Outside powers should stop military involvement and support new diplomatic initiative.
Syria is close to full-scale civil war. If the conflict escalates further, as former UN Secretary-General and current envoy of both the UN and the Arab League Kofi Annan noted: "Syria is not Libya, it will not implode, it will explode beyond its borders."
The human cost of this conflict is incalculably high. It's not surprising that the normal human reaction is "we've got to do something". But what is needed is serious diplomacy - not an army or air force action. US/NATO military intervention didn't bring stability, democracy or security to Libya, and it certainly is not going to do so in Syria.
Despite his government's history of brutal repression, Bashar al-Assad still enjoys support from parts of Syria's business elites, especially in Damascus and Aleppo, and some in minority communities (Christian, Shia and others) whom the regime had long cultivated. The opposition was divided from the beginning over whether massive reform or the end of the regime was their goal. It divided further when part of the opposition took up arms, and began calling for international military intervention. The non-violent opposition movement for freedom and democracy, which still rejects calls for military intervention, survives, but is under extraordinary threat.
Kofi Annan has proposed new negotiations including the Syrian regime's supporters, Iran and Russia, as well as those western, Arab and regional governments backing the armed opposition. So far the US has rejected the proposal, at least regarding Iran, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying that Tehran is part of the problem in Syria and thus can't be part of the solution.
The current UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, who frequently reflects Washington's interests, further undercut the potential of his own envoy's proposal, saying that Assad has "lost all legitimacy" - diplomatic code for "we don't have to talk to him".
Certainly the regime has committed brutal atrocities against civilians, potentially including war crimes. The armed opposition is also responsible for attacks leading to the deaths of civilians. It is increasingly difficult to confirm who may be responsible for each attack. The UN monitors have been pulled from the field. The regime has allowed a few more foreign journalists to enter Syria, but restrictions remain and the fighting in many areas means they are often unable to get reliable information.
The regime is clearly responsible for more attacks with heavy weapons, including tanks and artillery, but it is also clear that the anti-government forces are being supplied with increasingly heavy weapons - allegedly paid for by Qatar and Saudi Arabia and coordinated by Turkey and the CIA. Indications are growing of well-armed "outside terrorist forces" operating in Syria as well.
Accountability for human rights violations and war crimes on all sides, whether in national or international jurisdictions, is crucial - but stopping the current escalation of violence and avoiding all-out war must come first.
Syria is erupting in a region still seething in the aftermath of the US war in Iraq. Most US troops and mercenaries have left Iraq, but the war's legacy of destruction and instability will last for generations. That legacy includes the sectarian divide the US invasion and occupation imposed in Iraq - and as that divide spreads across the region, the threat of increasing sectarianism in Syria looms. Although the Assad regimes - from father Hafez's rise to power in 1970 through his son Bashar's rule since 2000 - have always been ruthlessly secular, Syria is becoming a poster country for sectarian strife. The ruling Assad clan are Alawites (a form of Islam related to Shiism), ruling over a country with a large Sunni majority. Already, alongside the global interests colliding in Syria, a Sunni-Shia proxy war is taking shape between Saudi Arabia/Qatar and Iran, each side backing opposing Syrian forces.
Iran is the single most important reason for US and other western interest in Syria. Damascus' longstanding economic, political and military ties with Tehran mean that efforts to weaken Syria are widely understood to be at least partly aimed at undermining Iran, perhaps the most influential factor pushing the US towards greater action against Syria. Certainly the US, the EU and the US-backed Arab Gulf governments would prefer a less resistance-oriented, more pro-western (meaning anti-Iranian) Syria, which borders key US allies including Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. They would also prefer a less repressive government, since that brings protesters out into the streets, threatening instability.
But for the moment, conditions in the area still make a US/NATO Libya-style military strike on Syria somewhat less likely. Despite Washington's alleged involvement in arming the rebels, direct military engagement by US air or ground forces remains unlikely right now.
The US and its allies are all too aware of the dangers to their own interests of direct military involvement in Syria. A Syrian version of post-Gaddafi Libya means greater instability across the strategic Middle East; expanding regional sectarianism; chaotic borders adjoining Israel, Iraq and Turkey; extremist Islamism gaining a foothold in Syria; and the derailing of any potential diplomatic arrangement with Iran.
All of that makes it unlikely the Obama administration would risk an attack on Syria without a UN Security Council endorsement. And that endorsement is simply not going to happen in the near future. China and Russia have both indicated they oppose any use of force against Syria, and so far they are both opposing additional sanctions as well.
Russian opposition on Syria goes beyond its usual resistance to Security Council endorsements of intervention. It goes to the heart of Russia's strategic interests, including its military capacity and its competition with the West for power, markets and influence. Russia's relationship with Syria somewhat parallels the US relationship with Bahrain: Damascus is a major Russian trading partner, especially for military equipment, and crucially hosts Moscow's only Mediterranean naval base (and only military base outside the former Soviet Union), in Tartus.
Certainly there are no guarantees. Politics still trumps strategic interests. The risk of a US/NATO attack on Syria remains, and could be ratcheted up again at any moment. The "CNN factor" - the relentless depiction of all-too-real heart-wrenching torment - can create political realities that influence decision-making in Washington, London, Paris, Ankara and beyond. Western media and politicians' earlier embrace of the armed rebels has subsided somewhat, as reports rise of opposition attacks and civilian casualties.
But anti-Assad propaganda remains dominant. And Washington is in election mode. As the violence escalates in Syria, as more civilians, especially children, are killed, calls for military intervention escalate as well. The calls come from the media, right-wing think tanks and Congress - including from neo-cons who never gave up on plans for regime change across the Arab world - and from hawkish liberal interventionists who see military force as the solution to every human rights problem.
There are also prominent opponents of military force inside the White House and Pentagon, who recognise the problems war would create for US interests (even if they don't care much about the impact on Syrian civilians). Whether they can stand up to election-year pressures remains unclear. The pushback by those in civil society who say no to military intervention, while refusing to accept the false claims that the Syrian regime is somehow a fraternal bastion of anti-imperialist legitimacy, will be crucial.
Syria lies on the fault lines of the Middle East. That means sectarian divides in war-battered Iraq, precariously balanced multi-confessional Lebanon and beyond; great power competition including the US/NATO versus Russia; the Arab-Israeli conflict; the contested roles of non-Arab Turkey and Iran. There is a crucial divergence between the role the Assad regime has played domestically and its regional position. As Jadaliyya co-editor Bassam Haddad has written, "most people in the region are opposed to the Syrian regime's domestic behaviour during the past decades, but they are not opposed to its regional role. The problem is the Syrian regime's internal repression, not its external policies." That opinion could describe the view of many Syrians as well.
The target of Syria's original non-violent protests was not a US-backed dictator but a brutal though somewhat popular leader of the region's anti-western resistance arc. That contradiction led some activists to support the Syrian government as a bastion of anti-imperialism and therefore to condemn all opposition forces as lackeys of Washington. Of course, even if Assad had played a consistent anti-imperialist role in the region, Syrians would have every right and reason to challenge his regime's brutality and denial of human rights.
But in fact the reality is far different. Based on its alliance with Iran (and somewhat for its support of Hezbollah in Lebanon), the US clearly views Syria as an irritant. But Damascus has never been a consistent opponent of US interests. In 1976 it backed a murderous attack by right-wing Phalangists and other Christian militias against the Palestinian refugee camp at Tel al-Zataar during Lebanon's civil war. In 1991, Assad Senior sent warplanes to join the US attack on Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. After 9/11, the US sent innocent detainees such as Maher Arar to be interrogated and tortured in Syria.
It's also telling that Israel has been uncharacteristically silent regarding the Syrian uprising. One would expect Tel Aviv to be in the forefront of the calls for military intervention and regime change in Syria. But Israel has been largely silent - because despite the rhetorical and diplomatic antagonism between the two, Syria has been a generally reliable and predictable neighbour.
The occasional border clash or small-scale eruption of violence aside, Assad has kept the border, and thus the strategic and water-rich Golan Heights - illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 - largely quiescent. As late as 2009 Assad was offering Israel negotiations "without preconditions" over the Golan Heights. And further, Assad is a known quantity; despite Syria's close ties to Iran, Israel has little interest in a post-Assad Syria like today's Libya, with uncontrolled borders, unaccountable militias, arms flooding in and out, rising Islamist influence, and a weak, illegitimate and corrupt government ultimately unable to secure the country. For Israel, the "anti-imperialist" Assad still looks pretty good.
The Syrian uprising that began in early 2011 was part of the broader regional rising that became known as the Arab Spring. Like their counterparts in other countries, Syria's non-violent protesters poured into the streets with political and democratic demands that broke open a generations-long culture of fear and paralysis. At first, none called for militarisation of their struggle or for international military intervention.
"For ordinary Syrians, struggling to survive amid escalating fighting ... the only hope starts with ending the fighting."
As in Libya, it was military defectors who first took up arms in response to the regime's brutal suppression of the initially non-violent protests. That defensive use of arms soon morphed into a network of militias and fighters, largely unaccountable and uncoordinated, who began carrying out attacks on security forces and calling for military assistance.
For some US and other western supporters of military intervention in Syria, last year's assault on Libya provides the model for how to respond. But they were wrong to see the Libyan intervention as a "human rights victory" then, and they are more visibly wrong now. A year later, following the deaths of thousands of Libyans, the now-divided country struggles with out-of-control militias holding thousands of prisoners, with torture, with escalating violence, with continuing attacks on sub-Saharan Africans and other foreigners, with a virtually powerless government more legitimate in the West than at home, and with a shattered national, social and physical infrastructure.
The impact of a military strike in Syria could be even worse. For ordinary Syrians, struggling to survive amid escalating fighting, with virtually no access to electricity, water or medical assistance in more and more cities, the only hope starts with ending the fighting. The best thing outside powers can do is to move immediately towards serious new diplomacy, in which supporters of both the regime and the armed opposition participate, with the goal of imposing an immediate ceasefire.
Kofi Annan's call for just such a diplomatic option could be the start, if Washington could be pressured to accept it. Only with an end to the war will the original home-grown opposition forces have a chance to remobilise public support for their internal, non-violent protest movement for real change, reclaiming the social movements for Syria's own version of freedom and democracy, and reasserting Syria's place in the Arab Spring.
Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, and author of Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN Defy US Power.


