Apparent Afghan 'insider' kills NATO troop, civilian

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a NATO service member and an international civilian contractor with the military alliance, the coalition said Sunday.

The attack Saturday in eastern Afghanistan also killed or wounded Afghan soldiers, the NATO alliance said in a statement. It did not provide further details, including the nationalities. The international coalition typically waits for national authorities to announce their own dead.

An Afghan military spokesman declined to comment.

Afghan soldiers and policemen ? or militants in their uniforms ? have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.

The attacks are taking a toll on the partnership between international and Afghan forces, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.

The close contact ? with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers ? is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apparent-afghan-insider-kills-nato-troop-civilian-051702040.html

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Wedding Photography: Essential Knowledge For Taking On Your First Gig

The first paid job for any photographer is always an event of real significance, being prepared for the job will ensure that it goes as smoothly and successfully as possible. There is really no difference between your first professional wedding shoot and any other photo opportunity you have undertaken in the past, except that now you have clients to please. Keeping on top of things and making sure that you have everything you need for an issue free and professional job may seem a little nerve racking, but with an eye on the essentials you should be in pretty good shape.

Just like a non-paying shoot, equipment needs are the most important part of any professional job or photo opportunity. Lacking the lenses, filters and other camera equipment you need to make the most out of every shot can limit your results and leave you with a lackluster album to present to your new clients. Taking backups for everything will ensure that no last minute equipment issues pose a greater problem than they have to, packing a spare camera, battery and even a backup tripod would all be a smart move as you never know when your existing equipment may suffer an issue.

Source: http://www.point-and-shoot.net/2012/09/27/wedding-photography-essential-knowledge-for-taking-on-your-first-gig/

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NYT: Supreme Court faces crucial rulings

WASHINGTON ?? The Supreme Court returns to the bench on Monday to confront not only a docket studded with momentous issues but also a new dynamic among the justices.

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The coming term will probably include major decisions on affirmative action in higher education admissions, same-sex marriage and a challenge to the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those rulings could easily rival the last term?s as the most consequential in recent memory.

The theme this term is the nature of equality, and it will play out over issues that have bedeviled the nation for decades. ?Last term will be remembered for one case,? said Kannon K. Shanmugam, a lawyer with Williams & Connolly. ?This term will be remembered for several.?

The term will also provide signals about the repercussions of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.?s surprise decision in June to join the court?s four more liberal members and supply the decisive fifth vote in the landmark decision to uphold President Obama?s health care law. Every decision of the new term will be scrutinized for signs of whether Chief Justice Roberts, who had been a reliable member of the court?s conservative wing, has moved toward the ideological center of the court.

?The salient question is: Is it a little bit, or is it a lot?? said Paul D. Clement, a lawyer for the 26 states on the losing side of the core of the health care decision.

The term could clarify whether the health care ruling will come to be seen as the case that helped Chief Justice Roberts protect the authority of his court against charges of partisanship while accruing a mountain of political capital in the process. He and his fellow conservative justices might then run the table on the causes that engage him more than the limits of federal power ever have: cutting back on racial preferences, on campaign finance restrictions and on procedural protections for people accused of crimes.

It is also possible that the chief justice will become yet another disappointment to conservatives, who are used to them from the Supreme Court, and that he will join Justice Anthony M. Kennedy as a swing vote at the court?s center. There is already some early evidence of this trend: in each of the last three terms, only Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy were in the majority more than 90 percent of the time.

?We all start with the conventional wisdom that Justice Kennedy is going to decide the close cases,? said Mr. Clement, who served as United States solicitor general under President George W. Bush. ?We?ve all been reminded that that?s not always the case.?

The texture of the new term will be different, as the court?s attention shifts from federalism and the economy to questions involving race and sexual orientation. The new issues before the court are concrete and consequential: Who gets to go to college? To get married? To vote?

First up
On Oct. 10, the court will hear Fisher v. University of Texas, No. 11-345, a major challenge to affirmative action in higher education. The case was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white woman who says she was denied admission to the University of Texas based on her race. The university selects part of its class by taking race into account, as one factor among many, in an effort to ensure educational diversity.

Just nine years ago, the Supreme Court endorsed that approach in a 5-to-4 vote. The majority opinion in the case, Grutter v. Bollinger, was written by Justice Sandra Day O?Connor, who said she expected it to last for a quarter of a century.

But Justice O?Connor retired in 2006. She was succeeded by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was appointed by Mr. Bush and who has consistently voted to limit race-conscious decision making by the government. Chief Justice Roberts, another Bush appointee, has made no secret of his distaste for what he has called ?a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.?

Justices Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas all dissented in the Grutter case, and simple math suggests that there may now be five votes to limit or overturn it.

The reach of such a decision could be limited by the idiosyncrasies of the admissions system in Texas. The university provides automatic admission to students in Texas who graduate in roughly the top 10 percent of their high school classes. That approach generates substantial diversity, partly because many Texas high schools remain racially homogeneous.

Ms. Fisher narrowly missed the cutoff at a high school whose students have above-average test scores for the state. She was rejected for one of the remaining spots under the part of the admissions program that considers applicants? race.

