christmas when the tornado sirens went off in Mobile. Not taking any chances, he and his wife, Ashley, hustled everyone down the block to take shelter at the athletic field house at Mobile's Murphy High School in Mobile.

It turns out, that wasn't the place to head.

"As luck would have it, that's where the tornado hit," Cauley said. "The pressure dropped and the ears started popping and it got crazy for a second." They were all fine, though the school was damaged, as were a church and several homes, but officials say no one was seriously injured.

Camera footage captured the approach of the large, frightening funnel cloud.

Mobile was the biggest city hit by numerous by the rare winter twisters. Along with brutal, straight-line winds, the storms knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Torrential rains drenched the region and several places saw flash flooding.

More than 500 flights nationwide were canceled by the Tuesday evening, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. More than half were canceled into and out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport that got a few inches of snow.

Holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms. In Arkansas, highway department officials said the state was fortunate the snowstorm hit on Christmas Day when many travelers were already at their destinations.

Texas, meanwhile, dealt with high winds and slickened highways.

On Tuesday, winds toppled a tree onto a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver, and a 53-year-old north Louisiana man was killed when a tree fell on his house. Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pileup in Oklahoma, and the Highway Patrol there says a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy U.S. Highway near Fairview.

Trees fell on homes and across roadways in several communities in southern Mississippi and Louisiana. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in the state, saying eight counties reported damages and some injuries.

It included McNeill, where a likely tornado damaged a dozen homes and sent eight people to the hospital, none with life-threatening injuries, said Pearl River County emergency management agency director Danny Manley.

The snowstorm that caused numerous accidents pushed out of Oklahoma late Tuesday, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 10 inches of snow was forecast. Freezing rain clung to trees and utility lines in Arkansas and winds gusts up to 30 mph whipped them around, causing about 71,000 customers to lose electricity for a time.

Christmas lights also were knocked out with more than 100,000 customers without power for at least a time in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

Blizzard conditions were possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky up to Cleveland with predictions of several inches to a foot of snow. By the end of the week, that snow was expected to move into the Northeast with again up to a foot predicted

Jason Gerth said the Mobile tornado passed by in a few moments and from his porch, he saw about a half-dozen green flashes in the distance as transformers blew. His home was spared.

"It missed us by 100 feet and we have no damage," Gerth said.

In Louisiana, quarter-sized hail was reported early Tuesday in the western part of the state and a WDSU viewer sent a photo to the TV station of what appeared to be a waterspout around the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans. There were no reports of crashes or damage.

Some mountainous areas of Arkansas' Ozark Mountains could get up to 10 inches of snow, which would make travel "very hazardous or impossible" in the northern tier of the state from near whiteout conditions, the weather service said.

The holiday may conjure visions of snow and ice, but twisters this time of year are not unheard of. Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 113 mph or more in the South, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, via email.

The most lethal were the storms of Dec. 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32.

In Mobile, a large section of the roof on the Trinity Episcopal Church is missing and the front wall of the parish wall is gone, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church in the Midtown section of the city.

On Christmas Eve, the church with about 500 members was crowded for services.

"Thank God this didn't happen last night," Rye said.

___

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston, Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner in Washington, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-26-Christmas%20Weather/id-a83ebe4264574f988f45ef5fb210b7ad

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Games.com's Best of 2012: Console Game of the Year

Amid complaints of sequelitis, on-disc DLC, botched endings and online passes, 2012 may have been the best year in console gaming in a long time. It was a year in which we not only saw smaller studios prove themselves with enormous franchises, but game makers transform our expectations of just what games can achieve. With a little help from our friends, here are Games.com's best console games of 2012.

Halo 4

With Bungie out of the picture for good, it was safe to be worried whether the next release in the Halo franchise would be up to snuff. That is, until Nov. 6, when Microsoft's 343 Industries more than met expectations of what a Halo game should be. The result was a booming battle for the galaxy with arguably the best story told in a Halo game to date. Better yet, countless expansions and improvements on the multiplayer made for one of the stickiest shooters around once again.

The Walking Dead

If you were to predict last year that an adventure game would be in the running for Console Game of the Year, you'd have been called crazy. Leave it to Telltale Games to shatter our assumptions of what video games can do. Many knock The Walking Dead for its mechanics. But few games, if any, have crafted such tension and drama through breakneck, gripping choices that shape some of the most emotional relationships in interactive storytelling.

Dishonored

Stealth game makers: Take notes while playing Arkane Studios' steampunk-style adventure. The amount of agency granted to players in Dishonored is unparalleled by almost any game of 2012. Foregoing the tired model of rewarding or punishing players dependant upon their stealth skills, Dishonored allows players to adapt to situations on the fly while reacting to their play styles in return. Ultimately, this fosters some of the most believable combat scenarios in gaming.

Mass Effect 3

The culmination of five years worth of story, choices and promises ultimately ended up a disappointment for fans and critics alike. But that was just the ending. The journey there packed more dramatic and moving moments into a single game than any in the series to date. But what Mass Effect 3 did best was realize one of the most sprawling, detailed and engrossing universes in not just video games, but sci-fi properties, ever.

Journey

There's beauty, and sometimes depth, in simplicity. Thatgamecompany's follow-up to Flower embodies that mantra throughout, presenting a painting in motion with much more beneath the surface. Journey tells its story without words, a story about camaraderie. Journey, through creating a fascinating, captivating yet empty world, spurs collaboration between strangers in ways that games haven't ever before. Journey is watershed moment for games, and therefore is Games.com's Best Console Game of 2012.

Games.com Best of 2012 Advisory Board

Readers' Choice

Have something unique to add to the debate? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Source: http://blog.games.com/2012/12/24/best-console-game-2012/

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