Tyler McGladdery smashed a sparking unbeaten century to steer Rainhill to victory at St Annes in the Royal London National Club Championship on Sunday.
The no.3 batsmen hit a near faultless 124 from 100 balls, which included 12 fours and five sixes. He was well supported by Matthew Fletcher (38) as the visitors reached 203-6 in reply to the Seasiders total of 199-6 from their 40 overs.
McGladdery was also among the wickets, claiming 4-37 and backed up by David Atkinson (1-30) and Ben Edmondson (1-52).
He had also been among the runs 24 hours earlier in Rainhill’s ECB premier division fixture against Wallasey, blasting 88 in the host’s total of 222-5 declared, but not sufficient to earn them outright victory. Wallasey dug deep and finished on 201-5 to earn a draw.
Rainford, who were promoted to the top division at the end of last season, are already finding the going tough. They are still seeking their first win and occupy second bottom spot in the table with only 22 points from four matches.
Their latest setback came at Formby where they suffered a five wicket defeat after posting a total of 135 all out (Comrey Edgeworth 51, David Snellgrove (39).
It proved an easy target for the table-topping Seasiders and left Rainford wondering when that elusive first win will come their way.
In division one, mid-table Newton-le-Willows crashed to a 66 run defeat at Southport and Birkdale due to frailties in their batting.
The home side, who batted first, were dismissed for 165 (Dominic Chambers 3-63, Daniel Cartwright 1-21, Ben Walkden 2-12, Nathan Hughes 1-15, Rameez Alam 2-10) but Newton-le-Willows never looked remotely like reaching their target and lost all 10 wickets for 99.
Sutton claimed local bragging rights in their second division showdown with St Helens Town at New Street.
were ousted for 91 (Liam Dodd 6-37, Jamie Greener 3-11, Craig Campbell 1-35).
Other results - division one 2nd X1s: Rainhill 180-5 Maghull 144 all out, Newton-le-Willows 165-9 declared Northop Hall 167-5, Rainford 152 all out Old Xaverians 128 all out Division two: Sutton 197-8 declared St Helens Town 65 all out.
Fixtures for Saturday featuring local clubs - ECB premier division: Formby v Rainhill, Highfield v Rainford. Division one: Liverpool v Newton-le-Willows. Division two: Spring View v St Helens Town, Sutton v Northop Hall, Division one 2nd X1s: Newton-le-Willows v Liverpool, Rainford v Spring View, Rainhill v Cowlyn Bay. Division two 2nd X1s: St Helens Town v Alder, Skelmersdale v Sutton.


I’m pretty sure most of Apple’s loyal iOS base is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the third generation iOS slate, the Apple iPad 3 as it is being called, and no doubt most are wondering just when the iPad 3 will come out to play. Well apparently a secret Apple iPad 3 shipping manifest has now come to light shedding a little info on the matter.
According to the guys over at Apple Insider, this weekend a secret shipping manifest for the Apple iPad 3 was revealed by the guys over at Apple Pro, which reveals that shipments have been scheduled for delivery in the good old US of A no later than the 9th of March.
Apparently the orders are under high security and are arriving from Chengdu in China and apparently an unnamed source at Foxconn’s Chengdu plant says that the shipment is for “Apple’s latest product,” and the manifesto is reportedly from major international cargo flights at Chengdu International Airport, which could mean that Apple is gearing up for a near immediate release of the iOS tablet.
In anticipation of the release of the Apple iPad 3, on Sunday retailer Best Buy cut the price on all their Apple iPad slates by a nice cool 50-bucks, which means you can now purchase the Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi only model for $449.99 whilst a 64GB 3G iPad now costs $779.99.
Retailers are believed to be clearing out their inventory in anticipation of an Apple iPad 3 unveiling being just a week away.
SO there you have it, it looks like we could indeed see the Apple iPad 3 surface in the very not too distant future, so will you be standing in line to be one of the first to snap up the latest iOS slate from the Apple camp?


How old is Sally Phillips, who is the Bridget Jones and Miranda star’s husband and does she have kids?
Who is Sally Phillips, who is the Bridget Jones star’s husband and when is she on Through The Keyhole?
SALLY Phillips is certainly no stranger to comedy fans.
Who is Sally Phillips? What's her background?
Sally Elizabeth Phillips was born in Hong Kong on May 10, 1970.
Her father, Tim Phillips, is the former chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and was an executive for British Airways.
Although she was born abroad, Sally moved back to England aged 13 and attended Wycombe Abbey School, an independent boarding school in Bucks.
Sally later went on to study modern languages at Oxford University and graduated with a first class honours degree.
When is Sally Phillips on Through the Keyhole?
Sally will appear on Through the Keyhole tonight (January 12).
The episode will air on Channel 4 at 9.30pm.
She will be on the show alongside Danny Dyer and Chris Kamara.
When did Sally first break into showbiz?
Sally landed her first TV role in 1994, in the BBC Two comedy series First Of Fun.
In 1999, she hit the big time after co-writing and starring in British sketch show Smack The Pony alongside Fiona Allen and Doon Mackichan.
The series ran until 2002, concluding with a special in January 2003.
In both 1999 and 2000, Smack The Pony won Best Popular Arts Show at the Emmy Awards.
What else is Sally known for?
Sally has gone on to appear in a long list of TV shows, including Green Wing, Jam & Jerusalem and Death In Paradise.
But her most notable roles are as Sharon (or 'Shazza') in the Bridget Jones movie trilogy and as Miranda Hart's friend Tilly in the BBC comedy series Miranda.
Talking candidly about her career last year, Sally told the Daily Express: “I’m very lucky in that I haven’t ever had a particularly dry patch in my career and I think that’s because I was never playing the great beauty.
Recently, Sally has been moving into presenting work, with spells fronting Comic Relief in March and The One Show in June.
Is Sally married and does she have children?
Sally married her husband Andrew Bermejo in 2003.
The couple have three children together, sons Oliver, Tom and Luke.
Oliver, or Ollie as he is known, has Down's Syndrome.
Last October, Sally wrote and presented a one-hour documentary called A World Without Down's Syndrome.
Ollie appeared in the documentary and Sally explained her own experience of raising a child with the condition.
Sally also spoke about new NHS testing, which can detect Down's Syndrome with 99 per cent certainty just 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
The committed Christian has said she would not have terminated her pregnancy had such tests been around before Ollie was born.


LAHORE, Feb 02 (APP):Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has said that time duration of travelling by train between Lahore and Rawalpindi will be reduced by half an hour in March.
within the next two days.
Thal Express train would run between Rawalpindi and Multan via Muzafargarh, Layyah, Bhakar, Kundian and Mianwali.
Sheikh Rashid said that the railways would also introduce a VIP non-stop train named Jinah Express from March 30, whereas, another VIP train Sir Syed Express would be introduced soon.
that a meeting on ML-1 had been scheduled for the next month and the masses would hear a good news about it.
appointed in every train and his cell number would be displayed in the train.
The minister also announced that he would listen complaints for one hour whenever he would present in Islamabad.
PR Chairman Sikandar Sultan Raja, CEO Aftab Akbar and other senior officers were also present.
Later, the minister visited the PR reservation office and issued directions to improve the performance.


Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD, works to elucidate melatonin’s mechanism of action and role in modulating circadian rhythms. Her lab develops novel molecules targeting melatonin receptors to treat depression, sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease.
Fraser J. Sim, PhD, studies the molecular mechanisms controlling stem and progenitor cell fate in the human brain. His lab seeks to develop novel drug- and cell-based therapies for repair and regeneration in demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.


Abstract: Composer Stacey Hersh discusses his techniques using Virtual Orchestration in combination with real instruments for television.
Bio: Originally from Toronto, for more than two decades Stacey has been a composer for television and film. His scores and songs have been featured in several hundred TV shows, and over forty TV movies and feature films. He has worked and recorded with a range of artists including Arraymusic, Gil Evans, Roger Whittaker and The National Ballet of Canada.


Chinese authorities have blocked most domestic users from the main Google.com search engine, a media watchdog said.
Internet users in major Chinese cities faced difficulties accessing Google's international site in the past week, Reporters Without Borders said.
But Google.cn, the controversial Chinese language version launched in January, has not been affected.
The site blocks politically sensitive material to comply with government censorship rules.
"It was only to be expected that Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was launched in January," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
"Google has just definitively joined the club of Western companies that comply with online censorship in China," the organisation said.
Google.com, the search engine's uncensored international site, had previously been available to Chinese web users, but problems accessing the site had been reported across the country recently. It was blocked nationwide on 31 May, the statement said.
The blocking was also being extended to Google News and Google Mail, Reporters Without Borders said.
A spokeswoman for Google in Beijing said that the problem was under investigation.
The spokeswoman, Cui Jin, said she could not give any more information.
On Tuesday, Google co-founder Sergey Brin defended his company's decision to launch the censored Google.cn service, a move which drew heavy criticism.
"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service," he said.
"Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense."
In addition to Google, US companies Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco Systems have also been accused of accommodating China's demands on censorship in return for access to its huge internet market.
The Chinese government's internet filtering is some of the most sophisticated in the world.
Content considered to be a threat, including references to the Tiananmen Square massacre and notable dissidents, is blocked.
Chinese authorities have also stepped up measures against software designed to bypass internet censorship, the Reporters Without Borders statement said.


New York's Assembly has proposed Medicaid coverage for "high needs" state prison and local jail inmates starting 30 days before their release.
The lawmakers say the plan would ensure that the inmates can get prescription medications and services to keep them from relapsing and returning.
The proposal is in the Assembly's budget plan for the fiscal year starting April 1. The Assembly, the state Senate and Gov. Cuomo are negotiating a final budget.
New York expanded discharge planning for inmates last year.
Advocates say the lack of services remains one of the biggest reasons so many released prisoners are quickly locked up again.


Many recent studies and reports have lamented the relatively meager job market open to graduates, especially those outside of rapidly growing fields.
In an exhaustive research review of the return on investment of a college education, the University of Toronto's Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic find that not only college is as good an investment as ever, even as the supply of graduates has exploded.
The most convincing argument as to why that's happened? Technology. As computers and information technology get adopted, there are more jobs that require non-routine, abstract thinking — exactly what colleges hope to develop. In about 1980, the demand for college-related skills started to beat supply, and that's never stopped.
The following chart highlights that despite a massive increase in the supply of college graduates, the premium in wages for college graduates has continued to rise.
There's also a huge gap between those who finish college, and those that finish just a little, giving new life to the phrase "stay in school."
Even with the soaring supply of college graduates, McKinsey predicts an 18-million-person shortage of college-educated workers by 2020.
College isn't just about developing skills. It's also about either developing or signaling that someone has abstract and multi-level skills, and the ability to do or be trained to do something that can't easily be automated.
Unless you think that the march of technology has halted, or that a college education doesn't help boost what Oreopoulos and Petronijevic call "non-routine, abstract skills that require problem solving, multi-tasking, and creativity," then that premium, and the demand for college students isn't going anywhere.
Not everybody should go to college. People unlikely to complete it shouldn't go, and going into serious debt for a lower quality degree takes its own toll.
But research shows even students on the margin of going due to financial or academic constraints see a benefit. There hasn't been some drastic shift that's made a college degree worthless.
In weak or changing economies, those who haven't tailored their degrees to the job market are likely going to have a tough time right out of school. That's unfortunate, and a sign that schools have work to do in tailoring their offerings and reducing costs. But turning that into an argument against going at all is taking it too far.


London, April 19 (IANS) Slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's youngest widow wishes to spend her life in Britain with her five children and meet the Royal Family, The Sun reported Thursday.
Berlin, April 18 (IANS) The seas are littered with large quantities of microplastic particles -- plastics in small bits and pieces -- endangering the lives of marine creatures, says a report.
Sydney, April 17 (IANS) Marine scientists in Australia undertaking the world's first large-scale investigation of the impact of climate change on coral reefs suggest that many of them would survive the ravages of warming.
London, Apr 6 (ANI): Nicolas Sarkozy has done away with cheese after meals at his official residence at the Elysee Palace, according to the presidential chef.
Washington, Mar 31 (ANI): Corals that have survived heat stress in the past are more likely to survive it in the future, a new study has claimed.
London, Mar 23 (ANI): Katy Perry has undergone major transformation for her video 'Part of Me' which is the lead single of her 'Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection'.
Washington, Mar 21 (ANI): A top US commander in Afghanistan has said that he would not consider further American troop reductions until late this year, after the departure of the current 'surge' forces.
Washington, March 21 (ANI): Though previous studies had found that Venice has stabilized, new measurements indicate that the historic city continues to slowly sink, and even to tilt slightly to the east.
Paris, Mar.14 (ANI): French President Nicolas Sarkozy has edged ahead of his Socialist Party rival Fran?ois Hollande for the first time since the beginning of the presidential election campaign.
Washington, Mar 12(ANI): The United States military has unveiled its latest non-lethal weapon, which is actually an electromagnetic beam of severe heat and uses the Active Denial System (ADS).
Paris, Mar 7(ANI): French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are far too many foreigners present in France and vowed to reduce the number of new arrivals by half.
Washington, Mar 1 (ANI): Researchers have come up with a portable device, which can be used onsite to rapidly spot infectious diseases, pathogens as well as physiological conditions in people and animals.
London, Feb 26 (ANI): Marine biologists have started prying on squids' world to find out how these creatures hear and how they respond to sounds in the ocean.
London, Feb 23 (ANI): A pair of eminent scientists had proposed to feed Britain's wartime population with plankton to ward off critical food shortages during the Second World War, newly uncovered documents have revealed.
Washington, Feb 23(ANI): A non profit, non partisan organization plans to spice up the 2012 American presidential elections through the first ever online-based nominating process for a third and independent candidate to challenge President Obama and GOP contenders.
Washington, Feb 21 (ANI): Singapore - a country that looks good economically - has been listed as the unhealthiest nation in a new economic and environmental index that includes 152 countries around the world.
Washington, Feb.17 (ANI): Senior American intelligence officials have offered a bleak view of the war in Afghanistan in testimony to Congress.
New York, Feb 17 (ANI): Barack Obama and Sarah Palin may be on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but they have one thing in common - they are both admirers of Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks.
Washington, Feb 17(ANI): A light aircraft that had strayed into the path of US President Barack Obama's helicopter was reportedly found to be packed with cannabis after it was intercepted by fighter jets.
Washington, Feb 16 (ANI): White House press secretary Jay Carney has revealed that Barack Obama is enthusiastically following the exploits of the New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin.
Washington, Feb 11(ANI): US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has announced that the next Independence variant littoral combat ship will be named after former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt last year.
Washington, Feb 11 (ANI): An American company is likely to salvage the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio in late January.
Washington, Feb 2 (ANI): Scientists have found that humpback whales on both sides of the southern Indian Ocean sing different tunes.
Washington, Jan 28 (ANI): The large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as 'Snowball Earth,' are unrelated to worldwide glacial events, a new study has suggested.
Washington, Jan.26 (ANI): The Pentagon plans to expand its global network of drones and special-operations bases to project U.S. power, while cutting back on conventional forces.
Washington, Jan 24 (ANI): A US Marine, who was accused of killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in 2005, will serve no time behind bars, a military judge has ruled.
Washington, Jan 25 (ANI): Marine life persists even when hydrothermal sea vents go dormant and their blazing warmth transforms to frigid cold, a new study has revealed.
London, Jan 19 (ANI): Lindsay Lohan has reportedly been served with a lawsuit by a man who believes that she played a role in the death of Osama Bin Laden.
Colombo, Jan 17 (ANI): The visiting Indian External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna, on Tuesday emphasized that the issue of fishermen is an emotive issue and needs to be handled with care on both sides.