The court may uphold the Texas system under Grutter, or it may rule against it on narrow grounds by saying, for instance, that race-conscious admissions are forbidden where a race-neutral method ? like the 10 percent program ? can be said to be working.

But the court may also follow the health care ruling with a second landmark decision, this one barring racial preferences in admissions decisions altogether. Given persistent achievement gaps, even after controlling for family income, such a ruling would make the student bodies of many colleges less black and Hispanic and more white and Asian.

The court will probably also take on same-sex marriage. ?I think it?s most likely that we will have that issue before the court toward the end of the current term,? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said at the University of Colorado on Sept. 19.

She was referring to challenges to an aspect of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from providing benefits to same-sex couples married in states that allow such unions. The federal appeals court in Boston struck down that part of the law, and both sides have urged the court to hear the case. More than 1,000 federal laws deny tax breaks, medical coverage and burial services, among other benefits, to spouses in same-sex marriages.

'We are now a very different nation'
The justices will also soon decide whether to hear a more ambitious marriage case filed in California by Theodore B. Olson and David Boies. It seeks to establish a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Chief Justice Roberts has not yet voted in a major gay rights case. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinions in both Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 decision that struck down a Texas law making gay sex a crime, and Romer v. Evans, a 1996 decision that struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment that banned the passage of laws protecting gay men and lesbians. Most observers see him as the decisive vote in same-sex marriage cases.

The justices are also quite likely to take another look at the constitutionality of a signature legacy of the civil rights era, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 2009, the court signaled that it had reservations about the part of the law that requires the federal review of changes in election procedures in parts of the country with a history of discrimination, mostly the South.

?We are now a very different nation? than the one that first enacted the Voting Rights Act, Chief Justice Roberts wrote for himself and seven other justices. ?Whether conditions continue to justify such legislation is a difficult constitutional question we do not answer today.?

The chief justice seemed to invite Congress to revise the law, but lawmakers have taken no action.

Challenges to the law have arisen in several lawsuits in the current election season, including ones concerning redistricting and voter identification requirements.

?It will be interesting to see if the justices worry half as much about the emerging restrictions on voting as they worried about restrictions on political spending,? said Pamela S. Karlan, a law professor at Stanford.

On Monday, the new term will start with a case of great interest to business groups, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, No. 10-1491. The case was brought by 12 Nigerian plaintiffs who said the defendants, foreign oil companies, had been complicit in human rights violations committed against them by the Abacha dictatorship in Nigeria. The question in the case is whether American courts have jurisdiction over such suits, and business groups are hoping the answer is no.

In the last term, business groups achieved a series of victories, often by lopsided majorities. In cases with an individual on one side and business interests on the other, the court ruled for the business side 12 out of 14 times, according to calculations by Lauren R. Goldman, a lawyer with the firm Mayer Brown. In the two previous terms, the number of business cases was comparable, but individuals won at least half of the time.

Introducing himself to the nation at his confirmation hearings in 2005, Chief Justice Roberts said that ?judges are like umpires? in that they do not make the rules but merely apply them.

?Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire,? he said.

But the calls Chief Justice Roberts made in the health care case were surprising enough that it will be hard to look away. He voted with the court?s conservatives to say that the law was not authorized by Congress?s power to regulate interstate commerce and then joined the court?s liberals to say it was authorized by Congress?s power to levy taxes. No other justice joined every part of his controlling opinion.

Charles Fried, who served as solicitor general in the Reagan administration and filed a brief in support of the law, said the reasoning in the health care decision was mystifying enough to foreclose predictions about the future of the Roberts court.

?This is a court that under Chief Justice Roberts called a ball a strike, a strike a ball, but got the batter to base where he belonged,? said Professor Fried, who teaches at Harvard Law School. ?So who knows what to expect.?

This story, "Supreme Court Faces Crucial Rulings in Coming Term," originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright ? 2012 The New York Times

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49224738/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/

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PHOTO GALLERY: Football Friday night across Aiken County: http://ow.ly/e5GLp

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/aikenstandard/posts/501822379845975

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A guide to foot health and the best shoes | Quick Tips for Fitness

The feet are silent hard workers of the human body. Although they don't help us see our surroundings, figure out what to say, or move stuff around, they still play a vital role. An important part of human life is going from one place to another and that is the primary responsibility of the feet.

The highest state of mobility is achieved only through proper foot health. Feet are healthy when they are free from any problems that might cause impairment to foot structures and its normal functioning. There are many variables that influence the state of foot health. One of the most vital is wearing the best type of shoes.

Moving barefoot is something inevitably done by everyone, but to keep feet healthy, we have to step up in the proper footwear. To achieve healthy feet, wearing the proper or best shoes for the job is essential. The feet are subjected to varying levels of stress in different activities. To ensure that the feet are able to maintain balance and support weight in different activities, shoes should complement the needs of the feet.

Different activities generally require different sets of footwear and no single pair of shoes is best-suited for all activities. However, all general activities have recommended footwear that cover the various needs of the feet during movement. Different activities like walking, running, cross-training, and sports in general place varying degrees of stress on the feet and are met with specialty kinds of shoes. Properly fitted shoes are also a key consideration in order to keep feet healthy. The right shoes with the right fit ensures that the feet are comfortable and balanced and also prevents damage to the feet resulting in corns, calluses, and plantar fasciitis.