EDO State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has said that 80 per cent of governors, National Assembly members and other public office holders in Nigeria cannot swear they were elected by popular demand in 2007, and so, it was the political elite and not the people that should be enlightened on the true canon of democracy.
For a credible election in 2011, he suggested that all public office holders, including himself, should allow themselves to be defeated if that is the will of the people, adding that this could only be achieved if the system of one man, one vote was institutionalized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He spoke, yesterday, at Effurun, Delta State on the occasion of the late Chief Umukoro Mowoe memorial lecture series, entitled, â€œThe Benefits of Credible Elections in Nigeriaâ€, organized by the Urhobo Social Club, Lagos, where the chairman of INEC, Prof Maurice Iwu, represented by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Lagos, Mr. Moses Ogbe, appealed to Nigerians â€œto actively participate in the political process, as we hope that through such active interest, we will be able to get it right overtimeâ€.
The acting governor of Delta State, Prof Amos Utuama, also, at the occasion, noted that everyone in the country is itching for credible elections because that was the only way â€œwe can achieve good governance and developmentâ€, saying, â€œWe all have a responsibility, having chosen the path of democracy as it provides that leadership should come through regular election where people freely choose their leadersâ€, Utuama added.
Oshimohole said that if the people were not enlightened, they would not queue in the sun and rain to cast their votes particularly the women, but, on the part of political elite, they preferred to hire and arm thugs to rig elections.
Oshimohole, who traced the present democratic journey to 1999, said it was only President Umaru Yarâ€™Adua that has so far admitted among the public office holders that were imposed on the people that the 2007 elections that brought him to power was not good enoughÂ and subsequently set up the Justice Uwais Reform Committee to reorganize the electoral process.
He pointed out that former PresidentÂ Olusegun Obasanjo laid the background for the fraud that was the 2007 elections when he declared that it was a â€˜do-or-dieâ€™ election, and accordingly, the INEC and the security agencies took a cue and ensured that the election was rigged for the PDP.
In a thought-provoking lecture in which the audience was held spellbound for more than 10 minutes, the Edo governor said it was already a settled norm the world over that â€œmilitary rule is not just fashionable but no longer acceptableâ€, but the nationâ€™s political eliteÂ continue to confuse the whole essence of democracy.
He said it was amusing and dangerous to see governors like him going to commission road, hospital and other projects built or rehabilitated by them and describing them as dividends of democracy, pointing out that it was wrong in his view, as the military dictator who performed a similar act would not, in the same vein, describe them as dividends of dictatorship.
Iwu ,in his address, said, â€œIn our continuous effort to bring improvement into the electoral environment, the Commission has embarked on a number of reforms, including the decision to use youth corps members in future elections.
We have observed that the deployment of ad hoc staff, who have no proper form of identification has not in any way enhanced the outcome of our elections in the pastâ€.
Commenting on the Anambra elections, he said, â€œThe Commission has also raised a monitoring and observation board to monitor the preparations, organization and conduct of the Anambra state election. A major function of the board is to point out at any point in time, any factor that may affect the credibility of the electoral process as a wholeâ€.


This January, as was announced a month ago in a press conference by a plaintiff's lawyer, documents relating to the sexual misconduct of 30 priests of the archdiocese will be released as part of settlement agreements over the past years. All these incidents were reported over the years to the civil authorities and claims have been mediated civilly. Almost all of the incidents happened decades ago, perpetrated by priests whom neither I nor many younger clergy have ever met or talked to, because the priests were either dead or out of ministry before I came to Chicago as archbishop.
Nevertheless, the publication puts the actions of these men and the archdiocese itself in the spotlight. Painful though publicly reviewing the past can be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed. For more than 20 years, the archdiocese has reported all allegations of sexual abuse to the civil authorities and to DCFS. Records of priests have been shared with civil authorities when asked for. Accountability to the civil authorities constitutionally responsible for the protection of children is part of the life of the church here.
The names of priests known to have abused a minor are published on the archdiocesan website, and the archdiocese will offer more information in the future. But publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level. It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.
Pope Francis has spoken several times in recent months about 'clericalism' as a vice. Clericalism appears when a person or group decides it is not accountable for its actions. Clericalism in the clergy is evident when a priest decides he is not accountable to his bishop or to the faithful for what he teaches or how he celebrates the church's liturgy or pastors the church's people or when a bishop, in turn, is not accountable to his councils and his clergy for his own ministry. Clericalism is spiritually deadly when a priest decides he is not accountable even to God and breaks his promise of chaste celibacy as well as the commandments of the Lord himself.
Click here to read the cardinal's letter in its entirety.
Two individuals for whom I have a great deal of respect have sharply divergent views on this matter (although both are supportive of abuse victims).
Cardinal George's letter is largely revisionist history... He admits clericalism – that is, the tendency for priests and bishops to see themselves as unaccountable – had infected the church. He claims all that has changed. If that is so, how has the church disciplined members of the hierarchy for their roles in the cover-ups?
I know of cases in this archdiocese and others where priests were taking children to their rooms in the rectory, were later caught, confessed and were removed from ministry. But I also know that the investigations by these dioceses of these priests did not include questioning staff of the rectory, or the other priests, or members of the chancery, about what they observed and what they knew, what they reported and to whom. Certainly no action was taken against anyone for failing to report a concern or problem they knew about. On the other hand, there was action taken against some who came forward and complained. There was, and I believe still is, a culture that is hostile to whistleblowers in the vast majority of the diocese of the church, certainly in Chicago. There is no coming clean about this in his letter.
I don't trust the hierarchy in this archdiocese or any across the church. Letters like this one have been written by other bishops and the former pope. The problem is, in order to rebuild trust, there must be true repentance. That hasn't happened. Repentance requires coming clean, complete confession, complete transparency. And that's only the start of rebuilding trust. Even when the files of the thirty are released, this archdiocese, and the church at large, will still be a long way from coming clean. That's just step one.
Step two requires changing direction. While the church has instituted a zero tolerance for abuse, the church does nothing to root out abuse. All the investigations are reactive. There is no proactive effort to identify priests, lay staff, or volunteers who may pose a problem. There is no protection for or encouragement of whistleblowers. There is no mechanism for identifying networks of predator priests who operate in cooperation with one another. There is no effort to investigate such networks that continue to exist to this day.
As just one example, I've been investigating the infamous Boys Club for several years. The Boys Club was a loosely organized group of priests and laity who cultivated sexual relationships with vulnerable boys and shared these boys with each other. The ring was centered in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago and consisted of several priests, organists, teachers and others. Members of the ring are among the suspects in the 1984 murder of Frank Pellegrini, a church organist who was aware of the membership and their activities. One theory is that he was murdered because he was about to report what he knew to church officials.
The church has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to investigate this network of child sexual predators. The archdiocese investigates only if there is a complaining victim, and they will investigate only the specific person or persons who abused the victims. Law enforcement won't conduct a general investigation of The Boys Club because gathering evidence that would be prosecutable is unlikely, especially since leads for the murder of Pellegrini have dried up. The murder investigation is still open but little is being done to pursue it. It sits in the CPD cold case files.
Several of the priests and other laity who were reportedly part of The Boys Club remain in active or semi-active ministry. So if the church really wants to come clean, if the cardinal really wants to repent and change direction, he should retain my organization to investigate the ring, opening up all relevant files to our review and ordering all priests and staff under his control to cooperate. If Cardinal George does something like that, well, that would be a change in direction.
No other organization on earth has been asked to publicly post the names of its employees merely accused of abuse, yet somehow the Catholic Church is ordered to carry out this measure under the questionable premise that such an action is justice for victims.
Try asking Chicago Public Schools to publicly post the names of all of its employees accused of abuse; you'll likely have the proverbial door slammed in your face and be told it's a personnel issue subject to privacy laws.
The public shouldn't be fooled. Posting these priests' names has very little to do with the protection of children. The church has acquiesced to a bullying tactic by contingency lawyers like Jeff Anderson, who surely looks to drum up more clients for his profitable venture, and bigoted hate groups like SNAP, who further desire to bludgeon the church.
Cardinal George is being more than gracious and Christ-like in his statement about posting the names of accused priests, but don't expect any kudos from the Chicago Tribune or anyone else in the media. They'll also likely bury the fact that most of the accused priests were long dead or out of ministry before George was even installed as archbishop in 1997 – over 15 years ago.
For several years, the Catholic Church has been second to none in the protection of children, yet the media continues to harp on decades-old allegations of abuse by priests. Between the installation of diocesan 'abuse panels,' unprecedented screening of parish employees, and billions paid out in settlements, no one else comes close to atoning for sins of the distant past.
Indeed, we must continue to pray for victims of atrocious clergy abuse. On the other hand, Catholics need to realize that the church is carrying out measures that no other group has ever been asked to do, and there are secular forces out there pushing for these measures in their efforts to further embarrass and damage the church.
The Rev. Anne Robertson has baptized more infants and youngsters than she can count in her past years as a United Methodist minister in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida.
But the Plymouth resident and Massachusetts Bible Society director never imagined that she'd get the chance to share a ritual drop of water for a baptism remembrance with a Roman Catholic cardinal.
Until Sunday, when Cardinal Sean O'Malley asked her.
Look, I have absolutely no problem with Catholics and Protestants working together to fight the anti-life, anti-family forces in our society. But for Cardinal O'Malley to participate in this type of "ritual" is perplexing to say the least. I'm sure there have been quite a few such occurrences in the last few decades, but that doesn't make it any more comforting.