The right kind of shoes for an individual are also heavily influenced gait type which are basically foot structures and movement patterns that affects walking. Gait types such as neutral pronation, overpronation, and underpronation are significant factors that determine an individual's best pair of shoes. The perfect pair of shoes plays two important roles, to maintain effective and efficient foot movement and keep the feet healthy for another day at work.

Source: http://tips-for-fitness.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-guide-to-foot-health-and-best-shoes.html

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What Is a Credit Union?

A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its individual members. Unlike a bank, which exists to provide profit for its stockholders, a credit union is operated on a ?not-for-profit? basis, and as a result, returns profits to its members in the form of higher interest rates on deposit accounts and lower rates on loans.

Credit Union Vs. Bank

In most respects, a credit union is indistinguishable from a retail bank: It provides the same services to its members that a bank provides to its customers, including checking and savings accounts, CDs, money markets, and loan products such as mortgages, auto loans and lines of credit. The primary different between a credit union and a bank, beyond the nonprofit status, is that every credit union has a specific field of membership under which a person must qualify in order to join that particular institution.

How Do Credit Unions Work?

In the United States, most credit unions were founded as a response to the Great Depression. The inability of many workers to get loans from struggling banks caused Congress to pass the Federal Credit Union Act of 1934, which encouraged the creation of nonprofit lending cooperatives with limited membership that would operate for the purpose of promoting thrift and providing credit at reasonable rates.

Related: 5 Credit Union Myths Busted

These credit unions would be limited to ?groups having a common bond of occupation or association, or to groups within a well defined neighborhood, community or rural district.? These types of credit unions have what is called an SEG Charter, which means that they are chartered to serve a specific group of employees. Members of a trade, industry or profession can charter a credit union under a TIP Charter. Community Charter credit unions are restricted to members of a community, such as anyone who lives in, goes to school in or attends religious services in a particular city or county.

Because of the restrictions of charter membership, in order to become a credit union member, you must either be part of the charter group or be related to someone in the charter group. If you are able to qualify for membership with a credit union, either through your work, family, profession or community, it is worth investigating as credit union membership has many benefits.

Source: http://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/what-is-a-credit-union/

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Ball of Flame Shoot Fire - Buddy - Music Review

With all the albums that get released in a year, it?s a Sisyphean task to keep track of everything, and many a worthy record inevitably goes sadly unrecognized. This being the case, it?s a pleasure to stumble on a band like Brooklyn-via-Pittsburgh quintet Ball of Flame Shoot Fires, whose excellent third album, Zileur (Mi?-?Mi?-?Mo?-?Mo) ??yep, that's its title ? deserves to find a larger audience.

Standout track ?Buddy? is a melancholic piece of indie folk with precise but precarious arrangements that channel Wolf Parade by way of Dirty Projectors. The track has a lot going on, including caterwauling horns and purposefully melodramatic strings, but the jazzified pop and complex arrangements never feel overwrought. ?It's just that no one ever said, 'Hey get out of here,'? lead crooner Jess Tambellini laments, grounding his vocal histrionics with the weight of a last-call drunk. We highly recommend checking out the rest of the album over at its Bandcamp.

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire?Zileur (Mi?-?Mi?-?Mo?-?Mo)
"Buddy"

All music is for sampling purposes only. Please go out and buy the artists' records. If you would like for us to remove a track, please email us at feedback@refinery29.com.

Source: http://www.refinery29.com/ball-of-flame-shoot-fire?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss

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Genealogy Overload: Finding Time to Find Your Family ...

Genealogy of the Lee family of Virginia and Maryland, courtesy of the Library of Congress Print and Photographs Online Catalog.

Okay, so who out there was at the Virtual Conference?? I was!

Once again it was fantastic, and I was very excited to ?see? everyone there.? I even had a couple of local friends join in on the fun.? Yay?people nearby who can relive the event with me!? Yes, I can be excitable; it is just one of those things.

I had every intention of spending the weekend on my couch plugged into my laptop, but last minute activities crept into my life.? On Friday I went to a birthday lunch for two of my girlfriends.? That meant a whole day out, and only the evening to spend on the computer.? Saturday was even worse.?? I was in a field in Maryland, chasing my boys around and occasionally sneaking peaks at my phone.? That evening the whole family met up with a cousin.? He and his wife were in DC doing research and we met in Old Town Alexandria, Va. for dinner.? We started corresponding online last spring and this was the first time we had ever met!? Then Sunday afternoon was spent at a friend?s house building various items in their garage.

To say that I packed my weekend is an understatement.? I went from telling people ?Stay away or else!? to ?It?s my weekend, so sure let?s fill it with activities; you all know I can?t say no.? Weak?I am so weak.? Thankfully, because it was a virtual conference, I didn?t need to worry about trying to reschedule activities with my family or missing out on an opportunity to meet a cousin.? I looked at the chat board from my phone, iPad and computer as often as I could and still learned a lot.