Many employers still have more questions than answers about legal recreational cannabis and the impact it could have on the workplace, according to one business group.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business warned Tuesday that many small businesses are “not ready” for legalization and could inadvertently land in hot water if they don’t understand their rights and responsibilities. Richard Truscott, CFIB vice-president for Alberta and B.C., said the risk of a lawsuit is real for small business owners who don’t know how to differentiate between recreational and medicinal marijuana or don’t have proper procedures in place for dealing with workplace impairment.
For large companies with their own human resource and safety departments, putting workplace rules in place to reflect the new reality of legal marijuana is not that difficult, Truscott said. But for small employers without expertise in this area, there remains a lot of confusion. Common questions include whether cannabis can be consumed on workplace premises, what responsibility an employer bears if an impaired employee or customer has an accident on site, and whether employers can ask employees to submit to a drug test.
Employers are fearful of making a mistake when it comes to legal marijuana, said Jeff Bradshaw, president and CEO of Cannabis Learning Series, which offers workplace safety and cannabis training programs for businesses.
Many employers have not yet come up with their own internal policies.
Some of the issues employers may have to deal with, Bradshaw said, include a possible increase in workplace accidents and impaired driving. Workplaces will also have to differentiate between recreational users, for whom a “no-tolerance” policy is fair, and medicinal users who have the right to be reasonably accommodated by their employer.
Jolene Paulson, co-owner of Align Builders in Camrose, Alberta, said she has been working to get up to speed on the new cannabis legislation and to educate her 12-person staff on the dangers of workplace impairment. She said she worries that cannabis legalization could make drug use more widespread, something that would be a problem for many business owners.
“I don’t have concerns about the group of employees we currently have, but new employees I think will be more of a concern. There will need to be an awareness there during the hiring process,” Paulson said.
Armour Equipment, a Calgary-based scaffolding company with 50 employees, has spent the last several months updating its drug and alcohol policy as well as conducting an internal campaign called “Fit for Duty.” The company also participated in Cannabis Learning Series’ education program.
“We’re confident. We feel we’ve taken the appropriate and proactive approach,” said Armour Equipment president Charles Maygard.
However, Maygard acknowledged the process has been time-consuming and resource-intensive, and that some businesses may feel burdened by it all.
“But like any business requirement, these things are important and resources need to be applied,” he said.
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce has also been working with its members to educate them about cannabis legalization. Policy director Zoe Addington cautioned against being overly fearful of what the change means from an employer standpoint, saying she believes most businesses actually are ready.


Authorities declared Friday that this year’s All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day was “generally peaceful” at Manila North Cemetery despite cases of missing children and confiscation of sachets marijuana from a teenaged visitor.
Supt. Julius Caesar Domingo, Manila North Cemetery ground commander, said they have not recorded any crime incident since November 1.
“Generally peaceful naman. Walang reported na crime incident except there was one na kabataan na nag-try ipasok ‘yung marijuana sachets,” Domingo said.
On Thursday, police arrested a 17-year-old male as he tried to smuggle sachets of marijuana inside the cemetery and received reports about 10 children who went missing.
Data from Manila North Cemetery’s administration office showed that the youngest child who went missing was a two-year-old who was nevertheless immediately claimed by relatives.


Completing the resurrection of the U begun the year before when they were passed over for the BCS title game for a Florida State team they had beaten. The '01 'Canes turned in one of the truly dominating performances in college football history. They outscored their opponents 512-117 (a 43-10 average) and featured an assemblage of talent that may not be repeated. Three future Pro Bowlers at one position (running backs Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, and Frank Gore), future All-Pros inAndre Johnson and Ed Reed, and underclassmen backups that included Kellen Winslow and Sean Taylor.
It's safe to say that 2001 Miami team was stacked and they would've probably been even more badass except that they did it all in a more or less dignified fashion. Except for when backup running back Najeh Davenport defecated in a woman's laundry basket three months after Miami crushed Nebraska in the Rose Bowl.


In the simplest terms, the scientific method is a set of principles designed around observation and reasoning which aims to ensure that our understanding of the world is as accurate as possible. Scientists value verifiable and reproducible results more than anything else as the basis for knowledge. The scientific method (when done right) is a great way of getting opinions or preference out of the way of facts.
But it’s not only for scientists. The method is a more organized version of the same deduction processes we use in everyday problem-solving and can help you in your day to day life. It’s great for getting to the root of things and eliminating add-on (but irrelevant) factors through repeated tests and tweaks to the object of your interest. That being said, let’s look at how it’s done.
Predict according to the hypothesis.
Observe the result. Fix hypothesis.
Repeat 4 to 6 until your hypothesis matches results.
Observation is the basis of science as we understand it today and forms the first step in the scientific method. It can be something really simple and obvious, like “cats like to eat meat”, or something not readily apparent — “there is an infinite number of decimals in π,” for example.
Observations naturally lead to a question — “well, why do cats eat meat?” — and our attempt at answering this will first require looking at available data. This can come from your own previous observations, other scientists’ papers, and so on. So let’s say that while reading up on your cat’s culinary preferences, all you found was that “cats don’t eat spinach.” Previous experience with your pet also tells you that “cats like to drink milk.” Beyond that, not a word.
That didn’t answer your question, so you’re now in uncharted waters and an idea is forming in your mind — “cats only eat red and white food, since meat is red and milk is white.” That’s your hypothesis. It’s important to keep this hypothesis falsifiable, meaning there is a possible negative answer, so you can test it and see how it fares against reality.
You start doing that with a prediction. It sounds fancy, but it’s pretty simple and you probably do it all the time, anyway: prediction basically means drawing a logical conclusion as to how the world would behave if your hypothesis was true and if it wasn’t.
We predict that our cat will eat fresh tomatoes — because they’re red — and some flour — because it’s white — but it will never eat cat-food — since it’s… brownish — or butter (which is yellow). That prediction is easily verifiable. Offer your cat the four foods and lo and behold, the tomatoes and flour are left untouched while the cat food is all gone and the butter seems nibbled on — the experiment’s results conflict with your hypothesis. Based on the new data, you can alter the hypothesis, create new predictions based on that, and re-take the test. Or you may have to reject it altogether.
It has its ups and downs.
Image credits Thebiologyprimer / Wikimedia.
To keep your work as spotless as possible, try to design your experiments in such a way as to contain a dependent variable — which stays constant — and an independent variable (which changes), so you can compare and isolate their effects. In the same way, try to use a control and an experimental group for comparison. Use both inductive and deductive reasoning to work on your hypothesis. Finally, when testing it, go for the falsifying experiment if you can. If your hypothesis holds true in a riskier experiment, it will do much more to confirm it that a slew of low-risk ones.
Although the scientific method aims at taking chance and bias out of the pursuit of knowledge, these can never be entirely eliminated — maybe one cat out there actually likes flour and tomatoes. Keep in mind that a single positive result doesn’t prove a hypothesis right, and one negative result doesn’t make it wrong. It’s all a matter of confidence and there are several degrees of confidence.
Models are hypotheses which are known to be at least of limited validity. That model of an atom we’re used to seeing, the Bohr model, isn’t what an atom looks like. But it’s illustrative and similar enough to the real thing (it accurately represents the energies of the quantum states of the electron in the hydrogen atom, but not its angular momentum — i.e. the shape is ok but it doesn’t show how all the pieces move) to be a good substitute in most situations — it’s a “model” of how things actually are.
Theories are frameworks of hypotheses which have been repeatedly confirmed through experiment. They’re not really proven correct per se, but they’ve never actually been proven wrong so they can’t be discarded. New discoveries usually fit into existing theories, and it’s only after one of these discoveries can’t be reconciled with it that scientists try to modify the theory. Sometimes theories become laws.
Laws are generally considered to be fundamental and universally relevant in their field of influence, though some laws have been modified over time as our understanding of the world became more refined. For example, the law of gravity (gravity works the same way almost everywhere) or the law of mass conservation (mass isn’t destroyed by chemical or physical transformations in an isolated system).
One of the most fundamental errors is to mistake the hypothesis for the full explanation of a phenomenon or thing without performing any test. Even if it seems logical or of common sense that the hypothesis is true — until tested it is only a hypothesis. Thinkers as far back as ancient Greece have pointed out to this fallacy.
Another wrench commonly thrown in the scientific method is to ignore data which doesn’t support the result you’re after. Ideally, the experimenter should be unbiased. However, our brains are really good at justifying “something wrong” in certain data under strong personal beliefs or a perceived pressure to get a specific result. All data is equally important, and there is no such thing as a bad result in science.
A failure to account for errors may reveal discoveries that aren’t there or may hide legitimate findings. Always double-check your work.
By its very definition, the scientific method can’t be used to determine the truth of anything outside the physical world, like emotions or philosophical questions — although its principles can help explore these areas.
And finally, because the scientific method relies in great part on repetition and reiteration, some phenomena which can’t be repeated and/or measured again and again don’t lend very well to its use. If you’re trying to woo the focus of your affection, for example, and it goes poorly, you can’t restart in front of the same person and try again, over and over, until you find the best approach. The same person will still be influenced by what you said before. A new person will react differently.
That, in a nutshell, is the scientific theory. It’s a surprising mix of discipline in practice but flexibility in thinking to go with flexibility in practice but discipline in thinking. The scientific method is a way of constantly checking the validity of our reasoning while we go along, of knowing how we know. A list of check and balances which, when observed, should help you find the laws hidden in the reeds of happenstance.
Observe, deduce, test. Always take evidence over preference, and try to look at as few variables at a time as possible in your experiments. Remember that your hypotheses may turn out to be false, that your assumptions are working against you — if you want to find the scientific truth, always keep an eye out for something that might reduce the accuracy of your results, especially yourself.