I have not viewed all of the video sessions yet, but have watched quite a few. The genealogy tech track has been wonderful.? So many little hints, tips and tricks I am dying to put to good use.? As I have always loved looking at old maps, I particularly liked the presentation on finding historical maps by Lisa Louise Cooke.? The presentation by Thomas McEntee on research logs was serendipitous.? I was lamenting recently to a friend about how I need a better system of research then what I am using now.? The scraps of paper tacked to my corkboard and website clippings on Evernote just are not cutting it.

Over the next couple of weeks I am planning on watching a video a day while the kids are at school.? Yes, I am trying to pace myself so that I don?t end up sitting in my jammies all day getting a crick in my neck going into genealogy overload.? I am sure my family would appreciate it too; after all I do need to feed and take care of them.? They can get cranky when I don?t.

Another one of my favorite parts was reading the discussion boards.? I learned so much and had fun interacting with conference attendees online.? Due to my schedule I wasn?t able to actively participate in the live chats, but I have read all the transcripts.? Wow!? It was so great to hear what everyone likes, doesn?t like and all their hints for successful genealogy research. I feel as if my head is about to explode.

My question for you is this: Is that how people feel after they leave a brick and mortar conference too??? Do you feel like your head will explode if you try and cram one more piece of information into it?? I am so very, very thankful that I was able to download all the presentations and chats.? If I had to remember all that, or write it all down, half of it would have been lost before I ever got back home.

Guess who will be there, again, next time!!

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Family Tree Firsts is an ongoing blog series featuring newbie genealogist Shannon Bennett of Locust Grove, Va.

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Register now for our Winter 2013 Virtual Conference, and save $50 with coupon code WINTERVCEARLY.

Source: http://www.familytreeuniversity.com/genealogy-overload-finding-time-to-find-your-family

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NFL Week 3 Snapshots: So Apparently There ... - Midwest Sports Fans

Hey did you watch Monday Night Football? I heard something happened?

I don?t know, I was watching How I Met Your Mother on DVR, and then I had a glass of warm milk, and by that point I was fast asleep. (I mean, it was a school night!)

BUT SERIOUSLY FOLKS.

I don?t care about officiating. At this point, it?s like being stuck in traffic: It sucks, there?s nothing we can do about it, so what?s the point of complaining?

I reserve the right to change my mind as soon as the Giants get boned by a bad call.

Bad refs or not, this was an insane weekend of football ? one of those early season weeks where good teams are still getting settled, bad teams still have some fight left in them, and a whole host of results are going to look really weird come January.

But what is going to stick? Which games from this week actually meant something?

Is Revis Island A Leper Colony?

I picked the Jets to lose this week, and although they certainly did everything they could to back up my claim, they notched a huge L despite the W in the box score.

Losing Darrelle Revis for the season basically drops the Jets from fringe contender to potential disaster scenario.

Darrelle Revis was lost for the season on Sunday with a torn ACL. (Image credit: Gary Rothstein for New York Daily News)

It cannot be overstated how much Revis affects every Jets game ? he may be overrated, but the shadow he casts on his side of the field, deserved or not, is undeniable. He?s one of those defensive players, like Aging Ed Reed or Aging Charles Woodson or Secretly Crappy Namdi Asomugha, wherein his reputation is enough to discourage quarterbacks from throwing in his direction.

Without him, the Jets will be exposed for the frauds they are.

On the Hard Knocks side: I?m sorry, is Reggie Bush on steroids? Deal with the devil? I cannot remember a player looking so absolutely done before looking so completely awesome. We?re talking five solid years of Reggie Bush: Noted Bust, and now he?s Reggie Bush: Fantasy Star.

?Ryan Tannehill? and ?game manager? were uttered about 20 times on the broadcast, which is? not a glowing endorsement. But the Dolphins look to have some fight to them, and that makes the AFC East more interesting.

Fantasy Outlook:

Uh, let?s stay away from the Jets defense given that they have Houston and the Patriots coming up in the next month. Let?s ride Santonio Holmes, who looks to have his mojo back, and maybe take a chance on Jeremy Kerley and Bilal Powell if you have the roster spots available.

With Reggie Bush looking injured, Daniel Thomas and Lamar Miller are decent options if you?re as desperate as I am for running backs.

Random Thought:

The Jets look like they?re about to return to their decade of futility that preceded the Rex Ryan era, and it is not a fun time to be a Gang Green fan.

The Lions & Titans Scored 46 Combined Points. In the 4th Quarter!

What a nutterbutters game.

The second OT game of the weekend after the Jets-Dolphins was one I was monitoring on ESPN Gamecast. I turned away for a minute and turned back to see it tied, and figured ESPN.com was broken.

Instead, the Lions pulled off a Madden move by scoring a tremendous amount of points in very little time, in a game that featured a lateral punt return TD and about 100 other insane things. The Lions are SO LUCKY that the Packers ?lost? this weekend, otherwise their season may have been cooked by the end of the overtime period.

Fantasy Outlook:

Mikel Leshoure is your holy-crap-is-he-still-available-why-am-I-so-bad-at-fantasy-football pickup of the week.

For the Titans, Nate Washington is a decent option, but I wouldn?t except long touchdowns every week. Kenny Britt got 11 targets in the game, but so did rookie Kendall Wright, if you?re desperate for a sleeper.

Random Thought:

The Music City Miracle was the Buffalo Bills? last playoff appearance. Buffalo is the Cleveland of Western New York.

Feel The Brees!

The Saints are 0-3, and maybe we all got too used to New Orleans being good. For a historically terrible franchise, they were clearly on borrowed time.

The Chiefs, meanwhile, were such a?perennial?powerhouse that it feels weird that they?ve been so bad for the last decade or so. I think with the Super Bowl at the Superdome this year, an off Saints year was basically inevitable.

Fantasy Outlook:

I have Dexter McCluster riding my bench because he has dual eligibility, and I refuse to start him because I know he will disappoint. He also may not have an arm after getting laid out last weekend, so there?s that.

I also picked up Shaun Draughn, who is the clear number two behind former Madden coverboy Peyton Hillis. (how crazy is it that he was on the cover of Madden? It?s like Hitler being named Time Man of the Year.)

Cam Newton, Why Are You Doing This To Me Specifically

The Giants continued to be unstoppable on the road in just demolishing the Panthers, who were a sexy dark horse for this season and now look like they are majorly regressing.

Props to Cam Newton for torpedoing my fantasy hopes this year ? we should have known that his rookie season was completely unsustainable.

And a special Screw You to the NFL network for insisting on weird Thursday night games for the rest of the season. Thursday is for Parks and Recreation!

Fantasy Outlook:

Ramses Barden will get fewer looks when Hakeem Nicks comes back, but don?t count on him for monster nights like this going forward.

Andre Brown is for sure already gone in your league, but Mike Tolbert got some touches this game and is a noted touchdown vulture.

If you have the Giants D, ride them this week versus the turnover-happy Eagles. Oh boy, that?s going to be fun.

Random Thought:

Also, did I not tell you to pick up Ramses Barden last week? I totally did. He?s named after a condom! Actually, so is Henry Hynoski.

There Are Too Many Bird Teams In The NFL

The Cardinals just wrecked the Eagles, just completely wrecked them. That game should have been mercy ruled.

The Cardinals defense looks to be for real, but their offense? well, it?s not as bad as Seattle?s (more on them later), but it is not exactly the Greatest Show on Scottsdale. I wish I could figure out their run game for fantasy purposes, but I guess drafting a guy named Beanie means I get what I deserve.

The Eagles, meanwhile, are one of the most satisfying losers in the league. LeSean McCoy is picking a fight with British bulldog Osi Umenyiora, which is insane ? why would you roil up someone who is paid millions of dollars to hit you as hard as possible? Mere days before he tries to hit you! ?Go ahead, firing squad ? I bet you can?t even hit me in the balls!?

Fantasy Outlook:

Stay away from Vick. He is useless to you. The Eagles will have to run the ball like crazy this Sunday against the Giants, so take a look at backup Bryce Brown.

And definitely ride the Cardinals defense for a while, with four softies in a row: MIA, STL, BUF, MIN. That?s good eatin?.

Random Thought:

Hey, the Giants won the Super Bowl in Phoenix. Just sharing.

Screw You C.J. Spiller Interlude

Spiller went and got his shoulder broke, so he is off my screw you list. Tashard Choice is a logical, uh, choice, but Fred Jackson will try to play this week. Good luck with that one.

I also kinda like Damaris Johnson of the Eagles ? he got 11 looks this week, and could be a breakout WR.

And if Matt Forte is out for much longer, backup backup Khalil Bell got 10 carries this weekend and could get more going forward.

OK FINE I?LL TALK ABOUT IT.

The Packers ? Seahawks thing was a travesty, sure, but if the Packers were a better team they would have never been in that situation to begin with.

They were dominated by Seattle in the first half with eight sacks, and if that?s a recurring theme they can forget about a deep playoff run ? not with the Cardinals, Giants, and 49ers front lines to deal with.

The Seahawks look vaguely legit ? it?s sort of like Pete Carroll took over a college program, brought in his recruits, and is now turning it around. He has two first names, and one of them is a girl?s name, and I don?t trust that.

The Packers have a weird schedule coming up: home versus the Saints in what looked a better game before the season, then a three-game road trip through Indy, Houston and St. Louis. That?s two dome teams and one high-powered offense ? I expect them to score about 140 points combined the next four games.

Best Team In Texas Watch:

The Texans had the Broncos on the ropes and let them get back into the game, but that offense is way too good to lose a shootout. They are still the top SB contender in my book.

The Cowboys limped to a crappy win over a crappy team and they?re crappy and dumb. The offense had an excuse against Seattle, but they looked flaccid against a Bucs team that gave up like 80 points the week before, sooo maybe the ?Boys are just awful.

It?s Late And I?m Not Peter King So Let?s Get To Uniformed Picks

I nailed 3/5 picks last week, including the Packers upset in Seattle, but if Vegas is refunding those bets I should probably not count it either.

This week, I say the Lions will beat the 2-1 Vikings, the Chiefs will beat the 2-1 Chargers, the 49ers will rebound in New York against the Jets, the Redskins will win on the road in Tampa, and on Monday night, the Bears beat Dallas in Dallas.

Those are my picks, unless they are wrong, in which case I lied.