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Makes sense that Kendrick Lamar would sample Janet Jackson on his critically acclaimed debut. During his formative years in the 1990s, Janet's reign and influence were inescapable, so as the Compton MC readies his next good kid, m.A.A.d city single, the Drake-assisted "Poetic Justice" seems like a no-brainer.
The track borrows its title from Janet's 1993 film and lifts a vocal sampling from her hit record "Any Time, Any Place" from the same year. For the song's video, K-Dot figures that once he and Drizzy work out their schedules, getting the OVO MC on set will be no problem, but if Kendrick has his way he'll also have a cameo for Ms. Jackson as well. "That'll be a blessing," he told MTV News on Friday just moments before he took the stage to headline at Power 106's annual Cali Christmas concert.
Lamar even went as far to make a personal pitch to the icon, hoping to eliminate the difficult process that often comes with working with a star of Jackson's stature. "Janet, c'mon, Janet. No paperwork with the managers, contact the managers. This is artist to artist," he pleaded. "This is a young boy that looked up to you for years. Please, yeah, video, Janet Jackson 'Poetic Justice.' It'll only be right."
That's not the only visual element Kendrick has planned. Part of good kid's appeal are the cinematic skits that piece the album's music together, so to play off of the album's strengths the TDE crew are working on a film that will complement the LP as well. "We actually started the visuals for this whole project," he said. "I called it a short film before I even started the actual foundation of the music."
Would you like to see Janet Jackson in Kendrick Lamar's "Poetic Justice" video? Let us know in the comments!


Summer will be here before you know it. Why not step out in style with these inspiring — and adorable — Disney outfits? From active wear to baby wear, there’s something for everyone over at shopDisney!


“Dead in the middle of little Italy little did we know that we riddled some middle men who didn’t do diddly.” As if anything more needed to be said, Big Pun’s short but memorable run as the pride of BX was cut short, but it doesn’t mean that the Puerto Rican wasn’t one of the best ever. Pun’s ability to pack so many words into such little stanzas was incredible for a man his size. You can even hear him breath heavily in his later records.


We still don’t know the exact motivation of the Orlando shooter. What we do know is that when he tried to buy body armor from a gun shop, the owner wisely turned him down.
The gunman, who later killed 49 people and wounded more than 50, went to another gun shop 10 miles away and bought what turned out to be the murder weapon.
Related: Is this proof that gun control is doomed?
When that story came out, I mentioned this idea: what if that first gun shop had been able to notify the second gun shop that this guy was bad news?
“I heard your discussion about it and I thought, ‘wow, here’s something that I can do with the skills that I have to contribute,'” Seth Banks explained.
Banks, a software developer, was listening on KCBS in San Francisco. And he liked the idea.
“I got sick of just talking about it and I said, ‘well, I’m just going to do something about it.’ So I did,” he said.
He wrote an app that allows licensed gun dealers easily share information about suspicious customers.
“Right now I”m calling it Gun Shop Watchlist. And what it is, is a social network for federal firearm licensees,” he said.
Dealers sign up, enter their location and then if they encounter a customer who gives them a bad feeling, they can log the incident online.
“When they see something they enter the incident into the app and it alerts others in the local area,” he said.
So in the Orlando case, the second gun shop owner could have seen that someone looking like Omar Mateen had tried to buy body armor and been denied.
Gun Shop Watchlist would be a private network with no government involvement; just gun sellers giving each other a heads-up. Banks has shown it to gun dealers.


Always wanted to live on the Elizabeth River? Here is your chance! Ranch home offers captivating views of the river, large backyard for your entertaining, 3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, open concept. The finished room above the Garage is perfect for 4th Bedroom or Man Cave. Wood flooring in Great Room, Enclosed Sunroom for your relaxing after a long day.
Don't miss out on this lovely cul-de-sac property with a two car garage. Great flexible floor plan. Super clean. Enjoy the peace and quiet of a serene backyard under a wooden pergola.


"To become unaddicted is like meeting myself for the very first time."
I attended the Unite to Face Addiction rally in Washington, D.C., last month and learned that addiction is killing 350 of our beloveds every day in the U.S. It is a pressing social and mental health issue that affects everyone, whether we want to see it or not. It's killing our grandmas and grandpas; our moms and dads. Our sisters, our brothers, our sons and our daughters. It’s our children, our spouses, our significant others, our friends and our neighbors.
There are many who walk among us. I am one.
The first time I ever drank at 14, I blacked out. When I got introduced to cocaine at 19, it was instant love. One sip, snort or pill activated the insatiable beast inside me that would stop at nothing to get more, urgently. It was a mental obsession, a physical compulsion, and a death to my spirit. It gave me the illusion of safety and security and was a way to procrastinate my pain. My cycle was to binge and then abstain completely - a few days on, a few days off. When I didn't use alcohol or drugs, I used food, exercise, people-pleasing and relationships like a drug.
Too much was never enough.
I chased any high I could and simply couldn’t bear to face my life. I didn't discriminate against what would fill the space, drown out the noise, turn down the inner critic. I was an equal-opportunity addict. And once we become physically or behaviorally addicted to something, it’s like a lock-and-key effect. Not to mention the way addiction alters our brain chemicals, therefore distorting our perceptions and judgments.
I’ve been sober and in recovery for over four years now.
To not face this growing crisis, which is begging for our attention, is perpetuating the disease around us. There is no individual healing without collective healing. If one suffers, we all do. We need to do better as a society. We can. It’s an inconvenient and uncomfortable truth, yes. But to talk openly about it is essential for the healing process of everyone affected directly or indirectly, which includes every person out there.
Shame thrives in the dark and simply ceases to exist when you tell your story, maybe only to yourself first. We heal by coming out of the dark to tell the truth, whatever it is. Our stories are important. Stories connect us and melt away the shame, fear and denial — all of which feed the addicted brain. The shame that we let it happen, the guilt that we couldn’t stop with willpower, the fear that we’re alone in our struggle and that we’re defective and broken, the fear that we’ll be casted out if we admit the problem because of stigma, and the denial that it’s not that bad.
It may seem counterintuitive to have compassion for an addict - someone who probably inflicts immense pain on their loved ones, someone who lies, hides and steals. But in the words of recovering addict Russell Brand, "the only way to help addicts is to treat them not as bad people but as sick people." Some people think it's a matter of willpower. They'd stop if they wanted to, if they loved me, if they cared.
This creates even more shame for the addict who gets tricked into thinking they somehow have full control over their addiction.
Addicts (recovering or not) are some of the most interesting, layered and caring people I know. They just need help. And compassion. Mostly from themselves. Actually being an addict might be the least interesting thing about them. Often they are smart, funny, creative, sensitive, determined, passionate and kind. Maybe they felt like they were too much so they used substances to dumb down and dim down. Or maybe they felt like they weren't enough so they used substances to maintain some semblance of confidence and control.
I think I did both.
If addiction is disconnection, shame, disgrace, disease, self-loathing, lies, hiding, denial, avoidance and darkness then it would follow that recovery from addiction is the opposite of these.
Recovery from addiction is connection, reconnection, acceptance, remembering, healing, telling the truth, self-love, honesty, love for others, creating joy, lightness, letting go and staying humble.
All humans prefer to avoid pain and pursue pleasure; addicts are just extreme with it.
Addiction is self-abandonment at its very core. I deserted myself in favor of a big charade. To become unaddicted is like meeting myself for the very first time. It's a coming home, a returning to love for both my dark and my light. It's unlearning all the destructive ways of living and replacing them with those that do the least amount of harm and damage. By being in recovery, I’ve inadvertently become a lifelong student in authenticity, courage and empowerment. I have no choice but to face my own stuff on a daily basis. It's looking in the mirror with kind eyes, sitting still with myself, resisting urges to fix and distract, forgiving myself when I fix and distract anyway, and letting other people see the real me. It's being vulnerable as hell when I don't want to be.
The social and mental health issue of addiction is sweeping our nation, and it’s high time we stop sweeping it under the rug. Some of us only feel free to talk in shrinks' offices or church basements, if we’re lucky. By the way, I love church basements. But I will not be silent. And I am not anonymous.
We don’t necessarily choose to be addicted. But we do choose to recover.