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Source: http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2012/09/nfl-week-3-snapshots-so-apparently-there-were-games-other-than-packers-seahawks-in-week-3/

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SDT Update 2 - moving psychology

This past week wasn't quite as productive as I would have liked. Ian and I did chat and we got him straightened out on his assignments, which he has followed through on. I'm thoroughly pleased that Ian is both independent enough to function in between our weekly meetings, but he also makes very good use of our time by asking the right questions both in those meetings as well as in his musings while writing his own entries here. Unfortunately a good portion of my research time has been eaten by dealing with insurance and car matters after a Friday evening rush hour fender bender. That said I was able to meet with a colleague who was able to direct me to a reference (Manolov & Solanas, 2012) that may solve our scattered statistics problem. At the very least, the reference list from that article will be useful in getting some further statistical help. The colleague was also able to direct me to several other people within the department who have experience in meta-analytic types of research who could provide some possible solutions to our issues as well.

I have not delved completely into the FBI'S data yet to see if it is useful, but upon first glance there will be some useful information on hate crimes based on race there to test out hypotheses.

The plan for the morning is to meet with Ian, check his progress on our database and go from there. I am hoping that the statistics are a bit more uniform than my first glance about a week ago, as while consulting colleagues is a nice option to fall back on; each little step slows us down just a bit. One suggestion I have already gotten from a colleague is to email the original researchers directly for their tables of means and effect sizes. Which reflecting on now, will be time consuming, but may provide the most accurate picture for the questions that we are tackling. But engaging this step will definitely bog us down in time. That said, I may have just typed myself and us into pursuing this route. While it may be more cumbersome than simply collecting articles, if we end up having to do this anyway because of lack of uniformity and/or incomplete statistics in the existing literature it could turn out to be a time saver.

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Hate Crime Statistics. Retrieved at: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr#cius_hatecrime

?

Manolov, R., & Solanas, A. (2012). Assigning and combining probabilities in single-case studies. Psychological Methods, doi: 10.1037/a0029248

Source: http://www.personal.psu.edu/bfr3/blogs/moving_psychology/2012/09/sdt-update-2.html

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Hot Mama! Snooki Shows Off Her Post-Baby Body

Snooki shares her first full-body photo since giving birth! Plus, check out more stars' cute, candid and crazy Twitter photos

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/celebrity-twitter-pictures/1-b-229669?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Acelebrity-twitter-pictures-229669

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Scientists prevent heart failure in mice

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) ? Cardiac stress -- for example, a heart attack or high blood pressure -- frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in this detrimental development in mice, as researchers at the Hannover Medical School and the G?ttingen Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry have now discovered. When they inhibited one of those two specific molecules, they were able to protect the rodent against pathological heart growth and failure. With these findings, the scientists hope to be able to develop therapeutic approaches that can protect humans against heart failure.

Respiratory distress, fatigue, and attenuated performance are symptoms that can accompany heart failure. A reason for this can be an enlarged heart, a so-called cardiac hypertrophy. It may develop when the heart is subjected to permanent stress, for example, due to persistent high blood pressure or a valvular heart defect. In order to boost the pumping performance, the heart muscle cells enlarge -- a condition that frequently results in heart failure if not treated.

Two small RNA molecules tip the balance

A research team at the G?ttingen Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and the Hannover Medical School discovered that two small RNA molecules play a key role in the growth of heart muscle cells: the microRNAs miR-212 and miR-132. The scientists had observed that these microRNAs are more prevalent in the cardiac muscle cells of mice suffering from cardiac hypertrophy. To determine the role that the two microRNAs play, the scientists bred genetically modified mice that had an abnormally large number of these molecules in their heart muscle cells. "These rodents developed cardiac hypertrophy and lived for only three to six months, whereas their healthy conspecifics had a normal healthy life-span of several years," explained Dr. Kamal Chowdhury, researcher in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. "For comparison, we also selectively switched off these microRNAs in other mice. These animals had a slightly smaller heart than their healthy conspecifics, but did not differ from them in behavior or life-span," continued the biologist. The crucial point is when the scientists subjected the hearts of these mice to stress by narrowing the aorta, the mice did not develop cardiac hypertrophy -- in contrast to normal mice.

A microRNA inhibitor protects mice against hypertrophy

The scientists were also able to protect normal mice against the disease. When they gave them a substance that selectively inhibits microRNA-132, no pathological cardiac growth occurred -- even when the hearts of these mice were subjected to stress. "Thus, for the first time ever, we have found a molecular approach for treating pathological cardiac growth and heart failure in mice," said the cardiologist Professor Dr. Dr. Thomas Thum, MD, Director of the Institute for Molecular and Translational Therapy Strategies (IMTTS) at the Hannover Medical School. With these findings, the researchers hope that they will be able to develop therapeutic approaches that can also protect humans against heart failure. "Such microRNA inhibitors, alone or in combination with conventional treatments, could represent a promising new therapeutic approach," said Thum.

"In mice with an overdosage of the two microRNAs in their heart muscle cells, the cellular 'recycling program' is curbed," explained Dr. Ahmet Ucar, who together with Shashi K. Gupta was responsible for the experiments. In this recycling process, the cell breaks down components that are damaged or no longer required and reuses their constituents -- a vital process that, for example, ensures the organism's survival under stress conditions. In mice without the microRNAs -212 and 132, this recycling program is more active than in their normal conspecifics. Conceivably, the reduced cellular recycling could be a cause of the observed cardiac hypertrophy.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Ahmet Ucar, Shashi K. Gupta, Jan Fiedler, Erdem Erikci, Michal Kardasinski, Sandor Batkai, Seema Dangwal, Regalla Kumarswamy, Claudia Bang, Angelika Holzmann, Janet Remke, Massimiliano Caprio, Claudia Jentzsch, Stefan Engelhardt, Sabine Geisendorf, Carolina Glas, Thomas G. Hofmann, Michelle Nessling, Karsten Richter, Mario Schiffer, Lucie Carrier, L. Christian Napp, Johann Bauersachs, Kamal Chowdhury, Thomas Thum. The miRNA-212/132 family regulates both cardiac hypertrophy and cardiomyocyte autophagy. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1078 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2090

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/oyGlrKezAT8/120925143247.htm

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China, Japan stand their ground in islands row, but keep talking

BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - China claimed islands at the core of a row with Japan as its "sacred territory" in talks between the two countries' foreign ministers, Chinese state media said on Wednesday, as neither side showed any sign of backing down in a long-festering feud.

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba urged China to exercise restraint over the dispute during what he called a tense hour-long meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

The spat has triggered violent anti-Japanese protests in China and hurt trade ties between Asia's two biggest economies.

China's Xinhua news agency said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reiterated Beijing's "solemn position on the issue of Diaoyu Islands, which have been China's sacred territory since ancient times".

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference in Tokyo the two sides had agreed to keep talking.

"There is no magic bullet in foreign diplomacy. We need to hold talks through various channels taking into account of broad perspective," Fujimura told a news conference in Tokyo.

Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply this month after Japan bought the isolated East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, sparking protests across China.

In a sign of the economic fallout, Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Suzuki are curtailing production in China in the wake of the protests that shuttered dealerships and darkened their sales prospects in the world's top car market.

China's meetings with Japanese diplomats -- both at the United Nations and a day earlier in Beijing -- suggest Beijing does not want the row over the island chain, believed to be in waters rich in natural gas deposits, to lead to a rupture in relations. This is, after all, the Year of Japan-China Friendship.

But the unyielding tone of China's published remarks suggests that the dispute is far from over. Beijing has repeatedly called the islands its "sacred territory since ancient times".

"The Japanese move is a gross violation of China's territorial integrity and sovereignty, an outright denial of the outcomes of victory of the world anti-fascist war and a grave challenge to the post-war international order," said Yang, according to the Xinhua summary of his comments.

RETREAT DIFFICULT

Sino-Japanese ties have long been plagued by China's bitter memories of Tokyo's military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s as well as present rivalry over regional resources and clout.

The row coincides with a once-in-a-decade leadership change in China, while Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's ruling party faces a drubbing in an election expected in months, domestic dynamics that make it hard for either side to retreat.

Noda is under fire from the main opposition party, which picked former prime minister and security hawk Shinzo Abe as its new leader, and possible next premier, on Wednesday.

Abe has been most vocal of the candidates in urging Tokyo take a tougher line in its territorial disputes with China and South Korea but on Wednesday he struck a balanced tone.

"We must show our will to firmly protect our territorial waters and Senkaku amid China's movements," he told a news conference after being elected party chief.

But he added: "Even if our national interests clash, we should acknowledge that we need each other and control the situation while thinking things strategically. My stance on this has not changed."

Japan, which says the islands' purchase was meant to fend off a more provocative bid by the nationalist governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, to have his metropolitan government buy them, is trying to keep communication channels open.

China postponed a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic ties with Japan, but an official at the Japan-China Economic Association said Toyota Motor chairman Fujio Cho and Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Japanese business lobby Keidanren, and other representatives of Japan-China friendship groups would attend an event on Thursday in Beijing.

Patrol vessels from the two countries have also been playing a tense game of cat-and-mouse in the waters near the disputed islands, raising concerns that an unintended collision or other incident could escalate into a broader clash.

(Editing by Nick Macfie and Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-carrier-show-force-japan-tension-festers-000709338.html

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More Of My Reasons For Being A Part Of Empower Network | Real ...

My wife, Ellen, babysits for our Son, Mike and Daughter-In-Law, Shelly! These are pictures she has taken

while tending to Axl and Cash! She is one doting grandmother! Of course they have my heart also! God?

has really blessed my life!

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These are some pictures our friend Sharlene had in her picture album from 29 years ago! Talk about?

bringing back some memories. ?I thought Dr. Hooks ?Years From Now Was Quite Appropiate!! I hope

everyone?gets a smile out of them and they way I put it together!!?

Empower Network ? No Wussies!

Send Out Card ? Send A Free Greeting Card On Me!

Source: http://brseminars.com/more-of-my-reasons-for-being-a-part-ofempower-network/

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Marines Charged With Urinating on Taliban Corpses, Other Misconduct

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/09/marines-charged-for-urinating-on-taliban-corpses/

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Libya orders disbanding of 'illegitimate' militias

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Apple supplier halts China factory after violence

BEIJING (AP) ? The company that makes Apple's iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people.