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Hamilton County officials said multiple vehicles are involved.
The Ohio Department of Transportation shows a 99+ minute delay on the road. The backup extends to Ohio Pike.
UPDATE: Hamilton County - There is currently a crash on I-275 westbound past Five Mile. The left lane is open and the right lane remains closed. Please seek alternate routes.
W I-275 multiple vehicles involved in a wreck near Kellogg.


Is the U.S. Ready to Negotiate With the Taliban?
"Western diplomats, Taliban leaders and the Afghan government," The New York Times recently explained, "have begun to take a hard look at what it would take to start a negotiation to end the fighting." The details of what they report -- about the demands of both sides, about preconditions for talks to happen, and about necessary outcomes once talks are concluded -- are the subject of much discussion in Washington's foreign policy circles this week, including a major report released by the Century Foundation. It may well be the only realistic option left for ever ending the war (even with the especially brutal Haqqani network). But, nearly a decade into this war, the prospect of even opening negotiations with the Taliban can still inspire in many Americans a sense of outrage, fear, and, at times, even betrayal. If negotiation is indeed the best or only way to end the war, there are many difficult and important questions to be answered: What will be the Taliban's role in governance? Do NATO forces remain, and how long? How will free and fair be guaranteed? But there's another looming question: Is Washington, and the U.S. as a whole, ready, politically and culturally, to negotiate with the Taliban, the same group that sheltered al-Qaeda before and after September 11, 2001, to end the war that has already claimed so many lives?
Before we can truly commit ourselves to negotiations, there are a number of potential problems we must solve at home. One such problem is the assumptions we assign to talking with the Taliban. A number of human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, frame this as a binary choice: negotiate with the Taliban, or protect the rights of women. But the idea of negotiating with the Taliban is not directly related to the plight of Afghanistan's women -- there's no reason to assume that women's rights would be cast aside as a prerequisite to the talks. If anything, this could be an opportunity to place women's rights within the larger negotiating agenda. However, that would require both the U.S. and the Taliban to order their priorities and decide how to weigh women's rights among the other issues that would be discussed in the course of a negotiated settlement. That's not an easy thing to do, but with violence against women still ongoing in Afghanistan, the best course for ending such human rights abuses may be the same course for ending the war itself: negotiation.
What could also complicate American willingness to engage in peace talks is the hard fact that, ultimately, we are not the lead party. This is between Afghans: the Taliban and Hamid Karzai's government. Any negotiations process must be endorsed, but not driven by, the United States in order to work. The U.S. cannot and should not exert too much influence over the details of any deal, or it will risk undermining the popular authority of the agreement with the Afghan people -- including the lower ranks of the Taliban.. The U.S. taking a secondary role in the negotiations is going to make them far less attractive to already wary Americans.
Within the Afghan government itself, there is a growing disagreement over the necessity of peace talks -- driven, at least in part, by the unintentional disenfranchisement of Pashtuns in the Parliamentary elections, which put far more Tajiks and Hazaras in the Wolesi Jirga than there would have been in an open election.
But, in Afghanistan, at least there is a national conversation -- a public debate over the merits and pitfalls of a negotiated settlement with the Taliban. In the U.S., there is near-silence. Congressmen from Left and Right have voiced their opposition to the war, but there is almost no discussion of what to do with the other party to that war. Even then, merely contemplating an end to our mission there inspires derision among the political class more than it does sober contemplation.
The language we in the U.S. use to discuss what comes next in the Afghan war, the way we talk and think about how it could end, leave little room for a negotiated settlement, a context in which victory and defeat are not particularly useful or explanatory ideas. If we can successfully transition our thinking about Afghanistan from winning a war to managing a problem, a whole new realm of political and strategic opportunities would open up. But that's a major cognitive shift and no easy thing to do after a decade of framing the war against the Taliban as one of absolute good versus evil, in which only total and decisive victory would be acceptable.
Public discussions in the U.S. about the war tend to focus only on the military aspect of what happens after the planned 2014 troop drawdown. But there will have to be political transition as well, in which the Taliban, whether we like it or not, as a politically relevant Afghan group, will have to play a role. But the politics of Afghanistan, and of our involvement there, remain surprisingly absent from out public debate over the war. Only last week, when General Petraeus visited Washington to give Congress a progress report on the war, the talk focused almost entirely on the military aspects. Petraeus, as well as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy, who also testified, spoke of political matters on briefly and as secondary the military mission. That doesn't mean that Petraeus and the Pentagon are ignorant of the political aspect of the war or its importance. But what they chose to discuss and not discuss provides a telling indication that, even at the highest levels, our national conversation about the war gives little attention to the importance of its political elements. But it's exactly those elements that will matter most in negotiating with the Taliban -- an inherently political proposition.
The political discussion and the Taliban's place in that discussion are vital to the war effort: they will determine whether the fighting drags on into infinity, as many worry, or if there we can pursue a less-than-total-victory outcome that, though imperfect, nevertheless accomplishes some of our goals in Afghanistan and allows us some way out. We in the U.S. desperately need to have our own political discussion, talking about talks, before we will be ready to engage with the Taliban. And better to have it now, while we still have power and troops and influence in Afghanistan and can affect the eventual outcome, rather than in 2014, when we will have all the disadvantages with no strengths.


BRIDGEPORT >> A 19-year-old man has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the 2013 death of a 72-year-old man known as the “Grandpa of Capitol Avenue” in Bridgeport.
The Connecticut Post reports Qaavon Foster pleaded guilty Tuesday under the Alford Doctrine to second-degree manslaughter and first-degree robbery in the death of David Roman.
The Alford plea means that Foster doesn’t agree with the state’s evidence but he acknowledges there’s enough to warrant a conviction.
Prosecutors say Foster, then 17, and another teen shoved Roman off his bicycle on Madison Avenue on Sept. 13, 2013. Roman struck his head on the pavement and was on life support for months before dying in August 2014.
Judge Robert Devlin said he would sentence Foster to serve 12 years in prison on June 17.


The cohousing concept, seen as a way to cut housing costs, was popular in Denmark for decades. It was introduced to the United States through a book published in 1988 by a husband-and-wife architectural team, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, in Berkeley. The idea was to create a sense of community by having residents share meals, chores and babysitting, as well as letting residents have a say in designing their homes and developing their neighborhood.
Ground was broken on the Southside Park project – then dubbed River City Cohousing – in 1992. It was the fourth co-housing community to be established in the United States and the first as urban infill. Now there are 198 such projects that have been completed or are in the process of being formed in the country, with 39 in California alone, according to the Cohousing Association of the United States.
David Mogavero, the architect for the Southside Park project, recalled that before the co-housing community was formed, the neighborhood was considered one of the worst in Sacramento, known for its crack houses and prostitutes. “The police were called here every hour,” he said. But with the establishment of the co-housing community, the quality of life in Southside Park improved.
Former Sacramento mayor Heather Fargo, who spoke during a short ceremony held in the common area Sunday, said she was on the City Council when the co-housing project moved into the Southside Park area. She recalled the efforts the residents made to clean up the neighborhood – picking up garbage from the streets, towing away abandoned cars and videotaping all the prostitutes and their johns so that the police could arrest them.
“I remember how co-housing came in and planted the seed to bring everything back to life,” she said.
Domenic Tavianini, 17, was the first baby born to a family living in the Southside Park Cohousing Community.
His mother Theresa Tavianini, 56, recalled taking him to a relative’s home in the suburbs for a visit once and trying to explain to him why he couldn’t run in and out of neighbors’ yards as he was used to doing at Southside Park.
Twelve of the 25 families that originally bought homes in the Southside Park Cohousing Community remain. Many of those who left did so because of marriage or new jobs or to care for aging parents. Turnover in ownership is rare, with the last new owner joining the community five years ago. Two original owners have died – including one woman who died in the co-housing community, with a neighbor providing hospice care for her.
There is a waiting list of 30 people wanting to buy a home in the project, but former residents often sell their homes to friends who are familiar with the co-housing lifestyle. Two of the houses are rented out, and one house could come up for sale later this year.
Jennifer Souza, 42, is one of the people interested in buying a home in the Southside Park Cohousing Community. She and her 10-year-old son, Gustavo, will be moving into one of the houses as renters next week. Her husband, Carlos, 43, is working on a farm in Rondonia, Brazil, and will join her next summer.


It mimics the flying mammal and doesn't even need to be remotely controlled.
A team of scientists has just built the first robot that looks and flies like a bat. They named it, of course, Bat Bot.
Bat Bot is nothing short of an engineering marvel. It weighs in at only 3.3 ounces—about as heavy of two golf balls. With a silicone membrane stretched over its carbon-fiber skeleton, a head crammed with an on-board computer and sensors, and five micro-sized motors strung along its backbone, Bat Bot is capable of autonomous, flapping flight. Designed by trio of roboticists led by Soon-Jo Chung at Caltech, it was unveiled today in the journal Science Robotics.
What makes Bat Bot so remarkable is just how damn hard it was to mimic a bat's natural flight. If flying was an art form, bats would make fixed wing-pilots looks like they're finger painting. That's because with each flap of their wings, "bats use more than 40 active and passive joints, [alongside] the flexible membranes of their wings," says Chung. In addition, bats take advantage of a whole suite of other hard-to-imitate biological tricks, such as bones that adaptively deform each wing-beat.
"Arguably, bats have the most sophisticated powered flight mechanism among animals," the roboticists write in their paper.
Bat Bot performs four main components of bat wing movement - the shoulder, elbow, and wrist bend, and the side-to-side tail swish.
To build Bat Bot, Chung's team first had to dispense with the fantasy that they could just mechanize flapping bat wings, joint by joint. "It's impractical, or impossible, to incorporate [all 40] of these joints in the robot's design," says Chung. Even with today's most advanced robotic technology, you'd just end up with a heavy, clunky robot that would never make it off the ground.
Instead, the trio pored over biological studies of bat flight, including a extremely helpful 2008 study on bat joints authored by the biologist and Discovery Channel host Dan Riskin. Scouring the studies, they sought to understand which of these 40 joints they could dispense with and which were absolutely vital.
"Arguably, bats have the most sophisticated powered flight mechanism among animals."
In the end, Chung's flying robot has a total of nine joints. And while Bat Bot is a seriously advanced piece of machinery, it is still a pretty simple bat. For example, Bat Bot's carbon-fiber "fingers" don't have knuckles or knuckle joints. And bat bot doesn't actively twist its wrists like a normal bat does.
There are other simplifications too. While bats' wing membranes can have different levels of stiffness in different places, Bat Bot's hyper-thin silicone membrane (which Chung's team built themselves) is uniformly flexible.
Nevertheless, Bat Bot's elegant flight looks almost indistinguishable from its biological cousin. It fluidly and independently tucks and extends its wrists, shoulders, elbows, and legs as it glides through the air. If you aren't a biologist, then you'll be hard pressed to spy the mechanical differences between Bat Bot's flapping and the real thing.
Even cooler, Bat Bot is not remote controlled. Leveraging a lightweight suite of sensors and computers, it can autonomously perform a flapping glide, bank turns, and sharp dives. But Bat Bot is not perfect—yet. It can't yet ascend in the air; it can only flap its way through a controlled glide. Escalating flight, as well as a bat's quintessential upside-down perch, are two capabilities Chung's team is working on right now.
Rousettus aegyptiacus's flight characteristics inspired those of Bat Bot.
Bat Bot's sheer complexity makes you wonder: Why wrangle with the complex and fickle flight of bats in the first place when we already have nimble flying robots on the market, such as those drone quadcopters?
Chung's team argues that Bat Bot's softness and lack of rapid-spinning propellers make it safer around humans than other flying robots. Chung imagines that future incarnations of Bat Bot could fly about new building sites mid-construction, perching on beams to snap photos, or to spy mistakes or other structural flaws. If one bumps into a construction worker, no problem.
Having once taken a rogue quadcopter to the face, I can attest to their assertion that propeller-to-forehead impact with humans is really painful and should be avoided at all cost.
Perhaps it would be easier just to build a safer quadcopter. But hey, we're not here to question this plucky robot. Bat Bot's raison d'être is even more straightforward. First, Bat Bot is awesome. Second, we figure Bat Bot is highly effective nightmare fuel for those already afraid of bats, and what's not to love about that?


BRUSSELS — NATO will formally announce on Tuesday the launch of a new advisory mission for Afghanistan and a high-readiness reaction force for eastern Europe, the alliance’s top official said.
Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the need to reassure nervous allies in eastern Europe have energized the 28-member alliance, which critics said had lost its sense of purpose after the end of the Cold War.
Regarding Afghanistan, Stoltenberg said the new mission, named Resolute Support, will commence on Jan. 1, 2015, the day the current NATO combat mission ends.
The alliance-led force in Afghanistan has already shrunk to just 13,300 troops, from a high of nearly 140,000 three years ago, according to the latest statistics.
NATO assumed responsibility for security in the country in August 2003. More than 3,400 NATO troops have died and more than 30,000 have been wounded during the ongoing war with Taliban insurgents.
For the new mission, Washington has already pledged nearly 10,000 troops — mainly trainers and advisers — along with a contingent of anti-terrorism forces. NATO allies and partner nations are expected to contribute about 2,000 more advisers.
Stoltenberg said Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s new president, and Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan Cabinet’s chief executive, will attend Tuesday’s meetings.
The two men were making their first visit to NATO since taking office in September. The new administration immediately signed long-delayed security agreements with the United States and NATO designed to enable them to field the follow-on training and advisory mission after Jan. 1.
Afghanistan’s parliament has since ratified both treaties, thus ensuring the legal basis for the new mission.
The presence of Ghani and Abdullah at the NATO meeting “is a strong sign of the strong mutual commitment between NATO and Afghanistan ... in the future,” Stoltenberg said.
In recent weeks, Taliban insurgents have conducted a series of attacks in Kabul and across the country in an apparent effort to undermine the security forces and demonstrate their continuing ability to prosecute the 13-year war.
Taliban leaders have vowed to continue fighting until all foreign troops have left the country.
The Afghan army and police number about 350,000 members, while there are believed to be about 30,000 insurgents.


HTC is going to have to fight for shelf space at carriers in the U.S. and Europe and may not have the smartphones to compete.
HTC reported strong third quarter results, but the company's outlook for the fourth quarter was light on units---a sequential decline during the holiday shopping season---and analysts expect challenges to mount in the first quarter. The problem: HTC is going to have to fight for shelf space at carriers in the U.S. and Europe and may not have the smartphones to compete.
The company reported a solid third quarter with earnings of NT$18.68 billion ($625 million) on revenue of NT$135.82 billion ($4.54 billion), up 79 percent from a year ago. Handset units were 13.2 million, up 93 percent from a year ago, and average selling prices were steady at $344.
Sales in China powered HTC in the third quarter. Here's the rundown from HTC presentation to analysts.
So what's the problem? Notice the bottom of that slide above. For starters, HTC's fourth quarter shipment guidance was light. In a seasonally strong fourth quarter, HTC is forecasting that unit shipments will be flat and possibly lower. Few smartphone players are predicting a sequential unit decline going into a seasonally strong quarter.
HTC was the top dog at Sprint, which has moved aggressively to Apple's iPhone.
HTC's LTE position is at risk at Verizon. Why? HTC is lacking the form factor to compete with Samsung and Motorola. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Motorola Droid Razr are thin, carry Android 4.0 and feature a longer battery life.
On the low end of the market, Pantech's LTE phone will squeeze HTC pricing at Verizon.
In Europe, HTC faces Nokia's aggressive Windows Phone rollout.
Chang reckons that HTC's prospects will only get worse going into the first quarter. Chang elaborates.
For the US, while the risk to HTC from Sprint’s aggressive move to iPhone is well-flagged, we see growing risk to HTC’s LTE position at Verizon. Both Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Motorola’s Droid Razr are ultra-thin devices with powerful CPUs, have been earlier to adopt the Ice Cream OS (Android 4.0), offer longer battery life, have lighter weight, and are very competitive vs HTC’s LTE phones. We believe thinness and battery life are important factors influencing customers’ choice, and we are not confident of the prospects of HTC’s new LTE phone. At the low end, Pantech’s LTE phone (Breakout) is selling at only US$99 vs high-end phones’ US$299. Our checks also show that Huawei and ZTE plan to launch LTE phones at similar or cheaper prices in 1H12. For the EU market, we believe HTC is still struggling to grow its business in Europe. With both Samsung and Apple’s strong outlook, we see market share risk for HTC. In fact, Nokia’s aggressive launches of WP7 models would be another risk for HTC in EU.
We are mindful of downside risks to pricing if low-priced mix shifts and subsidy pool saturation take place faster than expected. HTC appears unable to defend ASP in its high-end smartphones, since hardware differentiation is becoming limited beyond 2011.
Add it up and China sales have to carry HTC in the short term, but that country is only a small part of the company's sales. HTC just doesn't have the phones to do battle.