The fight, the cause of which was under investigation, erupted Sunday night at a privately managed dormitory near a Foxconn Technology Group factory in the northern city of Taiyuan, the company and Chinese police said. A police statement reported by the official Xinhua News Agency said 5,000 officers were dispatched to the scene.

The Taiwanese-owned company declined to say whether the factory was involved in iPhone production. It said the facility, which employs 79,000 people, would suspend work Monday and reopen Tuesday.

Foxconn makes iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc. and also assembles products for Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. It is one of China's biggest employers, with some 1.2 million workers in factories in Taiyuan, the southern city of Shenzhen, in Chengdu in the west and in Zhengzhou in central China.

The fight in Taiyuan started at 11 p.m. on Sunday, "drawing a large crowd of spectators and triggering chaos," a police spokesman was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Order was restored after about four hours and several people were arrested, said the company, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. It said 40 people were taken to hospitals for treatment.

The violence did not appear to be work-related, the company and police said. Comments posted on Chinese Internet bulletin boards said it might have erupted after a security guard hit an employee.

Photos posted on microblog service Sina Weibo showed broken windows, a burned vehicle and police with riot helmets, shields and clubs.

Phone calls to police headquarters and the Taiyuan city hall were not answered. People reached by phone at restaurants and other businesses in the area said they had no details about the clash.

The company has faced scrutiny over complaints in the past about wages and working hours. It raised minimum pay and promised in March to limit hours after an auditor hired by Apple found Foxconn employees regularly were required to work more than 60 hours a week.

___

AP researcher Flora Ji contributed.

___

Foxconn Technology Group: www.foxconn.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-24-China-Foxconn/id-c91a9b5ed834479190cca2f01e961753

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NFL players union asks league to end referee lockout

Union asks NFL owners to end officials lockout

(AP Photo/Bob Leverone, File)

NEW YORK (AP) The NFL players' union sent an open letter to team owners calling for an end to the lockout of on-field officials and hinting that it's a violation of the contract between the players and the league.

The players were locked out for 4 1/2 months last year, and they emphasized in the letter, posted Sunday on the union's website, that a lack of a safe working environment exists with replacement officials working the games.

Domonique Foxworth, president of the NFL Players Association, Drew Brees and Scott Fujita are among the union members who signed it.

"Your decision to lock out officials with more than 1,500 years of collective NFL experience has led to a deterioration of order, safety and integrity," the NFL Players Association wrote. "This affirmative decision has not only resulted in poor calls, missed calls and bad game management, but the combination of those deficiencies will only continue to jeopardize player health and safety and the integrity of the game that has taken decades to build."

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the letter signed by 12 current or former players, the players also ask why Commissioner Roger Goodell issues suspensions and fines "in the name of player health and safety" while the regular officials the league entrusts to maintain health and safety are locked out.

"As players, we see this game as more than the `product' you reference at times," the letter said. "You cannot simply switch to a group of cheaper officials and fulfill your legal, moral, and duty obligations to us and our fans. You need to end the lockout and bring back the officials immediately."

The NFL locked out the officials in June after their contact expired. It has used replacements for the first time since 2001, when the regular officials missed only the first week of action.

But those replacements had experience at the highest levels of college football, and the current replacements come from lower college levels or from other leagues such as Arena Football.

There have been numerous complaints by players and coaches about the officiating - certainly more than when the regular officials work - and one particularly embarrassing episode in which an official was removed from working a New Orleans game because he posted photos of himself in Saints gear on Facebook.

"The removal of the veteran officials from regular-season games left a group of your replacements who have proved to be incapable of keeping pace with the speed of the game," the players wrote. "Coaches and players have complained of numerous errors and failures including: erratic and missed calls on egregious holds and hits, increased skirmishes between players and confusion about game rules. Many replacements have lost control of games due to inexperience and unfamiliarity with players and rules."

Browns linebacker Fujita was suspended for three games by Goodell for his role in the Saints' bounties scandal, a suspension that was temporarily placed on hold by an appeals panel.

Among others signing the letter were Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Packers center Jeff Saturday and former star safety Brian Dawkins, now retired.

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL

Updated September 23, 2012

Source: http://csnne.stats.com/fb/story.asp?i=20120923132852635156908

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Tarantino XX Blu-ray set brings 20 years of Quentin, eight movies and ten discs home November 20th

If you dig Quentin Tarantino flicks, an eight movie, 10-disc Blu-ray boxed set is on the way that will probably pique your interest. Lionsgate and Miramax are collaborating on the Tarantino XX set, which captures 20 years of the filmmaker's career and includes Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds. Additionally, there's special collectible packaging and artwork (shown after the break, along with the press release and full list of specs) and the two extra discs are filled with five hours of all new bonus interviews, retrospectives and the like. It seems unlikely to answer the mystery of what was in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase, but it will be available November 20th with an MSRP of $119.99, although Amazon is currently listing it at $83.97.

Continue reading Tarantino XX Blu-ray set brings 20 years of Quentin, eight movies and ten discs home November 20th

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/23/tarantino-xx-blu-ray/

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